Covid peak, treason peak, combine to degrade life, democracy in America

Two numbers stand out in today’s declining America: 3,000 and 18. We incurred 3,000 single day covid deaths yesterday for the first time. Eighteen Republican state Attorneys General, led by indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, sued in the Supreme Court to overturn Joe Biden’s election in battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan. The 3,000 deaths, which pushed the U.S. total to 296,700 in ten months, began as an event in nature capable of being controlled by wise governmental intervention. The 18 Attorneys Generals’ lawsuit is wholly man-made, Trump’s latest treasonous gambit to overturn an overwhelming legitimate Biden victory.

Trump’s treason against the Constitution and American democracy began long before pandemic began its devastation of American health and economy. It glided with Trump down the Trump Tower escalator in June, 2015, with a campaign theme based on the current president’s illegitimacy due to being a black man born in Africa. It was a perfect storm of racism and xenophobia. When that resonated with a disaffected, largely white, rural and poorly educated electorate, Trump made insurrection the foundation of his election, governance and re-election. He didn’t lose to Hillary by 2,900,000 votes because the popular election vote was stolen from him by the crooked Democrat Party. Delegitimization of the American electoral system was now official administration policy. When pandemic hit America in February, Trump fused his electoral treason with the destruction of the peoples’ health and wealth. There was no pandemic so there was no need to restrict the economy; not even wear masks or avoid crowds. Trump’s feverish attempts to stop mail in voting, critically needed to reduce pandemic, was the emblematic connection between treason and pandemic. He couldn’t lose re-election unless Democrats were allowed to steal it with mail in votes, which had to be stopped.

When both the national and Electoral College vote overwhelmingly defeated him, Trump doubled down on treasonous assault against the election, even bringing most of the Republican leadership along with him. Threats of violence against Democratic and Republican election officials alike escalate daily. Public health officials promoting sane restrictions receive death threats working in fear, not of covid but from treacherous Trump supporters.

But one number offers a glimmer of hope in our declining democracy and pandemic ravaged society: 40, the number of days Trump and his Republican leaders, his enabling states Attorney’s Generals, his disgraceful lawyers can promote their treason.

Barr’s swan song: ‘Let there be blood’

 

Attorney General Bill Barr has just 42 more days as Attorney General. Yet, he’s determined to execute five more of the 54 federal inmates on death row. After a 17 year absence, Barr ordered the U.S. to resume federal executions In July, just six months before his tenure would expire with a Trump loss…which it will. Between July 14 and November 19, eight humans were whacked by Barr’s resumption and he’s planned the remaining five for his last six weeks as U.S. Executioner in Chief. One is a likely mentally ill woman who suffered years of sexual abuse and incest as a child. Two of the men have been judged intellectually disabled.

 

Was the election a factor in Barr’s rush to kill? Executions play well with the Republican base which still supports the death penalty at 61% compared to Democrats 46%. During Barr’s first tenure at Justice in the 1980’s and '90’s he strongly advocated for incarcerating more prisoners and imposing longer sentences. He was a strong advocate of requiring federal prisoners serve 85% of their sentence regardless of good behavior being an incentive for early release. His second stint as Attorney General has facilitated his lust for the cruel and unusual punishment of federally sponsored murder.

 

Check that. Under Barr it's no longer unusual.

79 years ago Japan; today U.S. threatens China

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in the Hawaiian Islands 79 years ago today. At that time the U.S. along with Britain, France and the Dutch, had empire in Japan’s Far East neighborhood. Japan was, in a sense, imposing its own version of the Monroe Doctrine, seeking to kick the four Western powers out of its concept of Japanese Manifest Destiny. The U.S. had been expanding its reach, thousands of miles from the Homeland against Japanese expansion since the mid 1930’s, making an eventual Japanese attack virtually inevitable. This mirrored FDR’s reach thousands of miles east with moral and physical support to the beleaguered Brits against Hitler. And the war came to America this fateful day in ‘41.

While I don’t quarrel with FDR’s machinations to draw America into that global conflict, I do recoil at our Far East aggression today, this time directed at our 1930’s ally China. Sailing warships and flying bombers close to disputed land masses in China’s neighborhood, pledging support to defend Taiwan from Chinese attempts at reunification, and inflammatory media rhetoric that war may inevitable, is not a good way to remember Pearl Harbor Day. China of 2020 is not Japan of 1941, except in one critical way. If you push hard enough for war…you’ll get it.

Allen favorite Sox player over 60 seasons

Bummed about the death of Dick Allen at 78 today. He was my all-time favorite Sox player since I began following the Pale Hose in 1951. Allen, then known as Richie, won Rookie of the Year in 1964 with the Phillies. But no Jackie Robinson or Ernie Banks in demeanor, Allen faced unrelenting racism from Phillies fans and press which he didn’t ignore. It earned him enough enmity in the game to likely make him the best player never enshrined in the Hall. Baseball stat guru Bill James was vicious, claiming Allen “used racism as an explosive to blow his teams apart. He did more to keep his teams from winning than anybody else who ever played major league ball”.

