DML Morning Briefing Jan 25: Republicans put to the test on impeachment of Trump.
Today is January 25 and I am Dennis Michael Lynch.
1.House sending Trump impeachment to Senate, GOP opposes trial
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the House prepares to bring the impeachment charge against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, a growing number of Republican senators say they are opposed to the proceeding, dimming the chances that former president will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol.
House Democrats will carry the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol late Monday evening, a rare and ceremonial walk to the Senate by the prosecutors who will argue their case. They are hoping that strong Republican denunciations of Trump after the Jan. 6 riot will translate into a conviction and a separate vote to bar Trump from holding office again.
DML: If the GOP wants to bury itself deeper then by all means play along with the Democrats. Instead of focusing on Trump, how about the Republicans show some balls and use all the unused donations from voters to launch a private investigation into Joe Biden and his dealings with China via his son Hunter. Now something like that would be impressive.
2.California campaign to fire Newsom nears threshold needed for ballot
Fox News reports: A recall campaign to oust California Gov. Gavin Newsom is nearing its required threshold to qualify for a statewide ballot.
Over the weekend, recall organizers said they have collected 1.2 million of the 1.5 million signatures needed by March 17 to qualify for a ballot.
Per state law, petition sponsors must gather the signatures of 12% of the voter turnout in California’s previous statewide election, which is about 1,495,709 names.
Rescue California, one of two main groups organizing the campaign, said their goal is to collect 2 million signatures to account for the fact that many of the signatures will inevitably prove invalid.
San Diego’s KUSI reported Saturday that California’s secretary of state has confirmed 84% of the signatures collected so far are valid.
DML: It would be a gift from God for those people living in CA to see this piece of sh*t removed from office, but I think we’ve got a better chance of seeing every illegal Mexican living in CA to voluntarily return to Mexico before seeing Newsom stem accept the results of a recall. In other words, it ain’t happening.
3.Native American Tribe Calls Joe Biden’s Drilling Freeze a ‘Direct Attack’ on Sovereignty
Breitbart reports: A Native American tribe this week criticized the Biden administration’s order halting agency approvals for oil, gas, and coal permitting on federal lands including tribal lands. In a letter Thursday, chairman of the Ute Indian Tribe Business Committee Luke Duncan wrote, “The Ute Indian Tribe and other energy producing tribes rely on energy development to fund our governments and provide services to our members.”
Duncan called the order “a direct attack on our economy, sovereignty, and our right to self-determination,” adding, “Indian lands are not federal public lands. Any action on our lands and interests can only be taken after effective tribal consultation.”
According to the tribe’s website, mining oil and natural gas is “big business on the reservation.”
DML: Biden is such an old fool. I mean, when you (Biden) get the liberal Canadian Prime Minister bitching about your executive order that’s one thing, but now the Indians are blowing war smoke too! Geez Joey, it may be time to cut a deal. My suggestion is your offer a two for one deal. Reopen the Keystone XL Pipeline and give back the Indians a $5,000,000 check to look the other was for the Washington Redskins to reclaim their logo and identity. And as a bonus to you Joe, ask Canada to toss in a year supply of Viagra, this way you can get back to work with Jill and leave this free of your executive orders.
4.Several Super Bowl Advertisers Bow Out over Fear of Offending Viewers
A growing number of big-name advertisers, including Coke and Hyundai, are skipping the Super Bowl this year for fear of not striking the right tone amid America’s contentious political landscape.
Several companies have decided not to buy Super Bowl time, some for the first time in over a decade.
The reason? According to the New York Post, the talk from insiders is that members of multiple boardrooms are finally coming to realize that they’re going to infuriate half the country no matter what they do.
In recent years, advertisers were thrilled to push the Black Lives Matter and Antifa ideologies or to push transgenderism and the #MeToo movement. But this year, not so much.
“Every client conversation I’ve had these days is about who is going to be offended by this ad,” Rob Schwartz, chief executive officer of ad agency TBWA\Chiat\Day, told the Post. “There’s a lot of discussion about risk mitigation. What that tends to do is that it makes things very bland and not effective, or it forces you to look at universal topics like hope or humor.
“The country is so divided and split right down the middle that I don’t think that there’s a commercial that will appease both sides,” added Bill Oberlander, co-founder and executive creative of ad agency Oberlander.
DML: The NFL is dead to me. Although I appreciate Tom Brady being the super athlete that he is, Brady did nothing to stop players from taking a knee. I hope the NFL dies a slow death.
5.Dominion files $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani for election claims
CNBC: Dominion Voting Systems filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against former President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, accusing him of pushing “disinformation to purposefully mislead voters” and causing “irreparable harm” to the company.
Giuliani was involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The former New York City mayor argued repeatedly in public that Trump’s win had been stolen by widespread electoral fraud.
Dominion accuses Giuliani of promulgating the “Big Lie” that Dominion had tampered with votes to fix the election for Biden, in order to “financially enrich himself, to maintain and enhance his public profile, and to ingratiate himself to Donald Trump for money and benefits he expected to receive as a result of that association.”
The lawsuit seeks more than $1.3 billion in compensatory and punitive damages. Dominion said in a 107-page legal complaint that its employees have been stalked, harassed and threatened as a “direct, foreseeable, and intentional result” of Giuliani’s “viral disinformation campaign.“
DML: I’m still wondering why nobody in government gave two sh*ts when a systems analyst testified in GA that thee voting machines were hooked to the internet when they were not supposed to be.
6.Birx says someone was giving Trump ‘parallel data’ about Covid pandemic
Dr. Deborah Birx, the Trump White House coronavirus response coordinator, said in a CBS interview released on Sunday that Former President Donald Trump had been reviewing “parallel” data sets on the coronavirus pandemic from someone inside the administration.
“I saw the president presenting graphs that I never made,” Birx told Margaret Brennan on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.” “Someone inside was creating a parallel set of data and graphics that were shown to the president.”
Birx, who announced her retirement as President Joe Biden took office last week, said she doesn’t know the identity of the person who gave the president different information. She added that there were Covid-19 deniers within the Trump administration.
“There were people who definitely believed that this was a hoax,” she said. “I think the information was confusing at the beginning. I think because we didn’t talk about the spectrum of the disease, everyone interpreted what they knew.”
DML: O boy, what I’d love to write here about Birx and her scarfs, but it’s a family website.
