Why Don't You People DO Something?

"The temptation is to look away, to move on, to cringe and avert your gaze," @sbg1 writes, but just because many are tired of the Trump show does not mean it is not important. https://t.co/0h2Urv0JEd

— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) December 4, 2020

Actually I think the temptation is to say:  "Oh, motherfucker!  Didn't we fire this little shit already?  Why is he still here?"

But since that doesn't do any good, what could we do?  Let's see, we could:

1)  Impeach Trump.

No, we did that.  And it's not gonna happen again.

2)  Get the Cabinet and Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment.

Yeah, right.  Hell, let's just use the 25th Amendment to cut to the chase of Glasser's whinge (British English, very posh!)(Well, it's The New Yorker, you know!)

So to declare the President "unable to discharge the duties of his office" requires action by the Vice President and the "principal officers of the executive departments."  I'm not going to worry about what that means, because the whole thing grinds to a halt with Mike Pence, who is a houseplant and asks nothing more than he be watered twice a day and turned toward the light as necessary.  Usurp the powers of the Presidency because Trump is agitated, paranoid, exhibiting mania, and even psychosis?  I'm not joking a bit:  how you would tell the difference from the last four years?  And does anybody think it gets to the point where Pence (and his backers, the "principal officers") have a stare-down with Trump that goes to the Congress in October?  Even November?  Well, November is a more viable possibility than October.  But you might as well hope the Senate can't get enough Senators on the floor to vote for Barrett (I know Tom Cotton thinks they can be wheeled in on stretchers, but that's ignoring the problem of contagion (which few elderly Senators are going to ignore, but Cotton is much younger) and amounts to Cotton telling the infected Senators "You're gonna die anyway!  Take one for the team!," which is always easier to urge when you don't have any skin in the game.  Still, I don't think the vote there gets thrown into November, or if it does that the post-election situation will make much difference.  And I still think it more likely Trump wins again (or water runs uphill) than Pence turns on him because Trump has gone nuts.

Again, and I'm dead serious:  what would his argument be for what has changed?

The 25th Amendment is the appendix of the Constitution:  useless for most purposes, prone to make the body politic rancid with false hopes, and if it were removed no one would notice the difference.  And we have created a world where a drug-addled, or pain-addled or disease ridden, man, who wouldn't be allowed to run a hot dog stand, can remain in unquestioned power over the United  States of America.  And the only person who could begin to challenge his fitness either depends on the POTUS for another four years in office himself, or depends on good relations with POTUS in order to be his successor.

We aren't going to get rid of these problems when we get rid of Trump.  He is, in fact, the inevitable result of so many problems we have ignored for so long.

I highlighted my argument then and now:  what's changed?  Suddenly Glasser is afraid of Trump's manias?  Suddenly we must not "normalize" what Trump is doing, or shrug at it, but ACT!?  Seriously?  We just had one of the largest turnouts for an election in U.S. history.  Joe Biden won by more votes than any candidate in U.S. history.  Trump was impeached and retained, and the only other way to remove him before January 20 is through the 25th Amendment, which is more useless than Art. I, Sec. 2, clause 5, and Art. I, Sec. 3, clauses 6 and 7.  So what are we supposed to do now?  Pay even more attention to Trump?  Scream at our televisions?  Open our windows and shout "I'M MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!"?

Chayefsky was mocking mass media and mob reactions with that scene, you know.

I mean seriously, where has she been?

Do Republicans think they have a free pass to pretend that the past four years never happened? Do they think they can simply return to the partisan status quo ante, complaining about nasty tweets and potential conflicts of interest, without anyone bringing up the current President? I don’t think this was what Biden meant when he said, during the campaign, that his Presidency would mark a return to normal. Meanwhile, not a single Republican senator had a word to say about Trump’s insane remarks from the White House on Wednesday, notwithstanding the President’s insistence that it was the most important speech of his tenure.

She's addressing the reaction of John Cornyn to some of Biden's announced intended appointees to positions the Senate must give advice and consent to.  And I'm pretty sure Cornyn is precisely going to pretend the past four years never happened.  He just won re-election handily, he's got the sinecure of at least 6 more years, and probably as many more as he wants (incumbency is a helluva drug) and what benefit does it serve him to act like he's responsible for the fate of the nation?  I know we're supposed to act as if they should all think that way, but Louie Gohmert and Ted Cruz and Paul Gosar already believe they stand between civilization and chaos, and it's no comfort to me at all.  As for commenting on Trump, why would they bother?  I wouldn't in their position.  Trump'll be gone in January, a rapidly fading memory, a depreciating investment that lots of idiots have invested $207 million in, post-election.  He's gonna need that money to really pay lawyers to defend him in all the civil and criminal actions he's gonna face, 'cause come January 20 his ability to raise money is gonna vanish, and with it our interest in him.  He'll be doing infomercials for Alex Jones and wondering why OAN doesn't call and Newsmax doesn't return his calls.

You want to hold John Cornyn and all incumbent Republicans in D.C. responsible?  Good luck.  For Christmas, can I recommend a book you should read? 

It's called "Moby Dick."  Especially the last line:  "And I alone am escaped alive to tell thee."  You might look up the origin of that.  Melville didn't choose it lightly.