Curtains for Jeb

Jeb Bush has dropped out of the race, without winning a single state. While it's good to see the end of the Bush dynasty, the GOP base has gone insane for Donald Trump. It's not getting better for the GOPers but worse. Unless a lucky meteorite should land on Trump. Of course.

The Bigot Demographic

Those who support Donald Trump are part of the reactionary tradition within American life: the Prohibitionists, the Ku Kluxers, those who would define themselves in narrow racial terms. Trump's career is hardly reassuring; he seems to have no ideas or principles, and his only strong beliefs are racial bigotry. His followers see what they want to see; the worship wealth, because he is a "winner" and a "hard ass" who can get away with obnoxious behavior.

Trump appeals to a generation that has been rendered mentally passive by television and the corporate media. Without getting bogged down in "essentialist" arguments about what constitutes totalitarianism, there is a recurrent pattern that we can see in many nations. When a faction declares itself to be the "real people" and becomes preoccupied with taking power even if by force, then we are all in danger. It's not even a question of ideology but methodology. It doesn't matte whether the faction is Left or Right, religious or secular, or even if it claims to be acting in the name of "freedom." People like that are a danger to democracy.

HRC Plays the Misogyny Card

I used to support the candidacy of Hilary Rodham Clinton, until she started making foreign policy statements that made he sound like Marco Rubio. It also doesn't help that she promises to "get along" with the Congressional GOP. Her husband "worked with" Congressional GOPers hell he virtually gave away the store, and for all that they still tried to impeach him. It's obvious that HRC's progressive credentials are rather dubious and she's said nothing to make us think otherwise. So now her campaign is accusing her critics of "misogyny." If you don't support her you must be some kind male chauvinist "get in the kitchen" type of cretin. That may be accurate of her critics on the GOP side. They hate her for the wrong reasons perhaps. But HRC herself hasn't really given us any reason to vote for her. The real imperative is to choose the best person for the job, regardless of gender.

A Threat to Us All

Ammon Bundy and his gang of idiots have ended their siege of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge and are under arrest. One of the gang was killed, but then damned fools are seldom missed. The Bundyites it turns out have almost no support amongst the people of the area. It seems that most people are glad to be rid of them. The point is that while the Bundyites and others claim to be against "the guvment" they are actually against everybody else. They are a threat to all of us. Once again, we must remember that stupidity isn't harmless. Stupid people can do a great deal of harm when they set their minds to it.