"If you pass a piece of legislation that breaks down on party lines, but it gets passed, it doesn't' mean there wasn't unity, it just means it wasn't bipartisan."

Pentagon Restricted D.C. Guard Commander Before Riot

"Local commanders typically have the power to take military action on their own to save lives or prevent significant property damage in an urgent situation when there isn't enough time to obtain approval from headquarters."

"But Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, the commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard, said the Pentagon essentially took that power and other authorities away from him ahead of a pro-Trump protest on Jan. 6. That meant he couldn't immediately roll out troops when he received a panicked phone call from the Capitol Police chief warning that rioters were about to enter the U.S. Capitol."

"In a hearing on her nomination for Commerce Department secretary on Tuesday, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo told lawmakers that she will pursue changes to Section 230 if confirmed," The Verge reports.

Said Raimondo: "I think platform accountability is important because I've seen in my own state that misinformation hurts people. But of course, that reform would have to be balanced against the fact that these businesses rely upon user-generated content for their innovation, and they've created many thousands of jobs."

Ben Collins: "I do wonder what happens to the far-right when they realize getting rid of this law they've lobbied for years to kill is going to hurt them more than anyone else."

The Chief also reported that 65 DC Metro police officers sustained documented injuries.  Many more sustained injuries but "did not bother" to make official reports.

The killer(s) of Capitol police officer, Brian Sicknick, has not yet been apprehended.

The most unbeleiveable part is the leader of a white supremist orgnization is named Enrique Tarrio.

A real life Clayton Bigsby ?

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told KMOX that he was not trying to overturn the presidential election results with his votes to challenge the Electoral College results in Arizona and Pennsylvania on Jan. 6.

Said Hawley: ""I never said that the goal was to overturn the election. That was never the point and it was never possible."

He also angrily denied his comment provoke the riot at the Capitol: "That's just a lie. That is a lie told by the left-wing mob that now wants to silence me and Ted Cruz and 140 House members and 13 Senators and anybody who would dare stand up to them. Anyone who is a Trump supporter who refuses to bow the knee. And I'm just not gonna be silenced."

The ex-major recalled: "For the KGB, it was a charm offensive. They had collected a lot of information on his personality so they knew who he was personally. The feeling was that he was extremely vulnerable intellectually, and psychologically, and he was prone to flattery.

"This is what they exploited. They played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality and believed this is the guy who should be the president of the United States one day: it is people like him who could change the world. They fed him these so-called active measures soundbites and it happened. So it was a big achievement for the KGB active measures at the time."

Soon after he returned to the US, Trump began exploring a run for the Republican nomination for president and even held a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On 1 September, he took out a full-page advert in the New York Times, Washington Post and Boston Globe headlined: "There's nothing wrong with America's Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can't cure."

Trump's election win in 2016 was again welcomed by Moscow. Special counsel Robert Mueller did not establish a conspiracy between members of the Trump campaign and the Russians. But the Moscow Project, an initiative of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, found the Trump campaign and transition team had at least 272 known contacts and at least 38 known meetings with Russia-linked operatives.

Shvets, who has carried out his own investigation, said: "For me, the Mueller report was a big disappointment because people expected that it will be a thorough investigation of all ties between Trump and Moscow, when in fact what we got was an investigation of just crime-related issues. There were no counterintelligence aspects of the relationship between Trump and Moscow."

If the beginning of his presidency is any indication, I may have been totally wrong. So far, he has come out with an ambitious COVID relief package, has not negotiated with himself to reduce his proposal and he and VP Harris (I love that term), and his communications team are using the bully pulpit to put pressure on the conservative Dems and perhaps Republicans, to get on board with the program.

Butch Bowers and Deborah Barbier, who were expected to be two of the lead attorneys, are no longer on the team. A source familiar with the changes said it was a mutual decision for both to leave the legal team. As the lead attorney, Bowers assembled the team.
Josh Howard, a North Carolina attorney who was recently added to the team, has also left, according to another source familiar with the changes. Johnny Gasser and Greg Harris, from South Carolina, are no longer involved with the case, either.

No other attorneys have announced they are working on Trump's impeachment defense.
A person familiar with the departures told CNN that Trump wanted the attorneys to argue there was mass election fraud and that the election was stolen from him rather than focus on the legality of convicting a president after he's left office. Trump was not receptive to the discussions about how they should proceed in that regard.

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Arizona GOP censures Ducey, Flake and McCain as tensions rise

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Hawaii GOP Official Resigns After Posting Pro-QAnon Tweets
A high-ranking official with the Hawaii Republican Party has resigned after posting a series of tweets about the QAnon conspiracy theory on the official party account.

And there is GA.

2022 should be a good year for republicans.  1st midterm after losing all power and the White House.

But they are laying plans to nominate batshi+ crazy candidates that will lose general elections.

Donald Trump announced Monday the official opening of the "Office of the Former President" in Palm Beach County, Florida, which is tasked with overseeing the 45th president's official activities in his post-presidency life, CBS News reports.

The reason most used to impeach is to keep him from ever holding office again.  Which honestly seems pretty unlikely to me already.

