Showdown: A duel of narratives

Biden has his story. Trump has his story.

Now the narrative shootout.

Opening Scene: Gunsmoke 1955-1975

Sandford Borins is a now-emeritus professor of Public Management at the University of Toronto. His work is academic, intellectually rigorous, and professional. He has had a distinguished career, and he is still at it, writing. Today's Guest Post is a comment he just added to his own academic blog.

Oddly enough, my own observations for the past five years have paralleled his work. Having watched about a hundred political speeches by presidential candidates I came to the conclusion that candidates are primarily storytellers. They aren't a bundle of policies. They tell a story about themselves and how they fit into the current world and its problems. I don't doubt that employment rates and GDP growth rates matter, and presidential oscillation cycles matter, but I think these data points get digested through narratives told by each candidate and campaign team. I think most voters--and certainly the marginal swing voters who determine the outcome by whether or not to vote and in which direction--are doing so largely based on gut feelings of identity and character. They are deciding which candidate they like better and whose story seems about right. 

Borins

Guest Post by Sandford Borins

Narratives Validated or Disrupted

By now, the narratives the Trump and Biden campaigns are advancing have become clear.

Trump depicts himself as a bold and strong leader who has ensured the prosperity and protection of Americans in a hostile world. His achievements include legislating the tax cut, reshaping the judiciary from the top down, withdrawing the US from international agreements that are not in its interest (NAFTA, Paris Accord on Climate Change, Iran, Trans-Pacific Partnership) and establishing new and fairer ones (USMCA), and hardening its borders. Re-election would involve continuation of this important work. On the other hand, Joe Biden is weak and aging, and would be the useful idiot manipulated by the radical socialist left, which includes Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi.

In contrast, Biden depicts himself as an empathetic, honest, and evidence-respecting leader who will end the corruption, dishonesty, and racism of Trump’s presidency and achieve better results fighting the pandemic, restoring the economy, responding to climate change, and rebuilding the US’s alliances.

Both candidates have a positive narrative about themselves and a negative narrative about the other and will be attempting to strike a balance between the two. They will be using the narratives, as expressed in broadcast or targeted advertising and speeches to encourage their supporters to vote, which is critical given chronically low turnout rates in the US, and to win over undecided voters, generally considered to be a small percentage of a sharply polarized electorate.

The effectiveness of the competing narratives depends in part on how well they are expressed but each campaign has copious resources and smart content creators, so we wouldn’t expect either one to have an advantage on this score.

In my view, what is critical is what happens when the narratives confront the events that will unfold over the approximately 70 remaining days of campaigning. As the German military strategist von Moltke wrote, “no plan of operations survives first contact with the enemy.” I’m referring not only to the battle between the campaigns, but also external events that are unforeseeable.

An example would be James Comey’s announcement in the last week of the 2016 campaign that the FBI would be investigating emails between Hillary Clinton and her aide Huma Abedin found on Anthony Weiner’s computer. This unforeseen event validated Trump’s “crooked Hillary” narrative and swayed undecided voters, particularly in the crucial Midwest states.

The presidential debates – assuming they happen – are an arena of conflict that can validate or disrupt narratives. How will the conflict between a tightly scripted candidate and one who invariably wings it play out? Will Joe Biden appear doddering, as the Trump campaign predicts, or will he be focused and alert? Will Biden be able to hold Trump to account for his ever-shifting lies in a manner that press conferences cannot?

Here is an example where debates mattered. The Conservative Party of Canada consistently swift-boated Justin Trudeau’s political asset of youthfulness by posting ads from the day he was chosen Liberal Party leader arguing that he was immature and “just not ready.” Trudeau’s effective performance on stage in the 2015 campaign against two more experienced debaters (Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair) quickly disrupted that narrative. Soon Liberal ads were using “Ready” as a tag line.

