Bitcoin continued its rally, the latest leg of which was set off by Tesla’s announcement on Monday that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of the digital currency and would start accepting Bitcoin payments. Bitcoin rose above $48,000 per coin early on Tuesday, a record, before coming off that high later, according to CoinDesk, a trading platform for digital currencies.
It is up more than 45 percent in 2021, and other cryptocurrencies are rising, too — including Dogecoin, which rose about 1,000 percent over the past week.
The momentum has been building as more trading apps allow users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, reported Nathaniel Popper for The New York Times: “The rally is a moment of euphoria for the thousands of different versions of digital money, which years ago were dismissed as little more than online Beanie Babies caught in a speculative bubble,” he wrote.
‘There’s Nothing Left’: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party
Voting registration data indicates a stronger-than-usual flight from the G.O.P. since the Capitol riot, with an intensely fluid period in American politics now underway. …
In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the phone lines and websites of local election officials across the country were jumping: Tens of thousands of Republicans were calling or logging on to switch their party affiliations.
In California, more than 33,000 registered Republicans left the party during the three weeks after the Washington riot. In Pennsylvania, more than 12,000 voters left the G.O.P. in the past month, and more than 10,000 Republicans changed their registration in Arizona.
An analysis of January voting records by The New York Times found that nearly 140,000 Republicans had quit the party in 25 states that had readily available data (19 states do not have registration by party). Voting experts said the data indicated a stronger-than-usual flight from a political party after a presidential election, as well as the potential start of a damaging period for G.O.P. registrations as voters recoil from the Capitol violence and its fallout. …
Republicans: Trump Can’t Be Impeached Because He Can’t Be Impeached
By Jonathan Chait
As they have worked through their feelings, first rebelling against Trump and then suppressing their own rebellion, they have redirected their anger away from Trump and toward the Democrats. Trump’s actions may have been wrong, even impeachable, but it is also wrong for Democrats to try to impeach him.
“The whole thing is stupid,” complains Marco Rubio. “I know this: Nothing we do next week on that floor is going to help people get vaccines or more people keep their jobs. We should be focused on that instead.” Rubio himself does not seem to be focused on either goal. He did not join the ten Republicans trying to negotiate a bill to speed vaccinations and restore jobs. Nor has he developed any alternative efforts to do so. What he means is that he would rather be sending out tweets and press releases attacking Democratic plans to speed vaccinations and restore employment than have to take a position on Trump’s crimes.
Their curious reasoning is that, since Republicans won’t vote to convict Trump, impeachment won’t punish him. As the Wall StreetJournal editorial page, which previously conceded that Trump’s actions were an impeachable offense, argues today, “Democrats say it will deter future impeachable acts late in a President’s term, but that is unlikely if Mr. Trump is acquitted, as he likely will be.”
This is true! If Republicans vote to acquit Trump, then future presidents will be encouraged to commit more Trump-like crimes. One might take this simple cause and effect relationship as a reason to convict Trump. Instead, the Journal uses it as an argument against holding a trial at all.
The soft authoritarian Republicans consider their unwillingness to break with Trump and offend his voters a fixed and nonnegotiable fact of political life. Forcing them to confront Trump’s crimes therefore serves no purpose other than embarrassing them. …
In my county there are a little over 200,000 people in group 1(b) registered to get the vaccine like me. This week the county received a little more than 7,000 doses.
It’s gonna be awhile. Trump’s still killing this country.
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
About the same here in central VA now. Also there are regular software glitches in the state, local, and pharmacy vaccination registration software and the three do not integrate seamlessly either.
I have not even tried to register yet. I will in a few weeks. I monitor the situation daily, but will not jump in until things settle down. Also we have at least a couple of weeks of icy weather coming up.
Wife works from home and I grocery shop only once every two or three weeks at around 7AM during special hours for vulnerable customers. Things will get better, but I expect to wear a mask and observe social distancing for at least another 14 months.
Take care and stay safe.
Impeachment does not seem like a just settlement. If tried for treason in federal court, the the country would have chance to repay in kind.
(Kerfuffle resulted when Trump called Senator Lee during
the insurrection attempting to reach Senator Tuberville,
pleading with him to help Stop the Steal!)
An emotional second day of the trial ended in procedural chaos as a Republican senator objected to testimony that cited him as a source for a conversation former President Donald J. Trump had during the Capitol attack that is at the heart of the case.
