This. Is. Not. Normal.

 In a normal election, we would be rubbing our hands gleefully and anticipating the harm to Trump among his patriotic base.  But this is not a normal election, his base is dismissing his disparaging words about the military as just so much 'fake news'.  And they are sticking with him as he tramples everything they claim to hold dear.  And the military brass stands beside him, closed mouth.

But I am angry, I am sad, and I am thoroughly disgusted.  And I am tired of feeling this way.  I am so very tired of this knot in the pit of my stomach.  Tired of waking every morning to some other vile and foul utterance from this man.  Just when you think he cannot possibly stoop any lower, he surprises everyone with something even worse.  

The report in The Atlantic of Trumps attack on the military had hit too close to home for me.  My husband served in the Marine Corp in WWII.  He was not a loser and he was not a sucker.  He chose to enlist in the waning days of the war, when the number of eligible men had been exhausted, and no more able men could be found.  His mother reluctantly signed for him, and he spent his 18th birthday on Guadalcanal.  But because of his sacrifice, men like my father, much older, could stay home with his family.  And work for the war effort building military vehicles.

My husband never talked about his two years in the Marines, he had signed up for the duration and six months, all of it served in the Pacific.  There was a box, that I gave our son after my husband died.  It contained his medals and commendations.  As far as I know, my husband never looked at them. 

When the war in Viet Nam was raging, my brother, inspired by his brother-in-law, also joined the Marines.  He was in college and he had a deferment.  But three of his high school buddies enlisted, and so for what ever reason that boys go off to war, my brother felt he must go. He is not a loser; he is not a sucker. Of the four boys who went off together, two never came home.  Their names are on the Memorial Wall.  A third boy came home with one leg and one arm.  And my brother?  Well to look at him he survived just fine.  But if you look closely, you can see something is gone from his eyes.

My brother was a sweet, shy, innocent kid who never even had a date until I fixed him up for his senior prom.  He excelled in math and science, and the Marines sent him to electronics school, and trained him to repair the Hueys and fighter jets.  He was assigned to an air base inside the DMZ.  He worked all day, and paced the barracks floor all night praying that the constant shelling that rained down on the base, would not level his barracks as it had the barracks around him.  While he was in Nam, our mother died and he could not get home until weeks after the service.  With the exception of those two weeks,  He spent 46 months in that hellhole.  He mustered out, alone, in San Diego.  The Marines gave him his medals and put him on a train home to Chicago.

For months, he awoke screaming, in a cold sweat, every night.  In the fall he returned to college but his demons only got worse, and he turned to drugs.  Finally he joined a VA group and they helped him.  He managed to finish his BS and went on to get a MS and a PHD in plant genetics.  But Viet Nam never left him.  It destroyed his first marriage.  To this day, loud noises make his heart race, and the fourth of July festivities fill him with dread.  He suffers with intestinal problems associated with the chemicals used in the war zones.  Yes, he came home in one piece physically, but the sweet boy who went to war never returned.  In his place is a broken human being, who was finally declared 95% disabled five years ago.  It allows the VA to treat him for his depression and myriad of physical problems.  But if you ask him, he will tell you he is not a loser. 

I cannot imagine how the families feel whose sons, brothers, and fathers never came home.  To have them called losers and suckers must be like losing them all over again.  And yet there are some who still defend this monster of a human being.  Those who chose not to believe what they hear with their own ears.  His denigration of John McCain, his berating of the military men who served in his cabinet and were unceremoniously dismissed.  His hounding of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman - a decorated veteran who served valiantly - the man who testified to what he heard the president say on the phone.  And most egregious of all, using the US military like toy soldiers, as though they are his personal army, to play with.   

This is a man who is bent on destroying our democracy to retain his hold on the presidency.  He is sowing the seeds of doubt in our election process that has served us since the founding of the country.  There have been printed ballots since 1888, Trump has voted by mail in the last four election cycles at least.  And if Trump can convince enough people that the election is fraudulent, he can send it into the courts.  But the Constitution says if there is no elected President and Vice-president, by noon on January 20th, the Speaker of the House becomes President.  Can you say Madam President Pelosi?

