What Gives Me Hope

This is, of course, what's happening to the GOP, the Republican Party presently and it's from the inside. They're doing it to themselves.

I just hope they collapse before they bring down the nation.

On Republicans and this Impeachment

"The punditry says that fewer than 10 Republican Senators are likely to vote for Trump’s conviction. 

This will be an outrage, a sign that a once great party has surrendered to craven opportunism or, worse, brutal authoritarianism."

-- EJ Dionne, The Washington Post

From the article:

Opinion: The impeachment managers have sealed off Republicans’ escape hatches

Let's Play "Guess Which Political Party"!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, let's play that time honored tradition and game GUESS WHICH POLITICAL PARTY!  Here we go!! Here's the headline and story:

A Missouri lawmaker sold a ‘potential cure’ for coronavirus. It was a fake stem cell treatment, feds say.

Let's take a look and see, shall we?

As she planned a run for the Missouri House last April, Patricia Ashton Derges went on local TV to trumpet a stem cell treatment offered at three clinics she owns as a “potential cure” for the coronavirus.

But when federal officials began investigating the claim, they found Derges was making “misleading statements” about the treatment, prosecutors said — it didn’t actually include any stem cells.

Derges, a 63-year-old Republican who was elected to the state House in November, now faces 20 criminal charges, including wire fraud and distribution by means of the Internet without a valid prescription, a federal grand jury indictment unsealed on Tuesday revealed.

So if you guessed Republican, ladies and gentlemen, YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! You win the Grand Prize! (Whatever that is).

This is not to say, by any means, that all Republicans are bad and all Democrats are good, no, no, not at all. The political party of Ronnie the Raygun and his Iran Contra scandal and illegalities--- that he got away with, it should be added. The political party now of insurrectionist, treasonous, "I never did turn over my taxes" Donald J "Jenius Trump. That political party.

Let's just say I and a lot of us out here saw this one coming, m-kay??

Quote of the Day -- On Trumpism

 

It is revealing how a political movement that claims to be dedicated to the recovery of national greatness has so readily and completely abandoned many defining national ideals. Donald Trump’s promise of American strength has involved the betrayal of American identity.

One of the most important strands of our founding ideology is civic republicanism. In this tradition, the common good is not automatically produced by a clash of competing interests. A just society must be consciously constructed by citizens possessing certain virtues. A democracy in particular depends on people who take responsibility for their communities, show an active concern for the welfare of their neighbors, demand integrity from public officials, defend the rule of law, and respect the rights and dignity of others. Without these moral commitments, a majority is merely a mob.

What type of citizen has Trump — and his supportive partisan media — produced? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) still holds her job in Congress because she is representative of ascendant MAGA radicalism. Those who reflect her overt racism, her unhinged conspiracy thinking and her endorsement of violence against public figures are now treated as a serious political constituency within the Republican Party. Trump has come down firmly on Greene’s side. One participant in the Jan. 6 attack sent a video to her children saying: “We broke into the Capitol. . . . We got inside, we did our part. We were looking for Nancy [Pelosi] to shoot her in the friggin’ brain, but we didn’t find her.” The detail that gets to me? She sent this to her children. She was living in a mental world where vile, shameful things are a parent’s boast. And she saw her actions as the expression of a public duty — an example of doing her part.

From the article:

Trumpism is American fascism

Links:

Michael Gerson - Wikipedia

Fascism | Definition of Fascism by Merriam-Webster

From the Frightening to the Hopeful Today

Heather Cox Richardson's latest summary. I think these daily updates of hers have become nearly required reading she does that great a job of summarizing where we are and what's happening of late, showing where we stand and where we might be going.

January 31, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson      Feb 1

The most prominent story these days is that the Republican Party is sliding toward a full-on embrace of authoritarianism. Former president Trump’s exit and ban from his favorite social media outlets has left a vacuum that younger politicians imitating Trump’s style are eager to fill by rallying people to the former president’s standard. 

Notably, Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have tried to step into the former president’s media space by behaving outrageously and becoming his acolytes. Gaetz last week traveled to Wyoming to attack Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), the third most powerful Republican in the House, for her vote in support of Trump’s impeachment. Not to be outdone, yesterday Greene tweeted that she had spoken to Trump and has his support, although neither her camp nor his would comment on her statement.

