CNBC
"Trump becomes first president to be impeached twice, as bipartisan majority charges him with inciting Capitol riot"
Jacob Pramuk @jacobpramuk
Published Wed, Jan 13 2021
Key Points
* The House impeached President Donald Trump on Wednesday for inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week.
* The riot left at least five people, including a Capitol Police officer, dead.
* House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the chamber plans to send an article of impeachment to the Senate immediately, though the chamber may not have enough time to remove Trump before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20.
* Ten House Republicans voted to impeach Trump.
President Donald Trump, a man hyperaware of his achievements and place in history, added a first to his record on Wednesday.
A week before he will leave office, Trump became the first president impeached by the House twice.
The chamber charged him with high crimes and misdemeanors for inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol last week.
The president’s behavior in the 13 months since the first impeachment has left House Democrats making a more clear-cut case than the first time around.
The four-page article of impeachment the chamber was set to approve on Wednesday argues Trump fed his supporters months of false claims that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election, then urged them to contest the results before they marched to the Capitol and disrupted Congress’ count of President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
“He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government."
"He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to manifest injury of the people of the United States,” the House’s charging document reads.
After the insurrection that killed at least five people, including a Capitol Police officer, Democrats have argued allowing Trump to serve out his term both lets him dodge consequences and raises the prospect of more violence before Biden’s inauguration.
Still, Congress may not have enough time to push the president out of office before next week — even if the now GOP-held Senate chooses to convict him.
Democrats urged Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet to start the faster process of removing Trump through the 25th Amendment.
Pence refused, arguing in a letter Tuesday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that the move is not “in the best interest of our Nation or consistent with our Constitution.”
Pelosi opened debate on the House floor and argued the country cannot risk leaving the president in power.
“He must go."
"He is a clear and present danger to the nation we all love,” she said.
Though a handful of Republicans said they would vote to impeach Trump, the vast majority of GOP representatives opposed the effort.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Wednesday that Trump “bears responsibility” for the riot but called impeachment “a mistake” without an investigation or hearings.
“A vote to impeach will further divide the nation."
"A vote to impeach will further fan the flames of partisan division,” he said, calling for a resolution to censure Trump.
Once the House sends the impeachment article to the Senate, the upper chamber has to quickly start a trial.
It then would vote on whether to convict Trump.
The House plans to send the article across the Capitol immediately, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told NBC News on Wednesday.
The Senate as of now plans to reconvene on Jan. 19.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has argued Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., can use emergency powers to bring the chamber back sooner.
A spokesman for McConnell confirmed Wednesday that the Senate won’t be back until Jan. 19, which means that an impeachment trial would likely drag into the early days of Biden’s term.
While the Senate may not have enough time to remove the president from office, it can stop him from becoming president again in 2025.
He could also lose perks given to former presidents.
In making the case for Trump’s conviction in the Senate, Pelosi called a vote in the upper chamber a “constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man who is so resolutely determined to tear down the things that we hold dear and that hold us together.”
A Congress on edge after the insurrection threatened lawmakers’ lives went to work in an unrecognizable environment Wednesday.
Enhanced fortifications stood outside the Capitol.
National Guard members slept overnight in the halls of the legislature and Capitol Visitors Center.
Lawmakers had to go through a metal detector to get on the House floor for a Tuesday night vote, prompting outrage from some Republicans.
The first time the House impeached Trump, only one congressional Republican — Mitt Romney of Utah — joined Democrats in trying to remove the president.
The Capitol insurrection made more GOP lawmakers willing to boot their party’s president from office.
The GOP lawmakers who said they would vote to charge Trump on Wednesday include Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking member of the GOP caucus.
“There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution,” she said in a statement Tuesday of Trump’s behavior before and after the attack.
The other Republicans who said they would impeach the president are Reps. John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Fred Upton of Michigan, Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, Dan Newhouse of Washington, Peter Meijer of Michigan and Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.
No Senate Republicans have yet said they will vote to remove Trump.
The New York Times reported Tuesday that McConnell believes Trump committed impeachable offenses.
In a Wednesday message to colleagues responding to “speculation” in the press, McConnell said he had not decided whether to back impeachment.
“I have not made a final decision on how I will vote and I intend to listen to the legal arguments when they are presented to the Senate,” he wrote.
Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., has said he would “consider” whatever article the House sends across the Capitol.
Two other GOP senators — Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania — have called on Trump to resign.
The president has not taken any responsibility for the Capitol invasion.
On Tuesday, he defended himself, saying, “People thought what I said was totally appropriate.”
He also said impeachment is “causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger.”
Lawmakers have sounded the alarm about the potential for further insurrection, including on the day of Biden’s inauguration.
Trump responded to those concerns in a statement Wednesday that nonetheless neglected to address his supporters specifically.
“In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind,” he said.
“That is not what I stand for, and it is not what America stands for."
"I call on ALL Americans to help ease tensions and calm tempers."
"Thank You.”
Some Republicans suggested Trump would learn a lesson and rein in his behavior after the first impeachment.
Other GOP lawmakers came to the conclusion this week that they cannot trust him to take accountability for his actions.
One Republican, Rep. Fred Upton of Michigan, cited Trump’s lack of remorse for helping to incite the Capitol riot in saying he would vote to impeach the president.
“Today the President characterized his inflammatory rhetoric at last Wednesday’s rally as ‘totally appropriate,’ and he expressed no regrets for last week’s violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol."
"This sends exactly the wrong signal to those of us who support the very core of our democratic principles and took a solemn oath to the Constitution,” he said in a statement Tuesday.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/house-t ... -riot.html
POLITICS
Re: POLITICS
CNBC
"Feds consider sedition and conspiracy charges in probe of pro-Trump Capitol riot"
Dan Mangan @_DanMangan
Published Tue, Jan 12 2021
Key Points
* Federal authorities said they expect to soon charge hundreds of individuals in connection with the Capitol riot.
* They have directed a strike force to gather evidence for prosecutions for sedition and conspiracy.
* The violence began after President Trump urged a crowd to fight with him in his bid to get Congress to reject Joe Biden’s election as president.
Federal authorities said Tuesday they expect to soon charge hundreds of people in connection with the Capitol riot.
Officials added that they have directed a strike force to gather evidence for prosecutions for sedition and conspiracy.
And an FBI official confirmed a report that the FBI received intelligence regarding the possibility of violence in advance of Wednesday’s riot, and shared that information with other law enforcement agencies in Washington.
“Yesterday, my office organized a strike force of prosecutors who’s only orders are to build sedition charges related to most heinous acts that occurred in the Capitol, said Michael Sherwin, acting United States attorney for the District of Columbia, during a press conference.
He noted that the maximum possible sentence for a sedition charge is 20 years in prison.
Sherwin said more than 70 people so far have been arrested in connection with the riot last Wednesday by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump, with another 100 or so criminal cases opened.
“That’s the tip of the iceberg,” said FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono
A number of those cases have involved relatively minor charges, but Sherwin said he expected charges to be upgraded for some people.
And he said he expects the number of people arrested “to geometrically increase” in coming weeks.
“We’re going to focus on the most significant charges,” Sherwin said.
“This is only the beginning.”
He said the “mind-blowing” array of charges being eyed by the FBI and Justice Department include felony murder, weapons possession, assault of police officer, civil rights violations, theft of mail, theft of computers and trespassing.
“For example, yesterday, we had grand jury in DC up,” Sherwin said.
“It was booked throughout entire day."
"We presented felony cases related to civil disorder, possession of weapons.”
He said he had also tasked specific prosecutor in his office to focus on assaults on journalists during the riot.
“You will be found, you will be charged,” Sherwin warned members of the mob, many of whom are believed to have returned to their homes around the country.
D’Antuono said that more than 100,000 digital files related to tips about the riot have been sent to investigators.
He also said “several individuals have” voluntarily disclosed their participation in the riot to authorities.
“Come forward,” D’Antuono urged other participants.
He said that before the riot, the FBI “developed some intel that a number of individuals were planning to travel to DC with intention to cause violence.”
“We shared that information and action was taken, as shown by arrest of Enrique Tarrio night before the rally."
"Other individuals were identified and travel disrupted,” he said.
The riot left at least four people dead, among them a Capitol police officer.
Two pipe bombs were found near the Capitol complex, by the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee.
The violence began after a Trump rally, where he, his son, and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani urged a crowd to fight with him in his bid to get Congress to reject Joe Biden’s election as president.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/12/capitol ... arges.html
"Feds consider sedition and conspiracy charges in probe of pro-Trump Capitol riot"
Dan Mangan @_DanMangan
Published Tue, Jan 12 2021
Key Points
* Federal authorities said they expect to soon charge hundreds of individuals in connection with the Capitol riot.
* They have directed a strike force to gather evidence for prosecutions for sedition and conspiracy.
* The violence began after President Trump urged a crowd to fight with him in his bid to get Congress to reject Joe Biden’s election as president.
Federal authorities said Tuesday they expect to soon charge hundreds of people in connection with the Capitol riot.
Officials added that they have directed a strike force to gather evidence for prosecutions for sedition and conspiracy.
And an FBI official confirmed a report that the FBI received intelligence regarding the possibility of violence in advance of Wednesday’s riot, and shared that information with other law enforcement agencies in Washington.
“Yesterday, my office organized a strike force of prosecutors who’s only orders are to build sedition charges related to most heinous acts that occurred in the Capitol, said Michael Sherwin, acting United States attorney for the District of Columbia, during a press conference.
He noted that the maximum possible sentence for a sedition charge is 20 years in prison.
Sherwin said more than 70 people so far have been arrested in connection with the riot last Wednesday by a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump, with another 100 or so criminal cases opened.
“That’s the tip of the iceberg,” said FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono
A number of those cases have involved relatively minor charges, but Sherwin said he expected charges to be upgraded for some people.
And he said he expects the number of people arrested “to geometrically increase” in coming weeks.
“We’re going to focus on the most significant charges,” Sherwin said.
“This is only the beginning.”
He said the “mind-blowing” array of charges being eyed by the FBI and Justice Department include felony murder, weapons possession, assault of police officer, civil rights violations, theft of mail, theft of computers and trespassing.
“For example, yesterday, we had grand jury in DC up,” Sherwin said.
“It was booked throughout entire day."
"We presented felony cases related to civil disorder, possession of weapons.”
