Happy Pearl Harbor Day!
That's right it was Dec 7th, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harblor, killing 2,403 Americans and the country was so outraged that we quickly mobilized the greatest military operation in history to counter-attack and rid the World of Fascism. President Roosevelt called Congress into an emergency session and legistlators raced back to Washington for a joint session of Congress at noon on Dececember 8th, less than 24 hours after the attack, Rooevelt addressed the nation, saying:
The facts of yesterday and today speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our Nation.
As Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.
But always will our whole Nation remember the character of the onslaught against us.
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us.
Yet here we are again, with virus deaths now heading towards 4,000 Americans per day, the real enemy is the Commander in Chief, whose gross deriction of duty has left this nation weak and defenseless and has, so far, led to the death of 288,962 of our fellow Americans – and that is only from the first 8.8M people infected as we've only had 8.8M recoveries and 288,962 (3%) deaths. Another 6.3M people are currently infected so we can infer that about 200,000 of those people will die and the virus is still spreading at a rate of now over 200,000 infections per day – up from 100,000 people per day just 30 days ago – yay!
And what is our Commander in Chief doing? He's plotting a revenege rally during Biden's inauguration, making him the first President in History not to peacefully transfer his power in our Democracy, setting a dangerous example for many decades to come. Over the past week, President Trump posted or reposted about 145 messages on Twitter lashing out at the results of an election he lost. He mentioned the coronavirus pandemic now reaching its darkest hours just four times — and even then just to assert that he was right about the outbreak and the experts were wrong.
Moody and by accounts of his advisers sometimes depressed, the president barely shows up to work, ignoring the health and economic crises afflicting the nation and largely clearing his public schedule of meetings unrelated to his desperate bid to rewrite the election results. He has fixated on rewarding friends, purging the disloyal and punishing a growing list of perceived enemies that now includes Republican governors, his own attorney general and even Fox News.
46 more days. We have 46 more days of this and, in 46 days, we could have 400,000 Americans per day being infected while this President does nothing. How do we just sit back and let this happen? There's an election in Georgia for two Senators that will decide whether or not we will give Joe Biden the support he needs to fight the virus or will we make it possible for Mitch McConnel to undermine his Presidency? Voting starts Dec 14th and if you think you can't do anything to fight this virus you are wrong – you can help two Democratic Senators get elected and put an end to this national nightmare.
“You know we won Georgia, just so you understand,” Trump told supporters this weekend in a state that he lost by 12,000 votes, adding that he actually won other states where in fact he lost too. “They cheated and they rigged our presidential election, but we will still win it,” he declared as he pressured Republican state officials to overturn the results. “We just need somebody with courage to do what they have to do.”
He has been enabled by Republican leaders unwilling to stand up to him, even if many privately wish he would go away sooner rather than later. After being called “profiles in cowardice” by an ally of the president, 75 Republican state legislators from Pennsylvania on Friday disavowed their own election and called on Congress to reject the state’s electors for Mr. Biden. Only 27 of 249 Republican members of Congress surveyed by The Washington Post publicly acknowledged Mr. Biden’s victory. Mr. Trump condemned them on Saturday as “RINOS,” meaning Republicans in name only.
The President is right, we just need somebody with the courage to do what we have to do. Just having Joe Biden take the oath of office won't stop the virus – it won't help the over 10M people that will become infected between now and Jan 20th and it won't help the best-case 20M more that will become infected before we can effectively stop the spread at the current rate. That's another 500,000 deaths if we just sit back and let it happen and that's another 1M deaths if we sit back and let the Republicans continue to rule in the Senate.
This country is under attack and the enemy is right here and it's not the virus, it's complacency and inaction and we don't have to eradicate 20M infected people, we just need to vote in two Democrats so this country can begin to DO SOMETHING about the disease that will have killed over 300,000 of us by the end of the week.
Georgia has enough people to turn Georgia blue. They did it. It works. Georgia just needs the resources, given everything Republicans are going to throw into this race. Folks who know say give directly to the Warnock and Ossoff campaigns. Give to Abrams’s Fair Fight Action. Give to the organization Abrams founded back in 2013 – which, in this amazing interview by Rebecca Traister, she explains began as a group of navigators to help Georgians figure out the Affordable Care Act: the New Georgia Project, led by the inspiring Nse Ufot. Give to LaTosha Brown’s Black Voters Matter. Or give to a whole lot of local organizers, with this Movement Voters Fund link.
It's a quiet week for data but the data hasn't much mattered anyway. The market has gone up regardless of what else is happening in the World and that will continue until it stops, I imagine. When will it stop? I can't imagine….
