A PICTURE SAYS MUCH MORE THAN WORDS CAN, THEY SAY. NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS SLEEPING IN THE CAPITOL AFTER THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES ENCOURAGED A COUP AGAINST THE NATION, IN ORDER TO REMAIN POWER.
NOT SINCE THE CIVIL WAR HAS THE NATION EXPERIENCED ANYTHING LIKE THIS. THIS IS HOW SEVERE AND SERIOUS THIS IS.
The unidentified cop is on administrative leave and will likely face federal charges, the police chief said. A Houston police officer could face federal charges after allegedly taking part in the U.S. Capitol riot, HPD Chief Art Acevedo said Wednesday.
The unidentified officer has been placed on administrative leave Wednesday and faces a disciplinary hearing with the chief on Friday.
“He has a date with me,” Acevedo said. “There’s a high probability this person will be charged with federal charges.”
The chief said he received a tip Sunday that one of his officers stormed the Capitol.
After checking his Facebook page, Acevedo confirmed the officer attended the rally, which is his constitutional right.
But a joint investigation with the FBI later found the officer was part of the mob that stormed the Capitol.“There’s no excuse for criminal activity – especially from a police officer,” Acevedo said. “I can’t tell you the anger I feel at the thought of a police officer or other police officers thinking they get to go storm the Capitol; or any member of the military or members of the Secret Service.”
The suspect is a patrol officer and 18-year veteran, and it appears he traveled alone to Washington, D.C.
“As an American, when I saw the confederate flag in the Capitol — in the rotunda — that angered me. And the thought of off-duty police officers participating in that, I can’t tell you what that does to me.”
The chief also said they are beefing up police presence citywide in advance of the inauguration, but there are no known threats to the Houston area.
Earlier this week, an FBI bulletin warned all capital cities in the U.S. to be on the alert.
By Ryan J. Reilly
Federal authorities have arrested and charged two Virginia police officers who took a selfie during the attack on the U.S. Capitol last week, when hundreds of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the seat of the legislative branch in an attempt to overturn the results of the election.
Thomas Robertson and Jacob Fracker, two members of the Rocky Mount Police Department in Virginia, took a selfie in front of a statute of John Stark, a general in the Continental Army during the American Revolution.
Robertson and Fracker are charged with knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and violent entry or disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.
Vincent Veloz, a special agent with the U.S. Capitol Police, wrote in a statement of facts that Robertson posted on social media that “we actually attacked the government,” and wrote that they “took the fucking U.S. Capitol” in one day. He also wrote that he was proud to have “put skin in the game.”
“If you are too much of a coward to risk arrest,being fired, and actual gunfire to secure your rights., you have no words to speak I value,” Robertson wrote in a message.
Fracker, on Facebook, wrote that he didn’t think he’d done anything wrong.
“Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around… Sorry I hate freedom?” Fracker wrote on Facebook, authorities said. “Not like I did anything illegal, WAY too much to lose to go there but, y’all do what you feel you need to.”
The statement of facts also says there’s probable cause to believe that both defendants violated a law that makes it a crime to “willfully and knowingly utter loud, threatening, or abusive language, or engage in disorderly or disruptive conduct” at the U.S. Capitol when intended to “impede, disrupt, or disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress or either House of Congress.”
The duo will appear at a video conference in federal court in the Western District of Virginia on Wednesday afternoon.
A number of law enforcement officials took part in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, while a number of police officers are under investigation for assisting or coddling the rioters who violently overtook the building.
U.S. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick died during the attack
The continued unfolding of last week’s white supremacist coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol is now raising questions about the potential complicity and outright danger posed by some members of Congress themselves during the insurrection — even beyond their role in inciting the mob by pushing the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Trump.
On the heels of New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson’s announcement that she tested positive for COVID-19 after sheltering with colleagues at the Capitol who refused to wear a mask, two additional Democratic members of Congress have since revealed they now have the virus — which they attribute to being on lockdown with Republican mask-deniers.
Following those announcements, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D‑Mass.) said on Tuesday that she chose to leave a designated safe room for elected officials during the riot when she clocked that some of her co-workers on the other side of the aisle themselves also posed a safety threat.
“The second I realized our ‘safe room’ from the violent white supremacist mob included treasonous, white supremacist, anti masker Members of Congress who incited the mob in the first place, I exited,” Pressley said on Twitter.
The ease with which the coronavirus was apparently allowed to spread was only one of many seemingly deliberate dangers let loose inside the Capitol on that harrowing day. Pressley’s chief of staff, Sarah Groh, told the Boston Globe that during the incursion she discovered that the panic buttons in her office had been removed.
Read more here: https://www.theroot.com/suspicions-build-in-capitol-attack-as-democrats-call-ou-1846049763
The Republican Party is hell-bent on dragging America down a path to destruction that the country will not be able to come back from.
After the coördinated attack on the Article One branch of the US Government on January 6th, in which some members have been rumored to have played a part, they still refuse to step back from the edge of the cliff.
This kamikaze-style fanaticism seems to worsen instead of getting better, despite the blatantly obvious catastrophic outcomes.
After the assault on the Congress, Speaker of the House Democrat Nancy Pelosi has reportedly ordered that metal detectors be installed in the building. Republican members of the House are reportedly finding ways around the newly installed detectors. Even as we wonder about the effectiveness of metal detectors if someone can walk around them, it bears remembering that Democrats coalesced around Republican president George Bush to secure the nation after the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
Republican Congress members have refused to wear masks, which essentially puts their Democratic colleagues and their staff in jeopardy of contracting the COVID-19 virus.
Having been forced to shelter together on January 6th, as a consequence of the assault they initiated through lies and disinformation, several Democratic House members have now tested positive for the virus.
Speaker Pelosi appropriately moved by initiating a mandatory mask policy inside the building; attached to the mandate is a $500 fine for failure to comply.
Republican House members have come down against that as well. These people are not politician representatives they are criminals. Almost all of them have to take airline flights to get back to their states. they have no choice but to go through metal detectors at airports, and they have no choice but to observe airline policy protocols to board those flights.
As one African-American Democratic member said,” if you work at McDonald’s, you have to wear their uniform; if they do not want to wear a mask, they should find work elsewhere.”
We are told that some of the wide-eyed new Republican members now want to bring guns onto the house’s floor. This is insanity of the optimum order. It is reported that many Republican House members carry weapons on Capitol grounds.
A 1967 regulation says no federal or District of Columbia laws restricting firearms “shall prohibit any Member of Congress from maintaining firearms within the confines of his office” or “from transporting within Capitol grounds firearms unloaded and securely wrapped.”
Lawmakers may not bring weapons into the House chamber and other nearby areas, the regulations say, according to the letter Rep. Jared Huffman, D‑Calif., wrote in 2018. Aides can carry lawmakers’ weapons for them on the Capitol complex, he wrote.
