Tag: politics

Monday’s Theme Music

Mood: angrified

8 AM. My wife has left for her exercise class, Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah) is talking to me about breakfast, sunshine is streaming in through the windows, and I need to pee. Time to rise and stalk coffee, I decide.

I step onto the back patio with the cats. Papi is chatting up a storm. Tucker (pronounced Tuck-ah) is more reserved. Sunshine baths us but smoke lingers in the air. Not as bad as yesterday. The air worsened yesterday as the sun arced over the sky. The air quality plummeted, skating through 190. Forests and mountains disappeared behind the smoky curtain. Fortunately, the curtain rose lost night for a while and we had a night of relatively fresh air. Looks like it’s getting pulled down again.

This is Monday, September 9, 2024.

It’s just under 60 F right now. We expect a high of about 92 F.

BTW, the MAGA answer to wildfires and its smoke pollution is to cut down all the forests. Short-sighted as hell, but that’s them: intellectually bankrupt.

I have “Good Thing” from Fine Young Cannibals ringing in the morning mental music stream (Trademark hazy). It’s because I was singing to that 1989 melody with a word substitution. “Good air, where have you gone,” was my lament.

I shifted from good air to good things as the song played. Good things like the efficient post office and delivery systems we knew for a while. Good things like safe schools.

Which triggered reflections on Vance’s comments about school shootings being a way of life because schools are soft targets, which are attractive to a ‘psycho’, as he delicately phrased it.

“And again, as a parent, do I want my school to have additional security? No, of course I don’t,” he concluded. “I don’t want my kids to go to school in a place where they feel like they’ve got to have additional security. But that is increasingly the reality that we live in.”

Vance’s memory is not impressive. People have been killed in churches. Most people passing a church will note the lack of security. And a Pittsburgh syngagogue was found to be a soft target. Malls and shopping centers are soft targets. Grocery stores. Paint stores, hardware stores.

Remember the shooting from a hotel room in Las Vegas? So a concert is a soft target.

What about the college campuses? They’ve been shown to be soft targets.

Police officers being ambushed are not soft targets, yet we read about that numerous times a year.

I remember that several work places, post offices, and a McDonald’s restaurant have been a soft target through the years.

Beyond them, we had vigilante types like Kyle Rittenhouser out looking for targets, or Trayvon Martin’s killer, who thought the kid going for skittles was a threat.

And let’s not overlooked the people shooting others knocking on their door because they’re afraid, a fear the GOP actively stokes to harvest votes. Or the man who shot a woman because he thought she was part of a scam.

As long as you dance around the obvious and pretend it’s something else, nothing will get done and the problem won’t be fixed. And the problem is America’s worsening gun culture.

Congress sort of addressed it for themselves: they’re made themselves a hard target, surrounded by security forces, a place where guns are not permitted.

Funny how that works.

Stay positive, be strong, and vote blue in 2024. Coffee has broached my system. Here’s the music video. Cheers



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Sunday’s Theme Music

Mood: Patientoptimism

Sunday morning brings us a dirty gray blue sky with a dirty white veneer. Air quality is in high double digits, so not too precarious as far as the readings go. Just looks off.

This is September 8, 2024. Currently 69 degrees F with smoke but it’ll climb to 92 F with smoke. Meteorological rumors has Wednesday’s high capped in the mid to upper sixties, with a 92% chance of a quarter inch of rain. We’re pretty jazzed about that in this Ashlandia household.

Peter Sage, a retired person who is now a political blogger has a post today, Easy Sunday: A word from a Trump supporter.

The beginning of Peter’s column gives the guest’s background.

Lynn Myrick is a Trump supporter. He is a retired Southern Oregon family law attorney. He practiced for 47 years and still serves as an expert witness on attorney ethics and billing practices.

Myrick is a regular reader of this blog. My critique of Trump’s criminality, his business frauds, his sexual crimes, and his seditious effort to overthrow the election did not dampen Myrick’s support of Trump.

Peter goes on, Critics may think he sounds drunk, stupid, willfully uninformed, profoundly biased, or worse. They may think Myrick is mired in the alternative reality of a religious cult led by a con-man guru. But Myrick is not stupid. This is what he thinks. Something along the lines of this interior monologue takes place in the minds of a near-majority of our fellow citizens. Read it as literature. Read it for insight on how it is possible Americans might choose to elect Trump.

