Version 2.163

I have a friend who always defines herself by the man she is with. And her men are always awesome, the most awesome, until one day they break up and we learn all the shitty things that they did. I hate that in more ways than one. I hate that people would do that to each other, I hate that many relationships end up and the partners are left hating each other's guts. I hate all the pain people have to go through. It just feels like such a waste of emotional energy. Anyway, shit happens an then you die--that's the condensed version of life. 

Today we made a ton of progress tearing apart the garden. The AstroTurf is out and one of the water fountains is getting disconnected. There are still lots to do and sometimes it feels overwhelming, not to mention that I question if I'll be able to implement my vision, but it was a bit stressful having to look at things the way there were. Plus, I bought two dogwoods, which will soon be shipped and I need to prepare things to accommodate them. Dogwoods are one of my favorite trees; I just love them so much that when they start blooming, I drive around town trying to find the best routes to see them.

I managed to give all the extra window curtain hardware away to one of my housekeepers, who has recently moved to a house. I had been lugging that stuff around from house to house for the longest time. I don't even remember exactly which house I had bought it for originally. I think it was in my house in Arkansas almost 10 years ago, but it did not get installed when I moved to Memphis the first time or to Houston since both houses already had hardware. I had over 10 curtain rod sets, so it was probably worth over $300. I am just happy that it is of use to someone and I don't have to deal with it anymore.

One of my next projects is to repot some of the plants that I propagated and also give them to the housekeepers. They have told me several times how much they enjoy my plants, so I would like them to have some of their own. I have accumulated too many, plus they are really easy to care for, which is perfect for beginners.

The SCOTUS decided today in favor of the Trump Administration and is allowing Census work to end about two weeks earlier than originally planned. It is assumed that the big cities, like L.A., Houston, and Seattle, will have the most to lose with this decision, but we shall see.

Another Census case is being considered by the SCOTUS, regarding whether or not to count illegal immigrants. The Constitution does not specify the nationality of the people that are to be counted toward the Census, so it will be informative to see what the SCOTUS will rule. Usually, conservative Justices are keener to hold a literal view of the Constitution.

Version 2.162

The big news today is Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Senate hearing for the SCOTUS. Since I was working, I did not get a chance to listen to it, but the little I did listen made me sad. In her opening statement, she presented herself as some sort of reincarnation of Justice Scalia, for whom she clerked. 

She already has the votes of the die-hard Republicans, so who is she trying to persuade? If the moderate Republicans were sensitive to those arguments, they wouldn't be moderate, but it is true that they vote in pack and are not expected to veer away from the GOP. Sut she would have damaged the Democrats' arguments if she had portrayed herself as an accomplished professional woman, rather than someone who is just going to carry on the work of a man that has been dead for four years.

The question of Roe v. Wade is a moot issue, as there is too much precedent already, so it is nearly impossible to overturn. Furthermore, it's not like the GOP needs to overturn Roe v. Wade to make abortions unavailable. They are already pretty hard to get legally because most abortion clinics have closed.

But it's all a show anyway. It will be interesting to see if the Senators who said that they would not vote will act as indicated. My gut feeling is that they will go ahead and vote.

  

Version 2.161

 At the end of the day, the sun came out for a bit, as the clouds of Delta moved on, but the morning was wet. I ended up taking Julian to the pet hotel, so that he could spend the day playing with other dogs, since we could not do our usual activities. 

When I went to pick him up, I also stopped by Barnes and Noble, since I wanted to buy a Pablo Neruda book to introduce a friend of mine to poetry. I also got a Rumi book for myself. All the sections at the bookstore had been rearranged and the back of the store was full of toys. It felt strange to not have things in their usual places, but I suppose they are hoping for early Christmas shoping and toys are supposed to perform really well.

This weekend, I binge-watched two TV shows on Netflix and also read, which felt good. I had tried to do a cook-along where I learned to make vegetarian meals, but I did not feel well at all. I don’t think I can digest lentils or mushrooms because I had really uncomfortable stomach aches and I felt very bloated. I gained about 5 lbs 3-4 days, just from inflammation. And when I get out of bed in the morning, my ankles hurt. 

I will have to go to the doctor and ask if this could just be because of a reaction to food or if there is something else that could be wrong. It seems like my immune system just turned completely bonkers over the last couple of years. Comfort food these days is a baked sweet potato. I suppose it could be worse. 

