So the latest meh news is that Mike Pence, the human Ken doll and conservative Christian from a Sears Wish Book, has thrown his hat into the ring for 2024. Oh, yay.

Not sure what kind of calculations are going on behind closed doors, but it seems Republicans must be thinking Trump is vulnerable, the noose may be tightening. We’ve been down this road before, so we’ll see what happens.

The trouble is that unless they can distinguish themselves from Trump and address issues that are actually important to a wider swath of people than just The Base, then why bother running? They’d be wasting time and other peoples’ money, especially if they’re only looking for their 15 minutes.

Well, well, well. The PGA has entered into some sort of deal with the devil, aka LIV golf.

Ah, the clarifying power of money. There was an air of inevitability about this, though it still came as a bit of a surprise, given the vitriolic exchanges along the way. The PGA must have felt somehow compromised, vulnerable. Or maybe they saw some sort of writing on the wall and just smelled the cash, couldn’t resist getting their piece of the cow known as the PIF, the Saudi Public Investment Fund.

Best of luck to all, as they, you know, work to grow the game…

If you want to grow the game, find a way to make it cheaper to play, and to buy the equipment you need. Five hundred bucks or more for a decent driver? Come on. This shouldn’t be like polo.

Jen Psaki interviewed Chris Sununu last night, and I was reminded of why I find many of today’s Republicans so repulsive.

A shit-eating grin, a barely contained resentment of progressive media, a typically dismissive demeanor conveying that he knows what he knows and everyone else is a dumbass, pretty much blaming the media for Trump’s capacity for hanging on in the polls (because they’re “attacking” him and unwittingly cultivating his “victimhood”).

He even went so far as to dismiss the accusations of Russian collusion in the 2016 election, which came as a bit of a surprise. He’s still on that?

This is why we can’t move beyond the animosity. It’s because of people like Sununu, who are so arrogant that you’re always rooting for their comeuppance, that they’ll eventually, somehow, crash and burn.

What are the news media gonna do when Donald Trump isn’t in the cycle anymore? Can anyone even envision a time when this will actually be the case? Sometimes it seems like even after the bastard buys the farm, he’ll continue to dominate the headlines.

A recent interview with James Comey suggested that one plausible scenario involves a Trump victory in 2024 even though he’s in prison, or on house arrest or wearing an ankle monitor. Seems a bit alarming to think that things could develop in this manner, but he could at least be the nominee, since the rest of the field looks to be having trouble mounting any kind of threat against him, at this point.

Pence? Haley? DeSantis? Hutchinson? Is there a dark horse in the group? Doesn’t seem like it, currently. Trump somehow is holding sway, though one might dare put money on his chances deteriorating significantly in the coming days.

As well they should. Politically speaking, he should have bought the farm a long time ago.

Confederate sympathizers must be beside themselves over the renaming of Fort Bragg. It’s now Fort Liberty—not very creative, but better than being named after a Confederate General.

So be it. May the name changes continue until there are no slavery-tainted monikers left. I see this as being less about erasing our past than it is about taking a closer look at who we want our heroes to be.

On a related note, what brand of history were we taught when we were in school? Was it anywhere near accurate, or was it the classic winner’s version of events—inherent bias bordering on jingoism, unencumbered by the reality of missing voices?

Recorded history is a messy enterprise, vulnerable to bias, subject to revision. To some extent, the onus is on the reader or student to learn to read between the lines, get the fullest picture. But more importantly, it is on teachers, who must not be afraid of or restrained from imparting a fuller, less sanitized version of the truth.

Unless you live in Florida. Then all bets are off.

Donald Trump doesn’t deserve one more minute of airtime. He should be done. He wants a new judge, like you can just order up something like this any old time you feel like? Who does he think he is? What kind of world is he living in?

People eat up this kind of behavior, though. They love it, actually. They love the fact that he’s an entitled wise ass. Only thing is, he doesn’t have the moxie and character to go with the brashness. He’s got nothing to back up the bravado. He’s just bravado, no depth, no heart, no talent, no gifts to share, no compassion or empathy, or even good intentions. He’s just a taker who talks a lousy game.

Why is he still around?

I’ll admit to enjoying Spare, written by Prince Harry of Wales. But I can’t quite dismiss the fact that he lives a ridiculously privileged life.

