What’s up, everyone? How are you doing? Is life treating you better now that we are getting closer to Halloween? I feel like we can just skip the all the tricks and just go straight for the treats. That’s my plan between now and Halloween. I know we are a couple weeks away, but it don’t hurt to plan ahead and if it works, why stop it, right? I don’t know about you, but I feel so close that I can smell the sugar from here. Just load up my bag and I’ll be on my way home. Then it’s to the dentist to have my teeth replaced, and then to the doctor’s office so I can get diagnosed with diabetes afterwards. Yeah, I feel like this could be the transition to the better part of the whole 2020 saga that we have experienced. That or it’s a trap and the wicked witch of the woods is waiting for us to fall asleep so she can put us in the oven and bake us as some sort of human pie. Well, on second thought, I like the first idea better.
Let’s start over, can we? How do you feel about this week compared to last week? Is it better or worse? Do you feel a little bit unchanged? Yeah, I feel you there. I know me coming on here and preaching to the choir about what all is going on or not going on in the media is getting old. Trust me, I know without anyone having to tell me. Let’s face it: It’s been just a continuation of the same ol’ thing over and over. However, there are a couple of things that seem to be a little different, or maybe it’s just a different flavor of the same ol’ log of junk we’ve been fed for the past few months. 2020, itself, is the virus that won’t go away. The symptoms stuck around because people know how to manipulate the crisis. One thing is for sure, after all this is done and the dust settles down, we won’t have to deal with more stupidity for a while. Hopefully all the cards will be left on the table, the hands have been played, and there are no more Aces up any crooks sleeves. My hope is that come November 4th, or just a few very short days after, this election will be over and so will COVID-19.
I want to jump back to something that was late breaking news that we broke live on the air during “Bravo Sierra with Big John”. California Representative and current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, last week, announced legislation to create a commission that would allow Congress to oust a sitting president from office, using the 25th Amendment, just a day after she accused President Trump of being “in an altered state” from his coronavirus treatment (https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-constitutions-legislation-impeachments-735b874cafb7244ff9535b45aa76d435). Even though she literally said that this legislation “is not about President Trump, he will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents.” Speaker Pelosi denied that the timing of the legislation had anything to do with the election and argued that setting up a commission on presidential capacity is needed to “give some comfort to people” on the stability of the government.
Under the 25th Amendment, Congress, the cabinet and vice president can strip powers from a president if for some reason he or she is declared unfit under dire circumstances. But that requires a 2/3 vote of both houses (https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-xxv). In Section 4 of the 25th Amendment, it also states that a majority of “such other body as Congress may by law” determine if the president cannot discharge the powers and duties of his office. The 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967, and Democratic Representative Jamie Raksin, of Maryland, who appeared with Speaker Pelosi during the press conference last Friday, said it’s time for Congress to set up this “body.” Representative Raskin’s bill, which would have to be passed by both chambers of Congress and signed by the president, would set up “the Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office.” While such a bill may pass the Democrat-controlled House, it would seem extremely unlikely to pass the Republican-held Senate unless there was a significant development in Trump’s health. However, when Speaker Pelosi was asked during the press conference if she thought President Trump has met the threshold for the 25th Amendment to be invoked, she replied “That’s not for us to decide”. Although, I think that is what she was trying to say by introducing this bill.
