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

Our KC Star Finally Gets It on Race -- Will KCPT?

 Yes, as I wrote earlier last week, I thought it pretty incredible and courageous and soul-searching for our Kansas City Star local newspaper to own up and 'fess up to their very racist, white supremacist past. Great for them, great for us. Progress. Surprising and again, incredible. Very encouraging and hopeful.

So now, a next step, it makes me wonder aloud here if our local PBS station will ever "get it" on race, too. If KCPT will ever be truly inclusive. I've written about it before.

They used  to have 2 weekly news programs and now they're down to one. Both were heavily, heavily represented by---wait for it--white people. Only. Singularly. And the one now gone was also heavily full of Right Wing and/or conservative and/or out and out Republican Party guests and viewpoints. It was dispiriting to say the least.

And even now, still, to this day, their "Week in Review" program is heavily all white. Here's the latest example.

Where it used to be a solidly, dependably, weekly all white panel, now they seem to have finally, finally committed to having a reliable, token Black person, a Black man.  At least there is that improvement.

But to this day, as in this week's episode, there are 3 white people.

That's it.

Three men, one woman and one Black man, that's it.

Occasionally, occasionally they will include a Hispanic or Latinx member of the community but it is rare, at best. They apparently take money from and advertise the Dos Mundos newspaper but no steady representation of our Hispanic community. It's almost as though they don't live here. Or at least, it's as though KCPT either just doesn't or doesn't want to recognize them, Hispanics in the community.

In their defense, I know this isn't true. I know the station and the host, Nick Haines, want to be fair and representative of us all.

But it ain't happenin'.

It's 2020, very nearly 2021, of course, and still no representation, no reliable, steady, dependable representation of ALL in our community.

But hey, if you're white? Or more, if you're a white man? They got you covered. Great for you.

So come on, KCPT. Do it. Somehow, do it. Get it done. Commit to, somehow, having, say, one white maile, one white female, yes a Black person, male or female and the---wait for it---a Hispanic or Latinx person, again, male or female on your program, on this program, on "Week in REview", week after week after week. Reliably. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to good, fair representative media. 

You owe it to all of us.

On This Day, December 26, 1972

Yes, on this day, December 26, 1972 we, Missouri and the nation, lost a great man. 

Missouri state history---On this day, December 26, 1972, President Harry S Truman dies at age 88 in Independence,.

The 33rd president of the US dies of multiple-organ failure after several weeks in the hospital. His wife, Bess, will opt for a small private burial in their hometown of Independence, Missouri, instead of a state funeral in DC, thinking it a more fitting goodbye for the down-to-earth Truman.

We miss you, sir. We've missed you since you passed. We miss your wisdom, your guidance and your efforts for the more common man and woman--working people of the nation.

Thank you for all you did for us.

Links:

Harry S. Truman - Wikipedia

Harry Truman - Facts, Presidency & WWII - HISTORY

Entertainment Overnight -- Holiday Edition

 Happy holidays everyone. 

Merry Christmas if you celebrate it.

This Incredibly Bizarre Presidency Just Keeps Getting More So

I haven't been able to believe so much of what I've read and seen this past 4 years from this President, his presidency and administration. Now, today, there is this.

Pence Should Remove Trump From Office on Sunday

Here's the gist of what they're proposing.

"It may seem extremely unlikely that Mike Pence, who up to this point has been one of Trump’s most craven enablers, would even consider taking advantage of this constitutional power. But it’s always possible that, between now and January 20 when Trump’s term expires, the situation may become so extreme that he and eight other Cabinet members may find the modicum of personal courage and moral decency necessary to do the right thing.

Trump would put up a fight, but it wouldn’t matter this late in his presidency. Once Pence has transmitted the letter to Congress that makes him acting president, Trump may contest the vice-president’s actions via a letter of his own. Section Four, however, would give Pence four days to respond to this letter. After Pence did so, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives could — by simple majority vote — decline to act on the substantive dispute for the remaining 21 days. (Meanwhile, Democrats could filibuster any action in the Senate.) Were it not the end of his term, Trump would return to office after 21 days if Congress failed to act.

