This week we were treated to the spectacle of the Republican Party largely voting in support of an advocate of using deadly violence towards her political opponents. How the mighty have fallen -- since this used to be the party that dearly loved to sanctimoniously lecture everyone on how high morals were an absolute necessity in politics, and that even the concept of "moral relativism" was evil. That all went out the window when they nominated the most amoral man imaginable for president, of course, but it's still rather shocking to see this once-publicly-righteous party wallow in the filth of QAnon and flirt with ideas like advocacy for assassinating political opponents.

Next week, we'll be treated to the spectacle of the Republican Party explaining why they'll largely be voting (once again) to support deadly violence towards political opponents, except this time it'll be even more egregious, since the violence in question this time wasn't theoretical but actual -- and since the violence was directed against Congress itself. But not even this will stop Republicans from putting their stamp of approval on it, by voting to acquit the prime instigator of the violence of any responsibility. Republicans also (for younger readers who may never have come across the concept) used to be for "taking personal responsibility" (except when they said it they were always talking about minorities on welfare, unmarried mothers, gay people with AIDS, and others who were, to them, to be considered not only undesirable but morally lacking). Those were the days, eh?

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As we head towards next week's impeachment trial of Donald Trump in the Senate, I think there are three important things to remember and to stress. In fact, I wish more in the media would point these things out on a regular basis, but if they fall down on the job then Democrats should immediately pick up the slack and remind everyone of a few hard, cold facts.

The first thing to stress is that the attempted insurrection isn't something that can be swept under a rug -- people died, people were seriously injured, and our very democracy was under attack. Second is that while some Republicans have been denouncing Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for her stated belief in many conspiracy theories, it is actually Trump who is the king of conspiracy theories -- so he must likewise be denounced (otherwise such denunciations are worthless, from Republicans). And third, each and every Republican officeholder needs to be asked flat-out whether he or she thinks Joe Biden is the duly-elected and legitimate president of the United States. Because absent that simple affirmation, all their talk of how they're ridding their party of conspiracy theorists is pure hogwash -- and journalists should refuse to air it.

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Democrats, understandably, are salivating at the prospect of making a mountain of political hay over Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a pro-Trump Republican who got elected despite believing in QAnon and pretty much every other conspiracy theory from the last quarter-century or so.

More importantly, when considering her fitness to serve in the United States government, Greene also approved of the idea of shooting Nancy Pelosi in the head. She is thus, not to put too fine a point on it, a terrorist sympathizer. Shooting your political enemies is a pretty textbook definition of terrorism, after all.

Previous to the insurrection attempt at the U.S. Capitol, Greene called for it to become "our 1776 moment," which is also pretty clear-cut. She supported an attempt to rebel against the sitting government (of which she was now part), plain and simple. How else can "our 1776 moment" be interpreted?

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One of the concerns many Democratic voters (especially progressives) have had about President Joe Biden was that he has had a propensity to compromise too much when dealing with congressional Republicans (as he did as vice president on several Obama initiatives) and that he just wasn't bold enough (too incremental), and would therefore prove to be a rather wishy-washy president. Well, the jury's still largely out (after all, it hasn't even been a full two weeks yet), but I have to say that the earliest indications are surprisingly good. Biden is holding firm in his first big legislative push, and he's refusing to get sidetracked into some miasmic swamp of some promised bipartisan compromise that never actually materializes.

Biden met yesterday with the 10 Republican senators who finally put forth a proposal of their own for a COVID-19 relief package. Up until the weekend, the Republicans negotiating with the Democrats had no plan, just lots of complaints about the Democratic proposal. So they got the required number (10) together (which would allow Democrats to overcome a filibuster attempt), but getting all 10 of them on board obviously wasn't easy -- because the plan that they put forward is not just laughably inadequate, it's actually an insult. Biden started at $1.9 trillion, and he's got the solid backing of economists (and the new Fed chair) who say that the only danger here is that the stimulus package might not be large enough. Republicans countered with a paltry $618 billion - less than one-third of Biden's proposal.

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The next few weeks are going to be rather critical for the Republican Party. They have a clear choice to make, and at this point it's pretty obvious that most Republican members of Congress are about to choose the most self-destructive path now available to them. Call it the final capitulation to Trumpism.

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President Joe Biden has now spent his first 10 days in office. All told, it's been fairly boring. Which is exactly what millions of Americans voted him into office to achieve. Journalists everywhere are writing absolute paeans to boredom. Throughout the land, a joyous cry is raised: "Let boredom ring!" Well, OK, that may be overstating it a tiny bit. But not by much.

