Glutton for Punishment

I’ve reached the point where I don’t want to check the newsfeeds in the morning.

I know what I’m liable to find there—thumbnails of an angry Donald Trump complaining and whining and fabricating, more bad news about Gaza, maybe a hopeful article about a possible ceasefire; the US getting deeper into it with the Houthis and who knows who else; an article about potentially deadly microorganisms being exposed in the Arctic because the permafrost isn’t so perma anymore. Worst case scenario at this point, but it sounds plausible.

Then more articles about the dysfunctional Republican party, the hopeless pursuit of the nomination by DeSantis and Haley, a head-scratching return to support of Trump, along with the regular reminders that we live in a violent society with too many damned guns.

There will usually be some mention of the stock market’s rise and the economy’s comeback and resiliency, despite other articles that highlight a weird disconnect between good economic numbers and peoples’ own sad economic situations (are they, really?). And they blame Biden to boot. Just another piece of the political witchcraft always being employed—say something long and loud enough and people will start believing it.

And then we can’t forget about the 155 million Americans under some sort of meteorological warning of Armageddon—cold, snow, rain, tornados, flooding, locusts. Maybe not locusts.

I usually end up checking things out, anyway, always hopeful that I’ll see a banner headline that reports Trump has decided to drop out of the race, face the music, maybe retreat to Mar-a-Lago for the rest of his days, if he’s not placed somewhere else. He comes clean. He even tells his legion of braindead that he’s been misleading them all along and that they need to raise their standards. He apologizes to them and to the country, and the country actually accepts his apology.

Oh, that’s rich.