Republicans Without A Plan

There's a thing on Twitter about #WAP that's not exactly safe for work but it's out there and well-known.

What's also out there now is another WAP and this abbreviation stands for Without A Plan because that's where the modern Republican Party has led itself (via Annie Lowry at the Atlantic):

The GOP in general is remarkably quiet on how it would govern and what it seeks to accomplish in the coming years. Breaking with precedent, the party decided against producing an original platform for the 2020 convention. (Put differently: It no-platformed itself.) And Republican leadership has gone dark on a huge swath of issues: balancing the budget, reforming entitlement programs, tackling climate change, improving public education, reducing student-loan debt, and ameliorating racial inequalities—as well as getting the country through the pandemic and out of the recession.

With the planet burning, the virus killing, the economy collapsing, and millions of Americans preparing to vote, the country’s leading political cabal has moved into a queasy post-policy space: Its aperture has narrowed to just a few issues; its desire to try to pass major, proactive legislation has withered. This is not just proof that a man as interested in his own image as he is uninterested in briefing books should not be president. It is also a sign that American democracy is in peril...

What the Republicans did was posit a party platform that was copied and pasted from the 2016 agenda, and edited most everything out except for a new paragraph: RESOLVED, That the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda. Without clarifying exactly what trump's agenda really means.

Basically, the Republican Party is saying "We're gonna do whatever Our Lord and False Idol donald trump tells us what to do."

This is both refreshing and horrifying. Refreshing in that at least the Republicans have stopped pretending outright that they care about issues. Horrifying in that they're demonstrating they care only about appeasing a despotic wannabe who lusts after the money and the power.

Also horrifying is the implication that the Republican voting base is not expecting anything more out of the party leadership than the ongoing pandering to their partisan identity... and worse, pandering to the fears and racism that trump offers them in lieu of effective policies. Back to Lowry:

For the many Republicans who don’t benefit much from tax cuts, and never received the promised populist policies, identity politics and racial resentment are strong enough forces to tie them to the party. A study by the political scientists Alan Abramowitz and Jennifer McCoy, for instance, showed that Trump’s dog-whistling worked. In 2000, George W. Bush won two in three working-class white voters who evince considerable racial resentment, measured by asking them whether or not they agree with statements such as “If Blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” Trump got nine in 10 of them.

Trump electrifies the party’s broader base with revanchism, nativism, and white nationalism, catering to the anxieties of a historically hyper-dominant group fast becoming a minority. Just take a look at who is speaking at the GOP convention to see what red meat looks like for red America: the couple who brandished guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in St. Louis and Nick Sandmann of Covington Catholic High School, whose interaction with the Native American activist Nathan Phillips in front of the Lincoln Memorial went viral in 2019. Or, in the absence of a national 2020 manifesto, take a look at the Texas platform: Delegates picked top priorities including banning gender-confirmation procedures, protecting monuments, purging the voter rolls, and preventing teenagers from getting abortions or obtaining birth control without parental consent, all potent fronts in the culture war. “Policy doesn’t matter much” to winnable conservative voters, Brent Buchanan, a Republican pollster, told me. “It’s more about personalities and principles.”

This is, in many regards, the final victory of Roger Ailes and Harry Treleaven, campaign handlers for Richard Nixon back in 1968. If you read The Selling of the President, which chronicled the rise of television-based marketing of elections, you might remember the breakthrough Treleaven developed regarding the electoral process. It's not about the issues - although they matter - it's about the emotional appeal a candidate or party offers to potential voters. Lemme quote:

It was Treleaven, working on a 1966 Congressional campaign in Texas for this businessman named George HW Bush, who noted that "logical persuasion" was difficult to sell because he found "probably more people vote for irrational, emotional reasons than professional politicians suspect." (p.45)  He found that image worked wonders, as long as he presented Bush as likable, hard-working, and expressing empathy for the voter...

The issues may be things that a party can rally around, but the driving force behind voter interest and voter turnout are the emotional and irrational appeals to that interest. The Beltway pundits may demand the candidates talk about "the issues" but when you watch and read how they cover the campaigns they almost always discuss non-issues about the candidates that cover personalities, follies, and worse.

