Dearest Sentient Beings,
I hope you’re all enjoying the Adolph Barnum Administration’s non-stop efforts to cling to power coming to naught. True, it’s not all peaches and cream yet, what with a senior Administration official recently telling Axios that when President Lame Duck is “retweeting threats of putting politicians in jail, and spends time talking to conspiracy nuts who openly say declaring martial law is no big deal, it’s impossible not to start getting anxious about how this ends.” But it’s not like it was through the first week of November, when my every waking moment felt like the edge of a panic attack and Bob Mould’s great anti-Trumper noise rock CD Blue Hearts was on high volume permanent repeat.
By mid-November small group Basie and Ellington had become my puttering soundtrack and I no longer felt that I was about to have a nervous breakdown. The horrors of COVID-19 and climate change rage on but we’ve made it through the electoral college’s day of decision without anyone being killed, so things are feeling kind of positive for the time being, knock on all available wooden surfaces.
In fact, I feel so ready for cheery good times I may just launch a frivolous lawsuit. Who doesn’t enjoy a little frivolity? Right now I’m thinking of suing Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin for plagiarism: Raskin noted that “The Republican party today is like a massive religious cult surrounding an organized crime family headed by a deranged narcissist,” words I’ve been spouting at anyone in earshot for months. Apparently someone whose ears I bent went back to Raskin and shared my view.
Of course, I’ve also repeatedly referred to the Repugs as a “death cult,” which I stole from Noam Chomsky. So maybe I should be magnanimous and leave the court cases to other lunatics. OK, the lawsuit is off! There have been too many 3 Stooges-level stupid legal procedures this fall already, what with former NYC mayor and current Trump flunky Rudy dripping hair dye while repeatedly being quashed by irritated judges.
Speaking of world-class stupidity, I remain buoyed by Lin Wood, one of Orange Shithead’s crackpot lawyers, who threatened to boycott the January Georgia runoff elections for Senate unless governing Republicans turned on a dime and disqualified votes for Biden. Hey, if a Republican governor can’t break the law by refusing to certify the vote than who can? I salute Ms. Wood’s courage in calling for her fellow worshippers of The Grifter King to shoot their party in both feet by not voting. Let her voice be amplified throughout the land!
Clearly we need more members of the Insane Republican Clown Party to turn on each other. Too bad that so far there is only one widely-publicized lawsuit against our lame duck prez’s latest less than on the up-and-up money hovering operation. Fredric Eshelman wants the $2.5 million back that he gave True the Vote to help that right-wing vote suppression outfit in its bogus battle against the presidential election results. Eshelman’s lawsuit asserts that he asked “regularly and repeatedly” for information on True the Vote’s efforts but that his “requests were consistently met with vague responses, platitudes, and empty promises.” You have to wonder why the hapless Mr. Eshelman was surprised to find that he’d been scammed, given President Barnum’s long history of ripping off anyone foolish enough to think he was legit. Don’t these suckers ever do research that doesn’t involve watching Fox or disappearing down delusional YouTube rabbit holes? Ha ha, I guess we already know the answer to that one, don’t we?
It is indeed worrisome that the fundraising machine which denies the reality of Mr. Biden’s victory will undoubtedly continue operating as long as Mr. Barnum is still above ground. And despite Biden’s arguments that the Repugs will see the light once a bipartisan olive branch is extended, said approach was attempted without enormous success when Jolting Joe was Vice President. As late night TV chat man Seth Meyers noted a few nights ago, “The Republican Party has spent the last month actively trying to dismantle our democracy. There’s no reason to believe they’ll suddenly change and every reason to believe this is who they really are.” It’s hard to argue with Meyers’s assessment that the party “was an unhinged, authoritarian movement before Trump and it’s not going to change now.”
As in the 1930s, there needs to be unity against fascism, or kleptocrats who give a thumbs up to fascists. But it’s unrealistic and unhealthy to expect a major political party in a democracy to be in lockstep at all times. As the astute New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie recently pointed out in a column about lessons from left-wing activism of the ’30s, Social Security and many other gains of The New Deal wouldn’t have happened without constant agitation from militant radicals. Bouie writes, “An ambitious, active left is one that widens the scope of reform. It’s a left that, even if you disagree with it, helps clear the pathways for action. It brings energy and urgency to liberal politics. And if nothing else, it’s a foil against which moderates can triangulate and make the case for more than marginal change, should they want it. Roosevelt was often frustrated with the left, but recognized its power and the importance of its vitality to his own cause.”
Charles M. Blow made similar points on December 2 in the same newspaper, which I denigrate constantly but keep pulling material from anyway. On Barack Obama’s scolding activists for wanting to make serious reforms too quickly, Blow wrote “Part of the reason the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr. could be successful was the existence of the more radical—and less acceptable—Malcolm X.” He continued, “This moment needs the radical young activists. It needs them to push far and hard. It needs to confront the power structure, to stare it down, to demand its dismantling.”
To wind up with a positive spin, as I always try to do (?), it’s worth mentioning that though many of Biden’s cabinet choices are predictably corporate-friendly, the diversity of those nominees does provide a nice fuck you to the far-right white supremacist previous administration. And it’s fantastic that Representative Deb Haaland was nominated as Secretary of the Interior Department. Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo people who was endorsed by many progressives and more than 120 tribal leaders. The nomination of a Green New Deal-supporting Indigenous woman to this position is especially significant given that the Department of the Interior has, since its creation in the 1840s, worked overtime to destroy Indigenous livelihoods and culture. Under Trump, its fealty to extractive industries has been especially egregious. Hence making sure Haaland’s appointment is approved by the Senate should be a priority for the incoming administration. Oh, and late breaking news: Michael Regan, Biden’s pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency, is known as a righteous campaigner against environmental racism and corporate polluters.
I would say more about other burning issues of the day but, as you probably already noticed, there are just too many of them. Also, I need to figure out how to operate a nifty late birthday present a generous friend gave me. It’s a fancy N95 “envomask” that requires close scrutiny. I’m currently working up to reading the instructions, a daunting prospect given this warning on the side of the box: “IMPORTANT KEEP USER INSTRUCTIONS: Before use, the wearer must read and understand USER INSTRUCTIONS inside. Improper use and care may lead to sickness, injury and/or death.”
The good lord willing, in a few weeks I’ll be back to tell you how it went. Sappy holidaze and keep those masks above your nostrils.
With Cold Coffee,
Ben
Notes:
Before Electoral College vote count: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7TxGTPsV4
After Electoral College vote count: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGfp4dXd5G8&list=OLAK5uy_lbDOdTw6x0QlkoudrMGEr7VJEu_1fEwbw
Line Jamie Raskin stole from me: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/12/donald-trump-coup-american-democracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/20/opinion/biden-fdr-left-new-deal.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/02/opinion/obama-politics-activism.html
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/28/trump-donor-election-fraud-sues-money-back
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/12/18/deb_haaland_interior_secretary
Special bonus link! Preview of what might prove to be the greatest film of 2021: https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2020/12/09/kfc-colonel-sanders-lifetime-movie/