Category: News

Less Is More

Yes, get ready, friends and family who hate it when I go political. They would rather I don’t, and I try not to, but here we fucking go again – will this carousel ever end? 

The tRump WH Budget Chief, Mick Mulvaney, is singing about how great the tRump budget is. Why, they’re enabling and empowering people by taking money away from their greedy little hands.

Mulvaney added: “We don’t want to measure compassion by the number of programs we have and the number of people on them — true compassion is the number of people we want to try to get off of those programs and get back in charge of their own lives.”

Sure, those people who need the safety net aren’t working because of anything except their own damn weak wills and lazy nature. That’s why they’re poor, hungry and sick, or why they need aid from the rest of us. If they need more money, they should work two or three more jobs while going back to school and getting a better education. Taking away the social net will put them back on their feet!

Yea, verily, I was exposed to that hypocritical crap in the military and corporate life. “We must do more with less!” “We must give one hundred and ten percent!” Yes, tell me, how do you get one hundred and ten percent out of your mind and body? Can you drink one hundred and ten percent of a glass of water? How do you eat one hundred and ten percent of that bowl of soup? You can’t, can you? So, with your logic, tell me, where does that extra magic ten percent come from? Nowhere but your feeble, feeble brain.

Yet, strangely, of course, the wealthy must be given more. Why, giving them more will help them help others more! Funny, how their logic changes when it’s applied to their own class, isn’t it?

Ironically, too, when it comes to military spending, more is better. More military spending gives us greater protection. Why doesn’t the less is better logic work in that situation?

Mulvaney must be a good Christian. Seems like it’s always Christians in this modern era who claim that helping the poor is contrary to the Bible. When searching out more information on the Mick, I found out this about him:

As it turns out, Mulvaney has faced questions regarding his payment (or non-payment, as the case may be) of taxes before. In 2013, a blogger discovered that Mick Mulvaney had owed thousands of dollars in back taxes for as long as five years. The website wonkette.com picked up the story, but it barely made a ripple during the negotiations for raising the debt ceiling.

Mulvaney is nothing if not consistent, advocating for the country not to pay its bills while he neglects paying his own.

Sickening, sickening, sickening. Mulvaney, and the White House administration and the agenda he represents, has no morals, compassion or empathy.

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Twenty-two

Twenty-two dead today

More will die tomorrow

In the name of freedom, choice, democracy and God

We’ll strike back to teach them a lesson

Twenty-two dead today

More will die tomorrow

In the name of freedom, choice, democracy and God

Twenty-two dead today

How many more tomorrow?

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Today’s Theme Music

Returning to my roots of being, I’m streaming stuff from the nineteen sixties today.

I was a big motor-racing, science-fiction and baseball fan then. Mario Andretti, Jackie Stewart, Mark Donahue, Dan Gurney, Peter Revson were among the racers I idolized. The Can-Am, Formula One, Indy (called USAC racing back then), sports car racing, with the Ford versus Ferrari battles at LeMans…I watched them all.

My baseball team was the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I followed them faithfully. But my emerging loves were reading and music. Although my reading tastes were — and are — eclectic, I tore through the works of Asimov, Bradbury, Zelazny, Clarke, and Heinlein. Besides my racing magazines, I bought science fiction magazines every month, and devoured the short stories.

The rock explosion was in full strength and the Brit Invasion was underway. Protests, demonstrations, riots, the Altamont Free Concert and Woodstock were part of our news cycles, along with Vietnam, political assassinations, civil rights and the cold war. The threat of nukes was a constant. Bombers and fighters remained on alert.

Consumerism, television and advertising were gaining strength. What a time, what a time, for a teenage boy in America. Into this maelstrom of my existence came Jimi Hendrix. Wow, his playing amazed me. He died young, just twenty-eight years old, but, man, what a legacy he left. What an impact he had.

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New Trump Sayings

Donald Trump came up with a new expression the other day: “prime the pump.” He was discussing the U.S. economy with a magazine at the time. It’s another example of his tremendous ability to see and grasp complex situations and reduce them to something that can be tweeted and remembered.

Here’s a few other expressions he’s originated since becoming president.

  • A snowball’s chance in hell.
  • Between a rock and a hard place.
  • Once in a blue moon.

In each of those four instances above, the Tangelos mascot said, “Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do.”

He also claimed that he came up with the famous statement, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” while discussing the Berlin Wall with President Kennedy. Although only seventeen at the time, Trump said, “Walls always fascinated me, always. I had a gut feeling, you know, just a hunch, just a hunch, but I trust my hunches, I trust my instinct, that walls, like the one in Berlin that we built to protect us from communisms, were going to be important in my life, someday, and I was right. I was right.”

#fakenews

Well, almost fake news.

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Today’s Sucky News

While perusing the news headlines and this day in news – ‘Cats’ opened on Broadway on this date – I came across the story of an eight-year-old boy’s suicide in Ohio.

