It Wont Be Easy to Fix the Collapse into Fascism (2/3)

It is a waste of time for me to write up these notes.  Very few people will read them and those who do will not have the power to do anything.  The best I can say for this is that it might have some minor psychological value to put this out there.  

The introduction to this discussion of "things to fix" is here.

1. The Electoral College

None of this would have happened if we did not have a dysfunctional electoral college. Remember, the supreme court threw the election to Bush in 2000 through this device.  Gore won the popular vote and was well on his way to win the electoral vote.  It was because of this coup d'etat that we got Alito and Roberts on the court.

2. Fixing the Supreme Court and the Judiciary

This situation was created in large part because the right wing nuts on the supreme court installed citizens united and gutted the voting rights act.  On top of that we have the ridiculous immunity decision.  We have the failure of them to correct the obviously unconstitutional actions by Trump to go against the power given to Congress to fund or not fund government agencies.  And of course we have various members of the court committing perjury to congress when they discussed what they would do with Dobbs.  Therefore all these decisions have to be reversed and the people involved ejected from the court.  We also have right wing nuts throughout the judiciary (remember Cannon?).  All of these people must be removed from the judiciary and their decisions reversed.

3. Pardoning Insurrectionists

Trump pardoned those who were convicted of attempting to overthrow the government of the United States.  The convictions need to be restored and those people put in jail to serve their time.  The abomination of the insurrectionist being given honors by the Air Force needs to be reversed.  

4. Enforce the constitution on insurrectionists in government.

5. Fix the problem of the executive orders

6. Remove anyone from ICE and DOGE from the US Government and make it impossible for them to return.

7. Set standards for national elections.

8. The DOJ and FBI were weaponized.  Everyone involved in that needs to be arrested and prosecuted and barred from government.

9. The ability of Fox News and others to lie outrageously to pervert the government and political process needs to be solved.  We proved that the civil justice problem is not sufficient.

It Won't Be Easy to Fix the Collapse into Fascism (1/3)

This is part 1 of 3 parts.

As a former Democrat, I admit to being surprised and maybe annoyed at how badly our party has done.  Failure like that does not happen by accident, you have to work at it and be talented at failing.  This talent comes in a variety of forms one of which is a consistent unwillingness to take a stand on principle.  That is not the point of this blog post, which has a different purpose, except to say that I see no reason to think that the Democratic party, as it is formally defined in this country, has a prayer of being able to fix this many dimensional disaster.  They had plenty of opportunity to serve their country and make changes to head off this situation and they chose one stupid reason after another not to do so.  From Merrick Garland and Jack Smith's failure to competently prosecute the rapist pig to Chuck Schumer's choice to surrender the budget, we had literally hundreds of proofs that the Democratic party is not up to this fight.

Furthermore, I have no reason to think that the American people want democracy enough to fight for it either.  I have seen example after example that shows that many Americans are stupid or venal or both.  In fact it seems to be impossible to explain to the Trump supporter that it is not the policies of their rapist pig president we object to, although we do, it is the fact that they still support this asshole after all this.  Trump will go away, but we will still have the Trump supporter and  other idiots to deal with.  I dont think that is going to work out so well and it is one reason why I am sure that this collapse into fascism will only get worse.  America, as an experiment in government, has utterly failed and it is pathetic that so many people do not realize it.

The following is an incomplete list of things that have to happen to rebuild this country to a democracy.  I do not think the list is complete, which is too bad, it is long enough.  The problem I see is that I doubt that pretty much any of this doable, but I think they are all required.  Every last one, not necessarily in this order.  And in many cases there are probably "other solutions" that have the same effect as what I am proposing below.  Maybe.

Furthermore, having been on top of these issues for 25 years and being more correct about what was going on than just about any politician I know of and certainly better at this than anyone I know, I am going to modestly and humbly suggest that I am more qualified than any of these wankers to suggest what has to be done.  That wont happen, and I certainly wont get any respect, and this really is a waste of my time to even bother to write some of this up, but here we go anyway.  

Part 2 and Part 3 will be here when they are written.

The Various Failures of the Democratic Party

Part 1 of 3.  Find parts 2 and 3 here, when they are written.

