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‘Trump said I could’: One possible legal defense for accused rioters

Federal agents spent the weekend arresting people around the nation who were allegedly part of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday after President Donald Trump urged a crowd to “fight like hell” to overturn the election results. But many of those charged with crimes for their alleged roles in the riot can thus plausibly raise what is known as the “public authority” defense – arguing, essentially, that Trump gave them permission to do what they did.

Here’s how it works. Suppose the chief of police in a town told you that you could ignore a “no parking” sign and park in an otherwise forbidden place. Suppose also that you relied on his word and parked in that place. Then, later, suppose a police officer handed you a parking ticket. You’d have a defense. Specifically, you could point your finger at the authority figure who invited you to commit the illegal act. The spotlight then turns to the authority figure: Did the chief of police have the authority to waive the parking restriction? If not, was it reasonable for you to believe that he did? Did you have reason to know that you shouldn’t park there, even if he told you that you should?

Each day, more evidence emerges that Trump and other elected officials instigated this riot. The rioters were lured to Washington with Trump’s promise that the day would “be wild.” At the rally, Rudy Giuliani – Trump’s lawyer and close adviser – called for “trial by combat.” Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., told the crowd to “take names and kick ass.” Trump told the crowd, “When you catch somebody in a fraud, you’re allowed to go by very different rules.”

Journalists on the scene reported that the rioters were primed and ready for “action,” and many believed they should kill Vice President Pence. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gave the crowd the sign of a power fist on his way into the Capitol for the joint session of Congress that the riot disrupted. After repeatedly telling his supporters to take action, Trump said, “We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’re going to the Capitol. We going to try to give our Republicans, the weak ones . . . the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.” When the crowd arrived at the Capitol, the guards opened the door and let them in. Trump went back to the White House and watched the coverage. He was reportedly elated. That the rioters genuinely believed they were acting at the direction of the appropriate authority figures explains their mood as they posted selfies and bragged about what they were doing on social media. If you think of yourself as a soldier doing the bidding of the commander in chief, you don’t try to hide your actions. You assume you will be held up as a hero by the nation. The public authority defense is commonly used and well-known to defense lawyers. In the defining case, United States v. Tallmadge, a federally licensed gun dealer informed the defendant that his circumstances fit into an exception to the prohibition against felons owning firearms. The defendant relied on the dealer’s word and purchased the firearm. The court found that licensed firearm dealers are federal agents for gathering and dispensing information about the purchase of firearms. It was reasonable, therefore, for the defendant to rely on the dealer’s word. The defendant was thus found not guilty.

To take another example, in 2007, 12 residents of Sacramento and Fresno, Calif., were accused of plotting to overthrow the communist government of Laos. The U.S. attorney’s office dropped the charges after one of us, Mark Reichel, representing the defendants, pointed to evidence that they were lured into the conspiracy by an undercover federal agent posing as a CIA officer. The defendants reasonably believed they were acting at the urging of the American government and therefore wouldn’t be found guilty of entering a criminal conspiracy. The public authority defense doesn’t necessarily mean the rioters are off the hook: They can still be arrested, charged and brought to trial. But depending on the circumstances, a defense like this one can mitigate or even eliminate their culpability or lessen their punishment. The availability of this defense also makes it more likely that the instigators – including Trump – will face prosecution. After all, how would it look to a jury if the people who incited the failed insurrection go free, while the victims of lies and disinformation pay the price? Such an outcome is offensive to the idea of fairness and equal justice for all.

The lies maliciously and deliberately spread by Republican leaders were a direct cause of the riots. They told people that there was widespread fraud in the election, although they knew this was not true. Their victims may not have understood that judges were throwing these cases out of court because there was no evidence, but the lawyers representing the president and someone like Hawley – a graduate of Yale Law School – certainly did.