Republican state parties have also thrown in their lot with the former president. In Arizona, the state party voted to censure former Senator Jeff Flake, the late Senator John McCain’s wife Cindy, and Governor Doug Ducey for criticizing the former president. In South Carolina, the state party formally censured Representative Tom Rice for voting to impeach Trump, and Republican lawmakers are starting to consider stripping Cheney of her party position, a development that led former President George W. Bush to indicate his support for her this weekend. She has already drawn a primary challenger.

Across the country, Republican-dominated legislatures are trying to suppress the voting that led to the high voter turnout that fueled Democratic victories in 2020. According to the Brennan Center, which tracks voting rights, 28 states have put forward more than 100 bills to limit voting. Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, whose voters chose Biden this year after going for Trump in 2016, all have introduced plans to lower voting rates. So have other states like Texas, which have voted Republican in recent years but show signs of turning blue.

The former president would like to solidify power over the party, but he has his own problems right now. The top five lawyers in his team defending him against the article of impeachment in his Senate trial all quit this weekend. Trump apparently wanted them to argue that the attack on the Capitol was justified because Democrats stole the election from him. Recognizing that this is pure fantasy—courts have already thrown this argument out more than 60 times—which could put them in legal jeopardy, the lawyers instead wanted to argue that it is unconstitutional to try a former president on charges of impeachment.

Tonight, Trump’s office announced that David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr., will lead his defense. Schoen represented Trump advisor Roger Stone when he challenged his convictions; Castor was the district attorney who promised actor Bill Cosby he would not be prosecuted for indecent assault. The impeachment trial is scheduled to start on February 9.

There are signs that some Republicans have finally had enough of their party’s march toward authoritarianism, especially as pro-Trump Republicans grab headlines for their outrageous behavior, including shutting down a mass vaccination effort at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles for about an hour yesterday.

Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a 2010 Tea Partier but now one of the ten Republicans in the House to vote in favor of impeachment, told Anthony Fisher of Business Insider that “My dad’s cousins sent me a petition — a certified letter — saying they disowned me because I’m in ‘the devil’s army’ now….”

Kinzinger announced today that he has started a political action committee (PAC) to finance a challenge to Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party. Calling Trump’s loyalists in the Republican caucus “political terrorists,” Kinzinger said in the video launching the PAC, “Republicans must say enough is enough. It’s time to unplug the outrage machine, reject the politics of personality, and cast aside the conspiracy theories and the rage.”

It also appears to be sinking in to Republicans that momentum is on the side of the Democrats. Biden’s executive actions have generally been popular, and his support for workers threatens to shift a key constituency from the Republicans to the Democrats.

Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus proposal offers to give to ordinary Americans, hurting badly from the coronavirus recession, the kind of government attention that has lately gone to wealthier Americans. Among other things, it calls for $1400 stimulus payments, extends unemployment benefits, provides funds for state and local governments, and establishes a higher minimum wage. While Biden has said repeatedly that he would like Republican support for this measure, the Democrats have enough votes to pass a version of it without Republican support.

This would put Republicans in the position of voting against a measure that promises to be popular, and at least ten Republican senators would prefer not to do that. Today, they offered their own $600 billion counterproposal, and asked for a meeting with President Biden to discuss it.

In their letter to the president, they hinted that they think the nation has devoted enough money to the economic crisis already, noting that there is still money unspent from the previous coronavirus packages. But they did not state that reasoning explicitly, perhaps recognizing that this argument will not be popular from people who voted for Trump’s 2017 tax cut, which disproportionately benefited the wealthy, when one in seven adults say their households don’t have enough food to eat.

“We want to work in good faith with you and your administration to meet the health, economic and societal challenges of the covid crisis,” the senators wrote. After years in which Republican senators refused to discuss bills with the Democrats, this is a change indeed.

But perhaps not enough of one. In the Washington Post, James Downie noted that a proposal that is less than a third of Biden’s package is not a compromise. It also cuts stimulus checks down to $1000, cuts supplemental unemployment insurance, gives no local or state aid, and kills the minimum wage increase.

When asked why Democrats should compromise rather than go ahead without them, as Republicans repeatedly did when they held the majority, Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) told “Fox News Sunday” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” respectively, that Biden should honor his call for unity and that refusing to do so would kill future hopes for bipartisanship.

In an article in The Guardian today, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich dismissed Republican concerns about the national debt, noting that if they were worried about it, they could just tax the very wealthy. “The total wealth of America’s 660 billionaires has grown by… $1.1 [trillion] since the start of the pandemic, a 40% increase,” he noted. Those billionaires could fund almost all of Biden’s proposal and still be as rich as they were before the pandemic hit.