When you have a complete collapse of democracy there is plenty of blame to go around.  But I believe that second only to Trump the Pig, pride of place should go to my party, the Democrats.  Gotta love them, but I dont know any group of people more craven, more self-serving, more self-entitled or more self-deceived as the Democratic Party elites.  Weak and indecisive.  As the singing cowboy, Will Rogers, said: "I belong to no organized political party.  I am a Democrat".

In the last 25 years or so, I have watched the Democratic Party studiously work to fail.  Failure of this nature does not just happen; it takes sincere effort and a desire for excellence.   A willingness to work to the point of pain to demonstrate contempt for their constituency.  Instead of working to educate us, perhaps to show why something was necessary, the Democrat Party ignored its people.  And they kicked the can down the road rather than make a stand on principle.

In contrast, the Republican Party who may be despicable, seem to deliver for their constituency. From "her emails" to Benghazi, to Fox News, to defunding the government, to treason, the Republicans always deliver solid red meat.

This is not hindsight on my part.  I have been waving my arms like a maniac since November 2000 when I went to Washington to protest the Supreme Court coup d'etat. 

First there are the policy failures, and second there are specific events where the Democratic Party demonstrated lack of backbone.

On policy, they did not articulate a strong position on immigration.  They abandoned the center of the country to the ravages of a globalized, hollowed out America.  They did not take a strong stand on law enforcement or, for that matter, civil rights.  Always involved in political correctness beyond what most Americans care about.  And of course Biden failed to address inflation and the party lamely said that it did not exist.  

Then there are the specific issues or events where they failed to respond to fight and to lead. In no particular order. 

The Democrats failed to oppose the ridiculous Supreme Court decision that stole the election from Al Gore who was clearly winning.   They failed to get Merrick Garland onto the Supreme Court.  They failed to prosecute anyone in Wall Street for their malfeasance which led to the 2008 economic collapse. The Democratic party elites attempted to sabotage Sanders and give the nomination to Hilary. They exterminated the political career of Al Franken for no good reason.   Justice Ginzburg should have resigned during the Obama administration.  This was a mistake no Republican would make.  Kavanaugh and Gorsuch and Barrett should never have been permitted on the court. Garland, Smith and the DOJ failed to properly prosecute Trump. The Supreme Court immunity decision was an abomination. This list could be twice as long.  The Democratic party did nothing.

There are some exceptions to this of course.  There are some good Democrats.  AOC and Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders (I love Bernie!) but all too few and they are generally muffled by the Democratic elites.  Technically Bernie is not even a Democrat.

Whatever happens over the next few years or decades as we try to defeat our fascist dictator and his party, and restore democracy to this country, however that happens, one thing seems to be clear.  The Dems will not be a help and have nothing to contribute.  I am sure they will try to take credit later.

No Longer a Democrat

After Schumer caved to the Republicans and passed the CR and validated Trump and Musk's destruction of the American Republic, I transferred my affiliation from the Democratic Party to Independent.

But the reality is that all the checks and balances failed.  Trump / Musk do whatever they want and ignore the courts.  Not that the courts are doing a very good job here.  But even so, Musk and many Republican congressman are firm in their belief that even these pathetic attempts to enforce the constitution will be destroyed.

As a citizen, I have zero power to do anything about this.  Its annoying to have the failure of the system and my impotence thrown in my face like this.

2024 Election Postmortem

Since the Republicans won all three houses of the government, and have staffed the judiciary with their operatives, Democrats have engaged in a discussion of why they did so poorly.  Its taken a while for things to become clear, but there is enough evidence to move forward with provisional conclusions.

As an aside, the NY Times revealed today, five weeks after the election, that the Biden administration oversaw the greatest immigration surge in American history.  A little late in the day for a major tool of corporate America to come clean on this issue, dont you think?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/11/briefing/the-largest-immigration-surge-in-us-history.html

Why did they wait until now to say so?  Why did the Democrats not have a policy on both legal and illegal immigration beyond saying "Hey, we dont want to talk about it?"  Or "the Republicans are freaking out about something that is not a real issue".  But the reality turns out to be that immigration is objectively a very real, historical issue and yet I dont even know what Harris' position on immigration is.  The Republican strategy of blocking the bipartisan bill on this topic was clearly a winning move and the Democrats are, as always, too weak to do anything and the American electorate is not interested in the "We tried" excuse.

