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…
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.
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.
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.
Yesterday, Tuesday the 5th the run-off elections in Georgia for their two Senate seats occurred and Raphael Warnock (D) has been declared the winner over Kelly Loeffler (R) and Jon Ossoff (D) currently has the lead -and considering where the remaining votes lay this lead will likely grow- over David Purdue (R).
Assuming Mr. Ossoff also wins, which seems very likely, it means the Senate will be split exactly 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans… which means that with the Vice President as a tie-breaker, and the Vice President being Kamala Harris, that means that by a slim margin the Democrats will lead the Senate along with the House of Representative and, of course, the Presidency.
Whew!
Today we also have what should be a formality: The Senate and House formally counting the electoral votes and declaring Joe Biden the President of the United States come January 20th.
Of course, this “formality” looks like it won’t be and there are many in the House planning to protest the election and a smaller number of Senators who also plan to protest. They are Trumpistas, no doubt, and while they will huff and puff, there is no realistic way for them to do anything more than delay the inevitable.
So instead of Joe Biden being formally given the Presidency relatively quickly, it may take until later today or earlier tomorrow to be given the power.
If you’ve read my posts, you should be very aware by now that I have little love for Trump and his chaotic governance and am more than happy to see him gone.
I also know that everything won’t magically become good once Trump is gone.
The entire world, thanks to this pandemic, is in a world of hurt and it is going to take several months -maybe even another year- before things get back to “normal”.
But with Democrats in control of all three branches of government and a President who seems to be more engaged with what is needed to be done to deal with this pandemic -versus a President who seems to think the way to deal with it is to ignore it almost completely- then maybe we can make some real headway in bumping up the number of vaccinations given to people.
When the pandemic is finally dealt with, I further suspect we’re going to see a burst of joy and activity the likes of which we haven’t seen in many, many years.
That day can’t come soon enough.
POSTSCRIPT:
It’s now 2:44 pm, Wednesday the 6th, and things around the Capitol have gotten way out of control, thanks once again to Donald Trump himself.
He incited the mob and now they’re trying to… what exactly? They’re breaching places they shouldn’t be in, supposedly smashing glass and doors… all for a degenerate who will be, I’m certain, viewed as the worst President we’ve ever had.
There will certainly be arrests and I hope many of them. I also hope this doesn’t go beyond this point.
President Trump incited this violence and he needs to be held accountable.
Inevitability we’ll see footage of many of these rioters in court, crying like babies, as their sentences are handed down.
Yeah, we’re getting political again, so if that’s not for you, move along.
For everyone else, here’s the story’s first paragraph:
President Donald Trump convened a heated meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, including lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, two people familiar with the matter said, describing a session that began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at certain points as some of Trump’s aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn’s more outrageous suggestions about overturning the election.
For those who aren’t familiar with Michael Flynn, he is a former Army Lieutenant general who advised Trump a brief time before leaving the office. He eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and, before he was sentenced, Trump gave him a controversial pardon. Lately, he’s been stating -alarmingly- that Trump should invoke martial law to retain his presidency and negate the results of the election.
Welp, it seems he brought this idea of martial law craziness into the Oval Office and its alarming as hell that Trump appeared willing to listen to this.
I get this mental image of a wild animal that knows the walls are closing in on him and is looking for any way to remain in power.
Given this article, it worries me what other sorts of craziness he may try from today to January 20th to preserve his power.
The irony is that since the election, Trump no longer seems to be engaged in any sort of actual governing, instead going on twitter and claiming all kinds of conspiracies involving the election and repeating, ad nauseum, that somehow Biden and his campaign “cheated” in its win.
By seven million more votes? And, if the Biden folks did manage such a massive voting cheat, how come they were ineffective in getting rid of the likes of Mitch McConnell?
Still, this article worries me.
January 20th, as I’ve noted before, can’t come soon enough.
Yesterday, December 14th the electoral college formally certified Joe Biden’s win. There was no monkey business -though there were attempts!- and the process moved smoothly.
In the evening, Joe Biden, who has been remarkably restrained to this point, gave a speech following the electoral college win becoming official wherein he pointed out the fact that this was it.
It is.
Remarkably, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, hardly a friend of the United States, formally congratulated Joe Biden on his win.
Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy, the head of Republicans in Congress, and Mitch McConnell, the head of Republicans in the Senate, have yet to do so.
In-freaking-credible.
(POST-SCRIPT: Today, in the morning and the day after the electoral college made it official, Mitch McConnell finally announced and congratulated Joe Biden’s win. I suppose he’ll justify this delay by saying he was waiting for when the electoral college results were “official” but one wonders why he couldn’t do it yesterday, before Vladimir Putin. I guess its one of those things, right? On the plus side, for the most senior member of the Republican Party and head of the Senate to make this declaration all but puts the final nail in Trump’s re-election fantasies)
Further, Bill Barr, the head of the Justice Department and a man who has, in the opinion of many, disgraced himself for his multiple instances of seeming to be a defender of the President rather than a neutral party to justice, was either fired or resigned from his post, effective December 23rd.
