I'm Not Gonna Say It

Back in early April 2016, as my mother lay dying, she glanced up at the news on the TV and saw Feckless Candidate ranting away and said, "Isn't he dead yet? Why hasn't anyone put us out of our misery?"

I chuckled, thanked G-d Dad wasn't alive to see this, and said, thinking of Thomas à Becket,  "Who are you? Henry the Second?" 

She turned toward me and deadpanned, "No, Eleanor of Aquitaine," then smiled that beatific smile she used for sarcasm. Think THE LION IN WINTER here. 

Jeez. I miss my mom, But I digress. 

One might have thought We, the People, woulda caught on to Feckless Loser's machinations and ignored him into invisibility. Would that actually happened, but it has not. Back in the days of the first campaign, I wrote about what I saw as the dangers of Feckless in office. Lots of people poo-pooed me, saying I was an alarmist and that time would prove me wrong. I would answer by saying, "Your mouth to G-d's ear." Clearly, no one had Her ear. 

In 2017, I wrote an episode called Fast, Faster, Fasting With A Side of Razzle-Dazzle. You don't have to read the whole thing, just being at the point where I talk about Wesley Balk and the concept of less is more. Presciently, I think I nailed it when I wrote:

If you are unwilling to allow a coup d'etat to be attempted, now is the time to begin watching who does what to whom. Get them all center stage. Light the single light. Keep 'em all where you can see 'em.  

 

Knowledge is light...and light is the enemy of this White House. Keep those lights turned toward Washington.

And some of that light sorta, kinda stayed focused on D.C., but not enough. On December 7th, 2020, all the signs were there, and I duly reported this:

I am really tired of writing about this stuff, but you, readers, urge me to continue to blow the whistle, sound the horn, and keep calling the emperor naked. I am preaching to the choir. On the other hand, if people keep saying, "this is real, this is a possibility," then perhaps we will be better prepared to fight back. 

I do not know if a coup d'etat will eventually take place. All the signs are there. People who have lived through them in other countries are screaming that this is a warning and we cannot ignore it. We must prepare ourselves for the possibility of civil unrest if not a full blown civil war. 

Make no mistake: the lack of measures to stem the pandemic are NOT unrelated to this. And to that end, we can only hope and pray for evolution in action: the demise of the galactically stupid who refuse to mask up and practice safe socializing.

Meanwhile. continue to follow the rules. Don't think it can't happen to you, and don't think it can't happen here. BOTH can.  You've been apprised.

Okay, so it was an attempted coup. In practice, it failed, but did it fail in theory? I don't think so. In fact, I think it shored up the whole mechanism like tech rehearsal. There's a great superstition about dress/tech rehearsals: when they go well, things are gonna get ugly when the real audience shows up. 

Meanwhile, back at his new platform, TRUTH SOCIAL,  Feckless Loser posted this on Saturday, December 3rd, 2022:

and for the record, there were over 10,000 comments
unreadable unless you join TRUTH. And I wasn't doing that. 

Granted, the post is seditious at best, treason at worst, but that's not what necessarily concerns me; it's the number of reposts, likes, and comments. In the scheme of mass media, these are not really significant numbers when many Insta influencers have over a million followers. But if you manage to visit the public face of the website (and be aware, there are lots of cookies you can't turn off,) what's posted there is scary even if you can't see the comments.

No matter how you want to look at it, storm clouds are gathering. Mock me some more if you want, but I am not alone in believing there is a civil war fomenting on the sidelines. No longer content behind the scenes, these guys are openly advocating for the overthrow of the Constitution and, subsequently, the government of these here United States. 

Back in January of 2021, Dan Simon wrote an article for The Nation: Who Voted For Hitler  where he discussed the book of the same name written by Richard Hamilton in the 1982. Simon lays out the progression of the Nazi Party:

In 1928, the National Socialists—the Nazis—were a negligible, declining splinter party. Out of his disappointment with his party’s electoral ineffectualness that year, Hitler defied conventional wisdom and changed direction, throwing his organizational muscle to the countryside instead of the cities. Two years later, in the parliamentary elections of 1930, the Nazis suddenly emerged as a force with just over 18 percent of the vote. And in 1932 they reached just over 37 percent of the vote nationally, their high-water mark, prompting Hitler to call on President Hindenburg to name him chancellor.

