Despicable Them

Paul Krugman's column in the NYT this morning basically calls the GOP the party of evil.  The republican congressional majorities' pathetic attempts to eviscerate Obamacare is cartoonishly over the top.   To seek to deny millions of people health care so the .01% can have a little extra pocket change is mind boggling unless you accept one or the other theories of what has become of a major political party.  As Krugman posits, most of these people are just evil.  They have spent a lifetime practicing for these moments and by the flying spaghetti monster they are going to enjoy this frisson of pure malevolence.  My theory is that a minority of bigoted, racist, misogynist people have self selected themselves as members of a party which has enabled their worst instincts.   These are the people Reagan harangued with stories of "welfare queens" and subsequent leaders derided as "those people".  As the democratic party has steadily become the hope of people of color, women, gays and others left out of the republican fantasy, the divergence of view between the two parties has become a vast gulf of misunderstanding.   The future is not looking good for the GOP as demographics overtake it, but in the meantime it can do a lot of damage to the American experiment.

The coarsening of civil discourse

Maybe it was eight years of civility under the Obama administration that spoiled me.  The contrast with Shrub's crude simplicity was bracing at first, but then we got used to a higher level of discourse regarding out politics, economy and the ties that bind us together.  Despite a stumble here and there, the population could be confident Obama was telling us the truth to the best of his ability.  From the moment he stepped onto the down escalator at Trump Tower, the present inhabitant of the White House took Obama's policy and stood it on its head.  It has been estimated Trump lies at least several times every day about virtually anything to anybody.   The corrosive effect on the political commonwealth proceeds apace.   No democracy can survive for long when a majority of the population loses trust in its leaders' veracity.  About all we can count on is that the tRump administration will lie and it will be up to us and the media to catalogue the prevarications and call the president and his enablers in Congress to account as soon as possible.

Momentary repreive

Obamacare remains on life support, thanks to Mitch McConnell's decision to postpone a vote on the supposed replacement of Obama's signature legislative achievement.  Also, thanks to Cheeto Jesus' heavy handed attacks on one moderate republican senator due to his opposition to the bill.  McConnell called the attacks by a Trump super PAC "beyond stupid".  If anything, they galvanized the anti-repeal movement and pushed several squishy GOP moderates into opposition of the republican plan to turn back the clock on health care in the name of tax cuts for the wealthy.  In over 6 months, the republican majority congress and the president have been unable to pass any major legislation.  Of course the biggest obstacle is what to do about Obamacare.  The ACA gets more popular as people find out it is what it actually does.  It turns out the republicans are the act's best advocates, since their effort to repeal and not replace key provisions are finally shining a light on the benefits accruing to the lower and middle classes in the country.  Also, local, rural hospitals which would be hurt by the GOP "healthcare" bill are mobilizing their supporters to contact their congress critters.  I'm sure our local representative, Elise Stefanik has heard from hospitals in the 23rd congressional district regarding the hardships the bill she voted  for would impose.   Public pressure seems to be working.

Cruel, but usual

In 2017 America, it is a crime to be one or more of the following; poor, pigmented, gay, elderly or a woman.  Combining any of these characteristics increases the severity of the punishment being meted out by the legislative branch of government.  A case in point is the latest iteration of "repeal and replace" now being considered in the Senate.   Slashing Medicaid, Planned Parenthood and subsidies to help the lower middle class afford insurance are all part of the plan.  The scoring of the bill by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates up to 22 million will lose health care by 2026, all in the name of cutting taxes on the 1%.  Instead of trying to defend the actual provisions of the bill, the sponsors have decided to simply lie about it and count on the media to represent their position as legitimate.  Cutting benefits to poor people has always been the modus of the modern republican party, but in the past it was dressed in the sheep's clothing of trickle down economics.  No more.   They are doing it because they can and are daring the average voter to try and stop them.  Elections have consequences.

