The New OK

It is incomprehensible that Fucker is even within the last 2 minute magic of winning this shit. American white supremacism is resounding in a way nobody expected.

Well, the polls in Wisco show Biden up either by 7 or by 17 (i read a commentary by public functionaries on the red west side of the state, who had a compelling on-the-ground response of the underground rebellion against Trump and the Wisco Republicans, and how the results of hardcore Republican nuttiness is damaging their lives) . count em and deal em. Frankly, I think the polls are pushing the numbers down because they get paid by the media who live for the horse race, and also that they have adjusted their models to compensate for their perceived failures in 2016.

Meanwhile, Fucker is killing his supporters in Omaha by abandoning them on a frozen highway, in lieu of killing them by making them sick. (this is where I would post a song from Eleventh Dream Day, “Frozen Mile” but can’t find an internet version.)

Marquette, a notably reasonable polling operation with slight rightwing bias, puts Biden up by 7 in Wisconsin. Trump’s campaign, who have no more money, abandoned Wisco.

2018 was a wave middle election. This one looks like a fucking tsunami.

I know, don’t count the eggs. But at this point, Clinton only had a cumulative 2 point advantage, which did not include the suppression efforts in the rust belt. Now, we see an advantage of 7 points, and the states that were fucked with last time have gone to great lengths to avoid the bullshit suppression.

But it seems the militias and police are completely fucking ready to roll violence (augmented by completely ridiculous military ordnance they are now armed with) and the paranoid rightwing militias who are armed to kill minorities and liberals.

Trump is already whining about invalidating mail and absentee ballots. And his rigged Court is already threatening changing vote counts if they need to. Considering how competent the Biden/Harris campaign has been to now, and the access to legal brilliance in the Clinton orbit, I have to believe they expect all of it and more, and have war rooms preparing rapid response, if not preventative.

I am normally an Optimistic Zombie. for the last election, I spent a night drinking beers with a good friend and trying to talk him down. later, I apologized for being wrong. I am still optimistic zombie. I have to think this may go the way of breathers. I don’t want to have to shamble you all down and eat you.

But there does seem violence on the horizon. Many paranoid idiots with terrible impulse control, little experience, and WAY too many terribly fatal machines that they view as toys. fortunately, this seems to be the level of competence:

Well, there you go. the perfect Trump voter, One can only hope that he his his testicles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9vMBBe10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRE9vMBBe10

But there is this

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Wisconsin Death Trip

(title lonk) Because there is no musical link more appropriate than this book.

Wisconsin has a long, dark history.  Joe McCarthy was one of the least appalling episodes.  We have had labor wars, the two sides of the Milwaukee river lobbing bombs at each other, Native slaughters, trappers killing over turf wars, housing riots, cannibals and serial killers, and a Playboy model murderor.  We have a dark bent:

And let’s not get into how we are deep into cardiac cuisine and deep alcohol based lifestyles (guilty!).

But during Turdwaffle’s interregnum, Republicans managed to hardwire the Manders of Gerry in such a way that Democrats are disadvantaged to about 7 points, on average. And somehow, this ends up with partisan elected Supreme Court judges, which means we currently have a 5-2 asshole versus reasonable person ratio.  Our recent Death Election, where this biased court decided we had to proceed with a hazardous election – “don’t vote or die” which was the most straightforward expression of Republican politics ever – one of which was turned out but a resounding 13 percent. but he still got to give us a Fuck You and also give  a Fuck You to Governor Evers (which the Wingnut Legislature is always eager to do) when they canceled his Safer at Home orders.

It is notable that they rushed this misbegotten misshapen horror in such an anti-Democrat frenzy that they fucked up how to integrate, and basic direction as to how it applies to existing orders.  They are incompetent, they got their positions by being right wing lunatics, not because they were competent. All that was required was compliance with wing nut orthodoxy.

most higher density cities and counties have their own SIP rules in place, or they put them in place.  In one of my own stomping grounds, Platteville, a picture of a packed bar was immediately pushed far and wide.

