I'm slightly obsessed with this "#PenceCard" nonsense which is like the Platonic ideal of the current level of Trump election stealing conspiracy theory nonsense.

Here's a thing about the United States: the vice president famously *does nothing*. By design. The job is not like the vice president of marketing or whatever where the guy has a job. Mike Pence is the spare president. He's there in case anything happens to the first one.
In the original formulation under the constitution, the vice president was the runner-up of the presidential race. Nobody ran for it. There was no assumption that it would be an ally of the president; more likely they would be rivals.
They're officially "president of the senate" just to give them something to do to keep them around the capital but they're not a senator and only get to vote if there's a tie, so most of the time that ceremonial role is fobbed off an actual senator.
But this senate presidency that we give the vice president currently has attached to it some purely ceremonial duties in the very perfunctory part of the election process where votes are counted and reported to Congress.
That's the reality of the vice presidency: it's a nothing job. Vice presidents have no power. Frequently presidents delegate things to them because the presidency is a hard job and the president can't be everywhere, but the vice president is an office with no actual power.
But the conspiracy theories among Trump True Believers need there to be a miracle genius turnaround play *somewhere*, and each time one of their miracles falls through (as they all do, because they're made up), that ups the pressure to find the next one.
So somebody wanks out a "legal opinion" that Pence could and in fact *must* use his "plenary power" (this is a phrase they all love because it sounds official and important) to refuse the "fraudulent" votes, because it's illegal for him to accept them.
And because things sound more legal and official when you attach arbitrary things to them and because doomsday cults need deadlines, they attached to this the idea that he must reject the votes "by the third Wednesday in December".

Which was a week ago, incidentally.
But conspiracy theories don't care about any calendars except their own, so in their world, TODAY is the third Wednesday in December, which means that they expect and demand Pence plays "the Pence card" in the next twenty minutes or so.
When Mike Pence fails to play "the Pence card" because it's not a thing and he has no actual power and "the Pence card" isn't even a saying like "the Trump card" is... this will only convince the faithful that Trump has an even bigger, better card to play later.
Anyway, I'm waiting until midnight to turn in because I want to see some of the reactions.

I expect there will be some meltdowns, but probably even more people seamlessly pivoting to "Well obviously he wouldn't do it in public." or "It's actually January 6th."
Or even trying to figure out a way to make next Wednesday "the third Wednesday in December".
I should also mention that some of the flock have decided the Pence Card *has already been played*; since Mike Pence's name showed up in a lawsuit to throw electors out, they think that's him doing it.

Small problem is: he's a defendant in that case, not a plaintiff.
This is a thread on the lawsuit that has been mistaken for the "Pence Card", with a note on how it's actually suing Mike Pence could obligate the government to defend him. If it makes it to trial, which seems dubious.

https://t.co/kmPoiQ3KYa
Here's another thread on that suit listing many, many, many ways in which it is ripe for dismissal.

https://t.co/Agqr6NmrbG
My understanding of the suit's current status is that the judge has ordered for a hearing schedule to be set after the plaintiffs prove that they have properly served all defendants (there are many), which may not even actually be possible.

https://t.co/4i8Qzz3yLJ
And it's midnight. Time to survey the reactions.
Merry Pencemas, everybody.
Looks like the predominant response so far is to blame Pence for not playing the non-existent #PenceCard; some people are shifting expectations to January 6th and some are assuming it's more Secret Governance We Can't Know About Yet.
These people are very big fans of the idea of Secret Governance. Which is the opposite of what the stuff they get mad about would lead you to believe. But they love the idea of secret arrests, secret trials, secret executions, etc.
And of course the theory that the lawsuit that, I repeat, is *suing Pence* must be Pence playing the #PenceCard because it's a legal document and Mike Pence's name is on it and nothing actually means anything to these people, it's all just free association.
Anyway, I have to go to bed. I just...

I'm not sure I've successfully conveyed how *bizarre* the idea that an election would hinge on some unique power we gave to the vice president only, which only affects the election of the president and vice president.

It's bananas.

More from Alexandra Erin the Meadow We Can Build a Snowman

More from Law

We are live tweeting from the preliminary hearing of the Employment Tribunal case in which #AllisonBailey is suing Stonewall and Garden Court chambers.


The judge has ruled that for this hearing only, the names should remain redacted.