In the US election, the progress of the pandemic could disrupt or validate. What will be the death toll in early November? Will the rate of infections and deaths accelerate when people move inside in cooler weather? Will schools be forced to go online and NFL football, like much of its college counterpart, be cancelled? Will a credible vaccine become available before the election? Could Drs. Fauci and Birx have an impact, through their firings, resignations, or endorsement of either candidate?

Kristin Urquiza, who spoke at the DNC, put a face on the statistic of 170,000 deaths, and providing a compelling rhetorical link between President Trump and the pandemic: “[my father’s] only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump.” I assume we will soon be seeing Ms. Urquiza in Democratic Party or PAC ads to validate their narrative about the pandemic.

Trump’s corruption is a consistent part of Biden’s narrative. Will Michael Cohen’s forthcoming book validate it with new revelations of sexual debauchery, financial malfeasance, and the exploitation of counterparties? Will more of Trump’s income tax returns be leaked?

Will opposition to Trump by high-profile Republicans continue to grow? Will George W. Bush break silence and endorse Biden?

Foreign policy provides an opportunity for Trump to validate his narrative. Will he be able to convince other Arab or Muslim countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, to recognize Israel?

Political violence could also disrupt or validate narratives. Will violent Antifa or BLM protests validate Trump’s claim that he alone can protect the US from chaos? Will a QAnon adherent attempt to assassinate a Democratic or never-Trump Republican leader – or God forbid, succeed (like the assassination of a Labour MP days before the Brexit referendum)?

The Republican convention this week gives Trump his best opportunity to present his narrative. After that, the battle begins in earnest, and battle plans must adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Both campaigns will be shifting the balance between positive and negative messages, devising new ads to restate their basic narratives, and perhaps devising new narratives on the fly. And the outcome of the battle will be of enormous consequence not just for the US but for the rest of the world.

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Note: Borins' work can be accessed directly at his website: sandfordborins.com

Have Covid symptoms? Then what.

I tested negative for Covid.

Here is what happened to me. Your experience may be different.

First I felt unwell. I got the chills, began shivering. I had a temperature of 102.4. I had muscle soreness. All of those are associated with Covid.

Nasal swab. Four inches of it go in.

I did not have shortness of breath or a cough, nor did I experience a loss of taste or smell. That would suggest I did not have Covid.

My wife called the Urgent Care office of the local regional hospital--Asante. A few minutes later I got a call back from a Covid intake clerk. I reported my symptoms. The intake clerk sent me a link that would help me set up an app for my iPad, which enabled a video conference. I got that call from the physician ten minutes later. The total time between the call to the hotline and me speaking with a physician: about an hour.

The doctor said that I should go to an emergency room. I had reported confusion, stumbling, and blurry vision, along with the chills and temperature. We want to see you, the doctor said.

The emergency room brought me right in, the doctor asked about my confusion. She asked what day of the week it was and I said Saturday. She asked who the president was. I said "A narcissistic bully named Donald Trump." She snorted. Apparently she was no longer worried about my confusion. She looked at my foot and said "cellulitis" and we began treatment for that, antibiotics in an IV, and then 7 days of pills at home.

The Covid test consists of sticking a long Q-tip like swab up ones nose. It goes in about 4 full inches and is then twirled slightly. It is uncomfortable, but not painful. It takes 8 to 10 seconds. 

The emergency room Covid nurse told me the results would be ready in 7 days. "You're kidding," I said. "That is crazy. That makes the test worthless. What are we going to do for a week of uncertainty?"

Nurse all gowned up

The nurse explained that there was a chronic shortage of swabs, reagents, and general test supplies, so they were handled differently depending on patient priority triage. He said we only have so supplies to do quick tests for some people. The rest are slow. He looked at my chart again and said, "oh, you have priority." Your results will be available in an hour. They were. It was negative.

Apparently Oregon has a problem of relative success. We have fewer Covid cases and nationwide the testing supplies are sent to the areas that most need them, i.e places with lots of cases. There still aren't enough supplies for rapid testing and results nationwide. We can put a man on the moon fifty years ago, and we can have self driving cars that recognize sidewalks and bicycles, but we cannot make nasal swabs. 