He said he had also tasked specific prosecutor in his office to focus on assaults on journalists during the riot.
“You will be found, you will be charged,” Sherwin warned members of the mob, many of whom are believed to have returned to their homes around the country.
D’Antuono said that more than 100,000 digital files related to tips about the riot have been sent to investigators.
He also said “several individuals have” voluntarily disclosed their participation in the riot to authorities.
“Come forward,” D’Antuono urged other participants.
He said that before the riot, the FBI “developed some intel that a number of individuals were planning to travel to DC with intention to cause violence.”
“We shared that information and action was taken, as shown by arrest of Enrique Tarrio night before the rally."
"Other individuals were identified and travel disrupted,” he said.
The riot left at least four people dead, among them a Capitol police officer.
Two pipe bombs were found near the Capitol complex, by the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee.
The violence began after a Trump rally, where he, his son, and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani urged a crowd to fight with him in his bid to get Congress to reject Joe Biden’s election as president.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/12/capitol ... arges.html
Re: POLITICS
OpenSecrets
"Prolific fundraising gives Pelosi the edge in speaker election"
By Karl Evers-Hillstrom
November 16, 2020 12:44 pm
Democrats will hold a razor thin majority in the House come January, limping into the 117th Congress on the heels of an election in which they were expected to gain seats but may ultimately lose a dozen members.
That disastrous result has sparked intra-party disputes, with progressives and moderates giving opposing views on why Republicans were able to make gains in House races despite losing the presidential race by over 5 million votes.
Still, amid turmoil within her caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not expected to face opposition when Democrats choose their leaders this week.
Many Democrats have tried, and failed, to challenge Pelosi for the role of top House Democrat.
The lack of a challenger this time around signals that while House Democrats are stung by their 2020 losses, the caucus isn’t strong or united enough to choose a new leader.
Then there’s Pelosi’s ability to bring in campaign cash.
No other Democrat can say they’ve mustered anything close to the amount of money Pelosi raised for the party in 2020.
That matters in an era where positions of power in Congress — whether they’re leadership roles or committee assignments — come at a price.
Pelosi’s joint fundraising committee, the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund, raised a whopping $23.7 million through September 2020, up from $3.7 million through the entirety of the 2018 cycle.
It transferred $20 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ campaign arm.
Pelosi’s campaign committee transferred another $1.6 million to the DCCC.
Then there’s Pelosi’s leadership PAC, PAC to the Future, which contributed the maximum $10,000 to nearly every House Democrat running in a remotely competitive race.
Those are just committees with Pelosi’s name on them.
Pelosi also hosted numerous high-dollar fundraisers that brought in millions of dollars for Democrats, including a June event for wealthy donors featuring celebrities including John Legend and Jennifer Lawrence.
The committee for the event, Hold the House Victory Fund, raised $7.5 million for the DCCC and 30 frontline House members.
Other House Democrats in leadership positions raise big money for the DCCC but they aren’t close to Pelosi.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) each gave around $1 million between their campaigns and leadership PACs.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who oversaw impeachment inquiries as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent roughly $900,000 to the DCCC.
Schiff used his elevated profile to raise $10 million from small donors in the 2020 cycle, an incredible amount for a Democrat in a deep blue district.
Both House Democrats and Republicans use a points system that rewards members for raising money for the party or frontline members.
Members of Congress are expected to pay “party dues” if they want to remain on their preferred congressional committees.
Any member angling to become chair of a committee must bring in significant funds, and they are expected to raise even more money once they become chair.
That encourages committee chairs to take large PAC contributions from industry players aiming to gain influence with the committee on key issues.
Some members gain cache within their caucus by spending hours calling wealthy donors and asking them to donate to the party, activity that doesn’t have a paper trail like direct campaign contributions.
Often called “dialing for dollars,” the practice has received criticism for effectively turning lawmakers into telemarketers.
In a 2019 report by Issue One, former Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) called the party dues practice “virtual extortion.”
House Democrats will hold their caucus elections on Wednesday and Thursday.
If Pelosi wins the caucus vote, as she is expected to do, she will still need to secure a majority of votes in the full House to remain speaker.
With 13 races still too close to call as of Monday, Democrats held 219 seats to Republicans’ 203 seats.
Karl Evers-Hillstrom
Karl joined the Center for Responsive Politics in October 2018. As CRP’s money-in-politics reporter, he writes and edits stories for the news section and helps manage a team of diligent writers. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Karl graduated from State University of New York at New Paltz in 2016 with a B.A. in journalism. He previously worked at The Globe, a regional newspaper based in Worthington, Minnesota. His email is kevers@crp.org.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/1 ... aker-race/
"Prolific fundraising gives Pelosi the edge in speaker election"
By Karl Evers-Hillstrom
November 16, 2020 12:44 pm
Democrats will hold a razor thin majority in the House come January, limping into the 117th Congress on the heels of an election in which they were expected to gain seats but may ultimately lose a dozen members.
That disastrous result has sparked intra-party disputes, with progressives and moderates giving opposing views on why Republicans were able to make gains in House races despite losing the presidential race by over 5 million votes.
Still, amid turmoil within her caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is not expected to face opposition when Democrats choose their leaders this week.
Many Democrats have tried, and failed, to challenge Pelosi for the role of top House Democrat.
The lack of a challenger this time around signals that while House Democrats are stung by their 2020 losses, the caucus isn’t strong or united enough to choose a new leader.
Then there’s Pelosi’s ability to bring in campaign cash.
No other Democrat can say they’ve mustered anything close to the amount of money Pelosi raised for the party in 2020.
That matters in an era where positions of power in Congress — whether they’re leadership roles or committee assignments — come at a price.
Pelosi’s joint fundraising committee, the Nancy Pelosi Victory Fund, raised a whopping $23.7 million through September 2020, up from $3.7 million through the entirety of the 2018 cycle.
It transferred $20 million to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ campaign arm.
Pelosi’s campaign committee transferred another $1.6 million to the DCCC.
Then there’s Pelosi’s leadership PAC, PAC to the Future, which contributed the maximum $10,000 to nearly every House Democrat running in a remotely competitive race.
Those are just committees with Pelosi’s name on them.
Pelosi also hosted numerous high-dollar fundraisers that brought in millions of dollars for Democrats, including a June event for wealthy donors featuring celebrities including John Legend and Jennifer Lawrence.
The committee for the event, Hold the House Victory Fund, raised $7.5 million for the DCCC and 30 frontline House members.
Other House Democrats in leadership positions raise big money for the DCCC but they aren’t close to Pelosi.
House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) each gave around $1 million between their campaigns and leadership PACs.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who oversaw impeachment inquiries as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent roughly $900,000 to the DCCC.
Schiff used his elevated profile to raise $10 million from small donors in the 2020 cycle, an incredible amount for a Democrat in a deep blue district.
Both House Democrats and Republicans use a points system that rewards members for raising money for the party or frontline members.
Members of Congress are expected to pay “party dues” if they want to remain on their preferred congressional committees.
Any member angling to become chair of a committee must bring in significant funds, and they are expected to raise even more money once they become chair.
That encourages committee chairs to take large PAC contributions from industry players aiming to gain influence with the committee on key issues.
Some members gain cache within their caucus by spending hours calling wealthy donors and asking them to donate to the party, activity that doesn’t have a paper trail like direct campaign contributions.
Often called “dialing for dollars,” the practice has received criticism for effectively turning lawmakers into telemarketers.
In a 2019 report by Issue One, former Rep. Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.) called the party dues practice “virtual extortion.”
House Democrats will hold their caucus elections on Wednesday and Thursday.
If Pelosi wins the caucus vote, as she is expected to do, she will still need to secure a majority of votes in the full House to remain speaker.
With 13 races still too close to call as of Monday, Democrats held 219 seats to Republicans’ 203 seats.
Karl Evers-Hillstrom
Karl joined the Center for Responsive Politics in October 2018. As CRP’s money-in-politics reporter, he writes and edits stories for the news section and helps manage a team of diligent writers. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Karl graduated from State University of New York at New Paltz in 2016 with a B.A. in journalism. He previously worked at The Globe, a regional newspaper based in Worthington, Minnesota. His email is kevers@crp.org.
https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/1 ... aker-race/
Re: POLITICS
CNBC
"Ohio researchers say they’ve identified two new Covid strains likely originating in the U.S."
Will Feuer @WillFOIA
Published Wed, Jan 13 2021
Key Points
* Ohio researchers said Wednesday that they’ve discovered two new variants of the coronavirus, one of which has become the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio.
* The new strain prevalent in the city appears to spread more easily, the researchers said.
* “This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” Dr. Dan Jones, lead author of the study, said.
Researchers in Ohio said Wednesday that they’ve discovered two new variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the U.S. — one of which quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period in late December and early January.
Like the strain first detected in the U.K., the U.S. mutations appear to make Covid-19 more contagious but do not seem like they will diminish the effectiveness of the vaccines, researchers said.
The Ohio State University researchers have not yet published their full findings, but said a non-peer-reviewed study is forthcoming.
Jason McDonald, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement to CNBC that the agency is looking at the new research.
One of the new strains, found in just one patient in Ohio, contains a mutation identical to the now-dominant variant in the U.K., researchers said, noting that it “likely arose in a virus strain already present in the United States.”
However, the “Columbus strain,” which the researchers said in a press release has become dominant in the city, includes “three other gene mutations not previously seen together in SARS-CoV2.”
“This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology at Ohio State and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“We know this shift didn’t come from the U.K. or South African branches of the virus.”
Researchers at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center have been sequencing the virus since March, but have since drastically scaled up their efforts to sequence hundreds of samples per week, Jones told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday.
He added that he’s sent his team’s findings to the Ohio Department of Health, but not the CDC yet.
“We are now in a period where the virus is changing quite substantially,” Jones said.
“This is the moment, as we’re starting to see changes, where vaccination is being introduced and where the virus has been in the human population for some months, where we do want to be looking out very carefully for the emergence of not just single mutations, but new strains that have multiple mutations.”
Jones added that it’s too early to determine how much more infectious the strain in Columbus might be, but researchers believe it’s likely more contagious just based on how quickly it’s spread over the past few weeks.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer of the Ohio Department of Health, said in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday that the department is “not surprised” that a new strain of the virus was found in the state.
