Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: Fuzzcollecting

Another splash of autumn covers the day, this day being Friday, October 4, 2024. Skies, trees, sun, etc. Coolish warming air grazing around 61 F. Expectations that we’ll kiss upper seventies today, a few nicks down from the mid 80s felt yesterday. Tomorrow, we’re back into the eighties, riding the seesaw of seasonal change.

The cats traverse the doors in and out, liking the outdoors in sun patches, bundling themselves into loaves, moving when the sun shies away from their chosen skim of earth. Chess with sunshine, they think themselves kings, bishops at least, but the sun treats them like pawns.

The Neurons are wandering my mind’s corridors, apparently. They dust off a 1968 song and start playing it in the morning mental music stream (Trademark ancient). As breakfast makes its trip to the stomach’s acids, I question The Neurons about why this and now? This is Cream doing “Anyone for Tennis.” Now is today, 2024, a zillion plus one years removed from when I was a boy and saw them on television. Cream were on the Smothers Brothers Show and did this show. I found the video to it on Youtube. Their clothing snatches back reminders of the purple and blue paisley shirts and denim bell bottoms worn by moi in those days. Later, in my high school years, the bell bottoms would remain but the shirts would become simpler designs and colors. The hair was always long, thick, wild and curly, exasperating my divorced parents, amusing my sisters and aunts and uncles, and sometimes entrancing a girl.

Done with the mornin’ memory portion of the day unless The Neurons pull more out. They may at any given. Stay positive, test negative, be strong, and vote blue. Coffee has had its way with me. Here’s the music. Onward. Cheers

October 4, 2024 0

October 3, 2024 0

Thursday’s Political Thoughts

Met with the beer friends last night. We’re a gang of retirees (one still works) who meet for a brew at a local place (of course) and discuss things. Most are out of the Bureau of Land Management (botanists and biologists) these days, though a retired helicopter designer is among us, along with a doctor, a couple journalists, retired department head of biology for our local university, and software engineers.

Small group last night. Seven participants. Discussion swiveled to the Hanford nuclear waste in Washington. Set up to process weapons grade plutonium, the plant was shut down by 1971. All through its life, dealing with the issue of the radioactive water and chemicals was a problem. Storing it in barrels was the short-term answer. The barrels began leaking. They figured a long-term solution would emerge. Plans evolved, were discarded or failed, etc.

Latest plan is glassification of waste barrels. Targeted to be completed by 2052, costs have multiplied and the project is off to a slow start. The DOE slid the target completion date back to 2069, just two years short of the 100-year anniversary of the plant’s closing. Wit this record, my friends and I have concerns about transporting the nuclear waste through Oregon, which is part of the plan.

After that long run-around, I come to today’s point. Whether nuclear waste, plastics, fossil fuels, DDT, etc, we as a civilization keep coming up with ‘answers’ without really parsing out how to deal with the problems which might come up. Problems are often treated on a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” approach. Then we skid onto the bridge and begin struggling to find an answer. We’re often lax about it until it’s a crisis.

Now we come to the politics of today. One huge aspect of the Trump led GOP is that they seem to want to continue this as our mode. Kick it down the road. Call it a hoax. Pretend it’s not a problem. See climate change with its attendant extreme events and rising sea waters as an example. Man, those GOP cats will do anything to pretend there’s not a problem. To garner support for that, they’ll dump fake news and misinformation all over the news. Non-existent problems are created. Then they scream it to their base until the base is screaming about it too in true call and response fashion. See ‘woke’, ‘cancel culture’, and ‘immigrants eating pets’ as examples of this.

That’s what bugs me most about this brand of the Republican Party. They want to torture the clock until they can pretend they reside in another time where all was well. Basically, they want to perform and live as if the problems created by kicking the solutions down the road is a feasible governing approach. In an era when packaging plastics are leaching the carcinogens responsible for breast cancer into our food, and mass shootings keep increasing, they think less regulations is the answer. And then, to support the leader capable of leading them backward into the future, Donald Trump, they attempt to ignore or rewrite history, twist ethics and principles, and undermine others’ rights and freedoms. They pretend his adultery and multiple marriages align with their religious values. They’ll turn their heads and look away as he’s tried and convicted in court and hum quietly to themselves as he speaks gibberish and tells lies.

Not only does that render them a sad state as a party, but it renders us ineffective as a nation and will lead to greater and greater disasters. That’s a demonstrated trend. But they, his supporters, have turned off their minds and refuse to see that. This is what deeply frustrates me and many others.

But worse than frustration is the fundamental and serious consequences of their inactivity. If they believe Hurricane Helene was disastrous, they haven’t seen anything yet. We said the same after Katrina. After the disastrous wildfires in the west. After the record high temperatures established again and again and again in this century.

The way the GOP closes its eyes and minds to these issues, they will continue to refuse to see the consequences of their unwillingness to face these problems. Another disaster and another town will be gone.

