The Republican Party is Now the Party of Sedition

When Woodrow Wilson urged Congress to adopt the Sedition Act, he could not have imagined a case where the members of the party that opposed him would openly act against democracy itself.

Two Republican members of the House of Representatives tell CNN that they expect at least 140 of their GOP colleagues in the House to vote against counting the electoral votes on January 6 when Congress is expected to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

President Donald Trump's Republican allies have virtually zero chance of changing the result, only to delay by a few hours the inevitable affirmation of Biden as the Electoral College winner and the next president. 

There have been no credible allegations of any issues with voting that would have impacted the election, as affirmed by dozens of judges, governors, election officials, the Electoral College, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the US Supreme Court. But Trump is determined to claim he didn't lose -- which he did, significantly -- and many GOP politicians either share his delusion or fear provoking his wrath -- even if that means voting to undermine democracy.

Both a House member and senator are required to mount an objection when Congress counts the votes. Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said Wednesday he will object, which will force lawmakers in both the House and Senate to vote on whether to accept the results of Biden's victory. Other senators -- including incoming ones -- could still join that effort, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has privately urged Republicans not to do.

Trump has been pushing for Congress to try to overturn the election result as his campaign's attempts to overturn the election through the courts have been repeatedly rejected.

So, we're prisoners of a thing Trump doesn't want to do, and that's accept the will of the American voters. Got it. And we're prisoners of an idea that a member of Congress can say or do whatever without fear of prosecution because we understand that there is a norm that says that an elected official in this country at the Federal level can engage in hyperbole and sedition and treason and you can't do a thing about it because fuck you, that's why.

What's really shocking is that we're going to go through with this Kabuki Theater on January 6 and there's going to be a lot of upheaval and scorn and madness and then Biden will be certified as the president elect because there's the law and then there's what Republicans want to believe and that's that.

Republicans in Congress belong in prison for acts of sedition if they follow through with their promise to try and subvert the will of the voters. The election happened. Trump lost. Biden won. Any other version of these events is a self-flagelating delusion of grandeur. All because of Trump and the horror of his presidency. Come on, you dumb shits. He isn't even going to remember who you are when he's done taking money from the voters in your district. Quit being as bad as the rubes you're already fooling.

This is, fundamentally, a stupid country that is full of people who are disengaged from active participation in responsible civic activities. Far too many Americans just yank that old voting lever for Republicans because they can't be bothered to pay attention to what's being done. If you go into your garden variety shithole where Republicans always win, you'll find misery, death, ruin and opioids along with heavy subsidies from the government and nary a chance in hell of someone solving real problems because it's easier to wave a bloody shirt around and act irresponsibly. 

You might find a handful of people who get it but they're swamped by endless reams of extras from the set of Idiocracy who think Trump has done a swell job.

Well, here's to having some nice things in 2021 after Biden comes in and fixes all the broken shit. Cynicism is for the shitheads who forget how hard Clinton and Obama worked to put this country back together after Republican presidents fucked everything up. My hope is that the media will tell Biden's story a little better, but I'm prepared for eight years of Hunter Biden's laptop stories because I'm a realist after all and nobody seems to be getting any smarter.

Rupert Murdoch is Abandoning Trump

 

There's no point betting on Trump's political future anymore. This abandonment of America's worst president ever is not an accidental thing. This is part of a plan to purge Trumpism and shift to a "friendlier" version of conservative ideology that will allow the GOP to rally around a Tom Cotton or a Marco Rubio and win back the White House.

The New York Post‘s shocking front page plea to President Donald Trump to “Stop the Insanity” is opening eyes throughout the industry on Monday morning.

In a scathing rebuke, the Post’s editorial board implored Trump to give up his attempt to overthrow the election.

“You’re cheering for an undemocratic coup,” the editorial board wrote.

Trump getting ripped in the pages of major newspapers, is — of course — nothing new. But this particular criticism is sure to hit home — given that it comes from a paper Trump repeatedly praised in the run-up to the election, and one which has been largely sympathetic to his cause throughout his term.

Many observers viewed the stunning condemnation as an unmistakable signal that Post owner Rupert Murdoch is abandoning the president.

Democracy is not one of those things that Murdoch has ever cared about (see Britain, Australia, et al). He doesn't care about the Trump family's access to money and power because they're never going to be rich enough to pose a threat to the people who finance the Republican Party in America. 

The bet that they are going to make is a safe one. They are counting on Trump to flame out, buried in legal problems and rising debts that will emasculate his children and leave the door open to a somewhat craftier version of the same thing, preferably something that will play well on Fox News and allow Murdoch to fend off the pretenders who are coming for his empire. This is not a foolish thing to pursue. The American voter will be relaxed and indifferent by the 2022 midterms and the GOP will probably win back the House and enlarge their hold on the Senate. After four years of stagnation and sanity, they'll sweep another fucking Republican into the White House, one who promises tax cuts and winning at any cost all over again.

I've seen this movie and I'm not buying tickets to it. Unless we fundamentally define the GOP as the party of Trump forever, they're going to take advantage of America's short attention span and win back everything they've lost.

Infuriating

 

I never know how angry I'm supposed to get but this is pretty infuriating:

As Americans celebrate the rollout of a coronavirus vaccine, many of the doctors and nurses first in line for inoculation say a victory lap is premature. They fear that the optimism stirred by the vaccine will overshadow a crisis that has drawn scant public attention in recent months: the alarming shortage of personal protective equipment, or P.P.E., that has led frontline medical workers to ration their use of the disposable gloves, gowns and N95 respirator masks that reduce the spread of infection. 

At St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, Minn., health care workers who treat Covid-19 patients are required to reuse their tightfitting respirator masks up to six times before throwing them away. Although soiled N95s are sterilized each day with ultraviolet light, Chris Rubesch, 32, a cardiac nurse, says the masks invariably sag after two or three shifts, leaving gaps that can allow the virus to seep through. “Our days are filled with fear and doubt,” Mr. Rubesch said. “It’s like driving a car without seatbelts.”

Many of the shortages are the result of skyrocketing global demand, but supply chain experts and health care providers say the Trump administration’s largely hands-off approach to the production and distribution of protective gear over the past nine months has worsened the problem. That has left states and hospitals to compete for limited supplies. Price gouging has become the norm, and scores of desperate institutions have been duped into buying counterfeit products.