The Republicans also ran on the economy.  Here, again, the Democrats seem to have been in some weird reality of their own.  They kept saying "The economy is fine, dont worry" but everyone I know who isnt in the top 20% think that prices have exploded in the last few years.  Which makes the incumbent responsible for the economy no matter whose fault it is.

A third issue is the area of competence, or which party seems to listen and then get things done. It is extremely clear that the Republicans have acted with diligence and obstinacy to achieve their goals, from corrupting the judiciary, defunding the government to supporting any authoritarian dictatorship.  The Democrats, not so much.

There are several other explanations that have been proposed for this election result.  It is said that Biden abdicated too late in the cycle for voters to get to know Harris.  It is said that by the very structure of the situation that Harris was essentially the incumbent and that the electorate was in an anti-incumbent mood.  Both of these seem plausible to me although it is hard for me to gauge how important they were.  Beyond that, however, the democrats were clearly the party of identity politics even when that meant active discrimination against white candidates. So why was there any surprise when white people voted against democrats?    The democrats were the party of hard core transexual rights, even for minors without parental approval.  That seems like a really weird policy to me if you want to get people who are parents to vote for you.

The democrats were the party of abortion rights.  Now I keep reading that this is an important issue, and I think it is but clearly it did not win elections.  In fact between two women's issues: abortion and a woman candidate for president, it does not seem as though women turned out overwhelmingly for democrats.  Maybe I wont have to hear too much about the "women's vote" in the future?  No  I think I will be hearing about this for the rest of my life no matter what the data says.

The American people did not seem to object to a leader who is a pig, a rapist, a convicted felon and so forth. A traitor and a pig.  All that stuff from Republicans about "character" has been BS all along.  This is not a surprise to me, and I hope it is not a surprise to you either.   Nixon seems like a fine, outstanding scholar compared to Trump.

So maybe the Republican positions are egregious and offensive.  Maybe they are pandering to the worst segments of the American people.  Maybe so, but they seem to win elections and while there are lots of flaws in the American Republic, and voter suppression, and weirdnesses in the way red states organize and vote in order to keep the people from being able to affect their government, nevertheless they seem to have won, in the aggregate, this last election.

Like all good proto-fascist societies, America seems to be in that phase where only power matters.  That is what the Republicans have proven time and time again since November 2000 and the Democrats never seem to learn.  The democrats will not listen to Bernie Sanders, or to AOC, nor will they fight Trump and all his works.  The Democrats had a chance to make judicial term limits a reality but they could not be bothered.  They do not have the courage of their convictions.

So why bother to elect a democrat?  Whats the point?  They want to rule in some sort of fantasy past where America was semi-bi-partisan, a world very different from today.  So electing a democrat seems to me to have no raison d'etre.

Image courtesy of Midjourney

All the Ways the Democrats Failed

One benefit of the Trump victory is that it may finally put an end to the Democratic party.  I have been tired of these people for a long time now.  Here are just a few data points.

- It was Bill Clinton who started off the whole globalization thing with NAFTA

- The Democrats did nothing to prevent the right-to-work bullshit.

- When McConnell stole the supreme court slot of Merrick Garland, the Democrats did nothing.

- It was Obama who bailed out the financial system in a way that rewarded the rich and left the poor hanging.

- When Hilary ran, it was clear that she was only interested in helping her rich friends on Wall Street.  

- The only reason I voted for her was because Bernie Sanders, the independent I supported, asked all his supporters to vote for her.

- When subsidies and tax breaks destroyed the domestic visual effects industry, the Democrats did nothing. 

- In the first two years of the Biden Administration, we could have ended the filibuster and added term limits to the supreme court but the democrats could not be bothered.

- When the supreme court installed Bush Jr as president, Al Gore and the Democrats did not complain or in any way fight.  They just rolled over.

- When the Republicans were stuffing the supreme court with obviously unqualified candidates, the Democrats did nothing.

