If Only The Authorities Had Known

Imagine the police response if Anthony Quinn Warner had been Black or had change his name from Ahmed Abbas.  There would have been an overwhelming militarized raid on his home.  Instead the report went into the "white guy probably just a local militia member" file (also know as "friends of the police").

Sixteen months before Anthony Quinn Warner's RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, officers visited his home in Antioch after his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in the vehicle, according to documents obtained by The Tennessean. 

On Friday, 63-year-old Warner blew up a city block, police say, about 6:30 a.m. on Second Avenue outside an AT&T switch facility. The bomb caused massive destruction to 41 downtown buildings and crippled telecommunication systems throughout the Southeast over the weekend.

In the aftermath, The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Warner was "not on our radar" prior to the bombing. But a Metro Nashville Police Department report from August 2019 shows that local and federal authorities were aware of alleged threats he had made.

Trump's Only Action - Yell At Others

One, somewhat crude, illustrations tells the story of the development and roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccines.  One the left you see a clear and well developed methodology for the research and development of viable, safe vaccines.  Then in the middle the picture gets fuzzy and the Trumpers get involved in the planning process.  Finally, you see the work of Trump himself.   Crude and half-assed.  As we lag behind other nations in distributing and vaccinating people.

In recent weeks, countries around the world have launched vaccination campaigns in a global race to end the pandemic. Some are far outstripping the U.S.: Israel, whose size and population is similar to New Jersey’s, gave shots to an average 60,000 people a day in its first week. If the U.S. were moving at the same speed, it would be doing 2.2 million daily inoculations — 10 times its current pace. 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening reiterated in a tweet that “it is up to the States to distribute the vaccines. He reiterated the sentiment again on Wednesday morning, telling states to “get moving.”

1932, 33.1% Of Germans Voted For The Nazi Party - 2020, 46.8% Of Americans Voted For Trump

Trump sadism is certainly a central tenet of his character, but fortunately so is his lack of interest in doing hard work. Trump's primary capability is his antenna that is attuned to several particular American grievances - racism, nativism, sexism and a deep strain of antigovernmental paranoia. For Trump the first three are inimical to his personality and, in him, the last is an expression of his unwillingness to follow any rules that might constrain his giant ego. 

Destroying the actual means of representative governance in the United States has been the central core of the Republican Party since the American people put a brain dead, washed up Hollywood actor into the White House. The party saw in Trump a new model out of the Reagan mold - someone more interested in acting as President than doing the work of leadership. Instead, they got a man whose only governing efforts would be directed at completely breaking the government. Yes, they got massive tax cuts for the rich, but they also got massive public corruption and ultimately they got a president who reveled in the routine public humiliation of his own political supporters.

It is not just that Trump really was not interested in governing. It is that he was deeply interested in misgovernment.

He left important leadership positions in government departments unfilled on a permanent basis, or filled them with scandalously unqualified cronies. He appointed people to head agencies to which they had been publicly hostile.

Beneath the psychodrama of Trump’s hourly outbursts, there was a duller but often more meaningful agenda: taking a blowtorch to regulation, especially, but by no means exclusively, in relation to the environment.

This right-wing anarchism extended, of course, to global governance: the trashing of international agreements, withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, sucking up to the leaders of mafia states, and open contempt for female leaders like Angela Merkel and Theresa May.

With this discrediting of democratic governance, it is not just that we cannot disentangle the personal motives from the political ones. It is that the replacement of political institutions by personal rule was precisely the point.

Trump’s aim, in the presidency as in his previous life, was always simple: to be able to do whatever the hell he wanted. That required the transformation of elective office into the relationship of a capricious ruler to his sycophantic courtiers.

Trump's twisted genius is his ability to tap into the darkness in the American character.  Republicans had been nibbling at the edges of this darkness for decades, but with Trump they got someone willing to eat the whole meal at one sitting.

...Trumpism, to the extent that phrase isn’t an oxymoron, is simply an extension of the ideological core of Reaganism. What Trump adds to the mix is an open embrace and celebration of autocracy, which is a significant step beyond what movement conservatism was forty or even twenty years ago.

But the hatred of government, presented as the embrace of “freedom” — that’s just movement conservatism in its purest form.

There’s a certain sort of American who thinks of “freedom” in the way a poorly socialized dull-normal 15-year-old boy does: Freedom means I have the freedom to choose not to wear a mask during a global pandemic, but it most certainly does not mean that a private business can choose to refuse me entrance onto its premises if I won’t wear a mask. Because that would interfere with my freedom...

