JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
2020 AMERICAN ELECTION RESULTS BY STATE TRUMP VS LOSER LIBERAL SLEEPY (SLOPPY JOE) BIDEN.
ON D-71 OF THE TRUMP WIN OF THE PRESIDENCY. MON JAN 11, 21.
Key dates for the Electoral College and what they mean-AEIdeas-DECEMBER 14,20
What are the key dates for the workings of the Electoral College?
November 3 — Election Day
Election
Day is November 3. We may or may not know the winner of the
presidential contest on election night, but we certainly will not have a
final tally and certified results until weeks later. States vary widely
in the time they allot for certifying their election results. Some may
give a final certification the week after Election Day. Others may take
over 30 days. And there is the possibility of recounts and judicial
contests of elections which could extend the time to determine an
official winner of a state.
Ballots are passed out to 16 Electors on
the Michigan Senate floor for them to cast their formal votes for the
president and vice president of the United States in Lansing, Michigan,
U.S., December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
December 8 — Safe Harbor
December 14 — The meeting of the Electors
Two
key dates loom in December. On December 14, presidential electors must
have been selected by the states and will meet as a group in their
states to cast electoral votes for president and vice president. But
December 8 is also a significant date, the so-called “safe harbor” date.
The Electoral Count Act sets this date as an important date for states
to make their official selection of electors, as those electoral votes
will be given greater protection from challenge when Congress counts the
electoral votes in January. The Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore assigned
great significance to this date in Bush v. Gore.
January 3 — The convening of the new Congress
January 6 — Congress counts the votes
January 20 — Inauguration Day. The new presidential term begins at noon.
On
January 3rd, the new Congress will take office, and on January 6th it
will meet to count the electoral votes and declare a president- and vice
president-elect. On January 20th at noon, the current presidential term
will end and the next one will begin.This is excerpted from the new
fourth edition of After the People Vote, edited by John Fortier, senior
fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a member of AEI’s Election
Watch team.John C. Fortier-AEI Adjunct Scholar-SENOIRFELLOWKarlyn
Bowman-Senior Fellow
ITS 11AM-JAN 11,21-AND SHORTLY THE
DEMOLIBNUTS WILL BE VOTING TO A ARTICLE OF IMPEACH ON TRUMP FOR
INCITMENT.DO THEY THINK THIS STUNT WILL REALLY WORK WITH 9 DAYS LEFT IN
THIS TERM AND HOPEFULLY 4 YEARS NEXT TERM.FOR TRUMPY. THE DEMOLIBNUTS
PUT A HOUSE BILL DEMANDING PENCE INVOKE THE 25TH AMENDMENT ON TRUMP.
REPUBLICANS OBJECT. THE HOUSE IS THROWN OUT TILL TOMORROW. THERE WILL BE
A FULL HOUSE VOTE TOMORROW.ITS 11.18AM. I HEARD IT WAS A BLACK OFFICER
THAT KILLED THE WHITE WOMAN GOING THREW THE CAPITAL WINDOW. NO CALL OF
RACISM BY THE WHITES AGAINST THE BLACKS IN THIS SHOOTING.IF IT WAS
REVERSED. THE LEFT WOULD BE CRYING FOWL AND ASKING FOR THE OFFICER TO BE
FIRED.
THE MEDIA ARE JUST A BUNCH OF HITLER PROPAGANDA PUPPETERS AGAINST MY GUY DONALD JOHN TRUMP. PRESIDENT OF AMERICA.
Associated Press-Supreme Court rejects fast track for Trump election cases-Mon, January 11, 2021, 9:55 AM EST
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- The Supreme Court on Monday formally refused to put on a fast
track election challenges filed by President Donald Trump and his
allies.The court rejected pleas for quick consideration of cases
involving the outcome in five states won by President-elect Joe Biden:
Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.The orders,
issued without comment, were unsurprising. The justices had previously
taken no action in those cases in advance of last week's counting of the
electoral votes in Congress, which confirmed Biden's victory.The court
still could act on appeals related to the Nov. 3 election later this
winter or in the spring. Several justices had expressed interest in a
Pennsylvania case involving the state Supreme Court's decision to extend
the deadline for receipt of mailed ballots by three days, over the
opposition of the Republican-controlled legislature.But even if the
court were to take up an election-related case, it probably wouldn't
hear arguments until the fall.
