AN AMERICAN FAIRY TALE  WE'RE IN THE MIDST of a perilous fairy tale, and the worst part is that it’s the Democrats who are falling for it. It goes this way: Once upon a time in the Kingdom there was a terrific president. This president - we'll call him Joey - was everything you could ask for in a Main Guy. Joey was kind and capable, and he accomplished a great many wonderful things that improved the lives of the citizens of the Kingdom, although the citizens seemed hardly to notice. In 2020, he drove out an Evil Prince from the White House, and that was a particularly big deal, because the Prince was not only a clownish nitwit, but was, at his core, a racist and cruel fiend. Joey appointed capable, smart people to his cabinet, and got the Kingdom running on an even keel, approaching the kind of government that the citizens of the Kingdom long had taken for granted, therefore gave Joey little credit for this stunning achievement. Joey made good on his pledges to address climate change, improve the economy, and champion long-held values like being absolutely opposed to the use of of military-grade rifles to murder children for going to school. Joey came to the rescue of Ukraine after it was invaded by a Russian bully, who was a great pal, if not the actual puppet master, of the Evil Prince, and he got a lot of Western countries to supply weapons, training and advice that helped Ukrainians resist the bully. BUT LIKE ALL FAIRY TALES, this one has a dark side. While unquestionably advanced politically, Joey also was quite advanced in his years, having reached category of what commonly known as being an "old fella," an "elderly guy," a "geezer," and an "80-years-young codger." Joey continued to get older and older and older, day after day after day. This worried a great many people, including Joey’s stanchest supporters, who were some of the Kingdom’s most kindly, compassionate and caring citizens, often referred to as Democrats. Like everyone in the Kingdom, these Democrats were quite familiar with people who were 80 or more in their years, in fact, they had witnessed what actually happens with advancing years, a story that always ends the same disappointing way. And in lots of cases, prior to death, oldsters became mentally and physically disabled as their bodies and brains wore out, like a '67 Corvettes that's been around too many blocks, too many times. But Joey ignored all of this and for both patriotic and egotistical reasons, he decided to seek another four-year term. The Democrats took immediate steps: they worried, fretted and agonized endlessly about Joey’s advancing age. And did nothing about it. THERE IS A GOOD FAIRY in this tale. She/he also was a worrier, but like all Good Fairies, preferred action to fretting and agonizing, and thus dispatched a case-in-point to Democrats, an actual a member of the United State's Senate, a body which the Kingdom inaccurately referred to as “The Upper Chamber.” We’ll call this emissary “Diane.” She was 89 in her years and had had an inspiring history as a political reformer and progressive, serving many terms in the Upper Chamber. But recently, she had not been at the Senate for months, because of a painful affliction called shingles and its effects.  Suffice it to say when Diane finally got back to the Kingdom’s capital, her condition was even worse than feared. Her appearance was described by one of the nation’s leading heralds of unwelcome news, the New York Times, and it was upsetting just to read:
Using a wheelchair, with the left side of her face frozen and one eye nearly shut, she seemed disoriented as an aide steered her through the marble corridors of the Senate, complaining audibly that something was stuck in her eye. It gets worse, Jim Newell, another herald of bad tidings, in this case for Slate, told of a "conversation" that he and another reporter had with Diane; Newell asked how she was feeling, and she said: “Oh, I’m feeling fine. I have a problem with the leg.” A fellow reporter staking out the (Capitol) elevator asked what was wrong with the leg. “Well, nothing that’s anyone concern but mine,” she said. When the fellow reporter asked her what the response from her colleagues had been like since her return, though, the conversation took an odd turn. “No, I haven’t been gone,” she said. "OK." “You should follow the—I haven’t been gone. I’ve been working.” When asked whether she meant that she’d been working from home, she turned feisty. “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please. You either know or don’t know.” Plainly, and avoiding evasions and euphemisms favored in both fairy tales and the Upper Chamber, Diane didn’t know whether she was coming or going. Not Diane’s fault. We all get there sooner or later. A least the Good Fairy tried to alert the Democrats to the folly of magical thinking that pretended that that age doesn’t matter and presidents live happily ever after. FAIRY TALES ARE SUPPOSED TO END with a moral, such not letting the wolf in through the front door, or avoiding the temptation of eating someone else's porridge, although it’s apparently okay lose one or more shoes after the dance or to kiss a frog. The moral of this story is that it's going to end badly unless Democrats stop pretending that it’s okay to have a president who's 80 and more, and that just because nothing has gone wrong for him so far, that things will continue to do so for the next five years. It won't. Wishful thinking is ridiculous thinking. Sooner or later – and I’m betting on sooner, because I'm Joey's age and every couple of months I've been writing remembrances about more and more of my contemporaries – a crisis will develop, and the Kingdom’s kind, compassionate and caring Democrats are going to have to find a replacement for Joey. Anticipating this before it actually happens is a two-step process:
Competent, realistic and tough-minded Democrats need to step forward and present themselves as alternatives to Joey. And persuade the country that there are plenty of other potential Main Guys and Main Gals throughout the Kingdom. If you want some names - everybody keeps asking me for names, since I've written this sort of essay many times - I've attached a list of people, many of whom are still a mystery to most of us, but who, when you start to think about it, are credible. The fact that most of us know little or nothing about Joey alternatives is my best argument for Joey getting out of the way so people can become familiar with his possible replacements. Frightening forces, known as Republicans, are afoot in the Kingdom. Sadly, we've reached a point in our history where every election is a crisis. As the Evil Prince has demonstrated, the Constitution has flaws, half the electorate feels some kinship to the Evil Prince, and that's why we are only one election away from catastrophe. Consider what's at stake: climate catastrophe; an American dictatorship committed to discrimination by race, religion, gender and national origin; economic inequality; censorship; biased courts; and the rest of the Republican agenda. The sad fact is that this story is never going to have a happy ending unless Democrats get serious about fairy tales, stop pretending Joe is going to live forever, offer their sincere thanks for his exemplary service, and then gently guide him out of the Oval Office and in this way, save the Kingdom. * * * DEMOCRATS WHO COULD BE PRESIDENT Ranked by age, which isn't a factor for any of them - they are all youngsters in Democratic standards - and any of them might do a credible job. I've supplied a similar list in previous writings, which have been pretty much based on the same theme. This one is plucked from a recent Washington Post roundup:
Feel free to add some of names of your own. Time's a-wasting.
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JACK MONAGHAN |
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At another point in the memoir, Fraser recounts the appearance in the newsroom of an organized crime enforcer named Dickie Callei, accompanied by his lawyer, a state legislator and future chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Joseph A. Bevilacqua.
Fraser gives two versions of what Callei wanted from the paper. Jack’s was that Callei was upset that the paper wasn’t using enough of his criminal record, which he wanted known so as to scare his targets.
Fraser gives two versions of what Callei wanted from the paper. Jack’s was that Callei was upset that the paper wasn’t using enough of his criminal record, which he wanted known so as to scare his targets.
| He (Monaghan) called Bevilacqua to his desk. “Get this thug out of here,” he told the lawmaker. They left. But Callei came back that afternoon. “Now, I'm going to die,” Monaghan thought. Callie walked up to his desk. And apologized. “Sorry about this morning,” he said. |
THE SLAUGHTER ENDS WHEN N0-GUN WIMPS (LIKE ME) SAY: 'NO MORE!'
HOW DO WE STOP the gun madness?
By saying “enough” to guns and the people who own them.
We need to stop being so polite, so understanding, so deferential, so respectful of guns and people who are crazy about them.
I’m talking not just about folks with AR-15s who need them for their killing sprees at the mall, the synagogue, the Third Grade, the country music festival, the driveway, the home of a neighbor the gunman thinks is too noisy or the home of a neighbor who thinks the gunman is too noisy.
I mean everybody who has a gun of any sort for any reason: a small caliber squirrel gun; a shotgun for duck-hunting; a scoped rifle to kill Bambi in the name of better forestry management; the family heirloom musket over the fireplace or the just-in-case Smith & Wesson on the bedside table.
The killings will stop when the rest of us decide guns don’t belong in our homes.
I KNOW HOW RIDICULOUS this sounds.
Absurd and impractical. I know that.
There are too many guns and too many people who are devoted to guns to think they’ll simply go away – ever.
Guns are too deeply woven into our lives and our culture to believe that attitudes will suddenly change. Then there’s that Constitutional “right” to kill 48,830 people a year.
But change has happened to other things that kill us.
I’m thinking cigarettes.
At one time, smoking was a part of everyday life, and non-smokers were a huge part of the problem.
Non-smokers in the bad old days were extraordinarily conciliatory to the cigarette crowd, so understanding of their addiction, so accommodating to their habits, so respectful of their “rights.”
Hate the smoke; suffer the smokers.
Even in non-smoking homes, thoughtful hosts rushed for ashtrays that were always at the ready in case a visitor asked "Okay if I light up?"
No longer.
Who wants a friend who's killing himself while putting your life in jeopardy?
Today, the only smokers you see now are in black-and-white movies.
Just 11 percent of adults smoke, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says, compared to 42 percent in the 1960s.
LET ME REPEAT: I understand what I’m saying is nuts.
Worse, I have absolutely no idea what specific steps will finally put guns on America’s cultural trash heap – just that someday, that’s where guns will end up.
It won’t happen overnight, and certainly not in my lifetime, although that's not saying much, since I’m 80.
It won’t happen with a sudden attack on the people who own guns, or with a “Shame On U” bumper sticker or with a pithy personal insight: “You are a despicable child-murder-in-waiting, you creepy monster gun nut."
Just as happened with cigarettes, guns will become so despised by so many people that almost anyone we know simply won’t want them.
But first, we have to identify the culprits.
I SUSPECT most of us feel that the problem with guns is the people who own guns. Which is true, sort of. But there's a problem, too, with the rest of us who have little or nothing to do with guns.
We are the “Un-Gunned.” And we're wimps, just like the Gunned people say we are.
We are afraid of hurting the feelings of, and eventually becoming estranged from, the people who own guns. Gun owners are our fathers, sisters, aunts, best friends, fellow gym rats, neighbors, worshipers in the next pew, electricians, uncles and our neurosurgeons.
We think we should be inclusive – especially in a democracy.
Big mistake.
The other day, I was looking at the website of the Brady organization. That’s the outfit that works to stop gun violence and is named for the late Jim Brady, the press secretary who was severely wounded in 1981 when an assassin tried to kill President Ronald Reagan.
Here's what the group has to say about gun owners:
“Brady acknowledges the important role that responsible gun owners play in our communities. Gun owners are an essential part of preventing gun violence.”
That sounds so reasonable, so inclusive, so insightful, so coalition-building.
And it's so absolutely, completely and totally absurd.
Can you imagine the American Lung Association posting something similar:
“We acknowledge the important role that responsible smokers play in our communities. Smokers are an essential part of preventing cancer."
There is no such thing as a responsible smoker.
And no such thing as a responsible gun owner.
Want to stop the killing? Get rid of the guns.
How? Get gun owners to wish away their arsenals.
We can’t take their guns away.
But we can make owning a gun a terrible thing, a thing of shame, something that people just don't want to do.
LET US COUNT the obstacles.
It’s a cliché to say there are more guns in the United States than people.
A group called “American Gun Facts” puts the number of guns at 466 million; the population is 334 million.
This means that if you placed an AR-15 in every baby's crib; put a shotgun in every student’s backpack; stocked every maximum security cell with a Beretta; and made sure that that every nursing home complied with Medicare’s “packing heat” requirements, there would still be plenty of guns.
About 30 percent of U.S. adults owns at least one gun, according to the Pew Research Center; another 11 percent of people told Pew that while they don’t own a gun, someone else in their house does. About one-third of gun owners say they have at least least five.
Why?
For work.
For collecting.
For sport.
For hunting.
For protection, which is Reason Number One.
I understand Reason Number One.
I’m a scaredy cat. I can imagine that if I was traumatized by crime, felt someone was out to get me or my family and knowing that the cops might not be around when it counts, I’d be first in line at Don's Good Guys' Guns Ammo and Camo Last Stop.
All of us are so stupid about guns.
BUT WE DON'T have to be stupid forever.
Take drunk driving.
When I was growing up, drunk driving was celebrated; it was the subject of epic tales of wild rides on hairpin mountain roads, unimaginable close-calls with the cops, near collisions with un-drunk drivers, heroic Odysseys limited only by the raconteurs' impaired recall.
Eventually, dead people’s mothers got MADD; and now drunk driving is not just against the law, it’s a cultural sin.
