Decline of the Democrats

In the past year Republicans have out-registered Democrats in every state in the country.  Every state.  Blue states.  Red states.  Didn’t matter.  More people are registering into the party of Donald Trump.

Why is this?  Certainly Biden was a major cause.  His failure to drop out when it was obvious to everyone but his wife and a few staffers that he was not capable of serving a second term created a distrust that is still with us.  

The bigger problem, however, was the Democrats’ inability to admit that the country had problems self-evident to anyone who was willing to be honest.  To say that the economy was healthy didn’t mean much when your items were added up at the grocery store and you couldn’t believe the total.  To say that the border wasn’t really a problem when you could see thousands of people coming across the Rio Grande made you question Democratic attitudes.  To see homeless people defecating in the streets in San Francisco and then told to say “unhoused” instead of homeless as though that would take care of the problem was beyond irritating.  To quote statistics about how the crime rate was dropping when you were afraid to go out at night made you question both the statistics and the people pushing them.  

Democrats also forget how nasty their fellow citizens can be.  Perhaps not all, but many MAGA people are delighted with the cruelty of ICE.  They are happy when foreign college students are deported.  They don’t mind that nonentities are getting awards at the Kennedy Center or that the Rose Garden is torn up or that Trump insults foreign dignitaries.  In fact, they love it.

It may be also that Democrats overestimate the wisdom, the understanding, the empathy, and, yes, the kindness of our fellow citizens.  At least I have.

Leader of the Free World

That is the label people once gave the President of the United States.  Really, they did.  

What should Trump be called?  Surrender Monkey?  Useful Idiot?  Putin’s Bitch?  I don’t think the rest of the world will ever see our President as they once saw Dwight Eisenhower or Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama.

Trump has ruined it for all of us.  He makes our country look small and weak.

I will not be posting for the next two nights.  I am driving to northwest Massachusetts to see an outdoor sculpture exhibition.  If all goes well, I’ll be back on Thursday night.  Don’t worry–I have made arrangements for someone to feed the Rottweiler and the chickens and gather the eggs.

Not all that funny

An article about English-speaking comedians performing in Europe in the Times on Aug. 12 featured Joel Bryant from L.A.  Bryant was performing in Berlin and said he’d come to escape the U.S. for a time.  “It’s weird to run away from a fascist country and come to Germany for peace and solitude,” he said.  “Tables have turned.  You guys can hide me for the summer, right?  You’ve got an attic somewhere?”

In case you are wondering, you can go to jail for harboring a fugitive from ICE.  Remember–they have to catch you first.

The Democratic booth at the Ukrainian Festival

I have been a volunteer at the Carbon County Democratic booth for all kinds of events.  Fairs, festivals, musical events, some large, some tiny.  In all that time I have never worked one where at least one person didn’t come up and say something mean, stupid, or insulting.  Until today. 

Ukrainians, like Vietnamese or Cuban immigrants, had a low opinion of Democrats.  No more.  They have noted Trump’s behavior, read Vance’s insults, saw how Marjorie Taylor Greene backs Russia, saw Trump’s craven actions yesterday in Alaska.  

I have never felt such a warm embrace as today.  And I don’t know if I ever felt such sadness about my country’s policies.  We have become “surrender monkeys.”  We have become Munich Lite.  We have become a country with no principles whatsoever.  

Training for the Summit

Peggy, a friend of mine from Santa Cruz, explained why Trump would get rolled at a summit with Putin.  She said Putin learned his tactics and was extensively trained by the KGB.

Trump, on the other hand, spent his time at KFC.

Tomorrow:  Report on the Ukrainian Festival in Carbon County.

The Putin-Trump meeting and its predecessors

In 1884-85 European powers held a conference in Berlin to settle the issue of which country would get which part of Africa.  The conference was an attempt to avoid a war among the European countries over the colonial territories.  Many of the current boundaries of African countries were drawn at that meeting.  No Africans were invited to the Berlin Conference.  

In 1938 a number of European counties, including Germany, England, and France, met in Munich to discuss what to do about Czechoslovakia.  Hitler wanted a piece of that country called the Sudetenland.  The European powers agreed to carve off that portion of the country and give it to Germany.  The Prime Minister of England got off the plane waving a piece of paper and declared that he had brought “peace in our time.”  Czechoslovakia was not invited to the Munich Conference.

Now Trump is meeting with Putin in Alaska.  They will discuss Ukraine.  Ukraine was not invited to the Alaska Conference.

The Texas Hotline for Democratic Lawbreakers?

 Tonight I saw a meme that said you could report the location of Democratic members of the Texas legislature who have left the state.  The number is 1-866-786-5972.  Being the intrepid blog reporter that I am, I called the number.  A guy answered the phone immediately and said something about it being the number to report crimes or law-breaking, and that making false reports would be breaking the law.  

I asked him if you could report missing Democratic legislators on this line, and he repeated the same thing and said that if I did not have a crime to report, the call would be terminated.  He then repeated the first message.  I didn’t record the call.  

I then asked him if he (it?) were a robot.  He began to repeat the message about terminating the call, and I think there may have been a threat of prosecution involved.  At that point I hung up.  

If I do not post tomorrow night, you know the Texas Rangers traced the call and were here to take me away.  In the meantime, the Texas legislator I am  hiding in the attic is demanding a Dr. Pepper and a Frito pie.