And we’ll continue suffering from this conveyor belt of disasters and disease until irresponsible members of the GOP are removed from power and influence.

Please, vote blue in 2024.

October 3, 2024 0

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: Thursdayslumping

Summer temperatures are sneaking in, pulling autumn back toward sumumn, even though it’s October 3, 2024. Only a fall-ish 54 degrees F now, summer is turning the sun up into the air range and today’s heat will touch 90 F. Leaves continue their turn as their chlorophyll sinks, so it still looks like autumn as far as the trees and sky are concerned.

Today is Thursday.

Keeping it as classy as only he knows class, Donald Trump mocked former President Jimmy Carter on the event of the Carter’s 100th birthday. Nothing about any of Mr. Carter’s good works or service to the nation, oh, no, not for Trump. That’s not in him. This with Jimmy Carter in hospice.

And then Republicans will demand that Democrats, liberals, and progressives should be more considerate and less polarizing because word choice foments political violence.

Regular Trump watchers weren’t surprised. This ‘man’, Trump, has regularly mocked and sneered at others for service to the United States, such as Senator John McCain, referring to the former POW as a loser. Gotta bring it up as there are apparently a huge swath of votes who either don’t know that Trump did this or they’re fine with Trump doing this. If the latter, it displays so much of their values.

Moving on.

Today’s song came to me last night and remained in the morning mental music stream (Trademark waffling) this morning. “Ahead by A Century” by the Tragically Hip came out in 1996. And the song entered the MMMS because of Jimmy Carter. My wife and I both voted for him. We admire and respect him. Our conclusion about him is that he was way too far ahead of us in his thinking.

Stay positive, be strong, and carry on toward election day. Vote blue. Here’s the music. Belated birthday greetings, Mr. Carter. Cheers

October 3, 2024 1

October 2, 2024 0

Wednesday’s Political Thoughts

I’d seen the non-answer and privately mocked it.

I’m addressing the Veep debate of 2024. In this corner, JD Vance, acknowledged purveyor of lies. In the other, a schoolteacher, Minnesota governor Tim Walz.

The non-answer was how JD Vance bobbed and weaved around the last election and Trump’s efforts to deny he’d lost and game the system to convince others that it’d been stolen. Ol’ orange skin has a thin skin. Anyone and everyone seeing him react to criticism knows he responds with vigorous childish antics. Admitting he’d lost the election was above his skillset, so he’s been conjuring an alternate reality ever since a record 80,000,000 voters told him to get lost. He just can’t take that reality.

The way Vance spoke, Trump didn’t do anything to impede a peaceful transfer of power.

Let the NY Times state it:

Mr. Walz had a question for his counterpart.

“He is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Mr. Walz said of Mr. Trump, turning grandly to Mr. Vance. “Did he lose the 2020 election?”

“Tim,” Mr. Vance replied, “I’m focused on the future.”

Tim Walz reacted to that.

“That,” Mr. Walz said, “is a damning non-answer.”

There was a reason, he added, that Mr. Pence was not on the stage as Mr. Trump’s running mate anymore.

And it was worth asking, he said, what that could tell viewers about Mr. Vance.

“America, I think you’ve got a really clear choice,” Mr. Walz said, his eyes getting bigger, “of who’s going to honor that democracy and who’s going to honor Donald Trump.”

Just ’bout summed it up for me. Vance won’t admit the truth. Anyone ignoring reality and history won’t learn from either. That’s a person I don’t want in any leadership position.

But reading the NYTimes comments always delivers a surprise. Like expecting a birthday cake and opening the box to find a turd. Here’s one, two, and three of those comments about the non-answer.

JD Vance made some interesting points about January 6. He basically distanced himself away from the event. Of course, Walz, needs to associate Vance with January 6 and rightfully so, because the Vice President has an important role to play: they count the electoral votes. If the Vice President does NOT count the electoral votes, there cannot be a new president. Another thing, Donald Trump had to leave office on January 20 because of Mike Pence’s refusal of Donald Trump’s command not to certify the election. If Vance were VP that day, I think he wouldn’t count the electoral votes and Trump would have an excuse to stay in power. Of course, there would be the threat of impeachment, but based on how the last trial went, I’m not sure if that process works.

A plastic statement to be sure, but generally makes sense. Next.

Mr Vance was absolutely correct in his response to what took place on Jan 6. The protest at the Capitol was initiated and instigated by Democratic operatives and FBI plants and informants. The legacy media glosses over these facts in a desperate effort to convince America that the attempts by President Trump and his supporters to get to the truth about election interference prior to certification and the instigation of events at the Capitol were some nefarious plot by President Trump. No they were not and the election results and the true instigators of Jan 6 still need to be investigated and exposed. One of the biggest fears the left has is that his reelection will result in these truths being exposed. The left well knows that President Trump isn’t a threat to democracy but a threat to their hold on the levers of our governments power.

