Maybe today

     I haven't seen the returns from Dixville Notch yet.   This "first in the nation" primary's first voters (all 12 of them) are  supposed to give us clarity as to who the presidential candidates should be.  Forgive my skepticism, but Hillary won 4-0 in 2016 and look at the final result.
     In a campaign where the wild card, Mike Bloomberg is willing to spend north of a billion dollars in just the primary season, the retail politics for which New Hampshire is famous may be out of date today.   Sure, Bernie is likely to win and his backers continue to pour millions into his campaign, but New Hampshire is still virtually the start of a long and grueling contest as long as several other candidates with the resources to compete continue to do so.
     Today' winner will get the media spotlight, but the rest of the cast will pack their bags and head to Nevada and South Carolina where the contest will continue.  

Winter notes

    It is snowing again in the North Country as I write this.   Only a couple more inches added to the foot or so we got last week, but the accumulation of several weeks of intermittent snow means there is probably 15-18 inches on the ground in the Champlain Valley and much more in the mountains.  Fortunately we will have several days of warmer weather this week which will melt some of the mess.
     We haven't had a severe winter so far.   It has only been below zero a handful of times since the start of 2020.   According to many climatologists, this area of the country will be one of the last to experience what a warming climate will do to native species of plants and animals.  However, we are seeing more and more signs we are catching up to the rest of the world in this respect.  

There you go again

       One of the more traumatic phrases I have ever heard was Ronald Reagan's rejoinder to Jimmy Carter's accusation he was against Medicare and Social Security (spoiler alert;  he was).  "There you go again" was one of the factors which cost Carter the election.  It also led to the "Reagan Revolution" which exacerbated the inequalities among us and led to the 1% controlling more wealth than the bottom 50%.
      I was reminded of this episode while watching a few minutes of the hate filled tirade of post acquittal tRump.  Reveling in his new found freedom, he spewed venom on everyone he felt caused his impeachment, from Nancy Pelosi to James Comey to Adam Schiff.  Of course he didn't dwell on the person responsible for shaking down an allied government in an effort to manufacture dirt on a political opponent.
      The orange buffoon is actually the anti-Reagan or at least the culmination of republican devolution from the genial but single minded Gipper to the foul  mouthed fulminations of our current president*.   I can't even scold the American electorate for this travesty.  in 5 of the last 6 presidential elections they have voted for the democrat, although thanks to an electoral college which accords extra power to rural and overwhelmingly white voters we had to endure two terms for the Shrub and now the latest excuse for a human being who torments our country.   "There you go again" is going to sound positively profound compared to what we will be subjected to in the coming campaign for America's soul.  I hope we are prepared for the onslaught.

Profile in courage

    Knowing the amount of abuse he was assuredly going to endure must have been on Mitt Romney's mind before he went onto the Senate floor and explained why he would later vote to impeach the president* for abuse of power.   He was the lone republican senator to vote against tRump.
    The poo flinging monkeys were immediately out in force, the president*s son demanding Romney be kicked out of the party and others suggesting worse fates.   Alone among his GOP  compatriots, Romney not only acknowledged the commander in chief's wrongdoing but also called for the sanction of impeachment and removal from office.   If even one other republican had called for the same penalty, Romney's gesture would have been overlooked.  Instead, he finds himself a villain and a hero.
     I have never been a fan of Mitten's.  His cavalier assessment of 47% of population as dependent on government and indentured to the democratic party caused me to lose whatever respect I had for the man.  However, his courage in voting his conscience in this debacle has rehabilitated him in my eyes, at least until he votes for the confirmation of the next fascist up for a lifetime judgeship.

What it has come to

    I didn't watch the state of the union speech last night.   I spared myself the gag reflex the president* inspires in me every time he opens his mouth to lie again.  But opening the Washington Post website this morning I saw a picture of Nancy Pelosi neatly tearing tRump's speech in half on national TV.   Her explanation was "it was better than the alternative"!
     More than any other president in my lifetime, tRump inspires the adulation of his base and the detastation of nearly everyone else.   That a lifelong pol like Pelosi feels comfortable with the insult implied by her action is perhaps more telling than any poll.   We need a healer in chief at this point and I'm not sure the nation is ready for a revolution.

Gross stupidity

     If Iowa truly wanted to address its unwieldy and unrepresentative caucus system in a positive way, the state democratic party failed miserably last night.   After being assured we would have results by 9 p.m on Monday, a supposed "glitch" in an app managed to collapse the whole system.   This lead to Mayor Pete declaring victory apropos of nothing.
    Taunting the rest of the country for months with its first in the nation status, Iowa is the poster child for least likely to represent the democratic party.  94% white and aging, it has held on to its status by convincing the media and the national party it is a bellwether.  Meanwhile, more representative states like Florida, Texas and California are left with a choice of which old white man the democrats will put up against the GOP's old white man. This is madness and it needs to be addressed before the next election.

While Rome burns

      Sometime late this evening or early tomorrow morning a tiny subset of democratic voters in Iowa will maybe, perhaps, possibly let us know who they prefer in the presidential primary.   As I watched several morning shows on Sunday I was treated to interviews with these Hamlet's who despite a year of personal campaigning by exhausted candidates still seem unable to make up their minds.   A couple of them even said they had narrowed their choice to four candidates, ticking off the four leaders in the latest polls.  I have a feeling if Mickey Mouse was polling above 15% he would be on their short list as well.
     Our election system is broken.  From the nominating process through the conventions to the actual elections, we have allowed misplaced patriotism, dark money and human nature conspire to turn what should be a compact, fair and equitable process for choosing our president into a marathon which has most recently resulted in a pussy grabbing, misogynistic, racist reality television celebrity becoming our Commander in Chief.
      We need to shorten our electoral process, beginning with dumping Iowa and New Hampshire as first in the nation bellwethers.  Start the campaigns a month before the primaries start.  A nationwide primary set in July or August and paid for with public funds would get money out of the campaigns and allow for a more representative candidate.   Follow up with mail in early voting and an election day holiday for more traditional voters.   These are just a few suggestions which I am sure could be improved.  The point is we need to do something different than the current system.