Meanwhile there is also the future to worry about – the future as in next week. The Feds are seriously alarmed.

(I still wonder why they failed to be alarmed last week.)

Meanwhile Tuesday on Capitol Hill, representatives from the Secret Service and the Defense and Homeland Security departments briefed lawmakers on security concerns.

Afterward, a group of Democratic House chairs issued a statement, saying they “have grave concerns about ongoing and violent threats to our democracy. 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 chairs — including the Oversight Committee’s Carolyn Maloney and the Judiciary Committee’s Jerrold Nadler, among others — said, “This is a moment when our entire national security and law enforcement apparatus must be working in complete lockstep. This was not a peaceful protest that got out of hand. This was an attempted coup to derail our Constitutional process and intimidate our duly elected leaders through violence.”

Notice the difference between that and BLM protests. Some of the latter may have gotten out of hand, but that’s not the same thing as an attempted coup. It’s not even close.

Consequences:

Last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob has already resulted in charges against 70 people, according to the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who said he expects the number “will grow into the hundreds.”

In the first public briefing by the Justice Department and the FBI since Wednesday’s riot, acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin and Steven D’Antuono, director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, outlined what Sherwin called a long-term investigation.

“Everyone is in for the long haul,” Sherwin said.

He said his office has already opened 170 subject files of people who potentially committed crimes in the Capitol or on Capitol grounds.

You mean it’s illegal to smash windows, batter locked doors open, push through police barricades, smash people in the head with fire extinguishers? Even when the president told you to?

He said the crimes include “everything from trespass, to theft of mail, to theft of digital devices inside the Capitol, to assault on local officers, federal officers both outside and inside the Capitol, to the theft of potential national security information or national defense information, to felony murder, even civil rights, excessive force investigations.”

Sherwin added, “The gamut of cases and criminal conduct we’re looking at is really mind-blowing.”

He said what he called a “strike force” has been formed to build sedition and conspiracy cases against some suspects.

But sedition on behalf of Trump is patriotic and maga-enabling, isn’t it?

Rs still going out of their way to be bad malevolent people. I guess that’s their brand now and they’re happy with it?

Several Republican members of Congress grew angry on Tuesday over new security systems implemented at the Capitol. The safety measures, which included metal detectors and physical pat-downs in some instances, were introduced after last week’s deadly insurrection at the complex.

And it wasn’t the Democrats who cheered that on, or inspired it in the first place.

“You are creating a problem you do not understand the ramifications of,” Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas was heard yelling at police who were conducting the check, according to a press pool report.

Yelling at police??? What is he, antifa?

Another representative, Rodney Davis of Illinois, was heard shouting that the checks were “horseshit.” Davis went through the metal detector, but then came back and was heard telling House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., that the new measures were “bullshit,” and they were diverting valuable resources. He also said GOP members weren’t consulted by security officials before they were installed.

Maybe because GOP members are collaborators.

The acting House sergeant-at-arms, Timothy Blodgett, announced the changes Tuesday, warning in a notice to members, “Failure to complete screening or the carrying of prohibited items could result in denial of access to the Chamber.”

Blodgett and acting U.S. Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman briefed Republican members on the protocols Tuesday. In the meeting, ranking member Davis blamed the majority Democrats for going overboard.

“This is political correctness run amok. The threat is outside, not inside. Every resource used inside is one that can’t be used outside,” he argued, according to a readout of the briefing.

“Political correctness” ffs. Now it’s “political correctness” to take measures to try to prevent another violent seizure of the Capitol. The Republicans don’t have any politics any more, they’re just The Antagonist Party.

Kathleen Stock asks what’s going on here when academics sign an open letter “which wouldn’t look out of place in the Salem Witch Trial archive.”

How can these academics look at the parts of the gender identity debate that concern me – for instance, vulnerable female prisoners being housed with male sex offenders; young lesbian women like Keira Bell regretting the effects of puberty blockers and voluntary mastectomies by the time they are 20; a loss of academic data about sex-associated patterns of discrimination, and so on – and conclude that I’m not only wrong, but that I should be publicly shamed?

That is, not only wrong but wicked, malevolent, deliberately harm-doing, cruel, witchy. I wonder that too. How do they get there?

(The puzzlement reminds me of my puzzlement at Republican Congressional Representatives refusing to wear masks while locked down in a confined space with colleagues, and not only refusing but mocking the colleagues who do mask. Where does that kind of pointless malice and deliberate harm-doing come from?)

Though many of the signatories of the open letter against me were based overseas, 11 of the founder signatories were at UK universities. UK universities are at the forefront of trans activism in at least two ways. One is that relatively many students – otherwise known these days as paying customers – are trans activists, and this alone will tend to affect weaker-minded academic faculty…

The second point is that universities themselves, via enthusiastic participation in Stonewall schemes like the Diversity Champions scheme and the Top 100 Employers Index are now, effectively, trans activist organisations at a managerial level, with Stonewall-sponsored policies to match.

For instance, an HR policy at Queen’s University Belfast tells staff to ‘think of the person as being the sex that they want you to think of them as’ (policies at Edinburgh and Leeds say something very similar).

There, again, for the millionth time, I pause to marvel. Do what?? Think of the person as the _____ that they want you to think of them as? What kind of wild, impossible to apply broadly, reckless rule is that? What kind of deranged retreat to childishness is that? No I’m not going to undertake to think of people the way they want me to think of them, at least not in that blank check, no questions asked, just do it way. I’m not and no one should. People think of us the way they think of us, and we can’t force them to swap their perceptions for ours. It’s infantile to think that’s even possible, let alone reasonable. It’s also so non-academic, so anti-academic, that it makes my head swim. It’s a fantasists’ charter, a one-way ticket to Narcissists’ Crossing.

‘Good practice’ at Oxford University includes avoiding the phrase ‘identifies as a woman’ for a trans woman, because this suggests trans women aren’t ‘“real” women’.

And that’s because they’re not. Universities really really really should not be in the business of ordering people to substitute fantasy for reality. It’s not even a reasonable request, let alone a command.

The costs of this intimidation of academics sceptical about gender orthodoxies – whether via savage open letters or managerial policies controlling speech and thought – are high. Knowledge is lost and public understanding diminished. In my view, there’s a pressing need for academics to take a cold hard look at the havoc wreaked by pretending, on a national scale, that gender identity is more important than sex in nearly every context. This includes a need for philosophers: for a lot of current trans orthodoxy has very particular philosophical underpinnings, seeming to give it intellectual credibility where, in my view, there is little.

But if we just think of current trans orthodoxy as the brilliant progressive correct orthodoxy it wants us to think of it as, everything will be copacetic.

I saw that Jack Monroe was raising the roof yesterday on the subject of insultingly meager and worthless lunch parcels for children to replace school lunches during lockdown, handed out by people who pocket far more money than the parcels can have cost. The subject exploded and now it’s all over the UK news, with good results.

Clearly the plan is the children will eat the sandwich of one piece of nasty processed “cheese” between two pieces of nasty processed sponge bread, and a potato. On banner days they will be allowed an apple.

The Guardian has more:

The government and the catering companies it has hired have come under fire after photographs of free school meal parcels were circulated online.

The food packages sent to children who qualify for free school meals and are remote learning because of the national lockdown were not considered to contain enough high quality food. The Department for Education said it was looking into the issue, and that “parcels should be nutritious and contain a varied range of food”.

The Guardian talked to some lucky recipients of this dreck.

Mother of three, Karen Phillips, 33, has been forced to spend her rent money on her children’s lunches after receiving a “disgraceful” food parcel from her school last week.

The parcel, intended to last her 12-year-old daughter all week, didn’t contain any carbohydrates except two potatoes, alongside one onion, two peppers, a satsuma, single tomato and carrot, and two eggs wrapped in cling film. The parcel also included one small tub of soup powder, the same sized tub of tuna mayo, and a small bag of grated cheese.