Don’t get me wrong—to hear him tell it, he’s done some good things with his time on earth, and he seems like as regular a guy as you can be when you’re born into royalty. But his troubles and challenges rise from circumstances that are really difficult to relate to.

The most glaring example of this, besides the lecherous and relentless press, is the frequency with which he traveled to get away from it all, to clear his head—to exotic places, like Botswana. My quiet place involves sitting on the couch in the basement with the dehumidifier providing some white noise. Harry hops on a plane, body guards in tow, and flies to South Africa, or Australia, or Vegas.

Quite unrelatable, in many ways, but entertaining. It’s been enlightening, from the perspective of getting some behind-the-scenes scoops, but I won’t be joining the Royal Family fan club anytime soon.

It’s so sad that it’s funny. And vice versa. And a lot of other descriptors as well.

My goodness. What can be said about the current choices a year and a half out from the next Presidential election? On the Democratic side, we have a personable octagenarian who should call it a day. On the Republican side, there is at this point a choice between dumb and dumber, between bad and worse, between airheads who either have no vision or operate under the illusion that the direction we should be heading is back to the 1950s or even further beyond those “simpler” times.

Donald Trump cannot possibly be in the running again. With the baggage he’s carrying and the storm clouds always swirling around him, there should be no chance whatsoever for him to consider the nomination. This, in addition to the fact that he’s a highly damaged, narcissistic wind bag.

And Ron DeSantis needs to stay in Florida, limit the damage.

Neither one of these pretenders has a prayer, apart from their appeal to a misinformed, paranoid base, whose issues include forcing their ill-formed religious “values” on the nation, worrying more about cross-dressing and banning books than paying attention to basic human needs, and making sure everyone has access to high-powered weaponry– you know, for protection when things fall apart.

They currently control the narrative, these two. They command the stage, riding a wave of perverse stubbornness and ignorance.

There really is something to race baiting. Airheads with multiple screws loose walk into a place, shoot it up, kill some or many, and then hope it gets the minority in the crosshairs angry enough to retaliate and start a race war. That’s the hope. That’s the tactic.

That’s what too many people decide to do with their time—think up ways to create ill will and foment chaos.

There really is a new normal.

People are working from home more, or at least in a hybrid work mode. Health care workers—including doctors and nurses—are in short supply in places, largely because many walked away, had had enough after weathering Covid.

Workplaces are suffering, or at least the work force is shifting—certain places are thriving, many others never reopened after the quarantine. Online ordering is going through the roof, in part because it’s just easier, but also because there’s less chance of being shot by daring to do business in public at a mall or a fucking Walmart.

Wages are up, way up—at places like Burger King and Dunkin’. But you’ll still need a second job if you want to work full time at a daycare center and work your ass off while being responsible for other peoples’ children all day.

The unemployment rate is the lowest it’s been since 1969, but what kind of jobs are being filled?

Teachers are walking away, in part because Covid exposed weaknesses in the system, because Covid exacerbated the behavior and discipline issues, because no one wants to put up with the shit from students and parents and inept administrators. And in part because the younger generations are neglected or really into themselves and don’t have a clue what it means to behave or sacrifice anything.

Certain segments of the airline industry are years away from recovering financially, or so I read. Car dealerships are just now starting to recover, from the standpoint of inventory, though think about it… do we really need to keep cranking out gas-guzzling vehicles and filling the lots with more stuff that depletes raw materials and poisons the air, all the while considering this a sign of… health? We are scarring the land and digging our own graves.

Tradespeople are in short supply, doctors and nurses are in short supply, police officers and fire fighters are in short supply, EMT crews are in short supply, because no one wants to put up with the anger and bad behavior anymore. No one needs that shit. Fewer want to work that hard. There seems to be a looming crisis of selfishness—people are figuring someone else will do it, whatever it is.

People are buying assault weapons because they can, and way too many are using them to kill others, because they are sick and angry and…  bored?!?!!

Health care succumbs to the marketplace. Rich people with no ties to local communities, along with big conglomerates with no ties to local communities continue to buy community hospitals and run them into the ground. It’s a big house of cards, wouldn’t take much for the whole thing to implode.

It’s like people had a brush with death, in the form of a pandemic, and have treated it as a wake-up call of some sort—they’ve decided to live life on their terms from here on out, and to hell with a civil society and sense of shared burdens, sense of community. As long as I get mine, whatever that looks like.

Everyone wants an easy life.