If I had my way, I'd never get the urge to roam.

  I've put this off all evening because I just haven't been in the mood. But it's fifteen after eleven and I should see if I can't get something done before midnight.

 I'm a little burnt out on paying attention to things. Woke, cancel culture, critical race theory, should we be paying attention to Trump announcing he's starting a LiveJournal, blah blah and increasingly blah. I don't know whether this is a result of having a president who's still in the boring phase of his presidency and one who is, well, boring. I can understand a little the idea the Bigtime Press is having trouble dealing with Life After Trump.

 That being said, I can also agree with folks who make up said press' readership saying how goddamn tired they are of reporters trying to keep Trump in the news. Well, trying to make "Biden's people react to Trump" is what they're considering news, apparently. On the plus side, it's always a good laugh when Press Secretary Jen Psaki rhetorically smacks some overpaid goofball's hand for asking a dumbass question about Trump.

 Still, Trump is important to the GOP. They're trying the eviscerate Lynn Cheney and Mitt Romney for their disloyalty to that weird asshole. It's very, very silly. I knew he'd have an outsized impact on the future of the GOP, but this is ridiculous. The flipside of all this is everyone who wants to stay in with the base is a complete douchebag on Twitter while complaining on the Sunday morning television shows how Big Tech and Big Media are censoring them. That geek Josh Hawley actually said while being interviewed on tv by that the reporter couldn't "cancel, censor or silence" him which is what he considers "asking a question clarifying a statement" as he hawks his new "vote for me for president in 2024" book.

 Like I said, tedious. Even more tedious is the drawers-twisting outrage conservatives are having on critical race theory. Everything is CRT. Diversity training is CRT. History that puts forth the controversial idea that chattel slavery was "bad" is CRT. Acknowledging the systematic racism that affected the lives of African Americans throughout the 20th century still has an impact on culture is CRT. Affirmative Action is CRT. 

 It's so dumb. I'm not interested in debating the merits of CRT but, for the record, I don't really see a problem with it. It's driven white folks nuts, though, to the point where anti-CRT types have slipped right over the edge of common sense. I saw one goob claimed writers Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright disproved CRT, which tells me this person not only doesn't know what CRT is, he's never read a lick from the two authors' work. Guess they learned the name of another Black intellectual besides Dr. King.

 Okay. I don't know if I can squeeze out any more. I do have some Actual Paying Work this week, due Friday. I don't know how that will affect this week's output, but who knows. I've been playing The Witcher 3 the last couple of days and I think I've got into the groove of the game. I may have to take a break, though, the thing is so goddamn dense. I'm also bouncing around with a couple of books and haven't found one that holds my attention. Nothing but harmonicas these days, y'all.

You fascists are bound to lose.

 It's Saturday again and it's been another week. The second impeachment of ex-President Donald Trump dominated both the news and the News. Really, apart from Mississippi State Bill 2765, that's pretty much all I wrote about Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

 And it all ended this afternoon like a fart in a hurricane with a vote of 57-43 to acquit. Off the top of my head - and I'm too lazy to look - I don't know if the two-thirds rule that could be affected by getting rid of the filibuster applies here, but it does seem kind of dumb that Trump got away despite the most bipartisan vote to convict in history.

 We'll look more at it tomorrow after it's had a day to marinate both in the public and in my own head. No one's really surprised that Trump was acquitted, not really. The number of GOP who voted to convict is a bit of a surprise and it's something to ponder just what all this suggests for the future of the Republican Party. But, as I said, that's a discussion for a later time. If I remember, of course.

 I do believe Seasonal Affective Disorder has sat on my head. The last couple of days has been a struggle to do much more than go back to sleep. It's a weird feeling. Not depressed or gloomy so much, maybe a bit melancholic and wistful. Part of it or, perhaps, most of it is due to the weather. It's cold and grey, and will probably get down in the twenties tonight. Perfect weather for staying and contemplating your navel.

 Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It probably comes as no surprise that I've never had much use for that particular holiday. I've had two different romantic partners tell me I am a man without romance in his soul, and who am I to argue. If my partner put it on a pedestal, I'd do a dinner or at least a card, but if she didn't I barely noticed. I've always wondered, though, if people who weren't making money off it actually liked the holiday like they do Halloween or even St. Patrick's Day.

 But I've spoken a number of times about my current bewilderment about my romantic history, or lack thereof, so enough of that. Frankly, it's drifted out of my mind and I have no desire to stoke that flame. I finished the second book in Wallace Henry's Shock series, Blood Shock. Apparently, there's more to it, and if there's a problem with it at all is I don't really think it needs to be a series. As I said, the rhythm is weird to me and I believe it's because it strikes me as a bit unnecessarily padded to stretch it out.

 In any event, the next book isn't available so to hell with that. If I still remember when it comes out, I'll worry about it then as there have been enough twists to make me wonder what happens next. I'm not sure where to go next. I have The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin on deck and I need to make sure I'm in the right frame of mind. Her books are heavy and ask a lot of the reader. The difference between that and, say, Blood Shock is the difference between a steak dinner and a bag of popcorn. Both are enjoyable, but only one takes a while and sticks with you after you're done with it.

 Okay, that's word count. This is pretty insubstantial and I'm not going to pretend it isn't. I'm not very positive about the whole writing thing right now, to the point where I don't want to think about it much less write about it. So that's that. If something comes up, yadda yadda, otherwise I'm saving it for tomorrow's News.

And you weren't to blame. We put Jack and Johnny Walkers' names In the policeman's notebook when he came.

 We're one full day into the Biden Administration. So, where do we go from here? I'm not talking about the American government, the yammering media, or even the washed hordes who don't understand how politics actually works. I'll get to them in a minute.

 No, I'm talking about me or, more specifically, the News. This will still be the usual stream-of-consciousness rambling on whatever is (or isn't) on my mind at the moment. The News was conceived during the Trump Administration and, thus, in an adversarial environment. I'm not going to put the shuck on you, though. I'll initially be a little nicer to a Biden Administration, mainly because if nothing else, I respect competency. Getting the job done properly goes a long way for me.

 And I will happily say the Trump Administration was uniquely awful. I went through the Bush Jr. Administration and the Reagan Administration, so I know horrid, evil politics when I see it, don't get it twisted. But the Trump Administration was something else. Horrid, evil politics done by cheap, half-bright grifters who've only been successful because they were wealthy enough not to be challenged by our culture.

 I understand the desire for "back to normalcy" that Joe Biden represented for a lot of people. I also understand the concern that "normalcy" is what got us to Trump in the first place. He wasn't an aberration so much as the logical end result of the evolution of the Republican party's molding of its base as well as the general fecklessness of the Democrats and the corporate media. Democrats do have a vested interest in keeping the ship of state not only floating but also moving forward, even if slowly. Republicans seem to think they'll have enough cops and soldiers on their side to put down the rabble should we get uppity.

 So there's that. It's pretty amusing to see how fast the Twitter intelligentsia has settled into its new roles. Conservatives - at least the ones not kneedeep in the Q muddy - are pretending Trump was an aberration and that those silly leftists were just overreacting the whole time and "so much for unity' has become their new rhetorical finisher.

 This should surprise no one. Biden made a big deal out of "unity" but he's a politician. That's part of the gig. If anyone thought the GOP - from the ones that never abandoned Trump to Never-Trumpers like the entire Lincoln Project - actually thought the party learned anything from the past four years of mean dumbness and cheap nationalism masked as "patriotism" has no one but themselves to blame. Hopefully - and this is a tall order - the Democrats will recognize that their base is what they should be concentrating on and if the work to make their lives better, the rest of us will benefit as well.

