August 26

I hadn't planned to post anything today. My thoughts felt a bit too gloomy to post but I found this and it encapsulates some of those thoughts very neatly. I was listening to some of the interviews about the Trump Cult Con-Vention this morning and totally flummoxed by the descriptions of 45's "accomplishments." The vision of their reality is so at odds with my experiences and take on the situation. One described the rise of the stock market in glowing terms prophesying a brilliant economic future ahead. I wanted to yell "You ass, the stock market is NOT the economy and says nothing about where the economy is going." Another touted the administration's immigration policies as the lovely photo op of the citizenship ceremony at the White House played out. The carefully people from Bolivia, Lebanon, Ghana, and Sudan, all countries labeled s---hole countries not long ago. I have tried to understand his supporters' attitudes but haven't been able to. I don't regret many things in my life but I do regret not voting for Clinton in 2016. I didn't vote for #45 either and I know my one lonely vote would not have made a difference but this year I won't regret voting for Biden. He wasn't my first choice, or my second, choice, or my third choice, or my fourth. I won't be holding my nose because he isn't a piece of shit like our current occupant of the White House is and I hope decency can go some ways toward creating a "new normal" that works for more of us than the top 5%.

Charles Hugh Smith takes up on the separation of the stock market and the economy as well as the problems of the financialization of everything. The ground beneath old "normal" to which so many hope we can return. What ever comes will be built on different ground.