I have trouble imagining myself as a Democrat, but I was one in the early-to middle 1990s. In my defense, I found them, by and large, to be a reprehensible lot. I am speaking here of the leadership of the Montana Democratic Party at that time. The leader of the party was Senator Max Baucus, as thoroughly dislikable as any politician I have ever known or followed, and I include Al Gore in that sentiment. I have worse things to say about the stuttering galoot, but I’ll stop there.
In my defense, as Monty Python might say, I got better. I quit the party, but I did not bounce to the Republican half of our one-party system. I came to realize that each party has a role to play, working together to prevent the rise of a true second party. The idea that we must be one or the other, or that behind closed doors there is true disagreement between them, is in my view absurd. Both parties work in conjunction to contain us, to keep us from moving out and forming movements that might threaten them. True, when elections are underway, there is intense bickering. But when it is over, they settle in and nothing changes, ever.
I do not vote, ever. I am told I have to vote to have a voice, but learned many years ago (the 2000s) that elections are stage-managed affairs, and that votes, the further up the power structure one goes, are not even counted.
Today we must deal with cancel culture. I follow comedy and comedians, and many now refuse to play campuses, as they have to be so careful not to offend the morally superior lot, that group that has underlings scouring past records looking for anything, even something decades ago, that can be used against them as racist or anti-feminist.
Thus did Alex Epstein come across Representative Cori Bush (D-MO), but I will link to that unsettling exchange later. I like Epstein and have both of his books next to me here. They are The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels (2014) and Fossil Future (2022). Each complements the other, so reading one negates the need to read the other. In fact, the 2022 book reads more like a textbook, in my view. It is loaded with practical information regarding the use and benefits of coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power.
Here is an exchange between Epstein and Barbara Boxer, former Democratic senator from California. They were in a hearing regarding climate and energy, the usual noise.
Boxer: Mr. Epstein, are you a scientist?
Epstein: No, philosopher.
Boxer: You’re a philosopher?
Epstein: Yes.
Boxer : OK, well this is the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. I think it is interesting that we have a philosopher here talking about an issue …
Epstein: It is to teach you how to think more clearly.
Slam! This is what I like about Epstein – he is clear-headed and does not back down. I don’t know Boxer’s response, but she was clearly beaten, and hopefully shut up.
I am linking here to an exchange between Epstein and Rep. Cori Bush. Her objective was obviously to derail him, put him on the defensive, and cancel his years of work on fossil fuels and public well being. Oddly, Epstein was to sit there quietly and not respond, a typical bullshit power play by a member of the cancel culture. Fortunately, the head of the committee heard Bush’s remarks and granted special time to him to respond. Epstein called her attack on him “despicable.”
Here are his talking points from his testimony before Congress.
Here are (Twitter feed) Bush’s despicable remarks calling Epstein a White Supremacist and a racist, , and Epstein’s measured response, effectively canceling her. She got the Boxer treatment.
Piece of Mindful 
Here in Alabama, we had a Senator Spencer Bacchus since the nineties who retired recently. Cousins? Bacchus incidentally is the Roman god of wine, revelry and drama.
I think Spencer is the one who was going door to door when he first ran, and I remember a sunny weekend when he talked to my parents on the porch for quite a while – modest suburban neighborhood. They told me recently that he pretty much agreed with everything they said, emphatically. So that when he left they couldn’t help having been charmed by him. Though I don’t think they were huge fans once he was in office and became entrenched as an unbeatable incumbent.
His replacement is an understudy of his called Katie Britt. She seems to model her affect after Sarah Palin – that’s my impression anyway, haven’t heard that being said. She was interviewed recently on a morning radio show and I was put off by her hysteria about all the culture war issues – trans, whatever. Kind of hard to take. I didn’t necessarily disagree with the sentiments, and of course it’s all a sideshow – but just as a matter of public discourse I’d be more comfortable with the old school model of a politician, condemning it in a very sober and reserved way. Call me sexist I guess.. Although Bacchus, never even gave interviews except during campaign season..
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Our (Montana’s) Max Baucus is a Seiben, his middle name, and a prominent sheep ranching family in the state. He was never popular, but was famous for campaign closing tactics such as exposing dirt on his opponents at the last minute, like a photo of his opponent who had long hair and beads in college .. other stuff. I briefly dated one of his staff members and intuited that she had quit because she had been jilted. We were at a labor union thing and he came up to her and expressed phony concern, and thought yuck! He had banged her. We were soon over.
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Sen. Tester has his tit in the wringer. Let’s see how he gets out of this one.
“Sen. Jon Tester attended a fundraiser with a partner from Silicon Valley Bank’s legal firm, just days after the tech-sector-focused bank collapsed.”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/03/14/democrat-jon-tester-raises-campaign-cash-with-partner-of-silicon-valley-banks-law-firm/
SVB loans huge money to unprofitable companies in AI, “Green” energy, Crypto scams, etc. — all driven by “the climate crisis.”
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