It's Time For A Laugh

 

Right! After having survived everything that 2020 has thrown at us, including that ridiculous Debate last night, isn't it a good idea to seek and enjoy a good laugh?

The following may or may not generate a good laugh; humor is famously fickle in the mind of the beho-ho-holder. But give it all a chance and there just might be something here that makes life worth living again...

We begin with something I saw this morning. While it may not be laugh-inducing, it really is a fantastic picker-upper:

The Best Thing You'll See All Day

That was entirely too heart-warming. Let's move on to the more cynical, satirical realm of The Onion. In the spirit of surviving this awful year, here is their breaking news report on America taking a five minute break, headlined "Nation To Take Five":

https://www.theonion.com/nation-to-take-five-1845208368

"At press time, the nation announced its plan to delay a couple more minutes until everyone was back."    

Brevity is the soul of wit.

For another taste of Onion humor, here is their interview with a grumpy ceiling smoke detector:

"Smoke Alarm Sick Of Being Yelled At For Doing Its Job"

And then there is this hard-news article that examines how Mail Boxes are being sold online to Trump supporters. Oh, it's not real. It's just The Onion. Or is it?

Trump Online Store Begins Selling Decommissioned USPS Mailboxes So Fans Can Own A Piece Of History

A long-time Daily Kibitz favorite is this website:

There are hundreds of one-minute great groaners here. Check out this one as an example: 

Old Jews Telling Jokes: "A Good Time"

Here's another website that has aggregated thousands of jokes and categorized them for your convenience. They are mostly awful, but once in a while one clicks:

The Laughline

Okay, enough already on the creaky joke format. Here are some really silly examples of modern cartoon humor, compliments of The Nib:

Yes, it's been a tough year. And now that some book stores have re-opened, they are rolling with the punches:

Not the Green Party, not the Libertarian Party, not even the Democratic Socialists of America. It's the Dread Pirate Robert Party:

Here's a fun twitter account that is composed of ridiculous, specious and stupid assertions people make about what is legal and what is not:

Bad Legal Takes

"My Cousin Vinny" is filled with lots of Bad Legal Takes...

The other day I came upon the Clickhole website. I believe it's an off-shoot of The Onion, although I'm unsure. Regardless, there is plenty of funny. Here is a video that is quite stupid, but it got me laughing out loud:

"The First Time I Drank Gatorade"

Another long-time favorite here at The Daily Kibitz is the website "Pictures Of Walls". It features hundreds of photos of, well, mostly outdoor walls that are decorated with mostly hilarious graffiti. Try it:

Pictures Of Walls

Finally, we leave you with a nod back to the classics. When I was a wee lad, I recall watching this movie on the ol' black and white TV. It was so odd and surreal, yet my nine-year-old mind accepted it and found the great humor in it all. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Laurel and Hardy attempting to move a piano across a spindly rope bridge over a deep mountain chasm and encountering... a gorilla.

They don't make 'em like that anymore. Anyway, hope you found a laugh or two with this post!!

When A Minority Rules

The death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg is an historic moment during an historic time. It's remarkable how one person's life can be so consequential for the well-being of Americans. Remarkable, too, how her death reveals the institutional rot within our rapidly diminishing Constitutional Democracy.

What we now live with is a Federal Government that is a blend of Kakistocracy, Autocracy, Kleptocracy, emerging Theocracy and just Bad Kabuki Theatre. And it's RBG, in life, in death, who shines the spotlight on it all.

Her Supreme Court seat vacancy demonstrates the high-level hypocrisy and amoral ruthlessness of the GOP. As we all know, when Antonin Scalia went away, President Obama nominated Merrick Garland. This jurist languished without any Senate hearings, no nothing, for 293 days until his nomination expired. 

Senate Majority Leader McConnell put the kibosh on it, declaring that the March vacancy was too close to the November election. The American people - not the Senate - needed to make the decision, he said. RBG's seat vacancy came at 45 days before the election. But McConnell now will fast-track the President's nominee for a pre-election confirmation vote. Nothing says Autocracy like a disregard for your own precedents and rules, as long as you keep your power intact. Whatever it takes...

Also: our election is already underway. Early voting is happening in 10 states, with a dozen more set to start within a couple of weeks. McConnell's new argument that the seat must be confirmed before the election is clearly fallacious. But no matter, it's the way it is when a minority party has tyrannical control over the majority.

Yep, that's our Supreme Court at night following RBG's death. Mrs. Daily Kibitz and I went to pay our respects. Several thousand like-minded and masked folk were already there, singing and praying for a turn away from the madness in our country. Getting there, we needed to walk past the Senate, and that's where the Minority Rules rot really resides.

