Pick Your Poison

AYFKM, Primary Voters?

At yesterday evening's final Presidential Debate at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, the horns of the dilemma facing the American electorate were fully on display.

"I couldn't do worse than last time? Just watch me!"

Even my minimal expectations of asshat Donald Trump were not met. With one last opportunity to press his case and focus voters' attention on the manifest unfitness of Hillary Clinton, he chose instead to gift her with a news cycle that should easily secure her victory on November 8: He refused to say he'd accept the results of the election.



He actually doubled down on the comment this morning, telling a rally in Ohio that he WOULD accept those results...but only if HE won.

There are no words with which to express my appreciation for the Republican party apparatchiks who crafted the set of rules which enabled this ignorant jackwad to capture the party's presidential nomination with a historically low percentage of primary votes. They don't call it The Stupid Party for nothing.

"Constitution schmonstitution, peasants!"

Meanwhile, black-eyed skank Hillary Clinton was appalling as well, giving a full-throated defense of abortion-on-demand (including the heinous partial-birth procedure), and matching Trump's contempt for our constitutional order by showing utter disdain for the Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.

Her answer on that question was
so comically false that even liberal media outlets would ordinarily have had no choice but to challenge her on the issue.


Of course, Trump ensured that that wouldn't happen, and Hillary's unconstitutional views will simply be ignored all the way until November 8. Heaven help us all after that.

"Isn't she a lawyer or something?"

Yes, but she's a Democrat lawyer, which means she thinks our laws (including the constitution itself) are only worthy of being upheld if doing so furthers the progressive political agenda...

And Then There Were Three

After Tuesday's miserable results, yesterday was a welcome return to positive outcomes for my baseball rooting interests...

In Game 5 of the ALCS at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, the Cleveland Indians advanced to their first World Series since 1997 by beating the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0, the second time in five games the potent Toronto offense got shut out.

The Indians won the series four games to one.

"BOOM!"

In Game 4 of the NLCS in LA,
the Chicago Cubs ran their scoring drought to 21 consecutive innings before erupting in the 4th inning. Sparked by a leadoff bunt single from LF Ben Zobrist (who played
a key role in my beloved Kansas City Royals winning last year's title) the Cubs rallied for four runs, capped off by a two-run home run from SS Addison Russell.



From there they cruised to a satisfying 10-2 blowout win over the Dodgers, tying the series at two games apiece and ensuring themselves at least one more game at Wrigley Field this series.

"Only one baseball game to curse at today, then?"

I don't curse that much, but yes...there is also Thursday Night Football, too...

Wild Kingdom Bed & Breakfast Update

"I'll be back, trust me."

It had been a few days since I last saw any B&B activity on the seed-cake holder, but yesterday
I finally got a good long look at the little guy that's been feasting there from time to time over the last month or so.

He is a downy woodpecker, which I suppose means he must not be finding as many bugs on the tree trunks this time of year. Before long the daily temperatures will be chilly enough that
I can switch from seed cakes to suet cakes, but in the meantime it was pretty cool watching the little guy (the smallest of the North American woodpeckers) on the feeder. He did some neat aerobatics when he flew off, too.

Happy Birthday!

On October 20, 1935 Jerome Bernard Orbach was born in The Bronx, New York.

Jerry Orbach went on to enjoy a distinguished career in Broadway theatre, where he was the original El Gallo in The Fantasticks, the original Billy Flynn in Chicago, and the original Julian Marsh in 42nd Street (by far my favorite musical).

Orbach also enjoyed a successful career acting in motion pictures and on television, most notably his 12-year stint as homicide detective Lennie Briscoe on Law and Order.

Understandable Reaction

From the indispensable comic strip Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller, which you should read every day, as I do (even though Wiley is a squishy liberal).

Until Next Time...

For as far back as I can remember, I have gravitated toward the melancholy, pessimistic end of the emotional spectrum. There are a lot of reasons for that, and I'm too old to reverse a lifetime of such thinking, but at least it has led me to an affinity for blues and blues-rock music!

As a musical genre, the blues is mostly about life's troubles, and how we deal with them. Some of my favorite songs in the genre are about finding ways to escape from those troubles. Optimistic pessimism, if you will.

This morning I heard one of my favorite songs of this type, which was played during the Supernatural episode "The Monster At the End of This Book" I watched on TNT during my morning latte break. 

It was actually TV shows which led me to bluesman Sonny Ellis, whose music has been featured on several programs I like including Modern Family, True Blood, and The Wire as well as Supernatural.

Sonny's 2011 album It's A Struggle features the kind of raw, guitar- based electric blues that has appealed to me for nearly half a century. Of course, that sort of music has never been especially successful commercially, and Sonny isn't nearly so well known as he ought to be.

Today's send-off is my favorite track from the album and the song they used on the Supernatural episode. It is called "Leave All This Behind," which is precisely the reaction I had to yesterday's political developments. Enjoy...