Possibly the fact that I am both seventy and have cellulitis puts me into the category of having a "co-morbidity," thus making me a priority patient. People who are scheduled for surgery are given "priority." People on dialysis are given tests frequently and are given "priority." The hospital can give fast results, but their capacity to do so is limited. My wife has been on the hospital's Foundation board, and we have donated a substantial amount to the hospital, but I have no reason to think the emergency room people had any awareness of that. I am nobody special. 

Everything about the emergency room experience was great. Very professional. 

Thad Guyer, a frequent Guest Post commenter on this blog, is sheltering in south Florida. He says tests are given in his neighborhood without charge at a nearby facility and the turnaround time is 24-72 hours. South Florida is a hotspot of the virus. He was tested and had his negative results back in 24 hours. Negative.

I have a report from a college classmate that in Salem, Massachusetts, there is free public testing with a nasal swab, but not the fully deep back to the brain test that I got. They promised 36 hours results.

The symptoms of Covid are similar to those of other maladies, cellulitis among them. We will be entering the flu season. Most Americans don't bother with getting a flu shot. This would be a good year to get one.

Facebook Socialists say: "No." to Biden

Democrats need their votes. They won't get all of  them. Progressives have leverage.

My mailbag:

"Peter: fuck you and your tired LIES"

The split within the left is animated in part by a convictIon by Bernie Sander most ardant supporters that Sanders was clearly, obviously, overwhelmingly the most popular candidate, and the one candidate who had a policy prescription that would address America's problems. Therefore, since he did not get the nomination there must--absolutely, obviously must--have been foul play. He was cheated. They didn't lose. They were robbed.

Vote, but not for Biden

Trump is setting up the same story line now for himself, on a foundation of the left's belief they were robbed. The election will be illegitimate, too. Illegal votes will be cast by dead people, people who have moved away, from people who are not citizens. Trump has set the stage for Republican voters to feel exactly as Bernie Sanders supporters feel now. It is rigged. Fox News echoes and amplifies this story, realizing that they are trolling Democrats.  Don't vote, Democrats,1

Notwithstanding Trump's campaign assertion that Biden is a puppet of the left, many leftist voters perceive it very, very differently:

          "The problem with the Sanders-oriented left is that many of them wrote off Democrats as cheaters, corporatists, sellouts, capitalists, compromisers and (as the graphic above says, "paid trolls)" That's because THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE. They didn't get these reputations because "most of the politicians in the Party got such negative feedback from Sanders people on the left", they got these reputations because THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE. It isn't a 'perception problem' or an 'optics problem' no matter how gaslighters like you try to spin it that way. Bernie didn't 'fail to have alliances within the Democratic Party' THEY STABBED HIM IN THE BACK. So fuck you and your tired LIES. This is a Progressive page - go find a Centrist page to spread your bullshit."

         David S., writing in a progressive Facebook group.

     

David's comment above incorporates most of the arguments i see expressed within Protressive Facebook groups. The comment below adds another element: leverage. If Sanders-oriented progressives withhold their votes--either not voting or voting for the Green candidate--they can tip the election to Trump. It would send a powerful message to Democrats, that they cannot win the electoral college without the votes of currently disaffected leftists. They can change left politics. 

"Then I guess my vote will be amongst the 1% [who vote 3rd party] again 'cause I sure as fuck am not voting for that neo-liberal Piece of Shit Biden and condoning establishment cheating that got him annointed."  

       

        Michael B, writing in a progressive Facebook group.

Another comment:

     "Hmm - maybe but he can't win the general without us - remember Hillary. Their being smug won't win us over - it's just stupid and spiteful. We need to keep the pressure on them - Medicare for All and marijuana legalization and record expungment ought to do it - at least if they want my vote. We have the power - but if we just roll over and promise our votes they will continue to kick sand in our faces.

