Written by Elizabeth Moon.

The appearance online last week of Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller’s actual instructions to the Secretary of the Army concerning the “possible” use of the District of Columbia National Guard (DCNG) January 6, is the smoking gun here.  As Secretary of Defense, Miller was appointed by Trump after his defeat and took his orders from Trump and was authorized to pass Trump’s orders to Secretaries of the military branches.  Thus Miller’s instructions to the Secretary of the Army–from whom the command chain of the National Guard descends–would control any National Guard response.  

In addition, a Vanity Fair article by Adam Ciralsky (published January 22, 2021) sealed the last holes in the chain of command.  There is no written order from Trump, but there is a solid chain of evidence that what Miller did and did not do was authorized by Trump and accorded with his wishes.  Ciralsky, who was “embedded” with Miller, has Miller’s own descriptions, and also talked to his two subordinates, Kash Patel and Ezra Cohen, as well as some other individuals he does not name, but quotes.  He had very unusual access.

Click to see document.

Both the memorandum sent to the Secretary of the Army and the details of Miller’s actions as reported by Ciralsky are important to close the gaps, but first take a look at the memorandum.  Supposedly (according to Trump and Miller) the limitations on the National Guard’s equipment and activity resulted from the D.C. Mayor’s complaints following the savage attacks on a peaceful demonstration in front of the White House July 1, 2020, when federal troops (undesignated, uniforms but no patched) tear-gassed and roughed up noisy but harmless demonstrators so the President could walk through Lafayette Park and pose in front of St. James Episcopal Church waving a Bible.  Personally, I think Trump and Miller used that as an excuse for the more ridiculous limits placed on the DCNG troops, to assure that they would not be able to act effectively even if deployed.

Unlike the police, they were not to carry weapons of any kind, wear protective gear (helmets, body armor), use any riot control equipment, make physical contact with any of the demonstrators except to save their own lives or the lives of others, share any equipment with other law enforcement units, make use of any Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance assets (ISR) or conduct any ISR activities such as Incidence, Awareness, Assessment.  They were not to employ helicopters or other air assets. They were not to conduct searches, seizures, arrests “or other law enforcement activity,” or to seek support from non-DCNG units (such as the Maryland National Guard which appeared later.) 

These restrictions, coupled with the delay in deployment, meant that the DC National Guard was being sent into an active and very dangerous riot zone where the Capitol Police were being beaten, dragged, hit with poles and even a fire extinguisher with less equipment than some of the rioters.  The several groups of trained ex-military/paramilitary wore combat quality helmets, body armor, face shields, gas masks…and carried tasers, knives, and some of them other weapons.  Many others in the crowd wore helmets of some kind, body armor of a sort, and carried improvised (but effective) weapons.

What, exactly, could the National Guard–without any weapons, without any protective gear, without any riot control gear, with no ability to call in air support or assistance from another National Guard unit (e.g. Maryland NG)–be expected to do?  Look impressive?  Add to the casualty count?  They’d have been helpless to prevent what actually happened, and coming on the scene late, would not have been able to stop what had started.  And they required a direct order to do even that much.

The Secretary of the Army had to send them, and he needed the GO from the Secretary of Defense, who knew what Trump had told him…or rather, as the next post will explain, how Trump had sortakinda-but-not-exactly told him.  But this is a very smoking gun, blazing hot, with fingerprints right on it, all identifiable.  

Steny Hoyer issued this statement today —

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., met with Greene on Tuesday evening in his Capitol office. He offered no immediate comment following the discussion.

“I spoke to Leader McCarthy this morning, and it is clear there is no alternative to holding a Floor vote on the resolution to remove Rep. Greene from her committee assignments,” Hoyer said in a statement Wednesday.

Vote and be done with it, guys.

I tell ya what. If Greene can explain to us all who King Leonidas and Xerxes are and why she is on the wrong side of this analogy, I’ll eat the wrapper and throw away the Twinkie.

Thanks to Chloe Bear for the heads up. 

Back a while ago, I applauded the lawyers representing Dominion voting machines for aggressively going after the yabbermouths attacking their machines.  Free speech ain’t free – it is bought with responsibility. Slander is slander and should be treated as such.

Well, let me show you how that works.

Brian Williams is a fun one to watch and I just didn’t want you to miss this one.

Tommy Tuberville is becoming the Senate’s answer to Louie Gohmert. Or, come to think of it, any other senator.

Get a load of this.  Tuberville was asked about the outrageous statements from Majorie Taylor Greene.

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville says he doesn't know anything about Marjorie Taylor Greene because the bad weather has prevented him from reading the news https://t.co/N6KyG5uUHI

— Insider Politics (@insiderpolitics) February 2, 2021

It’s too cold to read?

You only subscribe to skywriting news services?  Even so, I think they were covering this.

Did the Jewish space laser block your internet service?

Honey, was the sun too bright to read in Alabama?

Thanks to SGray for the heads up.

The DNC is now considering what to do about Iowa in terms of where it sits in the order of presidential primaries, since it is traditionally first to go in the presidential race every 4 years.  My opinion?  Dump it.  The unmitigated shitshow of 2020’s caucuses should be the nail in the coffin of Number One Primary, but it goes beyond that.  Iowa voters are not predictive of a winner; its population is older, more rural, and generally less informed than many other states. As an aside, I even question the importance of New Hampshire, but whatever, let’s dump on Iowa tonight.  I’ve got an idea, how about we start out with Super Tuesday and just go from there?

There’s also other upsides to dumping Iowa; no more stupid steak fries, corn on the cob roasts, butter cow sculpture contests, and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on bus rentals going from VFW hall to VFW hall to press the flesh of octogenarians.  On top of that, the Iowa Dems can’t even manage implementing a Goddam iPad app, hence 2020’s disaster.  In short, fuck those hayseeds.  Go to the back of the line; sit down, shut up. Eat your corn.

Not that I’m opinionated.  Or worn out.  Or just sick of hearing about Iowa.  Rant over, good night.

One of the constant threads that wound through Trump’s infestation of the WH was poor grammar, poor usage, and careless misspellings.  Bringing this characteristic to the end, his lawyers’ answer today to the single article of impeachment filed by the House, Trump’s lawyers, in the introductory paragraph, actually misspelled…wait for it…United States.  That’s right, folks, in the very introduction of his defense of the indefensible, United States was spelled Unites States.  These are supposedly high dollar lawyers with deep experience, and they are so careless in carrying out their responsibilities that they didn’t even bother to spellcheck.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.