This Ain’t No CNN.

And we’re still waiting for the 2020 Election Results. I’m feeling like there’s media contributed hype that’s unnecessary this evening. Let’s hope the trend continues in the current direction.

But, I’m ready for this to be settled.

It’s a beautiful night in the Windy City. The temperature is over 70ºF. There’s a mystical breeze blowing from the southwest. This is my most favorite type of relaxing weather. This is my favorite time of the year.

My husband watched the debate while I went for a walk through the neighborhood. I saw a few households lit up with the debate on their large televisions. With the nice weather I heard a couple of folks yell back at their television. I can’t bear to watch the debates. I still want to kick the television screen in whenever I hear Trump’s voice. To think there would be a day where I’d pine for the frivolity of George W. Bush.

It’s 11 days until the official Election Day. Millions and millions of people have already voted. Record numbers. People are voting. It gives me a glimmer of hope.

But boy, are these next 11 days going to drag on like an eternity.

We had many thunderstorms roll through the Windy City last night so we didn’t get much sleep. The news featured a photo of three distinct lightning bolts simultaneously striking the Trump Tower here in Chicago. God is speaking. It’s a shame his followers don’t listen. They’re reduced to cult status. I’d pity them if I wasn’t so angry and concerned with the state of this nation.

A photo from a controversial film on “Netflix” or two folks going to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. You decide.

I know nothing about this film; the photo just made me smirk.

My husband and I requested and received our absentee ballots for the upcoming election. On Sunday we placed our completed ballots in a mailbox at the post office and by Wednesday we had both received word that the voting commission had received our ballots and our votes would be counted.

It can’t get much easier than that.

I know it’s trendy among Republicans to make voting as difficult as possible for Americans, especially for those that aren’t white and/or don’t tend to vote Republican. Governors taking away ballot boxes, heads of the postal service removing vital equipment, layers of red tape on voter registration procedures; the list goes on and on with the tricks up the sleeves of too many government officials. Then of course we have Cheetolini telling everyone that the election will be rigged and inaccurate and that it will be impossible to determine a “true” outcome. This is all part of a propaganda campaign to sow fear and doubt into the voting population. It’s his way of undermining democracy.

Do not let the Republicans or their Orange Leader scare you from voting and do not let them deter you from voting. Though it doesn’t seem like it lately, our government depends on the votes of its citizens. When we don’t vote, we end up with messes like we have right now.

We need to clean up the mess. We need to get rid of the cancer. We need to put the cockroaches back under their rocks.

Vote.

Trump announced that both Melania and he have tested positive for COVID-19. This came after it was announced that staffer Hope Hicks was tested as well. They have been working in close proximity all week.

With all the deception, spin, hoaxes, half-truths, and downright lies that have come out of the Trump Administration, I’m not sure I believe this latest revelation. There’s a strong part of me that believes this is a PR stunt to show that COVID-19 is no big deal and/or that he is a strong and mighty leader. While it’s quite possible this is all very true and they’re both in danger right now, it’s also very possible this is some sort of reality show hi-jinx.

The worst part is there’s really no way to know for certain.

We were flipping through streamed television (remember when we used to flip through channels?) and one of the news programs was interviewing a woman who was undecided about whom she was going to vote in November.

I’m not the brightest bulb in the chandelier but who in God’s name is still undecided at this point?

You can’t escape the reaches of COVID-19 nor can one dodge the constant ads that are being shoved in our faces from everyone form of media possible. Small wonder our microwave display doesn’t tell us whom to vote for when we’re done reheating lunch. YouTube is infested with Trump ads, Joe Biden’s high wattage smile appears everywhere, and every application made by everyone and anyone in Silicon Valley wants to know if I’m registered to vote. They probably want to tell the Russians.

There are large banners polluting the prairies and flags waving in the cities. Two names: Biden and Trump. One is a raving lunatic, the other was once a vice-president.

It boggles my mind that someone can have no idea as to whom they’re voting for.

I am desperately trying to not become numb to the violence gripping this country. I know the Republicans like to point fingers at everything but the problem, and top their finger pointing with a bunch of Yankee Doodle Yackey, but the truth of the matter is, this country still has a systemic racism issue and it’s only gotten worse since the last presidential election.

The words and actions of Trump have emboldened the racists.

I fly over or around Kenosha, Wisconsin on almost every flight I take these days. I’ve driven through Kenosha countless times. I’ve flown in and out of their airport several times. I don’t know a lot about Kenosha, but I know it’s in the news way too much this week because of an inhuman, normally unspeakable act of police shooting a defenseless man seven times in the back. In front of his kids.

What is this country coming to? Is this really who we want to be? I’ve often quipped that we’re in the midst of the “Second Dark Ages”. Too often the actions of too many American prove my right.

We can do better. We must do better. We will do better.

Vote in November. Vote for sanity. Vote for compassion. Vote for equality.

If you haven’t seen it yet, please take 20 minutes and watch President Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. Many of the speeches brought me to tears, especially Gabby Gifford’s speech near the beginning of the night’s lineup. It was good to hear a President speech coherently, with complete sentences, and cohesive thoughts. In many ways it boggles my mind how we went for President Obama to the idiot we have in the White House today.

As a Gen-Xer I was brought up to believe The Bomb would detonate and wipe all life from this planet.

Honestly, I think they should be advancing the Doomsday Clock based on the damage social media is doing.

When my husband tunes in a news conference with the Orange One during the workday, I have to shut my office door and put on noise canceling headphones. It’s not that my husband is watching a news conference, and I use that phrase loosely, and I wish to tune out the news of the day, but rather it’s the awful voice of the Orange One that makes me want to crawl up a wall and stick my head in the spinning ceiling fan.

The man will never be known for his oration skills.

Now, I know His Idiocy can’t pronounce Yosemite. After all, he’s just mastered “person, man, woman, tv, camera”, we can’t expect him to go to bigger words containing more syllables in only a week. We should give him credit; he sounded it out and after doing so the world thought he was tremendous.

Actually, they didn’t find him tremendous, but he uses the word tremendous so frequently and so inappropriately, I’m beginning to think ‘tremendous’ is the Boomer version of the Millennials’ ‘literally’.

I literally never want to hear the word tremendous again.

I’m disappointed that the “journalists” (and I use that word very loosely) continue to attend these “briefings” (and I use that word very loosely) when we know they’re going to be jammed packed with a tremendous number of lies. If I had a drink for every promise that was to come to fruition “in two weeks” I’d be more drunk than I am right now and quite frankly I’m in a position at the moment where I’m doing my best Tallulah impersonation and calling everyone darling.

Actually, I’m not drunk. Not tremendously so. But it makes for good writing and hopefully it meets my objective of entertaining the reader.

I wouldn’t waste one drop of fine alcohol in an effort to forget the Orange One.