The Chauvin Verdict and the Rule of Law

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Tuesday April 20, 2021 · 3:27 PM PDT

2021/04/20 · 15:27

My brother in law recently retired as a litigator for a major Twin Cities Hospital. He tried over 100 cases and never lost. He has provided us with excellent insights into the Chauvin trial as he has known most of the lawyers and judges.

On Sunday, I asked him how he would handicap the verdict. He said, “Oh, I think he will be convicted. The question is, which charge?”

A young woman who knows my youngest daughter was there also. She said, “I think he will acquitted and this city will melt down.”

A couple of things here. First, it was interesting that this young woman didn’t think, hmmm, I am sitting here with a guy who litigated in MN courts for 40 years. Maybe I should hesitate a bit before just assuming he is wrong. Well, of course, young people are like that.

But I share this story because it seems to me very significant on a lot of levels. Annie (we’ll use that name) spoke out of a profound level of experience shared by most of her generation. They have come into consciousness at a time when the true horrors of American racism were laid bare. And their experiences of government’s responses have not been good. Mass shootings. Cops killing Black people. The Creep’s administration. Unequal treatment for demonstrators on the Left and the Right. Here in MN, we like to think of ourselves as progressive and virtuous, but the racism is coming out here too and we couldn’t even get through the trial before another black man was killed by a cop. Annie has good reason to expect horrors.

So what does this verdict mean? It doesn’t bring George Floyd back. But it’s pretty damn important nonetheless. Contrary to so much of what we have been going through, it is a major instance of the Rule of Law doing what it is supposed to do.

That is crucial for the initiatives to change toxic cop culture. Cops have for many decades—centuries?—operated with an assurance that they could do what they wanted to “perps” without fear of consequences. The cop brother/sisterhood would stand by them and no jury would convict them. Now, in a case the world has been watching, a cop went down. The mantle of invincibility has been shredded.

But it’s crucial, too, for US. Young and old. We desperately needed reassurance that the Rule of Law remains in force and can be made to work.

You know, I am repeatedly struck by the impatience and instinct on our side away from due process. I don’t know how many times I have read a post or comment that fulminated against the inconvenience of process. The Creep’s time of malfeasance in office. Prosecution after January 6. The Chauvin trial.

Hey, we are ALL disgusted and appalled. But so often I see people angrily, impatiently demanding immediate action. It’s so obvious he is guilty. Why is this taking so long? He needs to be punished NOW! The Insurrectionists needed to be in jail by January 7th!

But, see, due process is on our side. The MN prosecutors did a methodical, meticulous job and nailed the sonovabitch. It took time, but it convicted him and left him virtually no excuse for an appeal.

I want it this way. I am NOT on the side of instant condemnation and judgment based on passions. I do NOT want to be part of a lynch mob. And that is the only alternative to taking the time to get the prosecution right.

Our side is the side that cares about justice, about the protection of the vote for everyone, about disposing of a creep in the Oval Office by legal means, not an insurrection.

Of course, due process often enough lets us down. We’ve seen that again and again. Due process fails to deliver justice more often than it succeeds. So I certainly get the frustration and the desired to burn it down in the name of those who suffer.

I share the disgust and the frustration. But I know that the way forward lies through taking the time to build, not through mob anger. We may or may not succeed in asserting the protection of law for Black people in America. But I know that they will find no justice without the law.

And today my fellow Minnesotans set a crucial precedent. The law CAN WORK. Let’s bend our efforts to build it up so it can do its job.

I am not a fan of Sir Thomas Moore. But some lines from A Man for All Seasons always resonate in my mind. I’ll end with them.

Roper: That man's bad!

Moore: There's no law against that.

Roper: God's law!

Moore: Then God can arrest him.

Roper: While you talk, he's gone!

Moore: Go he should, if he were the Devil, until he broke the law.

Roper: Now you give the Devil benefit of law!

Moore: Yes, what would you do? Cut a road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: Yes. I'd cut down every law in England to do that.

Moore: And when the last law was down ,and the Devil turned on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?

This country is planted with laws from coast to coast... Man's laws, not God's, and if you cut them down... and you're just the man to do it... do you really think you could stand upright in the wind that would blow then?