                                                              I'm just sayin'  

The American Dream

 It has been three days since the end of the greatest freak show on television, the RNC, the Republican National Convention.  It has taken me this long to get over the feeling of dread and apprehension, and fear for my beloved country.  Fact checkers from newspapers all around the world were busy scribbling as fast as they could to catch all the lies.  Yes, I said lies.  Look it up, the definition of falsehood is 'LIE'.  For what ever reason the media likes to whitewash them, there were over 21 lies in the seventy-minute tirade called the acceptance speech.  That amounts to one lie every two and a half minutes.  Incredible!   They were reiterations of the lies that were told over and over again during the three previous days. 

Trump talked about his greatest accomplishments; - 300 miles of border wall that Mexico will pay for, in fact only 5 miles of new wall have been built at great cost to the US taxpayer, and not one peso from Mexico, - taking credit for the VA choice bill, when in fact Obama signed the bill in 2016, - taking credit for creating 9-million jobs, after losing 24-million jobs the month before, - promising insurance to cover pre-existing conditions, when Obama care already does that, and Trump is in court suing to eliminate the ADA.  I could go on, but the people who need to hear this, will not listen. 

In large sections of America, people live in an alternate universe, where facts and reality no longer exist.  There are no such things as facts anymore, belief has taken the place of fact.  Or as Ms. Kellyanne Conway calls the 'alternate facts'.  

If the Republicans are to win again, they must do two things; they must change Trump's image, and they must denigrate Joe Biden's reputation.  To win, a wild-eyed alternate reality must be created, and the Republicans are betting that the electorate is so uninformed, so gullible, and so dumb as to swallow their story.  During the convention - or as I like to call it the 'The All Trump Show' - speaker after speaker, many of them Black, many of them women spoke of the President as a soft-hearted soul, empathetic, and a champion of racial diversity and women.  A man who wears his heart on his sleeve.  Or as Ivanka Trump said; "I've been with my father and I've seen the pain in his eyes when he receives updates on the lives that have been stolen by this plague." I would imagine he is thinking whether the count will affect the Market.

During this 'firehose' of misinformation, one speaker said that this is a man who revers the presidency, and who cares not for himself, but only for America.  The voice-over in the video introducing Trump, said he has 'accomplished more in four years than any other president in history'.  Take a backseat Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Kennedy, etc.    You've been trumped!

So much for the reinvention of the person. Now the Republicans must change the events of the past seven months.  Pandemic;  gone.  The economy; the Market is better than before.  And the racial unrest; all the fault of the Democratic mayors. 

As for Joe Biden, he is a Trojan Horse for the socialists and radical left.  He will abolish the police departments, tear down the wall, and destroy the suburbs.  No one will be safe in Biden's America.  Biden will take away your Social Security and bring in socialized medicine. And Biden will shut down the government again.  As Trump says; "His shutdown will inflict unthinkable and lasting harm on our children, families and citizens of all backgrounds."   

Republicans attack harder in elections than do Democrats, and lately have been very successful at it.  From the dog-whistle, states-rights campaign of Richard Nixon, to the 'Swiftboat" smear against John Kerry.  And who can forget the picture of Dukakis in the tank trying to look tough after bungling his answer to his wife being raped. What the Democrats need to do is resurrect the political machines of yesteryear.  Richard J. Daley of Chicago knew how to win an election.  He could cut an opponent off at the knees, and if that didn't work, he would hold back the election results until he knew how many votes were needed to win, and then he would deliver them.  

I think the Democrats should unleash the vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris.  Something tells me she was selected to be the attack dog to Biden's 'mister nice guy' persona.  I cannot wait to see her in the debate against Pence.  She will have is lunch.  That is if 'Mother' will allow Pence to be on stage alone with a woman.  One can only guess.

Trump's agenda for the next four years is broad, sweeping and delusionary.  He pledged to put a man on Mars - perhaps with the help of Elon Musk and SpaceX - , create 10-million jobs in the next 10 months. expand the tax cuts, take on China, and most importantly, restore Law and Order - after his campaign broke more than 20 laws just on day five of the convention.

Trump has declared that America is 'the torch that enlightens the entire world.'  What the world fears is that Trump is the torch that will burn down the entire world.  

A sample of rhetoric from the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail opinion page tells it all.  "Mr. Trump...is perhaps the least suitable candidate for high office in the entire United States - a petulant, insecure man-child, so wholly lacking in intelligence, competence, integrity and emotional stability as to be disqualified in most states from driving a bus, let alone leading what was once the most powerful country on earth."    I wonder what they have against bus drivers.

Undaunted, Trump promises that the 'American Dream' will be realized like never before.  Bringing to mind George Carlin's line; "That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it."

