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Imagine my surprise the other day when the granddaughters wanted to talk the presidential election. Specifically, they wanted to know if I was going to vote for Kam – a – la or “the other guy.”

I told them I was with that other guy, if said other guy was Donald Trump. They pronounced themselves to be on Team Kam – a – la.

A little digging revealed that my granddaughters mirror the Democratic Party electorate in general in that they were clueless about their preferred candidate.

Now, the girls have an excuse for that lack of knowledge, one being five years of age pushing six, and other six pushing seven. But what about those adult Democrats who have transitioned from blindly supporting the vegetable of the day – Clueless Joe Biden – to backing with rabid passion his cackling hyena underling Kamala Chameleon Harris?

How did my granddaughters come to fall into the Kam – a – la cult? YouTube.

Kam – a – la ads apparently are abundant on YouTube and the granddaughters, when under the care of unmentioned others, are allowed to watch copious amounts of videos on that leftist platform. Although they ostensibly are watching kids videos, they apparently get a heavy dose of Kam – a – la.

It would not surprise me that Democrats are targeting kids well below voting age. No less an authority on corrupting youth than Adolf Hitler is said to have proclaimed“give me a child when he’s 7 and he’s mine forever.”

The interesting thing about the granddaughters’ Kam – a – la fervor is that they actually are annoyed by the ads. Both told us tales of counting down the five seconds until they could hit the skip button and doing so with a fervor akin to a person driving a nail with a hammer.

To reiterate, they hate Kam – a – la ads interrupting their videos. They watch as little as possible of these ads. Yet they now know Kam – a – la’s name and that’s enough.

I’m not wasting my time trying to educate them. There is time enough for that before they actually get to vote.

It is, however, scary to see this drone-like behavior being cultivated in such young children.

Just today I read of Kam – a – la saying she backs a plan to increase border security by, wait for it, building a wall.

Kam – a – la’s next original (good) idea will be her first. She’s also borrowing Trump’s no-tax-on-tips proposal.

This queen of the flip flop missed her chance to star in Olympic gymnastics, presuming she would have been allowed to compete in one of her trademark, generously cut, pants suits.

It doesn’t matter that Kam – a – la is inconsistent. A recent survey by the Media Research Center found that 70 percent of registered Democrats, as well as Independents, had no clue of Kam – a – la’s position on issues.

For example, 78 percent didn’t know she supported a fund to bail out of jail violent BLM types. There were 74 percent blissfully ignorant of her stance to decriminalize illegal immigration.

That’s just a sampling. Yet Kam – a – la is thought to be even with Trump or ahead in this race for the presidency.

Kamala Chameleon supporters are vacuous sorts, looking for someone to care for them in their perpetual state of childhood.

I’m hoping my granddaughters grow out of this phase and don’t become the emotional and intellectual cripples who enable Democrats like Kam – a – la.

For the typical Democratic brain donors, apparently it is too late.

It’s official. I’m considering seriously the idea of coming out of retirement to become a server, the asexual term now used for waiters and waitresses.

This is a no-brainer. First of all, Donald Trump has proposed no income tax on tip income and, after the Democrats initially lampooned the suggestion as purely political, Me Too Kamala Chameleon Harris has proposed the very same thing as an add on to her Communist Manifesto economic plan.

But it goes beyond tax implications, the thought of me returning to the work force. I didn’t realize how much servers get and/or expect in tip income.

My epiphany on the matter came Saturday, as I treated two grandchildren to lunch at Eat’n Park following time spent at a playground. Since we had been at the Luray Park Playground (because the girls like it) we went to the Richland Eat’n Park outlet.

The restaurant chain is having a special on kids’ meals. The girls both wanted pancakes, so each got the Child Giggle Breakfast for $3.99. A few ounces of chocolate milk for each cost $1.99 apiece more, but still, a value overall.

And don’t forget this includes a Smiley Cookie! The server apparently did, never mentioning it. But, having been indoctrinated into this Eat’n Park cookie ritual by grandchildren, not to mention my son in his early years, I promised to stop at the counter on the way out to inquire about cookies, which were listed as “free” on my bill.

Even before that, however, I got my own giggle—chuckle. The server laid the bill on me. It was $12.68 with tax. I hadn’t eaten.

I put a $20 on the bill for payment. The server picked it up and asked “Do you need change?”