“The arrival of this new strain in Ohio is always concerning because more contagious strains could lead to more people getting sick, more people getting hospitalized, and ultimately more people dying,” he said.
“No matter what strain of COVID-19, people can continue to protect themselves by wearing masks consistently, staying at least 6 feet apart, avoiding crowds, ventilating indoor spaces, and frequent hand washing.”
Peter Mohler, chief scientific officer at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and co-author of the forthcoming study, said there’s no data to indicate that either of the new strains will impact the effectiveness of vaccines.
“It’s important that we don’t overreact to this new variant until we obtain additional data,” he said in a statement.
“We need to understand the impact of mutations on transmission of the virus, the prevalence of the strain in the population and whether it has a more significant impact on human health."
Mohler said the discovery of the new strains is a testament to the lab’s efforts to ramp up genetic sequencing as the virus appears to mutate at a faster pace in recent months.
He added they hope to publish data in the coming weeks, and that they are exploring whether Covid-19 molecular tests accurately diagnose the new variants.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force warned states earlier this month that there may be a “USA variant” circulating.
The hypothesis, which The New York Times reported was pushed by task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, was based on how severe the U.S. outbreak has become in recent months.
The CDC said in a statement last week that it has not yet detected a new variant in the U.S. unrelated to already-discovered strains.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, said it’s difficult to assess the significance of the findings without seeing the data.
Researchers have warned that as the virus spreads widely around the world, it has more opportunities to evolve, potentially becoming more infectious or rendering treatments and vaccines less effective.
Following the discovery of new strains in the U.K. and South Africa, the CDC has ramped up efforts to track the genetic sequence of the virus in the U.S.
Dr. Greg Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, said last month that the agency is contracting with academic centers around the country to sequence samples and search for new variants locally.
Those centers, he said, are in Boston, New Haven, Connecticut, Athens, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Madison, Wisconsin, and the Scripps Institute in San Diego.
He added that many academic centers across the country have the ability and expertise to sequence samples of the virus, and are ramping up efforts to do so.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/ohio-re ... he-us.html
"Ohio researchers say they’ve identified two new Covid strains likely originating in the U.S."
Will Feuer @WillFOIA
Published Wed, Jan 13 2021
Key Points
* Ohio researchers said Wednesday that they’ve discovered two new variants of the coronavirus, one of which has become the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio.
* The new strain prevalent in the city appears to spread more easily, the researchers said.
* “This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” Dr. Dan Jones, lead author of the study, said.
Researchers in Ohio said Wednesday that they’ve discovered two new variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the U.S. — one of which quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period in late December and early January.
Like the strain first detected in the U.K., the U.S. mutations appear to make Covid-19 more contagious but do not seem like they will diminish the effectiveness of the vaccines, researchers said.
The Ohio State University researchers have not yet published their full findings, but said a non-peer-reviewed study is forthcoming.
Jason McDonald, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement to CNBC that the agency is looking at the new research.
One of the new strains, found in just one patient in Ohio, contains a mutation identical to the now-dominant variant in the U.K., researchers said, noting that it “likely arose in a virus strain already present in the United States.”
However, the “Columbus strain,” which the researchers said in a press release has become dominant in the city, includes “three other gene mutations not previously seen together in SARS-CoV2.”
“This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology at Ohio State and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“We know this shift didn’t come from the U.K. or South African branches of the virus.”
Researchers at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center have been sequencing the virus since March, but have since drastically scaled up their efforts to sequence hundreds of samples per week, Jones told reporters at a press briefing Wednesday.
He added that he’s sent his team’s findings to the Ohio Department of Health, but not the CDC yet.
“We are now in a period where the virus is changing quite substantially,” Jones said.
“This is the moment, as we’re starting to see changes, where vaccination is being introduced and where the virus has been in the human population for some months, where we do want to be looking out very carefully for the emergence of not just single mutations, but new strains that have multiple mutations.”
Jones added that it’s too early to determine how much more infectious the strain in Columbus might be, but researchers believe it’s likely more contagious just based on how quickly it’s spread over the past few weeks.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer of the Ohio Department of Health, said in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday that the department is “not surprised” that a new strain of the virus was found in the state.
“The arrival of this new strain in Ohio is always concerning because more contagious strains could lead to more people getting sick, more people getting hospitalized, and ultimately more people dying,” he said.
“No matter what strain of COVID-19, people can continue to protect themselves by wearing masks consistently, staying at least 6 feet apart, avoiding crowds, ventilating indoor spaces, and frequent hand washing.”
Peter Mohler, chief scientific officer at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and co-author of the forthcoming study, said there’s no data to indicate that either of the new strains will impact the effectiveness of vaccines.
“It’s important that we don’t overreact to this new variant until we obtain additional data,” he said in a statement.
“We need to understand the impact of mutations on transmission of the virus, the prevalence of the strain in the population and whether it has a more significant impact on human health."
Mohler said the discovery of the new strains is a testament to the lab’s efforts to ramp up genetic sequencing as the virus appears to mutate at a faster pace in recent months.
He added they hope to publish data in the coming weeks, and that they are exploring whether Covid-19 molecular tests accurately diagnose the new variants.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force warned states earlier this month that there may be a “USA variant” circulating.
The hypothesis, which The New York Times reported was pushed by task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, was based on how severe the U.S. outbreak has become in recent months.
The CDC said in a statement last week that it has not yet detected a new variant in the U.S. unrelated to already-discovered strains.
Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Georgetown Center for Global Health Science and Security, said it’s difficult to assess the significance of the findings without seeing the data.
Researchers have warned that as the virus spreads widely around the world, it has more opportunities to evolve, potentially becoming more infectious or rendering treatments and vaccines less effective.
Following the discovery of new strains in the U.K. and South Africa, the CDC has ramped up efforts to track the genetic sequence of the virus in the U.S.
Dr. Greg Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection, said last month that the agency is contracting with academic centers around the country to sequence samples and search for new variants locally.
Those centers, he said, are in Boston, New Haven, Connecticut, Athens, Georgia, Nashville, Tennessee, Madison, Wisconsin, and the Scripps Institute in San Diego.
He added that many academic centers across the country have the ability and expertise to sequence samples of the virus, and are ramping up efforts to do so.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/ohio-re ... he-us.html
Re: POLITICS
REUTERS
"Fed policymakers push back on QE taper talk"
By Ann Saphir, Howard Schneider
January 13, 2021
(Reuters) - Despite optimism over vaccines and the likelihood of more fiscal stimulus under the incoming Biden administration, the Federal Reserve is sticking with its super-easy monetary policy, policymakers made clear on Wednesday.
“The economy is far away from our goals in terms of both employment and inflation,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard told the Canadian Association for Business Economics.
“Given my baseline outlook, I expect that the current pace of purchases will remain appropriate for quite some time.”
The Fed is adding Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to its balance sheet at a pace of $120 billion a month, and has promised to keep doing so until it sees “substantial further progress” toward its goals of full employment and 2% inflation.
“Even under an optimistic outlook, it will take time to achieve substantial further progress,” Brainard said, adding that the purchases are supporting the recovery and “we stand ready to increase those amounts should we judge that to be warranted.”
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that while the labor market has improved dramatically, there was still a long way to go.
“Certain sectors have really been hard hit and for them to come back we are going to have to get this vaccine rolled out,” Bullard said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference.
For the economy as a whole, “it’s possible you get a boom... but let’s wait and see if that actually happens.”
The remarks may reset expectations among bond market participants and investors who in recent days have been increasing bets the central bank could pare its bond-buying before the year is out.
They’ve done so partly because the election of two Democratic senators last week from Georgia gives the incoming Biden administration’s party control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Economists at JP Morgan say that sets the stage for a new $900 billion stimulus package in the next few months, on top of the $892 billion package passed last month.
The extra cash for households, businesses and others boosts the odds that the economy will meet the Fed’s “substantial further progress” bar, allowing the taper to begin “by year’s end,” they wrote last week.
Expectations for the taper also gained steam after Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said in recent days they expect an economic surge later this year that may allow the Fed to begin to reduce purchases.
NOW IS NOT THE TIME
Analysts said it wasn’t yet the right time to set the stage for a pullback in asset purchases.
“I think it is just a mistake” to already start signaling a taper, said Joe Gagnon, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Fed staff economist.
A new pandemic aid package could certainly boost the economic outlook, he said, and “it’s not unreasonable to start thinking internally about this – but I don’t know what the hurry is to talk publicly about it.”
Minutes of last month’s policysetting meeting showed Fed policymakers want to let investors know “well in advance” of any plans to start pulling back bond-buying.
That stance, analysts say, is likely motivated by a desire to avoid wrong-footing markets or in any way repeating the “taper tantrum” of 2013, when bond yields surged in response to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s unexpected signaling that the Fed could pare bond buys.
The episode ultimately delayed the Fed’s eventual reduction of asset purchases and a rates liftoff.
In recent weeks bond yields have risen modestly, though not enough to concern Fed policymakers.
Still, Cornerstone Macro economist Roberto Perli termed the phenomenon a “mini” taper tantrum, calling comments about reducing bond purchases “extremely unhelpful to the credibility of the Fed’s new framework.”
Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks Thursday and may well “reinforce this message...reiterating the large gap to goals and a steady-as-she-goes approach to policy with no early consideration of a policy transition in response to better fiscal prospects,” wrote Evercore ISI vice chairman Krishna Guha.
Still, if the government delivers a big fiscal package and vaccines continue to be rolled out successfully, Fed policymakers could deliver a “firm taper signal” by the June meeting, Jefferies economist Aneta Markowska said - plenty of time to get markets ready for a taper by the end of the year if needed.
Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed ... SL1N2JO2H9
"Fed policymakers push back on QE taper talk"
By Ann Saphir, Howard Schneider
January 13, 2021
(Reuters) - Despite optimism over vaccines and the likelihood of more fiscal stimulus under the incoming Biden administration, the Federal Reserve is sticking with its super-easy monetary policy, policymakers made clear on Wednesday.
“The economy is far away from our goals in terms of both employment and inflation,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard told the Canadian Association for Business Economics.
“Given my baseline outlook, I expect that the current pace of purchases will remain appropriate for quite some time.”
The Fed is adding Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities to its balance sheet at a pace of $120 billion a month, and has promised to keep doing so until it sees “substantial further progress” toward its goals of full employment and 2% inflation.
