Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Keith captures my thoughts on it. The difference in values and optics between the Republican and Democratic conventions is striking, highlighted by the current and former Presidents appearing and giving rising speeches, along with notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Pete Buttigieg, Wendell Pierce, Josh Shapiro and Andy Bashear, and a performance by John Legend with Sheila E. to introduce Gov. Walz. Then Gov. Walz spoke about true American values of service, community, and inclusion. We’ve worked hard to become inclusive as a nation. The GOP now want to tear it down.
Former President Obama captured the essence in the difference the two parties and their visions. Trump’s MAGA-dominated GOP is interested in outing people, excluding those not like them. They use hate and fear as their tools to manipulate voters. As Barack Obama noted, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and the Democratic Party will work with you, even if we disagree with you.
And that, friends, is a significant difference.
Vote Blue.
The ad is based on a poll question:
“A recent poll of swing state voters from The Bullfinch Group recently asked a question that gets to the heart of the ad’s message: Which candidate would you feel comfortable babysitting your kids? Harris was the clear favorite, with 45% picking the vice president, and only 20% choosing Donald Trump.”
Of course, we really want to know who had the other 35%?
Vote Blue.
Mood: weatherspeculative
We’re popping in on Saturday, August 17, 2024. Now remember, as a time-traveller, you won’t know anything about the future that you’re from while you’re on the selected travel date, but you will remember it all when you go back. Just want to ensure you understand the parameters.
It’s 66 F in Ashlandia, our destination for today, where the hills are brown and the beers are cold. Today’s high is said to be anywhere from 77 F to 84 F. Though clouds are sparse and small, they’re calling for rain this evening. Some say it’ll be heavy rain. There’s also an extreme fire warning out because thunderstorms with lightning are expected.
The air quality is good for now. No smells of smoke, no hazing of the sky. Super. Worrying that so many wildfires continue burning California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, etc.
Hurricane Ernesto is making landfall in Bermuda. Gonna be rainy with six to nine inches of rain predicted for them.
Colleges are wrestling with how to deal with protestors and free speech over the war in Gaza.
Of course Republicans are calling for probes of Gov. Walz’s China trips. The GOP are so laughably predictable and pathetic, screaming about tit for tat politics as a reason they shut down various measures to enforce ethics and then pursuing tit for tat actions. Funny how they didn’t give a shit about Gov. Walz’s trips until he became selected as Vice President Harris’s running mate. Yeah, they’re funny that way, especially Rep Comer, R-Jackass.
In more backward thinking, Georgia has misguided ideas that having ballots counted three times by hand is the best way forward.
We’re switching themes today, going from dance to colors. That excited The Neurons. Lot of songs with colors in their titles. They immediately fired up “Black Velvet” performed by Alannah Myles from 1989 into the morning mental music stream (Trademark trending). It’s a blues ballad about a young Elvis Presley. Whatever the subject, The Neurons love Myles’s voice and style. Hope you enjoy it.
Be strong and remain positive. Vote Blue in 2024. Coffee has kicked in, so here’s the music. Cheers
Mood: Friliberated
Went out doing chores this morning while it was cool and the air was fresh, so I’m late to posting duties. Bac then it, was in the mid to upper sixties. Now we’re at 77 F. It’s sunny, with a few clouds coiling up from the earth to the troposphere’s upper reaches. Today’s high will probably be about 85, 86 degrees F. Depends on where you’re at in Ashlandia. The air is mostly clear of smoke for now. But the smoke is rising. We’re into the moderate zone. Bleah.
Went and saw a great performance at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show. Forty-five minutes long, the free Green Shows bring in all manner of performers. Last night was a regional favorite, the Rogue Suspects. They put on a superb display of style and ability with their performance of Tina Turner songs. Regaling us with “Private Dancer,” “Nutbush City Limits,” “Missing You,” “Simply the Best,” “Addicted to Love”, “The Bitch is Back,” they finished with an energetic rendition of “Proud Mary”. You ever get the chance to see them, come and do.
Then, my wife and I left the Green Show and headed over to the bandshell in Lithia Park to see the last of the Ashland City Band’s final summer concert. With the air clear and the temperature dipping into the upper seventies, it capped off a terrific evening of music.
Saw that D.J. Trump is asking the courts to postpone sentencing for his conviction until after the elections. Hope that doesn’t happen. Treatment being given to him keeps broadening the idea that he’s part of a class of people above the law, unaccountable for the shit storms they cause, IMO. It’s really screwing up the already strained sense of justice in the United States.
Someone has pointed out that Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation document setting forth the ways conservatives went to twist and malign our nation, wants everyone in a school receiving Federal funding to complete the ASVAB. That’s the test aspect of the military recruiting system. Interesting that public school attendees will be doing that. Easy to paint a scene where students of wealth attending private schools are more and more exempt from military service while impoverished and lower middle-class students enlist and serve. Just part of conservatives pursuing their goals of setting up a nation of have-nots to serve the wealthy and powerful. Meanwhile, the conservatives love pushing the idea that the liberals are the ‘elites’. They are such a duplicitous group these days.
Meanwhile, down in Florida, led by the mini-Trump known as Gov. DeSantis, universities and colleges are removing books and trashing them. Not selling them, donating them, or giving them away; they are sending the books to landfills, throwing them away. What a waste.
