Ohio Militia Woman Stormed Capitol As Insurrectionist-In-Chief’s Very Special Guest, Allegedly!
We are so not surprised.
Former Army Ranger Jessica Watkins, a member of the MAGA mob that stormed the Capitol on January 6, claims she was there as a very special guest of the twice-impeached thug. Watkins's attorney dropped the details in court filings arguing for her release on bond as she awaits trail.
"On January 5 and 6, Ms. Watkins was present not as an insurrectionist, but to provide security to the speakers at the rally, to provide escort for the legislators and others to march to the Capitol as directed by the then-President, and to safely escort protestors away from the Capitol to their vehicles and cars at the conclusion of the protest," the court filing said on Saturday. "She was given a VIP pass to the rally. She met with Secret Service agents. She was within 50 feet of the stage during the rally to provide security for the speakers. At the time the Capitol was breached, she was still at the site of the initial rally where she had provided security."
Watkins is a member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia. Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Oath Keepers as an extremist group. Secret Service agents meeting Watkins and letting her within 50 feet of the stage where the one-term loser was set to speak is an incredible security failure, but President Klan Robe considers the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys, and any rightwing militia “his people." And he's right.
The Secret Service officially disavowed knowledge of Watkins's actions. Her attorney, Michelle Peterson, insists she wasn't violent during the Capitol siege, even though Watkins boasted on Parler that she and fellow militia members “stood our ground and drew the line" against Capitol Hill police.
"Yeah. We stormed the Capitol today," she wrote in one message posted to the social app Parler. "Teargassed, the whole 9. Pushed our way into the Rotunda. Made it into the Senate even. The news is lying (even Fox) about the Historical Events we created today."
Back in December, disgraced Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn had shouted on rightwing media about the one-term loser invoking the Insurrection Act and imposing martial law so he could remain president forever. Peterson alleges Watkins and other MAGA supporters believed this would happen and they "would have a role if this were to happen." The one-term loser's Big Lie had convinced these suckers they were upholding law and order.
"However misguided, her intentions were not in any way related to an intention to overthrow the government, but to support what she believed to be the lawful government. She took an oath to support the Constitution and had no intention of violating that oath or of committing any violent acts."
Watkins's counsel is arguing a familiar “deranged president made me do it" defense. The twice-impeached loser and most elected Republicans are hanging these fools out to dry, insisting they acted on their own without incitement from the so-called commander-in-chief. But the defense is correct that Watkins and her fellow conspirators would've never shown up at the Capitol if not for the mad king's rhetoric. It still seems odd that the same guy who pitched stuffed crust pizza with his Zsa Zsa Gabor-knockoff wife could command an army, but he did have help from spineless congressional Republicans and a rightwing media that enabled his fascist Big Lie.
From Newsweek:
"In November, [Watkins] believed that the President of the United States was calling upon her and her small militia group to support the President and the Constitution and she was ready to serve her Country in that manner," according to their latest filing.
In fairness to the mob, it's not like they heard hidden messages in Beatles songs that weren't actually there. The previous White House squatter wasn't subtle in his declarations for an uprising against what he falsely claimed was a stolen election.
Watkins, who served in Afghanistan, is transgender, which is only relevant because her attorney claims she's been "treated harshly" and is at "particular risk in custody." In a motion she filed for Watkins's home detention, Peterson said Watkins was "forced out of the military after her sexual orientation was discovered." (It's unclear if Peterson is conflating sexual orientation with gender identity.)
From Buzzfeed:
In the petition, Watkins alleged that while in a county jail in Ohio, she was stripped naked and left "in a cell with lights on 24 hours a day for 4 days in full view of everyone." According to the attorney, that was a response to a hunger strike Watkins went on in a failed attempt to get medical attention for an injury to her arm
That's horrific. No one deserves that, even if they committed several felonies on behalf of a man who revels in such cruelty. I don't want her jetting off to Mexico for a “retreat," but she's not an immediate threat if confined safely in her home until trial.
Also, as a cis straight guy I am not into implying LGBTQ+ people should believe a certain way, but Evan is one of the letters of LGBTQ+ and he says "If she was kicked out of the military for being trans and then she went to war for fucking Trump anyway? YIKES."