“Even under an optimistic outlook, it will take time to achieve substantial further progress,” Brainard said, adding that the purchases are supporting the recovery and “we stand ready to increase those amounts should we judge that to be warranted.”
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that while the labor market has improved dramatically, there was still a long way to go.
“Certain sectors have really been hard hit and for them to come back we are going to have to get this vaccine rolled out,” Bullard said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference.
For the economy as a whole, “it’s possible you get a boom... but let’s wait and see if that actually happens.”
The remarks may reset expectations among bond market participants and investors who in recent days have been increasing bets the central bank could pare its bond-buying before the year is out.
They’ve done so partly because the election of two Democratic senators last week from Georgia gives the incoming Biden administration’s party control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Economists at JP Morgan say that sets the stage for a new $900 billion stimulus package in the next few months, on top of the $892 billion package passed last month.
The extra cash for households, businesses and others boosts the odds that the economy will meet the Fed’s “substantial further progress” bar, allowing the taper to begin “by year’s end,” they wrote last week.
Expectations for the taper also gained steam after Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said in recent days they expect an economic surge later this year that may allow the Fed to begin to reduce purchases.
NOW IS NOT THE TIME
Analysts said it wasn’t yet the right time to set the stage for a pullback in asset purchases.
“I think it is just a mistake” to already start signaling a taper, said Joe Gagnon, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Fed staff economist.
A new pandemic aid package could certainly boost the economic outlook, he said, and “it’s not unreasonable to start thinking internally about this – but I don’t know what the hurry is to talk publicly about it.”
Minutes of last month’s policysetting meeting showed Fed policymakers want to let investors know “well in advance” of any plans to start pulling back bond-buying.
That stance, analysts say, is likely motivated by a desire to avoid wrong-footing markets or in any way repeating the “taper tantrum” of 2013, when bond yields surged in response to Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s unexpected signaling that the Fed could pare bond buys.
The episode ultimately delayed the Fed’s eventual reduction of asset purchases and a rates liftoff.
In recent weeks bond yields have risen modestly, though not enough to concern Fed policymakers.
Still, Cornerstone Macro economist Roberto Perli termed the phenomenon a “mini” taper tantrum, calling comments about reducing bond purchases “extremely unhelpful to the credibility of the Fed’s new framework.”
Fed Chair Jerome Powell speaks Thursday and may well “reinforce this message...reiterating the large gap to goals and a steady-as-she-goes approach to policy with no early consideration of a policy transition in response to better fiscal prospects,” wrote Evercore ISI vice chairman Krishna Guha.
Still, if the government delivers a big fiscal package and vaccines continue to be rolled out successfully, Fed policymakers could deliver a “firm taper signal” by the June meeting, Jefferies economist Aneta Markowska said - plenty of time to get markets ready for a taper by the end of the year if needed.
Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Andrea Ricci
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed ... SL1N2JO2H9
Re: POLITICS
REUTERS
"U.S. economy growing modestly but virus tempers optimism, Fed says"
By Jonnelle Marte, Ann Saphir
January 13, 2021
(Reuters) - U.S. economic activity increased modestly in recent weeks and a growing number of the Federal Reserve’s districts saw a drop in employment as a surge in coronavirus cases led to more shutdowns of businesses, the U.S. central bank said on Wednesday.
In the Fed’s latest “Beige Book” report, a collection of anecdotes from businesses across the country, Fed officials revealed how the pandemic’s imprint varied by region and industry as rising infections dampened the optimism promised by the arrival of effective coronavirus vaccines.
Indeed, the vaccine rollout was a frequently cited source of optimism in many of the Fed’s 12 regional districts, with 10 mentions in the report, twice the number in the previous Beige Book that was released in early December.
“Although the prospect of COVID-19 vaccines has bolstered business optimism for 2021 growth, this has been tempered by concern over the recent virus resurgence and the implications for near-term business conditions,” the Fed noted in the report.
The report was the first since last May to report outright declines in activity in some of the Fed’s districts.
While contacts in most of the country reported economic gains, the New York and Philadelphia districts said activity had weakened and the Cleveland district reported a loss in momentum due to the rise in infections.
The St. Louis and Kansas City districts reported little change.
A majority of the Fed districts said employment had risen, though the pace was slow.
More troubling was that “a growing number of Districts reported a drop in employment levels” since the previous Beige Book was compiled.
The manufacturing, construction and transportation industries continued to add jobs, but the report said “contacts in the leisure and hospitality sectors reported renewed employment cuts due to stricter containment measures.”
ADAPTING TO NEW ENVIRONMENT
The U.S. economy shed 140,000 jobs in December as the country faced a surge of COVID-19 infections, the first loss of jobs in eight months and a sign that the economic recovery could be losing momentum.
As difficult as the environment was for many consumer-facing businesses, the report also highlighted that some in that space were adapting to a rapidly changing COVID-19 operating environment.
In the Fed’s Boston district, for instance, one clothing retailer reported that store foot traffic remained down 30% from a year earlier, but year-over-year sales in November were up about 5% due to strong online buying and other factors.
“With modest increases in sales throughout 2020, this retailer had greater profits because of reduced store operating costs and smaller promotions than in recent years,” the report said.
Analysts and Fed officials also say there is reason to think the economy may rebound in the second half of 2021, bolstered by the rollout of coronavirus vaccines and a fresh round of pandemic-related government aid.
A $900 billion relief package passed in late December should help to backstop the economy until the spring, and expectations are high the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will ramp up the stimulus and intensify efforts to fight the virus.
Beyond boosting economic growth expectations this year, the vaccine rollout may already be helping specific corners of the economy, given the specific cold storage needs required to keep the vaccines from spoiling.
Some ethanol producers have been “helped by growing demand for byproducts such as carbon dioxide for dry ice,” the Fed’s Chicago district reported.
Fed officials have reiterated their promise to keep short-term interest rates low and to maintain the central bank’s asset purchases until the economy is on more stable footing.
The Fed’s next policy meeting is scheduled for Jan. 26-27.
The Beige Book was prepared at the San Francisco Fed based on information collected on or before Jan. 4, 2021.
Reporting by Jonnelle Marte and Ann Saphir; Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed ... SL1N2JO2KR
"U.S. economy growing modestly but virus tempers optimism, Fed says"
By Jonnelle Marte, Ann Saphir
January 13, 2021
(Reuters) - U.S. economic activity increased modestly in recent weeks and a growing number of the Federal Reserve’s districts saw a drop in employment as a surge in coronavirus cases led to more shutdowns of businesses, the U.S. central bank said on Wednesday.
In the Fed’s latest “Beige Book” report, a collection of anecdotes from businesses across the country, Fed officials revealed how the pandemic’s imprint varied by region and industry as rising infections dampened the optimism promised by the arrival of effective coronavirus vaccines.
Indeed, the vaccine rollout was a frequently cited source of optimism in many of the Fed’s 12 regional districts, with 10 mentions in the report, twice the number in the previous Beige Book that was released in early December.
“Although the prospect of COVID-19 vaccines has bolstered business optimism for 2021 growth, this has been tempered by concern over the recent virus resurgence and the implications for near-term business conditions,” the Fed noted in the report.
The report was the first since last May to report outright declines in activity in some of the Fed’s districts.
While contacts in most of the country reported economic gains, the New York and Philadelphia districts said activity had weakened and the Cleveland district reported a loss in momentum due to the rise in infections.
The St. Louis and Kansas City districts reported little change.
A majority of the Fed districts said employment had risen, though the pace was slow.
More troubling was that “a growing number of Districts reported a drop in employment levels” since the previous Beige Book was compiled.
The manufacturing, construction and transportation industries continued to add jobs, but the report said “contacts in the leisure and hospitality sectors reported renewed employment cuts due to stricter containment measures.”
ADAPTING TO NEW ENVIRONMENT
The U.S. economy shed 140,000 jobs in December as the country faced a surge of COVID-19 infections, the first loss of jobs in eight months and a sign that the economic recovery could be losing momentum.
As difficult as the environment was for many consumer-facing businesses, the report also highlighted that some in that space were adapting to a rapidly changing COVID-19 operating environment.
In the Fed’s Boston district, for instance, one clothing retailer reported that store foot traffic remained down 30% from a year earlier, but year-over-year sales in November were up about 5% due to strong online buying and other factors.
“With modest increases in sales throughout 2020, this retailer had greater profits because of reduced store operating costs and smaller promotions than in recent years,” the report said.
Analysts and Fed officials also say there is reason to think the economy may rebound in the second half of 2021, bolstered by the rollout of coronavirus vaccines and a fresh round of pandemic-related government aid.
A $900 billion relief package passed in late December should help to backstop the economy until the spring, and expectations are high the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will ramp up the stimulus and intensify efforts to fight the virus.
Beyond boosting economic growth expectations this year, the vaccine rollout may already be helping specific corners of the economy, given the specific cold storage needs required to keep the vaccines from spoiling.
Some ethanol producers have been “helped by growing demand for byproducts such as carbon dioxide for dry ice,” the Fed’s Chicago district reported.
Fed officials have reiterated their promise to keep short-term interest rates low and to maintain the central bank’s asset purchases until the economy is on more stable footing.
The Fed’s next policy meeting is scheduled for Jan. 26-27.
The Beige Book was prepared at the San Francisco Fed based on information collected on or before Jan. 4, 2021.
Reporting by Jonnelle Marte and Ann Saphir; Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao
https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-fed ... SL1N2JO2KR
Re: POLITICS
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR January 13, 2021 at 7:23 pm
Paul Plante says:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
That, people, is Virginian James Madison speaking to us across the gulf of time in FEDERALIST No. 47, The Particular Structure of the New Government and the Distribution of Power Among Its Different Parts, from the New York Packet on Friday, February 1, 1788, to the People of the State of New York, and as we watch the takeover of this country by the Democrat party with the Democrats now having complete control over the executive and legislative branches of our national government, which in turn gives them control over the judiciary, we should ask ourselves this one pertinent question, to wit:
WHY?
Why is it that we have voted to impose a tyranny on ourselves?
