Some Random Thoughts As I Recover From a Trip to The ER
One Always has Time to Think While Playing "Hurry Up and Wait" at the ER
Had to spend almost all of yesterday at the VA hospital emergency room. Thought I was clocking out from a heart attack, but all tests concerning that came back negative. Turns out I have a very aggravated case of gastrointestinal reflux and treatment entails drinking copious amounts of Maalox and giving up everything I love to eat.
Aging isn’t for sissies!
Anyway, I’m kind of mentally fried from the experience (lack of sleep and ER stress will get the old “fear-o-meter” going), but these were some of the things I was thinking about between being poked, prodded, and violated as I did my ER penance. Over the next few weeks, I will be addressing these random thoughts in more detail, but right now, I want to lay out where I am at and what I am thinking about.
So, in no particular order and without notes:
A former president who is running for another term in 2024 is selling cheap assed Chinese made gold painted sneakers to raise money for God knows what. People are actually paying four and five figures for these things. What’s next?
We have sacrificed problem solving and good government to create political entertainment that mimics reality TV. Politics is now the WWE with its heroes and villains and “wait for the next episode to see what happens” mentality.
We are no longer a serious people. We will pay a price.
The murder of Alexi Navalny by the government of Vladimir Putin is a travesty and needs to be condemned in the strongest terms by all who support freedom and democracy.
The MAGA creation of a false equivalency between the murder of Navalny and the criminal investigation into the behavior of Donald Trump is so bogus that it defies the imagination and insults the intelligence of the American people, no matter their political persuasion.
Donald Trump has been punished by New York for his fraudulent business activities and MAGA nation is opening Go Fund Me pages to pay his millions of dollars of fines.
The funny thing is that the Terms of Service for Go Fund Me prohibit accounts that have to purpose of raising money to pay criminal or civil penalties. I guess the people doing this didn’t read the fine print.
It’s time for Congress to get off of its backside and pass the military aid package for Ukraine. As Ukraine waits, they run out of ammunition and lose their ability to fight and take the offensive.
People need to wake up and understand that this is the largest land war in Europe since World War II. The survival of Ukraine is being jeopardized because MAGA supporters of Trump, Putin and Russia are sitting on their hands and taking weeks long recesses and grandstanding at the border, after pulling the plug on a border bill that they claim they want, while Ukraine burns and slowly bleeds out.
Wait much longer and their won’t be a Ukraine to support. Zelensky will meet the same fate as Navalny and Putin will move to the next step of his perverted plan of restoring the imperial grandeur of Russia and /or restoring some aspects of the Soviet Union (hard to figure out which it is as Putin speaks in circles just like Trump).
Is MAGA ready for American troops fighting in Poland and the Baltic States under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty? Part of “America First” is stepping up and meeting our international responsibilities as the most powerful nation on earth, bar none. If the United States pulls the plug on Ukraine, it will US troops being “next man/woman up.”
Be careful what you wish for.
Speaking of the border, what a travesty of government on both sides. Republicans are not supporting immigration/border security legislation, legislation that they actually wanted as a condition for aid to Ukraine and Israel, because Mr. Trump sees some hope for victory if he runs on this issue. On this one, Mr. Trump is the de facto Speaker of the House and all of the sheep in the House and Senate are falling into line.
Oh, but there is more! President Biden and the Democrats are actually trying to LEGISLATE this problem like the GOP is populated by actual LEGISLATORS who are interest in governing.
This ain’t the GOP House and Senate of Senator Joe Biden, Chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. This is the new Congress of political performance, cable news exposure, and the grift fund raising to win elections that allow them keep personal political power and saves them from actually living with the folks they claim to represent. Just ask Josh Hawley.
Mr. Biden and the Democrats have let the extremists of the MAGA House and Senate GOP paint them into a corner. Mr. Biden needs to show some political courage and use the power of the pen and his office to write executive orders to deal with the problem.
Own the issue and turn the political tables. Call their bluff.
If Trump wins in 2024, let him do away the orders just like presidents of the past have done with Executive Orders that they haven’t agreed with. Put the solution back on him. Call his bluff because Mr. Trump and the GOP don’t have real solutions for this. It’s just another wedge issue used to create fear.
Bipartisanship on this issue is out the door and Democrats are being played for political chumps. Mr. Biden is going to be crucified on this issue if he doesn’t take control of the narrative and alter the experiment. He has the power to do something and the ability to use moral suasion to support his actions.
“Progressive” Democrats, and I use the term loosely, are just as crazy and authoritarian as the MAGA office holders and political base that they constantly criticize. Disqualify President Biden, an incumbent, because of his age? Yes, he’s old, gets confused, mumbles, and forgets what he had for breakfast this morning. I’m 71 years old and can relate.
I’ve also got news for the young and middle aged progressives that want to commit political suicide by pushing Mr. Biden aside. This whole age thing is gonna happen to you someday. Deal with it.
Mr. Biden wasn’t my pick in 2020, but right now, he might be the only thing that saves American democracy from Mr. Trump and MAGA.
Sometimes in politics and life, “you gotta dance with the one that brung ya.”
Mr. Biden has done a good job, despite what MAGA world claims.
The economy is robust despite lingering inflation. People can still find a good job if they want one. American troops aren’t dying in Ukraine or anywhere else (at least not yet). For most, life is pretty good (we can’t forget those on the low end of the totem pole, many of whom still struggle for financial security).
Anyway, who’s the alternative? Kamala Harris, with approval ratings lower than Mr. Biden? Hillary Clinton 2.0? Bernie? Gavin Newsome, who has stated that it’s not his time?
Oh, what about Mayor Pete, the darling of the progressives? Sorry, hate to tell you, but voters in the MAGA heartland aren’t going to vote for a gay candidate, they just aren’t. These voters lost their minds when Obama was elected. What makes yo think they will make the leap to Pete, the antithesis of the culture wars?
Mr. Biden and his campaign need to get off of touting “Bidenomics” and start communicating his accomplishments in language that connects with Joe Schmo and his family.
Trust me, state GOPs in red states will turn up the voltage and break out the flamethrowers to destroy Harris, Mayor Pete or any other alternative Democrat. They will make “Let’s Go Brandon” seem tame by comparison.
I live in Missouri, the “Show Me State”, the land of the Missouri Freedom Caucus, the antiabortion and trans culture wars, the culture wars over DEI and CRT, the land of Christo-nationalism, teen marriage, and candidates for statewide office calling for the burning of books that they don’t like.
Guys like MO Attorney General Andrew Bailey, Missouri Freedom Caucus members like state senators Nick Schroer, Tim Burchett, and Bill Eigel, as well as MAGA superstars like Jay Ashcroft are just as dangerous as Trump or House Speaker Mike Johnson, perhaps even more so as they are doing this stuff at the state and local level where the people live.
These people are serious. They want to come after their perceived enemies, all in the name of “protecting freedom”, and run government based on evangelical Christo-nationalism principles that warp what Christianity is really all about.
Believe them and believe what they say.
Guess what, MAGA states are filled with people just like them. Missouri isn’t an outlier.
Yep, this was what I was thinking about in the ER. I gotta get a life!