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Throughout the last four years many have searched with hopeful diligence through US history for evidence America has previously slogged through circumstances similar to those that unfolded throughout the Trump Presidency and moved forward intact. Unfortunately, at this moment the most comparable parallels can be found at where we’d least like to look, the US after the election of 1860.

Anybody complaining about the eternity between when Joe Biden was projected the winner of Decision/2020 and his inauguration – still a seemingly interminable 125 hours away as this column is written – was not around in the winter of 1861 when the nation had to suffer “doughface” James Buchanan until March as the Union steadily came unglued. It’s no coincidence that Buchanan was a fairly well established consensus pick by historians as the worst POTUS ever to sully the high office until our civic catastrophe elevated Trump, who now holds the ignominious distinction by a wide and ever expanding margin.

What differentiates the two is that back then most all saw Buchanan as wholly insufficient and dispensable, whereas Trump somehow has created a frothing-at-the-mouth cult fully radicalized to believe his continued relevance is fundamental to US survival. In 1861 most southerners were willing to dismantle the Union based on the lie Lincoln and the GOP meant to abolish slavery instead of merely prohibiting it in new US territories. In 2021 a dangerously significant minority is prepared to dissolve America based on an exponentially more preposterous falsehood, rabidly baseless claims by the vanquished incumbent President they adore that his election loss by more than 7 million votes was the result of systemic voter fraud throughout only the battleground states that determined his defeat. It’s conspiracy delirium that’s both targeted and all-encompassing, detailed and broad strokes.

In 1861 there was nothing the President-elect could say to dissuade seditionists his desire for unity far outweighed any commitment to an abolitionist agenda. Much of the nation was never prepared to recognize as legitimate the man most historians now rank as America’s greatest leader. Right now millions feel exactly the same way about Biden, based on nothing more than our worst President’s relentless promise during both of his campaigns that he would be a sore loser for the ages. The US Capitol was breached last week for the first time since 1812 by a nihilist mob convinced a defeated incumbent’s inane hyperbole to rebrand yet another abject failure ensured by his lazy incompetence equated with the righteousness of our nation’s founding. Think about that one for a moment.

When Lincoln finally did place his hand on the Bible, Southern secession was a foregone conclusion. He would have to build an army by instituting the first military draft in American history. Ironically, he would find greatness for abolishing slavery, a crusade he adopted only after the slave masters refused to take yes for an answer. Southern politicians pandered en masse to initiating a conflict their hubris allowed them only to imagine as a glorious march toward liberation. Now, even after perhaps the most disgraceful afternoon in US history, a grand total of 10 Republicans in Congress found enough shame to hold Trump accountable for the mob violence and looting of the US Capitol he alone incited. In fact, two-thirds of the GOP House caucus still refuses to renounce the lie responsible for radicalism driving the wretched core’s treason.

Today more than 4000 Americans died from Covid-19 yet again. At the current rate of infection, that number could climb to 6-8000 per day. Alabama has near zero ICU capacity available right now. Yet and still, thousands of Crimson Tide football fans gave that grave health emergency not a moment’s consideration as they climbed on top of each other in the streets to celebrate a national championship superspreader style. Covid, shmovid… WWDD (What Would Donald Do.) Flyover America is going to keep us sick and destitute one way or the other, whether it’s celebrating or rebelling. Good times or end days!

Biden is inheriting civic hell, a perfect storm of militant ignorance, white entitlement and grotesque selfishness rebranded as yet another hideous Fox/AM perversion of patriotic disdain for political correctness. How can you possibly negotiate with a political class beholden to such sociopathy? Lincoln had to slog through blood to get to the other side. Biden starts with a killing field. Whatever sensible federal guidance his team puts forward, it is certain MAGA Governors will pursue nullification, or else be burned in effigy.

As the US lurched toward civil war in 1861, very few thought too much about how horrific the genie they were letting out of the bottle could be. After all, picnickers from DC and vicinity came out to witness the first battles. What could go wrong? When all was said and done 620,000 had perished, about half of that total from disease. Today we seem intent on doing it all in reverse, with half a million or more needlessly gone from a deadly virus before we even start with the real killing. What does a country look like with much of its oldest AND fittest gone at once? Last Wednesday Trump’s walking dead appeared willing to find out.

So what is the way forward? The good news is, like circa 1861, a serious man of good faith will replace a dangerous fool at the helm. But the situation is dire. Forget national unity, merely achieving and maintaining functional governance currently seems a lofty ambition. In addition to varying degrees of civil unrest we can expect throughout the country, even if we dodge the bullet of organized extremist violence, the best scenario still suffers the fact that at least a quarter of America’s polity care more about culture war rot and getting even with libs for the constant unfairness their whiney hero suffered than anything actually relating to self-interest. The rational actor model no longer applies.

Just like Lincoln, nothing Biden can say or do is going to change that. They are lost to us as anything other than the pestilence they demand to be. One hundred and sixty years ago America was torn apart by those who felt entitled to a way of life dependent on the original sin of slavery, a culture reliant on the lie of racial superiority. Now we are being dismantled by a group equally obsessed by a right they imagine is every bit as integral to their existence… the freedom to be nasty jerks, entitled to resent and despise most others for no other reason than the insecurity that comes naturally to such a disposition.

For four years one of their own has been President, emboldening them to be their worst without inhibition. Last Wednesday demonstrated the lengths they will go to deny usurpation of the control they felt with their grievance empath in the White House. We paid a terrible price long ago to figure out the cost for unity, which history would decree ending slavery justified. Most now understand, had that wrong been righted at the outset, blood would not have been spilled “four score and seven years” later. What we are forced to fork over in the future will be determined by how long we keep trying to avoid the tab today by tolerating what we shouldn’t. BC

“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.”
–Yoda

“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
–Nelson Mandela

On October 16, 1995 hundreds of thousands of Black men and boys came to DC for what was billed by organizers as a “Million Man March.” The event was the idea of Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, and “aimed to convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male.” Moreover, a wide array of speakers were lined up to present different viewpoints concerning challenges unique to African-Americans, particularly men.

So many attended the march, which enjoyed the blessing of beautiful fall weather, that estimating crowd size became a daunting and contentious challenge. The National Park Service put the number at 400,000, which organizers vigorously disputed, claiming attendance was much higher. After much back and forth, a Boston University group of researchers pegged the number at 837,000, with a 20% margin of error. Regardless, the Million Man March was one awesome display of humanity, a historical mass gathering of people.

Looking out from the steps of the US Capitol where speakers gathered, the throng appeared to extend indefinitely, literally a pulsing sea of life as far as the eye could see. There was no space at all not occupied from the Capitol to the Monument. Just to take in the scene was enough to make one feel a bit claustrophobic.

It would not be until Barack Obama’s first inauguration that another DC happening would compare. Indeed, Obama’s swearing-in actually exceeded The March to become the new standard for awe-inspiring collective trampling of the Mall’s grounds. Each occasion had more than simply crowd size in common, they were celebrations where attendees shared the satisfaction that comes with noble purpose, genuine outpourings of the good will produced by optimism for a better future. Unfortunately, however, there existed a darker thread that tied the two gatherings together: millions throughout white America witnessed each with abject fear and derision, certain they were witnessing grave threats to their immediate safety and overall way of life.