Today music remains true to the dance theme. While ruminating on the theme, The Neurons fired up Justin Timberlake with “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” from 2016 in the morning mental music stream (Trademark rising). Technically, it doesn’t meet the standard of having ‘dance’ in its title, except The Neurons kept insisting to me that the title is “Can’t Stop the Feeling! Dance, Dance, Dance.” I called bullshit on them but the song is about dancing, so I gave them another pass. Part of that is just to appease The Neurons, because they’re prone to sulking and pouting, and then quit responding me, which reduces me to an idiot. I already have enough trouble with looking like an idiot, so I gave in to them.
Stay positive, be strong, and Vote Blue, okay? For extra credit, practice saying, “The first female President of the United States, President Kamala Harris.” Because people need to get used to it.
Coffee is being consumed. Here’s the music. Cheers
Both sides are not the same. Don’t let the press convince you otherwise. They’re just tryin’ to make money. Vote Blue in 2024.
Look out! The GOP has gone full Playground Mode.
Donald Trump calls Vice President Harris ‘Kamabla’. The GOP denigrates Gov. Walz as Tampon Tim.
It’s like they don’t have any policies to address. Sure, they scream about the border but it’s well-known outside of the MAGA world that Donald Trump and the GOP torpedoed the GOP-approved border plan. Yes, Trump screams about inflation but economists are pushing back and explaining, no, it’s not historic inflation.
As anyone paying attention realizes, Trump is using recycled ideas. These are the ideas that took him to the White House in 2016 and hasn’t gotten him anywhere else since then. Worse, as he attempts to deliver his insults and besmirch others, he sounds inept, incompetent, and incoherent. He appears befuddled. Old. Out of touch.
In comparison, Kamala Harris is vigorous, alert, sharp, awake. So is her chosen running mate, Tim Walz. Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, comes across as sneering and misogynistic.
The change from Biden to Harris brought a powerful pivot from how the Harris-Walz campaign responds to Trump. Whereas Joe Biden was from a different era and tried to remain above Trump’s insults, Harris and Walz boldly clap back. Trump and the GOP flail to find smart responses that reverberate with anyone. Hence, he calls her Kamabla.
Weak.
The differences between the two parties and their political candidates now are striking. That difference is galvanizing the Democratic Party while the GOP sinks like an old man trying to settle onto a lumpy sofa. There’s anecdotal evidence that Trump signs are disappearing from Trump country. They’re just not out there as much. It’s like Trump supporters realize that he’s a tired act, vaudeville in an era of Marvel movies. He’s peaked, and now he’s falling. My wife even theorizes that Evangelicals are quietly moving away from Trump. They achieved what they wanted from him for now: with Mitch McConnell’s help, Trump delivered a right-wing Supreme Court and they overturned established precedence, Roe v. Wade. She thinks they got what they want from Trump and now recognize him for the filth he is and are washing their hands of him.
What the right-wing SCOTUS delivered was a fundamental change that is disastrous. Conservative states dominated by men are running amok with anti-abortion laws that have fast lost appeal for the majority of the political body. Instead of attracting new voters, the GOP overreach is repelling voters. Further, after Kamala Harris was put forward by Joe Biden as the next POTUS, young voter registration surged.
I don’t have numbers and hard facts for all of this; it’s just a gut feeling. But my sense is that Harris-Walz is moving toward victory, and the GOP is in retreat. I mean, look how they have reacted to Project 2025 criticisms by trying to hide under rocks in parallel to Trump trying to deny he knows anything about it.
The MAGA GOP’s brand has been revealed to be reactionary, racist, and sexist. All their new ideas are old ideas. They offer leadership that wants to do the same things that failed before. Frankly, much of what they’re suggesting now, such as doing away with separation of church and state, or providing immunity to the POTUS, putting them above the rule of law, and curtailing voters’ rights and the opportunities to vote, is un-American. It might have been part of a past America, but we are now a modern America. Or we’re trying to be. Young voters at least are awakening to this, and it will show in November.
At least, this is what I hope.
I won’t be eating at Chipotle restaurants for a while, if ever.
The Guardian had an article that mentioned Chipotle by name.
“As inflation shot to its peak around mid-2022, Chipotle’s prices also rose, pushing up what customers paid for burritos and bowls by as much as several dollars. Since then, the fast casual restaurant’s costs have broadly fallen. Prices have not.
“Chipotle’s decision to maintain high prices helped boost profits 110% in recent years, while its executives boasted to investors that they raised prices higher than inflationary costs.”
There’s a list of companies and their profits in the article. Like Cheesecake Factory, with a fat 471% increase. Won’t be going there, thanks.
TBH, I only visit three of these places and it’s not that frequently. My exception is Starbucks. They’re one of my regular Ashlandia coffee haunts because the local places that I loved are gone. That just sucks.
Meanwhile, as you prepare to vote and you hear people complain of inflation and high prices, mention this article. Also mention that energy companies have seen record profits as well.
And let’s not forget grocery stores.
Face it, boys and girls, as voters scream about inflation and corporations complain about wages, regulations, and taxes, corporate executives are becoming stupidly rich.
All at the nation’s expense.
Michael Seidel, writer 