The Full Agenda

Project 2025 has been on display enough that the gist has been assimilated. Led by wealthy individuals and the Heritage Foundation, they pursue a theocracy dominated by white men. Women’s rights will be diminished, if not outright stripped. Black men will be tolerated as long as they toe the white line. If you think you’re something other than male or female as it says on your paperwork when born, forget about it. Your shall be male or female, as their god intended.

Under Project 2025, remember, too, that work is good. As they sit in homes and offices fantasizing about the American world, they want children back in the factories. Women, however, should be at home, giving birth, sexually gratifying their man, keeping the house clean and cooking and baking up a storm, cuz that’s what Jesus wanted.

Because, besides being about money, power, and their rights, it’s about forwarding their religion, even if they don’t practice it. They’ve gone from practicing what would Jesus do to what would Donald Trump do?

That’s what they pursue if Donald J. Trump is elected as POTUS this year.

What’s interesting about this is the cosmic political background.

On a Quora post, someone answered the question about whether Trump will win by pointing out that the conservative base is elderly, and they’re dying. The conservative base is also rural, and the rural population is shrinking. The young are leaving those small towns and agribusiness zones because the future is less than bright. They want adventure, education, or more meaningful jobs than what’s being offered in those little towns.

Bottom line for the conservatives, i.e., the GOP, that their potential base is getting smaller.

They’ve recognized this. They’ve countered by first, gerrymandering to favor conservative voters. Second, by making it harder to vote. Like Musk and Trump, they push the fallacy that mail-in voting is fraught with fraud. They insist the only safe solution is paper ballots with in-person voting with people presenting their government issued identification.

In doing so, Trump, Musk, and the GOP ignore the facts. That’s nothing new for them. They loathe facts. Facts often show how backward their thinking is.

But going on now, took, are several pincer movements to make Project 2025 feasible. The GOP has been attacking public education for some time. They’ve been doing this mostly through voucher programs but also by making it more difficult for teachers to teach. They challenge them wherever and whenever possible. Back in the early Tea Party days, the GOP went after the history and science textbooks. Advances and positive contributions by anyone but conservative whites, mostly men, was systemically removed from what was being taught.

See, the GOP knew their elderly, rural, uneducated base was shrinking. The answer, of course, is to re-establish that base. To do that, they politically divide the country. That’s what keeps Trump propped up in the current movement: he is really good at spewing hate and threatening the Democrats. It’s been taken to the point where MAGAts have been quoted as trusting a Russian more than they trust a Democrat. Shit is made up and thrown on liberals, progressives, and Democrats. If something sticks, than that becomes the attack mode.

We’ve seen this in action before. “Shows us the birth certificate.” “Lock her up.” “Biden is too old and feeble.” Now Trump et al is hunting for the handle to attack Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for POTUS, and her running mate, Governor Tim Walz. They’re trying everything, hoping to find something that sticks.

Meanwhile, the GOP is also working hard to get books removed from schools and libraries, along with any curriculum that teaches anything negative about white people or the history of the United States. Their goal is clear.

When young people currently graduate, they tend to be liberal. So, while the conservative base is declining – death, rural population shrinking, people growing more educated and capable – the liberal base is growing.

Therefore, the GOP must undercut education in order to stop young people from learning. Their goal is to increase young conservative voters, people who will reliably toe the conservative line.

Conservative leadership, abetted by a conservative base, are an insidious group. They do not care about the concept of the United States as a bastion of freedom, justice, and equality. That’s just for the propaganda brochures and videos. They want a power base with themselves in charge, encouraging ‘good old-fashioned hard work’ for slave labor wages while the wealthy grows wealthier. That’s how they see the United States: a grand revenue stream with low taxes for the wealthy.

It’s an old, old story. They’re just adding fiendish twists to it. Just as they knew they couldn’t legitimately overturn Roe v. Wade, with Mitch McConnell’s ‘leadership’, they denied President Obama’s SCOTUS nominees and packed the court with Trump conservative appointees. The greatest issue with that is how those nominees danced around what they would do with Roe v. Wade and then overturned it with the flimsiest possible reasoning as soon as the opportunity arose.