I’d be a lot less worried about the carbs than the protein – of which there is almost none. Two eggs, a small amount of tuna, and a small amount of grated cheese. That’s three lunches at most, so what about the other two days? Gnaw on the potatoes?

Jack again:

It’s appalling. The apples and carrots and tomato and bananas are fine in themselves but they can’t make up for the slap in the face quality of the rest of it. Disgusting worthless pseudo-bread and even worse pseudo-cheese – why not just give them little plastic bags of mud?

Another what Jack Monroe can get for 20 quid:

I frown on the soft white bread in the upper right, but other than that – it’s more and better and 2/3 of the price.

Remember Jonathan Ichikawa’s open letter to blame Kathleen Stock for everything? (Not literally. Literally it blamed her for being awarded an OBE, and not reciting the “trans women are women” oath 100 times every morning. Ok that last bit isn’t literal either. Just the first bit.)

There’s an open letter defending the idea that people can decide for themselves what they think.

A number of academic philosophers have taken the unusual step of publishing an “Open Letter Concerning Transphobia in Philosophy,” singling out Professor Kathleen Stock of the University of Sussex for condemnation. The reason? Professor Stock’s writing, speaking, and political activity regarding proposed changes to the UK Gender Recognition Act and more general issues of sex and gender.

The signatories dislike Professor Stock’s views and actions in this area, and that is their right. What disturbs us is that they think this sort of public singling out and vilification is an appropriate way of expressing their dislike. [It also appears that the writers got a number of things wrong about Professor Stock’s views, something others already have addressed in detail.]

The signatories suggest that this goes beyond disagreement with or a dislike of Professor Stock’s views. The letter implies that Professor Stock is one of those academics who are “using their academic status to further gender oppression”; that she is “harming” trans people; and that her work “contributes” to discrimination and violence directed towards trans people. No evidence of any kind is offered in support of these allegations. Undoubtedly, some people feel offended by what Professor Stock has written and said, but this is true of a great deal of what philosophers write and say. Many devout Christians will be offended by those arguing for abortion rights, and those who favor affirmative action are likely dismayed by arguments against it.

Read on.

You can sign it if you want to.

(Please click here to add your signature)

They are getting a lot of signers and they have to check each one for fakery, so it takes some time for new signatures to appear.

Pompeo gets the big snub.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cancelled his Europe trip at the last minute on Tuesday after Luxembourg’s foreign minister and top European Union officials declined to meet him, European diplomats and other people familiar with the matter said.

Why would they? He’ll be gone in a week anyway, and he speaks for a disgraced fascist administration. Conversation would be stilted at best.

Pompeo, a close ally of Trump, had sought to meet Jean Asselborn in Luxembourg, a small but wealthy NATO ally, before meeting EU leaders and the bloc’s top diplomat in Brussels, three people close to the planning told Reuters.

Pompeo had originally planned to go to Luxembourg, but that leg of the trip was scrapped, one diplomatic source said, after officials there showed reluctance to grant him appointments. The Brussels leg was still on until the last minute.

I hope he was thoroughly inconvenienced, and that his feelings are hurt.

In Brussels, Pompeo was due to have a private dinner with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday evening at Stoltenberg’s private residence, before meeting Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes, whose country is a NATO ally.

The cold shoulder was a contrast with Pompeo’s previous visits to Brussels, which is home to NATO and EU headquarters, over the past three years, where he has given key-note speeches on U.S. policy and met the EU’s chief executive, even as Europe balked at Trump’s foreign policy.

Apparently he plans to run for president. Let’s hope not; he’s another evil bastard.

This guy – I saw the clip several times on the day of the attack and was confused about what was happening. Now it’s been explained.

A police officer is being hailed for his role steering an angry mob away from the Senate chambers during Wednesday’s deadly storming of the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.

Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman, identified by CNN reporter Kristin Wilson, could be seen in video footage distracting rioters away from the chamber as police raced to secure the area.

In the confrontation, Goodman puts himself between a man wearing a black QAnon T-shirt and a hallway leading to the Senate chambers, then shoves the person to induce him and the crowd to chase Goodman towards officers in the opposite direction.

And they did just that.

Capitol Police did not respond to a request regarding the identity of the officer. The efforts by Goodman, who is Black, gave police the time needed to race to lock the doors to the Senate chamber, according to the Washington Post.

Brave and resourceful.

Even Deutsche Bank has booted him.

Deutsche Bank became the latest large company to cut ties with Donald Trump, with the firm that has propped up the Trump Organization for two decades reportedly announcing it would no longer do business with the disgraced president.

…

The relationship has survived various scandals. In 2008, Trump sued the bank’s real estate division after he defaulted on a $40m repayment, used to fund the construction of the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago. He accused Deutsche of co-causing the financial crisis and demanded $3bn in compensation.

Instead of dumping him as a client, Deutsche’s private wealth division stepped in and loaned him more money to pay off the existing debt. Deutsche has resisted efforts by Democrats in the House and Senate to explain its relationship with Trump – and to clarify if Russian state banks or entities underwrote some of his debts.

Totally normal business practice. “Oh you’re too broke to pay us back? Well in that case we’ll loan you more money – you can pay us out of that.”

But that was then. Now, astonished by his bad behavior, they have ushered him to the door.

They’d better be.

US officials are strengthening security measures in Washington DC and across the country as the FBI said far-right groups – many using social media – were continuing to threaten plots before Joe Biden’s inauguration as president on 21 January.

I wonder what they’re hoping for. Reinstatement of slavery? Repeal of all minimum wage laws? Sealed borders? Flat tax? Death penalty for abortions?

Probably.

The outgoing homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, said on Monday that he had moved up the timing of the “national special security event” for Biden’s inauguration to Wednesday, instead of 19 January citing the “events of the past week”, along with an “evolving security landscape”.

The events of the past week, triggered by his boss.

Wolf’s statement came as Trump – widely blamed for inciting the violence last week – issued an an emergency declaration for the US capital allowing the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate with local authorities as needed.

The warnings have prompted various states to introduce emergency measures, including Michigan, which banned the open carrying of firearms inside its state capitol, and Wisconsin, whose governor activated the national guard to support capitol police in Madison.

In California, the governor, Gavin Newsom, said authorities were “on high alert” for protests in Sacramento in the coming days, adding the national guard would be deployed if necessary.

Shouldn’t they be out raking the forests?

Another gruesome bit of fallout from the insurrection:

Three lawmakers who had to shelter for safety during the US Capitol riot have tested positive for Covid-19.

Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington state, announced her positive result early on Tuesday, while chastising Republican colleagues who refused to wear masks while they waited in a secured room for more than five hours.

She’s the Democrat from Seattle; I’m in her district and of course voted for her. It’s simply disgusting that the Republicans refused to wear masks. Disgusting, contemptible, murderous, inexcusable.

The New Jersey representative Bonnie Watson Coleman, also a Democrat, said she decided to get tested because of the possibility of exposure and tested positive. She also tweeted that she was receiving monoclonal antibody treatment – which is still being investigated – on the advice of her doctor. Coleman, 75, is a cancer survivor.

So, high risk. Her Republican “colleagues” may have killed her.

Later on Tuesday, Brad Schneider, another Democrat, from Illinois, announced he too had tested positive. “Today, I am now in strict isolation, worried that I have risked my wife’s health and angry at the selfishness and arrogance of the anti-maskers who put their own contempt and disregard for decency ahead of the health and safety of their colleagues and our staff,” he said in a statement on his website.

What is it even for? I don’t get the politics of it. It’s not free enterprise, it’s not patriotism, it’s not militarism, it’s not religion – what is it? Just being bloody-minded for the sake of it? They’re going with that?

