The Trump Variants

 Halfway into 2021, America is still dealing with two dangerous variants coming from a single source.  One has killed millions worldwide and more than 600,000 in this country alone.  The other is spreading "The Big Lie" about the outcome of an election, resulting in a near takeover of the American government and more restrictive voting laws in several states.  That source is former President Donald Trump, whose followers in the Republican party and elsewhere believe him when he moans about current President Joe Biden taking the White House away from him, and for not masking up and getting vaccinated to stop the spread from COVID-19.

It's been six months since a mob of "tourists" stormed the U.S. Capitol, the intent being to stop a joint session of Congress from ratifying the results of the Electoral College that would make Biden the next President, allegedly egged on by Trump himself.

Six months later, we're just starting to get to the bottom of this insurrection.  It would have been done earlier, but Senate GOP's helped vote down an opportunity to set up a bipartisan commission to investigate the assault.  It has fallen to the House of Representatives to set up such a commission and hold hearings.

All this attempted whitewash of recent American history is at the doorstep of Trump, who never did concede the 2020 election to Biden, who he has accused of stealing the votes.  In spite of his being banned from social media (of whom he plans to sue), reducing the voice he carries to a fading pipsqueak--not to mention the number of his minions having legal troubles, Trump still has fantasies of retaking the White House either in 2024, or by the end of this summer--whichever comes first.  That's assuming, of course, he doesn't spend time in prison. Which he probably won't.

"The Big Lie" is also the reason why several states are pushing for laws that restrict the right to vote for not just minorities, but for all those who'd rather avoid lining up at the local polling place on Election Day, as the pandemic has proved.  The GOP just can't stand the sight of all those people doing their Constitutional duty, yet vote for Democrats.  Federal laws aimed at making voting easier is currently being argued--vehemently--in the Senate, and its odds of passing are not good.

Democrats had better think real hard before voting to abolish the filibuster as a way to get its agenda passed before the 2022 midterms.  If the Senate falls into GOP hands, they might wish they still had the filibuster.  Maybe that's why Biden has been reluctant to use the political "f-word" in his vocabulary.

Meanwhile. the COVID-19 virus is slowly becoming a bad memory for many of us who have already been vaccinated.  But there are still those who, for whatever the reason, refuse to mask up or take it in the arm.  Most, if not all, of these folks would rather believe what Tucker Carlson and the rest of conservative talk media tell them about the pandemic instead of the government.

Trump's responsible for this, too.  It was he who bungled the seriousness of the pandemic with an "everything's fine" approach, and with second-guessing every bit of scientific evidence presented by his experts.  He ended up contracting COVID one month before the election and has since been vaccinated, but he's still considered by his fans as the major reason they're putting their lives at risk. 

President Biden and his team have done a great job with getting as many needles into American arms as possible.  His biggest challenges are yet to come with getting the stragglers to take the vaccine before the Delta Variant becomes a big problem.  Or that by the end of the year, more people will be asked to get a booster shot as the original vaccine wears off.

This may be 2021, but the shadow of Donald Trump still hovers over the United States.  Despite Biden's best efforts, Trump has weakened the federal government and sickened the American people to the point of no return with his antics during his administration.  For the twin variants of the virus and in politics with his version of the truth, we must still keep an eye on Donald Trump.

The Oscars Get Small

Because of the ongoing pandemic, which for Hollywood meant closed theaters and many movie projects being moved to later this year or sometime next, the 93rd Academy Awards that were held Sunday was a small gathering seen by millions around the world.  Union Station (also known as Alison Krauss' backup band) was used instead of the usual Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, leading to a dinner party atmosphere not unlike (ahem) the Golden Globes.  There was no host for the third consecutive year.

The pictures got smaller too.  Most of the nominated films intended for the big screen ended up on Netflix, Disney +, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu and HBO Max.  They're streaming services that can be accessed at home for the price of a monthly subscription.

