Tag: impeachment

Impeachment trial to keep National Guard troops at Capitol

Former President Donald Trump’s upcoming Senate impeachment trial poses a security concern that federal law enforcement officials told lawmakers last week requires as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in Washington through mid-March, according to four people familiar with the matter.

The contingency force will help protect the Capitol from what was described as “impeachment security concerns,” including the possibility of mass demonstrations coinciding with the Senate’s trial, which is slated to begin the week of Feb. 8.

Despite the threat, the citizen soldiers on the ground say they have been given little information about the extension and wonder why they are being forced to endure combat-like conditions in the nation’s capital without a clear mission.

“Quite frankly this is not a ‘combat zone,’ so combat conditions shouldn’t apply,” said one Guard member on the ground in D.C. who has deployed twice to Afghanistan.

Several National Guard units have seen their deployments extended involuntarily, though a majority of Guardsmen remaining in Washington will do so on a volunteer basis. Around 7,000 troops will continue to provide riot security through the beginning of February, with that number decreasing slightly to 5,000 by the time Trump’s impeachment trial begins.

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Let’s Look at a Worst Case Scenario – ‘Black Pill’ Edition

I want to fight. I want to be positive. But every once in a while I swallow the dreaded “Black Pill” (the belief that all is lost and there’s really no sense in moving on). What I’m about to write may sound as if I have swallowed the whole bottle, but I need to present a commentary on what I’ve been seeing for the past 10 months, and especially the last eight days.

The terms “insurrection,” “sedition,” and “treason” are being shouted by politicians and the corporate press (CP) like a 4-year-old the first time they discover the “F-word.” And their main target has been Donald Trump. If those terms were being associated with just the president, it would have most likely elicited a response from me. However, that’s not the point of this missive. Although the House voted to impeach Trump, the CP, and certain politicians, are not stopping at punishing only him, they are attempting to connect Trump’s most ardent supporters with voting for, and supporting, one they claim is guilty of treason. The way I interpret this is, the CP is saying voters and Trump factions have given “support” to an enemy of the State in order to punish them as well. The CP is asking regular people to identify anyone they can who was at, in or near the Capitol on 1/6/2021 and the arrests have started. Why would this concern me?

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Impeachment is more dangerous than Trump

The most apt parallel for the second impeachment of Donald Trump may not be any other of the three previous presidential impeachments, including his own just over a year ago. It may instead be the PATRIOT Act, which was passed in the heated emotional aftermath of the September 11 attacks, with negligible debate afforded to the long-term implications of what Congress was enacting. Reason and deliberation had given way to a collective desire for security and revenge, and thus the most sweeping curtailment of civil liberties in the modern historical record was approved. Those who departed from the swiftly assembled consensus could expect to be denounced as sympathisers to terrorists.

Likewise, if you deign to raise concerns about the implications of this sudden impeachment sequel — or any of the other extraordinary actions taken in the past week, such as an ongoing corporate censorship purge of unprecedented proportions — you can expect to be accused of defending or supporting the “domestic terrorists” who carried out the mob attack on the Capitol.

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, rationalised rushing through Wednesday’s impeachment resolution at spell-binding speed — by far the fastest impeachment process ever — on the grounds that Trump posed a “clear and present danger” to the country, and needed to be removed immediately. “Imminent threats” of various stripes also have a long history of being cited to justify sweeping emergency action, such as the invasion of Iraq. Often upon further inspection, the purported “threat” turns out to have been not so “imminent”, or in fact to have never existed at all.

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Why People Are Upset: It Took Congress 9 Months to Send $600 But Only 6 Days to Impeach Trump

Instead of working on programs to safely reopen the country, help those who’ve lost their jobs and homes during the pandemic, and find solutions to problems faced by tens of millions of Americans — Congress impeached a man, who in less than a week, will no longer be the president.

This move is insulting and egregious for two reasons. The first one is obvious and that there are far more important things to be working on than holding impeachment proceedings when a much less resource consuming criminal investigation could happen in the days after Trump leaves office. The second reason is that Trump should have been impeached years ago.

Over the last four years, Trump has given Congress multiple substantial reasons for impeachment, but they agreed with him on most of it, so they left it alone.

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Articles of impeachment drawn up against Gov. Mike DeWine over coronavirus orders

Three Ohio House Republicans have drafted articles of impeachment against Gov. Mike DeWine, claiming many of his administration’s coronavirus orders are unconstitutional and violate Ohioans’ civil liberties.

While the chances of DeWine, a Greene County Republican, being removed from office are very slim, the articles of impeachment reflect ongoing dissatisfaction from many conservative lawmakers about the governor’s coronavirus response.

A resolution introduced by state Rep. John Becker, a Clermont County Republican, includes 10 articles of impeachment against DeWine which claim he:

  • Violated the separation of powers by having the Ohio Department of Health issue orders outside the scope of its authority that are “tantamount to creating new laws”
  • “Conspired” with Secretary of State Frank LaRose to cancel the March 17 primary election, citing a health emergency, then tried to reschedule it for June 2 without legislative approval (the legislature subsequently passed a law setting an all-mail primary on April 28)
  • Unconstitutionally ordered the closure of businesses because of coronavirus fears, which “resulted in record-high unemployment, causing not only increased poverty, increased depression, increased despair, and increased suicides, but also the necessity for state budget cuts impacting schools and social programs when they are needed most”
  • “Failed to anticipate or plan for more than a million newly unemployed Ohioans who suffered the additional indignity of being unable to communicate with an overwhelmed Department of Job and Family Services to file claims,” and “demonstrated grotesque discrimination against the medical health and welfare of the general population by denying nonemergency healthcare”
  • Ordered the shutdown of schools, “a power that belongs exclusively to the State Board of Education.” After schools reopened, DeWine “ordered that all students wear face coverings, which violates students’ civil liberties”
  • “Has repeatedly proven his incompetence by providing wildly inaccurate forecasts and repeatedly misleading COVID-19 data; and committed misfeasance and malfeasance with his policy prescriptions, which have proven to be far worse than the virus itself.”
  • Had his administration issue a “stay-at-home” order for Ohioans, which violated citizens’ due-process rights and civil liberties.
  • Required Ohioans to wear face masks in houses of worship, in violation of the First Amendment
  • Issued face-mask rule that “promotes fear, turns neighbors against neighbors, and contracts the economy by making people fearful to leave their homes.” The resolution also states that “for the general population wearing face coverings, people are more likely to infect themselves with COVID-19” (Health officials generally agree that wearing a face covering provides more protection than not wearing a mask)
  • Temporarily banned liquor sales to non-Ohio residents in six counties near the Pennsylvania border, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, which gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce.

Besides Becker, the other two co-sponsors of the impeachment resolution include Republican state Reps. Nino Vitale of Champaign County and Paul Zeltwanger of Warren County, according to a website set up to promote the measure.

For DeWine to be removed from office, a majority of the House would need to approve the resolution, and two-thirds of the Ohio Senate would then have to vote to convict him.

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