The new political parlor game: Asking WWTD?

Now that the presidential election is over and Joe Biden has won, a new cottage industry has sprung up that consists of speculating on the answers to the question: What Will Trump Do? I think that even he has to realize that there is no way that he will retain the office of the presidency. He has made a practice of thinking that he can bend reality to his will by denying it but first the pandemic proved him wrong and now the election has also done so. So what will he do now?

It is hard to predict because he has no identifiable political ideology or moral or ethical or philosophical or ideological core. Over his lifetime, he has been all over the map when it comes to issues. So trying to treat him as if he is a rational person acting on some set of principles is useless. What is necessary is to identify those things that he cares about and it is clear that what he only cares about is himself, and that is the most appropriate basis for speculation.
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John Oliver looks back on a tumultuous week

He reviews the events of the past week. He ends by saying that whatever disappointments people may have about the loss of seats in the House of Representatives and the failure to win a majority in the Senate, we should savor the many, many good things that happened.

My own view is that Democrats likely over-performed in 2018 because Trump was not on the ballot that year and so the loss of some Democratic house seats this year, while regrettable, may just be a sign that polls did not take into account the Trump black swan effect and thus had inflated and unrealistic expectations. This is supported by the fact that the Democrats who lost tended to be in Republican-leaning states like Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina where the Trump coattail effect was likely to be greater. They did lose a seat in New Mexico that Biden won but gained a seat in Georgia that has long been Republican.
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The Supreme Court hears arguments on the future of Obamacare

Trump has waged war against the decade-old Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. Part of it is because he wants to overturn every aspect of Obama’s legacy. But another is that Republicans have long fought bitterly against the law because it helps poor people and is thus, by definition, ‘socialism’. Trump promised to overturn the law but failed repeatedly so naturally, since he can never see himself as a loser, he claimed that he actually won because he got rid of that part of the law known as the individual mandate.

Insurance works by spreading the risks and the larger the pool of insured people, the better the system works. The mandate was the fine that was imposed on people who did not sign up for insurance. Trump did not actually get rid of the individual mandate. What happened was that an earlier Supreme Court decision said that while such a mandate exceeded congress’s power and was unconstitutional, in a narrow 5-4 ruling by chief justice John Roberts, they also said that it could be considered a tax and thus was within congressional taxing powers.
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Analysis of Latinx, Asian American, and African American voting

There has been some mixed reporting about how the Hispanic (or Latinx) vote went. Of course, one thing to bear in mind is that this community is highly diverse and does not vote monolithically. Their roots lie in many different countries that have very varied histories and hence their life experiences also vary accordingly. Those of Cuban and Venezuelan origin tend to be right wing and vote Republican more than other groups. Catholicism, particularly opposition to abortion, also plays a major role for those who are older and particularly religious. And of course, there are also major generational splits with younger people across the board tending more towards Democrats.

In an election of many firsts, it appears that surging youth turnout in a number of key states may have helped propel Joe Biden to victory.

Analysis suggests an increase of as much as 10% in youth voter turnout – with particularly high engagement in 11 key battleground states. That may have been game-changing for Joe Biden, who had the support of 61% of people aged 18-29.
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Now, young people have had their say. Projections suggest young people made up 17% of the vote share this time around, with young people also having the potential to make a decisive difference in key Senate races in states such as Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina.

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The parodies mocking Trump begin in earnest

It has been a while since I posted any of the Downfall Hitler parody memes but you knew that the parallels between Trump hunkered down in the White House wondering what the hell he can do and Hitler in his bunker during his last days offered too many ripe opportunities to resist. This is one that really captures what I think is likely going through his mind.

Trump is still in denial and tweeting away that he has still won and that all will be revealed soon.

Meanwhile the landscaping company whose back lot was used for Giuliani’s hilarious press conference is now hawking merchandize making fun of the whole thing.

Four Seasons Total Landscaping – a Philadelphia groundskeeping company situated between a crematorium and a sex shop where on Saturday Rudy Giuliani somehow held a press conference about baseless claims of voter fraud – has swiftly sought to cash in on its newfound fame, selling merchandise emblazoned with Trump-inspired puns.

“MAKE AMERICA RAKE AGAIN”, read one sticker on sale on the company website on Monday. It also featured the phrase “LAWN AND ORDER!” The stickers were selling for $5 each.

Progressive Democratic candidates did pretty well on Tuesday

Now that Joe Biden has won the presidency, all the right-wingers, neoconservatives, and Republicans who created the fertile soil for a low-life like Trump to become their party’s standard bearer but later abandoned him to advance their own agendas, are now trying to put the brakes on any progressive measures that Biden might take by bad-mouthing progressives. Republican John Kasich, who ran for the Republican nomination is 2016, is one of the first out of the gate, baselessly claiming that the far-left almost cost Biden the election when they actually helped him win in Arizona and almost in Georgia.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was having none of this rubbish and immediately shot back.

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More bad news on the pandemic front

The US had its fourth consecutive day of record covid-19 positive tests at 128,396, a death toll that stood at 1,097, and a steadily increasing seven-day average of deaths at 924 and hospitalizations at 51,763. The total number of confirmed cases also passed the grim milestone of 10 million.


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And there was great rejoicing across the land

Here is a mashup of the spontaneous demonstrations that broke out across the country at the news that Joe Biden had won and that Trump had to go.

I was encouraged to see that so many of the people celebrating were so young. I am waiting to see what the demographics of the vote are, especially when it comes to young people because that is what will determine the future direction of the country.

Saturday Night Live, while reporting on other celebrations across the country and the world, also got in some digs at Trump.

Trump’s campaign ends not with a bang, not with a whimper, but as comedy

There was a curious juxtapositioning of events yesterday morning.

When the Associated Press called Pennsylvania for Joe Biden at 11:25 am, Trump was on the golf course, no doubt cheating at the game as he is often accused of doing. He apparently was told the news while he was playing and he looked decidedly glum as his motorcade went back to the White House, accompanied by the jeers of people on the streets, extended middle fingers, and chants of “Lock him up!” He is playing playing golf again today, with protestors at the gates of the golf club. Maybe he will play every day until it is time for him to leave the White House. That would be a good thing because that means he won’t be doing any more damage.

Meanwhile in Philadelphia, things were even weirder. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, accompanied by Trump’s second idiot son Eric and members of his legal team, were holding a press conference, for reasons that are not clear, in the back parking lot of a landscaping company, not the most impressive of backdrops.


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What this election revealed about America is not good

When Donald Trump ran and surprisingly won in 2016, one might have explained that result by saying that he was a novelty candidate and that people who were tired of the usual two-party fare presented to them found him refreshingly different and were willing to give him a chance in the hope that he would shake things up. Sure, he said racist and xenophobic things during the campaign, but people may have given him the benefit of the doubt, that he was just saying these things to get elected and that once he won, the dignity of the office would moderate his rhetoric and he would govern responsibly. The parade of women who came forward to accuse him of grotesque behavior was harder to explain away but clearly many were willing to indulge in a ‘boys will be boys’ tolerant attitude.
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