As impeachment bill filed,
Democrats urge Pence to oust Trump on his own-Speaker recalls lawmakers
to Washington for votes, as more Republicans say it’s time for POTUS to
resign; House resolution urging VP to invoke 25th Amendment blocked by
Republicans-By LISA MASCARO, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and MARY CLARE
JALONICK-JAN 11,21-Today, 8:42 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — Impeachment
pressure mounting, the House worked swiftly Monday to try to oust US
President Donald Trump from office, pushing the vice president and
Cabinet to act first, in an extraordinary effort to remove Trump in the
final days of his presidency.Trump faces a single charge — “incitement
of insurrection” — in an impeachment resolution that could go to a vote
by mid-week. First, Democrats called on Vice President Mike Pence to
invoke constitutional authority under the 25th Amendment to remove Trump
from office before January 20, when Democrat Joe Biden is to be
inaugurated.In all, these are stunning final moments for Trump’s
presidency as Democrats and a growing number of Republicans declare that
he is unfit for office, and could do more damage after inciting a mob
that ransacked the US Capitol in a deadly siege on Wednesday.President
Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its
institutions of government,” reads the four-page impeachment bill.“He
will remain a threat to national security, democracy, and the
Constitution if allowed to remain in office,” it reads.Speaker of the
House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., holds a news conference on the day after
violent protesters loyal to US President Donald Trump stormed the US
Congress, at the Capitol, in Washington on January 7, 2021. (AP/J. Scott
Applewhite)-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is recalling lawmakers to
Washington for votes, as more Republicans say that it is time for Trump
to resign. Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania joined GOP Sen.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska over the weekend in calling for Trump to “go
away as soon as possible.”During an interview on “60 Minutes” aired
Sunday, Pelosi invoked the Watergate era when Republicans in the Senate
told President Richard Nixon, “It’s over.”“That’s what has to happen
now,” she said.On Monday, a House resolution calling on Vice President
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.Pence has given no indication that he is ready to proceed on
such a course, which would involve invoking the 25th Amendment to the
Constitution with a vote by a majority of the Cabinet to oust Trump
before he leaves office.The impeachment bill from Reps. David Cicilline
of Rhode Island, Ted Lieu of California, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and
Jerrold Nadler of New York draws from Trump’s own false statements about
his election defeat to Biden. Judges across the country, including some
nominated by Trump, have repeatedly dismissed cases, and Attorney
General William Barr, a Trump ally, has said there was no sign of
widespread fraud.The bill of impeachment details Trump’s pressure on
state officials in Georgia to “find” him more votes, and his White House
rally ahead of the Capitol siege, in which he encouraged thousands of
supporters to “fight like hell” and march to the building.The mob
overpowered police, broke through security lines and windows, and
rampaged through the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to scatter as they were
finalizing Biden’s victory over Trump in the Electoral College.“We will
act with urgency, because this president represents an imminent threat,”
Pelosi said in a letter late Sunday to colleagues emphasizing the need
for quick action.“The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy
perpetrated by this president is intensified and so is the immediate
need for action.”Republican Sen. Toomey said he doubted impeachment
could be done before Biden is inaugurated, even though a growing number
of lawmakers say 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.”Murkowski, long exasperated with the
president, told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that Trump simply
“needs to get out.” A third, Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., did not go that far,
but on Sunday he warned Trump to be “very careful” in his final days in
office.On impeachment, House Democrats would likely delay for 100 days
sending articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial, to allow Biden
to focus on other priorities.Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said that instead
of coming together, Democrats want to “talk about ridiculous things
like, ‘Let’s impeach a president,’” with just days left in office.Still,
some Republicans might be supportive.Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said he
would take a look at any articles that the House sent over. Illinois
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a frequent Trump critic, said he would “vote the
right way” if the matter were put in front of him.The Democratic effort
to stamp Trump’s presidential record — for the second time — with the
indelible mark of impeachment advanced rapidly after the riot.Rep. David
Cicilline, D-R.I, a leader of the House effort to draft impeachment
articles accusing Trump of inciting insurrection, said Sunday that his
group had 200-plus co-sponsors.Potentially complicating Pelosi’s
decision about impeachment was what it meant for Biden and the beginning
of his presidency. While reiterating that he had long viewed Trump as
unfit for office, Biden on Friday sidestepped a question about
impeachment, saying what Congress did “is for them to decide.”
Parler
forced offline after losing access to host servers-Head of platform
popular with the far-right accuses tech giants of trying to stifle free
speech: ‘They will NOT win!’By AFP-JAN 11,21-Today, 1:54 pm
SAN
FRANCISCO — The conservative social network Parler was forced offline
Monday, tracking websites showed, after Amazon warned the company would
lose access to its servers for its failure to properly police violent
content.The site’s popularity soared in recent weeks, becoming the
number one download from Apple’s App Store after the much larger Twitter
banned US President Donald Trump from its platform for his role in
inciting a riot at the US Capitol last week.Messages of support for
Wednesday’s attack in Washington DC — along with calls for more
demonstrations — had flourished on the platform, leading Google to
remove it from its app store on Friday, followed by Apple on
Saturday.Amazon then confirmed it would suspend the platform from its
cloud hosting services for allowing “threats of violence.”In a letter to
Parler’s owners, the web giant said it would suspend service by 11:59
p.m. local time on Sunday.Tracking website Down For Everyone Or Just Me
showed Parler offline from just after midnight, suggesting its owners
had not been able to find a new hosting partner.In a series of posts on
Parler before the site went down, CEO John Matze accused the tech giants
of a “war on free speech.”“They will NOT win! We are the worlds last
hope for free speech and free information,” he said.Parler did not
respond to a request for comment from AFP.The social network, launched
in 2018, operates much like Twitter, with profiles to follow and
“parleys” instead of tweets.In its early days, the platform attracted a
crowd of ultra-conservative and even extreme-right users.But it now
attracts many more traditional Republican voices.Fox News star host Sean
Hannity has 7.6 million followers, while his colleague Tucker Carlson
has 4.4 million.Elected officials present include Republicans Devin
Nunes, a California congressman, and South Dakota Governor Kristi
Noem.Trump is not known to have a Parler profile.Safe haven-Parler’s
recent growth was supercharged after last week’s violence in DC as new
users, furious over Twitter’s ban onTrump, flocked to the app.In one
now-deleted post, an account purporting to belong to Lin Wood, a
pro-Trump lawyer, called for US Vice President Mike Pence to be put in
front of a firing squad — threats which US media have reported led to a
Secret Service investigation.Supporters of Trump expressed outrage at
the news of the website being taken down.Ahead of the shutdown, the
president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., complained that “big tech has totally
eliminated the notion of free speech in America.”Prominent pro-Trump
commentator and conspiracy theorist Mark Dice took to Twitter to accuse
“Marxists” of taking Parler offline, urging followers to register on
secure messaging app Telegram and Gab, another site popular with the
far-right.With tech giants making their opposition clear, conservative
sites such as Parler are likely going to have to find ways to adjust.The
DLive video streaming service, used by several protesters during the
invasion of the Capitol, closed seven of its channels and pulled more
than 100 videos from the site.Gab may now also become a model for other
websites, with CEO Andrew Torba claiming it had attracted 600,000 new
users Sunday.The platform drew fierce criticism in 2018 when
investigators found that the shooter who killed 11 people in an attack
on a Pittsburgh synagogue had earlier posted anti-Semitic messages on
the site.It has installed its own servers so as not to be dependent on
outside providers.
