Politics-What's on your mind?

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Orema

In Capital, a G.O.P. Crisis. At the R.N.C. Meeting, a Trump Celebration.
Party members at a gathering of the Republican National Committee endorsed President Trump as the man to lead the party forward, ignoring the turmoil in Washington.

By Jonathan Martin
Jan. 8, 2021


Ronna McDaniel was re-elected as chair of the Republican National Committee despite the party’s loss of the presidency and the Senate. Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — In Washington, Republicans were dealing with a burgeoning crisis in their ranks, with high-profile resignations and bitter infighting over how to deal with an erratic and isolated president. But at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting on Friday, most party members were operating in a parallel universe.

In a chandelier-adorned ballroom at the seaside Ritz-Carlton here, there was no mention of President Trump’s disruption of the coronavirus relief package or his phone call to the Georgia secretary of state demanding that he help steal the election, both of which contributed to Republicans’ losing control of the Senate.

And while the R.N.C. chair, Ronna McDaniel, condemned the attack on the Capitol, neither she nor any other speaker so much as publicly hinted at Mr. Trump’s role in inciting a mob assault on America’s seat of government.

Even as the president faces a possible second impeachment proceeding, this collective exercise in gaze aversion was not the most striking part of the meeting. More revealing was the reason for the silence from the stage: Party members, one after another, said in interviews that the president did not bear any blame for the violence at the Capitol and indicated that they wanted him to continue to play a leading role in the party.

“I surely embrace President Trump,” said Michele Fiore, the committeewoman from Nevada, where Republicans have lost two Senate races and the governorship since 2016. Ms. Fiore, who was sporting a Trump-emblazoned vest, said the president was “absolutely” a positive force in the party.

The fealty to Mr. Trump was made plain on Friday when the state chairs and the committeemen and women who make up the R.N.C.’s governing board unanimously re-elected Ms. McDaniel, Mr. Trump’s handpicked chair. They also reappointed her co-chair, Tommy Hicks, who was first appointed to his post because of his friendship with the president’s eldest son.

Mr. Trump is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over the loss of the White House, the House and the Senate in a single term and will be the first since Andrew Johnson to boycott his successor’s inauguration. That hasn’t yet fazed the Republican rank and file.

“This room, they’re in denial, and that’s on the record,” Bill Palatucci, a committeeman from New Jersey, said during a break in the Friday session, acknowledging the “damage done to the country” and the Republican “brand” this week.

But Mr. Palatucci was a lonely voice of dissent, at least in public.

Privately, a group of Republican officials, mostly those from the pre-Trump establishment wing of the party, said that they were appalled by the president’s conduct and that Ms. McDaniel had been candid about the party’s difficulties behind closed doors.

These Republicans predicted with more hope than confidence that once Mr. Trump was out of office, the ardor for him in the conservative base would cool.

Yet for now, the flames still burn.

“I would love to see him go into states that have some House seats we can flip in ’22,” said Terry Lathan, the Alabama G.OP. chair, who said “absolutely not” when she was asked if Mr. Trump bore any blame for the attack on the Capitol.

When a committee member took an informal survey on whose closed-door speech on Thursday members had liked better, that of Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota or of Nikki R. Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, the response was clear. The party officials preferred Ms. Noem’s, because she had not criticized Mr. Trump as Ms. Haley did in her remarks, a Republican familiar with the sampling said.

Earlier in the day on Thursday, when the president briefly called into a breakfast meeting, he was greeted by applause. And when the Missouri national committeeman, Gordon Kinne, said at the breakfast that he was a supporter of the president but had been upset by his comments about the violence at the Capitol, he was met with a generally frosty response, according to another committee member in the room.

The loyalty to Mr. Trump results in part from the turnover on the committee during his term. The president’s top political lieutenants intervened to install loyalists in state and local G.O.P. conventions ahead of 2020. The goal was to prevent any party rule changes that could have made it easier to mount a primary challenge against Mr. Trump, but the end result was to leave the committee heavy with Trump devotees.

The changes also accelerated a trend that pre-dated Mr. Trump’s rise: the evolution of the committee from a body filled with canny political professionals and power brokers in their states to one dominated by dogmatic partisans well-marinated in Fox News and Facebook memes.

Perhaps more significant, the president has fostered a new wave of activism on the right — and many longstanding G.O.P. leaders fear alienating these newcomers to party politics.