The Senate is a curiously undemocratic piece of government. Each state gets two senators, regardless of its population. The purpose, I think, is to protect smaller, less populous states from being swamped by larger, more populated ones. But the result is a Wyoming (population 550,000) having the same Senate representation as a California (population 39,700,000). More to the point, the Red States of Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Alaska, Utah, West Virginia, Iowa, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky and Arkansas have a combined population of 37,377,282, slightly below California's amount. Those 16 Red States total 32 GOP Senators, versus California's 2 Democratic Senators.

"Hold up, Daily Kibitz! What about Texas versus small Blue States?" It's a fair point that's worth an overall look. According to elections guru Dave Wasserman, the majority of Senate seats represents 18% of the entire U.S. population. The 26 smallest states, Red & Blue, elect the majority of Senators and have 18% of our population. Check out his tweet thread from August 20, 2018 why he sees this boding poorly for Democrats as "we could be headed for a Senate that's largely accountable to a white, rural, pro-Trump minority of the country. At some point, the coastal/urban majority could run out of patience - threatening democratic stability."  He was right:

https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/1031639944551378944

Another demographics guru, Nate Silver, provides a fantastic analysis of how the Senate skews to rural, white Americans. He pegs the GOP Senate advantage at 6 - 7% above and beyond what the GOP enjoys throughout the country as a whole because of how the Senate is constructed. He sees the current 47-53 Senate split for Dems/GOP as representing 167 million vs. 160 million citizens. Disadvantage: Democrats.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-senates-rural-skew-makes-it-very-hard-for-democrats-to-win-the-supreme-court/

Further evidence of Minority Rule comes from Govtrackinsider. "In 2017, for the first time, the Senate's decisions were often made by a coalition of states representing less than half of the U.S. population." It's a fascinating look at how the sausage is made. Their post-2018 midterms take was that the House would prevent a total Minority Rule takeover of legislation, but the Senate would ram through judicial and agency nominations all the live-long day. This is exactly what has happened:

https://govtrackinsider.com/the-senate-has-never-been-as-un-democratic-as-it-was-in-2017-2018-and-minority-rule-could-801e1046af28

"Over the last month nearly every Senate roll-call vote has related to a judicial appointment - not one addressed mounting hunger, school closures, financial desperation or American deaths," writes stellar scribe Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post. Election security funds? COVID relief measures for small businesses and individuals? Anything to strengthen Voting Rights and reduce voter suppression? Ha haha ha ha ha. Never before has there been such an assembly-line of young, ideological zealots moving through to receive lifetime judicial appointments. Read it and weep:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-traded-democracy-for-a-supreme-court-seat-and-tax-cuts-it-wasnt-worth-it/2020/09/21/d0c364c4-fc22-11ea-b555-4d71a9254f4b_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social#comments-wrapper

The structural flaw of the Senate is not limited to that institution. The Electoral College totals are constructed from each state's two senators and however many members of Congress each has. For example, Wyoming has 3 electoral votes. California has 53 electoral votes. This works out to Wyoming getting one electoral vote per 195,000 residents, and California getting one vote per 723,000 residents. It's not designed to be fair.

The Electoral College's rural skew keeps the GOP in control. George Bush lost the popular vote by a half million. Trump lost it, too, by nearly 3 million votes. He'll lose it again this time, probably by more. But he may still win, because of the EC. Here are the calculated odds according to our friend, Nate Silver:

Chances of a Biden win in Electoral College if he wins the popular vote by X points

Yeeeessshh, that is a really bad look for a supposed democracy.

So a minority-controlled Senate works with a minority-elected President to appoint minority-party lifetime Federal judges, including Supreme Court justices, creating a minority-controlled Judiciary branch of the government. This minority-ruled government, along with Bill Barr's use of the Department of Justice as a tool for his ongoing religious crusade, makes for a disturbing night's sleep.

"Oh, Daily Kibitz, come off it. How bad can it really get, honestly?" OK, you want to know? Pretty F-ing bad. Like End of America bad. I happened to come across this thread from a tweeter I occasionally read, and it is SPOT ON. Her scenario is completely believable, knowing what we know about the President, the Senate and the Supreme Court:

What will happen when Trump disputes the election

This is disturbing as AF, because it is entirely plausible. And it's all the tyrannical consequence of Minority Rule. If you think she's off, check out the Washington Post's top political reporter, Phillip Bump. He says the same, in slightly more comforting language:

The concern in November is that, should voters decide to send a further message to Trump about his and his party’s leadership, there may be other tools, including judicial ones, that he and his allies might use to hold that power. Trump himself has repeatedly suggested that mail-in ballots shouldn’t be counted, hyping phony claims that they will necessarily be riddled with fraud. But the rationale is clear: He’s trailing in the national popular vote and will do everything he can to hold his position.

