CSotD: Odds and Ends
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So I gather the president had his parade yesterday, but one of the disadvantages of having it at night is that, as of this morning, coverage is a bit spotty. However, I get the impression that the parade itself was more impressive than the turnout. I’d be open to reassessing that if I see more specifics.
The No Kings demonstrations had huge attendance and minimal confrontations. Even in LA, where there was some tear gas and back-and-forth, things seemed to quiet down quickly while elsewhere it seemed more like a pep rally than a political demonstration.
That’s not an insignificant difference, since high morale is more effective over time than high dudgeon.
The only “confrontation” in our little corner of the world was a woman who thought driving through the crowds blasting “Born in the USA” worked as a counterprotest, and I gather a few people yelled to her that Bruce Springsteen is obviously on our side, but she provoked more laughter than anger.
Smit’s cartoon proved more prophetic than others. I gather they braced for trouble in Texas and were perhaps disappointed, but the police here were present just in case and basically hung back and watched, there being no particular need to harsh a mellow gathering.
I did note a larger contingent of younger people here than we’d seen in the April Hands Off gathering, which had largely been a crowd of veterans of the 60s who were mostly in their 70s.
This felt like a greater representation of the whole community, but regional media provided less coverage than they had of the April demonstrations, focusing on Burlington and Concord rather than fanning out to other communities in Vermont and New Hampshire.
I’m less convinced that they were following “If it bleeds, it leads” than that they’ve decided that maybe peaceful gatherings just aren’t new and interesting anymore.
Juxtaposition of the Day
If that’s the case, two related observations: One is that Trump may have done well to stir up exciting, distracting trouble in California, and the other is that I’d hate to think the way to get coverage is to provoke confrontations.
As if to prove the point, Vermont Republicans set up a counter-celebration following the No Kings demonstration in Montpelier and an anti-MAGA protester smashed his water bottle into their cake, which rated as much coverage as the 16,000 who had gathered in Burlington.
There’s some kind of lesson somewhere in that, I suppose. I’m expecting Pam Bondi to announce that people who smash cakes are going to be deported.
And that her announcement will result in an epidemic of people smashing cakes and chanting “Hey hey! Ho ho! Fascist cakes have got to go!”
But having criticized Ramirez for emphasizing the confrontations in California, I’ll give him credit for asking a question traditional for conservatives but apparently abandoned now that they’ve got the upper hand.
It’s not just the parade, though that’s an excellent example of pointless spending. There seems to be a lot of expensive ego-tripping happening, including the near-weekly $3.4 million jaunts to Mar A Lago for golf, which should bring to mind Everett Dirksen (R-IL)’s famous “A billion here, a billion there; pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
Republicans seem a little less interesting in accounting these days. Karoline Leavitt was furious with a question about Trump profiting from his presidency, saying
I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit. He left a life of luxury and a life of running a very successful real estate empire for public service, not just once but twice. … This is a president who has actually lost money for being president.
Yeah, well this is a president who just reported an income of $600 million in 2024 from a combination of crypto, bibles, sneakers and other ventures, and if Sweet Karoline thinks he turned off the tap on January 20, I’d suggest she invest in the Brooklyn section of the Infrastructure Bill.
His eleven golfing trips to Florida as president would represent an estimated $37.4 million of taxpayer funds. It seems that, if he were willing to play golf at Andrews, we might be able to feed a few hungry children or offer them medical coverage.
I like Duquette’s simple taco, with its ear bandage, but for an insightful and amusing look into the spiraling deficit we’re building, and the utterly asinine explanations for our economic free-fall, check out Charlie Sykes’ interview with economics professor Justin Wolfers, who goes beyond taco (Trump Always Chickens Out) to discuss the burrito (Blatantly Unconstitutional Rewriting of the Rules of International Trade, Obviously) and other disastrous dietary acronyms, pointing out how Congress is handing the president economic powers that belong to them.
I don’t enjoy being convinced that our nation is going to Hell in a handbasket, but I like having it explained in ways I can understand and with a few laughs mixed in.
The woman in Pett’s cartoon lays out even more despair, and the response in the final panel is particularly thought-provoking, because if I were 30 years younger, that would be my solution.
Then again, the days when scarpering off to the Antipodes would put you beyond the reach of evil are over, and even in On the Beach, it was just a temporary solution until the nuclear cloud drifted down there.
However, the compensation for being too old to re-invent your life is being too old to give a damn. We were talking yesterday about how speaking out risks attracting governmental scrutiny and my response was “Who cares?”
Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees, especially when you get to the point where you can’t get down on your knees anymore anyway.
Speaking of On the Beach, I watched a different Stanley Kramer movie on TCM last night, and it was a lot funnier than On the Beach and even funnier — despite all the parallels — than the parade that was happening in Washington which we were all supposed to be watching.
It’s better to laugh on your back than to die on your knees.
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