When I look back at the Presidential campaigns I've witnessed, I've noticed the issues only mattered to a point: What mattered to the voters seemed to be the beliefs - based a lot on gut feelings - of which candidate appealed on an emotional level. It mattered if the voters had an irrational perception of the candidate, not the rational. A rational voter base would have swarmed to Hillary due to her experience and stances on issues that did resonate with Americans... but she couldn't achieve a majority vote because of the irrational fearmongering that had followed her for decades. Biden isn't as strong a candidate on paper when it comes to the issues... but his public persona is so likable he could (and did) make a few gaffes and still see his popularity polls go upward.

So it makes some sense, to be fair, that the parties find ways to appeal to not only their own bases on an emotional level, but also as many Americans as possible. It's a lesson learned from the 1970s, and it all depends - like the Republicans in 1980 with Reagan, with the Democrats in 1992 with Clinton - if the gamble pays off.

The problem is that since 1992 when Bush the Elder was losing control of the coalition that won them the 1980s, the Republican Party decided to pursue emotional prodding not through empathy or likability - although they'd LOVE to have another Reagan to come along and seduce the masses again - but through demonization of the Other. It had been there with the dog whistles on race and abortion under Reagan, but when Bush signed off on battling Dukakis with the Willie Horton ad, it was like a dam bursting loose.

The Republican turn to mudslinging (also known as Swiftboating when it was Kerry they insulted in 2004) came at the same time the Republicans were losing ground with their actual agendas of gay-bashing, tax-cutting, deregulating, and more. The views of the voting base shifted from conservative to liberal, even as the Republicans clung harder to their tax-cut Utopia ways. By 2012, their own strategists were warning the party that the younger more Progressive voters were going to outnumber the older more Republican voters by 2024 (2028 at the latest) and that no amount of irrational campaigning was going to win them over.

Instead, the Republicans doubled down. They focused on suppressing the voters they can't control - minorities, women, college-age blocs - and allowed their more racist leanings - expressed with anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim fervor - to dominate their agenda in 2016.

That lead to trump winning.

And it lead to the Republicans realizing that, even as they race towards that demographic brick wall in 2024, this is the only way left for them to win.

It's not much of a plan: Stoke outrage and let Overlord trump reap the benefits.

The horrifying thing is if they can drive enough Americans insane to make it work again in 2020.

We dare not let them.

Four Nights of donnie's... Ugly Face

So now that we've endured the long week of a Democratic national convention - where we didn't see enough AOC or Julian Castro but watched a beautiful state-by-state roll call and witnessed Joe Biden use his best skill set (empathy) - we now have to endure the long week of the Republican party host their own convention to renominate trump and push their platform to a global audience.

It's not gonna be pretty (hat-tip to Betty Cracker at Balloon Juice):

Trump is micro-managing the shit out of the event because of course he is. He will go to his grave believing he’s a media genius because venal media types propped him up and wiped the racist drool off his chin so they could first sell a serially bankrupt fraud as a successful businessman on a reality TV show and then sell that same buffoon as a presidential candidate.

But the truth is, the network professionals aren’t running this shit-show, Trump is. And he scraped clean through the bottom of the barrel early in his administration, so the hires executing this event are decidedly of the lowest quality...

Betty then quotes from the NY Times:

Republicans involved in the planning admit that anxiety began to set in two weeks ago. But on Saturday, they said that they were now confident that a fully realized lineup was in place — and that in contrast to the Democrats’ virtual event, voters could expect something more akin to a regular convention, with a focus on live onstage moments featuring Mr. Trump, whom aides described as the week’s “talent in chief.”

Typically, the nominee makes a mundane appearance early in the convention — waving or watching from the wings — before a major speech at the end. Mr. Trump has dismissed that model and now plans to directly address the nation in prime-time on each of the convention’s four nights. The president wants the opportunity to rebut charges made against him throughout the Democratic program, aides said, particularly on his handling of the coronavirus crisis...

trump is basically hijacking the 10PM prime time pundit slots on the major cable networks - if not the regular networks (who I hope redecide to air Agents of SHIELD reruns instead) - to do his craven rally stump speeches for four straight nights.

