Apocalypse Trump - The Final Days

[KNP16]

Ok

[Vermin93]

Pentagon to Arm National Guard Troops Deploying to Capitol for Inauguration

The armed National Guard troops will be responsible for security around the Capitol building complex, officials said. About 15,000 Guard troops are expected to be deployed in the city.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/u...uguration.html

WASHINGTON — National Guard troops who are flooding into Washington to secure the Capitol for Inauguration Day will be armed, the Army secretary, Ryan McCarthy, has decided, Defense Department officials said Tuesday.

The armed troops will be responsible for security around the Capitol building complex, the officials said.

As up to 15,000 troops continued to arrive in Washington from all over the country, Defense Department officials had been weighing whether to deploy them with arms. Mr. McCarthy has decided that at the very least those around the Capitol building will carry weapons, said the officials, who confirmed the decision on the condition of anonymity.

Mr. McCarthy’s decision came after a meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California. Ms. Pelosi, according to congressional staff members, demanded that the Pentagon take a more muscular posture after a mob, egged on by President Trump last week, breached the Capitol.

Pentagon officials say they are deeply worried about protests that are planned for the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. next week. About 16 groups — some of them saying they will be armed and most of them made up of hard-line supporters of Mr. Trump — have registered to stage protests in Washington, officials said.

One Defense Department official said law enforcement agencies are planning for a range of outcomes, including a worse-case scenario in which people with firearms try to attack dignitaries, “suicide-type aircraft” try to fly into the capital’s restricted airspace and even remote-controlled drones that could be used to attack the crowd.

[Vermin93]

Not news, but an interesting opinion piece by Thomas Friedman.

Trump Is Blowing Apart the G.O.P. God Bless Him.

There still will be a place for principled Republicans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/o...ans-trump.html

A reasonable observation by Friedman, in my opinion:

If you look closely, there are actually four different Republican factions today: principled conservatives, cynically tactical conservatives, unprincipled conservatives and Trump cultists. In the principled conservatives camp, I’d put Romney and Murkowski. They are the true America firsters. While animated by conservative ideas about small government and free markets, they put country and Constitution before party and ideology. They are rule-abiders.

In the cynically tactical conservative camp, which you could call the Mitch McConnell camp, I’d put all of those who tried to humor Trump for a while — going along with his refusal to acknowledge the election results until “all the legal votes were counted” — but once the Electoral College votes were cast by each state, slid into the reality-based world and confirmed Biden’s victory, some sooner than others.

“I call them the ‘rule-benders,’” explained pollster Craig Charney. “They are ready to bend the rules but not break them.”

The unprincipled Republicans — the “rule-breakers” in Charney’s lingo — are led by Hawley and Cruz, along with the other seditious senators and representatives who tried to get Congress to block its ceremonial confirmation of Biden’s election.

Finally, there are the hard-core Trump cultists and QAnon conspiracy types, true believers in and purveyors of the Big Lie.

I just don’t see how these four camps stay together. And for America’s sake, I hope they don’t.

[Vermin93]

Rep. John Katko becomes first House Republican to back Trump impeachment

https://www.syracuse.com/politics/20...peachment.html

Katko said he felt compelled to uphold his oath of office and defend the Constitution by impeaching Trump.

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

...Katko said he considered the question of impeachment through his lens as a former federal prosecutor by reviewing the facts of what happened last week.

“It cannot be ignored that President Trump encouraged this insurrection – both on social media ahead of January 6th, and in his speech that day,” Katko said. “By deliberately promoting baseless theories suggesting the election was somehow stolen, the president created a combustible environment of misinformation, disenfranchisement, and division. When this manifested in violent acts on January 6th, he refused to promptly and forcefully call it off, putting countless lives in danger.”

Shortly after Katko's announcement, Republican Representative Liz Cheney, the third-ranking House Republican, joined him.

About an hour after Katko shared his decision with syracuse.com, Cheney said she will vote to impeach Trump.