Here's the whole great article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/21/supreme-court-fight-highlights-new-political-reality-america-under-minority-rule/#comments-wrapper

Finally, here's the chestnut I often use from George Bush staffer/speechwriter and smart conservative writer David Frum. It remains true yesterday, today and tomorrow:

“Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.” 

We're In The Soup!

 

"Americans should be free to believe anything they want as long as it neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."  Thomas Jefferson

This founding-father statement has long been regarded as a North Star sentiment for American conservatives and, well, anyone who regards the First Amendment as the key characteristic of our democracy. But like so many other norms and institutional beliefs, this maxim is taking a beating in 2020. Believing anything, as we've discovered, gave rise to Trumpism. And now we're all in danger of losing our dang democracy.

In the meantime, we can still mock President Porridgebrain and his followers. Consider his comments made regarding soup. First uttered in late July during the Portland, Oregon anti-racism demonstrations, they came back up for air a week or so ago. This is good, because they were buried beneath the usual Trumpian daily garbage heap of High Ridiculousness, and are now available again for our regard.

Yep, he really said that anarchists were placing bags of soup on the streets and sidewalks, so that other anarchists could come along, pick them up, and heave them at heavily-armored cops. It's beyond belief, if belief were still a thing that exists:

President Split Pea got a lot of flack for this whopper, so of course he doubled down and has made it a staple in his campaign rallies. In the meantime, much fun has been created:

Our favorite satirist of the age, Alexandra Petri, was not amused by any of it:

"This is not just soup. Soup is a very dangerous substance. For instance, some soup is very hot. Alphabet soup can spell ANTIFA." She is so good, you gotta read it all:

The Terrible Dangers Of Weaponized Soup

"Think of Cream of Mushroom. Cream of Mushroom held America in terror for the entire decade of the 1950s, forcing people to transform it into casseroles. Such was the whim of soup. Such was its awesome power. Chicken soup - it will heal you, but at what cost?"

It's hard to imagine how Trumpenstein could top all that, but he did! Following the Republican National Convention, he declared that a terrorist threat had been thwarted! In an interview with White Power Hour Fox Host Laura Ingraham, he insisted that there had been a plane full of "black-clad thugs" coming "from a certain city" to cause trouble and damage in DC during the convention. (His timeline of this fairy tale would have this plane arriving after the convention, but who cares about things like details and facts?)

When pressed, he doubled down, of course. He claimed that Joe Biden was behind it, but Biden was also  being controlled by people in "dark shadows" who ruled "the streets". 

"This was a first-hand account of a plane going from Washington to wherever," Trump said. He had suggested earlier that Washington was the destination, not the origin point. "The entire plane filled up with the looters, the anarchists, the rioters."

In fact, he was re-imagining a White Supremacist Facebook post from June that claimed Antifa protestors were flying from Seattle to destroy downtown Boise. Sadly, they never arrived. And yes, you must read the whole article, it is hilarious and it defies belief, if belief were such a thing anymore:

https://globalnews.ca/news/7309385/donald-trump-dark-shadows-planes-conspiracy-theory/

It could be he was thinking of this particular plane:

Moving along in our moments of Defied Belief, there is the phenomenon of the Trump Boat Parades. As the coronavirus prevented the usual Trump Rallies from happening, MAGA-friendly boaters took it upon themselves to festoon their tubs with Trump flags and set sail, flotilla-style. It worked in Florida (of course) and other states, but then last week in Lake Travis, Texas, disaster struck.

In what has since become known as "Dumbkirk", Trump Boaters sped out into the lake, but some of the larger craft kicked up some major wake waves, swamping and sinking five other boats and creating a real 911 marine emergency with scores of distress calls! What a metaphor...

For more, check out this report from the BBC:

DUMBKIRK

Daniel Dale is a Canadian. He used to work for a Toronto newspaper as a fact-checker. He works at CNN now, fact-checking Donald Trump. It very much is a full-time job, and he cannot be paid enough. Here is his recent moment of glory, sticking pins into The Orange One's statements at the RNC convention. I don't even think he stops for a breath here:

Three amazing minutes of non-stop fact-checking Trump's lies at RNC

As he said, "It's almost too stupid to fact-check..." It's almost beyond belief.

