Common Good

The virus continues and while we have vaccines that are effective it will take awhile to get enough vaccinated.  The need to protect yourself continues. Still it is more hopeful than it was just a month ago.

We have a lot of things that are starting to improve but we don't have bipartisan legislation.  We may never have it.  Does that mean we should stop.  Of course not.

Health Care and Climate are things we need to deal with.  While it would be good if everyone could get on board finding a solution, for those who only want to set up roadblocks because the solutions effect change that might hurt a donor, we need to move anyways.

Similar to the fight about smoking, the country will adapt.  .Planning for a future where less people are covered or more fossil fuels are burnt is not good for the country.  Will some people be hurt?  Possibly..  It doesn't mean we don't fight for the common good.

We need a society that burns and releases less and less carbon to help the planet.  We already are at a stage where some sever consequences are inevitable.  We can't keep making it worse.

Similarly someone who needs medical attention should get it without fear of life destroying debt or unaffordable medications.  We need the 100% solution and it will actually be cheaper than what we do now.  

Policies that really only favor the 1% are no longer acceptable.  The Government represents all the people.

America, Future Goals

The call to unify is a call to unify behind the goal of making America great. Not to go back to the past but move into the future.

The future is defined as a land where people are free to be who they are free of discrimination because of race, religion, sexual orientation or lifestyle.

An America where health insurance and old age security are rights. Where climate awareness is important and our country is leading the world in renewable energy.

it's a country where the founders ideals of freedom and equality are part of our culture and hate is banished.

Freedom includes the right to pursue different approaches but not the right to lie and hate.  

Some hate media attack this vision as depriving Americans of certain rights.   There is no right to hate and oppress others.  Equality is for everyone not just a few.

Liars and Scoundrels

 After he lost the election the prior President and his minions refusd to accept the results and lied continuously to the American people about election fraud.  There was no significant fraud and that is proven by the fact that no one has uncovered any to the public or to a court.

This convinced a certain portion of the electorate to believe the election was stolen although no evidence of that exists.

More interestingly that group includes a many Republicans and because of that and to curry favor with these Trump loyalists, a certain number of elected officials decided to perpetuate this lie.

I imagine a very small number of them believed it, its hard to imagine but some seem gullible enough.

The rest knew it was a lie and in order to avoid being primaried or to get those votes in the future, they simply continued to question the election when they knew better.

This is obviously unethical eve if it is politically expedient.  

This ultimately led to the rally on Jan 6 which led to the storming of the Capitol.

Now the former President should be held accountable but what about the other liars?

Is it now OK to behave so unethically for political gain?

The American people will have to decide and the vast majority are ethical and patriotic.  Of course they have been lied to and the liars are objecting when their behavior is pointed out.

If you play with fire you might get burnt and you actually deserve it.

Getting called out as a liar and a scoundrel is simply what you deserve.

People Are All Equal

 In the history of the world as we know it, there was a brief period of time when some Western European nations developed superior technology in comparison to the rest of the World allowing them a relatively brief period of colonial expansion.  

This period had been preceded by the buildup of empires and countries for most of recorded history and possibly prior to it.

Its sort of our nature, get an advantage and use it to exploit others.

It comes and goes and while to some degree the West retains certain technological and industrial advantages, it has mostly leveled out.

Because of that brief period of Western expansion and the need for cheap labor, a particular type of slavery emerged when African Black people were exploited, and transported to a new country.  This led to a belief that the white owners were somehow superior to the black slaves.  

The only basis for this was the firepower one side possessed.  Still the myth persists in western culture.

This belief that certain people, generally white, must maintain leadership or else, plays out in sometime direct and other times subtle ways.

There is no basis for it although to some extent many descendants of slaves still face social and economic problems, partly because of ongoing discrimination that forced them into lower paying jobs and worse neighborhoods.

It is fading and will naturally disappear eventually.  Eventually is however not of much use to someone who is discriminated today.

The last four years allowed a revival of this white supremacy belief and hopefully was one of its last gasps.  However last gasps are dangerous and one of our parties seem to have embraced its believers as a core constituency.