Central to this newfound delight in ennui, of course, is the vast and echoing silence emanating from Mar-A-Lago. Still cut off from all his social media accounts, and perhaps legally wary of saying anything before his Senate impeachment trial, Donald Trump has been gloriously and wonderfully quiet. This continues the longest streak of silence from him in at least five years (if not "ever").

Consider what Biden's first week in office would have been like if Trump had been taking dozens of potshots at him from the sidelines, each and every day. The one thing Trump is an absolute (if not "stable") genius at is manipulating the news media and inserting his own idiocy into subjects where it was never welcome to begin with. He's a master at it. He knows that the more outrageous whatever he tweeted out was, the higher the chance that it would be all anyone in the political media would be talking about by the time the evening news rolled around.

And now there has been none of it, for weeks. And, on Twitter at least, there will never be any more of it, ever again, forever. O blissful and joyous silence!

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President Joe Biden has been in office a little over a week, and so far he has exceeded expectations. Now, to be fair, these are still the earliest of days. Biden is still enjoying his "honeymoon" period with the public, with the press, and (largely) with Congress. That will fade, undoubtedly. Also, Donald Trump left so many egregious messes lying around that cleaning up the worst of them was pretty low-hanging fruit indeed. But, so far, Biden has not disappointed in a big way once.

None of his cabinet choices raised any huge alarm with even the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and they've been getting steadily confirmed with huge bipartisan votes. There will be a few later on that will be more contentious, no doubt, but so far Biden's track record on putting together his administration is a pretty admirable one.

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This really shouldn't be all that extraordinary, but sadly it is. The Department of Homeland Security just issued a warning about the possibility of right-wing violence and/or terrorism. Here are the pertinent facts:

The Department of Homeland Security issued a warning Wednesday to alert the public about a growing risk of attacks by "ideologically-motivated violent extremists" agitated about President Biden's inauguration and "perceived grievances fueled by false narratives."

DHS periodically issues such advisories through its National Terrorism Advisory System, but the warnings have typically been generated by elevated concerns about attacks by foreign governments or radical groups, not domestic extremists.

In a statement, the department said the purpose of the new bulletin was to warn the public about a "heightened threat environment" across the United States "that is likely to persist over the coming weeks."

. . .

"DHS does not have any information to indicate a specific, credible plot; however, violent riots have continued in recent days and we remain concerned that individuals frustrated with the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances and ideological causes fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize a broad range of ideologically-motivated actors to incite or commit violence," the statement read.

The most recent bulletins DHS has issued -- both this month -- warned the public about an elevated threat from Iran. No other bulletin in recent years has been issued to alert Americans about violence by domestic extremists.

"Throughout 2020, Domestic Violent Extremists (DVEs) targeted individuals with opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, nonviolent protest activity," the bulletin states.... "DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities."

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer won his first big political battle against Minority Leader Mitch McConnell last night. McConnell, in a fit of petulance, had dug in his heels and was refusing to agree to the new Senate rules proposed by Schumer which will dictate the chamber's power structure for the next two years. This is normally a routine vote, even with an evenly-balanced 50-50 Senate -- there wasn't much drama the last time this happened, when Tom Daschle and Trent Lott worked out an agreement. Essentially, Senate committees will be evenly divided between Democratic seats and Republican seats, but Democrats will still control what gets out of committee and (more importantly) what makes it to the Senate floor for a vote. After all, even though the Senate is evenly-divided, Vice President Kamala Harris is the deciding vote for the Democrats. But that's been true since last Wednesday, and yet McConnell blocked the new rules until today, which had left Republicans still chairing all the committees -- even though they're now in the minority.

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The Washington political press corps have returned to some semblance of normalcy. One of the things this means is that President Joe Biden is getting scrutiny and criticism for the actual reality on the ground versus what he had promised. This follows a four-year period of being so cowed by Trump's firehose of lies and bluster that the press corps mostly didn't even bother, other than a few half-hearted attempts here and there.

Proving this bias is pretty easy. Let's look at how the coverage of the vaccine rollout has gone. At the end of December, there were indeed many stories about how incredibly far behind their projections the Trump team had fallen -- but these rarely, if ever, told the full story of this disappointment. Team Trump had initially promised to vaccinate 100 million people by the end of the calendar year. They said this only a few months ago, mind you. Then, out of the blue, this target was cut to 40 million, and then cut again to 20 million. No explanation was given, and the media largely just yawned.

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