Republican Senators Stand Between Us and the Deluge

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As any Mafia Don(ald) would, T—p is looking at his most loyal supporters to fill key positions in his administration. (I haven’t given up hope that the Electoral College will dump him, but nobody of note is pushing the idea, at least not in public. Remember: fewer than 40 Republican electors could temporarily and maybe permanently stop the monster’s ascent.)

Imagine Sarah Palin as Secretary of the Interior and Rudy Giuliani as Attorney General. Imagine the rogues gallery posing for pictures at their first cabinet meeting. That’s the very bad news.

How about the good news? There isn’t much, but an article at Vox by Matthew Yglesias says “We have 100 days to stop Donald Trump from systematically corrupting our institutions”. Its subtitle is “the transition period is our last best chance to save the republic”.

Of course, a T—p administration might not destroy the republic, but Mr. Yglesias makes a strong argument. He begins by citing the distinction between “venal” corruption and “systematic” corruption. The venal kind is the usual criminality we worry about. Powerful interests make shady deals with politicians who give them special favors. Campaign contributions cross the line into bribery. 

Systematic corruption is more serious. It’s the kind of corruption found in Putin’s Russia. The politicians do whatever they can to help the favored few and make things hard for everyone else. Government contracts are steered to businesses that support the ruler and away from their competition. Regulations are tailored to help media companies favorable to the regime and destroy the ones that aren’t. Government agencies are staffed with cronies and incompetents. It all becomes a self-reinforcing web of tight relationships that don’t yield power easily. Free elections aren’t so free anymore.

Such a system, once in place, is extremely difficult to dislodge precisely because, unlike a fascist or communist regime, it is glued together by no ideology beyond basic human greed, insecurity, and love of family.

All is not lost, but the situation is genuinely quite grave. As attention focuses on transition gossip and congressional machinations, it’s important not to let our eyes off the ball. It is entirely possible that eight years from now we’ll be looking at an entrenched kleptocracy preparing to install a chosen successor whose only real mission is to preserve the web of parasitical oligarchy that has replaced the federal government as we know it…And while the impulse to “wait and see” what really happens is understandable, the cold, hard reality is that the most crucial decisions will be the early ones.

So what’s the good news? Yglesias points out that there will be 48 Democrats in the Senate and roughly 12 Republicans who didn’t support T—-p. 

More remarkably, one of the senators who did vote for Trump publicly called him a “con man.” Another called him a “pathological liar.” One assumes there are a few more out there who swallowed private doubts in the interest of beating Hillary Clinton.

Whatever the precise details, the point is that a critical mass of Republican senators has given us reason to believe that they understand Trump appointees need to be held to an unusually high bar for qualification and integrity — not an unusually low one.

Of course, it takes a major leap of faith to believe that Republican politicians will show some courage and good sense and thereby limit the damage in Washington. But a couple of them are calling for an investigation into Russia’s interference in our election. That’s something. Plus, senators tend to think of themselves as demigods who know what’s best for America. It’s possible they might reject T—-p’s worst nominees, even though doing so will make them enemies of a vengeful President who values loyalty above all else and lacks all sense of shame.

Meanwhile, Paul Ryan revels in the possibility of gutting Medicaid and privatizing Medicare and Social Security. A deluded minority of Americans have spoken, so gridlock may be the best we can hope for in Washington.

It Wasn’t the Place, But This Isn’t Normal

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An online forum devoted to a well-known musician isn’t usually the place to discuss politics. But this is not a normal time, even on the Brian Wilson forum. So when a nice person from Canada referred to the “brouhaha” surrounding our election. I was moved to respond (and thereby generate this post for WOCS).

November 14th

Brouhaha? As in “a noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something”? I can’t agree about the “overexcited” aspect.

In fact, I think Kramer had a good reaction to our election in this little clip:

November 14th again

I prefer “titanic struggle between good and evil” or “battle of world historical proportions”. Seriously. I would vote for any qualified Republican without hesitation in order to avoid this disaster. 

PS — I guess you can call me names if you want, but I remember your comment about “two days of pointing fingers, etc” in the veterans remembrance thread you started. “Brouhaha” suggests the same attitude. I can understand that people who don’t live in the US and won’t be immediately affected may think we’re making too much of him winning last week and of course this is Brian’s site. But people’s lives do come into play here every so often. This is deadly serious business for millions of people. Because this person is not just another politician to mock or disparage. He is a true danger to us and to the world. And part of the problem is that people, including the media, have normalized him all along and are continuing to do so, and the only way to stop that from happening is to point it out when it happens, however impolite or pedantic that seems.

November 15th

Sorry that I misinterpreted what your wrote and reacted so strongly. You can probably tell I’m among the population that’s pretty much freaking out. It’s easily the worst thing that’s happened to America since 9/11, and probably worse than that, given the possible consequences. It truly is a nightmare. Hell, we lived through Nixon, Reagan and two Bush’s. This is way worse. Either the Electoral College has to stop him or he has to be impeached as soon as possible.

So I’m calling my Republican Congressman to remind him (as if he needed reminding) that we shouldn’t have a white supremacist, anti-semitic, misogynist, racist, conspiracy theorist named S. Bannon, who claims he’s a “Leninist” who wants to bring the whole system down, as the President’s “chief strategist”.

