Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to
day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted
fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief
candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor
player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and
fury,
Signifying nothing.
<From Macbeth, spoken by Macbeth:
William Shakespeare>
Yet filter, it did, allowing Trump to become only the fifth US President to enter the White House, even after losing a majority of the popular vote, thus setting the template for what we've all endured under his watch. Trump's Presidency was never going to be a picnic, based on the tendencies that he vented during his march to the nomination. Even so, Americans shrugged it all off - the constant craving for attention, the full-on xenophobia and bigotry, the preening narcissism, the relentless self-aggrandizement, and unrelenting vindictive streak -- as the products of an immature, yet brilliantly unconventional non-politician.
Critics among the mainstream media and Republican ranks comforted themselves, for a time, by clutching two reeds of hope. It's all just an act, one school of thought held. He'll ditch it the minute he enters the Oval Office. He'll grow into the job, because he wants to succeed. He knows he'll have to learn on the job, just like in his real estate days. (The promoters of this notion never explained how it squared with Trump's trail of six bankruptcies. But I digress.)
The more reserved thinkers clung to a different reed: He is what he is, and he probably won't change, because his base loves it. but he'll at least surround himself with competent people who know what they're doing. The adults in the room will keep him from straying too far off the reservation.
Four years on, it's easy to laugh at both schools, and ask, "What the f#ck were you guys thinking, and what kind of paint fumes hit, when you made those statements?" Four years on, it's the adults -- such as they are, particularly in the Cabinet -- who've either gotten run off the reservation, or ground down to the point of quitting in despair, or risk losing what integrity they somehow managed to preserve.
I find myself wondering, "What did you expect?" Like all those with deep-seated insecurities, Trump always laughs at others, but never at himself. To him, the joke is funniest when it's at someone else's expense. Like all armchair critics, Trump floats through life as a critic without criteria, let alone a suitable game plan. After all, such things are for plebes.
Like all wouldbe autocrats, Trump rages at those who dare to question him, even as he routinely assigns blame to others for whatever he doesn't achieve personally, and conjures up terrible awaits for those who ask, "Isn't this madness getting a bit out of hand?" Like all ham-fisted authoritarians, Trump demands unblinking obedience and loyalty, a favor that he doesn't typically return to those who actually do his bidding.
Finally, like all schemers and connivers, Trump has never met a truth he couldn't embroider, a rule of law he couldn't bend, and a system that he couldn't game, one way or another. When in doubt, he doubles down on all his worst tendencies, now that few competent "adults" -- in any capacity -- remain to restrain, sidestep or sabotage them.
The moral of the story? Pay attention to how people present themselves. What you see is often what you get. There's a reason why people get nervous when Trump says "the quiet part out loud" on whatever obsession crosses his mind.
And after the show that night,
The clowns had the makeup wiped from their faces
When somebody pulled a knife
And cut off Coco's bright red braces
They murdered the clown
They wiped that grin right off his face
They murdered the clown
Still the world's not a funnier place...
>"They Murdered The Clown,"
Graham Parker<
<ii.>
As I write today, the toll of COVID-19 has now reached 231,000 deaths, and 9.38 million cases. The dreary roll call of new cases and skyrocketing case rates rages on, with no end and no vaccine in sight, even as the self-styled Dear Leader races from rally to rally, claiming, "We've turned the corner." If he means the corner of the nearest funeral home, or local cemetery, he's right, but I don't think so.
The same story holds true for what's left of the nation's safety net, one that now hangs battered and tattered, after the latest stimulus talks collapsed without resolution a couple weeks ago. As of August, 18 million Americans found themselves without work, who have now joined the 30 million already claiming unemployment benefits. But even those who hold jobs may soon have other worries, like the 30 to 40 million at risk of eviction or foreclosure over the next several months, as the various protective measures created under the stimulus package that passed this spring begin to expire (see the link below).
As we now know, of course, Trump and his enablers, led by Mitch The Mummy -- also known as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell -- had other priorities, such as jamming Amy Coney Barrett down the national gullet onto the Supreme Court. Ironically, the story wound up largely lost amid the usual ongoing Trumpian chaos, despite Barrett racking up two dubious historical milestones of her own -- notably, the closest confirmation margin for a Justice (51-48), and the first without a single vote from the opposing party (Democrat).