So, this sweet, young thing was fishing for a $7.32 tip on a $12.68 charge. I’ll save you the math – that’s about 58 percent. The young lady (at least I’m jumping to the conclusion from appearance that she was a young lady) sure had cojones.

Even the restaurants that kindly figure tip percentages and print them on your bill, don’t think to ask for 58 percent. I recall the most I’ve seen is 23 percent. And, a quick internet search indicates the usual expectation for a tip is 15 to 20 percent.

Perhaps this was an attempt to get a little extra from someone not up to asking for change when put on the spot. Because I don’t suffer from such fear of public embarrassment, I said that, yes, I wanted change.

I left a tip of $2.32 on the table, slightly more than 18 percent but far less than her wish. It could have been more, if she’d mentioned the cookies the kids deserved, and which they eventually got. But that required me standing at the checkout counter, even though I’d already paid, waiting for others to pay.

When I mentioned the missing cookies, the young girl working there pointed me to a bowl of prewrapped cookies sitting on the counter and the girls each took one. In the past they always had been brought to the table by the person getting the tip.

Perhaps you have noticed tip jars and the like sprouting everywhere. I worked for newspapers for more than 35 years, writing and in effect providing a daily service to readers. Yet, never in my wildest imagination did I expect them to tip me.

But order food online, stop at some sort of fast-food operation yourself, avail yourself of practically any service, and you face the extended upward palm, either literally or figuratively. I’m waiting for the cashiers at Walmarts or grocery stores soon to expect to be tipped. And shelf stockers. And greeters. And bag boys/girls.

A story posted last month on fastcompany.com told the touching tale of a guy getting a preflight snack from a self-serve kiosk at Newark Airport and being asked by the machine for a tip.

Artificial Intelligence?

It’s not that I’m against tipping. I even give considerable tips to the people who work at buffets such as our local Chinese operations, even though the strictest interpretations of tipping call for about half the usual rate for buffets and self-service.

Tipping culture in general has gotten out of control in this country, as satirized in a current TV ad that includes a guy getting a massage, then being given an electronic device to approve a tip.

In the spirit of if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, I want in on the action. I’ll give you a break. My standard tip rate will be a mere 50 percent. Just because you’re you.

It sure was laughable watching Robert F. Kennedy Jr. come out in support of Donald Trump Friday, even as Democratic apologists and lapdog media were trying to downplay the impact.

I will admit up front that I’m not sure this guarantees Trump will win this fall’s election, but that is more a tribute to Democratic ability to manipulate the vote.

It is telling that Kennedy’s litany of reasons for his fallout with the Democrats included censorship, their unholy alliance with media and big tech and big pharma, endless wars, weaponization of the justice and intelligence agencies of government to take down political opposition. And on and on and on.

The party that screams it is striving to protect democracy has been outed by a member of arguably the most prominent family in party history. He and others pointed out the coup on an existing president and would-be candidate for re-election, not to mention subbing in someone to replace him without even the hint of democratic process.

Let that sink in for a moment. This was not some far-right type taking down the Democratic Party. It was Robert F. Kennedy Jr.!

The Democrats predictably rushed to downplay the significance. They had labored long and hard in the courts and the media to hamstring Kennedy’s candidacy, effectively shutting him out of the Democratic Party process and then trying to keep him off ballots as a third-party candidate.

Now they dismiss the size and impact of RFK’s following. This is 180 degrees opposite what they said when they were mounting all those court cases – that he was a distinct threat to Clueless Joe and Kamala Chameleon.

I’d argue that RFK still is all of that.

Yet now the Democratic stooges, like Fox News political analyst Juan Williams, quite the left-wing hack, furiously tried to minimize the impact of this RFK announcement on the race.

To repeat, I’m not saying it guarantees a Trump win. It should, if the playing field and voting system were impartial as it supposed to be. But . . .

Most of us, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., know that is not the case. It’s nice to have RFK onboard. Hopefully it will be enough to prevent the party of darkness from winning in November and sending this country further into an inescapable abyss.

Jerome Powell, the Delphic Oracle of monetary policy, has spoken and lower interest rates have been all but promised, prompting buying sprees in financial assets including stocks, bonds and precious metals.