. 

Biden: A moderate of sound mind.

Biden task one: Look and sound competent.  Done.

Task two: say who he represents. Answer: all of the people of America, even those who didn't vote for him. 

Biden is a moderate.

It is possible that some readers who are fully committed to opposing Biden at all costs will insist on seeing him as caricatured by Trump, as a raving liberal socialist. He isn't one. He is a moderate, centrist, professional politician. He will be whatever the political consensus of the center left will allow. 

For better or worse, he is a weathervane. If the politics of the nation allow more immigrants to move to citizenship, he will lead that. If not, he won't, because he cannot. The votes won't be there. 

The gay marriage policy change was archetypal Joe Biden. He--not Obama--led that. Biden's public comments took Obama by surprise and pushed a tentative and unwilling Obama into seconding the suggestion of his VP.  What was Biden doing? His antenna told him that public opinion had changed and the politicians were trailing behind the public. Biden was right. The country was ready for marriage equality, so Biden was ready.

Biden has the instincts of a legislator. Find the moving center of balance among the left majority and be in it, help lead it. It isn't showy because it is leading the center, not the edge. People way ahead or behind the moving center will add to the mix and move the center, but it is the center that has the votes to govern. 

Biden showed who he was with blunt body language. The featured spots at the convention included Republicans who were abandoning Trump: Colin Powell, Meg Whitman, and John Kasich. Speaking shortly before Biden in a very high visibility place was Michael Bloomberg, who noted that he wasn't a very partisan guy, sometimes a Republican, sometimes a Democrat, sometimes an Independent. 

Some on the left consider bipartisan comity a capitulation. The poor stay poor, people of color stay oppressed, the rich get richer. As Barry Goldwater said, moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.

Biden did not mention the violence in the streets of Portland. He had an opportunity to define a position against a left that argues that maybe a little violence is necessary to get people's attention, and more generally that urban rioting is dangerous and wrong. Instead, he remained silent. This was not a "Sister Souljah" speech.

Fox News image of Biden.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez got just over a minute to speak. Bernie Sander got more time, on Thursday in a panel among the other prominent also-rans in the nomination fight. They were smiling and cheering Biden, Democrats getting along. Democrats who want to promote big change weren't opposed; they were bypassed. 

We now have clarity of the four big choices facing America. 

Choice number one is Trump, who embraces a conflict model of American politics. There are good people and enemies of those good people. We are in a war and he is the brave general leading that war, defending the good people against socialists, tax-raisers, environmental crazies, urban violence, low income people invading suburbs, China, Mexico, NATO, Antifa, and fake news. Lots of enemies. 

Choice number two is Biden, who embraces a consensus model of American politics, where legislators compromise and build coalitions to grope into the better, more just, more prosperous future. Firebrands on the fringes put up ideas that get digested and absorbed into the governing middle, but they aren't the serious people who govern.

Choice number three is the semi-orphaned progressive left. Biden cannot please them, he realizes. They want change that is simply legislatively impossible. Even the ACA is hanging on by a thread. Sanders asks the left to support Biden. Some will, some won't. Many are dug in, considering Biden worse than Trump. Biden gave them little to be excited about. But Trump calls the left the enemy of the people, and beats Biden up by saying that they in fact pull the strings on Biden. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and maybe that will move a few to support Biden.

Choice number four are the anti-Trump conservatives. Never Trumpers. They see Trump as a profound mis-direction for Republicans who are sacrificing the safeguards of democracy in order to get--what?? A few judges who will be activists for the right. Tax cuts for the wrong people. An amplifier of racial and ethnic conflicts. A demagogue. These are Reagan Republicans, not Trump Republicans. There may be a few of them left. Biden's campaign tilts to them.

Biden has one great advantage. Biden's campaign theme is peace and unity. Trump makes angry denunciation of enemies, foreign and domestic. That creates a dilemma for Trump. The angrier and more effective Trump tweets, the harsher his campaign,  the more he makes Biden's case that the president is an angry man. Four years of it may be enough.

