The Coup-Coup Birds Come Home To Roost, Con't

Boston Globe columnist Talia Lavin reminds us that while there are plenty of armed white supremacist domestic terrorist groups out there, the people who showed up at the US Capitol insurrection were also middle-class white folks who sure loved the rush of being part-time warriors for whiteness.

Following the pro-Trump mob’s Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol building, in which five people died, the CEO of the Ilinois-based data analytics firm Cogensia was fired. Bradley Rukstales is facing federal charges for entering the Capitol alongside a mob that battered police officers with fire extinguishers and metal pipes, deployed bear spray and mace, and smeared the halls of Congress with human feces. In a statement, Rukstales emphasized that this was his first arrest and that this was an uncharacteristic “moment of extremely poor judgment.”

That a prosperous tech CEO might be among the insurrectionists who ran riot in the Capitol — some armed with guns and zip-ties, searching for lawmakers they hoped to harm — might seem, to some, surprising. But Rukstales was not an outlier among the Capitol mob for his prosperity. As the fallout for the coup attempt continues to unfold, the list of those arrested or identified as participants grows: state legislators, lawyers, doctors, nurses, firefighters, realtors, current and former members of the armed forces, and more than two dozen police officers. Prosperous business owner by prosperous business owner, the principal beneficiaries of white supremacy came out in force to defend it.

It’s long been assumed that the most extreme upholders of white supremacy in the United States, those willing to engage in violence on its behalf, are impoverished, uneducated, socially stunted, and confined to their mothers’ basements. In The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan wrote about the would-be coupists as “deadbeat dads, YouPorn enthusiasts, slow students, and MMA fans … with bellies full of beer and Sausage McMuffins, maybe a little high on Adderall” — a naked display of classism that happens to also be thoroughly inaccurate. The Washington Post quoted anonymous members of law enforcement agencies as “shocked by the backgrounds” of insurrectionists that included “current and former law enforcement and military personnel as well as senior business executives and middle-aged business owners.” The “toothless Cletus” (as I’ve referred to this much-imagined figure in my work), an uneducated redneck dedicated to racism and anti-Semitism in the shadow of a blighted life, has always been more myth than reality — and images of the Capitol riot underscore the flimsiness of this narrative.

The Trumpists, neo-Nazis, militia members, and QAnon adherents who broke down the doors of the Capitol, wielding improvised and very real weapons, are people who were able to take time off work in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, travel to another city, and make reservations at some of Washington’s swankiest hotels. They were able to devote time and money and resources to buy military gear and use it. They are America’s gentry, golfers, homeowners association members, and school-board warriors and heads of the PTA.

It’s an uncomfortable truth for white America to acknowledge: Those willing to upend the democratic order through violence to further a white supremacist agenda are indistinguishable from the rest of us. They are not even ideological outliers, anymore; a recent Ipsos poll found that 45 percent of Republicans polled approve of the storming of the Capitol. There is no socioeconomic stratum, no geographic location, no level of educational attainment that inures us from the forces of conspiracy and hate, and from the torrid lure of enforcing a white-led order. There is no neighborhood that insulates you, no zip code, no alumni association immune from a force so corrosive it has warped our nation to the breaking point.

 

The Trumpists are average white Americans, driving Dodge Ram 1500 trucks, shopping at Costco, going to the local megachurch, members of the PTA.

And they also are willing to take up arms to preserve their white privilege.

Trying to bring them down off their hatred high is a long and bitter process, but if we don't do it, this country is going to burn for years. The first step though is acknowledging that the terrorists are next door, the "respected" members of the community, and not the "lone wolf" basement types who certainly couldn't afford to make the trip to DC.

Guns are expensive. Ammo is expensive. Travel to DC is expensive. It's not the guy flipping burgers who's the threat, folks.

No, white America is out here actively rebelling in order to "keep" their white privilege, and there's a whole lot of potential terrorists out there as far as I'm concerned. 

It's well past time to treat them as such.

