An Alternative Inaugural Wish For 2025

<"Buyer's  Remorse Sunk In Yet?"/The Reckoner>

The less said about the Devil's Festival, AKA Donald Trump's Inauguration, the better. The less said about those obeying him in advance -- Jeff Bezos, John Fetterman, Carrie Underwood, Mark Zuckerberg, and too many others to name -- the better. The less said about those tithing themselves to the Dear Leader, the better (see US News & World Report link below).

The less said about Trump's junk drawer Cabinet picks, the better. For all the ink lavished on the freakish likes of Pete Hegseth -- whose tattoo-plastered upper body suggests some unholy collision of a Sharpie, and a bottle of Scotch, force-fed via some nickel and dime Henry Rollins-style angst -- it's easy to forget that he'll join 13 billionaires in the most plutocratic Cabinet seen since the Roaring '20s.

The less said about those sticking their heads in the sand -- imagine Husker Du retitling Zen Arcade's side four curtain raiser, "Turn Off The News" -- the better. The less said about those who didn't vote -- apparently, for lack of an ultra-ideal alternative, like someone who drinks milk all day, and hangs out with Donny Osmond, for instance -- the better. 

The less said about those who voted against their own interests -- from the suburban women who shrugged off the post-Dobbs world of abortion restrictions, to the Blacks and Latinos who rationalized Trump's bigoted outbursts ("He doesn't mean us"), and Arab Americans who cashed in their righteous moral anger over the slaughter in Gaza, with Israel's fullest-throated supporter -- the better.

The less said about those milking their ride on the Trump Train, the better. That includes the likes of Nick Johnson, one of countless YouTubers churning out pro-Trump content at an industrial place (full attention spans have no relevance in dopamine-driven culture, after all). 

The less said about Trump's loyal subjects -- such as the Black female proprietor of a pro-Trump merchandise store, proudly displaying her latest offering, a Confederate-styled flag bathing suit -- the better. If you can find a better snapshot of the contradictory doublethink that underpins the Trump movement, we'd like to see. (Hey, it's heritage, not hate, right? Wink-wink, nudge-nudge.)

The less said about the political deathbed conversions of our outgoing President -- who warned us, in his farewell address, “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead' -- the better. Like his Democratic predecessors, Joe Biden left a fair imprint on the nation; yet, like Clinton and Obama before him, he also departs, having failed to fully appreciate, let alone master, the far right's continuing assault against our democratic system. If America sleepwalks into autocracy, that failure will cast the longest of shadows.

The less said about any, or all of these things, the better. Seeing Biden finally, belatedly, embracing some of the reforms that might have earned him another term -- notably, reforming the character and transparency of the Supreme Court, one dominated by Republican appointees, who seemed hellbent on kneecapping his presidency -- marks one of our most painful milestones, coming as it did, on the eve of his enforced departure from the race, and the end of his 50-year political career. 

We can only imagine how Biden might have fared, had he launched his 2024 Presidential campaign, with the above-mentioned words of warning, or these, perhaps: "And in a democracy, there's another danger to the concentration of power and wealth. It erodes a sense of unity and common purpose. It causes distrust and division. Participating in our democracy becomes exhausting and even disillusioning, and people don't feel like they have a fair shot." 

How much farther Biden (or Harris) would have gotten, and how much better would their party would have fared, if only they'd rallied around these forceful words? We'll never know, of course. It's the sort of cognitive dissonance that has driven progressives crazy, over the long run, and one that will surely haunt them, in the short one.

Our hope is that progressives do not linger over such parlor games for long. In many ways, they offer an energy-draining dance of diversion, and distraction, one that is temporarily useful, in venting frustration, yet no substitute for a long-term strategy. There is a great deal of truth in Martin Luther King Jr.'s suggestion that "right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant," and his oft-quoted aphorism: "If you can't fly, then run. If you can't run, then walk. If you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward."

