Comparing yourself to mediocrity does not guarantee efficiency: anachronistic bipartisanship has become more extreme.
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Will we survive 2020? | The State
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Security has always been one of the key elements in the organization of the inaugural presidential ceremony and secondary events, but for the arrival of the president-elect Joe biden, the Committee and the Secret Service pay special attention to surveillance, due to the threat of armed protests in the capital of the country and other states.
The FBI launched an alert last week about threatened armed mobilizations in all 50 states and in Washington, D.C., urging the deployment of law enforcement agencies.
Within hours, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) approved the Secret Service to begin its special operation on January 13, not on January 19, as planned, after the attack on the Capitol.
By that day they were already deployed near 20,000 elements of the National Guard at various points in the US capital with special attention to the Capitol, where the swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala harris.
“The Capitol thing was horrible… we are in contact with the security men for the inauguration… the Secret Service has more than a year planning everything. I have all the confidence in the world that all the changes that have to be made are being implemented “, said Audrey Lopez, Director of Hispanic Media of the Inaugural Committee in a podcast of A City Without Limits and He Daily.
He added that the priority is for the transition to be peaceful, in addition to the Secret Service making constant changes, in order to improve surveillance.
“We know they are making certain changes,” he said. There are adjustments that are made at the last minute, especially regarding the central ceremonies and the inauguration.
Such is the level of security that this Monday a group that was doing rehearsals in the Capitol was evicted after a fire broke out a few blocks away. He Secret Service reported that it has a complex surveillance deployment and rules out taking any alert lightly.
Avoid travel to Washington
Lopez said that in addition to the security after the events in the Capitol, the Inaugural Committee follows the health guidelines for the coronavirus pandemic, for which both elements force to prohibit access and the meeting of groups.
“We are telling everyone not to come to Washington, please, that it is easier to see it in their houses … We are in the middle of a pandemic and for us the most important thing is security”, he expressed. “This year there are no public tickets… I doubt that (people) can pass! There will be guards everywhere ”.
He added that the official call for the ceremony is made by a bicameral Committee, who extend the invitations to congressmen and other characters, including the family of President-elect Biden and Vice President Harris.
Republicans are also among the guests, including those who openly defend the president Donald trump, but who will attend is unknown.
“They invite everyone (the congressmen) and they will have to decide whether or not to go. It is a personal decision that each one is going to make ”, he indicated.
President Trump and the first lady will not attend the ceremony Melania Trump, but the presence of the vice president is expected Mike pence.
Diversity and Latino presence
The Committee is organizing several events, including concerts, parades, a tribute to victims of COVID-19, where the Latino community will have a broad presence, starting with the musical event after the inauguration, with the Jennifer Lopez participation.
Regarding international guests, such as Latin American leaders, he said that the Committee responsible for this has extended the invitations, but the names are still unknown, either because they have not confirmed or will not attend.
He added that Latinos should pay attention to President Biden’s agenda, which includes various projects for the community, but stressed that the entire government plan impacts all communities.
“It is important because everything that happens through the government affects us in one way or another… if it is education it affects us, because we have children in schools; if it is immigration, it affects us because we are immigrants or because our parents; if this national security issue, it also affects us ”, he stated. “When President-elect Biden’s agenda comes out, find out, see how it will affect you … it will be a very aggressive agenda.”
This Monday, the Inaugural Committee announced the virtual programming that celebrates the diversity of the country that includes “We Are One ”(“ We are One ”).
“The official programming of the PIC will include three additional events highlighting the various coalitions ”, highlight the organizers.
The one focused on Latinos is “Heritage, resilience and promise”, coordinated with the Hispanic Federation and more than 50 organizations.
The event will be hosted by Eva Longoria and will have the participation of Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Leguizamo, Rita Moreno, Edward James Olmos, Ivy Queen and Becky G.
It will be broadcast live on The Choice channel on Peacock, as well as Telemundo’s digital and social platforms starting at 9:30 p.m. from the east.
More information
To find details of all the events you can consult the Spanish page of the Committee: https://bideninaugural.org/es/
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Washington, D.C. it is heavily guarded by the National Guard and the Secret Service.
Photo:
Stefani Reynolds / Getty Images
Participants in a rehearsal for the inauguration of the president-elect Joe biden They were evacuated from an area of the Capitol after a fire broke out near the building.
In the middle of a intense security operationAfter the violent invasion of that building, the security elements transferred the participants, including members of a military band, to a safe place, when a column of smoke was seen.
