October 31, 2017--Lindsey's New Bromance

Lindsey is about to be dumped by John McCain who is insensitve enough to his feelings to be dying from brain cancer. No more get-away trips together to Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Lindsey, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, can't resist a hunky tough guy. Even while McCain is still alive, he's moved on to another one--Donald Trump. 

Though Trump is anything but a real tough guy. Recall, while McCain was flying jets over North Korea and held prisoner by the Viet Cong, Trump was avoiding the draft with a series of student deferments and a bone spur in his foot that miraculously cleared up when the draft ended.

Doesn't take much to get poor Lindsey's heart fluttering--just a few tete-a-tete rounds of golf with the big guy who has his little hands on the nuclear codes and a ride or two back and forth to Camp David, that well-known trysting place in Marine One--the president's personal helicopter. That's all it takes to get Lindsey all googly-eyed.

Graham says he's just being practical--it's better to have the president's ear (not his literal one of course) than to be made fun of or to have his cell phone number outed in a presidential tweet. 

And, he told the New York Times, there are a lot of Trump supporters in South Carolina and by being cozied up to Trump helps him back home, on the rare occasions that he's there and not junketing.

It also takes the ability to forgive and forget. Including the things The Donald said about him during the campaign. You do remember that Lindsay was one of the 19 seeking the nomination and Trump disposed of him without needing to break a sweat.

Not only did he torture him by revealing his telephone number and mocking the fact that Lindsay was in low single digits during the primary season, but he also, just a couple of months ago, after the white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, after Graham criticized Trump's comments about racial violence, blaming equally both sides, Trump tweeted--

Publicity seeking Lindsey Graham falsely stated that I said there is morale equivalency between the KKK, neo-Nazis white supremacists. . . Such a disgusting lie. He just can't forget his election trouncing. The people of South Carolina will remember!

It must be that they serve wonderful snacks on Marine One.

Lindsey Graham In Marine One

January 13, 2017--A Fine Bromance

On an unseasonably warm day I was out on the terrace helping Rona secure some of her trees and plants for when the worst of winter will arrive.

When my part of the work was done, I collapsed on the bed and turned on MSBC to see if the world still existed.

At the bottom of the screen there was a shot of the White House State Dining Room. A graphic indicated they were waiting for the President and Vice President to arrive for a brief ceremony to honor Joe Biden's remarkable political career.

They were running late but I sensed it might be worth waiting. Maybe Biden would unleash a few valedictory Bidenisms. Like when he was caught on an open mic nearly eight years ago at another formal ceremony, Obama's signing the Affordable Care Act. Biden hugged Obama and whispered for all the world to hear, "This is a big fucking deal." It turned out to be just that.

Yesterday's was a wonderful occasion. The president struck the perfect balance between honoring Biden for his nearly 50 years of service and as is traditional in male-male bromances (and they clearly have an intense one) there was lots of affectionate joshing, including a smattering from the opus of the best Bidenisms. The "big deal" one very much featured with the f-word deleted (many grandchildren were present) but clearly hanging in the air.

When it was Biden's turn he didn't disappoint. He told stories from his life, a life of love and death and then more love and yet more death. But much of what he had to say was about Obama. All heartfelt and full of tears for what had been and what might have been.

"You have a heart as big as your head," Biden said, "And with it you entered my heart." It felt like a defining moment in both of their lives. These unlikely brothers. Not their political lives but their larger lives of family and commitment and integrity and resilient optimism even though, for Biden particularly, his life could have easily been one of cynicism and loss.

As it ended, I couldn't help but think about what was underway literally in other rooms beyond the true emotion and simple beauty of that White House ceremony.

The news channels could not wait to get back to it. One could feel that, as if there were digital emanations from the TV screen reaching out to pull us back into another version of reality, of what the media have opted to present as most important--the "unsubstantiated" CIA document, leaked by BuzzFeed, that alleges, in regard to Russia, that Donald Trump participated in many financial and personal indiscretions.

The reputable news outlets have known about this since August but did not write about it because they could not verify any of the accusations. But all the while, and this is what the networks and and papers such as the New York Times do when there is the hint of a scandal--as with Monica Lewinsky--pretending to be above matters of these kind, they cover the coverage.

That way they do not have to get down in the muck but instead write about what other sources that thrive in that muck are leaking. Journalistic ju jitsu at its most hypocritical. Having it both ways, the elite media remain clean while reporting about the reporting about the dirt.

In the current case that involves revealing, "unverifiably," that once when in Russia Trump asked to stay in the same suite in the same hotel that earlier had accommodated the Obamas and then hired Russian prostitutes to preform "golden showers" on the Obama bed.

Sad to say, though not verified, I'm almost inclined to believe this. This is where America is at. Where I am at. This is to where Donald Trump has helped to bring us.

And, I also thought, what will things be like, what will our country be like when the Obamas and Bidens are no longer in the White House and the Trumps next Friday arrive to check in.