And it gets even worse.

They mocked them!

Jesus these people.

Jayapal called for “serious fines” to be levied on the lawmakers who did not wear a mask, putting their colleagues at risk. Six Republicans, including the Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, were seen on a tape refusing to accept a mask, according to CNN. …

Political infighting over the virus does not seem to be going away with the Trump administration. Greene released a statement about her refusal to protect her colleagues last Wednesday.

“Congresswoman Greene is a healthy adult who tested negative for Covid at the White House just this week,” it said.

“She does not believe healthy Americans should be forced to muzzle themselves with a mask. America needs to reopen and get back to normal.”

There’s no vaccine for stupid.

Fascist Don regrets nothing.

An unrepentant Donald Trump has denied inciting an insurrection at the US Capitol last week, claiming his speech before the violence was “totally appropriate”.

So he’s saying it’s totally appropriate that five people were killed.

“So if you read my speech, and many people have done it, and I’ve seen it both in the papers and in the media, on television, it’s been analysed, and people thought that what I said was totally appropriate,” Trump insisted at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, ahead of a trip to Texas.

No, “people” didn’t. A small minority of Trump fans may think that, but generic “people” do not.

Shortly before noon last Wednesday, the president gave an incendiary speech to thousands of supporters, insisting his election defeat by Joe Biden could be overturned and urging them to march to the Capitol and “fight much harder” against “bad people”.

He said: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.”

Democrats have directly linked the speech, and previous Trump comments, to the carnage that unfolded when rioters, some carrying Confederate flags, fought with police and looted congressional offices.

…and were only just barely prevented from murdering legislators.

Behind the scenes, the president has reportedly continued his retreat into paranoia and unreality, repeating in a conversation with the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, the outlandish lie that so-called “antifa” leftwing activists, not his supporters, were responsible for death and destruction inside the Capitol.

“It’s not Antifa,” McCarthy reportedly replied. “It’s Maga. I know. I was there.”

So even McCarthy isn’t one of those “people” Trump cited.

A House vote to impeach Trump on one article, for incitement of insurrection, is expected on Wednesday. The timetable for an ensuing Senate trial was uncertain. If Trump is convicted after he leaves power, he will be disqualified from running for office again.

I didn’t know the Senate trial could happen after the end of this term. Good to know.

He will probably use this border visit to do more inciting, because he hasn’t done nearly enough yet.

Multiple outlets confirmed an ABC News report that the FBI expects armed pro-Trump protests in all 50 state capitals and Washington DC before inauguration day.

Explanations for why Trump himself could not be reached as the Capitol was attacked continued to emerge. According to the Washington Post, quoting an unnamed close adviser, the president was “hard to reach … because it was live TV”.

“If it’s TiVo, he just hits pause and takes the calls,” the adviser said. “If it’s live TV, he watches it, and he was just watching it all unfold.”

He was too busy watching it to do his job helping to terminate it.

Former federal cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs, who Trump fired for saying the election was secure, told CNN: “This is the equivalent of ignoring that pain in your chest for a couple weeks and then all of a sudden you have a catastrophic heart attack.

“We are on the verge of what I fear to be a pretty significant breakdown in democracy and civil society here.”

Eight days.

Medal of skunkery, it should be. Shirtsleeves Jordan gets his gong:

President Donald Trump on Monday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, one of the outgoing president’s fiercest GOP allies.

And by “fiercest” PBS means most dishonest, most bullying, most shameless.

The Presidential Medal of Freedom, established by President John F. Kennedy, is meant to recognize those who have made an “especially meritorious contribution” to national security, world peace or ”cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.”

It’s not meant to recognize those who have done favors for a criminal president.

Last week, Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to another Republican ally, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, in a private ceremony.

Another truly horrible human being.