Eight…years…old.

Reports have come out that he was assaulted at school two days before his death. Bullied.

Eight…years…old.

I think a lot of things about those who assaulted him. I try to be kind toward them but my teeth are on edge. Naturally, my writing energies begin spinning stories around this.

Eight years old.

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Amazing News

You read the news today? Sure, what news, which news, right? Sorry.

History was made when a woman breastfed in Parliament. This happened in Australia. The woman who made this news is Senator Larissa Waters. She didn’t breastfeed another senator, but a baby, her daughter, Alia.

I’m amazed that this is news. I think breastfeeding has been around for over fifty years. I know breasts on women have been around at least that long. I’m sixty years old, and I distinctly remember seeing them on women when I was a teenager.

I guess this is news because breast-feeding is finally coming out of the closet in Australia. Actually, reading the article, it seems like it’s news because children were not previously authorized to be in Parliament. That makes sense; if Aussie politicians are like American politicians, that was probably because they’re afraid that children will outshine them in just about every aspect from speaking and making sense to manners, courtesy and intelligence.

Whatever the reason for the celebration, it’s good to see we’re finally making progress. It’s been finally acknowledged with books that ‘Everyone Poops’. That had also apparently been a secret. Soon, we’ll find out that people masturbate and fart, too.

About damn time. Let me know when someone breaks wind in Parliament in Australia.

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Today’s Theme Music

Another anniversary was passed. This one was less remembered and noted than many anniversaries.

Today’s song is ‘Ohio’, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSN&Y). The Kent State shootings inspired the song when Ohio National Guardsman shot at protesters, killing four, in nineteen seventy. Nine others were wounded. Some of those shot were watching the protest or walking the area, and not taking part in the protests.

I vividly remember hearing the song for the first time. It was a warm morning, but humid after thunderstorms the previous night, and our patch of suburbia was richly green. I was in my friend’s back yard in Penn Hills, PA. Curt lived up the street from me. He, John, Ricky and Bruce, all neighbors and classmates (except Bruce), were the core of my friendships. Curt’s back yard was slick with mud from the heavy rains. Mosquitoes were swarming, along with horse flies.

The Kent State protests were mostly about President Nixon’s Cambodia Campaign, just announced. It seems appropriate for our era, as we’re protesting an American Executive branch’s words, actions, behavior and stated intentions, to listen to this song and think about the words. Appallingly, I saw an FB post encouraging ‘vets’ to run over protesters. It sickened my heart to read such sentiments. Is that why vets went to war, to return and run over others exercising their rights and freedoms?

Some seem to have twisted ideas about how it all works.

Speaking as a vet and knowing many vets, I don’t believe most of them think protesters should be run over. Maybe I’m in a bubble, and I’m wrong. We used to say, I don’t agree with what you say, but I’ll fight to the death for your right to say it. So, on the one hand, yes, the person can encourage vets to run over protesters, as it’s their right, but I find their sentiment sublimely hateful, ignorant, and depressing.

This song captured how appalled some of us were then. I remember being surprised that my friends were unaware of the Kent State shootings or what it was all about. Their parents were aware but guarded. Looking back, I grasp how conservative that housing plan where I lived was at the time.

Listen to the song, though, and the chorus, “Four dead in Ohio,” stays with you.

 

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Today’s Theme Music

In this age….

And what is this age, this technological age of rising alt news, polarization, nationalism, fascism and repression, what is this age? Sure don’t feel like the Age of Aquarius.

Back in nineteen eighty-five, the world was facing many issues, like the famine in Africa. In the U.K., Bob Geldof responded by organizing Band-Aid. In America, a ‘super-group’ was put together to release an album to help. A group, U.S.A. (United Support of Artists), was put together to help the cause. Produced by Quincy Jones, a song, ‘We Are The World,’ was co-written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, and arranged by Michael Omartian. Released as part of Live Aid, it helped awaken awareness of the famine in Africa. Other ‘live-aid’ type of events followed as musicians stepped up to help farmers and earthquake victims.

I didn’t particularly like the song, but I appreciate the sentiment and effort. Harry Belafonte was the first spark plug in this effort because he thought something needed to be done, but watch the video and listen to the voices, and see how many artists participated in trying to make a difference. It was a hit; it won awards; it raised money and attracted attention to the problem.

Well, here we are again, with war and terrorism shredding the world. Displaced peoples are seeking the very basics of food, water and shelter, and nations, like America under Trump, want to turn their backs. Insisting, “America First,” he builds walls and bombs other places, because walls and bombs have always been so effective. That’s why the war to end all wars was fought one hundred years ago.

It seems like that was just the opening of a War-apalooza.

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Hate & Ignorance

Amazing that we have hate and ignorance being exposed here in liberal Ashland, Oregon.

A man, hair dresser by trade, has confessed that he’s frightened and bought a gun for his protection. Dark skinned, he’s from Hawaii. Ignorant people assume he’s from Mexico. “Go back to your own country,” they tell him. “Go back to Mexico.”

