#seriously they don’t even run fucking senate candidates in most cases

[megacircuit9universe]

November Outlook

WED SEP 09, 2020

With the election now less than two months away, it’s a good time to look at the different moving parts of history’s machine at this point, and see what we can gleen about how things may go down on election night, and in the many weeks to follow before inauguration on January 20th.

We’re going to start here with the assumption that Trump will, at this point lose any remotely fair election... and will lose by a significant margin.

Biden has been leading him in both national and state polls for months, and now that both conventions are behind us... there’s been little change. Trump is behind in all the battleground states by several points, and within the margin of error in some states normally thought to be safe for the GOP.

His path to victory is incredibly narrow, whereas Biden has many paths to victory.  He’s in a position such that if he lost several different battleground states, he’d still win.

Now, Trump is the incumbent... a status normally considered to be a huge advantage... but incumbency is a huge disadvantage, when everything is going straight to Hell... because you’re to blame for it all.

Clever incumbent politicians have tools use if a disaster strikes on their watch in an election year, such as... rallying everybody to come together in the crisis... and accepting responsibility in advance... two things Trump is not physically or mentally able to grasp.

So... what I’m saying is, it’s nigh impossible for things to change in a way that flips Trump’s approval ratings so late in the game... given that he’s the incumbent.

He’s presiding over a huge pandemic death toll with no end in sight (for which he’s directly to blame, because he’s resisted any and all efforts to flatten the curve*), nationwide protests, nationwide violence, a tidal wave of unemployment, a tidal wave of evictions and foreclosures (for which his pals in the Senate are to blame, for refusing to provide any aid in this crisis), and a pandoras box of fresh scandals, being exposed by the press, by whistelblowers, in a slew of new books, and... just by holding rallies at airports with no socal distancing or masks (all for which, he is, again, directly to blame).

Can all... or even any of that go away... or even simmer down between now and November 3rd?  I would say no... it’s impossible.

Meanwhile, is there any chance that some turn of events could tank Joe Biden?  Some scandal?  Some terrible miscalculation?  

Again, I would say no.  But let’s take a second to examine why...

Firstly, Trump was impeached because of an attempt to collect dirt on Biden so... that strategy already blew up in his face.  It’s no longer an option.

Secondly, Biden was the walking dead candidate who stood zero chance of surviving the first Super Tuesday... yet he’s now the nominee, so... miracles seem to be his specialty this year.

Now, I’ve said before, that miracle was more likely the work of Obama, pulling strings behind the scenes, but... as a former two-term President (and a highly intelligent man) Obama probably didn’t pull those strings just to help out an old pal.

He likely foresaw, not just the type of candidate required to beat Trump on election night... but more importantly... the one who could win against Trump in the battle to follow election night, in which Trump wages an all out scorched earth campaign to remain in power.

And that... is the subject of this entry.

Our first assumption, above, was that Trump will lose handily... but now, our second assumption must be that everybody... from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and the top brass at the Pentagon, on down to the poorest, most homeless voter on the street... knows this will not be over after the votes are cast.

We’ll assume, everybody knows... Trump will reject the election results, and refuse to step down.  He will, to put it bluntly, attempt to establish a dictatorship... ending the Consitution, and democracy, in the United States. 

So it would be silly to think that there isn’t a plan to stop that from happening.

The Supreme Court, for example, already signaled very loudly and clearly last month, that Trump will have no ally in their house, should he attempt to challenge the election process in endless litigation... same goes for the lower Federal and State courts... they’ve all been ruling against him, and his agenda, this whole year...  even DESPITE... the Republican lead Senate approving every judge he’s nominated over his term.

Nobody likes a despot... not even a conservative Judge.  They take their oaths seriously... even if the Mitch McConnells who ram their appointments through, do not.

Which brings us to the military... also known for taking the same oath, to defend the Constitution against all threats, foreign and domestic... deadly seriously.  

Last weeks blockbuster article in the Atlantic, in which Trump was exposed (it’s been confirmed by four other sources by now) as believing all members of the military are, “suckers,” for joining up, cuz what do they get out of the deal?  And, “losers,” for dying on battlefields... has utterly destroyed any chance he may have had at getting them to cave in the face of unconstitutional orders... such as he would have to issue to establish any successful coup to stay in power.

This is critical, because if you don’t have the military... you don’t have a coup.

And Trump does not have them, at this point.

Military culture drills it into their heads that they do not have to follow unconstitutional orders from anybody, even the Commander in Chief, which means that if there is already a, “Commander Elect,” with a transition team in the wings, who DOESN’T think they are suckers and losers...

...in fact a Commander Elect who they know well, because he already served under the previous Commander in Chief as his second in command for eight years...

They’re gonna have all the footing they need to refuse any coup related orders outright.  And I believe they’ll be eager to do so, under the present circumstances.

As I’ve noted in an earlier entry, it was the miltary who forced Trump to wear a mask in public while visiting a military hospital... because they were already pissed off about how he duped them at Jefferson Square, earlier this year.

Trump himself, seems to be aware that he’s lost the top brass, both retired and active... which is why he made a public remark last week that the old generals don’t like him, but the troops still love him.

All I’ve seen is evidence to the contrary on that point, but that was Trump’s desperate dog whistle to any sympathizers he may have in the lower ranks of the military, to please... please steal some tanks and bazookas to join the fight?

Recall I wrote about, “Beta Force,” a while back... consisting of rogue law enforcement officers, Homeland Security troopers, and regular citizens with weapons and other resources... well, he’s hoping he can woo some legit military troops to join Beta Force, should there be a showdown.

That scenario, right there, would be the much prophesied Civil War 2, but as I’ve said for years, such a Civil War 2 will be short lived... a couple weeks at most.

Recall the thugs he sent into Portland to terrify and abduct protesors... using locally rented vehicles, and presumably staying at local moetels.  Trump is nowhere near ready for a showdown with the full might of the US Military, on our own soil, no less.

You can bet your ass the legit military are gaming this scenario right now, and that if pressed, they will shut that shit down and have Trump in a cell with a bag over his head faster than you can say, “what the fuck?”

The rest of the two weeks will just be putting down random assholes with assault rifles here and there across the country... but they’ll all be hauled in, don’t you worry.  And they’ll all stand trial for treason in broad daylight.

In this scenario, yes, innocent people are going to die... as they have been dying on the streets at the hands of rogue cops, school shooters, caronavirus, and other systemic abuses, or neglects, for a long time now.  

There is no scenario here, where everybody just says, “Whew!” and we’re all good.  But that’s been the case for quite some years.  We’re all pretty used to life threatening danger on a daily basis, and the courage required to face it by now.

Which is what leads me to the next big fear, being promulgated this past week...

...The so-called, Red Mirage.

Red Mirage is a prediction about election night 2020, in which nearly all the states on the election map turn red, because only the in-person votes have been counted, while the mail-in ballots are days or weeks away from being counted.

