Category: politics

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Hypercharged weather continues in Ashlandia, where the pastries are gluten free and the coffee is organic and fair trade.

August 16, 2023 and Wednesday are here, for the records. If you’ve got an August bucket list, you might want to be applying yourself. Same with the summer BL. Summer’s end is rushing up like a horse coming to the Derby’s finish line.

It’s 89 with smoke here right now, 11:30 AM. I’m late getting started due to two matters. One, AC didn’t kick on last night. Lots of cursing about it, basic troubleshooting commenced, and a loose wire in the low-voltage sub system was discovered on the outside condenser unit. Reconnected and taped with electrical tape just for luck. Second matter was a plea for help from some friends for their Roku. It wasn’t running! One of my first questions was, did you change the remote’s batteries? They had. After we did a hard reboot on their system and were still getting nowhere, new batteries were installed. Voila.

Gonna be 102 F today, they tell us. Reached 102 or so at my house, on my system yesterday but the town only saw an official high of 99 F yesterday. Fortunately, yesterday’s cooldown was fast. Doors and windows were opened at 8 PM as the temperature drop commenced and fell into the low eights. Night took over and dropped us into the mid-seventies. Rain and thunderstorms are forecast for 7 PM this evening. We’ll see if they come, but they can be good, lowering the ground and air temp, but also could be dangerous, starting new fires with lightning. Fingers crossed about which way it goes.

Air quality is moderate due to smoke. Which fire is gifting us that? Don’t know. Might be a combo of all four — yes there’s a new one to the south, in the Klamath National Forest — as the heat dome has killed most breezes. Damn still air out there.

I’ve been reading more political news. One matter that disturbs me is how often Republicans say that they need to get rid of Democrats or liberals. Not win office over them; not work with them; get rid of them. Sad state when one half of the country basically professes to hate the other half. I don’t hear liberals/Democrats/Progressives talking about getting rid of the GOP. They talk about voting them out of office or maybe trying to discuss issues with them. Frankly, I am at a loss about their thinking many times, although I think it’s because they’ve sealed themselves in red wing information bubbles. Yes, red wing is deliberate; it’s beyond right wing, the home of the MAGAs. Like, we regularly check Red State to see what’s being reported over there. The skewing of news and information creates a harsh noise. Little of it aligns with what the rest of the world is thinking about. Like, Steve Bannon is already trying to blame Hawaii’s disaster on liberals, claiming that ‘actors’ kept people from fighting the fire or evacuating, etc., as these ‘actors’ started more fires. Evidence? Yes, just like his other claims, he has none.

It’s troubling, though. You can’t advance, you can’t be secure, you can’t grow as a society, nation, or civilization, if one half insists on spreading misinformation and fomenting distrust of the other. How are we to work together in such an environment? And that seems to be the red wing goal. To what end or purpose do they pursue such an agenda? It seems like, logically, it can only be for power. But then, much of what they do seems to defy the logic which the rest of us try to employ. Of course, from extensive polling and interviews in which we try to understand what they’re thinking, we’ve learned that the red wing supporters are mostly rural, dominated by men, and seem to feel victimized by by the rest of us and left behind. They blame ‘elites’, women, or racial minorities for their struggles as factories were moved to other nations.

Anyway, thanks to that, The Neurons have fired up Starship in the morning mental music stream (Trademark gifted). I’m hearing “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” from 1987. The Neurons point out that it’s about building a world together. That’s what’s hoped and needed. Silly Neurons, they’re frequently squinting at the world through rose colored lenses.

And now we come to the coffee drinking segment of the blog. Make mine black, of course. Stay pos and be strong, my friends. Here we go, one more time.

But let’s listen to some music first. Cheers

Post script: here I go, in the WordPress autosave bug that keeps a post from being published. Can’t even click ‘Publish’. Seems to happen at least once a week for me. Only thing to do is copy it all to a new post. Just the things I need to open up my cranky side.

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Monday’s Wandering Thought

I read about Trump strongholds and the lack of an impact the charges and indictments have on the former president’s supporters. One description struck me more deeply. From the NY Times:

“Among voters who plan to vote for Mr. Trump again, Nicholas Kalamvokis, 58, said he liked the former president’s “regular people” persona and was willing to overlook his role in the events of Jan. 6, which he did not believe rose to the level of a crime.”

