From The Church of Ineffable Stupidity, a gnu and improved sermon:
I took a sabbatical from this and other places that discussed politics last year. Several months, actually many months long. Between the daily lies and tweet fest from a demented, grandiose, self-promoting grifter, plus the abject failure, the lack of professionalism and the unforgivable timidity of most of the national media, seasoned with out and out lies and bullshit from sTalk Radio, Fox, OAN and other conservative outlets, I seriously considered searching for and finding a job on the other side of the world. It was getting that bad.
I will readily admit I was depressed, concerned, fearful, and was becoming ever more convinced our country could not survive IMPOTUS’ tenure.
WIth the election of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris (Do you know how GOOD it feels to type that? Seriously. Try it.) things changed. Our reality is different. Our perceptions have been altered, and our approach to this flat earth are no longer the same. Here are some truths that seem to pop out at me:
A) After that Hideous Sound, the incredible, constant, deafening noise, yelling, accusations, lies, deceit, fraud, screaming, blame-games, and almost intolerable volume of Trump’s daily distractions, abuse and worse, we now have quiet. Peace. Peace and quiet. Quiet and Peace. Quite the peace, actually. It is slightly unsettling.
B) The overpowering baseline noise we’ve suffered from for 5 years has inflicted upon many innocent bystanders a mental deafness of a sort. The new lack of bullshit and filthy tweetiness is causing some folks to feel hollow, unfulfilled, and slightly insecure. It is TOO quiet. Think of people who live next to a Chicago El-Train that runs 24 hours a day. That ungodly noise is so constant they don’t even notice it after a while. But take that same person and stick them in a deserted cabin with no background noise, tweets, people, Rush Limbaugh or Fox News, and they might freak out. America is suffering from the same type of “withdrawal” and change in circumstance. Like a constantly beaten spouse, we are so unused to professionalism and quiet approaches to ALL problems, that it is seriously unsettling. It is as if we don’t believe it really happened (Biden’s victory), and the nachtmare of Trump will return the instant we wake up. Luckily that won’t happen.
C) News media is rightfully embarrassed by their behavior over the past four years, what with their lack of spine and total whitewash of so many high crimes and misdemeanors by Trump and his cult members. To make up for their past failures, they are going to go overboard and criticize Biden every single chance they get — to prove they are independent, professional, talented, and about four years too late. Luckily Biden has a great new spokesperdaughter in Jennifer Psaki. Her deft control, measured and content-filled responses, her honest affect and approach, plus her ability to cut down to size Fox press corpse whores without raising her voice or calling them names, is such a blast of fresh air, that I marvel at how grateful I am that she is there.
D) Some in the media, particularly print media, have woken up to the danger Trump posed, poses and will pose in the future. 1/6 and its impact on our country is still too recent to be the subject of books, classes and TV shows/movies. But, recently, a growing number of media types realize that if we don’t collectively protect this country from enemies foreign AND domestic, there won’t be a country left to protect. Even those media pukes like upChuck Todd are finally willing to call a lie a lie, something they abjectly refused to do for the first 3 years of Trump’s presidency.
E) CPAC 2021 will become famous in the annals of history. It will be THE event which marks the death of the GOP, or as a growing and groaning number of people now call it, the GQP. I have never been a big fan of cannibalism, however, with CPAC and today’s Republican remnants, asshats, racists, Oath Keepers, Proud Boys, QANONs, militias, and anti-establishment nut-jobs, I will gladly provide clean silverware, serving equipment, plates and napkins. Salt and pepper will be available upon request.
F) We did survive. We are surviving. We will survive. We have adults in power now. Rational ones, too.
G) Déficits will matter again, but only to the GQP leadership in the House and Senate.
H) COVID is not the great equalizer. To the contrary, the very rich get access to incredible treatment and release from ICUs, while too many poor, elderly, and people of color languish, get sick and die at a far faster rate than the general population. That Is A Crime Against Humanity. Vaccine inequities cannot be permitted to exist, not in a modern, civilized society.
I) “I’s” are so unseemly and egotistical, that I am skipping this one in honor of our IMPOTUS.
J) COVID will be with us for a long time to come. WEAR YOUR DAMNED MASK and keep a safe social distance.
K) Senator Manchin is an ass. Has been for years, will be for years to come. But knowing that is the secret to getting his vote. Luckily, we have people in the administration who actually plan and think ahead. Sure, they make mistakes, like trusting anything Mitch may say, but they are smart and they will find a way to deal with Manchin.
L) In ChiTown, we are having a great big juicy melt. No, not a double beef patty melt, not a dunked hot Italian beef melt with cheese and extra hot peppers, nor a couple of piece of bread with cheese in between prepared on a sizzling grill. No, I mean an actual, factual melt. That is what happens when you get more than 40 inches of partly cloudy on the ground and the local temperatures finally reach 50F instead of 10F. Lucky, there is no rain right now, because puppy (95lbs of love and processed dog food) left many clean up spots in my yard. Finally get to see the piles now that the snow is visibly disappearing.
M) I don’t think society has fully come to grips with the end of two things, Rush Limbaugh and the rump presidency. Trump continues to claw and scratch, using all of his efforts and appearances for even more grift, money grabbing, and revenge. He cannot succeed,but he will make money off of his current gig.
But no one can replace Limbaugh. There is a YUGE new hole in the formerly considerable array of Conservative voices, one that that fucker Carlson, Laura, Sean, Alex, or others cannot even try to fill. That lack of star power on Rush’s level will not just muddy the Reich’s message, it will cause back-stabbing wars and power plays unseen in US politics. Nature (despite so much of it existing in outer space) allegedly abhors a vacuum. The welcome passing of Rush created a big one. Go vacuum!