We are back in Campbellsville earning the bread to fund next year’s travels. While C’ville is a good town for diesel engine work or to get your trailer’s sofa re-upholstered, it does little to inspire the would-be writer. So I will fall back on the sorry lot that has become our body politic in the 23 months since that disheartening election that, with some Russian help, put Hillary out to pasture and ensconced the Orange Liar in our White House.

In short, I am more disappointed in Trump than is the Kat. I actually believed some of his BS about Social Security and Medicare “Those programs are safe; you’ve paid for those benefits. Nobody’s taking them away.” I knew he liked what he calls ‘wins’ and figured that to get them he might work with Schumer and Pelosi on a national infrastructure bill. I was wrong on both counts. Kat was wrong too – she figured that human life would become extinct within his first two years – but now the Orange Man loves Kim Jong Un which could be making Putin jealous.

As a betting man I would take the over on Brett Kavanaugh’s perjured statements before the Senate Judiciary Committee, even if the Over/Under were set at 20 counts. How did the Republicans manage to hide 90% of the documents he generated while working for W’s political staff, and for Ken Starr in the Bill Clinton persecution? Were they so revealing the R’s had to hide them? Is it possible that the FBI could complete a thorough investigation of Dr. Ford’s under-oath allegations without interviewing her, Kavanaugh, or the dozens of now grown-up people who knew Kavanaugh in high school and college and remember a much different Bart? Yeah, all Kat and I can do is remember the Broadway play Annie and think of her singing It’s a Hard Knock Life.

Long and short, Democrats feel as cheated as we did after The Turtle highjacked Merrick Garland’s nomination for almost a year without even a hearing, never mind a vote. Kavanaugh is more partisan than is permissible for a judge at any level. But here he is, about to make law for the whole of the USA despite ABA objections, in the face of 2,400 law professors with serious concerns, and what looks to most of us like whitewash on his pants. Speaking of pants, we now have two sex offenders in the Supreme Court and arguably a worse one running the White House.

What is the State of the Union? It hasn’t been this bad since maybe 1870, Reconstruction, and the kleptocracy that was the Grant administration. It is so bad that Fox News (it’s all they play on the big screen TV’s at the Dodge dealership where my truck goes for its checkups) announced today that several states are so afraid of election day violence between voters that this election will be held over two days. Democrats and Independents (not a lot of “Second Amendment people” in our camps) must vote on Tuesday, November 6, while Republicans may vote only on the 7th).

All I can say is, maybe I will live long enough to see Texas turn purple. Willie Nelson is working to elect Beto O’Rourke there, and Taylor Swift came out for Phil Bredesen in Tennessee. Both singers have the net worth to be Republicans, but they prefer paying higher taxes to enjoying fewer freedoms.

Willie, Taylor, and Heidi Heitkamp: those are my new heroes. Neil Young remains an old hero, as do you. For your listening pleasure, here is Neil and friends playing Long May You Run.