Many of the instigators of the riot – and many who spread the lies that sparked it – are now issuing carefully worded statements condemning the violence. This kind of doublespeak (instigate a riot and then disavow the resulting violence) may work in right-wing media outlets, but it should not work in a court of law, where facts still matter. Given how tenaciously some Republicans are still clinging to their right to spread lies – even now, many Republican leaders are insisting that fraud in the 2020 election was widespread – it is perhaps too much to hope that the shocking example of how these lies led to the desecration and defilement of the Capitol Building will stop them. What it may take to stop them – and deter others from spreading lies – will be seeing their names dragged into a criminal trial as part of a defense, which in turn, shines the spotlight on them. Maybe they don’t care that their lies have deadly consequences. But they probably will care about their own criminal liability. Nick Note: For over 30 years i have been giving you economic and political commentary. At no time even once have i ever advocated violence. I have been adamant that you must be OFF the radar screen  nolo contendere.  It may  be politically correct but black white battle lines are being drawn. The poor ghetto blacks against the poor whites. Poverty in the black inner cites of America is a epidemic. This is the Black Lives Matter recruiting grounds. More blacks have been killed by other blacks then have been killed by the police, KKK or white on black violence. In the factory towns, blue collar workers and farms is where white poverty comes from. If we take a population pole of the MAGA zealots, we find they are from the poorest white rust belt factory towns and poor rural states like Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and West Virgins. And to the man, women, he, she  trans gender and  its they also share extremely low education levels and are ethnocentrics. What is exasperating the problem is the pandemic that is increasing world poverty and these poorer populations are infected and affected the most.The populations despots have always pandered to.

 

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Trump insurrection – Invoking 25th Amendment ‘would cause huge uprising’ and ‘armed protests before inauguration: FBI’

A bulletin, obtained by ABC, apparently confirming that the law enforcement agency has received reports of an armed group planning to travel to DC on January 16. The group has reportedly warned that “if Congress attempts to remove Potus via the 25th Amendment, a huge uprising will occur.” The bulletin also details that armed protests are being planned in all 50 state Capitols, with protests at the US Capitol reportedly planned from January 17 through January 20. The reported first day of travel will take place just four days before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. However, both Democrats and some Republicans calling for Trump to be ousted, the effectiveness of doing so has been doubted because it is unlikely he removed from the White House before January 20. Any impeachment in the House would trigger a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, which is scheduled to be in recess until January 19 and has already acquitted Trump once before. As a result, Trump could likely not be removed from office until after he was already replaced in the White House by Biden. The removal push has also been slammed by some Congressional colleagues. Republican Rep Ken Buck, along with six other GOP House members, wrote a letter to Biden in hopes he could put a stop to Pelosi’s impeachment efforts. The letter, which Buck shared to Twitter, reads: “A second impeachment, only days before President Trump will leave office, is as unnecessary as it is inflammatory. “This impeachment would undermine our priority of unifying Americans and would be a further distraction to our nation at a time when millions of our fellow citizens are hurting because of the pandemic and economic fallout.” Senator Pat Toomey said he doubted impeachment could be done before Biden is inaugurated, even though lawmakers said that step is necessary to ensure Trump can never hold elected office again. “I think the president has disqualified himself from ever, certainly, serving in office again,” Toomey said. “I don’t think he is electable in any way.” Senator Marco Rubio slammed that instead of coming together, Democrats want to “talk about ridiculous things like ‘Let’s impeach a president’” with just days left in office. Despite the criticisms, the House formally introduced impeachment legislation on Monday and a vote is set to take place mid-week. The Insurrection Act gives the President the power to deploy the military and federal forces across the US. It was originally passed in 1807 by Congress. They created the Act to allow the President to use US armed troops and federalised National Guard troops inside its own borders. However it can only be used to suppress revolutions against the government and prevent civil disorder. It has never been imposed in the United States on a nationwide basis. A House resolution calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke constitutional authority to remove Trump from office was blocked by Republicans. However, the full House is set to hold a roll call vote on that resolution on Tuesday, and it is expected to pass. After that, Pelosi said Pence will have 24 hours to respond. Next, the House would proceed to impeachment. A vote could come Wednesday. During an interview with 60 Minutes’, host Lesley Stahl put it to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that if “there’s no punishment, no consequence, and he could run again for president”. The House Speaker replied “that’s one of the motivations that people have for advocating for impeachment.” The calls to remove Trump from office came just days after hundreds of unruly protesters took charge at the Capitol building. Trump supporters scaled the walls of the Capitol building, breached barricades, and advanced into the halls of the iconic building, smashing windows and brawling with cops. The Capitol, in Washington DC, was placed under lockdown as a result, as rioters entered the second-floor lobby of the building right outside the Senate chamber. With drawn guns and tear gas, police sought to clear the Capitol building of hundreds of protesters who stormed the building and sought to force Congress to undo Trump’s election loss as lawmakers convened to certify Biden’s victory. Security officers in dark suits drew their pistols and trained them on the shouting mob trying to smash their way through the door of the normally sedate House of Representatives chamber. Five people have so far died as a result of the violence, while others remain in critical condition in hospital. Experts have since warned that a small minority of Trump-supporting activists are calling for more demonstrations ahead of Biden’s inauguration. And on Saturday evening, a post was added to Parler, a social media site that has often proved to be a favorite of MAGA supporters. While the majority of Trump supports have condemned last weeks violence in Washington, some extremists are still trying to stir up trouble. The post urged people to attend a proposed march on Capitol Hill and state capitol buildings on January 17. Nick Note: yawN

