If They Had a Hammer
Democrats would be very nervous...
As you probably already know, some dude whose elevator doesn’t go all the way to the penthouse attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer because Nancy wasn’t home and people on the right started making jokes about it and without any evidence to back them up, offered conspiracy theories like Paul Pelosi had a previous relationship with his attacker or the attack was actually orchestrated by the Democrats to make Republicans look bad.
Which, frankly, seems pretty unlikely because the Democrats just aren’t that organized and Republicans don’t need anybody’s help when it comes to looking bad.
Republicans – the party that advocates Personal Responsibility – need a scapegoat because otherwise people might conclude that they deserve some of the blame for their overheated rhetoric and the problem with overheated rhetoric is if you tell people one digit short of a three-digit IQ that they need to “fight like hell” some of them might believe you and attack the Capitol.
According to a column by Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post that ran in the Kansas City Star on November 2nd, the Republicans have embraced political violence and it’s now part of the Republicans’ brand and a look at some of their candidates’ ads just might make you think Jennifer has a point.
Ads like this one:
Or this one:
Or pictures like this one:
And this one:
You might argue that those Republicans are just demonstrating their commitment to the Second Amendment by waving around guns, but this next one was from an Eric Greitens ad in which he said he was “RINO hunting” and encouraged other Republicans to do the same and when people reacted poorly to an ad encouraging violence, Greitens said it was meant to be “humorous” because there’s nothing funnier than shooting moderate Republicans unless it’s attacking an 82-year-old man with a hammer.
It has also been brought to my attention that people born after the War of 1812, might not know what the cartoon refers to, so here’s a video of Trini Lopez singing a jazzed up version of “If I Had a Hammer” and you know it’s a classic because you can also find videos of it being performed by Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul & Mary, Sam Cooke, Aaron Neville, Billy Preston, Aretha Franklin and an unforgettable version (no matter how much you’d like to) by Leonard Nimoy.
CNN interviewed Jimmy Kimmel and asked him what he thought about Donald Trump, Jr. making jokes about Paul Pelosi being attacked with a hammer and Jimmy said:
“When I’m the voice of decency, we have a problem.”
According to an Associated Press story that ran in Sunday’s Kansas City Star, the economy is:
Getting better because our gross domestic product is currently expanding by a solid 2.6%.
Getting worse because consumer spending weakened last quarter.
Getting better because a record 6.7 million jobs were added last year.
Getting worse because “core” inflation climbed 6.6 % from a year earlier.
Getting better because fewer employees are getting laid off.
Getting worse because Fed rate hikes are expected to make the job market deteriorate.
Getting better because consumer spending has driven a strong recovery.
Getting worse because consumer spending is also driving inflation.
Well, I’m glad somebody cleared that up.
Google “what is causing inflation” and you’ll get a variety of articles to choose from including this one from earlier this year on the NBC website that says different economists blame different culprits, and everybody thinks the pandemic had something to do with it, but other than that, the “main driver of inflation remains murky to many.”
Economists say the pandemic, supply chain issues, surging demand, production costs, corporations driving up prices and pandemic relief funds all play a role, but people motivated by politics don’t want it to be complicated; they want to blame the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
In this version of events Joe Biden and the Democrats caused inflation by giving money to American Welfare Queens which doesn’t explain why inflation also increased in Europe.
The economists quoted said pandemic aid was necessary – and as I recall people were whining and saying somebody needed to do something – but we’re now dealing with the consequences so it’s kinda like asking the Fire Department to stop your house from burning and then complaining about water damage.
Also…
While the Republicans hope you forget this, Donald Trump also signed a “massive” $2.3 trillion coronavirus relief and spending bill ($900 billion of it was for COVID-19 aid) which included direct payments to “qualifying” Americans worth up to $600 per adult and child and a boost in weekly unemployment benefits and Trump was pissed because he thought the package should include direct payments of $2,000 per person because let’s face it, $600 is what Donald Trump might spend on a trip to McDonald’s.
Now here are a couple of articles about that spending bill:
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/531632-trump-signs-relief-bill-despite-criticism/
Nevertheless, people like simple narratives and hearing “it’s complicated” isn’t very satisfying so blaming the Democrats for inflation will probably work.
We’ll see.
Some advice about today
According to a Washington Post story that ran in today’s Kansas City Star, officials in charge of voting are telling people to calm the fuck down (they didn’t actually use an f-bomb, but I bet they wanted to) if it takes a while to announce the winners and here’s why.
Ballots that are mailed in are not counted until Election Day and they usually count the votes cast that day first and since (according to the story) Republicans are more likely to vote on Election Day and Democrats are more likely to use absentee ballots, Republican candidates often take an early lead (known as the “red mirage” which would make a great name for a superhero) which is reduced as the absentee ballots are counted and last time out the ever-informative Donald Trump used the delay to claim that Republicans were being cheated.
BTW:
I almost used the phrase “Democratic shenanigans” which I’m going to blame on a lifetime of exposure to editorial writers who use words that nobody ever says out loud in real life like “shenanigans” and “poppycock” and “balderdash” in what seems like an attempt to sound like a slightly-pissed off Duke of Windsor.
Editorial writers use outdated words because if there’s anything newspapers need right now it’s the image of being out-of-touch and behind-the-times which the young people of today find so attractive.
(On the other hand, I’m the one who drew a cartoon based on a song that was popular in the late 1700s so go ahead and label my complaint as “tommyrot” and if you do, you just might have a big future as an editorial writer, assuming you can find a newspaper that’s still hiring.)
OK, that’s it for today and if you consider yourself a reasonable person (which might not mean all that much because I’m guessing there are members of the Ku Klux Klan and ISIS who think they’ve made a reasonable choice) make sure you vote even though it’s a pain in the ass because you know the extremists are excited about voting and if all you do is cancel out the vote of one batshit crazy person, you’ve done your civic duty.
Good luck.
<gulp>
This is perfect!