We have already outlined some potential responses in our previous message ("The Real Project 2025"), which we need not rehash here. For now, it's sufficient to state our biggest wish, as we begin the likes of 2025 -- a year that seems destined to rival George Orwell's year (1984) in the pop culture infamy sweepstakes. That wish, simply stated, is to get up, and get moving.

Already, various counterintuitive narratives -- some promoted by the far right and its enablers, some not -- are beginning to take shape. Trump won a decisive mandate to remake America in his image. The various prosecutions against him represented partisan "lawfare" that cemented his re-election. Perhaps we can find ways of working with Trump, whatever we think of his worst tendencies, or his ghoulish cheering section.

Pushing back against these narratives is certainly an important step, in changing it for the better; it's the reason that the Clash placed a graphic on their breakthrough album, Combat Rock (1982), which reads, "Know your rights. The future is unwritten." In the spirit of self-defense, we offer a guide to finding a demonstration near you (see link below), for today.

And if you do, let these words from The New Republic ring in your ears: "In his second term, it should be the task of liberals to force Trump to swallow a daily spoonful of the very real job stress that Obama struggled so mightily to endure." That seems like a good start, especially as Trump and his allies gear up, and prepare us for four years of plutocratic minority rule. 

Let them plot, let them plan; let them laugh, and let them lick their chops; let them stand up and shout, let them stomp and scream and celebrate. Let them do any or all of these things, for today. What matters is tomorrow, one that will arrive sooner, rather than later -- one that we can take back, if we only put our minds to it -- and when that moment comes, we're ready to meet it. --The Reckoner

Associated Press: Progressives Are Frustrated
By Biden's Final-Days Warning Of Billionaire Influence:
https://apnews.com/article/biden-oligarchy-democrats-progressives-criticism-420ad7e81a692f0444f84d41654faae1

Paste Magazine: The Fake News Pipeline:
How A Small-Time Clickbait Farmer Is Spreading the Gospel of Big Oil:

https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/bayou-bridge-pipeline/the-fake-news-pipeline-how-two-small-time-clickbait

People's March: Find A Demonstration Near You:
https://map.peoplesmarch.com/local?link_id=2&can_id=4e6c8046819e1ba183f676fa03eddc7a&source=email-take-a-stand-at-the-peoples-march-this-inauguration-weekend&email_referrer=email_2587221&email_subject=take-a-stand-at-the-peoples-march-this-inauguration-weekend

The New Republic: Shove The Presidency Down Trump's Throat:
https://newrepublic.com/post/190337/trump-second-term-democrats-respond

US News & World Report:
Trump Ushers In The Oligarchy Biden Is Warning Us About:

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2025-01-16/trump-biden-oligarchs-billionaires-treasury-secretary

White House: President Biden's Farewell Address (Text):

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2025/01/15/remarks-by-president-biden-in-a-farewell-address-to-the-nation/

Guest Cartoon: The Highwayman: "The Windowless Basement Hustle"

<Click on the image for the full effect!>

"We're not going to beat 
Trump with pocket change."

Democratic Presidential hopeful
Pete Buttigieg, 
pondering the pros and cons
of joining the money chase

"Small-dollar grassroots campaigns, aka what Buttegieg insults here

as 'pocket change,'

out-fundraise him by millions.

"Our nation’s leaders

should be working to end the era

of big money politics,

not protect it." <Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offers a slightly different take>

“The front of the line is always filled
with people whose pockets are filled."


Joe Biden, Zombie Frontrunner,
Explaining How It Works, 101

Our friend and house artist, The Highwayman, is feeling righteously angry, as this week's cartoon makes amply clear. The quote in panel #2 comes from The National Review, which ran an interesting article (see below) about Democratic Minority Leader Charles Schumer's strategy to retake the Senate --by putting up party-vetted favorites, have them say as little of substance as possible, and run a blizzard of negative ads to make their opponent -- typically, a white, male, inoffensive, party-vetted favorite -- seem like the spawn of Hitler, Osama bin Laden and Satan combined.