Reich suggested that “[t]he real reason Republicans want to block Biden is they fear his plans will work.” A successful government response to coronavirus, the economic crisis, inequality, the climate crisis, and poverty would devastate modern-day Republicans’ insistence that the solution to every problem is tax cuts and private enterprise. If Biden’s plans succeed, Reich wrote, Americans’ faith in government, and in our democracy, will be restored.

Tonight, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that Biden has spoken with Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) and has invited her and the other nine signers of the letter to the White House (we later learned they will meet tomorrow).

But Psaki’s statement did not give ground. It reiterated the need for fast action, and noted that “$1400 relief checks, a substantial investment in fighting COVID and schools, aid to small businesses and hurting families, and funds to keep first responders on the job (and more) – is badly needed. As leading economists have said, the danger now is not in doing too much: it is in doing too little. Americans of both parties are looking to their leaders to meet the moment.”

One Week In

 One week into this new Joe Biden Presidential Administration. This is where we are. Already.

1. We can now ignore Twitter
2. The White House briefing room is not an Orwellian nightmare of lies
3. We are now confronting white domestic terrorism
4. We are not paying for golf trips
5. There are no presidential relatives in government
6. The tenor of hearings is sober and serious
7. Qualified and knowledgeable nominees have been selected for senior spots
8. We have a first lady who engages with the public
9. We have not heard a word from presidential children
10. We are now tough on Russian human rights abuses
11. We get normal readouts of sane conversations between the president and foreign leaders
12. The White House philosophy is to underpromise and overdeliver, not the other way around
13. Manners are in, bullying is out
14. You feel calmer after hearing the president
15. Fact-checkers are not overworked
16. Quality entertainers want to perform for the White House
17. We have seen the president’s tax records
18. The president is able to articulate policy details, coherently even
19. The worst the press can come up with is the president’s watch
20. We have a White House staff that looks like America
21. We have a national covid-19 plan
22. Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony S. Fauci is liberated, sounds happy and even looks younger
23. Fauci, not the president, briefs on the science of covid-19 and efficacy of vaccines
24. Masks and social distancing in the White House
25. The White House has policy initiatives and proposals, not merely leaving it all to Congress
26. The administration is committed to releasing information, not covering it up, on the slaughter of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
27. The Muslim ban is gone
28. It is the Republicans not the Democrats who are in disarray
29. The national security adviser has not been fired for lying to the FBI
30. No Soviet-style fawning over the president by his subordinates
31. The president takes daily, in-person intelligence briefings
32. The president does not care about Air Force One colors
33. We have a president familiar with the Constitution
34. Real cable news outlets get high ratings, others not so much
35. President Andrew Jackson is out of the Oval Office, Benjamin Franklin is in
36. Voice of America is back in the hands of actual journalists
37. We get memes about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), not crowd size
38. We are back in the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization
39. Instead of running it like a business, the new administration will try running government competently
40. We have a president who doesn’t think military service is for “suckers” and who doesn’t send his “love” to people assaulting law enforcement
41. The secretary of treasury nominee has her own Hamilton lyrics
42. Amanda Gorman is a household name
43. More than two-thirds of Americans approve of the White House covid-19 approach.
44. No more work-free “executive time” in the presidential living quarters
45. We have a churchgoing president “who has spent a lifetime steeped in Christian rituals and practices.”
47. The vice president’s spouse does not teach at a school that bars LGBTQ students
48. The White House takes the Hatch Act seriously
49. The administration wants as many people as possible to vote
50. The president will talk more to our allies than to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Not perfect, certainly. But it's good. It's very good. It's a huge, huge improvement.

Good on you, America. 

No, great on you.

Only 5 More Days of this Orange Mess of a President

Only 5 more days to tolerate this orange President and his administration, thank goodness. And in the midst of all this, everything around him is falling apart, virtually, if not actually. 

Here's how things stand for Republican Party President and soon to be regular citizen Donald J Trump now.

• He was just impeached for the 2nd time in your Presidency, a first in your nation's history
• He must vacate that same Presidency in 5 days
• States are cancelling multi-million dollar contracts with his companies
• Corporations and businesses are cancelling financial aid and any other support to and for him
• He has hundreds of millions of dollars in loans coming due in months to come and finally,
• He has been cut off from virtually all meaningful social media because of his personal opinions and announcements in the last months

More:

Senior Trump Official: We Were Wrong, He’s a ‘Fascist’

GOP senator concedes Trump 'misled' his followers, may face charges

Another Tenant Wants Out of Donald Trump's Wall Street Skyscraper

Pew's last poll of his presidency is also Trump's worst. They show his approval rating at  29 percent. A great deal of us out here don't think it should even be that high, of course. And while he is at his lowest popularity, most Americans want him held accountable.