Version 2.160

"This bill makes sex look like church." That's how Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah described the coronavirus legislation that is being discussed in the House of Representatives. I am glad the prudes of Congress are thinking about sex while people are going without jobs. Although their explicit rationale for not passing the legislation is their own jobs, since the GOP is concerned that they will be voted out for spending so much money. I actually think that they are trying to lose the election on purpose because they don't want to deal with the big mess that they created. Good for them...

During the day, we hosted the remnants of Hurricane Delta, so lots of rain and some wind. I was surprised by how little coverage it got, given that it made landfall in Louisiana, so it could've been serious for New Orleans; however, the storm moved on pretty quickly, so that was a good thing. Obviously, one person who did not give a hoot was the President. I can't believe people in the affected areas vote for him, but they do, so I guess they got what they deserve.

We are 25 days away from the election and, next week, we will be able to vote early and in person in TN. I will wait a few days and do so, as I want to avoid the early crowds. Five days ago, more than 4 million people had already voted, which compares to 75 thousand early votes by that time in 2016. I think that we will have record participation this year, which just shows you that despite all the craziness that Americans endure, they also understand that, if the country is not doing well, it is because of who got elected, so if they want a different outcome, they need to vote accordingly.

Trump may win the election because of the Electoral College, but one cannot say that this President is popular or that he has the support of the majority of the people. He is one of the most unpopular Presidents, as the American people has shown over and over again in public demonstrations, some of which having broken participation records. Democracy is alive and well these days and people will continue working until he is brought down.  

  

Version 2.159

President Trump had a tantrum and refused to participate in the next debate, which would have been held virtually. As such, it was cancelled. Whoever thought that Donald Trump was a political genius has been proven wrong. If he had been said genius, he would have played the part: smiled for the cameras and let things move along. As such, he would've garnered the praise of many people on the left, center, and the Rockefeller Republicans, besides his original base. Instead, he acted like an elephant in a china shop.  

The only thing that can give him a win is the Electoral College, but I would not rule out that some Electors may just vote with their conscience, rather than the will of the majority in the state they represent. After all, the point of the Electoral College is to weaken the tyranny of the majority.

On Friday, Ian Bremmer, the President and Founder of the Eurasia Group, has a really nice review of major events for the week. In today's newsletter, he had an interview with the Greek Prime Minister, who seems to be a very impressive man and quite well spoken and in control. I am happy that Greece is managing the pandemic well: they deserve a break. Other countries should be so lucky. 

Version 2.158

The dominoes are falling. The Drudge report no longer supports Trump and has joined the Biden bandwagon. One of the masterminds behind an important QAnon website has been identified as Jason Gelinas and has been fired from Citigroup where he was a  Senior Vice-President. 

Today, news came out that 13 people have been arrested in connection to a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, who is a Democrat, and take over the state government. 

Little by little, until election day, the machine that supports Trump will be dismantled. It will not be completely eliminated, but it will be weakened in the short term and it will take a while for people behind it to reorganize.

The talk of the town today was the fly that landed on Vice-President Pence during yesterday's debate. He seemed completely unaware of it, but people don't know if he did not realize it or if his poker face is that good. 

I wonder what tomorrow will bring us...

Version 2.157

 We are through the only vice-presidential debate of the season. Kamala won on content, Pence won on demeanor. Nobody changed their mind after watching this, of course. The best part of the evening was when one of the commentators on PBS described Mike Pence’s style as “syrupy politeness,” which is quite apt. This is the type of guy who can convince you you’re looking at the sun, when in actuality it’s midnight and you’re staring at the moon. He’s very good at playing to the emotional system, instead of the rational. 

Kamala was good enough and did her job. She could’ve been better, but it is hard to be in her position. 

Debate Vice-Presidencial

Version 2.156

It is not lost on me that what seems to be the straw that broke the camel's back that is the Trump Presidency is a direct consequence of the death of RBG. In his haste to add insult to injury, Trump saw images of President Clinton's announcement of RBG's nomination and decided he wanted the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to look just like it, so he had the Rose Garden decorated in the same manner. Of course, it had to have a big audience because the size of the crowd matters. And that is how you end up with a Presidential event in which at least 23 people are infected, including a Coast Guard Admiral, which triggered senior military officials to quarantine themselves. 