Speaking of stupid, there's the annual Sturgis, South Dakota motorcycle rally. This year, over 400,000 attended. You'll note from this picture that there aren't any stores selling masks around there. In fact, this picture is a perfect image of Stupid White People:

"Epidemiologists had been worried about the Sturgis rally, given the huge numbers of people involved and opposition to mask-wearing and social distancing among many attendees. At a concert in Sturgis widely criticized by public health experts, Smash Mouth singer Steve Harwell told the crowd: “Now we’re all here together tonight. And we’re being human once again. Fuck that COVID shit.”

Since the event, COVID cases in South Dakota and around the nation are on the rise (those 400,000 weren't locals). And as a followup, Trump supporter Governor Noem is using $5,000,000 that South Dakota received from the federal government for COVID-related relief funds... on producing tourism ads for the state. Can you believe that?!

The following weird moment happened during a recent Trump press appearance. No surprise there, but it was notable for Trump accusing Biden of using "Mafia Talking Points." Watch it. It's evident that he's reading these remarks for the very first time, written by someone else, and hasn't a clue what it means. He tries to wing it, but it still doesn't work:

Mafia Talking Points

He gamely goes on about how the Mafia works, but any planned connection to Biden is long gone. So dumb... who could possibly believe it?

Later, when asked by the New York Times about his plans for a second term agenda, he replied:

"But so I think, I think it would be, I think it would be very, very, I think we'd have a very, very solid, we would continue what we're doing, we'd solidify what we've done, and we have other things on our plate that we want to get done."

He did not clarify or expand... Considering everything that has been exposed over the last few days, it's understandable why he didn't elaborate. But it's clear that this lucid and powerful statement outlining his vision for America simply underscores his core beliefs.

We could go on and on about any number of recent stupid and numbing revelations, like Bill Barr enjoining the Department of Justice to defend Trump in a sexual assault case, or the Whistleblower at DHS indicating political resistance to exposing Russian election interference and the dangers of White Supremacists, or the Post Office outrage, or the sidelining of funds for Social Security and Medicare, or the politicization of Voice of America, or the continued distinct lack of information and transcripts on calls and conferences with Vladimir Putin and others, or illegally using the White House and Washington Monument as props during a political convention, or...

Oh yeah. The beat goes on. It's the same plan as before: "flood the zone with shit." It's the same playbook used by the Nazis and the Soviets and every Fascist and Autocrat who ever lived. Overwhelm people with a giant firehose of falsehoods, blasting out at all times. The result will be a population that is apathetic and cynical, not caring what is true or false. Existing belief systems break down. Instead, people will look to Dear Leader/The Party for constant direction. 

Finally, check out the quote below by the great Hannah Arendt. She literally wrote the book on how Authoritarianism works. It's pertinent because after everything that has happened since 2016 - hell, since January, since YESTERDAY - 40% of Americans are still supporting Trump and will do so, no matter what:

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”

― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

The Twelve Stations Of The Plotz!

This summer has been so crazed! It's a time that is setting us up to decide if we as a nation proceed as a damaged-but-restorable democratic republic, or continue our amazing degradation into a banana republic without appeal.

It's doubly-rough because we are experiencing the most vulnerable moment for our country since a) the Revolution, b) the Civil War, or c) The Great Depression/World War II.  And it's pretty dang easy to become nearly-drowned by the constant fire-hosing of propaganda that spews forth 24/7 from the GOP/Trump/State Media complex. It's all designed to create disillusionment and apathy, so remember to just keep swimming!

It seems like we receive a daily pile of poo off-loaded onto our collective front yard by the great karmic dump truck. If God is a Trickster, then 2020 is explainable. If we exist in an amoral state of random chaos, this year may be explainable, too. But as bad as it has been, and it will get worse, most of it falls under the category, "Wow, that is some kind of stupid!!"

Submitted for your approval, here are twelve recent items which create responses like the twelve expressions evinced above by journalist Jonathan Swan while he gamely interviewed President Whatsisname. Any one of these items are dopey, dumb, weird and yet are kinda remarkable! Add 'em up and you get life in 2020!

1) The Jonathan Swan Interview With Trump. Sure, you've heard about it, and maybe you read some of the juicy quotes. What's great is how Trump can't conduct himself with a journalist who doesn't give a damn about whether he'll get "access" to White House sources ever again. I swear I heard T say "Wha-wa-whoa-wa-wha!" a couple of times. For a hugely entertaining five minute read, here is the Wonkette's analysis of this terrific moment:  https://www.wonkette.com/trumps-axios-interview-was-pretty-f-ckin-deranged-yeah  And, as always, read through some of the comments at the end!!

