“This case is much worse than someone who falsely shouts fire in a crowded theater. It’s more like a case where the town fire chief, who’s paid to put out fires, sends a mob not to yell fire in a crowded theater, but to actually set the theater on fire.” lead House impeachment manager Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

When a coup attempt goes unpunished it becomes a training exercise. 𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @Sundae_Gurl 𝕊𝕠𝕗𝕥 𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕥𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒 𝕟𝕚𝕔𝕖 𝕤𝕖𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝕡𝕦𝕟𝕤. 𝕀 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕠 𝕔𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝕞𝕪 𝕗𝕒𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕪 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕖𝕥𝕤. 𝕎𝕒𝕤𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘𝕥𝕠𝕟, 𝔻ℂ

“I told the Members of the Senate who were in the Democratic caucus that I was a free man first, an American second, a Senator third, and a Democrat fourth, in that order”; President Lyndon Johnson at a Fundraising Dinner in New Orleans October 09, 1964.

“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters,” Presidential campaigner Donald Trump in Iowa on Sunday, January 24, 2016.

I started writing about the Super Bowl, but I’m already bored with it. I didn’t really have a dog in the fight, although I am an AFC guy, and I was, at first, mildly rooting for Kansas City. Still, another win by Tom Brady is not a very big story anymore, anywhere (except Tampa Bay). I do want to say that, between the flyover, the plethora of flags, football in general, and the famously pro-Trump Tom Brady, I expected the ads to be more to the Right but the guys hawking stuff are politically neutral and they seem to think the sweet spot is very much to the left of Nationalism and Racism.

Watching the Impeachment, I’m not sure that optimism reflects reality. It is hard to watch the Impeachment and not be scared, for me, at least. Scared that the Insurrectionist mob is going to win next time – and there will be a next time unless a lot of people are put in prison – scared that we are seeing the beginning of the end of American Democracy, scared that, as obvious as Trump’s involvement is to me, he is going to waltz free, scared that the Republican Senators, all of who took an oath to protect the Constitution, don’t really give a shit about the Constitution or the country. As an aside, the fact that I care so much, somewhat surprises me. End aside.

I think that there is a lot of anger in the land and very little willingness to admit the other side even has any opinions worth considering. I know that I’ve already taken a side, I think like everybody else, and, of course, I like to think that my side is right. I like to think that my side is the long arc bending towards a moral universe, even if that journey is somewhat haphazard and wobbly. But, I suspect, we all feel that way, even Josh Hawley, and that is why most Republican Senators will vote for acquittal.

While I hope that they don’t, while I hope that the Republican Senators were close enough to the action and becoming politically distant enough to go after Trump, I don’t think the Senate is the primary target here. The primary target is the electorate, especially the moderate Republican electorate, and there is an expectation that proving Trump instigated his followers to take over the government in order to “stop the steal” is and will alienate more people than it will convert. Part of the reason for that is because the Democrats, and Congressman Jamie Raskin in particular, put on a good case – to my eyes, anyway – and part of it is that the nationalistic, populous, side of the Party is becoming more emboldened, going after conventional conservatives like Representative Liz Chaney – in a sort of Reign of Terror phase of the Revolution – because they are not faithful enough to Trump. Hopefully, that will drive the moderates from the Republican Party. If so, the Impeachment will be a success.

.

Some people are born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple. Barry Switzer, University of Oklahoma and Dallas Cowboys coach, as quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 1986.

Reading about some of the reactions to the Donald Trump instigated insurrection I was struck by how different it was for people of color than it was for the White Representatives. It brought home how privileged my life has been. I was born on third base and for most of my life, I thought I had gotten there on my own. As a teenager and into my twenties, I had a series of summer jobs as a Union Carpenter. In those days, you could become a Union member if you had a job offer and there were no Union carpenters available to fill the position. The job I was offered was grunt work, nailing off plywood floors in a large apartment complex. This was before the days of nail guns and the job only paid apprentice wages but it was a good job for a seventeen-year-old.

I went to the local and applied for a Union card, they told me to come back on a Thursday night membership meeting. At the meeting, three of us were voted in. I don’t remember saying anything, we just stood in front of the assembled members, facing away from them so we couldn’t see the voting, and got voted in. There were no Black applicants or members, there were no Mexicans or Asians, just three White guys trying to get in an all-white guy Union club (which we all three did).

Now, thinking back on that initiation, I suspect – more than suspect, really – the process was designed to keep Black and other minority guys out of what we called “The Trades” although Black guys could become Laborers. It never occurred to me that I was able to get in because I am White. In the Army, when I ended up in the Command and Control Platoon in Korea while the Black soldiers were in the Generator or the Launcher Platoons, I thought it was because of my brains and my outstanding work. I thought it was just a coincidence that there were no Black soldiers in Command and Control (but there were a couple of stupid White guys).

