When I was 15 or so, my dad handed me a stack of Dell paperbacks by Kurt Vonnegut. Years later, as I began collecting Vonnegut’s later works, I returned the favor and shared those books with him. Of late I’ve been reëading those paperbacks and the other day I finished his debut novel, published in 1952, Player Piano.

Sixty-eight years later, that book has a lot to say to Americans in 2020. Here’s my take on one of the core messages of Vonnegut’s book: the election of Donald John Trump in 2016 by men and women who believed in his message, and nearly reëlected him in 2020, was akin to a slave revolt. Beginning on page 266 of my copy, Vonnegut wrote:

[Doctor Edmund L. Harrison] attempted to rise, failed once, made it the next time. “And now, goodbye.”

“Where are you going?” said Doctor Roseberry. “Stick around, stick around.”

“Where? First to shut off that part of the Ithaca works for which I am responsible, and then to an island, perhaps, a cabin in the north woods, a shack in the Everglades.”

“And do what?” said Buck, baffled.

“Do?” said Harrison. “Do? That’s just it, my boy. All of the doors have been closed. There’s nothing to do but to find a womb suitable for an adult, and crawl into it. One without machines would suit me particularly.”

“What have you got against machines?” said Buck.

“They’re slaves.”

“Well, what the heck,” said Buck. “I mean, they aren’t people. They don’t suffer. They don’t mind working.”

“No. But they compete with people.”

“That’s a pretty good thing, isn’t it—considering what a sloppy job most people do of anything?”

“Anybody that competes with slaves becomes a slave,” said Harrison thickly, and he left.

Like the wreckers of Industrial England and the Saboteurs of France, those replaced by machines, those, in Vonnegut’s mind, enslaved by machines, rose up and voted for Trump. Yeah, he screwed them over, but if he were alive today, I think Vonnegut would have pointed to much the same conclusion.

Bonus No. 1: Perennial LOSER John Kasich Trashes Progressives In Advice For Dems.

Bonus No. 2: Back in 2014—How retired Justice Stevens would change the constitution.

Bonus No. 3: Zaid Jilani: How Wokeness Distorted The Polls.

I am, in the vein of Benjamin Franklin, a pessimist. In 2015 I predicted the rise of fantasy over fiction that made Donald John Trump our president and I was not disappointed. Four years later I called four more years for President Trump and I pleasantly pleased to be wrong. On Sunday I went back out on my limb and wrote:

That the Democrats could still win both senate seats in Georgia in the January runoff after flipping the state for Biden is beyond fantasy. This is Georgia folks and not even Stacey Yvonne Abrams has the mojo to pull of such a hat trick.

Nothing would make me happier than to be, once again, proven wrong. Watching Stephen Colbert’s interview with Abrams does give me hope and maybe, just maybe, on January 5th Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell will once again become the minority leader and the Now South will rise.

Abrams told Colbert that: We don’t elect saviors, we elect workers. She is one hell of a worker and I ordered her newest book—Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America—in anticipation of becoming a better worker myself.

Bonus No. 1: Both Parties Lost the Election. Now the Real Trouble Begins.

Bonus No. 2: Matt Christman’s Cushvlogs; a review.

Bonus No. 1: Charlamagne Tha God: Voting won’t change things overnight…

Bonus No. 2: The one major roadblock to reforming (and defunding?) the police.

Bonus No. 3: Why are police exempt from the consequences of killing people?

Bonus No. 1: I’m so glad I don’t watch television news…

Bonus No. 2: Michael Moore is ecstatic that he was wrong.

Bonus No. 3: Michael Steele: You got to deal with stupid…

Bonus No. 4: No pictures? Then call 888.630.1776 now! Operators are standing by.

Bonus No. 1: Dave Chappelle Stand-Up Monologue.

Bonus No. 2: Uncle Ben.

Bonus No. 3: Weekend Update: Biden Wins 2020 Election

Bonus No. 4: Weekend Update: Rudy Giuliani on Trump’s Election Lawsuits.

