FREAK OUT FRIDAY – October 8, 2020

It’s astounding how election day seems to both be speeding toward us and simultaneously taking its own freaking sweet time.  As fast as it’s moving, it’s also taking forever.  We are becoming that desperate to get Trump out of office that every day he’s still there seems like ten.

It’s also been ten days since Trump came down with Covid.  After coming out of a several day stay at Walter Reed that would have cost the average American citizen around $100,000, he has paraded around the White House maskless, standing on a balcony and invoking recollections of “Evita.”  Meanwhile the White House itself has become something of a ghost town.  Thirty-four staffers (that we know of) have contracted Covid, in addition to Melania Trump, Hope Hicks, Steven Miller, Kayleigh McEnany,  (and my guess is Mike Pence as well.).  Most staffers are working from home while Trump continues to insist that he’s fine, not communicable, recovering nicely, in terrific physical shape rather than being morbidly obese, and declaring that people should be perfectly fine with living with a disease that has killed over 210,000 Americans with no end in sight.  At the same time, his staff refuses to specify when was the last time he tested negative.  That reluctance suggests one of two things:  Either he knew he had it when he went to debate Biden and hoped he’d give it to his opponent.  Or his statements that he was being tested every other day were lies and he wasn’t being tested at all.  Neither reflects well.

Meanwhile schools remain in a state of flux as students and teachers come down with it and Broadway has announced that they are going to remain shut down until May of 2021.  Thousands of people remain unemployed, billions of dollars annually won’t flow into New York’s coffers, and obviously there won’t be any Tony Awards in 2021.  But hey, at least Trump is feeling well enough to…

Okay.  Clearly he’s not feeling well enough to do pretty much anything.

The country is witnessing something unique in our history:  We are watching a chief executive of the United States having a complete mental breakdown.

This is not hyperbole.  This is not a typical assessment that Trump is an egotistical narcissist.  

We are genuinely watching a walking advertisement for the 25th Amendment.   Nancy Pelosi obviously agrees, because she is currently introducing a bill regarding it that many speculate is because she wants to activate it.

Trump has retreated to his comfort bubble of Fox News and rallies.  He rambles for an hour at a time to hapless Fox commentators who keep lobbing him softball questions while he rants about why hasn’t Hillary Clinton been indicted (for what?  No clue.) and calls Kamala Harris a monster in the same way that an angry teen would describe the girl who dumped him a week before prom.  When it was decided that the next presidential debate would be done virtually, Trump dismissed the idea.  Of course he did.  He has no record to run on; he has a huge target on his back thanks to Covid and the collapsing economy.  His assertions that Biden is lacking mentally were totally demolished thanks to Biden’s performance in the first shout fest.  (And it’s now turned out that Trump’s constant interruptions were a strategy suggested by Chris Christie deliberately to try and trigger Biden’s stammer, which could then be sold as proof of dementia.  I hope some sort of karmic revenge is exerted on Christie so that…what?  Excuse me?  Christie has Covid, too?  Wow, that was fast.).  It’s natural that Trump would therefore shun the notion of a virtual debate.  His entire debate strategy depends on looming and trying to shout over his opponent.  If he’s on a TV screen, he’s entirely at the mercy of the moderators.   I’m reasonably sure they watched the first debate, know exactly what Trump will do, and will not hesitate to shut him down.  If he’s in person and they mute his mic, he can shout in hopes his voice will be picked up over Biden’s microphone.  If he’s on a video screen, they just mute him.  It’ll be like debating Max Headroom.

Biden, of course, agreed to the format, which is perfect.  Ninety minutes of a Trump-free town hall should be all that’s required to nail down the final support Biden needs to take the election in such an indisputable fashion that Trump will never be able to offer proof of wrong-doing among voters.

Besides, Trump has other things to worry about now.  It’s been announced that five years ago, Trump received a $21.1 million tax break after promising to preserve over 150 acres of woodland near his getaway estate, Seven Springs.  As something that should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention, Trump’s people doubled the value of the land in order to jack up the tax break, and that is now under investigation.  It’s unlikely that anything will come from this new inquiry before election day, but it’s yet another Trump tax crime to be piled onto the steaming corpse of his tax dodging activities.

God knows there are already enough books out there about Trump, but in the future there are going to be entire volumes written about the 2020 election.  We’re watching something unique:  a campaign that is literally falling apart on a national level.  They’re running out of money; their competitor is leading them in all polls by double digits; Trump pulled one campaign manager because of the under attendance of his Oklahoma rally and the new manager has Covid.  It’s like his whole campaign is being run by Milo Murphy.  

It has to end.

So I want all of you to get out there today and vote to…

What?  Another month?  

Dammit.

PAD