FOD patrol

My first duty station in the Marines was on an Air Force base. Periodically, we flunkies had to do Foreign Objects and Debris patrol, which meant policing the grounds around our office buildings. We rarely found anything of consequence, so when we did, we’d yell “FOD!” and everyone would run over and encircle it like it was a landmine. It was always good for a laugh.

The GOP is now on FOD Patrol. Look at its desperate attempts to roil the waters of the Alaska Senate race. It wants you to believe that the good folks up there can’t tell the difference between two Dan Sullivans, even though one of them has “Incumbent” by his name. The GOPers would have us think that this is fer sure, fer sure the worst American political scandal since Watergate.

South of the 49th, Vivek Ramaswamy has pulled his appalling Amy Acton ad, but not because it was working. It wasn’t, and it may be the best boost the Acton campaign gets. Republican operatives are saying openly (though anonymously) that Trump’s rallies and endorsements are hurting their candidates. JD Vance is solidifying his party bona fides by claiming that the U.S. housing crisis is caused by illegal immigrants who buy homes with their minimum wage or less jobs. When a pol says something that offensive, I want to ask them “When you say something like that, can you actually taste the shit?”

I comfort myself with the observation by Abraham Lincoln, my favourite Republican: “If I didn’t laugh, I would surely cry.” To my American readers, please, please vote Tuesday. Unless you’re an illegal immigrant closing escrow.