Making Changes

Okay, I’m going to just strip away the safety net and see what falls out with this one. This is one of those times where I’m going a little bit more ‘stream of consciousness’ and then coming back around and cleaning up the mess into something that makes at least a little bit of sense…hopefully. I don’t know where exactly it’s going to end up going, and it’s probably going to jump around a bit. It’s like old school Cliff blogging, only with actual editing. Hopefully it doesn’t turn into just a huge mess. And on that optimistic note, let’s begin!

I’ve talked here before about changes that I’ve made in my life. The past year in particular has been huge. I look at a lot of things differently from how I did before, deal with things differently and react to things differently. And what I’ve learned beyond anything else is that the more things change, the more I want them to continue to change. Since it’s making me happy, let’s keep it rolling forward.

But the thing with making changes and trying to find new opportunities to adapt how I’m doing things is that I need to find new sources for that change. It’s like working out. As I find new people to follow who know what the fuck they’re talking about (And for Chrissakes people, MAKE SURE they know what they’re talking about unless you want to totally screw yourself up), I’m constantly exposed to new ideas and exercises and ways to move. I’ll try things out, some of which make the cut, and some of which don’t end up being something that I personally find interesting, but all of them are at least worth a try. 

So, I have this great basis for always changing and tweaking what I’m doing in terms of workout routines. But trying to find those new ideas elsewhere is still pretty new to me. I have that same ravenous appetite for more, but I don’t have my shit nearly as figured out in terms of finding the next challenge. That means seeking out new sources for ideas and changes to possibly take on, and I’m largely flying blind here.

On a somewhat related note, I’ve decided that this year is going to see me return to the world of books. I used to be a voracious reader, but I’d gotten away from it to the point that 2016 was an absolute fucking travesty. I was really disappointed by my pitiful output and wanted to get back to reading more, so I’m going to put in a real effort this year (So far, not bad. Do board game rulebooks count? If so, I’m kicking ass). And since I already had the goal to pound through some books in 2017…

Well, that’s nice. More books. With bright covers, and lengthy descriptions and…hold the phone. Are those…

Are those self help books?!

Yes they are. Oh, but that doesn’t even cover the basics of how far down this particular rabbit hole I’ve gone (…phrasing…). At the time that I’m writing this intro, the book on the right is the only one that I’ve actually read part way through (New entry to confuse the timeline! I’ve now read two of the three!). All of those chunks of paper stuffed in there are to mark pages where something really clicked for me. I fully expect all three of these to look like a similarly chaotic mess towards the end. And that’s kind of what this post is going to be all about. Those passages, and how they relate to things I’m switching up or have already altered in some way.

Believe me, I’m also a little weirded out by all of this. Even reading stuff like this represents one drastic fucking change for me. Hell, I used to mock the shit out of this sort of thing. Then again, that mockery was largely me just trying to cover up a lot of insecurities, so let’s perhaps keep walking by those utterances of the past. It helped that the first two such books I’ve read were filled with jokes and a lot of F bombs, keeping them somewhat relatable.

Buckle up, folks. This is going to be an interesting ride through the land of honesty. It’s like the Land of Dairy Queen, just with reality in place of chocolate rivers. So…okay, yeah, it kind of sucks.

I’m Good

So, how to follow up a massive post about 7 billion different bands that I’m into? Well, I could have just done up a clone post covering what new shit I’m already listening to in 2017. No, seriously. That’s probably coming way sooner than later. It seems that this year is picking up where the last one ended. And not just in the literal sense that one year leads directly into another. But let’s leave that for now and go a different direction. And maybe I’ll actually write something relatively short and bite sized. What? Stop laughing! It could totally happen!

Think about this : How many times a day do you find yourself engaging in the following conversation at work, on the phone, online, in an opium den, or wherever the Hell else you choose to spend your days?

OTHER PERSON : “Hey, how you doing?”

YOU : “I’m good.” Or some related version of that. Good. All good. Not bad. Decent. Hey, is that blue dragon over there giving me the eye? That last one is probably only relevant for those currently visiting an opium den.

