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Rick Kinnaird

Archives for July 2020

Day 1290 – Which Was Most Memorable?

July 31, 2020 by Rick Kinnaird 2 Comments

Friday July 31, 2020

93 Days until the election on November 3rd

173 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Yesterday, oh what a day. So much. So much. Winning? Losing? Idiocy? Landmarks.

Yesterday John Lewis was put to rest and three Presidents spoke at his funeral. Thankfully, president Trump did not show up. He didn’t even wander into the Rotuda when Lewis was there to pay his disrespects. I guess that makes sense, being the showman he is, even he, probably thought the usual flash grenades and tear gas (excuse me – pepper spray canisters) that accompany his entrances these days was too much. Do you remember when he accepted the nomination he used smoke and, not mirrors but a white curtain backlit to show his shadow so he’d appear larger than life. Might have looked inspirational had his posture not looked like a slumped over paunchy old man.

Then there was the news that we had passed 150,000 dead from Coronavirus and we were dying at the rate of 1,000 a day. That figure was updated later in the day to say no it was more like 1,400 a day and that we’d hit 240,000 by Labor Day. The day before a bunch of doctors signed a letter begging that we do a reset. Stupid. The president doesn’t read. (I’m sorry. He’s an excellent reader. He reads a lot. You’d be surprised how much reading he does. …) 

When it comes to the coronavirus it’s the same old stuff, nothing changes. There is no plan, no guidance, just denial and PR. Trump can’t figure out why he isn’t as popular as Fauci. OMG. BTW, Fauci had a baseball card made and they sold over fifty thousand, making it one of the most popular baseball cards of all time. Gee, let’s do one of the Donald, throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. (Well, yeah he’s not really going to do that. He lied. But we ought to be able to photoshop him in, put a bald eagle on the card with a giant USA and a flag … come on. ) Ya know I never thought of this before but if you look closely at the word Russia what do you see? ( rUSsiA ) OMG, it’s sooo obvious.

Also, yesterday the president tweeted that maybe we should delay the election. That got some push back from Mitch McConnell and other Republicans. Wow. Way to go boys.

The president is against mail-in ballots but for absentee ballots. Another wow. Two points here: one) the terms are synonymous, 2) Republicans win close elections by mail in ballot. 

But hey, he ain’t done yet. He’s appointed a guy to head the post office that’s a bud of his, DeJoy by name. Mr. DeJoy has put in place measures on July 15 to screw up the post office. You can’t work overtime. You can’t do other things to get the mail out. It’s all to screw up mail-in voting before the election. Way to go. Slit your throat and let it bleed slowly.

Btw He also has a bud of his collecting the coronavirus

But we aren’t done with the winning. Oh no. Here’s the real news: The economy took its biggest nose dive in history this past quarter. Worse than any time in history:

That’s the official graph from out government. Our Gross Domestic Product went down 32.9% last quarter. Coronavirus you say? You bet, but let’s not forget the sterling lack of leadership in the White House, and the Republican led Senate.

And I’ve got news for you, it’s going to get worse, a lot worse.

Consider this: Mark Meadows, former head of the Tea Party and person who with Mic Mulvaney stood in the way of every proposal by John Boehner and later Paul Ryan is chief of staff. Their philosophy, taken from Grover Norquist and Steve Bannon, was to shrink the government to the size of a pea and flush it down the toilet is running things.

Yesterday, Mark Meadows even suggested gosh golly maybe, maybe, we ought to do a four month extension on giving folks on unemployment that $600 a week. Of course, the Senate, Fox News, and the rest are saying people are not going back to work because they are making soooo much money on unemployment. Like $600 a week is a lot. I’d like to see them survive on six hundred a week. But no that’s not the reason people aren’t going back to work. There is no work to go back to. And the work that there is can get these people sick and they’d have a good chance of dying. Hum. Maybe that’s it? I dunno.

The 600 dollar checks run out today and the Republicans have gone home. So there is little chance that anything will happen in the near term. Of course they will try to sell the idea that they proposed something and the do nothing democrats wouldn’t go along with it. 

The Republicans wanted to slash the $600 to $200. Steny Hoyer explained that would destroy the economy and they weren’t going to agree to be a party to it. So the Republicans went home. 

On May 15, Mitch McConnell said, “We’ll pause.” He saw no reason to do anything. Apparently, he still doesn’t. He did suggest that the best idea was for the states and cities should go bankrupt. Well, it looks like we’ll see how the “We’ll pause; Let ‘em go bankrupt” plane of the Republicans will play out. 