- Most of all, Merrick Garland refused to act to prosecute Donald Trump for his crimes.  

- There are many other issues, including climate change and health care.

The Democrats have proven time and time again they dont have the desire to fight for us.  They should have shut the government down rather than just kicked the can down the road.

Images courtesy of Midjourney

Reasons Why the Democrats Will Lose in 2024

 
I am convinced that the Democrats will lose the White House in 2024.  Not everyone agrees with this pessimistic assessment.  But in this post I will go over some of the reasons why I think this is so.  

Of course "prediction is hard, especially about the future" and I could be wrong, and let there be no doubt that a second Trump administration would be the end of democracy in this country.  A right wing fascist society and a great victory for Putin.  Death to NATO and death to Ukraine.  The decline of America accelerated by an order of magnitude.  So Democrats will vote for Biden, right?  Maybe not.

Consider some of the fuckups of the last few years.  The Democratic Party controlled the White House and both houses of Congress but could not be bothered to fix the supreme court because ... because ... oh just because.  They could have passed an amendment to do something about the electoral college or keep the supreme court from throwing elections but they didnt because ... you know.  The Department of Justice threw away two full years to start the process to bring Trump to justice but they failed to even start until they were practically forced to and now its too late.  Trump will be reelected and that will be the end of that.  They knew something was up with the classified documents long before they acted.  They could have passed something to protect abortion rights but they didnt.  They could have reinforced voting rights but they didn't.  They could have started the ball rolling on repealing Citizens United but they didn't.  They could have passed legislation to help protect Europe from insanity by Republicans whether or not Trump gets reelected.  Those traitors are sure to be in the White House one day and Putin will be cheering.

Most of all they refused to listen to their base who begged them to do something, anything, and they refused to act.  So pick your favorite issue that they failed on and ask yourself why people should vote to continue this shitshow when the loyal Democratic base is ignored.  Some people will pick Israel (long before Gaza), some people will pick the Supreme Court, some people will pick the rule of law as it applies to rich people.  The point is, whatever you believe in, the Democrats let you down.  The Democratic Party elite is relying on the Democratic Party base to look beyond all that and keep on voting no matter what because ... well because Trump, and that is not a bad reason, but the fact is that we are tired of that.  How about our representatives do something for a change?  But they have failed to listen in the past, should we believe that will change going forward?  Why?

Poor little Democrat donkey doesnt know what hit it.  

Illustrations by MidJourney.

Democratic Party of SB

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I am trying to contact my local SB party to tell them that it is unacceptable for my congressman to vote in support of the republican nonsense about the "horrors of socialism".  First of all, in this country, socialism has been what we called such things as minimum wage, the 40 hour work week, sick leave, etc.  Second, what the heck is he doing supporting a nutty boy republican bill.  He should as a matter of course oppose the republican efforts to destroy the rest of america as they have destroyed, for example, our judicial system.

WTF?

Carbajal should resign at once.  I certainly wont vote for him in another election, and I dont care what republican  jerk they run against him.  Its time for the Democratic party to wake up and listen to  their constituents.

No Democrat Concedes

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I called my congressman today to request that (a) they send the long range missiles to Ukraine and (b) that no Democrat should concede today.  If the vote tally seems to suggest that they lost, that means that there was voter fraud and we need an investigation and a lawsuit.  No Republican should be seated without a battle.  Its time for the Democrats to wake up and start defending the American people.

Which they will not do because the Democrats are weak and stupid.  But we can try to stiffen their backbone.

A Report Card for the Democrats 2020-2022

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The Democrats had two years of unobstructed power in Washington.  They controlled the presidency and both houses of congress.  They have no excuses for not at least attempting to deal with these issues.  If we got progress on some of these, that would have been impressive.  But not trying is beyond frustrating.

Before you criticise me about what is involved to do many of the following (e.g. more than mere legislation in many cases), why not just assume that I already know what is involved and actually dont care all that much.  Yes, some of these are constitutional amendments, etc.  As I say, I dont care.  I have waited (we have waited ...) long enough.

1. Reform the federal and supreme courts.  The supreme court is clearly controlled by partisan hacks and some of the federal appeals judiciary as well.  As with item 11 below, incompetents or traitors or partisan hacks need to be removed.  Term limits would make sense.