“We can’t exist without the people he brought to the party — he’s changed the direction of the party,” said Paul Reynolds, the Republican committeeman from Alabama. “We’re a different party because of the people that came with him, and they make us a better party.”

Reta Hamilton, a committeewoman from Arkansas, said Mr. Trump should play “a leading part” in the G.O.P. in the future for just that reason — “to bring his voters,” she said.

Ms. Hamilton and other R.N.C. members also sought to rationalize questions about the damage to the Capitol and the images of Trump banners and Confederate flags littering the building.

“What was your reaction to Black Lives Matter looting and robbing and killing people?” she shot back brazenly before walking away.

Steve Scheffler, a committeeman from Iowa, was equally quick to invoke last summer’s at times destructive protests over racial justice and the news media’s coverage of them.

“Why doesn’t the press condemn the violence that happened in Portland and Seattle?” said Mr. Scheffler. “It’s a double standard.”

Asked if he felt there was an equivalence between the left-wing protests of 2020 and the violent attempt to subvert the election this week, he said: “Two wrongs don’t make a right. It’s all bad.”

In her remarks to the committee, Ms. McDaniel, the niece of Senator Mitt Romney, thanked Mr. Trump for his faith in her and never directly acknowledged that Mr. Trump had been defeated, only referring to her frustration at “losing critical elections.”

As for the president’s own denial about his loss, she did not rebut the conspiracy theories he has pushed, and that the party’s base has echoed.

Addressing the Republican “grass roots,” she vowed to work with state legislatures to “make sure what we saw in this election never happens again.”

Ms. McDaniel went on to criticize the effort by House Democrats to withdraw gender-specific words like “wife” and “husband” from the rule book governing the chamber.

The standing ovation she received was a reminder that disdain for the left’s perceived excesses is the most animating, and unifying, force on the right. This brand of oppositional politics could help paper over Republicans’ challenges when they run as the out-of-power party next year.

Indeed, much of Ms. McDaniel’s speech was Republican red meat. There were warnings against socialism, attacks on the four liberal congresswomen known as “the squad” and boasting about the diverse class of lawmakers who helped the party gain House seats in November despite Mr. Trump’s broad unpopularity. “Candidates matter,” she said, alluding to new lawmakers.

David Bossie, one of Mr. Trump’s advisers and the Maryland committeeman, insisted that the party’s losses had been on the margins.

“You don’t have to throw out everybody when there’s nothing fundamentally wrong,” Mr. Bossie said.

A handful of committee members, however, believe more reflection is desperately needed, particularly after this week. “We’re whistling past the graveyard,” said Henry Barbour, the Mississippi committeeman, who called Mr. Trump’s conduct before the riot “totally unacceptable.”

Few of his counterparts, though, would criticize the president.

Asked if Mr. Trump was still the effective leader of the G.O.P., the Wyoming Republican chair, Frank Eathorne, said, “The way Wyoming sees it, yes.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/08/u...gtype=Homepage

This is quite disturbing. Although I don't know why I'm surprised. This is the Republican Party. This is who they are.

Apparently they are not at all concerned that Trump will be impeached.

All the clutching of pearls by members of the GOP, it's all for show. I guess there will be no price to pay for all the elected officials of the Republican party who participated in this attack on the Capitol or publically supported the riot.

This is all too disheartening. People don't change their minds. People believe what they believe at their core. We all think the other would change their minds if they just understood the truth. The line between fact and fiction has been so blurred that truth is considered a matter of opinion.

[Orema]

Originally Posted by Cin

This is quite disturbing. Although I don't know why I'm surprised. This is the Republican Party. This is who they are.

Apparently they are not at all concerned that Trump will be impeached.

All the clutching of pearls by members of the GOP, it's all for show. I guess there will be no price to pay for all the elected officials of the Republican party who participated in this attack on the Capitol or publically supported the riot.

This is all too disheartening. People don't change their minds. People believe what they believe at their core. We all think the other would change their minds if they just understood the truth. The line between fact and fiction has been so blurred that truth is considered a matter of opinion.

Exactly............

[Cin]

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
― Winston S. Churchill
That was then and this is now.
Now they change lies for truth and truth for lies and they don't hurry off, they stand there smug and content with what they have accomplished. No need to fear the truth today. One can wiggle out of any inconvenient truth.

