So y’all voted for complicity and look what we got (Update #6)

benfell

Updates

  1. Originally published, November 30, 2020, 1:58 pm.
  2. December 1, 1:15 am:
    • It seems that Republicans hate Neera Tanden.[1] Perhaps even more than do progressives.[2] That could make it difficult for her nomination to direct the Office of Management and Budget to pass the Senate.[3]
  3. December 1, 8:36 am:
    • Politico has the story on progressive outrage about the neoliberal Neera Tanden.[4] I have added citations to the previous (December 1, 1:15 am) update.
    • I was down all day yesterday due to maintenance work on the car and will be again today due to interior detailing. I have snow tires on just in time for the snow which began accumulating early this morning and there’s a opaque but still thin layer of snow on the ground.
  4. December 1, 10:49 am:
    • I think if I were a Republican in Georgia—never mind that this is implausible, to say the least, on both counts—I would be dismayed that Donald Trump and the Republicans can’t get their message straight. But apparently the problem is that Trumpsters think Republicans aren’t doing enough to “defend Trump,” that is, overturn the election results.[5] Which I guess makes it all the more implausible that I would be a Republican in Georgia.
  5. December 1, 12:50 pm:
    • I’m tempted to say Strike Six and Donald Trump’s out. But of course there are actually more strikes than that and we still aren’t quite there yet as Trump continues to allege fraud, so far, utterly without evidence, but nonetheless continues to pursue these bogus claims in court. That said, the last of six states where Trump had contested the results has now certified those results.[6]
  6. December 1, 5:52 pm:
    • So how many strikes does Donald Trump get, anyway? Even his attorney general now says there’s insufficient evidence that fraud altered the election outcome. But you know, Trump battles on regardless.[7]

Transition

I’m really not into personnel. When it comes to power, who will do it does not matter nearly so much to me as what they will do. But Joe Biden very much appears to be retreading Barack Obama’s path[8] in his appointments, appointments that embrace the bipartisan neoconservative and neoliberal consensus that dates to the fall of the Berlin Wall.[9]

Neoliberalism consistently favors the rich over workers and the poor, money over human beings, and the “budget” over human need. Neoconservatism, of course, never saw a war it didn’t like, and embraces neoliberalism as a moral imperative. And guess what y’all voted for?

Kate Aronoff, “The Obama Reunion Isn’t Nearly Enough to Stave Off Catastrophe,” New Republic, November 23, 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/160358/obama-reunion-isnt-nearly-enough-stave-off-catastrophe

Jake Johnson, “Progressives Spurn Tanden’s Nomination to Office of Management and Budget,” Truthout, November 30, 2020, https://truthout.org/articles/progressives-spurn-tandens-nomination-to-office-of-management-and-budget/

Holly Otterbein, “Bernieworld seethes over Tanden as OMB nominee,” Politico, November 30, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/30/bernie-supporters-seethes-neera-tanden-441603

Jeff Stein, Annie Linskey, and Seung Min Kim, “Biden’s pick to lead White House budget office emerges as lightning rod for GOP,” Washington Post, November 30, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/11/30/biden-omb-neera-tanden/

Sophia Tesfaye, “Has consummate insider Tony Blinken, Biden’s nominee for State, learned from his mistakes?” Salon, November 30, 2020, https://www.salon.com/2020/11/30/has-consummate-insider-tony-blinken-bidens-nominee-for-state-learned-from-his-mistakes/

Donald Trump

Amy Gardner, Emma Brown, and Rosalind S. Helderman, “Wisconsin and Arizona make it official as Trump fails to stop vote certification in all six states where he contested his defeat,” Washington Post, November 30, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/arizona-wisconsin-certify-election/2020/11/30/ec161756-3338-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html

Sadie Gurman and Jacob Gershman, “Barr Says No Evidence Voter Fraud Changed Election Outcome,” Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-campaign-files-more-election-challenges-in-wisconsin-michigan-11606849219

Greg Sargent, “Georgia Republicans beg Trump to release them from his prison of lies,” Washington Post, December 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/01/georgia-republicans-beg-trump-release-them-his-prison-lies/

  1. [1]Jeff Stein, Annie Linskey, and Seung Min Kim, “Biden’s pick to lead White House budget office emerges as lightning rod for GOP,” Washington Post, November 30, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/11/30/biden-omb-neera-tanden/↩
  2. [2]Jake Johnson, “Progressives Spurn Tanden’s Nomination to Office of Management and Budget,” Truthout, November 30, 2020, https://truthout.org/articles/progressives-spurn-tandens-nomination-to-office-of-management-and-budget/; Holly Otterbein, “Bernieworld seethes over Tanden as OMB nominee,” Politico, November 30, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/30/bernie-supporters-seethes-neera-tanden-441603↩
  3. [3]Jeff Stein, Annie Linskey, and Seung Min Kim, “Biden’s pick to lead White House budget office emerges as lightning rod for GOP,” Washington Post, November 30, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/11/30/biden-omb-neera-tanden/↩
  4. [4]Holly Otterbein, “Bernieworld seethes over Tanden as OMB nominee,” Politico, November 30, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/30/bernie-supporters-seethes-neera-tanden-441603↩
  5. [5]Greg Sargent, “Georgia Republicans beg Trump to release them from his prison of lies,” Washington Post, December 1, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/01/georgia-republicans-beg-trump-release-them-his-prison-lies/↩
  6. [6]Amy Gardner, Emma Brown, and Rosalind S. Helderman, “Wisconsin and Arizona make it official as Trump fails to stop vote certification in all six states where he contested his defeat,” Washington Post, November 30, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/arizona-wisconsin-certify-election/2020/11/30/ec161756-3338-11eb-b59c-adb7153d10c2_story.html↩
  7. [7]Sadie Gurman and Jacob Gershman, “Barr Says No Evidence Voter Fraud Changed Election Outcome,” Wall Street Journal, December 1, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-campaign-files-more-election-challenges-in-wisconsin-michigan-11606849219↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “I told you so,” Not Housebroken, March 16, 2009, https://disunitedstates.org/2009/03/16/i-told-you-so/↩
  9. [9]Melvyn P. Leffler, “The Free Market Did Not Bring Down the Berlin Wall,” Foreign Policy, November 7, 2014, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2014/11/07/berlin_wall_fall_25_anniversary_reagan_bush_germany_merkel_cold_war_free_market_capitalism↩

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