54% of Americans Want Trump to Face Criminal Charges for Inciting Deadly Mob Attack on US Capitol: Poll

Here's what they're saying about him across the pond in Ireland presently.

Donald Trump led America into ruin

It seems his taxes are not just being investigated for his taxes and any problems in 2 New York State cases but also in both Ireland and Scotland. On top of it, Scotland has made clear Trump is not welcome.

Scotland Leader Says Trump Not Welcome 

Imagine that, please. A former US President declared not welcome in another, foreign nation that is an ally. Again, unprecedented in our nation's history. He's becoming a sort of, if not actual, man without a country.

Then, this is what's happening just now with his attorney.

Trump is reportedly stiffing Rudy Giuliani 

Meanwhile, this is where we stand today on this very killing pandemic for which we are leaderless, of couse.

CDC projecting over 90,000 deaths within the next 3 weeks due to this pandemic. Then check out this fact breaking today: the United States, with about 4% of the world's population, has reported about one-fifth of all reported deaths globally.

Thanks, Mr. President.
Thanks, Republicans.

A Facebook post very correctly, I think, summed it all up this way:

Thousands dying every day, an economy in shambles, millions out of work, massive deficits, a skyrocketing national debt, a country divided unlike it’s been in decades, the United States turned into some twisted, embarrassing global reality show the rest of the world is watching in horror, our enemies are stronger, white supremacists and other conspiracy nuts empowered and more radicalized than ever before, and the very foundation of this country fractured to such an extent it might take decades to repair the damage that’s been done to it.  --  Allen Clifton

The Washington Post has summed up Trump to be the following:

The biggest loser

I think the following quote from USA Today is accurate.

With these last few days pending, it's the power he still has that is so very concerning.

Trump Accused of Trying to 'Inflict as Much Harm as Possible' With Billions in Global Health Funding Cuts During Pandemic

There is at least one silver lining to Donald Trump's complete paths of destruction, I think and that's this.

Trump Is Blowing Apart the G.O.P. 

I intend to make the following true the rest of my long, healthy, happy life, long as I'm alive.

Trump’s stench will cling to Republicans

I wasn’t sure how, exactly, we would get here, but this is exactly what I expected after 4 years of Trump being in office.

I will say this finally today, I no way thought Republicans would do worse than Nixon, and a LOT worse, at that, in my lifetime. But they did. And did they ever.

Fortunately, this afternoon, on a different story, there is this breaking just now.

NRA declares bankruptcy

My God, that is magnificent. So for 2021, we will have gained a vaccine, lost a killing pandemic, gotten  rid of an orange excuse and nightmare of a President and the NRA declared bankruptcy!!

Happy new year, everyone!

Additional links:

Final Pew Research Poll: Trump Approval PLUMMETS - Down to 29%

The first political ads of the next cycle are already here ... and Republicans aren't happy

This Unbelievable President and Presidency

Once again, this President leaves me disbelieving just where, exactly, we all, as a nation, are. 

Yesterday's debacle and insurrection and assault on our nation was nothing if not unforgivable. There's so much to say on it. I could write and write here and then post other's information, too. Obviously, that won't help and no one could read it all. I'll just put where we are now.

And that is, we are, it seems clear, stuck with this greedy, absurd, self-centered, selfish, ignorant, reckless, now obviously dangerous dolt for a few more days. Thirteen to be exact. That and we just have to hope and maybe pray, if we do that sort of thing, that he doesn't do anything else stupid. That is a tall, tall order for this man, as we've repeatedly seen in the last 4 years.

One outcome of all this, sort of shallow as it is, is that he's suspended, indefinitely, on Facebook and Instagram.

Think of that.

Not a teenager but no less than this Republican Party President is blocked from posting on social media because he tells so many untruths--read: lies--and emotionally incites his followers. Again, unreal. For any other President, this would be unthinkable, unbelievable. Heck, for any other adult it would be unheard of.

Then there's his administration.  People are now, no big surprise, bailing on him and it all, and left and right. There have been 9 quit so far with the most notable being Elaine Chao. Yes, THAT Elaine Chao. None other than Senator Mitch McConnell's own wife. 

