Thursday, November 17, 2016

Bipartisan Dismay

Today I changed my voter registration.  I am no longer registered as a member of the Democratic party.  It long ago ceased to represent my views or to nominate candidates I deemed to be worthy of the offices they sought.

This was especially true in the 2016 presidential election. 

Some arrogant jackass writing for Newsweek castigated a fellow liberal and, by extension, me, using the oh-so-cutesy euphemism that we should "have sex with ourselves."  Dear me. That great philosopher, Dick Cheney, said it better.  "Go fuck yourself," he said to a congressman who disagreed with him. 

Our liberal crime, according to the Newsweek person, was voting for Jill Stein. Apparently, as this guy sees it, there is no room for conscience in U.S. politics today.  He's probably right. And that's exactly what's wrong with our entire political system.
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Many commentators mentioned Donald's repeated sniffling during the second so-called debate and wondered if it was symptomatic.

Look up the signs of cocaine use and you will find something like this: 

They (users) may seem excited and act more confident and exhibit a greater sense of well-being. They may be more excited sexually and talkative. Their energy will be pumped up and they probably will not have a normal sleep pattern.

In this context, consider the headlines a couple of days after the election:

Trump Resumes 3 a.m. Tweets
With Rant Against the NYT
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President Obama appears to have gone back into his Dr. Kidglove mode.  Obama recently said that after meeting with Donald last week he believed his elected successor was "sincere" about being president "for all Americans."  He said he didn't think Donald was "ideological. . . but (rather) pragmatic."

Dr. Kidglove's signal registered with the new Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York. He said he plans to be a  bridge-builder, to be nice and seek compromises, and he expects his fellow Democrats to play along. "If (President-elect) Trump comes up with good policies, I'm going to be 1,000 per cent behind him, OK?", he said. "Maybe the rest of my caucus will not, but I'm going to find a pathway forward."

After eight years playing this losing game -- and against Republicans who weren't always quite as crazy as Trump -- one might expect Democrats to have learned how to be an opposition party. Clearly they haven't.  Another reason to sever connections with them.
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Twice now, the elected Pussy-Grabber-in-Chief has ditched the press pool to go off and do stuff on his own.  Is this how it's going to be for the Unfortunates assigned as journalists to cover the new administration?

"Just called a Republican congressional office I deal with often," a correspondent told friends today.  "I was told the press relations staff is no longer speaking to reporters."

Got that?  The press relations staff is no longer having relations with the press.


"Where is George Orwell when we need him?" a fellow reporter said.