For decades the mainstream media used its platform to characterizes the feelings of this part of the population, which is now a hardened Fascist horde. As if people are unable to think for themselves, the media elites told us these people were, quote; “working-class whites,” “disaffected working people, “people in fly-over America who was not heard by the Government,” “people with economic anxiety,” it goes on and on.
The fact is that we knew what they were for decades, “racist whites who did not like the changing face of America.”
For these neanderthals, it has nothing to do with the economy as they purported when President Barack Obama occupied the white house. Back then, they were all economic hawks, terrified of the debt they would leave their children and grandchildren.
Since Donald Trump took over, those panicked concerns have conveniently disappeared. For the record, Obama worked to rein in the deficit; Trump exploded the deficit and debt to give tax breaks to wealthy Americans like himself. The idiots had no problem with that.
Those people are none of what the media has been telling you they are; they are everything we have been telling you they are. They are the remnant of the old order, the neanderthals who believe that they have a right to all they see, and no one else has those rights.
Their anxieties have nothing to do with the economy. It is about losing white privilege. One Democratic Congresswoman, Mikie Sherrill, revealed Tuesday she witnessed lawmakers giving tours she perceived to be ‘a reconnaissance for the next day’ to groups last Tuesday.
She said she intends to hold accountable those members, who she did not name, and have them removed from Congress.
If those allegations are true, and if those actions do not warrant removal from congress, what is? If demagogues like Josh Hawley, Raphael Cruz, and others, are allowed to continue to serve in a body they placed at existential risk, what does it say about the rule of law.
Last week we asked about the idea that a president cannot be charged with a crime while he is in office. We must be reminded that nowhere in the United States Constitution is that idea written. It was not written into the Constitution for the simple reason that the framers did not want to have a King.
If a sitting president commits felonies, what on earth could justify him not being charged like everyone else and removed?
The Justice Department’s policy, is one that has no support in the Constitution, one that has kept Donald J Trump in power even after he has committed crimes that should have resulted in his removal from office.
Mike Pence narrowly escaped being hanged by the mob; they went looking for him, chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” they built the gallows. The Speaker of the House and her Democratic caucus, and the Senate Democratic caucus, may have all been murdered, had some Capitol protective detail members not acted with dispatch and professionalism.
At the same time, we should never forget that some members of that detail were actively aiding insurrectionists as they assaulted the complex.
Despite the atrocious events that occurred on January 6h, members of the seditionist Republican caucus went right back to propagating the lies of a rigged election on the US House floor. They did so even as broken glass, feces, and blood remained on the capitol floor and walls.
Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and others continued to promulgate the lies that almost resulted in the American Government’s Legislative branch’s total decapitation.
Decapitation of the Legislative Branch would have given Donald Trump a free hand to take over the Government and make himself President for life.
He had already moved the pieces in place across the cabinet and other key departments like the Pentagon.
The average American may never fully understand just how close the American Democracy came to being overthrown.
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Mike Beckles writes for thinkers.
Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
♦Two Black officers with the US Capitol Police reported that they were repeatedly called the N‑word by Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
♦One pointed to a “big difference” in how his colleagues dealt with the rioters, compared with last summer’s Black Lives Matter protesters.
♦“Some of the officers were catering to the rioters,” the officer said.
♦The Capitol Police has come under fire for its handling of Wednesday’s attack. Some officers were seen allowing the mob to advance on the building and posing for selfies.
Two Black US Capitol Police officers reported that they were repeatedly called the N‑word by supporters of President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol last week and suggested that their fellow officers went easy on the rioters.
One of the officers who spoke with BuzzFeed News, a newer recruit, pointed to a “big difference” in how his fellow officers treated Wednesday’s mob compared with the way they treated Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.
Much attention has been paid to a video showing officers open a barricade to the mob, and to the fact that initial arrests paled in comparison with the number of people arrested at protests against Trump and racial injustice.
“Some officers were catering to the rioters” on Wednesday, the officer said.
The younger officer said it was hurtful to see video of one of his white colleagues posing for selfies with some of the rioters.
“That one hurt me the most because I was on the other side of the Capitol getting my ass kicked,” he said.
The officer said that if it had been Black people breaching the Capitol last week, he’s not sure his white coworkers would have been as chummy with them.
A Republican member of Congress has been removed from a panel at Harvard University for making comments that perpetuated President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, the school announced Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York was removed from a senior advisory committee at Harvard’s school of government after she declined to resign voluntarily, according to a statement from Douglas Elmendorf, dean of the Harvard Kennedy School
Hundreds of students and alumni called on Harvard to cut ties with Stefanik, a 2006 Harvard graduate, after last week’s violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Stefanik was one of roughly a dozen current and former public servants on a senior advisory committee for Harvard’s Institute of Politics, a program intended to get undergraduates interested in public service careers.
Elmendorf said the decision was not based on political ideology. “Rather, in my assessment, Elise has made public assertions about voter fraud in November’s presidential election that have no basis in evidence, and she has made public statements about court actions related to the election that are incorrect,”his statement said.
Read the full story at the link below.
https://auburnpub.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/harvard-cuts-ties-with-upstate-ny-rep-stefanik-over-voter-fraud-claims/article_3b6b280f-17bb-5afb-b7fa-52bfbf15116b.html
The Jamaica Constabulary is reporting another major gun and ammunition find, once again coming through the ports.
According to the Police, 19 firearms, including six high powered rifles, and just over 470 assorted rounds of ammunition have been seized.
The police reported that the find was made at the wharf in St James on Monday, January 12th. We congratulate the police on the find, even as we are left wondering about the investigative techniques the police continue to use in trying to root out those responsible?
They reported that the
They say a major multi-agency investigation is now underway as investigators seek to identify the individuals responsible.
However, we are left wondering at the wisdom of revealing the find when the investigations are still underway?
It seems that announcing the find and subsequent investigations, helps those responsible to take cover, rather than it helps the investigations.
The Jamaican Government must demand that the United States Administration takes the influx of guns into Jamaica as seriously as the United States took Ganga arriving in the United States from as far back as the 1980s.
The American Government was not shy about seizing Ar-Jamaica planes on which Ganga was found. Those planes were not released to Air Jamaica until the humungous fines the Americans levied were paid.
No country, Jamaica included, should surrender its dignity on the altar of expediency, or affiliations. Jamaica must demand to be treated like a sovereign nation, the lack of size or the fact that Jamaica borrows like other actions do not mean surrendering its autonomy.
The American Government is no more responsible for the guns entering Jamaica, than Jamaica was for the Ganga entering the United States.
Notwithstanding, the National airline, and, by extension, the Jamaican taxpayers paid a hefty price; those fines no doubt [helped] force the airline into its demise.
Jamaica recorded four COVID-19 related deaths and 44 new cases on Friday, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has revealed.
