Is anyone really surprised by this?

As much as I want to say that I don’t really pay much attention to the political climate of America, I feel like it’s one of those things that people kind of grow into as adults, or maybe it’s just me.  Perhaps it’s because I’m at the age where the decisions of politicians can actually affect me in some capacity that makes me a little bit more astute to them, or maybe it’s the existence of social media that opens my eyes to people I know who are all more well educated and pay more attention to them than I do, which kind of passively makes me curious as well.  Maybe it’s because I like to pretend like I’m pretty well versed in current events, so I like to read or pay attention to the news on a fairly regular basis.  Perhaps it’s all of the above.

Either way, the events of the Brett Kavanaugh saga and the ascendancy to Supreme Court Justice have been something of a big deal in the world of Washington over the last few weeks, and I’ve learned more about things than I probably really would’ve wanted to.  Frankly, there are far way more educated people in the topic of this whole story, but all I really know is that the president nominated this guy to replace a retiring Supreme Court Justice and because liberal America hates the president, they immediately hate his nominee.  Immediately, the nominee’s personal history is dug up in record time, and red flags are raised at the notion and multiple accusations that he has a little bit of sexual assault in his history and that perhaps he shouldn’t be nominated for, y’know, the highest court in the country.

Naturally, it devolves into what everything devolves into these days, a bold line in the sand drawn, and a vitriolic battle between Republicans and Democrats, conservatives versus liberals, or whatever you want to call it that embodies the stark and harsh divide that represents the United States these days.

The thing is though, and I try to be as objective as possible when it comes to stories like this, because I think it’s way too easy for people to pick sides solely based on scuttlebutt of what their social networks sound like, and not necessarily their own independent thoughts.  But frankly, whether or not the accusations are true of Kavanaugh’s past behavior, the bottom line is that surely in the landscapes of America, exist people who are vastly more unanimously qualified to become a Supreme Court Justice than him.

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Only going to talk about this once (hopefully)

So Yosemite Sam won the Republican nod to run for governor this November; this is not at all surprising, as victory was pretty much locked in as soon as the Donald Trump gave him his endorsement, which all but guaranteed all of his brainless sheep worshippers would vote him in.  Also not surprising was the relative ease in which he won the primary, defeating Casey Cagle by nearly 40 full points, going to further show just how much power a president that everyone loves to make fun of truly does wield.

So the field is officially set for probably the most important state election that I’ve lived in Georgia for, between gun-toting, Trump-worshipping, immigrant-threatening, unapologetically redneck Yosemite Sam, versus Stacey Abrams, a black woman, in a racist-ass state in busted-ass America, for governor of Georgia.

Obviously, I’ve written a lot of words about this particular topic, more than I ever thought I’d care to ever expend.  But I’m a grown-up (relatively), and I guess this is what happens to grown-ups, caring about politics, and I like the general state of Georgia these days, and I fear that a radical change in the political regime of the state highly jeopardizes such chill state of Georgia.

The bottom line is that no matter how much money, exposure and awareness that the Democratic party has funneled behind Stacey Abrams, she is obviously going to be the underdog by being both black and a woman, trying to make history, by becoming the first-ever black female governor in the United States.  In Georgia.  A state with deep roots involved with slavery, white supremacy and barely a decade removed from when they actually got the Confederate insignia off of its flag.

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Not sure if this is a good thing to disclose or not

Long story short: City of South Fulton Renaissance Wakanda City of South Fulton’s entire law enforcement division led entirely by African-American women; publicly acknowledged as “black girl magic”

Yeah, if I were still living in South Fulton county, I’d be happier if the law enforcement arm they weren’t doing photoshoots and were actually doing some work.  I’m not entirely sure this is such a great story to break currently, because for those who don’t really follow what’s going down in the City of South Fulton, the whole place is kind of in shambles, infrastructure wise.

The fact that they can’t even land on a name for the city goes to show just how disorganized and lacking in structure the whole place is in general, but the law enforcement is a whole other story.  Seldom does a day goes by where the front page of the AJC doesn’t have some sort of story that contains the words “shooting,” “killed,” “crime,” “South Fulton,” or any combination of them on it, because the crime is that out of control down there and continuously getting worse.

It’s the primary reason why I sold my house and moved away, and not a day goes by whenever I see a crime story emerging from down there, that I’m so glad to have gotten out of there when I did, even if it meant taking a loss on the house and going through a little bit of separation anxiety of parting ways with my first owned home, even if it was in a rapidly deteriorating area.

And as I’ve said numerous times, I’m still subscribed to the Nextdoor community online for my old neighborhood, because it’s giving me constant reminders and daily insight to just how much South Fulton is continuing to spiral downward.  I can see first-hand from people that still live there just how much they’re frustrated and exasperated with the escalating crime problems down there, and this is exactly why I’m not the least impressed by articles about how South Fulton’s law enforcement is helmed entirely by African-American women.

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KANE FOR MAYOR

In short: Glenn Jacobs, better known as WWE wrestler “Kane” wins the Republican primary in the Knox County, Tennessee mayoral race

In other words, Kane is one step closer to becoming an actual mayor of an actual county in an actual metropolitan area in the United States.  Not a bad achievement for a guy who makes his living fake beating people up in a fake sport.  The only thing that stands in the way of total victory now is the Democratic candidate in the general election in November.

