Kevin McCarthy Made a Pilgrimage to the Holy Shrine of the Golden Commode

 
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

30 January 21

readersupportednews.org

Barely three weeks have passed, and the seditious criminal who nearly got his (Republican) vice president strung up is entertaining gentleman callers in his shabby palace by the sea.

t's a damn miracle, is what it is. Barely three weeks ago, El Caudillo Del Mar-a-Lago was the most successful insurrectionist leader since Robert E. Lee. The Republicans were huddled in the bowels of the Capitol right along with the Democrats while a gibbet rose on the National Mall. This was universally determined to be a fairly bad day in the world's oldest continuous self-governing republic.

Barely...three...weeks...ago.

From Politico:

The RNC is also expected to invite other potential 2024 candidates and Republican leaders to the retreat, which is to be held in Palm Beach, Fla., April 9-11...With Trump considering a 2024 comeback, the committee has been careful to demonstrate neutrality, since the former president is no longer an incumbent. It invited Trump and other would-be presidential candidates to its annual winter meeting earlier this month. Trump did not end up making an in-person appearance at the event, which occurred the same week as the Capitol riot. It has not been decided where in Palm Beach the April donor retreat will take place. But people familiar with the planning say it will not be at Mar-a-Lago.

Well, you have to draw a line somewhere.

This story popped in the wake of House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy's pilgrimage to the holy shrine of the golden commode in Florida. This story popped as McCarthy and the Republicans in Congress were busy trying to find a new way to do nothing about Marjorie Taylor Greene and the many voices in her head. (Space lasers owned by the Rothschilds set off the California wildfires? Robot roll call!) Mitch McConnell is Mitch McConnelling again, this time as a minority leader. I can't help but think of the decades in which George McGovern was rendered a non-person in the Democratic Party—and his politics declared anathema—for being a decent prairie populist who lost to a crook. Barely three weeks have passed, and the seditious criminal who nearly got his (Republican) vice president strung up is entertaining gentleman callers in his shabby palace by the sea. And hardly anyone in my business (or theirs) finds this development remarkable in any way.

From CNN:

According to one source, Trump has repeatedly questioned his Republican allies about efforts to remove [Liz] Cheney from her leadership position and run a primary candidate against her. He has also been showing those allies a poll commissioned by his Save America PAC that purports to show that Cheney's impeachment vote has damaged her standing in Wyoming, even urging them to talk about the poll on television. Trump's push comes as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is working to shore up his relationship with the ex-president, including meeting with Trump at his Palm Beach resort Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. McCarthy and Trump discussed the midterm elections in 2022, according to a readout provided by Save America. The statement claimed Trump "has agreed to work with Leader McCarthy" on retaking the majority in the House for the GOP.

This is one of those days where I wonder if I'm crazy or they are. The FBI is still rounding up the people who occupied the Capitol for the purpose of overturning a presidential election. The trials are going to be in federal courts all over the country for years. More dreadful material is bound to come pouring out about the insurrection, and about the administration that welcomed it. And barely three weeks after the mob overwhelmed the Capitol, the Republican Party has decided that it can't win an an election without the mob, and without the president* who incited it. For all our political divisions, I thought we all still agreed that overthrowing the republic and submitting to the rule of Buffalo Head Guy and the Walmart Warlords would not be a satisfactory outcome. For all our political divisions, I thought that cop-killing was something that devalued your political relevance going forward. Clearly, this calls for further study.

Kevin McCarthy is becoming as big a Trump suck-up as Lindsey Graham.  Which one will win the race to become Trump's VP running mate in 2024?  But wait, do they really want to wind up dangling from a noose when Trump inevitably turns on his trusty and loyal VP?  Just ask Mike Pence.  Oh wait, he has gone into hiding somewhere in Indiana.

Time for Democrats to ignore Republican whining and do the right thing on COVID-19 relief

  

It's getting more lonely being a Republican without values or scruples.

Laura Clawson

Daily Kos Staff

Friday January 29, 2021 · 6:54 AM MST

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Republicans are being dishonest, the traditional media is being credulous, and the whole thing is deeply tiresome. That whole thing, of course, is the squawking about “bipartisanship” on a COVID-19 relief package, in which bipartisanship is always and only the responsibility of Democrats. “Surrender,” Republicans say, “or this bill won’t be bipartisan and we will scream endlessly about it on the Sunday talk shows.”