2) Kanye West For President. Admit it, when you first heard this, you thought it was about the release of a new album. Then, you thought that his savvy wife and her family saw the grift being generated by Trump & Co. and decided to get a slice. Those may be true. But it's really about the GOP trying to peel away some young and Black votes from Democrats. Here is the article about the GOP operatives behind Kanye's ballot struggles: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/republican-operatives-tied-trump-camp-working-kanye-west/story?id=72200390  Kanye or Trump - Vote Mental Illness in 2020!

3) Trump Wants To Be On Mt. Rushmore. Yeah, you right. What the hell? Oh, why not? He's floated the idea in the past and his staff recently asked South Dakota Governor Noem about it (as if she, a state governor, could order this up for a Federal Monument). For more, here's more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/10/trump-likes-idea-adding-his-face-mt-rushmore-possible/3333312001/

4) Make-up!! Trump's physical appearance has always engendered snark, from his ridiculous enhanced ducktail to his girdled girth to his Frankenstein-like standing posture. But this year his makeup, always a thing since his Reality TV days, has become more pronounced and preposterous. He's gotta insist on applying his bronzed orange foundation himself, because anyone else would be fired. And that mask-line along his ear and hair is... something. Here are two examples: Everyday bad makeup and A different kind of mask. And when he adds a "glistener" it becomes like an ancient Greek bronze mask. What would Freud and Jung say? Would his sculpted mug on Mt. Rushmore be spray-painted orange?

5) FORE!! Trump likes to golf. A lot. And does so regularly on his own golf courses, at our expense, which requires a whole bunch of Federal tax dollars directed into his properties (over $105 million). Thus far, he's golfed about twice as much as Obama and about a putt's difference from Eisenhower's average. It appears he really enjoys playing during these days of pandemic and economic calamity and Senate-stalled legislation for relief to millions. Plus, he rampantly cheats like the blatant thief he has always been: https://golf.com/lifestyle/celebrities/how-why-president-trump-cheats-golf-playing-tiger-woods/

6) Those Late Afternoon Pressers. What were supposed to be daily progress updates on the nation's battle against the coronavirus immediately transformed into Trump Campaign Rallies, minus the adoring crowds of cretins. It worked for a while, getting him free campaign footage on all news programs each evening. But then he said too many stupid things (inject bleach, etc), and it went away. Now it's back, and so is His Stupidness. Yesterday, he suggested that the "1917 pandemic" ended World War II because so many soldiers became sick. (The pandemic lasted from 1918-1919 and did not end World War II. It didn't even end World War I.)

Some people are really using this fake form!

7) Resistance To Wearing Masks. It's a puzzler. Why are so many vehemently against wearing masks? Sure, Trump & Company went all out against masks earlier. But now, most GOP leaders are occasionally wearing them. Even Trump has been seen with one. But propaganda sticks hard with true believers, and that's what we have with Trumpanzees. Wide swaths of Trumpistan actively resist masks, even when their representatives contract COVID.

8) "Thank You, Sir..." After analyzing over 20,000 lies by the President, fact-checker Daniel Dale (and others) know when he's telling a whopper. One of his "tells" is using "Sir" in his anecdotes. Especially if it involves large, macho men openly weeping in his presence, thanking him for (fill in the blank). It's always made-up. This week's "Sir" moment came here (oh, and check out his Bronze Mask): "Thank you, sir, for giving us water for sinks."

9) Bill Barr and Mark Levin. Our hyper-religious, autocratic Attorney General/political operative took a load off to chat with the far-right media nut-job. They exchanged glowing thoughts about each other, spoke on how well things are going generally, and then... Barr called Black Lives Matter supporters "Bolsheviks" and "violent Antifas," liberals as intent on "tearing down the system," protestors as Fascists, and Democrats as trying to wrench away power because "it's their secular religion." Such a refined and reasoned conversation! He even said that T is an "excellent executive" making "well-vetted" decisions by "very high-caliber individuals." He goes on about T's work habits, "I've never seen such energy. He's always working." Wow.

10) Ted Cruz Tweet About People Needing Federal Relief. Millions of people who are unemployed, or underemployed, because of COVID are dependent on receiving subsidies from the Federal Government. The GOP says that providing such monthly stipends means dis-incentivizing the will to work. So they fail to work out a bill with the Democrats. Probable result - an imminent crash of evictions, homelessness, crime... and maybe more people protesting because it's their secular religion.
Senator Ted Cruz tweeted a particularly loathsome sentiment, which attracted appropriate pushback:
Ed Markey lights into Ted Cruz.

