I met a couple trek legends at the Star Trek Convention in Cleveland back in 1986. It was nothing like the spectacle modern conventions have become. I'm so sad we did not have cell phones with cameras back then. We stood in line just to get autographs.

It would have been hilarious if you did say "Bridge".

And here I was thinking that this was something that American TV originating with an ex-political leader from Cleveland specialized in... (Jerry Springer Show)....

*quality

So Ah when are they going to do a story of the time the Cleveland Indians had Mini Bat Night? Or the time they had Dog Bone night. I'm not making this up. They gave out free cookies in the shape of dog bones and half way thru the game the fans started raining them down on the field. Awe Cleveland how can you not love that town.

ALL you can drink?

This reminds me of those "all drinks are on us" cruises you see advertised on TV.

I mean, a thousand frat boys with an unlimited bar tab stuck on a boat with nothing else to do? Didn't anyone involved in this promotion see the videos of the Nickel Beer Night Riot in Cleveland? If they haven't, they really should, because the Nickel Beer Night Riot was the greatest thing to happen in the history of Western Civilization Assholery. I'm serious! If I had a time machine, screw going back to meet Jesus or killing baby Hitler: I'd grab me a ride to June 4, 1974, drop a dollar at the beer concession stand, then get hoot-chimp drunk and huck D-cells at the Texas Rangers until it was Penis Puppetry time at third base.

All-you-can-drink beer in Japan? That'd be like the Nickel Beer Night Riot, only with samurai and ninjas -- how fucking awesome would that be?! I'm half-way to the airport already!

God bless you, Japan!

Seriously, he's taking a shit on "purist liberals"?

Remind me again, who was speaking up loud and clear about the danger of running another corporatist against a right-wing populist? Who was that again? Was it the strategists and consultants of the DNC? Was it all the celebrities who were „with her“?

Or was it maybe those liberal idiots whose candidate is, I don't know, the most popular politician in the country? Sanders gets cheers from Trump voters at townhalls in red states, and you're putting the blame for Trump's election at the feet of purist liberals?

Honestly, mate. You want to know what a neoliberal disaster looks like? Look at at the White House. Neoliberal policies are the breeding ground of right-wing populists. You think someone like Trump gets elected because of his convincing policy proposals? Right-wing populists are the answers to „centrist“ policies that enrich the few at the cost of the many. Everyone knows the effects, from widescale poverty, historic inequality, the opioid epidemic, all the way to the two-tiered justice system with fraudsters and torturers running free while not being able to pay a parking tickets gets you jailed.

Too abstract for you, Bill? Then look at Detroit. Look at Cleveland. Is that enough of a visual representation of what a neoliberal disaster looks like?

In this situation, they decided to run a corporatist, with the message „America is already great“. How was that supposed to resonate with the working stiff, Bill? The people whose despair is the main driver behind the opioid epidemic, as Case-Deaton has shows us in such detail. Who had the glorious idea to run exclusively on identity politics and ignore the economic plight of the lower class?

Was that the purist liberals, Bill?

Did the purist liberals run a campaign whose own people, if „Shattered“ contains any truth at all, described it as nothing short of a disaster? Even Clinton's own people didn't seem to know why she was running, and were toying with the idea of just going with „it's her turn“. Seriously, the way they describe Clinton's paranoia and refusal to interact with her own staff makes it sound like her campaign was not much less of a clusterfuck than Trump's presidency, from an organizing point of view.

But yeah, go ahead and blame the purist liberals. And Comey, while you're at it. And Russia. And Jill Stein. And fake news. And WikiLeaks. And sexism. Anything but the DNC and their corporate candidate.

Let me know when you're done, maybe then we can have a proper post-mortem of how the Democrats managed to lose the White House, Congress, most state legislatures and Governorships. And we'll start from the top, because we have a saying in German: „der Fisch stinkt vom Kopf her“. Maybe you can get an option to vote against Wall Street, against the war on drugs, against big pharma, against the MIC, and against the destruction of our biosphere. Because you sure as hell didn't have one this time.

Blame presumes guilt. There's no guilt in voting for your interests, even if others don't understand them.

Reasons for those voting decisions are interesting, but also very hard to get since the media ignores everything between the coasts, and even the diverse internet is so full of filter bubbles that you're basically funneled straight into echo chambers. At least on my end, the Silicon Valley/Hollywood culture is drowning out everything else -- and I'm a commie outsider who doesn't give a shit about celebrities or "save zones".

That said, the election is just the most recent culmination of an ongoing, decades-long development. But that's beyond the point, so...

Populism trumps business as usual if business as usual leads to Detroit, Cleveland and Camden. Or the rural areas on the coast of Louisiana, which were hit much harder than New Orleans and still look worse than Chernobyl, 11 years after the fact.

So the question is: did you a) fail to provide an alternative, b) fail to make a convincing case for that alternative, c) decide against trying to convince those that think differently, or d) not even realize that not everybody shares your perception of reality.

Given the tone of the reactions, the collective damnation of Trump voters as (insert any insult in the book), I'm thinking that d) is a much bigger issue than anyone is willing to admit.

In short, I blame George R. R. Martin. If he had published The Winds of Winter by now, all would be well.

*ban
cleveland.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-8htF7LTrc

A bird pooped on my Subaru there other day. I couldn't do shit about it, either, because the bird was way up in the sky. But his asshole must have been equipped with the Norden Bombsight or something, because it landed a pancake-sized shit right on my windshield. I think it was a seagull or something. I hate those damned things because they steal your fries down on the waterfront and land pancake-sized turds on your Subaru's windshield. John Oliver's right: fuck birds! I'm gonna find out where that seagull lives and take a shit right in its nest! "You eat clams, you feathered fuck? Well here's a CLEVELAND STEAMER for ya!" That'd feel so good, too: ironic revenge at its finest. What? Don't tell me that's not the correct use of ironic, either! I'll climb up on your roof and shit on YOUR Subaru's windshield, then blame it on a seagull. Don't think I won't, either.

Damn I love legal marijuana.

Just outside Cleveland.

I so badly wish I could have made it to their stuff in Cleveland. But work and lots of other stuff conspired against me being able to catch it. I might have braved Cleveland during the RNC to make the show.

Wikipedia:
"In July 2016 the song was used to introduce Donald Trump to the first session of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. The irony of introducing an American political candidate with English-authored music was apparently overlooked by the event's organizers. Queen immediately issued a statement denouncing Trump's use of the song as not authorized by the band. (Licensing for public performance of the song is administered by the performing rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).)"

It's official!
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