 I'm not talking about the soi-disant socialist left, mind you. They've pretty much proven they're useless in the grand scheme of things and bring nothing useful to the game. Furthermore, they seem content to keep up that stroke and sit with their thumbs up their ass for the next four years. I'm talking about people of color, particularly Black people. Folks like to say Black people saved us, but that's not quite it. They worked to save themselves, we just got to ride along.

 One last thing and I'll leave you alone. I really haven't put much time into discussing the QAnon thing because, frankly, I don't put much effort into messing with flat-earthers or anti-vaxxers. It's just not worth my time to fool with someone who's made up their mind about reality and decides to work backward from there.

 Apart from a few lulus who think either Biden was in on it or Trump's pulling some sort of Face/Off thing (no, really), a lot of those folks are having serious difficulty adjusting to the fact that absolutely nothing happened yesterday besides the rather banal ceremonies of a new administration. Neither Trump nor the military - nor JFK Jr., for that matter - came swinging in on a lanyard to save the Children of the World and start a New Golden Age. Indeed, a lot of them are coming to the realization they've been played like a mortgaged fiddle for the last four years.

 For what it's worth, I really don't have much sympathy or empathy for them. They weren't "brainwashed" and they're certainly not suffering from mental or emotional issues. They chose to believe what was obvious horseshit even in the face of reality constantly kicking them in the nuts. If nothing added up or a prophecy fell through, well, that means it's "all a part of the plan" and not "hey, maybe this is bullshit."

 I do feel for their friends and family members who've had to deal with this sort of crap - always antagonistic, often violent - and folks who've watched their loved ones dig themselves deeper into a conspiracy that had no basis in narrative structure, much less reality. I'm lucky, I know, that even in the very conservative family I have, none of 'em ever went full Q, probably because they hadn't heard of it. But I know what it's like living with someone who'd rather get drunk than anything else, and I can only imagine that having someone you love go full Q is something similar.

 That being said, the actual Q folks can go skip rope. No one forced them into it, they did it all of their own free will, and laying the blame on someone else infantilizes them and absolves them of responsibility. It's like The Great Man said, "You can't cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump." They'll have to accept that and if they refuse to do so, well, I guess life will go on. With or without them, it don't matter, we've got plenty on our plate.

Wave that flag, hoss, wave it high. Do you know what it means? Do you know why?

 It was cold, grey, and rainy today, so I shut down and decided to ignore it. So I did. And, of course, not only did I pay attention such days make my brain a bit mushy. With that in mind, we'll just fiddle around until we hit word count.

 I did have something bubbling under but I don't think I should waste it here. It's fairly universal, though, so it won't hurt to sit on it. In short, there's a reason knowing how American politics actually useful and just hoping for a savior never, ever works. Getting stuff done actually takes a lot of work. In short, it's outlined on Twitter here.

 This is why I have such frustration with the American left. That is politics to the left of, say, Joe Biden but would be relatively moderate elsewhere. Instead of understanding what it will take to actually get stuff done - mainly, time and effort - they seem content to piss and whine that they're not given the keys to the kingdom based on their moral superiority alone. It's not all that different from the current temper tantrum thrown by Trumpists, actually, infuriated that the People would have the gall to think someone else should be president rather than Father Trump.

 Speaking of which, by this time tomorrow evening - hopefully as you're reading The News of that day - Donald Trump will no longer be president. He will be on his way to doing whatever the hell he does for the rest of his wretched existence. I personally don't care if he's held accountable for his actions. This is, after all, America and we do not hold the rich and powerful accountable for shit. I just never want to hear his opinion on anything ever again. It's embarrassing we had to for so long.

 Granted, I'm sure we're looking at at least four years of the sour losers whining that they didn't get their way and, no doubt, a certain amount of petulant violence from clowns who don't get the president isn't and can't be a king. Fuck 'em. The Klan once held outsized pull in the country, not just the South. Now they're considered a national shame and participants are considered worse for having even the briefest association with them. It'll be like that for MAGAs one day, hopefully, and sooner than later.