11) 38% Will Vote For Him, No Matter What. There is a near-complete Venn Diagram overlap of people who won't wear masks, and people who will vote for Trumplethinskin, no matter what. He could shoot their spouse or children or mother on Fifth Avenue, and it just wouldn't matter. It's an American pathology, although we've seen comparable phenomena elsewhere throughout history. Even if they see the truth, some people will never admit to being wrong.

12) An amazing, wicked and wonderful synopsis of this summer. This George Conway opinion piece delivers a far more ranging yet succinct summary of all the madness that's happened (and is happening) than I ever could. Plus, it's funny!! Please give it a read, you won't regret it.

And that's our round-up of plotz-worthy moments from the last several days! There were some others that didn't make the cut, like Zombie Cicadas and the Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate who was bitten by a possibly rabid bat. But there's always another post along the way....

Stay safe, sane and sanitized!

Becoming The Donner Party

Way back yonder in 1846 there was an infamous incident involving some westward pioneers seeking betterment by crossing the plains and mountains into California. It was a wagon-train group of 87 people that came to be known as The Donner Party. At first, they were queued towards the back among other groups heading out along The Oregon Trail. But unlike the other groups, The Donner Party made some really poor management decisions.

As they traveled, they were approached by a bamboozler who claimed knowledge of a special "cutoff" trail that would save them time and effort. With the promise of an easy transit, The Donner Party peeled off from the others on the Oregon Trail and headed towards its own road to perdition.

It didn't end well. After losing livestock, supplies and time while slowly transversing mountain ranges and deserts, The Donner Party became snowbound in the upper Sierra Nevadas. Their Native American guides perished, and having no food left, some members of the Donner Party ate them. Then other Party members who died were eaten. When local Native Americans approached with food, the Donner Party blasted away at the "wild injuns."

In the end, nearly half of the Party died. The number of those who were cannibalized has never been firmly established, but it seems likely it wasn't a few. The Donner Party became emblematic of bad choices and worse consequences.

All this serves to remind what Rush Limbaugh, the voice of Trumpism and Trump's GOP, said about how Americans need to sack up and stop falling apart because of the COVID crisis. We've been through tough times before, he said, and we need to adapt, like the Donner Party did:

Rush Limbaugh suggests we should eat each other.

"It’s just what was. They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to."

As usual, the sheer magnitude of his ignorance (or bad faith) is stunning. But taking Rush at his bloviated word, he seems to equate "adapting" with "acquiescing" or "accepting" what COVID is doing to our country. His idea of "adapting" is to allow the disease to run its course, and we all need to just get over it. This, too, is the prime idea behind the Trump Administration's response. Deny it, belittle it, assign responsibility to others and then blame them. And wait for a miracle, because that's how they roll with their magical thinking approach to everything.

This defiance towards reality has informed nearly all of the Administration's actions, and the reactions by its GOP and media sycophants. Following a particularly stupid and deranged Presidential press appearance, an appalled Anderson Cooper asked CNN White House Reporter Jim Acosta whether there weren't people in the WH that could keep 45 from debasing the Presidency any further. Acosta replied in the negative:

"There are no adults to rein him in."

"We are down to Kool-Aid Drinkers and Next-of-Kin here at the Trump White House,"Acosta explained. Simply put, the President and GOP Leadership are surrounded by ass-kissers and bootlickers. There is no diversity of presentable ideas or debate on different directions. This monolithic subservience towards the Strong Man is indicative of the autocratic, banana republic we have become.

It's kinda like the Republican Party has become The Donner Party. Or even The Jim Jones Peoples Temple Party and their special blend of Kool-Aid. Both featured hapless people that obediently followed leaders who took them down the wrong trail.

Since Rush made these remarks, a few Republican state governors have chimed in with statements and actions that seem designed to let the virus run rampant while hoping for a vaccine or herd immunity (which may never happen).

Governor Kemp of Georgia is suing mayors like Atlanta's Keisha Lance Bottoms to stop their face mask requirements and limitations on public gatherings. In fact, he seeks to prevent them from talking about it at all. He seeks a gag order. 

Governor DeSantis of Florida wants public schools to open "at full capacity" next month. He also won't close gyms, because he feels they promote a lifestyle that shields from COVID. He has also fired a Public Health official for not manipulating state COVID statistics. He is Florida Man.

Governor Parsons of Missouri, too, wants public schools to open at full capacity next month. His rationale is close to Limbaugh's: It's inevitable, kids will get it. So let's go. Like many Republicans, he seems to think that because kids are more likely to survive, it's OK... but he doesn't seem to understand that they can transmit it to parents, grandparents, teachers, staff, blah blah blah.