The deceased include a 78-year-old male from St Ann, a 56-year-old female from Trelawny, and a 70-year-old female and a 78-year-old female, who both had St James addresses.
The death toll from the coronavirus across the island now stands at 311
The 44 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases increase the total number of cases on record for the island to 13,455. Recoveries increased by 56, bringing total recoveries to 11,379.
The newly confirmed cases comprise 30 females and 43 males, with ages ranging from one to 76 years.
The cases were recorded in Kingston and St Andrew (24), St Catherine (10), St James (six), Westmoreland (two), Manchester (one), and St Ann (one).There are four moderately ill patients and five critically ill patients among the 1,607 active cases under observation in Jamaica.
As the post mortem examination take shape after the coup attempt instigated by Donald Trump and Republicans on January 6th, one thing is certain; there should be no illusions about full accountability.
The Republican Party long gave up on the Democratic process. For decades now, they looked at demographic data, and the party has been moving decidedly toward authoritarian rule.
They have ramped up voter suppression methods, aimed exclusively at preventing Black Americans from voting. The US Supreme Court gave the party the green light in Shelby County, Alabama Vs. Holder. In a nonsensical ruling, the court all but eviscerated the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which protected African-Americans’ rights to vote.
Additionally, the Republican party has enacted legislation at the state levels that has dramatically limited huge sections of the black community’s ability to vote.
Gerrymandering, voter ID laws, and other anti-democratic activities have formed part of the Republican party’s tool-kit for decades.
As the realities of racial demographic shifts become clearer, the Republican party has become more desperate and, as a result, more dangerous to the Democratic process, as it doubles down on its decision to be the political party of white supremacy.
Simply put, the Republican party in its present form, is a clear and present danger to America’s national security. It cannot be allowed to hold power.
“A scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that both would sink if it did so, and the scorpion would drown. The frog then agrees, but midway across the river, the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature.”
In my last article, I wrote about the FBI warnings about police departments’ infiltration by white supremacists. I also talked about the fact that there has been significant evidence across the country that, at least in some departments, white supremacy is pervasive. Evidence of their influence is also evident on social media, in the paraphernalia some wear on their police uniforms, in the tattoos all across their bodies, including in places that are visible to the public.
On January 6th, the coup attempt by Donald Trump to overthrow the government through bloodshed failed, but just barely. There is talk that some of the insurrectionists were actually police officers and members of the military; at least some are past members.
The woman who was shot by Capitol police as she tried to breach parts of the building, is reported to be a veteran of the military.
There is talk that even in the secret service, Trumpism has taken root. It now means that Democrats, to include the incoming President and Vice President and their administration, should have much to worry about.
Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI Assistant Director; Author, explained that the FBI could not investigate domestic terrorists(white supremacists) as it does terror groups outside the country, because there is no domestic terror statute at the federal level.
This is atrocious. If the nation wanted to deal with domestic terrorism effectively, statutes would empower law enforcement to go after them stridently.
The sad reality is that, those who would fit snugly into the category of domestic terrorists are largely white men.
The FBI, other Federal Security Agencies, and local law enforcement agencies across the country, have systematically been focused on straw man threats. The supposed threats they dream up, are [Black identity extremists] and [Antifa].
Realistically, there is no such thing; it is a figment of the FBI’s imagination, a designation it created. When confronted by California US representative Karen Bass, FBI Director Christopher Wray could not explain what Black Identity Extremists were. Still, he was forced to concede that Antifa is not an organized group but a bunch of regular people opposed to Fascists and fascism.
In fact, the acronym ANTIFA literally stands for Anti-Fascists.
So unless one is a fascist, it is difficult to understand why anyone would be opposed to ANTIFA? On the other hand, it is important to understand that the supposed Black Identity Extremists that the FBI and local police forces are focused on are black people fighting to be heard, fighting to stop police from murdering them, even when they are unarmed and have committed no crime.
These are the people who continue to fight to have statehouses and the Federal legislature hear their cries about police violence, even against black women and children.
On these disadvantaged people of color, is where the Federal Bureau of Investigations has focused its attention. On these powerless people, is the national intelligence attention focused. That, of course, is when they have a moment to stop surveilling peaceful Muslim citizens.
White Supremacists have not only breached many departments; there are reportedly many members of white supremacist groups on many police and Sheriff’s Departments. They also managed to fool law enforcement at every level, including at the federal level, into believing that they pose no threat to national security.
During the genuine peaceful protest against police violence last summer, which came to a head after the murder of Minneapolis native George Floyd, they could be seen heavily armed, pretending to be backing the police.
They wore paraphernalia that purports to support police, even as the hue and cry of the masses in the streets continue to be against police brutality.
Black residents who live with the tyranny of police violence, their white and brown sympathizers, all knew that those militias that sided with police against their righteous protests, were already enemies against Democracy and all it entails.
The term [back the blue became a rallying cry], they wore the police flag, some cops wore their racist insignia on their uniform. Police thanked them for showing up at protests, gave them refreshments, and fail to apprehend them even when they commit murder.
Police brutalize and further assault innocent black-brown, and white protesters who ask for an end to police violence, but do nothing even when those entitled men and women commit acts of violence and aggression against their fellow citizens in their presence.
It was a match made in hell; now the police see that matchmaking was intended to deceive and lull them into a false sense of security.
What did law enforcement expect to happen with it entered into this unholy alliance with the most despicable elements of American society?
The anarchists, enemies of the Republic, Seditionists, are still there right in the Republican caucus in the house and senate. Even as Trump’s term is over, and the full reality of trump’s failed bloody coup becomes clearer, they will continue to vote down every measure that comes up to secure the nation.
America is in deep trouble; the threat to her survival lies deeply entrenched inside her. It will not go away because a racist demagogue is gone from the biggest stage.
Did Law- enforcement expect that a scorpion would suddenly forget to sting?
As Donald Trump’s coup attempt killed a Capitol Police officer doing his duty and wounded several others, the silence coming out of the White House is deafening.
Before the 2020 Presidential elections, most police Unions and Departments across the country endorsed Donald Trump.
That includes the NYPD, which has close to 30’000 members, and is the world’s largest police department.
Trump, who claims to love the police, has had nothing to say about the killing of that officer on January 6th. It was his thugs that took the life of that officer.
Imagine if black protesters murdered that officer?
The racists’ right-wing media would have worked itself into a froth, as it calls for the sedition act to be used against them. Trump’s Attorney General William Barr wanted the Sedition Act used against first Amendment demonstrators last summer. He rolled out large groups of federal officers to beat and trample innocent demonstrators so that Trump could hold a Bible upside down in front of a church.
Even though social media platforms have moved belatedly to silence Trump’s poisonous rhetoric, he still has the Presidential Press room’s from which to speak to the American people.