I have faith that the vast majority of Americans will reject this concept.  I hope I'm right.

One Week In

 A lot has been accomplished in just one week but so far it has been by executive order since the Congress, especially the Senate has yet to get to work.

The attacks on the administration are gearing up and we see all sorts of trial baloons about things they never said, don't plan to do or probably even think about.

The world we now live in requires individuals to discern what is true and what isn't and our track record indicates not everybody is up to the task.

I'm not talking about group think, each person should have access to facts without bias and make decisions.

Yesterday in a show of ignorance, we hd 45 Republican senators displayit wen they said the current Impeachment was unconstitutional.  This sets up their plan to vote against it at the trial despite the fact that he was clearly guilty of the accusations.  There is not any legitimate way to read the Constitution that way nor does the precedent support it, but is a show of party loyalty and ignorance we had 45 votes.

I am of course curious about what is happening to the Republican party, they seem to be emulating what went on in Nazi Germany even though their Fuhrer has left the building.  Maybe party censures are more common than I thought and these are just covered more.

Someone should tell them that the Trump Insurrection and Lies show has been cancelled.  

Scattergun Approach

 You hear Republicans and others point out that 74 million people voted for Trump.  Of course more importantly 81 million voted for Biden.

They argue that Bden cannot ignore those voters and in fact he isn't  He wants to be everybody's president.  

It should be noted that in 2016 Hillary Clinton get 65 million votes, three million more than Trump and I don't remember much concern about them from Republicans?

Its also unknown how many of them are actually part of his cult. Certainly not all of them. Not all of them were even registered Republicans.  

Its hard to know for sure how many are actually "real" supporters of Trump versus how many are simply Republicans who vote the ticket.  

So having voted for Trump does not mean you believe his lies.  Of course a good number do.

I don't understand how you can believe a liar with no evidence over every bit of objective evidence that exists?  Now we do have the media that lies for profit.  Right now we are seeing them try to find something akin to the Clinton e-mails to use as an attack.  They tried to use Hunter but that came up short, but they will keep trying.

It reminds me of an old party strategy I heard about but never tried.  Try to make out with every girl there until one does.  Before that you will take abuse and possibly get smacked in the face, but you really just need to find one.

That's the approach Fox takes, try everything until you find one that polls well.

The truth is not important.

Throwing a Delay Into the Process

 It takes two to cooperate and we are seeing signs that cooperation is not that likely.

Currently we see in the organizing rules discussions an attempt by the Republicans to add a guarantee about the filibuster being continued for the next two years.

Clearly they hope that in two years they can win back the senate and make a unilateral decision.

The filibuster has never been part of the organizing rules before and to include such a guarantee would tie their hands if the Republicans get recalcitrant.

Don't fall for it.  Its a fairly clever maneuver but it is not something that the Democrats should include.

The filibuster is an anachronism that has been turned into a convenient way to hold up legislation. 

The country needs a legislature that can get things done not one deadlocked for more years.

Whether the filibuster stays or not is a decision that isn't part of the organizing rules.

Gullibility to Big Lies

Some things are real and others are not but in today's world we have more confusion than ever about which is which.

For example the people who stormed the Capitol were Trump supporters.  However some would like to say they were actually radical leftists trying to make theex-President look bad.  Thre is no evidence that anyone would believe that the second scenario is true, but some still maintain it and many semi-delusional people believe it.

The widespread availability of the internet led to various "nutjobs" able to argue ridiculous postions which contradict the facts.  Despite the fact that the entire scientific and medical community around the world is trying to combat the Pandemic we have people arguing its all a hoax.

Its fairly easy to do if you accept that reality or at least reports of it can be distorted.

You really can't disprove these alternate realities but that doesn't make them true.  If all the evidence supports the reality version, that is only because the hoaxers are so good.

This relies on a public that at least in part accepts that people want to deceive them. Of course that is true, but who are the deceivers?  

