“Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), incoming chair of the Senate Budget Committee who caucuses with the Democrats, told CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday that Democrats plan to push a coronavirus relief package through the chamber with a simple majority vote. ‘Budget reconciliation’ would allow Democrats to forgo the Senate’s 60-vote requirement and could potentially speed-up the next relief package for millions of unemployed Americans. Democrats hold the the 50-50 split in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote. ‘What we cannot do is wait weeks and weeks and months to go forward. We have got to act now,’ Sanders said. ‘We’re going to use reconciliation – that’s 50 votes in the Senate, plus the vice president – to pass legislation desperately needed by working families in this country right now'” – Axios.

New York Times: “When insurrectionists stormed the Capitol in Washington this month, far-right extremists across the Atlantic cheered. Jürgen Elsässer, the editor of Germany’s most prominent far-right magazine, was watching live from his couch. ‘We were following it like a soccer match,’ he said. Four months earlier, Mr. Elsässer had attended a march in Berlin, where a breakaway mob of far-right protesters tried – and failed – to force their way into the building that houses Germany’s Parliament. The parallel was not lost on him. ‘The fact that they actually made it inside raised hopes that there is a plan,’ he said. ‘It was clear that this was something bigger.'”

“And it is. Adherents of racist far-right movements around the world share more than a common cause. German extremists have traveled to the United States for sniper competitions. American neo-Nazis have visited counterparts in Europe. Militants from different countries bond in training camps from Russia and Ukraine to South Africa. For years far-right extremists traded ideology and inspiration on societies’ fringes and in the deepest realms of the internet. Now, the events of Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol have laid bare their violent potential. In chatter on their online networks, many disavowed the storming of the Capitol as amateurish bungling. Some echoed falsehoods emanating from QAnon-affiliated channels in the United States claiming that the riot had been staged by the left to justify a clampdown on supporters of President Donald J. Trump. But many others saw it as a teaching moment – about how to move forward and pursue their goal of overturning democratic governments in more concerted and concrete ways. It is a threat that intelligence officials, especially in Germany, take seriously. So much so that immediately after the violence in the United States, the German authorities tightened security around the Parliament building in Berlin, where far-right protesters – waving many of the same flags and symbols as the rioters in Washington – had tried to force their way in on Aug. 29.”

Reuters reports “Couche-Tard’s $20 billion approach for Carrefour was rejected by the French government earlier this month on food security concerns. The bid for Carrefour pushed the Quebec-based company into unchartered territory – an untested market, a relative new business segment and its biggest deal yet – surprising shareholders” which is interesting news, sure, but did Couche-Tard’s founders ever consider what their brand’s name sounds like in English?

“Founded in 1980, Couche-Tard has grown from a single store in Quebec to a global network of convenience stores and gas stations with a $33 billion market value, with 66 acquisitions along the way” continues the Reuters article. 1980 was well into the era of television and the term “couch potato” was popularized a year earlier by cartoonist Robert Armstrong based on a joke by a friend Tom Iacono. There’s simply no way “Couche Tard” would not immediately illicit a laugh in the minds of a North American English speaker. Francophone Canadians should know better than this obvious dig at people who watch television all day.

Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post: “I do not believe the government should have any role in regulating what can and can’t be said on the air, although I often hear that proposed. That would be a cure worse than the disease. But let’s not count on the hope that the Fox-controlling Murdochs will develop a conscience. No, the only answer is to speak the language that the bigwigs at Fox will understand: Ratings. Advertising dollars. Profit. Corporations that advertise on Fox News should walk away, and citizens who care about the truth should demand that they do so (in addition to trying to steer their friends and relatives away from the network). Big companies would never do that, you say? Don’t be so sure.”

“The Post reported last week that the 147 Republican lawmakers who opposed certification of the presidential election have lost the support of many of their largest corporate backers. General Electric, AT&T, Comcast, Honeywell, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Verizon all said they would suspend donations to members of Congress who voted against certifying Joe Biden as president. This shows, at the very least, that there is a growing understanding that lying to the public matters, that it’s harmful – or ‘insidious,’ in the words of James Murdoch. And that some corporations don’t want to be a part of that. When you think about Fox News’s role in the 400,000 lives lost to the pandemic and in the disastrous attack of Jan. 6, it’s even fair to call it deadly. So if reality-based America wants to communicate clearly with Fox News leadership, they’ll have to do it in a language they understand. The language of money.”

We're on Gab! pic.twitter.com/7KJ64xPBcu

— Texas GOP (@TexasGOP) January 23, 2021

We’d reported this on National Zero back in August, but it’s back in the news Sunday since the party tweeted that gem on Saturday evening.

Well ain’t that a hoot. AFP reports the nation that helped put Trump in the White House and fucked with anything and everything they could in the American news cycle for four years is upset that Biden is (allegedly) supporting fifth columnists attempting to bring down its criminal regime.