I was hugely disappointed in Myrick’s post. Less of a word salad than Trump himself would present, it’s a right-wing talking points gush, without any context, historic perspective, or critical thinking. For me, it seems like he gets all his news from right-wing sources and challenges none of it. That’s a common perception, right or wrong, that I have about most Trump supporters; they’ve inculcated a narrow perception of the world and hunts facts to bolster that perception. Those facts are often wrong because the purveyors providing the false information are catering to the right wing’s need for false facts. The right wing is going through life with blinders on these days.

Worse, Myrick is like, ‘look how terrible Biden/Harris is’ without any contemplation of the alternative, Trump and Vance. Trump has rightfully earned himself a label of weird. Hugging the flag, claiming he wants votes and doesn’t want them, lying about everything and anything without any limitation. Add to that, he’s under several indictments and has been convicted. He is a felon. He tried overthrowing the election in 2020. That’s apparently okay with Myrick. He offers no comments at all on Trump. Just staunch, no Dem! Dem bad!

But then, that’s what the right wing chamber declares, along with ‘Trump good’, without offering evidence.

Myrich probably thinks he wrote a sharp, damning piece. And the right-wing probably agrees with him.

I guess from thinking about the GOP, which can be called ‘the other side’, caused The Neurons to summon “The Other Side” by Aerosmith to the morning mental music stream (Trademark dark). I remember this song coming out. I was already familiar with it, as it was released in 1990 as a single but it was from the album, Pump, which I’d already purchased. Holland–Dozier–Holland, the Hall of Fame songwriting team, threatened Aerosmith with a lawsuit because “The Other Side” had some resemblance in parts to “Standing In the Shadows of Love”.

Alright, on to other things. Smoke is getting worse out there. Over 100 now on the air quality index. You stay positive and be strong, and vote blue in 2024. Coffee has been swallowed a few times. Here’s the music. Cheers

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A Word

My wife and I contributed to the Harris – Walz campaign three times. We’ve also purchased shirts, signs, and bumper stickers.

Yesterday, I received nine more email requests from them for donations. That’s typical for me, and my wife said she’s receiving the same. This bombardment is getting annoying. In one email yesterday, they thanked me for the donation, while in the next, they asked why I haven’t donated.

Just a friendly word, Harris-Walz, but you might want to tone it down a little. I support you but your bombardment is wearying me, and there’s still a few more months remaining before the election.

Vote blue in 2024.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Mood: smoketeased

Saturday padded in on floof feet, bringing clouds. Not so chilly this morning, it’s already 73 but will climb to only 95 F today. That’s 10 degrees less than I saw at my house yesterday.

Quiet outside, the main news comes from the avian Karens known as scrubjays. They get involved in everything, flying around making loud announcements about what people and other birds and animals are doing. A small aircraft putters by hundreds of feet overhead, its putter a steady sound that gains volume and then falls into a distant hum.

Air quality is okay on Siskiyou Blvd., about a hundred yards down the hill from us, but quickly deteriorates into mid-triple digits as you travel up the mountain flanks. A burnt wood smell hangs in the air, leftovers from some fires, somewhere.

We did two jigsaw puzzles in August. A three-hundred-piece puzzle was done on the first night of vacation. Another was started there, and then transported home, where we finished it. We started a third one last week and finished it last night. This was another Wysocki puzzle, produced by Buffalo, one thousand pieces.

The Neurons have plugged “Notorious” by Duran Duran into the morning mental music stream (Trademark seedy). Don Old Trump’s latest round of speeches and proclamations set off the 1986 song in my head. Trump is just notorious for saying notorious crap.

At one of his rallies, Trump claimed he didn’t want more votes if they were from people who didn’t vote for him before.

“Donald Trump apparently doesn’t care whether or not he wins in November anymore.

At a Fox News town hall on Thursday, the Republican presidential nominee revealed that his 2024 campaign strategy excludes anyone who he doesn’t believe supported him in the last election cycles.

“One person who didn’t support me—he said, ‘I must admit I had the most successful four years of my life but I’m gonna vote for some—’ and now that person came back to me. I don’t want that person,” Trump said to muffled applause. “I don’t want that person.