It is a Rule 50 Order. These particular individuals are members of Stonewall’s Trans Advisory Group and their names may well be known elsewhere. What is relevant is the messages from the group to Garden Court.

The judge states she would not make the same decision at the full hearing. This is only for the preliminary hearing.

Having dealt with the anonymity issue we now move to the main submissions in the case.
Hot take: Courts might be able to review the legality of this impeachment, even under current political-question doctrine. Here’s why and how the issue might arise:


Suppose Senate convicts and disqualifies Trump from ever holding federal office. Trump files paperwork to run anyway, but state officials deny his application, citing his Senate impeachment judgment. Trump sues, arguing that the judgment is void.

Normally a legal dispute about a prospective candidates eligibility to run would certainly present a justiciable case or controversy. But are courts bound to accept the Senate impeachment judgment as valid? Maybe not. Here’s why:

According to Article I, “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” This is a small amount of judicial power vested in Congress. When trying impeachments, the Senate sits as a court.

The Senate’s judicial power includes the power to decide relevant legal questions that arise, such as what procedures are sufficient to constitute a “trial” w/in the Constitution’s meaning. Such legal determinations are conclusive, as SCOTUS held in Nixon v. United States (1993).

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🌺कैसे बने गरुड़ भगवान विष्णु के वाहन और क्यों दो भागों में फटी होती है नागों की जिह्वा🌺

महर्षि कश्यप की तेरह पत्नियां थीं।लेकिन विनता व कद्रु नामक अपनी दो पत्नियों से उन्हे विशेष लगाव था।एक दिन महर्षि आनन्दभाव में बैठे थे कि तभी वे दोनों उनके समीप आकर उनके पैर दबाने लगी।


प्रसन्न होकर महर्षि कश्यप बोले,"मुझे तुम दोनों से विशेष लगाव है, इसलिए यदि तुम्हारी कोई विशेष इच्छा हो तो मुझे बताओ। मैं उसे अवश्य पूरा करूंगा ।"

कद्रू बोली,"स्वामी! मेरी इच्छा है कि मैं हज़ार पुत्रों की मां बनूंगी।"
विनता बोली,"स्वामी! मुझे केवल एक पुत्र की मां बनना है जो इतना बलवान हो की कद्रू के हज़ार पुत्रों पर भारी पड़े।"
महर्षि बोले,"शीघ्र ही मैं यज्ञ करूंगा और यज्ञ के उपरांत तुम दोनो की इच्छाएं अवश्य पूर्ण होंगी"।


महर्षि ने यज्ञ किया,विनता व कद्रू को आशीर्वाद देकर तपस्या करने चले गए। कुछ काल पश्चात कद्रू ने हज़ार अंडों से काले सर्पों को जन्म दिया व विनता ने एक अंडे से तेजस्वी बालक को जन्म दिया जिसका नाम गरूड़ रखा।जैसे जैसे समय बीता गरुड़ बलवान होता गया और कद्रू के पुत्रों पर भारी पड़ने लगा


परिणामस्वरूप दिन प्रतिदिन कद्रू व विनता के सम्बंधों में कटुता बढ़ती गयी।एकदिन जब दोनो भ्रमण कर रहीं थी तब कद्रू ने दूर खड़े सफेद घोड़े को देख कर कहा,"बता सकती हो विनता!दूर खड़ा वो घोड़ा किस रंग का है?"
विनता बोली,"सफेद रंग का"।
तो कद्रू बोली,"शर्त लगाती हो? इसकी पूँछ तो काली है"।
The entire discussion around Facebook’s disclosures of what happened in 2016 is very frustrating. No exec stopped any investigations, but there were a lot of heated discussions about what to publish and when.


In the spring and summer of 2016, as reported by the Times, activity we traced to GRU was reported to the FBI. This was the standard model of interaction companies used for nation-state attacks against likely US targeted.

In the Spring of 2017, after a deep dive into the Fake News phenomena, the security team wanted to publish an update that covered what we had learned. At this point, we didn’t have any advertising content or the big IRA cluster, but we did know about the GRU model.

This report when through dozens of edits as different equities were represented. I did not have any meetings with Sheryl on the paper, but I can’t speak to whether she was in the loop with my higher-ups.

In the end, the difficult question of attribution was settled by us pointing to the DNI report instead of saying Russia or GRU directly. In my pre-briefs with members of Congress, I made it clear that we believed this action was GRU.