I ain't good lookin', baby, but I'm some woman's sweet angel child.

  Three more days. It's 6:30 p.m. Country Standard Time here at Enon Holler World Headquarters, and in less than 75 hours all the mess will be over. More likely than not, though, a whole new mess will kick into gear. Before we get started with anything, though, let's bring y'all up to date with this week's News.

  It was a pretty good week overall, three short entries that get the job done, and don't waste your time. We touch on Amy Coney-Barrett's appointment to the Supreme Court Monday and the preparation for Hurricane Zeta Wednesday. Friday looked at the result of said hurricane and some other odds and ends.

 We also saw the slow crumbling of the Hunter Biden laptop story through the week, from a weak piece of bullshit to begin the week to Tucker Carlson himself saying it's not worth the effort for the end. It was interesting to watch it in real-time. Never really holding up for anyone except for those who really wanted it to, it nevertheless failed to catch on with a political media that not only loves bullshit scandals but was thirsty for an election horse race. Nobody wanted to touch it, and once The Wall Street Journal and Fox News turned it down, it was pretty much done. It didn't help that apparently the source for the claims, Rudy Giuliani, actively worked against giving out more info or access to the laptops he claims were slam dunks.

 I hate to play into the delusions of the Trump Base, but I do think The Powers That Be has had it with Trump shitting the bed so thoroughly and aren't inclined to put their thumb on the scale for him. That doesn't mean they're rooting for Joe Biden - doesn't mean they aren't either, I just don't know - and at the risk of going full looney conspiracy theory, I do think there are enough people with enough swing to nudge it one way or another. If that makes sense, and it probably doesn't. I'll get it into some other time. It isn't quite the "five men in the back room with the big cigars" but it's close. Anyhow.

 Hey, it's Halloween. We've probably got all the trick-or-treaters we'll see this year, meaning my cousin's kids and their neighbor. That's fine. I've never been crazy about Halloween as an adult and even less so since I quit drinking. Oddly enough, the last two towns I lived in - Athens, GA, and New Orleans - were big Halloween towns. Even so, the entertainment I got from walking around and seeing people in their costumes wore thin as I got older.

 I've been reading Edward M. Erdelac's Merkabah Rider: High Planes Drifter this week and thoroughly enjoying it. Long story short, it's a collection of novels about a drifter in the West dealing with supernatural horrors but with the gimmick of Judaic mysticism. It's the first in a series of four collections telling an overall story, and I'll probably pick up the other books. I've written a little more in my own Weird Westerns. Another set of character sketches instead of an actual story. I have a plot forming but it's pretty thin.

 I've always had a fascination with religious mysticism. Though I'm no expert, it's always been interesting that Judaism is more accepting of its more esoteric aspects than the other Abrahamic religion. I have no idea why. Christianity has actively tried to suppress its mystic side, though I think Islam is cooler with Sufism. Eastern religions are a whole different kettle of fish, particularly Taoism. Granted, most of what I know about Taoist mysticism comes from the Mr. Vampire movies, but there you go.

 Finally, two excellent CreativeForge Games titles, Hard West and Phantom Doctrine are on sale at Steam this weekend. The former for $1.99 and the latter for $7.99. Both are XCOM-style turn-based strategies, but Hard West has a Weird Western shtick while Phantom Doctrine takes an approach that resembles Len Deighton-style '80s spy thrillers. The TBS aspect of the latter takes a back seat to the spy stuff, so you'll spend more time gathering evidence and making connections, but it's still a blast. I really dig both of them, though the XCOM games are still superior. However, you can't go wrong at those prices, so dig 'em.

 Support indie gaming, enjoy your Halloween and relax this weekend. Monday and Tuesday are going to be a mess.

You know how people are. They can't stand to see you be exactly who you are.

 Six more days. Less than a week. Is it getting dumber? Yes, yes it is.

 I think it's time I do a little more explaining on how I approach the News. For what it's worth, for the Gibberish - this here - I do whatever I damn well please. Anyhow, when picking sources for links, my only rule is if it's a local story, try to use a local link. Otherwise, go nuts. There are a couple of far-right sources I won't mess with because anything useful they might provide will come from someone not skirting libel laws. But as far as it goes, Fox News or The Wall Street Journal is just as good as MSNBC or The Washington Post to make my point, and there's little intrinsic difference in The Daily Beast or Politico.

 I trust you to wade through whatever bias there is because as I've said a number of times before, every news source has a bias and anyone that claims not to is lying. Impartiality is a goal to strive for, sure, but in the real world, it's almost impossible out of stock quotes or box scores. That's just how it is. Even at the very bottom, every news source is a business trying to make rent, so there'll be bias there. And hell, that's probably the strongest bias there is.

 The same goes for partisanship. Back in the day when your average city had half-a-dozen daily publications, most of them wore their partisanship on their sleeves. The election of a particularly controversial official might spawn three or four new rags all by itself. So long as they acknowledge the partisanship - or at least wear it close enough to their sleeve that it makes no difference - I have no problem with it. Again, I trust my readers to be able to see past the partisanship. News doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's not like the speed of light.

 By that same token, I don't put much stock in names. When I was a baby journalist, sure, there were reporters I took far too seriously. And, sure, there are folks I like to read because they're good writers. But most of the journalists I follow because of the beat they're on, like David Neiwert on white nationalism or Greg Palast on voting rights. The rest? Well, your heroes will always, always let you down usually through no fault of their own, just because they're human. I mean, I admit to my admiration of Hunter Thompson's skill as a wordsmith and the way he approached the job, but I know enough to not take him too seriously.