Fear is at once the most vital and counterproductive human emotion. While necessary to alert us to threats we must elude to survive, it more often than not inhibits our development and progress, creating obstacles that, although not comporting with reality, nonetheless freeze our initiative, or even worse set us on the wrong course. Fear can beguile us into believing real dangers are actually solutions, and those we should oppose are beneficial allies. Left unaddressed, our imaginings can imprison us in a world created by anxiety, not actual events. All of which is to say choosing our fears wisely is a critical human obligation. Recognizing actual danger while confronting ghosts that lack substance, is really just an addendum to telling right from wrong.

As crews repair the damage inflicted on the US Capitol Wednesday, heads are already beginning to roll. How could such a nefarious mob meet so little resistance is the primary question. The Capitol Police force, primarily responsible for protecting US democracy’s most enduring symbol, is 2000 officers strong. Where the hell were they? Why do we see image after image of woefully outnumbered groups futilely attempting to hold back jackal-like hordes of rioters? Asked to account, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who was forced to resign hours later, provided a short answer that spoke volumes. A “robust plan” had been prepared, declared Sund, however it was only meant to address a run-of-the-mill demonstration, not “criminal riotous behavior.”

Really? And what possibly could have supported that assumption? Certainly not the President, who was constantly tweeting the 6th would be “wild” and “we’re going to take our country back.” Definitely not so much as a cursory survey of the Internet and Fox/AM news sources, who were all trumpeting a “defining showdown” for American patriots. And no way even a momentary glance at social media platforms could have reinforced such nonchalance, as the full array of MAGA creeps and violent white extremist groups talked openly about the “marching orders” they had received from their victim-in-chief.

So what was it that provided reassurance for a geared down approach? After all, anyone who remembered the armed encampment DC became for BLM protests over the summer recess, complete with construction of a border wall-like monstrosity around the White House, and an army of Capitol Hill protectors, had to wonder why a fully-attended joint session of Congress wouldn’t necessitate at least something in, if not the same neighborhood, at least the same time zone. Better safe than sorry, right? Indeed.

Fox/AM, the MAGA monster’s creator, is responsible for so many outrageous lies and inane tropes it’s hard to point to one group as more vile than another; it’s like picking a particularly rotten apple among those fallen from the tree. Yet and still, the ridiculous contention that civil unrest is the exclusive domain of blacks and Antifa is particularly disgusting. “Hard working” whites -Josh Hawley’s favorite dog whistle – can only be victims of riots, or armed avengers protecting communities under siege the story goes, even as one image after another documents camo-wearing, AR-15 toting deplorables menacing state houses, or foul-mouthed anti-maskers berating health providers or “poll watchers” terrorizing election workers. Even as the FBI has made clear white extremists represent the greatest threat of domestic terrorism America faces, and an actual plot to kidnap Michigan’s Governor was recently foiled, the Carlsons and Hannitys end every rant with BLM or Antifa.

In fact, just before daddy took the stage Wednesday, Don Jr. was warming up the crowd. Before he began hissing about “coming after” RINOs who weren’t servile enough members of “Trump’s Republican Party,” he ironically quipped about nothing being burned down, a reference to what a comparable gathering of “leftists” surely would have done if dissed the way Trump patriots have been. Two hours later, after Trump Sr. had sufficiently worked them into a violent froth before sending them on their way down Pennsylvania Ave., the wretched core showed a sickened nation just how bad a mob can really get. The now former Capitol Police Chief Sund learned the hard way that, yes, God-fearing, grievance-laden white “patriots” are capable of far worse than demonstrations.

Four years ago, as the first African-American President, who had been inspired toward the end of the last century by near a million Black men gathered to affirm a commitment to their families and communities, approached the end of two honorable terms in office, irrational fear reared its ugly hair-woven head and this nation veered perilously off course. Wednesday we came to the inevitable end of that lost journey. That we appear to have survived intact seems miraculous given the array of disastrous possibilities we were fully vulnerable to experiencing. However, we still have to find our way back to the right road, get back on track in the right direction. Meanwhile, way too many remain scared witless by where we once were going. They still don’t think we’re lost, even after the wreck we just got into. If we don’t figure out what to do with them we’re going to crash again, and don’t bet we’ll be so lucky the next time around. We’ve got about two years… the clock is ticking. BC

“Trumpism is not at all about ideas; there is nothing available in that department. It’s really about boundaries and behavior.  Trump has provided a lurid example how to flaunt virtually every responsible thing about our electoral system.  The degree to which his ugly group of toadies follow his playbook will surely determine how much we should worry as November nears.“

The DR – April 24, 2018

Throughout the summer of 1917, following the February overthrow of the Romanov Dynasty, a tremendous power vacuum existed in Russia. Much was fluid as Aleksander Kerensky, a devout democrat and head of the provisional government that replaced deposed Tsar Nicholas II, sought a path forward for a nation with no experience at self-determination. It had come to his attention that elements of the military, egged on by English attaches nervous about the prospect of Russia withdrawing from the WWI alliance against Germany, were plotting a coup to topple the fledgling government in Petrograd. What to do?

Kerensky decided to try and consolidate support among other groups within the manic Russian political spectrum as a counterweight to the threat he saw developing among the militarists. As part of this effort he agreed to free a number of jailed leftist radicals, who were sworn enemies of General Lavr Kornilov, the leader of the Russian military and principle architect of the developing coup attempt. Among those released were Bolsheviks V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky, both of whom had as little affection for the Kerensky government as they did for Kornilov, who would have surely executed either had his drive to depose the provisional government not been foiled.

Kerensky reassured himself and advisors, who opposed freeing established troublemakers with little else to offer than seditious agitation, that democracy required free rein for political opponents, particularly if it was helpful opposing other more organized and well-armed opposition. Of course, in October the Bolsheviks, armed by Kerensky to help resist the failed Kornilov effort, launched their own revolt which succeeded with nary a casualty. The rest is history that supports this simple lesson: if somebody tells you they are treasonous, bent on destroying what you stand for, believe them… and take appropriate action, up to and including incarceration.

What’s happening in America right now is clear as a fall day in New England. A soundly defeated incumbent President is doing everything he can to incite national insurrection rather than concede a defeat that all who don’t rely on his warped perception of reality acknowledge is certain and indisputable. As the clock winds down to the inauguration of his successor, his efforts have grown increasingly frantic, his rhetoric ever more unhinged and untethered to fact.

Former allies who refuse to embrace and support his baseless claims of voter fraud have immediately been deemed enemies, subject to constant vitriol and threats of retaliation. Meanwhile, his inner circle has rapidly contracted, and is now almost solely comprised of fringe conspiracists and others whose only qualification is their limitless loyalty and willingness to tell him only what he wants to hear. Am I missing anything?

The image of Hitler in his Berlin bunker circa ‘45 really isn’t too much of a stretch. But while Hitler left a destroyed and occupied country, which forced a reckoning his following could neither ignore or remodel, Trump’s wretched core is digesting his defeat in line with exactly how he and his propagandists tell them to. And unlike Hitler, Trumpism was not provided the time to fully ruin America; there is much left to be done… and no shortage of servile successors hoping to inherit the old man’s maniacal fan base.

Few believe Trump will again be a candidate for anything other than parole, but that doesn’t mean his tweet finger can’t be a nihilist kingmaker, or insurmountable obstacle to a campaign gaining traction. Trump is only about Trump, and it’s certain dementia will enhance the megalomania. Yet and still, the GOP 2024 Presidential primary class will be divided into two camps, those running against Trump’s disdain, and those despicable enough to curry his favor. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz will do whatever it takes to belong to the latter, up to and including treason. Wednesday they’ll prove that without a care in the world as to consequences. That state of affairs can’t continue if America is to survive as a going democratic concern.

