Mike Pence

Points To Ponder As Second Impeachment Trial Of Donald Trump Begins

As the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins today, some points to ponder are worth considering.

Donald Trump lied incessantly over a fixed election when 60 court cases unanimously agreed the election in the various states being contested was totally fair, and lacking any corruption, as compared to 2016 and other earlier electionss.

Donald Trump was gleeful, enjoying the Capitol Insurrection, and unconcerned about the harm being done to the building, and the occupants, including many members of both houses of Congress, and Capitol Hill Police and staff members.

Donald Trump was inciting violence against his own Vice President, Mike Pence, and the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the two people in line of succession after himself, and had no concern about their welfare.

Donald Trump did not call in National Guard reinforcements promptly, forcing Mike Pence to assert himself finally after four years of being obsequious.

Donald Trump has never expressed any sense of sorrow over the loss of life of a Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, and the other four victims of the Capitol Insurrection.

Donald Trump incited the mob by his language, and cannot claim that what he said was not promoting violence and destruction.

Donald Trump is like any citizen, not above the law, accountable for his behavior and actions, and does not have the constitutional right to promote insurrection and sedition, which is not part of freedom of speech under the First Amendment.

Donald Trump should be convicted as a warning to future Presidents that such abuse of power and promotion of violence and destruction will not be tolerated, and that politics is not the issue, but the survival of American democracy, and the regulation of executive power in the Presidency!

February 6–One Month, One Year, And One Queen Elizabeth II For 69 Years!

Today, February 6, is day to remember.

February 6, 2020 saw the first death from the COVID 19 Pandemic. Donald Trump refused to take this pandemic seriously, and we have seen in one year a total of 460,000 deaths, more in one years than the four years of Americans fighting in World War II.

February 6, 2021 is one month since the Capitol Hill Insurrection promoted by Donald Trump. that led to five deaths and over 100 injuries to Capitol Hill police, and threatened the lives of all Congressmen and Senators, and most importantly, Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the two constitutional officers in the line of succession!

Donald Trump now faces his second impeachment trial in one year, having been found not guilty on February 5, 2020, the day before the first COVID 19 death.

One has to wonder if Trump had been removed from office on February 5,2020, would Vice President Mike Pence, becoming President, have pursued a policy that would have prevented the massive loss of life America has suffered in the year since the end of that trial?

And February 6, 1952, 69 years ago, Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne of the United Kingdom, upon the death of her father, King George VI, the longest reign by any monarch in British or English history.

February 6 has one happy event, but sadly, two very depressing events that have transformed our history!

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is Brilliant, And Very Perceptive About Truth Of Capitol Insurrection

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is a brilliant young woman, highly perceptive about the truth of the Capitol Insurrection of January 6, 2021, an event she lived through in fear and terror of being assassinated.

It is clear that the right wing Fascist mob that attacked the Capitol had the goal of hanging Vice President Mike Pence; putting a bullet in the head of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi; and pursuing minority Democratic Congressmen and women as part of a racist, white supremacist conspiracy.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sensed that new freshmen Republican Fascists, including Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, along with veterans including Jim Jordan of Ohio, as well as Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley were ready and willing to provoke right wing extremists to fix the Electoral College results, and kill or maim whoever stood in their way!

It is Ocasio-Cortez and others like her with courage and brains who are working to expose the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the willingness of these traitors and seditionists to kill as many Democrats as they could, as well as the top two office holders under the President!

Amazingly, President Jimmy Carter And Vice President Walter Mondale Celebrating 40 Years Of Retirement!

On Inauguration Day this Wednesday, Former President Jimmy Carter and former Vice President Walter Mondale will celebrate 40 years of retirement from their term of office in the White House!

This is an amazing record, and is an accomplishment which will never be surpassed in the future, and to top it off, Rosalynn Carter is also still with her husband, celebrating 74 and a half years of marriage, an all time record for any President and First Lady!

Jimmy Carter is three months past 96, an all time record for any President, and Walter Mondale is past 93, making him the fifth oldest Vice President in age, with Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush two of the four longer lived Vice Presidents.

Jimmy Carter has lived longer than any Vice President, except for John Nance Garner, first Vice President under Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was 98, but only a couple of weeks short of age 99. The other Vice President who lived longer than any other than Garner was Levi Morton under President Benjamin Harrison, who died on his 96th birthday!

The reputation of Jimmy Carter is on the rise, more so because of the totally reprehensible and diametrically opposite personality and character of Donald Trump.