Does sound like an equation that favors the common interest? Not in the least, but it showcases the Democratic Party disconnect between the Old Bulls, who seem hellbent on imposing the above vision on the rest of us, till Hell freezes over, or they die, or finally get run off, whichever comes first -- and the newly energized progressive wing, who don't want the anti-Trump resistance simply hijacked to preserve the status quo...the same status quo that keeps us stuck in the hellish non-choice between a) Aetna and Cigna, b) Comcast and nobody, c) Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump...take your pick. Wash, rinse repeat.

This cartoon came at an interesting week, due to some welcome light getting shed on the issue of big money, and its role in campaigns. Just look how far Zombie Frontrunner, Joe Biden, has fallen -- $1 million in private jet rides later, and he still ends up with just $9 million to show for his third quarter of fundraising! I can just imagine the slogan: "Joe Biden: The Last White Man Who Can't Raise Money. Give Till It Hurts."

So what's Lunch Bucket Joe's solution? Do a 180-degree turnaround (see link below), and go with the super PACs that you disavowed when your campaign started. Of course, you'll definitely fix what ails the system, if you ever make it to the White House, and try elbowing past all those big donors, waiting to cash their IOUs, which only means...yeah, we've seen this movie before, time and again. It didn't pass the stench test then, and doesn't now. Unless we stand up and say, "We demand something different." We don't want to stay stuck in the windowless basement, right? --The Reckoner

Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry.

The Ghost Of Dark Money

Is Banging At Your Door)

The Intercept:
Joe Biden's Super PAC:
https://theintercept.com/2019/10/25/joe-biden-super-pac/

The National Review: 

Chuck Schumer's "Wndowless Basement" Strategy

For Winning Back The Strategy:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/10/chuck-schumer-windowless-basement-strategy-for-winning-back-the-senate/

"People Have The Power": So Where Does Bernie Sanders Go From Here, Exactly?

"And my senses newly opened 
I awakened to the cry 
That the people / have the power 
To redeem / the work of fools"
--Patti Smith, "People Have The Power"

By any standard, Bernie Sanders enjoyed a terrific night in Monday's Iowa caucus. Fighting the presumed front-runner Hillary Clinton's money machine to a statistical dead heat is no small achievement, especially since -- as Sanders noted in his speech -- he had no money and no name recognition when he started campaigning nine months ago. His movement is real, and it's not going away. What's even more amazing is that Sanders has pulled it off as the king of small donations (which average $27, as CNN's pundit team reminded us all night).

As I wrote Sunday night, I'm finding myself among those "feeling the Bern" -- so to speak -- because the plodding, often fruitless realpolitik that the Democratic Party has practiced over the last 25-odd years or so hasn't benefited many people, including yours truly. As a close friend reminded me on Sunday, he recalled a waitress saying during the Clinton Era: "Yeah, he brags about creating 15 million new jobs. I have three of them."

I relate to that comment, as someone holding down four or five ongoing editorial gigs myself. If nothing else, Monday's result shows that Sanders has made his point, which is glaringly apparent from CNN's exit polling. For example, on who's more honest and trustworthy, the margin came out 83-10% in Sanders's favor. On who cares more about voters' problems, the margin was 76-24%. With those numbers, how does Clinton, if she does get nominated, reach the finish line in November? And that's before the FBI shoe drops on the email scandal that she and her supporters currently pooh-pooh away as no big deal. (Shades of that "third-rate burglary" that brought down Tricky Dick, right?)

In fact, it's probably fair to say that without Polk County -- Iowa's largest, most populated jurisdiction -- Clinton might not have gotten the life preserver she needed to eke out her wafer-thin victory. As President Obama;s former top adviser, David Axelrod, pointed out, Clinton's "I've got a great resume" stance is problematic -- because, as he pointed out, "it's all about her. When Barack Obama ran in 2008, he didn't say, 'Yes, I Can," it was, 'Yes, We Can.'" 

