Tuesday, November 03, 2020
Sunday, November 01, 2020
Season of hate.
If you think that Mr. trump and his supporter's political season of hate and division couldn't get any worse, think again.
Yesterday, in what had to have brought flashbacks of the fifties and sixties, peaceful protestors on their way to vote were pepper-sprayed and arrested by police in North Carolina. Some of them were children. Also, yesterday, a caravan of marauding trump cultists attacked a Joe Biden campaign bus on a highway in Texas, causing them to cancel a planned campaign event and having to call 911.
And here in the suburbs of Philadelphia (this I know first-hand from close friends) trump supporters have been vandalizing the homes of those who dare to put a Joe Biden yard- sign in their yards. They are terrified and scared. Some of them have children. This is the new normal in America's neighborhoods thanks to 45.
If you have been watching Mr. trump's hate and whine campaign tour this fall, none of this surprises you. This is all the result of an indoctrination of conspiratorial nonsense and a kind of rabid us against them cult full of insecure uninformed people. It is all that Mr. trump has left, since his policies have been a disaster for America, and the families of 230,000 dead Americans have been forced to live with the results of his incompetence.
I honestly don't know what will happen on Tuesday. I suspect that Biden might be leading at the end of the night, but by such a narrow margin that Mr. trump will be crying foul and we will be in for a long three months, which won't end until his Supreme Court declares him the winner.
Whatever happens, look for trump to be,....well trump.
The following article is from Salon.com:
"With poll numbers staying put and the odds of a Joe Biden win in Tuesday's election looking good — possibly by a decisive margin — there's mounting dread about how Donald Trump will behave after a defeat. After all, Trump is a sociopathic narcissist with the emotional control of a — well, I won't insult toddlers with the comparison — and he lives in mortal terror of being viewed as a loser. He's already made clear that he will refuses to concede, no matter what, and he's grasping desperately for any way to get legal ballots thrown out so he can steal the election.
No wonder people are afraid Trump will go completely apes**t if his efforts to steal this fail and he actually loses. As Salon's Matthew Rozsa recently explained in a popular piece, psychologists worry that the narcissistic injury to Trump will result in him lashing out "in his vindictive rage to punish an America which he may believe has consigned him to 'loser' status."
On Friday, Ron Suskind of the New York Times published an article based on interviews with "some two dozen officials and aides, several of whom are still serving in the Trump administration," who worried that "the president could use the power of the government" to lash out at enemies, try to steal the election or otherwise wreak havoc on the nation.
'Trump could do real damage to the country, his successor or presidential traditions," Garrett Graff wrote Wednesday at Politico, adding that "there's reason to wonder if a Trump transition might actually be the start of the wildest chapter of an already controversial presidency."'
Of course we should be worried that Trump, a vindictive man whose only true pleasures come from sadism, will abuse his power to punish Americans if he loses.
But let's be honest: He's also going to do that if he wins.
Heads or tails, Trump will be angry at Americans for not worshipping him in the way he believes is his due, and the next two and a half months are going to be hell. Moreover, win or lose, Trump supporters will continue to believe they are victims of the "liberal elite" and the "deep state," and will keep on being resentful, angry and aggrieved, stocking up on guns and screeching on social media about how poorly they believe they're being treated.
But at least if Biden wins the election, there will be light at the end of the tunnel.
We know that Trump and his supporters will act this way because that's how they've acted for the past four years. After all, it was less than a day after Trump's inauguration that the grievance politics and play-acting began. Trump insisted — and pressured his supporters and press secretary into insisting — that his inauguration was way, way bigger than Barack Obama's, and that all the photos showing otherwise were somehow "fake news." He obsessed for months about how the election had been "rigged" against him — even though he won! — because Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
Ever since then, the running theme of Trump's presidency is that he's a nonstop victim of shadowy liberal forces trying to take him down. Robert Mueller, Adam Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, the media (especially female journalists), the "Democrat governors" and on and on: Trump's conflicts are always about a conspiracy against him. They are never, ever his own fault for corruption, criminality, incompetence or just flat-out being the worst.
Trump even views the coronavirus, which is, you know, a virus with no real agency, as a plot to destroy him, as if all those people decided to get sick and die just to make him look bad.
