Threat of More Violence is Still High

On this episode of the #1 quick news podcast, we go over several stories, including a pet food recall (see more info below), the impeachment vote in the House, new details about what happened during the insurrection at the Capitol, the New York AG going after the NYPD for their conduct during the Black Lives Matter protests, and more!

The pet foods, made by Midwestern Pet Foods Inc., that are in the recall are:

Sportmix
Pro Pac Originals
Splash
Sportstrail
Nunn Better

They are dry dog and cat foods that expire on or before July 9th, 2022.

 

----more----

Sources 

Twitter | Instagram | Facebook 

Transcript (mostly accurate):

DOG FOOD RECALL

I want to get to this story right away though, because it could affect a ton of listeners. The following products made by Midwestern Pet Foods have been recalled due to contamination by a toxin from mold: Sportmix, Pro Pac Originals, Splash, Sportstrail and Nunn Better dry dog and cat foods. This affects products made with corn that expire on or before July 9th, 2022.

Aflatoxin (which sounds like it should be a type of insurance from Aflac) comes from a type of mold called Aspergillus flavus, which can be found on corn and grains that are used to make the food. If your pet ingests enough, it can cause general sickness and/or death, but the thing that’s almost scarier is that it can cause liver damage without your pet showing any symptoms.

The symptoms to look for in your pet are sluggishness, loss of appetite, vomiting, jaundice, and diarrhea.

So far, 70 dogs have died, and 80 have become ill from these products. No illness yet reported in humans or cats, but the FDA still recommends washing your hands after handling pet food at any time, not just when it might have aflatoxin/Aflac-toxin in it.

The types Midwestern Pet Foods products that are in the recall are listed in the show description.

IMPEACHMENT

You heard it from Nancy Pelosi in the beginning of the show: by a vote of 232-197, the House impeached Trump for a second time yesterday, which makes him the first president to ever be impeached twice.

I think that pretty much ends the debate on who’s the worst president in our history, especially post-slavery. I guess maybe I would argue that he’s certainly the most incompetent in history, because looking back Reagan did horrible stuff because he was effective and actually got laws passed (but the Senate and/or the House were always controlled by Democrats during his time, so he couldn’t go on a total rampage). Also, there were a bunch of pro-slavery presidents before Lincoln, so they’re awful in an even different kind of way, but I think it’s clear that Trump is mentally unfit and completely narcissistic, so he makes whatever decisions are best for him, including attacking his own government.

I guess the notable news was that this time, there were actually 10 Republicans who joined in and voted to impeach him in the House, as opposed to 0 last time.

One of the Republicans who voted to impeach, Peter Meijer, said he and some of his colleagues have started wearing body armor and changing up their daily routines because they’re afraid of being attacked. And that truly is sad, but I have to say, I have a real problem with all of these Republicans in Congress sending their staff to talk to news outlets anonymously and telling the reporters “so and so would have voted to impeach Trump, but they were afraid for their family’s safety, so they couldn’t”. That’s BS. Do these people think that the 222 Democrats who voted for impeachment are living in rainbow land with unicorns? No way! They’ve had to deal with threats for 4 years! Grow up and do your job, don’t try to get sympathy for being a racist sympathizer.

Now, here’s the problem: Mitch McConnell, of course, said that he’s not going to call the Senate back for a special session to hold this impeachment trial, which means that this thing won’t start until at least January 20th (though January 21st is more likely because the 20th is Inauguration Day). This means we’ll still have to deal with Trump having power for 6 more days, which is bad in itself. It’s also bad, in the immediate sense, because everything in Congress stops while this trial takes place. This means that they won’t be able to work on another stimulus bill right away, which seems to be Joe Biden’s first priority, and Americans need more than $600, plain and simple. That said, I did see a report today that said Biden is asking the Senate to do both impeachment and get some of his confirmations through.

So, you might ask “why even bother doing this?” Basically, it comes down to one thing: protecting us against this happening in the future. The first way it does that is making sure Trump is convicted so that any future presidents will know that if they cross this line, both sides will come together and remove you from office. It also makes sure that this stands out in the history books so that everyone knows that this isn’t going to fly.

