Saturday’s Theme Music
Mood: Chillified
Gray clouds have returned to win the sky. Really, it seems like one big light-gray cloud. Low relative to the upper elevations, it cuts off the view after two hundred yards, giving an impression that the world ends there.
The wind is sedated to an infrequent breeze. Chillier air has shifted back in. We navigate 39 F with a high of 50 proferred, and more rain sometime.
This is Saturday, November 23, 2024.
My song today is “Good Life” by OneRepublic. I’d been reading news and opinions online late last night. One thing after another led me to new insights and angles. I ended up reflecting on the MAGA GOP’s narrow minded views. Their hypocrisy and lack of principles always flavor my opinion, as well. I’m sure they rationalize everything as the ends justify the means. Such cliches allow them to declare they’re for freedom, equality, and ‘protecting women’ even as they curtail equality and people’s freedom. They’re all about conforming. Two sexes and genders, traditional missionary position, trad wife, that’s them, at least in public. We suspect many dark things happening in private, based on what periodically crawls into the light. See, for example, Donald Trump’s “grab ’em by the pussy” philosophy and his affairs, Matt Gaetz, Jeffrey Epstein, et al.
And, it’s their religion and their God to which we must all bow. That’s how they interpret religious freedom in their ‘Merica. Their pasteurized, homogenized history that must be taught. Anything bad that happened is pushed aside so they can pretend it didn’t happen. Mass shootings are all because of people with mental health problems who are troubled by the liberals’ DEI and woke agenda. All is good in the MAGA world, as long as the wealthy can avoid being taxed, the stock market is going up, and everyone is working, even if it’s at menial jobs for slave wages, even if it’s children working, even if the skies and waters are polluted. That’s their version of a ‘good life’.
As for Democrats, liberals, and progressives, they must be ignored, expunged, or re-educated to accept the MAGA way.
It’s so far from my idea of a good life that I’m nauseated when I contemplate the gulf.
Anyway, after I shifted through these strands of thoughts, The Neurons inserted “Good Life” into the morning mental music stream (Trademark rising) where it shared some time with “It’s My Life” by the Animals and “It’s My Life” by No Doubt. “Good Life”, released in 2010, feels like another of those songs people know mostly through movies and television shows. It’s been used in a few of them.
When songs are in my head, my mind often focuses on specific sections. In this case, the specific section is a set of lines:
Listen, to my friends in New York, I say hello
My friends in L.A., they don’t know
Where I’ve been for the past few years or so
Paris to China to Colorado
Sometimes there’s airplanes you can’t jump out
Sometimes bullshit that don’t work now
We all got our stories, but please tell me
What’s there to complain about?
h/t to Genius.com
Well, excuse me, but I have a lot to complain about. Some of it is about aging. Much of my gripping is first world blues, but there’s also a substantial political section to my complaints.
Coffee and I have been re-introduced. We plan to make green chili stew in a little while. The rain has begun dripping down again, clouds have dramatically darkened the day, and the temperature has leveled off at 42 F. Feels like something lower. That stew will go well with this day.
Here’s the music. Cheers
Friday’s Wandering Thoughts
The word of the year for my wife is crazo.
Recent examples of use:
“The 2024 election results are crazo.”
“They wanted almost $12 for a dozen eggs. That’s crazo.”
“I’m going shopping early tomorrow morning. I need to go before it gets crazo.”
Thursday’s Political Thoughts
Who else had Matt Gaetz would withdraw on their Trump failures bingo card?
Still holding my breath on whether the Senate will stand aside so Trump can use recess appointments for his cabinet members (despite what Alexander Hamilton wrote about it), but I do have that square on my Trump failures bingo card.
What’s on your Trump failures bingo card?
Worth Sharing
Seen on Bluesky:
MeidasTouch @meidastouch.bsky.social
Starting a phony transgender bathroom debate and hiding behind the guise of “protecting women” to distract from your attempts to push through the confirmations of alleged rapists, sex traffickers, and fraudsters at the highest levels of government is peak Republican Party.
The GOP: the Grand Old Phonies.