Sedition is defined as “conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.“ Since our republic derives all of its authority through a peaceful electoral process, it’s clear-cut fabricating lies for no other purpose than to undermine faith in that process fits the concept’s meaning to the letter. While holding Trump to account in his final days as President may not make sense because of the chaos it would foist on the transition process – after all, once he vacates the premises, he can be prosecuted on multiple fronts at whatever pace is deemed most suitable – such caution shouldn’t apply to traitors intent on willfully sabotaging the peaceful transfer of power for no better reason than future political advantage. Not only is abiding such behavior patently unpatriotic, the precedent it sets is as perilous as it is unnecessary. To quote many a MAGA moron… Lock Them Up!

Few would argue the White House isn’t as powerful a platform as exists to incite, coordinate and actually execute rebellion. Trump is literally spending all of his time doing just that. Whether calling Georgia officials to threaten and cajole them into voter fraud, or rallying Proud Boys to DC for violence and mayhem, Trump is leaving nothing to the imagination. Hawley, Cruz and the other back benchers he has enlisted, not to mention two-thirds of the House Republican caucus, feel no constraint to legitimize Trump’s lies and reinforce the false narrative responsible for radicalizing a growing swath of MAGA nihilists. Such intolerable laxity indicts our political system as impotent to protect and sustain itself when confronted by criminal-grade bad faith and will only encourage worse in the future, which nobody can doubt this GOP will be glad to oblige.

George Will to Jenifer Rubin, William Cohen to John Danforth, Dick Cheney to James Mattis, all agree without qualification these idiotic antics amount to nothing short of outright sedition. Throughout America during the past couple of years one flyover legislature after another has worked tirelessly to criminalize protest against police brutality, shamelessly equating marching for Breonna Taylor with anarchy and lawlessness. Well, what’s good for the goose and all that. There is no more loathsome, self-righteous, pontificating wind-bag on Capital Hill than Ted Cruz. If he really believes in the Donald’s cause, make him put some real skin in the game. Let him spend a weekend in jail, get his picture taken, eat a bologna sandwich and spend some campaign coin on high-priced legal talent that bills $750 per hour. Make them all put up or shut up. Their sedition should hurt them at least as much as it worries us. Lock em up! BC

Every day at roughly 1:00 PM, sometimes a bit later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides online the clearest set of numbers available to catalog America’s disastrous failure to control Covid-19. Every 24 hours the CDC ranks all 50 states and US territories as to each’s seven-day average of Coronavirus infections per 100,000 residents. Additionally, it provides a running cumulative total of US infections and the latest number of deaths. Since mid-October the data has been horrifyingly consistent, well above 150K average new cases per day with at least 1500 deaths reported. As of noon Thursday, more than 19 million Americans have tested positive for Covid, with more than 340,000 perishing from the virus. Few doubt this daily accounting will only grow more alarming as one of our nation’s longest winters proceeds.

From the start of this crisis understanding victory and defeat has been a very straightforward proposition, easily quantifiable. The numbers would tell the story, how many stayed healthy and how many did not. Pretty clear cut. Our government would either work successfully to head an invading novel virus off at the pass or it wouldn’t. Our citizens would rise to the occasion, forsaking routines in a collective demonstration of discipline essential to keeping the disease’s spread in check, thus saving the lives of those most vulnerable to its worst, or we wouldn’t. It was hard to see anything at all ambiguous back in March; it’s even more difficult now. Yet the Trumpist legions and their GOP servants have trouble with basic math, always have. Two plus two never seems to equal four within the MAGA calculus.

Just like their take on videos capturing police brutality, or Presidential election margins of more than 7 million votes, MAGA is not interested in fake news Covid death counts. The more clear and unequivocal things appear, the more fuzzy and complicated they have to be. Don’t believe what you see or what the numbers confirm because if it were that simple we wouldn’t be looking for alternative explanations, would we? Whatever you think they show, we believe differently, and that’s plenty good enough reason to doubt their veracity. Ask Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz. Trump predicted the election was rigged and he was right. The proof? That’s easy… you say he lost!

Trump long ago gave up on anything constructive toward checking the spread of the virus, placing all of his eggs in the vaccine basket while becoming history’s most notorious superspreader. Presidents get credit for what evolves and consolidates during their term, and Lord knows that’s one presidential tradition he is willing to honor. But the vaccine rollout has been deeply flawed, as states compete for supplies and institute their own protocols for administering shots. Just as with every other phase of the crisis the federal government is proving less than helpful as Trump merely shrugs his shoulders. What do you want from me? I delivered a vaccine in stupendously fast time. So unfair! So ungrateful!

A bit more than two weeks from now that’s all going to change. It promises to be night and day. While nobody believes the Biden team walks on water or the Covid response model it develops won’t have some flaws, good faith and accountability will be back in the saddle, adults back at the helm. Expertise, not servility, is what we can again expect during the resurgence of daily briefings geared to actually inform and motivate, not delude and obfuscate. If Biden is present there will be a reason, and his personal prospects will be the last thing the occasions will be about. While such scenarios seem glorious and otherworldly – too good to be true – there is actually one word that best describes it all… normal.

However, regardless how new and improved the federal response to the Coronavirus promises to be, the directives and guidance emanating from DC require good-faith cooperation by states to be effective, and that may very well be a near intractable problem. An entire MAGA political class of flyover governors and state legislatures promise to cement Trump’s legacy of sacrificing public well being to inane political positioning. Since Easter the core Trump pandemic principle has been simply “get used to it.” His legion of statehouse toadies have done just that with policies focused on diluting the horror of ceaseless Covid casualties with distractions equating high principles of freedom to refusing to wear masks or limit public gatherings. In other words, ennobling the civic pettiness that needlessly increases mortality in pursuit of political viability. Truly disgusting stuff.

Whether it’s Florida’s DeSantis or Abbot in Texas, Tennessee’s Lee or Ducey in Arizona, Alabama’s Kay Ivey or the particularly vile Noem in South Dakota, discrediting the data of Coronavirus death has been the top priority for all since their martinet made clear last spring it would be business as usual. It’s hard to envision such a culture and the host of selfish civic sensibilities it caters to transforming with a new President whose election none of the aforementioned are permitted to even acknowledge.

Perhaps the clearest link underscored by the CDC numbers is the influence neighboring states have on each other’s pandemic trends. So, Kentucky Governor Andy Bashear’s efforts to impose best practices within his jurisdiction are undermined by Tennessee MAGA minion Bill Lee’s refusal to do the same. Tennessee, whose leaders have made Covid irresponsibility a political brand, predictably has remained near the top in average cases per 100K residents. This has just as reliably driven Kentucky’s numbers skyward as citizens from both states cross the border and interact. The same can be seen in North Carolina, with Tennessee to the west and South Carolina to the south. Minnesota has to deal with the Dakotas and so forth.

All of which illustrates how the absence of strong and responsible federal guidance since the onset of this national trauma has shaped results on the ground, and the difficulties Biden and his team will face attempting to reassert it. Nullification is not a word one should use carelessly; it is a practice that makes federal governance impossible, a final straw before civil wars are fought.