This is unprecedented in the modern political convention era, if not ever. Most early - pre-Primary (1970s) - conventions didn't even have a confirmed nominee (even incumbents weren't safe back in the 1800s) until the final ballot of attendees, so nobody spoke all four nights. Once we got into the era where the nominee was set by March-June thanks to the state Primaries, it became custom for the convention week to promote up-and-coming fresh faces (like Bill Clinton in 1988 or Barack Obama in 2004) in the prime time slots to keep their future bright and shiny to motivate the party faithful.

Not this time. trump's ego is overriding party needs and he's going to be shilling himself four straight nights, both to keep his own energy up - like an emotion vampire, he thrives on the rage and sadism of his crowds - and to make sure the whole thing is about him him him.

Problem is, there's a good reason you want to keep your Presidential nominee to just one big night to give The Big Speech: You reduce the odds of your nominee laying a stinkbomb of an egg on national television. You'll notice the acceptance speeches of every candidate in the modern era is a rather boring, push-the-buttons, avoid-the-gaffes affair. And they only do it one night, hit-or-miss: But they've gotten the speech-making part down to a science, so it's usually a hit (even trump's ode to his own ego - "I alone can fix this" - hit all the right notes in an acceptance speech). trump is tempting fate here: he is multiplying the risks of a badly received speech by a factor of four.

And trump is threatening to use these four nights to rebut the Democratic party accusations of how trump has 1) mismanaged international affairs, 2) mismanaged the coronavirus response, 3) mismanaged the government, 4) mismanaged the economy. We are going to get a combination of gaslighting, lies, projection, and self-grievance on a scale rarely seen at an official party convention.

Going negative this early - and the odds of it happening have gone up now - on the national stage is a recipe for disaster. Yes, it will embolden the party base of Republican voters who are already wolfing down the rage and hate that trump's been selling them the last four years along with the rage and hate the GOP's been selling since 1992. But you run the serious risk of alienating the independent, still-on-the-fence voters who look for a broad sense of unity, national spirit, and call to empathy (and yes, these voters do exist). 

Reagan won big in 1980 (and even moreso in 1984) by making such broad appeals even when his actual agenda was more hardline conservative and harsh. It's why Biden and the Dems hosted this year's convention as a call to Big Tent unity with appeals to centrist Republicans (inviting John Kasich in an effective "Crossroads" presentation to bring those "Reagan Democrats" back) and lofty displays of families and teens calling for a better America.

trump's potential Four Nights of Airing Grievances is going to rub a lot of Americans the wrong way.

It's gonna look like the Rose Garden Melania just bulldozed into a grassy bikepath: flat and grey and MY GOD WHAT THE FCK DID THEY DO TO THE TREES.

The article title, by the by, is a reference to a Survival Horror game series called "Five Nights At Freddie's" which is mostly a set of jump scares you have to endure.

trump's Carnie show is going to be worse than that.

The best fcking move America can do is not watch this train wreck. Don't give trump and his cronies any viewing numbers to crow about. Look away. WALK AWAY. Run if you have to.

Just think of the Chernobyl supervisors who thought to themselves "What could POSSIBLY go wrong?" Think of everything that can go wrong with a hasty, last-minute, what-the-hell-are-we-doing national spectacle micromanaged by the worst boss in modern history.

Just don't watch, people.

Quick Update on Jacksonville, trump, and the Reality of an Out-Of-Control Pandemic

(Update 7/26/20: Thank you again Batocchio for linking me to Crooks & Liars' Mike's Blog Round-Up this weekend! I want to mention here that this blog just received a Finalist recognition from the Florida Writers Association for the article "Seven Reasons NOT To Invade Iran" and hopefully we'll see where things go from there... )

trump, unhappy that North Carolina and Charlotte was telling him he couldn't have a big shindig for a convention this year due to trump's own mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic, tried to move the big part of the show - his speech - to Jacksonville Florida where he thought the rules would be more relaxed and the locals more accommodating.

Today, he finally accepted the warnings of Jacksonville officials and likely his own medical experts that hosting a large gathering even outdoors was a bad idea, and canceled the big ego-boosting show. To quote Steve Contorno and Kirby Wilson via the Tampa Bay Times:

The news came as a surprise to several Florida Republicans close to the event and the president. U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s closet allies in Congress, said he didn’t know Trump had made this call. Nor did state Sen. Joe Gruters, the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida who helped bring the event to the Sunshine State.