And leaving that question hanging for a moment, and this is all with regard to the rioting and anarchy that the nation witnessed in Washington, D.C. on 6 January 2021, which is not all that different from what we witnessed back in the turbulent 60s, to be truthful, I want to go back to FEDERALIST No. 10 by James Madison, to wit:
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
end quotes
Think about it, people – the founders gave us a REPUBLIC, but people wanted democracy, instead, which is what we are now stuck with to our detriment as a nation and as a people, and that brings us back to the present moment and this from U.S. Sen. Anthony M. Bucco, a Republican who represents New Jersey’s 25th district, to wit:
“There is no room in our democracy for violence, the destruction of property, or the disruption of that orderly transition.”
“Democracy will prevail, just as law and order will prevail over disorder and chaos.”
end quotes
Which makes the Senator from New Jersey sound real stupid and uninformed, because as we see from not only our own history, but the history of democracies going back in time, and here, all you have to do is a cursory study of the Greeks, democracy is simply another word for violence, the destruction of property, and disorder and chaos, which takes us back in time to 1969 and this from the Harvard Crimson, to wit:
“Police Tear Gas Routs Demonstrators In Skirmish at Department of Justice”
By John G. Short
November 17, 1969
(Special to the CRIMSON)
WASHINGTON, D. C.- Police routed 10,000 people – some of them spectators – in a rally of militant antiwar groups here Saturday afternoon, driving them from in front of the Justice Department with tear gas and clubs.
end quotes
Yes, people, we really have been here before, many times, actually, and having been alive back then, and you can call up photos from those times to check it out for yourself, those protesters who were being clubbed and beaten back then were white, not Black, which goes to this statement going around today that Black rioters are treated differently than white rioters, which is yet more BULL**** being pumped our way by the ignorant and partisan main-stream media in this country.
Getting back to The Crimson:
They arrested 50 demonstrators as Attorney General John Mitchell watched from his office window.
Demonstrators had been throwing bottles and stones through windows of the building and at police.
end quotes
So, okay, it was only the Justice Department building whose windows they were smashing, not the capital, so that is a whole lot less serious than what happened in Washington on 6 January 2021, where a mob estimated between 10,000 and 30,000 were seen around the capitol, or so we are to believe, anyway, and that is because in 1969, it was the Republicans in charge of the Justice Department, so given they were not Democrats, the dominant political force here in the United States of America, it was okay for the mob to attack them, which again takes us back to The Crimson for more, to wit:
Rally
The rally began shortly after 4 p. m. when a coalition of the Yippies, the Weathermen, the Mad Dogs, and small anarchist groups from New York City gathered around huge papier mache figures of Spiro Agnew and other men in the government.
end quotes
HUH?
WTF?
Rioting?
Insurrection?
Sedition?
Civil disobedience?
Anarchy?
Treason?
All of the above?
And with those questions before us, let us drop back to 1968, when Eugene McCarthy, a little-known Democratic senator from Minnesota, announced on November 20, 1967, that he would seek the party’s nomination for president, this a month after another mammoth demonstration at the Pentagon.
McCarthy was very straightforward about his political goals — rehabilitating the American political system and getting the antiwar protests off the streets:
“There is growing evidence of a deepening moral crisis in America — discontent and frustration and a disposition to take extralegal if not illegal actions to manifest protest.”
“I am hopeful that this challenge…may alleviate at least in some degree this sense of political hopelessness and restore to many people a belief in the process of American politics and of American government…[and] that it may counter the growing sense of alienation from politics, which I think is currently reflected in a tendency to withdraw from political action, to talk of nonparticipation, to become cynical and to make threats of support for third parties or fourth parties or other irregular political movements.”
end quotes
So contrary to what the Senator from New Jersey is saying, there is indeed plenty of room in our democracy for violence, the destruction of property, or the disruption of that orderly transition, because democracy is a synonym for political violence, just as Jemmy Madison told us in FEDERALIST No. 10, to wit:
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
Getting back to the political violence our democracy provided for us back in 1969, let’s go back to The Crimson for more, to wit:
A march led by red, blue and yellow Viet Cong flags began circling the Justice Department building from its front door on Constitution Ave.
The group had a permit to rally from 5 to 8 p. m.
The marchers demanded an end to the Chicago trial of the eight people charged with conspiracy to riot at last year’s Democratic National Convention.
They also demanded the freeing of Bobby Seale, one of the eight, who was sentenced to four years in jail for contempt of court in that trial.
Shortly after the march had rounded the building and was back on Constitution Avenue, a demonstrator threw a red smoke bomb which exploded next to the building.
Then, with thousands of demonstrators jammed in the street in front of the Justice Department, members of the crowd hurled rocks and bottles at the windows.
A line of Mobe marshals briefly ringed the base of the Justice Department building holding their fingers in the V-shape to try to stop the barrage.
Police moved in from the east and fired two successive rounds of tear gas which drove about a quarter of the crowd back into the Mall to the south.
In the meantime, other police formed a line across Constitution Avenue to block the main body of the demonstrators.
Some of these hauled down the American flag from the Justice Department’s pole and ran up their Viet Cong flag.
Police then took it down.
end quotes
There is no room in our democracy for violence, the destruction of property, and democracy will prevail, just as law and order will prevail over disorder and chaos?
Getting back to the democracy, we have:
For some 15 minutes demonstrators and police confronted each other until the crowd began to throw rocks and sticks at police.
Then the police began a massive tear gas attack on the crowd.
The police first shot gas at the front of the crowd, which began to retreat immediately.
Then as the 10,000 – both militant demonstrators and less-militant spectators – on Constitution Avenue tried to leave the area, the crowd was bottle-necked by narrow exits.
Two thousand people trying to get between the Museum of Natural History and a concrete underpass could move no faster than a very slow walk.
Big clouds of tear gas covered the crowd.
Police fired more cannisters of gas into the air so that they landed and exploded in the midst of the crowd on the feet and clothing of the retreating demonstrators.
Many Blinded
The gas blinded those it hit and made it very difficult for them to breathe.
Many were overcome and collapsed.
Many others lay gagging and vomiting over the rail into the underpass.
A larger group of demonstrators was similarly trapped on Constitution Avenue.
Police arrested about 30 for disorderly conduct.
Most of the people from this group headed north towards Pennsylvania Ave Some then headed west to the White House where they were repulsed again, and where more were arrested.
As they retreated, some groups smashed some store windows.
A total of 20 windows at the Justice Department were broken.
Over 100 demonstrators were arrested Saturday on a variety of charges.
end quotes
Boy, isn’t democracy just the best thing that ever happened since somebody discovered that if you dropped a piece of plain white bread into the fire, if you got it out soon enough, it made for some great toast!
So was what happened in Washington, D.C. on 6 January 2021 really an insurrection because Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats say it was?
Or was it anarchy, plain and simple?
Stay tuned, for more is yet to come!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-316308
Paul Plante says:
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
That, people, is Virginian James Madison speaking to us across the gulf of time in FEDERALIST No. 47, The Particular Structure of the New Government and the Distribution of Power Among Its Different Parts, from the New York Packet on Friday, February 1, 1788, to the People of the State of New York, and as we watch the takeover of this country by the Democrat party with the Democrats now having complete control over the executive and legislative branches of our national government, which in turn gives them control over the judiciary, we should ask ourselves this one pertinent question, to wit:
WHY?
Why is it that we have voted to impose a tyranny on ourselves?
And leaving that question hanging for a moment, and this is all with regard to the rioting and anarchy that the nation witnessed in Washington, D.C. on 6 January 2021, which is not all that different from what we witnessed back in the turbulent 60s, to be truthful, I want to go back to FEDERALIST No. 10 by James Madison, to wit:
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
end quotes
Think about it, people – the founders gave us a REPUBLIC, but people wanted democracy, instead, which is what we are now stuck with to our detriment as a nation and as a people, and that brings us back to the present moment and this from U.S. Sen. Anthony M. Bucco, a Republican who represents New Jersey’s 25th district, to wit:
“There is no room in our democracy for violence, the destruction of property, or the disruption of that orderly transition.”
“Democracy will prevail, just as law and order will prevail over disorder and chaos.”
end quotes
Which makes the Senator from New Jersey sound real stupid and uninformed, because as we see from not only our own history, but the history of democracies going back in time, and here, all you have to do is a cursory study of the Greeks, democracy is simply another word for violence, the destruction of property, and disorder and chaos, which takes us back in time to 1969 and this from the Harvard Crimson, to wit:
“Police Tear Gas Routs Demonstrators In Skirmish at Department of Justice”
By John G. Short
November 17, 1969
(Special to the CRIMSON)
WASHINGTON, D. C.- Police routed 10,000 people – some of them spectators – in a rally of militant antiwar groups here Saturday afternoon, driving them from in front of the Justice Department with tear gas and clubs.
end quotes
Yes, people, we really have been here before, many times, actually, and having been alive back then, and you can call up photos from those times to check it out for yourself, those protesters who were being clubbed and beaten back then were white, not Black, which goes to this statement going around today that Black rioters are treated differently than white rioters, which is yet more BULL**** being pumped our way by the ignorant and partisan main-stream media in this country.
Getting back to The Crimson:
They arrested 50 demonstrators as Attorney General John Mitchell watched from his office window.
Demonstrators had been throwing bottles and stones through windows of the building and at police.
end quotes
So, okay, it was only the Justice Department building whose windows they were smashing, not the capital, so that is a whole lot less serious than what happened in Washington on 6 January 2021, where a mob estimated between 10,000 and 30,000 were seen around the capitol, or so we are to believe, anyway, and that is because in 1969, it was the Republicans in charge of the Justice Department, so given they were not Democrats, the dominant political force here in the United States of America, it was okay for the mob to attack them, which again takes us back to The Crimson for more, to wit:
Rally
The rally began shortly after 4 p. m. when a coalition of the Yippies, the Weathermen, the Mad Dogs, and small anarchist groups from New York City gathered around huge papier mache figures of Spiro Agnew and other men in the government.
end quotes
HUH?
WTF?
Rioting?
Insurrection?
Sedition?
Civil disobedience?
Anarchy?
Treason?
All of the above?
And with those questions before us, let us drop back to 1968, when Eugene McCarthy, a little-known Democratic senator from Minnesota, announced on November 20, 1967, that he would seek the party’s nomination for president, this a month after another mammoth demonstration at the Pentagon.
McCarthy was very straightforward about his political goals — rehabilitating the American political system and getting the antiwar protests off the streets:
“There is growing evidence of a deepening moral crisis in America — discontent and frustration and a disposition to take extralegal if not illegal actions to manifest protest.”
