This week can eat an endless Vegas-style buffet of ass. El beisbol is interminable enough as it is without taking a 96-hour fucking coma in the middle of a COMPLETE FUCKING DROUGHT of sporting competition. No Lesser Footy, no el tenis, no fucking nothing. Just time to sit around and reflect thoughtfully about our miserable fucking lives. Yeah, I feel fucking fantastic. How about you?

But really, I miss the fucking NFL. Like a drug, man. Here is Pablo Neruda’s Sonnet 69, and you try to tell me this ain’t written in July about the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE ,, smh:

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,
without you moving, slicing the noon
like a blue flower, without you walking
later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,
golden, which maybe others will not see,
which maybe no one knew was growing
like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming
suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,
gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,
since then you are, I am, we are,
and through love I will be, you will be, we’ll be.

I suppose there is the ultimate bloodsport, politics. Which brings to a Dennis Miller style rant I’ve been meaning to have in full for some time. I do believe we are getting ready to have a lovely landslide of epic fucking proportions. Why you think this, Hippo? You may ask? Well, for one thing, I don’t think it is good political strategy to have an openly racist and nativist campaign in 2016 (even pre-repentant George Wallace would stage whisper to Donald “hey dude, you sayin’ the quiet parts out loud”) without the black fella on the ticket. And believe me, if the GOP professionals thought this would have worked in 2008 or 2012, they would have fucking done it. There is a reason they are all on the teevee box shitting their pants this summer, and it’s not because teh Donald is ‘speaking truth to power.’ It’s because he’s showing all the ugliness behind the curtain, and making it one hell of a lot harder to shove back in the box and talk about in code going forward. Even if the pissed off primary electorate loses badly enough in the general to nominate someone at least nominally tethered to sanity once again.

Also, please don’t give me the “awwww, come on, it’s just an act” or “the media’s just making a big deal out of nothing” until you read THIS. I mean, holy tapdancing shit, Batman. If you read that, and aren’t scared out of your goddamned mind and sickened to your very core…I don’t know what to tell you.

A major part of my political radar, as an INTJ, is finding “voices” that I trust. Because there is obviously a lot of noise out there, and TV news is just the lowest common demoninator. Josh Marshall of TPM is one of my trusted voices. Measured, reasonable, and thoughtful. He’s been right on the sweet spot with Trump from jump street, and has pointed out over and over the key to his persona – authoritarianism. He doesn’t really believe in much of anything from an intellectual standpoint, but from the “hand size” debate, you can see clearly that he 100% believes in the “strong man” (and yes, he ONLY means MAN) theory of governance. And it relies strongly, almost exclusively, on the sense of dangerous “others” in one’s midst. So you see him trying to inflame racial tensions, with blatant falsehoods. He’d be glad to see America burn just like the most troubled parts of Europe, if it gave him more power and adulation.

But wait, isn’t HillyBob just as bad?

FUCK. RIGHT. OFF.

Hillary Clinton is a typical center-left politician (with typical politician strengths and weaknesses), who has an unfortunate penchant for secrecy. She is also a notoriously bad campaigner.

But she is also somebody who learns from her mistakes (big plus in Hippo’s book, shows humility). After bitterly losing to Obama in 2008, she not only campaigned her ass off for him, but also worked closely with him…and his key campaign advisers. Almost to a man and woman, those who worked with her grew to very much like and respect her, and are on board her team in 2016. Which, apparently, is true with respect to her time in the Senate and at the State Department. Anyone who works with her for any significant amount of time (even going into it skeptically) comes out impressed. She is warm in one-on-one situations, and extremely diligent. Most importantly, TOTES SANE.

HillyBob is also doing something that I also just recently noticed, with bringing Evan Bayh out of mothballs to run for Senate in Indiana (to piss all over Trump’s VP selection), the same week she rolled out the Sanders endorsement. She is bringing the big tent back, and bringing it in a big way. The platform will be significantly to the left, and indeed the left has almost completely won the public over on social issues like gay rights, with swiftness I never could have imagined (no small thanks to a big assist from Diamond Joe Biden). But it’s left in an inclusive fashion, that doesn’t leave anyone with an open mind behind. It’s a carefully woven web, intended to stand broadly for enlightenment values and encourage the opposition to keep painting itself into a narrower and narrower corner. Once the campaign is over, most agree that she is a chess player in terms of dealing with people and wielding power persuasively.

No, I am not concerned about the Wall Street types and Republican era defense folks who are supporting her. This is the center-right edge of the tent. To be honest, my ideal government (economically) is one that Wall Street can live with but is not running. I’m not convinced that being at war with them is a good thing. Certainly filling them up with blow and handing them the keys to MURRIKA doesn’t work either. Let’s go with detente? Also, please note that it’s the sane, foreign policy “realists” who are defecting, not the “neocons.”

Which brings me to my next point – trust. This is what causes her share of the vote to fluctuate in polls. Trump stays at 38-41 no matter what, because he’s just gutter trash. But people don’t trust HillyBob, and she’s given them reason not to. But I urge you to think about this – after competing with her, in ways that got beyond heated at times, then working closely with her for 8 years…Barack Obama trusted Hillary Clinton with his legacy. And he trusted her SO MUCH that he had to tell a good friend and equally trusted ally, the aforementioned Diamond Joe, no. That means a great deal to me, and I think it’s worth at least a pause and a thought to you. I’m also certain he made sure no stone was unturned in the stupid e-mail investigation.

Last, but not least, do it for The Notorious RBG. She may be doing things “not befitting the Court” but she’s doing this FOAR the greater good. This here election will determine the ideological bent of the Supreme Court for the next 20+ years. Period, full stop. You want to keep gay marriage (or any gay rights at all, for that matter)? Vote Clinton. You want abortion to stay legal everywhere (or anywhere at all, for that matter – don’t be surprised if the anti-Roe majority under President Trump also finds that a fetus has the full rights of a “person” under the Constitution and outlaws abortion as murder everywhere, no exceptions)? Vote Clinton. You want to overturn Citizens United because you don’t believe money is speech (and/or you don’t believe in Hippo’s “big tent” and want it to be possible for left leftist candidates to win elections before you’re dead)? Vote Clinton.

END RANT.

In honor of jjfozz’ series, I will close with a happy “song of summer” tune, without any depressing lyrics whatsoever. WOO!