I mean people still do it; but no one defends drunk drivers unless they are paid to, and no one is proposing a Constitutional right to drive drunk.
ONE DAY, having a gun in the house will be considered just as dangerous as having a pack of cigarettes on the kitchen counter or an empty six-pack in the front seat.
Someday, lock-down drills to survive school shootings will be ancient history, just like duck-and-cover drills to survive nuclear war.
Someday it will be safer to go to school, go shopping, turn into the wrong driveway, ring the wrong doorbell, have an argument with your spouse or to ask a neighbor to lower the noise so the baby can sleep.
Someday, enough Americans will get angry enough about guns.
"Seriously. You own a gun?"
By saying “enough” to guns and the people who own them.
We need to stop being so polite, so understanding, so deferential, so respectful of guns and people who are crazy about them.
I’m talking not just about folks with AR-15s who need them for their killing sprees at the mall, the synagogue, the Third Grade, the country music festival, the driveway, the home of a neighbor the gunman thinks is too noisy or the home of a neighbor who thinks the gunman is too noisy.
I mean everybody who has a gun of any sort for any reason: a small caliber squirrel gun; a shotgun for duck-hunting; a scoped rifle to kill Bambi in the name of better forestry management; the family heirloom musket over the fireplace or the just-in-case Smith & Wesson on the bedside table.
The killings will stop when the rest of us decide guns don’t belong in our homes.
I KNOW HOW RIDICULOUS this sounds.
Absurd and impractical. I know that.
There are too many guns and too many people who are devoted to guns to think they’ll simply go away – ever.
Guns are too deeply woven into our lives and our culture to believe that attitudes will suddenly change. Then there’s that Constitutional “right” to kill 48,830 people a year.
But change has happened to other things that kill us.
I’m thinking cigarettes.
At one time, smoking was a part of everyday life, and non-smokers were a huge part of the problem.
Non-smokers in the bad old days were extraordinarily conciliatory to the cigarette crowd, so understanding of their addiction, so accommodating to their habits, so respectful of their “rights.”
Hate the smoke; suffer the smokers.
Even in non-smoking homes, thoughtful hosts rushed for ashtrays that were always at the ready in case a visitor asked "Okay if I light up?"
No longer.
Who wants a friend who's killing himself while putting your life in jeopardy?
Today, the only smokers you see now are in black-and-white movies.
Just 11 percent of adults smoke, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says, compared to 42 percent in the 1960s.
LET ME REPEAT: I understand what I’m saying is nuts.
Worse, I have absolutely no idea what specific steps will finally put guns on America’s cultural trash heap – just that someday, that’s where guns will end up.
It won’t happen overnight, and certainly not in my lifetime, although that's not saying much, since I’m 80.
It won’t happen with a sudden attack on the people who own guns, or with a “Shame On U” bumper sticker or with a pithy personal insight: “You are a despicable child-murder-in-waiting, you creepy monster gun nut."
Just as happened with cigarettes, guns will become so despised by so many people that almost anyone we know simply won’t want them.
But first, we have to identify the culprits.
I SUSPECT most of us feel that the problem with guns is the people who own guns. Which is true, sort of. But there's a problem, too, with the rest of us who have little or nothing to do with guns.
We are the “Un-Gunned.” And we're wimps, just like the Gunned people say we are.
We are afraid of hurting the feelings of, and eventually becoming estranged from, the people who own guns. Gun owners are our fathers, sisters, aunts, best friends, fellow gym rats, neighbors, worshipers in the next pew, electricians, uncles and our neurosurgeons.
We think we should be inclusive – especially in a democracy.
Big mistake.
The other day, I was looking at the website of the Brady organization. That’s the outfit that works to stop gun violence and is named for the late Jim Brady, the press secretary who was severely wounded in 1981 when an assassin tried to kill President Ronald Reagan.
Here's what the group has to say about gun owners:
“Brady acknowledges the important role that responsible gun owners play in our communities. Gun owners are an essential part of preventing gun violence.”
That sounds so reasonable, so inclusive, so insightful, so coalition-building.
And it's so absolutely, completely and totally absurd.
Can you imagine the American Lung Association posting something similar:
“We acknowledge the important role that responsible smokers play in our communities. Smokers are an essential part of preventing cancer."
There is no such thing as a responsible smoker.
And no such thing as a responsible gun owner.
Want to stop the killing? Get rid of the guns.
How? Get gun owners to wish away their arsenals.
We can’t take their guns away.
But we can make owning a gun a terrible thing, a thing of shame, something that people just don't want to do.
LET US COUNT the obstacles.
It’s a cliché to say there are more guns in the United States than people.
A group called “American Gun Facts” puts the number of guns at 466 million; the population is 334 million.
This means that if you placed an AR-15 in every baby's crib; put a shotgun in every student’s backpack; stocked every maximum security cell with a Beretta; and made sure that that every nursing home complied with Medicare’s “packing heat” requirements, there would still be plenty of guns.
About 30 percent of U.S. adults owns at least one gun, according to the Pew Research Center; another 11 percent of people told Pew that while they don’t own a gun, someone else in their house does. About one-third of gun owners say they have at least least five.
Why?
For work.
For collecting.
For sport.
For hunting.
For protection, which is Reason Number One.
I understand Reason Number One.
I’m a scaredy cat. I can imagine that if I was traumatized by crime, felt someone was out to get me or my family and knowing that the cops might not be around when it counts, I’d be first in line at Don's Good Guys' Guns Ammo and Camo Last Stop.
All of us are so stupid about guns.
BUT WE DON'T have to be stupid forever.
Take drunk driving.
When I was growing up, drunk driving was celebrated; it was the subject of epic tales of wild rides on hairpin mountain roads, unimaginable close-calls with the cops, near collisions with un-drunk drivers, heroic Odysseys limited only by the raconteurs' impaired recall.
Eventually, dead people’s mothers got MADD; and now drunk driving is not just against the law, it’s a cultural sin.
I mean people still do it; but no one defends drunk drivers unless they are paid to, and no one is proposing a Constitutional right to drive drunk.
ONE DAY, having a gun in the house will be considered just as dangerous as having a pack of cigarettes on the kitchen counter or an empty six-pack in the front seat.
Someday, lock-down drills to survive school shootings will be ancient history, just like duck-and-cover drills to survive nuclear war.
Someday it will be safer to go to school, go shopping, turn into the wrong driveway, ring the wrong doorbell, have an argument with your spouse or to ask a neighbor to lower the noise so the baby can sleep.
Someday, enough Americans will get angry enough about guns.
"Seriously. You own a gun?"
WILL JOE BIDEN'S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
BE THE SPEECH OF MY DREAMS?
PRESIDENT JO BIDEN PHOTO CREDIT: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons license
JOE BIDEN'S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT about his future - and ours - is supposed to be Tuesday.
Because I’m a big fan of the president, here’s what I’m looking for:
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will do something extraordinarily presidential: he’ll say that he’s not going to run for a second term.
“I’m too old,” Biden will tell the country.
“Right now, I’m doing great,” the president will say.
“But, folks, let’s face facts. I’m 80. And just like my dad used to say: ‘Joey ….’ “Actually, I don’t think either my Dad or my Mom had much to say about what happens when you get really old.”
I'm guessing that Biden didn’t get much guidance because getting old is the last thing anyone wants to think about, much less talk about or do anything about. Getting old is a wretched subject, and so is its nasty corollary, death.
People put off writing their wills, saving for retirement or writing down what the want, or don't want done, to them if they get desperately sick.
It makes sense. The purpose of life is life. The whole idea, Job One, is to stay alive.
And for those of us lucky enough to have had terrific and long lives, living as we've known it is not about giving up.
Since I’m Biden’s age , this is one subject on which I actually know what I’m talking about.
Now, let's see ... where we?
Oh, yes, Joe Biden's big video.
Because I’m a big fan of the president, here’s what I’m looking for:
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. will do something extraordinarily presidential: he’ll say that he’s not going to run for a second term.
“I’m too old,” Biden will tell the country.
“Right now, I’m doing great,” the president will say.
“But, folks, let’s face facts. I’m 80. And just like my dad used to say: ‘Joey ….’ “Actually, I don’t think either my Dad or my Mom had much to say about what happens when you get really old.”
I'm guessing that Biden didn’t get much guidance because getting old is the last thing anyone wants to think about, much less talk about or do anything about. Getting old is a wretched subject, and so is its nasty corollary, death.
People put off writing their wills, saving for retirement or writing down what the want, or don't want done, to them if they get desperately sick.
It makes sense. The purpose of life is life. The whole idea, Job One, is to stay alive.
And for those of us lucky enough to have had terrific and long lives, living as we've known it is not about giving up.
Since I’m Biden’s age , this is one subject on which I actually know what I’m talking about.
Now, let's see ... where we?
Oh, yes, Joe Biden's big video.
FOR STARTERS, when you're 80 and relatively healthy, you don’t think you really are 80.
Your brain thinks you can still do all of the things that you used to do. You can move furniture. Stay up late. Go for a run. Dash up and down the stairs. Get out of bed early. Pay attention. Drive eight hours without a break. Twirl. Skip. Hop. Remember things - don’t ask what things - just things.
And you realize how much you love all that you do. Why would you want to give up driving? Holding your great granddaughter? Why stop working, running, walking, kayaking across the bay, baking carbohydrate-rich desserts, sawing down a 50-year-old tree, sitting in the living room with your wife watching bottom-ranked Southampton hold top-ranked Arsenal to a 3-3 tie?
Now, imagine that you are Joe Biden, and you are President of the United States, the commander-in-chief, the Boss.
You live rent free in a relatively big mansion that comes with a huge workforce that’s really good at what they do: all the vacuuming, cooking, mowing the grass, driving the car, parking the car, getting people on the phone for you, playing music just because you walk into a room, flying you around in one of the world’s biggest, best airplanes. And all you have to do for that is practically nothing.
WELL, NOT NOTHING. Just on your say so, you decide whether people can have enough to eat, have a home, breathe fresh air, pay for college, walk into a doctor’s office. And you have at least some say on whether the oceans rise or fall, and whether the planet does its Biblical fire and brimstone thing.
And there’s more; If you can remember the “codes,” you can blow another country to smithereens. You decide whether one country can fight off the invaders, and another can't. You decide who crosses the border, whether some sacred mountain should be a park and whether the Department of Justice lives up to its name.
You’d have to be crazy to give all that up - or a patriot .
PLUS, IF YOU ARE JOE BIDEN, you have a burden that no other one-term president in history has had to consider: Donald John Trump.
Even though he is a treasonous, seditious psychopath, a cheat, a bully, a pants-on-fire liar, a racist, an accused rapist and a misogynist – Donald Trump is, at this moment the likely Republican candidate in 2024, which makes it conceivable, even though it’s absolutely inconceivable , that he could be the next president of the United States. He did it once and could again.
So, the logical thing that the 80-year-old brain wants to do – and it’s not crazy, far-fetched or selfish – is to say on Tuesday: "My Fellow Americans, the future of the United States of America rests on my shoulders. These shoulders, Mr. and Mrs. America, may be weak and feeble – and they are: the joints may need to go to the machine shop every so often; there's a little sag I wish wasn't there. But the sad fact is that my shoulders are the only shoulders available."
BUT IN MY DREAM, Biden says this:
“Folks, let’s be honest: the idea that I, Joe Biden, and only I, Joe Biden, can save the country, that’s a bunch of malarkey.
"If the future of the greatest democracy in the history depends on one 80-year-old man who needs to speak to you via a video, so he can get through his speech without his flunkies having to spend the next 24 hours cleaning up after him, clarifying, explaining, denying he said what he actually said, then we don’t have much of a a democracy.
“I know I beat Donald Trump the last time,” Biden could say.
“But that was the last time. Maybe I could do it again; maybe I couldn’t. I’m not doing great in the opinion polls. Beats me why not. I RESCUED the freaking Soul of America, and I’ve done a knockout job putting the country back on its feet, getting the government functioning on some sort of sane, normal level, and I've been doing amazing things, like reshaping the entire automobile industry so that sometime, a lot of us could be driving electric cars.
“And let’s say that I do win. I’ll be second guessed every minute of every day for the next four years, at the end of which, God willing, I'll be 86 years old. Every word I say, every move I make, every breath I take will be viewed by just one standard: Is Joey too old? If I garble my lines, dribble my oatmeal, stumble getting on or off Air Force One, if I have one Bad Day – And isn’t it the God-given right of every American to have at least one Bad Day? – will you be asking, just like my Dad used to put it: ‘Joey, are you getting soft upstairs?’ “
“No thanks. I’m not going to put you, the country, through that. Come noon, Jan. 20, 2025, I’m outta here. And if I can pass my diver’s license in the state of Delaware, there’s a '67 Corvette Stingray waiting for me in a garage, buried under some boxes marked Top Secret.”
