Notes On The Collapse

Vignette: Random Panera East of… Somewhere Or Other

(Full disclosure:  Fatigue poisoning had long since set in, so some of this I’m cobbling together from garbled recorded rants.  This is as close as I can come to making sense out of it without losing the sense of who I was at the time.  Not sure whether to include this or not, to be honest — but there’s no way to know until I get it transcribed, is there?  Read on at your own risk.)

I think this is the fourth event I’ll have attended today, but I’m not sure.  I was up writing until past 2 this morning, and back at the keyboard at 6.  There’s so much caffeine in me, my fingers are vibrating too much to type, so this is going into the pocket recorder straight and God help us all. (more…)

F&L: Tulsi at the VFW / Tulsi Revisited

It’s a miserable night in a way only New Hampshire can provide.  Water is falling out of the air not as snow or ice but in actual lumps of slush.  I can hear it going *splat* all around me as we slip and slither up to the door of the VFW hall where Tulsi is scheduled to speak.  We’ve tried for her and missed twice now; as I understand it her defense committee needed her on the Hill — but of course the campaign doesn’t talk about that sort of thing; I had to (more…)

Fear & Loathing 2020: Tom Steyer Live

“Come away, come away if you’re going; Leave the sinking ship behind!”

It’s no random choice that selected CCR’s “Around The Bend” as Tom Steyer’s theme song.  On the face of it, his candidacy is absolutely insane; he’s an honest-to-God billionaire running on a platform of “Get Money Out Of Politics”; I’ve never (more…)

Fear and Loathing 2020: A Step Back

I’ve got upwards of 37,000 words assembled thus far and there’s an end in sight.  So far so good, right?  Time to take a quick step back from the task and survey the whole, to see if there’s any major adjustments that ought to be made before it goes too far to recover.  On any other project I might instead be looking to see if it’s worth finishing, but this one’s gone too far for that.  It’s got momentum of its own, and I wouldn’t dare try to stop; the book would devour me.

Which is a problem, because I’m thinking book, and events are going too fast (more…)

F&L 2020: Aside on The First Primary

New Hampshire, by state law, has the first primary contest in the nation.  Yes, I know; Iowa comes before New Hampshire — but that’s a caucus, not a primary.  It’s a fundamentally different sort of contest, at least in a technical sense.  And technicalities are the soul of the law.

(Ideally we’d have a legal system based on right and wrong, but you end up with squabbles over which is which.  Technicalities is the best we can do.  Anyway.)

Now that New Hampshire and Iowa are both over with, it’s somewhat remarkable that the so-called “Party of Inclusivity” has ended up with four old white people (more…)

Fear and Loathing 2020: The Day After

I have a strange urge to start this with melodrama:  “The Manchester streets are quiet today…”

Except they’re not.  From the broken-down mill town of Hunter S. Thompson’s heyday, this has become the most populous city north of Boston.  Local small businesses prosper year-round; primary season is still important, but far less (more…)

F&L 2020: And The Winner Is…

It’s past midnight.  Primary Day has come and gone in New Hampshire, and (unlike in Iowa) we have a clear winner:  Bernie Sanders.

We actually have three winners, if we include the Mayor In Waxwork.  Amy Klobuchar’s come-from-behind resurgence to a 20% return is enough to get her taken seriously going forward, which makes her the real story of today.  If she can sustain that momentum through either South Carolina or Nevada, she’s suddenly a top contender. (more…)

F&L 2020: The New Hampshire Spirit — 24 Hours And Counting

“Manchester, New Hampshire, is a broken down mill town on the Merrimack River with an aggressive Chamber of Commerce and America’s worst newspaper.  There is not much else to say for it, except that Manchester is a welcome change from Washington, D.C.”
Hunter S. Thompson, “Fear and Loathing ’72”

“You’re here because of America.”
Mitt Romney, Manchester, 2012

“I’m here because I love my country, and I care very much for our future.”
Tulsi Gabbard, Manchester, 2020

Ever since the Fear and Loathing 2020 Tour first descended on New Hampshire (more…)

Fear and Loathing 2020: Inspiration And Charisma

We started today with an oh-dark-early run up to the ancient Town Hall in Hopkinton for a Yang event.  It was nine degrees when we left the hotel; the rented Impala didn’t want to move.  My diet Coke was a mass of ice.

Walking across the crusted snow toward the event, I sounded like a marching regiment.  One particular grave (more…)