I didn’t provide any links to my claims, but I can find them if needed. Cheers

September 3, 2024 2

Sunday’s Wandering Thoughts

I went off topic on a mini-rant with a friend this morning.

It started as an innocent encounter. They commented on my Harris-Walz bumper sticker. I support her campaign to be POTUS.

He said something about being comfortable with a woman president, and I just riffed, telling him that we’re overdue to have a female as our president, just as we were overdue to have a black as our president.

And maybe it was the air, but I went off on a tangent about sex and gender, and how so many people tell me that sex is a matter of biology and that it goes hand in hand with gender. They talk about it as a foregone and undeniable fact of nature. I point out that are many species who have it way more complicated than the simple labels of male and female. I firmly believe that sex and gender continue evolving for humans, just as we as a species continues evolving.

And, and, to finish, it’s always humorous to me when someone pulls out the God card. “God created man and woman.” Right, but isn’t your God all-knowing? So, if they’re pulling the strings of creation, aren’t they creating the others who aren’t strictly male and female as you would have it? And do you claim to know the mind of God? And don’t tell me you’re going to predicate everything on a book or teachings that are a few thousand years old. It’s been revised and edited, and by the way, can’t God change their mind about things?

Guess that’s a commandant I don’t know: “God shall not change their mind.”

I don’t know why I went off. But it’s out of me know. At least for the moment.

September 1, 2024 0

Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: Imamellow

It’s a new month. September has arrived, on a Sunday, and on a holiday weekend. Seems weird that it’s Labor Day weekend. It’s too soon! Nobody around here seems prepared. I’ve barely seen any ads. Okay, turn the page.

It’s 76 F here in Ashlandia, where Labor Day is privately celebrated. The expected high will be 94 F, so it’s cooled off from the last two days. Saw 100 at my house yesterday. Besides being cooler, it’s cloudier. Will it rain? The Weather 8 Ball says ‘All signs point to no.’ Air quality is good but the pollen count is high, and I’m feeling that.

My wife sat up with a burst of outrage this morning. She read a headline aloud, “The one thing Kamala Harris said that shows she’s unfit to be president.” My wife fumed, “The one thing. The one thing! Show me one thing Donald Trump said that shows him fit to be president.” I received the Vote Vets Harris-Walz for President magnetic bumper sticker she ordered me yesterday and slapped it on my rear end. It immediately fell off because I’m flesh and blood and not very magnetic. I then put it on the car. Yes, some pre-coffee humor. Sorry.

My wife has also ordered a dozen bumper stickers to give out to friends, and two other magnetic bumper stickers for our car. She’s donated to the Harris-Walz campaign several times, but is outraged that they keep just asking her for more. I explain, “Honey, that’s the nature of political campaigns.” That just sets her off more.

In local news, Oregon is re-criminalizing hard drugs. The law takes effect today. The experiment is over. You can’t say that we didn’d try.

Ima starting a new theme week this week. Starting today, I’ll provide a song that features night in the title. The Neurons immediately sprang up with “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.” The rocking 1974 John Lennon release is rolling through the morning mental music stream (Trademark dark).

Stay positive, be strong, and have a drink of something to get you through the moment. I’ve chosen coffee. Here’s the music. Don’t forget, Vote Blue. Cheers

September 1, 2024 2

August 31, 2024 1

Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: Coffeemated

Another Saturday has been found. Calendarologists have identified it as August 31, 2024, the last Saturday of the month. In a weird twist, the last Saturday of August is also part of the four day Labor Day weekend in ‘Merica. It seems too soon to me, but I was not consulted.

Gonna be a hot one, I won’t lie. Thermostat is expected to shy away from 100 degrees F by one or two degrees. Then it’ll drop 30 to 40 degrees for the night again. The air is clear, though, my friends, and satisfactory for breathing.

Saw a post today where a friend shared. It said, “The U.S.A. is not a Christian nation. But it is a nation where you are free to be Christian.” Someone else commented, “Sort of. The founding fathers believed that our rights are given to us by God not government, the constitution is to protect those rights by limiting the government from infringing on those God given rights.” They then added a link.

