The headline theme will be back next week. Too many items today where it's not appropriate.

Los Angeles Burns; Republicans Look to Score Points

L.A. County is badly burned, with 10 people confirmed dead, more than 10,000 structures destroyed or badly damaged, and fires still raging in some places. Joe Biden canceled his final foreign trip as president so he might be able to oversee the federal response, and announced that the federal government would provide generous aid to California to help pay for both current operations and for rebuilding.

By contrast, prominent Republicans have responded, almost uniformly, with finger-pointing, scapegoating, and cheap attempts to score political points. A rundown of some of the more select comments:

• Donald Trump "Truth"ed this:

  Governor Gavin Newscum should immediately go to Northern California and open up the water main, and let the water flow into his dry, starving, burning State, instead of having it go out into the Pacific Ocean. It ought to be done right now, NO MORE EXCUSES FROM THIS INCOMPETENT GOVERNOR. IT'S ALREADY FAR TOO LATE!

  Trump has long battled Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) over water management policies, which involve weighing the needs of cities and endangered species (broadly favored by Newsom) versus those of farmers (broadly favored by Trump). However, Trump's assertions that California is dumping water into the Pacific, and that Newsom could end the L.A. fires with a simple fix (opening up "the water main") have no basis in reality. Maybe Trump understands that, maybe he doesn't; it's always hard to tell with him.
  
  
• Roger Stone, who bears more than a passing resemblance to a parrot, promptly hopped on eX-Twitter after Trump shared his "analysis" of the situation, posting a picture of a smelt and the note "This is the fish Gavin Newscum burned California down in order to save."
  
  
• Alex Jones, who has clearly learned nothing by being bankrupted for peddling lies, also got on eX-Twitter, so that he could share this assessment: "DESTROYED BY DESIGN: Los Angeles Fires Are Part Of A Larger Globalist Plot To Wage Economic Warfare & Deindustrialize The United States Before Triggering Total Collapse." Keep in mind that "Globalist" is code for "The Jews." Co-President Elon Musk later "liked" Jones' tweet and added the comment "True."
  
  
• Joe Rogan, who apparently also decided that some antisemitism was called for, decided to interview L.A. resident and noted antisemite Mel Gibson about the fires. Gibson badmouthed Newsom a bit, and Rogan promptly joined in: "The whole state is just so poorly managed. It's so frustrating and confusing and then [Newsom] gets on TV and pretends everything's great. 'California's the best, we have the best state, we have the most amazing economy,' it's like, you're out of your fu**ing mind, dude. You ruined this state. You personally ruined it."
  
  
• Donald Trump Jr. joined many other Republicans in noting that the chief of the LAFD is a lesbian, and so must have been a DEI hire. The First Son-elect took to Instagram to share this witty observation: "Can we rename DEI to DIE since that's what seems to happen to the people downstream of those who place woke virtue signaling far above competency?!?"
  
  In fact, LAFD Chief Kristin Crowley is a 22-year veteran of the department who tested off the charts when she first applied back in the early 2000s, and has served as a firefighter, paramedic, engineer, fire inspector, captain, battalion chief, assistant chief, fire marshal and deputy chief. This is what it looks like when you earn your position, as opposed to having daddy hand it to you, which may be why the Trumps are confused.
  
  
• Scott Jennings, the fellow who was just hired by The Los Angeles Times to share his keen insights, concurred with Trump Jr. that California's problem is that the "main interest in the fire department lately has been in DEI programming and budget cuts."
  
  
• Fox entertainer Sean Hannity opined that the fires are proof of a failed "eco-socialist, Marxist, statist utopia under the Green New Deal."
  
  
• Jesse Watters, Hannity's Fox colleague, believes that the real cause of the fires is... the state's homeless population.

The thing is, there are legitimate criticisms to be made here (even if this is not really the time for it). Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass was out of town for the fires, acting as an envoy on behalf of the Biden administration, and did not hasten back when she really should have done so. She's also cut the budget for the LAFD, and the city's emergency water system (e.g., hydrants) has been neglected, given that it was not designed to handle these kinds of fires, which have become increasingly commonplace in the last decade.