I’m guessing people are going to start to be evicted.

So we’ll have more people out on the street. This time it will be young mothers with their children.

States and cities will have to but back on services. Like trash pick up and hospital staff.

I wonder what America will look like with trash bags piled up on the corners. Rats running around bothering the homeless mothers, and people sitting in cars outside hospitals dying?

It’s also being reported that the foreign affairs people in our government have isolated themselves from the president as he screws things up so badly it’s better if he’s not involved.

Okay so while the Republicans have “Paused” ( ie done nothing ) what have the Democrats done? I mean, let’s be fair. What have you done?

Steny Hoyer this morning said that the House under Speaker Pelosi has done the following (in the last 15 days):

– Passed a Justice & Policing Bill;

– Passed a DC Statehood bill;

– Strengthened the ACA (Affordable Care Act);

– Passed a Rent & Mortgage Relief bill;

– Passed a major Infrastructure bill;

– Passed ten Appropriation bills;

– Passed Land and Water Conservation bills;

– Passed two Childcare bills;

And what has the Republican led Senate done sine May 15th?

– Nothing.

On a positive note: NASA launched Perseverance on from an Atlas 5 rocket. It didn’t even make the major headlines. Wow. What a launch. Set your calendars for February 18, 2021 when the mission arrives at Mars.

93 Days until the election on November 3rd

173 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS Here’s another way to look at the Winning job Trump has done on the economy.

This graph looks at the GDP as compared to the previous quarter.

Filed Under: Trump

Day 1289 – Two Little Things

July 30, 2020 by Rick Kinnaird 1 Comment

Thursday July 30, 2020

94 Days until the election on November 3rd

174 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

On to Mars

I feel like Alistair Cooke, sitting in a giant wing chair looking at the camera, “We are now at day one thousand two hundred and eighty nine since that cocksplat, Donald Trump took office and began with the help of the Republican Party and conspiracy theorists to ruin the country call The United States of America.”

Ah yes. Well let’s give The Donald the benefit of the doubt shall we? Let’s suppose that the intel never reached his desk that the Russians were paying to have American soldiers killed in Afghanistan. Let us further suppose that Donald is a very good reader, which he claims to be. The only paper that he subscribes to is The New York Times. They broke the story of the Russians paying to have our soldiers killed. Seems odd that he missed that article, or its reporting or the numerous reports that were put into his daily briefing if he was such good reader, or if he was watching TV. Seems odd. 

But here’s one of those little things that is also odd. The top soldier in Afghanistan reported that Afghan soldiers fighting with them brought them weapons that they said they seized from the Taliban and that they were given to the Taliban by the Russians. In fact, they can trace a particular weapon back to the person and order placed within the GRU to obtain this weapon. That was two years ago. Yet, the president says it never reached his desk.

In fact, he called the whole Russian thing fake news and a hoax. I have a fantasy, that Chuck Schumer asks for that weapon to be sent to him and he brings it to the White House and squeezes off a clip in the Oval Office and tells the president not to worry because it’s fake.

Speaking of fakes – Louie Gohmert, that lovable nut, refused to wear a mask, made all his staff not wear masks while attending meetings, which he insisted on holding in his office, has tested positive for the corona virus. He was trying to get on Air Force One when they tested him. If only they hadn’t tested him then we wouldn’t have had another case to count. 

Apparently, Congress has no mechanism to deal with this sort of thing. (Ie general precautionary measures to insure the safety of the people in the building, etc.) I wonder what is going to happen if someone in Gohmert’s staff tests positive and dies? Do the relatives get to sue over unsafe working conditions? 

It’s not only Gohmert, but many Republicans who are refusing to wear masks. Seems the Republicans should change their name to The No Common Sense Party. Maybe No Sense Party? Maybe Nonsense Party. 

Then there’s Ivanka Trump. For some reason I got to …

INTERUPTION – NASA lift off of PERSERVERANCE to Mars. 

ATLAS 5 rocket liftoff with 2 million pounds of thrust left the launch pad in 5 seconds. Launch was early. OMG! Yeah, 10ms early! Thank God we still have something we can do right. Every 26 months or so we can get to Mars within the least amount of energy. We’ll be to Mars in seven months.

Stay tuned.