 Moving on. I've been digging back into the Ultima games, particularly the ones I haven't played (IX and the Underworld games) as well as the mods for the Dungeon Siege games. They turn the original into updated versions of V and VI. They're pretty neat if goddamn hard. Of course, V was pretty hard all on its own, but this is something else. At the same time, the mods expand the stories of both. For example, in VI the war with the gargoyles was sort of a background thing. In the mod, it's an ongoing thing you have to deal with along with everything else. At least at the beginning, anyway. They're a little on the buggy side but a hoot for long-time fans. Here are the links, Ultima V: Lazarus and The Ultima VI Project.

 Granted, that's fairly niche even though there's a strong community that still reveres the games. I never got into Ultima Online because I refuse to keep paying for a game after I bought it once. There's a spiritual sequel called Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues, but I haven't been able to get into that, either. It's a MMPORG like Elder Scrolls Online, and those things just don't move me. For one, two dozen random yay-hoos with ridiculous names all jumping around trying to do the same quest as you are takes me out of the game. I'm not one for "emersion" but I do prefer my games self-contained.

 Okay, that's good enough for now. We'll see how tomorrow goes tomorrow. I'm sure it'll be interesting.

There's no guesswork in the clockwork of the world's heart or mind.

  I use the phrase "that's politics, baby" a lot but I don't think I've really defined what it's supposed to mean. Basically, regardless of how nonsensical or petty or wasteful something done by either party seems to be, if it's legal it's okay in that it's all part of the process. The Game, if you will. In fact, it's expected as there's more to politics than dull speeches and empty promises.

 There's an old saying that learning about how politics actually works is like learning how sausage is made. You're better off not knowing because reality can be stomach-turning. Before we get too deep in the big muddy, I do want to emphasize that I have no formal training or particularly special expertise on this matter. My degree was in journalism, but I spent more time interviewing bikers and musicians than I did state legislators or city aldermen.

 This is just the cynical ramblings of someone who's been fascinated with the process for roughly thirty-six years, ever since Ronald Reagan stomped Walter Mondale like a government mule. I had to pay attention to election night for a school project, and between that and trying to understand the jokes in Bloom County, I've been hung up on it ever since.

 As my own political compass evolved and drifted further left over the years, my fascination with the process has only deepened. Add in my natural cynicism and lack of a romantic soul, I think it gives me a somewhat unique perspective on why American politics works out the way it does. For example, a lot of Trumpists are unable to understand why Joe Biden, a man with all the charisma of dry toast, got so many votes across such a broad political spectrum. Or, for that matter, why the Democrats would go ahead with this second impeachment even though Trump is on his way out regardless. Or why so many Republicans would drop him like a bad habit after last Wednesday's Capitol siege even though it infuriated the Trumpists.

 It's not always pretty, it's not always logical, and it's not always evident why it's being done in the first place. That's politics, baby. Of course, the problem arises when one side plays the Game by different rules they expect from the other side. And while I am very left-leaning, my interest in anarchism allows me to take a grander view, I think. I don't like the evils of the U.S. government, for example, but I understand why we have one and, maybe, why we need one. I may be all in for Medicare For All but I understand why Bernie Sanders failed to get a broad consensus on the matter. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try to fix the government and that doesn't mean that M4A isn't a goal to work towards.

 I said all that to say all this, though. In the last four years, we've all learned just how little we know about politics. It's a messy business. Bernie Sanders is sharp enough to understand that if he wants to get M4A, he has to work with the rest of the Democratic Party and can't just tell them to go skip rope. It's also probably why McConnell is falling on his sword trying to scrape Trump off the GOP's shoe. Politics is a long game and it's never, ever quick, clean, and pretty, and the sooner we acknowledge that the sooner we can grow up as a people and advance as a society.

 That's partly why I can't seem to shake loose this political writing. My mind's trained in journalism and I'll always be fascinated with the Game, but I'd love to have the inspiration to write about something, anything, else. I realize that a lot of it is simply because I don't get around much anymore. Back when I was interviewing bikers, musicians, and the rest and getting their stories, I had more places to go. Now, the best I can do, fiction-wise, is character sketches and thinly veiled fan fiction.

