Category: politics

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: slow, mentally and physically. Took me an hour to yawn this morning. Emergency coffee begun.

Yeah, Friday. July 28, 2023. See that date, kiddos? July almost done, another young older, another year gone.

Cool mountain air has been climbing all over me through the open windows. 66 F now, we’re looking at 90 as the top end. Fires are burning but our skies remain clear, knock head. Hope everyone else surrounded by disasters or engulfed by them are doing well.

Well, sis finally told Mom ’bout her cancer, so we can all talk about it openly. Youngest one was diagnosed with rectal cancer. First reported symptoms were rectal bleeding. Went on a while before her older sister forced her to the doctor. A large polyp was removed but now her rectum will be removed. As others have said, and I have said, and will probably say again, cancer sucks.

Along with that, her young son had a severe, terrifying seizure earlier in the month. First one ever. They’re searching for the root cause. A few years short of being eligible to get a a driver’s license, he’s scared. Yes, sis and her fam are having a not very good year. There are bright spots; #1 son just got his license. He graduates HS next year and spent part of his summer visiting college campuses.

I have “Rocky Mountain Way” by Joe Walsh in my morning mental music stream (trademark surprised) today. Why it’s there is a question for the ages. Why do Der Neurons do anything? They rarely explain themselves these days, like they’ve becoming indifferent to what I think.

Meanwhile, I’ve been preoccupied with the GOP and their CRA to overturn endangered species protections for the lesser Prairie Chicken. They used gems like this to rationalize their decision:

‘Rep. Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, called the Endangered Species Act an important but outdated part of U.S. history.

“The unavoidable truth about the ESA is that a listing means less private investment, which harms conservation efforts,” he said.’

So, to be clear, investment is more important than life, in his opinion.

This one by Sen. Moran was a laughter.

‘On the Senate floor, Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas said the rule threatens ranchers and farmers.

“I am confident there are ways to conserve the species without hindering economic opportunity in rural communities,” he said.

He said what Kansas needs is “more rainfall not more regulations.”’

See, the numbers for this species have been plummeting for years. I think a smart child would point out to the senator that if there were ways to conserve the species without regulations, it would have already been done.

Sure. Experts point out that this species is often used as a bell weather for an ecology’s state. As the species goes, so does the region. Meanwhile, heat records are being smashed around the northern hemisphere. The GOP actively blocks efforts to deal with climate change.

And this is the GOP in a nutshell to me, a party that ignores facts in pursuit of BAU, a reactionary party that will drag itself, the nation, and the world over a cliff while telling everyone that it’ll be fine.

Sen. Moran, BTW, also thinks that protecting the lesser Prairie Chicken will also harm energy producers, because, you know, despite record profits and high executive pay and bonuses, that industry is hurting. *end snark*

Well, that certainly did nothing for my mood. Deep breath. Stay pos and strong. Move forward, and specify what that means. Here’s the music. Coffee is half gone, brothers and sisters. Time to awaken. Here’s the music from fifty years ago to cheer us up and move us on. Am I being ironic, hypocritical, or just plain ol’ ridiculous?

Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: low-energy. Don’t know if that qualifies as ‘mood’. Feels like my batteries are blinking with a ‘recharge now’ message. Or maybe I just have the Wednesdays.

Yes, Wednesday, July 26, 2023, pulled into Ashlandia, where the skies are not cloudy today. Low was in the upper fifties this morning and the high will pull the numbers into the lower nineties. While the fires continue burning north, east, and south, and advisories warning us about our air quality is out, the sky is blue and the air is smoke free. If we can play keep away with the smoke, a lovely summer day will reward us.

After another dream invasion, I awoke thinking about dreams, my mind, and memories. Last night’s thinking about doors in my mind and event boundaries just before going to sleep probably contributed to that. The Neurons ended up plugging a 1967 song by The Amboy Dukes called “Journey to the Center of the Mind” into the morning mental music stream (trademark imagined). This song has a bit of prog to it — reminds me of several Moody Blues works — with a psychedelic edge. The lead guitarist knew his stuff. It’s a guy named Ted Nugent. I don’t usually share his work because I consider him repugnant. On a scale of one to ten, he goes to eleven. It’s about his interest in sex with thirteen year old girls and his comments about not every man being created equal. It’s not a question of his politics; he’s just hateful.

But we’re going with this music to satisfy Les Neurons (who just fired up “Satisfaction” by the Stones in the morning mental music stream). You be strong, safe, positive. Work it as best as you can, right?