The events occurred almost at 11:00 a.m.
Fortunately, the incident was not related to the inaugural preparationsBut with a group of homeless people, the Washington, D.C. Fire Department reported. There are no injured people.
This just happened at 395 in #NavyYard #Fire pic.twitter.com/H4h92bxUBH
– Don Andres (@_DCAndres) January 18, 2021
The Secret Service, which began an operation on January 13 and will continue until January 20, indicated that there was no “public threat”, although it recognized the alert actions to prevent injuries.
Public safety and law enforcement responded to a small fire in the area of 1st and F streets SE, Washington, D.C. that has been extinguished. Out of an abundance of caution the U.S. Capitol complex was temporarily shutdown. There is no threat to the public. pic.twitter.com/kQfAI4NxNK
– U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) January 18, 2021
It should be remembered that neither President-elect Biden nor Vice President-elect Kamala harris they are in place.
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The First Lady Melania Trump broke one of the traditions of the first ladies.
In the midst of the political and social tension due to the invasion of the Capitol and the little pompous exit that the president will have Donald trump, the First Lady did not make the previous tour of the White House to Jill biden, wife of the president-elect Joe biden.
“Melania Trump will become the first modern first lady not to invite the woman who will replace her to the White House for a tour of the private rooms on the second and third floors.“, advancement Kate Andersen Brower, expert in history of the first ladies.
Highlights that Michelle Obama invited Melania Trump, even after Trump launched a theory about the president’s citizenship Barack Obama.
“This tradition has long been one of the First Lady’s many unwritten obligations, and Melania Trump has discarded it.”, Andersen Brower laments in an editorial in CNN.
He adds that the reason may be the way President Trump has dealt with the electoral defeat.
“It is perhaps not surprising that Melania Trump has flouted a social norm of her position,” he says. “Every single-term president and his wife have felt the pain of defeat, but unlike her husband, neither of them have refused to accept the election results.”
He gives an example to Betty Ford, who was furious when her husband lost the competition in 1976 to Jimmy Carter.
“It doesn’t matter who follows you, you know they didn’t deserve to be there,” he said.
In fact, he twice canceled the tour to Rosalynn Carter, but the third date happened. “It was brief, but cordial,” the incoming first lady said then.
“These meetings are not always fraught with tension; sometimes they set the stage for lasting relationships. Michelle Obama and Laura bush they were able to work together later, partly due to those early interactions, ”says the expert.
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A migration crisis awaits the start of the president-elect’s government Joe biden with a caravan of at least 9,000 Hondurans divided into two groups that go to the States.
At least 6,000 Hondurans were detained by the Guatemalan army, after a confrontation that was recorded in an impressive video.
Hondurans remain stranded on a highway in eastern Guatemala, where security forces have blocked their path.
This video shows a confrontation between the Guatemalan army, using sticks and shooting teargas, and a group of Hondurans from the caravan who are trying to pass.#CaravanMigrante # CaravanaMigrante2021 # Caravana2021 pic.twitter.com/SA6qTGJj7A
– John Holman (@ johnholman100) January 17, 2021
Tension in Central America increases, while in Mexico civil organizations are on alert, since some 3,000 Hondurans managed to advance through Guatemala, but it is feared that the president’s government Andrés Manuel López Obrador I ordered the deployment of the National Guard.
The Institute for Women in Immigration warned about the new crisis and recalled that in January 2020, the Mexican military repressed and beat dozens of immigrants, which led to a recommendation from the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
#ProtectionNoDetention #Central American Exodus
⚠️ We reiterate our concern about the role of @GN_MEXICO_ in detention of migrants. We highlight recommendation 50/2020 d @CNDH for acting GN in response to caravan of January 2020.
📹: César Solis
➡️ https://t.co/OcSIFRWsef pic.twitter.com/9yqUdD07Sg– IMUMI (@IMUMIDF) January 16, 2021
The Guatemalan Migration Institute reported that the caravan remains stranded, but “the coordination of voluntary returns continues.”
The crowd had decided hours before, with the arrival of night, that they would spend the night on the road again after kneeling, praying and trying without success to advance in front of the barrier formed by the security forces.
Hondurans are part of a migrant caravan of more than 9,000 compatriots, according to official estimates, that left San Pedro Sula, a city in northern Honduras, in different phases last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The group that is stranded is made up of around 6,000 migrants, while the other 3,000 Hondurans in the caravan have made progress in some cases. and in others the multitude has been diluted or has started the journey back to their country.
