https://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2021/09/14/president-biden-warns-california-will-get-donald-trump-by-recalling-gov-newsom/
President Biden Warns California Will ‘Get Donald Trump’ by Recalling Gov. Newsom
President Joe Biden Monday evening in Long Beach urged California voters to reject the recall of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, citing the pandemic, women’s rights, climate change and minimum wage, while warning of Republican ties to Donald Trump.
“We need science, we need courage, we need leadership. We need Gavin Newsom,” Biden said during the approximately 15-minute address at Long Beach City College. “A governor who follows science, who’s got the courage to do what’s right.”
Biden sought to tie supporters of the recall to Trump, who is tremendously unpopular in California.
“You either keep Gavin Newsom as your governor or you get Donald Trump,” Biden told the crowd of approximately 1,100, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
“I got to run against the real Donald Trump. Well, this year, the leading Republican running for governor is the closest thing to a Trump clone that I’ve ever seen,” said Biden, referring to radio talk show host Larry Elder.
Taking the stage before Biden, Newsom took a similar tack, declaring his oft-repeated line: “We may have defeated Donald Trump, but we have not defeated Trumpism. Trumpism is still on the ballot in California.”
The rally was the last of Newsom’s campaign to attempt to defeat the recall effort. Tuesday is the deadline for voters statewide to cast a ballot or return their vote-by-mail ballot.
Newsom has been stepping up his campaign activities in recent days, campaigning in Northern California last Wednesday with his longtime ally, Vice President Kamala Harris.
Elder, the leader in the polls to replace Newsom if the recall is successful, dismissed the presidential support for the governor.
“If Gavin Newsom thinks that flying in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — not exactly the most admired government officials at the present time — will make him look better, that’s all you need to know about how oblivious and detached Newsom is from a large majority of Californians,” Elder tweeted last week.
Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, another Republican candidate on Tuesday’s ballot, also dismissed the president’s planned visit.
“Washington, DC, is not going to save Gavin Newsom,” Faulconer said. “He wants to make it about anything else but him. This recall is a referendum on Gavin Newsom’s failure. That’s why so many Californians not only signed the recall petition, but that’s why Californians in all parts of the state, all party registrations, are ready for a change at the top.”
Earlier Monday, Biden stopped in Boise, Idaho, for a visit to the National Interagency Fire Center, and then Sacramento on Monday afternoon to survey wildfire damage. He was joined there by Newsom, who flew with the President to Long Beach.
As Biden departs Tuesday, Newsom and his potential successors — 46 of them — will begin the waiting game as in-person voting enters its final day and the deadline arrives for people to return their vote-by-mail ballots. According to the Secretary of State’s office, more than 8 million vote-by-mail ballots had been returned statewide as of Sunday. Nearly 22.4 million were sent to voters.
The recall ballot contains only two questions: should Newsom be recalled — removed — from office, and if so, who should replace him?
If 50% or more voters respond “no” to the first question, Newsom will remain in office, and the results of the second question will be irrelevant. If more than 50% of people vote “yes” on the first question, Newsom will be removed from office and replaced with the candidate who receives the most votes in the second question on the ballot — even if far less than a majority.
Although 46 replacement candidates are on the ballot, Elder has consistently led most polls with around 20% and is the likely Republican winner if a majority vote to recall Newsom.
Polls are open in San Diego County from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Mail ballots must be postmarked by Tuesday if mailed, or dropped off at an official location.
https://twitter.com/VivaVoce20/status/1437524546635055115
https://nypost.com/2021/09/14/nine-members-of-the-colombo-crime-family-arrested/
Feds bust Colombo boss Andrew ‘Mush’ Russo in major racketeering case
The Colombos just took a hit.
The entire administrative structure of the famed but faded mafia syndicate — including boss Andrew “Mush” Russo — was slapped with a federal indictment Tuesday related to the infiltration of a Queens labor union.
A total of 14 defendants — including nine members of the crime clan — are expected to be arraigned in Brooklyn federal court on a slew of raps including labor racketeering, extortion and money laundering.
In addition to Russo, 87, the haul netted underboss Benjamin “The Claw” Castellazzo, 83, consigliere Ralph DiMatteo, 66, and captains Theodore Persico Jr., Richard Ferrara, and Vincent Ricciardo.
Prosecutors said the crew used “direct threats of bodily harm to control the management of the labor union and caused it to make decisions that benefitted the Colombo crime family,” according to a release.
Through intimidation and menace, Ricciardo had been siphoning part of the salary of a senior labor official since 2001, the papers state.
