We’ve reached the second Friday in 2021. And who is truly surprised that there was violent seditious, treasonous insurrection incited by the sitting President against the Congress and the Constitution this week?

That is a rhetorical question in two senses. I realize that a lot of people have their heads stuck in the sand (or elsewhere) who are shocked at the development. I had expected violence, I just hadn’t thought that the Capitol Police wasn’t prepared for it. In more uplifting news, in both of the Georgia senate run-off elections (one a special election to fill the unexpired term of another senator, and the other just to fill a normally up-for-re-election seat) the Democratic Party nominee in both races won. And this is significant for a whole lot of reasons. Reverend Warnock is the first African-American ever to serve as a senator from Georgia. He is only, after all these decades, only the eleventh African-American of any party and from any state to serve in the Senate. He is the first African-American Democrat to serve as a Senator from a Southern state. He also ran as an unaplogetic progressive Democrat in what has long been seen as a Red State. Similarly, Jon Ossoff is a young Jewish man who was elected to the other seat. At 33 years old he will be the youngest member of the Senate (which just seems weird). He also ran as an outright progressive. I really hope that the upper echelons of the Democratic Party take this to heart, and stop throwing their support in Red States to so-called moderates, who policy-wise are indistinguishable from Republicans in a bizarre belief that those kind of candidates can somehow fool Republican voters into crossing over. I firmly believe that if the progressive, black Democratic challenger to Mitch McConnell had been on the general election ballot instead of the bland, white, Air Force veteran milquetoast moderate, the McConnell would have either lost or come really close to it.

But let’s get on to the Friday Five. This week I bring you: one special video that is all upbeat and full of good news and I hope makes you laugh as much as I did, the top five stories of the week, five news stories that have a local connection for me, five stories about seditious traitors, five stories about deplorables people, five stories about the deplorable thug still occupying the White House, and five videas (plus things I wrote and one notable obituary).

This Week In News We Need Right Now!:

Killer Mike Knew Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock Would Win the Georgia Runoff – This is the first thing in several days that made me laugh in a way that had nothing to do with gallows humor; and his joy and enthusiasm brought happy tears to my eyes:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Stories of the Week:

The Full(est Possible) Story of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping Press Event Daring Fireball’s John Gruber nominates this excerpt as the best paragraph of 2020:

Whether it’s war and peace or public relations and gardening, sorting out the truth is a complicated endeavor when it relates to Donald Trump. Everyone involved in anything, no matter the size, no matter how stupid, seems to lie as a first resort, or to know very little, or to lie about knowing very little, or to know just enough to send blame in another direction, and the person in that direction seems to lie also, or to know very little, or to lie about knowing very little, but perhaps they have a theory that sends blame someplace else, and over there, too, you will find more liars, more know-nothings, and before long, a whole month will have passed, and you still haven’t filed your story about how the president’s attorney wound up undermining democracy in a parking lot off I-95 on a strip of cracked pavement in a run-down part of a city that ordinarily would command no consideration from the national political class or the very online public or the equally online mainstream media, which, when forced to look, found lots of reason to laugh.

The Moon Is Rusting, and Researchers Want to Know Why.

21 Excellent Fantasy Books Coming Out This Winter.

COVID-19 and HIV Are Not the Same. But They’re Similar in Many Ways That Matter.

Facebook Is a Doomsday Machine – The architecture of the modern web poses grave threats to humanity. It’s not too late to save ourselves.

This Week in News Local to Me:

Tim Eyman Trial Approaches Conclusion, State Alleges Years of Schemes – “He’s been fibbing for 20 years”.

Seal found wandering on highway in Southwestern Washington.

Sea otter reintroduction to more of the Pacific Coast gets a nudge from Congress.

In Netflix’s ‘Cobra Kai,’ Seattle restaurateur Yuji Okumoto reprises a role — and a life — he thought he’d left behind. Kona Kitchen, owned by Yuji, is one of the favorite local eateries.

Bean Dad Deletes Twitter Account After Old Anti-Semitic, Homophobic Tweets Resurface. I know this played out on Twitter, but so-called Bean Dad is a local Seattle writer and musician…

This Week in Seditious Traitors:

Pro-Trump Forces Stormed the Capitol Protesting 2020 Election Results – At least one person has died.

Company Fires Employee Who Stormed Capitol With Badge On.

Please compare the police response to Black Lives Matter and a white mob storming the Capitol.

Trump Calls For “Healing And Reconciliation,” Lies About National Guard, Says Capitol Rioters “Will Pay”. In one of many videos that didn’t make this week’s cut, Stephen Colbert characterized the Traitor-in-Chief’s comments as “phrased as if someone’s lawyer has explained to them that in thirteen days they might face charges of sedition, incitement, and possible accessory to murder…”

What happened at the Capitol ‘was domestic terrorism,’ lawmakers and experts say.

This Week in Deplorable People:

California Woman Charged Over Voicemails to Catholic School: ‘I’m Going to Fucking Kill Your Kids’.

A Pharmacist Allegedly Tried To Ruin COVID-19 Vaccines Because Of False Beliefs They Were “Unsafe” – Authorities described 47-year-old Steven Brandenburg as an “admitted conspiracy theorist.”.

Proud Boys leader arrested for attack on Black church that led to violent clashes in DC.

Judge floats sanctions for attorneys who sought to block Congress from counting electoral votes.

Project Lincoln finds the lane it should stay in: cutting off corporate money to seditionists.

This Week in the Deplorable Thug Occupying the White House:

Trump Is Said to Have Discussed Pardoning Himself, Again.

Trump Loses Social Media Megaphone as Facebook, Twitch Act.

Shopify takes down Trump’s campaign store – The company says the president’s comments Wednesday violated its policy against promoting violence.

Trump stacked courts with judges ‘hostile’ toward gays, rights group says – Nearly 4 in 10 of the president’s confirmed appeals court judges have a “demonstrated history of anti-LGBTQ+ bias,” according to Lambda Legal.

‘Domestic Terrorists’: An Angry President-elect Joe Biden Condemns Trump’s Sedition – Joe Biden introduced his nominees for the Department of Justice with an angry denunciation of Trump’s effort to overthrow the will of 160 million voters.

In Memoriam:

Neil Sheehan, Pentagon Papers reporter, Vietnam author, dies – As a national writer for the Times based in Washington, Sheehan was the first to obtain the Pentagon Papers, a massive history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam ordered up by the Defense Department.

Things I wrote:

Weekend Update 1/2/2021: More of the same BS.

Coffee vs reality – and silly habits.

Wednesday Update: 1/5/2021: Treason, Tallies, and Run-offs.

Don’t become silent… don’t let the traitors get away with it.

Videos!

Hey, Republicans Who Supported This President: Are We Great Again Yet? – LIVE MONOLOGUE:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Seth Meyers Calls For Trump’s Removal After Violent Insurrection at Capitol:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Jimmy Addresses the Violence at the U.S. Capitol:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Dan Rather Explains How President Trump Incited a Coup:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)

Tensions at the White House ‘are as high as they’ve ever been’:

(If embedding doesn’t work, click here.)