Last Call For The Dumbest Man In Congress

And of course the first major GOP idiot to run afoul of the new metal detector rules in the House is Louie Gohmert of Texas.

“This fine has nothing to do with following the rules and everything to do with furthering the Democrats’ never ending scheme to demonize and punish their political opponents,” Gohmert said in a statement Friday night. 

A senior Democratic aide had relayed news of the violation after the House voted in favor of a Democratic-led measure to impose fines that would deduct $5,000 from the salaries of members of Congress who refuse screening by metal detectors outside some doors of the House chamber.

Repeated attempts to circumvent security screening could yield fines of $10,000. Gohmert and Rep. Andrew Clyde (GA) appear to be the first lawmakers to be assessed for the fines following approval of the new rule earlier this week.

In the Friday statement Gohmert vowed to appeal after being slapped with the fine, saying he had first complied with the screening, but after leaving the House floor to use the restroom declined being “wanded” upon re-entry. 

“Unlike in the movie The Godfather, there are no toilets with tanks where one could hide a gun, so my reentry onto the House floor should have been a non-issue,” Gohmert wrote, adding: “I will be appealing the fine and taking whatever action is necessary, especially considering this policy is unconstitutional.”

Gohmert’s fury comes as House Republicans have increasingly pushed back on reinforced safety measures in the wake of the deadly Capitol riot last month.

On Friday, Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) joined by 41 House Republicans, issued a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urging for the removal of fencing around the Capitol that was installed in preparation for President Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20. Reports have indicated that the fencing could be permanent, but Budd and his group of GOP colleagues have pushed back on the measure which they say will turn the Capitol into a “permanent fortress.”

In a statement after Tuesday’s vote to approve the hefty fines for skipping the detectors, Pelosi chastised GOP colleagues who she said “began disrespecting our heroes by refusing to adhere to basic precautions keeping members of our Congressional community safe — including by dodging metal detectors, physically pushing past police, and even attempting to bring firearms into the chamber.”

“It is beyond comprehension why any Member would refuse to adhere to these simple, common-sense steps to keep this body safe,” Pelosi said at the time.

Like Trump, Gohmert is expecting the Roberts Court to magically remove the House's Constitutional abilities to set its own rules. Somehow, I bet he's going to end up owing tens of thousands of dollars.

Another Supreme Mistake, Con't

Following the recent Roberts Court New York church decision in November, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strip California of the ability to close churches for pandemic health reasons, decreeing instead that the state can continue to limit attendance capacity.

The court ruled in cases brought by South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Vista and Harvest Rock Church in Pasadena. The churches said restrictions imposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, violated the Constitution’s protection of the free exercise of religion.

The restrictions set varying limits on attendance at religious services by county, depending on infection rates. With the pandemic raging, in-person worship services were entirely barred in Tier 1, which covers almost all of the state.

In a brief, unsigned opinion, the court blocked that total ban but left in place a 25 percent capacity restriction and a prohibition on singing and chanting. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have blocked all of the restrictions. Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented, saying they would have left all of the restrictions in place.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in a concurring opinion, explained why a middle ground was appropriate. He said that the court should generally defer to public health experts but that there were limits to that deference.

“The state has concluded, for example, that singing indoors poses a heightened risk of transmitting Covid-19,” he wrote. “I see no basis in this record for overriding that aspect of the state public health framework.”

“At the same time,” the chief justice continued, “the state’s present determination — that the maximum number of adherents who can safely worship in the most cavernous cathedral is zero — appears to reflect not expertise or discretion, but instead insufficient appreciation or consideration of the interests at stake.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in her first opinion, wrote that she would not have blocked the restrictions on singing and chanting based on the available evidence. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh joined her opinion.

Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justices Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr., said the state had favored its entertainment industry over worship services.

“If Hollywood may host a studio audience or film a singing competition while not a single soul may enter California’s churches, synagogues and mosques,” Justice Gorsuch wrote, “something has gone seriously awry.”

In dissent, Justice Kagan, joined by Justices Breyer and Sotomayor, said the majority had intruded into matters best left to public health officials.

“Justices of this court are not scientists,” Justice Kagan wrote. “Nor do we know much about public health policy. Yet today the court displaces the judgments of experts about how to respond to a raging pandemic.”