Hilariously, one of the most common photos of Wisconsidiots is of a bar in Platteville.  I went to college there for a few years, and drank in that dive quite a few times (it had a different name). But when I was in town, they had $1.50 pitchers on Wednesdays, so we were usually there. Of course.

I got to know the townies in that land-grant college town, and am entirely not surprised by their behavior. They are mostly stupid, is what I am saying.  To be completely harsh, them deciding to make themselves dead bothers me hardly at all.  The people they will infect, I care more about, because they never asked for it.  But they probably all voted for Trump because they are racists, and will do it again, and I really have very little sympathy.  You shitholes want to make all of us get sick and die, so I may be harsh saying I DGAF when you get sick and die from going to a bar when you shouldn’t have, you complete amoral idiot.

Wisconsin just became  a Posse Comitatus state.  It is now controlled by an evil connection between the Trump Republican party in a state that is completely rigged for them, and the media foghorn of Fox News.   The Republicans in the Lege, let’s name the worst of them:  Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald (spit).  Vos is the motherfucker that wore full PPE gear including a gown, while proclaiming that everyone was “incredibly safe” to go and vote after they strongarmed the State SC into not delaying the election.  Subsequently, we are rapidly approaching 100 cases of COVID related to the election.

Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee are the centers of sanity.  They are also the centers of commercial activity in the state. Which irritates the racists in the rest of the state to no end, which is why we have a regular racist vote, every time.

So now we have a huge number of Wisconsidiots, who are suffering from hardly any difficulty, who packed bars and spread everything they had with everyone else. And then they went home to spread it to their families, who spread it to their parents.  And some of them will die.

These people are willing to kill their own family because they are so insanely paranoid that they will fill bars.  The impulse to pwn the libs is so firmly entrenched by the Right Wing wurlitzer they see that as some kind of solution.  To what, nobody seems to be able to articulate.

Apparently none of them ever watched the Mythbusters.

It is completely laid bare that the Republican party wants to kill everyone who is not part of their owners.  Fuck that, they just are OK with killing all of us.

Wisconsin shows how Republicana want to make this country into a feudal system\, where you work or die.  They don’t really care which.  And they have convinced 40% of the country that dying in agony with destroyed lungs is preferable to voting for a DEMONCRAT.

This is terrible. My fellow Wisconsinites will die because of this, fellows even if they are morons, racists and benighted ignoramuses,  and I don’t know if I have a way to respond.

Lord Dampnut immediately crowed as if it was a win.  And most populated cities and counties immediately reaffirmed the Safer in Place order they had established locally.  On the first day, it seemed a bit loony round here, but it seems to have calmed down somewhat.  Most people are still being respectful, although when I went to the bodega today, he wasn’t wearing a mask although I was.  People gave wide berths when walking down the sidewalk.

We have a very weird situation in this state.  We have a good governor, elected over the Turdwafle, but we also have a locked-in Republican legislature due to the ridiculous gerrymandering of the state which would embarrass Mussolini.  All that is missing is painting the Trump jut-jaw face on every government building, and does anyone want to say that won’t happen?

I will send out a classic number to this misbegotten Court:

 

 

Fight The Good Fight

The title is from a new bunch of young punks called the Interrupters, who have been championed by Green Day and Rancid.  As you may know, I am a huge huge HUGE fan of ska music from the old days of Twin Tone and such like, so I am partial.  So here is a song they did featuring Tim from Rancid.

But after that, the title is the title of their new album.  And given the new blood and new women in Congress, the feeling that we can bring the fight to the motherfuckers (RESPECT TO TLAIB) seems to be energizing, you know?

Oh, hell, here’s an extra one, and this is just for mikey:

Yeah.  Look at the new women in Congress.  They are kerosene, they are.  Back the fuck up, old white guys, it’s time to take a motherfucking torch to the old ways.

