Reviews of movies, anime, and the occasional TV show mixed with warnings on Blogger spam. Also to be found are musings on whatever I am thinking about - all from the point of view of being left to watch everything from the sidelines of life.
Well, Tuesday was some night for many of us and unfortunately for me, I overdid things making the upper respiratory infection that was nearly gone return. While I’m physically having some breathing problems, I can say that mentally, emotionally, and spiritually the atmosphere has lifted allowing me to metaphorically breathe easier. Time to ramble a bit for posterity.
President Trump. A year ago I was telling people to get used to saying this only to be greeted by laughter.
A highly abridged collection of my thoughts on the 2016 election written without any real structure with the purpose of jogging my memory later on.
What a bizarre election. It reminds me of reading accounts of Italian or Greek elections more than an American one.
Normally there is more excitement surrounding local candidates around here, but the strange presidential race has sucked most of the attention away this time out. One of the consequences of the immense damage the autocratic Obama administration has wrought over two terms is this weird (by American standards) faceoff between a billionaire populist not wanted by his party leadership and the most corrupt candidate to ever run for the office. Both have high negatives so it has been a marathon to see which one will be the most disliked.
Once again, it has been more than a month since last posting. I wish this was due to being really busy having summer fun, however it is solely due to not being up to my normal levels of subhuman energy. Every day has been a tightrope walk managing health versus activity ever since spring arrived.
Adding to the misery has been chronic problems with the new silicone hydrogel contacts and trying to figure out just what is triggering allergic reactions that make me look like Christopher Lee as Dracula. What is mystifying is how one or the other eye acts up, but rarely both at the same time. Maybe a trip to an allergist is needed since I’ve used every kind of solution and cleaning regime out there.
With the “Super Tuesday” caucuses nearly upon us, I’ve been thinking about a few things while cutting out nearly three hundred ballots with a pair of scissors while preparing to convene one site here in Minnesota. Political volunteerism is far less glamorous than TV or movies make it out to be, what can I say?
The debate last night on CNN was stormy, uncivil, and the last before Tuesday’s big event. Rubio won it handily, to my surprise. More shocking was watching Ted Cruz not only fail at debating, but have a melt down while arguing with Trump. The pressure is clearly on and the tag team attacks on The Donald were unlike anything seen so far.
It is questionable whether or not this influences the upcoming vote, though it may allow Rubio a chance at Minnesota. He’s got more than a few supporters keeping quiet, I suspect. As it was, I’d expected Trump to win the state by a narrower margin than his previous wins with Marco coming in a close second. Now I really don’t know what to think.
Of course, predicting elections is more like gambling in a lottery than a science. The odds are always against you.
Updated: Yep, it cost him big time as my late friend Al would have said. Rubio’s support went over to Jeb, prolonging that campaign just a bit longer. All it took to stop Marcomentum was Christie, though neither did well looking at totals with 77% reported in.
Original post follows:
New Hampshire’s caucuses are the big moment for Marco Rubio to break out after his surprisingly strong showing in Iowa. Thanks to his wretched performance last night he may have blown that opportunity, though voters are always unpredictable.
Chris Christie has been dinging Rubio for using canned sound bites that are very rehearsed and not at all extemporaneous. When he went after the Florida senator, the response was exactly what the governor was mocking. Pundits have noted that Rubio is robotic in his responses and he sounded just like a vinyl record being stuck during that exchange.
Occasionally politics will present truly surreal moments that make one question the nature of reality. Now I’m wondering if Life Model Decoys developed by SHIELD are real.
Once again the first in the nation caucuses held in Iowa have concluded without leaving any definite conclusion as to who the eventual nominees will be. For those of us who follow politics, the relief from the sheer overflow of punditry and prognostications is large, to say the least. So much hot air, so much speculation, so much money spent… and rarely does the GOP winner go on to win the whole shebang.
Frankly, the Democratic Party results are more fascinating than that of the Republican record setting attendance. I’ll get back to that in a moment.
I live near the border of Iowa, so the results were of interest to me, especially from Winneshiek County. Trump beat Cruz 274 to 251 votes while Sanders beat Clinton 56 to 54 delegates in the Iowa Democrats very twisted methods of counting. Oddly, there is no secret ballot and the process is very peer pressure driven with little accountability.