Trump’s nearly sole talent is that he has a feral instinct for tapping into the endlessly rich vein of intellectual and emotional stuntedness that is the American worship of “freedom” in this sense. That 74 million plus people would vote to retain an openly autocratic crook in the presidency in large part because they believed he was going to protect this kind of freedom is an indictment of an entire culture, if not a whole species.

Republicans have shown that they are more than willing to embrace a would be dictator if it means they get to stay in power under that dictator's rule.   Finding out that Trump was unfit to lead our nation isn't a surprise.  Finding out that the Republican Party has become a willing accomplice in the destruction of our Constitutional Republic, that is the most painful lesson of the Trump four year reign. 

The Trump Gambit - Eat The Pieces

Trump MAGA minions think he is playing multi-dimensional chess.  The reality is that the folks in the White House have been trying to keep Trump from eating the pieces.

In the words of an unnamed Trump aide: "Some people seem to think Trump's playing chess, when most of the time the staff are just trying to stop him from eating the pieces."

— David Frum (@davidfrum) December 27, 2020

Tell Every MAGA - DO NOT VOTE IN GEORGIA SPECIAL ELECTION

Please send this to anyone you know and ask them to get a copy to every MAGA they might know in Georgia.  Georgia Republicans need to know that the only way Trump can stay in office is if they DO NOT VOTE in the January 5, special election for Georgia's two Senate seats.  

Best Present Ever

 The best Christmas present is a better year in 2021.

"This one box is hope that the end is coming"

The delivery driver making "the most important delivery ever" as she takes Covid-19 vaccines to hospitals https://t.co/4U84DR0MR9 pic.twitter.com/OkUAk3w1ek

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 25, 2020

Can Trump Possibly Be This Stupid?

Trump is an idiot - part 1,000,000. Trump's team negotiated the $900 billion Covid-19 bill that Trump refuses to sign. His position that the $600 relief payment should be $2,000 is exactly what the Democrats proposed in May when they passed a multi-trillion dollar relief bill that McConnell refused to even bring to the Senate for consideration.

The current undersized relief bill was attached to a $1.4 trillion bill to provide funding for the programs that were proposed by the Trump Administration. The provisions to which Trump is objecting are not part of the Covid-19 relief bill. Clearly, Trump has no idea what he is doing and with every Tweet, he demonstrates that he has learned nothing about how the government works despite being its supposed head for the last four years.

In addition to calling for significantly larger stimulus checks for most Americans, the president blasted billions of dollars in funds going to foreign countries and other federal government priorities. These measures were included in a $1.4 trillion omnibus government funding bill included with the $900 billion COVID-19 stimulus package to save time. Most of that spending actually came from the Trump administration's own budget item requests.

"There's been some apparent misunderstanding about what's in the regular appropriating bill and what's in the COVID relief bill, and generally the regular appropriating bill includes things the administration asked for," Blunt, who represents Missouri, told reporters on Thursday.

The good news for Trump? There are 74 million American voters who are dumber than he is.

Light vs Darkness

There are two forces at work in the world today.  Authoritarians believe that people must be coerced, often violently, into obedience to the state.  The other force is the expression of our common humanity and overwhelming need for a community of share values. 

Timeline cleanser:

Flashmob of Beethoven’s 'Ode to Joy'...pic.twitter.com/0dUuh2XTGf

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) December 23, 2020

 

PS.  This is the greatest bank commercial ever made. 

Trump Abandons Any Pretense of Being President - Plays Golf Instead

Trump says he won't sign the Covid-19 relief bill that was passed by Democrats in the House in May, despite all of the compromises the Dems made to get a bill that Republicans would agree to pass last week.  He vetoed the defense authorization bill that would have given raises to the military.   And, he may simple not sign the budget authorization bill which would shut down the government.  All this because he lost the election and is the worst person in the world.  He claims to be working tirelessly for the American people, but he spent the day playing golf.

Trump - A Failed President And An Abject Failure As A Human Being

Half of Americans polled consider Trump as a failed president.  Not a below average president, but a total freaking failure as a president.   Good news for Trump though, 100% of Russians polled consider him the greatest and most cost effective weapon Russia every deployed against the USA and its allies.  I wonder how the families of the 334,824 (and counting) Americans who died of Covid-19 feel about Trump's presidency.