“The state is desperately trying to slow the spread of a deadly disease,” she wrote. “It has concluded, based on essentially undisputed epidemiological findings, that congregating together indoors poses a special threat of contagion. So it has devised regulations to curb attendance at those assemblies and — in the worst times — to force them outdoors.”

“In the worst public health crisis in a century,” Justice Kagan wrote, “this foray into armchair epidemiology cannot end well.” 

 

The Roberts Court has yet to make any sweeping national rulings on COVID-19 restrictions on churches and definitely has the votes to do so if they wanted to, but for now they are settling on what their usual strategy is: begging for someone to send them a case where they can make a federal precedent, which is why Biden has been careful to restrict mask mandates to interstate transportation and why he hasn't made any capacity mandates at all for indoor gatherings in offices, even federal ones.

We're going to find out though that should a national ruling come down that keeps open all churches, that it's going to extend the pandemic by months or more.

Biden Boxing With Briefs

I like the fact that President Joseph R. Big Effin Deal Biden recognized that Donald Trump should never be allowed near an intelligence briefing again, ever, period, because he's a damn Russian asset.

President Joe Biden said Friday that Donald Trump should not be allowed to receive classified intelligence briefings, a courtesy that historically has been granted to outgoing presidents.

Asked in an interview with CBS News what he feared if Trump continued to receive the briefings, Biden said he did not want to “speculate out loud” but made clear he did not want Trump to continue getting them.

“I just think that there is no need for him to have the intelligence briefings,” Biden said. “What value is giving him an intelligence briefing? What impact does he have at all, other than the fact he might slip and say something?”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that the issue of granting Trump intelligence briefings was “something that is under review.”

Some Democratic lawmakers, and even some former Trump administration officials, have questioned the wisdom of allowing Trump to continue to briefed.

Susan Gordon, who served as the principal deputy director of national intelligence during the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, in a Washington Post op-ed last month urged Biden to cut off Trump.

“His post-White House ‘security profile,’ as the professionals like to call it, is daunting,” Gordon wrote days after a pro-Trump mob laid siege to the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers sought to certify his defeat in last November’s election. “Any former president is by definition a target and presents some risks. But a former president Trump, even before the events of last week, might be unusually vulnerable to bad actors with ill intent.”

Whether to give a past president intelligence briefings is solely the current officeholder’s prerogative. Biden voiced his opposition to giving Trump access to briefings as the former Republican president’s second impeachment trial is set to begin next week.

 

I'm glad that Biden is making it clear it's not happening, for America's sake.

Iowa Goes Viral, Con't

Iowa's GOP Gov. Kim Reynolds is essentially dropping all state COVID-19 regulations for schools and businesses and letting the virus fall where it may.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will lift the state's limited mask requirement on Sunday, along with the social distance and other limitations she had in place for businesses and social gatherings.

Her latest coronavirus emergency proclamation, issued Friday afternoon and effective 12:01 a.m. Sunday, instead "strongly encourages Iowans, businesses and organizations to take reasonable public health measures consistent with guidance from the Iowa Department of Public Health," Reynolds' spokesperson, Pat Garrett, said.

Since mid-November, Reynolds has required Iowans two years of age and older to wear masks if they were in indoor areas and spent 15 minutes or more within 6 feet of a person not in their households. The rule carried several exceptions.

Her previous proclamation also required social distancing between groups at bars, restaurants, casinos, fitness centers and other establishments, as well as at social gatherings and sporting events.

"I strongly encourage that all businesses or other employers remaining open with in-person operations take reasonable measures under the circumstances of each establishment to ensure the health of employees, patrons and members of the public, including social distancing practices, increased hygiene practices and other public health measures to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 consistent with guidance issued by the Iowa Department of Public Health," Reynolds' latest proclamation states.

I can't think of any scientific, medical, or public health reason to lift masking and social distancing right now in any US state, and it's clear Reynolds is going to blame Joe Biden when the state's COVID-19 numbers skyrocket by March 1. I fully expect businesses will begin to refuse to serve people with masks very soon. 

Watch this space, because Iowa is going to become a death zone within weeks, and it all could have been avoided.

Last Call For Totaling A Shelby

Yet another GOP senator is retiring in 2022, this time it's Richard Shelby of Alabama.

U.S. Sen. Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the Senate’s fourth most senior member, has told confidantes that he does not intend to run for reelection next year — prompting some Republicans to urge the powerful, establishment politician to reconsider, even as potential replacements prepare to run for his seat.