                                                                                  I'm just sayin' 

I've Got a Bridge to Sell You

 Tomorrow the Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powel, is scheduled to release to the public some inkling of what the Federal Reserve decided after their meeting this week.  It will not be the full report, that will be coming out at their next meeting.  But Chairman Powel is expected to say that the Fed will encourage the core inflation rate to overshoot the targeted 2%.  The current rate of 1.5% has been stagnant for the past three years, despite the Feds attempts to bring it to the target rate of 2%.  That leaves the Federal Reserve very little room for corrections.  This move signals that the benchmark interest rate will remain low for the rest of 2020 and 2021.  The Fed was expecting the Congress to pass another stimulus package in the vicinity of $3 trillion, to ensure that the economy does not enter into a double dip recession. Instead the Congress adjourned and went home. 

One of the reasons for the stalemate over the pandemic aid package is it size. The Democrats proposed a $3 trillion package, before agreeing to cut a trillion dollars from it.  The Republican's main objection was that some of the money was going to cash-strapped states - mostly Democratic led states - to help them balance budgets that have for years been running a deficit.  In a fit of pique, Mitch McConnel adjourned the Senate and they are now in recess.  Meanwhile, the unemployment supplements had run out at the end of July, and people are really hurting.

Due to the tax cut pushed thru by Trump and the Congress early in the administration plus the usual budget overruns, the United States was $17 trillion in debt at the end of 2019 - roughly 80% of the country's GDP.  At that point analysts predicted the debt would approach 100% by the year 2030.  However, by the end of June of this year, the debt had reached $20.5 trillion.  Or roughly 106% of the GDP.  The debt figures don't include the trillions of dollars the government owes itself in bonds held by Social Security  and Medicare.  And  now Trump is suggesting a tax holiday until the end of the year on these payments, saying the government will pay the deficit out of the general fund in 2021.

As levels of debt held by rich nations, and the US is one of them, have climbed steadily in recent decades, the interest rates have tumbled.  For years the theory had been that the circular form of fiscal finance - where one arm of the government creates the money needed to fund the arm of the government that taxes and spends - would lead to inflation, and loss of confidence in their currency, have been proven false.  It has been replaced with what has been called Modern Monetary Theory.   It  holds that countries which control their own currencies have more leeway to run up deficits without driving up interest rates.

Analysts believe that the United States economy still has some room for another fiscal aid package, even though it is anticipated that Congress will need to borrow an additional $1 trillion before the end of the year.  But instead of freaking out, financial markets are looking at this bottomless need to borrow, with calm assurance.  The interest on the 10-year T-Note, is 0.7%, far below where it was last year, when it was 2%.  And the markets are on target to reach new highs.

The QE program of the United States has been one of the worlds most aggressive, And it has only increased since the 2008 crisis.  Critics said it would lead to disaster and set off a surge of inflation.  But as we know, inflation has stayed well below the benchmark 2%.  This is not to say, it will be this way in the long term.  Look at the price of gold, which investors turn to as a hedge against inflation, it has reached an all-time high of $2000 an ounce, and the dollar has dropped against all major currencies.    

Some studies have shown that high levels of debt -particularly debt-to-GDP ratios - are associated with lower economic growth. But other analysts believe that may not be true.  What is not needed at this time is slower economic growth, as if it could get slower than zero.

But fiscal constraints are not what they were once thought to be.  Apparently, when you have a central bank essentially printing money to fund these deficits, you can take on debt to much higher levels.  Let's hope that they are right.   

                                                            I'm just sayin'        

We Deliver for You

 A few years back, while on our way to Idaho, we were driving thru Montana on I90.  A more desolate road I had never seen.  Miles and miles of nothing but pronghorn antelope and an occasional road sign warning of cattle on the road.  Now and then there would be a driveway that seemed to lead to nowhere.  as far back as you could see on the flat prairie there was nothing, but where the driveway met the highway, there was a mailbox.

When we stopped for lunch, I made mention of that to our waitress.  She gave me the strangest look.  "How would folks get their mail elsewise?"  she replied. "there's no post office 'cept in town twenty miles away."  We were surprised to say the least.

At the time a stamp probably cost thirty-two cents.  That meant I could drop a letter in my mailbox on the street corner in Chicago, and someone would deliver it to a mailbox on I90 in the middle of nowhere.  That was a real bargain, and it still is even though the cost a stamp has gone up twenty cents.