Bonus No. 5: DC Morning.

So, President Donald John Trump lost his re-election bid and he deserves every bit of criticism coming his way because the moment the elites of the left wing of the corporatist Pro-War Pro-Business Party—aka the Democratic Party—decided that Joseph Robinette Biden was their guy, the race became Trump’s to lose for lots of reasons that don’t matter now.

That the Democrats could still win both senate seats in Georgia in the January runoff after flipping the state for Biden is beyond fantasy. This is Georgia folks and not even Stacey Yvonne Abrams has the mojo to pull of such a hat trick. The Harris-Biden administration faces at least two years of Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell’s gleeful domination and no Democratic, let alone any Progressive, legislation will cross the Oval Office desk.

I didn’t write President Biden’s desk there because we’ve just elected every family’s senile uncle to the most powerful office on the planet and our only hope—gawd, I feel slimy just typing this—is that Vice President Kamala Devi Harris can hold the office together and keep Biden from hurting himself or the nation. Ted Rall, writing in Previewing a Biden Presidency: Dementia, Impotence, Collapse, gives us glimpse of what is ahead:

After months of smugly predicting a blue wave landslide, Democrats can’t possibly argue that they enjoy a national mandate for significant change. This margin is too tight and too similar to the electoral college map four years ago. They are already arguing that Biden won more votes than any other candidate in history. But Republicans were energized too. Trump won the second highest. Could the Democratic Party’s endlessly fruitless search for anti-Republican Republican swing voters finally be finished?

Biden’s advisers have to be obsessing over the words of former House speaker John Boehner in 2010: “We’re going to do everything—and I mean everything we can do—to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.” “It” was President Obama’s agenda. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell added at the time: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

2021 will be no different and Harris won’t be getting a lot of help from Progressives who held their noses and voted for her candidacy. Astead Herndon, in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Biden’s Win, House Losses, and What’s Next for the Left for The New York Times, ledes:

For months, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been a good soldier for the Democratic Party and Joseph R. Biden Jr as he sought to defeat President Trump.

But on Saturday, in a nearly hour-long interview shortly after President-elect Biden was declared the winner, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez made clear the divisions within the party that animated the primary still exist. And she dismissed recent criticisms from some Democratic House members who have blamed the party’s left for costing them important seats. Some of the members who lost, she said, had made themselves “sitting ducks.”

Herndon doesn’t give us the full interview (maybe Ocasio-Cortez will provide a tape of the whole interview) but our paper of record did print a few edited excerpts. Herndon begins with Ocasio-Cortez’s response to these two questions:

HERNDON—We finally have a fuller understanding of the results. What’s your macro takeaway?

OCASIO-CORTEZ—Well, I think the central one is that we aren’t in a free fall to hell anymore. But whether we’re going to pick ourselves up or not is the lingering question. We paused this precipitous descent. And the question is if and how we will build ourselves back up.

We know that race is a problem, and avoiding it is not going to solve any electoral issues. We have to actively disarm the potent influence of racism at the polls.

But we also learned that progressive policies do not hurt candidates. Every single candidate that co-sponsored Medicare for All in a swing district kept their seat. We also know that co-sponsoring the Green New Deal was not a sinker. Mike Levin was an original co-sponsor of the legislation, and he kept his seat.

HERNDON—To your first point, Democrats lost seats in an election where they were expected to gain them. Is that what you are ascribing to racism and white supremacy at the polls?

OCASIO-CORTEZ—I think it’s going to be really important how the party deals with this internally, and whether the party is going to be honest about doing a real post-mortem and actually digging into why they lost. Because before we even had any data yet in a lot of these races, there was already finger-pointing that this was progressives’ fault and that this was the fault of the Movement for Black Lives.

