02 February 21
Not An Easy Road, But a Fighting Chance
January fundraising was a struggle. On the very last day of the month we managed to just cover our expenses.
We are always torn. We have great, dedicated donors but so many who come but will not help. It’s frustrating because can see what would be possible with slightly better participation.
So a huge thank you to those who sustain RSN and a New Year’s Resolution to do better in 2021.
With sincere thanks, onward.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
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02 February 21
It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News
RSN: Harvey Wasserman | Will a Hitlerian Impeachment Performance Ignite Trump's Paramilitary Death Squads?
Harvey Wasserman, Reader Supported News
Wasserman writes: "Lawyers galore have fled the prospect of representing Donald Trump at his upcoming Impeachment Trial (the sequel). So his pardoned consigliere Steve Bannon (who knows his Nazi history) wants The Donald to testify in person. It's a serious Hitlerian scenario."
So his pardoned consigliere Steve Bannon (who knows his Nazi history) wants The Donald to testify in person. It’s a serious Hitlerian scenario.
In 1923, Adolf tried to overthrow Bavaria’s state government. His violent rant at a Munich beerhall sparked an armed conflict that killed eight (Adolf dislocated his shoulder, then hid at a friend’s house).
His high-profile trial jump-started Hitler’s quest for fascist power.
Trump’s own “beerhall putsch” left five dead, plus two police suicides. He pledged to “be there with you” but hid like Hitler.
Trump’s paramilitary Death Squad meant to murder the likes of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Bernie Sanders. They crushed the skull of one cop and gleefully assaulted others. Many were professionally trained and heavily armed.
Trump is currently hiding in a Floridian Elba, barely seen or heard.
For his neo-Nazi cult, Trump’s return to the global spotlight would likely trigger waves of armed assault.
A brain-numbing tsunami of bloviating blather would swamp the global media. The wonky details of Biden’s bid to stop the pandemic, revive the economy, and save the planet would pale before the moronic bombast of the former Orange führer.
No matter how badly Trump comports himself in the eyes of his haters, his cultist legions will lap up every drop of insane blather. Once back in the spotlight, Donald Trump need merely open his mouth and the madness will march.
That’s what paved Hitler’s road to power. After his riveting post-putsch courtroom performance, Adolf spent eight months in a posh prison compiling his ghastly blueprint for global conquest. Mein Kampf was his very own Art of the Deal.
No matter what Trump might say at his impeachment, he’ll emerge unconvicted and unscathed. Chuck Schumer’s Senate Dems are simply too dull to compete for airtime with this media master of the Big Lie.
Mitch McConnell’s knot of GOP toadies will embrace his every addled word. They will pompously blast the loser libtards he so recently sent his minions to murder.
But even if Trump doesn’t testify, the Republican road to power is clear. Hitler built his entire career around the false narrative that Germany had actually won World War One, only to have that sacred victory stolen by traitors and Jews.
Trump will forever bleat how he really won two presidential landslides. The traitorous back-stabbers who denied his 2020 dictatorship are not only the liberal Democrats … but also Pence’s fake Republicans, who certified those fake electoral votes even as Trump’s Christian soldiers came so close to killing him.
The GOP blitzkrieg against any future fair election is already underway. That so many citizens who were young and of color could cast hand-marked paper ballots and have them counted was the core of Trump’s defeat. Should it happen again, he says, no Republican will ever win another election.
So gerrymandered GOP state legislators in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Texas, and Arizona want it made clear that only the reliably rich and the white may register to vote, get a ballot, return a ballot, or have one reliably counted.
And after gerrymandering the districting maps to their permanent advantage during the infamous 2010 REDMAP Coup, the ultimate GOP vision is that only a Red US House and super-majority GOP state legislatures may continue to exist.
(The Democrats’ parallel vision is to lock down their own safe districts, preventing progressives like Bernie Sanders or AOC from ever winning a presidential primary.)
With 6-3 control of the US Supreme Court, Trump’s GOP is positioned to win bans on paper balloting and competitive representational districts while protecting the Electoral College and the power of Big Money.
