Taking Debate

No, I didn't watch the debates, and hopefully you didn't either. Even the few spare post-mortems I did skim offered nothing of value, per expectations.

If we accept the basic premise that the media are gaslighting us as much or more as Trump or anyone else, then what exactly would we expect the result to be from packing in candidates -- more than half of whom are wasting everyone's time and have no business being there -- ten at a time, to field framed questions from principals of that very same ongoing system of corporate gaslighting? In other words, what value to the political process in general, or your decision-making process in particular, is provided by having Jake Tapper lob some bullshit provocation at Kamala Harris or Jay Inslee or whoever?

Deus Ex Mockina

Recently on one of the milliard satellite content vessels, the feel-good classic Grizzly Man was broadcast, so of course I was compelled to watch. If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it strongly enough; if you have, you know the magic of it. One of the main takeaways for me has always been the rather mundane observation that perhaps Disney, with its endless permutations of friendly animals that are, in real life, quite deadly and indifferent to your human concerns, has fucked up the minds of several generations of simpletons.

That's simply a circuitous path to saying that people are incredibly skilled at developing teleological viewpoints through which to view the world and how it works. Inevitably it comes down to them viewing and interacting with the world while encumbered with the baggage of their expectations of how the world should work. Like the unfortunate Timothy Treadwell from Grizzly Man, such people have an unrealistic view of how things really are. They are fine so long as their existential bubble doesn't clash overtly with reality, but the moment that it does is, let's say, rather clarifying.

And so you could graft that perspective onto the viewpoint of whatever remaining holdouts there are at this point, those hardheaded doofuses who are still convinced that 'murka's hallowed institutions will save the day.

The announced retirement of Anthony Kennedy simply underscores the entire miserable track record of Kennedy's SCOTUS tenure. He is and always has been fucking terrible, a preening, showboating Hamlet of a judge, concerned more than anything with casting the deciding vote on any given case. He will not be missed, and it's interesting and fitting that Kennedy has chosen to blow up what legacy he had, so unceremoniously.

(And now we suddenly are apprised that Kennedy's son Justin is a Goldman Sachs alum who has been Clownstick's fucking loan guy at Deutsche Bank. I don't know what's more ridiculous -- that yet another plot point has surfaced that would have been flat rejected by any copy editor as too preposterous, or that none of our intrepid media could have been bothered to ferret out this salient detail, I don't know, during the fucking election campaign? Sorta puts Bitch McConnell's decision to shorten Congress' summer recess in a different light, doesn't it?)

Which brings us to a third and broader popular teleology -- the idea that things will work out in the end. Frequently this is phrased as the warmed-over Martin Luther King quote about the moral arc of the universe being long, but bending toward justice. I would counter that with the classic J.K. Galbraith quote that in the long run, we're all dead.

Just as importantly, things don't always work out. History is littered with tales of valiant striving that was quashed by evil, unstoppable brutality, with no recourse. That "moral arc" shit doesn't work for me; I am not particularly concerned with where my fifth-generation descendants wind up, except insofar that they pay attention at all times and fight when necessary.

And I would put those two relatively simple skills forward as essential to the body politic. Do you want change? Do you despise the motherless fucks running the show right now? Then pay attention at all times and fight as necessary. That is all, but that is a lot, once you break those things down.

People are getting ready to protest, and this is bound to be an interesting summer for that reason. People will get hurt, possibly killed. I would suggest that there is a better way, that will hit harder, and produce no physical casualties. If you identify the biggest offenders and boycott them accordingly, they will squeal, I promise you. An organized boycott of Fox's various networks or Mark Burnett's various "reality" shitshows will produce far more value than a billion pussy hats.

Just don't fall for this shit that people are essentially good, and things will work out. They aren't, and they won't. There is an understandable undercurrent of anger in this country right now, and it will only be exacerbated as the tariffs start kicking in next month, and assholes start losing their jobs over the summer.

A smart, adaptable political party would capitalize on that anger and create momentum. Instead we have the Democrats trying to tone-police each other and make sure everyone's civil while the fucking ship is sinking. Well, as grandma used to say, fuck that shit.

No one is coming to rescue you. The bears are not your friends. Barry O is not going to save the day. The careerist limp-dick mediots are mostly useless. If you feel like the pigs currently at the trough are genuinely a threat to the country and its institutions, then maybe it's time to act like it. Develop a sense of urgency and insist that your elected representatives do the same, or they can go out and find honest work.

Heartbreak and Resistance

It's been a long 72 hours or so for most of us. Hopefully the bruise is starting to go down a bit. It will get better. The media will not help; they have replaced their inane thumbsuckers about What Those Folks Out There In The Sticks Are Thinking with even more inane pieces about What Just Happened. Their efforts are in vain. They are merely trying to distract all of us -- and more importantly, themselves -- from the truth about their increasing irrelevance.

If there's one thing we might end up commending Drumpf for, it's that he may have exposed the entire rotten political campaign industry as the bunch of grifting, chicken-entrail-reading weasels we always thought they were. I have no idea how he knew their polling models were bullshit, since he doesn't seem to know much of anything at all, but his instincts were correct on that count.