This, in effect, means that Pence could become acting president on Sunday, December 27, and would remain in the position for the rest of the current administration’s term in office, as long as House Democrats acceded to the new status quo. For the good of the nation, he should do so this weekend."

So. Very. Bizarre.

Thanks, Republicans.

God help us.

Happy holidays.

Hopefully.

The Republican Party Insanity Today, Christmas Eve, on COVID Assistance

So here it is. Christmas Eve. Here we are. At long last. And now, this is where we all are with this Republican Party Congress, Republican Party President and the possibility of COVID assistance.

House Republicans To Block $2,000 Stimulus Checks On Christmas Eve

So Congress, at long last, came up with a bill they could all agree one, months in the making, for COVID pandemic assistance to and for America and Americans. After all that negotiating, this Republican Party President Trump concludes they assistance should be $2000, not the paltry $600 at the last minute or he'll veto it all. Yahoo! Right?

Except this is where we are now. On Christmas Eve. The Republicans in Congress are all going to collectively be Scrooges. They say they are voting it all down. It's their President but they want no part of it.

So what, pray tell, do these Republicans in Congress do now with their President? Go to the White House and implore him to see it, to see things their way? If that's even possible?

Merry Christmas indeed, America. 

Happy holidays?

Happy new year?

More:

Trump gives Congress chaos for Christmas, with aid to millions up in the air

Update. Breaking in the last two hours:

GOP senator warns $2K checks can't pass, urges Trump to sign COVID deal

It seems our own Missouri Senator Roy Blunt did the right thing and reached out to the President.

Sen. Roy Blunt (Mo.) a member of the GOP leadership, warned Thursday that President Trump's demand for $2000 stimulus checks can't pass the Senate and urged him to sign a massive year-end agreement.

Some semblance of sanity seems to be coming about, anyway. It's nice that it's coming from our own Senator and state.

Sidney Powell: Senior Aides Are Blocking Trump From Giving Me White House…

Bill Barr's Quote APresidential Pardons Resurfaces on His Last Day…

GOP senator warns $2K checks can't pass, urges Trump to sign COVID dea

The Insane, Bizarre, Ugly and Now Dangerous World Into Which This President and HIs Political Party Have Brought Us

 I can honestly still not believe the things this Republican Party President keeps saying and doing. Now we're here:

2020 is the deadliest year in US history, with deaths expected to top 3 million for the first time

What the sorry excuse for "leadership" from this Republican Party President Trump and his political party has gotten us all, gotten the nation. Is it any wonder we wanted to vote him out and so badly? Thanks, Republicans. Thanks so very much. This man Trump and all he has wrought this last 4 years is on you, all on you---forever.  This last fact and statistic is the worst, of course, but it's followed by this beauty, too.

For the 40th consecutive week, Americans file more than a million claims for jobless benefits

Then this happened.

Trump Demands $2,000 Stimulus Checks, Imperiling Covid-19 

Forget that these negotiations have been going on in Congress for months and that Americans are hurting. Millions of us are going hungry, millions more are already facing possible eviction from their homes and consequential homelessness. Oh, yeah, forget all that. Republicans and Democrats finally hammered out a deal to get assistance out to us all and this President, at the last minute, decides the checks--at $600 to us schmoes out here--aren't large enough and the threatens to veto the whole thing. Things you can be sure of just now because of this move by the Trumpster:

1. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are rightly overjoyed and loving this President's insanity 
2. Mitch McConnell and the Republicans are about to pull their hair out because of their own President's wildly contradicting excuse for "leadership" on COVID assistance issue and
3. No one, no one still knows what goes on in Donald Trump's mind

Minutes ago, he, Trump, did this.

Trump Vetoes Defense Spending Bill

This took place 2 days ago.

