As We May Fall

I wrote the following last week. As I celebrated a socially-distanced new year due to the current plague, I woke up new year's day without my usual hangover. And, inspired by the fact that the republicans were going to challenge Biden's electoral certification today, and uncertain of the outcome of the Georgia senate races yesterday (which we won), I decided that a letter to the editor was in order. I had just posted the quote from Solzhenitsyn, and it inspired the letter, which was printed in the local paper today, the day we had a failed coup. 

"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire said that way back in 1765. 

The truth of that statement has been borne out countless times since then. It is being borne out, in this country, today.Without one fact to back up their specious claims of fraud, Republicans are attempting the overthrow of our election.

President Donald Trump is calling for his followers to gather in Washington as some of his acolytes in Congress question the certification of the electoral votes. News reports have said that some of these politicians know the truth but are acting cynically to please their base and maintain power. 

I can't see into the souls of others, but I wish to appeal to anyone who may be supporting Trump for selfish, craven reasons to listen to the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from his Nobel lecture: "The simple act of an ordinary brave man is not to participate in lies, not to support false actions! His rule: Let that come into the world, let it even reign supreme-- only not through me."

  

The Rats Are Sticking Around

 Well, it seems the coprophagous GOP is backing Trump's election fraud scam. The usual suspects have, apparently, decided that it pays to stick to the ass their heads are already shoved into, and hope for the best. And fuck the United States of America.

My Next Political Sign

 "Trump's Tweets Are Offal"

We Live in Interesting Times

 As I write this, near midnight on the fifth, the presidential election has not yet been called, though Biden has the edge.

 I admit to near inconsolable sadness late Tuesday and into Wednesday. I never expected a blowout, but the incredible closeness of the race fills me with despair for our nation and world. That so many have witnessed so much corruption, hate and near psychopathy from Trump, and still cast their ballots for him leads me to wonder if the name we've given our species could, possibly, be ironic. I see little evidence of sapience in us, tonight.

And, yes, the title of this post refers to the ancient Chinese curse. I think I finally understand it.

The Climacteric

  I think the title of this little essay is accurate. In two days the United States of America, and the world, must win the presidential election by destroying Donald Fucking Trump. We have been obsessed with the Trump crime family's occupation of the White House, and the aid from traitors in the GOP and right- wing media since the beginning. The future of this country as a functioning democracy is literally at stake. The title of this little essay is also a moving target. We face our gravest threat due to the climate crisis-- an existential threat to civilization and, in all probability, the continued existence of our species. 

  But still.

  If we are unable to clean our house of the treasonous and crime-ridden Trump administration, we will never even begin to attack climate change. It is also true that the resurgence of totalitarianism world-wide throws up a brick wall to the cooperation mankind requires to effectively make the tough decisions to clean up the planet. Humanity's long experience with tyrants proves that they are utterly incapable of the vision, imagination, flexibility, and, most importantly, the will we need to overcome complete disaster. As the environment deteriorates; as populations shift; as resources become scarce and uncertain-- only democratic nations working in tandem can give us the slimmest of chances to change our economies, industries, and our cultures, and to avoid the nuclear wars that will end our existence. 

 So. The climacteric.   

  

  

 

We'll Take It, For Now

  Tonight, Democrat Doug Jones beat Pedophile Roy Moore in the Alabama senate race. It was a close, but satisfying victory. Do not lose sight of the fact that it was so close. The Republican party is wallowing in hate, fear, and lies, and that isn't going to change any time soon.
  Our nation will soon be facing its greatest Constitutional challenge since the Civil War, as the Trump investigations tighten around him. The corrupt Republican party is attacking the investigations and doing all they can to slow the inevitable conclusion. How they react when it comes, and when Trump melts down, will decide the fate of the nation.
  Trump, alone, can not stand against the tide of justice, but, for now, he isn't alone; the GOP and its leadership are with him. I think that it is too soon to say if tonight's election results are a trend. If they are, then even the craven Republican party will eventually abandon him.
  Donald Trump cares only for himself. He will stop at nothing to prevent his own downfall. If it comes to it, he will throw his own children to the lions in order to save his own skin. It is obvious to me that the recent decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem was calculated to distract from the Russia investigations. It is worse than that, however. I believe that the decision was calculated to increase the odds of terrorist attacks against American targets. Trump cares nothing for human life; he is a man without empathy: a sociopath; his entire career is proof of that. In Trump's mind, dead Americans are merely another tool for his own protection.
  The day will come when the president stands alone against the entire weight of American justice. And eventually, justice will triumph, as it always has. The only question is the cost. Trump already seems unstable. What will he do when finally cornered? Trump still holds the nuclear codes. What price will we have to pay?  