Instead, Hindenburg called for another election; this time, the Nazis were soundly defeated. Still, believing the Nazis were now declawed, Hindenburg named Hitler as Chancellor anyway. In February of 1933, the Reichstag was burned. Whether the Nazis set the fire or the Communists who were then rounded up and blamed actually did is unimportant. 

What followed with almost blinding speed was the consolidation of power by Hitler, the building of a war machine, and then the start of [the] Second World War itself. Within just a few months, the Nazis had asserted complete control over industrial output, finance, labor, the military, and politics in Germany. 

One cannot lose sight of the fact that when the 1932 election was held, the National Socialist Party received only 37% of the vote.

37% is a whole lot less than Feckless Loser got in 2020. 

This episode will post before we know whether or not Georgia's run-off election...or is that erection...is really for the people. We can hope the sane people of that state won't send a concussed idiot to the highest legislative chamber of the land, but then again, they just might fool us all and send that lame excuse for a human being to congress. 

Wanna know what I wanna know? Whatever happened to all those family values the GOP touted as important to their party? Oh, wait. This is the party that places the emphasis on automatic weapon ownership, denying healthcare to those below the poverty line, and defunding public schools instead of investing in the health and safety of their constituency. 

Never mind. Silly me. And no, I'm not gonna say I told you so. So there. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Must give this one to playwright/author/blogger Jenna Zark. 

Crooked Lines: A Single Mom’s Jewish Journey

This insightful book is for anyone navigating the waters 

of both traditional and non-traditional single parenting. 

Jenna's challenges are universal.

And this is especially good for the grandparents. 

A Week of Years

I was thinking about a bunch of  random things when I realized Little Miss will turn seven at the end of this month, which means FIL is gone, on the secular calendar, 7 years today. He missed meeting his great-granddaughter by 17 days. That always bothered me, and sometimes, when I write about "Little Miss," the phrase has a slightly sad twist to it: he missed meeting her by just a little miss.

Seven is a week's worth of years. So much has happened in that span of time, yet FIL's departure seemed to have happened only yesterday. There's a whole bunch of stuff I am relieved that he missed, and he's probably relieved that he missed it...if he's still thinking about this place. I'm certain he would be thrilled with how the boys are now. And that weird laugh he had would be heard often in response to Little Miss and Young Sir. That Little Miss is a budding scientist/engineer would launch him over the moon. 

John and Rudy. Great couple.

What would launch him over a different moon is the investigation into Feckless Former's attempted coup. Yes, it was an attempted coup. As the investigation digs into the events leading up to January 6, 2021, a name emerged most people hadn't haven't before: John Eastman. This is a guy we need to know more about, but Americans of all parties need to know about the memo he wrote and provided to the Feckless White House. According to multiple sources, including CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, the memo was obtained by Bob Woodard and Robert Costa. I am reprinting it in its entirety because it is not to be believed that a lawyer provided this to the White House and Department of Justice as a roadmap for overturning the presidential election:

PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

January 6 scenario 

7 states have transmitted dual slates of electors to the President of the Senate.

The 12th Amendment merely provides that “the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted.” There is very solid legal authority, and historical precedent, for the view that the President of the Senate does the counting, including the resolution of disputed electoral votes (as Adams and Jefferson did while Vice President, regarding their own election as President), and all the Members of Congress can do is watch. 