Stormy weather

With a 50% or more chance of rain nearly every day this week, it looks like the garden and associated work will be on hiatus this week.  I scrambled most of the weekend to catch up on seeding, weeding, transplanting and harvesting  and was able to make some progress in that regard.  Unfortunately, a week of off and on again showers will set the entire enterprise back.  The warmer weather and an inch of moisture on Friday boosted the warm weather crops, but it has cooled off and more rain will put the brakes on tomatoes, peppers, basil and other heat lovers.  The galinsoga weeds are in all stages from sprouts to mature plants ready to drop another generation of seeds.  It' s enough to start thinking about politics again and that way lies madness.   Instead, I'll  just hope the weather gods decide to smile on us mortals as we head into July.

cognitive dissonance

I wanted to title a post "cognitive dissonance" because it sounds as if I am going to provide a somewhat more erudite rant than usual.  However, I think it aptly describes how I felt this morning as the earnest, nice, polite republicans on NPR interviewed a selection of democrats and asked them if they could work with republicans to pass the execrable AHCA, or whatever McConnell and his henchmen are calling this travesty today.  For the most part, the dems who answered the call remained polite as they were hectored about their attitude toward a bill which will make health care more expensive for most people and unavailable for  many more.  I wonder if Rachel Martin would be so demure if her health insurance was being taken away or made vastly more expensive.  Instead of allowing the GOP to define this plan or forcing democrats to defend Obamacare, if the media merely described the AHCA and what it does, they would be asking vastly different questions of the protagonists' views.  As Cheeto Jesus told the media after the House version of the bill was explained to him, it was "mean".   If anything, the Senate version is meaner, and it sounds like the democrats have finally found their mojo by being the anti meanness party.   Kevin Drum, in describing his conservative mother's decision to become a democrat in the 1950s after going to college at USC, she said it was not so much the policy stands.  Republicans were just mean.  By associating "MEAN" with the republicans' repulsive version of a health care bill, democrats may have found the silver bullet to kill this particular zombie.

same as the old racism

Had the special elections in Georgia and S. Carolina happened in 1936 instead of 2017, the results would have been the same, namely, the party of racism and exclusivity won.  The only difference is the party's name has changed.  Thanks originally to the civil rights movement and Nixon's "southern strategy", racist whites in the south overwhelmingly crossed the aisle and became republicans, thus turning the solid south from a democratic monolith to a republican stronghold.  As the GOP ideology becomes further and further disconnected from reality, their voters fall back on the gut issues which brought them to the party originally.  For most of them, it all goes back to the racism, and fear of the other which republicans stoke.  Let's face it, the democratic party, for better or for worse has become the party of the non-white future of America and the backlash against it continues to build in white America.  Anyone who denies this is not looking in the mirror.

All the Trump's men

With the conclusion, last night, of the special elections to replace the republicans who moved from the House of Representatives to "serve" in the tRump administration, we have proof that safe seats on either side of the aisle are hard to flip as long as the president remains popular with the base voters of his party.   The same was true of Obama, Bush, et. al.  The post mortems are liable to be brutal in the case of the Georgia special election.  Dems pinned their hopes on an inexperienced congressional staffer who ran a milquetoast conservative campaign in order to attract what turned out to be non-existent crossover republican votes.  It is unlikely an aggressively liberal campaign would have succeeded either.  That district has been republican for time out of mind and regardless of the abundance of educated voters and the backlash against Cheeto Jesus, it was just too easy for lifelong repubs to pull their party's lever in the voting booth.  The problem going forward is the proliferation of safe districts which will continue to give the GOP an advantage until demography swamps their carefully gerrymandered congressional map.  It will take numerous indictments of administration and Trump campaign officials to flip the House next year.   In the meantime, Dems will have to chew over the lessons of these special elections.

A better populist

One of the reasons tRump wound up winning the last election was his appeal to a certain demographic in America.  These are mostly older white people who are economically liberal; think "keep your government hands off my medicare" and socially conservative; meaning keep undeserving non white hands out of the government trough.  Oh, and play the star spangled banner while doing so.   It seems the current administration is already losing some of these voters due to its inability to make good on many of its promises.  The AHCA, when finally passed and explained to these folks will put another nail in the Donald's coffin.  What his campaign did was make a lot of  promises he and the GOP had no intention of fulfilling.  They wanted the majorities in congress to pass a bog standard republican agenda of tax cuts for the rich and continued erosion of the social safety net in the name of budgetary responsibility.  To enact the programs Trump proposed Ryan and McConnell would have had to do the opposite and pass an essentially democratic program.  It now looks like the master plan will founder on the rocks of intra party fights over the size of social safety net cuts.  The racism and misogyny along with gerrymandering will keep this coalition together for a while, but the demographic handwriting is on the wall.  Probably the only way the GOP wins another presidential election is with a populist demagogue who actually walks the walk Cheeto Jesus only pretends to do. 

