The Calm After the Storm, For Now

“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots,” signing off, “Remember this day forever!”

This seems to be a paraphrase of the tweet that got Trump temporarily banned from Twitter, and no wonder. Excusing the violence, celebrating the violence, still lying about the election -- I hope Twitter keeps him permanently off their platform. Facebook is, with Instagram, until at least after the Inauguration. 

But then Trump said, in a statement tweeted out by an aide at 3:49 am EST shortly after Pence certified the election for Biden:

"Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th."

"I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again."

(This is CNN's paraphrase.)

So Trump still insists on his big lie, and adds another one -- "the greatest first term in presidential history" -- proving yet again he is 100% delusional and a psychopath.

According to Axios, Trump was nearly unreachable:

The statement was the product of hours of efforts by aides trying to get him to grapple with reality.

and

Behind the scenes: The president's final days in office will be lonely ones. Some stalwart aides and confidants — after years of enduring the crazy and trying to modulate the chaos — have given up trying to communicate with him, considering him mentally unreachable.

Why his more reasonable aides, the vice-president, the cabinet or Congress is letting a "mentally unreachable" men have access to the military and nuclear weapons is a puzzle. (Added: some are.) He needs to get the 25th Amendment or impeached and convicted, quick, but the latter obviously isn't going to happen. (Maybe he was threatened with the 25A last night if he didn't shape up, who knows.) Though I highly suspect that any military or nuclear threat from Trump has been taken care of, by now if not far earlier, with all kind of safety checks in place before Trump can do anything military-wise. 

Mike Pence actually did the right thing. So did Mitch McConnell. It only took them four years of servile obedience to Trump, so they get no credit. 

There are still over 100 Republican seditionists in the House and a few Senators -- not sure of the exact number, but the most notable are Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas. (Cruz actually sent out a fundraising email during the violence in the Capitol.) 

Neither has said anything on Twitter today. But both seem after the fascist demographic for the 2024 election. Cruz seems too personally repellent to be elected president (and barely won in Texas last time), but Hawley is more suave and, ultimately, probably more dangerous.  

Now I gotta get something done today, since I spent yesterday doomscrolling. I hope to hear your comments.