cell913blog.com #74

Inflation is not only a condition of economics!

It is not only in Texas that America thinks ‘big’ and ‘bold’ and exaggerated. And in presidential election campaigns, especially, inflated rhetoric seems to garner even more attention than is normal. (Of course, trump’s inflation of himself and everything he ‘touches’ or speaks about, is injected with ‘the noxious gas’ of his own inferiority, narcissism and self-proclaimed ‘hero’ for all the ills of America and the world. It is no accident and ‘puffery’ and buffoonery’ sound similar: they come from the same Pandora’s Box of troubles and echo each other’s inflation.

Rhetoric is, of course, one of the most obvious victims of presidential campaign inflation, exaggeration, all of it basically insulting to anyone listening with a critical ear. This particular campaign comes in the middle of so much turbulence, globally, that a vortex of dangerous winds swirl around almost all discussions of a political nature. The marriage of ‘existential threat’ and ‘apocalypse’ should either candidate win, casts this election campaign as, at a bare minimum, ‘epic.’ And that kind of rhetoric is ‘out-of-bounds’ and yet, ironically and paradoxically, it seems to be somewhat fitting. For nearly a decade now, the ‘Republican’ candidate has spewed inflammatory words, character assassinating slurs, and depictions of the ‘end of America’ if his opponents, (from both parties beginning with the Republican primary prior to the 2016 election). Projecting his own ‘epic’ grievances against the institutional systems of law, environment, health care, finance, as his way of emulating the dystopian authors of history, in order to position himself as “saviour” (“I alone can fix this!”) has drummed a tune and tone to which many millions have been seduced, while millions more have been disgusted.

Not only is his claim of being able to ‘fix’ all the myriad problems and issues facing the United States and the world specious; it is another of his intrepid and hollow LIES. Rarely, however, is this particular epithet described or interpreted as a lie, per se; it is merely another exaggeration, so outlandish, so despicable and so redolent of his own psychic depravity, need for even gratuitous adulation, and blindness to his own meagre limitations. Exaggerations, however, in a culture drowning in misinformation on social media, with basic impunity for those trafficking in those lies, are neither tolerable nor indicative of a campaign worthy of anyone seeking public office. “It’s just politics,” were the words used by Russell Vought, one of the authors/originators of the Project 2025 policy and planning document in reference to the great leader’s attempts to separate himself and to disavow any knowledge of the project. Lying, mis-informing, distorting, flinging ad hominum attacks at political opponents, claiming the power to ‘end’ intractable wars,’ to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and to deconstruct government departments from their assigned, legislated and budgeted responsibilities by firing hundreds of thousands of professional staff and replacing them with sycophant and loyal political appointments who will discharge all of ‘dear leader’s’ commands seem to be at least a partial portrayal of the political landscape and culture the Americans have both created and permitted. Who needs Cecil B. DeMille?

What is monumental, from the north side of the 49^th parallel, is the ‘Republican’ candidate’s persistence in insulting contempt, disdain, and outright objectifying of the American voter, especially those who have fallen for the entrapment that this human, clearly unfit for any public office, let alone the Oval, has peddled. This steady menu of patronizing, insulting, manipulating, lying that continues, seemingly still, to overtake the 40% of non-college-educated white folks that represent the core of the maga base represents not only an ethical and moral disaster, in human terms, but also a national core of hollowness, emptiness, insouciance and derangement that threatens to capsize the national ship (of state). That there should be even a mere fluctuating 5% difference in current opinion polls, (as opposed to a significant leading margin for Harris/Walz) although the number itself is small, ought to be flagging a nation on a cliff-edge of epic self-sabotage. Characterized by many in the media as ‘anger,’ ‘cynicism,’ ‘vengeance,’ and ‘retribution,’ transferring the candidate’s personal psyche onto the millions of his cult, seems, from afar, to be a relatively facile, and still, a threatening, transference. Separating out, for example, the self-righteousness, the absolute conviction of some, such as the Speaker of the House, that bringing the kingdom of God to the United States, from such a cauldron of hate, so strains of the credulity, the capacity to entertain, and the multiple aspects of the ‘continental divide,’ itself an appropriate  metaphor for the nation, as to entertain a the spectre of a national divorce, based on irreconcilable differences.

One of the most glaring deficits, perhaps defaults, lying within the American democracy, sadly and potentially cancerous, is the national media’s fetish, (or is it a dependency on advertising dollars and ratings?) of transforming the presidential race into a national ‘Kentucky Derby’ (pick your favourite horse race). Perhaps too, this significant attitude, behaviour and persistence by the media is another of the glaring, irreconcilable and perverse insults of the American voter. Opinion polls, cash donations, ‘vibes’ and ‘bursts’ of energy that seem to depict a self-writing movie-script, handy and easily transcribed as a news report, while entertaining, omits, avoids, devalues and even disregards the serious issues facing the nation and the competing candidates ‘address’ of those issues. trump knows intimately, and has contempt for, the superficiality and the malleability of a large portion of the electorate. And whether his approach is the ‘chicken or the egg’ in terms of the national media, perhaps irrelevant, nevertheless, shouts out loud how vacuous is the campaign culture at a time when the world is desperately looking to the United States for statesmanship, leadership, serious and profound public attention to the issues we all face, and to the American commitment to take its place at the global table on against those who would trample not only ‘democracy’ as a political and institutional tradition, but also the kind of collaborative, unified and courageous bastion of defense against wannebe tyrants, chaos-seekers, and disrupters.