Ricciardo threatened to murder the unidentified victim in a recorded call earlier this year, the feds said.
“I’ll put him in the ground right in front of his wife and kids, right in front of his f—— house, you laugh all you want pal, I’m not afraid to go to jail, ” Ricciardo allegedly hissed. “I would f–king shoot him right in front of his wife and kids, call the police, f–k it, let me go, how long you think I’m gonna last anyway?”
The gangsters also sought to force the union to do business with vendors who were associated with the crime clan through threats of violence, officials said.
“Everything we allege in this investigation proves history does indeed repeat itself,” said Acting US Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis in a statement. “The underbelly of the crime families in New York City is alive and well. These soldiers, consiglieres, under bosses, and bosses are obviously not students of history, and don’t seem to comprehend that we’re going to catch them.”
The feds said Colombo soldier John Ragano also ran a scheme to provide falsified work safety certificates to hundreds of workers.
Ragano’s bogus “schools” were actually used to store illegal fireworks, according to the feds.
Castellazzo has already done time for an extortion rap related to a fight over Brooklyn’s L&B Spumoni Gardens’ secret red sauce recipe.
He was sprung from federal lockup in 2015, prison records show.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court.
Man, what a woman.
>https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1347766328468381702
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/house-speaker-joint-chiefs-milley/index.html
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told House Democrats in a letter on Friday that she spoke with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to discuss President Donald Trump and the nuclear codes, as Democrats call for the President to be removed from office after a violent pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.
"This morning, I spoke to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley to discuss available precautions for preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike," Pelosi wrote in a letter. "The situation of this unhinged President could not be more dangerous, and we must do everything that we can to protect the American people from his unbalanced assault on our country and our democracy."
After speaking with Milley Friday, Pelosi told her caucus that she has gotten assurances there are safeguards in place in the event Trump wants to launch a nuclear weapon, according to multiple sources on a caucus call.
"Speaker Pelosi initiated a call with the Chairman. He answered her questions regarding the process of nuclear command authority," Colonel Dave Butler said in a statement.
The announcement from Pelosi comes one day after the House speaker called on Vice President Mike Pence to remove Trump from office by invoking the 25th Amendment and warned that if that does not happen, Congress may pursue impeachment.
Since that time, calls from Democrats for the President to be impeached following the insurrection at the Capitol have only grown louder and it is possible the Democrat-led House could move toward a vote to impeach Trump for a second time as early as next week.
Pelosi's letter is once again raising questions about what it takes to actually launch a nuclear weapon and whether military commanders can refuse an order from Trump.
Only the President of the United States has the authority to order the deployment of nuclear weapons.
But contrary to popular belief, the "nuclear football," which always accompanies a President does not contain a button. Instead has the equipment and the decision-making papers that Trump would use to authenticate his orders and launch a strike.
The decision to launch a strike requires the President to work with military aides possessing the materials he needs to order an attack, as well as personnel at all levels, from top commanders all the way down to service members working in the missile silos.
Current and former defense officials have also insisted that the military does not blindly follow orders from the President, noting there are layers of checks and balances intended to safeguard against a President unlawfully ordering a nuclear strike."
But the reality is that the only basis for interfering with a direct order is if it's illegal, immoral or unethical. And there is a widely held belief among military commanders that they must resign if they are unable to carry out a legal order.
Some nuclear experts argue that there is little Milley could do to prevent Trump from ordering a nuclear launch, as he and other top national security officials are not technically in the chain of command when it comes to such decisions.
"Any 'safeguards' Milley may have erected to effectively prevent Trump from exercising sole authority of nuclear launch would actually be a 'coup' by the standard definition," according to Vipin Narang, a nuclear policy expert and professor at MIT.
"The procedure for nuclear launch authority grants POTUS the sole authority to order the launch of nuclear weapons," he told CNN, adding that, by design, the President is not legally required to consult with or receive assent from any one of a number of people, including the vice president, national security adviser, secretary of defense of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
"None are, contrary to popular belief, in the nuclear launch chain of command. Therefore any 'safeguards' that could effectively prevent POTUS from exercising sole authority to launch nuclear weapons are either illegal or illusory," Narang added. "So long as Trump remains in office, he retains the legal authority to solely launch some or all of America's nuclear weapons until 12:01pm on January 20, or until he is removed from office."
The top four congressional leaders Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer and Kevin McCarthy also spoke Thursday night with Milley and acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller about the federal response to the breach of the Capitol building, according to a source familiar. It is unclear if the issue of the nuclear codes came up during that conversation.