But when Republicans are in control, there’s no such worry on the part of either the Republicans now whining so volubly or the traditional media that’s giving them the headlines they want. So really, all of them can pound sand. All the sand.

Right now, Republican senators who reluctantly supported a relief and stimulus package with wildly inadequate $600 direct payments to help people survive the COVID-19 economy are talking about how very sad they are that congressional Democrats are making noises about using reconciliation to pass a new bill with a simple majority rather than allowing it to be filibustered. They’re appealing to President Biden to make those mean Democrats stop trying to help people put food on their tables.

“The president is sincere in his commitment to bipartisanship. That’s the way he always operated when he was a senator. And from my conversations with him since the election, it seems clear to me that he wants to continue to operate that way,” Sen. Susan Collins said. And I’m sure he does—but not at the cost of doing the right thing for the public and the economy, I’d hope. Which means he wouldn’t be doing what Collins wants and backing a watered-down relief package.

”This is the smartest and best place for the president to start on his unity promises,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said. “That’s where I think the president has to show the leadership of what he has said he wants to do. … He is the president. So what I think the Democratic leaders need to realize is it’s his agenda.” And what Republican pretenders-to-bipartisanship need to realize is that Biden’s agenda includes helping people and strengthening the economy, not going back on his promises and tanking both the economy and his support in the name of a false bipartisanship.

“Part of unifying the country is addressing the problems that the American people are facing,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in response to a reporter's question using Republican framing on bipartisanship and Biden’s goals of unity. Exactly: Republicans in Congress aren’t the only people involved in unity, though they may think they’re the center of the universe. Psaki noted the multiple polls showing widespread public support for a real relief package, and Biden’s outreach not just to Republicans in Congress but to governors and mayors around the country to find out what their needs are.

At the same time that Republicans are whining about bipartisanship, House Republicans are refusing to take action on their own members who are literally leaving House Democrats afraid for their lives. Some Republicans have carried or tried to carry guns onto the House floor, and had temper tantrums over metal detectors put out to prevent exactly that. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has hit like on social media posts about assassinating Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders. When video of Greene harassing Parkland survivor David Hogg resurfaced, Rep. Lauren Boebert responded by … harassing Hogg online. Both Greene and Boebert did what they could in inciting the Capitol insurrection. 

Democrats are literally buying bulletproof vests in part out of fear of their coworkers, and Republican leaders are treating Greene and Boebert as caucus members in good standing. Any Republican in Congress who is not calling for Greene and Boebert to face consequences—and not just calling for it in one media interview, but using whatever leverage they have to make it happen—can shut all the way up about bipartisanship. And if they do open their mouths without first earning it, it is incumbent on the media to ignore or outright mock and condemn them.

For their part, Democrats absolutely should go ahead with reconciliation if Republicans refuse to do what’s right for the country. And they should jam that bipartisanship whining right back in the Republicans’ faces—heaven knows the past four years gave them plenty of material to work with.

We won.  Then we beat back the heathens at the Capitol.  Now It's time to do unto Republicans what they always, always, always do unto us.  Show them no mercy.

There's a new blog, a blue blog in town

 

The Rim Country Gazette blog was created some 10 years ago as the successor to the Rim Country Gazette newspaper published in central Arizona.  Over the years, it has become less about happenings in the Rim Country and more about national politics from a position to the left of center.

We are therefore pleased to announce that a new blog, the Blue Country Gazette blog, has been created to more accurately reflect who we are and what we believe.  For the immediate future, posts to both blogs will be the same, but at some point the Rim Country Gazette blog will be phased out.  We will give you ample warning.

It is no secret that the political position of both blogs is unabashedly liberal/progressive/Democratic/blue.  Blog editor James Keyworth is a firm believer that the liberal/progressive positions on major issues like the environment, abortion rights and equality for women, the LGBT communities, all races and creeds and the 99 percent who are suffering from income inequality are the humane and morally correct positions.  

In a country that has become polarized to the extreme, we believe that these positions need to be expressed, explained and defended in as many venues as possible.  The unique position of the Blue Country Gazette Blog is to provide often overlooked vantage points and angles on these issues.

The best way to access the new blog at this early point in our existence is to click on or enter www.bluecountrygazette.blogspot.com into your browser.  Check us out and become a Blue Country Gazette follower. 

(Comments and submissions should be sent to peoplesgazette@gmail.com  The Blue Country Gazette blog is based in Denver, CO.)

