Friday, June 2, 2023

Sleepy Joe flashes his steel


     My wife pays the bills. A few paid by check, an antique practice akin to churning butter. Most paid electronically, online. And a few, key expenses deducted automatically from our checking account. Which means ... well, I really have no idea what the actual process entails. A bundle of electrons sent by the Firm Handshake Mortgage Company meet once a month in some dim silicon chip alley with another clump of electrons sent by our bank account. A microsecond exchange occurs, some digital version of flashing gang signs, and we’re good for another month. I’ve honestly never thought about it before.
     My contribution is some of the money. Being otherwise excused from this process has been one of the great boons of my life, like being the son of an atomic scientist or owning a dog.
     But let’s pretend I did have a role in the physical bill-paying process. Let’s say that, due to some banking regulation, I was required to ring a big gong to make the payment of bills binding and official. A round circle of bronze the size of a garbage can lid, hanging from black silk cords on our porch. For some obscure reason, I had to be the one to hit the gong — a long, quavering boooonnnng — to seal the transaction.
     Now let’s say that I decide I won’t do it. Not until some long-running household dispute is settled in my favor. Not until we buy all new dish towels. My wife, a frugal gal raised in Bellwood, uses a motley of worn dish towels of all colors, shapes and sizes, some decades old, in shades of horrendous brown. I, grandiose, would like to simply throw the old, disreputable dish towels away, and replace them with a new stack of white French dish towels from Williams-Sonoma.
     So I refuse to ring the gong. Not until the dish towel situation is addressed. Meaning the bills won’t be paid, threatening to cause the bad things that happen when you don’t pay your bills — demands from aggressive collection agencies, bad credit ratings, salary being dunned, and so on. That would hurt me, too, since I live in the same household. But I don’t care. I want new dish towels. So I blackmail my wife.

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10 comments:

  1. Well, the wing nuts are now slobbering over the fact Joe tripped & fell yesterday. As if none of them has ever tripped & fallen in their lives! I really wished he had totally called their bluff & gone full on 14th Amendment with the debt ceiling!

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    1. They don't mention that the Boss fell during a concert and he's only 73.

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  2. Exactly-well said-Biden is effective and this age thing is getting boring. The alternative-another Republican in power-is scary. The authoritarianism is that party is horrifying.

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    1. Another Republican in power shouldn’t be the only alternative. Why aren’t there other Democrats jockeying for the nomination? Downplay Biden’s age as much as you like, but the fact of the matter is that he IS old, and he’ll be even older in November of ‘24. Even if he gets re-elected, then what? At some point the Democrats have to find someone else who is both electable and can lead.

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  3. Being Republican today requires a self inflicted lobotomy. It was wonderful to watch Biden, who they've convinced themselves is barely sentient, hand their asses to them.

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  4. As someone a few months older than President Biden, I heartily resent and deplore the Republican attempts to cast doubt on his competency. And their efforts have a detectable tinge of treason -- after all, they're questioning the ability of the Commander in Chief of all the military forces of the United States of America. A clear invitation for hostile powers to act now militarily or economically while we are supposedly at our weakest. For sure, Trump's role model, Vladimir Putin, would "lock'm up" were they Russian politicians pointing out deficiencies in the military and political establishments under his control. Critics are railing against the supposed lack of debates to test Biden's skill against primary opponents. If I were he, I would let Democratic candidates promote their own agendas as they will and stay silent in the primary campaign and especially refuse to debate in the main event: the more Trump and DeSantis talk the less worthy of election they appear. Biden's policies are already of record -- there is nothing he can gain by jousting with the nonsense sure to emanate from the Republican candidate. Actually, the candidate, whoever he or she should turn out to be, would probably benefit from staying silent as well.

    john

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    1. I hope Joe doesn't lose his edge. I hope he stays feisty and snarky and hands the Rethug asshats their...um...assets. Whatever it takes. I'm glad I stuck around long enough to see him become POTUS...too many people I know didn't. He's already on my fave list. The rest? Abe Lincoln, TR, FDR, Harry Truman, Ford, and Obama.

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  5. Lock them up? If it were Putin's world, they would be having unfortunate accidents. Desantis scares me, he has helped wreck public education in Florida and it wasn't all that great before he got into office. His guns for everyone policies, for that is what it really is, like elsewhere in the country, is another of the many reasons I fear from the likes of him.

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