But in fact the Post Office is not in the business of making money, although contrary to popular opinion it does pay its operating expenses.  But due to a ridiculous law imposed by Congress in 2006, the Post Office has to pay into a $72 billion fund for post-retirement health care 75 years into the future.  No other organization, public or private has to meet such a requirement.

There are over 630,000 employees at the United States Postal Service (USPS), and they handle over 146-billion pieces of mail every year.  If you look at the USPS as a retail operation, it is larger than McDonalds and Walmart combined.  Their network stretches across the country from New York City to a mailbox in the Alaskan backcountry, and Hawaii too.

Of all the government agencies the Post Office ranks highest in approval ratings. 91% of Americans approve of the job that it does.  But numbered among its fans is not the president, Donald J. Trump.  Trump's dislike of the Post Office borders on obsession.  it all begins with his dislike of Jeff Bezos and The Washington Post.  Can't make the connection ?   Well, one of the largest users of the postal service is Amazon.   Amazon's CEO is Jeff Bezos, the company has made Bezos the richest man in the world.

Donald Trump despises anyone who is a genius with business acumen, the one thing he said he was, and the one thing that he surely is not.  To say nothing of the Post's unrelenting criticism of Trump's presidency.  To assuage Trump's ego, aides told him that the reason that Amazon is doing so well, is that Bezos made a sweetheart deal with the Post Office.  With no data to back up that allegation, Trump demanded that the Post Office double its rates.  When he was told that he would need Congress to approve that, and that regardless, the contract with Amazon would still stand, Trump began his backdoor attack on the USPS.  

Trump badgered the Postmaster General, Megan Brennan - who began her career as a mail carrier and was the first woman to hold that position - until she announced her resignation. Trump then appointed Louis DeJoy to her position.  DeJoy's greatest qualification for the job was that he had contributed over two million dollars to the GOP since 2016. 

On the premise of streamlining the USPS, and increasing profits, DeJoy began dismantling it.  Guess no one told him that the Post Office was a service of the US government and not a business.  DeJoy began replacing the top executives who had been with the service for years and who knew how to oversee the day-to-day operations.  He reduced or restricted overtime hours, removed postal drop boxes, and was about to begin dismantling a number of the giant mail sorting machines.  Mail carriers were also instructed to leave excess mail at the distribution centers.    An unintended consequence to crippling Amazon deliveries, was Trumps other bug-a-boo, mail-in voting.

For whatever reason, Trump feels that stopping or massively slowing down of absentee ballots will give him a better chance of winning in November.  I guess Republicans only vote in person.  Many of the primary elections this spring exposed the problems of in-person voting during the pandemic.  Many people were afraid of going to the polls, and many of the polls, especially those in predominantly black and poor neighborhoods were closed causing long lines that prohibited social distancing.  Consequently, many people turned to mail-in ballots.  

When the Post Office Centers began sending letters to several states saying that there would be a delay in processing absentee ballots, there was a hue and cry and not just by folks who wanted to vote by mail, but from ordinary citizens who depend on the postal service for delivery of their medications, and Social Security checks.  The VA sends meds, via the mail, to veterans who desperately need those prescriptions.  And wonder of wonders the administration decided that perhaps this wasn't the time to cut services.  Even Trump felt the blow back.   

And now lets go one step further, in addition to protecting the integrity of the Post office, let's expand the USPS mandate.  Let's consider resurrecting postal banking.  Until 1967, the Post office offered limited banking services.  I can remember buying 'war stamps' at the post office, I believe they were twenty-five cents and when you filled your book with stamps you could turn it in for a 'War Bond'.

The Post office offered a savings program also, but the greatest asset to Postal Banking is there will be no need for the predatory "payday lenders".  There are more than 17,000 post offices where there are only one, or no, branch bank locations.  This would give people who currently do not have a bank account, access to banking services; such as direct deposit of their Social Security checks and check cashing capabilities. Today, many countries including France and New Zealand offer postal banking services.  Let's face it, the Post office is the US government's best functioning agency, I think it's time to expand on it.

                                                             I'm just sayin'  

Another day, Another meeting

 Yesterday I had a meeting, it matters not where or about what, because they all start  the same.  Five or six people sitting around a large table, wearing an assortment of masks and observing our social distancing .  This, at least, is better than the usual Zoom meetings of late.  Though both start pretty much the same way.  In days past, and if I try hard, I can remember those days, conversations usually started with a comment about the weather, or the traffic, for lack of anything new to talk about.  Not now!  I miss those days. I miss a lot of things, and that brought up a whole new topic.  What do you miss in these days of COVID-19?

