Tag: Jill Dennison

Insightful Pieces

Over at Salon, Chauncey DeVega has an excellent piece on the state of Trump. The article is called, “Donald Trump is suffering from a severe case of political whiplash”. Culling information from multiple news sources and events, DeVega brings it together with intelligent analysis.

The gist is that Donald Trump, master of destructive tactics, can’t find a new handle to attack the Harris -Walz campaign. Flailing, his desperation is showing.

First, there’s the fake crowd angle. Trump is accusing the Harris – Walz campaign of using AI to create fae crowds. Brief but sharp, Chauncy DeVega brings in Jonathan Chait commentary from New York Mag. to demonstrate how Trump has fallen into a deep well of demented thinking.

“Trump is literally claiming Harris spoke before an empty room, created a false impression of a large crowd, with the participation of the national media that reported on the event as it occurred. He then bootstraps this ludicrous assertion into the charge that Harris is stealing the election and ‘should be disqualified.’ The most important thing about this Trump claim is that it confirms once again that he is both completely demented — the fake-crowd theory is less plausible than the notion NASA faked the moon landings — and totally unwilling to abide by the democratic rules of the road. It has become tedious to say so, but supporting his candidacy, even if you prefer his policies on taxes or regulation, in any way is deeply irresponsible.”

I have friends who announced that they are voting for Trump to save them from taxes. Deeply in debt, medical professionals, they want to pay less in taxes. We believe a large part of this is that they’re living the live style they think they deserve, even though they lack the means to support it. They despise Trump as a person, they claim, but they want the tax breaks his presidency might bring him. I think it’s sadly shallow and delusional logic to employ when so many other matters of government, freedom, and democracy are also at stake.

In her post, “Finally! A Reason to Smile!”, Jill Dennison shares another thoughtful Dan Rather article about the positive energy that seems to radiate from the Harris – Walz campaign. I’ve observed this several times, and, man, I just love it. I hope it can be sustained. It seems real, natural, authentic, and other words from a thesaurus.

Rather begins, “For the past nine years Americans have been subjected to a political reality suffused with anger and acrimony. Ever since Donald Trump entered the political arena, he has been in fighting mode. His anger is ever present. For many of us, it’s also incredibly tiring. Almost a decade on, the act is getting — like Trump — a little old and a lot stale. And if it was possible, this time around the former president is angrier than before. His temperament has hung over our nation like a persistent dark cloud.“

Yes, that anger, that constant assault on everyone and anything that is not unflinchingly PRO-TRUMP and serving his ego to make him feel better about himself sickens me. I reached a point at least a year ago when I did not want to hear Trump’s voice, see his face, or endure more of his lies and outright bullshit. The Harris – Walz is one hundred eighty degrees from Trump. I sincerely believe their approach is the change the nation desperately needs.

The political situation is shifting, in my opinion. That doesn’t mean that Vice President Kamala Harris will win. It does mean I’m hopeful. As we’ve all witnessed and Charles Sykes is warning, even if Trump loses the election, he will not go with dignity and grace. He’ll go down like a spoiled child screaming about a toy being taken away from him. As he did in 2021, he will try to mobilize his base to overturn the results. He will scream for Republican politicians to challenge the results. He will demand that his right-wing buddies at the Supreme Court intervene and declare him the winner. He will encourage discord and chaos with a bellowing, belligerent voice, lying to make it seem like he speaks the truth.

Because, as it’s been shown over the last eight years, that is the character of Donald J. Trump, former President of the United States, and now a convicted felon.

Vote Blue.

4

Some Funny Memes to Share

Mother’s Day and Political Memes

Take them in and grin, giggle, and guffaw at existence. I particularly enjoy the Presidential goals. True yet funny, it aptly encapsulates GOP goals and progress for most of the last forty years.

1

Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: Wednesday

Say hello to my little friend, Wednesday, March 6 2024.

It’s a no day here. No sunshine. No rain or snow but no blue sky, either. No wind. Just a flat gray cover tucked in around our valley.

It’s 40 F now, just 4 degrees short of today’s high, and 11 above today’s low, giving us 35 degrees of latitude. Fortunately, besides being a no day, it’s a slow day. Speaking for myself, of course.

There have been several yawn moments in this week’s news. Republicans might be mounting a campaign to oust Speaker Johnson. What? Can that be possible from the Chaos Party? Of course it can. Yawn. This is not a plot twist. It’s standard GOP formula.

SCOTUS ruled against the 14th Amendment and in favor of Trump. Yaaawwwn. No surprise there at all from that conservative body of ‘originalists’.

The RNC confirmed that they’ll keep booting funds to pay for the presumptive candidate’s legal fees. Yaaawwwnnn. Say what? Wake me up when they quit kowtowing to Trump. I think there’ll be a second coming of Jesus before we see them disavow Trump in any meaningful way.

