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Daily Archives: January 7, 2021

Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence

Executive Order 13933 issued on June 26, 2020: “…Individuals and organizations have the right to peacefully advocate for either the removal or the construction of any monument. But no individual or group has the right to damage, deface, or remove any monument by use of force. In the midst of these attacks, many State and local governments appear to have lost the ability to distinguish between the lawful exercise of rights to free speech and assembly and unvarnished vandalism. They have surrendered to mob rule, imperiling community safety, allowing for the wholesale violation of our laws, and privileging the violent impulses of the mob over the rights of law-abiding citizens. Worse, they apparently have lost the will or the desire to stand up to the radical fringe and defend the fundamental truth that America is good, her people are virtuous, and that justice prevails in this country to a far greater extent than anywhere else in the world. Some particularly misguided public officials even appear to have accepted the idea that violence can be virtuous and have prevented their police from enforcing the law and protecting public monuments, memorials, and statues from the mob’s ropes and graffiti. My Administration will not allow violent mobs incited by a radical fringe to become the arbiters of the aspects of our history that can be celebrated in public spaces. State and local public officials’ abdication of their law enforcement responsibilities in deference to this violent assault must end…”

Sec. 2Policy.  (a)  It is the policy of the United States to prosecute to the fullest extent permitted under Federal law, and as appropriate, any person or any entity that destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the United States or otherwise vandalizes government property.  The desire of the Congress to protect Federal property is clearly reflected in section 1361 of title 18, United States Code, which authorizes a penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment for the willful injury of Federal property…”

CRS – Presidential Disability Under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment

CRS report via LC – Presidential Disability Under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment: Constitutional Provisions and Perspectives for Congress, Updated November 5, 2018:  “Sections 3 and 4 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provide for presidential disability or inability. Section 3 of the amendment sets the procedure whereby a President may declare himsel for herself… Continue Reading

Better Information Sharing Could Improve Responses to Washington, D.C. Area Helicopter Noise Concerns

Aircraft Noise: Better Information Sharing Could Improve Responses to Washington, D.C. Area Helicopter Noise Concerns. GAO-21-200: Published: Jan 7, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 7, 2021. “We were asked to review helicopter noise in the Washington, D.C., area, where numerous flights support government, national security, and medical operations. There were about 88,000 helicopter flights within 30… Continue Reading

CDC – People without symptoms spread virus in more than half of cases

Washington Post: “People with no symptoms transmit more than half of all cases of the novel coronavirus, according to a model developed by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their findings reinforce the importance of following the agency’s guidelines: Regardless of whether you feel ill, wear a mask, wash your hands, stay… Continue Reading

Capitol Rioters Planned for Weeks in Plain Sight. The Police Weren’t Ready.

ProPublica: Insurrectionists made no effort to hide their intentions, but law enforcement protecting Congress was caught flat-footed. “This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between ProPublica and FRONTLINE that includes an upcoming documentary. The invasion of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was stoked in plain sight. For weeks, the far-right supporters of President Donald… Continue Reading

CISA: Hackers access to federal networks without SolarWinds

FCW.com: “The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says it has evidence that hackers are breaching the federal government’s networks by other paths than the recently discovered vulnerabilities in SolarWinds Orion. “Specifically, we are investigating incidents in which activity indicating abuse of Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) tokens consistent with this adversary’s behavior is present, yet… Continue Reading