Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says President Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts will be blocked ‘indefinitely’, and for at least the next two weeks:

In my campaign, the main critique I offered of my opponent was that he used his time in Congress to promote his career and to curry favor with the President and special interest campaign contributors instead of doing the hard work to help people here in South Jersey who are hurting. But Jeff won the election and so my earnest hope was that he would take the message from the more than 180,000 people in his district who chose not to vote for him, and shift his focus to healing our nation and working across the aisle to get families and small businesses help now.

Sadly, he has chosen to engage in more political theater instead of doing what he promised the people of South Jersey he would do — roll up his sleeves and get things done. What’s even worse is that he is choosing to throw his lot in with a fringe group who refuse to concede that Joe Biden is the President elect even when Trump’s staunchest supporters like Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham acknowledge the process has run its course.

The New York Post has the story here.

They need to fill former Assemblywoman Nancy Pinkin’s LD18 seat, in what adds up to a test of Middlesex County democratic Committee Chairman Kevin McCabe’s strength in the sprawling, nondescript county with plenty of ragged working class immigrant edges.

Pinkin left the assembly to become the county clerk over there and now the party organization appears to have circled up around East Brunswick Council President Sterley Stanley ahead of a scheduled Jan. 12th convention.

Presumably South Plainfield – helmed by local towering figure state Senator Patrick Diegnan (D-18) will back the party’s choice, but sources say Stanway may not be able to tiptoe through without arousing the district’s 800 pound gorilla otherwise known as Edison.

Stanley, who is South Asian American (but not from Edison), made the rounds this week, and left a trail of mild grumbling in Edison, home to roughly 150 committee votes out of 350 – enough to tickle the political fancy of local heavyweight, two-time Councilman Joe Coyle.

Coyle has to be looking at the raw numbers and salivating a little.

East Brunswick only has 70 committee votes.

Then again, as mentioned at the outset, the county party organization will lean into this for party guy Stanway, in part alert to an imbalance if Coyle joins to other white males (Diegnan and Assemblyman Rob Karabinchak) to represent a district losing Pinkin, which numbers 15,693 South Asians, second only to Northern European Americans at just over 20K).

But the fact that the party didn’t recruit a woman created its own wrinkle of bewilderment over Stanley.

Will it be enough to catapult an Edison-galvanized Coyle into the race?

“He’s going,” a source assured.

A second source said Coyle’s going and Edison is likely to unite behind him, in part to get him out of the way as a mayoral candidate.

“He has a very good shot if most of Edison sticks with him,” the source said of Coyle.

Like most of us, I’ve had a lot to think about today.

It’s a sad day in our nation’s history. The violence and insurgent actions essentially encouraged by our outgoing President are a stain that will never be removed.

The idea of our country was formulated in overwhelming opposition to oppression and our refusal to bow to a King.  What we witnessed earlier today is the antithesis of the very foundation of our democracy.  America was born in valid protest, but what we just witnessed was far, far from that.

Storming our nation’s Capitol and threatening our duly elected leaders to try and prevent them from carrying out their duties on behalf of our nation are the actions of the cowardly, and it is impossible to condemn those actions strongly enough.

Elections have winners, losers, and consequences.  But it is the worst kind of abuse of our democracy to falsely allege fraud in an effort to distort those consequences on behalf of the loser.

Our country will survive and thrive because that is who we have always been.  We will take today’s abuse of power, responsibility and authority by our outgoing President and grow from it.  But we will never forget what happens when we allow ourselves to be led by an individual whose only interest is self-interest.

I would like to thank every member of law enforcement, every legislator, every staff member, every journalist, every public servant and each and every American impacted by today’s horrendous events.

In our constantly changing world we can easily become desensitized by the 24 hour news cycle.  But what we saw today should not happen in America and, no matter your party affiliation or political ideology, it is something we all need to carry with us as we move forward in this time-tested Democratic experiment.

“We brought this hell upon ourselves,” said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) in the aftermath of a day of bedlam on Capitol Hell. “It’s unprecedented that he’s fanning the flames of conspiracy. The shame of this day is… that good Americans are choosing Trump over truth.”

Rep. Pascrell tweeted that he’s signed onto a resolution calling for the expulsion of House members who have tried to overturn the election results:

I have signed onto my colleague @RepCori‘s resolution. Any House members who have tried to overturn the election and install a dictatorship have violated the Constitution and should not sit in Congress. https://t.co/cLdvTdE2cj

— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) January 6, 2021

Bedlam descended upon the Capitol as the Senate attempted to certify the Electoral College results, as protestors stormed the building, resulting in an evacuation of Congress and staff. Governor Murphy deployed the State Police to aid DC officials (iLine post).

State leaders and officials reacted:

• Rep. Pascrell condemned the protestors as ‘fascist rioters‘ attempting a coup.
• Rep. Watson Coleman denounced the scene as ‘not a mere protest, but a disruption of democracy’.
• Senator Pennacchio decried the violence, saying ‘we must be tolerant and accepting of other’s views’.
• NJDSC Chairman Currie called it ‘absolutely vile‘ and slammed NJGOP leaders who have yet to acknowledge the Biden-Harris win; NJDSC Executive Director Avelenda took it a step further, accusing NJGOP leaders of being ‘directly complicit‘ in the riot.
• Senator Corrado urged calm, saying the nation’s forefathers would be ‘distressed and saddened’.
• Hudson County GOP Chairman Arango called for an orderly end to the demonstration.
• Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Suleiman slammed GOP CD2 Rep. Van Drew – an objector to the Electoral College count – over the ‘insurrection committed by domestic terrorists’.
• GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli tweeted that the riot was ‘heartbreaking’ and urged those violating the law to ‘stop’.
• GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Steinhardt tweeted that the ‘violence must stop’ and called for ‘order and peaceful protest’.
• Senate Majority Leader Weinberg and Minority Leader Kean urged protestors to ‘go home’, saying this is ‘not how our democracy is supposed to function’.
• Camden County Commissioner Cappelli said its a ‘day that will live in infamy’ and ‘nothing short of anarchy‘.
• Rep. Kim called it a ‘dark day for democracy’.
• Rep. Van Drew said the storming of the Capitol is ‘unacceptable, un-American, and disrespectful of democracy‘.

Governor Murphy tweeted that he is deploying the NJ State Police to DC at the request of DC officials:

At the request of DC officials, I am deploying the @NJSP to the District of Columbia to facilitate the peaceful transition of power & protect our democracy. We are prepared to deploy the @NJNationalGuard upon request.

May God Bless America and our brave men and women in uniform.

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) January 6, 2021

This from Spokesman Mike Shanahan:

“Can confirm that the congresswoman and her staff are safe.”