Check Those Expiration Dates!

 Guess what! 

President Joe Biden got old.

So, he was rejected by the Democratic Party.  

And now we face the uncertainty of an open Democratic convention. Back in the olden times without an internet, an open convention might have seemed a good idea, but now with split-second analysis and instantaneous second-guessing steaming down everyone's necks, it's going to be a major crap-fest. That is unless the Dems get it together and nominate on the first ballot. That's critical. The other side nominated a criminal sex-offender, but they are united behind him. Kamala is the flavor of the moment. Hopefully that remains the case. The Dems could nominate Captain America, but it won't mean a fucking thing unless they unite behind that nominee. I'll vote for a block of cheese if it's on the ballot, if it means we save ourselves and the world from more of that village idiot's tomfoolery. 

I guess we just have to hope it's not an aged cheese. 

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But Doctor...I Am Paglicacci!

There's a famous joke that Rorschach tells in The Watchmen. It goes like this...

I heard a joke once: Man goes to the doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life is harsh and cruel. Says he feel all alone in a threatening world. 

Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go see him. That should pick you up." 

Man bursts into tears, "But doctor...I am Pagliacci." 

Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.

Something about the news of the day makes me want to read The Watchmen again. I think I will. 

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My Pledge To The Democratic Party!

If efforts to push Joe Biden off this year's Democratic ticket for President succeed, I will vote Blue to help save my nation, but the day after I vote I will change my registration to Independent. The leaders of the Democratic Party will have demonstrated that they have as little regard for the vote of the citizens as do the Republicans, so I see no need, even after decades of loyal support to continue to identify myself with them. 

The latest round of back-channel discussions among leaders of the Party to oust Joe come on the heels of the end of the Republican Convention and are clearly keyed to setting up a Democratic Convention in which some way and somehow the candidate with 14, 465, 519 votes to be the nominee, or 87% of the total is replaced. That's an overwhelming number. He should under normal circumstances clinch it on the first round. He and Harris have accumulated 3, 894 delegates with only 42 remaining from the total number of 3, 949. 1968 delegates are required to become the nominee. Joe Biden has more than enough. 

Now I'm well aware that a Party can choose another nominee despite the one chosen by the voters. They have that right. But if they choose to exercise that right this year, it will come with a great price. I can see droves of disaffected voters like me, leaving the Democratic Party in disgust. To turn against the will of the thousands of loyal Democratic voters who have expressed a preference, in order to cater to the will of rich benefactors fearful of actual changes in policy that might cost them a few extra dollars, will wound the Party in way they can't imagine. I'm at a loss to imagine what alternate ticket might be proposed. I cannot imagine any that will have the name recognition of the sitting President. 

The last time the Democratic Party did this the President was Lyndon Johnson who was wounded by the Vietnam War. What enemy has Joe Biden succumbed to? Old age? To remove him from the ticket is a catastrophic move which could well lose the election, one which is easily winnable due to the lunacy on the other side. To do this is to openly admit for all practical purposes that the United States is a plutocracy, and that both our parties have been purchased by the ultra-wealthy who want to see things done to maximize profits. 

I have been a Democrat my entire voting life, but after fifty years of support the Dems will only be able to count on my support in the general elections from now on, if then, should they make this move. 

Update: I pledged to leave the Democratic Party if the Party rejected the nomination of Joe Biden, the sitting President, a leader and man I admire greatly. Let me amend that pledge, because something just occurred to me. Kamala Harris is the new presumptive nominee. I do not want it to look like I'm leaving the party because they nominated a black woman. I celebrate that choice, if the choice must be made. There is more than enough racism and the appearance of appearance racism in this country without me adding to it. 

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And They're Off!

I am old enough to remember a time when journalists eschewed coverage of a political campaign in terms of a horse race. The issues were too important to consider the analogy more than a passing consideration. But as the years have rolled on and journalism has become more about ratings and ad revenue, the horse race has pretty much become all that matters. But how does a person go about conducting a "horse race" between two human politicians? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. The answer if polls. 

