28 January 21
Billions to Control the Political Dialog
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28 January 21
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Charles Pierce | All Trump's Impeachment Defense Has Going for It Is the Essential Cowardice of Republican Senators
Charles Pierce, Esquire
Pierce writes: "Forty-five Republican senators found a use for the Constitution as a fig leaf on Tuesday."
And that might just be enough.
orty-five Republican senators found a use for the Constitution as a fig leaf on Tuesday. The way we know this is the fact that they pretended to take Senator Rand Paul seriously as a constitutional scholar. (I don't even take him seriously as an ophthalmologist, but never mind.) They were trying to avoid being on the record as to their respective opinions on whether or not a president should be allowed to encourage seditious violence against another branch of the government. This doesn't seem to be a tough question to me, but I am not a miserable, cowardly wretch worried that some QAnon loon will run against me in the next Republican primary.
Paul's point of order that trying the ex-president* in the Senate now is unconstitutional failed, so the trial will open as scheduled on February 9, but that wasn't the point of Aqua Buddha's move anyway. It was a) to give his fellow poltroons cover against the wild kingdom now operating within their political party, and b) to create a vehicle for his fellow poltroons through which they can avoid discussing what actually happened around them on January 6. Basically, it is part of a campaign to minimize the enormity of the high crime of which the ex-president* stands accused, and of which all of them know he is plainly guilty. He fomented insurrection and the people in whom he fomented it knew it all too well. They put themselves on video putting the former president*'s words precisely into action. Up to me? I'd bill him personally for all the damages to the Capitol, not that he'd ever pay the bill anyway.
Trump stands accused of the worst crime of which a president possible be accused—of conspiring against the Constitution he swore to uphold. That crime sticks with him even though he's not president* anymore. (It should be noted that he was still president* when the House of Representatives voted to impeach him.) The only possible comparison that comes to my mind in regard to the gravity of the charges is the treason trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr in 1807. Burr was charged with treason against the United States through a scheme to pry loose what were then considered the "western" states and territories and build an empire there, possibly with the help of Great Britain.
The one overt act in furtherance of Burr's treason was said to have been a meeting at a place called Blennerhassett's Island in the Ohio River, at a point in what is now West Virginia. Chief Justice John Marshall, sitting in on Burr's trial because Marshall also was working as a federal circuit court judge for Virginia, ruled that the jury only could convict if they could prove that Burr's activities on the island were treasonous. The Chief Justice refused to consider a conspiracy charge without an overt act. (Marshall, a great Federalist, was not inclined to give Democratic-Republican President Thomas Jefferson any breaks). Unfortunately for the prosecution, Burr's defense team elicited testimony proving that Burr was 100 miles away from Blennerhassett Island on the day on which he was alleged to have been planning his treason. Burr was acquitted.
To pursue the parallel perhaps further than is wise, the ex-president*'s defense doesn't even have the advantages that Aaron Burr had in 1807. His incitement to sedition occurred on television. There is video of the ensuing seditious acts in which the rioters announce that they were storming the Capitol at his invitation. All the ex-president*'s defense has going for it is the essential cowardice of the Republican minority in the Senate, and alas, that's probably enough.
Trump supporters rioting at the Capitol. (photo: Samuel Corum/Getty)
Tens of Thousands of Voters Drop Republican Affiliation After Capitol Riot
Reid Wilson, The Hill
Wilson writes: "More than 30,000 voters who had been registered members of the Republican Party have changed their voter registration in the weeks after a mob of pro-Trump supporters attacked the Capitol - an issue that led the House to impeach the former president for inciting the violence."
The massive wave of defections is a virtually unprecedented exodus that could spell trouble for a party that is trying to find its way after losing the presidential race and the Senate majority.
It could also represent the tip of a much larger iceberg: The 30,000 who have left the Republican Party reside in just a few states that report voter registration data, and information about voters switching between parties, on a weekly basis.
Voters switching parties is not unheard of, but the data show that in the first weeks of the year, far more Republicans have changed their voter registrations than Democrats. Many voters are changing their affiliation in key swing states that were at the heart of the battle for the White House and control of Congress.
Nearly 10,000 Pennsylvania voters dropped out of the Republican Party in the first 25 days of the year, according to the secretary of state’s office. About a third of them, 3,476, have registered as Democrats; the remaining two-thirds opted to register with another party or without any party affiliation.