More likely Biden isn’t doing much of anything and they’re just looking for someone to blame for their own fuckups and the protests over Alexei Nalvany’s imprisonment are a deadly serious threat to Putin’s power. Authoritarians are never responsible for their own actions.

AFP: “A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Saturday off the coast of Antarctica, with authorities issuing a tsunami warning for Chile’s Eduardo Frei base on the frigid continent, emergency officials said. The quake struck at 8:36 pm (2336 GMT) about 210 kilometers (130 miles) east of the base at a depth of 10 kilometers (6 miles), Chile’s National Emergency Office (Onemi) said, urging evacuation from ‘the beach area of the Antarctic’ ahead of a possible tsunami. The Chilean Air Force’s base is the country’s largest in Antarctica, and includes a village, hospital, school, bank, post office and chapel.”

In his repeated efforts to undermine the victory of President Joe Biden, Donald Trump pushed Justice Department attorneys to go directly to the US Supreme Court to invalidated the results of the election and designate Trump the winner, the Wall Street Journal reports.

His directives to DoJ lawyers were met with significant pushback from appointees within the department, who found his arguments legally dubious and his claims of election fraud fallacious.  These efforts included threatening to oust acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and replace him with a lower-ranked DoJ attorney, Jeffrey Clark, who was more supportive of Trump’s claims.

“He wanted us, the United States, to sue one or more of the states directly in the Supreme Court,” a former administration official said. “The pressure got really intense[.]”

“When Representative Scott Perry joined his colleagues in a monthslong campaign to undermine the results of the presidential election, promoting ‘Stop the Steal’ events and supporting an attempt to overturn millions of legally cast votes, he often took a back seat to higher-profile loyalists in President Donald J. Trump’s orbit. But Mr. Perry, an outspoken Pennsylvania Republican, played a significant role in the crisis that played out at the top of the Justice Department this month, when Mr. Trump considered firing the acting attorney general and backed down only after top department officials threatened to resign en masse.”

“It was Mr. Perry, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, who first made Mr. Trump aware that a relatively obscure Justice Department official, Jeffrey Clark, the acting chief of the civil division, was sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s view that the election had been stolen, according to former administration officials who spoke with Mr. Clark and Mr. Trump. Mr. Perry introduced the president to Mr. Clark, whose openness to conspiracy theories about election fraud presented Mr. Trump with a welcome change from the acting attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen, who stood by the results of the election and had repeatedly resisted the president’s efforts to undo them” – New York Times.

Since the January 6th coup attempt at the Capitol, the Capitol Police and the DC Metropolitan Police have seen a spike in coronavirus cases in their ranks, the Washington Post reports.

Eight-two members of the Metro Police and 38 members of the Capitol Police have tested positive for the virus in the last two weeks.  This is on top of nearly 200 members of the National Guard who have tested positive.

The Capitol Police had approximately 1,400 officers on duty at the time of the coup attempt.  It’s unknown how many Metro Police officer responded to the riot at the Capitol complex.

A Texas man who participated in the coup attempt at the Capitol on January 6th threatened on social media posts to assassinate Democratic New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and kill a Capitol Police officer, Politico reports.

Garret Miller, of Dallas County, Texas boasted on social media of his involvement in the coup attempt in Washington, including one in which he said he would “Assassinate AOC.”

Ocasio-Cortez caught wind of the tweet, to which Miller joked, “just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol.”

AOC replied, “Well you did!”

“Arizona Republicans issued rebukes to three of the party’s most prominent figures on Saturday, approving resolutions to censure Gov. Doug Ducey, former Senator Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, the widow of former Senator John McCain. Though largely symbolic, the political scolding during a meeting of the state G.O.P. on Saturday underscored a widening rift in Arizona between party officials who have made clear that their loyalty lies with former President Donald J. Trump and those in the party who refused to support him or his effort to overturn the election results in Arizona, which President Joseph R. Biden Jr. won.”

“And, well beyond Arizona, the rift reflects the stark divisions in the Republican Party nationally in the wake of Mr. Trump’s tumultuous departure from office. The party cited Ms. McCain’s and Mr. Flake’s criticisms of Mr. Trump and Mr. Ducey’s use of emergency orders related to the pandemic, which gave him broad control to enact policies without the legislature’s approval such as closing ‘nonessential’ businesses in the spring. Both Mr. Flake and Ms. McCain endorsed Mr. Biden leading up to the November election. Though Mr. Ducey continually made it clear that he backed Mr. Trump, he drew ire from some Republicans by defending the state’s election process, rather than supporting efforts to challenge the November results in court” – New York Times.