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The world has already applied 25 million doses of vaccines against Covid-19

The biggest vaccination campaign in history has begun. More than 25 million doses in 42 countries have been administered, according to data collected by Bloomberg. Delivering billions more will be one of the greatest logistical challenges ever undertaken. Vaccinations in the U.S. began Dec. 14 with health-care workers, and so far 8.02 million doses have been given, according to a state-by-state tally by Bloomberg and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 272,429 people have completed the two-dose vaccination regimen. The U.S. rollout fell short of federal projections as vaccinations proceeded unevenly across the states. The initial round of shots through early January has been doled out primarily through hospitals and other institutional health-care settings. The next phase will draw more on pharmacies and health clinics—places where vaccines are more traditionally administered—and will broaden the pool of people eligible to get the shots. The U.S. is managing state allocations of Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine,  as well as Moderna’s shot, with the goal of getting 20 million doses distributed by early January. Both vaccines require two doses taken several weeks apart. The second doses are being held in reserve until they’re ready to be administered.

U.S. Vaccine Campaign

Jurisdiction Doses distributed Doses administered % shots used
U.S. totals 22,137,350 8,017,552 36.2
Texas 1,833,350 752,324 41.0
California 2,315,325 734,405 31.7
Florida 1,355,775 596,735 44.0
New York 1,208,900 554,683 45.9
Federal Entities 1,172,000 336,578 28.7
Ohio 646,450 297,013 45.9
Pennsylvania 812,550 265,191 32.6
Illinois 769,700 234,051 30.4
Tennessee 458,100 215,427 47.0
Colorado 381,775 200,877 52.6
New Jersey 572,250 200,204 35.0
Michigan 662,550 195,240 29.5
North Carolina 649,150 184,982 28.5
Virginia 556,625 177,945 32.0
Georgia 687,425 167,057 24.3
Washington 518,550 151,856 29.3
Massachusetts 449,625 151,430 33.7
Arizona 453,875 148,292 32.7
Maryland 371,425 142,402 38.3
Note: Data gathered from government websites, official statements and Bloomberg interviews

Global Effort to Stop Covid

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has now been cleared for use across North America, Europe and the Middle East, and vaccination campaigns have begun in at least 42 countries. That shot and the vaccine from Moderna were both found to reduce coronavirus infections by 95% in trials of tens of thousands of volunteers. A vaccine by AstraZeneca Plc and University of Oxford got its first major authorization, by the U.K., on Dec. 30. China has also cleared Sinopharm’s vaccine for general use, with the goal of vaccinating 50 million people there by early February. Other countries got a head start on vaccinations. China and Russia authorized their own shots in July and August, before they’d been fully tested. Since then, the countries have administered millions of doses, though they provide less frequent updates on their progress. With the start of the global vaccination campaign, countries have experienced unequal access to vaccines and varying degrees of efficiency in getting shots into people’s arms. Israel’s rate of innoculations dwarfs the efforts of other nations, with 20.1 doses administered for every 100 people. Most countries haven’t yet given their first shots.

