The Republican playbook is an appalling bit of underhandedness, reeking of desperation, a sad commentary on their own assessment of what they have to offer in the way of policy and governance.

They obviously don’t have a very high opinion of themselves, especially in Georgia, where instead of offering a vision for the future, a platform of rational ideas, they’ve instead been able to infiltrate the state Elections Board with a majority of MAGA disciples who have introduced multiple roadblocks intended to complicate the vote counting process– for the express purpose of casting doubt on the upcoming election results.

Turns out the Dems are pushing back in a big way, even calling on Republican Governor Kemp to step in and investigate and put a stop to this incursion into a process that has always been straightforward. Gov. Kemp appears receptive to doing just that.

The Republicans are a pathetic lot.

Well, not all of them. Gov. Kemp seems open to doing the right thing, as he hopefully follows through and pushes for the right of all Georgians to be able to vote with confidence.

The whole thing stinks of Donald Trump and his brand of “getting things done.” What a conniving weakling.

The leopard can’t change its spots. Trump can claim all sorts of things in the heat of the campaign, but hopefully people realize that any change of tune at this point would be in the service of getting votes, and not an indication that he’s had a change of heart on any particular issue. It’s all very much in keeping with his transactional nature, his propensity for making one-sided deals.

He’s already sold his soul to the devil and anyone else who compliments him. He’s putty in the hands of the Heritage Foundation and many others, a deceptively illiterate stooge who bludgeons his way through public appearances and the rare press conference. He can’t speak policy because others are speaking it for him, or feeding it to him. And besides—he doesn’t care, anyway.

His motives have always been highly suspect. He’s a thug wannabe, incapable of statesmanship. And he really wants to avoid criminal prosecution.

So, what the hell is he doing running for President? Now there’s a question that’s only been asked two or three billion times…

It’s difficult to comprehend the hubris. Or is it just desperation?

If I was just starting out and weighing whether or not to have children, I would give serious consideration to remaining a childless cat person—in part to spite JD Vance, but mostly because I’d have my doubts about the kind of world any child of mine would be inheriting.

Previous generations have carried on in a largely clueless manner when it comes to environmental and ecological considerations, which has contributed to the maelstrom of meteorological excesses that are no longer abnormal. And the way things are looking on multiple fronts in the battle of ideologies and religions, it’s only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.

The U.S. and certain other NATO nations are making no bones about supplying Ukraine with weaponry. Ukraine is taking the battle into Russia, which besides being an insanely ballsy move, one would think is also not sitting well with Putin and his kettle of war hawks.

Israel attacked targets in Lebanon because they saw that Hezbollah might be preparing to attack. Sudan is a collapsing hell hole, China is engaging in saber rattling and bolstering its claims of support for Russia, with the help of North Korea in a supporting role. Taiwan must be wondering when the other shoe is going to drop. And who knows what Iran is up to?

And who knows what else will be flaring up?

Holy shit. Why would anyone want to bring children into all of this?   

The people who are criticizing Nancy Pelosi for pressuring Joe Biden to step aside need to find something else to turn into an issue. The stakes were high, and who knows how it actually played out?

Besides, the naysayers and bad-mouthers are probably employees of Fox News and OAN and Newsmax who are looking for ways to make Pelosi look like a grim reaper and have an excuse to use the word “coup.”

For everyone else, it’s just another contrived topic that makes someone look like they know how to fill air time with pseudo probing questions. News people, of all people, should know that politics isn’t for the faint of heart.

If the race is close, it will only be because people believed the lies and were too quick to apply labels. The Dems aren’t communists or baby killers, or weak. I’ll concede that they might favor some left-leaning social programs, but what’s wrong with helping people– helping them through tough times, helping them get on their feet, or providing a baseline of health care, or a bit of a financial safety net after retirement (it’s their money!)? The bootstraps mentality is overly romanticized.

Yes, people will take advantage of the system, but these aren’t the norm. Republican voters make assumptions, they embrace the mad ramblings of an extremely damaged and unhappy man, and they get their information from a highly biased “news” organization. They make rash generalizations, and buy into the fear-mongering.

They appear perfectly OK with calling the shots when it comes to bodily autonomy and deciding whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term—because the Bible tells them what to think. They must like the prospect of wielding that power, as ill-gotten and ill-conceived as that is.