Censuring Trump for fomenting a violent insurrection would be 'unity' rooted in cowardice

 

Shortly after this picture was taken, five Americans would be dead.

Hunter for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday January 28, 2021 · 7:00 AM MST

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Yeah, how about no. Multiple news reports have Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine taking the lead on feeling out whether or not Republicans would be willing to respond to Donald Trump's attempted overthrow of U.S. government by "censuring" him, rather than holding an impeachment trial. It is a terrible, ridiculous idea and hopefully it has already died a quiet death by the time you reach the end of this sentence.

The thinking appears to be that since the near-unanimous majority of Senate Republicans continue to stand behind Trump even after he demanded a mob march on the Capitol to stop the counting of electoral votes that would confirm Joe Biden's presidential win—a demand that the mob acted on, resulting in multiple deaths inside the building and the near-assassination of lawmakers—perhaps the party of outright treason would be willing to compromise by giving their would-be authoritarian strongman a stern finger-wagging letter.

It's a given that Senate Republicans will vote to acquit Trump, as they did when Trump got caught brazenly extorting the leader of a foreign nation with personal demands intended to help boost his own reelection chances. But, the thinking apparently goes, maybe we can make a nice show of "unity" by having both parties agree that rallying a mob intent on attacking and possibly killing members of the political opposition is somewhat bad—not bad enough to do anything concrete about or to prohibit a person from re-taking office, but certainly bad enough for a note to be dropped into their permanent record.

Screw that. Screw all of that, very much and sincerely.

What Donald Trump attempted, even before the crowd turned violent, was a coup against democracy. He, his allies, and the majority of Republican lawmakers all demanded that the results of a United States election be overturned, based on nothing but nonsensical and provably false claims, and that the will of American voters simply be ignored because the Republican Party did not like the results. It was an act of sedition before the crowd marched over. It was an act of sedition when prominent Republicans peddled hoaxes relentlessly, claiming the election results to be invalid because of conspiracies that not one damn person in America could prove.

Donald Trump may have been acting purely out of malignant narcissism, and may indeed be living inside delusions layered upon delusions in which any and every failure on his part, during his entire adult life, has only happened due to the secret machinations of invisible enemies, but the action he took was unambiguous. He intended to overturn the election results. His allies intended to help him overturn the election results. The House and Senate Republicans who voted to throw out the election results intended to help him overturn the election results.

It was an insurrection against the government, and if there is no stomach among Republican lawmakers for punishing it as such, it is because they were themselves allied with those efforts. They remain allied in a unified attempt to dodge repercussions for attempting to overturn an election that did not go their way.

To be sure, those who acted with treasonous intent against this country are not eager to vote for consequences. That is to be expected. Attempting to compromise with them, finding some common ground where violent insurrection is still acknowledged to be bad so long as the insurrection's chief beneficiary and provocateur is able to skate by without the presentation of evidence against him, is attempting to compromise with those who sought to end the fabled "peaceful transition of power" by party fiat.

The streak is broken. There was no peaceful transition of power. Among a majority inside the party now fully enmeshed in fascist propaganda and plots, there is only begrudging acknowledgement even now that our democracy remains legitimate; on Fox News and in evasive lawmaker interviews, the same hoax theories are still sniffled about, and Republican officials and leaders are taking not making even the barest effort to clarify to their still-addled base voters that Joe Biden won the most votes and electors, that there was no conspiratorial and secret fraud, and that the new Democratic administration is, indeed, a legitimate one.

If Republican senators are going to vote to immunize Trump even from an attempt to overthrow the government, oblige them to cast that vote. There needs to be a list. There needs to be a record.

Fortunately, there appears to be little to no support for allowing Republicans to dodge a trial; this "censure" nonsense is likely to be over before it begins. We're going to get a list of which top Republicans truly believe, even now, that Donald Trump's actions were within the bounds of what America should allow. It will be a long list, and everyone on it will be senators who have betrayed their nation countless times before in their bid to normalize abject corruption in service to Republican power.

Democrats ditch Republicans on COVID-19 relief, start budget reconciliation process

 

 

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday January 26, 2021 · 7:28 AM MST

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House Democrats are moving forward on a COVID-19 relief bill, preparing to ditch the Senate Republicans and provide critical relief to the American people without them. Initial votes could come as soon as next week, and President Joe Biden has signed off on using the procedure—budget reconciliation—to get his relief package through as Republicans in the Senate continue to obstruct.