Global Vaccination Campaign

Country No. of doses administered Per 100 people Last updated
Global total 25,839,924 – Jan. 10
China 9,000,000 0.64 Jan. 08
U.S. 8,017,552 2.44 Jan. 10
U.K. 2,000,000 2.99 Jan. 10
Israel 1,817,000 20.08 Jan. 10
U.A.E. 1,086,568 10.11 Jan. 10
Russia* 800,000 0.55 Jan. 02
Italy 627,946 1.04 Jan. 10
Germany 532,878 0.64 Jan. 09
Canada 314,492 0.84 Jan. 10
Spain 277,976 0.60 Jan. 08
Poland 200,022 0.53 Jan. 10
Saudi Arabia 130,000 0.38 Jan. 07
Denmark 114,926 1.98 Jan. 10
Romania 108,294 0.56 Jan. 10
Argentina 107,542 0.24 Jan. 08
France 93,000 0.14 Jan. 09
Bahrain 89,250 6.01 Jan. 10
Portugal 70,000 0.68 Jan. 08
Mexico 67,468 0.05 Jan. 08

Nations have poured billions of dollars into developing new vaccine technologies, testing them in thousands of volunteers, scaling up manufacturing, and then bringing them to market in record time. None of these shots, on its own, is enough to inoculate a global population of some 7.8 billion people. But together they represent humanity’s best chance of ending a scourge that has claimed more than 1.9 million lives and triggered global economic calamity. Nick Note: Talk to your health care professional and get the freeging vaccine. We have a safety record of tens of millions of people. Look at your risk to reward and think carefully

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Making Building Ventilation Good Enough to Withstand a Pandemic

Here’s what it takes to upgrade HVAC systems — and how to know if particular indoor spaces have done it.

In October, students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, held an intimate jazz concert at a bar downtown, with an audience of about 20 peers and faculty members — all of whom held digital passes indicating they’d recently tested negative for Covid-19. Two jazz ensembles performed, sometimes with masks and coverings for their instruments, and other times without. Behind the scenes, mechanical engineering professor Ty Newell tinkered with the airflow, turning the exhaust and recirculation fans on and off at different points during the night. His students monitored for changes in the air quality, using a special instrument to measure the concentrations of carbon dioxide and fine particulate matter, both key to determining if a building is well ventilated. The experiment sought to highlight the significance of proper ventilation, something that Newell said hadn’t been paid enough attention, until now. As evidence suggesting Covid-19 can spread through aerosol transmission continues to mount, health experts are focused less on sanitizing surfaces and more on improving indoor air quality. In December, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finally put out its ventilation recommendations to combat Covid-19, based on standards set by ASHRAE, or the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers. Experts like Newell say the investment is worth it. It will be the key to a safe and healthy return to offices and schools, even with the rollout of Covid vaccines, he says. New disease outbreaks are expected to crop up in the future, and “apart from the pandemic, having an improved filter also gets other particulates out of the air that impact your health — these very fine particulates that easily go way down into your lung,” he says. “Only good things happen when you bring in more fresh air,” including a potential increase in productivity and academic performance.

Improving ventilation typically involves some combination of letting in more fresh air, upgrading air filtration systems and installing technologies like UV light to kill those pathogens. 

The human nose may be able to smell the stagnant air of a very poorly ventilated room, but patrons or employees may not always know if a building is well-ventilated enough to affect tiny particles like the coronavirus.  For a typical office building, current ASHRAE standards recommend 20 cubic feet of outdoor air per minute (cfm) per person, and experts like Sasse recommend that a room’s air should be replaced three to five times per hour. But the proper ventilation and air change rates vary depending on building size, occupancy and use.

One of the best ways to know is to measure the concentration of CO2 in each room or part of a building, he says, because it shows the amount of exhaled air that has built up in the room without enough fresh air to flush it out. C02 levels should register no more than 800 parts per million. “If you see [a place with] levels much above 800 ppm, don’t spend much time in there,” Newell advises.

But that measurement requires specific technology. Ideally, Newell would like everyone to carry a CO2 meter in their pockets, but those instruments can cost upwards of $100.

But it’s important to acknowledge that while ventilation helps mitigate your chances of contracting Covid-19, the risk is rarely zero.