It may have been a surprise to the Florida Republicans, but it wasn't exactly so for the number of party leaders who were begging off from attending because even they didn't want to risk their health. Back to the article:

It was only six weeks ago that Trump stripped the convention from Charlotte, the previous host city, after clashing with Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper over what the president then deemed to be overly demanding restrictions related to the coronavirus. Trump and the Republican Party then settled on Jacksonville, in part because Florida was swiftly reopening the economy amid falling coronavirus cases.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry enthusiastically welcomed the event. Curry celebrated the announcement with a flashy video and promises of a post-coronavirus economic boom for his city. However, the reality on the ground dramatically shifted. Florida subsequently emerged as the new national hot spot...

Partly because the risks of exposure actually goes back up when you re-open too quick, and mostly because trump and the Republicans didn't effing care even back then. Back:

More recently, organizers said they would shift to a more scaled-down convention with smaller crowds. RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced last week that just delegates, a single guest per delegate and alternate delegates would be permitted to attend the president’s nomination speech on the final evening of the convention. Speeches set for earlier in the convention were restricted to the party’s roughly 2,500 delegates only...

The final nail arrived this week when Duval County Sheriff Mike Williams suggested he didn’t have enough details to provide adequate security to keep attendees and Jacksonville residents safe. Still, even with COVID-19 deaths registering in the triple digits and his local sheriff no longer on board, Curry still remained that the show would go on...

What will happen now is pretty much what everyone else in the nation is doing: Hosting it all on Zoom chats. Given how disorganized this entire circus turned out to be, I'm willing to bet even trump will screw that up.

On the bright side, Jacksonville doesn't have to face the prospect of a super-spreader event hitting them the way trump's Tulsa rally did. On the downside, we're still coping with an ever-upward spike of positive cases and deaths here in Florida.

That part of trump's shitshow hasn't ended yet. /headdesk

Quick Notes On trump's Schemes for the 2020 Convention

Given the other things to condemn trump for during this pandemic crisis, ignoring the obvious need to cancel a large gathering of his OWN PARTY is three different levels of stupid, but that's what we should expect anymore. Via Daniel Politi at Slate:

President Donald Trump began Memorial Day with a threat, warning that he was seriously considering moving the Republican National Convention from Charlotte if there are no guarantees that the state will have lifted any restrictions on how many people can gather in closed spaces by late August. In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump said he needed guarantees from the Democratic governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, that Republicans would be able to fill Charlotte’s Spectrum Center to capacity during the convention...

Cooper, Trump insisted, must “immediately” give Republicans an answer “as to whether or not the space will be allowed to be fully occupied,” Trump wrote. If he can’t guarantee that then the GOP will have to “reluctantly” another site for the convention, “with all of the jobs and economic development it brings...”

A few points where trump is wrong: Political conventions do not bring a lot of economic development or jobs; It is - even under these risky circumstances where a lot of places have cancelled conventions- difficult to find another large-sized convention facility to move to on short notice, so in some respects trump is bluffing here; and anybody even thinking of showing up at an event with more than ten people - all of whom are coming from 50 states plus territories bringing any variant of coronavirus with them - is basically condemning about two-thirds of fellow attendees with a virus that's gonna wreck their lungs, kidneys, and other major organs.

There's a reason why the comic-cons and library cons and marketing cons are all cancelled or delayed: nobody is stupid enough to host these things right now, no matter how much pressure the CEOs and Republicans are pushing to re-open.

Of course, trump is both projecting and deflecting when making his decisions. Back to Politi:

The president’s tweets also come a few days after the New York Times reported that Trump was open to participating in a smaller convention, although he reportedly often wondered to aides why they couldn’t simply move it to Florida, where the reopening process is moving along more quickly. Trump has also openly wondered whether North Carolina’s Democratic governor would try to hurt Republicans with rules regarding the convention. “It’s got a Democrat governor, so we have to be a little bit careful with that, because they’re playing politics,” Trump told a Washington Examiner columnist earlier this month. “They’re playing politics, as you know, by delaying the openings.”

