#Josh Toomey

[dotwpod]

(343) MLiFS: Joshua Toomey

Disciples!We’re hitting ya up with a new My Life in Four Songs (MLiFS) featuring the one and only Joshua Toomey from the Talk Toomey Podcast and Audio Autopsy on Knotfest.com! Joshua and I had a good time hangin’ out and talkin’ music and we also get into his time performing music and being part of the band Primer 55.So join us and let’s reminisce!\m/ Playlist:0:00:00 Intros0:06:19 Joshua Toomey…

[dorothydalmati1]

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 8 Episode 11: Molt Down

Written by Josh Haber

Storyboard by Cory Toomey & Megan Willis

Directed by Mike Myhre

Animation directed by Rexis Liwanag

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

New data from Pennsylvania's elections agency shows an early November state court decision that barred mail-in ballots without accurate handwritten dates on their exterior envelopes resulted in otherwise valid votes being thrown out.

The Department of State said this week more than 16,000 mail-in ballots were disqualified by county officials because they lacked secrecy envelopes or proper signatures or dates. Democratic voters, who are much more likely to vote by mail, made up more than two-thirds of the total canceled ballots. The agency said 8,250 Pennsylvania mail-in ballots were rejected because they were sent in without being contained within a secrecy envelope, making it impossible for them to be tabulated without putting voter privacy at risk.

The remaining 7,904 invalidated ballots were tossed out because the exterior envelopes used to send in those ballots did not have the voters' signatures, or because those exterior envelopes were either undated or improperly dated. Many counties, but not all, worked with voters to “cure” undated ballots. Those fixed ballots were counted and are not among the number of rejected ballots now being reported by the Department of State.

Some people whose mail-in ballots were thrown out in the high-stakes November election may not be aware that happened.

“In many counties, voters who provide their email address when applying for a mail ballot automatically receive email notifications with status updates on their ballot, including whether their ballot was canceled,” Department of State spokesperson Ellen Lyon said in an email. “There is no similar automatic notification system for voters who do not provide an email address when applying for a mail ballot.”

Pennsylvania Democrats flipped Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey's seat this fall, elected Attorney General Josh Shapiro as Governor and won just enough state House races to retake majority control by one vote.

But the Democrats' much greater use of mail-in voting also meant they saw far more of their votes disqualified than did Republicans, independents and third party voters combined. Democrats had 10,920 votes thrown out, about half for lacking secrecy envelopes. Republicans saw 3,503 ballots forfeited. Independents and third parties amounted to 1,731 votes that did not count in the fall election.

Negotiations between Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and Republican legislative leaders about ending the exterior envelope date requirement failed because the sides could not reach agreement on a wider bill to address a host of election procedures and policy changes. The exterior envelope dates are not needed to ensure ballots arrive in time — that occurs when they are received and clocked in by county elections workers.

Republican lawmakers have defended the need for the requirements, saying they are important for security and secrecy.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that the dates were not required — calling them “immaterial” — but the U.S. Supreme Court then ruled that decision moot.

Other federal litigation against the secretary of state and county elections boards over the inaccurate or missing envelope dates remains pending. It claims enforcing the date requirement has a larger impact on voters who are "significantly older than both other Pennsylvanians who voted by mail and all registered Pennsylvania voters.”

In the Governor's race, Shapiro collected just over 1 million mail-in votes, about a third of his total, on his way to a nearly 15-point win over Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano, whose received more than 187,000 mail-in ballots. There were fewer than 19,000 third-party or independent mail-in votes in the gubernatorial race.

Marian Schneider, senior voting rights policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, said state law needs more clarity about the process of curing flawed ballots so more voters’ choices will count. The total number may be a small portion of total votes cast, but they could determine the winner of a close race.

“It's still 16,000 people whose votes didn't count,” Schneider said. “It would be good to avoid that, right?”

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled a week before the November election that mail-in votes may not count if they are “contained in undated or incorrectly dated outer envelopes." Ballots without properly dated envelopes have been the topic of litigation since mail-in voting was greatly expanded in Pennsylvania under a 2019 state law.

The justices had split 3-3 on whether making the envelope dates mandatory under state law would violate provisions of the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that immaterial errors or omissions should not be used to prevent voting. The tie meant the date mandate has remained in place. The court has yet to issue a written opinion laying out its reasoning and explaining why it ordered county officials to “segregate and preserve” the canceled ballots.

