Last Call For Mitch In The Ditch

Senate GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell is trying to evacuate himself and as many of his Senate GOP enablers as he can from the sinking Trump regime, but all the lifeboats are being set on fire by the Trump cultists, and I can't say that I'm sorry to hope they all drown like the rats they are.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell warned Republican senators Tuesday during a private caucus call not to object to the election results on Jan. 6, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

McConnell told his caucus that challenging the results would force Republicans to take a “terrible vote” because they would need to vote it down and appear against President Donald Trump. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) also echoed McConnell’s remarks.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said that no one objected on the call to McConnell encouraging members to accept the election results.

"There wasn’t any pushback to it," she said. "There’s wasn’t anyone saying: oh wait a minute. That didn’t occur."

McConnell’s advice comes one day after the Electoral College officially voted for Joe Biden as the president-elect. The Kentucky Republican acknowledged for the first time that Biden will be the next president in his floor remarks Tuesday.

Several House Republicans, led by hard-line conservative Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), are still planning to challenge the election results on Jan. 6, the date Congress will officially certify them. If a Republican senator joins the long-shot effort, however, it will force both chambers to take a vote on the election. But they have yet to get official buy-in from any GOP senators, though Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) hasn't ruled it out.

Brooks, in response to McConnell cautioning the GOP against objecting to the election results, tweeted that he hopes it’s “fake news.”

“I find it unfathomable that anyone would acquiesce to election theft and voter fraud because they lack the courage to take a difficult vote on the House or Senate floor,” Brooks said in a phone interview. “Last time I checked, that’s why we were elected to Congress.”

Brooks met briefly last week with several GOP senators to discuss his effort, but declined to say whether anyone is seriously considering the idea. Conservatives, however, have been eyeing Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville — another Alabama Republican and Trump supporter — as someone who may get on board. And Senate Republicans are unsure where he stands; Tuberville was not a part of Tuesday’s conference call.

McConnell’s warning underscores how the last-ditch bid to overturn the election is putting the GOP in a bind. On the one hand, Republicans are facing pressure from Trump and his allies to support his attempt to remain in power. And party leaders want to keep the base energized ahead of a pair of critical Georgia runoff races on Jan. 5. that will determine control of the Senate.

But at the same time, McConnell — who is defending a tough Senate map in 2022 — needs to protect his members from taking a tough vote. If the Senate is forced to deliberate the election results, most GOP senators would be going on the record against a president who values fealty above all else. And it would be none other than Vice President Mike Pence presiding over the floor debate — a potentially awkward scenario as his boss continues to deny the reality of the election he lost.

 

Mitch now faces a trap of his own design. He either has to risk losing his power now and anger Trump's cultists enough that they sabotage the George runoffs, or risk losing power in 2022 when attacks ads will show Republican after Republican who voted to overturn the election (or they are primaried out by Republicans who didn't and are replaced with even worse ones).

I hope it's the former.

Retribution Execution, Con't

Understand that Bill Barr was fired by Trump for several reasons, and not appointing a special prosecutor to go after Joe Biden's son is one of the main ones. Incoming replacement Jeff Rosen is now going to be under tremendous pressure to make this happen.

President Donald Trump is considering pushing to have a special counsel appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden, setting up a potential showdown with incoming acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen.

Trump — angry that out-going Attorney General William Barr didn’t publicly announce the ongoing, two-year investigation into Hunter Biden — has consulted on the matter with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside allies.

That’s according to several Trump administration officials and Republicans close to the White House who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private matters.

Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. But if he’s expecting his newly named acting attorney general to go further than Barr on either matter, he could end up quickly disappointed.

Barr on Monday evening announced he will resign effective next week, revealing his plans about a week after Hunter Biden publicly disclosed that he was under investigation related to his finances. It is generally Justice Department policy not to disclose investigations that are in progress, though the subjects of those investigations can.