Georgia On Trump's Mind

New York isn't the only jurisdiction considering charges against Donald Trump after January 20th, as Georgia is looking into Trump's widely-played election interference call pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and others ahead of the Senate runoffs.

Prosecutors in Georgia appear increasingly likely to open a criminal investigation of President Trump over his attempts to overturn the results of the state’s 2020 election, an inquiry into offenses that would be beyond his federal pardon power.

The new Fulton County district attorney, Fani Willis, is already weighing whether to proceed, and among the options she is considering is the hiring of a special assistant from outside to oversee the investigation, according to people familiar with her office’s deliberations.

At the same time, David Worley, the lone Democrat on Georgia’s five-member election board, said this week that he would ask the board to make a referral to the Fulton County district attorney by next month. Among the matters he will ask prosecutors to investigate is a phone call Mr. Trump made in which he pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn the state’s election results.

Jeff DiSantis, a district attorney spokesman, said the office had not taken any action to hire outside counsel and declined to comment further on the case.

Some veteran Georgia prosecutors said they believed Mr. Trump had clearly violated state law.

“If you took the fact out that he is the president of the United States and look at the conduct of the call, it tracks the communication you might see in any drug case or organized crime case,” said Michael J. Moore, the former United States attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. “It’s full of threatening undertone and strong-arm tactics.”

He said he believed there had been “a clear attempt to influence the conduct of the secretary of state, and to commit election fraud, or to solicit the commission of election fraud.”

The White House declined to comment.

Mr. Worley said in an interview that if no investigation had been announced by Feb. 10, the day of the election board’s next scheduled meeting he would make a motion for the board to refer the matter of Mr. Trump’s phone calls to Ms. Willis’s office. Mr. Worley, a lawyer, believes that such a referral should, under Georgia law, automatically prompt an investigation.

If the board declines to make a referral, Mr. Worley said he would ask Ms. Willis’s office himself to start an inquiry.

Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state, is one of the members of the board and has said that he might have a conflict of interest in the matter, as Mr. Trump called him to exert pressure. That could lead him to recuse himself from any decisions on a referral by the board.

 

It's important to note that Fulton County DA Fani Willis, as with Tish James in New York, is yet another example of how it's Black women who are leading the way in holding Trump accountable once he's booted out of office Wednesday.

Keep that in mind.

The World Goes Viral, Con't

The planet has reached a pair of grim milestones, 400,000 US COVID-19 deaths and 2 million worldwide.

It's as if 10 of the world's largest commercial jets fell out of the sky, every day for an entire year. 

The official global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 2 million on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The tragic milestone came just over a year after the first Covid-19 death was reported in Wuhan, China. 

While the 2 million figure is horrifying, experts say the real death toll is likely much higher. Only confirmed Covid-19 deaths are included in the tally, which means that people who die without a firm diagnosis may not be included. 

With testing still inadequate in many countries across the world, there might be hundreds of thousands of additional deaths. 

Christopher Murray, the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, said that an analysis of excess mortality suggests that as many as one fifth of coronavirus deaths might not be recorded. 

"We have found that on average, total deaths are 20% higher than reported deaths," he told CNN in an email, adding that the ratio varies substantially across different countries. 

As vaccination programs start rolling out across the world, there is a glimmer of hope -- even though it's likely going to take years for everyone to be offered the shot. 

In the meantime, the pandemic is getting worse. The death toll is rising faster than ever. While it took eight months for the world to record 1 million Covid-19 deaths, the second million came in less than four months. 

A number of countries, including the United States, Germany, Sweden, Indonesia, Israel and Japan recorded their deadliest days of the pandemic in the past week. The number of cases globally is fast approaching 100 million.

 

Some 20% of the world's COVID dead, and almost 25% of the world's total COVID cases, must be laid directly at the feet of Donald Trump and his regime.  And now the virus is mutating into more dangerous, virulent, and transmissible strains.

 

The months ahead are going to be brutal.  Joe Biden at least has a plan.