Meanwhile, if there was one word to describe Trump's supporters — who, let's remember, were on the winning side in 2016 — it would be "bitter." Turn on Fox News any random night, and it's a full blown whine-fest about how alleged "elites" are trying to control them and ruin their lives. The fact that their party controls most state governments, the White House, the Senate and the federal courts never factors in. The narrative is one of perpetual victimhood. " [More]
I have never seen a group of people play the victim card like these trump cultists. Of course it's to be expected, because, as the article above outlined, they are led by an insecure and unstable man who plays the victim game like Roger Federer plays tennis.
Hang on field hands, the next few days are going to be wild.
Thursday, October 29, 2020
? Of The Day
Do you believe that the United States Supreme Court will ultimately decide the result of the upcoming presidential election?
And, if they do, which state's ballots will it all come down to?
Monday, October 26, 2020
Dissecting Peggy.
Peggy Noonan, for those of you who don't know, is a famous conservative writer and thinker, whose claim to fame is that she was Ronald Reagan's speech writer back in the day. Ms. Noonan is still relevant today, because she continues to write for the Wall Street Journal and other major publications, and folks on the right continue to hang on to every word.
So let's go over what she wrote recently about the state of the 2020 presidential election.
"It’s late in the game, most peoples’ minds are set, and more than 40 million have already voted. But he did himself some good. He wasn’t a belligerent nut. He held himself together, controlled himself, presented opening remarks that made sense. He won, not a dazzling win but a win that kept him in the game. He succeeded in doing what Joe Biden didn’t have to do: If you wanted or needed an excuse, an out, to vote for Mr. Trump, if you wanted an argument that justified your decision in a conversation in the office, he probably gave you what you need.
It was a good debate. The candidates argued big things. Both had some good moves. Mr. Trump was smart to dwell, early on, on opening up economically. He hung a “Closed” sign around Mr. Biden’s neck. Mr. Biden deftly turned accusations of familial venality into reminders of the president’s refusal, after five years of demands, to show his tax returns.
Mr. Biden too often lapses into government-speak—“the public option.” He was in government 47 years, and sounds it. Mr. Trump’s power, recovered Thursday night, is to speak like normal people, so you can understand him without having to translate what he’s saying in your head. He appears to have lied a great deal. That will be adjudicated in the coming days. "
Ms. Noonan writes that Donald trump "held himself together". What debate was she watching? About thirty minutes (after his meds started to wear off) trump reverted to his old self. He couldn't keep still and he once again kept interrupting the moderator and his opponent.
As for hanging a "Closed sign" around Biden's neck, most Americans do want to close shop if it means getting our country back to normal. Most Americans will listen to the doctors and health care officials and not the political yes- men and hacks working for this administration, who want the country to remain open for purely political reasons.
"All that said, where are we? This close to Election Day and everyone with bated breath. Everyone sees the polls, the clear Biden lead nationwide and the smaller lead in most of battleground states. We know what those polls suggest. But there is little air of defeat among Trump supporters and no triumphalism among Democrats.
Trump supporters believe he will win because of his special magic, Trump foes fear he will win because of his dark magic. Pollsters and pundits stare at the data and wonder how to quantify his unfathomable magic. It’s remarkable that all in their different ways put such stock in the president’s powers, his ability to pull a black swan out of a hat. I believe he is not magic and faces a big loss, and from the way he’s acted the week leading up to the debate—flailing about, stirring themeless chaos—so does he."
No Peggy, "Trump foes" fear that Russia will be allowed to pull a repeat of what they did in 2016. They fear that Russia will do everything to keep their guy in the White House, and that the American people will fall for it once again.
"But there are a few points that contradict the picture. One is the number 56. That is the percentage of registered voters who, asked by Gallup if they are better off than they were four years ago, say yes. (Gallup has asked this regularly in election years since 1984.) Fifty-six percent—in a pandemic, after protests, riots and recession!
It’s only a poll, but after Gallup, a New York Times/Siena poll asked the same question, and 49% said they were better off.
What’s interesting, though, is that when Siena asked respondents if the country was better off than it was four years ago, only 39% said yes."
Poor Peggy is trying so hard to find a trump silver lining.