Random calls for police support groups?

thresholder

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Friday March 19, 2021 · 9:33 AM PDT

2021/03/19 · 09:33

A question and a comment.

Are you getting repeated calls from various groups seeking support for cops? Do these calls seem to be proliferating?

We keep getting call after call looking for, I guess, money for … who knows?

I don’t really know because, as soon as the guys (they are always men) identify themselves, I cut off the spiel with a question:

Do Black lives matter to you?

Of course, they never have anything to say to that. Some hang up right away. Some are bewildered. But the call is over.

I am just wondering if others are getting these calls and if they are intensifying as part of the push back against the movement to hold police responsible.

And I am amazed that our number doesn’t get put on a no-call list. They may think we are their target demo, but we are definitely not!

Comments appreciated.

Poll

72 votes Show Results

Do you get calls to support police groups?

72 votes Vote Now!

Do you get calls to support police groups?

All the time.

18 votes

More than ever

9 votes

Sometimes

19 votes

Rarely

8 votes

Never

18 votes

GQP Civil War!

thresholder

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Tuesday February 16, 2021 · 11:23 AM PST

2021/02/16 · 11:23

And no, I don’t mean the neo-Confederates trying to secede. I mean the civil war within the GQP. (I love that “GQP” thing!)

I am not going to try to list all the signs of the growing split in the Ugly Party. You folks know them. I was chortling reading today’s GNR which had a lovely list of examples. Delicious.

I just want to make a simple point which is to me the single most important political issue we face:

A fractured GQP will get killed in elections from Nome to Miami. For the first time in decades, progressive initiatives have a chance.

The iron grip of reactionary truculence which has strangled our nation since Nixon has been based on an unholy but ultimately unsustainable alliance between wealthy technocracy and populist resentment. We all know that, but too often we allow anxiety to lead us to forget that that alliance is unsustainable. Wealth, poverty, and religious fanaticism share few actual interests. Eventually, the gravitational forces were going to pull those spheres out of the diabolically engineered force field soldering them awkwardly together.

To keep the troops in line despite continuously preying on their economic resources, the corporatists have had to feed the beast of paranoid fantasy ever more radically. Remember the Tea Party? It seemed a political master stroke but within a couple of cycles the monster began to turn on its masters. Trump was the last step in the GQP masters losing control of their own party. The writing was on the wall, but the Masters couldn’t resist continuing to feed the beast that was getting them tax breaks and election wins from an electorate that could never be allowed to realize the predators feeding off of it.

The patchwork engineering simply could not last. Eventually, the populist monster was going to turn on its technocratic masters. I have been waiting for this for years. Well, it’s happening.

Mitch McConnell’s speech was a watershed moment in American politics. Don’t misunderstand me. I give him not one ounce of moral credit. He is himself a technocratic monster, a profoundly evil man, in some ways worse than Trump. But he knows how to count. And he knew that the game was changing. As always, he made a calculation about how to minimize costs and maximize benefits. He is clearly hoping to limit the damage and get the GOP back in the saddle as quickly as possible. Part of his calculation is that he couldn’t go so far as to vote to convict.

But he knows that the long delayed civil war is at hand. The corporatist technocrats have to fight it out with the crazies whose mania they have stoked for decades. The Malevolent Turtle knows that 20% or so of the GOP base will not tolerate continued anarchy and overt Fascism. And he knows that the GOP cannot win elections without that wing of the base.

The crazies don’t get that. They think the way to win more hearts and minds is by quadrupling down and going ever more fanatical. They are the majority of the Party and they think it belongs to them. Was it Lindsey who said the other day that Trumpism is the way of the future for the GOP? He knows better, but figures the beast can be ridden for another couple of cycles.

McConnel knows that the confrontation can’t be delayed any further. It is time to stare the crazies down and try to get them back on the leash. And ultimately, his technocrats will win. They have the party infrastructure and the funding. It will take a few cycles, but the crazies will eventually learn that they have to mind their masters.

In the meantime, the party will split. It may or may not get to the point of actually creating a new party. And if that does happen, I dunno which side keeps the GOP identity. I do know that we have an opportunity.