Breathing Space

  Today, Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the Trump- Russia connection. He is a man of great integrity and strength, who stood up to George W. Bush's trampling of the Constitution after September 11th. He will need every bit of that strength now as he confronts Trump.
  Everything that we've seen, so far, is but the tip of a filthy iceberg of corruption and possibly treason. I don't know how this will play out, or how long it will take, but I can say this: The American Republic can take a deep breath. There is time for this to go wrong, and there is no telling how Trump will react, but we've taken a step in the right direction.
  Since Trump still has the backing of his base, and since the right-wing is ridiculing the move, it is too soon to expect the house and senate leadership to move against their president. Still- the process is started. I can't help but think of Churchill's famous words: "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

Vive La France!

  Tonight, Emmanuel Macron has won the French election. He beat the fascist, Marine Le Pen, by a good margin, in spite of a last minute hacking attempt by the Russians. So tonight, thanks to the French People, Vladimir Putin is as isolated on the world stage as he was yesterday.
   Unfortunately, he still has that cock-holster in the White House on his side.
  We have to fix that.

On the Inauguration of Donald Trump

             The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
  William Butler Yeats

Perspective

  Regular and astute readers of these blogs, if any, may have noticed that my prediction concerning Donald Fucking Fucking Trump, and his ability to win the presidency, was a bit off. Tomorrow, the electors will meet across the nation to actually elect that... person: barring, of course, the miracle of thirty seven or more of his electors voting against Trump as the Constitution allows.
  I no longer hope for miracles.
  The time has come to look at the next President of the United States.
  Since the election, sane people have been hoping that sanity will somehow prevail in a Trump presidency. These people desperately wish that, when it comes to governing, the better angels of Trump's nature will guide him to lead the country in some semblance of a democratic republic. These people are wrong.
   In analyzing Trump, binocular vision is wasted. We have already seen all there is to see. Trump is a self-absorbed, preening buffoon. I will not be so niggardly as to limit him to only one dimension- or even two, but the man has no real depth. Trump is nothing more than a bas-relief, carved in sand.
 Trump is already hiding behind his many minions, who try to put a sane face on an insane man. The Trump presidency will be disastrous. How far will he go? What damage will he do? What price will we pay before he is finished?
  I no longer hope for miracles.

Pull My Finger

  Ted "The immigrant" Cruz took the proverbial mile from Donald Fucking Trump tonight.
  Cruz had the opportunity, tonight, to endorse the nominee. He thought better of it.
  The speech that Cruz gave tonight was the first speech of the man who wants to control the right wing of the Republican party, whether the party goes along, or not.
  Ted Cruz is betting that Donald Fucking Trump will never be president, and that he will be the nominee in 2020. (Campaign slogan for the GOP in 2020: Hindsight.)
  (It is only due to neglect on my part that the last post at Paltering Fools, was the one that predicted what happened tonight, but if I had any readers, I bet they'd be impressed by my continuing perspicacity.) 
   
 

Not a Winner

  Tonight, Donald Fucking Trump lost the Wisconsin primary. The analysts seem to agree that it is now highly unlikely that he will be able to wrap up the nomination before the convention. A contested convention is a convention that Captain Comb-over cannot win. Ahhh. I had to savor that thought, but there are questions still. Does Trump incite violence at the convention? Does the Trumposaurus* go rogue, and run as a spoiler? Does Donald Fucking Trump learn a little humility and see the convention as a chance to grow as a human being? I'll bet two out of three, if anyone's asking.

*Trumposaurus: Picture Trump's big, ugly head on a T-Rex body. Because: small hands. 

For Donald Fucking Trump

              Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works ye Mighty and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Percy Bysshe Shelley

Don't Take Them for Granite

To the first-in-the-nation primary state:

"Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils."
   General John Stark; a toast to his comrades-in-arms on the occasion of the 32nd anniversary of the Battle of Bennington.

Bernie Sanders achieved a record margin of victory over Hillary Clinton tonight; twenty-one points.

Trump took the Republican side by a wider margin, with Kasich staying alive with a distant second. Cruz, Rubio and Bush are more or less tied for third. Chris ("I worked the cones") Christie is headed back to Jersey to reconsider his options. Might I make a suggestion, Governor? Just sit down and shut up.

