Today’s screed will be at least slightly incoherent. Had a long day and so now it’s late in the evening and my brain cells are firing haphazardly like a failing neon sign. I think I’ll just work with the vague impression that reading the editorial page gives me. I’ll be like the Monet of Right-Wing Vitriol. I like the word vitriol. Sulfuric acid was called oil of vitriol in the olden days and it is a powerful substance for dissolving supposedly strong metals like iron. And I always liked copper sulfate or blue vitriol because it’s a deep blue crystalline material. Basically, I’m a fan of vitriol in all its manifestations. So, let’s see what’s out there.
The striking thing about the headlines lately is that wisps of the truth are beginning to appear all over the place. Not in just right-wing blogs but in mainline “conservative websites and even in cable news on Fox and CNN and, heaven help us, MSNBC. Taboo things are leaking out. And because they’ve leaked into the world, they’re causing panic. When Hunter Biden’s legal troubles are talked about on PBS or MSNBC, we get a whole song and dance about how the evil House Republicans are trying to tie Joe Biden to Hunter’s legal problems. I think the approved boilerplate that has to be prefaced to any discussion of Hunter is that the House allegations “haven’t got a single shred of evidence linking Joe Biden to anything illegal.” I think I heard the same exact wording on several different platforms.
Another impression I got was that the “inflation is falling and the economy is booming” narrative has finally slammed into reality so hard that even some of the cheerleaders are discussing damage control. One lefty pundit was saying that maybe, just maybe, the slightly higher cost of living might be impacting some undetermined proportion of the population in a negative way. Now that was a brave thing to admit while riding on the Biden Express. Of course, it was a data point that was being used to suggest ever so delicately that maybe Joe should step aside for some “younger.”
I take the rumblings that show up in the lefty press much more seriously than the stuff on the right. Right-wing happy talk is background noise. But when the Left starts foaming at the mouth, or even better when they start to sweat, I get interested. And they seem to be sweating profusely. Now it’s a long, long way to November. And the sheer breadth of dirty tricks and lawfare that the Deep State has up its sleeves is impressive. Hauling Donald Trump off to prison is the least shocking thing they might do in the next eleven months. But I get the distinct impression that things are very “ungood” in lefty world. Maybe a big part of it is Ukraine. Even the Washington Post has publicly stated that the Ukrainians aren’t going to beat the Russians. Now it looks like the Republicans have realized that just saying no to another sixty billion dollars in aid is the smart way to go.
Now, nobody ever got rich betting that the Stupid Party would stop acting stupid. So sure, they can screw it up. But it looks like things are not going well for Team Biden in every facet of their agenda. And as an impressionist that makes my canvass resemble one of those crazy Van Gough sunflower paintings or maybe his starry night. It’s an image that makes me smile. Sure, it’s just an impression. And tomorrow reality will be back in focus. But right now, in the blur of my fuzzy brain it looks pretty good.
Apologies to Don McLean