The day Tom Sullivan joined Hullabaloo Thank you to everyone who has contributed to Happy Hollandaise this year. As always, I’m incredibly grateful for your support. I’m also incredibly grateful for Tom Sullivan, the man who writes two elegant and important posts here each morning, 7 days a week without fail. While I’m still sleeping out here on the west coast, Tom has already started the day with fresh insights, good humor and principled, meaningful analysis of our chaotic political scene. And then he goes out and works on organizing North Carolina into the blue state it’s meant to be. I’d met Tom and his lovely wife at Netroots Nation years ago and we hit it off right away. But when I came across a great post on his old blog Scrutiny Hooligans I realized that I really needed him over here. I asked him to fill in for me for a few days and the rest is history. I cannot thank him enough. There is never a day that I’m, not reminded how lucky I am that he said yes that day. As you no doubt realize, this is not exactly a big money enterprise. When I moved over to WordPress a couple of years ago I made the decision not to run ads anymore.
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This one is from Hussein Ibish in The Atlantic who notes that we are seeing a ton of polls that show Biden in deep trouble and that everyone is on tender hooks, praying that things turn around and quickly. His analysis, however, asserts that Trump is going to lose, full stop. As he says, “Democrats, and any other sensible voters who oppose Trump, need to forcefully remind the American people about how disastrous he was as president and inform them of how much worse a second term would be. Thankfully, that is not a hard case to make.” He points out that Trump has many advantages, starting with his cult (my word not his.) And the tribal nature of politics dictates that most Republicans will vote Republicans no matter what. And then there’s the right wing propaganda machine, particularly Fox News which will help his press his case that he’s a victim of persecution by the “deep state.” The electoral college advantage is obvious and Biden is old and has left some segments of the Democratic coalition dissatisfied so there’s that. However: Trump’s flaws look far worse today than they did eight years ago.
And none too soon The Army will remove a Confederate memorial from Arlington this week and the wingnuts are having a hissy fit, as usual: A woman representing the American South, standing atop a 32-foot pedestal, lords above most other monuments within America’s most revered resting place. It portrays, according to the cemetery’s website, a “mythologized vision of the Confederacy, including highly sanitized depictions of slavery.” This month, 44 Republican lawmakers cautioned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the first African American to hold the post, that the Pentagon would overstep its authority by removing the memorial, and they demanded that all efforts to do so stop until Congress works through next year’s appropriations bill. The memorial “commemorates reconciliation and national unity,” not the Confederacy per se, the group led by Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (Ga.) claimed.
“Don’t just vote. Run.” “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do,” Jesus said from the cross. American women like Allie Phillips, 28, will be less forgiving of politicians who know not what they do and those who do know and don’t care. Remember, first they come for the women. In mid-October, the Guardian reported on Phillips’ confrontation early this year with her nonviable pregnancy and Tennessee’s abortion ban. Allie Phillips thinks of herself as the ordinary neighbor nextdoor. She shops at the Walmart clearance rack. She posts TikTok videos of herself and her six-year-old daughter, Adalie, singing along to Taylor Swift and dancing the Wednesday Addams dance. Up until recently, the most political thing she’d ever done was vote, and only in presidential elections. That was then. This is now. Normally I peruse a lot of headlines before something grabs my attention, but this story via a rural organizing list did that first thing this morning. You need to see this story from Kathie C. Reilly at Elle: Allie Phillips cried into the camera.
The damned spot that won’t wash clean A Threads post from Kurt Andersen (“Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History“) points out the lingering effects of tyranny (map above): So interesting that the Germans in the part of Germany run by tyrants for most of the 20th century—Nazis for 12 years, Soviet-proxy communists for 45—are those now most supportive of the right-wing AfD party. Tragically, enduringly habituated to dislike democracy and outsiders. It got me thinking how often we see U.S. maps reflecting politics and policies that carry traces of the Confederacy that died far longer ago than the Nazi and Soviet regimes. The taint is not uniform over all issues and all states, clearly, but it persists. Happy Hollandaise, you filthy animals!