I’ve already started looking into the actual functioning of these campaigns. And the thing is, I’ve been unseating Democrats for two years. I have been defeating D.C.C.C.-run campaigns for two years. That’s how I got to Congress. That’s how we elected Ayanna Pressley. That’s how Jamaal Bowman won. That’s how Cori Bush won. And so we know about extreme vulnerabilities in how Democrats run campaigns.

Some of this is criminal. It’s malpractice. Conor Lamb spent $2,000 on Facebook the week before the election. I don’t think anybody who is not on the internet in a real way in the year of our Lord 2020 and loses an election can blame anyone else when you’re not even really on the internet.

And I’ve looked through a lot of these campaigns that lost, and the fact of the matter is if you’re not spending $200,000 on Facebook with fund-raising, persuasion, volunteer recruitment, get-out-the-vote the week before the election, you are not firing on all cylinders. And not a single one of these campaigns were firing on all cylinders.

The rest is all downhill from there for Harris-Biden, but hopeful for Progressives and very much worth the read. Meeaaannnnwhile…

Bonus No. 1: Wrecking ball—the damage Trump could do while still president…

Bonus No. 2: Via Mary Jo—CNN’s Van Jones brought to tears…

Bonus No. 3: AOC ends truce by warning ‘incompetent’ Democratic party.

Does Cuyahoga County really want to put more tax money into another iteration of the original Medical Mart, now the Global Center of Health Innovation?

County officials have talked about a $30 million bond issue to retrofit the building into an adjacent part of the new Convention Center, a $450-million effort financed by a non-voted sales tax increase of .25, another Tim Hagan legacy we pay. It was for 40 years. It will have 27 more years in January.

Time does fly.

So add another $30 million and you can already smell the pliable County Council extending the sales tax, the most regressive tax, in a decade or two. Likely without a public vote.

The Plain Dealer reports that Dan Brady, Cuyahoga County Council president, favors the $30 million deal. What would former City Council President George Forbes think of that. Brady, then a progressive, wanted George’s scalp for siding with the usual money guys. Now he does likewise.

(This morning the PD reported Brady would soon retire in a month or two. Good luck, it’s not usual for old pols to step aside. Both he and Dona Brady, his wife, who voluntarily left City Council recently, are doing what is unusual for politicians, who often stay too long.)

The Convention business, of course, has been like a balloon smacked by a pandemic bullet. A deflated business. With a bleak outlook.

So why add space now?

Because they don’t know what else to do with the property.

It’s already been a huge burden financially. A white elephant that served its purpose. The purpose: To build a new convention business.

Back in the early 2000s, a deep recession brewing, the usual suspects were having a tough in selling the public on a new convention center. But they hit upon an idea.

A Medical Mart in Cleveland, home of the Cleveland Clinic. That would be a good sales pitch.

And it did work.

With the help of then Commissioner Hagan. Tim had a friend.

The old county regime hired MMPI. Hagan’s connection to the Chicago firm was a Kennedy friend – Chris Kennedy, son of Robert. MMPI got the lucrative contract. A no-bid deal. Packaged with a bow of monthly payments.

Here’s what I calculated MMPI walked away from Cleveland, according to County figures:

—$333,333 a month for 30 months or $10,000,000.
—$83,333 in “supplemental rent” for 30 months or $2,500,000.
—$12,000,000 for a “developer” agreement payment.
—$4,000,000 in construction cost reserve.
—$1,354,730 for “operational expenses” (July-October).

For a total payments through October, 2013, of $29,854,730.

Add the $3,000,000 final payment to get them out of town and you have a neat cost of $32,854,730.

Not a bad paycheck for a firm that should have never been in town. Thank you, Tim Hagan.
I wanted an assessment from someone who knows the convention business and knows Cleveland. How did he see this new deal?

So, I reached out to Heywood Sanders, interim chair, Dept. Public Administration, at the University of Texas San Antonio. Convention business is his specialty. He has a book on the subject, “Convention Centers Follies.”