"The second data point has to do with Mr. Trump’s rallies—big, boisterous and frequent. He’s been in Michigan and North Carolina and has rallies planned this weekend in Ohio, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. “Gastonia Municipal Airport was packed shoulder to shoulder Wednesday night as tens of thousands of people showed up,” read a local North Carolina news report. Mr. Biden doesn’t seem to draw much of anybody, and doesn’t try. He doesn’t have rallies, and barely even appearances at this point. You can, seeing the polls, hypothesize that what you’re seeing at the Trump rallies is a political movement in its death throes. But I don’t know, they look lively to me. You might say, “The Democrats aren’t having rallies because they are more careful about the virus.” Fair enough, but in a lifetime watching politics, sometimes up close, I have never seen crowds keep away from someone they love. They’ll come whether you want them or not; they’ll find out you’re coming and stand at the side of the road to cheer as the motorcade goes by."
Or, it could just be that this is not so much about Biden as it is about trump. The people voting for Biden might not be enthusiastic about voting for him, but they are sure as hell passionate about voting against Mr. trump. And there in lies the rub. There is passion on both sides for the same man for different reasons. Peggy seems to be forgetting about that.
"If Mr. Biden is an extremely lucky man he will win the presidency and his party will hold the House and lose the Senate. If the Democrats win all three they’ll be a runaway train fueled by pent-up progressive demand. If the Democrats lose the Senate, Mr. Biden will have a handy excuse for his natural moderation: “You guys may want court packing, reparations and taxes on bovine flatulence but I’ve got to get it past Mitch McConnell.” If the Democrats lose the Senate the Biden presidency will be more moderate, and more popular in a country whose nerves are shot.
A Republican Senate will let Biden be Biden."
Why does Peggy assume that "more moderate" will be "more popular"? I am pretty sure the center- left leaning democrats who are voting for Joe Biden are not sending him to Washington to be a moderate. Just look at what Mitch McConnell and republicans in Washington have done over the past four years. Look at what they did with the supreme court nominations and their theft of a seat on the Court from Barack Obama. I suspect that because of these things even so called moderate democrats are pissed off and want revenge.
Finally, Peggy, being an older white woman, allowed her racism flag to fly in the closing paragraph of her essay.
"For her part, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is, when on the trail, giddy. She’s dancing with drum lines and beginning rallies with “Wassup, Florida!” She’s throwing her head back and laughing a loud laugh, especially when nobody said anything funny. She’s the younger candidate going for the younger vote, and she’s going for a Happy Warrior vibe, but she’s coming across as insubstantial, frivolous. When she started to dance in the rain onstage, in Jacksonville, Fla., to Mary J. Blige’s “Work That,” it was embarrassing.
If the dancing Kamala Harris was doing was embarrassing, what would Peggy call that spasmic display of untold dimensions that Donald trump unleashed on his supporters at a rally the other day? If Kamala Harris is coming off as "frivolous" what the heck would she call what Donald trump is doing?
Peggy Noonan is doing what a lot of other white pundits, journalists, and other white people in general have been doing when it comes to Donald trump. They overlook and allow all the things that he does because he happens to be white. The things he does and gets away with would not be tolerated if they were being perpetrated by a person of color, or even a woman for that matter. You heard Barack Obama kind of joke about it the other day. , but we all know that he was serious. And, sadly, he was right.
Peggy Noonan's take on the upcoming election, at first glance seemed reasoned and impartial. She tried to be objective, but her inner racism was showing, and it manifested itself in her closing paragraph.
When Donald trump gyrates on stage, simulates a sex act with the American flag, and says all manner of obnoxious things, I suppose that is just normal behavior for those who are allowed to behave in such a manner. When a woman of color shows black joy in its purest form, we get columns from old white women criticizing her.
Peggy Noonan will be voting for Donald trump, and if you were to see Peggy Noonan on the street and ask her why, she wouldn't be able to tell you.
Friday, October 23, 2020
Biden Trump Part Two.
I watched portions of the debate last night. The Eagles were on so I couldn't give it my undivided attention.
From what I could see it looked like Mr. trump was sedated for the first thirty minutes or so, but then whatever he was on started to wear off. Then, as is to be expected, he reverted to form. The scary thing is that some pundits were actually giving him credit for controlling himself. They called it "showing restraint".