Powell, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, which sets monetary policy in America, is confident inflation is under control and now the emphasis should turn to protecting employment. Understand that Powell, like Punxsutawney Phil, has a checkered history on predictions.

Recall that it was Powell and his fellow monetary gurus who said inflation was “transitory” ahead of it spiking to highs of recent decades, prompting the ongoing attempt – as yet unfulfilled – to halt that “transitory” inflation.

Powell even poked fun at himself for that whole transitory mess during his Friday remarks at the elitist gathering of money policy makers in Jackson Hole.

Bottom line, the supposedly apolitical Federal Reserve that Powell heads, has made it clear it intends to cut interest rates just ahead of the election, attempting to goose the economy and head off a recession or worse. If that helps Chameleon Harris, well, we are, after all, leftist bureaucratic drones.

Thanks for being apolitical, Powell.

Left to be decided, in the minds of the talking heads on cable business shows, is whether the rate cutting begins with 25 basis points (one-quarter of a percent) or 50 basis points (one-half a percent).

Powell will read goat entrails between now and the September Fed meeting to set the final number to cut, those goat entrails being the ridiculous government reports on things such as inflation and jobs.

Recall that just yesterday those government experts downgraded their job creation number for the year ending in March by 800,000-plus jobs. It was a reduction of nearly 30 percent, not exactly confidence inspiring.

I will confess upfront I am not an economist. Despite that, anyone who’s taken basic economic courses (I have) understand that artificially increasing demand by keeping borrowing costs of money low with zero interest rates, or by injecting huge amounts of money into the system via government giveaways, and not commensurately increasing supply, brings inflation.

Plus, despite the promises you might hear from both sides of the political aisle, prosperity cannot be legislated.

Give everyone $1 million tomorrow and no one is better off, and could be worse off in the long run. That money falling from the sky will increase demand and prices. When the gift money has been spent, incomes return to normal but those inflated prices linger. Think of COVID stimulus handouts.

Similarly, with all the rush to increase the minimum wage to help people live a better lifestyle, it is fool’s gold.

Why not increase the minimum wage to $50 an hour and everyone becomes middle class?

The answer is jobs will disappear at the higher wages because as the minimum wage goes up more and more jobs make less and less economic sense. Best case scenario, working hours will be cut. Worst case, entire businesses fall into bankruptcy and disappear from the job-providing picture.

As it is, most jobs are being created by the government, and/or being filled by illegal immigrants.

But enjoy today’s sugar high of Powell indicating interest rate cuts are in the cards. Just realize the sugar high will pass and unpleasant reality is to follow.

We live during curious political times in these United States, a status reinforced by events from recent days.

FACT: Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance joked that the Dems held their convention in crime-ridden Chicago just so his Democratic counterpart, Tampon Tim Walz, who has been caught misrepresenting his military career as having included combat duty, could honestly lay claim to having been in a combat zone.

Some CNN journalistic genius found the need to fact check the joke. I repeat, it was a joke, a one-liner. Fact check this.

FACT: Harris-Biden brain donor Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (who obviously checks the right DEI boxes) was shocked to be asked by what she rightly anticipated should be a friendly ABC face about the Bureau of Labor Statistics revising downward by more than 800,000, the job creation total for the year ending the past March. The interviewer thought it might hurt the Harris election effort, although God knows why since facts don’t intrude there.

Raimondo, in typical deranged leftist fashion, said she believes nothing Trump says. In an unexpected moment of journalistic integrity, the interviewer noted it was not something Trump had said, but rather a BLS announcement. That would be from Raimondo’s Harris-Biden regime. Replied Raimondo “I’m not familiar with that.”

Is Cackling Kamala Chameleon Raimondo’s role model when it comes to forgetting/ignoring inconvenient facts? At least Raimondo didn’t do a hyena impression – this time.

FACT: Various reports have Robert F. Kennedy Jr. coming out Friday with an announcement that he is folding his tent as a third-party candidate for president and endorsing Trump.

This obviously is a much bigger item than my previous two. I buried the lead, as we used to call it in newspapering, to mirror the laughable habit of local TV news to highlight anything and everything in State College/Centre County and downplay Johnstown happenings, all while operating from a studio less than a mile from my house.

Past readers of this blog know I have respect for Kennedy. I’ve noted his bravery in going against the far-left tilt of his former party. I don’t agree with Kennedy on every issue, but I do think he has intellectual honesty and common sense, two qualities long ago thrown out of politics as practiced by the left.