Rosalynn Carter has a dignified reputation as First Lady, a lady of class, unlike the tramp image and disgraceful reputation of Melania Trump, who will go down as the absolute worst First Lady in American history!

And Walter Mondale has the reputation of being the most active, engaged, and productive Vice President in American history, with Jimmy Carter given a lot of the credit, since he did not perceive his own Vice President as a threat, and in this regard, Barack Obama and Joe Biden stand out as equally outstanding.

And one can sense Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will add to the reputation of Carter-Mondale and Obama-Biden, particularly important after the mediocre and submissive Mike Pence under Donald Trump!

The Most Dangerous Time Since September 11, 2001 Is Between Now And January 20!

Anyone with a brain and concern about the state of affairs in America today is holding their breath as we enter the most dangerous time in America since September 11, 2001, between now and January 20!

The Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 and the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 were the most shocking moments experienced by anyone alive today, but there was no foreboding, and the same with the Kennedy Assassination on November 22, 1963.

But literally, America is “sitting on a ticking time bomb”, far worse than even the Cuban Missile Crisis that went on for 13 days in October 1962, as even at that moment, there was hope that sane, stable leadership in the Oval Office and the Kremlin would prevent nuclear war.

But now, we have an unhinged, mentally deranged President, who is desperate, cornered, and unpredictable, and could start a war or unleash nuclear weapons, or call for his crazed followers to start attacks on government locations all over the nation, and the country is ill prepared to be able to deal with that!

Donald Trump being banned from social media makes him ever more dangerous, as time ticks off over 12 more days, as Mike Pence refuses to work with the Cabinet to remove the President under the 25th Amendment, Section 4, and Mitch McConnell says any impeachment trial if the House of Representatives under House Speaker Nancy Pelosi votes to impeach, would not begin until January 19!

This is pure insanity, and the thought that Donald Trump would copy the behavior of Richard Nixon in 1974, and resign, seems highly unlikely to occur.

So the nation is in danger, as the clock ticks minute by minute, and one has to wonder what will happen to the American nation before the scheduled inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on January 20!

A Very Emotional Time With Many Thoughts Which Will Require Time To Process

The last 48 hours have been the most emotional roller coaster imaginable!

It began with great excitement as Georgia saw the victory of both Democratic Senate candidates, the Reverent Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff, marking the first African American Senator from a Deep South state since Reconstruction, and the first Jewish Senator in the history of the state.

It also meant that the Democrats would control the US Senate under new Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and that Joe Biden would be able to have more success with a Congress controlled by his party, even if paper thin control.

But then, we had the first attack on the US Capitol Building, the home of Congress, since the British attacked on August 24, 1814 during the War of 1812, and done by a right wing Fascist terrorist, insurrectionist group of Donald Trump supporters, and egged on by Trump himself, as well as his son, Donald Trump, Jr. and Rudy Giuliani, former NYC Mayor. These three men are guilty of treason and sedition and need to be held accountable!

The Capitol was defiled, and our national security was in danger, and it caused America to be ridiculed in the eyes of the world, which have seen America as the image of democracy being threatened by an egomaniac who wanted absolute power!

So even though at this writing, there are only 13 days to the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the push is on to impeach and remove the President, a second attempt, or to invoke the 25th Amendment, with great pressure being brought on Vice President Mike Pence by Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to prod the Trump Cabinet to join him in taking the Presidency away from Trump, and giving the authority for the remaining days of this term to Mike Pence.

There will be much need to process these events, as the nation and its future remain at risk, as this author and blogger publishes this entry!

Senator Josh Hawley A Threat To American Democracy And Civil Order, And Must Be Repudiated!

The New Year of 2021 is upon us, and now we face a dire threat from a young US Senator, Josh Hawley of Missouri, at present the youngest Senator at age 41, who defeated Democrat Claire McCaskill in 2018.

Hawley has made a major blunder in joining the Trumpite extremists, mostly Southerners, in the House of Representatives, who are plotting to undermine the normally placid counting of the Electoral College votes in a joint session of Congress on January 6.

Vice President Mike Pence is responsible for operating a peaceful, ceremonial and routine counting of the electoral vote, as has been done constantly by the sitting Vice President at the end of every Presidential term.

Hawley is a highly ambitious young man, who is plotting a Presidential run in 2024, but he is ready and willing to be a threat to American democracy and civil order, by challenging the obvious victory of Joe Biden for the Presidency.

