Friday Potpourri

2 August 2024

It’s FRIDAY! The day each week I write a post strictly to amuse myself.

Today I’m starting with a question I can’t answer. Keep reading for the HUGE GLOBAL WIN!

MAGA is up in arms about JD Vance (NOT HIS REAL NAME) and couches. This is an untrue story that went viral about him having sex with a couch when he was a teenager. Full details here (and it’s REALLY worth reading. I promise.) I appreciate it every time someone from MAGA world is forced to say: “JD Vance did not have sex with a couch” and I mostly used this as an opener so I could reproduce a meme that makes me laugh every time I see it.

In addition, virtually everyone is also up in arms about Vance’s comments on childless women and cats.

So here is my answerless question: why are these things about JD Vance (NOT HIS REAL NAME) a problem for MAGA, while TFG’s criminal convictions, adjudicated financial and sexual charges, multiple marriages (one to an undocumented immigrant), and sex with a porn stat don’t bother them? I just don’t get it.

Next up: Ramifications of Convicted Felon Trump at the National Association of Black Journalists Convention

I was surprised at how many people were appalled by his performance. As a native New Yorker, we ALL knew he was a racist back in the 1970’s when the DOJ went after his dad and him for housing discrimination. And won BIG. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Daddy was arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in 1927, and again in 1976 in Maryland. Source.

The narcissistic, addle-brained candidate went to be interviewed ONLY because he was viscerally jealous that Vice President Harris has been getting far more media time and exposure than he has, and that the only MAGA stories involved how bad a pick JD Vance (NOT HIS REAL NAME) was for the veep position.

Did he go there with the intention of pissing off an entire auditorium of journalists? Not exactly. Here was his thinking (and take that term “thinking” with skepticism): He looked at polling numbers and knew that he was pulling more young Black voters than Rethuglican candidates normally did. Thus, he assumed the audience would be friendly.

When that proved WRONG within the first 60 seconds, he pivoted to the one thing he knows. His minions are racists themselves, and whenever he’s at a rally and goes off on a racist rant there are cheers. He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was in a room full of Black people.

I am amused by the memes that have been produced since that Q and A. I am thrilled that “mainstream” elected Republicans are calling him out for his remarks about Vice President Harris’ identity, his commitment to freeing the Jan 6 criminals, his refusal to rebut his veep’s comments on families, not to mention his overall tone.

Mostly, though, I am ecstatic that this happened. First, it will cost him low-information voters who are just “getting to know him”. (That’s 7% of registered voters.) Second, the more he focusses on identity, ethnicity and birtherism, the less time he spends attacking the Vice President on issues. Finally, the memes and the ads that can come from this are awe-inspiring.

Let’s be honest - if you’ve been watching/listening to what both the Convicted Felon and his veep have been saying, you know this won’t end well for them:

And now for the Great News!

President Jimmy Carter will turn 100 on 1 October. Back in the 1980’s, he stated that one of his life’s goals was to eradicate guinea worm disease. President Carter, through the Carter Center, led the charge of both global agencies and local public health services to track down and demolish guinea worms.

In 1986, 3.5 million people were infected. Last year? Three people. This year so far? ONE PERSON.

The only disease that has ever been eradicated worldwide is smallpox. To be considered “eradicated” the disease must not infect a human or an animal for three years. Hopefully, 2025 will be the first of those three years where guinea worms are concerned.  THANK YOU, President Carter.

As a complete aside, I heard Jimmy Carter speak when I was in college. He came to our school and faced an audience of a few hundred students. He gave his stump speech, and then opened the floor for questions. For each and every question he was asked, his answer was either: “Yes, and let me tell you why”, or “No, and let me explain.”

I’d never before heard a politician answer so directly. It has stuck with me to this day, and when I coach candidates, I try to get them to answer questions directly unless there is a critical reason to deflect and answer something else, but I aim for direct answers.

He was my first presidential vote.  

That’s it for today. Off, as always on Saturday. For this week’s Sunday with the Senators, we’ll be taking a look at Texas.