Trump – Writing Above The Clouds

Return Of The Mask

Okay, I’ll admit it. I’ve been pretty much mute on this site for the past few months. Without Trump and his cadre of dimwits mucking up just about everything foreign and domestic it’s hard to get all that worked up about the by comparison minor problems we all face.

Gee. And I’m not convinced that Uncle Joe is playing with a full deck, but after more than a year worrying that you might catch a deadly virus just by leaving the house in a futile search for toilet paper, it’s kinda nice to be able to return to public venues such as supermarkets without having to wear a mask. I imagine that for many shoppers this brings the same level of joy and excitement that one would experience visiting a nude beach. I digress.

But whoa Nellie. It might not be totally safe to dip your toes in the water just yet.

Here’s from a story published by CNBC:

The World Health Organization on Friday urged fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks, social distance and practice other Covid-19 pandemic safety measures as the highly contagious delta variant spreads rapidly across the globe.

“People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves,” Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, said during a news briefing from the agency’s Geneva headquarters.

“Vaccine alone won’t stop community transmission,” Simao added. “People need to continue to use masks consistently, be in ventilated spaces, hand hygiene … the physical distance, avoid crowding. This still continues to be extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated when you have a community transmission ongoing.”

The health organization’s comments come as some countries, including the United States, have largely done away with masks and pandemic-related restrictions as the Covid vaccines have helped drive down the number of new infections and deaths.

Say what?

So in literary terms we can paraphrase the Bard: To mask or not to mask? That is the question.

During my working life I spent around 40 years in various communications related jobs. And I can say without fear of contradiction that the messaging throughout this pandemic has been a fiasco.

Here’s the advice from the CDC: Everyone should wear a mask and social distance. Well, maybe that’s not really necessary. But if you are inclined to wear a mask, maybe one isn’t enough. Why not try two or more. And so on.

And getting vaccinated is really the only way to protect yourself and others. But if you don’t want to get vaccinated (hat tip here to the former POTUS) maybe a shot of Clorox is all you need.

So it goes.

In any event, at a time when most people in the USA would rather die than continue to wear a face mask, WHO officials are encouraging people to cover up. Good luck with that. Many people, for whatever irrational reason, have decided they aren’t going to get the vaccine. And even getting a shot at a million bucks via a state lottery ain’t going to change that.

And it would be nice if someone in charge actually provided some guidance that met the test of time.

Oh, well.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any answers. So I guess like most people I’ll continue to rely on the Internet for medical advice.

Let’s hope for the best.

Profiles In Cowardice

John F. Kennedy, before he became President, wrote a widely acclaimed book, Profiles in Courage. In the book, Kennedy profiled eight U.S. senators, describing acts of bravery and integrity.

I watched last week as the Senate moved ahead with the second impeachment trial of former POTUS Trump. And as far as the Republicans in the Senate are concerned, if Kennedy tried to write a similar book today he would be hard pressed to fill an abbreviated Cliffs Notes.

Clearly, there wasn’t much bravery or integrity on display in the Senate chamber last week as 43 Republicans voted to acquit — and then many, including Moscow Mitch, took to the airwaves or social media to proclaim that yes Trump was responsible and should be held accountable.

Ah, can’t have it both ways, dudes. I digress.

Anyway, it appears that Trump’s defense and the Republican position came down to pretty much this:

Okay. Maybe a more detailed explanation is in order.

So it goes.

Like I said, the update to Kennedy’s book will be titled, Profiles in Cowardice.

And for the leaders of the Republican Party, I guess in this case their strategy did pay off, as predicted by another author, George Orwell, in his book, 1984.

Democracy Under Siege

Okay. I wasn’t sure I was going to opine on what happened in DC earlier this week, since I don’t really have any new insights. But hey. How often does a retired senior citizen with access to a computer and the internet have the opportunity to sit on his couch and watch a gaggle of domestic terrorists attempt to overthrown the government of the USA?

Fortunately, not often. In fact, the last time the Capitol was breeched by a group of armed thugs was during the War of 1812. And the British didn’t even have Twitter or Facebook to mobilize the dim-witted masses.

This assault on our democracy — and our elected leaders — is clearly nothing to laugh about.

I digress.

I don’t think it is too much of a stretch to believe that Trump helped incite this riot via his tweets and other comments that launched a host of conspiracy theories and gave rise to the notion that the election was stolen, even though no credible evidence of voter fraud has surfaced.

