She walks Bo Diddley and she don't need no crutch.

  I'm kind of tired. I don't know why, except that I'm always tired and feel like I never get enough sleep. So we'll fill up space this evening and then, probably, go back to sleep.

 There's one of those "one of them has to go" things floating around Twitter featuring Dylan, the Stones, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles. Those things are always maddening. I wonder if I'd be as irritated at the ones for anime or '90s kids' shows if I gave a shit about them, but I am not. I'm interested and enjoy music, so this sort of thing gets up my nose.

 I'm not going to bullshit you. I used to be a music critic for years and even longer as an Insufferably Music Snob. I used to get shitty about bands and genres I felt were lesser or overrated or some such nonsense. I was wrong, and I'm really glad I'm not like that anymore and can just enjoy whatever I hear.

 Back when I worked kitchens, I'd bring in music and since I usually worked prep, no one cared what I played. When I was in amongst the rest of the staff, I tried to keep it from being too much - too much bluegrass, country music, classical, etc. - and a decent mix for everyone to enjoy. It's fairly easy. I like soul music. I like R&B. I like rock music. I like jazz. I like hip-hop. I like metal. I like reggae. I can find something from every genre that I'm willing to listen to and wait until I get home before I shut out everyone else.

 I remember in one place when asked just what all I liked, my co-worker answered for me. "Matt likes good music." And that's what it boils down to, like what's good. But what's good? We live in a world, we've always lived in a world, where a significant portion of the music listening population sneered at another significant portion of the music listening population because that latter group was listening to something "popular" or "mainstream".

 When I moved to New Orleans 10 years ago, Lady Gaga was at the height of her initial popularity. This was before she made that movie with Bradley Cooper and still freaked people out by wearing meat dresses and whatnot. Anyhow, most of my rocker/blues/country acquaintances would diss her and her fans, so I decided to check her out and see.

 I won't lie, I didn't care for it. But so what? So what if the kids want to listen to her or K-Pop groups or Selena Gomez or Luke Bryan or whatever. Why should I care? I live in a world where I can give Apple or Amazon or Spotify 10 bucks a month and have access to hundreds of thousands of artists, from the obscure to the friggin' Beatles and Madonna. Or, hell, Beyonce and James Blunt.

 Several years ago, Paul McCartney did some sort of collaboration with Kanye West. Whether they were trolling or not, kids on the internet drove their parents nuts with comments like "Whoever this McCartney guy is, Kanye will make him famous." It was hilarious, but two things about the outrage struck me. One, why should the kids of the 2010s care about a band that hasn't produced anything in over 40 years?

 Secondly, and probably most importantly, instead of taking umbrage why aren't you going to those kids and showing them just why the Beatles are worth listening to? Why are you making them mixtapes or the current iteration of that sort of thing so maybe they can understand why you dig the band so much and why they're so important?

 One thing you see a lot these days on YouTube is young people posting reaction videos to some music they've never heard. As often as not, it's young black kids but I have seen at least one British guitar player reacting to hot licks from classic rock. I've seen them listen to Merle Haggard's "Big City" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird" or Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy." Those two twin brothers reacting to Phil Collins' "Something In The Air Tonight" that went so viral it got some mainstream media attention.

 I'm sure there have been videos of negative reactions but all I see is the kids digging it. Getting off on the part in "Freebird" where the song speeds up for the lengthy jam or they're grooving on that drum breakdown in the Collins song. Or they're just appreciating the message in "Big City," something that was supposed to connect with everyone when Hag recorded it.

 Going back to my kitchen days, I turned a lot of young people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds on to stuff they'd never even think of listening to. Or stuff their folks listened to, helping them understand why it resonates. I don't think I'm special, just in the right place at the right time with the right tunes.

 So that's word count, and I'm going to do something else now. If I have to wrap all his up into a nice, neat bow, it's pretty easy. Don't tell me what you don't like. Don't tell me who you think is overrated or "must go," because I do not care.

 Tell me what you like. Tell me what moves you and makes you dance. Tell me what makes you laugh and what makes you cry. Tell me what you play for the good times and what helps you through the bad times. Tell me about the song you always go to, over and over again, or the album you're obsessed with or the band that's always got your loyalty and love.

 Otherwise, piss off because I don't care.

Are you feeling all right? Not feeling too good myself.

  I really should've written this last night. I was full of piss and vinegar, fire and brimstone last night. But I was tired, had already put down 1,000 words of Actual Paying Work, and went to sleep early, and well... I guess it mellowed me out a bit. I'm still pissed off but it's back to the usual mellow boil.

 It's probably for the best, though, that I didn't write this down last night. Yes, I'm talking about the 17-year-old kid who decided to play vigilante and killed two folks in the demonstrations in Kenosha last night. More specifically, I was wound up about the wingnut reaction to the shooting.

 And I still am, because it was almost across-the-board positive. They dug it. They think it's great. They think it's justified. They think he was defending himself. They think he turned himself in. Now the story is they think he was hired by the auto dealer to protect the carlot when the auto dealer has said that was decidedly not the case.

 None of this is altogether all that shocking because conservatives have been warning of an armed revolt against anyone who doesn't think they have the morals or common sense to govern since before Trump got in office. They weren't concerned by the guy who was sending pictures of pipe bombs to media folks and Democrats. They did think it was prudent that last year's El Paso shooter did what he did because of hatred of migrants.