He could use that avenue to bemoan the death of that officer.
He chose not to, so much for supporting the police.
So much for throwing their support to a lawless fascist.
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.Mike Beckles writes for serious thinkers.
Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
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By Contributor Conrod Tucker
Donald Trump’s poor conduct and abuse of power as president of the USA over the last four years, have been a sore point for many Americans, especially those who expect him to distinguish himself with the prestige of holding such high office. But, affording an individual with autocratic ambitions such as Donald Trump so much power is dangerous to the democratic ideals of the American people. As such, the archaic laws governing the power of the presidency are long overdue for revision.
Since becoming the commander and chief, Trump has taken full advantage of his unbridled power and has ruled the country like a dictator. I know there will be detractors with opposite views to my position on this topic, but the world has seen myriads of evidence in support of my argument. The most recent and clearly the most egregious example of abuse of power was inciting his supporters to storm The Capitol to prevent congress from not certifying the 2020 elections. This unfortunate situation occurred because of unfounded allegations and lies of voter fraud, which would have disenfranchised over 80 million people who voted against him.
But let us backtrack to a year ago when he caught trying to influence the president of Ukraine to discredit Joe Biden because he knew then that Biden would likely be his opponent in the 2020 Presidential Elections. The House of Representatives impeached him, and he was tried and acquitted by a partisan Senate, which heard overwhelming evidence that should have convicted him. And since his election, many allegations ranged from rape to campaign financing, and he has not been charged. What is frustrating is that nowhere in the US constitution states that a sitting president cannot be charged. This idea is a long-standing policy of the Department of Justice (DOJ) that no constitutional scholar wants to challenge. This policy should be tested in court because there is no legal precedence cited by the DOJ to enforce this rule.
A revision of the power given to a sitting president would expose the fiasco that makes anyone holding this office to feel like he is invincible, and Trump has maximized it with his autocratic tendencies. It is clear that he believes he is above the law, acts like a king, and rules the US like a monarchy. The other thing that mystifies me is the belief that a sitting president can pardon himself. And there are rumors that Trump is seriously thinking about pardoning not only himself but his family too. If so, that supports my argument that the president of the United States has too much power.
In essence, the constitution has gifted anyone holding that office with so much power that they can do anything and gets away with it. That is contrary to the Constitution of the USA, which states no one is above the law. They should revise it to say no one is above the law, except a sitting president, it is true.
Recently, Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, Paul Manifort, Roger Stone, Charles Kushner et-al, all of whom are part of his inner circle, and most of them hardly served any prison time for their conduct, with Stone serving no time in jail. There is no limit on how many people or the types of crimes that the president cannot issue a pardon. Unfortunately, there is no check and balances on a sitting president, because he has full autonomy to do whatever he pleases with hardly any repercussion.
Apart from the 25th Amendment, impeachment or resignation, removing the president is almost impossible. The US would like to see Trump do the right thing and resign, but there is no real possibility of that due to his insatiable appetite for power. Except for his acolytes, he is cognizant that most Americans want him gone, but he will cling to power until he is forcefully removed or until he reaches the end of term on January 20. Now the Democrats are scrambling to draft the Articles of Impeachment to him remove him, but good luck with that becoming a reality. With a partisan Senate still headed by one of his sycophants – Mitch McConnell, who already sounded the alarm that he would not have a hearing until January 19, one day before Trump’s term ends, so the possibility of convicting and removing him his nil. And you can forget the 25th Amendment because Vice President has failed to act even with the prodding of the Democrats and even after Trump puts him in harm’s way during the insurrection.
American’s fascination with the constitution sometimes has blinded them. The 2nd Amendment is an excellent example of failing to revise archaic laws. Having the right to bear arms does not mean it is right to kills scores of people. We have seen many mass shootings played out repeatedly in schools, shopping malls, movie theatres, etc., and there is still no revision of this law. The same thing applies here with the power given to a sitting president. The framers of the American Constitution had the right intentions when they wrote these laws, but they are long overdue for revision. The election of Donald Trump has exposed the flaws with giving one man too much power.
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Our contributors’ views are their own; they do not necessarily reflect that of the owners and publishers of this medium.
The Constitution center’s Paul T. Crane and Deborah Pearlstein on the question of “Treason.“The Constitution specifically identifies what constitutes treason against the United States and, importantly, limits the offense of treason to only two types of conduct: (1) “levying war” against the United States; or (2) “adhering to [the] enemies [of the United States], giving them aid and comfort.” Although there have not been many treason prosecutions in American history — indeed, only one person has been indicted for treason since 1954 — the Supreme Court has had occasion to define further what each type of treason entails.
The offense of “levying war” against the United States was interpreted narrowly in Ex parte Bollman & Swarthout (1807), a case stemming from former vice president Aaron’s infamous alleged plot Burr to overthrow the American government in New Orleans. The Supreme Court dismissed treason charges against two of Burr’s associates — Bollman and Swarthout — because their alleged conduct did not constitute levying war against the United States within the Treason Clause’s meaning. It was not enough, Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion emphasized, merely to conspire “to subvert by force the government of our country” by recruiting troops, procuring maps, and drawing up plans. Conspiring to levy war is distinct from actually levying war. Rather, a person could be convicted of treason for levying war only if there was an “actual assemblage of men to execute a treasonable design.” In so holding, the Court sharply confined the scope of the offense of treason by levying war against the United States.
Article I, Section 5, of the United States Constitution provides that “Each House [of Congress] may determine the Rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.” Since 1789, the Senate has expelled only fifteen of its entire membership. (the US Senate).
The House and Senate must send a message to Republicans who betrayed their oaths to the Constitution; they embraced the traitorous lies of Donald Trump, if it is left to go unpunished, it becomes precedent.
April 25, 1808
He was the first senator to be indicted, and he came close to becoming the second senator — after William Blount in 1797 — to be expelled on charges of treason. With his political and business careers in shambles, John Smith reluctantly resigned from the Senate on April 25, 1808.
One of Ohio’s first two senators, Smith took office on October 25, 1803. Almost nothing is known of his earliest years, including his parents’ names or birthplace. A large and gregarious man with a talent for impassioned oratory, he established himself as a preacher in the 1790s. He then moved on to the greater financial rewards of life as a trader, supplying military posts near Cincinnati. He entered political life and won the Ohio territorial legislature, where he led a successful campaign for statehood.
While in the Senate, Smith continued his profitable trading ventures in Louisiana and West Florida and pursued numerous land investment schemes. In 1805 former vice president Aaron Burr sought his support in organizing a military expedition against Spanish Florida. Although Smith claimed he had no interest in Burr’s plot to force secession of Spanish territories, he agreed to provide supplies for the proposed expedition. When President Thomas Jefferson later issued an alert, charging that Burr’s actual purpose was an invasion of Mexico, Smith responded patriotically by financing weapons to defend against the Burr expedition and delivering those weapons to New Orleans. These travels caused him to miss weeks of Senate sessions and led the Ohio legislature to charge him with dereliction of duty and demand his resignation.