Your brain thinks you can still do all of the things that you used to do. You can move furniture. Stay up late. Go for a run. Dash up and down the stairs. Get out of bed early. Pay attention. Drive eight hours without a break. Twirl. Skip. Hop. Remember things - don’t ask what things - just things.
And you realize how much you love all that you do. Why would you want to give up driving? Holding your great granddaughter? Why stop working, running, walking, kayaking across the bay, baking carbohydrate-rich desserts, sawing down a 50-year-old tree, sitting in the living room with your wife watching bottom-ranked Southampton hold top-ranked Arsenal to a 3-3 tie?
Now, imagine that you are Joe Biden, and you are President of the United States, the commander-in-chief, the Boss.
You live rent free in a relatively big mansion that comes with a huge workforce that’s really good at what they do: all the vacuuming, cooking, mowing the grass, driving the car, parking the car, getting people on the phone for you, playing music just because you walk into a room, flying you around in one of the world’s biggest, best airplanes. And all you have to do for that is practically nothing.
WELL, NOT NOTHING. Just on your say so, you decide whether people can have enough to eat, have a home, breathe fresh air, pay for college, walk into a doctor’s office. And you have at least some say on whether the oceans rise or fall, and whether the planet does its Biblical fire and brimstone thing.
And there’s more; If you can remember the “codes,” you can blow another country to smithereens. You decide whether one country can fight off the invaders, and another can't. You decide who crosses the border, whether some sacred mountain should be a park and whether the Department of Justice lives up to its name.
You’d have to be crazy to give all that up - or a patriot .
PLUS, IF YOU ARE JOE BIDEN, you have a burden that no other one-term president in history has had to consider: Donald John Trump.
Even though he is a treasonous, seditious psychopath, a cheat, a bully, a pants-on-fire liar, a racist, an accused rapist and a misogynist – Donald Trump is, at this moment the likely Republican candidate in 2024, which makes it conceivable, even though it’s absolutely inconceivable , that he could be the next president of the United States. He did it once and could again.
So, the logical thing that the 80-year-old brain wants to do – and it’s not crazy, far-fetched or selfish – is to say on Tuesday: "My Fellow Americans, the future of the United States of America rests on my shoulders. These shoulders, Mr. and Mrs. America, may be weak and feeble – and they are: the joints may need to go to the machine shop every so often; there's a little sag I wish wasn't there. But the sad fact is that my shoulders are the only shoulders available."
BUT IN MY DREAM, Biden says this:
“Folks, let’s be honest: the idea that I, Joe Biden, and only I, Joe Biden, can save the country, that’s a bunch of malarkey.
"If the future of the greatest democracy in the history depends on one 80-year-old man who needs to speak to you via a video, so he can get through his speech without his flunkies having to spend the next 24 hours cleaning up after him, clarifying, explaining, denying he said what he actually said, then we don’t have much of a a democracy.
“I know I beat Donald Trump the last time,” Biden could say.
“But that was the last time. Maybe I could do it again; maybe I couldn’t. I’m not doing great in the opinion polls. Beats me why not. I RESCUED the freaking Soul of America, and I’ve done a knockout job putting the country back on its feet, getting the government functioning on some sort of sane, normal level, and I've been doing amazing things, like reshaping the entire automobile industry so that sometime, a lot of us could be driving electric cars.
“And let’s say that I do win. I’ll be second guessed every minute of every day for the next four years, at the end of which, God willing, I'll be 86 years old. Every word I say, every move I make, every breath I take will be viewed by just one standard: Is Joey too old? If I garble my lines, dribble my oatmeal, stumble getting on or off Air Force One, if I have one Bad Day – And isn’t it the God-given right of every American to have at least one Bad Day? – will you be asking, just like my Dad used to put it: ‘Joey, are you getting soft upstairs?’ “
“No thanks. I’m not going to put you, the country, through that. Come noon, Jan. 20, 2025, I’m outta here. And if I can pass my diver’s license in the state of Delaware, there’s a '67 Corvette Stingray waiting for me in a garage, buried under some boxes marked Top Secret.”
"LISTEN, FOLKS, I love being president. I think – I know – that I’ve done a great job. But I don’t want the country to be at risk because I refuse, just like lots of my fellow Americans, to face facts. And one of those facts is, as my dad used to say: ‘Joey, none of us gets out of here alive.”
In the video, and spelled out in my dreams in a lengthy, historic essay that takes up both pages of the New York Times editorial section, Biden explains why a second term would be too risky and just plain wrong for democracy.
“Let me be straight with you – and don’t misinterpret my use of that word, because I believe in gay rights; one of my top cabinet secretaries happens to be what my Dad used call – well, skip that – and he would make a crackerjack candidate to say nothing of a president – do you want someone running the country who’s just been rushed to Walter Reed Hospital for who knows what?
"Do you want somebody as president whom you suspect should be tested for dementia; who’s just tripped on the Oval Office rug; or who one day when the sun is shining, the grass is green, Southwest's jets are on time and everything seems to be hunky-dory, simply drops dead?”
“Then fine. Take your chances; spin the wheel; flip a coin. Lots of people do just perfectly well in their 80s. Not everyone falls at a hotel like Mitch McConnell,81, and disappears from the U.S. Senate for weeks; or are like Dianne Feinstein, 89, who gets shingles and disappears from the Senate Judiciary Committee for god knows how long.
"But if you care about your country, why take extra and unnecessary chances? So, I’ll be the best president I can be for the next one-and-a-half years – I think that’s how long I’ve got (I should have had somebody look that up.)
“The rest is up to you. Pick the best man or woman you can find – he or she MUST be a Democrat, because the Republicans are deranged - no exaggeration. And let’s say the GOP candidate is one Donald John Trump, because if I could beat him, and I did, any decent Democrat can do the same.
“I hope.”
In the video, and spelled out in my dreams in a lengthy, historic essay that takes up both pages of the New York Times editorial section, Biden explains why a second term would be too risky and just plain wrong for democracy.
“Let me be straight with you – and don’t misinterpret my use of that word, because I believe in gay rights; one of my top cabinet secretaries happens to be what my Dad used call – well, skip that – and he would make a crackerjack candidate to say nothing of a president – do you want someone running the country who’s just been rushed to Walter Reed Hospital for who knows what?
"Do you want somebody as president whom you suspect should be tested for dementia; who’s just tripped on the Oval Office rug; or who one day when the sun is shining, the grass is green, Southwest's jets are on time and everything seems to be hunky-dory, simply drops dead?”
“Then fine. Take your chances; spin the wheel; flip a coin. Lots of people do just perfectly well in their 80s. Not everyone falls at a hotel like Mitch McConnell,81, and disappears from the U.S. Senate for weeks; or are like Dianne Feinstein, 89, who gets shingles and disappears from the Senate Judiciary Committee for god knows how long.
"But if you care about your country, why take extra and unnecessary chances? So, I’ll be the best president I can be for the next one-and-a-half years – I think that’s how long I’ve got (I should have had somebody look that up.)
“The rest is up to you. Pick the best man or woman you can find – he or she MUST be a Democrat, because the Republicans are deranged - no exaggeration. And let’s say the GOP candidate is one Donald John Trump, because if I could beat him, and I did, any decent Democrat can do the same.
“I hope.”
WHAT TO DO ABOUT FLORIDA:
BOYCOTT? OR MOVE IN?
HERE'S some bad news for Ron DeSantis.
Two of my friends are coming to Florida.
Which is DeSantis’ worst nightmare: good people moving to what he is turning into a bad place.
Our friends are not getting a home in Florida because they are crusaders, determined to change Florida. It’s just that they like the place. They have a community of good friends there, and of course, they know that Florida is The Sunshine State.
That said, you can expect our friends – Northeasterners by birth and longtime residence – to vote Blue and to lend a hand to this or that progressive cause.
Of course their arrival will not make much of a difference. It would be silly to think that just two folks - nice and accomplished as these people are - can reverse the dystopia that the DeSantisans are hurrying to install.
But my friends will alter Florida’s moral ecology.
Not by much; just a smidgen.
Which is enough to make a change in Florida. That’s what it takes: Good people from “away” moving in. And good, people already there, staying put.
THIS IS THE OPPOSITE of the remedy that usually comes to mind: BOYCOTT!
In fact, I’m not aware there is much of a Florida boycott underway. I’ve heard the idea discussed enthusiastically on one radio talk show; but that was broadcast out of Boston, so it doesn’t count. To the contrary, according to census data, more folks are arriving in Florida than are staying away or moving out.
Still, there's that dreadful word, “Florida,” which creates an instant flight-don’t-fight response.
Stay out.
Hide your wallet. Move your spring training camp to Guam. Get your oranges somewhere else. Visit the Grand Canyon. Do whatever you must to shrink, strangle, starve and shrivel that evil economy.
Boycott, if you value your life and those of your kids.
Did you hear the governor declare that Florida is “Where Woke Goes to Die?” You did. So hit the trail. Go somewhere else, anywhere else. Head for Hawaii. Driving south on I 95? Make U-turn. Run for your life.
Most of us do not want to ban books.
We do not want to bully transgender kids. We do not want to black out Black history. We do not want to give mass murderers easier access to rifles. We do not want to scare college presidents into defunding campus diversity programs. We do not want to make capital punishment easier. We don’t want to ban abortion or to give Covid a fighting chance.
Best to stay away.
And boycotts sometimes do work – the grape boycott of the 1960s advanced Cesar Chavez’s farm workers’ movement – and it’s something that every one of us can do: vote with our dollars, keep our money away from an outlaw economy.
Two of my friends are coming to Florida.
Which is DeSantis’ worst nightmare: good people moving to what he is turning into a bad place.
Our friends are not getting a home in Florida because they are crusaders, determined to change Florida. It’s just that they like the place. They have a community of good friends there, and of course, they know that Florida is The Sunshine State.
That said, you can expect our friends – Northeasterners by birth and longtime residence – to vote Blue and to lend a hand to this or that progressive cause.
Of course their arrival will not make much of a difference. It would be silly to think that just two folks - nice and accomplished as these people are - can reverse the dystopia that the DeSantisans are hurrying to install.
But my friends will alter Florida’s moral ecology.
Not by much; just a smidgen.
Which is enough to make a change in Florida. That’s what it takes: Good people from “away” moving in. And good, people already there, staying put.
THIS IS THE OPPOSITE of the remedy that usually comes to mind: BOYCOTT!
In fact, I’m not aware there is much of a Florida boycott underway. I’ve heard the idea discussed enthusiastically on one radio talk show; but that was broadcast out of Boston, so it doesn’t count. To the contrary, according to census data, more folks are arriving in Florida than are staying away or moving out.
Still, there's that dreadful word, “Florida,” which creates an instant flight-don’t-fight response.
Stay out.
Hide your wallet. Move your spring training camp to Guam. Get your oranges somewhere else. Visit the Grand Canyon. Do whatever you must to shrink, strangle, starve and shrivel that evil economy.
Boycott, if you value your life and those of your kids.
Did you hear the governor declare that Florida is “Where Woke Goes to Die?” You did. So hit the trail. Go somewhere else, anywhere else. Head for Hawaii. Driving south on I 95? Make U-turn. Run for your life.
Most of us do not want to ban books.
We do not want to bully transgender kids. We do not want to black out Black history. We do not want to give mass murderers easier access to rifles. We do not want to scare college presidents into defunding campus diversity programs. We do not want to make capital punishment easier. We don’t want to ban abortion or to give Covid a fighting chance.
Best to stay away.
And boycotts sometimes do work – the grape boycott of the 1960s advanced Cesar Chavez’s farm workers’ movement – and it’s something that every one of us can do: vote with our dollars, keep our money away from an outlaw economy.
IN THE LONG RUN, however, I think a boycott isn’t the answer.
I believe that the most effective way to turn things around is just the opposite: it’s to invest in Florida in a personal way; to show up, or, in Florida-speak, to stand your ground.
I’ve seen that work in the place where I grew up.
Eighty-three years ago, my liberal parents moved from the borough of Queens in New York City to the Green Mountain State. The folks wanted to be rid of the city and to have their kids grow upwith the cows. The politics, just like the awful winters, weren't a factor.
Not that my Stevensonian mom and dad were happy to discover the place was overrun with crabby, miserly, set-in-their-ways indigenous Republicans.