House Republicans meet with Trump to discuss overturning election results

Forget that we voted. Forget that more than 50 different judges and their courts found zero proof of vote fraud. Forget that all those lawsuits by this President Trump and his attorneys were all thrown out. Forget all that. They want to overturn our vote, our votes, our election.

Naturally, it's Donald Trump so it gets worse.

As Trump meets with QAnon influencers, the conspiracy's adherents beg for dictatorship

Of course, they won't think of it as "dictatorship." They'll say they're just trying to reseat the current President because he won this election. Which of course he didn't.

At this stage, we are 27 days from Joe Biden's inauguration.

It can't happen soon enough.

I so hope this doesn't get crazier.

Or uglier.

Imagine for a Moment You're Donald Trump Just Now

Imagine for a moment you're Donald Trump just now. Yeah, I know. Sorry. Anyway, you're facing the following-- You have your back against the wall and in a couple ways--

• New York State is investigating your taxes in at least 2 different cases, for possible fraud
• Ireland is also investigating your for your taxes so that's international problems, too
• He likely, apparently owes, reportedly, nearly, if not actually 1 billion dollars to who knows who,and then finally,
• There's anything and everything he may be investigated for and possibly found guilty while he was President.

He's reportedly now turning on his Vice President and virtually, if not actually, everyone.

Trump Turns on Everyone

A bit from the article:

“President Trump, in his final days, is turning bitterly on virtually every person around him, griping about anyone who refuses to indulge conspiracy theories or hopeless bids to overturn the election,” Axios reports.

“Targets of his outrage include Vice President Pence, chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, Secretary of State Pompeo and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.”

“Trump thinks everyone around him is weak, stupid or disloyal — and increasingly seeks comfort only in people who egg him on to overturn the election results. We cannot stress enough how unnerved Trump officials are by the conversations unfolding inside the White House.”

So happy holidays, y'all. Think happy thoughts.

There's a vaccine on the way and this Presidency and 2020 are both nearly over.

So Proud of Our Kansas City Star

Wow.

What can you say but "Wow"?

Our own local paper, the Kansas City Star stunned me and I feel, probably lots of us this week. Their report, their reporting, their confession was just that, stunning. You likely know of what I'm writing. It's this.

The truth in Black and white: An apology from The Kansas City Star

Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.

In it, rather famously now, the paper confessed and admitted to racism, horrible racism from them over the years when reporting on minorities in the area--specifically, Black Americans.

I'll only post the beginning of the editorial.

Today we are telling the story of a powerful local business that has done wrong.

For 140 years, it has been one of the most influential forces in shaping Kansas City and the region. And yet for much of its early history — through sins of both commission and omission — it disenfranchised, ignored and scorned generations of Black Kansas Citians. It reinforced Jim Crow laws and redlining. Decade after early decade it robbed an entire community of opportunity, dignity, justice and recognition.

That business is The Kansas City Star.

To repeat, there's no word that describes this any better than stunning.

This took guts. This took courage. Just freaking wow.

They could have recognized their past faults internally and vowed to never repeat such things, sure. But this? Confessing to the supporting of Jim Crow laws and redlining and segregation and other obscenities, however legal?

Stunning. Nothing short of stunning.

It went national, too, it was that big a story. This was from the New York Times.

Kansas City Star Apologizes for Racism

NBC News.

Kansas City Star apologizes for decades of racist coverage

Daily Kos.

'We don’t need stories about these people': Kansas City newspaper confesses to tradition of racism

You get the idea. It was covered nationally from virtually every media outlet.

I think there are two huge things to take from this, too, besides the fact that, as I said above, they didn't have to do this cleansing so publicly like this. 

The first is that this was an important move for them, the Star, the newspaper, to own up to but it's much more than that. We all need to own up to what and how we've gotten to where we are. We all, as a people and as a nation, need to know how we got here, where we are today. We need to know our nation's history, our full national history. We need to really know all the details about slavery and our Civil War, sure. But that's for starters.

