The ornery ramblings of a former political science professor turned author
How do you do, fellow bitter, clinging, deplorable, racist, homophobic pieces of garbage?
Warning: This is a rant and thus may wander a bit. I’m annoyed, pissed off, and just now caffeinating.
Okay, then. Here we go.
Continue reading “Lockstep Voting and Bullying”
There is a lot of sturm und drang (storm and stress – thank you, Goethe) these days about how a Trump victory next week will usher in an era of fascism in America. In other words the left is desperately trying (and has been since 2016) to convince the American voter that a vote for Trump is a vote for a particularly nasty form of an authoritarian government. But if you ask people what exactly defines fascism, they can’t really. Oh, you’ll get all kinds of answers, but what it really boils down to when you parse out responses is “I don’t like what he says, and because I know that I am a true and moral progressive, he must be a fascist.”
Continue reading “Let’s Talk Fascism”
Kamala Harris’ campaign slogan is “A New Way Forward.” I find this fascinating because it implies that the last almost four years are NOT the correct “way forward.” And that’s not even getting into how much that slogan matches the slogans put out by the Soviets and the Chinese Communist Party (that’s a story for another post). Harris and her campaign are trying to convince voters that the problems of the last four years are… checks notes… Trump’s fault. Yes, they are trying to blame a man who hasn’t been in office since January of 2021, for everything that has happened since he left office.
Continue reading “Fix It…”
Yeah, I watched the debate last night. I can’t help it. Watching politics is baked into who I am. I did forget to pop my popcorn, but I’ve seen reports that Harris is asking for a second debate which means I have more popcorn for that, if it comes to pass. Okay, let’s get down to my post-mortem.
Continue reading “Debate Post-Mortem”
I am very aware that people who believe they will disagree with my comments/statements/arguments will most likely not read my posts because they already know they won’t like them. However, I will continue to write posts with the aim of trying to persuade someone to rethink their political beliefs or stances. I know that many people find politics to be extremely stressful and disconnected from their day-to-day lives. However, if you do not pay attention to politics, at some point politics will start to pay attention to you, and I can guaran-damn-tee you won’t like what it does next to you, your family, and your day-to-day life. Especially in times like what we are currently experiencing.
Continue reading “Censorship, Speech, and Calling the Cops”
Screaming your emotions at somebody is NOT arguing. How many times have you found yourself in an argument or discussion and realized that either the other person, or you, are arguing/commenting from a place of fact-free, analysis-free, and logic-free emotion? I know I’ve done it, and I catch myself doing it still (less often, but it creeps in there). You’d think I’d know better by now, but emotions can overtake before you really realize what’s going on. Emotions are also the strings activists and politicians pull or pluck to get you to fall in line with their side of the issue.
Continue reading “Arguing vs. Venting Emotions”
Recently, I’ve been thinking about the First Amendment and its relationship to the idea of “misinformation.” There’s a reason the Anti-Federalists put it at the top of their list of amendments to the original U.S. Constitution. When the Founders wrote the constitution, they left out specifics in a number of areas. They reasoned that restrictions on government action in certain areas should be obvious, and didn’t need to be spelled out. The Anti-Federalists (so named by Madison because they objected to an overarching federal government – they felt it could be used to put undesirable restrictions on individual liberties) insisted on including the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments, because they wanted the inalienable rights to be in writing and thus beyond questioning. Well before Louis B. Mayer, the Anti-Federalists knew that an oral agreement wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.
Continue reading “Freedom of Speech and “Misinformation””
I haven’t done a politics screed in a while and that’s mostly because there’s just been so much going on that by the time I find or make the time to write about it, something else has come along. So, I’m just going to note and comment on a few things that have pinged my radar in the last week or so.
Continue reading “Anointing and Appointing and Problems With It All”
Biden dropped out of the presidential race on Sunday. The first snarky question I heard was “How did they get Jill to agree to that?” Right now, some people are getting up in arms at the suggestion that the woman in the equation is against that simply because she wants to live in the White House for another four years and that she truly dislikes Harris. I’d argue that the question assumes Jill is in charge. Aren’t strong, feminists supposed to be in charge? Of course a question like that also assumes that given Biden’s obvious problems, which many of us have seen for four freaking years, Jill has no regard for the health and well-being of her husband. Anyway, I digress. This announcement significantly changes the tenor and character of the 2024 race. And I don’t just mean because there’s going to be a new Democratic candidate.
Continue reading “A Weird and Changing Presidential Race”
This is going to be a sort of combo post covering two issues that have come up. The first is obviously the assassination attempt on former President (and current candidate) Trump. The second is the thought/idea that both candidates are “disastrous” choices and either will harm the country irreparably. The TL/DR for this post: 1) Had the assassination attempt succeeded we all would be in a world of hurt right now. More than you can possibly imagine. 2) No, the candidate choices are not both disastrous for the country. Only the choice of Biden or any other Dem candidate will be disastrous at this point. You have an obligation to pay attention whether you like it or not.
Continue reading “Assassination Attempts and “Disastrous” Candidates”