Friday, January 8, 2021

And another day of impending impeachment, an ‘unhinged’ Trump, a social media smackdown, arrests, revocations, condemnations, and a children’s show about a man with a huge and uncontrollable penis comes to a close: 

“When Trump lost popular vote by 3 million he didn’t care about 63 million Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton & GOP senators never governed as if they represented 20 million fewer Americans than Dems.” — Ari Berman

Deaths

US: 378,149 (+4025)

World: 1,922,096 (+19,403)

Cases

US: 22,456,902 (+324,857)

World: 89,356,372 (+856,476)

Countdown: 12 days.

House Democrats plan to introduce Articles of Impeachment against Trump.

Multiple Republicans are considering supporting impeachment, sources say.

Speaker Pelosi called military chief about 'unhinged' Trump's access to nuclear launch codes.

Republicans Splinter Over Whether to Make a Full Break From Trump. Republicans who spent years putting off a reckoning with Trump over his dangerous behavior are now confronting a disturbing prospect: that Wednesday’s episode of violence, incited by Trump’s remarks, could linger for decades as a stain on the party — much as the Watergate break-in and the Great Depression shadowed earlier generations of Republicans. — We all lose when you vote Republican.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK) said Friday that Donald Trump should resign the presidency immediately and that if the Republican Party cannot separate itself from Trump, she isn’t certain she has a future with the party. “I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage.” -- She is the first Republican senator to call on him to resign.

‘This is going to come back and bite ’em’: Capitol breach inflames Democrats’ ire at Silicon Valley. Social media is poised to pay a price for President Donald Trump’s supporters’ rampage through the Capitol.

Twitter Has Kicked Donald Trump Off For Good. For years, Trump has used the social media site to spread hate and lies. Until today. Twitter has permanently suspended President Donald Trump, days before the end of his presidency, after he used his account to incite an insurrection on Capitol Hill earlier this week. Trump’s account has been a singular source of power for him and a delivery vehicle for his worst impulses. It has hosted his lies, racism, threats, and calls for violence. He’s spread dangerous and false conspiracy theories, including the birther lie about President Barack Obama. He’s belittled women and stoked hatred for immigrants.

Trump says he will look at creating his own platform after Twitter ban.

Google has suspended the Parler app from the Play Store. In a statement, the company said 'we do require that apps implement robust moderation for egregious content.'

Apple has given the conservative app Parler 24 hours to clean itself up or be deleted from the App store.

Reddit Bans r/Conspiracy Moderator and r/DonaldTrump. Amid a hardening consensus that conspiracy theories emboldened this week’s Capitol Building rioters—many adorned with “Q” garments, waving Q flags, screaming about election fraud—Reddit is quietly weeding out spreaders of election-related conspiracies.

Twitter permanently suspends Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and others as part of crackdown on QAnon conspiracy content.

Capitol Police officer dies following riots. The officer's death brings the death toll from Wednesday's riot to five.

Fact: More Americans died as a result of the siege on the United States Capitol than in Benghazi.

Where were Capitol Police during Wednesday chaos? Tolerating white rioters in ways not afforded Black protesters.

James Clyburn says "somebody on the inside" of Capitol was "complicit" in letting rioters inside the building.

Feds say police found a pickup truck full of bombs and guns near Capitol insurrection as wide-ranging investigation unfurls.

A West Virginia state lawmaker has been charged with entering a restricted area of the U.S. Capitol. Derrick Evans livestreamed himself with rioters. His attorney said Thursday that the delegate didn’t commit a crime and doesn’t plan to resign.

Officials say Richard Barnett, the man photographed sitting at House Speaker Pelosi's desk during the Capitol siege, has been arrested in Arkansas.

Sidney Powell Sued by Dominion for $1.3 Billion Over Vote-Fraud Claims. Former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell was sued for defamation by the voting-machine company she repeatedly placed at the center of a vast and unfounded election conspiracy that she claimed switched votes to favor President-elect Joe Biden.

PM Justin Trudeau condemns Trump: "What we witnessed was an assault on democracy by violent rioters incited by the current President and other politicians."

Trump says he won't attend Biden's inauguration. Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and their spouses, have all said they will attend Biden's inauguration.

Lehigh University, a private college in Pennsylvania, has revoked the honorary degree it awarded President Trump more than 30 years ago.

Vaccine rollout hits snag as health workers balk at shots. The desperately awaited vaccination drive against the coronavirus in the U.S. is running into resistance from an unlikely quarter: Surprising numbers of health care workers who have seen firsthand the death and misery inflicted by COVID-19 are refusing shots.

White House task force says there could be a fast-spreading 'USA variant' of coronavirus.

Vaccines may not work against South African COVID-19 variant, UK minister warns.

Pfizer says vaccine can work against variants.

Germany reports record COVID-19 deaths, concerns about new variant grow.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has threatened to expand his nuclear arsenal in response to what he calls U.S. hostility.

Pentagon appoints commissioners to scrub Confederate base names.

Object that whizzed by Earth probably came from alien world, Harvard professor asserts. A Harvard University professor is making the case that we're probably not alone in the universe. Astronomer Avi Loeb's new book "Extraterrestrial" examines the 2017 flyby of a space object that he believes was truly out of this world.

Denmark debuts new children's TV show about a man with a huge and uncontrollable penis. Denmark's flagship broadcaster has suffered blowback over its newest children's TV program, "John Dillermand" -- an animation starring a man with a penis so massive and flexible it can save children from danger, fetch objects from a river and operate as a pogo stick.

RIP Tommy Lasorda. He was 93.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.