The Daily Dose/January 13, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
CIVICS 101: The tumult of the past week or so has exposed some glaring ignorance on the part of some of our elected leaders. Some is surprising, some is not.
President Trump’s ignorance of what Vice President Mike Pence could and could not do during the counting of Electoral College votes is hardly a bulletin of course: he believes the moon is part of Mars and that the American Revolution was won by securing British airports. The man’s an idiot, so him believing Pence could unilaterally dismiss a state’s electoral vote count was to be expected.
And You Wonder Why You Don’t Get Invited To More Parties: We’ve pointed this out here before: the vice president can no more dismiss a state’s electoral votes any more than the Senate janitor could. All he is allowed to do is preside over the ceremony where the electoral votes are counted.
And In This Corner: The call of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to have the Cabinet involve the 25th Amendment is somewhat puzzling, too. If invoked, it could strip Trump of his presidential duties. It’s not that cut and dry, though, and you think Pelosi would know better.
Dry, Technical Matter: Of course, the 25th Amendment does provide for the temporary removal of a president from his powers and duties. However, the president can immediately reclaim them and if the Cabinet again declares a president unable to carry out his duties, then Congress decides the matter. A president cannot be set aside solely on the whim of a majority of the Cabinet.
Fly In The Ointment. We’re not entirely certain it would be right to invoke the 25th Amendment here, anyway. The spirit of the amendment is to allow the vice president to assume presidential duties in case the president is incapacitated. President Trump is still a functional human being and we don’t think invoking the 25th Amendment in this case is within the spirit of the law.
The Bottom Line: Trump’s gone in a week no matter what happens because we think he’ll choose to become the first president to be impeached twice rather than become the second to resign, so let’s be thankful for that. Whether we get a couple of days of the Mike Pence Administration doesn’t really matter.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
Read Free Fortnight rolls on. Enjoy.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow’s worried there might not be enough left on his gift card to pay for a nice dinner. Today’s Diary.
In fact, some offhand figuring showed – based on current consumption models – there is a high level of possibility yours truly would end up obliged to subsidize the gift card with a few bucks of his own.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 2018 – Residents in Hawaii are notified that there is an inbound ballistic missile threat to the state and that a missile might land on land or nearby in the ocean “within minutes”. Though the notice insisted it was not a drill, it was a false alarm, the result of miscommunication during a drill by a worker who had confused real life with drills before. The drill was unscheduled and had been started by a supervisor at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency at shift change.
In 1962 – Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors establishes a new NBA record for the most points scored in a regulation game in a 135-117 win over the Chicago Packers. Chamberlain had 73 points to break the record of 71 established by Elgin Baylor in November 1960 and in December Chamberlain had established the all-time NBA scoring mark of 78 in a 3-overtime loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Chamberlain would break both records when he scored 100 points in a game in March, still the all-time NBA scoring mark, regular season or overtime.
In 1979 – Earth Wind and Fire is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Soul Singles chart – for the only week with September. It was their 18th of 35 Top 40 hits on the soul chart, their tenth of 20 Top 10 soul hits and was their fifth of seven soul chart #1s. The song also went #8 on the Hot 100 and peaked at #3 in Great Britain.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Songs like trees bear fruit only in their own time and in their own way…
J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Joe Malone led the NHL with 44 goals in the inaugural 1917-18 season, a mark that lasted until the 1944-45 season when Maurice Richard, also of Montreal, scored 50 goals.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was Earth, Wind & Fire’s biggest hit on the Hot 100? – Answer next time!
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