As the World Turns

Posting as infrequently as I do, there are sometimes some pretty wild developments between posts. There was 2020, when I posted in February and then in April - during which time Joe Biden wrapped up the Democratic nomination and the world was hit by a plague and shut down. Dizzying. I was not a Biden fan at the time, though I was happy to vote for him; and I think as president he has done a remarkable job, though he has gotten no credit. But that shift - the hopefulness of voting for Warren, to the grim acceptance of Biden - and the run of the world - yeah.

The last couple months have been almost as wild a ride, but in the opposite direction. When I posted in July, things were pretty bad. The Supreme Court had just disgraced itself, Trump was Trump, and Joe Biden was OLD. Then things got worse - someone took a shot at Trump, missed, but he rode it like a stallion - I almost got shot! Look! My Ear! The RNC happened, the GOP gloated, Peter Thiel's personal Renfield was picked to serve as Trump's VP - things were ugly in America. And just to top it off - Biden got COVID, again, somewhere in there. What could happen next?

What happened next was that Biden dropped out of the race, and he, and whoever else was in on the deal, orchestrated it like a Magic Johnson fast break. He endorsed Kamala Harris, everyone else endorsed Kamala Harris, and now she is the nominee, with Tim Walz, who gives all the signs of being an actual human being, as VP. It went like clockwork; and it changed everything. 

It came like a breath of fresh air - a sense of relief. Not that I think Biden can't do the job - but I don't know if he can convincingly run for the job, and more importantly, lots of people didn't think he could run for it effectively. Harris hit the ground running: lined up the support, got Biden's delegates in line, went to work, brought new energy and en edge to the campaign. Going after Trump - everyone is going after Trump, and not just, Lookout! He's going to try another coup! but - laying into him for what he is. Laying into his policies, his oppression of women, his threat to democracy; laying into how he acts - his insecurities, his whining, his weirdness. "Weird" is the watchword of the day - and well deserved. Trump is weird. Vance is weirder. Most of their supporters are weirdoes. They can't seem to stop doubling down on their weirdness - attacking Harris' and Walz' kids, trying to gin up imaginary AI crowds, trying to order donuts. Trump whining that he thought he was going to get to run against Joe Biden! no fair!

We've seen the DNC: with the Dems dropping the old "when they go low we go high" talk for cheap shots and digs about couches and crowd sizes and everything else. Though it's notable that the Dems still manage to go high - they have policies that might help people; they do treat other people as though they have the right to exist. They have been celebrating all the things that Americans get sentimental about - the flag, military service, football, freedom, dignity, everything. They're claiming everything good about the country, while Trump and company disdain everything good. The contrast is sharp.

So here we are. Into the proper race, with Trump accumulating even weirder supporters like little RFK - there's a guy who makes JD Vance look like a well adjusted normie! It is enough to give you reason to hope. Sure, things can go to shit - but right now, if everyone keeps doing what they are good at - Trump being a freak; Harris being a leader; Tim Walz being a good natured guy who managed to gets laws to feed kids through the barest of majorities in Minnesota - we might manage to bring the Trump nonsense to a final end. Let's hope.

Semi-Annual Lament

2024 is halfway done. I have not managed to post a thing since the new year. I even forgot to put together a baseball post. I have studiously avoided talking about politics because there is nothing more depressing on the planet. I can't really duck it, though, can I.

Today, the supreme court declared that a president is immune from prosecution for anything done in an official capacity. This is an absurd and plainly lawless decision. It is dangerous and ugly - an invitation for politicians to crack down on their political opponents without fear of accountability. I suppose they could still lose the next election - though that gets harder, when the president has unlimited power. And makes the "next election" that much more likely to turn into the "next coup." This is a reminder, by the way, that bad as Trump has been, it was Mitch McConnell who really overturned democracy in America. Refusing to allow hearings on the open court seat in 2016 was basically a coup itself - undoing the functions of government. His actions have borne fruit.

There is a lot to say about politics; but everyone is saying it. I don't know what I have to add. Vote for Joe Biden; vote for Democrats, in every election, in every context. What else is there? I mean, before the shit hits the fan. But winning elections lowers the odds of catastrophe. So try that first.

I could say something about Joe Biden - apparently, he is old. It is strange that this is such an issue, though - of course he is old, but he has done the job without any real hitches. Meanwhile, the guy he's running against is a convicted criminal, a traitor, who keeps threatening to lock people up for opposing him and - all this between rambling on about batteries and sharks. It is strange. Though maybe not that strange. I think the asymmetry between how the candidates are treated comes down to this: Democrats are expected to govern. We expect Joe Biden to govern. We want him to be up to the job. The media expects him to govern. Everyone does. So they assess him based on his perceived competence.