I also know that that opportunity won’t last. David Frum was on with Lawrence last night and he quietly urged a major point. He said that the “moderate” GOP base, for example, the educated suburbs, are currently in the Democratic coalition, as he called it the right fringe. More than once, he insisted “not permanently!”

And he is correct. Traditional, rock-ribbed Republican principles of low taxes and limited governmental interference still matter to lots of affluent people currently either staying home or temporarily pulling the D lever. We cannot trust them to remain with us after the spectre of fanaticism dies down.

To build a lasting coalition capable of substantive transformation, we have to aggressively take the political ground suddenly available to us. And since we trade in progressive initiatives rather than fear and loathing, we must start actually making America better in ways that people experience as real. We have to authentically reward people of color for supporting us. Re-invigorate unions with labor gains. Inspire young progressives with victories. Provide innovations that the suburbs will recognize as worthwhile. We must shatter the lie that government cannot help.

The old GOP will be back. It will end and heal its civil war. McConnell will do everything he can to reduce the schism to a minimum.

It’s up to us to keep the pressure on long enough to achieve serious transformation. I am encouraged at the moment, since both Biden and the Party seem to largely get that. But we have to keep hammering on the wedge between the GQP factions and taking advantage of this opportunity to make a real difference.

Onward!

Whither the GOP?

thresholder

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Thursday February 04, 2021 · 9:56 AM PST

2021/02/04 · 09:56

Discussions of the future of the GOP seem to be polarizing:

They lead a right wing movement that is growing stronger and may soon overwhelm us.
They are a dead party.

The thing is, there’s a lot of truth on both poles of this analysis. I have nothing to say to refute either assessment.

However, I do think it’s important to see the split reality we face in today’s GOP. I think it is dying, but I could easily see it recovering. Fortunately, our leaders are wielding the weapon that could finish it off: forcing the warring wings of the GOP to face off publicly in divisive vote after vote after vote.

=========================

I think of the GOP as a dying star in the Red Giant phase: massively expanding preparatory to collapse. A Red Giant is dying but it can do a lot of damage while the fuel holds out.

The good news is that, in our sick nation, its potential for destruction is, in my opinion, limited by the colossal indolence of the American people, including its lunatic fringes. I have a great deal of faith in the lazy complacency of the American people. Most of our wingers think and act in the context of media fantasies, and they can imagine little worse than getting off their couches.

A huge reason for this is the fact that their entire driving force is fueled by fears composed of sheer fantasy. White males in today’s America are in no real sense threatened. They just imagine they are.

For me, this has always been something to remember about our Right Wing. It indeed emulates the Nazi Party. But there is a huge difference. The Weimar Republic had just lost millions of its people to a senseless war which it lost in humiliating fashion and its economy was a shambles due to the demands for war reparations imposed by the Allies and a global economic crisis. And it had just endured the Spanish flu. Please do not for a minute think I am excusing or defending it. I deeply abhor Fascism. I am merely saying that the German people of the 1930s faced staggering realities.

Which makes our home-grown neo-fascists even worse. They have concocted a populist revolution responding to … movie-of-the-week catastrophe scenarios. Of course, working people aligned with today’s right wing do have a legitimate beef—the dismantling of the their economy—and Trump did tie in to that. But the driving vision of the Right Wing pays no attention to the capitalists and focuses on racism and sexism. And there is simply no reality to the fear that white male privilege is anywhere close to collapse. They are rising up to fight an enemy that doesn’t exist.

So, OK, what then? I would remind my sisters and brothers that sustaining a political fantasy like this consumes resources. It is ultimately unsustainable. The whole bloated, corrupt enterprise could not survive COVID. Nor can it survive the inexorable crush of climate change + the economic transformations driven by green technological innovation. The Giant Red Star is leaking fuel and starting to collapse.

Which means what? My read is that we have an opportunity here. But only that. No more.

Mitch & Co. are feverishly working to re-formulate the party with fresh fantasies. There is clearly a split in the GOP, but that split has always been there. Give these creeps a couple of years to re-orient the propaganda and they could well succeed in getting the lunatic fringe back in line. I could easily see that happening. And the Lincoln Project will be part of that effort at re-branding the same old exploitive game.