I miss going to the airport, well not actually going to the airport, I miss being able to fly somewhere, anywhere, I don't care where.  If only there were somewhere where I could go. I don't care where.  Somewhere where they would let me in, where they would welcome my money like they used to. But there is nowhere.

I miss going to the door and going out and doing stuff , you know just stuff.  Going without thinking about my mask and my hand sanitizer and my Clorox wipes, and whether this trip is actually necessary. Just what is necessary anyway?  Is saving my sanity necessary?  It didn't have to be necessary before this, I could just go out and then come back, and then go out again.

I miss planning, planning next week, next month, next year.  Writing dates and things to do on my desk calendar, in my phone, on my tablet, and jotting a note in my old fashioned personal date book.  We were so naive when there was a future, when today didn't look like yesterday and yesterday look like tomorrow.  Next year I'm going to.....

I miss elevators, I never take elevators unless my destination is over five flights.  I don't like elevators, I don't like sharing a closed space with strangers, now the thought terrifies me.  If I were on the elevator and some one else got on, would they feel bad if I got off?  What if I were on the tenth floor?  What if there were no empty elevators?  Would I be like Charlie on the MTA?  Unable to ever go home again? Maybe I don't miss elevators.  

I miss public transportation; I don't ride public transportation anymore.  I used to ride it every day.  But if I had to ride it again, I would miss it.  I would miss being jammed in a train, or the 'L' or the bus and not having a seat, and having my nose five inches from the armpit of strap-hanger next to me.  I would miss the groping hands of some pervert whose face I cannot see, just a disembodied hand reaching out to touch someone.

I miss climate change; oh, climate change is still here but no one talks about it anymore.  I miss commiserating on how hot it is, or why we don't get ten feet of snow every winter anymore, or why the butterflies are gone, or why the polar bears don't have enough to eat.  I used to worry about climate change, I miss that. I can't worry about climate change anymore, I don't have time to worry about it, even though all I have is time.

I miss buffets, even though I never went to buffets.  The food looks so good in the ads. But buffets are giant petri dishes of germination, growing bacteria here-to-for never know to man.  I think COVID-19 was hatched, not in the live market, but in a Chinese buffet.  The hot salads are warm, and the cold salads are warmer, and they never tell you what kind of meat is in the casserole.  I don't think buffets will ever come back and I shall miss them.

I miss the time when shopping at the mall was not a safari into unknown territory, and infection and disease weren't lurking in the changing rooms.  Changing rooms were bad enough before, when you risked picking-up a fungus when taking off your shoes to try on a pair of jeans.  I miss not thinking about keying in my pin number after that suspicious looking woman keyed in hers.  When was the last time she washed her hands?

I miss the grocery store where I am always going the wrong way down the aisle, like a salmon swimming upstream.  Why do grocery store now have to have one-way aisles?  I miss smelling the produce to see if it smells like strawberries or smells like cardboard.  You can't smell anything thru a mask.  I miss buying one lemon, instead six in a bag, who needs six lemons?  I miss talking to the checker face to face, but she can't see me smile because I am wearing a mask, and standing on my 'X' six feet away. 

I miss sitting in a bar, not three stools away from anyone, not sharing a laugh, because nothing is funny anymore.  And no one else is allowed in because there are already 25 people in the bar. I miss not checking my glass for spots but then I drink my beer from the bottle, no missing that.  I miss picking a restaurant for the menu and the food, instead of picking one with outside seating.

I miss hugs, at least hugs from family and from friends, and celebratory hugs when your team scores the winning run.  I miss hugs where I don't have to think about who was last hugged by this person.  I never was a hugger, everyone who knows me knows that, but now I miss something that I always took for granted

I miss so much I took for granted, I miss my old life, I miss school, I miss travel, I miss days without a mask, I miss all the little things that made life so beautiful.  But I know one thing, if this horrid thing ever goes away, and life comes back to normal I won't miss a thing.  Until I do.

                                                             I'm just sayin'  

Lies, Damned Lies, and Donald Trump

                                              This true liberty when free born men

                                              Having to advise the public may speak free.

                                              Which he who can, and will, deserv' s high praise

                                              Who neither can, nor will, may hold his peace.

                                              What can be juster in a state than that?