Even the RNC's own internal polling on the morning of election day had him losing. Something's going on here, what it is ain't exactly clear. Maybe instead of more useless chucklers about the city mice venturing into the hinterlands to plumb the psyches of the country mice, someone might take a look at all that. Because it's fucking janky as all hell.

Philly Cheese Stank, Day 4: All In

Let's take a rare break from the usual "bitter cynic" character, and give credit where credit is due:  Hillary crushed it. Really. Good politicians are good salespeople at heart, and the candidate speech at a nominating convention is as high stakes as it gets when it comes to sales pitches.

And she made a very effective sales pitch that stands well on its own, but looks even better when stacked up against Ragey McPocalypse's hour-plus of screaming at his audience about the Mad Max charnel house outside the RNC arena. HFC also did that very effectively, used Drumpf's own crazed rhetoric and inexcusable self-regard to paint him as an unreliable goofball with the temperament of a dopey teenager whose mom has to pull the hardened masturbation socks out from under his bed and crack them before throwing them into the laundry.

Depending on how the media decide to frame the speech, and which money quotes they push, this could easily mark the point where people decide to vote for Hillary, rather than merely against Drumpfski and his Russian overseers. She emphasized her genuine working-class roots; her actual track record fighting for the disadvantaged, well before she or her husband got into politics; her support and advocacy for 9/11 victims, survivors, and first responders; the idea that America is a team, and that we should pull together. These also proved effective in establishing a positive, can-do contrast to Drumpf's Thunderdome boilerplate.

HFC's speech was really just the icing on what proved to be a solid lineup, including a four-star general surrounded by over three dozen veterans and officers, and the immigrant parents of Muslim Army Captain Humayun Khan, who died in 2005 when a suicide bomber attacked his post in Iraq. National defense became an issue in this evening's proceedings, culminating in Clinton's detailed proposal to defeat ISIS, as well as a blistering reproach of Drumpf's brazen claims that he knows more about ISIS than the generals.

By presenting adult solutions to Drumpf's childish goading, Clinton managed to build a solid, consistent case against someone who should have been laughed out of the room a full year ago. Drumpf's concern-trolling of the convention all week smacked of desperation, came off as pathetic more than anything. Let me ask you something on your cherry-picked AMA, asshole:  What the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously. I mean, the man has been a jerkoff for decades, but have you ever seen someone so pathetically needy? I've literally encountered crazy homeless guys on the sidewalk who have more fucking dignity than this phony-tough guy, who has probably never been in an actual fistfight.

Philly Cheese Stank, Day 3: Getting Traction

Some solid, powerful speeches tonight, especially from Tim Kaine and Barack Obama. Kaine's mocking of Drumpf's "believe me" schtick, as the calling card of the con-man, actually seemed more authentic because Kaine, while pleasant and smart enough, does not exactly pop off the screen. (Then again, charisma is obviously a highly subjective thing -- how people can watch or listen to toads like Gingrich or Drumpf for more than two seconds is beyond me.)

The boo-birds really need to start shutting the fuck up, like now. They may not realize that they'll be the first to hit the Clownstick re-education camps, but they will be. See, middle-aged white guys like me? I can pass easily. I've spent my life around these unrepentant goat-fuckers. I know the code. I'll hate it, but I'll get by just fine in a Clownstick presidency.

Philly Cheese Stank, Day 2: Who Farted?

Cognitive dilemmas abound so far in Philly. You have the Bernie holdouts, resplendent in their anger, vowing to never vote for the she-creature. To listen to these people, you might almost be convinced that:

• There is no difference at all between HFC and the raving clown Drumpf.
• There are no other candidates at any other level running this year.

It's too bad Drumpf has poached the Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want, because that song would be a little too on-the-nose for the last few hard-to-herd libs. Look, we get it, she's sub-optimal, not precisely what you wanted. The young holdouts have yet to learn that is exactly and always how politics works; the old hippies and Bernouts (see what I did there?) are past the point of caring anymore, as they only have a few election cycles remaining.

Now, when your own avatar, who also is past the age for selling out, grabs you by the lapels and says, "Look, motherfucker, this is how it is. Deal with it," then maybe it's time to listen. Your movement has revolved around one person, and one person only; you have failed to endorse or explain how anything will roll down to state or local levels. Who are they endorsing for Congress, for their state legislatures, etc.? No clues, but I don't even have to ask about the HFC side. Whatever else she is, she understands the whole picture, that being president doesn't matter if you're surrounded by a bunch of mouth-breathing teabaggers who refuse to work with you. Ask Hopey-Changey how that all worked out.

Philly Cheese Stank, Day 1: The Stankening

You'd think the horse-race media would at least shake up their own narrative, but that would give them too much credit. Just as last week's crapfest began with floor fighting among remaining holdouts, so the Dems' attempt at levity began with trying to tame the hostile Bernie bros. By the end of the night, things seemed to have calmed down, and by the end of the week the butt-hurt will be mostly forgotten, except with people who were probably never going to vote for HFC anyway, but look for it to be an underlying theme of commentary all week.

It was probably a good idea to get Warren and Sanders done on opening night, because despite both players' move toward comity, the fact is their central theses revolve around the theme of dire inequality and disparity. They are correct, of course, but such an argument comes directly at the expense of the structural integrity of the current and future leaders of the actual Democratic Party.