Then there's very Right Wing nutjob Mick Mulvaney. He quit, too. It was too crazy in Trump's White House now even for him.  You can the rest of the list of the people who have so far, to this minute, bailed here:

Everyone Who Has Quit the Trump Administration After Wednesday’s Anarchy

People are, deservedly, asking, telling him to resign or be thrown out. And not just Democrats are saying it. In fact, this is the first person I heard call for him, Trump, to step down or be removed and he's GOP.

Illinois GOP Congressman: Trump Must Be Removed

Meanwhile, it's ratcheted up since his call hours ago.

Top congressional Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi say Trump should be removed by office by 25th Amendment or impeachment

As for yesterday's insanity and obscenities, I was certain that, because we knew they, Trump's supporters/protesters were going to Washington, that all the security would be in place and it would be inconsequential. I forgot we live in Trump's world, at least now.

If there is any silver lining, so to speak, from this ugliness yesterday in Washington, it is that the Republican Party is in meltdown just now, before our very eyes.

Ex-GOP Senator Says Republicans Must Form New Party

We have at least that to thank Mr. Trump for. Ironically, very ironically, none other than Right Wing, Republican Trump lapdog Senator Lindsey Graham predicted this.

If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 3, 2016

Who knew he'd be so prescient?

Think about yesterday's attack on our Capitol, too.  The only leadership we get from this pathetic excuse for a President is to have his delusional followers attack our capitol building in Washington DC. Meanwhile, record numbers of Americans are dying from this pandemic.

A record number of people died from Covid the last two days in America as rioters stormed U.S. Capitol

Which now brings us to the far more local party of this unfolding news and that is our own Missouri Senator Josh "I'll Do Anything For a Vote" Hawley. He rightly isn't coming out of this well. The following is from our own Kansas City Star.

Assault on democracy: Sen. Josh Hawley has blood on his hands in Capitol coup attempt

A bit from the article:

No one other than President Donald Trump himself is more responsible for Wednesday’s coup attempt at the U.S. Capitol than one Joshua David Hawley, the 41-year-old junior senator from Missouri, who put out a fundraising appeal while the siege was underway.

This, Sen. Hawley, is what law-breaking and destruction look like. This is not a protest, but a riot. One woman who was apparently part of the pro-Trump mob was fatally shot by Capitol Police as lawmakers took cover. Some of those whose actions Trump encouraged and later condoned brought along their Confederate flags.

And no longer can it be asked, as George Will did recently of Hawley, “Has there ever been such a high ratio of ambition to accomplishment?” Hawley’s actions in the last week had such impact that he deserves an impressive share of the blame for the blood that’s been shed.

Hawley was first to say that he would oppose the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College win. That action, motivated by ambition, set off much that followed — the rush of his fellow presidential aspirant Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other members of the Sedition Caucus to put a show of loyalty to the president above all else.

Meanwhile, Senator Hawley has been very rightly savaged in the media across the nation for this words and actions leading up to yesterday's Trump supporters' travesty. At one point, at the beginning of the Right Wing assault on our Capitol in Washington, Senator Hawley actually went outside the building to cheer on the Trump troops. Not surprisingly, it prompted lots of backlash on social media. This was my person al favorite.

Again, certainly deserved.

None other than deeply Right Wing, very conservative, very Republican columnist George Will had this to say about our Senator.

Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are the US Constitution’s 'most dangerous domestic enemies'

Which leaves us rather incompletely at where we are now. Both the 25th Amendment and another impeachment would take far longer than the less than two weeks we have now so chances are strong that, unless Trump does abdicate or bail, chances are strong we are, in fact, stuck with him. I think Vice President Mike Pence is far too much both a coward and opportunist and won't invoke the 25th Amendment. He doesn't want to burn himself with even the nutcase Trump supporters of the party.

But one more good thing that could well come of this, however, is that Nancy Pelosi and the House may well put him, Donald J "Jenius" Trump up for impeachment anyway.  And here's the great thing about that.

Donald Trump would then be the only, only President, of all 45, that has been impeached twice.

Among the things we can't have is this.

Trump asking aides and lawyers about self-pardon power

This is what we need to keep in mind going forward, I think.

You Don’t Heal a Nation By Forgetting About Fascism. You Heal a Nation by Punishing Fascism Swiftly

Think happy thoughts, campers.

Also, hope---and pray, if you're into that--that the worst of this man Donald Trump and his Presidency are behind us.

