Some more brief political observations

1)  On trade, the rival Trump and Xi gangster-regimes are engaged in a typical competition of primate intimidation displays, like rival male monkeys trying to scare each other into backing down -- screeching, baring fangs, stomping, and so forth.  Since the Chinese side will likely target its retaliatory moves squarely at red America, one can hope that we in blue America will remain relatively unscathed.  Still, inevitably innocent bystanders will get hit by some of the flung poo.  Even Europe's stock markets are down.

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2)  We've been expecting to spend the next year in a highly competitive Democratic primary contest among our numerous candidates -- but what if the nominee has already emerged?  Every poll now shows Biden with a huge lead over all his competitors, and that lead seems to have increased since he announced.  And no, it probably isn't merely name recognition.  And he seems especially well favored by black voters -- remember, we'd have a hard time winning the general election with a candidate who hasn't been ratified by this critical part of our base.

True, the "inevitable" candidate doesn't always win the nomination -- Hillary in 2008 and Jeb Bush in 2016 were shunted aside by unexpected upstarts.  But Jeb never was all that inevitable -- Trump had been leading in the polls all along, and it merely took a long time for Republican leaders and pundits to recognize the clear preference their base was expressing.  It could well be that the Democratic activists and blogosphere of today, disdaining Biden as so many of them do, are equally out of touch with the rank-and-file of our own party.  Even in 2008, when Obama came from behind, he spent most of the race as Hillary's only serious rival -- he didn't need to break out of a whole pack of challengers.

Nothing is certain yet.  Biden could falter for any of several reasons, and another candidate could surge.  But be prepared for the possibility that what we see now is what we'll actually get.

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3)  The Christo-fascist assault on abortion rights is now strongly under way, with Georgia's vicious new law, and others as bad or worse being prepared in other red states.  And the ghastly real-world consequences of such laws are already manifesting themselves.  The enemy, it seems, is now emboldened enough by McConnell's theft of the Supreme Court to hope that a head-on challenge to Roe v Wade can succeed.  They, and establishment Republicans, should be careful what they wish for.  The constituency for what banning abortion would be like in reality is a lot smaller than that which supports the idea in the abstract.

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4)  We're seeing a sudden barrage of apparent pretexts for war with Iran -- mysterious sabotage of two Saudi oil tankers which could be blamed on Iran, a possible escalation of US military presence nearby, claims of an increased threat from Iranian-backed groups against our personnel in Iraq.  There's no way of knowing whether that last is real or just typical Trumpian ex posteriori extractatum hot air, but one close ally is already suggesting it's the latter.  To me it all seems very contrived and by-the-numbers.  I can think of no reason why Iran would choose to escalate tensions with the US at the exact moment when Trump wants a distraction from the House Democrats' growing onslaught of subpoenas and investigations.

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5)  On a lighter note, Hackwhackers blog is soliciting ideas for a nickname for Trump.  Go on, see what you can come up with.