America’s Government Is Failing

20 thoughts on “America’s Government Is Failing”

1. “Consider this: The best case scenario (i.e., Trump finally concedes and the transition to Biden is smooth) promises a “return to normal.” Do you remember what “normal” was? If not, let me remind you: It was an ineffectual legislature with a national approval rating of about 20% and rampant inequality.”

   Just when I was starting to get optimistic.

   Maybe I will make a profit on the boxes of ammo I bought a few months ago after all…..

2. Yeah I am not hopeful, realistically even if Biden gets the Senate and the House… I think he’ll continue to be overly concerned with the GOP’s concerns and we’re just ratcheting at a break neck pace. We’re debating whether we want to be right of center or far right or full blown authoritarian. Nothing approaching actual distributive moves away from proprietarianism is on the verge of real consideration despite it becoming more and more a necessity to avoid outright economic collapse. The FED can QE forever at an ever increasing rate but QE never planted crops or mined minerals or bought goods and services by itself.

3. I seem to recall Pelosi had the chance to get a >1Trillion “partial” deal done long before the election, much of which would have gone to those unemployed since April. Pelosi stuck to her guns and would not meet halfway. Of course it’s all Trump’s fault.

   1. No, she did not. The Senate was never on board with a partial deal with a price tag above $1 trillion. So, what you “seem to recall” is incorrect. But hey, who has a perfect memory, right?

      1. I stand corrected!
         I refreshed my memory cache and you are correct; The Mnuch’ was negotiating a range of $500m to less than 1T. 🙂

      2. Exactly. The Senate “offer” was less than half the $1T (and only half serious) using some already allocated funds as I ”recall”. They also did not want any distraction from the lightening confirmation of a SC justice. “No time to say hello, goodbye! We’re late, we’re late for a very important date!”

         1. Here’s the gist of it:

            There was a time when the Senate might have considered a compromise of between $750 billion and $1 trillion if Pelosi had immediately come all the way down from the original HEROES Act price tag (~$3.4 trillion) to Trump/Mnuchin’s original offers in the $1-$1.4 trillion range. It would have been about the signaling. i.e., while Senate Republicans would certainly have balked at, say, $950 billion, if Pelosi had just totally folded in August and said “You know what? Fine. Forget $3.4 trillion, I’ll do $1 trillion,” McConnell may have been able to go to his members and say “Look, I know you don’t want to spend $1 trillion, but that is a massive, quick concession, and we can pitch it as a huge win.”

            Obviously, Pelosi wasn’t going to do that. So, by the time we got into October, I think McConnell was looking at Pelosi, Trump, and Mnuchin and basically saying: “Forget it. We’re not doing anything up here unless you wanna come all the way down to $600 billion. And thanks for the SCOTUS nominee.” LOL

            1. I have to say, I still cannot figure what the Senate thought it was doing. I still cannot believe they got any true fiscal rectitude when they enabled GWB and Trump spending.

               I CAN believe they resent any single dime spent on “Democrat voters” (poor people in urban areas).

               I’d have argued this was ridiculous since relief spending prior to the election ought to have been a win for them, the party in power.

               Then, we see the House and the Senate races and, you know what? McConnell was right. He got to make urban poor suffer (or at least didn’t have to increase the deficit to help them) and the political cost is… a big fat zero.

               With electors like that, why would he ever change his ways?

4. I don’t think anyone should assume Trump is going to leave the WH on his own accord. Where’s he gonna go? Manhattan? Fat chance. Mar y Lago? Melania gets that in the divorce settlement? The Trump Hotel in DC? Heading into bankruptcy. Seriously, the guy doesn’t have that many options, and he knows it.

   1. I can think of one…meals are included.

   2. Trump will move to Moscow and build a government-in-exile.

      1. I was about to say that but I suspect Putin doesn’t like “losers.”

5. “Consider this: The best case scenario (i.e., Trump finally concedes and the transition to Biden is smooth)…”. Does anyone think Trump will ever concede? I don’t think so.

   1. I heard today that the administration hasn’t issued the usual memo to NSA (or one of those agencies) to provide clearance to the Biden team. Without that, the B-team can’t get briefings, credentials, etc. and the transition is basically on hold until that happens. To have an incoming team remain un-briefed is a bit of a security issue.

      If the administration continues to confound the transition, they become a threat and fast-tracking a second impeachment might be both practical and necessary. We don’t have until Jan. 20 to put the new team in place.

6. Mitch wants to keep the Trump base on his side to help in the Senate runoffs. Could be that the high voter turnouts has got him concerned.

   1. It will be amusing to watch Mitch soft-pedal the divisive R agendas for the next couple of months. Wouldn’t want to lose majority leader status, would we? Unfortunately, it will probably work. You know the old saying “there’s no old whore like an old whore”.

7. Thank God the leader of the Covid taskforce is fully committed.

   1. ..,is fully committed to letting COVID rip through the U.S. population. So much winning!

8. Now that I see more Department of Defense people have been fired I am getting more concerned that Trump may have listened to Roger Stone and is going to sign executive orders to have the military take over the swing states and impose martial law. So he can have Biden’s votes thrown out.

   1. Further setting the stage?

      https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/10/pentagon-top-policy-official-resigns-435693?cid=apn