Trump seems to believe in the Red Mirage prediction, given his statements in recent weeks about an election that could take, weeks, months, or even years to sort out**.  Couple that with his repeated assertions that mail-in voting is inherently fraudulent (seconded by his Attorney General, Bill Barr) and his recent attempts to knee-cap the post office... and you have a President who likely is betting everything on Red Mirage.

The plan would be just to run with election night results, declaring himself the victor by the biggest landslide in history... then beat that drum loudly while quashing any attempt to ever count the absentee votes... demonizing them as fraudulent, and demonizing anybody who doubted his victory as dissidents who must be imprisoned or something.

I’ll admit... it’s a terrifying scenario!

...on paper.

But the Red Mirage prediction is founded on the sophomoric conceit that all Trump supporters will vote in person... because they do not fear the pandemic... and all Biden supporters will vote by mail... because they don’t want to risk getting Covid19 by venturing out in public.

This, to me, is laughable... because it really does assume that 100% of the electorate are total idiots.

The Trump voters are all idiots who will vote like there’s no pandemic to worry about... and the Biden voters are also idiots who will, out of an abundance of caution, and a blind trust in the postal system, all vote by mail.

No Trump voters are gonna stay home... because they think it’s in the bag?  No Biden voters are gonna just wear a mask and vote in person, knowing democracy itself is on the line... knowing of Trump’s attempts to knee-cap the post office... knowing it’s better to risk an infection when the stakes are this high, than to stay healthy but live under a dictatorship the rest of their lives?

Really?

Based on what I witnessed in November 2018... together with what I’ve seen this past year, with both Millenials and GenZ waking up to the dire importance of voting... together with the cleverness and bravery of protestors across the nation risking life and limb nightly just to express their outrage, while wearing masks to stay safe from infection (successfully)... together with half the GOP turning against Trump.. and everybody in agreement this time around that third party votes will get you cancelled...

I’m expecting a Blue Tsunami on November 3rd.

Trump will shout that it was all rigged, the next morning... but he won’t have any red election map to hold up and wave around.  

And once Biden has secured that title, as President Elect... all Trump can do is try to incite his disaffected trolls to violence... and then turn his thoughts to damage control on the legal front.

Michael Cohen, Trumps former fixer, this week in interviews, predicted that Trump will resign if he loses, so that Mike Pence can issue a, “blanket pardon” in the few months before Biden takes power.

It’s anybody’s guess as to whether such a pardon could really protect Trump from the many New York State criminal charges awaiting him, as soon as he leaves office, but my guess is... no it won’t.

Trump will pay, for all that he’s done, and all he’s put us through.

He’s got nowhere to run.  Nither Russia, nor China, nor South Korea will take him in exile... nor will any other nation on the planet.  Like every two bit crime boss before him... he will end up behind bars.

And that will not only beef up the radioactive potency of House impeachment for another two hundred years... but make Trumps single term in office the cautionary tale for generations to come... of the idiot President... who dared to fuck the Consitution... and had his ass handed to him in prison.

I’m sure there are some moving parts I’ve missed in this analysis tonight... and I’m sure you think my conclusions here are overly rosey... but I have looked at this from many angles... and I do keep coming back to Trump dying in prison without a second term.

Make of it what you will.

For tonight, however... it’s time for bed.

*[THU NOV 10] Bob Woodward (of Watergate fame) released tapes of Trump the night I wrote this which did not fully hit the media until a day later.  Tapes in which Trump is talking to Woodward over the phone, and which make very plain that Trump Knew the virus was airborne, that it was worse than the flu, and that it would be very difficult to contain... before the rest of us knew it... and before he went out and started playing it down in public, saying it would go away like a miracle in April, and refusing to wear a mask, or social distance, etc. 

It’s been an incredibly damning development, because it’s Trump’s own voice, and it prooves he didn’t just botch the pandemic out of stupidity... but deliberately mislead the public about it, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

He also obstructed states from getting PPE and ventilators, attacked governors for doing lock downs, gagged the CDC, and covered up hospitals’ reporting of Covid related numbers to the public.

And all of this he did, apparently, for the sake of the economy... thinking that was the way to win in November.

This is a crime against humanity!

**The 2000 Election results hinged on the electoral votes of one single state, Florida, which was too close to call on election night.  Nobody knew who’d won for several weeks as Florida went into automatic hand recounts of the ballots, many of which were ambiguous because of, “hanging chads,” or, not fully punched out holes.

However, on th strength of Fox News calling Bush the winner, his legal team sued to stop the Florida recounts, in the Supreme Court, and successfully took power, even though it was found... years later, that Al Gore had actually won Florida, and thus, should have been President.

Red Mirage anticipates this same scenario to play out again on a national scale, in all states, not because of hanging chads... but absentee ballots... and assumes that the Supreme Court might call the end to vote counting once again, because Fox News called it for Trump on election night.

This is not the way history works.

This is not the way anything works.

This is not what will go down in November.

[strangesmallbard]

parks and rec sq au!!

1. 

emma has based an alarming number of Big Life Decisions on impulse and another thing called well, what the hell? but this is pushing it. especially coming from her roommate, who double ordered their welcome mat five years ago. just in case. for what, mary margaret? in case, emma. so i can’t regift it? no.

“emma. come one! just yesterday you were complaining about your bounty hunter career’s lack of stability.” 

“bailsbondsperson.” emma takes a long swig of yesterday’s orange juice, which is warm. “and it was a figure of speech! sort of. i get work. just last week i collared a guy. the one who wore that top hat.”

she gives emma her most placating, earnest smile. the one that makes neighbors and birds alike swarm them in central park. “but do you enjoy it?”

“hey, i got to keep the top hat! pawn shop took it for thirty bucks. i bought an extra-large pepperoni. you had four slices. traitor.”

mary margaret hands her a brochure filled with smiling families, promises of the best burgers on the east coast, and scenic views. “this town has something for both of us and i don’t want to move to a new state without my best friend at my side. and besides, its perfect! city hall is looking for…”

2.

and that’s how emma moves to storybrooke, maine, and becomes the official city hall day-time security guard.

“fuck,” emma says at the large metal door. it’s the only part of the whole building made this decade, and so it’s the only part with a key code. which keeps angrily beeping at her. 

she balances her coffee in the crook of her arm, and rustles around her phone notes for the lock combination. 1983. which she tried four times. she tries it a fifth and it not only beeps at her, it also says CALL SECURITY.

“that’s me, you shit burger piece of–”

“it’s six fifty-eight. it doesn’t work before seven am.”

she whips around so fast her coffee sloshes out of the lid. it’s the lady from the parks department. the one with the nice pantsuit who yelled at jones at emma’s first staff meeting yesterday. today she’s wearing another nice pantsuit. and she’s also holding coffee. and her eyes are kind of startling in the morning. in a good way. and she’s tapping her foot with her arms crossed. wait.  “that’s ridiculous. how does the night time guard get in?”

parks department–mills! rolls her eyes. “he has a different code. i don’t know where you come from, ms. swan, but we take safety very seriously here.”