Don’t look at me.  Doctor Thompson and Kurt Vonnegut both told me that ‘motherfucker’ is a GOOD word.  As did Saint George Carlin and Lenny Bruce.

These guys will be playing the lovely Turner Hall in April, and I am guessing I will be there, skanking to the extent my aged bones and joints will allow.

BUT THAT”S NOT WHAT I CAME HERE TO TALK ABOUT (h/t to Uncle Arlo).

I came here to talk about the draft.  well no, I didn’t (And have I mentioned I am the chair of my local draft board?  I figured might as well as have an unrepentant liberal on there if the motherfucking draft ever gets reinstated, you know).  But no, I am not here to talk about that either.

I’m here to talk about Wisconsin politics NOW JUST SIT THE FUCK DOWN AND LISTEN.

Because after WAY more time enduring the reign of Turd-Koch-Waffle, and all the damage he has done (not to mention the stupid amount of damage he did to the county of Milwaukee while he was the STUPIDEST County Executive we ever had to endure (FUCK YOU VERY MUCH, WHITE SUBURBAN DISTRICTS), on Monday we get to kick him the fuck to the motherfucking curb.  (I am not happy about his plans after that, as I said recently).

Last year, I attended a fundraiser for our great and good Senator, Tammy Baldwin (an openly gay politician that even my old parents supported when she was a Madison politician, for which I love and respect them) at a local brew pub, with now (not then) Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, but still a superstar.  And while waiting in the mob, I recognized Tony Evers, who had just announced his run for Gov.  I shook his hand and said I wished him the best luck to which he smiled (he’s got a great smile) and said “We don’t need luck.  We’re going to win.”

They did.

On Monday, Evers will be inaugurated, as will his tremendously skilled and experienced administrative staff, who have to be terrifying the Republican lege, who are not used to opposition, let alone skilled opposition.  They are already running scared, in that they hurriedly passed unconstitutional and ridiculous laws saying “You’re not the boss of us“.

To which Evers is saying “fuck off and sue me if you don’t like it“.

That’s not too bad.  That’s the kind of thing we need more from more Democrats.  OH WAIT, the Democrats in the House are already doing that.

Evers has done a helluva job selecting his administration.  Which will be necessary, not because the Republicans are cunning or smart, but just because they have changed the districts to make them able to outweigh actual votes.  So it will take, as many do, a lot of work and never stopping, but look.  People like Vos and Fitzgerald are ridiculously stupid people, and if they can’t rely on cheating, they are barely competent.

One of my Imaginary Digital Friends is well involved with the Democratic Party, and he is attending the parties tomorrow night.  I hope he has a great time, and I am completely sure that everybody there will be ready to Fight the Good Fight on Tuesday.

Stay tuned for how we take Wisconsin back from the KOCHs.

LIAR

People who’ve read this blog, may remember that I am not especially fond of ex-Governor Scott Walker, who I prefer to call Turdwaffle.  In fact, he often featured in my long-running feature, Fuck You Friday (to which we happily welcome guest-effer Congressperson Rashida Tlaib).

We often talked about his scant acquaintanceship with the truth, as well as his long running efforts to fuck over Milwaukee.

Which makes this news all the more inexplicable and enraging.

People on The Milwaukee reddit predict much food being thrown at him, and plentiful servings of Snotchos being served to him (don’t accept an offer to dine out with him).

The current County Executive, Chris Abele, has been living in a luxury condo on the same block as my office (and with a view of the Bucks Arena, which Turd-boy supported) and Abele has just bought a massive mansion on the North Shore (Narrator: Abele is independently wealthy).  Which makes me wonder if I will be seeing Turdwaffle around my neighborhood.  I cannot decide whether this makes me nauseous, blind with rage, or excited to be able to yell and spit at him in person.

It should also be pointed out that he is already starting the next fucking run at elected office.  I will point out that he fucking said, he would only run for two terms (Narrator: he lied) and that he would step down if he didn’t succeed in his promise of 250,000 new jobs in his first term (Narrator: he lied).

