Welp...We have Accountability...

 in respect of the Chauvin verdict, but I take no joy in it.

My concern is, that we've set a precedent, maybe a very very difficult precedent in that now it is at least theoretically possible to convict a US Police Officer of brutality/homicide only if you have nine minutes of close up video footage with clear audio, multiple witnesses, first responders willing to buck the Blue Wall and or Police Willing to Testify on the record.

The next time (and there have been dozens more since then) will not have nearly as much evidence to tip the scales of justice, and therein lies the problem the bar has at last been set, about a mile above sea level. The fact that it worked in the George Floyd murder case obscures slightly that the standards are so high we may not see them again successfully invoked for another decade.

Meanwhile, thanks to Ronald Reagan's War on Drugs and then George Bush's War on Terror, the Police in this country have basically become Light Mechanized Infantry, so it should come as no surprise they react like Light Mechanized Infantry, shooting first and or last and then asking questions. We got here because the US Public Fears Crime Like a Vampire Fears the Crucifix, We Got Here Because Nobody wants to admit the Police have a In Culture Race Issue and We Got Here Because No One Wants to Discuss These Issues Honestly.

The GOP equates questioning police tactics with treason and the democrats are institutionally inhibited from antagonizing a public sector union, so in reality, no one is in charge, except of course a police culture we can't trust, a mission statement that emphasizes force over sense and all the ammunition and heavy weaponry in the world short of the First Armored Division.

In Memoriam: "Fritz"

 Late Word comes to Us, of the death of Former US Vice President and the 1984 democratic nominee, Walter "Fritz" Mondale.  Fate in someways dealt well but also perversely to the Former Senator from Minnesota, but for a few hundred thousand votes in three states he might've ended up as Hubert Humphrey's Attorney General in 1968.  As it was, his bona fides as a legit US Senate "Work House" and a liberal stalwart (he was once Fair Housing's Idea of Heinz Guderian) got him the Vice Presidential Nomination with Jimmy Carter in 1976.  It was Mondale's sad fate that in a subsequent administration given over to idealists, outsiders, a few scarred veterans of the Johnson Admin, he the VP was literally the only politician in the room.

Despite a groundbreaking alteration in the status of the VP, where Mondale became an all purpose policy advisor, lightning rod and administrator for the Admin, and finally the office became a pure creature of the Executive Department in the process, I think Carter even today, wishes he'd just listened to Fritz a bit more.  He might've avoided that whole malaise speech thing...Mondale opposed that whole notion, he knew too well that good politicians only announce success, they can never prosper by explaining failure.  Carter's idealism was soon supplanted by Reagan's blatant sky-grifting, and thus we come to campaign '84, wherein Mondale provided two signature services to the electorate, neither was appreciated at the time, but both are of note to historians, y'know the only obit-writers worth reading.

1.) It fell to candidate Mondale to bluntly call the political class' bluff on the subject of the burgeoning budget deficit.  Faced with shortfalls that had quadrupled in four short years, Mondale sighed, rolled up

his sleeves and openly proposed new taxes and budget caps to balance the budget. The punditariat on down, screamed like stuck pigs at this allegedly crass error in tactics, promising to raise taxes in an election years is "bad politics" etc.  However its my own view that Mondale's blunt assessment of the deficit called everyone's bluff, Reagan was always lying about balancing the budget, hiding behind a proposed constitutional amendment that would never be passed by congress to say nothing of being approved by the state, he knew it and yet on he went fantasizing and prevaricating. Mondale also demonstrated that the entire political class inside and outside congress was completely intellectually corrupt on the notion of the deficit, at best as a matter of economics its a worry every four years that never seems to get resolved, thus making it a remarkably intangible threat to our survival.  A liberal democrat running as a deficit hawk was a bold Quixotic Choice in 1984, but really those were the only desperate options open to Mondale.  He exposed something that dogs us to this day, for that he earns the gratitude of history, it's not for nothing that no one has ever revisited the issue in a serious way on the campaign trail since 1984.

2.) It fell to Mondale, to demonstrate in public the imperiled nature of Ronald Reagan's wits in that first presidential debate back in 1984. The President, clearly had an attack of aphasia on live television maundering and wandering off his usually strictly prepared script. It was an early harbinger of things to come with Donald Trump with his four year long narcissistic fugue state. The fact that the whole country got a good long look at Reagan's faltering mentality and still voted for him,  isn't an indictment of Mondale's appeal, it is however a sad testament to the USA's ability to face facts when we think times are good.  But in the end it worked out for the Best, I've always maintained Nancy Reagan was one of the best US President's we've ever had, at least insofar as Arms Control is Concerned.