 Make no mistake, this isn't because of Trump. He may be acting as the catalyst, something speeding it up, but this has been Mainstream American Conservatism at least since the early Bush Jr. years. They called us the moral equivalent of fundamentalist clowns who murdered 3,000 people just trying to get paid because we wouldn't support the Iraq War. Or the president's education plan, whichever was the issue of the day. Calling your political opponents terrorists was a remarkably malleable political tactic.

  So that's where we are. This kid fired the first shot in what probably won't be a full-blown civil war, but very well might be a long, bloody clash between differing ideologies. Maybe both sides will back down if Biden wins, but I really don't see the Trump Base every doing anything but worship him. Furthermore, we've got Q promoters up for election in Congress and his brand of "fuck you, you didn't vote for me" politics is definitely a popular thing among younger Republicans.

 They want to tie the Democratic Party to AntiFa and Black Lives Matter, but that really doesn't groove like they think it should. The mainstream of the party and its left-wing can barely get along, and a whole lot of the people we're seeing in the streets don't have much use a'tall for the Democratic Party. The Right doesn't believe that and won't be persuaded otherwise, but they think Joe Biden is a red-eyed Marxist revolutionary. There's no hope for them.

 I think maybe the main issue is that not only are there enough people who're willing to brave brutal cops, an out-of-control pandemic that's killing more people every day than died on 9/11, and now gun-toting fascist lunatics who think they're the Praetorian Guard with licenses to kill and the explicit permission of law enforcement. Which they sort of have already, if you want to cut through the bullshit.

 So where will this go? That's a good question. The Right thinks it's the only one that has guns, and that is patently not true. They think AntiFa and BLM will fold at the least amount of pressure, and that is patently not true. They think the radicals they dismiss with a sneer don't have the right or the sand to defend themselves and fight for what they believe in, and that's patently not true.

 It's going to get wild, this I'm convinced of. It doesn't have to be, it's not an immutable law of physics. We're not over the brink yet, I don't think, and it's still possible to turn around before there's blood in the streets and families destroyed. I don't think we have it within ourselves - the maturity, as a culture - to do it, but it's not so far out of reach.

 None of this is "how things are supposed to be". There's no such thing as "how things are supposed to be". There just is, just life. Maybe we should actually start acting like we really believe life, all lives, matters, that all are created equal and free like we've claimed for so long.

 Because we're certainly not doing it now.

Big bayou, where do you go?

 First and foremost, Hurricane Laura is coming hot and heavy towards the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. They're saying it might be a Category 3 by the time it hits land. We dodged a bullet with Marco, but y'all don't play around on this. Things are screwed up right now, keep that in mind if you're thinking about riding it out.

 Okay, then. The Republican National Convention started last night. Like with the Democratic counterpart last week, I am not watching. I really don't care for the bread-and-circuses aspect of American politics and, in any event, if anything is interesting that happened it'll be all over Twitter. And it was, hoo boy.

 Apparently, Donald Trump Jr. and Kim Guilfoyle came off as coked out of their gourds giving their speeches. Junior's eyes were red and he babbled on like someone with a head full of speed, and Guilfoyle screamed like a maniac to an empty coliseum, managing to shit on both California and Puerto Rico. It's well known that conservatives loathe California, so despite her roots there it's not surprising she'd throw out the red meat. The Puerto Rico bit is a bit more of a puzzler, as she described herself as a "first-generation" child of immigrants. Her dad's Irish and her mom's Puerto Rican. Puerto Rico is a part of the United States.

 The normal qualifications apply here. As a white dude, I don't feel comfortable or qualified in commenting on whether or not a Person of Color is sufficiently meeting the standards of that Group of Color. So, I'm not here to judge Guilfoyle on where she stands there. I think folks born in Puerto Rico are as American as I am, and they are, legally speaking. I also know conservatives don't think Hispanics, in general, are "real Americans" regardless of where they're born, and the only other thing I'll say about Guilfoyle is her throwing red meat to the Base isn't that shocking.

 And so much for all of that. Otherwise, it was apparently a dullish evening that did what conventions are supposed to do. It fired up the base and pissed off the opposition, and like last week probably didn't move the needle that much when it comes to influencing voters. Apparently, Nikki Haley and Rep. Tim Scott impressed folks, but I don't care. I don't know much about Scott, but Haley's political pond scum and will cut a motherfucker for her 2024 ambitions.

 It apparently didn't draw quite the numbers the Democratic convention drew, but I don't put much stock in that. Tonight's going to be a doozy, though. They've got that Q nut from Georgia, some "angel mom" who's spreading anti-Semetic balderdash (from Q, as it turns out), and this forced-birth hypocrite who's just awful about one of her kids. Also, she thinks households should get just one vote, and if the spouses disagree, the husband's vote gets precedent. I doubt she approves of non-traditional coupling at all, so I doubt she's put much thought into it beyond that.

 Since Pat Buchanan went full Nazi back in 1992, at least, the Republican National Convention has been a been Old Home Week for the wingiest of right-wing nutballs. That is, the conservative mainstream, of course, and this is the latest iteration of that particular festering boil. You really don't see the Democrats embracing their "fringe," unless you count Bernie Sanders as "fringe" and I do not. But Buchanan was something of a prophet, as the GOP has been about little more than the "culture war" the past 30 years.

 Again, the base is being properly stirred up and that's about all Trump can reach now. I'm not saying "reasonable conservatives" or even "Never Trumpers" won't vote for him because they will. They're all terrified of Elizabeth Warren or still outraged about how poor Brett "Kegger" Kavanaugh was treated, so if anyone buys their bullshit, you've got no one to blame but yourself.

