tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post1834486660609103836..comments2024-03-28T11:33:16.271-05:00Comments on Adventus: The Benny Hill ThemeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-36603126592257811802020-11-19T12:06:26.650-06:002020-11-19T12:06:26.650-06:00OCICW, but I think this election will, like 2000 o...OCICW, but I think this election will, like 2000 or the last Super Bowl (who won that thing?), fade from memory after January 20. People upset now won't be for long because it won't be in the headlines every five minutes, and no occupant of the White House will be tweeting out "I WON THE ELECTION!" We will, IOW, move on.<br /><br />Tensions around covid will subside too, as Biden stops feeding that nonsense and even GOP governors in Western states realize their people are dying and their hospitals are overflowing. Does this mean damage is not done? Of course not. The SC did great damage to itself in Bush v. Gore, especially on the "equal protection" argument (if Florida was using different standards to count the vote, doesn't every state do that, and every county? Houston (Harris County) has voting machines now 20 years old, but replacing them is expensive and the state keeps restricting how much money local governments can raise in taxes. Nobody else in Texas has these machines. Are we denied equal protection? Or worse, are Republicans (since Harris is now deeper blue than Austin)? The Supremes don't want to go there again, but the damage persists.<br /><br />We used to have political parties that protected us from this crap (and served us better at the local level). Having abandoned the "smoke-filled rooms," here we are, on a darkling plain where ignorant armies clash by night.<br /><br />Shit, I sound like an old man.....Rmjhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06811456254443706479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-84118555575598710702020-11-19T11:11:31.372-06:002020-11-19T11:11:31.372-06:00It's one of the things you quickly learn watch...It's one of the things you quickly learn watching blog and podcast and YouTube hustlers, they've always got to operate like writers for a soap-opera, cranking up the melodrama to get the thrill seekers coming back for more. The Atlantic hasn't exactly pulled out of the nose dive it took about the time Mort Zuckerman bought it, though as I recall it's changed hands since then. It's far from a must read thing anymore. Not that it ever much was. The Thought Criminalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01381376556757084468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9479398.post-46919731098761937872020-11-19T11:11:12.110-06:002020-11-19T11:11:12.110-06:00Do I think Trump will succeed? No. Do I think th...Do I think Trump will succeed? No. Do I think there will be consequences for the country? Yes. I am watching several people I know with college degrees, in some cases advanced and professional degrees, believing that the election has been stolen. These are not the clearly delusional to be interviewed at Trump rally's as circus freaks, but people sharp at their jobs and otherwise highly competent. Before the election I was concerned watching neighbors and friends that seemed to be sliding from moderate conservatives into the ranks of the conspiracy theorists over COVID (created by the Chinese military, just like the flu, doctors are lying, etc.). The slide continues into theories of stolen elections. If find this all very disheartening. It undermines the democratic process, justifies anti-democratic and authoritarian actions in opposition, and fuels more grievances. The half of the Republicans that believe in wide scale voter fraud (according to surveys reported the last few days) aren't just the folks living on a farm in a rural county, but our suburban neighbors, colleagues in the next office and friends from years past. Biden will be president, of a very fractured and in far too many cases, delusional electorate. rustypickuphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17861692872132066016noreply@blogger.com