There is only one way to decisively break the GOP coalition. That is to keep driving the wedge between the fringe and the mainstream creeps. (They’re all creeps.) We have to keep the pressure on to force the two wings of this evil cabal to contend with each other. Right now, the GOP is back on its heels, uncertain about how to go on. But this moment is not enough. Let it off the ropes and it WILL re-formulate and recover.

THE GOP IS NO DEAD. NOT ANYWHERE CLOSE. ZOMBIE-LIKE, IT KEEPS STAGGERING ALONG SEEKING BRAINS TO DEVOUR. NO FUNERAL WREATHS OR TOMBSTONE MARKERS. NO SPIKING THE BALL--WE’RE STILL ON THE 35 YARD LINE. WE AREN’T HOME YET AND THE BODY IS NOT YET A CORPSE!

However. The body is rotting and festering. It can be killed. But only by pounding away on that wedge.

And you know, for the first time in my lifetime, my party is in the saddle, cutting left and right with a razor-sharp saber: votes on the floor that the Thugs won’t able to duck.

Are you going to exonerate Trump? That racist woman in the House? Are you going to oppose the COVID relief package. DACA? Voting rights? And on through the list of legislation the American people want. The choice?

Join the Democrats in governing well and get primaried by lunatics.
Obstruct and piss off the American people, watching your base shrink to unsustainable size.
Fail to get in on the chance to save the day and be left behind.

As long as we Dems keep up the pressure, we drive the wedge in deeper and deeper. And that’s what’s really key here. The electorate’s memories are short, but its hatreds live on. Force these people again and again to oppose each other: mainstream thug v fantasy-fed loony. Make them go on the record again and again, pouring gasoline on the fire of that internal vision. Cultivate their hate and it will live on for years and decades.

Today’s GOP was built to thrive on paranoid hatreds. We have a chance to cultivate the hatreds within its sick coalition. Go, Dems. Keep driving them. Keep slashing with that saber. It’s the best chance we have had since the early 60s to fracture that cabal of greed and paranoia.

But let up … let the pressure drop, and the corpse will come off life support stronger than ever.

I have never been a fraction as proud of my party as I am right now. Biden is getting me excited and even Schumer is … almost … inspiring.

But you know for 50 years I have had my heart broken again and again by the Democratic Party . I keep wondering if they’ll slip back into the lethargy of the past …

The GOP is not dead, but we are sawing at its jugular and WE CAN KILL IT IF WE KEEP UP THE PRESSURE! Go Joe. Go Nancy. Go Chuck. Strike again and again and again ...

Winning and Losing: Political Costs

thresholder

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Thursday January 21, 2021 · 2:15 PM PST

2021/01/21 · 14:15

Well, here we are. We all know that Biden’s chances for success hinge on how he handles Mitch McConnell. And there are reasons for concern.

1st, we have the tiniest of advantages in Kamala’s holding of tie breaking powers. 2nd, Mitch McConnell is running the opposition. And we all know that Mitch is implacably evil.

I don’t know how much we will be able to get through Congress. Maybe not much. And I will not hold Biden and his lieutenants responsible for the despicable obstruction of the GOP.

I do, however, hold them responsible to do one thing:

Make these creeps pay steep political costs for their obstruction!

For decades, the Democratic Party has allowed the Thugs to do great damage without forcing them to answer to the people. The greatest example is the Obama Administration. You and I know what McConnell did to sabotage its agenda. The trouble is that the American People never knew it! Taking what it called the high road, that Administration kept taking blows on the chin and moving on, choosing not to raise holy hell over Mitch’s perfidy.

Here’s the thing. A political enterprise that acts in ways that hurts the people will pay a political price … if the people know about it. It has a sort of checkbook of political capital and it will not be able to afford to pay costs indefinitely. It cannot repeatedly hurt the people without losing power … unless they don’t know about it.

And, yeah, I know all about the Right Wing noise machine and its partisan polarization. I know that Trump spent 4 years defying the political laws of physics. But Biden is not Trump. He can’t keep endlessly rebuilding political capital with hate and lies. He can only do it by actually doing good things. Or by making damn sure the people know who stopped them.