President Trump has made only sparing use of the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law that allows federal agencies to coordinate the distribution of scarce goods and force companies to prioritize government orders. The D.P.A. can also provide grants to companies that need help ramping up production.

I think the thing that really hits home is that the New York Times insists on being somewhat "fair" or "reasonable" with its weenie language when it comes to the demonstrable fecklessness and incompetence of the Trump Regime. Here, you can see that I've chosen the word "regime" instead of "administration" because it is, demonstrably, a "regime" in that it does not operate in the interests of the American people. It functions like a criminal enterprise designed to enrich Trump and his family. Thus, it is a regime.

When the Times uses the phrase "largely hands-off approach to the production and distribution of protective gear " I want to throw things out the window and bellow vast strings of illegal profanities at the poor woodland creatures who live behind the property. This is not fair to them, but goddammit I don't know what else to do.

They've had forever and a day to fix this. They didn't fix it. Apparently, they don't care if people live or die. Is that fair? Yes, because incompetence kills. Accountability is important. And we need some serious accountability for the fact that medical workers don't have enough PPE.

Trump and Jared Kushner set out at the beginning of 2020 to ignore the COVID-19 crisis because they figured it was only going to kill people in "blue" states. It has killed Americans everywhere, of course, and this strategy failed to get Trump re-elected. Nevertheless, we are at the end of one calendar year and we still have shortages of the things that will protect front-line medical workers.

Meanwhile, Republican politicians are elbowing each other in the ribs while fighting to get ahead of your grandpa and grandma to get their COVID-19 vaccinations. These are the same people who spent the past calendar year mocking everyone for wearing masks and doing nothing to ensure that people would have enough to eat and a chance to live long enough to get said vaccination.

Seriously, fuck all these people. There aren't enough jail cells to go around.

You'll Take What We Give You and You'll Like It

 

There will be a stopgap, half-assed stimulus and it's better than nothing.

The package would send direct stimulus payments of $600 to individuals, half the amount provided in the first round of checks that went out in the spring. As with the first round, the payments will only be sent to people below a certain income level, though it wasn't clear Sunday where that would be set. 

Eligible families would receive an additional $600 per child -- which is $100 more than Congress gave families in the first round of relief last spring.

Everyone who relies on unemployment benefits gets something, but not much. 

The jobless would receive a $300 weekly federal enhancement in benefits for 11 weeks, from the end of December through mid-March under the deal. The amount is half of the earlier federal boost, which ran out at the end of July.
Also, the agreement calls for extensions of two other pandemic unemployment programs that were created in the CARES Act in March. Both are currently set to expire at the end of this week, affecting an estimated 12 million people.
The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program expands jobless benefits to gig workers, freelancers, independent contractors, the self-employed and certain people affected by the coronavirus. The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program provides an additional 13 weeks of payments to those who exhaust their regular state benefits.

Blaming the Democrats in the House and Senate for how paltry and miserly this deal is ridiculous. They passed extensive, substantive benefits for Americans back in the Spring. The Republicans in the Senate blocked those benefits. And then, we had an election. Virtually every one of the worst Republicans imaginable got re-elected. There is a massive disconnect between the American voter and understanding who actually is responsible for kicking them in the head.

The voters in Kentucky, Iowa, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas who could have changed out their corrupt GOP Senators for people who would vote to help them said, nah. We like being kicked in the head and going bankrupt. 

You get the government you vote for. And if you're getting screwed because of that, well, it's not my problem. I voted specifically to help people all over the country. I voted a straight Democratic ticket. Anyone who thought voting for Joe Biden and Joni Ernst was a bridge too far, fuck them. They will get what they deserve.

Stumbling Towards a Fascist Takeover of America

 

Every access journalist in Washington D.C. is being inundated by panicked Trump Regime employees and no one knows what to do about it:

A meeting President Donald Trump held to discuss overturning the election result alarmed some White House staffers -- people who are used to Trump's inflammatory and anti-democratic rhetoric.

With only a month remaining until President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn into office, Trump has been ramping up his efforts to remain president, while also trying to convince millions of Americans that election fraud is to blame for his presidential loss.

That's nothing new. But a heated Oval Office meeting Friday in which Trump heard arguments about invoking martial law to stay in office had some Trump officials sounding the alarm to the press.

Michael Flynn, Trump's pardoned former national security adviser, discussed the martial law plan on right-wing television network Newsmax last week and was invited to the White House Friday.

These efforts to sound the alarm to the press have all the hallmarks of watching someone who works for a company that is circling the drain reach out to anyone and everyone and ask for a new job in order to save themselves. This is not something that should strike us as surprising or new. But this is the Trump Regime we're talking about. No one should give any of these individuals a chance at redeeming themselves with a wingnut welfare type job, let alone a legitimate career rehabilitation opportunity.

What is obvious is that the Trump people will likely become pieces of the new establishment that will have legitimacy conferred upon them and a place at the table all but laid out for their new found status as members of the club that You Ain't In.

The president, his half-assed legal advisors, his newly pardoned traitorous general, and whoever else is left to constitute the dregs of the worst presidency in American history all met to argue about how to overthrow the government. The media ought to be screaming for Trump's head but it's business as usual and no one can be bothered to raise a ruckus during the Christmas holiday week.

This is how lesser countries stumble into fascism and come out the other side worse for the wear. Our country is ridiculous and sad. You can't even get the proper amount of outrage from people who are addicted to pretending Her Emails and Hunter's Laptop are actual issues to be discussed.

As a special bonus, Trump is trying to kill Fox News on his way out the door. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of fools.

President Grievance Strikes Again

 

Millions and millions of Americans are suffering but Trump only cares about his latest grievance against the world:

The US Department of Energy on Tuesday finalized a pair of new rules rolling back water efficiency standards on showerheads and other consumer appliances, punctuating President Donald Trump's long-documented water flow grievances in the final weeks of his administration. 

The new showerhead rule goes after the two-and-a-half-gallon-per-minute maximum flow rate set by Congress in the 1990s. Under current federal law, each showerhead in a fixture counts toward that limit collectively -- but the Energy Department's new rule means each showerhead individually can reach the limit set by Congress.

The department also established separate product classes for residential washers and dryer units that have cycle times of less than 30 minutes and meet lower efficiency standards. 