 Now, I said all that to say all this. The big kerfuffle on Twitter today - or one of them anyway - was the split between Glenn Greenwald and the publication he helped to found, The Intercept. Apparently, it's over the mag's disinclination to take the Hunter Biden laptop pseudo-story as given while like the overall narrative that sometimes the big-time media's selectiveness in what it chooses to cover is to the detriment of the public. Here's The Intercept's take and since I can't find Greenwald's take, here's one from fellow traveler Matt Taibbi.

 Before we get too deep in the weeds here, I have to say I really don't give much of a shit about Glenn Greenwald. He's won a Pulitzer, good for him. I read his blog back during the Iraq War days on a fairly regular basis and he was good on that beat. I cooled towards him as the decade wore on, mainly because he had such a hard-on for Ron Paul, a man I've considered a pseudo-fascist con man and just another political dirtbag for going on 20 years. If that upsets you, tough titty, it's not up for debate.

 I dropped out of things halfway through the Obama administration, so by the time I got back to politics in general and Twitter in specific, around 2016 or so, Greenwald for all intents and purposes seems to have morphed completely into a tweet-feud champion. I think the first time he drifted back across my radar was his first appearance on Tucker Carlson's show. Carlson is not only a complete joke and a rotten human being, he's a white supremacist in the "lapdog for billionaires" mode. It was said Greenwald only went on his show because no one else would take him, but that doesn't speak highly. Again, this is not up for debate, and you're welcome to cry more about it.

 So I am obviously not "unbiased" about this and I'm not claiming to be. But I'm not expressing the outright glee a lot of folks on Twitter are at this news. Again, I really don't think the particulars are important much less interesting, the whos and the whats. What I do think is worth discussing is Greenwald's claim he's being censored, and that is incredibly stupid.

 What he's being is "edited" and that's part of the gig. It's being said he had a clause that no one could edit his stuff and that is, well, fucking stupid and disastrous for a writer. Really, for any creative endeavor, not having someone in the process with the swing to say "hey, let's think about this first" runs the danger of choking to death on the smell of your own farts. Doug Sahm's best music was made when Jerry Wexler was at the helm, for example.

 I won't lie, when I was a baby journalist I hated being edited for content. Especially when I wasn't involved in the process, it used to drive me nuts. But the older and wiser Matt understands that having an editor helps make things better and more focused. God knows, this stuff tends to ramble on and would probably be better with someone reading behind me.

 If that's true, though, it's pretty sad as Greenwald is 53. Furthermore, any claims of him being "censored" when by all appearances he quit on his own does little more than damage actual claims of real censorship, like when a state government prohibits its staff from talking about climate change or the federal government makes demands on Voice of America to pump up the Trump Administration.

 Best I can gather, Glenn wasn't forced out. He quit and the folks at The Intercept told him not to let the door hit him in the ass. Sort of like when Bari Weiss quit The New York Times op-ed staff in a huff, no one was all that bothered she wouldn't be in the office Monday morning. There's undoubtedly a lot of office politics going on here that's finally bubbling up, but I don't think it's really important and I really don't care.

 What this all boils down to is whatever censorship is, it is emphatically not "people disagreeing with you." Because you decide to quit a gig that won't let you do whatever the hell you want without any criticism, it doesn't mean you were "forced out." And people who disagree with aren't necessarily doing it because they're "neoliberal shills," they may simply think you've shat the bed once too often to be taken seriously anymore. Just how it goes, buckaroo.

 That's all of that, I think. Billy Joe Shaver died this week and that's a bummer. Johnny Bush died last week and that's a bummer. Otis is going through his nightly freak out and it's making my blood pressure spike. Where it goes from there, nobody knows.

Call it what you want to. I call it quits.

  Seven more days. One more week. Things are heating up. The laptop story seems to have evaporated like a fart in the breeze and now Trump is threatening to withhold COVID-19 aid to states that don't for him. Brett "Kegger" Kavanaugh wrote on a ruling basically saying if, given the chance, he's giving the election to Trump. Amy Coney-Barrett... just Amy Coney-Barrett. Interesting times, they say.

 But you know what? I am not inclined to write about politics or the election here today. I figure the next seven days of News is going to be a booger, so let's have some fun.

 I do want to mention that the Gulf Coast is looking at yet another hurricane, this one called Zeta. Once this makes landfall, we'll tie 2005 for most hurricanes hitting dirt in a year. And the season still has another month to go. The entire New Orleans metro area is under watch, but this one seems to be heading towards the Mississippi coast. It's projected to hit some Wednesday afternoon or evening, so if you're in the path batten down the hatches and don't screw around.

 And as much as I hate to bring it up, I need to mention two more police-related killings that really didn't seem necessary. One was of Wallace Walter Jr. in Philadelphia yesterday. From all reports, Walter had "mental issues" according to his father and his mother was trying to defuse the situation. He did have a knife and police shot him full of at least 10 holes. It was not necessary.

 Another shooting in Waukegan, Illinois, last Tuesday left one dead and one survivor accusing the police of actively letting someone bleed out on the street. This one is a bit more confusing. Police rolled up on Marcellis Stinette and Tafara Williams. A chase and shooting followed though it isn't clear why, and the police unloaded on the couple. Williams claims she heard Stinette still breathing when the cops put a blanket over him and they wanted both to bleed out in the street. The cops are saying she fled from a traffic cop and her people are saying that isn't so. The cop who did the killing did so because he feared for his safety and was later fired. No gun was found.

 Just putting it out there. Neither seems to be as cut-and-dried as Botham Jean or Breonna Taylor but both seem like they could've been resolved without anyone being shot. I'll say it again, white folks who are fine with this going down are basically saying their fine with living in a country where authority can do this to anyone with impunity. And it's true, they're really fine with it, even if they or their loved ones are caught in the crossfire. Authoritarian regimes don't exist without at least a portion of the population willing to have a society that keeps its thumb on its citizens.