Okay, my coffee is singing to me. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: uncertain

It’s morning in Ashlandia, where the children aren’t sure but the parents are very confident. Current temp is a little warm for the AM, 74 F. Low 90s are kicked around as the high although one source says it’ll only be 89 F. Like, where do they get that? Well, we’ll see, won’t we? Cool breeze just started kissing my neck, trying to coax me into a better mood. I’ll see what they have to offer.

Another battle of the dreams for my night. Long dreams but once again, I had the one about the house flying through space. Wakin’ from it, I argued with myself. The dream self was worried ’bout the cats being out in space again. Wakin’ self told dream self, relax, we’re not in space. Real tug of war as The Neurons would take one side and then the other.

In world news, things are bad and getting worse. Over to you, David.

Well, that’s how it feels with so many weather disasters underway, along with the war in Ukraine. In good news, many companies are seeing excellent sales. Because that will really matter in the long run, yeah?

Sure. The world will be burning and flooding, almost devoid of glaciers at the poles, and the news headlines will be, Amazon had record sales. And everyone will be like, thank god they can deliver by drones.

Of course, I still write. The world is burning and flooding, but I write on. Just like everyone else, pursuing my own agenda. It’s all crashin’, so what will help me cope and get on by? Well, give me a cuppa coffee and let me write a tale.

See, that’s the thing. While a greater mess happening to the whole of us and our world, each of us are dealing with our private addictions and desires. The big stuff happening is so big and abstract in many ways, so debilitating and demoralizing, we respond by turning to something which we can try to control. At least, that’s my theory. Probably wrong as the decision to end “Firefly”.

Writing has inspired The Neurons’ song choice today. I’m like, what happens now, all the while, entertaining different directions in me head, worrying about where I’m at with it (this feels like a box), trying to bring it all together and to an end without losin’ the plot. Out out that came the James Gang with “Walk Away” from 1971. Makes sense if you look at the song words. Think they’re called lyrics.

“Takin’ my time, choosin’ my lines,
“Tryin’ to decide what to do.”

And that’s what I’m doing, trying to decide what to do, searching for the words and sentences. They’re there, just waiting for them to emerge, kind of worried because they’re not what I expected.

Stay pos and be strong. Here we go, another day in the life of (insert your name here). Coffee is up; let’s go. Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Mood: speculative

It’s Tuesday, July 18, 2023. A waxing crescent moon wins the night sky tonight, if you look for it.

Cool, quiet morning. A train unleashes long blasts of warning as it crawls through town. Mildish summer continues in Ashlandia, where coffee is brewed fresh and new pastries are baked every day. 67 F now, we appear to be due a high temperature of 92 F, 33 C. Sunrise was 5:49 AM, and sunset will be at 8:45 PM.

Our weather situation is better than many. Flooding in Korea today, joining the disasters of Vermont, India, and Japan. Heat dome fixed in place over the southwestern US. Hawaii on a storm watch. Wildfires are burning in Canada, causing breathing problems there and in the US. Parts of Iran are blazingly hot, China is described as ‘searing’, and extreme heat is threatening health and safety across Europe, and they’re battling wildfires in Greece. Will something be done on the human side to try to address these things? Probably not. A large percentage of folks prefer not to be woke about these things. Denying it and burying facts about things they don’t like is their M.O. until it reaches the point where there’s no where to hide, apparently. “Less taxes,” they cry. “Voter fraud.”

On the family front, a teenage nephew suffered a seizure. Terrified everyone. He recovered but tests are being run. Results are awaited. Fingers are crossed.

Also on the family front, a niece’s neighbor had three cars burn up. He had chemicals stored in his car for his work. The intense fire melted the siding on her home. She and her family weren’t home at the time. Nobody was hurt.

I have “Break On Through (to the Other Side)” circulating the morning mental music stream. By The Doors, the song was released at the onset of 1967, when I was ten and living in Penn Hills, PA. It was another of those songs which instantly seized my interest. It hasn’t let go. But why is it in the morning mental music stream (trademark — what?)? I put this to The Neurons, who shrugged and wandered off. I’ve enticed them back with the promise of coffee. The Neurons are suckers for coffee.

Stay strong and be pos. Time to begin the day. Here’s the coffee; breath deep the fresh aroma. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Sat-earth-day’s Theme Music

Mood: thoughtful

Hello, world. Saturday, July 15, 2023. It’s my little sister’s birthday. She was my only little sister for several years before the other two came along. Two years younger than me, we frequently played softball together in pickup games on the street. Whole neighborhood was invited, and we had fun. Now sis is a grandmother and executive VP for a bank. Guess she’s grown up. Happy birthday, little sister.

