Why Didn’t We Buy Private Prison Stocks?! November 20, 2024November 20, 2024 The Brennan Center for Justice reviews Trump’s Mass Deportation Plans. Hence the rise in prison stocks. It really seems as though, having won just 49.5% or so of the popular vote compared to Kamala’s 48.5% or so — “a landslide,” in his view — Trump is preparing to govern like a dictator: > His hand-picked Supreme Court is largely in his pocket — see Stench and Antidemocratic — as is Congress. So, with his iron grip on the Executive, all three branches of government. He aims to . . . . . . by-pass the Senate in confirming Cabinet secretaries because his nominees would not pass FBI background checks (ironically, neither would he; he is deemed a national security threat by the intelligence community); . . . use the Justice Department to wreak vengeance on his enemies; . . . fire generals not loyal to him; . . . stifle the press — “the enemy of the people.” He prefers dictators to democratically elected leaders. For years, while married to Ivana, he kept this book of Hitler’s speeches by his bedside. It’s true that he got about 3% more votes in 2024 than he did in 2020 . . . but could that be because some people forgot what they thought of him in 2020? (He left office with an approval rating around 34%.) Or because some of them didn’t believe he was serious about doing the things he said he’d do? Or because they didn’t know what tariffs are or that they would be the ones ultimately paying them? The tragedy in this whole landslide business is that the largest block of eligible voters — about 90 million — voted for neither Trump nor Harris. They stayed home. Fred was one of them. He writes: Don’t you find it odd that the party that is worried about democracy is the one that lied to the American people for a year about their candidate’s cognitive decline so that nobody could run against him, and then appointed by fiat an ill-prepared candidate who had never received a vote in a primary? Is this the democracy you are proud of? By the way, I just turned 64 and have never seen worse tickets than Harris-Waltz and Trump-Vance and they happened to be the same election. I didn’t think anyone could top McGovern-Eagleton (Shriver) but I lived long enough to be proven wrong. I was too embarrassed to even leave my house on Election Day. I replied: Thanks, Fred. I don’t know for sure — I hope to find out — but my strong suspicion is that neither Joe nor the people around him believed, a year out, that he was in mental decline that would prevent his Administration from continuing to do a good job. My guess – again, just my guess – is that insiders were as shocked and dismayed by the debate as the rest of us. That they — and surely “the party” as a whole — had believed up until that point he had the judgment and experience, and respect of world leaders, required to continue to do the job well. So I don’t think “the party” lied to the country for a year. As to the rest: Once Nancy Pelosi and others did persuade the President to step aside, everyone felt an overriding imperative to do whatever gave us the best chance to win. Taking a month or two to hold a primary might have been the best course but would have meant time and money fighting each other instead of Trump. Having first thought an “open convention” would be galvanizing, I remember being persuaded that, no, uniting behind the V.P. made more sense. Reasonable people could disagree and did. (If just a few of the 90 million who stayed home had instead chosen what in their minds — like yours — would have been “the lesser of two evils,” so she had won by a hair instead of losing by a hair, I think a lot of people would have agreed that not holding a primary was smart.) That said, she was not “appointed by fiat” — she and others worked the phones in order to amass a majority of the delegates, persuading them that this was the best course. Finally, I think Vice President Harris is a lot better than you think she is and might well have surprised you on the upside, had she won. But that’s just my opinion and I respect yours. BONUSES: 1. The largely wacky — but disturbing — view from Russia: What Is Trump to Putin? A Harbinger of America’s Collapse. 2. Robert Reich: How to Hope in a Near Hopeless Time. Do something.