The Loser’s Lament

New York Daily News Editorial Board, December 9, 2020

Trump continues to lie, and his allies continue to try to disenfranchise American voters.

Tuesday, as the “safe harbor” deadline cementing Joe Biden’s win as president came and went, finalizing the slates of electors chosen by states, Donald Trump dug himself deeper into a delusional hole.

“We’re going to have to see who the next administration is,” he said while discussing vaccine distribution. “Because we won in those swing states,” adding, “You can’t steal hundreds of thousands of votes.”

But stealing hundreds of thousands of votes is precisely what Trump and his desperate band of denialists attempt, as they try to invalidate tallies that went for Biden.

Trump’s furious court challenges have failed spectacularly in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania. The only state to miss the safe harbor deadline was Wisconsin, due to a Thursday court hearing — meaning that Badger State electors will be the only ones subject to congressional challenge.

Tuesday, even as the Supreme Court declined an attempt by Trump allies to overturn Pennsylvania’s results, Texas’ attorney general asked the high court to block four other states from filing their Electoral College votes because they adjusted their voting procedures to enfranchise people during the COVID pandemic. It would be funny if it weren’t so sad, and so damaging to America’s status as a paragon of democracy worldwide.

The shenanigans will continue. The man who used a racist lie about foreign birth to claim his predecessor was illegitimate will use essentially racist lies about intrinsically illegitimate urban votes to claim his successor is illegitimate.

Nearly 90% of Republicans in Congress refuse to acknowledge Biden’s victory. Two outright insist Trump won. And one, Rep. Alex Mooney of West Virginia, is floating a resolution to formally condemn members who call on the president to concede.

Four years drunk on a demagogue’s lies have brought Republicans to a rock bottom of servility and humiliation.

Metric System Vs. Imperial (British) System

One of the age-old arguments a majority of the world has with the United States is why the country insists on staying with the imperial system of measurement. Aside from Liberia and Myanmar, the rest of the world, as you can see by the gray masses, use the metric system.

In America’s defense, they can actually blame the British on the unit of measurement. Hundreds of years ago, when the British colonized America, they brought with them the imperial system. Ever since, Americans have used that system. Great Britain developed that Imperial system of measurement. A formal UK government policy to support metrication was agreed by 1965.

But change is slowly happening in the United States.

Some U.S. consumer products come in rounded metric sizes. This appears to be increasing because of the international nature of manufacturing, distribution, and sales. Many items are produced in rounded metric quantities and some manufacturers opt to display the metric quantity first or more prominently (e.g., Oral-B Glide dental floss is available in 35-, 40-, and 50-meter packages).

Perhaps the most common metric item sold is the two-liter bottle. Some supermarket chains also make their store brand soft drinks available in 3-liter sizes. Soft drink containers of 1 and 0.5 liters (and more recently 1.25 liter bottles) are increasingly sold alongside 12 fl oz, 16 fl oz, 20 fl oz, and 24 fl oz (355, 473, 591 and 710 mL) sizes.

The half-liter water bottle (16.9 fl oz) has nearly replaced the 16 ounce size. 700 mL (23.6 fl oz) and one-liter sizes are also common, though 20 fl oz, and 24 fl oz sizes remain popular, particularly in vending machines.

People are stubborn. 30% of the world’s population drives on the left side of the road with steering wheels on the right side of their cars. They are not likely to change their cars and Americans are not likely to give up the Imperial measurement system.

The Sad Case of Denial

Donald Trump is in denial.

A simple and clear refutation of the president came Friday from a Trump appointee, when Judge Stephanos Bibas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit wrote a unanimous opinion rejecting the president’s request for an emergency injunction to overturn the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results.

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy,” Bibas wrote. “Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”

Donald Trump says the courts don’t understand what is going on. 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.’ ”

Trump Claims FBI And Justice Department May Have Helped Rig Election. “This is total fraud,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo during the interview on Fox Business’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” adding: “And how the FBI and Department of Justice—I don’t know—maybe they’re involved, but how people are getting away with this stuff—it’s unbelievable.”

Wait there is at least one other possibility. The U.S. election was manipulated by scheming from a dead Venezuelan strongman, by a computer system capable of flipping Trump votes to Joe Biden ones across the country, and by something weird happening in Germany. If that’s not enough, the communists are coming as reported in the Chicago Tribune.

Donald Trump is president until January 20, 2021. He has already damaged our democracy by claiming elections are fraudulent. What more can he do? This really is a frightening time for the United States.

Twenty-fifth Amendment here we come or will there be a Coup?

A Political Party in Disarray

On stage with his appointees 11-24-20 is the man with a halo

‘America First’ may be gone but what will replace it?

The Democratic Party is in disarray. Worse than the loss of seats in the House of Representatives their lack of unity translates into a two year, perhaps four years, of grid lock in the congress. The Republicans are dancing with joy.

There is a reason for the lack of unity in the Democratic Party. The moderates and the “progressives” have totally different goals for moving the country forward.

The Green New Deal is a list of the liberal agenda items as listed in the Washington Post on February 19, 2019. It is after all a 21st century version of FDR’s New Deal.

All great ideas but are they realistic? Listed below are four of them.

“Upgrading all existing buildings in the United States and building new buildings to achieve maximal energy efficiency, water efficiency, safety, affordability, comfort, and durability, including through electrification.”

“Overhauling transportation systems in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector as much as is technologically feasible, including through investment in – (i) zero-emission vehicle infrastructure and manufacturing; (ii) clean, affordable, and accessible public transportation; and (iii) high-speed rail.”

