Full disclosure: that’s a stock photo. Not Lulu, or Fritzi either. I always wanted to get them spider costumes, the kind you see dogs wearing in TikTok videos, scaring the shit out of people. The photo caption says this is a spider costume, but it puts me more in mind of The Thing. Which is also scary as hell.
Anyhow, it’s Halloween, which you may remember is also my birthday. People always say what a fun day it must be to be born. Actually it is a pretty great birthdate, though when you’re starting your 79th year the excitement is somewhat muted. Our friend Mary Anne is joining us tonight, bringing a stuffed flank steak for dinner. There’ll be the usual trickle of trick-or-treaters at the door, and maybe I can talk Donna and our guest into watching a scary movie with me on streaming TV. Polly will be working her overnight home care shift, dressed for the occasion in one of my old flight suits.
On the second day of October, because Amazon cut the price but might raise it again any day, I ordered a wristwatch I had my eye on as a birthday gift to myself, and wouldn’t you know they shipped it overnight. I’ve been sitting on it all month, which dragged by in the standard anticipatory manner. But hey, the big day is here at last and I’m wearing it.
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It’s a Torgoen, one of a line of watches marketed to aviators, the second one in my collection now. The company is American, the quartz movements are Swiss, and the watches are assembled in Asia. I love the boldness of this one (and my other Torgoen as well); I know it’s going to be a favorite.
I cross-posted to Facebook someone’s Twitter observation that Trump never forgets grudges or slights and is constantly bringing them up again, and boy if someone were ever to take a shot at him you know he’d never shut up about it. The point being that of course the shooting was staged and everybody knows it. The photos, which were the whole point of the exercise, helped push Trump over the finish line, but apply the least bit of scrutiny and the whole story falls apart, which is why after the election Trump never talks about it.
A friend responded, telling me that in MAGA-land, it’s the opposite: the shooting was real, and Trump does talk about it. All the time. I balked at that bit: we hear Trump talk about all kinds of shit, not only in press conferences and speeches but in Oval Office remarks, offhand comments as he’s shuffling between the White House and the helicopter, chatting with reporters and guests aboard Air Force One. And what does he talk about? The latest enemies he’s siccing the Justice Department on, cabinet members from his first term who pissed him off ages ago, his fucking ballroom, tariffs, annexing Greenland, Tren de Aragua, Antifa, treasonous Democrats, Putin Putin Putin, Russia Russia Russia, late night TV hosts’ dismal ratings, the failing New York Times, drill baby drill … anything and everything but the shooting (or Epstein).
I try to be an informed citizen, visiting news aggregator sites every morning, weekends included: Reuters, the BBC, the AP, Wonkette, Drudge, sometimes Apple News and The Guardian. The one network I don’t check is Fox News, and that’s why I can’t outright say my friend is wrong. In fact, she may be right. Back in the George W. Bush administration, we described the separate realities experienced by Fox Nation and everyone else as epistemic bubbles. I wonder why we don’t see the term used much these days … it describes the situation perfectly.
Just in the last few days I’m starting to see op-eds discussing Trump’s hardening attitude toward states, cities, and even individuals who didn’t vote for him: that because they lost they no longer count; neither he nor the government works for them or owes them anything. This too goes back to at least the George W. Bush administration, which is when I first started noticing Republican politicians regarding Democrats in their states and districts as non-constituents. I saw it first-hand with Martha McSally, the then-congresswoman from my district in southern Arizona, and soon realized she was but one of many freshman Republican lawmakers acting in the same manner toward those who didn’t vote for them. Now it’s spread to Republican politicians as a whole, and Trump is right there with them. But then again, he’s never had room in his heart for losers; in his world winning has always been the only thing that counts.
Democrats still hold to the quaint notion that people who live in their districts, whether they voted for or against them (or even voted at all) are their constituents, the people they work for. One Democrat in particular, here talking on TikTok about health care but also about supporting all the people in her district:
@huffpost Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has strong thoughts on President Donald Trump’s leadership, and she isn’t holding back. #AOC #Trump #MAGA ? original sound – HuffPost
AOC is 36 years old now, which makes her eligible to run for president. Just in case you were wondering.
Happy Halloween!