What is Israel doing? It must get old being at war all the time, always having to be on guard, deciding to take the offensive while much of the rest of the world is wondering if you’re playing with a full deck.

Unless something changes drastically, the U.S. will be impotent in trying to negotiate some sort of tenuous peace between Hamas and Hezbollah and Israel. And when one gives this situation any thought, how can the U.S. have any diplomatic standing anyway, since we are the main supporter and supplier of Israeli military equipment? We don’t get to talk out of both sides of our mouth. It’s like pouring water into a bucket with a gaping hole in the bottom, or something like that.

In any event, things are deteriorating, and all the Blinken trips and other State Department efforts don’t seem to be doing much good.

So, there’s a segment of the electorate who apparently is purposely ignorant. No surprise there, just disheartening. They get their fill of Fox or its ilk, and that’s all they need.

Sure, I get my fill of MSNBC and NBC and ABC and CBS and NPR, but besides being labeled mainstream or “lamestream” media, these used to be the outlets that many considered to be taking their jobs seriously and making an attempt to report the news without bias, with less of an agenda. Well, maybe not MSNBC—I see them as the antidote to Fox and the rest.

Anyway, a percentage of often young voters will go to the polls believing Trump is somehow competent and that he actually cares about the country. In her live show from Michigan last night, Alex Wagner charitably found this a remarkable development, as well she should.

Let’s not stop at remarkable, though. It’s also tragic, embarrassing, even rage-inducing, and reason to cast aspersions on Fox and Newsmax and OAN, on inept parenting, and the dark web and any other loudmouth organization or individual who for some reason is rooting for America’s downfall. The America they can get behind isn’t the America most of us are hoping to see. There’s no reason to blow it up and start over. Their vision isn’t benevolent or useful. Their vision reveals what could happen when people give up, when people reminisce too much and pine for days that should remain in the past. Or, sadly, when people choose ignorance.

For a twenty-something to believe that Donald Trump has his best interests in mind—or that Trump is capable of rational governance—is simply evidence of an insidious brainwashing, along with an unwillingness to open one’s eyes and look around.

Wagner’s townhall with a group of local union workers was enlightening, because there emerged evidence that Trump voters care only about economic matters and immigration– the latter a co-opted issue Trump needed for his campaign– and are oblivious to pretty much everything else that’s on peoples’ minds. Some know that something happened on January 6, but are selectively unfamiliar with the details and all the charges pending against Trump.

It is a bit difficult to believe that anyone can be undecided at this point. But in Michigan, at least, there remains 4% of the electorate who need more information. It remains to be seen if they’ll actually seek it out.

When push comes to shove, it’s fairly easy to start thinking conspiracy theory in a variety of situations. For example, are polls to be believed? How can the race for POTUS be so close? How can there not be a clear majority of poll respondents who believe Kamala Harris to be the better candidate? That the race is STILL a statistical tie is beyond mind-blowing. It makes one think that even if Trump follows through on his old claim about shooting someone in the middle of 5^th Avenue—and let’s add some press on hand to cover it!—the polls will remain the same.

I guess it depends on which networks we watch, who we listen to. If we’re always in our own little bubbles, our own little universes, then not much else gets in, right? Still, one might dare think that, merely based on what’s visible– a side-by-side comparison– there is no contest between a tenacious, bright former prosecutor and a 78-year old felon with serious psychological issues and the personality of a cake-eating, clueless, self-involved and delusional liar.

Harris has the capacity for getting up to speed, if she isn’t already. Trump doesn’t really want the job, except as a shelter from the myriad storms swirling around him.

Follow-up to yesterday’s post—even Fox News thought Trump did a lousy job at the debate. Yet Sean Hannity sits there with him in a post-debate interview and listens calmly while the Donald makes claims that he won the thing in a landslide.

According to his brand of convoluted logic, Trump has apparently said there will be no more debates with Kamala, because he won this one so handily, and she wants another one only because that’s what losers do. He’s gonna do his best to convince his supporters that this is so. And apparently many will believe him?

So, no need for another debate. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it, like he always does.

Why do Hannity and the rest still make the effort to humor him? By now, even they must be thinking Trump is a national embarrassment.

A layman’s perspective on the Russian-Ukrainian war might lean toward a questioning of the wisdom of giving a green light to Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles. It’s like we’re watching the inevitable expansion of a conflict that will eventually draw in the rest of the world, and, before that, cause Vladimir Putin to do something irrational and shocking that will precipitate that expansion.

Why is war so often the default? Just bludgeon our way through life, I guess. Hell of a thing.

