CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, January 4, 2021

Capital confusion: The fog of [political] war

In this first newspaper column of 2021, the path ahead is so foggy that we are reminded of Carl Sandburg’s "Fog," that "comes on little cat feet." We do not know if the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021, to count the Electoral College votes will reverse the stolen presidential election or not. We do not know how many GOP members of both Chambers will stand up to protest the election.

We do know the Joint Session must begin on January 6th. But there is nothing that says the Joint Session must end on January 6th. We also know that any protest motions that are ruled "in order" must be debated in each Chamber and that the debate on each motion can consume up to two hours. Depending on the number of motions, the debates might continue on into January 7th.

The debates, should they occur, may be very troubling for those who cast their mail-in ballots early, unaware that the MSM were depriving them of news stories that might well have caused them to vote differently than they did. Used-car dealers call it: "buyers’ remorse."

For the moment, however, let us assume the Joint Session does not change the apparent outcome of the recent presidential election and there is an inauguration ceremony on January 20, 2021, for President-elect Joe Biden* (AKA the "Big Guy" in Hunter Biden’s e-mails with business partners and family members).

The inauguration, however, poses a problem for those who know in their hearts and minds that President Donald J. Trump was reelected on November 3, 2020. For President Trump to welcome the Bidens* into the White House on January 20, 2021, would be tantamount to endorsing election fraud and would also be the height of hypocrisy. The Trump family would be well-advised to decamp for Florida several days prior. Moreover, it would be a safe bet that the boring Bidens* would not want to be upstaged by Gallup’s newly-crowned "America’s most-admired man" and by the gorgeous First Lady.

Ironically, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Virus provides a protocol-saving solution. Recall, for January 20, 1984, the wind-chill factor for Washington, D.C., was predicted to be, and was, a minus 25-degrees F. So, the day before the second public inauguration of the 74-year-old President Ronald Reagan, the official oath of office was administered inside the Grand Foyer of the White House.

The next day, the public ceremony was moved from the bone-chilling, wind-swept steps of the Capitol to inside the Capitol Rotunda. The parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House was canceled. Ergo: we have a precedent for January 20, 2021. We simply swap brutal cold for a brutal virus.

So, after the oath, the Bidens* then ride the presidential limo from the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue to the cheers of a mask-wearing, social-distancing crowd, eventually arriving at an empty White House. There they are met by the cheers of a masked and socially-distanced throng of Democrat wannabe appointees and RINO anti-Trumpers.

Meanwhile, [the fog] "sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on." But the stolen election fog remains in place. Who knows for how long?

Suggested reading: Carl Sandburg’s "Fog", (1916). Gallup Poll, December 29, 2020. *The election is disputed.

©2021. William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com