In a turn of the tables, so to speak…. Representative Doug Collins this past Monday (10/12) introduced a resolution to push for the removal of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming she “does not have the mental fitness” to lead the House of Representatives (https://twitter.com/RepDougCollins/status/1315445872881217537). He said “Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s unwillingness to abide by the Constitution, combined with her recent actions, call into question her own mental fitness, which is why it’s critical that the House of Representatives demand her removal from the line of succession”. A draft of Representative Collins’ resolution argues that Pelosi “is unable to adequately serve as Speaker of the House of Representatives and should therefore be removed from her position.” The resolution states that Pelosi “has spent the majority of the House of Representative’s time pursuing baseless and fruitless investigations” against President Trump and his administration, including launching an impeachment inquiry against him in the fall of 2019. “On October 31, 2019, Speaker Nancy Pelosi oversaw the first party-line vote to begin an impeachment inquiry into a president in the history of our country.” The House of Representatives, in December, voted to adopt two articles of impeachment against the president: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
If you recall, the center of the inquiry was President Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine to launch politically related investigations regarding former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings in Ukraine, as well as issues related to the 2016 presidential election. The president’s request came after millions of dollars in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen, which Democrats argue shows a “quid pro quo” arrangement. President Trump has denied any wrongdoing and was acquitted on both articles of impeachment by the Senate this past February. In one step further, Representative Collins’ resolution also states that Pelosi “ripped up the State of the Union speech” delivered by the president in February “before the American people,” referencing when Pelosi tore her printed copy of the speech immediately after Trump wrapped his remarks at the 2020 “State of the Union” (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nancy-pelosi-rips-trumps-state-of-the-union-address-sparking-wild-reactions-on-social-media). The resolution also states that Nancy Pelosi “visited a shuttered hair salon in San Francisco where she received a blow-out without wearing a mask in violation of San Francisco’s laws concerning the coronavirus;” and “cast blame on the salon’s owner for ‘setting her up.’” Adding another example more recent, Representative Collins added in the resolution, “Over her tenure of her speakership, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has started to demonstrate a decline in mental fitness, calling into question her ability to adequately serve the House of Representatives and the American people,” referencing an interview on ABC News, saying Speaker Pelosi “appeared confused and exhibited bizarre behavior” by “blurting out randomly ‘Good Morning, Sunday morning’” (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-flub-during-interview-goes-viral). After this bill got proposed, Speaker Pelosi hasn’t said much more about her and Representative Jamie Raksin hasn’t spoken publicly about their precious little bill. I wonder why that is? Hmmmm…..
Here’s another flavor of the week that comes with a twist: It’s most obvious to me that Judge Amy Coney Barrett is on her way to a Senate confirmation to the United States Supreme Court before the November 3rd election. As a result, it’s getting the folks on the left and the right up in arms. What is interesting here is that even before the Senate Judiciary Committee had finished its four days of hearings with Judge Barrett, the committee chairman Senator Lindsey Graham, from South Carolina, announced that members would tee up a vote on her confirmation by Today (10/15). According to rules, the committee must wait until October 22, to send her confirmation to the full Senate. That means that by next Thursday or Friday, the Senate could confirm President Donald Trump’s third Supreme Court nominee. That is, unless, something happens to change that timeline. However, they seem to be on a tight schedule to get this done this week (https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/). Now the reason for the gap for between this week and October 22nd deadline is that there are still several steps left in the confirmation process. After the Senate Judiciary Committee votes to give her their nomination for Supreme Court Justice, they have to send it to the full Senate, in which debates the nomination.
Now here’s where it will get a little fuzzy, depending on who you talk with. If the Senate can get 3/5 of the Senate or 60 senators (known as the cloture vote), then we have a new Supreme Court Justice (https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=365722&p=2471070). However, in this case, they need 51 to end debate on Supreme Court nominations (this is commonly known as “the nuclear option”). This means they can just get a majority vote, if I’m not mistaken. Again, I’m not a lawyer, but the whole nomination process goes like this:
- The President usually will consult with Senators before announcing a nomination.
- When the President nominates a candidate, the nomination is sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration.
- The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on the nominee. The Committee usually takes a month to collect and receive all necessary records, from the FBI and other sources, about the nominee and for the nominee to be prepared for the hearings.
- During the hearings, witnesses, both supporting and opposing the nomination, present their views. Senators question the nominee on his or her qualifications, judgment, and philosophy.
- The Judiciary Committee then votes on the nomination and sends its recommendation (that it be confirmed, that it be rejected, or with no recommendation) to the full Senate.
- The full Senate debates the nomination.
- The Senate rules used to allow unlimited debate (a practice known as filibustering) and to end the debate, it required the votes of 3/5 of the Senate or 60 senators (known as the cloture vote). In April 2017, the Senate changed this rule and lowered the required votes to 51 to end debate on Supreme Court nominations (this is commonly known as “the nuclear option”).
- When the debate ends, the Senate votes on the nomination. A simple majority of the Senators present and voting is required for the judicial nominee to be confirmed. If there is a tie, the Vice President who also presides over the Senate casts the deciding vote.