74 F now in Ashlandia, where burritos are tasty and fishsticks are frozen, without much breeze. The heat dome has brought us into its embrace. 103 F today, probably 100 plus tomorrow but then we get a reprieve and the highs drop into the nineties next week. Fingers crossed that they’ve called that right. Not nearly as bad as west Texas, Arizona, many parts of California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Only dropped down to the lower sixties last night. That’s always a problem because it’s harder to cool the house if the air doesn’t cool. Stayed into the eighties until after 11 PM before the heat was finally cranked back. But then it rose fast. That’s how it is in a heat dome.

Thinking about weather took me around to thinking about Earth. Unintentional consequences of that was The Neurons put a song about Earth in my morning mental music stream. Yes, “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carole King (1971) is playing in the morning mental music stream (trademark confused). Odd choice for The Neurons, since the thoughts swirling around were all about the misery today’s headlines encapsulated. Everything from disastrous weather around the world to murders and killings. Death dominated. I suppose The Neurons elected to counteract all that chaos and mayhem with a simple song about being in love.

Stay pos, be cool, be safe, be strong. The coffee is kicking in. Let’s do this. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Fried-day’s Theme Music

Mood: Exasperated

Hey, it’s Fried-day, July 14, 2023. Birthday for one of my late cousins. Years younger than me, cancer claimed her in 2019.

Gonna be hot today here in Ashlandia, where the plays are entertaining and the musicians are local. Not OMG help hot, like AZ’s impressive daily highs, nor Palm Springs 120 F hot, but protect-yourself-family-and-pets hot, 98 F. And that’s why it’s Fried-day.

When I was being educated in the US in the 1960s, attending elementary school, teachers talked about a ‘can-do attitude’. They were always encouraging us to rise up to the challenge and find a way to overcome it. I vividly recall listening to one teacher standing before us rapt, dewy-eyed second-graders as she said, “The can-do attitude helped make America great.” Before we were taught history and learned that the country wasn’t great, that America was flawed. Yet it had to the potential to become greater, if we kept after things with a can-do attitude.

I grew up believing that we can fix things, whether it was injustice, inequality, poverty, or going to the moon. This was in the aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. He seemed to empower ‘can-do’ for young me. No, wasn’t perfect, but he was willing to set goals, create a vision, and strive to achieve them.

Now we’re mired in a severe can’t-do existence. Money is typically the ‘can’t-do’ motivation, followed in the US by ‘Founding Fathers’. The Founding Fathers and their vision of a Democracy run by the people, for the people, are thrown up as an obstacle as people stop to think, not what is best by and for the people, but what would the Founding Fathers say and do?

I believe that attitude would have the Founding Fathers appalled. They would ask, “Have you not established a robust education system that helps people? Do you knot know how to think? Do you lack the courage and principles to come together, find solutions and move forward?”

And that’s a big now. Big reason for me, whether it’s about climate change and half the country setting new high records for high temperatures year after year, sensible gun control, or taxes, is that half the country is trying to go backward. Yes, let’s go backwards. Just bury our heads and deny what’s going on.

That shows a true ‘can-do’ spirit.

All of that explains my exasperated mood today.

I woke up with the Looney Tunes theme music in my morning mental music stream. As I went about re-establishing my existence, mocking myself as I fell into my comfortable, middle-class routines once again, The Neurons opened some “Canned Heat” and spilled “Let’s Work Together” into the morning mental music stream (trademark non-existent). The 1970 version of Wilbur Harrison’s take on “Let’s Stick Together” could be an inspiring theme song for promoting a can-do attitude. Feel the energy behind that gravelly voice, courtesy of Bob Hite, as he urges us to work together.

Together we’ll stand
Divided we’ll fall
Come on now, people
Let’s get on the ball

And work together
Come on, come on
Let’s work together
Now, now people
Because together we will stand
Every boy, every girl and man

People, when things go wrong
As they sometimes will
And the road you travel
It stays all uphill

Let’s work together
Come on, come on
Let’s work together, ah
You know together we will stand
Every boy, girl, woman and man

Oh well now, two or three minutes
Two or three hours
What does it matter now
In this life of ours

Let’s work together
Come on, come on
Let’s work together
Now, now people
Because together we will stand
Every boy, every woman and man

Ah, come on
Ah, come on, let’s work together

Well now, make someone happy
Make someone smile
Let’s all work together
And make life worthwhile

Let’s work together
Come on, come on
Let’s work together
Now, now people
Because together we will stand
Every boy, girl, woman and man

Oh well now, come on you people
Walk hand in hand
Let’s make this world of ours
A good place to stand

h/t AZLyrics.com

You know, we do show the ability to come together. We come together to cheer performers — singers, actors, athletes — to cheer them on. And we come together to cope with disasters. We come together to offer hopes and prayers after mass shootings, floods, wildfires, hurricanes.

