Four Hours, 40 Minutes

Welcome Joe!  Yesterday Trump delivered what will hopefully be his last stilted hostage video, he listed his accomplishment or what he believes were his accomplishments but of course failed to mention Joe Biden by name, as he prepared to leave the country, a country suffering the consequences of the American carnage he promised to deliver us from. In contrast, President-elect for just a few hours more, Joe Biden said a tearful good bye to Delaware before heading to Washington DC on a private plane, rather than one provided by the White House.  Biden traveled with his whole family, including the much maligned Hunter who the Republicans, most notably Trump, had tried to weaponize against him.  Then he joined VP elect Kamala Harris and soon to be second guy Doug Emhoff for a stunningly lit memorial service for the now more than 400,000 who’ve died from COVID.  There was a time in America when the outgoing president would have done that already or at the very least would have participated, but as we all know now is not that time.  Today’s inaugural ceremony will most certainly be different than any before it, covered by a, hopefully, super tight security blanket, one short of twelve National Guard soldiers who were axed when they failed last minute screenings, two of those failures due to threatening social media posts.  As unusual as today will be, if both yesterday’s twilight memorial and the virtual DNC convention are any guide it will still be beautiful and joyful and when it’s done we will have a new President and our first woman, Black and Indian Vice President, as well as our first second mensch. Biden will be attending church before the inauguration and quite significantly Republican leadership including Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy will be joining him.  They like outgoing VP Pence, former Chief of Staff Kelly, Anthony Scaramucci and countless other former and soon to be former White House denizens have opted out of attending Trump’s departure shindig at Joint Base Andrews, something that is sure to leave a sour taste in the mango maniac’s mouth. 

Pardons Galore: Around 1:30 AM Mr Mango finally released his pardon list.  In all 143 people received pardons or commutations. Like Obama before him, Trump commuted the sentences of a lot of drug offenders whose sentences were over the top but of course, being Trump his list also included quite a few friends and friends of friends.  Most notably and despicably, Steve Bannon, who’d been indicted for fleecing some Trump delusional fools who’d thought that they were sending their money to a “build the wall” fund was pardoned.  That’s the same Bannon who encouraged and may well have had a part in the January 6 insurrection and who recently said that he’d like to see virus guru Fauci and FBI Director Wray’s heads put on pikes.  Trump also pardoned Elliot Broidy, the Republican fundraiser who first came to our attention during a very early episode of the Trump saga when we learned that Michael Cohen had helped him pay off “his” pregnant Playmate girlfriend; that was before he ended up convicted of influence peddling. The list also includes quite a few former Republican Congressmen/criminals, the incarcerated former Democratic Mayor of  Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick, at least two rap stars, a friend of Jared Kushner who’d harassed and threatened his former wife, and Paul Erikson the one time boyfriend of red headed Russian spy Maria Butina among others with good connections and lots of cash to put those connections to use. As far as we know, no members of the Trump family were on the list, nor was Joe Exotic, Rudy Giuliani or Julian Assange, who Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson was still lobbying for as recently as yesterday.  Separately, and quite unrelated Senator Richard Burr who’d been under investigation for dumping his stock portfolio after getting an early warning about the incoming pandemic, revealed that the Justice Department had ended its investigation into his trades.  That’s not totally surprising, Burr’s trades were modest in comparison to those of his far richer colleagues like former Senators Perdue and Loeffler and the investigation into their actions stopped much sooner.  Does anyone besides me think that maybe Burr got extra scrutiny because the Senate Committee he chaired published several reports that confirmed that the Russians interfered in the 2016 election?  Burr is not running for reelection in North Carolina when his term ends in 2022, good news for  daughter in law Lara Trump who plans to seek his seat. She’s not to be confused with Ivanka who is considering primarying Florida’s Marco Rubio for his.  Oy.   

Politics Unusual:  So far not a single one of Biden’s cabinet appointees has been confirmed.  That’s unusual, due to the failure of Republican leadership to recognize Biden’s win in a timely manner as well as the disruptions associated with the January 6 coup attempt. Of course, Senator Josh Hawley who will forever be known for his fist in the air encouragement of those coup doers, voiced his disapproval of Biden’s choice for Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Cuban refugee Mayorkas is still expected to be confirmed but as a result of Hawley’s opposition, his approval will take a bit longer.  Why would we need a Homeland Security head right now anyway, it’s not like anything bad is going on? Hawley claims he’s concerned that Mayorkas won’t be tough enough on refugees and the like, his effort to appeal to Trump’s base but his concern is also because Mayorkas plans to focus on home grown terrorists, those guys that Hawley raised his fist to in solidarity.  People like those members of the right wing Oath Keepers who the FBI says planned and coordinated their part of the attack on the Capitol, making explosives out of bleach, mapping out assault routes and other similarly unpleasant things.  One rather important member of the Senate isn’t just pointing fingers at those Oath crazies, Senate Leader McConnell, or leader until later today when newbie Georgia Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock as well as Kamala Harris’ replacement Alex Padilla are sworn in, is now pointing the finger at Trump. Yesterday, standing before the Senate, McConnell said that the mob that stormed the building had been “fed lies” and “provoked by” Trump to try to stop the counting of votes.  That’s huge and may be an indication that McConnell might actually vote to convict and then vote again to prevent Trump from holding future office, that last part being very appealing to McConnell who wants Trump gone from the scene. It may be too much to hope for as at the end of the day McConnell will do what he thinks is best for him and his party and right now polls show a depressingly large number of Republicans are still team Trump but if McConnell does vote against Trump a significant number of other Senators will follow his lead.  One other thing to watch, though Democrats have the edge in the Senator and Chuck Schumer will step into the leadership role later today, they have equal representation on all the committees so to make things work Schumer needs to cut a power sharing agreement with McConnell and though they’ve been making some progress, the two are stuck on whether or not to keep the filibuster, something that McConnell, especially now that he is out of power, really wants and that Schumer has mixed emotions about, mixed because Joe Manchin is still pro filibuster.    

What’s Next? A number of you have asked whether I am going to keep writing.  For starters I am going to enjoy today, well hopefully things will go well so I can enjoy today.  I started this blog because the crazy things that Trump was doing had me talking to myself,  sometimes mumbling under my breath, something that was far more noticeable before face masks. My initial thought was that writing was an outlet that would keep me from being admitted to Bellevue’s psychiatric wing.  That turned out to be only one of the benefits of the blog, keeping in touch with you, my readers, has been the other.  So let me get back to the question, will I still write?  The answer is yes, because the crazy is unlikely to go away anytime soon if at all, another critical election is only two years away and though that light at the end of the tunnel is growing brighter, I’ve gotten my first vaccine and hope that the rest of you have or will soon,  the pandemic is still here and given the vaccine shortage will be for a while.  That said I am hoping to take a break, maybe write less frequently, especially once the impeachment trial is over.  And of course as always, anyone who wants off my list, should let me know, I am more than cool with that!

Stay safe!  Enjoy today.

xoxo