It’s just a pointless little toss out comment. You generally don’t really mean it. Shit, nobody even gives it a second thought, it’s just what you hurl out there because it’s the expected answer to keep the pointless conversation rolling forward. You play your little part of a well oiled machine that cranks out banal nonsense like this on a daily basis, then you return to slaving away for the man, or talking business online, or lazing back on a cushion in a purple room, surrounded by cool people all getting right fucked up. My only experience with opium dens comes from cartoons, so I am probably completely out to fucking lunch on what one might have found in one.

And I’m not any different from the rest of you. I engage in the same pointless bullshit. I respond in the same way. I keep the cogs greased and the business of small talk flowing. That sounded weirdly sexual. It was not intended as such. For once.

The difference these days is that now I actually mean it. I’ve spent years just blindly spewing out the phrase to the point that it had become absolutely meaningless. Even when I was miserable I still said it because it’s just what you do. And then a short while ago, I was out driving on a nice, sunny winter’s day. Volbeat was playing. If you are in my car this summer, prepare for the Volbeat onslaught. Seriously, it’s perfect warm weather driving music. I had a smile on my face. And it occurred to me at that moment that I really am good.

Is everything perfect? Of course not. What I finally figured out is that that doesn’t matter. There are still things that I’m trying to get done, but I’ve reached a point of contentment with where I am now. I’ve finally started figuring out how to keep my brain from continuing to spin away in overdrive, so I’m a Hell of a lot calmer internally than I have been in longer than I can remember. Turns out sleep actually IS a good thing. Who knew? I mean, aside from sensible people. I’ve actually made a lot of progress in terms of figuring out how to function like something resembling a human being. Hey, it only took 40 years!

And while it would be easy to lament the fact that it took me so long to get here, I won’t do that. The important part is that I finally got here. No more time spent smashing myself over mistakes made. Now I take a moment to think about what I would say to someone else who made that error, and I go with that instead. Seriously, we routinely abuse ourselves in situations where we would show empathy to anyone else in the same space. It’s fucked up. No more passing up on things that I want to do. If I’m going solo, so be it. I’m still going. Hence this rapidly becoming the year of Cliff goes to a lot of concerts. And no more becoming frustrated when I can’t make masses of progress overnight. Okay, so it still happens from time to time. Let’s just aim for a lot less and be happy with it. Maybe it’s time to sit back and actually enjoy the whole improvement part of things instead of just racing to the end.

I’m good. And I should end this before it becomes a motivational poster.

Sweet holy mother of fuck. People actually put things like that on walls? Really? Ugh. There’s another one for the quick list. I’m not a person who would EVER hang that image anywhere. I’m just the guy who will subject you all to it here. So we can suffer together.

Because I’m a dick.

And I’m good.

2016 – A Music Extravaganza!

 

It’s said that as we age, we stop looking for new sounds to infiltrate the ear canal and just bathe in the nostalgic warmth of what we already enjoy. Apparently I missed the bus that goes to that particular neighborhood in Blandsville…

In years past, I’ve spent a bit of time in January looking back at books that I read over the previous year. However, my book consumption rate last year was goddamn pathetic, so that’s out for 2017. Luckily, I stepped it up big in terms of what I’m listening to.

Now, this has nothing to do with bands I was already into who released new stuff this year. So I won’t be mentioning names like Metallica, Sixx A.M., Adele, David Bowie, A Tribe Called Quest (though I thought long and hard about including them, since it’s their first new material in forever and a day) or Iggy Pop. Okay, I won’t be mentioning them from this point forward. All released really good stuff. But this is about new shit. At least, stuff that’s new to me. Some of them have been around for awhile. Hey, I’m old! It takes me awhile to find things! Be glad that I manage to find pants!

And there was A LOT of new shit in 2016. Thanks to my XM account, I typically ‘find’ about 20-25 new bands a year. This year was like that, only on a lot of steroids. XM led to a lot of them, but so did people. All kinds of people. People who I follow online, friends, acquaintances, whoever. If you have ever mentioned a musical act within earshot of me, and particularly if you’ve previously led me to something cool, there’s a good chance that I’ve listened to them. All it takes is the quickest of throwaway mentions. My ears are whores.