The greatest asset he has (thank you Stacy, Raphael, and Jon) is the Senate agenda. This will allow Schumer to force votes on the floor of the Senate. As long as they didn’t have to actually vote, GOP Senators could get away with murder. Now, we can force them to vote about things that actually affect Americans’ lives. The beauty of such votes is the brutal choice GOP congress critters will face: oppose popular bills that address our national crises or stand up to their fanatical base. That SHOULD constitute an excruciating political dilemma.

Of course, Mitch’s hoods can filibuster and do all manner of other procedural evil. And they will. When they do …

We better damn well hear about it! We better hear press conferences and the President himself speaking up and demanding that the press tell people what the creeps did. The press never gives us a break and the R W Media machine is damn loud. Well, we better push back hard and loud and incessantly. We better DEMAND that the American people hear about what’s happening.

So what are the odds? I dunno from nuffink. I think it’s an auspicious moment. Americans have had stark visions of the radical extremism of this bunch of villains and they are mired in a deadly pandemic and economic collapse. There is political capital to be won there, and the GOP is probably facing their greatest ideological challenge in decades. I think there is probably enough of a slice of independents to, if they begin to value what we offer them, can tip the balance and shove the GOP into the abyss. The hooligans have less political capital today than they have since, probably, the Clinton Administration.

Still, it may not be enough. Biden, Schumer, and Pelosi may come up short. GOP obstruction is so freaking deep. And if they do come up short, I won’t blame them …

As long as they 1) aggressively put legislation on the floor for votes and 2) thunder continuously in media mics until the American people get very clear on what Mitch & Co. are doing and what it is costing them.

The GOP understands something our folks don’t. You can win political capital by losing Congressional votes. They turned the “big fucking deal” of the ACA into an enormous win for the side that lost the battle. Our side does not seem to get that. We can lose votes and still move the football forward … if we make sure people know who is responsible.

Make Mitch’s obstruction cost political capital. Nothing less is acceptable.

Make it COST them!

thresholder

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Friday November 13, 2020 · 9:48 AM PST

2020/11/13 · 09:48

political-capital-sign-circular-band-label-sticker-round-170737930.jpg

As we eagerly anticipate Trump’s final exit and Joe’s inauguration, we all worry about what will be possible with GOP obstruction. We know what the Malign Turtle is thinking: stall 2 years, take the House, and then take the W H from Dems who look helpless and deliver nothing. Just as we did facing Obama. That’s obviously the plan.

Joe will NOT get any cooperation from the GOP. And I personally don’t see him doing much legislatively before 2022. Of course, he CAN do a helluva lot on executive orders. But crucial legislation will stall again.

So, what do I ask of Joe and the Dem leadership?

Make those suckers pay a heavy price in political capital. Make every week of obstruction COST THEM!

My biggest frustration with Dems is not what they have failed to DO. Barack accomplished little domestically and nothing after ‘10. OK, he was obstructed in everything he attempted. Nancy’s House has passed bill after bill that the people would value and all have died at McConnel’s hands.

Is that their fault? Well, not directly. But I do hold them responsible for WHAT THEY DIDN’T DO!

Our side has NEVER made Republicans pay a political price for their corruption.

Ask the average person about the Turtle’s obstruction of Obama and you’ll get a blank stare. No one who doesn’t avidly follow politics had any awareness it was happening. And it continues. The House passed the Heroes Act and the reptile banished it to limbo. And no real AWARENESS of what it could do for people has broken through.

Political tides flow back and forth in response to events and the actions of politicians. When a political interest acts in a way that costs a segment of the electorate, it will COST them influence. They may or may not have enough influence to pay the bill. But eventually they will run out of capital and get hammered.

But what if a political interest’s actions never break through to the awareness of the electorate? Worse, what if it can act with impunity because the OTHER SIDE NEVER FORCES THE ELECTORATE TO REALIZE WHAT THEY ARE DOING?

People talk about the Dems being poor at messaging. Usually, they talk about rhetoric and labeling strategies. I dunno about all of that.

What I do know is that Dems SIMPLY DO NOT SPEAK UP! They endure GOP nastiness … and let it go in silence. They murmur their concern and turn away.

As a result, the electorate never gets what the GOP has done. The GOP gets to act without paying any political capital because Dems don’t force them to pay it.

If we are honest, we need to admit something unpleasant. The GOP acts without restraint in part because, for decades, the DEMs have failed to force them to pay a price for what they’ve done. They’ve become bolder and bolder because they keep getting away with it. They write checks on an empty bank account and no one forces them to make a deposit. Their extremity has been encouraged by the lassitude of our leaders’ responses.

Of course, the MSM is also to blame. Massively. But think about it. If they attack the Dems, what price will they pay? If they attack the Thugs, what will happen? Which side has intimidated them?

So, OK. When I look ahead, I am pretty sure I know what the Reptile will do. The Creeps will keep doing it until they pay a political price they can’t afford.

And I FEAR that our side will let them get away with obstruction that most Americans will never even see because our leaders don’t demand that everyone understand what is happening. I dread a situation in 18 months when we face disaster because no one has forced the jackasses to pay a political price for destruction.

I ask of Joe one thing: hold the GOP to account. Grab that presidential microphone and demand that everyone understand what’s happening, who is to blame. Hell, he can do it nicely. But it has GOT to be loud and consistent and relentless. This is what the Reptile is doing and here is what it costs all of us! Make it cost political capital. Make it so expensive that they can’t pay.

If our side does that, I think we have a chance to make some progress. If not …

Listen. Ask my wife and children and they’ll tell you I was an optimist about this election.

But about our party’s willingness to demand that a cost be paid for GOP evil? Well, I’m not so optimistic about that.

The great mystery

thresholder

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Monday October 19, 2020 · 1:30 PM PDT

2020/10/19 · 13:30

OK, I don’t get it.

I responded earlier in a comment to a thread offering more anecdotal evidence of GOPers changing their minds. I thought I would pose my question as a diary. Please, offer your thoughts concerning a puzzle that makes no sense to me.

We have seen scores of posts here and articles in various sources about Republicans who have either softened their support for Trump or are going further and have declared for the Good Side. So, OK, those stories are anecdotal. But there sure are a lot of them.

And then there is polling showing him losing key sectors of the base: suburban women, senior citizens, etc. And we have the many stories about Republicans out of office who are advocating for revolution. The Lincoln Project is only the most well known.

There APPEARS to be some significant percentage of Reps out there who are changing course.

So why doesn’t it appear in the polls? How come the idiot’s support is where it always has been, low 40s?

I mean, that’s where he was at the time of his astonishing win, the height, one would think, of his popularity. It’s where he was during the last race. And after 4 years of chaos … it’s where he is now. His basic number doesn’t change!

Of course, the GOP is based on obedience of the Big Daddy figure. But we have all of these other indicators of people shifting their perspective. How can both be true? For example, how can suburbanites, women, and senior citizens turn on him without his support dropping? I don’t understand how that is possible.

Is the evidence of eroded support somehow false? Is it so small as to not register statistically? I guess we can say they form part of the independent/undecided group shifting to Biden, but I mean, really? The base number doesn’t change at all? Is he replacing folks with new zealots found under some rock? Are more “shy” Trumpists answering poll questions this time?

Or perhaps the GE and approval numbers are misleading? Are GOPers publicly flying their flags to piss off the libs while quietly resolving to shift? Are there shy apostates?

Look. With 220K Americans dead and all the other horrors, my sense of social reality is that the less extreme segments of the spectrum have GOT to be softening if not abandoning him. I just don’t understand a reality in which that isn’t happening.

But the polls consistently show the vast majority of the party doggedly refusing to shift. I don’t get it. Like, at all!

Trump is not leading a coup.

thresholder

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Tuesday September 29, 2020 · 2:59 PM PDT

2020/09/29 · 14:59

Look. I am fully aware of how real and scary the threats to our democracy are. The Turtle, Dis-Barr—ed, the SCOTUS threats, these are really serious. And a coup is closer to possible than ever in U S history.

But Trump is NOT LEADING IT!

Trump is not capable of leading anything. He hasn’t got any sort of vision or plan. He just blurts out crap he hears on demented winger sources. And then, 10:00 later, he blurts out something else. He can’t keep his message straight for an hour, let alone long enough to plan and lead the sort of massive insurrection it would take to break down our electoral process.