But the Vermont Republicans of yesteryear were not the crazed, cruel and frightening GOP terrorists of today. They weren’t up taking food from the hungry; or to make nice to Russian dictators; weren’t about to bankrupt the treasury; surely they wouldn’t dream of overthrowing the national government. The old-fashioned GOPers even held their noses from time to time and found common cause with those Democrats who still thought highly of that damned FDR.
Things really got weird in the 1960s. More and more people from “away” were heading into the Vermont hills, drawn by the state’s beauty, its small-town charm, its fiery autumn extravaganzas and its sweet-as-maple-syrup town meetings. The migrants weren’t reformers; they went to Vermont because it seemed “nice.” But, slowly, steadily, year after year, decade after decade, they changed the state, its culture and its politics.
Heck, at one point, Burlington, the state’s “biggest” city (always a relative term in Vermont), elected a SOCIALIST as mayor. Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanders had emigrated from New York City, like my parents. Now, Vermont was really off its rocker, because it elected Bernie to Congress, then to the Senate and here’s the biggest knee-slapper, he ran for president and remade 21st Century progressive politics.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Vermonters elected more and more Democrats, even Democratic governors, even female Democratic governors. And what were the Hippies putting in the cows’ milk, now? Those loonies at the State House passed heavy-duty environmental laws and legalized gay marriage without any court telling them that they had to.
So, yes, Green turned to Blue.
And Florida can turn Red into Blue.
I believe that the most effective way to turn things around is just the opposite: it’s to invest in Florida in a personal way; to show up, or, in Florida-speak, to stand your ground.
I’ve seen that work in the place where I grew up.
Eighty-three years ago, my liberal parents moved from the borough of Queens in New York City to the Green Mountain State. The folks wanted to be rid of the city and to have their kids grow upwith the cows. The politics, just like the awful winters, weren't a factor.
Not that my Stevensonian mom and dad were happy to discover the place was overrun with crabby, miserly, set-in-their-ways indigenous Republicans.
But the Vermont Republicans of yesteryear were not the crazed, cruel and frightening GOP terrorists of today. They weren’t up taking food from the hungry; or to make nice to Russian dictators; weren’t about to bankrupt the treasury; surely they wouldn’t dream of overthrowing the national government. The old-fashioned GOPers even held their noses from time to time and found common cause with those Democrats who still thought highly of that damned FDR.
Things really got weird in the 1960s. More and more people from “away” were heading into the Vermont hills, drawn by the state’s beauty, its small-town charm, its fiery autumn extravaganzas and its sweet-as-maple-syrup town meetings. The migrants weren’t reformers; they went to Vermont because it seemed “nice.” But, slowly, steadily, year after year, decade after decade, they changed the state, its culture and its politics.
Heck, at one point, Burlington, the state’s “biggest” city (always a relative term in Vermont), elected a SOCIALIST as mayor. Brooklyn-born Bernie Sanders had emigrated from New York City, like my parents. Now, Vermont was really off its rocker, because it elected Bernie to Congress, then to the Senate and here’s the biggest knee-slapper, he ran for president and remade 21st Century progressive politics.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Vermonters elected more and more Democrats, even Democratic governors, even female Democratic governors. And what were the Hippies putting in the cows’ milk, now? Those loonies at the State House passed heavy-duty environmental laws and legalized gay marriage without any court telling them that they had to.
So, yes, Green turned to Blue.
And Florida can turn Red into Blue.
IT WILL TAKE a huge inflow of good people. It will require good people, who are already there, to stay in Florida.
It’s not easy, being in Florida. I’m saying that because it’s simple enough for me to pontificate, when, every night, I get safely tucked into bed in solidly Democratic Rhode Island (not that any of us are truly safe, these days).
It’s quite a different thing to actually be on the field of play, having to fight for the future of America in a place where the contest is really underway.
But, if you’re Ron DeSantis, my friends will terrify you.
They are fierce – and effective – foes of nuclear power and nuclear war. They're champions of abortion, at no little personal risk. They are healers, musicians, caretakers, writers, reformers, cooks, parents, sailors, grandparents and dog-lovers, who’ve recently warmed to cats.
Wherever these people have been; wherever they are now; wherever they are going to be - the effect is always the same: things get better.
Now my friends are headed to Florida. And, governor, I doubt that they’re alone.
So if you're Ron DeSantis, it's time to woke up.
It’s not easy, being in Florida. I’m saying that because it’s simple enough for me to pontificate, when, every night, I get safely tucked into bed in solidly Democratic Rhode Island (not that any of us are truly safe, these days).
It’s quite a different thing to actually be on the field of play, having to fight for the future of America in a place where the contest is really underway.
But, if you’re Ron DeSantis, my friends will terrify you.
They are fierce – and effective – foes of nuclear power and nuclear war. They're champions of abortion, at no little personal risk. They are healers, musicians, caretakers, writers, reformers, cooks, parents, sailors, grandparents and dog-lovers, who’ve recently warmed to cats.
Wherever these people have been; wherever they are now; wherever they are going to be - the effect is always the same: things get better.
Now my friends are headed to Florida. And, governor, I doubt that they’re alone.
So if you're Ron DeSantis, it's time to woke up.
TRUMP (FINALLY) IS CHARGED AS A CROOK. SO, WHY AREN'T WE DANCING IN THE STREETS?
TRUMP INDICTED
How long have we waited for this headline?
Remember when Trump was elected, it seemed just a matter of minutes, maybe hours, until this very thing happened?
There were pictures – albeit made up – imagining people wearing windbreakers with “FBI” in big yellow letters on the back, entering the White House to haul out the 45th President of the United States. The possibilities were endless, given that Donald Trump was a career criminal.
These were followed by the glory days of the Mueller investigation, in which America’s Most Honest Lawman was going to get to the bottom of all the bad things that the gangster-in-chief was up to. The delicious part about the special counsel’s investigation was imagining all the things he knew that we didn’t – yet.
But now that this seems to be finally happening, centuries later, why am I not all that excited.
Maybe you feel the same way. In my case, I’ve figured it out, I think. (With anything about Trump, you always have to add a qualifier).
Here’s what it’s not.
It’s not that I believe that through legal trickery, Don is going to wriggle out of the legal net.
I mean, he may get out of this one, but legitimately. There’s the Bad Case Theory. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, may not have all of his ducks in order; appeals courts may throw out the case; it’s always possible that Donald John Trump may not be guilty. At least of this one; more investigations are in the works.
And it’s not that Trump has super powers. He is subject to the laws of gravity. It’s not true that he always goes scot-free. He had to settle the case involving his phony Trump University. He did pay to squash the story about his tryst with Stormy Daniels; not that it was very much money, even for a mostly fake “businessman.”
Also, in case you haven’t heard, he did lose the 2020 election, and you have to assume, that was kind of hard to take, especially if you are an egomaniacal, narcissistic psychopath.
Bad things do happen to bad guys, even if justice takes a while and isn’t all that you wish. Meaning that I haven’t been brainwashed into thinking Trump isn’t above the law as he daydreams about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue without losing votes..
The real reason I’m not excited about TRUMP INDICTED is that I’m sick and tired of Donald Trump.
I’m bored.
I’ve had it.
I’m tired of his lies. Tired of his voice. Tired of the long-lens photos of him playing golf. Tired of The Base. Tired of his racism, his cruelty, his contempt for democracy. Tired of waiting to find out what hold Vladimir Putin has over him. Tired of his hair.
I’m tired of the same old story. It’s like Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day,” minus the humor, where the plot is nearly always the same and happens over and over.
Let’s review the latest version.
SATURDAY – MARCH 18
Trump announces that he’ll be arrested this coming Tuesday. In his own words:
How long have we waited for this headline?
Remember when Trump was elected, it seemed just a matter of minutes, maybe hours, until this very thing happened?
There were pictures – albeit made up – imagining people wearing windbreakers with “FBI” in big yellow letters on the back, entering the White House to haul out the 45th President of the United States. The possibilities were endless, given that Donald Trump was a career criminal.
These were followed by the glory days of the Mueller investigation, in which America’s Most Honest Lawman was going to get to the bottom of all the bad things that the gangster-in-chief was up to. The delicious part about the special counsel’s investigation was imagining all the things he knew that we didn’t – yet.
But now that this seems to be finally happening, centuries later, why am I not all that excited.
Maybe you feel the same way. In my case, I’ve figured it out, I think. (With anything about Trump, you always have to add a qualifier).
Here’s what it’s not.
It’s not that I believe that through legal trickery, Don is going to wriggle out of the legal net.
I mean, he may get out of this one, but legitimately. There’s the Bad Case Theory. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, may not have all of his ducks in order; appeals courts may throw out the case; it’s always possible that Donald John Trump may not be guilty. At least of this one; more investigations are in the works.
And it’s not that Trump has super powers. He is subject to the laws of gravity. It’s not true that he always goes scot-free. He had to settle the case involving his phony Trump University. He did pay to squash the story about his tryst with Stormy Daniels; not that it was very much money, even for a mostly fake “businessman.”
Also, in case you haven’t heard, he did lose the 2020 election, and you have to assume, that was kind of hard to take, especially if you are an egomaniacal, narcissistic psychopath.
Bad things do happen to bad guys, even if justice takes a while and isn’t all that you wish. Meaning that I haven’t been brainwashed into thinking Trump isn’t above the law as he daydreams about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue without losing votes..
The real reason I’m not excited about TRUMP INDICTED is that I’m sick and tired of Donald Trump.
I’m bored.
I’ve had it.
I’m tired of his lies. Tired of his voice. Tired of the long-lens photos of him playing golf. Tired of The Base. Tired of his racism, his cruelty, his contempt for democracy. Tired of waiting to find out what hold Vladimir Putin has over him. Tired of his hair.
I’m tired of the same old story. It’s like Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day,” minus the humor, where the plot is nearly always the same and happens over and over.
Let’s review the latest version.
SATURDAY – MARCH 18
Trump announces that he’ll be arrested this coming Tuesday. In his own words:
| Illegal leaks from a corrupt & highly political Manhattan district attorney's office ... indicate that, with no crime being able to be proven ... the far & away leading Republican candidate & former president of the United States of America, will be arrested on Tuesday of next week. |
It should noted that most news stories include a qualifier: his spokesperson says Trump has not been notified of an arrest.
The news people go crazy, anyway, ignoring the fact that the information comes from the most-documented liar in political history, and that whatever he says, it’s (probably) not true.
So, the familiar game plays out, bolstered by “insider” information that the Big Apple grand jury is winding up it’s work, and Trump has been invited to have his say to the panel, as the New York law allows. The nation waits to see what happens on Tuesday, sort of the way we might when a cult leader predicts that the world will end at a time certain.
TUESDAY, MARCH 21
Trump is NOT indicted.
FRIDAY – MARCH 24
Trump says something awful (quotable).
This is from the Reuters news service:
“Former U.S. President Donald Trump warned of potential ‘death & destruction’ if he faces criminal charges....”
Specifically, Trump writes on his not-the-Truth Social media service:
The news people go crazy, anyway, ignoring the fact that the information comes from the most-documented liar in political history, and that whatever he says, it’s (probably) not true.
So, the familiar game plays out, bolstered by “insider” information that the Big Apple grand jury is winding up it’s work, and Trump has been invited to have his say to the panel, as the New York law allows. The nation waits to see what happens on Tuesday, sort of the way we might when a cult leader predicts that the world will end at a time certain.
TUESDAY, MARCH 21
Trump is NOT indicted.
FRIDAY – MARCH 24
Trump says something awful (quotable).
This is from the Reuters news service:
“Former U.S. President Donald Trump warned of potential ‘death & destruction’ if he faces criminal charges....”
Specifically, Trump writes on his not-the-Truth Social media service:
| What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country? |
Here he goes again, ginning up a potential Jan.6 rampage. Outrageous thing for a former president to say, calling for chaos in the streets. How can he say this? It certainly can’t help his case in the on-going federal investigation into whether he was responsible for the Jan. 6 rampage at the Capitol.
Could it be that Trump is again playing the news folks, whipping up attention to his rally in Waco, Texas, the next day, the kind of event where “death & destruction” is usually on the menu?
SATURDAY, MARCH 25
The rally goes on, as usual. No surprises. People have been showing up for 24 hours. Despite this demonstration of loyalty, Trump keeps the faithful waiting in the Texas sunshine for an extra hour or so before speaking.
He e seems tired and almost uninterested as he plods through the familiar liturgy of the stolen election, the rotten news media, the terrible state of the nation and how wonderful things will be after The Restoration.
