Category: News

  • Whomp! Debate Edition

    Though I would like to watch the Democratic debate tonight, I have to work. Also, I think I might prefer to watch Thursday night football. That is only a half knock at the debate. If this debate was presented better, then I might care more.

    I really don’t like the 10 people on stage, and I have a feeling that Joe, Bernie, and Elizabeth will get the majority of the questions. Not much doled out to the rest of the pack. No one is debating; it’s not like people up there are for or against health care. It’s really about which program do you think is better, and for that reason, I wish they would give the candidates more time just to stake out their positions. Instead, we will get sound bite TV, and though it existed before Trump, now that we live in a Trump political world, you better believe the candidates have several zingers in their back pocket, just waiting for the moment to use them.

    I can already hear someone saying that this isn’t the government we want, but through our actions, this is the government we deserve.

    I really dislike that train of thought.

    I have conservative people use this logic to defend Trump while not defending Trump; Whomp! It’s who we got so let’s make the best out of it.

    What an awful way to accept the world around you. I would want to believe that people want to make things better, and not put up with the crap we are severed.

    Ung… Hopefully something good will come out of this.

  • There Goes That Joke

    First, I acknowledge that with everything going on in the world, this is not a big deal.

    But

    Using the word “nasty” has been ruined.

    My wife and I are of the age when “Miss Jackson if you’re nasty!” was, and is, cool as shit. As a couple, it is used playfully, silly way. Such as, we are flipping channels and the wife comments that she hates that show, which I say, don’t be nasty, and you can guess what her response is, Miss Jackson if you’re nasty.

    And Trump has ruined it.

    We have both caught ourselves about to use the work jokingly with each other, and then we pull back. We don’t want to even use the same words as him, even if we both clearly recognize that the other is joking.

    I mean, we didn’t have this issue with, “binders full of women.”

    And I know that it will be coming in the news, because it is when any woman stands up to Trump, and clearly points out how stupid he is, that’s when the “nasty” word is rolled out. Like clock work.

    What I feel is that I don’t want to use “nasty” in any context now. To do so feels like I am empowering Trump’s use of the word against women.

    I also know this is a little silly, but it is the game with language; who can get to a word first and redefine it to their own purposes.

    Just sucks

  • Again

    I avoided the news, but I couldn’t escape it when the second shooting happened.

    There is no more avoiding. It is inescapable now. Nowhere is safe anymore. Being shot at is now the most American thing that we do. 40,000 American’s a year die in gun related deaths. We are so far ahead of the rest of the world in this statistic, that it looks like we are fighting a war. Compare that to the 58,000 that dies in 10 years of fighting in Vietnam.

    This is a crisis.

    And though mass shootings steal the headlines, it is suicides that are driving these high numbers. Mental illness and access to guns.

    And yet we let this happen.

    We let people tell us that the right to a gun is all encompassing, and that this is what freedom looks like. I am free to be shot at. I am free to not be safe. I am free to go to vigils after massacres. I am free to get in line to donate blood for help victims.

    We let people tell us that sick individuals perpetrate these acts, but we don’t do anything to help people get the care they need. They are on their own.

    And the hate… All the hate that comes up again, and again from these white supremacists as the post manifestos and go out and kill.

    And here we are again.

    The only thing that gave me hope, the only one was the crowd in Dayton shouting at the governor to, “Do Something!”

  • When It’s All Said and Done

    The second night of the debates are over, and now we all know that people will start to drop out soon.

    I would hope that we get down to 10 Democratic candidates by October, but I still think that might be too optimistic.

    And what does all of this mean?

    I admit that I am an “Anyone Who Can Beat Trump” voter. I would even take another Republican.

    I will also admit that I think Democrats have apologized for far too long that they are liberal and have grand ideas. Those days must come to an end.

    In my lifetime, it has felt like my choices have been either the party that sticks up for the rich guy, or the party that is sorry if sticking up for the poor guy offends you.

    On another note, there seemed to be some hub-bub from pundits about the candidates attacking each other, and how that will be detrimental later in the campaign against Trump. Two things on that. First, since when did Trump need facts or help attacking rival politicians? Like Trump is taking notes or thinking through his attacks for maximum impact. Second, I think most pundits are thinking about the 2020 election as if they were fighting in 2012. They are bringing the wrong tools to the gun fight, and most them are walking into it with wet spaghetti. Reagan’s 11th Commandment doesn’t exist anymore, and voters who pay attention to these debates have come to expect politicians to attack.

    When this is all said and done, the majority of voters are really looking for a candidate who will validate their feels. Then they will worry about details.

  • What I Noticed at the Debate

    I watched the debates as I am a political junkie, and I also think being a pundit is the easiest and at the same time, dumbest job around. (“I want to make predictions not based on fact, but sound like they are based on facts, but in reality, it’s just my opinion, though I will try to make you think it’s a fact.” Pundit!)

    Here is my punditry!

    Mayor Pete was the only person who said anything last night that resonated with me. He said, “It’s time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. Look, if it’s true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say that we’re a bunch of crazy socialists.”

    It also reminds me of a General Grant saying. Now, I am paraphrasing, but the context was that when he arrived out east to fight General Lee and was making his battle plans, Grant’s staff keep warning what Lee’s response might be. Grant grew frustrated and said to, stop worrying about what Lee will do to you, and start planning on what you will do to Lee.

    This is what I think the difference between the moderates and progressives in the Democratic Party comes down to; reaction and action. One group is more worried about the reaction, and the other is planning the action. I don’t think the progressives are right on most issues, but they are way more inspiring than the worriers.