USA Politics (redux)

[Pohjolas Daughter]

On the flip side, some heartwarming photos:  tributes to the capitol police officers-- https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/12/politics/gallery/capitol-officers-tributes/index.html

PD

[drogulus]

     Ali Alexander was one of the organizers of the Jan. 6 event.

     https://www.youtube.com/v/99Xez3lkp_8&ab_channel=TheIntercept

     We will learn more about how much of an inside job this assault was.

     

[drogulus]

     Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she feared GOP lawmakers would lead rioters to her: 'I thought I was going to die'

As the pro-Trump rioters streamed into the Capitol on Jan. 6, lawmakers were told to take refuge in a protected "extraction point." But Ocasio-Cortez said she did not feel safe doing so "because there were QAnon and white-supremacist sympathizers and, frankly, white-supremacist members of Congress in that extraction point who I know and who I have felt would disclose my location and would create opportunities to allow me to be hurt, kidnapped, et cetera."

"So I didn't even feel safe around other members of Congress," she concluded. She did not say where she took shelter instead.

Ocasio-Cortez didn't name the lawmakers she thought might jeopardize her safety, but she is not the first to suggest some members of Congress could have deliberately put others at risk.

     Her fear was justified. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tweeted about the location of Nancy Pelosi during the riot. We know that Pelosi and Pence were targeted, and it would be surprising if AOC wasn't on the list.

     I had earlier thought Boebert had tweeted the location of her office. That wasn't true so I changed my comment.

[Herman]

Boebert needs to be censured.

[drogulus]

Boebert needs to be censured.

     From the Kansas City Star:

Boebert is facing calls for expulsion after posting on Twitter that Pelosi, the House speaker and second in the line of presidential succession, had been escorted out of the House chamber as rioters ransacked the Capitol building.

Members of the mob were recorded on video calling for the murder of both Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.

Boebert is facing calls for expulsion after posting on Twitter that Pelosi, the House speaker and second in the line of presidential succession, had been escorted out of the House chamber as rioters ransacked the Capitol building.

[drogulus]

     About the 'reconnaissance' tours, I'm not yet entirely convinced that House members knowingly provided tours on Jan. 5 as alleged by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.). She didn't provide names or indicate how she knew the tour groups were future rioters. The question of how the rioters obtained detailed info of the building is still open.

[Herman]

I can't help but notice the loathsome Jim Jordan, wearing a facemask at the House podium, manages to make it a mouth mask, with the nose sticking out.

First one thinks he's too stupid to know you're also supposed to cover the nose, but it's probably another fuck-you gesture from the loathsome Jordan.

[drogulus]

I can't help but notice the loathsome Jim Jordan, wearing a facemask at the House podium, manages to make it a mouth mask, with the nose sticking out.

First one thinks he's too stupid to know you're also supposed to cover the nose, but it's probably another fuck-you gesture from the loathsome Jordan.

     Jordan is the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee. That's pretty fucked up.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Pictures of the National Guard currently resting (some sleeping) in the Capitol building [I imagine that at least some of them were up all night protecting it and the surrounding area.].  Meanwhile, the House is voting on impeachment....



PD

[T. D.]

     Jordan is the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee. That's pretty fucked up.

Cheeto Mussolini bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, to that abhorrent moron.

https://www.cleveland.com/darcy/2021/01/rep-jordan-medal-of-freedom-farce-darcy-cartoon.html

[drogulus]

     I think coach Belichick was pressured into declining the medal. He's a Trump buddy.

[Herman]

Cheeto Mussolini bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, to that abhorrent moron.

https://www.cleveland.com/darcy/2021/01/rep-jordan-medal-of-freedom-farce-darcy-cartoon.html

That loathsome blowhard got the Prez Medal of Freedom?

I guess for talking over other people.

[T. D.]

That loathsome blowhard got the Prez Medal of Freedom?

I guess for talking over other people.

Consider who bestowed it. It was for political services rendered.

[Herman]

Screamin' Matt Gaetz is really something else.

[SimonNZ]

I caught two minutes on Al Jazeera of some arsehole from California saying that if everybody was punished for talking publicly the way Trump does there would be nobody left. That was as much as I could take.

[Brahmsian]

Six Republicans (so far) have announced that they will vote to impeach.

Those six can at least look at themselves in the mirror.

[drogulus]

     Mitch hates Trump very strongly. Note, though, that he's refusing to bring back the Senate early. I think his idea is that a late impeachment can only hurt Biden out of the gate.

[SimonNZ]

Reading these details for the first time:

The Guardian view on Trump's executions: vicious to the end
The federal execution of a woman who was mentally ill was the act of a morally bankrupt administration

"In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Lisa Montgomery became the first woman to be put to death by the United States government for almost seven decades. At the Indiana penitentiary where she was executed by lethal injection, there are no facilities for female prisoners. So during prolonged legal wrangling over her fate, Montgomery was cruelly placed in a holding cell in the execution-chamber building itself.

Her crime was horrific. In 2004, Montgomery strangled a young woman, Bobbie Jo Stinnett, who was eight months pregnant. She then cut a baby girl from her womb, and attempted to pass her off as her own. The pain and suffering of Ms Stinnett's family can barely be imagined. But the political context of this week's execution, and overwhelming evidence of Montgomery's longstanding mental illness, suggests a gross miscarriage of justice has taken place.

Issuing a stay of execution, subsequently overruled by the supreme court, a district judge cited evidence that "Ms Montgomery's mental state is so divorced from reality that she cannot rationally understand the government's rationale for her execution." Since entering the penitentiary system, the 52 year-old had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, PTSD, anxiety and depression, psychosis, mood swings, dissociation and memory loss. Throughout her childhood, Montgomery was gang-raped by her alcoholic stepfather and his friends, in a cabin built for that purpose. She was physically tortured in myriad ways by both parents. Social workers and doctors failed to intervene. A consultant to her legal team said Montgomery was "profoundly mentally ill as a result of a lifetime of torture and sexual violence. Lisa is not the worst of the worst – she is the most broken of the broken." This was not enough to prevent her sharing the fate of 10 other prisoners executed by the government since July, when the Trump administration resumed the practice after a 17-year pause. In the history of US justice, there have never been so many scheduled federal executions during the lame-duck period of a presidency."[...]

[T. D.]

     Mitch hates Trump very strongly. Note, though, that he's refusing to bring back the Senate early. I think his idea is that a late impeachment can only hurt Biden out of the gate.

Can't speak to the first point (obvious question: if true, why did McC bend over for Cheeto at every opportunity?). Strongly agree with the second.

Lotta gamesman(and woman)ship going on right now.

[Herman]

It's Trump long wished-for killing spree, these lame-duck executions.

He's probably barely able to eat his hamberders, he's so excited.