2. End the electoral college. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton won their respective elections by any reasonable, modern standard.  Same thing for the House of Representatives and the Senate.  No longer is the domination of the majority of Americans by a minority in rural states acceptable.

3. Investigate and indict Republicans for their crimes.  Enforce the 14th amendment.

4. Put Trump in jail for trying to overthrow the US Government and for stealing classified documents.

5. Tax the rich and repeal the Republican tax giveaway.

6. See to it that we have a uniform voting code and end voter suppression.

7. End Citizens United and reduce the impact of big money on our elections.

8. Support abortion rights with federal legislation.

9. Support Ukraine against the Russians.

10. Support the creation of renewable energy.

11. Remove the other Trump and Republican swine from the mechanisms of government where they have been placed to destroy our republic.  People like DeJoy of the USPS.

12. Articulate a vision for addressing crime, addressing institutional racism at local police departments and addressing the homeless problem.

Of all of these, the Biden administration and the Democrats have failed except possibly for item #9 which they have done in a half hearted manner and item 10 which is somewhat addressed by the inflation reduction act.

The Democrats seem to think that by spending two years passing an infrastructure bill that they deserve to be reelected.  But why should we elect these people if all they do is fail the American people?

How to Understand Republican Arguments

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I have an approach to help understand and interpret something a Republican says in favor or against some proposition.  For example, a Republican might say that abortion should be decided by the states.  Or a Republican might in a few months say that abortion should be decided by the federal government and not by the states.  And these are the same Republicans so it can be confusing.  I have a technique that helps me understand such things and I want to share it with you.

 

Remember in the following that "all models are wrong but some are useful".  In other words, I am not suggesting that Republicans are lying pieces of garbage.  I am saying that they appear to be lying pieces of garbage for the purposes of predicting future behavior.

 

The technique is as follows.  When a Republican makes an argument such as "abortion should be decide by the states", what they are really saying is "We want to outlaw abortion and we will say any damn thing we want to attain that goal. Then when it is convenient to say something else to attain that goal, that is what we will, without hesitation, do.  We are shameless and powermad and there is no point in arguing with us because you are just wasting your time.  We dont believe our arguments either".

The Democrats, being endlessly naive and weak, fall for this trick over and over again.  Dear Democrats: please grow up.  Stop falling for this trick, it makes you look stupid and it does us (remember us? the little people?) no good.

Democrats! Dont Forget Your Poor Constituents!

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Its pretty obvious, the factions contend and they rely on their constituents at key times to do such things as show up to events, put on armor and attack the jews, or contribute to campaigns and do bake sales. Thus a leading Roman citizen would act as patron and in return his "clients" would walk around town with him to show how much the people loved him. But woe! Woe! Do not fail, oh patron, to deliver for your clients with bags of food or whatever it is you are contributing to each, in full measure, and prorated by their value to you in your quest to be elected magistrate of the local town, for whom you erected that lovely fountain in the center of our forum. Even with all your clients you may still fail at the so-called "fair election" of the white men of property by other white men of property, but at least you will have a chance. But if you are stupid like the mainstream Democrats then you will fail to deliver, deliver anything.... anything at all. Their president would not let a week go by without doing something for his people, whether that was to insult native americans or nominate a right wing nut to the supreme court. But our president and his wimpy administration cant even pretend to do anything but instead waste time squealing about "bipartisan" and "its not our fault" but thats not how it works and you have the power. It was your nominee to the Justice Department that failed to follow up on that silly independent investigation by whats his name, so lame I dont even remember his name. But now that statute of limitations (what a joke) has passed so another opportunity is lost. You cant even ship ammunition to Ukraine, you lame idiots. So why therefore should we vote for you? Why? At least the Republicans get something but Biden just lies there limp, and looks at the ceiling while we all get fucked.

 

Surprise! Limp Democrats Fail to Uphold Justice

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The statute of limitations on obstruction of justice by the Trump administration is now passing.  These crimes were documented in the Mueller report. The Department of Justice has failed to bring suits against Trump and his cronies for gross violation of the law.  Oh please, Merrick, is it really necessary to dodge doing your job, and to vindicate Trump's crimes?  I am sure you and Biden decided to do this (let the clock run out) rather than be "divisive". 