The vast majority of people in authority are npt trying to deceive you.  If you think they ask yourself why? If that answer requires elaborate theory  conspiracies, think further. 

Most of the time things are what they seem.

Elections have Consequences

 While its only by fairly narrow margins, the Democrats control the congress and the Presidency.

The leader of the party and the vast majority of its members are hoping to work in a bipartisen way to solve America's issues but the issues are defined by the majority.

For example, saving Americans from the Covid 19 virus is not debatable, how to do it is.

Finding solutions for America can be done in a bipartisan  way as long as both sides try.  If one side decides to play politics and not work for a solution, it will not work.

There will always be some politics but lies and pretense as well as trying to restrict who has rights in this country needs to stop.

America is for the people, all the people, not just the ones who think they are entitled.

Goals are Clear

 It is so unusual after the last 4 years to see a plan, an actual plan, rolled out on how to overcome our current crisis.

Of course we see certain media outlets go on some sort of attack attributing things that never happened and don't exist.

The people elected to govern this country, whatever party, need to focus on achieving certain outcomes.

Ending the virus is the number one issue.

We need to roll out the vaccines as soon as possible and continue to wear protective gear.

Stimulating the economy via payments to those most affected can help to restore the economy or at least keep it afloat.

Getting things back to normal or a new normal can follow.

We still need to address other major problems including Climate Change and income inequality.

There will be some differences of opinion on the best methods and the speed but a bipartisan solution does not include not progressing.

If we see the opposition party do nothing but try to turn solutions into political issues, we will end up without progress.  Bipartisan does not mean abandonment of goals, it means amending those goals or the methods used to achieve them.

Its clear that at least right now many Republicans are going to obstruct instead of contribute.

They need to think about the needs of the country.

Don't Get Distracted by Malarkey

I can't speak for the Administration nor can I say for certain what they will do, but I feel that Joe Biden and I grew up is the same time period, in the same religion and under similar conditions (to some extent) and I think he is not going to deal with a lot of malarkey.

The word malarkey, meaning "insincere or exaggerated talk," originally found favor in Irish-American usage, though its exact origin remains unknown. We can likely thank a cartoonist of Irish descent, Thomas Aloysius Dorgan ("TAD" for short), for popularizing the word.

Now there is a lot of it going around especially on one of our so called cable news channels.  The best way to deal with it is to point it out and ignore it.

The Irish, my ancestors, like two things of note.  Certain alcoholic beverages and spinning a good yarn, not the type you wear.

Now of course they helped build America and have many great qualities but the consumption of a good quaff and applying the Blarney was a popular pub pastime.

At some point it turned into obvious malarkey and it got called out, everyone would laugh, although the spinner might try to keep it going and another quaff was on tap.

Now we have a cable news channel that spews out a lot of malarkey.  Call it out, have a good laugh and move on.

Happy Day But Be Cautious!

 This is the day many of us have been waiting 4 years for, the end of the Trump idiocy and the return of some normalcy.

The next few years will be critical since the one thing holding the Democratic party together was the desire to get rid of Trump.  Its been a theme since the primaries and it is now a reality.

Joe Biden is a moderate and that puts him in the mainstream of American politics.  Some of the more progressive members of the party will want him to adopt stronger policies but that is normal.  In two years we will get a sense of both the Democratic party and the nation. 

Republicans are faced with similar problems and we may be seeing a potential fracture in their ranks between those who would prefer an autocrat and those who believe in democracy.

There are specific issues with Evangelical Christians or any Evangelical group that believes we have to follow the will of God.  That is not a commitment to a democratic ideal as it paints everything as black and white. 

That is not our tradition and we need to keep it from becoming one.  In the Europe that existed before the French Revolution you had the divine rights of Kings who got their authority from God.  You had no choice but to believe what they believed or flee.

Many of our early settlers fled from that very system which is why freedom of religion and the separation of Church and State is an important concept.  We can't let that change so we can remain a free and democratic nation and not some version of Iran.

Its one of most important founding principles. 

Tomorrow is the first day of the return of normalcy where a very religious man, compare certainly to Trump, can keep that separation for all of us, religious or not.

