The wheels have come off reason and the laws of physics muted. If Donald Trump is indeed going to be President, we have to assume anything can happen next.
Like many people, we’re still trying to wrap our heads around exactly what happened this week and how that is going to affect our future. Will we even have a future beyond mid-February? Everything seems incredibly uncertain, frightening on many levels, and leaves us totally disoriented and confused.
Reason, apparently, has taken a holiday. Â The laws of physics have been muted. If Donald Trump is our president-elect, and there seems to be very little chance of avoiding that outcome, then we have to assume that the same lack of logic, absence of reason, and denial of the physical order of the universe applies to everything else as well. If that is the case, then there is truly no limit to what could happen next. I mean, look, we’ve already seen the Chicago Cubs win the World Series! Who saw that coming? No one in Cleaveland, I’m sure!
We have to assume, as frightening as the prospects now seem, that the next four years are likely to be full of the impossible. While that leaves the door open to some really horrible things, we would like to think that perhaps some good things could happen before reason returns and sets everything back to the way it should be. I’ve tried to keep my imagination in check a little bit, but then I remind myself that a year ago we didn’t expect Trump to even survive the primaries. Everything’s on the table, folks, which means anything could happen.
Smoking is actually good for you
No one born after 1970 is likely to believe this, but prior to the U.S. Surgeon General’s warning against the use of tobacco in 1964, everyone smoked, including doctors. There were even ads in popular magazines where “doctors” touted the “health benefits” of smoking. You know, thinks like calming anxiety and curing depression. Then, someone figured out that the cigarette companies were lacing the tobacco with nasty chemicals and that the damn things cause cancer. This is why you likely don’t know too many people born before 1940—they’re all dead.
However, in this new reality of ours, I fully expect someone at one of the tobacco giants to come up with a way to replace the bad chemicals with good chemicals so that smoking actually becomes the most reliable cure for cancer rather than a direct cause of the disease. You’ll stop seeing that pesky warning that no one reads and a new Joe Camel cartoon is set to debut on NBC next fall. Everything is hunky dory and the new cigarettes smell like daisies. Life is wonderful.
Cleaveland Browns Win The Super Bowl
The city of Cleaveland has long been known for its group of really bad sports teams. All that bad luck seems to be changing, though. Sort of. The MLB Indians are the Hillary Clinton of baseball this year. At least they made it to the World Series, right? And how about those Cavs? They’re getting the young NBA season off to a good start with a division-leading 7-1 record. So, this could be the year for the hapless Browns to return to the playoffs and take the Super Bowl, right?
I hope you believe in miracles. The poor Browns currently hold the NFL’s worst record for the season at 0-10. Any other year and fans would just stay home, or try trading their Browns tickets for Cavs tickets on some 3 for 1 deal. But hey, if Donald Trump can be president, then whose to say the Browns can’t come back in the latter part of the season, win all their remaining games (they play Dallas this afternoon), and dominate the Super Bowl! Folks in Cleaveland just have to believe! It almost worked for the Indians!
Everyone forgets George W. Bush was president, goes down in history as a painter
Back when reason and logic still applied to the universe, most people knew George W. Bush as the 43rd president of the United States. However, inside this new reality, no one thinks of Mr. Bush in political terms at all. Instead, he is much better known for his portraits of wounded warriors. Okay, so they just happen to be soldiers who were wounded while carrying out the former president’s own diabolical orders, but that minor fact is conveniently swept under the rug and only brought out for the most soever of bar-room trivia challenges.
Mr. Bush has long enjoyed painting, and if his mommy and daddy hadn’t pushed so hard for their children to go into politics he could have chased after his dream of being an artist much earlier in life. Just think of the thousands, if not millions of lives that would have been saved had Mr. Bush simply painted the portraits of Afghan children rather than bombing them. With a political past as ugly and brutal as George W’s, such an artistic whitewashing of history is likely to be just what is needed to get his work hung in the National Gallery. We’ll forget about all that nasty war stuff. Life is beautiful.
