Trump

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.

Monday June 15, 2020 

139 Days until the election on November 3^rd

219 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

A new book is coming out. This one on Melania. It seems she’s a pretty strategic negotiator, unlike her husband. There seems to be some sort of affection between the two, which I find surprising. It turns our Melania’s parents live in the White Hose and her dad has formed quite a bond with Baron. I worried about the kid. Can you imagine having to go to school and face the harsh reality of the other kids?

Turns out young Baron has learned to speak Slovenian. The four of them: Melania, her mom and dad, and Baron converse in that language leaving old Donald out of the loop. It annoys him, but what can he do?

I have been made aware of a psychological term that applies to Donald Trump – The Dark Triad. These are three antisocial personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. They tend to be overlapping and are indicative of a callous manipulative person. Sound familiar? You bet. This is nothing new when it comes to Donald. Anyone who had studied the man at all knows this about him. This just gives it a name. The sad part is that these people don’t understand some characteristics that the rest of us in humanity enjoy. Trump doesn’t understand humor. He watches others to see if they think it is funny and then concludes, based on the others’ behavior whether to classify it as humorous. I have to wonder what other parts of what I consider the basic human personality he doesn’t understand? Sadness? Empathy? (Well duh. He has no idea there.) Teamed up with another psychologically damaged individual who has decided to be racist to make up for his deficiencies this is a dangerous combination for the rest of us to endure. (Oh, yes, I’m talking about Stephen Miller.)

Two studies I have been made aware of are also interesting. What I find most interesting is that the studies were made internationally and that regardless of country the conclusions were the same. One was a study of personality types that hoard toilet paper in the face of a pandemic. The other was a study of those who successfully got into Stanford and other top notch schools. 

The hoarders were more fearful and regimented. The folks who got into the good schools were good test takers and did not necessarily know the subject matter better than others.

Lastly, there seems to be a growing sense that the economy might crater in August. This is when people will be out of stimulus money and when landlords can evict people again. Couple this with the fact that the Fed has pumped trillions of dollars into the economy and taken on debt in places it never has before. A good idea for this economic time, but maybe not good long term. Once done, it’s hard to take it back. How this pays out, along with an ongoing pandemic remains to be seen. But it ain’t good.

139 Days until the election on November 3^rd

219 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Time for a drink.

Sunday June 14, 2020 

140 Days until the election on November 3^rd

220 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Here we are in the middle of June. We’ve known about this virus for how long? Five, six months? And yet we can’t make little sticks with cotton on the ends? Or masks? Or gowns? Six months and we can’t make enough of this stuff? Really? 

Meanwhile the Republican Convention has moved to Jacksonville and because they don’t have enough hotel space they are going to do like they did for the Super Bowl. They are bringing in cruise ships to house everybody and Trump doesn’t want to see anyone wearing a mask. However, for his rally in Tulsa he want folks to sign a waver releasing him from any harm if they get sick and die. 

What happened to the “I’ll take care of you legal bills?”

How many more need to die? 

Well, I seem to remember a projected number of 2,000 a day. My latest googling says 326 per day. There are 220 days until someone else might be in charge so I guessing somewhere between 440,000 and 71,720 more need to die before we get someone in the White House who will deal with this pandemic.

I have a wacky idea. Why not use the Presidential powers to enact the War Powers act to make enough swabs, masks, and gowns? Wow, why hasn’t anyone in the White House thought of that? 

Oh, they have? But it’s not important?

Oh it is important, but they don’t give a what? Speak up.

I wonder if Jacksonville is going to set up a covid hospital? Probably not. I mean it takes awhile for symtoms to show. Most people should be back home before they die. No problem. Or should I say, “Problem solved.” ?

Yeah that’s the ticket.

Besides in Florida they fired the scientist who was tracking the number of cases of Covid. That’s what you get for telling the truth. 

140 Days until the election on November 3^rd

220 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Sunrise – Borobudur

Friday June 12, 2020 

142 Days until the election on November 3^rd

222 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Okay, sorry about yesterday. No screed. I was busy. It took awhile to remember exactly what, but now I recall. The day ended with my sitting in my reclining chair using a real cool super easy to use app for doing video instantaneously. We had an assignment (yes, I’m taking a class. Shut up.) to take someone else’s video posted on Google Drive and work on it in our new super easy app. I could go to google drive. I could see my fellow students videos, two of which I was to work on in this super easy app. I could never ever get anything over to where I could work on it. Google drive copied some clips to “My Drive” which was great. When I went to the app it didn’t see “My Drive.” I did find a one minute and 44 second video clip of walking down a crowded street in India. I saved that in the super easy app. I wonder if there is someway to move that to the homework space?

In other news I worked in Adobe Premier Pro. It’s like iMovie but not as frustrating. At least not at first. I have to wonder – is it me or do all these apps suck? I’m sorry, I mean do all these apps lack simple documentation? I’d like to know, for instance, what this button does. Or where is the gray scroll bar they talk about? And if I find the gray scroll bar after I play with it as suggested would you mind telling me what in the F*ck it is supposed to do? And I know this is asking a lot but is there an “undo” button? Or a “put it back the way it was before I screwed it up” pull down, click on, something or other?