House Democrats Introduce Article Of
Impeachment Against Donald Trump-Ryan GrenobleNational Reporter,
HuffPost-Mon., January 11, 2021, 11:32 a.m. EST
House Democrats
introduced an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump on
Monday for “incitement of insurrection,” in the wake of last week’s
deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol.House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer
(D-Md.) told Punchbowl News that he expects a vote on the article could
come as early as Wednesday, with the goal of beginning Senate
discussions as soon as possible.The four-page resolution notes Trump’s
direct responsibility for inciting a seditious mob that proceeded to
violently overwhelm the Capitol and “interfere with the Joint Session’s
solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020
Presidential election.”Trump’s Jan. 2 phone call to Georgia Secretary of
State Brad Raffensperger ― where the president encouraged Raffensperger
to “find” enough votes for him to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s
victory there ― also earns a mention, as do Trump’s repeated false
claims that he rightfully won the 2020 presidential race.“In all this,
President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and
its institutions of Government,” the resolution reads. “He threatened
the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful
transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of Government. He
thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the
people of the United States.”“Donald John Trump, by such conduct, has
demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security,
democracy, and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office,” it
says.The document was authored by Democratic Reps. David Cicilline
(R.I.), Ted Lieu (Calif.), Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Jerrold Nadler
(N.Y.).Earlier on Monday, a resolution in the House had called on Vice
President Mike Pence to remove Trump by invoking the 25th Amendment.
Republicans blocked that effort, which would have required unanimous
consent among House members.The Article of Impeachment: Incitement to
Insurrection, drafted by Rep @davidcicilline, @RepRaskin, me &
@HouseJudiciary staff, has now been formally introduced at the House pro
forma session today. https://t.co/Y6ntbSXF9G
pic.twitter.com/MfB4CpqC6C— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) January 11, 2021-In a
memo obtained by The Washington Post on Friday, Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suggested the Senate would be unlikely to match
the House’s high-priority timeline.While the Senate is scheduled for two
sessions on Jan. 12 and Jan. 15, they aren’t expected to be much more
than a formality, and it would require the unanimous consent of all 100
senators to change that.As it stands, the first full session at which
impeachment could be considered is Jan. 19, the day before Biden’s
inauguration. House impeachment managers would then present the articles
on either Jan. 19 or 20.By that schedule, the Senate trial of Trump
would likely not officially begin until Jan. 20 or 21 at the earliest,
per McConnell’s memo.A handful of Republican senators have voiced
support for the effort, including Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Lisa
Murkowski of Alaska.“I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused
enough damage,” Murkowski told the Anchorage Daily News last week.If
Biden is sworn into office before the Senate hearings begin, House
Democrats may consider delaying the trial to give the nascent
administration time to get organized.Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), a Biden
ally, told the Associated Press on Monday that he supports giving the
new president 100 days “to get his agenda off and running.”Should Trump
be convicted by the Senate, he could be barred from holding elected
office again.This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been
updated.
Politics-Thousands Of Lawyers, Law Students Call For
Sens. Hawley, Cruz To Be Disbarred-Nick Visser-HuffPostMon., January 11,
2021, 4:41 a.m. EST
Thousands of lawyers and law school alumni
on Sunday signed an open letter calling for Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.)
and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to be disbarred over their leading roles in the
effort to undermine Congress’ certification of the Electoral College
vote declaring President-elect Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 race.The
two Republican lawmakers were key figures in the effort to halt the
certification process last week and, by doing so, support widely
debunked claims of rampant voter fraud in an election that saw Biden
triumph over President Donald Trump by more than 7 million votes. A
pro-Trump mob, inflamed by the president’s own statements, stormed the
U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on Congress, leading to at
least six deaths — four riot participants and two Capitol Police
officers.“In leading the efforts to undermine the peaceful transition of
power after a free and fair election, Senators Hawley and Cruz attacked
the foundations of our democracy,” reads the petition, which as of 10
p.m. Sunday had been signed by more than 5,000 lawyers and law students,
as well as more than 1,000 members of the Missouri and Texas bars.
“Senators Hawley and Cruz directly incited the January 6th insurrection,
repeating dangerous and unsubstantiated statements regarding the
election and abetting the lawless behavior of President Trump.”The
petition was started by seven Yale law students, and has grown rapidly
to include prominent names such as former Sen. Russ Feingold and Harvard
professor Laurence Tribe, per The Washington Post.Hawley is a graduate
of Yale Law School and Cruz of Harvard Law School, and both are members
in good standing of their respective state bars, as well as the District
of Columbia Bar. Both have rejected assertions they contributed to the
insurrection. A photo shows Hawley giving rioters a salute with a closed
fist.Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to
connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community
experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.
