2,244 and Counting

Meanwhile we have Bengazigate.

@Benedick: I don’t give a shit about any of that supposed Benghazi drama. And I don’t give a shit about the IRS and tea baggers (just ask my friends – and me – working at lefty non-profit tree-hugger/baby-killer groups in the late ’80s/early ’90s and 2001-2008 about the IRS inquisitions under Reagan/Bush I/Bush II.)

What has me super pissed off at Black Eagle is (a) the bizarre dick-waving escalation of drone attacks in the Middle East, and (b) Stasi-like snooping on the A.P.

@SanFranLefty: Let’s not forget the record deportations. And the colossal healthcare sellout we’ll be facing next January. (Not yet sure how that’ll affect California freelancers. Still waiting for an informative hundred-page packet or whatever.)

Oh, and regarding the topic, shout-out to Harry Reid for foiling filibuster reform, which is how 54 votes didn’t carry watered-down background checks. I don’t see the point getting angry at Republicans when Democrats are doing a fine job screwing the pooch.

@nojo: @SanFranLefty: Is the American experiment over? Has it been over for years?

By the waters of Babylon, we lay down and wept for thee, Zion. We remember thee, Zion.

@Tommmcatt Can’t Believe He Ate The Whole Thing: It’s been over since 1776.

@Tommmcatt Can’t Believe He Ate The Whole Thing: I’ve been trying to track down a Bobby Kennedy phrase — “the politics of hope” — that I heard recently. I’ve been trying to track it down because there have been four times in my (remembered) life — Bobby, Jimmy, Bubba, Barack — when Hope came into play, and Hope was thwarted.

(And there’s an historical anomaly here: I remember Bobby as the candidate, not as Jack’s hatchet man.)

It strikes me, now, that there can be no Politics of Hope — that the two ideas are in conflict, and Politics will always win. To assign Hope to a candidate is to set oneself up for disappointment — not because the Constitutional system wisely limits the powers of one office, or because the federal government is too large to turn, or because Power Corrupts — but because, well…

Actually, I don’t know. Still dwelling on it.

The American Experiment is not over, not by a longshot. But we — I — should adjust our expectations about what it can produce. At best, it’s an optimistic muddle. But, practically speaking, our choice seems limited to Least Worst.

This is something I thought I understood before January 2008. Obama threw me off my game. I thought we had a shot at it.

Am I reading the map correctly, that the 2,244 number dates from March 23rd? That would mean that a current number would be about 3,500 instead?

@DElurker: Per Slate, it’s 4,132+ as of this writing.

@nojo: Holy Fuck, dude, you’re right. Not with a bang but with a whimper.

@Tommmcatt Can’t Believe He Ate The Whole Thing: Things will get really interesting when crops fail from Mexico through Brazil due to climate change and people head north en masse.

@Tommmcatt Can’t Believe He Ate The Whole Thing: Slouching toward A More Perfect Union.