“okay, that’s–this is a town with less than five thousand people. i saw a moose this morning. the entire fourth floor of this building is abandoned, and probably haunted. why the fanfare? did nicholas cage hide another national fucking treasure in the basement next to the records of the best berry jam winners in the last century?”

regina narrows her eyes and lets out the longest, most murderous breath. “it’s seven now. will you please–oh, never mind. the imbeciles nolan hires.” mills nudges past her and puts the code in so fast that emma only processes it once mills fixes her with one last glare. “have a wonderful day, ms. swan.”

she closes the door. it locks behind her. nice.

3.

here’s how it goes:

there’s a great big pit of dirt in the center of town and no one will explain the intricately engraved sign spelling out storybrooke commons. even ruby from granny’s, who practically runs the town’s social media. because she hacked every single social media account.

the mayor is evil. kind of like miranda priestly, but like, actually evil. 

emma buys regina a let’s start over coffee with three sugars (she asked ruby) and bearclaw (can’t go wrong with a bearclaw!) and her eyes kind of shined and she said thank you, genuinely. she also said i hate bearclaws. 

town hall meetings can and will run for three hours straight through lunch and no one will judge you too hard for whipping out a gogurt at hour two.

(except regina. and everyone. then regina will start bringing you “real yogurt” which is yoplait, but whatever, and then you’ll bring her a box of gogurts in retaliation, and that’s a whole thing.)

hot chocolate with cinnamon from granny’s who has okay burgers. (don’t tell granny.) 

regina’s son is filming a documentary for an art project, so there’s a lot of footage of emma tripping at that one tricky spot on the third floor.

smalltown squirrels will outsmart you, and it’s. fine to let that go.

4.

(”i mean, i don’t mind the squirrels. per-say. they’re fine. they’re doing fine. they’re doing what they’re meant to be doing. but do they have to climb into the air vents? do they have to drop acorns into the gutter pipes? do they–”

“emma, i was asking you about town infrastructure. what do you know about budgeting?”

“still just the security guard, kid. i know less than the squirrels.”

“but you could–”

“i am not letting you break into your grandmother’s office.”

“worth another try!”)

5.

three days before halloween, regina pages (actually pages) her to the park’s department, which is covered inspirational poster to inspirational poster with toilet paper. and silly string that spells PAN.

“pan,” regina says, hands on her hips and teeth gritted. “every goddamn year!”

“uh,” emma says, and puts her hands on her hips too. “so, who’s pan?”

“in class yesterday he said that ophelia got what she deserved at the end of hamlet,” ava, one of the interns, says, shaking her head. grace, another intern, pats her clenched fist on the table.

“alright, yowch, i hope your teacher took off points,” emma says in her direction, “but is anyone gonna answer my question?”

regina gives a frustrated noise and puts a hand on her forehead. she narrows her eyes in emma’s direction. “i will destroy him if it’s the last thing i’ll do.”

ava nods emphatically. grace gives a very concerned frown.

“he’s the grandson of rupert gold, the town mega capitalist,” zelena says, eyes rolling on the vowel. she leans back in her chair. “so he can antagonize everyone with absolutely zero legal consequence. and he’s my dear little sister’s arch nemesis.”

“he is not.”

emma can’t suppress a grin. “a fourteen year old is your arch nemesis?”

regina throws her arms up, abruptly goes to her office, and slams the door shut.

more silly string falls from the ceiling.

6.

“leroy, for the last time, we will try to find your pickaxe.”

“that’s what you said last year, mills! i’m not buying a new pickaxe when there’s a perfectly good one still out there! waiting!”

regina pinches the bridge of her nose. “this meeting is adjourned. please place all suggestions and further questions in the box currently being held by…” regina looks at emma with an odd sort of stare. “officer swan, apparently. enjoy the rest of your days, and don’t forget to donate to the fund for the storybrooke commons.”

there’s a single, solitary clap. from marian, in the first row. regina manages a smile in her direction. she gives regina a thumbs up and mouths something that could be have a shift, call you later. once the citizens start begrudgingly filing out, regina turns back to emma. “where’s ava?”

emma shrugs. “she said she had an emergency.”

regina sighs. “she’s reading on the fourth floor again.”

“damn. that’s a good idea.”

regina glares. 

“i mean, you know, it’s haunted, so there are better places. hey, do you want to get lunch?”

regina tilts her head. “lunch?” 

emma shrugs and it’s weird still holding the box. regina stands up and stretches, grabs her folders and straightens them out on the government-issued plastic table. “you know. lunch. that thing with the food and the talking. or not talking if that’s more your thing.”

regina rolls her eyes, but she’s smiling. “talking’s fine if it’s not about squirrels.”

“they’re a menace, regina. a danger.”

regina steps towards her and grabs the box. she’s suddenly standing close. “i know a place along the highway. don’t tell granny.”

7.

(“storybrooke commons is how marian and i met. her now very ex-boyfriend fell into the pit and i told her we’d build a park.”

“how long ago was that?”

“ten years.”

“oh damn.”

“yes. damn is right. according to my mother, it’s just never in the budgets.”

“you know, henry was asking about that.”

“henry?”

“hey! emma! i told you that was top secret!”

“henry, what did i say about video-taping without permission?”

“it’s a documentary, mom! i need candids!”)

8.

marian is regina’s best friend. and she’s a nurse. and she’s terrifying. and she’s the nicest person emma’s ever met.

and now she’s in emma’s living room. talking to her roommate. emma blinks away the dream, but it’s definitely not a dream.

“morning, emma!” mary margaret says, clasping her hands together. “marian here, your friend–i am so glad you’re making friends!–says you two are going to campaign today? for regina?” 

emma stretches her arm behind her back. “what now?”

marian, still in her scrubs and holding one of mary margaret’s prized humming bird themed tea cups, raises a brow at her. “do you want hook to win a seat on the city council?”

emma wakes the fuck up. “hell no.”

they go around house to house and it’s grueling because it’s humid as hell and the people of storybrooke fucking suck. emma leans against the bug and wills all the sweat on her back to evaporate. “do they really hate regina that much because of cora? didn’t they elect her mayor?”

marian heaves a box of campaign materials into the car and steps back, arms crossed. “not exactly. back in the day there was a neighboring town called applewood. it was full of vacationing republican senators and their shitty kids. cora was the reigning mayor. long story short it went broke, and it was regina’s idea to do a merger. which saved both towns, but you know. because of the Rich and Famous, cora won the election again. so everyone actually hates her for that. stupid.”

emma blinks. “this small-town dish keeps getting deeper.”

“what?”

“do you think i’d get arrested for tee-peeing cora’s office?”

marian barks out a laugh. “only if you promise not to arrest me either, officer swan.”

9.

(”do you like my mom?”

“what? i mean, yeah of course. but, what does that–”

“do you think she’s a good public city official, i mean. do you think she’s a good candidate for the city council?”

“kid, you’re the one who read the entire storybrooke-applewood constitution.”

“she’s my mom. i’m biased.”

“i mean, so am i.”

“what?”

“what?”

“i mean, you know. we hang out. i think she’s cool in like, a person way.”

