Day 1188 More Insanity, More Treachery, More Stupidity – Welcome
Friday December 27, 2019
317 Days until the 2020 election and 398 days until the Inauguration
I wrote a few days ago with a closing comment that I would sum up my thoughts the next time I wrote. That didn’t happen. Since then more wacky information has come my way. I will incorporate that info and my summation into this screed. At least, that is my intention, I’m never sure where these writings will end up. But first I’d like to thank those several people who recently have encouraged me to keep writing. Whenever I hear such praise (encouragement?) I can’t help but think of Dr. Frankenfurter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show where he turns to someone as they look at Rocky on the slab and Frank says, “I didn’t build him for you.” Likewise, I didn’t write this for you (well, okay. Maybe a little bit.) I write (long dramatic pause here, Hand to chest, Turn looking toward the horizon) I write…I write for me! Actually, I write to get rid of the thoughts. To get them out of my brain. I guess it’s a kind of therapy. (Trump Therapy! Why hasn’t he gone into that? “I know the best therapists.” …)
But first the research and discoveries. The Bad Boy Mower Gasparilla Bowl – This is not it’s first year. Who knew? The score this year was 45 – 28. The team in the kind of gold, black, and tan won – Wake Forest? Maybe. Who knows. Listen, we are into bowl mania and there is no time to remember what teams were playing in the bowl you just watched. Ya gotta move on.
I was curious as to what Gasparilla was. I assumed it was some sort of soda, rhymes with sarsaparilla – obviously a fruity drink I’d not heard of, or a fruity drink I had heard of but masquerading under a name I never heard of. Obviously. Turns out I was wrong. Turns out there was a guy named Gaspar who was a pirate and he terrorized the west coast of Florida in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Tampa has a Gasparilla Pirate Festival every year. Who knew? The people around Tampa obviously. The question was rhetorical – shut up. So now they have a festival honoring this maniac, which I think gives hope to Donald and his supporters that someday he too will be honored for his attempts at destroying everything this country stands for.
Stay tuned as I’ll investigate further and find out what Bad Boy Mowers are all about.
Moving sideways there was the Walk-On Bowl, which it turns out is a bar. ( Yeah, someone’s going to come back with “No it’s not! Actually it’s …” Go ahead. ) But this brings me closer to my dream bowl name – a bowl named after a sex toy. I think we may have had a bowl named after a condom or lube, but a sex toy? Not yet. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to the FleshLite Friction Bowl!” At the end the winning team gather around the trophy, which is a giant phallus looking thing and they hoist it aloft in victory. Of course, there could be the Maidenform Bowl and that would be a heck of a trophy too!
Moving on. There’s been a lot of speculation about the impeachment trial in the Senate. The smart money says Trump won’t get convicted because the Republicans hold the majority and there’s no way that enough of those chicken shits will actually stand up for the Constitution. I’d like to see Donald Trump march into the Senate and shoot someone. Not kill them just shot them. Maybe maim them for life – that’s all. I’d like to see him do it right in front of Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senators, maybe an intern or page gets shot, maybe one of the Senator’s grandkids. And I’ll bet McConnell would say it’s not impeachable. Yeah, it’s a crime, but not a high crime. I mean the person didn’t even die. How can it be a crime if they didn’t die?
Lisa Murkowski said she found McConnell’s comments “disturbing.” OMG! Really? Then the press shows pictures of Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, and Cory Gardner – will they break ranks? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blahblahblah blah blah. Listen, Susan Collins will say a few things and then be tricked by McConnell into voting for whatever Mitch wants. Romney will say he doesn’t like it, whatever it is, and then vote with them. Gardner? Who cares? Same shit, different day. After you trot out those four names, you’ve only got 49 more to go.
Then we get to the “Who will the Dems pick?” Looks like it will be Joe Biden. I heard a persuasive argument for it. He’s safe. He’s a return to normalcy. People are exhausted. I liken it to the “Pick a Number” game strategy. Let’s say you are asked to pick a number between 1 and 100. Your opponent goes first. They pick “1.” What number should you pick? If you pick “100” then you split all the numbers between 1 and 100. If you pick “2” you block your opponent and get all the numbers from 2 to 100. Joe would block Donald from all the moderate and independent voters. Warren or Sanders are more like picking “100.” Pete or Amy are kind of like picking “5” or “7,” not a bad choice but you could have done better. I’m not saying I agree with this, I’m thinking that is the way it might go.
