Lake Fairfax hike – Aftermath of the rioting – Mitch McConnell and Merrick Garland – The 25th Amendment – Evening statistics
“The threatening cloud has gone away/And brightly shines the dawning day.” Literally this is true; let us hope it is so metaphorically as well.
After about a week of rather dull and greyish skies, the clouds parted today and it was beautifully clear. I took advantage of the day by scouting a possible hike to take Wanderbirds members upon during a future weekend. I went along the Lake Fairfax loop, which begins at Lake Fairfax, takes a horse trail out of the park to the Cross County Trail, follows the CCT to the W&OD Trail, takes the W&OD Trail to a spur trail close to Michael Faraday Dr., and from the spur trail goes to the Rails to River Trail in Lake Fairfax Park and follows its various meanderings back to the Visitor Center. Numerous birds flew in and out as I was hiking in the park, including a bluebird. These are shy birds and not always easy to see, but in this case the bird was flying close enough to the path that I was able to catch a glimpse of him before he flew away. Perhaps he is an omen of better things to come? The hike is about 9-9½ miles, with little elevation gain (500 feet at the most), so it can accommodate a wide range of hikers.
The rioting at the Capitol was eventually quelled (resulting in the deaths of four people and at least 60 arrests), thereby allowing the certification of the Electoral College votes to take place last night. Most of the objections to counts in specific states were rejected outright; for the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania some obstinate pro-Trump Republicans insisted on having a debate, but these were brief and did not affect the outcome. Trump has subsequently announced that he will accept the results and depart the White House on the 20th. Biden, however, will do well to have National Guard troops in readiness to escort him out by force if necessary; for Donald Trump honors no settlements. Those who were waiting for him to express any regret for the damage he has caused might as well have spared themselves the effort. He is not in the least ashamed, and his latest recorded words to the rioters (one of the tweets that eventually were removed by Twitter) are in a video in which he repeats his fallacious claims about the election being fraudulent and includes the following endorsement: “We love you. You’re very special.”
In the meantime, numerous Trump appointees have followed Stephanie Grisham’s example and have hastened to resign after the events of yesterday, including:
- Elaine Chao, Transportation Secretary
- Matt Pottinger, Deputy National Security Adviser
- Ryan Tully, Senior Director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council
- Mick Mulvaney, former White House Chief of Staff and recent special envoy to Northern Ireland
- Sarah Matthews, Deputy Press Secretary
- Rickie Niceta, White House Social Secretary
- John Costello, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce
And there is another job casualty, not from the Presidential staff: Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund announced that he will resign later this month for failing to prevent the attack on the Capitol.
As if to emphasize how much influence Mitch McConnell has lost by refusing to denounce Trump’s dishonesty and treachery until the very last minute, Joe Biden has appointed as Attorney General none other than Merrick Garland, the same judge whose nomination for the Supreme Court in the Obama administration was defeated by McConnell’s tactics of delaying the approval process for nearly a year. McConnell entitled his autobiography “The Long Game.” Now he has lost the majority in the Senate and more than a few of his fellow-Congressmen are quite resentful about his share (if only by a failure to take action) in the stoking up of the rioters yesterday. Perhaps he may be able to improve his position in the months to come; but as things stand now, I’d say that he’s proven himself to be a very inept player.
There are currently many calls for removing Trump by invoking the 25th Amendment, not only from Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, and other prominent Democrats, but by some Republicans as well. Representative Adam Kinzinger (Republican, Illinois) posted a two-minute video making an impassioned plea for invoking the Amendment, saying that Trump is “unfit” and “unwell.” Representative Ilhan Omar (Democrat, Minnesota) has gone further by drawing up articles of impeachment against Trump. But an impeachment is not likely, as the schedule for the Democrats in the House shows today as a non-voting session and all of next week as a “District Work Period” (which means no assembling in the Capitol). After that Martin Luther King Day falls on the 18th, and the Inauguration of course comes on the 20th.
In all probability the political officials will decide that even the effort to invoke the Amendment is not worth the trouble, since Trump would remain in power for only 12 days in any case. However, one relatively hopeful feature (hopeful, that is, for those like myself who yearn to have Trump publicly chastised in as many ways as possible) is that the rift between Trump and Mike Pence is now very deep indeed. Some insiders say that the two men may never speak to one another again. Trump has continually lambasted Pence for not participating in the seditious attempt to overturn the election, even berating him to his face earlier this week. And of course the experience of last night did nothing to moderate Pence’s resentment of this treatment. Senator Jim Inhofe (Republican, Oklahoma) told the Tulsa World newspaper that he spoke to Pence on Wednesday night, adding: “I’ve known Mike Pence forever. I’ve never seen Pence as angry as he was today.” Who knows? – perhaps this anger will find an appropriate vent.
Quite apart from purely sentimental reasons for wishing to invoke the Amendment there is a practical one: Trump still has complete control of our nuclear arsenal. He has the authority during the remaining days of his administration to give orders to detonate any weapon he chooses; so if he decides, say, that it is time that Iran be taught a lesson or even if he decides that Germany should be punished on the grounds that Angela Merkel’s hairdo is not to his liking, he has the power to level either country, or any other of his choosing. I actually am not overly worried about this scenario, since using the codes to launch such weapons involves a degree of mental acuity that he is not likely to possess. But if such an argument will impel the Vice President and the Cabinet to make haste in invoking the 25th Amendment I’m perfectly willing to make use of it.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 88,456,902; # of deaths worldwide: 1,905,177; # of cases U.S.: 22,111,196; # of deaths; U.S.: 373,799.