For some of us older folks, there was a weird familiarity to the goings-on in DC this week. When I was a teenager, and starting to worry about the draft, word came around that there was going to be a big demonstration in DC with the idea of over-running the government and shutting it down to protest the Vietnam war. Now, besides the onions on our belts, we liberals (and I very much was one) were anti-war and felt that the government was essentially a gang of murderous oppressive thugs. Of course, today, liberals demonstrate over not getting enough forcibly-extracted money transferred to them rather than about the killings of hundreds of thousands in the Middle East, but this was a simpler time.

DC was only about 45 minutes away, so what the hell, we piled into a van and headed down for the fun. And what a freakshow it was. Hundreds of thousands of people clogged the streets and attacked the fences surrounding various government buildings. And of course, thousands of armed government thugs, soldiers, cops, and National Guardsmen showed up to quell the demonstrations using violence and gas. Over 10,000 people were herded into cages, given no food, water, or place to piss and shit, then tear-gassed when they tried to push the fences over. I was in a cage near RFK Stadium and got my first ever whiff of gas.

It was glorious. And the folks who love to suppress demonstrations, kill free speech, and continue pointless wars are now cheered on by liberals. It’s weird to see so-called liberals, leftists, and Progressives do a perfect Richard Nixon impression, but that’s the world we live in.

Birthdays today are a relatively dull lot, but there’s a few gems, including a guy who inspired Asimov’s only decent series of novels; the worst president of my lifetime; a pretty goddam excellent drummer; a second rate quarterback; the prototypical beatnik; a vastly overrated folk singer; a reasonably decent guitarist; and the actor who absolutely stole Burn After Reading.

News, such as it is, follows.

 

I’m sure this is meaningful.

 

Make Mexico Great Again.

 

Now do Ilhan Omar.

 

Can someone remind me which was the Stupid Party? Yeah, both of them.

 

I’m predicting that Gorsuch will vote the right way. Kavanaugh will vote the wrong way. Prediction: 6-3 in favor of the Prison State.

 

I have an alibi.

 

And where would we be without Old Guy Music? Nowhere, that’s where. And this fits the theme and the mood.