Things have once again gotten out of control on the GOP side in the run up to the 2014 elections. A primary to decide who the candidate is to be after an endorsement fails to unite the activists brings back unpleasant memories. Think of this as the return of the Brian Davis strife from 2008, but with the potential to get uglier.
What I’m about to write will make some enemies (if anyone actually bothers to read this post), but some harsh truths need to be said even if it appears to give the Democrats ammo. It doesn’t, they already have more than enough thanks to ham fisted politicking already under way.
Over the past decade, the Republicans of Congressional District 1 in Minnesota have indulged in circular firing squads and tribalism to the point where sitting Democratic Congressman Tim Walz has become all but unbeatable. A large part of it has been the result of an influx of Ron Paul supporters into the caucus system exacerbated by the purging of too many old hands who understood how to fund raise and campaign. Paul supporters for the most part aren’t willing to do the work required to elect candidates once things go to the general election and that continues to astound me.
Why? Because of all the work and effort they put into getting said candidates endorsed and taking over of party leadership positions. They are really good at that, then pretty much vanish into the ether other than doing an occasional phone bank. There seems to be a fundamental disconnect from the reality of politics reminiscent of the underpants gnomes from South Park:
So what does this have to do with Jim Hagedorn reentering the race to contest endorsed candidate Aaron Miller in the primary?
I do not believe Edward Snowden is a hero like some on the political right and left are hailing him. The timing of the disclosures and his running to Hong Kong are straight out of Cold War espionage operations so I suspect China’s hand in this. From his own statements, I see him as an erratic personality more than likely manipulated by a handler working for Chinese intelligence.
Even if he wasn’t, he’s not the white knight people think he is. A Ron Paul supporter and Obama sympathizer, he did not go public with this information when it mattered most before the 2012 presidential election. Timing is everything in life and doubly so in politics, which is why I believe China’s spies have a hand in this.
This would be a perfect opportunity to weaken President Obama for his meeting with President Xi Jinping on cybersecurity. Given how much attention had been focused on Chinese hacking of defense, government, and business servers in the United States it makes sense to skewer Obama with spying on his own people to deflect attention.
Seeking asylum in China while spouting off about freedom indicates that Snowden is either lying or quite stupid. Yeah, going to a country that censors the Internet, has spied on its citizens for many decades, and suppresses any mention of Tiananmen Square is beyond foolish if you are seeking freedom. It looks like someone has been working on his perception of China, if you get my drift.
Meanwhile, there are purportedly idiots in the intelligence community talking about “disappearing” Snowden in public. Oh and another scandal is hitting involving the State Department covering up drug dealing and use of prostitutes by ambassadors and security contractors.Our government is in the best of hands, isn’t it? There is no way to indicate just how much sarcasm fills that sentence.
There aren’t any heroes, folks. So please don’t rush to put Snowden on a pedestal just yet. Remember that Manning and Assange both proved to have motives that weren’t heroic and even Deep Throat turned out to be someone wanting revenge for being passed over for a promotion.
Isn’t it interesting that all the wrong doings of the current administration are coming to light after Obama was safely re-elected?
People who know that I am a conservative would probably think I’m celebrating all the bad press the Obama administration is finally getting this week. The long delayed look at the Benghazi terrorist attack and the huge IRS scandal are actually dominating the news right now. I doubt they would if the Feds hadn’t seized Associated Press phone records in an apparent fishing expedition for whistle blowers. No, none of this is happy news or even surprising.
Instead it feels like a continuation of the slow fall of the United States into a completely corrupt government like all before it. This is the death of the dream established by the founders of the nation, so it isn’t a cause for celebration. Frankly, I only see it as a symptom of what’s going on with the American people themselves.
UPDATED 12:20 PM CST: CNN is saying a suspect has been identified in the bombings. Also, more ricin packages sent to President Obama and Republican Senators.
With things still trickling out about the Boston Marathon bombing, we have another terrorist tactic being trotted out again. Mail to a United States Senator has been verified as containing ricin, a deadly poison made from castor bean plants. This particular method of trying to kill someone was last seen in 2001 and it sounds like it is unrelated to the bombings. There has been some question as to whether the government was correct about the identity of the culprit last time, so conspiracy theorists have new grist for the mill.