"Nomadland", streaming on Hulu, was the big winner with Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actress for Frances McDormand (her third), and Chloe Zhao for Best Director.  Zhao was the second woman to win the honor (Katheryn Bigelow was the first), and the first from her native China.

It was a good night for actors of color, if only because the Academy wanted to prove they're oh so diverse.after many years of not being that.  Besides Zhao, Youn Yuh-Jung won Best Supporting Actress for "Minari", and Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for "Judas and the Black Messiah".

It was all set up for Chadwick Boseman, the actor best known as "Black Panther" who died last year, to win a posthumous Oscar for his role in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".  In fact, the producers switched the order of the last three awards from Best Actor, Actress and Picture to Best Picture, Actress and Actor so Boseman would have a nice, emotional sendoff.  And the Oscar for Actor in a Leading Role went to . . . Anthony Hopkins for "The Father".  He didn't bother to show up to accept the award.  No disrespect to either Boseman or Hopkins or any of the other nominees, but maybe the Academy should never have messed with tradition.

It also would have been nice to see clips of the nominated films, so we had some idea what they're about.   Instead, we got actor testimonials, longer-than-usual acceptance speeches, and Glenn Close dancing to "Da Butt" in a trivia segment meant to fill time.  The telecast clocked in at three hours and 15 minutes, which is right on time if you're doing the show from a train station.  Or else it's just a pandemic thing.

One more thing that got small.  Everyone thought the ABC telecast would tally the smallest audience in Academy history, and everybody was right.  Less than ten million viewed the proceedings, a 58% drop from last year.  But that's typical of every other awards show that's been aired since this pandemic began a year ago.  If we just figured out that no one wants to watch people giving other people awards, what's going to happen when nobody wants to watch movies in a theater any more post-pandemic?  That's a doomsday scenario no one in Hollywood wants to contemplate. 

Derek Chauvin: Guilty Times Three

 On Tuesday, a former Minneapolis police officer was found guilty of kneeing a Black man to death.  Two days later, in a suburb a few miles north, they held a funeral for another Black man who was shot to death by a police officer a week and a half earlier.

Derek Chauvin, the white Minneapolis police officer in question, was found guilty by a jury on three counts of the murder of George Floyd nearly a year ago.  It was the rare case of a jury not being taken in by the defendant with the blue uniform and police badge, a real-life Superman upholding Truth, Justice and the American Way.  It was no help to Chauvin that he no longer had the support of his colleagues, who also happened to wear blue and a badge. No "Blue Wall of Silence" here.

There was more temporary relief than celebration among those who gathered outside the courtroom, the area of 38th and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis where the killing occurred and has been turned into a memorial for Floyd, and the millions watching on TV and on the internet when the verdict was announced.  No more worrying about National Guard troops and curfews cracking down on Black Lives Matter protesters, and the media that was covering them.  This was an overreaction to the aftermath of Floyd's death last year, when violence and looting turned the Twin Cities and its suburbs into an armed camp because local officials were too slow to see what was going on.

It could be argued that Chauvin's trial and conviction would not have been made possible if a teenage girl named Damatia Frazier hadn't recorded for nine minutes and twenty-nine seconds on her phone, which is how long it took for Floyd to stop breathing as Chauvin sucked the life out of him.  Or the numerous times that video has been shown on TV and in the courtroom.

In the Twin Cities alone, Black men like Floyd and Philando Castile, a white woman named Justine Ruszcyk and who knows how many more have all lost their lives due to bad decisions on the part of local police.  We now add Daunte Wright to the list.

Wright was being questioned by police in the suburb of Brooklyn Center for driving with expired license tabs and an air freshener hanging from his car's rear-view mirror.  Resisting arrest, officer Kim Potter decided to use a taser on Wright.  Only instead of a taser, she reached for a gun and shot him.  He was 20 years old.

