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.