So consider this my attempt both to bring some eyes to my little corner of the Internet, and to also thank many of you for bringing me to some new music by trying to return the favor. There will likely be a few surprises. There is at least one MASSIVE change in opinion. Try not to be one of those sad little fuckers who skims and just looks at band names…read it, you lazy fuck! Enjoy, mock, laugh at me, I don’t give a shit. Oh, and prepare yourselves for power chords. I am a sucker for power chords.

I’ll link to a video for each group in the band name.

LET MORTAL KOMBAT COMMENCE!

Oh, and I also promise that there will be zero ‘joke’ links to Rick Astley. This is a post about good music, and therefore Rick Astley has no place here.

Scenes From the Debauched Mind of a Ne'er-do-well

 

As the new year dawns, it’s time to be a complete and total cliché and take a look back at my own personal 2016. Forget what happened to the world and anything of the like. It’s all about me! Though a lot less arrogant than that sounded. I may be a lot of things, but that level of self obsessed isn’t one of them. Hey, I’m a bit surprised, too!

This isn’t going to be a countdown of specific changes that I’ve made in the past year. I already updated that set of goals a short time ago here. Of course, it didn’t get read much. I like to think it was because I made the ‘brilliant’ choice of posting it before work, meaning all of you folks who might have read it were busy at jobs and stuff. I like to think that. It keeps me from being a sad heap of old tears slowly drying into obscurity. Look, please just go read it now and save us all the awkwardness of me sobbing uncontrollably again. Nobody wants that. No, this is going to be something a bit bigger and a lot less specific. That’s my way of saying that I’m pretty much making this up as I’m typing, and not even I can look into the future, even one of my own creation. Don’t worry, I’m not going to forego editing. This is just going to be a bit of a zig-zagging rollercoaster ride when it comes to subject. Riffing off the cuff is fun and terrifying all at once.

I could very easily fall into the trap of looking at 2016 as entirely bad. There’s been immense upheaval and pain in my family. Too many people close around me don’t know what’s coming next anymore. I’ve spent a lot of time this year angrily screaming out into the void in the hopes that my voice would somehow quell the maelstrom. I’m always one of those people who wants to do something. And when I can’t do something to fix whatever’s gone wrong, I flail and lash about. I can’t heal the wounds of everyone around me. I can’t change my life, or that of anyone around me, simply by wishing it to be so. All that I can do is keep striding forward.  I’ll always do everything that I can for anyone around me, but I’m not a superman capable of bearing the problems of the world. And trying to take everything at once just leads to my feeling crushed underneath the mass of it all. Going it alone doesn’t work. It never did. But I’ll still bellow into the night when the need is there, because sometimes a primal scream is what you need to clear your head and chase the demons off for another night.

Revisiting the Post-Vacation Write-Up With the Long-Ass Title and Promised Life Changes

 

I know that I often go on about my horrific title skills, but that one is a record setter in the field of putrid. The byline for that mess should just be somebody vomiting.

Hi, I’m Troy Mcclure. You may remember me from such posts as A Road Trip, a Mountain, a Hotel, a Coffee Shop and Another Hotel , and my exciting feature film role in Bedtime for Bonzo 2 : Get This Fucking Monkey to Bed!*

Okay okay, so I’m not Troy McClure. But I AM totally the guy who wrote that earlier post that’s linked to up there. The long story short version of that one (FINE, Liam. I’ll put this bit up front this time! You’re welcome.) was me considering aspects of myself that which I felt that needed to change. This is pretty easy to do when you’re on vacation and spending a fair amount of time almost every day hiking through the wilderness and then sitting in nature and just reflecting on things, so I actually came up with a pretty solid list. But what good is coming up with a list of stuff that you want to start doing in a new way if you aren’t going to hold yourself accountable (Though not TOO accountable…oooooo, foreshadowing)? Let’s hop into the wayback machine, take a look at what I said then, and compare that to what I’m actually doing about it three months later.

