#if orange hitler (trump) wins again the American people are fucked

[a-kinda-nerdy-girl]

Anyone else in the USA feel like you're living in this gif today?

[qqueenofhades]

i truly can't decide whether i want orange fuckface to be locked up (or dead. dead works too) and not be able to get the nomination so it, presumably, goes to florida hitler (who hopefully loses anyway because people hate him and/or they write dump truck's name in anyway) or if it would be better if orange guy gets the nomination and dems can use that as fuel to get people out to vote. do we think if the nominee is anyone other than the big orange felon, this will have any effect on the fascist turnout? or will they just fall in line for the next dictator no matter who he is?

Honestly, I don't know. Either way, the GOP nominee will be Trump or DeSantis, and it is absolutely CRAZYMAKING to me that the choices will literally be "solid, competent, and incredibly experienced Democratic president who has presided over unprecedented job growth and infrastructure investment, most progressive since FDR, nominated a ton of judges to reverse Trump court-packing, but is admittedly an old white guy" vs "literal deranged racist fascist authoritarian traitor charged with 60+ different felonies who probably couldn't even hold a security clearance if he was elected and a lifetime cheater, sexual abuser, business fraud, and cult leader" AND IT WILL BE A VERY CLOSE RACE DECIDED BY A HANDFUL OF STATES IN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE. Like. I can't. That is boggling. This country is so beyond fucked up in so many ways.

Unlikely as the possibility may be, the idea of either Trump or DeSantis actually becoming president (in Trump's case, again) is so existentially terrifying to me that I don't let myself think about it or picture a future where it happens, because it is so utterly devastating. If Trump goes to jail and/or is somehow disqualified from running, DeSantis will be the nominee, but Trump's cultists will hate him for not being their felonious orange messiah. That might hurt him, sure. But even with Trump (who is still far and away the likely nominee), there are still 75 million Americans who voted for him last time, and we don't know what the impact will be, even after all of this. Cultists won't change their minds due to logic and/or facts. Indeed, the narrative from the right wing and compliant mainstream media has so overwhelmingly been "poor innocent Trump being persecuted unlike the evil Biden crime family" that it could shore up his support from wavering Republicans who hate him but hate any conservative accountability via the legal system more. We just don't know.

Either way, it's not a good situation (understatement of the century, etc) and you'd really fucking HOPE that either way, Team Blue is motivated to get out the vote. If we work hard and we do that, we will win. And yet again, as will be the case until this malignant MAGA cancer is removed from the American body politic, there is really no choice or moral option except to do everything we can to make it so.

[maxeddyishere-blog]

Day 2 - Ties

Did you know that two teams can tie in an NFL game? Ties are by no means an omnipresent phenomenon in the NFL specifically (this past season had two ties, which was on the higher end historically) or in American sports generally (among the four largest sports leagues in the US, the NFL is the only one that has a true tie. In hockey, you can get some cred in the standings for losing in overtime, but that’s as close as any other league gets). So, now you know that football teams can tie. This means that you now know something about football that Donovan McNabb did not know about football in 2008. Donovan McNabb, a potential Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback, who had played football for the first 32 years of his life, upon tying a game with the Washington Redskins (or, as I like to call them, the Washington Dud PR Timebombs [seriously, DC is a pretty liberal place, how the fuck has that persisted]), replied to a reporter’s question that he did not know an NFL game could end in a tie. Like, if someone asked him, “Hey Don, you know your whole playbook?” He’d be like, “Fuck no, I don’t even know the whole rule book!”

While Mr. McNabb’s response to the question may be disheartening to the more intellectual football fans out there (they exist, don’t laugh), his response is not the worst I’ve heard from an NFL player regarding a tie. Bubba Smith, all pro-defensive end, played ball in the 60s, went on record, in a newspaper, in print, that he would rather lose a game than tie. Well, Bubba, I know you died in 2011 and I’m speaking to you rhetorically right now, but I feel like you wouldn’t have been singing that same tune if 10-5-1 would have gotten you into the playoffs but 10-6 wouldn’t have. A tie is, after all, effectively worth half a win, which is exactly one half win better than losing the game. (Math is important, kids.)

