Jackals

 Both the New York Times and Politico ran stories the last two days highlighting the anxiety of some Mexican officials at the prospect of Stephen Miller's new role as White House chief of staff. 

Miller has long had a bee in his bonnet about Mexico, and the officials of our sister republic apparently fear that he might pressure Trump to take military action in Mexico—with or without authorities' cooperation—and lean on the Mexican government to step up their already brazen collaboration with the U.S. government's lawless "third country" rendition program. 

Paper Hats

 The New York Times reported yesterday on how hospitals and medical systems across the country are scrambling to prepare people for the wave of new "work requirements" that go into effect in January, as part of Trump's big not-so-beautiful budget reconciliation bill. 

By all accounts, millions of working-class people are likely to lose health insurance. Many of them will actually meet the work, school or volunteering requirements under the bill—but they will lose status regardless, simply because of the complexity of navigating the new rules. 

Midterm Post-Mortems

 In trying to account for Democrats' blowout electoral success in the midterms, I think most of us on the left and center-left are pretty comfortable seeing it as a sort of all-around repudiation of the whole Trump package. Yes, people were mad about the war. But they were also mad about inflation, corruption, cruelty, the retribution campaign, the bullying of our allies that was creating new trade barriers, etc. 

Plus, people saw all the ways in which these things were interconnected. They all added up to a picture of a petty and selfish and vindictive little man who did not have the American people's best interests at heart.

Mississippi Miracle

 Can Christmas come twice in one year? That's what it felt like yesterday, when the Associated Press and others called Mississippi's Senate race for Democrat Scott Colom, making him the first Black Senator-elect from the state since Reconstruction, and the first Democrat to hold the office in decades. 

This midterm election cycle has already been a season of miracles: Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, Iowa... Part of me on election night thought that asking for Mississippi too was maybe just getting greedy. How much luck can you ask for, after so many years of devastating electoral setbacks? 

Our Own Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

 There's a general theory out there that voters are selfish. But for all the ways in which that is sometimes true—there are also the times when it is weirdly not true. And not necessarily in a good way!

An example came earlier this week, when we learned that the people of California apparently voted down a ballot measure that would have imposed a one-time tax on billionaires. 

Willfull Men

 In his capsule biography of Robert La Follette, included in his U.S.A. trilogy, John Dos Passos describes with admiration the great liberal's lonely campaign to keep the United States out of World War I. 

Woodrow Wilson (much like Trump) campaigned on a pledge of no more wars, but managed to embroil the U.S. in one regardless. 

The Danger of Having Only One Idea

 I am profoundly confused as to why progressive groups and pundits are gearing up for another campaign to oust Chuck Schumer from Senate leadership (see this Substack post, e.g., and this petition from Moveon.Org). The guy just led our party to a historic victory in the midterms!

Meanwhile, candidates in the progressive lane turned in less than stand-out performances, in a field that was extremely favorable to Democrats. They didn't flip any seats in the Senate, and they managed to lose a House seat in Maine (Jared Golden's district).