"Today the Trump Administration affirmed its commitment to reducing regulatory burdens and safeguarding consumer choice," Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said in a statement. "With these rule changes, Americans can choose products that are best suited to meet their individual needs and the needs of their families."

Who needs substance anymore? Why bother governing? Trump is in it for himself and that includes making sure that his shitty properties can use cheap showerheads.

Some day, when we're suffering through a shortage of clean water and other natural resources, we'll look back fondly on the substance-free presidencies of Republican presidents and wonder, "how did anyone ever fall for these jackasses." And then we'll look at the shower head and go, "oh, yeah. That's how it happened."

The Plan is to Steal Everything That Isn't Nailed Down

 

It will be hard to convince people that the Trump family will leave the White House without stealing government property, if only because they seem like the sort of people who are into that sort of thing.

If they're already doing the inventory and separation of Trump family property from White House property, then I think we can see where all of this is going. Melania has started asking about where she, and maybe not Trump himself, can go when all of this is over. There is no provision for her outside of a $20,000 per year pension for First Ladies, which only kicks in after the president himself is deceased.

It will be easy for the people who voted against Trump that they stole things. That will be the narrative no matter how honest or diligent this process ends up being.

And, at some point, someone is going to come to President Joe Biden and show him the problem of what to do with Melania. She is clearly going to separate herself, post-presidency, from Trump and then force the government to "take care" of her needs as they relate to Secret Service protection and living arrangements. She will be a continuous burden to the U.S. Government for the rest of her life and there will need to be special provision for First Ladies (and possibly First Gentlemen) who are divorced from former presidents and cannot provide for themselves.

What's even more telling is that there is now a concerted effort to leak as much of this as possible and set it up so that there is pity for the displaced and discarded members of the Trump family. They are all going to be a pain in the ass in their post-presidency existence. We will probably never be completely rid of them and their bullshit.

Evil Should Never Be Normalized Like This

 

I guess we will now get to sit back and watch the Trump Regime's vicious liars cash in on their infamy:

Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway has signed a multi-million dollar deal to write a book about her time in the White House, the Daily Mail reports. The exact price tag is unknown, but is expected to exceed former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s $2 million advance for his memoir. While the Daily Mail quotes an anonymous insider stating that Conway will write “the most unvarnished, eye-popping account of her time working for the president,” she has publicly remained loyal to Trump, campaigning for his re-election and speaking at this year’s Republican National Convention.

Conway repeatedly, and with gusto, broke the law as a spokesperson for the evil that is Trumpism. She has enough Hatch Act violations to warrant her own slew of pardons. Her inability to raise her children and function like a normal human being is already well documented. 

But what do we do with such people? Giving them money for their "experiences" is a way of laundering the evil things they have done. Yes, there's capitalism at work here. There's an audience for crass liars and the lies they tell. It's "entertainment" to watch a person use their mouth to savage others in the public sphere. Never mind that they told lie after lie after lie to do it. We don't value the truth anymore. We don't care about a person's ethics. We could give a shit if they have an ounce of credibility. It's all about the game, the hits they score, the soundbites that get repeated, the headlines that are created out of their atrocious leaks of information.

Never forget that there is a media complex that has used Conway as a confidential source for decades and has created whole entire news cycles out of material designed to manipulate public opinion. The reporters who protect Conway's identity and launder her filth are just as bad as she is but aren't worth as much to the publishers. They only get a few hundred thousand dollars for their bullshit as an advance because they're not the "star" that is Conway.

How fucked up is that this person is considered important in the first place? If credibility mattered, she'd be begging for change down at the nearest bus stop.

If you pay this wretched person millions for their story, aren't you, in effect, endorsing the rehabilitation of her reputation and giving the next flaming asshole an incentive to do exactly what Conway has done and that's profit from the suffering of the American people at the hands of a fascist Republican president? And if you ignore the media personalities who enable her, well, you're just rewarding the whole rotten infrastructure, aren't you?

Seriously, fuck these people. They will pay no price for what they have done and, instead, will be amply rewarded for doing horrendous things to our society.

The Best Governor in America

 

Gretchen Whitmer is the best governor in the country. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration is extending a three-week closure of bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, movie theaters and the Detroit casinos by another 12 days in an effort to get COVID-19 cases under control in the state.

The governor said Monday the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services' public health order shuttering those businesses will be extended through Dec. 20.

With one-in-five patients in Michigan hospitals having COVID, MDHSS Director Robert Gordon warned "it's unlikely we'll be ready to do (reopen) in 12 days, but we will do so as soon as we can."

State officials want to see a sustained decline in the COVID testing positivity rate, the number of new cases per 1 million residents and the percentage of COVID patients occupying hospital beds, Gordon said.

You have to weight these decisions based on the impact that they are going to have on working people. I see a number of other Democratic governors who do this, so there's probably an argument to be made that Jay Inslee or Tim Walz are just as effective. But the decision making process that Whitmer undertakes is as thorough and necessary as it needs to be. She has done more to keep people alive than virtually any Republican governor. Outside of Larry Hogan and Mike DeWine, they've largely been ineffective in terms of keeping people safe.

Ron DeSantis and Brian Kemp and Greg Abbott have so much blood on their hands that it isn't even funny. They lead the list of worst possible governors for me in terms of what they have failed to do and why they should be condemned for how they've handled the COVID-19 crisis. Every day is a dumpster fire of tragedy and loss in their states.

Thank God Joe Biden is a Normal Human Being

 

Do you know what did not happen today?

A post-election President Elect named Joe Biden didn't go to Georgia and hold a pity party with a bunch of idiots. He continued working on his new administration and he did so in a way that didn't call much attention to himself. He was, in other works, normal.

We need normal right now. We need someone working on our behalf.

We do NOT need all of this bullshit about a stolen election and we do not need Trump talking about how people will have their farms taken away (he really said this in Georgia, in a way that suggested what was supposed to happen in South Africa, and the media should really be up on this stuff). He talked about how he and his supporters were victims.

What is with this pathetic nonsense?

People on the left are not going to put up Biden flags and wear Biden hats and Biden merch and go around in boats, oversized trucks and rascal scooters, holding rallies and parades and cult of personality gatherings. We're going to keep trying to keep ourselves safe and work on getting through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

And we're damned sure thankful Biden is as normal as can be. I know there will be bitching about his cabinet and all that. People who think Biden should be more left of center should keep pushing for that. I'm just grateful today. Grateful he's not insane.