 

Why, therefore, should I ever vote for the Democrats again except to annoy the Republicans?

 

Nominate Merrick Garland For the Supreme Court?

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Dear REDACTED,

I have a possibly interesting idea for who Biden should nominate for the Supreme Court.  I realize that Joe Biden promised a black woman for the Supreme Court but then he hasn't kept any of his other promises so why should he keep this one? Also we know that he wants to propose some horrible limp failure who will not defend Americans and who will not in any serious way work to counteract the hideous partisans of Gorsuch etc.  So why not propose Merrick Garland? Garland is obviously a failure at the Department of Justice, so everyone can be confident he won't do anything interesting on the so-called Supreme Court. Then maybe Biden could propose someone who could think about enforcing the law instead of that usual Obama-like policy of letting the most guilty off.   One of the side effects of Garland and the Department of Justice failing to minimally enforce the law is that Trump can promise his followers that if they murder people and destroy American democracy that he will pardon them. Yes that's what the Democrats stand for. I think that Biden is well on track to destroy the Democratic party. Certainly there's no reason for anyone even slightly progressive to vote for Democrats since they are such failures.  I think this is a great idea and I hope that you will call your congressman and your senator and support this idea. They need to hear from us. They need our guidance because obviously they don't have a clue what to do on their own. 

 

Sincerely.

Joe Biden Probably Wasnt Serious

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Please reassure me that when Joe Biden said, recently, that he had not expected the obstructionism that he has seen from the Republicans that he was joking or perhaps being in some way trying to say that he screwed up but had an excuse.  The problem, of course, is that one would have to be completely unaware of the politics and methods of the right, who we sometimes call Republicans, although they do not have the values of the classic Republicans.  Biden would have to blind or stupid or both not to have realized this reality going in.  So I wonder what it is he was really trying to say.  

 

Of course if he was merely being honest then all those who said that Biden was completely the wrong person to lead the country were correct.

 

Where is Wilford Brimley When We Need Him?

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Dear REDACTED,

How did we get here? That you would suggest that I was overly simplistic about matters of principle? Me? I merely want to remind my friends what is at stake here. This is not your everyday serial rape of children by rich people in public flying their powerful friends, like Trump or Clinton, around to do so, and then making a deal with the Florida DA to avoid any semblance of justice or compensation for the victims. As if the law were a joke to be flouted unless you were black or poor. This is nothing trivial like that. This is a series of crimes against the republic, not one crime (and I mean that in some sort of literal, legalistic sense) but a whole series of them. You say its more complicated than I realize, but I am trying to communicate, and failing, that I think that I know very well what a clusterfuck this is, even if I may indeed be ignorant of the details of what the SDNY or the DOJ may face. My response is that this is why they get paid the big bucks. And now, having been paid, many of us wish them to do their goddamn job. I am certainly not right about everything. I never thought in a million years that Trump would, again in plain sight, try to overturn the election in which Gore, excuse me, I meant to say Biden, obviously won. That he would on network television incite his followers to overthrow the constitution, attack the Congress and attempt to murder the leading Democrats in the House, defecate in the halls of congress, both literally and figuratively, and then people would say, "we must not overreact". You have got to be kidding me. I want my money back.

At the end of "No Sudden Moves" by Soderbergh, the Aldrick character says "They have eyes but they just cant see".

Hollywood is at fault. Yes, the glamourous and rewarding motion picture industry lied to me. Well, some of them did. I guess we all see what we want to see. I am a goofy idealist who ignored Hammett and Chandler and without realizing it, believed that it wasnt that bleak, that justice would be done. I am a fool. A naive idiot. Instead I believed Brimley in that fabulous courtroom drama, Absence of Malice (1981), that completely goofy Paul Newman and Sally Fields melodrama nominally about the freedom of the press in the form of Sally Fields as she attempts to increase newspaper readership and bring down Paul Newman with the help of an ambitious "jew lawyer" from the DOJ.   Then in a nearly perfect justice ex machina, Wilford Brimley, cast as the aw shucks US assistant attorney general, sweeps in like an "Old Testament" Angel of the LORD and smites the wicked.  