Trump’s January 6 Capitol killers’ costumes advertised RWDS (“Right Wing Death Squad”) along with“Camp Auschwitz” and 6MWE (“6 Million Weren’t Enough”). They laud Pinochet’s Chile and Putin’s Russia … and want them here.
But grassroots campaigns have won epic victories for paper ballots and against gerrymandering in places like Iowa, California, and Michigan.
Diverse turnouts shifted the US Senate in places like Georgia.
About half the states have the initiative and referendum and could win Constitutional amendments that could well hold up in the long term.
Democracy advocates must now learn how to protect free and fair elections while facing an armed fascist cult that hates them.
However it happens, the impeachment circus will be bigly ugly.
But it’ll be a fleeting prelude to the Great Democracy War of the 2020s, which we must win.
Harvey Wasserman’s People’s Spiral of US History is at www.solartopia.org. He co-convenes the Grassroots Emergency Election Protection Coalition’s Monday 5 p.m. EST zooms via www.electionprotection2024.org.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. (photo: AP)
Democrats Introduce Budget Resolution, Kicking Off Fast-Track Process to Pass COVID Package
Melissa Quinn and Jack Turman, CBS News
Excerpt: "Democratic leaders in Congress filed a joint budget resolution Monday that kicks off the process for passing President Biden's sweeping coronavirus relief plan without Republican support."
emocratic leaders in Congress filed a joint budget resolution Monday that kicks off the process for passing President Biden's sweeping coronavirus relief plan without Republican support, announcing the measure just before a group of 10 Republican senators are set to meet with the president at the White House about their own framework.
The budget resolution filed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is the first step in the budget reconciliation process, which would allow Congress to swiftly approve Mr. Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus package with a simple majority. The resolution contains reconciliation instructions that lay out which congressional committees are responsible for drafting the legislation and how much they can spend. Once both the House and Senate pass the resolutions, the committees can get to work on the reconciliation bill.
"Congress has a responsibility to quickly deliver immediate comprehensive relief to the American people hurting from COVID-19," Schumer and Pelosi said in a statement. "The cost of inaction is high and growing, and the time for decisive action is now."
The instructions direct the relevant House and Senate panels to come up with language that addresses several of the key provisions in Mr. Biden's plan, including $1,400 direct payments to individuals and an extension of the unemployment insurance program through September with a $400 per week enhancement. The legislation would also include $350 billion for state and local governments, funding to reopen schools and more money for vaccines, testing and public health programs. The budget resolution calls for federal aid to support the use of the Defense Production Act to boost manufacturing of supplies needed to combat the coronavirus, as well as money for small businesses.
Absent from a summary provided by the Democrats is a provision raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour, which was in Mr. Biden's package but criticized by Republicans.
"The only thing we cannot accept is a package that is too small or too narrow to pull our country out of this emergency," Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor. "We cannot repeat the mistake of 2009, and we must act very soon to get this assistance to those so desperately in need."
The New York Democrat said input from Republicans is "welcome."
"COVID relief, too, should be the work of both Democrats and Republicans," Schumer said.
Approval of an emergency relief plan is Mr. Biden's first legislative priority, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the U.S. economy. While the president has stressed he wants bipartisan support for a coronavirus package, Republican senators have balked at the $1.9 trillion cost of Mr. Biden's plan.
On Sunday, a group of 10 Republicans sent the president a letter asking to meet and discuss their own framework, which they said would have backing from both Democrats and Republicans. At $618 billion, the plan is significantly smaller than Mr. Biden's and does not include money for state and local governments, which has been a sticking point in past negotiations on relief measures.
Nine of the Republicans met with Mr. Biden for two hours on Monday. Senator Susan Collins, the leader of the group, called the meeting "productive," saying she believed there was still hope for a bipartisan deal.
The White House, however, said in a readout of the meeting that Mr. Biden "will not settle for a package that fails to meet the moment."
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez disclosed the sexual assault as she recounted her experiences during the U.S. Capitol riot. (photo: Pete Marovich/NYT)
AOC Reveals She Is a Sexual Assault Survivor in Recount of Capitol Attack
Guardian UK
Excerpt: "The Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday spoke in an emotional video about the insurrection at the US Capitol, and how what she went through was affected by her experience as a survivor of sexual assault."