Yet and still, 140 House Republicans have been joined by Hawley, Cruz and who knows how many others in the Senate to pursue sedition for no other reason than the apparent absence of political downside, primary opponents stifled and Presidential aspirations enriched. Given such clear and present GOP wretchedness, the odds of Red States doing anything other than gratuitously opposing federal Coronavirus initiatives, whether aimed at mitigating spread or accelerating vaccination timetables, seem long indeed. After all, “we are all in this together” has always been anathema to Trump messaging. National unity is for libs and RINOs. Just another hideous legacy his successor will be forced to deal with.

“Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.” – Ernest Hemingway

“I’m a business guy just trying to make – provide our great services to customers that need us.” – Erik Prince, Founder of Blackwater Services.

Few things about our quagmire in Iraq, a slog that has lasted going on two decades now, are as clear in hindsight as the hubris reflected throughout the preparation and execution of its launch. We would be in and out promised Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, the plans were geared to a few months, tops – this was long overdue. “I can’t tell you if it will last five days, five weeks of five months,” Rumsfeld mused to reporters in 2003, “but it certainly won’t last longer than that.”

Indeed, as “shock and awe” played out once the green light was given, whether or not Saddam Hussein actually possessed the large cache of chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) aside, most accepted routing Iraqi forces was not going to be a problem. Of course, in retrospect, getting in was simply letting the genie out of the bottle; getting out – a subject given far too little consideration by W’s team – was the real problem from the start.

Blackwater USA received its first Iraqi war contract in August of 2003, a $21 million no-bidder to provide protection to top US administrator Paul Bremer and staff. The company, established in 1997 with the mission statement of providing “training and support to military and law enforcement organizations,” would eventually garner more than $300 million worth of business within the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters of operation, most all in no-bid contract awards. The company would subsequently be accused by both US military leaders and State Department personnel of cutting corners and pursuing procedures with as much a mind toward corporate frugality as attaining objectives. This mindset also seemed to permeate the quality of its staff on the ground.

From the start, both military and diplomatic officials had a problem with civilians, armed to the teeth and wholly outside the bounds of both disciplinary and procedural channels most all other US personnel in-country were subject to. These reservations only intensified as Blackwater contractors often gratuitously disregarded directives designed to show Iraqis a degree of respect for both their nation and religion. Despite such misgivings the Coalition Provisional Authority issued Order Number 17, which granted Blackwater and other private contractors full immunity from Iraqi laws. Thus, a combustible situation was created that would only become more volatile the longer the occupation lasted. Time was not an ally.

The worst happened at Nisour Square, Baghdad on September 16, 2007 when Blackwater contractors, while providing security for a US Embassy convoy, opened fire on Iraqi civilians. The horrific scene, indiscriminate machine gun fire that killed 17 and wounded 20, including women and children, joined Abu Gharib as an atrocity Iraqis would not forget, an indelible stain on the sliver of moral authority the US may have still possessed. The contractors involved claimed they had come under attack, few witnesses corroborated that version of events.

No less than five separate investigations, including one by the FBI concluded the shootings were unprovoked, and nearly every victim was an innocent unarmed civilian, including women and children. Four of the shooters were not only singled out by Iraqi witnesses but also Blackwater colleagues, one of whom actually pointed his gun at a suspect to make him stop firing. After years of legal wrangling, much of it that sought to exonerate the primary perpetrators based on a variety of issues other than the facts and evidence, on October 22, 2014, a federal jury handed down one first degree murder and three manslaughter convictions. But even after the group was sentenced, an appeals court ordered they be retried and Nick Slatten, who was serving a life sentence for murder, be judged separately from the others. Again, their cases were heard, and yet again their convictions and sentences upheld. Presumably, a very dark chapter of America’s Iraq war folly was finally closed.

It’s become increasingly more difficult to chronicle the constant chaos affiliated with the end of the Trump Presidency. Far from simply “winding down,” each day begins and ends with yet another previously unimaginable assault on the very basis of America’s system of governance. Despite every indication our electoral process withstood the most dangerous challenge it ever faced, repose remains impossible because, like a disemboweled white walker in Game of Thrones, or the final scene of Terminator, the vanquished has no ability to cease activity. no capacity for moving on from defeat.

The dilemma with Trump is, despite full recognition publicity is all that impels him, he simply remains too dangerous and destructive to ignore. Worse, depending on how criminally servile the GOP remains to the militancy his mindless tweets will constantly exhort from his wretched core, similar malevolence may continue into the future, particularly if prosecutors pursue justice – as they must – when he leaves office. Trump and the Fox/AM political class he has weaponized may not allow the nation they’ve tormented to move on, their ruinous nihilism too dangerous to disregard, even if humoring it provides undeserved legitimacy.

The menu of options that will remain available to him until Biden takes his oath offers a buffet of outrages limited only by his attention span, and the imagination of the cabal of fringe elements still vying for his approval. And although the list is only available for another three weeks, the consequences of each offering will endure, depending on how difficult, or even possible it is to repair them. The growing monstrosity of White House pardons, including wiping out the convictions of the Nisour Square killers, fits squarely in that wheel house.

It’s a certainty Trump did not think up the incalculably seditious act of undoing thirteen years of democratic machinations necessary to show the free world we used to lead that, despite fits and starts, at the end of the day our good faith to live up to gaudy rhetoric is true enough to follow. No doubt, he gave the whole matter less thought than deciding to take a nine-foot gimme putt, or casually kick his Titelist 3 onto the short grass. Yet and still, the damage will linger long into the future, both at home and abroad.

Here it punctuates MAGA’s cynical premise that personal accountability is a relative concept, wholly dependent on what the Fox/AM narrative affixes. Americans in war zones can only be heroic, finding fault with them is by definition unpatriotic. Whatever collateral damage citizens under US occupation suffer never rises to a level that justifies taking Americans who inflict it to task. That’s article one of America First, baby! Our brave warriors are blameless, regardless of what capacity they are serving in. That few in the GOP leadership have made a peep about wave-of-the-hand sanctioning of mass murder merely adds more shame to its shamelessness, while making it harder to conjure the party as anything but Trumpist into the future.

Worst of all is how the pardons color perceptions of American power internationally. To allies and adversaries alike, Trump’s idiocy enfeebles the top priority of Biden’s foreign policy: restoring the perception of America’s determination to lead, its willingness to employ power for principles. The idea an incoming administration has no capability to reverse the absolute nadir of conduct by its predecessor is a very inauspicious place to begin changing course. It undermines the Trump-as-aberration pitch Biden has no choice but to aggressively sell. Continuity was always the strength of US policy, pardoned murderers only reinforce the appearance we are starting from scratch, which makes the task even harder.

Colin Powell famously quipped invading a country conveyed full responsibility to the conquerer – “you break it, you own it” – the implication being the costs may come to outweigh the benefits. Such wisdom was no doubt applicable to US forays into both Iraq and Afghanistan, but surely even more apt to the civic catastrophe of electing a sociopathic nihilist President. Trump’s desperate take on the legal and financial vagaries he will soon face sans executive privilege is making certain we pay top dollar to the very end for that hideous mistake. Some price tags will be higher than others, but the disgusting pardon of the Blackwater killers will be steeper than most. The world will make certain we pay it for years to come, yet another needless Trump expense that will keep on costing. BC

One would assume a Senator elected to represent the state of Pennsylvania would take particular care to promote and protect the interests of its biggest city and population center, Philadelphia. A Senator chosen to serve Missouri would have to view St. Louis and vicinity as a top priority, right? In Louisiana, isn’t the welfare of New Orleans critical to the state’s overall health? Just as Atlanta is to Georgia, and Miami to Florida, Milwaukee to Wisconsin? After all, if you are willing to forsake the basic interests of those comprising your state’s most significant population centers, what good are you, and whose priorities are you beholden to? Senate Republicans don’t appear too psyched to consider such dilemmas, only determined to create them. Their breathtaking intractability during the last week on a Covid relief plan has clarified who they favor, as well as who they detest. Hint: follow the tweets.