But when he came to the Sox in ’72 after 7 years with the Phillies and one season each with the Cards and Dodgers, there wasn’t a hint of James’ reverse racist nonsense. He was a team player and fan fave from Opening Day, having the greatest season of his 15, copping the MVP Award and propelling the Sox to contention. Allen’s home runs weren’t moon shots, just absolute ropes that hit the stands in an instant. I was thrilled to see a few at old Comisky where Allen brought the fans back after years of mediocrity. He’s the only player I ever saw who got an ovation striking out swinging. Injured for half the next season, Allen thrilled again in ’74 before moving back to the Phillies for two more years and a final one with Oakland before retiring after ’77.

The Sox should honor Allen by retiring his No. 15 at Opening Day next year.

House GOP whiffs on chance to overturn racist cannabis past

House Democrats easily passed legislation to end federal prohibition of cannabis, with little help from House Republicans. Just 5 of 163 Republicans joined the 222 Dems (6 voted NO) to redress 83 years of essentially racist enforcement against cannabis that snared millions, a majority black and brown, helping devastate communities of color for nine decades. The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act will remove cannabis from the federal list of illegal drugs, begin the expunging of non-violent federal marijuana convictions, and funnel tax revenue from legal cannabis sales to disadvantaged communities disproportionally targeted cannabis drug arrests.

State prohibition against cannabis began in 1906, eventually encompassing all fifty states. The 1937 Marijuana Tax Act criminalized it federally for the past 83 years. Prohibition Czar Henry Anslinger, needed a new bete noir to further his career when booze became legal again in 1933. He turned to cannabis, a drug first popularized by Mexican immigrants fleeing to the U.S. from political unrest in Mexico. Anslinger and his racist cohorts expanded this scenario to include blacks, creating a scare campaign that cannabis would ensnare young whites to crime, madness, suicide and sexual exploitation. It worked brilliantly as nine decades on we’re still trying to extricate America from the scourge imposed on largely minority communities. Blacks are still arrested at over three times the rate of whites.

Tho legal in 36 states for medical purposes and 15 states recreationally, 14 states still maintain total prohibition on cannabis. The MORE Act will nationalize a sane, racially redemptive policy that will create national healing. Alas, MORE is D.O.A. in the Republican controlled Senate. Come January 6, with a lot of hard campaigning and a little luck in Georgia, Vice President Kamala Harris, who introduced the Senate version, can break the 50-50 tie in favor of MORE without needing a single GOP vote. That, not cannabis, is the best way to get high in 2021.

Where is 50% GOP solution to end Trump’s election treason?

In 1954, America faced a crisis of democracy. Republican Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy was four years into his destruction of American democracy. He shredded our revered concept of freedom of speech and political thought by exploiting fear of communism to destroy countless lives both in and out of government. Supported by a sizable minority of the electorate, McCarthy smeared not only opponents on the progressive left as Russian dupes, he used the same tactics to smear Army generals and members of his own party. Even untouchable Ike felt vulnerable, deleting negative references to McCarthy’s smears against his WWII soulmate, General George C. Marshall, during a Wisconsin campaign stop.

By early 1954, patriotic Senate Republicans had enough. As majority party they introduced a resolution to censure McCarthy for bringing discredit upon the Senate. Democratic Minority Leader LBJ told his members to simply shut up and let the Republicans conduct the debate. McCarthy was so flummoxed he accused his Republican colleagues of carrying communist water. When the vote came down December 2, 1954, 22 Republicans, half of the 44 voting, joined all 45 Democrats to censure McCarthy. GOP bipartisan support sealed McCarthy’s fate.

Sixty-six years on America faces another crisis of our fragile democracy. Trump is committing treason by denying the overwhelming Biden victory, raising $200 million to fight in court and enlisting his 73 million supporters to resist the results. Most alarming is the Republican leadership, unlike the patriots of 1954, are refusing to accept the election outcome or oppose Trump’s treason. Only 27 of 249 Republican senators and representatives even concede Biden won. Worst of all is both House and Senate Republican leaders joined the 222 supporting Trump. When asked how he’ll respond to Biden executive orders on Day One, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (no relation to Tail Gunner Joe) said “Let’s wait until we see who’s sworn in”. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was a tad less treasonous saying “The future will take care of itself”.

If even half the Republican Congressional caucus would embrace Biden’s victory, Trump would start packing. At 11%, Trump simply ramps up treasonous rhetoric at his Nuremberg style ‘Stop The Steal” rallies, collecting hundreds of millions from the spiritual descendants of McCarthy’s followers seven decades ago.