It's amazing that the bar is so low for the president of the United States. All he had to do was to stop screaming at the moderator and interrupting his opponent at every turn to meet the bar set by some of these clueless pundits. Did they not see his bungled answers and response when pressed on his handling of the COVID-19 virus?
So anyway, I gave Biden a C+ and trump a D. trump needed at least an A minus to move the needle. He needed to really have a good debate last night, and by all objective measures he did not do that. Most of the flash polls I saw had Biden winning the debate. Although I am quite sure that trump and the right-wing media will say that he won it as well. This is where we are with politics in America. Everyone is in their own corners and they see things how they want to see it.
Still, nothing particularly stood out for me last night. Not trump saying that he was the least racist person in the room, when the moderator was a black woman. Not trump implying that immigrants have low intelligence. Not trump saying that children being separated from their parents is good. Not trump telling people who are suffering from environmental racism and dying of cancer that they are lucky to have good jobs. None of it. Because, quite frankly, I expect all of that from Donald trump. Joe Biden didn't say or do anything earth shattering, either. (Although promising to end the oil industry as we know it could be considered a big deal if you happen to live in Texas or Louisiana.)
What the debate did show was a stark contrast in the way both men approach leadership.
In his closing argument Biden pledged to try to unify the country. trump, on the other hand, attacked Biden.
Personally, what I remember most from the debate last night was this doozy from Mr. trump.
"President Donald Trump seemed poised to take responsibility for his failure on Covid-19 at Thursday’s presidential debate — and then he didn’t.
“I take full responsibility,” Trump said. He immediately continued: “It’s not my fault that it came here. It’s China’s fault.”'
Typical Donald trump.
Oh, and the Eagles won, so the night wasn't a total loss.
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
The real America.
I was recently talking to a friend of mine from the majority population who happens to be a very educated liberal. He was going on about how bad trump is and how he has ruined the "American way of life". He just couldn't understand how Americans could allow him to do what he has been doing to "our democracy".
I hated to brake it to him, but I had to tell him the bad news that America has never been as exceptional. All those people who fled Europe because of religious persecution just came to a new world to persecute people of other religions. All those people who came here to be free decided that it was cool to enslave other people to do their heavy lifting for them.
What Donald trump has done is expose America's true character for what it is. The people screaming at his hate filled rallies could care less about American ideals and the American experiment. Mr. trump was smart enough to figure that out. He figured out that at the end of the day, Americans (particularly those who are in the majority for now) worry more about maintaining dominances over others and holding on to power than they do about being ideal.
Donald trump is an American creation, and he is the perfect personification of the ugly American. What we have been witnessing over the past few weeks leading up to these elections have been horrifying to watch. And folks, if you don't think that Fascism can come to America, think again. If Donald trump gets four more years there is no telling what will happen. In fact, one could argue that it's already here.
The president is now openly calling for the arrest of his political opponent, and he is refusing to condemn militia members who plotted to kidnap the governor of an American state. Let that sink in for a minute. These are scary times. And, quite frankly, it's really going to get scary after November 3rd. I say this because I honestly don't think that Americans on either side will be happy with the result of the upcoming election. Both sides have convinced themselves that they are going to win.
Yesterday the president called a reporter who was simply asking him a question a "criminal", and he he continues to tour the country holding COVID-19 super spreader events in state after state. He won't stop, because he needs the adoration. Being praised by his cult members is more important to him than saving American lives. In fact, he called one of the people we trust in this country to help us with this deadly virus an idiot. Why? Because Dr. Fauci had the nerve to be on national television too much for his liking.
Ronald Reagan once called America a "shining city upon a hill." Maybe we were all hoping that America would become that city, or that the American experiment would work. Sadly, we now have proof that the city is inhabited by people (and leaders) who just want to tear it down. From the look of things they seem to be succeeding.
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Thursday, October 15, 2020
Pushovers and pileups.
If you are a democrat and you are pissed off at how the republicans pushed through Amy (I have never tried a case) Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Do not look to one of your senate leaders, Dianne Feinstein, to show some fight on your behalf.
