As devastated as I am at losing the Supreme Court; at least I am relieved that they seem to be accepting the law when it is indisputable and not subject to *opinion*.
Yes, exactly. This just shows you how nutso and beyond the pale the Texas suit was. (It's probable the Texas AG only brought it because he's angling for a pardon from Trump - check out the various shady things he's done that he might need a pardon for, which have gotten renewed attention in the past week.) So at least I understand why he would have brought it. I don't understand 17 other state AG's and more than half the GOP House membership signing on to it! The GOP really has become little more than a cult. So it looks like our democracy held - this time. But man, I think the fragility of it has never been more apparent. And I worry that the next would-be autocrat will be smarter and more competent than Trump (which isn't that high a bar). In the short term, if Biden doesn't look into potential criminal acts from Trump (and I don't think he will - it's not his style, and he has other fish to fry), I sure hope the NY cases continue apace and uncover plenty, which Trump will no longer be shielded from. And it may be wishful thinking, but I'm hoping at least a portion of his base has the scales fall from their eyes and realize that this guy is nothing but a grifter and a con man, and has ALWAYS been nothing but a grifter and a con man. In NY, we've known this for almost 40 years.
And a willing puppet. And a nutjob. But still, given that he grew up with a father who could suck all the "fun" out of "dysFUNctional," I have nothing but pity for him. Did I mention that my hotel-of-choice in Chicago (the Comfort Inn on the edge of the Loop) is within eyeshot of the Chicago Trump Tower? (That also puts it within walking distance of the Museum of Broadcast Communications, but that is neither here nor there.) Or that when booking a room there, ever since it moved to its present location (it used to be over by the Weber Kettle Restaurant) I have always specified a room without a view of said Trump Tower? I may have to walk by the thing when visiting the MBC, but I certainly don't want it marring the view out my window! As for the scales falling from the eyes of "at least a portion of his base," well, who do you think you are? Tobit?
I would love for all of this craziness to be done, so we can be unboxed at work. The building managers won't unbox us until after Biden is officially inaugurated because they are afraid of protesters/riots again in downtown Portland. I can't blame them, but it's not spectacular for our mentality inside the box.
We got a lot closer yesterday. And a little closer today when even McConnell admitted that Biden won, AND asked GOP Senators not to object to the official count in Congress on January 6. From the NYT: "A short time later, on a private call with Senate Republicans, Mr. McConnell and his top deputies pleaded with their colleagues not to join members of the House in objecting to the election results on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to ratify the Electoral College’s decision, according to three people familiar with the remarks. A small group of House members, led by Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, plan to use a constitutional process to object to the inclusion of five key battleground states that day. There is almost no chance they would succeed, but if they could convince at least one senator to join them, they could turn the counting session into a chaotic last stand for Mr. Trump. So far, no senator has committed to joining them. And though Mr. McConnell could not stop one of them from doing so if they wished, he made clear that the challenge would be futile and embarrassing for the Senate." Trump and Co. are still doing incalculable damage to the country by making a large percentage of their cult believe that the election was stolen. But at least every effort to overturn it has been a EPIC FAIL.
It really scares me that this process is so fragile! What if they had control of both houses?!? We really need to rethink this.
Quite frankly, the riot, and Trump's brazen, open incitement of it, did not surprise me in the slightest. What did surprise me was seeing Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell come to their senses.
Yep. Or at least pretend to. Or finally remember to CYA when faced with the inevitable. This is followed by Bill Barr, today calling Trump's conduct a "betrayal." Did you JUST freaking figure that one out, Billy??? Romney, who actually HAS shown some integrity before, impressed again last night. He said that the riot was “due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months.″ He called out fellow senators, saying those taking part in objecting to the count “will forever be seen as complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy″ and “No Congressional led audit will ever convince those voters, particularly when the president will continue to claim the election was stolen.” He had the best line of the night when he said, with more than a touch of exasperation, “The best way we can show respect for the voters who were upset is by telling them the truth.” Now, of course, people are talking about the 25th Amendment and a second impeachment. The former is uncharted territory and I don't know if Pence and cabinet members could figure out the "how" of it in time. But I love the rumors (and they're just rumors) that Pence and/or members of the cabinet may go to Trump and tell him to just lie low and play golf for the next two weeks, or they could lower the boom on him and give him the lasting ignominy of being the only president removed via 25th amendment for being "unfit for the position." In other words, no more riots, no more mischief, just ride out the last two weeks without posing any more danger to our democracy, or we still have this in our back pocket. Again, that's just rumor. A second impeachment seems more likely (if still unlikely). The House could easily vote for it. Of course, there wouldn't be time to remove him; the point would be the OTHER penalty of impeachment (if convicted by the Senate), which is inability to ever hold elected office again. How that would work is that the House would vote to impeach, presumably next week. There's no constitutionally set timetable for a Senate trial after that, except that they have to have one. So even after Biden takes over, it could still happen. With 50 Democratic Senators now (thank you, Georgia!), could they get 17 GOP Senators to vote to convict and thus deprive him of the chance of ever being President again? Maybe! After all, a). only 6 or 7 Senators voted with him last night, and b). some of those Senators have presidential ambitions of their own. If Trump is out of the way for 2024, that gives them a better chance at the nomination. Sure, Trump could still be convicted of any number of state crimes in the next 4 years (or Federal crimes if his almost inevitable self-pardon doesn't hold up), but he's still considered the front-runner for 2024 if he wants it. So might Senatorial self-interest (never bet against that!) mean 17 of them vote to convict? As we we saying last year at this time, a "high crime and misdemeanor" for impeachment is basically whatever the House says it is. They certainly could charge him with attempted extortion and (oh the irony!) election fraud for the Georgia call, and with inciting riot for yesterday. And that's if they want to limit the charges to the past week (!) If nothing else, he'd be the only president to be impeached twice. And he'd deserve it.
Sad, angry, disillusioned, betrayed, scared and more emotions than I can articulate. But surprised that a bunch of deplorable insurgents did what they were told and what they SAID they were going to do. Not in the least.
Listening to Biden speak yesterday and this morning gave me such a sense of, *OMG, someone who can actually talk* will soon be in actual service. As for the last minute ship jumpers; they can burn in Hell!!!! Romney is the only one I have an ounce of respect for.
"A riot is an ugly thing." -- Young Frankenstein Unfortunately, this country has a long history of rioting. As a Histrionic Academy tour guide (channeling Freelove Bliss) pointed out, on a Boston Freedom Trail tour, rioting was considered a sport in pre-revolutionary Boston (and it was a riot that provoked the Boston Massacre). And I could have sworn Romney said "deliberately disinformed." But then again, I was in the kitchen, trying to put dinner together at the time.
Yes, we have had lots of riots. What is getting to me 2 days later is that these imbecilic patsies seem surprised that they are being hunted down and arrested. One lady admitted she had gotten inside and was indignant that she got maced. When they asked her what she was doing she said, on camera, *my name is _____ and I am from ______. We are storming the capital, this is a revolution.*
". . . und once you get one started, there is little chance of stopping it short of bloodshed." and the indignant lady seems a bit clueless about civil disobedience: the whole point of proudly proclaiming one's identity while engaging in civil disobedience is to help ensure one's arrest, since getting publicly arrested is the whole object of civil disobedience. Then again, there's nothing the least bit civil about that particular bit of disobedience.
Um, I apologize. I think maybe we do still have moderators out there. What I posted was in no way within LP standards. I am just sinking deeper into despair as more truth about how much deeper than a disgruntled loser this all goes and Trae expressed it very well.
