November 7, 2020

On The Beach

November 6, 2020

Still Life with Lemons

November 5, 2020

An autocratic breakthrough by tRump, per the New Yorker, today.

By Masha Gessen

The President of the United States has called the election a fraud. He has declared victory without basis, tweeting on Wednesday, “We have claimed” Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, and perhaps Michigan—all states that were still counting votes. Donald Trump, who has been engaged in an autocratic attempt for the last four years, is now trying to stage an autocratic breakthrough.

I have borrowed the term “autocratic attempt” from the work of Bálint Magyar, a Hungarian sociologist who set out to develop analytical tools for understanding the turn away from democracy in many Eastern and Central European countries. I have found Magyar’s ideas surprisingly illuminating when applied to the United States.

Magyar divides the autocrat’s journey into three stages: autocratic attempt, autocratic breakthrough, and autocratic consolidation. The attempt is a period when autocracy is still preventable, or reversible, by electoral means. When it is no longer possible to reverse autocracy peacefully, the autocratic breakthrough has occurred, because the very structures of government have been transformed and can no longer protect themselves. These changes usually include packing the constitutional court (the Supreme Court, in the case of the U.S.) with judges loyal to the autocrat; packing and weakening the courts in general; appointing a chief prosecutor (the Attorney General) who is loyal to the autocrat and will enforce the law selectively on his behalf; changing the rules on the appointment of civil servants; weakening local governments; unilaterally changing electoral rules (to accommodate gerrymandering, for instance); and changing the Constitution to expand the powers of the executive.

For all the apparent flailing and incompetence of the Trump Administration, his autocratic attempt checks most of the boxes. He has appointed three Supreme Court Justices and a record number of federal judges. The Justice Department, under William Barr, acts like Trump’s pocket law-enforcement agency and personal law firm. Trump’s army of “acting” officials, some of them carrying out their duties in violation of relevant federal regulations, have made mincemeat of the rules and norms of federal appointments. Trump has preëmptively declared the election rigged; has incited voter intimidation and encouraged voter suppression; has mobilized his armed supporters to prevent votes from being counted; and has explicitly stated that he is changing the rules of the election. “We want all voting to stop,” he said on Wednesday morning, and vowed to take his case to the Supreme Court.

All of it at the link: https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/by-declaring-victory-donald-trump-is-attempting-an-autocratic-breakthrough?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_110520&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5df969e7954fcf1853569dd0&cndid=59415923&hasha=e6d99470f2be9f1757ca234d98420b03&hashb=4ad9e8e0e66f39f3aa67c60b0216b8709ae176b1&hashc=eda1a2e8c8a89ffa7bed84dc538fe3993f6ca3351d3bfdea44755e42f843a2c9&esrc=Auto_Subs&utm_term=TNY_Daily

November 4, 2020

I have some thoughts on why tRump did as well as he did. Bear with me!

A narcissistic psychopath. That's tRump in a nutshell.

It looks as though he increased his base this time around. How and why?

My husband pointed out that some Black voters turned towards him because he's macho. And they want to be macho too, so they emulate him. And then they vote for him.

More generally, we've described him as a petulant 5 year old, always yelling, always wanting to get his way, and never accepting responsibility for his actions.

I'm thinking that there are a lot of people who want to be like that, and he has enabled them, encouraged them and generally inspired them to imitate him.

We know there are the proud boys, the white supremacists and others like them who have been validated by him. Now that validation has spread to the general population, who then vote for him.

There's probably more to this than I've pointed out, but I think this is where it starts. And I'm not sure how to combat it.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

November 4, 2020

Montana has been on my mind...

So far, Bullock is ahead. This is good news! Daines is the incumbent.


Steve Bullock 50.3% 158,150

Steve Daines * 49.7% 156,308

November 4, 2020

I'm following election results on the NY Times :

The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/news-event/2020-election

November 2, 2020

One day post blue moon! November 1, 2020.

November 1, 2020

More funny stuff--this time, stuff that court reporters had to write down.

How Do Court Reporters Keep Straight Faces?
These are from a book called Disorder in the Courts and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while the exchanges were taking place....

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, 'Where am I, Cathy?'
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan!
_______________________________
ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_________________________________
ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________
ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the 20-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's 20, much like your IQ.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess.
___________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male.
_____________________________________
ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________
ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral...
_________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 PM
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS:If not, he was by the time I finished. ____________________________________________
ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
______________________________________
And last:
ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

October 31, 2020

Pre-Halloween Moon, October 30, 2020.

October 29, 2020

This was posted on Daily Kos and I thought it was worth passing along. I know the author.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/10/29/1990633/-De-Nazification-not-Bipartisanship-after-Trump?fbclid=IwAR3vYeCyh183DHSSWUHLt4VLkQcVYsTUEtrXsWpmbV5Oy_qDsI_OIh5GmDE


Bipartisanship is impossible and must be banished from Democratic thought and speech. Not out of vengeance against the GOP, but from an assessment of facts. There is no honest partner across the aisle available to an incoming Biden transition and administration to be bipartisan with. The way to recover from Trump is much more akin to denazification.

Some say there are Republicans who opposed Trump to work with. But to only evaluate Republicans by who were in or out of Trump’s circle misses the core problem. The GOP, since Reagan at least, strove to create a political climate that made Trump possible. The Republican agenda has been building a Kleptocracy. How can government maximize the wealth of a few at the expense of everyone else. Republicans are essentially anti-democratic because they strive to win power with a minority of votes and fixed federal courts to build said Kleptocracy. Every GOP candidate, every consultant, every party leader since Reagan strove to create an authoritarian, white, racist, sexist, xenophobic base, weaponizing every prejudice in our country to win elections. Every GOP leader for decades across our country made Trump possible and none can be untangled from him today.

The Lincoln Project—chock full of enabling consultants, perhaps worried about getting into heaven now, cannot be redeemed simply by turning their authoritarian-honed weapons against Trump. Kasich—he was a Gingrich lieutenant back in the day and handed out cookies to friends from Ohio’s jar as its reactionary governor. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan—he crashed a multi-billion dollar transit line project, pushes a highway expansion for wealthy developers, while 2020 write-in voting Ronald Reagan. Never Trumpers—most were simply offended by how undeferential Trump was to them. Even the departed, bipartisan-sainted John McCain gave us Sarah Palin—the female Wal-Mart prequel to Taj Mahal bankrupting Trump. Any list of GOP corruption, deceit and hatefulness quickly grows very, very long.

Denazification is a model because this divisive and hateful GOP model for coalition building must be rooted out and destroyed. Bringing any GOP practitioners into a Democratic government legitimizes their authoritarianism just as Trump’s visit to North Korea did for Kim Jong-un.

All of it at the link.