Twelve years ago, we were living under the same kind of stress as the economy collapsed under the weight of the subprime crisis. Come to think of it, we are already October, so we may even see another stock market crash. The 2008 one took place on Sept. 29, so that's how we spent that election campaign. The Bush Administration was completely overwhelmed. Four days before the crash, Henry Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, kneeled down in front of the then, and now, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to ask her to help Congress pass TARP. The Wall Street Journal called it a moment of levity, but it sure did not feel that way.

After the 2008 election, the Bush Administration entertained the thought of Obama's inauguration taking place before January 20, 2009. Instead, they got their ducks in a row and trained the Obama folks as well as they could to make sure they could hit the floor running. Obama was so impressed with how organized the transition from the previous administration had been that he ordered his administration to leave everything just as good for the Trump administration to take over. What a waste of effort. 

If Trump does leave office, he will do so without a transition plan. If he wins the election, his lunacy will be emboldened. Either he'll be impeached or they'll use the 25th Amendment and take him out. Of course that assumes that he survives; we still have a few weeks to go to see how he fares. It does not seem like he'll have access to a Portuguese nurse, though. I'm sure MRS is very disappointed. 

Version 2.155

The President is back in the White House, sick, but back and has removed his mask to show what a great guy he is. I was talking to someone who's in DC and was told that early in the day, there had been talk of using Tuberculosis legislation to keep the President in the hospital, since it would be considered a precedent for infectious diseases and, if there is a people that loves precedent and protocol, that would be the American people, pre-Trump, that is. I guess that plan went the way of good intentions: to hell.

We are in the middle of one of the greatest failures in U.S. national security. Not only is the President ill, but several of the White House staff are also infected. If the country were to experience a terrorist attack, we'd be adrift at sea. History will not look kindly upon our times.

From here I believe there are two outcomes that are likely: the President gets worse or the President decides that he will carry on with his campaign, coronavirus be damned. It does not seem like he will be abiding by doctor's orders, nor will he change his behavior. The reason why all of these White House folks got ill was that he made fun of people who wore masks in the White House. 

How can a germaphobe be so lackadaisical about coronavirus? It is mind boggling.

   

Version 2.154

 The insanity of it all! Mr. Trump is the center of attention, as he tries to be as much as he can. All the news are about how serious his condition is and reporters try to get the next big scoop. It's almost like American media is becoming British, but when you have a White House that coined the term "alternative facts," what indeed is the correct course of action? After all, the American people deserve to know, especially on the eve of the election.

One does not fail to see the irony: while we are concerned about a 74 year old man, the other candidate is 77 and will be turning 78, 17 days after the election. What a disaster! But, then again, it's been a while since we've had a President die while in office, thus we are due for one. Both candidates do look ripe for the picking.

At this point in the game, we should be a little bit more informed about the policies each one has to offer, but who is writing about that? One of the hot topics of the day is conspiracy theories. I have a feeling that the reason why they are so popular now is how easy they are to spread online; but I suppose that when the TV showed up conspiracy theories' popularity increased. If I had to guess, I'd say that the same thing must happened when more people started to read and write.

Version 2.153

Last night, for some odd reason, I was extremely tired at 9:30 PM, so nearly asleep as I wrote my last post -- not that that is a first, being nearly asleep, that is, but the early hour was puzzling. One might call my day productive, but mostly I just thought about things, especially the state of our current affairs. 

I have often described Donald Trump as President as an accelerator of change. It is clear that many of the things that have happened had been brewing for quite some time, but he just created the conditions for them to fully ripen, such as the Me Too and the Black Lives Matter movements. 

People will tolerate many things if they feel that we are making progress, but if things start to look like they are moving back, Americans will rebel. The whole concept of being American revolves around the notion that each of us have a chance at helping build a better country. Movies, books, education, art, everything is geared toward the idea that one person can make a difference. 

Trump being the one person that could make a difference is how he managed to get such a great following, but his goal is to take America back to a period of greatness and that is where the ideology starts to fall apart. The best of American is not in the past; it has to be in the future because that is when a perfect union can be attained. As such, Trump and his ideology will eventually be defeated. 

At this point it does not seem like he can govern another term. Now that the federal stimulus has ended, and companies are beginning to lay off, people will not be as understanding. The GOP has lost control of the message, there is actually no message. It used to be that they stood for smaller government, but with the costs of the trade war and the pandemic, not only does the government have a bigger weight on the economy, but the tax cuts that were passed were not enough to pay for themselves, so public debt is increasing very quickly. All that is left is a social ideology that is at odds with the country.