“The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said in a statement. “Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the president...There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

[Vermin93]

I feel a little dirty posting this one because it's probably only a hundred times more credible than the nonstop BS posted in the Q-spiracy thread, but it's too juicy not to post.

https://twitter.com/EamonJavers/stat...59360115707905

"A former senior Trump administration official tells me he believes there are enough Republican votes in the Senate to convict and remove President Trump if they get articles of impeachment from the House."

Wow...can you imagine if true? Doh!

[Kingfisher789]

WOW. KRAZy times. Keep looking up

[Vermin93]

Here's a beauty to close with this evening because it helps demonstrate what an absolute farce the Trump election fraud conspiracy was. Good for Trump, though. His "stop the steal" fundraising campaign raised hundreds of millions of dollars from fans who believed Trump's campaign was being honest with them. That was a pretty good get rich quick scheme.

So Trump had the U.S. attorney for Georgia resign on Jan 4th because he wouldn't investigate Georgia state officials over Trump's bogus claim of election fraud. Well, here's what Trump's new replacement just did. Priceless!

Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney in Georgia dismisses election fraud claims: ‘There’s just nothing to them’

The acting U.S. attorney for Northern Georgia, who was named after his predecessor reportedly angered President Trump for not finding election fraud, told staffers in a conference call Monday that he dismissed two election fraud cases on his first day.

“I would love to stand out on the street corner and scream this, and I can’t,” said Bobby Christine, according to an audio recording of the call obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“But I can tell you I closed the two most — I don’t know, I guess you’d call them high profile or the two most pressing election issues this office has,” he said. “I said I believe, as many of the people around the table believed, there’s just nothing to them.”

Christine also said he found fewer election-related investigations in the office than he expected.

“Quite frankly, just watching television you would assume that you got election cases stacked from the floor to the ceiling,” said Christine. “I am so happy to find out that’s not the case, but I didn’t know coming in.”

[CoolHandLuke]

Man...if only they protected small businesses from Antifa/BLM terrorists!

[Stuck]

Man...if only they protected small businesses from Antifa/BLM terrorists!

Small businesses, large businesses, lawyers behind gates in private neighborhoods, police precincts and several blocks around it.....

[Vermin93]

Late start tonight, but real news cannot rest.

T-minus 7 Trump days to go. One week left for Q Jesus to fulfill the QAnon prophecy and miraculously deliver Trump a 2nd term. Don't hold your breath...

We start tonight with inspiring comments from the co-founder of Home Depot, a heavy Republican donor and Trump supporter over the years, who finally came to his senses about Trump.

It looks like I'll be buying a new hot water heater from Home Depot this weekend. This is good stuff...let's roll!

‘I feel betrayed’ — Ken Langone blasts Trump and Capitol rioters, vows to support Biden

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/i-fe...n-support.html

Republican businessman Ken Langone on Wednesday blasted last week’s Capitol Hill riot, indicating on CNBC he felt “betrayed” by President Donald Trump’s actions that led up to the deadly events.

“I think the biggest mistake anybody is going to make is try and rationalize what happened last week, what the president did and what that crowd did,” Langone said on “Squawk Box.” “There should be no mitigation at all. It was horrible. It was wrong. I’m shocked.”

Trump’s supporters overtook the U.S. Capitol exactly one week ago in an effort to stop Congress from finalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s win in the Electoral College. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric and repeated lies about widespread fraud in the November election helped rile up his supporters and, at a speech in Washington, the president encouraged supporters who gathered in the city to march to the Capitol.

“I feel betrayed,” said Langone, who has been highly supportive of Trump’s economic policies over the years while also at times criticizing the president, such as for his response to the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

“Last Wednesday was a disgrace,” added Langone, the billionaire co-founder of Home Depot who has donated over the years to Republicans. “It should never have happened in this country. If it doesn’t break every American’s heart, something is wrong. It breaks my heart, for sure. I didn’t sign up for that.”