Sanders wrote back in an e-mail:

“Only in Cleveland could county leaders conceive–in the midst of a global pandemic that has collapsed the worldwide convention and meetings market – of proposing to spend $30 million to refit the failed ‘Global Center for Health Innovation’ into more convention center space. With a justification by a consultant study from the firm that in 2003 told Philadelphia that an expanded center would boost convention center-related room nights 500,000 a year to 783,000 (last year it did 395,500).

You might think that having spent $465 million on a thoroughly failed “Med Mart,” repurposed as the clearly, fully flopped “Global Center” as well as the money-losing, can’t-pay-its-debt Hilton hotel, the county leadership would actually think about market realities.

But no, throwing good money (by the tens of millions) after bad (hundreds of millions) is the way the public’s business is done in Cleveland and Cuyahoga county. At least Jimmy Dimora provided some additional amusement value,” Sanders wrote.

This continues the push here by civic/corporate/political force to want resources to be directed toward downtown and other development to the detriment of the larger community, especially the part that has dire needs.

And disproportionally pays the regressive tax.

The County Council appears to be as docile as city council, willing to grant the desires of the corporate forces. We saw it in the sports development, in the latest arena $140 million bonds for a redo (despite 20,000 signatures to put it to a vote, thwarted by city council). We saw it in the secret funding against a city school measure by downtown developers.

The greed is overwhelming. The community, as we saw when church forces backed down on the arena 20,000 signature, is weaponless.

We have an election coming but I see little hope that it will bring change.

The forces—our local “evil geniuses” as exposed nationally in Kurt Anderson’s book of that name—have no shame for what they do. And no intention to do any better.

And no reason to stop.

Bonus No. 1: Celebration!

Bonus No. 2: Ding Dong The Witch Trump Is Dead Fired!

If you needed a reason to throw a few dollars Matt Taibbi’s way, then his paywall-proteced post—titled: Which is the Real “Working Class Party” Now?—is all the reason you need. The voter turnout in 2020 has placed Joseph Robinette Biden in the No. 1 spot for highest vote count pushed President Barack Hussein Obama’s 2008 run to No. 2.

And, slid President Donald John Trump into the No. 3 slot. Yes, larger population and all that, but Trump got more votes than any president elected before 2008. That should give us all pause. So, what the fuck happened? Taibbi ledes:

In an irony he is humorously ill-equipped to appreciate, Donald Trump by losing this week may have gained something for the Republican Party bureaucracy he took such pleasure in humiliating four years ago: a future.

He then goes on to highlight the numbers that I’ve not yet seen anywhere else.

Defying years of muddle-headed media analyses, Trump underperformed with white men, but made gains with every other demographic. Some 26 percent of his votes came from nonwhite Americans, the highest percentage for a Republican since 1960.

[Snip…]

Exit polls, which can be unreliable, pegged his national support at 32 percent-35 percent of the Latino vote. More tellingly were results in certain counties. Starr County, Texas, the county with the highest percentage of Hispanic or Latino voters—above 95 percent—voted for Hillary Clinton by a 60-point margin in 2016, but gave Biden just a five point win in 2020.

[Snip…]

Even more amazing was Trump’s performance among Black voters. Trump doubled his support with Black women, moving from 4 percent in 2016 to 8 percent, while upping his support among Black men from 13 percent to 18 percent.

[Snip…]

Trump’s numbers with the LGBTQ community were a stunner also, jumping from 14 percent to 28 percent.

[Snip…]

Trump even improved his standing among white women, 53 percent of whom were already pilloried in 2016 for voting for a man who bragged about how you “grab ‘em by the pussy, you can do anything.”

[Snip…]

Yet even here, Trump gained, earning 55 percent of the white female vote. These results, juxtaposed against the contrasting media coverage, suggested the basic divide. Joe Biden earned 57 percent of the votes of college graduates, and cleaned up in the cities. Trump won 60 percent of voters in small towns and rural areas. In simple terms, Trump won with the sort of people who do not read The Washington Post or watch MSNBC, and disagreed with their myths.

