Happy New Year (I Hope)

 

I gotta feeling '23 is gonna be a weird year....

There once was a man named Guy Lombardo who in the thirties was the leader of the schmaltziest band of the entire Big Band Era.. His arrangements were exasperatingly lame; his lead vocalist, his brother Carmen, (aside from Glenn Miller's main singer, Ray Eberle) was the worst of the period. At a time in the mid-seventies when some of the greatest leaders of the swing era had been consigned to the cultural dust bin (Charlie Barnett, Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway, etc.) Guy Lombardo was still busy and making lots of money up until his death in 1977. The reason for this is simply because one of the only major hits he ever had (Auld Lang Syne) had become so closely associated with New Year's Eve, Guy could always be counted on to be in the spotlight on national television every December 31. It was an honor that, I'm sure, many of the old timers must have resented. To this day, Lombardo's recording of Auld Lang Syne can be heard every year. That's just a minor historical curiosity I wanted to share with you. Don't attach too much importance to it.

It's a bit early for this, but I want to wish you all a safe and sweet new year. Happy? There's always room for optimism, but I have every reason to be pessimistic. Given the train-wreck of the new congress which will be sworn in in just a few short days, I can't offer you any assurance that our democracy won't give way in 2023 - that's how weird things have become in recent years.

Happy New Year, everybody. Give it a go!

Tom Degan, Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

Auld Lang Syne by Guy Lombardo (1953):

(24) Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians - Auld Lang Syne (Capitol Records 1953) - YouTube 

We'll taste a cup of kindness yet, for auld lang syne....

2022: The Worst of the Rant

With Sweet Charlotte of Scotchtown Avenue, Christmas Day 2022

No question about it: 2022 was not a particularly prolific year on this site. Exactly one year ago, a house guest went on my computer and loaded it full of viruses. I wasn't able to post a thing until the end of May. Then late in the Summer, I got a nasty case of writer's block and slowed down somewhat. Hopefully I'll be churning them out again in the new year. The following are a collection of highlights of the year which is about to mercifully end. Wasn't that a time?

MAY 11:

One of the more memorable aspects of [Marjorie Taylor Greene's] career will be her atrocious molesting of the English language. The last time I wrote "your" for "you're" or "there" for "their" or "well" for "we'll" was probably when I was in the sixth grade. That the people of Georgia could possibly send this pathetic, uninformed person to the same halls that were once walked by the likes of Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams defies credulity. 

MAY 18:

For years I've been saying that the Republicans are no longer a political party. They've become as organized criminal enterprise. I must amend that. They've become a satanic cult. What happened in Buffalo over the weekend is a bleak harbinger of nastier thing to come. Get used to living in a nation in decline.

MAY 20:

Dorothy

Ten years ago I wrote on this site a tirade called, "A Message to My Fellow White People". There will be a link to it at the bottom of this peace - perhaps even a quiz - I'm thinking it over. At the end of that piece I predicted that the biggest story in the years to come would be how the white public would react to the inevitable and completely unavoidable coming shift in the sociological demographic. In other words: by the time the twenty-first century is half way over, white people will no longer be in the majority. Recent months shows that piece (written on July 25, 2012) to be damn-near the most prescient thing I ever wrote. Today, the right wing SCREAM machine is twisting itself into full-blown spastic apoplexy over the absurd idea that a sinister cabal of evil liberals is plotting to replace the existing white power structure with an army of nasty brown people.

MAY 25:

I composed a piece on this very topic nine days ago. Here I go again. To tell you the truth, I'm getting bored writing these articles periodically. It happened again late yesterday morning. Some frazzled little geek with nothing better to do walked into the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Texas and opened fire on innocents. As of this hour, twenty-one people - most of them being little girls and boys - lie dead. Three others are seriously injured so those numbers could possibly rise. Two policemen were injured attempting to take the gunman down, although none of their wounds are life-threatening. The killer has been killed; his motives forever cloaked in mystery. Life goes on. 

Hi Ho.

JUNE 1:

Assault weapons be danged. There is a new business possibility and fortune to be made by any ambitious young entrepreneur out there with a little guts and a whole lotta of moxie. The idea hit me the other day when I pondered how strange it must be to work for a coffin manufacturing firm when it receives a massive, bulk order of pint-sized coffins for tots. Of course, I greedily expostulated! Given the times in which we live, and the almost no-brainer certainty that the massacres that have polluted the American landscape are not going to go away any time soon, why not make a sound, monetary investment in the carnage! I hereby announce the formation of the Kiddie Kasket Kompany - KKK - Perfect! How's this for a cute little radio jingle?

