On the Cliff of Despair

While a margin of six million votes is decisive for President-elect Biden, I find it depressing to accept that 74 million people voted for the piece of shit who will go down as the worst president in U.S. history. I struggle to see the justification for that choice. I feel far removed from that part of America.

Peter Montague examines the notion of "deaths of despair" quoting Atul Gawande.

When it comes to people whose lives aren’t going well, American culture is a harsh judge: if you can’t find enough work, if your wages are too low, if you can’t be counted on to support a family, if you don’t have a promising future, then there must be something wrong with you. When people discover that they can numb negative feelings with alcohol or drugs, only to find that addiction has made them even more powerless, it seems to confirm that they are to blame. We Americans are reluctant to acknowledge that our economy serves the educated classes and penalizes the rest.

So what happens as that reluctance starts to shift? Montague:

Hopelessness and helplessness join with pain and anger, which are also widely felt. In 2019 an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll reported that 70 percent of Americans say they feel angry "because our political system seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington." [Fuckface] promised (falsely) to take down those insiders and restore power to the people.

In an interview with Paul Rosenberg, Jack Goldstone discusses how societies handle organizational failures and how that can lead to revolutions.

The breakdown, the polarization, the divisions of American society are not about [Dear Leader]. They are about people rejecting the actions of an elite — both conservatives and liberals, it really didn't matter; it was both New York elites and Texas elites — rejecting a notion of a society in which winners take all and government should be starved, with no provide benefits or support for communities that are in trouble, and basically leaving people on their own.

[W]hen things are bad enough for a large portion of the population, they are much more easily recruited to movements that say, "We gotta get rid of everything. These are bad people in charge. Things are never going to get better until we get them out of the way." That's how you recruit a mass movement for rebellion or revolution.

Meanwhile, we're speeding toward the largest organizational failure of all and potential collapse. The neoliberal ideology that benefits the few at the expense of the many erodes social cohesion. Goldstone says problems fester when the government's ability to respond is damaged.

How close are you getting to the edge of the cliff? We can't tell exactly where the edge of the cliff is, because you could say it's shrouded in fog. It depends on lots of particular circumstances. But we know there's a cliff out there.

[I]f the moderates cannot work together and cannot get anything done, that strengthens the extremists on both sides.

The polarization will be worse, the anger will be worse, the recrimination on both sides will be vicious and nothing will have been accomplished in four years.

The interview doesn't end there. Rosenberg asks about democratic reforms and Goldstone says there are many ideas to help pull us away from the brink. He insists that we don't just want partisan solutions. But I'm afraid that if we have to rely on the likes of Mitch McConnell for bipartisan cooperation, we just might already be over the edge.

Update (November 23):  Andrew O'Hehir considers where we might be heading. Dear Leader has shown us the sharp conflicts in U.S. politics.

[H]is cruelty, his vulgarity and his open contempt for democracy, the rule of law and constitutional order woke many of us up — and I don't entirely exclude his voters and supporters — to the deep wounds in our society, the lack of any shared understanding of reality and the profound apprehension about the future.

But Democrats are generally unwilling or unable to offer much more than "we're not crazy". 

Rhetorical gestures toward abstract ideals of justice, equality and democracy may have been just about enough to defeat a widely despised and famously incompetent president, but they are not nearly enough to defeat a surging fascist movement built on white nationalism, cultural dispossession, economic stagnation and anti-elite rage.

One political party in America now has a clear agenda and a loyal following, and has now taken a low-risk dry run at seizing and holding power without regard for laws or rules or standards of decency or those famous "democratic norms." That party didn't go all-in on that effort this time around, but it now sees that with the right leader and adequate planning — not to mention the necessary level of force — the task can probably be managed. The other party is against all that, gosh darn it! But it still doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up, and it may not get the chance.

Update (November 25):  Amanda Marcotte maintains that the 74 million Republican votes are not about the candidate so much as a movement representing the rise of American fascism.

That the most powerful country in the world is being held hostage by an authoritarian, racist minority drunk on conspiracy theories is the biggest story in politics. It's part of a larger story about the entire world in the grip of rising authoritarianism. Their power will define Joe Biden's presidency. Their ability to cripple him will matter more than any of his Cabinet picks or even his executive orders.

[Dear Leader] is just the shorthand for this very real and ongoing problem. The reason it feels like we can't quit [him] is that we can't quit the people who elected him. [W]e shouldn't pander to those people or seek to placate them, but we also can't just ignore them. Not while they still control so many levers of power.

Update (November 27):  Anthony DiMaggio clarifies that "being white and earning a lower income is not significantly associated with an increased statistical likelihood of voting for" Dear Leader.