Easily the Most Corrupt President in American History

 

File this in the category of oh my fucking God:

The Justice Department is investigating a potential crime related to funneling money to the White House or related political committee in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to court records unsealed Tuesday in federal court. 

The case is the latest legal twist in the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration after several of his top advisers have been convicted of federal criminal charges and as the possibility rises of Trump giving pardons to those who've been loyal to him.

The disclosure is in 20 pages of partially redacted documents made public by the DC District Court on Tuesday afternoon. The records show Chief Judge Beryl Howell's review in August of a request from prosecutors to access documents obtained in a search as part of a bribery-for-pardon investigation.

The filings don't reveal a timeline of the alleged scheme, or any names of people potentially involved, except that communications between people including at least one lawyer were seized from an office that was raided sometime before the end of this summer.

 I didn't know you could buy a pardon from the President of the United States of America. We are going to reach the nexus of "hey, no big deal" and "it's not illegal for the president to sell a pardon" and "eh, what are you gonna do now that he's been thrown out of office." I think my head will probably explode when we do.

The Attorney General let this happen. In August of this year. He had evidence that the president could be selling pardons and he buried it. During an election. He covered for Trump. 

Trump could have been re-elected. He could have been given a second term after being credibly accused of selling presidential pardons before his first term was even up. Separate that from everything else--every other thing that has been done--and you have the worst of all possibilities. A scandal that would have destroyed any other previous president in and of itself and, here we are, not even shocked that it happened and resigned to the fact that nothing may ever come of it.

That's enough to knock you on your ass when you think about it.

To say that Trump has been the most corrupt American president of all time makes it impossible to really calculate how the gilded age presidencies were really just an excuse to collect bribes and make old bearded men the local postmaster of whatever town where you could do that. There was Teapot Dome, there were swindles and deals going back to the Founding Fathers, I get all that. But Trump has taken it to new levels of shamelessness that are going to be hard to calculate when a full accounting of his crimes is carried out. I'm all for holding the Biden Administration to that, by the way. I think it will be a serious mistake to shrug and do what we did in 2009 and let everyone walk.

There has to be a reset and a reform of how the Executive Branch functions in the wake of the Trump Regime. I think President Elect Biden needs to empower someone to carry out a comprehensive restructuring of the rules and laws for how each Federal agency is staffed and organized as it relates to the political appointees. Any Attorney General who presides over such lawlessness should be exposed to prosecution.

It's impossible to overstate how much of a mistake it was to not impeach William Barr when the Democrats had the chance in the wake of the handling of the failed Mueller Investigation. Barr should have been impeached a week after Trump.

Barr's fingerprints are all over what's been happening and he is now calculating his exit strategy from accountability. We cannot, as a nation of laws, let him slip away after all of this intentional damage.

Stay Home

Not sure why this is even controversial:

About 1 million Americans a day packed airports and planes over the weekend even as coronavirus deaths surged across the U.S. and public health experts begged people to stay home and avoid big Thanksgiving gatherings.

And the crowds are only expected to grow. Next Sunday is likely to be the busiest day of the holiday period. 

To be sure, the number of people flying for Thanksgiving is down by more than half from last year because of the rapidly worsening outbreak. However, the 3 million who went through U.S. airport checkpoints from Friday through Sunday marked the biggest crowds since mid-March, when the COVID-19 crisis took hold in the United States.

This time next year, you might be short several family members because of COVID-19. Why would you risk that by traveling this year when, for all intents and purposes, it will probably be much safer to travel next year?

I don't get why people can't put it off for a year. The selfishness at work here is pretty staggering.

These Were Never Good People to Begin With

 

As of this writing, Anne Applebaum's article has largely been overtaken by events. It raises a good point though:

I don’t know for certain that Emily Murphy gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror and says to herself, “You are a good person.” But I am willing to bet that she does. Most people in her position—most people who are undermining the rules of their group, destroying their institution, harming their society—are doing so because they have become convinced that they are good people, virtuous people, brave people, dedicated people. Nothing suggests that Murphy is an exception.

Murphy is the head of the General Services Administration, the unglamorous bit of the federal government that actually runs the federal government. Part of her job—a part that no one has ever before considered controversial or even noteworthy—is to “ascertain” who has won the U.S. presidential election, and then to release the congressionally mandated funds that allow the winner to begin his transition. Usually, that process also unlocks cooperation between incoming and outgoing officials. Before leaving office in 2017, aides to Barack Obama had prepared elaborate explanations of the state of the world, including a 69-page playbook for how to manage a pandemic. They handed the documents over to Donald Trump’s transition team, which ignored them.

Murphy has now relented and has signed off on the release of funds that will allow the incoming Biden Administration to replace the outgoing Trump Regime.

The question as to whether or not Murphy believes herself to be a good person is ridiculous. She knows what she is. She knows what kind of person Trump is. The choice to work for him is a moral decision made by someone who has no grasp of what morality even looks like. 

Murphy works for Trump after he put babies in cages, stripped children from arms of their parents, sent them on days-long bus rides to God knows where, and promptly lost the ability to establish a chain of custody between mothers, fathers, and kids. This is but one of a multitude of criminal, negligent, and arbitrarily cruel actions that have been undertaken precisely because there were people like Murphy who--knowing full well who Trump is--made a decision to carry out his orders to the letter in order to maximize the intolerable viciousness of the modern Republican form of Federalism. Murphy is the personification of this unspeakable crime because she did not resign in protest of the policy. It does not matter that the General Services Administration likely had nothing to do with the policy per se. It does matter that someone would continue working for the Trump Regime long after it became a fact that parents were separated from their children.

When you embrace evil, you are fucking evil, and you will pay for your crimes against humanity. All of them will pay. They will pay with their reputations and with their freedom. This is only if we have the stomach to learn from this mistake and prevent it from ever happening again.

If we don't punish these people, they will be back to do it again. God help us if we let that happen.

Normalcy Beckons

 

There is no post, only an observation that I am fucking ready for normalcy.

I want to be able to sit and watch stupid shit on television and not wonder what's in the news. I want to have that feeling of not feeling guilty because I know there's an American city on fire tonight, full of anger and frustration and physical expressions of violence. I want to be able to relax and not have to ping back and forth between the news channels and see--actually see for myself--that we are not being destroyed some more.

