There is new blog post entitled, “When the Sword of Damocles hangs instead over the powerless.”
Heather Somerville, “Uber Sells Self-Driving-Car Unit to Autonomous-Driving Startup,” Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2020, https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-lyft-face-a-no-sharing-economy-11603710180
There is a new blog post entitled, “On social movement theory.”
There’s plenty of reason to doubt the devotion of megachurch pastors to anything but money. But if you actually do believe, you might ask, with friends like these, who needs enemies?
Many—at least three quarters, according to exit poll data[1]—evangelical Protestant voters sold their souls to Donald Trump,[2] won a Supreme Court majority[3] (and a generally more conservative judiciary), but are still hemorrhaging followers.[4] “The price is their Christian witness, the credibility of their redemption by God.”[5]
Surely, it also mean the loss of even more followers in the years ahead.
Sarah Jones, “White Evangelicals Made a Deal With the Devil. Now What?” New York, December 6, 2020, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/white-evangelicals-made-a-deal-with-trump-now-what.html
Katie Shepherd manages to draw an equivalence between armed protesters against pandemic lockdowns and the election outcome and Black Lives Matter protests.[6] This is the kind of bullshit that leads me to unsubscribe. And no, I have still not forgiven the New York Times for its coverage of the 2016 election.
Katie Shepherd, “Armed protesters alleging voter fraud surrounded the home of Michigan’s secretary of state,” Washington Post, December 7, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/12/07/michigan-sos-benson-armed-protest/
This is really a nothing new issue. Sometimes, I’m just documenting shit.
Weekly reminder that anticommunism and antiblackness are longstanding bedfellows. pic.twitter.com/dQbrV0fM10
— Dr. CBS (@blackleftaf) December 2, 2020
Folks can also stop w the 4D chess like lawsuits are “loss leaders/fundraising”. It’s not like he *not* trying to win in court.
They’re just that bad.
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 5, 2020
John Fetterman might be right, Trump certainly is delusional, and Trump certainly surrounds himself with sycophants who pursue frivolous claims, but I don’t know that Fetterman is right, and I don’t know how Fetterman can make that claim.
— Josh 🌹 (@RabidSocialist) December 5, 2020
There is a new blog post entitled, “It’s worth it, they say.”
When @BarackObama met Frederick Douglass pic.twitter.com/6BEeJPfYPe
— Eli Valley (@elivalley) December 4, 2020
You might have heard yet another explanation for Donald Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen from him, even as his claims of fraud get a cold reception in court.[9] He’s using those allegations to fundraise, with most of the money going to a slush fund that he can do pretty much whatever he wants to with.[10] I’ve actually been hearing about this for days, but this is the first article I’ve seen about it.
John Cassidy, “Donald Trump’s Latest Grift May Be His Most Cynical Yet,” New Yorker, December 3, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-latest-grift-may-be-his-most-cynical-yet
Simon Lewis, “Trump unveils $207 million fundraising haul after election in effort to overturn result,” Reuters, December 3, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-fundraising/trump-unveils-207-million-fundraising-haul-after-election-in-effort-to-overturn-result-idUSKBN28E012
Aram Roston and Brad Heath, “Trump campaign spent more than $2 million on election lawyers, including Jenna Ellis,” Reuters, December 4, 2020, https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-trump-expenses/trump-campaign-spent-more-than-2-million-on-election-lawyers-including-jenna-ellis-idUSKBN28E2VG
So it’s already pretty well established that Joe Biden is picking a bunch of neoliberal assholes for his cabinet.[11] But even the New Republic is now saying that Biden’s picks are a disaster for the Left and indeed that the Left has no effective voice in the Democratic Party.[12]
Osita Nwanevu, “Joe Biden’s Cabinet Is a Lost Cause for the Left,” New Republic, December 3, 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/160432/biden-cabinet-progressive-defeat-2020
Lenny Bernstein, “With hospitals slammed by covid-19, doctors and nurses plead for action by governors,” Washington Post, December 3, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/doctors-demand-covid-restrictions/2020/12/03/88c1afc6-34e1-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html
George Monbiot attributes Brexit to a ‘civil war’ between “warlord capitalists,” roughly mapping to capitalist libertarians and anarchocapitalists, and “housetrained capitalists,”[1] who don’t map neatly to any of the conservative tendencies I have identified. For the “housetrained capitalism,” I would be tempted to suggest neoconservatism, which takes the U.S. political and economic system as ideology; however, the impetus for neoliberalism, which neoconservatism embraces as a moral imperative,[2] comes directly from Monbiot’s “warlord capitalists,” but is corrupted by power.