[Snip…]

Trump lost the election because of his handling of the pandemic, the top issue for 41 percent of voters, who chose Biden by a nearly 3-1 margin. But among people whose top concern was the economy—28 percent of the electorate—Trump won an incredible 80 percent of the vote.

So, what does that all mean? You’ll need to subscribe to read Taibbi’s conclusions, but for me the message—the pearl clutching of Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) notwithstanding—is that both the right (Republican) and left (Democratic) wings of the of the corporatist Pro-War Pro-Business Party don’t care about anyone but their big-bucks donors.

This is the message that Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti hammer away daily—raising the minimum wage, universal healthcare, &c.—are popular with the vast majority of working-class Americans. If the Democrats and Republicans can’t wrap their heads around that message, then the time has come to burn both parties to the ground and replace the PWPB party with a People’s Party.

Bonus No. 1: Larry Wilmore is back…!

Yesterday I dropped this shoe: If, as it now appears more than likely, Joseph Robinette Biden becomes our 46th president, he will be an empty suit for at least the next two years. Well, here’s the other: By virtue of the Senate’s Advise and Consent power, Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchell McConnell gets to handpick Joseph Robinette Biden’s entire cabinet.

How the fuck does that happen? Well, Hans Nichols and Mike Allen, writing in GOP Senate wins wreak havoc on Biden transition plans for Axios, lede:

Republicans’ likely hold on the Senate is forcing Joe Biden’s transition team to consider limiting its prospective Cabinet nominees to those who Mitch McConnell can live with, according to people familiar with the matter.

So, Bernie Sanders at Labor? Elizabeth Ann Warren at Treasury? Any, even marginal, progressive anywhere near The White House? When pigs join the Air Force. In fact, in order to get anyone confirmed, Biden will have to name people so far to the right of the Pro-War Pro-Business Party’s left wing as to be all but indistinguishable from the party’s right wing (aka Republican).

Too many progressives held their noses and allowed the PWPB faithful to put William Jefferson Clinton 3.0 on the ticket.

This is what we get.

We have two years to replace the failed Democratic Party with a Progressive People’s Party to begin the process of taking the Senate in 2022 and the White House in 2024. I don’t know how the fuck we do that, but we have to do our damnedest to find our way.

Bonus No. 1: The Idiot Defense System.

Bonus No. 2: Ted Rall—Next: a Recount Battle from Hell, Then the 12th Amendment?

Bonus No. 3: Becoming A Better Writer.

From my email in box this evening:

Obviously, we did not get the outcome we were hoping for last night.

But that is only part of the story for Ohio’s 16th Congressional District. We knew, from the start, that this was an uphill battle. We knew it was a longshot. But this race, this candidacy, and the movement it became thanks to the tens of thousands of supporters across this district and this state, was a statement unto itself.

Our message is simple and has been at the core of this campaign all along: that the issues that matter to Ohioans deserve to be fought for, no matter the lines that make this district. We believe that you deserve an advocate for affordable and accessible healthcare and a living wage. That you deserve an advocate willing to invest in our future. That you deserve a Representative who cares. [Emphasis mine, JH]

But we cannot ignore the ugly truth here. In Ohio, there are sixteen Congressional Districts, and in Ohio, sixteen incumbents won. Just as designed by the bought-and-paid-for partisan-drawn districts, and to the dismay of every single Ohioan who cares for real representation, whether that is in Columbus or DC. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, these corruptly-drawn districts rob you of your voice. In what world should my hometown, Elyria, be in the same district as Wapokaneta? In what world does it make sense that North Olmsted is in the same district as Wooster? How is it that Toledo and Brook Park are in the same Congressional District?

Tough races, like here in OH16, require a candidate to pour their heart and soul for a slim chance at victory. Many candidates don’t want to try again after a loss on election day. And who can blame them? I can tell you from first-hand experience how difficult running a campaign is, no matter the odds.