President-elect Joe Biden plans to use FEMA and the National Guard to build coronavirus vaccine clinics across the United States, according to new details of his Covid-19 vaccination plan released by his transition team on Friday.

The Biden administration will also “quickly jumpstart” efforts to make the vaccines available at local pharmacies across the U.S., which should ensure that Americans have access to doses at facilities only miles from their home, according to the plan.

“Here’s the deal: The more people we vaccinate, the faster we do it, the sooner we can save lives and put this pandemic behind us and get back to our lives and loved ones,” Biden said at a speech in Wilmington, Delaware, Thursday night. “We won’t get out of it overnight and we can’t do it as a separated nation.”

Drug store chains and pharmacies were supposed to take on a larger role in distributing the vaccine once the government expanded access to more people. But the slower-than-expected rollout has frustrated pharmacy chains. The National Association of Chain Drug Stores called on the federal government earlier this week to allow states to send more doses directly to pharmacies as they do with hospitals and health departments.

The group estimated that the country’s retail pharmacies could administer at least 100 million doses of vaccines each month, which would exceed the incoming administration’s promise of 100 million shots in 100 days.

The Biden administration has said current vaccination efforts are not sufficient to quickly and equitably vaccinate the vast majority of the U.S. population, adding, “We must ensure that those on the ground have what they need to get vaccinations into people’s arms.”

The problem is logistics, and Biden is tackling this head on. 100 million doses per month is the rate we need to get America inoculated by this summer and get us back to work, back to school, and back to being America.

But the next six months are still going to be hell.

Deportation Nation, Con't

I have a pretty good idea now why Trump's Acting ICE Director only lasted two weeks before quitting on Wednesday, and it has everything to do with Stephen Miller putting kids in cages.

After a scathing new report from the Justice Department's watchdog blamed top department officials for being the "driving force" behind the Trump administration's 2018 migrant family separation policy, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein issued a statement of regret Thursday and current DOJ official Gene Hamilton blamed the president for the policy.

In interviews with the DOJ Office of Inspector General in the lead-up to the report, Gene Hamilton, known as a close ally of White House adviser Stephen Miller, said the decision to separate families, a policy known as "zero tolerance" that lasted two months in 2018 before it was terminated by executive order, ultimately rested with President Donald Trump and then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

"If Secretary Nielsen and DHS did not want to refer people with minors, with children, then we wouldn't have prosecuted them because they wouldn't have referred them. And ultimately that decision would be between Secretary Nielsen and the president," Hamilton told the Office of Inspector General, according to the report.

"The Attorney General was aware of White House desires for further action related to combatting illegal immigration, imminent and ongoing actions by the Department of Homeland Security, and he perceived a need to take quick action," Hamilton told the Inspector General.

In response to the report, Rosenstein, who left the department in May 2019, said in a statement to NBC News: "Since leaving the department, I have often asked myself what we should have done differently, and no issue has dominated my thinking more than the zero tolerance immigration policy. It was a failed policy that never should have been proposed or implemented. I wish we all had done better."

During an April 20, 2018, meeting at the Justice Department, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Rosenstein, Hamilton and others met with Nielsen, says the report. There, according to notes from Hamilton, "the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney General both expressed a willingness to prosecute adults in family units if DHS made the decision to start referring such individuals for prosecution."

Sessions refused to be interviewed by the Inspector General and could not be reached for comment. The White House referred NBC News to the Justice Department for comment.

NBC News previously reported on a draft version of the report in October.

The report, published Thursday by the Justice Department's Inspector General more than two years after the policy ended, pieces together decisions made by high-ranking Trump administration officials that led to the separation of more than 3,000 migrant families.

"We concluded that the Department’s single-minded focus on increasing immigration prosecutions came at the expense of careful and appropriate consideration of the impact of family unit prosecutions and child separations," the Inspector General's report said.

 

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

As Greg Sargent reminds us, the vast majority of Republicans are still siding with Donald Trump's coup attempt, and that the chance of more ongoing terrorist violence in the US is near absolute rather than the acceptance of a Biden presidency.