It is kind of numbing, this willful ignorance from the GOP that surrounds us. It is a bit reminiscent of past failed political parties. The Vichy French. The Iraqi Baathists. The Nazis. The East German Communist Party. The Soviets. Officials would use a statement from the Party Strong Man and it would frame their reality, no matter how deranged it was.

Baghdad Bob doing his Kayleigh McEnany imitation

"Sometimes the point isn't to make people believe a lie, it's to make people fear the liar." In a really outstanding article written in The Atlantic, long-time Eastern Europe expert Anne Applebaum has contemplated today's GOP and compares it with how Soviet-controlled countries operated. It's fairly lengthy, but very much worth the time spent digging into it, one of the best articles of the year!

Here is just one of many, many relevant observations on why so many people who ought to know better are fine and even complicit with Trump and today's GOP:

"These kinds of lies also have a way of building on one another. It takes time to persuade people to abandon their existing value systems. The process usually begins slowly, with small changes. Social scientists who have studied the erosion of values and the growth of corruption inside companies have found, for example, that “people are more likely to accept the unethical behavior of others if the behavior develops gradually (along a slippery slope) rather than occurring abruptly,” according to a 2009 article in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. This happens, in part, because most people have a built-in vision of themselves as moral and honest, and that self-image is resistant to change. Once certain behaviors become “normal,” then people stop seeing them as wrong.

Yep! "It takes time to persuade people to stop seeing (corrupt officials' behavior) as wrong."  It's only been four years of Trump and his GOP, although it's been 25 years since Newt Gingrich effectively grabbed the GOP helm. Plenty of egregious statements and actions have since sloshed along the street gutter of our collective political memory towards the drain grate of history. The GOP has slowly slid towards the extreme right since the mid-1990's, "inoculating" its followers to accept the unacceptable.

Like suggesting, as Trump has, that the virus be left alone and run rampant while accommodating a mortality rate that would pass well over a million victims. In the end, there will be plenty of victims, but I do hope that the GOP takes up Rush's recommendation - and eats itself.

Please watch these incredible threads which are about what's happening in Portland, from the street perspective, in particular the role of the Portland Moms. Social Justice demonstrations have been happening there for 54 straight days. "The Wall of Moms" are trying to protect the protestors from the mysterious marked and unmarked militarized 'law enforcement' figures that Trump sent in. Most moms wear yellow and some hold up sunflowers - watch for this to become a real symbol of resistance going forward!

Both threads provide plenty of amazing short videos that depict an American tyranny whose rule through fraud has been exposed and must now rely on force:

Mike Baker's wild night with Portland protestors and Moms.  (From two nights ago.)

Mike Baker's wild night last night with Portland Moms and Dads! (From last night.)

Sergio Olmos and Moms singing "Hands Up Please, Don't Shoot Me" (From two nights ago.)

It's pretty much Over when you get suburban moms to participate in long-running social justice demonstrations. Trump's Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security will continue to incite and provoke, seeking to create a political wedge for the upcoming election. But it won't work. The GOP took the wrong cutoff trail and is heading towards the political wilderness. It is going to start eating itself as it becomes the new Donner Party.

Looking Beyond The Horizon

Sometimes it feels like 2020 has become a compressed version of the entire 1960's. The details and circumstances are quite different, of course. But there is a similarly intense amount of societal pressure churning and building within the nation's Body Politic. The danger signs have been escalating in an alarmingly rampant manner over the last four years. And now we appear to be close to having a national stroke or heart attack, a complete breakdown.

We are experiencing a mammoth triple whammy: the COVID-19 health-socio-economic disaster, the Black Lives Matter/Racial Injustices Great Awakening, and a persistent form of Psychotic Disorder that is shared by 38% of this country.

And though it might be fun to get into the weeds and analyze each of these profound subject matters, let's do something different. Imagine, if you will, a time in the not too distant future where these issues are being resolved... what would such a timeline be like? Hmmm... I can see it now through my mystical eye:

After multiple unsuccessful attempts, a cheap, reliable and accessible COVID-19 vaccine is available. The recently restructured Obamacare with Public Option, and expanded Medicare/Medicaid programs helped deliver this game-changer to all corners of society. Legislation passed for new mandatory health standards in nursing homes, meat-packing facilities and prisons, among other person-intensive institutions. Home and community-based care has become more effective and prevalent, especially through new technologies. In general, preventative care and much-reduced insurance costs are now the norm.

The collective trauma of the virus lingers, with the knowledge that new ones may emerge anytime. The nation suffered from a series of rolling lockdowns, brought on by flares and outbreaks of the virus wherever guidelines were not enforced.

In fact, the after-effects of COVID have proven to be transformative across most sectors of the country. People continue to not trust other people in physical interactions. The bricks-and-mortar retail world is barely existent. Work-at-home created a sea change for commuters and their employers. As more people continued working from home, public transportation languished, but did not disappear.

