Monday, August 27, 2018

McCain death eases Trump schedule

                  
                         Bag of food leads chickens to swarm
                                 their master-wannabe

Washington's Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, may finally have found something for which to thank former Arizona Sen. John McCain who had the decency to die, at 81, on Saturday of brain cancer. McCain may have pissed the American president off with his Senate vote not to upend the Affordable Care Act -- you know, the one that, while not perfect, at least tried to do something half-way decent for the nation.

But McCain's death brought a tsunami of journalistic longing and encomiums for a man who, it will be remembered, was a POW in Vietnam and, in his unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2008, chose the ever-memorable incompetent Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate... kind of a Trump precursor, maybe.

Attention to McCain meant Trump could be absolved from his duties running around the congressional barnyard like a child intent on expressing his sovereignty over the chickens. So big, so powerful ... let nothing stand in his way! So much grist for the power mill.

The flags at the White House were briefly at half-staff in the wake of McCain's death. But not for too long. Half-staff on Saturday was back to fully-raised on Sunday/Monday if I get it correctly. McCain did not genuflect as Trump might have wished. Further, McCain was specific in not inviting Donald Trump to his funeral ... to which former president George W. Bush (a Republican) and Barack Obama (a Democrat) were invited... and will speak.

McCain's death coincided with the Congressional summer break (August) -- a time when politicians splice in junkets and vacations and stump-thumping... but also a time when Sally America has little enough slack or funding as she holds down two and maybe three jobs in an effort to feed her kids. Trump promised jobs, but Sally's shift and pay did not budge. Still, Sally may back Trump, the chicken-chaser: Trump may not say things politely, but "we know what he means."

The attention paid to McCain and his "heroic" legacy, means that those of us reading the news get a Trump break: There simply aren't as many headlines bearing his imprimatur. And further, Donald Trump can sleep in: He doesn't have to run outdoors like a child in a barnyard, waving his arms and scaring all the chickens in a display of power. There's more time for golf when the chickens are busy trying to figure out if they have the guts to be with Trump or have the guts to criticize him. Trump doesn't have to work so hard scaring the chickens, who are, after all, only chickens ... and the rest of us get a break.

4 comments:

  1. Seemed to me, that the child running from chickens might have been spared that trauma and rescued rather than recorded.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. The boy was too young to realize what was going on.

      The older child while acting out of a natural compassion in shooting the birds, didn't seem to understand either.

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  2. “There are three kinds of men. The ones that learn by readin’. The few who learn by observation.
    The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” ---- Will Rogers

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  3. How many kinds of children are there?

    ReplyDelete