Our long national nightmare is nearly over, but it appears to be generating a ton of collateral damage.
Covid infections, hospitalization and deaths are at all time high while the distribution of the vaccines have been sluggish and lackluster. Drumphf refuses to take any responsibility or action, he says that vaccine distribution is the “states problem, not mine.” On the other hand MItt Romney has another view.
According to Romney, front-line health providers are not to blame for delays in getting the most vulnerable Americans vaccinated.
Echoing officials across the country who have been asking for more help from the federal government with the drug roll-out, Romney stated, "The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines is a tribute to the NIH, the FDA and to the professionals in the pharmaceutical industry. But unlike the development of the vaccines, the vaccination process itself is falling behind. It was unrealistic to assume that the health care workers already overburdened with Covid care could take on a massive vaccination program."
He added, ""That comprehensive vaccination plans have not been developed at the federal level and sent to the states as models is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable. I have experience organizing a major logistical event but nothing on the scale of what is called for today. Nor do I have any relevant medical or public health experience. But I know that when something isn't working, you need to acknowledge reality and develop a plan—particularly when hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake.
As Trump limps to the finish line of his Federal career, he seems intent on doing as much damage of physically possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t take a dump on the Resolute Desk, just for one last final F-U!
Former Mike Pence staffer Olivia Troye has even more to say:
After two weeks only 2 million vaccines have been administered while another 14 million await distribution. At this rate it’s going to take about 5 years to have enough vaccine injections to reach herd immunity. Millions will be dead by the time that happens.
By contrast Biden has already said he’ll implement the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine supply, while the Trump administration continues to hamstring the transition by refusing to let Biden staff meet with the Pentagon and budget staffers. This obstruction is putting our national security at risk, but Drumpf doesn’t care.
He’s has absolutely nothing to say about the mysterious Bombing of Nashville on Christmas day. Instead of responding, getting a briefing or commenting he went golfing, again. Trump fans have become so addled they believe the Nashville bombing was a “missile strike from China intended to steal the election.” He’s downplayed the massive Solarwinds Russia Hack claiming that “it could have been China” when we all know that Russian Malware has it’s own distinct signature.
Mostly he’s been whining and crying about the election he lost, claiming that he didn’t “really” lose it and attacking the Supreme Court, DOJ and Congress for not disenfranchising 7 million voters. He’s promoting this ridiculous Louie Gohmert lawsuit against Mike Pence to have him, somehow, overturn the election while Sen. Josh Hawley pointlessly intends to “contest” the electoral college certification. Unlike Sen. Barbara Boxer who held a similar protest in 2004 over voter suppression in Ohio, this protest has no valid point. There was no “election fraud” of any significant measure.
Even when known Trumpsters such a GOP Senator Ron Johnson have admitted this.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Wednesday announced that he would object during the Electoral College certification process when Congress convenes next week. Later that day, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Bloomberg he was "supportive" of Hawley's move.
But Johnson told CNBC on Thursday that while Republicans will complain about alleged voting irregularities before Congress certifies the election, they will not be able to overturn the result in Trump's favor.
"There's a lot of misinformation on both sides," Johnson said. "Some people on our side think just one House member, one senator objects, it immediately goes to a vote of the states and then because we have more states in the House of Representatives, Trump can get re-elected. That's not what happens."
"Every member of the Senate, every member of the House votes to accept or reject that state's slate of electors," the GOP senator explained. "I can't imagine any scenario in which any House Democrats will vote to reject Joe Biden electors. I think the result is inevitable."
Trump can’t win this. It’s not possible. He’s lost. Rupert Murdock’s New York Post has demanded that he accept this reality, but he will not. He’s got grifting to do.
Medical experts such as Dr. Bandy X. Lee argue that he’s basically lost his mind and he’s not alone.
Lee: Hence, it is especially egregious that a psychiatrist would normalize serious signs. Yet his is the only full-page opinion by a mental health professional the New York Times has published on the president. I and some of the most renowned psychiatrists and psychologists in the country submitted over 200 op-eds to the Times—all of the opposite opinion—to no avail. Members of the public complained about the said op-ed for years: "You never say anything in public, but when you do, it's worse because you say he's 'just a jerk'!" I have to agree it is harm. Psychiatrists and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) benefited financially and otherwise for "protecting" the president by minimizing his defects, and the distortions of psychiatric reasoning and ethics were something I never thought I would see in my career—which a major newspaper, rather than investigate, helped.
Kendall: It seems as if your psychological analysis also applies to the pathology that characterizes other people in positions of power besides just Donald Trump, such as the bosses of media companies who sexually exploit their employees—say, Harvey Weinstein—and the drug company executives—say, the leaders of Purdue Pharma, the opioid manufacturer—who knowingly kill people in order to increase their profits. Why has this sociopathic behavior—called "malignant normality" by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, one of the contributors to your first book on Trump—become increasingly common? And why do you think major media outlets were so slow to come to terms with Trump's malignant behavior?
Lee: "Malignant normality" began under this administration with the APA's modification of "the Goldwater rule," which essentially allowed pathology to spread without checks and to supersede reality. Having dangerously disordered leaders leads to this result. My observations over the last two decades have been that more and more corporate and political leadership resembled the prisoner population I trained to treat, even as prisoners themselves were becoming more "normal" as a result of mass incarceration. As power becomes concentrated, especially the kind that comes with impunity and legalized corruption, it functions as bait for sociopathic personalities. Sociopaths make up just 1 to 4 percent of the overall population but take up 20 percent of leadership positions, according to one study. In other words, if we preferentially vote criminal personalities into office, then we have a system that increasingly governs with "alternative" principles that squander and destroy rather than produce and create. The media outlets are a part of these larger societal trends, not a ballast against them. Their presentation of problems as entertainment keeps within the good graces of power structures and funding sources, but real problems requiring real solutions are inconvenient.
Trump himself is not the only problem, his followers and fellow travelers will continue to be an issue as they have adopted an alternate reality as their own.
On Christmas Eve, Donald Trump threatened to derail a pandemic relief bill that took 9 months to reach bipartisan agreement on, plunging millions into uncertainty as he vacationed and golfed. By waiting until Sunday evening before abruptly signing the bill, he allowed unemployment programs to lapse, which will lead to delays and loss of benefits for countless Americans out of work.
This occasion gives us another glimpse of just how far he is willing to go with his anger (at congressional Republicans for not backing his false voter fraud claims), his revenge (against Americans for rejecting him), and his cruelty (of finding pleasure in inflicting suffering on those he despises). Now, he is calling on thousands to come to Washington, DC, to challenge Congress' final approval of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on January 6.
Over the weekend, David Ignatius wrote a Washington Post article by the title: "Until Biden's Win is Certified, the U.S. Remains Vulnerable." This is what mental health experts have been trying to say since before the election. Donald Trump lost the election, and his legal challenges never had a chance, but just as with the pandemic, the dangers are not confined to the virus or, in this case, the law. Rather, the real dangers are where he has weakened systems or has recruited his followers to an alternative reality.
Arguably, that alternative reality is increasing leading his followers to radicalization and potential violence.
"Domestic terrorism analysts are raising concern about the security implications of millions of conservatives buying into baseless right-wing claims," Allam reports. "They say the line between mainstream and fringe is vanishing, with conspiracy-minded Republicans now marching alongside armed extremists at rallies across the country."
Allam notes that during a recent online conference for the group Millions of Conversations, Mary McCord — a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. — warned, "This tent that used to be sort of 'far-right extremists' has gotten a lot broader. To me, a former counterterrorism official, that's a radicalization process.
[...]
Allam explains, "Political conspiracies drew thousands to last weekend's pro-Trump rally, after which the Proud Boys and other violent extremist groups wreaked havoc in Downtown Washington, D.C…. While it's impossible to pin down the scope of such beliefs, analysts say, the numbers are staggering if even a fraction of President Trump's more than 74 million voters support bogus claims that say, for example, the election was rigged, the coronavirus is a hoax, and liberals are hatching a socialist takeover."
Kori Schake, formerly a senior adviser for the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Security Council, told those attending Millions of Conversations' online event, "It really matters that the president of the United States is an arsonist of radicalization. And it will really help when that is no longer the case."
Having Trump out of the White House may help, but he’ll still be out there, on twitter, on Fox News, stirring the pot of grievance and resentment. I would argue that Trump didn't start this relativistic split for the GOP, it was spearheaded by Limbaugh, Murdock and Gingrich decades before.
His removal won’t completely calm the storm, but it might quiet it down some, perhaps. Then again there’s the possibility that Trump and his family will face multiple Federal prosecutions for their various transgressions.
For the past four years Trump has been shielded from legal jeopardy by a justice department memo that rules out criminal prosecution of a sitting president. But the second he boards that presidential helicopter and fades into the horizon, all bets are off.
The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus Vance, is actively investigating Trump’s business dealings. The focus described in court documents is “extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization” including possible bank fraud.
Any attempt to hold Trump criminally liable in a federal prosecution would be a first in US history. No exiting president has ever been pursued in such a way by his successor (Richard Nixon was spared the ordeal by Gerald Ford’s contentious presidential pardon).
Previous presidents have tended to take the view that it is better to look forwards in the name of national healing than backwards at the failings of their predecessor. And for good reasons – any prosecution would probably be long and difficult, act as a huge distraction, and expose the incoming president to accusations that they were acting like a tinpot dictator hounding their political enemy.
“If you do nothing you are saying that though the president of the United States is not above the law, in fact he is. And that would set a terrible precedent for the country and send a message to any future president that there is no effective check on their power,” said Andrew Weissmann, who was a lead prosecutor in the Mueller investigation looking into coordination between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign.
As head of one of the three main teams answering to the special counsel Robert Mueller, Weissmann had a ringside seat on what he calls Trump’s “lawless White House”. In his new book, Where Law Ends, he argues that the prevailing view of the 45th president is that “following the rules is optional and that breaking them comes at minimal, if not zero, cost”.
Weissmann told the Guardian that there would be a price to be paid if that attitude went unchallenged once Trump leaves office. “One of the things we learnt from this presidency was that our system of checks and balances is not as strong as we thought, and that would be exacerbated by not holding him to account.”
Here are the events for this week:
December 24th —
December 25th — Christmas
December 26th—
December 27th —
December 28th—
December 29th—
December 30th—
December 31st—
January 1st—