Is There Such A Thing as 'Biden-Unity'?

 I think among the forty-odd promises made by Joe Biden in 2020.....this talk of bringing unity finally to the nation (after four years of Trump and a questionable period of eight years of Obama-unity).....about 80-percent of us will agree that Biden-unity is non-existent.

To some degree, I might even go and suggest that among Democratic-leaning voters...even half of them would laugh and say Biden-unity is a fantasy....mostly to the degree that it will never come before 2025 (when Biden leaves).

If you tried to engage people on this topic....most would just laugh and ask if you have anything better to discuss....like potholes in the neighborhood, dog-tricks, recommended motor oils for riding mowers, or least favorite NCAA football team.

Should this even be brought up to Joe?  He'd probably ask who the hell promised that, and did they understand the 'real-world'?

Ten Things I Have Lowered My Expectations On

 1.  CNN.  Muting CNN is just something I've gotten used to and expect to occur at least ten times per hour.

2.  NFL football.  It's been about five years now, and I've lowered my expectations down far enough....that I don't even watch it now.

3.  Airlines functioning on-time, without cancellations.  Even three years prior to Covid....I was already preparing a plan 'B' if cancellations or delays were to occur.  I had hotels on a sheet, their numbers, and a general plan when I got 'dumped'.

4.  Star Wars.  To be honest, I've had lesser expectations since Episode 1 from May 1999.  The first three of the series were 'winners', and from 1999 on....it's been mostly crap.

5.  Saturday Night Live.  If I do force myself through an episode....I probably only laugh at 50-percent of the skits.  

6.  Republicans who say they are Republican but tend to BS-around and portray themselves as fairly marginalized Republicans.  John McCain was in that group.

7.  Truth commissions being effective.  There has never been a single effective truth commission....anywhere....over the past thousand years.

8.  Do-gooders accomplishing anything worthwhile.  Doesn't matter if it's a charity or some private group....after you evaluate the cost and end-result, most of these are worthless.

9.  Colleges producing people capable of critical thinking.  If you spent $75k over four years and can't show any talent at critical thinking.....you might as well have prepared the resume for a shift-supervisor job at McDonalds.

10.  Reality TV actually being 'real'.  After viewing a number of episodes of the 'Amish Mafia'....I eventually came to the conclusion that those folks weren't Amish enough, or the whole thing was faked-up.  But this brought me back to a dozen other reality TV shows, and how fake they were.  

The Less is Less Story

 The Washington Post went and did a commentary....basically telling Americans that you need to show some 'courage', and just accept "lower expectations" in 'Biden's America'.

Micheline Maynard is the one who wrote the piece, and it's aimed primarily at consumers.

The attitude of the piece?  Americans are spoiled rotten, and mollycoddled.  The suggestion is that it's been going on for decades. 

So I sat and pondered upon the piece, the necessity for it to be written, and the implications.

First, I'm guessing that Maynard stops each morning at Starbucks and buys a $5 cup of coffee, and she might be still functioning in the spoiled rotten situation.

Second, it would make perfect sense to lower expectations if we were in a state of war, or some tidal wave had wiped out California entirely.  

Third, I would agree there are probably a dozen reasons for the logistical problems that exist.  One of them....the port union folks in LA stood against automation in the 1990s, and we operate a third-world operation there which marginally works even in a non-Covid era.  The union mollycoddled itself, in this case.

Fourth, accepting 'less' being a norm?  Go tell President Biden or any of the 100 Senators.  

Fifth, the last time I checked....a basic subscription to the Washington Post for a single month is $10.  If Maynard is correct....maybe folks shouldn't accept the Post deal unless they cut the price by 30-percent.

Sixth, what if we did go this route of accepting 'less'?  What if we all agreed from today (20 Oct) for the next hundred days....we would all spend less....eat less....drink less.....and start cutting our personal budget by one-third (all of us could admit it's possible).  You would see a magnificent wave of commerce failing because of our incredible dedication.  We could set America back two decades on the commerce scale, and cut the government tax revenue gimmick at the same time.  I'm guessing that wasn't the intention of Maynard.

Seventh, I sense this propaganda-piece by Maynard as a suggestion that the Christmas season coming up (probably appearing by Black Friday weekend) to be a fairly crappy commerce season.  President Biden going out and trying to stall our discontent?  It just won't work, and Maynard is more of a mouth-piece than a real journalist.

There is a quote which fits well here: "The minute you settle for less than you deserve....you get even LESS than you actually settled for."