In transit

Emily Murphy of the General Services Administration has decided to allow history to unfold by signing off on the transition.  As she preens in mangled English ("strived"? "striven," I think) and reaps praise for, like Brad Raffensperger and Aaron Van Langevelde, doing her job, a regular question arises again:  Why this endless "transition"?

In Britain, where party differences are pronounced, transition works like this:  An election is held, people vote, votes are tallied, the result is announced a few hours later, and in twenty-four hours the former prime minister and his/her suitcases are out on the pavement.  Later that day, the new head of government moves in and life goes on.  They haven't had to splash out for a coronation since 1953; we have one every four years, even if it's the same president.  Of course, like so much of our trouble it goes back to 1789 and our perfect, radiant Constitution, which can never be altered unless we want to.  Elections were specified to happen in November, after the harvest and before the snow, and the president would take office in March because it took that long to gather the electors, finalize the result, send a rider to Mount Vernon on a fast horse and get General Washington to New York in a coach.  Really?  We're still doing this?

It was obvious in 1932 that people in the Great Depression were starving and freezing during the long wait, so Congress moved up the inauguration to January 20 from 1937 on.  Somehow the transition that used to take four months was crammed into two, a clear example of Parkinson's Law ("work expands to fill the time available for its completion").  I appreciate that our population is bigger than Britain's and our state-run voting much more haphazard; I don't believe our bureaucracy is more complex.  This should not take two months.  Two weeks is plenty if you dump the electoral college nonsense and take the process away from political hacks like Murphy.  Maybe three.

Because Trump has already quit.  There's a deadly pandemic killing around a thousand Americans a day and taking resources from those with other medical needs.  The Russian navy is playing chicken with American ships.  Black people are still dying at traffic stops.   Food banks are tapped out.  Here's what Trump does:  rage-tweet about election "fraud," citing experts like Randy Quaid; hire and fire terrible lawyers; refuse to meet with his own pandemic response team; take credit for Emily Murphy's capitulation; take credit for the stock market, bullish on Biden and the prospect of covid vaccines; "pardon" a turkey which won't live long in any case; play lots of golf.  Melania works harder trying to look interested in "fucking Christmas decorations."  Two more months of this.  

Of course, there's always time for Trump's trademark sadism, even when he's too depressed to tweet and leaves the detail work to his ratlings.  Making it harder for the disabled to receive Social Security benefits, for instance (he was disgusted by disability long before Serge Kovaleski).  Unleashing a mining company on the Oak Flat oasis in Arizona because it's sacred to the Apache and other tribes.  Bugging out of the Open Skies treaty and even scrapping the surveillance planes so Biden can't just reverse his parting gift to Putin (and how much Trump debt was reduced in return?).  Planting his own Derp State flunkies in civil service jobs from which it will be harder to extract them.  Threatening to veto the Defense Authorization Act because it requires bases be re-named for people who didn't try to overthrow the United States government by force.  And probably collecting stones and D batteries to block up the White House toilets an hour before he leaves.

A cornered Trump will do anything, and Bill Press describes some of the criminal and civil actions which may be closing in on him.  Trump TV may be pre-empted by Court TV.  

Can it get worse?  Always.  Top Glove in Malaysia is the world's largest manufacturer of latex gloves.  It had to close two dozen factories because so many workers are sick with covid.  Which is not surprising when you consider they live in company dormitories and labor in near-slavery conditions, creating record profits for the company.  As the pandemic worsens, glove shortages threaten.  This may actually be worse than Tyson Foods managers in Waterloo, Iowa, betting on how many workers would get sick.  I'm not sure.  Let me go smash some cinderblocks and I'll get back to you.