In the final hour of arguments on Wednesday, Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island and one of the impeachment managers, spoke of Mr. Trump mistakenly calling Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, in an effort to reach Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama. In describing the call, which was detailed in news reports, Mr. Cicilline asserted that Mr. Lee had stood by as Mr. Trump asked Mr. Tuberville to make additional objections to the certification of President Biden’s electoral votes.
As Mr. Cicilline spoke, Mr. Lee could be seen writing furiously on a notepad in large letters: “This is not what happened.” When Democrats concluded their arguments for the day, Mr. Lee invoked an impeachment rule that allows senators to raise questions during the trial, including about the admissibility of evidence, and asked that the statements about him be struck as false.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the presiding officer for the impeachment trial, ruled the request as out of order. Mr. Leahy, who consulted with the Senate parliamentarian, pointed to a rule specific to this impeachment trial that allows the House managers to include elements in their oral arguments that were not in their original pretrial submissions.
A visibly outraged Mr. Lee demanded an appeal.
“My point was to strike them because they were false,” he said.
As some lawmakers, including Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, demanded that Mr. Lee explain why the description was false, the murmuring and confusion among senators and staff temporarily derailed the final moments of the day’s proceedings.
After a series of intense huddles on the floor, where Mr. Lee could be heard insisting that he did not make those statements, Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and the lead impeachment manager, agreed to take back the words. But he reserved the ability to bring the issue up again and litigate it later in the trial. …
Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a conservative Republican, suggested on Tuesday that former President Donald J. Trump be given a “mulligan” for exhorting an angry gathering of supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Mr. Lee, appearing on Fox News, was asked if he thought Mr. Trump’s speech was “different” from comments made by Democrats encouraging their backers to confront Republicans, as the show’s hosts played video clips of Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.
“Look, it is not different,” Mr. Lee said, hours before Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial began in the Senate.
“Look, everyone makes mistakes, everyone is entitled to a mulligan once in a while,” he said. “And I would hope — I would expect that each of those individuals would take a mulligan on each of those statements.” …
The saddest part of the impeachment is its predetermined conclusion. It depressed me before the trial and it is getting worse.
But wait, there’s more. Trump will not be convicted by any criminal jury for anything he has done. That’s how far the madness has gone. In Federal court, all criminal convictions must be done by a unanimous jury, and it is the same in most states. Not a chance in the world there won’t be one trumper on a jury.
We still have to follow through, but in the end he will not get convicted anywhere other than a tax evasion charge before a judge.
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
As a day of violence and mayhem at the Capitol slid into evening last month, with bloodshed, glass shattered and democracy besieged, President Donald J. Trump posted a message on Twitter that seemed to celebrate the moment. “Remember this day forever!” he urged.
The House Democrats prosecuting him at his Senate impeachment trial barely a month later hope to make sure everyone does.
With conviction in a polarized Senate seemingly out of reach, the House managers, as the prosecutors are known, are aiming their arguments at two other audiences beyond the chamber: the American people whose decision to deny Mr. Trump a second term was put at risk and the historians who will one day render their own judgments about the former president and his time in power.
Through the expansive use of unsettling video footage showing both Mr. Trump’s words and the brutal rampage that followed, the managers are using their moment in the national spotlight to make the searing images of havoc the inexpungible legacy of the Trump presidency. Rather than let the outrage subside, the managers are seeking to ensure that Mr. Trump is held accountable even if he is acquitted in the Senate
“The Democrats and House managers are playing to a different jury in this case than in any previous impeachment trial of an American president,” said Ken Gormley, the president of Duquesne University and the author of books on impeachment, presidents and the Constitution. “Regardless of the outcome of the trial, the first paragraph of historical accounts of the Trump presidency is likely” to say that he incited a mob attack on Congress after refusing to accept the results of an election.
If Mr. Trump is not convicted, the managers want to ensure that he remains so politically radioactive that he cannot be the same force he once was — if not the pariah they think he ought to be, then at least a figure that many mainstream Republicans and their corporate donors keep at arm’s length. In effect, if the Senate will not vote to formally disqualify him from future office, they want the public to do so. …
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
Yeah. I have not even registered for the vaccination wait list of our state health department. One thing that I learned in 47 years of IT career is that rushed implementations never go well. I want the shots when available, but with our isolation then the only risk that we face is when I go grocery shopping early in the AM once every two or three weeks. I will continue to monitor the news developments, but for now frustrated seniors are most of the story.
Bitcoin tops $48,000 as cryptocurrency rally continues
NY Times – February 9
Bitcoin continued its rally, the latest leg of which was set off by Tesla’s announcement on Monday that it had purchased $1.5 billion worth of the digital currency and would start accepting Bitcoin payments. Bitcoin rose above $48,000 per coin early on Tuesday, a record, before coming off that high later, according to CoinDesk, a trading platform for digital currencies.