In the wake of President Trump’s incitement of a violent insurrectionist assault on our seat of government, a new Post-ABC News poll offers perhaps the most detailed look yet at public attitudes about the attack and the underlying questions it raises about the stability of our democratic future.

The poll contains good news and bad news. The good news is that large majorities are standing up for democracy and the legitimacy of our election, and believe Trump should be held accountable for inciting violent warfare on our political system and, indeed, on our country.

The bad news is that large majorities of Republicans are very much on board with much of what Trump has done.

First, let’s note that truly overwhelming majorities, including among Republicans, condemn the attack itself. That’s great, but deeper in the crosstabs are some pretty dispiriting findings.

On questions that probe underlying attitudes about Trump’s efforts to undermine democracy, the contrast between the broader public and Republican respondents is stark. Here’s a rundown:

• By 66 percent to 30 percent, overall Americans say Trump acted irresponsibly in his statements and actions since the election. But Republicans say Trump acted responsibly by 66 percent to 29 percent. 

• By 62 percent to 31 percent, Americans say there’s no solid evidence of the claims of voter fraud that Trump cited to refuse to accept Joe Biden’s victory. But Republicans say there is solid evidence of fraud by 65 percent to 25 percent. 

• 57 percent of Americans say Trump bears a great deal or good amount of responsibility for the assault on the Capitol. But 56 percent of Republicans say Trump bears no responsibility at all, and another 22 percent say he bears just some, totaling 78 percent who largely exonerate him.  

• 52 percent of Americans say Republican leaders went too far in supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. But 51 percent of Republicans say GOP leaders didn’t go far enough, while 27 percent say they got it right, a total of 78 percent who are fully on board or wanted more. Only 16 percent of Republicans say they went too far.

On these questions, independents are far more in sync with the broader public: In this poll, support for what Trump did is largely a Republican phenomenon.

Meanwhile, solid majorities of Americans believe Trump should be charged with a crime for inciting the riot (54 percent) and removed from office (56 percent). But among Republicans, opposition to both is running in the mid-80s, demonstrating extraordinary GOP unity against any form of accountability.

To sum up: Large majorities of Republicans support the effort by GOP leaders to overturn the election (which included lawsuits designed to summarily invalidate millions of votes and an extraordinary effort to scuttle Biden’s electors in Congress) and believe (or say they believe) that those GOP leaders were joining Trump’s efforts to correct a confirmed injustice done to him.

  

The issue is how many of Trump's cultists will choose to turn to violence in order to "correct" the "stolen election" situation that two-thirds of them believe happened.

Even a small percentage would be tens of thousands of terrorists and dozens of attacks, and frankly I expect we'll be lucky to get away with "just an other Nashville-style bombing" per month.

We're in for years of salt and blood.

The Coup-Coup Birds Come Home To Roost, Con't

The Trumpist terrorists are more than happy to remind us that even over the river in Cincy, more violence is coming and that all Democrats can do is prepare for the inevitable attacks from their Trumpist cult neighbors.

A few hours after President Trump was impeached for inciting an insurrection Wednesday, a group of Republicans gathered at a suburban Cincinnati movie theater.

The program? To hear firsthand from six Trump loyalists who attended the Jan. 6 rally in Washington D. C. – the very rally that ended with a riot at the U.S. Capitol and the second impeachment for the president.

Federal agents are arresting those who stormed the Capitol, and virtually every Republican has denounced the violence.

Chris Hicks, a Clermont County Republican and leader of Clermont for Trump organization, wanted the public to hear from local people who went.

The 40 people who showed up to the R.J. Cinema and Distillery in Union Township Wednesday didn't blame Trump for the riot that ensued.

"I support him more than I ever did," Doug Gerrard, of Owensville, told The Enquirer outside the theater. "He still speaks for me. He's being attacked by the news media. He's being attacked by the Democrats, I don't think it's for any reason."