Hilariously, I actually forgot to include a fair amount of content that was intended to be in there in the first place. What can I say? It wasn’t all reflection all the time. Plenty of opportunity spent on booze, food, and that waitress I spent most of the last weekend with provided ample distraction. I’m going to add in all of that, too (The missing material, not the distractions. Provide your own distractions as you see fit). Plus some BONUS NEW MATERIAL that I’ve figured out since then makes an exciting debut! Hey, I have to toss something fresh in here in a sadly transparent attempt to give you all incentive to actually read this. Think of this as the reprint of a book with the additional chapter or two. I just keep on giving of myself, you lucky, lucky bastards.

Fitness the Cliff Way

 

AKA Physically Wreck Yourself Until You Finally Realize You’re Not 22 Anymore. Then Learn A Few Lessons And Change Things Before Debilitating Yourself Permanently.

That is possibly the worst secondary title ever committed to digital paper.

So, let’s hop into the old time machine once more and head back to yesteryear. We’ve covered a lot of this, so let’s just do a speed run this time : Cliff depressed, Cliff not doing well, Cliff starts freelance writing, Cliff realizes he’s in awful shape, Cliff decides to do something about it. There. All caught up. Imagine that in the form of a montage with some sort of 80’s music with a pulsing beat cranked up in the background to maximize the awesomeness. May I suggest this? Holy shit, nothing says 80’s rock like multiple band members sporting perms.

Like probably everyone else who decides to get their increasingly fat ass up off the chair to do something about it, I began with little idea of what to actually do. And the weird thing is that I don’t really remember how I came up with my initial workout plans at all. I just sort of…did. It was all very basic, with different pushup variations and anything else that didn’t really require a lot of gear.

I might not have specific memories of exactly what I was doing, but I do remember that before long it started to feel like something that I wanted to make part of my new routine. My life at that point was mostly a beaten down me clawing my way out of a veritable Sarlacc Pit of my own misery, so something providing a good feeling was a solid shot in the arm. I started chasing that endorphin rush like a junkie desperately grasping for the next hit to fill his veins with a brief, fleeting feeling of fiery joy. Looking back now, I realize that working out became a bit of a lifeline. I was trying to clamber out of my own unhappy little world, and it was helping me push my way back up and out of the hole. To some degree this is still true. As I spend my time looking for a new job that will open up some opportunities to make big chunks of progress in my life, I can still look at exercise results as evidence of positive progression for myself. Hence why I become a bit of a pissy little bitch when I hurt myself doing something stupid and can’t work out for a couple of weeks. This is something I’ve been working on…I shouldn’t have so much emotional investment in one aspect of my existence. But we’re veering towards future blog post territory here, so let’s get back on the road and rejoin this one.

As I chased down my next moment of bliss, the other benefits of this particular life change started to make themselves known. It didn’t take too long for the weight to start sliding off, since that initial cut is usually pretty rapid once you start seriously moving around. The joy increased as visible results became more readily available for perusal. That was the good part. The bad part was that at the same rate that my motivation went up, so did my desire to see that progress accelerate. It’s like once that aforementioned junkie has developed a tolerance for the dragon he’s chasing and has to start shooting more and more and more. So I kept adding more and more and more to what I was doing. Not only was I trying to clamber up and over a wall, but I was building the wall up higher first. And as time went along and my enjoyment increased, I was adding more gear and more exercise options. So why not add ALL the everything at once?

See, every time I’d learn something new or a variation on something that I already liked doing, I’d just add it to the routine. I don’t mean replace something with it…no, that would make sense. I mean I’d just add it to what was becoming a sizable stack of exercises. It got to the point that I was doing 22+ different exercises per workout, then repeating that insanity in a circuit from Hell. I’d rip off 6-8 kinds of pushups alone. Did I mention the bare minimum warmup of any kind that preceded these marathon sessions? I’d perhaps do a minute of jumping jacks and maybe one other thing for another minute and then it was time to dive in to what ‘really mattered’. Yeah. Pretty far from smart.

Oh, but it gets worse. So much dumber and worse. Not only was I over-exerting myself without letting muscles warm up and stretch out to begin with, but I wasn’t really letting anything rest, either. I’d just jump from one exercise to the next with the only break being whatever amount of time it took for me to physically get from one spot to the next one. I’d hop from a push exercise to a pull exercise and back to a push and so on with no real break. Perhaps I’d get a few extra seconds of reprieve because I was sucking down a couple mouthfuls of water, but that was it.