"Reconciliation is a means of getting a bill passed. There are a number of means of getting bills passed. That does not mean, regardless of how the bill is passed, that Democrats and Republicans cannot both vote for it," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "So the president obviously wants to make this bipartisan, hence he's engaging with members of both parties and he remains committed to that." House Budget Chairman John Yarmuth said Monday that he is preparing the reconciliation instructions for the package, and is even going to include Biden's $15/hour minimum wage increase, even though that's a "stretch" in his words to qualify under the rules for the procedure.

Budget reconciliation became a thing as an optional procedure under the Congressional Budget Act of 1974. That act requires Congress to come up with a budget resolution every year, and that resolution can instruct the committees to craft bills that would reconcile current law with the decided-upon budget plan. The main advantage of legislation developed with it is that it is considered under expedited procedures on both the House and Senate, and it is not subject to the 60-vote threshold in the Senate that has killed everything good any Democratic president has tried to do since 2008. It begins with a resolution that instructs the relevant committees in both the House and Senate to draw up legislation to meet a budget specified within the resolution—the bill that the committees finalize must either reduce or increase the federal deficit by no less or no more than the resolution determines. Anything included in the legislation after it is combined, or reconciled, by the House and Senate has to thus change either spending or revenue. Sort of. Budget reconciliations can't touch Social Security, they can't increase the deficit in a 10-year window, and they are limited to federal spending or revenue. Mostly.

The "sort of" and "mostly" as a limit in the Senate's rather expansive power to decide what it wants, one has a simple majority. The Congressional Budget Office and the Senate parliamentarian act as the referees for the process, the CBO making the budget projections and the parliamentarian ruling what provisions can be included depending on the degree to which a provisions budget impact is "incidental"—does it impact spending or revenue—or not. If the Parliamentarian rules it incidental under the Byrd rules (a tightening up of the process spearheaded by then-Sen. Robert Byrd in 1958), then it comes out. That is unless the president of the Senate, the person sitting in the chair who in this case would be Vice President Kamala Harris, overrules the parliamentarian. That hasn't happened frequently, but we also haven't been in a global pandemic that's crippling the economy frequently.

One authority on the federal budget and Senate rules believes that even the minimum wage increase could be passed in reconciliation, along with the rest of the provisions—including another round of direct $1,400 payments, increasing and extending emergency unemployment benefits, hundreds of billions in aid to state and local government and schools, funding for vaccine production and distribution, expanding testing and tracing, as well as other proposals. Bill Dauster, who served as deputy chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, "said in a guest op-ed column for CQ Roll Call that a minimum wage boost has enough budgetary impact to be considered under the Byrd rule."

Now that McConnell has caved to allow the Senate to organize, the committees can start the work of drafting their components of the reconciliation bill. There's a hard deadline for them to get it accomplished—another unemployment cliff in March, because that's as long as Senate Republicans would let that go. There's also that matter of an impeachment hearing that begins in a couple of weeks. The House, Yarmuth said Monday, is on it: "we will be prepared to go to the floor as early as next week."

 

The Rim Country Gazette blog was created some 10 years ago as the successor to the Rim Country Gazette newspaper published in central Arizona.  Over the years, it has become less about happenings in the Rim Country and more about national politics from a position to the left of center.

We are therefore pleased to announce that a new blog, the Blue Country Gazette blog, has been created to more accurately reflect who we are and what we believe.  For the immediate future, posts to both blogs will be the same, but at some point the Rim Country Gazette blog will be phased out.  We will give you ample warning.

It is no secret that the political position of both blogs is unabashedly liberal/progressive/Democratic/blue.  Blog editor James Keyworth is a firm believer that the liberal/progressive positions on major issues like the environment, abortion rights and equality for women, the LGBT communities, all races and creeds and the 99 percent who are suffering from income inequality are the humane and morally correct positions.  

In a country that has become polarized to the extreme, we believe that these positions need to be expressed, explained and defended in as many venues as possible.  The unique position of the Blue Country Gazette Blog is to provide often overlooked vantage points and angles on these issues.

The best way to access the new blog is to click on or enter www.bluecountrygazette.blogspot.com into your browser.  Check us out and become a Blue Country Gazette follower. 

(Comments and submissions should be sent to peoplesgazette@gmail.com  The Blue Country Gazette blog is based in Denver, CO.)