[S]upport for [him] is not significantly associated with "deaths of despair" among economically insecure whites ... . While [his] white supporters are more likely to say they struggle with depression and alcohol abuse (although not illicit drug abuse), these struggles are not linked to financial insecurity (lower incomes), and such drug problems are common across the income spectrum, among lower, middle, and upper income earners. ... [T]here is very little evidence that support for [him] is seriously linked to financial insecurity, among Americans in general or among whites.

[O]ccupationally stressed, xenophobic white Americans – those who report working overtime or a second job, and who agree that "immigrants exert a harmful impact on society because they take American jobs, housing, and health care" – are significantly more likely to support [Agent Orange]. ... [S]aying that white [supporters] are angry because they are struggling to get ahead in their jobs is very different than saying these individuals are the same people who are being left disproportionately behind in an era of rising inequality and worker insecurity. ... What separates [his] supporters from other Americans, who are also facing occupational stresses is the former’s willingness to blame immigrants for their struggles.

Update (November 28):  Tony McKenna warns against complacency.

It is difficult to imagine that [the Biden administration] will offer the electorate either something qualitatively new or something that's likely to genuinely uplift the economic interests of the vast majority. The cloud of euphoria — which was more about the exorcism of [Dear Leader] than about the ascension of Biden — is likely to dissipate rather quickly under the grind of the neoliberal machine.

[E]fforts to call into question the validity of the democratic process, both before and after the election — on the surface the last-ditch cry of foul by a gaudy vulgarian, will in fact act as a potent rallying point for a political base all too ready to congeal around the notion that a liberal elite has robbed the "anti-establishment" candidate of his rightful win. And the more the Democratic Party pursues its pro-Wall Street policies, the more it will reveal itself as the party of an elite minority.

The slick brand of managerial capitalism which encompasses high finance and a new era of global imperialism, which Biden's administration is almost certainly set to offer, could well create the perfect conditions in which a new type of far-right demagoguery can metastasize; something which will unite the anguished fury of the lower-middle classes with the most rabid fringes of the far right, fusing them into a toxic and potentially lethal brew.

And Paul Edwards sees multiple issues on which there are, perhaps, irresolvable differences--economic, religious, race relations, ecological, foreign policy, labor, immigration, healthcare, and even beliefs about the very function of government.

[T]hese percolating disasters are unintended consequences of an economic system the sole purpose of which is to grind the living world to powder for money; a system without one single provision for the care and preservation of life in any form other than as a source of monetary gain.

There will be no "coming together"; no "healing of wounds". No "long, national nightmare" will be over. The lesions that unrestrained Capitalism has inflicted and left raw and festering on the body politic are not healable, and are fatal.

Update (December 9):  Heather Digby Parton notes that the enormous partisan divide make compromise unlikely.

[Dear Leader] may have lost the legal battle and will lose institutional power within a few weeks. But the danger won't pass anytim soon, because the GOP establishment sees benefit in leveraging this incoherent rage to sabotage what they're essentially claiming will be an illegitimate Democratic presidency. Biden can initiate all the outreach he wants but I don't think GOP officials could put that genie back in the bottle if they wanted to. And they have made it very clear that they don't want to.

Update (December 17):  In a conversation with Bill Moyers, Steven Harper and Heather Cox Richardson consider what the country is heading toward.

Harper:

Hannah Arendt would say when you're bombarded with lies, repeatedly, the purpose of the lie is not really to get you to believe the lie. It's to persuade you to doubt everything. And with such a people, you can do as you please. ... I think that pundits have ... really underestimated [Dear Leader] for a long time by referring to the things he does as "breaking norms." As if a norm is not a big deal. But one of the norms that this country has stood for, and what makes the country what it is, is respect for the rule of law. And if you shatter the rule of law, which is what's been happening again and again and again under [him], what's left? If you eliminate truth, if you eliminate facts, if you let people believe whatever they want to believe, if they confine themselves to the comfortable bubbles of people telling them what they want to hear, I don't think democracy survives that.

Richardson: 

I think there is also the recognition on the part of a number of Republicans that this is it. They have to retain power. Because if they don't, the Democrats will in fact make it easier to vote, and the current day Republican Party is not going to be viable any longer.

But one of the things that [this] administration has done, is it has woken up an awful lot of Americans to the idea that democracy is not a spectator sport. And they're getting involved in ways that they have never been involved before. And they are really starting to understand that what happens in their government matters to their lives. And they're running for office, and they're meeting, and they're writing letters, and they're voting, and they're talking about what it means to be an American. And that, to me, looks like our greatest moments. ... And I really think, when you look at where we are, sure, this could be the end of American democracy and we might see the rise of oligarchy that looks a lot like a modernized version of fascism. But it could also look like a new future. And the work I see people doing on the ground makes me hopeful that that's the direction we're actually going.