By contrast, about a third as many Pennsylvania Democrats opted to either join the Republican Party (2,093 through Monday) or to register with no party or a minor party (1,184).
Almost 6,000 North Carolina voters have dropped their affiliation with the GOP. Nearly 5,000 Arizona voters are no longer registered Republicans. The number of defectors in Colorado stands north of 4,500 in the last few weeks. And 2,300 Maryland Republicans are now either unaffiliated or registered with the Democratic Party.
In all of those areas, the number of Democrats who left their party is a fraction of the number of Republican defectors.
Several local elections offices in Florida reported a surge in registration changes in the days after the assault on the Capitol. Two counties in the Miami area reported a combined 1,000 Republicans registering under other labels in just the two days after the Jan. 6 attack. In those same two days, only 96 Democrats switched parties.
Three counties in the Tampa Bay area reported more than 2,000 Republican voters registering under some other party’s banner. In those same three counties — Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas — just 306 Democrats switched their affiliations.
So many voters switching parties absent a pending deadline has piqued the interest of elections experts. Most people tend to stick with the party with which they initially register, and those who do change are usually motivated by a looming primary election.
“Usually, absent a primary election that would induce people to switch parties so that they could participate in that primary, you don’t see much activity in party registration,” said Michael McDonald, a voting and elections expert at the University of Florida.
Only a small handful of states report voter registration data on a weekly basis. Others report monthly activity, and many states do not report granular details about those who leave one party or the other. Once more states report party registration data, the true number of Republicans who have re-registered in recent weeks may prove to be much higher.
McDonald said those who would take the proactive step to change their registration are likely to be well-informed voters who both follow the news and are aware of the process by which they would change their actual registration.
“These people who are doing this activity, they are likely very sophisticated voters. They’re highly participatory, most likely,” he said. “If you’re sophisticated enough to change your party registration, you’re somebody who’s likely to vote.”
Some of the data suggests the Republican exodus is happening in the suburban counties where GOP candidates and former President Trump struggled so much in both the 2018 and 2020 elections.
About a third of the Pennsylvania voters who dropped their affiliation with the Republican Party are registered to vote in Montgomery, Bucks, Chester and Delaware counties, the so-called Collar Counties outside of Philadelphia that once decided the balance of power in the Keystone State. Those counties have trended increasingly Democratic in recent years; President Biden won 58 percent of the vote in Chester County, the best performance ever recorded by a Democratic candidate there.
By contrast, Republicans picked up more former Democratic voters in places like Berks, Luzerne and Cambria counties, exurban and rural areas where Trump did better than previous Republican nominees.
Trump scored 68 percent of the vote in Cambria County, home of Johnstown and ancestral Democrats once represented in Congress by Rep. John Murtha (D). That tally was better than any previous Republican nominee, besting even the 66.5 percent Trump won there in 2016.
McDonald cautioned that the number of voters switching parties overall was relatively small — the 10,000 Republicans who fled in Pennsylvania represents a tiny fraction of the party’s almost 3.5 million registered voters in the state, for example. But the figures represent a reversal of registration trends that were taking place before Election Day.
“Prior to the election, the trend was in the opposite direction, there were more Republicans that were registering,” McDonald said. “It’s not just like it’s a little blip, it’s also a blip in a different direction than we’ve seen in previous years.”
Five improvised explosive devices that the FBI says 'were fully operational and could cause great bodily harm or injury if handled improperly.' (photo: FBI)
Trump Supporter Found With Pipe Bombs Accused of Plot to Attack Democrats
Rebecca Falconer, Axios
Falconer writes: "The FBI believes California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and the Bay Area headquarters of Twitter and Facebook were targets of a man facing federal explosives charges, according to a criminal complaint."
Driving the news: Prosecutors charged Ian Benjamin Rogers after finding weapons including five pipe bombs, 49 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition following a Jan. 15 search of his Napa County home and auto repair business. His alleged goal was to ensure former President Trump remained in office.
- The suspected far-right extremist told the FBI he built the bombs "for entertainment purposes only," according to the complaint, filed Tuesday.
- But agents found text messages sent from the 43-year-old's phone that appeared to target Democrats, Twitter and Facebook after Trump was banned from the social media sites following the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol by some of his supporters.