Disunity News if Struggling

 Since it was founded the only real thing that you can say about "FOX News" is that they loved to attack liberals and Democrats.  Once in a while it was valid but that wasn't any criteria at all.  As long as they could attract viewers the only holds barred were ones that could be litigated.

They also had a sexual predator running the channel but that is sort of besides the point.  They were willing to spew any lies they could if it appealed to their base.  

They benefitted greatly from our policy on Free Speech and attracted a dream audience from advertiser's point of view, gullible types who believed all sorts of nonsense.

So be it.  We do have free speech and if you were gullible enough to fall for their lies it was sort of on you.

The last four years was their golden period where we had a President who lied so much even they had trouble keeping up and he lambasted the legitimate media.  Good times!

Now they are face with a President who doesn't promote them and who is actually so moderate and well known that they have issues attacking him.  They attacked his adult son, who may have shown poor judgement although not criminal but that went no where.

They are desperate for an issue to attack to increase viewership, which has already started to sink.

Election Fraud didn't work as well as they hoped so now they are crying about disunity.

They are clearly in favor of disunity but now they want the new administration to bend over backwards if they want unity.

So much whining its hard to ignore.

No one cares.  If you are simply going to become a rabid dog biting out are every policy so be it.

You have the right to be self-destructive.

Make The Dream Reality

 Today we should be celebrating a leader who stood up for freedom and the rights of all to live equally in America.

He never achieved his dream and he was killed by a hater who couldn't tolerate the idea.

We know that while in many ways things are better, the hate continues.

In two days one of th haters will leave office.

He should never have been elected and it is shameful that someone like him get the votes he did.

His lack of character was always obvious and he won a very narrow victory, but the fact that he was close enough to succeed and that he almost repeated is a stain upon America.

We have let politics degenerate into hateful attacks which have no merit.

Hillary Clinton did none of the things she was accused of, except being married to a husband who strayed.

Its a good day t reflect on ourselves and the nature of our character.

Emulate the morally great, not the worst of us.

Martin Luther King faced injustice his entire life and still dreamed of better times.

Lets all do the same.

You Did the Crime, Do the Time

 You spend a lot of time sitting on your sofa watching FOX news or trolling other "conservative" web sites you have a very distorted vision of the world.  The conspiracies and attacks on America are not happening and almost certainly the Government is at least partially subsidizing your lifestyle.

The fact that they told you over and over again that most Americans agreed with you and they only needed an opportunity to overthrow their oppressors and fix the country.  Well when you went out into the daylight you found that yes you could find a crowd of similar thinkers, much like those Trump rallies, but a crowd of 10 or 20 thousand is not representative of America.  Its just a bunch of deluded people.

The number of lies you have been fed is far too many to recount here. but there is no conspiracy by Democrats or Liberals to adopt fascism and take away your rights and your guns.  It just doesn't exist.

Antifa is not really an organization let alone a terrorist one.  It is more like a political concept that opposes the oppression you think they support.

There are pedophiles but they are not restricted to a particular political party or any party at all.  I have no way of knowing but what evidence exists shows it is non-political in general.

American can be members of any political party they want, it doesn't define their morality or ethic the way you have been told.  you know how you were told the liberal media was always lying to you?  Well the lies were really on the other media.

Now as you are being rounded up you are turning into the wimpy babies you said the other side was.

This isn't anybody else's crime, it is yours and you will be punished.  The golden ticket of a pardon isn't coming because your fearless leader is too worried about himself to bother.  

Remember how he was going to be at the Capitol with you.  He lied about that, just one of many.

Problems Areas

 Unfortunately the legacy of this last administration is going to live on and the legacy is not a good one.

Simply put we are further behind economically, militarily, and health wise than we were 4 years ago.

We hav greatly increased the National Debt and while some of it was due to the Pandemic, it was going up before that as we gave the rich tax breaks and spent money on a border wall instead of productive infrastructure projects.  There are people who think stopping immigration is somehow good for the country but economically they provide a cheap form of labor and they help to lower the average age, both good things.  We have a lot of people working in the gig economy as we have seen corporations jettison their benefit packages to increase profits.

