alternet--2020-12-27--Here are the top 10 stupidest things Trump did as President (Yes, it is hard to pick)

We 're tentatively starting to emerge from the four year-long national nightmare of Donald Trump 's presidency , but the reckoning of what the nation endured will take years to really understand .
Trump was terrible in so many ways that it 's hard to catalog them all : His sociopathic lack of regard for others .
His towering narcissism .
His utter ease with lying .
His cruelty and sadism .
The glee he took in cheating and stomping on anything good and decent .
His misogyny and racism .
His love of encouraging violence , only equaled by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the repulsive character traits in a man so wholly lacking in any redeemable qualities , perhaps the most perplexing to his opponents was Trump 's incredible stupidity .
On one hand , it was maddening that a man so painfully dumb , a man who clearly could barely read — even on those rare occasions when he deigned to wear glasses — still had the low cunning necessary to take over the Republican Party and then the White House .
On the other hand , it was the one aspect of Trump 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a man so stupid , his opponents believed , will one day blunder so badly he ca n't be saved , even by his most powerful sycophants .
That has proved to be the case as Trump fumbles his way through a failed coup , unable and unwilling to see that stealing the election from Joe Biden is a lost cause .
Trump 's unparalleled idiocy gave us a few laughs along the way , which we sorely needed in those troubled times .
With that in mind , here 's a list @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Trump 's White House tenure .
1 ) That time Trump suggested injecting household cleaners into people 's lungs to cure them of the coronavirus .
Even for connoisseurs of Trumpian idiocy , it was a shocker when , after hearing that bleach and Lysol can kill the coronavirus on surfaces , got behind the podium in the White House briefing room and declared , `` I see the disinfectant , where it knocks it out in a minute , one minute .
... Is there a way we can do something @ @ @ @ @ @ @ almost a cleaning , because , you see , it gets in the lungs , and it does a tremendous number on the lungs ? ''
He then pointed at his head , and said , `` I 'm , like , a person who has a good you-know-what . ''
The situation was only made worse because this nitwit said this during the daily coronavirus `` press briefing , '' during that surreal period of the spring and early summer in which he held forth daily , often for hours , presenting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an expert .
Never has a man believed he knew so much while knowing so little .
2 ) That time he looked at a solar eclipse without eye protection — after everyone was repeatedly told not to look at the eclipse without eye protection .
It was at this moment that I realized that Trump voters must like it that he 's an stone cold idiot , if only because they enjoy the way it triggers the liberals .
3 ) That time he could n't admit he was wrong when he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hit Alabama , and so he drew on a weather map with a Sharpie to make it seem like he was right .
Again , what really elevates some of the best dumbass-Trump moments is when his stupidity combines with his massive ego to create a dunderhead singularity .
4 ) That time he threw paper towels at people in Puerto Rico who had just endured Hurricane Maria .
Trump 's ego plus Trump 's stupidity is just sublime .
But when his stupidity combined with racism , the effect was often more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time he asked members of the National Security Council if they could nuke hurricanes rather than letting them hit the U.S. Hurricanes drew out Trump 's fatuousness like a good cheese draws out the notes in fine wine .
6 ) That time Trump was told to talk about Frederick Douglass at a Black History Month event , clearly had no idea who that was , and while trying to bullshit his way through the talk , implied that Douglass was still alive .
`` Douglass is an example of somebody who 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recognized more and more , I notice , '' Trump said , using the same strategy that a sixth-grader who has n't read the book might employ to bluff through a book report .
There was a piece of paper in front of Trump that likely had more information about the author and abolitionist who was born enslaved and died in 1895 as one of the most famous Americans , but Trump , as ever too vain to wear his glasses in public , probably could n't read it .
7 ) That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wall could just maybe be buttressed with alligator moats .
This one was fondly remembered by the Salon staff as an iconic example of the way Trump 's racism amplifies his imbecility in an almost exponential fashion .
8 ) That time he asked Canada 's prime minister , Justin Trudeau , `` Did n't you guys burn down the White House ? ''
At this point one almost wants to give him half-credit for remembering that the White House was burned down at one point — by the British in the War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Trump has declared himself the protector and savior of American history , so much so that he 's created the `` 1776 Commission '' in a supposed effort to preserve what he considers the proper teaching of history .
All he means by that , of course , is teaching kids that the blatant racism of the past was noble and just , and not so much actual facts , let alone actual history .
This is a deep cut , but a personal favorite of mine , mostly because Ashley Feinberg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this topic and demonstrated it was almost certainly the result of stupidity , horniness and Trump 's short and stubby fingers .
It started when Trump liked — and then unliked — a tweet by a woman named Heben Nigatu declaring , `` Every new Rihanna interview makes me grow stronger .
We stan a work/life balance queen !
!
! ''
As Feinberg noted , Rihanna 's name was trending on Twitter the night of the weird `` like . ''
If users clicked that trending topic , they saw a photo @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a see-through leotard .
As `` our president is furiously , pathologically horny , '' Feinberg concludes , he likely `` clicked on this photo of Rihanna while making a series of steamboat noises and sweating profusely , '' which led him to a list of tweets mentioning Rihanna — including Nigatu 's tweet .
At which point his fingers , which are too small to be controlled with any grace , likely slid unconsciously over the `` like '' button .
As further evidence , Feinberg points out Trump had , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a sexy photo of Katy Perry .
10 ) When he called the Second Epistle to the Corinthians `` Two Corinthians . ''
This is another personal favorite , because , like many other of Trump 's dumber moments — such as when he tried to put money on a communion platter , or when he held a Bible as if he were afraid it might bite him , or when he seemed confused by the idea that he should ask God for forgiveness — it was a fun reminder that Trump 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but an act he can barely be bothered to keep going .
It 's delicious because it 's a twofer , not just exposing Trump 's stupidity , but the absolute shamelessness of the Christian right leaders who backed him .
( For those who may be unclear : This book of the Bible is abbreviated as `` 2 Corinthians '' but always called `` Second Corinthians . ''
) Every time Trump fumbled in this way , and the Trump-friendly evangelists kept on acting like he was God 's emissary on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ most of these supposedly devout Christians do n't really care about faith or God or Jesus or any of that that stuff — they care about power .
As with their beloved president , dramatic performance of public piety by so many right-wing Christian leaders is little more than a dog-and-pony show put on to sucker the rubes .
So there 's your top 10 , with the caveat that it was hard — perhaps impossible — to narrow down that number in a satisfying manner , since Trump has done unbelievably stupid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years .
But that 's why the internet gods invented social media and comment sections , so you can add your own to the list !