Why wouldn’t he take his fucking empty ball sack and enlarging Shiny Bald Spot out to Waukesha (now and forever known as That Fucking Walkersha), where they love him for the way he fucks up the minorities and supposedly makes the Libruls cry (Narrator:  He doesn’t make Liberals cry). It has already been said that the only place in Wisconsin that might provide less Turd-welcome than Milwaukee would be Madison.

I guess it makes little surprise, considering that he is angling for his next Koch-funded and Koch-directed elected position (Narrator:  he’s never held a real job), that he intends to move to the economic engine of the State, where much of the corporate power and the truly wealthy fuckers live.

I am not yet inclined to re-initialize the FYF (it was very draining to channel that much rage every week).  But it seems likely that with new Democrats running the State and House of Representatives, I would like to at least re-animate this crappy old blog.  You know, like a zombie or something.

Meanwhile, this is my farewell (and Welcome to Milwaukee) song for Turdwaffle:

Re-make/ Re-model

Well, it’s been a tough year.  I think a telling pointer to how bad it was, is that the year-end “This was the year that was” mail-it-in contractual obligation pieces have been WAY fewer than I ever remember.  It seems nobody wants to dwell on it, other than the Fast-Food toddler playacting as truck driver/ Elected official.

At the holiday gatherings, I had my right wing brothers-in-law ask me how things were going in business, and when I said I was busy, they smirked and said “Trump is being good to you, huh?”  After I said that the economic activity is due to the Black Guy and nothing Big Diaper Boy has done, I expounded by saying that NOT ONLY has Turdwaffle tried to kneecap the larger historic preservation projects in Madison and Milwaukee by capping single-project credits at $500,000.  which seems like a lot, sure, but see this; the current project I am working on, is only medium sized, and the budget is about 7.5 million; the State tax credit is 20%, so it should result in tax credits of 1.5 million.

AND I went on.  I pointed out that in the Rich Guy giveaway fest just passed, the Federal tax credit went back and forth between the House and Senate, and it never seemed to reach a consensus of a real sort.  I imagine they were much more concerned with protecting the underserved inheritance of spoiled shits like the Trumps.  The Federal historic preservation tax credit is also 20% of eligible construction costs.

now, I will point out several things.  First, that an overwhelming majority of Americans support saving older buildings.  And further, that money expended on historic preservation projects (which is not the same as the tax credits offered, as the tax credits are usually recouped within a few years by the increased tax revenue from a newly re-assessed and active building) returns about $1.60 for every dollar expended, which is one of the best returns showed outside of drug deals.  And finally, that Preservation and restoration of historic buildings are usually in neighborhoods that have been on the downs, and that these projects very often result in the renewal of these areas.

So, between Turdwaffle and Comrade Stupidhair, we stood to lose about a third of the development incentives on this project.  On a 7.5 million dollar project, it amounted to 3 million dollars that the developer could use as part of his financial portfolio and tax planning, which, believe me, this guy would appreciate.  And without it, it was not likely to be a viable project.

They kind of shut up about the Trumps at that point, as I was armed for Russian bears.

But here.

On the occasion of the a new year, I am weirdly optimistic.  On the political side, David Clarke got kicked off of Twitter for being an Internet Tough Guy, threatening the “media”.  Turdwaffle has appalling polls.  Trump is making being a Republican not only as popular as being a pedophile, but actually SYNONYMOUS with it.

In addition to the project above, I have two townhouse developments in planning, one private, one LIHTC.  Several smaller projects for repeat clients, and a fun restaurant project.

It is a hazard, I suspect of being an architect.  It is an inherently optimistic occupation, that dwells on building for the future.  But as those of you have followed the Empire, I have been through darker periods, and longer.