The risks around the world are worse than they were as we see our enemies resume or speed up their military build ups and while we have spent more money than ever, it was spent on complex weapons that while the best ever are better at generating profits than winning modern wars.  Clearly there is a lot to fix.

Th attack on the Affordable Care Act hasn't been resolved.  women's health care and personal choice has been under attack and we have the worst managed Pandemic in the world.  That is the new administrations priority as we need to ensure the safety of the people to attack the other problems.

America will come out of this, it is a rich country with resources and a talented population.  However how quickly depends on leadership which has been absent.  

That is changing.

Best path Forward

 Some people are blinded by hate and wont accept any truth that contradicts that hate.  Unfortunately a fairly large group of Americans are under the belief that certain people are trying to "steal" America from them.

The fact that they never owned America but merely enjoyed the privilege of living here is not part of their belief system.  They feel entitled to be American and also white.

Now white Americans, however you define that were important in the devolopment of this country.  So also were black Americans, Chinese Americans and Spanish Americans

In fact everyone who came here was instrumental.

Some of the things they did were pretty awful, such as how we treated the native Americans.  It certainly doesn't mean they didn't do good things also.

We also had a rebellion to continue the vile practice of slavery.  That might never have really ended.  Some are still trying to win it.

Some of these people have put their hopes in Trump who is bound to disappoint them.  He is after all a documented coward who acts like a bully.  He also doesn't care for America really while some of you do, although a America with different values.

In a land of justice and freedom you only want biased justice and your freedom.

Some of you are veterans and while I thank you for your service that doesn't excuse spreading sedition.

Hitler was after all a German war veteran as were many of his crew.

Respect the rule of law and respect you fellow Americans.  Its our best path forward.

Presidential Apprentice - You're Fired!

 Its pretty common in Corporate America to make fired employees leave immediately.  Experience has shown them that a certain number will be angry and upset and ready to strike back.  They don't let them

We generally expect our President's to be men or women of integrity.  Partly for that reason but also because there were at one time significant time required to process election results and allow all parties a fir time to raise objections.

For the first time we have seen person of low integrity and moral depravity that they refused to accept the results of a fair and honest election and instead tried to stay in office illegally.  The result of this was an ugly scene in our nations Capitol that led to some deaths and a National Disgrace.

While there is only a week to go America needs him to pack up his belongings and get escorted out by a security person.

Its fitting that this be his final scene.  It was how they ended each episode of his show.

Yelling Fraud When None Exists

 There is one week left before Biden gets sworn in as President and the current occupant continues his assault on our values and the constitution.

There is an old concept that freedom of speech does no include yelling fire in a crowed movie when there is none.  It becomes a dangerous thing as people will react and attempt to flee potentially causing harm to each other.

I would argue that yelling fraud in a divided country is just as bad when no fraud exists.

And, as shown by the courts, none does.

When they interview Trump supporters they act like no one has looked at the evidence.  Thee is no evidence.  There are a few phony allegations and some twisted facts.

If the argument they want to make is that you can't prove fraud didn't happen, the answer is yes we can and we did.

When you do a recount and come up with the same number effectively you have proven that the votes were cast legally and counted properly.

Now you may want to argue that some changes were made due to covid in some states, but none of those changes would result in fraud.

The right to vote is on of our most important and trying to take it away form people is deplorable.

No fraud so saying there is and causing a riot is like yelling fire in a crowed theatre.

Short Sighted

 There are still a fair amount of people in this country who believe the Presidential election was somehow rigged.  There is no real evidence of this and not much fictional evidence.

Still the belief persists because it has been repeated so much.

All indications are that the last election was one of the cleanest in history.  What was slightly different about it was the fact that because of the Pandemic, some effort was made to increase voting accessibility

There is a simple fact in this country.  The more minority voters that vote, the better it is for Democrats.

Certainly not all minority voters vote Democratic, but generally the majority of them do.

