Pity Party at Bernie's

Rant coming! I am really quite weary of the whining about our "rigged" primary system. Yes, it's ramshackle and inequitable and inefficient and could benefit greatly from reform and uniformization. But it's still one of the only systems in the world that gives (sometimes and in some places) ordinary, unaffiliated citizens the opportunity to participate in choosing a major party's leader/candidate. In most places party elites and regular party members ONLY have any voice. One of the "fairest" of such "cartel systems" is in place for Britain's Labour Party, but even there, MPs decide who runs and only about 500,000 party members are eligible to vote.

Neither Bernie Sanders nor Donald Trump would/could have been nominated for party leadership in such a closed system. They would have had to form their own parliamentary party, with all its infrastructure, etc., get elected as leader of said party, and THEN present candidates in every constituency in order to have any hope of winning a majority in parliament and thus becoming Prime Minister. The universe is NOT picking on anyone in particular, people. It's just muddling along in all its messy imperfection. Stop feeling sorry for yourselves; do what you can to fix what you can. And. Get. Over. It.

Trump Is a Doggone Dummy

People keep saying that Trump isn't as dumb as he seems to be. Nonsense! Of course he is. Sure, it's possible that at least some of what he says and does is carefully thought out, but thinking carefully about stuff that you have simply made up in the first place is no proof of intelligence.

In her final years, my poor Grandma Kirkeby used to spend a lot of time thinking about the little dog she (but she alone) saw under her chair. The thinking changed nothing: the dog still wasn't there.

Grandma K was old and demented and can surely be forgiven. But there can be no forgiveness for Trump. He is simply and inexcusably dumb!