Another development:
The $64M question is whether the Rs will succeed in converting it into a whitewash of performance art thinly disguised as deliberative investigation just as they converted the various Benghazi investigations into a witch hunt of performance art thinly disguised as deliberative investigation.
They need evidence; they need to give them due process, which is the way it should be. A sham trial or ill-prepared prosecution would just play right into their hands.
I hate to get my hopes up, but the Vice Chair is John Katko, who voted to impeach Trump.
The Dems gave the RepublicQans equal seating and veto power over subpoena’s.
It’s another Benghazi, this time with the Democrats running the show.
The thing about these kinds of hearings is that they can easily turn into spectacles; they can provide podiums and platforms to people who really don’t need another one. That, of course, is not a reason to avoid public investigation and inquiry, but it should be in the backs of everyone’s minds: don’t assume that all publicity puts the extremists at a disadvantage. It’s as much an opportunity as it is a threat.
katko has gone into it in good faith. the good thing is that anyone on the commission has to be out of government and meet specific criteria.
The commissioners must have “significant expertise in the areas of law enforcement, civil rights, civil liberties, privacy, intelligence, and cybersecurity,” and cannot be current government employees or officers.
https://news.yahoo.com/us-issues-warning-domestic-extremism-191250145.html
In an update of a January alert following the attack on the US Congress by supporters of then-president Donald Trump, DHS said the country faces “increasingly complex and volatile” threats from anti-government and racially-motivated extremists, often stirred up by online influence from abroad.
Katko’s refusing to disclose how he voted on removing Cheney from her leadership position.
He is wavering, wobbly, or at best ducking the question. I am uncertain of his good faith on this issue.
Perhaps the auction for his loyalty hasn’t yet closed; there’s still quite a bidding war going on so he keeps extending the closing date.
American entrepreneurialism knows fewer bounds every day.
A study by the Chicago Project on Security & Threats (University of Chicago) has some interesting findings.
Among them: of the rioters charged with crimes related to the insurrection thus far, 93% of them are white. 86% are male. Only 10% of them are or were part of a militia. Only 7% were unemployed (the national average on Jan.6).
But it’s really the information gleaned while doing control research that was eye-popping. 4%!
The head of the project, Dr. Robert Pape, was interviewed recently; it’s 15 minutes long but it goes by quickly, IMO. He packs a lot of information into his speaking time and he’s given quite a lot of time to say his piece.
I found a link to the study; I note that it is dated 28 January 2021.
TL;DW & TL;DR? I got ya covered. The control research asked two questions of 1,000 American adults: “do you think that the election was stolen?” and “would you participate in a violent protest over the election?”
4% said yes to both questions, meaning that approximately 10,000,000 Americans feel that way. And that’s just the ones that openly admitted it.
Who’s surprised? Raise your hands.
McCarthy doesn’t matter. He’s the most powerless minority leader ever. I expect they’ll get all the Dems plus Cheney, Kinzinger, Katko, and a few others in the House, and we’ll see what happens in the Senate.
Could Biden appoint a Presidential Blue-Ribbon Commission to do the same work?
It’s a signal, tho. Like McConnell has done, it’s a signal to the rest of the GOP as to which way the wind is blowing.
ETA: This is a reply to ** iiiandyii**. The way that Discourse handles replies to the last post in a thread when you click reply is less than optimal.
I don’t think so. One of the important powers of a congressional commission, created by statute, is that it can be given subpoena power in the statute. The President can’t create a subpoena power by executive order.
It shows how partisan House congressional districts have become, and because of that, Republicans trying to win local races have little room to deviate from the Trumpist message.
One positive development is that there are some Republicans who apparently - really and truly - have had enough of the batshittery. The Maricopa Republicans, for instance.
That’s good to see. But it’s not representative of the party as a whole.
Can you believe that the guy who, after the insurrection, flew down to mar-a-lago to meet with Trump doesn’t want an insurrection commission that focuses on the insurrection?
The Shaman’s attorney speaks out:
“A lot of these defendants… they’re all fucking short-bus people,” Albert Watkins told Talking Points Memo . “These are people with brain damage, they’re fucking retarded… But they’re our brothers, our sisters, our neighbors, our coworkers—they’re part of our country. These aren’t bad people, they don’t have prior criminal history. Fuck, they were subjected to four-plus years of goddamn propaganda the likes of which the world has not seen since fucking Hitler.”
I mean, it’s a factually accurate defense. 