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    The Final Showdown: Here's what to watch for when congress meets next week to review electoral college votes

    Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport @ RawStory
    December 29, 2020

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    President Donald Trump delivers his State of the Union address.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Terry H. Schwadron, DCReport @ RawStory

    Next week's vote by the incoming Congress on the Electoral College roll-up of November election results will be anything but routine.

    But, as has become the usual way, too much attention is focused on the personalities involved and not enough on the effects on the country.

    Indeed, it feels much more depressingly usual that we could have debate to resolve a fantasy election challenge than we can have to settle the new outstanding impasse over a presidential hissy fit over signing an overdue coronavirus aid bill – a signing that came without explanation last night.

    A final showdown will make this country weaker in the eyes of adversaries, invite more chaos and make it tons more difficult to move ahead.

    The cast of the Jan. 6. drama includes Donald Trump, of course, whose obsession with the fantasy of a Congress overturning reality is center stage; Sen. Mitch McConnell and his apparently doomed hopes for a unified Republican caucus; the puppetry of incoming Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), acting on behalf of Trump; and the spinelessness of Vice President Mike Pence, who is caught in the unfortunate speaking role of recognizing (or not) the vocal attempts of a few Trump loyalists in both houses to float the required objections to the Electoral College results.

    Oh yeah, there also is a president-elect-in-waiting expecting to move into the White House on Jan. 20.

    From a point removed enough from the scuffling to take a deep breath, the question is why so little concern in this dust-up is about the well-being of the country rather than calming the insistent demands of the Trump personal tantrum.

    For Trump, like a perceived Louis XIV from another era, the state actually is him, and, in his delusion, Trump must think what he is doing is toward Making America Great.

    Actually, what an arbitrarily disruptive Jan. 6 vote is doing is to continue and, in fact, accelerate Trump's attacks on trust in American institutions. A final showdown to attempt to overturn an American election will make this country weaker in the eyes of adversaries, invite more chaos at a time already fraught with illness and economic disruption and make it tons more difficult to move ahead with the many aspects of governance that require actual review – and change.

    Avoiding a Fight

    Multiple news articles are reflecting similar themes about this pending last-ditch election challenge, even amid a few hints from pundits that perhaps Trump had been holding back on signing the coronavirus bill in return for promised Republican leadership help on contesting the election.

    The set-up: A single objection from both a House and Senate member to the presentation of Electoral College results kicks off a two-hour debate and vote in each house on the objection.

    Here's TheHill.com: "National Republicans are desperate to avoid a floor fight in Congress over the certification of the Electoral College vote next month, believing it would be horrible politics to continue waging what most recognize to be a hopeless battle to overturn the outcome of the election."

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Deputy John Thune (R-S.D.) have asked their Republican Senate colleagues not to join Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) or other House members looking to object to the election results. Incoming Tuberville says he is heeding Trump's urge for Republicans to revolt. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) are wild cards.

    Trump this week threatened to primary Thune in the next election, showing what he believes to be his iron fist.

    On top of all else, the two races on Jan. 5 in Georgia are so close that it seems likely we will not have those two seats filled on the following day.

    Those who follow these procedural issues closely say any revolt will not be effective. Already too many Republican senators say they will oppose any effort to overturn the election, starting with Mitt Romney (R-Utah), but also including Mike Lee (R-Utah), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

    And Trump's inner circle of lawyers still have one last case pending before a Supreme Court that already has shot down the appeal from Texas to overturn, without evidence, the elections in four contested states. Trump has been waving a 36-page document assembly by Trade Representative and non-lawyer Peter Navarro compiling unverified affidavits and complaints as if they are evidence.

    What's the Alternative?

    Pence is in a strange position, among the last of the Trump defenders. As vice president, it is he who presides over the joint meeting of Congress that day and it is he who must accept or reject the objections from the floor. My bet is that he accepts the objection, allows the votes to shoot down the objection, before slinking out of town on a previously set foreign trip he announced for cover.

    Off to the side, Trump's armies of white supremacists and loyalists seem to care little about either the realities of the election nor the actual rules for such affirmation of Electoral College outcomes. They want only what they want – Dear Leader for another four years and the ouster of Joe Biden as an imposter president-elect.

    They are making clear to anyone who stands in the way – including Fox News, Newsmax, retiring attorney general William P. Barr, governors and state legislators – that they will have their way, even threatening violence to get it.

    So, a congressional procedural floor fight is just symbolic.

    Trump just wants chaos that continues to keep him in the limelight, and puts himself in the position of aggrieved candidate from whom reelection was stolen. That allows him to continue collecting tons of unrestricted money from supporters, to threaten a new election try in four years and to seek to establish himself as shadow president-in-exile, whose tweets and opinions he thinks will matter.

    Of course, instead, Trump could stand on principle here—for elections not his own. If he truly thinks there was fraud, he could be asking for a full review and evaluation of the things that he thinks the states should change – from procedures governing mail ballots and authentication to a required mechanical review of voting machines.

    We know Trump cares only about his own political fortunes, however, and believes that he gains by causing agita for the country.

    He already has his 2024 would-be red hat: Make America Chaotic.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

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    Fed's Jerome Powell warns economic outlook still 'highly uncertain'

    Agence France-Presse
    January 27, 2021

    The fate of the US economy depends on the course of the pandemic and the Covid-19 vaccine rollout, but the outlook is nonetheless "highly uncertain," Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

    "A resurgence in recent months of Covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths is causing great hardship for millions of Americans and weighing on economic activity and job creation," the central bank chief said.

    He said government spending programs have helped support the economy, but the United States needs to recover at least nine million jobs to reach the goal of full employment.