Meanwhile, we know a little more about what happened in Boston. Pressure cookers packed with black powder and probably ball bearings were used for the bombs. This is a method favored in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan by Muslim terrorists which hints at a jihadi. In those circles there has been a call to hit sporting events lately.
Nobody has stepped forward to claim responsibility. To me this suggests a lone wolf though the idea that drone kills and such have driven terrorists further underground to the point where they don’t take credit intrigues me. This would show a level of intelligence and restraint previously unseen which would be a very bad thing. I’d rather it be a lone wolf.
It doesn’t matter if it is a lone wolf or an organized operation at this point because the government is acting like they have zero leads. While not reassuring for the public, it could be ruse so that they can track down the terrorist. At least I hope that’s the case.
What’s worse than the horror of the explosions is how the media is behaving. There has been a desperation to make out the culprit as being a white male right winger rather than simply report the news. Even if that does turn out to be the case, there is more than just a bias showing. There’s a desire for it to be thus that overrides factuality and demonstrates how hopelessly divided the nation is becoming. It is also begetting a backlash.
So score one for the bomber whatever his political, religious, or ethnic motivations may be. He’s helped make things politically worse on the national stage.
In other words, he succeeded despite all the feel good that Bostonians have rallied together stories.
It is hard to believe it is General Conference time again – time does fly. The past week itself went by rather quickly thanks to a road trip on Wednesday.
Monday I accompanied my father on a pair of repair jobs and ended up not helping at all due to not being needed. However, it was good to get out of the house. Having the car out of action again has been frustrating. Anyway, the second call was at a friend’s place where the dishwasher pump isn’t working properly. While I was there, his son suggested watching his new Yellow Submarine Blu-ray which looked great even if the animation was pretty bad.
Also, in retrospect it made Magical Mystery Tour look sensical (this isn’t a word, but should be) by comparison in my opinion. This opinion will be shared by exactly zero other people in the world.
…The Congressional Republicans gave it to him. That is just what happened in the fiscal cliff game that played out in the wee hours last night.
An interesting opposing viewpoint can be found at Reason.com.
I’m not even going to go into the disastrous economics involved in the deal. What interests me more is how the whole thing played out. Obama went from a moderately strong hand to a total victory that impressed, though he had all the trump cards in the first place. Fear of those trump cards was more powerful than they actually were and he didn’t even need to play them.
Since last Thursday, the traffic to the blog has dropped to a fraction of what it normally is. I don’t know if it was my tweaking the robots.txt earlier in the month knocking me down in the search rankings or what. That has since been returned to the Blogger default since the tweak served its purpose in getting Bing to actually index the whole blog. Arcane stuff, but interesting to learn.
It’s a good thing I don’t earn any money off of this site!
With the re-election of Barack Obama to the presidency, there is no chance of turning things around. My analysis of the race turned out to be wrong due to two factors: thinking the 2010 elections indicated a change in the electorate and believing the Democratic Party affiliation sample was overstated dramatically. Well, 2010 appears to have been a temper tantrum rather than a real desire to change course and this is no longer a center-right country, but a left wing nation. Blame will be put on Romney’s campaign, but the reality is that we really are a +6 Democrat country despite what Gallup said.
The gains by the Democrats in the House and Senate show that nationally and the Minnesota state legislature has switched back to the DFL. So much for Minnesota being in play, not to mention many other states so listed. Pot legalization passed in Colorado and Washington, while gay marriage did in Maine. The left now own the country and will continue to do so until the country fails.
The media claim there is no mandate for Obama with this close an election, but I disagree. You will be seeing a lot of executive orders bypassing Congress in the future, for humility is not a trait the President has in any quantity. So, yes, he has a mandate.
In the end, we always end up with the President we deserve as a nation, not what we as individuals may deserve. Things are going to go very badly from here on out, though it was probably unavoidable no matter the outcome of the election.
With that in mind, I call upon all who read this post to come unto Christ, for it is only through him that we can be saved – not by any mortal politician.
Locally, Greg Davids and Jeremy Miller both won with 58% of the vote in a district that went DFL for everything else. Both amendments failed easily as did Quist and Bills.