Trump has not appeared in public since delivering a grievance-filled speech five days ago at a rally near the White House shortly before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol as Congress began formally counting the Electoral College votes to certify his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden.

Maybe his face has turned green and started dropping off.

Oh he’s so BUTCH.

First of all Hogan Gidley looks exactly like Alfred E. Newman, but more to the point – Trump, masculine??? The goldy hair dye? The ridiculous fluffy ferfy flippy wavey twirly hair arrangement? The heavy makeup? The whining? The pouting? The inability to walk a tenth of a mile?

The fear of cats? The endless bullying? The tiny fingers on the tiny hands? The stupid little mincey gestures?

There’s a confusion here. Trump is mean, and rude, and piggy, and a bully, but that doesn’t make him masculine…or feminine, either – it makes him an asshole.

Ok now they’ve gotten to him. Impeachment no big deal, but the PGA? Ouch!

That is, a much bigger wound, not a much smaller one. You’d think the other way around, but no. Being president is just for giggles, golf is serious.

What did they do?

ABC News:

As he faces a lonely end to his presidency, Donald Trump learned Sunday evening that, in the wake of last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol, he has lost one of the relationships he values most: his partnership with the Professional Golfers’ Association.

While the embattled president has been hunkered down to try and preserve his political career, the PGA of America, the proprietors of one of golf’s four major championship tournaments, announced that it plans to move its 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J.

…

Holding the tournament at Trump Bedminster, Richerson said, would be “detrimental” to the PGA of America’s brand and put the organization’s ability to function “at risk.”

Shortly after the announcement, the Trump Organization expressed disappointment with the move in a statement of their own.

“We have had a beautiful partnership with the PGA of America and are incredibly disappointed with their decision,” said a spokesperson for The Trump Organization. “This is a breach of a binding contract and they have no right to terminate the agreement. As an organization we have invested many, many millions of dollars in the 2022 PGA Championship at Trump National Golf Club, Bedminster. We will continue to promote the game of golf on every level and remain focused on operating the finest golf courses anywhere in the world.”

They’ve poked him in the eye before.

In 2016, the PGA Tour, golf’s professional circuit, prematurely ended an agreement to stage a World Golf Championship event at Trump National Doral resort in Miami, Fla., after then-candidate Trump made disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants on the campaign trail, and moved the event to Mexico City.

Classy.

He poisons everything.

Florida wildlife officials are appealing to the public for help after a manatee was found with U.S. President Donald Trump’s last name carved into its back.

…

The animal was reported to authorities over the weekend, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the Citrus County Chronicle. Anyone with information is being asked to contact Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation.

A harassment investigation is underway. A spokesperson for the FWS declined to comment to the Chronicle, citing the ongoing investigation. He added that harassing a manatee is a crime punishable by up to one year in prison and a US$50,000 fine.

It’s not the first time that a Trump tag has appeared on a wild animal. Conservationists in North Carolina were upset last summer when they found a Trump 2020 campaign slogan attached to a bear’s tracking collar.

I guess the message is “Trump hates animals, especially endangered ones, so we’re tormenting them in his honor”?

It wasn’t ideology, it was jihad. Ohhhh ok then, that’s completely different.

A man who stabbed three people to death in a Reading park believed he was carrying out “an act of religious jihad”, a court has heard.

Khairi Saadallah, 26, stabbed to death James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, during the attack in Forbury Gardens in June.

As part of his sentencing, a hearing will decide if he was motivated by a religious or ideological cause.

Ok, seriously, what is the difference? One has a god (or gods) involved and the other doesn’t, but is that a distinction that makes any difference? I don’t see it, myself. Theocracy is an ideology, and Islamism is both theocracy and (surely) an ideology.

Saadallah has admitted three counts of murder and attempted murder, but denies he was motivated by an ideology.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC told the court he “executed” his victims and intended to “kill as many people as he could” in the name of violent jihad.

Doing something in the name of violent jihad is doing it at the behest of an ideology. Isn’t it?