In an account remarkably candid for an American lawmaker, Ocasio-Cortez recounted going into hiding as rioters scaled the Capitol on 6 January, hiding in a bathroom in her office while hearing banging on the walls and a man yelling: “Where is she? Where is she?” She had feared for her life, she told an Instagram Live audience of more than 150,000 people.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said. “And I had a lot of thoughts. I was thinking if this is the plan for me, then people will be able to take it from here.”
In the video, Ocasio-Cortez expressed frustration at being asked to “move on” after the attack, likening it to the refrain heard by many survivors of sexual assault. “These folks like to tell us to move on, that it’s not a big deal, that we should forget what happened, even telling us that we should apologize – these are the same tactics of abusers,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I’m a survivor of sexual assault,” she added. “And I haven’t told many people that in my life. But when we go through trauma, trauma compounds on each other.”
Ocasio-Cortez, who won re-election in November in New York’s 14th congressional district, had said in a video last month that she feared for her life during the Capitol attack.
On Monday, she said she had been worried about the security situation for days, having been cautioned about possible violence by several people, including other lawmakers.
The incident at her office had occurred after she returned from receiving her Covid-19 vaccine, she said.
“I immediately realized I shouldn’t have gone into the bathroom. I should have gone in the closet,” she said. “Then I hear whoever was trying to get inside got into my office. I realize it’s too late.”
She said she had then heard yelling. “This was the moment I thought everything was over. I thought I was going to die.”
The congresswoman wiped away tears as she continued. “I start to look through the door hinge to see if I can see anything. I see this white man in a black beanie and yell again,” she said. “I have never been quieter in my entire life.”
A staffer had eventually told her it was safe to emerge from the bathroom where she was hiding, and a Capitol police officer had been present in her office. She and her team had left the office, she recalled, and had eventually found shelter in the offices of the California representative Katie Porter.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is Latina, had previously said that her fears were heightened because there were white supremacists and other extremists taking part in the mostly white mob.
The second-term representative, whose New York district covers part of Queens and the Bronx, is among the most high-profile elected officials on the political left and a lightning rod for the right and extreme right.
She has strongly condemned Donald Trump for inciting the riots, as well as members of his administration who did not invoke the 25th amendment to remove him from office, and lawmakers who voted to overturn the election results.
Pedestrians duck under a downed power line in Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico. (photo: Angel Valentin/Vox)
Biden Administration Moves to Release Billions in Maria Relief for Puerto Rico
Alex Roarty and Syra Ortiz-Blanes, McClatchy DC
Excerpt: "The Biden administration approved releasing $1.3 billion in funding for Puerto Rico Monday as part of a Hurricane Maria disaster relief package."
he Biden administration approved releasing $1.3 billion in funding for Puerto Rico Monday as part of a Hurricane Maria disaster relief package, a federal official confirmed to El Nuevo Herald and the Miami Herald, the first such distribution from a new president who has promised to speed delivery of the long-delayed funds.
Department of Housing and Urban Development spokesman Michael Burns also said the department took a step Monday toward loosening restrictions on $4.9 billion in relief funds previously approved by the former President Donald Trump’s administration in the hours before he left office.
According to January 2020 data, HUD has only disbursed around $138.5 million, less than 1% of the roughly $20 billion Congress allocated for Hurricane María relief through its programs, according to figures from the Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resiliency (COR3,) which oversees federally funded reconstruction projects in Puerto Rico.
The Trump administration delayed and placed restrictions on funds allocated for the American territory to help the island recover from the devastation of Hurricane Maria, partly citing concerns of government mishandling of funds and corruption. The hurricane killed thousands and devastated critical infrastructure, causing as much as $90 billion in damages.
As the island struggles to bounce back from the aftermath of María, it has also dealt with thousands of earthquakes and the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it was a “priority” of the president to release the outstanding relief funds for Puerto Rico.
“We are working to do so,” she told reporters during a press briefing.
Of the roughly $66 billion in total aid Congress approved for Puerto Rico after the 2017 storm, only about $17.3 billion — less than a third of the total amount — has been distributed to the American territory. Federal agencies have promised to distribute around $41.7 billion, per COR3 data.