His goal is to reach the United States to have better living conditions, away from the poverty and violence that plague the Central American isthmus, especially after the pandemic and hurricanes Eta and Iota, which made landfall last November.
“We are talking about national security”, the director of the Guatemalan Migration Institute explained to journalists today, Guillermo Diaz, on his country’s position regarding not letting Honduran migrants advance.
The Guatemalan Army has deployed more than 5,000 soldiers in seven departments of the country and is also supported by thousands of other agents of the National Civil Police as part of a plan organized by the Government to prevent migrants from advancing.
With information from Efe
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Vice President Biden promised deep immigration reform.
Photo:
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden will try to “turn the page to divisions” in the country during his inauguration speech next Wednesday, in which he will convey an “optimistic” vision of the future of a nation mired in a political and public health crisis.
“He believes that we can unite this country,” said this Sunday what will be Biden White House communications director, Kate Bedingfield, in an interview with ABC News.
The president-elect will assume power at the inauguration ceremony with the highest security in the history of the United States, due to the threats that still lie after the assault on the Capitol by the radical followers of the outgoing president, Donald Trump, on January 6 .
Biden will also take the reins of the country hardest hit by the world’s pandemic in absolute terms, which borders on the 400,000 deaths from covid-19, and where millions of Americans need urgent help to pay their bills or keep their businesses afloat.
“He believes that a unified America is the only way we can deal with the massive crises we are dealing with,” Bedingfield stressed.
Turn the page
Therefore, Biden will use his first speech as president “to try to turn the page to the divisions and hatred of the last four years, and present a positive and optimistic vision of the country; present a path that really asks us all to work together ”, said the advisor.
“That is what the Americans want, that is what they voted for in this election. 81 million Americans voted for President-elect Biden in part because he was presenting a plan for this country that will lead us to a place where we can work together, so that is what he will talk about on the 20th, “concluded Bedingfield.
Putting that idea into practice will be tricky, however, in a country deeply divided by Trump’s defiance of the November election result, where an impeachment trial against the outgoing president is about to begin and where Republican opposition in the Senate vows to thwart Biden’s plans.
Divided country
This polarization is reflected in a poll published this Sunday by The Washington Post and ABC News, according to which the 49% of Americans believe that Biden will make the right decisions for the country, while 50% believe otherwise.
The percentage who trust Biden is much higher than the 38% of Americans who believed the same about Trump when he came to power in 2017, but much lower than the 61% who expressed faith in the decisions of former President Barack Obama before his inauguration in 2009 .
The poll also shows that 67% of Americans approve of the way Biden has handled the complex transition period, far more than the 40% who said the same about Trump and less than the 80% who thought so. same about Obama.
More than 6 in 10 Americans believe that Biden was legitimately elected; But when the respondents are divided by party, 7 out of 10 Republicans still do not believe that their election was a fair one, revealing the influence that Trump’s claims without evidence of fraud still have on the party.
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There are extreme security measures in Washington.
Photo:
NDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / Getty Images
Authorities in Washington DC this weekend arrested a woman posing as a police officer and a second armed man near the Capitol, after detaining another on Friday, who said he had been lost.
The Washington Post reported this Sunday of the two new arrests in the center of the American capital, turned into an armored fortress against the risk of new armed attacks in the days before the inauguration on Wednesday of the president-elect of the USA, Joe Biden.
However, for now it has not been confirmed that any of the three detainees had a clear intention to provoke new episodes of violence in the capital or who were radical supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, such as those who stormed the Capitol on the 6th.
The last man arrested, identified as Guy Berry, was carrying a Glock 22 pistol, three high-capacity magazines and 37 rounds of unregistered ammunition, according to Washington Police, the Post said.
Berry walked early Sunday morning down Massachusetts Avenue, less than a mile (from the Capitol, with his gun “clearly visible” in a holster, according to police.
In the District of Columbia, where Washington is located, it is prohibited to carry weapons in public if they are not concealed; and Berry was arrested for carrying an unlicensed pistol, possessing high-capacity magazines, and having unregistered ammunition.
The other detainees
The day before, on Saturday morning, a woman was detained at one of the access points to the wide fenced perimeter that covers all of downtown Washington, in her case, very close to the Capitol.
The woman, who has not been identified, said she was a security agent and presented the agents with a pocket medallion sometimes owned by military commanders.