Back in March the impetus for locking America down was the specter of Coronavirus spreading unchecked throughout the nation. The carnage occurring at that moment in New York City served to scare the US into doing the right thing, otherwise what was still an isolated horror could come to your town, overwhelm your local hospital. Nine months of the worst possible federal leadership has fulfilled that awful prophecy, we are losing the Covid battle and sit on the brink of a runaway health catastrophe.

More than 400K new cases were reported last Friday, and more now are dying per day than were passing at the height of last spring’s worst surge. Too many ignored CDC guidance to stay home over Thanksgiving, and nobody expects even more dire warnings to be better heeded over Christmas. More than 5000 deaths per day by late January will shock nobody. The heartland will see more than its fair share thanks to governors and citizenries beholden to the guff of Fox/AM hucksters at the expense of minimal civic duty. The CDC’s map makes clear virtually no state will be spared.

To hear Josh Hawley of Missouri tell it, “hard working Americans” – a term he employed near a dozen times in about five minutes while on the Senate floor bellowing for a Covid relief package he could support – need relief now for no other reason than reckless closures of the economy, restrictions everyone knows were never justified. More than 5000 Missourians have died of Covid, with record daily highs now routinely established, but no matter; perhaps Hawley figures they just didn’t work hard enough to stay well.

Covid hospitalizations in the St. Louis area surged past 900 after the Thanksgiving holiday, a new high that administrators warned could overwhelm ICUs. Doctors and nurses are pleading with residents to stay home for the Christmas holiday, but such dire concerns appeared incapable of catching Hawley’s attention. Only Trump’s “remarkable” leadership, responsible for bringing a vaccine to market in record time distracted Hawley’s laser focus on his “hard working” constituents’ entitlement to compensation for enduring the needless damage meddlesome pols inflicted in the name of public health. “It’s a disgrace,” Hawley scolded, imitating his hero, who he still tacitly maintains isn’t going anywhere next month.

With the rank and file of the Senate GOP caucus now operating under the premise a Biden Administration will be in business come January 20, despite the fact most are still too cowed to say it in public, frugality and broad economic principles are suddenly top priorities once again. The same bunch who added $2 trillion to the debt at full employment, with a tax cut the 1 percenters couldn’t have been more happy to receive, now wants to pinch pennies as the poorest absorb the economic disaster calamitous federal mismanagement of the pandemic is solely responsible for. State and city budgets have been decimated since March, with safety net programs pushed to the brink; those who had little now have nothing. Homelessness beckons for thousands unless lifelines emerge soon, “hardworking” or not.

Moody’s Analytics just projected the Covid crisis will create state and local government budget deficits ranging between $330 billion and $470 billion through fiscal year 2020, with big city services and support structures hit worst of all. Democrats initially pushed for $160 billion in state and local aid; Mitch McConnell was having none of it. The Trump tweet from August that any Covid relief to states is merely a bailout their failed lib policies don’t deserve IS the Republican position. The $900 billion plus package now being finalized will contain nothing for states and cities.

Listening to the parade of Senate Trumpies bellow on the matter of their responsibilities during this crisis it was reasonable to wonder what country they were talking about. Too many are more focused on tooting out their bona fides for inheriting Trump’s wretched core than much of anything else, thus the middle finger extended to states and cities. The GOP has shamed itself in so many ways serving a nihilist bully’s rabid indecencies one has to triage for outrageousness. Yet and still, the outright disdain its bargaining position on Covid relief reflects toward any federal assistance to big cities is a grievous sin, a clearly bigoted abdication of its most basic obligations. The only thing Republicans want to be involved in when it comes to urban constituents is schemes to suppress their numbers at the polls. No vote is a good vote.

What’s emerging is a clear picture of what we can expect throughout Biden’s Presidency. This is a nullification party with no qualms about picking and choosing the constituents it will either help or hurt based on what will be Trump’s most disgusting legacy: the unabashed embrace of transactional representation, what-have-you-done-for-me-lately sensibilities, machine politics writ large. The national GOP is now a party at war with US demographics, beholden only to those inane electoral maps with all of that red denoting flyover whiteness. It’s no longer even a question of priorities, it’s now the Trumpist philosophy of all out pandering to the base at the expense of enemies… zero-sum all the way. It’s not governance, it’s a naked struggle for power. Bipartisanship is for RINOs. Not my President? Try not your Senator! BC

“Man looks in the abyss, there’s nothing staring back at him. At that moment man finds his character. And that is what keeps him out of the abyss.”

Lou Mannheim … “Wall Street”

The line between being a thoughtful young man, who asks intelligent questions and considers even thoughtless answers, and becoming a bitter old fart, who attacks those he judges insufficiently agreeable with his contentions, while refusing to modify his disdain toward any effort at changing minds, is very fine indeed. How thin it becomes can be influenced by a number of factors: health and the discomfort aging often brings on; the vagaries of a hard life getting old renders more difficult to balance; and the unrepentant foolishness of certain blocs of peers others appear far more successful at distracting themselves from. All have had their say on me during the Trump era. I’m now often prone to visceral impulse at the expense of prudent deliberation, where my first inclination quickly becomes my last before I move on to another indignity. The worst of it is my capacity to care about becoming too rash and less thoughtful is waning… fast. Like my aching back, it’s become just another inalterable fact of life. Thanks Trump!

Where we are now has been in the cards since John McCain was practically booed off the stage at his own concession speech after Barack Obama routed him in 2008. Anyone who took note of the ugly mixture of fear, anger and resentment toward the election of America’s first black President in that ballroom couldn’t help but be concerned about what kind of backlash was in the offing. Sarah Palin, perhaps the worst and most consequential mistake McCain ever made, was there preening before the aggrieved, itching to extend her fifteen minutes in the spotlight, rebranding preposterous embarrassment to “common sense” conservatism. Obama was never going to be Jackie Robinson with this crowd, two Americas now existed.

Four years later, the GOP could no longer escape its reckoning after Obama had little problem dispatching Mitt Romney. The delusion of a Romney landslide Fox/AM “experts” like the vile Dick Morris and Karl Rove – who literally would not accept his own network’s projection – were able to create in the weeks leading up to Election Day presaged a party base intent above all else to see only what it wanted to see, only what reinforced the narrative its beloved “conservative personalities” spun on the hour, day in and day out.

Like McCain, Romney went from savior to loser in a heartbeat; and while serious establishment GOP players made clear US demographics now rendered a “big tent” strategy an existential necessity for the party’s future relevance, Roger Ailes and loathsome mega-donors like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson and Timothy Mellon, to name but a few, were having none of it. The low road was the route big money would demand Republicans travel moving forward. Forget about competing for more votes, fewer would be better, less would be more.