But the ensuing electoral debacle, even that Mondale survived...he retired, wrote some books, collected his pension, Clinton made him Ambassador to Japan...slowly the chat show called him in on occasional, it may have been a source of grim ironic solace to Mondale at the end that he was right about almost everything he discussed in 1984...even the efficacy of nominating a woman for VP, Kamala Harris owes much to the trailblazing of Geraldine Ferraro.

And if, in the end, we are not, living in Mondale's rational, utilitarian, liberal consensus driven world, then maybe, having seen the ghastly alternatives we ought to give that world a second chance.

R.I.P. Fritz, you are one vote I never regretted.

This Mook....

 Representative Matt Gaetz a brazen toady to the Ex President, Donald Trump, allegedly has the charming habit of showing risqué smartphone photos of his romantic conquests  on the floor of The US House of Representatives.  Sadly that is not even the worst thing that ever happened on the Floor of the US House but it's pretty cringeworthy and indicative of a person who has yet to mentally graduate High School. And sadly, Gaetz would probably still be on his sexual reign of terror if he hadn't fallen afoul an alleged 17 year old paramour. If I was the DoJ I'd check the birth certificates of all those alleged "conquests" on Gaetz' smartphone, I suspect some additional surprises are thereon.  I get the vibe offa Matt here is that he is pretty unpleasantly aggressive, he'd have to be with a face like that, it's strictly "Post Cosmetic Surgery Frankenstein" going on there.

Health to the investigators, because nothing short of a blizzard of indictments will compel this gruesome nasty man to quit his post, sheer shame simply doesn't work on His Kind.

BakerCare(less)....

 Our Governor Charlie Baker (GOP/IBM) has done wonders for manufacturing in Massachusetts. He has a whole assembly line to fabricate excuses when supplies run low, people have to wait forever in line or when the state's website auto destructs. He is really good that way. I'm fifty eight and I've noticed that a lot of my college classmates down in Connecticut are getting vaccinated, meanwhile up here, my sixty six year old brother has spent the last two weeks trying to secure a vaccination appointment from North Adams to the Atlantic...zilch, nada.

Call it whatever you like, but come next year when Charlie runs for his third term, just don't call it managerial genius. In fact this is what we get when we have a Governor who thinks the private sector can fix a rainy day and that cancer can be cured with a tax cut. What you also get is a cheap fragile vaccination website composed literally of check marks on a list, and nothing else!

And thats all we are gonna get until the Governor starts making better use of public resources to battle a public health crisis. Just don't hold your breath on that one, we are simply gonna limp along while Connecticut, New Hampshire and West Virginia laugh at our staggered stumbling pace, sooner or later we'll get to herd immunity and when we do, we'll likely fall right over it.

There is no linkage...

 between the Governor's sudden decision to ease up on public venue restrictions and the fact that His Excellency was grilled good and proper by the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee....no, no linkage whatsoever...

IN A PIG'S ARSE!!

Of course there is linkage, all Baker said before the Oversight Committee was that vaccine scarcity was driving our program, he had no explanation as to why the state's vaccination website keeps operating at a crawl when it isn't prompting outright tears of frustration.  So hell to the yeah, Baker suddenly starting easing up on restrictions, he needed to seize control of the news cycle. Regardless of his preposterous approval ratings, Baker must still contend with the possibility of a primary challenge.  Gubernatorial primary challenges are no joke, most end in failure, but then again tell that to Ed King.

On Sunday The Globe's Jeff Jacoby had this to say...

 regarding our strategically ambiguous policy towards Taiwan:

"When the Carter Administration established full diplomatic ties with China,  it was in the hope that the Regime in Beijing would gradually liberalize, democratize and adhere to the norms of international cooperation. That Hope has proved delusional."

Ahem, we extended full diplomatic recognition to the P.R.C. in 1978 because Washington D.C. and Beijing had a mutual enemy, The U.S.S.R.  In fact at the time China was holding down 200 Soviet Divisions along their mutual border. These were divisions that would otherwise be used to back up the Warsaw Pact in the West.  At the time, for containment to work, the USA needed the PRC to worry & vex Moscow. If poor Taiwan could hold down 200 division's we'd a never have ditched them...President Carter's decision at the time, was very much justified since Taiwan at the time was ruled by an authoritarian Junta that provided no strategic asset.  These days though it is admittedly a different story,  don't blame the current situation in the Taiwan Straits on Carter, he needed a ally who could deliver and that is what he got.  Poor Jimmy, even his realpolitik is misunderstood....