It has gotten to the point where it doesn't matter what the positions on policy the candidates have, but rather how they are doing in the polls. The number one indicator of poll success is name recognition and the winner in that game will almost always be the incumbent. That makes the challenge of bringing entrenched power to heel even more difficult. Incumbents start ahead in the "horse race" and so have an easier time getting funded in a culture in which money is speech, and unlimited amounts are available. Example is Elon Musk throwing forty-five million a month to Sweet Potato Hitler as they round the bend in our current Presidential "horse race". 

But here's the trick. Polls are largely useless. They win out every once in a while, just often enough against random chance to keep people interested, but not often enough to have any real predictive power. We see only the numbers when polls are touted about the "horse race", but we rarely see the questions used to extract the response nor do we necessarily see what mob was being polled. Increasingly the only poll that matters in any political "horse race" is the final one, and that my friends is not until November 5th. 

If we're not very careful with our precious hard-won freedom, this is the only race we might taking part in. This one has lots and lots of losers. 

See you at the polls. 

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Better Angels!

I will continue to speak out strongly for our democracy and stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law. I will continue to call for action at the ballot box, and not violence in the streets. 

That's how democracy should work. We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the record, the issues. the agendas, and the visions for America.

We cannot lose sight of who we are. 

In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. NOT with bullets. 

We cannot -- we must not -- go down this road in America. We have traveled it before throughout our history. Violence has never been the answer. 

-- Joe Biden 

This is part of a message I found in my mailbox this morning.

This is why I want to vote for this good and decent man. It's why I've voted for him in the past time and again. He's better than me.  He's a leader for us all. 

GO JOE! 

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The Rawhead Kid!

I'm currently in a process of escaping the deluge of daily media, but it caught up with me nonetheless with the news that someone had taken a shot at "Sweet Potato Hitler". He was wounded but not killed apparently, and I'm sure this will be sold as him acting bravely in the face of extreme danger. Give me a contingent of Secret Service pledged to surround me at the first sign of trouble and I'll be pretty bold too. This myth was largely horseshit when they played the song with Reagan, and I guarantee it will be even a bigger horse turd with this new event when he gathers himself and plays to the camera. God only knows who he will blame for it. I've already caught a glimpse. I wish all the incessant shootings America still suffers because of our fetish for guns got the coverage this one will get. 

 

But that said, I don't think this event will change a single vote. And if it does it will only take a teensy piece out of Biden's overwhelming victory. We'll get some polling here and there which will ignite random and incessant discussion in the chattering classes, but as with all the polls they don't reflect reality. They are designed to elicit responses which will promote a narrative. Same here. But I worry that the inspection of Project 2025 is now on hold while the pundits batter to death this most recent shooting. Not even a mass one as far as I know, but one that just so happened to involve a famous bloke. They will winge on about feckless gun control, past political shootings, and how this will affect the horse race. We will get to hear the names of John Wilkes Boothe, Lee Harvey Oswald, James Earl Ray, and my favorite name of historical assassins -- Sirhan Sirhan. We will get to visit Dealey Plaza, the Loraine Hotel and the Ambassador Hotel all over again.  All the while, Project 2025, a program to demolish our representative democracy will remain largely unexamined. That might've moved some folks. 

Because I think this event will affect few if any votes, I still believe that Joe Biden and Kamela Harris will win back their offices and stave off the madness for four more years. I choose to believe that, I really believe that, and you'll have to take that belief from my cold dead hand. 

GO JOE! 

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Go Joe! Go Joe!

