Reply With Quote197 nays though.
Splintered nation.
Sadly, as far as i know, impeachment is pretty much completely meaningless. And i do not have much hope for getting to 2/3 needed for conviction (*) - or anything that would actually do anything.
Dem: 222yea, 0nay, 0withTheirHeadInTheAss
Rep: 10yea, 197nay(!), 4withTheirHeadInTheAss
197 nays though.
Splintered nation.
https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/repub...l-riot-schools
Anti-terrorism measures are "political correctness run amok" if they inconvenience a Republican at all.
Less than three years before Republican lawmakers today threw temper tantrums about metal detectors in the halls of Congress, they passed GOP legislation supporting more metal detectors in schools.
In 2018, the Republican-controlled House tried to head off strict gun control legislation by instead passing Florida GOP Rep. John Rutherford’s bill authorizing new resources for “evidence-based strategies and programs to prevent violence, which may include the use of appropriate technologies, including the placement and use of metal detectors.”
Among those voting for the metal detector legislation were Republican Reps. Steve Scalise, Steve Stivers, Larry Bucshon, Louie Gohmert, Rodney Davis, Markwayne Mullin, and Steve Womack.
NBC News reported that Scalise, Stivers, Bucshon, and Gohmert were among the “Republican lawmakers [who] complained about — or outright bypassed — the metal detectors to enter the House floor” that were installed after the chamber was attacked in last week’s violent insurrection. Fox News reported that Davis “exchanged harsh words with Capitol Police” about the new security measures and called them “political correctness run amok.” And CNN reported that Mullin and Womack “erupted at Capitol Police as they were forced to go through” the metal detectors.
The Huffington Post reported that Stivers last night “told the cops at the door he believes the magnetometers are unconstitutional.”
Three years ago, Stivers boasted to constituents that he supported “improving school safety by increasing funding for schools to have metal detectors.”
They have to get 2/3 of a quorum. The Senate will be split 50/50. I think they said at least 6 GOP senators might get on board. (Up to 20 have made negative statements against Trump which put them in the running.) If they can get +10, then if 10 GOP senators are no-shows, 60 will be 2/3 of the quorum of 90 members present. (It's right on the line, but VP Harris will get a vote to break it in favor of impeachment, I think.) So that's something of a wildcard possibility in the political calculus.
There are reports that along with GOP officials conducting recon tours of the Capitol Building for MAGAHATS in the days before the Coup attempt (when even family members were barred) the panic buttons in some offices had been torn out.
Panic buttons installed in Ayanna Pressley’s congressional office were torn out before rioters stormed the Capitol last week, her staff have said.
Sarah Groh, who serves as Ms Pressley’s chief of staff, was with the congresswoman when president Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the US Capitol building last Wednesday.
She told the Boston Globe that she had reached for the panic buttons installed in Ms Pressley’s office as they tried to barricade themselves in.
But, when they went to press panic buttons, Ms Pressley’s staff saw that they weren’t there, and appeared to have been ripped out.
“Every panic button in my office had been torn out - the whole unit,” Ms Groh told the paper.
Speaks to premeditation. But we already knew it was premeditated because of what they were carrying with them. This adds that officials may well have been part of the planning. Either way, it's more support for the case that Trump didn't need to say the thing directly because they know exactly what he was getting at when he called them to that "stop the steal" gathering.
Sorry, everybody. My bad!!
It was Cuba all along.
A couple of issues there. Firstly, supermajorities don't need "tie breakers". You just need the supermajority. Tie breakers are used because 50/50 votes are equal. Second, it would be Pence not Harris, until Trump's gone anyway. Third, Ossoff and Warnock aren't sworn in yet. They're expected to be sworn in some time next week one article suggests the 20th, but the Republicans running Georgia have until the 22nd to actually certify the results.Originally Posted by demagogue
https://ballotpedia.org/United_State...be_sworn_in.3F
So the situation is 51 Republicans, 48 Democrats and 1 vacant seat. The vote would *have* to be on the 19th of January, because that's the first day the Senate returns from recess, and by the 20th, Trump won't be president any more. So the vote needs exactly 66 votes, meaning 48 Democrats and 18 Republicans would have to vote for it. If you took your scenario however and modified it so that 9 Republicans were no-show then you'd need 12 Republican Senators to change sides (60/90: no tie-breaker needed, because there is no concept of a tie in super-majorities).The winners will be sworn in once results are certified. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) has until January 22, 2021, to certify results. David Perdue's term ended at noon on January 3, 2021. The seat he held will be vacant until the regular runoff election results are certified. Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed to temporarily serve the term Johnny Isakson won, which ends January 2023. She will remain in office until the election is decided, and whoever wins the race will complete the term.