When Sam Berland and I started our own business, we took the numbers for our first project to a banker we knew from our days of being in management at Shapell Industries. The banker was White and we talked about the deal over lunch. A lunch between a couple of friends, with much in common, having a friendly discussion over a couple of drinks.

Looking back on it, none of these successes would have happened if I had been Black. I want to add, probably defensily, that I am a Liberal, I’ve been a Liberal for as long as I can remember being anything, and I grew up believing that everybody should have equal rights and I have tried to act that way. Still, I didn’t see the sea of privilege I was swimming in. I thought my breaks were because of me as an outstanding individual not because I am an average White Male.

The opposite of being an average White Male, like me, is being an extraordinary Woman of Color like Rashida Tlaib. Where I can fit in, they always stand out. I have never thought somebody was trying to kill me for what I am. Although, as an aside, I once thought somebody was going to kill me for something I had done. The threat lasted about three days and was very scary. I was distracted from everything else going on in my life. End aside. I can not imagine what it must be like for the women of the Squad who are threatened almost every day. Let me leave you with an example.

My plan was to be the very last person to recommend “Ted Lasso” to you all and I do believe I’ve succeeded. I wish I could have been in the pitch meeting… “So, he’s… a saint? How is that funny?” “Trust us.” Tweet by Peter Sagal @petersagal Host of @WaitWait on @NPR. Author of “The Incomplete Book of Running,” from Simon and Schuster, now available at independent bookstores or via link below. Chicago simonandschuster.com/books/The-Inco…

Michele and I just binge-watched Ted Lasso on Apple. Looking at the previews, I didn’t really expect to enjoy it, but we were both captivated. Ted is an American football coach – and a very minor one at that – who is hired to coach a English Premier League football club (and we all know, including Ted, that a football team in England plays soccer). The premise is that Ted is a decent, optimistic, human being and, somehow, during this toxic time, that is enough to make it comforting.

It is a comedy, although it is often more touching than funny, I know that it is a comedy because each episode is only about thirty minutes. Ted Lasso is the kind of program that somehow makes us feel good. I’m not sure why or how, but I do know I went to bed smiling and feeling better and more generally optimistic than I have in weeks.

The forces arrayed against conservation in southern Utah were deeply rooted. County commissioners, state elected officials, the entire Utah congressional delegation — all were against the monument from the moment of its creation in 1996. They considered it a usurpation of local power, and they had acted at every chance to attack its legitimacy. A 2016 pro-Bears Ears & Grand Staircase National Monuments article in The High Country News.  

Here it is in full: Restoring Monuments Bears Ears & Grand Staircase Nat’l Monuments + more. This beautiful restorative news. A Tweet by Terry Tempest Williams @TempestWilliams edges; words; and birds

The depth so far is what’s so powerful. We’re suddenly a very long ways from ‘do you believe in climate change? A Tweet from Bill McKibben @billmckibben Author, Educator, Environmentalist and Founder of http://350.org Opinions emphatically my own Vermont billmckibben.com

President Biden has come out jabbing and I love it. With a cascade of Executive Orders, President Biden has undone much of what President Trump did over the last four years. Of course, much of what Trump did was undoing what Obama had done several years earlier so now the undoing will be undone. In Executive Order 13990, Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis, Biden halted the Keystone pipeline which made the front pages of most newspapers, of more direct interest to me, he also essentially restored three National Monuments that Trump had downsized. Two of them, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, established by President Obama, are in Southeastern Utah and are among the beautiful places on earth.

When President Trump reduced both Monuments, I was disappointed but I thought it made some sense since all the local politicians representing the local counties and towns were against the Monuments. But, it turns out, the local governmental agencies were composed of old white guys elected and re-elected without much opposition and, just four years later, their composition has changed and now better reflects the real local attitude. Both of the affected counties, Grand and San Juan, and several of the local towns have written to the Biden Administration asking for the Monuments to be restored. As best I can tell – without spending the entire of next week reading the local papers – the change is for two reasons. The local economy has become more reliant on tourism rather than running cattle and the governing boards, themselves, because of new state laws, have changed from three-person executive/legislative governing boards to larger part-time legislative boards with full-time executive managers. In Grand and San Juan Counties, the new legislative boards are more ethnically diverse because the board members now have to represent different geographic areas. This has resulted in several Native American county board members who are pro-Monument. (The two biggest cities – Monticello at 1,972 souls and Blanding at 3,375 souls – in San Juan County still support getting rid of the Monument but the tide still seems to have turned.)

President Biden is making no secret that he is going directly after President Trump’s anti-environmental Executive Orders with Biden’s Executive Order 13990 saying: The heads of all agencies shall immediately review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions (agency actions) promulgated, issued, or adopted between January 20, 2017, and January 20, 2021, that are or may be inconsistent with, or present obstacles to, the policy set forth in section 1 of this order. 

