Across the Great Divide.

 The mush brain continues, though I do believe the funk is gone. I'm not dancing on the ceiling by any means, but this sort of bored ennui is a step up from feeling like I've buried alive in the blues. Baby steps, neighbors, baby steps.

 Unfortunately, that means that once again I have no real interest in writing anything and this is just filling up the white space for another night. Apparently during one of his vocal rambles that he calls a press conference, Trump cut and run after CBS reporter Paula Reid called him out on constantly claiming credit for a veteran's bill Obama signed in 2014. Trump signed an extension in 2018 but since he's dumber than a stump, he gets them confused.

 I missed it because I try to avoid watching the man we've allowed access to the nuclear codes speak. It's embarrassing as a human being to watch someone fail at talking in public so egregiously yet wield so much power. Even with his malaprops and constantly confused look, like someone explaining calculus to a hound dog, George W. Bush didn't come off as rock stupid and arrogant about it as Trump does.

 For the record, I would avoid Obama's speeches in public whenever I could and still do. His particular brand of political mojo worked on me like no public official in my lifetime has. I never thought, for example, that Bill Clinton was anything but a guy who'd sell you a pick-up with bad wheel bearings. Reagan always struck me as a befuddled actor even before his mental facilities started to slip, and Bush Sr. came off as a persnickety college vice-president more than anything else.

 But no one is as dumb and arrogant about being so dumb as Donald Trump. And his fans love it. They've been defending him, "Of course he scarpered off, how dare the press question him." They act like his petulance and crybaby behavior is something to be admired, "speaking his mind" and "telling it like it is." No, he's a punk, plain and simple.

 Someone asked me why I concentrate on Republicans and conservatives rather than Democrats and liberals. For one, Democrats and liberals aren't as much fun to write about. Seriously, Obama was hypnotizing but he was also boring. It'd be like writing about a particularly competent college president. Even Nancy Pelosi is fairly dull, to the point where conservatives have to believe an obviously modified video to "prove" she's a drunk.

 But even as entertaining as Republicans are - whether it's Trump or drooling morons like Matt Gaetz or vicious dirtbags like Dan Crenshaw - they're also actively working to fuck people over. People might bemoan the Democrats' reluctance to shake up the Status Quo or buck Corporate America too much, and there's plenty there to criticize.

 Regardless, they're trying to keep what they consider the shape of state from sinking and, more importantly, trying to keep the underclasses from rising up and guillotining rich people. That's the intent behind FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society.

 But Republicans? They want to radically change society to remove ever stride not-rich-white men have made since Reconstruction fell. That's not just civil rights for women or People of Color or LGBT. That's voting rights, that's environmental concerns, that's workers' protections, and that's just the start of it. And a lot of Our Fellow Americans, way too many, are fine with that idea.

 One thing the recent protests against police brutality and lack of accountability is showing us just how many of our neighbors would be fine with an authoritarian government. Indeed, they're pretty convinced that's what this country was supposed to be from its very beginning.

 Anyhow, that's word count. I forgot to add the links at the beginning, so I'll do it here. Wednesday was a deep dig into the explosion that rocked Beirut Tuesday night. It's a good piece, check it out. Monday and Friday were less concentrated and more wrap-ups. Monday was more about Trump's tantrum towards TikTok and Friday looked at just how bad the back-to-school rollout is going, particularly here in Mississippi.

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend.