Who decides just what is a crisis

Podcast on How the military is going to use this to justify their obscenely large budget and other stuff

Yesterday's Podcast, dissing the powerful dollar

Yesterday's

How long will this last, military apologia, podcast

Today's podcast:

Trumps wins in a landslide

That’s my two-cent prediction.

When Trump bumbled the first steps responding to Covid 19, some friends opined that there would be no way he could recover politically. Well, dear ever hopeful Biden voters,  it’s much more likely nothing will come of his malfeasance.

Unless you’re in a vacuum, you have to know he’ll twist his response into heroism and America’s amoeba like memory will decide the long term consequences.  And, here’s the tummy rub he never got from his mommy, Trump will continue this shift left in his political jabberings. He will be unstoppable.

Trump is demanding a stake in businesses the government bails out, raising the ire of the our owners. That will play really well (FOX will shift accordingly with the same alacrity shown in the ten minutes they took to switch from “Coronavirus is nothing and we know that because Trump sees through the propaganda” to “Coronavirus is frightening and it’s a good thing Trump is in control”.

Trump took up Tulsi Gabbard’s call for a UBI—she introduced a House resolution calling for it a week ago. Yang’s an establishment CNN host, that’s why the press keeps telling you about his connection to UBI instead of Gabbard’s legislation. The moratorium on evictions is another example. It will get more radical as we go. And his popularity will rebound by November.

The 2016 crew who refused the Dem neoliberal du jour and voted for Trump last time will do it again. 

I have an okay track record on these predictions. I’d be near perfect if SCOTUS hadn’t stopped Florida from counting citizen’s votes, but that’s for another day. 

In 2016 I regarded Trump as something of a joke until I watched one of his full speeches. He railed about the neoliberal (my term) gutting of the middle class, foreign wars, and job loss to people who currently lack official credentials (his word started with an i). 

That’s two out of three for us lefties, right there. Add in permanent UBI, trust busting, and a couple other issues, he will be hard to beat.

I’m not saying he has credibility on these issues, just that he is very good at sleight of hand—not as masterful as Obama, but very talented. 

I’m just saying, Trump is highly skilled at this game. Don’t be fooled. 

In 2016 I watched his campaign stump speech and then turned to my wife and said that he could win, that he really had a chance.

I wasn’t convinced enough to make a hard prediction on the general election. Really, blind to my station and by my cohort’s head shakes, I thought the pussy grabbing comment would end his campaign. Truth is, I went back and forth. Certainly, I wasn’t surprised when he won.

He’s, already recovering politically, he’s off the floor, anyway. He might start railing against monopolies soon, and bring up some of the more esoteric but tremendous damage Bill Clinton did to our commons. He might even swap to environmentalism.

And if he does, if he starts building thousand acre solar arrays, man, I mean, Good Ol’ Biden won’t be on board, know what I mean?

Trump will outflanking the Dems on the left. He will use this crisis to, erm, Nationally Socialize his way to a second term.

Self Isolation

Day 1. All went well. Set homeschooling times and lessons and hit all targets. We ate ice cream and I made a nice ramen dinner of garden veggies and our home hatched eggs.

Day 2. Lost grip of the time, a bit. We didn’t get to lessons, but I did build a prepper cold frame for the veggie starts.

Dinner of leftover noodles and soggy eggs (who knew mustard leaves don’t help ramen).

Henry said the when he discovers a new plant species he’s going to call it a Pornge, “so something will rhyme with orange.

Day 3. Megan is off for the day. We all try to keep a safe distance from her and her Pediatrician germs. 

She makes dinner. It’s good.

KK dumps every LEGO we own on her bedroom floor and swims in the pile.

Day 4. Today. The dog whines incessantly. KK has asked 46 times if we can go somewhere. Henry is randomly running around and screaming.

Of Dog Balls, Poop, and Empathy

Our little neighborhood has a crew of kids who run in a pack from house to house. Apparently, our house must have the most comfortable toilet as we are the pooping house. It’s a compliment, I am told.

Henry built a small LEGO vending machine. I dug up a penny and bought a single M&M. The M&M was wet with his sweat.

As we were driving the dog to the vet’s for neutering Kahena asked what the procedure entailed. I used the most technical of terms to describe it. She was not satisfied with my answer. I tried a less medical approach to the answer but it didn’t seem to satisfy her need to know what we were going to be putting her dog through. I tried an even less obtuse description of neutering. Still, she was unsatisfied. Finally, after I’d given  a more, uhm, ‘workman-like’ description of the events her dog faced she started telling him (so everyone could hear, including in the parking lot and at the office) ‘they’re gonna cut your balls off, they’re gonna cut your balls off.’

I have two children on opposite sides of the empathy spectrum. Henry hurts at the death of a fly. Kahena laughs at Henry when he stubs his toe, falls to the floor and wails. I got her a dog for this reason. Having an animal at her age, six, is supposed to engender empathy. She now does seem to have some sense that other people have feelings. The dog fix seems to be working. Well, except when she’s singing to the dog ‘they cut your balls off, they cut your balls off!’