The Carpentariat

Hey

This note is directed to non-contributing, regular readers. I know you're regular readers because my stats rarely fluctuate; I have roughly the same readers every day. But only about 10 percent of those readers help keep this site going. You think I'm imposing a guilt trip on you? You're damn right I am. Please, take some of the load off those similarly regular readers who donate year after year. Do your part. Click "DONATE" — in the sidebar — today. And then you can proudly look down on the others who don't. Thank you — PM

I'm afraid. How 'bout you?

We now have conclusive evidence that Trump intends to destroy every check on his last, hydrophobic days in office. Having gutted the Pentagon of all top officials who might question his madness and reduced his covid task force to a joke, now he has rid himself of his own administration's election fact-checker, the honorable Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Chris Krebs, who has been "dispatched after [he] debunked on Twitter the baseless claim by Trump and his allies that the recent election was widely manipulated."

Said the incomparable Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) to the Washington Post, "This is the first business in history where the surest way of getting fired is doing your job."

It adds up, though. The very last thing Trump wants is someone in his administration doing his or her job. For that, without exception, would mean doing something that conflicts with doing damage to the United States. Treacherous Donald is in Adolf's "Burn Paris!" mode as he gradually faces the inevitability of defeat.

Most worrisome is his — and Bibi Netanyahu's — quite possible intention to leave President Biden with an indescribably messy war in the Middle East, namely Iran.

Donald Trump is a sick, vindictive and destructive man, whom his party refuses to check out of naked cowardice; they prefer holding on to their offices rather than safeguarding the Constitution and the American people.

These next two months may prove to be the most perilous in the nation's history since late 1860.

For Dems, how vital are Georgia's Senate seats?

In "A Senate Majority Is Overrated. (We Checked.)," political scientists James Curry and Frances Lee argue that sustained Republican control of the Senate might not spell doom for much of President Biden's agenda.

Many progressives are in despair at the prospect of Joe Biden facing a Senate with Mitch McConnell as majority leader…. [But] unified governments … usually end in disappointment for the party in power. The hard truth about the U.S. political system is that very little legislation gets enacted without bipartisan support….

Fully 90 percent of the laws included on a list of landmark legislation enacted [since 2011] received support from most minority party members in one or both chambers…. [From 1985 through 2018], when one party had unified control, it made only a modest difference: In a unified government, congressional majority parties failed on 43 percent of their agenda priorities; in divided government, the number was 49 percent….

Given [its] track record of infighting and underperformance across recent episodes of unified government, there is little reason to believe that Democrats would deliver on much of progressives’ wish list even with favorable outcomes in the Georgia Senate runoff elections. Rather than steamrollering their opposition, majority parties achieve more policy success by building bipartisan support.

True as those statistics are, I'd still be more comfortable with Georgia's two Senate seats, since achieving bipartisan victories would be far easier with 50 Democratic seats than 48. On major legislation, such as climate control, the party could conceivably pick off a handful of Republican moderates (i.e., what passes for their moderation these days) after losing a handful of Dems from states hostile to protecting Earth over fossil-fuel jobs. And then there is Vice President Harris to break a 50-50 tie.

There is also, however, Mitch — the junkyard rodent of modern politics. Assuming he retains power, he'll pull every stunt in the book and a few yet-unimagined ones to see, as he intended to do to Obama/Biden, that Biden/Harris become a one-term administration. On the other hand, his party's moderates may come to recognize that another four years of obstructionism for obstructionism's sake will only further defame the GOP and thus help to reduce it to a marginal status in American politics.

Whatever happened to economic self-interest?

Only under a Republican administration would such woeful inadequacies be huckstered as economic "relief." The Wall Street Journal:

About 300 companies that received as much as half a billion dollars in pandemic-related government loans have filed for bankruptcy….

Many of the companies, which employ a total of about 23,400 workers, say the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program weren’t enough to keep them going as the coronavirus and lack of additional stimulus payments weighed on their businesses.

The total number of companies that failed despite getting PPP loans is likely far higher. The Journal only analyzed the big borrowers from the program, which accounted for about half of the overall loans though only about 13.5% of the total participants.