It would appear...

 that in the space of a mere seventy two hours, thanks to an epic snowstorm and arctic temperatures, the dreams, delusions, chicken wire and duct tape that held Texas Together have been blown to Hell and the Lone Star State is now officially a Third World Country.

14 million people still experiencing water shortages, ruptured pipes from the Rio Grande to Oklahoma, people freezing to death every day,  power blackouts...the list goes on, enough to make Senator Ted Cruz take off to Cancun' in search of a better life.

But this is no time for snark, the plain people (to quote Abraham Lincoln) however winged, they may be, did not sign on to become a frozen & powerless collection of atomized victims.  I urge donations to the American Red Cross I also applaud the quick actions of Congressperson Ocasio-Cortez & Beto O'Rourke to gather & distribute much needed supplies and or fundraise on behalf of the blizzard's countless victims.

That having been said, conscience impels me to note that Texas has had, for twenty uninterrupted years of unrestricted GOP Rule.  The whole state as a vast sketchy laboratory for Wingnut Social Engineering, and we see the results; mass misery on a cosmic scale, a  janky state power grid hardened against nothing and largely set up with shareholder value in mind. I'm not sure it's even legal in Texas to put the phrase "climate change" onto any official documents. All that can and must change, but right now the average Texan is literally an endangered species in his or her own state, that is our immediate challenge.

Mitch McConnell

 didn't become Mitch McConnell by being some sort of zealous and conservative preserver of Constitutional Norms, he is a schemer and a manipulator and exploiter of loopholes on behave of his sponsors and contributors. He also didn't become a power in the US Senate by doing the American People any damn favors, as far as he is concerned, we are the problem...a bunch a damn freeloaders he needs to keep at bay.

So of course, having coming within an inch not even a month ago of being lynch by Donald Trump's mob of Deplorables, it makes perfect sense that Senator McConnell would vote to acquit the Ex-President of any wrongdoing at Yesterday's impeachment trial, given the way he views public life, it was inevitable.

Granted he made a mealy-mouthed speech afterwards asserting Trump's responsibility for the violence in no uncertain terms.  Nonetheless voting to convict meant expending political capital that McConnell needs for other projects, so he essentially wished the problem onto the lower courts in hopes they'll purge Trump from public live for him.

It is pretty craven, but McConnell is a craven man, he is insolent when he has power and an insufferable Uriah Heep when power is denied him.  That he has done incalculable damage to the rule of law and the US Constitution is beside the point, he preserved his own miserable jobbery and thats all that is important.

Managerial Acumen in a Time of Pandemic.

 Much is made of Governor Baker's Managerial Genius. It is true, that unlike other members of his party, insofar as Covid19 is concerned, he is at least following the science. But it is also true that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with all its medical institutions, doctors, research institutes et al, is being lapped in the vaccine distribution category by Connecticut & West Virginia.

West Virginia!! They haven't distributed anything at all since the demise of rotgut moonshine after prohibition! But the facts don't lie (not in Joe Biden's America Anyway) West Virginia leads the nation and even boasts if they could get the dosages they could immunize the entire 65+ population in under sixty days. We have got biotech on every street corner and we can't beat that record?? I think Charlie Baker has missed a step here, he needs to drive his ass down to Charlestown and figure out what they are doing right down there. Because right now everyone seems to be standing in line in Massachusetts, scratching their heads. I'm fifty eight right now and I suspect the Baker Admin's vaccine default is to wait for me to turn seventy five before issuing a vaccine.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders

 Deposed President Trump's berserker Press Secretary, is running for Governor of Arkansas because Shrill & Belligerent is the answer to that poor state's prayers I guess.  So far as NPR can tell, its a crowded GOP Gubernatorial Primary since Governor Hutchinson has reached his two term limit, but Sanders does have that magic connection to the Trump Cult that could well turn into votes on Primary Day.

If she is nominated, win or lose, she should be pilloried every day for her tyrannical disdain for constitutional norms, her shrill tone, her grotesque conspiracy theories...she should constantly be cross examined as to whether or not she thinks Trump lost "Fair & Square", other words goad her into a ferocious eruption, at the very least the electorate ought to see what they are in for...

Oh this is rich...

 Ivanka Trump, the Deposed President's cold reptilian daughter, is ginning up a primary challenge to the Junior Mollusk from Florida, Marco Rubio.  I can hear Marco Rubio's knees clacking together like castanets all the way up here in Stern Puritanical (yet Romantic) Menotomy USA.  Never mind the fact that the GOP Power Structure in Fla, probably doesn't like or trust Ivanka (what exactly has she done for them??) or that she doesn't really have the money to seriously bomb out a GOP Primary.  Marco still has a cold childish fear of Trump's violent and irredentist base.  Marco must be terrified of Ivanka trolling the state in a tricked out bus as a trippy third partei candidate.  No wonder he's been such a craven voice to let Trump skate past his second impeachment this week...the man is scared, scared of Ivanka, scared of the MAGA's (whose votes he needs desperately) scared of Donald Trump...just plain terrified quite frankly.

