Yes, I have been quiet for a while. Not my intent but a 7-week battle with an intestinal virus (don’t ask, it was worse than you think) followed almost immediately by a bout of pneumonia made writing about the last thing on my mind. Then my knees gave out, but I am still mobile.
Now that I am almost back to normal, however, perusing all of my various feeds, SubStack subscriptions, and internet stuff, I have concluded that we are on the same course we were on before I took to the sickbed. Apparently being under the weather did not affect my vitriol.
Trump keeps nominating more cabinet members and I cannot help but think of the Keystone Cops running about. Or maybe it is the Marx Brothers. But to think that we now have a sexual predator as both President and Secretary of Defense, and given our new SecDef’s almost zero experience in either the military or management, I am not betting on him becoming a barn burner. Homeland Security also has a candidate with literally no experience in her new assignment. She’s good at shooting dogs and denying climate change, but protecting the South Dakota/North Dakota border did not provide a lot of relevant experience. And the beat goes on.
Trump also made $50 billion on paper by hawking his own bitcoins – as he proposed to make bitcoin a “reserve currency”. Yeah, fuck the Emoluments Clause of the US Constitution. And while he’s doing that he is also issuing unconstitutional executive orders like stopping birthright citizenship. Didn’t this guy just put his hand on a bible and swear to uphold the Constitution? I wonder why the religious right and uber patriots do not get their panties in a knot on that one. You can bet if it were a Democrat, they would be screaming about communism and being anti-American.
Speaking of the Constitution, I think it is really an achievement that President Trump has managed to violate the Constitution twice in his first 9 days in office. First, trying to abrogate the 14th amendment (which states that anyone born in the US is a citizen) and second, usurping the Congressional duties of the power of the purse by halting payments well, to almost everybody. The sad part is that the current Supreme Court believes in the unitary presidency so how they will rule on this blatantly unconstitutional stuff is not a given.
Every Conservative/MAGA/Republican leaning blogger, reporter, or commentator cannot stop bashing Joe Biden. Old, demented, incapable, etc. First off, you assholes won, stop being such sore winners. Second, I really would like to know what Joe Biden’s administration did so wrong other than not being Republican. I mean, inflation went down, we survived COVID, the infrastructure act added thousands of jobs and will continue to do so, employment and wages went up, and our relationships with our allies were strengthened. Yes, the price of eggs went up.
President Biden was certainly not perfect. No President has ever been perfect not will any President in the future.
I can think of 5 real mistakes made by Biden and his administration: 1) deciding to run for President, again; 2) catering too much to the far-left wing (they call themselves “progressives” but they are actually anything but) and letting them dominate the public messaging on their agenda, including idiot culture issues. 2) waiting way too long to address the illegal immigration issue; 3) forgetting that pocket-book issues drive way more voters than programs and promises; and 4) trying to accommodate the idiotic time-frame Donald Trump negotiated for the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Note that the first two mistakes were political, and the last was unavoidable unless Biden wanted to back-off a commitment made previously on behalf of the United States.
Compared to Trump’s first term and the chaos he’s managed to create in his first week on the job, I can only think that history will treat Joe Biden better than Donald Trump.
Thinking about the Democrats, I am afraid that their pandering to their own left wing, their increasingly public displays and toleration of antisemitic speech and activities, along with their continued fascination with stuff that either irritates or scares most of the American public i.e., pronouns, trans women playing in women’s sports, their simplistic and wrong view of the world as oppressors and the oppressed along racial terms, and its completely hypocritical attitudes regarding free speech are making it particularly difficult for me to be excited by any Democrat candidate claiming to be “progressive.” I do not feel good about any political party.
I do not give on shit about whether Elon Musk used a Nazi salute or a roman tribute. I do care that he supports wacky right wing conspiracy theories, controls one of the planet’s largest social media platforms that he is using to filter out any chatter about things he dislikes, and that he attends the Neo-Nazi German AfD (Alternative for Germany) political rally. While attending said Neo-Nazi rally Musk tells them that they should worry about the past or have guilt about the past while them that they are the “best hope for Germany” and “preserving German culture” and “protecting the German people.” That sounds an awfully lot like Nazi rhetoric to me.
I think Elon Musk is a loose cannon with a lot of money. He has the emotional intelligence of a mosquito.
As I looked at the pictures of the inauguration (I did not want to watch it and thus did not), I could not help but see all the billionaires. Even more billionaires kowtowing to Trump. I wonder how many contracts those guys have or will have with the Federal government. How many of the companies those billionaires control would benefit from relaxing the regulations that keep us safe by ensuring clean water, clean air, safe food, safe pharmaceuticals, safe toys and strollers for our children, safe aircraft and safe cars just to name a few things top of mind? I am not in thrall of our march towards oligarchy and kleptocracy. And if all of the tech billionaires decide to fiddle around with elections? What happens then?
I am not surprised, but quite worried about recalling the Armed Forces folks who refused vaccination for COVID because now I know that they can refuse any vaccines for themselves and their children. I worry about a pandemic that decimates our Armed Forces because a minority of members refuse to protect their fellows. Ditto releasing January 6 convicts who participated in attacking Capitol police or who broke into and ransacked parts of the Capitol building. Ditto withdrawing from the World Health Organization. These decisions have consequences.
And finally, anyone arguing that Patrick Mahomes has not taken full advantage of rules is kidding themselves. He is a flopper and has used his slides very deftly to draw penalties from the defense. He is also a phenomenal quarterback and I am not in any way suggesting he cheated. He did not, really (OK, flopping might be a small cheat) Do I think the refs are quick to throw the flag against the D when Mahomes is concerned? Yeah, a little bit. But the same is/was true about Larry Bird, LeBron James, Joe Montana and others. Big stars get a bit of benefit of the doubt. C’est la vie. Regardless, it ought to be a very good game.
Adult Language Is Possible 