The Pennsylvania State Senate begins its new legislative session of the people's business with.....

An argument about masks and whether or not Senators on the floor should be required to wear them.

#WTAE

They're taking a vote now to require senators on the floor to wear masks for today's session.

They DID NOT call on Jim Brewster for this roll call.

Some

OK.

Democratic Senator Steve Santarsiero from Bucks County has requested a delay in swearing in Senators pending resolution of the judicial challenge to Brewster's win.

Critical of Ziccarelli's "specious" actions, and says she didn't go through proper procedure in courts.

"This happens not in a vacuum, it happens in the context of some very serious threats to our democracy today," Santarsiero said.

Brings up tomorrow's certification challenges expected in DC despite Joe Biden being elected and certified as the winner of Presidential election.

"They are not intending to seat Senator Brewster despite the fact that the people of the 45th district have spoken."

"This is the most serious issue that has come before us" in his time in the senate, Santarsiero said.

"All because one candidate is displeased with having lost."

Ok. Its sinking in.... The Storm is UPON US!
OUR military is in position!!! 😱😱😱

I'm excited & nervous all at the same time!

Please read this thread!

🚨EVERYONE needs to read this.
Stay informed. Scary times we're in.

Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky,

On the death of #SheldonAdelson - a brief thread.

Sheldon Adelson - the megadonor to the GOP who received the genuflection of virtually all hopefuls on the Republican national stage - is dead. 1/

Adelson pumped money into the very GOP machinery that has enabled Trumpism, facilitated policies that have torn children from their parents, cultivated racism, antisemitism, and white supremacy, and that has now led to the deaths of 350,000+ Americans from COVID. 2/

Some people who appreciated the money he threw at Israeli groups and initiatives are going to be angry if I celebrate the demise of this merchant of corruption and death. "Jews don't celebrate death", right? Wrong. 3/

The "Song of the Sea" (Exodus 15:1-18) is the oldest text in the Hebrew Bible, the foundation of Israelite religious belief, and it is nothing but a celebration of a mass death of Egyptians at the Red Sea during the Exodus. 4/

1 Samuel 18 preserves an old song that tells us that both David and Saul were celebrated for slaughtering "thousands" and "myriads". 5/

The NYSBA strongly condemned the violent uprising that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, orchestrated by individuals bent on subverting the will of the voters by disrupting the certification of the 2020 presidential election

Thankfully, Congress overcame this assault and fulfilled its constitutional responsibility in certifying the Biden-Harris victory. However, we must address the root cause of this abhorrent incident, the blame for which lies first and foremost with President Donald Trump.

But the president did not act alone.

Hours before the angry mob stormed the Capitol walls, Trump’s personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, addressed a crowd of thousands at the White House, reiterating baseless claims of widespread election fraud in the presidential election and the Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs.

“If we're wrong, we will be made fools of, but if we're right a lot of them will go to jail,” Mr. Giuliani said. “Let's have trial by combat.”

There are still plots across the US to attack state capitols as well as the capitol in DC. These are credible threats against America and American democracy. And they are enabled by Republicans like Hawley, Cruz, Kennedy, Rubio et al, the flag bearers of Trump fascism 1/

Each and every individual who played a part, any part, in the attempted coup on Wednesday must be exposed, arrested, charged & tried. No ifs, no buts. Otherwise they will melt away into alt-web cells & networks, continuing their attacks in support of Trump’s fascistic cult 2/

Rounding up the ringleaders on the ground on the day is one thing. But they were activated by senior Republican lawmakers, emboldened by 139 House Republicans and 8 Senators who voted to overturn a free & fair democratic election. These truths are self-evident 3/

They were also assisted by members of the Capitol and DC police. They included members of fire departments and other forces, elected representatives from across different states. This was not an amorphous mob. This was an alliance of anti-American forces intent on revolution 4/

This runs deeper & wider than saying it was a “mob” event. This was planned & equipped, armed to support the Trump lie. It was mobilised in a clear & present effort to overthrow the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election. It wasn’t a one-off chaotic event. There will be more 5/

To: @senatemajld, @LindseyGrahamSC, et al. I know you and your colleagues have been able to overlook things like:

1. The Central Park Five
2. Birtherism
3. Mocking a disabled reporter
4. Mexicans are rapists
5. Two dozen accusations of sexual assault
6. Lock her up

1/

And the GOP was okay with:

7. Hush payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal
8. No commitment to accept the 2016 election results
9. Grab ‘em by the pussy
10. Trump University fraud
11. Manafort, Steven Bannon, Roger Stone, Stephen Miller
12. The Muslim ban

2/

And you didn't balk at:

13. Separating families and keeping kids in cages
14. Siding with Putin over US intelligence agencies
15. The firing of the FBI director
16. Very fine people on both sides
17. Corruption in (and dissolution of) the Trump foundation
18. Jamal Khashoggi

3/

And you didn't say much about:

19. The free press being labeled the enemy of the people
20. The trans ban in the military
21. The Kim-Jong Un handshake in the DMZ
22. Pressuring the president of Ukraine to interfere in an American election
23. Only $750 paid in income taxes

4/

And you mostly blew off or made excuses for:

24. Coronavirus is a democrat hoax
25. Coronavirus will disappear on its own
26. Injecting bleach
27. Mocking mask wearing
28. Super-spreader rallies in the midst of a pandemic
29. Nearly 400,000 Americans dead from Coronavirus

5/

My latest @PRAEyesRight- A deep dive into Nick Fuentes and his America First/groyper movement, the most prominent & mobilized white nationalist formation at the Capitol insurrection, a Gen Z group determined to capture the future of post-Trump

Nick & the groypers have been out in force at nationwide 'Stop the Steal' protests in the long leadup to Jan 6, championing the ‘American people’ against 'globalist elites', promising to ‘smash the GOP’ & build a true American nationalist movement

Nick is careful to speak in a language many can hear. His image-conscious ‘groyper’ movement looks like clean-cut Gen Z White kids- campus Republican types in polo shirts & MAGA hats- concealing the hard-edged white nationalist core of their beliefs.

What they don’t say at these rallies is for them, 'America First' means white dominance. They want to end immigration to preserve a white demographic majority for future generations in America. A small non-white minority can remain, as long as white birthrates stay up.

Like many before him Nick takes great pains to say he's not a white nationalist but it's all there. “Why can’t we wake up and acknowledge,” he said in summer 2020, as the Black Lives Matter uprising grew across the country, “that we as a people- white people- are under attack?”

Pence just shut the gentleman from Alabama’s request for parliamentary inquiry down— KERSPLAT!

This is probably the first and last time in my life that anyone of these is going to be interesting, so what the hell. I rinsed off some blackberries and made the fancy coffee

The gentleman from Arizona says how dare you count. How dare any of us count! This is not proper! This is incorrect

well, I know someone who would beg to differ

The Senate now has two hours to go back to its chambers and debate for up to two hours.

This process is going to repeat itself in for at least two more times, as I understand it, because Republicans are trying to make it go as long as possible. But they will lose.

🧵 So today we’ve got the Government’s vision for online harms legislation. It’s a landmark day for all of us who’ve worked for this for years. Some quick early (personal!) thoughts:

This is a systemic Duty of Care, with a requirement to risk assess - regularly - for reasonable foreseeable harms and to act on them. Supported by Codes but that serve as guardrails, not a prescriptive checklist

There’s a broad requirement on all services to tackle illegal content and to take measures to protect children. Worried that age assurance may be expected to do a lot of heavy lifting instead of proper moderation for legal but harmful, but we’ll see

The biggest weakness: enforcement measures. Criminal sanctions & named persons have deference value - that’s why industry pushed back strongly. But not for at least 2 years and even then only covering failure to comply with the regulator. If Govt thinks this is really enough...

Investigatory powers are OK (particularly pleased to see the inclusion of skilled persons reviews 😉). But the balance between investigatory powers and duties isn’t where it needs to be to drive culture change

Yesterday, @MassAGO Maura Healey and her team issued a groundbreaking report finding that the Bristol County Sheriff's Office violated the civil rights of immigration detainees.

Let's take look at some key findings (thread

First, some background.

The BCSO is administered by Sheriff Thomas Hodgson. @GlobeAbraham has reported on his close relationship with Trump's White House. He corresponds with Stephen Miller, the notorious architect of Trump's anti-immigrant

Although the BCSO is a state facility, it has also contracted with ICE to hold people detained for federal civil immigration proceedings.

ICE essentially pays a per diem rate for each detainee.

In 2019, the Mass. State Auditor found that BCSO improperly failed to remit more than $300,000 in ICE payments to the

BCSO also has a 287(g) agreement with ICE. It allows BCSO personnel to be deputized to do some of ICE's work. ICE does not pay for their hours. It is essentially a donation of state employee time to federal immigration