Sunday, September 27th, 2020
Of course, the weather forecast was wrong again. It was not supposed to rain until Tuesday and of course it rained overnight. As a result all of my outside cushions are yet again drenched and I spend the morning setting them out to dry, before heading back upstairs; coffee in hand to deal with the media.
Twitter is of course exploding with the nomination of a very conservative catholic to fill RBG’s seat. Both the persona and her political views as well as the process are being criticized. FB does not care too much about that and my feed is full of posts of “View from my Window” which has been very entertaining for the past 170 or so out of the 200 days we have been dealing with this pandemic.
200 hundred days, let that sink in. 200 days, that is how long we have been working from home, schooling from home, wearing masks, sanitizing everything, washing hands like crazy and trying to build a socially distanced life. As the cold weather is approaching and outside socializing becomes less appealing psychologists are wondering how this will effect us. While a little bit of a dense read, there is a lot we could learn from Norway, where in some parts people do not see direct sunlight for most of the winter. A positive mindset seems to be key.
Our socially distanced life today included a brunch on the patio of my friends Luc and Tina who had lived with me for three months before all of this started while they were relocating from Panama to the DMV and waiting for their tenants to vacate their house. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and leaving was a little hard. But EM only had so much patience plus I had a lap lane reserved. After 30 minutes of swimming I got out, just find that on Sundays the 17:00 slot is a 45-minute slot I was quick to dive back in!
And now I come back to news of Trump’s tax returns published in the NYT. I have yet to read the article, but based on Twitter he basically does not pay taxes! People are up in arms that at the same time their taxes pay for his golf trips to his properties. Admittedly I am not really surprised at this news. He, his families and his cronies have been using the presidency for self-enrichment, maybe not directly putting their hand in the till, but very much indirectly. His daughter made USD 120 million last year. How can that be given she is supposedly his advisor and hence a public servant? The taxpayers also pay for all the security people and his entourage to stay at his hotels. And even more indirectly, anyone wishing to ingratiate themselves with him stay at his hotels, paying a handsome sum for each night. It is all so dirty, but his supporters do not care.
Meanwhile the spread of the virus continues. The moron in chief had known about how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads since January 28th, 2020 and did nothing to contain the spread, rather playing it down, hich he does to this day.
While globally reported new infections increased by 500k, 55k thereof can be attributed to the USA. Numbers are rising in the Midwest, especially in Wisconsin, which is now demonstrating how politicized masks have become. While the democratic governor issued a statewide mask wearing mandate the state parliament is seeking to undo it. Likewise, the governor of Ohio was booed by crowds when he suggested that if one had to wear a mask one should wear a MAGA mask. I cannot understand why masks have become so controversial. In my neighborhood everyone wears them. Wherever I go people have masks. It is not that hard.
Unlike the USA Germany did have a United plan underwhich States adn the Federal government worked together and closely coordinating their approach. which has served them very well in terms of virus management. The shitstorm the US is in is clearly of its own making.
Labor Day weekend was two weeks ago and guess what? The same trend as post Memorial Day and 4th of July weekend emerges. In a single day 55k new cases were reported. This is 15k more than new cases reported yesterday; a huge spike. I now expect to see a daily increase in new cases of about the same magnitude for the next four weeks. Given that testing has declined in some States and reporting formats have changed, one can also safely assume that these numbers, big as they are, are under reported. Many of the new cases are in Swing states, so just maybe enough Republicans may be infected and cannot make it to the polls to swing them Democratic. That would be justice! Unfortunately the Virus is bipartisan.
Speaking of justice. The moron in chief has nominated a super conservative woman as his pick for the Supreme Court. That of course is no surprise. She will likely dismantle all that RBG has achieved in terms of equal rights. Again, that is a pattern of this administration. So far, all appointees to head some branch of government have been fervent haters of this branch and basically dismantle it from the inside. Just look at the EPA, the post office, and so on. What is outrageous is the hypocrisy of the GOP who denied Obama the appointment of a Supreme Court judge on the grounds that it was an election year. And this appointment would have come nine months and not 37 days before the election. The scum bag in chief just stonewalled and even declined for the Senate to hear the candidate.
Currently Democrats do not have the majority to do this. But they can make it hard for the GOP. Enforce the two hour rule, which limits the time when committees may hold hearings while the full Senate is in session, refusing unanimous consent, which would require every single item coming up for a vote on the Senate floor to be voted on, this can be combined with democrats requiring the GOP to have a majority on anything coming up for a vote, which means that in the middle of the campaign for 8 contended Senate seats at any given time 51 of the 53 Senators are forced to come to DC for quorum calls and to cast votes while their democratic contenders can of course continue to campaign and be present in State. In addition, Democrats can boycott the confirmation hearings to protest the legitimacy of the nomination.
I believe they absolutely should do all of this and if Vice President Joe Biden wins the election do this until the inauguration. This includes the House passing preferential resolutions which the Senate then must process. This could include impeachment of government officials such as the Attorney General who has converted the DoJ into a Trump defense law firm. There are a number of other officials though who would qualify for investigations, including appointments to the DHS. Another interesting investigation could be into corruption of government officials, starting with the Trump familly business.
In the meantime the Biden campaign should focus on unemployment, the pandemic, the possibility of losing healthcare and so on. It is not well served by making threats like expanding the SCOTUS if elected. Threats will not further their cause and may instead just rally Republican voters. I firmly believe that, if elected, which I am very pessimistic about, a Biden administration should hit the ground running making full use of the first 100 days in office to effect major reforms and leverage what may hopefully be a majority in both houses. In preparation of this the Democratic transition team should be drafting legislation and agreeing it with Senators in office, the Democratic caucus in Congress as well as all Democratic may be Senators between now and the inauguration. Key policies to focus on would be voting reforms, abolishment of the Filibuster, and a reform of the Supreme Court, not necessarily expanding it, but rather curbing its powers to overturn legislation by requiring a qualified majority for all decisions and a super majority for overturning entire laws. Supreme Court reform in the spirit of protecting democracy, enabling elected officials to make policies rather than the SCOTUS becoming the de facto executive. Also, there may be a lot of legislation they could agree to repeal so that in the unlikely event of a President Biden all of this can be passed on day one of the new presidency in Congress and day two in the Senate. Next up would be confirming hundreds and thousands of appointees, ideally these can be selected and pre-vetted during the transition period. Lastly, use the first 100 days to make DC and Puerto Rico full States and expand he lower courts, nominating judges like there is no tomorrow. After day 101 consider embarking on a consolidation course with major healthcare reform, an infrastructure investment program (green deal) to create jobs and combat climate change at the same time.
I realize this would be a humongous effort. Sadly, though none of this is going to happen as the Democrats just do not have the balls to play hard ball. They have to many scruples.