Where was I? Oh yeah, Ivanka. She told people out of work to “find something else to do.” Good idea, Ivanka!  Look at you. After letting your dad paw you while you were 13 you transitioned into the family business of lying about their real estate deals. She then started a fashion business, selling clothes, shoes, and jewelry. She then helped dad get elected. Published a book, which was mainly plagiarized. Then got out to the fashion business because no one was buying her shit. She and her milk toast looking husband then moved into helping daddy run the country into the ground, all the while she and her husband were busy taking money from foreign rulers and businesses. So she certainly knows transition!

But that’s not the other little fact I wanted to mention. It’s solar! Solar in Afghanistan! Yeah baby. Turns out that the heroin farmers have been drilling wells, installing pumps powered by solar panels, which has allowed them to produce lots more acreage to grow opium poppies. They’ve manage to pretty much double the land they can grow opium poppies! Cool, huh? They can also grow tomatoes as a second crop. Maybe, even get a third crop!

So look for the price of heroin to drop as the market gets flooded.

94 Days until the election on November 3rd

174 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

The Helicopter

PS The Launch and the Helicopter 

PPS This mission is to determine if there was or is life on Mars.

PPPS Mark your calendars February 18, 2021 for Perserverence landing on Mars.

Filed Under: Travel, Trump

Day 1288 – The Rube Goldberg Defense

July 29, 2020 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Wednesday July 29, 2020

95 Days until the election on November 3rd

175 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

The title of this screed sounds like a game of chess strategy, but in fact it was the Attorney General’s reasoning for not looking into the president commuting the sentence of Roger Stone. Eric Swalwell in questioning the AG at yesterday’s House hearings laid out a compelling case for investigating Donald Trump’s commuting Roger Stone’s sentence. After all it was Barr at his confirmation hearing that said that if a president commuted the sentence of an associate for keeping their mouth shut about a president’s crimes that would be a crime. William Barr said in response to Swalwell, “Why should I?” He then went on to say that Swalwell’s case, based on the words of Barr, Trump, and Stone was a Rube Goldberg case. This from a guy who went to the Ukraine to try and dig up stuff on Joe Biden and his son based on conspiracy theories promulgated be Britbart, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Info Wars, and the Russian GRU.

The AG seems to have a keen sense of when to know something and when not to. He didn’t know about the militia men with their AR-15s standing in front of the state house in Michigan or in front of the governor’s home demanding that she be shot, hung, and beheaded, but he did know that someone sprayed paint on a Federal courthouse in Portland and ordered unmarked Federal agents to the scene. He defended the snatching of protestors who were doing nothing at the time they were grabbed by saying they might have done something earlier in the evening or maybe they were standing next to someone doing something. The something in question was pointing a laser pointer at the troops. This of course required the unleashing of tear gas and rubber bullets.

Those rubber bullets by the way have steel in them and can kill and maim.

Speaking of tear gas the AG said that tear gas was not used in the clearing of Lafayette Square. Apparently, the narrative in the chamber was it was pepper gas, which has the same effect, but hey – technically he’s correct, if that is true.

What we didn’t know until the nightly news was that a National Guardsman who was there on the ground in Lafayette Square said he saw no aggressive behavior from the protestors. They were being peaceful. He said that tear gas was used and he saw the canisters marked as such. Who ya gonna believe? Toss up? Or is one person lying?

Either the Attorney General is lying or he is sadly misinformed.

Speaking of sadly misinformed, according to the president the information about the Russians putting bounties on the heads of our servicemen in Afghanistan is “fake news,” because “a lot of people are saying it.” Not the people in his intelligence community mind you, but a lot of people, you know like the Russian disinformation folks who feed the right wing media. 

We’ve reached another milestone, 150,000 dead. No one wants us to come see them anymore. We are banned. 

I’m tired of winning.

Speaking of winning, eleven states are now added to the list of “red zone” states for corona virus bringing the total to twenty one. One state is declared safe, maybe two, the rest are yellow. What does the president have to say about this? States aren’t opening fast enough. 

Some folks have pointed to baseball and how they started to play games and had to stop due to a corona virus outbreak on one team. How people are asking can we expect schools to open if major league baseball can’t?

Now the administration is threatening schools with withholding funds unless the open up. Most of these schools didn’t have enough money to buy school supplies to begin with. Funny thing Betsy DeVos got a huge “loan” that she won’t have to pay back. Hey, maybe we should start with that money? 

