Welp. This was some week.

I'm just about out of words on all of the crazy of the last week. It's been a while since I've blogged about politics (one brain aneurysm ago, to be precise) but seriously. I didn't think they'd go through with it. Deep in my ever-optimistic heart, I really had hoped the Republicans would pull themselves back from the brink of going full on lunatic fascist. There would be a floor fight, a hero would rise to the occasion, and there would be a reasonable and sane Republican candidate who could actually talk about policy. A girl can dream. But no, they shut down that talk of rebellion on Day ONE, and the rest of the convention was frankly terrifying.

Full disclosure: I didn't watch it beginning to end because I need to sleep at night, but it was more than enough to know that the Republican party is now full-on batshit crazy. It was so bizarre, and not like any convention in my lifetime. Conventions are supposed to be where the party puts forth its Vision for America's Future. This was a stirring of violence, painting America as a desperate lawless hellscape (though all facts counter this fantasy) and damn, it was just such a freak show. They had to dig so low they had freakin' Chachi as a speaker, FFS! There was no policy, no plan, and it appears they still think they're running against President Obama. And that's the nicest thing I can say about it - the chanting, the threats against the other candidate, hell, the freaking invocation was ugly!

And our media is totally, willfully incompetent. With a few exceptions who dared to ask "What the hell are you talking about?" fact checking was an afterthought. Can't get in the way of the horse race for ratings and "both sides" bullshit.

On my side, it's considerably better but I still want to slap the shit outta some people on the internets. Hillary is smart and did some really good electoral math, and picked a VP who is qualified, smart, personable, well liked, has solid progressive creds (if Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club like him and the NRA doesn't, he's doing something right), and still, there is whining from the left. He's boring. They wanted the razzle-dazzle, not realizing that this solid, smart, reasonable guy hits the right note for the ticket. It's the extremely razzle-dazzle wildly unqualified reality show host (with an extremist running mate who may be allowed to wave from behind him now and then) vs. two highly qualified grownups there to get stuff done. Ever an optimist, I'm thinking the few whiny children who don't like the choice will recover from the disappointment that mommy gave them a quality fully-loaded SUV for their birthday instead of the flashy sports car they'd dreamed about, because she cares about their future safety. I think enough people will figure this out that I don't actually have to be afraid for the future.

But seriously, if anyone says "Oh, both sides are the same," around me, I may lose my shit on them in an ugly way. There really is NO room for both-sider-ism this year. This is unprecedented and dangerously nuts vs. smart, sane and competent, and again, ever the optimist, I am convinced that the majority of the American electorate will figure this out. And give her a Congress that actually wants to get shit done for the country while they're at it.

And then there was that shooting of the behavioral therapist in North Miami Beach. I think I've mentioned here a few times that this is my daughter and son-in-law's profession. My daughter is a behavior analyst who supervises a staff of behavioral therapists who do what that man was doing, a hard job they do day in and day out for mediocre money and a lot of challenges and responsibility. And her current staff is African-American. Residents do go AWOL once in a while, and staff goes out to bring them back. That man did absolutely everything he could to be calm and professional and calmly explain the situation, and even remained polite after being shot in the fucking leg while he's on his back with his hands in the air. Then he's cuffed and left on the broiling hot Miami street until the ambulance arrives, as if he'd somehow done something wrong and was a suspect, when neither he nor the autistic guy were ever even remotely a threat to anybody. Which the behavior therapist had explained, calmly and politely, while lying on the searingly hot pavement with his hands in the air, until he was shot anyway, and fortunately didn't bleed out on the hot pavement while waiting for the ambulance. If Barney Fife had nicked his femoral artery, that good, calm, professional man would be dead. So my daughter called me last night to rant about that, and about how that really could happen to one of her own staff, and she was furious and freaked out, and I didn't have anything to say because I'm furious and freaked out too. We've had a recent string of highly publicized inexcusable shootings by police, but this one may just win the trophy.

So I'm a bit fired up right now, and not much inclined to put up with anyone's bullshit.

Fortunately my own life is fine. Work is good. It's good to be back at the gym. Pokemon Go is both fun and more needed than ever (see above). Knitting is good. My Roku stick keeps me from watching political ads. Ellie is a delight, and her energetic kitten side has emerged over the last week or so. I must work on her sudden urges to wake me at 4 a.m. to tell me how much she adores me, but otherwise, she's a fabulous cat. She and Sophie are great together; it's like they've lived together forever.

I think I need to go watch a comforting old movie and weave a square or two.