Still, Trump supporters — who now constitute the white nationalist wing of what used to be the Republican Party — believe it is better to trash the Constitution rather than abide by it.

Fortunately, those who stormed the Capitol on Wednesday are not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

And then there is this guy who must have either taken a vacation day or called in sick to join the mob.

Oh well. I heard this morning on MSNBC that his employer terminated this douchebag. And that’s probably a good thing. I expect that he will soon be joining many of his comrades in prison — and I assume that would create a conflict for showing up to work every day.

I also worry about whether Wednesday’s assault on our country was the end of a tragic episode (read that to mean Trump’s presidency) or the beginning of a new chapter in our nation’s history marked by violence and God forbid, political assassinations. If what we witnessed at the Capitol was a preview of how we are going to live as a Banana Republic, then I would prefer not to see the main feature.

So, I guess we need to do at a minimum a couple of things:

One, Congress has to investigate how an armed mob was able to take control of what should be one of the most secure facilities in this country. And we have to make sure that nothing like this can ever happen again. Without putting too fine a point on this, what we witnessed was a catastrophic failure of the police and armed forces.

Two, social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook have to be held accountable for making it easy to spread lies and disinformation. They aren’t just innocent bystanders to this type of train wreck.

Three, we need strong national political parties that represent the views of all Americans. It is time to move on from the Republicans if they have morphed into the American Nazi Party.

Four, Trump needs to go, sooner rather than later. And if that means impeachment or invoking the 25th Amendment, then so be it.

Trump and his enablers provoked this assault on our democracy.

It’s time to close the book on this ugly chapter in American history.

And move on.

Signs Of The Times

Okay. I’ll admit it. I’m more than a little concerned about our country these days. It appears that the USA is circling the toilet bowel, waiting for Trump or one of his lackeys to pull the handle.

Need evidence of this?

Well, Congress continues to dither over a financial relief package, despite the death and suffering that the virus has caused for millions of Americans.

The Russians apparently have the ability to wage a massive cyber attack on the USA, putting at risk everything from our electrical power grids to the nation’s nuclear codes. And the response of POTUS is to suggest that maybe it is China, not Russia, causing the threat. I’m beginning to believe that Putin is one of the few people in the world who will be sorry to see Trump leave office. Oh well.

And then there is the virus — and the administration’s pathetic and lackluster response.

Folks, we now have more than 300,000 dead in this country, with the number growing by the minute.

And I wonder where we would be today if Trump and company hadn’t lied to the American public about the severity of the pandemic — and if our so-called leaders didn’t promote the notion that it was patriotic to ignore the advice of the health experts to stay home, social distance and wear a damn mask.

I really have a hard time seeing how wearing a mask to protect yourself and others is somehow a threat to our personal and constitutional liberties. But what do I know?

Anyway, I see signs of this stupidity every week when I shop at the Safeway in my little mountain town.

Safeway, like most other grocery stores and retail outlets, has a large sign posted at the front entrance saying that masks are required. Yet inside on any given day you see plenty of shoppers proudly loading their carts with their faces as bare as the bottom of a newborn baby

And Safeway management took a stab at getting people to social distance by trying to get people to go in one direction in each of the aisles. This actually doesn’t seem like such a hard concept. Think driving on a one way street. People are smart enough to figure that out all the time.

And at Safeway, you even have visual cues to help the dim witted:

I take that sign — plainly marked — to mean don’t go that fucking way.

And I assume that when you see this one it means go straight ahead.

Pretty simple. Right?

Well, actually, no.

On any given day, if you could get a dollar for every person going in the wrong direction in these plainly marked aisles you would have enough to get your groceries for free.

I’m not sure if people ignore the directions because they are self-indulgent to a fault. Or if they are just plain stupid. I stood there Saturday and watched one asshole proudly go in the wrong direction in every aisle. Wonder who he voted for? I digress.

But I know two things:

One, people who won’t wear a mask or social distance aren’t patriots protecting civil rights. They are asshats who are more than willing to endanger the health of everyone they come into contact with.

And two, if as a society we are unwilling to follow simple rules for the benefit of everyone, then we only have ourselves to blame when somebody pulls that toilet handle.

So it goes.

Calling All Suckers

The great American showman P. T. Barnum reportedly once said: “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

Gee, if Barnum was alive today, with that perspective he would surely be among the regular gasbags on MSNBC and other so-called cable news channels. I digress.

