Monday, November 8, 2021

News of the World: The Mummy That Will Not Die

There's an old saying about horror movies featuring a mummy as the monster: Anyone who gets caught by the mummy deserves to be caught. 


If a big slow lumbering single minded man-monster encased in ancient rags can catch up to you and kill you, well,maybe you had it coming. 

I'm thinking about this as I contemplate the big slow lumbering single minded man-monster who exists in our world and just won't fucking go away. 

Donald Trump will not go away.

And a lot of people are living in fear of it, 

Here's what Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) said about what Trump will do in 2024:   “I think it’s all pushing towards one of two outcomes: He either wins legitimately, which he may do, or if he loses again, you just try to steal it." 

Make no mistake: Donald Trump is a very, very, very (insert a large number of "very" here) stupid man. I would say he's as dumb as rock but that's insulting the intelligence of rocks.

But when it comes to his own self dealing need for revenge on his enemies, that's when Trump pays attention in class. And his attempts to steal the 2020 election afforded many opportunities for education. 

Who stood in his way? Which levers of power did and did not work? 

Currently Trump is engaged in a scorched Earth strategy of endorsing any candidate at any level of government whose sole attribute is their unflinching loyalty to Donald Trump, particularly any such candidate running against anyone who dared to vote in favor of Trump's impeachment(s) and dared to not support Trump's own lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him. 

Li'l Donnie will not shut the fuck up about his wild allegations of massive voter fraud that gave the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

The funny thing is in that when attempts at voter fraud are uncovered, guess who the fraud was intended to benefit?

Right here in North Carolina in 2018, there was voter fraud in favor of the Republican congressional candidate.

Or the guy in Pennsylvania who had his dead mother vote for Donald Trump in 2020. 

Or just this past Tuesday, there was an attempt at voter fraud in the Virginia governor's election. 

A 17 year old, too young to be registered to vote, tried to vote twice at the Great Falls Library in Fairfax County, Virginia.

That 17 year old? The son of Republican candidate for governor, Glenn Youngkin.  

Youngkin's ultimate victory adds more fearful fuel to the Trump fire.   Youngkin tried to keep distance between himself and Trump but it didn't stop Trump from jumping out in front of a parade, endorse Youngkin and declare credit for his victory.

Two weeks prior to the election, Democrat Terry McAuliffe was up in the polls with a lead of 4 to 8 points over Youngkin. Suddenly the polls tightened up and Glenn Youngkin is now the next Governor of Virginia. 

Did Trump help Youngkin win? Some analysis suggests that Youngkin won despite Trump's involvement.   

Here's what William Saletan wrote:  

"It’s true that Trump has a lot of supporters, and many turned out for Youngkin. In the network exit poll, 42 percent of people who cast ballots in the Virginia gubernatorial race said they had a favorable view of the former president, and they voted almost unanimously for Youngkin. But these people were outnumbered by the 54 percent of respondents who expressed an unfavorable view of Trump. If that majority had voted for McAuliffe with anywhere near the same degree of unanimity, Youngkin would have lost. Instead, the Republican won by peeling away one of every six anti-Trump voters."

Trump only jumped into the fray when the later polls showed Youngkin pulling closer to McAuliffe and giving Li'l Donnie to take credit for a win. As long as McAuliffe was up in the polls, Trump being the coward that he is had zero interest in what was going on in Virginia.

But still, the fear is there. Earned or not, Trump is still being Trump and notching Youngkin's victory as a Trump's victory and the Republican Party is all to willing to acquiesce to his raging narcissism.

And a devoted horde of voters willing to follow him over a cliff.

I recently had the misfortune to learn that a person that I personally know not only voted for Donald Trump in 2016, voted for him again in 2020 and is fully prepared to vote for him again in 2024. I don't necessarily like this person but I do respect that he is intelligent and successful. His continued willingness to support a man who badly mismanaged the pandemic response that cost this country over half a million lives makes no sense. Even from a purely selfish business perspective, Donald Trump was bad for business. Oh yeah, the fat cat CEOs made out like bandits in Trump's economy but everyone else was left struggling. 

Remember Trump's big strategy of putting tariffs on everything in order to promote certain American business interests but actually wound up shutting down U.S. factories? 

Even without the god damn pandemic, Trump was repeatedly showing off his lack of intelligence and his glaring incompetence.

And there are people, ostensibly intelligent and successful who want to put this son of a bitch back in the White House? 

Months after Donald Trump shuffled off to Florida to squat on a toadstool, he remains a presence in the news, a continuing threat to the democracy he did so much to undermine. 

The big slow lumbering single minded man-monster who just won't stop.

Do we deserve to be caught?  

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