“You know, they say you should take everybody, but that’s not the way I’m built. It’s one of those little problems,” he added.

All of this is probably depressing to those people who want him to talk about policies and be a serious politician. But he’s just too weird.

He said those things at a town hall meeting on Thursday. But on Wednesday, the day before in Pennsylvania, he was pleading for votes.

“Even if you don’t like me, you can sit there and say, ‘I can’t stand that guy, but there’s no way I’m gonna vote for her.’”

He also apparently forgot on Wednesday where he was, alluding to New Hampshire instead of Pennsylvania, and who he was running against.

“I can’t imagine New Hampshire voting for him. Anyone in New Hampshire who votes for Biden or Kamala…” he told the crowd.

Trump has become notorious for mental gaffes in 2024 as well as ducking responsibility and claiming he’s never said anything, or that he’s responsible for things. He’s claimed that he knew nothing about the photo at Arlington National Cemetery. He also claimed that Vice President Harris made it up. His campaign claimed there wasn’t a physical altercation with anyone as described.

Meanwhile, a Trump spokesperson wrote, “For a despicable individual to physically prevent President Trump’s team from accompanying him to this solemn event is a disgrace and does not deserve to represent the hollowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery,” he said in a written statement, misspelling the word hallowed. “Whoever this individual is, spreading these lies are dishonoring the men and women of our armed forces.”

The person they’re referring to is the U.S. Army employee who works at Arlington National Cemetery.

That’s Trump and his campaign. Notorious for word salads, lies, and contradictions. Notorious for lacking principles or honor. Notorious for blaming others. Notorious for being a hot mess.

Stay positive, be strong, and vote blue in 2024. Here’s the music video. The smoke pollution is worsening. Gotta go close the windows and turn on the air purifier. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Mood: speculativitis

It feels like a diluted summer day. An archapelago of gray fuzzed small white clouds spill across the sky. Today’s blue is diluted into a pale hue. Weirdly feels like rain is possible in the cold mountain air shouldering me through the window. But it’s 70 F at my house and will top off at 99 F.

Of course, summer is on its heels. Autumn is crowding in again. This is Friday, September 6, 2024. Diluted, the door is also pregnant with a sense of finality. I don’t know what pseudo psycho-quantum vibes has me feeling that.

I read my fill of the story about the Apalachee school shooting. The alarm buttons in the IDs. The congratulations that the system worked and kept the loss of life down, spoken without irony. The continued reporting that the system failed because the kid had been investigated by the FBI who couldn’t tie him to the social media threats he’d previously made about carrying out a school shooting. The later news that the father had been arrested for his role after giving his son the murder weapon for a gift — after the child had been investigated for making the threats.

The wonder, the murder weapon was a Christmas present. Ho, ho, fucking, ho. Peace on Earth, goodwill toward men. Anyone care to bet that it was part of a Black Friday special? How sinisterly ugly is that?

The wonder, what were the dynamics in that household, with the kid allegedly making these threats and also apparently asking for mental health help, and Dad giving his boy, a troubled 14 year old, a killing machine? The wonder, what is the truth, and will this shit ever change?

Bet there are a lot of hopes and prayers being offered the family of the dead. They can take those hopes and prayers and add five dollars and have a coffee at Starbucks as they grieve.

All this has The Neurons playing “Once In A Lifetime” by the Talking Heads in the morning mental music stream (Trademark cracked). The 1981 song has a refrain that goes, “Same as it ever was. Same it ever was.”

You get where I’m coming from. I mean, mass shootings are a recurring part of the U.S. news scene. And let’s not overlook the other shootings. Children accidently killing themselves or another child because they found Mommy’s gun.

Let’s not overlook how frequently police officers are being ambushed and killed with firearms.

Yeah, but we don’t have a problem. Thoughts and prayers will take care of that shit.

Meanwhile, I’d read of Don Old Trump’s response to a child care question. This is part of it:

“But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about — that, because look, child care is child care, couldn’t — you know, there’s something — you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to. But they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us. But they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including child care, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have — I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country.“

And nothing in the rest of the answer will stop the swirl of ‘what is he talking about’ that’s circulating around many people’s head.