The
narcissist-in-chief brings it all crashing down days before his
presidential term ends-The New York Times-Mon., January 11, 2021, 3:25
a.m. EST
The president has never been a very stable man. But I'm
trying to think of what threshold of loco he had to clear in order for
one of his senior advisors to confide in my colleague Maggie Haberman
that Donald J Trump "lost it" on the day of the insurrection.Or for an
administration official to describe him as "a total monster" to The
Washington Post the next day.Or for Representative Adam Kinzinger, a
member of Trump's own party, to call for the Cabinet and the
vice-president to invoke the 25th Amendment because America requires "a
sane captain of the ship" to steer us through the administration's final
days, and "all indications are that the president has become unmoored,
not just from his duty, or even his oath, but from reality itself."The
president has always been out there. But on 6 January, 2021, he clearly
reached escape velocity and hurtled into space.We shouldn't be
surprised. The president's flight into the ozone of crazy was as
inevitable as the country's descent into anarchy €" and almost certainly
intertwined. Trump, as I and many others have noted, impeccably meets
the criteria of a malignant narcissist, and he has a defect in moral
conscience that is emblematic of psychopaths. People like this do not
react well to being fired, divorced or kicked out of any club. They're
ego haemophiliacs. Their self-esteem cannot self-repair. And so the
president is now doing exactly what all pathological narcissists of the
malignant, conscience-free variety do when they've been given the boot.
They behave dangerously.They claim they are victims. They reject facts
and call foul play. They blame everything €" and everyone €" for their
failures except themselves. They accuse even their most loyal supporters
of treachery. (On Thursday, a White House official told The Washington
Post that Trump was so angry at Mike Pence that "he couldn't see
straight." Pence! But as I've often said, you can never love a
narcissist enough.)-They take one reckless, desperate risk after another
to keep their amour propre intact.And most important, they lash out
with an Old Testament vindictiveness, often destroying the very
institution €" or spouse, family, whatever it is €" they were once sworn
to nurture.Which in this case is democracy itself. Trump is a man who
found failure so intolerable, so humiliating, that he was willing to
incite an acre-wide mob to violent insurrection, both in and around the
Capitol, on Congress' election certification day. Either he would get
what he wanted or no one would. Five are now dead."Now we gather due to a
selfish man's injured pride," as Mitt Romney said the night of the
siege.You know who could have predicted this? Researchers who specialise
in bad CEO behaviour. They've seen this movie dozens of times before.
It's textbook stuff."It should be absolutely no surprise that this is
where we are," Jennifer Chatman, a professor of management at the Haas
School of Business at Berkeley who has written extensively about
narcissistic leaders, told me. "It's never a pretty transition when they
have to go."They're too entitled. They're too in the habit of sowing
distrust. They have disdain for rules €" which in fact made them
terrible leaders in the first place, prone to cheating and stealing and
grift."They leave their organisations in terrible shape, both from a
structural and cultural point of view," she said.As Trump has left the
Republican Party. And the country at large.Charles O'Reilly, a
management professor at Stanford and a frequent collaborator with
Chatman, reminded me that Adam Neumann, the disgraced, extravagantly
grandiose former CEO of WeWork €" his ambitions included becoming the
world's first trillionaire and living forever €" presented an IPO
prospectus that was patently bonkers in a last-ditch effort to save his
company. It sounded awfully reminiscent of Trump's deluded
lawsuits.O'Reilly added that most boards fail to stop such leaders,
swooping in only when the company is falling apart, because they have
too many incentives (money, power) to see them succeed. It sounded an
awful lot like Congress. And every former White House official who's
finally speaking up.You know where else you can find letter-perfect
predictions of the president's current behaviour? Self-help books
dedicated to helping people break up with the rotten narcissists in
their lives. Seriously. I started burrowing into them in the last few
days, more on a daffy hunch than anything else, and it turned out I
could basically open any page €" and I mean any page €" and find
something relevant to the president's current behaviour: That
narcissists lurch between the role of victim and tormentor; that they
are minor Shivas, destroyers of worlds; that they howl on and on about
betrayal.But it was this common thread that stood out: Pathological
narcissists make a point of saying that their former partners would have
been €" and will be once again €" nothing without them.It rhymed with
something a White House official recently said Trump was spewing about
Pence: "All day, it was a theme of, 'I made this guy, I saved him from a
political death, and here he stabbed me in the back.'"I do not by any
means wish to suggest that Trump's disordered personality is the key to
understanding his presidency. It is, in some ways, almost tedious,
exactly what makes him boring and uncomplicated, as shallow as a
spoon.But I also think it's impossible to understand Trump's behaviour
without looking at him through the prism of his pathologies, which at
this moment are threatening lives. He may have made a robotic statement
Thursday that condemned Wednesday's violence and implicitly conceded the
election. It's too late. Trump remains a domestic security risk, and
he's made Americans a target for enemies. They know that a fragile,
unbalanced man is at the helm, his nerves as combustible as dry leaves.
He's desperate, and he's angry, and he's baitable. It makes us unsafe.
