Well MJE isn’t letting the goddam crab grass grow under my feet…no sir-ree these are perilous times and demand urgent action. I sure don’t want to be sitting here on November 4th, 8th , 23rd or whenever the hell we find out the results of the election thinking, if I had just done a bit more I could have turned the tide. So despite my advanced age and innumerable infirmities (which are real regardless of what my “doctors” say) I am manning the ramparts. As should all democracy loving people in this country and beyond…because sitting around on our asses as our governments slip slide away into slag heaps is not only bad for our asses but even worse for our countries and our thighs.
Okay, we collectively fucked up in 2016…not casting any asparagus but some of us are a bit more culpable than others. However, due to my forgiving (but frankly more forgetting) nature, I am going to move on and hope that we have all learned a lesson. Case in point, years ago the OB&C and I were visiting the big sleazy when we were living in seattle and were walking though jackson square when this kid comes up and says “I bet you $20 I can tell you where you got those shoes.” Obviously a tourist sucker punch but we played along, because we secretly thought we might win the con, and took the bet. So he says “You got them on your feet.” Bad-a-boom! Twenty bucks lighter but wiser, off we toddled to find another drink. As cons go it was a pretty inexpensive lesson.
However, the stakes are a whole lot higher now than they were then…and we are dealing with a man who has conned the best of them. Not just silly tourists, but respected (and not so respected) bankers, investors, and poor schnook sub-contractors who all bet against him and lost. But now it’s an entire country, our country, that lost. But admittedly, an honest person doesn’t have the necessary defenses against a really good con because he/she believes that other people hold the same values as they do and wouldn’t out and out cheat another person. And it is really hard to accept that you’ve been had. But the fact is, we all have.
Including the 180,000 and counting, americans who are dead from carona virus who believed that it was a hoax and that it would disappear “like a miracle” when the weather warms up. Or injected themselves with lysol or shot light waves into their anuses, or drank hydroxychoroquine, or extract of oleander leaves. People WANT to believe that their elected representatives are acting in their best interest, despite all evidence to the contrary. Americans are particularly idealistic because our nation was founded on the firm foundation of basic noble principles. And we still are, despite a dark history of failing to live up to those ideals. But as our founders clearly outlined, we are going to be forever on a journey to become a more perfect union.
Admittedly, we took a misguided road trip off the designated route in 2016. I mean who hasn’t ended up in a motel six in some weird place without any memory of how you got there…okay, maybe that’s just me. But you get my drift. You know, shit happens. But as they say live and loin, at least that’s how they say it in noo awlins.
So, onward we go. We are all in the same leaky boat, subject to all manner of hazard. But let’s all get out our cans of plastic wood (or bondo if you prefer) and start patching this thing together, because in the end we all sink or swim together.
Sorry that this isn’t as light and funny as a usual MJE, but I really needed to get this off my chest. If the fates allow, I will be back to my devil-may-care quips by the next post, unless things get worse. Then all bets are off.
my jaundiced eye 