City vs. country

A new poll by the Kaiser Foundation purports to explore the divide between rural and urban America.  According to some, it merely shows the similarities rather than the differences.  Of course the average rural Murcan is impatient with and happy to discomfort the mostly mythical "Libtard" of their conservative imagination.  That was one of Trump's true insights into the character of many in rural America.  He gave them the cover to vent their hatred for a variety of conservative shibboleths in an orgy of political incorrectness.  Blacks, gays, women, immigrants, Muslims; the list goes on until you wonder who is excluded.  Oh, right, it is straight, gun loving racist white people.  However, when you ask these same people what would most benefit their communities, they list infrastructure improvement high above any other concern.  On several other supposedly divisive questions they mostly poll like their city cousins.  However, on the hot button issues, they parrot the overwhelmingly partisan and exclusionary rhetoric pushed for many years by Faux News and right wing talk radio.  It would seem that hate has replaced hope for many in this country.

Gardening roundup

Counting on Mother Nature to continue raining on the parade, I hustled home early yesterday and transplanted lettuce, cabbage and broccoli before the predicted precipitation.  Who knew we would jump into summer mode!  Instead of the 3/4 inch of rain the forecast promised we only got a tenth and more promises of rain on Sunday night and Monday, with hot, humid weather in the interim.  Due in part to heroic efforts last weekend, the garden is relatively clean, but will require more attention on a daily basis to remain so.  Starting to harvest leaf lettuce and swiss chard for the market this weekend, along with spinach and asparagus.  The  latter crops are slowing down and will probably continue for another couple of weeks.  Flea beetles continue to be a problem in the brassicas and as the summer and winter squash start to grow the cucumber beetles will become familiar also.  

Bitter Harvest

Filed under "reaping the whirlwind".   Every story concerning the unfortunate violent shooting at a congressional baseball practice starts with "Republican members".  The meme which has rapidly developed on the right is this is evidence the resistance to the current policies of the GOP by the left is developing into a terrorist group.  Their evidence; the shooter, an obviously deranged individual made facebook posts savaging the tRump administration and he volunteered for Bernie Sander's campaign.   As more information about James Hodgkinson comes out, it is becoming more and more apparent he was deeply disturbed and should never have had access to guns.  Based on what I have heard, he should have been locked up years ago for assault and attempted murder.  Unfortunately, I am now expecting some copycat to reprise this crime probably with democrats in the crosshairs.  The increased polarization of the political discourse in this country, particularly from the right has normalized hateful behavior.  Just look at Ted Nugent referring to Hillary Clinton as a "bitch" and inviting her to "suck on this", referring to his assault rifle.   Members of society even more unstable than Nugent were bound to start acting out these fantasies at some point.  As I said, it is unfortunate that people were hurt yesterday, but it was predictable.  Now we have to deal with the underlying reasons for the violence.

Kabuki government

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee reaffirmed my conviction that nothing much will happen in any of the various congressional investigations of the tRump campaign and presidency unless one of two things happen; either The Donald's favorability rating with the GOP base tumbles or a national or international crisis is handled so badly it scares the republican congresscritters into action.  Meanwhile, administration officials will continue as Sessions did to claim some sort of pre-emptive executive privilege which will allow them to refuse to answer any questions regarding their interactions with Cheeto Jesus.  The way I understand the Contempt of Congress citation many are calling for is that it will take months if not years of litigation to force toadies like Sessions, Coats, et. al to actually answer the questions they are now dodging.  The election of 2018 will provide a better remedy if the House flips to the Democrats.  If it doesn't, it will be proof a majority of Americans are tired of democracy and like the alternative the GOP  is offering.

Dear Leader:

The marathon tongue bath performed by tRump's cabinet on the chief executive at his first full cabinet meeting was a wonder to behold.   These mostly old white men have not risen to places of power and influence by toadying to those higher on the food chain.  In most cases they stepped over the dead bodies of those blocking their path.   However, in this instance they ladled buckets of fulsome praise on Cheeto Jesus, who accepted it un-ironically.  I'm sure the dear leader of North Korea was in awe of the performance art.   Meanwhile, behind closed doors, Mitch McConnel's henchmen in the Senate continue to massage the grotesque GOP health care bill to make it palatable to at least 50 senators.  Millions of Americans could lose health care so tax cuts can rain down on the .01%, and very few people seem overly upset by it.  The Trump-Russia investigations, the Comey testimony and the general circus atmosphere in D.C. are obscuring the very real damage being done on an incremental basis by the republicans in congress.  The myth that "moderate" republicans will stop the madness is laughable.  If you are depending on Susan Collins to stop the school bully from stealing your lunch money, I hope you were planning on fasting today!