We need to get him out.You needn't be a particularly astute observer of
the Trump presidency to understand that his incendiary, hateful policies
and rhetoric and mirthful disregard for the law would one day end in
violence. But you needn't be a particularly astute observer of
character, either, to see that a man who feels no empathy, exploits
ruthlessly, lies reflexively, seeks success at any cost and lives in
terror of seeing it vanish would never go quietly.Jennifer Senior c.2021
The New York Times Company.
Double standard': Black lawmakers
and activists decry police response to attack on US Capitol-Grace Hauck
and Deborah Barfield Berry, USA TODAY-Thu, January 7, 2021, 2:18 PM EST
WASHINGTON
– President-elect Joe Biden, civil rights leaders and activists blasted
law enforcement agencies for their slow response to rioters at the U.S.
Capitol Wednesday, noting the massive show of police force in place for
Black Lives Matter demonstrations last year over police killings of
unarmed Black men and women.Biden said his granddaughter pointed out the
unfair difference in images that showed the violence wielded against
Black Lives Matter protesters versus the seemingly muted response
against those who attacked the U.S. government."No one can tell me that
if that had been a group of Black Lives Matter protesting yesterday,
they wouldn’t have been treated very, very differently than the mob of
thugs that stormed the Capitol," Biden said in remarks to the nation
Thursday.Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Ohio and former chairwoman
of the Congressional Black Caucus, also questioned law enforcement
officials' security efforts."The Capitol police were unprepared,
ineffective and some were complicit. All of them should be held to
account," Fudge, who was still in lockdown by the evening and who has
been tapped by President-elect Joe Biden to lead the Department of
Housing and Urban Development, told USA TODAY Wednesday night.Fudge said
there's "no question" the response was different than at last year's
Black Lives Matter protests at the Capitol. She shared a picture of a
row of police standing guard on the steps of the Capitol."There is a
double standard,'' she said.As thousands of people of color and allies
took to the streets last year to peacefully protest police brutality,
law enforcement often clashed with demonstrators, deploying tear gas and
rubber bullets, bruising faces and bodies, and, in one incident that
went viral, pushing an elderly man to the ground.But as thousands of
President Donald Trump supporters, mostly white, marched from a
campaign-style rally to the Capitol Wednesday and broke into the
building as lawmakers were convening to count presidential electoral
votes, forcing lawmakers and staff to shelter in place, crowds of law
enforcement were notably absent.Trump, who previously characterized
Black Lives Matter protesters as "thugs," said on Twitter that the
people involved in the riots Wednesday were "great patriots who have
been badly & unfairly treated for so long."Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell said Thursday that he applauded Capitol police officers
who bravely stood in the line of duty against the "failed
insurrection."“With that said, yesterday represented a massive failure
of institutions, protocols, and planning that are supposed to protect
the first branch of our federal government," he said in a statement. "A
painstaking investigation and thorough review must now take place and
significant changes must follow."D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III
said the mob of Trump voters came to Capitol Hill "following the
president's remarks" and was "intent on causing harm to our officers by
deploying chemical irritants on police to force entry into the United
States Capitol."But only a small group of riot police stood outside the
back of the Capitol building in the early afternoon, and as
demonstrators called for breaching the building, hundreds started
swarming into the area, reporters at the scene noted Wednesday.As
protesters began climbing up the side of the building and on the back
balcony, police appeared to retreat. After the break-in, police
attempted to secure one section outside the building but were quickly
overwhelmed, according to reporters at the scene.One video posted to
social media showed several people in D.C. Capitol Police jackets
removing barriers outside the Capitol building, allowing demonstrators
to pass through to the building. Videos posted to Twitter also showed at
least one person who appeared to be an officer taking selfies with
people who had breached the Capitol. USA TODAY has not been able to
independently verify the identities of the people in these images.By
Wednesday afternoon, Army Gen. Mark Milley said the D.C. National Guard
had been fully activated. "We have fully activated the D.C. National
Guard to assist federal and local law enforcement as they work to
peacefully address the situation," Miller said in a statement.Several
videos shared to social media Wednesday afternoon showed officials
slowly escorting people out of the building. One officer in riot gear
could be seen helping a white woman in a Trump hat down the Capitol
steps, holding her hand, according to a CNN livestream.By Wednesday
evening, nearly a full day after the demonstrators first clashed with
police Tuesday night, officers began using tear gas and percussion
grenades to begin clearing crowds, ahead of a 6 p.m. curfew. In the
moments before, there were violent clashes between the police and
protesters, who tore railing for the inauguration scaffolding and threw
it at the officers.At least one woman suffered a fatal gunshot wound
inside the capitol, Contee said. At least 13 people were arrested, and
five firearms were recovered.By comparison, in the wake of the police
killing of George Floyd, which sparked last year's protest movement,
more than 100 people were arrested over the course of three days in
Minneapolis. In subsequent days, cities across the country arrested
dozens of people in a single night, with Los Angeles arresting more than
500 in one day."When Black folks are protesting and progressives are
protesting peacefully they were tear-gassed, they were arrested, they
were shot with rubber bullets. They were shot with real bullets,"
Derrick Johnson, president of the national NAACP, said in a telephone
interview. "We watched it take place all summer long when people were
peacefully demonstrating."U.S. Capitol Police did not immediately
respond to multiple requests for comment.'A fanciful reality': Trump
claims Black Lives Matter protests are violent, but the majority are
peaceful.Johnson questioned why the Capitol police and other local law
enforcement agencies weren’t prepared for thousands of Trump protestors,
including the Proud Boys. There had been plenty of warnings on social
media and talk shows about the potential for riots, he said."We should
not be witnessing what we are witnessing today in this nation,'' he
said. "It is a global embarrassment.”Johnson said tens of thousands of
people joined protests at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington without
this level of violence. "None of this took place,’" he said.The
majority of Black Lives Matter-affiliated protests over the summer were
peaceful, according to a report by the U.S. Crisis Monitor, a joint
effort including Princeton University in New Jersey that collects and
analyzes real-time data on demonstrations and political violence in the
United States.Kofi Ademola, a local Chicago activist who helped organize
civil rights protests throughout the summer, said he was not surprised
Wednesday by the police response."It’s not any shock that we see this
huge contradiction that we can storm a capitol ... break into elected
officials’ offices, the chamber, and create other chaos trying to
perform a fascist coup, and we see little to no consequences,'' he said.