Biden is nicer than Trump. So what?

Democrats are talking about Biden's character and his good heart. 

If character mattered Trump wouldn't have been elected. What matters is strength to solve real problems.

Joe is a nice guy; Trump isn't. Joe is a hugger. Trump is a hitter. 

This is Trump's point.

We know Trump's character. His bluster, bravado, exaggerations, name calling, divisiveness, cruelty, partisanship, intemperate tweets, and willingness to use the power of government to advance his own political agenda are good things to his base. Trump uses those tools to fight for his team. He is their fighter, and he doesn't play fair. He plays to win.

A lot of people like a winner even if he cheats, if they think it is clever and effective, and if they think the game is rigged anyway and that the opponent tries to cheat, too. That is how Trump describes politics--rigged. So Trump lies and cheats. He can do it and get away with it; the impeachment acquittal proved it. 

Christian evangelicals share among themselves thoughtful articles about what to do with the Trump character problem. They love him, but have no illusion that Trump exhibits Christian virtues. But they want to support him. They resolve the mental conflict by understanding that sometimes God uses unGodly people to serve Godly ends. Trump fights dirty in battles Christians want fought. Trump doesn't represent virtue. He represents strength.

Convention Democrats miss the point, indeed--worse--they are making Trump's point for him. Speaker after speaker spoke to Biden's empathy, his good heart, his concern for women, the pain he has endured. They make Biden seem very compassionate. The underlying message is opposite from Trump's. Nice compassionate Biden takes a beating from life. Trump doesn't take beatings. He dishes them out.

Trump's supporters didn't think Trump was a nice guy or compassionate when he humiliated Jeb Bush, calling him wimpish "low energy;" or Lyin' Ted Cruz by saying wife was ugly and that his father was maybe involved in killing JFK; or trolling Barack Obama by pretending he was born in Kenya. They thought he was being a bully and getting away with it because he was the toughest kid in the schoolyard.

Joe, the hugger, hugging Beau in 2008

The nicer Biden is, the more suffering he endured and survived, the more Democrats sell the notion that Biden is in fact "sleepy," i.e. weak and decrepit, or "feminine" in a way many men had traditionally been thought to perceive "the weaker sex." That is the image that Trump is pounding in ads: Joe the victim. Poor, sad Joe.

The underlying message is that Joe will allow Americans to get bullied by the likes of Trump. Others will bomb us, terrorize us, move into our space internationally, cheat us in trade deals, steal our intellectual property, riot in our cities, and generally push us around and down, and Biden's America will endure it.

Americans don't want to suffer. We want to thrive. That is American exceptionalism. We are Number One. That is what Trump sold in the 2016 election and after. He would "bomb the shit" out of Iran, he said. Mexico will pay for the wall. China pays the tariff bill. The media is perceived as anti-Trump because they tell us none of that is true, but it sounds good. If there are bombs to be dropped, we drop them, others suffer.

Trump says international nice-nice rules be damned. Paris Accord? Forget it. Sacrifice for the planet's climate? Screw that. Pepper-gas a plaza to clear it of protesters to hold up a Bible? He showed who's boss.

Tonight Joe Biden can clear this up--or not. Joe Biden has the task of looking competent, of reading his speech in a way that shows him to be fully functioning. Yes, that. 

He has a second task, to repair the damage of last night. Biden must show he is tough and strong. He doesn't do it by denouncing Trump for being a con man, because everyone knows it and it is irrelevant. Biden does it by denouncing external and internal enemies: violent hoodlums in our streets who hide under the cover of peaceful protests; China's theft of intellectual property; Russia's attacks on Ukraine and meddling in US elections; anti-competitive actions by Amazon against sellers on its site; Congress that cut taxes for the wealthiest in the 2017 tax bill; Republicans who want to take away health care.

There are plenty of problems to take on. We know Trump's character. The question is Biden's competence.