 And that's enough of that. I woke up this morning in a dour, dark mood I haven't quite been able to shake. Some of my neighbors tested positive for COVID-19 and we as a nation still refuse to take it seriously. A hurricane is coming to South Louisiana and we as a nation are not in a position to do much good if things go south. California is burning down and we don't have the manpower to fight it. The economy's crated and we're apparently accepting that 30 million folk may lose a roof over their heads as merely another joy of living under a capitalist system. I'm feeling absolutely no confidence in this writing thing and wondering if I should just quit bullshitting myself.

 On the flipside, Bobby Womack was great and we should've appreciated him more while he was alive. In the meantime, all of his best records are in print. I'm partial to Fly Me To The Moon and B.W. Goes C.W. but you decide for yourself.

I know one thing. Nobody can sing those blues like Hound Dog Taylor.

  It's Saturday night's Gibberish, and I'm not going to put the shuck on you, friends and neighbors. I got nothing. We're going to fill up the white space, but I'm really not in the mood and my brain feels like it's hung up on a stump. So anyhow, here's this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 Not my best week, admittedly. Monday and Friday were all right for what they were. The former a start-of-the-week glance and the latter a decent wrap-up. Wednesday sort of went off the rails, though. For whatever reason, I spent most of the day hiding under the bed trying to ignore the universe. And while it wasn't much for News, it did turn out to be some half-decent Gibberish. It linked the Democrats "virtual convention" - particularly them going live to different states to let them show off a bit - and my cross-country Big Trip from last year. It is a beautiful country full of lovely people, and it's only a shithole because we want it to be.

 I really need to come up with a better name for this, whatever it is, than "Gibberish". It lacks a certain gravitas, of course, but I also think it's limiting me as a writer. I've noted again and again (and again and again) that while I enjoy writing and truly believe I have a certain flair for it, there really has to be something more I can bring to the table than this, whatever it is. If for no other reason, I need to come up with something unique because what the world really doesn't need is another middle-aged white man stroking his chin at the issues of the day.

 I've been listening to a lot of Hound Dog Taylor lately. Nothing too deep in that, I just want to give him his ups. I'm particularly fond of that Elmore James-inspired "slashing" slide guitar like from him, J.B. Hutto, and Homesick James. Plus, the HouseRockers might be the hottest backing band in juke-joint blues.

 What else? I've been getting knee-deep into Pillars of Eternity II lately. It's pretty much all I've played the last week. I'm almost to the endgame with one character (a rouge-ranger hybrid), so of course, I've spent the last week experimenting with different classes, different play styles, and different ways to approach the story. One thing I appreciate about games like this is how they have an overall narrative and plot the game requires you to follow, but along the way, you can make up your own reasons why your character acts as it does. Same thing with the XCOM games; the What and Where are there, but the How and Why is mine. We sort of share the Who.

 I wonder if that's why my brain's felt like molasses the last couple of days. All of my creative energy, such as it is, goes into that game. And this is coming off a week where all I could do is watch documentaries on YouTube and read. I managed to finish The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, enjoying it much more than previously. I also read Philip K. Dick's Eye In The Sky. Fun book, but someone said he has better ideas but not the sufficient skill to put them down into a story, and that book is a prime example of that.

 Or it may be the values dissonance messing with me. For all his weird ideas, Dick was a pretty old-fashioned due, particularly when it came to male and female relationships. Most of your male science fiction writers from back in the day - say, before the '80s, definitely - were pretty stodgy and old-fashioned. And unimaginative, too, like they couldn't comprehend a world where women were anything more than secretaries who either wanted to fuck you or had something wrong with them.

 Dick's a little better than most when it comes to portraying African Americans, and this book had a good Black character, even if the point-of-view character was a Dick avatar, like everything he wrote. Off the top of my head, I can't think how he's dealt with LGBT characters, but I do remember Harlan Ellison being extremely shitty about in "I Have No Mouth, And I Must Scream." However, Ellison's a butthole, great writer or no, and he's got a history of being shitty to women in the real world.

 Okay, then. That's word count and supper's almost ready. I might come back, but I probably won't.

Good luck. I think you're going to need it when you're caught out in the storm.

 Since we spent most of yesterday down where the drunkards roll, the News was mostly Gibberish. Therefore, today's Gibberish will be mostly News. Or something like, depends on how I feel after supper.

 Regardless it has been a very eventful day indeed. I'm not sure where to start. There is an embarrassment of riches. Since a lot of them need time to marinate - and I'll need something to work on for tomorrow's News - we'll just touch on them a little bit. And away we go.

 Perhaps the most karmically satisfying tidbit from today's events was learning that former Trump campaign manager, hot tub despoiler, and slimy greaseball Steve Bannon was arrested at sea - in a yacht owned by a Chinese spy who's avoided deportation thanks to his membership at Mar-A-Lago - for his part in defrauding investors in the totally legit "We Build The Wall." Bannon's accused, along with three others (including a Breitbart funder) of using up to $25 million in funds gathered to build that dumbass wall along the border for "personal use". I haven't seen what that entails yet, and considering Bannon's oleaginous nature, I'd rather not know.

 There are some interesting folks caught up in this, though we don't know yet if they'll see any charges filed. For one, failed Sheriff David Clarke and, for another, failed video game company owner Curt Shilling, but the best, the very best, name involved is "Diaper" Donald Trump Jr. He's given a couple speeches for the group, though the White House is pulling the whole "they just brought coffee" bit. So we'll see. Bannon pleaded not guilty. In a nice bit of karmic justice, he was apprehended by agents of the United States Postal Service. That? That is Beauty.