Now, I have to say that I like what I see with her being nominated for the Supreme Court Justice position. What I really like is the fact she is holding her own and giving back what she is being given by her skeptics and opponents. Make no mistake about it, Amy Coney Barrett has batted back mainly Democrats when they asked questions on abortion, gun rights and election disputes in some pretty lively testimony, insisting she would bring no personal agenda to the court but would decide cases as they come. She’s had plenty of practice over her career. Being a 48-year-old appellate court judge, she had to learn a thing or two on how to fight back on her way up the judicial ladder. Including defending her conservative and religious views with. Her opponents and skeptics are giving her hell because she didn’t say whether she would recuse herself from any election-related cases involving President Donald Trump, who nominated her to fill the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and is pressing to have her confirmed before the the November 3rd election. At one point, she did fire back by saying “Judges can’t just wake up one day and say I have an agenda — I like guns, I hate guns, I like abortion, I hate abortion — and walk in like a royal queen and impose their will on the world,” back on day two of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. She enforced that “It’s not the law of Amy,” later during her testimony. “It’s the law of the American people.” That comment, entirely, did not set well with some, including the likes of Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate and Senator Kamala Harris, who earlier in the day decided to open her speech about how this nomination will hurt the Affordable Health Care Act, also known as “Obama Care” when it’s case is heard next month, November 10th, in the Supreme Court. The case is known as California vs. Texas (https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/california-v-texas/) A frustrated Senator Dianne Feinstein, who is the top Democrat on the panel, didn’t appreciate the fact the nominee wasn’t more specific about how she would handle landmark abortion cases, including Roe v. Wade and the follow-up Pennsylvania case Planned Parenthood v. Casey (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/505/833/).
Another news story that seems to not be getting the attention that it deserves comes from the city of Denver, Colorado this past Saturday (10/10). This event happens to involved a news media station and NBC Affiliate, KUSA channel 9. A suspect has been arrested for the shooting of veteran Lee Keltner as leftist militants held a counter “protest” to a pro-Trump rally in Denver (https://www.denverpost.com/2020/10/13/9news-protest-shooting-matthew-dolloff/). They reported that “A private security guard is being held as a suspect in a deadly shooting near the Denver Art Museum, according to the Denver Police Department (DPD). The private security guard in custody was contracted through Pinkerton by 9NEWS. It has been the practice of 9NEWS for a number of months to contract private security to accompany staff at protests. Denver Police Department originally took two people into custody and later found the second individual, a 9NEWS producer who works in the investigative unit, was not involved in the incident. The producer is no longer in police custody and is not a suspect.” Later, the Denver Police Department posted on their Twitter account that “Matthew Dolloff is being held for Investigation of First Degree Murder in connection with the shooting that occurred. This remains an active investigation; any additional updates will be released as it becomes available” (https://twitter.com/DenverPolice/status/1315337220841107456).
The are several reports that Matthew Dolloff is proven to have a long history of disliking conservatives and being anti-Trump and is being reported as not properly licensed (https://www.9news.com/article/news/crime/security-guard-held-denver-shooting-wasnt-licensed-officials-say/73-648ca0f2-cc71-4fa7-b145-cbd710b87f5f). He was arrested moments after a single gunshot rang out on the plaza between the Denver Art Museum and the city’s main library. He is being held without bail on suspicion of first-degree murder following the shooting that left one man dead. According to the marketing and communications manager for the city’s Department of Excise and Licenses, “there is no record” that the shooter had a license required by the city to work as a security guard – and no evidence he’d had one in the past. City law defines a security guard as “a person employed or engaged by a private security employer to perform security services.” Investigators have concluded that Dolloff was acting as a security guard at the time of the incident, according to a tweet from the Denver Police Department. It reads, in part, “further investigation has revealed that, at the time of the shooting, the suspect was acting in a professional capacity as an armed security guard for a local media outlet and not a protest participant.”
Speaking of TV news stations, here’s a real doozy, in a sense, that shows how at up the media is. This is an accurate depiction of how the Mainstream Media is having a nervous breakdown over politics. This situation comes from the state of Alaska, the last place you would expect the media reporters to be acting a fool. The mayor of Anchorage, Alaska, earlier this week admitted to an “inappropriate messaging relationship” with a local TV news anchor who lodged bizarre and unsubstantiated allegations against him (https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2020/10/12/anchorage-mayor-admits-to-inappropriate-relationship-with-news-anchor/). “I apologize to the people of Anchorage for a major lapse in judgement I made several years ago when I had a consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship with reporter Maria Athens,” Mayor Ethan Berkowitz said in a statement. Maria Athens, an anchor for the local Fox and ABC affiliated news stations, posted a video to her professional Facebook page last Friday (10/9) alleging the mayor posted an illicit photo of himself to “an underage girls website.” The anchor claimed the accusations were coming from “reliable sources” and said the story would be airing later that night. An investigation by Anchorage police and the FBI into the allegations found no criminal conduct. The mayor blasted the initial claims as “slanderous” and “categorically false” in a Friday statement. Later Friday, the reporter posted to her Facebook page a nude image claiming to be that of the mayor, along with the mayor’s initial statement. The anchor was also arrested at work later that day for punching the station manager, whom she was also romantically involved with, according to court documents. The next day, the reporter acted out at her arraignment, interrupting the court with frequent outbursts. “I have pancreatitis!” the news anchor said. She also said she needed to get back to work by Monday. It’s unclear if she is still employed by the news stations. She was charged with misdemeanor assault, criminal mischief, and disorderly conduct for her alleged fight at the news station.