Wyden: Peaceful protest yes. Violence no.

Senator Ron Wyden came to Medford to stand in front of the Post Office, and defend it.

He set an example. He wore a blue mask--and a red Trail Blazers cap. 

If this were one of his 970 in-person Town Meetings he would repeat the story of disappointment that he never played in the NBA.  Regular attendees know his quip: "I couldn't shoot baskets, but made up for it by being really slow."

Wyden in Medford

He came to town to communicate his--and Democrats'--interest in protecting the Postal Service, and to meet with local media. 

Upon arrival in Medford he told a small group of local residents  he was surprised that President Trump seemed to have made little effort to disguise his intent to hobble the Postal Service to meet his political goals of suppressing the mail-in vote in states where that would, Trump thinks, disadvantage him. There have been personnel cuts and changes in work rules that have created noticeable delays in service levels and warnings from the Postal Service that although they regularly handle Christmas mail, they couldn't handle the election mail. “I’m sure the post office doesn’t have enough time," Trump said. "Millions of ballots, all of a sudden, coming out of nowhere.” Trump said the Post Office needs the money, but "that doesn't mean we're going to agree to it" and so far he hasn't.

On local television Wyden said that pressure from him, other Senators and the general public created a "tidal wave" of opposition, and that the pressure had succeeded. Wyden reported the Postmaster General had just backtracked, saying they were reversing plans to cut service prior to the election. Universal mail voting has been long established in Oregon and it has had bipartisan support and bipartisan results, Wyden told television station KOBI in an interview.

Wyden arrived in Medford just as video went public. It showed a Portland man being badly beaten, apparently at random, by rioters in Portland. The scene played repeatedly on Fox News on Monday evening. Wyden told the small group that the violence was a moral and political disaster. He said that the District Attorney for Multnomah County--the county containing Portland, Oregon--was getting it right, announcing prosecutions for acts of violence. Violence should not have been tolerated at first and it shouldn't have been allowed to persist.

"Acts of violence need to be stopped and the criminals should be prosecuted, period, full stop."  He said he was hopeful that federal paramilitary forces leaving Portland would change the atmosphere and that the city would return to peace. 

Meeting, but keeping distance

Wyden repeated the "period, full stop" phrase when he spoke to local media.

     "Peaceful protest is not only acceptable, it's what the First Amendment is all about. But if somebody is violent, if they are anarchists, we have to have a clear message that violence, in any way, shape, or form is unacceptable, period, full stop."

Speaking informally with residents he said that he thought Kamala Harris was a good choice for Vice President and that it gave her a leg up over other Democrats on policy leadership and as a presidential candidate in a post-Biden era. 

He said he suspected Pete Buttigieg would get a Cabinet position and that this would give him national exposure and experience. "But he probably needs to win a big election."  

Wyden said there were a number of younger generation Democratic colleagues with presidential potential.  He mentioned a Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who got visibility as a potential VP pick.  He suggested people begin watching Chris Murphy of Connecticut, age 47, who currently has little national visibility.

Chris Murphy

He said Trump missed an extraordinary opportunity to get something big done right out of the blocks in 2017. He said he and Orrin Hatch met with Trump in February, 2017, and told him there would be overwhelming bipartisan support for a big infrastructure bill. It would have made a real mark, Wyden said, but Trump's people did not pursue it. They were focused on one big thing, a tax cut bill. The bill became a political liability in the 2018 election when its effect of increasing the deficit and targeting tax cuts on the very wealthiest became evident.

Wyden's original political home was the Portland area, but he has created a statewide network and presence, in part due to the rigorous demands of his every-county-every-year pledge. For the first time, due to the Covid virus, he has attempted video Town Halls to respect the need to avoid assemblies of people--his typical format. He won his last election handily, including winning a majority of votes in Oregon's most rural and agricultural Congressional District, District Two, which the Cook Report lists as safely red.

Democratic Convention and Cannabis Harvest

Monday evening. I am watching the Democratic Convention.  