Let’s think for a moment about what it would take to lead a coup. One would need The full bodied support of …

The military
The legal system
The press
The national security and intelligence community
The FBI
The financial powers that be

Now let’s see. Whom has this moron pissed off? Yep … everyone on the list. Oh, he has supporters in all of those realms, but far from enough to get anything radical done. I mean, apart from Faux Not-news, watched by a very limited audience, what press can he control?

And think about the leadership required to spearhead a coup. Ever watch Seven Days in May? Burt Lancaster’s cold-hearted psychopath in that movie was the sort of guy needed to run a coup. Trump hasn’t got enough patience to pay attention through a W H briefing.

Again, I am not wishing away the dangers we face. They are real and terrifying. There are people working to reduce our democracy to the point where a R W coup can work. They are scarily close to doing that.

But Trump will not lead it. He is the definition of a useful idiot who has permitted the nasties in the smoke-filled rooms to bring our democracy into doubt. And those same people know what a moron Trump is. Do you think his tax issues were news to anyone in the financial world?

We have to be clear about what he has done and the nature of his stranglehold on aspects of power. His base either idolizes him or, understanding what he is, has chosen this moment to declare implacable ideological war against everything progressive. So the Winger powers that be tolerate him while loathing and disrespecting him behind the scenes. Like Putin, they will use him as long as they can and then toss him out.

But they will NOT follow him into a civil war they know he is incapable of winning. And unlike the jackass, they get where the political tides are flowing. They know that right now they are holding a very limited hand. So they will take the judgeships they can get and hope to hang onto some Senate seats and when he loses let him twist in the wind.

Other than the things he can do with an executive flourish—and he has repeatedly learned how limited those powers are—the resident has very little actual power. ( I know—he has nevertheless done enormous damage!) He isn’t leading anywhere, and no one is really following him. He is not leading a coup.

So let’s stop panicking and focus on doing what we have to do to vote him out.

If we beat him … he will go!

The polling numbers to watch

thresholder

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Wednesday September 23, 2020 · 6:10 AM PDT

2020/09/23 · 06:10

I don’t see how we can deny that polling has “tightened” some. One indicator is the paucity of posts here celebrating great polls.

And this is a very scary time. Never been so scared in all my life. (Yep … white privilege)

But to this layman’s way of thinking, the polling numbers to watch are those for our side. Do they go down?

The GOP faithful were always going to come home for the most part. And this SCOTUS deal is a Right to Life crowd’s wet dream. As an offset to Trump’s repulsiveness, this has been a tremendous boost to their enthusiasm. The Evil Empire’s numbers are almost certain to stabilize and grow a bit.

What matters is our side. Are our numbers fading? I don’t think they are, but I am not a poll watcher.

The key number is our side. GOTV. As ever, so now. With Biden at around 50%, I think we will prevail.

But a huge tsunami is perhaps not as likely as it was a week ago. Some of those possible pickup states may slide back out of reach due to SCOTUS fever.

Despair is the enemy. Keep marching.

Are we ready to Heal?

thresholder

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Friday August 21, 2020 · 2:56 PM PDT

2020/08/21 · 14:56

A deep sidewalk crach with words in red above and below it RECONCILIATION IN A DIVIDED CULTURE.

This post invites you to share your perspective on a question I am wondering about.

Obviously, a major theme this week was Biden offering to bind the nation back together, to begin healing the worst polarization since 1865.

Joe had that line about being a President for all Americans. Of course, many candidates have said that. But it has special meaning in the Age of Trump. I think most of us are moved and motivated by the notion of a President healing the great ideological divide, so intense that it has split many of our families. Of course, we want some justice and punishment—we ain’t ready to just forgive and forget. But the notion of America re-discovering its essential strength—the ability to compromise in productive ways—is, I think, fundamental to the possibilities available to Joe and Kamala. We cannot save American democracy without recovering a shared consensus to allow us to mediate partisan conflicts.

But of course reconciliation requires cooperation from both sides. And I am just wondering whether our opponents are at all moved, perhaps sub-consciously, below the level of their ideology and activism, by the attraction of national healing. Obama offered healing and the Right laughed at him. Joe is trying it again.

After 4 exhausting years of Trumpism, will Joe find a better atmosphere for his offer of healing? At least among the Republicans troubled by where we have found ourselves?

Or will the rancorous commitment to total political war grind on?

Are we open to the notion of healing? Or do we need to see some heads roll (metaphorically) first?