Rats abandoning ship?
Given that Joe Biden won’t be officially the President of the United States until January 20th, I have to admit while it pleases me Bill Barr is gone, one worries about who may follow and what monkey business Trump will try to engage in with what will surely be another sycophant.
Given all that’s occurred to date regarding Barr, one wonders if maybe his resignation/firing might have been due to not wanting to do whatever new bizarre things Trump wants.
Trump, many suspect, is terrified of the day he loses power. He knows that when his Presidency is over, the floodgates may well open and he will be facing his many past transgressions, from shady financial dealings to possible tax dodging to rape.
While he can issue pardons -and there are those who expect a flurry of them- its unclear if he can pardon himself. Further to that, some of the legal issues he faces, particularly the financial/tax issues, are coming from New York and would be state charges. Presidents can issue pardons for Federal Charges, but not State Charges.
Needless to say, I think it’ll be an interesting month to come.
I think Trump will keep flailing and I suspect there will be those who will continue to try to help him out.
But come January 20th -which can’t come soon enough in my opinion- all that nonsense stops.
I’ve noticed that the common opinion has shifted from a “this race will tighten down the line” to “this might be a Democratic blowout election.”
While by now it should be clear to those who come ’round these parts that I have no love for Trump, looking at his last couple of weeks as neutrally as one can, it has been nothing short of a series of disasters.
It all seemed to begin with the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
The loss of the beloved liberal icon in the Supreme Court brought out the absolute worst/hypocritical in the Republican party (Merrick Garland, anyone?) and culminated with the infamous Rose Garden gathering to introduce Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court… which resulted in what appears to be a super-spreader event. In the end, we have many top officials within the government -Trump included- catching this virus, though given the evasiveness of the Trump administration, one wonders if Trump himself might have been infected already when that meeting occurred.
Mind you, I have no desire to see anyone ill.
Having said that, Trump and many of those people who were there, flouting a sense of invincibility, getting COVID-19 seems almost poetic justice or karma.
How do you keep downplaying/minimizing something that has, to date, claimed 211,000 lives?
The Vice Presidential debate, held last night, appears to have done little to move the general narrative. According to subsequent polls, Pence “lost” the debate. Even if the debate was a “tie”, the Trump campaign needed a sterling performance to try to break things toward them and this debate did not do that.
This morning, it was announced the next Presidential debate, set for October 15th, would be conducted virtually and Trump, calling into shows, stated he would not participate in any such debate.
Obviously there is a tremendous amount of interest in voting this year versus 2016 and in the coming days other states, such as Texas, will start early voting above and beyond mail in ballots.
Here’s the thing, though: We still have close to four weeks to go and any number of things can happen still.
I’ve already voted by mail and, out of an abundance of caution, delivered the ballot directly to the election office.
The first Presidential debate followed by the revelation that President Trump and his wife -and several other Republican Senators and Presidential Staff- testing positive for COVID-19.
Over on TV, Saturday Night Live had a pretty funny take on the debate, and what happened later…
Funny -and simultaneously sad- stuff.
The concluding bits, with “Biden” pausing “Trump” and noting how nice it was not to hear “Trump’s” ramblings…
I really, really try not to get too political in these postings but it’s really tough lately.
“President” Trump, who, if you’ve come ’round these parts now and again, isn’t exactly on my list of favorite politicians. (Quick aside: Is it just me or have the Republican presidents been going from bad to incredibly terrible from Nixon on? I mean, even those who love the admittedly very charismatic Ronald Reagan have to admit his administration had plenty of problems, especially in the second term, and what he opened up lingers to this day…)
The other day he had the first of his rallies, intended to kick start his re-election and…
…the whole thing was a gigantic failure.
Kevin Liptak and Kaitlin Collins over at CNN write about…
If you haven’t been paying attention to the news, the last few weeks (years, it seems!) have been full of protest following the death of George Floyd, the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, and it seems the Trump White House has no idea how to deal with it. Worse, they used the protest time to stage a very ill advised photo-op at a church which backfired spectacularly on them…
Then, “President” Trump seemed to dig his grave even deeper with conspiracy theories regarding the police pushing -and subsequently lying- about Martin Gugino’s fall…
There were more things that happened (I don’t even want to get into the botched firing of Geoffrey Berman or the release of John Bolton’s scathing book), but suffice to say the Trump re-election is, at this moment, on very shaky grounds.
In fact, in recent days (and we must bear in mind the election isn’t until November, so much can change) the odds of re-election have dropped pretty significantly, and I suspect “President” Trump, shrewd enough to realize this was the case, decided in the middle of this pandemic that it was time to start holding his rallies.
