Less than 3 hours until impeachment vote, may it spell the end of this sordid presidency🤞 It might fail (!!!) because the ruling party still doesn't want to join impeachment and if they don't... we will remember

Husband's going to National Assembly to join the protest there and see the result firsthand, though he's pessimistic. I hear it's a very tight crowd there, if I worry about anything it's crowd hazard but it's not a narrow space and no accidents have been reported despite days of densely-attended protests. And if the vote fails or the fash try anything he'd better fucking riot.

The vote is less than an hour away and I am A Mess. I wish I were out there before the National Assembly reminding the politicians that we are watching. At least the better half of me is out there for both of us, for all of us fighting for the place we want our child to grow up in 💞

What the ruling party refuses to understand is that impeachment is the easy way out for THEM. Yes, the current ruling party will lose the Presidential election if impeachment passes and a new election is held. Yes, the opposition party leader Lee Jae-myung who lost by a hair's breadth last time will win, and win big. I don't even like Lee, his corruption and ruthlessness are ultimately destructive. But if Yoon and his party wanted to keep Lee out of power, with some justification, they should have DONE BETTER like, idk, not hand Lee the photo op of scaling the National Assembly wall to evade arrest & vote against martial law.

But. If the current ruling party swallows that hard pill they'll be able to position themselves as the principled opposition and potentially make a comeback at the next parliamentary elections. They can make themselves Lee's worst nightmare as President and maybe eventually see him disgraced & out of power. Instead they're choosing electoral carnage and the slow, humiliating death of irrelevance, all to protect the current presidency they know is dead in the water.

5 minutes 😱 spoke to husband on the phone and he isn't even nervous, he fully expects the vote to fail but he wanted to be there for the occasion. The area around the National Assembly is so packed he can't get within 1 km of it, and it's bitterly cold--he's very glad for the extra scarf I insisted he take, and bought a hot pack to warm his hands. (The stores and vendors in the area must be having a bonanza and also must be exhausted keeping up with the demand.)

A great fun of large-scale citizen protests like this is the whimsical flags carried by small groups, and he saw one that read "Students who ran out in the middle of writing their theses." The flag had a footnote (of course!) reading "'Ran out' refers to resisting injustice." May this mess settle down soon so they can get back to their studies 🙏

So the impeachment vote is being held and will fail because the ruling party walked out except two members, meaning impeachment can't get 200 votes. Whatever. We will remember, and the ones who ran from the vote will rue this day 🔪 Their choice, skill issue etc.

On a more positive note, the outpouring of support for the protests is heartwarming. People have been prepaying at restaurants and coffee shops near the National Assembly for the protestors to claim, and in such numbers that the prepayment slots are full 💚 Our politics are ass but our citizenry? Impeccable.

So with the ruling PP Party aborting the impeachment vote, the representative of PP party is saying they're going to have an "orderly and early" end to the Presidency by... Yoon stepping back from Presidential duties while the Prime Minister and the party "closely coordinate" on state affairs.

Oh, and they pinkie-swear martial law won't be declared again, that was just a warning/the President was trying to raise awareness of the opposition's abuse of power/the President was lonely and needed someone to talk to (no I am not making this up) and is vewwy vewwy sowwy, so you trust him right? 🤗

The comments to this announcement pretty much say it all: "Who the hell do you think you are?"

Yeah, they were that bald about announcing they're putting party rule in place to be an unelected oligarchy running the government. Also any word about Yoon stepping down, away, diagonally or sideways from Presidential duties is a lie out the ass, he's already been exercising appointment powers by accepting resignations.

The opposition Democratic Party is going to be holding impeachment votes every week potentially, the protests will continue, and the DP is up to their necks in leaked documents from the military and other bodies. Interesting times.

The ACAB energy in a pharmacist telling protesters about energy drink prepayments for them to claim, then not telling cop customers who came in afterward In large part I'm guessing because cops will spread the word and use up all the prepayments--this happened a couple days back with coffee prepayments so as with anything else, don't talk to cops 🤐

So allegedly North Korean leadership was like:

(News of martial law) "Oh shit, who attacked the South without us knowing?"*

(News that martial law was repealed by vote) "Fuck what?? They overturned their President's decision?!"

* Not too far-fetched a scenario--North Korean governance is highly factional and not nearly as stable as some people think. The politics are so violent precisely in order to maintain a tenuous control.