We're tentatively starting to emerge from the four year-long national nightmare of Donald Trump's presidency, but the reckoning of what the nation endured will take years to really understand. Trump was terrible in so many ways that it's hard to catalog them all: His sociopathic lack of regard for others. His towering narcissism. His utter ease with lying. His cruelty and sadism. The glee he took in cheating and stomping on anything good and decent. His misogyny and racism. His love of encouraging violence, only equaled by his personal cowardice.
But of all the repulsive character traits in a man so wholly lacking in any redeemable qualities, perhaps the most perplexing to his opponents was Trump's incredible stupidity. On one hand, it was maddening that a man so painfully dumb, a man who clearly could barely read — even on those rare occasions when he deigned to wear glasses — still had the low cunning necessary to take over the Republican Party and then the White House.
On the other hand, it was the one aspect of Trump's personality that kept hope alive. Surely a man so stupid, his opponents believed, will one day blunder so badly he can't be saved, even by his most powerful sycophants. That has proved to be the case as Trump fumbles his way through a failed coup, unable and unwilling to see that stealing the election from Joe Biden is a lost cause.
Trump's unparalleled idiocy gave us a few laughs along the way, which we sorely needed in those troubled times. With that in mind, here's a list of the 10 most jaw-droppingly stupid moments of Trump's White House tenure.
1) That time Trump suggested injecting household cleaners into people's lungs to cure them of the coronavirus. Even for connoisseurs of Trumpian idiocy, it was a shocker when, after hearing that bleach and Lysol can kill the coronavirus on surfaces, got behind the podium in the White House briefing room and declared, "I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. ... Is there a way we can do something like that by injection inside, or almost a cleaning, because, you see, it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs?"
He then pointed at his head, and said, "I'm, like, a person who has a good you-know-what."
The situation was only made worse because this nitwit said this during the daily coronavirus "press briefing," during that surreal period of the spring and early summer in which he held forth daily, often for hours, presenting himself as not just a leader but an expert. Never has a man believed he knew so much while knowing so little.
2) That time he looked at a solar eclipse without eye protection — after everyone was repeatedly told not to look at the eclipse without eye protection.
It was at this moment that I realized that Trump voters must like it that he's an stone cold idiot, if only because they enjoy the way it triggers the liberals.
3) That time he couldn't admit he was wrong when he tweeted that Hurricane Dorian was going to hit Alabama, and so he drew on a weather map with a Sharpie to make it seem like he was right.
Again, what really elevates some of the best dumbass-Trump moments is when his stupidity combines with his massive ego to create a dunderhead singularity.
4) That time he threw paper towels at people in Puerto Rico who had just endured Hurricane Maria.
Trump's ego plus Trump's stupidity is just sublime. But when his stupidity combined with racism, the effect was often more chilling than funny.
5) That time he asked members of the National Security Council if they could nuke hurricanes rather than letting them hit the U.S.
Hurricanes drew out Trump's fatuousness like a good cheese draws out the notes in fine wine.
6) That time Trump was told to talk about Frederick Douglass at a Black History Month event, clearly had no idea who that was, and while trying to bullshit his way through the talk, implied that Douglass was still alive.
"Douglass is an example of somebody who's done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice," Trump said, using the same strategy that a sixth-grader who hasn't read the book might employ to bluff through a book report. There was a piece of paper in front of Trump that likely had more information about the author and abolitionist who was born enslaved and died in 1895 as one of the most famous Americans, but Trump, as ever too vain to wear his glasses in public, probably couldn't read it.
7) That time he suggested that his much-desired border wall could just maybe be buttressed with alligator moats.
This one was fondly remembered by the Salon staff as an iconic example of the way Trump's racism amplifies his imbecility in an almost exponential fashion.
8) That time he asked Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, "Didn't you guys burn down the White House?"
At this point one almost wants to give him half-credit for remembering that the White House was burned down at one point — by the British in the War of 1812. But then one remembers that Trump has declared himself the protector and savior of American history, so much so that he's created the "1776 Commission" in a supposed effort to preserve what he considers the proper teaching of history. All he means by that, of course, is teaching kids that the blatant racism of the past was noble and just, and not so much actual facts, let alone actual history.
9) That time Trump "liked" a tweet praising Rihanna.
This is a deep cut, but a personal favorite of mine, mostly because Ashley Feinberg at Slate did a detailed exploration of this topic and demonstrated it was almost certainly the result of stupidity, horniness and Trump's short and stubby fingers. It started when Trump liked — and then unliked — a tweet by a woman named Heben Nigatu declaring, "Every new Rihanna interview makes me grow stronger. We stan a work/life balance queen!!!"
As Feinberg noted, Rihanna's name was trending on Twitter the night of the weird "like." If users clicked that trending topic, they saw a photo of Rihanna lounging on a couch in a see-through leotard. As "our president is furiously, pathologically horny," Feinberg concludes, he likely "clicked on this photo of Rihanna while making a series of steamboat noises and sweating profusely," which led him to a list of tweets mentioning Rihanna — including Nigatu's tweet. At which point his fingers, which are too small to be controlled with any grace, likely slid unconsciously over the "like" button.
As further evidence, Feinberg points out Trump had, in the past, done the same to a sexy photo of Katy Perry.
10) When he called the Second Epistle to the Corinthians "Two Corinthians."
This is another personal favorite, because, like many other of Trump's dumber moments — such as when he tried to put money on a communion platter, or when he held a Bible as if he were afraid it might bite him, or when he seemed confused by the idea that he should ask God for forgiveness — it was a fun reminder that Trump's professed Christianity is not just an act, but an act he can barely be bothered to keep going. It's delicious because it's a twofer, not just exposing Trump's stupidity, but the absolute shamelessness of the Christian right leaders who backed him. (For those who may be unclear: This book of the Bible is abbreviated as "2 Corinthians" but always called "Second Corinthians.")
Every time Trump fumbled in this way, and the Trump-friendly evangelists kept on acting like he was God's emissary on earth, it was further evidence that most of these supposedly devout Christians don't really care about faith or God or Jesus or any of that that stuff — they care about power. As with their beloved president, dramatic performance of public piety by so many right-wing Christian leaders is little more than a dog-and-pony show put on to sucker the rubes.
So there's your top 10, with the caveat that it was hard — perhaps impossible — to narrow down that number in a satisfying manner, since Trump has done unbelievably stupid crap virtually every single day for four years. But that's why the internet gods invented social media and comment sections, so you can add your own to the list!


alternet--2020-12-27--Here's why the arrogance of 'centrism' may destroy us all

The philosopher George Santayana famously said , `` Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it . ''
One insight to draw from Santayana 's oft-repeated aphorism is that the repetition of clichés is likely to have little effect , given the widespread tendency to ignore pithy advice and continue witlessly recycling , recreating and reliving history .
Over the past few weeks , the Republican Party has proven itself hostile to freedom and democracy ; its merciful incompetence the only thing saving whatever remains of our republic from the fascist insurrection of a con man @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — from Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell to their incoherent Michigan `` witness '' and of course Donald Trump himself — have made the entire fiasco seem more like a satirical film than political reality .
At the other multiplex on the Democratic side of town , every screen is running previews for the third version of a box office smash , `` Centrist Failure , '' with Joe Biden taking over the leading role from his more charismatic predecessors , Bill Clinton and Barack Obama .
The 1990s original had audiences entranced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who under the guidance of the Democratic Leadership Council rebranded his party as the `` new Democrats , '' which apparently translates into `` Republicans . ''
Clinton cut social programs , ended `` welfare as we know it '' by making single mothers work low-income jobs without child care , signed a massively destructive and draconian crime bill into law , deregulated the financial industry , and approved NAFTA .
Democrats throughout the mediocre commentariat largely applauded , on the grounds that right-wing policies with a friendlier face were the only way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and prevent another Reagan-like figure from seizing control of the country .
After all , they asked , would n't you rather have Clinton , with his paeans to social liberalism , administrative proficiency and obvious intelligence , than George H.W .
Bush ?
Sure — but then along came Bush 's son , holding the White House door open for the ghoulish likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld , and proving himself far worse than his father .
Two horrific wars , the criminal ineptitude of the federal response to Hurricane @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fertile conditions for radical reform , but instead the `` hopey-changey '' Obama administration committed the first error of national politics .
They failed to act on the keen insight of the aforementioned Cheney , who once told a defiant Republican senator , `` We do n't negotiate with ourselves . ''
Obama clearly enacted policies that improved American life .
The Affordable Care Act rendered an ongoing catastrophe somewhat less deadly , he doubled Pell grants ( barely keeping pace with exorbitant tuition spikes ) , signed the Paris climate accords and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He also staffed his Cabinet with corporate sycophants , allowing the same banking and high-finance bandits who had liquidated working-class wealth to manage the `` recovery '' ; dropped the `` public option '' from his health care proposal without a fight ; and spent years attempting to reach compromise with an obstructionist opposition that he eventually admitted — rather too late — had no interest in productive policy and governance .
Obama was inarguably better for the country than a potential McCain-Palin administration would have been , let alone the planned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ryan .
But throughout his two terms in office , Democrats lost countless state and local offices , while obliviously arguing that demographic changes all but guaranteed their permanent ascension to power — a great victory that somehow always lies just beyond the horizon .
Performing a cover version of the Clinton composition , mainstream politicians and pundits also insisted that any openings to the left would provoke a vicious backlash , manifesting in a menacing right-wing resurgence .
In other words , if Obama had governed as a progressive , someone like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A rational observer might assume that the victory of a reactionary psychopath who upended all normative assumptions about politics would have introduced a little humility and introspection into the centrist consensus .
That observer had best not hold her breath .
Biden has n't even taken the oath of office , and the centrist crew , including Obama and Biden himself , are blaming the left for Democratic losses in the Senate , House and state legislatures , citing the activist call to `` defund the police '' as the primary reason for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is no data to support this conclusion .
If anything , the available evidence actually suggests that candidates with progressive positions outperformed the so-called moderates .
Lack of evidence has never stopped the centrists before .
Now they 've reached a point where information is an unnecessary impediment to their effort to overwhelm all legitimate political or ideological debate with a mélange of platitudes and bromides .
John Harris , writing in Politico , chastises the `` stupid second guessing of Biden '' from the left over his corporate Cabinet choices , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the potential appointment of former Chicago mayor and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel .
Harris claims that progressives `` do n't know what they are talking about , '' and then attempts to prove Emanuel 's merits by summarizing a book he co-wrote in the 1990s .
He never mentions that Emanuel left Chicago as the most hated mayor in the city 's long and colorful history , earning contempt for closing dozens of schools in poor neighborhoods and then covering up video footage of the police killing of Laquan McDonald , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the officer involved to prison . '
Joe Klein , the former sage of Time magazine and champion of `` radical centrism , '' shared Harris ' article on his Facebook page , acting as if he had received it from the hands of Jehovah on Mt .
Sinai .
When I reminded Klein of the McDonald murder , observing that the country 's leading civil rights organizations and labor unions opposed Emanuel , Klein responded that I was `` missing the bigger point . ''
Centrists are always threatening to make a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Here is the big point that they 've been missing for 40 years : The neoliberal consensus is disintegrating , taking traditional party politics into oblivion , because the policies on which it was built have devastated the lives of ordinary people .
Widespread privatization and the elevation of what Karl Marx called `` fictitious capital '' — interest , stocks and commodities , dividends and incomprehensible financial instruments of many kinds — have transformed an economic arrangement that , for all its flaws , gave at least some working-class people a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ into a Serengeti Plain where the powerful use their fangs and claws to rip the flesh from the weak .
The RAND Corporation — hardly an advocate of socialism or Marxism — recently reported that from 1975 to 2018 , the top 1 percent , taking advantage of tax policies , corporate welfare and other built-in benefits , took in $ 47 trillion — that 's trillion , with 12 zeroes – that otherwise would have been distributed among the bottom 90 percent .
Naomi Klein explains brilliantly in her book `` The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ typically exacerbate inequality in various ways : They offer multinational corporations an opportunity to force out small competitors , convince governments to deregulate or surrender public land and other areas of the commons , and accelerate urban gentrification and residential segregation .
It is hardly surprising then that COVID-19 has only enhanced these hideous developments .
According to one report from the Center for Public Integrity , 900 companies that accepted billions in Paycheck Protection Program loans still laid off a cumulative total of 90,000 workers .
American life , for most citizens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with essentials like health care , child care , and high-quality education all but inaccessible .
As a recent report from NPR made clear for those sitting in the back , even many Americans who appear to have it made in the shade , earning relatively high salaries and owning substantial homes , still live paycheck to paycheck , frightened that an unexpected expense will drown them in debt .
There 's `` stone cold rage in the hinterlands , '' Warren Haynes shouts in the Gov't Mule song , `` Stone Cold @ @ @ @ @ @ @ entire American towns have collapsed into conditions that resemble war zone .
Small villages that once had a vibrant communal center made possible by family farming , light manufacturing employment and small retail business have become ghost towns , without much hope for middle-class or even working-class resurrection .
In a previously unprecedented and horrific development , `` deaths of despair '' — primarily meaning those caused by suicide , drug overdose , alcoholism and obesity — began to rise in the United States a few years ago , especially among men in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ desolate and deprived outposts have accepted a theory , albeit a terrible and dangerous one , to explain their demise .
Arlie Russell Hochschild , a sociologist who spent five years conducting lengthy interviews with poor people in the Louisiana bayou , summarizes it this way : Hochschild is not seeking to excuse the obvious racism embodied in this narrative , or to deny its pervasive influence on whites who support Donald Trump and other xenophobic Republicans .
She only explains that nearly everyone she interviewed articulated some version of this `` deep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — `` a story in which you lift away facts and moral judgment and just find the story that feels true . ''
A massively funded apparatus of creative thinkers and skillful personalities inundate voters with right-wing propaganda on a daily basis , creating an alternative universe in which `` facts and moral judgment '' drift away to make room for the hateful scapegoating of all the people Hochschild identifies above .
What is the centrist `` deep story '' that might respond to this ?
Is there even a centrist hypothesis to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American life ?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently courted the scorn of centrists for stating the obvious by calling Biden 's vision for the country `` hazy . ''
None of the attacks on her even tried to offer an alternate assessment of Biden 's prospective agenda .
Of course there is time for the incoming president to communicate with more clarity and specificity , but progressives in Congress are only expressing the reasonable concern that 20 months after Biden announced his presidential candidacy , no one can honestly describe his overarching vision for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The progressive or leftist politics that Ocasio-Cortez represents at least offers Americans , especially those who suffer from poverty and despair , a `` deep story . ''
The leftist deep story has the benefit of being true .
It does n't require adherents to overlook relevant facts or suspend all moral judgment .
It makes no room for racism or nativism .
Instead it accurately surveys the reality on the ground , from the South Side of Chicago to the swamps of Louisiana , and offers real , actionable solutions , which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nationalism of the fast-rising far right .
As psychiatrist Jonathan Metzl demonstrates in his book , `` Dying of Whiteness , '' many white people in `` heartland '' America are so deeply committed to `` racial resentment '' that they will actively vote and fight against their own access to medicine , education , clean air and better wages .
Many of the poor people Metzl interviewed essentially took the position that it is preferable to starve than to endorse policies that might better the lot of Blacks or `` illegal immigrants @ @ @ @ @ @ @ assume that they will convert Trump followers to democratic socialism with a few Bernie Sanders speeches and John Mellencamp records .
They may , however , begin to shift some political support with active and aggressive engagement throughout the country , explaining exactly why their `` deep story '' is better than racial inculpation and division .
As for the centrists , they guarantee failure , offering exactly nothing other than their own arrogance and provably false prescriptions to ordinary people confused and outraged over the decline of their communities and the precarity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that `` moderation '' is the only sensible approach to national politics in a large and diverse country .
They might have an argument worthy of consideration if the world 's problems were moderate .
But the impending climate apocalypse is not moderate , nor is the dramatic and worsening economic inequality , on a scale not seen since the Gilded Age .
Those things can not be addressed with compromises or half-measures .
Centrist equivocation will only alienate Americans from each other , while emboldening the forces of right-wing extremism , ignorance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , through recession , war terrorism , and ecological catastrophe , this story has repeated itself time and time again .
How many times will the `` sensible '' centrists have to watch the country descend into chaos before they learn its lessons ?