If Kennedy endorses Trump, it is major news. It is no doubt intentionally ironic timing that it is planned to be divulged as the Democratic convention races into its home stretch.

Kennedy gives Trump what VP pick Vance does not, that is the ability to pick up votes from those not already in the Trump camp.

Those infamous undecideds and independents, whose waffling to the last minute becomes a nauseating aspect of every national election as they revel in being courted due to their indecisiveness (how do these people ever do something major like buying a house, getting married, having children?) just might break toward Trump due to an RFK Jr. endorsement.

We can only hope they do, and that they come in numbers of 10,000,000 or so, because that’s likely the margin Trump is going to need to overcome the revved-up Democratic vote enhancement/counting techniques and actually be the admitted election winner.

A person who tracks investment markets closely – and I do – continually is amazed by overreactions to government statistics or utterances.

Simply put, mostly these are wildly incorrect and tend to be more propaganda than reality. Yet markets gyrate wildly based on them before regaining equilibrium.

Today provides yet another example of how ridiculous it is to act on those numbers in the moment. The Bureau of Labor Statistics came clean this morning, revising down its estimate of job growth for the year that ended March 2024, by 818,000 jobs.

That’s lopping about 30 percent off the previously reported figure of approximately 2.9 million jobs gained.

It was the greatest ex post facto revision of these numbers since 2009.

Why does this keep happening?

Let us count the reasons.

First of all, these numbers are not actual counts, but more like guesses based on economic models. And, as we are finding out in examples such as artificial intelligence, the people doing the programming or deciding the model factors, influence the outcomes in whatever direction they prefer.

Second, considering that most bureaucrats lean left, no matter which party supposedly is controlling the government, it is likely that the models are designed to aid the cause of the left whenever possible.

You should be aware of these statistical fun and games. To base investments on this obviously questionable information is nonsensical in my view. But that’s how the game is played, so you go with the crowd.

This brings us to utterances, such as we will hear Friday from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome “Jay” Powell.

Powell and his unelected rulers of the money world are meeting at Jackson Hole, an annual elitist gathering to set the monetary policy for the world. Lesser speakers will be making the rounds of the cable business networks, pontificating but not illuminating in coming days.

Powell, the Big Kahuna, speaks Friday morning, with much anticipation ahead of this. Think of the Great Oz.

Investors, or the computer algorithms to which investment firms have abdicated the role of parsing language and investing based on that parsing, will hang on every Powell syllable.

Just for kicks and giggles, monitor stock, bond and precious metals markets as Powell speaks to see them being moved significantly by Powell’s words.

Then recall that 818,000 job downward revision, revealed almost six months after the fact.

I’m treating this week’s Democratic National Convention much like I did the recently completed Summer Olympics, that being to ignore the event secure in the knowledge that it, too, shall pass.

This is a wisdom gained from aging on my part. I’ve learned that when you know bearing witness to an event is more likely than not going to prove to be a source of immense frustration and distaste, simply avoid it.

It’s not that I can exist in total isolation. Olympic revelations, such as pagan opening and closing ceremonies, men beating up women in the sexually fluid boxing category previously limited to biological females, and LeBron James looking like a fool acknowledging a raucous greeting not for him but for a home-country French athlete, all made it through my filter as these bon mots showed up on news feeds and even on some investing programs or web sites I frequent.

So it is with the DNC. Despite not watching a single minute of live coverage so far, still I’ve learned that Clueless Joe Biden was shunted to a late-night speaking slot well past his bedtime, that Shillary continues to sling bile and falsehoods, that the Hamas wing of the Democratic party is making lively and the convention site has been protected by, wait for it —- A WALL – like that which sent leftist Democrats into histrionics when Donald Trump began building one on our southern border to prevent the influx of the world’s riffraff.

Kamala Chameleon also is co-opting Trump proposals such as no tax on tips or Social Security.

But the cackling hyena’s main economic points are a mix of communism and socialism that would do Mao and Stalin proud and have drawn rebukes from traditionally leftist media outlets ranging from the New York Times to CNN.

The leftists insist that the inflation you continue to suffer with is not due to the regime of Harris-Biden juicing the money supply so as to create artificially high demand without a concurrent increase in product availability, but just owes to greedy grocery stores and the like raising prices simply to gouge you.

