First, an apology.

I don’t mean to dwell so much on politics but, at least for me, it, along with other things, seem to be consuming whatever free time I have.

Truly, its been a frustrating few weeks.

It feels like I’m on a treadmill, running in place and just getting by each day to keep up with things while not accomplishing the stuff I would dearly like to be: My writing.

It’s all my fault and my fault alone, but it certainly bothers.

Anyway, today is the last full day of Donald Trump’s presidency. Tomorrow, supposedly at 8 A.M., he’s going to fly out via Air Force One to Mar A Largo. He hasn’t acknowledged Joe Biden’s win nor wanted to be in Washington D.C., as is customary, to watch Joe Biden’s inauguration. His wife, Melania, similarly hasn’t called Jill Biden or invited her into the White House for the customary transition visit, either.

It’s all childishness, of course, petulance and obnoxiousness, all rolled into one.

But it ends tomorrow and today we get the joy of seeing the last full day of Trump’s presidency and, at least at this early hour, we wonder what exactly he’s going to do.

There will certainly be pardons, as I mentioned before and as many pundits suspect, and I can almost guarantee many of the names will cause much gnashing of the teeth.

Will he, though, pardon his kids? Will he try to pardon himself?

As I also mentioned, doing so has a certain… stink… associated with it, especially if it is an inter-family pardoning. His kids haven’t been formally accused of anything, at least not yet, while Trump himself has been referred to in at least one case which led to some convictions of individuals which, of course, he pardoned or commuted their sentences.

There is some worry that someone on the far right, a Qanon fanatic or fanatics, may try something tomorrow with Joe Biden’s inauguration.

It certainly is possible but I suspect what we saw on January 6th, the riot and insurrection, is a one off affair that won’t repeat.

The people involved in that, many of them, were severely deluded and felt like what they were doing was somehow patriotic based on the various rabbit holes they pursued online and through the far right wing sites many I’m sure frequented.

However, now that they see the end result of their adventure and are both exposed personally for what they are and face justice, a harsh reality and not a conspiracy twinged pseudo-reality are hitting them directly in their collective faces.

Some are losing jobs while many others may lose their freedoms as they potentially face years in jail.

Truthfully, I feel for them.

It feels -at least to me- that their fears were taken advantage of over the years. They’ve been brainwashed with literally years of increasingly frenzied and alarmist statements about the “evils” of socialism and/or liberalism… to the point where I truly doubt they know what these political philosophies really mean, much less do they know why they hate them.

Do they hate the idea of a universal healthcare system? Do they not like taxing the very rich their fair share? Are they truly against public schools and social security/Medicare? I suspect many of them have benefitted from some -if not all- these services yet there they are, protesting the philosophy that created many of them in the first place.

My hope is that perhaps the more reachable of these people were given the equivalent of a cold shower and maybe, maybe they realized they’ve gone too far.

Today is the last day of Trump’s presidency.

All I wish for is a calm, quiet day.

Tomorrow, all I wish for is to hear/see him arriving in West Palm Beach and disappearing into Mar A Largo.

From that point on, I’ll be perfectly happy if I never hear about him ever again.

…well, you know.

On Wednesday, January 20th, Joe Biden will formally become President of the United States and Trump and company will finally be gone.

The repercussions of the insurrection/coup attempt of January 6th are still playing out, with many of the insurrectionists being identified and brought to justice. Some of them have managed to be bailed out while a few are in jail.

The after effects of this attempted coup have been interesting, at least on media.

Donald Trump and several of the more obnoxious right-wing firebrands have been blocked from social media, primarily on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Parler, a site which catered and/or was frequented by people on the far right, has gone dark.

Over at newsweek.com, Alexandra Garrett writes…

Election misinformation drops over 70 percent After Social Media Platforms Suspend Trump: Study

I’ve noticed that since all these online services have dropped Trump and company, things have been far more… calm. I’m not pulling my hair with this person or that person -often led by Trump- lying over and over about how the election was “stolen”, without acknowledging the fact that they had plenty of time to present any legitimate evidence of any attempt to steal and bring it to the courts… and they did no such thing.