[esonetwork]

'The Shrinking Island' Book Review By Ron Fortier

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/the-shrinking-island-book-review-by-ron-fortier/

'The Shrinking Island' Book Review By Ron Fortier

THE SHRINKING ISLAND Three Novels By Mickey Spillane Rough Edges Press 316 pgs

Vincent Demar and his son Larry move to the Caribbean Island of Peolle to start a new life. Upon arriving they make friends with islander Tim Toomey and his son Josh. Soon the two teenage boys are inseparable and ready for whatever adventures may come their way. Enjoying what are primarily three Young Adult novels produced by a world famous tough-guy private-eye writer is just more proof on how versatile and talented Spillane truly was. Whereas since his passing in 2006, literary history has relegated him to the narrow confines of mystery and crime thrillers choosing to ignore the incredible amount of work he created in all kinds of genres from westerns to horror and yes, even Young Adult.

This book collects “The Day the Sea Rolled Back” and “The Ship That Never Was,” the two previously published Larry and Josh stories along with “The Shrinking Island.” Published here for the first time. Reading these, we immediately see the formula the author established. Much like all traditional young adult stories, Larry and Josh become new versions of the Hardy Boys only with an exotic Caribbean background. As each tale opens, they come across some bizarre mystery, set out to explore it on their own, then become the targets of unscrupulous men seeking a long lost treasure and put the boys in jeopardy.

In “The Day the Sea Rolled Back” the boys deal with a natural phenomenon wherein the sea actually rolls back exposing several miles of sea bottom around the tiny islands; never before seen real estate with several sunken ships now visible to all. With “The Ship That Never Was,” Larry and Josh discover an old sailor adrift in a hundred year old British longboat that could only have come off a classic British frigate. All of which leads to the strange history of what was considered a jinxed boat. And finally, with “The Shrinking Island,” our impetuous duo encounters a supernatural force straight out of an issue of Weird Tales.

This is a fun package and having enjoyed them, we can only bemoan the fact that Spillane never wrote any others. Larry and Josh are terrific characters and it would have been fun to see where the series might have gone. That

[wtffundiefamilies]

Expect this to be reposted a lot because tumblr’s tagging system remains shit and I want everyone’s names to show up when I search them on here, but for now...I don’t have the energy/

[d3vilsclvbxvx]

Smashed the Flithy 500 workout this morning in under 30 minutes 💪🏼

So spending the rest of the day recovering with iced coffee and Expedition Unknown

[mariacallous]

Retiring Republican Sen. Pat Toomey was sharply critical of Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano on Thursday, blaming him for dragging down the candidacy of Mehmet Oz in the race to replace Toomey in the Senate.

The outgoing senator made the remarks in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett.

Toomey started by saying that he thought Oz "ran a very good campaign."

"So the question that I think arises is, 'Why did a good candidate, running a good race, in what should be a very good environment, not prevail in a state like Pennsylvania — which is very, very competitive?" Toomey said.

"I think a big part of the reason was that at the top of the ticket, in the gubernatorial race, we had an ultra-MAGA candidate who never appeared to even attempt to expand beyond a hardcore base that was very, very committed to him. But he ended up losing in an epic beatdown."

Toomey said it's "very, very hard" for a Republican down-ballot to win with someone so unpopular at the top of the ticket. He pointed out that Oz's loss to Democrat John Fetterman was relatively narrow when compared with Mastriano's margin against Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.

Toomey, who has been sharply critical of former President Donald Trump and the Republican party's shift under his leadership, blamed the former president for involving himself in the selection of candidates across the country.

"This is a huge problem, and I think my party needs to face the fact that if fealty to Donald Trump is the primary criteria for selecting candidates, we're probably not going to do really well," he told Burnett.

Some background: The Trump-endorsed Mastriano came to national attention for his vehement election denialism and his presence in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

As the election went on, he did little to hedge his far-right positions or reach out to groups beyond his base of supporters, CNN's Chris Cillizza wrote.

Oz, meanwhile, focused on bringing “balance” to the Senate in the final days of the race – casting himself a moderate voice who could navigate between extremes within the two parties.

