StarfishSaver
StarfishSaver's JournalSpeaker Pelosi's "Dear Colleague" letter to the Democratic caucus
On this Sunday, as we pray that God will continue to Bless America, I write to inform you of our next actions, which will be made with the great solemnity that this moment requires.
I want to call to your immediate attention the action to be taken tomorrow morning, when Majority Leader Hoyer will request Unanimous Consent to bring up the Raskin resolution. This resolution calls on the Vice President to convene and mobilize the Cabinet to activate the 25th Amendment to declare the President incapable of executing the duties of his office, after which the Vice President would immediately exercise powers as acting President. The text of the resolution can be found here.
If we do not receive Unanimous Consent, this legislation is planned to be brought up on the Floor the following day. We are calling on the Vice President to respond within 24 hours.
Next, we will proceed with bringing impeachment legislation to the Floor.
In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both. As the days go by, the horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action.
I look forward to our Caucus call tomorrow. I am grateful to all Members for the suggestions, observations and input that you have been sending. Your views on the 25th Amendment, 14th Amendment Section 3 and impeachment are valued as we continue. I am answering your communications in chronological order and will do so into the night.
Thank you for your patriotism.
Prayerfully,
I think Trump's "shakeup" at DOD will turn out to be related to Wednesday's events
His replacement of much of the civilian leadership was suspicious at the time. I think we will soon see that it was more sinister than many even thought.
Biden will need to expand Pence's Secret Service protection beyond six months
That won't be enough.
The "Blue Lives Matter" crowd is awfully silent
One would think they'd have some words of condemnation for the people who murdered a Trump-supporting police officer while chanting "F&CK THE BLUE!!!"
Unless they don't really care anything about "the Blue" because they think The Blue is protecting The Whites by brutalizing and killing The Blacks.
The idea of waiting to send the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate is brilliant
Among other things, waiting to send them over gives more time for evidence to be gathered of Trump's criminality and allows for a Democratic majority to introduce that evidence into the trial. It will allow time to build more public support for conviction. It also puts some distance between Trump and his Senate enablers, maybe even giving time for some to wake from their fever dreams.
But, perhaps most important is this consideration: While McConnell says he won't take up the impeachment until the 19th or 20th, it is very possible that there is some maneuver he could pull to scuttle a trial altogether. In other words, sending the impeachment to the Senate while the Senate is still under McConnell's control means the House and Democrats in the Senate completely lose control over the process and gives McConnell total control over what happens. Delaying transmission of the Articles takes McConnell completely out of the equation.
As I said, this is brilliant. And probably has McConnell steaming since I have no doubt he was planning to bury this and they just thwarted any ability he has to do it.
Could it be Pence and Cabinet have already invoked the 25th Amendment and we just don't know it?
2009 FLASHBACK: Scarborough attacked report warning of RW extremists grooming military vets
PUBLISHED 04/15/09
Joe Scarborough distorted a DHS intelligence assessment to allege the Obama administration is warning that returning war veterans “are to be feared.” In fact, the assessment, citing a Bush administration report, warned of a possible resurgence among extremist groups that “will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans.”
On the April 15 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, host Joe Scarborough distorted an April 7 intelligence assessment by the Department of Homeland Security to allege that the Obama administration is “specifically warning that veterans returning home from war, are to be feared -- that they could be right-wing extremists that want to launch terror attacks on America.” In fact, the document, issued to law enforcement officials, warned of a possible resurgence among extremist groups that “will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat.” The assessment further stated: “The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.” DHS cited a 2008 FBI report -- authored during the Bush administration -- as evidence that “some returning military veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have joined extremist groups.”
On Morning Joe, Scarborough also said, “I just ask this question to my Democratic friends out there -- and I'm serious about this -- what would you have said if George Bush, [former Bush adviser] Karl Rove, and the head of Homeland Security had issued a report warning about left-wing radicals wanting to blow up America? ... t is frightening.”...
In its April 7 assessment, DHS stated, “Returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing extremists. DHS/I&A is concerned that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.” As Media Matters for America has noted, in the July 2008 FBI report, titled “White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11,” the FBI's Counterterrorism Division determined with "[h]igh confidence" that "[m]ilitary experience is found throughout the white supremacist extremist movement as the result of recruitment campaigns by extremist groups and self-recruitment by veterans sympathetic to white supremacist causes." The 2008 report further stated that a “review of FBI white supremacist extremist cases from October 2001 to May 2008 identified 203 individuals with confirmed or claimed military service active in the extremist movement at some time during the reporting period,” and that "[a]ccording to FBI information, an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9 percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."
https://www.mediamatters.org/morning-joe/scarborough-ignores-bush-fbi-report-claim-obama-administration-stoking-fear
MSNBC: Members began drafting Articles of Impeachment under siege during the insurrectionist riot
WaPo: Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call
Trump placed the call to the investigations chief for the Georgia secretary of state’s office shortly before Christmas — while the individual was leading an inquiry into allegations of ballot fraud in Cobb County, in the suburbs of Atlanta, according to people familiar with the episode. ‘Find the fraud’: Trump pressured a Georgia elections investigator in a separate call legal experts say could amount to obstruction
By Amy Gardner
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-call-georgia-investigator/2021/01/09/7a55c7fa-51cf-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html
The new videos put the Capitol Police in a new light. I believe many of them are heroes
I see many clips of officers standing their ground in the face of terrible onslaughts and probably saving many lives.
Check out the new video showing the moments before Ashli Babbit was shot. The first angle I saw made me wonder why the police were just standing there while the mob was attacking the door and then why in the HELL did they just move out of the way.
But this new video tells a different story. We see they are the only things between the door and the Members of Congress on the other side of it and they stood there and held that door against this mob of maskless terrorists screaming "F*CK the BLUE!!!" in their faces. And then we can see the tactical forces arriving on the other side of the door and positioning, one of them with a gun trained on the rioters. At that point, the officers move out of the way, obviously to make sure the tactical forces on the other side have a clear shot of any rioter who tries to breach the door.
The mob saw the gun and yelled that there was a weapon. And yet they continued to bang on the door and Ashli Babbit climbed through the broken window and was shot.
While the first video made me think those officers on the door were weak and incompetent, it is now clear that they are heroes. They protected that door until reinforcements could arrive and they did so with no equipment and without using any lethal force.
I've also seen other videos of officers being attacked, bleeding and doing the best they could.
I still believe that the Capitol Hill supervisors and management were unprepared and maybe worse, and have a lot of explaining to do. But these rank-and-file officers deserve the benefit of the doubt and maybe a few commendations.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/01/08/ashli-babbitt-shooting-video-capitol/
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