The senator in recent weeks told one close Alabama ally that he was not planning on running in 2022 for what would be his seventh term, according to the ally, who was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The person said some in the state were still trying to get Shelby to change his mind out of concern about losing clout and worries that the senator might be replaced by a fringe candidate who would not be as effective.

Shelby spokeswoman Blair Taylor said Friday that the senator has not made a decision, “but there will likely be an announcement forthcoming in the next few weeks.”

A titan of Alabama politics, the 86-year-old politician has spent 42 years in Washington, serving first in the House and the Senate. His stepping down would leave a power void for the region. It would also set off a free-for-all primary in a national party deeply divided between traditional Republicans like Shelby and those who model themselves on former President Donald Trump.

Shelby was elected to the Senate in 1986 as a conservative Democrat during the party’s waning days of power in the Deep South, but he switched to the GOP in 1994. He's spent the last two years as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, before Democrats gained control of the chamber. All along he has used his influence to benefit the state's interests, particularly ports and military manufacturers. He played a key role in bringing an FBI campus and the newly announced Space Command to Huntsville.

“I don’t know anybody who knows how to wield power like Shelby does," said David Mowery, an Alabama-based political consultant.

“I would say that is his greatest accomplishment, to get money allocated to the state for many different projects,” said former Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead.

Alabama's political circles have long braced for a Shelby retirement. Armistead said the senator told him during his 2016 bid for reelection that it was his last campaign, but Armistead added the caveat that, “Things change.” Several months ago, Shelby told a group of business leaders at a private meeting that he would retire rather than run again, according to a person in attendance who was not authorized to discuss the event and also spoke on condition of anonymity.

A list of potential GOP replacements is waiting in the wings. Possible candidates include Shelby’s former chief of staff, Katie Boyd Britt, who now heads an influential business lobby and who would likely have the senator’s backing if she decided to enter the race. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, who suspended his 2020 Senate campaign when former Attorney General Jeff Sessions jumped in the race, said he would consider a run. Rep. Mo Brooks is also expected to eye the seat. Brooks has faced criticism for his role in the Jan. 6 siege at the U.S. Capitol. At a rally before the deadly riot, he told the crowd it was time for “taking down names and kicking ass,” but has maintained since that he was talking about fighting at the ballot box.

 

I'd love to see Doug Jones get another crack at this seat for the Dems, but I'd have to admit that much like Jaime Harrison or Amy McGrath's quixotic attempts that ended up in double-digit failures, Jones would lose by an even larger margin than the 20-point asskicking he took from Tommy Tuberville.

Then again, with the GOP all but assuring there will be massive Black voter disenfranchisement in the years ahead at the red state level, Jones could lose by 30 points next time around, as would any Democrat.

Trial Of The Century 2.0, Con't

The last thing Republicans want is a lengthy impeachment trial where witnesses describe in detail how the Trump terrorists were in the US Capitol building with the intent of killing Democratic lawmakers (and Mike Pence, if the chants are to be believed). With hours of footage ending up in attack ads against Republican seditionists and enablers, they'd be doomed in 2022.  And Republicans are absolutely terrified of that.

Allies of former President Donald Trump are imploring his impeachment team to avoid one specific topic when they defend the ex-president at his Senate trial next week: the deadly riot that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol.

Despite Trump’s likely acquittal on charges that he incited an insurrection, some of his most ardent supporters fear the trial could further damage his reputation if his attorneys wade into the events of Jan. 6, when five people were killed — including a Capitol police officer — after pro-Trump demonstrators stormed the halls of Congress.

The former president, whom House Democrats have accused of inciting the rioters at a rally earlier the same day, is already hemorrhaging support within the GOP. Recent public polls have shown a sharp decline in support among Republican voters for a potential Trump comeback bid in 2024. And a widely televised trial that reminds voters and lawmakers of the disturbing moments when MAGA devotees assaulted law enforcement officials and broke into the Capitol building could harm his future political aspirations even more.

“The Democrats have a very emotional and compelling case,” said former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. “They’re going to try to convict him in the eyes of the American people and smear him forever.”