The Bidens offer us a glimpse of normalcy. I'll take it.

That does not mean I can't go back to when it was fun to make jokes about how Joe would stick his foot in his mouth or do stupid shit. Back during the early years of the Obama Administration (oh, fucking hell, that was what normalcy was like, now I remember) Joe would get out in front of something and his mistakes now look like the minor burps that they were. I was wrong for worrying that he was going to screw things up for President Obama. I did not have the right perspective.

There are already rumblings that Biden's Attorney General won't prosecute the Trump people. Don't listen to that horseshit. If the Trump people broke the law, they're going to prison. They are the D-list nobodies, the also-rans, the backbenchers and the people who are lucky not smart. They are not the people who normally catch a break from the legal system when they fuck up. We're not talking geniuses. They are going to try and destroy evidence before they leave office. They won't get away with it because the career bureaucrats have already hid all the good stuff.

Biden's people will have a monumental task at hand, so don't worry. They'll put the American people first and then they'll send Trump and his kids and about 300 people to prison. They'll get a lot of others to flip in order to get immunity. 

If I were Joe, I'd send Amy Klobuchar to the Department of Justice and I'd say, "Amy, you're insane. I like you, but you're Charlie Manson with a bob and a snoot full of Mountain Dew. You know the law. Make the law do what it does. You're a squirrel filled with rage, and the Trump people are your nuts. Go get your nuts, you maniac." And Amy will spend the next eight years chattering away in secret voices that only prosecutors with obsessive attention to detail can understand. She'll be a yeller, not a compromiser. And we'll check the news everyone once in a while and read about how she's setting them all on fire and dancing around her office at three in the morning on a weekend, working like a crazed person full of trucker speed. She is that good and she is that obsessed with payback. 

But I'd also hire a lot of good people to do good things. That, in and of itself, better happen. We need that. We need a glimpse of normal. We'll let Amy go to town, and let her use the power of the Justice Department to make every single criminal act of the Trump Regime her personal collection of Abba albums that she can play and enjoy and laugh about and cry about and have the time of her life. And we'll sit back and watch sports, mourn those who didn't make it to the other side with us, and we'll get our revenge by having a great life if we can manage it.

We Are All So Tired of This Piece of Shit

 

Is it January 20 yet?

The Death Cult of the GOP is Hurting America

 

When former Republicans write this stuff, why isn't anyone paying attention? Christine Todd Whitman decries the inability of the GOP to move on from the Donald Trump's ongoing effort to deny reality and kill as many Americans as possible:

Some GOP leaders have already spoken out in support of moving forward with the transition, from former President George W. Bush and Utan Sen. Mitt Romney, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, to Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey, Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton and former Rep. Mike Rogers, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

But all Republican leaders must put the American people ahead of fealty to Trump by acknowledging the results of the election. By constantly feeding people misinformation about the probable outcome of any of these cases or the probability of overturning this election with recounts, they are misleading Trump supporters. Their statements are going to make it even harder for Trump voters to accept his defeat and move forward.

Shady dealings: Trump wants to make money off the fake 'stolen election' crisis he created. Don't let him.

On the world stage, GOP officials’ refusal to acknowledge the outcome of the election is damaging our claim to be a representative democracy, to which a peaceful transition of power is fundamental and has been for over two centuries. These Republican leaders are embarrassing our party and our nation with an effort that they know will not succeed. Rather than standing up for democracy, they continue to capitulate to Trump’s will, even after he has clearly lost.

Forget about drinking the Kool-Aid, just go to another post-election super spreader event designed to cheer up a despondent dictator.

Back When They Lost Their Minds

There has never been anything decent or redeeming about the Republican Party:

Barack Obama directly confronts the racist politics of President Donald Trump in the first volume of his post-presidency memoir, bluntly suggesting how he believes his historic election in 2008 opened a wave of bitter and divisive turmoil that fueled Republicans' obstructionism and ultimately changed the party, according to a copy of the book obtained by CNN.

"It was as if my very presence in the White House had triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that the natural order had been disrupted," Obama writes. "Which is exactly what Donald Trump understood when he started peddling assertions that I had not been born in the United States and was thus an illegitimate president. For millions of Americans spooked by a Black man in the White House, he promised an elixir for their racial anxiety."The 768-page memoir, titled A Promised Land and due out on November 17, chronicles the future president's childhood and political rise, before diving deeply into his historic 2008 campaign and first four years in office. Obama dedicates hundreds of pages to the fights and characters that colored his tenure, from his work to pass Obamacare in 2010 to the complexities of dealing with a slate of world leaders and finally his decision to approve the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

I still can't believe we are where we are right now, today, after everything that has happened. The last twelve years have been a terrible time to be an American because of the entrenched racism and bigotry of the Republican Party. All of this has been enabled by a dishonest, incompetent elite media complex that still refuses to acknowledge that the GOP went off the rails because the president that ended up being elected in 2008 was a black man born in Hawaii. 

America's Enemies Are Watching What Trump Does

 

When you see stories like this, it's easy to forget that America has enemies that will strike at us if they feel like they can get away with it. There is no downside to attacking American interests right now. There is no Department of Defense right now, in term of leadership or continuity. There is a flow of personnel out of key positions throughout the government and there is a shuffling of individuals who are so blatantly unqualified for their roles that it is laughable to imagine how they would ever get a chance to serve in government again.

The mere act of firing the Secretary of Defense is just icing on a cake made entirely of shit. Esper was a man so undistinguished and unqualified that, in any other era, he wouldn't even have much of a role at the Pentagon, outside of shining boots or swabbing the fucking deck. If you want to have it out with people who understand the history of government continuity and the need to ensure that America projects strength and stability at all times, have at it. What we have right now is a hair-on-fire catastrophe and all the lights are blinking red.

If America is attacked during the period between now and the inauguration of Joe Biden, it will be entirely because Trump couldn't handle being defeated. Everyone who is injured or killed will owe their fate to Trump's enormously diseased ego.

The only thing keeping our enemies back on their heels is the possibility that they see no upside to attacking us right now. America is doing a helluva good job destroying itself right now thanks to Trump and his Republican allies.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

 

That's it, that's the post.

Panic

 

Now, this is a helluva thing.

