More Veepery & some other nonsense

On July 27, 2024 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics, Reviews10 Comments

If you had asked me more than four or five days ago, I would have told you that, at least for me personally, Bluesky (follow me!) was beginning to approach the levels of usefulness of pre-Nazi Twitter, but had yet to even come close to pre-Nazi Twitter in its ability to be funny.

This JD Vance couch-fucking shit has absolutely put that concern to bed. It’s been going on for days, and it’s still funny. It may literally never stop being funny.

This might not be true, but I’m pretty sure it is: every single time in the history of the human race someone has asked “But where’s the ______ for white men?” that person has been a racist asshole. This fact made me at least a little nervous about trying to find out if there was, in fact, a White Men for Kamala Harris group. Why was I wondering so specifically? Well, in the last few days we’ve seen a number of other identity-based groups getting off the ground, and White Women for Kamala Harris broke Zoom, and damn it, I wanna play too! And frankly, given that white men are the other guy’s biggest demographic, I think it’s probably perfectly reasonable to suggest that those of us of that persuasion who are very much not in favor of the fascist felon and his merry band of dipshits should be loud and proud of it.

I’m happy to say that White Dudes for Harris is a thing, and our Zoom call is Monday at 8:00 EST, and Pete Buttigieg is gonna be there, and if you’re also a white dude you can sign up for it here. And you should. We’ve got some numbers to live up to, dammit.

The more I hear about Josh Shapiro the less I like him, and Bloomberg is claiming that the Veepstakes is down to him, Mark Kelly, and Tim Walz. Of those three, I am 100%, unreservedly, whole-chestedly, full-throatedly on Team Walz. Let’s do this right, damn it.

You have at least one book review coming and possibly two, but just in case I don’t get to one or either of them: R.J. Barker’s Tide Child trilogy is really damn good, and unless it utterly fails to stick the ending– I’m about 100 pages out– Rachel Caine’s The Hunter is an absolute return to form on her part and I’m happy as hell to see it.

Also, despite previous reservations, I may actually be seeing Deadpool and Wolverine in theaters tomorrow, marking my first in-theater Marvel movie since 2019. That will almost certainly receive a review if I manage to actually get out to see it.

How’s your Saturday going?

Veepstakes II: I Know Nothing edition

On July 23, 2024July 23, 2024 By Luther M. SilerIn PoliticsLeave a comment

Naturally, USA Today leaked a list of people who, supposedly, have been asked to submit vetting materials to the Harris campaign. I didn’t buy it at first because neither Buttigieg nor Beshear were on it, and naturally now I can’t find the article, but one way or another Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, was on the list.

My immediate response was that he was too old, but he’s 60; I’d have put him a little older than that at first glance. Since then I’ve seen some videos of the guy talking, though, and … yeah, he’ll do just fine, especially if Buttigieg and Beshear are actually out of the running. I found other articles on USA Today while looking for the original one that indicated Buttigieg and Beshear were in the running, so again, I know nothing^TM and grains of salt and all that shit, but I can definitely fuck with this guy.

That’s all I’ve got for today; I did a few hours of yard work and I still want to die. Check my man out, though.

(LATE EDIT: I forgot to mention that he was also a high school social studies teacher, in a public school district no less, for ten years. Dare I hope that I might have an administration with sane educational policy before I retire or die?)

John Adams doesn’t have a real job anyway: in which I liveblog (most of) the #VPDebate

On October 4, 2016October 4, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics1 Comment

8:43: I get home from work.

8:44: I put on my Jackass wristband.

8:45: I give my son many goodnight hugs.

8:55: I am comfortably ensconced on my couch eating cold Taco Bell and swigging Mountain Dew. LET’S DO THIS SHIT.

9:00: Sweet Jesus, is the next damn debate Sunday night? I have a sad.

9:01: Shut up, Jeffrey Lord. You’re a stupid white person and the fact that you’re on CNN is absolute unambiguous proof of white privilege and the upraising of white mediocrity. Whitey.

9:02: I don’t even know who this yahoo is, but he just called Mike Pence “moderate-seeming.” Uh. No. Not even fucking close, asshole.

9:04: I have no idea who Elaine Quijano is, for the record. I’ve never heard of her and would not recognize her. There will not, I predict, be nine segments.

9:06: KAINE HAS MORE WATER THAN PENCE! MEDIA BIAS!

9:07: Pence has his Listening Face on. Have I ever mentioned that I’m distantly related to that asshole? Because I’m distantly related to that asshole. I feel like Kaine isn’t answering the question but I can’t take my eyes off Pence. He’s really dumb, guys, and he’s got that Jessica Simpson “can’t look away from the dumb” thing going on right now.

9:10: God I wanted to make fun of something Pence said just now but I’ve forgotten it already. My brain cells are leaking out of my ears and flying toward the screen. I think they’re trying to help.

