6 Capitol Police officers suspended, 29 others being investigated for alleged roles in riot
By Whitney Wild and Paul LeBlanc, CNN
Updated 6:35 PM ET, Thu February 18, 2021


(CNN)Six US Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay, and 29 others have been placed under investigation, for their actions in the January 6 riot, a department spokesman said Thursday.

"Acting Chief Yogananda Pittman has directed that any member of her department whose behavior is not in keeping with the Department's Rules of Conduct will face appropriate discipline," department spokesman John Stolnis told CNN.

CNN reported in January that the USCP had placed at least 10 officers under investigation, and two others had been suspended.

One of the suspended officers took a selfie with someone who was part of the mob that overtook the Capitol, according to Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio. Another wore a "Make America Great Again" hat and started directing people around the building, Ryan said.

more...

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/18/politics/capitol-police-officers-suspended/index.html

Music to my ears! The best part? I don't have to worry about who's trying to game the system to fill their own pockets.


US defense chief charms allies during NATO debut
Biden administration’s pledges to consult and collaborate win praise after four years of Trump’s bludgeoning.
By David M. Herszenhorn
February 18, 2021 1:49 am



It was three days late for Valentine’s, but the mood among NATO allies was lovey-dovey after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended his first meeting of allied defense ministers on Wednesday.

Austin, a retired four-star U.S. Army general, weighed in during each of the two virtual gatherings of the North Atlantic Council and, according to diplomats and officials, played all the right mood music by expressing a willingness to consult and full-throated commitment to NATO’s principle of collective defense.

Under other circumstances, that might seem as ho-hum as a date night during the pandemic. But after four years of being badgered and berated by U.S. President Donald Trump, suddenly Washington sounded like a friend again — and that in itself felt refreshing and remarkable, participants in the meeting said.



more...

https://www.politico.eu/article/lloyd-austin-charms-allies-during-nato-debut/

https://pressrun.media/p/rush-limbaugh-the-godfather-of-conservative

Tell the truth about Limbaugh— he was a blight
Godfather of GOP hate
Eric Boehlert
4 hr ago

snip//

Over the years, Limbaugh often held back from embracing Republican politicians to the fullest. Much more interested in attacking and defaming Democrats, liberals, women, and people of color, the host gladly defended Republicans but often saw himself as operating a level above politicians. He preferred to operate outside that circle so he could maintain his dominance and not be beholden to elected officials.

With Trump though, Limbaugh found his political soul mate, someone as craven, dishonest, and emotionally needy as he was. Also someone with the same fascist tendencies as Limbaugh, who in recent months made clear his disdain for free and fair elections in this country.

A straight line today exists between the birth of Limbaugh's right-wing career and the murderous mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6. As one Twitter user put it yesterday, "Limbaugh is, and always has been, a very Proud Boy."

Limbaugh's influence may have waned in recent years in terms of right-wing media clout, as the likes of Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro, and a swamp of YouTube hate merchants took over the media mantle, but Limbaugh's hallmark message of detestation became the GOP's guiding principle.



snip//

When it became clear last October that Limbaugh was gravely ill, I noted that media coverage of Limbaugh's career needed to be upfront and honest about the damage he had done to this country and to the democratic process — the vile degradation of our public discourse. It needed to be transparent about the endless litany of lies and heartless smears Limbaugh gleefully trafficked in for decades, as he stuffed his pockets with millions and wallowed in the misfortune of others.

Limbaugh was an awful, awful person.

Of course, two men.

https://politicalwire.com/2021/02/18/tennessee-bill-would-give-fathers-veto-over-abortion/

Tennessee Bill Would Give Fathers Veto Over Abortion
February 18, 2021 at 8:03 am EST By Taegan Goddard





https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/18/tennessee-bill-would-grant-fathers-veto-power-over-abortion/6763159002/
SB494/HB1079, sponsored by Sen. Mark Pody, R-Lebanon and Rep. Jerry Sexton, R-Bean Station, would give a man who gets a woman pregnant the veto power to an abortion by petitioning a court for an injunction against the procedure.

Suck it up, you guilty mf.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-frets-foes-will-be-suing-me-for-the-rest-of-my-life?ref=home

Trump Frets Foes Will Be ‘Suing Me for the Rest of My Life’
BACK TO REALITY
Though the riot was the culmination of Trump’s months of attempts to overturn the election, it’s hardly the only incident that may have left the ex-president legally exposed.
Asawin Suebsaeng
Senior Political Reporter
Adam Rawnsley
Senior Researcher
Published Feb. 18, 2021 4:58AM ET

snip//

But with the Senate trial in the rearview, Trump is now confronting a whole range of other legal dramas during his immediate post-presidency. No longer shielded by the considerable legal protection of the Oval Office, Trump has privately bemoaned that his foes are going to be investigating or “suing me for the rest of my life,” according to one person who’s discussed the matter with him in the past few weeks.

snip//

The power of the incumbency also afforded former President Trump the ability to dodge negative consequences for his alleged history of sexual violence and harassment. Another source close to Trump says that the ex-president continues to occasionally complain about the Me Too movement, decrying it as one of the more destructive movements to gain national traction during his one term in the White House.

