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Q the Congress: The House cancelled its session today because of internet threats that another insurrection will topple the government and re-install Donald Trump as president. Today is the day that followers of QAnon believe that Donald Trump will seize power and return to Washington to be inaugurated. 

  Word of this has been out there for weeks, but the Capitol Police said just yesterday that they have intelligence that there’s “a possible plot to breach the Capitol by an identified militia group.” 

  Capitol Police did not name a specific group behind the threat in its statement but there is chatter that the militia group the Three Percenters is involved. They were among the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. 

officials testified on Capitol Hill about security surrounding the complex.

 March 4^th was the country’s original inauguration day. The March 4 theory gained traction after Biden’s inauguration Jan. 20^th when the QAnon-predicted military tribunals and mass arrests of Democrats failed to happen.

Delayed Response: The commander of the District of Columbia National Guard testified before Congress yesterday in detail about a three-hour delay getting troops to the Capitol the day of the insurrection. 

  Maj. Gen. William Walker testified that Pentagon officials had placed “unusual” restrictions on the DC Guard before the Capitol riot and that he didn’t have the authority to even move soldiers from one traffic light to another.

  Walker said Pentagon leaders were worried about how it would look if they sent troops to the Capitol. “The Army senior leaders did not think that it looked good” and did not think “it would be a good optic,” General Walker said. “The word I kept hearing was the ‘optics’ of it.”

 Walker said that when given the green light he had troops at the Capitol within minutes, but they could have been there hours earlier. 

Block That Vote: Against a wave of voter suppression laws introduced by state Republicans following the November election, the House Democrats yesterday passed a federal voting rights bill that would weaken state voter ID laws, require automatic voter registration, expand early and mail-in voting, and make it harder to purge voter rolls.

  Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “At the same time as we are gathering here to honor our democracy, across the country over 200 bills are being put together, provisions are being put forward to suppress the vote.”

  Republican in states where they control the majority have introduced laws that would tighten and restrict voting in an effort to fight voter fraud that never happened.

  The House bill has little chance in the Senate, where it would require 60 votes to pass.  

The Trumplicans: Donald Trump’s  Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao used her office staff to help family members who run a shipping business with ties to China, a report released Wednesday by the Transportation Department’s inspector general concluded. Two divisions of the Justice Department declined to prosecute Chao while she was still in office. She’s married to the Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

  And, former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, now a member of Congress from Texas, berated his staff, cursed, drank, took sleeping pills on the job, and sexually harassed a female member of the staff, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pentagon’s inspector general. The report says Jackson liberally dispensed drugs on Air Force One. The NY Times reports that, “Nearly all of the 60 witnesses interviewed by investigators described Dr. Jackson’s ‘screaming, cursing’ behavior and his ‘yelling, screeching, rage, tantrums and meltdowns’ when dealing with subordinates.” Donald Trump helped him run for Congress.

Neanderthal Thinking: President Biden criticized states, including Texas, that are lifting their Covid-19 mask and safety precautions. “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything’s fine, take off your mask and forget it,” the president told reporters at the White House.

  Health authorities fear a resurgence of Covid-19 in states that call the all-clear too early. Another 1,843 Americans died of the disease in the past 24 hours.

 The Circular Rack: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he has no plan to resign because of accusations of sexual harassment. — The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department has executed a search warrant to examine the black box from the SUV that golfer Tiger Woods crashed last week. They’re investigating whether Woods was driving recklessly and should be charged. — President Biden has agreed to lower income limits for people getting a $1,400 check under his stimulus plan, meaning some people who got money last time will not receive the next check. — According to a report yesterday, China has made anal COVID-19 swabs mandatory for all foreign travelers arriving in the country. 

The Obit Page: Rajie Cook who with his partner Don Shanosky created the pictographs that tell you where to find the restroom, food, the taxi stand, baggage claim and more, has died at age 90.

  Their original 34 pictographs are the standard for directional and information signage: the cigarette with the red circle and slash for “no smoking,” the profile of a bus for bus stop, the same for trains, and the simple knife and fork for food.

  Cook went by “Roger” because a grade school teacher couldn’t pronounce his name.

  He said in a memoir, “We held firm to the principle that design communicates to its maximum efficacy without frills, contrivances and other extraneous material.” 

To Your Health: North Carolina, a tobacco state, says anyone who has smoked 100 cigarettes qualifies for a Covid-19 vaccine. Comedian Stephen Colbert said, “In Wisconsin you have to chug a hundred gallons of milk. In Detroit you have to eat a hundred cars.”

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