Archives for May 2021

Friday May 14, 2021

Glenn Youngkin won the Republican nomination for governor of Virginia.

Look for him to tell you that he created jobs.

Don’t look for him to tell you that the jobs he typically might have created were overseas as he destroyed functioning companies in leveraged buyouts and sent the work out of the U.S. to somewhere cheaper. To a country that didn’t have those niggling labor laws. You know, like the stuff Mitt Romney was famous for doing.

Why every day that Youngkin was head of that private equity firm the Bushes loved so much, he went to work, rolled up his sleeves, and figured out how to take over another company strip it of its assets, send the work over seas and pocket the money he got from loading it up with debt. He’s a real working class stiff.

Look for him to tell you how he’ll be a fresh voice in Richmond.

Don’t look for him to tell you that he still hasn’t said Biden won the election – in Virginia or the country.

Look for his lackeys to say he’s moving away from Trump.

He’s still Trump. He’s not as Trumpy as some who were running, but he’s still licking Trump’s behind.

He’s a super rich, Harvard MBA, who for 25 years worked at The Carlyle Group, the largest private equity firm in the world. What do they do? Invest in defense. (Oh but not as much as others! Great.) Do leverage buyouts (well, yeah.) and shuffle money around. (Like from the company’s coffers they took over to their coffers and their pockets.) What do they make? (Uh, what?) What do they do? (We told you.) I mean for the public good, the reason a company is supposed to exist. (Excuse me. I got another important engagement. I gotta go to the bathroom.)

But let’s not get hung up on Youngkin. Let’s move on to the U.S. Capitol where Margorie Taylor Greene is wandering the halls trying to bully and pick fights. I mean, what else does she have to do? She’s been stripped of her committee assignments so she has no real work, no job as it were. So, she decided to yell at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. For some reason Ms Ocasio-Cortez choose not to get into a cat fight in the halls of Congress with this woman. Imagine that. Greene was left to yell about Black Lives Matter and Antifa as being terrorist organizations. Kind of like the old man in the Simpsons who yelled at clouds. What did AOC do? Two things: 1) work on trying to make sure the halls of Congress were safe and 2) she commented that she threw people like Taylor-Greene out of bars. 

If Greene wants to debate AOC then maybe she should try doing the job she was elected to do and stop being a raving idiot. 

Speaking of raving idiots, this seems to be the new Republican strategy to garner attention. How did you like the Congressman from Georgia who said the January 6th insurrections were just like any other tourist group. Yeah, right. I mean when I go to the Capitol I expect to knock over barricades, bear spray the police, grab their equipment off their bodies and beat them with it or use it to break the glass in the building. Just typical tourist stuff.

Meanwhile, a bridge over the Mississippi River had to be immediately shut down. I mean like 911 “Get everybody off the bridge now!” Shutdown. Yup, that’s what happened. A bridge inspector, doing a routine inspection of the bridge found one of the main beams the kept the bridge in place was cracked and the bridge could fall into the river at any moment. What’s the big deal? Thousands of vehicles use the bridge every day. So what? And the Republicans? The folks who think infrastructure is roads and bridges? I dunno. They want Biden to make the Infrastructure bill smaller. Why? Well, that’s what they do.

John Podesta wrote the President and said, “This is no time to go small.”

A meme popped up on Facebook quoting Lyndon Johnson. He is reportedly to have talked about the Republicans and their idea of trickle-down economics and how it doesn’t work and how they don’t understand the economy. Nothing new here. Same-o Same-o.

Meanwhile, the number of folks getting Covid in this country, along with the number having to have to go to the hospital because of it, and the number dying because of it has plummeted. It took Joe Biden four months to get the pandemic in this country under control. The CDC says vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks.

Imagine where we’d be if Satan had won’t he election? We’d be looking at numbers of rising deaths in this country. At increasing rates of infection. At stressed hospital and medical facilities. At news conferences where his stooges would say, “Not my job.”

How do I know this? Because that’s what he did for the four years he was in charge. Come on. How stupid are you? (Nevermind.)

In Arizona, the Cyber Ninjas are packing up their charade of recounting the ballots in Maricopa County so the high schools can use the space to have graduations. Then they, the Ninjas, will be back at it. They have found significant discrepancies, they say. What exactly they are? They aren’t saying. Kind of like Donald and the Obama birtherism stuff. I’m still waiting for the people he sent to Hawaii to come back and tell us what they found because Donald said it would be surprising. (Maybe, OJ will find the kiiller? Who knows.)

And in a clever move, Republican politicians are discussing what they will do if Trump gets indicted in New York and a bench warrant is issued. No problem, the Governor of Florida can just ignore it. Imagine that? A state may not honor an extradition to anther state? 

Let’s see where are we with the legal problems of the Orange One? I haven’t heard much about the woman who claims she was assaulted by him, but last I knew her case was allowed to go forward. The case in New York is getting hot again. Somehow receiving $500K and forgetting to claim it on their taxes may be a problem for Trump’s accountant. Maybe he didn’t know? 

Haven’t heard what is going on in the Georgia case.

Or the ten instances of Obstruction of Justice outlined in the Mueller Report.

Or the money he owes …

Then there’s Rudy.

And the Ukraine stuff.

OMG,

Well, let’s suck up to him shall we? He’s been so good for us.

