A Million Miles Away

I’m still in Europe. I’m out of the USA, and I plan to stay out.

I can’t tell you how nice it is not to be exposed to all the silliness that is going on in the United States right now. But I’ll give it a shot.

Four years ago I wrote about how the two spectacular political circus operators…. excuse me, I mean political parties…in the US had served up a pair of clowns for Americans to choose between in the presidential election.

This wouldn’t have been a major problem for me, because they were only marginally worse than the horrendous options in previous elections, except for the fact that I was actually in the United States for the several months leading up to and including the election. And unless you’re locked away in a cabin in rural Wyoming, it’s pretty much impossible to be in the States and avoid being exposed to the annoyance that is delivered by American media – especially during a presidential election. The exposure to that “election season” caused me to abandon whatever tiny amount of hope I still held for the future of the United States. Gone!

Back in the fall of 2016, when I was unfortunately NOT locked in a cabin in Wyoming, I was taking a shot at determining if I wanted to settle in Austin, Texas. (In case you forgot, my verdict was “Nice place, but not for me at this time…especially when the weather turns lousy in December, and Mexico is just a short jaunt away.”) Of course, in walking through life in Austin, I couldn’t avoid televisions. Mind you, these were not my televisions. But try going to a gym, or to any eating or drinking establishment in downtown Austin, without being subjected to a TV.

Because “news” has become entertainment these days, those TV’s are most often subjecting you to some kind of news program. So I had little choice but to hear the toxic, embarrassing stupidity that went along with that landmark election, making me very sad to be an American. (I describe it as a landmark event, because it was a landmark for just how stupid the American public is, being led directly by the extreme and concomitant stupidity of its so-called leaders.)

The only positive thing I can say about having to be in the States during that election, and being in liberal Austin in particular, is that it was genuinely humorous to see how angry (and tearful!) so many of those people became when their dream of a woman president got unexpectedly shattered by a disgusting person like Trump. The shock was remarkable. And really funny.

Given that I despised both of those idiots and found them completely unqualified for the job, it didn’t much matter to me who won, so the fact that such a reprehensible buffoon like Trump came out on top was no worse than if his criminal adversary had. (Let’s face it, Americans were guaranteed losers in either case. And four years on from that day, I defy any thinking person to tell me we haven’t been.) But had the contest gone as expected, with Hillary coming out on top, I wouldn’t have received the unexpected benefit of all the entertainment I got watching the shock and outrage of the hipster liberals in Austin. I don’t know if it qualifies as a silver lining, but at least it’s something.

And Here We are in 2020

I didn’t want to believe it would be such a clown show four years later….but deep down I knew it would. I couldn’t have predicted that it would be the exact kind of pathetic clown show that it is (who expected a global pandemic?) But the trend toward Americans’ apparent preference for electing a Clown-in-Chief every four years was pretty darn clear.

So here we are, with a country and a world in shambles due to economic destruction from shutdowns that I wasn’t totally opposed to back in the spring when we had so little scientific knowledge about the virus. And our fate is sealed due to the horrendous central bank response that has placed stock prices above all else on the good ole USA’s priority list, dooming us to total collapse. This horrible response is of course 100% thanks to the fact that we have a psychotic, insecure, lying loser in the White House. A moron who has further embarrassed the US globally and made a ton of horrible governmental moves. In fairness, he has made a few that haven’t been so bad…but a stopped clock is right twice a day, so its’ not totally surprising.

With such a weak incumbent, surely the other side would have no problem coming up with a better alternative. One would think so, but I guess the Democrats either have an interesting sense of humor, or their top brass are all fans of that classic 80’s movie Weekend at Bernies. I can’t come up with any other reasons for why they would choose to put forth a corpse as their candidate.

And showing their true colors as “open-minded” liberals, they yet again tyrannically silenced a viable candidate named Bernie Sanders (a Bernie who’s not quite a corpse like the one in the movie) in order to ramrod the late Joe Biden into the election. It reminds me of the USSR: “You can vote for anyone you want in our elections. As long as it’s our guy.” Mind you, I strongly disagree with Bernie’s platform, but if I recall correctly, in the United States you’re not supposed to be forced out by the underhanded methods he always seems to fall victim to.

Wave a magic wand, sprinkle in some racial strife, say “Abra cadabra,” and here we are with a bigger joke than we had four years ago. But this time, thank heavens, I don’t have to listen to it. I’m in Greece. I don’t see or hear television. I spend my internet time exposing myself to nothing more than a very surface level awareness of the “news” from the United States. And not surprisingly, I’m much better off.

From what little I see during my occasional forays onto Facebook, I get a load of what I believe is the most disappointing part of this whole ordeal. I can see someone voting for a particular clown because they think the other one is so much worse that he must be prevented from being in office for the next four years. But sadly I often see people actively supporting one of these two idiots, insinuating that their idiot is actually a good candidate and is going to solve our problems.

Are you kidding me? That’s completely ridiculous in a situation like this, and I would ask anyone who honestly thinks that either Biden or Trump is a good candidate to take a very close look at the thought process that has led them to that conclusion. Do they actually believe they are employing valid critical thinking? Again, I can see someone supporting one of the two clowns, but if it is with anything other than, “We just have to be sure the OTHER clown isn’t in office, because he’s even worse,” then it’s a pretty sad statement on that person’s judgement.

The Next Few Weeks…or Months or Years

I remember what it was like back in April, May, and June when I was stuck in the States during lockdown, being exposed to TV at home with my parents. I can only imagine what kind of a fever pitch has been hit by this point.

I feel for my fellow Americans, especially my loved ones, who are in the middle of all this garbage at the moment. It’s even worse, because this time around there is such a powder keg ready to be ignited no matter which clown comes out on top that I genuinely fear some kind of major violence and civil unrest. And I mean something worse than what we saw back in May and June. Regardless of what does or doesn’t happen in the streets, in the end we Americans are all going to be the losers. Once again.

My thoughts go out to those who are being affected by this, and who are going to be affected by the worse stuff to come starting in a few weeks. I hope it doesn’t get too ugly. I will be keeping occasional tabs on it from my perch here on the other side of the pond, counting my blessings for not having to be there as I was four years ago.

I’d love to say that, with things being so bad this time, they simply MUST get better next time. Indeed, I would love to say that. The only problem is, my critical thinking skills, while perhaps duller than in my younger days, have not completely abandoned me. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past dozen or so years, it’s that one should never underestimate the ability of the USA to sink to ever new lows of stupid, self-destructive behavior. As a result, I’m half expecting the 2024 election to feature an actual circus animal as one of the candidates.

God help all of us as individuals, because I think he has stopped carrying out his critical role in the old phrase, “God bless the USA.” It may be time instead to dust off the old Nancy Reagan expression “Just Say No!”

Indeed, we should all just say no to the US political process and all those who are a part of it. Unfortunately, with the media on their side and a thriving, corrupt symbiosis with their big money puppet masters, it’s a bit too late for us to do anything to stop them. Instead it’s become little more than an exercise in watching a slow motion train wreck. Except the motion is getting faster and faster by the day.

I’m just glad that, for the moment, I’m a million miles away.

2024 Election Preview