These Traitorous Traitors Must Be Expelled From the House

Daily Beast
Molly Jong-Fast, Editor-At-Large
Updated Jan. 14, 2021 7:26AM ET / Published Jan. 14, 2021 4:58AM ET

There are 535 members of Congress. Some of them are great. A few of them (Louie Gohmert) are dumb as a box of rocks. And then some of them are real true traitors who need to be expelled.

Fully 139 Republican congresspeople objected to the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. In an ideal world, all of these people would be expelled. But it’s not an ideal world, and some of these members were just good Germans worried about a mean tweet. Are they cowards? Certainly, but they are not the nexus of the problem. It makes more sense for Democrats to focus on the rot in the center—the ooey gooey maggot-ridden core of the Coup Caucus.

It was Tuesday Jan. 12 when gun enthusiast Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado walked through Congress’ newly installed metal detectors and refused to allow the Capitol Police to search her bag. She caused a mini-fracas. Multiple Republican House members started refusing to be searched or refused to go through the metal detector at all. “I was physically restrained!” complained Arkansas Republican Steve Womack. Hell hath no fury like a congressional Republican forced to walk through a metal detector.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-traitorous-traitors-must-be-expelled-from-the-house?ref=home
(paywall)

Trump built a national debt so big --even before the pandemic-- that it'll weigh down the economy f

January 14, 2021
By Pro Publica, via Raw Story

One of President Donald Trump's lesser known but profoundly damaging legacies will be the explosive rise in the national debt that occurred on his watch. The financial burden that he's inflicted on our government will wreak havoc for decades, saddling our kids and grandkids with debt.

The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump's time in office. That's nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.

The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.

Economists agree that we needed massive deficit spending during the COVID-19 crisis to ward off an economic cataclysm, but federal finances under Trump had become dire even before the pandemic. That happened even though the economy was booming and unemployment was at historically low levels. By the Trump administration's own description, the pre-pandemic national debt level was already a “crisis" and a “grave threat."

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-national-debt/


Naturally the Republican whine machine is already complaining about the national debt

Bankrolling the Disenfranchisers

Public Citizen
By Mike Tanglis and Taylor Lincoln

Many in corporate America have signaled their disgust over the insurrection that occurred at the U.S. Capitol last week, as well as with President Trump and the congressional ringleaders who incited the rioters.

But many of these same corporate scolds have acted as reliable funders of the members of Congress who sought last week to void the results of the 2020 presidential election. By Public Citizen’s count, political action committees have contributed a staggering $170 million since the 2016 election cycle to the 147 members of Congress who voted last week to challenge the electoral college slates of at least one state.[1]

Our analysis reveals that 19 of these PACs have contributed at least $1 million each to the disenfranchisers over the past three election cycles. Meanwhile, 46 of these PACs have supported at least 50 percent of the members of Congress who voted to throw out at least part of the 2020 election results.

The top contributors are all trade associations: the National Association of Realtors, the American Bankers Association, the National Automobile Dealers Association and the National Beer Wholesalers Association. The American Bankers Association, which has contributed more than $2 million, in sum, to 120 of the 147 disenfranchisers, declared that the insurrection marked “a dark day for our democracy.”[2]

more:

https://www.citizen.org/article/bankrolling-the-disenfranchisers/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=35e21273-dbae-4a1e-a8ab-a87cd6fbe52a#_ftn2

Facebook Has Been Showing Ads For Military Gear Next To Insurrection Posts

Buzzfeed News
Ryan Mac BuzzFeed News Reporter
Craig Silverman BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on January 13, 2021, at 7:50 p.m. ET

Facebook has been running ads for body armor, gun holsters, and other military equipment next to content promoting election misinformation and news about the attempted coup at the US Capitol, despite internal warnings from concerned employees.

In the aftermath of an attempted insurrection by President Donald Trump’s supporters last week at the US Capitol building, Facebook has served up ads for defense products to accounts that follow extremist content, according to the Tech Transparency Project, a nonprofit watchdog group. Those ads — which include New Year’s specials for specialized body armor plates, rifle enhancements, and shooting targets — were all delivered to a TTP Facebook account used to monitor right-wing content that could incite violence.

Beginning last summer, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company banned pages, groups, and accounts belonging to US-based militant groups, “boogaloo” extremists, and those associated with the QAnon mass delusion. But members of those movements quickly found ways around the company’s policies by renaming their pages or using code names. They continue to proliferate, organize, and advertise on the social network.

