The little person report
Bernard belly-flopped, and now I don't have a horse in the race. Bernard does deserve a big party in his honor however, having moved the conversation to where it should have been twenty years ago had the Democratic Party not fallen for false idols.
This guy Trump is Day-Glo incompetent, amd his incompetence is becoming more garish minute-by-minute. My friend Bill Mohr calls it, 'virulent incompetence' in that the incompetence not only has the capacity of making people sick, it's now killing them. Vietnam was called "the first televised war", now we're experiencing life under "the first televised president,"--a media confection called "The Apprentice" is credited with providing the platform for DT to demonstrate his leadership skills by lording it over other star-struck incompetents and either giving them his blessing or declaring them "fired". Mark Twain once famously complained that the American Civil War could "in great measure be blamed on romance novels," particularly those of Sir Walter Scott, "stuffed with dreams and phantoms; with decayed and swinish forms of religion...; and with the silliness and emptinessess, sham grandeurs, sham gauds, and sham chivalries of a brainless and worthless long-vanished society." It's impossible to believe Twain would suffer reality-tv shows or their hosts gladly, likely finding in them the same sort of goo he found in SIr Walter Scott.
The Republican Relief Plan was announced yesterday according to "The Oxymoronic Times" (thanks Drew), otherwise known as The National Militarized Disease Act. You know when Mitch McConnell is throwing down $1,000 bills from the high holy precinct of the US Senate to the common folks below, something is afoot; McConnell doesn't do things like this from the kindness of his wattle: re-electing Trump and appointing more federal judges was the motivation. Good thing McConnell didn't heed the advice of Larry Kudlow, another made-for-tv star who now serves as Trump's National Economic Council Director. Kudlow's the guy who said on national tv a month ago (CNBC, Feb. 25, 2020) ) that the 'US has contained the coronavirus and the economy is holding up nicely."
As long as Congress is throwing money around, what about getting serious about reparations? I really don't know where Bernard stands on this, but I know where I stand--until this country confronts its real history, not the made-for-tv-fantasy reality show we're watching now, there won't be any real meaningful social progress, much less change.
In a fit of pique I called The White House last night. When Trump was first elected I made a practice of calling The White House everyday for a couple of months, never once getting through. Everytime I called a recorded voice would answer, 'Due to the high volume of calls we cannot respond..."etc.etc. The White House website wasn't any better. I was surprised last night when a real person answered. 'How can I help you," she said. "I want to get a message to the President," I said. "What would you like me to tell him?" "Resign," I said. Click, end of conversation.
Market Street, downtown San Francisco, noon, Saturday, March 21, 2020. Photo by author.