The Electoral Count Act, which is likely unconstitutional, provides: 

If more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State shall have been received by the President of the Senate, those votes, and those only, shall be counted which shall have been regularly given by the electors who are shown by the determination mentioned in section 5 of this title to have been appointed, if the determination in said section provided for shall have been made, or by such successors or substitutes, in case of a vacancy in the board of electors so ascertained, as have been appointed to fill such vacancy in the mode provided by the laws of the State; but in case there shall arise the question which of two or more of such State authorities determining what electors have been appointed, as mentioned in section 5 of this title, is the lawful tribunal of such State, the votes regularly given of those electors, and those only, of such State shall be counted whose title as electors the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide is supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its law; and in such case of more than one return or paper purporting to be a return from a State, if there shall have been no such determination of the question in the State aforesaid, then those votes, and those only, shall be counted which the two Houses shall concurrently decide were cast by lawful electors appointed in accordance with the laws of the State, unless the two Houses, acting separately, shall concurrently decide such votes not to be the lawful votes of the legally appointed electors of such State. But if the two Houses shall disagree in respect of the counting of such votes, then, and in that case, the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof, shall be counted.

This is the piece that we believe is unconstitutional. It allows the two houses, “acting separately,” to decide the question, whereas the 12th Amendment provides only for a joint session. And if there is disagreement, under the Act the slate certified by the “executive” of the state is to be counted, regardless of the evidence that exists regarding the election, and regardless of whether there was ever fair review of what happened in the election, by judges and/or state legislatures. 

So here’s the scenario we propose:

1.  VP Pence, presiding over the joint session (or Senate Pro Tempore Grassley, if Pence recuses himself), begins to open and count the ballots, starting with Alabama (without conceding that the procedure, specified by the Electoral Count Act, of going through the States alphabetically is required).

2.  When he gets to Arizona, he announces that he has multiple slates of electors, and so is going to defer decision on that until finishing the other States. This would be the first break with the procedure set out in the Act. 

3.  At the end, he announces that because of the ongoing disputes in the 7 States, there are no electors that can be deemed validly appointed in those States. That means the total number of “electors appointed” – the language of the 12th Amendment -- is 454. This reading of the 12th Amendment has also been advanced by Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe (here). A “majority of the electors appointed” would therefore be 228. There are at this point 232 votes for Trump, 222 votes for Biden. Pence then gavels President Trump as re-elected

4.   Howls, of course, from the Democrats, who now claim, contrary to Tribe’s prior position, that 270 is required. So Pence says, fine. Pursuant to the 12th Amendment, no candidate has achieved the necessary majority. That sends the matter to the House, where the “the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote . . . .” Republicans currently control 26 of the state delegations, the bare majority needed to win that vote. President Trump is re-elected there as well.

5.  One last piece. Assuming the Electoral Count Act process is followed and, upon getting the objections to the Arizona slates, the two houses break into their separate chambers, we should not allow the Electoral Count Act constraint on debate to control. That would mean that a prior legislature was determining the rules of the present one — a constitutional no-no (as Tribe has forcefully argued). So someone – Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, etc. – should demand normal rules (which includes the filibuster). That creates a stalemate that would give the state legislatures more time to weigh in to formally support the alternate slate of electors, if they had not already done so.

6. The main thing here is that Pence should do this without asking for permission – either from a vote of the joint session or from the Court. Let the other side challenge his actions in court, where Tribe (who in 2001 conceded the President of the Senate might be in charge of counting the votes) and others who would press a lawsuit would have their past position -- that these are non-justiciable political questions – thrown back at them, to get the lawsuit dismissed. The fact is that the Constitution assigns this power to the Vice President as the ultimate arbiter. We should take all of our actions with that in mind. 

But wait, there's more. According to the Woodward/Costa book, PERIL  Eastman met with VP Pence and his chief counsel, Gregory Jacob

Mr. Eastman recalled getting in touch with Mr. Pence’s legal counsel Mr. Jacob the next day about whether Mr. Pence could delay the certification.

“I think Jacob was looking for a way for he and Pence to be convinced to take the action that we were requesting, and so I think he continued to meet with me and push back on the arguments and hear my counters, what have you, to try and see whether they could reconcile themselves to what the president had asked,” Mr. Eastman said.

When do we get to use the word, TREASON?

One would think I have had enough of the bull-oney.

Yes. More than enough. 

However, we came very close to a coup. Waaaaaay too close. 

