Emergency Powers. Thank you Patriot Act. {{facepalm}}

Hey, do you want to read something scary? Check this article in The Atlantic: What the President Could Do if He Declares a State of Emergency.

There were provisions in the Patriot Act that enhanced the ability of the president to take drastic measures in case of an emergency or faux emergency. You do not want to be “designated”. The scary thing is that concerned parties will immediately take it to the courts but who knows how long it will take to determine whether the president has abused his powers?

But wait! There’s more:

Due to the government shutdown, the courts will be the next entity to be unpaid. That will happen on Friday.

So, this shutdown looks like it was staged to create the maximum amount of dysfunction, to derail Congress and to impose some harsh autocratic rules.

The networks are doing all of us a disservice if they don’t focus on this tonight.

Here’s a short summary of the article:

If you don’t like political acts…

… don’t run for office.

There’s nothing I like less than some sanctimonious Republican POLITICIAN like Liz Cheney decrying the decisions and remarks of POLITICIANS for being POLITICAL.

Let’s kill this meme du jour.

Shout out to Rep. Chris Smith from NJ who said constituents have a right to be angry.

Yes, we do. And the longer Republicans act to undermine the government, the better our chances to replace every single one of them in 2020.

So, keep it up MotherF***ers.

Pearl clutching and Freshmen

Rashida Tlaib said something she shouldn’t have. No, it wasn’t the mother****** word. It was that the House is going to impeach the president. This is incorrect. The House drafts the articles of impeachment. Then the House has to vote on those articles to “impeach”. The Senate does the actual impeachment trial and conviction and the bar is high. Two thirds of the Senate must vote to convict. The House alone is incapable of throwing Trump out of the White House.

She should apologize for getting that wrong. Also, she should defer to her Speaker who said that there would be no decision on impeachment until after Mueller had reported to Congress. There are good reasons for that. You want there to be a excess of evidence of a serious nature so that it doesn’t look like the frivolous political stunt the Republicans pulled on Clinton. Also, if you’re going to bring down someone powerful for good reason, you want to make sure there’s no resurrection. He’s got to stay down. So Tlaib was rash and thoughtless.

If I were Tlaib, I’d get right on that public apology for freshman hubris and irrational enthusiasm.

Apologize for calling Trump a mother******?

Not on your life. Not to a guy who thinks of Tlaib as a pussy with a score and not much more. Maybe if he apologizes to Africa and Haiti for calling them shithole countries. When he does that, then Tlaib should apologize. Not a moment sooner.

Hey! Someone has compiled a video of Trump’s greatest swearing hits. Let’s watch:

https://t.co/w8UAaWvCMJ

— Holly Figueroa O'Reilly (@AynRandPaulRyan) January 4, 2019

The Almighty

Donald believes that he could run for office in Europe. Like president of Europe? I don’t know.

Also, he thinks he would have made a good general.

Plus, he won’t sign six bipartisan spending bills that have nothing to do with border security. Chuck Schumer asked him repeatedly why he won’t sign them and allow most of the furloughed government workers to pay their bills. Donald doesn’t have a good answer.

But he will continue to demand worship from his followers. And we can count on him to hurt people for no reason in order to get what he wants. Or hurt them for petty reasons just because he can. Or pardon who he wants. Or lift sanctions because who’s going to stop him?

He kind of reminds me of Richard Dawkins description of the Old Testament God:

 “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

No wonder the evangelical “Christians” will follow him to the end of the world.

************************

Today, the Democrats take back the House and swear in a whole lotta wimminz. Also, Pelosi is starting to be a burr in Trump’s side already. And the media is getting push back on the “likeability” factor it applies almost exclusively to female candidates. I don’t think this is going to work this time around.

Short of making deals in the Capitol’s ladies bathroom, expect to see some changes made. Maybe casual Fridays? Interrupting male speakers more often? Not really giving AF whether they are nice, smiling and likeable when they’re trying to get work done? I don’t know. Let’s watch, shall we?

Go with throttle up.

Walk to work music:

Happy New Year!

For the balanced, thoughtful, determined view, I turn to Preet:

Happy New Year to all! There is much more good than bad in the world. That’s a blessing and ratio we can further improve upon in 2019. Can’t wait.

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) January 1, 2019