 In other news to bring joy, a U.S. District Court judge has tossed out Trump's attempt to quash a subpoena trying to get the dirty bastard to release his tax returns. The New York Attorney General has been after his for a while on this issue, though A.G, Cy Vance has been rather tight-lipped at just what he's investigating beyond Trump being a corrupt bastard. There is some suggestion it has to do with where the hush money he paid Stormy Daniels came from, but that's all supposition.

 Trump's already taken some hits on this at the Supreme Court level - he's trying to claim he's above prosecution since he's President while the law is telling him to get stuffed - but his law dogs will appeal. He didn't have a good day. He's attacked an American manufacturer because he misunderstood company policy, causing no end of backlash, and has been in a days-long meltdown over the Democratic National Convention. Speaking of which, Bannon was scheduled to speak at next week's Republican National Convention and apparently still is. And the Susan B. Anthony Museum told him to get bent.

 One does wonder - or hope, maybe - if the reason all these chickens are coming home to roost is due to the boys and girls in the back, the long-suffering bureaucrats Trump and his yapping lickspittles call "The Deep State" see the writing on the wall. He's slipping more in the polls and Republicans who don't want to be seen as frothing mad conspiracy theorists are actively endorsing Joe Biden.

 Okie doke. That's enough for tonight. Hopefully, we'll get back to what we laughing refer to around here as "normal", but that all depends on how late I stay up tonight playing Pillars of Eternity II. Be forewarned: it's going to be late.

One more reason for my mama's hungry eyes.

  Undoubtedly meant to take the sting off his comment about how "suburban housewives" will "get over" his dismissiveness, Trump decided to pardon suffrage pioneer Susan B. Anthony for her arrest in 1872 for trying to vote. I'm not sure what this was supposed to accomplish - beyond the sad political trick, of course - but there were plenty of living women Trump could've pardoned. Reality Winner, just one example. Besides, Anthony never fought the arrest because that was sort of the whole point and the law in her hometown of Rochester didn't pursue it.

 This was early in the Suffrage Movement, where Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Staton and others were gearing up to shake the world and expose the outright hypocrisy of the U.S. government denying the vote to fully one-half the population. The fight was long and hard - and if anyone tells you Joe Sixpack was on their side, even secretly, they're lying - but by 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified and a person's gender no longer prevented the vote.

 All fine and good, of course. However, in response to Trump's goofy pardon, a number of people pointed out, truthfully, that Anthony was a pretty nasty racist. Famously she said she'd rather cut off her right arm if the black man got the vote before the white woman, referring to the Fifteenth Amendment. And, yes, it's okay to take this as racist because she went on to talk about virtuous white women and degraded black men, and the Suffrage Movement was pretty dismissive of black women the whole time through.

 NowThis News made this informative little video about why Anthony's history shouldn't be ignored and, indeed, maybe it's time to honor other women as well, like Ida B. Wells or Fannie Lou Hamer. Apparently, people put "I Voted" stickers on Anthony's tombstone, but that's a new one to me.

 And of course, Dudebro Twitter lost their shit and have spent the day howling about "cancel culture." It was pretty much across the board, as both soi-disant libertarians and socialists pointed out... what was their problem, anyway? This is recorded history, and frankly, I'm sort of amazed this is coming as a surprise to so many people. I thought it was common knowledge that a whole lot of folks in 19th-century American history did amazing things but were also racist as hell, either against black folks, Indigenous peoples, the Chinese, hell, the Irish and Italians before we decided they were properly white.

 I know no one likes to admit that we were a nation of Rotten Bastards built on the backs of people we wouldn't let fight back, but we're an old enough country to own the truth. And this isn't a case of "judging the past by our standards". There were people in the 1870s who thought Anthony was a bigotted jackass and, in any eve, wrong is still wrong.

 None of this soils the Suffrage Movement just like Margaret Sanger doesn't soil Planned Parenthood or Thomas Jefferson doesn't soil the ideals behind the U.S. Constitution. Nor is it "erasing history" to be blunt and coldly honest about the country's history, warts and all. That's called "being an adult," and maybe we as a culture should give it a shot.

 By the way. If you're the type of person who's getting bent out of shape over this or removal of the Confederate flag or toppling of statues of Confederate generals, you don't have to wonder "which side" you would've been on back in those days. You're pretty much staking out the claim without ambiguity.

I'm hard to hold and too damn mean to die.

 I stayed up too late last night playing Pillars of Eternity II and slept most of the day. I'm in a foul mood for some reason. Not blue, more pissed off or what Momma calls "the red ass". Hey ho.

 We've had a pretty good week, News wise. We talked about Trump's "executive orders" he signed last weekend, what they mean, and whether or not they were worth a damn Monday. On Wednesday we discussed the impact of Sen. Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's pick for Vice-President and just how much good it will do him once November rolls around. Finally, we did a wrap-up on Friday, touching on the post office shenanigans, COVID-19 in Mississippi, and the whole return of the birtherism bullshit that you just know conservatives have been thirsting for.

 There's lots of good stuff there. As I said, a good week for the News and a pretty good week for this here Gibbersh, frankly. Plus, my Actual Paying Work went over well, so it's BDE all around. For all that's worth. Like I keep saying, no matter how much I write, no matter how much I tell myself and other people that I am, I really don't feel like a writer. I don't even know how to feel like a writer, and that's what's pissing me off the most.

 I've been a bit obsessed with my "middle-aged bachelor" status lately. Don't get it twisted. I am glad I am alone, don't wish anyone was in my life, and however bad someone broke my heart, I'm glad she's doing what she wants elsewhere with another dude. Still and all, it bothers me sometimes just why that is and why I'm not one of those twisted, miserable assholes who're single because they're shitasses about women and how they treat them.

