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Rare Old Bird got a new knee with mid-day surgery at Cleveland Clinic on April 17th. Then came the heavy-duty pain killers interspersed with the light-duty pain killers that brought on a week’s sleep, pretty continuous through day and night.
Though I never took more than half of the 5 mg oxycontins and the 500 mg Tylenols that were prescribed, they created an atmosphere of twilight sleep through which shone headlines and images as I struggled to get my news fix. Seemed like there were a lot of great stories. Were they too good to be true? Was it the drugs talking?
House Democrats are celebrating. Hakeem Jeffries thanks Speaker Mike Johnson for doing the right thing. A rare bipartisan victory with an overwhelming vote, 311-112. The House passes $60 billion for Ukraine military aid. This happened! Plus aid for Taiwan, Israel and Gaza.
The Senate votes 79-18 to send the package to the President. Joe Biden praises the bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate for stepping up and answering “history’s call.”
The MAGA minority that had blocked Ukraine aid is dismissed as feckless – and not just by Democrats. Former Republican representative Ken Buck dubs Marjorie Taylor Greene,“Moscow Marjorie,” a title taken up on a full front-page spread of the Murdoch-owned New York Post, “Nyet, Moscow Marjorie.” “Score is now – Jewish space laser lady – 0, Common sense – 1,” said the tabloid. GOP Senator Thom Tillis accuses Moscow Marge of “dragging our brand down.”
Could this week (while I was snoozing) have finally answered the question – How crazy is too crazy?” The New York Times Michelle Cottle reported that the less unhinged Republicans like Speaker Mike Johnson, brushed Greene and her ilk back “like the poo-flinging chaos monkeys they are.”
Greene, who had threatened to take down Speaker Johnson if he brought Ukraine aid to the floor, remained defiant but ineffective, as poo-flinging chaos monkeys tend to be.
In threatening Johnson’s speakership and opposing Ukraine aid, Greene has been widely seen to be doing the bidding of ex-President Trump, but the image of Trump coming over the air waves through waves of pain seemed far diminished. There was the small figure of an ordinary criminal defendant in an undistinguished state courthouse where the judge had finally had enough of Trump’s lawyer’s antics: “Sir, you are losing all credibility.”
Even Trump’s pro-Putin, anti-Ukraine stance was smaller and weaker. Right-wing Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Trump at Mar-a-lago to explain to Trump how important NATO funding is to NATO-member Poland. Poland fears it will be next if Russia is allowed to take Ukraine. Duda is desperate to increase NATO funding and support for the Ukraine military. “We’re behind Poland,” said Trump after the meeting, contradicting everything he has said about NATO since 2016. Trump is like an Etch-a-Sketch where only the last message can be read.
Greene, of course, would love to be Trump’s running mate, which sounds like a plan. Greene would make Sarah Palin look like Margaret Thatcher. But Greene emerges badly scarred from where Trump threw her under the Ukraine bus.
Headlines kept coming. Workers at the Chattanooga TN VW plant voted overwhelmingly, by 73%, to unionize. This landslide victory is the first for the autoworkers at a southern auto factory since the 1940s when car manufacturing moved south to avoid unionization. There is a unionization vote at a Mercedes plant in AL in May. Six southern Republican governors issued the standard right-wing warning to workers that such votes would “jeopardize their jobs.” Biden’s pro-union stance is winning. Trump’s anti-union strategy is crumbing – and in the South!
Trump calls for MAGA demonstrators to protest after only a handful of protestors showed up on the first day of his criminal trial. The chaos Trump promised if he was put on trial did not appear so Trump tried to manufacture it: “RALLY BEHIND MAGA. SAVE OUR COUNTRY.” When that produced no result, Trump claimed that lower Manhattan was “completely CLOSED DOWN. SO UNFAIR.” So pathetic really. The area wasn’t closed at all and was even open to regular pedestrian foot traffic. Trump believes he’s being tried in “an armed courthouse.” Once more, his fantasies meet reality, and the sad little fantasies fade away.
Another headline – House finally manages to impeach someone;Senate scoffs. Because Trump was impeached twice, he has insisted since 2020 that the MAGA Republicans should impeach someone. Finally, they complied, charging that Alexandro Mayorkas, Secretary of Homeland Security, had disrespected the law and lied to Congress. Policy disagreements, though, are not high crimes and misdemeanors, not even close, as the Senate explained. As soon as they were sworn in as jurors, the Senate voted to dismiss all charges.
Another wasteful MAGA impeachment stunt fizzled like a wet sparkler. When asked what high crimes and misdemeanors Republicans had found on Joe Biden, House committee chair, Rep. James Comer said charges “could come within weeks.” Even Republican members of the committee laughed.
And then the repeating image of the week: criminal defendant Trump falling asleep at the defense table, his eyes closing, his chin dropping. It’s especially hard on a bully when the names he’s famously called others get painted on his forehead. “Sleepy Don,” “Drowsy Don,” “The Nodfather,” “Don Snoreleone.”
While Donald rests his eyes, I emerge from my twilight sleep and check the news. I wasn’t dreaming. Yes, it really was a good news week for democracy.
To keep it going, vote Biden/Harris and give them a Democratic Congress that can get back to working for America. Defeat Trump. Election 2024.
You should have taken all your meds,as prescribed,you’re delusional.