Fifty percent of Americans now predict history will judge him as a "failed" president.

The survey, taken in the waning weeks of his administration, shows the risks of actions he is contemplating on his way out the door. Americans overwhelmingly say issuing a preemptive pardon for himself would be an abuse of presidential power, and an even bigger majority, including most Republicans, say he should attend President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration to demonstrate the peaceful transfer of power.

Asked how history would judge Trump's presidency, 16% predict he will be seen as a great president, 13% as a good president, 16% as a fair president, and 50% as a failed president. Five percent are undecided. 

Tragic that 45% of Americans don't see him as not just an abject failure a a president, but as a complete failure as a human being.

 

Shun All The MAGA Cult Members

Best advice for the new year - shun the MAGAs.  Tom Nichols writing in The Atlantic argues that beyond Trump's base of traditional Republicans, who voted for lowering the own taxes or because the trice married, pussy grabber said he was anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ, there is a contingent of Trumpists with whom no reasonable or logic based conversation is possible.  His advice is not waste our precious time trying to engage them.

...I am talking about the people who are giving Trump their full-throated support to the very end, even as he mulls a military coup; the people who buy weird paintings of Trump crossing the Delaware, or who believe that Trump is an agent of Jesus Christ, or who think that Trump is fighting a blood-drinking ring of pedophiles. These supporters have gone far beyond political loyalty and have succumbed to a kind of mass delusion. It is not possible to engage them. Indeed, to argue with them is to legitimize their beliefs, which itself is unhealthy for our democracy.

I don’t want to treat our fellow citizens with open contempt, or to confront and berate them. Rather, I am arguing for silence. The Trump loyalists who still cling to conspiracy theories and who remain part of a cult of personality should be deprived of the attention they seek, shunned for their antidemocratic lunacy, and then outvoted at the ballot box.

If we’ve learned one thing about “Trumpism,” it is that there is no such thing as “Trumpism.” No content anchors it; no program or policy comes from it. No motivating ideology stands behind it, unless we think of general grievance and a hatred of cultural and intellectual elites as an “idea.” And when views are incoherent and beliefs are rooted in fantasies, compromise is impossible. Further engagement is not only unwarranted, but it can also become counterproductive.

It is likely that someday the scales will fall from the eyes of some of the MAGAs.  Others will be deprogrammed as their loved one become concerned for their mental health.  And, their is still time for some of them to be Covid-19ed out as they continue to believe that the whole pandemic is a hoax.  But, for now just walk away and refuse to engage. 

Trump Is Too Lazy To Launch A Coup

 

Supposedly senior members of the Trump mal-administration are concerned that their boss might do something really crazy to remain in the White House.  These are the same people who routinely repeat Trump's unfounded attacks on the 2020 presidential election and the various Democratic, Republican and non-partisan election official who lives are being endangered by Trump unhinged attacks.  Still, their boy is hanging out in the Oval Office with some real nut jobs - including Flynn, Giuliani and Powell.  

Senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed that President Trump might unleash — and abuse — the power of government in an effort to overturn the clear result of the election.

These officials tell me that Trump is spending too much time with people they consider crackpots or conspiracy theorists and flirting with blatant abuses of power.

Their fears include Trump's interest in former national security adviser Michael Flynn's wild talk of martial law; an idea floated of an executive order to commandeer voting machines; and the specter of Sidney Powell, the conspiracy-spewing election lawyer, obtaining governmental power and a top-level security clearance.

Trump is too lazy to actually pull off this sort of thing.  It requires leadership and commitment.  Trump isn't going to put himself on the line, but it does keep the MAGAs riled up. 

"Everything Is Under Control," Claims Trump - Putin Agrees

Putin and his most important asset.

On Friday, the Secretary of State admitted that Russian hackers had launched a massive assault on the United States.  Multiple government and commercial entities had their security breached and the nature and quantity of information stolen is so extensive that it may take months to determine what the Russians have taken and what access they still may have.

For months, Russian hackers have been racing around inside systems at the highest levels of the U.S. government, exploiting a weakness in “SolarWinds” networking software that went completely unnoticed until it was pointed out by a third party. Those hacks have included intrusions into systems that contain critical information about the nation’s power grid, as well as those having stewardship over the nuclear stockpile. 