If I don’t get some answers I’m going to start making TikTok videos in my underwear.

Moving on. Let me say this – As far as I know the Corona virus, whatever it is, and whatever it does – has not changed. It does what it does. 

There seems to be a change in attitude of some folks toward it. That is the only thing that has changed.

Yesterday, the stock market went down 5-7% depending on which index you look at. Why? People always want to know why. Well, I don’t know, but I’m willing to take a few guesses:

– Unemployment was 1.3 million this past week. Twice as bad as the height of the Great Depression.

– Twelve states have infection rates soaring and their hospitals are on the verge of being overrun.

– Two reports have been leaked to the press. They are internal reports to the White House. We lead the world in the most rapid rate of infection since Labor Day at over 36%.

– The other report shows that we don’t have enough PPE but the CDC is hoping that the rate of infection will go down so we won’t need more.

– Mike Pence, head of the Coronavirus Task Force for the White House was shown in front of a group of supporters/workers in Virginia. None of them had facemasks on, none of them were socially distancing. The photo was taken down shortly thereafter. Some speculate that it was because the event was held in Virginia and showed that the Head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and his workers were acting in direct contradiction to the Governor of Virginia’s orders.

– The President went to Dallas to supposedly talk about police and policing. He didn’t invite any of the top brass of the Dallas police force. No one was surprised because they’re black. He did say that we needed to support our police and step up money for them. He also said some stupidly racist things. No one was surprised.

– The Republican Convention has been pulled out of North Carolina because the president refuses to have people at the convention practice social distancing and doesn’t want anyone to have to wear facemarks. It is moving to Florida where the pandemic is raging.

– The president also is having a rally. Anyone coming in has to sign a document saying that the organizers aren’t responsible if you get sick from the coronavirus. The rally is in Tulsa. One of the places that has seen some of the worst racism in our history. The state has seen big increases in infections from coronavirus. 

– Georgia just held a primary and it was a mess. The only reason anyone can come up with for this is that is what they wanted.

– Larry Kudlow, advisor to the president said he doesn’t believe that there is a problem with racism in police forces. A few bad apples maybe, but that’s it.

– Steve Mnuchin, the foreclosure king of California, and now Secretary of the Treasury and man who was given $500,000,000,000.00 to hand out to his buddies has said that they aren’t shutting down the economy again. Not that they shut it down in the first place.

– Meanwhile protests around the nation and around the world over the killing of George Floyd continue. Something about seeing a man murdered by a policeman before your very eyes has had an effect on the social conscience of many.

– Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump put out a what she thought would be an uplifting statement. Some have taken to splicing in scenes of violence and mayhem that contradict the very things she is talking about.

So, to sum up. The virus is still out there. Our government leaders have decided to ignore it and hope it goes away. If it doesn’t go away they want to ignore it. The problem is all those dead bodies. They don’t go away. They keep piling up. “Can we get a fork lift?”

I need some art. 

A friend of mine said she needs “to get close to the paint.” Yeah. 

142 Days until the election on November 3^rd

222 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS “What? Me Worry?”

Wedensday June 10, 2020 

144 Days until the election on November 3^rd

224 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

There has been a lot of consternation of late on a number of fronts.

It has now been revealed that the officer who murdered George Floyd knew him. They had worked together as bouncers of some sort. Said officer was known at the time to be especially rough with black patrons. 

There have been photos of a man mocking those taking a knee by taking a knee but on the neck of another person and raising his arm in a black protest salute.

And  finally I have wondered what happened to all the 2^nd Amendment Stand Your Ground types. Why aren’t they out there brandishing their weapons in the face of the unidentified police looking types? Here’s a chance to protect the citizenry. 

And to the officers who pushed the 75 year old man to the ground, and kept moving. I have been told that their job is to keep moving and let someone else deal with the casualties. To this I have to ask, maybe we need a different kind of training?

Oh and then there are my right wing friends who post things about Trump that are in fact lies. Typically, this is accompanied with “Why isn’t the media covering this?” Answer – it’s a lie.

Okay, let me deal with all this in my typical modest unassuming way with a few tiny proposals.

Let’s get those fat fucks with their AR-15s out in the street to stand up to the police bullies. I’m sure that will help the situation.

Also, when is someone going to come up with a remote control robot to throw the tear gas canisters back at the police?

As to my right wing friends who like to post lies, depending on the lie I think they should be inducted into one of two clubs maybe both: “Trolls for Trump,” and “Traitors for Trump.” Nothing too over the top of course.

And to the mocking kneelers I think a little street theater is in order by re-enactors. There are Civil War and Revolutionary War re-enactors why not have some for police brutality? They could do like the police do. Go over, grab the kneeler, spray the folks near by with pepper spray, cuff the guy, put him face down on the road and kneel on his neck for eight to nine minutes. I think it would give a real look and feel to police brutality. Kind of put a face on it. 

So those are my modest proposals. Naturally, they won’t be enacted. I bet I don’t even get three million shares.

Oh well. Hey did you see Brazil has surpassed us on daily death toll from the Corona virus? Yeah, shows what a real tough guy can do.

Let’s not forget that if Hillary had been President this pandemic would have been a blip on the screen.

144 Days until the election on November 3^rd

224 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS The good old days – before social distancing.