This group has been growing while traditional Republican groups have been on the decline..

So Republicans could become more open and win over the votes they will need to stay relevant.

Or, and this is what they did, suppress those votes as much as possible to maintain power for as long as they can.

You can only suppress votes for so long but they keep trying.

If you don't want citizens to vote, you have to make up false fraud stories to suppress them.

Not a long term policy.

Its A Crying Shame

 What is maybe the scariest part of our current situation is that people who have good educations continue to argue things that are essentially insane.

There is no deep state conspiracy, the idea of it is simply ridiculous.  It implies that some group is actually able to run things while remaining unelected and hidden.  It relies on a premise that can't be proven wrong, becasue it is a logical dead end.  They are so powerful that they can hide their existence.  Not finding them is the proof of their existence.

We, as a country seem prone to believing such conspiracy theories and of course some of this is based on our free speech.  you can see how having controversial topics and wild theories can be interesting.  The fact that they are clearly false and often provably so,  is countered by throwing everything into doubt.

Accusing the "other" side of lying makes your lies as valid as their truths.  

Many of us delude ourselves because we don't want to act like adults and realize we are often at fault for our own troubles. 

Its fairly easy but also sad that you can usually get very uninformed opinions by talking to "regular" Americans at certain events.  Trump rallies which promote a lot of lies are good examples.

Their answers make me laugh because there isn't really much else to do when they are convinced Jesus spoke American and Trump is all knowing.

I guess you could cry instead.

Inertia

There is of course a certain amount of corruption among Government officials, after all they are Humans.  It is clearly something we would like to root out, but it is not pervasive to the point that public officials are untrustworthy.

In the Federal and State Governments there is likely more waste than actual corruption.  Much of this is introduced by politicians who generally are significantly more corrupt than Government officials.  After all politicians have to keep getting re-elected which means they are constantly raising money and money is after all the great corrupter.

The idea that there is a conspiracy among Government officials is ludicrous on the fact of tit since we are talking about tremendous coordination that would be easily uncovered.  

That you do have is a certain degree of inertial.  Public official work off what you could call manuals or directives which are based on the laws that have been passed over centuries.  So the real dep state are these regulations that require changes in the law followed by updates to every regulation impacted.

Very benign things can take months.

This inertial is not political, it impacts everything.  

Think of it as a very big rock rolling down a hill.  It is likely to keep rolling and trying change it takes a bit of time and patience.

Its the business of Government and it can be very effective at times.  It just doesn't change easily.

Be Careful, They Believe The Lies

 One of the mistakes that people make too frequently is to believe people are not as crazy as they sound.  Hitler and the Nazi party benefitted by this because much of Germany didn't believe that they would do the crazy things they said they would.  They did and millions of them died as a result.

The white nationalists said they were going t storm the Capitol on Jan 6 and our law enforcement didn't believe them.  They meant it.

I see a lot of analysis on TV and I still think too many don't realize this.  We have a significant nuber of people in this country who feel that things are being controlled by the other side (In this case non-whites or not real Americans) and they want to take it back.

They don't have much use for the Constitution except when it supports their right to own guns and their right to tell lies.

They are convinced they are descendants of the true Americans who made this country great, although of course most of them aren't.  Making America Great again is effectively getting rid of the non-Americans and evoking a cookie cutter, Donna Reed Show image of an America that never existed in the first place.

This country was built by immigrants and slaves as much as pioneers.  Think less Daniel Boone and more inner city neighborhoods.  Of course it took the efforts of everybody, why diverse is not a bad word.

Real Americans are those who support the values this country stands for, not those who want to grant those rights to a privileged few.  A recent immigrant, struggling to survive who dreams about becoming a Citizen on day is the real American.  People who feel they got a raw deal who frequent conspiracy sites and want to take over are not.

Tell the Truth Everybody!

 After a few months of turmoil we saw the eruption of lies and propaganda tragically unfold on the 6th.

The President is ultimately responsible but lets not forget the other players who promoted his lies either for re-election, ratings or profit.

