Well, goodbye Amy Klobuchar, it’s been good to sort of know you, more or less. Less.

Klobuchar, the Democratic senator from Minnesota, recently announced her campaign to become the Democratic nominee to challenge Donald Trump in 2020 – assuming Trump survives a primary challenge which is coming, dear friends, which is coming – but her campaign died an interesting death just a few days later.

Oh, sure, she’s still running, but her campaign is over, dear friends, and here’s why, as reported by Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine in Politico:

“Amy Klobuchar has an unusual constituency behind her as she launches her run for president: Senate Republicans. In a Democratic caucus filled with presidential hopefuls taking a hard line against Donald Trump’s presidency, the Minnesota senator’s brand of pragmatic politics stands out. And numerous Republicans are raving about Klobuchar – her personality, her respect for the other party, even her competitiveness in a general election. In fact, a dozen GOP senators were so effusive in interviews this month that some worried they might damage her candidacy in a Democratic nomination fight that has many candidates embracing the party’s left flank.”

Yep. Respect for the other party? Really? That’s the kiss o’ death, even among Democrats. You know damn well it’s the kiss of death among Republicans, so it’s probably the kiss of death for the Republicans praising Klobuchar. It’s a tangled web.

And it gets worse, according to Politico:

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn praised Klobuchar but feared for her candidacy because, “She’s too reasonable, too likable, too nice.” Another kiss o’ death, for sure.

Apparently Klobuchar is stupidly willing to see the other side of some issues, thus putting her into conflict with absolutists who demand fealty even if you don’t argee. You don’t agree? Just shut up and go along.

That always seemed to be the GOP mantra. Democrats always seemed to be more willing to battle among themselves and welcome differing points of view. I’m not sure that’s still true.

Klobuchar is certainly a true believer on many issues, including the “Green New Deal,” which might be pie in the sky, but it’s better that just watching the Arctic melt away and drown – well, if the Arctic can melt away and only drown Florida, that would be OK, but it probably won’t work out like that, more’s the pity. So long, Maine. Oops, there goes Rye. Oh, those poor mansions. Where will New Hampshire’s rich live now? NIMBY!

It will be interesting to see what kind of candidate Democrats want. In case you’re waiting with baited breath to hear from me on that, here’s my ticket:

Amy Klobuchar/John Delaney.

Or:

John Delaney/Amy Klobuchar.

If it matters, George Will, the arch conservative columnist (a real conservative; not a Fox News fake) has great respect for both of them.

And he has a brain.

• Well, lets run this Connecticut family right out of the country. How dare they try to keep Carl Christie, 28, alive by getting him insulin from Canada because, since he lost his insurance, he has to pay $400 out of pocket ever month. Just to stay alive? Why can’t he just roll the dice and hope for the best like so many other Americans?

No, he has to make Canada look good by getting insulin from those finks north of our border, those people who actually regulate the cost of life-saving drugs. What? They’re trying to keep the death rate down? Why? Aren’t there enough Canadians?

What’s the big deal about diabetes anyway? So it can kill you without insulin. Maybe it won’t. Come on. With legal gambling on the rise, why not gamble on your life?

And some people, rather than sell out to those toque-wearing Canadians have decided to be loyal Americans and ration their insulin. Why, according to the American Diabetes Association, 27 percent of adult diabetes patients and 34 percent of juvenile patients rationed insulin last year.

Oh, so what if that group’s chief scientific, medical and mission officer claims that rationing insulin can lead to serious complications “and if not addressed, may lead to death.” What’s he know? Another lying scientist who probably thinks the Arctic is melting.

Listen, people: Asking Canada for anything might not fall under the legal definition of treason, because “making America look bad again” doesn’t seem to be part of the law, but it should be and you should act as if it were.

Just pay the price for good old American insulin, which is what the American free market demands. And don’t misinterpret the phrase “free market.” It ain’t. Neither is Canada’s. Being a much more reasonable, patient-friendly market doesn’t mean it’s free.

We’re the land of the free, but not when it comes to medicine. Gee whiz.

• OK, I know this will shock you but …

I know who Nina Hartley is.

And I’ll bet a lot of you do, too. Hartley is one of the world’s longest-running porn stars – in the biz for 35 years and apparently still doing whatever it is she’s still doing.

The Daily Beast caught up with her during something called the AVN Awards, or the Oscars of Porn, and discovered she’s quite a Commie. Yes, a Commie porn star. Well, The Daily Beast calls her a socialist but all good Americans know what that means:

Commie!

Why, Nina Hartley is pro-union. She supports Medicare for All. And she isn’t fond of the latest Democratic darling, Kamala Harris, because of some hard-core prosecutorial stances taken by the California senator when she was the state’s attorney general.

“She’s very anti-sex work,” Hartley explained. Harris supported an anti-sex trafficking bill that Hartley, naturally, doesn’t support.

“She has the criminal model of sex work,” said Hartley, claiming that crackdowns on sex workers and internet sites offering their services pushes them back into the arms of pimps where they are in great danger.

I bring you this information because, knowing how many of you know who Nina Hartley is, I thought you should know a little bit more about her.

What’s interesting, though, is despite her Socialist leanings – she agrees pretty much with Bernie Sanders’ platform – she’s still doing well in what is clearly a capitalist industry.

It’s a great country.

Unless, of course, you need insulin.

• Oh, good, another nonsense apology. Here are the basics from CNN:

“Freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota publicly apologized Monday after she faced backlash for tweets condemned by both sides of the aisle as anti-Semitic.

“Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,” Omar said.”

Here’s what grabs me about this: If she has Jewish allies, why doesn’t she know what might offend Jews? She’s never heard them mention anything? She’s never had a conversation with them about anti-Semitism?

Perhaps some of her best friends aren’t Jewish.

Maybe she should have a conversation with Nina Hartley, who is Jewish. Oh, that’s a conversation I really want to hear.

• When I heard Albert Finney had died, I dug out my old Earth Opera vinyl, bought in 1970 in New Haven, and listened to Paul Dillon’s “Alfie Finney” which is a very simple song but I like it.

Interesting album, the signiture song of which was the 10-plus-minute “American Eagle Tragedy”:

“And call out the border guards, the kingdom is crumbling.

“The king is in the counting house, laughing and stumbling.

“His armies are extended way beyond the shore.

“As he sends our lovely boys to die in a foreign jungle war.”

Not much has changed, except the terrain – desert now, rather than jungle.

New king, still stumbling.