It’s time to give full attention to the bad news besetting our Republic. We see around us a nation of over 320,000,000 people, millions in their prime, some with impressive intellectual gifts, some handsome, some both witty and eloquent, and perhaps thousands with the skills and temperament needed to deal with this accursed Pandemic. But look at the two antiques on tap to lead us into the third decade of the twenty-first century. Never mind that both are younger than your columnist, neither display impressive mental agility.

Ponder this passage transcribed by Stephen Green from an April 16 interview with Good Ol’ Uncle Joe Biden: “I sat with a guy on, on a telephone and he’s telling me, he said, “I don’t always,” he said, “Look, I, I, I, I, I, I’m, I, I worked at the hospital.” And he said, “Then I, I got, I got myself a position where I got the virus so they quarantined me and, and they put me in the hospital, and I made it out and so I’m out [slurp]. But they don’t want me with my family. I’m on the third floor. I spent 15 minutes on the phone with them saying,’ he said, ‘I have a three-year-old and a four-year-old. They come to the door outside and they just knock on the door and say ‘Daddy, Daddy, can I see you Daddy, can I see you Daddy?’’

“So we spent time going through it [slurp], I used to do with my kids when they were little and I couldn’t see them and we’d play games. I said, “Knock, make up a game, knock, knock on the door and say this is, you know [slurp].”

[Incomprehensible]

This is practical things, the guy’s scared to death. And he’s worried about his children, he’s worried about his wie [sic]. I mean, these are practical things. And the president talks about this like, “OK, it’s gonna be OK. We’re gonna open … tomorrow. We’re gonna do this.”

I watched the tape and heard nothing to impugn the fidelity of Greene’s transcription. Any reader inclined to distrust the observations of a conservative writer should find that tape on their own and see if they can make sense of this senile babble. Can’t be done.

Over here on my side of the partisan divide we have a president whose priority numero uno at the moment seems to be sure that the government checks being scattered across the land by the millions bear his name. Here’s a question I put to you, and which you may put to your friends: Can you name a current or recent Treasurer of the United States?

Probably not, but if you are interested look at any one of the bills in your wallet. You will find it there. And so what? You didn’t know before and you don’t care now. We know that The Donald has spent a lot of time and energy over the years putting TRUMP on airplanes, helicopters, golf courses, gambling casinos, wine bottles, steaks, hotels, wives, and children, but what advantage does he hope to gain from putting it on a mass of government paper no one will ever study?

Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the house, and Democratic Party representative of a distant planet named San Francisco immediately accused the president of delaying the distribution of these checks to millions and billions of destitute and starving Americans.

Did I just exaggerate Nancy’s accusation? Doesn’t matter if I did. A dash of irony is never out of place when describing American political rhetoric.. Delays and incompetence in government operations are not so rare that they demand special attention and inflammatory accusations.

Bitter verbal combat between conservatives (a.k.a., reactionaries, right-wing extremists, fascists, racists) and liberals (a.k.a., left-wing extremists, racists, Marxists, Stalinists, socialists) will keep getting more heated (although gunfire remains uncommon) but most people are getting used to it. It’s true that the Muddy Stream Media can still get some conservatives grinding their teeth into a fine white powder because they continue the faltering pretext of non-partisan objectivity; and “progressives” continue fuming about “corporate media’s” support for “corporate” Democrats, e.g., Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.

Now there are alarming signs that hostility between ordinary citizens may be on the verge of heating up. This front page headline in the Boston Globe is cause for my concern: “As Corona virus Continues to Spread, Mask Etiquette is Getting Intense.” We read under this headline that “mask etiquette is becoming a problem. The reporter writes that while people wearing masks used to be the ones getting quizzical glances, now it’s the unmasked citizens who draw censorious looks.
I suppose this etiquette crisis may boost personal isolation a bit if maskless rogues (e.g. Me) remain behind closed doors to avoid those censorious looks. Doesn’t mean we’re obliged to like it.

John Frary of Farmington, the GOP candidate for U.S. Congress in 2008, is a retired history professor, an emeritus Board Member of Maine Taxpayers United, a Maine Citizen’s Coalition Board member, and publisher of FraryHomeCompanion.com. He can be reached at jfrary8070@aol.com.

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