The end.
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Jim Jordan And Alan Dershowitz Have Thoughts On Trump's Acquittal. They Are Idiot Thoughts.
It's your post-impeachment Sunday show rundown!
What happened on Saturday was disappointing, yet predictable. The Senate, by a margin of 57-43, decided Donald Trump was guilty of the article of impeachment, of inciting the January 6 Capitol attack. Of course, conviction in the Senate requires 67 senators. Most of the Sunday shows hosted House managers and Democratic senators talking about the weekend's events.
The exception, of course, was patient zero of propaganda masquerading as a news channel, Fox News. And no other show gloated more about Trump's "win" that Maria Bartiromo's obnoxious show "Sunday Morning Futures."
Bartiromo hosted GOP Rep. Jim Jordan and Alan Dershowitz. Jordan began by rejoicing the victory for insurrectionists:
JORDAN: Great news for the country! I mean, remember what the Democrats were trying to do, Maria. They were trying to "cancel" the guy that 74 million Americans voted for because they didn't want him to be on the ballot, have a chance to be on the ballot, in 2024. And they were so obsessed with this going after the president, that they were willing to ignore the Constitution and willing to ignore due process [...] willing to ignore the facts, willing to doctor evidence and willing to at the last minute try to call witnesses when that made absolutely no sense to do so. So this is how focused and obsessed they've been. It was a good day for the country that the president was acquitted again.
Jim Jordan loves to hear himself speak, even if it's "Billy Madison" levels of incoherent ramblings.
To respond quickly:
- GOP Trump sycophants keep pulling out the "74 million votes" stat like that somehow justifies an insurrection against the even more impressive 81 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden.
- Trump could have avoided all this unpleasantness if he hadn't incited a violent mob.
- Democrats followed the Constitution and had to move quickly because Trump incited the insurrection in public, on TV, in the last few days of his presidency. The House managers presented plenty of facts and evidence to the senators who were also witnesses.
- You can't complain about not enough due process and then also complain about being offered more due process in the form of witnesses.
- Saturday was only a good day for future presidential hopefuls who are also criminals. But otherwise!
Bartiromo asked Alan Dershowitz to bring his "brilliant" legal analysis to this and he proceeded to split the acquittal baby in half:
DERSHOWITZ: I think a great day for Mitch McConnell because he taught us a civics lesson. You don't have to support President Trump or Donald Trump. You don't have to agree with his speech to support the First Amendment and to support the Constitution's limitations on the power of the Senate to put a former president on trial. McConnell accepted the constitutional argument that I've been making from the very beginning. That Congress has no power to put on trial "Citizen Trump." So it was a very good day for the Constitution, not such a great day for Donald Trump because McConnell and others criticized him. Look, the reason that they went for witnesses is that they counted the votes [...] so they threw a Hail Mary and it backfired. [...] It totally backfired, because the Trump Team said "Alright! You call one witness, we'll call ninety. We'll have depositions [...] This trial will never be over." And so they backed away and they allowed for just a stipulation to go in on a hearsay statement. The result was the right result yesterday and it was very, very good day for the Constitution.
Dersh, unlike Jordan, is a little better at giving his bullshit a thin veil of legality and reason. He's still full of shit, though. Here are just a few examples:
- The House impeached Trump while he was still president. Mitch McConnell prevented the trial from happening until after Trump was out of office.
- Dershowitz says the Trump team could have called "ninety witnesses" and forced endless depositions, which ignores that each witness called would have required a majority vote. Hit that link for more explanation of how it would have worked, but the point is that Trump's team had zero power to call more witnesses than Democrats.
- "Citizen Trump" sounds like a horrible remake of Orson Welles's masterpiece.
Dersh, Bartiromo and Jordan are not counting on people to know things or even care to know things. They praised Trump's legal team, despite how most GOP senators are such bootlickers -- a few even actively assisted Trump's defense -- that a rabid opossum could have defended Trump and achieved the same results.
Here is a final thought from Jim Jordan:
Amid a deadly pandemic and economic carnage, Jim Jordan says "cancel culture" is "the number one issue for the coun… https://t.co/YutOkuZfas— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1613317271.0
It's offensive that we ever lose to these idiots.