Karl Marx’s mistake, identified by Michael Bakunin,[3] was to think that the machinery of government could be used to render itself obsolete and dismantle itself, leading to an egalitarian society, that is, communism, properly understood. (The Russian Revolution instead replaced one elite with another.[4]) Monbiot describes a “pollution paradox” and entirely misses that irony:
[Boris] Johnson’s government [in the United Kingdom] is what warlord money buys. It could be seen as the perfect expression of the Pollution Paradox, a concept that I think is essential to understanding our politics. What this means is that the dirtier or more damaging an enterprise is, the more money it must spend on politics to ensure it’s not regulated out of existence. As a result, political funding comes to be dominated by the most harmful companies and oligarchs, which then wield the greatest political influence. They crowd out their more accommodating rivals.
It isn’t just about pollution. Damaging enterprises with an interest in buying political results include banks developing exotic financial instruments; property developers who resent the planning laws; junk food companies; bosses seeking to destroy employment rights; and plutocrats hoping to avoid tax. It’s why we’ll never have a healthy democracy without a radical reform of campaign finance.[5]
It is capitalism, specifically Monbiot’s “warlord” kind, and even more specifically, the anarchocapitalist kind, that would dismantle government but replace it entirely with an economic hierarchy instead of communist egalitarianism.
George Monbiot, “Caught in the Crossfire,” November 27, 2020, https://www.monbiot.com/2020/11/27/caught-in-the-crossfire/
So one question has been how a delusional raging narcissist understands having to leave the White House:
This is the set-up. trump must be victorious against the forces of evil. trump is going to leave a martyr. https://t.co/LaCEEbDSAn
I am hearing from two reliable sources that Trump is planning to make a long speech or release a long statement about the "witch hunt" and how he and his family were targeted and harassed for years and then announce pardons for his family and others consistent with Flynn pardon.
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) December 1, 2020
— Palli Davis Holubar #HandMarkedPaperBallots (@palliddh) December 2, 2020
Sasha *and* Malia retweeted this. Pay attention, Obama! https://t.co/1Oy0aECsWJ
With all due respect, Mr. President—let’s talk about losing people. We lost Michael Brown Jr. We lost Breonna Taylor. We’re losing our loved ones to police violence.
It’s not a slogan. It’s a mandate for keeping our people alive. Defund the police. https://t.co/Wsxp1Y1bBi
Obama: You lose people with "snappy" slogans like "defund the police" https://t.co/qjrPY9eY2M pic.twitter.com/ynqQHnvN3u
— The Hill (@thehill) December 1, 2020
— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) December 2, 2020
— soc bo (@EmbraceTheBase) December 2, 2020
Barack Obama seems never to have recovered from having to repudiate his pastor and having to claim a false equivalence between Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and a cop.
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]
.@Bernie Sanders and @AOC wanted us to vote for @joebiden because they knew they could get him to go left.
The Lincoln Project wanted us to vote for Joe Biden because they knew they could get him to go right.
One of those assumptions was better than the other.