 Whoops! Is this fun? Hell, I don't know, it's just what's coming out. What else can we do? Nothing really spectacular has grabbed me lately. I think I've about got Momma sold on Initiative 65, which would legalize medical marijuana in Mississippi. At the very least, she won't vote for the GOP legislature's clumsy attempt to crater it, Initiative 65A. So, baby steps. We've already discussed how we're going to handle me smoking it, so I think that's a good sign.

 That's pretty much word count and I don't know if I have anything else. Perhaps I'll come back to it later in the evening. Otherwise, watch the winds, kids.

Border to border and ocean to ocean, I still look for her everyplace.

 I really need to write these when they come. I was full of piss & vinegar about a subject yesterday morning and equally full about an entirely different one last night. Now, I can't remember the former and have gone back to "that's why you ignore them" on the former. I mean, Blogger allows you to schedule posts and keep some in the draft section. Ah, well.

 While everything was of modest length and nothing was too in-depth, the News was pretty good this week, I think. Three days of pretty decent old-school blogging on the news of the time. Monday was a look into how the Mississippi government's ignoring of the COVID issue is biting us in the ass this week and Wednesday was how the federal government continues to bumble along. We gave the final presidential debate a quick look Friday, plus a little on how Trump really, really needs to stop bringing up China. Like I said, nothing special but well done all around.

 I was busy on Tumblr this week, writing a lot of posts for my Jukebox In The Mind series. That's what I'm calling it, by the way. I wrote about AC\DC, Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, Waylon Jennings, Tommy Cash, and finally a little bit on how the Kipsigis people of Kenya thought Jimmie Rodgers sounded like a man-antelope hybrid. I thought it was kind of neat and writing about music is always fun, as is writing about the ties that bind humanity that we may not see. When I can write about both, boy, that is killer diller.

 Anyhow, the thing I got wound up about yesterday that I can remember is this latest round of dumbassery with The New York Times. Long story short, a reporter named Elaina Plott wrote a story about how white suburbanites around Atlanta were still in the Trump congregation despite the rest of Georgia leaning towards Joe Biden. Okay, fair enough, but nothing worth a story in the Times. If anyone's spent any time in some of the suburbs around Atlanta this comes as no shock at all. That's Trump's base, right there.

 The problem, though, was her two sources were supposedly average white folks from the Atlanta suburbs and turned out to be hip-deep in GOP national politics. One was a former state Republican strategist and the other was the son of Trump's ambassador to Luxembourg. Even worse, this wasn't the first time that Plott had used dubious sources for a fluff piece on the Trump Administration nor the first time those two folks were used as sources claimed to be "jes' plain folk." Salena Zito has made a career out of doing just this.

 Anyhow, she gets called out, the Times does a half-ass explanation, she gives a half-ass apology, and so-called "professional journalists" who bring down big money writing dull stories about the story they want American politics to go on a crusade to defend her honor against us filthy plebes who dared criticize of one of theirs. That was last night's political Twitter.

 It's almost comical how predictable this sort of thing is. You can set your watch to something like this every time the consumers criticize the big-time media. And they don't seem to get how bad it makes them look. Even worse, Plott describes herself as a "recovering (Ann) Coulter fangirl" from high school and since she's in her late 20s, that means she was a fan of Coulter after that nasty thing said we need to forcible convert the Muslim world to Christianity. And this was at least a good decade after anyone with a functioning soul acknowledged Ann Coulter's role as a public asshole.

 So, that happened, and once again, the big-time press defended someone who carries water for a guy who calls them "the enemy of the people." He stirs up his faithful to hate them like the press is the devil, and there have already been threats against the media for being mean to Trump. What's worse is how hard the rest of the big-time press gets severely knotted up when they get the least bit of criticism or appropriation. Every time.

 You won't find a bigger defender of journalism than me, but things like this happen and it's understandable why people rail against the "mainstream media." It's a fine example of why local journalism and alternative publications should be supported and the first go-to for your news. Don't follow The Washington Post or CNN for what goes on in Portland when the Rose City has several fine local news sources and The Portland Mercury is a great example of a community-focused alt-weekly.

 As always, all of my journalism experience is with local papers and alt-weeklies, so grain of salt. It's a drag, though, that good sources on Washington, D.C., politics are thin on the ground. Not sources that reporter on the news about American politics, we've got plenty of those. But straight news reporting that doesn't eventually get sucked into the Mainstream Morass.

 But little will be done about it at a level that could actually fix anything and we'll probably play the whole passion play all over again sooner than later. So I wonder if it's worth getting too bent out of shape over. In any event, I finished Jennifer Government last night and I recommend it. I don't want to give anything away, so all I'll say is everyone who thinks they've got what will keep everyone else under their thumb really needs to study up on their chaos theory when setting up "the perfect society."

 You can't predict people. They will always surprise you, sometimes painfully. And that's all I have to say about that.

What a faithful memory. Never lets me down.

  It never fails. We're done with supper and Otis is having his evening fit. I wish I could figure out what's causing this and what I could do to stop it. It's stressful as hell on me, I can only imagine what's going through his little skull. Momma thinks he's doing the doggy version of sundowning. Maybe he is, I don't know.

 Ah, well. We've got the third and final presidential debate tonight and the big questions are "how often will Trump try to bring up Biden's son" and "how long before Trump pitches a fit and walks out." He did the latter in an interview with 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl. It opened with him begging for easy questions and ended with him stalking out in a massive pout. There will be a mute button tonight, so I bet the whole shebang doesn't last 20 minutes.

 Of course, the Base is seeing this as another example of 11th-dimensional chess by their Savior in his never-ending crusade of owning the libs. They're also getting gooey over some former work buddy of the Younger Biden's and some of the weirdest pictures of paperwork that shows either someone getting blessed or how the timelines just don't match up. And Trump's eldest failson is trying to wrap a pedo sex ring in there somehow.