I couldn't have said it better myself. However Sanders fares, it was exhilarating to see the response that he drew -- for a moment, it's possible to envision something better, instead of the crap that the donor classes keep shoveling down our collective gullet. I'm tired of the litany of lowered expectations we've heard for so long; if activity breeds activity, then excuses also breed excuses.

"The power to dream / to rule 

To wrestle the world from fools 

It's decreed the people rule
It's decreed the people rule"

Now that the dust has settled from all of the caucusing and coin-tossing, a bigger question looms: where does Bernie Sanders go from here? Well, that depends how he presents his message. A cynical PR type might shrug, "It's all in the packaging." Look at the GOP''s right-wing firebrand, Ted Cruz. He's an Ivy leaguer (Harvard), and his wife works for Goldman Sachs, who bankrolled his first Senate campaign (see the link for how that little transaction played out).

The way Cruz talks, you'd think he's some fire-breathing populist, too -- but he's not, as you might surmise from his proposal to end corporate and payroll taxes, as everyone coughs up 10 percent of their income to Uncle Sam. In other words, this is a guy who doesn't think there's enough inequality in America. That Cruz voters ignore such contradictions without protest speaks volumes in itself, yet underscores one of last week's big lessons: in politics, perception paces reality (just like everything else).

However, if there's another takeaway from last week, it's that "kitchen table" issues still matter quite a bit. As Sanders heads into contests like South Carolina (February 27), I'd suggest that he stick with the kitchen table stuff -- but use it as a hammer to confront the demon of electibility, which is one issue that causes ripples of skittishness among core Democratic voters.

Put another way, as my friend noted in our conversation, manufacturing and textiles all over the South took a pounding after the ink dried on the infamous North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). I don't think it hurts Sanders to remind folks who shoehorned that deal through (uh, this little inequity is brought to you by the letter C), and connect the does to his core argument: if you want "same old, same old," I have a sneaking suspicion where you'll go. if you wanna make history...well, let's have a little chat first before you pull the trigger.

"I believe everything we dream 

Can come to pass through our union
We can turn the world around
We can turn the earth's revolution
We have the power
People have the power...."

The reactions to Sanders's candidacy and Iowa showing also remind me of a saying by the French philosopher Voltaire: "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." How else to explain the comments made by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, in calling Sanders's challenge a "dangerous moment": "“It has the potential to personalize it, it has the potential to be a dangerous moment. Not just for Wall Street, not just for the people who are particularly targeted, but for anybody who is a little bit out of line."

In other words: "How dare you criticize the almighty Goldman Sachs CEO, the man who knows what's best for the economy that doesn't work for anybody, except folks like him?" Surely, an unimpeachable source on kitchen table issues if ever there was one, right?

Of course, the potential to rack up more baggage didn't prevent Clinton from giving three closed-door speeches to the Goldman Sachs crowd, which she's "thinking" about making public -- we'll see how that one pans out -- for $675,000. Baggage or not, the lure of the dollar is a pretty powerful one (especially for the Clintons). Still, as Clinton told Anderson Cooper during last week's Democratic Party Town Hall, she had no problem with taking the money. Why? "That's what they offered." 

Where I come from, they have a phrase for statements like those: "The gift that keeps on giving."

A more appropriate quote -- beyond the song that I've chosen to soundtrack this post -- is the one that Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur offered last week to the Boston Globe, in explaining the force of Sanders's appeal: "The issue that has been the most cutting for the American people has been their economic welfare. Over the last quarter century, they have been dealt such heavy blows. I have always regarded Senator Sanders as one of the most pristine voices on their behalf, whether it was auto workers in Ohio or farm workers from New Mexico."

There you have it: Exhibits A, B and C about "how we got there from here." One speaker nailed it, while the other two wound up dropping the hammer on their foot. But that's no surprise, given the dismal record that the "adults" in the room have racked up -- Iraq Wat, Afghan War, 2008 bailout, lack of economic mobility -- and continue to rack up. So it's no surprise that a fire brigade is coming to put out the Bern....because they'll never get it right, not if they live for another 100 years.  --The Reckoner

UPDATE:  Add former Secretary of State Madeline Albright and feminist icon Gloria Steinem to the adults who don't get it: the former, for suggesting that electing Clinton is the "real" revolution, and the latter, for implying that Sanders' young female supporters are just flocking him "because that's where the boys are," as she claimed to Bill Maher.