The philosopher George Santayana famously said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." One insight to draw from Santayana's oft-repeated aphorism is that the repetition of clichés is likely to have little effect, given the widespread tendency to ignore pithy advice and continue witlessly recycling, recreating and reliving history.
Over the past few weeks, the Republican Party has proven itself hostile to freedom and democracy; its merciful incompetence the only thing saving whatever remains of our republic from the fascist insurrection of a con man. The absurdity of the cast members — from Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell to their incoherent Michigan "witness" and of course Donald Trump himself — have made the entire fiasco seem more like a satirical film than political reality. At the other multiplex on the Democratic side of town, every screen is running previews for the third version of a box office smash, "Centrist Failure," with Joe Biden taking over the leading role from his more charismatic predecessors, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
The 1990s original had audiences entranced by a seductive Southerner, Clinton, who under the guidance of the Democratic Leadership Council rebranded his party as the "new Democrats," which apparently translates into "Republicans." Clinton cut social programs, ended "welfare as we know it" by making single mothers work low-income jobs without child care, signed a massively destructive and draconian crime bill into law, deregulated the financial industry, and approved NAFTA. Democrats throughout the mediocre commentariat largely applauded, on the grounds that right-wing policies with a friendlier face were the only way Democrats could win or maintain power, and prevent another Reagan-like figure from seizing control of the country.
After all, they asked, wouldn't you rather have Clinton, with his paeans to social liberalism, administrative proficiency and obvious intelligence, than George H.W. Bush? Sure — but then along came Bush's son, holding the White House door open for the ghoulish likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and proving himself far worse than his father. Two horrific wars, the criminal ineptitude of the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, and the financial crash created fertile conditions for radical reform, but instead the "hopey-changey" Obama administration committed the first error of national politics. They failed to act on the keen insight of the aforementioned Cheney, who once told a defiant Republican senator, "We don't negotiate with ourselves."
Obama clearly enacted policies that improved American life. The Affordable Care Act rendered an ongoing catastrophe somewhat less deadly, he doubled Pell grants (barely keeping pace with exorbitant tuition spikes), signed the Paris climate accords and negotiated a decent nuclear deal with Iran. He also staffed his Cabinet with corporate sycophants, allowing the same banking and high-finance bandits who had liquidated working-class wealth to manage the "recovery"; dropped the "public option" from his health care proposal without a fight; and spent years attempting to reach compromise with an obstructionist opposition that he eventually admitted — rather too late — had no interest in productive policy and governance.
Obama was inarguably better for the country than a potential McCain-Palin administration would have been, let alone the planned corporate tyranny of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. But throughout his two terms in office, Democrats lost countless state and local offices, while obliviously arguing that demographic changes all but guaranteed their permanent ascension to power — a great victory that somehow always lies just beyond the horizon. Performing a cover version of the Clinton composition, mainstream politicians and pundits also insisted that any openings to the left would provoke a vicious backlash, manifesting in a menacing right-wing resurgence. In other words, if Obama had governed as a progressive, someone like Donald Trump might have become president.
A rational observer might assume that the victory of a reactionary psychopath who upended all normative assumptions about politics would have introduced a little humility and introspection into the centrist consensus. That observer had best not hold her breath.
Biden hasn't even taken the oath of office, and the centrist crew, including Obama and Biden himself, are blaming the left for Democratic losses in the Senate, House and state legislatures, citing the activist call to "defund the police" as the primary reason for the party's poor down-ballot performance. There is no data to support this conclusion. If anything, the available evidence actually suggests that candidates with progressive positions outperformed the so-called moderates.
Lack of evidence has never stopped the centrists before. Now they've reached a point where information is an unnecessary impediment to their effort to overwhelm all legitimate political or ideological debate with a mélange of platitudes and bromides.
John Harris, writing in Politico, chastises the "stupid second guessing of Biden" from the left over his corporate Cabinet choices, focusing closely on the early opposition to the potential appointment of former Chicago mayor and Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Harris claims that progressives "don't know what they are talking about," and then attempts to prove Emanuel's merits by summarizing a book he co-wrote in the 1990s. He never mentions that Emanuel left Chicago as the most hated mayor in the city's long and colorful history, earning contempt for closing dozens of schools in poor neighborhoods and then covering up video footage of the police killing of Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager, which eventually sent the officer involved to prison.'
Joe Klein, the former sage of Time magazine and champion of "radical centrism," shared Harris' article on his Facebook page, acting as if he had received it from the hands of Jehovah on Mt. Sinai. When I reminded Klein of the McDonald murder, observing that the country's leading civil rights organizations and labor unions opposed Emanuel, Klein responded that I was "missing the bigger point."
Centrists are always threatening to make a big point, but never follow through. Here is the big point that they've been missing for 40 years: The neoliberal consensus is disintegrating, taking traditional party politics into oblivion, because the policies on which it was built have devastated the lives of ordinary people. Widespread privatization and the elevation of what Karl Marx called "fictitious capital" — interest, stocks and commodities, dividends and incomprehensible financial instruments of many kinds — have transformed an economic arrangement that, for all its flaws, gave at least some working-class people a chance to build stability and generational wealth into a Serengeti Plain where the powerful use their fangs and claws to rip the flesh from the weak.
The RAND Corporation — hardly an advocate of socialism or Marxism — recently reported that from 1975 to 2018, the top 1 percent, taking advantage of tax policies, corporate welfare and other built-in benefits, took in $47 trillion — that's trillion, with 12 zeroes – that otherwise would have been distributed among the bottom 90 percent.
Naomi Klein explains brilliantly in her book "The Shock Doctrine" that catastrophes and crises typically exacerbate inequality in various ways: They offer multinational corporations an opportunity to force out small competitors, convince governments to deregulate or surrender public land and other areas of the commons, and accelerate urban gentrification and residential segregation. It is hardly surprising then that COVID-19 has only enhanced these hideous developments. According to one report from the Center for Public Integrity, 900 companies that accepted billions in Paycheck Protection Program loans still laid off a cumulative total of 90,000 workers.
American life, for most citizens, has become a never-ending struggle, with essentials like health care, child care, and high-quality education all but inaccessible. As a recent report from NPR made clear for those sitting in the back, even many Americans who appear to have it made in the shade, earning relatively high salaries and owning substantial homes, still live paycheck to paycheck, frightened that an unexpected expense will drown them in debt.
There's "stone cold rage in the hinterlands," Warren Haynes shouts in the Gov't Mule song, "Stone Cold Rage," capturing the way that entire American towns have collapsed into conditions that resemble war zone. Small villages that once had a vibrant communal center made possible by family farming, light manufacturing employment and small retail business have become ghost towns, without much hope for middle-class or even working-class resurrection. In a previously unprecedented and horrific development, "deaths of despair" — primarily meaning those caused by suicide, drug overdose, alcoholism and obesity — began to rise in the United States a few years ago, especially among men in rural areas.
The inhabitants of these desolate and deprived outposts have accepted a theory, albeit a terrible and dangerous one, to explain their demise. Arlie Russell Hochschild, a sociologist who spent five years conducting lengthy interviews with poor people in the Louisiana bayou, summarizes it this way:
Think of people waiting in a long line that stretches up a hill. And at the top of that is the American dream. And the people waiting in line felt like they'd worked extremely hard, sacrificed a lot, tried their best, and were waiting for something they deserved. And this line is increasingly not moving, or moving more slowly [i.e., as the economy stalls].
Then they see people cutting ahead of them in line. Immigrants, blacks, women, refugees, public sector workers. And even an oil-drenched brown pelican getting priority. In their view, people are cutting ahead unfairly. And then in this narrative, there is Barack Obama, to the side, the line supervisor who seems to be waving these people (and the pelican) ahead. So the government seemed to be on the side of the people who were cutting in line and pushing the people in line back.
Hochschild is not seeking to excuse the obvious racism embodied in this narrative, or to deny its pervasive influence on whites who support Donald Trump and other xenophobic Republicans. She only explains that nearly everyone she interviewed articulated some version of this "deep story," to use her words — "a story in which you lift away facts and moral judgment and just find the story that feels true."
A massively funded apparatus of creative thinkers and skillful personalities inundate voters with right-wing propaganda on a daily basis, creating an alternative universe in which "facts and moral judgment" drift away to make room for the hateful scapegoating of all the people Hochschild identifies above.
What is the centrist "deep story" that might respond to this? Is there even a centrist hypothesis to explain and alter the continual decay of American life?
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently courted the scorn of centrists for stating the obvious by calling Biden's vision for the country "hazy." None of the attacks on her even tried to offer an alternate assessment of Biden's prospective agenda. Of course there is time for the incoming president to communicate with more clarity and specificity, but progressives in Congress are only expressing the reasonable concern that 20 months after Biden announced his presidential candidacy, no one can honestly describe his overarching vision for governance, reform and public policy.
The progressive or leftist politics that Ocasio-Cortez represents at least offers Americans, especially those who suffer from poverty and despair, a "deep story." The leftist deep story has the benefit of being true. It doesn't require adherents to overlook relevant facts or suspend all moral judgment. It makes no room for racism or nativism. Instead it accurately surveys the reality on the ground, from the South Side of Chicago to the swamps of Louisiana, and offers real, actionable solutions, which double as an effective counterargument against the nationalism of the fast-rising far right.
As psychiatrist Jonathan Metzl demonstrates in his book, "Dying of Whiteness," many white people in "heartland" America are so deeply committed to "racial resentment" that they will actively vote and fight against their own access to medicine, education, clean air and better wages. Many of the poor people Metzl interviewed essentially took the position that it is preferable to starve than to endorse policies that might better the lot of Blacks or "illegal immigrants."
Of course progressives shouldn't assume that they will convert Trump followers to democratic socialism with a few Bernie Sanders speeches and John Mellencamp records. They may, however, begin to shift some political support with active and aggressive engagement throughout the country, explaining exactly why their "deep story" is better than racial inculpation and division.
As for the centrists, they guarantee failure, offering exactly nothing other than their own arrogance and provably false prescriptions to ordinary people confused and outraged over the decline of their communities and the precarity of their own lives.
Centrists insist that "moderation" is the only sensible approach to national politics in a large and diverse country. They might have an argument worthy of consideration if the world's problems were moderate. But the impending climate apocalypse is not moderate, nor is the dramatic and worsening economic inequality, on a scale not seen since the Gilded Age. Those things cannot be addressed with compromises or half-measures.
Centrist equivocation will only alienate Americans from each other, while emboldening the forces of right-wing extremism, ignorance and hatred. From the 1980s onward, through recession, war terrorism, and ecological catastrophe, this story has repeated itself time and time again. How many times will the "sensible" centrists have to watch the country descend into chaos before they learn its lessons?


