Random Notes from a Crank

I recently resubscribed to Mother Jones after not having a subscription for a couple of years. In the first issue I received this year, there's an excellent recount about how the GOP, from a historical perspective, has aided and abetted extremism and white supremacy for decades. 

It didn't start with Moscow Don. The Republican Party has been pandering to racists and nativists and angry white people for decades in order to get votes. 

The article is by David Corn and is titled "The Elephant in the Room" in the physical magazine but has a much longer title on the website: "It Didn't Start with Trump: The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy." 

The article appears to be a précis of Corn's book American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy. I'm thinking of buying it, but I'm concerned it will just make me more angry than I already am. 

Regardless, as Corn relates in the next to last ¶ of his article, "But since at least the 1950s, the party has consistently boosted extremism, prejudice, paranoia, and rage. Sometimes this has led to the GOP prevailing in political battles. In other instances, voters have beaten back the cynical gambit." 

As someone who has strong opinions about football uniforms since I watch a lot of American football, I have to say that the orange helmets and uniforms that the Chicago Bears wore last week were terrible. 

Those helmets made me call the Bears team the "Great Pumpkins." And like the Great Pumpkin of Peanuts fame, they didn't show up at the end of the game in that snooze-fest that saw the Commanders beat the Pumpkins 12 to 7. 

I am rewatching the HBO series Deadwood, and I got to episode 7 of season 2 and was reminded of this great scene, which has Swearengen giving advice to Merrick about stopping moping around and feeling bad for himself.

I deal with so many people who make excuses when times get rough. They need to listen to Al. 

Here are some interesting factoids and stats from this month's "Harper's Index""

• Percentage change since 2019 in the portion of Americans who believe environmental laws are worth the cost: -23
• Percentage of U.S. voters who view climate change as the most important problem facing the country: 1
• Of U.S. voters under thirty who do: 3
• Portion of American young adults who have considered enlisting in the military: 1/10
• Portion of those who are ineligible to enlist: 3/4
• Percentage increase since 2019 in the number of independent bookstores in the United States: 34
• Percentage of undergraduates who say they encounter at least moderate difficulty with online learning: 94
• Percentage of Democrats that Republicans believe are atheist or agnostic: 36
• Percentage that are: 9

I guess I'm part of that 9 percent.