In another lifetime, I floundered as a free-lance journalist, without formal formation and education in the profession. One ‘trained’ journalist explained to this rookie, that the audience (reader, viewer, listener) could be considered to be at the grade six level. That level of education was then considered to be the targeted beacon to which the reporter was to write and direct his/her reporting. Innocently, and also irreverently, I found such a premise to be insulting, both of the audience and of the reporters. Clarity, simplicity, accuracy, and coherence, as guide words for reporting, and, of course, the teasing, exciting, often misleading ‘head’ for each story, perhaps. Insultingly patronizing, condescending and demeaning the audience, however, was not OK. There are, certainly, many seasoned, articulate, nuanced, and cogent men and women delivering both news and commentary, on this election as well as on global affairs. It is the profound rise in tabloid journalism, personality assassinations, gotcha-moments, and their magnetism for deep-pocket-donors that, following the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens united, that, together, has unleashed multiple tsunamis of cash into the purchase of the nation’s politics.

This decision, anything but judicial, is another of the tumors that currently infest the American political landscape, along with the application of near total  immunity for the president for all nefarious, illicit, self-serving baronial tipping of the electoral scales or any other act in which the court’s ‘king’ considers necessary. Misty attempts at a medical diagnosis, however glib and reductionistic, continue to miss such national ‘heart-rate’ measures as the DOW, the unemployment rate, the slowing falling inflation rate, the potential lowering of the interest rate by the Federal Reserve, and the helium-infused joy and exuberance that filled the United Center in Chicago as host of the Democratic National Convention.

Are both that joy and exuberance inflated by the imagination of delegates at the prospect of a new head to the ticket, after Biden’s withdrawal? Is the threat allegedly embodied in the Project 2025 document a threat to the nation from within? Is the alleged threat of ‘socialism’ that pours out of the Republican campaign, should the Harris-Walz ticket win in November even worthy of notice? Is it an exaggeration to wonder here if the American preparation for whatever turbulence might ensue should the Republican candidate fail to win and claim to have lost, AGAIN, because of a stolen and fraudulent election? Or, conversely, should he win and wreak havoc for the four-year term, both at home and around the world?

The capacity, willingness, fortitude and spine of the American culture, the anima mundi, to have in place all the needed steps, legal, political, financial, geopolitical and intellectual for either outcome is an issue no one seems either equipped or prepared to answer in the affirmative. Is it another glib and specious exaggeration to ask if the American ‘nation’ can be eroded, atrophied, swamped and decimated from within, should the Republican candidate win on November 5?

If ‘he’ loses, there is no limit to which he and his cabal of thugs will go to forestall the peaceful transfer of power from Biden to the legitimate winner, who, in this case, would be Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. They have already ‘placed’ 26 election deniers (those who believe the 2020 election was stolen fraudulently) in 19 states. Election deniers are already on the ballot in some 12 states; 171 election deniers are sitting members of Congress; 171 election deniers are on the ballot for Congress in races being tracked by ElectionDeniers.org from which site this date is drawn.

‘Election denial isn’t a new concept, but it really turned into a political movement in 2020,’ says Joanna Lydgate, CEO of States United Action which started the (ElectionDeniers.org) website. ‘Trump and his allies went state by state and tried to overturn valid election results in order to stay in power. Election denial is about eroding trust in elections. Why? Because that makes it easier to cast doubt on the results alter the fact if the election doesn’t go your way,’ she continues. (from people.com)

There is a kind of campaign strategy on the so-called Republican side that evokes so many moments from the last decade in which the former, twice-impeached, convicted felon stirred up ‘bad trouble’ as his way of keeping the news spotlight on him that also had the impact of distracting many from the real issues to which he and millions of others were giving a blind eye, a deaf ear, and an insouciant attitude….just think, for example, COVID 19!

The Democratic Party has reportedly raised some $540 million since the announcement of the ‘Harris-Walz ticket. Reports today indicate that some $370 million of that are going into an ad-buy for the next 70-odd days remaining in the campaign. Is there a chance that at least $100 million of that $540 million might be allotted to shore up the legal defenses, both for the party and the nation, in preparation for, and to ward against the multiple nefarious legal maneuvres we all know are being drafted by the army of legal acolytes in the Republican camp?

The escalating war in the Middle East, the escalating war in Ukraine, the escalating violence in Sudan, the threat of damaging symptoms of climate change and global warming….and then there are the multiple and almost incapable of being exaggerated threats from within!