alternet--2020-12-27--As millions desperately wait for COVID relief, Trump spends Christmas at golf club with Lindsey Grah

As millions desperately wait for COVID relief, Trump spends Christmas at golf club with Lindsey Graham

Donald Trump is spending his final Christmas as President at his Palm Beach golf club with Senator Lindsey Graham ( R-SC ) , while millions of starving Americans unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic desperately wait to see if he will sign the COVID-19 relief bill .
If Trump does not sign the legislation by the end of Saturday 14 million people will loose unemployment benefits , and the $ 600 checks promised to most Americans by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be sent .
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin promised the checks would begin to be in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , this coming week .
`` Trump heads off for golf on Christmas Day with Lindsey Graham as president complains stimulus bill flown to Mar-a-Lago contains too much 'pork ' after he demanded Congress give Americans $ 2K checks , '' is the headline over at the Daily Mail .
There 's video ( below ) of Trump with Graham in the presidential limo , which arrived at Trump 's golf resort at 9:57 AM .
Trump left the club at 2:05 PM .
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had immediately rushed to support @ @ @ @ @ @ @ checks to be bumped up to $ 2000 , which Democrats had been pushing for for months .
Republicans in the House and Senate quickly killed the move .
`` Families on brink of eviction , hunger describe nightmare Christmas as $ 900 billion relief bill hangs in limbo , '' The Washington Post reported late Christmas Eve .
There are massive repercussions if Trump either vetoes the bill , which he has repeatedly threatened to do , or issues a `` pocket veto , '' meaning he allows it to expire without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The federal government will shut down at midnight Monday if Trump does not sign the National Defense Authorization Act ( NDAA ) , an annual funding bill .
Trump is demanding the legislation include an amendment voiding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act .
He thinks if that portion of the CDA is gone social media companies will be forced to remove content critical of him .
In reality they would likely shut down his social media accounts for spreading false information they would then be held liable for .
`` Maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year that saw denial and delusion , led by President Donald Trump , presage a wave of illness and death coupled with evictions , bankruptcies , hunger and ruined livelihoods , '' CNN 's Kevin Liptak wrote Christmas Day .
Video : President Trump heads off for game of golf on Christmas Day | Daily Mail Online President Donald Trump heads off for another game of golf in Palm Beach after throwing Washington into chaos in his final days in office .