Update (December 20):  Paul Rosenberg examines how the perception of victimization (as opposed to actual victimization) drives political support for tyranny. A tyrant will stir up support by feeding into narcissistic beliefs about being better than others and thus deserving special treatment.  Rosenberg quotes Elizabeth Mika:

You can expect the members of historically privileged classes and groups to have a sense of specialness ingrained in them by the virtue of being part of that class. When their sense of privilege is threatened and/or eroded, by, for example, expanding the privilege to others, members of previously disenfranchised and thus 'inferior' groups, they react with anger and rage that seek suitable scapegoats, more often than not from among those who are seen as 'stealing' their privilege or otherwise responsible for its loss. For narcissists, the loss of privilege feels like oppression.

Rosenberg continues:

This description is a near-perfect fit for [Dear Leader's] white, Christian nationalist base. That base easily delivered landslide re-election victories for Richard Nixon in the 70s and Ronald Reagan in the 80s, but has only managed one popular-vote victory since 1988. Its privileged position has been eroding for at least 30 years now, and has only survived this long because of multiple anti-democratic features of our politics: the Electoral College, gerrymandering, voter suppression, the Senate filibuster and ideologically-stacked courts. The longer that power has been sustained on such a fragile, illegitimate foundation, the more crushing its loss would seem. Hello, snowflakes!

Both kinds of victimhood seem central to conducting politics.

If one is not a victim but claims to be, that's very likely an example of envious reversal [a form of projection]. But if one is a snowflake and has spent years attacking others as snowflakes, that's also an example of envious reversal. So, too, if you believe that others are unfairly claiming victim status, when in fact that's been your go-to move ever since Brown v. Board of Education. So there's a potential for this kind of victimhood to lead into a hall-of-mirrors fantasy situation. But remember: This is still subjective victimhood. Questions about how subjective and objective realities align are incredibly important, but to fully address them we need to understand the subjective side as well as can.

Update (January 3, 2021):  Paul Rosenberg argues the United States is not so much a representative democracy as a form of "competitive authoritarianism". He notes antidemocratic features of the U.S. system such as "voter suppression, gerrymandering and the apportionment of U.S. Senate seats" and quotes Mark Copelovitch:

[O]ur electoral institutions have institutionalized minority rule and locked in policies at odds with what large majorities of Americans seem to want on almost every issue.

Bob Hennelly goes further to describe the U.S. as a failed state. 

[T]o finger [Dear Leader] alone for our miserable situation fails to not fully grasp the awful truth that's been decades in the making.

Update (January 10, 2021):  Doug Neiss warns that the "left" and "right" are not on equal footing as threats to democracy. Only one side looks to take on the "not impossible task, except politically" to "improve the quality of life for the lower half or more of the population" and resist "the power of money to subvert or displace any other values people hold".

The U.S. is said to have a two-party system, but many have observed that the parties are suspiciously similar, and refer to the system as a duopoly. They are closer to the truth, which is that we have a single right-wing party that rules, that sets the agenda and the limits of debate, whether officially in power or not, and a second, phantom party that goes through the motions of wielding power or of being in opposition.

If we simply revert to our pre-[Agent Orange] course, however, as the phantom party seems bent on doing, we should be very concerned about what rough beast awaits us on the other side of Joe "soul of America" Biden.

You're Fired!

The lead grew large enough in Pennsylvania for the major news outlets to call the election for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.  At this point 284 to 214 electoral votes according to Associated Press.

Update (November 8):  While there's concern over his behavior for the next several weeks, we can hope the adults prevail.

[The] First Lady ... has joined the growing chorus of [von Clownstick's] inner circle advising him the time has come for him to accept the loss.

Update (November 10):  So because we don't just live in a politically polarized country, but also as people who don't accept the same version of reality, William Barr is allowing baseless voter fraud claims to be investigated. That prompted Richard Pilger, the director of the Election Crimes Branch, to resign from the Department of Justice in protest.

Despite breaking with tradition, it doesn't seem to be a serious effort to overturn the election, merely a way to soothe the fragile ego of the whiner-in-chief.

Amanda Marcotte asks why Mitch McConnell "and other Republicans are refusing to stand up for the integrity of our democracy".

[T]he real reason McConnell is doing this is simple: He does not believe in democracy.