Apparently the formula for turning lies into truth is to simply share the lie with like minded folk and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.

Before this over it will be Antifa who stormed the Capitol to make these poor, good hearted, special, god fearing patriots look bad.

https://www.politifact.com/article/2...l-rumor-sprea/

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Originally Posted by homoe

~~
Voss, Chao, Mulvaney, the list goes on and on...

Really, now after 3 years and 50 weeks, you've finally saw what an idiot you've been ass kissing and brown nosing?! OR perhaps just now you're realizing soon you'll be out of a job and are trying to cover your ass!

Thank goodness some die-hard Republicans are starting to turn their backs on T***p and his legacy, for whatever reason. The RNC is delusional, claiming they want Trump to continue to lead the party, even after everything that culminated in this past week's sh*t storm. I welcome any of them who want to adopt a more centrist, if not Democratic, position. And if any of them truly see the light, well Hallelujah!

[homoe]

WASHINGTON — One of his most important early backers now says supporting him "was the worst mistake I ever made in my life" and a top donor called for him to be censured by the Senate. The largest newspapers in his home state called on him to resign. His publisher canceled its contract with him for an upcoming book. He's been pilloried by both Democrats and Republicans for leading the futile objection effort.

That's just some of the condemnation that's come Sen. Josh Hawley's way since the Missouri Republican became the first senator to announce he would object to the counting of Electoral College votes and then moved forward with his plan even after a pro-President Donald Trump mob had stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.

And a viral photo of Hawley entering the Capitol before the riot, showing the senator in a slim-fitting suit, hair perfectly coiffed and raising his fist toward the gathered crowd, has already become a lasting image of a day that won't soon be forgotten.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sen-josh-...203731306.html

[homoe]

Freshman lawmaker hit with colleagues’ fury after Hitler comments.

CHICAGO — Rep. Mary Miller served less than a week in Congress before moving Illinois Democrats to call for her resignation after she referenced Adolf Hitler in a speech not long before Donald Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“She’s been on this earth long enough to know that invoking the beliefs of Hitler as being right in any respect is inappropriate and wrong. It’s wrong enough that she should not be in Congress,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in an interview.

During a rally for the conservative Moms for America, Miller, an Illinois Republican said conservatives would lose unless "we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Miller, the wife of Illinois GOP state Rep. Chris Miller, issued a statement Friday saying "I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused" and she "[regrets] using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history." But she blasted critics for “intentionally trying to twist my words.” Miller spokesperson Erin O’Malley considered an interview request with the congresswoman Friday but didn’t respond further.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, said Miller should resign and be replaced with “someone who better understands the sacrifices our brave service members made during World War II.” Illinois' Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also is Jewish, called Miller’s comment at the rally “disgusting.” And Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the first Republicans to press for Trump's removal from office after Wednesday's riots, called the Hitler comments “garbage.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...omments-456596

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

Freshman lawmaker hit with colleagues’ fury after Hitler comments.

CHICAGO — Rep. Mary Miller served less than a week in Congress before moving Illinois Democrats to call for her resignation after she referenced Adolf Hitler in a speech not long before Donald Trump supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

“She’s been on this earth long enough to know that invoking the beliefs of Hitler as being right in any respect is inappropriate and wrong. It’s wrong enough that she should not be in Congress,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said in an interview.

During a rally for the conservative Moms for America, Miller, an Illinois Republican said conservatives would lose unless "we win the hearts and minds of our children. This is the battle. Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Miller, the wife of Illinois GOP state Rep. Chris Miller, issued a statement Friday saying "I sincerely apologize for any harm my words caused" and she "[regrets] using a reference to one of the most evil dictators in history." But she blasted critics for “intentionally trying to twist my words.” Miller spokesperson Erin O’Malley considered an interview request with the congresswoman Friday but didn’t respond further.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, said Miller should resign and be replaced with “someone who better understands the sacrifices our brave service members made during World War II.” Illinois' Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who also is Jewish, called Miller’s comment at the rally “disgusting.” And Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of the first Republicans to press for Trump's removal from office after Wednesday's riots, called the Hitler comments “garbage.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...omments-456596

Even if Miller doesn't resign, she may be forced out of Congress anyway after the redistricting process fires up later this year.

