The Republican Party is now publicly soiling itself in a scramble to kiss ex-President Trump’s ass.
Not only have the Party leaders uniformly adopted the “Big Lie” fable about the 2020 Presidential election and are intimating publicly that the January 6th Capitol Riot wasn’t really an insurrection where people were killed and the seat of American government was trashed, but now are purging former mainstream Republicans in favor of Trumpist fanatics.
Liz Cheney, the number 3 Republican in Congress and the daughter of former V.P. Dick Cheney, was summarily kicked to the curb this week because…she won’t play along with the Big Lie charade: she’s actually admitted, publicly, that Joe Biden won the 2020 election…by 7 million votes!
That’s preposterous, Liz.
Card-carrying Republican faithful must now believe in something that didn’t happen (the “stolen” election) and disbelieve something that did (the January 6th Capitol Riot). “Don’t believe your eyes, Folks!”, says the hustler.
Con-artist extraordinaire Donald Trump has a Nation full of political cowards licking his boots, begging for his approval…and campaign funding for 2022. The egomaniac has got to be loving this. He must feel like Don Corleone at his daughter’s wedding: everyone fighting for a place in line to kiss his ring.
The odd part of all of this is that Donald Trump has now lost the popular vote for President of the United States…twice. He is, by definition, a loser. Why do Republicans want to fawn over a loser?
Meanwhile, life goes on.
The Nationwide vaccination program seems to be bearing fruit: infections and deaths are down, masks are coming off, businesses are reopening, and there appears to be “light at the end of the tunnel”…pandemic-wise. Gee, I hope folks in Washington D.C. were paying attention to this catastrophe and will be better prepared next time. Because, as sure as the sun will come out tomorrow, there will be another pandemic down the road. Bet on it.
Inflation is rearing its ugly head, just as predicted. Housing, food, fuel…it’s all getting pricier. Supposedly (according to Federal stats) the C.P.I. is increasing at 6 percent or so right now. However, it is obvious that the actual rate is two to three times that amount. Government officials in charge of such information, no matter if there is a Republican or Democratic Administration, always bump those figures down for political reasons. The price of lumber required to build a 3BR, 2Bath house has doubled in the past 9 months. Gasoline was $2 per gallon 6 months ago; now, it’s $3.30. And so forth. We’re not idiots, we can see what’s happening.
Standard of living is going to nosedive…unless you’re one of the super-rich. Lunch Bucket Joe’s and their families are going to be tightening belts a lot. Homelessness will become much more common in the next year or so.
President Joe Biden is attempting to find some common ground with the Republicans on a massive infrastructure plan which would pump some life into the American economy by reinvesting in key components of the Nation’s economic engine. Hopefully, the Democratic and Republican do-nothings in Congress can agree on something…other than the fact that they hate each other.
Speaking of hate, those warring Middle Easterners are at it again. Israel and Hamas (which is a Palestinian terrorist organization funded by Iran) and trading rockets and mayhem right now like they did back in 2014. Nothing good will come of this: it never does in that part of the world. Russia, Turkey, and Iran could easily up the ante…just to make Israel squirm. (And, of course, the U.S. would feel obligated to help out.)
Hey, I thought Trump’s much-ballyhooed Middle East “peace plan” resolved all of this stuff…what happened?
Of course, when you have your son-in-law brokering peace in the Middle East, and he seeks agreement from pipsqueak nations instead of the major combatants, not much can really be expected. Like almost all Trump initiatives, the Middle East Peace Plan was all show, no go. It was a hamburger without a patty. Ex-Special Presidential Advisor-in-Chief Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, seems to have disappeared from view…understandably, as his grand achievement has predictably vanished like a sandcastle encountering its first ocean wave.
More interesting news: a significant ransomware attack on a key oil pipeline caused some real problems this past week until the corporate owners caved to the ransom demand and paid $5 million.
My hiking buddy Lloyd immediately blamed President Joe Biden for the crime: “He’s not doing anything about it!”, he proclaimed.
Uh, how do you know that, Sir? I’m sure that America’s cybersecurity officials are scrambling to figure out how this happened, who did it, how to punish them, and how to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Crime prevention is tough work…no matter who is President.
Of course, cybercrime didn’t appear to be a big priority in American government when you-know-who was running things. Not only did Russian cybercriminals help get him elected, but they also massively penetrated Federal government operations in 2019/2020 and our President did nothing to offend his buddy, Vladimir Putin. During Trump’s four years in office, cyberterrorism against U.S. companies and government agencies by the North Koreans and Iran also ran rampant…with no apparent retaliation.
Why?
If I’m going to credit President Biden with (presumably) doing something about this behind the scenes, I need to extend the same courtesy to the ex-President. Surely, America has qualified people working on this, and it’s classified and all that stuff, so we citizens don’t “have a need to know” all that secret stuff.
I get it. However, America should not be a proving ground for cyberterrorism: we need to publicly flex our muscles from time to time, else tin pot dictators and mischievous errand boys working for Putin, Xia, and the Ayatollah will continue to poke us in the nose…for fun. How about we shut down the Russian electrical network for an hour?
The Kingmaker has got to be loving this drama, particularly since he now bears no responsibility. Back in the early years of his Presidency, Trump blamed his failings on ex-Prez Obama. Thus far, Joe Biden has refrained from such sophomoric behavior.
Like the Wizard of Oz, Donald Trump works his scam from behind the screen, orchestrating his lackeys in State Houses and in Congress to put the brakes on Biden Administration initiatives while simultaneously encouraging enhancement of the Big Lie fable and diminishing public recollection of his lame attempted takeover of the American democracy on January 6th 2021.
What a life…P.T. Barnum would be proud!