Bananas

 We can be grateful to this moment in political time for terminating at least one pernicious myth.  No intelligent person can now refer to the United States as "the exceptional nation."  Not when our elections are followed by riots in the streets and the refusal of losers to acknowledge reality.  We are Belarus.  We are Zimbabwe.  We are no better than many a banana republic.  The peaceful transfer of power has been a given since Adams succeeded Washington, but I guess that's over.  Sometimes democracy dies in sunlight.

It's not just the notoriously infantile Trump, either.  Lauren Underwood (D-IL) was re-elected from the 14th District by over 4,000 votes but her opponent Jim Oberweis reported for freshman orientation anyway, because he thinks he can sit in on classes without paying tuition.  (I assume.  Congress is just like college, isn't it?)  Also John James was defeated in Michigan by incumbent Democrat Gary Peters, but has hinted he may sneak into the Senate chamber and throw all the stuff from Peters's desk on the floor and then sit down and refuse to budge, even when they turn out the lights.  These people do not know how to lose.  Or how to govern, or how to tell the truth.  They lack many skills.  Some of them cannot name the three branches of the federal government.  (Those who can't teach, teach gym.)

They can't even tell the truth about physical evidence all of us can see, like the Several Thousand MAGAts March that invaded Washington on Saturday under the auspices of the Proud Toys.  Several sources have merrily observed that the Trump regime is ending the way it began, with exaggerated reports of crowd size.  But it's worse than that.  Trump promised American carnage and he has delivered over 246,000 deaths to date.   That's more than the First World War, fewer than the Second.  Of course, it's far from over.

A second coronavirus vaccine is in the pipeline from Moderna, which should be available by spring.  The company says it can provide the US with twenty million doses by the end of the year.  Organizing the distribution, of course, is one more job being held up by Trump's prolonged temper tantrum and refusal to authorize the transition.  After four years he still thinks government consists of tweeting abuse, haranguing mobs and signing his name.  

The Georgia recount has yet to turn up anything suspicious so Trump has joined the chorus blaming the RIGGED ILLEGAL BAD RESULT on Brad Raffensperger, for whom even I am starting to feel a drop of pity.  He spent most of the day on Facebook refuting the lies shoveled by Trump and his surrogate ("Failed candidate Doug Collins is a liar -- but what's new?").  Republicans in Disarray!  You hate to see that on the eve of a critical double runoff.   Snerk.  Sorry, it's the pollen.  Even as the ads get more strident and Streicher-like, David Perdue has declined to debate Jon Ossoff even once, having had his ass handed to him already.  Ironically, Kelly Loeffler is portraying Rev. Raphael Warnock as an anti-Semite and maybe even a child molester, but definitely a SOCIALIST!    

After last week's Bye-Felicias, the Trump legal brain trust consists of Chramhead Rudy and the sort of lawyers who advertise on local TV.  "Have a wreck?  We will get cash for your crash!  Call 1-800-SHYSTER."  Unable to pound the law, the evidence or the table, their strategy seems to be filing one specious suit after another until December 14, when Republican-controlled state legislatures will somehow set aside all the electors pledged to Biden and appoint better ones.  Yeah, that should work.  That and Paula White's angels.  City of Destiny, did you say?  That's a little on the nose for Florida, a state sometimes called "God's waiting room."  

 

Meanwhile, Trump is looking decidedly seedy.  Either Sherwin Williams ran out of Sunburst Yellow or he just can't be bothered with dyeing his hair anymore.  His announced schedule for today was "12:30 lunch with the vice president."  What could they have talked about?  I'd love to be a fly on...never mind.  Eric is busy on the Twitter explaining that the relative size of Biden's and Daddy's rallies means Trump actually won, it's just math and anyway, Biden didn't have a single boat parade.  As for Junior, a rare white moose, protected under Canadian law since 2006, was found shot by the side of a remote road in northern Ontario.  That is all I will say.