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Fear and Loathing 2020: Some 4 A.M. Thoughts On Mike Bloomberg

NOTE:  The following transcription has been heavily edited to reduce profanity.  Nevertheless, reader discretion is advised.

The cesspit that is modern politics has surpassed itself.

Scene:  It’s the middle of the night and I just now finished fixing my writeup on Sanders and Yang after a couple of hours of desperately needed sleep.  Some of that was not fit to read; glad I got to it.  Sleeplessness and politics should never mix; this is how we got Eagleton in ’72, after all.  I’m just about to go back to bed when (more…)

Renegotiating NAFTA: Pros And Cons

Say what you will about Donald Trump — and you can say a lot — he’s keeping his campaign promises.  Considering some of the things he’s promised, that thought is more than a little frightening.

According to an article in CNN, today the White House officially notified Congress that the timer is on for the NAFTA renegotiation.  Like it or not, we’re going to see some changes. (more…)

Comey, Intel, Impeach?

I want to be very clear from the beginning:  I dislike Donald J. Trump.  I find him odious and I believe him to be unprincipled and dangerously impulsive.

And I don’t think he’s done anything terribly illegal during his time in office.  If it’s found that he has, it’ll be a surprise to me, and I’ve been watching about as closely as an outsider can.  (more…)

We’re Tired Of It

It’s been a long couple of years now, and let’s face it: we’ve got a right to feel worn out.  It’s been exhausting, a roller-coaster ride of war and politics and ambition and guile.  We’ve been lied to, cheated, insulted, and abused, and if you’re anything at all like me, you’re pretty sick of it.

The thing is, we’re tired of it — tired of all of it.  We’re tired of sound bytes and memes masquerading as facts, of a long recession masquerading as an economic recovery, of politics masquerading as government.

Eight years (more…)

Be FOR Something

Yesterday, an unpopular man was inaugurated.  It was a nasty drizzly day, and we can’t blame the small crowds entirely on his unfortunate personality, but on the other hand the nation wasn’t exactly dancing in the streets.

But the news wasn’t the man.  It wasn’t what he said and what he did, or who came and who didn’t.  The big story was the carefully-orchestrated riot of a thousand protesters in downtown DC, the torched limo and broken windows and two hundred arrests and six injured cops.

And then the sun rose (more…)

Inauguration Protests: The Details

I’ve long believed that a President-elect shouldn’t be held to the same standards as a sitting President.  So when I tell you that Mr. Trump’s recent Twitter activity is lauding the efforts of a bunch of bikers who want to ride in and build a “wall of muscle” to protect the Inauguration, please understand that this is not a criticism of Mr. Trump’s decorum.  That starts Saturday.

Instead, I’d like to talk briefly about the different protests and counter-protests that we should expect both in the nation’s capitol and across the (more…)