The Nazi caucus

 I got some practice in last night which went "meh" but it was over an hour, and there are two things going on: First, I kind of got a boost from the Christmas season because I knew all those carols and there was the whole mood of the season, with people highly appreciative of them. Secondly, I've not been practicing the past couple of weeks which kind of makes sense in that it's cold, often rainy, and no one's in the mood including myself. 

The radio is full of news about the Nazi caucus, held of course in Iowa because Iowa checks two boxes, (1) it's the least-educated state of the US while also being (2) almost completely white. And of course they're slobbering all over Low-Budget Orange sHitler. 

I had a brief thought while making coffee today. What if Ernst Roehm had somehow managed to avoid being killed by Hitler and instead, prevailed? As far as I know, Roehm wasn't rabidly anti-Semitic the way Hitler was, and he actually took the "socialist" in the Nazi Party's name somewhat seriously. Germany may have ended up with a nationalist, even Fascist, party but with regard to Jews it may have been how things had been developing, with Jews integrating more and more into German society and many serving bravely in WWI. There may have been "Germanification" programs for the flood of Jews coming in from the new Soviet Union, instead of their being used as a scapegoat by Hitler. It might have been perfectly fine to be a Jew, as long as one was patriotic enough. 

They'd still have ended up head-to-head with the Soviet Union, as the latter had the intent to take over Europe. They may have done it more intelligently, though, leaving England alone, going *only* after the USSR and thus having the rest of the "Western" world cheering them on. 

In any case, it's present history that's a lot more interesting, if by "interesting" is meant rather terrifying, now. We've dodged having a dictator in this country a few times. Huey Long was assassinated. Charles Lindbergh seemed to have lost his guts for politics and much of his appeal, after his kid was kidnapped. The "Business Plot" of the 1930s was spiked by General Smedley Butler. 

But now we have this idiot, who Americans on the bottom third of the IQ distribution have had on their TV sets for years. And the bottom third are perpetually angry and almost incapable of reason. One would think that myself, hovering as close to homelessness as I do, and playing street music, would have befriended quite a few "street people" and gush over them on here about their being Noble Savages or some such thing. 

But the truth is, street people really are "deplorables". They live on fast food, tooth-rotting sugary drinks, cigarettes, and any drugs they can get their hands on. They hate everyone. There is absolutely no cooperation on the street. They hate and prey on each other far too much. They're Iks who (don't, generally) drive cars. 

Get talking with these street-Iks and they all think Trump is great and moreover is super-smart. He probably is, compared to them. I think they believe that once Trump wins (because they can't imagine he won't, just like they can't imagine a lot of things) he'll come around and hand each one of 'em a really big bag of crack rocks. 

Fortunately most of them are felons or don't have their papers in order anyway, and until polling places start giving out street drugs with every ballot, are not motivated to vote. 

My point here being that they are the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumpenproletariat

I woke up around 3, and after coffee I set out for Walmart where I got things, and happened to be where then a mom and her daughter were emptying the daughter's little backpack, full of coins, into the CoinStar. I came up and said I'm a coin collector and will buy any "oddball" coins that the machine won't accept and in the end got two silver dimes and a 1941 nickel the machine didn't like, plus some interesting foreign stuff and the inevitable Chuck E. Cheese token. I gave them a crispy $1 bill for this, which the daughter thought was great. 

I then hurried over to Nijiya for ... other things ... and had a little quiet time sitting on the long bench on the corner with a package of seaweed flavored peanuts and a can of black coffee. 

Then I hurried again, back here.