The Democratic Party is in the stronger political position--count the votes. Do it fairly. Let the people decide.

The Republican Party is in a weaker position. PANIC! ALL MY BITCHES BETTER SHOW UP WITH THEIR GUNS AND SAVE MUH PRESIDENCY!

Never underestimate the ability of the media to excuse cheating on behalf of the GOP. They are conditioned to believe that Old White Daddy GOP Party is the only thing that can save us from Hairy Weird Democrat Party. We now know that the more decent and American position is where Biden and his people are existing. 

In the days ahead, they're going to start preparing for the transition. Trump will be howling in the wilderness. The world is proceeding without him. He will not comply or cooperate with any effort to ensure that this country will be led or protected as we enter the second wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. Many, many thousands of Americans will die needlessly and tens of millions will suffer because of the very apparent flaws in our democratic process.

This is One Hell of a Racist Country

 

Given everything that has happened over the past four years, you would think that a decent country that believe in justice and the rule of law would have buried Trump in a landslide.

Yeah, so much for that. 

In America, a pessimist is never disappointed.

Vote

 

Your life depends on who you vote for this year. Vote for Joe Biden.

Trump is Collapsing Under the Weight of His Failed Presidency

 

I guess I'm not seeing a reason to worry about the election right now.

There are always going to be media entities that want you to believe that every presidential election is a horse race. In 2008, it was Obama's race to lose, and he refused to let that happen. He crushed McCain and then he turned right around and crushed Romney. Those two defeats meant that we were going to have a pretty nice country.

Trump shit all over that because that's who he is. He will take a second term and make it about destroying every possible enemy in this country. That, in and of itself, should be the reason why Republicans throw him out of office. He perverts a system that will punish them for not stopping his awful tendencies. This is what dawned on a number of Republican operatives right from the start. They want to have a future that extends into the next decade. They know that it all ends in a flaming dumpster and one term in office.

I have never seen the parallels with Nixon. There is no comparing the two men. Nixon was intelligent but crippled with a flawed sense of self-loathing. Trump is a seething bag of shit filled with psychological scars and an endless sense of victimhood. Nixon could be rehabilitated. Trump has to be floated out to see on a barge covered in landfill waste and oozing barrels of toxic waste.

His presidency is a singular failure in human history. The very same people upon which tremendous suffering and misery has been imposed have decided that this is what they deserve and so they are voting to keep Trump in office. It's as if Trump went to their home, took their jobs, killed their least healthy family members, tore the future away from their children, and was given five hundred bucks and a pat on the back as he left to go do it to their neighbors, followed by smiles and tears of gratitude.

I mean, what can you even say to people who have no idea how to vote for their own economic self-interest? You can't say anything to them. They are gone.

Hey, if we succeed in defeating him we will see his followers try to recreate the Lost Cause ideology of the old South. If Trump wins, you'll never read this again because everyone will have to pull down their thoughts and express nothing publicly again. A dark veil will descend on this country and decent people will have to think about immigrating to other parts of the world. You could see a mass exodus of Americans to Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. Even more might end up in Latin America. An exodus of people moving into the 21st Century's equivalent of an era of Resistance to Russian and American fascism.

If a dozen Republican Senators had possessed backbones, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. And no impeached president should ever be allowed to run for re-election. Our Constitution is badly flawed. There is no amendment guaranteeing the right to vote and there is no protection for the majority of Americans who wish to be free of gun violence and watching the wealthy steal everything.

Shit's gotta change, that's all I know. Heaven help the Democrats if they run the table, win the presidency, the Senate and the House, and then do nothing.

My prediction is that Biden wins close to 400 electoral votes. The Democrats will have a net gain of four Senate seats. They'll pick up ten more in the House. The courts must be reformed and the country needs to be healed.

Trump is Poisoning Every Aspect of Our Lives

 

There are plenty of people in this country who are stupid enough to believe that doctors "get more money if someone dies from COVID" and that's why you can't ignore what Trump said today in Michigan.

It's a blatant lie. It has to be labeled as such. It has to be refuted and dealt with. It's too dangerous to let it stand. No, doctors are not getting "more money" if they say that someone has died from COVID-19. It's to the point now where a blood libel like this is not even news because it has been overwhelmed by a hundred other pieces of excrement dressed up as presidential statements to the public.

Good God.

The credibility of the presidency is, I would have to say, smashed to fucking bits. It will take decades just to build up what little is needed in order to get people to believe even the most basic things. It will come down to the president asking people to evacuate due to a possible natural disaster and an untold number will die because they don't believe what they're being told.

Trump's utter destruction of everything normal and decent didn't begin with the decision to lie. George W. Bush carried that ball as far as he could. This reliance on bar stool pronouncements didn't start with Trumpism, but it sure picked up steam when Reagan used it to denounce "welfare queens." We are really paying for it now, aren't we?

Accountability begins with the ballot box and the entire GOP is running away from the voters right now. They are trying to game the system. They are using the law like a battering ram, trying to get out of here as fast as they can with whatever they've stolen. This is the first president in history who may have to be chased into exile and dragged back to face justice in a jumpsuit fitted with adult diapers and a spit hood.

Every once in a while, a snippet of outrage like this just gets to me. I can't even function as a real blogger anymore. I have to let so much of this just go by me or I'll get wrapped up in my own bullshit. It is exhausting, it is scream-inducing, it is overwhelming. Trump and his enablers are smashing the entire system into dust as they flee the scene of the crime. Dead Americans everywhere and our media complex is openly wondering if Joe Biden isn't "taking COVID-19 too seriously."

Come on, Election Day. I am really spent. I am so beaten down. Let's just get to where we can think straight again. Fucking hell.

President Obama for MVP

 

I think the coverage of this year's presidential campaign has been awful for a lot of reasons. One, it is impossible to properly campaign if you're trying to mitigate the impact of a terrible pandemic. Two, the media keeps forgetting that Trump is an impeached president who has killed over 225,000 Americans because of his willful incompetence. They seem to view the COVID-19 response as something "out of his hands" or that it is an "act of God."

President Barack Obama understands this and his presence on the campaign trail is an absolute necessity at this point. The Guardian has better coverage of his impact than you're going to get from The New York Times or pretty much anyone else:

Obama mocks Trump: 'He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage'

Barack Obama has taken the stage for his drive-in rally in Orlando, Florida, where he is addressing hundreds of Biden supporters as they stand alongside their cars.

