Thursday, October 29, 2020

Something to hope for


   
     Make no mistake.
     Even if Joe Biden wins Tuesday, there will still by a global COVID pandemic. Americans will still be dying, hospitals overwhelmed. California will still be on fire. Hurricanes will still slam into the Gulf coast with extraordinary force in unprecedented regularity. China will still be testing its strength, nationalism will still be on the rise, here and everywhere else. Russia will still be steadily working to undermine our nation in devious, unseen ways. The economy will still be in tatters, with many millions unemployed. Old industries will continue to totter while new ones grown enormous and unchecked. Deep institutional racism will still have its tendrils in every aspect of our national life, so longstanding and familiar that too many can't even see it. Too few Americans will have proper health care, or education. Drugs will be plentiful and treatment scarce.
     And Donald Trump will still have 10 weeks to make everything worse, by neglect and design.
     But what will happen, if Joe Biden wins Nov. 3, is that the clock will start counting down the days until we once again have someone in the White House who actually cares enough to try to effectively address all our nation's problems. And that would be something to celebrate.

14 comments:

  1. Celebration will be short lived as the misguided "patriots" ignore the very foundation of the republic and begin an armed resistance to the will of the people. The underground grumblings of the followers of the wannabe emperor are everywhere. Armed militias who would ignore the will of the people in their zealotry for a return to what never existed and what goes against almost everything this country was meant to be.
    John Birchers to the extreme. Following a man who has no idea what his oath to protect, preserve and defend the constitution entails. If he even has an understanding of what that document contains - or cares to understand. I just hope their is a Brutus among his inner circle that holds that document more sacred than his allegiance to our American Cesar.

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    1. I had thought the John Birch Society, founded in 1958, was a thing of the past, but Wikipedia advises it is alive and well, currently headquartered in a suburb of Appleton, Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy's old stamping ground. Bob Dylan wrote a song lampooning it, and I believe it was Mike Nichols who proposed the formation of an organization dedicated to the preservation of wooded toilet seats, to be call The Birch John Society.

      Tom

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    2. Harry Houdini, as well as Joe McCarthy, was from Appleton.

      There's a joke they tell, or used to, up there: "Two famous men came from Appleton. One was a master of illusion, an expert with smoke and mirrors, who could make his fans believe anything and was always getting himself out of tight places that he had put himself into in the first place. The other was Harry Houdini."

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  2. I don't think they make a rat trap big enough for that fat orange moron!

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    1. The closing of the restaurants and bars meant less food in the dumpsters for the rodent population. So they began invading residences. Hence the increased demand for traps. We had more of them in our house last spring than ever before. Luckily for us, our black kitty is a very proficient mouser.

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  3. I just hope that the American people, including Republicans and disaffected Trumpists, will be so overjoyed with having gotten rid of the Great Bullshitter that they will give President Biden enough leeway to enact the bold measures that need to be taken to reverse the effects of Covid 19, Trump 16, and the concomitant economic downturn we are suffering from right now.

    john

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  4. At least we will have gone from reality TV to a bit more of a humble reality.

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  5. I'm still extremely nervous. Orange Julius could still pull off another upset. It ain't over until it's over...and that may take days. Or even weeks. Bush 43 didn't actually "win" until Dec. 13, 2000.

    Meanwhile, those on the extremes get ready to rumble. If Biden wins, the Right goes back to being the Resistance. He loses, and the Left remains the Resistance. That's a good part of what this election determines--which side has the President backing them up, and which side is the Underground. The Great Divide will most definitely not go away. It may only get wider, and worse.

    It didn't start with the Orange Man. He's merely a symptom of the American Plague that began with Vietnam, and which may yet bring about an American Northern Ireland. Or, if the stars are really against us, a Second Civil War. Now we get to decide which folks become the Johnny Rebs. Or Johnny Yuma.

    If Trump wins, we still have to think beyond the additional years of hell. His successor, if Sniffy survives that long, most likely won't be Mikey, or anybody else like Mikey. No, what is most worrisome is the distinct possibility that the GOP nominates a hip, slick, articulate, smiling, much-younger, far less abrasive Trump clone in 2024. Somebody with the polital savvy and the balls of an LBJ, the charisma of a Kennedy, and the chutzpah of a Nixon. The player-to-be-named-later who just might become Our Hitler.

    Biden, if he wins, could easily wind up being Our Hindenburg until then.

    (No, not the gasbag that went ka-blooey. That was named for him. Look him up)

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  6. Neil,

    Great to meet you and The Kid today at the Super Site. I have personally witnessed hundreds and hundreds of fellow Chicagoans coming out in the wind, rain, and snow to cast their ballots early. With the exception of one MAGA hat, I believe we are on the right path.

    Your writing is a beacon of sanity in this crazy world and I will celebrate that.

    Cheers,

    Lori

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    1. Thanks Lori. It was so fun to run into you (and get a delicious mini Manny's sandwich in the bargain). Thanks for putting in a plug for the old man to The Kid. Much, much appreciated.

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  7. Trump will take the concept of a sore loser to a new low.
    I just wonder if he'll still conduct rallies if and when he loses.
    My guess is yes.
    Can anyone see him drifting away into the sunset?

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    1. "Could you imagine if I lose?" Trump said on Friday. "I'm not going to feel so good. Maybe I'll have to leave the country, I don't know." One can only hope.

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  8. A Biden win is but a stopgap. The RadioRight will still be indoctrinating the minds of the weak. The Gerrymandered Red states will be unchanged, Dark Money will still flow and the portion of the Trump cadre who deserted Him, will return to the fold, ready to vote for a more polished fascist. The vision of America as a force for Good remains in question.

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