[jbarneswilson]

nra contributions to gop senators:

Mitt Romney (UT) $13,647,676

Richard Burr (NC) $6,987,380

Roy Blunt (MO) $4,555,722

Thom Tillis (NC) $4,421,333

Cory Gardner [ousted] (CO) $3,939,199

Marco Rubio (FL) $3,303,355

Joni Ernst (IA) $3,124,773

Rob Portman (OH) $3,063,327

Todd C. Young (IN) $2,897,582

Bill Cassidy (LA) $2,867,074*

Tom Cotton (AR) $1,968,714

Pat Roberts [ousted] (KS) $1,581,153

Pat Toomey (PA) $1,475,448

Josh Hawley (MO) $1,391,548

Marsha Blackburn (TN) $1,306,130

Ron Johnson (WI) $1,269,486

Mitch McConnell (KY) $1,267,139

Mike Braun (IN) $1,249,967

John Thune (SD) $638,942

Shelley Moore Capito (WV) $341,738

Martha McSally [ousted](AZ) $303,853

Richard Shelby (AL) $258,514

Chuck Grassley (IA) $226,007

John Neely Kennedy (LA) $215,788

Ted Cruz (TX) $176,274

Lisa Murkowski (AK) $146,262

Steve Daines (MT) $123,711

Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS) $109,547

Roger Wicker (MS) $106,680

Rand Paul (KY) $104,456

Mike Rounds (SD) $95,049

John Boozman (AR) $82,35

John Cornyn (TX) $78,945

Ben Sasse (NE) $68,623

Jim Inhofe (OK) $66,758

Lindsey Graham (SC) $55,961

Mike Crapo (ID) $55,039

Jerry Moran (KS) $34,718

John Barrasso (WY) $26,989

Lamar Alexander [retired] (TN) $25,293

Mike Enzi [retired] (WY) $24,722

John Hoeven (ND) $22,050

Susan Collins (ME) $19,800

Deb Fischer (NE) $19,638

James Lankford (OK) $18,955

Jim Risch (ID) $18,850

Tim Scott (SC) $18,513

Kevin Cramer (ND) $13,255

Call to Action:

•Find your Senator's name & Tweet them

•Call them at (202) 224-3121

•Demand they pass HR8 and pass gun reform

•Ask others to repeat

Enough is enough. Let's organize, activate, & end this scourge of gun violence.

i have also included links to every active senators contact page on their websites so have fun! 😊

*this is also the senator who said if you didn’t count black women, his state’s maternal death rate is totally fine

[artsformyvoid]

“DOCUMENT REQUESTS AND SUBPOENAS AND DEPOSITIONS”: GOP REPORTEDLY PLANNING A WAR AGAINST BIG TECH

Representative Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, speaks at the U.S. Capitol on Aug. 24, 2021. STEFANI REYNOLDS/BLOOMBERG

Conservative operatives and think tankers have been scheming with congressional staffers on ways to put Big Tech under a microscope if they win back control of Congress, Axios reports.

BY CALEB ECARMA

Silicon Valley will reportedly be a top target on the GOP’s revenge list if Republicans take back control of Congress in the midterms. Conservative operatives and think tankers met with Republican congressional staff to strategize ways to launch investigations into platforms like Facebook, Google, and Twitter, Axios reported Wednesday—a window into how Republicans intend to put the full weight of government behind their outrage toward mainstream social media platforms and search giants, which they contend are using algorithms to manipulate Americans against conservatives.

Big Tech companies are “going to be subject to document requests and subpoenas and depositions,” Heritage Foundation’s Mike Howell, who leads the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, and used last month’s retreat to help train Republican aides on how to utilize the Freedom of Information Act, told Axios. Notably, Howell said he’s advising Republicans to take cues from Democrats’ tactics on the January 6 select committee, which has used its subpoena powers to probe phone, bank, and email records to get a fuller picture of the Trump-fueled attacks on the Capitol. “It’s really a whole new frontier that has been opened with a whole bevy of new tactics and techniques, which were once thought out of bounds,” he said. “They’re now going to be a tool in the hands of the other side.”

According to Axios, groups like Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI), the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), and the Heritage Foundation hosted the two-day strategy retreat last month. Attendees included, a staffer for GOP House leadership prospect Representative Jim Banks of Indiana, as well as aides to senators Rick Scott, Mike Braun, and Pat Toomey. Alexa Walker, the Banks aide and the Republican Study Committee’s coalitions director, and Scott Gast, a former senior Trump aide, reportedly held a discussion on how Republicans can coordinate congressional oversight probes with third-party investigative groups. The conservative activists and think tankers at the retreat also reportedly discussed building a more robust legal strategy. According to Axios, Gene Hamilton, a former top aide in Trump’s Justice Department who now serves on the board of America First Legal Foundation, a legal group formed by ex-Trump officials aimed at helping push a conservative agenda through the courts, also illustrated how to use the federal judicial system to advance these investigations.