What needs to be expressed about such ignorance and hate? They’re being empowered by their pathetic legislators and are being fed a diet of such ideas out of right wing media, false news sites, and the tRump White House. I want to assume they’re ignorant; I don’t want to assume they’re making a conscious choice to be so hateful. I know some, like Steve Bannon, make a conscious choice to be hateful. That renders it sadder yet.

The others may have personal issues. Threatening people and acting violent and hateful may be an outlet for their own toxic lives. It compensates for their lack of direction, purpose and intelligence. I don’t know. Perhaps people that I think are lovely are actually such haters. I’ve been fooled before.

We had another Resist protest march this past Tuesday. The topic was SCOTUS nominee Neil Gorsuch. We applauded Senator Claire McCaskill’s comments regarding Gorsuch. She splendidly recounts why Gorsuch is such a horrible choice: “I cannot support Judge Gorsuch because a study of his opinions reveal a rigid ideology that always puts the little guy under the boot of corporations. He is evasive, but his body of work isn’t. Whether it is a freezing truck driver or an autistic child, he has shown a stunning lack of humanity. And he has been an activist — for example, writing a dissent on a case that had been settled, in what appears to be an attempt to audition for his current nomination.” The entire read is worthwhile.

We ended up detouring into side conversations, like Russia’s role in our last election, the fact that Republicans kept Obama from filling the vacancy and now claim that the ‘people have spoken’. Oh, the reek of bullshit.

Republican legislators are trying to avoid their constituents as their constituents express their anger and frustration with what’s happening in and with the Federal government. Voters have taken to attending town hall meetings with red disagree cards. Those brave Republican legislators are having anyone with such cards on them turned away. They are such cowards, and demonstrate fear and ignorance themselves. How can we expect more from their followers and supporters.

A woman wrote on Facebook, “Oh, you liberals. Quit whining. We’re not like North Korea. We’re not beheading people like ISIS is doing, or kidnapping people like they are in Africa.”

Such comments anger me. We’re striving for the highest ideals of freedom, justice, equality and tolerance, and you’re trying to lower the bar. No wonder you’re behind such an ignorant President.

Weeks like these are good for my waistline. I don’t eat too much. Reading about the political and business insanity kills my appetite.

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Coffee Snob

Yes, I confess: I’m a coffee snob.

I can’t abide most American mass produced ground coffee, like Folger’s, Maxwell House, and Hill Bros. Worse of the worse is Sanka instant.

No, worse of the worse could be the Folger’s Instant Coffee Crystals. Instant coffees taste off to me, as though the coffee has been recycled.

I have friends who swear by Dunkin’ Donut’s coffee. Not me. Dunkin’ Donut cofffee provides a taste that I imagine comes from a dirty tee shirt being soaked in coffee and then wrung out in a cup. Just below it are the foul offerings provided at McDonald’s, Burger King and other fast food establishments. I haven’t had coffee from any of those places in decades. Haven’t eaten at them since around 1992, when I returned to America from Germany.

I became such a snob, as with many things, when I was exposed to offerings in other places. Being stationed in Germany was the changing point for my appreciation of not just beer, but coffee, pastries, asparagus and French fries. German coffee seemed so very strong and clear that I was instantly drawn to it. I started buying different Italian coffees available in Germany, examining flavors the way others do with wines.

The same process was followed with wines, and then beers, along with cigars, ports, whiskeys, fruits, chocolate, cheese, fish, oils, vegetables and meats. I learned that an experienced palate will be drawn toward fresher, clearer flavors. Becoming more mindful among the differences in flavors, I became more mindful as I consumed food and beverages. Fresher and more refined foods offered unique flavors on my tongue.

Of course, it ruined me. Returning from Germany and settling into the Bay area, I drove by a KFC. KFC chicken! I remembered eating it as a child. A sudden nostalgic flame consumed me. I ordered a chicken dinner. The eating experience ruined my memories of KFC and made a skeptic of me about all my American favorites.

So, I’m a coffee snob, but I’m also a beer, wine, chocolate, pie, cheese, fruit, vegetable, meat and pastry snob. I’ll eat things because they’re sustenance, and it’s my nature to accept that food is fuel. But I now know that some foods don’t work nearly as well as fuel.

Something about the eating and drinking experience also affected my reading,  news reporting and movie watching. Overall, I became a snob, more watchful, more critical, more mindful. Part of me often wishes that I wasn’t a snob, that I can just turn on the television and be titillated by the latest number one show like so many others, or that I don’t need to research and vet news headlines and reports for the truth and accuracy, or that I can just trot on down to a fast food place for a meal.

With that, time for breakfast, locally sourced and organic, featuring berries and fruit we picked and froze ourselves, and a cup of coffee. It’ll be Major Dickinson today, from Peet’s.

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