Does anybody take this shit seriously?

It’s political theatre, and a bad production at that. The team in control stands up and applauds, sits down and then does it all over again. Over and over and over again. The president promises stuff that will never come to be, and then the pundits analyze this worthless affair ad infinitum. I never watch, it’s a waste of time. I read about it after the fact. But tonight, doing my back exercises, I tuned in. This is our country?

I guess when I was young I believed in the government. And I’m not talking about the bureaucracy, all the stuff some want to drown in the bathtub. I mean I thought the elected officials were educated and intelligent people with the best interests of the public at large in their hearts. After all, there’s not a single person elected in the House or Senate who only represents people from one side, but that’s how they act. Until they want to weasel out of commitments, like Joe Manchin, telling us those on the other side won’t tolerate it. No Joe, you don’t want to vote for it because you’re afraid you won’t be able to get all those donations, and god forbid you lose your seat… When did serving as an elected official become a permanent job? Too many of these people have lost touch with real Americans. And by that I don’t mean just those living in rural areas with too much power in the Senate and ultimately receiving more than their share of government aid. If you’ve got money, you’re removed from the street. That’s one of the reasons you make the money. The goal is to have a private jet and vacation on a private island, meanwhile jumping from house to house with impenetrable security. You don’t even do your own grocery shopping, how in the hell would you know what is going on?

Oh, by reading the news. And believe me, that goes a long way. But never forget that the news media missed Trump. You’ve got to do more than go out there and shake hands. You’ve got to read your e-mail. You’ve got to live amongst your constituents. You’ve got to come down off your pedestal and be one of us. But no, politics is show business for ugly people and they all think they’re better than the rest of us, ain’t that a laugh.

Now, with democracy in jeopardy, the Ukraine war putting the entire world into focus, illustrating how we’re all intertwined, you’d think the country could come together. BUT NO! Politics has turned into a 24/7 sporting competition. You’ve got to take the other tack from your opponents. I mean aren’t we all against Russia? I mean even Tucker Carlson switched sides.

As for Donald Trump telling us it wouldn’t happen under his watch… Why doesn’t he tell us not only exactly why, but what Biden should be doing, be presidential. But no, we just get endless self-promotional platitudes, saying to trust him. Does anybody truly trust Donald Trump? Not even Melania does. They voted for Trump because he captured and articulated their pain and frustration, something the Democrats have given up on. The Democrats are all intellectual now. Feeling is not a part of their platform. As for Biden…Bill Clinton felt people’s pain better, however his wife Hillary was a technocrat.

So the bottom line is Putin is a dictator.

I’m just reading the news and they’re speculating there’s something wrong with him. He looks puffy. Macron said he sounded different.

Oh come on, Putin is single-minded and he doesn’t suffer fools. Would you like someone to take a look at a photograph of you and judge you?

I mean at some point elder people are more prone to dementia, like Ronald Reagan, who had the disease while still in office, but enough with Biden being out to lunch. He hasn’t evidenced this whatsoever. And he’s your president as well as mine, and what he does in office affects us all, especially regarding Ukraine.

And then there was the inane response from Kim Reynolds, the Governor of Iowa.

The Republicans employ code words. They focus on social issues, which usually fade away, to rile their troops and get elected. So fearful of critical race theory, which is not even taught in today’s elementary and high schools, they elected Glenn Youngkin in Virginia, who immediately reversed so much of the progress and social equality measures his Democratic predecessor instituted.

So Kim Reynolds rails on about education. That we’ve got to get the parents involved. If only they truly were! And I don’t see them running to get minorities’ parents involved. No, this is about coddled white people, who want vouchers so they can attend schools that exclude everybody who doesn’t look like them, or maybe have a token or two. It’s about separation, not inclusion. And in truth, parents shouldn’t be hands-on re the curriculum anyway! If you think you know better, home school your kids, which too many people are doing, as if it’s all about the subjects. Most of what you learn in school is how to get along with people! Like college, I learned a hell of a lot more out of class than in. If for no other reason than I was exposed to people from around the world, with different backgrounds and beliefs. I mean I grew up in a suburb, only fifty miles from New York City, but until I went to college I had no idea what was going on in the rest of the country, despite watching television and reading the news. I’d never been around people SO RICH! You think you want a seat at the table, but you can’t get and keep one until you know where these people are coming from, how to behave around them.

So all this stuff Reynolds and the Republicans are going on about we all want. We all want better schools, we all want a more efficient government. Then again, in some cases, Reynolds wants the community to do it instead of the government. Can the community fight a war? Is the community gonna take care of the underprivileged and abandoned? No, the government does the work the rest of us don’t want to.

And talking about Democrats and taxes. This ties me in a knot, trickle down economics never works, the Republicans kept lowering taxes and the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. And therefore every new tax is wrong? I mean why can’t you be a student of history?

And it’s not only tax policy, but environmental policy. First, let’s accept climate change. Second, let’s stop putting up straw men like China. The truth is China has cut pollution far in excess of what the U.S. has. And their electrical vehicle production and consumption far outweighs that of America. Oh, but you’ll read blowhards in the WSJ talking about electric vehicle subsidies… What about gas and oil subsidies, what about farm subsidies? The government invests for the future, LIKE THE INTERNET! Which I’m employing to reach you right now. You spend to grow.