[H]e's treating [Dear Leader's] efforts to invalidate this election as an opportunity. It's not that he thinks [the] clownish power-grab will succeed, although McConnell would certainly be delighted if he did. It's that McConnell sees [the] false accusations of fraud as a pretext he can use to undercut Biden even before he takes office — and in all likelihood to refuse to acknowledge Biden as a legitimate president once he does.

McConnell's main goal with Biden, as it was with Obama, is to make a Democratic presidency look like a failure.

Update (November 12):  Fuckface still refuses to concede the election and Amanda Marcotte sees that as a dangerous message.

Bitter resentment about having to share power with people who aren't white, Christian or conservative is what fueled [Dear Leader's] rise in the first place. He has spent the past five years encouraging his supporters in their bigoted belief that they're the only Americans who count — and therefore the only Americans whose votes should count. His last weeks in office look like they will be defined by his bitter, pugnacious insistence that any vote, anywhere, that wasn't for him should be illegal.

Update (November 13):  Sixteen federal prosecutors have written a letter to William Barr telling him there are no election problems to investigate.

[I]n the 2020 election cycle, there is no evidence of "substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities" that "could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election".

Update (November 14):  In light of lack of evidence of election fraud, Fuckface is running out of schemes to overturn the result.

State GOP lawmakers in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin have all said they would not intervene in the selection of electors, who ultimately cast the votes that secure a candidate’s victory. Such a move would violate state law and a vote of the people, several noted.

Update (November 17):  It sure is amazing how Republicans throw around baseless claims of election fraud. Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham tried to get absentee ballots thrown out in Georgia and for a short time, there was an attempt to disenfranchise all of Detroit. Governor Gretchen Whitmer:

In refusing to approve the results of the election in Wayne County, the two Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers have placed partisan politics above their legal duty to certify the election results.

Thankfully, people were paying attention and pressured the Board of Canvassers to certify the election after the initial vote.

The initial action by the GOP board of canvassers members was part of a scheme, promoted by [the president's] campaign, involving local and state-level Republicans on local canvassing and elections boards refusing to certify election results in jurisdictions where Biden won. In doing so, they believe, they could throw the certification decision to Republican-controlled state legislatures that could then choose [Dear Leader] as the winner, even though he lost the popular vote to Biden by almost 3%. Republican legislative leaders have, however, said that they will play no role in the theft of the election.

[Fuckface] praised the initial refusal to certify the Wayne County results in an inaccurate tweet claiming that the certification for statewide Michigan results had been refused.

Update (November 18):  While Biden's win is solid, Paul Waldman argues we kind of got lucky. Only 45,000 votes in Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin would've swung this election--compared to 77,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in 2016.

If [Dear Leader's] team were not such a bunch of buffoons, and if Republican officials at the state level were just a little more corrupt than they already are, he might have been able to steal the election after all.

Update (November 19):  The Michigan story gets more convoluted. The Republican campaign dropped a lawsuit in Wayne County went they thought they had won. And now the two Republican that originally voted against certification want to change their minds again. It seems to be too late for that. Yet Republican leaders from the Legislature are meeting with Fuckface at his request. 

They are fucking relentless. Paul Blumenthal explains how appalling this is.

Republicans now face a litmus test of endorsing a belief that the 2020 election was unfair, a position that undermines the necessary peaceful transfer of power that American democracy would not exist without.

These efforts will all fail. But they augur a terrible turn to the past in the long-standing effort to limit Black voter participation in elections. It harkens back to the long history of racist disenfranchisement perpetrated by the white majority on Black Americans.

And Chris Marshall suggests it's not necessarily clear they won't succeed.

[W]e have the unprecedented spectacle of a president rejecting the results of an election no matter what judges and election officials say, including Republican judges, Republican secretaries of state and relevant officials in his own administration. And now an entire (semi-loyal) political party, with precious few exceptions, abnormally backs up that abnormal president and his abnormal behavior.

[A]ccording to a bogus legal doctrine being pushed by none other than Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, [the] Article II language means that the state legislature and the state legislature alone makes the election rules, and any other — shall we say "alteration" — of the rules by any other political actor in the normal course of the governmental process is in strict violation of the United States Constitution. Given the prevailing, currently unusual circumstances, then, one might argue that the state legislatures have no real choice, after all, but to intervene and send their own slates of electors to the Electoral College. And it would be perfectly reasonable, would it not, if three of those state legislatures just so happened to judge that [Dear Leader] is the rightful winner instead of Biden?