Zombies are real and they prefer chocolate pudding
Everyone already likes the idea of zombies. We just never really wanted them to be real because of that whole eating your brains thing. We don’t seem to have any problem with the walking stiff and losing one’s vocabulary. If zombies weren’t murderous beasts, then we’d love to have them over for dinner. If Donald Trump can be president, then why can’t zombies be cool? After all, that whole brain thing is simply because someone got the reanimation serum wrong. Tweak a few things here and there and I see absolutely no reason why we can’t have zombies who prefer chocolate pudding instead of brains.
Granted, if zombies make as much a fuss over chocolate pudding as they do for brains then the refrigerated aisle of your local grocery store is going to be a perpetual mess. Zombies apparently lose use of their motor skills as well, so I’m not sure they would do all that well with a spoon. The good folks at Kraft Foods are probably going to want to reconsider repackaging those ready-to-eat pudding cups and make them a bit bigger. Pudding pops might need a redesign as well. Still, wouldn’t it be nice to know that your favorite undead neighbor can be so easily placated? Who knows, maybe they’ll all turn a nice shade of milk chocolate rather than that putrid green.
The Pope disavows Christianity and converts to Buddhism
Citing the constant infighting and religious fear-mongering among Christians, the Pope has announced plans to completely disavow Christianity and take up Buddhism instead. St.Peter’s basilica will be turned into a Buddhist temple with yoga and meditation classes held weekly in the Vatican courtyard. “This whole god-thing just wasn’t working out for me,” the Pope says. “There were too many rules and regulations and as I get older I have more trouble remembering all the names of those damned saints. Buddhism is much easier and I still get to hide my pasta gut under loose robes.”
Not everyone is likely to be pleased by this turn of events, however. The Dali Lama could be quoted as saying, “Hey, Buddhism is my gig, man! Stay over on the Western side of religion, dude. We don’t want your kind in the East.” The overall effect, however, is rather pleasant as former Catholics stop worrying about confession and put their efforts into developing a more comfortable yoga mat. The mass meditation allows more people to come to peace with Donald Trump’s presidency.
Bob Dillon is beatified as Saint Bob even though he isn’t dead
With the Popa having abdicated and gone over to Buddhism, the Nobel Prize committee took on the task of beatifying new saints. In their first official meeting, the committee decided to make Bob Dillon the next American saint. When asked exactly what Dillon did to deserve such an honor, the committee cited the miracles of his continued ability to stand upright for more than 15 minutes and whatever magic it is that allows anyone to understand his song lyrics without being stoned off their ass. After thinking about it over a highball or two, critics agreed that Saint Bob makes as much sense in this new world as the award for poetry the committee gave Dillon earlier this year.
Mr. Dillon, however, still refuses to answer the committee’s phone calls. In fact, Dillon remains largely unseen except when popping up for the occasional concert in Madison Square Garden or on pieces of toast in Brazil. One associate of Dillon’s record label sent a note to the Nobel committee asking if the beatification came with any super powers, such as flying or the ability to carrying a recognizable tune, but the committee has yet to respond.
Climate flip-flops make Minnesota the nation’s premiere beach destination
While president-elect Trump is working hard to find a way out of the international climate change treaty, the actual climate decided to take matters into its own hands and flip-flopped, making Northern states warm while Southern states such as Florida and Texas are left shivering until multiple feet of snow from November until July. As a result, Minnesota, with all its thousands of lakes, is now the resort capitol of the world. Retirees and college students have been flocking to the state faster than condominium and beachfront hotel construction can be completed.
While this sudden shift in both climate and population caught native Minnesotans off guard, they’ve generally taken the changes in stride, increasing their production of dairy products and importing Amish from Pennsylvania to help  with the resort barn raising and such. However, the change has not helped attendance at local Lutheran churches, who have been in a quandary now that they no longer have weekly arguments with the Catholics.
Women assert their power and become dominatrixes
While publicly decrying the misogyny and sexual assault found in the poorly written best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey, women have long enjoyed the sexual fantasies contained in the book. They have taken a special interest in those related to the BDSM fetish but have been reluctant to let any man have that kind of control of their bodies. So, in response to Donald Trump become president, women across the United States have all decided to answer their power and become dominatrixes. Fashion houses everywhere are attempting to respond to this new authoritarian shopper with lines of clothing made of vegan leather.
