January 6th - fateful day

Thank heavens the Christmas weekend is over. It’s not that I don’t like Christmas or other holidays, it’s that it seems like the world just comes to a standstill for a few days. No mail, banks close, Stock Market closes, no news to speak of, just totally repetitious Christmas music day after dreary day. I’ve reached the point now where I can’t decide whether the original renditions of the carols are any better than the jazzed-up versions. In any case, the newer Christmas songs are so insipid as to make you wish you could become temporarily deaf. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, indeed. The others are even worse. Anyway, it’s over now for another year. Hooray!

Things apparently do actually happen here and there while we are in our annual madness. Apparently, for example, at the recent Buenos Aires Climate meeting the United States outdid itself in obstructionism, to the point when even our closest allies such as Australia were horrified. As the only nation to refuse to participate in the Kyoto Treaty we were already regarded as a pariah nation, but when we supported Saudi Arabia’s demand for compensation for lost revenue due to reduced global oil consumption we reached a new high for utter absurdity. This is in the same category as the timber industry demanding to be compensated for no longer being able to cut timber in the National Forests. But, hey, it’s the American way.

It is still not clear whether John Conyer’s group of Representatives will be able to persuade even one Senator to step up and be counted so the electoral votes can be challenged. Barbara Boxer has said she won’t do it, but has offered no explanation. Why, you might ask, will John Kerry not do it? Why, indeed? If no Senator steps up this time you can kiss American Democracy goodbye. January 6th is going to be an absolutely critical point in American history. There can be no doubt whatsoever at this point that the election was stolen again by the Republicans. And even the means they employed are becoming clearer and clearer, however complicated they may be. What I can’t understand is why there aren’t several Senators that would be willing to challenge, given that the outrage is so obvious. The Ukrainians have democracy, we have incipient fascism. Perhaps not even incipient.

Happy Holidays.