Humps day

 Just chilling, coming off that nail-biter in California (just kidding, the results were announced before Colbert finished his monologue and Trump was right RIGGEDFRAUDCORRUPT! and for only thirty million dollars they get to keep their governor).  Then Terrance Deyalsingh, health minister of Trinidad and Tobago, addressed the other riveting story of the day, basically, we tracked down Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend's testicles and they are normal size, covid vaccine does not cause swelling, please stop wasting my time during a pandemic.  What to obsess about?

As it happens, a lot.  Bob Woodward likes to sit on the biggest stories until he can put them in a book months later than we needed to know about them and Peril, written with Robert Costa, follows the pattern.  It boils down to a well-known fact:  Trump is a psychopath.  Hardly anyone has read the book, least of all me, but the tidbits circulating are as follows:   After the coup attempt of January 6 General Mark Milley got wind that Trump was crazier than usual.  "I don't want to be your friend anymore," he threatened Mike Pence, if he didn't throw out the certified votes.  (Pence called Dan Quayle...I can't even take that part in.)  After Biden's election was finally certified early on the morning of January 7 Milley was afraid Trump would "go rogue" and called the other service chiefs, instructing them that any nuclear attack orders from the White House must be cleared by him.  Then he called his Chinese counterpart General Li Zuocheng to assure him that all was as normal as could be with a psychopath still in office and he should ignore rumors to the contrary.  And then called him again.

Of course we made it to January 21 without a "nuclear exchange" with China, but here's the conundrum that will be argued over for years:  What should happen to a general who ignores the chain of command and violates the principle of civilian control of the military just to save the world from a known psychopath?  The psycho and his acolytes are howling for Milley to be court martialed, tried for treason or just dismembered with bone saws.  Less emotional observers think he should be given a medal and then fired.  Asked if the general did the right thing, President Biden expressed "great confidence" in him, which is not exactly an answer.  Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (Ret.), whose career was wrecked by President Psycho, says Milley must resign.  In other words, this isn't over.  (By the way, Peril says Milley's fears of a "right wing coup" were shared by Gina Haspel, Trump's own CIA director.)

The FBI is having a particularly bad day.  Christopher Wray has been making excuses about why the agency did such a bad job of investigating sexual misconduct accusations against Brett Kavanaugh while there was still a dim hope of keeping him away from the Supreme Court.  (I'm sure Susan Collins would have made her frowny face and decided he had learned his lesson no matter what they uncovered.)  This morning Simone Biles and other gymnasts told the Senate Judiciary Committee about the "blind eye" the agency turned to Larry Nassar's abuse of them and other girls and women.  The FBI used to be a lot more proactive about sexual misbehavior when they were bugging the hotel rooms of Martin Luther King.  Not one anonymous letter suggesting that Nassar kill himself?  The feds have really lost their edge. 

Anthony Blinken was having a grim week trying to explain why everything didn't go perfectly in Afghanistan, so I was glad he got to enjoy James Risch's completely relevant questions about "the button" and who pushes it.  You know, the button.  The mute button they need because Joe Biden is so old and senile and might come out with some argle-bargle about how solar energy doesn't work at night or the millions of jobs created by his daughter Amy.  The button.  Yes, this is what Idaho thought should be a senator.

I have nothing against Indiana, birthplace of Kurt Vonnegut, Jean Shepherd and this blog's patron saint Hoagy Carmichael, but it's a political pig's breakfast.  When Mike Pence was threatened with the loss of Trump's "friendship" (presumably before his friend sicced a lynch mob on him) he didn't know what to do, so he turned for guidance to Jesus, uh, Dan Quayle.  Yes, the one who got into an argument with a fictional TV character.  Could he throw out the votes of swing states like Wisconsin as questionable?  "Mike, you have no flexibility on this.  None.  Zero.  Forget it.  Put it away."  But Arizona -- "Mike, I live in Arizona.  There's nothing out here."  And Pence went in and did his job.  Thanks, Dan.

Speaking of Arizona, where there's nothing, when can we expect to hear from the Cyber Numchucks or whatever they call themselves?  They must be all Ivermectined and feeling better.  Some Pennsylvania Republicans are eager to hire them.  There's a lot going on but we haven't forgotten.