Fishy, Smelly News

Year 2386 trivial question: who was the only United States* president to be impeached twice? 

 

*The United States was a large country in the era of nation-states occupying the mid-latitudes of North America from the years 1776 to 2032 CE, whose demise is widely agreed to have been precipitated by this same president. . 

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There are a smattering of news stories out today that don't have a great deal of evidence behind them yet, but don't smell very good either. 

• First there's this:

"Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6.

"Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters.

"'We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,' Alexander said in a since-deleted video on Periscope highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight, an investigative nonprofit. The plan, he said, was to 'change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.'"

• Why did petulant, gun-crazy Colorado Republican representative Lauren Boebert tweet information during the riot about the location of Speaker Nancy Pelosi? 

These were posted at 2:16 pm and 2:17 pm EST. Early on the morning of the riot she tweeted this:

What did she know about what was about to happen?

• WaPo:

"One day before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, a Democratic lawmaker says, she saw colleagues leading groups on “reconnaissance” tours of the building.

"Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) made the startling claim in a Facebook Live broadcast on Tuesday night as she accused Republicans of inciting the pro-Trump mob that vandalized the Capitol and attacked police officers.

"Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, described seeing 'members of Congress who had groups coming through the Capitol that I saw on Jan. 5 for reconnaissance for the next day.'"

• Talking Points Memo:

"Phone numbers belonging to two of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) offices appeared to be listed as contact information in a note found in a truck belonging to Lonnie Coffman, who has been indicted for allegedly carrying unregistered firearms and 11 Molotov cocktails in that same vehicle during the pro-Trump insurrection last week."

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) -- "AOC" -- said on Instagram Live last night that she had a "close encounter" during the riots last week where she thought she was going to die. She also "worried her own colleagues in Congress might divulge her location to the mob outside, putting her at risk for kidnapping or worse."

• In Oregon, a Republican state representative was caught on video letting rioters into the statehouse as he left the building. He's since been stripped of his committee assignments, billed for damages and the Speaker of the State House is urging him to resign.