And only under the Trump administration could such incompetence, deliberate or not, erupt in the face of a national health crisis: "Dozens of recipients, which come from nearly every state, cited the [out-of-control, never-federally controlled] pandemic as a primary reason for entering bankruptcy."

Of course many of the now-unemployed 23,400 workers (and thousands of small business owners) voted for Trump and congressional Republicans. I have yet to overcome being thunderstruck several times a week at those who persist in voting for the very people who consistently do them such inexcusable harm.

Yet "owning the libs" and defending against nonexistent religious persecution appear to outweigh, in their minds, the fundamental necessity of employment and a hand up from their government when called for.

Perhaps they simply don't read the legitimate press and watch only primetime Fox News for their daily sessions of Be afraid. Nonetheless, their ignorance is as inexcusable as the harm done to them by the Republican Party.

Ancient wisdom

The atoms in [nature] must be used over and over again; thus the death of one thing becomes necessary for the birth of another.

—Lucretius, on the contemporary Republican Party

For what it's worth

But it's not worth much. Remington Research earns a C- rating from FiveThirtyEight. Still, taken at face value, Ossoff's challenge appears a trifle more worrisome (probably just on the edge of the survey's MOE; I could not gain access to its data). Loeffler is floundering, but Perdue can demagogue with the best of them. 

The loneliness of a red-district Democrat

In two NY Times op-eds, Sarah Vowell, a contributing opinion writer in Montana, and Steven Teles, a Johns Hopkins University political scientist, write from differing perspectives about marooned Democrats.

"I want to do my part to help Joe Biden bring the country back together," says Vowell, "but on the other hand I’m a smart aleck who’s stuck with six more years of Senator Daines, my new state auditor is a convicted poacher and I refer to my governor-elect, Greg Gianforte, who famously pleaded guilty to assaulting a journalist, as 'Buffy the Reporter Slayer.'"

Observes Teles: "Democrats in the places where the party is less competitive should be far more populist on [economics] and other related issues," among which I would principally include healthcare.

Vowell's op-ed is titled "The Loneliness of the Red State Democrat." I myself am a blue state Democrat but reside in a historically red congressional district. Such has been my region's antediluvian fate, even though the district encompasses a major university. For years the party's congressional candidates have promoted greater economic equality and vastly improved healthcare — all for squat on Election Day.

A few years ago, one such candidate's campaign manager called to ask me to join their team as its finance guy. I said I would, on the condition that she privately understands that her inexperienced candidate is going to lose. The best he could accomplish, I added, was to build name recognition for perhaps a more favorable result in the next go-around, since the district has at least the potential for tight races.

At first I received a spooky silence, then a slight gagging noise, then pretty much an incensed hang-up. She was appalled at my confidential, realistic assessment of her candidate's odds, which proved lethally accurate on election night.

My point being, too many Dems running in mostly rural areas hire naïve, dreamy-eyed amateurs as their campaign manager, with the DCCC (alongside progressive howls unsuited for rural areas) being in part to blame. It must target its most promising prospects, of course, but it's done an inadequate job at increasing revenue to spread around. The consequence is repeatedly failed campaigns in districts that should have a more reasonable shot at victory. And so it goes, cycle after cycle.

The GOP: a soulless party headed for Hell

Only modern-day Republicans could be screaming about election fraud while actively pursuing — what else? — election fraud.

So confirms Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who yesterday, as you probably know by now, accused Sen. Lindsey Graham — once a member of the military's Judge Advocate General's Corps — of having attempted to strong-arm him into heaving legally cast ballots, which cost Trump 16 Electoral Votes.

Also complicit in Republicans' illicit election interference is former Georgia congressman Doug Collins, who campaigned for a Senate seat this year with convicted criminal Roger Stone. Raffensperger has called Collins a "liar" and a "charlatan." Because he is. The erstwhile congressman made a total jackass of himself last year in Trump's impeachment hearings, complaining before the nation about, among other things, how uncomfortable his judiciary committee chair was.