Also, though, I’m amused by the cognitive dissonance needed for this question to be asked in the first place. Project 2025’s architects wants women to return to the home and take care of the family. She won’t be working; ergo, child care isn’t needed in their heads. Plus, they want to remove barriers against children working. So the child won’t need anyone to take care of them, because Mom will be home, or when the child is old enough, they’ll be at work to help support the family, which will be needed now that Mom doesn’t work.

Asking Trump, which Project 2025 specifically mentions throughout its contents, with many of the authors directly tied to him, what he’s going to do to help with child care costs for working women, demonstrates that some folks just aren’t paying attention.

Hah, same as it ever was, right?

Pause. Or maybe the person asking the question knew and got the answer that they wanted: he’s not thining about it, and is incapable of forming a coherent sentence about it. If so, brava to her.

Alright, let’s roll on. Be strong and stout and positive, and vote blue. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Thursday’s Theme Music

Mood: humordacious

It’s the first Thursday in September, the fifth day of the month in the common era year of 2024.

We awoke to chilly night air but guess what? Today’s projected high will be another 30 degrees above this current 70 degrees F temp, leveling out at 102. The air quality is not bad at 52 according to airnow.gov.

The light on these days where the temperatures enter triple digits always seems stronger and brighter to me in the AM. I don’t know if that’s a psychological thing for me or if there’s an actual meteorological explanation.

A local fire polluted us and put us on high alert yesterday. Started at about 11 AM. Hot day but not a whole lot of wind. A fire broke out at Exit 11 on I-5. The southbound entrance to the Interstate, it’s a couple miles past the town’s southern boundary, about three miles from my house in Ashlandia.

The authorities responded fast. Some early evacuations were ordered because the wind was blowing northwest, which would push the fire toward one mountainous, isolated neighborhood. But the fire was contained within two hours and declared done after eleven acres went up.

My wife has been an energetic individual this week. She’s organized purchases of Harris – Walz bumper stickers and yard signs for her friends and fellow Harris – Walz supporters. They’ve also been buying Harris – Walz tee-shirts. My wife emphatically stated, “I want to publicize her support so people see how strong the blue wave is and feel more encouraged to add their support.”

I lost a bet. My healthcare system reached out to me and I have an appointment with an Ortho surgeon on September 26. I thought the appointment wouldn’t be for six weeks. I’m happy to have lost. I’d like something down about the foot/ankle, as it signals regular messages that all’s not well on my body’s southernmost regions. That’s how I look at it. My feet are my south, and my head is the north.

I read some posts and stories about Trump’s support among young men, especially when they’re white. Not real surprising to me. My wife has been fascinated by relationships between the sexes for years and updates me on what she reads and sees. One of the many facts she’s provided to me is that less men are pursuing higher education. More women are enrolling in college and universities these days. There’s fall out from that in several ways. One, men are increasingly less likely to land higher pay professional positions. Two, men are less educated, which makes them less attractive to women. That triggered the incel — involuntary celibat — movement among men, driving resentment and outright hatred toward women. Hence, young men are increasingly not dating women, not getting good jobs where women are succeeding, and feel resentful. Trump and Project 2025’s message speaks directly to them, that women need to be put back into place, at home, taking care of her family while the man brings home the bacon.

As women have said to that, we are not going back.

Today has The Neurons playing “Lola” by the Kinks in the morning mental music stream (Trademark muddled). The 1970 song infliltrated the stream after I read another’s blog. She wrote about “You Really Got Me” by the Kinks. The Neurons just started playing other Kinks songs. Then they settled into this terrific love song, “Lola”. The rest is history.

Stay real and be positive. Vote blue n 2024. Coffee has been sipped up. Here’s the music from over fifty years ago, about an encounter between a man and a man — at least, that’s what it might be.

Cheers

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Just An Opinion

Mitch McConnell is down on President Biden’s SCOTUS reform proposals.

Who is surprised?

Well, anyone who isn’t paying attention would be surprised.

For McConnell to support Mr. Biden’s proposal would be like Putin announcing the end of his war against Ukraine. Or Hamas’s declaration of an immediate cease fire with a follow up that they were disbanding and beginning a new peace union.

Just not gonna happen.