Americans need honest sources, and they have them.  Of course the dishonest sources claim they ignore certain stories or aspects of stories that are promoted in right wing nonsense.

Taking a conservative point of view is fine as long as it isn't clearly a falsehood.  Some conservative commentators completely ignore facts in order to appeal to their audience.

Story after story they run with are either totally lies or tremendous embellishments of a few scattered facts.

Currently I see "conservative" law makers continue to talk about voter fraud as if it is a real problem.

We certainly shouldn't let it become one, but it hasn't been, at least not in the modern error.  The best example they ever come up with is the 1960 election in Illinois.  Chicago had a strong political machine led by Richard Daley but he didn't do a lot of what he is accuse of.  Even if he did, we don't have the same situation today.

What we have today is voter suppression, using voter fraud as an excuse.  Lets call it what it is, Jim Crow in disguise.

Lying is problematic and while we have fact checking sites, many people have been convinced there is a giant left wing conspiracy.  So if you can't trust respected names in journalism and can't trust the people checking on them, you believe almost anything.

Stop the lies.  In 2016 when a candidate started breaking all the rules and telling lies, we shouldn't have accepted it.  We also shouldn't pretend its the same for all politicians.  Too often I see "journalists" try to even out their stories to appear unbiased.  Write the truth and you can't really go wrong in the long rusn

A Day of Infamy? Thanks Lame Ass

 After the Georgia elections on Tuesday I was hoping for a view into the congressional machinery as the joint session was going to certify the election for Biden.

Sure we had those reckless Representatives who were currying favor with the Trump goons and there was going to be demonstrators in the streets but assuming a fairly typical day in the Capital the delay was only going to be an annoyance.

However after our President went out and fired up the crowd they took his command and marched to the Capitol where they lost control.

Now some right wing news is trying to claim that the group was infiltrated by Antifa who were guilty of the violence.  Just because there is no evidence to support that accusation means nothing to thee lie spreaders.  If in fact that happened could you produce even a shred of evidence?

When you cater to white nationalists groups like the Proud Boys among others you have plenty of violent people already, you don't need some imaginary leftists.

The scenes that the whole world got to see were hopefully the last disgraceful ones of this administration.  

One person was shot and killed three others died of medical emergencies and many others suffered injuries.  

The people who believe what this president says are in many ways the real victims if willing ones.

Still as troublesome as the scenes were and as disgraceful as this period in our history has been, the Congress stood up for our values and finished the job.

Even our lame ass seems to have got the message, but will it stick?

Still if you are going to make a living by lying about things and fabricating ridiculous theories this is what you get.

It started as a disgrace but in the end we stayed true to the constitution and certified the electoral college.

All those Senate Chairs Will flip

 While it is still not official, it really looks like we are going to win the two Georgia Senate races.

Warnock's win is certain although his opponent hasn't conceded.  She continues her record of never winning a race but being very rich and politically connected.  She can and might run again in two years or maybe just just give it up and spend some money elsewhere.

Jon Ossoff is too close to call but he has taken the lead and most of the remaining vote is in Democratic areas.

Warnock is the first Black Senator from Georgia and Ossoff will be the youngest Senator when he gets sworn in.

But the end of Mitch McConnell being able to stymie the Senate agenda and manipulate it is the real payoff.

Today we will get to watch the comedy of our political system as a bunch of elected Republicans will embarrass themselves as they try to persuade Trump supporters they are loyal to him before America.

Maybe that is a silly strategy after all.

Fooling the People Much of the Time

 So when I read the articles about the fantasies still being promoted and which have now permeated our news media as if they are routing I realize this is what has been happening to our country for a while now.

Items which used to be laughable by any educated person are now sort of accepted by many.

Its not a new phenomena, its the big lie technique that has been used by many dictators, but in a country with a free press it isn't supposed to work.

It wasn't fully effective, but when I read that a newspaper in Georgia can't find a single Republican who thinks the election was fair I'm flabbergasted at the gullibility.