Getting the flyover faithful out of their recliners, while leaning hard on GOP-dominated state legislatures Tea Party activism had proliferated to create voter suppression mechanisms not seen since the heyday of Jim Crow, became option A, B and C Republicans chose to maintain power. Voter ID became an umbrella concept; a handshake may be more than enough to turn over ownership of an AR-15, but voting is a sacred civic duty… bring your paperwork.

Of course, the real threat to election integrity came from south of the border, immigrant rabble the Democrats imported for votes. Not only were they taking all those in-demand agricultural, landscaping and hotel cleaning jobs, they were essential for voter fraud that elected libs – see Alex Jones for the proof. What could be worse? Most all thought America would soundly defeat the disgusting wretch this strategy offered up as the Republican nominee in 2016, including the candidate, himself.

All of this has led to today when, six weeks after Joe Biden was projected a decisive winner of Decision/2020, and a day since the Electoral College certified an election won by more than 7 million votes, GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went out on a limb and congratulated the winning ticket. At about the exact same time, the defeated incumbent President was retweeting a psychotic lawyer named Lin Wood’s promise the Republican Governor of Georgia, heretofore a Trump sycophant, would be arrested because he certified the state’s election results rather than break the law and refuse to do so for no other reason than the President wanted him to. Moreover, while McConnell was willing to finally grant Biden legitimacy, most others in his caucus would not publicly follow his example. Asked directly by reporters if in fact, after Electoral College certification, Biden was the President-elect, most Republican Senators either refused to answer, or produced word salad so convoluted it was hard to know what topic they were actually addressing.

The French diplomat Alexis de Tocqueville, an ardent admirer of the US Senate, exclaimed it reflected the best of the American spirit, representing the nation’s “elevated thoughts” and “nobler actions” instead of the “petty passions” and “vices” often displayed by its House counterparts. Sen. John Barraso of Wyoming, a McConnell appendage and third in the Senate GOP chain of command, never received that memo. Asked today whether he considers Joe Biden the President-elect, Barasso snarled it was “a gotcha question.” Susan Collins of Maine, considered perhaps the most moderate Republican Senator, still hasn’t gotten around to amending her statement from last month that Biden had “apparently” prevailed. Her Twitter feed is filled with everything from her bipartisan Covid relief breakthroughs to big federal money for lobstermen. However, a paragraph or two against active coup attempts by the leader of her party has proved a bridge too far.

Biden finally stepped forward last night to call a spade a spade and clarify the extremism this GOP now is beholden to. The President-elect correctly noted Trump’s seditious campaign to overturn an election far more decisive than his own in 2016, which he pointed to ad nauseam as a “historic” landslide, has never been seen before. He rightly celebrated the triumph turning out 150 million voters during a deadly pandemic represented, and that “nobody” was going to disenfranchise its participants. Tell that to Fox News Facebook commenters, most of whom proudly affiliated themselves as the “not-my-President” variety of Republican. A friend of mine, who has actually explored the depths of the Parler platform, the new preferred social media venue of the GOP base, told me the trending expectation among the Trump faithful is that Biden will CONCEDE by the end of the week! Allow that one to percolate for a moment.

Four years of Trump has done immeasurable damage to American democracy and the once effortlessly peaceful transfer of political power global economic stability is wholly dependent on. That one of our major political parties now, not only tolerates, but actively supports a President’s clumsy, comical efforts to invent his own narrative about how he won an election he in fact lost by a decisive margin, means only that it is subservient to him and the nihilist political class he successfully created.

Worse, it means our family, friends and neighbors who continue to support Trump and his party are also nihilist and authoritarian.,. seditious enemies of American democracy. We all must do what we will with that understanding and relate it to our relationships accordingly. Whatever excuses or individual dispensation one is willing to issue MAGA faithful based on ignorance or indoctrination provides precious little comfort regarding our cancerous national condition. Any degree of satisfaction we will feel about the survival of our essential institutions when Biden’s hand goes on that Bible will be offset by the certainty we all now have that the fate of our republic has become a zero-sum proposition. Republicans win, democracy loses. That will age anyone faster than they’d prefer. BC

“A supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare. 
A supporter of a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights, civil liberties, democracy, and free enterprise.”

Definition of a Liberal

“A person who advocates thorough or complete social or political reform.”

Definition of a Radical

One weekend afternoon, back in the summer of 1994, I struggled on the Collins Street beach in Dewey, Delaware with an epic hangover. Despite growing up with a father who was never a match for the bottle, in my early 30s it was as much a part of my list of peccadillos as it was of his when he was my age. The only difference between us was I still had only myself to sabotage, not a family with small children. Of course it’s a certainty my day-after headaches were as debilitating as his had been, with exhibit A mercilessly throbbing away as I massaged my temples and awaited the four Advil I had downed earlier to kick in.

Sitting with me were several of my beach housemates, including one lovely woman named Jill, who worked on Capital Hill for the Republican national election machinery in some capacity. In between fending off relentless stabs to my frontal lobe, I listened to Jill relate her enthusiastic assessments of the GOP’s off-year election prospects to a friend. “I think we’re going to take control of the House,” she pronounced cheerily, “the numbers look really good… everybody is excited!” Ever the know-it-all, I scoffed audibly enough for both ladies to notice and stop their conversation as they awaited me to validate my rudeness. “Sweetie,” I patronized, “Republicans haven’t had a majority in the House since Eisenhower was President; that’s not happening. If it does I’ll shave my head and run around naked squawking like a chicken!” They laughed and Jill responded with something to the effect she couldn’t wait to hold me to my word.

Thankfully, several months later she was nowhere to be found, and I was spared the indignities my inane and dead wrong cockiness deserved. After all, I was soon going to have the rest of my life to experience baldness; I didn’t need to accelerate that process. Regardless, In January of ‘95 the insufferable Newt Gingrich of Georgia, once a marginal Reagan Revolution back bencher with nothing but guff to offer, became Speaker of the House, transforming the GOP from a partner in to an immovable obstacle of American governance. It would be the first of several debilitating milestones on the slippery slope to our present day crisis.

When General William Sherman marched 62,000 Union troops from Atlanta to the Georgia coast in late 1864, his desire was to break the spirit of the south by confronting citizens with the direct consequences secession produced. However, while Sherman’s troops surely destroyed infrastructure and sustained themselves on what they freely seized from farms and plantations of all sizes along the way, a number of outrages that took place during the Confederacy’s final days were carried out by bitter and desperate rebel soldiers, whose crimes were conveniently forgotten or merely blended into the March to the Sea’s calamity by future Dixie generations. They preferred all of their Civil War narratives free of any murky grey areas regarding accountability. Historical accuracy has never been a southern strong suit when it comes to retelling of the Civil War and the lessons it may, or more importantly, may not have imparted.

A century and a half later civic success still eludes much of the south due to its inability to attain the societal synergy this fundamental character flaw proscribes. Way too many still believe there was never anything to be ashamed about, nothing to atone for. They were actually the victims, still are. Of course such collective character disorder explains their affinity for Trump and MAGA nihilism, but come early January the fate of a nation rests on just how far many Georgia voters are willing to push that envelope and embrace a couple of nothings.