Cooper has insisted that his decisions regarding COVID-19 restrictions have nothing to do with politics. “A pandemic cannot be political,” Cooper told CNN. “If it is, we lose that ability to work together.”

There are several terrifying aspects at play here. Above all, trump seems to think the pandemic is a partisan hoax meant to embarrass himself and the Republicans who are pushing quick re-openings to re-spark an economy that's nowhere near safe and ready.

Second point, trump's thoughts about Florida is likely not about Orlando or Tampa or Miami's Convention halls - which can handle such events - but likely his Doral resort (trump may say otherwise, but I doubt the heavily Democratic-controlled metros will play ball with him because they'll want the same CDC regulations as North Carolina/Charlotte) so he can make money.

Third point, trump may be accusing the Dems of playing politics but he's the one trying to use this issue to force NC Governor Cooper into speeding up any re-opening schedule to favor trump. Look at how trump is trying to use the threat of "lost jobs and economic opportunity" should the convention move away. That's a stick-no-carrot approach that trump has used before, which doesn't work too often because without that "carrot" Cooper has no reason to submit to trump's whims here.

If anything, should trump and the Republicans try to host ANY kind of gathering while this pandemic is taking place, they are taking a serious risk with not only their health but the health of every resident in Charlotte or elsewhere forced to handle this ill-advised convention.

There are other ways to do this now. Just not with trump's sociopathic ego-stroking need to play to a cheering crowd in front of him.

But this is how trump rolls, isn't it. His ongoing sadistic need to serve his own while everyone else sickens and suffers.

Horrifying stuff, America.

This is not the time for trump's ego to make more of us sick.

I Survived Tampa Bay Comic Con 2018: Surprising Amount of Walking Within Such a Small Space

I dunno if I ever mention in my previous discussions of attending comic cons, but there is a massive difference in floorspace between the Orlando (Orange County) Convention Center and Tampa Convention Center. I mean, Orlando's West Hall alone is arguably double the length and equal the height of Tampa's. On the bright side, it's a vast improvement over previous Tampa Bay comic cons when they were held in standalone hotels' meeting rooms out near the airport. With the convention center, you at least get enough places to host discussions and guest star speakers.

Still, it's an adventure just to even get inside Tampa's center for the annual Tampa Bay Comic Con, which I shall document here for the amused and amazed to enjoy.

Parking was a nightmare this year because the nearest parking garage - next to Amelie Arena - was blocked off for some reason (there is ongoing construction next to it which may be an expansion). After that, they had rearranged the entry point from the south side (facing the Channel) to the north side (facing the River). This *did* create a nicer pathway in as this video attests:

Yes, I filmed this portrait instead of landscape. Sue me.

Meanwhile, here's further documentation of the long long day I spent hanging out with fellow gamers, readers, writers, geeks, nerds, spazzes, goofballs, motorheads, sportos, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads, and other religious denominations.

A selfie for the day. And yes, I went solo again to a comic-con.
Things just kinda are that way.

It's around 11 AM and there's already a healthy lineup for fans seeking autographs.

This was a packed con this year. Last year's had a smaller turnout due to Miami's Supercon
conflicting with celebrity schedules drawing away the fandom.

 

I had attended a writer's panel on writing Villains, and this is their Bard's Tower pavilion.

One of the things that's happened the past few years is that the cons
have been widening the walkways. There's still a few alleys that are narrow
but now there's a few wide areas to help with foot traffic.

NOW ALL THEY NEED ARE PLACES TO SIT (ow my feets)

Hey, I found writer/fellow Gainesville survivor William Hatfield's booth... but he's vanished!
Prolly at another writer's panel...

Well I *did* find comic book author/guy-who-brought-a-llama-to-my-nephew's-birthday-party-ages-ago person John Crowther, who's busy promoting his latest series of biographies of famous wrestlers such as Lenny "The Genius" Poffo (who was off to the side discussing quantum mechanics with a n00b, I believe).

Oh, there's Hatfield, ready to discuss writing about strong female characters in fantasy/science fiction!

There were a couple of interesting panels this year, and a couple of writing ones that had newer topics than earlier, so the day was fun for the writer-wannabe that I am.

