You’ve probably heard about Trump politicizing the U.S. Agency for Global Media which manages Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia by installing loyalist Michael Pack.  Pack has packed the board of the agency, as well as senior staff with other Trumpists, ideologues, and conservative activists.  Biden has already signaled a housecleaning and fumigation of the agency when he takes over in a few weeks, but Pack is not planning on going quietly.

In secret, Pack has unilaterally attempted to execute binding employment contracts with said Trumpists intended to block any Biden firings for two years.  When the career staff found out what Pack was doing, they said not no, but hell no, and blew the whistle.  Day before yesterday, they sent a four page letter to McConnell, Pelosi, and Senate and House leaders, the Inspector General, and the presidential transition team.  The letter was signed by over two dozen staffers including the editorial board, the editor in chief, and all the heads of the global regional operations.  In the letter, they made this statement:

When Pack took over last June (after a two year Senate confirmation battle), he made sweeping changes to the agency including dissolving all of the boards of the agencies under his authority and packing the boards and staff with a rogue’s gallery of religious fanatics, activists, ideologues and weirdos.  What’s particularly galling is that in October a Superior Court Judge in DC ruled that Pack had acted illegally in dissolving the board and seizing control of the Open Technology Fund which was established to help areas of the world access to open and secure internet access.  Pack has ignored the court order and to reestablish the boards he dissolved.

Pack is a bad guy who represents all that is truly odious about Trump who is continually trying to destroy our democracy.  Many thanks to those career staffers and true Americans who stood up to Pack and said NO.

They are the only thing right now standing between democracy and the Trump abyss.

Trump blew out of town on Christmas Eve, headed for Hide-a-Lago to thrash the little white ball and wait out the subpoenas to start pouring in from New York.  On the way out the door, he released yet another weird video, this time calling the joint appropriations and coronavirus response bill “a disgrace” for its spending and $600 per month relief payments to Americans, calling for $2,000 per month, which is what the House Republicans proposed IN MAY.  The problem?  Trump’s WH, through Steve Mnuchin, demanded the $600 per month and wouldn’t budge.  Like most things Trump, what’s going on now doesn’t make any sense unless you look at the world through Trump’s ME ME ME lens.

McConnell, as usual, was the cause of the months-long delay in a new relief bill.  Like Trump, McConnell really doesn’t care if you live or die, and is always happy to use you and me as hostages for no other reason than another political win that is only important to him and his circle of criminals. The one constant with McConnell is that he ALWAYS plays brinksmanship, holding legislation until the very last second, using those who need help as leverage to extract concessions from the Democrats and exact pain on the American people.  This time, though, McConnell may have outsmarted himself by waiting so long.

Historian and Boston College history professor Heather Cox Richardson posted a very interesting piece yesterday on Facebook about she believes is going on.  Her premise is that Trump is exacting revenge against his perceived enemies, including all of us as Americans for voting him out.  He’s also furious with McConnell, Thune, and other Republicans who have recognized Biden as the legal and official President Elect.  Apparently he actually did believe that he could bend reality and the courts and his party to his will to illegally seize power outside of any Constitutional authority.  When our fragile democracy held (at least so far), he has determined to burn down as much as he can, including throwing boxes of nails out of the wagon on his way out of town.

How did McConnell outsmart himself, you ask?  Richardson posits this:  Under the rules, during a Congressional session, the President has 10 days (not counting Sunday) to sign or veto a bill.  However, at the end of a session, though, if that 10 days runs beyond the end date, the bill just dies, called a “pocket veto”.  The current congressional session closes on January 3rd.  Richardson believes Trump received the bill to sign on the 24th, so that gives him until January 4th to sign.  If Trump doesn’t sign by the 3rd, the bill dies, the government shuts down, and millions of Americans suffer.  Millions.

This is the likely end game now for Trump.  The voters said no; the states said no; the Electoral College said no; the courts, including the SCOTUS, said no; the military said no; and the Congress has said no (so far).  If Trump burns it all down, there’s a fair chance that the Dems take the Senate by winning the Georgia runoffs.  The mess he leaves behind will take years for Biden to fix, if ever.  Trump’s stated plan is to run in 2024, and he’ll use the disaster of his own making as the reason to re-elect him to “fix” it.  Our only chance, short of Republicans growing spines, is Trump being convicted of a felony in New York or having one of his thousands of scandals finally stick.

These will be the only things (short of his physical health problems) that can stop him.

