On this fog-induced chilly Sunday afternoon here in California’s Central Valley, some decent-good news from way-back East — Congress critters say they have finally “finalized an agreement“ for a $900 billion COVID relief package, which supposedly will include among other things, direct payments of up to $600 per adult and child, and extension of the eviction moratorium, a nightmare problem just days away for millions of Americas.

The whole deal is fragile as shit, though. Especially when you consider how wacky Republicans have become — so worthless are they, later tonight Congress will have to okay a one-day stopgap bill to avoid a government shutdown that comes at midnight, itn’t that some shit. The GOP Senate is hacked — ‘it requires consent of all 100 members to schedule a vote, and it’s uncertain if that will happen if any member is unhappy with the bill or the process.‘

Meanwhile, the mental disintegration of the T-Rump continues to alarm folks (I posted a bit about it last night), from Fucked-up Flynn’s call for martial law, to the Sidney Powell nonsense, linked with the T-Rump’s heightened whine has everyoe on pins and needles.

And apparently, the fear seems real:

Sources who have gotten used to Trump’s eruptions over four years sound scared by what’s transpired in the past week when I’ve talked to them. https://t.co/oICndCsXIw

— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) December 19, 2020

Biggest stomach-churner is the martial law idea, which could catapult the country into an abyss of violence, triggered by just a brain-bite of T-Rump discussing the concept — via CNN this afternoon:

“In the conspiratorial conservative base of supporting Trump, there are calls for using the Insurrection Act to declare martial law,” said Elizabeth Neumann, former assistant secretary of Homeland Security under President Trump and adviser at Defending Democracy Together, on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

“When they hear that the president is actually considering this, there are violent extremist groups that look at this as a dog whistle, an excuse to go out and create … violence,” she said.

It’s a concept she calls “acceleration,” in which violent extremist groups, especially White supremacists, try to overthrow of the United States government.
These groups believe that will take place through a civil war and look to “accelerate the chaos, accelerate the coming of the civil war.”

“So when they hear that the president is open to this idea of martial law, we may see certain groups mobilizing to commit acts that, in their minds, a justification for the use of the Insurrection Act.”

A summation similar to Peter Wehner at The Altantic this moring that T-Rump is batshit crazy — snips:

None of this should come as a surprise.
Some of us said, even before he became president, that Donald Trump’s Rosetta Stone, the key to deciphering him, was his psychology — his disordered personality, his emotional and mental instability, and his sociopathic tendencies.
It was the main reason, though hardly the only reason, I refused to vote for him in 2016 or in 2020, despite having worked in the three previous Republican administrations.
Nothing that Trump has done over the past four years has caused me to rethink my assessment, and a great deal has happened to confirm it.
…
That his wits would begin to turn, in the words of King Lear. That he would begin to lose his mind.
So he has.
And, as a result, President Trump has become even more destabilizing and dangerous.

Although the T-Rump is TV/spotlight obsessed, he seems unable to comprehend how his weirdness comes across to people watching said TV, and how history will judge based on what he’s doing right now.
Talk about a legacy — Mitt Romney didn’t mince words today on the idiot crap from the T-Rump (the Guardian):

“He’s leaving Washington with a whole series of conspiracy theories and things that are so nutty and loopy that people are shaking their head wondering what in the world has gotten into this man,” the Utah Republican senator said.

And the martial law angle, along with all the other fraudulent-election bullshit?

“It’s not going to happen,” Romney told CNN.
“That’s going nowhere. And I understand the president is casting about trying to find some way to have a different result than the one that was delivered by the American people, but it’s really sad in a lot of respects and embarrassing.

“Because the president could right now be writing the last chapter of this administration, with a victory lap with regards to the [Covid-19] vaccine. After all he pushed aggressively to get the vaccine developed and distributed, that’s happening on a quick timeframe. He could be going out and championing this extraordinary success.

“Instead … this last chapter suggests what he is going to be known for.”

Going batshit crazier still as the cinched rope gets tighter. And seriously sadistic, too:

Just last week, the federal government executed Brandon Bernard and Alfred Bourgeois, bringing the total number of federal executions this year to ten — more than have taken place in any other year in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Washington Post Editorial Board called it a “sickening spree of executions,” and there are still three more executions scheduled before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated in January.

And he also wants some old-fashioned killings via poison gas, firing squads, electrocution, and hanging.

Yet this evening there’s an end in sight — just climb that great big hill of hope for a destination (an emotional cover of a great original I’ve recently grown to appreciate):

Though…’I am feeling a little peculiar…‘

(Illustration: ‘President Trump,’ by Jonathan Bass, found here).