Langone, who serves as chairman of the board of NYU Langone Medical Center, urged Americans to rally behind Biden and ditch partisanship. “If there’s a time in history where all Americans need to be a patriot, this is that time,” he said.

“I’m going to do everything I can from Day One to make sure I do my part to make Joe Biden the most successful president in the history of this country,” Langone said. “There’s a selfish reason for that, we’ve got very serious major issues in American to deal with,” such as the coronavirus pandemic and public education.

[Vermin93]

One of my favorite patriots, retired USMC General John Kelly, confirmed what every reasonable person already knew about Trump. Nevertheless, this dangerous reality about Trump can't be emphasized enough -

'His manhood is at issue': Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly says president can't admit making mistake


https://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...nt/6645884002/

President Donald Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly told a Des Moines audience Tuesday that his former boss can’t admit to making a mistake because “his manhood is at issue here.”

“I don't understand it, although I had to deal with it every day," said Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who served as Trump’s top aide from July 31, 2017, until his Jan. 2, 2019, resignation...

..."The man does not ever, ever, ever want to appear weak ... or that he might have been wrong," said Kelly.

But, Kelly said, "great leaders, good leaders" have to sometimes admit they have made a mistake. "He doesn't have the ability to do that. His manhood is at issue here."...

...Kelly said he's concerned that national leaders, wrapped up in the "blood sport" of running for election, forget to do what's right for America.

"They're not bad people," he said. "They're just always running for re-election, so they have to demonize the other side — whatever the other side is — and point out the inequities."

"We have got to get to the point of looking very, very hard at who is running for office," Kelly said. "We need to look at their character, their record on integrity, morality ... then say, 'Now let's talk politics.'"

Kelly said Americans used to be able to civilly discuss political issues, even hotly contested ones like abortion.

Most Americans "wants the same thing" — a job, family and friends, opportunities for their kids and safety, Kelly said. "We a lot more in common with each other" than not.

[Vermin93]

Newly elected conspiracy nutcase Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene gets a well-deserved calling out. With the Republican Party currently dominated by conspiracy theorists, its extremists must have a light publicly shined on their dangerous, irrational behavior.

‘Depraved’: Rep. Jason Crow condemns Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s rhetoric ahead of impeachment vote

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/0...hetoric-458705

Rep. Jason Crow on Wednesday described Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her ideological colleagues as “depraved” and “dangerous” after Greene authored an incendiary tweet ahead of impeachment proceedings for President Donald Trump.

“There are, unfortunately, a handful of members of Congress — and Mrs. Taylor Greene is just one of them — who are morally bankrupt,” Crow (D-Colo.) told CNN in an interview. “They are depraved, and they’re frankly dangerous individuals.”

[Vermin93]

Fascinating article about Mike Pence...and how he helped save American Democracy and the Constitution from Trump at the last minute.

Mike Pence finally reached his limit with Donald Trump, and it wasn't pretty

https://www.firstpost.com/world/mike...y-9196691.html

Washington: For Vice-President Mike Pence, the moment of truth had arrived. After three years and 11 months of navigating the treacherous waters of President Donald Trump’s ego, after all the tongue-biting, pride-swallowing moments where he employed strategic silence or florid flattery to stay in his boss’ good graces, there he was being cursed by the president.

Trump was enraged that Pence was refusing to try to overturn the election. In a series of meetings, the president had pressed relentlessly, alternately cajoling and browbeating him. Finally, just before Pence headed to the Capitol to oversee the electoral vote count last Wednesday, Trump called the vice-president’s residence to push one last time.

“You can either go down in history as a patriot,” Trump told him, according to two people briefed on the conversation, “or you can go down in history as a (censored by V93).”

The blowup between the nation’s two highest elected officials then played out in dramatic fashion as the president publicly excoriated the vice-president at an incendiary rally and sent agitated supporters to the Capitol, where they stormed the building — some of them chanting “Hang Mike Pence.”