— ʙᴇɴɪɢᴍᴀ (@benigma2017) November 30, 2020
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/
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/
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/
Osita Nwanevu, “Joe Biden’s Cabinet Is a Lost Cause for the Left,” New Republic, December 3, 2020, https://newrepublic.com/article/160432/biden-cabinet-progressive-defeat-2020
Helena Bottemiller Evich, Ximena Bustillo, and Liz Crampton, “Black farmers, civil rights advocates seething over Vilsack pick,” Politico, December 9, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/09/black-farmers-tom-vilsack-agriculture-usda-biden-cabinet-444077
Zeeshan Aleem, “Biden’s ‘Cabinet of Firsts’ Betrays a Cynical Approach to Diversity,” Intercept, December 31, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/12/31/biden-diversity-cabinet/
Tyler Pager, “The jockeying to replace Neera Tanden has begun,” Politico, February 20, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/20/neera-tanden-omb-replacement-470424
Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett, “Collins and Romney to oppose Tanden for OMB, further jeopardizing her nomination,” Politico, February 22, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/22/collins-oppose-tanden-jeopardize-nomination-470801
Felicia Sonmez et al., “White House withdraws Tanden nomination; Biden says U.S. will have enough vaccine doses for every adult by end of May,” Washington Post, March 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/02/joe-biden-live-updates/
Rebecca Traister, “Biden’s Big Left Gamble,” New York, July 5, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/biden-big-left-gamble.html
Paul Waldman, “Trump didn’t have to deliver for his party’s base. Biden does,” Washington Post, July 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/06/trump-didnt-have-deliver-his-partys-base-biden-does/
Lisa Rein, “Biden fires head of Social Security Administration, a Trump holdover who drew the ire of Democrats,” Washington Post, July 9, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/andrew-saul-social-security-/2021/07/09/c18a34fa-df99-11eb-a501-0e69b5d012e5_story.html
Andrew Restuccia and Richard Rubin, “Biden Ousts Social Security Chief,” Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-ousts-social-security-chief-11625871710
Dan Diamond, “Biden to pick former West Virginia health official as nation’s drug czar,” Washington Post, July 13, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/07/13/biden-gupta-drug-czar/
There is a new blog post entitled, “Failing to answer the question: Why you should care about other people.”
The so called “mic-drop” case in Commonwealth Court blocks the certification of the PAGOP’s *own* races.
The term expires on Monday, the 30th.
This mean we wouldn’t have a Legistature to vote on their other “mic drop”: a resolution going nowhere fast.https://t.co/rmvwpVJ1NK
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) November 28, 2020
That resolution is the one that would withdraw certification of the election results.
If certification for every state race is blocked because of a PAGOP Commonwealth Court lawsuit, and with ALL of the rampant (yet unproven fraud 😆) December 1st, 25 seats in the PA Senate will technically be vacant.
Can someone check my math?
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) November 28, 2020
With the Supreme Court decision,[2] I infer that the resolution can be reintroduced and voted on. But Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman does not seem concerned. Meanwhile,
In a separate blow to [Donald] Trump, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit on Friday rejected his request for an emergency injunction to overturn the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results. That lawsuit claimed Republicans were illegally disadvantaged because some Democratic-leaning counties in the state allowed voters to correct administrative errors on their mail ballots.[3]
The Circuit Court said the case had “no merit.”[4]
The facts were indisputable: President [Donald] Trump had lost.
But Trump refused to see it that way. Sequestered in the White House and brooding out of public view after his election defeat, rageful and at times delirious in a torrent of private conversations, Trump was, in the telling of one close adviser, like “Mad King George, muttering, ‘I won. I won. I won.’ ”
However cleareyed Trump’s aides may have been about his loss to President-elect Joe Biden, many of them nonetheless indulged their boss and encouraged him to keep fighting with legal appeals. They were “happy to scratch his itch,” this adviser said. “If he thinks he won, it’s like, ‘Shh . . . we won’t tell him.’ ”[5]
The Washington Post has something of an inside account of Trump’s attempts to overturn the election result.[6] It’s still really like the title of my previous blog post, “When it’s over but it isn’t.” It’s not that I think Trump will succeed. It’s that unless Trump now abandons his challenges, the twisting and turning still has a ways to go. He can, for example, appeal adverse decisions in Pennsylvania[7] to the U.S. Supreme Court. Do I think he would succeed there? No. I just don’t think the story is quite yet over.