Summer Breeze

A 30 MPH furnace wind pushing 94 degree temperatures across the North Country was our first introduction to summer 2017.  The warmth was welcome, although the manner of its coming was definitely not.  I was able to catch up on weeding in the main, but some areas of the gardens remain too wet to work.  I am rapidly running out of  room to plant, but the wild swings from low to high temperatures are more concerning.  By late Sunday afternoon, the combination of mowing, weeding and planting had pushed me to the edge of exhaustion.  I hope the weather swings back to more seasonal norms this week. 

The turning tide

Beginning with the election of Macron in France, now the humiliating defeat of the Tories in the UK and the steady accumulation of evidence against Cheeto Jesus which will eventually end his Reign of Error, it would seem that many people have turned on their BS meters and are responding to the detection of copious quantities of the aforementioned excreta.   The German elections later this year will be another bellwether indicating the continuing intolerance in the world for right wing ideology.  America may be the hardest convert to a more progressive direction due to the Faux News effect.  When a very large minority of the country is bamboozled on a regular basis with a skewed version of the facts or outright lies, it is difficult for them to admit they have been had.   Fortunately, most of these folks are in the advanced care stage of their lives.   The right wing populism of Trump, LePen and  Farage has a short shelf life.  We can only help hasten the expiration dates.

Popcorn time

I know that 10 a.m. is a little early for popcorn, but microwaves around the country will be preparing an early morning treat for millions of Americans as they settle in to hear James Comey pop the Trump presidential bubble.  Comey's testimony is the proverbial straw which will break the camel's back and lead to an even more vigorous investigation of the Trump/Russia connection.  The leak of a NSA paper documenting Russian hacks of our electoral system in the days leading up to the 2016 elections is another damaging revelation.  If anything in this latest bombshell can be linked to the tRump campaign, the administration will be toast.  Meanwhile, Comey will provide new avenues of investigation that even The Donald's most ardent defenders will be unable to excuse.   The more information that comes out means the less the republicans can control what happens.  At a certain point, the crimes and distraction that said crimes represent will become too much for the GOP to bear.   At what point will the leadership in the House and Senate decide to try and preserve their majorities instead of defending the indefensible.  I have a feeling a dip below 30% in Trump's approval rating will have more to do with their decision than the actual evidence.   In the meantime, I hear popcorn futures are a good investment.

Civic responsibility

I am getting extremely tired of reading op-ed pieces telling us our fellow citizens are low information voters because they can't be expected to expose themselves to information about politics.  After all, they have jobs, lives, children and they are far too busy to make time to help govern themselves.  These snowflakes only pay attention to who represents them in a very peripheral way and only in the last few days before an election.  Besides, they can't be expected to miss the latest episode of Survivor or Dancing with the stars.  MSNBC is the soundtrack of my and the Divine Mrs. M's life.  We also subscribe to our local paper and the NYT.   We have spirited discussions regarding the issues of the day.  While we consume more progressive or "left wing" media, we also have a BS filter in place when confronted with non fact based reporting or opinion.  I have friends who do the same thing from a right wing perspective.  Of course, the facts do have a well known liberal bias.  But I digress.  A healthy democracy needs a majority of its citizens to be knowledgeable and engaged in the civic process to the extent they can at least name their congresscritters and the issues that affect them locally and nationally.  Without this engagement, people who don't have the average person's best interest at heart will be doing the governing.  A case in point is the American Health Care Act.  A stunning majority of Americans when asked if they support the bill answer negatively.  Yet the bill stands a good chance of replacing Obamacare and leading to millions of people losing health insurance and millions more getting poorer coverage.   Why is this?  Did these same people vote for the representatives who will ignore their wishes?  Many of them have either never voted or only do so in Presidential election years.  Poor turnout and disengagement from politics will result in poor health outcomes for many of these low information voters.  Unless and until we bring a majority of citizens into the process we will have less than optimum results for most of us.