But, in any case, I usually resort to this later in the year, when I am trying to find the strength to make it all the way through.  But this year, it strikes me as a statement of purpose, a rallying cry to keep the eyes up and the focus sharp.

my broken house behind me
and good things ahead
a girl named Cathy
wants a little of my time
six cylinders underneath the hood
crashing and kicking
aha!
listen to the engine whine

There will be feasting and dancing indeed. (LOL.  I was going to post this on FaceHell, but figured the terrorist theme would be taken poorly)

 

My Favorite Buildings

 

I have a personal adage,  I use when I am working with my clients.  When I feel they are pursuing something that they shouldn’t, I make my best arguments against three times, in forceful but respectful fashion.  If, after all of that (and I have documented history of telling them it was a bad idea), and then go ahead with their bad idea.

I have been re-watching the West Wing; it gives me comfort for a time when we al thought competence and a functional, non-corrupt government was something of value.  And in the episode I am watching, they are talking to people who were part of various administrations.

And the brings me to a Facebook exchange I had with a Chicago architect who is now a pundit and critic.  I asked Ed “if your asked to be the Architect of the Capitol, would you do it?” and he responded by saying, flatly, “NO”

After watching this episode (which included Karl Rove, a man I loathe) I think my friend Ed is wrong.  I (who am in absolutely no danger of being asked to do so), if I was asked to be Architect of The Capitol, would do it immediately.

Because I am passionate about buildings at every level. I love old factory buildings. I love historic government buildings. I love cape cods built by people just trying to live one more season.

If i hd the opportunity, I would oppose him at every level, until he decided to give us money for restoration and preservation .

Yeah, I would be fired the first time I told him he can’t install gold plated toilets in the White House.

But I will tell you this:  I do not suck up to anybody, and while I am willing to compromise, fuck that selling out shit.

And I would be fired.  Probably the first tine I refused to allow a gold plated toilet to be installed in the White House.

We Don’t Need No Education…

Have I ever talked about my educational background?  I have what may be called a checkered past, maybe…..(scenes from a zombie’s school background):

• I never passed an art or industrial arts class with anything less than an A
• I took 4 1/2 years of math in high school.
• I only passed college chemistry because I rode the coattails of a guy in the dorm room next to mine.
• I took way more English than I ever needed in both high school and college, including a literature course in science fiction.
• I had to request an academic probation in college rather than just abrupt dismissal.
• In high school, my counselor looked at my transcript and was completely confuzzled, throwing his hands up.  I told him I was already working as a professional draftsman in a local engineering firm, so he said “sounds good to me!” and threw me out.
• My father insisted I go to college (mainly due to the fact that he declined an opportunity to go himself because of a local antipathy to college boys) and I have thanked him for it ever since, believe me…
• Because I didn’t plan on going to college, I hadn’t done the preparatory research, taken the good tests, or made applications.  So it was a matter of which colleges had majors that seemed like a good fit, had entry requirements I could meet, and available space (and also, which ones were out of town, so I could move the hell out).  And at that point, Wisconsin still believed in the value of affordable State colleges, so there was one or two that fit that definition (this becomes important almost immediately).
• After all that, I graduated from SARUP undergrad and grad school, with two separate special studios at the high level of Master’s.
• I have been invited back to the school as a participant in design efforts, student reviews, and special presentations.

Land Grant Colleges are an important and amazing idea in the history of our country.  They provided high level educational opportunities to people from moderate means across the country, and most of them, especially the University of Wisconsin (which was further supported by the incorporation of the Wisconsin Idea, which pledged the use of the resources of the college campuses to further and develop ideas in support of the public good. In recent years, the Dean of the Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning has been exemplary in using the talent in his school to foster free exchange of fresh ideas and progressive ideas.  It is no random happenstance that since he took Deanership, we have seen Milwaukee out perform the economic development of every other area in Wisconsin, and we have seen things like expansion of public transit, improvement of sustainability, development of spectacular puck amenities like the Children’s Museum, the Calatrava museum addition, expansion of Summerfest, continued development of the Riverwalk, making Milwaukee one of the best bicycle cities in the Midwest, and on and on.

