Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

 Hey, working without a net here. Let's see how it goes.



 Boy, I'm in a foul mood. I'm not sure why. Woke up sour and seeing all the dingbat opinions on last night's Democratic debate. I didn't watch - I never watch - but it seemed fairly ranch-standard fare for what was the fourth televised debate in what's still a huge crowd of nominees. Since Warren's ascension, she caught most of the flack and everything I've seen said along with another strong performance from Sanders, it was her night. Furthermore, no one stepped in it to any great deal.

 But Twitter this morning was a digital McLaughlin Group because everybody - everybody - is an expert. Everyone has a take on how Yang crushed it or Harris embarrassed herself or how we're all sleeping on Steyer. And you know damn well that before smartphones with Twitter apps became ubiquitous, they'd have spent last night and this morning flicking their ear holes in blissful ignorance of a primary even going on.

 I remember the lead-up to the 2000 elections and desperately trying to get my social group interested in it enough to vote and they weren't having it. "It doesn't matter," they said. "They're all the same," they said. "I'm sticking it to them by refusing to vote," they said. And, of course, Bush and his band of Nixon holdovers got us involved in an unnecessary war in the Middle East that's lasted so long that kids who weren't even born with the Twin Towers went down are being sent to Afghanistan "because there's a job that needs doing".

 Granted, my entities have always come off a bit harsh but I firmly believe that voting is the bare minimum you can do to take part in society and that if you don't vote, you can complain all you want but you're opinion means shit. Furthermore, apart from everything else, the politicians who are the shit ones don't want you to vote. They don't want you to be involved and hold them accountable. They want you to keep the mindset that it's good someone else tells you what to do.

 Which is probably what brought us to Trump. Sometime between 2008 and now, what with the rise of social media, everyone became a steely eyed political analyst who called it as they saw it. Undoubtedly, Facebook had much to do with it, especially since you could say the dumbest shit imaginable and not have to run the risk of someone physically slapping you for being stupid out loud in public.

 One of the reasons I quit Facebook in the run up to the 2016 election was I got tired of friends of friends - or more likely, acquaintances they'd met once or talked to on the phone for business of friends - coming and shaking my tree when I'd post something, usually saying the same tired balderdash I'd already heard. "It's unfair white people can't say the 'n-word'," they'd say. "The dictionary claims a fetus is a baby," they'd say. "Climate scientists are all in on a scam, so global warming doesn't exist," they'd say.

 And you know what? I've seen all three turned loose on Twitter and considered by their respective repeaters to be stunning ripostes. So, all those clowns spent all morning telling me that not only was I correct in skipping the debates but that the bulk of My Fellow Americans who comment on Twitter would be better served & serve the public good just slapping themselves in the face over and over. This is why I'm not inclined to ever leave this hill again.

 Anyhow. Here's a good piece by Parker Malloy about how Mark Zuckerberg sucking up to conservative thugs won't ever stop them from claiming that they're being oppressed by Big Media. Trump's golf buddy's with the guy that runs CNN, but he still pretends he's the victim. I really don't get why Zuckerberg's still allowed to run his damn mouth and we have to pay attention. Didn't a movie get made about him starting up Facebook and it's generally agreed he's a loathsome, weaselly little shit? Boy, plenty of money will open a lot of doors, it's true.

 Dodging the debates, I spent most of my evening getting curb stomped in Galaxy Squad. I may have mentioned it before but I want to give it another bump. It's not a bad way to spend 10 bucks and it's always nice to support indie developers.

 I'm currently reading Make Me No Grave by Hayley Stone. It's tightly plotted and the story's interesting, so it's moving along nicely, but I wonder if it'd work better as a novella. Rex Stout occasionally would put out books like Three Doors To Death or And Four To Go, books of novellas, often interconnected, that were too much a story for a short piece but not quite enough for a full novel. I think Make Me No Grave would benefit from such a layout - Stone has a lot of stories going here with plenty of plot that's yet to get in the way of a story - but what do I know.

 Do we want to do the News? Things are a mess. Trump had a meltdown and Pelosi had to scold the whiny twit and he's slipped a little knife into Lindsay Graham's back due to the latter's criticism about the former's handling of Syria-Turkey-The Kurds. Finally, thinks to the waterhead's fumbling the Turkey ball so much, a question of rogue nuclear weapons has become an issue of concern.

 Thanks a pantload, y'all. I'd gone 25 years without being convinced it'd all end in a fiery nuclear holocaust. Good job, everyone.

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