[O]nly a fool would trust that the forbearance, restraint and fundamental reasonableness of [Fuckface von Clownstick] and the sycophantic cultists who populate his party will be sufficient to rule out availing themselves of the one remaining pathway they have to victory. They have the means, motive and opportunity, and they are unrestrained by principle. Therefore, the smart money says they may well try it. I fear they will choose to be legends. And if they try it, they will work it for all its worth, and, experience teaches us, the vast majority of the thoroughly corrupt, semi-loyal Republican Party will fall dutifully into line like good little authoritarians.

Update (November 20):  There's been no major violence so far and yet we're already fucked as Republicans continue to undermine trust in elections. Heather Digby Parton gives her take on the machinations over electors.

Is any of this remotely possible? Sure. It's unlikely, but it's possible. It's tempting to think this is all so nuts that it could never possibly happen, but we thought everything [Manbaby] has done over the past five years was nuts, and here we are. All our hand-wringing about this plot being un-American and destructive to our democracy is sadly irrelevant — not just to the preposterous Giuliani and the equally preposterous [von Clownstick] but to the entire Republican Party. They have learned the power of total shamelessness, and it is profound. I would never count them out.

And some reassurance from the Michigan legislators who met with Fuckface today.

We have not yet been made aware of any information that would change the outcome of the election in Michigan and as legislative leaders, we will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan's electors, just as we have said throughout this election.

Once again, we need to be grateful for several local Republican officials with integrity and for the stupidity of the Republican lawyers.

In one section of his affidavit, Ramsland listed as highly suspicious 100% voter turnouts he calculated in 25 districts in Detroit’s Wayne County, which went for Democrat Joe Biden. But all of the districts listed were actually in Minnesota.

Update (November 22):  Ian MacDougall explains the difficulties with trying to get legislatures to appoint electors. 

Update (November 23):  Michigan certifies the election results and the General Services Administration finally signs off on ascertainment.

Update (November 24):  John Stoehr explains why most GOP elected officials are slow to acknowledge Biden's win.

[T]he problem is one of choices. The Republicans do not fear [Dear Leader]. They fear losing power. They are, in intent and in effect, choosing power over principles, power over promises, and power over patriotism. They could choose to explain for the good of the country that [von Clownstick] should get out of the way. But they are choosing not to. We are left, then, with a reasonable conclusion: they believe sticking with [him] gives them an advantage over people who believe some things matter more than power. Sticking with [Fuckface] gives them an advantage over those of us who believe in democracy. They say they are afraid in order to gain advantage over people of good faith who fall for it.

Update (November 25):  Why are we tip-toeing around the fact that Dear Leader is deranged and needs psychiatric help? He called in to some kind of "hearing" in Pennsylvania:

Why wouldn't they overturn an election? Certainly, overturn it in your state.... We have to turn the election over, because there's no doubt. We have all the evidence, we have all the affidavits, we have everything. All we have to do is have some judge listen to it properly.

You can't keep making serious claims for three weeks and never back them up.  

Update (November 26):  It's so tiring to keep reading this bullshit. Maybe he shouldn't even be invited to the inauguration. One donor is suing to get his money back.

It’s going to be a very hard thing to concede, because we know there was massive fraud. This was a massive fraud, this should never take place in this country. We’re like a third-world country.

I know one thing, Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes. This race is far from over.

Update (November 27):  The Republican campaign lost yet another case in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The campaign was not even pleading fraud in seeking to overturn the Pennsylvania election.

[C]alling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.

But no matter how many cases go against him, Dear Leader remains detached from reality.

Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!

Update (November 28):  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to mail-in ballots. 

Update (November 30):  Yes, it's all over now except for 51 more days of whining and crying.

[O]n Monday, the [election] results met a new official threshold as Arizona and Wisconsin became the final decisive swing states to certify their votes.

Update (December 1):  Eliza Newlin lists six "guardrails" that protected democracy--this time. The military, the courts, the states, the media, the hardware, the voters.

[I]t's worth acknowledging the guardrails that have held fast against the nation's severe democracy stress test, and against [Dear Leader's] specious and ongoing fraud allegations. There's no guarantee these railings would hold against a more sophisticated adversary, and the need to shore up voting rights and election administration remains urgent.

 NOW is it finally over?

Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Update (December 2):  In an interview with Dean Obeidallah, Ruth Ben-Ghiat acknowledges hearing from non-Americans (in particular people from the Middle East) who are convinced Dear Leader won't be leaving office.

I would caution anybody to think that just because you see [Fuckface] going to play golf or he doesn't have any public events on his schedule, it doesn't mean people are not digging in for this desperate endgame.

