Democracy 2024: # 27

This Presidential campaign cycle just keeps getting weirder and weirder. As the saying goes, if it were not so sad, it would really be funny.

Cocaine was found in the White House. The White House cannot seem to give a straight answer about the situation.  Ron DeSantis is attacking Donald Trump for being pro-gay. Donald Trump is calling Ron DeSantis a "highly overrated son of a bitch." Joe Biden is running for reelection based on the supposed tremendous success of "Bidenomics" while Trump is seeking another term insisting that he really won the last election.

On a serious matter,it has been over 500 days now since Russia invaded Ukraine. This week, the Biden Administration, after much apparent struggling with the decision, has agreed to provide Ukraine with cluster bombs. This type of artillery is banned in many nations for fear of civilian casualties, but Russia is using it against Ukraine. This is not a typical war and of course the United States is not directly involved in the combat. Clearly though, our nation should be continuing to support Ukraine. The only way this horrible chapter will end is when Russia is defeated and retreats. Thus, Ukraine has to do what is necessary to win. On this matter, I will express support for the Biden Administration's decision  and hope they stand firm regardless of political opposition in either party. There will continue to be much to decide in terms of what is in the best interest of the United States as it relates to how we should support Ukraine, including the desire for that nation to be fast-tracked into NATO.

Not long ago, Speaker Kevin McCarthy spoke somewhat honestly in an interview and said he was not sure Donald Trump might be the strongest possible Republican Presidential candidate. McCarthy, who owes his Speakership to Trump, and knows it can be taken away from him on any given day, received immediate pushback from MAGAland and on the same day had to walk back what he said and express his fealty for Trump. This incident shows just how much Trump continues to dominate internal Republican politics and how many politicians within the party remain scared of angering him and his supporters.

For the bevy of Republicans who wish to be President, or at least the nominee of the once GOP, something has to happen externally to sever the relationship Trump has with his portion of the party base. Most of the Republican candidates are not even willing to criticize Trump directly or will only do so very gingerly. All of this is happening when on a seemingly daily basis, more and more stories are emerging in the media about just how dire Trump's legal situations may be in a variety of different cases. It sure seems like Jack Smith is preparing a lot of indictments over what the Trump White House attempted to do to overturn the 2020 election, When one thinks of all the serious legal trouble that Trump is in, we should be reminded about the fairly weak case brought against him in New York which was his first official indictment. Attacking that matter as political overreach is seeming to give cover to Trump's defenders to call all other instances the same thing. Again, it seems like Alvin Bragg did his part to help make sure that Donald Trump will be the 2024 Republican nominee.

Electability should be the main focus of the Republican field in saying that Trump would lose to Biden again and take many other Republican down with him. The fledgling campaign of Ron DeSantis thinks though that their best hope at stopping Trump for the nomination is to convince conservatives that DeSantis is the true leader on cultural issues. A little over a week ago, a pro-DeSantis SuperPAC released an ad which truthfully demonstrates some hypocrisy on behalf of Trump on LGBTQ issues, but that angle was not the intent of the ad.

It is fair to say that in 2016 Donald Trump did run using rhetoric that expressed support for gays and lesbians to a greater extent than any other previous Republican Presidential candidate. At one point, he held up a rainbow flag at a rally. He said that he would be fine with Caitlyn Jenner, a noted Republican, using whichever bathroom at Trump Tower she wanted to chose. Apparently, years earlier, Trump, the one time owner of the Miss Universe Pageant said he was ok with transsexuals competing in the beauty contest.  They missed the part where Trump used to do skits in which he groped a cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani.

Now, DeSantis who has long been trying to play up cultural issues and an "anti-woke" message is attacking Trump for these positions and previous statements. The SuperPAC released an ad which can be described as "trolling" in tone, in which images of a laughing DeSantis or one of him in a flight suit, was transposed with images of greased-up shirtless men. They featured clips of soundbites seemingly celebrating the belief that the Florida Governor might pose a risk to the very existence of the trans community. This is pretty vile, gutter politics all around. Even if it were to work in a primary campaign, and I do not think it will (largely because those who like trolling jerks are already inclined to be for Trump), it would be a pretty stark message to run on in a general election. Whatever one thinks about the overabundance of "woke" as it relates to LGBTG issues (and I wrote a lot in criticism of that mindset last week in regards to a SCOTUS ruling), the fact of the matter is that American society has changed significantly in a generation and people are simply not as anti-gay or anti-trans or anti-drag, as the people who populate right-wing social media echo chambers would want to believe.

Perhaps the most interesting story of the week was that cocaine was found in the White House last week. The building was briefly evacuated until it could be determined what the white powder was. Clearly, this is a serious security matter on a variety of fronts. The story has changed a few times though,which always makes matters worse politically. First, it was said that this was found in an area of the White House that is heavily trafficked (no pun intended) by tourists and visitors. Then, it comes out that this was found in a pretty significant working area of the West Wing that not a lot of people might have access to. 

It seems like the Secret Service or whomever could probably get to the bottom of this if they really want to, but it seems like maybe some do not want to delve too deeply into what exactly happened. We are told that the First Family was away at Camp David anyway so they are somehow insulated from all this. Of course, they were at the White House not too long before though. A big question might be how long the cocaine might possibly have been laying around.

For starters, I highly doubt that any serious person believes Joe Biden or Jill Biden are ingesting nose candy.For one thing, the President, (who recently began wearing a mask for sleep apnea) seems far too tired to be coked up. However, there are other Biden family members, including adult grandchildren who are believed to be living at the White House and who probably do not have to face the same sort of security protocols as people who merely work in the West Wring. 

Of course, a story like this will inevitably lead to speculation about one particular White House resident/frequent quest named Hunter Biden. The drug problems and addiction battles of the Presidential son, who recently agreed to plead guilty to federal charges in exchange for probation of sorts, is well known. They do remain a sore point for the White House though. The White House Press Secretary refused to say outright this week that the cocaine did not belong to anyone in the Biden Family and took great umbrage at even being asked the question. The left fires back by saying that "hey maybe the coke belonged to Donald Trump Jr, his Secret Service code name was probably "Booger Sugar", right?"

Personally, I have thought for a long time like Don Jr. came across as someone who has been sniffing some stuff and have probably written about that here, but unlike Hunter, there is no actual real-life connection that can be drawn. Besides, you can take it to the bank that Trump Jr.has not been in the White House for at least the past two and a half years. So, let us deal with reality, it was not his cocaine.

So, who left the bag of Nasal Nachos behind? We will probably never know. The Biden White House seems fine with that  In all seriousness, the culprit is probably less likely to be Hunter Biden than someone who works in the West Wing for the Biden Administration. They can probably narrow that down by reviewing security footage,conducting interviews and even taking the step of drug testing people for cocaine specifically. (I would hope and assume that Hunter will have to be regularly tested for drugs.) If they catch somebody though, are they going to actually fire them publicly or demand they attend rehab at the minimum? If that happens, there will be many who do not buy that the person is anything other than a patsy.

What we can agree on is that a story of "Cocaine Found at the White House" would be a much bigger deal in any past Presidential Administration than it is now. Perhaps, some of that may be due to the Hollywood writers' strike and the fact that it has been over two months now since the late night comedy shows or Saturday Night Live had new episodes.

Perhaps, this cocaine caper can be passed off onto Major Biden, the already disowned White House German Shepherd.