I think the poster sharing the link misses the point. The original post states, it’s not a Christian nation, but you’re free to be a Christian. Nothing in Anthony J. Minna’s stance, who wrote the linked article, changes that point.

“The Declaration contains several other references to a higher power. The introduction states that the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God” entitle the American people to a separate and equal station among the powers of the earth. In the conclusion, Congress appeals to “the Supreme Judge of the world” for the rectitude of its intentions and professes its “firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.” In each case, reference to a deity serves to validate the assertion of independence.

“The genius of the Declaration is the inclusive way the divine is given expression. The appellations of God are generic. Adherents of traditional theistic sects can read the words “Nature’s God,” “Creator,” and “Supreme Judge,” and understand them to mean the god they worship. The claims made on numerous Christian websites attest to this. Yet opponents of dogma read those same words and see an embracive, non-sectarian concept of divinity. This is no small testimony to the wisdom and foresight of the Founding Fathers. All Americans could support the Revolution and independence. All can regard their rights as unalienable, their liberty as inviolable.

“Unlike the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution contains no reference to God. At first, this may seem odd. Why did the men who drafted the Declaration invoke a Supreme Being several times, while the men who drafted the Constitution did not mention a higher power even once? Only six individuals signed both documents, so it could be hypothesized that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention that convened in Philadelphia in 1787 were a different and less religious group than the delegates to the Continental Congress, or perhaps that the delegates to the Continental Congress were savvy freethinkers cynically manipulating people’s belief in God to win support for their overthrow of British rule. Neither explanation holds water. Some of the Founders were conventional Christians and some were not, but the belief in a deity implied in the Declaration was sincere and likely universal among the delegates to both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention. And a belief in the possibility of divine favor was held by even some of the least religious Founders.”

Added emphasis is mine.

Therein is one of the problems of many Christians in the United States. They read or hear of God and think of their own Christian God and the concept of creation of their Christian God. They fall to think of other creation myths which exist. There are over one hundred out there. Naturally, they don’t consider any other God, either; nor do they consider proponents or followers of other relations. That’s why, when they pass laws about religions, they’re often shocked when other religions begin using the law to further their own religion’s tenets and principles, such as mine, Pastafarianism.

Enough of that. We went to the OSF Green Show last night to see B.O.O.M. Cloudless, with the sun going down and the heat creeping down from the low nineties, it was a gorgeous night to be on the green listening to tunes. B.O.O.M’s name translates to Brothers of Other Mothers. But they’ve added a female drummer. The name is under re-consideration. They mentioned B.O.S.O.O.M.: Brothers or Sister of Other Mothers.

Whatever they called themselves, their show was fun and energetic. Highlights for me was fast paced, ripping “One Way Out” originally by the Allman Brothers Band. The penultimate song, I would have been satisfied if they ended there but they finished with a rousing rendition of Elvis Costello “What’s So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding?”

I’m finishing my theme week – well, a week and one day – of songs with time in the title with Nick Waterhouse and “It’s Time” from 2016. I first heard this song on the Reacher television series. As I thought about ‘time’ theme songs early this A.M., The Neurons blew this one off and played it in the morning mental music stream (Trademark postmarked). It’s a jazz-infused pop offering to me and I like it.

Stay positive, remain strong, and Vote Blue in 2024. I’ve been nursing coffee, or it’s been nursing me. Time to giddy-up. Here’s the music. Cheers

August 31, 2024 2

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: superfrifeelife

The pendulum is swinging. It’s Friday, August 30, 2024, and the hours of daylight have noticeably reduced. It’s an advantage at sun soars through blue cloudless skies, working with the air to lift the temperature next to triple digits during the day, like 97 F today. But then the clear skies and longer night lets the temps skivvy down to the upper fifties, delivering relief. Slips of autumn have climbed back into my life. Some maples have shifted into fall fashions. Starbucks is offering fall drinks. School is back is session at every level locally. And football is again rolling across TV screens, carrying news through feeds.