Although Smith ignored that demand, he found his troubles increasing as a court in Richmond, Virginia, indicted him in mid-1807 for participating in Burr’s conspiracy. As he traveled to Richmond, he learned that the court had acquitted Burr on a technicality and had dropped his own case.
Soon after the Senate convened in late 1807, members opened an investigation into Smith’s conduct. A defense team that included prominent Baltimore lawyer Francis Scott Key argued that Smith might have been naïve but no traitor. By a vote of 19 to 10 — one short of the two-thirds required for expulsion — Smith retained his seat. Concluding that his political career was over, he then resigned. He moved to the Louisiana Territory, forced into bankruptcy, where he lived his remaining years in poverty. (US Senate)
THERE IS ENOUGH PRECEDENT FOR THE HOUSE & SENATE TO ACT AGAINST THE TRAITORS WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT.
July 11, 1861
For what reasons should the Senate expel a member? The Constitution states that each house of Congress may “punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.” When the Senate expelled William Blount in 1797 by a nearly unanimous vote, it had reason to believe he was involved in a conspiracy against the United States.
Sixty-four years later, at the start of the Civil War, senators again turned to this constitutional safeguard. Between December 1860 and June 1861, 11 of the nation’s 34 states had voted to withdraw from the Union. What was the status of their 22 senators at the beginning of the 37th Congress? Some were no longer senators because their terms had expired. Others sent a letter of resignation. Still, others, believing their seats no longer existed, left without formal notice. Several remained, despite their states’ departure.
During a brief special session in March 1861, weeks before the hostilities start, the Senate decided to consider these seats as vacant to avoid officially recognizing that a state could leave the Union.
On the Fourth of July 1861, with open warfare in progress, President Abraham Lincoln convened Congress to deal with the emergency. With all hope of reconciliation gone, the Senate took up a resolution of expulsion against its 10 missing members. The resolution’s supporters argued that the 10 were guilty, like Blount years before, of conspiracy against the government. In futile opposition, several senators contended that the departed southerners were merely following their states’ dictates and were not guilty of personal misconduct.
On July 11, 1861, the Senate quickly passed Senate Daniel Clark’s resolution, expelling all 10 southern senators by a vote of 32 to 10. By the following February, the Senate expelled another four senators for offering aid to the Confederacy. Since 1862, despite considering expulsion in an additional 16 instances, the Senate has removed no member under this provision. (US Senate)
February 5, 1862
He was a large man who walked with a swagger. Despite his limited formal education, he built a flourishing law practice and rose rapidly in the world of Indiana Democratic politics. Abrupt and hot-tempered, he was among the shrewdest of his state’s political figures.
By 1845, Jesse Bright had become president of the Indiana state senate. Capitalizing on an opportunity to break a tied vote on selecting a United States senator, he engineered his own election to that office.
In the Senate, Bright’s knowledge of the chamber’s rules and precedents won him the post of president pro tempore on several occasions. In the 1850s, however, he lost many of his natural political allies who were uncomfortable with his increasing support of legislation to protect slavery in the nation’s territories. By 1860, his ownership of a Kentucky farm and 20 slaves led antislavery Indiana legislators to consider asking the Senate to declare his seat vacant. As southern states began to leave the Union, Bright opposed the use of force against them because he believed they would soon return.
The July 1861 Battle of Bull Run proved a disaster for Union troops — and Jesse Bright. During the battle, Union forces captured an arms merchant as he attempted to cross into Confederate territory. They discovered that he carried a letter of introduction to Confederate president Jefferson Davis. The letter, highly deferential in tone, was signed by the United States Senator Jesse Bright.
When the Senate took up the matter in January 1862, Bright explained that the captured arms supplier was a former client of his law practice. Although he claimed not to remember writing the letter, he asserted that it was only natural to introduce a friend to Davis, until recently a Senate colleague. Finally, Bright noted that the letter was dated March 1 — before any fighting began. Aware that the Senate’s Republican majority caucus had already determined his fate, Bright took the Senate floor on February 5, 1862, to state his case, if only “for posterity.” He then gathered his belongings and walked solemnly from the chamber. Moments later, by a vote of 32 to 14, Bright became the 14th and final senator expelled by the Senate during the Civil War. No senator has been expelled since his time.
After a doomed Senate reelection bid, Bright served in the Kentucky legislature and went on to earn a fortune from his investments in West Virginia coal mines. (US Senate).
Some Senate Republicans sold their souls to Donald Trump, not just by repeating his lies, but by taking steps to overturn the American people’s will. They are no less traitorous than Jesse Bright. An even larger number in the US House, more than half of the caucus, did the same thing.
What they are, is of worse character. Not a single one of them will voluntarily walk away as Jesse Bright did 159 years ago.
It is for those reasons that the Senate [must] act to expel them from the Senate. The House [must] also act to expel the entire list of traitorous House members, including Kevin McCarthy, their leader, who clearly knew that what Trump was propagating was lies, but he expected to be a major player in an autocratic Trump régime, so he supported the lies.\
The events that came to a head, on January 6th, 2021, did not start when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were declared the winner of the 202 0 Presidential elections. It started when Barack Obama was elected President of the United States in 2008.
On the day that the first African-American President was being inaugurated, many Republicans met surreptitiously in a DC restaurant to chart a course to ensure the failure of the new president. Ask yourselves whether that was a political move or whether it was a blatantly un-American conspiracy?
Mitch McConnell declared then that [his] only goal, was to ensure that the new President is a one-term president. Pretty amazing, but not out of the ordinary; that was politics.
However, the sad reality is that a sewer pipe of nastiness was opened into the aqueduct of political discourse, contaminating the narrative in ways none of us have seen in our lifetimes.
That sewer pipe was Sarah Palin. Palin was another insufferable ignoramus that was welcomed into the sewer swamp of Republican politics. She is the same uneducated dunce that Donald Trump is; through broken English and folks embarrassing flubs, she was glorified as a real American, stupidity, and ignorance were celebrated as American, while intellectualism and the belief in science were ridiculed on right-wing media, further propagating ignorance and broadening the swamp.
None of it occurred in a vacuum. A dumb ignoramus, Sarah Palin, became a right-wing star because she was unabashed in the insidious racist invectives she unleashed into the political bloodstream.
Palin became the most caustic and insidious against Brack Obama; Sarah Palin helped with emboldening another ignorant Moron, the one who now sits in the White House.
On November 3rd, 2020, African-American women’s power became clear in its manifestation across the vast plains of America. It was not the beginning of their cohesiveness as a political force; it was only one iteration of their political effectiveness.
