Day 7 – Same Old Game. Have We Learned?

Tuesday January 26, 2021

When Obama was President he spent 18 months trying to get the Republicans on board with his health care plan. He watered it down. They drew out the timeline, changed the goal posts repeatedly, and then didn’t vote for it. This was one of several pieces of major legislation that Obama did and each time the Republicans did the same thing. Mitch McConnell has made it very clear that he intends to do the same thing this time. It has nothing to do with helping people. It has everything to do with not allowing the other side a victory. That might be okay if when the Republicans were in charge they did something to help people, but they don’t. 

This isn’t the worst of our worries. Yeah there’s the pandemic, the economic crisis, the inequality (racial, sexual, economic) and then there’s The Donald. If you think he’s going away think again. If you want a historical comparison think Hitler, think Beer Hall Putsch. As some have said, and I agree with, “If the events of January 6^th aren’t punished then it will be considered a dry run.” In other words if Donald Trump is not prevented from ever holding political office again, he will. And the next time he will overthrow the democracy. 

We can help prevent this. There are two things you can do right now. One is to go to the FBI website and see if you know any of the people connected with the assault on the Capital on January 6^th that the FBI is looking for. If you know who they are let the FBI know. Here’s the link to everyone they are looking for:

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info

And here’s just the Capitol folks:

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence

The other is to help friends and family who are Trumpers break the circle of addiction. Yes, you heard me. I’m not sure how any of us want to go about this but here’s where it starts. Weight Loss. 

Weight loss? I know you think I’m going to say something like, “All you need to do is go up to a Trumper and say, ‘Listen you Fat F*ck!’ …” but no. That’s not it. 

It turns out that weight loss and voting the same way are linked. To lose weight and keep it off requires the same kind of will power that voting differently requires. Some call it Will Power but a better way of thinking of this is a phrase called, “Being Mindful.” 

Psychologists who study why people vote the way they do have determined that it is force of habit. They don’t think because thinking requires more energy. That’s why you can’t reach someone with logic in these situations. Their mind is already made up, because it’s easier. Less energy is required. If you make a person think their head hurts. Why? They are having to use energy.

In the case of losing weight you have to break old habits. What is hard about that is you have to be aware of what you are doing. You have to be mindful. You have to ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” 

It’s the same with changing political inclinations. You have to be mindful. It’s a tough hill to climb. (Hum, someone said that recently.)

In the meantime when you try to get drunk grandpa to stop saying he’ll vote for Hoover (or Reagan or Bush or Satan) remember to ask him to be mindful (maybe use different words?) and look at the FBI wanted list. Let your politicians know you want Satan and his band held to account.

That is all. I’ll be in the field. 

Oh and Moderna’s vaccine can be tweaked to handle the South African variant of the Corona virus. It won’t have to go through as much testing because the platform has already proved it’s ability. As one doctor put it, “It’s the same vaccine.” 

Wow, new technology arrived just in time.

Remember, none of this had to happen, had we had real leadership, but we didn’t. We are still discovering how bad it was. Like no plan for distribution beyond the nursing homes. Their plan was to tell the states two days before how much vaccine they were getting. The new administration will have a thirty day advance window. The old administration had one person in the White House working on the Corona virus. One person! WTF? That and they didn’t see it as their problem. The new admin is actively working on getting rid of the virus.

And the old admin? Yeah, Satan tried to get a stooge in the Justice Department to take over and overthrow the election in Georgia. We came close this time. Next time, it won’t be close. We can’t let it happen again.

PS The Sunken Cities exhibit is closed and returning to Cairo. Bummer.