Donald Trump is spending his final Christmas as President at his Palm Beach golf club with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), while millions of starving Americans unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic desperately wait to see if he will sign the COVID-19 relief bill.
If Trump does not sign the legislation by the end of Saturday 14 million people will loose unemployment benefits, and the $600 checks promised to most Americans by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will not be sent. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin promised the checks would begin to be in the mail, or sent via direct deposit, this coming week.
"Trump heads off for golf on Christmas Day with Lindsey Graham as president complains stimulus bill flown to Mar-a-Lago contains too much 'pork' after he demanded Congress give Americans $2K checks," is the headline over at the Daily Mail.
There's video (below) of Trump with Graham in the presidential limo, which arrived at Trump's golf resort at 9:57 AM. Trump left the club at 2:05 PM.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had immediately rushed to support Trump's call for the $600 checks to be bumped up to $2000, which Democrats had been pushing for for months. Republicans in the House and Senate quickly killed the move.
"Families on brink of eviction, hunger describe nightmare Christmas as $900 billion relief bill hangs in limbo," The Washington Post reported late Christmas Eve.
There are massive repercussions if Trump either vetoes the bill, which he has repeatedly threatened to do, or issues a "pocket veto," meaning he allows it to expire without his signature, effectively vetoing it.
The federal government will shut down at midnight Monday if Trump does not sign the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual funding bill. Trump is demanding the legislation include an amendment voiding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. He thinks if that portion of the CDA is gone social media companies will be forced to remove content critical of him. In reality they would likely shut down his social media accounts for spreading false information they would then be held liable for.
"Maybe nothing better could be expected in a year that saw denial and delusion, led by President Donald Trump, presage a wave of illness and death coupled with evictions, bankruptcies, hunger and ruined livelihoods," CNN's Kevin Liptak wrote Christmas Day.
Here's Trump and Graham earlier today:
Video: President Trump heads off for game of golf on Christmas Day | Daily Mail Online
President Donald Trump heads off for another game of golf in Palm Beach after throwing Washington into chaos in his final days in office.


alternet--2020-12-27--Trump launches attack on Michigan AG for attempting to sanction his election fraud attorneys

Late Saturday night , Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel over a report that @ @ @ @ @ his election fraud attorneys for wasting the court 's time with election fraud lawsuits that @ @ @ @ @ With right-wing Breitbart reporting , `` Nessel said she will file complaints with the Attorney @ @ @ @ @ contained deliberate misinformation , '' the president linked to the article and suggested Nessel was @ @ @ @ @ they must be `` getting very close . ''
According to the president , `` @ @ @ @ @ who are fighting for the truth and , obviously , getting very close .
AG @ @ @ @ @ on ! ''
You can see the tweet below :

Late Saturday night, Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel over a report that she is seeking sanctions against his election fraud attorneys for wasting the court's time with election fraud lawsuits that were quickly thrown out.
With right-wing Breitbart reporting, "Nessel said she will file complaints with the Attorney Grievance Commission 'because the lawsuits contained deliberate misinformation," the president linked to the article and suggested Nessel was going after the attorneys because they must be "getting very close."
According to the president, "These lawyers are true patriots who are fighting for the truth and, obviously, getting very close. AG should be sanctioned. Fight on!"
You can see the tweet below:


alternet--2020-12-27--These two 2020 Wall Street Journal op-eds by Trump insiders were borderline treasonous in retrospect

Every editorial page has misfires over the course of a year , but the Wall Street Journal really set itself apart this year as not only publishing its usual reality adjacent pieces , but actually managing to gaslight Americans in advance on two of the biggest betrayals of the year .
Sure , there was conservative columnist Peggy Noonan spouting off about how `` insubstantial '' and `` embarrassing '' Kamala Harris was shortly before she made history as the first woman and person of color to be elected vice president .
And who can forget GOP Sen. Tom Cotton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American protesters in the pages of the New York Times ?
Even so , Wall Street Journal gets my vote for offering two of the most pernicious and misleading op-eds of the year .
In June , Mike Pence , supposed chief of the coronavirus White House task force put pen to paper to assure Americans that the so-called second wave of COVID-19 cases was all just a fictional media narrative .
`` In recent days , the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a `` second wave '' of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' Pence wrote in the lede of the piece .
Beyond spouting a bunch of platitudes about Trump 's amazing leadership , Pence said the country was `` winning the fight , '' cases had `` stabilized , '' and new outbreaks were being contained through early detection and increased testing .
Trump had `` rallied the American people to embrace social-distancing guidelines '' and , because people had done so , `` all 50 states have begun to reopen in a safe and responsible manner , '' Pence wrote .
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American people every step of the way , and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different , '' he added , concluding , `` We 've slowed the spread , we 've cared for the most vulnerable , we 've saved lives , and we 've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future .
That 's a cause for celebration , not the media 's fear mongering . ''
When Pence wrote that op-ed in mid-June , the U.S. has just passed 115,000 COVID-related @ @ @ @ @ @ @ per day over a 5-day period .
At the time of this writing ( Dec. 20 ) , the U.S. had surpassed 317,000 deaths due to COVID-19 and the country recorded a record 3,600 earlier in the week .
Heckuva job , Mikey .
And thanks for Wall Street Journal for lending your pages to the guy who had already botched the coronavirus response from Day 1 .
And then there was White House whatever-thingamajig Mick Mulvaney telling all the pearl clutchers in early November that Donald Trump would `` concede gracefully '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the guy who told everyone to just `` get over it '' after Trump tried to trade foreign aid to Ukraine for a fabricated investigation of his political rival would be so wildly off about Trump 's `` graceful '' exit .
Mulvaney asserted that the misguided questions about Trump 's commitment to a peaceful transition of power came from people who `` still think he should 've been impeached , believe the polls , and consider the Washington Post , New York Times and CNN reliable sources . ''
Totally , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about a month out from Trump 's constitutionally ordained exit : '' Senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed that President Trump might unleash—and abuse—the power of government in an effort to overturn the clear result of the election , '' wrote Jonathan Swan of Axios on Dec. 19 .
`` These officials tell me that Trump is spending too much time with people they consider crackpots or conspiracy theorists and flirting with blatant abuses of power . ''
That 's where Trump was over a month and some 60 consecutive court losses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fascist power grab .
But Mulvaney , clearly expecting a loss , was already laying the foundation for Trump 's string of bogus legal challenges .
`` Voters need this election to be fully litigated .
Whoever occupies the presidency can not have rumors floating around for the next four years about dead people voting or ballot dumps in the middle of the night , '' he wrote .
`` The U.S. needs to know that the winner is actually the winner .
And once Americans know that , I have every expectation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and speak like a great president should—win or lose . ''
Thanks for playing , whatever-thingamajig Mick .
Does a `` great president '' declare martial law because he was too much of a loser to legitimately win ?
We know—just get over it .

Every editorial page has misfires over the course of a year, but the Wall Street Journal really set itself apart this year as not only publishing its usual reality adjacent pieces, but actually managing to gaslight Americans in advance on two of the biggest betrayals of the year.
Sure, there was conservative columnist Peggy Noonan spouting off about how "insubstantial" and "embarrassing" Kamala Harris was shortly before she made history as the first woman and person of color to be elected vice president. And who can forget GOP Sen. Tom Cotton longing to turn the U.S. Military on American protesters in the pages of the New York Times? Even so, Wall Street Journal gets my vote for offering two of the most pernicious and misleading op-eds of the year.
In June, Mike Pence, supposed chief of the coronavirus White House task force put pen to paper to assure Americans that the so-called second wave of COVID-19 cases was all just a fictional media narrative. "In recent days, the media has taken to sounding the alarm bells over a "second wave" of coronavirus infections. Such panic is overblown," Pence wrote in the lede of the piece.
Beyond spouting a bunch of platitudes about Trump's amazing leadership, Pence said the country was "winning the fight," cases had "stabilized," and new outbreaks were being contained through early detection and increased testing. Trump had "rallied the American people to embrace social-distancing guidelines" and, because people had done so, "all 50 states have begun to reopen in a safe and responsible manner," Pence wrote.
"The media has tried to scare the American people every step of the way, and these grim predictions of a second wave are no different," he added, concluding, "We've slowed the spread, we've cared for the most vulnerable, we've saved lives, and we've created a solid foundation for whatever challenges we may face in the future. That's a cause for celebration, not the media's fear mongering."
When Pence wrote that op-ed in mid-June, the U.S. has just passed 115,000 COVID-related deaths and was averaging some 750 deaths per day over a 5-day period. At the time of this writing (Dec. 20), the U.S. had surpassed 317,000 deaths due to COVID-19 and the country recorded a record 3,600 earlier in the week. Heckuva job, Mikey. And thanks for Wall Street Journal for lending your pages to the guy who had already botched the coronavirus response from Day 1.
And then there was White House whatever-thingamajig Mick Mulvaney telling all the pearl clutchers in early November that Donald Trump would " concede gracefully" if he lost. Who coulda guessed that the guy who told everyone to just "get over it" after Trump tried to trade foreign aid to Ukraine for a fabricated investigation of his political rival would be so wildly off about Trump's "graceful" exit.
Mulvaney asserted that the misguided questions about Trump's commitment to a peaceful transition of power came from people who "still think he should've been impeached, believe the polls, and consider the Washington Post, New York Times and CNN reliable sources." Totally, Mick—fake news!
Here's the reality about a month out from Trump's constitutionally ordained exit:
"Senior Trump administration officials are increasingly alarmed that President Trump might unleash—and abuse—the power of government in an effort to overturn the clear result of the election," wrote Jonathan Swan of Axios on Dec. 19. "These officials tell me that Trump is spending too much time with people they consider crackpots or conspiracy theorists and flirting with blatant abuses of power." That's where Trump was over a month and some 60 consecutive court losses into his epic attempt to engineer a fascist power grab.
But Mulvaney, clearly expecting a loss, was already laying the foundation for Trump's string of bogus legal challenges. "Voters need this election to be fully litigated. Whoever occupies the presidency cannot have rumors floating around for the next four years about dead people voting or ballot dumps in the middle of the night," he wrote. "The U.S. needs to know that the winner is actually the winner. And once Americans know that, I have every expectation that Mr. Trump will be, act and speak like a great president should—win or lose."
Thanks for playing, whatever-thingamajig Mick. Does a "great president" declare martial law because he was too much of a loser to legitimately win? We know—just get over it.


