WHAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT - MAY, 2018: NICOLA, GIULIANI, AND MULVANEY

I've been thinking about starting a YouTube channel as a companion piece to my blog. Nothing fancy. A little political commentary, stabs at humor, tidbits about life in France. And I haven't been able to start it. And I know why. It's Nicola's fault.

Nicola Blakemore lives in Quarante. Cathey and I like her, count her as a friend. But we don't get to see her as often as we'd like. Nicola is an artist who supports herself through her art in a variety of ways. She accepts commissions. She's built a formidable presence on the internet. She gives courses in person and online, posts videos, works Facebook and other social media. It's time consuming work, a full-time job. And as a result of her hard work, Nicola's YouTube channel has 6,000 subscribers and features video after video, from a few seconds to a few minutes long, that often have several thousand views. (Check her channel out HERE. Tell her that I sent you.) Her video that teaches you to paint a pot of lavender has been viewed over 123,000 times! (I find something slightly disturbing about the image of 100,000 identical watercolors of a pot of lavender floating around in the world. Think about it.) Nicola has even set up her workspace as a little video studio complete with white umbrellas to focus light.

It's intimidating. I want to be that good. So I read and I study and I think and I don't get started.

That's going to change. I watched a video the other day on some kid's channel by accident while cruising YouTube. I was astounded. It was horrible. I mean, HORRIBLE. Cheap production, cheesy visuals, and an unfamiliarity with the English language that provides proof that, in at least this young gent's case, public education has failed miserably. Oh, he's heard of The Beatles, or at least a couple of them. And he's heard a song or two of theirs that are alright, he guesses. But what's really important is that his channel had 6,000 subscribers and the video that I'd stumbled on had over 200,000 views.

So I'm just gonna put myself out there once I get a video editing program sorted. I'll try to be as good as Nicola. I can't possibly be as bad as Millennial Dude, whatever his name was. If I land somewhere in the middle, I'll be happy. Yeah, it means settling for mediocrity. I'll own that. Stay tuned.

But that's all beside the point. The point is Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has said that Trump knew about Cohen's payment to Stormy and that Trump paid Cohen back. Slow down. Reflect. You know which Trump I'm talking about. The Donald. Right? You know that Rudy Giuliani has joined Trump's legal team, even if you thought that Rudy's name would never come up again except in sentences containing the words Fox News or divorce proceedings. Right? You know that Michael Cohen is Trump's fixer, his consigliere. Right? You know that Stormy refers to Stormy Daniels, a woman whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, who has claimed to have had a sexual liaison with Trump, who signed a non-disclosure agreement about said affair, and who received a payment for her silence. Right? And you know that the amount of the payment was $130,000. Right?

Have you slowed down? Have you reflected?

Aren't you just the least bit embarrassed that you know all of that shit already?

But that's all beside the point. The point is Mick Mulvaney. Mulvaney is a former member of the US House of Representatives. He's Trump's former White House Budget Director. He currently serves - in the loosest definition of that term - as temporary head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Saying that Mulvaney serves in that capacity is like saying that Bonnie and Clyde worked in banking or that the Brewster sisters know fine wine. (What would an erudite blog be without an obscure movie reference? The Brewster sisters? Arsenic and Old Lace?)

Mulvaney recently said, and I quote: "We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you’re a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you’re a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you." Incredible. I checked with snopes.com. Twice. He really said that. He really said that he only talked to lobbyists who gave him money. HE REALLY SAID THAT! To be fair, Mulvaney also said that he always talked to a constituent whether they gave him money or not. If you believe that, I have a bridge connecting two New York City boroughs that I can let you have cheap.

What burns my butt is that the Mulvaney is still working, still spending his days protecting financial consumers like us, and still getting paid for it. How is that possible? Whatever happened to righteous indignation? The fact that the American people haven't dragged this guy out of his office, tarred and feathered him, and run him out of town on a rail says a great deal about the ability of the American public to eat shit and say that it tastes like strawberries.

So what's really important here? What's important is that we've somehow allowed the morally repugnant to become acceptable. We have been so overwhelmed by the misdeeds of the people who we have chosen to govern us that we can no longer call up the energy to do more than march once a year or so, parade around with punny signs that go viral on the internet, then get back home in time to catch the latest episode of Elementary. (I am soooo glad that the season has finally started.)

How do we fix this?  It's up to you. The top five suggestions will win a trip to Washington, a cot and a sleeping bag, and the right to camp out in Mick Mulvaney's office until he's forced to resign.

You can read more of my political commentary HERE, free and worth every penny.