If this race is close, well, it shouldn’t be close. At all. How is it possible to look at or listen to Donald Trump and the host of others clamoring for attention without wondering why they’re so angry? They’ve had years to convince Americans of a viable plan, to construct a platform, and the best they can do is leave it to the Heritage Foundation to come up with something that favors the white plantation owners and crumbles the bedrock we’ve been standing on since the late 18^th century.

May the momentum from the DNC be sustained, and, come November, the voices of reason and compassion and a certain idealism take the country back—if this is the language people prefer to use when considering the stakes.   

I can’t imagine there’s much left to put on the table. The Dems have had their say and now we’ll see if it all makes a difference, if the energy and momentum can be sustained.

Things are liable to get ugly, and mind-numbingly, disgustingly so, but there are only another 75 days or thereabouts. Then it can be over—if the outcome leaves Trump choking on dust, having been beaten so soundly that even he can take the hint.

Polling be damned.

The DNC was one long, cathartic therapy session. A chance to unload, let it all hang out.

Some will disagree, but Donald Trump has paved the way for this bearing of souls by simply being who he is, by merely opening his mouth day after day and spewing hate and stupidity, never knowing when or how to stop, and believing that he actually had a place in the national conversation. He was due a sustained piling on.

It seems, at least from what happened at the convention, that America has had more than enough of Trump’s insistence on looking at the half-empty glass, enough of the caricatured dark pall he insists on casting. The steady stream of speakers did their job of articulating a different path, many making sure we were reminded that the source of our discomfort is Donald Trump and a deeply troubled and conflicted Republican party. 

We don’t need what they’re trying to sell.

Ronald Reagan’s 11^th Commandment, “Thou shall not speak ill of another Republican,” is such a pretentious pile of shit.

This from the mouth of an actor who often gets put on a pedestal and spoken of in hushed, reverential tones, but who was an actor who could deliver a line, who landed the biggest role of his life.

It is difficult to be humble sometimes. One might feel the love and adoration, maybe start to believe the hype, and it’s hard not to jump on the bandwagon of positive vibes and a certain invincibility.

The Dems, to me, are getting cocky, trash talking now—not that Trump doesn’t deserve the piling on he’s currently getting at the DNC. It’s just that it’s difficult to see how Dems are not stooping to the same level Trump and many Republicans operate at on a daily basis. We’re being no better than they are, in some ways, and I always fear that such hubris and over-confidence will come back to haunt us.

If one doesn’t put much stock in karma, I guess no harm done. And sometimes it is difficult not to respond to the vitriolic swill that pours from Trump and his cockeyed squad.

Still, eyes on the prize! Preach to the choir, and the congregation, and those who might be listening at the door wondering what all the hubbub is about.

Turns out I can’t watch the DNC, either, but for different reasons than the RNC. I’m tiring of the loudness and the constant reactions and applause over the same talking points. Every speaker sounds like they’re shouting, and they all sound like cheerleaders, hoping to elicit a reaction from the crowd. And I guess I’ve heard enough about Biden’s legacy and how selfless and patriotic he is. Maybe, in the end, it wasn’t as difficult a decision as people want to make it seem. And it’s not like he alone conceived Build Back Better and wrote and ratified the infrastructure bill and the rest of the legislation. It all happened on his watch, which is not insignificant, I guess.

One thing’s for sure—Donald Trump’s thin skin should be crawling by now. The Dems are bringing the hammer down and serving up a massively karmic helping of criticism and warning. Somewhere in the midst of this cathartic outpouring should be evidence that the Dems have taken the gloves off.

James Carville said recently that the only way we might be able to finally put Trump in the rearview mirror is to bury him in this election, the way Barry Goldwater got buried by LBJ in 1964. That might send a message to the Trump coat tailers that it’s time to let go. Carville wasn’t optimistic that this will happen, but one has to wonder—if Harris and Walz can maintain the energy and momentum for another 77 days—if there might maybe be a landslide in the making.

Polling apparently still says No to that, but I’m trying to swear off of polls for a while. In some ways, they contradict reason and the rest of the headlines or the palpable sense of momentum the Dems currently have.

In any event, after tomorrow night, the stretch run begins and we’ll all get to decide if we engage, or set an alarm to wake us up when it’s over. There’s little doubt that it needs to be the former.