Recent polls show such views aren't unusual among Republicans. A Quinnipiac University poll out Monday shows majorities of Republicans believe there was widespread election fraud, do not hold Trump responsible for the storming of the Capitol, and see Trump as protecting, rather than undermining, democracy.

Hicks opened the night by asking the audience a few questions. Is their support for Trump increasing, decreasing or staying the same?

The mostly maskless audience used clickers to record their vote. On the big screen, a bar graph flashed showing 77% of the 40 people there liked the president more in the past week; 23% had the same opinion. Not one had a lower opinion of the president.

There's no possibility of unity with people who continue to deny reality, and continue to deny that a terrorist attack on the US Capitol was wrong, that voting to overturn the election was wrong, and that any of it is an actual problem in the first place.

These folks are ghouls and they will absolutely resort to violence again. If it's happening in Cincinnati, publicly and openly, where they are plotting more violence, more insurrectism, more attacks on local, state, and national government, and daring anyone to stop them before they execute, then I guarantee you it's happening where you are. They aren't going anywhere.

Trump still has strong support among Republican voters... In an Axios-Ipsos poll taken Tuesday and yesterday:

--64% of Rs said they support Trump's recent behavior.
--57% of Rs said Trump should be the 2024 GOP candidate. https://t.co/PlcLY0JoH9

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) January 14, 2021

 

They will be with us for a long time, and there will be violence every step of the way. 

StupidiNews!

• Former SC Democratic senate candidate Jaime Harrison has been named head of the Democratic National Committee by Joe Biden.
• US Covid-19 vaccinations have reached 10 million but the country remains well behind target, the Biden administration is proposing $400 billion for pandemic response.
• At least three are dead and two dozen injured after a 6.2 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia, the epicenter was on Sulawesi island near the city of Majene.
• Former GOP Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is among nine state officials charged for "willful neglect" over Snyder's response to the Flint water crisis.
• Climate scientists have found 2020 ties 2016 as the warmest year on record globally, the last seven years are all the top seven warmest years of recorded global temperatures.
  

Last Call For The Brewing Bevinstan Booting Of Beshear, Con't

As Kentucky Republicans in the General Assembly continue with their plans to impeach and remove Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear over COVID-19 closures, it's important to remember that this clown show is state Republican lawmakers giving in to the anti-science, anti-democracy Trumpist terrorists, and Beshear at least has the courage to say as such.

 

Gov. Andy Beshear denounced the people who filed a petition seeking his impeachment on Tuesday, sharing previous social media posts and actions by some of the four men that Beshear said were aimed at terrorizing him and his family.

“These people who signed this petition have tried to commit terror for me and my family before,” Beshear said. “And when that hasn’t worked, I guess they’re trying something new.”

One of the men who signed the petition, Jacob Clark of Leitchfield, posted a video on Facebook in April titled “A warning for Governor Andy Beshear” in which Clark had a handgun sitting on the shelf above his shoulder while he recorded the video. Clark, who told the Herald-Leader Saturday that he is a part-time Baptist minister, read from the Bible while denouncing Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions on churches.

“This is a warning to Gov. Andy Beshear, this is not intended to be physically threatening,” Clark said before reading a passage about King Jerboam. “I would say it’s a warning from God to Gov. Beshear to not be stretching forth your hand against God’s people.”

Clark also made a post in May opposing U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, implying McConnell is a “traitor and should be hanged.”

Another man on the petition, Tony Wheatley, helped organize the May rally at the Capitol that ended in Beshear being hung in effigy. Wheatley also posted about having “people in D.C.” during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and that they were safe. Beshear said Wheatley also helped organize an armed rally at the Capitol Saturday.

Andrew Cooperrider — the owner of Brewed coffee shop in Lexington, which was sued by the Lexington Fayette County Health Department for not complying with COVID-19 restrictions — shared a photo of one of the pro-Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol and said “you reap what you sow.”

The group collected signatures for the petition at a Capitol rally last week in which one person had a sign that said “make hanging traitors great again.”

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said he is taking the petition seriously and has refused to comment on whether he believes Beshear should be impeached. On Monday, the House formed a seven-member committee to investigate the claims laid out in the petition.