None of the people in the list above is actually interested in policy or in fact-based criticisms, however. They are interested in culture wars, and in pandering to their voters or their viewers/listeners. It's an early reminder that the MAGA movement not only sees much of the world as "the enemy," but also much of the United States. Oh, and that they will be looking for ways to weaponize everything over the next 4 years. It's not a pleasant prospect to ponder. (Z)

Trump Will Be Sentenced Today

Donald Trump had already struck out at every level of the New York judicial system, and yesterday he struck out with the Supreme Court. By a 5-4 vote, the justices rejected his request to block sentencing in his New York fraud case.

Readers can surely guess the four, but just in case, they were Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Since it was just a request for cert, they did not have to explain their reasoning. Too bad, because we'd love to see them twist themselves into pretzels while explaining how it's not OK to sentence a person who is not yet the president for a crime they committed while they were not yet the president.

Judge Juan Merchan has indicated that he will sentence Trump to unconditional discharge today, with the result that Trump's only punishment would be that he would be "convicted felon Donald Trump" for the rest of his life. However, even that is hateful to Trump, so the President-elect has already promised that he's going to appeal his conviction until all appeals are exhausted. That means that a battle will end today, but the war is not yet over. (Z)

Senator Vance Is Now Former Senator Vance

Last night, at midnight, J.D. Vance formally resigned his U.S. Senate seat. That means that Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH) is now free to name a replacement. Reportedly, DeWine favors Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R), but Husted is not sure he's interested (probably because he wants to run to replace DeWine when DeWine is term-limited in 2026). If it's not Husted, former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken, state Rep. Jay Edwards (R) and state Treasurer Robert Sprague (R) are in the running.

We have seen nothing, and can find nothing, that explains why Vance took so long to resign. It's not like he's been doing the job anyhow, and if he had resigned a week ago, his successor could have been seated before all the new senators-elect were. That would have put Vance's replacement at #90 on the Senate seniority list; now that person will be #100. This is not likely to matter too much this year, but it could very well matter at some point in the future.

Meanwhile, in other Ohio politics news, Amy Acton (D) has thrown her hat into the ring for the aforementioned 2026 gubernatorial election. She is the doctor who led the Buckeye State's COVID response, and she and DeWine received much praise for their leadership and empathy while doing so. Then, DeWine caved to MAGA pressure and did a 180, bringing an end to mask mandates, distancing requirements, etc. The partnership broke down, Acton became a regular target of death threats, and she resigned her position as Director of the Ohio Department of Public Health.

Ohio is a pretty red state these days, and has only elected one Democrat to the governor's mansion since 1988 (Ted Strickland, who served a single term from 2007-11). Acton is gambling that there will be an anti-Republican and anti-MAGA backlash in 2026, and that she'll ride a blue wave into office. It's not a crazy gamble, but it's definitely a gamble. (Z)

Musk Surrenders...

Donald Trump hasn't yet taken office, and yet the co-leader of the DOGE department, Elon Musk, has already waved the white flag—at least partly. A month ago, there was much talk of slashing $2 trillion from the federal budget. That was... unrealistic, to say the least, since the entire discretionary outlay each year is just $1.7 trillion. Yesterday, in an interview on eX-Twitter, Musk conceded as much.

This is not to say that the little DOGE-y has rejoined us in the real world, however. His new target is "about half that," which works out to $850 billion. That's not happening, either, although if he introduces a decimal in there—say, between the 8 and the 5—he might be onto something. Alternatively, he could replace the "b" in "$850 billion" with an "m." That might work, too.

Yesterday—not by design, mind you—the Biden administration provided a useful reminder of the intractable challenge that Musk and his friend Vivek Ramaswamy face. The White House announced that 24 million people have signed up for healthcare under the ACA this year. That brings the total number of people insured by the ACA to 45 million, and means that there are more people insured right now than at any point in U.S. history.

The ACA is one of the things that Musk, Ramaswamy and Donald Trump intend to target. As wealthy men, they don't see why working- and middle-class people should be getting government help with health insurance. However, the federal government's total spending on the ACA is just $91 billion. Could we imagine a world where someone who actually knows about efficiency (certainly not Musk and Ramaswamy) could put that under the microscope, and get it down to, say, $90 billion? Sure. But a savings of $1 billion is rather less than $850 billion. And going much beyond that will mean either cutting benefits, or kicking people out of the program, or both.