JUNE 7:

It's now being said that Trump was hoping that vice-President Pence (along with his wife and daughters) would be killed in the uprising that was happening at that moment in the chambers of the Senate and the House. To his eternal credit, Mike Pense (along with Liz Cheney) turned out to be the handful of heroes of the day. Liz was this year's receiver of the JFK Library's Profile In Courage award. She deserved it. As in Watergate nearly a half century ago. the heroes of the hour who stood up to a criminal president wound up being Republicans. In 1974, Barry Goldwater had a considerable amount of support from within the GOP. In 2022, Liz Cheney has next-to-none. These are interesting times.

JUNE 8:

Historic hearings will be televised tomorrow night investigating into exactly who was responsible for the attempted overthrow of democracy in America seventeen months and two days ago. All of the network and cable news outlets will be covering the event which commences tomorrow night at eight 'clock eastern time - all but one. If you're the least bit curious to learn about the attempted coup of January 6, 2021, don't even bother tuning into the FOX Noise channel. You see, for obvious reasons, they have decided not to cover what is the most important public hearing since the inquest into the Watergate affair nearly half a century ago. The reason for this is the fact that more than a few of the "personalities" on Fox are implicated in some of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans that went down on that infamous day. Perhaps even the boss, Rupert Murdoch, had a hand in things. We shall see.

JUNE 10:

Ratting Out Daddy

The investigative hearings into the near-fall of democracy in America commenced in Washington last night. FOX Noise ignored the evening by running Tucker Carlson's program minus the commercial advertising. They were worried that, during any break, the viewers would - out of curiosity - switch the channel to see what was happening on one of the other news outlets. Think about that: Fox would rather lose advertising revenue than to expose its idiotic viewers to the truth. Early this morning, the mindless chuckleheads on Fox and Friends dismissed the entire evening as nothing but cheap, political propaganda. Nothing new was learned, they nold us. Despite the fact of videotaped testimony against Trump from his own Attorney General, from his own son-in-law - and from his own daughter. I would imagine the Thanksgiving dinner table at casa de Trump will be just a tad awkward this November. Ivanka's inheritance - whatever's left of it - went into the shit hole last night.

JUNE 17:

Put these facts into your pipe and smoke them. Election years past:

During the war of 1812, the United States had a peaceful transfer of power. In 1861, on the eve of a bloody civil war that would ultimately claim six-hundred thousand American lives, the United States had as peaceful transfer of power. In 1865, while that war between the states was still raging, America had a peaceful transfer of power. In 1933, during the height of the worst economic crisis in its history, America had a peaceful transfer of power. In 1969, amid the worst civil unrest in any living person's memory, America had a peaceful transfer of power. 

Consider this if you will:

In January of 2021, for the first time in our two-hundred and forty-five year history, America did not have a peaceful transfer of power. Ain't that somethin'? Fifty years ago today, burglars broke into the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate hotel and office complex in Washington DC. I'm tempted to say that in 1972 I was a normal and average American teenaged boy - but that would be misleading. I was never "normal". Not then. Not now. I never have quite fit in with "normal people" and I'm not about to start now. I'm drifting off subject; forgive me.

JUNE 24:

I was all set to write a piece today on the Supreme Court's overturing a New York law that had been on the books for one-hundred and eleven years that forbade people in the Big Apple from carrying concealed weapons on their persons out in the open. As bad as the homicide rate from gunshot wounds are at the moment in merrie olde Manhattan, they're about to go through the fucking roof. The current makeup of that body of justices is further proof that the extreme right wing is ruining this country. New Yok State - where I live, by the way - is about to turn into the Wild West Side. This slide into extremist insanity has got to be ended.

JUNE 30:

This was not the only juicy tidbit that was learned during the surprise hearing on Tuesday. On December 1, 2020, according to Cassidy Hutchinson, When Trump got word that Attorney General Bill had given an interview with the Associated Press that there was no evidence of voter fraud, he became so enraged that he took a plate of food on the dining room table and hurled it against the wall. Walking into the dining room immediately following this incident, she noticed katsup dripping from the wall and a cracked porcelain plate on the floor. Yummy.  She also testified that he had exhibited several similar tantrums during her tenure in the West Wing.