 Anyhow. As I write this, it's 7:20 in the morning. I could tie it off here but I think I'll let it hang until at least this afternoon in case something else pops up.

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.

Rockin' chair money

 It's been a rough week. If you haven't heard by now because you don't follow politics - and if that's the case, why in God's name are you reading this blog - but Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away yesterday evening. She died because of complications from pancreatic cancer she'd been suffering for years. She was 87 and while I'm not going to go into detail about her career - there's good and there's bad - but do know the left lost one of their strongest allies on the Court, the right is almost tumescent with glee, and shit is about to get wild.

 I did a deep-ish dive last night about what her death means for life in Washington, D.C., how a new justice will be chosen, and what kind of monkey wrench this will throw into the election. We'll get a little more into that in a bit, but let's get the rest of this week's News linked up. Mother Nature giving us the finger was the main theme this week. Monday talked about the Pacific Northwest's burning and Wednesday tagged it by talking about how Hurricane Sally kicking the shit out of the Alabam and Florida Gulf Coast.

 We also touched on the accusation made by a former nurse at a Georgia ICE facility that the weird fuckers there were removing the uteruses of detainees without their consent or knowledge. Before the news about Ginsburg's passing knocked it out of the cycle, it was starting to get a little traction in both the halls of Congress and the corporate media. I hope it doesn't get buried and forgotten because that is some truly horrific shit. If we decide as a culture that we're fine with that, I don't know if I want to keep up with it anymore. It's bad enough we're fine as a society with being shot dead by cops because they feel like it.

 Anyhow. RBG and the Supreme Court. Mitch McConnell didn't wait until her body was cold before announcing his intention to fill her seat as quickly as possible. Senators like Ted Cruz and Lindsay Graham basically said they were lying about supporting the McConnell Rule back in 2016. Hell, Graham's even on video saying "use this against me".

 We shouldn't be surprised at any of it. Anyone who thinks anyone in the GOP has any integrity or honor deserves what they get. Furthermore, the idea that politics is a game for the dainty should be buried. Although it's unprecedented and reveals the party's screaming hypocrisy, there is nothing about Trump trying to shove a new justice in before the election that isn't allowed by the Constitution. That's politics, baby.

 Some Republican thinkers are pointing this out, though those same ones will squeal like stuck pigs when/if the Democrats do the same thing. There's been talk if Trump does nominate a justice and the Senate does vote them through with quickness that Joe Biden should pack the courts if he wins the election. One of the reasons we have nine justices is at the time it was decided we had nine U.S. circuit courts. We've got 13 now.

 I'm not sure about how I feel about it, but I do know the Republicans would throw a screaming na-na while the corporate press ruefully shakes its collective head and complains about "cancel culture." One thing I do find interesting about this is conservatives using the argument that a 4-4 Court might cause a Constitutional crisis if there's something hinky about the election. Number one, it tells me they're shaky on the idea that Trump will win reelection and, two, they intend to make something hinky happen.

 But it also tells me they don't feel as if everyone's on the same team, because by any other measurement, Republicans would have a solid 5-3 majority. Chief Justice John Roberts, for example, has made a few decisions lately that while they do follow the letter of the law, they go against Republican interests. This too is not without precedent. Nominated by Dwight Eisenhower, Earl Warren headed one of the most radical courts of all time with regards to civil rights. Brown vs. The Board of Education, Miranda vs. Arizona, and Loving vs. Virginia were all under his rubric and it wasn't odd to see billboard throughout the South that said "Save America, Impeach Earl Warren."

 Maybe we're looking at that sort of thing with Roberts. Liberals would do well to not put too much faith in him - you'd think they'd learn their lesson in this post-Mueller age - but an argument has been made that he'd rather not be known as a full-on Republican toady. The Court has always been a fairly conservative entity, but that doesn't necessarily mean Modern American Conservatism.