His first one was in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a state which overwhelmingly voted for him over Hillary Clinton in the previous election, as “safe” a state as one could find for Republicans and, by extension, Trump himself.
To Trump’s re-election campaign, things were looking really positive. There were a lot of requests for tickets and he was expecting the venue he was in, capable of fitting some 19,000 people, would be full to capacity and he would then go outside and give a speech to the overflow.
Only, things didn’t quite work out that way…
Yikes! Want more?
Even official images, which had the sparse attendees crowded around Trump, revealed the emptiness…
Check out the upper part of this photograph
Estimates were that only some 6200 people showed up for the event, less than half of the stadium’s capacity.
Even worse, reports came out that the Trump campaign tweeted during the event (one imagines, quite desperately) that there was still plenty of space available and for anyone interested in coming to please come on in!
Only, they didn’t.
The event was such a bust that the very few people by the outside platform were told to go into the convention center and the various staffers started dismantling that outside platform even as the main event was still going on.
“President” Trump was reportedly furious about the event and the lack of people who showed up and, in this case, I can totally understand.
This has to be concerning. A sitting President -even one as loathsome as I feel he is- should be able to get a decent turnout at any event and especially one that takes place in a voting stronghold for him.
The fact that so few people showed up has to be worrisome. If even his supporters aren’t that encouraged/motivated to come in to see him, how encouraged/motivated will they be to vote for him?
Again: The election is still a very long way away.
However, going by this alone, it seems his support is sagging.
It’s been a whirlwind of a series of days, hasn’t it?
The Covid-19 situation is clearly still on everyone’s mind but the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police, every heartbreaking and disgusting moment of it caught on camera, has opened a wound that, along with the pandemic we’re facing, has caused an eruption in anger and protests.
Over the weekend and around these parts, we had a couple of cars -one a police car- set on fire and some looting. Nothing as big as what happened in other parts of the country but worrisome nonetheless.
Because, sadly, one sometimes focuses on the destruction rather than the causes of it.
It is perfectly fine to be horrified by what those four police officers did to George Floyd. It is perfectly fine to believe that not all police officers are as barbaric as those four. It is perfectly fine to want a top to bottom revision and changes to the police forces, to demand they be held more accountable so that what happened to George Floyd, and any other people (of color or otherwise) never experience anything like this again.
They shouldn’t have in the first place.
Further, its perfectly fine to protest for these changes.
Perfectly fine.
Do it in large masses. Be loud. Make yourselves heard.
But please, don’t destroy property. Don’t loot.
I know reports indicate some of the looters may well have been provocateurs. People who don’t care about the protests and are simply taking advantage of the situation to instigate anarchy and/or steal whatever they can get their hands on.
I know they represent a small part of the protesters as I hope those who murdered George Floyd represent only a small part of the Police Force.
What makes me happy is reading reports on protesters who turn in looters and/or stop them. Also, it makes me happy to see Police Officers talking to protesters, expressing sympathy and, in some cases, joining in with them. It makes me happy to see protesters giving police water. It makes me happy seeing some officers kneeling to show a solidarity with protesters.
This is what will bring us together.
Kindness.
Empathy.
We can do this together.
The system failed, but it can be repaired.
Unfortunately, what makes me incredibly unhappy -surprise, surprise- is our “President” and his reaction. Yesterday, in particular, was -stop me if you’ve heard this before- yet another new low for him.
As reported by Stephen Collinson and presented on CNN.com…
What exactly did “President” Trump do? As Mr. Collinson put it:
Trump on Monday turned security forces on peaceful protesters in front of the White House, as tear gas and rubber bullets flew, before declaring himself the “law and order” President. Then, in one of the most bizarre moments in modern presidential history, he strode across the park to stand in front of an iconic church holding a Bible aloft in a striking photo op.
Oh my.
Our “President” essentially cleared out -with heavy handed methods- those protesting in front of the White House just so he could go in front of a closed up church, hold a bible in his hand, and take photos of himself with it.
I mean, how do you go about describing what’s wrong with that? How does one even start? Trump, a man who has about as much religious conviction as your average jar of mayonnaise, tries to show himself off as a strong man on the one hand and a religious person on the other… of which he just proved he’s neither.
The Bishop of the Church he allowed himself to be photographed in front of, by the way, was aghast at his stunt…
I’ll let Mr. Collison continue:
It was a moment of vanity and bravado — orchestrated for the cameras and transparently political — as Trump struggles to cope with protests sweeping the country after the killing of George Floyd and tries to cover up his botched leadership during the coronavirus pandemic.
At this point, one shouldn’t be surprised by the lows “President” Trump will go to. It seems like each day, each hour, each minute he finds a new way to go lower than before.