Mayor Berkowitz, who is married, did not initially respond to questions about why he didn’t acknowledge his relationship with Maria Athens on Friday, when the city sent out a statement calling her “hostile and unwell” or over the weekend as attention mounted and allies publicly defended him. Late Sunday night, a spokeswoman for the mayor wrote: “The approximately 72 hours between the mayor’s statement on Friday and Monday afternoons is due to the time in which the Mayor needed to tell his family about the inappropriate messaging relationship with the reporter.” Mayor Berkowitz was elected Anchorage mayor in 2015 and reelected in 2018. He is barred by term limits from running again for mayor when his term would have ended next spring, but it was announced the he put in his resignation Tuesday (10/13), effective at the end of next week (https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2020/10/13/anchorage-mayor-ethan-berkowitz-announces-resignation/), citing “unacceptable personal conduct”. According to the city’s charter (https://library.municode.com/ak/anchorage/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTICH), the Assembly chair will take over as acting mayor until a special election is held. However, the Assembly can vote to reorganize the Assembly and choose a new chair before the mayor’s resignation goes into effect in 10 days. During Tuesday’s meeting, Assemblywoman Jamie Allard made a motion to reorganize, but the motion failed 8-3.
Let’s take it from one town in the great Northwest to another town in the great Southeast. In Meridian, Mississippi, City Councilman, Weston Lindemann, posted a 12 minute video on his Facebook page, alleging that city employees, including Meridian police officers, are conspiring to kill him (https://www.facebook.com/1579392267/videos/10221450724249072/). The man said it all began last week after he announced that he would like to launch an investigation into the Meridian Police Department. At the press conference, he also announced he would be filing a lawsuit against Mayor Percy Bland for not hiring a police chief in a timely manner while accusing him of being involved in the alleged threats. In the video, the councilman mentions a specific Meridian police officer that, he says, might be behind the threats. That officer hasn’t been formally accused or charged with a crime. The city Mayor denies the accusations and recommends the councilman seek help from law enforcement. “We have requested that Councilman Lindemann move forward with taking whatever claims he has to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation or the FBI,” the Mayor said (https://www.wtok.com/2020/10/12/meridian-councilman-claims-people-are-out-to-kill-him/). It’s being reported that Weston Lindemann has left town for his own protection since the announcement (https://www.mississippifreepress.org/6134/councilman-leaves-meridian-says-local-police-officer-wants-to-kill-him/). He claims to have reached out to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the state attorney general’s office, and the FBI because he believes city employees, including a police officer, are trying to take him out.
Last but not least on tonight’s bucket list of topics less promoted on the news, have you heard that Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of killing two protesters days after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will not face charges in his home state of Illinois, prosecutors said (https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/10/13/21514847/kyle-rittenhouse-antioch-gun-charge-jacob-blake). An investigation revealed the gun used in the Kenosha shooting was purchased, stored and used in Wisconsin, according to a statement by the Lake County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office. There is no evidence the gun was ever physically possessed by Kyle Rittenhouse in Illinois, who remains held in a juvenile detention center in Lake County, Illinois without bond because pending criminal charges in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He is due back in Lake County court on October 30th for an extradition hearing. His arrest has become a rallying point for different people, with a legal defense fund that has attracted millions of dollars in donations. Some see him as a domestic terrorist whose presence with a rifle incited the protesters while his defense attorneys have portrayed him as a courageous patriot who was exercising his right to bear arms during unrest over the shooting of Blake. So far, Kyle Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of two protesters and attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of underage firearm possession for wielding a semi-automatic rifle in Wisconsin. However, his lawyer has argued that the teen shouldn’t be sent back to Wisconsin to face homicide charges because “this is not a legitimate criminal prosecution, it is a political prosecution.”
Needless to say it’s been a very interesting week to say the least. It’s been filled with all kinds of confusing and conflicting events all going on at the same time. It is a bucket list served in single blitz move as a Hail Mary storming the beaches of a political war front. The next three weeks is going be a whole lot worse. You know, if you have been reading my weekly blog posts or listening to Bravo Sierra with Big John, we’ve been talking about this building up. Remember, it’s not to late to get prepared, but you should be ready. Keep your faith…