More insurrection-cheerleading, this time from the woman who is married to Clarence Thomas.

She did the cheerleading before the insurrectionists smashed their way into the Capitol, but that still entailed cheerleading a campaign to overturn an election and hand it to the murderous corrupt criminal who lost. She shares in the evil.

On Wednesday morning, Ginni Thomas—wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas—endorsed the rally in Washington demanding that Congress overturn the election. She then sent her “LOVE” to the demonstrators, who violently overtook the Capitol several hours later. Two days later, Thomas amended her post with the addendum: “[Note: written before violence in US Capitol].” By that point, five people involved in the insurrection, including a Capitol Police officer, had died.

It took her two days. So she didn’t do it while people were tweeting from inside the Chamber, or an hour or two later as all those photos and clips started to appear. She waited two days.

Thomas, a conservative lobbyist and zealous supporter of Donald Trump, has fervently defended the president over the last four years. On her Facebook page, she frequently promotes baseless conspiracy theories about a “coup” against Trump led by Jewish philanthropist George Soros, a frequent target of anti-Semitic hate. Thomas draws many of these theories from fringe corners of the internet, including an anti-vax Facebook group that claimed Bill Gates would use the COVID vaccine to kill people. In recent months, she also amplified unsubstantiated corruption claims against Joe Biden while insisting, falsely, that the Obama administration illegally spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign, then tried to rig the election against him.

Watergate seems almost cozy in comparison to these people.

H/t What a Maroon

Queen Melania has issued a disgusting “statement” on official White House stationery.

With nearly every experience I have had, I found myself carrying many individual’s [sic] stories home with me in my heart.

Most recently, my heart goes out to: Air Force Veteran, Ashli Babbitt, Benjamin Philips, Kevin Greeson, Roseanne Boyland, and Capitol Police Officers, Brian Sicknick and Howard Liebengood. I pray for their families comfort and strength during this difficult time.

Her “heart goes out” to, first of all, the ex-military woman who tried to climb through the broken window of the door barring entry to the House floor. Legislators were crouched or prone on the floor of that chamber, hoping not to be slaughtered by people like Ashli Babbitt. Queen Melania puts her first and the two Capitol cops last. Last.

But never mind that, because it gets even worse. The very next paragraph reveals that actually it’s all about her.

I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week. I find it shameful that surrounding these tragic events there has been salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attacks, and false misleading accusations on me – from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda. This time is solely about healing our country and its citizens. It should not be used for personal gain.

She says, using it for personal whine.

Told you it was disgusting.

Well we didn’t mean that…

Leaders from the Republican Attorneys General Association face mounting criticism after sending out a robocall that urged supporters of Donald Trump to join the 6 January march on the US Capitol that resulted in a deadly insurrection.

We thought it was going to be a protest! Not an insurrection! Please don’t impeach us.

“At [1pm”] we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal,” a robocall from the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, said.

Spot the irony? Good old rule of law, eh? Defend rule of law by forcing your way into the Capitol in hopes of killing all the Democrats. Sic semper tyrannis amirite?

The voice then said: “We are hoping patriots like you will join us to continue the fight to protect the integrity of our election.”

Patriots=Republicans. Democrats are Unpatriots, so we have to execute them all.

Also, this collective of Republican Attorneys General was claiming the election was stolen, on the basis of zero evidence that it was and a lot of evidence that it wasn’t. Not something you want prosecutors doing, to put it mildly.

They’re now saying they knew nothing about it, they were busy tidying their desks, please go away.

The Democratic Attorneys General Associationhas rejected the Republican defense, releasing a statement highlighting Republican leaders who they say incited the violence by taking up the president’s long-debunked claims of election fraud.

…

The Democratic attorneys general also said that the Republican association’s “former chair spoke at the rally that incited the mob,”pinpointing Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, and that “former [Missouri attorney general] Josh Hawley led the effort in Congress to undermine the election”.

Rule of law, people, rule of law.