Another round of Hitler talk for the fascist faithful And some concrete plans to make it happen: Lovin’ those dictators: New promises: Bold predictions: Sure. Remember this? It was November 2, 2020 Not that his followers, enablers and henchmen care of course. It’s just Trump, playing his greatest hits and nothing matters except owning the libs. Dementia: And then there’s just sheer fun for the folks: He hasn’t gotten any better over the years. He’s gotten worse. Oh well, Happy Hollandaise folks. Let’s take a break, shall we?
How the Russia hawks have fallen … for Putin Not that long ago the American right was militarist, love-it-or-leave-it, and rabidly anti-Communist/anti-Russia. To a comical “no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops” and “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” degree, even. Fight ’em over there so we don’t fight ’em over here. War was good business, good politics, and a resume-builder for aspiring politicans. Americans of all political stripes reflexively pulled for the underdogs facing imperialist aggression (unless we were the imperialists). Then came the BIg Shift. Now righties are fans of authoritarians and dictators. They’ve soured on all-American democracy and have turned fascism-curious. Let Russia have Ukraine, whatevs. It’s been in the making since the 1990s. Susan B.
Stay hydrated, get good sleep As we approach the winter solstice, things are not as dark as they seem. More sunlight is on the way. As I noted the other day: I’m assembling mailing lists for the 5th Ed of For The Win right now. Two years ago 40% of Idaho’s counties either had no functioning Democratic committees (or no sign of them on the Net). Today all do. Two years ago an even higher percentage of Iowa’s counties were MIA. Today only 5 [of 99] are. Sure, it’s red Idaho and Iowa, but it’s dramatic progress in two short years. Nobody knows about that. Now you do. Candidate filing closed at noon on Friday in North Carolina and I was thrilled: Chided for absences across more than 25% the General Assembly races in 2022, Friday’s final half-day of election filing for the 2024 cycle brought a resounding end to the fortnight. All 50 Senate districts have a Democratic candidate, and 118 of 120 House of Representatives districts have one. That’s a far cry from nobody in 15 Senate and 29 House races.
The former president’s comments have ignited concerns from critics and scholars who have warned that a second Trump administration threatens democracy – even as his advisers push back on those fears, dismissing them as baseless. Many likely Iowa Republican caucusgoers have no issue with several of Trump’s recent statements, a new Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll has found, and, more often than not, they say the same statements make them more likely to support the former president. Holly Rice, a 57-year-old poll respondent from Cumming, Iowa, said she was backing Trump for his policy agenda, saying “I don’t care what he tweets. It’s a little off the wall, but you know? A lot of them do stuff like that,” Rice said. “At least we know he’s not a polished politician. He reminds me of my father.” June Koelker, a 71-year-old poll respondent from Monticello, Iowa, said Trump’s immigration plans made her more likely to back him, but she answered she was “less likely” to support him for his statement about those who enter illegally “poisoning” the country.
Make them explain it. Make them own it. CNN’s Kasie Hunt interviewed RFK Jr and confronted him with his own words. As with Trump, he basically told the audience, you can believe me or you can believe your eyes: I watched some “man-on-the-street” interviews at an RFK event the other day. Oh my god. The anti-vax crowd is well represented, of course, and some of them would otherwise be Trumpers.But there were some woo-woo lefties there too, so woefully mid-informed that it made my head hurt. (Did you know that Joe Biden is a criminal and lied about COVID on behalf of Big Pharma? ) So I’m not sure that this sort of interview will affect his potential voters much. They’re pretty far gone. Right now some polls show him getting about 20% and pulling from both sides. But we really don’t need this conspiracy addled gadfly in there stirring the pot. This election is too important. But it doesn’t look as if anyone can stop him. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get on the ballot anywhere where it can make a difference. Happy Hollandaise, everyone!