He mentions that the nation needs more babies. Strange, even for a philanderer. But reading about the rally later, I learn that it’s a racist trope. Trump means that America needs more white babies, more white baby boys, more white baby Christian boys to counter demographic changes which feature too many girls and boys of color and uncertain Christianity.
MONDAY, MARCH 27
Could it be that Trump is again playing the news folks, whipping up attention to his rally in Waco, Texas, the next day, the kind of event where “death & destruction” is usually on the menu?
SATURDAY, MARCH 25
The rally goes on, as usual. No surprises. People have been showing up for 24 hours. Despite this demonstration of loyalty, Trump keeps the faithful waiting in the Texas sunshine for an extra hour or so before speaking.
He e seems tired and almost uninterested as he plods through the familiar liturgy of the stolen election, the rotten news media, the terrible state of the nation and how wonderful things will be after The Restoration.
He mentions that the nation needs more babies. Strange, even for a philanderer. But reading about the rally later, I learn that it’s a racist trope. Trump means that America needs more white babies, more white baby boys, more white baby Christian boys to counter demographic changes which feature too many girls and boys of color and uncertain Christianity.
MONDAY, MARCH 27
A gun-person, whose legal arsenal includes a familiar item from the mass-murder toolkit – an AR-15 – kills three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private school in Nashville, Tennessee.
This has some personal connections to my wife and I in Rhode Island, because the school is near the home of close friends, who can hear the helicopters hovering over head as they watch live coverage on cable TV.
One of our friends is a retired private school teacher – a past Teacher of the Year in Tennessee – and it’s not hard to imagine her being in a school under attack. Her husband is a retired professor at Vanderbilt University, where one of his former students is related to one of the slain adults.
The latest shooting leads to a new chapter in the gun debate.
Gun control advocates are eloquent, as usual. In some states, game hunters are more closely regulated than human killers, who like the Nashville shooter, are mostly free to hunt children.
Gun extremists say the usual stupid things. Among the stupidest are remarks from a Tennessee Congressman, Rep. Tim Burchett:
This has some personal connections to my wife and I in Rhode Island, because the school is near the home of close friends, who can hear the helicopters hovering over head as they watch live coverage on cable TV.
One of our friends is a retired private school teacher – a past Teacher of the Year in Tennessee – and it’s not hard to imagine her being in a school under attack. Her husband is a retired professor at Vanderbilt University, where one of his former students is related to one of the slain adults.
The latest shooting leads to a new chapter in the gun debate.
Gun control advocates are eloquent, as usual. In some states, game hunters are more closely regulated than human killers, who like the Nashville shooter, are mostly free to hunt children.
Gun extremists say the usual stupid things. Among the stupidest are remarks from a Tennessee Congressman, Rep. Tim Burchett:
| It doesn’t matter what state it’s happened in. We’re all Americans. It doesn’t matter the color of their skin. They all bleed red. They’re bleeding a lot. I don’t see any real role that we can do other than mess things up, honestly, because of the situation. Like I said, I don’t think a criminal is going to stop from guns. You know, you can print them out on the computer now, 3-D printing. I don’t think you’re going to stop the gun violence. I think you’ve got to change people’s hearts. You know, as a Christian, as we talk about in the church — and I’ve said this many times — I think we really need a revival in this country. |
The Washington Post, meanwhile, is publishing a stunning series, long in the making, about the history of the AR-15. Memorable points:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29
Sending a chill through the anti-Trump camp, the Washington Post reports that the Manhattan grand jury, whose activities are secret, isn’t expected to take up the Donald-and-Stormy case again until late April.
Alarmists like me fear that something is going wrong with the whole thing. What if the grand jury WON’T INDICT?
My favorite line in the Post story: “….the soonest jurors are expected to hear evidence in the Trump case again is April 24, said the two people, who were briefed on the plans and spoke on the condition of anonymity ….”
So much for the inside poop, we find out the next day.
THURSDAY, MARCH 30
TRUMP INDICTED
Here’s the Washington Post’s version:
- Designed as a military weapon known as the M16 during the Vietnam War, the Armalite Rifle Model 15 was once shunned by gun advocates, but gains popularity as the gun industry finds its next big thing. The AR-15 and its variations is now the country’s most popular rifle, with 16 million Americans, about 1 out of 20, owning at least one.
- You’d think that people would be ashamed to bought one, much less bring it home. Instead, sales spike after massacres like the 2012 killing of twenty 6- and-7-year-olds and six staffers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 29
Sending a chill through the anti-Trump camp, the Washington Post reports that the Manhattan grand jury, whose activities are secret, isn’t expected to take up the Donald-and-Stormy case again until late April.
Alarmists like me fear that something is going wrong with the whole thing. What if the grand jury WON’T INDICT?
My favorite line in the Post story: “….the soonest jurors are expected to hear evidence in the Trump case again is April 24, said the two people, who were briefed on the plans and spoke on the condition of anonymity ….”
So much for the inside poop, we find out the next day.
THURSDAY, MARCH 30
TRUMP INDICTED
Here’s the Washington Post’s version:
| NEW YORK — A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict former president Donald Trump, making him the first person in U.S. history to serve as commander in chief and then be charged with a crime, and setting the stage for a 2024 presidential contest unlike any other. … Trump is expected to turn himself in and appear in court on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m., said a person familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that have not been publicly announced. |
This time, the Person Familiar With The Matter appears to be passing out the right stuff. Bragg’s office confirms that TRUMP INDICTED, but leaves until Tuesday, the date of the expected arraignment, details about the actual charges.
Republicans, as usual, instead of disavowing Trump as a shameful, disgraced criminal, come to his defense. Including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who Tweets:
Republicans, as usual, instead of disavowing Trump as a shameful, disgraced criminal, come to his defense. Including U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who Tweets:
| How can President Trump avoid prosecution in New York? On the way to the DA’s office on Tuesday, Trump should smash some windows, rob a few shops and punch a cop. He would be released IMMEDIATELY! |
What a hoot, that South Carolina sycophant: In one simple Tweet, Graham: a) defends Trump; b) ridicules DA Bragg as soft-on-crime; and c) jokes about violence.
It’s left to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to bring together both horror stories – the latest development in the Trump insurgency and the Nashville slaughter. Carlson remarks that this is “probably not the best time to give up your AR-15’s.”
SEE WHAT I MEAN?
We’ve been here, seen that, done that, are sitting through the same movie again and again, listening to the same album playing on repeat, watching the same sitcom reruns, driving, hiking, sailing, flying around the same circles over and over.
We’re still talking about, still thinking about, still worrying about Trump, and nothing seems different and that's why I’m tired of and bored by the Trump story.
Which doesn’t mean I and everyone else have a right to ignore it.
In a democracy, being bored by the likes of a treasonous Donald Trump isn’t allowed. Nor is ignoring people who think that an AR-15 is a joke.
In a democracy what happens next still matters, boring, familiar and unexciting as that may be.
It’s left to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to bring together both horror stories – the latest development in the Trump insurgency and the Nashville slaughter. Carlson remarks that this is “probably not the best time to give up your AR-15’s.”
SEE WHAT I MEAN?
We’ve been here, seen that, done that, are sitting through the same movie again and again, listening to the same album playing on repeat, watching the same sitcom reruns, driving, hiking, sailing, flying around the same circles over and over.
We’re still talking about, still thinking about, still worrying about Trump, and nothing seems different and that's why I’m tired of and bored by the Trump story.
Which doesn’t mean I and everyone else have a right to ignore it.
In a democracy, being bored by the likes of a treasonous Donald Trump isn’t allowed. Nor is ignoring people who think that an AR-15 is a joke.
In a democracy what happens next still matters, boring, familiar and unexciting as that may be.
JOE BIDEN'S GREAT. IT
DOESN'T MAKE HIM AN
'INDISPENSABLE MAN'
THERE ARE TWO REASONS why Joe Biden should not run for a second term.
One is obvious. He's too old.
The other goes back to something Donald Trump said after he’d been nominated by the Republican party in 2016:
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
That’s the Indispensable Woman or Man Theory – a delusion common to leaders and their partisans in both democratic and authoritarian governments, and one which is as silly as it is dangerous.
Of 331.9 million people in the United States, only one is capable of defeating whatever terrifyingly awful candidate the GOP will choose to run in 2024? And, there’s only one human fit to govern the United States of America for the next four years?
Give me a break.
There aren't two people out of 331.9 million who could successfully run for president and be a good one? Not seven? Not 15.3; not 26; not 1,257?
Granted, there are few to zero Democrats who currently make me or anyone else I know confident and optimistic about the coming campaign.
The Washington Post recently ran one of its periodic lists ranking the “top” Democratic candidates. Among the Big 10:
• J.B. Pritzker
• Josh Shapiro
• Jared Polis
One is obvious. He's too old.
The other goes back to something Donald Trump said after he’d been nominated by the Republican party in 2016:
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it.”
That’s the Indispensable Woman or Man Theory – a delusion common to leaders and their partisans in both democratic and authoritarian governments, and one which is as silly as it is dangerous.
Of 331.9 million people in the United States, only one is capable of defeating whatever terrifyingly awful candidate the GOP will choose to run in 2024? And, there’s only one human fit to govern the United States of America for the next four years?
Give me a break.
There aren't two people out of 331.9 million who could successfully run for president and be a good one? Not seven? Not 15.3; not 26; not 1,257?
Granted, there are few to zero Democrats who currently make me or anyone else I know confident and optimistic about the coming campaign.
The Washington Post recently ran one of its periodic lists ranking the “top” Democratic candidates. Among the Big 10:
• J.B. Pritzker
• Josh Shapiro
• Jared Polis
 J. B. PRITZKER |  JOSH SHAPERIO |  JARED POLIS |
In the Post’s ranking, higher number are worse than lower lower ones. So, J.B. is Number 10; Josh is Number 9; and Jared is Number 4.
When I first scanned the list, I had absolutely no idea who Number 4 is, and I am both embarrassed and mad at myself about that. Same goes for the other two; the remaining seven names at least I recognized.
I’ve attached the list to end of this article. See how many you recognize. In any case, it’s not a great list, except for Number 1.
You’d think this would undermine my argument that there is no such creature as the Indispensable Woman or Man, because, if someone is supposed to keep the Free World free, a voter, at Step One, should at least recognize their name, and little pleasure zones should show up on CT scans of our brains when we hear or read their names.
But it should be noted that despite my shameful ignorance of the list, these folks are people who have been in the news lately, and who hold important government positions, backgrounds that qualify them for consideration for higher office.
The "I alone" argument undermines the whole concept of democracy.
ANOTHER ARGUMENT that could reject my No Indispensable Person Theory is Joe Biden.
Looking back on 2020, Joe may have been the only candidate at the time who could unite the Democrats, and pick up enough Independents and a smattering of Republicans to drive Trump from under his Oval Office rock.
In my lifetime, Biden has been the best president, which sometimes isn’t saying much. The fact is, most presidents have terrible flaws, just like the people who vote for them. But some of them have been okay, and a few were better than that.
Anyway, Joe’s been terrific. There’s his fight for the “soul of America;” his vision for huge, progressive spending programs; his ability to run a competent, decent government; how he's set out an inspired foreign policy. These are real accomplishments.
Remember how bad we felt every day that Donald Trump was president? Now, imagine how bad we’d feel today if Trump were overseeing national healthcare, climate policy, education, inflation control, Ukraine’s defense and everything else that a president does, like go to concerts at the Kennedy Center.
But if Joe Biden is the only person whom the Democrats can come up with to defeat the Republican ogre, the Democratic Party and the country is in peril. And I choose to think that's the case.
When I first scanned the list, I had absolutely no idea who Number 4 is, and I am both embarrassed and mad at myself about that. Same goes for the other two; the remaining seven names at least I recognized.
I’ve attached the list to end of this article. See how many you recognize. In any case, it’s not a great list, except for Number 1.
You’d think this would undermine my argument that there is no such creature as the Indispensable Woman or Man, because, if someone is supposed to keep the Free World free, a voter, at Step One, should at least recognize their name, and little pleasure zones should show up on CT scans of our brains when we hear or read their names.
But it should be noted that despite my shameful ignorance of the list, these folks are people who have been in the news lately, and who hold important government positions, backgrounds that qualify them for consideration for higher office.
The "I alone" argument undermines the whole concept of democracy.
ANOTHER ARGUMENT that could reject my No Indispensable Person Theory is Joe Biden.
Looking back on 2020, Joe may have been the only candidate at the time who could unite the Democrats, and pick up enough Independents and a smattering of Republicans to drive Trump from under his Oval Office rock.