Trump’s legal team appears to have similar trepidations that next week’s proceedings will turn into a high-profile retelling of the riots and his role in them. To prevent that from happening, his lawyers have centered their case on whether it is constitutional to impeach a president after he’s left office. They also plan to argue that he did not engage in insurrection, saying his fiery speech on the ellipse of the White House was protected by the First Amendment, without indulging a lengthy discussion about what happened on Jan. 6.

“We don’t need to focus on Jan. 6 because this is unconstitutional,” said a person familiar with the strategy, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “There’s a lot of legal technical arguments that are going to be discussed.”

The concern among Trump’s allies that the trial will be a relitigation of the events at the Capitol underscores the degree to which next week is being viewed as a public relations matter for the optics-obsessed former president. It was notable on Thursday that in a letter dismissing the House impeachment managers’ calls for Trump to testify at the trial, the ex-president’s lawyers decried the request as a “public relations stunt.”

Still, there is little Trump’s team can do to stop the trial from veering towards a discussion of Jan. 6, since the impeachment managers are likely to focus intensely on the riots — and could, indeed, call witnesses to testify about what happened. In advance of that happening, top Republicans have begun to warn that Democrats are trying to score political points rather than address substantive constitutional matters.

 

Good luck with that, folks.

 

You bought the ticket, now you take the ride.

 

Retribution Execution, Con't

Donald Trump has emerged from his winter lair as his impeachment trial gets under way next week, but his real target is exacting bloody revenge against all the Republicans who refused to support him.

 

Donald Trump has been largely silent since leaving the White House last month, but he's making preparations for a comeback grievance tour.

The former president is planning a nationwide speaking tour intended to target the 10 Republicans who backed his impeachment and any GOP senators who speak out against him at next week's trial, reported Insider.

"I'm sure he wants to get out a roulette wheel with all their faces on it," said one Republican who speaks to Trump.

However, the former president is waiting until the trial ends and seems to understand Americans needed a break from his antics.

"Even he recognizes that we have Trump fatigue," said the Republican source. "Even he knows that you can get overexposed, and he wore the electorate out, and that was part of the problem. He clearly wore the country out with his behavior between the election and the inauguration."

Trump has been stung by the loss of his Twitter account and surprised by his swift impeachment -- his second in one term -- over the U.S. Capitol insurrection, but he's eager to return to the public eye.

"Trump is clearly shell shocked from the reaction to Jan. 6 and losing his social media platform," said Doug Heye, a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "We don't know how long that will last, but it's safe to assume we'll be hearing from him at some point."

There are no plans in place for his plans for the 2022 midterm campaigns, but some Republicans would prefer Trump take a lengthy break from politics.

"Trump would do best for himself and the party by laying low for a few years," said GOP strategist Mike DuHaime.

 

The good news is if Huckleberry Graham follows through on his threat to call witnesses and stretches Trump's impeachment trial for months, Trump clearly won't have the discipline to keep his mouth shut and he'll go rogue.

We'll see if he does, but watch for some fireworks.

StupidiNews!

• Senate Democrats had VP Kamala Harris as the tiebreaking vote to move ahead on President Biden's COVID-19 relief package after a long night of GOP amendments voted down.
• A US Navy meteorologist has been reunited with the wallet he lost in Antarctica 53 years ago, found behind a set of lockers at a demolished McMurdo Station building.
• The FDA is planning on quick approval for vaccine booster shots if current vaccines prove ineffective against a growing number of COVID-19 variants.
• The Pentagon says cost of deployment of the DC National Guard in Washington has already topped $480 million as troops are expected to stay in the Capitol Hill area through February.
• Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard's golf ball on the moon traveled roughly 40 yards according to newly released remastered images of his now famous lunar golf swing.
  

Last Call For Greene Light, Red Light

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was unceremoniously booted from her committee assignments today as her fake conspiracy theory denial apology fell on deaf ears, and Democratic House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer showed up with the receipts.

The House voted largely along party lines Thursday to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from her two committee assignments, a precedent-shattering move by Democrats to rebuke a Republican who has espoused extremist beliefs that she publicly renounced in part just hours before the vote.

The vote against Greene reflected deep frustration in the Democratic ranks over the Republican leadership’s reluctance to take its own action to marginalize Greene (R-Ga.), their desire to yoke the entire GOP to her extremism, as well as their anger over a lack of accountability for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

As recently as last year, Greene had been an open adherent of the QAnon ideology, sprawling and violent web of conspiracy theories that played a role in inspiring the Capitol attack. In addition, she had made comments on social media suggesting some mass shootings were staged by supporters of gun control, that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by government forces and that a Jewish cabal had sparked a deadly wildfire with a space beam.