Illinois is expected to lose one of its 18 congressional seats in the upcoming redistricting process as the state’s population has fallen relative to others. And there's a good chance the remap doesn't bode well for Miller: She lacks seniority against GOP Reps. Rodney Davis and Mike Bost for conservative seats. Now her words have further alienated the state's power structure, where Democrats control both houses of the Illinois Legislature and the governor's office.

[~ocean]

" Donny Dolly Hands " has blood on his hands ~ he is now the new 2020 "Chucky Dolly Hands "

[Kätzchen]

"...Biden and his attorney general must set the tone from the top that Trump’s actions were not politics as normal but were egregious and potentially criminal. This will make it clear to all that a full investigation into Trump’s possible crimes is warranted. In turn, it will go a long way to paving the way for a future we can all look forward to in which no one — not even a president— can pretend that they are above the law," ~ MSNBC Op-ed Columnist, Dean Obeidallah (January 6th, 2021).

LINK: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/democr...id=msd_topgrid


____________________________
_____________________
________________


Rico and I both wrote to our respective US Senators and US House of Representatives to let them know we are grateful for their leadership and to also enforce the idea that we believe the current president should be held accountable: Tried by prosecution and convicted for the crimes he has committed all along, as well as the seditious acts of insurrection on the US Capitol and the American People.

[Cin]

While Trump is very much responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6, and it's hard to imagine that responsibility for this terrorist attack goes beyond the highest office in the land, but it does and it's important that we, the people, understand that clearly. Their was collusion at the highest levels and I don't just mean the presidency.

Excerpt from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...m_medium=Email

A few things are clear.

One is that the Washington, D.C. mayor, and other D.C. public officials, explicitly requested that the federal government coordinate law enforcement efforts in the city and on the scene, and that these requests, made weeks ago, were ignored.

A second is that orders were given in advance by federal authorities that federal national guard forces should stand by but not deploy, should not be armed, and should not engage any violence if deployed, etc. In other words, someone in the Executive Branch, presumably the Secretary of the Army, clearly anticipated the possibility of deployment and sought to forestall it, and limit its effectiveness, in advance.

A third is that, as Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan has very publicly stated, when the Pentagon was phoned by him, as per procedure, to authorize the deployment of Maryland National Guard, he received no response for almost two hours, and then received a rushed response outside of normal channels.

In short, while the insurrection was going on, and Hogan had National Guard troops ready to deploy, and requested proper authorization, he was denied authorization. The Pentagon refused to authorize National Guard deployment for almost two hours while the Capitol building was being rampaged by rioters. There were decisions taken to produce this “nondecision.” There are authorities, and institutions, who were clearly responsible for non-action in the protection of the Congress and the enforcement of federal law.

There is complicity here at the highest level. And a kind of collusion, between the relevant Pentagon officials and, on the one hand, their insurrection-instigating boss, and on the other hand the rampaging mob, who were allowed free reign on federal property by federal forces.

This must be addressed because at this moment the county is in the hands of people who colluded with these terrorist groups.

[Kätzchen]

Originally Posted by Cin

While Trump is very much responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6, and it's hard to imagine that responsibility for this terrorist attack goes beyond the highest office in the land, but it does and it's important that we, the people, understand that clearly. Their was collusion at the highest levels and I don't just mean the presidency.

Excerpt from https://www.commondreams.org/views/2...m_medium=Email

A few things are clear.

One is that the Washington, D.C. mayor, and other D.C. public officials, explicitly requested that the federal government coordinate law enforcement efforts in the city and on the scene, and that these requests, made weeks ago, were ignored.

A second is that orders were given in advance by federal authorities that federal national guard forces should stand by but not deploy, should not be armed, and should not engage any violence if deployed, etc. In other words, someone in the Executive Branch, presumably the Secretary of the Army, clearly anticipated the possibility of deployment and sought to forestall it, and limit its effectiveness, in advance.

A third is that, as Maryland’s Republican Governor Larry Hogan has very publicly stated, when the Pentagon was phoned by him, as per procedure, to authorize the deployment of Maryland National Guard, he received no response for almost two hours, and then received a rushed response outside of normal channels.

In short, while the insurrection was going on, and Hogan had National Guard troops ready to deploy, and requested proper authorization, he was denied authorization. The Pentagon refused to authorize National Guard deployment for almost two hours while the Capitol building was being rampaged by rioters. There were decisions taken to produce this “nondecision.” There are authorities, and institutions, who were clearly responsible for non-action in the protection of the Congress and the enforcement of federal law.