“One week Orlando, we’ve got one week -- si se puede -- one week until the most important election of our lifetimes,” Obama told the crowd.

The former president once again sharply criticized his successor over his response to the coronavirus pandemic. Obama noted Trump has complained about how much coverage the pandemic has received, as the death toll continues to climb.

“He’s jealous of COVID’s media coverage,” Obama said. He accused Trump of having “turned the White House into a hot zone” after two coronavirus outbreaks among the president and his senior staff.

“Florida, we can’t afford four more years of this,” Obama said. “We cannot afford this kind of incompetence and disinterest.”

This is a straight up declaration of what President Obama said and it comes without any of the mealy-mouthed qualifications that you get with American media entities. There's none of the bullshit that injects the attitude that President Obama maybe shouldn't criticize his predecessor or the idea that Democrats have failed to lead during the COVID-19 pandemic as well. 

It delivers the killer line--Trump is jealous of Covid's media coverage--and this is what makes it devastating. 

Case in point, this petty, frivolous piece of floating shit from Glenn Thrush, who can't contain himself in trying to make President Obama no different and no better than the man who rose to prominence promoting racist birther lies:

Former President Barack Obama bounded off the stage in Philadelphia last week after his debut as Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 battering ram and pronounced himself pumped — and even a bit delighted at the chance to troll his troll, President Trump.

“Oh man, that felt good,” Mr. Obama told a friend in a phone call — and he let Mr. Biden’s staff know that the ungainly format of the event, a “drive-in rally” where he addressed hundreds of supporters in cars in a stadium’s parking lot, had worked surprisingly well, according to several people close to the former president who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

In 2016, Mr. Obama took his whacks at Mr. Trump on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Then he stepped up his criticism of his successor during the 2018 midterm elections. This summer, during the virtual Democratic convention, he offered a damning jeremiad against the president, warning that Mr. Trump’s re-election would “tear our democracy down.”

But nothing Mr. Obama has said during the Trump era compares with his gleeful slag-heaping of scorn upon Mr. Trump in the closing days of the 2020 campaign, part of a two-week burst of activity that will culminate in a joint rally with Mr. Biden being planned for this coming weekend, according to Democratic officials.

Fuck you, Glenn Thrush. You're the reason we can't have nice things.

President Obama is doing as much as humanly possible to save our democracy by standing up to Trump and by humiliating him for the horrible things he has done to the American people. This ain't no joking around. This shit is real. This matters. And we need to see what's really going on here. The media wants a horse race between two equal political parties. 

This is wrong. 

The Democrats are racing to save the idea of America and the Republicans are getting ready to steal the election and extract revenge upon every single person who has opposed their fascist grab for power.

Inconsequential Idiots

 

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman are probably not going to go down as two of the most inept ratfuckers this country has ever seen:

Conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have been indicted in Ohio, once more over a racist robocall aimed at minority voters.

Wohl and Burkman, who rose to some level of infamy online for blundering attempts to manufacture sexual assaults allegations against Democratic politicians and other Trump foes, have each been charged in Ohio’s Cuyahoga County with eight counts of telecommunications fraud and seven counts of bribery, a charge that includes attempts to convince people not to cast ballots. The indictment only adds to the growing mountain of criminal and civil problems facing the notorious pro-Trump pair.

In late August, a robocall that claimed to come from Wohl and Burkman warned voters not to use mail-in ballots, falsely claiming that the ballot information would be used to enforce vaccine mandates and collect on credit card debts. In the call, which was sent to 67,000 voters in the Midwest, according to prosecutors, a Black woman warned potential voters not to send in mail-in ballots or risk being fooled by “the man.”

“The right to vote is the most fundamental component of our nation’s democracy,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said in a statement. “These individuals clearly infringed upon that right in a blatant attempt to suppress votes and undermine the integrity of this election These actions will not be tolerated.”

I don't know what's funnier. Their inability to do anything right or their fervent belief that Trump knows their names and will pardon them for their crimes. Now that they face charges in Michigan and Ohio, a pardon from Trump will not save them from having to serve time in prison for their actions. And, I would think, that their history of making up sexual assault charges would factor into any sentencing decisions from a judge. It's not like they were pulling mere pranks. They were trying to destroy people and subject them to serious felony charges through their use of fraud and misrepresentation.

This incident speaks to a larger concern. How is it that these pro-Trump people do not see what their ultimate fate will be? They will be ignored and forgotten. If there's no reason for Trump to lift a finger to buy the silence of someone who has been brought up on Federal charges, you can bet that he will cut them loose and pretend that he has never heard of them.

There's no loyalty there. It's a one-way street. You are expected to die for the king and the king must not be troubled by your complaints or your pleas for leniency. Trump imagines himself American royalty, but it's only the illegal aspect of a reign of terror that he embraces. He just doesn't care about people suffering in service to his presidency. It is expected that many millions will hurl their bodies into the gaping maw of his criminality.

Breaking the Law Like it's Going Out of Style

 

When Mike Pompeo makes up his mind to break the law, he does it safe in the knowledge that he's going to get away with it:

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is under investigation for potentially violating a federal law that forbids federal employees from engaging in political activity while on duty or while inside federal buildings over his address to the Republican convention in August.

The Office of the Special Counsel, an independent federal investigative agency, launched a probe into Pompeo's speech to the Republican National Convention while on a taxpayer funded trip to Jerusalem on August 25, according to two House Democrats. 

It is the second investigation into potential Hatch Act violations that the OSC has opened into Pompeo, whose use of resources and decision-making at the State Department, along with his wife's, have triggered a series of investigations by the agency's inspector general.

"Our offices have confirmed that the Office of Special Counsel has launched a probe into potential Hatch Act violations tied to Secretary Pompeo's speech to the Republican National Convention," Rep. Ellot Engel, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Nita Lowey, chairwoman of the House Committee on Appropriations, wrote in a joint statement.

"This information comes on the heels of reporting that OSC is also looking into Secretary Pompeo's stated commitment to rush out more of Hillary Clinton's emails by Election Day and as the Secretary has misused State Department resources on his speech tour of swing states," the Democrats said.

