Krugman puts the election in perspective

Every so often, somebody echoes my own bewilderment about some nuttiness that has overtaken the populace.

This time it's New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in a piece headlined, "Why I Am Now Deeply Worried for America".

... I am, for the first time, profoundly concerned about the nation’s future. It now seems entirely possible that within the next year, American democracy could be irretrievably altered.

And the final blow won’t be the rise of political extremism — that rise certainly created the preconditions for disaster, but it has been part of the landscape for some time now. No, what may turn this menace into catastrophe is the way the hand-wringing over Biden’s age has overshadowed the real stakes in the 2024 election.

Like Krugman and virtually everyone else, I'd prefer that we were led by someone younger. I don't see immediately concerning dementia in Biden's gaffes but there's no denying that when an obviously elderly person makes such mistakes, it creates a measure of concern in onlookers. We don't need such concerns about our president (or senators, or House representatives).

But — and again, like Krugman — I look at the alternative, and then I stop fretting about Biden's age.

Maybe some people are impressed by the fact that Trump talks loud and mean. But what about what he’s actually saying in his speeches? They’re frequently rambling word salads, full of bizarre claims like his assertion on Friday that if he loses in November, “they’re going to change the name of Pennsylvania.”

Not to mention confusing Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi and mistaking E. Jean Carroll for one of his ex-wives.

As I also wrote last week, Trump’s speeches make me remember my father’s awful last year, when he suffered from sundowning — bouts of incoherence and belligerence after dark. And we’re supposed to be worried about Biden’s mental state?

If your gut prefers a forceful fathead to a soft-spoken but cogent man, now is the time to put your gut in its place and see things clearly. A loud, energetic coot who demontrated his love of autocracy, contempt for the law (not to mention morality), mile-wide mean streak, and boundless lust for money during his first term of office cannot be allowed a second term, no matter how uneasy you might be about his opponent's health.

Most of us wish we could vote for someone other than these two elderly men. Well, absent some stunning turn of events, that won't be an option in November.

Remember how you woke up every day during Trump's term dreading that he'd done something terrifyingly imbecilic or cruel or corrupt, and more often than not your fear was justified.

Under no circumstances can you vote for a demonstrably feckless, dishonest, self-deluded, corrupt man-toddler. Nor can you just sit on your hands, or throw them up in exasperation, and refuse to vote. No.

You must get over your unease with Biden and vote for him in November, because the alternative is simply unacceptable under any circumstances.

Oh Elon, just stop talking

The headline of the New York Times piece is "Elon Musk, on Rehabilitation Tour, Calls Himself ‘Aspirationally Jewish’".

"Aspirationally Jewish"? Really?

Elon Musk made his remarks after a tour of Auschwitz, the infamous Nazi death camp in southern Poland. Now, to be clear, I hope Musk was moved by what he saw. I hope the visit truly changed his heart by making him comprehend, at least a little, just how fucking not funny or daring his dalliances with and encouragement of white supremacists have been. In a word, I hope he has matured.

But if this passage is any indication, he faces an uphill battle to convince us he has learned anything.

Speaking later at a conference on antisemitism organized by the [European Jewish Association] in the nearby Polish city of Krakow, Mr. Musk said he had been “somewhat naïve” about the dangers posed by anti-Jewish sentiment because “in the circles I move in, I see no antisemitism.”

“Two-thirds of my friends are Jewish,” he said. “I’m Jewish by association. I’m aspirationally Jewish.”

In the circles I move in, I see no drug abuse. Does that mean drug abuse doesn't exist? Or might it mean I don't know what drug abuse looks like, perhaps because it's so widespread that I think it's normal?

If two-thirds of my friends are Christian, am I Christian by association? If I'm aspirationally Christian, does that somehow make me Christian?

(That would be a pretty sweet deal, getting the perks without going to church or believing Jesus died for my sins. Somehow I doubt it works that way.)

If Musk's profoundly insulting remarks belong anywhere, it would be in the mouth of a cringey, profoundly tone-deaf character in a modern sitcom. (And for that sitcom to get away with it, the show would have to be exquisitely well-written.)

Either Musk is one of those cringey, exquisitely tone-deaf people, or he's punking us in the mistaken belief he's being funny. (Come to think of it, both could be true.)

Either way, Elon, just stop talking.