 I do wonder, though, if all of the initial claims - that Hunter somehow got money illegally from China and cut his old man in on it - will anyone really care? One of the things the newest revelation "shows" is that this all went down after Biden was out of office. Regardless, the whole deal isn't getting much traction outside of Trump loyalists and a mess of voting's been done. It's hard to judge outside my bubble, but I'm thinking everyone has about had it with Trump, his administration, and his rotten kids. Everyone who doesn't already think he's the new Jesus, naturally.

 I'm going to throw this out. Biden wins and somehow there's something to this laptop business. He resigns and Kamala Harris becomes president. Wouldn't that be a helluva note? It makes as much sense as anything else that's happened this year.

 So, anyhow. Enough of all that. I am done with this election even if I'm terrified of the outcome. I'm ready for it to end but I have no doubt the GOP will do their damnedest to shaft the democratic process so rich old men will get just that much richer. But I'm tired of talking about it, especially since I'll probably have to write about the ding-dong debates tomorrow.

 I've been reading Jennifer Government by Max Barry. I bought it years ago - initially mistaking it for Charlie Stross' Jennifer Morgue - but just now got around to reading it. I'm about halfway through and, so far, I'm digging it. In a nutshell, in the near future, everything is run by corporations. In fact, whoever you work for is your identity. If you worked for Wal-Mart, your last name would be "Wal-Mart." Furthermore, two megacorporations are constantly at war, and the government's collapsed to the point where all it does is punish people who break the rules. However, they have neither the funding nor the chops to do much of anything. The police are a private company and their biggest competitor is the NRA, which has a private army.

 It's all pretty good, and for whatever it's worth, it's somewhat how I see society working out if we don't manage to spoil the planet to the point of being uninhabitable. Transmetropolitan and Neuromancer sort of swing along the same lines. It's interesting that most of your classic science fiction saw some sort of repressive government and totally missed the ascendency of the corporation. So did Marx, kind of.

 I've got nothing terribly interesting to add, so I think I'll get on. I've been dipping back into Freelancer, Elite: Dangerous, and Tachyon: The Fringe. I don't know if that means anything but they're fun.

There's folks who never work and they got plenty.

  Once again, I have nothing clever to start with so we'll just roll it and see what happens. I have a confession: I am burnt out. By everything, from the election to the ongoing collapse of the climate to the never-ending horror that has been the COVID-19 pandemic. It's nothing particularly serious, just overall exhaustion from the world matched with the lack of good weed to take the edge off.

 I'm about ready to hit the road again, but it's not going to be any time soon. Momma needs a knee replacement, so that's going to lay her up for at least six weeks. She won't be having the operation until after the year, and because of things, I really can't leave her right now.

 I don't know if I'd go anywhere in particular nor am I especially inclined to visit with anyone. I'm thinking maybe, though, I'd go up to Baltimore and see it. I've always had a fascination with the town, no doubt thanks to my love of Edgar Allan Poe's fiction. I wouldn't even need to do much tourist stuff, though I'm sure he has a house or something like that to see, so I wouldn't have to be around people too much. I'd also like to see Providence - yes, H.P. Lovecraft, for much the same reason - and it's only six hours further.

 It'd be roughly a 40 hour round trip Instead of taking almost a month to get somewhere, I could probably do that in a week and be back home in 10 days. In any event, I'll have to wait and see how the first of the year shakes out. There's always a possibility the pandemic could get much, much worse.

 I guess I should address this whole Jeffery Toobin business. I would like to note first that I've got very little use for Big Names in news. I just don't, the best I can explain it is the information is what is important, not who says it. Sure, there are different journalists who deserve their fame, but the vast majority of what we see on CNN or Fox these days are fairly lightweight.

 The other reason is, well, stuff like this. I'm not a guy who has heroes, never have been. They'll always let you down because humans are fallible and humans will eventually screw the pooch. Which brings us around to Toobin who, if you didn't know, was caught bopping the bishop during a Zoom conference. His excuse is he didn't know the camera was on him, which leads one to ask just why he was jackin' it during a business meeting in the first place.

 Now, Toobin's career probably won't suffer too much. He'll probably go away for a few months and come back with the only punishment being every criticism of his input on the news will feature "hey, aren't you the guy who got caught choking the chicken in front of all your colleagues?" Someone said on Twitter that maybe he was doing it because he was nervous and needed to take the edge off, which is another argument in favor of legalized marijuana.

 Speaking of Twitter, a passel of male news geeks have come out in defense of Toobin's slapping the salami during a business meeting. Their argument is, essentially, "who among us has not masturbated in an inappropriate place, possibly in front of people who hadn't asked to see such things?" I admit, I'm skeptical of their intentions and wonder if they're not telling on themselves a bit.

 Anyhow, fellas, listen to me. Stop showing your junk to women unless - and I can't stress this enough - they make that very specific request beforehand. Keep in mind that even if they've asked in the past, each occurrence needs an all-knew request. I'm not sure why this is still so complicated.

What Goes On In The Dark Will Soon Come To Light

  I was in a fairly decent mood yesterday but it's evaporated since. It's not the raw-nerves problem that's been peeking here and there, just a case of the red ass. I'm having a lot of those these days. Anyhow, here are the links to this week's News.

 It was actually a pretty good week. They're not really "Deep Dives" officially, but I think I did some pretty good work. Monday we looked at the nomination process of Amy Coney-Barrett, why so many find her objectionable and why the GOP fired up for her getting the Supreme Court seat. We dug into the odds and ends of the current thing about Hunter Biden Wednesday and why it's probably bullshit. Wingnuts have a serious boner for it and aren't letting it go, though it's base claims don't hold up. Worse, the press wants to make a bigger deal out of it than is necessary while ignoring Trump leading a "Lock Her Up" chant in Michigan just a week after a bunch of goons was arrested for planning to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

 Friday was a clean-up of the bizarre town hall special Trump gave where he came off not only as someone's crazy-ass uncle but also barely concerned with his job. We also got caught up on how COVID-19 was doing Mississippi, and the answer is "like a baby treats a diaper." I got a good number of readers over the week, and that's much appreciated.