I dunno. What do you think?

Our South Asian VP candidate!

thresholder

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Wednesday August 12, 2020 · 1:46 PM PDT

2020/08/12 · 13:46

Us can’t class off. We’s a mingled people.

In Zora Neal Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, a sad Black character deeply twisted by internalized racism clings to the illusion that facial features suggesting a Caucasian image makes her superior to Blacks with strongly African features. She tries to persuade the light skinned Janie to “class off” against their inferiors.

Janie’s reply is steeped in sadness: “Us can’t class off. We’s a mingled people.” (Quoting from memory—might be slightly inaccurate).

This quotation knocks me out every time I think of it. Of course, Janie is thinking of her African American people who have forged an enduring, inspiring cultural identity out of the result of centuries of white men enslaving and raping powerless African women. She reminds Hurston’s readers that her people include a wide range of genetic heritages, including those most despised by White stereotypes. Hurston was one of the very few Black writers of her time willing to look at colorism, a caste system favoring African Americans with White features, and to celebrate what we now honor as African American English as a language of glorious literary achievement.

Reading the passage as a White guy, however, I see the power of the other side of the coin. African Americans are a “mingled people.” But so are Whites! Every Black person with White ancestors IS ALSO RELATED TO WHITE PEOPLE! As most of us know, legal codes long relegated people with any “Black blood,” to, using the sad, old phrase, a Negro identity. The result was an enduring myopia in which white people literally cannot see that a person of mixed heritage also has White heritage. It isn’t just African Americans. ALL AMERICANS ARE A MINGLED PEOPLE!

Twelve years ago, we elected a Black President. But how often do we remember his White heritage? Barack Obama was just as much a White as a Black President. The racists can never see that he is one of them. Too often, we forget it as well.

So now we are all celebrating the nomination of a Black woman as VP. Let me just say that I am beyond thrilled. Sen. Harris (I am going to fondly say “Kamala” from now on as we say Joe, Barack and Hillary) was always my first choice among the Dem. candidates. I think she’s fantastic, I think she will lift Joe’s campaign, and I see her at the top of the ticket down the road.

But it strikes me that we should remember Janie’s reminder. We in the Democratic Party “is a mingled people.” And like Barak before her, Kamala is a mingled candidate. She is the first Black woman nominated for VP. …

She is also THE FIRST SOUTH ASIAN MAN OR WOMAN NOMINATED FOR VICE PRESIDENT!

Let’s try to remember that when we speak of her. Her mother was an immigrant from India, and her mother raised her and her ACLU civil rights lawyer sister. Let’s honor her and all the South Asian citizens who are as thrilled as Black women are.

There’s a vicious trope asking whether Kamala is “black enough.” Let’s turn that base meme on its head.

Kamala Harris is our Black, South Asian, woman candidate. And we’re damn proud of her.

Remember: we’s a mingled people!

[Edited to correct my egregious misspelling of Se. Harris first name. Thanks to Lovejoy for the heads up!]

Targeting Red States in a COVID world

thresholder

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday July 14, 2020 · 10:55 AM PDT

2020/07/14 · 10:55

I just wanted to make a point about the difference between ‘16 and ‘20.

As we all know, Hillary has been condemned for chasing votes in red states before securing Michigan, Wisconsin, etc. OK, I offer zero comment on whether that is an apt criticism. Argue amongst yourselves.

However, we see around here spats between those who advocate for going hard after Texas and the like and those who remember ‘16 and are terrified that swinging for the fences will doom the campaign. I suggest that there is no need for conflict on this.

Political campaigns are generally about going out to engage voters on their home turf. The question Hillary faced was whether to spend precious days of the campaign traveling to WI and the like. The strategic question involved a scarce resource: time. Travel to WI and you can’t travel to TX.

This campaign is, of course, different. Candidates’ actual physical travel to places is minimal. Most of the contact is done electronically.

This means that Biden can target Texas and Georgia and the like without shortchanging his connections with traditional swing states. As long as he has money and web resources, he can target a much wider range of places and people than has been possible in the past.

For me, there is not great conflict between reaching for TX and GA and securing the Blue Wall. COVID has changed the rules of the game. Let’s take advantage of this.

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