I think Biden has the same problem Warren or Sanders will have against Trump only worse. He will be savaged, and he will make some gaffs and the right will go crazy publicizing them (along with the Russians.)
Personally, I’d like to see Warren. Yes, she has more radical plans than a lot of candidates, but let me ask, “how well have those moderate plans worked?” Yeah. Thought so.
Let’s review a few basic truths:
“The Republicans had not come up with a health care plan in the twenty five years I was in the House,” John Boehner. (I’m paraphrasing.) The point being if you think the Republicans are going to fix our health care system you are smoking way too much weed.
“The economy is doing great!” Really? The stock market is hitting new highs, unemployment is at record lows. We’ve got a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico – what’s not to like? Well, let me ask you, “if all this indicates a strong economy why hasn’t the average working person felt it?” Hum. Good question, huh? Okay, let’s dig a bit, a tiny bit into those “facts” I mentioned and let’s look at a few others.
Why is credit card debt so high? Higher than it’s ever been. (Great for banks, bad for the average person, because they are going deeper and deeper into debt, which means more and more of their money is going to finance charges. Great for bankers, bad for people.)
Unemployment is low because people have stopped looking for a job and aren’t counted or they have a crappy part time job (or two or three) and are counted double and triple. However, they don’t have health care and they aren’t making enough money to stay out of debt or out of poverty. Many college graduates find themselves overqualified for the jobs they have. Like running a cash register at the drive thru.
The trade deal with Canada and Mexico? Well, it can be summed up by what has been said about it before and now, “It’s the same deal we had before, just with the added pain, hardship, and debt.”
How about those small farmers in the mid-west? Or the dairymen in Wisconsin? Or the manufacturers throughout the country? They are all hurting or out of business because of Trump’s trade wars and tariffs.
In recent news, the federal government has failed to collect taxes it could have had. This is due to the tax cut bill passed by the Republicans. This has led to an extra $1,000,000,000,000.00 added to the national debt every year since Trump has been in office. The excess money has flowed into the stock market, so yeah it’s booming, but not on good fundamentals but on lots of extra cash that no one knows what else to do with it.
We are entering the 20s. Last time we were here it was called the Roaring Twenties. Flappers, and champagne, the stock market was going crazy. How did it end? Black Friday.
Speaking of black, Lindsey Vonn announced her engagement. The lucky man was or is an NFL defensive player. I think we should all send a picture of them to Stephen Miller and ask he wish them well.
Speaking of Stephen, he’s still at it. Down in the bowels of the White House hatching more ways to hurt immigrants. Yeah, now he’s trying to get ICE to infiltrate and snitch on immigrants. That didn’t work out so he’s dreamed up getting data on folks trying to claim their children and seeing if he can have those folks deported. Hey, did you see the picture of a soldier returning from duty, saying good-bye to his wife as he was getting deported? Nice huh? And now it turns out ICE agents are putting down the wrong address on the paperwork for immigrants seeking asylum so that those people will never get their notices of when to appear in court. Just another way that Trump and his minions are trying to be as hurtful as possible to people they perceive are not like themselves.
But I saved the best for last and it’s goes back to my earlier piece where I wrote that I’d bring it all together. There have been recent articles, and not so recent ones, that look at Trump’s mental state. The latest round is based on Trump’s six page letter to the Speaker of the House. Turns out therapists that read it find the writings of a delusional con man bully. Surprising? Not at all. The impeachment is really unnerving him. Headlines say it’s the first time he’s been held accountable. Maybe so, but it’s not the first time he’s had to face reality. There was the time at the U.N. where he made a huge bogus claim and they laughed in his face. Remember his look? He said, “I wasn’t expecting that.” Yeah, what were you expecting? “Oh yes Sir Donald, you are the greatest.”?
I’m still trying to understand how a person found guilty of two major frauds: Trump Charity and Trump University isn’t spending time in jail.
But first I’ve got to look into Bad Boy Mowers.
Reporting live from the front. I remain.
Bryce Holliwell, man of action and adventure.
317 Days until the 2020 election and 398 days until the Inauguration
PS Hob Nob’s Wicked Red with the 2019 Day of the Dead skull. How else would you promote a French drinking wine? (Note to self: better store up, might be a tough year ahead.)
Elizabeth Warren.