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Don’t be shocked or awed by the next four years

How not to feel

During Donald Trump‘s last White House term, many people woke up each day to some new outrage (e.g., the “family separation policy” that threw kids in cages), and lived in a state of perpetual shock. This time around, not surprisingly, Trump began his first few days in the White House with a number of orders and actions that are similarly hurtful to America. These include, for example:

–Illegally redefining the Constitution’s definition of birthright citizenship to try to declare many natural-born Americans non-citizens;

Ordering thousands of military troops to the Southern border;

Falsely classifying many career U.S. government employees as “political” hires, making them easier to fire, and possibly replace with Republican party apparatchiks;

–Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement;

–Eliminating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and positions in the federal government;

–Granting pardons and commutations to hundreds of people convicted or prosecuted in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol; and much more.

We know there will be many more such hurtful actions and attempts over the next four years. But we can also decide not to live in a state of shock and awe this time around. One man in the White House, for example, should not change the way we love our friends and family. Nor should it change our vision of what we want for ourselves, our loved ones, and our country.

We can also continue to work toward our goals over the next four years. We can regroup and get ourselves on a more positive, effective political path going forward. That might include, for example, less time focusing on Trump, even when it is to criticize and mock him, since that was not successful in the 2024 elections, and more time concentrating on what we want, and how to get there. And perhaps most importantly, we can regularly pull the plug on increasingly biased “news” reports about what is happening in the White House. Let’s make the next four years about us, not him.

Photo by Alan Levine, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/zWVcp0

 

The January 6 Commission Democratic pivot

The January 6 terrorist attack instigated by you know who

News headlines right now are proclaiming what has been obvious all along: that Congressional Republicans are desperately trying to block the creation of a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the deadly January 6, 2021 domestic terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol. Given that the proposed commission would be created by legislation, and the Republican U.S. Senate minority can therefore filibuster such legislation, the commission is probably not going to happen. But who says there has to be a “bipartisan” commission regarding the January 6 attacks? The Democratic majorities of both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives have a perfectly good alternative:

Liz Cheney ousted, Republican Civil War splits party

The current Republican Party

The Republican Party Civil War, which we have been talking about for many years, hit a critical point yesterday, as U.S. House members kicked Congresswoman Liz Cheney out of her number three House leadership post as House Republican Conference Chair. Cheney’s crime was simply to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election and declare that Joe Biden is America’s legitimately accepted president, as every U.S. state formally has done, thus rejecting the “Big Lie” promoted by Donald Trump that his 7 million popular vote, 74 electoral vote loss to Biden in the 2020 election was somehow the result of a massive fraud. Trump even fomented an unprecedented, deadly terrorist attack on our U.S. Capitol to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election results based on his Big Lie. Not coincidentally, this week, more than 100 Republican former office holders, including cabinet members, national security officials, ambassadors, state governors and others, are threatening to leave the GOP and form a third party. According to this group, “forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism” are threatening to take over the Republican Party, putting our country’s freedoms at risk. Therefore, it’s fair to say that the Republican Party has moved well beyond “disarray” (a favorite word that the mainstream media frequently and incorrectly apply to the Democrats) and into full-blown crisis.

Democrats present powerful case in Trump impeachment trial

Protesters call for Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal

After two days of Donald Trump‘s second impeachment trial (Tuesday was the argument over whether the trial is constitutional, and Wednesday was the first day of substantive arguments), we have a very sharp contrast between the parties.

The Democratic House Impeachment Managers who are presenting the case against Trump, especially Reps. Jamie Raskin and Joe Neguse, effectively used video and slides to show that, after a months-long campaign of lies about a “stolen election,” Donald Trump incited his militant supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, at the very moment the Congress was meeting to certify Joe Biden‘s Electoral College victory, and that these terrorists immediately followed Trump’s orders and attacked. Trump then pathetically tried to cover up his incitement with a statement and a tweet hours after the fact, telling the terrorists to go home in peace, but not until after telling them, “we love you. You’re very special.”