For the longest time, Democrats held many of their voters with two issues: abortion rights and gay marriage. To me these were always the central issues that automatically turned on a passionate and unconditional support for the party. 

And then progress – technological in one case and moral in the other – solved these issues. A party is no longer urgently needed to advance them. My emotional attachment – and clearly not just mine if we look at the results – evaporated. 

We keep hearing that the Democrats abandoned their working class base and are working solely for the benefit of educated professionals. I’m an educated professional, but I’m not seeing what it is that the party is offering me. An opportunity to pay higher taxes to open more diversity offices? No, thanks. 

Coasting on nothing but the fact that the opponent is even worse is a doomed strategy. Yes, people are too nauseated by Republicans to switch sides. But they aren’t showing up for the Democrats too enthusiastically either. 

Abortion and gay rights were clear specific goals. Something equally clear, concrete and emotionally potent needs to be found. 

So Putin hired Oliver Stone to make a laudatory documentary about him, right? In the documentary, Putin shows Stone images of wgat he says is Russia’s bombing of Syria. It turns out, however, that the images didn’t actually come from Syria. And they didn’t feature any Russians. What Putin showed Stone was a video of Americans bombing the Taliban in Afghanistan. Because Putin is surrounded by such stupid, irresponsible hacks that they can’t even be bothered to Google a correct video.

Isn’t it pathetic to be outplayed by this bunch of losers?

You know those white people who are so eager to demonstrate how not racist they are that they affect this manner of extreme cheerfulness and exaggerated if totally fake camaraderie around non-white people? Fucking embarrassing to watch.

That’s what the entire field of Latin American studies looks like. They are trying way too hard to demonstrate that they are not in the least racist. Which in itself is. . . you know. Some of their bestest friends and shit.

Top secret intelligence! Eyes only! Let Obama know! As early as August of 2016! That Putin! 

Dumb fucks. I knew all this a full 15 months earlier. It was on every Russian TV channel. Secret intelligence, my ass. 

A leading authority on Latin American literature argues that the reason why Buffy and Walking Dead are so popular is that viewers actually believe in vampires and zombies. I repeat, a literary critic thinks that enjoying a show entails believing that the characters are real. 

I’m so happy I chose Peninsular literature and escaped from this craziness. 

For 2 days, every news channel, blogger and print edition has been going nuts over the ridiculous “Trump says he’s got no tapes of Comey” story. 

Fuck, will anybody at least try to report any real news?

Parents following their adult children to the workplace is now a trend. 

I hope this kid’s parents go to jail for bringing a lethal weapon into the house and not teaching the teenager some basic safety rules. I detest such people. And I 100% support the police officers here because I’ve seen a pitbull attack and it’s horrifying. 

It’s true that midwifery is a field where people are often trained to be as dogmatic and insensitive as humanly possible. It’s an article of faith in many midwife training programs that the delivery methods of primitive tribes are vastly superior and need to be followed at any cost. 

Finally, a story about a conservative snowflake. It’s good to see that it’s not always progressives who are deranged hysterics. 

Two thirds of student debt is carried by women. This explains a lot. 

Finally, somebody brave enough to recognize that breastfeeding is physically enjoyable. 

Are American child-rearing practices creating an authoritarian society? I place this link here because I’m amazed how insanely stupid it is. It’s like the author is the dumbest person on earth. Incredible. The part about the USSR is especially priceless. 

The reading habits of book critics. 

Gosh, Latin American studies are so dead. I read stuff published within the last 3 years, and there’s nothing but the same tired old ideas I was taught 20 years ago as an undergrad based on the sources from the 1970s.

Nothing is sadder than a field of knowledge that has discovered THE TRUTH and has nothing else to do but endlessly repeat it. 

What I love about our area is how reliable our local bunnies are. 

Whenever Klara begins to get cranky or uncooperative, I tell her, “Let’s go outside and look at bunnies!” She’s big enough to understand that bunnies are fun, so she’s always happy to go look at them. And bunnies have never let me down. They are always there when we come out. They let us come very close, and Klara is so cute when she tries to be as quiet as possible to avoid scaring them.  

These days, the candidates who are more desperate to raise money are the ones who’ll lose. So this is a very good sign.