So allegedly Kim Yong-Hyun, the now-former Minister of Defense and current criminal defendant who spearheaded the coup attempt, once bragged about Main Kampf being one of his favorite books D: These fine military minds, eh?

So the top opposition politician is promising to impeach Yoon and normalize the country as a Christmas gift, and there's a protest filk called 탄핵이 답이다(Impeachment Is the Answer) being sung to the tune of Feliz Navidad at protests 😍

Are we undergoing a make-or-break national crisis or kind of having the time of our lives? Yes

Uhhh so the Hitler fan who carried out martial law edicts, or "fucker who used to be Minister of Defense" as my husband calls him, allegedly tried to run to the U.S. first but the Embassy turned him down (HA-ha) and then tried to get to Japan via Jeju Island. Evidently finding this too complicated an operation, he got his secretary to book the flight. The secretary ratted him out to the opposition Democratic Party--yeah that's right, not the police or prosecutor's office, but the DP because the prosecutorial organizations are all politicized & compromised to hell by Yoon who is a former top prosecutor--which is how the martial law commander got arrested.

We've been hearing a lot about quiet disobedience at all levels, from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to individual soldiers, that put the brakes on martial law and prevented tragedies. Talking about them would be a thread of its own: One of the most prominent is probably JCS's pushback on the administration's idea to FUCKING ATTACK NORTH KOREA to generate a crisis. Or a Special Forces commander's decision not to give live ammunition to the units who went into the National Assembly.

Another wrench in the gears I just heard of is the counterespionage troops who were sent to raid the Elections Commission on the theory that the opposition DP came to power through election fraud. This is, unsurprisingly, a thoroughly discredited right-wing conspiracy theory that was thrown out for lack of basis despite 120 claims being brought.

Evidently all 100 counterespionage agents, judging the order to be illegal, did no more than photograph the server racks at the Commission, a "we were here" selfie if you will, and wandered the streets, waited elsewhere, or ate instant ramyun at convenience stores. "They were just following orders," huh? Well how about... not following blatantly illegal orders and eating ramyun instead.

But imagine how mystifying it was to be a NEC worker on duty that night, uniformed soldiers rushing in in the middle of the night (shit we're dead) and then... snapping a few meaningless pictures and leaving. (???) At least at the National Assembly it was pretty clear what was going on, at the NEC it must have been Confusion City until they caught the news and Oh Shit.

More info from the night of 12/3 rolling in and we are learning more and more how close a call it was and the uncounted people in all areas who had to put brakes on the machinery of political violence and repression. The rioters who got off taxis in congested Seoul traffic and simply ran to the National Assembly, the ones who biked there, rioters surrounding military vehicles and yelling at the soldiers that it was martial law and they had to stop, the father who called his officer son to beg him not to hurt or kill civilians, telling him how to disable his gun and those of his platoon if they were given live rounds.

We have a recording of that call, btw, because the father recorded it just in case it was the last time he heard his son's voice. Fuck Yoon and fuck all oppressors and mass murderers, may they be cursed down the generations and never know peace.

Seeing these stories I am once again humbled by how we worked together in the face of crisis and how incredibly lucky we were. Most of all we are lucky to have each other, and to have each others' backs. Hoping this crisis will be over soon so we can get back to our usual schedule of annoying and disliking each other, it's awkward to hold so much warm fellow-feeling in my body.

My main political emotions at this point are rage and schadenfreude, going like this:

Rage: Watching the PP Party walk out of the Assembly chamber on the night of the first impeachment vote, denying it a quorum.

Rage intensifies: Watching a PP Assemblyman brag about how everyone will forget about impeachment in a year and he can get elected as an independent if need be.

Mild schadenfreude: Watching the PPs do their march of shame out of the National Assembly to screams of "Collaborators!" on all sides.

Increasing schadenfreude: Hearing about screaming crowds surrounding a PP's car and berating them as they tried to leave.

Schadenfreude intensifies: People picketing PPP HQ, throwing eggs at and sending mocking flower arrangements to individual PP offices, blowing up their phones with tens of thousands of pro-impeachment messages when PPs' phone numbers got leaked en masse.

Will I ever reach maximum schadenfreude? When all their electoral chances go down the toilet, their sorry excuse for a political party gets disbanded as an unconstitutional political group, and they live and die in shameful infamy, maybe. But I'll still have more than enough rage left.

This is a "magical girls, unite!" moment, right?