Have a week!
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Ted Cruz Just Wondering Why Black People Insist On Celebrating Black People He Doesn’t Like
Another Black History Month where a Republican tries to stick us with Clarence Thomas.
South Carolina GOP Senator Tim Scott voted to acquit the twice-impeached thug Saturday. It was disappointing but not surprising. The only Black Republican in the Senate couldn't join his braver colleagues Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Richard Burr, Bill Cassidy, and Patrick Toomey, who all broke ranks and voted to convict the insurrectionist-in-chief.
Sasse was just re-elected but he's 48 and likely has had presidential ambitions. Murkowski is up for reelection in 2022. Cassidy is from Louisiana, a state President Joe Biden lost by almost 20 points, and the Louisiana GOP has already censured him for his vote. The South Carolina GOP also censured Rep. Tom Rice, one of 10 House Republicans who voted for impeachment.
But Tim Scott enabled and protected the twice-impeached thug at every opportunity. He's an embarrassment, and only a complete fool would think Scott deserves a special shout out during Black History Month. Enter Ted Cruz, esteemed Black Person Expert.
Twitter
Cruz has whined that an impeachment trial wasted senators' valuable time, but he's spending his evenings watching basketball and counting Black Republicans. He tweeted:
"Am watching the Rockets play tonight. For the second night in a row, here's how NBA/TNT honors Black History Month: picturing three Dem politicians. Tim Scott doesn't exist? (unlike Abrams, he's been elected statewide) Condi Rice? Clarence Thomas? Colin Powell? Obvious bias."
The little weasel is technically correct, which is usually the best kind of correct: Tim Scott both exists and is Black. However, he's never made a big deal about it unless it's benefitted some conservative evil scheme. He wouldn't even join the Congressional Black Caucus because he didn't want “to be viewed through the prism of race."
Conservatives claim they're big on meritocracy and loathe quotas, but Cruz thinks Tim Scott, the most distinguished Black leader in a room with only Tim Scott, deserves to share the stage with Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, the first Black president and first Black vice president. Scott is the first Black senator from his state, but so is Cory Booker and so was Harris herself, for that matter. I thought Republicans opposed “participation trophies."
Cruz apparently can't grasp why Black people might celebrate Stacey Abrams more than Scott. Why, she hasn't been elected statewide! Trust me, I don't think that comes up a lot at the beauty parlor. Abrams — like the late Rep. John Lewis, who also never won a statewide election — has devoted her life to removing barriers erected to keep Black people from voting. Scott voted to confirm Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who Coretta Scott King denounced for having used his office to suppress minority voting rights. He didn't even object when Republicans posthumously silenced Mrs. King.
As for the others, Rice has received recognition during past Black History Months, and so has Colin Powell, who 20 years ago was the Republican Party's Great Black Hope (when they weren't booing him at the RNC when he supported affirmative action and a woman's right to choose).
Ignoring Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas isn't “obvious bias," unless you're biased against assholes. Thurgood Marshall made history as the first Black Supreme Court justice. Thomas is barely the second. He helped gut the Voting Rights Act in 2013, and he's compared affirmative action to slavery and segregation. He's not a Black ally.
It's documented reality that the overwhelming majority of Black people support Democrats and reject Republicans. Conservatives like Cruz should stop trying to foist on us the few Black politicians who'll associate with them. Cruz must have run out of prominent Black Republicans if he included Powell, who endorsed Obama and spoke at the 2020 Democratic convention.
Stacey Plaskett to Jake Tapper on the decision to not pursue witness testimony during Trump's impeachment trial: "W… https://t.co/Fno5ympLPu— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1613311764.0
House impeachment manager and US Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett called out coup-enabling senators like Cruz and Scott: "I know that people are feeling a lot of angst and believe that maybe if we had (a witness) the senators would have done what we wanted, but, listen, we didn't need more witnesses, we needed more senators with spines."
Damn.
Plaskett was once a Republican political appointee in the George W. Bush justice department. She switched parties in 2008. Democrats have gained leaders like Plaskett, while Republicans have added Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert to their caucus. Future Black History Months will remember Plaskett. Tim Scott is on his own.