A sizable chunk of the folks insured by the ACA are Trump voters. So, any cuts to the system would harm them while doing virtually nothing to fulfill Musk's promise. Even if the entire system was scrapped, that would still save less than $100 billion, which is also rather less than $850 billion. And the tradeoff is that 45 million Americans would be furious. This is why the DOGE department is nearly as much a fantasy as the acquisition of Greenland. Even Elon Musk is slowly starting to see it. (Z)

...So Does Meta

This week, Meta has taken a number of steps that are clearly meant to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration. To wit:

• Meta appointed Joel Kaplan, a Republican insider and a Trumper, to take over for Nick Clegg as head of global policy.
  
  
• Dana White, the UFC CEO and close Trump ally who spoke at the RNC, was named to Meta's board of directors.
  
  
• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and its other sites would no longer have fact-checking, and will move to a "community notes" system like eX-Twitter uses. So, a person—say, the President of the United States—can now post blatant falsehoods to Facebook or Instagram, and the only thing that (might) happen is that users will post a note asserting that the falsehood is not true.
  
  
• While Facebook, etc. will ostensibly still be moderated for hate speech, there will be one explicit exception. It will be acceptable to refer to LGBTQ+ people as "mentally ill."
  
  
• The now-much-reduced-in-size content moderation department will no longer reside in California, and will be relocated to Texas. "This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content," explained Zuckerberg.

These changes are not entirely about kowtowing to Donald Trump and his acolytes. Meta has always longed to reduce its role in monitoring content, as that reduces costs (and, potentially, legal liabilities). Now, the company can implement a Wild West approach, and let it become ingrained for 4 years. At that point, it won't be too easy to change, even if a Democratic administration decided to try. However, if a future Democratic admininistration took steps to declare that Facebook is a publisher, not a platform, it could be sued for defamatory comments it allows to be posted.

That said, a big chunk of it is kowtowing to Trump, particularly since Meta is about to defend against a major antitrust suit. White is not, in any way, qualified to oversee a social media company. LGBTQ+ people are not mentally ill, and to allow people to claim otherwise is still hate speech, even if it's presented as "freedom of religion." And the shift of staff from California (blue) to Texas (red) is just theater. There's no evidence the moderators were "biased," and even if they were, there are plenty of conservatives in California and plenty of liberals in Texas. Shifting those jobs is not going to "cure" anything.

We guess we can understand where Zuckerberg is coming from. At the moment, he has more money than he could ever possibly spend. However, if Meta's stock price drops, then he could very well be reduced to... still having more money than he could ever possibly spend. Certainly seems a good reason to sell out. (Z)

Reader Reflections on Jimmy Carter, Part III

Yesterday was the Washington memorial service for Jimmy Carter. Because people want the deceased's body to be present for these things, Carter's remains were transported from his home in Plains, GA, to Washington, DC. And then, they were taken right back to his home in Plains for interment. So, his body traveled roughly 2,000 miles despite the fact that he was buried about 200 feet from where he died.

Most readers will probably know what happened at the memorial service, but just in case, here are the big "storylines": (1) Joe Biden gave a very nice eulogy for his predecessor; (2) Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff were noticeably chilly with the President, and did not speak to him during the service; (3) Barack Obama and George W. Bush palled around a bit, engaging in some horseplay; (4) Mike Pence coldly shook Donald Trump's hand; (5) Other than Pence, pretty much everyone else in the front rows pointedly ignored Trump; (6) The only living "front row" attendees who did not actually attend were former first lady Michelle Obama and former VP Dick Cheney.

We still have 20 more short stories about Carter, but there was not time to write them all up, plus the news. We also have a large supply of reader comments on Carter that we would like to run. So, we're going to run some of those today, and probably every day next week. We'll also do the last two sets of Carter stories next week. For now, today's reader comments:

• P.S. in Seattle, WA: Habitat for Humanity holds thousands of build projects all over the world each year. For 35 years, they had one called the "Jimmy Carter Work Project" ("JCWP")—later, the "Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project." Not only did the presidential couple lend their names to this build, they showed up and worked alongside the other volunteers.
  
  My wife and I worked at the JCWP that was held in Brooklyn in September 2000. We volunteers stayed in the Harlem YMCA and were assigned a room on the 10th floor, as were the Carters and their security detail. We saw Jimmy and Rosalynn both at the YMCA and at the build site.
  
  Exactly one year later, 9/11 took place. Eleven days after the attacks, our son was born, and we had to select a name. In the emotional period after 9/11, we couldn't help but recall our joyful time in New York one year earlier. As for the baby names on our 3x5 cards, the one that kept floating to the top was "Carter," and that's the name we gave our boy.
  