Well, someone is certainly drinking the Qanon tuna juice. They get their info from where? Delusions are deep in this one. They ignore all evidence and the facts of what happened and just 3D print some new reality.

And comment #3.

Tim Walz came across as a nice guy, good neighbor, but not VP material much less POTUS in the event he has to step up to the plate. Harris made a profound mistake by picking Walz when she had the opportunity to choose either Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly. I am not voting for Harris and I am not voting for Trump but had Harris picked Shapiro or Kelly as VP, I would definitely have reconsidered voting for her in November.

Basically, in their opinion, ‘Harris made a mistake in Walz so she’s not good enough for my vote cause Walz isn’t good enough to Veep.’

Everyone heard the same words and saw the same scenes. But the baggage we carry always drives our perceptions. And if Trump wins, and it all turns to shit so many like me and others gag on as a possibility, that third commenter will proclaim, “Well, it’s not my fault. I didn’t vote for either of them.”

Yeah, Vance’s performance didn’t change me. I didn’t come up with shivers from his wisdom or oratory prowess. I saw none of the first and little of the second.

With all I’ve seen of Trump and Harris, I’m still voting blue. Not only do I share my values and hopes for the nation with her, but with him, I believe he and ‘his supporters’ would continue shredding the Constitution and moving us backward.

Guess that’s my baggage.

October 2, 2024 6

Joie de Floof

Joie de Floof (floofinition) – The intense joy or sense of vitality that an animal can deliver in a situation. Origins: France, 1889

In Use: “Gadget was a tripod but with a joie de floof that overwhelmed all in his sphere, and the videos of him soon had millions of hits.”

In Use: “After a tiring day, Duke’s singular joie de floof revitalized Dija and helped her shed the frustrations and irritations of that enforced pastime called ‘work’.”

October 2, 2024 0

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: adultuated

Autumn continues it new reign of weather, pale blue sky, bold but late sunshine, goldenish green trees. Upta 56 F now, with 80 F on the horizon. 80 F makes a fine temperature for Ashlandia. If you ever vote for the temp for this place, I urge vote 80.

Told my wife yesterday after we got some things done, “You know, as I look back on October, I’m impressed with how much we got done.” Cuz this is Wednesday, October 2, 2024.

I enjoy watching Papi. Papi is the ginger blade component of our felinious duo. Younger. Very outdoorsy. Coming in the back door, he avoids stepping on the mat. Like it’s lava. Then inside, he circles around the outside of the sofa, to the room’s far side, like he’s a scout in enemy territory. Cuts back in to the rug under the dining table. Like it’s a safe base. Talks to me from there, tail up, back arched, whiskers brimming. I make inquiries about his appetite and willingness to eat. Tail still standing like a sundial, he races alongside as I head for food prep. Gives me some vocal encouragement. Then sits. Patient. Waiting for the food. Final burp of pleased noise as his bowl lands. Sitting, body adjustments, because he must be postured just so, it’s a thing of his, he commences.

Brother-in-law’s mother passed away. 92. COVID pneumonia. She, like all of her children, including BIL, are Trump supporters. But her grandchildren are not. Sorry for the loss, etc, but my emotional sea churns with conflicting currents.

I went out with the cats and enjoyed the still fresh air. They groomed and tended to sounds while I just did breathing exercises and reflected. For some reason that only The Neurons know, Tom Petty ripped into “You Wreck Me” from 1995 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark wrecked). Could be simple association. (Ya think?) October 1974, I entered the military, October, 1995, I dished the retirement papers to the service. This song is from ’95. So. Not saying the military wrecked me. Not at all.

Stay positive and lean forward and vote blue next month. Coffee and I already rendezvoused on familiar grounds. Here’s the music, and away we go.

October 2, 2024 0

Tuesday’s Wandering Thoughts

Confession.

I sometimes pretend to remember things that I don’t readily recall.

Like, a friend will ask me something like, “Do you remember when Magursky hit that home run in 1968 in the Dodger game?”

Honestly, I can reply, I was twelve, I don’t remember, I wasn’t much into baseball then, and the baseball I followed was basically limited to the Pirates.

But I know my buddy will insist on trying to help me remember. “Oh, come on, don’t you remember? It was the longest home run ever! Completely out of the park. You must remember it. Wait, was it 68? Or was in ’69? Oh, come to think of it, it might have bee ’67.”

I’ve been down this path. I know how the convo will go. Meanwhile, my brain has wandered off, singing the theme song to the “Milton the Monster” cartoon.

So I fib, and I say, “Yes! Of course I remember it,” matching his enthusiasm. “Oh, I’m pretty sure it was ’68 because in ’69 is when the Mets won the World Series, wasn’t it? Remember Tom Seaver and the Miracle Mets? And that was the same year Andretti won the Indy 500, remember?”

And he’ll answer, “Yes, of course I do. Andretti. Indy. Right.”

And we’ll go on happily like that, because that’s a small part of why we’re friends.