Political BS.

Perspective.

As a result of Trump’s latest round of tariffs, the U.S. stock market became very volatile. When I was watching the DJIA (Dow Jones Industrial Average) lose over 1000 points throughout yesterday, complete with photos of traders making gasping and other contorted faces on the CNBC news spread, I began to panic. I’m starting to close in on my retirement plans and those plans are hinging on two things: 1. the continuation of my marriage (though that’s not the reason I’m married) and 2. my 401K and other investments remaining solid.

My husband told me not to panic and he calming explained to me that we should be able to ride this out and let’s just stay put for the long haul. While I can’t find sense in the tariffs, his reaction makes sense. After all, he’s the smartest of the two of us so I calmed down and just vented on social media a bit.

Today it turns out that yesterday’s 1000+ point drop was just an appetizer. The DJIA closed down another 2200+ points today. Oof. My husband is out running errands, so I’m writing this blog entry to keep this all in perspective.

So, let’s recap with graphs: the DJIA is down 2231 points today.

And it’s down 2977 points over the last week.

And, the DJIA is down just over 4000 points since the beginning of the year.

However, when compared year over year, the DJIA is down only 589 points. Not great, but not horrid.

And when compared to two years ago, the DJIA is actually still up 4832 points.

Now, being up 4832 is not as good as being up 7063 points when compared to two years ago. I totally get that and I understand that our investments are riding on a downward trend with the economy and the stock market. This is all a result of the whims of a maniac that too many people have some weird fetish for. But as my husband and I discussed today at lunch, the market is not in ominous territory… yet. Who knows what TFG will do from the high chair before he leaves for another golf outing. That’s the lynchpin of this nutty Jenga game. I hate the uncertainty, I’m really sick of tolerating the rampant stupidity that has gripped this country, and I’m just flat out tired of the constant chaos.

Now, I’m not purposely looking for bright sides. I’m seeking and trying to keep things in perspective. As I continue my stoic studies (which I seemingly can’t consume fast enough these days), I’m reminded to keep things in perspective the best we can, for it could all end for me in the next moment (Memento Mori), and honestly, the world keeps turning.

Let’s not worry about what hasn’t happened yet. Why fear that which is not a certainty? Just be prepared to check receipts at the Walmart exit door until you can no longer stand up.

Numbers.

I was just on LinkedIn. For some reason my feed is now populated with political screaming and posturing, which honestly, would stop me from hiring any of the smiling headshots flinging the crap at their wall like so many chimps with so much poop.

I really wish we were living in a society where it was considered rude to be so demonstrative about your religion or politics.

I decided to look at the November 2024 election numbers for the first time. Let’s review.

Per multiple sources, including the University of Florida Election Lab:
* 245 million Americans are eligible to vote

Per fec.gov, the breakdown of votes is this:
* Harris 75,017,613
* Trump 77,302,580
* other 2,918,109

That totals 155,238,302 votes.

So, out of approximately 245,000,000 eligible voters, 37% of those voters were either too lazy, making a stand, or just too overcome with grief over the choices and simply didn’t vote.

So American (he says sarcastically).

Of the votes cast, 1.9% of the voters voted for a third party candidate. Fair, after all, they have the right to vote for whom they want and this was their way of showing they’re taking a stand. I think our two party system absolutely sucks but this wasn’t the election to grab my pearls and vote for someone that had absolutely no chance in hell of winning and furthermore, being part of a 1.9% of voters that think they’re being all high and mighty doesn’t really appeal to me.

It’s a selfish move.

However, even if every third party voter had voted for Harris, she would have won but only by 600,000 votes and we all know that we’d probably still be mired in legal battles. There’d be screaming and gnashing about voter fraud, even though with Trump winning apparently all the voter fraud magically disappeared.

Funny how that happens.

So, while I want to verbally assault one of the 1.9%, not only did their vote NOT make a difference, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference in the long run. They made doubly sure to make sure they don’t matter. Slow hand clap for them.

And look, y’all can vote for whomever you want. But hopefully you realized that a second Trump term was going to be an absolute shitshow and it already is. I’m not a fan of either of the mainstream parties strangling Washington but this was an election where we had to select the most likely candidate to actually win, because the Mango Mushpot option was going to be a revenge campaign. And it is.