In December, projections show PA running out of ICU beds.
We must take action to protect our health care system.Stay home as much as possible, wear a mask indoors and outdoors when away from home, and avoid gatherings with non-household members.https://t.co/6RNav28hEJ
— Governor Tom Wolf (@GovernorTomWolf) November 29, 2020
People just aren’t doing it. Traffic on the roads continues to increase. A lot of people are out and about. I had a couple of passengers last night going to a bar on Pittsburgh’s South Side who said they were going before the next lockdown.
A bunch of Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced a resolution that would withdraw the certification of the results of the November election.[8] Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman has mocked the effort:
Let me be clear: This is nothing but a pitiful, desperate publicity stunt.
They literally could introduce a resolution calling for a ham sandwich to be our state bird.
This isn’t going anywhere.
The sponsors know this better than anyone. 1/2https://t.co/RYru2bSguA
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) November 28, 2020
The thread continues, ultimately to four tweets, including what appears to be a video of Pinnochio.
The legislative session ends day after tomorrow (November 30) and all bills and resolutions that haven’t passed die on that date. There’s been no move to put this resolution to a vote.[9]
This is the same legislature that is stonewalling legalized recreational marijuana,[10] has desperately attempted and failed to undo Governor Tom Wolf’s orders meant to contain the pandemic,[11] and takes any excuse it can find to put more guns[12] in the hands of white supremacists.
Jan Murphy, “26 state House Republicans call for withdrawing certification of presidential electors,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 28, 2020, https://triblive.com/news/politics-election/26-state-house-republicans-call-for-withdrawing-certification-of-presidential-electors/
Philip Rucker et al., “20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the election,” Washington Post, November 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-election-overturn/2020/11/28/34f45226-2f47-11eb-96c2-aac3f162215d_story.html
Elise Viebeck, “Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismisses lawsuit against mail ballots with prejudice in another defeat for Trump,” Washington Post, November 28, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pennsylvania-supreme-court-dismisses-lawsuit-against-mail-ballots-with-prejudice-in-another-defeat-for-trump/2020/11/28/d1d50ef4-31d2-11eb-96c2-aac3f162215d_story.html
There is a new blog post entitled, “When it’s over but it isn’t.”
Josh Dawsey, “Trump commits to stepping down if electoral college votes for Biden,” Washington Post, November 26, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-he-will-leave-if-electoral-college-votes-for-biden/2020/11/26/7883351c-303b-11eb-96c2-aac3f162215d_story.html
The Allegheny County Health Department reports 1,642 new cases over the last 48 hours (averaging 821 per day). This is a record number, far exceeding numbers which have ranged in the up-to-600+ range in such notifications I’ve received in recent weeks. Oh yeah, and it’s Black Friday today, and I had a busy day yesterday as people travelled to Thanksgiving dinners with friends and family.
So what’s this picture gonna look like in two weeks?
Sebastian Meineck, “Five Reasons You Should Delete Telegram from Your Phone,” Vice, November 25, 2020, https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgqqv8/five-reasons-you-should-delete-telegram-from-your-phone
Fig. 1. An entrance to the Beth Abraham cemetery in Pittsburgh’s Carrick neighborhood. The Shaare Torah cemetery is very close by. Photograph by author, July 27, 2020.
One might think, in the wake of the Tree of Life shooting, wherein a white supremacist shot Jews in a Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh) synagogue,[1] that maybe, just maybe, stricter guns laws might be called for, as indeed Pittsburgh has called for[2] and even attempted to pass on its own.[3] One might even think that the lobbyists who claim to oppose anti-Semitism would support such moves.
The Pennsylvania state legislature, however, moves in an entirely different direction.[4] And supposedly anti-anti-Semitic lobbyists are, as far as I can tell, entirely silent.