Zoom in: "We can attack Twitter or the democrats you pick," said one message. "We can attack Twitter and democrats easy right now burn they’re s--- down."
- "I'm thinking sac office first target ... Then maybe bird and face offices," said another.
- FBI Special Agent Stephanie Minor stated in the complaint that she believes "sac" refers to Newsom's Sacramento office.
- Another message stated, "I hope 45 goes to war if he doesn't I will," which Minor stated she believed was in reference to ensuring that Trump "remained in power" after his election loss.
For the record: Rogers is facing federal charges of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device.
- Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley told the Los Angeles Times Wednesday that he also faces 28 felony charges in state court "for possession of the explosives and weapons, including possession of an illegal silencer and multiple unregistered assault weapons."
Francisca Lino hands luggage to her husband, Diego Lino, outside Adalberto Memorial United Methodist Church, 2716 W. Division St., as they head home to Romeoville on Jan. 23, 2021, in Chicago. (photo: John Kim/Chicago Tribune)
Woman Who Lived at Chicago Church for Over 3 Years Goes Home After Biden Administration Suspends Deportations
Paige Fry, Chicago Tribune
Fry writes: "A woman who has lived in a Humboldt Park church for three and a half years to avoid deportation returned home Saturday night to live with her family after President Joe Biden's 100-day moratorium on deportations went into effect Friday."
Francisca Lino took sanctuary in an apartment above the same Chicago church that protected immigration activist Elvira Arellano, Adalberto United Methodist Church, at 2716 W. Division St., after she defied a court order in August 2017 mandating that she leave the country.
Saturday, she was headed back to her Romeoville home.
Lino, a mother of six, is one of many immigrants who the government knew were living in the country illegally and allowed to stay, provided they check in with immigration officials every six months to a year. Under President Barack Obama’s administration, this population was not considered a priority for deportation because of their clean criminal records or sympathetic cases.
But they felt fear under President Donald Trump’s administration. Lino, the church and Democratic politicians held a news conference in July 2019 where they pledged to fight back against what they said were merciless immigration enforcement policies from the Trump administration. Trump had announced that year that federal officials would begin large-scale deportations in major U.S. cities, including Chicago.
Now, the Biden administration has already made moves to assist immigrants. The Homeland Security Department announced a 100-day moratorium on deportations “for certain noncitizens” that started Friday, according to The Associated Press. It was after Biden revoked one of Trump’s earliest executive orders making anyone in the country illegally a priority for deportations.
The three and a half years in sanctuary was very difficult, Lino said, translated by Chicago immigration activist Emma Lozano, a pastor of Lincoln United Methodist Church, during a news conference Saturday.
Lino couldn’t be there for her daughter when she gave birth to her grandson or for another child who had surgery, Lozano translated for Lino. But now, Lino can enjoy the remainder of the 100 days with them.
“She said, ‘I’m so happy,’ and that she feels that she can walk out of here without fear, where that wasn’t like that a year ago,” Lozano said, translating for Lino. “And she says that now that she can go home — and it’s been a long time — where she feels free to go home and hug her children.”
After the 100 days, Lino said, “We’ll have to see,” Lozano translated.
Lozano also spoke about how activists are calling on Biden to support and pass the American Right to Family Act, which was introduced by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., in October. If passed, it would direct the secretary of Homeland Security to grant lawful temporary residence to the parents of citizens if they’ve lived in the United States for 10 years.
“Family is a human right, and they’ve been separating our families for years by deportation because of documents,” Lozano said. “When these hundred days run out, we will be ready to see the future of our people.”
Lino illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 1999 but was caught, fingerprinted and released after a few hours. After a few days, she made a second attempt and successfully crossed. She eventually settled in Bolingbrook with her husband, Diego Lino.
Francisca Lino was arrested in 2005 during an interview to obtain her green card because her application did not disclose that she had previously been arrested at the border, her attorney Christopher Bergin previously said. He said Lino was the victim of notary fraud and that she had been honest with immigration officials from the start.
She was handed a deportation notice in March 2017 during a scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in and was told to return to the immigration office Aug. 23 with a plane ticket. Instead she asked her husband to drive her to the Humboldt Park church, where she had been a member for 15 years.