From their decision to bring Joe Biden back from political oblivion in South Carolina, Stacy Abrams’ herculean effort to register more voters after being the victim of Republican voter fraud in Georgia, black women showed who the boss was.
Some black men were on social media demonstrating their lack of depth, shamelessly supporting Donald Trump because he dangled giving tax-payers money to them.
How utterly disgusting are these men who would sell their souls, much less for a one-time pittance from a racist sociopath?
At the same time, African-American women were organizing, registering, encouraging, and getting others to the polls.
These women did not only save America from the hordes who turned out to vote for Trump in larger numbers than they did in 2016, but they also did it in electing an African-American preacher and a Jew to the US Senate in the state of Georgia for the very first time in history.
You have seen the Confederate flag in the Capitol building, that is what it was about.
Trump and his Republican allies wanted the votes thrown out because they knew that African-Americans had stood up and repudiated them.
Donald Trump fully expected that the Government would be overthrown, his plan also included potentially throwing the country into another civil war, one from which he would emerge president for life.
That is what it has always been about. It happened before and we will be bringing those facts to you in our next article.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
You may subscribe to his blogs, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest videos.
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Many people on social media knew what was afoot. They kept saying Trump will be inaugurated for a second term.
We kept saying they were crazy.
Mike Pompeo kept saying Donald Trump will be inaugurated for a second term.
They all knew that a coup d’detat was being planned. How could the intelligence Agencies and law enforcement not know?
This is far deeper and more serious than we know.
As the fallout from Donald Trump’s Coup d’état unfolds, the nation must ask pertinent questions, not just about why there was not an appropriate police/military force in Washington DC to ensure the safety of everyone, but more importantly, why the nation’s intelligence agencies could have missed what was being planned.
As more and more Americans begin to ask questions, they must also begin to put the pieces together to come to their own conclusions about what was unleashed on America by the very person they trusted to look out for the nation’s wellbeing.
Questions must also be asked about the role of sitting members of the United States Senate and House Of Representatives, and decide what role they [knowingly] played in contributing to January 6th? Not just insofar as opposing the vote to validate Joe Biden’s win, but also strategically, to act in tandem with the insurrectionists to overthrow the US government?
No one should be under any illusions that this was a breach for the sake of breaching the most sacred edifice of our Democratic process.
It was a well-orchestrated plan that had players at all US Government levels complicit, and who would have been celebrating today. Were they able to overthrow the Government, to install Donald Trump as Monarch of the United States of America?
On that basis, it is critical, that every single planner and the physical participant must be arrested and brought to justice.
Beyond that, the truth about the conspiracy’s depth must be investigated and exposed to the American people, so that the full extent of Donald Trump’s treachery, aided by some Senate and House Republicans, and other actors against the United States, can fully be appreciated.
No person should be under any illusion that this was anything but a well-planned, well-coördinated assault on the seat of legislative power, with the sole intent of stopping the process of authenticating the legitimately elected Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The treachery of Trump in unleashing the terrorists on the Capitol, after his own heretofore loyal vice-president Mike Pence did not try to overturn the vote in his favor is stunning.
The mindless hordes of neanderthal cave-dwelling morons who swarmed in yelling, “hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence,” had one intention, to find and hang Trump’s vice president Mike Pence.
The intelligence agencies cannot claim that this took them by surprise. The neanderthal hordes that swarmed through the Capitol building brought with them the nooses, and they displayed zip-ties, instruments of their murderous intent; more telling, they brought guns, they brought explosives.
Separate and apart from what transpired on January 6th, 2021, these same anti-American traitors planned to carry out attacks on the Democratically elected Governor of Michigan. According to Federal law-enforcement officials, they planned to kidnap, and thereafter execute Governor Gretchen Whitmer, her only crime in their eyes, the steps she undertook to secure her state from the ravages of a raging COVID-19 pandemic.
As a freelance writer, I must admit, I have never visited the so-called dark web. Insofar as the now infamous events of January 6th, 2021 are concerned, no one, including myself, needed to understand that something was being planned, t was all out in the open.
In the interest of full disclosure, I saw the Facebook posts telling us that regardless of what is happening related to states certifying the electoral vote, none of it would matter.
They insisted, Donald Trump [would]be sworn in as president of the United States for a second term. I laughed at their stupidity.
They were not stupid; they all knew what was being planned; they all knew what was about to be unleashed on America on January 6th. They kept saying watch to see what will happen.
I was the stupid one.
Never in my wildest dreams could I envisage a scenario in which a sitting president of the United States orchestrating a coup against his own country.
Sure, politicians are devious and despicable, they do all kinds of things to remain in power, but coups do not happen in America.
Until it did.…..
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
You may subscribe to his blogs, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest videos.
There was a time when Republicans wrapped themselves in the American flag and pretended that they were the guardians of American Democracy.
For decades during my lifetime, Republican Presidents who never was s**t, except waging war on smaller nations unable to defend themselves, fed the American people a bunch of hogwash that they and they alone are American patriots.
Their voters gobbled up the balderdash and the people who supported the other party by default, became Un-American communists, socialists, liberals, progressives. The labels degraded from Communists during the old days to where we are today, in a place where Democrats can actually refer to themselves as progressives.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont ran for the presidency twice, as a Democratic Socialist. As late as the sixties„ Senator Sanders would have been jailed for daring to refer to himself as a socialist.
Today the Republican Party is a right-wing, Fascist, party that endorses sedition against the United States to maintain power.
What the Republican Party lined up and allowed Donald Trump to do on January 6th, was a clear and unequivocal attempt to overthrow the American Government’s legitimate process, to illegitimately install Donald Trump as a Dictator in contravention of everything America stands for.
How there be no legal consequence for these traitors all from the Republican Party?
From the US Senate Raphael Cruz R‑Texas. Ron Johnson R‑Wisconsin. James Lankford R‑Oklahoma. Steve Daines R‑Montana. John Kennedy, R‑Louisiana. Marsha Blackburn R‑Tennesee. Mike Bruan R‑Indiana. Cynthia Lummis R‑Wyoming. Roger Marshall R‑Kansas. Bill Hagerty R‑Tennessee. Tommy Tuberville R‑Alabama. Josh Hawley R‑Missouri.
