I had a friend, since passed, who used the phrase “Idiots abound!” whenever he heard or saw someone say or do something a sentient individual would deem to be particularly stupid. He didn’t mean “idiot” as a clinical description; rather, as a derisive term.

When I was quite young, I fancied myself an inventor. On paper, I designed a four rotor craft which I hoped I could fly. The design was very similar to the hobbyists’ drones so popular today. I only had two by fours, nails and a lawnmower engine with which to work, so I realized the whole idea was stupid, and gave up. After all, only and idiot would try to build what could not possibly fly and would surely be a pointless threat to himself and others.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez conceived her “New Green Deal”. Bernie Sanders holds relentlessly to his socialism. I’m sure there’s some self appointed genius out there who believes filling his jock strap with concrete will protect him from getting sucked up to OZ the next time he visits his Auntie Em in tornadic Kansas. These are just three examples of why, if my friend were still alive, he’d remark, “Idiots abound!”

I’ve finally figured out why this presidential campaign season feels so familiar. It’s like the travelling circuses I went to when I was young. That was a long time ago.

Under the “big top”, the main attractions were on display. There might be lion tamers or daring displays of shooting skill, maybe a human cannonball, but there were always clowns. The audience was directed where to look by the loud-mouthed ringmaster. The ringmaster for the last few years has been Donald Trump. The acts have been other politicians and Trump’s agenda. Trump’s always pointing to what he’s done or how stupid or unfair someone is.

The democrats’ campaigns remind me of the old side shows, loaded down with oddities and clever, impatient barkers. Nothing there was real, but it was fun and silly. I remember one where there was a dead baleen whale that stunk to high heaven in the hot sun…yet people paid money to see it. I did, too.

One time I was hired to help take down the tents when the circus was ready to move on. I must have been about 13-14 years old. With the audience gone, I got to hear and see who the circus people really were. They were a crass and unhappy bunch who swore at each other in the most vulgar and childish ways. I’d never seen adults behave that way before. Amazingly, my father somehow found me that night and after demanding the pay they were clearly hoping to cheat me out of, he angrily took me home.

I’ve also been behind the scene as plans for a liberal demonstration were taking shape. That had the same familiar side show display of childish vulgarity and clear desire to abuse the innocent and gullible.

California democrat, Lorena Gonzalez (San Diego), is another liberal progressive who simply can’t keep her nose out of other peoples’ affairs. She authored Assembly Bill 5. Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law because he will sign any law which increases citizens’ dependence upon the California State government. Newsom is a communist with the emotional maturity of a kindergartener. I’ve heard several people refer to Newsom as being a douche nozzle. I’m not sure what that means, but until I find out, I’m not going to argue the point.

AB 5 is a bill which requires independent business people such as Lyft, Uber and DoorDash drivers, and the California Trucking Association (all of which are trying to overturn the bill), to be hired as employees of the firms they serve in order to gain sick pay, overtime, etc. which those firms don’t provide to independent contractors. The problem is that most of the independents nor the firms they serve want such a thing. It’s the same as a waiter bringing you your meal before he knows what you want to order. Yes, independents want more money, but they want to work that out independently. They want the state government to stay the hell out of it. Maybe Gonzalez should have asked them before misusing her time and wasting taxpayer dollars drafting such a bill.

Gonzalez claims AB 5 is a work in progress and will be adjusted later to fit the gig economy. This, AFTER it was signed into law. I wonder if she waits until she returns from vacations before planning where to go. This is just another progressive experiment using taxpayers as guinea pigs in a kindergarten laboratory.

The next goofy thing on the agenda is the idea of offering one-time financial assistance to people such as sports umpires and referees, pharmacists, loggers and freelance journalists to cover the $800.00 state fees of becoming limited liability companies. In that way, they would be able to comply with the law and be subject to the $800.00 annual fees from then on. Do you see her and Newsom’s logic? Gonzalez claims she was expecting blowback from this law. Uh huh. Lots of folks reach blindly into animal holes to see if anything in there needs help. Just like Napa lawyer, Mark Pollock’s, suit which caused the banning of dragees (those little gold and silver cake and cookie bead decorations) statewide in California, Gonzalez just wanted a law with her name to it. Drafting pointless restrictive legislation is a state sport.

Newsom is planning to spend $20M of tax dollars on this stupidity and nearly as much to help non-profit arts programs that are showing “good faith efforts” to comply with the law. I wonder if he makes allowances for murderers who show “good faith efforts” to comply with the laws against murder, but can’t seem to comply. Oh, yeah…he placed a moratorium on capital punishment. My bad. The proposed limited liability company plan should return the $40M financial assistance outlay in short order. No harm, no foul? Wrong! Plenty of harm and foul by every definition.