JULY 4:

Juneteenth is the day I celebrate now. When the day was signed into law last year by President Biden as a holiday, conservatives around the nation had a mass hissy-fit. They calmed down after a while, though. I guess that they finally warmed up to the idea that there was another day on the calendar that gave them an excuse to drinks lots 'n' lots of beer, get really drunk, and gorge on barbeque chicken. I know it works for me.

AUGUST 9:

Although privately proclaiming total devotion to the half-witted sociopath and common pervert who served as the nation's 45th president for four EXTREMELY long years, more-than-a few Republican politicians are beginning to see the very blinding light. They see Trump as an albatross that needs to be removed from their midst between now and the 2024 primary season - the sooner the better. More and more Americans are starting to understand how completely unhinged and out- of-touch Donald Trump is with the sweet concepts of reality. The very fact that he was elected to begin with fills the rest of the world - once so respectful and envious of the United States - with dread, loathing and horror.

AUGUST 11:

I imagine that the heirs of Richard Milhaus Nixon will sleep a tad more soundly tonight. No longer will The Trickster be the standard by which presidential corruption is held up as an example. Donald Trump's lifetime of grift, theft and corruption are coming crashing down on his clueless little head. As I write these words, the chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance that he never - in his wildest and weirdest dreams - could have imagined. In the early evening hours of August 11, 2022, there is no doubt in my mind that Trump will be the first former chief-executive to die in the custody of the federal authorities. We can only pray that he is the last. 

AUGUST 14:

Over a year ago I said on this site that [Liz Cheney} should be nominated for the Profile in Courage Award that is given away by the Kennedy Library every year. I was delighted when she received the prize for 2022 (not that Caroline reads The Rant - I'm sure it was merely a coincidence). I have hardly ever agreed with her on anything, and I was sincerely alarmed a number of years ago when she announced that she was making a run for congress. My feeling at the time was that no good could come from any kid of Dick Cherey's. But it is hard not to admire her for the way she stood up to the right wing SCREAM MACHINE at a knowing cost to her political career. She is one of the very few Republican politicians currently holding national office who will stand like a rock in history.

SEPTEMBER 2:

To witness people like Chuck Grassley and Kevin McCarthy warning Americans that an army of 87,000 armed IRS agents will soon be showing up at their doors to kill them stuns the senses. This is the equivalent of putting a virtual bullseye on the back of people who work for the federal government. How completely sick and irresponsible is this?

SEPTEMBER 8:

Truth be told, Until the year 2021 rolled around, I never spent that much time thinking about her majesty the queen. If I had been born a British subject, I would probably today be a Republican. I always admired the lady, and thought that she was a really class act, but I'm just not crazy about the idea of "royalty". I don't believe that any royal "highness" is any higher than me - or you. 

Here is something to ponder: Were you aware of the fact that I am in line for the title of King of England? That's right, folks! I am a direct descendant of Kings Edward the First and Second of Merrie Olde England. This got me to thinking that being the king of England would be a pretty good job. How many of my older male relatives would I need to bump off in order to get the gig? It was only when I realized that I would have to send my older brother Jack and my cousins Bill and John Barris off to permanent Dreamland that I thought better of the scheme. I have to sleep at night.

OCTOBER 6:

 Clarence Thomas has a big problem. 

First of all, Judge Thomas has no business being on the Supreme Court. His presence is an embarrassment to anyone with an IQ above room temperature. We now know that he is as corrupt as anyone who has ever sat on that bench. How this pathetic Uncle Tom Negro is able to sleep at night is a question for the psychiatrists and not for me. 

And we now have absolute proof of his corruption: he has been caught red handed making decisions on cases in which his wife is involved. When a recent decision involving weather or not emails between Gini and Mark Meadows could be released to the January 6th committee, Thomas was the only one of the nine justices who voted NO. Did he believe that no one would notice blatant the conflict-of-interest? Who knows what the silly bastard is thinking on any given day.

OCTOBER 8:

I believe that something like a one-party-system wouldn't be a good thing for America. That's why I believe that, if you are registered to vote in Republican primaries, you should be alarmed at what the crazies are doing to the GOP. You need to get to work taking it back from the loonies who have hijacked it before it's too late - as it will be very soon.

OCTOBER 14::

QUESTION: Do I seriously believe that Trump should go to jail?

ANSWER: No.

EXPLANATION: "Jail" is where you go when you've had one-too-many on a Saturday night and you accidentally back your car into the plate glass window of the local pharmacy. Donald Trump needs to go to federal prison for the rest of his life.