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas
Sen. Mike Braun, Indiana
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wisconsin
Sen. Steve Daines, Montana
Sen. James Lankford, Oklahoma
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee
Sen. Bill Haggerty, Tennessee
Rep. Paul Gosar, Arizona
Rep. Randy Weber, Oklahoma
Rep. Mo Brooks, Alabama
Rep. Andy Biggs, Arizona
Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio
Rep. Madison Cawthorn, North Carolina
Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania
Rep. Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania
Rep. Burgess Owens, Utah
Rep. John Rose, Tennessee
Rep. Bill Posey, Florida
Rep. Jeff Duncan, South Carolina
Rep. Brian Babin, Texas
Rep. Louie Gohmert, Texas
Rep. Brian Mast, Florida
Rep. Warren Davidson, Ohio
Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland
Rep. Steven Palazzo, Mississippi
Rep. Doug Lamborn, Colorado
Rep. Kat Cammack, Florida
Rep. Tracey Mann, Kansas
Rep. Bob Good, Virginia
Rep. Adrian Smith, Nebraska
Rep. Billy Long, Missouri
Rep. Jack Bergman, Michigan
Rep. Michael Cloud, Texas
Rep. Rick Crawford, Arkansas
Rep. Roger Williams, Texas
Rep. Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Rep. Russ Fulcher, Idaho
Rep. Ted Budd, North Carolina
Rep. Barry Moore, Alabama
Rep. Lee Zeldin, New York
Rep. Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Rep. David Rouzer, North Carolina
Rep. Jason Smith, Missouri
Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado
Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, Tennessee
Rep. Tim Burchett, Tennessee
Rep. Chris Jacobs, New York
Rep. Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Rep. Lance Gooden, Texas
Rep. Diana Harshbarger, Tennessee
Rep. Mary Miller, Illinois
Rep. Mark Green, Tennessee
Rep. Ron Estes, Kansas
Rep. Neal Dunn, Florida
Rep. Ronny Jackson, Texas
Rep. Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Rep. Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Rep. Vicky Hartzler, Missouri
Rep. Scott Des Jarlais, Tennessee
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Georgia
Rep. Doug LaMalfa, California
Rep. Ben Cline, Virginia
Rep. Michael Rogers, Alabama
Rep. Markwayne Mullin, Oklahoma
Rep. Pat Fallon, Texas
Rep. Jeff Duncan, South Carolina
These are the
Every police officer, past or present, regardless of where they are from, or where they operated, must feel shame, must be in shock at what we saw evolving in Washington DC yesterday.
Regardless of seniority, everyone worthy of the title of “police officer “would have been able to foresee that the Capitol police presence and the subsequent response was not only inadequate, but borderline was a dereliction of duty.
In that regard, the Capitol police chief Steven Sund’s resignation calls are not only sound but urgently critical.
Regardless of any mitigating or exculpatory circumstances that would militate in his favor, his department’s egregious failure makes it impossible for him to remain in his post.
He must resign…
An excerpt I posted to social media earlier this afternoon.
https://mikebeckles.com/the-rise-of-neo-nazism-in-america/
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D‑Calif., declared Thursday that she didn’t need a review and called for Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund’s resignation.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R‑Ky., called for a congressional inquiry.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said Thursday the Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger should resign or be fired. “If Senate Sergeant Arms Stenger hasn’t vacated the position by then, I will fire him as soon as Democrats have a majority in the Senate,” Schumer said in a statement.
https://mikebeckles.com/unlawful-police-killings-highlight-a-culture-of-complicity-behind-them/
William Bratton, who has led the country’s largest police forces in New York and Los Angeles, said it was “hard to comprehend everything that went wrong.” “This was a failure at every level.”
Sen. Christopher Coons, D‑Del., said lawmakers began discussions about a security review even as they took cover from attackers who had breached the Capitol.
Coons, in an interview with MSNBC, said that despite the “hundreds of millions of dollars” spent in the aftermath of 9⁄11 to guard against a terrorist hijacking and lethal anthrax attacks, officials had never contemplated the scenario that played out Wednesday.
There is no need for a review of security protocols to see what went wrong. Whatever they come up with to try to convince the nation went wrong will be blowing smoke up the people’s ass.
The sad reality is that this humble writer has written dozens of articles complaining, not only about the blatant disparities in the ways that law enforcement across the country enforce the laws, but the way that police and federal authorities have basically ignored the growing and imminent threat of white supremacist militias.
Almost two decades ago, the FBI warned that white supremacists were infiltrating police departments across the nation. This, I might add, is in addition to the fact that America’s police departments were always racist overlords who look down on the black community with contempt and disdain.
Despite these warnings from the FBI, there has been no visible evidence that the matter is being addressed by either the government at any level, or by law enforcement itself.
https://mikebeckles.com/white-supremacy-is-deadly-when-will-we-start-taking-this-rhetoric-seriously/
In fact, even though the FBI gave the warning, former FBI director James Comey told police during the Obama Administration, that police were unsure how to do their jobs as they were suffering from what [he] called the” Ferguson effect.” The so-called effect emanated from the killing of Mike Brown unarmed 18-year old black teen in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white cop Darren Wilson.
Wilson faced no criminal charges, but the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) is rumored to have come out of that incident or been brought to prominence due to it.
By inference, Comey’s address to police chiefs conveyed that if police are not allowed to kill young black men, they come across indiscriminately, they cannot do their jobs.
The reality is that across the United States, the white supremacist movements have curried favor with police; thus, they have lured entire police departments into believing that they are allies.
The thug who sat in Speaker Pelosi’s office with his legs on the desk held events to raise money for the police. His actions and the actions of others who invaded the Capitol to disrupt the government’s business on Donald Trump’s behalf resulted in a police officer’s death.
If Black Life Matters righteous protesters had done anything close to this, there would be hell to pay.
Police see Black and Brown people who march for dignity, justice, and against police abuse as enemies, while the true enemies are given the red carpet.
In 2017 a group of black clergy members kneeled in prayer in the Capitol Rotunda to protest against Donald Trump’s budget cuts. Capitol police moved in and arrested them.
Among those arrested was the Ebenezer Baptist Church Pastor in Georgia, his name, Raphael Warnock.
On January 5th, 2021, Pastor Raphael Warnock was elected as the first black man to be elected to the United States Senate from Georgia.
The sad irony is that the police have no better friend than the black community, who only demand to be treated with respect and dignity.
Time and again, we have seen police welcome heavily armed white militia-members wearing pro-police insignia with glee. They are given water and thanked for showing up, (as cops did to Kyle Rittenhouse) before he murdered two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Police officers are members of white militias groups; they find common cause with them. All over the country, police groups support Donald Trump and have been endorsed by him.
They do not see the threat posed by the militias and white supremacist groups as a threat. Contrary to their belief, the real threat to American Democracy comes from white nationalist who believes that they have the God-given right to overthrow the Government if they disagree with its policies.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
You may subscribe to his blogs, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest videos.
DONALD TRUMP, THE TRAITOR PRESIDENT, INCITED HIS WHITE FASCIST ARMY TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT AND INSTALL HIM AS PRESIDENT FOR LIFE IN DRAMATIC COUP ATTEMPT.
He incited his supporters to go to Capitol Hill and be strong in preventing the certification of the legitimate Joe Biden/Kamala Harris wins. He repeatedly lied that the election was stripped away from him and that it cannot be allowed to stand.