 I figured out long ago that being in a relationship was not for me. Only twice I wanted to try, and both times were absolute disasters. My best relationship was with my last ex, and that started as a "friends with benefits" deal. Unfortunately, she fell and wanted something more when I was happy hanging out for a couple days, screwing each others' brains out, and then me going home for a week to be by myself. That's probably on me, I should've split sooner, but she's still one of my closest friends and her current dude is a friend as well. Plus, he does what I didn't want to do, so bonus all the way around.

 Hmm. I'm close to five hundred words, and you know what? I really don't feel like digging into this particular topic anymore. Nor do I feel like expanding on Pillars of Eternity II, which is a great game and a worthy successor to the original. I had considered writing about the dust-up I had with a Sanders dead-ender on Twitter earlier in the week, making for one of the few times I've been antagonist with someone on social media for going on five years. It eventually turned into "you really care about what I think" from him despite me telling him over and over I did not, nor was his lack of enthusiasm for Biden the source of my irritation with his ilk.

 Once they turned into just another Twitter troll, it was no longer worth the effort. However, it was nice to blow my top on someone and let lose a little tension, especially since I don't have access to good weed these days. Okay, that's word count and supper's about done. Maybe I'll come back, but I'm more inclined to sleep some more and then play some more PoE2. So there you go.

Everything's the same. There ain't nothin' changed.

 I have some Actual Paying Work to get done tonight, so we're going to knock this out right quick. Fortunately, we've still got plenty of Kamala Harris stuff to talk about. Apparently, Wingnut Intelligencia went decided to go full-goose loony right out the gate.

 The funny thing is until Trump started out remaking himself on Twitter, the whole Birther thing was fairly fringe. It first popped up on some Z-list wingnut blog before Obama got the nomination. I don't think it was the same folks who claimed Michelle had said "Kill Whitey" on tape, but it may have. Anyhow, the Clinton people did some opposition result and it came up nothing - naturally - and stayed on the lunatic fringe until Trump used it to make himself a public figure.

 Twelve years later, and there are still plenty of conservatives who're convinced that not only is Barack Obama not a native-born citizen, but the Republican Party and every government in the entire world is in on the con. This is the level of folks we're dealing with here. Unfortunately, the lunatic fringe has become the GOP mainstream, so the last 12 or so hours have been them going apeshit over Kamala Harris' eligibility. And here's why that's not only stupid but racist.

 For one, there is absolutely no question that she is an American citizen. She was born in Oakland, CA, and according to the 14th Amendment, that's it. Her dad was from Jamaica and her mom was from India, but both were naturalized citizens when she was born. Again, the 14th Amendment is very clear on this. There is absolutely no argument about this. Racists have called her an "anchor baby," which just means that, yes, she is a citizen.

 The height of this horseshit came from a column in Newsweek by Chapman University law professor John Eastman. His column was pretty much the above paragraph, followed by several paragraphs of "but maybe that's not so". The saddest part of this is seeing how far the once very respectable name of Newsweek has fallen. They were sold by The Washington Post for a nickel ten years ago to some far-right Christian Dominionist group that isn't "The Family," apparently, and have been running columns by the likes of Charlie Kirk and this clown.

 The opinion section is run by some yo-yo named Josh Hammer, who's a member of the same bunch of right-wing extremists as Eastman, The Claremont Institute. That wasn't mentioned in the column, by the way. For that matter, neither was the little nugget of information that Eastman ran for the same Attorney General of California back in 2010 that Harris won and brought her to national prominence. He didn't make it out of the Republican primary - finished third, actually - but is it possible he's still got some sand in his ass about being beaten by a woman of color? It would be irresponsible to not speculate.

 Even in his column defending the original mess of bullshit, Hammer said the "controversy" wouldn't go away. Well, no shit, sleazeball, way to add fuel to the fire. Way to make it mainstream and give it credence. There was no question about this, especially considering Eastman wrote a piece a couple years ago defending (rightly) the eligibility of Ted Cruz. He was born in Canada but to an American citizen, for what it's worth.

 And this, friends and neighbors, is what the next 80-something days are going to be like. We're already seeing people profess confusion over whether Harris is "black" or "Indian" or if having a Jamaican father means she's "black" enough or "African American". Laura Ingraham, She-Wolf of the SS, said on her hate hour that Harris had an ancestor in Jamaica that was a slave owner. This was supposed to be a sick burn, despite Frau Laura not stopping to think just why a black woman might have a slave-owning ancestor.

 If nothing else, this affair exposes the rank dumbness of far too many white Americans. They can't handle mixed heritages or ethnicities that don't fall neatly into census boxes. They get a hard-on for Confederate statues while pretending the horrors of slavery didn't happen, much less still have after-effects in the present. They claim the Left is "obsessed" with race when they spread stupid, ignorant shit like this at the drop of the hat.

 Look, bubba. If you're questioning about Harris' citizenship, you're a racist. If you use the phrase "anchor baby," you're racist. If you're trying to parse whether she's black enough or Indian or whatever, you're a racist. Deal with it. This is your party now. Hell, Trump is trying to scare white suburbanites by telling them Corey Booker - the Wayne Brady of American politics - will come after them if Biden wins. Own it. Embrace it. No one is fooled into thinking otherwise.

 Hell, I just wonder how long it's going to be before Trump's dumbass says something about Harris' Indian heritage but he thinks it's American Indigenous rather than someone from India. You know it's coming. You could almost set your watch by it.

Let it rain.