Donald Trump, on the other hand - no one takes him seriously. That doesn't make him less terrifying - but we all know that he is not there to govern, or even to rule. As president he will be after what he is always after: getting his fat mug on TV, blathering away on whatever platform he has access to; acting the fool; and looking for the next grift. He is still dangerous because his act requires him to attack people, to stir up his chumps, to create mobs to go after people. And - because he is a racist misogynist bully and likes to inflict pain. So he will fuck things up. But he will not be very good at it. He won't do anything that requires effort and discipline. He will rant and rave and hope the people around him carry out his ideas. This is known - it doesn't matter if he is a drug addled idiot; he will act the same no matter what. 

And behind the scenes, the Mitch McConnell types will continue to pack the courts and use them to plunder the country, to give corporations free rein to suck everything they can out of the world before it all crashes and burns. They have done this far more effectively than Trump - and will continue. Trump, in this case, serves as a face, a distraction, an excuse, to do what they want. They look at him with contempt - I think that's pretty obvious - a useful idiot who gives them cover to do real harm. 

Not that there's any comfort in any of that. They do real harm; and he can do real harm, even if he won't lift a finger. He'll push for evil policies, and the GOP will go along, to get what they want; and democracy will die on the vine - or force an open confrontation. Not good.

So vote for those Democrats, keep prosecuting the criminals, keep pushing for better policies, and do what you can to cut this trend off now. 

Yeah. We'll see.

As The World Turns

 Hello world. Happy new year.

This has been a lousy year at this blog. It's been bad for a while, but this year - yikes.

Well - 2023 was a pretty lousy year all around. For me, maybe not the worst - the worst thing to happen was my poor cat dying, which still hurts. I have to get a new cat. I need a cat. The rest of my life has been mostly just empty - I am lazy, bored and boring, stuck in a rut, etc. Bad habits abound, most of them related to sitting on the couch looking for YouTube videos to watch. Terrible.

That's me. The world has been a good deal worse. The Ukraine war has dragged on another year, with no end in sight. Hamas attacked Israel shamefully, touching off another war int he middle east. Israel has retaliated in almost almost inconceivably evil ways. There is no end in sigh there and not much likelihood of anything good coming out of it. 

The presidential election campaigns are already in full swing, with one party pretending to nominate a bunch of schmucks, but really intending to nominate a criminal, if he cam make it on the ballot. The Democrats on the other hand can't seem to manage to point out that they are in fact running the country pretty well - the economy continues to roll along, even last year's inflation panic mostly gone by the wayside - though there is more than enough to complain about. I don't know. Biden and company do seem far too pro-Israel to really do any good in the middle east. They are at least steadfastly pro-Ukraine, but the Republicans are just as resolutely pro-Putin, so things stall. Ugly.

Well - that's the world. Me? I will note one or two things, right? I did get a new couch, which made the poor cat very happy for the last month or so or her life. The Rangers won the world series - I did not see it coming, but maybe should have. It is cool when anyone wins their first, and I have had a soft spot for the Rangers for a while. And of course am delighted to see Nathan Eovaldi get ring number 2. What else? I managed to watch a fair number of movies, including a few new releases - Asteroid City, which is a great delight; the new Venture Brother's movie, sending me off to watch the rest of the VBs run; the D&D movie, which stunk, though it was almost redeemed by stealing a Coen brothers joke at the end; what's that - three new movies? No - four! Renfield! amusing, though a bit dumb. And so on. I also watched a couple movies I had never seen before - I hesitate to name them, as it will cause shock and consternation, but - I finally watched Star Wars and Conan the Barbarian. Whatever that is worth.

I tried to read this year, but didn't finish a lot. I currently am in the middle of reading The Heat's On (Chester Himes), Alice in Wonderland, Bulldog Drummond, Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas, and probably a couple others I have forgotten - I might even finish one of them eventually. 

And music? I don't listen to music very systematically - mostly surfing YouTube or picking something out on the iPhone - but I do get interested in things. The past few years have seen me get all excited about The Small Faces, the Kinks, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Echo and theBunnymen - this year? I spent a lot of time surfing through Les Claypool videos and lately ghave grown obsessed over the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Good stuff there. 

And so end it with a song in common between SAHB and Les Claypool: Jerry Reed's Amos Moses. Have a happy new year!