It’s the countdown to the Super Bowl. I think. I guess it takes place in February these days (I remember because it was on Super Bowl Sunday seven years ago that Siggy died). There was a time when the Super Bowl was a big deal to me. Not because I was a “fan” of any team playing. I enjoyed it when the Giants with Joe Morris won back in 1987 (no, I didn’t remember the year off the top of my head – had to look it up). And I’ve never given a shit about Miami, other than not liking them, but I still enjoyed seeing Larry Csonka do well. I don’t like the Eagles, but of course I wanted to see Donovan McNabb win. But mostly I’ve never had any “skin” in the game, as they say.

But there was a time when I had friends and we’d get together and eat too much and drink even more and have what I seem to recall (to the extent that I can actually recall) was a good time. Back then, while I didn’t care all that much who won (assuming it wasn’t the Cowboys), I at least knew what city the teams were from. This year, it’s, what, the Rams? And I guess they’re back in LA again? I don’t know.

And while I don’t care much for them, I definitely don’t care for the Patriots, who used to be Boston before they got pretentious and annexed the entire New England area. I consider the Patriots to be the Cowboys of the Northeast – especially with their Friends-of-Trump owner and all-around asshole of a QB.

Mostly, though, I just don’t care either way. Besides, the damn game doesn’t even start until damn near bedtime (it was tough enough to get up for work the next day when the damn thing still started in the afternoon – I was young back then). So I’ll check the score on Monday morning, find out the fucking Patriots won again (probably after being down the whole game), and be glad I didn’t watch.

And then I’ll finish my coffee and oatmeal and head off to the job that I love so much.

Speaking of which….

We don’t get a chance to celebrate much on this side of things so, even though I’ll be waiting for the other shoe to drop in three weeks or so, there’s no harm in taking a little joy in yesterday’s developments. Not so much in the Roger Stone thing, because I don’t think we’ll see any action on that front for quite a while. I mostly expect to hear a lot of meaningless blather and speculation (which I’ll of course listen to, because meaningless or not, it’s still fun). But Trump being forced to back down was not only enjoyable, but good for the country. I have to admit I was afraid that Democrats would give in, and then we’d see shutdown after shutdown for any stupid shit the fat man’s handlers (Putin, Coulter, and Limbaugh, et al.) down the road.

So it was nice to see the Democrats stand up and stay unified for once. Nancy Pelosi did a great job of being the adult in the room and herding the cats. But if you think that happened in a vacuum, and wasn’t in large part a result of progressive candidates bucking “the party,” and getting elected to office (or losing close races in what were once considered Republican strongholds), then you’re delusional.
?
Pelosi didn’t have the upper hand in spite of progressives, but because of them and because they’re nudging the Democratic party back toward the left.

Progressive candidates are beginning to show the Democratic establishment and concern trolls that it’s in their best interests to stop acting like Republicans and to stop being afraid of “being mean” to people who will never support them anyway.

It’s not “crazy talk” to support things like universal healthcare, free education, green technology, and marginal tax rates. Those are the kinda of things that the vast majority of people favor, and they’ll vote for candidates that support those ideas if you’ll just give them the chance.

So good for them, and for people like AOC, Beto O’Rourke, Elizabeth Warren, and, yes, even that nasty old man Bernie Sanders who was so mean to Hillary Clinton.

I don’t know who the Democrats will nominate in 2020, but I hope whoever it is, I hope it’s somebody with the courage (and the brains) to stand up and support the things I and most other “regular” people believe in.

So, if you’ve been paying attention to the weather news, you’ll have probably heard there’s a big old nasty winter storm sweeping across the US of A. It’s supposed to hit my neck of the woods later this evening, though it’s actually snowing out there already. They seem to have us penciled in for about 14″, though it could always be more. Or less. Usually more at my house, since I’m on the western side of a gorge and the wind tends to come sweeping down the plain, as they say, and dumping everything on my house. A foot to a foot-and-a-half is what we consider to be a pain in the ass around here, rather than some sort of Snowmageddon. Especially when it happens over a weekend (really sucks when we get dumped on in the early morning on a weekday, just because you have to get out there and fuck around in the snow to get to work). About all I do it make sure I have enough diesel to plow the driveway, enough gasoline to run the generator, and enough kerosene to run the heaters if all else fails. I should probably go run the gennie for a while just to make sure it still works.

The real hassle is the cold. It was in the twenties when I got up at my usual stupid time of the morning, but it’s down to about 12° right now, and it’s expected to be below zero and not much above for a few days. And really windy. Plus the wife is working this weekend, which means I’ll have to get out on the tractor tomorrow morning to plow. Not that I won’t be up anyway, of course, but getting out there in the dark kinda sucks, and my fingers and toes really have a hard time with the cold these days. I’m good for about half an hour, but then things start to hurt. And when there’s a lot of snow, even a quick and dirty plow job can take well over an hour.

It would be different if the rest of my life was all fun and games, but, well, let’s just say, it aint.

I’m also getting really tired of reading “Trump is toast now” or whatever. Or how Mueller has this awesome plan and Trump is playing checkers while Mueller’s playing three-dimensional chess and is 10 moves ahead and all that. Yeah, but Trump is still there, isn’t he? And Yurtle McConnell has has back and that, pretty much, is that.

Until I see them back the paddy wagon up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and frog march that whole band of thieves out the door, I don’t wanna hear what Buzzfeed or Atrios, or anybody else has to say. How about we just focus on getting these Republicans (and the Republicans masquerading as Democrats) out of control? Not that I’m going to personally do much of anything, of course. I’ll vote – and I may even re-register as a Democrat to vote in the Primary, though that’s always already decided before NY gets to vote – and I’ll maybe even donate money, but that’s pretty much it.

And how’s about we just try to decide which candidate actually stands for and will try to accomplish the things that are important to us, and not play the “who’s electable” game, or the “I don’t like this one because they were mean to that one” or any of that other nonsense?

Frankly, whoever legalizes pot and lowers the retirement age to 55 (or even 58) gets my vote.