“I don’t understand what is complicated here,” said House Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-Mass.), exhorting his colleagues to sideline Greene. “We know the result of these violent conspiracy theories. We saw that on Jan. 6. We know what it leads to. I don’t ever want to see that again. And we all should make clear where we stand on this.”

The vote was 230-199, with 11 Republicans voting with Democrats to strip Greene of her committees.

 

Her weak apology allowed 199 Republicans enough cover to scream CANCEL CULTURE and vote to allow the raging bigot anti-Semite racist to stay on the House Education Committee.

The vote came after Greene renounced some of her most egregious past remarks on the House floor, in a 10-minute speech that was more explanation than apology — one that doubled down on her attacks against the media and her political enemies while omitting some of her most recent behavior.

“These were words of the past, and these things do not represent me, they do not represent my district, and they do not represent my values,” she said.

Greene said the 9/11 attacks “absolutely happened” and that school shootings are “absolutely real.” She said she embraced QAnon in late 2017 out of her support for former president Donald Trump and her mistrust of government and of mainstream media sources.

“I was allowed to believe things that weren’t true, and I would ask questions about them and talk about them, and that is absolutely what I regret,” she said. “Because if it weren’t for the Facebook posts and comments that I liked in 2018, I wouldn’t be standing here today and you couldn’t point a finger and accuse me of anything wrong.”

She went on to describe the uproar about her comments as a “cancel culture” attack on the free speech of conservatives: “Big media companies can take teeny, tiny pieces of words that I’ve said, that you have said, any of us, and can portray us as someone that we’re not, and that is wrong."

 

Not an iota of remorse, and so she paid the price.

The 11 Republicans who voted to strip her?

• Kinzinger(IL-11)
• Fitzpatrick(PA-01) 
• Giminez(FL-26) 
• Malliotakis(NY-11) 
• Katko(NY-24) 
• Upton(MI-06) 
• Kim(CA-39) 
• Jacobs(NY-27) 
• Salazar(FL-27) 
• Díaz-Balart(FL-25) 
• Smith(NJ-04)

They will pay the price too, from the GOP side. And note Liz Cheney's name isn't there. 

She's just as racist, as bigoted, and as evil as the rest of them.

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

Why yes, white supremacist militias aren't taking the arrests from the January 6 Capitol insurrection very well at all, and they are doing things like publicly telling newspapers that they now plan to secede from the union or to "collapse the American experiment" by whatever means necessary.

The leader of a private paramilitary group that provided security for Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said he has formed alliances with other far-right groups to advocate for Georgia’s secession from the union, following the arrests of participants in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“The way patriots are now being hunted down and arrested by fellow men and women who have taken the same oath has disheartened any faith I had in the redemption or reformation of the USA as one entity,” Justin Thayer, head of the Georgia III% Martyrs, said in a text exchange with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week.

Thayer said the Martyrs have allied themselves with fellow “Three Percenter” militia the American Brotherhood of Patriots and American Patriots USA (APUSA), a north Georgia group headed by Chester Doles, a Dahlonega resident who belonged to various racist and neo-Nazi hate groups before forming the new group in 2019. The combined groups will advocate for Georgia’s secession from the union through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution or through “the collapse of the American experiment,” Thayer said.

“For the last 150 years, the Imperial Yankee culture of the northeast has been molding Georgia — and the South in general — into its ‘perfect’ image,” he said.

In an AJC interview this week, Doles confirmed the groups were working together, but he would not say what they intended to do.

“Things are different now. Everything has changed,” he said. “We’ve seen our last Republican president in American history. The ballot box — we tried as hard as we could try. It’s not working.”

Folks, they're not longer pretending niceties here. We have a full-blown domestic terrorism movement on our hands and we have had them for years. They want out of America, and they are absolutely going to resort to deadly violence to achieve it. Now, they are banding together.

Researchers who study the far right say political unrest over the past year gave extremist groups opportunities to collaborate across ideological divides, forging alliances based on common grievances and enemies. The November presidential election and the proliferation of baseless conspiracy theories about its outcome only pushed groups closer together.