Honestly, can’t we begin to find a way to come together before disasters and deaths?

Yeah, I know. It’s all been said before, all been written with more inspiration before, and here we stay, stuck on yesterday, moving toward last century, burning up and and falling down.

Guess I need coffee. Stay pos, if you can, and strong. Wish you the best in whatever situation you face today, tomorrow, next month, next year.

Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: contemplative

Quiet day here yesterday, today. Light traffic. Today brings more human mechanical noises through the air. A chipper is at work somewhere, and the trash has been picked up at the apartment complex down the street. It’s Thursday, July 13, 2023.

65 F outside, we expect our upper temp to pick at the low 90s in Ashlandia today, where the grass is browning like biscuits in the oven, and the children are going hiking. VP Kamela Harris, the first woman of color to be VPOTUS, made more history by matching the number of most tie-breaking votes made, 31. I believe she might set a new record before her term is done. The historic vote advanced Kalpana Kotagal’s nomination to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. VP Harris shares the record with John C. Calhoun, so the record has been set for a while. It took VP Calhoun eight years to set it back in the early 1800s.

Meanwhile, over on the Fox News website, read all about the man found with skulls, a missing man’s body found in Yosemite, a cat killer, and shark encounters.

The Neurons pre-loaded a Bad Company, “Shooting Star”, from 1975, into the morning mental music stream (trademark contemplated). Why, Les Neurons, why this song on this day? Why not, they answer. Because it’s there, they also replied. And, because we wanted to. Because we could. Little blighters.

Here’s the music. Stay pos, informed, and aware. Ingesting some fresh coffee to help me kickstart my brain. Oh — here comes kickstart my heart. Oh, well.

Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Today’s Mood: weary

Q: Is weary a mood?

Sunday, July 9, 2023, has landed on us. Fact of the day: the 14th Amendment was adopted on this day in the US back in 1868. Part of the amendment was dealing with reconstruction, black voters, and the Dred Scott decision. Northern Republicans preferred that blacks not be allowed to vote in the structure and demographics established before the Civil War because southern states would have gained substantial power, creating its own set of problems. These southern states just fought a war to leave the union, and their loss was going to be rewarded with more power? No, that didn’t fly. Hence, the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” And off we went, all fixed, right?

Yeah, it’s been a helluva merry-go-round. There are always groups against others having equal rights under the law. More recently, GOP legislators have led creative ways to make voting a problem for the people who don’t vote for them, citing the US Constitution. It reads, in part, “When in the course of human events, political leaders decide they don’t like what people are reading, or fear that some other race will come to dominate, or don’t like it when people declare themselves to be some other gender or prefer a sexual orientation other than what’s spelled out in the First Amendment of the Bible of the United States, then that party and its political leaders have the right to pretend that in the name of freedom and God, they have the right under said document to restrict others from doing these things because gosh, darn, those things are different than what they grew up with, and they don’t have to take it, and have the right to cry and throw tantrums about anything they don’t like until they’re blue in the face, just like Jesus would do.”

And by using that authority as provided and intended, and wholly in the Founding Fathers’ spirit, that’ll fix everything. Everyone will be happy, and peace will rule, and the United States will be Great Again, #1 in everything in the world, which can be achieved by just pretending that other countries don’t really exist, and if they do, they can’t be as good as America because they’re not America.

Whew, glad that’s all cleared up.

It’s cooling this week. 68 F now, the mercury won’t rise to 90 F today. Fine by me. I enjoy cooler hot summer days. I should be happy, then, because the weather conjurers have proclaimed that our high temps will be in the 80s most of the coming week. Side note: we’ve yet to reach 100 F this year in Ashlandia, where the sidewalks are cracked and the people are pissed off. Hope I haven’t jinxed us by mentioning it.

The Neurons have plugged Elton John’s cover of “Pinball Wizard” by The Who into the morning mental music stream. The Who song came out in 1969, part of the rock opera, or ropera, as we say in these days, called Tommy. I was thirteen, and just loved that song with its story of a blind kid being a pinball champion, a story backed by dramatic guitars, swooping bass lines, and crashing drums. A few years later, a movie was made of the album, Tommy, and Elton John was selected to sing the vocals on “Pinball Wizard”, and Bob’s yer uncle.

Stay pos, keep a sense of humor, and lead us not into temptation. I’ve had coffee, thanks, but do help yourself to some. Here’s the music. Cheers

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