We all need to also know about our Reconstruction and the failure of it, our failure and how that impacted African-Americans then.

We all need to know, really know about Jim Crow laws, what they were, what they did, the fact that they were legal and the deep, deep damage that they did to those same Americans, African-Americans. That's a great deal to know there alone.

Then there's the "redlining" the Star's story mentions and its corresponding segregation, legalized, thank you very much.

If, as a people, you are kept away, legally, from the best housing and jobs, good education and so, consequently and understandably, also kept away from better paying jobs and careers?  Is it any wonder the wealth of Black Americans today is, still, to this moment, a fraction of white America?

And that's how we got now, here to where we are. It's why still, to this day, so many Black Americans do not and even, for a lot of them, cannot still live wherever they wish. It only makes sense. It's a natural outgrowth of all that then-legalized racism and hate and ugliness. It's why do many cities in the United States--including, of course, our own Kansas City on both sides of the state line--are still so very, very segregated even though that legal segregation was made illegal decades ago now.

So, again, wow. Kudos to the Star.

In their article, they made a great and important point of saying that their paper, over the years, highlighted white people's accomplishments but virtually never Black people's.

In the pages of The Star, when Black people were written about, they were cast primarily as the perpetrators or victims of crime, advancing a toxic narrative. Other violence, meantime, was tuned out. The Star and The Times wrote about military action in Europe but not about Black families whose homes were being bombed just down the street.

Even the Black cultural icons that Kansas City would one day claim with pride were largely overlooked. Native son Charlie “Bird” Parker didn’t get a significant headline in The Star until he died, and even then, his name was misspelled and his age was wrong.

It reminded me of a KCPT PBS broadcast on Kansas City's own Charlie "Bird" Parker. Lonnie McFadden made the very fair and important point that Winston Churchill, of all people, is on our Country Club Plaza.

But not Bird.

How else can we heal? How else can we repair centuries long wrongs and racism if we don't examine ourselves, see where we are, see what we did, see what those ramifications are and then apologize for them and look to rectify them? We must do this as a society. We're long, long overdue.

Anyone, any American who thinks we don't owe Black Americans reparations should, again, study our national history.

And read this article, too.

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

Two Holiday Movie Classics: Rich v Poor, Republican v Democrat

Yes, there are two holiday movie classics, at least here in America, and not only do we love them, lots of us, but they also show the great struggle of rich vs poor. The first, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol.

It's a very simplified view of the movie but it is, in fact, true and accurate. It's very like a present situation where a man named Bezos is worth 200 billion dollars--and growing--but he doesn't offer all his employees heath insurance. And that's just one current day example.

And the other holiday movie classic? Why "It's a Wonderful Life", of course.

Is there any question, any question at all that George Bailey, fighting for the "little man", the working and middle classes, is a Democrat/Liberal while the obscenely greedy, already rich Mr. Potter is a Republican and conservative? If you do question it, George Bailey's speech should clear it up. 

"Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you’re talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn’t think so. People were human beings to him, but to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they’re cattle.”

Oh, yeah. Both good to great movies in their own ways and both show current day situations of, again, rich v poor and very well.

Happy holidays, everyone. Stay safe out there.

I hope.

Quotes of the Day -- On Health Care

Universal health care is such a complex beast that only 32 of the world's 33 nations have been able to make it work.

--Duke @Maxonsdad 

If you think Covid treatment should be free (of course it should), why do you think insulin shouldn’t be? 

Or cancer treatment? 

Or mental health?

Health care should not be run for profit. Period.

--Robert Reich @RBReich

Suddenly Embarrassed to be from Missouri

 I'm stunned.

GOP Lawmakers in Missouri Propose Bills Making It Legal to Hit Protesters With Cars

Thanks, Mr. President! Thanks, Republicans!

 That's quite the leadership you got going there.