And that the new President should not give top security clearance to three of his children and his son-in-law so they can continue making money for the President’s company with the added benefit of information from the CIA and NSA, in by far the biggest conflict of interest and invitation to corruption we’ve ever seen.

November 16th

I was on my way to the World Trade Center that morning. I stood on the street and watched the buildings burn. I walked through the stinking air in the days afterward. It’s a hard truth that the sudden tragic murder of 3,000 innocent people may pale in comparison to what a vengeful, narcissistic thug can unleash on the world.

Link to “Trump Could Face a Nuclear Decision Soon” 

In fact, assuming we avoid the use of nuclear weapons when he is provoked one night and wants to demonstrate his “toughness”, a President who endorses the so-called “conservative” agenda will cause more than 3,000 innocent people to die by doing things like taking away their health insurance and gutting environmental regulations.

Links to  “Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others” and

“Infant mortality rates in the US seem to go up during a Republican presidency and down during a Democratic presidency” 

Even poor management of the economy will worsen the lives of millions of middle-class and working-class white people who will be even more disappointed and disheartened when the man who said he is the only who can fix their problems (e.g. by rebuilding the coal industry) fails to do so. That will lead to more dysfunction and more deaths.

Link to “Rising deaths among white middle-aged Americans could exceed Aids toll in US”

And one more thing

A former Republican official who rejected T—p because he’s dangerously unqualified writes:

 “I told conservatives to work for Trump. One talk with his team changed my mind”

The Electoral College Can and Must Deliver Us From Evil

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It’s reported that our Mussolini in waiting wants top secret security clearance for three of his children and his son-in-law, none of whom will be government employees as federal law requires. Instead, they will conduct the family business while their father conducts our business. How long will it be before T—p creates a palace guard so he can more easily ignore the rulings of judges trying to rein him in? 

Here’s a modest proposal:

Whatever you’re doing that isn’t required by the necessities of life, stop doing it and start publicizing the idea that the Electoral College can and must stop T—p from becoming President. The Electoral College got us into this mess (Hillary is winning by almost 700,000 votes at last count) and the Electoral College can get us out! That’s what the U.S. Constitution says.

If 40 or so Republican electors vote for a different Republican, the election goes to the House of Representatives and they can dump this monster. Will they? I hope so, because it’s the only realistic chance we have avoid imminent disaster.

The more we publicize the Electoral College option, the more people talk about it, post about it, contact Republican politicians about it, convince everyone they know about it, the more likely it will be that the Electoral College will deliver us from evil on December 19th.

The Republicans have released a monster on the world. Now they have to shut him down. 

The Electoral College Needs To Save Us From T—p

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More than 4 million people have signed a petition at Change.org urging members of the Electoral College to elect Hillary Clinton as President on December 19th. I signed it myself. 

If roughly 40 Republican electors join with the 230 or so Democratic electors in voting for Clinton, she will become our next President.

Unfortunately, since most of the electors who vote next month are Republicans, it is highly doubtful that even 40 of them would agree to give the Presidency to a Democrat, especially a Democrat they hate as much as they (foolishly) hate Hillary Clinton.

Yet most of America understands that T—p is dangerously unqualified to be President. Amazingly, that includes millions of Republicans who voted for him last week.

On December 19th, the members of the Electoral College that we chose last week (when many of us believed we were directly voting for the candidates) will cast their ballots in their respective state capitals and in the District of Columbia.

If the electors vote the way their respective states voted, Mr. Trump will become President on January 21st. However, the electors can vote for someone else if they choose. Even in states where that is not allowed, their vote would still be counted – they would pay a small fine – which concerned Americans and citizens of the world would be glad to pay for them!

There are two realistic options. The first is that enough Republican electors will vote for someone other than T—p to throw the election into the House of Representatives. The House has decided three Presidential elections before (in 1801, 1825 and 1877). Since the Republicans control the House, they would undoubtedly select a Republican as President. Would they choose someone other than T—p? I sure hope so.

Of course, there is at least one petition at Change.org demanding that the electors choose a Republican other than T—p. (I’ve signed that one too.) So far, at least two electors are endorsing this idea, as described here.

Another possibility (although certainly less likely) is that at least 40 or so Republican electors will join with the 230 or so Democratic electors to elect a compromise or unity ticket. For example, another petition urges the Electoral College to elect the Republican Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, as President and the Democratic Senator from Virginia, Tim Kaine, as Vice President.

Governor Kasich sought the Republican nomination for President and Senator Kaine was chosen as the Democratic candidate for Vice President. Both have a long record of public service and are qualified to lead the Executive Branch of our government. Neither of them are extreme ideologues (although Kasich is sufficiently “conservative” to make Democrats frequently unhappy). 

Electing Kasich as President would acknowledge the fact that T—p won more states. Electing Kaine as Vice President would acknowledge the fact that Clinton got many more votes. As a Democrat, I’d prefer President Clinton or President Kaine, but any qualified Republican would be better than T—p.

If the Electoral College rejected T—p, millions of Americans would protest that the election was being stolen. But you can’t steal an election by obeying the Constitution. The men who wrote the Constitution feared the election of a dangerous or unqualified candidate. They trusted the electors from the various states to save the day if America faced an electoral crisis. That’s exactly what we face today.