I came across a video taken at someone’s house in a neighborhood in or near Cedar Rapids, Iowa on August 10, 2020. It had already been a crappy year for earthlings, but then a derecho came through Cedar Rapids and its environs—just to add to the misery.

I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

A derecho is sometimes called a land hurricane (apparently a misnomer), as opposed to a tornado or a single-cell thunderstorm of varying intensities but relatively short duration. This was multiple thunderstorms, linear damage, heavy rain, and straight line wind speeds as high as 140 MPH. What began as a bit of benign wind through the trees eventually turned into a maelstrom of downed limbs, walls of rain blown sideways, and multiple rounds of ferocious wind.

This video began with some sort of evergreen tree bending in the front yard, but ended with it being blown over, probably uprooted, along with a yardful of branches and refuse and large downed limbs. There were vehicles parked on the street which I’m sure were damaged by falling limbs and other debris.

What struck me was the relentless nature of it. Things would quiet down for a bit, then the next round of wind and rain would arrive. This went on for a half hour or longer. I‘ve never seen anything like it. I searched for other videos of the same system and came across one where the roof on a metal building was destroyed, some of it blown away, some of it caved in on a garage and shop space, with the lone occupant/videographer holding on for dear life in a bathroom.

Damage of course was widespread—besides private property losses and extensive power outages, there were an estimated 7 million trees lost or damaged in Iowa alone; 40% of the soybean and corn crops in the state was decimated, and there were 4 deaths. This system began in Nebraska, and broke apart in Indiana, so there was a large swath of affected area.

Another unsolicited contribution to the canker sore that was 2020.     

The system is always going to be a bit broken, since humans are running the show. I guess what I mean is that we put too much faith in our elected representatives. We hold them to unrealistic standards that we ourselves would have trouble holding to. They’re not machines, they’re not emotionless or impervious to temptation. They are not perfect. We expect them to be perfect. Better, somehow, than us. Which is by no means offering Trump a pass– he is, has been, and will always be legitimately awful.

So, Pete Buttigieg for president.

Imagine Pete as the nominee! What would Trump and MAGA country do with, how would they handle a young gay man who possesses a marvelous brain and the capacity to be rational and clear-headed?

Seeing that people thought Donald Trump was such a great idea, I’m entitled to back someone who’s light years ahead in the qualifications department, and who has an actual beating heart in his chest.

When opinions of what makes for acceptable behavior are all over the map and relativized, then a nation is in trouble. Seems like we’ve been in that condition for a while. Large numbers support Donald Trump and are wondering what the problem is; large numbers don’t support him and are wondering why there are so many impediments to prosecution.

If there is a time in the future when students are studying these current days in a history class, I hope mention is made of the extreme selfishness of Trump, who never knew when to walk away, never knew how to concede gracefully, who hung around like a chronic condition and never actually grew up. His mindnumbing incompetence and narcissism instead dragged the whole country—and to some extent large portions of the world—through unnecessary travail and darkness—all because he couldn’t bear to lose.

In his own mind, his legacy will be one of unparalleled greatness. The history books—if they still exist—may be far less kind, and rightfully so.    

What is to come of the indictments and multiple counts? What becomes of a known quantity who has somehow been able to prevail and influence voters’ thinking even though he’s a bilge-mouthed pretender? What are people who know a rat when they smell one supposed to think when their legitimate concerns are dismissed and the bad guys appear to be having their way?

What does it say about America when the likes of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller and Kari Lake and Ron Johnson and Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley and Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and MTG and Elon Musk and various other billionaires hold sway over a wide swath of the nation’s electorate?

Who’s the PR person for the Republican juggernaut, because he or she is a fucking genius. It can’t be that the product just sells itself, because there is no product. It’s all vanity and vapor.

At the RNC convention, Trump recounts the assassination attempt and talks about his feeling of serenity as the bullets flew, while the mass of toadies eating it up is moved to heil Hitler.

And it’s sounding more like Joe Biden is on his way out.

I hope the Dems know what they’re doing. They have to be looking at poll numbers, doing the math, looking at the calendar, reaching consensus on who the replacement will be. A ticket change seems almost inevitable at this point, but also rash and panicky and ill-advised. The pressure will be on when the DNC meets in Chicago in a month.

Trump is beginning to seem like the sure thing, sadly, at least at the moment. If this actually happens, I hope someone is able to get to the bottom of how it’s happening and who’s involved. Billionaires, heads of state in certain eastern bloc countries and Iran, a crack team of hackers—all the usual suspects, I suppose.

This is getting crazy (duh). If Trump prevails, things are not going to be OK. He’s not a changed man. He’s not even a good man, or a reasonable one. He’s just been handed a lifeline, God knows why (if God knows anything). He’s not a savior, he’s not a hero. He’s just a crook riding a wave, perfectly OK with his own incompetence and deceit, probably orchestrating still more election interference we’ll find out about after the fact, perfectly OK with spreading ugliness and rumors and playing dirty if it helps him “win.”

