Out d’Coup | A New Year and Already an Insurrection; Historic Dem Senate Wins in GA; PA Senate Repubs Craziness; Kutztown Pres Gets COVID; Fetterman; Space News; Free Will Releases

Four (now five) people are dead and many more injured after radical Trumpsters lay siege to the U.S. Capitol building. Decades of the GOP stoking the fires of racism, conspiracy theories, and ideologically driven media is coming home to roost. Fire’s like that. Only fools believe that they can tame a wildfire. 

After hours of delays due to the Trumpster insurrection, the results of the Electoral College Vote was officially counted and Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn into office in less than two weeks. 

It’s time to break out your copies of Timothy Snyder’s On Tyranny, or pick up a copy if you don’t have one yet. The escalating violence is part of the authoritarian playbook. This does not bode well for 2021. 

Some Democrats initially tried to simply “get back to normal” following the failed coup, but it’s becoming increasingly impossible for them to do so. Pressured by Democratic House and Senate members, Pelosi and Schumer are now calling for Trump’s removal though the 25th Amendment or impeachment. This is a quickly developing story. 

Congresswoman Katherine Clark told CNN this morning that House Democrats are preparing an impeachment vote by the middle of next week if Trump isn’t removed by the 25th amendment. 

All of that happened after Democrats scored historic victories in the Georgia runoff elections. Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff victories give Democrats control of the Senate with Kamala Harris as the tie breaker. 

And THAT came after Trump was recorded trying to intimidate Georgia election officials to give him enough votes to give the Georgia election to Trump. 

The other big news of the week seems almost trivial at this point. 

Pennsylvania Senate Republicans this week gave their one preview of what we saw unfold in DC this week. PA Senate Republicans led by Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman refused to seat incumbent, reelected State Senator Jim Brewster. Corman and Senate Republicans forcefully seized control from Lt. Governor John Fetterman who was presiding over the session.

John Fetterman hinted about his candidacy for the United State Senate on twitter this morning.

Kutztown University President Kenneth Hawkinson announced that he has tested positive for COVID. Kutztown University has some of the worst COVID numbers in PA higher education after Hawkinson demanded a return to in-person classes in Fall 2020. Kutztown has more than 430 confirmed cases of COVID among students and staff. Hawkinson’s announcement comes at a time of spiking COVID cases in Berks County, passing 25,000 cases this week. 

And in more Kutztown University news, a man in a Kutztown hat was captured on film assaulting an AP photojournalist at the Trumpster insurrection. It’s good to be golden, I guess. 

The full 2021 calendar for space launches and missions is out. We’ll have links and highlights for what looks to be a pretty active year in space. 

And, of course, we’ll take you through some of the Free Will Brewing releases ready for 2021.