Stay and be safe and well.

Where We Are Now With This President Trump

16 days out.  Only two more weeks and two days to inauguration. Yahoo.

This happened today, thankfully.

Judge Reject Last Ditch Effort to Overturn Election

This broke earlier today, about an hour ago.

A federal judge has rejected a legal effort from groups of Trump voters to block Congress from officially counting the Electoral College votes and suggested the attorneys involved may be subject to sanctions, suggesting they were using courts to "engage in such gamesmanship or symbolic political gestures."
It was yet another defeat for the dubious last-ditch legal maneuvers aimed at overturning President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

Fortunately, also happening now, today, our Missouri Senator Josh Hawley is getting skewered, too, for supporting the overturning of our votes and election.

Former Senator John Danforth blasts Hawley

Ex-GOP senator blasts Hawley's challenge to electoral vote

The Washington Post puts Senator Hawley and his recent views in excellent, accurate perspective.

Josh Hawley’s heedless ambition is a threat to the republic

Fortunately, Senator Tom Cotton, of all people, of all Senators, from our neighbor to the South, Arkansas, at least did the right thing.

Tom Cotton Breaks With Trump on Coup Attempt in Congress

And Paul Ryan, of all people, also came out against Trump and his electoral gambit.

In scathing statement, former GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan said Republican attempts to reject Electoral College vote were 'antidemocratic and anti-conservative'

Amazingly, even Senator Lindsey "Lap Dog" Graham came to his senses.

Lindsey Graham Publicly Ditches The 11-GOP Traitors

Unfortunately, this became necessary. Fortunately, they all spoke up.

All 10 Living Ex-Defense Secretaries Unite Against Trump

All 10 currently living ex-Defense Secretaries — two of whom served in the Trump administration — have banded together with a new op-ed in The Washington Post in which they insist upon the critical importance of an orderly transfer of power between presidential administrations without any military involvement in dealing with election-related challenges like those which outgoing President Donald Trump and his allies have raised. 

Even Dick Cheney--freaking Dick "Right Wing" Cheney came out against Trump's power grab here.

Dick Cheney And More Are Demanding Trump Finally Admit He Lost

And rightly so. Also fortunately, the business community is coming out with their opinion of Trump's trying to overthrow our election results.

Business leaders urge Congress to certify Biden win

CEOs Urge Congress to Certify Biden’s Electoral College Win

Nearly 200 Business Leaders Tell Congress To 'Move Forward

Meanwhile, Trump's colossally misinformed, misguided, quite possibly illegal phone call he made over the weekend to Georgia, asking them to overturn the election and find him, very specifically, "11,780 more votes", is quite possibly, if not likely either getting or going to get him into yet further legal trouble.

Georgia elections board member calls for probe into Trump’s call seeking to pressure Raffensperger

There's talk he could be arrested in Georgia when he goes there tomorrow to help get out Republican votes for their two senate candidates.

Will Trump Leaked Georgia Phone Call Land Him In Jail?

Trump Call to Georgia Official Might Violate State and Federal Law

What took place is incredible.

In his latest attempt to recall the presidential election on Saturday, President Donald Trump reportedly demanded during a now-leaked call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that the latter “find” 11,780 votes for him to win Georgia over President-elect Joe Biden.

During the hour-long phone call, which was first obtained by The Washington Post, Trump insisted to Raffensperger that he, rather than Biden, was the winner of the state’s votes. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state,” Trump said on the call, where White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Georgia Secretary of State office’s general counsel Ryan Germany, and various lawyers were all present.

It was so incredible, in fact, he isn't even vague about it. He spells out specifically the number of votes he wants, needs them to find. Completely blatant and yet more unprecedented, outrageous Presidency.

Carl Bernstein, one of the two Watergate reporters who helped effectively bring down Richard Nixon, put Trump's phone call, at least, into perspective.

Carl Bernstein Says Latest Trump Tapes Are ‘Far Worse’ Than Watergate

Over 60 different lawsuits by his lawyers and legal team have all, all been thrown out, all across the nation, all for lack of evidence of vote fraud. He needs to give it up. We all know that. He lost. He needs to own it. He needs to do the right thing for the first time in his life. He needs to respect our vote, our votes, our election and Democracy.

All other Presidents, when voted out of office, respected the votes, the election, the process, the people, Democracy and nation.

Until now.

He needs to concede.

In closing, this is a thing.