"But Black protesters here in D.C. and Chicago, we’re heavily policed,
brutalized, for literally saying, 'Don’t kill us.' There was no planned
insurrections. We were literally just advocating for our lives. It
speaks volumes about the values of this country. It doesn’t care about
our lives."CNN commentator Van Jones highlighted the discrepancy in a
tweet Wednesday."Imagine if #BlackLivesMatter were the ones who were
storming the Capitol building," he wrote. "Thousands of black people
laying siege to the seat of government – in the middle of a joint
session of Congress? Just imagine the reaction."At the Capitol
Wednesday, some lawmakers were holed up in their offices and other
places. Several would not say where they were for safety reasons.
Staffers were cleared out of the press galleries and the Capitol by the
afternoon."The after-action review will determine what failures occurred
and why,'' said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi
and chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. "The plans should
have anticipated the potential for what happened today."Dzemila
Hamzabegovic hugs Courtney Artis on Sunday, May 31, 2020, during a Black
Lives Matter healing rally in front of KFC Yum! Center in downtown
Louisville. The two were complete strangers before the event and
embraced as they were overcome with emotion. "For white people
to think about us, it's powerful. It's emotional," Artis said.
"Don't hurt us. We won't hurt you."The chaos that
unfolded Wednesday stands in particularly harsh contrast to the law
enforcement presence seen when U.S. and military police drove protesters
out of Lafayette Square, located between the White House and the
historic St. John's Episcopal Church, shortly before a presidential
photo op with a Bible at the church on June 1. Officers used smoke
canisters, shields, pepper balls and horses to force demonstrators from
the park.Black Lives Matter Global Network called the law enforcement
response to Wednesday's riots hypocritical."When Black people protest
for our lives, we are all too often met by National Guard troops or
police equipped with assault rifles, shields, tear gas and battle
helmets,'' the group said in a statement. "When white people attempt a
coup, they are met by an underwhelming number of law enforcement
personnel who act powerless to intervene, going so far as to pose for
selfies with terrorists, and prevent an escalation of anarchy and
violence like we witnessed today.'"Make no mistake, if the protesters
were Black, we would have been tear-gassed, battered, and perhaps
shot,'' the group wrote.Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr., put out a series of statements on Twitter Wednesday calling
on law enforcement to engage demonstrators “with the same humanity and
discipline with which they should have engaged people who were outraged
by a police officer kneeling on George Floyd’s neck.”“What many are
saying is true: If this were Black Lives Matter storming the Capitol,
tanks would have been in the city by now,” she wrote. “The response
tells the story of our nation’s racist history and present. How can we
stop it from being the future?”As violent Trump supporters climbed the
steps of the Capitol Wednesday, Trey Williamson, of Burke, Virginia,
stood nearby while straddling his bike, arguing with those who would
listen. He wore a helmet with Black Lives Matter written on
it.Williamson, a food safety director at a large restaurant, was in
Washington, D.C., last year when Trump had the streets cleared so that
he could take his photo in front of St. John's Episcopal Church.“I got
tear-gassed and all I was doing was riding my bike trying to see what
was going on,” Williamson said.He said the police response at the
Capitol was lukewarm in comparison to what he experienced during Black
Lives Matter protests over the summer.“If there were nothing but Black
people up there, there would’ve been a lot of injuries,” he said. “It
sucks, but I know that this is how it is. I know that because Trump
people have felt more comfortable to be at ease with their racism.”U.S.
Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., was holed up in his Capitol Hill office Wednesday
as protestors continued their assault on the Capitol. During a Zoom
call with reporters, said he and his staff were safe and weren’t
leaving. Kind said he intended to return to the House chamber to
continue the debate over the certification of electoral votes."Things
are still not in control, unfortunately," he said.Kind blamed Trump, who
has been reluctant to denounce white nationalists and fraudulently
insisted he won the November election, for encouraging the violence
Wednesday.When he was encouraging the demonstrations, tweeting out that
this was going to be quote ‘wild.’ I mean, what would he expect the
reaction would be, especially when you're talking about the Proud Boys,
militia groups, white supremacists coming into our nation's capital
today,” Kind said.Contributing: Will Carless, Marco R Della Cava, N'dea
Yancey-BraggThis article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump
supporters attack US Capitol after Black Lives Matter protests.