So when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted on Friday that Russia was behind the widespread hacks, it should not be news. After all, this has been in the news for over a week. It affects at least half a dozen federal agencies. And there is no doubt about the origin of the attacks.

However, the main Russian government representative in the United States dismissed the Russian assault and blamed the "Fake News Media" for exaggerating the whole issue.  The President of the United States, who's 2016 election was aided by Russians hackers, completely dismissed the event.  

“The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality,” Trump tweeted on Saturday morning. “I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control. Russia, Russia, Russia is the priority chant when anything happens because [US media] is, for mostly financial reasons, petrified of discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)”

California Representative Adam Schiff called Trump out for his betrayal.

“Another day, another scandalous betrayal of our national security by this president.

“Another dishonest tweet that sounds like it could have been written in the Kremlin. Another obsequious display towards Putin. And yet another reason that Trump can’t leave office fast enough.”

What does Putin have on Trump?   

People Are Dying While Vaccine Sits In The Warehouse - UPDATED

Trump has other things to do than bother with the pandemic

Charles Pierce asks a simple question about Team Trump's handling of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out.

Is there nothing about this emergency that these clowns can't fck up beyond all recall?

Pfizer says that it has vaccine sitting in warehouses ready to ship, but that no one from Trump's crew of misfits has asked for it.

Another person involved in the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation, said Pfizer executives were baffled that the administration was not immediately distributing all of its vaccine, instead leaving much of it on the shelves.

This is just another example of the total leadership failure from the "best people" that Trump brought into the US government.

UPDATED:  Competent leaders hire competent people. Incompetent leaders hire bootlickers and incompetents.  It's even worse when the boss (Trump) has no interest in the nuts and bolts of the process.  

States from California to Maine have said that their vaccine allocations have been cut while Pfizer, the manufacturer, has said that it has “millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses.”

To Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy at CUNY who helped model the rollout of the H1N1 vaccine, it suggests a logistical issue.

“When vaccines get produced and they remain in the warehouse, that means something went wrong with the supply chain,” Lee said. “That it was not coordinated.”

He added that the cut in vaccine shipments, in some cases by 30 percent and some cases by far more, comes amid concerns about “what is the plan with the supply chain and delivery system, and that hasn’t been vey clear.”

Trickle Down Doesn't Work - What A Shock

In January, Joe Biden will be president.  He will attempt to put Democratic policies and programs in place.  Mitch McConnell will lead Republicans in opposing any government spending beyond continuing Trump's wasteful budgets for the military.  Republicans will fight any measure to roll back the catastrophic Trump tax cuts that have benefited the super rich and massive corporations.  In the 1980s, led by a washed up Hollywood actor, Republicans championed the theory of "trickle down" economics.  They implemented massive cuts in the marginal tax rates of the ultra-rich and minuscule reductions to everyone else.  The result was inevitable.  The very rich got even richer and everyone else got the shaft.  

Tax cuts for rich people breed inequality without providing much of a boon to anyone else, according to a study of the advanced world that could add to the case for the wealthy to bear more of the cost of the coronavirus pandemic.

The paper, by David Hope of the London School of Economics and Julian Limberg of King’s College London, found that such measures over the last 50 years only really benefited the individuals who were directly affected, and did little to promote jobs or growth.

“Policy makers shouldn’t worry that raising taxes on the rich to fund the financial costs of the pandemic will harm their economies,” Hope said in an interview.

For nearly 40 years, Republicans have pushed the con that cutting taxes on the super rich will benefit the entire economy.  It is a con that only benefits those same rich people and the very corporations that have used those tax breaks to move American jobs to low wage countries. 

Trump Leaves Wreckage Wherever He Goes

Trump used Atlantic City as the model for what he would do to the US economy and how he would treat the office of President.  The only Trump shit that Atlantic City has left to deal with is to auction off the privilege of blowing up the trash he left behind.

A dash of showmanship was always part of President Donald Trump’s brand in the city, so it’s only fitting that the last remnants of his casino empire go out with a bang.

And some lucky person, or people, will get a chance to be part of the show.

As a bonus, the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City will get a much-needed boost.

Mayor Marty Small Sr. will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. Thursday to discuss the Jan. 29 implosion of the former Trump Plaza Hotel & Casino and how it will benefit the club, according to a news release.

Palm Beach NIMBYs Say No To Trump

Guess who else doesn't want Trump around anymore?  His neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida aren't very happy that Trump will be a blight on their community after he is tossed out of his temporary public housing in Washington.

