TX Outlaw Writers: We Endorse...

As publisher, owner, editor, and Czar of the Texas Outlaw Writers, I hereby endorse...Well, speaking for ALL of us, WE endorse...
Oh heck. I dunno. I mean, do we know enough about both candidates? Maybe we should remain undecided. You know, what do we REALLY know about Harris's actual policies? So, so hard to know. Sure, there's her website, internet access to her speeches, almost hourly interviews on TV, podcasts, and even with the old print guys... but how do we KNOW how she will lead? Trump is, well, basically unhinged, incoherent, and his "leadership team" appears to resemble the Third Reich, but at least we know what he stands for and how he governs! I mean, he governs like a meth-addicted pizza rat trapped in a KFC bucket, but he cut taxes!

Wait! I know! We just won't make an endorsement! Maybe it SEEMS chickenshit and very Bezosian, but we need to be perceived as completely unbiased. Not in any of our previous "coverage," but certainly starting from here on out. Now we're not Bezos, and this isn't the Washington Post, but maybe we should take his example. "We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement."

Bezos impartiality is important. Billions of dollars in federal contracts are at stake for him: Amazon’s cloud-computing subsidiary (Amazon Web Services) and also to Blue Origin, which is locked in tough competition with SpaceX. "Nice rocket company you got there... be a shame if something happened to it." So Bezos rose up and took a principled stand. After decades of hard-hitting political reporting and opinion, the WaPo will sit this one out. Take that, Woodward, Bernstein, and the ghost of Katharine Graham! So what if you lose close to a quarter million subscribers - when you're worth a couple hundred billion dollars, that's a rounding error.

So here at T.O.W., what's it gonna be? We can't afford to lose hundreds of thousands of subscribers or even ones of subscribers. It's not like we're billionaires. We're simple, multi-thousandaires who can't risk the loss of tens of dollars. And who knows, there may be a venture capital group out there, ready to put it all on the line to grow this monster business in waiting. But we are OUTLAWS for Gawd's sake!

Shouldn't we, too, take a principled stand? We're not the type to sell out! I mean, we're willing to hear an offer, but you can count on us to do the right thing! (How much did you say again?)

Still, we need to time to evaluate. Trump says he was good for the economy, and he oughta know! He says the current economy is bad, and he's a billionaire! Or a millionaire, who can know for sure? But he's one rich dude, with rich friends... he gotta know economy stuff!

Trump can "fix" the economy by raising tariffs, 60% on goods from China and 20% on everything else the United States imports. It seems like that would be tacked onto all consumer goods and send inflation through the roof, but he works for the good of the little guy! That's us! He knows what he's doing, and he says he'll make Elon Musk his Efficiency Czar! Elon is the richest man in the world! He knows a thing or two about making money, and he's ready to show us how! Musk proposes cutting 2 TRILLION dollars from the US budget! Fantastic! Sure, millions of people would be laid off, services cut to pieces (probably social services like Medicare and Social Security,) but in his words, “We have to reduce spending to live within our means...And, you know, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.” No pain, no gain, amIright? A billionaire 400 times over, he will no doubt, share in that pain.

It's sad, SAD that the mainstream media doubts the fact that this will "fix" the economy.

In a joint letter released last week, 23 Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economists warned that Trump’s plans for tariffs, tax cuts and an immigration crackdown — including detaining and deporting millions of people — would “lead to higher prices, larger deficits, and greater inequality.” More than anything, they wrote, Trump would undermine the rule of law and political certainty, “the most important determinants of economic success.”
“Everyone’s going to have to take a haircut. … We can’t be a wastrel. … We need to live honestly,” Musk said.

And we could all use a haircut!

Still, we really know nothing about HER policies.

Trump has a few critics, to be sure. Like these low-ranking military types. Kinda weird, though. I thought it was the raging liberals that were calling him "fascist," and not his own hand-picked staff members and conservative military officers.

Even the current president, "Sleepy Joe" had the nerve to call Trump supporters garbage!!! So Trump put on his shiny work vest and special safety glow face cream and boarded Garbage Force One to own the libs! You don't see Kamala Harris getting her hands dirty with the American people, do you? No, I didn't think so.

(below) Brent Terhune, your average Trump supporter and part-time comedian, got choked up describing driving the ex-president around in his garbage truck. (Hilariously, several MAGAts and a few right-wing commentators fell for this bit, hook line and sinker.)

The more I think about the responsibility I have to the TOW readers (and writers,) and the more gin and tonics that I sip as I ponder this indecision, the more I might be willing to take a risk on the lady-person that is running, BUT I'M STILL NOT SURE! (Commala? Kahmahley? Comlala?)

I did happen to catch this clip by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. He put together a fairly serious piece for your Republican friends. Probably wouldn't move the needle for the hard-core MAGA set, but for us undecideds and some who lean a little rightward, it's a pretty compelling little laundry list of, uh, considerations that might be useful in making up one's mind.

(It was a great, non-snarky monologue, btw. If there IS someone in your life that this might help, pass it on.)

I think I finally made up my mind when I saw Bill Maher's show this week. He called us, (the undecideds,) Christmas Eve Voters.

“I call them the Christmas Eve shoppers of politics. They know the big day is coming, but they just can’t get themselves to do anything about it until the last minute. My father was that guy with Christmas he would do all his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve, night, an hour before the store is closed, he would go to a single department store with no idea what he was going to get. But that’s why a department store is great. Oh, look, toys!”

“Do I love everything about Kamala? No, who told you you get to love everything? Do I wish she came up with a better reason to be president than ‘I’m not Trump’? Yeah, it would have been very helpful. But let’s not forget: I’m not Trump is still a really great reason.” 

On Halloween, my lovely wife Velveeta and I were on our porch, handing out candy. A little girl in some kind of princess outfit nervously came up the steps, a punkin' bucket in one hand, a little ghost in the other. I held the dish out, and so that she could have a hand free, she tossed the Tootsie-Pop ghost into the bowl. Took a piece of candy and turned to run off, her parents waiting at the gate.
"Hey, you forgot your little ghost!"
Her parents waved. "No, that's for you."
The girl smiled very sheepishly and started for the next house.

I dunno if I'll make it long enough to run into that kid again when she's an adult. But I bet she'll make a good one. I'm sure that what's left of my 'brane' will be mush by then, and I hope a couple of body parts will still be functional... (I miss so many already!) Maybe I'll look up from my bed at the Old Dumb White Guy's Rest Home and InSanitorium and she'll be the one to hand me my meds, or maybe she'll be running the place. I hope so. It'll make giving up my ghost a bit easier.

The little girl was cute as so many princesses were that night, but it was her parents that I watched as they prepared to walk up to the next house. Getting the next ghost ready, reminding her to say "Happy Halloween" and "Thank you." Caring, loving, smart, decent.

What a country we've become when those traits often seem the exception.

So here at the Texas Outlaw Writers, we endorse decency. We endorse smart. We endorse caring. We wholeheartedly, without reservation, (and unless some really, really huge buyout offer comes in worth billions,) endorse the Harris/Walz ticket.

PS. Vote.
And drag your apathetic twenty-something year-old kid who still lives in the basement (or whose cell phone bill you still pay) by the ear down to the polls and make them vote.