Trump is now in Mar a Lago for Christmas.  I can only hope they changed the locks on the White House and have started the deep clean and fumigation.  On his way out the door, Trump granted another 26 pardons, mostly for more of his allies, corrupt congressmen, and murderers who he really enjoys pardoning.  Included on yesterday’s list was Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner (Jared’s father) who plead guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, 1 of retaliating against a witness, and 1 for lying to the FEC.  Nice guy.  The congressmen were felons Steve Stockman (fraud and money laundering), Chris Collins (securities fraud) , along with Duncan Hunter along with his wife (misuse of campaign funds).  He also pardon George Papadapoulos and Alex Van De Swaan, snared by Robert Mueller.  He also pardoned the Blackwater mercenaries who killed 14 innocent Iraqis and wounded another 17.

During his time in office, Trump has turned the President’s pardon power on its head.  Envisioned by the Founders as a tool for mercy, to right wrongful sentences or false charges, the pardon power depends on the President actually using these powers for those purposes.  There have been some isolated abuses of this power, like when Clinton pardoned Mark Rich, but those instances are rare.  Trump has used the power almost exclusively to pardon his friends and fellow criminals, those endorsed by Hollywood stars, and criminals who committed their crimes against those who Trump doesn’t like.  They are overwhelmingly white and male.

These pardons are so corrupt that even a few Republicans have been able to stand vertically, sans backbones, to condemn them. Even conservative Been Sasse of Nebraska called these pardons to be “Rotten to the Core.”  That’s an understatement, way too little, way too late.

Now that the election is over, the DOJ’s active investigations are coming to light.  A few weeks ago, Hunter Biden’s attorney announced that he’d been notified that Biden’s tax returns are being investigated.  More importantly (and seriously) word is leaking out that prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have “an active” investigation into Rudy Giuliani’s activities, especially his attempts to dig dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine.  They’ve already interviewed multiple witnesses including associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, arrested on multiple federal charges.  Now it seems that Rudy has (or is going to) get subpoenaed for his electronic communications and financial records.  It’s unlikely Trump will pardon him before leaving office because a pardoned person loses his 5th amendment rights to those crimes and could be compelled to testify against Trump.  Looks like 2021 is not going to be a good year for Rudy.  It’s been painful to watch his slide from “America’s Mayor” to playing the role of Luca Brasi to Trump’s Vito Corleone.  We know how that script played out.

One of the most chilling statements made by any of the players in the Trump drama was when Michael Cohen, in Congressional testimony, told the committee that, should Trump lose the election, “he won’t go peacefully.”  How prescient was that statement.  As of this moment, Biden is leading Trump 264 to 212, and there is a strong case that Biden will easily get to 270 and possibly as high as 306 should he land GA and PA.

Last evening, Trump took to the podium in the WH briefing room and spewed such nonsense, lies, and conspiracy theories about the vote count that every single major network pulled away from him documenting the lies he was repeating and pointing out that he was making completely unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud.  Fat Elvis was singing My Way for the 300th time.  It seems that this moment was the tipping point.  After his tirade, some Republicans FINALLY began to pull back from Trump even as Lindsey Graham was full on brown nose.

As Trump’s red mirage dissolves, expect him to get even more outrageous.  Why?  Two reasons: 1) He’s a toxic narcissist who cares about NOTHING but himself; 2) He sees jail looming in New York and years of legal battles over his career-long corruption.  Both the State of New York and the City of New York have already built a portfolio of charges against Trump, his family, and his cronies and it ain’t going to be pretty.

How will this end?  I expect him to fight until the last gasp and last lawsuit is exhausted.  Then, he may try to seize power to keep in office (I believe that will fail massively) or he’ll do a deal with Pence to get at least federal pardons for him and his people and then flee.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he even tries to get out of the country to avoid prosecution.  At any rate, I certainly don’t expect to see Trump at the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021.  The painful thing is that we had several opportunities to rid ourselves of threat of Trump and we blew it.  Can you imagine what a different conversation we would be having today had Senate Republicans grown spines and convicted Trump in January?  Maybe fewer people would have died in the pandemic.  Maybe wouldn’t be leading the world in cases.  Maybe 10 million Americans wouldn’t be unemployed.  Maybe some of our diplomatic ties and alliances could be repaired.

Trump’s infestation of the WH has cause untold and long term damage to our democracy, our system of governance, our alliances, and our standing among nations.  It’s time to start building back.