So I find this a bit personal.

Turdwaffle , following on his ALEC-ordered attack on unions with Act 10, followed up by trying to avoid the huge public outcry and do this on the down low:  removing mentions of the Wisconsin Idea from his budget;  obviously the first step to removing it from all public documentation altogether.  This was in 2015.  It was of course, done, because he has a compliant Republican Lege, who fall in line like a bunch of big, stupid dominoes.

So now, Our Governor Fucknuckle has decided that the best thing for one of the highest regarded research and publicly oriented college system in the country now needs to be more oriented toward making it a fancy-pants technical school providing drink workers for the rich and wealthy.

Oh, am I being hyperbolic?  Here:

Walker wants UW campuses to compete for $42.5 million in new funding based on graduation rates, average time to degree, percentage of graduates who get jobs, and how many of them work in high-demand fields in Wisconsin, among other measures.

So these colleges, acclaimed worldwide and also offering amazing opportunities to people who might not otherwise have them, now have to go cutthroat about how many of their students get placed with work farms that are acceptable to the Wisconsin Government Corporate Masters.

So yeah, I feel this is a bit personal.  The existence of the UW system allowed me to go to college in a way that was not high-stress and was still access to an amazing education that opened up my fucking world.  And Turdwaffle says “let’s try to fuck this over!” because he is a dim, small-minded, Republican knee-walking shit-sniffing obsequious complete fucknuckle.

It’s not a Friday, but here you go:

 

Where’s Your Fucking Apocalypse?

 

That’s Milwaukee punk Irish stalwarts Whiskey Of The Damned, a personal favorite and currently touring the fuck out of the planet, doing something like 200 gigs a year. Their shows are sweaty, fervent, whiskey drenched and nothing but fun.  Eoin, the singer, is sone of an Irish musician who decided to move to Milwaukee because it was nicknamed Brew City.  Eoin plays in his Da’s band and feels like it is too slow; his Da thinks Eoin plays too loud and too fast and is damaging his listener’s brains.  It is also Irish Fest this weekend….

It is always Another Day Dead at the Empire, but here in Milwaukee the Apocalypse was the course of the day as the Vulgar Talking Yam stopped in to dance on the still-smoking embers of a long-festering chancre on the social pact.

I recently saw an analysis that indicates during Turdwaffle’s tenure in public office (nearly all his life!) he has reduced public transportation into and out of Milwaukee, and within Milwaukee, to the extent that Milwaukee residents lost access to 30,000 jobs.  Combine that with the Targo debacle, and is there any wonder that the black community is ready to explode?  Especially combined with the abuse by the police?

Yeah, yeah, you will hear that the murdered person had a gun and ran from the police. But he hadn’t done anything wrong, and Walker’s ALEC-goons had made carrying a gun a right in almost any venue.  Yeah, he had a record.  But when black men will be gunned down WHILE SURRENDERING, or killed in custody, how is that even a reasonable indictment?

What you will not hear, is the massive turnout of all Milwaukeeans into the area to help clean up.  Heck, a bunch of barbers set up in a park to give free haircuts.  Gwen Moore has been walking white politicians and reporters through the area for days, explaining how it is a vibrant part of Milwaukee.  Hell, Springsteen’s 1975 Bomb Scare Show was in the neighborhood.

So, Fucking Trump.  First of all, let me say that I do not think of Trump as an anomaly. He is the pure, undiluted id of the Republican Party since the Southern Strategy made racism a permanent part of their genetic makeup.  He is only surprising to Beltway Pundits who have been pretending for decades that BOTH SIDES.

So of course Hair Furor  stopped by to gloat and trot out the Lawn Order speech.

