Thursday, January 14, 2021


'No chance’: Plot to remove Donald Trump from office implodes

Donald Trump may have become first President in US history to be impeached twice but the Democrats will not be able to kick him out of office.

Shortly after the House of Representatives voted to impeach this morning, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell admitted there’s “no chance” the forthcoming trial in his chamber could be wrapped up before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated -meaning Mr Trump will serve a full term.

“Given the rules, procedures, and Senate precedents that govern presidential impeachment trials, there is simply no chance that a fair or serious trial could conclude before President-elect Biden is sworn in next week,” McConnell said in a public statement.

“The President-elect himself stated last week that his inauguration on January 20 is the ‘quickest’ path for any change in the occupant of the presidency,” he continued.

“In light of this reality, I believe it will best serve our nation if Congress and the executive branch spend the next seven days completely focused on facilitating a safe inauguration and an orderly transfer of power to the incoming Biden Administration.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump issued a video statement after the vote that interestingly he didn’t mention impeachment. It showed a stark change in tone from his message to Americans before and during last week’s riots.

Last week, he addressed the protesters in that video saying, “We love you” and “You’re very special.” In his message today, he has attacked them.

“Mob violence goes against everything I believe in and everything our movement stands for,” Mr Trump said in his new video. “No true supporters of mine could ever endorse political violence.

“No true supporter of mine could disrespect law enforcement or our great American flag. No true supporter of mine could ever threaten or harass their fellow Americans.

“If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement- you are attacking it. And you are attacking our country. We cannot tolerate it.”

The single article of impeachment, charging Mr Trump with “incitement of insurrection”, passed by a margin of 232-197.

Every Democrat voted yes. Ten Republicans joined with them, voting against their own party’s President.

If you’re interested, those 10 Republicans are: Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Jaime Herrera Beutler, Dan Newhouse, Peter Meijer, John Katko, Fred Upton, David Valadao, Tom Rice and Anthony Gonzalez.

The most significant name on that list is Ms Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, who is the third-highest ranking Republican in the House.

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The purge has begun. Cancel culture is going to be worse than ever as the social tyranny rises

President Donald Trump has finally had his Twitter account banned permanently, which had more than 80 million followers.

He got his posting privileges suspended from Facebook yesterday. The account itself may not be too far behind.

The purge has begun. Cancel culture is going to be worse than ever. You either bend the knee, and renounce President Trump — or your days on social media or in official Washington, D.C. could be numbered.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) just had a book contract cancelled. He and his colleague Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) are being cut off by the GOP establishment and Republican donors, simply for fighting for election integrity in a process prescribed under law by Congress more than a century ago.

Parler, the social media alternative to Twitter, has been banned from the Google Play store barring it from Android devices

And there are a number of other accounts and cancellations occurring. It is a wholesale assault on the entire Republican Party. Not just Trump supporters.

Make no mistake. This is a bid for one-party rule.

In the fallout of the tragic storming of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., where police were unjustly attacked, doors broken down, windows smashed, and offices robbed — resulting in the death of five individuals including a Capitol Hill police officer — we have entered a brave new world.

If you are alarmed, you should be. And it’s nothing you did. The overwhelming majority of you have never engaged in political violence once in your entire lives.

President Trump at his speech on Jan. 6 at the Save America Rally on the National Mall called for protesters to be peaceful: “We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”

After the violence began, Trump on Twitter urged his followers to stop immediately: “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you!”

I cannot guarantee for how much longer you will see our content posted on major social media platforms.

This is a mortal threat to our republic and our two-party system, where some of the most prominent figures in the political opposition who would speak out against the Joe Biden administration are being censored by the largest companies in the world.

In April 2018, Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey retweeted an article by Peter Leyden and Ruy Teixeira that called our political discourse a “new civil war,” with Leyden and Teixeira writing, “America can’t afford more political paralysis. One side or the other must win. This is a civil war that can be won without firing a shot. But it is a fundamental conflict between two worldviews that must be resolved in short order.”

It called for “Democratic One-Party Rule” in the U.S. as a means of reconciling issues facing the country and ultimately implementing the progressive agenda. Dorsey called it a “great read.”

This is exactly what John Stuart Mill warned against in 1859 in On Liberty, the most compelling defense of free speech in human history, the philosopher warned how a tyranny of the majority could impose censorship that would be “more formidable” than even governmental censorship and that it could “enslav[e] the soul” with little room for escape.