Republicans zeroed in on Big Tech entities like Meta, Alphabet, and Twitter under Donald Trump, a sentiment that reached a fever pitch in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 defeat, when top Republican figures, such as Senator Josh Hawley and Governor Ron DeSantis, claimed these companies were rigged against conservatives. Last year, Hawley introduced an antitrust bill designed to break up “Woke Big Tech companies like Google and Amazon” and limit the “colossal amounts of power…they use to censor political opinions they don’t agree with.” In his 2021 book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, Hawley delineated that Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are the robber barons of the Information Age, accusing them of infecting the media ecosystem with “corporate liberalism” and adding, “Big Tech and Big Government seek to extend their influence over every area of American life.”

DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential choice in 2024, signed statewide legislation in Florida last year that claimed to ban Big Tech from “deplatforming” Floridian political candidates, an apparent counterpunch to Meta and Twitter banning Trump from their platforms following the Capitol riot. A federal court shot down the law last month, a decision that the Florida governor could still appeal.

The U.S. Supreme Court also just blocked a Texas social media law on Tuesday that sought to punish social media platforms for removing political speech based on viewpoint. The law, which Governor Greg Abbott signed and has defended by accusing platforms like Facebook and Twitter of conspiring “to silence conservative viewpoints,” was blocked in a 5–4 emergency decision. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Samuel Alito filed a written dissent that called for upholding the law. The Supreme Court may rule on the Texas law again in the future, as the Fifth Circuit panel is expected to uphold it in contradiction to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Despite the legal setbacks, it seems that the issue could soon return to the fore in congressional hearing rooms.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 18, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

A year ago today, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

In his plea to Senators to convict the president, Adam Schiff (D-CA), the lead impeachment manager for the House, warned “you know you can’t trust this president to do what’s right for this country.” Schiff asked: “How much damage can Donald Trump do between now and the next election?” and then answered his own question: “A lot. A lot of damage.” “Can you have the least bit of confidence that Donald Trump will… protect our national interest over his own personal interest?” Schiff asked the senators who were about to vote on Trump’s guilt. “You know you can’t, which makes him dangerous to this country.’’

Republicans took offense at Schiff’s passionate words, seeing them as criticism of themselves. They voted to acquit Trump of the charges the House had levied against him.

And a year later, here we are. A pandemic has killed more than 312,000 of us, and numbers of infections and deaths are spiking. Today we hit a new single-day record of reported coronavirus cases with 246,914, our third daily record in a row. The economy is in shambles, with more than 6 million Americans applying for unemployment benefits. And the government has been hobbled by a massive hack from foreign operatives, likely Russians, who have hit many of our key departments.

Today it began to feel as if the Trump administration was falling apart as journalists began digging into a number of troubling stories.

Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, appointed by Trump after he fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper by tweet on November 9, this morning abruptly halted the transition briefings the Pentagon had been providing, as required by law, to the incoming Biden team. Observers were taken aback by this unprecedented halt to the transition process, as well as by the stated excuse: that Defense Department officials were overwhelmed by the number of meetings the transition required. Retired four-star general Barry R. McCaffrey, a military analyst for NBC and MSNBC, tweeted: “Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—MAKES NO SENSE. CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED. DOD GOES OPAQUE. TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD. DANGER.”

After Axios published the story and outrage was building, Miller issued a statement saying the two sides had decided on a “mutually-agreed upon holiday, which begins tomorrow.” Biden transition director Yohannes Abraham promptly told reporters: “Let me be clear: there was no mutually agreed upon holiday break. In fact, we think it’s important that briefings and other engagements continue during this period as there’s no time to spare, and that’s particularly true in the aftermath of ascertainment delay," a reference to the delay in the administration’s recognition of Biden’s election.

Later, the administration suggested the sudden end to the transition briefings was because Trump was angry that the Washington Post on Wednesday had published a story showing how much money Biden could save by stopping the construction of Trump’s border wall. Anger over a story from two days ago seems like a stretch, a justification after the briefings had been cancelled for other reasons. The big story of the day, and the week, and the month, and the year, and probably of this administration, is the sweeping hack of our government by a hostile foreign power. The abrupt end to the briefings might reflect that the administration isn’t keen on giving Biden access to the crime scene.