I have spent more than a few minutes the past two weeks, ever since Joe Biden's less than impressive debate performance fuming. Not because Joe performed poorly. That often happens to incumbents in a first debate, so often that scheduling the debate this early was a strategy to get that one out of the way. At least that's what I suspect. The debate would be mostly forgotten now save members of my own party keep bringing it up. No, I'm fuming because some members of the leadership of the Democratic Party and some allies have been spending the days since the debate calling for Joe to drop out. No calls for the larcenous, lying, sociopathic, sex pervert and felon in the cremains of the Republican Party to drop out! No, the Dems are saving their ammunition for their own guy! The devout long-time legislator, loyal Vice-President, devoted husband and loving father, and successful first-term President is the one they've targeted. And it's all because he's had the great fortune to have lived four score and more. Outrageous! 

Joe has said repeatedly and forcefully he will not drop out. He's the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party which just completed an extensive series of primary elections to determine that very fact. He has won all those primaries and assembled more than enough delegates to win the nomination. I voted for Joe myself. I got out of my house, drove to the polls and voted for Joe in a state in which the primary is the only election he will win in my lifetime. My state is ruby red and my vote this fall for Joe, which I will cast at the earliest opportunity, will be a cry in the wilderness. But it's still my vote and I'm damned if my own party will take it away. The Republicans have been doing that in various ways for some years now. Stealing one of Obama's Supreme Court choices was robbing me of my vote. And now a bunch of Left-leaning pundits and celebrities want to light cigars find and in a smoke-filled room pick a candidate they'd prefer. 

Bullshit! 

Joe Biden is the going to be nominee of the Democratic Party and if many of my own party leaders can quit stepping their own dicks, we might just win the Presidency and save this democracy here, and order in the free world for a few more precious years. 

And here's a special note to any advertisers out there.  I am no longer watching any television show which wastes time murmuring about the health of my President. Nor am I apt to return if they don't stop crapping the bed on that topic pretty much immediately. 

To put it bluntly -- Shut the Fuck Up! 

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Super-Villain Team-Up!

I've kept my views on the news of the day off this blog for several years because things had settled down with a President who obeyed the laws and didn't riff on tormenting the helpless day after day after day, but the quite recent travesty of a Supreme Court decision has moved me to speak up again. I genuinely worry that the democracy I have enjoyed for my many decades on this planet is indeed in danger of disappearing for all practical terms. The case was obviously taken up by the highest court in the land in bad faith because of the timing and extensive duration of consideration, and the decision is dangerous in the extreme. The United States Supreme Court has created a Super-Executive who is not answerable to the laws applicable to the common folk. We are lucky that the man in the office now is a good and decent fellow, who will not order the assassination of his enemies. 

This all happened because the disgraceful cowardice of Republicans in Congress who some years ago failed utterly and shamefully in their duty to impeach and remove our loathsome former president who had instigated an attack on our own Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power. That's what the Constitution clearly demanded they do in that circumstance and for fear of being hurt or killed by their own followers they faded when the moment came to hold him to account for his obvious crimes. Holding the man to account after that has proven difficult and now the Supreme Court has made it all but impossible. We now run the very real risk that an amoral sociopathic traitorous sex-offending convicted felon might become the leader of the free world again. And this time he won't leave office until he dies. 

I still believe that will not happen. I think that the clearly good man named Joe will win the day and save us from our own demons, at least for a short time. But now we have to hope that all future Presidents are good men or good women, because the Supreme Court has made the office a fertile nest for an evil person, an utter villain to wreak havoc on this country and the world. Maybe in practical terms it was always thus, but now we know it can happen for certain.  And we're not out of the woods yet on this one. 

It has been a particularly sad day in the Anti-Life! The villains among us have won a dark victory indeed. It's time for the good guys to win one. 

Stay tuned. 

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A Day In The Anti-Life - Health Scares

[The message was originally posted at the now defunct Rip Jagger's Dojo on July 29, 2017]

The failure of Republicans to abolish Obamacare "root and branch" as had been long promised for  years to their legions, has been an amazing spectacle. There's a lot of blame to sling about and for sure the chattering classes are up and at it, with the devoted Trumpians attaching little blame for the failure to their savior despite his incessant promises to offer up something much much better and apparently overlooking the small detail that he discovered after winning office and actually engaging one or two of the details of actual policy that health care was "hard". Still he's off the hook it seems and is apparently willing to let poor folks suffer yet again to make the point that he was right all along.