"Collins has questioned Raffensperger’s handling of the vote and accused him of capitulating to Democrats by not backing allegations of voter fraud more strongly," writes the Washington Post. That would be bootless allegations.

Trump, Graham, Collins and allies have the state's redneck rabble so worked up about Raffensperger's refusal to throw the election the president's way — which he could not do anyway, since counties do the counting — he said he and his wife "have received death threats in recent days, including a text to him that read: 'You better not botch this recount. Your life depends on it.'"

Added Raffensperger: "Other than getting you angry, it’s also very disillusioning, particularly when it comes from people on my side of the aisle."

To which I would add: What else did you expect from your party, Mr. Raffensperger, which has taken out second, third and tenth mortgages on its Faustian purchase of political lies and distortions and overlooked corruption? The Grand Old Party is no more "grand" than a bawdyhouse piano.

One madcap view of Trump's triumphant exit - and never-ending presence

I am, from time to time, masochistically compelled to check in with the daffy Hugh Hewitt's reflections on his stage-4 president, and here we find him envisioning Trump's three-volume memoirs and "professional" future, even though his life, presidency and legacy are better suited for a three-page pamphlet.

"The final volumn of his memoirs," writes Hewitt, "can only be imagined now. When Trump leaves D.C. for Mar-a-Lago, he will launch a super PAC, build his presidential library and, yes, begin planning campaigns 2022 and 2024. Trump doesn’t need to own a cable-news network, but he should control a block of prime-time programming. He could effortlessly host his own show, probably with one or more of the Trump children, so he doesn’t have to be on set five days a week."

Trump may need more backup than just his children. All of them, including Dad, will likely be spending a lot of time dodging NY State indictments and civil suits, not to mention whatever President Biden's attorney general simply cannot avoid acknowledging about their federal crimes. But what, Hugh worry? That would only detract from the irreality he hustles to his equally delusional readers.

He finishes by wishing what we all know won't happen, followed by yet more mysterious horseshit:

"Trump and Trump loyalists will work to maintain a hold on the GOP, which is best accomplished by his proceeding smoothly toward a peaceful, graceful transition of power. Then for Trump, a period of consolidation and celebration of his achievements" — which include a lawless presidency, a busting of every political norm, one major piece of (destructive) legislation, vulgar rhetoric normally found only in smoke-filled, boozy pool halls populated by mobsters, and assisting the right's sustained, deliberate cleaving of America.

There, it is done. I have now read Mr. Hewitt for the month, and I shall require at least another month to recuperate.

To most readers

This note is directed to non-contributing, regular readers. I know you're regular readers because my stats rarely fluctuate; I have roughly the same readers every day. But only about 10 percent of those readers help keep this site going. You think I'm imposing a guilt trip on you? You're damn right I am. Please, take some of the load off those similarly regular readers who donate year after year. Do your part. Click "DONATE" — in the sidebar — today. And then you can look down on the others who don't. Thank you — PM

Biden's presser

While conceding that, on occasion during the early primary season, Joe Biden was a bit addle-brained, he sure as hell isn't now.

Perhaps his return to power and impressive mandate from the American electorate rearranged his synapses. I don't know. But his press conference this afternoon, concluded moments ago, was a flawless, sublime performance from a man as clear-headed as President Obama — and a refreshing pause from the sitting president's hysterics. 

Yet most of all, it was a powerful coup de grâce delivered to any who still harbor doubts about his mental acuity. You must put them to rest. 

Biden/Harris want to "swallow our homes, destroy our marriages, throw our children into rivers of confusion"

In "Trump or No Trump, Religious Authoritarianism Is Here to Stay," journalist Katherine Stewart pens a hair-raising piece on the decades-long rise and failure to fall of the religious right:

Seventy-six percent of white evangelicals or white born-again Christians voted for the impeached, disgraced, loser Trump, "and the early signs now indicate that the movement seems determined to reinterpret defeat at the top of the ticket as evidence of persecution and of its own righteousness. With or without Mr. Trump, they will remain committed to the illiberal politics that the president has so ably embodied….