Rosen, the deputy attorney general, will step into the Justice Department’s top job in an acting role. A longtime litigator, he has served as Barr’s top deputy since May 2019 but largely shies away from the spotlight. He said in a statement Tuesday he was “honored” to serve and “will continue to focus on the implementation of the Department’s key priorities.”

Trump is still weighing his options, considering whether to pressure Rosen to make the special counsel appointment or, if needed, to replace the acting attorney general with someone more likely to carry out his wishes. He has even asked his team of lawyers, including personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, to look into whether the president has the power to appoint a special counsel himself.

A key question will be whether Rosen can stand up to presidential pressure — and potentially withering attacks — in the waning weeks of the Trump administration. If not, Rosen could be cast aside in favor of others more willing to do Trump’s bidding.

Believing that a special counsel probe could wound a Biden administration before it even begins, Trump aides have urged the president to push for one, which would make it so the investigation can’t be easily stopped by the incoming president. No firm decision has been made.

 

Trump has 35 days left in office.  He can still cause a tremendous amount of damage in five weeks, and the damage he has already caused will leave scars on America's political system for decades, not to mention the irreversible human carnage wrought by his cancerous party: hundreds of thousands dead, hundreds of thousands more will die, and millions are facing a wintry eviction in a matter of a score of days.

 

As he runs out of options as the days go by -- and as America reaches a point not seen since the 1930s -- the odds of precipitous calamity increase exponentially. We're still at the phase where Trump going after Hunter Biden is an ugly political attack to force Joe Biden to relent before New York serves Trump with subpoenas. Give it a couple of weeks, and we'll be at the point after Christmas where Trump may do something so profoundly illegal, immoral, and indefensibly evil that the entire country could be set aflame.

 

The monster is most dangerous when cornered by the hero as the final battle begins.

The Coup-Coup Birds Take Flight, Con't

At this point, Republicans are openly running their campaign platforms on Donald Trump imposing a second term through a coup and martial law, and Republicans will vote for them, because they are all traitors.

State Sen. Amanda F. Chase, a brash Republican gubernatorial contender who bills herself as "Trump in heels," called on President Trump on Tuesday to declare martial law to prevent his removal from office.

One day after the electoral college formally confirmed former vice president Joe Biden’s victory over Trump, Chase (Chesterfield) doubled down on baseless allegations of election fraud in an early-morning Facebook post.

“Not my President and never will be,” she wrote, referring to Biden. “The American people aren’t fools. We know you cheated to win and we’ll never accept these results. Fair elections we can accept but cheating to win; never. It’s not over yet. So thankful President Trump has a backbone and refuses to concede. President Trump should declare martial law as recommended by General Flynn.”

Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser pardoned by the president, recently shared a Twitter post advocating that the president “temporarily suspend the Constitution” and declare martial law.

In an interview Tuesday, Chase said she was holding out hope that Trump somehow would be declared the winner when the electoral college ballots are formally counted during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6 — an all-but-impossible outcome, especially as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday publicly acknowledged Biden’s victory for the first time since the election. Barring that extremely unlikely turn of events, Chase thinks martial law is in order.

Under martial law, she said, troops would “go and seize these [voting] machines and voting equipment to find the voter fraud. There needs to be a national audit.”

Chase’s call for martial law drew rebukes from a few prominent Virginia Republicans, including her lone rival for the GOP nomination, Del. Kirk Cox (Colonial Heights).

“Senator Chase’s suggestion that martial law be imposed is absurd and dangerous,” Cox, a retired teacher, said in a written statement. “I taught government for 30 years and have great respect for our constitutional republic. Per that system and the electoral college vote yesterday, Joe Biden will be the next President.”

Cox, a former House speaker who had said he would not comment on the presidential election until after the electoral college vote, acknowledged Biden’s win for the first time Tuesday.

 

I bet you dollars to doughnuts that this "brash, Trump on heels" wins the Virginia Republican gubernatorial primary by 20 points, and my fear is that running on "not my President and never will be" is all she'll need to say and do at campaign rallies to have a serious chance to beat former Dem Gov. Terry McAuliffe come November 2021.