Different lives, different experiences, vastly varying perspectives. Maybe it’s impossible for all of us to be on the same page.

We are a dysfunctional lot. Are we capable of being better?

Who won the debate? The significance of that question is debatable.

In a perfect world, maybe the winners were those who tuned in– because the candidates took it seriously and answered the questions honestly and thoughtfully and opened a window on their stances.

But since we don’t live there, well, what network are you watching? That oughtta be more helpful. Since I refuse to watch Fox News, I’m getting the sense that maybe Kamala Harris did a better job of explaining herself. Not exactly a revelation, since Donald Trump can’t explain his way out of a wet paper bag most days. In fact, one can almost count on him circumventing most any question with an endless barrage of nonsense and free association and disconnected thoughts. Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz as coaches? Trump surrounds himself with the best people.

If there is another debate—because Trump feels the need to redeem himself—what are the chances it’ll be on Fox News, or with always-on mics, or some other stipulation? Trying to stack the deck comes with the territory for Trump.

One might dare believe that nothing is going to help him at this point. The incurable narcissist has never really wanted the job– at least for honorable reasons. He’s been an impostor and way out of his league since 2015, if not before. It would be only proper that it all, finally, catches up with him.

November 5 can’t come fast enough.

It’s been 23 years. The changes are so embedded now that we may not think much about them. Opinions may vary on whether or not the terrorists won. But can we at least agree that, in terms of battles and wars, they won that battle?

Look what 9/11 spawned: Homeland Security, the TSA and its security checkpoints and the complete line of approved products, commitment to unwinnable wars in faraway places, billions of dollars squandered and numerous lives lost or upended with gross, life-altering injuries to body and mind.

The benchmark may be that we haven’t had another attack since, but is that really a measure of success? Granted, how often will anyone ever again mount such an extensive and effective assault on our own soil? But we’ve now been sucked into the eternal vortex known as holy war. In many eyes, we are still the devil, and we will be unable to extricate ourselves from the endless sporadic events and the geopolitical chess match that keep us engaged and looking over our shoulder.

And to think that someone’s god ordains all this.

Watching the debate tonight?

Wake me when it’s over.

Those tuning in to watch Kamala wipe the floor might be unpleasantly surprised. I couldn’t stand to watch that.

The mere sound of Trump’s voice is rage-inducing anymore.

So, wake me when it’s over.

Some politicians take their jobs seriously. Donald Trump isn’t one of those. He’s a politician, alright, but about as unfit for the job he seeks as anyone in U.S. history.

It’s freaking remarkable that he still has the support he has. Some actually still worship the ground he walks on and believe he can get things done. But most, I believe, just enjoy owning the libs, trying to get under their skin and set their hair on fire—fucking mature stuff. And patriotic, of course. Can’t deny the average Trump supporter’s patriotism.

They wear it on their sleeve, trumpet it from their seats at a NASCAR race, or in their bellicose opinions about God and guns and right to life and those damned marauding immigrants with murder and rape on their minds. They’re all caricatures, all in love with and pining for a country that shouldn’t exist anymore, all buying the firehose of noisy bullshit streaming from Fox “News” and their ilk.

This country isn’t a very serious place most days, and little will be settled on November 5. How’s that for a take on things?

It’s probably best to take any politician with a grain of salt, but if I had to take sides, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the Democratic stance on most issues. I find that they align with my understanding of how governance and civic duty should be handled.

I know that, somewhere, moderate, sensible Republicans must exist, but their voice has been largely silenced by the creepy phenomenon that has been Donald Trump and the cloud of swamp gas that’s been hovering around him for nine years.

It’s difficult to explain what we’ve been seeing and hearing and going through. Most of us know it’s been exhausting and infuriating and even embarrassing at times, but most of all it’s been disheartening and confusing.

Many know we can do and are entirely capable of being better, but fear and ignorance prevail among enough of us to thwart momentum and distract us from the many tasks at hand. Often enough we are drawn down rabbit holes and brought low by “patriots” plugging hair-brained notions fraught with paranoia and old ideas, and fueled by misplaced religious fervor and a shameless network daring to include “Fair and Balanced” in its tag line. There is no cure for this, except some sort of awakening to the legitimate needs and voices crying out for redress and solutions.

Passing legislation has always been a bit of a slog, involving patience and plenty of give and take. It seems, anymore, or at least lately, elected representatives of a certain stripe are more interested in obstruction than finding a way to pass palatable legislation. When only one party is functioning as adults, then whatever is passed is liable to face the chopping block or be threatened with extinction when or if the dissenters, aka Republicans, somehow find themselves in power.

Such madness is not sustainable.