Come Heller high water …
- I’ll warn you up front: The top half of this column is a bit of a downer. I suggest skipping to the lighter stuff in the back half.
- Still here? OK, I warned ya: Have you noticed that when Trump says the right thing, it’s always – always – written by someone else and he delivers it a quiet monotone that screams “I don’t agree with a word of this nonsense but they tell me I have to read it”? There’s something seriously wrong with that guy. (This is where you say, “No shit, Sherlock.”)
- And yet I have no doubt at all that he’ll win re-election. Seriously. I’m calling it now: Trump wins in 2020. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am. The dark side of the force is winning in America, and the Democrats are too disorganized and passive to defeat it.
And voters don’t seem to care. Trump has approval ratings near 50 percent, for crying out loud. Incredible. What else does the guy have to do and say? I never thought I’d live to see the day, but we’re nearing a point where Trumpism will be the new normal. Any Jedis out there? - Officials in towns that suffer mass shootings invariably say, “We never thought it would happen here.” Nonsense. Businesses, schools, organizations and churches everywhere have practiced active shooter drills for years now. We all expect it to happen here.
- It’s amazing how completely we have caved to the NRA. We refuse to do anything even at the cost of our loved ones. Someday, people will look at this period of our history and ask, “What were you waiting for? Why didn’t you ban assault weapons, restrict ammunition, limit now many guns someone could be, require insurance and so on.” Mostly, though, they’ll ask, “Why didn’t you save yourselves and your children?”
- Perhaps this belongs in an edition of my occasional column called “Crabby Andy,’ but is over-politeness, just like rudeness, on the rise? I’ve had these two interactions more times than I can count recently: 1) I’m schlumping slowly down the stairs of a parking garage when someone who passed me two flights back – the annoying type who runs marathons on the weekend for fun – waits to hold the door for me, forcing me to speed up, which I didn’t want to do because this particular stairway leads to work, and frankly I’m in no hurry; 2) I pull up to a four-way stop 5-10 full seconds after another car. Instead of taking his turn to proceed through the intersection so we can both be on our way, he waits for me to go, which I don’t do because I’m keenly aware that he got there first and I’m a rule follower. Then he smiles and gives me that little “you go ahead wave,” which annoys me because, look, bud, I don’t want to think when I get to a four-way stop, I don’t want niceties, I just wanna go in the correct order so I can get where I’m going. So my question to you, dear reader, is, “Am I just being crabby here?”
- Yeah, probably I am. Still, I think being overly polite is a passive-aggressive form of being rude.
- Watching the Red Sox destroy the Dodgers in the World Series has been a pleasure tempered only by the presence of so many former Tigers on the field. Ian Kinsler, J.D. Martinez, David Price and Rick Porcello are all Red Sox, and it makes me wonder how a team with those guys plus Cabrera, Verlander and Castellanos could fail to win a championship. Amazing. In a way, the 2013-2015 stretch, when the Tigers had one of the best teams in their history, is also one of the saddest in team history.
- Have you ever had a vanity plate that you can’t decode and it bugs you the rest of the day?
- This is what I don’t understand about Trump. After the bomb scares, he called for civility, which is what a president is supposed to do. Good for him. Then the very next morning he was blaming the media for making people angry in the first place. What the …?
- I see “Modern Family” has killed off Shelley Long’s character. Too bad. I liked it when she dropped in. Ah, well. The show jumped the shark three years ago, anyway.
- Yahoo was ordered this week to pay $50 million to 200 million people whose information was stolen in one of the biggest breaches in history, which works out to 25 cents apiece. And we wonder why companies don’t bother much with security.
- The good news: There have been so many breaches that pretty much everyone’s data is out there, meaning the odds are longer that it will be used for nefarious purposes. Me? I haven’t been that lucky. I’ve had stolen information about me used twice. It’s a creepy feeling, and takes a long time and a lot of effort to fix.
- “Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.” – Mark Twain.
Image credit: Donkey Hotey
Still don’t think Don the Con will be around in 2020. Mueller’s investigation still isn’t over with. More indictments coming soon after the election. Seems nearly impossible that Mr Small Hands won’t be implicated and ensnared in it
The thing is, Mueller – who is Republican – seems to be intentionally waiting until after the midterms to release his findings. By the time 2020 rolls around people will have forgotten, and the Dems, even if they get the House, are too timid to impeach, and the Senate will certainly never convict him.
Don’t think Mueller’s intentionally waiting as the DOJ has a policy where they won’t do ANYTHING this close to an election. I have a feeling that he wants a airtight case case against the hate monger and it takes time. I will not put it past the Democrats to try to impeach Cheeto but it better be solid evidence or it will backfire
BTW Andy – miss your frequent columns and musings. Seems as we’re lucky to hear from you once a week lately…
Thanks, Bill. I’ll be back to writing more soon. My day job and some other things have kicked my butt lately, but I’m going to get back to two columns a week soon.
Where are the middle of the road fiscally conservative Democratic politicians?
Have they been forced out of the party years ago? Have they left voluntarily?
Got me, but where are the fiscally conservative Republicans?
I had the same feeling watching the World Series. Time and time again, hey, didn’t that guy play for the Tigers? Then of course there’s Justin Verlander, who had to go to Houston to get his World Series ring. And what of Matt Scherzer, whose name was on the sports page repeatedly this year for best wins as a pitcher.
Sigh…….you know when I am watching a game and tell the manager to take that pitcher out, he never listens until it is too late. Rats!!
I’d be a wonderful GM, and yet they never call me either.
