Very early Predictions from “ Just an Artist”

I start with a quote from Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters from an American”:

“Ukraine journalist Marko Suprun and Russian-born foreign policy journalist Julia Ioffe said something interesting this morning on CNN. They were pointing out that observers often make the mistake of thinking that Russian disinformation is designed to pit the American left against the American right to sow chaos. But, in fact, they pointed out, Russian disinformation is designed to pit the American left and the American right against the American center, because it is in the great American center that democracy lives.”

And a link to an excerpt I heard on NPR this morning

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/24/808764408/democratic-frontrunner-bernie-sanders-doesnt-have-a-lock-on-the-party

Goody, the left side of the coin also banking on hate - yay.

If anyone ever actually reads this blog, they are likely to dislike what I am about to say; but I’ve always seen Bernie and Trump in the same light, though Bernie is a little less despicable. And even my husband, a neoclassical economist, was musing yesterday that things are so bad, one might as well vote for Bernie and overturn the apple cart. That is as may be. Here is my prediction 🔮:

If Bernie gets the nomination, possibly, and even probably, Trump wins.  But if he doesn’t and Bernie does, the Senate becomes redder and the House reverses to red.  That said, with that asshole Harry Reid having gotten rid of the filibuster, and the Trump administration having accelerated the amassing of executive power, we will be in for an interesting ride. There will be capital flight, possibly a bad recession; and the stock market will tank, but then adjust.  As far as the general public being better off, that remains to be seen.

Bacon: Always Relevant

This morning, on a review of David Lynch’s paintings, the author quoted the following from a John Berger essay on Francis Bacon’s and Walt Disney’s figures (certainly, on the surface, a weird coupling) :

“…the marks they bear, their wounds, look self-inflicted.  But self-inflicted in a highly special sense.  Not by an individual but by a special species, Man – because… the distinction between individual and species becomes meaningless.”

I went googling, not very deeply, for the source of the quote, and, of course, landed on another essay.  An essay that, through Berger’s re-evaluation of Francis Bacon, speaks urgently to our times.  It is one of the most powerful reviews I have read in a very long time.  It's pre-Trumpian date makes it prescient; it's content makes it feel as if it were written five minutes ago.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2004/may/29/art1

-katya

I have been rethinking this impeachment. I abhor Trump and all that he and his minions have done to reverse progress. He is guilty as hell, an observation made by several republican senators who voted against more witnesses. These comments inhibit Trump's ability to crow about being exonerated, which I think is part of Alexander Lamar's strategy. Trump should be ousted from office but then I have to think about what will follow. More about that in a bit. Trump will have to live with the legacy of being impeached, a fate he shares with his self-defined nemesis, Bill Clinton. This parallel needs to be emphasized because I know how much it will eat at Trump. He can't un-do it. Comprehending this will drive him off the rails. I await his State of the Union Address to see if he can avoid dwelling on it. I won't watch it because his very presence makes me ill and I don't want to add to the ratings to inflate his ego. But I anticipate seeing the aftermath. If by some miracle the Senate votes to convict we'll be left with the presidency of Pence. Pence's behavior during Trump's presidency has been very curious. He's maintained a plastic face for three years. What lurks beneath that fake surface? His public statements have been limited and abundantly supportive of his president. He has been the perfect sycophant. I've suspected that Pence has been holding his hat on the sidelines just waiting for the inevitable Trump implosion. Pence has been covertly working with his evangelical constituency to undermine social progress. Women and gays are his targets. If Trump's out, Pence is in. Pence's presidency would usher in the worst of Trump's agenda while adding Pence's more insidious and pernicious goals into the mix. Pence is oilier than Trump and a smoother politician. I bet it won't take long for that placid facade to crack open. If we think Trump is evil, Pence will make him look angelic. Right now Pence is a relative non-entity except in his religious circle. Give him the presidency by default and the real man will emerge. The rabid GOP base will fall in line. I'll grit my teeth through the next nine months of a Trump presidency and hope that anti-Trump rage will carry through the election.