After the PPP's walk of shame out of the Assembly chamber and the ensuing blowback, one of three PPs who came back to vote on the impeachment agenda (though he announced he voted against--but ykw the bar is so deep in the toilet even a "no" or abstaining is better than walking out) is now coming out in favor of impeachment and urging his party to do the same. He also promises there are enough votes in the PPP (just 5 more are needed) to push impeachment through, so maybe the second vote will be the charm 🤞

Cops acting as basically crowd traffic cops, directing pedestrians to Exit 5 to protest, Exit 6 for photo shots and thiiiis way, please, to sign the impeachment petition! 👉

From the cabbie who canceled the fare charge for a protester who got off at the Assembly

to the conductor of the No. 9 metro line who told protestors to stay warm and thanked them for what they were doing

transportation is keeping it moving.

Feeling sick hearing the commander of the Special Forces who went into the Assembly on the night of 12/3 testifying to that same body today that Yoon directly called him that night ordering him to clear the way to the Assembly chamber by any means necessary and stop the vote before they could get a quorum.

Seeing how many staffers were packed between the troops and the chamber, and after considering possible means including shooting blanks, tasers, cutting off electricity, physical force, etc., the commander took the advice of his staff that this was an illegal order and they'd be ordering their troops to commit multiple crimes including treason.

So the commander decided to disobey the fuck out of a direct order from the President and retreated, and the vote went ahead without farther physical confrontation. We were so terrifyingly close to disaster and I am shaking from both rage and gratitude. Imagine that, disobeying blatantly illegal and dictatorial orders is a thing!

The PPs had better realize it is in their best interests, like in their actual self-preservation interests, to get the impeachment vote through this week. If they obstruct again I will join the inevitable riots to throw rocks at PPs and burn their fucking HQ to the ground, because it's clear at this point that Yoon is a direct physical threat, and so is anyone who will take his side after knowing all this about him. I no longer care if people die in the process, because if Yoon tries shit again millions more will die. The impeachment vote, and I mean THIS impeachment vote THIS WEEK, is the last chance in Hell anyone is giving the PPP to start resolving this situation within legal bounds--not because the law is sacred or any such bs but it's the safest, most orderly option for everyone in this situation. If the PPs refuse to do things the easy and nonviolent way, it will be on their heads. I hope they realize this.

Me: So if impeachment fails on the 14th I'm going over to PP Party's HQ.
Husband: Go for it! ✊ It's right next to the Assembly building anyway.
Me: Maybe I should take the trowel to dig up paving stones as projectiles?
Husband: Could be tough, it's all asphalt in that neighborhood
Me: I guess we'll figure something out when we get there.

It's kind of hilarious to me that friends abroad are concerned about my and my family's safety (which I appreciate a lot, don't get me wrong) while the father of my child is 100% on board with my plans to join a riot if things go south xD

It's possible our sense of safety and risk is all out of whack, but there's also the fact that pretty much no one in the country outside of Presidential security and maybe a few unreasonably dedicated brownshirts are willing to hurt any rioters and endanger their own future for Yoon's sake. And barring it being a very surreal night we won't be seeing either group anywhere near the Assembly.

Also I think we both know my middle-aged, out-of-shape ass is never getting on the first lines of attack anyway. There are way too many angry-as-hell folks who will get there screaming ahead of me and probably leave nothing standing by the time I get there 😭

DP Assemblyman Park Seon-won on rushing to the National Assembly just before Yoon's announcement when he realized it might be martial law:

"I lived in the age of May 18 [when a military junta declared martial law and slaughtered Gwangju City citizens in 1980]. I'm from Naju [near Gwangju]. I thought, 'If I go anywhere but the Assembly, I'm dead. They'll tie a rock to my legs and drop me into the sea, or stick my body in some rice paddy.'

"So if I was going to die, I might as well die at the Assembly. At least there it would end with a bayonet in my side. I got there as fast as I could."

Someone commented on a lyrics video of Into the New World, a 2007 song by early Kpop group Girls' Generation, that they're 56 and learning the song ahead of going to the National Assembly protest. And omg the replies are so wholesome?? So much encouragement, gratitude for the older generations' participation in the pro-democracy protests of the 80's, and declarations from young people that they're learning the classic protest songs, too 😭 You definitely hear a mix of songs played at protests, and I'm going to catch up on the new ones and brush up on the old.

The failed coup leader Yoon took to the Presidential podium to give a nonsensical tirade riddled with far-right talking points like false allegations of election fraud, and that he declared martial law to "make the citizens aware" and "send a warning." It was so awful even his own party leader has turned against him and is calling for impeachment, dropping this guy as the political liability he is.