Airport near Trump's golf resort in Scotland is alerted to a US military plane arriving 1/19/21

More Presidential Last Days Insanity

 It's difficult to even keep up with, let alone believe all the things this Republican Party President is saying and doing in these his last days in that office.

First today, this morning, there was this. He's still pushing this nonsense, this lie, this untruth.

In odd video, Trump falsely suggests he received a Nobel prize

Added to that, check out just a bit of the article:

The fact that Donald Trump is still releasing campaign-style ads is itself bizarre. Election Day was eight weeks ago; the Republican incumbent lost badly; and if these commercials are intended to create a groundswell of support for the outgoing president, he's likely to be disappointed.

But while the effort is odd, the details of the latest campaign-style ad are considerably more ridiculous. In the new, minute-long video that Trump posted online late yesterday, the first on-screen text reads, "Trump stands for America," which is a strange message for a president who's spent months attacking his own country's democracy. It's followed by, "Trump stands for American jobs," which is also weird given his poor record on job creation.

The video goes on from there, making other curious boasts. "Trump stands for American justice" is belied by his corrupt pardon abuses, while "Trump stands for military might" is an interesting choice given his recent veto of funding for his own country's military. It culminates in a five-word message: "Trump: He's what's for America," which is a rhetorical construction so clumsy, I wonder if the president's communications team was drunk when they wrote this.

Just loony. Fortunately, either his insanity or his stupidity, whichever it is that moment, helps his perceived enemies, hurts him and hurts what is supposed to be his own political party.

WSJ editorial board: Trump's push for $2,000 checks will hand Democrats the Senate

On the $2000 COVID assistance for Americans today, first this happened, no surprise.

McConnell blocks quick vote on $2,000 stimulus checks

The wonderful thing about the $2000 stimulus check in COVID assistance is that it's tearing down this President's own political party.

Senate GOP in Stimulus Bind With Trump Ramping Up Pressure

The two GOP Senators in the Georgia runoff, Perdue and Loeffler have had to come out for it, too.

The irony of this next issue and headline just stunned me.

Trump lashes out at ‘weak and tired’ Republican congressional leadership

Donald Trump. President Donald J Trump. Saying someone else doesn't lead. You can't get any more ironic, or hypocritical, than that.

Then, what he is doing is attacking members of his own political party, instead, God love him.

Trump targets congressional Republicans on multiple fronts

Honestly, this President and his unpredictability and lashing out is not just unprecedented but...what? Insane? Certainly unpredictable.

Speaking of no leadership...

Nashville mayor says Trump hasn't called since bombing

Nashville, Tenn., Mayor John Cooper (D) on Monday said that he has not spoken directly to President Trump since the intentional detonation of an RV in the city’s downtown on Christmas.

“No, I haven’t,” Cooper told CNN when asked if he had heard from the president since the bombing.

Keeping in mind he could be leading us all through this worst, most deadly, killing international pandemic in the last more than 100 years.

More than 2,900 health care workers died this year

December is deadliest month of COVID-19 pandemic in US so far

Not done there...

Fauci: You 'have to assume' pandemic is going to get worse

But no.

Instead of leadership, this is where his attention has been and where his insanity hurts us, hurts the nation.

Trump's desire for 'wild' protest sparks fear among US officials

One observer noted that Trump will fail in Congress, but the greater danger "is on the streets, where pro-Trump forces are already threatening chaos."

It was nine days ago when Donald Trump announced via Twitter that there would be a "wild" protest in the nation's capital on Jan. 6, the day Congress will formally certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory. The Republican has referenced the gathering while insisting he won the election he lost, and Trump has returned to the subject several times since, including in a weekend tweet in which the outgoing president declared, "Never give up. See everyone in D.C. on January 6th."

More on the possibility of violence issue.

Ex-Pence aide turned Trump critic 'very concerned' about Jan. 6 violence

Fortunately, this went in our favor the last few days. Ultra-conservative, Right Wing, Republican Party supporting Rupert Miurdoch's own New York Post blasted this President Trump for denying our election with a big front page story.

Murdoch’s New York Post Blasts President’s Fraud Claims

A snippet of the original Post article:

Mr. President, it’s time to end this dark charade.

We’re one week away from an enormously important moment for the next four years of our country.

Meanwhile, Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen came out with this. 