The overlap between so-called “gun rights”[5] advocacy and white supremacy is hard to miss in southwestern Pennsylvania.[6] Support for one inescapably means support for the other.
Which is to say that the Pennsylvania legislature is anti-Semitic. And should be called out for it accordingly.
Associated Press, “Gov. Tom Wolf Vetoes Bills On Firearms During Emergencies And Gas Drilling Regulation,” KDKA, November 26, 2020, https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2020/11/26/wolf-vetoes-three-bills/
The dangers are not over. We might notice by now Donald Trump’s cycle of acquiescence and then aggression, depression and then revenge. These are the cycles of a violent person: violence arises out of a reaction against (one’s own) inactivity.
— Bandy X Lee, MD, MDiv (@BandyXLee1) November 25, 2020
Perhaps my memory fails me. But it seems to me that by now, the campaign signs in people’s yards should be coming down (posters in public places, of course, take months to collect). I’m not seeing that, at least as much as I expect this time, perhaps because Trump has been so slow to concede in any form at all. And I’m remembering the right wing militia.[3]
So, today’s (November 22) the day. It’s the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
If the pattern follows last year, business will drop off a cliff today with the ridesharing. It’s already been ugly and though I’m mostly inclined to attribute this to the approach of winter, and indeed the approach of this day, it’s possible this year’s winter doldrums will be exacerbated by the fact more people are staying home, due to the pandemic.
In an earlier issue (quoting an earlier issue), I wrote,
From the previous issue:
What is Donald Trump up to, really? Really, we don’t know. Fred Hiatt outlines three possibilities.[4] Personally, I just think Trump is batshit crazy, which most resembles Hiatt’s scenario #3, but I don’t know either. His scenario #1 is essentially the electoral college manipulation[5] I’ve been talking about, which I think could draw in armed militia groups.[6] At this point, scenario #1 is probably—only probably—the least likely, but Hiatt doesn’t rule it out,[7] and I think really, he’s right not to. Scenario #2 looks a lot like the parallel government idea that Jonathan Freedland put forth.[8] This, too, could draw in the militia groups.[9]
It’s still a bit early to make the call, but at this point, Fred Hiatt’s scenario #1[10] appears to be fizzling as even local and state Republicans mostly quietly decline Donald Trump’s demand to overturn the election results.[11] Even scenario #2[12] would be a costly endeavor with a questionable chance of success. That pretty much leaves Trump his Twitter account and whatever he can cobble together in various media deals and rallies.[13]
There’s one factor unaccounted for in all of this. Trump retains the support of a large portion of the population, including some—we don’t know how many or how well equipped—who’ve been preparing for civil war.[14] So far, I’m not seeing the rumblings that suggest something is really afoot. But as it becomes increasingly clear even to Trump’s most ardent supporters that he has lost, that still might change.
Meanwhile, the Times (of London) reminds us that Trump’s post-presidential woes aren’t limited[15] to his debts and probable tax liabilities.[16] Other legal battles also await.[17] And we really don’t know where he’ll be tweeting from.[18]
Right now, it’s gotta be looking pretty bleak for our delusional raging narcissist. But then I’ve underestimated him before.
Toluse Olorunnipa, Amy B. Wang, and Chelsea Janes, “Trump’s quest to overturn election runs into quiet resistance from local and state Republicans,” Washington Post, November 21, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-michigan-georgia-pennsylvania-certify-votes-state-lawmakers/2020/11/21/1f410296-2b9e-11eb-8fa2-06e7cbb145c0_story.html
Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, and Josh Dawsey, “Trump privately plots his next act — including a potential 2024 run,” Washington Post, November 21, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-2024-rematch/2020/11/21/58ce87ac-2a8d-11eb-8fa2-06e7cbb145c0_story.html
Josh Glancy, “Beaten Trump may never be able to retire to his winter White House,” Times, November 22, 2020, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/beaten-trump-may-never-be-able-to-retire-to-his-winter-white-house-353tc09h5