Once these ridiculous affairs finally reached an end with me barely able to move my limbs any longer, I’d do a bare minimum of stretching and just go about my day. I’d spend perhaps five minutes stretching out with no cool down, so I was still actively sweating once that was finished. Wrap it up! Brilliant! Can’t see how this can go wrong at all!

Ah yes, the mantra of idiots. Seriously, if anyone EVER tells you this load of horseshit, they’re either a masochist or a moron. Or both. Quick aside, but one of my favorite Youtube channels is BroScienceLife. The guy lampoons the meathead gym idiots that everyone has encountered at least once in their life who regularly spew crap like that from their mouths. It amuses me greatly. But this was also how I was ‘thinking’ (and I use that term very loosely). The only smart thing I did was having rest days, but that was it. And I GUESS it was a ‘positive’ that I was working out in a balanced way and destroying all of me equally? I was physically hammering myself into the ground. And then I started working again. Did I taper my workouts down? No. I just stacked on a sometimes physical job, all without increasing my food intake. So now I’d work out, eat, go to work and consume all of an apple over the next 5 hours before coming home again. That sounds GREAT. And this is where I’d like to welcome grim reality up onto the stage!

I was already constantly suffering through aches and pains and muscle strains and not getting the hint. I’d take a few days off, then just hop right back into the maelstrom of madness that my routine was. And then, my left knee decided to flare up…well, to be fair, I decided to set it off by being dumb. I have a bit of tendonitis in my lower left patellar tendon. I can do all kinds of squats and lunges and jumps and cardio and whatever and it’s fine, but side planks equal bad. I don’t know what it is about that position, but it is GUARANTEED to set it off, and then I spend the next few days in a sleeve because every time I’m descending stairs or a ladder it feels like my knee is going to give out. Well, I got my shiny new TRX and decided that it would be totally fine to do TRX side planks, which involves both your feet being stacked one on top of the other in a stirrup. Long story short : not fine. Three weeks in the sleeve, popping ibuprofen 4 times a day as an anti-inflammatory, icing the knee every day when I got home from work until it was finally back to normal.

Lesson learned? Not really, because at the same time that this was going on, my right arm was starting to get cranky. I figured I had strained something, so I’d rest it for a week or so only to crank the whole machine back up again once it was feeling better. It kept happening and I didn’t change anything. And then one day, it stopped getting better.

“Oh good,” you’re thinking, “This is where he had that epiphany.” Um…yeah…

Kept going. I stopped doing any sort of push exercise when that kept triggering it, but I kept right on doing pullups and chinups and whatever else. I already knew when I started writing this that I was going to come off as dumb, but now that I’m actually reading these words…ugh. I think I need a drink.

As you might imagine, things kept getting worse. So I finally just stopped. And the pain didn’t. I sleep on my side with my arm tucked under the pillow, and for awhile I physically couldn’t do that without pain. I went to Kelowna on vacation a couple of summers ago stressed out that I had torn something in my arm. That FINALLY scared some fucking sense in to my head.

What had actually happened was that my biceps tendon flared up and started screaming “DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” so loudly that I simply couldn’t ignore it anymore. Months went by and it finally felt better. I could sleep normally again. And I started ever so slowly to begin working out anew, only this time things were very different.

My average workout time really hasn’t changed all that much, but the composition of what I’m doing has been altered drastically. Longer warmups and a whole Hell of a lot more cool down and stretching at the end. Now I mix in a little cardio interval after every exercise I do. I’m still working hard, but those muscle groups get a bit of time to regroup, which also makes things more effective since my next set of reps is likely to be better now that the muscles being worked aren’t already dead from the start. If I do something high intensity one day, I’m going to taper things down the next. Worn out and sore? Time for a break, or something like this, which is just a lot of warmup and stretching and some really light exercise intervals. I do a lot more circuits of half a dozen things a couple of times over, or a few exercises mixed with some high intensity cardio in quick bursts. I’ve also started doing foot/ankle stretch and strength exercises like this a couple of times a week. If your feet are fucked up, you’re fucked up. So actively trying to avoid that becoming reality seems like a good idea to me. And I own a foam roller, though using it a lot more often is something I still need to get on board with. I’ve started, though.