Georgia has been a Republican dominated state for many years and most of its leadership are Republicans who generally supported the President.

Why would they fix the election for Biden?

There are deeper issues the South and the rest of the country may have to deal with concerning what happens when more voters vote.

They have maintained control since the civil war using various types of voter suppression.

This time because of some relaxed voting methods and the efforts of Democratic organizations they turned out the minority voters.

Still, as difficult as that might be for white republicans to accept, its something a reasonable person can understand.

Apparently a lie told often enough with conviction, no matter how absurd, gets believed by some.

But every Republican in Georgia?

This was Abe's party and he didn't think you could fool all of the people all of the time.

Hope he was right.

Scoundrels and Scalawags

Does it really matter if a plot to overthrow he duly elected Government of the United States fails, isn't it still a crime?

We have a significant number o people trying to do just that and worst thing is they are elected officials.

Now voicing a legitimate objection at the appropriate time is fine, but when we hear the leader asking a State Official to "find" votes and representatives and senators who clearly should know better by now voicing ridiculous objections just to appeal to a crowd that can't seem to add very well, that different.

It is playing a game and the game is being played with our constitution.

There is no chance of it being successful but does that really matter?

Its a conspiracy to overturn a valid election, which wasn't even really close.

Of course we have a convoluted system where the electoral college doesn't always agree with the popular vote which should be fixed, but in this case they do, at least to the extent that both indicate the same person.

Last time they didn't, we got the current gangster because of a few states that counted for more than they should have.

We had deal with a deviant bully who lost the popular vote by a real landslide.

Now he still lost that and has also lost the electoral college.

Tose going along with his baseless claims, as proven in many courts already, are scoundrels and probably scalawags as well.

Radical Parties

 At this point its pretty obvious that many Republicans are willing to ignore their oaths of office just to cater to people who support Trump and get past a future primary challenge.

Whether this is a good political strategy or not depends on future events but it is clearly a good sign that they have almost no ethics.

It is time to rethink our two party system.

In many ways it would be more honest to have more parties that form alliances than to have two parties that roll in distinct groups.

The Republican and Democratic parties still largely include many moderates although more and more of them are declaring as independents.

This takes them out of the decision process for whom the candidates will be.

This allows a parties primaries to be dominated by people on the edge, not in the middle.

The candidates we produce, especially it seems on the Republican side are not truly representative of most Americans who are moderates.

The Democrats this year were able to nominate a moderate but that is the exception nowadays.

The incoming administration is forming a Government more in the parliamentary way.

Its certainly more inclusive.

A New Year

Does 2021 seem better yet?

Still have record number of Covid cases, inefficient planning by the Trump administration and ongoing efforts (silly as they may be) attempts to overturn it.

I guess we should allow a couple of months to see the improvement, 2020 really went off the rails in March/April.

That's probably a more naturel way since the fact that our year starts in January is pretty arbitrary.

It seems naturel to us but really the end of winter and beginning of Spring is more in tune wit nature.

Still this is the week that the silly electoral college challenges should come to an end.

On the 6th or 7th the votes will be officially awarded to Jpe Biden.

Still will be two weeks until he actually takes over.

Need to update to today's speed and not the 18th century ones.

Attacking the People

 With all of the lawsuits, money spent and thousands of people trying to prove there was significant election fraud, they came up with nothing.

They have compiled some BS statistical information that doesn't prove their point but is complex enough that gullible people won't read or understand it.

It doesn't stand up to any scrutiny at all.

What is probably more significant is that every recount, where the actual ballots were counted, the results didn't change.

So now they want to argue that some states didn't technically follow their own regulations which even if true wouldn't result in different numbers had they not adjusted for the coronavirus.

But that isn't even true.

Our Democracy is dependent on people voting.  If a citizen votes it should count.  Massive attempts to not count votes cast for you opponent is despicable and un-American.

So they want to throw out millions of votes and let some politicians decide.

The fact that a large number of elected Republicans in the House and some in the Senate are even considering such a thing is an attack on Democracy and our Constitution.

Its an attack on the people.