The reaction was swift.  Parts of Brooklyn Center, previously known as a bedroom community which once had an indoor shopping mall as its focal point, were damaged as police and demonstrator clashed and the city put on curfew for most of the week.

This isn't the end of the legal trauma for Minnesota.  After Chauvin's sentencing in June, the three other officers who were bystanders will have their own trial in August.  Then sometime in 2022, there will be another high profile trial focusing on the death of Wright.

The Twin Cities aren't the only place where persons of color are fighting for their rights and their lives.  Eight Asians are dead in a rampage on massage parlors in Georgia, where Republican politicians are drawing up legislation to limit the voting rights of minorities.  Police in Columbus, Ohio shot and killed a Black teenage girl who was carrying a knife.  Florida and other states are preparing their own anti-protest laws.

Most who choose to wear blue are usually responsible citizens who uphold the law, and who do their jobs without incident.  It's the bad actors and military-like training and equipment that has given policing a bad name. Reforms are necessary, but defunding them is not a good idea.  There's a police reform bill going through Congress that addresses many of the abuses that need to be fixed.  The chances of it passing through a 50-50 Senate are not good.

Even after Chauvin starts spending the rest of his life in prison, there's still a lot of anger and cynicism out there.  People of color think twice before taking the wheel or being seen in public.  White supremacy, which used to be underground, is a lot more blatant than it used to be.  Police departments across the country are on notice that they may be next.  Oh, and be aware of your surroundings.  Somebody who thinks the world disrespects him might have an assault weapon aimed at you.

This is the world George Floyd, Daunte Wright and others have left to us.  It is up to us to see that their lives were not in vain.

The Grammys: Music's Biggest Socially-Distanced Cocktail Party

The 63rd Grammy Awards was the latest awards show forced to make do with less in this pandemic.  Instead of their usual home at Los Angeles' Staples Center, the ceremony was moved across the street to the Convention Center, where masked and socially-distanced nominees were seated in a ballroom-type setting underneath a tent, and host Trevor Noah guided the TV audience through the two bare performing stages inside.

This was the most intimate Grammy telecast ever, with no made-for-TV collaborations or all-star tributes or presenters presenting other presenters mucking things up.  However, things got a little too intimate when Megan Thee Stallion and Cardi B performed their sexually-charged (and heavily edited) songs "Savage" and "WAP"

It was also, at times, the Bruno Mars Show.  He, along with Anderson .Paak, appeared as a backup singer in a band, performed "Good Golly Miss Molly" as Little Richard in the "In Memoriam" segment, and as part of a 1970s-era R&B group.  Was Mars nominated for anything?

Speaking of "In Memorium", Brittany Howard knocked it out of the park with her version of Gerry Marsden's "You'll Never Walk Alone".  Did you know Marsden, who once fronted Gerry and the Pacemakers, had died in the past year?  And that Howard had filmed a TV commercial for a whiskey brand that ran immediately after with her singing the tune?

The awards?  There were only a few handed out during the nearly four-hour telecast, with the rest you can find on the Recording Academy's website.  Here's some of the awards announced on TV:

Best New Artist:  Megan Thee Stallion.  She also won for Best Rap Song and Rap Performance.

Song of the Year:  "I Can't Breathe", H.E.R.

Album of the Year:  "Folklore", Taylor Swift.  This is her third album Grammy, becoming the first woman to score that many.  

Record of the Year:  "Everything I Wanted", Billie Eilish.  She swept the Grammys last year, but felt Megan Thee Stallion deserved this one.  Another head-scratcher for the Recording Academy.

Beyonce now has 28 Grammys, including four more won Sunday.  She has won more than any other woman in Grammy history.  Or is it herstory?

Since the pandemic, every awards show has seen their ratings fall off a cliff.  The Grammys on CBS were no exception.  The telecast drew over eight million viewers, which was ten million less than last year.  With the possible return of live performances and more crowd-pleasing music, maybe the Grammys can go back to handing trophies at the sports arena across the street.this time next year.