Since Republicans won't convict, turn the second impeachment into a trial of the Republican Party

 

The Weasel meets his Fuhrer.  

Dartagnan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday January 26, 2021 · 3:29 PM MST

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Quavering under explicit threats from Donald Trump that he will start a neo-fascist third party (grossly named “The Patriot Party”), Senate Republicans, led by Kentucky blowhard Rand Paul, have signaled that there is no way they would ever vote to convict Trump for inciting the deadly insurrection that killed five people on Jan. 6, and sent hordes of stinking Trump supporters to smear feces all over the House and Senate chambers while trying to hunt down members of those legislative bodies.

Now that we know this, now that it’s clear, let’s just remember who controls the trial and the admissible evidence in that trial: the Democratic Senate. Just like then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell constrained the first trial by admitting no witnesses or evidence, Democrats are free to admit whatever it takes to paint a clear picture of the environment Trump created, which motivated and aided his incitement of the mob.

Max Boot, writing this week for The Washington Post, makes an excellent point.

When the impeachment proceedings begin in the Senate, it will not be just Donald Trump in the dock. The entire Republican Party will be on trial. And there is every reason to believe that the GOP will fail this test — as it failed every other during the past four years.

As Boot emphasizes, Trump’s guilt here is crystal clear and becoming even clearer than that with each passing day. Boot notes the Center for Responsive Politics report revealing that Trump’s corrupt campaign funneled $2.7 million to groups that organized and participated in the violent insurrection. Many of the participants in the event itself have directly characterized their actions as a response to Trump’s siren call.

There’s no doubt that Trump is guilty of inciting the insurrection. As an added bonus, it’s also clear that he had exhausted all other means to overturn the election, even trying to force the attorney general’s office to involve the Justice Department in the coup attempt. Many witnesses may now be called to attest to Trump’s desperation, further providing evidence for his motives in inciting the Jan. 6 attack.

As Boot observes, we caught a fleeting glimpse, out of the corner of our eyes, of Republicans possibly, maybe, kind of considering doing the right thing and convicting this criminal president of the worst offense any president could possibly commit against this nation: willful insurrection.

But no, it was not to be. Because … they’ve all suddenly become Constitutional scholars!

To avoid having to defend Trump’s indefensible conduct, many Republicans are taking refuge in the argument that it’s unconstitutional to impeach a president who has already left office. This is simply untrue, as more than 150 legal scholars — including a co-founder of the Federalist Society! — point out. “In 1876,” they note, “Secretary of War William Belknap tried to avoid impeachment and its consequences by resigning minutes before the House voted on his impeachment. The House impeached him anyway, and the Senate concluded that it had the power to try, convict, and disqualify former officers.”

Never mind that this vast concern for the Constitution wasn’t on display during Trump’s first impeachment trial, or throughout his entire months-long effort to delegitimize a national election and disenfranchise 80 million Americans. Nothing unconstitutional to see there, I guess.

But there actually was something to see, after all. It was the sight of House and Senate Republicans doing absolutely nothing to stop that effort, and in fact aiding and abetting it through their votes to negate the verdict of the American people—though not in their own elections, mind you. In fact, there was a whole lot to see. And there’s a whole lot of complicity to explore.

We saw Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley raise his fist in support of the insurrectionists, practically egging them on, as long as he could ride the coattails. We saw Texas Sen. Ted Cruz lending his own voice to the treachery, along with 140 members of the House of Representatives.

These people not only supported this lie, they campaigned on it in their own elections. The rot runs right down into the state legislators who wanted to get in on the action. Local party organizations are supporting Trump’s insurrection efforts in state after state, from Wyoming to Arizona.

The GOP appears more eager for retribution against Republicans who upheld their oaths of office than against a president who violated it. All 10 of the House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are now facing a backlash at home, with local party organizations scolding them for disloyalty and primary challengers lining up against them. Pro-Trump House members are  also demanding Cheney’s ouster as chair of the House Republican conference.

The cancer cuts down to the bone. It isn’t just Trump, but a culture of Republican-abetted sedition that needs to be presented to the American people on Feb. 8. Call some witnesses from those state legislatures who met with Trump as he hemmed, hawed and threatened them. Call Hawley as a witness and obtain all his contacts and communications with the administration before the insurrection. Same with Cruz. There’s no privilege attached, not when you’re trying to commit a crime, boys.