 Well, we got the word today. Joe Biden announced his Vice-President would be California Senator and former Democratic nominee hopeful Kamala Harris. We'll look a little more into the political side of this tomorrow in the News, but this is a big deal and demands some heavy thinking.

 While such an announcement does need to marinate, most of the reactions have been fairly predictable. Trump's already called her "nasty" because she was mean to Brett "Kegger" Kavanaugh. Congressional dickheads like Sen. John Cornyn of Texas are already trying to paint her as a radical, red-eyed liberal. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the soi-disant "Never Trumpers" are sadly shaking their head and admitting with heavy sighs that due to Harris being the VP nominee, they have no choice but to vote for Trump. And finally, the Sanders dead-enders are further solidifying their stance as irrelevant to the national political stage as they rend their garments in performative rage and hope Trump wins so everyone will like them.

 Really, I've touched on this before, but if you're willing and eager for Trump to win because the Biden-Harris ticket or the DNC, in general, isn't pure enough for you, you are not progressive and you do not have the average folks best interest at heart. You either don't have what it takes to play the game or you're just doing it all for shits and giggles. Yes, I'm talking to you, Walker Bragman, you weaselly little turd.

 Anyhow, Kamala Harris. Look, I'm not going to lie. Of all the Democratic nominees, she's one of the ones I liked, which isn't saying much. I have no illusions about the Democratic Party nor the candidates. They are not going to nominate anyone much to the left of Barack Obama or, for that matter, Bernie Sanders since there's not quite as much difference between the two as some would like to think. That's just how it is and the feet stomping the self-declared Left does every four years won't change that fact.

 So, like Cory Booker or Julián Castro, the main reason I favored her, as far as that goes, was the youth factor. All due respect and one has to admire the vitality of Elizabeth Warren, Sanders, and even Biden at 70-plus, and they're all at least "just fine" at what they do. Again, we're not expecting Eugene Debbs or Emma Goldman, here, so let's be realistic.

 What calls itself the Left in this country really needs to understand a couple of things. One, within a two-party system, you have to build from the bottom. That's what the Modern Conservative Movement did, taking over school boards and city councils in the '60s and '70s. Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon were not down at all for that hardcore evangelical movement The Family documents, but it suited Ronald Reagan down to his toes, so long as he won. Put a little work in down the ticket and don't expect to be given the Presidency by the folks you've been calling fascists for the past 20 years. We could've done this in 2000 but the Greens decided the smell of their own farts was more pleasing and less work, so here we are.

 Second - and this is the most important thing - if Trump gets another term in office, you can forget any idea of implementing progressive politics on a national level for at least two generations. It's going to be a tough row to hoe to get out of the right-wing pit he and his GOP lackeys have put us in as it is. But if he wins? Man, forget about it. It is done.

 Even worse, you can kiss progressive politics on a state and local level goodbye if he wins come November. More likely than not, a Trump federal government emboldened by a second term will come down hard on states and cities that don't toe the line despite how big a wreck Republican policies obviously make things. I mean, I live in Mississippi and while I probably won't see it, it'd be nice to be a part of what would make this state not a complete shame to call home. Trump wins, that's not going to happen.

 You can call me an alarmist if you want, but that just means you haven't been paying attention. The Gestapo-like tactics of ICE and the Border Patrol have already been tested in Portland, and enough of the goons desperate for an Authoritarian Daddy president is cool and the gang with it. The Postmaster General is actively fucking with how the mail is delivered to stymie vote-by-mail and Republicans have sliced-and-diced funding for local voting precincts, especially in minority areas. Abortion will be almost impossible for all but the rich and well-connected, especially once they replace Ruth Ginsberg with someone who makes Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch like refugees from Haight-Ashbury.

 And so long as he gets his cheers from his screaming fans - who've already said they're "just waiting on the word" from the President to "deal with" anyone that needs dealing with - Trump won't give a shit. You have to know this. This has to be glaringly obvious if you're at all serious about making this country and this world a better place for those that come behind you.

 If you can't bring yourself to pull the lever at least against Trump and the GOP, well... it's your world, for you and your kids. I'll be fine either way and only have to hold out another 30 years or so. If all you really care about is moral superiority, political purity, or whatever the hell it is, that's on you, bubba.

Across the Great Divide.

 The mush brain continues, though I do believe the funk is gone. I'm not dancing on the ceiling by any means, but this sort of bored ennui is a step up from feeling like I've buried alive in the blues. Baby steps, neighbors, baby steps.

 Unfortunately, that means that once again I have no real interest in writing anything and this is just filling up the white space for another night. Apparently during one of his vocal rambles that he calls a press conference, Trump cut and run after CBS reporter Paula Reid called him out on constantly claiming credit for a veteran's bill Obama signed in 2014. Trump signed an extension in 2018 but since he's dumber than a stump, he gets them confused.

 I missed it because I try to avoid watching the man we've allowed access to the nuclear codes speak. It's embarrassing as a human being to watch someone fail at talking in public so egregiously yet wield so much power. Even with his malaprops and constantly confused look, like someone explaining calculus to a hound dog, George W. Bush didn't come off as rock stupid and arrogant about it as Trump does.

 For the record, I would avoid Obama's speeches in public whenever I could and still do. His particular brand of political mojo worked on me like no public official in my lifetime has. I never thought, for example, that Bill Clinton was anything but a guy who'd sell you a pick-up with bad wheel bearings. Reagan always struck me as a befuddled actor even before his mental facilities started to slip, and Bush Sr. came off as a persnickety college vice-president more than anything else.

