National

In the week after the election, I didn't listen to or read any national punditry. I still don't. As a result, I was late to the Hillary supporters "Bernie Bros" smear which identifies Sanders supporters as crypto-racists who want to throw POC, women, and gays under the bus in order to appeal to white nationalists who live in the rust belt. Entering late, I've been on my heals and frankly confused about the whole zero sum game that was underway. My fist reaction was, "C'mon guys, everyone can be a little right and a little wrong." But that didn't work. Collegiality seemed to have completely broken down. Here is my forensic take on what happened.

I have observed that Coons was setting out to present himself as the most spineless member of congress in terms of dealing with Donald Trump. I thought that might have…

Matt Yglesias:

Democrats have a deep, dark worry that they can’t express publicly. After long, frustrating years of trying and failing to get congressional Republicans to agree to do some fiscal stimulus to boost the economy, they’re worried that Trump is now going to get the cooperation they couldn’t. Enormous tax cuts will widen the deficit and stimulate the economy, and the cuts will be paired with a substantial infrastructure program that further boosts growth. “Well, sometimes you have to prime the pump,” Donald Trump told Time magazine, explaining blithely how he plans to brush aside years of conservative anti-Keynesian rhetoric. The hypocrisy here is truly stunning, though in a sense conservatives have consistently (since the Reagan Era) adhered to the view that big deficits are good if and only if there’s a Republican in the White House. But, beyond hypocrisy, the bad news for America — albeit good news for Democratic Party politicians — is that it won’t work. Which is too bad, because there is reason to believe stimulus could work and help raise wages and put a few million extra people back to work. It’s just that to make it work Trump would have to make some additional changes that there’s no indication he wants to make.

…from the desk of R.E. Vanella. Jemand mußte Josef K. verleumdet haben, denn ohne daß er etwas Böses getan hätte, wurde er eines Morgens verhaftet. --Franz Kafka, ‘Der Proceß’ [Someone must have been telling lies about Josef K. because one morning after doing nothing wrong he was arrested. 'The Trial']

The RNC “is overseeing an expansive whip operation designed to lock down Donald Trump’s Electoral College majority and ensure that the 306 Republican electors cast their votes for the president-elect,” Politico reports. “Two RNC sources familiar with the effort said the committee — with the assistance of state Republican parties and the Trump campaign — has been in touch with most of the GOP electors multiple times, and has concluded that only one is a risk to cast a vote against Trump on Dec. 19, when the Electoral College meets.” Which is why I have been dashing any liberal or progressive dreams that somehow the GOP electors will vote their conscience. These people are usually GOP partisans and party regulars. So they don't have one.

Marino's 49% against BHL probably overstates his strength a bit because a few of those percentage points can be attributed to the late breaking sign theft scandal. Still, someone running a follow-up race is typically tougher to beat than a pure newbie. Dems will probably field Earl Jaques, who is a workaday retail pol who knows to spend shoe leather.

The Economist: “These latest revelations have probably not changed any minds at all. Republicans [and certain leftists] who hate Mrs Clinton are still delighted that she was defeated. Democrats who loathe and fear Mr Trump have one more reason to dislike him. Outside Washington, red-blooded Americans who mostly rather dislike President Vladimir Putin, according to polls, seem to be shrugging off the latest allegations: President-elect Trump was loudly cheered by spectators when he turned up in Baltimore on December 10th to watch the Army-Navy football game, an annual pageant of patriotism.” “And that is what is, or should be, so unsettling. Russian interference in elections across the Western world is like a nasty virus, attacking the body politic. Normally, America is protected by powerful, bipartisan immune responses against such a menace. It also boasts some of the world’s most sophisticated intelligence and cyber-defenses, and when spooks tell the Republicans and Democrats who lead Congress and sit on the House and Senate intelligence committees of hostile acts by a foreign power, love of country generates a unified response. That immune response is not kicking in this time.” “This squabble does matter. When the next president of America takes his oath of office in January, officers of Russian intelligence can savour a historic win. And that astonishing, appalling fact has divided, not united, the two parties that run the world’s great democracy. That should be enough to unsettle anyone.”