Given the fact that Trump's last attempt at diplomacy resulted in being impeached, it's not outside the realm of possibility to conclude that no one has any idea what Pompeo actually does with his time. It could be that he is working on diplomatic matters and international relations. Or, what seems more likely, he's lining his pockets and forcing his staff to take care of his wife's inability to do anything for herself.

In any event, America is less safe with a corrupt, incompetent Secretary of State at the helm, especially one who doesn't believe in following the law.

Crazy Liz Peek Lives in Her Own Universe

 

The entire conservative media establishment lives in a reality bubble that cannot be pierced.

Welcome to the final week of one of the most vengeful and acrimonious elections in our country’s history. Very soon we will know whether Establishment Elites have succeeded in defeating a president who broke some glass in order to make our country great again.

 We will also know whether the campaign went on one week too long for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

New revelations that Biden apparently lied when he claimed no knowledge of his son Hunter’s shady business dealings in China, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and elsewhere and that the candidate may in fact have been entangled in those activities, has rocked the campaign.

If you hear that being read from a teleprompter in Cecily Strong's voice, modified to mimic that of Judge Jeanne Pirro, you're well on your way to understanding why these people are nuts.

This election is vengeful and acrimonious because of all the dead Americans. It's hard to have a respectable and polite election when tens of millions of Americans are out of work, have seen their loved ones die, and are staring into the abyss of what happens when you let Republicans govern this country. If there's anything vengeful about this election, look no further than this fucking guy:

Trump warns PA's governor that he won't forget how Wolf supposedly made it hard for him to secure a rally venue: "I'll remember it, Tom. I'm gonna remember it, Tom. 'Hello, Mr. President, this is Governor Wolf, I need help, I need help.' You know what? These people are bad."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) October 26, 2020

Joe Biden had a great week last week. He's put together a string of great weeks because he has brought empathy and understanding to the fight. His answers in the debate were measured and calm in the face of what has to be an onslaught of lies against his personal dignity. If anything, the fact that he didn't knock Trump on his ass for attaching his son is worthy of a Pulitzer Peace Price.

The campaign has not been "rocked" by any of Rudy's accusations. If anything, you have to praise people for not falling for a Russian disinformation campaign that appears to be run out of Guiliani's underwear drawer. 

Rudy Giuliani Appears in the New Borat Film

 

Oh my God:

The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen’s follow-up to Borat.

In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat’s daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.

Following an obsequious interview for a fake conservative news programme, the pair retreat at her suggestion for a drink to the bedroom of a hotel suite, which is rigged with concealed cameras.

After she removes his microphone, Giuliani, 76, can be seen lying back on the bed, fiddling with his untucked shirt and reaching into his trousers. They are then interrupted by Borat who runs in and says: “She’s 15. She’s too old for you.”

I totally missed this in July because, well, the whole country was sliding into our current state of horror and desperation:

Just a few weeks after the Who Is America? star made a clandestine appearance at a far right rally and led the crowd in a racist singsong, Cohen managed to trick former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani into an interview at which he reportedly wore a pink bikini.

Page Six reported Wednesday that the British comedian, via his team, had set up an interview with Giuliani at a New York hotel to talk about the Trump administration's response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. The interview began with a woman asking Giuliani questions before someone who would later be indentified as Cohen burst in wearing a pink bikini.

“This guy comes running in wearing a crazy, what I would say was a pink transgender outfit," Giuliani, the personal attorney to President Trump, told Page Six.

Donald Trump's personal lawyer and long time friend, everyone. Caught on film masturbating himself.

Granted, in the twisted universe of Sacha Baron Cohen characters, this could all be a mistake, a sendup, a bit of agitprop disguised to promote an otherwise empty vessel of a film.

But, wow. 2020, you magnificent bastard. 

Pope Francis and Gay Rights

 

Pope Francis is out to change minds and change hearts:

In a documentary that premiered Wednesday in Rome, Pope Francis called for the passage of civil union laws for same-sex couples, departing from the position of the Vatican’s doctrinal office and the pope’s predecessors on the issue.

The remarks came amid a portion of the documentary that reflected on pastoral care for those who identify as LGBT. 

“Homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family. They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it,” Pope Francis said in the film, of his approach to pastoral care.

After those remarks, and in comments likely to spark controversy among Catholics, Pope Francis weighed in directly on the issue of civil unions for same-sex couples.

“What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,” the pope said. “I stood up for that.”

This is a stunning development, and it is important to see how this affects Catholics world wide. It should not be seen solely as a rebuke of what is going on with the United States Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett nor should it be seen as another attack on Trump. But it helps! 

People downplaying the pope’s words, on camera, endorsing civil unions for gay couples should ask LGBT Catholics how the remarks make them feel. Having just spent months researching the Vatican’s statements on LGBT issues in the 1980s for my book, I assure you this is big news.

— Michael J. O'Loughlin (@MikeOLoughlin) October 21, 2020

More Russian Hackers are Flushed Out of the Woodwork

 

America's toothless, confused, doddering old Department of Justice has to turn to prosecutors in Pittsburgh in order to go after a rag-tag bunch of Russian hackers.

Six current and former Russian military officers sought to disrupt through computer hacking the French election, the Winter Olympics and U.S. hospitals and businesses, according to a Justice Department indictment unsealed Monday that details destructive attacks on a broad range of political, financial and athletic targets.

The indictment accuses the defendants, all alleged officers in the Russian military agency known as the GRU, in destructive attacks on Ukraine’s power grid; in a hack-and-leak effort directed at the political party of French President Emmanuel Macron in the days leading up to the 2017 election; and to impede an investigation into the suspected nerve-agent poisoning of a former spy and his daughter.

It should not even be up for discussion as to whether or not the Russians want to keep Trump in power and continue with their efforts to destabilize the political process throughout the West. This is what they're doing all hours of the day, every day until we take the necessary steps to put a stop to this.

We should break up Facebook. We should regulate all social media companies. We should analyze the means by which these companies exploit their users. Every American election from now on should feature paper ballots, no voter suppression of any kind, early voting, and no machine voting. And we should find a way to drive the Russians back into oblivion. The cost of hacking is minimal. The consequences of it need to be enough to deter anyone from engaging in it. 

If, on January 21, 2021, the Russian oligarchs were to wake up and discover that their assets around the world have been seized in a joint, worldwide effort to stop money laundering and fraud, it would be too soon. If the Obama Administration had one failing then it was believing that the Russians weren't dangerous enough.