Will GOP coup participants face charges?

The statute of limitations runs out in January 2026, so there's time.

I wonder if it's too late to consolidate cases once the Trump one starts, or if it has to be completed first.  I'll ask and see if I get an answer.

Explaining the Colorado finding regarding the 14th amendment

This is a good explanation if you want to delve into the ruling that Trump is not barred by the 14th amendment.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 06:50 pm:  As expected...

UPDATE 11/21/2023:

UPDATE 11/22/2023:

Never forget

Two posts perfectly responding to the right-wing attempt to alter the public's perception of the attempted coup with newly released video from January 6.

UPDATE 09:30 am:

I wonder who they think they're fooling other than themselves.

Bingo

And this is what aggravates me about our elections.  I had to vote for Joe Biden last time to help avoid the horror of Trump, and now I'm going to be forced to do it again.  

Our system needs an overhaul.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Also...

Not good

Republicans swept three runoff races for powerful statewide offices in Louisiana — attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer — Saturday night.

The GOP success, in a state that has had a Democrat in the governor’s office for the past eight years, means that come January, Republicans will control the five most powerful positions in Louisiana’s executive branch. In addition, the GOP holds majorities in both the House and Senate.

  The Hill

AG, Secretary of State, and Treasurer. Perhaps there's some silver lining in the fact that these were run-offs, indicating the Democrats made some progress, but this is just not good.

Louisiana is, of course, gerrymandered to favor Republicans, and they have a super majority in the state senate.

Louisiana’s gubernatorial election was decided in October when Jeff Landry, a Republican backed by former President Trump, won outright and avoided a runoff. Saturday’s election completes the shaping of Louisiana’s executive branch, where most incumbents didn’t seek reelection and opened the door for new leadership in some of the most powerful positions.

The new leadership is the same as the old leadership.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

Wasn't this the excuse for paring back public services? That "Christian" charities perform those services?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

[Pope] Francis removed Bishop Joseph Strickland from the pastoral governance of the diocese of Tyler, Texas, and appointed Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin to serve as a temporary administrator, The Vatican News reported.

Strickland, 65, has been a vocal critic of Francis in recent months, writing earlier this year in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the pontiff is “undermining the deposit of faith.”

[...]

Strickland also took aim at Francis’s recent meeting on hot-topic issues, including the integration LGBTQ Catholics, the potential for female deacons and access to the priesthood for married men.

Strickland also repeatedly spread anti-vaccine messages during the COVID-19 pandemic, while criticizing President Biden’s support for abortion rights.

[...]

Francis ordered two U.S. bishops to conduct an apostolic visitation to Strickland in June, per the Vatican. The move came after complaints from priests and laypeople in Tyler about Strickland making unorthodox claims.

[...]

[T]he recommendation was made after the visitation that the continuation of Strickland was “not feasible.” Strickland declined to resign from office upon being requested, prompting Francis to remove him.

I bet Ratzinger would have let him alone. Or promoted him.

In 2020, Strickland called the church “weak” and “not clear” and dared the pontiff to fire him.

  The Hill

And Frank took that dare.

Can we protest war crimes yet?

Giving citizens a notice to flee before bombing their homes is unconscionable, so what in the world do we call this?

Israeli military has repeatedly dropped leaflets and sent messages telling residents they must leave their homes and "evacuate" to areas it claims are safer, which are south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands.

[...]

But what awaits Palestinians who move south is still life-threatening. The "evacuation" areas are both heavily bombarded and in a dire humanitarian crisis, as Israel's blockade of fuel and control of aid into the Gaza Strip leaves people searching for food and access to clean water.

[...]

Witnesses' accounts, satellite data and expert assessment gathered by NPR show that Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire occur daily in the areas Israel has said are "safer" for civilians, and have hit schools, residential towers and overcrowded United Nations refugee shelters.

[...]

Families have risked journeys through the blasted landscape of destroyed buildings and corpses, along the road that Israel has designated as a "humanitarian corridor" through the war. For the few hours each day that the road is open, people carry or drag wounded loved ones. They push wheelchairs with patients just out of surgery in hospitals that have now stopped working.

[...]

The dangers for those fleeing south are evident from the high number of people killed there. So far, a total of 11,470 people — of which more than two-thirds are children, women and elderly — have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military offensive last month, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. A map by the United Nations' humanitarian affairs office, relying on the health ministry's data, shows that more than 3,600 people — roughly one-third of the total — were killed in areas where Israel has told civilians in northern Gaza to escape to.

  NPR

Musk's other endeavors are having some problems

Tesla has had some problems lately, and its stock is falling.  And now, SpaceX.

Three U.S. lawmakers are calling for greater scrutiny of worker safety at Elon Musk's SpaceX following a Reuters investigation that documented hundreds of injuries at the rocket company's U.S. manufacturing and launch sites.

The Nov. 10 Reuters report detailed at least 600 previously unreported workplace injuries since 2014 at SpaceX including crushed limbs, amputations, head injuries and one death. The Reuters report found that injury rates at three major SpaceX industrial facilities in Texas and California far exceeded the average for the space industry.

  MSN

SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes that Starship can one day become a cheap, rapidly reusable system that will jumpstart human exploration of the moon and Mars.

[...]

The first test flight of any rocket is going to be tough — and for its April 20 launch attempt, SpaceX tried to manage expectations. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the official countdown timeline promised "excitement guaranteed" after the launch.

The rocket lifted off shortly after 8:30 a.m. local time. Almost immediately it was clear that some of the 33 engines in the first stage had failed, and as it climbed into the sky, further engines flamed out.

Before the Starship could separate from its booster, the entire rocket began spinning out of control. It exploded roughly 4 minutes into flight.

In the aftermath, it emerged that Starship's flight termination system, which was designed to destroy the vehicle if it went out of control, had failed to do its job. On top of that, the rocket's first stage pulverized the concrete launch pad during liftoff, sending particulate dust and chunks of debris flying.

[...]

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded Starship pending a safety and environmental review. Earlier this week, the regulator cleared SpaceX for a second try, in part because of changes the company made to the design.

  NPR

You can watch this morning's test live (actual takeoff starts at about 38:50 mark): 

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 09:42 am:

SpaceX's giant Starship rocket successfully lifted off around 8:03 a.m. ET from its launch pad in Texas. The Starship successfully separated from its first-stage booster as planned. But minutes later, the cheers subsided as mission control appeared to lose contact with the vehicle. SpaceX said it believes that Starship's self-destruct system activated, presumably because of a problem on board.

In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said Starship was lost due to an "anomaly."

"No injuries or public property damage have been reported," the agency said.

[...]

McDowell says given that Starship separated from its booster and kept flying, this test should be considered a "successful failure," even though it eventually exploded.

  NPR

Newspeak.

"They need Starship to work eventually," he says. "The big question for me is: 'How much eventually can they get away with? How many failures can they tolerate?'"

Protesters demand ceasefire in Gaza

They shut down the Bay Bridge from Oakland to San Francisco. During rush hour.

Images from alJazeera.

Elsewhere in the nation...