Friday, January 22, 2021

To a never Trumper, part 2

The Republican Party was corrupt long before it took Trump as its leader. Think of Bush II, lying us into a war. Think of Bush I, pardoning the Iran-contra traitors, Reagan with his bellicosity and racism, Nixon, Kissinger. The country was already on the road to fascism when Trump started his campaign. It had been on that road for 35 years. Some of us have been in the trenches for 40 years. I joined after the election of 2000, when I dimly foresaw these times.

How about some respect for your colleagues on the left, who warned you and have been fighting all these long weary years? — Tweet

Donald Trump isn’t done with us

“Get even with people. If they screw you, screw them back 10 times as hard. I really believe it.” – Donald Trump, Mother Jones, 2016
Trump is already plotting his revenge. To the end of his life, he’s going to try to strike back at the people who shook his narcissistic grandiosity and he has a fair amount of ability to do so. So long as he is alive, he should be watched. We may even need to watch his children. At least, the FBI ought to be paying attention to him for the rest of his life. He should be forbidden from holding public office, so as to keep him from running in 2024, but that’s not going to be enough.

I wonder if Joe Biden or Kamala Harris realize. I think Dr Bandy X Lee does.

I wonder if he hates the Democratic Party, the Republican leadership, or the voters of the United States the most.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

President Biden

It is over. I am very, very relieved.

There is much work to be done and there will be much to write about in the future. 

But for now…

CROAK!

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

The Twenties Will Roar

2020. Look to 2020. The country will be a shambles by then, but with luck, organization, and leadership an opposition can win in 2020. We can try things in 2018, but by 2020 I hope we are ready. – me, 2017

I think this Congress and the one proceeding it are in the process of replicating the mistake of the 40th Congress, which impeached but did not remove Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's successor. President Andrew Johnson went on to pardon most of the Confederate traitors, who became the first Klan, unleashing a wave of racist terrorism in the south. The stage was then set for the Compromise of 1877, which allowed the South to implement its system of segregation.

Donald Trump may well be impeached and forbidden from holding further office, but this will not prevent his children, especially Ivanka Trump, who is contemplating a Senate run in Florida, from holding office in the future.

We must also consider the further harm that the Taney, er, Roberts court will do in the coming decade. In some ways we are entering a period analogous to the end of the Reconstruction, and we must fight to maintain the gains we have won in the past 60 years and to prevent another ignominious loss to racism and authoritarianism. I think we may also be, finally, looking at the realignment I have long been predicting, where the Republican Party shuffles off to Buffalo, or perhaps returns to Gamma Quadrant, while the left of the Democrats tears away to form a new party. ("Join the People's Progressive Libertarian Party! We bring peace, prosperity, and weed!")

The Twenties promise to be a tumultuous decade. But then, what decade in US history has not been?

(2021-01-13 The omitted phrase "end of the" inserted before "Reconstruction," making the historical analogy correct. Ooof!)

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Biden and Harris are certified as President and Vice-President Elect.

 Yippie! Yippie-kai-yai-yay!

This long day is over.

Biden and Harris are certified, and a lot of Republicans have made asses of themselves. For the record, here's the list of 121 House Republicans who dragged this thing out forever. The six Senators were Ted Cruz (TX), Josh Hawley (MO), John Kennedy (LA), Cindy Hyde-Smith (MS), Roger Marshall (KS), and Tommy Tuberville (AL).

 More tomorrow, bed tonight.

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Trump's Revenge Fantasies

“One of the things you should do in terms of success: If somebody hits you, you’ve got to hit ’em back five times harder than they ever thought possible. You’ve got to get even. […] You have to hit back.”  – Donald J. Trump, from “Donald Trump Is Completely Obsessed With Revenge,” David Corn, Mother Jones, October 19, 2016.

So Donald Trump, having pardoned his associates, is now planning to give the Presidential Medal of Honor to other criminals. He is trashing as much as he can before he is out of office and it's not going to stop after he is out of office.  I do not put assassination plots or actual insurrection beyond him.

Ideally, the Department of Justice and the FBI would monitor him after he leaves office, but I wonder if they will. Nixon got away with treason. Reagan probably did. W. Bush started a war based on lies, and that wasn't enough. There are 350,000 people dead because of Trump's inaction and that doesn't seem to be enough.

Still, unlike Nixon, Reagan, and W. Bush, Trump is likely to be a threat after he leaves office, and I want to see him watched.