Sure, they went to court many, many times and, with the exception of one “win” which didn’t change a single vote, they lost each and every time.

There remain only two full days following today for Trump’s presidency and there are reports that some people have spent considerable money trying to influence Trump into giving out pardons.

Paying Trump directly or indirectly to do so, of course, amounts to bribery yet I admit to being surprised that we haven’t heard about any pardons over the past few days.

I wonder if we’re going to see a flood of pardons in the next two days -or perhaps even starting today- or maybe Trump wants to end his presidency without any more new controversies.

Here’s the thing about pardons: By given them out, the subject receiving them essentially is acknowledged to have done something unlawful. If Trump pardons, say, his children or any close business/political partner, they effectively carry the stain that they were guilty of something.

Trump will be gone soon enough but already it feels like the balloon has deflated quite a bit.

Let’s see what happens next.

This is it, folks: Donald Trump’s last weekend as President of these United States.

Next week, on the 20th, Joe Biden officially becomes President and Trump is gone.

Or so we hope.

There have been some who wonder if he’ll try to “stay” in the White House, essentially force the new administration to evict him.

I dunno.

Already there has been movement seen in/around the White House, moving boxes arriving and staff taking their personal (I hope, anyway!) stuff out.

Trump is, if nothing else, a master at bending reality to his warped views but reality has a way of cutting through even the slickest of warped views.

There is talk about him continuing being a force in the Republican party, perhaps even running again in 2024.

Personally, I feel like he’s spent. What happened last week on the Capitol is going to follow him -and his heirs- for the rest of their lives and, I feel, views of it will only grow more and more negative.

They already have, with the many horrifying filmed scenes which reveal the brutal reality of that insurrection.

The most radicalized out there are going to stay that way, sadly. But even now, after Trump’s twitter and other communication devices cancelled out, I’m noting we’re seeing so much less of his insanity… and it feels kinda nice.

I don’t doubt Trump will do some more horrifying things in the next few days before he leaves office -I suspect we’ll see plenty of idiotic pardons, including Trump trying to pardon himself- but at this time next week, we’ll be two full days into Biden’s administration and two full days since Trump has had any power.

I can’t wait.

Friday the 8th, 2021, and I’m reading that using the 25th Amendment to throw Trump out of office seems like it might not happen because Vice President Pence doesn’t want to use it. I suppose they need him to agree with this to use it.

On the other hand, a second impeachment seems to be building steam and, according to this article by Quint Forgey and presented on msn.com…

Rep. Clark: House could vote on impeachment by “mid-next week”

One would think this doesn’t have much of a chance to happen as we have to have the House of Representatives first pass this -which is likely to happen- but then it has to move to the Senate and they didn’t convict and remove him the last time around…

…however…

Here’s the thing: There is plenty of anger directed at Trump and his flunkies for what happened in the Capitol and the fact that he basically encouraged the riot. Worse, there is also news coming out that they dragged their feet in getting the National Guard in to put down/stop the terrorists who stormed the Capitol.

Several members of Trump’s staff are quitting and, though we’re less than two weeks from the end of his Presidency, clearly they are sending messages.

Further to this, there are several Republicans in the Senate who are probably making this cold calculation: If Trump is impeached, he cannot run for office again.

Yeah, I know, cynical calculation as it is, it is a factor. If Trump is impeached, the Republican party no longer has to worry about him trying to run for office again in 2024 and, at this point, many of them would likely be very happy to never see him as their candidate again. Not to mention the fact that several of them would rather not compete against him for the nomination.

So will it happen?

Who knows.

By January 20th, twelve days from now, Trump leaves office. Given what happened two days ago, there are plenty of things that could happen between now and they could be very bad news not only for the U.S. but for the world itself.

As with so many things, we’ll see what happens.

Things are so damn dark -understandably!- the last couple of days and especially yesterday, with the terrorist action on the Capitol.

Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic, but it seems to me that maybe, just maybe, the actions yesterday may be what finally pushes this country to clean up its messes and fix things that, to this point, either they didn’t realize were broken or now understand they are.