“i know. you were at my house yesterday. you ate all my lucky charms.”

“oh sh–shoot. shoot.”)

10.

ten days after regina wins the election–by a margin because storybrooke is full of assholes–she invites emma to storybrooke commons.

“the pit?”

“just come, swan,” regina says, oddly soft. “henry’s at a friend’s house tonight.”

emma drives up to the pit. the dirt is all orange because of the waning sun and bright pink spilling over the tops of houses. regina stands in the middle next to one of those fold-out camp couches with the cup holders. she started an actual campfire too, and hands emma a marshmallow stick when she makes it over.

emma un-buries her hands from her pockets. “metal. fancy.”

“no one’s eating bark on my watch.”

emma watches the fire catch her. she’s wearing a track suit and a visor and her hair is in a ponytail. “what’s up? bureaucracy got you down?”

regina takes a breath. “what if i ran for mayor this year?”

emma spits out her proverbial drink, which really means she accidentally shakes one of her marshmallows into the fire. “you…”

regina hands her a hershey bar and two graham crackers. “gold approached me today. he said he’d run my campaign.”

emma manages to salvage one measly marshmallow. “okay, but isn’t gold the shadiest man alive?”

“dead too,” regina deadpans. “and i’d sooner let zelena run my campaign, but i have been thinking about it for a very long time.” meticulously, she slides her marshmallows between her graham crackers and hershey’s bar. she sits down and looks up at the sky. “running against my mother would be…”

“yeah, but you could do it.” emma shrugs, and sits down next to her. she balances her mess of a smores on her cupholder.  “you’ve proven over and over again how dedicated you are to this town.”

regina rubs the back of her neck and looks over at her, really looks. her eyes so startling in the sunset, and still in a good way. the best way. now emma notices the crinkles by her eyes too. “you have too, you know.”

emma snorts. “one squirrel at a time?”

regina doesn’t laugh. she keeps looking. she visibly swallows. emma leans in closer and regina tilts her head and says, “are you…going to eat your smores?”

emma’s head is swirling. she’s about to do another Big Thing on impulse. “can i kiss you?”

regina nods and suddenly her fingertips are on her cheeks, soft as anything, and her lips are warm in the cooling night, and emma runs her hand through regina’s hair, holds the back of her neck, and maybe this town isn’t going to be one of hundreds, maybe this isn’t another in-between-home, and the park is only a pit but not forever, some day there’s going to be greenery and fountains you can wish on and shit, and fuck the squirrels but she’s staying, maybe. maybe. yes.

11.

(”so, sheriff swan, how does it feel to be married to the mayor?”

“kid, you were our ring-bearer.”

“yeah, but i’m biased.”

“when does this video project end again?”

“that’s classified, ma.”)

#swan queen #////// #/////// #/////////// #///// #fics #this was strangely difficult to do In Writing #please imagine as many close-up shots as you'd like #also i don't know what a headcanon is

[trebaolsmovingcastle]

theatomscombined

What are some examples of things that could happen in order for Trump to actually get what he deserves? Because so far he seems to be impervious to consequences. And could it happen in such a way that his dumb ass followers would actually see him for what he really is?

So, here’s a topic I’ve been thinking about. I’m a pretty alright judge of behavior and what makes a person go from point A-B. So I too have been wondering when the Trump circus would crash and burn...because it’s kinda doing some serious harm to the nation.

Sadly you won't like my assessment, but take heart, because predictions are almost always wrong, meaning any of the things I don’t mention could also happen.

So. The problem is currently you need a crime, like a big crime, like obstruction of justice or treason. But it’s not enough to have a crime, you need political willpower. Let’s say you get a case going that is substantial enough that you need that last step of conviction. You have a video of Trump holding a gun to Comey’s balls saying ‘LOYALTY OR YOUR NUTS GET IT!’ but now you need congress and the senate to basically hold the trial. The legislative trial is what finalizes the process, it says that the government has seen the evidence presented and has tried against the President finding them wanting.

So, you don’t need a simply majority of the Senate to agree to this, you need like a super majority, so like 60+ people agreeing that the President is unfit for office.

The GOP would rather cut off its own hands than ever agree to try and convict their leader, whether they like him or not.

Plus there is a war in the Republican party, between your old school GOP members who, mummy like, moulder quietly in their seats for 30 or 40 years, doing little nudges here and there to fleece the poor, longing for the good ol’ days when there was more ‘civility’ between the members. Then there’s the Tea Party fuckers from the Freedom Caucus. They were a bunch of wild eyed goofballs empowered by the coocoocachoo rhetoric the Clinton years bred in the party. I remember when they were regarded as the whackadoodle conclusion of the GOP, a bunch of dudes who didn’t care about government, wanted it all dismantled and didn’t just want to fleece the poor but wanted a return to gilded age laissez faire. These two sides don’t get along clearly.

But now we have MAGA Trump voters, a pernicious base who are even more looney, because they have the stubborness of the Freedom Caucus, but they also want really really nasty laws that infringe on individual freedoms of target groups, which the Freedom Caucus hates because...no government, thus no interference, and the old school republicans don’t like because they’re from seats in areas where they soak up some moderate votes.

Anyway, you’ve noticed by now that nothing has gotten done, because none of these groups policy wise actually match up, and each of them is basically tied to a base who will eat them alive if they give any ground...even to portions of their own party.

So, Trump is poised at the head of a dysfunctional party that can only agree to one thing, keeping him no matter what, because the alternative is going to their base and saying ‘we sold out your candidate who voiced all those nasty things you always wanted a politician to say.’ Even richer is that after Trump is gone we’ll get Trump style candidates trying to fill his shoes, we’ll have a wing of the republican party basically for ultra nationalists practicing a kind of American fascism.

So, do not expect an impeachment trial, it won't happen on even the best of days, even if the Democrats win a ton of seats it won't happen. Do not even expect a resignation under threat of impeachment, I seriously doubt the GOP has the guts to threaten Trump with anything so long as the loud and rabid MAGA crowd are out there talking about gutting the country if they don’t get their rapist president and their wall to fight terrorists with.

Hooooowever. Trump hates his job. Hates it, it’s not a good place for him. This goes even past his scared looked after he won, this is a deep seated conflict in his character. He liked being a shitty real estate mogul and reality TV personality. There were fringe benefits. Nobody looks so closely at you when you’re getting golden showers in St. Petersburg when all you’re doing is trying to get a hotel built. When some snot nosed journalist writes an article calling you a dirtbag, you throw a few million dollars into a libel suit and try to ruin them. You pick who you hear from, when, you get to be king, and you get all those perks.

As President you’re constantly being criticized, threatened, cajoled, your own advisors are always seeming to try to pull one over on you. You get your hand slapped away by your wife and it goes viral. She does that all the time anyway, but you never had to have the country laugh at you over it. In private he’s apparently said he doesn’t like this job, he doesn’t like the hours, the living quarters, the experience, the responsibility. He wants to go home, but he is acutely aware that only one other President has resigned, and as his personal brand is built on ‘winning’ declaring yourself a loser and quitting is like a kind of death.

