Is Trump pondering Bolivian election to counter impending loss?

Trump has been signaling for some time now his likely election loss will be a fraud, based in part on delayed mail in ballots. He wants to declare victory Election Night assuming his base will turn out same day voting wins in swing states. Trump may be eyeing the October 20, 2019 election in Bolivia where the Movement For Socialism Party (MAS) under Evo Morales prevailed over his right wing opposition. Election day results favored the opposition party in line to force a run off. But MAS votes trickled in over the next 4 days from MAS strongholds in the countryside which invariably are late arriving. On October 24, Morales declared victory, achieving the 10 percentage point margin to avoid a runoff. Opposition party leaders, with support from the U.S. and Organization of American States (OAS) no like. They instigated a coup in early November, based on alleged vote fraud over the late arriving MAS ballots. Morales and his administration were forced to resign to quell violence claiming 31 lives.

If Trump follows the Bolivian right wing playbook, he may not need a violent coup to retain power. Packing the Supreme Court with conservatives worked for George W. Bush in 2000. An even larger conservative majority, aided by 11th hour confirmation of Amy Barrett, may be just what Trump needs to stage a soft coup in what could be the most bollixed up U.S. election since the 1876 debacle that certified Rutherford Hayes president just one day before his March 3, 1877 Inauguration.

In a footnote to the right wing theft of Evo Morales’ 2019 squeaker socialist victory, the next Bolivian election this month left no doubt. MAS crushed the opposition by 29 percentage points. Let’s hope it doesn’t take a year to unravel Trump’s planned shenanigans next week.

Paul Richards to Tony LaRussa: “Faggedaboudit”

 White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf likely didn’t review the sad second act of famed Sox manager Paul Richards before hiring 76 year old Tony LaRussa for his second act as Sox skipper. Richards was revered as a baseball genius of sorts for resurrecting the long dormant Sox in 1951, 32 years after the Black Sox scandal of 1919 made them bottom feeders in the American League. Richards captained the Sox resurgence with first division finishes from ’51 thru ’55, before managing the Baltimore Orioles in 1955. 

Richards’ 51 to ’55 Sox were competitive every year, compiling a .563 winning percentage. He retired in 1961 after 7 seasons with the O’s. But 15 years later Sox owner Bill Veeck coaxed 68 year old Richards out of retirement for a second shot at Sox success. Big mistake. Richards, a tough taskmaster out of step with cultural changes in player attitudes, staggered to a 64-97 (.398) sixth place finish. 

Today, Tony LaRussa, faces more complicated generational and cultural challenges than Richards encountered 44 years ago. He’s trying to walk back some of his critical comments about Colin Kaepernick and other players protesting injustice and institutional racism. Up at the Big Show in the Sky, Paul Richards is looking down, shaking his head. “Been there Tony…doesn’t work”.  

   

Truthful Trump quote

 "You won't hear about covid after November 3"

True for those it killed. 

Pope's cry in the wilderness not enough

Catholic Theologian Steven Millies, in his Tribune Commentary, ‘Pope Francis' support for civil unions is a call to justice — and nothing new’ spent 862 words trying to paper over the Catholic Church’s centuries long and continuing demonization of consenting homosexual behavior. Church doctrine still holds the Church's respect for gay people cannot in any way lead to approval of homosexual behavior, which is intrinsically disordered, or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. Just because the Pope and some bishops have cautiously mentioned that the Church should respect the dignity of all people, including allowing gays the familial benefits of marriage without being married, does not signal any true fundamental change in Church doctrine. Millies implies it’s just wonderful that Church may possibly be inching its way into the 21st century of full respect for and inclusiveness of gay people and behavior. He’s thrilled the Vatican can “imagine the space that the church can occupy in this new reality” of full gay rights and acceptance. That is like saying the U.S. Supreme Court in ‘Plessey v. Ferguson (1896), could imagine that separate but equal was good enough for Black Americans. The imaginative thinking Millies says Catholics, including bishops and even the Pope are expressing, is really about how to maintain denigration of harmless behavior with the reality that such doctrine is unconscionable.

