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Up until this morning, I had never heard the name Qassem Soleimani. I imagine most people hadn’t. He was not a famous movie actor or sports figure. He was not a head of state. How can we be expected to know the names of other countries generals?
Yet, the media covering his targeted assassination, by an American drone, seem to think we know all about him. He is the worst enemy of the United States. Of course, they say. There is no question, they say.
But did a state of war exist between the United States and Iran? That’s a rhetorical question, the answer is no. So, Soleimani was not threatening to kill any U.S. troops on the battlefield. They aren’t (or weren’t) at war with us.
Also, if the U.S. is fixing to have a war with Iraq, this serves no great purpose. O.K., we killed their top general. They will replace him with another general. Possibly one who is more devious/militant/anti-American than Soleimani. We don’t know.
Another thing that a lot of people are overlooking is that an Iraqi officer was also killed, and the attack took place in Iraq. Not the first thing in the last week or so that’s pissed off the Iraqis, either.
So, altogether an ill conceived decision by the hairless orangutan who cheats at golf. Let’s hope the Iranians are better at diplomacy than he is.

I’ve been looking for something to add to my Netflix rotation. I’m almost done rewatching Star Trek, like all the iterations, I’ve maybe got 10 episodes to go of the original series. Of course, there’s still Star Trek discovery, I may give that another try just out of loyalty to the franchise although I find it nearly unwatchable, and Picard, but I haven’t seen that available yet.
My wife and I are watching Big Bang theory, which we both find funny, but I don’t want to watch it when she’s not home because that’s cheating.
So, I’ve tried The Witcher and Messiah. I’ll carry on a few episodes at least with both, but Messiah has definitely got my attention. I love it when they let people speak other languages. Also, there’s a central question which I’m sure they’ll never give a clear answer to. Of course, that means it almost inevitably will pander to religiosity in vague and saccharine ways. So, we’ll see. So far it seems like a spy drama with a lot of local color.

The Witcher looks like some producers decided that they wanted a Game of Thrones rip-off, with maybe a few more monsters and not quite as many major characters or competing plot lines. Yeah, it’s got some very sexy women, maybe a little bit of nudity here and there, and some hellacious sword fights. I’m a bit worried that might be all it has, but I’ll watch it for a few episodes and see.

I am excited about 2020 for many reasons. One is that we will call it (I hope) Twenty Twenty and the trend of pronouncing years as one long number, i.e. two thousand nineteen has reached it’s natural twenty year limit.
Many people are saying “Hooray, it’s the 20s again!” as if there is some reason to think the 2020s will follow the pattern of the 1920s, which there is not, and actually it would only be a mixed blessing if they did. Sure, there were flappers, and lots of fun times, and everybody looks at it now and thinks of the Great Gatsby, but really, that was only if you were rich. Poor people weren’t spending the whole decade drinking champagne in mansions. Also, in the U.S., it was the era of prohibition, so alcohol was actually illegal.
2020, of course, will be a leap year, and an Olympic year, and a presidential election year, because these things happen every 4 years, and they are all for some silly reason synchronized.
It will no doubt be a pivotal year, because of that election. Good v. Bad, Smart v. Stupid, Compassionate v. Cruel. At any rate, provided Sanders gets the nomination. If not it will be Bad v. Bad, Stupid v. Stupid, and Cruel v. Cruel, and the whole year will be a big disappointment.
I think the outcome will depend on one other key conflict: Old media v. New Media. If newspapers and TV dominate, and shape public opinion, this year may suck very badly indeed. If new media is dominant, things will get very interesting and Sanders will win.

It does, indeed, seem that the Bernie blackout is over, and this has led to a rash of speculation and paranoid theories. A lot of Sanders supporters seem to think that the evil forces within the MSM and the DNC have some nefarious plan up their sleeve. This could well be, and I certainly don’t think we should let down our guard. A game can change quickly, and kickoff is still a month away.
However, being a glass half full kind of guy, I have a different theory. There has been a lot of talk about how the billionaire class is terrified about Bernie winning, and they are certainly opposed to it. But, while a lot of people will die if they don’t get health insurance, and a lot of homeless people will remain homeless if Bernie doesn’t win, and the whole planet will go kerflooey, in other words, while a lot of us are fighting for our lives, the billionaires are not.
They will be slightly inconvenienced if Bernie wins and that’s about it. Not a one of them will stop being a billionaire. So, some of them have realized that Bernie is inevitable and they’re not willing to waste their donations on Biden or Warren or whoever. They will keep on buying Senators and Representatives and bide their time and come back to try and take over the government again in 2024 or 2028.
It’s like the scene in Logan’s Run (or was it THX 1138? I get those two films confused) where the hero is trying to escape the dystopian/utopian city and the computer is calculating the odds of stopping him and once he’s on the ladder that leads to the surface the odds dip down below 50% and the chase is canceled automatically. Below a certain point, it’s just not worth it for them to fight any more.

Believe it or not, Biden’s statement that he would consider a Republican running mate was not the most damning, disqualifying thing he has said in the last couple of days.
Sure, anybody who is still a Republican at this stage of the game is somebody who has willingly supported Donald Trump for the last 3 years, is undoubtedly up to their ears in corruption, and quite probably has a kinky sex scandal involving underage boys lurking just below the surface of that reeking, festering swamp.
But it sounds a lot like ‘working across the aisle’ which a lot of people think is a good thing and he said he couldn’t actually think of one which, despite being further evidence that he actually has a severe deficit of data in his brain box, actually lets him off the hook.
No, the stupidest thing was, well, take a look at this video. Who in the hell makes $50 million a year clipping coupons? Sure, they have reality TV shows about how much people can SAVE by clipping coupons, sometimes hundreds of dollars at a time, but they are obsessed, work at it full time, and have day jobs as well.
Sure, people in the audience didn’t react. They are from Iowa. I grew up in Iowa. One common trait of people there is that they will politely ignore it if a person, particularly an older person, says something blindingly stupid. It’s just good manners.
But think of the general election. Every time we start to make fun of Trump because he said people flush the toilet 10-15 times, Trump supporters would be able to answer back “Well, yeah, Biden thinks people make $50 million clipping coupons.”
Any candidate who says something this stupid should be out of the race. Period.