By most all go-to metrics for quality-of-life standards Georgia should be doing much better than it is. Despite lavishing businesses with enough goodies to rank it number three nationally as a state to do business in, Georgia comes in the bottom half of the country for income, and the bottom fifth for poverty. The disconnect continues through other basic categories. Despite a number of world class hospitals, Georgia ranks 41st in health care, and 39th in access to primary treatment. There are some top-notch colleges within its confines, yet Georgia comes in 30th in education. Home ownership? Bottom half of the country, number 29. Crime? Not much better at 27th. In other words, like most all other southern states, Georgia underachieves.

One would assume the Peach State’s US Senate contingent is well aware of this fact and that their job demands they spare no time or expense to make certain constituents are at least confident of their concern. In an election cycle where both GOP incumbents failed to garner 50% of the vote required to declare victory and avoid a January 4 runoff, impressing on voters a degree of certitude about focus and resolve as to “dinner table” problems seems a given, a no brainer. Not so with Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler.

Anybody who wants to contest the premise that Republicans have little interest in democratic governance received no help from Sunday’s Georgia Senate debates. Loeffler offered nothing substantive to promote her candidacy, instead robotically repeating over and over that the only thing she could assure is she’s not Raphael Warnock, her “radical liberal” opponent. She did however bother to post for the occasion, which gave her a one up on Perdue, who actually blew the whole thing off. In his defense, after being mercilessly filleted last month by his Democratic opponent, David Ossoff, Perdue’s reticence was understandable; he had no comebacks then and surely dreaded repeating the ordeal. Yet and still, it was no less glaring, and Ossoff calling him a coward no less appropriate. One would have thought Perdue could have perhaps come up with an excuse for not attending, maybe exposure to Covid or some kind of pressing conflict, but no, even that was a bridge too far in the effort department.

Georgia’s two Republican Senators, running for re-election in races that will determine which party controls the US Senate, quite literally have nothing to offer voters. That neither possesses a scintilla of ability to think on their feet can at least partly be explained by the fact both came to high office with not a minute of legislative experience, a deficit each touted from the start as every reason Georgia voters should distinguish them from their swamp-tinged opponents. But a lack of debate skills is one thing, complete disdain for the entire exercise quite another.

Whatever deficits the skill sets and platforms of David Ossoff and Raphael Warnock may suffer, there is no doubt both are thoughtful candidates, carrying out their campaigns with the good faith and enthusiasm that should be the floor of what citizens in a going democratic concern demand. Neither Purdue or Loeffler meet that bottom rung of reasonable expectation. Loeffler’s pathetic indifference Sunday removed any doubts about that. She had only two points to make, and she repeated them constantly: Raphael Warnock is a radical liberal, a bizarre term she never bothered to define; and the repercussions of getting caught red handed dumping stock immediately after being briefed on the coming Covid scourge are “an attack on all Georgians.” Of course, the empty chair Ossoff was forced to address was just as effective at underscoring Perdue’s insufficiency.

Incredibly, neither Purdue or Loeffler can publicly accept the only premise that makes either of their vapid candidacies viable, that they are the firewall to a Biden Presidency that will go unchecked if they lose and the Senate flips to Democratic control as new Vice-President Kamala Harris becomes the tie-breaking vote. Both are the definition of Trump sycophants, and would be the last to defy current White House fiction. However, supporting Trump’s sociopathy leaves each with only their qualifications and records of achievement… in other words nothing. That’s what it’s come down to in Georgia. Here is the operative question: are we such a worthless polity that we’d rather have nothing promoting our interests on Capital Hill because at least it isn’t something the nothings tell us is the worst, those radical liberals? Maybe some questions are simply better left unsaid. After all, hasn’t that always been the Southern way, anyhow? BC

Casablanca is one of those movies many still have not sat completely through but tell themselves one day they will because its reputation deserves no less. I’m sure more than a sliver who nod their heads at the assertion Bogart’s greatest is one of the best of all time have yet to block off the full near two hours required to take in every magical line, every indelible scene. Anybody who has made that effort will be glad to preach it is worth every minute; the film is just that good.

Of course, the classic has so many great moments that it is left to individual viewers to pick their own favorite, but for my money numero uno comes when Nazi nemesis Colonel Strasser and his minions, lubricated on Vichy champagne, break into a version of Karl Wilhelm’s “Die Wacht am Rhein.” As the fascists increase their volume while most of Rick’s Cafe’s other patrons look on with awkward disdain, French Resistance hero Victor Lazlo acts without hesitation. Lazlo calls on the establishment’s house orchestra to raise their instruments and perform Le Marseillaise, which with a nod of assent from their boss, Rick (Bogie), they agree to do. In no time the entire bar is on their feet effortlessly drowning out the Nazis with emotion all digest as nothing less than a personal declaration of patriotism worth dying for. Strasser and his flunkies quickly comprehend continuing their reverie is futile and take a seat, conceding a clear victory to the partisan crowd and Lazlo, who they cheer with appreciation for his consummate bravery and leadership. It simply doesn’t get any better!

The most important building block Fox/AM put in place for its Frankenstein’s monster to amplify is a base of followers convinced they are all contrarians, courageous salmon swimming upriver against the prevailing currents of mainstream presumptions. The debate stage during the 2016 GOP presidential primary included vapid hucksters like Paul and Cruz, lightweight ideologues like Santorum and Rubio, soulless opportunists like Graham and Christie, and even a couple of capable politicians in Jeb Bush and John Kasich. But only Trump possessed the shameless malevolence essential to capture the torrent of white grievance Sean Hannity regulars marinated in throughout the Obama era. Us against them, and we all know who they are.

Millions of bigoted nasties were primed and wholly disinterested in striving for morning in America; they demanded darkness at noon. From the start of his campaign, Trump was glad to give it to them; and it’s been all he has offered since. Yet and still, the illusion of individuality goes hand in hand with the wretched core’s enthusiasm for collectively conforming around the absurdities Trump constantly demands they accept.

Peruse any Trumpist thread and one notes time and again, over and over using near identical language, his zealots caustically projecting that their opponents are sheep, incapable of discerning the malfeasance of “the swamp” their docility helped to create. Indeed, it’s common for MAGA faithful to embarrass themselves within pitiable irony and foist Hitler comparisons on Trump critics, equating mask mandates with authoritarian subservience, assault weapon bans with end of days dystopia.

Such misguided righteousness merely reinforces that ceaseless Fox/AM ramblings, along with hundreds of the President’s rallies, have been wildly successful at convincing nihilist throngs they agree about everything because each of them recognizes truth, rather than the mass of them gobbling up as-needed fiction the chaotic whims of their unhinged champion produces willy nilly. The delusional balm of courageous individuality Fox/AM long ago beguiled its viewer base they possessed, fulfilled the most essential prerequisite that any demagogue, even a poor man’s Elmer Gantry like Trump, could then exploit to fashion a wretched core of immovable support, a concrete floor no amount of incompetence, graft or criminal shamelessness could jackhammer.

Now, as more than 3000 died from Covid just yesterday, and roughly 200,000 new cases per day threaten to overwhelm the American healthcare system, ruinous MAGA civic absurdity is in full stride throughout rural counties, as the chickens of Trump’s senseless refusal to promote anything other than senseless refusal come home to roost. In Campbell County, Virginia this week tensions were high as the Board of Supervisors violated an emergency state mandate that limits gatherings to 25 people or less. Almost a hundred people jammed into the board’s chamber on the outskirts of Lynchburg. One supervisor scoffed at the restriction, declaring they were “conducting the people’s business.” Apparently, being required to wear a mask in public settings and being denied a cold one at the local bar after 10:00 p.m. is a clarion call assault on essential liberty that requires “patriots” to “stand up and not bow down, as one of many public commenters shouted.