The current residency controversy tracks back to a deal Trump cut in 1993 when his finances were foundering, and the cost of maintaining Mar-a-Lago was soaring into the multimillions each year. Under the agreement, club members are banned from spending more than 21 days a year in the club’s guest suites and cannot stay there for any longer than seven consecutive days. Before the arrangement was sealed, an attorney for Trump assured the town council in a public meeting that he would not live at Mar-a-Lago.

The 1993 Palm Beach agreement isn’t the only document that raises questions about whether Trump can legally live at Mar-a-Lago. He also signed a document deeding development rights for Mar-a-Lago to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washington-based, privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save historic sites around the country. As part of the National Trust deal, Trump agreed to “forever” relinquish his rights to develop Mar-a-Lago or to use it for “any purpose other than club use.”

If Palm Beach and the National Trust decide to pass on the enforcement of the agreements Trump made concerning Mar-a-Lago, it will be another case where Trump reneges on legally binding commitments.  If these cases end up in court, I hope Trump turns to the same legal team he's been using to overturn the election results.  That team is batting what - 1 for 100 or so?

 

Trump Fails Americans Again

Trump has no plan for the national effort necessary to insure the vaccination of sufficient Americans to end the Covid-19 pandemic.  It's almost like he planned to be gone on January 20 and doesn't give a damn what happens to Americans after that.

...the Trump administration has only planned out in detail how the vaccine will be administered to the first groups of recipients, and because of the timeline broadcast by officials like Azar, a potential public health and PR catastrophe awaits the Biden administration in its first weeks. The lack of planning and funding at the state level could boil over just as the vaccine is supposed to have become widely available, and just after Biden takes office. 

There is an executable plan in place for the first 17.6 million vaccinations to health care professionals and nursing home residents, but the Trump plan beyond that is to ship the vaccine to the states and leave the rest to them.  No funding or federal government resources have been made available to accomplish the actual state by state roll out of the vaccine.

But there’s no similar federal role for vaccinating the rest of the country — everyone beyond that initial 17.6 million in the Trump administration’s plan. 

Rather, what the government is planning to do after these first 17 million receive their doses is ship the vaccine to the states, leaving it to them to administer. Without plans in place for vaccination or the money needed to execute those plans, the scenario sets up the possibility of conspicuous delays in the distribution effort in the opening weeks of the Biden administration. 

This is what you get when an incompetent surrounds himself with ass kissing sycophants.  Clearly, Trump doesn't care how many American dies of Covid-19.  He is certain to blame any Covid-19 death after January 20 on Joe Biden.  

The Trump ABGs - Always Be Grifting

Trump is a horrible businessman.  He is lazy and basically incompetent.  He is good at only two things:  self-promotion and grifting.   These are not only his core competencies - they are his only competencies.  Republican politicians are now surprised to find out that Trump doesn't give a damn about what they individually or as a political party need.  He's found the perfect scam and he's going to run it until the rubes run out of money.  

Trump’s aggressive fundraising blitz appears to be devoted to helping the party defend Georgia’s two Senate seats and, with them, the Senate majority. But the fine print shows that most of the proceeds are going toward Trump’s newly launched PAC, which he plans to use to fund his future political activities. Only a fraction is going to the Republican National Committee, which is investing $20 million into the runoffs.

It is amazing that it has taken four plus years for Republicans to realize that Trump has used them for his own purposes (mostly to avoid prosecution and line his pockets).  Now, they are concerned that he is conning the rubes that they need to con, with the funds going directly into Trump's pockets. 

“The reality is Donald Trump does not care about the future of the Republican Party, so if he can raise money off of the Georgia runoffs but keep the money for his own purposes, he will do so,” said Doug Heye, a veteran GOP strategist.

It hard to feel sorry for Republicans who have sold their souls to Trump.  No one held a gun to their heads.  Sleep with a serpent, wake up with the devil.

The predicament has intensified broader concerns within the GOP that Trump will use his post-presidency to advance his own interests at the expense of the party. Trump has spent the last few weeks battering a pair of Republican governors who haven’t backed up his claims the presidency is being stolen from him, potentially imperiling their 2022 reelection prospects. He has repeatedly said Georgia's election system is rife with fraud, which could have the unintended consequence of chilling GOP turnout in the runoffs. And he has talked up a potential 2024 comeback bid, freezing the field of would-be future Republican presidential hopefuls.