All this is to say: I am not going to give up on Ohio. I am going to keep fighting for our families here in the 16th and across the state. I am going to do whatever I can to make sure some of our incredible candidates stay in the game, and to make it clear: we do not need to settle for regular scandals coming out of Columbus. We do not need to settle with Representatives who spend their time brown-nosing instead of fighting for their constituents. We can do better. And if I have anything to do with it, we will.

I want to close by again thanking my volunteers, my supporters, my friends and family, and especially my girlfriend, Cathy Belt, who has been unbelievably supportive through all of this. We had our voices heard. We will keep having our voices heard.

What comes next will be just as difficult as this campaign, if not more so. I’m ready to take it on. Are you?

In solidarity and in the hopes of a brighter tomorrow for everyone in Ohio,

Aaron Paul Godfrey

I’m know Aaron for two years now and I believe him to be a good man whose progressive message was abandoned by the left wing of the Pro-War Pro-Business Party. If, as it now appears more than likely, Joseph Robinette Biden becomes our 46th president, he will be an empty suit for at least the next two years.

I have no doubt that Senate Majority Leader Addison Mitchel McConnell has already told his sycophants and corporate masters—as he did for President Barack Hussein Obama in 2010—The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama Biden to be a one-term president. We are looking at least two—and four if we do not take back the senate—years of gridlock in Washington.

There is only one solution and Joe Lightning Little nailed the message.

I admire, and have been noted for (thank you Eric) doggedness. But no one in my personal circle deserves that honorific more than Tim Russo who embraces a level worthy of Eugene Victor Debs in his campaign to elevate the men of First Minnesota to their rightful place in possibly the three most important days in our nation’s history 1-3 July 1863.

In addition to the monumental task of writing a book about the First Minnesota—see Ghosts Of Plum Run on the right—Tim has taken on the bureaucracy of the lords of history in charge of deciding how Americans learn about those three days of Gettysburg and what truths can and cannot be discussed. His latest target is newly ensconced American Battlefield Trust President David C. Duncan. Tim, in American Battlefield Trust erases 19th Maine, 82nd NY, 15th MA at Gettysburg, writes:

…Duncan, has had plenty of time since being announced president September 1 and taking charge October 1 to fix the Trust’s maps of Gettysburg’s second day, July 2, 1863. In fact, Duncan has had 20 years to produce any Trust map depicting the Union defense of Cemetery Ridge July 2. Sadly, fixing the Trust’s maps in this way is the very last thing Duncan wants to do.

In Duncan’s 20 years at the Trust he rose to head of “development” which always means “the cash”. Thus, Duncan surely knows that juicy Lost Cause cash stops flowing if Cemetery Ridge stops being the Lost Cause racket he has helped perpetuate. Duncan, and the Trust, simply cannot afford for Cemetery Ridge to no longer be known for Pickett’s Charge, and instead be known as the ground on which the First Minnesota literally saved the existence of America. It is no surprise then, that a year after “updating” their map to haphazardly plop new arrows onto it, the American Battlefield Trust still has no map depicting the 19th Maine, 82nd New York, and 15th Massachusetts on July 2, 1863.

While journalist get to write the first rough draft of History, William Cuthbert Faulkner was right, there is never a final draft.

Bonus No. 1: Ted Rall—There’s Got To Be a Morning After.

Bonus No. 2: What I’m reading this morning while I follow the count…

Bonus No. 3: There will be no such transfer in my damn house…!

Bonus No. 4: And for further reading—Hold The Line: A Guide To Defending Democracy.

Bonus No. 1: Election 2020 Minus 3 1Days: This Race Is Much Closer Than It Looks.

Bonus No. 1: In 1974, Sean Connery was Zed.

Bonus No. 1: Glenn Greenwald RESPONDS: Why I Left The Intercept Over Censorship.