Now, I know a lot of you called me alarmist and other fun, yet similar, names back when I was hocking about this two years ago, but the bottom line is that I was spot on in calling the lead up to the election and the actions subsequent to November 3rd, 2020 groundwork for a coup d'etat. 

Doesn't really much matter to me what one's politics are so long as they are pro-democracy. Hell, my dad was a Republican. The party ain't the point. My biggest worry right now is that come the next election, a large swath of the US population won't remember what democracy is about and will attempt to put the Orange Tide back in the White House.  

As I write, I know there is a damn good chance Feckless Former is going to try to block the memo and other documents from being entered in evidence in the investigation. I can only trust the Federal Court system to do its job and allow the investigation to proceed. This may be optimistic thinking, but I really want to be right on this one. 

Meanwhile, we remain standing at the very edge of a precipice and as such, we have choices: we can be lemmings and hurl ourselves over the ledge, or we  can stand up, turn around, and take this country back in another, more voter-oriented direction that would require the rollback of voter suppression laws. 

And that's a whole 'nother issue by itself. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Like maps? 

Have I got  a map for you!

Welcome to the world of The Pomegranate
Thank you, Martin Jan Månsson!

It's Not Just What We Say...

Prepping today's episode, I checked how many times I've used either "evolution in action," or "you can't fix stupid." I have used both phases at least 4 times in the last year. Which makes me worried about repeating myself.

But it also indicates that these are ongoing themes for 2020, and in wrapping up the year, both are applicable to our current condition. And if the truthiness be told, we have blasted past evolution in action, and we are rapidly overtaking you can't fix stupid.

Words matter. What we say and how we say it are important. These days, word choices label you whether or not you want to be labeled, much the way clothing does. It telegraphs what's behind the facade. Instant communication is not necessarily your friend, and if you recall listening to Cronkite, Huntley, or Brinkley, you probably recall they used big, grown-up words. We learned lots of vocabulary from them, and more than that, to some extent, we learned how to transmit big ideas. In school, we also learned about debate. Some of us belonged to debate clubs, some only debated in social studies classes. Whatever the venue, we learned about how words matter.

That, however, is changing. Twitter by itself has altered the face of conversation. Our language these days is much more casual, dotted with jargon, acronyms, and regionalisms. We no longer support a standard for American English. And that bleeds into the formal discourse of news on television.

For example, on December 19, 2020, at time mark 11:52, NBC reporter Kelly O'Donnell was in front of the White House to talk about Russia versus China in the hacking blame game:

A new twist inside Trump World. Russian hacking drives an unexpected wedge between President Trump and his Secretary of State...

I damn near fell off my kitchen stool. The rest of her report was rather unremarkable, nothing earth shaking...except for the opening salvo. And that's what got me thinking about the shift in how people are talking about this administration. The gloves are off. 

Even Billy Barr is leaping off the circus train. Today, he said there are no grounds for appointing special counsel to investigate either election fraud or Hunter Biden,  that the processes in place are just fine. Now, this doesn't mean he doesn't think there is fraud on either side of that conversation, just that he's not about to waste even more taxpayer $$s on narishkeit. His actions, however, are  far from praiseworthy; they remind me of a rat deserting a sinking ship....all in cause of self-interest.

From the transcript of the press conference today, December 21st, 2020.

 Speaker 4: (25:20)

On topic here, what are the prospects that the defendant will be brought back to the US to face justice in a court room? Then if I can off topic, do you believe there should be a special counsel appointed to investigate the allegations against Hunter Biden?

Att.Gen. Barr: (25:37)

On your first question, we think that the prospects are very good. Mas’ud is in the custody of the current government of Libya. We have no reason to think that that government is interested in associating itself with this heinous act of terrorism. So we are optimistic that they will turn over to face justice. On the second question, I think to the extent that there’s an investigation, I think that it’s being handled responsibly and professionally, currently within the department. To this point, I have not seen a reason to appoint a special counsel and I have no plan to do so before I leave.Att.Gen. Barr: (30:33)

and then on to election fraud: 

Att. Gen Barr: (29:46) 

As you said, I’ve already commented on fraud. Let me just say that, there are fraud, unfortunately, in most elections, I think we’re too tolerant of it, and I’m sure there was fraud in this election, but I was commenting on-I’m sure there was fraud in this election, but I was commenting on the extent to which we had looked at suggestions or allegations of systemic or broad-based fraud that would affect the outcome of the election. And I already spoke to that, and I stand by that statement.