The Cackling Kamala answer is, of course, price controls, a historically failed tactic proven in past usage only to worsen the problem by further dampening supply.

Kamala Chameleon also wants to tax unrealized capital gains. You say the house you bought for $100,000 now is worth $200,000, well congratulations, you owe tax on that increase, mostly at a rate of 15 to 20 percent according to current capital gain rates.

Perhaps you have read recurring stories through recent months and years that the average American household does not have spare cash to meet an unexpected $500 expense. That’s bad news for them considering 15 percent of $100,000 is $15,000 and 20 percent is $20,000.

But, it gets worse. Cackling Kamala’s proposal is 25 percent tax for unrealized gains, so you owe $25,000 in our theoretical example.

People are going to have to sell whatever they can – stocks, bonds, other assets or holdings – to raise cash to pay tax on gains that exist only in the minds of thieving politicians.

Cackling Kamala’s economic plan includes various giveaways to favored groups, which she says in her typical nonsensical manner, will “pay for itself.”

Always, it seems, these governmental payoffs in the quest for votes, are called “investments.”

The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget begs to differ. It ran the numbers and found Cackling Kamala’s plan would add $1.7 to $2 trillion to our burgeoning deficit over the next ten years.

But Democrats seldom let facts get in the way of an agenda and this convention is more of the same. Keep hitting the ignore button.

Chameleon Harris had a rally the other day in North Carolina that the most enthusiastic reports indicate didn’t crack three hundred in attendance – even if you include staff and media.

One outlet’s report referred to “about 250 people” crediting Harris staff for providing that number. Not that they’d be incentivized to enhance that total, sort of like ballot counters in Democratic precincts.

Breitbart.com headlined about the Harris event drawing a “mere 250” after opponent Donald Trump had gotten thousands to turn out for a similar recent rally he held in the same state.

The website independentsentinel.com ran a story putting the Harris North Carolina attendance at a reported 109.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, Trump packed thousands into a Wilkes-Barre area arena in eastern Pennsylvania, with many (likely more than 109) being turned away.

Pardon me for thinking I’ve seen this act before.

Recall campaigning Clueless Joe Biden hiding in his basement in 2020, and emerging infrequently to crowds that numbered in the 10s for his public utterances. Meanwhile, Trump drew tens of thousands to events.

Somehow, despite all this anecdotal evidence regarding enthusiasm and popularity, when the voting totals were released, Clueless Joe had set a record with more than 81 million votes in the 2020 election.

Chameleon Harris is running the same playbook. Lamestream media is providing cover for the Chameleon on these attendance matters, constantly referring to her huge turnouts and neglecting that some of those numbers just might have been goosed by having her rallies held in coordination with concerts by popular singers and the like.

It is undeniable that Harris appearances are outdrawing those of Biden, which were more intimate gatherings than crowds. With Chameleon about to spend a week in the spotlight of the Democratic Convention, before a guaranteed audience, crowd propagandists will take a well-deserved hiatus from their work of sowing misinformation.

But they will be back afterward, with their lapdog members of the Lamestream media at their side to back up inflated crowd numbers and dare any of the usual suspects to fact check them.

‘Tis time for a musical interlude, to be sung to the tune of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

You better turn out,

At least you should try,

We’re making a count,

And yes, we will lie,

Democrats are coming to town.

We’re counting the crowd,

Inflating at least twice,

If you’re not there,

Then we’ll count you thrice,

Democrats are coming to town.

We count you if home sleeping,

Or boating on a lake,

We care not if you’re bad or good,

We just count you for our sake.

You better turn out,

At least you should try,

We’re making a count,

And yes, we will lie,

Democrats are coming to town.

When you see or hear media types citing ‘sources” for information in their reports, understand this often either is because those sources are ashamed to go on the record about it all, or maybe the media doesn’t really have anything and is just making it up and throwing the stuff against the proverbial wall to see if it sticks.

Consider yourself forewarned that this blog post relies on “sources” who relay to me what they see on social media because I don’t partake in that madness.

Apparently, there currently is much ado on social media – the megaphone for morons – about plans for Johnstown’s Central Park, with those plans being to spend $8 million or so to spruce up the place, not that there’s anything really wrong with it now. But, hey, there is free government money to be spent and a lot of hogs ready to run to the trough to eat, so . . .