The second way it protects the future is that if a president is impeached, they are banned from running for federal office forever. This means that even if he wants to and is alive at the time, Trump can’t run again in 2024. Some hopeful people are saying this could be why Senate Republicans vote to convict because he’d be out of their way if they want to run for president themselves in 2024, or he’d just be even more irrelevant because he can’t keep threatening to run again, so they won’t have to keep worrying about making him happy.

 

CAPITOL FALLOUT

As I mentioned a couple days ago, we keep slowly learning more and more about what happened on the date of the insurrection. Former Chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, said that he asked for the National Guard to be called in 6 times, before and during the insurrection.

I was surprised to learn that the Capitol Police numbered around 1,400 that day, but they were still quickly overrun by the estimated 8,000 rioters.

Sund says that during a conference call with several law enforcement officials at about 2:26 p.m., he asked the Pentagon to provide backup. When the mob reached the Capitol complex at about 12:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, it took about 15 minutes for the west side perimeter of the building to be breached, so I’m not really sure how that would have helped since it was like 2 hours after this.

  

Senior Army official Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, said on the call he couldn't recommend that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy authorize this, saying “I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background”. That’s a stupid reason.

Mayor Muriel Bowser also wanted a light police presence at the Capitol to try to avoid another Lafayette Square incident, which seems like a bad call, in hindsight. She requested 340 National Guard members, and she got them, but they were only requested to be traffic cops, essentially. She was relying on the DC Metro police to do actual enforcement of the law.

I’m just waiting to find out how deep the planning of this attack went, in terms of how members of law enforcement, or even members of Congress, helped to plan this thing out.

There’s confirmation that at least 2 Seattle police officers were put on administrative leave because they traveled to DC to take part in the event. There are also unconfirmed accusations by several Democrats in Congress that they saw other members leading “tours” for white supremacists in the day or two before the insurrection, so there are some thoughts that maybe they showed the terrorists where certain offices were.

Sort of related to that, I saw a photo of super Trumpy Congressman Matt Gaetz on his phone on the House floor just before the attack happened. This may sound normal, but even the members aren’t supposed to have cell phones out there, so why would he be on his phone on this day of all days? Maybe it’s a coincidence and this happens all the time, but maybe there’s something to it.

At least it sounds like the FBI isn’t messing around with this investigation. For this story, NPR said a federal investigator said the public will be shocked to learn what they’ve learned so far, so if this is some FBI guy saying this, it must be some real stuff.

 

INAUGURATION SECURITY

Multiple defense officials tell CNN that the total request for National Guard is close to 30,000 guardsmen to support US Capitol Police, Park Police and Washington Metropolitan Police Department, but officials believe that the actual number will be closer to 20,000.

The more than 20,000 National Guard members expected for Biden's inauguration is more than three times the number of active duty US troops currently in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria combined.

In the article I was reading from CNN, they used this mention of the Middle East to weirdly inject news about the troop drawdown over there and compare what Trump wants to do with that to what Biden wants to do with that. It’s just awkwardly shoehorned in there like they didn’t have enough for a full story on its own, but the writer still wanted it in there because they had to spend time doing research for it and didn’t want it to go to waste.

Discussions are underway about raising the terrorism threat level, according to two sources familiar with the discussions, though one source cautioned no changes are expected as of now. One of the officials said the discussions began following last week's insurrection and was based on information that a similar attack by "armed militias" could happen at the Capitol or elsewhere. One official said “the chatter is off the charts right now” for something like that happening again, which is definitely a scary thought.

CNN reported earlier this week that thousands of armed Ya’ll Qaeda terrorists are plotting to surround the US Capitol ahead of Biden's inauguration, according to a member of Congress who had been briefed about the situation. Several officials told CNN that there is a much better feeling that things are organized and being put into place correctly because the Secret Service is in charge, with one official simply saying: "They don't mess around."

 

The DC Mayor said public parking garages in some areas of downtown DC and near the Capitol will be closed off starting at 6:00 a.m. ET Friday, and they’ll stay closed until the inauguration is over. Any cars left in those garages will be inaccessible until after the Inauguration.

