The Week That Was

How did we fix it so all these things happened at the same time? What were we thinking when we scheduled Brexit, Impeachment wrap-up, Iowa Caucus debacle, and Trump’s State of the Union address within 5 days of each other? Are we insane? Do we want our heads to explode?

Ok, I know no one planned to make all these events coincide, but the fact that they did gives it that aura of fatedness. Clearly the gods are angry. The natives are getting restless. And as is typically the case, the overlords (clueless neocons and neolibs alike) are burying their heads ever deeper in the sand.

Brexit didn’t bother me. I was depressed about other things at that point, and anyway, who really sees the UK in alignment with Europe? This has never, historically, been so, and there’s no reason for it to be so now. Britannia is an island. Britannia rules the waves. And most importantly, Britannia almost never gets along with Europa. So, if I were the EU, I’d just sigh and say, “same as it ever way,” before getting on with the game. Which I believe is what they’re doing.

The Impeachment bothered me more than I thought it would, having long ago decided that Republicans would never vote to convict, having no viable alternative to Trump in the upcoming elections. Desire to hold on to the White House trumped their desire to quell the beast. So Trump stays in. I mean, what? President Weld? I don’t think so. All the same, it didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth, jaded as I am.

The Dems had their comeuppance Tuesday night when Trump delivered his State of the Union address before the combined houses of Congress. Part circus, part game show, the SOTU was profoundly bizarre to watch. So much was being said without anyone saying anything at all. The players were all there — the overly enthusiastic Republicans applauding gamely from their side, the stony-faced Democrats sitting on their hands on the other, House Democratic women all in white, the parade of guests, and most entertainingly, VP Pence and House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi providing a counterpoint of bemusement, punctuated by Pelosi’s occasional stares into the deep space of disbelief.

Although many criticized Ms. Pelosi for tearing up Trump’s speech at the end, she performed her part well in what had become, for all intents and purposes, not a solemn event but a piece of improvisational theater. She would have been inauthentic as a character had she done anything less.

The Iowa Caucuses were in limbo at this point, having taken place the night before and been left undecided due to problems with the DNC’s special caucus counting app. Incomplete and misleading results were released a few hours before Trump’s speech, showing Buttigieg ahead in one metric. The press ran with that, and Buttigieg got a bump in some polls. Although Bernie eventually gained on and surpassed Buttigieg’s totals, by then the mainstream press had moved on. Why ruin a good story with facts?

The only surprise here was how quickly it happened — right out of the gate with the First In The Nation caucuses. But the DNC have made no secret of the fact that they would vastly prefer almost anyone to Sanders. In this case, making Buttigieg the winner would be a handy outcome for the DNC since he’s very clearly one of their own.

By now, everyone from the NY Times to USA Today has covered Shadow, Inc., ACRONYM, the Hillary Clinton campaign connections, the Pete Buttigieg campaign connections, and the appearance of cronyism (no one should be surprised by this either — the word CRONY is in the name….).

As my departed grands used to say, God help us all.

And that is the week that was, and is, and will continue to be until the next one, and the one after that. One thing’s for sure, you’re going to want to get plenty of rest and take care of your health, because this one is going to try our souls like nothing we’ve ever seen — that is, if week one of Primary Season is any indication.