Alan Rickman dying in January of 2016 was the first hint that it was going to be a bad year.

She was primaried. The CA Democratic party endorsed Kevin de Leon, her opponent. She crushed him in the primary 4-1. Because CA has the top-two primary system, he faced her in the general election. Feinstein won by 8 points; post-election analysis showed that Republicans voted overwhelmingly for de Leon.

Nor mine, and I turned 50 this year.

This is a prime example of how the contents of my cat’s litter box are smarter than CA Republicans. This will only hurt their candidates; Democrats, especially Black, LatinX, and Asian folks aren’t going to a gun shop or an evangelical church in the OC or Fresno to drop off our ballots. I’m going to the public library…

I became aware of just how many sundown towns there were after reading Lies Across America, by James Loewen (author of Lies My Teacher Told Me). Both books are definitely worth a read.

All I knew about Pham was that he was a Cardinal before ending up on the Padres. I had no idea about his life; his mom was 17 and his dad was 19 when he and his twin sister were born. Dude also tested positive for COVID in early July, so maybe don’t be going to strip clubs yet?

They thought it was a good idea because the CA GOP is dumb as shit.

Pence didn’t debate Biden in 2016.

Someone on another blog I read called him President Plague Rat.

I’ve been on steroids for asthma a couple of times. You feel amazing at first, because hey, you can breathe! About 10 hours later they’ve worn off, you have two hours before you can take the next dose, and you think you’re going to die from the rebound effect.

Before joining Trump’s ticket, Pence was about to lose his race to be re-elected in Indiana because even those folks thought he was useless. Aside from the evangelical fringe, no one likes him, especially women. He has negative charisma, especially with the whole creepy thing with calling his wife Mother and letting…

Biden’s campaign said they were not going to go with negative ads. This makes them look like they’re taking the high road. It also says absolutely nothing about organizations not directly affiliated with the campaign, like the Lincoln Project, who are free to go as low as they want to.

If he recovers but is a long-hauler who suffers heart problems and visible exhaustion, I’ll be fine with that.

One of the greatest. RIP.

First I was like, WTF?

There is only one thing you need to say:

When has he not? He’s perfectly happy to be trotted out as “one of the good ones” by the GOP, and provide them cover as their one Black friend.

You will no longer be stressed out if a spouse you dislike dies

I’ve been playing for less than two weeks, having never played a Paradox game before. There are levels of complexity I haven’t touched, but I’m having a lot of fun. The key is to play the tutorial--multiple times, if you want--so you can understand at least some of the game systems and how they work. I just kind of…

FFXV having everyone wearing black was annoying, but the trailer—and I know it’s just the trailer—seemed muddy and dark and kind of meh. I’m really over grimdark, especially given the state of the world at the moment.