A lawsuit filed by former journalist E. Jean Carroll claiming Trump defamed her by calling her a liar—after she accused Trump of raping her in a New York department store in the 1990s—is still pending. Under Attorney General Bill Barr, the Justice Department tried to remove the case from state court and place it in federal court where department lawyers would handle the case on Trump’s behalf.

Further, during the entirety of the Trump administration, Summer Zervos, once a contestant on Trump’s now-defunct NBC reality TV show The Apprentice, had been trying to depose Trump in a defamation lawsuit. Toward the end of the 2016 presidential election, Zervos publicly accused the then-Republican nominee of sexually assaulting her, grabbing her breasts, and “thrust[ing]” his “genitals” at her. While he was in office, the official position of the White House was that the many women who had gone on-record to accuse Trump of sexual misconduct or assault were simply lying.

Early last year, a court in New York paused the lawsuit, thus postponing any potential deposition of the then-sitting president of the United States. But last week, Zervos and her attorney formally asked a judge to allow her to continue with her suit, given that he can no longer claim protections of the highest office in the land that his lawyers had long said shielded him from this deposition.

“[The] Defendant now is no longer President. As a result, Defendant’s appeal is moot,” Zervos’ lawyer argued in the new filing.

Who made him king?
https://www.thedailybeast.com/florida-gov-ron-desantis-accused-of-giving-preferential-covid-19-vaccine-access?ref=home

DeSantis Threatens to Pull Vaccine From Neighborhoods That Complain
PRIVILEGED CLIENTS
Arya Hodjat
Breaking News Intern
Updated Feb. 17, 2021 3:59PM ET /
Published Feb. 17, 2021 11:45AM ET
Eva Marie Uzcategui/Getty

https://politicalwire.com/2021/02/17/legislators-move-to-strip-cuomo-of-pandemic-powers/

Legislators Move to Strip Cuomo of Pandemic Powers
February 17, 2021 at 8:52 pm EST By Taegan Goddard

70% of GOP voters support Covid relief —the entire Republican Party opposes it
Unity
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


While the Beltway press continues to wring its hands over the fact that President Joe Biden likely won't get any Republican support passing the massive, $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill now being readied in Congress, journalists are missing the bigger, more important story.

Instead of framing it around how Republicans are squaring off with the new Democratic president, the story ought to be about how the GOP, so driven to block Biden wins, remains so out of touch with its own voters who overwhelmingly back the Covid bill. At a time when the press is demanding Beltway "unity," Biden is actually producing it by championing a fervently, almost historically, popular piece of legislation.

Inside the Beltway, the bill is depicted as being divisive because virtually no Republicans will support it. That in turn is putting political pressure on the new Democratic president because he promised to bring the country together; he promised to craft bipartisan compromises, according to the preferred media narrative.

The press insists that Biden's welcome call for unity following a bloody insurrection inside the U.S. Capitol last month means that any policy push by him is divisive, because Republicans oppose it. But what's so often left out of the day-to-day coverage over the political jockeying surrounding the Covid bill is that the Republican Party remains out of step with its own voters, and it's Biden who has the pulse of the nation.

As is custom with the D.C. media, the entire onus of bipartisanship is placed on Democrats, who are responsible for breaking the Capitol fever, which is fueled by obstructionist Republicans. The GOP today is committed to uniformly opposing Biden, just as it was committed to opposing President Barack Obama. That's the real story of Covid relief politics, and how Republicans will soon have to go on the record opposing a bill that's overwhelmingly popular, even among Republican voters.

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/70-of-gop-voters-support-covid-relief

https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-officials-have-no-idea-when-millions-of-people-will-have-their-power-restored?ref=home

Texas Officials Have No Idea When Millions of People Will Have Their Power Restored
IN THE DARK
Jamie Ross
Reporter
Published Feb. 17, 2021 6:56AM ET
Ron Jenkins/Getty

https://www.thedailybeast.com/atlantic-city-hotel-special-offers-front-seat-to-demo-of-former-trump-plaza

Atlantic City Hotel Special Offers ‘Front Seat’ to Demo of Former Trump Plaza
‘STIFFED A LOT OF PEOPLE’
Ana Lucia Murillo
Breaking News/Cheat Sheet Intern
Published Feb. 16, 2021 1:53PM ET
Saul Loeb/Getty