This is what she told Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the senate Judiciary Committee, today:
"I just want to thank you. This is one of the best set of hearings that I've participated in. Thank you so much for your leadership." * Me puking*
Keep in mind that this is the same Lindsey Graham who declared that Amy (I never tried a case) Coney Barrett's seat with the rest of the supremes is a fait accompli. Or that this same Lindsey Graham, just a day ago, made reference to the "good old days of segregation" during the hearings. This is why I can't ride with dumbocrats. They are such pushovers. America has pretty much become a one party country. No wonder Donald trump has become so emboldened.
Anyway, enough of Feinstein, hopefully her days in Washington are numbered.
Let's ruminate a little bit about how the president of the United States was boasting today about ordering the killing of an American citizen. Or, how a major television network decided to appease a cry baby president by giving him a town hall style meeting with voters in Miami tonight. Of course the media will spend very little time on these stories, because they are always looking to move on to the next trump soundbite.
Sadly, the American people will never get the benefit of real journalists serving them. Because, at the end of the day, all they care about is money and their ratings. You better believe that they are all cheering for trump and hoping he wins the presidency. They rely on his buffoonery and outlandish behavior to drive up their ratings, and keep their programming going. You could literally talk about the crazy shit that he does all day, and at times it seems like that's all they do.
I will be watching both debates tonight. (Thanks DVR). But rest assured that most people will be watching trump. NBC's ratings will double that of ABC. It makes sense if you think about it. I mean what would you most likely be rubbernecking on the highway? A person on the side of the road with a simple flat tire? Or, a multi-car pileup with numerous fatalities?
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
The "originalist."
It's nice to be able to come to my own website and be able to vent and write about current events happening in these divided states of America. I say that because @Jack and the folks over at Twitter decided to suspend a brother for congratulating another brother (@lewishamilton) for a monumental achievement in formula one racing.
Dear twitter, please start hiring more people of color. Maybe they would be able to explain to you that field Negro is actually a term of endearment. Twitter gets triggered when they see the word, Negro, because, quite frankly, they don't have much experience with Negroes.
This is the same twitter that allows the president of the United States to violate all of their decency policies, by constantly threatening, bullying, and calling people names on the platform. His actions are made even more egregious because he has millions of followers. Then again, maybe that's why he gets a pass. Millions of followers will trigger the double standard treatment every time.
So anyway, I have been watching the Amy Cony Barrett nomination proceedings from Washington, and there hasn't been many surprises. The supreme to be was well coached and was very careful not to make any news.
She said (and didn't say )a few things that got my attention, though. Like when she refused to answer if presidents should commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Or when she confirmed that she was an "originalist" in her Judicial philosophy. For those of you who don't know, these are the jurists who believe that the writings of the framers of the Constitution should be taken as they intended it at the time, and that there is no room for any other type interpretation.
Here is what the soon to be supreme said about the philosophy
"Originalism.... is the belief that “constitutional text means what it did at the time it was ratified and that this original public meaning is authoritative.” Judges, originalists maintain, should be bound by the words of the Constitution, and the meaning of those words should be determined solely based on how they were understood when they were added to the Constitution."
Hold the phone! I think we are heading in the wrong direction.
Sadly, the Barrett train has left the station, and there is no stopping it now.
Here is a great article that explains the concept of orginalism, and after reading it you will see what has me so triggered.
"Some legal scholars, and some judges, are “originalists”; they believe that judges should be governed by the “original public meaning” of the Constitution’s text. The late Justice Antonin Scalia was an originalist. So is Justice Clarence Thomas. And so is the latest Supreme Court nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
Debates about originalism have become complicated. But one point is simple: A committed originalist is going to have to allow the national government to discriminate on the basis of sex and race.
Let’s spell that out. Judges who are committed to the “original public meaning” of the Constitution would almost certainly have to allow the federal government to say, “No women need apply.” They would probably have to conclude that if Congress wants federal agencies to pay men twice as much as women, the Constitution does not stand in the way.
Originalist judges would find it exceedingly difficult not to rule that under the Constitution, Congress can segregate the schools in the District of Columbia. Originalist judges would probably have to conclude that if Congress wants to restrict African-Americans to lower-level positions within the federal government, the Constitution is not an obstacle.