The former president’s “regular people” persona is a startling description. Trump has been found to cheat in business, compulsively lie, and demonstrates little self control. Full of pompous bluster, he’s cheated on his wife, has been married three times, shows little intellectual curiosity, and is both demonstrably petty and greedy. As a business person, he has multiple bankruptcies and has led numerous failed business efforts, while his WH administration set a new record for indictments and convictions. Meanwhile, since leaving office, Trump has set records for the most indictments ever levied on a former POTUS, including obstruction of justice as he lied about keeping classified information and tried hiding the requested documents from the government.

Liar. Thief. Cheat. Immoral. Unethical. Untrustworthy.

If this is a typical Republican’s view of ‘regular people’, their attachment to reality is more tenuous than I ever imagined, and I wouldn’t want to hang out with their ‘regular people’. Then again, I suspect that people like Kalamvokis live in an information bubble. The light seems different in there from the light with which I view the world.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: sour

Saturday is being served in Ashlandia, where it’s warm and getting hot. Not 110 F hot, no, none of that crazy stuff here today, just 96 today, 100 tomorrow, 103 Monday, and so on for the week.

It’s August 12, 2023, and this is when the region usually heats up in the year, so we’re not surprised. We metaphorically hold our breath and cross our fingers that some wildfires don’t arise from the heat and dry conditions. We’re not special with this high hot so far as the US. Over in Texas, they’re in the hundreds all over the state. Northern California will lounge in low triple digit heat, as will parts of Nevada, southern California, and New Mexico. Of course, in Hawaii, they’re literally on fire in several areas. Then my sister sent me notice that a house in one of the neighborhoods not far from her in the Plum area outside Pittsburgh PA exploded and a house is on fire. You feel for the people of that neighborhood.

And then I went on and caught up on Ukraine news.

Reading the news and weather reports brought my spirits down. More killin’, of course, and lots of general craziness being reported out there. The Neurons delivered “Crazy On You” by Heart to the morning mental music stream (Trademark crazy). The song is a classic rock offering from waaay baaack in 1976. Wow, that’s a thought that momentarily makes me feel ancient.

Then I think, hey, 1976 wasn’t even fifty years ago, so it’s not really that long ago, right? Yes, the optimistic Neurons reply, bobbing their heads. Then I think, and isn’t it cool that this music style was discovered? Isn’t it terrific that we have so many talented people in the world? And, hey, we have the technology to bring these stuff to us across time, although this recording is of a performance Heart did just a few years ago.

But then I think, gosh, with the brains for such technology to be advanced, shouldn’t we be able to solve other problems?

How do you solve a problem like a human? Tech doesn’t seem to be the answer there.

Okay, let’s get on with the day. It’s not going to live itself. Stay pos and be strong. Coffee is available in the kitchen. I got enough in there for at least one other cup. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: sunny, with a chance of irritation

Hello, Friday, my old friend. We’ve come to visit you again.

Friday. August 11, 2023. Ashlandia, where the airport is small and the bus costs a dollar.

68 F out now but they are warning us of a triple digit weekend. Actually, triple digits might not hit until Sunday. I’m hoping we’ll avoid them completed. Today, we’ll be visited by low nineties.

Had a smoke scare last night. We’d gone done to the music in the park. City band’s last performance in the park for the year. It was parked. We enjoyed the music and a longish walk in the cooling evening air through the park by the creek and then headed home. Windows and doors were opened. The evening cooling process commenced.

Then, tennish, the smell of wood smoke snuck in through the windows. Strong smell in less than a minute, coming from all directions. This is unusual; usually the smell strikes from one to two directions, letting us close those windows will leaving a few others in the opposite direction open. And the smoke’s smell was very fresh. Yeah, you get to know these things when you worry about wildfires.

After closing the windows, I went out to test how strong the smell was, get the cats in, and see if I saw any threats or heard any sirens. Nope. Back inside I headed to neighborhood, city, and fire websites for warnings of a fire and checked the police and fire department communications. Nope.

Hour later, I checked, and the smokiness was faded. Two windows were cautiously opened and I answered sleep’s summons. Sky today is clear and blue. Fingers crossed, it’ll stay like this. Sinuses and throat disliked that smoke dose, so there was some saline clearing, coughing, and blowing done today.

