Friday, August 23, 2024

Online there is the local "newspaper" outlet, other stuff. Checking local first, what then?

Start with how you start, coffee in hand in the morning, the homepage -  https://www.startribune.com/ -- which is part of newspapers vanishing as sold print, transitioning to a traditional media web presence:


click the image to enlarge and read


 That screencapture is how it loads for me, the browser I use, the script blocker I use, the "uBlock origin" filter I use, so your Strib homepage may look different. 

The headlining appears to editorialize, which is why the screenshot goes down into the "OPINION" section of the homepage. Check the capture. Decide for yourself. Objective vs. subjective, with those being elastic labels, more or less not either/or.

The main featured item, with the large Harris/crowd image is an AP feed when you get into the text details.

Convention closing-day locally related content is clear, a Walz family image, Walz mentioned. All of this has a flavor of - Trump exists, but this is "our outlet's" leaning.

It is Glen Taylor's paper, he was a Republican legislator years ago, and his editors and writers are the paper, more than he is. (He owns the pro basketball teams, for now, and the players and management are the teams more than Taylor is.)

Back to the story. Much online sees the convention as a landmark event. First Black woman nominee, first Asian American nominee, first female Asian American.

That is all true. Crabgrass opinion now = She could be purple and from Mars, but she's not Donald J. Trump, and she has my vote. 

Landmarks are there, but Trump is a mean and hateful person, he had four years which were not good ones as I view things, he was voted out for that and denied he lost, and incited an untoward event for no good reason.

Why would I not want Trump defeated AGAIN? A hope that Harris-Walz wins is strongly held, while a far weaker belief is that she'd fundamentally change for the better from the Biden course. As in Medicare for All, for example. The belief is held here that things were manipulated, gamed, set up and scripted so that Biden would look failed when he is not, it would be strung out, and bottom line of the planning and scripting, Harris would be the replacement, done deal, no time left for any Plan B beyond a Harris cramdown. 

Do I, thinking that, resent being scripted and gamed? NO, not really.

Things are now that we face Harris-Walz vs Trump-Vance, with Harris-Walz being predictably akin to Biden-Harris. Vs. a Trump-Pence replay or more likely even worse, SO - Trump even worse and Vance in place of Pence compared to same Dem. party, a continuity, and there are several Dems afoot who I feel under other more open a choice-option would be worse if getting nominated instead of Harris. So, however things were manipulated by Inner Party Dems, Harris is fine enough, which is enough for me, since my judgment is Trump was awful as President, and he seems even more bile-ridden for having lost (and failing to accept it). Trump's shown nothing suggesting his being again in the White House would be better than has failed four years, the signs as I read them being he'd be vindictive, petty, unduly headstrong and such; as before; but even worse. But I repeat myself.

So first Purple Martian candidate, whatever, BETTER THAN TRUMP. Never mind landmarks, watersheds, or what metaphor you choose. Just simple good sense.

Not that I disrespect "watershed moments" but as a fully practical matter, she'd not be what the Clintons are and were, bless her good heart for that, and she's not going to be a Bernie or AOC, but with that populist-progressive flavor favored more here, the reality exists - and is accepted.

The belief, bottom line, she'd be as good or better than Biden's four years showed him. And a younger person within The Party. The nation will fend better with Trump soundly defeated and that torch passed from Trump the huckster to Vance, the thoughtful, with that being MAGA still in the Republican driver's seat, not Cruz and McConnell. (But Vance and Mike Johnson. If they'd bury Jim Jordan they'd advance measurably toward credibility, but they in fact still have Jim Jordan, so view them, their credibility, accordingly.)

Opinions surely differ. Mine are as stated. With a guess that a majority in November will elect Harris-Walz. i.e., that while opinions differ, my opinions as they are remain closer to a mainstream, (whatever that means), with my guess being that "mainstream" is as unhappy as me with the whole shit-show business of how money perverts government and how the wealthy's long-continuing class war against the rest of us is still running the nation for better or worse, but not for as good a life for everybody as is possible, were the wealthy simply to show less fucking greed. 

...............................................

The Crabgrass guess being - Under Harris-Walz the world shall not experience nuclear disaster, and likely under Trump-Vance the same would be true, but a disastrous outcome under Trump-Vance is more likely than the other way.

Not drinking the Koolaid, but practically saying Harris-Walz is more sound, is about where I stand, not loving it, but where I hope and expect most of the nation's people will go, Nov. 5.

Luke warm as an endorsement. But strong in an opposition. Chips falling, Nov. 5.