He incited them to march to the capitol, but he stopped short of telling them to do anything in particular.
He verbally walked them right up to the violence; he knew they had the weapons to carry out acts of violence against the American State. He knew they intended to harm the process, but he did not walk with them; personally, he knew that there would be no consequence, regardless of the crimes he commits.
If you ever wondered what an unrestrained President could do when (a) the Justice Department decrees that he cannot be prosecuted while in office, (b) when a president believes that he is above the laws, and that regardless of the crimes he commits, he can pardon himself, this is the result.
He knew that his fascist white-male army was going to turn up in Washington, DC, to begin the insurrection.
He knew.
That is the reason he left the festivities at his Florida estate to go back to the White House before Christmas.…. He went back to the White House to prepare the coup d’état. An act of treason against the country. The same country that honored him with its highest office. That Coup includes threatening the Georgia Secretary of State to find him 11’780 votes to overturn the elections in the state of Georgia.
He knew they were going to turn up with weapons, and he fundamentally believed that those traitors carrying the confederate flags would be able to take over the government of the United States and make him president for life.
He told them to show up in DC, he tells them to go to the Capitol and to be strong, and he told them to stop the process of confirming the election win of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
In an address to the mob on January 6th before they attacked the Nation’s seat of Legislative power, Donald J Trump said this: You will never take our country back with weakness, you have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
If Donald J Trump is not prosecuted for inciting an insurrection against the United States, then-Defense Lawyers will forever have his statement, made at this moment in time, as a reference point in defense of their clients charged with any act of incitement against the United States of America.
https://mikebeckles.com/as-far-as-the-loss-of-democracy-goes-america-already-crossed-the-rubicon/
This was January 6th, 2021; this was supposed to be the final ceremonial constitutionally ordered act of routinely formalizing the President-Elect and the Vice-President for the next four years. The last official process before the January 20th inauguration of the new president and vice president.
Trump knew that there was no other chance to overturn the results of the 2020 elections. So he knowingly incited his red-capped fascist army to storm the Capitol building and install him as their president for life.
This was his plan all along.
Before a single vote was cast in the 2020 election cycle, he waged an assault against the US Electoral process. Not because there is any truth, or credibility to his claims; in fact, the only evidence of fraud has been people fraudulently voting for him.
He insisted from as far back as 2016, that if he lost, it was because the system was rigged. At the time, many in the analyst business chalked it up to Trump, maintaining a persona as a winner regardless of outcomes. But Donald Trump was always a deeper, darker clear, and present danger than they gave him credit for.
The same thing would have happened if Trump had lost the vote in the electoral college in 2016. It is important to note that he lost the popular vote then, but won the same electoral victory that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris just achieved. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by three (3) million votes but lost in the electoral college.
Biden won the popular vote by over seven (7) million votes; however, despite the large plurality of his popular vote win, he could only achieve the same electoral college win that Trump did in 2016. (Biden 306, Trump, 232).
Another case to be made for the end to the electoral college is a system that has continued to disenfranchise most Americans.
If Trump had lost in 2016, the outcome would have been different then. His lies and incessant disinformation would have been just as insidious; however, he would not have been able to marshall the army of grievance bearers he did on January 6th, and he certainly would not have the power of the presidency allowing him to create the harm he is inflicting on the country.
Trump’s incessant attack on [truth], his constant drumbeat against the media, labeling the media, enemies of the state was part of his playbook of radicalizing his supporters against the truth, and against those who report it.
It is the classic tactic of dictators and strongmen throughout history, to demonize the truth, so that when those who respect and report the truth do their jobs, they will no be believed.
We have all seen his daily campaign against the truth; we have seen his mindblowing acts of corruption and criminality. The constant barrage of outrageous actions should have been more than enough for the Article (1) Branch of the Government to remove him from office.
The Democrats tried to honor their oaths by impeaching him. Except for Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted for one of the two impeachment articles, Republican Senators all failed to honor their oaths to remove a clear menace to the republic from office.
Even on the impeachment article that charged Trump with obstructing Congress as it investigated him, Republicans refused to find Trump guilty.
The evidence was clear; nevertheless, they voted straight party line to keep in power, a deranged sociopathic criminal.
How ironic is it then, that the very same menace they ignored, and coddled, brought his dangerous intent to their house on January 6th, a new day that will forever live in infamy?
Donald Trump dispatched an army of lawyers across the country, with the marching orders to litigate, litigate.
If Donald Trump believed that he was winning the elections of November 3rd, 2020, there would be no need for the phalanx of lawyers, no attempts at changing the rules, of urging the Pennsylvania Legislature to throw out its slate of electors if Joe Biden won the elections, even before a single vote was cast.
If Donald Trump thought he won Georgia, he would not have been caught on tape begging the Secretary of state of Georgia to find him 11’780 votes.
That was a felony. Asking a public official to break the law is a crime. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, and fixer, went to jail for breaking the law on Donald Trump’s orders. Donald Trump paid no penalty. Where is promised equal treatment under the law?
Trump objected to, then vetoed the Defense authorization Act. Both houses of Congress overrode his Veto. The media never truthfully reported that Donald Trump vetoed the legislation because there is language in the bill that authorizes the removal of Confederate Generals’ names from America’s military bases.
One analyst called the events of January 6th the book-end to the Chroletsville White Supremacist march, in which a young woman, Heather Heyer, lost her life at the hands of a lawless white fascist mob.
Donald Trump was never about Governing America; Donald Trump cannot govern his own house. He is an insufferable idiot.
However, he was smart enough to understand the deep-seated ignorant racism that lies deep in the recesses of the hearts of a third of the American people. He understood how to harness that grievance and use it for his benefit.
Donald Trump understood that many white men and women believe in the power of white supremacy. He knew they would gravitate to him as long as he made himself the titular head of white supremacy.
That explains the, “I can shoot someone on 5th avenue, and I would not lose a single supporter”, comment. For Donald Trump, it was not about any of the sewer rats who wear his silly red hats and carry the flags with his name on them; all they are to him are walking billboards.
Donald Trump only cares about them, to the extent that they are willing to commit felonies to keep him in office.
January 6th, 2021, is now the new day that will forever live in infamy. However, this time, the enemy is not Japanese dive bombers shrieking down from the brilliant sunlit Hawaiian skies; it is from inside. It is from a narcissistic, sociopath who is willing to destroy a nation to save himself.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog mikebeckles.com.
He’s contributed to several websites.
You may subscribe to his blogs, or subscribe to his Youtube channel @chatt-a-box, for the latest videos.
Joe Biden intends to nominate federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland, who was once President Barack Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, to serve as the next U.S. attorney general, a Biden transition official said on Wednesday.
Garland serves as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Obama, a Democrat, nominated him to the Supreme Court while Biden was vice president, but the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate refused to hold hearings on the nomination.