The Neurons have drawn up Paul Simon’s song, “One Trick Pony”, from over fifty years ago, for the morning mental music stream (Trademark fragmented). Frankly, this isn’t a stretch and is strictly politically driven. Reading about the latest GOP efforts to undermine democracy in Florida (notes from parents needed for nicknames to be used at school — but tell me again how they’re all about freedom and small government, please) and Texas (where a Trump-appointed judge directed lawyers to attend eight hours of training by a right-wing group, the Alliance Defending Liberty) led to a rant with my wife. We were both ranting. Missouri got thrown into the rant after we discussed Ohio and the voters decisive returns on the GOP’s efforts to criminalize and block abortion. There was a humorous moment to it when a right wing radio host complained about Joe Biden’s father’s behavior in WW II. Remember WW II? Prominently features NAZIs and White Supremacy, you know, the sort of people we see now at GOP rallies. They have chutzpah, if nothing else, but then again, they’re singing to a cult. Anyway, “One Trick Pony” is today’s theme music.

Coffee is available in the break room. Be strong, and stay pos. If that doesn’t work, try the coffee. It’s pretty good. Here’s the music, and away we go.

Cheers

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Monday’s Wandering Thoughts

He reads about how former POTUS D. Trump encourages a Republican crowd to cheer the US Women’s Soccer Team loss and their elimination. If they’re not willing to cheer for other Americans, who are they willing to cheer for?

Trump knocks ‘woke’ US women’s soccer team after World Cup departure

Trump Encourages GOP Crowd to Boo U.S. Women’s Soccer Team

GOP efforts to divide the country and tear it down seem to be accelerating.

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Moo-day’s Theme Music

Mood: a bouncing flow of changing lights and colors.

He said, “It’s Monday.”

And all the cows sang, “Moo-day.”

Which left him speechless.

Yes, we’re on the Monday segment of the seven day perpetual merry-go-round. Never stops. Never pauses. Might slow or speed up. Actually, it might stop but we might all lose consciousness when that happens because having time stopped doesn’t fit with the mold of our existence.

Today is August 7, 2023. Politics are still on my mind. Can’t help it. I read political news and it swats me over the head again, again, again. I think, I want to know what others are thinking. I don’t understand their conclusions. But I try, and I fail. We are realities apart on some matters. Not going into more than that today.

Weather is same as it was yesterday — blue, 68 F, high of 86 F.

Had an uncomfortable night. Kicked in with a dream festival. It ended suddenly when the smoke detector started chirping about the need for a new battery at 3 AM. Said detector is located on a hiiiigh ceiling in the master BR. No ladder in my possession is tall enough. But I have a ladder that will reach a ledge (yes, the bedroom has a ledge on the high end), and then I can stand on the ledge and change it. Wasn’t doing that at 3 AM, though. Also, didn’t have any 9 volt batteries on hand. Used the last one in the multimeter for another project last week. So, off to the store I go today.

But first, it’s time to deliver for food and friends one more time. We’re due to leave for that in a few. My wife has returned from exercising and is sipping her fresh coffee. Love that smell. I’m two-thirds through my first cuppa.

Thinking about going to the store, I thought, I need to go today but maybe I’ll go again tomorrow. Just thoughts about what I needed to buy, wanted to buy, and the balancing of activities and priorities. From that blend of thinking, The Neurons introduced Stevie Nicks and “Edge of Seventeen” into the morning mental music stream (trademark locked down). Makes sense; there’s a line in the song which states, “I went today, maybe I will go again tomorrow.”

Stay pos and upright, motor on into the distance. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. Let’s do this. Here’s the video. Cheers

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Why Do Republicans Hate the United States?

Why Do Republicans Hate the United States? You know they must.

Actions always speak louder than words. Republican Sen. Tuberville, who states, “there is no one more military than me,” is blocking confirmation of new members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to replace the two who have retired. He’s also blocked 301 other promotions and confirmations for important military positions. Perhaps if Tuberville had ever served in the military, he’d understand the chaos and crises this is creating. As he fosters a leadership vacuum in the United States, think of how other nations might take advantage of Tuberville’s intransigence.

Besides Tuberville, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is blocking confirmation of 60 plus State Department officials the same way that Tuberville is blocking the confirmation of military officials. So, they are deliberating undermining the security of the United States in pursuit of their personal political agendas. His agenda: to ‘learn the true origins of COVID-19’. Sure, that’s what he claims, even as information has been provided to him time and again. This is simple pettishness masquerading as concern, doing his best to cripple the country because it’s led by a Democratic POTUS who was lawfully elected to lead the nation.

Whether it’s the debt ceiling, blocking the appointment of judges, military readiness, or stopping the State Department, Republicans continually demonstrate that politics is more important than country. They’re masters of obstruction politics. Last election, they offered no platform, and when in leadership positions, they work hard to savage the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

So fucking shameful. But that’s what we get from the party who supports a former president who tried to undermine lawful election results so he could stay in office. Even worse is that so many otherwise intelligent and hard-working citizens seem to support these goals of undermining the nation and its founding principles. How else can you explain that these two and others of their ilk are re-elected time, and time again?