It is up more than 45 percent in 2021, and other cryptocurrencies are rising, too — including Dogecoin, which rose about 1,000 percent over the past week.
The momentum has been building as more trading apps allow users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, reported Nathaniel Popper for The New York Times: “The rally is a moment of euphoria for the thousands of different versions of digital money, which years ago were dismissed as little more than online Beanie Babies caught in a speculative bubble,” he wrote.
Bitcoin’s Big Day
Tesla says it bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, sending the cryptocurrency to a record high
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/us/politics/republicans-leaving-party.html?smid=tw-share
‘There’s Nothing Left’: Why Thousands of Republicans Are Leaving the Party
Voting registration data indicates a stronger-than-usual flight from the G.O.P. since the Capitol riot, with an intensely fluid period in American politics now underway. …
In the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the phone lines and websites of local election officials across the country were jumping: Tens of thousands of Republicans were calling or logging on to switch their party affiliations.
In California, more than 33,000 registered Republicans left the party during the three weeks after the Washington riot. In Pennsylvania, more than 12,000 voters left the G.O.P. in the past month, and more than 10,000 Republicans changed their registration in Arizona.
An analysis of January voting records by The New York Times found that nearly 140,000 Republicans had quit the party in 25 states that had readily available data (19 states do not have registration by party). Voting experts said the data indicated a stronger-than-usual flight from a political party after a presidential election, as well as the potential start of a damaging period for G.O.P. registrations as voters recoil from the Capitol violence and its fallout. …
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/impeachment-trump-republican-senate-acquit-mob-steal-election.html
THE NATIONAL INTEREST FEB. 9, 2021
Republicans: Trump Can’t Be Impeached Because He Can’t Be Impeached
By Jonathan Chait
In my county there are a little over 200,000 people in group 1(b) registered to get the vaccine like me. This week the county received a little more than 7,000 doses.
It’s gonna be awhile. Trump’s still killing this country.
EMike,
About the same here in central VA now. Also there are regular software glitches in the state, local, and pharmacy vaccination registration software and the three do not integrate seamlessly either.
I have not even tried to register yet. I will in a few weeks. I monitor the situation daily, but will not jump in until things settle down. Also we have at least a couple of weeks of icy weather coming up.
Wife works from home and I grocery shop only once every two or three weeks at around 7AM during special hours for vulnerable customers. Things will get better, but I expect to wear a mask and observe social distancing for at least another 14 months.
Take care and stay safe.
Impeachment does not seem like a just settlement. If tried for treason in federal court, the the country would have chance to repay in kind.
(Kerfuffle resulted when Trump called Senator Lee during
the insurrection attempting to reach Senator Tuberville,
pleading with him to help Stop the Steal!)
Day 2 ends in procedural chaos as Senator Mike Lee asks for his name to be struck from the prosecution’s arguments
NY Times – February 10
An emotional second day of the trial ended in procedural chaos as a Republican senator objected to testimony that cited him as a source for a conversation former President Donald J. Trump had during the Capitol attack that is at the heart of the case.
In the final hour of arguments on Wednesday, Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island and one of the impeachment managers, spoke of Mr. Trump mistakenly calling Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, in an effort to reach Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama. In describing the call, which was detailed in news reports, Mr. Cicilline asserted that Mr. Lee had stood by as Mr. Trump asked Mr. Tuberville to make additional objections to the certification of President Biden’s electoral votes.
As Mr. Cicilline spoke, Mr. Lee could be seen writing furiously on a notepad in large letters: “This is not what happened.” When Democrats concluded their arguments for the day, Mr. Lee invoked an impeachment rule that allows senators to raise questions during the trial, including about the admissibility of evidence, and asked that the statements about him be struck as false.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the presiding officer for the impeachment trial, ruled the request as out of order. Mr. Leahy, who consulted with the Senate parliamentarian, pointed to a rule specific to this impeachment trial that allows the House managers to include elements in their oral arguments that were not in their original pretrial submissions.
A visibly outraged Mr. Lee demanded an appeal.
“My point was to strike them because they were false,” he said.
As some lawmakers, including Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, demanded that Mr. Lee explain why the description was false, the murmuring and confusion among senators and staff temporarily derailed the final moments of the day’s proceedings.