US hits grim new daily record with 3,656 coronavirus deaths

This broke yesterday on CNN: US hits record breaking number of COVID cases 11 days in a row.

Seems this administration is one of the reliable carriers, too.

Interior secretary tests positive for COVID-19 after two days of meetings with officials: report

Not done there, oh no.

Weekly jobless claims rise to 885,000

Note that this next summary is from the very conservative, very business-friendly Business Insider, too

The GOP's 'outrageous' effort to overturn the election cements its status as 'a willing party to authoritarianism'

Authoritarianism, Fascism, let's not split hairs.

But hey, at least the Dow and the markets are up, huh? 

Stocks rise to record highs on talk of COVID relief deal

At least Mitch McConnell and then Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue down in Georgia are going to be doing okay on their stock portfolios, right??

And again, this President Trump. What a guy. Always there to do the right thing at the right time, eh?

Trump cuts $200M in health care funds to California over abortions

Y'all are terrific.

Really.

Yet Another High Placed Defection From the Republican Party, Thanks to Mr. Trump

Yes, here's yet one more. One more Republican very publicly leaving that political party. 

Former NH GOP chair announces she's leaving the GOP

A bit of her story and the article:

Jennifer Horn, the former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party and a co-founder of the anti-Trump GOP group The Lincoln Project, announced Thursday in a new op-ed that she is leaving the Republican Party as President Trump and his allies continue their efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Horn said she "became a Republican" because she viewed the party's values as "a voice for equality, freedom and constitutional conservatism, with a rich history of fighting for what was right because it was right."

"For the past five years, however, I have found myself fighting for what I thought were the principles of my party in the face of the ever-deteriorating character and integrity of party representatives," Horn wrote in the op-ed published Thursday by USA Today. "They have revealed their impotence and decrepitude as they have fallen, one by one, at the feet of the most corrupt, destructive and unstable president in the history of our country."

"It seems there is no assault on human dignity too great, no attack on democracy too extreme, to inspire the Republican weaklings in Congress to speak up or stand up to President Donald Trump," she continued.

And who but the most rabid Trump supporter can argue with that? With any of that?

Meanwhile, this report came out this morning.

Trump Tells Advisers 'He Won't Leave The White House' 

January 20th will go down in history, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons.

Sources say President Donald Trump has told advisers that he will refuse to leave the White House on Inauguration Day. According to a CNN report, several sources have confirmed that Trump will refuse to leave the White House on January 20.

Insane. Insanity.

Thanks, Republicans.

Ever so.

Quote of the Day -- Important Presidential Edition

 

During World War II, there was a very real and rational fear that American democracy would not survive. The danger was obvious, visceral, and violent. It was promulgated by tanks, bombs, and battleships. It was measured on maps that traced the march of armies, the swarming of navies, and the decimation of cities by aerial assault. America sat within her borders and could feel a world of madness and hatred closing in.

Since the attack came from the outside, the human inclination was to rally within one's own community for safety. That community was riven with its own violent injustices of segregation and the ugliness manifested against its citizens of Japanese ancestry. But the threat from outside was so great and would be likely so unsparing that America hardened its resolve with nearly miraculous levels of selflessness and sacrifice to the cause of survival. The cost was great in blood, particularly of the young overseas, and in treasure.

It is likely that many of you have a sense of where this is going, the comparison I seek to make.

American democracy is once again under a dire threat. Once again there is death at a scale that is incomprehensible. But the threat is of such a different nature that it may be too convenient to deny the full level of danger. This threat comes from within, a civil cleaving that instead of uniting the nation is dividing it. Perilously so.

This is not a violent threat, at least not yet despite some low-level skirmishes. That could change, but there is nothing approaching the reckoning of Nazi forces sweeping into Paris or a Japanese strike on Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile, the mass death we face doesn't lend itself to the visceral images of war. Our killer doesn't have a face or a flag. It is invisible. Instead of sending our young off to battle overseas, we have medical professionals, grocery store clerks, farmhands, and many others commuting daily into danger. We are mostly aware of what takes place within our four walls of isolation and the looming specter of hunger and homelessness for many of our fellow citizens.

