Things are now moving at their own pace. Events are out of the hands of the decision makers. There is a limited amount of time to get things back under control.
Early this evening Vice President Pence, after being consulted by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff GEN Milley and the unqualified Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, authorized the mobilization and deployment of the National Guard to respond to the attack on the US government instigated and fomented by President Trump and his enablers! This is an illegal order! Vice President Pence is not in the chain of command, he has no authority to issue any such order, and, as a result, the US military is now operating outside of constitutional and lawful civilian control.
As I type this time is running out for Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader McConnell to move to both occupy the high ground and to contact in response to the ongoing events. The revolutionary insurrection that President Trump and his Republican enablers in the House, the Senate, elected Republicans at the state level, and conservative news media has created against the United States is ongoing. As such, Trump needs to be immediately impeached in the House and then the Senate must move to convict and remove him. They need to do it before he decides to up the ante, invoke the Insurrection Act, and declare martial law. We can only imagine what he might try to do with the national security emergency powers he would be granted under such a declaration, but there is no longer the actual time, let alone the political space, to wait around and find out.
If Speaker Pelosi and Senator McConnell do not act now, they will not get the chance to act. It is now or never. Despite the wishes of some, there is no time to wish for Vice President Pence and Trump’s Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment. America as a self governing democratic-republic is in a moment of gravest danger. Speaker Pelosi and Senator McConnell have to lead now lest the danger consume us all. If they don’t, then, as Samuel Adams said:
This meeting can do nothing more to save this country!
Open thread!