  
• E.A. in Okemos, MI: The Carter/Ford election is the first election I have any real memory of. I was 10 years old in 1976. I was also in Cub Scouts. And I had to make a car for our annual Pinewood Derby race. My cars never won the speed contest, but they usually scored high marks for the creative and design category. This year was no exception:
  
  
  
  I'm sure my Dad had some input into my choice of design, but I was the one who made the car (except perhaps for using the power saw... I'm sure my Mom wouldn't have allowed that!). Looking back, perhaps I should not have mixed politics and Cub Scouts together, but it was a different time and I don't remember any negative reactions, just some chuckles... and a first place in the design category!
  
  
• P.C. in Vero Beach, FL: With all the well-deserved and positive stories about Jimmy Carter, a person younger than 60 might be wondering how the heck this guy ever lost to a third-rate actor who probably committed treason during the campaign? Well, there were reasons.
  
  Inflation was a plague during the Carter years. The average annual rates of inflation during his term were 6.7%, 9.0%, 13.3% and 12.5%. It only went down during the final year because that is when the recession began. So you had someone running for president while there was around 13% inflation and growing, a recession in progress, but most of all, with an incumbent who seemed to have no idea at all how to handle it. His solution to inflation was to lecture the American people on how it was their fault (the "malaise" speech). Compare this to today's inflation rate of 3.4% and booming economy that still got the Democrats kicked out of most public offices this past year, and you can only imagine the feeling of the electorate going into the 1980 election.
  
  Add on to this the Iranian hostage crisis, where the country looked answerless and powerless. Climaxing with Operation Eagle Claw, a failed rescue attempt that left eight dead American soldiers and a pile of smoking American helicopters and airplanes in the desert, thus making the country look impotent and incompetent. It's true that no American soldiers died in combat during the Carter years, but American soldiers did die, in a way that made us look weak and ineffective.
  
  Even without Ronald Reagan's treasonous negotiations with the Iranian government, Jimmy Carter had no chance. Perhaps not all these problems were self-inflicted, but some were, and we all know where the buck stops.
  
  As a low-information 20-something voter of the era, I now make my most embarrassing admission of my lifetime: I did not vote for Jimmy Carter in 1980. I did vote, let's just leave it at that. It is the only time in my life that I did not vote for the Democratic nominee for president, and it's the only vote I truly regret.
  
  Reagan won and governed by demonizing the poor, wrecking unions, cutting rich people's taxes while embracing big deficits. His actions worked—if people had no money, they couldn't spend it, so inflation dropped to 3.2% by 1983. His legacy is the destruction of the middle class while normalizing the huge national debt which one day may be the largest problem the country has ever faced. To a lesser extent, that is also the legacy of Jimmy Carter, who was unable to lead the country through a very difficult time.
  
  
• A.J.C. in Williamsburg, VA: My parents moved to Georgia in 1970, when my dad got a job with Dow Chemical. They voted for Jimmy Carter for governor, and took their three daughters to see his inaugural parade. I was two, and sat on my Dad's shoulders. Gov Carter saw me perched there and called "Hey sweet thing!" to me as he passed. I don't remember this event, but it's one of those stories that I heard many times in my youth. Dow moved dad to their Williamsburg office about a year later.
  
  In 1980, when I was 11, the 6th grade gifted students were asked to run a mock election for our elementary school, and I was chosen to be "President Carter's running mate, Walter Mondale." I gave a speech in front of the whole school and everything! This launched my lifelong interest in politics. Like the real election, our elementary school ticket lost. Thus, it also launched my lifelong understanding that I had chosen a party of underdogs. Not that this knowledge made 2000, 2016 or 2024 any easier.
  
  These two childhood experiences made Jimmy Carter one of my heroes. His post-presidency work, informed by his faith, strengthened my faith and inspired me to help others. He was a truly great man who remained humble for his entire life. We would all do well to emulate him.
  
  
• K.G. in Atlanta, GA: Back in 1998 or so, my girlfriend worked in HR at Sprint, one of a number of companies involved in the Welfare to Work program. There was a meeting of HR people from multiple companies, and Rosalynn Carter was leading the effort. She spoke to the group about getting the word out using TV ads, PSA, billboards, etc. After she spoke for a while, Jimmy (sitting next to her) raised his hand and said, "Excuse meh... am I the only one heah that doesn't know what a PSA is?"
  
  Imagine that kind of humility from the next occupant of the Oval Office.
  
