The new beginning

        It was a good beginning.   Despite the windswept and largely deserted Capitol steps and the 25,000 National Guardsmen patrolling the streets of DC, it was still a hopeful scene.   The legitimately elected president, a decent old white guy, was inaugurated by a visibly relieved looking John Roberts.  Perhaps as important in a cosmic sense, Kamala Harris, a black woman of Jamaican and Southeast Asian ancestry took the oath as Vice President.

       Of course, when your party wins and takes power, no matter what the President and VP say it will sound high minded.  As one pundit reminded us, however, Jimmy Carter sounded very good at his inaugural and look what happened.   Fortunately, unlike Carter, Joe Biden has made a career out of the inside deal in Washington.   Carter was an engineer, not a politician and could not get along, even with Democrats.   

       Another criticism of Biden is his relentless centrist stands on policy matters great and small.  Fortunately, the party itself is moving leftward at a pretty good pace and Biden seemingly has no problem with that.   Most of his appointees are decent progressives who will acquit themselves well.   He made a great start soon after the inauguration, signing a flurry of executive orders meant to cancel the previous president's* witless and mendacious attempts to make Americans' lives harder.  He also started the process of getting rid of moles planted by tRump's minions.  

     So far, so good.   It will get hard soon, but at least the new POTUS is saying the right things.

Ending the Error

        Leaving the White House as gracelessly and low class as he entered it 4 years ago, tRump and his wife departed in a cloud of suspicion and recrimination.   Goodbye and good riddance.

It didn't have to be that bad

       The above could apply to virtually any tRump policy you can name, from the Covid 19 response to putting children in cages to running up the national debt to raise the wealth of a few individuals and corporations.   It didn't have to be that bad!

       The fact we (collectively) elected an unqualified ignoramus president in 2016 did not necessarily mean we would have a failed government.   The star of The Apprentice assured us he would only hire the best people to run the government.   He then went out and did the opposite, hiring many people who actively opposed the mission of the departments they were chosen to run.  Or, they were even less qualified than the mountebank who deputized their cheerful nihilism.

     As Joe Biden is proving with his every selection, there are many people who have the expertise and enthusiasm to run government at a very high level.   From foreign policy to environmental protection his teams represent relentless competence.   tRump was handicapped in the sense Republicans have become the can't do party since Obama's first inauguration.   Even as simple a fix as raising the minimum wage to reflect inflation and productivity will be opposed by the GOP for "reasons".   Biden and his team have 2 years to convince Americans that government can be a force for good.  Let's hope they get it right.  The alternative is not worth contemplating.

Half a million!

       It is now estimated over 500,000 Americans will have died by the end of February no matter what happens between now and then.   A corrupt and incompetent administration basically gave up on fighting the disease progression in the weeks leading up to the 2020 elections.   To repeat the refrain describing so much of tRump's government, "They must be held accountable.  

     There are so many things the federal government could have done to increase the pace of vaccinations as the medicine became available.   Setting up mass vaccination centers, loosening the regulations concerning who should be protected first, training a cadre of people to actually get shots into arms.  These programs could have been set up months ago, but none were.  instead it was left up to underfunded state governments to do the hard work.   

     Now we face a winter of tragedy.   Let's hope the Biden-Harris administration can lead us to a spring of hope.

One more time

        Once again, an incoming Democratic administration is taking office amid the smoking ruins of an economy brought low by the bungling of the coronavirus epidemic.   Much like the Obama administration, Biden's boys and girls must try to right the ship with little or no help from Republicans.   The difference is this time they know ahead of time bipartisanship is DOA.    The deficit chickenhawks will be in full voice again.  Paul Krugman in the NYT today has a motto for Biden; "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"!

Don't do it

       As the eponymous patron saint of this blog once observed, an old jewish proverb contained the words of an elderly lady who was told an obvious lie turned to the liar and said "Don't pee on my back and tell me it's raining".   I was reminded of this story as i listened to republicans yesterday prior to the impeachment vote in the house.   Many of the more moderate GOPers told America we need "unity".  Impeaching the president would cause strife they told us.   Please.   As Jerry would probably say, we should be carrying urinals instead of umbrellas.

Sedition

       Amid news 4400 of our fellow Americans died of Covid 19 complications yesterday comes revelations that members of congress may have escorted rioters through the Capitol on Jan.5.  If true, Americans should be rightly shocked that elected officials who took an oath to the Constitution on Jan. third promptly betrayed it two days later.   

      It is hard to believe anyone could put loyalty to a bloated toad whose allegiance is to no one but himself above fealty to our nation.  That members of congress may have been involved in this attempted coup is even more disturbing.   If found to be true, there must be swift and sure justice.  The members must be immediately expelled and brought to trial.