But he’s not made of deep convictions, he just needs to work out in his head a way out that preserves his imagined dignity, and does not make him a loser. Some way out, that puts him back in the tower, where his base will cheer and buy steaks and stay at hotels he has and kiss his ass, and where the rest of us will finally leave him to go back to being off our radar. He literally can’t last, it’s too miserable, and he’s a man who’s lived for his own pleasure for decades, he’s not the kind of guy who will shoulder burdens for the sake of his image of tapping out will get him laid and no one will try and sue him and win over it.

There of course are other possibilities. He dies. I seriously doubt anyone could ever harm a hair on his head, the secret service are legit and outside of a few apparently well armed Bernie Bros the left is more about punching actual nazis then going off the rails and obliterating their entire political spectrums credibility. However he is old as balls, and when last I checked, he got his clean bill of health from his personal physician who basically gives him medication for high blood pressure, cholesterol, and stuff for hair loss. To my knowledge he hasn’t been seen by any white house doctors, and if they were particularly invasive or concerned they’d be on top of his health, and he’d consider that an invasion of his space and he’d probably have complained about them harassing him by now. Meaning we have an old dude on medication for cholesterol and high BP, who eats like shit, and used to never have to climb stairs ever, being constantly harassed at all hours, and fuming in ways he never had to fume before. You saw how the Presidency ages normal people, even not brilliant normal people. Now you have Trump being heckled day in and out and fuming about, he’s gonna give himself a dang ol’ heart attack, and there’s only so much a doctor can do when that happens to you if you’ve been doing fuck all for your body. Frankly that’s how you resign, when your health is so bad it will kill you to stay.

So expect him to kick around until he can find a reasonable time and place for himself to cut and run, or he croaks. What will be interesting is the circus after he leaves, because lets say the expectation or even the reveal is that Mueller calls for an impeachment trial over collusion, or even obstruction, or both. Suddenly your whole government is tied up with you, who even if a trial never happens are potentially put there by someone who ‘colluded’ with a foreign power. You can’t keep them, so expect the government to get shaken up. Hell, Pence may not even slip through this, but on the other side expect this level of dysfunction to continue, because there is no one you can put in that office, who will be able to get these three branches of the GOP to agree on any of the big stuff.

As for whether his base will ever ‘see him for what he is’ well they do, they see him for what he is, an everyman Joe Blow who hates the government phoneys the way they do. They don’t care what he does or how he does it, he went on national TV and said fuck you to all the people the GOP’s most ardent base hates, and he said it maliciously, and with relish, something the GOP has been couching in double talk and dog whistles for years. They don’t care if he futzes with business, he’s a successful businessman, maybe it will rub off on the rest of America, but did you hear what he thinks of women? Man, women have been getting so damned full of themselves since they got the pill, am I right?

But anyway, that’s what I get from it. Trump wants out, can’t blame him either, only a misplaced sense personal pride at being a winner keeps him from just walking out the door and telling Ryan to deal with it.

#long post

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There is a clarifying question you can ask yourself and others to help you identify where they stand in regards to their feelings on women and women in power which is “Do you think women should be in Politics?” My response is “Yes” but in my head, I also think “ONLY smart women (and for that matter people in general) should be in politics and not every woman in politics is smart.” The spectrum of dumb knows no gender or race when it comes to politics, white men certainly have a corner on the market but in the past thirty years of politics, we have seen some strong contenders from the fairer sex. 

Today we will go by the current numbers in regards to women in politics, examples of their best and worst candidates, (brace yourself, my conservative readers, you have some really dumb women among your ranks) and lastly how I would like to see the US political system in regards to sex and race.

By The Numbers

As we approach the 2018 midterm we hopefully going to have a blue wave so we might be able to fight the Trump Administration and its no holds barred approach to trying to fuck minorities, women, the environment and the LGTBQ community in the United States. It’s clear the Republicans have little to no backbone in stopping the President by why would they? He can take all the media attention off them while they work to give tax cuts to the wealthy and undermine social programs that take care of the sick, old, women and kids. I am getting off on the wrong tangent here. The point is in this election we see the most women running for political office in US history and while I hate chants “Down with Patriarchy” I do like the idea of “Rise of the Matriarchy” which is in my mind a more positive message for young women looking to join politics. 

So here are the numbers as they stand in 2018 before the election and how representative our political landscape is for females in politics.

Governors - Only 6 Female Governers (2 Democrat and 4 Republican) which means they make up 12% of the Governers in the US. Mayors - Only 297 Female Mayors out of 1,365 municipal districts (with a population over 30,000 people) which mean they make up 21.8%. US Senators - Only 23 women out of the 100 seats available in the Senate.  US Congresswomen - Only 84 women of the 435 chairs in the House of Representatives. Which equals 19.3% of all seats. Supreme Court - Only 3 of the 9 Justices are female. This is reflective of the lower courts which is also 33%. US Presidents - Of course, 0 women have been elected the office of President (at least according to the Electoral College and not the popular vote).

Just by crunching the numbers it's easy to see men still have a firm grasp on all the brass rings of power within the United States political landscape. Hopefully, in our lifetime, we will see those number grow and balance out the scales to something more equal (or slightly more than equal with women making up 51% of the population).

Champions and Fools

So we visited the current numbers and with hope, the coming election will shift that spectrum into something more balanced but I wouldn't hold my breath on the changes being dramatic, we will likely see incremental shifts in former male held positions turning female and that is good enough for the moment.

While we are on this subject I want to make the case for women in politics who do a good job and should be noted if only to identify the desired qualities for a candidate in political office. I will also point out female candidates who while bolstering the ‘numbers’ of women in office, are particularly bad at their jobs (once again plenty of stupid men in office as well).

The Champions

Barbara Lee (D A champion of minorities being both part of the Asian Pacific Caucus and  Congressional Black Caucus. She also is a supporter of the LGBTQ community being from the Bay Area (Woot woot). She represents her constituents well and is making headway to become a democratic leader herself. Above all else, I love to see more women with her attitude rise in the ranks of politics. 

Elizabeth Warren (D Among the women listed above, she remains one of the most vocal sniping at conservative policies and being one of the sharpest roasters when dealing with administration nominations for the Trump White House. Don’t be too surprised if you see her name on a political ticket in 2020 because she is one of the few people who isn't afraid to talk truth to power in regards to President Trump.

Hillary Clinton (D Love her or hate her, she was easily the most qualified person to ever run for the Presidency ever about the only other thing she could have done was serve in the armed forces in some way before running. She believed that the American people would not be baited by populism so easily and Democrats failed their party but setting her up to be the next nominee back in 2012. This gave Conservatives 4 years to fashion a Benghazi noose for her inevitable 2016 run. What is a shame is she could have continued to improve on the foundation of Obama’s 8-year term and had the diplomatic know how to strength diplomacy with our allies. I would give up a literal arm to put her in office over Trump... really I would.