Commercial real estate values plummeted. Home ownership in suburbs held fast, though sale prices diminished because of area foreclosures. Those who could afford to move away from urban centers did so, getting away from upclose density and interactions. Public schools have become a hybrid of online/home-schooling and traditional on-site experience. Infrastructure projects are scaled back because tax-revenue has been starved in a shrinking economy.

In fact, here in the U.S. and around the world, Life has become much slower than it had been just a few years before. There's a greater reliance on the "local" and not the "national." For example, the travel industry never really recovered, although modest local and regional vacations are still a thing. Airlines are used more for freight than people.

And while Cable and Streaming services have greatly benefited from stay-at-home guidelines, movie theaters stayed dark even after the virus could be treated. So did many other people-oriented Pop Culture and Fine Arts events. College and professional sports that survived underwent a radical change in presentation, leaving former fans supremely unsatisfied. The restaurant industry went cold, while home gardening warmed up.

Trust in the federal government has not yet been restored. So much damage was done by the Trump Administration and the Republican Party that it will take several more years of extensive, comprehensive reforms and electoral clean-up to clear the pervasive stink. However, elections since 2020 have featured success by Progressives and Left-of-Center Democrats. There has been a strong renewal in such values as Accountability, Expertise and Human Decency.

Supporters of The Orange One are still around, but their numbers, voices and influence are much diminished. Convictions of Trump officials continue to climb while remnants of the Trump Organization crash into bankruptcy. Following the disasters of 2020, the Trumpian tenets of the Republican Party are held in popular contempt. Fox News became a common target of lawsuits. Former sycophants were exposed as grifters. As a result, the GOP has attempted a series of political transformations, seeking to find a way back from the wilderness. But its core values were exposed as transparently corrupt and nihilistic; it exists as a permanent minority party.

Long-overdue action towards reforming the Judicial System, Police and Prisons has begun. Consumer protection against financial service providers and other predatory vendors has returned and been improved. And as the engines of Capitalism have slowed, the well-being of "essential workers" has accelerated. We've entered a time of reforming Capitalism, mitigating its ruthless tendencies and short-sighted bottom lines. Call it Human Capitalism, where the "invisible hand" is assisted by the informed hand of government policy intervention.

Movements like Black Lives Matter continue to shine a crucial spotlight on society's stubborn inequities. Smartphones remain as the most effective weapon against racism, bigotry and willful ignorance. Police and Fire Departments began hiring from within the communities they serve. And as the pie slice of White People becomes smaller in our American Pie, more minorities (and immigrants) see advancement in their socio-economic share and status. A stronger sense of respect and understanding towards all Americans has spread across the country, as progressive political victories mount.

OK, OK!! I better stop the visioning here before I get completely unglued and gooey. But there's more that needs to be said:

Overall, these "future years" show that though we become a slower, smaller world, we will become a better world. Our COVID experience has demonstrated that our previous way of life is not sustainable. And though we may continue to distance ourselves, as a people we arrive at a greater appreciation and need for each other.

The extreme fissures in our society won't be mended soon. But in the meantime there will be enough bridges built to patch together our fractured nation while a deeper healing takes hold.

Our country is rarely ever wholly united. It will be exceedingly difficult to succeed in uniting, without having a common enemy to rally against. But a common enemy exists and grows more powerful every day. It's an enemy that will challenge every person in our nation, and the world, much more so than our current set of crises. It will be the great conflict of our age, one that will fundamentally determine our way of life, our species and all future life on this planet.

Climate Change is the big one, the End Game, and our response to COVID is just a necessary practice run to get us ready. We fumble about in coordinating our sloppy state, national and international responses to the pandemic, to disappointing effect. As a nation and as a world community, we will need to tighten up our coordinations radically to face this relentless, borderless, civilization-crushing foe of our own making.

Such unparalleled world unity is required because Climate Change will be much more life-threatening to humans than COVID, and far longer lasting. Like the virus, it's a gathering phenomenon that threatens every one of us.

But we won't be able to wear masks and socially distance ourselves from drought, monsoons or early and late freezes. We can't develop a medical treatment for prolonged and withering triple digit heat, ruined crops and dwindling livestock. We won't have a vaccine for depleted water supplies, rising sea levels, massive human refugee movements and subsequent natural resource-driven warfare.

The lessons we learn from our struggles with COVID will determine if we will face the future successfully. And once we rid ourselves of our current White House and Senate "leadership" we can begin in earnest. It is not too late, but it will be if they succeed.