But first: we must get through Labor Day. In the U.S., we have the bookend holidays of Memorial Day and Labor Day. To many, MD marks summer’s unofficial beginning, and LD is the unofficial end.

I read several news articles in depth this morning. One was about how Republicans have softened their climate change stance. They rarely outright deny it these days. I guess that with so much extreme weather killing and maiming our world, they recognize that they look and sound like fools when they do. Instead, they like to problemtize the solutions which Democrats — and much of the world — recommends. Like moving to more sustainable forms such as wind and solar. No, these caus more problems, they inform their constituents, even as they lie about what’s happening.

Last day of my theme of time in the song’s title. As many of age and are forced to cope with changes, we lament the same thing. The Neurons brought the song that asks the question into the morning mental music stream (Trademark timed): “Where Have All the Good Times Gone?” It originally popped onto the rock music scene in the hands of the Kinks in 1965. It’s since been covered by a chunk of performers, most notably Bowie and Van Halen. But I stayed with the Kinks for this day. Ray Davies of the Kinks wrote it and said in an interview:

“We’d been rehearsing ‘Where Have All the Good Times Gone’ and our tour manager at the time, who was a lot older than us, said, ‘That’s a song a 40-year-old would write. I don’t know where you get that from.’ But I was taking inspiration from older people around me. I’d been watching them in the pubs, talking about taxes and job opportunities.”

h/t to Wikipedia.org

I certainly feel the question more now as a young elder (68) than I did when I was ten, at the song’s release.

But let’s face it, things are so much easier today. Let it be like yesterday. Please let me have happy days.

Coffee has been extensively sampled. Stay positive, be strong, lean forward, and Vote Blue. Here’s the music, and away we go. Cheers

August 30, 2024 0

Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: Uptempo

August 29, 2024, crept into our world as clocks finished a round of counting.

It’s Thursday, so named for the day of the week when the poor were served free drinks at ale houses and taverns. Don’t look it up, because I made it up.

We’re expected a high of 97 F plus this afternoon. For now, though, the windows are closed because it’s a chilly 58 F in my environs. Air quality is marginally good. Blue sky reigns o’er most of the valley, but some hazy, formless clouds have popped up on the northern and western horizons.

Reviewing news, I see talk of Trump’s ‘campaign’. That agent of chaos is spreading more disinformation, still lying about the 2020 election results, spinning accusations out of air, and trying hard to disrupt intelligent discourse on anything except maybe the askance wondering, WTF is he doing?

Take the Arlington National Cemetery kerfluffle. This was an event planned for the families of thirteen service members killed earlier this year. They wanted it private. Trump, true to his tone-deaf self-centered character jumped at a chance to show that he really does support and respects the military and its members. That’s despite his claims that he’s smarter than generals. Or that military members, especially injured or dead ones, are losers. Or his sniveling that the Congressional Medal of Honor given to military members is less worthy than the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His audacious reasoning was that soldiers and their medal is ‘worth less’ “either in very bad shape, because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead”.

What brilliant logic.

Meanwhile, there is Trump’s photo op. Grinning like an idiot, giving a thumps up.

Such respect.

What was sadder was how his supporters jumped to protect his actions. One wrote in comments that ‘at least he was there to honor them.’ Yeah, idiot. Number one, that’s not why he was there, and that’s obvious to us all outside of the MAGA circle jerk. Two, the families resquested that this not be politicized. They wanted privacy to grieve. Trump turned it into a circus. The MAGA commenter showed that they’re as tone deaf and out of touch as their master. CORRECTION: Two families had invited the Trump show. But that doesn’t change that it’s against policy and practice to desecrate Arlington with politics and campaigning.

Moving on.

My theme for the week still centers on songs with time in the title. Up to the challenge, The Neurons leaped forward with “Time for Me to Fly” by REO Speedwagon. It’s playing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark timed) like it’s playing on the radio in 1978.

Stay positive and be strong. Lean forward and vote blue in 2024. Coffee is wending through my systems with its magic fingers. Here’s the music. Cheers

August 29, 2024 0

Coffee Break

After returning from the market and eating breafast, I read an article which a friend referred me to.