The deserve each other.

Trump's First Commandment - YOU SHALL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME!!!

The religious right and the Republican right are really the same thing.  It's hard to find a distinction between the seditious Republican office holders, who are trampling the Constitution and the Cristo-fascist fundamentalists, who have anointed Trump as God's instrument.  Or, perhaps to them, Trump is God in the flesh.

This is a grievous and dangerous time for American Christianity. The frenzy and the fury of the post-election period has laid bare the sheer idolatry and fanaticism of Christian Trumpism.

A significant segment of the Christian public has fallen for conspiracy theories, has mixed nationalism with the Christian gospel, has substituted a bizarre mysticism for reason and evidence, and rages in fear and anger against their political opponents—all in the name of preserving Donald Trump’s power.

Christians have turned a blind eye to almost every teaching of Jesus Christ.  Instead of faith in God, they are pledging their faith to Trump.  It's a perversion of Christianity and a direct threat to our Constitutional form of government.

It’s clear now that when many of those people declared Trump to be “God’s anointed” they did not mean that his presidency was “instituted by God” in the same manner as other governing authorities, as described in Romans 13. (By conventional Christian reasoning, Joe Biden’s upcoming presidency is also instituted by God.)

No, they believe that Trump had a special purpose and a special calling, and that this election defeat is nothing less than a manifestation of a Satanic effort to disrupt God’s plan for this nation. They were not “holding their nose” to support him. They were deeply, spiritually, and personally invested in his political success.

How quickly Christians abandon the tenets of their faith to follow after a golden (orange) idol.  Apparently, the first commandment doesn't apply.  “You Shall Have No Other Gods before Me,” is God's word not Trumps.

Trump, Republicans and Putin

 

Trump was a monumental coup for Russian. For a minimal expenditure, Putin was able to install the greatest traitor in US history in the White House.

Donald Trump’s presidency has been a gift to Russia. He has undermined NATO, withheld military aid to Ukraine, and abandoned America’s commitments to democracy and human rights. He has excused Vladimir Putin’s crimes, yielded to Russian troops in the Middle East, and dismissed Russia’s 2016 election interference as a hoax. Now Trump has been voted out by Americans, but he’s still serving Russia. He’s devoting his final days in office—and suggesting he might devote his post-presidency—to a long-standing Russian objective: destroying faith in U.S. elections.

Putin had cultivated Trump for years and understood far better than American voters what a flawed and dangerous person he is.  He put a plan in place to deal with a Trump defeat in 2016 that would cripple the United States.  Trump's unlikely victory was a bonus.  He got four years of Trump's destruction of American political institutions and now he has Trump and the Republican Party running his playbook to destroy American democracy. 

Trump’s lawyers and political allies are peddling the same message. “This election was stolen by the socialists engaging in extraordinary voter fraud,” Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama asserted last week. Others, such as Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, have suggested the same thing. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida said the ballot counts reported for Biden were no more credible than those reported for “Bashar al-Assad and Kim Jong-il.” In an interview on Fox News, Gaetz added: “Those Dominion software systems? They changed more votes than Vladimir Putin ever did.”

Trump and his enablers are committing treason. 

"WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!"

Trump Tweets:  "WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!"  Little Mikey Pence tries to get take away his phone.

“WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!” - Donald J. Trump#TrumperTantrumpic.twitter.com/uEzepcpUsz

— PhilDeBlanc (@PhilipDeBlanc) December 12, 2020

100% Wrong - That's Our Trump

A list of incorrect assumption regarding the 2020 election and Trump's political future.  I hope the last one turns out to be correct.

Bréagach Agus Meallta

 The Irish press has this just right.

Looks like Trump isn't Time's choice as "person of the year" yet again.   I guess he will have to order up another load of false Time covers.*

* ...looks like an impressive memento from Trump’s pre-presidential career. To club members eating lunch, or golfers waiting for a pro-shop purchase, it seemed to be a signal that Trump had always been a man who mattered. Even when he was just a reality TV star, Trump was the kind of star who got a cover story in Time.

But that wasn’t true.

The Time cover is a fake.

There was no March 1, 2009, issue of Time magazine. And there was no issue at all in 2009 that had Trump on the cover.