 But no one is as dumb and arrogant about being so dumb as Donald Trump. And his fans love it. They've been defending him, "Of course he scarpered off, how dare the press question him." They act like his petulance and crybaby behavior is something to be admired, "speaking his mind" and "telling it like it is." No, he's a punk, plain and simple.

 Someone asked me why I concentrate on Republicans and conservatives rather than Democrats and liberals. For one, Democrats and liberals aren't as much fun to write about. Seriously, Obama was hypnotizing but he was also boring. It'd be like writing about a particularly competent college president. Even Nancy Pelosi is fairly dull, to the point where conservatives have to believe an obviously modified video to "prove" she's a drunk.

 But even as entertaining as Republicans are - whether it's Trump or drooling morons like Matt Gaetz or vicious dirtbags like Dan Crenshaw - they're also actively working to fuck people over. People might bemoan the Democrats' reluctance to shake up the Status Quo or buck Corporate America too much, and there's plenty there to criticize.

 Regardless, they're trying to keep what they consider the shape of state from sinking and, more importantly, trying to keep the underclasses from rising up and guillotining rich people. That's the intent behind FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society.

 But Republicans? They want to radically change society to remove ever stride not-rich-white men have made since Reconstruction fell. That's not just civil rights for women or People of Color or LGBT. That's voting rights, that's environmental concerns, that's workers' protections, and that's just the start of it. And a lot of Our Fellow Americans, way too many, are fine with that idea.

 One thing the recent protests against police brutality and lack of accountability is showing us just how many of our neighbors would be fine with an authoritarian government. Indeed, they're pretty convinced that's what this country was supposed to be from its very beginning.

 Anyhow, that's word count. I forgot to add the links at the beginning, so I'll do it here. Wednesday was a deep dig into the explosion that rocked Beirut Tuesday night. It's a good piece, check it out. Monday and Friday were less concentrated and more wrap-ups. Monday was more about Trump's tantrum towards TikTok and Friday looked at just how bad the back-to-school rollout is going, particularly here in Mississippi.

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Roll away the stone, roll away the stone.

 Once again, I really don't have much on the boiler today. Once again, I woke up this morning and was completely uninterested in dealing with the rest of humanity. Once again, my first glimpse of Twitter confirmed my initial suspicions. And once again, I shut it down for most of the day and spent it all reading about the nature of time and listening to B.B. King. Highly recommended.

 So we'll just do the whole "filling up the white space" thing. About what, I don't know. That funk that sat on me last week is still around. It's not really a case of the blues so much as just being too tired and disinterested to really deal with it all. Things are a mess right now. The "we must send kids back to school, so what if a few will die and many will suffer life-long debilitating effects of catching COVID-19" movement shows no signs of slowing down.

 It'd be tough to convince me that the mindless push for this is basically another way of getting the plebes back to work to make more money for the Powers That Be. If nothing else, our country's reaction to dealing with the pandemic has ripped a number of masks off, and one of them is how little the "job providers" give a shit about who makes them their money.

 That may sound unnecessarily cynical, but I'm not seeing anything to make me think otherwise. Shit, man, I've got nothing. Fact, right there, and I'm not in the mood to debate it. Today's new tactic from the Trump Administration is to try to convince folks that Biden is trying to "hurt God" and get rid of the Second Amendment.

 I never know who shit like this is supposed to convince. The True Believers already think every Democratic president of the last 30 years has been inches away from destroying every firearm in the country. I'm not going to look it up, but there hasn't been a serious threat to the Second Amendment ever. Limits aren't the same thing. But again, as I've said elsewhere, I really don't care about your guns or your access to them. If you don't care your kids get shot up and you never know when some dingbat will decide a whole Wal-Mart needs to die, that's on you.

 What else is there? Hell, I don't know. I have the worst mush brain today. Worse, I have absolutely no time for nonsense. Just had some yo-yo on Twitter try to claim it's "obvious" the "mainstream media" is trying to stir up a "race war" and that's just fucking dumb. I'll say it again; if you think the corporate media is concerned with anything other than making money, you're a fool and probably should be kept away from sharp objects and firearms.

 The New York Attorney General has opened legal proceedings against the NRA based on their financial shenanigans. I don't know if it will have any long-term effects on what's undeniably become a lobbying group for gun manufacturers, and one that's taken a number of hits to its credibility in recent years, at that.

 Okay, that's 500 words. I'm tired and think I'll shut it down. I'll have the News tomorrow. Hopefully, this funk will be gone sooner than later.

Hang on in there.

 Man, what a day. Have you seen the Axios interview Jonathan Swan had with Trump? Holy cow, go look at that thing. Words fail me. There is so much bad with it. His fumbling every answer about the government's COVID-19 response is sad. His dismissal of even pretending to give a shit what John Lewis represented is embarrassing. And once again sending good wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell is just mortifying. This is our president, the guy who holds the nuclear codes. That's the worst part.

 You know, this has gone beyond funny, even in a dark, absurdist sense. We have a stone moron as president, someone who doesn't give a shit about the people he represents if it makes him look bad, is undeniable racist to the point where he's willing and eager to screw over people to continue it, and he's probably wrapped up in the largest underage rape scandal in modern history that doesn't involve the Catholic Church.

 He can't even be bothered to act right, that may be what's yanking my chain most of all. All criticism just rolls off him as being either "fake news" or "presidential harassment" or just people in general being mean and jealous of him. I've sort of skipped out on today - yes, the funk is still here - so I don't know what the general reaction from the Base is, apart from their insistence that Joe Biden is in a constant dementia haze and never leaves his basement. That's their entire argument.

