Is it Over Yet?

We here at Food & Politics are grateful for the last few months of downtime. We’ve been self-medicating our ennui with a cocktail of gloomy silence and Halloween candy while binge watching shows about ladies in peril, ladies fighting at dinner parties and, really, all of Bravo’s ladies. Except the Dallas Housewives (seriously boring even by our standards).

Highly necessary. Way too much going on in the Despair and Outrage-Fatigue Department.

For. Sure.

So without further ado, let’s get started. Since the April snowstorm that provoked our newsroom to tag along with Pizza Rat back to her homestead in Brooklyn, we were basically hiding in the subway tunnels of NYC while these things happened:

MASS SHOOTINGS:

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

DRUMPF LIED:

(Yes, that is the infinity symbol.)

HATE CRIMES

COMMITTED BY RIGHT WING CONSPIRACY NUT CASES:

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch

Thanks to the Southern Poverty Law Center and Gun Violence Archive for

sparing us from the Herculean and rage-making research task. We are thankful to those who gather and disseminate the uncomfortable truths of this troubling time. In a few hours we will know where the country is headed. Hopefully it will not involve a hand basket.

We take a particular interest in the Minnesota Attorney General’s 2018 race. After being barraged by single issue ideologues demanding that Attorney General Lori Swanson sign various pledges at the DFL endorsing convention last spring, she had enough. Enter Our Revolution’s Bro Mike Pelikan. This lightweight got the endorsement thus opening the door to a swarm of primary challengers: Rep. Debra Hilstrom, former Ramsey County Attorney Tom Foley, former state Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman, and Minneapolis attorney and prevailer US congressional Rep. Keith Ellison. Interestingly enough, a woman embedded in Ellison’s challenger’s camp came forward with an accusation that painted Ellison as bad boyfriend with rage and narcissism issues.

We here at F&P in no way condone domestic violence and we sure as hell aren’t going to wade into the far from germane due process argument. But we do find the accuser’s affiliations with the challenger’s camp to be of interest.

And Mike Foley! We caution you on your idiot move to spoil the election with your write-in campaign. Honestly!

Moving. On.

Attractive as the political opinion industrial complex is, we find that excessive cable channel surfing and internet news site monitoring is indeed bad for the soul. Especially when we fall into the rut of news of affirmation dwelling. Each morning it pains us to check out broadcast and cable television news shows. FOX and Friends would be hilarious if they didn’t inspire horrific violence in our places of worship and yoga studios as well as the attempts to use the United States Postal Service to send pipe bombs to Drump’s most vocal critics. Not to mention the less-than-stellar financial advice like investing in gold and reverse mortgages.

As for Joe & Mika we find the outrage disingenuous and the constant referencing as Ronald Reagan being the true arbiter of statesmanship not only absurd but insulting. Then we have the candy bag of the Good Morning America, Today Show, and CBS This Morning. Sugary sweet is the George Stephanopoulos and Savannah Guthrie formula and the good-for-you fruit snacks is of course Nora, David, and Gayle. All nutritionally lacking in real journalism, despite the hard-hitting interview farces foisted upon us daily. Admittedly we start our day with CBS’ Eye Opener as a baseline for analysis fortification. You know that whole affirmation thing, thin as the broth is.

Speaking of thin. What the heck with this caravan business? This is not something new. And if you happen to be reading this you probably know that. But the scaredy cat 45 worshippers are buying this argument that marauding toddlers and exhausted parents are an actual threat. First of all, anyone who has been in the room with more than one toddler at a time can tell you that with the help of some Cheerios in individual Ziplocs, it’s relatively easy to keep the alleged MS13 two to four-year-old gang chapter’s violence at bay. We are saddened yet not surprised that 45 would exploit the suffering of those impacted by America’s drug habits and general diplomatic incompetence. Yes, we know the story is more complex than the good ole USA’s partying demand and supply side economics. But to demonize those fleeing from despair and pervasive violence and corruption is beyond the pale. We don’t know what is worse, the lies or the sorry souls who believe them.

Here we are, once again facing the Midterms, we’re not betting on any horses this time around. No wetsuits to ride the much-hyped blue wave. Although we are hoping that the usual Midterm sitter-outers will pick up a newspaper, click on a website or two and perhaps surf some television news sources to determine how they can best vote their conscience and get themselves to the polls. See above for reasons why.