“I am hopeful that this challenge…may alleviate at least in some degree this sense of political hopelessness and restore to many people a belief in the process of American politics and of American government…[and] that it may counter the growing sense of alienation from politics, which I think is currently reflected in a tendency to withdraw from political action, to talk of nonparticipation, to become cynical and to make threats of support for third parties or fourth parties or other irregular political movements.”
end quotes
So contrary to what the Senator from New Jersey is saying, there is indeed plenty of room in our democracy for violence, the destruction of property, or the disruption of that orderly transition, because democracy is a synonym for political violence, just as Jemmy Madison told us in FEDERALIST No. 10, to wit:
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
Getting back to the political violence our democracy provided for us back in 1969, let’s go back to The Crimson for more, to wit:
A march led by red, blue and yellow Viet Cong flags began circling the Justice Department building from its front door on Constitution Ave.
The group had a permit to rally from 5 to 8 p. m.
The marchers demanded an end to the Chicago trial of the eight people charged with conspiracy to riot at last year’s Democratic National Convention.
They also demanded the freeing of Bobby Seale, one of the eight, who was sentenced to four years in jail for contempt of court in that trial.
Shortly after the march had rounded the building and was back on Constitution Avenue, a demonstrator threw a red smoke bomb which exploded next to the building.
Then, with thousands of demonstrators jammed in the street in front of the Justice Department, members of the crowd hurled rocks and bottles at the windows.
A line of Mobe marshals briefly ringed the base of the Justice Department building holding their fingers in the V-shape to try to stop the barrage.
Police moved in from the east and fired two successive rounds of tear gas which drove about a quarter of the crowd back into the Mall to the south.
In the meantime, other police formed a line across Constitution Avenue to block the main body of the demonstrators.
Some of these hauled down the American flag from the Justice Department’s pole and ran up their Viet Cong flag.
Police then took it down.
end quotes
There is no room in our democracy for violence, the destruction of property, and democracy will prevail, just as law and order will prevail over disorder and chaos?
Getting back to the democracy, we have:
For some 15 minutes demonstrators and police confronted each other until the crowd began to throw rocks and sticks at police.
Then the police began a massive tear gas attack on the crowd.
The police first shot gas at the front of the crowd, which began to retreat immediately.
Then as the 10,000 – both militant demonstrators and less-militant spectators – on Constitution Avenue tried to leave the area, the crowd was bottle-necked by narrow exits.
Two thousand people trying to get between the Museum of Natural History and a concrete underpass could move no faster than a very slow walk.
Big clouds of tear gas covered the crowd.
Police fired more cannisters of gas into the air so that they landed and exploded in the midst of the crowd on the feet and clothing of the retreating demonstrators.
Many Blinded
The gas blinded those it hit and made it very difficult for them to breathe.
Many were overcome and collapsed.
Many others lay gagging and vomiting over the rail into the underpass.
A larger group of demonstrators was similarly trapped on Constitution Avenue.
Police arrested about 30 for disorderly conduct.
Most of the people from this group headed north towards Pennsylvania Ave Some then headed west to the White House where they were repulsed again, and where more were arrested.
As they retreated, some groups smashed some store windows.
A total of 20 windows at the Justice Department were broken.
Over 100 demonstrators were arrested Saturday on a variety of charges.
end quotes
Boy, isn’t democracy just the best thing that ever happened since somebody discovered that if you dropped a piece of plain white bread into the fire, if you got it out soon enough, it made for some great toast!
So was what happened in Washington, D.C. on 6 January 2021 really an insurrection because Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats say it was?
Or was it anarchy, plain and simple?
Stay tuned, for more is yet to come!
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-316308
Re: POLITICS
CNBC
"Jobless claims surge to highest weekly total since August"
Jeff Cox @jeff.cox.7528 @JeffCoxCNBCcom
Published Thu, Jan 14 2021
Key Points
* First-time jobless claims totaled 965,000 last week vs. the Dow Jones estimate of 800,000.
* The total receiving benefits declined to 18.4 million but remained well above pre-pandemic levels.
* Most of the gains came in states with stringent business restrictions, though Florida and Texas saw sizable increases as well.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped to 965,000 last week amid signs of a slowdown in hiring due to pandemic restrictions, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The total was worse than Wall Street estimates of 800,000 and above the previous week’s total of 784,000.
Markets reacted little to the number, as the decline in economic activity is expected to be met with more stimulus from Washington.
President-elect Joe Biden later Thursday is announcing his hopes for another package likely in excess of $1 trillion.
Futures prices continued to indicate fractional opening gains on Wall Street.
Still, the jobless number for the week ended Jan. 9 was another sign of economic turmoil brought on by restrictions in activity aimed at combating the pandemic.
The total was the highest since the week of Aug. 22, when just over 1 million claims were filed.
Continuing claims also were higher, rising 199,000 to 5.27 million.
That figure runs a week behind the weekly claims total and increased for the first time since late November.
The total of those receiving government benefits declined sharply despite the rise in the weekly numbers.
That level fell to 18.4 million from 19.2 million in the previous week.
The data runs two weeks behind the weekly claims total.
The decrease came primarily from a slide in those filing for emergency pandemic claims, though it remains well above the 2.18 million receiving benefits a year earlier.
The increase in claims was spread across a handful of states, mostly those with more stringent restrictions on businesses.
Illinois, where Chicago has clamped down on restaurants, saw a jump of 51,280, according to unadjusted data.
Other big gainers were California, which doesn’t even allow outdoor dining and saw its claims number rise by 20,587, a 13% increase.
New York rose by 15,559.
However, several states with relatively loose restrictions also saw noticeable gains.
Florida saw its claims more than double to 50,747, while Texas saw a 14,282 increase.
Signs have been building lately that the job gains that began in May have begun to cool.
In December, nonfarm payrolls declined for the first time during the recovery from Covid-market lows, falling by 140,000 while the unemployment rate held at 6.7%.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that business contacts throughout the central bank’s 12 districts reported reduction in hiring and difficulty in filling positions.
Economists generally see the 2021 economy as starting off slow but then gaining momentum as the year progresses and the Covid vaccine spreads.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/14/us-week ... imate.html
"Jobless claims surge to highest weekly total since August"
Jeff Cox @jeff.cox.7528 @JeffCoxCNBCcom
Published Thu, Jan 14 2021
Key Points
* First-time jobless claims totaled 965,000 last week vs. the Dow Jones estimate of 800,000.
* The total receiving benefits declined to 18.4 million but remained well above pre-pandemic levels.
* Most of the gains came in states with stringent business restrictions, though Florida and Texas saw sizable increases as well.
First-time claims for unemployment insurance jumped to 965,000 last week amid signs of a slowdown in hiring due to pandemic restrictions, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The total was worse than Wall Street estimates of 800,000 and above the previous week’s total of 784,000.
Markets reacted little to the number, as the decline in economic activity is expected to be met with more stimulus from Washington.
President-elect Joe Biden later Thursday is announcing his hopes for another package likely in excess of $1 trillion.
Futures prices continued to indicate fractional opening gains on Wall Street.
Still, the jobless number for the week ended Jan. 9 was another sign of economic turmoil brought on by restrictions in activity aimed at combating the pandemic.
The total was the highest since the week of Aug. 22, when just over 1 million claims were filed.
Continuing claims also were higher, rising 199,000 to 5.27 million.
That figure runs a week behind the weekly claims total and increased for the first time since late November.
The total of those receiving government benefits declined sharply despite the rise in the weekly numbers.
That level fell to 18.4 million from 19.2 million in the previous week.
The data runs two weeks behind the weekly claims total.
The decrease came primarily from a slide in those filing for emergency pandemic claims, though it remains well above the 2.18 million receiving benefits a year earlier.
The increase in claims was spread across a handful of states, mostly those with more stringent restrictions on businesses.
Illinois, where Chicago has clamped down on restaurants, saw a jump of 51,280, according to unadjusted data.
Other big gainers were California, which doesn’t even allow outdoor dining and saw its claims number rise by 20,587, a 13% increase.
New York rose by 15,559.
However, several states with relatively loose restrictions also saw noticeable gains.
Florida saw its claims more than double to 50,747, while Texas saw a 14,282 increase.
Signs have been building lately that the job gains that began in May have begun to cool.
In December, nonfarm payrolls declined for the first time during the recovery from Covid-market lows, falling by 140,000 while the unemployment rate held at 6.7%.
The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that business contacts throughout the central bank’s 12 districts reported reduction in hiring and difficulty in filling positions.
Economists generally see the 2021 economy as starting off slow but then gaining momentum as the year progresses and the Covid vaccine spreads.
Data also provided by Reuters
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/14/us-week ... imate.html
Re: POLITICS
Paul Plante says
January 14, 2021 at 6:31 pm
And before we go further in here, let us go back in time for a moment to 1868, and the Articles of Impeachment the Republicans in the House of Representatives brought against Democrat Andrew Johnson, because as this matter of the “Trumpian Insurrection” develops further, it makes for interesting reading, to wit:
ARTICLE X.
That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office and the dignity and proprieties thereof, and of the harmony and courtesies which ought to exist and be maintained between the executive and legislative branches of the Government of the United States, designing and intending to set aside the rightful authority and powers of Congress, did attempt to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States and the several branches thereof, to impair and destroy the regard and respect of all the good people of the United States for the Congress and legislative power thereof, (which all officers of the Government ought inviolably to preserve and maintain,) and to excite the odium and resentment of all the good people of the United States against Congress and the laws by it duly and constitutionally enacted: and in pursuance of said design and intent, openly and publicly, and before divers assemblages of the citizens of the United States convened in divers parts thereof to meet and receive said Andrew Johnson as the Chief Magistrate of the United States, did, on the 18th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1866, and on divers other days and times, as well before as afterward, make and deliver with a loud voice certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and did therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces as well against Congress amid the cries, jeers, and laughter of the multitudes then assembled and within hearing, which are set forth in the several specifications hereinafter written, in substance and effect, that is to say:
Specification First. In this, that at Washington, in the District of Columbia, in the Executive Mansion, to a committee of citizens who called upon the President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of the United States, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, heretofore, to wit, on the 18th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1866, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, among other things, that is to say:
“So far as the executive department of the Government is concerned, the effort has been made to restore the Union, to heal the breach, to pour oil into the wounds which were consequent upon the struggle, and (to speak in common phrase) to prepare as the learned and wise physician would, a plaster healing in character and coextensive with the wound.”