9:11: “Senator Kaine, why does everyone hate Hillary Clinton?” I rather hope that the next question will be just as loaded. Kaine’s talking really quickly. Chill, dude.

9:12: I note that the next question is basically just as loaded, so okay. Pence completely ignores the question to talk about Clinton’s foreign policy.

9:14: A bunch of back-and-forth bickering as Pence completely refuses to defend his running mate and attacks Clinton instead. C’mon, dude! Just lie!

9:16: The moderator may as well not even be there. Pence balanced his budget on the backs of schools, by the way. Schools have been wrecked since he took office; he’s continued his predecessor’s record quite nicely in that respect.

9:18: Second time he’s said “War on Coal,” a phrase Trump never uttered once.

9:20: I like the phrase “debt-free college.” Pence has this weirdly condescending facial expression going on but Kaine’s kinda coming off as a yapping puppy.

9:22: I would like Pence to answer the question. He’s actually trying valiantly by now but he’s also trying to pretend that running casinos in the mid-90s was a really difficult thing to do.

9:25: Financial disclosures ARE NOT tax returns.

9:26: She’s doing a decent job of running through the questions– we’re on part 3 right now– but she’s not actually doing a lot of moderating. And while I don’t like treating these things like they’re entertainment I’m actually really bored right now. It was a really goddamn long day, guys.

9:28: Pence, who I will note I have already described as trainable, is actually doing a quite good job of seeming sane and reasonable. That said, let’s talk about race now, so if he’s gonna fuck up the next couple of minutes are going to be where it happens.

9:29: My dog just farted. Appropriate.

9:31: Twitter’s moving way slower tonight than it was during the first debate. I don’t understand why the moderator says we’re going to talk about race relations and then immediately moves into why we’re being too mean to police.

9:32: “At the risk of agreeing with you…” Okay, Mike, that was sorta funny. A little.

9:33: The national FOP endorsed Trump because they’re a quasi-fascist organization and they know they’ll get to be the brownshirts during his administration.

9:34: Pence appears to believe that basically the entire Black Lives Matter movement is an example of the Negroes making stuff up.

9:37: Do you think they fought over who got to wear the red tie and who got to wear the blue tie?

9:38: I am seriously having trouble paying attention to either of them. I think Mike Pence might have just suggested that inner-city African-Americans might have been asking for stop and frisk. Are you fucking kidding me? He couldn’t have said that; my brain hasn’t died. No way.

9:40: My son gets up for the fourteenth fucking time. It doesn’t go well for him. He’s crying now.

9:41: IT IS NOT AN INSULT TO REPEAT THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID ON VIDEO. DONALD TRUMP SAID EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE FUCKING THINGS. REPEATING HIS EXACT FUCKING WORDS IS NOT AN INSULT. I’M FUCKING TIRED OF THIS HORSESHIT.

9:43: I gotta go deal with the boy. Might be back.

9:47: During my attempt to console my son/ convince him to keep his ass in bed for the rest of the night, he inadvertently kicks me in the balls. He’s insisting that one of us need to sleep with him. I am suddenly not in the mood for any of this at all.

9:50: Kaine helpfully explains to Pence that the Pentagon is in Virginia. It’s not very funny and yet it’s the funniest thing that’s happened tonight.

9:54: Yeah, okay, I want to be in bed reading a book. Everyone in my house is in a shitty mood and I had a long-ass day and screw these guys, I’m going home. I made it through two-thirds; that’s enough.

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A couple of mild predictions regarding tomorrow’s debate

On October 3, 2016October 3, 2016 By Luther M. SilerIn Politics4 Comments

IN full accordance with basically every single word I’ve said about the arc of this presidential campaign, the polls have been moving rather decisively back toward Clinton since she wiped her ass with Trump’s hairpiece in the first debate. Which I also knew she was going to do.

I will be liveblogging the debate tomorrow night as well. I expect the general spin afterward to be that Pence won, mostly because Pence is better than Trump at seeming to not be a rat-turd of a human being and Trump’s performance is what he’s going to be judged against.

And, if I’m being honest, Pence is less of a rat-turd of a human being than Trump. He would be a historically awful Vice President, but Trump will be the worst President currently imaginable and Pence, thank God, doesn’t rise to that level. Make no mistake, Pence is a deeply stupid human being– he makes George W. Bush look well-educated and intellectual by comparison– but he’s generally trainable and he doesn’t have enough of a personality to come off as as psychotic as his boss. Kaine is almost irrelevant to the proceedings, honestly; he’ll do fine, he’ll probably get a couple of decent jabs in at Trump, but the story’s going to be how much better Pence looked than Trump did. I expect the polls to, if not tighten, at least stop moving so impressively in Clinton’s direction for a week or so, and then the townhall debate will hit and it’ll start all over again. If Trump even shows up; I’ll give even money that he doesn’t, and I’d be genuinely surprised if he appears for the third.

Anyway. More Luke Cage to watch. See you tomorrow.