hillary

Fear and Loathing 2020: An Introduction

How many more of these goddamn elections are we going to have to write off as lame but “regrettably necessary” holding actions? And how many more of these stinking double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the forty million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote for something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?

—Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72

Hunter is dead, and I’m not him.  Now we’ve got through the bad news, let’s take a good hard look at what’s changed in the past 48 years.

OK; I lied:  We’re not through with the bad news. (more…)

Who Won The Debate?

Some of us just finished watching the first Presidential debate, and we’re probably all still shell-shocked.  The commentators are still lobbing rounds at each other, but I’ll emerge from my foxhole long enough to shoot a bulletin back from the trenches, for the benefit of those wiser souls who spent time watching Monday Night Football.

Well, it was entertaining; I’ll grant that. (more…)

You’re All Wrong!

NOTE:  This article was written as a response to another, originally published in “The Bollard” on April 5th.  It can be read here.

A guy wrote once that, although debate and compromise are valuable things in the right place, there are some positions that are completely, flatly wrong. These, because they’re just so obviously invalid, are no longer worth discussing, and compromise with them is plain dumb. (more…)

Iowa: Everybody Lost Big

The caucusing is over; the choice is made; the numbers are in.  And we know who won and who lost, pretty much; unlike last time, the results are pretty reliable.  But even though the numbers don’t lie, by themselves they don’t tell the whole truth. (more…)

Prayer vs. Gun Laws

The New York Daily News is renowned for attention-grabbing headlines.  “Anything to sell a paper” could be their motto (and some say it is).  Today, they’ll be printing “God Isn’t Fixing This” on the front page as a slap at the Republican presidential candidates. (more…)