Thursday’s Theme Music
Mood: Raindamental
A light grey bolt of cloth stretches over our valley. Winds whip trees into wild gesturing. Accumulated moisture glistens on everything. This is Thursday, November 21, 2024.
A bomclone continues its hold on us, closing roads outside of the valley with snow and fallen tres, but we’re okay in our neck. 44 F, light rain, but hey, it feels like 47 F and it’s gonna strike 48 before daylight fades.
Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah) is okay staying in with that weather raging outside but Papi the ginger blade is trying to set a new record. He’s been in and out six times today. I think he’s been inspired by Robert Heinlein’s cat and is looking for the door into summer. As my wife lets Papi in, she asks him, “Are you hungry?” Like asking him, “Are you an orange boi?” Hell yeah, he’s hungry, Papi hollers back. He hasn’t eaten in like fourteen minutes, the last time he left the house.
A moment for mock applause. Gotta hand it to Trump, he’s being proactive. No sense waiting for folks to become part of his administration to get corrupt. He’s gonna start with corrupt individuals and see how corrupt he can be. Like he’s angry at the nation and the concept of freedom and democracy and the public welfare and is out to destroy it via a rich man tantrum. I mean, have you seen the names and records he’s trusting to do his bidding? Hope his voters shrivel with shame and sink into the ruin they’re making of this nation. Yeah, I’m not bitter, angry, or disgusted. History will judge them harshly.
Thinking of summer, The Neurons begin working up summer songs. They finally emerge in the morning mental music stream (Trademark watery) with Superchunk and “This Summer” from 2012. It’s a song I rarely hear except when I’m tuned to satellite FM in the car and on an indie-oriented station. And while it’s about summer as we travel a trough of stoutly autumn weather, the lyrics kind of play into it. To get a little political (moi?), one of the lines go, “We can’t forget what we never knew.” Perfect epitaph for Trump voters IMO.
Get positive and remember your values and dreams. Coffee has entered my systems and is doing its thang. Here’s the music. Cheers
Wednesday’s Political Thoughts
I laughed in amazement when I read that Muslim Arabs were endorsing and voting for Trump. Really? Muslim Arabs thought he was the man for them after his 2017 Muslim ban? I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe their choice.
Voter remorse is now spreading among their people as they’ve realized what they’ve done.
Muslims for Trump co-founder Rabiul Chowdhury tells “Dan Abrams Live” the nominations are concerning for his Muslim supporters who expected an “America First” approach rather than one focused on Israel.
“Some of his picks, like Marco Rubio, in our opinion, did not align with his America First and his vision of peace,” Chowdhury explained, telling NewsNation they would rather see Richard Grenell in the Cabinet.
They’re awakening to the fact that Trump conned them. They could have avoided this disappointment if they were paying attention and thinking. But they wanted to punish the Harris and the Democrats, they said.
Yes, I know. The War. Israel. I understand that. But they seriously believed Trump would do something about it? I guess, angry and frustrated, they were blindly hopeful that he would.
I’m sure that this small trickle of people waking up about who they voted into office will soon grow.
Tuesday’s Bumper Sticker
Inspired by Nan Smith, pedometer geek.
Tuesday’s Political Thoughts
Dan K over at Daily Kos offers some thoughts on the past election in Short Attention Span Theater. Like me, he believes the problem wasn’t Democratic messaging; it’s voter ignorance.
As stated, that’s my take. Along with declining education and voter apathy and ignorance, I blame mass media and many organizations. For instance, AARP issued a news letter before the election that put forth what Harris and that other guy said about ‘the issues’. Nowhere did they mention the other guy’s bizarre, often demented behavior and speeches, nor his multiple gaffes and lies. No, to them, Harris and Trump were equals battling it out. Shame on them.
As an aside, now AARP’s newsletter urges everyone to contact their elected Federal officials about protecting social security and Medicare. Yeah, should of thought about that before you chickened out of putting forth a position. You reap what you sow.
Within Dan K’s post, he refers to David French’s piece in the NYT with links, “Donald [X] Is Already Starting to Fail”.
Here’s a link to Dan K’s post. Hope you’ll read it and think. Cheers