Americans really need to see the big picture.  Let’s give it to them. And let Hawley and Cruz—and Trump—squeal their seditious little asses off.

Above: Cruz with his favorite American flag prop. 

Below: The Donald with you know who. 

Democrat calls on Biden to fire Trump's Postal Service board, save the institution

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Monday January 25, 2021 · 2:22 PM MST

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Even though the 2020 election wasn't ruined by sabotage and we now have President Joe Biden, we still have a deeply broke and highly politicized U.S. Postal Service (USPS). Among all the other housecleaning Biden has to do, New Jersey Rep. Bill Pascrell isn't going to let him forget about it. The Democrat has written to Biden, urging him to "fire the entire Postal Board of Governors for their silence and complicity in trump and dejoy’s [sic] attempts to subvert the election and destroy the Post Office."

"Through the devastating arson of the Trump regime, the USPS Board of Governors sat silent," Pascrell argued in his letter. The Republican board of governors, the creation of Trump and Mitch McConnell, has to go, Pascrell argues, for their "refusal to oppose the worst destruction ever inflicted on the Postal Service" while Postmaster General Louise DeJoy was imposing his changes to cause mail delays and sabotage the service. "The continued challenges in preserving our Postal Service to survive and endure are gargantuan, and so demand bold solutions to meet them," Pascrell wrote. "To begin that work, we must have a governing body that can be trusted to represent the public interest."

Biden can fire them all for cause. Pascrell writes that the "board members' refusal to oppose the worst destruction ever inflicted on the Postal Service was a betrayal of their duties and unquestionably constitutes good cause for their removal." It's a valid argument, even though their firing would probably end up in court. It would be worth it for Biden to do it and appoint an entirely new board, saving the agency while the lawsuits played out. As of now, the board has just five members, all Trump's, and all Republican. The board should comprise nine members, and the American Postal Workers Union has called for Biden to "quickly fill" the spots to "fight for the Postal Service we all deserve."

If Biden fired the whole lot, he would then have all nine slots to fill, though four of them would have to go to Republicans. Even now, he could probably find four never-Trumpers who love the institution of the USPS as much as the rest of us. Then they could fire DeJoy, and they could get back to saving the still deeply stressed and broken institution.

Lest we forget what the Donald tried to do to a revered American institution.

Trump's second impeachment is about way more than you probably think

Mark Sumner

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday January 23, 2021 · 1:14 PM MST

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When the House acted swiftly to impeach Donald Trump for a second time on Jan. 13, the actual Articles of Impeachment were shockingly brief. With just five pages, the first of which is completely taken up with the names of sponsors who signed onto the resolution, the gist of the single article is that Trump repeatedly issued false statements that inflamed the crowd and incited insurgents on Jan. 6. The statements cited in the resolution include Trump’s oft-repeated claim that “we won this election, and we won it by a landslide” and more aggressive statements like “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Those statements, which Trump repeated at the rally he held shortly before the insurgents swarmed up the steps of the Capitol, may seem scant. And arguments over whether they are really incitement to violence may seem to allow Republicans a lot of wiggle room when it comes to their vote. 

But the article is not everything that House members will be bringing to the Senate when they come for Trump’s trial on Feb. 8.

In addition to the article itself, there are considerably more detailed supporting documents. These documents don’t just cite the statements that Trump made on the morning of the assault on the Capitol, they cover the whole period following the election and show how Trump laid the groundwork for violence. That means that things like the phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and tweets that Trump put out threatening any officials who got in his way, are fully covered. 

The document also details events on Jan. 6, including statements by Rudy Giuliani urging the crowd to have “have trial by combat,” and Donald Trump, Jr. warning Congress that “we’re coming for you.” And it points out how, when Trump got up to speak, he called out specific legislators as targets for the crowd’s hate before falsely telling them that he was going to walk up Pennsylvania Ave. with them.

The document is far from comprehensive. It doesn’t contain a full list of the 62 legal actions filed by Trump’s team. It doesn’t cover all the changes Trump made at the Pentagon following the election. It doesn’t discuss the scheme to sub in a Devin Nunes aide as head of the CIA. It doesn’t cover Michael Flynn’s plan to implement “partial martial law” or DOJ attorney Jeffrey Clark’s scheme to use the Justice Department to interfere in counting the electoral vote. 