Michael Cohen says the associates Trump pardoned may now be forced to testify against him because they can no longer invoke the Fifth Amendment

President Donald Trump's former lawyer and self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, said the president's pardons and sentence commutations for close associates such as Michael Flynn and Roger Stone could be a big mistake. Cohen told MSNBC on Monday that by pardoning these allies, Trump could be unintentionally giving prosecutors the power to force these close associates to testify against him. Cohen suggested that the people Trump pardoned would no longer be able to invoke their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and therefore must comply with investigations into Trump. Trump faces multiple lawsuits and criminal investigations when he leaves the White House.

It might well help to explain the pressure on Trump and his seeming unraveling.

And yes, this next article is the Washington Post and they are tough on this President but it shows he is getting lots and lots of really bad press.

Trump, in his final days, goes full King Lear

Then there's this from Salon.

The final, desperate days of our psychopath in chief: How bad will it get?

It's gotten so bad now, at the end of this presidential administration, it's even falling in on his Vice President Pence.

Gohmert, Other Republicans Sue VP Pence, Demanding He Throw Out Non-Trump Votes

I can't imagine anyone other than Mike Pence has been more loyal to Republicans but they attack him for not supporting Trump in his fraudulent effort to overturn our votes and election. Incredible.

But wait, there's more. There's much, much more.

Trump biographer says the humiliation of Mike Pence is ‘reaching a crescendo’

So far in this administration, I think Vice President Mike Pence did just what he wanted to do. That is, he laid low, quiet, rather out of sight and so, hopefully on his part, I believe, out of mind. No more. At the end and seemingly clear unraveling of this President and his administration, even he is finally getting some negative hits from all of this. It's no way a complete surprise bad as this administration is failing and flailing but it's certainly not the way he VP Pence, planned this, that's for sure.

So stay tuned, America, Americans. There's no telling where we're headed or what this President Trump will say or do, as we've seen. Hoping the worst isn't still ahead of us.

The good news? We're down to only 3 weeks left in this nightmare administration as of tomorrow.

Hallelujah.

Additional link:

Trump Gives Schumer an Assist - WSJ

The 10 worst things Trump did in 2020

The top 20 stupidest things Donald Trump said in 2020

Look Who Said Trump Needs to Accept the Election Now!

Breaking today! This afternoon!

 

Check this out! Look who also gets added to the growing list of Right Wingers and Republicans and conservatives who say Trump should accept our election!

Televangelist Pat Robertson says Trump lives in an 'alternate reality' and should move on from election loss

Even Right Wing wacko Pat Robertson says Trump is living in an "alternate reality" and should move on and accept our election and the results! Fantastic! We'll get there yet!

Happy holidays indeed, y'all!  Enjoy! Have great---and safe--holidays!

Meanwhile, unfortunately, also this.

Trump assembles a ragtag crew of conspiracy-minded allies in flailing bid to reverse election loss

Not done there, here is this man Trump today both rather predictably and unfortunately.

Trump is prepared to lay waste to everyone around him in election loss tantrum

Then finally today, there is this.

You can preorder a $100 'Trump defeats COVID' commemorative coin at White House Gift Shop

When have we ever, ever heard of this or anything like it being done by a sitting President?

The answer, of course? Never. Ever. Not by any President. Again, thanks, Republicans. Thanks so very much for this guy.  Grifters gotta' grift.

#Throwthebumout

Where This President And His Followers and Republican Party Have Brought Us

Did you see the latest? It's come far closer to home now.

Kansas mayor resigns over violent threats for backing mask mandate: ‘I do not feel safe anymore’

A bit of the story.

The emails and voice mails to Dodge City, Kan., Mayor Joyce Warshaw began pouring in last month, after the city commission voted to require everyone in town to wear masks indoors.

Some anonymous messages told her that she was restricting civil liberties, Warshaw told The Washington Post. Others said she should go to jail over her vote.

But after the western Kansas city’s uphill battle against the coronavirus pandemic was highlighted in a USA Today feature on Friday, the messages grew more frequent and aggressive: Burn in hell. Get murdered. One person simply wrote, “We’re coming for you.”

So after nearly eight years in government, she called it quits Tuesday.

“They were loud, and they were aggressive, and they frightened me and my family,” said Warshaw, who had been serving her second stint as mayor. “There’s a strong part of me that wants to say they are only words. But people are angry right now, and I don’t know that for sure.”

So here we are. Thanks so very much, Mr. President. Thanks, Republicans. In the middle of the worst, most killing, deadly international pandemic of the last more than 100 years, now you're threatening local, legally elected government officials who are, by the way, just trying to get and keep us safe, trying to keep us well and alive.

Y'all must be so proud.