And if I’m hurting a bit, I alter what I’m doing. For example, right now I’m doing a program designed to help boost your pullup/chinup rep counts. It involves a lot of hanging from a pullup bar and lifting, holding or lowering myself. This morning, the middle of my back right between the tops of my shoulder blades was cranky from that program so I changed it up and passed on doing it today. Instead, I hit some upper body endurance exercises with really light weights, then did some back work with my TRX. I’ve also learned to tell if a little muscle tweak means “Okay, we’re still waking up, keep going and just bring it down a notch for a minute” or “Hey dude, STOP. Not cool today.”

I’ve started paying a lot more attention to persistent and repeated physical problems. An example : about a year ago, the plane we work with at work changed from an Airbus to a 757. That meant a downsizing of the freight containers we were able to use, but also that the containers load differently into the plane. I won’t bore you with the details. You’re welcome. Soon after, I started noticing persistent groin and quad pulls in my left leg. I wasn’t working out any differently, so I focused on how I was moving around at work. I was now basically side stepping the one end of the container into the plane, which meant up to 5,000 pounds was being shifted in a side step. That’s a lot of load being borne by a few specific muscle groups. So I changed the way I was moving and haven’t had an issue since. There have been other, smaller changes like that as well. Instead of persisting with some macho ‘grin and bear it’ crap that leads to nothing more than injuries later on, I’m now focused on dealing with problems to avoid them in the first place.

I finally decided to learn a little bit about caloric intake and the like, though I’ve never gotten to the point of calorie counting because that seems miserable and generally shitty. I just try to be a lot smarter about what I eat, and how much, and when. I actually did the basic calculation to figure out my Basal Metabolic Rate, which is how many calories you need to consume in a day when you do absolutely jack shit. Mine is right around 2,000. And I basically never spend an entire day doing absolutely jack shit, so I eat a lot more than that. I also eat a lot more during the day when I’m at work.

Net result of both of those things : more fat loss, since my body isn’t clinging to every ounce with a death grip as I’m no longer starving it for half a day every weekday. And I actually possess muscle tone, which is different and fun. I actually have lats and traps and leg definition and…whatever those muscles are where your shoulder comes down on to your arm. You know, those…hold on a second :

Those! Whatever those are. Anyway, I spent all summer rocking sleeveless t-shirts and tank tops. It felt good actually getting sun all over me (though without any real tan. I am not wired to tan). By the way, if you’re of the mistaken belief that strutting around like a toned motherfucker will bring the ladies around, allow me to set you straight. The only conversations you’ll have are with obsessed Crossfit dudes who want to blather on about their super sets and pull ups. It’s a definite downside.

And hey, it’s not all about being a showy bastard. I’m also a lot stronger. I can shift around a lot more weight at work a lot more easily than I could before. Some of that is technique and learning how to do so more efficiently, but some of it is strength improvement. My overall stamina is better, too…and I’m leaving that sitting there as a softball sex joke for anyone to jump on top of…OH LOOK, THERE’S ANOTHER ONE. You’re welcome.

Getting back to food intake, could I full-on micro-manage the Hell out of my diet and start figuring out EXACTLY how much of everything to eat every hour of every day? Sure. But I’m never going to do that, because I really don’t give that much of a shit about it. That would also suck all of the joy out of actually exercising, and I still do this because I enjoy it. I like pushing myself. I like improving myself. I like the endorphin rush once I’m done. I get enough post-workout energy that my daily coffee consumption has dropped significantly because I don’t really need it as much anymore. This need has also been reduced since I started taking cold showers. On purpose. Yep. It’s good for you for a lot of reasons, and it gives you a nice little bitch slap of wakefulness. Oh, and actually getting enough sleep helps, too.

Long story short : I finally grew a lick of sense, learned some more about what the Hell I was doing, and realized that I’m not a kid who can get away with overdoing things because he’s still a machine awash in testosterone. I know just enough to be dangerous, but no longer dangerous to myself. And that’s pretty sweet.

So How the Hell Did This Happen?

 

Wow, America. Wow. You really did it. You went ahead and handed the reins to a man who can’t be trusted to be in charge of his own Twitter account.