Update (December 10):  The Texas Attorney General, joined by 17 other Republican state attorneys general, is suing Georgia, Michigan, Pennsyvania, and Wisconsin over the election. Theoretically, six conservatives could find a reason to keep Fuckface in power. Kristen Clarke:

Were the Supreme Court to agree to hear this meritless suit brought by Texas, we might as well toss the Constitution.

Amanda Marcotte points out most Republican officials have no qualms supporting Dear Leader's attempted coup. Their lack of results was simply "acting more out of legal necessity than a desire to defend democracy". The vote just wasn't close enough to make it possible to steal the election. 

The expressed concern about election integrity is dangerous because the sentiment is not sincere.

Conservatives know better than to openly argue that Democratic votes shouldn't be counted. So instead they concoct this elaborate conspiracy theory, painting themselves as the victims of voter fraud in order to justify an illegal effort to steal the election.

Unfortunately, the belief that these folks are sincere in their claims that the election was "stolen" puts a glow of innocence on their actions. This leads many observers underestimate the seriousness of a situation where a large percentage of Americans are actively supporting a coup. It also focuses attention away from what needs to be done to fight back. The "delusion" model of understanding Republican behavior suggests that education is the solution.

Instead, it's important to see those who support [von Clownstick's] coup for who they are: People who have been radicalized through racism, hateful propaganda and a sense of perpetual grievance, against democracy. They aren't going to change their minds because of new facts, because the underlying belief — which is that they deserve to be in power, no matter what — is the problem here. It's a rising American authoritarianism, and we underestimate it at our peril.

Update (December 11):  Heather Digby Parton acknowledges the attempted coup has failed, but argues that the "guardrails" of democracy have taken a beating.

In a healthy democracy the president of the United States would not be attempting to overturn a legal election, nor would he be able to convince tens of millions of his followers that he was justified in doing so based upon a series of lies so preposterous that normally only a naive child could believe them. In a system that was working, any leader would be humiliated at having been shown to be such a pathetic sore loser in one courtroom after another. His party would show him the door.

Parton quotes Ron Brownstein.

[T]he Republican Party is on a continuum toward the kind of "democratic erosion" visible in other countries ... [where] a party that wins office through a democratic election then seeks to use state power to tilt or completely undermine future elections.

And it turns out the Supreme Court has now rejected the Texas suit for lack of standing. Only two justices even expressed support on that issue let alone any other merits.

Two conservative justices — Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas — said they believed the Supreme Court was technically required to allow Texas to file a bill of complaint, but indicated that they would “not grant other relief,” meaning they would not agree to throw the country into chaos.

But, hey, keep pounding away at those guardrails. We're bound to break through eventually. 

Update (December 14):  As the Electoral College makes it official, I can't help but wonder at the persistent intransigence of the losers. There are protests to "Stop the Steal" even though it's their own Dear Leader who is trying to steal the election. 

Andrew O'Hehir imagines there are still people with whom he shares "enough assumptions about the world to have a coherent conversation about what has gone wrong and how to fix it". Yet we can't say what kind of political world we are transitioning into and he asks

Is the collapse of America really happening, or is it all just a hilarious troll — and how will we know the difference?

O'Hehir quotes John Ganz:

This question "Are they just delusional or do they really believe this insanity?" that we are constantly forced to ask is precisely the same question people ask about totalitarian regimes, because they practice a politics that confounds the boundaries between belief and cynicism.

Update (December 15):  Is Senator Mitch McConnell finally, finally the last word on this?

The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden. The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He's devoted himself to public service for many years. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.

Update (December 21):  Incredibly, it is still not over. Amanda Marcotte refers to a New York Times story about Dear Leader talking about martial law with lunatics like Michael Flynn at the White House.

The story isn't just alarming because [Fuckface] is flirting with violence, either. It's alarming because it's proof that [he] is continuing to push these idiotic conspiracy theories because he really, truly does think there's still a way for him to steal this election.

Update (December 28):  Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post published an editiorial with the front page headline, "Stop the Insanity".

You have tweeted that, as long as Republicans have "courage," they can overturn the results and give you four more years in office.

In other words, you’re cheering for an undemocratic coup.

And further.

Michael Flynn suggesting martial law is tantamount to treason. It is shameful.

Update (January 3, 2021):  All the Republicans planning to challenge the electoral vote count in Congress are encouraging this insanity.

[Fuckface von Clownstick] on Saturday pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to recalculate the state’s tally of presidential election votes to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win.

This is a quote from the actual recorded phone call.

We have won this election in Georgia. And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, Brad. You know, I mean, having the correct ― the people of Georgia are angry. ... And there’s nothing wrong with saying that, you know, that you’ve recalculated.