BTW, Executive Order 13990 also stops oil drilling in the Arctic which, as an aside, I don’t think I quite understand. Why would anybody spend the money to look for oil in the Artic when the biggest collection of oil fields ever found in the United States, the Permian Basin in West Texas, has barely been touched? It’s not like we are going ahead and continue to use oil – or any fossil fuel, really – no matter what the cost, and getting oil from above the Arctic Circle is going to be non-competitive in a diminishing market. End aside.

The most striking and probably the most important section in Executive Order 13990 is Sec. 5 which says It is essential that agencies capture the full costs of greenhouse gas emissions as accurately as possible, including by taking global damages into account.  Doing so facilitates sound decision-making, recognizes the breadth of climate impacts, and supports the international leadership of the United States on climate issues. Acknowledging the damage we are causing to Earth by burning fossil fuels in making decisions is groundbreaking and even after reading the section three or four times, I find it hard to believe it is actually there. Biden must have thought about this and he must know how disruptive it is going to be and it shocks and thrills me that It is essential that agencies capture the full costs of greenhouse gas emissions made it all the way through a process that, at least in part, was set up to eliminate changes to the status quo. It will be very interesting to see if this actually plays out. I hope so.

Somehow we weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished
There is always light
if only we’re brave enough to see it
if only we’re brave enough to be it.
— Amanda Gorman
A Tweet by Ayanna Pressley @AyannaPressley Your Congresswoman. Proudly representing the MA 7th. Here to break concrete ceilings & shake the table. Personal account. She/hers. Retweeted by Rashida Tlaib @RashidaTlaib Unbossed Congresswoman #Michigan13th. Detroiter, Palestinian American, Muslima.

I know literally nobody for whom Joe Biden was their #1 choice when the 2020 race began, and in fact others might have been (or someday be) better Presidents, but he might be the perfect person to be President *now.* A Tweet by Peter Sagal @petersagal Host of @WaitWait on @NPR. Author of “The Incomplete Book of Running,”

Elections have consequences. Biden within hours of takin the oath of office was able to: revoke Muslim ban, rejoin Paris Climate Agreement, extend federal eviction moratorium, rescind Census orders to exclude non-citizens, preserve/fortify DACA and much more. It’s a new day. A Tweet by Ilhan Omar @IlhanMN Mom, Refugee, Intersectional Feminist, 2017 Top Angler of the Governor’s Fishing Opener and Congresswoman for #MN05. Join me. Minneapolisilhanomar.com

In a Washington DC locked down by National Guard troops, behind high fences crowned with razor wire, Joe Biden became the 46th President of the United States.

Wow! That seemed so incredibly unlikely way back in 1988 when he first ran and lost in the Democratic primary, against Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, Al Gore, Richard Gephardt, Paul Simon, and Michael Dukakis. It seemed just slightly less likely when he ran in 2008 and lost to Barrack Obama. Even way back in 1965, it couldn’t have seemed very likely when Joe Biden, on their first date, told Neilia Hunter he would be president. Even as late as a year ago, it seemed very unlikely when he came in fourth in the Iowa primary, but Biden persevered. He is tenacious. That tenacity, coupled with his deeply felt compassion and real love for the United States, makes him, I think, the best guy for the rough job that lies ahead.

During the primaries, Joe Biden was at the bottom of my wish list, but, today, I am feeling very optimistic. Thrilled, even. The day’s passion and Biden’s love for country brought me to tears several times, starting, actually, the night before the Inauguration with the remembrance ceremony for the Covid-19 Dead.

For a long time, I’ve been saying – I think saying, thinking, anyway – that we need a Roosevelt type president. Somebody who came from within the establishment but is not so lost in the bubble that they don’t understand the world outside Washington. To quote myself from 2013, As much as Obama – and Clinton – wanted to make a change when they became President, they found themselves in a world that they knew of more than knew and, even if they were critical when running, it is a world they admired and wanted to fit in. True, it was a world they thought they knew, but only from the outside, it is not a world they inhabited. It is a world they have been conditioned – for lack of a better word – to fit into. It is also a world, in which it was very easy to be intimidated when they actually got there. That will not be President Biden’s problem and, like Roosevelt – both Roosevelts, really – he promises to be willing to buck inside the beltway group-think.

I was concerned that Biden was too old and too stuck in his ways to meet the colossal number of problems facing the country. The first hint that Biden is up to the job, came at the Democratic Convention in August and it continued with the Biden Inauguration on Wednesday. Both were conducted in the strange environment of a National Lockdown and both met the challenge. It is telling, to my way of thinking, that both were met with a dexterity from the Biden Campaign/Administration that showed a willingness to adapt to reality rather than try to deny it. Both were innovated and fresh and it showed that Biden is willing to innovate and listen to younger and more expert voices. What came across to me, strangely, watching our Capitol under military lockdown with razor wire on the top of new fences, is how this new Administration feels more feminine, in the best of ways, open, empathic, and compassionate. As importantly, the new President, Joe Biden, seems like a genuinely warm guy who has been tested by some very rough times. These are indeed rough times and I think that Joe Biden is what the country wants and needs right now.