But there is more than enough in the provided documents to show that the crowd that pushed through police to hunt hostages in the halls of Congress wasn’t just inflamed by a few offhand words Trump delivered on that Wednesday morning. The insurgency was the result of weeks of incitement and of planning by both Trump and other members of his team. It was neither spontaneous nor an accident. It was an attempted coup.

And members of a failed coup should expect to pay a price.

There's a new blog in town...

The Rim Country Gazette blog was created some 10 years ago as the successor to the Rim Country Gazette newspaper published in central Arizona.  Over the years, it has become less about happenings in the Rim Country and more about national politics from a position to the left of center.

We are therefore pleased to announce that a new blog, the Blue Country Gazette blog, has been created to more accurately reflect who we are and what we believe.  For the immediate future, posts to both blogs will be the same, but at some point the Rim Country Gazette blog will be phased out.  We will give you ample warning.

It is no secret that the political position of both blogs is unabashedly liberal/progressive/Democratic/blue.  Blog editor James Keyworth is a firm believer that the liberal/progressive positions on major issues like the environment, abortion rights and equality for women, the LGBT communities, all races and creeds and the 99 percent who are suffering from income inequality are the humane and morally correct positions.  

In a country that has become polarized to the extreme, we believe that these positions need to be expressed, explained and defended in as many venues as possible.  The unique position of the Blue Country Gazette Blog is to provide often overlooked vantage points and angles on these issues.

The best way to access the new blog is to click on or enter www.bluecountrygazette.blogspot.com into your browser.  Check us out and become a Blue Country Gazette follower. 

(Comments and submissions should be sent to peoplesgazette@gmail.com  The Blue Country Gazette blog is based in Denver, CO.)

McConnell's obstruction of Biden's agenda has already begun

 

McConnell sitting there thinking up more ways to obstruct the new agenda.

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Sunday January 24, 2021 · 12:46 PM MST

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The first half of this Inauguration Day has been devoted, at least rhetorically, to unity. But Sen. Mitch McConnell is still in charge of the Senate Republicans, and he's still Mitch McConnell. The chamber is evenly divided, which does one good thing: It makes Vice President Kamala Harris one of the most—if not the most—powerful VPs the nation has ever had. McConnell seems intent on making her work. In his discussions with new Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on power-sharing in the split chamber, McConnell is insisting that the agreement contain a commitment from Schumer to retain the filibuster.

That tells you everything you need to know about McConnell's intentions for helping President Biden, House Speaker Pelosi, and the Senate save the country. Staff for each leader had been operating on the assumption that the power-sharing agreement from 2001 would be the default for this time around. Then McConnell threw the filibuster curveball. Schumer spokesperson Justin Goodman said that their view is that "the fairest, most reasonable and easiest path forward is to adopt the 2001 bipartisan agreement without extraneous changes from either side." McConnell's spokesperson told the Post: "Discussions on all aspects of the power-sharing agreement will continue over the next several days."

It's good that Schumer isn't giving in to this bullshit. It wouldn't be binding if Schumer just said "sure, Mitch, whatever," but it would give the less resolute members of the Democratic conference—Joe Manchin, Chris Coons, and Dianne Feinstein—an excuse to stray from the majority. That would make it that much harder for Schumer to nuke the legislative filibuster when he needs to, and this latest from McConnell tells everyone that he's going to need to—the Republicans will do everything in their power to obstruct Biden's agenda just as they did President Barack Obama's. The good news, at least, is they can't do it on nominations.

However, McConnell has already delayed getting key Cabinet officials confirmed and in place. When he recessed the Senate until this week, it meant that those Cabinet officials couldn't go through the committee process to be ready on Day One. So right now the nation's defense is dependent upon those acting career officials in the Pentagon the Biden team could trust. The delay in agreement between Schumer and McConnell on the organizing resolution for sharing committee power could also keep more nominees in limbo because committees won't be able to formally process them until the chairs and their staffs are in place.

Some nominees could move forward with unanimous consent—all 100 senators agreeing to bring them to the floor. But already insurrectionist Sen. Josh Hawley has announced that he's objecting to a critical nominee, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, Biden's pick for Homeland Security secretary. That's going to hamper Biden on everything from his immigration reforms to the coronavirus response, forcing procedural delays.

McConnell is giving every indication of dragging this out as long as he can, his monkey wrench in Biden's first 100-day plan. Because that's who he is, nation in multiple crises notwithstanding.

"Not so fast with all that progress, Joe.  They don't call me 'Moscow Mitch' for nothing."