Men, on the other hand, are shaking in horror. Having long mistreated women for generations, the thought that they now all have access to whips and chains doesn’t seem nearly as exciting to men as it did when they were watching porn. Many men have gone missing, with most presumed to be hiding in Canadian logging camps. Women have vowed to chase them down, however, and force them to build a wall to which they can all be chained. Some fear this move could emasculate the Trump administration, but Melania has firmly told everyone that they shouldn’t worry.
Vice President-elect Pence dies in toilet paper accident
Long known as one of the biggest turds in the Republican party, vice president-elect Mike Pence was touring the Koch Industries plant that makes Quilted Northern toilet paper when a large spool of the stuff mysteriously slipped off its roller, suffocating the Indiana governor in three tons of quilted softness. No one at the plant was able to explain exactly how the accident happened, but one worker did say that a stray cat had been seen wandering around the premises of late, randomly knocking items off tables for no apparent reason.
While janitorial staff worked quickly to clean up the mess, some workers complained that there were still brown streaks left on the floor and that it was impossible to get the putrid odor out of their work uniforms. The Koch brothers denied any responsibility for the event, saying that they merely manufactured the toilet paper and had no control over how it was used. President-elect Trump says that he plans to sue just as soon as he gets over this current bought of diarrhea.
Space/Time continuum rips apart, Michelle Obama becomes president
Unable to handle the severe stress of a Donald Trump presidency, the space/time continuum rips apart, destroying reality as it currently exists and resetting order to the universe by installing Michelle Obama as president of the United States. Within minutes of having done so, the earth began to heal, rainbows were seen on every corner, and all military operations came to an end. At the same time, production of vegetables more than tripled. Yoga was declared the national exercise program and floral arrangement is now the best-paid career position in the world. Children around the world suddenly realized that their parents have been speaking to them all these years and are trying to learn their language, though some are still having difficulty with commands such as “stop,” and “put that down.”
With Mrs. Obama as president, reason now dominates all matters of policy both public and private. Corporations behave with logical responsibility. However, most of Wall Street was sucked into a giant wormhole along with the Trump administration. No one has seen or heard from them since. Of course, no one is actually looking for them, either.
See, if Donald Trump can become president of the United States, anything is likely to happen. While I’m not going out on a limb and saying anything like what we’ve mentioned here is actually possible, if anything like this does happen at least you’ll understand why.
Now, take another Paxil and have a good day.
Morning Update: 09/05/24
Parents everywhere are holding their kids a little closer before sending them off to school this morning. Yesterday’s shooting in Winder, Georgia was a grim reminder, just as the school year is getting started, that schools are not the safe place they once were. We have no guarantee when we put them on a bus in the morning that we’re going to see them again that afternoon. Despite shooting after shooting, there is no resolve across America to take any definitive action to stop the problem. Local officials had investigated after the then 13-year-old made threatening statements against the school last year, but laws were too weak to support making an arrest at the time. And here we are, again, going through the motions of grieving, offering empty thoughts and prayers to parents and families who want to know why this keeps happening.
Georgia wasn’t the only place where danger was felt yesterday, though. A man was shot and killed in his own home yesterday around 1:00 PM, just across the street from the kids’ school. The email we received from the school reads: “Moving forward, we are implementing additional measures to enhance the security around our school. These actions include increased monitoring of the surrounding area, close collaboration with local authorities, allowing students to stay inside the building during dismissal until parent pick-up, and reviewing our safety protocols to ensure maximum effectiveness.”
While it was nice to receive some reassurance from the school, there are still questions unanswered. At the top of our minds is what, if anything, is being done to keep kids safe as they’re waiting for public transit to pick them up. A significant number of students ride IndyGo both going to and leaving the school. Their school isn’t the only one that utilizes the public transit system, either. In fact, Tipper mentioned again yesterday afternoon that the bus driver taking them to school yesterday morning was concerned that he might get in trouble because there were too many students on his bus for it to be safe. Bus drivers have complained and requested booster buses be added to the schedule, but nothing has been done. Just traveling to and from school is putting our kids in danger.