For building managers implementing these upgrades, Sasse also advises clients to switch to higher-rated filters. Many HVAC systems in commercial and residential buildings use filters with MERV 8 ratings (for minimum efficiency reporting value), but the CDC recommends using MERV 13 filters, which can remove up to 90% of air particles, or a  HEPA filter (for high efficiency particulate air) — what’s typically used by medical facilities. “A true HEPA filter is MERV 16, but not all systems can handle bigger filters because of the pressure they require,” Sasse says. More energy will be needed to heat and cool the additional amount of incoming air and to push existing air through denser filters. In some cases, HVAC systems may be too old to accommodate CDC-recommended changes, which would then require them to be replaced completely. “We’re sacrificing energy efficiency for health,” Sasse says.  The payoff would be immediate, he says, pointing to a 2000 study from Harvard University looking at how air quality affected the use of sick leave among more than 3,000 employees across 40 buildings. The researchers found that office workers in moderately ventilated sections were 53% percent more likely than those in highly ventilated areas to take time off due to illness. Preventing those absences could save companies $480 per worker each year, according to the study, and as much as $22.8 billion nationally. Nick Note: this is not hard… We suck in air from the outside. We filter it though a ULPA filter, charcoal filter AND a HEPA filter. then the air flows through a HIGH intensity UV light. we exchange the air constantly and suck it out of the house onto the roof. We monitor Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen levels. This is cheap and easy to do. And i do not exchange air with people outside my bubble daughters and millennial’s included. We visit through plexiglass. Sound extreme.Not to me. I call extreme gasping for air through a 2 inch plastic tube hooked up to a ventilator. That is if the trainee nurse has figured out how to use it yet. Or falls a sleep from exhausting. The body bags and 40 foot refer containers are filling up for some reason… DAH!

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Mutant coronavirus strain is more contagious as it replicates in the throat, say experts

The mutant coronavirus strain ripping through the country is more contagious because it replicates in the throat, scientists have said. The strain, is reportedly 70 per cent more transmissible than the original, and one of the reasons why England was plunged into a third national lockdown. But experts say evidence shows why it is jumping from one person to the next, is down to the throat of an infected person. A Public Health England and Birmingham University study has revealed that around 35 per cent of patients infected by the mutant strain had very high levels of covid in their samples. The swabs are taken from the back of the throat and nose and the authors of the study said high viral loads on these swabs are linked to more severe cases of Covid-19. Michael Kidd study leader, said the evidence could help scientists investigate how the variant makes more copies of itself in each person it infects. B ut the good news is, according to Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, if you’ve already had coronavirus, you are probably immune to the new strain. At a Downing Street press televised press conference earlier this week, he said: “What we know is that the 22 changes in the genetic code made the virus more transmissible. The experts said that it was “hard to determine” exactly why this variant spreads more rapidly. “But as far as we can see it doesn’t make it hidden from the immune system so if you had an infection before, the evidence is that you probably neutralise this virus as well. “The expectation is the same for the vaccine. Nick Note: Every country this mutant strain of the coronations has struck eventually goes into complete lock down. All i can say America batters up.

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In California, ICUs and morgues are filling up

Southern California is so overwhelmed with coronavirus cases that patients are backed up trying to get into hospitals, and bodies get stuck in another logjam once they leave. At one hospital in Orange County, ambulances loaded with patients are lining up outside waiting for space in the intensive care unit, and COVID-19 patients fill the emergency room hallway.

In other hard-hit areas like nearby Los Angeles County, where people are dying of the disease at the rate of one every eight minutes, refrigerated trailers will be brought in to provide extra storage capacity for bodies.

Dr Jim Keany is an ER doctor at Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo:”What happens is when we get filled up with COVID patients, we can’t take care of the community in general. And that’s our concern as we do fill up. So what we’re seeing is we become overwhelmed with COVID patients, every bed is full, every nurse and doctor is occupied taking care of COVID patients. And then we struggle to service the community for standard emergencies.”

Despite strict stay-at-home measures that were set across most of the state last month, California, the most populous state with nearly 40 million people, leads the United States with nearly 2.6 million COVID-19 cases, over a million more than the next state, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

Its death toll of more than 28,000 trails only those of New York and Texas.Orange County officials had previously allowed hospitals to divert patients elsewhere when they were full, but now that virtually all the hospitals have reached capacity that policy has been rescinded. Dr. Robert Goldberg is a pulmonary and critical care physician at Providence Mission:”The issue now is that there’s so many patients coming in that we don’t have the time like we had before. So it’s good that we have the experience now and we’re able to treat these patients, but the numbers of patients that are coming in is becoming overwhelming.”Dr. Goldberg appealed to the public to help reduce the spread.

