Oblivious

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President Joe Biden’s (D) Secretary of State Antony Blinken, just a few days ago in the depths of the Afghan collapse:

We’ve known all along: the Taliban are at their strongest since 2001.

Yet Biden chose to withdraw, completely and relatively suddenly, it turns out, at the height of the Afghan fighting season. When he, Blinken says, knew the Taliban were at their strongest. He chose not to wait until winter. He chose not to carry out former President Donald Trump’s withdrawal plan, even as he claimed he was trapped by it, both in his Saturday “statement” and Monday afternoon when he finally showed up for work—briefly; he hustled off the stage rather than take questions—to make his excuses for his everyone else’s failure in Afghanistan.

That speech came after he and Vice President Kamala Harris (D) both were absent from duty until after Kabul had fallen, together with our embassy; the Kabul airport was blocked from incoming/outgoing flights; and he’d surrendered Bagram Air Base north of the fallen capital.

This is a level of dereliction of duty that is amoral and seriously dangerous to our national security, to our nation itself.

Biden’s Protection

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President Joe Biden (D) is the subject of some low key, small chit-chat of removal by Article 25 action.

That’s unlikely, and it’s not the existence of Kamala Harris (D) as Vice President that is Biden’s job security. No, it’s the position of Vice President and that office’s role that is Biden’s job security.

If Biden is removed, and Harris sworn in as our new President, who will be the new Vice President?

I suggest no one. The new Vice President would need to go through the nomination and Senate confirmation process. There’ll be a tie vote in the Senate on that nominee, and with no sitting Vice President to break the tie, the confirmation will fail.

It goes on from there. Nearly every component of the Progressive-Democratic Party agenda so far has been subject to a tie-breaker vote by the Vice President, and that will continue for the rest of Party’s agenda. Absent a sitting Vice President, every bill offered up in the Senate and receiving a tied vote will fail on that tie.

For good or ill, Biden will not be removed from office by political action before 2024.

“I’m no different than any other family”

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That’s what New Jersey Phil Murphy (D) says about his decision to hare off to Italy on a 10-day vacation at his—his!—23-room villa.

“After this past 17 months, just having a few days together is something that I think all of us want to do with our family, and I’m looking forward to that.”
The governor planned to leave last Tuesday for a visit to his 23-room multimillion-dollar villa in Umbria and return to New Jersey next Thursday[.]

My objection to Murphy’s move, which he’s in the middle of, has nothing to do with his being wealthy enough to own a vast villa in an overseas tourist mecca; I aspire to become stinking rich, too. Nor do I object to Murphy taking some vacation time.

No, my objection is to Murphy’s utter cynicism. He’s not looking to hav[e] a few days together with his family; he’s been doing that right along. So have we all, especially those of us in States like New Jersey where, through government-ordered lockdowns, we’ve been on-again, off-again prisoners in our homes. Murphy is looking to escape his duties.

He’s not looking to have a vacation, either; he’s looking to escape from his State—from our nation—during a period of crisis for his State. He’s looking to duck his responsibilities.

Murphy is Governor of New Jersey. His duties don’t go on vacation; they go with him wherever he goes. Except to Italy, where even were he aware of events back in New Jersey (he likely will be), he’ll in no position to deal with them in anything remotely like a timely manner.

Even President Joe Biden (D) hasn’t left our nation for his vacation—he’s just taking a few days of isolation from his duties in Delaware.

How obliviously out of touch with the average Americans in his State and around our nation is this Progressive-Democrat.

Or, how cynically unconcerned is this Progressive-Democrat with the ordinary American family, comparing himself only with his fellow rich.

Moving

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No, I’m not. That’s the name of my new Peter Hunt novel: Moving, and it’s available through Amazon’s Kindle store: https://amzn.to/3xHhhBW

A man wanted Peter Hunt to investigate his much younger wife, and Hunt doesn’t like domestic cases. On top of that, from the moment he came into Hunt’s office, the man rubbed Hunt the wrong way.
Hunt took the case, though. Go figure. When he and his friend and partner, Rachel Wellington-Smythe—Rick—plussed up his retainer and rate because the man also behaved badly toward Rick, the man didn’t bat an eyelash; he just signed and wrote out the check for the retainer. That raised red flags.

As part of investigating the wife, Hunt talked to her. “I’m here on behalf of your husband.”
“And what behalf would that be?”
“He thinks you’re being ‘unfaithful.’ That was the word he used.”
“‘Unfaithful.’ Unfaithful, he says?”
“From last night, I’d say he says right.”
“He doesn’t like to dance. He doesn’t like to go out. I do.”
“Let’s get to it. You like to do more than party.”
“We have an arrangement—I take care of his needs, I take care of mine.”

Only her needs turn out to be much broader than that.
So, it turned out, did the husband’s. Neither understood that about the other.
Then a local Ukrainian oligarch wannabe got involved. Two representatives came to Hunt’s office and encouraged him to walk away from his investigation. When he didn’t, the threat became explicit, and Rick’s apartment got…raided. When that didn’t persuade Hunt, the two reps called on Hunt at his home, and they attacked him, injuring his cat in the process.
Then another oligarch wannabe got involved. Then the husband came up dead. Then two more men—the wife’s bodyguards, it turned out—came up dead.
Then things started going downhill.

I hope you like it.

“What’s the Goal Here?”

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That’s the question New York Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (D, 55th District) is asking on the matter of impeaching and bringing to State Senate trial soon-to-be ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo (D). He’s already resigned, she says. If the goal here was to move this particular governor out of office…, she says.

Other State Democrats are pressing for impeachment and conviction even after Cuomo’s resignation has taken effect.

Latrice misunderstands the situation, and those pushing for impeachment and conviction anyway, are clearer on the matter.

Cuomo resigned of the sex abuse allegations that have come to the fore, and that’s all he’s resigning over.

What about his other misbehaviors and abuses of his authority?

What about all the deaths that resulted from his demand that Wuhan Virus-infected elderly patients be put back into nursing homes to infect—and kill—thousands of other elderly?

What about his abuses of his authority regarding the Mario Cuomo Bridge?

What about his misuse of State government facilities and resources to write and peddle a book?

What about his abuse of his authority to give preferential virus testing treatment for family members and favored cronies during a time of limited testing resources?

What about his disbanding of the Moreland Commission when it began investigating his cronies?

What about his relationship with a crony convicted of bid-rigging for State government contracts?

What about the relationship between Crystal Run Healthcare’s donation of $400k in campaign donations to Cuomo’s 2016 campaign and Crystal Run’s subsequent award of a $25 million in State grants?

These, and especially the victims and victims’ survivors of Cuomo’s nursing home moves, badly want adjudication and justice. They, each of them individually and all of them together, badly need impeachment and a State Senate trial.

And: on conviction, the State’s legislature then would have the authority to bar Cuomo from State office for the rest of his life.