And back again to the Guest Star area. The vendor hall is on the top floor, while the meeting rooms
are on the bottom floor. It gets hectic going up and down, but where else you gonna go...?

Now this was something I had just noticed at the MegaCon convention earlier this year, but had little idea was the deal was. There's a thing about "Mystery Boxes" where you buy this themed box that's filled with collectibles of some kind, and people were circling the pavilion waiting in line to buy a box. Thing is, you have no idea what you're getting until you get it. If anything, you're getting a fancy carry box. The TARDIS box was tempting but Gods Old and New it was expensive. At the price they were offering, it needed to contain an actual Doctor in it to make it worthwhile.

The Mystery Box pavilion was at the north end, with the Guest Stars at the south end, and between it all were the walkways.

At this end of the vendors' universe sat the Signing Booths for our celebrities who dared survive the trip to Tampa. Save for one:

Camren "Selina Kyle" Bicondova wasn't able to get a flight out in time for Saturday.

Bummer. I was going to try to ask her "just what the hell kind of drugs are the Gotham writers on? That is some crazy-ass storytelling going on with that show."

Anyway. There were other celebrities to see. Although I was really only keen on two others for the day.

One was this guy who's become a cult favorite for his performance in Game of Thrones uh Hot Fuzz: YARP.

It's kind of hard to see Rory McCann under that hat, but he was a hoot and a half talking about how
he went from lumberjack to the Anti-Hero of millions. However, he *did* lose his harmonica some point
during this Q&A, and he threatened to eat every f00king chicken in the room.

McCann did mention that for him the Game of Thrones series had ended - filming the live-action parts already done - and so he knows how it all ends... which is more than can be said for a certain author who won't freaking finish the novels!!! I don't care what Neil says, GRRM is our bitch. GET TO WORK.

And then, it was time, to say hello to...

AND IT'S NEGASONIC TEENAGE WARHEAD. To whomever is buying up the Fox movie studio in order to get all Marvel movies under one umbrella: STANDALONE MOVIE! With fewer dick jokes and more biting sarcasm.

I have no idea who the person walking in late to take a seat is. I didn't think to ask for an autograph or anything...

Seeing Brianna Hildebrand was kinda the last thing on the day I wanted to do, so after that it was straight home to feed the cats and regain my strength for the battles ahead.

How fares the comic cons in your corners of the world?

P.S. I plan on being at Clermont Comic Con in November. JOIN ME AND DIE. Um, Cake Or Death! There that's better.

P.S.S. I only realize just now writing this that I did NOT SEE any of the organized cosplayers like the 501st this comic con. Unless they were in a part of the vendor floor I didn't walk by... and I did not see any R2 units like always. I didn't find the droids I was looking for! /cries

Personal Note: Clermont Comic Con 2017

I hope to see you at the Clermont FL Performing Arts Center this Sunday November 19th!

I shall be selling my wares and crying under the table due to emotional stress. Let's have fun!

Observations from the 2017 SwampCon at the University of Florida

So you know me, geek that I am, whenever there's a comic-con in driving distance I am prone to showing up and clogging the narrow vendor aisles.

You might remember I went to this SwampCon at UF last year. They've actually been doing this for awhile, but 2016 was the first I'd heard of it and hey, it's a chance for me to head back and check out my alma mater (also, I'm doing a shit-ton of research on Pragmatism, so to the shelvers at Library West I'm the guy who left three piles of philosophy books on that reading table on the First Floor).

I kinda dreaded going back this year, though, because last year when I went it was the same day Scalia died and the universe exploded. If I went this year and something incredibly insane happened on the political stage, then I'd be convinced that SwampCon is jinxed and I wouldn't go anymore.

Good news is, the worst thing was Trump getting into a Twitter war with civil rights hero John Lewis. Everybody else on Twitter was punching back and making Trump bleed, so it's all nice sweet schadenfreude.

As for the convention itself, here are my takes (and some photos and video):

The registration / wristband tables are set up at the entrance walkway to the Reitz Union.

I didn't dress up this trip. I'm saving the Jedi outfit for the SyFy street convention this February. I basically dressed as I usually did when I was a student here from 1988 to 1992: with a blue button shirt over a Batman tee.