So there.

NOVEMBER 8:

Well, hey there! It is now 1:12 AM, 8 November 2022 - the most crucial, existential Election Day of our lifetimes; one that is right up there with 1932 and 1864. We could lose everything by the time the polls close tonight - and some people a lot smarter than I am are predicting that we might - some are even predicting that we will. Say what you will about the weird times we are living through, they sure as hell aren't boring, Anything but. By this time tomorrow morning we could all be humming a requiem for America. I'm going to keep a harmonica handy just to be on the safe side. We shall see.

DECEMBER 3:

This is the kind of election that staggers the imagination. Bearing in mind that the people of Georgia less than two weeks ago sent back to Washington an unstable imbecile like Marjorie Taylor Greene anything is possible at this time. Consider the choices they have down there: A capable and articulate incumbent senator who is also the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta that was once run by Martin Luther King - or a former football star with the intelligence of a rancid bag of moldy doorknobs who is incapable of putting a coherent sentence together. You would think that this would be an easy one for Georgia, wouldn't you? Yeah, so would I. Unfortunately, it's not. At this moment in time, the pastor and the putz are running neck-and-neck in the polls. We should have just let the silly bastards secede in 1861

DECEMBER 4:

In 1948, most Republicans serving in both houses of congress were faithful servants of their constituents. Today the GOP is an organized criminal enterprise. That is not to imply that there are no GOP politicians left dedicated to doing good and honest work in the House of Reprehensibles - there are. The difference is simply that today they are the exception. In 1948 they were the rule.

DECEMBER 18:

It keeps getting funnier and funnier with this knucklehead. Is the term "self-aware" even in this guy's vocabulary? Trump has now embarked upon launching a series of "digital trading cards" to sell to his rabid followers at a cost of ninety-nine dollars each. The images portrayed on each card do nothing more than to provoke laughter from even his most notable sycophants (Steve Bannon and Laura Ingraham in particular). Images of Donald Trump an a Super Hero or Donald Trump as a cowboy sheriff or Donald Trump as a football star just don't pass the giggle test as far as most people are concerned. My guess is that, by now, he and his team are realizing the absurdity of this latest blunder and that they will soon walk it back.

******************************************

So there you have it, class. In six days 2022 will belong to the ages. Hope you all had a dandy holiday and that you didn't get too crazy munching out on the figgy pudding. Fingers are crosses and hands are folded for a safe and happy 2023.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

DONALD TRUMP: SUPER HERO

 

It keeps getting funnier and funnier with this knucklehead. Is the term "self-aware" even in this guy's vocabulary? Trump has now embarked upon launching a series of "digital trading cards" to sell to his rabid followers at a cost of ninety-nine dollars each. The images portrayed on each card do nothing more than to provoke laughter from even his most notable sycophants (Steve Bannon and Laura Ingraham in particular). Images of Donald Trump an a Super Hero or Donald Trump as a cowboy sheriff or Donald Trump as a football star just don't pass the giggle test as far as most people are concerned. My guess is that, by now, he and his team are realizing the absurdity of this latest blunder and that they will soon walk it back.

This gets me to thinking is there anyone around Donald Trump not smart enough to inform him, "Hey, Boss, I don't think that this is a very good idea". There couldn't be - otherwise, this series of idiotic images of him would never (should never) have seen the light of day. What the heck is in the water that they're drinking in Trump World? Could it possibly be LSD? I haven't touched the stuff since I was eighteen, but I do distinctly recall that it had a tendency to make the perfectly ridiculous appear to be completely sensible. This theory of mine might seem outrageous to some but I think it is worth looking into.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

A Decade Wasted

 I m not going to spend a lot of time today bitching and moaning over the hideous tragedy that occurred ten years ago today. I'm just going to repeat the article that I wrote the following day. As I predicted at the time, nothing would change.  Nothing has. Nothing ever will. 

Idiot Nation 

Here it is he piece in its entirety:

Massacre in Newtown

 A blast from the past (no pun intended):

"Every once in a while, the debate is resurrected - as it was in 1980 following the murder of John Lennon - or in 1981 when an attempt was made on the life of President Reagan - or in 1999 following the Columbine tragedy. But after a week or two of mindless rhetoric, it was always back to business as usual. The sad and undeniable fact is that another massacre on the scale of what happened early this morning in Colorado will happen again - and again and again and again and again and again and again....Deal with it."