No, the ultimate issue with Trump winning is with the approximately 37% of Americans who are too stupid to not do their patriotic duty and vote in the first place. Such good citizens (he says sarcastically). They’re the reason our political discourse is such a crapfest these days. I’ll give a pass to 2% of those non-voting Americans for having a legitimate excuse for not voting. But the rest of them are to blame, just as much as the folks that apparently have no moral foundation and couldn’t possibly bring themselves to vote for a black woman so they voted for a convicted felon with an agenda that could have been printed out by the Taliban but they slapped the word Christian on it and think it’s ‘the way’. Oh, believe me, Kamala Harris is a fine woman and an upstanding citizen. She was probably one of the most qualified candidates to run for president in modern history. However, Joe Biden and all the Democrats completely screwed the country with their approach to the candidacy in 2024. Let me state this plainly: The Democrats are just as much of the problem as the Republicans and their cult. I do not trust the Democrats any more than I trust the Republicans.

But that 37% of Americans that didn’t vote? The words I have are not nice.

Early Morning Thoughts.

It’s just after 6:00 AM as I write this blog entry. I will be working for the day in a little bit, but in the meanwhile, I like the moments of sitting in the Arizona darkness that’s typical at this time of year. Truman wants some treats.

There’s a lot coming out of Washington to distract you. Muskrot’s Nazi salute? Whether it was a true Nazi salute or not, it’s all part of the grand theatre staged by the circus acts to distract you and me and to keep us whipped up into a frenzy. These leeches in Washington feed on chaos. 

Don’t contribute to the chaos. 

By the way, that sentence is a reminder to ME more than it is a reminder to my gentle reader.

Trump is going to do some horrible things over the next week or two to bloviate and then he’s going to play golf. We need to get through this initial run of rampant idiocy and then he’ll lose interest or run out of drugs to keep him amped up like this and then he’ll play golf.

Social media is designed to keep us engaged, so don’t engage with social media. That’s easy for me to say and really hard for me to do. Luckily, I prefer Mastodon and that has lots of filtering options built into the chronologically based timeline. I have a whole bunch of keywords in my filtering system and lately my timeline has shown a lot of obscured posts with the words “uspol” or “the cast of idiots” instead of whatever latest tragic rumor is being bandied about this hour.

Filter your inputs and filter them really well. There is no reason for you to consume everything coming out of Washington.

Again, that last sentence is for ME more than it is for you. But I think it’s still good advice.

We don’t want to be here with Trump any more than Melania wants to be with Trump.

Designer of Melania Trump's viral inauguration hat shares his inspiration  for the first lady's look - CBS News

Melania is also a distraction and a leech, so don’t pay any attention to her either.

Frankly, and I’ve said this before when mentioning Trump, I am thankful for two things: 1. I have a memory that allows me to remember what the United States and society in general was like before this chaotic cult idiocy took over and I cherish to remember how good it was before this cancer infested everything and 2. I am really happy to be on the back half of my life. Who knows, maybe I’m on the final stretch. Hell, today could be the finish line.

No one knows when their end is arriving. Memento Mori. Live each moment as if it’s your last breath. The Great Idiocy should have no power over how you feel when you take your last breath.

Free Speech.

Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes quit The Washington Post a couple of days ago. She had drawn a cartoon depicting what’s going on in Mango Mushpot land these days: corporate leaders are making personal donations to Trump’s Inauguration fund, apparently to gain favor with him during his upcoming doom administration.

The cartoon was killed by owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos. Bezos also owns Amazon.

Here’s Ann’s rough sketch of the cartoon in question.

Ann posted a full account of the story, and the subsequent reactions on her substack.

While it isn’t uncommon for editorial page editors to object to visual metaphors within a cartoon if it strikes that editor as unclear or isn’t correctly conveying the message intended by the cartoonist, such editorial criticism was not the case regarding this cartoon. To be clear, there have been instances where sketches have been rejected or revisions requested, but never because of the point of view inherent in the cartoon’s commentary. That’s a game changer…and dangerous for a free press.

The next four years are not only going to be incredibly exhausting and dangerous politically, but they have the very strong potential to screw up this country for at least a generation.

I’m still blown away that so many people either completely lack a moral foundation or are so incredibly selfish that they voted for a second Trump term.

This is not going to be fun. But apparently America voted for the felon it deserves.

Wonder No More.

And we wonder how Trump could have possibly won the popular vote in this latest election.

This type of real estate listing photo appears more often than a sane person would imagine.

Unprecedented.

Vice President Kamala Harris takes her official portrait Thursday, March 4, 2021, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

So, Joe Biden announced yesterday that he is withdrawing from the presidential elections in November. He endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris to take his place. I suppose it will become official during the Democratic National Convention in August.

