On the line

        As Ben Franklin is supposed to have responded to a question about what kind of government the Founders had cobbled together; "A republic, if you can keep it", so it is time to ask what kind of government tRump supporters are looking for in the wake of Rudy Giuliani's bonkers press conference yesterday and subsequent actions by his boss.

       With absolutely no proof of voter fraud other than his fevered imagination, Giuliani as much as admitted there will be no more lawsuits filed in various states, because when asked by judges for proof, not a single lawyer was able to produce any.   The game now is to get republican controlled state legislatures to defy the will of their constituents and name tRump electors to compete with legally chosen Biden electors.   The strategy is to blow up the electoral college and get the  issue before the Supreme Court.  

     This is the last ditch strategy of a loser.  I hope republicans of good will repudiate it at every turn.  I'm holding my breath...

The Future belongs to...

        My granddaughter Hannah was extremely excited yesterday.   Her teacher told her mother that the little girl was scoring 100% in all the subjects covered in the first grade curriculum.  She even offered to send more complicated work home so Hannah could advance further during the school year.   On its face, this is a feel good story about the virtues of hard work.   However, the devil is in the details.

       Due to the pandemic and the risks going to in person schooling would pose to her various caregivers, primarily  her paternal grandparents, Hannah is being home schooled by Grandma Carol, a retired teacher herself.   Carol spends 3-4 hours a day in one on one instruction with Hannah who absorbs information like a sponge.   Her parents and other grandparents continue to encourage her when her orbit intersects ours.   I cannot imagine a more virtuous circle.  I also cannot imagine any but a small minority of her peers who are getting a better childhood education.   I am happy for Hannah, but a small part of me wonders what the other children in her class are doing during their days and nights away from school.

     Parents who don't have the ecosystem of my granddaughter or the ability to pay for the tutoring necessary to make a good pandemic education possible will have to settle for a lesser school experience for their children.  It's not fair and it's not right.   

Close to the Edge

      As November wears on, the media has inexorably latched on to the narrative that tRump obviously lost the election and has even lost the battle to frame the whole thing as stolen, but there seems to be little to do but wait for state certification of at least 270 electoral votes for Biden.   Instead of excoriating the Republican party for the anti-democratic force it has become, most media outlets report each illiberal action as if it existed with no connection to hundreds of other strikes against our democracy.

      Meanwhile, the inept wanna be autocrat remains in the White House, having abandoned any pretense at doing the job he was elected to do.   Instead of governing, he spends his time tweeting or golfing.   As long as Republicans allow this travesty to continue, they are just as complicit as tRump in this rending of the popular will.   

       Once again, we are trapped by the norms of a democracy which tRump cares not a fig.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are powerless until January 20, unless there is goodwill emanating from the Oval Office.  So we must wait for Covid relief as well as a functional executive branch.   

Covid vs. Climate Change

Over at the NYT, Paul Krugman says based on our failure to cope with the Corona 19 pandemic, he is increasingly pessimistic about our ability to handle the challenges posed by global climate change.  Even something as simple as mask wearing to slow the spread of the disease has been opposed by a vocal minority who argue the pandemic is a hoax, right up until they are intubated or moved to the morgue.

     One can see the same automatic response to climate change.   For the most part it cannot be felt until the hurricane or tornado rips apart lives.   Even then, the same Covid deniers will say climate change is a hoax also.   

      The nascent Biden administration is facing economic, social and political challenges already.   Throwing climate change front and center is probably a recipe for losing in the mid term elections and kicking the climate can down the road for another 10 years.  I hope this is not the way things go, but as Krugman says, it is hard to be optimistic about our will to fight climate change when we can't even admit the presence of a communicable disease in our midst.

Uncharted territory

        Like most Americans, my family had to deal with what is rapidly becoming the new normal.  Do we celebrate that most mundane of milestones, a birthday, or do we observe Covid 19 precautions and forget about it for the balance of the year.   In this particular case, the birthday in question was mine and the attraction was my eldest daughter's offer to cook a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, my favorite repast.

         We probably did everything wrong, celebrating piecemeal with everyone during the day, except for the family bartender who was obviously too exposed to the coronavirus to interact with her 69 year old father.  Meanwhile, I am continuing physical therapy for my newly operated knee replacement in an office with minimal social distancing and hands on P/T.   What is to be done?   I think we are in uncharted waters, and are very likely to be learning very dangerous lessons as the pandemic ravages our country and the national leadership is more likely to be found on a golf course than in the situation room.

Blah, blah, blah

      As the Divine Mrs. M has intuited, we have reached the stage of non-stop blathering by the cable news networks regarding the recent elections.   In the absence of the traditional transfer of power from the outgoing administration to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the networks have descended to Kremlinology to try to discern what is happening at the White House. 

      Hirings and firings are dissected when as most of us know, there is little active malice emanating from tRump's lair.  The nation's chief executive for the next 70 days is probably planning his next grift.  There is also golf to be played.   Concessions are unlikely, but co-operation with the incoming administration will happen as more and more Republicans suggest any other reaction is beyond the pale.

     Meanwhile, both liberal and conservative networks have 24 hours to fill...

Losing whatever scruples they ever had

       It is hard to say anything nice about the republican party in A.D. 2020.   If it ever had a soul, most of it was in hock to Ronald Reagan and his "government is the enemy" message.  The little that remained has now been sold to Donald tRump, a mountebank who makes Reagan look like a statesman.

       The election has been over for a week.  The networks called it for Joe Biden on Saturday.  Yet many elected Republican officials and a large percentage of party members refuse to believe the results.   Instead, there is a barrage of claims of a stolen election and encouragement to doubt the most fundamental ritual in a democracy, a free and fair election.  The stupidity of Republican claims is self evident.   If democrats were fixing the elections in 50 states, how did they allow Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham to be elected, along with many others GOP candidates? 

       Voters rebuked tRump and his policies (what policies?) after 4 nightmarish years.  However, the same voters seem willing to believe the party which enabled tRump is not responsible for him and so re- elected many of the sycophantic bootlickers who got us into this mess.   Now, instead of being able to enact their programs and let the voters judge their efficacy, congressional Democrats will face a salted earth opposition by Republicans who will decry "gridlock".   This will lead to a GOP win in the House in 2022 and Biden's opportunity to govern will have come to naught.   This is the Republican agenda and despite their president's bungling of the pandemic and the needless loss of more than 100,000 lives and counting, it looks like the party of Lincoln will get away with killing what is left of our democracy.   There is no hell hot enough...