One other thought. The State of California is required by law to pass a budget each year and is not entitled to raise and maintain more money than the law allows. Currently, California has a $21B surplus with $2B in new tax increases. Kindergarteners haven’t the slightest understanding of how to avoid spending money. Take one to a toy store and see…or you can simply watch Newsom.

As of January 31st, 2020, Michael Bloomberg had personally contributed $200M to his own campaign for president. Of that, his campaign had spent $188M.

As of January 16th, 2020, Tom Steyer had spent over $100M of his own money on his presidential campaign (according to Bill Allison of Bloomberg).

Both candidates recognize the growing homeless problem plaguing cities like L.A. and Seattle as a high priority.

How much good would $288M have done to alleviate the problem through the construction of lower income housing?

Spent in such a fashion, how much of a boost would this direct approach to the problem  have been to each candidate’s campaign? Certainly the media would have enthusiastically covered this type of philanthropic endeavor to provide a high level of publicity more honestly and ethically than the ” I approved this message” commercials.

If you see a residence going up in smoke, do you grab a hose and attack the fire or do you spend money advertising what a good fire chief you would be if only people would hire you?

Liberal progressives’ abilities to extrapolate logical conclusions from facts at hand are developmentally disabled by their chronic  intellectual constipation. The cause is known as encephalofecaliths ( cognition blockage stones ). These are the genesis of policies which usually present the opposite results as those liberals had intended. But don’t be fooled. This is only one ailment they employ to remain silly.

After the wild-eyed, screamingly painful event of a liberal progressive liberating one of these pesky stones, what remains is a conservative. How boring.

Currently quite a few liberal progressives want to be elected to the White House. That makes sense. What 4 year old wouldn’t love to get behind the wheel of Mommy’s car?

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. The undereducated and the youthful are the two groups least versed in history. They are also the two groups who tend to vote for Democrats. This is not a coincidence. These are the two most gullible groups.

This is not to imply all democrats are simpletons…just the chosen demographic. The leaders of the party are quite smart and quite wrong in their ambitions. James Carville (a longtime democrat strategist) put it clearly, recently, in an interview when he mentioned more than once that the main ambition of the Democratic Party is to acquire “power”. He made it clear that power trumped any agenda. Agenda is of no real importance to him, at all. He made it clear that electability had to do with telling voters what they wanted to hear, rather than where the party actually stands on issues.

I don’t know if the Republican Party is comprised by a bunch of racketeers. It may well be. But do I know the Democratic Party is.

The idea of “honor among thieves” is not based in fact. Thieves are folks who put themselves and their desires above everything and everybody else. This is why the last time the United States was as politically divided as it is today, the Democratic Party self destructed.

Is history repeating itself today? I don’t know for sure, but the similarities of what is going on today to what went on during the 1860 Democratic discontent, denials and confusion are striking.

Jennifer Lopez has blasted critics of the Super Bowl half-time show who believe it was “too sexy”. She said it was a celebration of women and Latin culture. I didn’t know the Super Bowl was designed to make political statements about either of those two things. I thought it was about the sport of football as played in the United States. At least a bastardized American Flag was seen to indicate the game wasn’t occurring in Mexico City.

I wonder how appropriate Ms. Lopez would feel a half-time show celebrating German or Japanese culture (with songs in their languages) would have been.

I have no problem with cultural displays in the appropriate times and venues The Irish have the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The Latinos and Latinas have Cinco de Mayo. Other immigrant cultures have their celebrations. The Super Bowl shows should be done in English because English is the language of the United States and to use other languages deprives fans of the ability to understand the words. There are plenty of musical/dance genres performed in English from which to choose. If Spanish speaking immigrants can’t understand shows in English, they should learn English. It is up to immigrants to assimilate into the U.S. culture, not the reverse.

Face it, the show was a political display about immigration, not unlike Colin Kaepernick’s “taking a knee” during a game to make the political point that black lives matter. Keep politics out of football. Let the shaking of big booties and singing in Spanish occur at Futbol games. Either that, or let’s vote to decide if the Celtic Women or the Trans Siberian Orchestra do the show next year.

“Pet” is a word of affection.  A teacher’s “pet” is a preferred student. The verb “pet” indicates the stroking action we perform  to comfort, console or show affection. When teens “pet”, they do so lovingly. The term “my pet” is synonymous with “my dear”. There clearly is no sane reason anyone could consider the word “pet” offensive. I said, no “SANE” reason.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) president, Ingrid Newkirk, objects to the word “pet” suggesting it shows disrespect to our animal companions. I have a question. Is Ingrid the self proclaimed proxy for domesticated animals worldwide who are unable to communicate their emotional distress or embarrassment at being referred to as “pets”? Is Ingrid in need of being “petted” herself? Have Ingrid’s wheels slipped completely off the rails?

Voila! Another liberal progressive finding an utterly pointless way to place a chip on their shoulder. “I Took Offense First” is a competitive sport within the liberal progressive community.