 

And Chase isn't alone. Far from it, in fact. 

A North Carolina senator suggested Tuesday that the president might suspend basic liberties to overturn an election that he believes, without evidence, was stolen.

Sen. Bob Steinburg, R-Chowan, paraphrased on his Facebook page comments that retired Gen. Thomas McInerney made earlier this month on a conservative talk show. Among other things, McInerney suggested President Donald Trump declare a national emergency, invoke the Insurrection Act and suspend habeas corpus.

Steinburg told WRAL News on Tuesday evening that he wasn't endorsing the idea, just "putting out there options that others say still remain on the table," though he later said he'd be on board with it. In an extended harangue, Steinburg also made it clear he believes the recent presidential election was stolen and that Trump is the victim of a conspiracy to which multiple countries, the media, U.S. government agencies, officials and judges are either a part or turning a blind eye.

“There’s something going on here bigger than what anybody is willing to talk about," he said. "I’m not nuts. … I’m not a conspiracy theory person. I don’t like them. I don’t like conspiracy theories at all. But something is going on here that’s bigger than meets the eye.”

Steinburg then offered, unprompted, to take a psychiatric evaluation. He said the CIA and FBI both know there's a coup d'etat going on in the country but won't do anything about it.

"They think we’re just bunch of boobs out here in the hinterland," he said. "Well, these boobs are waking up.”

People like this aren't just going to vanish into the ether on January 20th.

A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme in Harris County, according to a news release from the Harris County's DA's office.

Mark Anthony Aguirre, 63, was arrested by Houston police Tuesday and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

"He crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a violent crime, and we are lucky no one was killed," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. "His alleged investigation was backward from the start - first alleging a crime had occurred and then trying to prove it happened."

According to court documents, Aguirre told police that he was part of a group of private citizens called the "Liberty Center," who were conducting a civilian investigation into the alleged ballot scheme.

According to Aguirre, he had been conducting surveillance for four days on a man who was allegedly the mastermind of a giant voter fraud scheme. Aguirre told authorities the man was hiding 750,000 fraudulent ballots in a truck he was driving.

Instead, the victim turned out to be an innocent air conditioner repairman, court documents said.

Aguirre ran his SUV into the back of the truck to get the technician to stop and get out, according to court documents.

When the technician got out of the truck, Aguirre pointed a handgun at the technician, forced him to the ground and put his knee on the man's back until police came, the court document said.

Aguirre allegedly directed police to a parking lot nearby where another suspect, who has not been identified, took the truck.

According to court documents, there were no ballots in the truck. The truck was filled with air conditioning parts and tools.

"I think it's a political prosecution. I really do," said Terry Yates, Aguirre's attorney. "He was working and investigating voter fraud, and there was an accident. A member of the car got out and rushed at him and that's where the confrontation took place. It's very different from what you're citing in the affidavit."

 

This is just a taste of what's coming in the weeks and months ahead, especially should Donald Trump and his family end up facing the music in New York on state charges. People are going to get hurt, and our long national nightmare is not over, it's just moving on to a different phase.

I hope we can get through it.  I'm not so sure we will.

StupidiNews!

• A New York State judge has ordered the Trump Organization to turn over tax documents to state Attorney General Tish James in the state's ongoing Trump Organization tax fraud investigation.
• The FDA has released new medical data on the second major COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna, paving the way for FDA approval which could come later this month.
• House and Senate leaders from both parties say they are nearing a final agreement on a COVID-19 stimulus bill as the government faces a Friday shutdown deadline.
• The Trump regime is asking the Supreme Court to stop mail delivery of Plan B abortion medication, claiming using the postal service to deliver the pills is a violation of the Hyde Amendment.
• Claiming they haven't been paid in months, workers at an iPhone parts plant in India have damaged the factory as millions of workers across India are going on general strike.