There is complicity here at the highest level. And a kind of collusion, between the relevant Pentagon officials and, on the one hand, their insurrection-instigating boss, and on the other hand the rampaging mob, who were allowed free reign on federal property by federal forces.

This must be addressed because at this moment the county is in the hands of people who colluded with these terrorist groups.

I read somewhere yesterday that T---p gutted DHS's watchdog group which rings the alarm bells on high-watch National Security issues.

I also think this is a rally call to scholars in the field of Sociology, with cartography experience, in mapping the sequence of events which have transpired since T---p was installed at the 45th president.

How long was it, after he(TP) gutted the watch dog group until the acts of sedition took place? I feel confident that by mapping out each event with what transpired before (ie, firing key personnel, gutting executive branch special offices that blow the whistle on key serious issues, etc) one can see the real picture of how TP accomplished such horrendous acts of sedition.

If I ever come across a fantastic article which explains it better than I can or find a video which speaks to these very issues, I will post it.

But I think Sociological Cartography can be utilized as a forensic tool of discovery to build an air-tight case that explains how TP and bad actors helped bring these acts of sedition to pass.

Thanks for your post Cin, issued by Common Dreams. I agree: TP didn't do this alone. He had help and key GOP/Retrumplican's aided and abetted TP each day he has been in office.

[Cin]

Originally Posted by Kätzchen

I agree: TP didn't do this alone. He had help and key GOP/Retrumplican's aided and abetted TP each day he has been in office.

I think it goes far beyond Trump and Trumpism per say, I think it is a mind set the GOP has had for a very very long time. Dog whistle politics and the southern strategy are a ways away from storming the capitol but it is all connected. The DOD was involved here. To me that is very scary. When the Pentagon does not come to the defense of the Capitol building that really is a bridge too far. It goes beyond anything I could have ever imagined. It is nothing short of treason. How can people depend on the Department of Defense to defend this country for all its citizens. I hope we don't look back on this as the opportunity we missed. They all have been caught with their pants down and if they get to white wash this (pun intended) and put it all on Trump and walk away with a few sacrifices here and there we will have missed our chance to clean the government of these abominations. There will be another Trump and we see clearly now that the power in this country favors the alt right white supremacist movement. If we blow this chance we might not get another. I doubt they will get caught again like this. The dems control the house, the senate and the presidency or will in a few days. They need to appoint committees manned by loyal and trusted people to follow the money and find out who is funding these organizations. Every part of this treasonous conspiracy needs to be dragged into the light and severe consequences have to happen to all the people involved in this.

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former Governor of California, Condemns T***p, Capitol Rioters, and Fellow Republicans

In his address, Schwarzenegger compares the Capitol Riot to Kristallnacht in 1938 Nazi Germany. He accuses T***p of attempting a coup. "President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever." He then accuses members of his own Republican party of supporting the rioters. And finally, he encourages public support of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden to bring the nation together.

IMHO, Schwarzenegger says a lot of things that need to be said, and which will never be said by any Republican in office who is afraid of losing the support of T***p followers. It's almost enough to make me consider seeing Schwarzenegger as a viable future candidate for president, Republican though he is. He makes some very good points in a stirring statement.

To see the whole video (7 minutes, 38 seconds), click below:

[Kätzchen]

Some things on my mind, while we wait for the USHOR to impeach the orange monster from psychoville:

A) Can our legislative body draw up and implement law to address political hate groups from forming a new political party? I wonder if it is possible because of the huge fracture within the GOP (life long Republicans abandoning thier party over incendiary politics which damages our country)?

B) Will participants of the riot incited by T---p be charged with Hate crimes, including those who carried a Confederate flag? Because, to me, by far, this sinister act against the government and all its people is a White Nationalist Supremacy attack and I feel strongly that these people should be listed as a hate group that should never be tolerated by our democracy.

[Cin]

I am concerned why the request by the Capitol Police to have the National Guard at the ready on Jan 6 was refused because of optics.

I'm really concerned with finding out why the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for help when the Capitol was attacked.

The Department of Defense is responsible for national security. Why did they do such a piss poor job? Why did they refuse to respond to requests for assistance from the former Capitol Police Chief, the DC Mayor and the Governor of Maryland?

