The Witness Chronicles, October 4, 2024
A litany of good news for Democrats
My meditation view in the garden of the Rochester Zen Center
A Shift in the Wind Direction
Are the lies catching up with Trump and Vance?
Yesterday I wrote about an idea I have regarding why we have become so divided and how corrupt politicians are using that division. And events here and around the world seem to be reinforcing it.
But in this political season, even a few hours can shift things. That has been the case for months, beginning with Joe Biden dropping out of the race. After I wrote yesterday’s piece, I felt the wind shifting as the day progressed, a subtle thing that gained momentum.
The September jobs report came in at an added 250,000 new jobs, a striking sign of growth in the economy at a time when we are being told it is in the toilet by Republicans. But only some Republicans, those aligned with Donald Trump. The reality is that unemployment, at 4.1% is the lowest in fifty years.
When the market adds large numbers of jobs, companies must increase wage offers to keep and find good people. That means average earnings rise, which means more consumption, which boosts the economy. Economics 101. That’s one shift.
In more extremely good news for the economy, the Biden administration negotiation team ended the dockworker strike after just 24 hours until they complete negotiations in January. This strike could have crippled ports up and down the east coast. Workers will get a huge 62% raise over several years.
Department of Justice Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, a pit bull, was given permission by the judge overseeing the case to release his 165 page case against Trump for the January 6 insurrection. It is a damning document Trump’s attorneys fought hard to suppress, which is exactly why it was finally released this week.
If it had come out last summer it would probably not have had the impact it has now. Naturally Trump claimed the timing was political, but in reality it was his delaying tactics that are responsible for the late release date. I know, pretty wonky, but it is a fact that as Election Day gets close, voters start paying attention to the details.
Trump’s failed legal strategy of delaying has backfired against him.
The impact was boosted by the last exchange in the Vice Presidential debate the night before. JD Vance refused to answer a direct question from Tim Walz asking if he believes Trump lost in 2020. The final image of the candidates was Walz looking disgusted and enraged at Vance’s laissez faire attitude about a deadly riot at the Capitol.
This became the video soundbite of the debate in the news and then the Smith report came out with detail after detail showing Trump’s controlling hand that day. My favorite? When informed that Pence was in physical danger, Trump responded, “who what”.
If there is a more damning piece of evidence, I can’t imagine it. It says everything about the man who was willing to throw away the life of his running mate and Vice President so casually. A sociopath could do no better.
Then Liz Cheney, an extremely conservative Republican former Congress member and daughter of Geo Bush’s far right wing Vice President Dick Cheney, campaigned with Kamala Harris. They appeared at the site where the Republican Party was formed in 1854 to fight the takeover of the country by southern slave owners.
That Republican Party eventually became today’s Democratic party and the old southern Democrat party became today’s Republican party. I know, confusing, but that’s history.
Btw, Dick Cheney also endorsed Kamala Harris and hundreds of prominent Republicans have followed. Stop and think about that for a moment. Dick Cheney endorsed a Democratic woman of color for President. In any other election that shift would have been earthshaking. This time around it barely made a ripple.
Liz Cheney campaigning for a moderate Democrat is one of those weird historical windshifts. In her case it was simply putting the future of the country ahead of partisan politics and a self-declared dictator wannabe and his fascist-leaning sidekick.
In case you wonder why I write everyday about this stuff, this is why. The situation is extremely fluid and the stakes are unimaginably high. Our individual freedoms are at risk, all for a man with no character, no vision, no morals, and no loyalty to anything but his own ego.
Every Presidential election year there is talk of an October Surprise, a singular event late in the game that changes the direction of the race. In an election that has seen two assassination attempts of Trump by his own followers, the sudden change in the Democratic candidate from a sitting President to a woman of color, with only three months to go, and a constant series of shifts like those listed here, it is hard to imagine being surprised by anything.
So, buckle your seatbelts, hold my martini, and watch this wild ride just keep going.
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Martin, there are some glaring inaccuracies in your report. You say Jack Smith unsealed his 165 page case agains Trump. Not so. It was Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the case, who released the filing, not Jack Smith. You also state that when Trump was informed on January 6th, 2021 that Pence’s life was in danger that he responded, “Who Cares?” I believe his actual words were reportedly, “So what?” I know....either of those responses are equally reprehensible, but if you’re going to quote someone, readers naturally expect the record to be irrefutable. Also, the Republican Party did not become the Democratic Party, any more than the old ‘Democrat’ Party (as you refer to it) became the modern Republican Party. It is just that over time the Republican Party evolved from being the one that wanted to abolish Slavery to one that saw an opportunity to engage White voters by opposing Civil Rights, and the ‘Great Society’ programs that were the product of the Lyndon Johnson administration. The Democrats morphed from being the party that supported Slavery in opposition to Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party to becoming one which fought for Equal Rights, Racial Justice, and an end to Jim Crow laws and other holdovers from the post Reconstruction era. It may seem that the parties “flipped” but it was the historical twists and turns of various factors and agents that made the parties evolve the way they did. Now, of course, the G.O.P. has pretty much become a personality cult in thrall with one man bent on bringing the entire experiment in democracy down after an almost 250 year run. It remains to be seen how this country looks in another month after an election where one of the candidates is on the record for saying he only recognizes outcomes in elections that he wins. If he loses, it’s “rigged.” So much for honoring “the peaceful transfer of power.”
No problem, Martin. I appreciate your response. Next time up, I’ll probably be buying you a cuppa Java. Cheers, Paul