From "The Rant"
20 July 2012
 

I'm dealing with it quite handily, thank you very much. It's happened yet again - and in less than five months, too. Hate to say "I told you so" but....

Of course this is hardly the end of it. In fact this is only the beginning. By June the first of next year it will have happened again - as it will happen again by November the first - as it will happen yet again by April the first 2014 - and again and again and again and again....

Rivers of blood. Broken bodies. Broken hearts. This is the new reality. Come to think about it, this reality is not very "new" in the least. In fact, it is now as common  as a full moon in the morning sky. It almost amazes me that most of us still are stunned when an event of this magnitude occurs. It barely fazed me. When the news came over the television yesterday morning I did not so-much-as bat an eye. You see, I long ago adjusted to living in  this America. 

"Oh", I said out loud, "it happened again, huh?" And so close to the Christmas season. Ho ho fucking ho.

Truth be told, I'll be stunned only when it happens in my back yard. Although I have to tell you that it was unnerving (to say the very least) to know that my thirteen-year-old niece attends an elementary school about ten miles from where this latest (and totally expected) mass murder took place.  She's safe and sound, thank goodness. Your children are safe and sound, too....ya think?

And don't assume that your elected representatives in Washington will finally do the right thing by putting an end to this madness. They're cowards. Every Republican (and far too many Democrats to count) are in the pocket of the National Rifle Association. 

As I said five months ago, for the next week or so there will be lots 'n' lots of righteous bloviating from the gasbags on high, but by New Year's Day - count on it - everything will be back to "normal". Most of us will have put it out of our minds by then....most of us. The families and loved ones of the twenty, precious little boys and girls who were murdered in cold blood yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut? They won't be "putting it out of their minds" anytime soon, that's for damned sure. And the families of the six staff members (all of them women) who were killed by this goddamned lunatic? Call it a silly bit of speculation on my part but I've gotta hunch that they won't be "putting it out of their minds" any time soon either. I've had two cousins and a couple of friends killed by gun violence so I know what I'm talking about here, kids.

From the Second Amendment:

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."

Umm...What the hell happened to that "well regulated militia" bit? I was just wondering.

Mass murders will continue in America, and with more and more deadly frequency. Don't bother bracing yourselves for the next time this happens. Why live in a constant state of fear and anticipation? Just accept it as an inescapable reality in this doomed country and get on with your lives. When it happens again in four or five months (and it will happen again in that time-frame - if not sooner) come to terms with the thought that these regularly scheduled, nasty little sideshows are simply the price we must pay for - ARE YOU READY FOR THIS? - "our freedom". Ain't that a scream?

FUN FACT: In the three-day period following Thanksgiving, over 267,000 handguns were purchased in the United States - a record. I feel so safe. How 'bout you?

The tragedy in Newtown yesterday morning defies reason and common decency; but don't think for a minute that a change is going to come. Any half-witted, psychotic little geek with an attitude problem and a fist-full of dollars will still be able to walk into any gun shop in Anytown, USA and take home a handy-dandy, semi-automatic, military assault weapon specifically designed to kill an entire roomful of men, women and little children  - and do it quite quickly and efficiently, too. Our lawbreakers disguised as lawmakers will still act as whores to expediency and campaign contributions. American children will still be slaughtered on the altars of greed and human stupidity. That ol' River of Blood is gonna still keep on flowin', baby! Nothing is going to change - nothing.  Why bother getting so bent out of shape over the inevitable? I'm not.

I haven't much more to offer you. Truth be told, this is the fourth or fifth time I've written about this subject and quite frankly I'm starting to get bored stiff by the entire discussion. Mass killings such as the one that occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, December 14, 2012 are becoming as common as hurricanes in Dixie. Next subject....

Let me just leave you with another paragraph from the piece I wrote back in July that is quoted at the top. It ain't a bad line and I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for having written it:

 "The NRA types love to jabber away - like diseased little myna birds - about 'freedom'. We need to come to grips with some unpleasant realities. A society that lives in dreaded, mortal terror wondering when and where the next massacre of innocents will take place may indeed be many things - no argument there. 'Free' they are not. Let's just stop kidding ourselves here and now, okay?"

 "Happiness is a warm gun". John Lennon said that.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net  

SUGGESTED READING:

In his Own Write
by John Lennon

A wonderful book of witty wordplay and hysterical drawings by one of the more celebrated victims of gun violence in America. 

"Bang! Bang! Shoot! Shoot!"