While flanked by Turdwaffle and insane fake-cowboy Milwaukee County Shirriff & Just For Men Beard customer Clarke, he apparently stayed at downtown Pfizer Hotel, but traveled about an hour northwest (at least 40 miles from the areas of actual unrest) to West Bend – a community in which I’ve done work, mind you — (and which you might remember seeing on appliances, back when we actually made things here in America, before people like Trump and Romney sold them off for scrap and/or moved the jobs to third world countries with no labor laws and no environmental safeguards)…

Ahem.  Anyway, so he stood up there with two Wisconsin political grandstanding assnuggets, and addressed a completely white crowd (most of which are terrified of actually going to Milwaukee) and took to whitesplaining to black people on why they should vote for him.

It was kind of astonishing in its cluelessness.  

The most obvious thing is how he considers African Americans to be completely stupid.  They have a very good idea who has their concerns more in mind, and are fully goddam aware that is is not the Republican Party, and even less Donald Trump.

This was a speech directed entirely at suburban white folks.

People who feel uncomfortable with the racist demagoguery on display, and are perfectly comfortable with black folks in service jobs, but feel like saying “I have a black friend” inoculates them.  But are still racist as fuck, and when a black family moves int the neighborhood, are alarmed.  My own damn parents are this cohort.

But it was intended to make borderline white folks feel more comfortable with TrumpVoting, because “he’s obviously not that racist, remember when he blamed the liberals for black rioting?”

Yes, he is a fucking racist, he learned it from his father.  Both of them lost lawsuits for racist rental policies.  He is a failure at business; his biggest success has been being able to create a pyramid scheme to keep his lifestyle afloat while his ventures fail one after the other.  he hates you and me, he hates good taste, and he hates the people who build his tasteless crap because they can do something he can’t.  He is insecure and self-loathing, and he directs that outward.  I am coming around to the idea that his head is not so good, as his non-teleprompter shouts are increasingly deranged and disassociated from reality.  Of course, as a rich fuck-snorkel, he has been disconnected from reality for his entire life.

Yeah, so no news here.  But fuck I hate the fact that he came to Milwaukee (or Milwaukee-adjacent) to try to make hay over the problems we have that have been simmering for decades (and which I have documented, mostly from an architectural / urban planning aspect).

Elect Hillary.  Fuck this clown.  Fuck the Republican Party, who nominated this clown.

 

Lock, Step and Gone

Sunday, nightfall.  It’s been a strange week, and the festival the week before took all the weirdos and freaks out of circulation for a fair amount of time, which made my life easier.  because, of course, I was one of those weirdos and freaks.

It’s not as if I can expect that sultry woman with available cash and a questionable task.  I am, after all, an Architect.

But I do have a large bottle of brown goods to keep me company, and a bit of work to keep me occupied.

And I have a large outstanding bill, enough to buy me a new Lexus, from a formerly good client.  So, I will be debating the need to send large, unreasonable people to his place for resolution.  Or opting for more civilized solutions.  Because, the large uncivilized person will be me, when I decide to no longer be polite (to be honest, the client is like 14 inches shorter than me).

Complicating this, as it always will, is that Client is also my Landlord.  We have done bartering of my fees for rent for quite some time, and I am still WAY ahead.  But as I have reported, he is upset with my performance on a prior project; and rather than going the proper route to tap my E&O insurance, he seems to be withholding my fees on other projects.  Notably, the fees are for an unrelated project.

SINCE GODDAM FEBRUARY.

That, of course, is not how this works.

So, I either need to find a smoky hot Noir Babe to deliver my demands to him, a direct phone call, or filing liens on his office, home, Range Rover and perhaps one of his children.

This has required me to terminate my associate, so I am back to solo.  Which is fine;  I am better at this fucking crap that most people I know.   What I am NOT good at is doing it in a larger more corporate environment.

So, it’s time to hit the Office Rum, re-watch a little Breaking Bad, and try to understand how to salvage a damaged professional relationship, or failing that, turn it into a giant flaming devastating holocaust.

 

Dropping Houses

Two recent posts by other people who work harder at this blogging thing than I do.

