Sins of the times

Reading a compilation by Eliot Weinberger in the London Review of Books of stories of recent developments in the U.S., illustrated throughout with the inanities of Trump’s Twitter feed I was struck by how embarrassing it must be to be an intelligent U.S. citizen, living with Trump as your President. In foreign company you might even have to go so far as to pretend you were a Canadian, to avoid having to explain what the hell was happening  in your own country. But then I am immediately reminded of where I live, and our own possession of a supreme idiot, who similarly deploys his ignorance with populist maledictions, who more often than not loses any semblance of coherent thought and surrounds himself with lickspittles. Perhaps I need to go into deeper lockdown and self-isolation. In Weinberger’s compilation Jared Kushner, Trump’s Einstein-like son-in-law is quoted as saying ‘I’m not sure I can commit (to holding the presidential elections in November).’ Here lies a problem for the Commander-in-Chief: the more he declares that the U.S. is defeating the Coronavirus the lesser case he will have to try to stop or delay the elections (never mind the constitution). And if he were to attempt some Coronavirus justified assault on the November poll he would only be demonstrating what a failure he has been tackling the virus. Either way, it doesn’t look good for him. Mind you, should he try something on he can always point to his chum Boris for support, after May’s elections in the U.K. were postponed for a year. The outstanding question remains whoever wins in November, what difference will it make?