Writing Above The Clouds

For the thousands, hundreds, one or two of you who read these posts even semi-regularly, you probably have noticed that I have been absent for the past few weeks. Well, I managed to have a medical adventure in the midst of a global pandemic. I passed a kidney stone and that was a real pain, much like the year 2020 in total.

So what did I miss?

Well, millions remain unemployed. People are still contracting the virus and dying throughout the USA and the world. And while rejecting the advice of  health care experts and ignoring common sense, the “patriots” among us continue to refuse to wear a mask or social distance in public. Heck, these geniuses can’t even walk the right way in the clearly marked aisles of a grocery store. Like dude. Follow the damn arrow. I digress.

And the Republicans and Democrats both held their virtual conventions. I didn’t watch either. But the talking heads on MSNBC were giddy about the Dems. Not so much about the GOP.

And that to some extent troubles me. Most of us — myself included — tend to live in an information bubble these days. We only read and listen to so-called news outlets that confirm and reinforce our already existing view of the world.

That’s why the liberals these days flock to MSNBC and CNN. While conservatives take comfort listening to talk radio and watching Fox News.

And here’s the rub. I don’t sense that the liberal pundits have great enthusiasm for Biden. They clearly hate Trump. But if that takes us back to the “lessor of two evils” choice that many of us had in 2016, does that bode well for Democrats in November?

Michael Moore, the filmmaker and liberal advocate, views this as a problem. And I agree.

Here’s an article from the Daily Mail:

Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has warned Democrats that they seem to be engaging in the same election-losing mistakes they did in 2016, after new polls show President Trump‘s popularity among swing state voters is on the rise. 

Back in 2016, Moore was one of a handful of political activists who had predicted that Trump would defeat Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton at the polls. 

And in a Facebook post Friday, Moore said it is starting to look like Trump could pull off another win, as he urged people to register to vote.

He then asked: ‘Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC to pull this off?’

Moore noted that the confidence was misplaced, as it seemed like the Democrats are heading down the path of making the same mistakes they made during Clinton’s campaign.

Oh, my.

If we want Trump out of the White House in January, then maybe we should approach this election as though Biden was the underdog and go about our business of registering and then voting as though he was way behind in the polls. Just because the folks on MSNBC are lined up solidly in support of Biden doesn’t change the reality that Trump supporters are fired up and ready to do whatever it takes to reelect the Doofus-in-Chief.

Are the Dems equally as enthusiastic? I don’t think so.

I’ll admit that I’m not all that enthusiastic about Joe Biden. I’ll vote for him but I still believe Bernie was the better choice — and I don’t care how hard or long Trump shouted “socialist.”

Bernie’s supporters were enthusiastic — and if they sit this election out we are going to see four more years of Trump.

And that is a prospect that is more painful than any kidney stone.

Well, here we go again. Another POTUS inspired crisis, this time involving the Post Office and the upcoming elections in November.

I’ve reached the point where watching the news pretty much requires you to wear for your own health and safety a blood pressure cuff. Good grief. I digress.

Anyway, with Trump’s election prospects folding faster than a tent in a hurricane, the Doofus-in-Chief and his Republican lackeys have come up with a new strategy. Apparently they want to suppress voter participation by denying emergency funding to the Post Office.

Anything that makes it harder for people to vote during a pandemic must be good national policy. Right?

Well folks, you can’t make this shit up.

Here’s from The Washington Post:

President Trump on Thursday said he opposes both election aid for states and an emergency bailout for the U.S. Postal Service because he wants to restrict how many Americans can vote by mail, putting at risk the nation’s ability to administer the Nov. 3 elections.
Trump has been attacking mail balloting and the integrity of the vote for months, but his latest broadside makes explicit his intent to stand in the way of urgently needed money to help state and local officials administer elections during the coronavirus pandemic. With nearly 180 million Americans eligible to vote by mail, the president’s actions could usher in widespread delays, long lines and voter disenfranchisement this fall, voting rights advocates said.
Trump said his purpose is to prevent Democrats from expanding mail-balloting, which he has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, would invite widespread fraud. The president has also previously admitted that he believes mail voting would allow more Democrats to cast ballots and hurt Republican candidates, including himself.

I guess at some level you have to give Trump credit. No matter how outrageous the lie, he is more than willing to make a total ass out of himself by promoting it extensively in public. Most people, like me, only get to spread such nonsense in the privacy of one’s home — or from the safe confines of a padded cell.

Anyway, in Colorado we vote via mail in every election, federal, state and local. And as best I can tell it works well. You get the ballot in the mail and then mark it up before returning it by mail, depositing it in a safe box, or going to vote in person if you have nothing better to do and are trying to commit suicide by virus.

Oh, by the way, Bernie agrees with me:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday lashed out at President Trump on postal service funding, hours after the president signaled that he was opposed to giving additional funds to the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service (USPS) because he thinks it will allow Democrats to expand mail-in voting for November’s elections.

“What this is about is not complicated,” Sanders said to CNN’s Anderson Cooper while discussing Trump’s rhetoric on mail-in voting. “Trump may be crazy, but he’s not stupid. And he looks at polling. He is behind. And I think what he and his friends believe [is] that if they can suppress the vote — make it harder for people to vote — they have a better chance to win the election.”

I understand that the Post Office has huge financial problems, most of which are caused by health care and pension benefits owed to thousands of retirees in addition to current employees.

And in an era of email, FedEx and Amazon, the Post Office may no longer have a sustainable business model. But it seems to this citizen journalist that the Post Office provides a valuable and maybe irreplaceable service to millions who rely on it for the delivery of prescriptions, checks and so on.

And come November, the future of our country may hinge on the Post Office.

Okay. I have to go now.

I asked Kamala Harris to send me a copy of her birth certificate. Maybe it’s in today’s mail.