It will start with arrests, which I suspect will come quickly in the next few days, of the terrorists who stormed the Capitol. Not all of them will be caught, I’m sure, but plenty of these MENSA candidates filmed themselves committing their terrorist actions and posted them to their social media accounts.

I’m noticing, by the way, that many of them today must have realized they are in legal jeopardy. To this moment, a little after 12 noon on the 7th of January, there doesn’t seem to be any marchers/protesters in Washington. If there are, they are a small group and they’re being held very far away from the Capitol.

Certainly I have yet to see any news footage of anyone from the MAGA group anywhere. (Next day Postscript: Nope, didn’t see any crowds the next day, though I recall one reporter saying they saw a truck drive by with a Trump flag on it)

A focus -proper and needed- will now fall upon the security forces/police that should have been protecting the Capitol. There are going to be plenty of heads that will roll, people who didn’t do their job or, worse, might have even participated in the terrorist act, if only by passively allowing the group to pass by.

They will be dealt with and, looking at things optimistically, the weaknesses, now exposed, will be dealt with. What happened yesterday very likely will not happen again.

Though Trump is still in power, I wonder if he’s finally come to realize he pushed things too far. Its possible -maybe even likely- he hasn’t.

But his friends -those with at least some ties to reality- are bailing on him after what happened yesterday. There are even Republicans -at least one so far- openly suggesting invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from the Presidency.

Yeah, I know… real profiles in courage a grand total of less than two weeks from when Trump’s presidency is up, but I suppose its better late than never and its got to sting.

Things will change by January 20th. They have to, and provided the Biden administration shows a modicum of competence, perhaps these last four years will rapidly slip into some kind of weird nightmare we collectively shared and will not see its like again.

Or maybe I’m being too optimistic.

Yesterday, January 6th, was a painful, frightening, bewildering, infuriating day.

I couldn’t not watch as the terrorists descended upon the Capitol and managed -how?!- to make their way into the building.

Where were the police? Where were the National Guards?

Even worse were images of what appeared to be at least one police officer… taking selfies with these terrorists?!

What. The. Hell.

I mean, he’s not holding the camera, its the idiot terrorist taking the picture, but what is the Officer doing there?!

Anyway, the terrorists were eventually pushed away. There were four people who died from this terrorist action (read about that here), three from medical issues and a woman who was part of the mob was shot and died from the wound. The details of how she was shot hasn’t been, at least that I’m aware of, revealed yet.

All of this, all of this, in my opinion rests with Donald Trump and his enablers. Donald Trump is, sadly, only the latest result of too many years of right wing media propaganda/brain-washing.

Sadly, the end results are people believing alarming lies.

Even more sadly, too many people I know, some very close to me, believe these lies.

Donald Trump couldn’t have lost the election, they say. He was robbed, he insists, just as he insisted President Obama wasn’t born in the United States (reality check: Yes, he was).

If people believe a string of alarming lies and somehow feel like nefarious things are going on and their rights are being trampled by evil socialist/liberals…

…then it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise when these people, those who swallow these lies whole, feel empowered to do something about it.

I’m absolutely not excusing the terrorists’ actions, only trying in my own way to explain them.

They’re grown ass men and women and they should know better.

Which is why its so damn alarming that while Trump lost the election by an overwhelming 7 million votes, there were still so many people who voted for him.

Some, I’m certain, held their noses when they voted. Many, sadly, did so happily, enthusiastically.

Those who committed those actions yesterday need to be brought to justice. Those who encouraged them -including Donald Trump himself- need to be brought to justice.

Late last night the Senate and House of Representative formally affirmed Joe BIden’s election. At some point last night President Trump finally –finally!– acknowledged his loss (even with his usual lies about having the election stolen) and spoke of a “peaceful transition”.

Too little, too late.

Today there is talk -and I hope it amounts to more than that- of serious consideration to invoke the 25 Amendment and remove Donald Trump from office.

I hope it happens.

Thought Trump only has 13 days to go, that’s an awful long time and, as we saw yesterday, things can go bad awfully quickly.

Let’s see what this new day brings.