Coup d’Nom

Yesterday the CEO of Twitter finally canceled the account of @realDonaldTrump. Who immediately switched over to his @potus account, and now that’s shut down as well. I hear they’ve put out a BOLO for anyone posting as @johnbarron.

Sensing the time was ripe, I immediately changed my Twitter handle from Upflow Dorado (an anagram of Paul Woodford) to realPaulWoodford.

Happily, users can change their Twitter handles as often as they like. I have the sense my coup d’nom won’t last long.

Really, the smartest thing Trump could do at this point is resign. Mike Pence would become president and pardon him, a pardon that would be harder to challenge than one Trump gives himself, should he hold on to the bitter end. As for other pipe dreams floating around — removal under the 25th Amendment or another impeachment — you’re shittin’ me, right? Neither Trump’s cabinet nor Congress has the balls. They’re still afraid of Trump, or more likely, what Trump’s deplorables might do next.

Eleven more days. Who knows, we could all get COVID and die before then.

Some of the deplorables in the mob invading the Capitol on Wednesday were armed (and not just with lead pipes and baseball bats). A few were carrying ziplock cuffs and shouting things like “get Pence” and “get Pelosi” to their comrades. Had they succeeded, I believe they’d have dragged their captives outside to face some sort of peoples’ tribunal, then executed them on national TV. Exactly as their militia brethren planned to do to Michigan’s Governor Whitmer last month.

Good thing Trump’s mob was a bunch of disorganized dumb fucks, right? Everybody’s throwing the word “coup” around, but Wednesday’s Capitol invasion fell far short of that. Still … remember when, just days after losing the election in November, Trump replaced his SecDef and key Pentagon officials with bootlicking twerps? And remember how, just a few days ago, all ten living former secretaries of defense signed a letter warning the Joint Chiefs of Staff against military involvement in settling election disputes? They knew what was in the wind.

I’m now convinced Trump hoped to enlist the military in his schemes to overturn the election and prevent the inauguration of Joe Biden. Had the military, or any branch of the military, or even a loyalist national guard general or two, decided to forcibly take Trump’s side, we’d have had a literal coup. As it turned out — happily for us, for democracy, and for America — the best Trump could do, in the end, was order his Pentagon toadies to delay the deployment of National Guard forces to quell his own damn mob.

Just as we continue to learn new and horrifying details about the Cuban missile crisis of October, 1962, some day we’ll learn how close the USA came to an actual military coup d’etat in January, 2021.

I crossed a personal Rubicon today with the relocation of our outdoor bird feeders from the tree outside our office window to the tree outside our family room windows. My desk faces the office window and I can no longer see the monitor clearly with a backdrop of bright daylight.

Before

After

I don’t think it’s retina issue, like the one my friend Ed suffered a few years ago, but it’s definitely age-related. I set up my working area in front of that window deliberately, so I could watch birds and other critters while I work. The view was great and for the past 22 years I’ve loved it, but now I have to give it up. Sure, I could move the desk, but then my back would be to the window. Better to leave the desk where it is, close the blinds, and move the feeders.

Think the birds will figure it out? I’m sure they already have!