The chairman of the committee — Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville — said Tuesday that the first action of the committee would be to seek a formal response from Beshear.

While impeachment would be a drastic step, as no Kentucky governor has ever been impeached, there are many Republican lawmakers who are angry with Beshear because of how he’s handled the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly his decisions to put restrictions on in-person gatherings at businesses and schools. Some Republican members have floated bringing their own articles of impeachment against Beshear. 

Again, they've gone after Gov. Beshear with open threats against his life, his family, his home. They've hung him in effigy for the crime of protecting Kentucky against a pandemic.  They remain willing to use terrorist violence against him. And now, state Republicans are giving in to the terrorist demands and moving forward with impeachment based on those demands.

The "this isn't a threat" right before the actual threat part that these psychotic bastards are getting away with are just more of their vile tactics. Don't come to me bleating about "cancel culture" or "wokeness" being the problem.

The problem is Republicans are terrorists.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

Trump is in the bunker now, facing his final week in the White House and quite possibly his final days as a free man before the charges are leveled against him after Joe Biden's inauguration on Wednesday. Facing the long, orange darkness of his own abyss, he turns now to punishing those who have failed him.

When Donald Trump on Wednesday became the first president ever impeached twice, he did so as a leader increasingly isolated, sullen and vengeful.

With less than seven days remaining in his presidency, Trump’s inner circle is shrinking, offices in his White House are emptying, and the president is lashing out at some of those who remain. He is angry that his allies have not mounted a more forceful defense of his incitement of the mob that stormed the Capitol last week, advisers and associates said.

Though Trump has been exceptionally furious with Vice President Pence, his relationship with lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most steadfast defenders, is also fracturing, according to people with knowledge of the dynamics between the men.

Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees, two officials said, and has demanded that he personally approve any reimbursements for the expenses Giuliani incurred while traveling on the president’s behalf to challenge election results in key states. They said Trump has privately expressed concern with some of Giuliani’s moves and did not appreciate a demand from Giuliani for $20,000 a day in fees for his work attempting to overturn the election.

As he watched impeachment quickly gain steam, Trump was upset generally that virtually nobody is defending him — including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, economic adviser Larry Kudlow, national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien and Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, according to a senior administration official.

“The president is pretty wound up,” said the senior administration official, who, like some others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. “No one is out there.”

 

As King Trumpoden sits on his pyrite toilet throne in his Golden Hall of Shame, he is attended by Grahama Wormtongue.

One of Trump’s few confidants these days is Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who broke with the president last week over attempts to overturn the election only to be welcomed back in the president’s good graces a couple of days later. Graham traveled to Texas on Tuesday in what was Trump’s last scheduled presidential trip, spending hours with Trump aboard Air Force One talking about impeachment and planning how Trump should spend his final days in office.

“The president has come to grips with it’s over,” Graham said, referring to the election. “That’s tough. He thinks he was cheated, but nothing’s going to change that.”

Trump asked Graham to lobby fellow senators to acquit him in his eventual impeachment trial, which Graham did from Air Force One as he worked through a list of colleagues to phone. A few senators called Trump aboard the presidential aircraft on Tuesday to notify him of their intent to acquit. During the flight home, Graham said, he tried to calm Trump after Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the No. 3 House GOP leader, announced she would vote to impeach.

“I just told him, ‘Listen, Mr. President, there are some people out there who were upset before and are upset now, but I assure you, most Republicans believe impeachment is bad for the country and not necessary and it would do damage to the institution of the presidency itself,” Graham recalled. He said he told Trump, “The people who are calling on impeachment are not representative of the [Republican] conferences.”

 

I mean technically Graham is right, the majority of Republicans back Trump over McConnell still. But the trick is that it only will take 17 Republican senators -- just one-third of the caucus -- to convict. The "majority" of the GOP isn't needed to bring Trump to justice.

 

Besides, he may be indicted before the Senate trial even gets underway.