Trump 2, Congress 0. Also: No Rush

 For the second time, Donald Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives for conducting activities that violate Federal law when he was President of the United States.  For the second time, the Senate acquitted Trump of his role in those activities.  He became the only President to avoid being removed from office.  Twice.

The now-former President had been accused of instigating some of his followers on 1/6/21 to storm the U.S. Capitol, temporarily stopping a joint session of Congress from counting the Electoral College vote that confirmed Joe Biden had been elected President.  The result of the melee was five dead, scores of members of Congress and others hiding in "safe" places, Vice President Mike Pence getting put in danger, and plenty of video footage of mostly unmasked protesters going into places they shouldn't be.

The Senate voted 57-43 to convict Trump, but needed ten more to make sure he never runs for public office again.  Significantly, seven Republican senators crossed party lines to vote for conviction, apparently not concerned about what this will do to their lives and careers in this gridlocked era.  It makes the rest of the GOP and its followers seem like whipped animals afraid to challenge their master.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky had as much to do with Trump's acquittal as any other Republican. As Majority Leader, he got the impeachment trial moved from January to February because it was too close to Biden's Inauguration.  As Minority Leader, McConnell voted to acquit the former president because he is one, then ripped into him following the vote for his role in the insurrection.  You can call it having it both ways.  You can also call it continuing to call the shots in the Senate, even though the Democrats now control both houses of Congress.

Even without Trump in Washington, there's still plenty of disciples ready to continue his work,  Such as Margaret Taylor Greene, the newly-elected GOP Congresswoman from Georgia who apparently thinks nothing of harassing anyone who doesn't share her worldview of conspiracy theories.  Or Mike Lindell, better known as the guy who sells pillows on TV.  He was seen hanging around the White House in the remaining days of Trump's administration, hoping to convince the President that martial law was the way to overturn an election that had been "stolen" from him.  Lindell, like Trump, has since been kicked off of Twitter (twice) for espousing such alternative views.

And what has President Joe Biden been doing during all this?  He mostly stayed away from the trial, but did leave a statement after the vote.  He's also been shoring up some of the mess Trump left behind, which includes undoing many of his policies, getting as many COVID-19 vaccines going as possible (the death toll is inching toward the half-million mark), and working with Congress on a new economic stimulus package.  Biden's being what most Americans seem to want these days--a functioning President.

Now Donald Trump is free to do whatever he wants.  Start his own TV network, run for a second term in 2024, intimidate the remaining members of the GOP, anything he wants.  But he can't tweet any more, and he's got legal issues up the wazoo that'll keep him in and out of court.  In the end, though, it's more likely the former President of the United States will be seeing more time in the poorhouse than in the slammer.  Sooner or later, his life of getting lucky might run out.  But you can never count him out.

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Rush Limbaugh (1951-2021), the conservative talk radio host who more than anyone else transformed radio and politics into what they are today, died at 70 Wednesday after being diagnosed with lung cancer a year earlier.  He made millions of dollars and won millions of listeners for the dying AM radio band preaching the conservative gospel while ridiculing liberals, feminists, minorities, etc.  Limbaugh also helped turn the Republican Party into a right-leaning vehicle long before Donald Trump got his hands on it.  The "ditto heads" will miss him, but not too many others.

Biden: Coming Out of Trump's Shadow

 President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took their oaths of office before noon in Washington Wednesday.  Because of a virus that has so far killed more than 400,000 Americans, and because of a violent mob that threatened to overturn Biden's Electoral College victory at the suggestion of the previous President, the inauguration at the U.S. Capitol was witnessed only by an invited and socially distanced live audience, several thousand National Guard troops watching for a palace coup, and a worldwide TV and online audience.  

