What a morning! Cool, crisp enough to feel alive, a sky so beckoning and bottomless blue that this last lunar phase of summer shone with a brilliance that made the first Marlboro of the morning- or the last monkey Shoulder of the night- a magical experience.
Depends on perspective.
All the stuff below? It is the usual, “Yeah, all this stuff is going on, But wait! There is More!”
DNC Day 3? Oprah Winfrey gave a surprise speech at the Democratic National Convention and received the most raucous applause of Wednesday night’s festivities. Gov. Tim Walz accepted his party’s nomination for the vice presidency. He brought horsepower to the convention, explaining how he will cut taxes for the middle class, protect entitlements, take on Big Pharma, and ensure you can buy a home if you want. He urged Americans to “turn the page” on the Republican candidate.
His record? He cited introduction of free school meals in Minnesota “while other states were banning books.” He didn’t mention which ones, since that wouldn’t fit in the message on the chrome bumper which is now a largely plastic composite.
Perspective, again. The Campaign appears to be relying on something called “Deferred Capital Gains,” which refers to being taxed on potential profits not yet actually acquired. There is certainly an argument for that, on a theoretical basis, but having to pay an annual tax on the value of real property like your house while you are still living in it and paying the mortgage seems kind of- you know, radical.
Legal told us to just mention it as a reflection of bumper-sticker policy that can’t work but can effectively be shorted to two or three words. Legal told us specifically to stay away from the grocery price thing, since it doesn’t make sense now and the proposals that fit on bumper-stickers will simply make the whole system collapse. But they do fit on the sticker.
They advised us to ensure we mentioned some of the successes of late, like the $1 Trillion the Administration is spending on infrastructure- packages for semiconductors, electric vehicles, clean power and more.
Like it as an idea (we do) or appalled at the financing (we are), this formed a coherent vision about the role of government. But it doesn’t fit on a bumper sticker.
There are ‘cost-cutting plans‘ intended to cover it, of course, but they have to fit in text messages. They would cost lots of money as well, maybe a trillion and a half over the next ten years. That is why the national debt is going up by a trillion bucks every quarter of this fiscal year.
There is a bumper sticker on that message as well but it runs a bit too long, like “This is unsustainable and we should do something about it before this bubble bursts like they all do for every society that has attempted them.”
Day 3 at the DNC demonstrated there is one thing both Harris and Trump appear to be willing to affix to the national bumper: “The current Administration has been a net disappointment, and both are running against it. “
You can see the issues with that, but it may bring us together. Maybe. We got distracted when the Italian fighter jets flew over the building at mid-day, right where the moon hung in brilliant splendor. The Italians are touring America with flight demonstrations, trailed by aerosol colored clouds of triumph. We aren’t sure why they were here on a Wednesday, and it had nothing to do with the dismantling of the statues to Mr. Columbus. We think. Impressive show.
We thought, down by the parking lot before they roared over the tower at our back, that it might have been another missed approach over at Reagan National, but it was noisy but great fun and inspired an early start to Happy Hour.
Oh, the International Stuff this week? Legal says we can mention it if we don’t appear to be leaning in any particular direction. Like, the situation in the Russian adventure in Ukraine. There has been amazement at the recent stuff. The UKR plot to kill Putin. Their accompanying armed incursion into Russian territory near Kursk and the onset of a brutal sort of stalemate that has raised the rhetoric of atomic resolution in frustration. As old Cold Warriors that had us a little agitated two weeks ago, but we have got used to it.
The other regional strife with Iran is also simmering but in a different way under the same shimmering moon.
Tehran apparently has diminished itse threat of direct attack on Jerusalem, or Tel Aviv, or wherever the capital is at the moment. They have also announced plans to kill Mr. Trump,, which we hope was a fleeting gesture like the UKR one against Mr. Putin. But it certainly adds excitement that can’t be fit into three words.
The DNC? Day 4, tonight: ViP Kamala Harris will attempt to stick the landing and get her electric bus rolling to victory in November, which could include the sentencing of her opponent on the 34 felony convictions resulting from an expired misdemeanor the resulted in another unspecified crime. So, Trump on Riker’s island could be a feature in the September campaign.
But let’s conclude with something that floated effortlessly in the sky above our parking lot this morning. There is a pair of news items about that. Luna herself is putting on a show that peaked on Monday, the fullest phase of the Super Blue presentation of the end of summer.
Prime Minister Modi directed the landing of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission that produced milestone discoveries. Landing at the southern pole, it discovered the moon was once covered by an ocean of molten rock. That supports the Magma Ocean theory that holds the Moon was wholly molten soon after its formation some 4.5 billion years ago.
So, with the report that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is moving closer to endorsing Donald Trump, we have all sorts of heavenly bodies in motion, a snapshot of human affairs reflecting the rise and decline of blocks of humanity. Hard to condense that to three words that fit the messaging, so we will drop “the” and leave it at this:
“Moon’s a Balloon!”
Let’s enjoy it while we can.
Copyright 2024 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com