Republicans appear to be trying to cripple the Biden administration more broadly. The country has been thrilled by the arrival of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine that promises an end to the scourge under which we’re suffering. Just tonight, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, for emergency authorization use. This vaccine does not require ultracold temperatures for shipping the way the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine does. Two vaccines for the coronavirus are extraordinarily good news.

But this week, as the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines were being given, states learned that the doses the federal government had promised were not going to arrive, and no one is quite sure why. The government blamed Pfizer, which promptly blasted the government, saying it had plenty of vaccines in warehouses but had received no information about where to send them. Then the White House said there was confusion over scheduling.

Josh Kovensky at Talking Points Memo has been following this story, and concluded a day or so ago that the administration had made no plans for vaccine distribution beyond February 1, when the problem would be Biden’s. Kovensky also noted that it appears the administration promised vaccine distribution on an impossible timeline, deliberately raising hopes for vaccine availability that Biden couldn’t possibly fulfill. Today Kovensky noted that there are apparently doses missing and unaccounted for, but no one seems to know where they might be.

Today suggested yet another instance of Republican bad faith. With Americans hungry and increasingly homeless, the nation is desperate for another coronavirus relief bill. The House passed one last May, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to take it up. Throughout the summer and fall, negotiations on a different bill failed as Republicans demanded liability protection for businesses whose employees got coronavirus after they reopened, and Democrats demanded federal aid to states and local governments, pinched as tax revenue has fallen off during the pandemic. Now, though, with many Americans at the end of their rope, McConnell indicated he would be willing to cut a deal because the lack of a relief package is hurting the Republican Senate candidates before the runoff election in Georgia on January 5. Both sides seemed on the verge of a deal.

That deal fell apart this afternoon after Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) with the blessing of McConnell, suddenly insisted on limiting the ability of the Federal Reserve to lend money to help businesses and towns stay afloat. These were tools the Trump administration had and used, but Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tried to kill them after Trump lost the election. The Federal Reserve’s ability to manage fiscal markets is key to addressing recessions. Removing that power would gravely hamper Biden’s ability to help the nation climb out of the recession during his administration.

It’s hard not to see this as a move by McConnell and Senate Republicans to take away Biden’s power—power enjoyed by presidents in general, and by Trump in particular—to combat the recession in order to hobble the economy and hurt the Democrats before the 2022 election.

Money was in the news in another way today, too. Business Insider broke the story that the Trump campaign used a shell company approved by Jared Kushner to pay campaign expenses without having to disclose them to federal election regulators. The company was called American Made Media Consultants LLC. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was president, and Vice President Mike Pence’s nephew, John Pence, was vice president until the two apparently stepped down in late 2019 to work on the campaign. The treasurer was the chief financial officer of the Trump campaign, Sean Dollman.

The Trump campaign spent more than $700 million of the $1.26 billion of campaign cash it raised in the 2020 cycle through AMMC, but to whom it paid that money is hidden. Former Republican Federal Election Commission Chairman Trevor Potter is trying to take up the slack left by the currently crippled Federal Elections Commission. His organization, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan clean election group, last July accused the Trump campaign of "disguising" campaign funding of about $170 million "by laundering the funds" through AMMC.

This news adds to our understanding that Trump is leaving the White House with a large amount of cash. He has raised more than $250 million since November 3, urging his supporters to donate to his election challenges, but much of the money has gone to his own new political action committee or to the Republican National Committee. Recently, he has begged supporters to give to a “Georgia Election Fund,” suggesting that the money will go to the runoff elections for Georgia’s two senators, but 75% of the money actually goes to Trump’s new political action committee and 25% to the Republican National Committee.

Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times note that are very few limits to how Trump can spend the money from his new PAC.

—-

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

[dorothydalmati1]

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Season 7 Episodes 25 & 26: Shadow Play

Story by Josh Haber

Teleplay by Josh Haber & Nicole Dubuc

Animation directed by Rexis Liwanag

Part 1 storyboarded by Kaylea Chard & Jae Harm

Part 1 directed by Denny Lu

Part 2 storyboarded by Cory Toomey & Thalia Tomlinson

Part 2 directed by Mike Myhre

[saltiestgempearl]

It is worth noting that seven Republican senators did vote to convict Trump for inciting the January 6 insurrection on the US Capitol:

Sen. Richard Burr

Sen. Bill Cassidy

Sen. Susan Collins

Sen. Lisa Murkowski

Sen. Mitt Romney

Sen. Ben Sasse

Sen. Pat Toomey

And while two of these senators (Burr and Toomey) are retiring at the end of their current term (and thus not worried about re-election), the other five are not. They will likely be running for re-election in a couple years, and I think we would all do well to remember which Republican senators still have a spine. Because make no mistake, their votes did not come without consequence. All seven senators above got backlash from their party for voting the way they did, several of which got formal censures from their state parties.