Donald Trump chose to spend the remaining hours of his presidency granting pardons and clemencies to such luminaries as Steve Bannon and rapper Lil Wayne, but not for himself or his family.  He left the White House early Wednesday morning, ditching the inauguration for Mar-a-Lago in Florida as he flew in Air Force One for the last time while being serenaded by a recording of Frank Sinatra's "My Way". All the while insisting that he really won the election.

A week after the insurrection, Trump was impeached for the second time in American history by the House on a 232-197 vote.  The Senate has delayed his trial until Biden gets his feet wet in the White House.  Despite a Democratic majority, about all the Senate can do to convict Trump (now that he is no longer President) is to make sure he never runs for office again.

The confrontation at the Capitol, which left five people dead and American democracy in peril, was the last straw for those who once associated with Trump.  He had been kicked off his beloved social media accounts.  Corporations are taking a hard look at their campaign contributions to Republicans, cutting off those who sided with the insurrection and voted against Trump's impeachment. Fox News Channel is losing its conservative TV viewers to upstarts like Newsmax and One America News. Worst of all (for Trump, that is), the 2022 PGA Championship has been pulled from his New Jersey golf course.

In the first year or so of the Biden administration, the new President faces a major task in undoing the many policy reversals of the previous President.  Going back to the Paris climate accords, easing the travel ban on certain foreigners, and taking the ongoing threat of coronavirus much more seriously are a good start.  But the long shadow of Trump and Trumpism in Washington and elsewhere will make it much more difficult to get Biden's agenda across, and to achieve the unity he says he wants.  Let's see if he and Vice President Harris can overcome the shadow.

Siege On Capitol Hill

 In the early morning hours of January 7, 2021, a joint session of Congress certified Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Donald Trump with a final tally of 306 to 232.

This would have happened sooner if it had not been for the right-wing mob that had stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington the previous day.  Encouraged by Trump, who believed his re-election was stolen from him because of voter fraud in certain states when in fact he had lost by seven million votes to Biden, the largely white and unmasked crowd marched in support of a man who they believed was the only one who could fix America, attempting to stop a vote that could overturn an election he lost.

The results were a trashed Capitol, people making themselves at home in the House chamber and in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, members of Congress evacuated to secure locations, smashed windows and furniture.  Four of the intruders died, and 80 of them were arrested.  Millions of people watched the events unfold on TV and online, wondering if America had gone totally bonkers.  

Some call the insurgents terrorists.  Some call them thugs.  Some call them insurrectionists.  Whatever you call them, those who participated in this attack on our democracy should be prosecuted as much as possible.  Having said that, though, can you imagine what would have happened if Black people had been involved?

This had been coming for more than four years, so no one can say they were surprised.  Trump's race-baiting, rule-breaking, dictator-worshiping, publicity-seeking, facts-optional Presidency has resulted in a divided nation and a weakened world power.  We don't know anything about his tax returns or medical records. All the "loyal subjects" he hired have either quit, been fired, or rewarded with pardons.

Thanks to the apparent coup attempt, there is now talk in political circles of the President being removed from office by way of impeachment (which they tried once) or the 25th Amendment, since he'll never resign voluntarily.  You in Congress have had four years to do something about Trump.  Instead, every time those measures are brought up, you always find an excuse not to do it:  The GOP will never go for it.  Nasty tweets.  Let the voters decide, etc. (They did.  They rejected him.)  Well, there's two weeks left in Trump's term.  If there isn't a removal or another impeachment, what's the excuse this time?  If we're lucky, Trump can pass the time by playing golf without being told time's up.

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will officially begin serving their new roles starting on January 20.  They face a gargantuan job of cleaning up the messes Trump made, which includes managing a pandemic that has so far killed over 350,000 Americans, and healing the divisions--political and otherwise--that have been around long before the current occupant took office.  Fortunately for Biden and Harris, the Democratic Party now have control of both houses of Congress, with two Blue candidates winning Senate runoff elections in Georgia.

But most of all, can America survive two more weeks of Donald Trump as President?