Meet my two new Mary Frances handbags and – you’ll never guess what the pink thing is. It’s a key chain! Of course, I’m not about to use it as a key chain but I couldn’t leave the store without it either.

The bags are very similar but I was so torn between the two of them that it was easier to get both and stop feeling tortured.

And since I’m on the subject of good news, is it true that Joe Biden is running? I’ve had a crush on him since he wiped the floor with that mumbly fellow – whatever was his name, Ryan something? – back at the vice-presidential debates 4 years ago. If Biden is running, I might have to start supporting him. Or I’ll just feel torn, like I was today with the handbags.

Of course, I’m also hearing that Biden is running with Elizabeth Warren, and that makes me less torn. I want to support a serious ticket, not some populist attempt at pandering to the simple-minded.

I told you they are the same:

In recent days, the real-estate tycoon has even struck a populist note by criticizing “hedge fund guys” who “shift paper around and get lucky,” saying they should pay higher taxes. . . And Bernie Sanders has railed against the banker class and wondered why executives who made irresponsible bets in the run-up to the last financial crisis weren’t punished.

Cheap, meaningless populism that attracts people with a very childish worldview. Find and punish the evildoer who “prevents us from having nice things”, and everything will be perfect.

In the meanwhile, the real election that is going on is being drowned out by this loud pandering to the overwhelmed and anxious simpletons.

I thought Kasich was normal but hey, how can one expect any normalcy at all from these folks?

Within a few weeks, Ohio’s legislature is expected to criminalize any abortion if the pregnant woman’s intent is to avoid having a baby with Down syndrome.

. . Ph.ony “conservative” Republicans want to shrink “Big Government” just small enough to fit under people’s bedroom doors.

It is crucial to waste government resources to ensure that only healthy fetuses are aborted.

Several years ago, Putin tried to abolish welfare assistance for about 1,2 million people in the Greater Moscow area (where cost of living is higher than wherever it is that you live). People got angry, took to the streets, protested, and Putin had to cave. The welfare assistance was left in place.

Two weeks ago, Putin once again abolished the same welfare measures. Not a single person protested.

Moral of the story: if you fire up people’s diseased patriotism and allow them to feel no shame for hating their neighbors, you can easily take away all of their welfare protections.

And what it is that Trump is doing right now? Exactly.