Washington Post: “Former president Donald Trump threw himself back into politics this weekend by publicly endorsing a devoted and divisive acolyte in Arizona who has embraced his false election conspiracy theories and entertained the creation of a new ‘MAGA Party.’ In a recorded phone call, he offered his ‘complete and total endorsement’ for another term for Arizona state party chairwoman Kelli Ward, a lightning rod who has sparred with the state’s Republican governor, been condemned by the business community and overseen a recent flight in party registrations. She narrowly won reelection, by a margin of 51.5 percent to 48.5 percent, marking Trump’s first victory in a promised battle to maintain political relevance and influence after losing the 2020 election.”

“In recent weeks, Trump has entertained the idea of creating a third party, called the Patriot Party, and instructed his aides to prepare election challenges to lawmakers who crossed him in the final weeks in office, including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.), according to people familiar with the plans. Multiple people in Trump’s orbit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, say Trump has told people that the third party threat gives him leverage to prevent Republican senators from voting to convict him during the Senate impeachment trial. Trump advisers also say they plan to recruit opposing primary candidates and commission polling next week in districts of targeted lawmakers. Trump has more than $70 million in campaign cash banked to fund his political efforts, these people say.”

Republican Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton allegedly inflated his military experience by claiming to have volunteered as an “Army Ranger,” a moniker given to member of the Army’s elite 75th Ranger Regiment, in which Cotton never served, Salon reports.

Cotton only completed a two-month tactical school known as Ranger School open to all members of the military.  The 61-day course teaches small-unit tactics, with graduates authorized to wear a Ranger rocker badge on their uniform sleeve.  They are known as “Ranger-qualified.”

The distinction is not an unimportant one:  the 75th Ranger Regiment is unit within the US Special Forces Command, tasked with highly dangerous, specialized missions, whereas a graduate of the Ranger School receives only a training certificate. 

“Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward wins her re-election on the second ballot, she won 51.5% to 48.5%, according to spox. Ahead of the vote Ward played a video of Trump urging committee members to vote for her. Ward is often critical of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey or GOP establishment” reports Wall Street Journal’s Eliza Collins.

Axios: “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Saturday called for the Justice Department inspector general to investigate an alleged plan by former President Trump and a DOJ lawyer to remove the acting attorney general and replace him with someone more willing to investigate unfounded claims of election fraud. The New York Times first reported Friday that the lawyer, Jeffrey Clark, allegedly devised ‘ways to cast doubt on the election results and to bolster Mr. Trump’s continuing legal battles and the pressure on Georgia politicians. Because Mr. [Jeffrey] Rosen had refused the president’s entreaties to carry out those plans, Mr. Trump was about to decide whether to fire Mr. Rosen and replace him with Mr. Clark.'”

“‘Unconscionable a Trump Justice Department leader would conspire to subvert the people’s will,’ Schumer tweeted Saturday. ‘The Justice Dept Inspector General must launch an investigation into this attempted sedition now,’ he added. ‘And the Senate will move forward with Trump’s impeachment trial,’ slated for the week of Feb. 8.”

Revelers celebrate Biden’s victory in Times Square, NYC on the evening of November 9, 2020 (Own work).

Hey libs! You did this. This division in America is on you. If you really wanted “unity” then you would listen to the “concerns” of people who believe that say the election was somehow stolen from Trump. There are 74.2 million of them. That means their “concerns” are important and you should listen to them. You in the media created this mess by not listening to those concerns. Especially social media. You thought it was more important to celebrate Trump’s defeat and the augur of a more functional government than it was to be gracious and circumspect.

The Capitol riot is your fault. You (meaning everyone who thought basic accountability for elected officials was essential for a Democracy rather than a leftist agenda – voters, celebrities, media personalities, journalists, Dem politicians, etc) made this happen by criticizing President Trump and not giving him a fair shake for four years. All those things you said and did in opposition to Trump and Republicans over these last four years was bad for the nation, because you convinced enough voters to cast a ballot for Joe Biden – which made the rioters feel like “their voices weren’t being heard” and caused them to violently assault the Capitol. That cop’s blood is on your hands. You might as well have pulled the trigger on the taser aimed at the balls of that MAGA rioter.

“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he supports his Republican colleague Rep. Liz Cheney following her vote to impeach former President Donald Trump in the House, but added he has ‘concerns’ and didn’t know her thoughts ahead of her announcement on impeachment. ‘Look, I support her, but I also have concerns,’ he told Gray TV’s Greta Van Susteren, according to a transcript of an interview that will air Sunday. ‘She took a position as a No. 3 member in conference, she never told me ahead of time. One thing about leadership, if we’re going to work together, we should understand. We know that this is going to become a difficulty. She can have a difference of opinion, but the one thing if we’re going to lead within the conference, we should work together on that as a whole conference because we’re representative of that conference. So I support her, but I do think she has a lot of questions she has to answer to the conference'” – CNN.