But there is of course another deep worry pervasive in this country. It is about America's heretofore unbroken peaceful transfer of power between presidents. It is the notion that all of us, regardless of party, play by and revere the same democratic ideal that we the people have the power to fire our leaders in free and fair elections. This election has revealed a president who doesn't believe any of that, and a party and base that is eager to go along with him. This is not fringe; it is a movement that encompassess tens of millions of Americans. And to defeat it and preserve American democracy will require resolve, patience, ingenuity, and grit.

I believe that the nature of this threat to American democracy is not being taken nearly seriously enough. And in an odd way I find some comfort in that. I still do not believe most Americans want our ideal of representative government by majority rule to end, not by a long shot. It is tempting to laugh off the outrageousness of the court challenges and see a pathetic man desperate to hold on to fleeting power. There is truth in all of this, and I suspect Donald Trump will struggle to own the national conversation as much as he hopes once he loses his perch behind the presidential podium.

Yet the fissures laid bare by this election, and its shameful aftermath, are not going away. And every Republican official who signed their name, or even spoke by their silence, bears responsibility for what has been the most serious attempt to wreck our union internally since the Civil War. I hope, and pray, we as a nation can walk back from the ledge, that the passions can cool, and a new administration can steer our American ship of state back into the safer harbors of our democratic traditions. The struggle will not be easy, but if victory for American democracy does emerge, and I believe it will, we can resolve to make it much more secure so that this doesn't happen again.

In the dark days of World War II, it was almost impossible to imagine a bright and happy future. But that did happen. Today, we have a vaccine coming and a new government. There is danger still ahead, but hope is possible. It is a hope that must be built on hard work and action. But I would go so far as to say a realization of hope is the likely outcome. I have seen America tested many times, and usually we end up in a better place than where we started.

Steady.

--Dan Rather

A President That Outdoes Hitchcock

Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, December 16th | The New Yorker

 

“Congratulations. Very scary four years.”

Ain't it the truth?

Thanks, Republicans. So very much.

Highly Placed Defections From the Republican Party

 Yes sir and ma'am, there were two rather highly placed defections from the Republican Party in the last few days. First, a member of the House of Representatives.

Congressman Paul Mitchell Resigns from Republican Party

A bit of the story:

Disgust with Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election and GOP leadership’s acquiescence in damaging American democracy has led to one member saying, “Enough”. Paul Mitchell of Michigan, a retiring member of the US House, has resigned from the Republican Party.

So yes, he was retiring but hey, we'll take it. He bailed on the party after being and working in it most if not all of his entire adult life, given its direction under this lunatic of a President.

Then, the second defection.

Steve Schmidt Officially Registers As A Democrat

And who is Steve Schmidt, you might ask? From Wikipedia:

Stephen Edward Schmidt[2] (born September 28, 1970)[3] is an American communications and public affairs strategist who has worked on Republican political campaigns, including those of President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arizona Senator John McCain.

Schmidt was the senior campaign strategist and advisor to the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator John McCain.[4] He pushed McCain to select Sarah Palin as his running mate, a choice which McCain came to regret.[5] He was a Vice Chair at the public relations firm Edelman[6] until he stepped down in July 2018.[7]

He's a long time, very entrenched Republican and member of that party. Or at least he was.

The smart people and the people of integrity and thought and backbone are getting out. 

The Frightening, Threatening Neanderthal That Is This President Trump

"In my life, I have watched John Kennedy talk on television about missiles in Cuba. I saw Lyndon Johnson look Richard Russell squarely in the eye and and say, "And we shall overcome." I saw Richard Nixon resign and Gerald Ford tell the Congress that our long national nightmare was over. I saw Jimmy Carter talk about malaise and Ronald Reagan talk about a shining city on a hill. I saw George H.W. Bush deliver the eulogy for the Soviet bloc, and Bill Clinton comfort the survivors of Timothy McVeigh's madness in Oklahoma City. I saw George W. Bush struggle to make sense of it all on September 11, 2001, and I saw Barack Obama sing 'Amazing Grace' in the wounded sanctuary of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina. 