The Calm Before the Flood

As of this moment, the people of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire have voted (all nine of them.)
The tally? Sanders 4, Clinton 0 and on the Republican side: Kasich 3, Trump 2.

This time tomorrow we'll know the rest, but it is a nice start.

O Iowa!

  As I write this, the Democratic primary is still too close too call. Clinton has a three or four point lead over Sanders, with about 96% of the precincts reporting. However it plays out, the tie goes to the underdog, so I'm calling it for Bernie. (Full disclosure: I'm volunteering for the Sanders campaign.) (Fuller disclosure: I'm still right about the tie.)
  Governor Martin O'Malley has dropped out tonight. He ran a good campaign and played an important part in shaping the conversation. I know we haven't seen the last of him.

  On the Republican side, Ted (Canadian Bacon) Cruz won. Donald Fucking Trump is a loser. (I hope to be saying that often between now and November.)
  Mike (The Huckster) Huckabee dropped out tonight. I suggest he eat some cinnamon and get some sleep.

Baker's Dozen

  Today, Senator Lindsey Graham ended his presidential campaign.
  A victim of the Republican Party's lurch to extremism, he did rack up a few noteworthy moments during his run. He, correctly, noted that Donald Fucking Trump is an 'idiot' and 'jack-ass' and responded to Trump's giving away Graham's cell-phone number with a cuttingly funny video about methods of phone destruction. Satire is an effective and classy tool to deal with the likes of the evil clown that is Donald Trump. Graham also repudiated Trump's anti-muslim rants on the floor of the Senate, which may have been one of his finest moments.
  I said that Graham was a victim of right-wing extremism; he was also a perpetrator. Graham fully participated in the 'Party of No' strategy to deny Obama any political victories. That he failed in that strategy is a matter of fact. That he failed to realize, until too late, what was being nurtured under his nose, is a matter of integrity.

  There are now thirteen candidates running for the nomination of the Republican Party. Thirteen. A perfect number to fill a clown-car.

March 16, 2020. Note to readers, if any: I noted above that Graham's calling-out of Trump was one of his finest moments. Anyone reading today (At least one person? Please?) knows that it was his last fine moment, as Lindsey Graham has taken up residence on a shit-front lot in Trump's anal canal.
 

As Ye Sow....

  Since 1980, when Ronald Reagan said that "Government is the problem", nearly two generations of conservatives have been indoctrinated with that cynical, corrupt philosophy which the GOP gladly embraced.
  Today, the Republican front-runner is a political neophyte running on a hate-based platform of demagoguery. The speaker of the house recently resigned from both the speakership and congress, apparently in order to prevent further chaos in his party by the extremists. And the Republican base is so distrustful of the party leadership that when they began to, rightly, call Donald Fucking Trump out as a fascist, his poll numbers actually increased.
  Although Trump's candidacy may ultimately fizzle out, the divisions within the party will not. If Trump does find that he's gone too far for the party to tolerate and makes an independent run, as he's threatened, no one will be able to put Humpty back together again.
  For all of Trump's immense and unjustified ego, he is no politician and has no chance to be president, and he doesn't have the inclination to build any real movement among his supporters. He will gladly leave the smoking remains of the party to return to business.
  Ted Cruz, though, is angling for leadership of the extremists. His refusal to attack Trump, and the fact that he is currently number two in the polls, suggests that he is waiting for Trump to self-immolate so he can step in as the true leader of the extreme right.
  Cruz may or may not realize that he is too extreme to be elected president, but if he's playing a long game for control of a party of his very own, he couldn't be better placed.
 
  I have no sympathy for the Republican Party or its leadership. They gladly embraced the extremists in order to win elections. The tea party, birthers, racists, science-deniers, and right-wing scum of all pathologies have found a home in the GOP that they could never have had in moderate America.
  The fact is that the Republican Party, in terms that they might possibly understand, has sown the wind. Harvest time is near.

His Boots Were Made For Walking

  Scott Walker, who rode into the presidential race on a Harley, has suspended his campaign.
  Walker, surrounded by convictions and investigations on election fraud, simply got trumped. In defeat, Walker threw all his negligible leverage behind an effort to defeat the front-runner: Donald Fucking Trump- a man who invests considerably more time and effort into his comb-over than Walker ever could.
  Walker is gone, and good riddance. The union-busting bastard is getting what he deserves.
  The only thing better will be indictments.