 

It was also just announced that the National Mall will be closed to the public on Inauguration Day, and there will be no big screens, toilets, or panels for people to stand on. In fact, Joe Biden’s advisers have gone so far as to say this is intended to be a virtual event.

 

Also, originally, Biden had been planning on traveling to the Inauguration via Amtrak, but that’s out the window now too.

 

VIA GETTY

 

To lighten the mood, I just have to talk about this funny thing that happened after the insurrection last week. Obviously, since there were barely any arrests that happened while the whole thing was happening, people were sharing pictures of every terrorist that they could so that the FBI could find them later.

So, this reporter from CNN simply shared a picture of the guy stealing the podium, and the caption said, “Via Getty, one of the rioters steals a podium from the Capitol”. This was an unfortunate way to phrase it, because by saying this picture is from Getty (“via Getty”) at the beginning of the sentence, the “via” was capitalized.

Usually, you put photo credit in parentheses at the end of a sentence, but because this guy did it this way, people thought “via Getty” was someone’s name.

They started retweeting the tweet and saying “Via Getty that is his name let’s get this guy and serve justice (sic)” and “I want Via Getty and everyone else who participated in this domestic terrorism at the Capitol today arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.

Just let this be a lesson: slow down before you fire off that tweet and think about what you’re actually saying. Also, remember that Getty Images is a thing.  

NY ATTORNEY GENERAL

I have to say, I was especially happy to see this piece of news: Letitia James, the Attorney General for the state of New York, is suing the NYPD and its leadership over what she calls their “excessive, brutal, and unlawful” handling of the protests after George Floyd’s death.

She says that officers used “indiscriminate, unjustified, and repeated use of batons, pepper spray, bicycles and a crowd control tactic known as ‘kettling’ against peaceful protesters”; key word: peaceful.

She skewered them by also saying “Over the past few months, the NYPD has repeatedly and blatantly violated the rights of New Yorkers, inflicting significant physical and psychological harm and leading to great distrust in law enforcement."

Of course, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner came out and said that the department is open to reform but that “more oversight does not speed up the process of reform”. Well Mr. Deputy Commissioner, we wouldn’t need another layer of oversight if the oversight you’re doing actually worked, now would we?

 

In the suit, the state used some of the more than 1,300 complaints and 300 written statements as evidence, including that of Rayne Valentine, who recorded 6 NYPD officers using physical force against a protester in a subway station. After his shift at a local hospital, Valentine started recording. When the officer told him to back up, and he did, Valentine says the officer charged him anyway and that, allegedly, multiple officers hit and kicked Valentine for 90 seconds. He had to turn right around, go back to the hospital he just got done working at, and get 7 staples for a wound on his head.

According to this CNN article, “the AG says that officers struck protesters with blunt instruments at least 50 times, unlawfully deployed pepper spray on at least 30 occasions, and pushed or struck protesters at least 75 times”. She also states that police arrested 12 legal observers for violating curfew, even though legal observers and medics were exempt from the curfew. Doesn’t that seem convenient, arresting the people who are making sure you’re following the law?

To their credit, groups like Legal Aid and the ACLU have already filed lawsuits against the Mayor, the NYPD, and its leadership.

 

For what it’s worth, I say “got get ‘em”. What I saw on news coverage, including reporters getting targeted, arrested, and beaten on live TV, as well as the news that officers all over the country were part of the insurrection last Wednesday, we need a real hard look at who’s supposedly protecting us. It might be uncomfortable to rip off that band aid, but frankly, we’ve got a lot of white supremacist, wannabe fascists in our departments all across the country. Think about it: if these cops were so extremist in New York, one of the most liberal, progressive places in the country, do you really think that your police department in rural Michigan or Minnesota or Kansas isn’t chock full of these deplorables? Like I said during the protests, the defense that they always use that “it’s just a couple of bad eggs” is ridiculous. We have cartons and cartons of bad eggs, and only a few that stayed good in the refrigerator.