Anyway, I was thinking about this as I scrolled through my emails this morning. I gave a modest amount of money to Bernie Sanders during his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. As a result, I now receive emails regularly from the Democratic National Committee and from every Democratic candidate running for positions ranging from President of the USA to dog catcher in Pittsburgh. (Full disclosure: I made up that bit about the dog catcher in Pittsburgh.)

Fortunately, I never gave any money to Republicans or to Trump. Otherwise, I imagine I would be getting bombarded these days by emails asking me to contribute to the lame duck President’s flagging attempt to mount a legal challenge to overturn the election.

Here’s from Yahoo News:

Despite losing the general election, President Donald Trump’s campaign is seeking donations from voters.

The Make America Great Again Committee donation page says that 75% of every contribution is routed to Trump’s newly established leadership PAC, Save America.

These funds could be used to finance the president’s life after he leaves office or even go toward a 2024 presidential bid.

“This money could easily — and legally — end up in his own pocket in the coming years,” the vice president of policy and litigation at Common Cause told CNN.

Wow. So donors could be contributing to a fund that could be used to “finance the president’s life after he leaves office or even go toward a 2024 presidential bid.”

Well no thanks.

If Trump is truly a billionaire (which is doubtful given all his other lies) then it seems reasonable to me that he should dip into his own pockets to pay for anything and everything he wants.

But, hey, I’m not a Trump supporter. So what do I know?

Trump: You’re Fired

Well, I’ve been mute on these pages since the election in early November. And I don’t really have a good excuse other than the events we are watching play out in this country seem to be pulled more from the pages of a fiction novel than from reality.

Even though I won’t get universal agreement on this, it’s a safe bet to say that Joe Biden will be our next President, whether the current Doofus-in-Chief ever concedes or not.

Trump and millions of his supporters continue to press the case that the election was rigged, with the current occupant of the White House getting the short end of the stick. Unfortunately for this gaggle of armchair legal and constitutional experts, Trump’s crack legal team has not produced any evidence that supports their claim of fraud.

And let’s be honest. Trump’s legal team is an embarrassment. Even Trump apparently agrees with this assessment. Here’s from a report via CNBC:

President Donald Trump is worried his campaign’s legal team, led by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, is composed of “fools that are making him look bad,” NBC News reported.
Giuliani and other campaign lawyers have so far failed to invalidate votes and reverse an apparent victory for President-elect Joe Biden.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Sunday called Trump’s legal team a “national embarrassment.

Admittedly, it’s not hard to make Trump look bad. But his legal gurus are doing everything they can to cement his legacy as the worst President in recent memory, if not in history.

Anyway, elections, as Obama told McCain as they battled over health care, have consequences. And the consequences of Trump’s refusal to concede and help the transition are very real. For instance: (1) the USA used to be viewed as the world’s greatest democracy; now our position in the world pecking order can’t be much above a Banana Republic; (2) the Biden and Harris team should be getting daily national security briefings; just because Trump apparently can’t read or understand them doesn’t mean that they aren’t important; and (3) there needs to be coordination between the two administrations that allows us to take immediate steps to get this pandemic under control.

Okay. I know that Trump and his Republican lackeys have poisoned the well of public opinion on this. Their supporters believe this pandemic is a hoax, despite more than a quarter million deaths and counting in the USA. And they have encouraged millions to view wearing a face covering and taking steps to social distance as being an attack on their personal liberties.

Like I said previously, this all reads like something from a bad fiction novel. And it’s hard to turn the page when crackpots like Rudy Giuliani continue to dominate the airwaves, spouting unfounded legal conspiracies and dripping with hair dye.

It appears that Rudy would have been better off staying in the hotel room with Borat’s daughter. I digress.

In any event, it looks like we are starting to inch our way to some resolution of these national issues.

The General Services Administration is allowing the apparent winner of the election (that’s Joe Biden, in case you are still confused by all this) to get the resources he needs to begin the necessary transition.

And Rudy’s position in history has been pretty much assured.

In less than 20 years, he has gone from being America’s Mayor to being America’s Biggest Douchebag.

As Trump would say: Sad.

Trump Presidency Derailed

Well, the Trump Presidency jumped off the rails this morning with Biden gaining enough Electoral College votes to capture the White House. Good. This country clearly needs a competent President, not a reality TV personality.

And I’ll admit that Joe Biden wasn’t my first choice among the gaggle of Democrats who sought the nomination. But Biden appears to be a decent person who will restore some honor to the most important position in the free world.