 But it's all too early to tell. Likely as not, Trump will have a nomination in the water by the end of next week. He floated some names earlier in the week to troll the libs, like Cruz and pencil-necked fascist Tom Cotton. He said at one of his rallies tonight he plans on picking a woman and the mainstream party apparatchiks seem to have a hard-on for Amy Coney Bennett, a judge on the Seventh Court of Appeals.

 Time will tell. One way or another, it's about to get weird, stupid, and ugly, and it started out pretty deep in all three. Get a helmet, neighbors, and buckle up.

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'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.

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.

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.

The more I learn, the less I want to know.

 At some point during the night, someone planted the seed in Trump's empty noggin that Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old man that cracked his skull on the concrete after a Buffalo cop pushed him over, not only faked the whole scenario but he's also an agent of AntiFa. By the time I got up this morning, not even 8 a.m., the hooting morons that make up not just the Base but the bulk of the Republican party is either considering it gospel truth, a reasonable possibility, or that since he was a liberal he deserved it anyway.

 No, really,  I've seen the pictures with circles drawn around what the nuts think is a hidden hose that pumped the fake blood that looked to spill out of his ear. Even dumber, he was apparently using some sort of James Bond doo-dad to drop an EMP on the cops' walkie talkies. No, really. And this is after the Buffalo DA has noted Gugino's serious head injuries and there have been pictures of him in intensive care.

 This is coming off the NYPD police commissioner - who makes $99 grand a year - tried to claim that concrete samples were evidence of AntiFa mixing cement in the ice cream. It's also coming off the Minnesota fuzz admitting they'd been slashing protesters' tires and a cop's wife admitting she blamed a fake home invasion on Black Lives Matter. And all this is being taken seriously by the Powers That Be as well as the Corporate Press.

 Speaking of them, the whole "Defund The Police" has got them in a serious tizzy. Liberals and leftists are arguing back and forth that it's poor branding or some other goofy shit, all the while actually pretending the Republicans will act in good faith on this regardless of what's meant by "defunding the police" or that the CP won't run with an easy, juicy story instead of actually putting some journalism to work and possibly rocking the boat of the Status Quo.

 And it's already been denied by Joe Biden. There's absolutely no reason to be having this discussion in this manner, but here we are. And the real silly "leftists" are losing their absolute shit about Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats kneeling while wearing a Kente cloth. This is two-fold. It gives them the opportunity to pretend to be outraged and shocked that politicians are acting like politicians, but also gives them - generally middle-class white bourgeoisie folks who'll be fine regardless how November 2020 turns out - an excellent opportunity to ignore what is in all actually a fairly decent police reform bill.

 Is it perfect? No. Was that pandering? Yes. That's politics, baby, and the extreme naivete and ignorance from these clowns is driving me up the wall. It's way, way too much stupid for a poor boy with a bad case of XCOM head to wake up to. So, yeah, this is another day in our ongoing experiment on "writing today's nonsense before my nap". So far, so good, more or less.

 That being said, I think I'm either running out of irritation at the laziness and stupidity of humanity or my ratty sleeping schedule is catching up with me. I've made word count, so I think I'll tie this off. Perhaps I'll come back to it after my nap. But if I can leave you with anything, let it be this: listen, think and shut the hell up. Just because you have a megaphone doesn't mean you have to tell everyone you have nothing interesting to say.

You cannot win if you do not play.

 I have two assignments this week to get done by Friday. Since I'm still figuring all this out, I figure it'll take me two days to properly research and write about it. Luckily, the writing isn't really all that hard, either in mechanics or creatively. It reminds me of the day-to-day grind back when I did weekly newspapers, doing pages and pages of obits or classifieds or legal proclamations papers have to print. Dull as hell but easy to do, just put on some music and go.

