Author’s Note: My break was short-lived. Thanks to everyone for their positive thoughts and understanding. I’ve decided this is much too important to stay on the sidelines for too long.

What I’ve noticed in the course of my lifetime is a sharp rise in political violence. The funny thing is that violence has been used as a cudgel to propose undemocratic remedies to solve a problem one side is more responsible for than the other. It is a classical move by autocratic regimes. You get people to fear something by doing it yourself and then turn around and say that you have the solution.

I could cite any number of sources but this one tells the story pretty cleary. Inside there is a figure that runs from 2000 to 2019. Inside the figure you will notice that they track violence from environmentalists, religious fanatics, far left, far right, and single issue actors. As late as 2019, far right actors accounted for more than 50 single attacks in the United States. Since the age of Trump, only right wing and single issue actors account for any significant increase. Far left actors accounted for far fewer than ten attacks. Religious actors saw a spike in 2016 over ten, but have since dropped. Environmentalists saw a big spike at the turn of the century but have since dropped to nearly zero.

I immediately did some research and found this site that completely refutes that left wing violence is a major thing. It broke down political violence into left wing, right wing, and Islamic. It broke down violence along other lines as well, so it is a very informative read. For our purposes it broke down ideological violence with 59 percent being right wing violence, 23 percent left wing violence, and between 17 and 18 percent being Islamic.

When people are threatened they immediately go into fight or flight. It’s a natural visceral reaction. Some might call it the lizard brain, but in any respects the rational side of our brains shut down and we immediately become like a cornered animal. If we believe we are constantly in danger and we are told that the other side is doing it then we are naturally going to think we need to defend ourselves.

Add in a little homophobia, xenophobia, and racism and it becomes a dangerous cocktail ready to explode. People are being bombarded with messaging that there is an invasion coming from the southern border where people are coming for your jobs, money, and they are bringing dangerous drugs designed to hook and kill your children and grandchildren.

What we see is a cognitive disconnect. All reports are that people believe crime is on the rise when it is actually the exact opposite. Former president Trump has even coined a phrase that he calls “migrant crime.” The facts don’t support him there. Yet, we see for any number of people that facts don’t seem to matter.

So, when the right is sold an overwhelming dose of fear and we know they are more likely to react violently you will understand why many of us on the left are scared. We are being sold as the enemy and there is ever-increasing rhetoric that tells people that we must eliminate the enemy through any means necessary.

There are countless examples of people believing they were safe up until the moment they weren’t. Political violence is on the upswing and it isn’t us committing the violence. The fact that many seem to think so is terrifying. The signs and evidence is out there for everyone to see. I can only hope and pray that a majority of us come to our senses and come to our senses fast.

Now that Biden is out and Harris is in, it’s time to speculate on who gets to be the Democratic Veep nominee.

Isn’t that weird? TFG had to pick a new shill because the old one didn’t dance to The Orange One’s tune and tip his hat for a coin, and Kamala has to pick one to replace herownself.

But who’s it gonna be?

Well, for some obscure reason, it can’t be our man Newsom because of something about Article II, The 12th Amendment, and tight Electoral College elections. Indeed, Dick Cheney had to sell his Dallas home and move into his Wyoming vacation home so he could be Dubya’s Veep. Good thing, too. That election was so close that Bush likely lost it.

So Gav’s gonna have to wait.

That brings us to swing state governors and senators, the obvious go-tos. They are all saying this race will be a tight one – something I still can’t get my head around. So swing states it is.

In no particular order, they are: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

Governors of those elect states are, respectively, Tony Evers, Gretchen Whitmer, Josh Shapiro, Roy Cooper, Some Republican, Katie Hobbs, and Some Other Republican.

I’m going to discount any US Senator because of the whole narrow majority thing we have in the Senate right now.

Of these, North Carolina has the most electoral votes at 16, closely followed by Michigan at 15. So that narrows it down.

So Roy Cooper or Gretchen Whitmer.

I’m not really too jazzed about either one to tell you the truth. Either would be fine, but.. just fine.

But I just had an idea. Why mess around with electoral votes in the teens? We have Texas over here with 40, count ’em 40 electoral votes. We have ethically challenged and well-hated Ted “iHeartMoney” Cruz with a target on his back the size of…well…Texas. And Texas could use a record voter turnout against him to finally rid the country of this scourge in favor of Colin Allred. 

Why not Beto?

(Just asking).

Well that’s that.

I hope that there’s a plan.

Here’s mine. You can put a mid grade refrigerator at the top of the ballot next to the Republican nominee and it’ll be President on January 20th.

I’ll vote for it, but it darned well had better have a working icemaker.

There are many who could not watch the RNC Convention this past week as the full on CSPAN production because of fear of IQ point loss.

Like the swallowing of rat poison, viewing an RNC production is best done in small doses.

So I nearly missed the debut of the New Congressman Matt Gaetz (R FL-01)

At first, I thought Ted Cruz gave Matt the name of his brow shaper. Then he turned his head to face the camera head on and we all got this:

Yikes.

What the H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks are those new folds above Matt’s eyelids?

I have heard that some botox injection treatments have unintended results such as more rapid than anticipated reactions. And now that we have a before/after botox photo of Gaetz, I get it.

But now I have to wonder if this type of reaction is the commonality between Matt Gaetz and the Cat Lady.

As the debate rages on about whether Democrats should forsake their president for a younger more vital nominee, I pause to reflect on the alternative. The alternative is a flawed old man with megalomaniac tendencies. That’s bad enough. The true alternative is a set of ideas and beliefs, and a cadre of people willing to force them on an entire population.

I have tried to list below the MAGA ideas and beliefs that I have read in published statements or surmised from actions reported in the news. None of these are contrived by a waggish libtard (or as little as possible, anyway).

1. TFG wouldn’t have been shot at if the Director of the Secret Service was a man (DEI argument).

2. Abortion rights should be determined by the state you live in, and state borders should be closed to pregnant women.

3. Joe Biden will never step aside and let Kamala Harris take on TFG in November. This is not an opinion like mine. It’s a belief.

4. We can fund our government by charging a 10% tariff on all imported goods from anywhere.

5. January 6 convicts are political prisoners and hostages that will be freed on Day One of TFG’s 2nd administration.

6. TFG didn’t hit it raw on Stormy. Outside of a photo op, he never even knew her. Michael Cohen paid her $130,000 for reasons only known to Cohen. All the rest is “lawfare”.

7. Covid-19 was a bioweapon unleashed by China, and by the way, the 2020 election was stolen.

8. Migrant alien caravans are being allowed to enter the US because they will become reliably Democratic voters.

9. The American way of life is disappearing.

10. Black people would be as well off as white people if they only tried. And the first corollary to this: black people wouldn’t be arrested as much if they could only stay out of trouble.

Or so. In the next few years, there will be a Civil War in the United States.

All of these are tried and tested “Truths” about the MAGA Movement. As a persistent pessimist, I should believe that at least 50.01% of the voting American populace also holds to these beliefs.

The trouble is, I can’t bring myself to believe that.

Nate Silver’s latest general election probability.  Biden dropped 2% in 24 hours.