I get a kick out of the energy surrounding Kamala’s ascendency, though it’s over the top, unsustainable. It’s a wildly optimistic vibe and exciting for the moment, but feels like eventually the Red Bull is gonna wear off and the slog will kick in, when Trump and company attempt their takedown and drag her through the mud, the appearance schedule starts feeling like a hamster wheel, and the inevitable scrutiny and critique of Harris’ record begins in earnest.

It’s nice to know that the Trump machine might be panicking a bit, since they had geared up to face Joe Biden in November. They may even decide to deep-six J.D. Vance, since in their hubris and overconfidence they picked a VP candidate who appeals to no one but voters who are already locked in. The emergence of Harris has changed Republican calculus. The stretch drive is just getting going and it seems there are yet lots of surprises in store.

I’m beginning to wonder if Joe wasn’t dragging his feet on purpose, deciding himself or advised to wait until the right moment to announce his withdrawal from the race. Who knows? One thing’s for sure– the media attention and hype have already grown to annoying levels. Left-leaning outlets are gushing over Biden’s patriotism and selflessness and Harris’ emergence, while Fox and their ilk are of course crying foul and hoping for litigation and some top-notch muckraking to stanch the flow and quash the Dems’ momentum.

In any event, the race has gotten more interesting, and now the felon is also the old man.

SCOTUS members are human beings, right?

One might dare think that they’re as sick of Donald Trump as the majority of the rest of the country is. But they’re not supposed to show that. They’re supposed to be above such surrender to emotion, treat the cases at hand with an almost inhuman restraint and neutrality, solely on their jurisprudential merits or lack thereof.

And yet, why is it that many feel that the six members of the six-three majority seem to have migrated to the dark side, seemed to have succumbed to a certain laziness or apathy when it comes to applying the law to Donald Trump and the mindset that spawned him?

I guess it just seems that way to those of us who have long tired of Trump’s antics and his lack of a soul.

The prosecutor versus the felon.

Too convenient, won’t last as a theme. Even as it is true. Everyone knows Trump and his cohorts will do their best to turn what sounds like an advantage:Harris into a Mike Dukakis debacle. They’ll somehow turn the tables and take the wind out of sails, or at least try to.

Harris, if she (likely) remains the favorite, will need more than her California bona fides to prevail against a political machine that is absolutely shameless and bereft of even a shred of honor. This is going to be a bare-knuckled cage match from here on out.

Even as the contrasts are real and striking—a narcissistic, delusional incompetent with an abhorrence for losing, versus a decent, passionate, strong-minded woman who deserves a shot at the job—Trump and the lost men and women around him are going to try their damnedest to make us lose our focus and scare us into some sort of panicked decision.

We just won’t let that happen. Because we’re on to ‘em.

They’ve got nothing.

Except… beware the SCOTUS.

So, at least one writer/reporter thinks people are jumping too quickly on the Kamala Harris bandwagon. What does that even mean?

I know, in a general way, that people are paid to remain neutral, to dissect, take a step back, not get too excited about possibilities and the shot of adrenaline that this campaign was in need of, but the critique arrived quickly. I guess there is concern over the lack thus far of a process in which others are allowed a say and the opportunity to throw their hats in the ring and challenge Harris for the nomination.

In other words, her ascendance is not supposed to be an automatic thing, even thought she’s VP and has Biden’s endorsement.

There is a process, then? Sounds like it best be followed or worked out, in order to maintain peace within the party, and to tamp down Republican outrage (good luck with that) over this significant change in the ticket at not quite the 11^th hour.

Sounds like the uproar is fomenting legal action from Mike Johnson and Company, who are now grasping at straws, making stuff up, running scared and scrambling to hatch a new plan for dealing with a younger and more scrappy candidate.

And we thought things were getting ugly when Joe was running.

This is gonna devolve beyond nasty, now that another woman—and a woman of hybrid lineage at that—may end up at the top of the ticket. Republicans will be way beyond beside themselves over such a travesty! Hopefully the Dems can work through what needs to be worked through, and Harris—or whoever emerges as POTUS candidate—can withstand the barrage of Hail Marys that’s coming.

Beware the SCOTUS.  

May Kamala Harris emerge as the nominee. May she beat Donald Trump once and for all, expose his motives and leave no doubt in anyone’s mind that he’s always only been in this for himself. May she rise to the occasion and become the first woman to hold the office of POTUS.

It’s gonna be a slog, the fight of her life. I hope she’s up for it.

And Joe Manchin need not apply. Please, Joe—stay away. Don’t kid yourself, and don’t ruin this moment, you blatantly opportunistic chameleon! 