Unforunately, that leaves the 43 Republican senators who decided to vote to acquit Donald Trump. Their names are worth remembering as well:

John Barrasso 

Marsha Blackburn 

Roy Blunt 

John Boozman 

Mike Braun 

Shelley Capito 

John Cornyn 

Tom Cotton 

Kevin Cramer 

Mike Crapo 

Ted Cruz 

Steve Daines 

Joni Ernst 

Deb Fischer

Lindsey Graham 

Chuck Grassley 

Bill Hagerty 

Josh Hawley 

John Hoeven 

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Jim Inhofe 

Ron Johnson 

John Kennedy 

James Lankford 

Mike Lee 

Cynthia Lummis 

Roger Marshall 

Mitch McConnell 

Jerry Moran 

Rand Paul 

Rob Portman 

James Risch 

Mike Rounds 

Marco Rubio 

Tim Scott

Rick Scott 

Richard Shelby 

Dan Sullivan

John Thune 

Thom Tillis 

Tommy Tuberville 

Roger Wicker 

Todd Young

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) led a bipartisan majority of Senators in calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to continue to use America’s influence to push back against the International Criminal Courts’ recent politically motivated decision to illegally and unfairly pursue alleged war crimes investigations against the State of Israel.

The letter states in part:

“The ICC does not have legitimate territorial jurisdiction in this case. As articulated by State Department Spokesman Ned Price in response to this ICC decision, ‘the United States has always taken the position that the court’s jurisdiction should be reserved for countries that consent to it, or that are referred by the U.N. Security Council.’ Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, and therefore has not consented to the ICC’s jurisdiction. Furthermore, ICC rules prohibit it from prosecuting cases against the citizens of a country with a robust judicial system willing and able to prosecute atrocity crimes committed by its personnel and officials. The ICC’s mandate should not supersede Israel’s robust judicial system, including its military justice system.”  

After sending the letter, Senators Portman and Cardin released the following statement: “We are again pleased that so many of our Senate colleagues joined us on this important effort to push back against the politically motivated persecution of Israel. We commend Secretary Blinken’s statements condemning the ICC’s decision and we urge the Biden Administration to partner with Congress to work together in this effort. The ICC has no jurisdiction over disputed territories and this decision creates a dangerous precedent that undermines the purposes for which the court was founded. This effort is discriminatory against Israel and will serve to make a lasting solution, based on direct negotiations between the two parties, more difficult to achieve.”

Joining Portman and Cardin in the letter to Blinken are: Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Susan M. Collins (R-ME), Christopher A. Coons (D-DE), Mike Braun (R-IN), Shelly Moore Capito (R-WV), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Jerry Moran (R-KS), James Lankford (R-OK), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), James E. Risch (R-ID), Joe Manchin III (D-WV), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Krysten Sinema (D-AZ), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), John Thune (R-SD), Robert P. Casey Jr. (D-PA), Michael S. Lee (R-UT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Scott (R-SC), Tina Smith (D-MN), Roger F. Wicker (R-MS), Mark Warner (D-VA), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Michael F. Bennet (D-CO), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), John Boozman (R-AR), Gary C. Peters (D-MI), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Cory A. Booker (D-NJ), John Hoven (R-ND), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Todd Young (R-IN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Kennedy (R-LA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Mike Rounds (R-SD), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), John Cornyn (R-TX), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Charles E. Grassley (R-IA).

The full text is available below and here.  

[biglittlecrane]

Yes, & you & Sen. Toomey Made the Wrong Decision, Didn’t You?

REPORT: Mitch McConnell Calls Jan. 6 Vote ‘Most Consequential I Have Ever Cast’ In Call With GOP Senators

https://dailycaller.com/2020/12/31/mitch-mcconnell-january-6-electoral-college-vote-most-consequential-josh-hawley/

I’ve been supportive of you in the past because I thought your being between a rock & Democrats during the sequester thing earned you another look, but the election fraud happened, and you’re on the wrong side. The thing they say about you and your wife is sterling truth. Mitch, you’re a commie.