Y'know if I was a democrat running against Marco I'd talk about one thing to start, that Marco Rubio can't be trusted to defend the US Constitution from its enemies because he's just too damn scared of his own shadow.

Start there, the real issues with Marco is that he bungled his own damn oath as a US Senator to defend the US Constitution, he'd you, your family the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution under the bus to stay in office.

Meanwhile Deposed President Trump...

 in exile in Florida, is musing about starting his own personal political partei, "The Patriot Party".

Now, as soon as we are done guffawing there are two ways we can look at this:

1.) The idea is likely one of several being bruited about in TrumpWorld (along with starting his own wing nut Falangist news channel) all with the ultimate goal of monetizing the MAGAs.  Trump faces gigantic legal and financial challenges, his topmost priority at the moment is building up liquidity, given his busted businesses and bungled opportunities, milking his base of their last nickel may well be his best and only option at the moment.  "The Patriot Party" might be a nice handy cudgel by which to command some deference from the GOP in 2022/2024. Assuming of course, Trump can stay out of jail.

2.) Trump may well be serious about "The Patriot Party", maybe he thinks he can split the GOP vote in 2022-2024, maybe he really thinks he can force this new combination into the Big Time. Chaos and anarchy are really his brand (as we saw last week at the Capitol) and he knows the GOP's leadership at best pays lip service to him, and speak venomously of him in private. "The Patriot Partei" does exempt him from negotiating with people who detest him, and he can commune with his base in a permanent state of brutal excitement.

Whatever his motivations, third parties are notorious money pits, it is difficult if not impossible to get on the fifty state's individual ballots, that alone means recruiting hundreds of pricey ass lawyers, creating a cadre of elected officials almost never happens (who votes for a third party candidate for county commissioner?)...cracking the hold of the Democrats & Republicans is a very pricey proposition indeed.

So by all means lets encourage Trump along this very path, he'll bankrupt the MAGAs and split the GOP vote in 2022 and 2024 (hopefully) I am not seeing any downside for Trump marching out into the political wastelands that claimed Henry A. Wallace, Ross Perot or Strom Thurmond.

I only wish...

 that I could indulge some tribal triumphalism, the Defeat & Disgrace of Donald Trump, the pursuit of his Capitol desecrating Falangist Berserkers, the Senate & House in Democratic Hands, the steady improbable  rise of Joe Biden to the White House on his third try for the US Presidency...the list goes on.

I could wax prideful and sarcastic...but I shall not.  Too many people have died and are dying right now of covid_19 with no end in sight regardless of the vaccine. Fifty states, fifty vaccination priorities all headed in different direction, a minority of my fellow citizens have given up on democracy and wish to punish & rule others by force, there is carnage, division doubt all of it sad and needless.

Joe Biden is inheriting a mess that just falls short of Civil War, he has in this darkest hour, my unreserved support, thats all I can say right now, I stand with this President and by the US Constitution, in a sense all citizens still loyal to our democracy and the rule of law, are also taking what amounts to the same oath in about an hour. Good Luck to All of Us. Godspeed.

If Rep Lauren "I Love my Glock" Boebert refuses to pass thru the metal detectors

 that now festoon the entrances of the US House of Representatives, then put her on the "No Fly List" says I.  Why should she honor the TSA's rules at the Airport and Deride the very same in the Capitol?  If she won't play by the rules in the House then she cannot be trust in the air whether her firearm is checked or left at home or whatever..."Live Like a Menace to Society, Enjoy the Consequences of the Same" sez I.

Impeachment 2.0

 Speaker Pelosi: (I love that woman! In a nice sort of a way of course)...is impeaching Donald Trump because she wants to incentivize him to flee Washington DC and make Private Life More Attractive. The thought here is, once he no longer commands the pulpit or the armed forces, his followers the once to breached the Capitol can be rolled up individually. I think up until today, the Speaker's private hope was either the 25th Amendment would be invoked or that Trump would panic, resign and flee, but I guess the President is getting enough mixed messages to induce him to stay put...he may well wish he had resigned ere long though.

Senator McConnell: Wants Trump out of the GOP, but he can afford to take his time about it, if he is convicted in the US Senate after Biden is sworn in, McConnell gets a leg up on tossing Trump out of the party, prevents Trump from running in 2024 and if that slows down the appointment of Biden's Cabinet etc, so much the better.

