Finally the Emperor Trump has no clothes ... or does he?
It’s in the wind all around the world, a global sigh of relief. The American election happened, and despite the Republicans’ best voter suppression efforts, Biden/Harris won, Trump lost. And despite lots of guys with beer bellies and automatic weapons strutting around polling stations, no one got killed.
What’s next? There are ugly moves below, but let’s start with the good:
THE GOOD: When a new President and Veep take office they reveal their choices for cabinet positions, which is good because almost anyone would be better than the “Secretaries” Trump appointed, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. When he was director of the CIA Pompeo declared: “Jesus Christ our Savior is truly the only solution for our world.” Recently he clarified his position: “I was director of the CIA – we lied, we cheated, we stole.” Biden’s team will nominate a person for Secrety of State who has solutions backed up with arguments rather than gods. (Mike Pompeo, by the way, wants to be President.)
Recently, Trump appointed Louis DeJoy to run the US postal service — into the ground. Their plan is that DeJoy’s private company will take over the nation’s postal industry once he’s destroyed the USPS. Biden’s crew will replace him with a person who understands that the post office should be run for the benefit of the people.
Beyond these top-dog jobs the President gets more than 7000 public service positions to fill, all of which will be listed in great detail in December in a book called The Plum Book, purchasable and searchable online.
Trump gave his plum positions to people who swore allegiance to him, and left many thousands of positions unfilled because he thinks public works get in the way of private business. Biden’s team will look for people who understand ecosystems to run the national parks, and scientists to understand what’s happening to our material world, and fewer corporate switch-hitters.
THE BAD: Joe Biden and his mates are politically middle-of-the-road. For decades Joe was a Senator from Delaware – more accurately known as Senator for the Credit Card Companies. Even so, the eternal optimist in me reckons he might go for a better legacy, especially since he’s retiring in 2024. He might sign off on a bunch of serious reforms, like Medicare for all, the Green New Deal, or what the fuck, a planet with a future?
What’s bad is that far too much energy will be spent getting new policies out of the Biden administration, especially if the Republicans win the two Senate seats in the special election on 5 January in Georgia. The Democratic candidates have strong appeal to progressive blacks and to newcomers from up north who gave Biden and Harris a surprise victory in this key southern state. The odds on the Dems winning both Senate seats remain bad, but folks are singing that fine old song Georgia in hope, like John Legend did on the morning Biden/Harris won. Google Legend’s song, as well as Van Jones’ equally heartfelt response on CNN.
THE UGLY: The world’s biggest loser Trump will be president until January 20, and he ain’t done yet.
There are thousands of terrible things he can do between now and then, and he will do most of them. His big plan was to invent a plot that China stole the election, declare a national security emergency, then dismiss the people’s votes and have Congress and/or the Supreme Court give him another four years.
Trump and his grotesque Atty. Gen. William Barr laid out this serpentine pathway through the Constitution and via the electoral college, just last week. If you love serpentine and grotesque plots, there’s a version in Newsweek from 3 July, and another in the Washington Post on 7 November. As of today, they still have a snarling mob of lawyers, pollies, and citizen terrorists-for-Trump ready and willing to trash the election and put him back in the White House. This week he’s replaced a slew of top military and intelligence top-dogs with men who’ll do what he tells them, like taking over “Democrat cities” and/or invading Iran.
What stands in their way domestically is that election workers and officials, some on them Republican, have rejected the plots and scams. Trump lost because poor and long-ignored voters got to the polls to bet on safe ol’ Joe and be rid of the Crooked Trump. And now some of his fellow Republican politicians and his bankers are quitting the sinking Trump Titanic.
Is it possible that this crazed Emperor has, finally, run out of clothes? He doesn’t think so.
If his lawyers and cowed state politicians can stall the declaration of Electoral College votes until mid-December and instead choose him as President, he’ll be back, dressed in full dictator get-up. The lawyers say it isn’t likely, here: https://tinyurl.com/y6fqpa5y … but It ain’t over till the Fat Fuck Sings!
He knows that once he’s beat, he faces a flood of lawsuits, without the legal protections of the Presidency. Bombing Tehran is way better than that right?