Apocalypse Pretty Soon

Well, our vacation was quite fine, thank you very much for asking. We visited Ocean City MD for the week and sat on the beach or by the pool every day, read a couple books, and visited various bars and restaurants. Then between 7:30 and 8:00, we’d adjourn to our balcony to have some drinks, play some music, and watch the sun set over the bay.

Best show in town!

Wednesday night we got to watch a storm roll in, which gave us quite a different show.

We decided to pull the chairs in behind the sliding door and watch the rain pour from our nice, dry, room. Sweetpea’s idea. And that kept the chairs dry for the next morning.

The trip wasn’t without incident though. I had some trouble checking in because the room I ordered and what they received were two different things. I went around and around with the front desk people but to no avail. They explained that if I hadn’t used a travel site to book the room, they’d have the leeway to at least reimburse me for the downgrade on the room. (I used my bank’s travel site to get extra travel points. I won’t be doing that again.)

But the main tragedy was when we wheeled our bags and supplies into our room with the hotel cart. As we hit the bump between the carpeted hallway and our room’s tiled floor, the bag containing two unopened 1.75L bottles of vodka fell off and one of them smashed. Oh, the humanity!

The other tragedy was Thursday night when we watched the debate. Damn, was THAT ever a let-down. I thought Joe would show a little more life than that… I kept waiting for him to use his favorite debate tactic where he lures you in by speaking softly, then BAM, he’s thundering with outrage and raining verbal bombs. But it never showed up.

Meanwhile, TFG was his usual self. It’s no wonder he famously refuses to prepare for debates. There’s no reason for any prep at all. He just spews forth about how everything he did was great and whatever Biden did was the worst of all time, and lob baseless accusations. It’s the kind of thing any kid on the playground can do. There’s no need to remember facts or statistics when you just make shit up! And who cares about what questions the moderators ask when you don’t intend to answer them in the first place. The MAGAs would rather see him look forceful in telling lies than quietly telling the truth.

I came to learn the next day that what TFG did is known as a "Gish Gallop."

If that isn't the very definition of what TFG does during debates and interviews, I don't know what is.

In addition to his stutter and a cold, Biden had to carry the burden of remembering actual facts and figures. Bringing up data like that upon demand in front of the nation is not an easy thing for anyone to do, let alone an octogenarian.

But what really bugged me was that there was so much meat left on the table. There were some great arguments and rebuttals to be made but he never brought them up, no matter how loudly I was yelling them at the TV.

To that end, Sweetpea wished she’d packed a tranquilizer gun to use on me as I paced around the room. I just couldn’t sit still as I saw all the headlines for the week being written about how the President froze up or mumbled, with hardly a mention of the fact-free blithering from the challenger.

While I really wished Biden’s showing was better, I take comfort in the fact that face-to-face debates have nothing to do with being president. It’s really just a campaign appearance.

Presidents don’t sit down to have a standardized debate with foreign leaders, or even the domestic ones. They all get together, experts and advisers present information, the President discusses it with everyone and he gives direction on what he’d like as the next course of action.

He’s already done the job for three and a half years and I think his performance has been wildly underrated. The fact that Democrats have gotten as much as they have, (with things like the infrastructure bill) with a split Congress is nothing short of miraculous. I have every confidence he can do the job; he just won’t necessarily look flashy while doing it.

And if the stakes couldn’t get any higher, today the Supreme Court issued its latest travesty in finding that the President has at least partial immunity on actions taken while in office. This decision destroys the last shred of impartiality the high court might have claimed and creates a King out of what is supposed to be a public servant. The platitude that no man is above the law has been decimated for generations, thanks to The Federalist Society and their willing proxies, the Republican Party.

Even schoolchildren know that rules have to be applied equally or else it’s “no fair.” And this is exactly how TFG considers the concept of fairness… if he’s not allowed to stomp on the rules and do whatever he wants, it’s somehow “unfair” to him.

I’m sure there will be more in-depth analysis to come and I’m hoping this decision is not as bad as it seems at the outset. But I don’t think there can be any clearer signal that Republicans have to be stopped NOW, and resoundingly. It’s not just TFG, it’s the whole team. Nothing that they seek benefits the non-rich, the non-evangelical, and non-sexist/racist/xenophobic. And they’re not going to change until the People demand it.

And even then, they’ll just hide their intentions again and run on some other populist message that doesn’t cost anything to the donor class.

Adding to attacking reproductive freedom, overturning reasonable healthcare access, cutting Social Security and every other safety net program, opposing drug price negotiation for Medicare, and tax cuts for the rich, Democrats need to hang this new thing around their Republican opponents’ necks and call them out at every opportunity.

A stuttering president is the least of this country’s problems.