Is it a sleeping bag if you can’t sleep?
One hundred days. That’s how close we are to the next U.S. presidential election. And in his weekly newsletter, Charles P. Pierce notes:
We are prepared neither for an election in the middle of a pandemic, nor to cope with the mechanisms being constructed to ratfck an election in the middle of a pandemic, up to and including armed and anonymous troopers on the street corner outside the polling place. And, hell, in a country that seems incapable of doing anything of substance any more anyway, learned helplessness is fairly easy to, well, learn.
Helplessness and hubris may be our two greatest enemies. And they have the full support of the 24/7 news cycle.
“The shit monsoon has swept us all out to sea! Here, you’re gonna need this anvil!”
“What’s that off the port bow? Tom Hanks commanding a destroyer, ready to lead our ragtag convoy to safety? No, it’s just Daffy Uncle Joe in a dinghy, but he hardly stutters at all, and his son’s only a little bit crooked, so no need to panic. Unless you can’t swim.” (Cue the “Jaws” theme.”)
“We’re all fucked!” may be accurate, if only as a self-fulfilling prophecy. But as slogans go, it’s not in a league with “Give me liberty or give me death!”
“But look at the polls!” is likewise unhelpful. Look at them all you want, take whatever solace they may provide. But remember, the only numbers that count are the ones that come out of the actual election. That’s why we hold ’em. To find out who won. Occasionally we are surprised.
Here’s the thing. It’s something of a Zen koan: You can’t bag it. Because it’s not in the bag.
By all means, follow the news and the polls. But not blindly. Keep one eye on the compass and the other on the crew. Some of this lot need a good flogging come Nov. 3. Doesn’t matter who’s captain if the crew’s in mutiny.
And grab an oar. This ain’t “The Love Boat,” matey. No passengers.
Mad Blog Media 
July 26, 2020 at 10:52 am |
I better start looking for land in Canada.
July 26, 2020 at 11:26 am |
I don’t think the Canadians want us. They’ll take your money for land though.
July 26, 2020 at 1:48 pm |
I liked Canada. Mind you, I was 5 when we got there and 8 when we left, so I had yet to fully develop my critical faculties. Still, the place seemed pretty a’ight to me, especially if you like winter, which back then I did.
But if I were a Canadian, I would be lobbying hard for a Wall.
“Hey, those knobs down there are crazy, eh? You ever see what those hosers call ‘bacon?’ Take off, eh!”
July 26, 2020 at 8:54 pm |
I can handle the poutine, but don’t ask me to wash it down with
July 26, 2020 at 8:54 pm |
… a Moose Head
July 26, 2020 at 8:55 pm
Who at WordPress front end design had the idea of putting the SEND button inside the dialog box?!?!?!
July 26, 2020 at 11:47 am |
Apathy? Isn’t that what it’s called. Our duty nautical mateys, is to shmooze two registered voters each into voting for Biden. Then we begin planning for 2024 to make sure that we really do have the most competent individual fulfilling the duties of President of our country. If Biden turns out to be dragging his sleepy feet, then we politely roll him out, elect a capable leader and work on becoming a new great nation. Because the one that we are living in now is having difficulty keeping the torpedos at bay. “What’s that?” asks our Buffoon in Chief, “Vlad offering me a lollipop? That sure is nice. What a good ship we are on”.
As for Canada. Let’s not screw up there country too. They do enough screwing up of their own and need not be burdened with a few hundred thousand wailing Americans screaming “Things aren’t going our way so we’ll show them. We’re just gonna leave”.
July 26, 2020 at 12:08 pm |
Leave us not forget the lesser offices. We need to take the Senate back, bolster the House majority, and snatch up a few statehouses, governorships, county commissions, city councils, school boards, and sheriff’s offices.
Then we can get busy dismantling DHS, the F-35, and The Wall, along with various and sundry other purposeless money-consumption devices, return to a reliance upon science, craft a genuine national response to the pandemic, begin repairing relations with the rest of the world, put a whole lot of grifting shitheels with American-flag lapel pins in the dock, and start taxing the rich until they’re dead, and even afterward.
Oof. Remind me again why anyone wants to be preznit?
July 26, 2020 at 12:30 pm |
You want to be prez so we can ride at Camp David. Better hurry to, cause my ass is quickly getting to old to travel. If it ain’t a days drive or less away, I ain’t interested.
July 26, 2020 at 4:59 pm |
Their country!
Grammar!
The difference between knowing your shit or knowing you’re shit. An area that your Orange Menace seems to have confused!
Sorry Shawn, couldn’t resist.
July 26, 2020 at 5:10 pm |
I loved it!
July 26, 2020 at 7:13 pm |
“A dangling participle. …”
July 26, 2020 at 12:26 pm |
864511320. And all his enablers in elected office need to go with him. As their poll numbers sink, they should start jumping ship shortly. If not, then we know they are as crooked as the dumpster and his brats.
July 26, 2020 at 5:06 pm |
864511320
Had to look that up to see that the heck you were talking about.
July 26, 2020 at 12:35 pm |
They are saying what I was thinking when I heard the dumpster “wish her well.” I thought either his is stupid, or that code for a pardon. Ole Maxwell better think hard about that. Chances are he won’t be around after she gets convicted. Sing, baby, sing!
July 26, 2020 at 8:58 pm |
Maxwell Not-so Smart
July 26, 2020 at 1:23 pm |
Meanwhile, Philly DA Larry Krasner shares a few thoughts about the 101st Vanborne with Bloomberg Citylab:
July 26, 2020 at 1:41 pm |
sharon jones and the dap kings
July 26, 2020 at 1:55 pm |
There’s something Adolf Twitler can’t buy, even with someone else’s money: soul.
July 26, 2020 at 3:43 pm |
I think its time to watch King of Hearts again.
July 26, 2020 at 3:54 pm |
There’s one I haven’t thought of for a while. I think I first saw it in a film-studies class at the University of Northern Colorado in Greality.
Ever see “Gigot,” with Jackie Gleason? That took The Great One far from his well-trodden path.
July 26, 2020 at 4:10 pm |
Don’t think I saw that one. I saw King of Hearts as an undergrad as well. We had a pretty good campus film series.
July 26, 2020 at 4:02 pm |
Did you see this? Reagan Foundation wants Don the Con and the RNC to stop using Grandpa Ron’s image.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/26/trump-reagan-foundation-fundraising-coins-washington-post
July 26, 2020 at 5:07 pm |
Huh. I’da thought that if Don Cornholio were using anyone’s mug on a coin, it’d be Bugsy Siegel.
July 26, 2020 at 9:04 pm |
The Lincoln Project won’t take my calls, but I think you could cut into trump’s evangelical support if you polled folks on greatest President ever: trump or Reagan? I think the paralysis from analysis would make their heads explode.
July 26, 2020 at 9:34 pm |
I would pay a dollar to see a closed mind forced into paralysis. At least until after the election.