“We saw members of traditional militias, white supremacists, QAnon and other people in the same spaces and claiming very similar enemies,” said Amy Iandiorio, an investigative researcher with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.

This “shared victimhood narrative” around the outcome of the presidential election created the opportunity for “tactical” alliances among groups that normally wouldn’t mix, she said.

The Martyrs raised eyebrows this fall when they appeared as private security for then-candidate Greene at a rally in Ringgold with former GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Greene posed for multiple photos with the militia and said she needed them to protect herself from unspecified death threats she said she had received.

On Jan. 6, Thayer joined throngs of pro-Trump supporters who rallied to hear the former president’s baseless claims of a “stolen” election and condemnation of “weak Republicans,” but he said he did not take part in storming the U.S. Capitol immediately after it.

Doles has been working longer to build support for his political group, staging occasional public rallies and motorcycle convoys from his north Georgia base. He claims to have walked away from his career as a white supremacist activist with groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the National Alliance, while also maintaining ties to some figures in those movements. His attempts to insinuate America Patriots USA into mainstream conservative politics have met with limited success, however.

Doles championed Greene’s candidacy on his website and on social media, often posting a photo of Greene posing with APUSA members taken during her Republican primary campaign.

No, I don't actually expect a war. I do however expect more terrorist attacks in the weeks and months ahead.

We all need to face that reality. 

To Boldly Go And All That

Donald Trump established the US Space Force as a division of the US Armed Forces, much to the chagrin of absolutely everyone, and it looks like Joe Biden will keep them around.

Why it matters: After President Biden's election, some advocated that the incoming administration disband the newest branch of the military, first established by President Trump.

What's happening: "We are not revisiting the decision to establish the Space Force," Psaki said at a press briefing, adding that the Department of Defense's focus on securing space is a bipartisan issue.

Background: Psaki came under fire Tuesday when a top Republican lawmaker saw remarks she made in response to a question about the Space Force as dismissive of the guardians enlisted in the force. In response, Psaki tweeted Tuesday night that she would welcome Space Force officials to come speak to the press about their work.

"I'm very proud of the guardians in the Space Force," Gen. John Raymond, the chief of space operations, said during a press call Wednesday morning. "I see the value of this force each and every day, and I'm happy to talk to anybody about the great work that they're doing. I would welcome the opportunity." Raymond also said that he has not yet spoken with President Biden about space.

The big picture: Many experts within the space industry see the Space Force as an essential means of keeping satellites and other key assets safe from attack. From GPS to photos of difficult-to-reach parts of Earth, the U.S. is increasingly reliant on space. This is particularly true when it comes to fighting wars, and the Space Force is expected to shore up defenses and capabilities in orbit.

I mean I did just point out how vulnerable our GPS satellites are to hackers and sabotage, so I mean I guess somebody should be in charge of that, and even without Space Force, the Air Force's US Space Command would be doing it anyway, so frankly yeah, somebody should keep it.

I dunno if I'd want to be the US military force established by Trump though.

Last Call For Mean Greene's Machine

House GOP embarrassment and racist conspiracy crank Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is being condemned by House GOP minority leader Kevin McCarthy, but McCarthy refuses to actually do anything about her because of "The Squad" on the Democratic side, and Rep. Ilhan Omar in particular. Omar's previous anti-Semitic remarks earned her a deserved drubbing by Jewish members of Congress on both sides, but the difference is Omar apologized when it was pointed out to her. Greene is even worse, and racist on top of that, so if McCarthy won't yank her off committees, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer will.

House Democratic leaders are gearing up to vote Thursday on legislation stripping Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) of her committee spots — unless Republican leaders do it first.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) spoke with his counterpart, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), about Greene's fate Wednesday morning, with Hoyer suggesting afterwards that the GOP leader is not ready to remove the controversial conservative firebrand from a pair of top committees.

"I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments," Hoyer said in a statement. "The Rules Committee will meet this afternoon, and the House will vote on the resolution tomorrow."

The proposal, sponsored by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), would remove Greene from two plum committee assignments — Budget, and Education and Labor — for the remainder of this Congress.

McCarthy, the House Republican leader, had huddled with Greene in his office in the Capitol on Tuesday evening. Afterwards, McCarthy hosted a second meeting with the GOP Steering and Policy Committee to discuss Greene's fate. No decisions were made, but leaders are expected to meet again on Wednesday, and the full Republican conference also has a planned gathering at 4 p.m, when the topic is sure to be a major focus.