Update (January 4, 2021):  In response to Dear Leader, Brad Raffensperger points out "that the data he had is just plain wrong". Also, Democrats call for his indictment. Representative Pramila Jayapal:

[Fuckface] once again abused the power of his office, demanded interference in our elections, betrayed this country, and attacked our democracy. We must hold him fully accountable, even after he leaves office. There must be justice.

Update (January 5, 2021):  Even George Will slams the Republican challenge for the electoral vote count.

On Wednesday, the members of the Hawley-Cruz cohort will violate the oath of office in which they swore to defend the Constitution from enemies "foreign and domestic". They are its most dangerous domestic enemies.

Update (January 25, 2021):  Amanda Marcotte highlights the efforts of pro-democracy activists such as the Democracy Defense Coalition to stop the efforts to steal the election. 

The true story of how [Fuckface] was defeated, by regular people who fought for their democracy, is empowering. It can convince people to keep up the fight. So while no one should doubt [he] is an idiot, it's important to give credit where it's due for his defeat: On the progressives who fought him, every step of the way.

For a New Day

Andrew O'Hehir looks past next week.

In terms of conventional political outcomes, the recent explosion of activism among younger adults and teenagers, from the post-Parkland student movement to Greta Thunberg and the climate strikers to the massive Black Lives Matter protests all across America (and the world) this past summer, has not actually accomplished anything. But those are unmistakable expressions of political power that announce the rising consciousness of a new generation.

These younger activists have noticeably shifted the national temperature and the national discourse on guns and the climate crisis and police violence. They have helped create an environment where the widespread popular rejection of [Fuckface von Clownstick] and the Republican agenda seems not just possible but nearly inevitable. There is no way to know what long-term political impact they will have, but they offer far more lasting hope for the renewal of democracy than whatever President Joe Biden and a hypothetical Democratic Congress may accomplish.

This year's election will come and go — and that can't happen soon enough. But Americans are beginning to understand what political power is, and how it works. Maybe they'll learn to use it before it's too late.

Heather Digby Parton adds that "electoral grassroots organizing is still vital". State power is essential for political movements to have real accomplishments.

[T]he new progressives in Congress ... will need the passion and numbers of outside movements to help them leverage their power on the inside. If they can do that effectively they may end up showing the Republicans, and the world, what a government that's actually responsive to the people looks like.

Greenland is Melting Faster

A study published in Nature uses modeling to predict that the rate of mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet this century will exceed any previous rate during the entire Holocene. Matthew Rosza notes one anticipated impact.

[I]f [the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation] is slowed down or even halted entirely because of the infusion of melted icewater from Greenland, it could have unpredictable and disruptive consequences for humanity and the rest of life on Earth.

"Stand Back and Stand By"

Nothing says Law and Order like a president who refuses to condemn white supremacists. This is the same Administration that's willing to defy a court order about conducting the census. This is someone who conducted a racist campaign of targeting 3.5 million black voters in 2016 to discourage them from voting.

Even Fox News can't spin the refusal.

[He] blew the biggest layup in the history of debates by not condemning white supremacists. I don't know if he didn't hear it, but he's got to clarify that right away. That's like, "Are you against evil?"

Heather Digby Parton sees a clear intention with a deranged debate performance.

[H]e's openly calling for violence and intimidation around the election. He may end up finally leaving office at the end of this ordeal, but it appears that he's prepared to leave a smoldering ruin of a country in his wake.

Update (October 1):  Amanda Marcotte offers her take on this lunatic.

[N]one of this is the behavior of a man who thinks he's winning. [Agent Orange] is lashing out because he knows he's a failure and a loser, and he's trying to hold that truth at arm's length with a torrent of lies and violent threats.

Update (October 9):  Fuckface during the September 29 debate:

[S]omebody has got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem, this is a left-wing problem.

And now the FBI has announced arrests related to a plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. 

In total, 12 people were arrested on Wednesday on state and federal charges. One day later, six men were charged in the alleged kidnapping plot.

The FBI said the alleged plot involved a Michigan militia. Suspects allegedly surveilled Whitmer's vacation home twice and discussed bringing her to a remote area in Wisconsin to face trial for "treason."

[Dear Leader has] repeatedly attacked Whitmer over her coronavirus restrictions. In April, the president called to "liberate Michigan." 

Update (October 18):  Fuckface continues to incite violence against Governor Whitmer. 

When the crowd started chanting "Lock her up," with absolutely no justification, [Dear Leader] smiled and repeated the phrase. Then he chillingly added: "Lock 'em all up."