 I may have said it here before, but I am not so much "for Joe Biden" as I am "against Donald Trump". I don't know if it's my allegiance to H.L. Menken's dictum that the only way a reporter should look at a politician is down, my cynicism thanks to the quality of elected officials throughout my adulthood, or just the simple fact that I'm kind of a salty bastard. Regardless, I've never been able to catch that spirit some people seem to get when they get behind a candidate.

 Take this election, for example. I liked some of Bernie Sanders' and Elizabeth Warren's ideas, I liked some of the stances Cory Booker and Julián Castro had, and I liked the way Kamala Harris carried herself. I thought any of the five would make fine executive officers but shed no tears when each dropped out. In fact, apart from Bloomberg and Yang and the Starbucks guy, nobody who was a serious contender was all that bad.

 But we wound up with Joe Biden because the majority of Democratic voters felt he was the best man for the job, and the job at hand is getting Donald Trump and his slimy crew out of power. Biden's got the experience and years, but along with that comes with the normal baggage most people pretend isn't gathered by every politician ever. The 1994 Crime Bill is a stain on his record, sure, but the same people who decry that think it's not a big deal than Bernie Sanders was an avid supporter of it.

 That's politics, though, and people who complain about shit like that or pretend it's a killer don't understand how politics works. They don't understand how journalism works either, for that matter. We're not giving the Beltway Media a pass, but Swan's evisceration of Trump in the Axios interview isn't really that hard. He just kept asking follow-up questions and, more importantly, asking "why do you insist that bit of bullshit is reality?" Any journalist can do that. The reason the Beltway Media doesn't is, for the most part, because they have a vested interest in pretending the office of the Presidency isn't up for grabs to any two-bit hustler who stirs up the lizard brains of enough of the country.

 It's not all on them, though. Up to a certain point, the media - any media - is like any other business: they provide the desired service. As consumers of journalism, it's beholden to the public to not accept the very least done, and unfortunately, we have for generations. It really wasn't up until Nixon and Watergate before that Wall of Silence was shattered. Even so, we've allowed ourselves to believe They're All Crooks, The Media Does Nothing But Lie, and There's Nothing We Can Do About It.

 To do otherwise would require us as citizens to do some actual work, to do some actual thinking. Pretending that's Just The Way It Is takes the responsibility off of us and assigns it to some amorphous entity, so it goes on and on. So the real question is "why doesn't the media do its job".

 The real question is "why don't we do our job?" And that is a good question, indeed.

My brain is cloudy, my soul is upside down.

 I really don't have anything tonight. It's already past 8 p.m. and I've been staring at a blank screen for almost an hour in between reading dumb arguments on Quora. So we'll just gonzo it out tonight until we fill up space and then I'll probably go to sleep.

 I've been sleeping a lot lately. I'm just tired and disenchanted with the world, I guess. All that arguing over the Actual Paying Gig took a lot out of me. I'm hanging in, but I'm tempted to jump ship once I have enough saved up for a laptop. July might be enough to make the nut.

 There's a certain level of pride that comes with getting paid to write again, but I'm really not interested in the hassle. Part of the ongoing jibber-jabber over "cancel culture" is folks joking around about the poor, oppressed $20 thousand a month New York Times writers having to deal with editors, which is worse than the worst thing ever. Yes, even worse than that.

 I'm almost sympathetic to them and that stroke. I used to hate working with editors, going over what I got wrong and how it could be more readable. I recognize the utility in it, I just hated doing it. I wrote it, my job is done, trust me that everything worth knowing is in there. Editing is your job, you do it. I'm taking a nap.

 Now, having to deal with Google searches screwing with whatever it screws with, that's a whole new kettle of fish. I quit pro journalism at what was basically the beginning of the Online Age. It's sort of funny, I remember going to a conference in the '90s and one of the speakers telling us that within 10 years all newspapers would be online. Ten years later saw him wrong, but 20 years was closer.

 Still not there yet, of course, and most publications are going to primarily online because it's too damn expensive to keep up a print entity these days. It's a shame because there's a real opportunity now that everyone and their grandma has a smartphone and all you'd need is an app. However, real journalists got caught with their pants down and now the average schlub gets their news from Facebook. We are a dumb culture.

  Speaking of journalism, as much as I agree the Big Time Media has its issues, I've decided that too much ranting about the "mainstream media" will become one of the phrases I use to decide if someone is worth listening to or not. Like, for instance, "cancel culture." Anyone who claims "cancel culture" is a serious issue isn't worth paying attention to. Anyone who's criticism of the media starts and ends with "they all lie" or "they push agendas" isn't worth paying attention to.

 Your average media outlet - especially one like The Washington Post or CBS news - has little stake in ideological causes and are more concerned with ad revenue. They may be socially liberal, but they are tightly bound to the American Capitalist idea of Profit Über Alles. Any attempt at journalistic integrity is mainly so they don't get sued for what they print or broadcast. If you think otherwise, you're far too naive for me to help.

 That's just how it is. Maybe it can be changed, maybe it can't. I don't know. But the fact that it exists does not render the media as a whole useless. If you understand that bias and recognize how it affects everything about the process - from gathering info down to presentation - it's at least useful.

 But people want to complain. We all think we're the main protagonist of the Big Narrative, and every story has to have an antagonist. It's just easier to think some overwhelming force - capitalism, socialism, religion, atheism - is making people and life awful instead of it just being a case of people being buttholes because they can or know of no other way to be.

 The universe really doesn't care about us at all. Remember: it existed for over 14 billion years without mankind and doesn't really need us around. Calm down. Have a good time. Don't be assholes to each other. It'll be all right.