The Coup-Coup Birds Come Home To Roost, Con't

At this point even the US Secret Service is openly warning of lethal violence from Trump's armed insurrection cult in the days ahead.

The Secret Service earlier this week flagged potentially violent protests in Washington, D.C. planned for the days leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration as President, the Daily Beast reported Wednesday.

The warning adds to those from the FBI and in a congressional briefing to members of Congress Monday, about potential follow-up violence to the siege of the Capitol last week.

The Monday Secret Service bulletin mentioned a pre-inaugural event in D.C. by adherents of the so-called Boogaloo movement, a heavily-armed anti-government group that takes its name from internet slang for a sequel to the Civil War.

“Although no civil disobedience has been confirmed, organizers have encouraged attendees to bring weapons to the event,” the bulletin said, per The Daily Beast.

The extremist internet — corresponding on platforms including Telegram, Gab, and other lesser-known forums out of the public eye — has been abuzz about Jan. 17, when Trump supporters and others plan to make a show of force outside of state capitol buildings as well as in D.C.

The Secret Service bulletin mentioned these planned demonstrations as well, according to The Daily Beast. But the agency reportedly noted that the disruption of certain social media sites popular with the right, like Parler, has limited law enforcement’s “situational awareness of these events.”

Biden’s inauguration, on Jan. 20, is another potential target. The Secret Service bulletin reportedly cited the so-called “Million Militia March” planned that day, for which attendees have been encouraged to bring guns.

 

Don't know how many more times I have to say it, but we're in for a very dark time in America's history.

StupidiNews!

• Acting ICE Director Jonathan Fahey is resigning just weeks after assuming the post after the departure of previous Acting Director Tony Pham.
• Citing no possibility of a "fair" trial that can be held in the waning days of the Trump regime, Mitch McConnell will postpone any further Senate activity until January 19.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that Representatives will be fined if they fail to pass through metal detectors installed in the US Capitol building on Wednesday after last week's attack.
• House Republicans are targeting GOP Rep. Liz Cheney for removal from her No. 3 position in the GOP caucus after voting for the second impeachment of Donald Trump on Wednesday.
• Housing rental service Airbnb is refunding all DC inauguration reservations as the governors of Maryland and Virginia and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser have asked visitors to stay home.
  

Last Call For Impeachment Reached, Again

The Queens NY Daily Eagle sums it up.

A Queens-born real estate developer made history Wednesday when he became the first U.S. president ever impeached twice by the House of Representatives.

Donald Trump, a 74-year-old lame duck Republican, is accused of inciting a lethal mob of far-right supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in order to prevent Congress from certifying the results of his resounding loss in the November 2020 election. President-elect Joe Biden, a Democrat, recorded 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232.

With Trump’s encouragement, Confederate-flag bearing white supremacists and fascist agitators besieged the Capitol, threatening to kill Vice President Mike Pence, breaking into lawmakers’ offices, stealing public property and smearing feces on the wall.

The attack left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer beaten by rioters.

Ten Republican members of Congress joined the Democratic majority in voting to impeach the Jamaica Estates native for the second time.

In December 2019, Trump became the third president impeached by Congress — and the first from Queens.

Trump was at the time accused of pressuring the Ukrainian government to investigate Biden and of withholding military aid until the Ukrainians conducted the investigation. He was also accused of obstructing the Congressional investigation.

 

Maybe Trump can get that statue he always wanted in Astoria Park, the one labeled "Two-Time Loser".

The Coup-Coup Birds Come Home To Roost, Con't

As the House debates Trump's impeachment today, the only question is how many Republicans will finally do the right thing and join Democrats in calling for Trump's removal. The "principled" Republicans that remain that don't want to face possible expulsion and sedition charges better pay attention, because the evidence is mounting that their House colleagues were in on the coup plot to slaughter Democrats.

 

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, during a live webcast Tuesday evening, said she witnessed some members of Congress leading people through the Capitol on Jan. 5 in what she termed a "reconnaissance for the next day," when insurrectionists took part in a deadly siege on the legislative branch.

