I ain't trying to get into, I was just swingin' on your gate.

 Before we get too deep in the big muddy today, I want to post a link to this superlative piece of journalism from Caleb Bedillion, Tina Campbell Meadows and Blake Alsup of the North Mississippi Daily Journal. Less than a month after Gov. Tate Reeves initially pooh-poohed the very real threat of COVID-19, especially to the people of Mississippi who're more poor and less healthy than the rest of the nation, Tippah County finds itself going under and sinking fast.

 Long story short, this county of 22,000 on the Tennessee line has the among the highest per capita infections in the state with 14.1 known cases for every 10,000 people. There have been three deaths so far, as well, and I know that doesn't sound a lot to y'all what live in the civilized world, but you have to understand what kind of place Tippah County is. Small, rural, close-knit and known for one helluva Labor Day party.

 As of last night, the only county in Mississippi that doesn't have any recorded cases is Issaquena in the Delta. However that county has barely 1,400 people - down from the 2,700 noted on the 2000 Census - a per capita income of just over 10,000. Furthermore, it's mostly African American, and we're learning that of everything that's being shut down, racism in America is still going strong. I've no doubt when the state gets around to it, they will find sufficient.

 So, read that piece. It's pretty good. Also check out this New Yorker interview with Fran Lebowitz. She's a hoot.

 Another link I want to share is this piece I wrote for the News yesterday evening concerning Bernie Sanders dropping out of the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America, how it affects the upcoming election as well as the legions of soi-disant leftists left out in the cold, and Just What It All Means. It's not quite as good, but I think it's a pretty solid slice of uncut journalism, but check it out yourself.

 I will say this. Since yesterday, a large number of those aforementioned "soi-disant leftists" have been gnashing their teeth and rending their garments that Sanders wasn't just given the nomination by the party he's been telling to suck his dick for the past five years. For his part, Sanders isn't being obnoxious about all this and hopes to use the delegates he has won (and could continue to win, since he'll be on the ballot for a while) as leverage to get more of his ideas into the party's platform for the election come November. As we say back in the Hills, "that's politics, baby."

 But because not running the risk of being slapped 'cause you're an asshole brings out the worst in people, Twitter's been full of The Faithful - both random dickheads and people whose opinions are supposed to matter - being tedious bores about the whole thing. If they're not demanding Joe Biden personally get down on his knees and perform fellatio on them for their vote, they're declaring their intention to take their ball & just note vote, which will certainly show the Democratic Party, since it worked so well in 1972, 1984 and 2004.

 Hold on, I want to show you something.

 See that? That's my brother, the tail-end of a very good thread of his as to why this whole "I can't in good conscious vote for Biden and another four years of Trump wouldn't be so bad (for me)" is just so irrevocably, undeniably stupid a stance to take. Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer - two of the four leftist voices on the Supreme Court - are both getting on in years and will probably have to retire before 2024 comes around. If you don't think a 7-2 Supreme Court with four Trump judges all in the same vein of Brett Kavanaugh but worse if he could get away wouldn't put give a death blow to any hope of any even slightly liberal rulings for the next two generations - as well as active attacks on contientious things like abortion, privacy laws and right to sue corporations - you are far, far too stupid and myopic to pay any attention whatsoever when it comes to politics.

 Now, I posted that picture of Baby Brother's gracious admission for a little context. For a good two decades, I was the guy that gave you shit and mocked you if you didn't vote. I was the guy who called you small minded when you said things like "politics doesn't matter" or "both parties are the same". I was the guy that worked registration booths and irritated you at work because of your bullshit reason why you didn't bother to take any sort of active participation in deciding who gets to tell you what goes and what doesn't, and why you were a ninny for giving that.

 That was then and this is now, though. I still think voting is important, even necessary, and I firmly believe that not voting as a protest is one of the dumber aspects of American culture. I do think that if we could get more than just maybe 40%, if we're lucky, of the voting age populace to actually take part in the process we wouldn't have to be dealing with, for example, a half-bright effete fancy lad who's never accomplished anything on his own except trading on his name and stirring up the worst aspects of the American psyche. This is your life. You have a say in how things go. You should take it.

 Except I really don't give a shit what you (the royal "you") do anymore. Vote or don't vote, I could give less of a damn but I'd have to be dead. This may be a facet of middle age, cynicism and nihilism taking over, or merely an aspect of my chronic depression, but I don't feel this is my world anymore. I will be 45 come Sunday and I doubt I'll see past than 30 more years on this, the third rock from the sun. I don't have kids. Indeed, I have nothing really invested in the future. I cherish my cousin's little ones, but I am not taking responsibility for them. I'm one of those sorts who has little sympathy if you decided to bring another human being into this veil of tears and it turns out to be a tough row to hoe.

 Much as I hate to say it, I'll be okay. For one, I'm a middle-class straight white guy and it's going to be a long time before we start feeling the cold and hearing the wolves howl. Furthermore, I have a good bit of land in my name and enough investment in such that so long as nothing drastic happens, I'll have plenty to keep me fed for the next 30 years. Even if that falls through, my extended family really likes me and would probably let me put a trailer in their backyard. Plus, I have guns in case shit really goes south.

 But this is your world. You're the one with kids. You're the one who has something invested in the future. You're the one who's choosing to live in this cold, cruel world and sharing the ride with 300 million of your nearest and dearest. You're the one who has to make a decision to boil that frog or do the very least to pull everything back from the Abyss. Read a little history and you'd be amazed at what human beings can pull off once they put their minds to it.

 Finally, I got to say it again. If all it takes for you to throw in the towel and give into pigs and bastards of the world is that the guy, the only guy, you put all your hopes and dreams onto didn't win the race he agreed to run, I have to be frank. I really don't think you really care beyond your ego and I certainly don't think you've got it in you to do the actual work it would take to move this world to what it should be for everyone.

 Prove me wrong or piss off.