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The Good Fight
I will vote for Secretary Clinton in November. Not a problem. It won't be a vote cast with a great deal of enthusiasm but a vote is a vote and a Democratic victory is a Republican defeat and there you have it.
You're welcome.
That said, I'm still voting for Senator Sanders on June 7 here in California, and will do so enthusiastically.
I'm not seeing it as a 'lost cause' vote, at least not totally, not absolutely, even though it will be a vote cast in full awareness that Sanders will not be the Democratic Party nominee. It won't be an anti Clinton vote either, at least not intentionally. I mean for all of my votes to be positive, not negative.
A vote for Sanders in California will be a vote for a Sanders-ized Democratic Party platform (campaign finance reform, income equality and economic justice, national $15 minimum wage, single-payer health care, fracking ban, tuition-free college, carbon tax, etc), a vote for reforming the Democratic Party's primary process, and, equally important to me, a vote of confidence for Sanders to continue promoting his message of radical/revolutionary systemic change after the November election, to continue being a Progressive thorn in Clinton's side, to continue calling her out when she inevitably drifts back to the center and needs pushing toward true Progressivism. The Sanders campaign finally brought the Progressive wing of the Party back into the bright sunlight after years/decades of disregard and impotence. That's a win.
My personal allegiance to the Democratic Party has always been more anti Republican Party than staunchly pro Democratic Party because I've never (not since August 1968, that is) perceived the Democratic Party's vision to be perfectly in synch with my own. Simply put, the Democratic Party has long been too big and too welded to the status quo. The Democratic Party is The Establishment, it is part of the problem and not so very often an agent or instrument of a meaningful structural solution. Too big to change, too big to see past its own self-interests. The Sanders-Clinton divide has brought this into sharp relief. I sincerely hope that her inevitable victory in Philadelphia will not break apart and sweep aside what Senator Sanders and his supporters have showed is imaginable, possible, and necessary.
I'm not sure the Democratic Party deserved Bernie Sanders, his campaign, and his message this year but I sure hope he has the generosity to not give up on them, at least not yet.
Bernie Sanders was an imperfect national candidate and his campaign was equally flawed and misguided at some root levels, including his seeming inability to seriously try to connect with middle aged and older black Americans (not just in the South: look at the New York City primary vote breakdown by race), his refusal to admit he was wrong about guns and/or his inability to better frame/explain his gun stance, some excessive complaining about some election irregularities, and the silly reluctance to release his damned tax returns. Sadly, an imperfect messenger.
I'm really hoping he has inspired someone less flawed who will learn from his (Sanders') mistakes and carry on the good fight.
So in June I'm voting for a progressive future and a grain of confidence that the Democratic Party can make itself more hospitable to me and those like me. And then, in November, I will positively be voting to block the barbarian horde at the gate.
Democracy in action.
Prince, 1958 - 2016
Roberta 'Big Brown Eyes' Hernandez introduced me to Prince in 1980 or 1981. Those first few albums impressed but after Purple Rain my engagement wandered and dissipated and was lost in the flash and the MTVery of Prince and the 80s. I'm sure Roberta never stopped listening.
But I will say and I have long believed and sworn to this: the last great radio single by anybody was "Little Red Corvette."
Photograph: Backstage at The Bottom Line, Greenwich Village 1980 | Deborah Feingold/Corbis
1913 Pensacola Snappers
For those who didn't grow up along the Gulf of Mexico:
The name Snappers is derived from a local deep-water fish, the Red Snapper. (Great broiled with garlic and cilantro.)
The 1913 Snappers, whose home field was Palmetto Beach Park in Warrington, finished 67 and 29, 4 1/2 games behind the league leading Jacksonville Lawmakers.
1913 was the Snappers first and last season in the Cotton States League, as the CSL folded at the end of 1913.
Opening Day 2016
Baseball's Opening Day used to be simple. It was always on a Monday, the first game played was always the Cincinnati Reds vs another National League team, the first game was always played in daylight, and it was always in North America. It all worked just fine. We liked it that way.
A few years ago, things started getting different. The first game of a given season would be anyone but the Cincinnati Reds, it might be played in Tokyo or London or Australia, it started being played on a Sunday (or even a Saturday, because of the International Time Zone) as a night game, and it might even be an interleague game (!). It was squirrelly.
Today is Opening Day 2016. A Sunday. With a fairly full slate of games (including interleague play!) instead of just a single night game on ESPN, which had sort of become the new tradition. Until it wasn't anymore. And tomorrow is being recognized as a sort of official MLB Opening Day, too, which is too much for me to even try to deal with right now.
So the season hasn't even started yet and my head is already spinning.
But it's all OK. Baseball is back. That's all that matters.
My allegiance to the St Louis Cardinals is going to be a little soft this year, shall we say, not to mention heretical: I'm pulling for the Cubs. Because of my appreciation of the Chicago Cubs team this year, my long-running appreciation of Joe Maddon's managing, my love of Wrigley Field and Chicago, and my fervent desire to see a FULL STOP put to the Cubs fans' 'lovable losers' nonsense, I will not be surprised or upset if they upend the Redbirds in the division and go on to win the World Series.
In the National League West I'll be rooting for our hometown nine, the San Francisco Giants. Great ballpark, probably the best radio/tv crews in the Bigs, a very competitive lineup (I especially like Pagan and Posey), and this season they'll be wearing matte finish batting helmets for the first time.
Elsewhere and otherwise (especially in the American League), I won't have any favorite teams and will simply allow the game and individual players to delight me.
I have paid zero attention to spring training, haven't watched a single inning. Can't wait for the season to start later today.
40 Years in 40 Seconds
John Siracusa's quibbles: 1) the elements aren't chronological and 2) the Newton erasure doesn't end with the Newton OS's signature puff of smoke.
Agreed. But lovely nonetheless.