The Republican “Christians” have decided to follow only one commandment, the Trump Commandment.
ME first!
Your scaring the hell out Iof me with the 50% approval rating. Best I could find was 47 from Fox News. I know the margin of error is like plus or minus 4 points. Just totally blows me away of what people see in this buffoon.
It’s a shocking number of people. What are they seeing? I know what I’m seeing – pure hatred.
I hate that about driving too. Equal to yielding the right of way which is nice, and courteous and extremely stupid because the driver behind you has no idea what the frick is going on.
Good to hear I’m not alone.
The only way the trumpster will be voted out is if the economy tanks. People vote their pocket books and the hell with morality.
Your right on that. We are do for a reccesion. It’s been ten years. Rising interest rates and inflation are a sure thing. Money talks and I am with you that when it hits their pocketbook it has a big influence on people’s vote. Hate to say I would welcome a recession but anything to get rid of the idiot.
Not even a tanked economy will drive his base away. As long as Trump gives them brown people to blame for that tanked economy, they are good.
The thing about holding the door: It should be a law. Every exit in every building should have a line on the floor, maybe about ten feet back from the door. If a person is past this line, one must hold the door. If not, to heck with it.
The Tigers management wants us to believe the Tigers are better off without J.D. Martinez, Justin Verlander, David Price, Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello, Curtis Granderson, and others. But, we see these guys in the playoffs and the World Series!
The Tigers have done this same thing for decades. Think about all the good relief pitchers they have let go, guys who have done big things for other teams.
Woof!!
No _ _ _ _, Sherlock.
I am all in favor of calling all Jedis to defeat the dark force. Someone has to do it. Soon.
Another thing that happens at 4-way stops is the driver who doesn’t know what to do, so they just stay at their corner till the other 3 drivers are gone.
You are not crabby Andy, it’s ok to blow off a little steam now and then.
Get to the polls on November 6th and vote. Then after the election make sure your representative and senator knows what you want, regardless if they are Republican or Democratic. And, maybe find the motivation to remind them every day until they start taking you seriously.
Since January 2017 we have had massive demonstrations several times all over the country, but nothing has changed? Why? Because we hold these demonstrations on Saturday, when it’s convenient for everyone, and Congress is off for the weekend, and Trump is at one of his golf clubs whining about what a victim he is. Then we go home and everyone forgets about it.
That’s not pressure. That’s an event. If we want change, we must PRESSURE our elected officials, and keep that pressure on so they really feel it.
The citizens of Ukraine forced a populist dictator to step down after closing down the capital city for weeks in a peaceful protest. The only violence was perpetrated by the government controlled police.
Unfortunately, American Democrats are not that determined or motivated. I guess we don’t care that much. We like to make our voices heard when it’s convenient for us, such as on a nice Saturday afternoon. Standing in line to vote on a Tuesday in November? Meh… We want change, but without sacrifice it will never happen. The Republicans know this, and until we change our mindset, they will continue to exploit it.
One of the main reasons people have not dropped their support for President Trump or Republicans at large is because we now are very well educated how the mainstream liberal media consistently lie. We can quickly research liberal media claims from our phones and can write quickly determine fact versus fiction. I will never again believe implicitly any story from ABC/NBC/CBS/CNN/MSNBC/New York Times/etc. I know they are just propoganda wings for the Democrat party. If liberal media outlets/writers get back to factual reporting, I would consider giving them my time again. I will not hold my breath as they seem beyond honesty or recovery.
Abner, show me a lie. Just one. A factual lie willingly told by mainstream news reporters. I don’t mean opinion writers, I mean reporters.
Seriously? Only the Republicans are educated enough to understand that there is a conspiracy among ALL major news media – TV, radio, newspapers, to make up lies about Trump and other Republicans? Only the Republicans are educated enough to verify sources before they comment/share/repost information? Before I believe something I read or hear, I check with several sources, but I do not check with Far Left or Far Right, because I suspect them of being biased. I see far more exaggerations, distortions, and out-right lies coming from Republicans, not to mention those Republicans who have been proven wrong but refuse to stop spreading those exaggerations, distortions, and out-right lies. Personally, I don’t think it’s education, I think it’s stubbornness and refusal to admit you could be wrong. I would rather think that than what you think is education is really an excuse for hatred.
So the new comments are “The Fake News is fanning this divisiveness which has been going on for years”. Yet the leader of this country (no longer the leader of the Free World) has yet to sit down with media to discuss “Fake News”, “Negative Reporting” OR, how to promote civility and respect for others. I read a frightening post the other day that said ” The Liberals just don’t get it…we don’t care about his morals, his sex life, whether or not he tells the truth, whether he can speak well or uses good grammar, we voted for him BEAUSE HE’S OURS!!” How many years will it take before our children and grandchildren all know that words and actions have consequences, and civility and respect should always be first in their lives.
Watched the press conference earlier, and when Sarah was asked why Trump called Gillum a thief, she said there was an FBI investigation, and she couldn’t talk about ongoing investigations. SAY WHAT!? Trump just labelled him a thief as if the investigation was completed and he was found guilty. BTW, who’s running the country while Trump and Pence are out campaigning? Aside from slapping sanctions on China, which seem to be putting the Dow and out retirement accounts into a tailspin.
If China wants to put the trumpster in a bind they would slap more tariffs on American imports this week. The stocks would go into the dumpster and the trumpster would really be worried about the midterms.
When your party can’t win without voter suppression, gerrymandering and fear mongering, that is a good sign that it’s time to reassess and modify your platform.