Clinton

Yesterday, for the first time in years, I walked through a jetway at the Binghamton Airport. Not because I haven’t flown from there in years, but because we got to fly on a small Delta jet, rather than a turboprop. United and US Air/American, both of whom have abandoned BGM, had been flying turboprops which meant that passengers had to go out on the tarmac and enter via stairs.  It was nice to be flying with Delta, which gives you free snacks, even on short flights; they were on time, efficient, and friendly.

We flew to Detroit, then on to Kansas City, rented a car, and drove to Clinton, Missouri – and finally got to see daughter T who is working here for the Department of Conservation, as part of a study of the effects of fire on prairie plants.

It was great to see her and receive one of her fantastic hugs!

She had to work today, so B and I explored the town a bit.

“Great People, By Nature”

Just in time for Easter!

 

Just when you thought things were as complicated as possible…

Last week, there was “breaking news” that former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin was endorsing Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. She has been campaigning with him this week in her own inscrutable style.

I thought things were about as complicated as they could be with Clinton and Sanders close in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire and Trump still leading the giant Republican field with Cruz in second place.

And then billionaire and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg, upset that it might turn into either Trump or Cruz versus Sanders in the general election, announced that he was considering running as an independent candidate, which he would finance on his own up to one-billion dollars. He will decide by early March after he sees the outcome of the first few state contests.

Bloomberg has been a Democrat, a Republican, and an independent. I am uneasy at the prospect of him running in the general election totally on the basis of having enough money to fund a campaign, without any participation of the voters.

If Trump gets the Republican nomination, Bloomberg enters as an independent, and either Sanders or Clinton get the Democratic nomination, we would have all the major candidates with ties to New York, which is a little strange.  (Although Bernie Sanders has spent most of his adult life in Vermont, you can still here the accent of his native Brooklyn when he speaks.)

I had already felt that this political cycle was chaotic.

I can’t come up with a word to adequately describe it now.
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