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Lindsey Graham Will Impeach Kamala Harris For ... Reasons! Racist Reasons!
What a scumbag.
Republicans are eager to win back the House and Senate in 2022, and once they again hold the reins of power, they have grand plans for helping Americans recover from the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Just kidding, all they've talked about lately is REVENGE!
South Carolina GOP Senator Lindsey Graham feels especially vengeful over his fascist BFF's second-annual impeachment. His current white whale is Vice President Kamala Harris, who is neither white nor a marine mammal. This weekend he shamelessly compared the insurrectionist-in-chief provoking a violent mob to attack Congress with Harris supporting people not rotting in jail because they exercised their constitutional rights.
Lindsey Graham suggests Kamala Harris will be impeached if Republicans take back the House next year https://t.co/J68Or4k1la— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1613313972.0
Graham issued this scantily clad threat on "Fox News Sunday":
GRAHAM: If you use this model, I don't know how Kamala Harris doesn't get impeached if the Republicans take over the House, becauoe she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody's head open. So we've opened Pandora's Box here, and I'm sad for the country.
Newsweek claimed Graham's charges are “exaggerated." They are in fact a repulsive, racist lie. Harris tweeted out a link for the Minnesota Freedom Fund on June 1 and suggested people "chip in" to "help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota" after George Floyd was murdered. However, according to the American Bail Association, "all but three of the 170 people arrested during the protests between May 26 and June 2 were released from jail within a week ... In fact, 92 percent of those arrested had to pay no bail — and 29 percent of those arrested did not face charges."
Regardless, Harris didn't personally bail anyone out, and even if she had, Graham, an actual lawyer, should know that you aren't legally liable if you pay for their bail. You just lose the money you put up if they don't show up for their court date. The judge who authorized bail isn't criminally responsible, either, nor is the defense attorney who argued for bail. The criminal act of incitement is very different from posting bail. This is why bail bondsmen aren't regularly incarcerated.
No one is encouraging violence when they help release someone prior to trial, nor are they endorsing the crime for which they are charged. No serious person believes this, but Graham surrendered his gravitas along with his dignity when the twice impeached loser was elected.
Graham refers to people arrested and charged with rioting as "rioters," when they've not yet been convicted of anything. He must think due process only exists for the insurrectionist-in-chief and his cronies. Republicans also haven't complained about Kyle Rittenhouse's $2 million GoBailMe fund.
Thousands of people attended the “Save America" rally. The 150 people arrested so far violently stormed the Capitol. Many of them posted about it on social media. Contrast this with the hundreds of peaceful protesters of police violence arrested last summer, often on BS charges such as violating curfew or breathing aggressively near a cop. Amanda Young from Los Angeles tried to leave a protest when curfew was declared but she couldn't.
"Everywhere you turned you saw blue uniforms," she said. "They sandwiched us in. They were indiscriminately pulling people out of their cars."
The police arrested Young and 120 other protestors.
They zip-tied their hands behind their backs and loaded them onto a sheriff's bus to be processed at the Metropolitan Detention Center. The police didn't wear masks, she said, and stood uncomfortably close on the bus, given the COVID-19 pandemic. Her friend had a panic attack.
Those arrests were a chilling effect on free speech. Harris was supporting Americans' First Amendment rights. She's even co-sponsored a bill that would've ended cash bail as a condition for pretrial release. This is a policy position, not a crime spree.
Graham knows this. He just wants to go after the Black lady as payback. Republicans will never have the votes to convict her, but maybe they can stamp the brand of impeachment on her.
Graham used to run around carrying the late Senator John McCain's school books, but he didn't pick up any of his morality. McCain was brutally tortured for five years as a prisoner of war, but he never wavered in his opposition to the US government torturing people, even if it was called "enhanced interrogation." However, Graham believes that if Democrats do something he doesn't like, it justifies Republicans escalating with even worse behavior. This is how he justified going back on his own word regarding filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year. He thought President Klan Robe's well-deserved impeachments were divisive and wrong, so he now supports a partisan sham impeachment of the vice president.
It doesn't make any moral sense, but neither does Lindsey Graham.
[Newsweek]
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