Here’s an email I received from the President-elect this morning:

I am honored and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris.
In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America.
With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.
It’s time for America to unite. And to heal.
We are the United States of America. And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.

So now I guess we will sit back and ponder the flurry of legal challenges that Trump and his Republican enablers will most likely initiate. Of course, like Rudy Giuliani I’m no legal expert. But based on what I have heard and read, there doesn’t appear to be anything that is going to overturn the results of the election.

That means that come January the USA will have the opportunity to return to some degree of normalcy.

And Trump, well…

The Soul Of America

Joe Biden said this election was about the soul of America. If that were true, then it appears this morning (November 4) that America is struggling to find its soul.

I’ll admit that I was pretty confident that Biden would win, perhaps in a landslide. After all, I can read the polls just like any of the talking heads on MSNBC and elsewhere.

So this morning, the best we can hope for is that Biden will score a razor thin victory IF all of the mail in votes are allowed to be counted in several of the so-called battleground states. And IF that happens, we can be thankful that millions of Americans took the advice to vote early and vote by mail.

Still, if this was a referendum on Trump, then it will be hard for the Dems to claim any kind of substantial victory. The Senate, most likely, will remain in the hands of the Republicans, making Moscow Mitch once again one of the most dangerous men in the country.

And the GOP is clearly still in bed with Trump.

I don’t know. I just don’t get it.

But regardless of the final result of the election, I do know this:

A Dark Winter Ahead

I have to give Joe Biden credit for the headline on the post: A Dark Winter Ahead. That’s what he said during last week’s Presidential debate, when he was throwing shade on Trump’s rosy (and wrong) evaluation that the USA was rounding the corner and the pandemic would soon be just a bad memory.

Unfortunately, facts tend to overshadow the predictions that we hear from Dofus-in-Chief and his merry band of compliant bootlickers.

Oh, boy.

It appears that the USA is now in the midst of a second or third wave of the virus with no end in sight. More than eight million Americans have contracted the virus, and it has killed more than 230,000 (along with Trump’s presidency, most likely). And amazingly enough, we’re recording more than 80,000 new cases a day now as we are heading into the holidays. Good luck to Grandma as she tries to fix Thanksgiving dinner following a stay in the intensive care unit. I digress.

Anyway, I admit that I never thought I would still be writing about this national fiasco as we approach winter with snow on the ground here in Colorado.

And part of the problem is that Trump has provided no leadership or responsible decision-making in response to this national crisis. In fact, he has done the opposite and taken measures that have further divided the country while going against the advice of health care professionals.

In Trump World, you are a patriot if you refuse to wear a face mask, even though health experts believe that this simple act might be more effective in defeating the virus than a vaccine.

So it goes.

Since Trump’s response has been so anemic and pathetic, clearly someone has to take the blame. And guess what. That person now appears to be the good doctor Fauci.

Here’s what Trump said last week at a campaign rally (super spreader event?) in Arizona, according to the Chicago Tribune:

“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” Trump said of the government’s top infectious disease expert. “Every time he goes on television, there’s always a bomb. But there’s a bigger bomb if you fire him. But Fauci’s a disaster.”

Well, gee. What should we make of that critique from POTUS?

It’s going to be a long, dark winter.

It Is What It Is

Well, it looks like POTUS was right about the pandemic when he said: “It is what it is.”

And the IS now is that Trump and Melania and some White House staffers have tested positive for the virus and have to self-isolate for 10 days or so. Good grief. I’m sure the last thing Melania wants to do is be in quarantine with the Doofus In Chief. Thoughts and prayers to her. I digress.

Ah, I don’t really take any joy or satisfaction in Trump testing positive. And I hope he, the First Lady and the thousands of others in this country who will test positive today and in the days ahead all have a full and speedy recover.

But let’s be honest about this. Does it really surprise anyone that POTUS has tested positive? If he would have followed the advice of the medical experts months ago maybe thousands of Americans would still be alive and the rest of us could get back to worrying about the Major League Baseball playoffs instead of having to read and listen to the barrage of news about the Prez.

Oh well.

I guess leadership and competence really do matter. I digress again.

Anyway, I echo the thoughts of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who opined this morning that some good can come of this if people — read that as Trump supporters — now take the virus seriously and do what the medical experts have been telling us to do: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, avoid crowds and stay home when possible.

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