& so is this person:

@SenToomey·Nov 21, 2020Read my statement on today’s Pennsylvania federal court decision, and congratulating President-Elect Biden: https://toomey.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/release-toomey-statement-on-pa-federal-court-decision-congratulates-president-elect-biden

Sayonara, RINOs.

[xtruss]

These 35 Senate Republicans Voted Against Moving Forward With January 6 Commission

— By Alexandra Hutzler | May 28, 2021 | Newsweek

A general view of the U.S. Capitol on May 1. Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked legislation to create of a commission to investigate the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Senate Republicans on Friday blocked moving forward with a bill to create a commission to investigate the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, with 35 conservative members voting against it.

Just six GOP senators broke ranks with the party to support advancing the January 6 commission, including Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

Eleven senators were not present for the vote, including nine Republicans. A spokesperson for Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey said he missed the vote due to a "family commitment" but he "would have voted in favor of the motion."

"We have a mob overtake the Capitol, and we can't get the Republicans to join us in making historic record of that event? That is sad," Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said ahead of the vote. "That tells you what's wrong with the Senate and what's wrong with the filibuster."

The formation of a January 6 commission, which would be modeled off the probe that took place after the 9/11 attacks, has been delayed for months over negotiations about the panel's make-up and scope.

Some Republican lawmakers, including House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, oppose the bill because they want the committee to also investigate far-left forms of political violence. Other lawmakers, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have slammed the bill as a "purely political exercise."

"I do not believe the additional, extraneous, commission that Democratic leaders want would uncover crucial new facts, or promote healing. Frankly, I do not believe it is even designed to do that," McConnell said on the Senate floor ahead of Thursday's vote.

The bill would establish a 10-person committee, five commissioners would be appointed by Democrats and five commissioners appointed by Republicans. It would also mandate that both sides sign-off on any subpoenas during the investigation.

The commission would be charged with studying the facts and circumstances of the U.S. Capitol attack as well as the influencing factors that may have provoked it. Five people died during or shortly after the riot, where a mob of pro–Donald Trump supporters sought to disrupt the congressional certification of Joe Biden's electoral victory.

The House of Representatives finally passed legislation to create a panel on May 16. The lower chamber voted 252–175 in favor of the commission, with 35 House Republicans breaking with the party to support it.

But in the Senate, which is evenly split 50-50, Democrats needed the support of at least 10 Republicans to move to the commission bill—sparking new debate over whether Democrats should change the filibuster rules and lower the threshold to 51 votes to pass legislation.

The bill would have formed a bipartisan commission to study the Capitol insurrection of 6 January – but the effort is now dead. Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Here are the Senate Republicans who did not vote in favor of moving forward with the January 6 commission bill.

John Barrasso of Wyoming

John Boozman of Arkansas

Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia

John Cornyn of Texas

Tom Cotton of Arkansas

Kevin Cramer of North Dakota

Mike Crapo of Idaho

Ted Cruz of Texas

Steve Daines of Montana

Joni Ernst of Iowa

Deb Fischer of Nebraska

Lindsey Graham of South Carolina

Chuck Grassley of Iowa

Bill Hagerty of Tennessee

Josh Hawley of Missouri

John Hoeven of North Dakota

Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi

Ron Johnson of Wisconsin

John Kennedy of Louisiana

James Lankford of Oklahoma

Mike Lee of Utah

Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming

Roger Marshall of Kansas

Mitch McConnell of Kentucky

Jerry Moran of Kansas

Rand Paul of Kentucky

Marco Rubio of Florida

Rick Scott of Florida

Tim Scott of S outh Carolina

Dan Sullivan of Alaska

John Thune of South Dakota

Thom Tillis I of North Carolina

Tommy Tuberville of Alabama

Roger Wicker of Mississippi

Todd Young of Indiana

[nodynasty4us]

The January 11, 2021 article in full:

The 127 Republican lawmakers who voted to overthrow president-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory are facing fierce backlash from donors, constituents, and even some GOP colleagues following the attempted coup at the US Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Wednesday.

Some have even been called upon to resign.

Membership in this so-called “Sedition Caucus” runs the gamut from congressional backbenchers such as Congressman Mo Brooks (the face of the movement to decertify the election) to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California.

It also includes six senators — most notably Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas.

Many observers and lawmakers have credited Mr Cruz’ and Mr Hawley’s intense, falsehood-riddled rhetoric leading up to the vote with fueling the anger of the mob that stormed the Capitol and led to the deaths of five people, including a Capitol police officer.