The Trump presidency is also quite problematic for the GOP. Trump never finished hiring all the usual staff for the administration and many of the ones that he did hire were not from the party, but from his pool of personal friends. This means that if Biden wins, it will be at least four more years until the GOP can staff an administration, but if Trump wins, it will be at least eight more years or even 12. This means that Republicans will not have anyone who knows how to run government and the outcome is worse with Trump than with Biden. The last normal government that the GOP had was George W. Bush from 2001 until 2008. 

If Trump loses, the GOP has a chance of presenting a normal candidate in four years and winning the Presidency, especially since Biden is very old. If Trump wins, the likely outcome will be an impeachment, but Trump will not go quietly, plus Pence would have to govern with a Democratic VP. It would be a rather weak position for the GOP and they'd likely lose the next Presidential election four years from now. 

 

Version 2.152

 A few minutes after I woke up, I checked my phone and it was full of notifications regarding President Trump's Coronavirus test. For someone who is a germaphobe, he sure managed to steer away from the virus until one month before the election. If it is true, and I do have some doubts, the one thing that popped into my head was "Bem feita!" I thought that it was pretty good that my reaction was in Portuguese. 

None of my Trump supporter friends have said anything about it to me, but I shall not be broaching the subject with them. Even the debate, I did not initiate conversation or even mention it, but they were pretty appalled and let me know. What is there left to be appalling? I think we've broken all the barriers and are now completely bare, to the bone naked. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, until the election, all we are going to hear about is the health of the President. If we count the last campaign, we have been putting up with Trump tantrums for over four years. The media should just make a vow to ignore him for two weeks. Let him rest, let us rest before the great confrontation.

On that note, I am happy that it's the weekend and I get to do some more deconstruction in the garden. Today was nice, so I managed to lift all the gladioli bulbs. I also made a list of all the plants I'd like to buy and their characteristics, so that I could see how many things would be blooming at any given time. I think I have late winter to early fall covered, so that should be about eight months. 

 

 

Version 2.151

 "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." ~ Leo Tolstoy

The opening of Anna Karenina got into my head for some odd reason and I have been thinking about it very much recently, even though I have never read the book. To be honest, the size of the book is very intimidating and the way I handle failure is that I only try things at which I do not know whether I will fail, thus I actively avoid things that I know will lead to failure. Life is too short, as are Chekhov's short stories.

Happiness has never been something that I valued and it is certainly something that I try not to think about, preferably ever. My mother often asked herself out loud why was it that she couldn't be happy and seeing someone so unhappy, while trying to be so damned happy just completely did it for me. However, I often find myself considering my own personal relationship with happiness, if not for the silly reason that my friends often tell me that I deserve to be happy and they seem to know exactly what it is that would make me happy, which is often the one thing that they believe makes them happy. 

"Deserve to be happy" is one of my pet peeves. Why would anyone be that entitled when there is so much pain and misery all over the world? Still, I cannot deny that I am actually quite happy. I don't know if that makes me just like all the other happy folks out there, in the guise of the Anna Karenina Principle, but it is true that for the most part I do not feel like I am lacking something or, better yet, I relish in the things that I do lack.

 

Version 2.150

We woke up this morning to an overall sense of impending doom come election day. I suppose many people finally realized that Biden does not have the chutzpah to be the comeback kid the way he did in the Democratic primaries. Of course, nobody was swayed either way by the debate; everyone pretty much knows for whom they will be voting, as both candidates are known quantities. 

One thing was interesting, though. I spoke to some of my friends who are Trump supporters and they were not happy with how the debate had gone, which is odd, since Trump was so dominant. I have a feeling that some of these people want to vote for Trump, but don't want Trump to win -- they want to be able to say "If Trump had been elected, we'd be in a much better place..." Well, Trump has been elected once and one cannot say we are in a much better place. 

Thousands of layoffs were announced today and higher paid workers are the targets. Granted that many of these people have been saving money, but the job market isn't that great. One of my friends in Houston got laid off six months ago and he is still looking for a job. Another one had taken an exit package from his job in New York right around the beginning of the pandemic and ended up going back to work for his dad in the family farm. If there is one thing that gets to the American psyche, it is high unemployment. The longer things stay unclear, the most demoralized people will get.