Cont.
59. I think this’ll be the last iteration of the list. It’ll end on the number it ends on.
60. I was never a super-fan of the Cranberries (although I did have 2 of their cds), but I did like them. Hearing of Dolores O’Riordan’s death has made me more wistful for the time I listened to her music than the music itself—after all, I can still listen to the music—but I’m sorry for whatever she went through prior to her death.
61. No, I don’t know if she killed herself, but, well, it’s a damned shame she died so young.
62. I don’t go out a lot, and when I do go out, I generally mind my sixes. However, once a year or so I light up the night.
63. So, yeah, got that whole lit thing checked off for 2018.
64. I don’t know if Donald Trump is either physically or cognitively impaired and I don’t care.
65. What makes him unfit is not his physique, and it’s not as if he were less self-aggrandizing when younger.
66. His policies are terrible, but there are many people with terrible policies (including slim senator Tom Cotton or Mr. Workout, Paul Ryan) who are not unfit in the same ways.
67. Cotton and Ryan have commitments—terrible, wretched commitments—beyond their own selves. These men should be opposed for their policies, but they do manifest, it pains me to say, some understanding of principle and of public service.
68. God, I think I died a little writing that. But yeah, those two are old-school shitty, terrible in an ordinary way.
69. Trump, on the other hand, untethered to any idea or person beyond himself, is so far out there that the usual partisan epithets cannot capture the wrongness of his presidency.
70. So, no, I don’t care why he’s so wrong, just that he’s so wrong, and all the damage this wrongness combined with his (and his fellow Republicans) old-school wretchedness will inflict on so many of us.
71. In the first installment of this list I noted that I liked Kirsten Gillibrand, and, yeah, I do.
72. But two things: one, the elections this November matter more immediately than who might run for president in 2020.
73. I have no predictions about the midterms.
74. I trust no predictions about the midterms.
75. Let’s see who the candidates are and the races they run and then. . . I still will make no predictions.
76. And two, I’d like to see a big ol’ stuffed Democratic primary, with candidates from all over the country, from both state and federal levels, and with all kinds of backgrounds.
77. I don’t particularly want to see Oprah run, and don’t know why she would—the presidency, remember, is an exercise in failure, and she’s someone who likes to win—but hell, if she wants to jump in, that’ll, huh, that would be interesting.
78. I don’t particularly want to see Joe Biden run. I enjoyed his “Uncle Joe” schtick as vice president and thought he was a pretty good veep for Obama, but, man, no.
79. He’s too old, his legislative policy record isn’t great, and I am not encouraged by what he says today about his treatment of Anita Hill back then.
80. I don’t particularly want to see Bernie Sanders run—too old, and, goddammit, if you want to run as a Democrat, then join the goddamned party—but he has inspired a lot of people with his give-’em-hell approach to econ issues, so having him in the race wouldn’t be the worst thing.
81. I don’t particularly want to see Elizabeth Warren run–she’s veering on too old—but, as with Sanders, her critique of business as usual in the governments—and the Dem’s—approach to the economy is sharp.
82. Again, if neither she nor Sanders were to run, I hope multiple someones with their left-econ agendas do.
83. Back to the midterms: I am deeply ambivalent about Chelsea Manning’s actions, and almost certainly would not vote for her in a primary.
84. I am in general in favor of greater transparency at all levels of government and think far too much info is over-classified and for too long a time.
85. However, I also accept, reluctantly, that some info should, in the moment, be secret.
86. I don’t know where that line is “in the moment”—I think after some reasonable period of time all info should be released to the public—and, honestly, I don’t know enough to know if or when Manning (or Snowden) crossed it. Hence my ambivalence.
87. But I do think that whistleblowers do have to be prepared to discuss this, at some length and in public, with those who can thoughtfully make an argument against disclosure.
88. Man, this is tough: my default sympathies are with the leakers. But. But sometimes leakers may be wrong to leak.
89. Anyway, I’m glad her sentence was commuted and that she seems to be doing well in life: I thought her treatment in the brig and in prison was unjust, so was glad she was released.
90. But I still think if Manning wants to serve the public, then she needs a fuller accounting of the actions which brought her to the public’s notice.
91. So, how to end this list? How about a plea for recommendations for solid histories on the Hapsburgs, on Napolean, and on the French Revolution? I have Furet’s 2-vol set on the revolution, but I always prefer multiple takes on complex events.
92. Oh, wait, let’s instead end with Henry, my great-nephew: he’s now walking and teething and is a happy, laid-back boy.
93. Chill-baby Henry, yeah, let’s end there.
Fin.
AbsurdBeats 