In my lifetime, Biden has been the best president, which sometimes isn’t saying much. The fact is, most presidents have terrible flaws, just like the people who vote for them. But some of them have been okay, and a few were better than that.
Anyway, Joe’s been terrific. There’s his fight for the “soul of America;” his vision for huge, progressive spending programs; his ability to run a competent, decent government; how he's set out an inspired foreign policy. These are real accomplishments.
Remember how bad we felt every day that Donald Trump was president? Now, imagine how bad we’d feel today if Trump were overseeing national healthcare, climate policy, education, inflation control, Ukraine’s defense and everything else that a president does, like go to concerts at the Kennedy Center.
But if Joe Biden is the only person whom the Democrats can come up with to defeat the Republican ogre, the Democratic Party and the country is in peril. And I choose to think that's the case.
BUT OLD is old.
Eighty is old; Joe is 80.
And news bulletin, when you turn 80 you don’t stay that way - you keep getting older. So, on Nov. 20, 2024, Joe will be 82. He’ll be 82 when he’s inaugurated the following January. When he turns over the keys to the Resolute Desk to his successor in early 2029, he’ll be 86.
This assumes that he doesn’t drop dead in the meantime.
I’m 80, and it's one subject I know about.
A fair number of my contemporaries are in their 80s, and some of them have died. Sure, some died earlier. A reporter friend of mine, who had exactly the same birthday, year and day, as me, died 36 years ago. Some of my friends will live late into their 80s and longer. I’ve interviewed people in their 90s who have crackerjack memories and incisive minds.
But, in general, don't get your hopes up.
Our failure to understand all the things that can go wrong with people in their 80s is just as head-in-the-sand fantasy as pretending that people actually don’t die.
Sure, Joe Biden could surprise everyone and live out his second term, assuming he gets through this one. The Social Security Administration has a table that estimates that at age 80, an American man, on average, might expect to live another 8.43 years.
You could argue that because Joe Biden has been such a terrific president, a good Plan B would be to elect a superior vice president, whom you’d feel perfectly happy, after Joe’s funeral, to fill in for Joe. But if that’s the case, why not have her or him run for the top job in the first place and skip the drama.
In general, the theory that one and only one person can save democracy is fiction.
There are lots and lots of people who can do the job of president.
And they're lots and lots of people who can do it better than Joe Biden has.
That's true, even if, at this point, we’ve never heard of them or don’t remember their names.
* * *
Eighty is old; Joe is 80.
And news bulletin, when you turn 80 you don’t stay that way - you keep getting older. So, on Nov. 20, 2024, Joe will be 82. He’ll be 82 when he’s inaugurated the following January. When he turns over the keys to the Resolute Desk to his successor in early 2029, he’ll be 86.
This assumes that he doesn’t drop dead in the meantime.
I’m 80, and it's one subject I know about.
A fair number of my contemporaries are in their 80s, and some of them have died. Sure, some died earlier. A reporter friend of mine, who had exactly the same birthday, year and day, as me, died 36 years ago. Some of my friends will live late into their 80s and longer. I’ve interviewed people in their 90s who have crackerjack memories and incisive minds.
But, in general, don't get your hopes up.
Our failure to understand all the things that can go wrong with people in their 80s is just as head-in-the-sand fantasy as pretending that people actually don’t die.
Sure, Joe Biden could surprise everyone and live out his second term, assuming he gets through this one. The Social Security Administration has a table that estimates that at age 80, an American man, on average, might expect to live another 8.43 years.
You could argue that because Joe Biden has been such a terrific president, a good Plan B would be to elect a superior vice president, whom you’d feel perfectly happy, after Joe’s funeral, to fill in for Joe. But if that’s the case, why not have her or him run for the top job in the first place and skip the drama.
In general, the theory that one and only one person can save democracy is fiction.
There are lots and lots of people who can do the job of president.
And they're lots and lots of people who can do it better than Joe Biden has.
That's true, even if, at this point, we’ve never heard of them or don’t remember their names.
* * *
| In case you’re in the same pickle as me and don’t have a clue as to who should run for president in 2024, here’s the Washington Post’s complete Top 10 list of leading Democratic contenders, along with their major credentials. 10. J.B. Pritzker, Illinois governor. 9. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania governor. 8. Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, who was a contender for the Democratic nomination for president in the last election. Bernie’s 81. 7. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. senator from Minnesota. 6. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan governor and target of a failed kidnapping plot by right-wing nut jobs. 5. Gavin Newsom, California governor. 4. Jared Polis, Colorado governor. 3. Kamala D. Harris, vice president of the United States and former California senator. 2. Pete Buttigieg, Biden’s secretary of transportation, formerly the 32nd mayor of South Bend, Indiana. 1. Joe Biden, president of the United States, former vice president and U.S. senator. His birthday is Nov. 20, 1942. |
A PAGE ONE VALENTINE
Marching, speaking for democracy
I HAPPENED ON SOME REALLY GOOD NEWS where I least expected to find it – on the front page of the New York Times, the Valentine's Day edition.
Page One usually isn't where to look if you're trying to cheer up.
Real news is mostly awful news. Anything to do with death; engineering mistakes that blow up the space shuttle; big wars; little wars; church-treasurer embezzlements; lockouts; sewage overflows; people chained in cellars; sinkholes; factory closings; head-on collisions on prom night; and on election night, Donald "The Donald." The kind of stomach-churning stories that make you wish you hadn't gotten out of bed and which punish you the rest of the day so you can't sleep at night.
So, it was a pleasure to have retrieved the Times on Feb. 14 from its hiding place under the front hedge, and to drag it inside for a quick scan at the breakfast table.
There was a piece about the Turkey earthquake, “Collapsed Buildings … sold as safe.” An article about the suspected mastermind behind the Chinese spy balloons. And yet another story scrutinizing the finances of U.S. Rep. George Santos, the nation’s second biggest liar.
None of which are the kind of brighten-your-day stories I’m talking about. There actually were just two:
100,00 PROTEST
IN ISRAEL TO HALT
COURTS OVERHAUL
College Board
Is Under Fire
For A.P. Class
Why were these uplifting?
Because they were about inspired people pushing back against authoritarian and anti-democratic forces that are threatening America as well as countries across the globe.
It seems to me that the forces of good, which generally are the ones on the Left, aren't as vigorous as their mean-spirited counterparts on the Right. The Right seems so determined, so unrelenting and so unwilling to take a nap, much less a vacation, as it schemes to make the rest of us miserable.
Which is why it’s inspiring when the Left does something more than say “gosh” and “heck.”
LET’S TAKE THE ISRAELI PIECE FIRST:
AS A NON-JEW, I find it uncomfortable to write about Israel. I want to “like” the country, not only as a just antidote to the Holocaust, but as a democracy. It's so much like the U.S., especially because the countries share similar and deep flaws. But for a long while, Israel has been been acting badly in regard to the Palestinians, and it's hardly a fair fight. (Not that the Palestinians would act better were the shoe on the other foot).
One thing that troubles me is Israel’s disappearing Left, as the Right gets stronger and stronger, culminating most recently in the election of what news reports say is most Right Wing and extremist government in Israel’s short history.
Especially distressing is Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power. Like many casual observers, I thought “Bibi” was done for when he was ousted in the next to last election, and that possibly the country’s longest serving prime minister might end his public service in the public slammer. But suddenly, like a trick ending to a horror movie, Bibi is back, and working on a get-out-of-jail plan. Which mirrors my home-country nightmare, in which Donald “The Donald” reenters the White House and escapes state and federal prisons.
One of Bibi’s and his fellow extremists’ major goals is to monkey-wrench Israel’s judicial system, making it easier for the government to override Supreme Court decisions, as well as to control selection of judges – upsetting the balance of power that’s so essential to all democracies.
So, I was cheered to read about the huge demonstration the Times reported taking place in Jerusalem. One-hundred-thousand protesters pushing back.
Students skipped classes, workers left their jobs. A caravan of protesters stretched two-and-a-half miles. Transportation systems added trains and busses.
The Times said:
Protesters came by bus from Haifa, train from Tel Aviv and car from the occupied Golan Heights. They carried Israeli flags, megaphones and homemade banners. And they were chanting for democracy, freedom and judicial independence.
“You voted Bibi. You got Mussolini,” one protester's sign said.
“We aren’t so far from a situation were we wont be allowed to protest,” worried one mother, who attended with her son and a partner.
The Times said that polls show 41 percent of Israelis oppose the judicial mischief plan. But 44 percent support it.
Sound familiar? A nation divided; democracy at the cliff.
But the forces of good are disturbed and on the move.
THE OTHER STORY IS ABOUT FLORIDA AND “EDUCATION.”
One thing that troubles me is Israel’s disappearing Left, as the Right gets stronger and stronger, culminating most recently in the election of what news reports say is most Right Wing and extremist government in Israel’s short history.
Especially distressing is Benjamin Netanyahu’s return to power. Like many casual observers, I thought “Bibi” was done for when he was ousted in the next to last election, and that possibly the country’s longest serving prime minister might end his public service in the public slammer. But suddenly, like a trick ending to a horror movie, Bibi is back, and working on a get-out-of-jail plan. Which mirrors my home-country nightmare, in which Donald “The Donald” reenters the White House and escapes state and federal prisons.
One of Bibi’s and his fellow extremists’ major goals is to monkey-wrench Israel’s judicial system, making it easier for the government to override Supreme Court decisions, as well as to control selection of judges – upsetting the balance of power that’s so essential to all democracies.
So, I was cheered to read about the huge demonstration the Times reported taking place in Jerusalem. One-hundred-thousand protesters pushing back.
Students skipped classes, workers left their jobs. A caravan of protesters stretched two-and-a-half miles. Transportation systems added trains and busses.
The Times said:
Protesters came by bus from Haifa, train from Tel Aviv and car from the occupied Golan Heights. They carried Israeli flags, megaphones and homemade banners. And they were chanting for democracy, freedom and judicial independence.
“You voted Bibi. You got Mussolini,” one protester's sign said.
“We aren’t so far from a situation were we wont be allowed to protest,” worried one mother, who attended with her son and a partner.
The Times said that polls show 41 percent of Israelis oppose the judicial mischief plan. But 44 percent support it.
Sound familiar? A nation divided; democracy at the cliff.
But the forces of good are disturbed and on the move.
THE OTHER STORY IS ABOUT FLORIDA AND “EDUCATION.”
THIS ONE was involved the controversy over College Board’s new Advanced Placement course for high schoolers about black history, which the state of Florida so far has disallowed, because of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ “war on woke.”
“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” education officials said. Among their objections were sections on black homosexuality, black feminism and Black Lives Matter. Imagine: A contemporary black history review without major discussion of Black Lives Matter.
The Times’ story on Valentine’s Day dealt with anger among experts in black history to changes that the College Board made in the course, which seemed to be an attempt to appease DeSantis and his acolytes.
The College Board has vigorously denied it was swayed by politics. Indeed, the Times story said that some academic experts said they were assured by the College Board that its officials had had “absolutely no communication” with the Florida authorities.
Which turned out to be pants-on-fire wrong.
The story made clear that the College Board from the outset expected push-back from Florida, because of the state's new and obnoxious anti-woke law that forbids teaching anything in a way that might cause students to feel uncomfortable about learning what their misbehaving ancestors did.
So the College Board contacted Florida officials to chat about an early draft of the new course. And, much to the surprise of the College Board folks, the Florida folks turned out to have little interest in a substantive discussion. A College Board official told the Times that Florida's department of education: “acts as a political apparatus.” Duh.
Nonetheless, the College Board’s final version of the course seemed to respond to Florida’s public objections. And worse, the College Board added a preface to the course, which seemed to try to reassure DeSantis' worries about "woke's" bad influence on the young, saying that “A.P, opposes indoctrination … A.P. students are not required to feel certain ways about themselves or the course content.”
If that’s not appeasement, then Britain’s Neville Chamberlain never tried to make nice with Adolph Hitler at the opening of World War II.
What inspired me about this round of the controversy is that the advocates for a full and honest course about black history were pushing back against both DeSantis and the College Board, and willing to have a full-throated, public discussion about it.
“There is no way you can properly teach this material under the rubric of what DeSantis et al are demanding. This is a train wreck,” UCLA’s Cheryl Harris told the Times.
DeSantis, having tasted blood, decided to drink more deeply. He wondered aloud whether Florida should be allowing any College Board A.P. courses, regardless of the subject, according to the Washington Post. As Chamberlain discovered, appeasement not only doesn't work, it makes things worse.
SO, GOOD FOR THE SCHOLARS for putting the screws to the College Board, and not letting Florida off the hook.