Best-case scenario is that the Republicans en-masse don't show up out of "protest" and then the impeachment gets passed. This is a way the Republicans could shed Trump like a hot potato while giving plausible deniability.
Also, by the time of the vote, a number of Senators might be cooling their heels as co-conspirators and insiders in the Coup. Every bit helps.
Camp Auschwitz guy has been arrested: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/p...shirt-arrested
Also, looks like they caught a rare Pepe: https://nypost.com/2021/01/12/cops-a...l-riot-report/
For the record, I'm talking about if the vote is in a few weeks or months when the new members are already seated and Harris would then be VP, because the trial itself is said to be going to take weeks, so it'd be a retrospective impeachment after he's already out of office, as I understood it. I don't think there's necessarily a constitutional bar on a retrospective impeachment, and it still has real consequences as many have pointed out (losing government support, no library, no chance to stand for re-election, etc.).
Apparently this information is not factual
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/11/p...ice/index.html
As for the impeachment trial after he's out of office, this is largely untested waters. You can be sure that they'll fight it tooth and nail to say it's not constitutional (until they decide to do that to a Democrat, at which point it'll become constitutional again).A viral tweet claims that impeaching President Donald Trump for a second time would mean he would lose the ability to run for president in 2024.
That's not true. Nor are other claims in the tweet.
The tweet was posted on Friday, two days after a Capitol insurrection by a mob of Trump supporters sparked a new impeachment push from House Democrats. As of early Monday, it had more than 181,000 retweets and 725,000 likes. It says the following: "For those wondering if it's worth impeaching him this time, it means he:
1) loses his 200k+ pension for the rest of his life
2) loses his 1 million dollar/year travel allowance
3) loses lifetime full secret service detail
4) loses his ability to run in 2024
Facts First: The tweet is inaccurate in multiple ways.
1) Trump would lose his post-presidency pension only if both the House voted to impeach him and then the Senate voted to remove him from office; impeachment itself, without removal, would not result in Trump being denied any benefits.
2) The law makes clear that presidents who have lifetime Secret Service protection never get a $1 million travel allowance.
3) It is unclear that Trump would lose lifetime Secret Service protection even if the Senate voted to remove him and prohibit him from running.
4) Even a Senate vote to remove Trump would not prohibit him from running in 2024; for the Senate to ban him from the presidency, it would have to hold an additional vote on this question.
Yes, we're talking about after conviction by the Senate. What happens after a mere impeachment (nothing) has already been made precedent by Nixon & Clinton. And yes, when there isn't precedent, there's a big question mark that the Supreme Court ultimately has the prerogative to decide.
I imagine on first blush they'd ultimately decide against it, not just because of partisanship (they've ruled against Trump before), but, I mean, on the face of it it's about removing a person from office, and laws don't normally get interpreted to do something impossible (remove someone not in office). But they'll have good lawyers digging up obscure precedents saying who knows what, like if you start the process before he's out, does that mean anything?
I'm not myself too worried about it, because at this point the much bigger fish to fry are the upcoming criminal charges against him. If he's convicted of obstruction or whatever, I think that effectively does the same job that impeachment is after, in terms of souring the public to him and breaking his cult-like spell.
Oh, one thing though, what would prevent him from running again is the 14th Amendment, which prohibits anyone who participated in insurrection from running for office (Civil War related). A criminal charge for incitement of insurrection probably won't work (I posted about that above), but an impeachment on it might be sufficient to trigger that, or anyway, that's a reason to give it a shot.
The Lincoln Project has endorsed Mike Pence for president:
Wow! THAT was a good one! OUCH!
OrdnungProfit muss sein!
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...edc32c19ef33b4
Facebook has been running ads for body armor, gun holsters, and other military equipment next to content promoting election misinformation and news about the attempted coup at the US Capitol, despite internal warnings from concerned employees.
[...]
[Facebook COO Sheryl] Sandberg also addressed the proliferation of hate-related content on Facebook.
“I think there’s a false belief that we somehow profit, that people somehow want to see this content,” she said. “That’s just not true.”
As she spoke, a “Stop the Steal” group with more than 14,000 members was still active on the platform. While that group was later removed, others have replaced it, and Facebook is displaying ads next to their content.
Of course, we're talking about FB, not the bulletin board of some oratory.
"Social media" corps - like criminal organisations- are NOT "left" or "right". They are corps and they seek profit left AND right. What a surprise!
