Yesterday politician Ms. Nikki Haley told us that if we re-elect Joe Biden, he will likely die before finishing his second term. Her unspoken point was that if President Biden dies in office, he will be replaced by a woman of color! And what could be worse.
Susan pointed out that Nikki, a woman of color, is running for President to keep a woman of color from becoming President.
Two nights back Susan and I went with Marty Renault to attend a tribute to her late husband, Dennis Renault, the former editorial cartoonist for the McClatchy newspaper chain. This was a small event made up largely of people devoted to artistic printing, setting type by hand. Dennis, once my roommate at UCLA, had owned an ancient press, and he had printed wonderful items that people appreciated.
About 30 people showed up at North Bay Letterpress Art in Sebastopol.,One of the informal speakers was a printer named Maia Kobabe, author of GENDER QUEER. She was quite interesting. She told us about her work at the printshop and about how GENDER QUEER had been something of a success until attacks on the book by crackpots had propelled it into a major event.
This morning I read that the American Library Association has named GENDER QUEER as the most banned book of the year. Susan and I feel like we've met royalty.
My local newspaper had a subhead this morning that read "A tragic moment in some ways." It referred to the arrest of Donald Trump for 34 of his minor crimes.
A tragedy is about the downfall of a good person, usually someone of importance. He's brought down by a personal failing and circumstances he can't defeat. In a sense a tragedy teaches us a truth: even the best among us is imperfect and faces death.
The downfall of a shitty crook is not a tragedy. It's melodrama. I don't feel fear and pity for Trump. The candle of the wicked shall be put out. With pleasure.
I am amazed by how fast I fall. My bike flips or I step in a hole, and I am flat on the ground before I can blink. Then comes the shock of pain, which usually lasts only, say, 5 or 10 minutes. After that I get up, and I'm okay. (I did break my ankle once, so I now employ, while walking, a half-numb foot that cants a little to the right.)
When you get old, you start falling. I had a friend named Lucy who reached 100; she fell and lay on her kitchen floor for 14 hours.
When I got into my 80s I began to fall from time to time. And then my wife fell. But we are fine.
(Report from Old Age)
I sometimes wonder what our elected officials are doing in committees, making good deals behind the scenes, I hope.
I did read that Gov. Newsom is pushing to modernize how California treats its mentally ill. He'd like to provide more hospital beds and treatments, something the state has needed since the day that Ronald Reagan forwarded the mentally ill into local communities to be homeless.
Newsom also wants to turn San Quentin, with the nation's longest death row, into a rehab and education facility for prisoners.
We can solve problems. Or we can keep problems as political talking points. It's a choice.
In a loose sense, an authentic person is one who lives up to her own belief system. Putin is an authentic fascist, although he doesn't know it. Trump is an authentic narcissist, although he doesn't know it. Bernie is an authentic democratic socialist, and he does know it.
I don't think authenticity is rare. We respond to it favorably much of the time. People who are painfully inauthentic (DeSantis, Nixon, Ted Cruz, Nikki Haley, Pence, Marco Rubio) may or may not attract enemies, but their friends don't like them (Oscar Wilde).
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Gov. Ron DeSantis recently said: "The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor, and so he, like other Soros-funded prosecutors, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety."
Attacks on George Soros and on "the Hollywood elite" are part of a Nazi political analysis, one that posits a hidden agenda created and enforced by Jews, who supposedly run the western world with the help of women, gays and inferior races.
I have no idea what DeSantis really believes about anything, but in the GOP race to the bottom, DeSantis sounds worse than Trump. If Trump goes to prison, the yam-faced DeSantis may become the GOP leader. Right now DeSantis is burning books. And next?
Republicans have a year in which to right their institution.
At the trial of five louts, the Proud Boys' book of rules came into evidence. America got a look at the organization's rule for masturbation.
"A Proud Boy may not ejaculate alone more often than once every thirty days. That means he must abstain from pornography during that time and if he needs to ejaculate it must be within one yard of a woman with her consent. The woman may not be a prostitute."
Why this rule? Prouds may believe that holding a full bottle of precious fluids enhances the masculine virtues.
While running for President, Joe Biden repeatedly promised not to allow new oil drilling in Alaska. Two days ago he confirmed that he intends to sign off on some new Alaskan oil wells. That surprised no one.
I've never thought Biden was authentic. No one--other than George Washington--has won the presidency by being authentic. Probably can't be done.
I will vote for Biden in the next election. The Publicans will nominate (as someone suggested) a cocaine bear, a murderous, salivating lunatic.