“We thought, and we think, that we had partially succeeded; but as the work progresses, as reconstruction seemed to be taking place, and the country was becoming reunited, we found a disturbing and marring element opposing us.”
“In alluding to that element, I shall go no further than your convention and the distinguished gentleman who has delivered to me the report of its proceedings.”
“I shall make no reference to it that I do not believe the time and the occasion justify.”
“We have witnessed in one department of the Government every endeavor to prevent the restoration of peace, harmony, and Union.”
“We have seen hanging upon the verge of the government, as it were, a body called, or which assumes to be, the Congress of the United States, while in fact it is a Congress of only a part of the States.”
“We have seen this Congress pretend to be for the Union, when its every step and act tended to perpetuate disunion and make a disruption of the States inevitable.”
“We have seen Congress gradually encroach step by step upon constitutional rights, and violate, day after day and month after month, fundamental principles of the Government.”
“We have seen a Congress that seemed to forget that there was a limit to the sphere and scope of legislation.”
“We have seen a Congress in a minority assume to exercise power which, allowed to be consummated, would result in despotism or monarchy itself.”
Specification Second. In this, that at Cleveland, in the State of Ohio, heretofore, to wit, on the 3rd day of September, in the year of our Lord 1850, before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of the United States, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, among other things, that is to say:
“I will tell you what I did do.”
“I called upon your Congress that is trying to break up the Government.”
[Here, the text of the Articles of Impeachment indicates omitting a portion of the quoted speech.]
“In conclusion, besides that, Congress had taken much pains to poison their constituents against him.”
“But what had Congress done?”
“Have they done anything to restore the union of these States?”
“No; on the contrary, they had done everything to prevent it; and because he stood now where he did when the rebellion commenced he had been denounced as a traitor.”
“Who had run greater risks or made greater sacrifices than himself?”
“But Congress, factions and domineering, had undertaken to poison the minds of the American people.”
Specification Third. In this, that at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, heretofore, to wit, on the 8th day of September, in the year of our Lord 1866, before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of the United States, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, among other things, that is to say:
“Go on.”
“Perhaps if you had a word or two on the subject of New Orleans you might understand more about it than you do.”
“And if you will go back – if you will go back and ascertain the cause of the riot at New Orleans, perhaps you will not be so prompt in calling out ‘New Orleans.’”
“If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to its source or its immediate cause, you will find out who was responsible for the blood that was shed there.”
“If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to the Radical Congress you will find that the riot at New Orleans was substantially planned.”
“If you will take up the proceedings in their caucuses you will understand that they there knew that a convention was to be called which was extinct by its power having expired; that it was said that the intention was that a new government was to be organized, and on the organization of that government the intention was to enfranchise one portion of the population, called the colored population, who had just been emancipated, and at the same time disfranchise white men.”
“When you design to talk about New Orleans you ought to understand what you are talking about.”
“When you read the speeches that were made, and take up the facts on the Friday and Saturday before that convention sat, you will there find that speeches were incendiary in their character, exciting that portion of the population, the black population, to arm themselves and prepare for the shedding of blood.”
“You will also find that the convention did assemble in violation of law, and the intention of that convention was to supersede the reorganized authorities in the State government of Louisiana, which had been recognized by the Government of the United States; and every man engaged in that rebellion in that convention, with the intention of superseding and upturning the civil government which had been recognized by the Government of the United States, I say that he was a traitor to the Constitution of the United States and you find that another rebellion was commenced having its origin in the Radical Congress.”
[Here, the text of the Articles of Impeachment indicates omitting a portion of the quoted speech.]
“So much for the New Orleans riot.”
“And there was the cause and the origin of the blood that was shed; and every drop of blood that was shed is upon their skirts, and they are responsible for it.”
“I could test this thing a little closer but will not do it here tonight.”
“But when you talk about the causes and consequences that resulted from proceedings of that kind, perhaps, as I have been introduced here, and you have provoked questions of this kind, though it does not provoke me, I will tell you a few wholesome things that have been done by this Radical Congress in connection with New Orleans and the extension of the elective franchise.”
“I know that I have been traduced and abused.”
“I know it has come in advance of me here, as elsewhere, that I have attempted to exercise an arbitrary power in resisting laws that were intended to be forced upon the Government; that I had exercised that power; that I had abandoned the party that elected me, and that I was a traitor, because I exercised the veto power in attempting and did arrest for a time a bill that was called a ‘Freedman’s Bureau’ bill: yes, that I was a traitor.”
“And I have been traduced.”
“I have been slandered, I have been maligned, I have been called Judas Iscariot, and all that.”
“Now, my countrymen here tonight, it is very easy to indulge in epithets; it is easy to call a man a Judas and cry out traitor; but when he is called upon to give arguments and facts he is very often found wanting.”
“Judas Iscariot – Judas.”
“There was a Judas and he was one of the twelve apostles.”
“Oh yes, the twelve apostles had a Christ.”
“The twelve apostles had a Christ, and he never could have had a Judas unless he had twelve apostles.”
“If I have played the Judas, who has been my Christ that I have played the Judas with?”
“Was it Thad. Stevens?”
“Was it Wendell Phillips?
“Was it Charles Sumner?”
“These are the men that stop and compare themselves with the Savior: and everybody that differs with them in opinion, and to try and stay and arrest the diabolical and nefarious policy, is to be denounced as a Judas.”
[Here again, the text of the Articles of Impeachment indicates omitting a portion of the quoted speech.]
“Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this action: if you will stand by me in trying to give the people a fair chance, soldiers and citizens, to participate in these offices, God being willing, I will kick them out.”
“I will kick them out just as fast as I can.
“Let me say to you, in concluding, that what I have said I intended to say. I was not provoked into this, and I care not for their menaces, the taunts, and the jeers.”
“I care not for threats.”
“I do not intend to be bullied by my enemies nor overawed by my friends.”
“But, God willing, with your help I will veto their measures whenever any of them come to me.”
Which said utterances, declarations, threats, and harangues, highly censurable in any, are peculiarly indecent and unbecoming in the Chief Magistrate of the United States, by means whereof said Andrew Johnson has brought the high office of the President of the United States into contempt, ridicule, and disgrace, to the great scandal of all good citizens, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did commit, and was then and there guilty of, a high misdemeanor in office.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-316660
January 14, 2021 at 6:31 pm
And before we go further in here, let us go back in time for a moment to 1868, and the Articles of Impeachment the Republicans in the House of Representatives brought against Democrat Andrew Johnson, because as this matter of the “Trumpian Insurrection” develops further, it makes for interesting reading, to wit:
ARTICLE X.
That said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, unmindful of the high duties of his office and the dignity and proprieties thereof, and of the harmony and courtesies which ought to exist and be maintained between the executive and legislative branches of the Government of the United States, designing and intending to set aside the rightful authority and powers of Congress, did attempt to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States and the several branches thereof, to impair and destroy the regard and respect of all the good people of the United States for the Congress and legislative power thereof, (which all officers of the Government ought inviolably to preserve and maintain,) and to excite the odium and resentment of all the good people of the United States against Congress and the laws by it duly and constitutionally enacted: and in pursuance of said design and intent, openly and publicly, and before divers assemblages of the citizens of the United States convened in divers parts thereof to meet and receive said Andrew Johnson as the Chief Magistrate of the United States, did, on the 18th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1866, and on divers other days and times, as well before as afterward, make and deliver with a loud voice certain intemperate, inflammatory, and scandalous harangues, and did therein utter loud threats and bitter menaces as well against Congress amid the cries, jeers, and laughter of the multitudes then assembled and within hearing, which are set forth in the several specifications hereinafter written, in substance and effect, that is to say:
Specification First. In this, that at Washington, in the District of Columbia, in the Executive Mansion, to a committee of citizens who called upon the President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of the United States, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, heretofore, to wit, on the 18th day of August, in the year of our Lord 1866, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, among other things, that is to say:
“So far as the executive department of the Government is concerned, the effort has been made to restore the Union, to heal the breach, to pour oil into the wounds which were consequent upon the struggle, and (to speak in common phrase) to prepare as the learned and wise physician would, a plaster healing in character and coextensive with the wound.”
“We thought, and we think, that we had partially succeeded; but as the work progresses, as reconstruction seemed to be taking place, and the country was becoming reunited, we found a disturbing and marring element opposing us.”
“In alluding to that element, I shall go no further than your convention and the distinguished gentleman who has delivered to me the report of its proceedings.”
“I shall make no reference to it that I do not believe the time and the occasion justify.”
“We have witnessed in one department of the Government every endeavor to prevent the restoration of peace, harmony, and Union.”
“We have seen hanging upon the verge of the government, as it were, a body called, or which assumes to be, the Congress of the United States, while in fact it is a Congress of only a part of the States.”
“We have seen this Congress pretend to be for the Union, when its every step and act tended to perpetuate disunion and make a disruption of the States inevitable.”
“We have seen Congress gradually encroach step by step upon constitutional rights, and violate, day after day and month after month, fundamental principles of the Government.”
“We have seen a Congress that seemed to forget that there was a limit to the sphere and scope of legislation.”
“We have seen a Congress in a minority assume to exercise power which, allowed to be consummated, would result in despotism or monarchy itself.”
Specification Second. In this, that at Cleveland, in the State of Ohio, heretofore, to wit, on the 3rd day of September, in the year of our Lord 1850, before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of the United States, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, among other things, that is to say:
“I will tell you what I did do.”
“I called upon your Congress that is trying to break up the Government.”
[Here, the text of the Articles of Impeachment indicates omitting a portion of the quoted speech.]
“In conclusion, besides that, Congress had taken much pains to poison their constituents against him.”
“But what had Congress done?”
“Have they done anything to restore the union of these States?”
“No; on the contrary, they had done everything to prevent it; and because he stood now where he did when the rebellion commenced he had been denounced as a traitor.”
“Who had run greater risks or made greater sacrifices than himself?”
“But Congress, factions and domineering, had undertaken to poison the minds of the American people.”
Specification Third. In this, that at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, heretofore, to wit, on the 8th day of September, in the year of our Lord 1866, before a public assemblage of citizens and others, said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, speaking of and concerning the Congress of the United States, did, in a loud voice, declare in substance and effect, among other things, that is to say:
“Go on.”
