Special counsel for election fraud

The Times reported that Trump is considering appointing Sidney Powell, the loonie alt-right conspiracy theorist who allegedly has a law degree, as Special counsel for election fraud. That's good news and bad news. The bad news is that her flailing around may cause lots of needless collateral damage. The good news is that she is so embedded in the tin foil hat brigade that the likelihood of her having any more success that she has to date is somewhere between naught and zero.

Louder than tweets

Silence speaks louder than words the saying goes. And that goes for tweets too. The soon to be ex-president has said absolutely nothing about the Russian hacking offensive; so what does that suggest?

It could be that he's completely preoccupied with his failing attempt to overturn the results of the election. But he's had time enough to play some golf so it's not for lack of minutes in the day. Could it be that he is worried about weighing in on an issue that requires some in-death analysis (which as we know is not his forte)? Unlikely; he's never shown any hesitation about shooting of his thumbs when something bothers him, regardless of whether it's true or not. And it's not that he feels it's important for US diplomacy to maintain cordial relations with Putin since he's not going to have to worry about five a little under weeks from now. 

 So what's behind his silence? There are two possibilities, one future oriented that other historically oriented.  The first is that he still wants to do significant business in Russian and needs Putin's support or at very least acquiescence. The second is that he's already done something somewhat shady that could come back to haunt him; and Putin know what that is and might not be afraid to use it. As Trump always says, it's really something the ought to be looked into. 

Occupy and the Tea Party

Occupy and the Tea Party were both a populist reaction to the "elites". After the economic crisis of 2008, bought about by risk taking on Wall Street and a lack of foresight and oversight by successive administrations, the recovery was hindered by an economic stimulus package focused not on those who needed it but the institutions that apparently we couldn't do without (the investment banks). 

The bailout infuriated both the left who didn't see why the already wealthy should have their firms saved at tax payers' expense and the populist right who did't see that tax payers should be on the hook at all¹.  

But the recovery was slow and populist resentment continued to simmer. The establishment left was unable to pivot to capitalize on it, perhaps being preoccupied with less directly concerns and because of their disdain for the "deplorables". Occupy was of course antithetical to structure and organized action and inevitably faded away. The Tea Party however didn't and the GOP was happy to embrace its members as they embraced the establishment (or at least the levers of establishment power). And the result was Donald Trump.

Covid presents another economic crisis. If the GOP has learned anything from the last 12 years it's that they are better organised and positioned to harness the resentment economic hardship generates; so they have an incentive not to provide economic relief. Their best bet for getting back into power is to make life sufficiently difficult for people who are struggling financially² that those people will turn to the only populist party we have. This one of the three levers by which the GOP and the minority it represents cling onto power; that, gerrymandering and voter suppression. Their only problem is that they will have to wrets power over their party from a flagrantly self-dealing family who has found another grift to exploit. 

¹ In the end it appeared that the toxic assets the government acquired in the bailout actual made it money rather than costing it money.

² while cleverly avoiding blame by rediscovering the "we can't raise the debt" mantra to justify their actions - something they conveniently forgot when dishing out huge tax cuts four years ago.

Distorting mirror

Part of Fox' formula is to take a critique of the right by the left and flip it. For example, fake news was a term originally coined (at least in my recollection) by Jon Stewart about Fox a decade ago; but the term was picked up by Fox (and then by Trump) and leveled at the mainstream media.  

The latest example is "banana republic"; it's a term many on the left have used to characterize Trump's efforts to subvert democracy and disenfranchise Biden voters, both before and after the election. Yet today, Fox is using the very same term to attack those states which legally altered their voting procedures in the light of the covid pandemic for doing something nefarious.

What makes the appropriation of terms and their "mirrored"  application so insidious is that for Trump supporters it creates confusion and, for any who had been paying attention, a false equivalence. Now when Fox viewers hear the term fake news they probably don't realize that it was their favorite channel that is actually fake news. And they may even believe that their attempted coup wasn't what made the country look like a banana republic but a perfectly legal process to make voting easier.   

Did he jump, was he pushed?

Of course he was pushed... Well, maybe it was a bit of both.  

Barr's resignation was a RINO, (resignation in name only). He was saved from the humiliation that befell so many of Trump's other acolytes who weren't quite subservient enough by penning a sickeningly sycophantic resignation letter.     

His semi-voluntary ouster was an inevitable consequence of his decision to state publicly that he had seen no evidence of widespread voter fraud. That undermined and infuriated his boss, who certainly would have canned him had he not preemptively resigned; but the writing was on the wall.  

So why did Barr choose this particular moment to stop sucking up to Trump? Probably he realized that life after Trump might be irrevocably irredeemable if he stuck it out to the bitter end, associating himself with the fanatics who were still pretending that the voter fraud in the election was a thing. He can now, after all, say that he left the administration, not the other way round; that might help wash off some of the taint.    

Perhaps he realized it was time to retire, write the definitive tell-all book, and get some of that lovely consulting money the revolving door entitles him to.

Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell today acknowledged for the first time that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential and vice-presidential election this year.  On the Senate floor, with what looked like a twinkle in his eye and what might pass for a smile, he sounded remarkably conciliatory. 

Is he relieved, perhaps, at not having to deal with a narcissistic sociopath in the White House? Is he ecstatic at not having to clear up another fine mess the master deal maker, wall-builder and expert-at-winning, got him into?  Will his apparent goodwill towards the incoming administration carry over into a smidgen less obstructionism that he orchestrated so admirably for Obama's last 6 years? And will the aforementioned unstable-nongenius stop tweeting nonsense, retire to Florida and stop tearing down the institutions that make this country great? 

Who knows. But it's step in the right direction.