Decisions

The number of potential scandals threatening to engulf the Trump administration range from the sublime, obstruction of justice to the ridiculous, overcharging Trump charity events for access to golf courses.  Of course, it all comes down to the man at the center of the maelstrom.  Coming from the sewer that is the New York real estate business, I guess Cheeto Jesus figured Washington was just a provincial town where the local rubes would be blinded by NY style and he could continue business as usual.  After all, doesn't everyone in Washington work for the President?  The FBI director should drop investigations unwanted by his boss.  If he won't do it, some other flunky should intervene on behalf of the chief executive and as another authoritarian, Henry the Eighth once put it concerning Thomas Moore, "won't someone rid me of this priest".  Unfortunately fro tRump, but fortuitously for the rest of us, James Comey, who is no Thomas Moore, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday and probably put the republican party in the unenviable position of making excuses for a president who should be impeached for "high crimes and misdemeanors".  Part of the misdemeanor charges could be the Trump Organization charges to the Eric Trump Foundation for access to a Trump golf course in Westchester for an outing to benefit St. Judes Children's Research Hospital.  Expert's agree there is no way Trump's spawn's foundation should have been charged $322,000 for a one day outing.  Self dealing anyone?  It seems if there are not at least a couple of blockbuster stories regarding political or monetary misdeeds attributable to this administration every day, it is an anomalous news day.  The danger is this becoming the new normal.

Supposed Kick A** Republicans

Dating back to our invasion of tiny Grenada during the Reagan administration, GOP presidents have told us to "be afraid, be very afraid" of virtually any actor on the international stage.  Compared to the British stiff upper lip response to terrorism, we have been treated to an American quivering lower lip when it comes to our reaction to an attack on American interests or citizens.  Instead of treating 9/11 like the crime it was, the Shrub and his minions made it a civilization challenge; a showdown between the West and radicalized Islam.   This attitude warms the hearts of munitions makers everywhere, but doesn't really address the problem of backward, authoritarian regimes which export and inspire terrorism.  It becomes a virtuous cycle of western bombing converting locals and muslim citizens of western countries into terrorists whose acts cause republican bed wetters to call for more bombings.  We are descending into a rabbit hole...

Warming on the horizon

Despite the recent wet weather and cool temperatures, the garden is making some progress.  The early transplants of lettuce have started to size up and  may even be ready for market this weekend.  Despite continual infestation with flea beetles the cole crops are also growing and the tomato and peppers are at least holding their own.  According to the 10 day forecast we will be getting warmer as the week progresses and may even make it to the 80 degree mark this weekend.  That will certainly be welcomed by the corn, beans and other heat lovers.  So far this season gardening has been more like a Bataan death march than a pleasure, but that can change in a hurry.

The new normal

The steady drumbeat of new terrorist attacks in the UK over the past couple of weeks are starting to strain the ability of the population to make sense of the world.  While the identities of the perpetrators of the latest attacks, which left 7 dead and 22 injured in a popular tourist area of London, have not yet been released, it is increasingly likely they are British citizens who are adherents of Islam.   Instead of asking why these otherwise peaceful young men are menacing and killing fellow citizens, I am afraid the government will elect to restrict the rights of all in the futile quest to ensure public safety.   Whether the grievances these terrorists feel are real or imagined, they will continue to act on them unless they are addressed in a meaningful way.  Ignorant tweets from erstwhile world leaders will only serve to inflame tensions, not lessen them.  

The post truth apocolypse

Relying on bogus numbers and statistics provided by right wing think tanks and organizations, the *president vowed to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Accords.  It remains to be seen how quickly this can be done, but Cheeto Jesus' main mission was accomplished according to many in his base.  By flying in the face of fact based science and spouting a litany of falsehoods regarding the future of the economy in this country, he pissed off liberals here and around the world.  In this intensely partisan nation we now have become, whatever the opposite of what liberals want is what Trump's base hungers for.  It is truly unfortunate that facts and science seem to have an overwhelmingly liberal bias.  Otherwise, the way forward would be for libtards to advocate for the opposite of what they really want, secure in the knowledge that probably 40% of the population would fight for truth and justice because it would cause heartburn in "elitist" circles.  This is the Bizzaro world of US politics circa 2017.

Denier in chief

Unless the last person Cheeto Jesus speaks to before he steps into the Rose Garden later today is a rational, fact based scientist, it looks like the US will join Nicaragua and Syria as the lone holdouts to the Paris Climate Agreement.  Unfortunately for the rest of the world, this country emits nearly 25% of the carbon pollution each year.  The rage of Trump's base and his promises to "bring back" the coal industry and the many pick and shovel jobs seems to be the motivating factor behind this betrayal of future generations.  King Coal has steadily lost jobs since the 1960s and tossing aside agreements we made in good faith will provoke a backlash which will probably cost more miners their jobs.  States like California, industries like GM and Ford and cities around the country are committed to clean energy and many will shun anything to do with coal.  I'm sure the city of Palm Beach will expedite the permits needed to build a sea wall around Mar-a-Lago in the near future!  It remains to be seen if there will be a city to provide services to the estate if current climate trends continue.