alternet--2020-12-27--Here are 11 ways to beat Mitch McConnell — even if Democrats don't take back the Senate

Ideally , if Democrats do their job up to and on Jan. 5 , we will win both of Georgia 's Senate seats , and secure a bare majority in both chambers of Congress .
Coupled with President-elect Joe Biden , this small trifecta means , at the very least , that our government can still function .
This is a big deal , since certain Republican senators have indicated that they plan on indefinitely blocking every single one of Biden 's Cabinet nominees .
Biden should n't waste any precious time trying to get the Republican Party to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the will of the voters .
If he wants to get anything done , he is going to have to do it alone .
Hopefully , Democrats will take both Senate seats in Georgia , as this would be the easiest path for governance .
However , it is n't at all necessary for Biden to get things done .
There is a critical loophole that would prevent Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from blocking votes—as long as Democrats are willing to use it .
There 's also plenty of things that Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ single Republican is required to participate .
Extremists rule the opposition , so we must continue to rethink the old adage that bipartisanship is a good thing ; the other side—either through sabotage or cowardice—is hellbent on undermining democracy and going all in with the politics of destruction .
But what if the Democrats do n't win both Senate seats in Georgia ?
McConnell retains control of his chamber , and blocks all legislation and all nominees , leading to at least two years of solid obstruction .
Game over , right ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ position .
It 's not in the Constitution , or even in the Senate rules : The power of the Majority Leader is based solely on Senate norms and traditions .
Since Republicans have decided those no longer concern them , then Democrats are n't bound by them , either , which presents a serious opportunity for the Biden administration .
Article I , Section 3 of the Constitution clearly states that the vice president shall be `` President of the Senate , '' but have no vote unless the votes are equally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also the president-elect of the Senate.When the vice president is not presiding over the Senate , the Senate will choose a president pro tempore to preside in her absence .
Tradition has junior members of the majority party presiding , but the president of the Senate can take control anytime .
If McConnell refuses to bring up legislation , or refuses to hold hearings or votes on Cabinet or judicial nominees , then Vice President Kamala Harris has the legal authority to take control .
She would then decide what comes up for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handy in a situation where , say , McConnell decides to go with the Ted Cruz plan to block all of Biden 's Cabinet nominees .
While the overwhelming majority of Republicans would back McConnell , sadly , not all of them would .
A few , like Utah 's Mitt Romney , know that not having qualified experts in top positions during a pandemic or a foreign policy crisis is dangerous .
It is n't typically in the Democrats ' nature to play this kind of hardball , but we 've got @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know the GOP is now hellbent on destroying .
As far as appointments go , Biden has a lot of options , as helpfully outlined by Washington Monthly .
Obama paved the way for the appointment of nearly unlimited policy czars , and Biden also has the ability to appoint `` acting '' positions for more than 1,200 agency positions .
( Trump managed to do it for other positions , as well . )
Perhaps most interestingly , Biden can use the adjournment clause , in Article II , Section 3 of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ appointments .
This technique would simply require the speaker of the House to propose a lengthy adjournment , of which the Senate can either accept or disagree .
However , if the Senate disagrees , the refusal would constitute a `` disagreement '' —which means Biden gets to decide .
This technique has never been used , but again , if the GOP is going to obstruct everything they can , Democrats better be ready to fight back—hard .
As far as legislation goes , if we lose the Senate , and ca @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right thing , there are plenty of things Biden can do by himself without Congress .
The one thing Donald Trump did well was show us all how much a president can get done without Congress .
It 's time to put on those aviators and play hardball , Joe .
The executive branch carries a lot of unilateral power , which presidents have been increasingly less hesitant to use : Think executive orders , federal regulations , and national security decision directives .
Importantly , Biden has already promised on his first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Congress .
Here 's a sampling of actions he might take .
COVID-19 : Biden has promised to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by immediately appointing a `` national supply chain commander '' and establishing a `` pandemic testing board '' upon assuming office .
It is very likely he wo n't be picking his children for any of those roles .
Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain coordinated the federal government 's response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak , which is good , since Trump was keen on pushing out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back , and put scientists back in charge , instead of political hacks .
This is critical , since the CDC and FDA have suffered so much under Trump .
This new leadership will standardize guidance and base it on facts .
Biden could and should reinstate the pandemic response team that Trump dissolved , which would improve the federal coordination in the fight against COVID-19 .
With new leadership , Biden could work with the CDC , and even the military , to develop a national distribution network for the vaccines .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defense Production Act to manufacture supplies and equipment—which Trump did n't want to do .
Voter Suppression : Bill Barr 's DOJ was not at all interested in fighting voter suppression .
You can bet that whomever Biden picks wo n't have that issue .
However , there is one thing that Biden can do immediately that would be a huge victory against the GOP 's war on voting .
The entire point of Republican voter ID laws is to make voting inaccessible to thousands of poor voters .
That 's because voters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a driver 's license , given that they are more likely to live in urban areas which have adequate public transportation , and unable to afford a car .
Furthermore , tracking down the documentation to obtain a driver 's license can be time-consuming and expensive .
Other valid IDs , such as passports , are even harder to get .
However , giving people the option to add a photo to their Social Security card , which most people have anyway , could ensure that they 're not barred from voting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ID requirements where concealed carry licenses are fine , but student IDs typically are not accepted .
This is an easy directive with no congressional approval requirement .
Paris Climate Accord : Biden already stated he will bring the U.S. back into the Accord as one of the first orders of business .
This pact is an agreement among nations to reduce emissions .
Biden does not need the Senate to do so , because the Accord is an executive agreement ; Biden just needs to send a letter to the United Nations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Biden can reverse the more than 125 environmental rules that Donald Trump overturned by fiat , such as rules on energy efficiency , oil exploration , and use of biofuels .
There are other accords and agreements that Biden can rejoin on his own if he chooses to , but this is arguably the most important one .
Postal Banking System : North Dakota has a very popular public bank , but nowhere else in the U.S. does a government-run bank compete with private banking .
Fortunately , President-elect Biden and Vermont @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to look into the creation of a public banking option , set up through the U.S .
Postal Service and the Federal Reserve , for low-income and middle-income families .
Biden can set parts of such a system up without any legislation , such as USPS launching their own refillable , prepaid debit cards .
Student Loans : Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that `` President Biden can undo this debt—can forgive $ 50,000 of ( student ) debt—the first day he becomes president .
You do n't need Congress .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pen . ''
Over 90 % of the student debt in this nation is owed to the federal government .
Biden can either forgive or eliminate the interest .
Student loan debt is the only debt that you ca n't discharge through bankruptcy , thanks to a 2005 law .
Educational debt is a massive burden to millions of people who are currently paying at least 10 % of their income every month , and will for at least a decade .
Forgiving it can provide much-needed relief during the COVID-19 pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Department of Labor allows companies to screw workers out of overtime , simply by classifying workers as managers .
Dollar General is the worst offender , but there are plenty of others .
Most likely , the workers you see helping you in these stores were classified as managers just so they can be forced to work extra hours without overtime pay .
One ex-CEO of Dollar General faced no less than four class-action lawsuits over wage theft .
That CEO became very rich exploiting this loophole .
He is now an incumbent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia—Mr .
David Perdue himself .
Immigration : Biden still needs to work with Congress on pathways to citizenship , but he can do so much in this area without the Senate .
This is an area where Trump was at his cruelest .
Immigration in this nation has been virtually shut down , and refugees were limited to only 15,000 per year .
Biden has already promised to raise that by over eight times the current amount .
He has also promised to set up a task force to reunite those missing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and end the child-caging that Trump will forever be remembered for .
Biden also vowed there would be no more Dreamer deportations , Muslim bans , workplace raids , or child separations .
Affordable Care Act : Trump did everything he could to sabotage Obama 's signature achievement , but Biden can reverse much of the damage on his own .
He can extend the enrollment period , increase advertisement spending , and repeal the IRS rule that workers must accept a health care plan from their employer , no matter how bad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can also help states create their own plans—something Trump was not at all interested in—and lower prescription drug prices .
Cannabis : A Florida doctor prescribed opium to a friend of mine , who suffered tremendously in the hospital before she died .
Cannabis would have been a better drug , but that was not a possibility .
Such is the insanity of keeping cannabis a Schedule 1 drug , which means it is classified alongside heroin .
There is some disagreement between legal scholars , but many , such as a professor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's Sturm College of Law , assert that the president-elect can unilaterally reschedule cannabis through executive powers—he just ca n't deschedule it entirely .
Rescheduling would make things easier for marijuana businesses , so for example , they could at least deduct business expenses with the IRS .
While Biden ca n't deschedule cannabis—making it legal—on his own , he could order his Health and Human Services to run tests on the medical value of cannabis , which would help with descheduling down the road .
He could also order the DOJ to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Drug Prices : Two words : drug patents .
The feds issue drug patents to companies , giving them exclusive rights to sell drugs for several years , at any price , before allowing generic versions to be manufactured .
Biden has the option of `` march-in rights , '' meaning that if a drug is being sold at an outrageous price point—which is more common than it should be—the government can seize the patent and issue it to generic manufacturers , in exchange for those manufacturers selling that drug at a reasonable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elderly on fixed incomes the most , it would also benefit everyone .
Republicans would scream , but who the hell cares ?
There 's plenty more , such as restoring government unions , breaking up monopolies , utilizing municipal lending instruments for better access to loans , and enacting Wall Street reform—just to name a few .
The point is that Joe Biden can do a lot on his own , and if Georgia 's runoff goes sideways , he 'd better get ready to do 'em .
Republicans will complain about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Biden is doing things without them .
So what ?
The American people no longer care what the excuses are for not getting things done .
Trump went so far as to redirect benchmarked funding toward his own projects , and blatantly violate established law—such as the Hatch Act .
He even disregarded court rulings , as with the Census and DACA .
When Congress refused to give him the people he wanted for his Cabinet , he made them `` acting in the role of '' and dared somebody to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to go as far as breaking the law , but breaking from norms and traditions to get his agenda through ?
You 'd better believe it .
We need all hands on deck to win the Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5 , and you can volunteer from wherever you are .
Click here to see the Georgia volunteer activities that work best for you .