Mr Cruz has since tried telling local media he disagreed with the president’s speech and statements on Wednesday shortly before the rioters descended on the Capitol.

But the senator’s denunciation of Mr Trump was so unaligned with the truth of what actually happened — and so lacking in fundamental good faith — that his own former spokeswoman told CNN she could hardly “recognise” her former boss.

“He has to come to terms with the fact that he, through his actions, directly played into the hands of the mob. End stop,” said Amanda Carpenter, the Texas Republican’s former communications director.

“That is what happened, and it is so horrifying to watch someone descend into this, and not be able to admit what happened, when you worked for him and you believed in him. It's just, it's really hard to watch,” Ms Carpenter said.

The condemnation has been equally brutal for Mr Hawley, who raised a fist in solidarity with the demonstrators at the Capitol shortly before they stormed the building and forced him and hundreds of other lawmakers to find hiding places.

Former Missouri GOP Senator Jack Danforth, Mr Hawley’s mentor, told the St Louis Post-Dispatch that backing Mr Hawley’s political ascent was “the worst mistake I ever made in my life.”

Mr Danforth said: “What he's doing to his party is one thing. What he's doing to the country is much worse.”

Mr Hawley has been defiant in the face of calls for him to resign.

“I will never apologize for giving voice to the millions of Missourians and Americans who have concerns about the integrity of our elections. That's my job, and I will keep doing it,” he told Newsweek in a statement.

By Sunday, scores of Democratic lawmakers had called upon Mr Cruz, Mr Hawley, and the 125 other Republicans who voted to toss out Mr Biden’s victory to resign.

“Both [Mr Hawley] and [Mr Cruz] have betrayed their oaths of office and abetted a violent insurrection on our democracy. I am calling for their immediate resignations. If they do not resign, the Senate must expel them,” Senator Sherrod Brown tweeted on Sunday.

Freshman Democratic Congresswoman Cori Bush of Missouri has introduced a measure in the House to censure and remove anyone who voted to throw out the 2020 presidential election results, a step that would oust the top two Republicans in the chamber — Mr McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

That’s in addition to House Democrats’ apparent plans to impeach Mr Trump next week for his sluggish reaction to the massive security breach at the Capitol that he himself helped incite.

The GOP lawmakers who voted against Mr Biden’s victory last week could also see their campaign donations wane.

Marriott International Inc., the largest chain of hotels in the world, and the US health insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield Association have suspended donations to such lawmakers, Reuters reported on Sunday.

“We have taken the destructive events at the Capitol to undermine a legitimate and fair election into consideration and will be pausing political giving from our Political Action Committee to those who voted against certification of the election,” Marriott spokeswoman Connie Kim said in a statement.

While it is unlikely Mr Cruz, Mr Hawley or any others will be kicked out of office — two-thirds of their colleagues would have to vote to boot them — a handful of other Republican lawmakers have pinned blame on them for the destruction and violence at the Capitol on Wednesday.

Republican Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who has called on Mr Trump to resign, did not explicitly say Mr Cruz and Mr Hawley should do the same. But he did have choice words for his Senate colleagues.

Mr Cruz and Mr Hawley are “going to have a lot of soul searching to do,” Mr Toomey said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday.

“And the problem is they were complicit in the big lie, this lie that Donald Trump won the election in a landslide and it was all stolen,” Mr Toomey said, echoing a speech from President-elect Joe Biden in which he termed Republicans’ 2020 stolen election conspiracy theory “the Big Lie.”

Mr Toomey added that Mr Cruz and Mr Hawley “compounded that with this notion that somehow this could all be reversed in the final moments of the congressional proceedings. So that’s… going to haunt them for a very long time.”

Mr Toomey predicted that Mr Cruz and Mr Hawley would “pay a big price” for their false promises to block the electoral results.

“I think their reputations have been affected. You’ve seen the kind of reaction in the media back in their home states, so their constituents will decide the final way to adjudicate this,” Mr Toomey said.

The Pennsylvania senator was referring to a scathing piece from Houston Chronicle’s editorial board published on Friday blaming Mr Cruz for his role in encouraging the pro-Trump riots at the Capitol on 6 January.

“Cruz had helped spin that web of deception [about the election being stolen] and now he was feigning concern that millions of Americans had gotten caught up in it,” the editorial read.

“Those terrorists wouldn’t have been at the Capitol if you hadn’t staged this absurd challenge,” the Chronicle’s editorial board wrote, referring to Mr Cruz.