“COVID is real. It’s life threatening. People of all ages are dying. We need to work together. We need to get through this together. We need to wear masks, socially, isolate, get the vaccine when it’s available and at some point we’ll get this under control and move on. But we all need to do this together.” Nick Note: Excuse me…i call this things out of control. I would love letting them blow more blue sky up my ass. But my asshole is all filled up and running over. So here is a reality check. Less then 5% of the population has been vaccinated. It will be at least mid 2022 before the majority of the population is vaccinated, And by then it will be time for booster shots and play it again SAM.  So as they run out of space to stack your fellow boomers bodies  shut off the blue sky pump. Reality check…. this is the slaughter of the baby boomers, So lets you and i get EXTREME and survive!!!

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Dems to introduce article of impeachment against Trump on Monday

Several Democrats and at least one Republican lawmaker have urged President Donald Trump to resign following the US Capitol violence

California Congressman Ted Lieu said Saturday that he hoped Vice President Mike Pence would invoke the 25th amendment or Democrats would introduce an article of impeachment against US President Donald Trump on Monday. “All of us, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will prefer that Donald Trump simply do the right thing and resign, or that Vice President Mike Pence actually shows some spine, at least for himself and his own family and invoke the 25th amendment,” the Democrat told CNN. The 25th amendment can be enacted if the US president is unable to execute the duties of his office. “If none of that happens, then on Monday, we will introduce the article of impeachment, which is incitement to insurrection, and we do expect a floor vote this coming week,” Lieu added. Lieu tweeted Saturday that there were 180 co-sponsors of the article of impeachment, although it looked far from
certain whether enough Republicans would back the move with just days left in his term. “There will be Republicans who do vote for it,” he insisted, adding that he is in talks with some Republicans to co-sponsor the resolution. Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey said he believed Trump committed “impeachable offenses.” The high-ranking Republican did not say whether he would vote in favor of impeachment. “I do think the president committed impeachable offenses, but I don’t know what is going to land on the Senate floor, if anything,” Toomey told American broadcaster Fox News on Saturday. Democratic President-elect Joe Biden has not taken a position on Trump’s impeachment, saying he will leave it to
Congress to decide. Trump, who is scheduled to leave office on January 20, has received sharp criticism following the violence in and around the US Capitol building on Wednesday. Trump has been accused of inciting the violence, by addressing a large rally on the National Mall in front of the US Capitol, saying he would join them when they “walk down to the Capitol” earlier that day. Since losing the Nov. 3 election, Trump has falsely claimed he was the victim of widespread fraud. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told American broadcaster CBS in an interview that will air Sunday that “the person that’s running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States.”  Nick Note: This will get no traction. But they will have fun anyway!

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Dow, S&P 500 rebound to all-time highs after Biden demands trillions of dollars in aid

  • US stocks closed at record highs on Friday after President-elect Joe Biden demanded trillions of dollars in immediate further fiscal support following the weaker-than-expected jobs report. 
  • American businesses shed 140,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, missing consensus economist estimates that foresaw 50,000 job additions.
  • US stocks closed at record highs on Friday to finish out the first week of trading in 2021. After the market reversed lower mid-day, stocks recovered as President-elect Joe Biden demanded for trillions of dollars in immediate further fiscal support, citing the weaker-than-expected jobs report. The Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 closed at record highs. President-elect Biden called for increasing direct payments to individuals after the US saw payrolls drop for the first time since April. American businesses shed 140,000 nonfarm payrolls last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. The reading is weaker than consensus economist estimates that foresaw 50,000 job additions, according to Bloomberg data.  Nick Note: as you seeing this market is a bugger. And i do buggers. Hopefully i can continue to “guess” lucky. This rally to new highs was as obvious as the tattoo on Becky’s ass. It was a coup attempt pure and simple. And it failed and in the coming weeks most of the people we know will scratch their ass and figure it out!
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Pentagon limited D.C. National Guard before pro-Trump protests

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon  limited the District of Columbia National Guard ahead of pro-Trump protests this week, trying to ensure the use of military force remained constrained, as the Guard carried out a narrow, unarmed mission requested by the city’s mayor to help handle traffic before planned protests. In memos issued Monday and Tuesday in response to a request from the D.C. mayor, the Pentagon prohibited the city’s guardsmen from receiving ammunition or riot gear, interacting with protesters unless necessary for self-defense, sharing equipment with local law enforcement, or using Guard surveillance and air assets without the defense secretary’s approval, according to officials familiar with the orders. The limits were established because the Guard had not been asked to assist with crowd or riot control.