Mill wrote, “[W]hen society is itself the tyrant — society collectively over the separate individuals who compose it — its means of tyrannising are not restricted to the acts which it may do by the hands of its political functionaries. Society can and does execute its own mandates; and if it issues wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates at all in things with which it ought not to meddle, it practices a social tyranny more formidable than many kinds of political oppression, since, though not usually upheld by such extreme penalties, it leaves fewer means of escape, penetrating much more deeply into the details of life, and enslaving the soul itself.”

This is where we are. It is no longer hypothetical. The social tyranny is here.

So I am urging you to find alternatives. Alternatives to Facebook and Twitter and YouTube. Alternatives to the Republican Party establishment that seems to think you are the problem.

And alternatives to violence. Please. The damage that was caused at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to our country and the Union may be irreparable.

The danger is that this purge will drive more and more people to darker and darker corners of the web. It will become itself a radicalizing element. They are driving you and millions of other Americans into a desperate situation. Submit or be cancelled.

And that, sadly, makes it more likely that the civil society will continue to collapse as individuals give up on believing that our system works at all.

This is dangerous. And it has to stop — before it is too late and we reach the point of no return. We are about to enter into an abyss for which there is no escape.

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Liberal Reporter: 'The New...Authoritarian Liberal-left...Is Going to be Absolutely Ruthless'

Liberal reporter Michael Tracey probably saw this event coming from miles away. Months ago, he probably predicted it. Actually, he did—sort of. He said that Twitter’s glorifying violence protocol is arbitrary and can never be fairly enforced. This was the first wave of the social media giant censoring tweets from the president during the Minneapolis riots. Last night, Twitter finally followed through on something they’ve probably have been waiting to do for months: ban Donald Trump. After flagging and censoring his tweets, the storming of the Capitol Building was probably the last straw. Trump is done on Twitter.

Yet, Tracey is not popping champagne. If this company can do this to Trump, they can do it to anyone. For those who are cheering this, you have no leg to stand on when these tech giants start coming after you. Give it time. It’ll happen. Tracey went on a lengthy series of tweets calling out liberals for celebrating this event, while also warning of an increasingly authoritarian future to come.

“The most extreme, coordinated corporate censorship offensive in modern history and liberals/leftists are in a mindless celebratory stupor. Pathetic shillsm” he wrote. Oh, but when Tracey gets going, it’s a mountain of commentary that drives the ‘woke’ Left insane.

“Imagine thinking that the pattern of unaccountable corporations orchestrating increasingly extreme purges of political speech is a positive development for society...idiots,” he added.

“None of this is about ‘safety,’ it’s about purposely inflating a threat in order to assert political and cultural dominance.”

Earlier last night, he slammed Twitter’s decision to ban Trump calling it “absolute authoritarian lunacy.”

Finally, he said that this push could get state sponsorship, as the Biden administration will soon be ushered into the halls of power.

“The new corporate authoritarian liberal-left monoculture is going to be absolutely ruthless -- and in 12 days it is merging with the state. This only the beginning,” he warned.

We appear to have fallen off the slippery slope in the free speech wars. Dark times ahead? Be vigilant.

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IN BRIEF

Transportation Secretary (and wife of Mitch McConnell) Elaine Chao resigns (Washington Examiner)

Senator James Inhofe says he's never seen Mike Pence so angry amid Trump calls to block election certification (The Hill)

U.S. loses 140,000 jobs, first monthly loss since spring (AP)

Trade deficit soars to 14-year high in November (Politico)

Porch pirate gets caught in the act, then gets his car stuck in the snow trying to escape (Not the Bee)

Nancy Pelosi says she spoke to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about protecting nuclear codes from Trump (Fox News)

Quasi-Democrat Joe Manchin on proposed round of $2,000 checks: "Absolutely not" (The Hill)

Marriot, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Commerce Bank suspend donations to lawmakers who objected to certifying Electoral College vote (Washington Examiner)

PGA strips Trump's Bedminster golf course of its 2022 championship (Daily Mail)

The day after permanently banning Trump for "inciting violence," Twitter allows "Hang Mike Pence" to trend (Not the Bee)

Pope Francis prays for Capitol violence victims — but not other victims of violence (Examiner)

Measure creating reparations committee advances at Illinois statehouse (Examiner)

Four dead following hourslong shooting spree in Chicago area (ABC News)

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler assaulted by left-wing agitators while dining (Disrn)

New York is throwing away vaccines rather than distributing them competently (Reason)

Just 1 in 100,000 had severe allergic reaction to vaccine (Insurance Journal)

Study suggests Pfizer vaccine works against virus variant (AP)

Policy: Why ban of @realDonaldTrump proves Twitter is not "just a platform" (NY Post)

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