Bergin showed up to Lino’s final appointment with ICE and delivered a letter to immigration officials explaining that she had decided against self-deportation.
Lino later filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against federal officials including Trump, alleging her right to due process was violated during her 1999 expedited removal. They voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit in 2018, six months after filing it.
After the news conference Saturday, Lino went back inside to grab a black suitcase.
She stood on Division Street as her husband drove a gray Honda Pilot up to the curb, where three and a half years ago he dropped her off. Lino entered the front passenger seat, and they finally went home.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., sits in the bleachers at the Capitol before the inauguration. (photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty)
Bernie Sanders Raises $1.8 Million for Charity With Inauguration Meme-Inspired Merchandise
The Associated Press
Excerpt: "About those wooly mittens that U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders wore to the presidential inauguration, sparking endless quirky memes across social media?"
"We’re glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need,” Sanders said. “But even this amount of money is no substitute for action by Congress."
They've helped to raise $1.8 million in the last five days for charitable organizations in Sanders' home state of Vermont, the independent senator announced Wednesday.
The sum comes from the sale of merchandise with the Jan. 20 image of him sitting with his arms and legs crossed, clad in his brown parka and recycled wool mittens.
Sanders put the first of the so-called "Chairman Sanders” merchandise, including T-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers, on his website Thursday night and the first run sold out in less than 30 minutes, he said. More merchandise was added over the weekend and sold out by Monday morning, he said.
“Jane and I were amazed by all the creativity shown by so many people over the last week, and we’re glad we can use my internet fame to help Vermonters in need,” Sanders said in a written statement. “But even this amount of money is no substitute for action by Congress, and I will be doing everything I can in Washington to make sure working people in Vermont and across the country get the relief they need in the middle of the worst crisis we’ve faced since the Great Depression.”
Sanders’ mittens were made by Jen Ellis, a Vermont elementary school teacher who has a side business making mittens out of recycled wool. His inauguration look, also featuring the winter jacket made by Burton Snowboards, sparked countless memes from the photo taken by Agence France-Presse: The former presidential candidate could be found on social media timelines taking a seat on the subway, the moon and the couch with the cast of “Friends," among other creative locales.
Ellis said on social media over the weekend that Sanders called to tell her that “the mitten frenzy" had raised an enormous amount of money for Vermont charities although she was not authorized to disclose the amount, yet.
“But it’s BIG and it’s amazing! Thank you!! Generosity brings joy," she tweeted.
She also said she made three more pairs of mittens and donated them for fundraising to Passion 4 Paws Vermont, Outright Vermont, and would be auctioning off a pair on eBay for her daughter’s college fund.
The groups that will benefit from the proceeds of the “Chairman Sanders” items include area agencies on aging to fund Meals on Wheels throughout Vermont, Vermont community action agencies, Feeding Chittenden, Vermont Parent Child Network, The Chill Foundation, senior centers in Vermont and Bistate Primary Care for dental care improvements in the state, Sanders' office said.
Sanders' attire has also sparked other charitable endeavors. A crocheted doll of Sanders in his garb was auctioned off online and Burton Snowboards donated 50 jackets to the Burlington Department for Children and Families in Sanders' name, his office said.
Getty Images will donate its proceeds as part of the licensing agreement to put the photo on T-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers to Meals on Wheels of America, Sanders' office said. An email was sent to Getty seeking comment.
Biden is blocking weapons sales like the F-35 to UAE and Saudi Arabia. (photo: Getty)
Biden Administration Puts Hold on Foreign Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE
Deutsche Welle
Excerpt: "The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it had put a temporary hold on billions of dollars in arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia."
The move temporarily freezes billions of dollars in arms sales inked during Trump's last weeks in office. The State Department says it will conduct a routine review of the deals before canceling or going ahead with them.
A State Department representative called the move a "routine administrative action" noting that it was standard for incoming administrations to review large arms deals initiated by outgoing administrations.
The State Department said the temporary freeze would allow the Biden administration to ensure "US arms sales meet our strategic objectives of building stronger, interoperable and capable security partners."
Among the sales that have been put on hold is a massive $23 billion (€19 billion) deal to supply the UAE with 50 Lockheed-Martin F-35 stealth fighter jets. The deal was made in the final days of the Trump presidency, after the November 6 election.