Of course the Orange Rapist is having fits and wants a refund on all the money he spent on screaming at Joe. This course of action has completely thrown off his summer golf plans. It also eclipses anything that happened last week during the Republican National Convention and spins the news media away from the outrageous bandage he’s been wearing on his ear. He paid for those props.

I sound cynical. I am cynical. In my perfect world, we’d just start talking about the president elections now instead of spinning up the hype four years before this cursed event.

Joe did the right thing. I was never crazy about voting for him this time around. It’s time for younger blood to come in and get things done. It’s time to change course. And now, Trump is the oldest candidate to run for president in the history of the country.

The media should be questioning Trump’s competence and mental acuity now. He’s way past whatever excuse we could call “his prime” and should also step down. That little Reddit troll he selected to run as his VP, the one that grew a mangy beard to look less ugly, wouldn’t stand a chance in the role, so it’d be fun to watch that go down in flames.

Overall I’m comfortable with Kamala, much more comfortable than I was with Joe. I think she has it in her and I’ll be throwing my vote in her direction come November. That is, if the country is still here, she’s still the nominee, and nothing startling has happened like twisters wiping out half the northeast again or something.

Good times. If it wasn’t a wasted vote I’d still vote for the Very Large Meteor.

34.

Joe Biden is far from perfect as President of the United States. Personally I’d like to see some younger candidates on the ballot, but that’s not going to happen with the political machine that runs Washington, D.C. The eldest generation is going to hang on to every ounce of power possible until their last dying breath.

That being said, choosing between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, a convicted felon where he was found guilty in 34 out of 34 charges, and with three more trials looming on the horizon, seems like a no-brainer. It’s not an awesome scenario, but when it comes to common sense, it seems like voting for the guy that isn’t a convicted felon would be the patriotic move.

But brains and common sense no longer prevail in these here United States in the 21st century. We’ve got our toe on a society reminiscent of “Idiocracy” and every day I wonder which is going to expire first, the United States as we know it today, or me.

Don’t be stupid in November.

Anger.

It’s way too soon for the next Presidential Election primary season to start here in the United States. I know some folks started talking about the exercise right after the outcome of the 2020 election was called, but I’d be a really happy camper if we could limit discussions around the next presidential elections to only the six months leading up to the event. I feel like that would give us enough time to figure out who was going to do what and we could make a rational decision come the first week in November.

But the U.S. election system doesn’t work that way, mainly because there’s no money in that sort of sane approach. And money is the name of the game when it comes to Politics.

So I’m not ready for 2024. I’m not ready for the rah rah, I’m not ready for town halls, I’m not ready for any of it. I can tell you that I’m not excited by any of the candidates that have announced their intentions thus far. The frontrunners (if there is such a thing 18 months from Election Day) are both just too damn old. The Baby Boomer Politicians will just not let go and let candidates from the younger generations find their way to the big offices.

What I’m really not ready for is anger and vitriol. 2016-2020 was exhausting on way too many levels and things slowed down just a little bit from the end of 2020 to the present day. I’m not ready for Facebook posts and political rants. I don’t want to be part of any of that. I feel like I’m going to be desperately clinging to the “country” side of my family and just keep my politics personal. Political beliefs should be like spiritual beliefs, but instead of being between me and $deity, it’s between me and the voting machine.

I’ll probably get more worked up as we inch toward the frenetic political pace that is waiting for us on the horizon. I may share some of my opinions then.

But I’m really going to try hard not to get angry about the whole thing.

Politics.

Photo from AP News.

The people Arizona showed a spark of sanity in the recent elections and have elected Katie Hobbs as our next governor. The margin of victory is less than 1% and has been right down to the wire with vote tabulations. Of course her opponent, Kari Lake, an ardent Trump supporter who denies anything that makes sense and is obviously vying to be Trump’s running mate, is having a hissy fit of ridiculous proportions and screaming about fraud and cheating and the like.

I’m really, really tired of sore losers.

The election was way too close for comfort and it’s disconcerting knowing that probably half the people you encounter on the street supported a candidate who feels Arizona should secede from the United States, basically stripping folks of their social security, Medicare, and countless other perks of being part of the Union, as well as getting rid of the six military bases here in the desert. Her approach sounds so patriotic. Yet, nearly half of the votes went to that nut job.

I’m interested to see what Katie Hobbs does as governor. I’ve been shying away from politics in general because the whole affair is incredibly depressing and disillusioning, but at least with Katie Hobbs at the helm of Arizona I feel a little bit of comfort.