“How busing, school desegregation shaped Kamala Harris’s views of race” is a WaPo article about Vice President Harris’s childhood and integration through busing informed her mind about the possibilities.

An important lesson is conveyed in it which is lost on the GOP. Inclusion and diversity strengthen us. They are not dirty words or immoral ideas. Inclusion and diversity help us understand one another better and further, fertilizes new ideas and insights that would have been lost.

Broadening horizons, expanding work forces, and forging social bonds through diversity and inclusion are not new ideas. We’ve been using them for some time. And if the GOP can pull its collective head out of their collective ass, they would see that it’s one of the fundamental reasons why we attained and maintained global leadership positions in so many areas of modern life.

The GOP should not be allowed to throw away all that progress just for the sake of narrow Biblical viewpoints, fragile male egos, reactionary ideas about women’s rights and gender roles, nor for the benefit of a super-powerful and wealthy one percent. Vote Blue in 2024.

August 27, 2024 0

August 26, 2024 0

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: bluestormrising

We’re bounding into the last week of August, 2024. Today is Monday, the 26th. Looks like 71 days until the 2024 elections.

It’s 57 F degrees in Ashlandia today. We’re seeing mostly blue sky and sunshine. Pouting clouds lurk around the distant horizons. They act like they’re planning something. We hit 80 degrees yesterday. Today’s high will be a more normal 88 F.

I drifted through the news stories this morning. Feeling a little battered by the disasters, campaigns, rulings, deaths, and general information. The never-ending cycle starts feeling a little heavy.

I was able to help out friends yesterday. We’d stayed together on vacation last week. They then drove home to Ashlandia on Friday, as we did. They insisted that they’d lost their key fob. Must’ve left it back at the vacation place.

Well, wait; how did they drive and charge their EV if they lacked a key fob? They insisted they had. They looked everywhere for it. Didn’t find it, so they must have driven home without it.

I researched that, and like, no way did they drive and recharge their Hyundai Kona EV SUV without the key fob or any key. I went over and found it in about a minute, under their passenger seat against the transmission tunnel. They were absolutely flabbergasted but grateful.

After I was looking for it, they mentioned they’d lost a cell phone. I’d notice one in their car, in the center console compartment. Yes, that was their missing phone. We suggested they might need to rest.

We’re dealing with home insurance issues. After being with Connect, which is Costco’s insurance program with American Family Insurance, for over fifteen years while living here, they’re dropping us. They’re worried about what the cost of insuring us for fires might do to their profits. Homeowners see this sort of things from insurance companies all the time. They’re there and willing to take your money until your place is too large of a risk for their profit margins. It’s not just us but all over town, and not just Connect. I’m hearing the same thing from friends and relatives in other parts of the state.

We’ve seen this before. Earthquakes insurance premiums skyrocket, and then the company announces they won’t insure you any more because you’re in an earthquake zone. Our flood insurance one year went from $300 a year to over $3000, because the city said we’re in a 100-year-flood zone. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, insurance companies bailed on paying for acts of terrorism. Of course, places that see regular tornado, hurricane, or flood damages already have felt the impact of insurance companies running away from them. That includes insurers leaving California and other states in droves after catastrophic wildfires. Capitalism at its finest. Yes, that is snark.

For us, our home insurance will go from $360 to $1140 a year. It will no longer be through Costco Connect, but to one of American Family Insurance’s feeder companies. Yes, we are looking for a new insurance company for home and auto. We don’t appreciate being passed around like a cheap bottle of wine.

And with extreme weather events happening more frequently as predicted by climate change models, expect more withdrawals by insurance companies. Soon, they’ll only be insuring the wealthy and powerful.

This week’s theme music concept remains time in the song title. There’s an abundance of such songs out there. Today, though, The Neurons pulled out one that they said is dedicated to Don Old Trump and his merry band of MAGAts. Yes, today The Neurons have the Guest Who song from 1969, “No Time”, thumping in the morning mental music stream (Trademark paused). The Canadian group’s opening line in this song is, “No time left for you.” Right on, Neurons. No time left for Trump. I like it.