The contrast between this activity, and the desperation that is now every day reality for so many millions, could not be more striking -- and this, already, on top of a summer marked by widespread clashes between police and protesters, following George Floyd's slow, agonizing suffocation at the hands of Minneapolis police. By any measure, this year is an especially brutal and tragic one, whose calendar days grind out wearily and tortuously, stuck forever in a Groundhog Day-styled loop of weary despair -- only this time, with the cynical TV weatherman overtaken, Friday The Thirteenth-style, by the machete-wielding Jason Voorhees.
The truly nightmarish part, however, is that there's no such thing as "bottom" with Trump, especially if he somehow wriggles his way, unhinged and unscathed, across the finish line once more, to a second term. Once more, those who voted against him will find themselves fending off the inevitable "WTF, America?" questions, as the Muttley-styled snickering grows ever so louder, and all the more insistent.
Sending Trump back to his Mar-A-Lego estate for good will reassure the less savvy among us that he was just some Frankenstein-type aberration, never to be repeated. Ah! There! Now we can rest easy, and forget... At least until someone like Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton -- who drew fire this summer, for claiming that slavery was a "necessary evil" to build the nation -- comes out running in 2024. I hope that's not the case, but complacency is a powerful narcotic, more so than cocaine, or heroin, or morphine.
Keeping Trump on the national payroll, however, will only confirm to friends and enemies around the world that we're gluttons for punishment -- or, deep down, more admiring of this heartless orange spray tanned darkling than we care to admit. How can he be an aberration, as mainstream commentators hold, when almost half the country still buys into the weird mixture of '50s and '80s nostalgia that he peddles so shamelessly and relentless?
That's before we get to what awaits at the executive level, as the Atlantic Monthly notes (see below). If re-elected, Trump has decided to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper, CIA Director Gina Haspel, and FBI Director Christopher Wray, all of whom he finds too independent for his liking. As we've seen with other Cabinet and government positions, Trump will either replace them with outright loyalists, or acting heads, who presumably have one foot out the door already. (Lest we forget, "former Trump administration official" probably reads as appealing as Pete Best's resume might have, after his ouster: "Drummed for the Beatles (Liverpool-based pop band), 1960-62. You might have heard of them.")
How much difference a newly-minted Democratic House and Senate majority might make in this scenario remains to be seen, at least until it comes to pass. Trump would likely crank up his ongoing blizzard of executive orders to do whatever terrible thing crosses his mind lately, such as those allegedly being prepared by his resident white supremacist aide, Stephen Miller -- including proposals to cut off any refugee admissions, and ending birthright citizenship (which the 14th Amendment established -- though Trump's never one to let such details stop him from trying).
"The result of such a change could radically reorient the federal government and the United States writ large," Atlantic Monthly notes. "If the first Trump term was recognizable as an American government, albeit a conspicuously bad one, the second might barely be recognizable at all."
The moral of the story? Don't ever underestimate the damage that one person can do. Or the havoc they can wreak, when they're really determined to do it.
'Cos when they finally put you in the ground
They'll stand there laughing and tramp the dirt down...
<Elvis Costello,
"Tramp The Dirt Down">
<iii.>
But that was then, and this is now. A couple of weeks ago, we took advantage of Michigan's opportunity for early voting, and cast our ballots for Biden. The reason is simple and straightforward enough: to ensure that we live to fight another day, along with our democracy, such as it's defined in this age of rampant gerrymandering, and voter suppression. The image of Trump taking a meat cleaver to the programs that we rely on to make our existence livable, like Medicare and Medicaid, is not one that either of us relish, full stop. The chopping block is not the type of neighborhood that we care to frequent.
The moral of the story? We'll know a little better after tonight. But suffice to say, there's plenty of unfinished business sitting on the table. And there is much work to be done. --The Reckoner
Links To Go
The Aspen Institute
The COVID-19 Eviction Crisis:
https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-covid-19-eviction-crisis-an-estimated-30-40-million-people-in-america-are-at-risk/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/trumps-second-term-will-be-nothing-like-the-first/616958/
The Guardian
Reuters/Yahoo News
"You Are No Longer My Mother":
A Divided America Will Struggle
To Heal After Trump Era:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-longer-mother-divided-america-110905675.html
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