Good for Israeli citizens on the march for democracy.
No guarantees, of course, as to how things will turn out.
But it's the effort that counts.
Two Valentines right there on the front page, from those who dare to hope and more: to do something besides wishing things will be okay, by taking to the streets and by speaking up.
“As presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” education officials said. Among their objections were sections on black homosexuality, black feminism and Black Lives Matter. Imagine: A contemporary black history review without major discussion of Black Lives Matter.
The Times’ story on Valentine’s Day dealt with anger among experts in black history to changes that the College Board made in the course, which seemed to be an attempt to appease DeSantis and his acolytes.
The College Board has vigorously denied it was swayed by politics. Indeed, the Times story said that some academic experts said they were assured by the College Board that its officials had had “absolutely no communication” with the Florida authorities.
Which turned out to be pants-on-fire wrong.
The story made clear that the College Board from the outset expected push-back from Florida, because of the state's new and obnoxious anti-woke law that forbids teaching anything in a way that might cause students to feel uncomfortable about learning what their misbehaving ancestors did.
So the College Board contacted Florida officials to chat about an early draft of the new course. And, much to the surprise of the College Board folks, the Florida folks turned out to have little interest in a substantive discussion. A College Board official told the Times that Florida's department of education: “acts as a political apparatus.” Duh.
Nonetheless, the College Board’s final version of the course seemed to respond to Florida’s public objections. And worse, the College Board added a preface to the course, which seemed to try to reassure DeSantis' worries about "woke's" bad influence on the young, saying that “A.P, opposes indoctrination … A.P. students are not required to feel certain ways about themselves or the course content.”
If that’s not appeasement, then Britain’s Neville Chamberlain never tried to make nice with Adolph Hitler at the opening of World War II.
What inspired me about this round of the controversy is that the advocates for a full and honest course about black history were pushing back against both DeSantis and the College Board, and willing to have a full-throated, public discussion about it.
“There is no way you can properly teach this material under the rubric of what DeSantis et al are demanding. This is a train wreck,” UCLA’s Cheryl Harris told the Times.
DeSantis, having tasted blood, decided to drink more deeply. He wondered aloud whether Florida should be allowing any College Board A.P. courses, regardless of the subject, according to the Washington Post. As Chamberlain discovered, appeasement not only doesn't work, it makes things worse.
SO, GOOD FOR THE SCHOLARS for putting the screws to the College Board, and not letting Florida off the hook.
Good for Israeli citizens on the march for democracy.
No guarantees, of course, as to how things will turn out.
But it's the effort that counts.
Two Valentines right there on the front page, from those who dare to hope and more: to do something besides wishing things will be okay, by taking to the streets and by speaking up.
Ron DeSantis
THE ENEMY OF MY ENEMY
IS ... NOT MY FRIEND
RON DESANTIS - The Sunshine State's governor, with his hands full, suggesting the danger he poses to American democracy. PHOTO CREDIT: Florida governor's office.
RON DESANTIS is a vile, dangerous leader.
He is not preferable to Donald Trump.
Ron DeSantis will not rescue America from Donald Trump.
They are equally terrible.
As a president, DeSantis would be just as destructive as Donald Trump, just as mean, cruel, racist and divisive.
If DeSantis were to win the White House, the particulars would be different from those of the terrible four years of Trump's presidency.
But the effect would be the same. DeSantis, in his first term, like Trump in his second, would destroy democracy in America – at least he’d give it a really hard try.
There is one major difference between these two worst-case scenarios: there would be no surprise about how a President DeSantis would govern.
When Trump took office in 2017, there was an element of mystery as to what he’d really do.
Since Trump had never held political office, we – I should stop using the “we” word, since I can speak only about what is/was in my brain – I had no idea what Trump would be like once he actually was president..
We – I – knew little about him, other than that he’d been a grotesque candidate.
Up to then, Trump mainly was just a name. A name on buildings, airplanes and other of his “businesses,” some of which weren’t his. A name in the tabloid newspapers, meaning he was a largely fictitious character. He’d been a name in a scripted TV “reality” show; a name as author of ghost-written books; and name without much ideological shape on forums like the Don Imus in the Morning radio show.
But I hoped that, deep down, there might be something of substance. Maybe he’d be better than his various disguises; maybe the awesome responsibilities and traditions of the presidency would weigh on him - in a good way. Possibly, he’d listen to wise women and men in his orbit and turn out to be a pragmatist when the dreadful, unexpected challenges confronted and bedeviledhim, just as they always have, no matter whom the presidents are.
Stupid me.
BUT THERE’LL BE NO GUESSING about a would-be President Ronald Dion DeSantis.
DeSantis is just another in a long, long, long line of leader/monsters. History tells us that God – if She exists and does this sort of thing - never creates just one awful head of state.
How do we know– how do I know – if DeSantis is just one more of those?
The proof is the noxious output of Ron DeSantis’ Florida “Laboratory.”
Which he bragged about in his second inaugural address on Jan. 3 following his huge re-election win as governor. He remarked:
He is not preferable to Donald Trump.
Ron DeSantis will not rescue America from Donald Trump.
They are equally terrible.
As a president, DeSantis would be just as destructive as Donald Trump, just as mean, cruel, racist and divisive.
If DeSantis were to win the White House, the particulars would be different from those of the terrible four years of Trump's presidency.
But the effect would be the same. DeSantis, in his first term, like Trump in his second, would destroy democracy in America – at least he’d give it a really hard try.
There is one major difference between these two worst-case scenarios: there would be no surprise about how a President DeSantis would govern.
When Trump took office in 2017, there was an element of mystery as to what he’d really do.
Since Trump had never held political office, we – I should stop using the “we” word, since I can speak only about what is/was in my brain – I had no idea what Trump would be like once he actually was president..
We – I – knew little about him, other than that he’d been a grotesque candidate.
Up to then, Trump mainly was just a name. A name on buildings, airplanes and other of his “businesses,” some of which weren’t his. A name in the tabloid newspapers, meaning he was a largely fictitious character. He’d been a name in a scripted TV “reality” show; a name as author of ghost-written books; and name without much ideological shape on forums like the Don Imus in the Morning radio show.
But I hoped that, deep down, there might be something of substance. Maybe he’d be better than his various disguises; maybe the awesome responsibilities and traditions of the presidency would weigh on him - in a good way. Possibly, he’d listen to wise women and men in his orbit and turn out to be a pragmatist when the dreadful, unexpected challenges confronted and bedeviledhim, just as they always have, no matter whom the presidents are.
Stupid me.
BUT THERE’LL BE NO GUESSING about a would-be President Ronald Dion DeSantis.
DeSantis is just another in a long, long, long line of leader/monsters. History tells us that God – if She exists and does this sort of thing - never creates just one awful head of state.
How do we know– how do I know – if DeSantis is just one more of those?
The proof is the noxious output of Ron DeSantis’ Florida “Laboratory.”
Which he bragged about in his second inaugural address on Jan. 3 following his huge re-election win as governor. He remarked:
| It is often said that our federalist constitutional system – with fifty states able to pursue their own unique policies – represents a laboratory of democracy. Well, these last few years have witnessed a great test of governing philosophies as many jurisdictions pursued a much different path than we have pursued here in the state of Florida. |
The Florida Laboratory might resonate with fans of horror movies, in which a mad scientist – a mad political scientist – operates a dungeon, well-equipped with the tools of torture, wherein he conducts various demented experiments, utilizing as handy test subjects vulnerable inhabitants of his personal island – or peninsula.
The DeSantis lab in the last four years has been developing various strains of cultural hatred, such as Florida's attack on transgender kids – outlawing transgender girls from completing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, and Florida's “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bars teaching of gender issues in lower grades.
For his work on “Don’t Say Gay,” DeSantis used an actual lab rodent, namely Mickey Mouse, punishing the Disney corporation for its opposition to the bill by revoking the Mouse empire’s privileged control of its vast Disney World theme park.
Sometimes DeSantis has conducted teachable moments outside the lab, to give “sanctuary” communities a taste of Florida's immigration troubles, as he did last September by sending two airplanes to Texas – that’s right, Texas – to pick up about 50 mostly Venezuelan immigrants and fly them to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the deep blue Massachusetts mainland.
IF THERE'S A UNIFYING THEME to the Florida Lab’s work, it's to stamp out the contagious liberal virus known to laypersons as “woke.”
Indeed, in his Second Inaugural, DeSantis explained how non-Floridian jurisdictions, besotted with wokism, have coddled criminals, corrupted public education, burdened taxpayers and practiced “medical authoritarianism.”
Which, thankfully, has not been the case in the Sunshine State:
The DeSantis lab in the last four years has been developing various strains of cultural hatred, such as Florida's attack on transgender kids – outlawing transgender girls from completing on girls’ and women’s sports teams, and Florida's “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bars teaching of gender issues in lower grades.
For his work on “Don’t Say Gay,” DeSantis used an actual lab rodent, namely Mickey Mouse, punishing the Disney corporation for its opposition to the bill by revoking the Mouse empire’s privileged control of its vast Disney World theme park.
Sometimes DeSantis has conducted teachable moments outside the lab, to give “sanctuary” communities a taste of Florida's immigration troubles, as he did last September by sending two airplanes to Texas – that’s right, Texas – to pick up about 50 mostly Venezuelan immigrants and fly them to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the deep blue Massachusetts mainland.
IF THERE'S A UNIFYING THEME to the Florida Lab’s work, it's to stamp out the contagious liberal virus known to laypersons as “woke.”
Indeed, in his Second Inaugural, DeSantis explained how non-Floridian jurisdictions, besotted with wokism, have coddled criminals, corrupted public education, burdened taxpayers and practiced “medical authoritarianism.”
Which, thankfully, has not been the case in the Sunshine State:
| We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy! We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become optional. We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die! |
I CAN'T THINK of a modern instance since George Wallace declared “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" at his 1963 inauguration as Alabama governor, in which a Southern governor has sounded so intentional about perpetuating oppression of its black citizens.
“Woke” started out as a positive word, conveying racial awareness, consensus and healing. But it's also been repurposed by right-wing alchemists like DeSantis as a racial slur.
Woke entered my brain late in the game – it’s an old brain, and a slow one – during the George Floyd incident, in which a policeman murdered a man in plain view, in plain daylight – and the nation came to an understanding of what it means to be black in 21st Century America.
Woke made it into Florida law as the ‘Stop WOKE Act” - Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, later renamed the Individual Freedom Act – outlawing teaching of racial topics in a way that would make students feel guilt or “distress” about the sins of our forebears. The legislation, partially blocked for now by a federal judge, aims to protect purported victims of classroom brutality in instances of this kind of classroom scenario:
“Woke” started out as a positive word, conveying racial awareness, consensus and healing. But it's also been repurposed by right-wing alchemists like DeSantis as a racial slur.
Woke entered my brain late in the game – it’s an old brain, and a slow one – during the George Floyd incident, in which a policeman murdered a man in plain view, in plain daylight – and the nation came to an understanding of what it means to be black in 21st Century America.
Woke made it into Florida law as the ‘Stop WOKE Act” - Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, later renamed the Individual Freedom Act – outlawing teaching of racial topics in a way that would make students feel guilt or “distress” about the sins of our forebears. The legislation, partially blocked for now by a federal judge, aims to protect purported victims of classroom brutality in instances of this kind of classroom scenario:
| A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex. |
THE FLORIDA LAB'S WORK also includes thought control. A recent legislative proposal would forbid colleges and universities from spending money on programs that promote “diversity, equity and inclusion programs,” often labeled by the acronym,“DEI.” Among other provisions would be an attempt to weaken tenure for professors, which protects academic freedom.
Then there's the recent move by Florida education officials to throw out a new national College Board Advanced Placement course for high school students on African American history, saying that “as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” The officials later explained they were offended by discussions of Black Lives Matter, black homosexuality and black feminism.
Last week, the College Board issued a revised version of the course, which included removal of a section on Black Lives Matter from the main “framework” of the course, suggesting only that the Black Lives Matter movement might be a subject of an individual student's research project. College Board officials said the changes predated the Florida assault on the course; but DeSantis’ fellow right-wingers had their knives out much earlier, too, so the College Board’s defenses sounded hollow.
However, the course remained a powerful powerful review of black history – and Florida’s move to cancel the course seemed another example of “where woke goes to die.” You can see the scope of the course at this link to understand what Florida students will be missing if state officials stick to their decision.
Then there's the recent move by Florida education officials to throw out a new national College Board Advanced Placement course for high school students on African American history, saying that “as presented, the content of this course is inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.” The officials later explained they were offended by discussions of Black Lives Matter, black homosexuality and black feminism.