Images and videos of the riot show individuals associated with a range of extreme and far-right groups and supporters of fringe online conspiracy theories. (photo: Getty Images)
'He Invited Us': Accused Capitol Rioters Blame Trump in Novel Legal Defense
Jan Wolfe, Reuters
Wolfe writes: "Emanuel Jackson, awaiting trial in federal court on assault charges, is now adopting a novel legal defense: seeking to pin the blame on Donald Trump, citing the former president's remarks at a 'Stop the Steal' rally shortly before the Capitol siege."
manuel Jackson, a 20-year-old Washington area man, was caught on video using a metal bat to strike the protective shields wielded by police officers as they tried to fend off rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Trump told the crowd to “fight like hell,” said “we will not take it anymore” and repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him through widespread voting fraud. Trump exhorted his followers to go to the Capitol. The ensuing rampage interrupted the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory, sent lawmakers into hiding and left five people dead including a police officer.
Jackson’s lawyer, Brandi Harden, wrote in a Jan. 22 court filing that “the nature and circumstances of this offense must be viewed through the lens of an event inspired by the President of the United States.”
The Capitol siege, Harden added, “appears to have been spontaneous and sparked by the statements made during the ‘Stop the Steal’ rally.” Harden argued that Jackson should be released while awaiting trial. A judge on Jan. 22 denied the request.
At least six of the 170 people charged in connection with the Capitol siege have tried to shift at least some of the blame onto Trump as they defend themselves in court or in the court of public opinion.
Other defendants to take this route include Jacob Chansley, who donned a horned headdress and face paint during the attack, and Dominic Pezzola, a member of the Proud Boys right-wing extremist group who is accused of shattering a window in the Capitol with a stolen police shield so rioters could enter.
“The boss of the country said, ‘People of the country, come on down, let people know what you think,’” Pezzola’s defense lawyer, Michael Scibetta, told Reuters. “The logical thinking was, ‘He invited us down.’”
Lawyers have not yet sought dismissal of charges or acquittal during a trial based on the idea that Trump incited their clients, instead making the claim as part of efforts to spare them from pretrial detention.
No defendant will be able to avoid criminal culpability by saying they were incited by Trump, said Jay Town, who served as the top federal prosecutor in Birmingham, Alabama, during the Trump administration.
“If anything, it is an admission to criminal conduct,” said Town, now the general counsel of cybersecurity firm Gray Analytics. “While this ineffective tactic may help with headlines, it will not help the fate of any defendant.”
Trump took to a stage near the White House and exhorted supporters to “fight” - using the word more than 20 times. Trump told the crowd that “everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol.” About 50 minutes into the speech, many of them did.
Trump adviser Jason Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the legal strategy of blaming the former president. Trump has called his speech “totally appropriate.”
IMPEACHMENT TRIAL
The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” stemming from his Jan. 6 speech. He faces an impeachment trial next week in the Senate.
Enough of his fellow Republicans in the Senate have signaled opposition to impeachment to indicate that the chamber almost certainly will fall short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict him. Democrats hope to use the trial to disqualify him from future public office.
Lori Ulrich, a defense lawyer in Pennsylvania, said that her client Riley June Williams was motivated by Trump’s remarks. Williams, 22, is accused of stealing a laptop from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the siege.
It is “regrettable that Ms. Williams took the president’s bait and went inside the Capitol,” Ulrich told a judge at a Jan. 21 court hearing as she argued against Williams being detained while her case proceeds. The judge released Williams to home confinement.
Some legal experts said the “blame Trump” defense could complicate matters for defendants if they eventually plead guilty in hopes of getting a lesser sentence. Town noted that federal judges require defendants who plead guilty to accept full responsibility for their conduct.
Scibetta acknowledged the limits of the effectiveness of blaming Trump.
“It would be reckless to put all your eggs in that basket,” Scibetta said.
But Scibetta said Trump’s speech helps explain how people got swept away in the riot.
“These were people acting in a way they have never acted before,” Scibetta said, “and it begs the question, ‘Who lit the fuse?”