IAEA
chief: Iran moving rapidly to enrich uranium, mere ‘weeks’ to save
deal-Nuclear watchdog head Grossi says if talks are held when Biden
takes office, ‘there will have to be clear understanding on how initial
terms of accord will be recomplied with’ By TOI staff-JAN 11,21-Today,
6:35 pm
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that
there were “weeks” left to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran.Rafael
Grossi, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said at the
Reuters Next conference that Tehran was advancing “quite rapidly” toward
enriching uranium to 20 percent, as it has announced it would, in
breach of the accord. He said the IAEA has assessed Iran will be able to
produce some 10 kilograms a month.“It is clear that we don’t have many
months ahead of us [to save the deal]. We have rather weeks,” he said.If
talks between the signatories of the accord are launched, “there will
have to be a clear understanding on how the initial terms and provisions
of the [nuclear deal] are going to be recomplied with,” Grossi said.The
comments came two days after Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani
declared that Tehran would expel IAEA inspectors in February unless the
US lifts its sanctions on the country.“If the sanctions against the
Islamic Republic of Iran are not lifted by February 21, especially in
the fields of finance, banking, and oil, we will definitely expel the
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors from the country,” said
Farahani in a television interview, according to an English translation
of his remarks by the Mehr news agency.UN inspections of Iran’s nuclear
sites are a key part of a 2015 pact with world powers that saw sanctions
lifted from Iran in return for its dismantling the weapons aspects of
its nuclear program.The United States unilaterally withdrew from the
agreement in 2018, and the remaining countries that signed it with Iran —
Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia — have been trying to keep
the accord from collapsing. The Trump administration imposed crippling
sanctions on Iran while demanding it renegotiate stricter terms to the
deal. Iran has refused and responded by walking back its own commitments
to the accord.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to Farahani
in a statement on Saturday that Iran has an obligation to allow the
inspections to continue.“Nuclear brinksmanship will not strengthen
Iran’s position, but instead lead to further isolation and pressure,”
Pompeo warned and urged that expulsion of the inspectors “be met by
universal condemnation.”On Sunday, the speaker of Iran’s parliament said
that the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “is not a sacred
agreement; it is merely a deal to remove sanctions under the conditions
accepted by the Islamic Republic.”Last month, Iran began enriching
uranium to levels unseen since the 2015 deal. The decision appeared
aimed at increasing Tehran’s leverage during US President Donald Trump’s
waning days in office.Iran informed the IAEA of its plans to increase
enrichment to 20 percent. Increasing enrichment at its underground Fordo
facility puts Tehran a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of
90%.The purpose of the deal was to prevent Iran from developing a
nuclear bomb — something Tehran insists it does not want to do.US
President-elect Joe Biden has said he hopes to return the US to the deal
if Iran returns to compliance with it.
Jerusalem recognition
‘led to explosion of peace,’ departing US envoy tells MKs-Knesset bids
farewell to David Friedman; thanks him for ‘tremendous contributions’
after he oversaw policy shifts on Jerusalem, Golan, settlements,
Israel-Gulf relations-By TOI staff-JAN 11,21-Today, 4:20 pm
The
Knesset Subcommittee for Policy and Strategy held a celebratory meeting
Monday for the departing United States Ambassador to Israel, David
Friedman, amid the upcoming administration change in the US.“Everyone
feared that the recognition of Jerusalem would lead to an explosion, but
it turned out to be an explosion of peace and not of violence,”
Friedman said during the event.“This meeting is not routine; it is a
unique and rare event, much like the ambassador,” head of the
subcommittee MK Zvi Hauser said in his opening remarks.Hauser thanked
the ambassador for his years of service in Israel, specifically for his
“extraordinary contribution in the tightening and strengthening of ties
between the United States and the State of Israel.”In this January 11,
2021 photo, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (L), MK Zvi Hauser
(C) and Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin (R), attend a farewell meeting for
the outgoing envoy in the Knesset. (Dani Shem Tov/Knesset
Spokesperson)-Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin said that “it is right and
proper that the Knesset formally appreciate and recognize Ambassador
Friedman’s tremendous contributions,” including the increased security
coordination, recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,
relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem, and recognition of Israeli
sovereignty in the Golan Heights.Friedman thanked Hauser and Levin for
their words, adding that “the past three and a half years flew by like a
flash, a testament to how exciting, riveting and enjoyable the job
was,” adding that the relationship between the leaders, military and
intelligence officials of both countries was “extraordinary.”In this
January 11, 2021 photo, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman attends
his farewell meeting in the Knesset. (Dani Shem Tov/Knesset
Spokesperson)-Under Trump’s leadership, the US administration recognized
Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved its embassy there from Tel
Aviv, and recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. It
withdrew millions in aid to the Palestinians and shuttered the PLO
office in Washington. The Trump peace plan unveiled last January —
forcefully opposed by the Palestinians — did not call for the evacuation
of Israeli settlements and would have allowed Israel to annex large
swaths of the West Bank.But Israel’s plans to unilaterally annex parts
of the area were put on ice when the US clinched a normalization deal
between Jerusalem and the United Arab Emirates in August. That agreement
was followed in succession by deals establishing diplomatic ties
between Israel and Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco, all of which were
brokered by the Trump administration. The UAE, Sudan and Morocco
received significant rewards from the US for opening ties with Israel.In
addition, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo became the first top
American diplomat to visit a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last
year. In November 2018, his State Department said the US would no longer
see settlements as contrary to international law. During his last visit
to Israel, Pompeo also announced that Washington would designate as
“anti-Semitic” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, which
seeks to isolate Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians.
