With the change direction speed of a sloth the Democratic Party approaches the guillotine at warp 100: 2022 election. We had a violent insurrection. We have been warned about Republicans changing rules and personnel so even if we win we lose. Republicans get to decide. Our hair is on fire! No response. Kicked in the groin over and over! Little response.
 I am reminded of the Roland Help Center.
 I am a multitrack freak. I LOVE recording, borne from my love of records, borne from a reel to reel my father had as a kid as we used to record the first group I was even in in elementary school: world famous The Liberty Street Singers. (“World” if the world was our property in Nyack, NY, our houses and the local Baptist church. The only place I think we ever performed.
 So, grown up, I was making a living partially off of recording in the 90’s. For editing I bought a Roland digital 8 track recorder called a VS880. Immediately the poorly written instructions had me calling the Roland help line. On my own dime to California. Few cell phones then and long distance wasn’t free, except through towers controlled by your company. To hell with that: I used a landline.
 ”Beep! Welcome to the Roland help line. Someone will be with you shortly.”
 10 minutes later, “Would you like to know more about Roland products? Here our list and we will fax the info to you.”
 Gave them the info.
𔁊They never faxed me.
 What did they d?
 They hung up.
 Call again, I ignored the help line info, “Would you like to talk to a secretary?” 20 minutes later, “The secretary is busy.” Click. I think they said I could leave a message, but I couldn’t.
 45 minutes later Igor picked up and called me all kinds of names after laughing at my question, then hung up. My question? “I know the VS 880 has Mac tech, do we need to buy a Mac computer to combine them?” (Which you could do.) I complained. They didn’t bother responding. 6 months later when I had to have the information, after another long wait on my dime, someone said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with Igor but, no, you don’t have to have Mac to combine them.”
 Why, when if this of the call and Igor’s response to the helpline’s misbehavior I think of the troll-ish Right’s responses to even the mildest challenges and questions. No real answers, just nonsense, mocking and name calling. And why does the Dem response on the left seem weak, if there’s any response at all? Sometimes they just let them get away with the lies, the nonsense, the childish, bully, behavior.
⋒Damn it, damn it, can’t they SEE the 2022, 2024 freight trains coming? We KNOW what they’re going to do. Lawsuits. Nasty ads. Lies. Are we going to just let them decide who wins even if they lose? Purge our voters? Their election police arrest us for even standing in line? I’m sure any election complaint line in Republican states will be worse than that call to Roland.
 So if they are not happy with results we’re just going to let them decide who wins? GEE??? wonder they’ll pick???
 Are you expecting…
 Should you expect…
 NO…
 
 Don’t
 expect
 any
 surprises.

                                     -30-

Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for almost 50 years, first published in fall of 1972. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks, and into the unseen cracks and crevasses, that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
©Copyright 2022
Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
all rights reserved