The 75th Post Master General of the USA, Mr. Louis Dejoy, is M.I.A! In May 2020, the Board of Governors of the United States Postal Service appointed him to that strategic post, not exactly to everyone’s surprise. Although he was an outsider, Mr. Dejoy is a successful businessman who was once described as a “Trump mega donor” and an active fund raiser of the Republican Party, the G.O.P., the Grand Old Party. We can safely conclude that it was Mr. Trump himself who ordered the postal board to place Dejoy at the helm of the US Post Office. The reason for placing a trusted outsider friend soon became obvious.
By the month of May, the COVID pandemic had spread all over the world with the USA leading the list of contagion, hospitalizations and deaths. That was because former President Trump’s never took the virus seriously; he kept saying it would go away and that Americans did not have to obey what the scientists and epidemiologists said about wearing masks, social distancing and washing hands. Because the virus showed no signs of going away, the issue of mail-in voting came about. It seemed safer, people would not have to line up in close contact with each other, thus spreading the Covid virus.
Shortly after Dejoy took over, complaints began to trickle in nonstop; seniors said they were not receiving their medication on time from the post office; cheques for veterans, especially the disabled were much delayed. Registered mail was not up to speed and snail mail was slower than mollusk pace. Postal workers said they were not to blame because PMG Dejoy had changed working schedules, cancelled over- time all together, decommissioned delivery vehicles and sorting machines as well. Many mail boxes were removed or transferred to out of the way corners. People started connecting dots; did Dejoy’s much-vaunted ‘reforms” to modernize the Post Office have something to do with the November presidential elections? By tampering with the regular structure and schedules of the Post Office, was Dejoy assuring his master, Donald Trump, that voting by mail would redound to a second term for him? Whatever it was Dejoy put in place, or out of its place, everything boomeranged, back fired miserably. Voters mailed in their ballots and most of them were not for Donald Trump, but for Joseph Biden. Is that why Dejoy is now M. I. A? How can he explain what Donald Trump calls “ dumps”? Is he about to be “thrown under the bus”?
I have learned a few American idioms just by listening to the political podcasts on You Tube. “Throw under the buss” is my favorite. I hear it all the time because in his crepuscule, Donald Trump has fired a lot of collaborators, unceremoniously, via insulting Tweets at the crack of dawn. He has “thrown under the bus” lawyers, campaign managers, heads of national security agencies , Pentagon officials, diplomats, etc.
Mr. Donald Trump is “living in a bubble”, his own eco chamber, I suppose where he has his own reality, very different from that of the world outside the “bubble”. I wonder why no one is audacious enough to burst that bubble. I often hear “ play book” as in “ that was in Obama’s play book” which means Obama had left behind a comprehensive national plan on how to deal with emergencies, including epidemics.
“Circling the drain” is by far the most ominous idiom, especially when pronounced by former prosecutor J. Kirschner in his podcasts, “Justice Matters” . Outgoing president, Donald Trump is “circling the drain” because the majority of his electoral protests have been thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Even judges appointed by Trump cannot overturn the election results for him. It remains to be seen if the Supreme Court will.
“Dog whistle” is a euphemism for political slogan or battle cry, a message that only Trump followers can understand. During his recent post-electoral campaigns, ostensibly to promote Republican candidates, Trump uses the “ dog whistle’. For instance, when he says, “ Stop the steal!” that is a dog whistle. I once caught the phrase “ went on a peacock” but I cannot figure out what it means. Neither can I understand how “snowflakes” is used in the political sense.
President -elect Biden uses “malarky” quite often , alluding to the cascade of lies and nonsensical verbiage from Trump and his followers. Vice President- elect Kamala Harris always “pushes back” Trump and other Republicans whenever they spreads false news. Both can easily kick Trumpeteers “off the rail.” Maybe that is what happened to PMG Louis Dejoy, Trump sent someone to kick him off the rail, that is why he is missing in action.