 

Brimley in Absence of Malice (1981)

Brimley starts off the show here (in low quality youtube video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btqBJJF2yvE

And Newman and Brimley finish it off here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMj3uqFKG84

What a fool I have been. There is no Brimley and there is no Justice. I have been lied to and those of us who pinned our hopes on elections and the justice system have been betrayed. 

Democrats Have Eyes But They Just Can't See

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The mainstream Democrats, as represented by Joe Biden, have learned nothing from the Trump disaster.  They long for an America that hasnt existed for two decades and so they fail and fail and we are cursed to suffer and to suffer because they refuse to open their eyes.  They want those good old days of bipartisan gentleman behavior to return.  They dont understand that it is dead.

 

As Aldrick says at the end of No Sudden Moves (2021):

"Motherfucker's got eyes, they just can't see."

 

Scenario for the Failure of Recent Democratic Coalition

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So this is my argument for why the most recent democratic coalition will fragment after the next election.

Lets run through a few scenarios. In all scenarios, assume that there is some percentage of democrats who we might call Sanders/Warren supporters and that Biden is nominated, as he certainly will be. I also assume that the most important factor holding the Democratic coalition together for this next election is fear of a Trump 2nd term. In the first scenario, Trump defeats Biden through a combination of obvious vote repression and russian interference or possibly just obvious judicial interference as we saw in 2000 and really in all elections since then by the failure of the judiciary to correct obvious abuses. The usual finger pointing results, with the so called mainstream democrats blaming the sanders/warren faction for the loss. But the sanders/warren faction will say you guys really didnt give us anything with Biden, just like you didnt with Clinton, and your only hold on us is that you claim we have to stick together to win elections. Well, screw that. And the Democratis party becomes essentially two parties that never talk to each other (through a process I could not begin to predict). It goes without saying that the conversion of this country into a right wing dictatorship will be completed trivially in the second Trump administration, but that is a different topic, and besides, its pretty close already. In scenario two, Biden wins and utterly fails to address the progressive agenda except through obviously insincere and insufficient acts, utterly failing in all regards, including even to reverse trump exec orders. He does do a few things, like maybe something at least superficially to help his major blocks such as unions and the african american vote, but very little to help the sanders/warren crowd. To be fair, since Biden is just a stooge of the right wing neoliberal faction just like Obama, it would be wrong for him to do anything else. But he is certainly better than Trump. But in that scenario the sanders/warren crowd will also say "what the fuck is this", and walk. Again, two democratic parties, unable to unite beyond certain very specific elections, the Democrats refuse to reform (the DNC has been incredibly bad in the last two years) and thats the end of that. The Republicans romp through the next 2-4 presidential elections because their minority, a solid 35-45 percent, always unite behind whatever traitor or idiot they nominate, and they win. This may or may not apply to the individual states, each of which has its own situation.

Now maybe Biden will pull the party together, unlike Clinton who failed utterly at that, because after all at this point even a pretense of democracy will be gone and people may unite because the situation is so dire, but by then it will be too late anyway, probably.

So that is why I think the most recent incarnation of the democratic coalition will pretty much cease to exist after the next election.

As always, I tend to be too optimistic, but whatever.

My Response to the Fear Mongerers

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Every time I read or hear so-called moderate (right wing) collaborationist "mainstream" Democratic pundits fear monger that Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders are left wing socialist nuts who will reelect Trump, I give another $25.00 to their campaigns. I encourage you to give to the candidate(s) of your choice. We arent rich, so by definition we are slaves in America, but just like our pathetic vote, every little bit helps, and miracles do happen even if only infrequently and you cant count on them.

Democratic National Committee You Have Got to Be Kidding Me

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The DNC just asked me for money.  After the way they treated Bernie Sanders in 2016?  After the recent rules prohibiting candidates like AOC.  After their failure to do the minimum necessary to deal with Trump (get his taxes, demand he resign, call for an investigation of the FBI), this is just a joke.

You want money?  Do something good for a change.

In the meantime, I will send money to Warren, Sanders and AOC.