On originalist premises, a “whites only” policy would be constitutionally fine, insofar as we are speaking of the decisions of the U.S. government.
Here’s why. The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War, applies only to the states, which may not “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Bill of Rights, which does apply to the federal government, does not contain anything like an Equal Protection Clause, or any kind of ban on discrimination on the basis of race or sex.
Why, then, is it generally agreed that the Constitution forbids the federal government from discriminating on those grounds? The answer can be found in 1954, with one of the most emphatically non-originalist decisions in the entire history of American law: Bolling v. Sharpe.
The issue in the case was whether Congress could segregate the schools of the District of Columbia on the basis of race. The Supreme Court ruled that it could not. It said that the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment(1) — ratified in 1791 and applying then only to the federal government — essentially includes the Equal Protection Clause, ratified in 1868. So much for originalism.
The Court’s explanation is worth quoting:
The Fifth Amendment, which is applicable in the District of Columbia, does not contain an equal protection clause, as does the Fourteenth Amendment, which applies only to the states. But the concepts of equal protection and due process, both stemming from our American ideal of fairness, are not mutually exclusive. The "equal protection of the laws" is a more explicit safeguard of prohibited unfairness than "due process of law," and therefore we do not imply that the two are always interchangeable phrases. But, as this Court has recognized, discrimination may be so unjustifiable as to be violative of due process.
From the originalist point of view, that’s outrageous. The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment says that no person shall “be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It is preposterous to say that the original meaning of those words — in 1791! — was that the national government may not discriminate on the basis of race.
In Bolling v. Sharpe, the Supreme Court insisted that the meaning of the Constitution is not frozen in time: “In view of our decision that the Constitution prohibits the states from maintaining racially segregated public schools, it would be unthinkable that the same Constitution would impose a lesser duty on the Federal Government.”
Seeing the problem, originalists have struggled mightily, and somewhat desperately, to explain why their approach would not allow the national government to discriminate on the basis of race and sex.
Some originalists say that they would accept Supreme Court precedents, even if they depart from the original understanding. They emphasize the importance of stability in the law and point to the long-standing tradition of respect for precedents, even when they are wrong.
Thomas disagrees; he would follow the original meaning and reject precedents that depart from it. Barrett has not offered a firm view, but she seems to have some sympathy for Thomas’s position: “Originalists,” she wrote in 2017, “have difficulty identifying a principled justification for following such precedent, even when the consequences of overruling it would be extraordinarily disruptive.”
There is a broader point here. Many people find it appealing to say that judges should respect the original meaning of the Constitution. No one should want to be ruled by unelected judges. There are sophisticated forms of originalism, and they deserve to be taken seriously.
But in too many cases, originalists end up speaking not for the founding generation, but for contemporary political views typically associated with the Republican Party — on property rights, on commercial advertising, on affirmative action programs, on gun rights, and much more.
In any case, the Constitution does not contain the instructions for its own interpretation. No provision of the U.S. founding document directs justices to be originalists. And in important areas, insistence on the original meaning of the constitutional text would make a mockery of constitutional rights that have made the U.S. a beacon to the world. For example, originalism would obliterate freedom of speech as the American legal system now understands it." [More]
This is why I worry about the direction of the court.
The soon to be member of the supremes might seem like the sweet lady next door who bakes cookies, drives the kids to soccer practice, and adopts little black children from Third World countries, but don't be fooled. She is Clarence Thomas all over again. Just younger, whiter, and softer around the edges.
Sunday, October 11, 2020
? Of the Day.
I am starting a new feature, it's called question of the day.
Here is today's question:
If Donald trump said that he would resign today, but Mike Pence would have to pardon him and the New York state attorney general's office would have to stop their investigations against him, would you agree to those terms?
Both long and short answers are fine.
Thursday, October 08, 2020
Flies and monsters.
“In a world that was not easy for Alice to bear or understand, flies were the final and malicious burden laid upon her.” ― John Steinbeck
Trump claimed that Biden “won’t be president for two months” if elected because he is not “mentally capable of being president,” before tearing into Harris.
“He is not mentally capable of being president. You know that, everybody knows that, everybody that knows him. He can’t be president,"'
Be best.
