Vogon_Glory
Vogon_Glory's JournalRe: Donnie's Health in 2020
If I were a little more superstitious, I’d believe that either God Almighty allowed Donald Trump to be elected President of the US as a scourge for our sins (A punishment we might have avoided had we elected the church-going Methodist grandmother) or that Donnie signed a pact with Satan to preserve his health at least through Inauguration Day next year.
In any event, I dearly hope Joe Biden is preparing at least one folder in case the guy with the horns and pointy tail calls Donnie home and Joe finds himself running against Father Pence this Fall.
Whatever. They probably thought it would sell
I’m a Democrat and have vehement feelings about Individual One; that’s why I’m a DU supporter. And, I regret to say, most O scale two and three-railers I know have opinions well to the right of Center.
OTOH, I think Lionel is pushing their luck with this set. Maybe we’ll get to see how marked-down they’ll be on-line and at train shows like York.
In the meantime, I’m thinking about a wonderful Woody Guthrie song called “Little Black Train.” I invite Trump-loathing modelers and railroad enthusiasts to listen to it (Even if a “Little Black Train” commemorative set probably wouldn’t sell. 
).
How old is this guy? Didn't he hear about Spanish Flu?
We went through a deadly epidemic all too much like this one and paid the price of a quarter million deaths in the official count and possibly three times more unofficially. WTF should we feel obliged to repeat our great-grandparents’ stupidity?
The early '90's. I think it was Bush-the-Elder.
and his faction. That effort went down the crapper when the talk show hosts started using Wen Ho Lee as a scapegoat for nefarious East Asian foreigners during the Clinton years.
This is not to say that today’s Republican Party still welcomes Amer-Asians the way some parts of it did a quarter-century ago. I’m not saying that. As the saying goes: “That was then. This is now.”
Would I consider dating a Trump voter? No
Different times, different parties, different mindsets.
My political thought processes were strongly influenced by my Dad (long since deceased), who was the sort of Republican still common over half a century ago: the sort of Republican who was fiscally responsible, leery of creating new bureaucracies, cynical about the motives of large corporations, but tried to let his views be formed by facts and also was willing to change his mind based on evidence. Elizabeth Warren was once that sort of Republican before she left the herd of Pachyderms; I’m sure there were others, but since the mid-1970’s they’ve either been sidelined, sold out or been decimated in right-wing RINO hunts. Many have since died or changed parties (I remember working at an Obama telephone bank with a couple of former Nixon Republicans).
I would not consider dating the sort of Republican prevalent today. Most of them seem to lack empathy or critical thinking skills, ethics, or the ability to distinguish between truth and lying propaganda.
My concern this cycle had far less to do with
my opposition to Senator Sanders or any imaginary desire to defend the pillars of capitalism than it did to a strong and heartfelt desire to not only see Donald Trump out of office and as many Republican senatorial and congressional candidates defeated as possible.
I’m sorry, but I did not see Senator Sanders as the man to do that job. In fact, I feared that he’d lose to Trump and that the US would be cursed with another four years of Donald Trump in the White House with damage reverberating for decades. In fact, I went into a depression after New Hampshire and the Iowa caucuses anticipating Trump’s re-election.
Despite this, I wasn’t willing to concede defeat. I sent money to the Biden campaign and started posting my polemics. It now appear that that wretch in the White House may have to clear out of his digs in January 2021.
To the Sanders folks reading this, I hope you’re willing to do what Bernie’s forebears did to fight fascism in the 1930’s and join the rest of us in forming a united front to fight Trump and racist oligarchical Republicans.
A Message To The --Or Bust Voters
This election isn't a beauty pageant, it isn't just about whether we like Joe Biden, it's about the future of the country. It's a decision point as to whether we want to continue as a democratic republic or if we are willing to sit on our backsides and either let the Republicans gum up the works like they did during the latter years of the Obama administration or, worse, let the US become another oligarchical autocracy of the sort spread around much of Latin America and present-day eastern Europe.
Successful politics is about facing unpleasant facts. The fact is that however much some of us may desire radical change from post-Reagan governance, the fact is that most Democrats, and most Americans, aren't yet willing to vote for a left-liberal agenda.
I admit that Bernie has done fairly well in the primaries. But even where he's done well, the numbers show that not enough Democratic voters turned out to push him into the sixty-percentile range of victory.
We also need to acknowledge that Bernie has antagonized a large chunk of the Hispanic voting block. Whether you think it's fair or not, it's a done deal. Those folks are not only going to not vote for Bernie, they won't turn out in the numbers needed to defeat the Trump voters in the Sunshine State to make a Democratic victory certain.
This is a point where people have a chance to effect a real change--stopping Trumpism dead in its tracks--or spending the next four years and beyond grieving over what was lost between 2021 and afterwards and playing blame games while the racists and the reactionaries run rampant.
Citizens, the choice is yours.
If it's a choice between President Bernie and another Republican-controlled Senate
or President Joe and Democrats regaining control of the US Senate, I’ll choose Joe as my candidate.*
Bernie lacks coat-tails and can cost us seats in Congress and the Senate
———
* I have already voted for Joe in my state’s primary.
It's time to start early voting here in Texas
For those of you all who haven’t noticed, early voting for the Texas edition of Super Tuesday 2020 has already started.
Leaving aside our heart-felt and occasionally rancorous discussion as to who would be the best presidential candidate, it is time to make our preferences known not only for the presidential race, but the down-ballot races as well.
I went down to a North-Central Austin location and voted early. Many of you all can vote early too at a poll not too far from where you live.
Speculating about Orange Julius' health seems a waste of time
in my more pessimistic moments. At those times I feel that God has brought Donnie on us not as a savior but a scourge for our sins (Howbeit one we—might—deliver ourselves from if enough voters in the right places turn out to vote for Team Donkey).
Still, it might be interesting to see the numbers as to how Democratic candidates (even Bernie) would fare against Father Pence.
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