  
• P.L. in Morelia, Mexico: Having served for 42 years in Mexico as an evangelical minister, I have been around long enough to observe the far right's takeover of the white evangelical majority—first with concern, then indignation, and finally with disgust. During this long and sad process, it was always a comfort to know that Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were around to present to the world an alternative image of evangelicals, and the gospel message that they so faithfully personified.
  
  It is deeply saddening to not be able to think of any other person with the character and, yes, fame, to show the world that we are not all in the same tragic boat. Of course, the evangelical progressive tradition is still alive, but we have lost our best representatives for now.

More next week! (Z)

This Week in Schadenfreude: Up in Arms

We do not, for one minute, believe the United States will acquire Greenland, or will seriously attempt to acquire Greenland. All this talk is either a smokescreen from Trump, or an effort to get some small concessions in treaty negotiations with Denmark and/or NATO. That said, for this feature, we are going to take note of some of the snark surrounding the "discussion."

First up, in order to show that he is Serious™ about Greenland, Donald Trump Sr. dispatched Donald Trump Jr. to visit the island. This does not say Serious™ to us, since Trump Jr. is generally assigned the bottom-of-the-barrel, who-really-cares errands, and since Trump Jr. did not actually have any meetings or other official functions during his visit. He basically landed, looked around for a couple of hours, and then left. The reason we mention it is that pretty much everyone made the same joke about the trip: "The reason Trump Jr. agreed to go to Greenland is that he heard there's an unlimited supply of white powder on the ground." Ha! It turns out that if you show every sign of being a cocaine user, people notice. Who knew?

The main event, however, is the response to all of this from the royal family of Denmark. Royals tend to be experts at snark, as they have been practicing for centuries. This week, King Frederik X ordered a change in the royal coat of arms; the first time that's been done in the last 50 years. The old version is on the left; the new one is on the right:

The bear represents Greenland and the ram represents the Faroe Islands. As you can see, the bear is now much bigger and more visible. The only way the message to Trump could be more obvious is if the bear had been replaced with a giant middle finger. Which, if you look at the bear's right front paw carefully....

Telling Trump that he can't go after Greenland, or that it doesn't make sense, or anything like that is not likely to make him change course. Making him and his family the object of scorn and derision, on the other hand? That just might put an end to this talk. (Z)

This Week in Freudenfreude: Biden Is Great

Joe Biden will be president for a little more than one more week. And he—or, more accurately, his progeny—snuck one in under the gun on Wednesday. His granddaughter Naomi Biden gave birth to a 10-pound, four-ounce son named William Brannon Neal IV. The baby was delivered via cesarean section. We are not sure why that is relevant, or is even anyone's business, but it seems to always be reported on. So, we pass it along, in case it tells readers something important that it does not tell us.

This, of course, makes Biden a great-grandfather. And, as far as can be determined from the documentary record, Biden is the first president to become a great-grandfather while still in office. That sort of thing will happen when you're the oldest president in U.S. history. People did have kids younger back in the day, and record-keeping was not as good, so it's at least possible that some early-to-mid-19th-century president broke this particular glass ceiling first, but probably not.

As chance would have it, Biden has already been able to greet the new arrival. The delivery took place at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, and he was in town to survey the fire damage. It certainly looks like this was a (somewhat happy) coincidence; the delivery was scheduled long ago and, until the fires broke out, Biden was scheduled to be out of the country. In any case, he began his "fire update" press conference with: "The good news is I'm a great-grandfather as of today."

Opinions on Joe Biden the president vary, of course. But the evidence is strong that Biden the man is a good guy, so much so that we listed him as being among the most decent presidents in U.S. history over the weekend (along with Jimmy Carter, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Gerald Ford and Barack Obama). He's also very devoted to his family. So, it's nice that he can head into retirement with something to look forward to. Our congratulations to the President and his family.

Have a good weekend, all! (Z)

---

If you wish to contact us, please use one of these addresses. For the first two, please include your initials and city.

• questions@electoral-vote.com    For questions about politics, civics, history, etc. to be answered on a Saturday
• comments@electoral-vote.com   For "letters to the editor" for possible publication on a Sunday
• corrections@electoral-vote.com To tell us about typos or factual errors we should fix
• items@electoral-vote.com            For general suggestions, ideas, etc.

To download a poster about the site to hang up, please click here.

---

Email a link to a friend.

---The Votemaster and Zenger