OK, people, as the election cycle is starting off, let get one thing clear once and for all.

I support Hillary Clinton in this election. Well, actually, I support Bernie Sanders but he has no chance in hell, so I support Hillary. Putin wants Bush to win and is terrified of Hillary winning. And you all know how much I want to see Putin thwarted. So because of this – and every other – reason I support Hillary.

Having said that, I have to issue a fair warning that I will be as critical as I feel like of Hillary and of her campaign. If that will be too traumatizing for you to face, please go away now. Before you do leave, let me tell you that getting emotionally attached to public figures to the extent where it hurts your feelings to see them criticized is a result of childhood traumas that your therapist can help you address. And until you address them, good luck kicking that smoking habit, losing weight, vanquishing the fear of public speaking, getting your finances in order, or figuring out your personal life.

So remember the manipulative fellow with kids and his girlfriend from our “Relationships” series? The jerk dumped her, and in a very nasty way, too. The little weasel did all he could to keep sucking out as much feeling of self-importance from the situation:

We had brunch Thurs morning, drove in a leisurely fashion to a nearby city, had a pleasant afternoon indoors before a delicious dinner and a fantastic outdoor concert.  Yesterday, we made our way back here, with a stop at a picturesque location and, serendipitously, lunch with one of my friends; we had dinner last night with my sister, brother-in-law and niece.  Then, since we were borrowing a friend’s convertible for the evening, we drove around afterward in a sweet ride, enjoying the evening.

And then he apologized to me for not being able to be the person I wanted him to be. The end.

Of course, after this sort of “apology” begins, one should just get up and leave immediately and never have any contact with the person again for the simple reason that the tit of human kindness should at least be contingent on the person actually wanting to be with you. That’s not what happened, though:

Doesn’t matter what I want, of course.  It’s never a negotiation.  We talked and he listened, but it wasn’t as if he was going to change his mind. I could feel him pulling away these last few weeks in subtle little ways and, once again, I was right.

Friends.  We’re good friends.  That’s what he wants.  Of course.  Because I’m a fucking good friend. He wants to talk to me every now and then, get together for dinner when I’m in town to visit Cool Friend, because we’re friends.  And I should call him later, he says – probably because he does care that he’s hurt me and he somehow thinks that will make things better.

The guy is just a total gift of God to humanity (I say sarcastically, for those who are not taking too well to the current heat wave.) He must have been stomped on many times by women in order to get so nasty and needy.

I’m very very sorry that this blogger is suffering because I’ve been reading her a lot and have grown somewhat emotionally attached. She is obviously a fantastic person and does not deserve all this suffering. I know exactly what it feels like to find yourself in the same damn romantic situation for the bizillionth time and not to have any clue as to why your relationships always end in the exact same pathetic way.

Tragically, this woman’s situation will not improve until she realizes that Mr. Jerkwad is not asking her to call “because he does care that he’s hurt me.” All he wants is to keep feeding off her attachment and her pain. But she, of course, will call and feed the loser some more and then there will be another jerk to nourish, and so on.

This is very frustrating.

Knowing how to be loved is just as much of a skill as loving.Some people just never get an opportunity to acquire that skill or to realize that this is what they are missing:

And I try to understand and I do.  But I still hurt.  And I wonder why I can’t have what I want, why it seems that I am always aching for something I can’t have, why I’m never enough for any man.

This is all very sad.

I’m hearing that Hillary Clinton will be mentioning the poverty experienced by her mother when the mother was a child in her speech today. She’ll do it to let the voters know she understands what economic hardship is like.

Soon, we’ll have politicians breathlessly inform us that they know all about poverty because they once talked to somebody who once stood next to somebody who had heard of somebody who might have been poor.

I don’t blame Hillary for this pathetic effort to pretend she’s not who she actually is. If people voted on issues and not on soppy “human interest” stories, nobody would have to contort themselves into weird shapes and fake non-existent suffering.