U.S. tells UN to go to hell on Cuba

Does even one in a hundred Americans know our cruel, senseless economic embargo of Cuba marked its 60th year in 2020? Nearly 80 % of Americans we’re even born when the embargo was imposed in 1960. It’s a relic of Cold War hysteria, and revenge that a pipsqueak island of 6 million could rise up to end six decades of U.S. economic exploitation by appropriating ravenous U.S. businesses stealing Cuban wealth. It lingers thru political inertia, cowardice and cruelty against a desperately poor but courageous people who live in a truly more humane land that we Americans. Universal Cuban health care, education, housing and employment puts American governance to shame.

The UN, the organization America championed during WWII to make the world more peaceful and livable, has taken notice. For 28 straight years it has passed resolutions calling for an end to America’s economic, commercial and financial Cuban embargo. The vote is never close. Last year it was 187 to 3. Joining the US in voting against was Brazil, governed by Trump’s soulmate Jair Bolsonaro, and Israel, experts in the art of keeping unwanted neighbors stateless.

Cuba’s response to U.S. cruelty should be read by every American:
“The blockade has caused incalculable humanitarian damages. It is a flagrant, massive and systematic violation of human rights. It qualifies as an act of genocide under Articles II (b) and (c) of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted in 1948. There is not one single Cuban family that has not suffered the consequences of this.”

UN resolution number 29, calling for an end to American cruelty toward Cuba, comes up next month. U.S. response number 29, will once again likely tell the UN, “Go to hell.”

Pope's gay civil unions comments old (Vatican censored) news

The recently reported comments by Pope Francis supporting gay civil unions, a dramatic break with Vatican doctrine, are actually a year old. He made them in a Mexican broadcast station Televisa interview in 2019. But Televisa revealed the Vatican filmed the interview and edited out the offensive (to them) remarks. The interview has Televisa asking Francis about legalizing same sex relationships. The video then skips to Francis saying "One changes in life". Gone missing are the words revealed in the new documentary 'Francesco': "What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered." 'Francesco' director Evgeny Afineevsky apparently discovered the censored remarks in Vatican archives while researching his documentary and simply reinserted them as new news. Also apparent is that while Pope Francis changes in life...the Vatican does not.

Movie Pick: The Trial of the Chicago 7

This Netflix flic transported me back 51 years when I followed the events of this infamous miscarriage of justice in the Trib, Sun Times and Daily News in pre-internet Chicago. Too busy with career, I dropped out of my meager anti war activity after college in ’67. But never fully disengaged with anti war sentiment and viewed the Chicago 7 as personal heroes for their willingness to risk a decade in prison to disrupt the ’68 Convention as a means of opposing the Vietnam War. And let’s not ignore 8th defendant, Black Panther Bobby Seale, who was denied council by disgraceful Judge Hoffman; then bound and gagged for speaking out. That grotesque treatment did work to get him severed from the judicial pig circus with a mistrial ruling.

While several million were being slaughtered in Vietnam to maintain American Empire, including 58,000 GI’s, not a single sole died during Convention. But the Nixon Administration wanted vengeance, regardless of cost in treasure, defendant suffering and senseless debasement of the justice system.

The Aaron Sorkin written and directed take on the trial is a stunning masterpiece of film making and history. It should be viewed by every citizen with the slightest interest in history or a just society. Hell, it should be shown in every high school civics/history class in the land. Half century ago the real trial degraded my faith in U.S. justice, inspiring a lifelong interest in reform. Lots of sad parallels to today’s justice and governance (today's Bill Barr was John Mitchell in '69) shows we have a long hard slog ahead to that judicial and governing ideal.

Short take: Good movie to get your blood boiling

One hand clapping for Pope Francis on gay civil unions

Glad to hear Pope Francis has come out in support of civil unions for gays. He didn't exactly trumpet the news. It popped up in the documentary 'Francesco' which premiered at the Rome Film Festival. His comments do not change official church doctrine that "the Church's respect for gay people cannot in any way lead to approval of homosexual behavior, which is intrinsically disordered, or to legal recognition of homosexual unions."

When I heard the news, three words came to mind: Plessey versus Ferguson.