He is joining the true whackos who are a disgrace to the Republican Party, out to promote an outgoing President who is authoritarian oriented, and has no concern for the American people, only about aggrandizement of his own power.

Hawley is destroying his future, and is proving how reckless he is, despite criticism from fellow Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania!

Hawley should be repudiated by all who believe in the Constitution and rule of law, and should be drummed out of the Senate for his abuse of power, as one can sense, in a fashion, he is a new Joseph McCarthy in relation to running rampant on an autocratic bent for his own advancement!

Trump Condemns Republican Senate Leadership and Own Cabinet Officers On His Way To Oblivion!

Donald Trump, down to less than a month to oblivion, as a defeated President, the first in nearly 30 years, is condemning Republican leadership in the Senate, presenting them with the issue of how to respond to his attacks.

He has attacked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Whip John Thune, both of whom have accepted that Joe Biden is the President Elect,and is demonstrating that he is totally unstable as he storms around the Oval Office, bringing pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to prevent the accurate Electoral College vote in a joint session of Congress on January 6.

He has been critical of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and outgoing Attorney General William Barr for their recognition that Russia was involved in a cyber attack on American government institutions.

He seems ready to burn down everything and everyone around him, and is already involved in a disgraceful number of pardons to criminals who should be facing prosecution and incarceration for their crimes.

And now, at the eleventh hour, Trump is calling on Congress to modify the COVID 19 Relief Bill, raising the amount sent to American taxpayers from $600 to $2000 per individual, after spending months ignoring the matter completely, focusing only on the issue of his claim that he should win the election of 2020!

Trump Moves Toward Insanity In Last Month, And Has Supporters Ready To Destroy The Transition

Donald Trump is moving toward insanity as the days tick down until he leave office on January 20, 2021.

He is lashing out at everyone imaginable in stormy, screaming matches in the Oval Office, including against White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Attorney General William Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, White House Counsel Patrick Cipollone, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and even Vice President Mike Pence.

Those encouraging his insane, reckless behavior include a rag tag group of characters, including newly elected to the House of Representatives QAnon conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, and wacko Congressmen, including Louie Gohmert of Texas, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mo Brooks of Alabama, along with Senator Elect Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, and Senators Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

The plan is to create a crisis on January 6, when Vice President Pence must have a joint session of Congress to open up 51 envelopes, and finish the process of the formal election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President and Vice President, two weeks before the inauguration.

Ordinarily, it is a simple ceremony, but those listed above plan to challenge the final results, and a lot of attention and pressure is being brought against Pence in his last official, constitutional duty to do the electoral vote ceremony in a dignified manner.

It is not as if Vice Presidents have had to announce the defeat either of their own candidacy for President (Richard Nixon in 1961, Hubert Humphrey in 1969, Al Gore in 2001) or the defeat of their ticket for reelection (Walter Mondale in 1981, Dan Quayle in 1993), or the defeat of their party ticket not including them (Nelson Rockefeller in 1977, Dick Cheney in 2009, Joe Biden in 2017).

Discussion Of Martial Law In White House Alarming, With One Month To Go Until Inauguration

Today, one month before the inauguration, 31 days until Joe Biden and Kamala Harris begin the new administration, there is alarming news that corrupt, renegade lawyers around Donald Trump had a stormy meeting with Donald Trump, promoting the declaration of martial law, suspension of the Constitution under the ill advised Insurrection Act of 1807, and the redo of the election in states that were “swing’ states lost by Trump in November.

The New York Times reports that Patrick Cipollone, one of the President’s White House lawyers, and Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff, argued vigorously against such action, while a renegade lawyer, Sidney Powell, was promoting such alarming ideas, along with wanting to be a special counsel to investigate the election returns, after the Electoral College has already made the election results official on December 14.

The possibility of a coup still exists, but it seems clear that were Trump to move in that direction, that the military and the bureaucracy would not cooperate.

At this point, with a crazed President out of control, and promoting anti democratic actions, at least in his diseased head, that immediate action to force his resignation, and for Vice President Mike Pence to finish out the term, is essential.

And those who argued for such action, including Powell and retired General Mike Flynn, who was convicted and then pardoned, should be incarcerated as traitors and seditionists.

And it is good to see Cipillone, who represented Trump in the impeachment trial and has been the White House Counsel, and Mark Meadows, former Congressman and Tea Party favorite, are putting patriotism and the rule of law ahead of Trump’s maniacal behavior!