Today is Monday, August 9, 2024. We are one day away from tomorrow’s consequential presidential debate between Donald Duck and Vice President Kamala Harris. The nation is waiting with bated breath to see who will emerge as the winner of the face-off between the former liar in chief and the former prosecutor. An analyst for Politico, Jonathan Martin, actually wrote a column recently in which he argued that if Donald Drumpf loses – historian Allan Lichtman has already predicted that Kamala Harris will win the 2024 presidential election – it would be a blessing for the corrupt Republican Party. An online article in AlterNet by Alex Henderson is entitled ‘Going to rehab’: Why a ‘decisive’ Harris victory would be ‘best-case scenario’ for ‘the GOP’s health'” examines this issue for its readers.

The column Martin has been applauded by Never Trump conservatives, many of whom are supporting Harris and believe that a second term under Dump would be terrible for the conservative movement. Which is not to say that a second Drumpf term would not be monumentally terrible for democracy altogether. Deluded MAGA repugnicans resent the article’s premise deeply, claiming that Drumpf has revitalized the party.

Martin discussed his article and the 2024 presidential election during an interview with journalist Jamie Weinstein for The Dispatch‘s podcast.

In the interview, posted today, Martin told Weinstein, “The best-case scenario for the Republican Party’s health is that Trump loses and loses decisively. It will hasten the party going to rehab and starting to kick the Trump habit. Now, look, here’s the challenge: a lot of the party doesn’t want to go to rehab. They like it . . . . They don’t want to give it up . . . . But if he loses decisively [my fucking wish], it makes it harder for him to do the same BS he did four years ago: Stop the Steal and all that.”

Martin also told Weinstein that if Harris wins and Dump “loses decisively,” it “sets the Republicans up for a good midterm in 2026.”

The Politico journalist argued that a devastating loss for them in 2024 could bring the party back to a place where it can be a viable national party [it certainly isn’t under Dump all these years]. He states that the “leaders of the party can’t stand Trump. They find him embarrassing. They’re mad at their own voters. But they don’t dare say it. And if they do, they retire or they lose a primary.” That’s why no one has been able to stand up to the standard bearer. What a sad situation we’ve been in, lo, for so many years under the toxicity of Donald Dump.

Today Elliot and I watched a new film on Netflix called The Deliverance which was billed as a horror film by Black director Lee Daniels. What distinguished this unusual film starring mainly an all-Black cast was the casting of Glenn Close in the role of Alberta Jackson who is the mother of Ebony (Andra Day) who is a struggling “single” mother (her husband is stationed in Iraq) raising three children in the inner city of Pittsburgh. The early scenes involve the family coping with social workers, paying the bills, and the often-contentious relationship between Ebony and her white-trash mother, played by Close. Alberta moves in with her daughter and three children as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Close is colorful, crass, and ornery, almost like the character she portrayed in Hillbilly Elegy, the grandmother, Me Maw, to JD Vance.

Soon the youngest child, Andre (Anthony B. Jenkins) begins exhibiting strange behavior and informs his mother that he has a make-believe friend named Trey. There is a social worker hired by Child Protective Services named Cynthia and she is played very well by Mo’Nique who only sees bruises on Ebony’s two other children, an older son, Nate (Caleb McLaughlin), and Shante (Demi Singleton), a daughter, and concludes they were inflicted by Ebony herself, who has had a long history of alcoholism.

In the blink of an eye, the film devolves into Exorcist territory when Ebony is visited by the Reverend Bernice James (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) who knows the truth of what is happening. The house is haunted and has already claimed one family; Trey is the name of the son who was originally living in the house who was possessed by a demon. Thus the Reverend wants to perform a “deliverance” on Andre who shows signs of possession. She has to convince Ebony to embrace the teachings of Jesus Christ before they can embark on this plan to save her son’s soul.

Toward the end, there is the usual twisting of bodies, walking on ceilings, cursing in a low baritone, and levitations. The social commentary witnessed at the beginning of the film just fades altogether to make way for the trappings of unvarnished horror. I’m actually saying then that I didn’t enjoy the film as a horror/ thriller. I enjoyed it more as a Pittsburgh version of Hillbilly Elegy, the now-panned memoir written by Dump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance. For your information, the film is supposed to be inspired by events that occurred in the life of Latoya Ammons who moved into a house in Indiana in November 2011 with her three children and experienced strange, demonic occurrences that convinced them and the community that the house is a portal to hell.

Stay safe and be well.