For me, this is most likely the last hurrah in national and international affairs, since I feel a deep need to get my personal house in order. I’ve been a news junkie for all my adult life and it is time for that to change. Having fought the good fight, I am content with what I have done. Time to focus on the things in my life I can control.
Like most political junkies, the Presidential race is the main focus for me, especially given what is on the line this time out. But there are other offices up for election this year, so it is past time for me to say something about them.
Minnesota District 28 is both brand spanking new and old at the same time. It used to be District 31, so I hope I don’t mistype that repeatedly.
The state senate boundaries stayed the same, so it looks like it will be another close one. I am voting for Jeremy Miller, who has done a very good job as a rookie senator. He easily deserves a full four year term to expand on what he started in 2010. My hopes are that the margin of victory expands, but it will depend somewhat on coat tails from above. More on that later.
Earlier this year, I would have told you that I was voting against Barack Obama because I didn’t expect to have a candidate I could vote for.
Four years ago, America faced a choice that would decide whether the country would continue on or embrace change while in the middle of a crisis. When the latter was decided on, many voters assumed that change for change’s sake was a great thing. However, many did not understand anything about Obama because much of his past was buried deeply by the main stream news media. As a result, change did come and things got far worse.
Change for change’s sake is a teenager’s concept of improving life. The results of four years of President Barack Obama has resulted in things listed in this post by anonymous blogger Zombie. Please read them since they include a great deal that you will never hear from the national media.
Until Obama was elected, that is. One of the uglier cover ups in U.S. history has been playing out since September 11 of this year. The 9/11 anniversary attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya gets more upsetting with every new bit of information that comes out. Ostensibly caused by an anti-Muhammad film on YouTube, that story has been torn to shreds and now looks like it was put in place to protect the failure of the administration to protect our ambassador.
But it is worse than that, we now know. The attack was known to be a terrorist attack and we had special forces who could have intervened and saved Ambassador Stevens. They were ordered to stand down even when they had the enemy in their sights. Repeated requests for support and help were turned down.
In the past, this would be enough for the mainstream media to raise hell until heads rolled. Now they are actively participating in the cover up, with Candy Crowley in the second presidential debate being a prime example.
We have a government that can’t be trusted. We also have a news media that can’t be trusted. That’s a bleak place to be in and doesn’t bode well for the country.
Yet what sticks in my head is the realization that this administration has no desire to protect its citizens or soldiers. Assassination lists are fine with them, but actually protecting the people? I thought they could at least be relied on for that. Sadly, I don’t think they care one whit and only care about their political careers.
This should be bigger than Watergate, bigger than Iran-Contra, and bigger than Monica Lewinsky. I guess American lives don’t have any value anymore.
And he should marry Gloria Allred to set up the most over publicized divorce in history.
Foreign policy is the subject of the last and probably least watched debate. On the anecdotal side, multiple people I know will not be watching this one who did watch the preceding debates. Make of that what you will.
Both candidates seemed a bit off at the very beginning. Lots of verbal stumbling and stuttering going on shows how the debates have worn them down.
President Obama was a jerk early and made things personal during the Libya question. Hitting Romney on saying Russia was the biggest geopolitical threat was predictable. Mitt was prepared for that and gave a very strong response. Obama said “clear” which is always a telltale he is about to fib big time. Seriously, he always does that.
It looks like his gambit will be to try to put words in Romney’s mouth, just like the previous debates and entire campaign. It must gall him that Mitt stands up for himself.
Lots of little things have happened here and there the last couple of weeks so it is time to have another rambling post filled with disconnected subjects.
I’ll start off with this week being unspeakable for the most part, so mostly I will not speak of it. Today went well, which shocked me. I wasn’t prepared for it, so I don’t know how to handle it. There was some solace in watching entertainment that brought back memories, caused me to laugh, or was simply intriguing.
At long last, I own Evil Roy Slade, a 1973 TV movie stitched together from two failed pilots. This is a cult film and a special one in the family, so it was with great nostalgia that I watched the DVD. Starring John Astin (Adams Family, Night Court, The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.) as the orneriest desperado to ever rob a bank, stage coach, or baby buggy, it is like a clean Blazing Saddles. My favorite scene is when Slade is in psychotherapy and tries to walk without his guns. Yes, it is that kind of warped humor.