Now, Bubba was clearly suffering from two issues here. The first, repeated head trauma. Like, massive amounts of good ol’ American  pre-team-doctor football head trauma. (Smith eventually passed away after long bouts with alcoholism, issues with his heart and with his brain, namely CTE. If you actually would like to make a difference instead of laughing about other people’s degenerative issues, donate to fund research at Boston University’s CTE Center, you cynical asshole: https://www.bu.edu/cte/financial-support/). 

The second issue Bubba faced was an inability to handle America’s most important endangered species: nuance. It seems that Bubba should have preferred a tie to a loss because, as discussed earlier, math. But that (admittedly somewhat small) benefit of the tie versus the loss was outweighed in Bubba’s mind by the tonnage of having to have mixed feelings about the outcome of game. If Bubba wins the game, it’s a big “WOOHOO” moment, and he carries it into the next game. If Bubba loses, it’s more of a “BOOHOO” moment, but he still gets to get angry, get amped up, and carry that energy into the next game. If he ties the game, it’s a sobering moment for him - ambivalence doesn’t translate well into unadulterated emotion. 

I think this phenomenon is one that I deal with pretty frequently - it’s just so much easier to have a view of the world that’s rigid, that draws lines very clearly, and comments all over the internet whenever some guy named Milo crosses one of those lines. Gradients are so nice in theory - they provide flexibility when trying to understand the world around us. But it’s a whole lot easier to draw the rainbow with exactly seven solid brush strokes (especially because I can’t paint for shit. That part’s not a metaphor - I am awful at painting.)

The reason that folks like myself and Bubba prefer to think in terms of black and white (or, if we are referencing the races of the respective individuals mentioned, white and black) is that it takes conscious, active, tiresome thought. Take, for example, discussing the current leader of the free world, Donald J. Trump (highly topical, whether or not you think he’s the best example, this is the only way I have of getting this blog read by anyone who doesn’t know me personally). While those who support him and those who loathe him hold diametrically opposing viewpoints on many issues, there is one thing that many on both sides of the aisle share: their opinion of the man is dishearteningly lacking in nuance. I have heard plenty of Trump protesters suggest he is a devil, a demon Satan, Armageddon, the Apocalypse, a felon, a fascist, a neo-Nazi, a regular Nazi, Hitler Himself, and, of course, orange. While these attacks regarding his rhetoric, actions and skin tone have catalyzed many a high five and chortle between folks who dislike the man, none of these epithets categorizes the man in these somewhat more moderate terms: a human being with some pent-up anger, a lot of money, an uncanny ability to navigate the American media, and a lot of people who are buying what he is selling. While I believe that describing him in these terms better outlines the danger he poses to many groups in America, it takes a lot longer to type it out, and I’d usually rather type 5 letters than type three lines if I’m trying to get a point across.

On the other side of the aisle, the simple terms in which he is described are a bit longer character-wise, but just as lacking in moderation as those used on the other ideological pole: Trump is a businessman, he’s an outsider lookin’ to drain the swamp (short aside: a show called Swamp People on the History Channel just premiered its 8th season, and there has yet to be a single politician on the show [this fact is entirely unconfirmed, but they are documenting people who live in a literal swamp, so I am confident in my guess]), he doesn’t talk like those politicians who lie all the time. The main failing with this broad stroke is the failure to convey any further why an outsider would be better at a job than an insider in any industry (I’ve heard of an outside hire before, but should a real estate firm hire as its CEO someone who spent the previous 40 years as the Commissioner of the NFL? [Roger Goodell, it seems that you may have some serious prospects in other industries when you’re done.]) For many who support Mr. Trump, the characterization he has cultivated as a champion for running the government like a business crumbles under a simple question: do businesses have to make sure homeless people don’t die on the street? Because governments do.

I think this is all I’ve got to discuss on the matter for now, but it shall return again (blogs are like gyms - it’s a nice first step to get yourself into one, but you have to keep going back and working on the same stuff consistently if you want to feel good about yourself). In the meantime, try to avoid the pitfalls of Mr. Smith - try to find the tie, try to consider all sides of the issues with which you are confronted in your daily life, and...try to minimize head trauma.