Eva Longoria is a superb host: poised, well spoken, looks great on TV.

Still, it is hard to make this compelling TV. There is no plot. No conflict. And we know how it ends: Joe Biden gets the nomination. 

I am enjoying it, but I cannot believe there is a single undecided voter anywhere in America watching this program. 

Gentleman Farmer

I am tired as I write this, Monday evening. I am a farm worker and had a long day. Lots of the people Democrats may hope would watch the show and be favorably impressed are busy people who had a long hard day of work. They may not sit still for political speeches, especially when the video and audio are badly synced.

I am "retired" but currently I am helping out some people growing cannabis, trying to get an up- close look at how it is done. The early cannabis harvest is happening now in southern Oregon.

I listened to an NPR broadcast while I worked. I heard a news story about an undocumented man who became a Marine and served in Afghanistan. After he got out of the service he got into trouble, arrested for possessing a large quantity of cannabis. He was deported, under the rule that a person here on a green card who commits a serious crime--possessing bulk marijuana--is deported.

Meanwhile, I continued my work, legally harvesting marijuana in bulk, a tiny cog in the State of Oregon's program for growing medical marijuana. There are rules galore, including constraints on the number of permitted plants. It is taxed at every step. It is a money maker for government and fellow taxpayers. 

Republicans, appalled by Trump

Joe Biden's position is to "decriminalize" cannabis and Kamala Harris wants to legalize it. The current federal law treats it as a very dangerous drug with severe penalties. Some states, like Oregon, treat it as legal. A majority of Americans want it legalized. Some 55% of Americans say that state programs of regulated marijuana markets are mostly a success versus 19% who say they are mostly failures. 26% say they don't know. Democrats are more likely than Republicans to call it a success, at 67% vs. 41%. Click.

The broad fields of green that people see along rural roads are growing "hemp," i.e. the variety of cannabis plant bred to have no psychoactive properties. It contains "CBD," used to make a medicine which gives some people pain relief. It can be grown in unlimited quantities.

I am helping to harvest a different variety of the same plant, the variety that has THC, the psychoactive chemical. There is both an early harvest and second, normal harvest of that variety. The THC crop is started in greenhouses in February, then is transplanted to outdoors in May and is then grown to be large bushes, from which buds are harvested in October. 

"Going high means standing firm against hatred."

The early harvest plants are transplanted into outdoor hoop houses that can be covered with an opaque tarp in the late afternoon, beginning in mid June. They get a measured 12 hours of darkness, which tricks the plant into thinking it is autumn and time to go into flower and grow buds. After about eight weeks of artificially long "nights" the plants are ready to harvest. That is what I am helping with.

Like all farm work I have done, the work is tedious and tiring. One reaches into a plant, clips out a branch, inspects the buds on it for mold or other problems, trims off large leaves, then places it into a tub where it can be brought to a drying facility. Repeat. And repeat.

Cannabis is an industry. When done right, and if markets cooperate, it creates a profitable crop for the grower, a profitable use of farm land for rural landowners, and it gives significant business to ancillary businesses doing irrigation, soils and soil amendment, fertilizer, hardware, and equipment. It also provides jobs for American workers. 

I write this having just watched Bernie Sanders, then Michelle Obama's. He spoke in praise of Biden. His speech, not hers, is the most important one of the night. He said that real progressives vote for Biden. He didn't seem reluctant. He looked and sounded like he really meant it.

Fox News is using what he said to frighten viewers. Bernie Sanders likes Joe Biden! Biden is a crazy left wing radical socialist.  Fox viewers will hear that message repeatedly. 

What is not clear is if Sanders supporters on the left will hear and believe it.
           
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Note: When I write about cannabis I get questions sent directly to me about whether I consume the cannabis I see grown. No. I don't like it. I prefer a clear head. I don't use alcohol, either, for the same reason. 

I do like caffeine and thoroughly enjoy coffee.