                                                                                       Euripides

This was the opening quote from John Milton's November, 1644 piece, Areopagitica,

which he presented to Parliament in defense of free speech.  It has been quoted many 

times by our Supreme Court in defense of the First Amendment.  Free speech is the

bedrock of the United States, the subject of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

But what good is free speech really?  As of June 1, 2020, our president, Donald Trump,

has told 19,127 lies.  That put him on track to surpass 20,000 lies by the end of his  

term in January 2021.   

In today's 'cancel culture' so many people attempt to shut out speech that goes counter

to their beliefs.  In answer to that, some 153 writers, academics, and journalists signed 

a letter published in Harpers online magazine  denouncing the current climate of

"...intolerance of opposing views".   But tolerance of free speech is great until it comes

up against Alex Jones and his ilk.

Last week the PBS Frontline program dedicated the entire hour to Alex Jones and his media

empire InfoWars.  Beginning with his childhood in Texas, where young Alex was known

as a trouble maker, through his years on a late-night public-access cable TV show, and his 

rise and fall and rise again.  The show opened up with Jones and Roger Stone gleefully 

celebrating Trump's presidential victory in 2016, and taking much of the credit for it.  

Which indeed they had a right to.  

It was Jones and Stone who perpetuated the "pizzagate" conspiracy.  They asserted that 

Hillary Clinton and John Podesta, her campaign manager, were running a child abuse 

ring out of the basement of a pizzeria in Washington D.C.  So convincing was Jones 

portrayal, that one of his faithful followers went to Washington, with a rifle, and fired

numerous rounds into the restaurant.  As incomparable as this may seem, there is a 

history of conspiracy theories that go back to the time of Gilgamesh, of powerful people

gathering in secret to sexually abuse children.  Seems there is nothing new under the sun.

Even before the election, Alex Jones had used his media platform to among other things;

disavow the 9/11 terrorist attacks saying that they were a government 'inside job', spout 

conspiracy theories that there are 'lizard people' walking among us, and that the government

is controlling the weather, and it is using chemicals to turn people gay.  His syndicated  

radio show is popular with young men, unemployed and unemployable, as part of what 

is called 'dude radio'. 

Jones has become very rich mainly from the ads on his programs which generate millions 

of hits and from the sale of a multitude of snake oil quackery lotions and potions, and 

sundry other cheap merchandise made in sweatshops.  But he reached the depths of 

depravity when he went after the families of the Sandy Hook massacre.  Sandy Hook was

the elementary school where 26 people, 20 of them young children, were slaughtered.

Jones claimed it never happened and that it was all a government hoax to impose strict

gun laws on the country, and that the families were actors employed by the government.

This was a bridge too far for even some of his employees who begged him to back off.

His wife divorced him suggesting that he was mentally unstable. His continued hounding

of the mothers and fathers drove some of them into hiding, and destroyed families and 

marriages.  Eventually one father fought back and took Jones to court. and though Jones

pleaded mental illness he lost the case.  The notoriety drove the father into hiding for fear

of his safety.  Despite it all, Jones has retained his celebrity. He is still a powerful influencer,

that was what Roger Stone recognized when he began using Jones as a vehicle to get Donald

Trump elected.  And Donald Trump went along, praising Jones for his support.

It can be accepted that Alex Jones has a dangerous impact on the presidency.  He has 

influenced both Fox News and Donald Trump, much of Trump's veering from one

unsupported claim to another, can be traced back to Jones.  And now the president is

retweeting claims made by the dubious 'doctor' Stella Immanuel, insisting that al- 

though he knows nothing about her, he tweets that she is "very respected".  This is the

same doctor that claims that hydroxychloroquine can cure COVID-19, despite proof it

does not and is dangerous to use without medical supervision.  She also claims that doctors

are using alien DNA to treat patients, and that researchers are developing a vaccine to stop

people from becoming religious.

Because of the 'bully pulpit' both Jones and Immanuel are in a position to cause irreparable

harm to millions of Americans.  Should these persons, and others like them, be tolerated and

be allowed to keep promulgating their dangerous and ignorant views? If we object vociferously

are we demonstrating an 'intolerance of opposing views'?  Is this what the First Amendment 

was written to protect?

