Nothing like left wing crazies in the streets or in mayors' offices to make the right, even the Trumpist right, seem responsible and reasonable

Ordered Liberty and Federal Might.

Outrage, at least from the usual suspects, has greeted the use of federal personnel in Portland to enforce laws that the mayor of Portland and the governor of Oregon have refused to enforce. 

Despite the pearl-clutching, the precedent and the constitutional principles are clear: 

If the states and cities will not protect their citizens’ lives, property and civil rights, the Constitution does not permit federal military intervention.

It requires it.

. . . .

What claimed the mantle of popular rage could not thwart the steel helmets and heavy armor sent by the Republican Commander in Chief.  

And, over their objections, President Dwight David Eisenhower made sure that nine black students were escorted safely into Little Rock Central High School. 

The visceral certainty of the angry white mob that it was wrong for Washington to use force to protect the rights of people threatened by violence did not matter—nor should it have.

Americans are guaranteed a great number of civil rights, besides the right to equal opportunity in education. 

Citizens are also entitled to speak freely, to assemble freely, to worship freely and, under the Fifth Amendment, to travel. 

In fact, under 18 U.S. Code § 241, it is a federal offense to conspire “to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person … in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same.” 

This statute also makes it illegal for “two or more persons [to] go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured…”

For 49 days now, violent anarchists have acted in defiance of protocols outlined by the Portland Police Bureau—which has hardly shown itself to be a bastion of strict “law and order” policing—for safe and peaceable assembly. 

Instead, they have systematically undertaken to destroy private, state, and federal property and have not hesitated to assault either law enforcement personnel or civilians. 

Unruly crowds used commercial grade lasers to blind police, and made weapons from paving stones and fireworks—even attempted to assault an officer with a hammer. 

A little over a week ago, Portland Police made multiple arrests and found a loaded weapon on one subject, as a hostile crowd of about 250 violent anarchists failed to comply with dispersal order and surrounded Hatfield Courthouse. 

A few days later, someone fired shots into the air from the rear seat of a passing SUV. 

Whether we blame Antifa, Black Lives Matter, or spontaneously enraged “peaceful protesters,” the mayhem being imposed on America’s cities now constitute a host of civil rights violations.

. . . .

In the name of civil rights, justice and peace, seven weeks of anarchy is enough.

Did Trump blame Obama for lack of a vaccine?

Romney thinks so and stepped in to get Fauci to clear him of the charge.

He asked whether Obama or Trump did anything to prevent or delay getting a vaccine for this Coronavirus, and Fauci emphatically cleared them both.

Also in response to a question from Romney, Fauci was firm that we are more likely than not to have a vaccine in a year or two.

Nobody has said or even suggested we or anyone can remain in lockdown for that great a period.

Will Romney stand up again?

Mitt Romney Says There’s ‘No Question’ Hunter Biden Probe Appears Political

Romney has the power to block an upcoming subpoena in the Senate investigation of the former vice president’s son.

The most religious man in Washington?

So said by Lawrence O'Donnell of Mitt Romney.

How seriously do we suppose he takes that amazing mythology?

Plates in a rain barrel?

The angel Moroni?

And those are the least extravagant bits.

I can't imagine what he actually thinks.

But then I can't imagine what the Pope thinks.

Sometimes I am not at all sure what I think.

Revenge is coming

Trump’s impeachment revenge list starts with Mitt Romney

And the Duce is not pursuing it all on his own.

Treasury Department Hands Over Hunter Biden Info After Withholding Trump’s Tax Records

The Treasury Department has given congressional Republicans sensitive financial information related to Hunter Biden after having refused to give Democrats President Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Yahoo News first reported Thursday that the Treasury Department handed over highly confidential information in response to a November request from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) for suspicious activity reports filed with the department by financial institutions.

Last year, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin blocked a Democratic request for the president’s tax filings, saying Democrats had no legitimate legislative purpose for seeking the documents.

Romney alone

Romney's impeachment vote didn't change the outcome but it did change the narrative

No witnesses, no documents, no subpoenas, no removal, no censure.

But Romney, alone among Republicans, voted to remove a president "unfit for office".

“The president asked a foreign government to investigate his political rival,” Romney said.

“The president withheld vital military funds from that government to press it to do so.”

“The president delayed funds for an American ally at war with Russian invaders.”

“The president’s purpose was personal and political.”

“What he did was not ‘perfect.’ No, it was a flagrant assault on our electoral rights, our national security, and our fundamental values. Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one’s oath of office that I can imagine.”

. . . .

In the end, the Senate voted to acquit President Trump on Wednesday — by a 48-52 vote on the abuse of power article of impeachment (where Romney joined Democrats), and by a 47-53 on the obstruction of Congress (where Romney joined with Republicans).

GOP Sen. Romney faces awkwardness, 'abuse' for defying Trump on impeachment

Romney’s decision to become the first senator in U.S. history to vote for removal of a president of his own party now makes him a test case on whether the GOP is willing to accommodate dissent against a president who demands loyalty.

. . . .

The president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted that Romney was "bitter" over his failed 2012 president bid and intent on impressing elites and the mainstream media. He added that Romney was officially "a member the resistance & should be expelled from the @GOP.”

Trump himself tweeted out a video that called Romney "slick, slippery, stealthy."

Matt Schlapp, head of the American Conservative Union and a staunch Trump ally, said Utah now has a “big problem” that his group would like to help fix.

“#DumpRomney,” tweeted Schlapp who had already banned Romney from attending this year’s gathering of conservative activists after Romney was one of only two Republican senators to vote for witnesses at the Senate impeachment trial.

Laura Ingraham calls on Mitt Romney to resign, says she 'may consider' opposing him in 4 and a half years

Laura Ingraham took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her demeanor during the State of the Union address and eventually tearing up President Trump's speech as he concluded before she focused on Utah Senator Mitt Romney who was the only Republican to vote guilty along with Democrats at the Senate impeachment trial.

"Last night, [Pelosi] showed the world who she really is," Ingraham said on "The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday. 

"A woman left with little else, but her own sour puss, facial expression and a paper ripping stunt. She let her anger get the best of her, and her white suit didn't make her look any more angelic. It was the color of surrender."

Ingraham then called Romney "the ultimate selfish, preening, self-centered politician."

"If he were up for reelection this year, the people of Utah would have their own payback against him because they were defrauded by Romney. For when he had to choose, he chose [Charles] Schumer and Kamala [Harris] over common sense and conservatism," Ingraham said. 

"If you're one of Romney's constituents in Utah, you're out of luck. If you're a business in need of a regulation reexamined, don't bother calling his office. He has no power anymore."

Ingraham brought up Romney's previous presidential runs saying, "we thought you'd be better for America and the way you repay millions of people, the millions who did vote for you in 2012 is to throw in with the very people who don't share our goals, who hate us. And by the way, who still hate you."

"Like all the other bitter 'Never Trumpers', he'd rather see the entire American economy go down the drain than give Trump a victory," Ingraham said.