Both comments take the cake for chutzpah, though it's harder to tell who's more tone deaf. Albright, apparently, is deploying the "loyalty" argument that Team Clinton is rolling out to sandbag Sanders' embryonic revolution, especially when she states: "There's a special -place in hell for women who don't help each other!" To which the only sane retort may be: "There's a special place in hell for people who keep pulling the trigger in the voting booth for the same people, and getting the same result."

Steinem's comment, on the other hand, is the kind of flip really that established figures like herself use to dismiss or minimize what doesn't make sense. Either way, though, it carries an all too familiar ring to the bottom 99%: Grow up, get on with the program, and get out of the way, 'cause we know better than you do.

My response goes like this: "Nothin' doin'!"  And, from what I'm seeing play out across the land, I'm not only the one. Thank God. Where it goes out from here will be interesting to watch.

"Come mothers and fathers

Throughout the land

And don't criticize

What you can't understand

Your sons and your daughters

Are beyond your command

Your old road is

Rapidly agin'.

Please get out of the new one

If you can't lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'."
--Bob Dylan, "The Times (They Are A-Changin')"

Links To Go (The Dark Money Crowd Is Aroused):
NPR: The Ted Cruz Goldman Sachs Loan, Explained:
http://www.npr.org/2016/01/14/463093708/the-ted-cruz-goldman-sachs-loan-explained

New York Magazine: Jimmy Carter Lends A Hand To Ted Cruz:
Goldman Sachs Does The Same For Bernie Sanders:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/jimmy-carter-lends-ted-cruz-a-hand.html#

New York Times:
Gloria Steinem And Madeline Albright
Scold Young Women Backing Bernie Sanders:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/us/politics/gloria-steinem-madeleine-albright-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html?_r=0

Salon.com: American Capitalism Has Failed Us...:
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/04/american_capitalism_has_failed_us_were_overworked_underemployed_and_more_powerless_than_ever_before_partner/

The Washington Post: The Daily 202:
Hillary Clinton Makes Her Wall Street Problem Worse:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2016/02/04/daily-202-hillary-clinton-makes-her-wall-street-problem-worse/56b23083981b92a22df007c1

2014 Midterm Aftermath: A Few Reality Checks

Let's get the obvious stuff out of the way first, shall we?  For Democrats, the bruising outcome of Tuesday's midterm elections reflects the "six-year itch" that plagues most two-term presidents in their twilight years, as the party searches for its next standard-bearer -- and voters start yearning for a new face at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Only once since World War II has a sitting president bucked the trend, according to the National Journal. That moment came in 1998, when Democrats and Republicans essentially fought each other to a five-seat stalemate in the U.S. House and Senate, following popular backlash against Clinton's impeachment. As the old wisecrack goes, there's a reason why second-term presidents suddenly start talking up their foreign policy initiatives.

What's more, most of Tuesday's Republican victories came in solid red states that aren't Democrat-friendly, anyway. As one MSNBC commentator observed of Kay Hagan's defeat in North Carolina, no Democratic Senator has won re-election there since 1968...a reality that all her hard campaigning apparently couldn't change. Similar stories abound in states like Arkansas, where fellow one-termer Mark Pryor was the last Democrat left standing in his congressional delegation.

And it's also worth remembering that, for most voters, midterm elections are more about punishing the party in power than holding some kind of polite teatime debate. As a political science professor of mine once bluntly informed our class: "I hated Richard Nixon, and voted against him every chance I ever got." President Obama undoubtedly serves a similar purpose for his critics.

GOP stalwarts might well to ponder their prospects for 2016, when the remorseless Senate electoral math flips the opposite way, with 23 Republicans and 10 Democrats up for re-election. As GOP strategists Glenn Bolger and Neil Newhouse observe, those races include "The Big Blue Wall" of 18 states (and Washington, D.C.) that have swung Democratic for six consecutive presidential elections. And that's before we get to this, um, other elephant in the room...