Suspicious behavior

Proponents of 'stop and frisk', essentially the on right, claim that the policy is justified by reasonable suspicion that those they target (non-whites) are more suspect than others (whites).  But those same advocates are outraged when that logic is applied to "one of their own" (even if he wasn't really). 

Trump's long history of disregarding the rules made his actions in the run up to the 2016 election look highly suspicious; indeed his actions then and subsequently all appear to reaffirm his intent to do whatever it takes to achieve his ends irrespective of their legality, let alone their inappropriateness. Without enumerating all his transgressions here, one simply has to remember that he lies almost constantly, starting with crowd size and ending with voter fraud. 

So if law enforcement had to make a call as to whether to look into the Russia collusion matter or give him the benefit of the doubt, any reasonable person would have erred on the side of caution and investigated. Stop and frisk is "justified" because "African Americans are inherently suspicious" but when a white millionaire with a history of shady dealings does something that most would think is suspicious, well "that's not something we should be looking into"? Please!

Election deniers

Commentators have been asking when will the GOP wise up and admit that there was no significant voter fraud in the 2020 election. The answer is never. 

The question is predicated on the false premise that the GOP was ever interested in the truth; that's why that fact that the courts have thrown out all but one of their fifty fanciful but fact-free law suits has not made any difference to their peddling of this plainly false narrative. The GOP's objective was always a political one, not a legal (or a truth-seeking) one. 

The GOP's strategy is not to "get to the bottom of this" but rather to sow enough doubt so as to provide political cover when it continues to play the role of Grand Obstructionist Party, as it did for the last six years of Obama's presidency. Then it was the birthirism nonsense that it used to undermine Obama's legitimacy and justify in their voters' minds their obstructionist strategy; but that doesn't work for Biden (because he's white and because he comes across as less erudite than Obama, both of which undermine the right's implicitly racist and anti-intellectual narrative). 

So they are looking for another ploy and they have found it in the election fraud tomfoolery. While it's conception was Trump's habitual stance of not playing by the rules if they inconvenienced him, it makes a perfect substitute for birtherism as a vehicle to question Biden's legitimacy. Some have suggested that the GOP are only pretending to be election deniers because they are afraid of Trump's ire and being "primaried" by a Trump lackey when they are next up for reelection. While this may be a factor, the political utility of election denial remains whether Trump continues to play a role in politics or not¹.    

And if anyone thinks this will finally be settled when the Electoral College votes today, or when Congress confirms the Electoral College votes, or when Biden is sworn in, think again. Remember "Benghazi", or Hillary's emails; they kept that nonsense going for years, long after the facts were clear that, while unfortunate, these were fundamentally non-issues.  

That's the beauty of conspiracy theories; they live on because they are inherently fascinating to their believers even when there is a complete lack of evidence; just like Area-52, Roswell, Hilary's child sex ring, vaccines causing autism, global warning is a progressive hoax, windmills cause cancer, high marginal taxes depress GDP, 5G causes covid...   

¹ Which he will, not because he wants the job - he clearly hates it as to do it well requires intelligence, engagement and hard work, none of which are in his wheelhouse - but because he can't bear to be thought of has a "loser".

Divergence

 

Red states have a preponderance of people who support Trump, and as a result believe that covid is a hoax or not that serious, that mask wearing is of little benefits and an infringement on their "civil liberties",  that mitigation efforts in general are unnecessary and that the vaccine is either of little use or a plot by Bill Gates to implant microchips into their brains (OK not all red-staters think that but more do in red than blue states).  

Blue states, by and large, distrust everything Trump says, think that covid is a big problem, that mitigation is important and most believe the vaccine will be safe and effective. (There are of course some, particularly among African Americans who, for understandable reasons, distrust the vaccine). 

That suggests two distinct paths to herd immunity. In blue state, mitigation and vaccination will provide the main path to immunization, while in red states, becoming infected and developing immunity naturally will be the principle route.  

If vaccines are distributed based on demand the, synergy between these two routes will shorten the time to herd immunity.  If not, red states will have vaccines no one wants and blue state won't have the vaccines they do, and we will remain in purgatory for longer. 

Going on record

 

The Washington Post carried an article this morning about a small town in South Dakota that has now been confronted by the reality of covid with positivity rate of 49% and members of its community dying every day.   

The article also mentioned the vocal opposition from some in the community: "During the public comment section in Mitchell, a handful of anti-maskers spoke, alleging that masks don’t work and that the measure was an overreach that would violate their civil rights". And at a local school board meeting"...a vocal group of anti-maskers continued to protest... That led to a viral video in September showing a burly man refusing to leave the meeting after being asked to put on a mask"

I hope there is more video that will serve as a record of their actions and of those like them which has contributed to the dire situation their town now faces. 

And in a similar vein, those who make public statements that are demonstrably erroneous but have tragic consequences for society should also be  memorialized. That list includes anti-vaxxers, climate change deniers, and last but not least 2020-election fraud conspiracy theorists.  

All should be remembered as having contributed to the woes that could have been avoided had they deferred to those who know what they are talking about.      

Unbelievably low Barr

Attorney General William P. Barr has had an epiphany; the election wasn't rife with the kind of massive fraud he and his boss warned us about repeatedly before November 3rd. After toeing the party line for his entire term in office, peddling conspiracy theories along with the best of them, he's suddenly seen the error of his ways. To what might one attribute this miraculous enlightenment? Well probably not the complete lack of any evidence, or the bewildering insanity of Rudi Giuliani and Sidney Powell's Chavez, China, CIA, Dominion Voting Machines theory of the case; that's been out there for a while. The most likely explanation is that he no longer sees the need to debase himself in the service of Trump since they will both be looking for new jobs come January, and his current boss won't be able to offer him the power and status to which he was becoming accustomed. 

All of which goes to show that while he may have acted 'crazy', it was really crazy like a fox.