But I digress, the CDC says you can’t open your schools safely unless you have the virus under control in your community.  Currently, nowhere has it under control, but don’t worry, only 2% may get it or die from it or something like that says DeVos. Good odds, right?

The Pumpkin Patch

Oh and in a stunning announcement the president lied. Yeah, I know who thought they’d ever say those words three and a half years ago? Apparently, Trump made up the whole thing about throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium in August. Imagine that? Yeah, he didn’t like Anthony Fauci stealing the limelight by having the honor to throw out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals’ first game, so Trump made it up! This threw his staff into a tizzy because he was already committed that day. Not to worry; he lied. He not going. Ha ha, next?

Okay, how about the video, now taken down showing people in white lab coats? The claim is they are doctors. The video say hydroxychloroquine works and masks don’t. Yeah, who was behind that? I haven’t seen or heard yet – stay tuned.

But we do know that the guy in black with the umbrella who was filmed breaking window in Minneapolis has been identified as having ties to White Supremacist groups and in Richmond a similar thing happened with protestors pointing out the perpetrators and they too had ties to white supremacist groups. 

William Barr had said at his House hearing yesterday that anarchists had snuck into the protests and disturbed them. Naturally, the word “antifa” came up. I have yet to see a person who claims to be antifa engaged in any of this stuff. It seems to always be racists. Hum, maybe there’s something here the AG could do? Naw, fake news, Rube Goldberg.

Oh and I love this, William Barr doesn’t read and isn’t aware of the president’s tweets. It was just coincidence that within the hour of the president’s tweet that he cleared Lafayette Square. I mean calling a Rose Garden press conference so all the news cameras would be there instead of in Lafayette Square, and having the square cleared with tear gas or pepper spray and federal troops in riot gear, and having the president walk across for a photo op were all just coincidental. 

Oh I got it. Okay. Nothing to see hear. Move along. These are not the droids you are looking for.

I have a fantasy and that is that a protestor keeps backing up as these unmarked federalists troops advance. That said protestor warns them to back off, that he (or she) will have to arrest them (ie a citizen’s arrest) if they lay a hand on them. Agents lay a hand, and they get the shit beaten out of them, they are cuffed with their own gear and city police arrive to haul off the perpetrators (ie the purported Federal agents.) 

I have another fantasy too. This one involves someone standing up at a public hearing where they are debating whether to rename a school that has been named after a confederate general. Someone has just spoken about “remembering our heritage” etc. The person stands up and says yes let’s remember our heritage. Why not name the school after Goering, or Goebbels, or Hitler, or Mussolini? I mean if you want to remember our heritage what’s wrong with them? Maybe Tokyo Rose? 

This leads me to my Final Fantasy (three?) and that is what Nazi do the Trump administration officials most resemble? I know. It’s so disrespectful. But Stephen Miller? Come on. Himmler right? Am I right? And Barr? Goering? When he was fat and before he became obese. What about the little cutie who heads up the press conferences? Eva Braun? Okay. That’s a stretch. 

Can I get a “Bet you won’t repost this?” Yeah.

PS The Pumpkin Patch

Filed Under: Trump

Day 1287 – Will he? Won’t he? Who cares?

July 28, 2020 by Rick Kinnaird Leave a Comment

Tuesday July 28, 2020

96 Days until the election on November 3rd

176 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

There is speculation as to whether Trump will leave office. I say no, and I hope he won’t, because then we get to see Federal agents go in, haul him out whining and puelling. 

Just watched a little of William Barr in front of Congress. Let’s call his testimony “the innocent lamb defense.” Pick one: “I don’t know about that”, “You mischaracterize.”, “That’s not what they did.”, “You have to (or don’t) understand.”

Now, some have asked why hasn’t Trump done anything about the coronavirus? It’s simple. He doesn’t give a shit about you.

Moving on.

He just learned that some of “his people” may be sick. Does he care? Absolutely, they might die before they can vote for him. Other than that – no, he doesn’t care.

See, he never got the memo that said when you become president you represent all the people.

Why has it gotten so bad?

Simple.

The framers of the Constitution guarded against the kind of despotic rule they had seen in Europe. They had not envisioned a compliant Vice-President and Senate.

BTW – The Senate has had a bill from the House for ten weeks to deal with the pandemic and the economic problems. They have done nothing. They say they are going to work on their own bill, but it isn’t ready. Ten weeks. Checks have run out. Evictions start in three days.

