Ten GOP Congress Members Who Chose Principle over Party

All of these representatives have honored their sworn allegiance to the Constitution of The United States of America.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.)

“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing,” Cheney said in statement. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio)

“The President of the United States helped organize and incite a mob that attacked the United States Congress in an attempt to prevent us from completing our solemn duties as prescribed by the Constitution,” Gonzalez said in a statement.

Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.)

Katko issued a statement that said, “To allow the President of the United States to incite this attack without consequence is a direct threat to the future of our democracy. For that reason, I cannot sit by without taking action. I will vote to impeach this President.”

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.)

“The President’s offenses, in my reading of the Constitution, were impeachable based on the indisputable evidence we already have,” she said.

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.)

In a statement issued Tuesday, Kinzinger said, “There is no doubt in my mind that the President of the United States broke his oath of office and incited this insurrection.”

Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.)

“President Trump> betrayed his oath of office by seeking to undermine our constitutional process, and he bears responsibility for inciting the insurrection we suffered last week,” Meijer said in a statement.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.)

“I am disappointed, disgusted, and horrified by yesterday’s attacks on our U.S. Capitol. This is not the United States of America,” Newhouse said after the Capitol riot last week. “Violence of any kind is absolutely unacceptable. I can’t say that strongly enough.”

Rep. Tom Rice (R-S.C.)

After the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol last week, Rice tweeted, “To all my friends back home, I am fine. Capitol Police evacuated us from the Capitol Building. DC is in chaos. This will accomplish nothing. Where is the President!? He must ask people to disperse and restore calm now.”

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.)

“The Congress must hold President Trump to account and send a clear message that our country cannot and will not tolerate any effort by any President to impede the peaceful transfer of power from one President to the next.”

Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.)

“Based on the facts before me, I have to go with my gut and vote my conscience. I voted to impeach President Trump. His inciting rhetoric was un-American, abhorrent, and absolutely an impeachable offense. It’s time to put country over politics,” Valadao wrote on Twitter after he voted.

They Call Me the “Radical Left”

On the Brink of a Civil War We Will have a New President

A piece of history seems appropriate.
Near dawn February 23, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly by train in Washington, D.C. at 6 a.m. because of a rumored plot to assassinate him as he passed through Baltimore. Lincoln was criticized for and later regretted the furtive manner of his arrival, but his advisors believed the danger was genuine. By the time of Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1861, seven states had seceded, and the Confederate States of America had been formally established.

Reported on Politico Nightly
Top lawmakers say they are increasingly alarmed by a rash of new threats that could once again endanger their lives. Senators received a briefing today from representatives of the Secret Service, and the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, and a key group of House Democratic chairs separately met with the FBI.

“Based on today’s briefing, we have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy,” that group of Democratic chairs said in a cryptic statement after the meeting today. The briefing included the chairs and other top members of the House Oversight, Judiciary, Homeland Security, Armed Services and Intelligence panels. “It is clear that more must be done to preempt, penetrate, and prevent deadly and seditious assaults by domestic violent extremists in the days ahead,” the statement said.

The lawmakers voiced their concerns moments after a public FBI and Justice Department briefing revealed their belief that the Jan. 6 violence could be part of a much graver, well-organized “seditious conspiracy.” A Justice Department “strike force” is seeking to assemble a sedition case against some of those involved in last week’s riot at the Capitol.

As I posted on January 10 “Trump is not done.” I heard one rioter say he would die if need be to to ensure Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20. January 17 and January 20 are the two days that are anticipated to be the next assaults on the Capitol.

An inauguration inside a secured building viewed by the public on television seems like a likely scenario on January 20 to ensure the safety of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Selection of the Joe Biden Cabinet

See them all at Bidenism

A Second Civil War?

Trump is not done. It seems obvious that he will do whatever it takes to retain the presidency. I mean there are no limits. There are rumors of another attack on the Capitol on January 17.

Keep your head in the sand and it will all work out

Is the United States of America on the verge of a second Civil War? Was the invasion of the Capitol the first act of that war?

A day before Capitol attack, pro-Trump crowd stormed meeting, threatened officials in rural California as reported in the Los Angeles Times. Dozens of people, unmasked, to vent their fury entered a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting.