Hoyer has already spoken with McCarthy about Greene at least once this week. Democratic leaders remain in the dark about how McCarthy will proceed, according to a Democratic leadership aide, but they're insisting that GOP leaders remove Greene from both committees, or Democrats will take that step themselves by moving the Wasserman Schultz bill.

Technically this is Steny Hoyer's wheelhouse as House Majority Leader, and while the avowed centrist has been in the House Dem leadership for decades along with Pelosi now, he knows when to swing a big bat, and this is the time.

McCarthy can either do it quietly, or Hoyer can do it publicly. It's McCarthy's choice.

 

Ridin' With Biden, Con't

A decent three-in-five Americans feel confident with Joe Biden in the White House, a figure that includes more than a quarter of Republicans, in Quinnipiac University's latest poll.

Two weeks into the presidency of Joe Biden, a majority of Americans say, 61 - 34 percent, that they are generally optimistic about the next four years with Biden as president, according to a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea- ack) University national poll of 1,075 adults released today. However, there are sharp divisions by party identification.

Democrats say 90 - 7 percent and independents say 62 - 35 percent that they are optimistic. Republicans say 65 - 27 percent that they are pessimistic.

Despite an overall majority being optimistic, 69 percent of Americans say they are either very dissatisfied (46 percent) or somewhat dissatisfied (23 percent) with the way things are going in the nation today. Twenty-nine percent say they are very satisfied (6 percent) or somewhat satisfied (23 percent) with the way things are going in the nation today.

A majority (56 - 35 percent) say Biden is doing more to unite the country than to divide it.

"Amid a palpable uncertainty about the months and even years ahead, there is a sense that President Biden is the man for the moment. And that moment can't come too soon," said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.

Americans were asked about several issues the United States is confronting right now and whether they think these issues are a crisis, a problem but not a crisis, or not a problem at all. Of the six issues, the coronavirus pandemic is the only one with a clear majority considering it a crisis.

• Coronavirus Pandemic: 68 percent say crisis, 25 percent problem but not a crisis, 6 percent not a problem at all;
• The State of Nation's Economy: 45 percent say crisis, 46 percent problem but not a crisis, 7 percent not a problem at all;
• The State of Nation's Democracy: 45 percent say crisis, 43 percent problem but not a crisis, 9 percent not a problem at all;
• Climate Change: 43 percent say crisis, 33 percent problem but not a crisis, 21 percent not a problem at all;
• Racial Inequality: 41 percent say crisis, 42 percent problem but not a crisis, 14 percent not a problem at all;
• People Believing in Conspiracy Theories: 34 percent say crisis, 41 percent problem but not a crisis, 21 percent not a problem at all. 

President Biden receives a positive job approval rating with Americans approving 49 - 36 percent of the way he's handling his job. Sixteen percent didn't offer an opinion.

"The Biden numbers are solid but not spectacular as the country tries to coalesce around a new administration that faces the dual challenge of daunting economic struggles and comforting a COVID-weary public," said Malloy.

On his handling of the response to the coronavirus, Americans approve 61 - 29 percent.

 

Biden's starting off as well as any post-Trump Democrat could be, frankly.  Sixteen percent say they have no opinion of his job so far, but that will change if Biden signs big bills into law...or doesn't get to sign them because the Senate GOP blocked them.

Luckily, it looks like Biden and the Dems are going to deliver, and soon.

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

There's still plenty of white supremacist domestic terrorists out there, and they are itching for even more lethal violence after the January 6th coup on the US Capitol. Their only goal is to bring down the Biden administration, or die trying.

Hours after the attack on the Capitol ended, a group calling itself the Last Sons of Liberty posted a brief video to Parler, the social media platform, that appeared to show members of the organization directly participating in the uprising. Footage showed someone with a shaky smartphone charging past the metal barricades surrounding the building. Other clips show rioters physically battling with baton-wielding police on the white marble steps just outside the Capitol.