Susan Collins (R It’s important to understand that not all conservatives are villains. Susan Collins while holding some Republican beliefs has always stood up against her party when they try to revoke woman's rights or try to remove healthcare from her constituents. This means she breaks rank in her party and becomes that flip vote but that's what I like about her, she votes on her principals and not what the conservatives try and tell her to do.

It should be noted these are far from the only worthwhile women in politics. There are various women who do their job on a local level and take it very seriously with very little acknowledgment for their works.

UPDATE: Sadly Collins has voted to put Brett Kavanaugh into the US Supreme Court. With his history of being against the environment, net neutrality, disability rights, women's health issues (IE Abortion Rights) and being alleged (credible) sexual predator she has proven the above statement to untrue.

The Fools

Betsy DeVos (R It’s a strange scenario to have a woman run the education department while not believing in public education. She doesn't seem to care about minority students, schools that are dealing with poverty, or special education programs. What makes it worse is she has a personal interest in shifting education from public schools to private schools. She would profit from this directly and that kind sickens me that she could lack so much decency as a human being.

Michelle Bachmann (R Where DeVos represented the corporate interest in politics basically twisting institutes to line their pocket with gold or the various least their friends. Palin represents the say anything, know nothing sort of politician of the modern era. Michelle represents the zealots of the religious right. She like so many other conservative politicians believe that God had chosen them for a divine purpose and that any crazy thought that comes thru their head is god inspired. She represents a real danger to the country (along with men and women like her) who want to see this country as a Christian nation expelling all atheists and any other non-christian faiths.

Sarah Palin (R What was scary about Sarah Palin was she was quite possibly going to be second in line from the President had McCain won the election in 2008. At the same time she is probably the Ice Burg that sunk the McCain Presidency in the first place with all the crazy things she said. She has remained a talking head for the far right politics that exist in the US and even throws her support behind the current President. Like Trump, she represented the all talk no substance (or intelligence) sort of politician that now seems to dominate the right end of the spectrum presently. 

Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R While she is only a press secretary she represents the good little soldier in politics who will do as she told and lie when she is told to lie. Michelle Wolfe made a crack at her make-up choice. The punchline wasn't her looks but the fact she breathed lies almost as quick as the Command in Chief. She would be the kind of women to do something terrible and after it was all said in done she would say “I was just following orders” to justify her actions.

It should be noted that while there are dumb women in politics and there are even MORE dumb men. While I encourage us to push our thumb to the scale and balance it more towards women, I would personally vote for another male then risk a bad female politician from stepping into office. I say this only because I have encountered (as rare as they are) a few women who feel that female politicians should always be voted for regardless of policy or views. That is insane to me but I know they are outliers, so I can at least rest assured that most women don't carry that viewpoint.

The Future of US Politics

Countries with more women in politics tend to do better with social programs, education, trade, and diplomacy. Generally, women have more empathy and patience towards these fields but conservative politics has shown us quite clear that those traits are not a constant among ALL women. Naturally, I think we would be better off with more progressive politicians, those who stand up for women's rights and can fight back from the male-dominated political field that constantly tries to undermine women's health care/benefits.  I am clearly advocating for more women in politics but with that caveat of ONLY the smartest women filling the ranks. Those who care about democracy and don’t fall into entrenched views the way that some male politicians have sacrificing honor and loyalty to the country in exchange for party support and allowing Presidents like Trump to be held unaccountable.

I also feel that the political system would be strengthened with a more diverse set of views beyond that of sex. I hope we see more transgender, gay, and lesbian politicians to have a broader view of the ever-changing spectrum of gender orientation and preference. I hope to see more Latinos, African, Asian and Middle Eastern politicians among the seats in the house. I am a white male myself and one day might try my hand at politics but I have no problem in saying there should be less white men involved even if that hurts my own chances in the future.

I admit its a  strange thing to say because I don't think we should vote on skin color or sex (like I said Smart and hopefull Progressive Candidates) but if I was to go toe to toe with a woman who is a different race than me but politically aligned on all the same views as me. I am perfectly ok with losing that hypothetical election because she brings a set of experiences lacking in politics and she might better serve those who might be underrepresented in the US. As always thanks for reading and leave any thoughts you might have in the notes.

Regards Michael California

#Women in Politics #Politics #Equality

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By Andrew Levine. This article was first published on Counterpunch.

Long before Hillary Clinton was parachuted into New York State to become its Senator, I was certain that she was a disaster waiting to happen.  Nothing that has happened in the years since has disabused me of that belief.  Now that the Democratic Party has taken up her reckless anti-Russia campaign with a degree of enthusiasm that only sore losers in denial can muster, I am more convinced than ever that I was right.

For a variety of reasons that I have discussed many times on this site and elsewhere and that I will not go back over now, I opposed lesser evil voting in the 2016 presidential contest.  I am as confident now as I ever was that this was the right thing to do.  In elections for President, it almost always is.

Nevertheless, I had no doubt that of the two god-awful choices voters faced, Trump was worse.  I never gave this much thought, however, because it seemed inconceivable that any Democrat, even one with a proven record of failing at everything she does, could lose to such a buffoon.

The conventional wisdom has it that Hillary is a “pragmatist,” who has been around the block a dozen times and who knows how to get things done.  I, along with many others who had been paying attention, knew better.  I knew that as a First Lady she was no prize, that she had done a lackluster job as a Senator, and that, as Barack Obama’s first term Secretary of State, she brought chaos, destruction, misery and death to every geopolitically significant project the two of them undertook.

There was Libya, of course, but that was only the most blatantly tin-eared and wrong-headed example of Clinton’s interventions into Middle Eastern politics as the Arab Spring unfolded.   She left her mark on large swathes of Africa and Asia, creating humanitarian catastrophes in her wake and helping to bring on the refugee crisis now spilling over into Europe.  Latin America and East Asia suffered from her cluelessness and ineptitude too.  In short, she caused or exacerbated problems all over the whole world.

Still, I never thought that she would lose to Trump.   She is a certifiable world-class fuck up, but there are limits.

Obviously, I was wrong.  I was wrong about Trump too.  He has turned out to be even worse than I thought.

Hillary was only partly wrong years ago when she spoke of herself and her husband as victims of “a great rightwing conspiracy.”  There was no conspiracy, but the rightwing was certainly on their case.  Trump coopted their fervor and, insofar as they had any, their ideas; he gave the “deplorables” an outlet and a home.

Not all Trump supporters were deplorable; some were good people expressing contempt for the neoliberal political order that the Clintons had done so much to fashion.  They were, however, in the thrall of false beliefs about Trump.  They deserve blame for deceiving themselves or allowing themselves to be deceived.

Some Hillary supporters were – and still are — similarly blameworthy.  In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they too stood by unjustified false beliefs about the merits of their candidate.

However, on Trump, their instincts were sound.  They mostly still are, though now that Trump seems to be dropping his “populist” pretenses and falling into line behind the foreign policy establishment, there have been signs of defection within their ranks.