The D.C. Guard was also told it would be allowed to deploy a quick reaction force only as a measure of last resort, the officials said.

Then, the mission abruptly changed – and the Pentagon is now facing criticism from governors and local officials for the speed with which it sent National Guard troops to respond, criticism its leaders rebutted Thursday. The Capitol Police, the law enforcement force that reports to Congress and protects the House and Senate, had not requested help from the Guard before Wednesday’s events.

But early Wednesday afternoon, its chief made an urgent plea for backup from 200 troops during a call with top Pentagon and city officials, according to officials familiar with the call.

On the call, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was asked whether he wanted help from the National Guard. “There was a pause,” one of the D.C. officials said. And Sund said yes. “Then, there was another pause, and an official from the [office of the] secretary of the Army said that wasn’t going to be possible.” The Army official – who was speaking on behalf of the secretary of the Army, who was de facto commanding the D.C. Guard but was not on the call – said the “optics” of soldiers in the Capitol was not something they wanted, the two city officials said. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, confirmed that account in an interview with The Washington Post, saying Capitol Police “made it perfectly clear that they needed extraordinary help, including the National Guard. There was some concern from the Army of what it would look like to have armed military personnel on the grounds of the Capitol.” One concern was whether the Army had been invited by Congress. A U.S. defense official said the Army general on the call did not formally deny the request but rather reinforced the negative optics of having uniformed personnel in the Capitol, a point on which Bowser had agreed, and later checked with the chain of command. The defense official said Bowser agreed that if further support was necessary, D.C. police would provide it in the Capitol, and that the Guard would backfill D.C. police positions away from the building.The defense official said the military wanted to be the force of last resort, and military officials had urged Bowser to request more support from federal law enforcement, but she did not do so until Wednesday.

Higher-up leaders at the Pentagon then evaluated the request and activated the full D.C. Guard, in addition to later calling the governors of other states to send their Guard forces as reinforcements. The officials also lifted limits on the Guard for the new mission, arming guardsmen with riot gear, but not guns, before they headed to create a perimeter around the Capitol.

In the roughly three hours it took the Pentagon to make the shift from traffic policing to full-fledged riot response, the Capitol Police found themselves overwhelmed and rioters stormed the building, forcing lawmakers to take cover and barricade themselves in their offices.

The Pentagon left it to federal law enforcement to clear the Capitol of the rioters, amid the hesitancy about sending Guard units into the building itself. By the evening, Guard units helped the Capitol Police and federal and city law enforcement reestablish a perimeter around the building.

By Thursday, National Guard forces from across the Mid-Atlantic region were moving into the Washington area.

On Thursday afternoon, 24 hours after the Capitol breach, acting defense secretary Christopher Miller called the violence “reprehensible and contrary to the tenets of the United States Constitution.”

“I, and the people I lead in the Department of Defense, continue to perform our duties in accordance with our oath of office, and will execute the time-honored peaceful transition of power to President-elect Biden on January 20,” he said in a statement.

Images of rioters overpowering a light law enforcement force and smashing their way into the Capitol building prompted immediate questions about how such a dramatic security breakdown could occur, especially given that rioters had openly voiced their intent to use violence on social media.

One contributing factor: As the seriousness of the threat became clear, the jumble of jurisdictions and command structures made it more difficult to respond with speed.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy, who functions as de facto commander of the D.C. National Guard on behalf of the president, because D.C. is not a state, said 6,200 troops would be positioned in and around the city by the weekend, including Guard forces from Pennsylvania, New York and other nearby states.

The president’s power over the D.C. Guard is delegated to the defense secretary, then the Army secretary, who makes command decisions. It is therefore up to the Pentagon leadership to call state governors if the D.C. Guard needs reinforcement.

McCarthy said officials did not in their “wildest imagination” envision rioters breaching Capitol grounds. City leadership had asked the Guard to carry out only a narrow mission, defense officials noted.   Trump egged on supporters in an address outside the White House, falsely insisting that the election was fraudulent and urging the crowd to fight to keep him in office. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said he received a call from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who said he was in a secure location with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

“I was actually on the phone with Leader Hoyer, who was pleading with us to send the guard,” Hogan said. “He was yellling across the room to Schumer and they were back and forth saying we do have the authorization, and I’m saying, ‘I’m telling you we do not have the authorization.’ “

Ninety minutes later, Hogan said, he received a call “out of the blue, not from the secretary of defense, not through what would be normal channels,” but from McCarthy, who asked whether the Maryland guardsmen could “come as soon as possible.”