“When Joe Biden’s long winter sets and the dark night comes in this country, do you think you’re going to get to see the dawn?” Timothy Fairfield, 44, of Shingletown asked the supervisors. “No, you will not. Flee now while you can. Because the days of your tyranny are drawing to a close, and the legitimacy of this government is waning. “When the ballot box is gone,” he added, “there is only the cartridge box. You have made bullets expensive. But luckily for you, ropes are reusable.”

The Washington Post reports “Police departments across the U.S. open probes into whether their own members took part in the Capitol riot.”

Concerns about more violent incidents appear to be well-founded. Calls for widespread protests on the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden have been rampant online for weeks. These demonstrations are scheduled to culminate with what organizers have dubbed a “Million Militia March” on Jan. 20 as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris are to be sworn in on the same Capitol grounds that rioters overran on Wednesday.

Is this the end of the American democracy? It appears millions of Americans are willing to follow the leadership of an autocrat.

Autocrat

Cambridge English dictionary definition: A ruler with unlimited power, or someone who demands that people completely obey them. Google definition: Someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person.

Do these definitions remind you of anyone? How about Donald Trump?

Vice President Mike Pence proffered four years of loyalty to everything Trump said and did. He kept his mouth shut and praised Trump frequently. Then Pence decided to do his duty in counting the electoral ballots. Pence did the right thing. Trump attacked Pence for not having the ‘courage’ to overturn the election as the president’s supporters stormed the Capitol.

Trump has demanded total loyalty from everyone in his cabinet and others like the director of the FBI. If they dared to contradict him they were fired.

Trump fired Chris Krebs, director of CISA, after the agency released a statement that called the 2020 election “the most secure in American history.”
Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Twitter and replaced him with National Counterterrorism Center Director Christopher Miller.
Rex Tillerson, Secretary of State, fired via tweet. Tillerson had called Trump a moron.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions was replaced with a loyalist who has echoed the president’s complaints about the special counsel investigation into Russia’s election interference and would take charge of the inquiry.

The list is much longer but you get the idea.

With 80 million Tweet followers Donald Trump is in his glory. Those people believe that despite his faults he deserves the admiration they give him. That is what is frightening about today.

A Chilling Attack on American Democracy

Thanks to Donald Trump’s attack on the election system of the United States, that each state operates independently, millions of Americans now believe the entire system is fraudulent.

President Trump speaking on Wednesday at a rally on the Ellipse near the White House. He urged supporters to march to the Capitol

The Republican effort to contest the presidential election results on the Senate floor this week is raising questions about how media outlets should cover the moment, and whether the Trump-supported action should be called an attempted “coup” writes Alexis Benveniste for CNN Business.

Both conservative news media and many conservative members of congress are appalled by what transpired on Capitol Hill on January 6.

Fearing what Trump might do next House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her House colleagues today that she had spoken to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, about keeping an “unstable president” from accessing the nuclear codes.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board has joined the chorus of those in the media demanding Donald Trump resign as president. “This goes beyond merely refusing to concede defeat. In our view it crosses a constitutional line that Mr. Trump hasn’t previously crossed. It is impeachable,” the Journal wrote. “If Mr. Trump wants to avoid a second impeachment, his best path would be to take personal responsibility and resign.”

Time will tell whether the takeover of Capitol was a riot, a last gasp of a renegade president or an early skirmish in a civil war. But it already is clear that Jan. 6, 2021, will go down as one of the ugliest days in U.S. history.

What more could happen in the remaining days of the Donald Trump presidency? Trump hinted at his preferred answer at the end of his Thursday address, saying, “Our incredible journey is only just beginning.”

Inciting a Riot

The right to protest is one of the oldest and most-respected rights in the American democratic system. The right of citizens to peacefully protest is protected by our First Amendment rights to free speech. Of course, there are limits to even the most important rights, and the right to protest doesn’t permit violence or the incitement to violence.

18 U.S. Code § 2102 defines a riot public disturbance involving (1) an act or acts of violence by one or more persons part of an assemblage of three or more persons, which act or acts shall constitute a clear and present danger of, or shall result in, damage or injury to the property of any other person or to the person of any other individual or (2) a threat or threats of the commission of an act or acts of violence by one or more persons part of an assemblage of three or more persons having, individually or collectively, the ability of immediate execution of such threat or threats, where the performance of the threatened act or acts of violence would constitute a clear and present danger of, or would result in, damage or injury to the property of any other person or to the person of any other individual.

The federal crime of rioting is punishable by fines, imprisonment for up to five years.

Donald Trump’s words were meant to incite a riot. He should be held criminally liable.