And yes, Yoon's "rhetoric" is ridiculous and in total denial of reality, but that speech was not meant for the 90% of the country who have written him off as a dangerous, irrational would-be dictator. It's for the 10% who want dictatorship and military rule, and will use the conspiracy theories he spouts as justification. Truth and facts are inconvenient to their goal and therefore ignored. The very outrageousness of martial law was a play to this demographic, which has tremendous seductive pull as economic and other situations deteriorate and can be joined by another 20%, 30% and more. We see it happening with countries falling to fascism all over the world.

I believe we'll get rid of Yoon but that's just the minimum. He's openly making calls to fash and looking to a new political realignment. This is a bigger danger than any one bad President.

Cho Kuk, the leader of one of the opposition parties working against Yoon, was just sentenced to 2 years, putting him behind bars and out of the running in electoral politics for a while. It's not great news but it's fine, it's not like opposition politicians going to jail on overstepped charges is a new thing and baby, this ain't nothing compared to what Kim Daejung and other oppo leaders went through in the military dictatorship years. He went on to become the President of Korea and a Nobel Peace Prize winner, so not too shabby tbh.

Yoon also claimed he had to declare martial law because the National Election Commission refused audits despite their machines being easily hackable by North Korea* and I think anyone can understand the impulse, like who amongst us has not considered martial law to perform server maintenance

* Again, entirely debunked and untrue, laughed out of every court--sound familiar?

It's kind of hilarious to watch attitudes to Yoon go from anger to disgusted near-pity. The opposition leader is like, "I hope he'll come to realize, all that power and wealth mean nothing in the long run :/" and others shake their heads discussing how his brain has been eaten by far-right YouTube. Experts point out that Yoon's preemptive legal defense--martial law as a political act above judicial review--is an outdated doctrine already rejected by the Supreme and Constitutional Courts, while people comment that his political ideas are stuck in the 70s and early 80s, confirming my thesis that Koreans may tolerate fascism but never being unfashionable.

And then there's the scads of ableism directed at Yoon's supposed mental state. As I pointed out a few posts up, Yoon's words and actions are a calculated appeal to fascist elements. This is why fascist leaders often cut seemingly comical, ineffectual figures--until they take over and the liberal laughter fades. Ableism about Yoon is incapable of hurting him and only leads to underestimating him, while everyday neurodivergent and Mad people WILL be hurt by this ableist rhetoric. Fascism is not a mental illness, it' a set of beliefs and actions.

Husband, watching me sing Kpop from memory and work on crafts: Are you going to a protest or a picnic?
Me, tying garland lights to a mini-fan: Why choose?

Pengsoo compels it: Impeach

I got over here listening to the Assembly livestream and they're voting now. Yeouido Station is pandemonium, so packed the trains don't stop here anymore (I think the one I took was almost the last before the cutoff) and I'm slightly worried about crowd crush, especially for the little kids. The station is running announcements over the system for protest attenders. I'm trying to go the opposite way like they said and waiting for the people coming my way to ticket out. Staying out of the way as much as I can and ready to climb one of the token machines if the crowd gets too bad. Fortunately the crowd is thinning out because the trains don't stop here.

All right! Passage has cleared a little now and we're on the way out. The crowd control is really good, trains are stopping again so better hurry up there ahead of the new arrivals--and hopefully in time for results? We're roasting here in the clothes we've layered on in preparation for the cold 🥵

IMPEACHMENT PASSED FUUUUCK YEAHHHHHHH everyone is ecstatic!!

Oh wow, so yesterday was A Time all right. It was such a load off to have the fucker's official powers taken away so he can't try anything big again, though we'll still be watching him.

I got the impeachment vote news in the subway, as previously mentioned, so I basically became one of the crowd who got there in time for the celebration after the work was done lol. We still got some good shouts of "Arrest Yoon Seok Yeol" and parading in. So much cheering, flags waving, glowsticks thrusting in time to the music and chanting.

There were so many people I couldn't move around on my own and went with the flow of the crowd for a circuit around the streets until the parade spat me out and I circled back. By then most of the families and older people had left and it was a smaller (but still huge) crowd of mostly young women, and there was a celebratory outdoors party playing Kpop. It was so fun, with tens of thousands of glowsticks waving, people singing along, the beat of the speakers thrumming in my chest, parading flags, dancing. It was an amazing relief after 10 days of constant anxiety, and enjoying myself with this furiously joyful crowd made it all the better.