The suspect tried to drive away in her vehicle when she saw that the Capitol Police did not believe her story, but she was detained and charged with impersonating ar a police or security officer, for not obeying an agent of the law and for fleeing from him.
The two new arrests are added to that of another man, Wesley allen beeler, which police accused of trying to enter the fenced perimeter of downtown Washington on Friday with at least one weapon and more than 500 bullets.
However, Beeler assured the Washington Post this Saturday that he only approached the checkpoint located near the Capitol because he had gotten lost in the capital, where he had come from Virginia to work as a security agent for a private company during the inauguration. .
“It was an innocent mistake,” said Beeler, adding that he does have a license to carry weapons, but he had forgotten it at home, and that it is not true that he had more than 500 bullets in the car, as stated by the Police.
Washington and the capitals of the 50 states of the country were on high alert this weekend, after a newsletter from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicated that it had information on “armed protests” planned throughout the nation between this Saturday and Wednesday 20.
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Giuliani failed to win a single major electoral battle in court.
Photo:
MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty Images
President Donald trump seems to have lost trust in his personal attorney Rudy giuliani, who had said he was involved in the president’s defense team for the second impeachment trial.
“I am involved in this moment … I am working on that”Giuliani told ABC News.
But within hours of the release of such information, President Trump’s campaign team indicated that no decision has been made on the matter.
“President Trump has not yet determined which lawyer or law firm will represent him for the shameful attack on our Constitution and democracy, known as the “impeachment hoax.”. We will keep you informed, “said the president’s team in a statement, according to Daily Mail.
Previous reports indicated that President Trump is furious with Giuliani for his failure in court to defend the accusation of “electoral fraud.”
He also considered that the former mayor of New York charges too much, in reference to the $ 20,000 a day he demanded, in addition to the fact that he made several trips for which he should be paid travel expenses.
“Trump has ordered his assistants not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees”, reported The Washington Post.
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Kamala Harris arriving in the Senate on Tuesday.
Photo:
SAUL LOEB / AFP / Getty Images
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will resign from the United States Senate on Monday.
The first woman to become vice president of the United States has already started the process that notifies the governor of California Gavin newsom on his resignation from the Upper House. Harris will make the formal announcement Monday.
Harris will assume his new role on Wednesday, January 20. Your oath will be taken by the Supreme Court judge Sonia Sotomayor, in an act that is very symbolic for the country’s ethnic minorities.
Harris’ replacement in the Senate
Harris’ resignation is a formal process. A few weeks ago it was known that Alex padilla, current California Secretary of State, will take the seat at the US Senate until the end of the term in 2022.
Padilla will be the first Latino to represent California in the Senate.
Harris is the first woman to serve as vice president and the first person of black and Asian descent in that office. In her role as vice president, she will continue with work in the Senate since the constitution says that the vice president of the nation is the President of the Senate. Harris will be the tiebreaker vote when bills are voted on. Democrats and Republicans were left with 50 seats in the Upper House after the Georgia elections.
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John Weaver collaborated with several politicians, including Senator John McCain.
Photo:
ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP / Getty Images
The author Ryan James Gindusky launched the first public indictment against a Republican founder of the Lincoln Project, who operated against the president Donald trump, for it to be investigated that he offered work to young men, in exchange for sex.
The point drew more attention when James Girdusky responded to a report that the group assembled a database of advisers and officials who collaborated with Trump so that they were not hired.
“Maybe I should start talking about one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project offering jobs to young men in exchange for sex.”he wrote on Twitter. “Your wife might be interested”.
It turned out that character is John Weaver, who resigned from the group in the face of the allegations.
Maybe I should start talking about one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project offering jobs to young men in exchange for sex… his wife is probably interested https://t.co/vAtUS9aPPl
– Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) January 9, 2021
The portal Axios released a message from Weaver, where he acknowledges the “inappropriate” messages towards various men.
“To the men I made uncomfortable through my messages that, at the time, I considered consensual mutual conversations: I’m really sorry”, he expressed.
He added that those messages were inappropriate and declared: “The truth is that I am gay.”
Weaver is a renowned political consultant who has collaborated with several high-ranking politicians, including the late John McCain.
“And that I have a wife and two children whom I love. My inability to reconcile those two truths has led me to this harrowing place “, he expressed.
The accusations began almost two weeks ago, coming from several young people who accused receiving sexual messages, sometimes in exchange for employment or political promotion.
Weaver had left the group for the summer, but barely acknowledged the allegations.
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