I’ll never understand what people saw in him. It’s beyond a mystery, destined to become a tragedy, played out over another four years. Or more.

Unless the Dems can avoid self-immolation and get their act together.

The uniting theme was destined to be short lived. Shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. From Ron Johnson’s teleprompter malfunction (he went ahead and read it anyway…) to Kari Lake being her predictable miserable self, there’s about as much desire for uniting, apart from synchronized lockstep behind Trump, as there is for paying Joe Biden a compliment.

So, thankfully, the RNC convention will be over in a few hours. Trump may attempt to measure his words and tell everyone that he himself has had a come-to-Jesus moment (too late), the Republicans will most likely enjoy a bump in the polls, and then it will be the Democrats’ turn. They have some work to do, but I hope that the tenor and vibe at their convention will be less volume– as in loudness– and more substance, as in spending less time spreading a dystopian pall, and instead telling America about more hopeful things, a more hopeful vision and realistic plans.

They don’t need to promise the world. They just need to sound coherent and sensible. More stable, less angry and paranoid.

For all the Trump bad-mouthing J.D. Vance has done, it’s, well, not at all unusual that he’s the VP choice. He must have had his own “come to (orange) Jesus” moment at some point.

He’s only 39, MAGA through and through, somehow, and apparently willing and able to carry the tainted banner into battle. What a weird thing.

The Republican Party has morphed into a weird, delusional, angry cult. It’s a sad time for America. It’s as if we’re all witnessing our unmaking in real time. The DJIA reaches new heights because the Fed may lower interest rates, and all the while our backbone crumbles. 

One can be forgiven for thinking that our shallowness and the ease with which we can be distracted is going to catch up with us sooner or later.

There’s no “taking the country back.” How presumptuous and arrogant! That’s not the way to talk about your platform, such as it is– with the spoken assumption being that the country’s condition is such that it needs only what you’re offering: a makeover in an extreme conservative image.

No. They’ve turned conservatism into a dangerous, fearsome word. They want to turn the clocks back, act like a regime instead of elected representatives. They may claim that the American people want what they’re selling, but that’s their first overstep. The American people is a catch-all term, an unwarranted assumption, because Republicans speak for not even half of the country’s voters. They don’t speak for me, and haven’t for a while.

And their Christian Nationalism fetish is maybe the most concerning piece of all. Their refusal to ignore the intent of separation of church and state will simply continue to give religious beliefs a black eye. They will bend and twist and unduly coerce the tenets of their faith into what will, eventually and once again, prove to be a huge mistake. They conveniently overlook the passage where Jesus says to shake the dust off their feet and move on. Jesus says nothing about beating the ”heathens” into submission until they’re all on board. But they may not know much about Jesus, since they seem to find more of what they’re looking for in the Old Testament.

Anyway, there’s a lack of humility and imagination in the Republican Party. They are the party of backwards, oppressed and dutifully fearful of the incompetent at the top of their ticket. They may claim to be the party of limited government and personal responsibility, defenders of the pursuit of happiness and the American Dream. But in reality, they appear to be the party of paranoid, angry control freaks who lack trust and spend a lot of time dreaming about yesterday.

I refuse to watch the RNC. Their rhetoric and general tone have long infuriated me, and I’m not interested in hearing how the recent assassination attempt has changed things. I can’t stomach more than a minute or two of their trash talk. And now that the ticket is finalized, we’ll be suffering a steady stream of double-barreled anger and rebuke and fine-tuned smooth talking.

Saturday’s events have changed nothing, in my view. It’s not like Trump has a whole new perspective on life now that he realizes how close he came to death or some sort of grave injury. No lightbulbs, no change of heart for him or those around him. They of course have been handed a gift in the form of softened public sentiment, but the stretch run is still going to entail many wild accusations and strange statements about policy and philosophy, and reveal this brand of Republican politics to be more of the same off-the-charts darkness.

Trump may feel like he’s been given a second chance, but he won’t use it for good. It’s more likely to simply affirm his understanding that his presidency is meant to be, that more clearly he is on some sort of unstoppable, even God-ordained, mission.

I’m glad the Dems go last. They’ve got a few weeks to get their act together.

I guess I must be one of the desensitized ones. I’m not the least bit shocked by the events at the Trump rally on Saturday. And Joe Biden’s Oval Office address, in which he says we can’t allow this violence to be normalized, seems more a weak shout into the void than anything substantive.

The kumbaya bus appears to have left a long time ago. Violence– political or otherwise– is our middle name here in America (right, Birmingham? Right, Chicago and numerous other places around the country?).

Calls for unity and a decrying of this assault on civility seem disingenuous, mere protocol, the expected response. That people can be outraged and indignant now is almost ironic, since violence is woven into the fabric of this nation, sadly. We should not be at all surprised by what happened in PA on Saturday. Concerned, worried? Maybe. But not surprised.

How does this occurrence foster unity? How can unity happen when the current political climate practically dictates confrontation and standing one’s ground? At this point, edicts from the President and appeals to reason and calm end up sounding more like window dressing than anything actionable.