During the Facebook Live, Sherrill, D-Montclair, addressed her constituents to explain why she voted for a resolution to ask Vice President Mike Pence to remove President Donald Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment. That measure passed late Tuesday, 223-205, but Pence had notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier in the day that he would not comply with the request.

That makes it likely that the House will, for the second time, impeach Trump on Wednesday. Sherrill said she intends to support an article of impeachment against Trump for "incitement of insurrection."

After laying out her reasons for seeking Trump's removal, Sherrill moved on to those of her congressional colleagues who, she said, "abetted" the president's attempt to overturn the results of the election and undermine democracy by inciting a violent mob.

"I'm going to see they are held accountable and, if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress," she said, speaking sedately, but severely.

Sherrill's commentary on her colleagues is below:

“We can’t have a democracy if members of Congress are actively helping the president overturn the elections results.

And so not only do I intend to see that the president is removed and never runs for office again and doesn’t have access to classified material, I also intend to see that those members of Congress who abetted him; those members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 — a reconnaissance for the next day; those members of Congress that incited this violent crowd; those members of Congress that attempted to help our president undermine our democracy; I'm going to see they are held accountable, and if necessary, ensure that they don't serve in Congress.”

Sherrill did not specify whether the "groups" were Trump supporters or detail what took place during the "reconnaissance." The term refers to an exploratory mission for the purpose of gaining information.

 

This is a very bold accusation, but frankly I've suspected this was true on some level for a week now. The insurrectionists who flooded the Capitol with blood, weapons, and violence knew where they were going and what they were doing.  They hit specific offices of specific members of Congress. If things had gone even a little differently in the timeline, we'd be talking about whether or not Trump and his ruling junta were even going to allow funerals for the House Democrats who died.

Keep all this in mind going forward.

The Turtle's Shell Game

 Mitch McConnell is officially up to something.

There's a better than 50-50 chance that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would vote to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial, sources tell Axios.

What they're saying: "The Senate institutional loyalists are fomenting a counterrevolution" to Trump, said a top Republican close to McConnell.

Why it matters: This would represent one of the most shocking and damning votes in the history of American politics, by the most powerful Republican in Congress. McConnell's vote would open the door to the possibility that Trump could be convicted and prohibited from running for president again.

An anti-Trump infection is spreading among Hill Republicans: 

House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming — the third-ranking House GOP leader, and a top establishment voice — announced that she will vote to impeach Trump. Cheney said of the Capitol mob: "There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution."

The New York Times reported that McConnell "has told associates that he believes President Trump committed impeachable offenses and that he is pleased that Democrats are moving to impeach him."

 

McConnell threatening Trump with impeachment and removal is a whole different ball of wax than just impeachment. A successful Senate conviction on the issue of sedition would bar Trump from ever holding federal office again.

 

But note the sedition part, not the removal part. Mitch will never allow the Senate to reconvene before 1 PM on Wednesday the 20th.

Trump would be the ultimate loser, a national punchline for all of US history, a man so bad that not only did his entire party get smoked in the elections, he got kicked out of politics by his own party.

And Mitch got his judges and Supreme Court. He's got a plan to get the House and Senate back, and eventually the White House. He has another six-year term to accomplish it.

He no longer needs Trump at all.

StupidiNews!

• On a 225-208 vote, the House voted to call on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove Donald Trump from office, Pence says he will not do so.
• House GOP number three Liz Cheney is the highest-ranking Republican so far to call for Donald Trump's impeachment and removal from office ahead of today's House impeachment vote.
• YouTube has joined the ranks of social media companies blocking new content from Donald Trump, Trump will be blocked from posting new videos for at least seven days.
• Walmart and Disney are among the corporations ceasing donations to House Republicans who voted to overturn the election last week in the wake of last Wednesday's insurrection at the US Capitol.
• North Dakota Republicans are proposing a new state law that would allow people to sue social media companies for civil liabilities if their speech is "restricted, censored, or suppressed."