Jeet Heer at The Nation says "Trump's two impeachments are just the start of a long struggle to turn the former president into a pariah," and all I can say is: we can only hope! Next steps, for Mr. Heer, include criminal and civil charges against Mr. Trump and a Congressional investigation (not a 9.11-style "truth commission," necessarily) into the events of January 6; I would say our task, in the meantime, is to shame and shun anyone who still thinks Donald Trump is a God-among-men. For Trump votaries, anything civilized people do will just make him seem more the martyr, but let them see how their lives are when their devotion is all they have left.
There's no point sifting through Sen. Lindsey Graham's latest batch of word salad to figure out exactly how a Republican Congress would get rid of Vice President Harris, but he's correct that Lara Trump has become a viable candidate in the 2022 North Carolina Senate election. Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville has lowered the bar for how stupid you can sound/be and still get elected, so yes, Lara Trump can win -- unless Democrats nominate someone who gives North Carolinians someone to vote for. I think state Sen. Erica Smith is that person; the problem is that national Democrats think anyone but Erica Smith is that person. They should know better -- I mean, the Cal Cunningham disaster was just three months ago, and he didn't lose solely because he couldn't keep it in his pants.
David Frum's latest at The Atlantic, arguing that more democracy would solve our problems much better than continued rule by Our Glorious Elites, is fascinating, not just because he argues that the Founders were wrong about the "fickleness and passion" of the masses, not just because he measures the Federalist Papers against the evidence of the last 15 years and finds it wanting, but because he all but says Our Glorious Elites actually cause all our problems. And in noting how the Senate's refusal to pass climate change or immigration reform legislation led President Obama to issue more regulations -- which President Trump tried to overturn, albeit with little success -- Mr. Frum not only proves his point that the kind of "minority" rule espoused by our Founders actually leads to more instability and chaos, he also remains a conservative in doing so, and generally I prefer folks stay true to themselves.
So why is Mexico's government turning away from renewable energy and toward coal at this relatively late date? It can't be "energy sovereignty," since Mexico gets sun and wind just like everyone else, and when they say renewable energy is "unreliable," they probably mean it doesn't "reliably" make money for someone, and even if in this instance that "someone" is the Mexican taxpayer, we shouldn't necessarily celebrate. It sounds like Mexican President López Obrador (a.k.a. AMLO) either doesn't have the guts to nationalize the largely-privatized renewable energy industry or thinks the Mexican government can't compete with it, and that's not exactly visionary reasoning there.
Finally, you've heard about the wintry storms battering Texas this week? Well, Laura Clawson at Daily Kos notes that President Biden has moved rather swiftly and decisively in this matter, whereas his predecessor "repeatedly delayed disaster aid to parts of the country he didn't think were sufficiently pro-Trump." Turns out that having a President with over half a century of experience in our federal government is not an unqualified evil, and I hope we'll be highlighting many such Goofus and Gallant moments over the next few years. What Trump votaries in Texas are saying right now I can only imagine. Are they blaming Jewish space lasers for the winter weather?
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