I saw Penn & Teller last night

in Easton, PA, and Penn said something that has really stuck with me. He said, while talking about the nature of his art, that many people are not content to accept a mystery, that they believe that it's better to have a nonsensical, impossible explanation than no explanation at all. His evidence was the internet, and he's right.

But it's also imo the motivating force behind witch hunts and all sorts of religious mania. It's just too hard for some of us to be content to not know.

Bless their hearts

They think they're going to win. It's cute to see them so happy, poor little things.

"Democrat" as adjective started with Joe McCarthy

At least one absentee ballot

has been cast in Pa., and it's a straight democratic vote. It belongs to my disabled daughter, who has never missed an election.

I don't generally give anybody the finger

but I did today. On a median strip on Roosevelt Blvd in Philly today was a young man waving around a big homemade sign. One side said "Wikileaks Podesta emails" and the other "Hillary 4 prison." I felt he deserved a long slow one (I was stopped for a light).

Can anyone tell me

when the Republicans started using the noun "democrat" when they need the adjective "democratic?" As in "the democrat primary?"

And is it supposed to be insulting to us?

What's the matter with them, anyway? <-- rhetorical question

Two things I am loving right now

A little while ago, someone here at DU recommended Red Breast whiskey. I finally got my hands on a bottle, and Lord take me now. This is ambrosia.

I am reading Tristram Shandy. Why have I never read this book before? So funny, so modern and wise.

Lothario Trump

I'm a big fan of sexy men. The more I learn about Donald Trump's seduction/assault techniques, the more puzzled I am that he was able to be so sexually active in his younger days. Now he's 70 years old. I'm married to a 70-year-old man, and I can tell you that things in the bedroom do change over time.

I was horrified to hear him brag about grabbing women's crotches, but then I thought about Prince (one of the sexiest men in the world, may he rest in peace) grabbing Appolonia's crotch from behind in Purple Rain, and I thought, well, maybe, in the right circumstances (i.e. consensually, as in the movie) that would be pretty hot.

Then he said that when he was trying "like a bitch" (huh?) to bed Nancy O'Dell, he took her furniture shopping. Now, he didn't say he ran into her at Ikea or anything--he specifically linked "I took her to buy furniture" to "I tried to fuck her." And he was insistent about her being a married woman. WTF? I tried to image a situation where being taken to buy furniture could lead to romance, or just sex, and I was stumped. And what the hell would marital status have to do with it? Some on tv have suggested that he gets off on cuckolding other men, so maybe that's part of it, but it certainly doesn't add any sexiness for the woman--unless she hated her husband and it was a revenge fuck or something.

The icing on the cake was hearing from the latest accuser, the woman who was an actress/producer in adult films. Donald Trump was not even able to get it on with a woman whose profession involved getting it on. Not for $10,000 was she interested in him! My goodness, I thought, that's a lot of money--but then I found out he had met these young women in his pajamas! Oh for god's sake. A man in his pajamas is not erotic, at least not to me, and think of what his pajamas must be like--they must be silk, or satin, with a big embroidered monogram. And I'm sure they're loose, old-man pajamas, not hot pajamas that are more like loose shorts with no shirt. Does he understand how unappealing he is sexually?

It has to be the money (duh), and if he doesn't understand that, I guess I'm not surprised.

Liberal guilt?

Having met with so many Trump supporters up close, I am ashamed of myself for my elitist view of them. I watch Hillary on tv, with her ease that comes with being intelligent, having had an excellent education, being a lot like me--we are of the same generation--and I feel close to her in a way, I understand what she means when she speaks, I think things are funny that she thinks are funny. I feel the same kinship with Michelle Obama, with Gloria Allred, with Joy Reid. I don't mean that I think we could be friends or anything stalkery like that; I mean that if we encountered each other at a cocktail party we'd be able to exchange pleasantries.

And I feel totally alienated from the nice Trump folks--and they really were sweet as pie (of course I'm a nonthreatening old white woman)--I don't feel like I could spend five minutes in conversation with any of them, and I frankly wouldn't want to. And I feel terrible about this.

I think part of the unthinking rage that underlies support for Trump is the understanding that we liberals, many of us, or at least some of us, really do feel superior to them in terms of intelligence or at least education. And the suggestion that they don't understand what they are supporting when they support Donald Trump must be infuriating to them. How dare we?

Speaking only, god knows, for myself, I am troubled by this. I don't want to feel separated from this great population; I liked those people, even while wanting absolutely nothing to do with any of them personally.

I want to blame education for this. I know I said "so what" about Common Core, I do believe that there are things every one of us should know, if only to provide our country with a shared background on which to paint our various lives. And I hold every kind of work as honorable and valuable, it's not that. I don't want everyone to have to go to college, or even to read the books I deep down think they should read. It just seems to me (at the risk of sounding like an old fart, which I own I am) that the public education I received did make sure that everyone, no matter which "track" he or she was on, knew at least a little bit about Shakespeare, understood the way our government works, could do enough math to get by, and understood evolution. We all also learned to sew, to make mechanical drawings, to cook and to use power tools. Maybe I'm just out of touch, but I'm not sure kids today get exposed to as much stuff as they need to be.

I will appreciate any comfort anyone can offer.

Trump rally part 3

The best thing that happened, something that totally cracked me up, was that while Trump was speaking (and his hair really is sort of green, btw) a kid yelled out "Love you, Dad!"

As for how many people were there, as I say I'm not good at estimating crowds, but I was surprised that the field house wasn't packed after seeing all the people outside. I'm sure there is an occupancy limit for safety reasons, but it really looked to me as if only a few hundred people were inside.

The people I spoke with totally buy Trump's nonsense. I did not feel comfortable challenging them about taxes, trade agreements, etc., partly because I thought it would be rude since I was after all sort of a guest there, and as an observer, I didn't want to engage with the specimens.

It struck me that almost all of them--I did see a few people with a light of intelligence in their eyes--do not understand the first thing about how our government works (they buy the accusation that Hillary Clinton didn't change the tax laws while she was a senator) and like Trump are not curious about finding out. I have bemoaned the death of Civics as a required high school subject for a long time, and it pained me sorely to hear these undereducated voters not questioning some of the total baloney Donald was serving.

On the other hand, they were all very sweet to me, very solicitous (I brought my cane, for just in case) of my comfort, and all very, very happy to be there. Their poor children (how hot and bored the little kids must've been) were well-behaved and cute, their grannies smoked cigarettes and wore cowgirl hats, and the men were all either totally out of shape or so lean they couldn't have any fat on them at all. They were all real nice people.

The theme out in the waiting-room field was "Look at how many of us there are--how can we lose?" which I have to confess sent a slight shiver down my spine.