    "Overall economic activity remains below its level before the pandemic, and the path ahead remains highly uncertain," Powell told reporters.

    He spoke after the central bank's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held its first meeting of 2021 and pledged to keep borrowing rates low until employment has recovered.

    It was the first meeting under the presidency of Joe Biden, who took office last week and said defeating the Covid-19 pandemic and pushing through a $1.9 trillion economic rescue plan are his top priorities.

    "Support from fiscal policy will help households and businesses weather the downturn as well as limit lasting damage to the economy that could impede the recovery," the central bank chief said.

    He also said he was "absolutely sure" he would be able to work well with newly-installed US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who was his predecessor as Fed chair and will lead the charge in pushing Biden's stimulus plan through Congress.

    After the coronavirus pandemic derailed the world's largest economy, unemployment surged from a near record low of 3.4 percent to nearly 15 percent, before ending last year at 6.7 percent.

    However, Powell said the pandemic drove huge numbers of people out of the workforce, which means "the real unemployment rate is close to 10 percent."

    Vaccine hope, hiccups

    As the economy grapples with the world's worst coronavirus outbreak, optimism about vaccines has raised hopes that activity can return to normal soon.

    But there also have been some setbacks in vaccine distribution and supply, and the FOMC said the course of the recovery will depend "significantly" on the virus and those treatments.

    Powell, who said he has received the first of two shots for his Covid-19 vaccine, cautioned that it will be "a struggle" to get enough people injected to achieve herd immunity.

    After the United States, like other countries, saw a resurgence of infections late last year, the FOMC noted that the recovery had "moderated in recent months, with weakness concentrated in the sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic."

    The FOMC again pledged to keep the benchmark lending rate low until the economy achieves "full employment," in keeping with the Fed's new policy stance.

    Even before the pandemic struck, inflation was muted and since then has fallen far below the central bank's two-percent target.

    That prompted the central bank to shift its focus to helping the labor market recover, while accepting higher inflation for a while once the economy begins to grow more strongly.

    Powell acknowledged that some prices might spike as sectors are able to return to normal, but those transitory effects would not be overly concerning.

    Economists like Mickey Levy of Berenberg Capital Markets wondered what happens if inflation rises to two percent or above for a longer period.

    "The Fed is comfortable with its current monetary policy stance. Fiscal policy has taken over the spotlight, which the Fed has willingly yielded. Let's see how long this lasts," Levy said in an analysis.

    The Fed also committed to keeping its asset purchases at the pace of at least $120 billion per-month, and Powell said it is far too soon to even discuss the possibility of tapering the bond buying program.

    Gabby Giffords slams Marjorie Taylor Greene over viral video of her harassing Parkland survivor David Hogg

    David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
    January 27, 2021

    Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, whose congressional career effectively ended when a madman tried to assassinate her by putting a bullet in her brain, on Wednesday slammed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after a video of the QAnon congresswoman from Georgia went viral.

    The video, originally posted to Greene's own YouTube page one year ago, shows her trailing Parkland massacre survivor David Hogg, berating and harassing him for working to pass gun control legislation. "I carry a gun for protection," Greene can be heard in the video shouting. At the time the video was recorded Hogg was 18 or 19 years old.

    "'Representative' isn't just a title—it's also a job description," Giffords, who served for five years in the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted Wednesday afternoon. "Members of Congress should represent our better values of respect, compassion, and decency."

    Thinking of @DavidHogg111 and every survivor who has been harassed after losing friends or family to gun violence. “Representative" isn't just a title—it's also a job description. Members of Congress should represent our better values of respect, compassion, and decency. https://t.co/y0axD9dFWq
    — Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) January 27, 2021

    The video of Greene, who was a congressional candidate when it was recorded, has 4.6 million views.

    Counterintelligence expert thinks Trump's Homeland Security suppressed bulletin on domestic terrorism threats

    Sarah K. Burris
    January 27, 2021

    Former FBI deputy for counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi, addressed the Homeland Security bulletin issued Wednesday warning of possible continued terrorism from violent anti-government extremists like the ones who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, Figliuzzi began with positive news that this is a bulletin not an alert, which means there's nothing specifically planned soon.

    The alert said that there have been increasing threats for the past year from violent domestic extremists motivated by COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates.

    "Here is the bad news," he continued. "This reflects a discovery of deeply entrenched radicalization in our society. As the agents are going through and arresting and executing search warrants against the insurrectionists, they're likely to discover evidence of bigger planning, a deeper sense of organization than they could have imagined. I know personally from my own observations that the chatter is continuing almost unabated, but this advisory is not only about what they know about what might happen, but it's also a fear of what they're not seeing."

    The example he used was that many of these people are moving to use encrypted platforms that law enforcement officials can't see or monitor.

    "That's a blind spot for them," he explained. "The other thing, this isn't just partnering with law enforcement. One, yeah, let's put national law enforcement on notice, the highway patrol officer who pulls someone over who yaks about hurting somebody in D.C., but it's also, if you see something, say something. We need that kind of posture as we had after 9/11."

    Wallace asked about the bulletin itself, wondering since it has been going on for a year if law enforcement would have found it helpful to have the bulletin sooner.

    "My sense, my gut, my experience tells me that when we heard the FBI say that we gave intelligence concerns about violence to the Capitol Police, the Capitol region," said Figliuzzi. "When we hear the Capitol Police produce their own intelligence report, that was even more troubling, and we saw the posture and presence we saw. My gut tells me someone was pulling those strings, and someone said, 'don't issue the warnings, don't get the posture up, don't scare people, don't interfere with what we have.' We need a truly independent commission to get us those answers."

    See the discussion below:


    Counterintelligence expert www.youtube.com

     
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