Cue Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” lyrics:

“So they paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel

A boutique

And a swinging night spot.

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone

They paved paradise

Put up a parking lot.”

Mitchell’s musical lament continues:

“They took all the trees

Put ’em in a tree museum

And they charged all the people

An arm and a leg just to see ’em.”

For those who don’t know, Joni Mitchell is your typical troubled leftist sort, a bundle of contradictions. Consider she is alleged to have committed the sin of wearing a blackface costume multiple times in her past and she pulled her music from Spotify in solidarity with Neil Young who was acting as Joe Rogan’s would-be censor. Mitchell and Young both seem to have discovered the lost income hurts and have relented on their boycott.

Did you even know they were missing?

This doesn’t mean that Mitchell’s lyrics can’t be cited for inadvertently having made a point regarding Johnstown’s Central Park proposed revamp.

With much fanfare, those plans were rolled out before the public a while back, each containing varying degrees of removing trees and putting down more concrete.

The centerpiece fountain is out, leaving us to wonder where drunks will frolic in the future?

Also in danger is the Gazebo, or Gay-zebo as my former Daily Bugle union brothers who worked in the composing room used to call it due to them often interrupting same-sex liaisons as they left work in the wee hours of the morning.

We’ve already shipped a reported $1.6 million out of town for someone to draw up some plans and engineering data for Central Park II.

One or more wish list items included a so-called splash pad. We already have tried this in Cambria City, which is where Mitchell’s line about being charged an arm and a leg just to see ’em comes to mind.

There is a massive presentation online about the Central Park plans, with many of the Myopia 2025 operatives credited for their help, input, rubber-stamping, etc.

A simple rule that will stand one in good stead in Johnstown is if Myopia 2025 is for it, you should be against it.

So it goes with the re-imagined Central Park.

Can’t we just string a few more rows of overhead electric lights and call it a day?

A cousin insists Kamala Chameleon is destined to be the first woman president of these United States in the near future, but he’s not necessarily predicting she will win the election vs. Donald Trump. Yet, he’d still be willing to bet on Kamala Chamelon as president.

What gives?

According to his line of reasoning, Kamala Chameleon was added to the Biden ticket in the first place to placate various Democratic constituencies by promising a woman of color would be but a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Even back when Biden was a candidate hiding out in his basement on the way to supposedly receiving the most votes in U.S. electoral history, most knew his heartbeat – and brainwaves – were on the faint side.

All Kamala Chameleon had to do was stay alive and Joe was likely to shuffle off this mortal coil before his term expired.

But Joe confounded them all, still fogging a mirror late into his term, despite his foggy mental function.

Alas, Joe would not go quietly into the night (or maybe it was DR. JILL BIDEN!!!), so the Democrats had to bring out the big knives to get him off the ticket and allow Kamala to ascend to a candidate position for which she had yet to receive a single vote from the populace. This is how they save democracy!

And, magically, we are to believe that this once extremely unpopular vice president, best known for presiding over disasters such as the southern border, and cackling like a hyena to cover awkward moments when she could not answer easy questions, now is neck-and-neck with Trump, if not ahead.

Democrats already have thrown their voting machines into high gear to usher her into the Oval Office. And only a fool would bet against their ability to manipulate things so as to elect the seemingly unelectable.

My cousin recognizes all that. But he also thinks the Democrats have a backup plan.

It’s strictly back-alley stuff, the favorite turf of Democrats.

His theory is that even if Trump can beat the odds and the Democratic chicanery to win this fall’s election, Clueless Joe once again will be given an offer he can’t refuse. This time, leaving the party ticket won’t be enough, Joe will be shown the door in the final months of his presidency.

Whether it be by invoking the 25^th amendment on simple, old Joe, or a rushed impeachment, or maybe one of these times he falls down a flight of steps and he won’t be able to rise again, the cousin sees the Democrats as ready, willing and able to salvage electoral defeat with a strikingly symbolic and meaningless gesture, that being making history by installing Kamala Chameleon in the presidency for a few lame-duck months.

Think of this along the lines of the climactic end to the movie “Animal House,” when the Delta guys perform what the Otter character describes as “a really futile and stupid gesture.”

Life imitates art.