“Perhaps if you had a word or two on the subject of New Orleans you might understand more about it than you do.”
“And if you will go back – if you will go back and ascertain the cause of the riot at New Orleans, perhaps you will not be so prompt in calling out ‘New Orleans.’”
“If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to its source or its immediate cause, you will find out who was responsible for the blood that was shed there.”
“If you will take up the riot at New Orleans and trace it back to the Radical Congress you will find that the riot at New Orleans was substantially planned.”
“If you will take up the proceedings in their caucuses you will understand that they there knew that a convention was to be called which was extinct by its power having expired; that it was said that the intention was that a new government was to be organized, and on the organization of that government the intention was to enfranchise one portion of the population, called the colored population, who had just been emancipated, and at the same time disfranchise white men.”
“When you design to talk about New Orleans you ought to understand what you are talking about.”
“When you read the speeches that were made, and take up the facts on the Friday and Saturday before that convention sat, you will there find that speeches were incendiary in their character, exciting that portion of the population, the black population, to arm themselves and prepare for the shedding of blood.”
“You will also find that the convention did assemble in violation of law, and the intention of that convention was to supersede the reorganized authorities in the State government of Louisiana, which had been recognized by the Government of the United States; and every man engaged in that rebellion in that convention, with the intention of superseding and upturning the civil government which had been recognized by the Government of the United States, I say that he was a traitor to the Constitution of the United States and you find that another rebellion was commenced having its origin in the Radical Congress.”
[Here, the text of the Articles of Impeachment indicates omitting a portion of the quoted speech.]
“So much for the New Orleans riot.”
“And there was the cause and the origin of the blood that was shed; and every drop of blood that was shed is upon their skirts, and they are responsible for it.”
“I could test this thing a little closer but will not do it here tonight.”
“But when you talk about the causes and consequences that resulted from proceedings of that kind, perhaps, as I have been introduced here, and you have provoked questions of this kind, though it does not provoke me, I will tell you a few wholesome things that have been done by this Radical Congress in connection with New Orleans and the extension of the elective franchise.”
“I know that I have been traduced and abused.”
“I know it has come in advance of me here, as elsewhere, that I have attempted to exercise an arbitrary power in resisting laws that were intended to be forced upon the Government; that I had exercised that power; that I had abandoned the party that elected me, and that I was a traitor, because I exercised the veto power in attempting and did arrest for a time a bill that was called a ‘Freedman’s Bureau’ bill: yes, that I was a traitor.”
“And I have been traduced.”
“I have been slandered, I have been maligned, I have been called Judas Iscariot, and all that.”
“Now, my countrymen here tonight, it is very easy to indulge in epithets; it is easy to call a man a Judas and cry out traitor; but when he is called upon to give arguments and facts he is very often found wanting.”
“Judas Iscariot – Judas.”
“There was a Judas and he was one of the twelve apostles.”
“Oh yes, the twelve apostles had a Christ.”
“The twelve apostles had a Christ, and he never could have had a Judas unless he had twelve apostles.”
“If I have played the Judas, who has been my Christ that I have played the Judas with?”
“Was it Thad. Stevens?”
“Was it Wendell Phillips?
“Was it Charles Sumner?”
“These are the men that stop and compare themselves with the Savior: and everybody that differs with them in opinion, and to try and stay and arrest the diabolical and nefarious policy, is to be denounced as a Judas.”
[Here again, the text of the Articles of Impeachment indicates omitting a portion of the quoted speech.]
“Well, let me say to you, if you will stand by me in this action: if you will stand by me in trying to give the people a fair chance, soldiers and citizens, to participate in these offices, God being willing, I will kick them out.”
“I will kick them out just as fast as I can.
“Let me say to you, in concluding, that what I have said I intended to say. I was not provoked into this, and I care not for their menaces, the taunts, and the jeers.”
“I care not for threats.”
“I do not intend to be bullied by my enemies nor overawed by my friends.”
“But, God willing, with your help I will veto their measures whenever any of them come to me.”
Which said utterances, declarations, threats, and harangues, highly censurable in any, are peculiarly indecent and unbecoming in the Chief Magistrate of the United States, by means whereof said Andrew Johnson has brought the high office of the President of the United States into contempt, ridicule, and disgrace, to the great scandal of all good citizens, whereby said Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, did commit, and was then and there guilty of, a high misdemeanor in office.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/o ... ent-316660
Re: POLITICS
CNN
"FBI Director Wray says over 200 suspects identified in US Capitol riots"
By Zachary Cohen and Allie Malloy, CNN
Updated 6:38 PM ET, Thu January 14, 2021
(CNN)Investigators have identified more than 200 suspects in their probe of the January 6 attack at the US Capitol and arrested more than 100 individuals, FBI Director Chris Wray said Thursday in his first public appearance since the riot.
"We know who you are if you're out there, and FBI agents are coming to find you," he said during an inauguration security briefing at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington with Vice President Mike Pence.
Wray's comments come as federal investigators are chasing thousands of leads in twin efforts to prosecute people involved in last week's attack on the US Capitol and to try to prevent feared follow-up attacks in Washington and around the country.
The challenge, FBI and Justice Department officials say, is "unprecedented" and Wray addressed the duality of the current situation in his comments Thursday by speaking directly to those who may be considering taking part in violent acts going forward.
"My advice to people who might be inclined to follow in the footsteps of those who engaged in the kind of activity we saw last week is stay home," he said.
"Look at what's happening now to the people who were involved in the Capitol siege."
Yet, while federal law enforcement officials have sought to reassure the American public in recent days that they are up to the task on both fronts, their public remarks also lay bare the enormity of the challenge they face in tracking potential threats to not only the nation's capital, but across the country.
Inauguration security
Even as the FBI and its law enforcement partners continue to track down suspects from last week's attack, Thursday's briefing from Wray offered yet another indication that officials are increasingly worried about more violence in the days ahead.
CNN previously reported that federal law enforcement officials are warning that domestic extremists are likely more emboldened to carry out attacks on President-elect Joe Biden's upcoming inauguration and throughout 2021 after seeing the success of last week's siege on the US Capitol.
In a series of bulletins and calls with local partners this week, federal law enforcement agencies issued an urgent call for assistance in securing the nation's capital as the inauguration nears, and painted a dire picture of potential threats leading up to January 20.
State officials around the country are also ramping up security.
In Oklahoma, House members were told not to come to the state capitol this weekend due to concerns about possible protests.
Fencing has been erected around the Arizona state capitol "out of an abundance of caution" and Oregon State Police will be assisted by the National Guard as they deal with possible demonstrations.
On Thursday, Wray reiterated that the FBI has "confidence" in its preparation and security surrounding the inauguration next week.
"Our posture is aggressive."
"It's going to stay that way though the inauguration."
"So in that vein, we and our partners have already arrested more than 100 individuals for their criminal activities in last week's siege of the Capitol and continue to pursue countless other related investigations."
But Wray also acknowledged that the FBI has been seeing "extensive" chatter surrounding the inauguration and said "one of the real challenges in this space is trying to distinguish what is aspirational and what is potential."
"We're monitoring all incoming leads -- whether calls for armed protests, potential threats that grow out of the January 6th breach of the Capitol or other kinds of potential threats leading up to Inaugural events and various other targets," he said.
"Right now we're tracking calls for potential armed protest," Wray added.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/14/politics ... index.html
"FBI Director Wray says over 200 suspects identified in US Capitol riots"
By Zachary Cohen and Allie Malloy, CNN
Updated 6:38 PM ET, Thu January 14, 2021
(CNN)Investigators have identified more than 200 suspects in their probe of the January 6 attack at the US Capitol and arrested more than 100 individuals, FBI Director Chris Wray said Thursday in his first public appearance since the riot.
"We know who you are if you're out there, and FBI agents are coming to find you," he said during an inauguration security briefing at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington with Vice President Mike Pence.
Wray's comments come as federal investigators are chasing thousands of leads in twin efforts to prosecute people involved in last week's attack on the US Capitol and to try to prevent feared follow-up attacks in Washington and around the country.
The challenge, FBI and Justice Department officials say, is "unprecedented" and Wray addressed the duality of the current situation in his comments Thursday by speaking directly to those who may be considering taking part in violent acts going forward.
"My advice to people who might be inclined to follow in the footsteps of those who engaged in the kind of activity we saw last week is stay home," he said.
"Look at what's happening now to the people who were involved in the Capitol siege."
Yet, while federal law enforcement officials have sought to reassure the American public in recent days that they are up to the task on both fronts, their public remarks also lay bare the enormity of the challenge they face in tracking potential threats to not only the nation's capital, but across the country.
Inauguration security
Even as the FBI and its law enforcement partners continue to track down suspects from last week's attack, Thursday's briefing from Wray offered yet another indication that officials are increasingly worried about more violence in the days ahead.
CNN previously reported that federal law enforcement officials are warning that domestic extremists are likely more emboldened to carry out attacks on President-elect Joe Biden's upcoming inauguration and throughout 2021 after seeing the success of last week's siege on the US Capitol.
In a series of bulletins and calls with local partners this week, federal law enforcement agencies issued an urgent call for assistance in securing the nation's capital as the inauguration nears, and painted a dire picture of potential threats leading up to January 20.
State officials around the country are also ramping up security.
In Oklahoma, House members were told not to come to the state capitol this weekend due to concerns about possible protests.
Fencing has been erected around the Arizona state capitol "out of an abundance of caution" and Oregon State Police will be assisted by the National Guard as they deal with possible demonstrations.
On Thursday, Wray reiterated that the FBI has "confidence" in its preparation and security surrounding the inauguration next week.
"Our posture is aggressive."
"It's going to stay that way though the inauguration."
"So in that vein, we and our partners have already arrested more than 100 individuals for their criminal activities in last week's siege of the Capitol and continue to pursue countless other related investigations."
But Wray also acknowledged that the FBI has been seeing "extensive" chatter surrounding the inauguration and said "one of the real challenges in this space is trying to distinguish what is aspirational and what is potential."
"We're monitoring all incoming leads -- whether calls for armed protests, potential threats that grow out of the January 6th breach of the Capitol or other kinds of potential threats leading up to Inaugural events and various other targets," he said.
"Right now we're tracking calls for potential armed protest," Wray added.
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