“It was like, yeah, we’re waiting, we’re ready,” said Hogan, who had already sent 200 State Police troopers at Bowser’s request. Virginia sent in its guardsmen after Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, received a call from Pelosi asking for help.

Clark Mercer, Northam’s chief of staff, said he received a call from his counterpart in Bowser’s office, who suggested that the Defense Department was not moving fast enough and asked for Virginia to send in its Guard.

Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said the governor called up the Guard immediately after talking with Bowser, knowing it would take some time for guardsmen to prepare. The Northam administration worked with the Defense Department after the fact and reached the necessary agreements before guardsmen crossed state lines, she said. The governor’s office publicly announced that he had called up the Guard at 3:29 p.m. Nick Note: I want to be crystal clear here. President Trump announced a surprise was coming, rallied his supporters to come to Washington the day the combined house and Senate would certify the Election of Dissident Biden. He rallied his supporters and sent the Mob on a mission of insurrection to STOP the democratic process. It is a coup pure and simple. It was the Trump administration and new appointments to the pentagon and department of defense who originally did not respond to reporting a mob of 200,000 nut cases were coming to Washington. And to further the conspiracy did not send troops in to protects the capital or rescue congresswomen and senators who were hiding in safe rooms. The coup attempted failed when other states surrounding DC sent in their national guard eliments. When Trump officials saw the coup failed then and only then did they authorize Federal troops. Trump should be charged with treason.

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Official describes the president as a ‘total monster’ who refused to act as Congress was stormed

  • As a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, President Donald Trump defended the insurrectionists to White House aides, an administration official told The Washington Post.
  • The unnamed official quoted Trump as repeatedly saying “my people are peaceful” and “my people aren’t thugs” and added that the president was reluctant to condemn them.
  • According to The Post, aides were astonished at Trump’s slow response to the violence, with the official calling the president a “total monster.”
  • While aides eventually persuaded Trump to record a video, he apparently went against their wishes and ad-libbed sections of the speech, continuing to push the false claim that he won the 2020 election.

President Donald Trump privately defended his supporters as they stormed the Capitol on Wednesday and contradicted aides by ad-libbing parts of the recorded speech in which he told rioters to go home, The Washington Post reported. As Trump supporters raided the Capitol during a joint session of Congress, the president defended their actions back at the White House, an administration official told The Post. “He kept saying: ‘The vast majority of them are peaceful. What about the riots this summer? What about the other side? No one cared when they were rioting. My people are peaceful. My people aren’t thugs,’ ” the unnamed official said, referring to the unrest last summer tied to the Black Lives Matter movement. “He didn’t want to condemn his people.” “He was a total monster today,” the official added, saying it was a worse day than when Trump defended the people who took part in the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. According to The Post, aides were astonished that Trump was so slow to respond to the violence and so combative toward efforts to get him to address the situation publicly. “He didn’t want to say anything or do anything to rise to the moment,” the official told the newspaper. “He’s so driven by this notion that he’s been treated unfairly that he can’t see the bigger picture.” The Post said Trump refused aides’ requests for him to call in to Fox News. He eventually posted a recorded video on Twitter in which he told protesters to go home. Politico noted that the release of that video came about 2 1/2 hours after rioters first stormed the Capitol. But the president went off-script while delivering remarks for that video, going against aides’ wishes to continue the false claim that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him, The Post reported. In the video, Trump told his supporters: “This was a fraudulent election, but we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you; you’re very special.” That video helped get him temporarily locked out of Twitter. Twitter said Trump had removed the tweets that led to his suspension from the platform and that the president would get his account back after a 12-hour block. A joint session of Congress confirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory at about 3:30 a.m. ET on Thursday. The session was disrupted by Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol — with lawmakers evacuated and told to wear gas masks — but resumed at about 8 p.m. Wednesday after the Capitol was secured. Nick Note: The capital police had called for Military back up which is often given during demonstrations. But NEW Trump appointees at the Department of Defense refused saying they did not want the American public to see uniformed military on the streets. Military assistance was not granted until the Capital was controlled during the insurrection by Trumps supporters  for over 3 hours.