Day 1245 – The Blinders Come Off

Tuesday June 16, 2020 

138 Days until the election on November 3^rd

218 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Have you ever had one of those experiences where you finally put into words or hears someone say it and it clarifies everything? 

Then you go tell a friend your amazing revelation and they say, “Of course, everybody knows that?”

Okay, we’ve all had those moments. Maybe you’ve been describing something endlessly and although you’ve described it you haven’t quite comprehended the totality of the significance. I had one of those moments last night.

The Impostors a new book by Steve Benen details the modern Republican Party. In this book he not only details how the party has lost its soul but any meaning. It no longer tries to govern, just to cling to power. They have no agenda, no meaning, no purpose. Benen claims the reason is that governing is hard. It requires detail and desire, none of which the modern Republican party has. There is no desire to govern, only to hold onto power. 

I have said this in so many words and so many ways, but hearing someone else say it in such a succinct cogent way was more than gratifying. It helped me reach a new level of understanding. No wonder the Republican party hasn’t proposed any health care initiative. No wonder they haven’t done anything about the pandemic, the president’s behavior, Black Lives Matter or anything else. It would require work. It would require effort.

Benen said that to verify what he is saying look at Mike Pence. Pence replaced all his people that did policy and governance with PR and media people. The message was important, not the action.

Btw in the article on Melania on the Sunday show and quoting the new book about her, she was the one that told Donald to pick Mike for VP. Why? Because he’d be happy being second banana. The others under consideration would not. Wise woman.

This morning we moved on to new tragedies befalling our country. It seems that in the last six months countries both friend and foe realize that they only have a few months left perhaps to take advantage of the U.S. not being a player on the world stage and they are grabbing everything they can. “It’s like a fire sale,” one diplomat was quoted as saying. The damage done to our reputation as a nation is enormous and it’s impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. It will take decades to get back to any semblance of our reputation. In the meantime the grabbing continues and the president and his staff don’t know or don’t care.

Speaking of not caring, Tulsa cares. Apparently, they’ve told the Donald that it’s not a good idea to come. He even pushed out the date so it wouldn’t coincide with the anniversary of a tragic time in the life of black people in Tulsa. What a guy! 

And the stock market continues to hang in there. How long is anyone’s guess. However there are a few factors to consider that might mean August is the big crash. The Fed had dumped trillions into the economy and the economy is hanging on. This has fundamentally changed the relationship of the Federal Reserve to anything you learned in college economics. And like other genies, once out of the bottle it’s hard to put it back in. But that’s just econ talk, let’s ask ourselves what is going to happen when those $1200 stimulus checks are spent and the landlords are allowed to evict people once again? When will that happen? August.

So if I’m correct: the pandemic will be on steroids by August, the economy will be crashing, the BLM will be raging and there will be more outrageous police examples, our enemies will be gobbling up influence and power where we have abandoned our stations around the world, our allies will have by and large given up on us, the Republicans will have had a giant spit session and many of their delegates will be showing up at hospitals already overcrowded for which many of the doctors and nurses will be laid off because the for profit hospital system won’t be making any money in a pandemic. Did I miss anything?

Let’s review the latest political ads. Everyone lost their minds because Trump took a second hand to guide a glass of water to his face, then he seemed to have trouble walking down a ramp. He claimed the ramp was slippery and had no handrails. He looked like a bent over morbidly obese out of shape older person to me. The glass of water? I dunno. Maybe, he’s had health issues, maybe not. However, there was a great ad put out by the Biden folks showing him and Obama running around the White House, and Joe drinking water. The tag line was “Joe can run and Joe can drink water.” Love it. This makes him infinitely more qualified to be President than the current guy. 

There’s also a Biden ad quoting Lindsey Graham. Wherein Lindsey was saying things about Trump back inn 2015 and 2016, before he drank the Kool-Aid.

Speaking of drinking Kool Aid. People are agog at Larry Kudlow. Apparently, he used to be a rather rational person. Not anymore. No racism Larry. Really? Yeah.

Back to the ads. The Trump ads are playing up that he’s created all these jobs in the last few months. They don’t mention that before that the economy cratered and under his watch we lost 20-30 million jobs. They then say Biden had been in Congress 40 years and that’s too long. Too Long? Three years of Trump was too long. But at least Trump can reuse the Make America Great Again stickers from last time. 

138 Days until the election on November 3^rd

218 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Mondrian, Cezanne, Gauguin

Some need sports. I need art.