SUGGESTED LISTENING:

A Change is Gonna Come
By Sam Cooke 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4

This beautiful song was recorded in 1963 by one of the greatest singers in the annals of pop music history. A little over a year after he consigned this gem to wax, Sam Cooke was shot and killed. Yet another victim of America's insatiable appetite for guns. Sadly, no change is coming.

UPDATE, 12/17/12, 4:38 AM:

NBC's David Gregory noted yesterday that in preparation for Sunday's broadcast of Meet The Press, the producers contacted thirty-one pro-gun senators inviting them to appear on that program. Every one of them declined. 

For more recent postings on this site, please go to the link below:

"The Rant" by Tom Degan

Cheers!

 

Here Comes the 118th

 

Seventy-four years ago, during the still-incredible campaign of 1948, incumbent candidate Harry S. Truman got a lot of political milage criticizing "that good fer nothin' 80th Congress". That particular congressional body, which had been sworn in in January of 1947, produced enough screaming lunatics whose names and images still dominate our national discussion down through the ages. They were a varied lot, too; everyone from Democrat John F. Kennedy to Republicans Richard Nixon and Joe McCarthy. The extremist right wingers in that crowd gave poor old Harry more headaches than any normal person should endure - and they weren't all members of the GOP either. 1948 was the year that a Southern Democrat named Strom Thurmond bolted the party and formed the Dixiecrats. A civil rights amendment added to the platform at their Philadelphia convention that year was too much for some of the racist dingbats to handle.

This has got me to thinking about just what might be in store for Joe Biden in the months and years that follow. As weird as "the party of Abraham Lincoln" was three/quarters of a century ago, they still had grownups in the room back in the day. While Joe McCarthy might have stood out in his insanity (searching for communists under each rock and behind each bush) he was still - thankfully -the exception to the rule. Most Republicans at that time in our history a fairly reasonable (albeit somewhat goofy) lot.

That is no longer the case.

In 1948, most Republicans serving in both houses of congress were faithful servants of their constituents. Today the GOP is an organized criminal enterprise. That is not to imply that there are no GOP politicians left dedicated to doing good and honest work in the House of Reprehensibles - there are. The difference is simply that today they are the exception. In 1948 they were the rule.

Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWING:

On December 13, 1963, Judy Garland sang this on her CBS television program. She did not announce it as a tribute to the recently assassinated president.

JUDY GARLAND - Battle Hymn of the Republic - December 13, 1963 - YouTube

She didn't need to.

Have a grand week, folks.

BREAKING NEWS, 12/5/22. 11:51 PM:

Trump has called for termination of the Constitution. More on this later.

Georgia's on my Mind

 

This is the kind of election that staggers the imagination. Bearing in mind that the people of Georgia less than two weeks ago sent back to Washington an unstable imbecile like Marjorie Taylor Greene anything is possible at this time. Consider the choices they have down there: A capable and articulate incumbent senator who is also the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta that was once run by Martin Luther King - or a former football star with the intelligence of a rancid bag of moldy doorknobs who is incapable of putting a coherent sentence together. You would think that this would be an easy one for Georgia, wouldn't you? Yeah, so would I. Unfortunately, it's not. At this moment in time, the pastor and the putz are running neck-and-neck in the polls. We should have just let the silly bastards secede in 1861.

If on Tuesday evening, we are talking about Senator-elect Herschel Walker, then, we all might as well start chanting, "Bye bye, America". This is not the way it's supposed to be in a place that some people still refer to as "the greatest country on earth". I cannot believe that we have fallen this low. I'm speechless. In the 1979 film, Where The Buffalo Roam, Bill Murray - as Hunter Thompson - said, "It still hasn't gotten weird enough for me". Trust me on this one, folks: it's gotten weird enough for me. I'm going back to bed.

Tom Degan, Goshen, NY

SUGGESTED VIEWWING:

No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen

Brian Tyler Cohen is one of the sharpest political commentators out there at present. Here is a link to catch his take on the train-wreck that is Herschel Walker:

(31) Obama becomes Herschel Walker's worst nightmare with line of the year - YouTube

Check out his YouTube channel some time. The guy is great.

AFTERTHOUGHT, 3 December 2022, 11:31 PM

Here is an interesting little film. It was filmed in January of 1914 at a go-cart race in Venice, California - totally improvised. Charlie Chaplin had never appeared in his tramp outfit prior to this - and no one in the crowd recognizes him. This was one-hundred and nine years ago. Can you beat that?

https://youtu.be/-nUptPWbE88