Not really; the left generally believe in more taxation on the rich and large corporations, so it's in the interests of their profits to promote the right.
Sure, they'll offer a platform to both, because that's where the most profit is, but they generally all lean to the right where it matters.
There really was a tweet for everything:
Colbert with a slightly different take on Pence.
Well this is interesting timing. So Les Wexner, the Victoria's Secret mogul, has a mansion in Ohio in which he allowed Epstein and his clients to rape teenage girls, and it was equipped with cameras that recorded everything. He & others involved are now being sued by the victims over it.
It's interesting timing because the two rape allegations against T***p that have gone public involving teenagers ... no wait, sorry, one teenager, a 13-year-old and the other a 12-year-old ... were alleged to have happened in that mansion in 1993. (Epstein also abused them, so they could be a part of the suit whether T***p is involved or not.) So the fact that they waited until right as T***p was leaving office to bring the suit is at least suggestive, no? I mean one theory is, if they're going to be releasing tapes, they might not be able to contain that T***p's tape is in the mix, and it doesn't make sense to have that happen while he's still in office.
But I mean it could be a coincidence too & end up a nothingburger... I could hardly dish it out to conspiracy nuts if I was drinking another flavor of kool-aid myself and turned off all my critical facilities.
So I don't know 100% there's a link. But if anything comes of it, you heard it here first.
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Edit: I guess I'm pointing it out because Virginia G., Epstein's most important victim that's led the whole crusade against him & co. from the start, and incidentally QAnon's most important pillar, or one of them, supporting their entire worldview, has just turned on T***p in a big way and added him to the Epstein list. She's the one that retweeted this story and suggested the link.
It probably goes without saying, if the Capitol siege represents the failure of the Storm (not just that it failed, but that the biggest QAnon disciples that planned it & are going to jail for a long time over it were labeled Antifa imposters, lol, although from their perspective, the most bitter pill to swallow is going to be that the Storm was a fantasy from the beginning), then Virginia turning on T***p represents the flip of Pizzagate and the whole raison d'etre of the Storm to begin with...
Not just that T***p wasn't the one crusader against child sex trafficking that was going to bring the criminals to justice (the entire Democratic establishment basically), but that T***p was always the sex predator from the start. Just a little human psychology 101 here, as the central pillar of one's belief system begins to crumble the most, people become the most desperate to double-down on it, because the alternative of facing the total vacuum that it was all a lie is the kind of thing that annihilates people's ego and makes compete shells out of their life. Cf. Schwarzenegger's apt reference to the shells of men he saw as a child in Post War Austria. The whole Q crew, and I suppose the 10s of millions of people still held by the cult, is unsurprisingly not taking it well and looking to make Arnold's prediction come true. (Virginia, bless her heart, is still hash tagging wwg1wga and appears genuinely hurt that her most ardent supporters actually don't care much about child abuse victims and aren't about to "gw1" when that "1" betrays the Dear Leader, and now they're viciously turning against her.)
Edit2: I mean I have to give it props, whoever scripted this thing, the amount of drama we're going to suck out of the next few weeks is gonna be off the charts if there's an actual sweep of mass violence on Biden's inauguration day and if T***p gets arrested and these two worldviews are going to butt heads in the most extreme way possible with no choice but for one to completely crumble, taking the worldview of 10s of millions of people down with it. Well, "props" is the wrong word. I'm not happy about it. Very concerned & upset actually. But damn.
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Edit3: Here's the argument, or one argument based on precedence, for why a post-term impeachment should still be valid: Why Trump Can Be Convicted Even as an Ex-President
Last edited by demagogue; 15th Jan 2021 at 13:02.
I hope not for Donny.
It's a thing to be a total jerk and a front-man for more subtle power actors, another to be a deranged and dangerous human, abusing others thanks to influence & wealth.
Oh wait.....
How about a summary of 4 years of Trump?
Anyone got a suggestion? The shorter the better.
I think I got an excellent one myself. And short too. Let's hear them.
Well, yeah, daddy didn't love him and so the guy has desperately needed attention and to sow chaos since he was a teenager. He cynically appealed to people's most base instincts (hate outsiders) to get elected and get the attention he requires, but he'll throw his own people under the bus in a heartbeat to save himself a second of discomfort, most easily visible by the fact he can't keep any but a few staff for longer than a few months, almost always disposing of them in the most humiliating and scorched earth way possible. His pièce de résistance is doing that to the US itself.
Fast forward 4 years and now people are breaking into the capitol to wave the confederate flag, shit on the floor, and...
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