Based on the way that things seem to be leaning, Donald Trump is now the President of the United States. So how in the Hell did this happen?

First off, I guarantee you that piles of people are going to blame 3rd party candidates like Gary Johnson for ‘stealing’ millions of votes from Clinton. The people making those claims are idiots. Every candidate is a legitimate option for voters. Clearly, the two ‘big’ ones weren’t reaching those voters and they went another way. Good for them. Vote for whoever you believe in. Instead of blaming those voters for ‘wasting’ their vote, maybe try harder to actually reach them in the first place.

Really, there is one major guilty party in all of this, and that is…the Democratic Party.

For months it’s been nonstop talk about the Republicans and where do they go from here and how sad it is that this is the best choice they could nominate. And yeah, that is pretty sad. However, let’s look at the flip side. The best candidate that the Democratic Party could come up with was Hilary Clinton, someone they wanted so little to do with eight years ago that they brought up a guy named Obama and he won the nomination. They have so little in the tank that she was their best option. And where do THEY go from here? Who the Hell do they have coming along?

Again, lots of talk about schisms in the Republican Party, but what do you think is going on with the Democrats? A fair number of people in that party didn’t want anything to do with her. They wanted Bernie Sanders. They wanted to go a different way. Think they’ll be content today to just follow the party line that led them here?

The party just assumed that rust belt voters would continue to vote Democrat because that’s how things have always gone. Meanwhile, Trump actually went out there and actively campaigned. And while your local economy is getting driven into the dirt, yeah, you’re probably a little more willing to hold your nose and vote for the guy who’s claiming that he might change things and bring back the manufacturing base that you’ve been hemorrhaging for decades. Is it likely? No. But desperation breeds more desperation.

And this is maybe the most interesting part of all of this. Obama won on a platform of hope and change. Yet this time around, the Democratic platform was essentially ‘more of the same’. That didn’t resonate with people the way that the idea of changing things did. We had a sitting President with an approval rating of between 55%-57% actively campaigning for Clinton in states that he carried handily four years ago, but nobody cared. Because now the hope and change guy was just trying to talk up the establishment. They abandoned the platform that was a proven winner with voters and arrogantly assumed that everyone would just stay on board the D-train because…reasons. And we won’t even really campaign very hard in lots of those states because we’ll just assume that they’re ours again! Yeah, not so much. Arrogance is rarely pretty, and it certainly hasn’t panned out here.

Meanwhile, Trump was basically running some sort of dark and bizarro Obama-esque ‘change’ campaign. It was a Hell of a lot angrier and more repugnant, but he was the change candidate. And desperate people want change because they want to escape where they currently are. They don’t care about the awful shit you say when you promise them a better tomorrow. And popular entertainers kept doing him favors and humanizing him by bringing him in and showing people him actually possessing a sense of humor on occasion…thanks a lot, Lorne Michaels and Jimmy Fallon and others. You guys get to bear a little bit of blame for this fiasco, too.

The vast majority of the population is clearly pissed off and feeling disenfranchised. Facing that, the Democrats plugged their ears and covered their eyes and ran up a cavalcade of establishment political personalities to stump for her. That’s pretty much the absolutely worst thing you can do when people are angry at that very same establishment. And if anyone thinks that there aren’t rumblings of the same going on North of the border, you’re deluding yourselves. And people who are angry are a lot less likely to give a damn about ‘little’ things like personal morality and your platform on social issues. The Democratic campaign was a disaster. This was every bit the poorly run mess that the John Kerry debacle was. How the Hell it didn’t occur to ANYONE to perhaps stomp down on the e-mail scandal early is beyond me. Instead, we’ll just let it linger on and fester. Yeah, that was a winner of a decision. And that’s just the tip of the very big iceberg that the good ship Democrat just run into.

The worst part of all of this is that this is now going to be the tone of elections going forward. Get ready to see a lot more of this in a lot more countries, because it clearly worked. Whatever last shred of political discourse was left gasping for air and clinging to existence has been shot in the head and tossed in an open grave. It’s all going to get a lot angrier from here on in.

I clearly picked the wrong period of my life to try to be more positive…