How many months and we still don’t have a national plan for dealing with this pandemic? It’s not like the president doesn’t know how to take action. He did so against the meat packing workers. He’s doing it against the protestors in cities. So why hasn’t he done it for testing and PPE?

I reiterate.

He doesn’t give a shit about you.

96 Days until the election on November 3rd

176 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Day of the Dead Skull
on a
Skull Rack

PS You know I can’t hear you with a two inch wooden rod through my skull.

Filed Under: Trump

Day 1286 – God, The Universe, The Duality of Belief

July 27, 2020 by Rick Kinnaird 1 Comment

Monday July 27, 2020

97 Days until the election on November 3rd

177 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

In this screed I will explain all.

I have recently been taking a closer look at ancient Egypt. Whenever I do this I am struck by one thought, “Didn’t anyone ever say, ‘Hold on, how long have we been doing this? Is there any evidence that it is working?’ “

And in a greater sense can’t you ask this of any belief system? (Ie Cult, religion, horoscope, astrology, etc.)

This is where, for me, I get into what I’ll call ‘The Duality of Belief.” Or “Yeah, we know it’s crap, but we’ll do it anyway just in case.”

Most of the pyramids and tombs of Egypt were robbed. Many in ancient times. Much was done to thwart robbers. There is evidence that some of these robberies were inside jobs. That is to say the robbers knew where to go and what to avoid. 

So what does this say about their belief system? Maybe, I should make that plural: systems. They worshipped bulls, crocodiles, hawks, lots of things. Did their worship of these animals or of the dead pharaohs bring them anything? Did it change anything? 

I often wonder about the Christian concept of death and afterlife. It’s not your body but your soul that goes to heaven. But where exactly is that? 

I often see people crying at funerals or at someone’s death. They are comforted by other folks saying, “They are in a better place now.” Are they? Or is it like the little boy who woke up half way through the explanation of Easter and said, “Nope, once you’re dead; your’e dead.”?

It seems to me that that young man had a better grip on reality than all those good Christians. 

We also know that Jesus wasn’t always the son of god. That came years after his death. He was one of many guys wandering around the Levant pissed off at the Romans. He probably said he was the messiah and that he brought good news. What he meant was “you all can rise up and get rid of the Romans.”

The Romans did what they do in those cases. Round up the followers and the leader and kill ‘em. Paul slipped away and made it to Rome where he cranked up the PR machine. The rest, as they say, “Is history.”

How Jesus became God is another story. There are things we know for sure. Like he wasn’t born in Bethlehem. That was written one hundred years after his death to make him more appealing to a certain segment of the Jewish population. And, he didn’t raise Lasurus from the dead. That is an Egyptian folk tale. They took out the name of the pharaoh and put in the name of Jesus.

So why is it that we as a species are so willing to believe despite no evidence of it being true? There are explanations in conspiracy theory. Why do outlandish idea about deep seated conspiracies exist, and seem unwilling to die? You might ask the question about religion in the same breath. Psychologists have pointed to a need for closure, for an explanation, something to hang onto, to believe in. 

I recently put up a meme saying tax the church. The meme said if we did our taxes would fall to 3%. Whether that is true or not is a big question in my mind. Some pointed out that if their church was taxed it would “go out of business,” maybe they said fail. I forget. Really? Huh. Not a very strong belief I guess. To those I would say, “Hey, look with your decreased taxes you can give more money to your church, and leave me out of it.”

Graffitit spray painted on a wall in India

So this idea of death and where do we go after we die has been an idea that spans cultures. There is the idea that the king lives forever, up in the stars, or somewhere. Yet, there is no evidence that any of that is true. The fact that robbers would break into the pharaoh’s pyramid suggests that there were some that weren’t too worried about going to hell or wherever bad people go. When I see people crying at funerals and being told that their loved one is in a better place I think they know that yeah maybe, but maybe not. As that little kid said about Jesus and Easter and rising from the dead, “Uh huh, once you dead. You dead.” Has more resonance for me as the years go by.

Now we get to the universe. How big is it? Really F*ing big. When did it start and from where? It seems to have started from everywhere all at once and it’s getting bigger. Can that happen? Yes, no, maybe. Yeah. I believe so.

Next.

PS Bleea

Filed Under: Fantasy

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Rick Kinnaird
I’m Rick Kinnaird, a writer of fictional adventure and travel. That means I write stories about things that never happened in places I’ve never been. This way facts don’t get in the way.

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