Before Parler went offline — its operations halted at least temporarily when Amazon refused to continue to host the network — the Last Sons posted numerous statements indicating that group members had joined the mob that swarmed the Capitol and had no regrets about the chaos and violence that unfolded on Jan. 6. The Last Sons also did some quick math: The government had suffered only one fatality, U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, 42, who was reportedly bludgeoned in the head with a fire extinguisher. But the rioters had lost four people, including Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force veteran who was shot by an officer as she tried to storm the building.

In a series of posts, the Last Sons said her death should be “avenged” and appeared to call for the murder of three more cops.

The group is part of the Boogaloo movement — a decentralized, very online successor to the ­­militia movement of the ’80s and ’90s —­ whose adherents are fixated on attacking law enforcement and violently toppling the U.S. government. Researchers say the movement began coalescing online in 2019 as people — mostly young men — angry with what they perceived to be increasing government repression, found each other on Facebook groups and in private chats. In movement vernacular, Boogaloo refers to an inevitable and imminent armed revolt, and members often call themselves Boogaloo Bois, boogs, or goons.

In the weeks since Jan. 6, an array of extremist groups have been named as participants in the Capitol invasion. The Proud Boys. QAnon believers. White nationalists. The Oath Keepers. But the Boogaloo Bois are notable for the depth of their commitment to the overthrow of the U.S. government and the jaw-dropping criminal histories of many members.

Mike Dunn, a 20-year-old from a small town on Virginia’s rural southern edge, is the commander of the Last Sons. “I really feel we’re looking at the possibility — stronger than any time since, say, the 1860s — of armed insurrection,” Dunn said in an interview with ProPublica and FRONTLINE a few days after the assault on the Capitol. Although Dunn didn’t directly participate, he said members of his Boogaloo faction helped fire up the crowd and “may” have penetrated the building.

“It was a chance to mess with the federal government again,” he said. “They weren’t there for MAGA. They weren’t there for Trump.”

Dunn added that he’s “willing to die in the streets” while battling law enforcement or security forces.

In its short existence, the Boogaloo movement has proven to be a magnet for current or former military service members who have used their combat skills and firearms expertise to advance the Boogaloo cause. Before becoming one of the faces of the movement, Dunn did a brief stint in the U.S. Marines, a career he says was cut short by a heart condition, and worked as a Virginia state prison guard.

Through interviews, extensive study of social media and a review of court records, some previously unreported, ProPublica and FRONTLINE identified more than 20 Boogaloo Bois or sympathizers who’ve served in the armed forces. Over the past 18 months, 13 of them have been arrested on charges ranging from the possession of illegal automatic weapons to the manufacture of explosives to murder.

Most of the individuals identified by the news organizations became involved with the movement after leaving the military. At least four are accused of committing Boogaloo-related crimes while employed by one of the military branches.

Examples of the nexus between the group and the military abound.

Last year, an FBI task force in San Francisco opened a domestic terror investigation into Aaron Horrocks, a 39-year-old former Marine Corps reservist. Horrocks spent eight years in the Reserve before leaving the Corps in 2017.

The bureau became alarmed in September 2020, when agents received a tip that Horrocks, who lives in Pleasanton, California, was “planning an imminent violent attack on government or law enforcement,” according to a petition to seize the man’s firearms, which was filed in state court in October. The investigation, which has not previously been reported, links Horrocks to the Boogaloo movement. He has not been charged.

Again, these are the same assholes, the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, the Molon Labe folks, the sovereign citizens, the white supremacists, that I've been warning about on this blog for years now. They have military or law enforcement training (or both), they hate the US government, and they are willing to kill and die to destroy it.

They came the closest they ever have so far with Donald Trump's help last month. They have contacts in current military and law enforcement circles. They have shown the ability to coordinate using social media and the internet. They are extremely dangerous.

And they absolutely will try again.

StupidiNews!

• Capitol Police office Brian Sicknick lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda after being slain in the Capitol insurrection on January 6th, President Biden and VP Harris paid their respects Tuesday.
• Trump attorney Lin Wood is under investigation in Georgia for possible voter fraud as Wood had previously stated that he moved to South Carolina in April with the intent of residing there.
• After last weekend's successful military coup, police in Myanmar have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and say she will be detained until February 15th.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is increasing security for members of Congress who are traveling in the wake of last month's Capitol terrorist attack.
• For a second time in seven weeks a SpaceX Starship prototype rocket has crashed on landing as one of the pair of Raptor rocket engines failed to reignite, tipping the rocket over.