“Spurring massive growth in clean manufacturing in the United States and removing pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing and industry as much as is technologically feasible.”

“Working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to eliminate pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible.”

Moderates see a public option over Medicare for All, keeping illegal entry into the U.S. a criminal offense, reform the police rather than defunding the police as more reasonable solutions that more Americans are likely to support. Those are the ideas that Joe Biden’s primary advisers are likely to support because they reflect his views.

Joe Biden needs the support of those liberals/progressives to push his agenda through the congress. He also needs the support of moderate Republicans in the Senate.

Remember it was President Barack Obama who said there are not red states and blue states. There is the United States. As great an orator as he was his adversaries wanted to make him a failed one term president.

Given the Democratic Party divide and the GOP determined to make Biden’s presidency a failure, it is difficult to see a success path for the Biden presidency.

A Step toward Fascism in America

Editorial, The Hartford Courant, November 21, 2020

Trump’s effort to steal the election is a step toward fascism in America. If you call yourself a patriot, you can’t support it.

A vain, angry man who is refusing to accept reality has his finger on the button.

A sulking, bitter man who is refusing to accept the will of the people leads the world’s most powerful democracy.

A man who dwells in the world of lies and deceit is firing those who will not blindly do his bidding.

It’s been long clear to many that Donald Trump, in sowing division, discrediting uncomfortable truths and fomenting a cult of personality was walking the same path dictators have in the past. Just look up Matyas Rakosi (Hungary), Francois Duvalier (Haiti) or Benito Mussolini (Italy), since the past holds important lessons that too many seem willing to ignore.

And now, facing defeat — the moment when character is revealed — Trump is showing his true colors in a way that even those who for four years have looked past his flaws cannot ignore. The alternate reality Trump is working hard to create — that the election was tainted, that it was stolen from him by Joe Biden — is a dangerous narrative that threatens the core of our Democracy. There is no evidence of any widespread or systemic fraud. When Trump’s own head of election cybersecurity sad that, he was fired.

That false narrative is Trump’s justification to pave a path toward fascism in America, a path that calls for upending the will of the people. And those who are going along — repeating the lies, looking for ways to undo the vote or even standing silent in acquiescence — risk supporting fascism over freedom. The problem in Nazi Germany wasn’t only that there were German people who thought exterminating Jews was acceptable. It’s that there were many who knew it wasn’t but stood by quietly and let it happen.

We’re not suggesting that there aren’t valid remedies to challenge potential issues connected to the administration of any election. But this has gone way beyond that. As the legal challenges filed by the Trump campaign have fallen one by one, the paranoid rhetoric has ramped up.

And so have efforts to replace Democracy with dictatorship.

The initial unwillingness of elections officials to certify results in Wayne County, Michigan, the alleged interference of Sen. Lindsay Graham in the certification process of the results in Georgia and now suggestions that Republican legislators in key states could simply ignore the election results and nominate pro-Trump electors are unparalleled threats to democracy.

This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats anymore. It’s about those who believe in democracy versus those willing to risk living under a fascist regime.

If you’re among those who voted for Trump — and there were many — you may have had good reasons. In a recent Courant story, reporter Mike Hamad chronicled the rise of Trumpism among disaffected middle-class voters. But supporting Trump’s efforts to unravel a clear and unequivocal result must be resisted by anyone who calls themselves an American or a patriot.

There may be a lot we as Americans disagree on these days. But if the will of the people to choose who leads is no longer a shared value, we are in deeper trouble than we imagined.

It’s time to stand up and be counted. That goes for people in Trump-leaning towns. That goes for local talk show hosts who parrot lies and conspiracy theories. And that goes for anyone who posts falsehoods on Facebook or Instagram. You are aiding and abetting fascism. Time to stop.

It’s also time for majority Democrats to listen harder to the voices of those who have drifted to the right. There is a growing perception that the Democrats are beholden to wealthy elitists on the one hand and progressives on the other. Those in the middle are clearly looking for someone who can speak to the hopes and fears of every working American.

Over the next two months we will write a new chapter in American history. We’ll either put partisan interests aside and reinvest in democracy or we will allow a bully to continue down a dangerous path. It’s time to appreciate what the flag really means. It’s time to be a real patriot.

Can the American Democracy Survive?

The next two months are a test of the American democracy. The question will be can the democracy withstand the pressure of a president who wants to destroy the system?

Adolph Hitler attained power in March 1933, after the Reichstag adopted the Enabling Act of 1933 in that month, giving expanded authority to president President Paul von Hindenburg who had already appointed Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933 after a series of parliamentary elections and associated backroom intrigues.

In 1933 with the death of Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler became absolute dictator of Germany under the title of Fuhrer, or “Leader.” The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany’s democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler’s Third Reich.

Donald Trump is not known to do a lot of reading but he knows how Hitler destroyed the German democracy and obtained absolute power. Trump has already insisted that all secretaries and all department heads must swear allegiance to him. That is the reason Mark Esper is no longer the Secretary of Defense, Chris Krebs is no longer Director of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council, and Doctors Birx and Fauci have been sidelined in the Corona Virus Task force.

Trump has not obtained the needed electoral college votes to obtain his second term as president. So now he is using every arm twisting and threatening way he can conger up to induce Republican controlled legislatures to send delegates to the electoral college meeting to vote for him even though he did not win the popular vote. And it might work.

If this election is fraudulent then all elections in the future might also be fraudulent. That would mean that the American democracy is dead. Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Kim Jong-un are among the dictators who are smiling and saying “We told you democracy doesn’t work. The United States government collapse proves it.”