Politicians and school administrators are always quick to tell us that our kids are important to them. Where’s the evidence? A list of mass killings just this year is too long. This is an election year, the one time we can do something that might lead to a change in the number of shootings at schools, churches, and shopping areas. If you have any questions about that matter, I can promise you that the Felon isn’t going to risk upsetting Second Amendment supporters. I’m not convinced Democrats will do any better, either, because they haven’t. Regardless of what anyone says, the lack of concrete action proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that our kids really are not that important to them.
I don’t know what else to say. I’ve sat here before and ranted on the subject and it never does anyone any good. Nothing ever changes.
One fact I do know: I’m not getting any better. The evidence for that statement came yesterday when I asked Kat to drop me off at our local Kroger. Yeah, I know, Kroger is a big-time price gouger, and they’re trying to convince everyone that their merger with Albertson’s is going to lower prices for consumers. The problem is that Kroger is the only local store that carries sugar-free bread. No one else has it. Trying to order anything online from Kroger is a pain in the ass. There are always too many substitutions and the ending price never seems to line up with what you were anticipating. So, Kat dropped me off while she ran to Aldi’s. I picked up her prescriptions, my bread, some milk, and a couple of other things we needed. I was in the store for maybe twenty minutes.
I should have left ten minutes sooner. I was just leaving the milk aisle when I began feeling light-headed. I looked around for a place to sit and rest, but there wasn’t one. There never is in a grocery store. So, I kept going. Kat picked me up, we came home, and we started putting the groceries away. Twice I came close to falling. By the time I made it back to the recovery room, I was so dizzy I couldn’t see. I fell into bed and passed out. I ended up staying close to bed for most of the rest of the day. Even this morning, I can feel the pressure behind my eyes telling me to take it easy. Today’s another day where I don’t need to be doing anything more strenuous than walking across the hall.
My friend Rich had his port put in yesterday. He has another CT scan today and then the radiation starts. He’s in for a long road to recovery.
My friend Emily is resting at home after her surgery last week, and that’s where she’ll stay for a few weeks. One doesn’t just bounce back from body-altering surgery.
Another Facebook friend, who I’ve not met in person, is waiting for results back from a biopsy. She’s not expecting good news.
September is Leukemia Awareness Month. The blood cancer generally occurs in adults over age 55, but it is also the most common form of cancer in children under 15. This is supposed to be a disease that one dies with, not from. There are plenty of people who have recovered well and are going on living happy, busy lives. But we learned from Poppa’s situation over twenty years ago that not everyone gets a happy ending. Cancer is always going to suck. Right now, it’s sucking pretty damn hard.
Sitting here at my desk every morning, I read through some important news stories. Â US warned Nippon its U.S. Steel bid poses a national security risk. Pope Francis calls for climate change action during Istiqlal Mosque visit. Wildfire destroys 20% of Brasilia forest, arson suspected. These are all important stories that unquestionably will affect our future. Yet, I don’t see any real action resulting in change.
Instead, I see that the Felon’s new crypto business could create more conflicts if he’s elected president. US job openings fall as demand for workers weakens. Right-wing influencers were duped to work for covert Russian influence operations. Republicans Seize on False Theories About Immigrant Voting. At a Fox News town hall, the Felon sought to instill doubt that the coming debate would be fair. He’s said the same thing about the election as well. The doubt being sewn becomes fruitful too easily because it’s what we’ve come to expect with everything. We don’t trust the government. We don’t trust politicians, or anyone running for office. We don’t trust corporations. We try to trust our doctors but we don’t trust the pharmaceutical companies that make our medicines. We don’t trust the food we buy, nor the people selling it. We don’t trust our employers. We don’t trust our neighbors.
Perhaps the problem is that we’ve created a society that, at its very core, is its own cancer. And everything about it, like every other form of cancer, sucks.
You know what doesn’t suck? The source of the two big, black eyes staring at me from across the bed. Puppy dog snuggles never suck. They’re both flopped across the mattress acting as if they’re waking up from an all-night drunken binge. For dogs, it’s cute.
And Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty, just hopped up on the desk to say, “Hey, I’m cute, too!”
He most definitely is.
So is this coffee cup. Very cute. Very demure.
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