 Speaker 3: (30:18)

…Even with what you’ve already said… Do you believe there’s enough evidence to warrant a special counsel to investigate that perhaps Sidney Powell or someone else?

Att.Gen. Barr: (30:33)

Well, if I thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and it was appropriate, I would name one, but I haven’t and I’m not going to. 

This is interesting. He is not simply breaking with his overlord on these topics, he does it in an almost dismissive manner. In the press conference,  Barr is his usual no-drama self, even-toned, almost boring. But if you listen to him, there is a shade of the absurd in his voice. You know the sound, where the speaker clearly thinks you (et al) are too stupid to live? Add to that the trace, that soupçon of dismissiveness, as in "these aren't the droids you're looking for." The only thing missing was a tiny wave of the fingers.  But the tone is there, and you know Barr is playing that whole room.

Sometimes, I think all that training and years of directing actors paid off in the strangest ways. I watch this stuff on TV and I'm not just hearing words, I'm hearing intonation. I am seeing body language that screams all sorts of stuff, and I am certain I am not the only one of my theater people friends working really hard not to stand on a street corner screaming, 

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? CAN'T YOU SEE WHAT THEY ARE DOING WITH THEIR LIPS? WITH THEIR BODIES? THIS IS TOTALLY BAD THEATER!

And I can just hear the Junior Son clucking, "Thank you, Captain Obvious." In some small way, I am comforted by that snarky thought because I hope to hell he is right, and lots of people are getting the subliminal messages these folks think we're too dense to get.

Or not.

Last Friday, there was a discussion about overturning the election and imposing martial law. This discussion did not take place in some dimly lit bar smelling of urine, or beneath an overpass of the Jersey Pike, or even in the basement of Doc's candy store. Nope. This conversation took place in the Oval Office. 

According to CNN:

But a heated Oval Office meeting Friday in which Trump heard arguments about invoking martial law to stay in office had some Trump officials sounding the alarm to the press. 

Michael Flynn, Trump's pardoned former national security adviser, discussed the martial law plan on right-wing television network Newsmax last week and was invited to the White House Friday. 

Trump dismissed reports of the martial law discussion as 'fake news' in a tweet Sunday, but two people familiar with the matter told CNN that the the plan was argued in the Oval Office Friday -- although it remains unclear if Trump endorsed the idea.  

Nevertheless, even the mention of martial law may fan the flames of many supporters clinging to the belief the election result was fraudulent. That could incite violence to bring the idea into fruition.

I am not the only one using words like coup d'etat. I used it here in the WP Speaks on May 1, 2017, in an episode called The Decline...  I used it again on July 31st, 2017 in Fast, Faster, Fasting With a Side of Razzle-Dazzle, and then I held off. I got a lot of email about saying we were heading into coup country, so I backed off and watched. My instincts did not change, in fact they became more acute. I used it exactly a year ago this week: Happy Whatever to All. And then last week. 

There has only been one quasi-successful coup, albeit short lived, in this country, and that one began on December 20th, 1860, the day South Carolina seceded from the Union. Ultimately that coup d'etat failed, and the Union was re-established with the surrender at Appomattox on April 9th, 1865.

Approximately one half of this country isn't quite sure this election is valid. These are the people who, when the MAGA-Maniacs come forward, will decide whether or not we are going to have a unified nation. If they side with the angry mob, there will be a civil war, probably a very bloody one.  Do you need the military to have a coup? The short answer is no. At this writing, do we know where the military stands? No. Will they side with the Constitution or the President? No one is talking.

The real fun is gonna start on January 21st. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

MASK UP, STAY HOME 

until they tell your it's your turn to get a frickin' vaccine.

If you are still an anti-vaxxer after this, you need your head examined.