I’m a private pilot.  As a private pilot, before you fly anywhere, anytime, you have to plan your flight even if you’re flying out of your own airport.  When you’re planning your flight, one of the things you look for are TFRs or Temporary Flight Restrictions.  TFRs are generally a 30 mile circle that follows presidents and vice presidents around wherever they go.  TFRs are also established around large events like the Super Bowl.  Also, there is a permanent TFR or ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone).  Within that is the FRZ (Flight Restriction Zone).  It should go without saying that if you fly into these areas, you will get a friendly visit from a USAF F-16.  If you ignore warnings and get closer to the center you seriously risk getting shot down.

Why am I talking about this?  Well, West Palm Beach, the home of Mar a Lago, has been surrounded by a presidential TFR for 4 years.  Private aircraft couldn’t get close.  Now that Trump is not president, no TFR.  SO, someone is paying a local banner advertising pilot to troll Trump by circling West Palm Beach with several different banners like: TRUMP WORST PRESIDENT EVER and TRUMP YOU PATHETIC LOSER.  Here’s a video from Twitter:

pic.twitter.com/bX11gSDIms

— Daniel Uhlfelder (@DWUhlfelderLaw) January 25, 2021

The entertainment value is priceless.

SCOTUS just tossed two lawsuits against Trump for using his presidential office to enrich himself.  He had lost in the lower courts, so appealed to the SCOTUS.  The cases essentially asserted (correctly) that companies and foreign governments who wanted something from the US government would patronize the Trump Hotel or one of his resorts to get favorable treatment.  Trump was well known for doing favors for people who filled his pockets with money.  Having lost in lower courts, Trump appealed to the SCOTUS last summer.  Roberts ran out the clock and tossed the lawsuits today.  The reason?  Trump is no longer president, so the case is moot.  That’s like saying, “Yes, Mr. Smith did, in fact, murder Mr. Jones over a business dispute.  But since Mr. Smith is now retired, and the business is closed, the case no longer applies.”  Sorry Ms. Jones.

Yesterday, the goofy and well-armed Qanon crowd woke up that they’ve been played for chumps for the last 5 years.  When the power grid didn’t fail, the military didn’t turn on Biden, and Trump actually fled Washington, they suddenly realized that the jig was up and they were the losers.  The Q bullshit not only drove a national insanity, it actually got people killed in the failed attack on the US Capitol 2 weeks ago.  Trump did not declare martial law; the military didn’t take over; Trump is no longer President.  Oops.

On top of the Q crowd getting disillusioned, the hard right social conservatives are not happy with their current lot.  During Trump’s term, he lost the House, then the Senate, and now the White House.  The religious right is now soul searching about how they betrayed their own faith to follow a fornicating, lying, corrupt, spray painted television game show host.  Oops.

Mainstream conservatives are also assessing the damage wrought by Trump.  One, Kevin D. Williamson, posted a scathing rebuke of those who followed Trump in the National Review today titled Witless Ape Rides Helicopter, Goodbye to Donald J. Trump, the man who wanted to be Conrad Hilton but turned out to be Paris Hilton.  It is a must read piece.  A few choice tidbits:

“They pissed that away like they were midnight drunks karaoke-warbling that old Chumbawumba song: In 2021, they control approximately squat.”

“You Trumpish Republicans sneered that Joe Biden was too corrupt and too senescent to win a presidential campaign, that he was one part mafioso and one part turnip.  That turnip just kicked your dumb asses from Delaware to DC. So you rioted. Real smart move, Cletus.”

“‘Trust the plan,’ the QAnon cultists say. Is this what you were planning? I know you are stupid, but you are not that stupid.”

This piece speaks for a lot of conservatives who may not yet be willing to admit Trump’s folly, but you know are thinking it.  Such are the smoldering ruins of the Rein of Trump; with any luck, he’ll get banned from holding office again.  If that fails, certainly his civil and criminal liability will keep him too busy (or incarcerated) to keep him from running again.

And the pendulum swings.

Note: For those who may have trouble reading the Williamson piece on NR, here it is on Yahoo News.

Trump just boarded Air Force One bound for Florida to begin his fight to stay out of jail for the rest of his life.  The crowd was sparse, but the Army did give him the 21 gun salute and the band played Hail to the Chief.  During his remarks, he immediately veered off script, which is normal for him.  The written remarks had him wishing Biden and Harris success by name, but he couldn’t bring himself, even now, to even do that.  Instead, he boasted that he stopped the pandemic, took credit for the vaccines, and said he was more popular with veterans than any president in history.  The rest of his speech was his normal self aggrandizing bullshit.  Mercifully, the speech was much shorter than his normal word salad filled diatribes.

His plane is now on the runway.  I hope I never hear his voice again.

Today, Pro Publica published an amazing archive of over 500 videos of the attack on the Capitol posted to Parler by the insurrectionists who horrified all normal people on January 6th.  They are in sequential order and cover the time from noon until 6pm Eastern time.

The level of violence can disturb some, so be warned and cautious sharing this around.  This is significant work and preserves for all time how Americans attacked Americans because they didn’t like the result of a free and fair election and followed a profoundly corrupt man to the Capitol and now to jail for a long time.

You’ll probably recall the videos showing a Metropolitan Police officer being dragged down the steps on the west side of the building and beaten by Trump insurrectionists.  These self-described “patriots” beat this officer with poles of their flags and his own baton.  They stole is ammunition, his radio, and other equipment.  They tased him several times. When they started screaming, “Kill him with his own gun!”, he cried out that he had kids at home.  A few rioters who had not completely lost their souls stepped in and saved his life. He was rescued and sent to the hospital.

The officer’s name is Michael Fanone; he is an undercover narcotics detective who rushed with his partner to the Capitol when he heard about the attack.  For his efforts, he was almost killed by Trump insurrectionists.  He was interviewed today by CNN, and the reporter asked him what he wanted to say to the rioters who saved him from being killed.  His response?

“Thank you, but fuck you for being there.”

El Jefe unilaterally declares this to be the Quote of the Week.