It is amazing what a willingness to inflict senseless violence on Syrians and Afghanis, and to risk an exchange of nuclear weapons with North Korea, can do.  There is actually a movement afoot in Clintonian political and media circles to depict the Donald as a man fighting his way up a steep learning curve and becoming “presidential.”

Evidently, our defenders of the status quo cannot oppose power for long, no matter how great the provocation or how preposterous the inhabitant of the Oval Office.  Servility has become a habit for them, and it is too ingrained not to prevail.

I have no idea whether the pundits pushing the line that Trump’s is becoming a normal presidency believe it themselves, but I have enough faith in the good sense of the general public to be confident that, outside the corporate media bubble, they won’t find a lot of support for that view.

I would venture that I am far from alone in thinking that Trump is a lot worse than anybody thought last November or even before his first hundred days, and that, from this point on, he will only get worse, and it will only get wore for him.

I cannot speak for others, but I can say that one reason why I underestimated Trump’s vileness was that I focused too much on what he would say while campaigning, and not enough on his character and life.

Another reason, related to the first, was that, in several respects, Hillary seemed even worse.  She seemed more wedded than he to neoliberal economic nostrums, and more eager to fuel America’s perpetual war regime.

The main reason, though, was that I did not know enough about Trump to take the full measure of the man.

I was aware, of course, that he had been, and maybe still was, a fixture in the tabloids, and could therefore surmise that there was a lot of dirt out there about him.  I also knew that he had a lot of public exposure on reality TV.   I knew next to nothing about the shows he starred in, but it was a safe bet that they were anything but thoughtful or edifying.

I had some awareness too of his shady business dealings in Manhattan, Atlantic City, and elsewhere, and I knew that the name “Trump” carried a certain cachet for people around the world who are fond of glitz and who have more money than taste.

I was also aware that shallow and unaccomplished people could be famous nowadays just for being famous.  I admit, however, that I don’t understand how this works, and that Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian are just names to me.

Until he started trumpeting “birther” nonsense, so was Donald Trump.  The difference was that I couldn’t pick the first two out of a lineup if my life depended on it, while Trump’s look is unmistakable and unforgettable; gaze upon a picture of that face just one time and it stays imprinted forever in that part of the mind where monsters dwell.

Even after it became apparent that Trump would be more than just a sideshow in the 2016 election, I had only a vague understanding of how much his fortune depended on his father’s money and connections, and on the mentoring of such miscreants as Roy Cohn.  Over the years, I must have glanced at news reports about Trump’s connections to nefarious financiers around the world; the stories were out there, but I never paid them any mind.  Why would I?  There are too more inherently interesting things to think about.

The Donald has too little depth to be interesting in his own right, and, even as the primaries and caucuses got underway, the idea that he would be the nominee still seemed too preposterous to take seriously, notwithstanding the undeniable fact that he was trouncing each and every stooge the Republican establishment could scrape up to run against him.

I would say, though, that, as the campaign wore on, Trump did become more interesting in at least one respect: from time to time, he would say something true about how corrupt American politics is.  He broke other taboos as well, but this one actually served a useful, educational purpose.

Centuries ago, fools and Court Jesters would also say what others would never dare to utter publically.  Trump was too full of himself to play the fool role outright.  But he stood out from the crowd nevertheless.  All of the candidates for the Republican nomination were bad jokes, but Trump’s coarseness and bluster made him special.

He was not the only one to strike a “populist” chord, but he was the only one to outflank Hillary from the left on such issues as trade, infrastructure and “regime change.”  Later, of course, Russia could be added to the list.

Needless to say, most of it was only talk; Trump was not about to turn back the neoliberal tide even if he could, and he was hardly a man of peace.  Still, the contrast with Hillary was refreshing, as was the fact that, along with Bernie Sanders, he was raising pertinent questions and stirring up discontent.

The difference was that the discontent Sanders stirred up was salutary.  Even when Trump would voice similar themes, the impact he had was ominous.

My view, before Election Day, was that it was of paramount importance to combat the racist, nativist, and Islamophobic stirrings oozing out of the Trump camp, but that the danger would fade after Trump’s all but certain defeat, and that the hell he was raising might even be useful, in its own demented way, for encouraging opposition to the next President Clinton and therefore to her neoliberal, liberal imperialist warmongering.

I confess that I also thought that at least part of Trump’s overblown faith in his own abilities had to be at least somewhat justified.   He did start out, as they say, on third base, but he went on from there to enrich himself egregiously, and he did manage to become the Republican nominee.  Surely, a complete dunce could not have done all that.

Moreover, I didn’t, and still don’t, think that Trump is a reactionary at heart.  I thought he was a conman and an opportunist, and that, he was coming on like a troglodyte in order to win against his Republican rivals, and then to keep them fired up as he ran against Clinton.  I never thought that he meant most of it – not that this would matter one way or another because he was bound to lose in any case.

Therefore, after he won – or, rather, after Clinton lost – I found consolation in his insincerity.  If he could go from endorsing positions that pass for normal in New York City to positions reactionary enough to win over the hearts and minds of retrograde Republicans in the Deep South, why wouldn’t he again take up positions that fall more or less in the normal – or at least not profoundly disturbing — range when there would no longer be any percentage in coming on like Ted Cruz?

However, as news of his cabinet and cabinet level appointments started to trickle in, it became clear that this was wishful thinking; even Cruz could not have done worse. The people Trump assembled were a Freedom Caucus member’s wet dream.

The only high level Trump appointees who fall anywhere near the normal range are two retired Generals who, according to reliable reports, are a good deal fonder of murder and mayhem than most of their colleagues, some hyper predatory Wall Street buccaneers, a fossil fuel promoting ex-honcho from Exxon Mobil, and an Ambassador to the United Nations whose highest qualification for that job is an undergraduate degree in accounting.  These are the adults in the room.  How pathetic is that!

It is true that Trump has neither an ideology nor settled convictions that he wants to promote.  But he isn’t just an opportunist who can be counted on to adjust his course when public opinion calls for it.

He flits from one position to another and flip-flops shamelessly not because public opinion is leading him, but because he is a narcissistic bully with the disposition of an adolescent boy afflicted by a mildly out-of-control case of Attention Deficit Disorder.

His mind, such as it is, goes wherever his attention alights; and that, it seems, depends mainly on what Fox News has on at the moment.  This is why efforts to discern consistency or rhyme or reason in his tweets are almost always in vain.

***

Trump decimated the Republican Party.  This is no longer as clear as it used to be now that Republicans are riding high after Clinton blew a sure thing, taking down ticket Democrats down with her.   Nevertheless, Trump did do the GOP in; this will become clear again in due course.

Despite their limitations, it is a good bet that the Party’s leaders understand this well.  For the time being, though, they remain determined to see what they can get by playing along with their standard-bearer.  Their support, however, hangs by a thread.

Trump has no fondness for them either.  But, having no organization of his own to help him govern, if that is the right word for what he is doing, he needs Republicans even more than they need him.  Therefore, he is playing along too.

If the latest polls are on track, Trump’s base has not yet deserted him, though his approval rating in general is abysmal and tracking downward.