Haley exits GOP POTUS race. Well, I hoped she’d stay in but — yawwwnnn — she was the last challenger to Trump and under enormous pressures. Not much surprise that she ‘bowed out’ despite my optimism she’d stay in and undermine Trump just a little. Meanwhile — huge jaw-breaking yawn — Mitch McConnell endorsed Trump for POTUS. What next? MTG accuses others of unproven crimes? Boebert’s family has more trouble? Moms for Liberty tries to ban more books? YAAWWWNNN.

It’s so sad. These people and their attacks on our freedoms, and their duplicity, mendacity, and hypocrisy are their established norms. So I’m yawning from the news because the shitshow is the same old, same old bullshit from last week, last month, and last year. It’s the same ol’ bull since Trump emerged and took control of that spineless party. The GOP admires and supports Trump, no matter how many crimes he’s committed, how many times he was impeached, how bigly he lost his re-election bid, how poor his mental acuity seems to be, no matter how many times he’s been married, how much fraud he’s committed, how many lies he’s made, how many false claims thrown around, no matter, no matter, no matter. That’s punctuated not with a yawn, but a disappointed, weary, sigh.

Don’t give into the yawns. Abetted by the press, Trump’s behavior and the GOP, its double standards, and its fascist authoritarian tendencies are being normalized. Rise up, lean forward, and Vote Blue. Vote like it matters, because it does if you don’t want your children’s reading material and education abridged by these white Christian Nationalists. Vote like it matters that we have a government that works, that women’s rights aren’t truncated again and again in the name of someone else’s religion. Vote like it matters that we don’t abandon allies and treaties, and vote like no one can be above the law in the United States, that people must be held accountable. Vote like you like the ideals that a more perfect union can offer us, if we have the strength and keep our vision clear.

Musically, today’s trail begins with Jill Dennison’s blog and not with the plethora of dreams from last night. Jill’s song offering was “Get Together” by The Youngbloods. It’s a song from my childhood and I greatly enjoy it. Then Rawgod posted a comment about the songwriter and included a link so we could read about him. A click later, and I was on Tom MacInnes’s website being reminded of Chet Powers. Chet Powers, aka Dino Valenti of Quicksilver Messenger Service.

QMS was sadly a short-lived group. But before they were gone, they came out with a 1970 song called “Fresh Air”. I loved “Fresh Air” as soon as I first heard it. Reminded me of Santana. I thought, this band is going places, and I was all in. They didn’t, and you can read about the reasons at Mr. MacInnes’s site. Just click the link.

Meanwhile, though, The Neurons remembered “Fresh Air” and scooped it out of memory and dropped it into the memory mental music stream (Trademark coming in 2 weeks, swear to dog). It’s all about six degrees, isn’t it? From childhood to now via the net.

Here’s the music. I’m soaking up the coffee and looking for the sunshine. Cheers

7

Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: helter skelter

It’s a meh sky for Friday, Feb. 16, 2024, just like yesterday’s meh sky. Yesterday turned to rain by the early afternoon. It’s warmer today, though, 48 F, up from 38 F, with chances of breaking into the fifties later.

Took my elderly floof, Tucker, to the vet yesterday. He has severe inflamation on his mouth’s left side, especially the lower mandible. Besides his dental issues, bloodwork shows he has a hyperactive thyroid. Everything else looked good, but he’d lost seven pounds since he was last checked, years ago, and now weights ten pounds. Painkillers were prescribed, along with meds to address the thyroid, and an anabotic steroid shot given. Plans are to treat the thyroid treatment, do more blood work in six weeks, and then address his teeth. He ate well last night, was given his meds, and slept. Today, though, after receiving his meds and eating, he vomited and then basically went comatose. I worried that I’d need to take him to an emergency vet but my wife found more details about the drugs and side-effects. We concluded that Tucker was going through one possibility on the spectrum of reactions. We made him warm and comfortable and slipped in a few drops of water. The websites said this state would wear out after eight hours. We witnessed his responsiveness improve withint four hours. He then started shifted himself around, making himself more comfortale. It felt like whatever crises may have existed had passed. I am reducing his dosage, though.

The painters finished the house exterior painting. They did a sensational job. We’re highly pleased.

My wife was out of the house at her exercise class/coffee clatch when the painters were here and I was dealing with Tucker. Those four hours felt more like six and a quarter. Meanwhile, Papi had been in and out, and had at least three sequels of going in and out in the books, when he decided, with the wind blowing, inside was better. But now, each time the painters knocked or rang the bell alarmed Papi. He’d look to me for guidance, didn’t like what he read, lower his belly to the floor and pelt off to the back bedroom to save himself. Quite a morning. Coffee saved me.

After reading Jill Dennison’s post about “Day Tripper” by the Beatle’s last night, The Neurons cranked up “Revolution” (1968) in the morning mental music stream (Trademark coming in two weeks). There was controversy about the song’s lyrics: do you want revolution? Why are you singing it’s going to be alright? How come you’re saying, count me out? I always took it to mean this was a song about peaceful change, and felt that I understood what Lennon was saying: we will have change, and it will be alright, and we don’t need to destroy the world to make that happen. Full stop.

Stay pos, be strong, lean forward, and vote it’s time. Coffee has been guzzled and more is being ordered. Take the day and make it yours. Here’s the music. Cheers

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