What to do when a Democratic Governor – who happens to also be an MD – issues such a seismic attack on individual rights for no better reason than to save lives during a deadly pandemic?! Nullification, of course! Declare the county a “First Amendment Sanctuary!” Most all in attendance were white men, many self-described militia members in camo garb. Everything was about them, their individual right to choose to do the least possible because, after all, they “should have their choice to come out and assume that risk.” Only lib tyrants bring collective community concerns into the equation.

While Virginia Governor Ralph Northman responded to the board’s inane sedition by reminding all that “we’re not the enemy… The enemy is the virus…,” few who attended the supervisor’s meeting felt similarly. How ugly were they? How bottomless is this hole of civic depravity? After a lengthy procession of would be Patrick Henrys gave their own very similar spin on the same tired “don’t tread on me” theme, 79-year old James Cerillo stepped up to the mic and removed his mask to speak. He said his wife didn’t want him to come “to this superspreader activity.” Cerillo told the crowd how scared he and his wife were of the virus. Citing data on the over quarter million US Covid deaths, he sadly noted the country “is losing this battle.” How did the courageous patriots respond to such an honest display of vulnerability by a neighbor at high risk to suffer Covid’s worst? “Put on your mask,” somebody jeered at him as the audience laughed. “Your time is up,” a supervisor scolded. “If I hold this Constitution up, is that going to get you from getting the virus,” Cerillo asked as he relied on his cane to leave the room. Indeed. WWRBD?… What Would Rick Blaine Do? BC

To absorb MAGA’s insane reverberations in defeat is to appreciate the calamitous specter America and the world would have confronted had Trump prevailed. Any satisfaction to be had viewing history’s sorest loser convulse in tormented pettiness is fully muted by the understanding he is never more dangerous than when attempting to rebrand yet another abject failure, selling his base on inane lies that both excuse his defeat, while priming the pump for maintaining future relevance. As a private citizen the formula was essentially the same, but the results were far more benign. Stiffing creditors and investors is one thing, unleashing vengeance from the White House quite another. The gravest danger to world stability sits in the East Wing tweeting out grievance to his zombie multitudes. Near two months remain available for Trump to do his worst, certain that however he lashes out, the wretched core will cheer him on, as GOP cowards abide it with their characteristic silence.

More brazenly corrupt pardons and executive mandates are givens, and few expect Trump or his servile dead-enders to cooperate in any constructive manner with Biden transition teams. However, possible foreign intrigue is what should primarily inhibit our slumber until Inauguration Day, particularly with regard to Iran. Proactive military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities have tempted Trump throughout his term, now they may appeal to his unhinged desire for retribution he thinks an “unfair” defeat entitles him to, leaving Biden the quagmire he deserves. Surely Pompeo is hissing in his ear about how rejoining the Obama nuclear pact will be Biden’s first order of business. Why not make that impossible?

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – otherwise known as the Iran Nuclear Deal – was finalized in July of 2015 and signed off on by all five of the UN Security Council’s permanent members, as well as the European Union (P5 + 1). While the pact could never be called perfect, it was in fact a significant diplomatic achievement. Both sides achieved the goals they sought negotiating the deal, a win-win result.

Iran resolved long-standing financial grievances in place since the Iranian Revolution, while finally escaping crippling coordinated economic sanctions the pursuit of its nuclear ambitions had produced. Meanwhile, the deal gave US and NATO a clear set of metrics to gauge the drawdown of Iran’s entire nuclear program. Caps on areas such as uranium stockpiles and installed centrifuges could be monitored in order to verify Tehran was upholding its end of the bargain. Most informed parties agreed it would prevent Iran from acquiring a deployable nuclear device for at least ten years.

In America, GOP opposition to the agreement was a given, since the party’s policy was literally to dispute every initiative the Obama Administration conceived. It even included a seditious show horse letter signed by 47 Republican senators reminding Tehran of the obvious, that the agreement didn’t require ratification, while making clear the GOP would do everything it could to undermine it. Where once the US brand boasted politics “stopped at the water’s edge,” 2016 Republican presidential aspirants fought among themselves about who most loathed the JCPOA, competing to make up the bigger lie about how Obama and John Kerry paid off the Iranians with suitcases of cash. The future President would not be topped in that department.

In Israel, political opposition was a bit more bipartisan. Yet and still, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud party he headed left no room at all for anything but visceral opposition to the deal. It’s notable, however, that the Israeli national security community was far less concerned than the country’s politicians when it came to assessing the threat constituted by the pact’s specifics. Indeed, rightist attacks of the JPCOA in both the US and Israel most often skipped over the actual details enumerated in the deal’s provisions to simply link all the other elements of Iran’s foreign policy, from supporting terrorism to meddling in Iraq, as reasons enough for condemning any form of bi- or multilateral cooperation. Thus, the goal and terms for achieving it are irrelevant, no deal should have even been contemplated in the first place.

There was never any doubt Trump would abandon the whole enterprise, with the shortest of shrift given to allies, who had backed the deal despite domestic political heat. Even less concern was afforded the question of how such an abrupt u-turn might damage US credibility. In fact, Europe has resisted the Trump Administration’s demands for a return to draconian sanctions, holding out hope American voters would make a change in 2020. That patience now seems prudent, but 54 days remain, an eternity within the calendar of rabid Trumpist vindictiveness.

Of course, Bibi Netanyahu understands the door will be closed on January 21, and he’s never had a problem taking advantage of Trump’s reckless indifference to US or global stability. While he was one of the first foreign leaders to congratulate Biden on his victory, no doubt hurting the Donald’s feelings, he won’t sweat for a minute manipulating Trump’s sociopathy to perform his dirty work in Iran. To Bibi that’s just business. Sorry Joe, what was I to do?

On the ground right now, things couldn’t be more combustible. First, after initially exhibiting restraint at Trump’s unilateral edict, with faint hope allied pressure could make a difference, Iran has reinvigorated its nuclear program. Indeed, the International Atomic Energy Agency just confirmed Iran’s stockpile of low-enriched uranium is now more than ten times what it was reduced to in line with JCPOA requirements. Worse, advanced centrifuges are being added apace to speed enrichment activity. Second, yesterday’s murder of prominent Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, which Iran immediately accused Israel of carrying out, ups the ante dramatically at a critical juncture. Coming on the heels of the US assassination of Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani back in January, yesterday’s killing puts Iran in a position of losing face throughout the region. There is no doubt at all it will respond in kind, perhaps on multiple fronts. Certainly, were this provocation followed up with anything else substantial – say a targeted US air attack on enrichment facilities -there is no telling how far Tehran may be willing to push things.

Meanwhile, a sizable contingent of US military assets is heading to the area as we speak, ostensibly to support the withdrawal from Afghanistan Trump ordered as part of his post-election scorched-earth pique. No doubt Iranian forces are on highest alert as a perfect storm for disastrous miscalculation begins to take shape. Add to all this a Twitter freak digesting his historic failure of a Presidency circling the drain, not to mention a Secretary of State who really does believe bombing mullahs back to the Stone Age is God’s work, and, well, you get the picture. These last four years may have felt like twenty, but the last 54 days will surely feel longer still. Happy Holidays. BC