But since Trump is now deserting his base – reneging on one campaign promise after another – it is only a matter of time before all but his most willfully blind supporters follow the public’s lead.

The excuse that Trump needs more time to do what he said he would is starting to get old; and his defenders cannot blame the other party, the way that Obama’s supporters would blame Tea Partiers and “moderate” Republicans for making the words “hope” and “change” stick in the craw.  Republican obstinacy was indeed a factor back in the (seemingly long ago) Obama days, but there is no real counterpart to anything like that now on the Democratic side. With the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer calling the shots, there never will be.

Therefore, how much longer can it be until even his most ardent fans realize what a loser he is?

That is the crucial question because their support for him, in the first place, was based in large part on their patently ridiculous belief that he would somehow make “deals” that would set the world aright and “make America first again.”   They hardly counted on him making himself, and America with him, a laughing-stock.

Republican leaders must realize by now that the way to make the best of the situation would be to dump Trump as soon as they can.  How much better off they would be with one of their own, Mike Pence, a bona fide reactionary with deep ties to the libertarian and theocratic wings of the party, in command!

This is one of those rare instances in which what is good for the Republican Party actually is good for the country and the world — if only because with Pence in charge instead of Trump, there would be less danger of a nuclear conflagration being set off in a fit of pique.  The “darker angels” of our nature would also get less encouragement from the commanding heights.

But how to get from here to there?

The best way would be for the anti-Trump resistance movement to grow to a point where it could force Trump out.  This is only a pipedream, however.  To be more than that, there would have to be an organized political force in place capable of taking the lead and showing the way.

Unless it somehow manages in short order to transform itself beyond recognition, the Democratic Party is worse than useless for that.   It is something to resist in its own right

Meanwhile, Democratic Party spokespeople and pundits are working overtime to coopt every bit of resistance there is.  With lucidity in short supply within the resistance movement and generally within our political culture, and in the absence of a clear alternative, they could well succeed.

But even if deeply entrenched practices, institutions and modes of thought make it all but impossible for a “third” party to take the place of the Democrats, insurgents probably could take over the Democratic Party in much the way that the Tea Party took over the GOP.  As of now, this isn’t likely either.  There are so many Clintonites, and there is so little time.

But there are less than ideal ways that could lead to the defeat of the Trumpian menace.

Ideas and convictions don’t motivate the Donald; vainglory and cupidity do.  This is why, as the level of disgust he evokes rises, and the more it affects the buying habits of the kinds of people his enterprises target, the better off we all will be.

By going after his vanity and his and his family’s bottom lines, a far-reaching boycott-all-things-Trumpian campaign just might suffice to get Trump to “self-impeach,” as the hapless Mitt Romney might put it.

A problem with that strategy, though, are all those damn foreigners — not the “bad” (actually good) “hombres” whom the Donald vilifies, the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” or, more realistically, to be free from the horrors brought on by American military and trade policies, but the filthy rich of the less developed world, eager to curry favor with America’s Commander-in-Chief.

There may be no effective way to influence them, but we can shame our fellow citizens who patronize Trump hotels and resorts and who buy the crap he and his children peddle.  This would probably be more effective than piling on yet more marches and demonstrations; it would certainly be easier to organize.  Indeed, there is no need to organize anything at all; everybody can boycott the Trump brand on his or her own.

For removing the menace, there is also the way that the Constitution prescribes – impeachment.   Democrats would have to make this a priority however, and “therein lies the rub.”

The pusillanimity of the average Democratic politician is limitless; to get any significant number of them to move on impeachment, public opinion would have to sharpen to the point where even they could not stay back.

Democratic politicians also tend to be too clever by half; some of them might figure that the presence of a dangerous and despicable ignoramus in the Oval Office helps their electoral prospects.

Republicans generally have better sense.

As more people in Trump’s base come to realize how thoroughly he conned them, the Donald will become even more of a liability to the Republican establishment than he already is.  Perhaps then they will take the lead and do what their less odious counterparts in the other bought and paid for capitalist party would otherwise be too timid to attempt.

Of course, with the Donald, anything could happen.

So far, it seems, scandals – “conflicts of interest” that would do any other politician in — have only strengthened his hand.  There are so many of them, though, just as there are so many grounds for impeachment; indeed, the two are often one and the same.  It is hard to see how Trump can keep evading their consequences much longer.   But where Trump is, absurdity reigns and anything could lie in store.

I have high hopes for Melania.  There is every sign that she concluded long ago that her association with the Donald is too high a price to pay for whatever benefit she once thought she could gain from his riches.

If she were to free herself from her gilded prison, leaving her repellent and misogynistic husband in the lurch, she just might be able to do what nothing else so far has: embarrass the man in a way that would diminish, not strengthen, his standing with his base.

That alone would make her by far the most meritorious presidential consort, official or otherwise, since Eleanor Roosevelt; and, no, I haven’t forgotten Hillary Clinton.

Her only serious competitor would be Monica Lewinsky.  She served her country well, albeit unintentionally, by involving Bill Clinton in a scandal that kept him from going after Social Security.  Were Malania to hobble Trump by humiliating him, her contribution to the public weal would make Monica’s seem almost petty.

On the other hand, I have no hope whatever for Ivanka or her husband Jared, two fruits of poisonous trees (only one of which has so far done time).  The idea that either or both of them could save the world from the Donald is unadulterated wishful thinking.

The two of them do seem to have the Donald’s ear, but this is no more comforting than knowing that the pseudo-intellectual fascisant guru Steve Bannon and his minions do.  Ivanka is better turned out than her father and more poised.  But she is all the more insidious for that.

Meanwhile, Jared, Trump’s de facto Secretary of Everything, may be good for boosting the morale of the Israeli Right as the BDS movement gathers steam, and good for causing thoughtful people to despair of the human race, but not for much else.  His only virtue is that, unlike his father-in-law, he doesn’t talk.

For keeping the Orange Menace at bay, when all else fails, there is still, of course, a functioning federal judiciary.  It is chock full of Republicans and Democrats, however; and therefore not good for much except introducing a moderating influence.  There is not much solace in that.

But, for now, this is the best we’ve got – beyond what we, the unorganized people, can muster in the face of Democratic Party efforts to coopt all the “resistance” they can.

Sanders and his remaining supporters call for a “political revolution.”  What they have in mind is a good deal less radical than that, but their words, if not the ideas behind them, are on target.

It is either that or more degrading electoral spectacles guaranteed to produce pernicious outcomes that will make life worse for the vast majority of human beings, and that could well prove fatal to humankind itself and to many of the other plant and animal inhabitants of our planet.

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ANDREW LEVINE is the author most recently of THE AMERICAN IDEOLOGY (Routledge) and POLITICAL KEY WORDS (Blackwell) as well as of many other books and articles in political philosophy. His most recent book is In Bad Faith: What’s Wrong With the Opium of the People. He was a Professor (philosophy) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Research Professor (philosophy) at the University of Maryland-College Park.  He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press).

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