Trump The Pyromaniac

Trump doesn't care. The vast majority of Republican politicians don't care. Trump has turned the country's violent wackos loose to create a reign of terror on election officials who have done their jobs with skill and dedication. Trump lost and he won't accept it, so he is willing to take the entire United States down rather than accept the results of a free and fair election. It's no surprise that Trump is pulling this shit and, in reality, it's no surprise the the majority of Republicans are on board with him.

The harassment campaign against U.S. election officials following President Donald Trump’s defeat took an ominous turn on Thursday after a website surfaced that accused them of “treason” and included photographs and home addresses, drawing the attention of U.S. intelligence agencies.

“If anyone needs to be reminded that public calls for violence beget violence, this is the clarion call. If blood is spilled, it is on the hands of the president, his campaign, his lawyers, and the silent Republicans standing in the president’s shadow,” said Jim Walden, a lawyer for Christopher Krebs, who oversaw cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security until he was fired by Trump after the election.

New Lawyer Joins Team Trump

Ted Cruz will be joined by this new addition to Trump's legal team when they argue before the Supreme Court to turn the US into a Trumpian autocracy.  Both were available and both work on the cheap.

Republicans Line Up In Support Of Their Glorious Leader

Trump is not alone.  He has much of the organized Republican Party leadership at both the national and state levels fully supporting his sedition.

Late Wednesday afternoon, in as clear a demonstration as there ever has been of the authoritarian rot at the heart of the Republican Party, 17 other states, all governed primarily by Republicans, filed an amicus brief in support of the ludicrous lawsuit being brought by Ken Paxton, the indicted Republican attorney general of Texas, that seeks to overturn the results of the presidential election by disenfranchising millions of voters in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.

These people know that Trump lost the election, but they don't care.  Their commitment to Constitutional government is only viable if their party is in control of said government. 

Trump voters are more than willing to overlook Trump's inability to provide evidence of actual fraud in any state during the 2020 election.  Trump spent much of his time in the months (years) before the election preparing his MAGA followers.  The "fake news media", the "deep state", mail in election fraud, voting fraud in predominantly Black cities...  Trump planted the seeds, but don't forget that the ground had been fertilized by decades of right wing lies and deceptions.

By and large, Republican voters who claim that Biden stole the election are arguing from bad faith, not delusion.

This distinction is important because it shows that the intentions of Republican voters (and too many of their elected leaders) are sinister, and need to be taken seriously as an overt assault on democracy. Understanding modern politics means understanding one crucial reality about the current landscape: Conservatives don’t hold beliefs, they only have rationalizations.

Many of their long-standing beliefs don’t hold up to modern moral standards or rational scrutiny. Rather than give up those beliefs, however, Republicans have developed a series of disingenuous gambits, conspiracy theories and trolling tactics to derail conversations, sow confusion and otherwise distract those who would challenge their indefensible ideology.

Republicans are pretty much good with Trump stealing the 2020 election with the support of the party's leadership.  For all their flag waving and faux patriotism, it is clear that most Republicans would be happy living in an authoritarian country as long as their glorious leader is in charge. 

 

Trump - Classless, Clueless, Graceless

What a classless, clueless, graceless piece of shit Trump is.  A petulant infant who thinks he is the only person on the planet who matters.

After Gable received his medal, he gave a speech and then the assembled press tried to ask Trump questions about attending the inauguration of Joe Biden and things of that nature. Trump wanted nothing to do with it and just kind of walked out, looking agitated, leaving Gable and his family hanging in the Oval Office. If the description doesn't make it sound awkward, just look at Gable's reaction.

It's always all about Trump.  

This is unreal. Trump abruptly walked out of Dan Gable’s Medal of Freedom ceremony today, leaving Gable shrugging and at a complete loss about what he was supposed to do. pic.twitter.com/mOzlLn8poC

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 8, 2020

If You Vibrate Correctly, No Mask Necessary

It's all about "good vibrations". Why did Trump not tell us?  No need to inject bleach if you can vibrate at the right frequency.

 We asked these Trump supporters why they don’t wear masks. pic.twitter.com/GgZ4HJz6lf

— The Good Liars (@TheGoodLiars) December 8, 2020

Americans - It Didn't Have To Be This Way

When a country takes aggressive public health measures to deal with Covid-19, life can return to (close to) a normal pre-pandemic state.  Any American that thinks that Trump's response to Covid-19 was anything other than criminal is an idiot.