After reading the above quote, a fair-minded person might well ask, "What year is this again?" Apparently, if Mr. Yelton's wishes prevailed, we'd remain stuck in World War I limbo...when poll taxes were in full effect...women's suffrage remained a dream...and the average American worked six or seven days a week for peanuts...so that the uber-rich could cram even more loot into their already-overstuffed money bins.

The quote cost Mr. Yelton his county precint chairmanship in 2013, but its assumptions --  bigoted and blinkered as they are -- might explain why consultants like Bolger and Newhouse worry about where their beloved GOP brand is headed in the 2016 presidential year...when turnout is higher, but not necessarily among the "Angry Old White Guy" crowd that analysts fingered as the driving force behind Tuesday's midterm results.

As Republican critics suggest, the wave of voting restrictions passed after Obama's victories seemed calculated to batten down the hatches against a younger, more diverse electorate that the party seems little interested in courting.  It's almost as if you're hearing them say: "OK, we know you don't love us.  Guess what?  Let's just make your civic duty harder to do...yeah, that's the ticket. That'll save our bacon."

However, this line of defense doesn't change the big picture, as Bolger and Newhouse's Chicago Tribune op-ed column suggests: "To win 50.1 percent of the popular vote, we estimate, Republicans will need nearly 64 percent of the white vote -- which would be a record for a non-incumbent presidential candidate."

Of course, there's a flipside to the above-mentioned argument, and that's the power of big money -- which surprisingly few contributors addressed on Tuesday night. Outside spending rocketed to new highs during this election cycle, including the $62 million that went into tipping the Iowa Senate race, or the $70 million dedicated to the Colorado Senate contest.

Even Michigan's longtime Republican Congressman, Fred Upton -- long accustomed to romping towards the finish line -- found himself sweating a little bit to victory on Tuesday due to a late-breaking $2 million negative ad blitz unleashed by the Mayday PAC on behalf of Democrat Paul Clements. (Mayday's founders have gotten a fair bit of national press by promising to eventually disband after it elects enough politicians to grease the skids for their demise -- we'll see how well that idea plays out, right?)

And that's the real story behind Tuesday's midterms, because -- in simple terms -- money buys access.  Access equals power and face time...as in backs being scratched, chits getting cashed, and phone calls quickly returned to arrange yet another back room deal that excludes our society's most vulnerable citizens from the equation. That equation won't change in a Washington overrun by influence peddlers and lobbyists of every stripe.

Given the scenarios already being mulled over in Washington, D.C. -- a GOP-led Senate sending nonsense legislation that an unmoved Obama will veto, because he won't ever face the voters again, and the two-thirds majority for an override may or may not not exist -- another bout of gridlock for America's least fortunate might not seem so bad. Hell, it's not like anyone pays attention to their needs now, right?

I've already had progressive and Democratic friends ask, "What the hell just happened?" My response to that question is simple: let's stop wringing our hands, stop playing defense, and stop spending so much time parked at the goal line. The day of reckoning is coming, but until then, there's no plenty of work to do...so let's get moving. -- The Reckoner

Links To Go (Here's Why You're Never On The Dark Money Radar):
MLive.com: Congressman Fred Upton 
Declares Victory Over Democrat Paul Clements:
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/11/2014_election_results_fred_upt.html

The Chicago Tribune: Senate Control No Cure For Republican Ills In 2016:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-gop-can-lose-by-winning-perspec-1104-20141103-story.html#page=1

The National Journal: Six-Year Itch Plagues Presidents In Midterms:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/off-to-the-races/six-year-itch-plagues-presidents-in-midterms-20140106

The New York Times: 
Tough Tests Looming In 2016 Raise Stakes For GOP In Midterm Elections:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/us/politics/2016-headwinds-raise-stakes-for-gop-in-this-years-midterms.html