                                                            I'm just sayin'

    

Conservative is Not a Dirty Word

I know that conservative is not a dirty word because I am one.  Oh, not a
Goldwater - Bircher conservative but more a Roosevelt conservative.  Yup,
an FDR conservative. the one who believed in a balanced budget and a
hands-off government. It puts me in league with Republican "Never Trumpers",
and those who worked for past Republican presidents; David Frum, Bret Stephens,
and columnists like George Will, Jenifer Rubin and David Brooks.  They don't
moralize as the left does, they can see Donald Trump for what he is; vulgar, coarse,
and far from the conservative he claims to be.  They can see perhaps more than the
far-left, the dangers that this man poses to the nation.

Donald Trump is not a revolutionary, he is a cynic who is bent on destroying the
norms and foundations of government, for his personal gain.  Trump is just a
symptom of what has gone wrong with American Democracy, which for years
has been slanted to the rich, the white, and the male. And activists who rail against
its racism and sexism are to be applauded for working to correct these iniquities.

The liberal Democrats see these problems, but they are less effective at the
propaganda from those on the right.  Liberals, by nature, are more inclined to
compromise, to reason, and to place the good for all before self-interest.
However, a well-reasoned argument is useless against Trump and his minions,
they fail to see, or choose not to see, his failings.

But the convergence of events since the beginning of 2020 has brought Trump's
incompetence to the forefront.  More now than ever, Trump's erratic behavior is
on display.  Lately he is coming to the realization, perhaps at the urging of his
campaign, that the pandemic is not going away, the economy is faltering badly,
and that demonstrations in the major cities are turning the tide against him.

Of all of the three problems plaguing the president, the greatest and most lasting
will be the economy.  The country, and perhaps the world, has been in recession
for the past two months, and as the virus is still running rampant in the United
States, our country is at the brink of a full-blown depression.  The longer the
pandemic is allowed to go on unabated, the closer we come to the precipice.

As of today, July 26, there are 100 days to the election on November 3rd.  The
question now is, can the coalition between these disenchanted Trump voters of
2016 and the Democrats, who are moving to the left, hold long enough to unseat
Trump by a margin great enough to insure a peaceful transfer of power in January?
Will the movement be a tidal wave sufficient enough to take out the Republicans
in the Senate also?  Without that victory, a Democratic presidency will be hobbled
for the next four years. 

Ultra-conservative voters, and I am not one of them , might resist the Democrats move
to European-style social democracy; national health care, progressive taxation, and
an end to social inequities.  But the Never Trumpers may be able to take the party back
from these destructive nationalist zealots.  A coalition of Social Democrats and true 
conservatives is what is needed to return the country to normal.  But what is normal?
When the depression comes, and it is coming, what America will need is another FDR,
a pragmatist, not a left-wing idealist.  Someone who understands that the government is
not the problem but the solution.

Joe Biden has put forth an agenda that incorporates some of the ideas from FDR's New
Deal, principally; strengthening labor unions, large infusions of money for infra-
structure repair and replacement, stock market realignment, and continued monetary relief.
To accomplish this 'wish list' he will need the backing of the Congress.  The current
Republican Senate, led by Mitch McConnel, would stymie any progressive legislation
addressing these programs and much less likely, would be any chance for gun control,
health care, and immigration reform. 

To gain control of the Senate, the Democrats need to gain three or four seats, which at
this time does seem likely.  There are 35 Senate seats up for grabs in November, of
these, 23 are currently held by Republicans and only 12 by Democrats.  Most of the
Republican seats are in safe red states, but there are some Republican seats that are in
play, among these are; Colorado, Arizona, North Carolina, and Maine.  Also, quite
possibly in the mix are Georgia, Montana and Alaska.  The Democrats appear to be
in control of their seats, with the exception of Alabama, where Doug Jones won a
special election only because he was running against Roy Moore, but now must face
Tommy Tuberville.

The Democrats in the House of Representatives should have no problem retaining
their majority, and may even post gains.  Given the state of the country right now,
a Democratic rout looks likely.  But that could turn on a dime; an early vaccine
roll-out, say September or October, a marked recovery in the stock market, a big dip
in unemployment, a gaffe by Joe Biden, or the dreaded October surprise could swing
the election overnight.  Any one of those things could re-energize Trump's base, but
just as likely are Trump's uncontrollable, off-the-wall ramblings casting doubt on
his fitness to serve a second term.

The year 2021 may be the year when a socialistic government may have to step in
again to save capitalism.  The Never Trumpers may reluctantly come to that
conclusion, and neither they, nor the Bernie backers would be happy with that outcome.
And in the long run that may be the best argument for it.

                                                     I'm just sayin'