Ideally, if Democrats do their job up to and on Jan. 5, we will win both of Georgia's Senate seats, and secure a bare majority in both chambers of Congress. Coupled with President-elect Joe Biden, this small trifecta means, at the very least, that our government can still function. This is a big deal, since certain Republican senators have indicated that they plan on indefinitely blocking every single one of Biden's Cabinet nominees. Biden shouldn't waste any precious time trying to get the Republican Party to do the right thing, such as respecting the will of the voters. If he wants to get anything done, he is going to have to do it alone.
Hopefully, Democrats will take both Senate seats in Georgia, as this would be the easiest path for governance. However, it isn't at all necessary for Biden to get things done. There is a critical loophole that would prevent Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell from blocking votes—as long as Democrats are willing to use it. There's also plenty of things that Biden can make happen, and not a single Republican is required to participate. Extremists rule the opposition, so we must continue to rethink the old adage that bipartisanship is a good thing; the other side—either through sabotage or cowardice—is hellbent on undermining democracy and going all in with the politics of destruction.
But what if the Democrats don't win both Senate seats in Georgia? McConnell retains control of his chamber, and blocks all legislation and all nominees, leading to at least two years of solid obstruction. Game over, right?
Nope.
The Senate Majority Leader is a made-up position. It's not in the Constitution, or even in the Senate rules: The power of the Majority Leader is based solely on Senate norms and traditions. Since Republicans have decided those no longer concern them, then Democrats aren't bound by them, either, which presents a serious opportunity for the Biden administration. Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution clearly states that the vice president shall be "President of the Senate," but have no vote unless the votes are equally divided.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is also the president-elect of the Senate.When the vice president is not presiding over the Senate, the Senate will choose a president pro tempore to preside in her absence. Tradition has junior members of the majority party presiding, but the president of the Senate can take control anytime. If McConnell refuses to bring up legislation, or refuses to hold hearings or votes on Cabinet or judicial nominees, then Vice President Kamala Harris has the legal authority to take control. She would then decide what comes up for a vote.
This would come in handy in a situation where, say, McConnell decides to go with the Ted Cruz plan to block all of Biden's Cabinet nominees. While the overwhelming majority of Republicans would back McConnell, sadly, not all of them would. A few, like Utah's Mitt Romney, know that not having qualified experts in top positions during a pandemic or a foreign policy crisis is dangerous. It isn't typically in the Democrats' nature to play this kind of hardball, but we've got a nation to repair—a nation we all know the GOP is now hellbent on destroying.
As far as appointments go, Biden has a lot of options, as helpfully outlined by Washington Monthly. Obama paved the way for the appointment of nearly unlimited policy czars, and Biden also has the ability to appoint "acting" positions for more than 1,200 agency positions. (Trump managed to do it for other positions, as well.) Perhaps most interestingly, Biden can use the adjournment clause, in Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, to force numerous recess appointments. This technique would simply require the speaker of the House to propose a lengthy adjournment, of which the Senate can either accept or disagree. However, if the Senate disagrees, the refusal would constitute a "disagreement"—which means Biden gets to decide. This technique has never been used, but again, if the GOP is going to obstruct everything they can, Democrats better be ready to fight back—hard.
As far as legislation goes, if we lose the Senate, and can't get one Republican to do the right thing, there are plenty of things Biden can do by himself without Congress. The one thing Donald Trump did well was show us all how much a president can get done without Congress.
It's time to put on those aviators and play hardball, Joe.
The executive branch carries a lot of unilateral power, which presidents have been increasingly less hesitant to use: Think executive orders, federal regulations, and national security decision directives. Importantly, Biden has already promised on his first day to hit the ground running—without waiting for Congress. Here's a sampling of actions he might take.
COVID-19: Biden has promised to fight the COVID-19 pandemic by immediately appointing a "national supply chain commander" and establishing a "pandemic testing board" upon assuming office. It is very likely he won't be picking his children for any of those roles. Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain coordinated the federal government's response to the 2014 Ebola outbreak, which is good, since Trump was keen on pushing out experts. Biden will bring the experts back, and put scientists back in charge, instead of political hacks. This is critical, since the CDC and FDA have suffered so much under Trump. This new leadership will standardize guidance and base it on facts. Biden could and should reinstate the pandemic response team that Trump dissolved, which would improve the federal coordination in the fight against COVID-19. With new leadership, Biden could work with the CDC, and even the military, to develop a national distribution network for the vaccines. He could use the powers of the Defense Production Act to manufacture supplies and equipment—which Trump didn't want to do.
Voter Suppression: Bill Barr's DOJ was not at all interested in fighting voter suppression. You can bet that whomever Biden picks won't have that issue. However, there is one thing that Biden can do immediately that would be a huge victory against the GOP's war on voting. The entire point of Republican voter ID laws is to make voting inaccessible to thousands of poor voters. That's because voters of color are the least likely to have a driver's license, given that they are more likely to live in urban areas which have adequate public transportation, and unable to afford a car. Furthermore, tracking down the documentation to obtain a driver's license can be time-consuming and expensive. Other valid IDs, such as passports, are even harder to get. However, giving people the option to add a photo to their Social Security card, which most people have anyway, could ensure that they're not barred from voting in the red states with strict voter ID requirements where concealed carry licenses are fine, but student IDs typically are not accepted. This is an easy directive with no congressional approval requirement.
Paris Climate Accord: Biden already stated he will bring the U.S. back into the Accord as one of the first orders of business. This pact is an agreement among nations to reduce emissions. Biden does not need the Senate to do so, because the Accord is an executive agreement; Biden just needs to send a letter to the United Nations stating his intent to rejoin. Furthermore, Biden can reverse the more than 125 environmental rules that Donald Trump overturned by fiat, such as rules on energy efficiency, oil exploration, and use of biofuels. There are other accords and agreements that Biden can rejoin on his own if he chooses to, but this is arguably the most important one.
Postal Banking System: North Dakota has a very popular public bank, but nowhere else in the U.S. does a government-run bank compete with private banking. Fortunately, President-elect Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders convened a task force to look into the creation of a public banking option, set up through the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Reserve, for low-income and middle-income families. Biden can set parts of such a system up without any legislation, such as USPS launching their own refillable, prepaid debit cards.
Student Loans: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that "President Biden can undo this debt—can forgive $50,000 of (student) debt—the first day he becomes president. You don't need Congress. All you need is the flick of a pen." Over 90% of the student debt in this nation is owed to the federal government. Biden can either forgive or eliminate the interest. Student loan debt is the only debt that you can't discharge through bankruptcy, thanks to a 2005 law. Educational debt is a massive burden to millions of people who are currently paying at least 10% of their income every month, and will for at least a decade. Forgiving it can provide much-needed relief during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overtime: The Trump Administration's Department of Labor allows companies to screw workers out of overtime, simply by classifying workers as managers. Dollar General is the worst offender, but there are plenty of others. Most likely, the workers you see helping you in these stores were classified as managers just so they can be forced to work extra hours without overtime pay. One ex-CEO of Dollar General faced no less than four class-action lawsuits over wage theft. That CEO became very rich exploiting this loophole. He is now an incumbent senator fighting to save his seat in Georgia—Mr. David Perdue himself.
Immigration: Biden still needs to work with Congress on pathways to citizenship, but he can do so much in this area without the Senate. This is an area where Trump was at his cruelest. Immigration in this nation has been virtually shut down, and refugees were limited to only 15,000 per year. Biden has already promised to raise that by over eight times the current amount. He has also promised to set up a task force to reunite those missing children lost under the Trump administration, and end the child-caging that Trump will forever be remembered for. Biden also vowed there would be no more Dreamer deportations, Muslim bans, workplace raids, or child separations.
Affordable Care Act:Trump did everything he could to sabotage Obama's signature achievement, but Biden can reverse much of the damage on his own. He can extend the enrollment period, increase advertisement spending, and repeal the IRS rule that workers must accept a health care plan from their employer, no matter how bad, if one is offered. Biden can also help states create their own plans—something Trump was not at all interested in—and lower prescription drug prices.
Cannabis: A Florida doctor prescribed opium to a friend of mine, who suffered tremendously in the hospital before she died. Cannabis would have been a better drug, but that was not a possibility. Such is the insanity of keeping cannabis a Schedule 1 drug, which means it is classified alongside heroin. There is some disagreement between legal scholars, but many, such as a professor Sam Kamin of the University of Denver's Sturm College of Law, assertthat the president-elect can unilaterally reschedule cannabis through executive powers—he just can't deschedule it entirely. Rescheduling would make things easier for marijuana businesses, so for example, they could at least deduct business expenses with the IRS. While Biden can't deschedule cannabis—making it legal—on his own, he could order his Health and Human Services to run tests on the medical value of cannabis, which would help with descheduling down the road. He could also order the DOJ to not focus on prosecuting cannabis-related offenses.
Drug Prices: Two words: drug patents. The feds issue drug patents to companies, giving them exclusive rights to sell drugs for several years, at any price, before allowing generic versions to be manufactured. Biden has the option of "march-in rights," meaning that if a drug is being sold at an outrageous price point—which is more common than it should be—the government can seize the patent and issue it to generic manufacturers, in exchange for those manufacturers selling that drug at a reasonable rate. Although this would help the elderly on fixed incomes the most, it would also benefit everyone. Republicans would scream, but who the hell cares?
There's plenty more, such as restoring government unions, breaking up monopolies, utilizing municipal lending instruments for better access to loans, and enacting Wall Street reform—just to name a few. The point is that Joe Biden can do a lot on his own, and if Georgia's runoff goes sideways, he'd better get ready to do 'em.
Republicans will complain about everything on this list, and whine that Biden is doing things without them. So what? The American people no longer care what the excuses are for not getting things done. Trump went so far as to redirect benchmarked funding toward his own projects, and blatantly violate established law—such as the Hatch Act. He even disregarded court rulings, as with the Census and DACA. When Congress refused to give him the people he wanted for his Cabinet, he made them "acting in the role of" and dared somebody to do something about it.
Biden doesn't have to go as far as breaking the law, but breaking from norms and traditions to get his agenda through? You'd better believe it.
We need all hands on deck to win the Georgia Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, and you can volunteer from wherever you are. Click here to see the Georgia volunteer activities that work best for you.