The health care bills which were put forth failed because they had as their primary reason to exist an attempt to claw back taxes. They failed as health care bills because they were not health care bills at all. And ultimately it's a lack of courage on the part of all Republicans to stand up and be counted on the promise they've bleated about for so many years. Democrats stood in line and took the harsh medicine which followed the erection of Obamacare and suffered many electoral defeats to accomplish the last big project of the Progressive program. It's the reason Democrats appear to be out of big ideas, they are; the mission is accomplished in its broadest strokes.  Individual men and women took hard votes and showed their personal success was less important than the help they would be able to extend to Americans across the land. Republicans have never been able to show that courage, or perhaps now it appears the courage is not to stand up for repeal but to stand in its way.

And now for another thing -- Trump voters! What the hell will it take for folks, even those hard-headed folks from the heartland to see that the man they have invested all their hopes and dreams with is a lying, xenophobic, racist asshole who is utterly consumed with his own immediate welfare at all times. He lies to the country on an almost hourly basis, shows zero loyalty to folks who have sacrificed their integrity to back his erratic plays, and kisses Putin's butt with weird aplomb.

These folks appear to think that only the high and mighty Trump is the one who can tell them the truth. Okay, but when he fails on health care why don't they then realize he isn't what he pretends to be. They ignore the media because they've been encouraged to think it is against them, and now it seems they have more faith in the former USSR. than CBS or NBC. The idea of patriotism seems now to be limited to the benefits of one man - Trump. How many shit sandwiches are folks going to eat before they get a clue the stink ain't a media conspiracy. God almighty!

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A Day In The Anti-Life - Troll King

[The message was originally posted at the now defunct Rip Jagger's Dojo on July 25, 2017]

Trolls of myth are ugly critters than live in the dark and make havoc for civilized folk. Likewise on these here internets, we find ugly critters who adore making life a misery for honest people. And it's a sad fact that our "So-called" President is one of these critters, he might even be their king.

This modern Troll King lives in a shadowy world of international finance and it becomes more and evident with each passing day that the dangerous denizens of those shadows have influence on the machinery of our democracy. If not directly, then indirectly by the daily denigration of communication and governing norms which have for many decades served to create the stability citizens of the United States and the greater western world have taken for granted for over fifty years, my entire life.

I have been gifted with a life free of the rigors of true chaos which was the norm for the world's population before the current hiatus of order which has been maintained by the old rules. There have been winners and losers for damn certain and those who feel left out are to some extent finding ways to act out and strike at the heart of the order they object to. Some do so out of ignorance of the true nature of society, some do so with full cognizance of the chaos they will unleash and the power they hope to gather unto themselves when the old order falls.

But these are important times and it is dangerous indeed for anyone to attempt to undermine the very pillar of a free society in the vain attempt to maintain momentary momentum. The brash self-importance it requires to sacrifice all news media in a lackluster attempt to "win" a single news cycle is short-sighted to such an extent that it seems tragically childlike.

I work with folks who often require reminders to behave in an adult-like fashion. Being childish is seen as a weakness in adults, emotions like peevishness and sulking are seen as weaknesses and should be avoided. Churlish insults are not part of the social fabric, at least not any part of one most folks want to participate in.

These are dangerous times. The election process is challenged by the guy who "won" because his fragile ego is bruised that he gained only an Electoral College victory, and so all of us must face an identity check to make sure we're sufficient American citizens. The rule of law is questioned and challenged by a "so-called" President who demonstrates guilty knowledge with almost ever utterance. The fourth estate is in danger of being dragged down by the "leader" of our country because they don't kowtow to his meager efforts to be "Presidential", even if you slap a pointless adjective like "modern" in front of that phrase. These are indeed dangerous times; trolls are dangerous folk.

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