 Beyond that, I don't know. I've been in a weird melancholy frame of mind today to go along with the sour mood, so that's fun. Weird as it sounds, I'm sort of missing being a young man and indulging in those first few weeks of a new relationship. I'm talking early twenties, not the heavy serious ones, but that type of relationship where you might fool around for a couple weeks and still be friends when it's all over. Back when living in a trailer wasn't a sign of poor life choices and staying up all night doesn't hurt quite as much.

 It's a different vibe from your thirties, the more serious-type relationship, but I never was any good at those. Probably because I never really matured in my lifestyle past 27 or 28 or so. One of the reasons I'm sort of glad my sex drive disappeared is I started feeling awful that none of those worked out and everyone went out of it like she'd wasted her time on me. Which she probably did, I'm not going to lie.

 So much for all that. I got back into Charlie Stross's "The Laundry Files" series. I really like the story. For what it's worth, a math/computer nerd inadvertently comes up with a geometrical do-what that can draw gibbering Lovecraftian horrors into our world, so he's recruited by a hidden British governmental intelligence organization that protects man from things that are best not known.

 However, it's less James Bond kiss-kiss-bang-bang and more Len Deighton's miserable bastard civil servant spy, which is apparently closer to the truth. Stross is a clever writer and does some neat world-building. That being said, I have a hard time believing that every government involved in this game would be able to keep that off the public's radar for any length of time. Greed, animosity, apathy, and just plain stupidity would pop that bubble sooner than later, I think.

 I don't know what else to tell you.

It's a rough and rocky road, and it's hard, hard, hard.

  I've got some Actual Paying Work to get done tonight and, frankly, I'm not particularly in the mood for this. The world is a mess and it's wearing me out. How y'all who are actually engaged and have some skin in the game get through the day without throwing a screaming na-na, I don't know.

 The second debate, a town hall format, was supposed to go down tonight, but that ain't happening. As we all know, Trump got sick and Joe Biden wasn't down with the idea of being in the same room as that guy, yadda yadda yadda. So the end result is each of them is doing their own town hall on different networks. The upshot is, of course, I'm not watching either.

 Not to put too fine a point on things, I really doubt there's much movement left in the needle. People may not admit who they'll vote for once they get in the booth, but they already know. Rudy Giuliani's attempt to smear Hunter Biden yesterday seems to have evaporated like a fart in a hurricane. Wingnuts won't let it go, of course, even if it contradicts itself. I imagine we'll be hearing about this for at least the next year if Biden wins.

 Speaking of wingnuts, Trump made a comment at one of his rallies about the execution of that anti-fascist activist in Portland who shot and killed someone connected to the Patriot Prayer bunch. The President of the United States of America said, in essence, the U.S. Marshalls didn't want to do anything but kill the guy right off, so they did. That of course isn't the issue at hand. We all know Trump's a violent, mean-spirited slug.

 But I guess I really shouldn't be shocked that his rally crowd applauded and wingnuts on Twitter were almost universally cool with it. It's just another example of how the Right is down with the idea of an authoritative government stomping down on the proper people, be they from the federal government or local police. If it happens to them or one of their loved ones, well, they probably deserved it and still have no issue with the state of things.

 I've come to the point where fears of the country slipping into fascism really don't move me anymore. The more I study history - and the older, more cynical I get - the more I'm convinced we've been dancing on the edge of fascism from the get-go. We were fine with wiping out the Native tribes and cheating them every chance we got. We were fine with enslaving Black people and then keep our foot on their necks once they were freed. We had to force corporations and bosses to treat their employees like human beings rather than replaceable, expendable cuts into their profits.

 In the early 20th century, when the Great Depression was kicking into gear, we came very close to socialism before Franklin Roosevelt "saved capitalism" with the New Deal. We also came damn close to outright fascism to deal with problems, particularly the Silver Shirts. Amusingly enough, they fell to pieces after police began to arrest anyone connected with them after Pearl Harbor.

 We've never really evolved, not really. Northerners had to see Bull Connor turn a firehose on children before they decided the South was out of line. Up until the '70s Native children were taken from their parents and tribes, and forced to assimilate sometimes at danger to their own health. We see nothing at all with a society where not only cops can kill people with impunity but also one that encourages people to spend a life in debt, working a job they hate and no guarantee they'll be taken care of if they get sick.

 Whatever fascism is in the 21st century, we've never been that far from it. What we're experiencing now is part of Trump's presidency encouraging others to rip off their mask but it's mainly using the internet allowing people to be awful without consequence. And that's what they are: awful.

 Well, that's not fair. We're awful. We really are. We try to pretend it's some other aspect of us, but it's us. We let it happen. We could stop it if we wanted to, really, but we don't. Not really.

 I guess that's enough. Like I said, I've got Actual Paying Work to do and need a nap before I get into it. We'll see how it goes but I imagine tomorrow's News will be a wrap-up of an incredibly silly week.

When you're feeling down, turn the music on and let it sooth you. When you're feeling good, turn it up and let it move you.

 I don't have anything clever to start with, so we'll just start. I went to see the Psych Doc today, the first time since March. As a matter of fact, the last time I left the house from March until almost October was the previous visit. I really don't get out much anyway, mainly because I neither want to nor need to, but the whole COVID-19 threw a monkey wrench into the proceedings.

 The only places I go to on a regular basis are the gym and doctor/therapist visits. Since most of those are in hospitals and medical clinics, I figured it was best to give them a miss until we got a good handle on the COVID-19 deal. Back when it first kicked into gear, I was sure we'd be on top of it by July, August at the latest. Boy, was I naive.