"These were the presidents of my lifetime. These were not perfect men. They were not perfect presidents, god knows. Not one of them was that. But they approached the job, and they took to the podium, with all the gravitas they could muster as appropriate to the job. They tried, at least, to reach for something in the presidency that was beyond their grasp as ordinary human beings. They were not all ennobled by the attempt, but they tried nonetheless.

"And comes now this hopeless, vicious buffoon, and the audience of equally hopeless and vicious buffoons who laughed and cheered when he made sport of a woman whose lasting memory of the trauma she suffered is the laughter of the perpetrators. Now he comes, a man swathed in scandal, with no interest beyond what he can put in his pocket and what he can put over on a universe of suckers, and he does something like this while occupying an office that we gave him, and while endowed with a public trust that he dishonors every day he wakes up in the White House.

"The scion of a multigenerational criminal enterprise, the parameters of which we are only now beginning to comprehend. A vessel for all the worst elements of the American condition. And a cheap, soulless bully besides. We never have had such a cheap counterfeit of a president* as currently occupies the office. We never have had a president* so completely deserving of scorn and yet so small in the office that it almost seems a waste of time and energy to summon up the requisite contempt.
"Watch how a republic dies in the empty eyes of an empty man who feels nothing but his own imaginary greatness, and who cannot find in himself the decency simply to shut up even when it is in his best interest to do so. Presidents don't have to be heroes to be good presidents. They just have to realize that their humanity is our common humanity, and that their political commonwealth is our political commonwealth, too.

Watch him behind the seal of the President of the United States. Isn't he a funny man? Isn't what happened to that lady hilarious? Watch the assembled morons cheer. This is the only story now."

- Charles Pierce

Link:

Charles P. Pierce on Politics

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.

This Republican Party President is Having Another Meltdown Today

Yes, here we go again. This Republican Party President Trump is, one more time, having a social media meltdown. This morning:

He started with this about an hour ago.

Donald J. Trump

 

MOST CORRUPT ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY!

Then went to this, minutes later.

THE BIGGEST WINNER OF OUR NEW DEFENSE BILL IS CHINA!. I WILL VETO!

It's getting, it's gotten old. It's tiresome. For and to his supporters, it's dangerous. He's still, still trying to overturn our vote, our votes, our election and to attack our Democracy. Sadly, unfortunately, it has lead to this.

Joe Biden 'Will Be Removed One Way or Another,' Alex Jones Tells Pro-Trump March

It's reckless, it's dangerous, it's deeply irresponsible. 

Added to this, the following shows where we are just now.

...the American coronavirus pandemic is entering its worst stage yet, with cases and deaths skyrocketing across the country. Last Thursday saw over 3,000 deaths — more than 9/11 or Pearl Harbor — and with ICU beds at or near capacity in most of the country, absent serious change it is possible there will be double or even triple that number per day in a matter of weeks. We may yet top the deadliest day in American history, the Galveston hurricane of 1900 that killed an estimated 8,000 people, very soon. President Trump is doing precisely nothing about this.

As we know, the Supreme Court, at long last, shot down Trump's and the Republicans' attempt out of Texas to overturn our election and votes. Tomorrow, Monday, the Electoral College will release their offficial election results, confirming, again, that Joe Biden won and is President-Elect and that--wait for it--Donald Trump lost. 

Sure, it's been a bad, 4 day weekend for the Donald but using his own words, "It is what it is." It's the reality. We voted him out. We desperately need to get fellow Republicans to talk this, their President down off his ledge and to, at long last, concede.

Link to above quoted article.

The Constitution has an answer for seditious members of Congress