Nothing from Nothing (Leaves $99)?
When former child protégé the late Billy Preston, affectionately known as the fifth Beatle, released Nothing from Nothing (leaves nothing) in 1974, it instantly became my theme song. As I have gotten older, my sensitivity, as well as my passion for politics, has grown. As a result, Billy Preston’s composition plays on a constant loop in my head. Almost without fail, I hear the piano intro when someone explains a point, touts an accomplishment, or pitches me an idea. In today’s world of QAnon, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and political infighting, nothing from nothing truly leaves nothing.
Crypto-currency, Brexit, and yesterday Trump’s overpromised announcement of his likeness on worthless non-fungible tokens (NFTs) was the latest nothing. There was a time when big loud hair-covered genii and smiles, Einstein, Tina Turner, and Kid n’ Play had value. Now big loud heads of hair shout violence, avarice, and evil; Trump, Sam Bankman-Fried, and Phil Spector. Today’s coiffed malevolence indicates nothing. In case you missed it, Donald Trump announced a set of digital baseball cosplay cards of himself for 99 dollars a pop.
Mr. Trump’s announcement even defied the low expectations of his biggest fans. Along with giving him ninety-nine hard-earned dollars for a digital image, you also get a participation prize for dinner with him if you are lucky. Just think, you may sit in the leftover drool of an anti-Semite and a Nazi. I am sure the red hats had viewing parties hoping the former President would appear bathed in the filtered light of Kari Lake. The speculation that he would drain the last drop of blood from Mike Pence, renaming him as his VP, was short-lived. The Democrat’s dream of Kevin McCarthy running and screaming into the night when he announced a joint run for President and Speaker of the House did not happen.
Like most of his hollow promises, you don’t even get a stick of gum. Instead, images of Trump on a red and blue elephant or peering at you with laser beam eyes and shiny wind-swept hair. Trump told his masses you, too, could belong to the sucker born every minute club. No kidding, the big-awaited broadcast was him selling virtual cards.
All of this grift and greed have become the promise of the incoming GOP House. All the talk of reeling in inflation and gas prices has given way to pledges of investigating the most renowned virologist of our time. Kevin McCarthy, dog-paddling his way to the Speakership, has vowed to kick liberal committee members out because they dared pursue the law. Impeaching a Democratic President is on the agenda because…well, because. Hopefully, the country survives another round of the business acumen of the GOP-led House. Chances are, for at least the next two years, as the GOP fits themselves for big shoes and red noses, nothing happens if we are lucky.
We still have an adult in the White House and more adults than children in the Senate. As Kevin McCarthy wrangles the likes of Greene, Gaetz, Jordan, Gosar, and the like, it reminds me of another Preston song; Will it Go Round in Circles.
Continue to Vote for Change
