Too dangerous to be allowed to finish

The day after … Laura Clawson of Daily Kos did live blogging of the restarted process for Congress to accept the Electoral College vote. It restarted at about 8pm yesterday evening. This particular post took up at 11:17 with many of the updates from Mark Sumner. His last entry was at 3:45am. Biden and Harris were confirmed. In another post Sumner discussed the night’s actions, including objections to certain states, though there were a lot fewer of those than some Republicans had planned. Sumner’s conclusion:

At the end of a very long day—actually, at after 3 AM on Thursday morning—Mike Pence finally read the totals of the electoral vote and declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the victors. That came despite continued objections from Republicans who not only know their claims of election fraud are lies, but are fully aware of the role those lies played in driving the insurrectionists to assault the people’s house. That evening included Josh Hawley needlessly subjecting the nation to two hours of debate on Arizona’s votes, during which he did not mention Arizona. Then two hours of debate on Pennsylvania’s vote, during which he didn’t bother to speak. Those additional hours of debate did serve a purpose. They allowed Republicans like Matt Gaetz to showcase their latest lie—that the mythical busload of antifa was behind the attack on the Capitol. That all those people who attended Trump’s rally, wore Trump hats, waved Trump banners, and chanted Trump’s slogans … were secretly not Trump supporters. Of course they did. Because four years of feeding Americans angry lies has worked out so damn well.

Will Jennings tweeted:

Journalists still asking if this was planned or it just "happened" somehow.

Jennings answered that question by showing a man with an outer shirt with the words, “MAGA CIVIL WAR January 6, 2021” – it was planned well enough in advance to get the merch printed. Daily Kos has several posts reporting an increasing number of people saying the nasty guy has shown to be too dangerous to be allowed to finish the last two weeks of his term. There are numerous calls both for a swift impeachment and to use the 25th amendment. The 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967, after Kennedy was assassinated. A part of it was used when Spiro Agnew was driven from the office of vice president and there was now a way to appoint a successor, who was Gerald Ford. He became president when Nixon resigned, becoming the first unelected president. Ford also used it to nominate his own vice president. Another part was used when Ronald Reagan had a medical procedure. He turned his powers over to his vice president while he was unconscious. Both Bush I and II also used this part. And the part that is important now. The vice president and a majority of the cabinet may declare the president unable to discharge the powers and duties of office by sending a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate. In a post from last evening Sumner included several tweets from people calling for either method to get rid of the nasty guy. Some wonder if the 25th has been invoked. It was the vice nasty who signed the authorization for the National Guard to come to DC. I’m skeptical that it has been invoked because the final step is to notify the leaders of Congress. And they definitely would have said they had gotten such a letter. Also from last evening Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported that 30 House members have called for immediate impeachment. Impeachment is likely to be pursued while waiting for the vice nasty to act. In a post from this morning Sumner showed tweets from several people, then listed members of Congress calling for the 25th to be used, three newspapers and the National Association of Manufacturers calling for the same. So far, no signs of the vice nasty invoking the 25th. As for impeachment… Adam Jentleson, former deputy Chief of Staff for Harry Reid, tweeted that the Senate is now in recess until January 19 and, according to the way they declared their recess, it requires a unanimous consent to come back any earlier. Meaning if any one senator objects they stay in recess. The Senate must take up impeachment immediately – but has to be in session to receive the articles. As many have said, as long as he’s in power, he’s dangerous. Leah McElrath tweeted:

And I hate to say this but: He’s been too quiet. I know part of it is constraints social media companies have implemented, but it’s more than that. With malignant narcissists, quiet is dangerous. It means they’re regrouping. He’s going to do something very destructive very soon.