These ads for tactical gear, which were flagged internally by employees as potentially problematic, show Facebook has been profiting from content that amplifies political and cultural discord in the US.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-profits-military-gear-ads-capitol-riot?origin=web-hf

Metro to close 13 stations for a week amid threats of inauguration violence

Washington Posty
Justin George
Jan. 13, 2021 at 5:50 p.m. EST

Metro will shut down more than a dozen stations near the U.S. Capitol and Mall for days around the presidential inauguration because of the possibility of violent protests.

Starting Friday, the transit agency will begin closing 13 stations through the following Thursday, the day after President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol. Metrobus service and routes also will be adjusted around a security perimeter guarded by fences and an expected 20,000 members of the National Guard.

The transit precautions were made through coordination with the Secret Service, which is directing safety of the event after last week’s attempted insurrection and riot at the U.S. Capitol that left five dead and wounded several others.

***

Stations closing on Friday include: Farragut North, Judiciary Square and Union Station on the Red Line; Archives on the Green and Yellow lines; Arlington Cemetery on the Blue Line; Farragut West, McPherson Square, Federal Center SW, Capitol South, Smithsonian and Federal Triangle on the Blue, Orange and Silver lines.

Stations closing Saturday are Metro Center and Gallery Place, two of the largest transfer stations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/01/13/metro-inauguration/

A Major Militia Group Said Its Website Was Taken Down Days After It Sent Members To The Capitol Riot

Buzzfeed News
Salvador Hernandez
Posted on January 13, 2021, at 6:18 p.m. ET

Oath Keepers, one of the largest right-wing paramilitary groups in the country, had its website suddenly shut down this week, temporarily closing one of its last remaining avenues to recruit and organize its ranks.

The group, which sent members and “security teams” to DC during the insurrection that left five people dead, claimed its hosting service, LiquidWeb, “caved to the Loony Left.” LiquidWeb did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The site went down on Monday, just days after a mob of President Trump’s supporters attacked police and stormed the US Capitol building in an effort to stop Congress from certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

***

It was unclear why the Oath Keepers website, which had been up for 11 years, was shut down Monday, but in an email to national leaders of the group, Oath Keepers President Stewart Rhodes claimed the site’s host, LiquidWeb, had revoked its services.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/oath-keepers-website-epik-down

Impeachment passed 232 to 197

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner 'need not apply' to snooty Florida country club

By Emily Smith
January 13, 2021

Following her “American patriots” tweet, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner “need not apply” to the upscale Indian Creek Country Club near their $30 million plot of land on the exclusive Florida island nicknamed “The Billionaire’s Bunker.”

The island community — one of the wealthiest in the US — has just 29 residences, and residents include Julio Iglesias, Carl Icahn, Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen — but owning a home there doesn’t mean you get automatic membership in the country club.

A local source sniped, “You have to be nominated and make a formal application. But it only takes one member to object against any new member, and many members are objecting, particularly after the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Jared and Ivanka can lunch with their fellow ‘patriots’ at Mar-a-Lago.

https://pagesix.com/2021/01/13/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-need-not-apply-to-florida-country-club/

World's oldest known cave painting found in Indonesia

January 13, 2021
Agence France-Presse via Raw Story

Archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest known cave painting: a life-sized picture of a wild pig that was made at least 45,500 years ago in Indonesia.

The finding described in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday provides the earliest evidence of human settlement of the region.

Co-author Maxime Aubert of Australia's Griffith University told AFP it was found on the island of Sulawesi in 2017 by doctoral student Basran Burhan, as part of surveys the team was carrying out with Indonesian authorities.
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The Leang Tedongnge cave is located in a remote valley enclosed by sheer limestone cliffs, about an hour's walk from the nearest road.

https://www.rawstory.com/worlds-oldest-known-cave-painting-found-in-indonesia/

TSA increases security measures on DC flights, including some second ID checks

CNN
Greg Wallace, Pete Muntean and Jeremy Diamond

Heightened airport security measures around inauguration in some cases include a second screening of passengers boarding flights, the Transportation Security Administration acknowledged to CNN.

The second check at the boarding gate is in addition to the standard screening procedures done at TSA checkpoints.

“This is a routine practice and represents one of the multiple layers of security that we employ,” agency spokesperson Carter Langston told CNN when asked about an account of TSA officers stopping passengers at the gate of a Washington-bound flight to check identification and bags.

***.

The screening of DC-bound passengers is in addition to a heightened security and police presence at the three Washington-area airports that has included armored vehicles and a notable number of visible officers in terminals.

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-trump-impeachment-vote-01-13-21/