Honestly, I didn’t think Kane was going to make it this far, because despite how ironically funny and cool it would be to see a professional wrestler ascend the ranks of government and take public office, cooler heads tend to prevail in the end, and the career politicians usually end up winning most of the time.  But now that Kane has emerged victorious in the first critical step, I want to see nothing more than for Kane to go all the way and become MAYOR KANE, and send Knox County, Tennessee straight… to… HELLLLLLL.

Lest we forget Kane’s resume for becoming a mayor:

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I guess Atlanta can kiss Amazon HQ2 goodbye now

If you’d have asked me any time prior to today what I thought were the chances that Atlanta would have landed Amazon’s prized HQ2, I would have said somewhere in the realm of, 100%.

And I wouldn’t be saying it solely because I live here, and I’d love the idea of HQ2 taking root in my city; in fact, I’m actually quite skeptical of if Atlanta were to be the selected holy land to secure HQ2.  As much as people believe that the arrival of Amazon into the State of Georgia would magically turn the entire state into millionaires, there’s quite a substantial amount of proof that quite the opposite could occur, from one corporate entity holding way too much leverage over the place they chose to call home.

But I think when all the dust has settled, I think there’s more room for benefit and good to come out of HQ2 being in Atlanta than would be if it didn’t.  And realistically speaking, I genuinely feel like Atlanta has a very good shot and getting HQ2, mostly because it’s a city that offers just about everything that they’re looking for: an EST time zone, mild climate that rarely has to worry about snowstorms derailing everything, a major travel vein both domestically and internationally, major hubs for both UPS and FedEx, and a pipeline into a prominent tech incubator that Georgia Tech would be for them. 

Most importantly, Georgia is a state that has proven to be more than willing to play ball with big businesses, and have been willing to bend over backwards for prominent names and businesses, such as Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and the entire film industry.  Without question, Georgia and the City of Atlanta would have done absolutely whatever it took to make Amazon pick them for HQ2, even if it meant royally screwing every single Georgian in the process, just to be able to say tomorrow will be better than today.  Shit, one entire town has declared willingness to rename their entire populous Amazon, if they were chosen to house HQ2.

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Well that didn’t take too long

Bashing the Atlanta Braves and all their dumb greedy business decisions is like the gift that keeps on giving.  Whenever I think I’ve written about the last Braves-related fuck up for a while, more and more just keeps coming out in recent days, which is hilarious considering the unofficial start of the baseball season kind of starts next week.

Just recently, there was the news report about the financial shortcomings of ScumTrust Park, and how WSB was investigating and digging for some justifiable answers with the Braves naturally holding their hands close to their hearts under lock and key and mountains of rehearsed rhetoric.  But because public money is involved, there’s always a way to get some degree of clarity, and it turns out that Cobb County is in nearly $30 million dollars of debt on account of ScumTrust Park and the predictably low-impact of its repayment terms.

It’s no surprise that this happened, but the great unknown was always what exactly was going to be the result of the Braves putting the county into the hole.  I figured an increase in tax, like a penny here or a half-cent there would be tacked on somewhere to make up for the deficit, but it looks like that the county has just decided to Tomahawk Chop™ off the public libraries of the county in order to make up for the shortfall. 

Neat.  Start closing off libraries in order to pay for a fucking baseball stadium, and deny children and other people the simple pleasure and/or benefit of, books.  Cobb County has some of the better-rated schools in the state, but it sounds like they’re willing to forfeit some of this ranking in exchange for a baseball venue that only really draws the majority of its money during the baseball season, and not much else.

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lol South Fulton Renaissance

Because nobody on the planet but me is interested: Renaissance, Georgia has their new name vetoed by mayor; cityhood reverts back to the City of South Fulton

Well slap me around and call me Susan – I would never have imagined that this was actually going to happen.  I also have zero idea of how the political system works, because last time I counted, the name was officially voted on and in both cases, Renaissance won out, regardless of how much opposition it got from the contingent who didn’t believe their opinions weren’t represented.  So despite all the voting, it ultimately still was shot down by a singular person: the mayor of Renaissance/South Fulton, who decided that the naming of the city was basically unimportant in comparison to other priorities, like creating a police force and infrastructure.

So it’s back to the City of South Fulton, which sounds as ghetto now as it did a month ago when it was phased out for Renaissance.  The people who were very pro-Renaissance are probably very disappointed, and those who weren’t so much fans of “the City of South Fulton” as much as they didn’t like the name Renaissance, well they’re probably very satisfied with themselves, in getting what they want.

Personally, I think the whole thing is an ironic joke which was a microcosm of just how much of a dead end the south part of the metropolitan Atlanta area actually is, and the perpetual spinning of wheels being done in the area I used to live in, which are always reminders of just how fortunate I am to have left when I did.  Basically, the City of South Fulton just wasted the better part of the last six weeks trying to get a name change, succeeded for a hot second, but then ended up with no change at all.  God only knows how much money was flushed down the toilet in this exercise in futility in wasted effort and labor towards a sinking ship.

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