Tax Dodger

The New York Times obtained 20 years of tax returns for Fuckface von Clownstick. The Times reports Dear Leader paid only $750 of federal income tax for 2016 and paid nothing in ten of the previous 15 years. He is also over $400 million in debt with loans coming due over the next four years. I.R.S. fines could amount to $100 million.

The tax returns that [Mr. Orange] has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president.

I can't wait for him to prove The Times wrong when he immediately releases his true tax returns! 

Update (September 28):  Andrew Weissmann suggests Fuckface owes that money to Russians.

Update (September 29):  Roger Sollenberger says Manbaby might owe as much as $1 billion. He quotes Barb McQuade.

Someone with a mountain of debt like [the president] is a national security risk and would be unable to get a security clearance if he were any other government employee. When someone is desperate for cash, they are susceptible to blackmail or bribery. For that reason, people with massive debt or in bankruptcy are not permitted access to our nation's secrets.

Amanda Marcotte points out Dear Leader tends to actively makes things worse. Quoting Greg Sargent:

[T]hese tax returns show that [his] epic cheating wasn't shrewd so much as a desperate effort to "compensate for truly epic levels of incompetence and failure."

[W]e can see the same tendencies playing out with the coronavirus pandemic. If [he] had simply left well enough alone, letting public health officials do their job, the pandemic would still be bad, but would now be much better contained.

Marcotte also quotes First Daughter that "my dad's communication style is not to everyone's taste" but that "the results speak for themselves." 

Yeah, First Daughter: They do. ... [A]s these tax documents prove, it's a lie that goes back decades. [Agent Orange] is both an asshole and a terrible businessman, quite possibly the worst on planet Earth. He surrounds himself in gold-plated cheese, but his real Midas talent is his ability to turn anything he touches to ashes. He did it to his endlessly fake and failed business enterprises, and now he's doing it to our country.

Update (September 30):  David Cay Johnston explains Fuckface's history of tax fraud and how tax avoidance is common among the wealthy. 

Getting caught cheating, again and again, didn't make him into anything even vaguely resembling an honest taxpayer.

What [he] did learn long ago from his mentor and "second father," the notoriously corrupt lawyer Roy Cohn, was to lie, cheat, steal and never ever apologize or concede any fact. Just tie the authorities up for years and make them pour their limited resources into a case so they will give up and cry uncle.

Update (October 5):  Alex Henderson notes that tax avoidance is not the same as tax evasion and discusses an article by Derek Thompson which presents three scenarios for understanding Fuckface's tax history.

Explanation 1: [His] Businesses Are Doing Terribly, Explanation 2: Extremely Questionable Tax Maneuvering, and Explanation 3: A Mystery Only Prosecutors Can Unwind.

Update (October 9):  James McFadden speculates on who leaked the tax returns. 

Update (January 1, 2023):  After three years of legal battles, the House Ways and Means Committee released six years of Fuckface tax returns. David Cay Johnston analyzes the many instances of fraud.

One technique he used at least 26 times between 2015 and 2020 was as simple as it was flagrant. [Von Clownstick] filed sole proprietor reports, known as Schedule C, that showed huge business expenses despite having zero revenue. That created losses which [he] used to offset his income from work and investments, thus lowering his income taxes. Additional Schedule Cs had expenses exactly equal to revenues while only a few showed profits.

The 65 Schedule Cs [Dear Leader] filed as a candidate and as president helped him convert a federal tax bill that could have been as high as $46 million into a $2.1 million profit from the federal tax system.

Climate Change Maps

ProPublica published a series of maps showing the expected impact of climate change in the United States over the next several decades.

[W]arming temperatures and changing rainfall will drive agriculture and temperate climates northward, while sea level rise will consume coastlines and dangerous levels of humidity will swamp the Mississippi River valley.

The most suitable "niche" will change dramatically.

By 2040 to 2060, ProPublica reports, extreme temperatures will become the norm in the South and Southwest. But it’s not just heat that will drive Americans out of their homes: humidity and rainfall patterns will also make it difficult for the human body to control its own temperature for one out of every 20 days of the year in the Midwest and Louisiana by 2050. Farm productivity, of course, will also be exacerbated by this — much of the agricultural industry will be obsolete by then.

Meanwhile, satellite images show current disasters "before what is typically peak wildfire season in the West and with 2½ months left in the official Atlantic hurricane season".

Not to mention the emerging new climate in the Arctic and disintegrating glaciers in the Antarctic.

Update (September 18):  The disintegration refers to a PNAS study of the Pine Island and Thwaites Glaciers. They already contribute about five percent of sea level rise and would potentially add 4 feet of rise in total.