Deadpool! My old nemesis! This time working on his foam sword skills.

Last year was before Pokemon Go came out. This year, I looked at the map and damn near fainted. The University campus has Pokestops all over the place within easy walking distance of each other. As soon as you step out of one Stop's range you're already in range of two others, meaning the spawnage rate with well-placed Lures would make this an ideal hunting ground for Pokemon. IT'S PIKACHU HEAVEN!!!

Also I finally caught a Tauros - my birth sign! - and an Onix, both of which don't naturally spawn where I live.

I need to come back to campus someday, with my bicycle and about 9 Incubation jars with 10km eggs to hatch...

Funny thing about living on a campus for Florida Gators. We get real gators floating in the Reitz Union pond. It's cool, he's cool, we're cool, right Bitey?

Except for this guy. He was pissed he couldn't go wading in that pond.

In terms of vendor space, this one room doesn't compete with the massive floorspaces that MegaCon and Tampa ComicCon work with. This is still a pretty small, regional con. There were a lot of anime/manga vendors though.

Told you I had some homework to do, so I walked from Reitz Union to Library West that afternoon, and en route there's Turlington Hall and THIS statue. Everyone seems to call it "The Potato". Even the Pokestop description labels it "The Potato".

IT'S NOT A FREAKING POTATO, PEOPLE! IT'S A FREAKING GLOVE! Look, to the right of that rocky shape. THAT'S THE THUMB! Sheesh!

Also, that's Century Tower in the background.

After I did some homework on Pragmatism, I walked off-campus across 13th Street to go to Leonardo's Pizza. While there, I got a photo of this... GAUDY MONSTROSITY being built at the corner of University Ave. and 13th.

It's that long-planned condo project the city's been dying to build since I had been back in Gainesville working at Library West from 2003 to 2006. It wouldn't look out of place in New York City or downtown Tampa, but it sticks out like a sore thumb in the middle of a mid-sized city where it will dwarf the college buildings right across the street from it. It blocks out the sky, it's getting built right on top of the roads, claustrophobic... Gods. Look, I know there's a problem with residential properties in Gainesville, as more and more UF students stay in-town when they graduate, and that Gainesville is growing in population. But you need to be more responsible with what you're actually building and where. This thing is gonna clash with the old-style architecture of the UF campus, no lie. Something of this size and complexity could have easily been built maybe a mile away, closer to downtown Gainesville where you want more of a nightlife community to sprout (or maybe closer to Oaks Mall or Archer Road strip malls). You all should have been something half that height and with an eye towards matching the campus architecture to where it would COMPLEMENT the scenery, not consume it.

Speaking of consumption, here's the pizza slice from Leonardo's I ate.

This was a mainstay eatery within walking distance of campus back when I was a student, and it'd been around for years before then. Last year, the place has been bought out by the university (they're looking to build more campus offices I believe) and I've been told that June 2017 is when it will close. So that pizza slice might be the last one I'll ever eat from there.

You can't go home again to the same pizzeria, can you? :(

On the way back, I took a slight detour to go visit one of the iconic locales on-campus.

THE FRENCH FRIES STATUE

On the lawn, they were prepping another group of foam swordfights, so I got some video clippage of that. Ooh, wait, I can't, Blogger can't handle the file size. Gimme five minutes to YouTube it instead.

I made it back to SwampCon for the afternoon, and I wanted to go into the "So Bad It's Good" Anime revue. Sadly, by the time I got there the room was packed. Note to the con organizers: next year, bigger room for these guys (or any other anime-themed shows, that culture is HUGE on-campus).

Other observations of note:

There was a shit-ton of Steven Universe cosplayers (I should have gotten more pictures of them, but was busy catching Onixes). Only two Deadpools. Where's my plethora of Deadpools?!?!?!

I'm used to an Artists Alley at other cons where local and published artists set up tables for autographs and print sales. The SwampCon folks should look into that, especially since there's an art college on-campus where up-and-coming sketchers and inkers are learning their trade (and there should be a number of Florida-based artists who'd love to show)...

The UF Bookstore needed to do a better job advertising and promoting the works of the authors who showed up for discussions on writing and publishing. These are authors who either live in Gainesville, are graduates of your school, or authors of some renown who put in the time to help with activities and events for the day. Putting a small pile of books on top of a table with little signage shoved into the corner of the Vendors room does not cut it.