alternet--2020-12-28--'Like being a hostage negotiator': How Trump’s handlers finally got him to sign the COVID relief bil

'Like being a hostage negotiator': How Trump’s handlers finally got him to sign the COVID relief bill

A new report from Axios describes the negotiations between President Donald Trump , Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy , as Mnuchin and McCarthy tried to get Trump to sign the COVID relief and government spending bill that had stalled at the president 's desk for days .
Axios ' Mike Allen writes that negotiating with `` a cranky , stubborn President Trump '' was `` like being a hostage negotiator , or defusing a bomb . ''
In a video posted to Twitter last Tuesday , the president put the fate of the stimulus and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called on Congress to raise the $ 600 checks to $ 2,000 .
In that video , the president described the proposed payments as `` ridiculously low . ''
Shortly after posting the video , Trump flew to his private Florida club , Mar-a-Lago .
The bill , passed by the House and Senate and awaiting the president 's signature , followed suit : Sunday , hours before Trump changed his mind and signed the bill , unemployment benefits for millions of Americans ran out .
According to Axios , in the intervening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his ultimate decision to sign the package , Trump insiders — including Mnuchin , McCarthy and Sen. Lindsey Graham ( R-SC ) — `` indulged the president 's rants , told him there was great stuff in the bill , and gave him 'wins ' he could announce , even though they did n't change the bill . ''
Appealing to his `` vanity , '' Allen reports that the president 's confidantes finally convinced him `` that he had gotten all there was to get '' from the bill negotiations .
As @ @ @ @ @ @ @ little too late for millions of Americans .
And it may have ultimately cost the Republican Party two wins in the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff election .
`` It may be too late , '' Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Axios , `` Too late for him , too late for the economy , too late for Covid , and too late for the Georgia senators . ''

A new report from Axios describes the negotiations between President Donald Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, as Mnuchin and McCarthy tried to get Trump to sign the COVID relief and government spending bill that had stalled at the president's desk for days.
Axios' Mike Allen writes that negotiating with "a cranky, stubborn President Trump" was "like being a hostage negotiator, or defusing a bomb."
In a video posted to Twitter last Tuesday, the president put the fate of the stimulus and government spending bill at risk when he called on Congress to raise the $600 checks to $2,000. In that video, the president described the proposed payments as "ridiculously low."
Shortly after posting the video, Trump flew to his private Florida club, Mar-a-Lago. The bill, passed by the House and Senate and awaiting the president's signature, followed suit:
Sunday, hours before Trump changed his mind and signed the bill, unemployment benefits for millions of Americans ran out.
According to Axios, in the intervening days between Trump's Twitter video and his ultimate decision to sign the package, Trump insiders — including Mnuchin, McCarthy and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — "indulged the president's rants, told him there was great stuff in the bill, and gave him 'wins' he could announce, even though they didn't change the bill."
Appealing to his "vanity," Allen reports that the president's confidantes finally convinced him "that he had gotten all there was to get" from the bill negotiations.
As Allen reports, the about-face comes too little too late for millions of Americans. And it may have ultimately cost the Republican Party two wins in the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff election.
"It may be too late," Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Axios, "Too late for him, too late for the economy, too late for Covid, and too late for the Georgia senators."


alternet--2020-12-28--Rupert Murdoch's New York Post tells Trump to give it up already

That newspaper is telling Trump to shove a moist woolen sock in his Hamm's-hole , fer cripes ' sake .
@ @ @ @ @ dude .
This could not be more embarrassing .
GIVE .
IT .
UP .
@ @

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alternet--2020-12-28--Mike Pence enjoys extended ski vacation in Vail as pandemic deaths soar

The United States is facing still-rising pandemic deaths and both a federal government shutdown and the end of supplemental unemployment checks to those newly out of work , but Donald Trump is , of course , currently on vacation .
You may be wondering where the ostensible head of the White House coronavirus `` task force '' has gotten to , since we have n't heard much from him either .
Alleged vice president Mike Pence is in Vail , Colorado .
We 're in the middle of a nationwide crisis and the guy `` in charge '' of it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trip .
One you 're not supposed to know about , apparently .
Fortunately , Pence will not particularly be missed .
His primary pandemic task force duty appears to have been reducing media access to government disease experts who had been upsetting Trump 's delusional claims with far grimmer facts ; given that Dr. Anthony Fauci is on television warning of those grim facts today , it seems Pence is phoning in even his duties as White House Fact Inhibitor .
Of special note , however , is that Pence evidently plans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his Washington office through New Year 's .
He 'll pop back at some point after that to awkwardly chair the joint session of Congress that will accept the votes of the Electoral College , formally confirming Joe Biden 's presidential victory .
He will then on the same day bolt off to Europe and the Middle East for one last government-funded tour .
In other words , Pence seems to be rather intent on not being in Washington for any more days than he has to , between now and Biden 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Leader rants , rages and threatens to shutdown government in one last pointless tantrum , Mike Pence will be in hiding .
As Dear Leader consults with the nation 's least competent attorneys as to whether or not he can call out the actual military to have voting redone in states he lost , Mike Pence will be in hiding .

The United States is facing still-rising pandemic deaths and both a federal government shutdown and the end of supplemental unemployment checks to those newly out of work, but Donald Trump is, of course, currently on vacation. You may be wondering where the ostensible head of the White House coronavirus "task force" has gotten to, since we haven't heard much from him either.
Alleged vice president Mike Pence is in Vail, Colorado. We're in the middle of a nationwide crisis and the guy "in charge" of it is takin' an extended family ski trip. One you're not supposed to know about, apparently.
Fortunately, Pence will not particularly be missed. His primary pandemic task force duty appears to have been reducing media access to government disease experts who had been upsetting Trump's delusional claims with far grimmer facts; given that Dr. Anthony Fauci is on television warning of those grim facts today, it seems Pence is phoning in even his duties as White House Fact Inhibitor.
Of special note, however, is that Pence evidently plans to stay on vacation and out of his Washington office through New Year's. He'll pop back at some point after that to awkwardly chair the joint session of Congress that will accept the votes of the Electoral College, formally confirming Joe Biden's presidential victory. He will then on the same day bolt off to Europe and the Middle East for one last government-funded tour.
In other words, Pence seems to be rather intent on not being in Washington for any more days than he has to, between now and Biden's inauguration on January 20. As Dear Leader rants, rages and threatens to shutdown government in one last pointless tantrum, Mike Pence will be in hiding. As Dear Leader consults with the nation's least competent attorneys as to whether or not he can call out the actual military to have voting redone in states he lost, Mike Pence will be in hiding.
Good. Finally, we've found something he's good at.