Saturday August 8, 2020
85 Days until the election on November 3rd
165 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
This is a hard screed to write because it’s hard to know where to start. I think I have four places where I could start, but I’ll start with a saying my mother often said, “Like a dog in a manger.” I’ve come to realize that my mom said some things I’ve never heard anywhere else and when I’ve used them outside of our family, people have looked at me blankly. “Like a dog in a manger” refers to a children’s tale (I think) about a dog that is sitting in a manger (the thing with big vertical wooden slats that hold hay so cow’s can eat from it, and allows the hay to stay off the floor where it would get dirty. Also, the device that Jesus was born in, however, his manger is portrayed as a freestanding device whereas most mangers are usually attached to a wall or floor.
In the story the dog is sitting in the manger and barking at the cows, keeping the cows away from the manger. The dog can’t eat the hay, but he won’t let the cows get near it either. Mom used this phrase to describe when someone was being pigheaded and selfish (no doubt my brother, as I was always the good child.)
For some reason that phrase has been coming to mind recently. Not sure why, but I’m sure as we go along we can find reason to use it.
Okay, the next start to this screed, could be my prediction that the Republicans are going to lose the election and they know it. There’s a tell that you can use to know when they know they are not going to be in control. Wait for it… They are suddenly very concerned about the deficit. The only time they become fiscal conservatives is when the Dems are in power. All of a sudden Mark Meadows has woken up from his deep sleep and is apparently concerned about how much money is being spent. Look for Jim Jordan to jump on the wagon – they’re getting the band back together! With the election coming up look for the phrase “tax and spend” to come to the fore to be slapped on Democrats. Of course, the truth is that Republicans spend far more than Dems and they tax less. Well, they tax the rich less.
Okay, lemme see, oh yeah, hey if you’re a conservative, if you support our troops, if you are worried that our country is headed in the wrong direction then you need to listen to the one person who consistently talks about this, and it’s not Rush, or Fox and Friends. No, there’s only one person who really goes on about this and that’s Rachel Maddow.
Yup, she is concerned that Russia has bounties on the heads of U.S. Soldiers, not Rush or Fox. She is the one concerned about the pandemic in our country. She is the one worried about our liberties, our freedoms, our way. The conservative media is too busy making up stuff.
Speaking of making up stuff, Republican Senators are now getting their talking points directly from the Russians. Yeah, Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson heading up two of the committees that are looking into things are using Russian propaganda that is being fed directly to them by a Ukrainian guy who is known to be connected to Russia propoganda, and they know it! Well, maybe I’m going a bit too far. This would mean that they can put two and two together. They’d have to figure out that the guy giving them the information who’s name they know and the guy in their intelligence briefings who has the exact same name is one and the same. Big jump. Especially for Grassley.
Hey, but don’t worry they are not alone. Lindsey Graham is in on it too. And what about Rudy? Of course! There are pictures of this guy with Rudy.
Trump has had eight or nine phone calls with Putin this year. No one knows what they talk about, but one thing we know is that Trump has never brought up Russians paying bounties to kill American soldiers. In fact, if anyone mentions this to Donnie he gets very very mad. I wonder if those three on the couch at Fox and Friends ever think to ask The Donald about it when he calls in?
The Corona Virus, is that still a thing? Can’t we move on? Hasn’t it gone away, yet?
Uh, no. In fact, it’s worse than ever. Killing between 1,000 and 1,500 a day. Let do some quick math, okay? So far 160.000 have died, at 1,000 a day we’ll have 23,000 more by Sept 1 and add to that another 62-63,00 by the end of October and 3,000 more by Election Day and we’ll have (23+63+3+160) 249,000 dead. That’s at 1,000 a day at 1,500 a day that’s (23+63+3=89 call it 90 times 1.5 = 135,000 plus the 160,000) 295,000 dead by Election Day. Are you tired of winning?
What to do?
Trump says, “Open the Schools!”
For some reason even his own health experts say no. Excuse me, they say you have to get the virus under control in the community before you can open the schools. They leave it up to you to figure out if that is true. (For Chuck and Ron that means you have to ask yourself is the virus under control in the community, okay? BTW you don’t have to guess the CDC has numbers to let you know. If you need help have an interview with Axios’ Johnathan Swan. He can explain it to you all.)
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is suing a small podunk TV station in Wisconsin for running ads it doesn’t like. This as an object lesson for all those other stations (and because Wisconsin doesn’t have a law that says if you lose the case, which you will, that you have to pay all the expenses of a BS lawsuit.) Hey, and guess what one of the lawyers filing the suit is also the lawyer filing the paperwork to get Kanye on the ballot to try and take votes away from Joe Biden. (A suit has been filed to say this lawyer has a conflict of interest because she is representing two presidential candidates in the same election.)
And the new guy running the Post Office has fired 23 top executives because, well, he wasn’t gumming up the works fast enough to slow down mail-in balloting. Also, the head of the Postal Worker Union says they can do the job, and that vote by mail is safe. He also said that this was true as long as they got help from the top. Good luck with that. I mean not only is the Post Master General a Trump supporter doing the prez’s bidding he also owns $70M in stock in competitors to the post office. Hey, just another day in Trumpland.
Meanwhile, the corona virus protections for the average person have run out. The eviction moratorium ran our July 24. The $600 stimulus ran out July 31, and today the small business loan program ran out. I’m surprised the Republicans let the last one run out because that was the way people like Betsy DeVos got to steal money from the treasury. OMG! Deficits.
There has been a bill on the Mitch McConnell’s desk for three months, which addresses all this. The Dems have done their job. What has the Senate done? Gone home. Listened to Russian hacks and not presented anything.
How about the president? He left town and went and played golf.
I’d like to see a mob descend on Bedminster, New Jersey armed with pitch forks and lanterns. I’d like to see them overrun the president’s protection and chase Trump’s fat ass all over the golf course.
“Okay, Tom, The president is coming up on the sixth fairway. It’s a dog leg left, 389 yards.”
“Yes, Tom, from the tee the fairway descends to a brook before rising…”
“Sorry to interrupt you Jim but it looks like the president is running off the tee and has tripped and is rolling down the hill.”
“It certainly does Jim. Fortunately, for the president this is where his rotundness is coming in handy.”
“The crowd isn’t far behind…”
Where was I? Wake up. It was all a dream.
PS Bird bird bird, Bird is a Word, Well don’t you know about the bird? A bird is a word.
“Surfin’ Bird,” by The Trashman. The last song to hit #1 before some group called the Beatles came to town with a song called, “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
(It turns out that it’s The Trashmen, but I never heard it said in the plural. So I’m sticking to what I know! Which is wrong, but so what? Sue me! Yeah.)
85 Days until the election on November 3rd
165 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021
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