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Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: positive

We’ve flipped the page over to Friday, August 4, 2023. It’s sunny and 67 degrees F in Ashlandia, where the buses are regular, and the schools are above average.

Papi the ginger wonder floof has forgiven us for going away at last. In a fine mood, he’s galloping about, playing games with me. Seems quite happy, though we worry about him. A cougar was photographed on someone’s front porch less than a quarter mile away. Another person noted that the neighboring housing area has had four cats disappear in the last few days.

Lot of road construction going on in Ashland. ADA ramps being added, roads repaved and striped, drain systems being addressed. Feels like there’s no main road where you don’t encounter a short delay for construction. Not a bad thing; employs people, improves the town’s appearance and makes it more inviting, and addresses problems which could cause damage or significant wear and tear on vehicles, along with ensuring that the systems function right when rain and snow seasons arrive. Think a lot of it was postponed during COVID interruptus.

Politics and legal matters still absorb a lot of my downtime. Most are related to Trump and how the GOP and Trump supporters respond to the indictment onslaught. While Trump and others are being charged with obstruction for knowingly spreading multiple big lies about the election being stolen, other Republican politicians continue that song with pause. This with the revelation that a Georgia billionaire who backs the GOP and supported Trump now saying that he no longer will because Trump et al keep making the same claims about stolen elections without offering any evidence.

That brings me to a Bob Seger song, “Turn the Page”. I feel like, come on, you’ve lost in court time and again for lack of evidence. Time to move on and turn the page. The Neurons agreed, plugging the Seger tune into the morning mental music stream (trademark re-discovered), It’s a fine song about life on the road as a performer.

Now give me a C. Give me an O. Give me — oh, just give me the coffee. Stay positive, be like a tree. Remember that expression? Here’s Seger and the band. Time to get moving. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: 7 out of 10

Greetings from Ashlandia, where the parks are green and the mountains are brown.

It’s Thursday, August 3, 2023. We’re back in the personal dwelling called home. The floof boys are fine, although Papi is expressing his dismay that we dared to leave him for a few days. I miss my morning gaze off the back porch, looking west across the Pacific, and the rolling thunder and fresh smells associated with the water/land affair. Got a fix, at least, and the fix will last me a while.

67 F now in Ashlandia. The weather watchers have posted a high of 89-91 F for us. Blue skies and clear air rules the moment, so it’s not bad at all.

Catching up on the news. Following up on Oregon wildfires – yep, still burning, but no new ones down here. There is the Canadian-Washington fire to worry us. Hundreds of miles away, it doesn’t affect me personally (though it might say something about the air sometime); I just worry about what’s happening to the people, animals, lives, and existences up there.

Also following up on who died when we were limiting our news intake, just finding out about the worsening Niger situation, more deaths along the US border, and reading more deeply on the Obstruction Six indictments. The world goes on, you know?

The Neurons put the Stereophonics and their mellow song, “Maybe Tomorrow” from 2003, into the morning mental music stream (trademark miracle). Came about from remembering the line, “I want to swim in the ocean, I wanna take my time,” heard in my head yesterday as I took a last long gaze at the Pacific before turning the car inland.

Stay positive, and keep on keeping on, as they say. Coffee is up and so am I. Here’s the beats. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

A beautiful day has been born in Ashlandia, where the produce is local, except for the imports. We’ll call this Sunday, July 30, 2023. Skies of blue promise don’t know anything about smoke, and sunshine is spilling down. 56 F now, 89 F is the projected high, quite doable numbers.

A short post. I’m getting on the road to another city here shortly. So I’m eating coffee and drinking breakfast — oh, wait, other way — and then I’ll be in the bath for the standard three morning maneuvers which start with S. Then I’ll dress. That’s right, I’m naked and posting. No, not really. I’m in my night shorts. They were originally sold to me as jogging shorts but they work so well with a tee shirt, that it’s my chosen sleep gear. Today’s tee shirt features the Blues Brothers and was picked up in Chicago at Buddy Guy’s bar.

Since I’m going on the road again, my oh so imaginative Neurons have packed the morning mental music stream (trademark visualized) with Willy Nelson singing “On the Road Again”. You know that’s gotta be my theme music on this day.

All you on the road have safe travels. Whether on the road or not stay positive and be strong. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. Here’s the music. More coffee, anyone?

Cheers

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