Last week, the College Board issued a revised version of the course, which included removal of a section on Black Lives Matter from the main “framework” of the course, suggesting only that the Black Lives Matter movement might be a subject of an individual student's research project. College Board officials said the changes predated the Florida assault on the course; but DeSantis’ fellow right-wingers had their knives out much earlier, too, so the College Board’s defenses sounded hollow.
However, the course remained a powerful powerful review of black history – and Florida’s move to cancel the course seemed another example of “where woke goes to die.” You can see the scope of the course at this link to understand what Florida students will be missing if state officials stick to their decision.
DESANTIS PRETENDS that his woke attacks are not anti-black, but a call to common sense. Indeed, he disguises his racist experiments in various ways – promoting a state art and essay contest for Black History Month, and populating his website with photos of the governor standing side-by-side with black National Guard soldiers and other persons of color.
But you don't have be woke to realize that’s just camouflage for what’s underway in the Florida laboratory.
On paper, DeSantis has a formidable resume for a practicing political scientist: graduate of Harvard and Yale; legal advisor to the Navy's legendary Seal Team One; federal prosecutor; Congressman, and at 44, not objectionably too young or too old.
Donald Trump's alarming presidency - the only one to try to overturn an election - tempted some people to welcome DeSantis as one Republican who might break the GOP's fever for Trump.
But DeSantis' record says otherwise: it's a warning as to what to expect if Ron outflanks Don in the next race for the White House, and replaces him at the Resolute Desk.
So, there's no reason for wishful thinking, no chance for pleasant surprises if DeSantis becomes The One.
There will be nothing to cheer, and plenty to fear.
But you don't have be woke to realize that’s just camouflage for what’s underway in the Florida laboratory.
On paper, DeSantis has a formidable resume for a practicing political scientist: graduate of Harvard and Yale; legal advisor to the Navy's legendary Seal Team One; federal prosecutor; Congressman, and at 44, not objectionably too young or too old.
Donald Trump's alarming presidency - the only one to try to overturn an election - tempted some people to welcome DeSantis as one Republican who might break the GOP's fever for Trump.
But DeSantis' record says otherwise: it's a warning as to what to expect if Ron outflanks Don in the next race for the White House, and replaces him at the Resolute Desk.
So, there's no reason for wishful thinking, no chance for pleasant surprises if DeSantis becomes The One.
There will be nothing to cheer, and plenty to fear.
LET'S BE HONEST: KEEPING GOVT. PAPERS IS MOSTLY WRONG WHEN TRUMP DOES IT
JOE BIDEN at the wheel of his beloved '67 Corvette Stingray, which these days is locked safely is his garage, along with confidential government papers. CREDIT: Biden campaign.
WHAT’S THE REAL DIFFERENCE between Donald Trump hanging on to classified government documents after he left office and Joe Biden doing the same thing?
It’s simple: Joe Biden’s a good guy. And Donald Trump isn’t.
Case closed.
The only real reason that liberals like me reveled in the discovery of secret papers at Trump’s grotesque lair at Mar-a-Lago is that it might be the one and only instance that would get him locked up.
Sort of the way that Al Capone was finally brought to “justice” - for tax evasion, not for the murders and violence that were part of the bootlegger’s vicious business plan.
Other than the satisfying spectacle of FBI agents “raiding” Trump’s Florida home, the underlying potential crime is pretty minor stuff when you consider Donald Trump’s most serious sins.
We’re talking about a man who tried to overturn the election that he lost, working all the angles that he and his slithy-tove crew of advisors could dream up, including the attack on the Capitol in which his own vice president could have been murdered, and the United States plunged into autocracy.
As for Joe Biden’s papers, misplaced after he was Barack Obama’s vice president, that case seems like small potatoes, and doesn’t make a dime’s difference in how we view his mostly superb presidency.
It’s simple: Joe Biden’s a good guy. And Donald Trump isn’t.
Case closed.
The only real reason that liberals like me reveled in the discovery of secret papers at Trump’s grotesque lair at Mar-a-Lago is that it might be the one and only instance that would get him locked up.
Sort of the way that Al Capone was finally brought to “justice” - for tax evasion, not for the murders and violence that were part of the bootlegger’s vicious business plan.
Other than the satisfying spectacle of FBI agents “raiding” Trump’s Florida home, the underlying potential crime is pretty minor stuff when you consider Donald Trump’s most serious sins.
We’re talking about a man who tried to overturn the election that he lost, working all the angles that he and his slithy-tove crew of advisors could dream up, including the attack on the Capitol in which his own vice president could have been murdered, and the United States plunged into autocracy.
As for Joe Biden’s papers, misplaced after he was Barack Obama’s vice president, that case seems like small potatoes, and doesn’t make a dime’s difference in how we view his mostly superb presidency.
SOME OF THE PAPERS found on the raid at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. CREDIT: Probably the FBI
THERE ARE TWO important points to make in Biden’s case:
"By the way,” Biden told reporters, “my Corvette's in a locked garage, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street.”
- Point One: It doesn’t matter - probably. It would indeed be surprising if Biden had a suspect motive in hanging onto the relatively small amount of papers that have surfaced, assuming he knew about them in the first place. Whereas with Trump, there were lots more papers and he and his gofers tried really hard to cover them up. And because Trump is always up to no good, it’s always possible that he held on to some key papers because he planned to use them for some Donald Trump evil purpose.
- Point Two: The Biden matter is best appreciated for the fact that it provided yet another chance for us to hear from the “real” Joe Biden. As often is the case with the current commander-in-chief, controversies prompt refreshing “blunders," in which he candidly blurts out exactly what’s on his mind.
"By the way,” Biden told reporters, “my Corvette's in a locked garage, so it's not like they're sitting out on the street.”
IN JOE BIDEN'S WORLD, there can be no more special place than where he parks his beloved 1967 Corvette Stingray.
A gift from his often-mentioned late father/hero, Joe, Sr., the convertible can do zero to 60 in 5.8 seconds, according to a 2020 piece in the Detroit Free Press. It has a four-speed, stick shift transmission and a 350-horsepower engine, which allowed him, he once told Jay Leno, the comedian and fellow car enthusiast, to push it to speeds of 160 miles an hour.
“I love this car,” Biden said in a 2020 campaign commercial, in which he used the car as a prop to demonstrate his bona fides as a regular car guy, while also promoting the U.S. auto industry, along with Corvette-maker General Motors’ plans to produce electric-powered vehicles.
So, sleep tight America, if classified documents were in a garage with the Stringray, they might as well have been in the White House Situation Room, or the vaults of the National Archives, or wherever they are supposed to be.
A gift from his often-mentioned late father/hero, Joe, Sr., the convertible can do zero to 60 in 5.8 seconds, according to a 2020 piece in the Detroit Free Press. It has a four-speed, stick shift transmission and a 350-horsepower engine, which allowed him, he once told Jay Leno, the comedian and fellow car enthusiast, to push it to speeds of 160 miles an hour.
“I love this car,” Biden said in a 2020 campaign commercial, in which he used the car as a prop to demonstrate his bona fides as a regular car guy, while also promoting the U.S. auto industry, along with Corvette-maker General Motors’ plans to produce electric-powered vehicles.
So, sleep tight America, if classified documents were in a garage with the Stringray, they might as well have been in the White House Situation Room, or the vaults of the National Archives, or wherever they are supposed to be.
TRUMP in 2018, before he absconded with classified document when he lost the election. CREDIT; Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons license.
WAIT JUST A FRIGGING MINUTE," you’re saying, trying not to use swears.
"Isn’t that liberal hypocrisy, saying mishandling classified documents is a crime when it involves Donald Trump, but mere carelessness when Boy Joey does it?"
Yes. And no.
Yes, if you are Attorney General Merrick Garland, and you decided not to investigate. Instead, Garland, having appointed a special counsel to look into Trump’s paper crimes, now had to do the same thing with Biden, to demonstrate the Department of Justice's impartiality in dealing with politically charged matters.
The same goes with the media. Reporters are professional skeptics. It’s their job to ferret out any less-than-favorable possibilities within the Biden Papers' Scandal or the Trump Papers' Scandal. What's good for the goose... type of thing. Less nobly, it’s the media's chance to show that they’ll write negative stories about Biden, just like they do with Trump, although neither press critics nor Trumpsters will ever take that seriously.
Taking a less jaundiced view of the Biden papers is, in fact, hypocritical for the president's supporters, but the opposite is especially the case for two-faced Republicans, as they play pin the tail on the donkey, while ignoring the elephant in the room.
After all, Republicans are the princes of hypocrisy in everything that they do and say, and in everything that they don’t do and don’t say. They don’t care about the substance of the two cases, just as long as they can attack Democrats.
If there is a lesson for Democrats in the Biden disclosures it’s that presidents are absolutely flawed, and their supporters are always at risk of being disappointed and embarrassed by their leader’s stupid mistakes.
Of course, Biden and his staff should not have put any classified papers in the wrong places, even closeted with a beloved sports car, thus “imperiling" his political future, although not necessarily national security.
And when it comes to public relations, Team Biden should not have violated the first law of crisis management, allowing “bad news” to dribble out day after day, instead of quickly getting the whole story out, so the media people would lose interest and move on to the next crisis in the news cycle.
In the end, we should admit that the secret papers' controversy is small stuff for Biden, and probably for Trump, too, and that bias drives our views in both instances.
A FRIEND recently told me he’ll be disappointed if the Mar-a-Lago paper chase turns out to be the only offense that Garland and his crime fighters come up with. I agree, except that if that’s all that will send Trump to the slammer, I’ll settle for that.
Mainly, we need to relax and smile once in a while.
Let's keep some perspective, hoping that we don’t have to wait too long before Joe Biden, a genuine American good guy and a confessed dangerous driver, gets another chance to tell us what he’s really thinking.
Varoom.
"Isn’t that liberal hypocrisy, saying mishandling classified documents is a crime when it involves Donald Trump, but mere carelessness when Boy Joey does it?"
Yes. And no.
Yes, if you are Attorney General Merrick Garland, and you decided not to investigate. Instead, Garland, having appointed a special counsel to look into Trump’s paper crimes, now had to do the same thing with Biden, to demonstrate the Department of Justice's impartiality in dealing with politically charged matters.
The same goes with the media. Reporters are professional skeptics. It’s their job to ferret out any less-than-favorable possibilities within the Biden Papers' Scandal or the Trump Papers' Scandal. What's good for the goose... type of thing. Less nobly, it’s the media's chance to show that they’ll write negative stories about Biden, just like they do with Trump, although neither press critics nor Trumpsters will ever take that seriously.
Taking a less jaundiced view of the Biden papers is, in fact, hypocritical for the president's supporters, but the opposite is especially the case for two-faced Republicans, as they play pin the tail on the donkey, while ignoring the elephant in the room.
After all, Republicans are the princes of hypocrisy in everything that they do and say, and in everything that they don’t do and don’t say. They don’t care about the substance of the two cases, just as long as they can attack Democrats.
If there is a lesson for Democrats in the Biden disclosures it’s that presidents are absolutely flawed, and their supporters are always at risk of being disappointed and embarrassed by their leader’s stupid mistakes.
Of course, Biden and his staff should not have put any classified papers in the wrong places, even closeted with a beloved sports car, thus “imperiling" his political future, although not necessarily national security.
And when it comes to public relations, Team Biden should not have violated the first law of crisis management, allowing “bad news” to dribble out day after day, instead of quickly getting the whole story out, so the media people would lose interest and move on to the next crisis in the news cycle.
In the end, we should admit that the secret papers' controversy is small stuff for Biden, and probably for Trump, too, and that bias drives our views in both instances.
A FRIEND recently told me he’ll be disappointed if the Mar-a-Lago paper chase turns out to be the only offense that Garland and his crime fighters come up with. I agree, except that if that’s all that will send Trump to the slammer, I’ll settle for that.
Mainly, we need to relax and smile once in a while.
Let's keep some perspective, hoping that we don’t have to wait too long before Joe Biden, a genuine American good guy and a confessed dangerous driver, gets another chance to tell us what he’s really thinking.
Varoom.
BRIAN C. JONES
|
I'VE BEEN a reporter and writer for 58 years, long enough to have learned that journalists don't know very much, although I've met some smart ones.
Mainly, what reporters know comes from asking other people questions and fretting about the answers. This blog is a successor to one inspired by our dog, Phoebe, who was smart, sweet and the antithesis of Donald Trump. She died Feb. 3, and I don't see getting over that very soon. Occasionally, I may try to reach her via cell phone. |
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