If you've read Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra (and you have, haven't you? So 3CM the delusional loser asks), you may remember this line in Act V, Scene 2, spoken by Iras to Cleopatra:
"Finish, good lady; the bright day is done,
And we are for the dark."
Given that Daylight Savings Time ends today, the sentiment seems fitting, in its fashion, even if the line in its original context refers to something totally different. Of course, also given what's coming next Tuesday, the sentiment could apply to our side as well, in another fashion, to varying degrees. Random blather vaguely related to that below the flip.....
INPO:
* Part of the general frustration, of course, is seeing how jaw-droppingly, proudly ignorant and stupid so many of our fellow Americans are, i.e. anyone who votes Republican, especially anyone who votes Republican who shouldn't, like women, gays, racial minorities, or scientists, for example.
* The lack of mention of climate change in this election year is maddening, but the reason for it is simple, even if explaining it isn't. It's that Americans don't want to hear that their rapacious waste of natural resources is accelerating the problem of climate change and global warming. Americans don't want to cut back, or be told to cut back, on their conspicuous consumption of the earth's bounty. You want to talk about it publicly in front of wingnuts? Watch yourself get shouted down, if not worse. The only way that wingnuts talk about getting by with less is in trying to destroy government by denying it financial wherewithal (i.e. taxes). They don't apply those same lessons of restraint to the environment and natural resources.
* More parochially, MO, where I live, is hopelessly in the 'Rmoney' column. The question is simply by how much. If it's less than 5%, I'll be shocked. In addition, Claire McCaskill winning a second Senate term is not a sure thing, not by any stretch, even without the additional bereavement strain from the recent death of her mother. Every Democratic acquaintance I've spoken with, who knows what an ignorant, delusional moron Todd Akin is and that he should not be let anywhere near the US Senate, does not have any feeling of certainty that Claire will prevail. They'll vote for her, as I plan to also. But that's not a guarantee that a majority of MO voters will.
* On the MO ballot, Proposition B is about an increase on cigarette taxes, intended to fund schools (besides reducing smoking). I expect it to go down in flames. This is MO, after all, where the words "tax increase" or "tax hike" are political death (just like many other places, it seems). One other counterargument is that a similar recent proposal on casinos has not resulted in any increase of funds to schools. I can actually understand the sympathy with that argument, on an abstract level. But since smoking is a physiologically revolting practice (not to mention the tobacco industry itself), I'm going to go with the losing side and vote "Yes" on it. But since Prop B will lose big time, no matter. (Every gas station convenience store that I've driven by has the "Vote No on Prop B" signs visible.)
* There's nothing that one could describe as "good" about Superstorm Sandy wreaking havoc, with one possible exception: the response of the current President of the United States to a natural disaster striking an American city compared to the last President of the United States who did so. Of course, this means nothing to the local wingnuts on the P-D current affairs chat forum who are searching all over for more 'Benghazi-gate' related material and slamming President Obama for that, not that it matters in MO anyway.
Through all this, there is one small irony. Our side is the side of liberalism, of progressives, forward-looking people, people tolerant of differences, generally considered to be more open-minded compared to conservatives and the wingnuts. Yet it has never occurred to me once, not once, to vote for a Republican candidate, or for any initiative that leans Republican. In that sense, I'm not very open-minded that way. Yet the reasons for it are obvious, of course; the dyed-in-the-wool hate, bigotry and anti-intellectuallism that permeate the current Republican Party. It'll take a long time for those destructive elements to fade out, if ever.
So, barring accidents, I certainly plan to vote on Tuesday. I got up ridiculously early in 2008 to be at the polling place when it opened. I wasn't first in line when I got there. This year, no idea how early I'll be up this coming Tuesday. Certainly voting after work is not a good idea, as I want to be done with it early, and I would expect the late lines to be insane. No idea how it will all turn out in the end, in the only poll(s) that ultimately matter(s).
With 3 days before D-Day (E-Day?), time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week. Of course, if you're from Detroit, well....it seems that the late season baseball lameness here inadvertently transferred elsewhere in the Midwest. Sorry....