Mitch McConnell perverted the people’s will by keeping Merrick Garland’s nomination from progressing on the specious grounds that it was an election year. Meanwhile, he rammed Trump’s nomination through, even though it was ten days before the election.

Can you say fucking hypocrite?

I look forward to the day when Mitch McConnell crawls back into the earth like the worm he is and is never heard from again. Meanwhile, here is the Ira Shapiro opinion which triggered my thoughts today.

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Wednesday’s Theme Music

Mood: contratagious

Can you believe it? This morning, it’s chilly. About 61 F at my house at the mo. One door and two windows partially open to harvest and store some cold air for the day. Cuz it’s gonna get hot. 99 F.

This is Wednesday, September 4, 2024.

A friend posted a link to an article about Newsmax hosts reacting to J.D. Vance’s assertions that childless elites are dangerous for the country. He — J.D. Vance, not the friend — believes that if you’re childless, you should not be in a position of ‘power’. I imagine he wouldn’t want childless people to teach children, then.

I guess, then, that his Priests all have children, right? If I’m following his thinking, I mean. Like, the Pope should immediately start fornicating his robes off and get to procreating.

In his view, it’s a danger because, “If you don’t have kids, who’s going to take care of you when you’re old?” he continued. “Who’s going to care for our elderly? Work the jobs that are necessary? If we don’t have children, then the answer is nobody.”

J.D. Vance is such a narrow thinker. Which explains why he was against Trump before he stuck his head right up Trump’s ass. See, right now, I’m sure the robot industry, driven by childless engineers, are working hard on this problem of who will care for the childless elderly when they need assistance. These CareBots will probably be produced by all the major car manufacturers, advertised on Facebook and Google, and have Amazon tracking chips so that as soon as someone utters a wish about a food or drink, the CareBot will offer to order it.

I think what J.D. Vance is really worried about is the lack of child labor available. I believe I read that Project 2025 and the GOP in general wants to abolish child labor laws. Don’t quote me on that because I’m operating on precariously low coffee levels. As I see it, though, having children available to work would drive down wages because there would be a larger labor pool. Then US manufacturing can compete with countries where they’re willing to pay people pennies and permit children to work.

Of course, we could not put any children in any positions of power, no matter how intelligent or talented they might be. Because those children don’t have children. Unless, J.D. Vance is planning for children to have children. That wouldn’t surprise me.

BTW, don’t you think that ‘J.D. Vance’ sounds like a low-end department store? “Come on down to J.D. Vance for your Labor Day shopping needs! Our children cashiers and stockers keep our prices the lowest around. We’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We have the latest MAGA apparel on sale. And we just got in a shipment of gold-plated replicas of Donald Trump’s shot ear! But hurry. At these prices, this stock won’t last.”

Pivoting, The Neurons are playing “Tusk” in the morning mental music stream (Trademark childless). I blame Jill Dennison for this. I regularly read her blog, or try; I have a bunch of them which I try to read but there’s not enough time, what with all the golfing I do. Any, “Tusk” is a Fleetwood Mac song from the early 1970s. You may have read about the 1970s in your Republican edited textbooks. It was a time when Richard Nixon saved the world from the Godless commies, and OPEC raised gas prices and cut our gas supply, scaring the bejesus out of Americans driving huge motor vehicles which got such poor gas mileage that manufacturers were trying to figure out ways to refuel cars without people having to stop at a gas station. I was there; I remember.

Anyway, we also had ‘rock’ music back then. Fleetwood Mac are rock performers. Jill D. — not to be confused with Micky D. — shared a Fleetwood Mac song. In her informative post, “Tusk” was mentioned. Or maybe I read it somewhere else. I don’t know. It’s all melting together like burning birthday candles on a cake. But The Neurons took those words and brought the song into my head where it’s been playing off and on in between commercials for holiday shopping at J.D. Vance, where every employee has a child. It’s company policy.

Stay positive, be strong, and stay fresh all day long with J.D. Vance’s new and improved J.D. Vance A.D./A.P. Available at J.D. Vance Deparment Stores everywhere.

I need some coffee. Here’s the music. Hope you find it entertaining. Peace out.

*A.D./A.P. = Anti Deodorant/Anti Perspirant

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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.

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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

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