As for the governmental subsidies, to keep people and the country afloat… They didn’t cause inflation, Covid and the supply chain did. Furthermore, the economy is raging. Why do people keep thinking governmental monetary policy is the same as personal monetary policy. It is not. Turns out printing money can be a good thing. Austerity… Germany and the EU almost broke Greece and Spain a decade ago. Made them pay for prior mistakes. End result? Generations out of work.

So let’s find common ground on a few of these points.

Right now, the enemy is Putin. And we can’t be isolationist. Because rust never sleeps and neither does Putin’s effort to restore the old Soviet Union. I mean Tucker Carlson went to Hungary and sang its praises. What next, praising Cuba? Or North Korea?

Yes, we can differ on how much to tax and spend. But that’s not what we’re doing, we’re doing NOTHING! As if broken down infrastructure will fix itself. Yeah, what if you’re on that bridge when it collapses. How lucky do you feel, punk.

As for the tearing down of all Covid restrictions, which seems to be a train that has left the station based on the words of a very few blowhards… Have you seen what happened in Denmark when they did this? Covid infections WENT THROUGH THE ROOF! But Denmark’s vaccination rate is very high, the United States’ is very low. And the new variant is more contagious. So if you’re not vaxxed… Once again, how lucky do you feel? When you have to swim across the river, and it looks kinda  far, do you want to depend on your inner strength or would you like the aid of a life preserver? Which will keep you afloat when you tire, so you can rest and then complete your journey.

Then again, safety nets are anathema. It’s like everybody wants to live in the old west, with their boots and their gun. Well, if you got sick or shot in the old west…you died. There was not a hospital nearby. And if you get Covid and need to go to the hospital, if you have to go to the hospital for any reason, good luck getting in. Did you know that more people have died of Omicron than Delta? Yes, Delta was inherently more deadly, but so many more people got Omicron.

Don’t bother to send me b.s. contradicting what I have to say. That’s just b.s. from tireless self-promoters looking to become rich and famous, selling their untested nutritional products to fund their quest. You’ll put this junk in your mouth but not take a Covid vaccine?

We have a lot of common ground. But it’s being denied, by Mitch McConnell and the rest of the team players. Imagine if you worked at the corporation and you told the boss your goal was to make sure your coworker never completed anything, how high would that fly? NOT AT ALL! You work together for the best result. I mean come on Mitch, your job is to legislate, you really can’t find common ground? I’m sure if we had dinner we’d find we’re more similar than different, but you single-handedly changed the balance in the Supreme Court, undermining the INTEGRITY of the institution. And yes, I can no longer believe in the Supreme Court, and I’m not the only one. And as a lawyer, the entire system is based on stare decisis but these judges are ignoring it? Tell me these decisions are not political.

You don’t want to involve the police and you don’t want to go to court. Even when you win you often lose. It’s expensive and try collecting.

Ukraine is a thorny issue, can we please address that?

And pierce the veil. The Republicans keep foisting good-looking women to spread their message, but so many of their policies are anti-woman. Do you think we’re stupid? Oh, that’s right, many of us are. Believing that Biden is responsible for dramatic gas price increases. But in 2021 America had the third highest domestic oil production in history!

And Tucker Carlson railing against dollar stores. I can’t even comprehend this. So you’re poor and you have to shop there and now Tucker is criticizing you for it, telling you you’re making America dirtier, littering all the while?

Yes, read the “Washington Post” fact-check on Tucker’s Monday night show: https://wapo.st/3HyKW5m I really wish you would, I pay attention to Fox News.

And while you’re at it, read Thomas Friedman’s piece on Ukraine in today’s “New York Times”: https://nyti.ms/3IDVXn7 He lays out the three possibilities of how the war in Ukraine plays out. You need to familiarize yourself with the possibilities, after all this is affecting you and your wallet, never mind your future.

And enough with the left crapping on Friedman. Sure, he’s married to a rich woman and he’s not always right, but basically you’re pissed he’s in the “New York Times” and you’re not. That’s America today, everybody believes their opinion is entitled to a hearing. Talk to your friends and neighbors, but if you want a bigger audience you’ve got to earn it, build it. And journalism is a game, I don’t care how good you are, do you know these people at the “Times” and other papers?

I don’t and I don’t care. And some of these blowhards are so bad. Farhad Manjoo was a reasonable tech columnist, but as an opinion writer, he’s too often whacked. And Michell Goldberg too often shows her biases and misses the point. But the “Times” has never called me to write for them and never will. I own it. I’ve got my audience, I’ve got distribution and if I do something really damn good it goes viral, that’s how it works.

Everything is hard. But Americans want it to be easy. And everybody believes they’re entitled to be a star. And the one that bugs me the most is Americans don’t believe in sacrificing, not whatsoever. The greater good? Screw the rest of the populace. In the U.S. no one can lose their job, progress is hindered because wankers want the past protected, and that’s a journey to disaster, which is happening right now in electric cars. GM and Ford are dabbling at best, Lucid and Rivian can’t even build them. Meanwhile, China and VW are whole hog. And despite all the blowback on Tesla, it keeps selling more and more cars.

So it’s all bad. Not only do I not believe in too many Americans, I don’t even believe in the SYSTEM anymore. I don’t call this democracy, when the Dakotas get four senators and California gets two. But the Constitution is inviolate. Why? Imagine if your smartphone or computer were inviolate, imagine using an original iPhone, even worse a Treo.

It’s dusk in America. But can’t we at least rally around the common enemies, Russia and Covid?

I guess not.