Wednesday, January 13, 2021

On The Brink

Last night the House of Representatives sent a resolution to Vice-President Pence to invoke Section 4 of the 25th amendment removing the 45th President from his duties. The deadline for that was passed and so the House voted on the resolution to begin debate on Articles of Impeachment against the President.

National Guard troops from several states including Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, & Delaware have begun arriving in Washington DC. Several have been assigned to the Capitol building itself. The pictures this morning feel epic, comic-tragic and banal.


Members began assembling in the Capitol for debate on Impeachment at 9AM. 


What this comes down to today is a straightforward matter that has all sorts of ramifications. Do we let the 45th President create a path here for widely accepted sedition that he intends to lead to his own assertion of extra-constitutional tenure, or, do we rather punish him by impeachment for inciting insurrection in order to contest the 2020 elections? In simpler terms, do we let him become something like a king or do we hold him accountable by impeachment for this his latest, but most important, dereliction of duty.

The House of Representatives voted after a five hour debate with 231 votes to impeach the President of the United States, and 197 votes against, with ten Republicans voting with Democrats. The entirety of these actions can be viewed here, with commentary from PBS.

Two more police have died since Sunday. One from injuries sustained during last Wednesday's insurrection attempt at the Capitol. Another committed suicide.


Posted by at No comments:

Monday, January 11, 2021

US Insurrection 2021: In the Wake

Five days after the storm of the Capitol by followers of the outgoing head of the Executive in the US a few things have become widely known. Five people have died as a result of last Wednesday's attempted insurrection. Two Capitol police and three insurgents succumbed to injuries or medical related injuries. There were widespread inconsistencies regarding policy that led to much of the breakdown of security at the Capitol, reaching as far as the the Pentagon and the National Guard. The heads of the Capitol police have said they will resign. 

There has not been an official explanation of what has happened with these events or this whole episode from the Executive or, from DC Security. Trump's preferred platforms for disseminating information have been cut off so he no longer has access to twitter. Parler, the platform popular with conservatives since the November 3 elections, has also shut down. This is a result of the major tech companies that supply its users the means via cell phone to access that platform having cut off access to it. The CEO of Parler announced Monday the company was suing Amazon for ending its support of the platform.

The Speaker of the House has asked the Vice-President to invoke the 25th Amendment which would remove President Trump from participating in active measures in that office. Madame Speaker has also stated that if the Vice-President will not do this by 11am today - Monday - then she is prepared to call for a voice vote in the House to approve Articles of Impeachment already drawn up against the President. When Madame Speaker called for a unanimous consent vote, a Republican member blocked the motion.

Meanwhile, it seems as though a major hack on an administrative level has occurred with Parler just prior to its shutting down, exposing the personal data of certain users on the platform. Seventy terabytes of user data including personal identifying information has reportedly been opened up which means anyone, including the Government or the FBI, now has access. Thousands of photos and video and the personal information of user data had been uploaded to the platform and other forms of social media throughout the last few months but particularly in the days around the January 6 storm of activity. 

As a result, there have been reports all weekend that hundreds of criminal cases have been opened, scores of arrests made by the FBI, and a rush of deletions of said material by the insurgency participants. Apparently a number of these individuals have also been put on 'no-fly' lists as suspected domestic terrorists. Also, individual politicians have begun denying their involvement, up to and including the President, professing a need for healing, unity. Many see these as merely moves by complicit members who are seeking impunity and immunity for themselves rather than unity for the country.


Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

"...in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives..."

Today was the day that Congress was set to affirm the certified Electoral College votes officially recognizing the new President-elect Joseph R Biden and his running mate as Vice-President Kamala Harris. This did not happen today.

The morning broke with the news that the special election in the state of Georgia had concluded with two new Senators, Warnock and Ossoff having been elected. This was even more significant since their election as members of the Democratic party gave the Senate an entirely new tenor. Now the Senate is divided evenly with fifty members in the Republican party and fifty from the Democratic party. This is the first time in ten years the Senate will be led with a Democrat as the majority leader.

But, the counting of the electoral college votes did not begin because there were a number of objections that members had put forward to block the count. Since the November election, the current resident Donald J Trump has refused to concede the national election claiming numerous fraudulent processes, including ballot stuffing, ballot shredding, fraud inducing electoral officials, fraudulent vote counting processes and even the voting by dead people. His subordinates have taken to the courts and the airwaves and the social media platforms claiming all of the above and much more but without proof, spinning controversy and conspiracies in an environment that seems to thrive on such poisonous ignorance. There have been sixty cases that the courts have struck down or thrown out due to lack of evidence or lack of standing by the plaintiffs. This, rather than dispelling the illusions of his followers, has instead only increased their frustration.

So, today several hundred of his supporters convened in Washington DC set on disrupting this official, constitutional process of counting the electoral college votes. At the moment that objections were being heard in due order, in the separate bicameral houses brought by representatives and Senators from their respective districts and states, individuals outside the building began breaching the security perimeter. Before long scores and then hundreds of people had stormed the building claiming they were holding a revolution. 

Representatives were rushed out of chambers to secure locations.Rioters scoured the buildings looking for accomplices. One woman, a vet who had formerly been in the Air Force was shot in the Capitol building and has since died. Several instances of vandalism and graffiti occurred and Representatives offices were broken into and items stolen, but no further injuries have been reported. At least one pipe bomb had been found and taken away and defused. After a couple hours, Vice-President Pence called on the National Guard to come help. The President's twitter account after tweeting a number of incendiary remarks was shut down temporarily. The mayor of Washington DC declared a curfew in the city limits from 6PM to 6AM. And with reserves built up the Capitol police began clearing the Capitol building and complex which was completed by 6PM. 

About two hours later, the buildings having been cleared and cleaned, members were told they could return and did. After a few short speeches, members began again the process where they had left off, debating the objections with votes being held on whether to sustain those objections to holding the count. At this time, none of those objections have been sustained, being resoundingly defeated, but there are a few members who voted for sustaining those objections. They are as follows.


Today was Epiphany
____________________________________

Front page of tomorrow's New York Times:
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)