"The core of Mr. Trump’s voting bloc, to be clear, does not come from white evangelicals as such, but from an overlapping group of not necessarily evangelical, and not necessarily white, people who identify at least loosely with Christian nationalism: the idea that the United States is and ought to be a Christian nation governed under a reactionary understanding of Christian values."

Stewart provides abundant examples of rabble-rousing Christianism, such as this apocalyptic rant by a key speaker at an 11 Nov. Family Research Council virtual prayer: "[He] cast the election as the consequence of 'the whole godless ideology that’s wanted to swallow our homes, destroy our marriages, throw our children into rivers of confusion.'"

Yes, allowing Americans to love whom they love is a clear path to swallowing our homes and drowning our children in confusion. I mean, who cannot see that?

Just one of Stewart's insights in her brilliant essay: "While many outsiders continue to think of Christian nationalism as a social movement that arises from the ground up, it in fact [is] a political movement that operates mostly from the top down…, [whose leaders] collaborate in a densely interconnected network of think-tanks, policy groups, activist organizations, legal advocacy groups and conservative pastoral networks."

Paying for all this would be prohibitive, if it weren't for massive donations from superwealthy families (see, e.g.: Prince-DeVos) who can then push their selfishness of lower taxation onto the financially strapped, "middle rungs" of rubes.

What's the saying? Sometimes, you just want to scream.

***

BREAKING ELECTION PROPHECY:#God and God alone is the king-maker. #Jesus determines who rules. He’s still on the throne & in full control. Hold fast to our #faith because only the man God has chosen can take the crown. #Trump will have a second term. 👑https://t.co/peFNtPcmif

— Christian News 360° 🙏🏼🇺🇸 (@FollowCN360) November 16, 2020

At least Jesus has a hashtag. Otherwise, he wouldn't matter.

Ossoff, Warnock, Biden, and the future

The Washington Post:

"Two runoffs in Georgia on Jan. 5 will determine control of the U.S. Senate. Victories by the Republican candidates would mean many of Biden’s top priorities — a Medicare expansion, comprehensive immigration reform, the repeal of the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and bold moves to a carbon-neutral economy — would face the formidable barrier of a Senate led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell….

"In his new memoir, former president Barack Obama describes what he calls McConnell’s 'shamelessness' in pursuit of power. Obama relays a story Biden told him about the time he tried to explain the merits of a piece of Democratic legislation McConnell had blocked: McConnell raised his hand to Biden like a traffic cop and said, 'You must be under the mistaken impression that I care.'"

And that, gentle reader, is the kind of hideously dishonorable slop President Biden will face, should Georgia's senatorial candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, lose to the Republican incumbents — the "Kamala-mala-mala" name-mocking David Perdue and the stunningly prescient stock-trading Kelly Loeffler. Rarely have we witnessed two finer specimens of Trumpian elementary-school taunting and financial swindling.

We have already achieved the #1 goal: booting the nation-dividing Trump from the White House. Yet a Democratic Senate remains in the balance. This is doable; On 3 Nov., only a couple points separated Ossoff from Perdue and Warnock's combined Democratic vote from Loeffler's combined Republican vote. Stacey Abrams, a pragmatic progressive, deserves much of the credit. And now it's time for other progressives to pull together in support of Ossoff and Warnock.

"What Republicans did with Clinton and with Obama is for the most part they just did not cooperate, and they let Democrats hang themselves," says Democratic strategist Jim Kessler. I'll make a promise. If ultraprogressives will stop complaining about Democratic pragmatism, I'll stop complaining about ultraprogressives.

To readers

I cannot do this without you. These posts take time and financial investment — the first of which I gladly supply, the second of which I can meet only so far. You are the critical bridge, the essential lifeline, between this site's survival and my daily commentaries' shroud. So please click "DONATE" (see sidebar) and do what you can. Your support is appreciated more than you can know. Thank you—PM

A classic case of projection

Virginia Wesleyan University business professor and dean Paul Ewell wrote that anyone who chose Biden for president is “ignorant, anti-American and anti-Christian.” https://t.co/LEGjh41iAY

— NBC12 WWBT Richmond (@NBC12) November 15, 2020

And Trump retweeted it.