Scott Lemieux does a long form breakdown of why voting for your perfect windmill-tilting candidate, or not voting at all, is a fool’s game.  I know, I know, it’s LGM and they tolerate people like Denverite and me.  I used to like them before they fucking SOLD OUT, man…

John Cole, a famously right wing asshole who changed his mind and became a decent kind of guy, talking about the real, pragmatic and eyes-open reasons he has become willing to support Hillary in the primary.  Spoiler:  It involved RESEARCH!!!

Unlike Cole, I have not made up my mind yet.  I still agree with the Professional Left, that in the general, I will be voting for the same person that Bernie Sanders votes for.  However, notwithstanding this, I am still tending to vote primary for Sanders if he sticks it out till Wisconsin. (NO SLEEP TIL FOND DU LAC!!!) because I think he has helped pull the entire party to the left, my comfort zone, and the more support he gets now will make him even more effective in the Senate and in the Democratic Party.  Both completely worthwhile achievements….

But he has a couple of great points.  One is that Bernie is a bit old, and seems to be aging on the campaign trail, while Hillary seems to be getting energized.  The second, even more salient, is that Clinton has not only survived all of the insane vitriol the rightstaffel has thrown at her, but she has learned from the previous run, discarded the wastes of space like Mark Penn, and surrounded herself with knife-fighters and dirty brawlers.  Which will be necessary whether the opponent is Trump or Cruz.  And finally, is that by all evidence, she is held in massive respect by everyone she has worked with in the Congress, in the Administration, and overseas.  And that is going to be a crucial thing considering the level of obstruction that will be thrown into the next Democratic President’s path.

Fucking shit.  After my entire voting life, I am happy to see the Democrats seem to FINALLY, FUCKING FINALLY, getting the hang of the kind of crotch-kicking, eye-gouging, hair pulling fights that are politics.

I have said it before; I like Bernie lots, and like I said before I am likely vote for him in the primary; but I also love him where he is, making common cause with Elizabeth Warren and (hopefully) Russ Feingold.

I disagreed with Obama during his campaigns.  I disagreed with every single candidate I have ever voted for (except maybe Jimmy Carter, but that was because I was probably poorly informed).  I will disagree with Hillary, and I will disagree with Bernie.  But here’s the thing; look at how Obama has traversed leftward during his tenure, and he has dragged the Democratic Party with him.  He has done it because of pressure from below, Occupy and BLM and people like us.  He has also done it because he no longer has any fucks to give.

 

In contrast to a former friend who always wanted to say ‘voting for the lesser evil is still voting for evil’ and is now going all in for Sanders, ignoring the times he has voted for evil in particular with regards to guns (and we have had a couple of gun killings/massacres in the midwest, s have all of you.  Because daily gun killings are the way we work in America) I will quote another friend by saying, not voting, or voting for a vanity candidate, means you are voting for the MORE evil candidate and how does THAT make sense?.

I have always been politically activated.  I antagonized some of my fellow members in architecture studio by posting political cartoons in my workspace. I watched the 1984 returns with a friend, getting HEROICALLY drunk and scrawling increasingly incoherent responses in a notebook.  Here at home, we watched the 2008 returns together (and remember Young Zombie was attending a minority-majority Milwaukee Public School) and when Obama did his acceptance speech, I wept, yes I did.

I love that the left side of this race has been respectful and substantive.  While the right side has been consumed with insults and dick measuring.

Of course, the American populace is inherently at least 40% knee-jerk insane bigots and authoritarians, so anyone nominated in the ReaganDome process will have a spitting chance of winning, emphasis on the spitting.

So, to sum up:

IGNORE THAT CORPORATE SHILL DEBBIE WASSERMANN SCHMALTZ AND KICK THE FUCKERS IN THEIR SHRIVELED GONADS,  AND TAKE A CHAINSAW TO THE MONSTERS THE REPUBLICANS WILL BE PUSHING OUT OF THEIR CIRCUS CLOWN CAR PROCESS.