Egypt,
Germany, France, Jordan meet on reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace
talks-European foreign ministers sit down in Cairo ahead of Biden taking
office, seeking to build on ‘positive regional context’ of Israel’s
normalization deals with Arab states-By AP and TOI staff-jan
11,21-Today, 4:20 pm
Egypt on Monday hosted the foreign ministers
of Germany, France and Jordan to discuss ways to revive peace talks
between Israel and the Palestinians, a week before US President-elect
Joe Biden takes office.In Cairo, the country’s Foreign Ministry said the
aim of the meeting was to urge the Palestinians and Israelis to
negotiate a “just and comprehensive political settlement” on the basis
of achieving a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital on
territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War.The Palestinians
suffered numerous setbacks under the outgoing administration of US
President Donald Trump and complained about what they say were
pro-Israeli steps from Washington.The Palestinian Authority has
boycotted the Trump administration since he recognized Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital and moved the US Embassy there from Tel Aviv. Trump has
since slashed financial assistance for the Palestinians and reversed
course on the alleged illegitimacy of Israeli settlements on land
claimed by the Palestinians.Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said
last month that Cairo has been working toward a two-state solution to
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, “taking into account the regional and
international changes.” He was apparently referring to Biden’s election
and the establishment of ties with Israel by four Arab countries — the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.France’s Foreign
Ministry said the meeting would discuss ways to have Israelis and
Palestinians embark on talks, building on “the positive regional
context” related to the recent normalization deals.“It is a question of
contributing, at the same time, to a resumption of dialogue between
Israelis and Palestinians, with a view to resolving the conflict in the
framework of international law,” the statement said.Germany’s Foreign
Minister Heiko Maas tweeted before leaving for Cairo on Sunday that the
ministers would discuss “which concrete steps” could help “build trust”
between Israel and the Palestinians.In September, Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas called for an international conference early in
2021 to launch a “genuine peace process,” based on the UN resolutions
and past agreements with Israel. The Palestinians no longer see the US
as an honest broker.PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki said last month
that the Palestinian Authority was ready to cooperate with the incoming
Biden administration and urged Israel to return to talks based on a
two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Also last month,
Channel 12 news reported that Sissi told Abbas when they met in Cairo
that he intends to broker peace talks between Israel and the
Palestinians.The unsourced report said the talks would be held under the
auspices of Egypt, Jordan, France and Germany.Abbas reportedly said
that while he supports the Egyptian initiative, he still intends to push
for an international conference that will include the so-called Middle
East Quartet (the US, UN, EU and Russia) and has reached out to UN
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the matter.
Germany’s
Merkel calls Trump’s Twitter eviction ‘problematic’ Spokesman for German
chancellor says decisions on restricting speech should be based in law,
‘not according to a decision by the management of social media
platforms’ By AP-JAN 11,21-Today, 4:15 pm
BERLIN — German
Chancellor Angela Merkel considers US President Donald Trump’s eviction
from Twitter by the company “problematic,” her spokesman said
Monday.Twitter permanently suspended Trump from the microblogging
platform on Friday, citing a “risk of further incitement of violence” in
the wake of the storming of the US Capitol by supporters of the
outgoing president.Asked about Twitter’s decision, Merkel’s spokesman,
Steffen Seibert, said the operators of social media platforms “bear
great responsibility for political communication not being poisoned by
hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence.”He said it’s right not to
“stand back” when such content is posted, for example by flagging
it.But Seibert also said that the freedom of opinion is a fundamental
right of “elementary significance.”“This fundamental right can be
intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined
by legislators — not according to a decision by the management of
social media platforms,” he told reporters in Berlin. “Seen from this
angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the
US president have now been permanently blocked.”Facebook on Thursday
suspended Trump’s account through January 20, the day of US
President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, and possibly
indefinitely.Merkel herself does not have a Twitter account, although
Seibert does and many German government ministers do.
Iran
lashes out at US, France for denouncing seizure of South Korean
tanker-Tehran claims ship being held due to ‘technical problem,’ as it
presses Seoul to release billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets-By
AFP-JAN 11,21-Today, 4:03 pm
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran warned
Monday its seizure of a South Korean tanker in the Gulf must not be
politicized, after the US and France urged the Islamic Republic to
release the ship.“We have repeatedly told… the intervening parties,
whether they are the United States or France, that the case does not
concern them at all and that they will not help to solve a technical
problem if they politicize it,” said foreign ministry spokesman Saeed
Khatibzadeh.The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized the Hankuk
Chemi and arrested its multinational crew of 20 near the strategic
Strait of Hormuz one week ago.The move came as Tehran urged Seoul to
release billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea as
part of US sanctions.The United States and France have called for Iran
to release the ship.A US State Department spokesperson called the
seizure “part of a clear attempt to extort the international community
into relieving the pressure of sanctions.”The French foreign ministry
said the seizure was “fueling tensions in the region.”South Korean
Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Jong-kun arrived in Tehran on Sunday for a
long-planned visit.The South Korean news agency Yonhap has said Choi’s
aim during his visit was to “negotiate an early release” of the tanker
and its crew, which includes South Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese and
Burmese sailors.But according to Iran’s foreign ministry the “main goal”
of his visit was “to discuss ways of accessing Iranian funds in (South)
Korea.”Khatibzadeh said on Monday that the South Koreans “had questions
about technical problems related to the ship which we answered,”
without elaborating.
