Inciter in Chief

Tick Tock: The Democrat’s Impeachment Managers, including yesterday’s star presenter Virgin Islands Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett as well as Texas twin Joaquin Castro, California’s Eric Swalwell and Rhode Island’s David Cicilline brought receipts yesterday to bolster their case against Trump. Those receipts included a damning stream of videos, many not previously aired, from perpetrators’ cell phones and Capitol police body cameras as well as Trump’s self-incriminating speeches and tweets, and of course there were lots of tweets.  The evidence tracked the origin of the January 6 insurrection from the months preceding the November election during which Trump told us repeatedly that he’d only recognize the results of the election if he was declared the winner, through to the Capitol invasion that he incited and urged on and failed to stop when he easily could have.  We already knew that the attackers were out to get Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, but hearing the Trump boys, well mostly boys, scream for both while seeing how close they got to nabbing their targets, and in the case of Pence his family as well, was chilling.  Notably those screams echoed the words in Trump’s tweets and speeches, the Trump boys even referred to Pelosi by her Trump anointed “Crazy Nancy” nickname.  The Trump thugs also missed Mitt Romney by a hair, the Utah senator was saved by Capitol officer Eugene Goodman who, as it turns out, was even more of a hero than we knew, and we already knew that he was among the day’s saviors. As to the other officers on the job on January 6, forget about any of those early suggestions that they were in any way complicit or sympathetic to the invading hordes, the videos document how much they were outnumbered and how hard they tried, at their own peril, to protect the Capitol, Congressional staff and all of the Senators and Congresspeople. Given how much they were tormented, it’s horrifying but not totally surprising that two of them have since taken their own lives.  The scenes of them being abused by the hordes of Trump thugs were painful to watch. Well painful for most of us, Senators Rick Scott and Josh “fist bump” Hawley thought that the Democrat’s presentation was just a waste of their time.  Lindsey Graham thought it was absurd and offensive and Ron Johnson said it was a double standard presumably because no clips of Black Lives Matter protesters were included because, you know, they’re the ones who were really responsible for January 6, right?  The day’s presentation ended with a bit of a kerfuffle from Senator Mike Lee who seemed really upset that a reference to a much reported call that one of his staff people had confirmed but that he denies, was included in the Democrat’s overview.  That was the call from Giuliani urging Tommy Tuberville to protest the confirmation of electoral college votes that through Rudy incompetence ended up on Lee’s line.  Incriminating timeline, bone chilling violence, not a problem for Lee, but possible misinformation about a misdirected Tuberville/Rudy call, that’s what has him twisted in knots. By the way, Twitter announced yesterday that Trump’s ban from their platform will last for ever even if he declares another run for office. 

Other Legalities: The Impeachment managers included Trump’s questionable call with Georgia’s election officials in their tick tock of events.  That’s the call that Secretary of State Raffensperger wisely got on tape.  Though the impeachment trial is likely to go Trump’s way despite the weakness of his defense or the incompetence of his lawyers who as one NY Times letter writer said could show up and read from Green Eggs and Ham and still get a not guilty verdict given the jury, it looks like prosecutors in Georgia take efforts to subvert elections seriously.  Democratic District Attorney Fani Willis, the top prosecutor in Fulton County, has opened a criminal investigation into the call because asking for “enough votes to overturn” an election strikes her as a big, illegal no no.  Worth remembering, though it wasn’t taped, Raffensperger also reported having a similar call with Lindsey Graham; could that be why the South Carolina stooge finds all this impeachment stuff so offensive? Similarly, Rudy Giuliani might have a few more things to be concerned about.  Apparently, higher ups in the Trump Justice Department prevented SDNY prosecutors from obtaining a warrant for some Rudy’s files they wanted to peruse as part of their investigation into whether Giuliani had illegally lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of the Ukrainians who helped with his search for compromising information on the Biden family.  Of course those same senior DOJ officials had no problem signing off on the Hunter Biden investigation. With new “sheriffs” in charge, Rudy may find that the election machine lawsuits are the least of his problems.

Viral Musings:  Mask and then mask again, the CDC says that double masking is a good thing in that, when done correctly, double masking can reduce viral transmission by 96.5%.  Correctly means a snugly worn surgical mask covered by a cloth mask.  Notably a good number of out and about government officials including virus guru Fauci are frequently seen wearing two masks.  The CDC has also revised some guidelines for the fully vaccinated. While mask wearing and social distancing is still required, those who have been fully vaccinated for two weeks and who are within two months of their second dose can avoid going into quarantine when exposed to a COVID positive person.  That assumes, of course that the vaccinated person has remained asymptomatic since their exposure.  The two month outer boundary likely reflects an absence of data about the durability of vaccinated immunity rather than an indication that the effectiveness of the shots wear off quickly; hopefully as time passes and data flows in the advice will be adjusted.  It turns out that social media isn’t just “biased” against right wingers, yesterday Instagram permanently banned anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy’s Instagram page for repeatedly sharing debunked claims about COVID and vaccines. And yes, unlike Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, anti-vaxxer Kennedy is a member of the Kennedy family.  RFK’s Facebook page remains up because even though FB owns Instagram and asserts they are fighting against vaccine misinformation, they have no problem with Kennedy continuing to post.  Hey, it’s Facebook, after all.  

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