After a series of intense huddles on the floor, where Mr. Lee could be heard insisting that he did not make those statements, Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and the lead impeachment manager, agreed to take back the words. But he reserved the ability to bring the issue up again and litigate it later in the trial. …
Related:
Senator Mike Lee of Utah suggests Trump should get a ‘mulligan’ for Jan. 6 speech
Senator Mike Lee of Utah, a conservative Republican, suggested on Tuesday that former President Donald J. Trump be given a “mulligan” for exhorting an angry gathering of supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Mr. Lee, appearing on Fox News, was asked if he thought Mr. Trump’s speech was “different” from comments made by Democrats encouraging their backers to confront Republicans, as the show’s hosts played video clips of Democrats including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey.
“Look, it is not different,” Mr. Lee said, hours before Mr. Trump’s second impeachment trial began in the Senate.
“Look, everyone makes mistakes, everyone is entitled to a mulligan once in a while,” he said. “And I would hope — I would expect that each of those individuals would take a mulligan on each of those statements.” …
MA just announced that ‘accompanying, assisting friends’ can get
covid shots with their elder (75+) friends who are getting theirs,
effective today.
Our best friends (75+) got theirs last week. We are not
quite old enough yet to be eligible, but would have been,
eligible friends effective today. (I even helped arrange
one of their shots. So it goes…)
Mass. to allow vaccinations for younger companions
who accompany older residents to appointments https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/10/nation/state-open-mass-vaccine-sites-natick-dartmouth-allow-shots-younger-companions-who-accompany-older-residents/?event=event25 via @BostonGlobe
Ron,
The saddest part of the impeachment is its predetermined conclusion. It depressed me before the trial and it is getting worse.
But wait, there’s more. Trump will not be convicted by any criminal jury for anything he has done. That’s how far the madness has gone. In Federal court, all criminal convictions must be done by a unanimous jury, and it is the same in most states. Not a chance in the world there won’t be one trumper on a jury.
We still have to follow through, but in the end he will not get convicted anywhere other than a tax evasion charge before a judge.
EMike,
Yeah, I had not thought through jury of peers that well. There is a staggering amount of commitment bias on his side.
Ron,
You’ll enjoy this. It is called the vaccine waiting room page. I stayed on it for 2 hours with no results.
“Please Stand By
We’re experiencing heavy traffic. This page will automatically refresh every 30 seconds.
Stay with us: we’ll get you in soon.
CVS Pharmacy now has supplies to offer COVID-19 vaccination in limited locations, and continues to expand each week.
https://www.cvs.com/vaccine…
If Convicting Trump Is Out of Reach, Managers Seek a Verdict From the Public and History
NY Times – February 11
As a day of violence and mayhem at the Capitol slid into evening last month, with bloodshed, glass shattered and democracy besieged, President Donald J. Trump posted a message on Twitter that seemed to celebrate the moment. “Remember this day forever!” he urged.
The House Democrats prosecuting him at his Senate impeachment trial barely a month later hope to make sure everyone does.
With conviction in a polarized Senate seemingly out of reach, the House managers, as the prosecutors are known, are aiming their arguments at two other audiences beyond the chamber: the American people whose decision to deny Mr. Trump a second term was put at risk and the historians who will one day render their own judgments about the former president and his time in power.
Through the expansive use of unsettling video footage showing both Mr. Trump’s words and the brutal rampage that followed, the managers are using their moment in the national spotlight to make the searing images of havoc the inexpungible legacy of the Trump presidency. Rather than let the outrage subside, the managers are seeking to ensure that Mr. Trump is held accountable even if he is acquitted in the Senate
“The Democrats and House managers are playing to a different jury in this case than in any previous impeachment trial of an American president,” said Ken Gormley, the president of Duquesne University and the author of books on impeachment, presidents and the Constitution. “Regardless of the outcome of the trial, the first paragraph of historical accounts of the Trump presidency is likely” to say that he incited a mob attack on Congress after refusing to accept the results of an election.
If Mr. Trump is not convicted, the managers want to ensure that he remains so politically radioactive that he cannot be the same force he once was — if not the pariah they think he ought to be, then at least a figure that many mainstream Republicans and their corporate donors keep at arm’s length. In effect, if the Senate will not vote to formally disqualify him from future office, they want the public to do so. …
EMike,
Yeah. I have not even registered for the vaccination wait list of our state health department. One thing that I learned in 47 years of IT career is that rushed implementations never go well. I want the shots when available, but with our isolation then the only risk that we face is when I go grocery shopping early in the AM once every two or three weeks. I will continue to monitor the news developments, but for now frustrated seniors are most of the story.