Talk about drama queens and opportunists. The WSJ is portraying the choice of Joe Biden in 2020 as an “epic miscalculation.” Sure. Why not? Now’s the time to start second-guessing and showing that your cage is rattled because suddenly you’re having to deal with an unknown quantity who might spoil hopes and dreams of getting Trump back into office.

It’s no secret that the financiers and billionaires and venture capitalists and the rest of the money-grubbing power brokers are more comfortable when a Republican is POTUS, so there’s no time like the present to be finding fault and piling on after Joe Biden steps aside and endorses Kamala Harris four months before the election.

Kinda makes things interesting for Democrats, but also puts sand in the gears of Republicans who may have already been planning for a second Trump coronation.

If money is power, then Ms. Harris just inherited a bunch of power. If she prevails at convention, may she use it to full advantage, so as to annihilate Trump and give notice to all the one-percenters who think they’re indispensible and own the place.  

I came across a video taken at someone’s house in a neighborhood in or near Cedar Rapids, Iowa on August 10, 2020. It had already been a crappy year for earthlings, but then a derecho came through Cedar Rapids and its environs—just to add to the misery.

I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

A derecho is sometimes called a land hurricane (apparently a misnomer), as opposed to a tornado or a single-cell thunderstorm of varying intensities but relatively short duration. This was multiple thunderstorms, linear damage, heavy rain, and straight line wind speeds as high as 140 MPH. What began as a bit of benign wind through the trees eventually turned into a maelstrom of downed limbs, walls of rain blown sideways, and multiple rounds of ferocious wind.

This video began with some sort of evergreen tree bending in the front yard, but ended with it being blown over, probably uprooted, along with a yardful of branches and refuse and large downed limbs. There were vehicles parked on the street which I’m sure were damaged by falling limbs and other debris.

What struck me was the relentless nature of it. Things would quiet down for a bit, then the next round of wind and rain would arrive. This went on for a half hour or longer. I‘ve never seen anything like it. I searched for other videos of the same system and came across one where the roof on a metal building was destroyed, some of it blown away, some of it caved in on a garage and shop space, with the lone occupant/videographer holding on for dear life in a bathroom.

Damage of course was widespread—besides private property losses and extensive power outages, there were an estimated 7 million trees lost or damaged in Iowa alone; 40% of the soybean and corn crops in the state was decimated, and there were 4 deaths. This system began in Nebraska, and broke apart in Indiana, so there was a large swath of affected area.

Another unsolicited contribution to the canker sore that was 2020.     

The system is always going to be a bit broken, since humans are running the show. I guess what I mean is that we put too much faith in our elected representatives. We hold them to unrealistic standards that we ourselves would have trouble holding to. They’re not machines, they’re not emotionless or impervious to temptation. They are not perfect. We expect them to be perfect. Better, somehow, than us. Which is by no means offering Trump a pass– he is, has been, and will always be legitimately awful.

So, Pete Buttigieg for president.

Imagine Pete as the nominee! What would Trump and MAGA country do with, how would they handle a young gay man who possesses a marvelous brain and the capacity to be rational and clear-headed?

Seeing that people thought Donald Trump was such a great idea, I’m entitled to back someone who’s light years ahead in the qualifications department, and who has an actual beating heart in his chest.

When opinions of what makes for acceptable behavior are all over the map and relativized, then a nation is in trouble. Seems like we’ve been in that condition for a while. Large numbers support Donald Trump and are wondering what the problem is; large numbers don’t support him and are wondering why there are so many impediments to prosecution.

If there is a time in the future when students are studying these current days in a history class, I hope mention is made of the extreme selfishness of Trump, who never knew when to walk away, never knew how to concede gracefully, who hung around like a chronic condition and never actually grew up. His mindnumbing incompetence and narcissism instead dragged the whole country—and to some extent large portions of the world—through unnecessary travail and darkness—all because he couldn’t bear to lose.

In his own mind, his legacy will be one of unparalleled greatness. The history books—if they still exist—may be far less kind, and rightfully so.    

What is to come of the indictments and multiple counts? What becomes of a known quantity who has somehow been able to prevail and influence voters’ thinking even though he’s a bilge-mouthed pretender? What are people who know a rat when they smell one supposed to think when their legitimate concerns are dismissed and the bad guys appear to be having their way?

What does it say about America when the likes of Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller and Kari Lake and Ron Johnson and Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley and Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity and MTG and Elon Musk and various other billionaires hold sway over a wide swath of the nation’s electorate?

Who’s the PR person for the Republican juggernaut, because he or she is a fucking genius. It can’t be that the product just sells itself, because there is no product. It’s all vanity and vapor.