"The Oklahoma Attorney General's Office has been tasked with attempting to return a $2 million stockpile of a malaria drug once touted by former President Donald Trump as a way to treat the coronavirus," the Frontier reports.

"In April, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), who ordered the hydroxychloroquine purchase, defended it by saying that while it may not be a useful treatment for the coronavirus, the drug had multiple other uses and `that money will not have gone to waste in any respect.'"

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019 before being elected to Congress, a CNN KFile review of hundreds of posts and comments from Greene's Facebook page shows.

"One of the Michigan militiamen accused of conspiring to overthrow the state government, kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and put her on trial for `treason' before Election Day has pleaded guilty in the foiled plot," the Daily Beast reports.

Ty Garbin "has also agreed to take a polygraph test and testify against his co-conspirators."

Napoleon's account of the 1805 "three emperors" clash with Russo-Austrian forces, which is considered his greatest military victory, takes readers through preparations for battle, the fighting itself and is completed by a battle plan drawn by Bertrand on tracing paper.

Lost cause, Sen. Tim Kaiser, promoting giving Trump a slap on the wrist for his actions to promote an insurrection.

"Moscow police launched a series of raids Wednesday on apartments and offices of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's family and associates, arresting his brother," the AP reports.

"The searched locations included Navalny's apartment, where police detained his brother, Oleg, and a rented apartment where Navalny's wife, Yulia, has been living."

Cook Political Report: "Unreleased survey research--both quantitative polls and qualitative focus groups--since the January 6th attack on the Capitol suggests that between 25 and 30 percent of Trump voters now have very mixed feelings about having backed him. They are less likely to believe that the election was stolen, and they were alarmed by the attack in Washington. They care more about the coronavirus pandemic and the direction of the economy."

link

I don't think DHS would have released that statement if they were not expecting trouble.

Republicans Considering More than 100 bills to Restrict Voting Rights

If you are not doing this you are missing good stuff.  It is well worth the price of CBS AllAccess.

The 7th episode (of 9) dropped today and it's really getting to the good part.

Marco or Ivanka

"The verdict is clear: The vast majority of Republicans will stand firm with former President Trump. The next phase is clear, too: Republicans are rallying around a common grievance that big government, big media and big business are trying to shut them up, shut them out and shut them down," Axios reports.

"The post-Trump GOP, especially its most powerful media platforms, paint the new reality as an existential threat. This means political attacks are seen -- or characterized -- as assaults on their very being."

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"Donald Trump has mused about forming a third party. But it's not clear why he needs one," the AP reports.

"As he faces an impeachment trial for inciting insurrection, state and county Republican Party committees have rushed to Trump's defense -- highlighting the former president's firm control of the GOP machinery."

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Politico: "Some House lawmakers are privately refusing to work with each other. Others are afraid to be in the same room. Two members almost got into a fist fight on the floor. And the speaker of the House is warning that `the enemy is within.' ... Forget Joe Biden's calls for unity. Members of Congress couldn't be further divided."

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"Three weeks ago, Donald Trump was radioactive, even in the top quarters of his own party. Now, those same Republicans are convinced they can't live without the energy he gives off, even if it proves toxic," Politico reports.

"The GOP is engaged in a delicate dance to keep Trump and his base of voters in the fold while not seeming too beholden to him. Without Trump's cooperation, the party fears losing a fundraising giant just as it pivots to a midterm cycle in which it hopes to regain majorities in each chamber of Congress."

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"During previously unreported meetings last summer, House Republican leaders discussed -- but then largely set aside -- fears that QAnon-supporting conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene would end up a flaming trainwreck for their party," Axios reports.

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Arizona state Rep Shawnna Bolick (R) introduced legislation which would give the legislators the power to toss out the Secretary of State's certification of electors in a presidential election "at any time before inauguration," the Arizona Capitol Times reports.

However if there's one thing about the remake that makes it scarier than its predecessor, it's the emphasis of the plague that the vampire brings when arriving in the town of Wismar. Due to the fact that the current COVID-19 pandemic is raging on, a movie based around a widespread illness is more terrifying than any plain vampire, and although his presence is what causes the plague to begin in the first place, Count Dracula isn't the figure in the film most associated with the plague: the figures who represent the plague are the thousands of rats infested all over Wismar.

What makes Herzog's remake more disturbing in displaying the plague is that he shows how the town reacts to it. There's a great scene of Lucy running around town square while several coffins are being carried out. Aware of the vampire's presence, she tries to explain to the townspeople why this is happening, but is unable to convince them. Following this is maybe the most fascinating scene in the remake -- Lucy finds herself at an outdoor dining party between citizens who are behaving rather joyful despite the plague and hundreds of rats surrounding them. They explain that they have the disease as well, but are deciding to enjoy themselves before dying.

Why Werner Herzog's Nosferatu Remake Is Scarier Than Ever
Werner Herzog's Nosferatu The Vampyre is a classic remake, but it's display of plague makes it especially haunting today.

GOP senators propose compromise on COVID-19 relief

Cassidy said on "Fox News Sunday" that the GOP senators' package would total $600 billion and include direct payments of $1,000.