 Anyhow, it was a pretty good visit and not only for the head-shrinking service. It's nice to have someone to talk to who isn't from Northeast Mississippi, and that's all I'm going to say about that. I told him about my nerves being constantly raw and he prescribed me some clonazepam. Just six or so and only to be taken as needed, as I'm to understand they can be easily habit-forming. I admit to a strong fondness for mind-altering chemicals but I prefer freakouts that are caused by natural substances. I've never been one for opioids and members of my family have had them get on top of them quicker than anyone expected.

 If Mississippi would just pass Initiative 65 (and not 65A), this wouldn't be necessary. Again, I admit to perhaps over-indulging on the good smoke back when I could get ahold of it without having to deal with some guy who calls himself "the Tater Man," but that was a different scene. I had to work full time and that is just a miserable existence. I could get by with just a toke or two now and then these days.

 The other thing we brought up was that despite my own insular nature and basic disinterest in dealing with reality, this long-term social distancing thing has made me as wiggy as everyone else. Problem is I don't care to connect up with anyone anywhere and the only thing I like doing that I can't do without leaving my house is traveling. Even better, for me, it's the journey and not the arrival. On my trip last year, I got more joy in driving the roads than stopping to actually look at something.

 Unfortunately, it's not an optimal time to go on another road trip and it's not because of the raging pandemic. Momma's looking at knee surgery soon, which means she'll be laid up for at least six weeks. Anyways, I'm in no hurry to go anywhere right now and there's no place I'm in a hurry to see.

 Okay, so nothing interesting but sleep is trying to get in my head. So I believe I'll go ahead and lay down for the evening, as it has been a long day. Maybe we'll come back to this. Otherwise, stay tuned for The News and whatever dopey shit happens next.

With your rebels that have got no cause and your tigers that have got no claws.

 Since I keep forgetting to do this, I'm going to go ahead and knock out the links to this week's News before I get rolling. Granted, I don't know if I have anything interesting to talk about, but that's never stopped me before. Anyhow.

 I got a good number of hits this week. I did get a little help with some retweets and Lord alone knows if I'll get any repeat customers. Apart from one old friend, I never get any legit comments. I don't quite know how to take that but I'm going to roll with it's adequate. Monday we discussed the fact that the White House saw more COVID-19 cases than most countries, as well as the murder by local police of Jonathan Price. The White House Flu was the news of the week and it took up a bit of Wednesday's space, along with Hurricane Delta.

 We kept with Delta Friday as well as touching on the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by a baker's dozen of Boogaloo boobs. Speaking of Delta, it brought a lot of rain and a whole lot of wind but it doesn't appear to have caused any deaths. As of yet, anyway, there's still a possibility of tornadoes throughout the South. Let's hope it stays that way because I know those folks could use a break.

 I want to go back to Jonathan Price for a moment. The cop that killed him is being charged with murder and let's hope it sticks. I don't see how qualified immunity could help this guy, but the legal system's built-in racism isn't what I want to discuss. Y'all, this is the society we built. Every time we excused a cop shooting a black dude who was less than an angel or, for that matter, a white kid smoking pot in his car we've told The Powers That Be that we're fine with that sort of society.

 We sort of are fine with it, for what it's worth, and have been almost from the get-go. This country has a long history with official authority coming down on people who can't fight back, from the Whiskey Rebellion to the Palmer Raids. They're not always saints, either. Ruby Ridge and Branch Davidian were populated by buttholes but they probably didn't deserve having the U.S. government slap them down with its flaccid cock.

 This is particularly glaring when those groups make for people who disrupt the Natural Order. People ask why the Black Lives Matter protests are getting so much official guff when the anti-masker dingbats who sieged the Michigan State House with high-powered weaponry, but it's pretty simple. The former are demanding a fundamental change to society. The latter want to go back to consuming and working to make someone else rich.

 It's the same reason implicit white supremacists have gotten so little pushback from Twitter and Facebook; and why, for that matter, so many Intercept "leftists" are so quick to pooh-pooh their impact on society. We don't like to admit it, but a good deal of America has traditionally been cool and groovy with a patriarchal white supremacist gloss to society and, for the most part, still are. It's one of the reasons the corporate media is so desperate for a reality where Trump isn't a crooked moron. They think society should be run by rich white dudes and rich white dudes only.

 Someone was shot at an affair in Denver today, counter-rallies between soi-disant leftist groups and soi-disant rightist groups. Far as I can find right now all that is known is someone was shot, two people were taken into custody, nobody's been charged yet, no word on who the victim was or who he ran with, who the shooter ran with, or any clear reason why the shooting went down. Hard-right Twitter is popping a boner on this, claiming it proves something or other, which makes me automatically skeptical. We'll see as things work themselves out.

 But again, that's the world we live in and that's the world we're fine with living in. We want to be armed so we can defend ourselves and we're taking hard lines on everything, especially how we think this country should be. I don't like it but I don't understand why anyone's surprised it's come to this. This isn't a left thing or a right thing. It's an American thing.

 This is what we are because this is what we want to be. Think about it.

Not going to use a good title for this.

  I have some Actual Paying Work to get done tonight, so this will be quick and dirty. Two pieces are due, actually, so I've no doubt I'll make Wordcount before too long. Luckily, I'm not much in the mood for this so no one's missing out.

 My nerves are pretty raw for some reason. I can't put my finger on it, but something has me set off. I don't know if it's my anxiety flaring up or just a general dread about the state of things. According to most folks, Kamala Harris did a solid job slapping Mike Pence around, and the Biden campaign scored another $12 million in donations. He's got a fairly solid lead over Trump in most polls and from inside my bubble, anyway, it seems everything the Blind Idiot God does is little more than fodder for the faithful.