Evacuated to the basement, Pence huddled for hours while Trump tweeted out an attack on him rather than call to check on his safety.

It was an extraordinary rupture of a partnership that had survived too many challenges to count.

The loyal lieutenant who had almost never diverged from the president, who had finessed every other possible fracture, finally came to a decision point he could not avoid. He would uphold the election despite the president and despite the mob. And he would pay the price with the political base he once hoped to harness for his own run for the White House.

“Pence had a choice between his constitutional duty and his political future, and he did the right thing,” said John Yoo, a legal scholar consulted by Pence’s office. “I think he was the man of the hour in many ways — for both Democrats and Republicans. He did his duty even though he must have known, when he did it, that that probably meant he could never become president.”...

...Unlike Trump, Pence plans to attend Biden’s inauguration, then expects to divide time between Washington and Indiana, possibly starting a leadership political committee, writing a book and campaigning for congressional Republicans.

But no matter what comes next, he will always be remembered for one moment.

“We’re very lucky that the vice-president isn’t a maniac,” said Joe Grogan, Trump’s domestic policy advisor until last year. “In many ways, I think it vindicates the decision of Mike Pence to hang in there this long.”

[Vermin93]

It's pretty clear GOP congressional leadership is done with Trump, MAGA conspiracies and QAnon craziness. It's about time.

Video in link below of McCarthy ripping MAGA and QAnon conspiracy beliefs.

McCarthy Says Trump ‘Bears Responsibility’ for Capitol Riot, Advocates Censure Instead of Impeachment

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/...f-impeachment/

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) on Wednesday blamed President Trump for the riots on Capitol Hill, but advocated a formal censure instead of impeachment.

House Democrats are currently attempting to impeach the president for “incitement of insurrection,” after Trump urged a mob of his supporters to amass at the Capitol during the congressional certification of the election results. The mob subsequently breached the building, forcing lawmakers to evacuate. Dozens of police officers were injured in the riots, including one who later died of his injuries.

“Some say the riots were caused by Antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that. And conservatives should be the first to say so,” McCarthy said during the House debate on impeachment on Wednesday. “The President bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”

While Trump has repeatedly claimed that Democrats “stole” the election, McCarthy pushed back on that position on Wednesday, after he supported objections to certifying election results on January 6.

“Joe Biden will be sworn in as president of the United States in one week because he won the election,” McCarthy said.

However, McCarthy opposed impeaching Trump.

“I believe impeaching the president in such a short time frame would be a mistake,” McCarthy said. “A vote to impeach would further divide this nation.” The president’s actions should be condemned with “a fact-finding commission, and a censure resolution.”

[Vermin93]

Ha! It looks like Rudy Giuliani is getting what he deserves for conspiring with the liars and conspiracists...stiffed by the world's biggest cheat, lol!

Trump Is Isolated and Angry

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...33d_story.html

When Donald Trump on Wednesday became the first president ever impeached twice, he did so as a leader increasingly isolated, sullen and vengeful...

...With less than seven days remaining in his presidency, Trump’s inner circle is shrinking, offices in his White House are emptying, and the president is lashing out at some of those who remain. He is angry that his allies have not mounted a more forceful defense of his incitement of the mob that stormed the Capitol last week...

...Though Trump has been exceptionally furious with Vice President Pence, his relationship with lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his most steadfast defenders, is also fracturing… Trump has instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/u...itol-riot.html

During the day, Mr. Trump periodically watched the impeachment debate in the House and told advisers he was furious with Mr. McConnell and felt blindsided by him. Yet his deeper anger was at the House minority leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, for publicly condemning him, people close to him said.

His relationship with his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, who encouraged him to believe conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud, has frayed, one adviser said. The president was offended by Mr. Giuliani’s request for $20,000 a day to represent him in the election fight, which Mr. Giuliani denied making but which was in writing, and told aides not to pay him at all, an adviser to Mr. Trump said, confirming a report by The Washington Post.