Australia - 1,096 Covid-19 infections per 1,000,000 population.

USA - 46,136 Covid-19 infections per 1,000,000 population.

Australia - 35 Covid-19 deaths per 1,000,000 population.

USA - 873 Covid-19 deaths per 1,000,000 population.

Number of new Covid-19 cases in Australia yesterday - 7.

Number of new Covid-19 cases in US yesterday - 180,276.

If you’re wondering what life is like in Australia... pretty much back to normal. Thanks to decisive action, lockdowns, mandatory international quarantine, and stringent contact tracing, the current number of active cases in the whole country (pop. 25 million)?

47. pic.twitter.com/ind2dC66I9

— Ashley Spencer (@AshleyySpencer) December 5, 2020

Bill Gates, Vaccinations and the Mark of The Beast - UPDATED

The Republican Party's war on science will continue even while Trump stews and plots his "comeback" while the MAGA faithful continue sending him their hard earned money.  Republicans are all in on the anti-vaccination movement and always willing to embrace the latest crackpot theories up to bleach injection as a Covid-19 therapy.  They've invited a leader in pseudo medical bullshit to enlighten the US Senate.  Someone who believes that Covid-19 vaccination is all a scam.  Here's a preview of the inevitable result of the Republican embrace of these quacks.  

A year from now, I assume Canada, the Pacific Rim, Australia, New Zealand, and the EU will have vaccination rates in the mid-80s -- while America struggles to reach 50%. Five years from now, America will be known as the country that still has regular COVID-19 outbreaks, years after the disease has been conquered everywhere else. I believe the right will continue to fight vaccines -- the anti-vaxx movement could become the GOP's new Tea Party. As we try to inoculate Americans against COVID, right-wingers will threaten vaccination sites and vaccination workers. They'll treat any card you get verifying that you've been vaccinated as the biblical Mark of the Beast. It's going to get ugly.

UPDATED:  If you don't think we could be that stupid as a country, remember 71 million people voted for Trump and lots of them are influenced by people like Florida (yes, Florida) megachurch pastor and Trump spiritual advisor,  Guillermo Maldonado.  

Maldonado, who mocked members of his own congregation for staying away from church in the early days of the pandemic, used his Sunday sermon to warn that the COVID-19 vaccine will “alter your DNA” as globalists set about “preparing the structure for the Antichrist.”

“People, I want you to look at me,” Maldonado said, as he frequently switched between speaking English and Spanish. “That is exactly what is happening with COVID-19. They’re preparing the structure for the Antichrist. How? The vaccine. They’re gonna demand for you to have the vaccine in your passport, otherwise you will not be able to travel. Because they are preparing the way.”

“The vaccines, they are made to alter your DNA,” he continued. “They are made to track you down. Do not [take] the vaccine. Believe in the blood of Jesus. Believe in divine immunity.”

Jesus healing the sick where people like Maldonado see them as marks to be conned.  Maldonado's advice to Trump is all about how to run the long con. 

It's A Good Question - WTF Has Trump Done For You?

Unemployed for four years and collecting DUIs.  Needs a ride to the next MAGA rally.

Loving this! https://t.co/oOmEWDASzL

— GrumpyDragonProductions #TransRightsAreHumanRights (@GrumpyDragonPro) December 5, 2020

Trump's Public Crimes

It should be no surprise to anyone.  Trump is a criminal.  This morning he committed another crime right out in public.

...this morning President Trump called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) and asked him to convince the state legislature to overturn the results of the election. Kemp refused. (Trump makes weird heroes.) We need to understand that these are literally crimes.

You're On Your Own

The most significant crisis that Trump has faced is the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Trump has completely failed to protect the American people from the first warning regarding a potential global pandemic a year ago up until this very moment.  While he rants about the election he lost and spends multiple days each week on the golf course, Trump has abandoned any pretense of leadership to save American lives (and the economy).  There are no comprehensive federal plans for the deployment of vaccines to the country.

Yet beyond the guidelines advising states about how to deploy their vaccines — and a large Defense Department operation to deliver them — the Trump administration hasn't prepared for a major federal role, a lack of planning that is causing significant anxiety among state and local health officials.

The significant checklist of unmet federal responsibilities underscores the challenges ahead for President-elect Joe Biden, who inherits most of the burden for executing a successful nationwide campaign to vaccinate all Americans, potentially without the billions of dollars in additional funding that will be needed.