Things have really changed in the year I've been away. Wal-Mart is no longer where it was on Archer Rd. and nearly 90 percent of that mall had been bull-dozed. Half the restaurants I knew are long gone, it took me an hour to find a Mexican eatery (for some reason I was in the mood for Mexican to balance out having pizza for lunch. I don't normally do that...) before I got back on the road to drive home and feed mah kittehs.

I did find time for one thing, to pay my respects:

Always remember.

In Time, I May Document These Comic-Cons With More Florid Prose, But Until Then It's the 2016 Tampa Bay Comic Con!

(Update: Thank you Infidel753 for the link to your wrapup!)

I almost didn't go this year, but changed my mind when I figured out my fiscal budget could handle the indulgence (just a little: there is no way I will be able to buy any booze for the next three months... which is okay because I'm sober and don't drink booze).

So much like I've done the year before and the year before that and the year... yeah, there's your trend for ya... SAY HELLO TO DOCUMENTED EVIDENCE that I attended the 2016 Tampa Bay Comic Con!

Early morning opening on the showroom floor. Don't worry, it'll get packed soon...

This year I was on a mission, more on that later...

And here's an early morning - way early, as most people were still in line up on the mezzanine - writer's panel! Bill Hatfield, remind me the names of the ladies joining you on the discussion.

This is still early in the morning: the gaming rooms were still getting set up.

Tampa doesn't get a lot of steampunk cosplay, unlike Orlando's MegaCon, but there's still some incredible designs here.

Alas, I did not dress up as a Jedi this year, as I had other plans. So I took pictures of everybody else being a Sith...

A Rey of Sunshine.

Yes, I punned. Sue me.

Getting seated for the one guest speaker appearance I could watch today...

It's Clara for the Oswin! (okay, it's Jenna Coleman).

Had to upload to YouTube and link the video from there.

Told you...

...it would...

...get busier!

That's Daryl from Walking Dead. Huge line for photos and autographs... He's incredibly popular. Don't forget, if Daryl dies we riot.

You know, I'm in this mob somewhere...

I AM GROOT guy wins best Cosplay costume in my humble opinion.

Guy was getting a lot of requests for pics in Artist's Alley...

SPIDERS! Nope nope nope nope nope nope... well, okay, Spider-Gwen can stay...

Gaming hall after lunch time. Definitely packed now.

This is the line for zombification. If you're here for parasitic infection, that line is back up on the third floor for the video game cosplayers.

Lady Loki did me a favor taking a picture of me, and I requested I get one of her. Thank ye again!

Look kids! Jim Shooter talking about writing comic books!

Say hello to Rochelle the Teenage Cockroach!

You might remember last year meeting John Crowther - a friend of my brother Phil - starting up this comic series via Antarctic Press. He's been busy promoting the title and it's started to get good reviews and brisk sales.

Things I didn't get pictures of: Pokemon.

With Pokemon GO an addicting phone app game, there was every likelihood the convention center would be a haven for Pokeball throwing madness. Well, it was kind of yes and no. The Tampa Convention Center - and a good part of surrounding Downtown Tampa - is rife with PokeStops and Gyms... But they were all well away from the building itself, too far to activate a Stop for supplies or battle for a Gym. However, the PokeStops were close enough to drop Lures on them to spawn armies of Pokemon to catch... meaning you can run out of balls real quick.

It also didn't help that there's no free WiFi inside the convention center. I know it's a for-profit convention where you gotta spend $15 for lunch, but complimentary WiFi isn't gonna wipe out the budget will it?

On the bright side I caught like 20 MagiKarps. You need like 150 of them to Evolve one to the powerful Serpent Pokemon. It all has to do with location: The Convention Center is right on the channel AND river, and geographic closeness to water spawns more Water-type Pokemon...

Anyway, my mission: I still owe my nephew Andrew a birthday present from last year (!) and one this year, so I bought a (information withheld until the gift is delivered). It took me months to get anybody to tell me (redacted) so I picked out (classified). I hope he likes it.

Anyway, there's my Saturday done and done. What's next, peoples?