A protest against the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russia. (photo: AP)
ALSO SEE: Severe Punishment Awaits Protesters in Russia, Kremlin Says
More Protests Called in Moscow to Demand Navalny's Release
Daria Litvinova, Associated Press
Litvinova writes: "Moscow braced for more protests seeking the release of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who faces a court hearing Tuesday after two weekends of nationwide rallies and thousands of arrests in the largest outpouring of discontent in Russia in years."
READ MORE
Activists protest the Dakota Access Pipeline outside the Army Corps of Engineers Office. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Once United in Support of Biden, Environmentalists and Unions Clash Over Pipelines
Laura Sanicola and Nia Williams, Reuters
Excerpt: "Environmentalists and labor unions that threw their support behind U.S. President Joseph Biden now find themselves on the opposite sides of a battle over the construction of big pipeline projects between Canada and the United States."
The United States is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. Biden’s administration aims to transition the U.S. economy towards net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and his initial moves towards that goal included cancelling a permit for the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline (KXL) and reducing oil-and-gas leasing.
The reaction from Biden’s supporters, however, illustrates the challenge of managing the impact of the energy transition on different communities.
While climate activists celebrated KXL’s demise, labor unions, reeling from the global oil downturn, have mobilized to keep ongoing projects from being derailed.
Mike Knisely, secretary and treasurer of the Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council, which endorsed Biden, said he has been leaning on state officials to talk to the president about how his rapid-fire climate announcements are affecting his union membership’s support.
“I tell them they need to get back with Biden and ask if this all really has to happen on Day Two of the new administration,” Knisely said. “I just get so frustrated that there’s almost no common ground (on pipelines) with the environmental community.”
Climate groups have had successes in recent years, persuading large investors to reduce holdings in fossil fuel industries, as well as lobbying banks to shun investment in Arctic drilling.
But Biden was endorsed by a number of key labor unions that work on pipelines, refineries and other energy installations, including the International Teamsters and North America’s Building Trades. Those unions celebrated the victory of a pro-labor president, but opposed the Keystone move, and are lining up against threats to the other pipelines.
Environmentalists see Biden as an ally in the battle to wean the United States off fossil fuels and stymie imports of carbon-intensive heavy crude from Canada’s vast oil sands. They are intensifying efforts to shut three other pipelines: Enbridge Inc’s Line 3 and Line 5, and Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).
Unlike KXL, these three lines are all currently in service. The Enbridge lines deliver crude oil and fuels from Canada, while DAPL sends crude from North Dakota to the Midwest and Gulf Coast.
Legal and regulatory battles threaten all three pipelines.
A White House spokesman said the Biden administration is reviewing a court decision last week that upheld orders for a lengthy environmental review for DAPL. He declined to comment on the two Enbridge pipelines.
Enbridge is more than doubling Line 3’s capacity to 760,000 barrels per day (bpd), a project supported by Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat.
To be sure, not all unions backed Biden. Phillip Wallace, business representative for Pipeliners Union 798 in Minnesota, said his union, which supported former President Donald Trump, was concerned the new administration may try to stop the project.
“We have got full construction going right now in Minnesota and I am worried that this new administration could throw a monkey wrench in our gears,” Wallace said. His union is planning on rallies to support construction once COVID-19 restrictions ease.
On Friday, environmental protesters halted construction on a Line 3 work site in Minnesota by locking themselves to each other between barrels of concrete, one of several disruptions so far this year that has resulted in dozens of arrests.
“If KXL can’t pass the climate test for Biden, Line 3 certainly can’t,” said Winona LaDuke, executive director of Honor the Earth, an indigenous environmental group.
Unions are also ramping up support for Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac, where Lakes Huron and Michigan meet, and ships 540,000 bpd of light crude and propane. Activists want to decommission the 68-year-old line, while Enbridge is trying to upgrade it to protect the straits.
Enbridge last week received a state permit to build a tunnel to house the line; it still needs permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In November, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer revoked the pipeline’s easement in the straits and ordered the pipeline shut. The United Steelworkers, who endorsed Biden, have been trying to drum up support with legislators to keep the line running.
“The USW strongly supports both the Line 5 replacement segment project and the continued operation of the existing pipeline,” it told Reuters in a statement. “Hundreds of USW members and their communities depend on the good, family-sustaining jobs Line 5 supports.”
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