 Of course, I don't know. Polls are one thing but reality's another. The early voting turnout has been phenomenal, but I don't put much faith in that. Not since 2004, anyway, when the largest turnout in modern history re-elected George Bush Jr. In any event, the GOP has made no bones about being perfectly happy in making it difficult as possible for people, especially the "wrong" people, to vote.

 So, I'm not sanguine about things. But I don't think that's what's rubbing me wrong. There's yet another hurricane heading to the Gulf and we're still going to do nothing about climate change due almost solely to our arrogance, but I don't think that's it, either. I really don't see Initiative 65, which would legalize medical marijuana in Mississippi, passing and God knows I could use a smoke. I doubt that's it.

 Part of it is every night from sundown to around 10 p.m., Otis spends his time quivering, whining, and occasionally tearing things up. I don't know why or where this comes from. He'd do this in Jefferson and I chalked it up to him hearing the nearby train switching station. It might be that he can't accept that we can't go walking after dark, but I don't know. He's a weird dog and hopefully his mood will change sooner than later.

 Been digging into Elite: Dangerous as of late in anticipation of a big new add-on coming early next year, Odyssey. I'll say it again, it's a great game on its own and the update looks pretty cool. On the flipside, Baldur's Gate 3 is getting less-than-glowing reviews, and it may be petty, but I'm fine with that. They're asking $60 for a 150 gig download that's still on Early Access, you have got to be kidding me. From all told, it's a mediocre RPG that looks really, really pretty.

 A lot of folks like Larian Studio's previous efforts, the Divinity: Original Sin series, but it's failed to grab me so far. Usually I give RPGs six months to a year before I even think about buying them. It takes most studios that long to not only iron out all the bugs but also by that point all the DLC has been released. Helluva thing that spending fifty bucks on a game still doesn't get you the full package.

 I'll go into it in more detail tomorrow, maybe, but the FBI busted up a plot by Boogaloo-connected buttholes to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. She's been a "nasty woman" thorn in Trump's ass since the COVID-19 kicked into high gear and the weirdos that are thirsting to be the jackbooted government thugs they've been fearing for the past couple of decades have made her Public Enemy Number One. This, of course, comes on the heels of Trump telling the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" while tweeting "liberate Michigan" in creamy all capital letters. And, of course, he made reference to it this evening by being the shit ass we all know he is and crying about Whitmer being mean to him.

 Seriously. How do so many people see this fucker as a tough, manly, alpha male? Is it the television show or just the worship of the rich? Anyhow, that's Wordcount and I've got work to do.

Is a bluebird blue? Has a cat got a tail?

  The number of people that are part of the Trump team who've found themselves testing positive for the COVID-19 virus continues to grow while he claims he's no longer showing symptoms. Probably the most significant new infectee is Staff Wormtounge Stephen Miller, which spawned a thousand "it can jump species" jokes.

 We're still dealing with the fallout of whatever happened this week with Trump and his hospitalization. He put out a completely brain-dead bit of propaganda about not letting the virus dominate our lives, forgetting that not all of us have instant access to Walter Reed-level medical service. It cut me as cold and heartless, and I can't count one of the near 210,000 victims of COVID-19 as one of my loved ones.

 But heartlessness is a feature, not a bug, of the Trump administration. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rodstein and other Justice Department officials, including then-AG Jeff "Dark Elf" Sessions, pushed hard for separating children from their parents at the border. Of course, this is one of those things the Base rubs itself over and fail to agree that it makes us the baddies. 

 I don't know who said it, but it bears repeating: I can't teach someone to have compassionate. Is there an issue at the border that needs to be addressed? Hell, yes, of course, there is. Are we doing it in a not-evil way? No, no we are not. I know wingnuts like to claim we have no responsibility for Central and South America, but the Monroe Doctrine says otherwise. You can't claim control over something just to drop it when it becomes inconvenient. We called for that tune and we ought to pay the fiddler. I'm not holding my breath, but there it is.

 But now that I've gotten started, let's leave the news for the News. I've made a few strikes at the Weird Western idea. It's just a couple of character sketches right now and I don't know where it's going, if anywhere. It's fun, though, and it feels good to get it out of my brain.

 I'm still in that foul, red-assed mood, and I think I've figured out why. Despite the Prozac and lithium and Wellbutrin, I'm doing all this with a clear head for the first time in 15 years. Not to put too fine a point on it, I used to smoke a lot of pot. I smoked so much pot, one of my dealers said maybe I should take a break. A constant burner is what I'm saying, and the only time I was straight was when I was at work or asleep.

 So regardless of those drugs that are doing a fairly good job of stabilizing my brain chemistry, I'm back to being pissed off all the time. That's how I grew up; pissed off and doing my damnedest to not let it show because no one cared and were probably more pissed off than I was. Knowing that it's due to some faulty wiring in my head doesn't make it much better, but there it is.

 Well, I've just finished supper and I've lost my train of thought. Really, all I want is a good connect if for no other reason than being pissed off all the time is a drag. But for now, I've hit word count and maybe I'll go back to my Western later. Probably not, though. This strikes me as a reading evening.

Whoops.

  Forgot to put up links to this week's News yesterday. Since I haven't written today's News yet, I won't bother with recaps. You know how the week's gone.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I will say it seems like a lifetime ago we found out about Trump's tax shenanigans and it was only Monday. Interesting times, indeed.

The miles were good but the miliage turning my hair grey.

 I'm getting this under the gun, so it still counts. Granted it's 11:15 p.m. Country Standard Time, so I doubt I'll get this finished before midnight. I say it still counts because, frankly, I make the rules. It's about the only place I have that sort of swing in this universe, so hell yeah, I'm going to abuse it.