If we don't hold them accountable and figure out who the traitors are in the Pentagon how can we feel our capitol is safe when these people attack again.


https://news.yahoo.com/former-capito...144732071.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ot/6618084002/

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he requested that the National Guard be placed on standby in the days before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, but House and Senate security officials turned him down.

Sund, who resigned his post the day after the riot, told The Washington Post he had been concerned that the protest planned for Jan. 6 would be larger than expected. Sund said he asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the National Guard be placed on standby.

Sund said House and Senate sergeants at arms told him they were not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency days before the protest and suggested Sund should informally ask Guard officials to be on alert. Both have since resigned.

Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as the riot unfolded. A crowd of several thousand quickly overran the Capitol Police contingent of 1,400 officers at the scene.

“If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” Sund told the Post.

Sund said the crowd breached the Capitol just before 2 p.m. A half-hour later, he was on the phone with the Pentagon, he said. Sund and others said Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff, balked at recommending that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request. Again, optics were cited.

National Guard troops arrived around 5:40 p.m., after the riot had been quelled.

Under federal law, the mayor of the District of Columbia does not have authority over the Guard. Neighboring Maryland must gain approval from the Pentagon to send its troops across the border into the District of Columbia.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he received a call Wednesday afternoon from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., saying the Capitol had been overrun. Hogan said he authorized the mobilization of the Maryland National Guard and was ready to deploy them to the Capitol.

"However, we were repeatedly denied approval to do so," Hogan said.

“I can't speak as to what was going on on the other end of the line back at the Pentagon or in the White House,” Hogan said. “I was in the middle of a meeting when my chief of staff came in and said the Capitol was under attack. ... We were in contact with the mayor's office, who requested assistance. We immediately sent police assistance. I immediately called up the National Guard.”

“All I know is that we were trying to get answers and we weren't getting answers,” Hogan said.

Pentagon officials on Sunday downplayed Hogan’s assessment, arguing that even if the authorization had been granted, it would have taken several hours for troops to assemble at their armory and equip themselves to join the effort to control the rioters. Guardsmen generally require four hours to leave their jobs or homes for their armories.

[homoe]

With a second possible impeachment of President Donald Trump on the horizon, some Republicans are saying his conduct in egging on a mob that rioted at the Capitol last week is worthy of impeachment or removal. Others, however, say taking action against Trump could inflame tensions further.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said on NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he believes Trump should resign immediately, joining a handful of Republican colleagues calling for him to go. Toomey said that he believed Trump's conduct is impeachable but that the appropriate step is for him to leave office before his term ends Jan. 20.

R E A L L Y....this is a man who could not admit he was defeated. THEY must be living in a fool's paradise if they think this is ever going to happen!

https://www.yahoo.com/news/many-repu...220100484.html

[Kätzchen]

I would add that not only the national capitol, but the entire nation itself too.

How can anybody feel safe, especially people of color or any minor sector of American society (ie, the LGBTQ, aging and/or disabled, hearing impaired, etc) feel safe after the sitting president incited violent attacks?

I dont feel safe. My biracial African-American sons have never been safe from harm, either.

And I too worry, and share in your concerns, Cin.

Originally Posted by Cin

I am concerned why the request by the Capitol Police to have the National Guard at the ready on Jan 6 was refused because of optics.

I'm really concerned with finding out why the Department of Defense did not respond to requests for help when the Capitol was attacked.

The Department of Defense is responsible for national security. Why did they do such a piss poor job? Why did they refuse to respond to requests for assistance from the former Capitol Police Chief, the DC Mayor and the Governor of Maryland?

If we don't hold them accountable and figure out who the traitors are in the Pentagon how can we feel our capitol is safe when these people attack again.


https://news.yahoo.com/former-capito...144732071.html

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ot/6618084002/

Former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said he requested that the National Guard be placed on standby in the days before the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, but House and Senate security officials turned him down.

Sund, who resigned his post the day after the riot, told The Washington Post he had been concerned that the protest planned for Jan. 6 would be larger than expected. Sund said he asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the National Guard be placed on standby.

Sund said House and Senate sergeants at arms told him they were not comfortable with the “optics” of declaring an emergency days before the protest and suggested Sund should informally ask Guard officials to be on alert. Both have since resigned.

Sund said he pleaded for help five more times as the riot unfolded. A crowd of several thousand quickly overran the Capitol Police contingent of 1,400 officers at the scene.