It is unclear as yet what other deals may be affected, as the Trump administration had orchestrated a number of sales to countries in the Arab Gulf. On December 29, the State Department also approved the potential sale of 3,000 precision guided missiles, worth as much as $290 million, to Saudi Arabia.
As a candidate, Joe Biden pledged to halt arms sales to Saudi Arabia's repressive regime in an effort to halt the ongoing Saudi-led war against Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen. The previous US administration took less restrictive approach, with Trump famously lauding the "beautiful" American weapons exports to the Gulf and their impressive price-tags in one meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Trump administration, frustrated by Congress' refusal to approve some of its deals, upset lawmakers in turn by declaring arms sales to Saudi Arabia a national emergency in order to push them through without a Congressional review process.
"President Trump is only using this loophole because he knows Congress would disapprove ... There is no new ‘emergency' reason to sell bombs to the Saudis to drop in Yemen, and doing so only perpetuates the humanitarian crisis there," as Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said at the time.
Democrats and outside observers, such as the Center for International Policy, a Washington DC-based think tank, criticized such sales, saying they only served to fuel conflict in the region.
The Biden administration did not elaborate on what other deals it might be reviewing.
A hammerhead shark. Half of the world's 31 oceanic shark species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (photo: Jorge Silva/Reuters)
Global Shark and Ray Population Crashed More Than 70% in Past 50 Years - Study
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Milman writes: "The global population of sharks and rays has crashed by more than 70% in the past 50 years, researchers have determined for the first time, with massive ongoing losses pushing many species towards extinction."
Increase in fishing since the 1970s has ravaged abundance of sharks and rays in oceans
A huge increase in fishing since 1970 has ravaged the abundance of sharks and rays in our oceans, with previously widespread species such as hammerhead sharks now facing the threat of being wiped out, the study found. Half of the world’s 31 oceanic shark species are now listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The giant manta ray is also endangered.
“The decline isn’t stopping, which is a problem,” said Nathan Pacoureau, a researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada who was lead author of the study, published in Nature. “Everything in our oceans is so depleted now. We need proactive measures to prevent total collapse, this should be a wake up call for policy makers.”
Using a raft of previous studies and catch data, the researchers compiled the first global census for shark and ray species, finding there has been an overall 71% decline since 1970. The losses could be even deeper in reality, with insufficient data to chart population trends back to the 1950s, when the explosion in mass industrialized fishing started.
While sharks and rays can be affected by ship strikes, oil and gas drilling and, increasingly, the climate crisis, the researchers said that overfishing was the primary cause of decline. It has been previously estimated that 100 million sharks are killed by humans every year, overwhelming their slow reproductive capacity to replenish numbers.
Sharks are often killed unintentionally by fishers using nets to catch other marine creatures but are also targeted for purposes such as making shark fin soup, which involves sharks having their fins hacked off before their helpless bodies are discarded back into the ocean.
“Ongoing declines show that we are not protecting a vital part of our ocean ecosystems from overfishing, and this will lead to continued decline in the health of our oceans until we do something about it,” said Dr Cassandra Rigby, a biologist at James Cook University in Australia and study co-author.
The research highlights the patchwork quality of fisheries management around the world. Steep declines in shark and ray numbers in the Atlantic Ocean began to stabilize somewhat after 2000 amid conservation measures, while the rate of loss has also slowed in the Pacific Ocean. But in the Indian Ocean, shark and ray abundance had plummeted continually since 1970, with an estimated drop of 84% in overall population in this time.
Many species of shark are migratory, meaning their protection requires the cooperation of different countries, while much of the harmful fishing occurs in the largely ungoverned high seas. Previous international efforts to stem losses have had limited impact, although overfishing is set to be raised at a virtual oceans and climate summit this week featuring John Kerry, the US’s new climate envoy.
Governments need to enforce “science-based catch limits” on a domestic and regional basis to ensure sharks continue their vital roles as ecosystem predators and protein source for poorer communities, Rigby said. Mariah Pfleger, marine scientist at Oceana, added that countries should also ban the sale and trade of shark fins. The ocean conservation group is pushing for the US to adopt such a ban, as Canada enacted in 2019.
“The findings of this paper are horrifying but ultimately not that surprising,” Pfleger said. “We have long known that many species of sharks and rays cannot withstand extensive commercial fishing pressure.”
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