 I pulled one of my all-day snoozes, and this one was legit. None of you're "wake up, read a little, and decide the world isn't worth it," no sir. After letting Otis out to do his morning ablutions, we both went right back down and didn't stir until after three. Granted, part of the reason is I spent most of last night getting a little further on Dragon's Dogma out of nowhere. I'm to that bit after you beat the dragon, the city collapses, and you're freefalling down the pit full of horrors from the dawn of time. Big fun.

 The big news in the outside world is still Trump's being taken to Walter Reed because he's come down with the COVID-19. Apparently, he's doing okay - even released a video to prove the point today - but the information we're getting from his camp is so full of static, all I'm willing to say is he's still alive, probably.

 Naturally, this has kicked off a Twitter snit between conservatives and liberals, as the "fuck your feelings" crowd is upset because the liberals hate Trump enough to not wish him well. Personally, I think this argument is garbage and nothing but a waste of time at this point. For one, people have celebrated the deaths of politicians they hated for years. I'd have to be more industrious than I am to look it up, but someone posted a news story from around the time Kennedy was shot. It was full of people gloating about his death, so it's nothing new.

 We talk a lot of nonsense about how our society has lost decorum, but we're also a society that used to consider hangings as a fun day out with the kiddies. It's the same place where all that "every life is sacred" bullshit comes from. When we have over 50 million children living in poverty without access to affordable health care or enough to eat, life ain't sacred. It just is.

 For the record, I am neither gloating over the rotten bastard getting sick nor do I hope he dies from it. Yes, I still want him out of office, and, yes, the irony would be almost Shakespearean, but it's not within my make-up to wish death on anyone. That being said, don't expect me to shame anyone who does. Especially the differentially abled, LGBT, or immigrants. And I still hold him culpable for the deaths of over 200,000 people due to the same virus he's currently experiencing.

 We demand decency out of each other that we refuse to show ourselves, so I'm not going to be a hypocrite about it. Him dying would be a mess because he's the president, but if nature takes its course, we all have to go sometime. I'm not going to waste any tears for a man I know wouldn't spend any on me.

 Hey, that's word count, and I've still got ten minutes. I'm going to go ahead and post this up and if something comes to me, I'll come back to it. I wouldn't hold my breath, though.

As I walk this land of broken dreams, I see visions of many things.

  I've been avoiding the world today and trying to ignore everything because I'm not sure I can handle it anymore. We're still coming down from learning just how awful a damn fool the President is and Gov. Tate Reeves has rescinded the mask order for Mississippi. The Proud Boys have a fire under their ass, thanks to the guy who's supposed to represent the whole country, and they're harder than they've ever been in their lives, probably.

 Don't get it twisted. I am not a patriot by nature, at least not how it's usually defined. I don't think this is the "greatest country ever" nor do I see the Constitution as some sort of sacred thing or Democracy as some sort of precious jewel. And I definitely don't feel the Founding Fathers are worth too much attention outside of history class. I mean, I like Tom Paine, personally, but that's been a long time, and a well-built house moves from its foundations.

 At the very best, I see Democracy/Republic/Whatever as a pattern to follow like making a dress and the Constitution a set of rules for what the government can't do. Just because, for example, nationalized health care isn't in the Constitution doesn't mean it's out of bounds. I don't think Trump is "destroying democracy" because, to be quite honest, that was on shaky ground long before he came around. Hell, it's arguable it was all that healthy when Nixon came to town, but again, it's a journey and not a destination.

 So my problem isn't that some high ideals are being tarnished, it's that the players aren't playing by the rules of the game. Pure and simple. Trump's deal with Ukraine? That's against the rules. Same thing with cops being used as judge, jury, and executions, the country's leaders should be held to higher standards. Great power, great responsibility, that whole thing.

 I won't indulge in my darker thoughts about the health of the American Dream. I've referred to what I'm doing with all of this as "post-mortem" of it, riffing on Hunter Thompson's shtick from Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas. That should say something, though. Furthermore, my interest in and empathy with anarchism is very much influenced by my feelings on the health of the country and government. If I thought anything else would work with what we got now, I'd call myself something else, but here we are.

  I don't know if anything can be "saved" or if indeed anything is worth "saving." I do, however, see no reason to be an asshole about things and would rather spend my time doing stuff that leaves the world a little better place. I recognize my luck and privilege in life, and if I want to go through my days like that, I will. As far as the anarchism bit goes, what attracts me is the disdain for unearned hierarchy and authority in general. It's not so much "fuck you, I won't do what you tell me" so much as "who gave you the right and what have you done to earn it?" Again, riffing on the Good Doctor, the law changes but I don't see why I should because of it.

 Okay, so the Proud Boys. I know it's dangerous - and another example of that luck and privilege - but I have the hardest time taking these guys seriously. First I heard of them, they were an outgrowth of the GamerGate/"Star Wars is ruined" crowd and they're just a bunch of sad bastards. I remember seeing something that said one of the initiation rituals was naming five cereal brands while the other Boys punch the initiate in the arm. That may not be so, but it's funny as hell so I'm going to ride with it.

 Here in the last couple of years, though, they've become Trump's self-declared brownshirts and his "stand by" shout out gave them all blue-vein throbbers. It's nothing new, of course. They've been saying all they're waiting on was the green light from Trump to do whatever it is they think they're going to do. I for one won't be putting my faith in either the cops or the military to protect the citizenry from them, but I do wonder just what they think they've got going for them. They're not exactly a well-trained militia, so much as a bunch of cosplayers with small dicks.

 Yeah, I have nothing really interesting to say tonight. Been playing a lot of Darkest Dungeon as of late, and if I haven't recommended that already, let me do it now. It's a fun ride and since part of it is keeping your crew sane while fighting Lovecraftian horrors, it's got a little something extra. I don't know if I've got anything else but that, so that's enough for now, I suppose.