“If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive,” Sund told the Post.

Sund said the crowd breached the Capitol just before 2 p.m. A half-hour later, he was on the phone with the Pentagon, he said. Sund and others said Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff, balked at recommending that his boss, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, approve the request. Again, optics were cited.

National Guard troops arrived around 5:40 p.m., after the riot had been quelled.

Under federal law, the mayor of the District of Columbia does not have authority over the Guard. Neighboring Maryland must gain approval from the Pentagon to send its troops across the border into the District of Columbia.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said he received a call Wednesday afternoon from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., saying the Capitol had been overrun. Hogan said he authorized the mobilization of the Maryland National Guard and was ready to deploy them to the Capitol.

"However, we were repeatedly denied approval to do so," Hogan said.

“I can't speak as to what was going on on the other end of the line back at the Pentagon or in the White House,” Hogan said. “I was in the middle of a meeting when my chief of staff came in and said the Capitol was under attack. ... We were in contact with the mayor's office, who requested assistance. We immediately sent police assistance. I immediately called up the National Guard.”

“All I know is that we were trying to get answers and we weren't getting answers,” Hogan said.

Pentagon officials on Sunday downplayed Hogan’s assessment, arguing that even if the authorization had been granted, it would have taken several hours for troops to assemble at their armory and equip themselves to join the effort to control the rioters. Guardsmen generally require four hours to leave their jobs or homes for their armories.

[homoe]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took to U.S. government-funded airwaves on Monday to deliver a full-throated defense of the Trump administration’s presentation of its foreign policy and its support for democracy abroad.


How he could of done this with a "straight face" I'll never know!



https://news.yahoo.com/pompeo-trumpe...204042491.html

[GeorgiaMa'am]

How did I not hear about this?

Apparently it has been a "thing" for radical right-wingers to invade government buildings and threaten federal workers for years. They are rarely charged with any crime, or they are arrested and later let off the hook. T***p has pardoned several of these repeat agitators. Other politicians pander to them as well.

No wonder the rioters last week thought they could get away with insurrection. Here's a brief overview from NPR's _All Things Considered_. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/95572...in-western-u-s

[Cin]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

How did I not hear about this?

Apparently it has been a "thing" for radical right-wingers to invade government buildings and threaten federal workers for years. They are rarely charged with any crime, or they are arrested and later let off the hook. T***p has pardoned several of these repeat agitators. Other politicians pander to them as well.

No wonder the rioters last week thought they could get away with insurrection. Here's a brief overview from NPR's _All Things Considered_. https://www.npr.org/2021/01/11/95572...in-western-u-s

Ya, they can pretty much do what they want. And have been able to for years. These groups are filled with retired military, police, fire fighters and have active police as members. At this point we can add a president as well as bunch of elected state and federal officials.

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...P=share_btn_tw

For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been aware and has routinely warned its agents that the white supremacist and far-right militant groups it investigates often have links to law enforcement. Yet the justice department has no national strategy designed to protect the communities policed by these dangerously compromised law enforcers.

A leaked 2015 counter-terrorism policy guide made the case more directly, warning agents that FBI “domestic terrorism investigations focused on militia extremists, white supremacist extremists, and sovereign citizen extremists often have identified active links to law enforcement officers”.

in June 2019, when Congressman William Lacy Clay asked the FBI counter-terrorism chief, Michael McGarrity, whether the bureau remained concerned about white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement since the publication of its 2006 assessment, McGarrity indicated he had not read it. Asked more generally about this infiltration, McGarrity said he would be “suspect” of white supremacist police officers, but that their ideology was a first amendment–protected right.

The 2006 assessment addresses this concern, however, by summarizing supreme court precedent on the issue: “Although the First Amendment’s freedom of association provision protects an individual’s right to join white supremacist groups for the purposes of lawful activity, the government can limit the employment opportunities of group members who hold sensitive public sector jobs, including jobs within law enforcement, when their memberships would interfere with their duties.” I wonder if the Supreme Court in its current configuration would uphold it's own precedent.

The FBI’s 2015 counter-terrorism policy, which McGarrity was responsible for executing, indicates not just that members of law enforcement might hold white supremacist views, but that FBI domestic terrorism investigations have often identified “active links” between the subjects of these investigations and law enforcement officials. But its proposed remedy is stunningly inadequate.