Both however are banking that the President's freedom of action is severely curtailed, given Trump's penchant for violent whimsy, this remains to be verified.  I personally think that if McConnell and his contemptible crew made an effort, they could either compel a resignation or get the 25th Amendment deployed.  But at least after years of deliberate senescence the DOJ & FBI are suddenly alarmed but armed wing nut extremism, chasing breachers and warning of new violence. Sadly our current chaos, body count and all, would seem to be the best we can expect over the short term.

I underestimated Donald Trump...

 and for that, I apologize.

After four years of his boasts and threats, which were inevitably never backed up, I thought his proposed "wilding" on January 6th would be yet another bust.  But somehow, he managed to gin up a good lynch mob to bust in the US Capitol and run amok forcing the US Congress to Flee for their lives.  The building ransacked, the Constitution and Our Flag mocked, Our Sacred Reputation Dishonored, Democracy Imperiled, Lives Lost...yup it took him Four fumbling years but Trump finally got his Reichstag Fire.

And of course, he made a botch of that as well.

In a sad mirthless way, we can be grateful that Trump is too much of a twitchy anarchist with a short attention span, he finally conjured up a homicidal mob to put the US Capitol to the torch and then went inside the White House to watch it unfold on TV. 

Thank God Almighty and all the Angels and Saints, he is no real leader per se, a leader, with sufficient demoniacal energy, might've carried the day somehow last week. Instead Trump railed like a child, tweeted out threats (until Twitter finally had enough of his nonsense) and fatally lost his chance.  Trust me, next time, we won't be so lucky.  Someone like Juan Peron or Franco or Dear God Vladimir Lenin, would not have sat back and waited for chaos to do their job for them.  Last week Senators Cruz & Hawley, betrayed their oaths to Defend the US Constitution but, trust me on this, They Damn Well Took Notes All During the Siege of the Capitol, when it's their turn, they won't be watching it on Fox News believe me!

Of Course, Trump must needs be impeached again, if only to bar him from ever holding office again and cutting off his access to ex-presidential resources. Its prospects are as usual uncertain, thanks to the Scum of the Rotten Boroughs, nonetheless Congress Must Protect Itself, the matter has come down to survival. That is, if VP Pence doesn't man up, and invoke the 25th Amendment, no one would blame him, he was there that day with his wife and the crowd was chanting "Hang Mike Pence".  But this is Mike Pence we are talking about, the damn fool is actually worried about his standing in the 2024 NH Primary!! That is if we are still having elections by then!!!???

Once sworn in, President Biden should also come out for a statutory Presidential Commission to investigate the attack on Congress on January 6th, with full subpoena powers. Said commission needs to fully "contact trace" the mob rule contagion and not let right wing cultists off with a pat on the ass!  The New Attorney General needs to zealously pursue anyone who broke into the Capitol that day whether they had mischief or murder on their minds.

Congress is well within its rights to subject the Capitol Police to the "Vertical Stroke", there was bad faith present in the ranks, poor decision making all of which cost lives when the moment of truth arrived. That in turn, makes the deaths of Officers Sicknick & Liebengood all the more tragic & appalling.  Congress needs a dedicated Security Apparatus that will safeguard the legislative process and the legislators. At the very least the command structure must be completely revamped, new training, tactics and equipment must be procured and sadly Tactical Squads should be added to the mix. This cannot be allowed to happen again for lack of proper security. Senior Officers of Said Force, if they do not now, must report jointly to the President Pro Tem of the Senate and the House Speaker.

In the end, there can be no reconciliation with a Lynch Mob, There is No Debating with a Murderous Crowd Bent on the Establishment of Tyranny Among Us.  It all comes down to this: Are You For the US Constitution, or are For the Terrorists?

And if, you are For the US Constitution are you willing to fight for it?

Because right now, we've won at best, a two year reprieve.  Trumpism is still rampant in the GOP, big money still favors the most appalling extremism, we are going to have to go deep and start winning elections, from the state legislature on up. Soon enough we'll be back down in these trenches again. If Rep McCarthy had been House Speaker last week, he'd a unlocked the doors for the mob and crawled before the White House begging for mercy.  Just thank your lucky stars that Nancy Pelosi was Speaker, this election might've been postponed canceled or simply ignored, but for her!!

Elections in this country just got very serious indeed because the way I reckon it, we are one mid term away from complete disaster.  I cannot myself force a split in the GOP between the Falange and the alleged "True Conservatives" thats something for the opposition to do, all I can do, is tell you a whole new war has broken out, and we need to get better at politics, tougher, harder and more resolute.