Hit the Road Don

And Don’t You Come Back: Well this has certainly been a weird few days. Long run the most impactful news of the week may be the Democratic takeover of the Senate but in the short run it’s all about Trump, the sh-t show he incited, whether he gets to stick around until January 20^th and what it will take to put the shattered pieces of the Capitol and, more significantly, the country back together, or more  realistically back to the divided and disgruntled state it was in before his reign.  As to Trump’s departure, yesterday was filled with talk about invoking the 25th Amendment or another impeachment even though the odds are neither will succeed.  With cabinet members like Transportation’s Elaine Chao and Education’s Betsy DeVos bailing, there probably aren’t enough real ones left to pull it off, notably the administration isn’t even trying to make Homeland Security’s illegally Acting Head Chad Wolf, who also threw some harsh words in Trump direction, a confirmed leader anymore.  Moreover, as pissed as Pence is, and he apparently is so bigly pissed, about Trump trying to set him up as a fall guy and for exposing him to the Trump inspired wrath of the MAGA loons, that he’s now angling for an invitation to Biden’s inauguration and his daughter who sheltered in place with him in the bowels of the Capitol during the Deplorables Invasion has tweeted out a belated congratulatory note to Biden and Harris, he doesn’t appear to be interested in invoking the 25^th Amendment (run on sentence but after this week I am too tired to fix it).  As John Bolton, the outspoken former national security advisor, pointed out yesterday, the 25^th is clunky, it’s meant to deal with a comatose president or one going under for a colonoscopy, but wouldn’t be easy to execute for one that is merely dangerously and criminally insane. By the way former Chief of Staff John Kelly is finally, emphasis on finally, on the record, calling Trump out too.  As to impeachment, while the House could pull it off, and Speaker Pelosi says she wants to go that route, it’s unlikely that enough Senators would vote to convict. So it’s fair to conclude that Pelosi and soon to be Senate Majority Leader Schumer are using the threat of impeachment as well as the calls for the 25^th Amendment invocation as a cudgel to persuade Trump to step aside and turn over the reins of government to Pence until the 20th.  It’s not clear that will work either, although last night Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal joined other fed up conservative and Republican voices, calling for Trump to leave office now couching it in terms he might find appealing, saying that doing so would avoid giving those awful Democrats the satisfaction of implementing a second impeachment.  

No More, No More:  It’s hard to predict what happens next.  Right now Trump and Pence don’t appear to be speaking but if they do manage a make-up smooch, Trump would be wise to try to get Pence to grant him a Nixon like pardon in exchange for leaving early.  A pardon from Pence would certainly be more airtight, for Federal crimes that is, than the self-pardon that Trump is considering.  If Trump goes that route, he’ll have to hurry to finish up those parting pardons he plans to hand to family, Rudy G and anyone else still on his list, and who doesn’t think that the Stephens,  Bannon and Miller, are begging for a place on the list.  One thing’s for certain, Trump is frantic, it’s reported that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone has advised him that inciting a violent riot, one that resulted in the deaths of a few MAGAs and a member of the Capitol police who appears to have been bludgeoned by one of Trump’s deplorables is another crime that could, or at the very least should, put him in legal peril.  That concern accounts for both Trump and Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s stilted performances yesterdays. First, the usually perfectly coifed Kayleigh, haggard looking with strange caterpillar like glued on lashes, took to the podium to mumble something about violence being bad. Shortly after her performance, Trump released a video where he too kind of sort of condemned violence, reminding all that he’s been the LAW & ORDER leader. The oddly moderated (drugged?) Trump then kind of sort of conceded, talked about the upcoming transfer of power to the next administration never mentioning Biden or Harris but adding said that while his days in the White House are coming to an end due to that fraudulent election, he’ll be around forever. Of course Trump opened his video by claiming that he had called out the National Guard to protect the Capitol and his “dear” Senate and House colleagues, a huger than huge lie, effectively debunked by Maryland’s Governor Hogan who detailed how he had a hard time getting permission to send in his state’s National Guard even when asked for help by Democratic leader Steny Hoyer because he couldn’t get anyone in authority like Trump or Acting Secretary of Defense Miller to take his call despite the siege.  Does anyone remember the “trouble” that Hillary Clinton got into over Benghazi? And let’s not even go into her emails, the crime of the century that was just to justify Trump’s 2016 win.   

Collateral Damage:  The House and Senate Sergeant-in-arms have been forced out for not anticipating that the thugs who’d been planning their attack out in the open for weeks were really serious and armed and crazy.  Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, the Yale educated lawyer who should be thrown out just for saying irregardless during his Senate floor tirade, lost his book deal after his publisher Simon & Schuster decided that they want no part of him.  In addition noting that he has blood on his hands, Hawley’s home state newspapers, the Kansas City Star and the St Louis Post Dispatch, have called for his resignation. The much hated Senator Ted Cruz is getting some heat too, so he’s now saying gee, violent demonstrations are bad even when Black Lives Matter isn’t involved.  And of course a number of right wing pundits are blaming the Deplorables Insurrection on hidden antifa agitators.  Spoiler alert, while there may well have been a few anarchists in the crowd, Wednesday was not an antifa inspired event.

Twelve Days: Biden has nominated Merrick Garland to be our next Attorney General, a vast improvement from former AG Barr who also spoke out yesterday, condemning Trump’s actions but failing to note how he helped him escape the consequences of the Mueller report and how he encouraged Trump to believe he was a king. Biden is expected to announce that he’s nominating Rhode Island’s Governor Gina Raimondo to be the next Commerce Secretary and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Labor Secretary.  Georgia’s Kelly Loeffler conceded her loss, congratulating Raphael Warnock on his victory. David Perdue hasn’t conceded yet but with Jon Ossoff’s lead now in excess of 40,000 votes it’s only a matter of time before he does.   

Yesterday’s US COVID death count topped 4100, the total number of deaths stands above 365,000.

Stay safe.  #WearAMask