 The downside is, of course, I don't know how much of this or The News I'm going to be able to get accomplished. This is easy, really, just ramble on for 500 words and call it "art". The News is a little bit more of a hassle, but even then, I could shmooze it if I wanted. Basically, the news is every day "people are dying from a virus we don't have a solid grasp of yet, we're not doing what we need to do and what we are doing we're not doing well, and the President is a big ol' tittybaby", if maybe not in that order.

 He really is showing his whole ass here the last couple days. Between losing his cool with Paula Reid and Kaitlan Collins just being reporters causing him to melt down before announcing that he had "full authority" over when states re-open, sounding awfully authoritarian in the process. It's almost every day at this point that he pitches one of his little fits, when he's not blaming everyone else to distract from his own fumbling.

 It's got to be chaffing him so many governors giving him the finger and doing it for themselves are seeing success, and the ones that do toe the line can't do anything right. It's been sort of entertaining watching the right-wing media twist itself in knots to keep up with Trump's almost daily changing of the narrative, especially when they can catch his pitched bitch as easily as anyone should they show disloyalty.

 Speaking of pitching fits, the Sanders dead-enders are in day two of their wail-a-thon. It's even louder and poopier after Bernie Sanders himself came out and said working against Joe Biden winning the presidency was "irresponsible". A small but loud contingent of Twitter, they do little more than prove how little they know about how politics works. Sanders would not have endorsed Biden if something he wanted wouldn't come out of it.

 Look, y'all. Politics is an ugly business but it's a serious business. It calls for deal making, and if you can handle that, leave it to people who can. Organize and agitate, sure, but recognize it's a different ball game. The more they talk about Biden's legislative choices from 20 years ago or objectionable things the Obama administration did, the more they show they really, really don't care about anything but the "bending of the knee". Which is just stupid, but that's what you get when people convince themselves that Twitter and Facebook was equal to a political science degree.

 Maybe the most amusing thing that's happened in the past 24 hours is Florida increasingly obsequious governor Ron DeSantis announcing that WWE was an "essential" business during the shut down. What that boils down to is they'll be filming wrestling matches in front of an empty auditorium in Florida. They already held their yearly homecoming Wrestlemania in front of an empty house. All this comes off the heels of Vince McMahon's XFL football dalliance declaring bankruptcy for the second time. It also comes just after Linda McMahon's announcement that her Super Pac was dropping a tidy $18.5 million into the "Florida For Trump" re-election push.

 Now, I used to dig wrestling as a kid but bailed out before McMahon admitted it was all scripted to save his ass during the 1993 steroid trial. And, for whatever it's worth, I was more a fan of the NWA stuff than the WWF stuff, which was decidedly aimed towards kids. That being said, I've long been fascinated with the history of professional wrestling and its place in American Culture. I maintain that it's one of this country's truly unique contributions to world culture and a full grasp of the American psyche is impossible without an understanding of how pro wrestling developed alongside the ubiquity of television. Later, it pushed closed-circuit television, pay-per-view and internet development, second only to pornography in its influence.

 People forget that up until the mid-Aughts, Trump was stuck in tabloid hell. His biggest cultural impact came from his feud with then-daytime talk-show host Rosie O'Donnell and nobody cared after they passed through the grocery store checkout line. This all changed in 2007 when he popped up on WWE television opposing the "Mr. McMahon" character in the "Battle of the Billionaires" as a baby face. That is, he was the good guy you rooted for against McMahon's heel character, or bad guy.

 Long story short, he "won" the conflict and soon after became the Twitter tumor we all know and loathe/worship. Again, study the history of pro wrestling. In the process you'll learn what kind of absolute bastard Vince McMahon is, both personally and business-wise. Given that, it's sort of understandable how the U.S. could degrade to such a point that we'd allow a bit of media fluff like Trump to be president. Inevitable, really.

 In any event, I got work to do so I don't know how it'll affect this. If nothing else, I'll post quick updates. But, for the most part, I'm a happy camper because I'm getting paid to write and there's a new XCOM game coming out by the end of the month. Sweet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Hold on, I want to show you something.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 Prove me wrong or piss off.