Under his leadership they lost the Senate, the White House, the economy went in the toilet and we were hit with the worst pandemic in over one hundred years and it could have been prevented. What did he do? Nothing. Well, he stole as much as he could. No, I think he could have stolen more. But he did nothing for the people, not the people that elected him, and certainly not the people who didn’t.

Wait. There’s more.

 Matty Gaetz may have a bad day on Monday it is being reported. Yeah, his “wingman” may be turning him in. Seems the guy doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in jail. So what’s a guy to do? Sorry. So sad.

Tuesday May 11, 2021

When I was growing up professional wrestling consisted to Haystack Calhoun, Killer Kawalski, and some duo.

Haystack was a big fat guy. He’d stand in the center of the ring with two little guys hanging off his arms and he’d circle his arms and the two guys would do some sort of flip. That was the act, as I remember it. Then came Killer Kawalski. He was considered a dirty wrestler. Part way through whatever was going on, Kawlaski would come out of the ring and say to the announcer, “They won’t let me use my holds!” I think his holds were some variant on the Indian Rope Burn (like around a person’s neck – kidding) or maybe it was one of those Stephen Segal break your fingers by making your digits go in a direction they are not supposed to go. I forget. But my point is there seemed to be some sort of adult supervision that didn’t let people get killed, maimed or otherwise hurt. Except, for the folding chair on the head routine that Killer would do after he wasn’t allowed to use his holds.

So we get to the Arizona vote recount or as it is now dubbed Fraudulection. The problem these idiot have is that they are being caught out.They are no fraudulent ballots so they are grabbing chairs and whacking people on the back. (Not really, that’s a metaphor.) Whatever the ballots were before they got their hands on them we can no longer know. Why? Well, there’s this thing called “Election Security.” You have to follow some procedures to guarantee that someone isn’t messing with the ballots. They haven’t done that. Therefore, the ballots are spoiled. We are now waiting for an adult to enter the room and tell them to clean up the mess they created. But they won’t go without a fight! Having not found any fraudulent ballots, and no Chinese/bamboo ballots and no irregularities in the voting machines they have now decide the problem is in the routers that serve Maricopa County. They want access to the routers! 

Hopefully at some point soon they will be told to pack up their blue light machines, their stop the steal discover the fold and bamboo cameras and all the other silliness they came in with and just go away.

Monday May 10, 2021

I got a Wyze robot vacuum two weeks ago. I took it out of the box and followed the directions for charging it. Today I decided that, seeing as how it hadn’t moved maybe I should do something more to get it to clean.

I had done everything the directions had said including lining the vacuum up with the charging station and keeping it 10 inches in front of it. I also spent time looking for something called “The Dust Bin,” which is where the hepa filter is installed. I had to google to discover that the dust bin is in fact in the vacuum itself, which makes sense, But why didn’t they tell me to lift the cover to see the dust bin? Why did they show it like it was a separate little gizmo like the charging station? And why didn’t they tell me there already was a HEPA filter in the machine and that the one in the box was a spare? I know, I’m asking a lot. Also, the second brush is apparently a spare and not a second brush. 

How hard would it have been to say, “If you lift the top cover of the vacuum you will see a dust bin, which should e emptied regularly. In your shipping box is a spare HEPA filter and rotator brush.”?

I know. It’s intuitive. 

The directions told me to look at the Quick Start Guide. The Quick Start Guide told me to scan the QR code. The QR code told me to hold down the only two buttons on the vacuum and it also told me to add the device to my Wyze app. I was then told to connect to Wi-Fi CVCR_XXX, or something like that. There was no network of that name. However, there was one CVCR_and-a-bunch-of-letters-and-digits. Well, why not try that? It worked.

Okay, I don’t know. Usually when you write a manual you would have written CVCR_xxx  with the X’x in italics so you’d know not to look for “XXX.” If you wanted to be super clear you could have written, “XXX or  xxx  stands for a randomly assigned Wifi network beginning with CVCR_ followed by a string of letters and digits. Example: CVCR_AB123ZQ.”

I know. 

Now I’m wifi connected and you know what it says to do? “Push the vacuum so that the machine touches the two silver bars on the charging station.” What? Two weeks and you finally tell me that? You mean the picture with the vacuum sitting almost a foot away wasn’t correct? (I was wondering how that charged anything.)

Do they really intend to sell stuff? They really need someone to write their instructions that isn’t an engineer, or under the age of 30, and hasn’t been working on the product, and who knows How to Write a Friggn’ Manual!

I gotta go.

Saturday May 8, 2021

In a “Who Could Have Seen That Coming?” a host of situations that I need to review. New tidbits are leaking out like fat and juice from a squished burger on the grill. (Pancake? Pimple?)

There’s this news story that the Justice Department has been ordered to release a “secret” memo that purportedly shows that Bill Barr had decided before seeing the Mueller Report not to charge “then president Trump” ( I put it in quotes to make clear the word “then”, and I love the phrase. )  Justice can appeal but time is running out. Why would they? Okay, they won’t. Why haven’t then done it? I.e. Released it. Answer: They’ve been a little busy (imho:)

So let’s speculate shall we? If Barr had no intention of charging Satan and we have in the Mueller Report ten documented instances of crimes, and if memory serves me right, at least four of them “meet every provision of the crime” ie it checks all the boxes, and if “no one is above the law” then why wouldn’t Justice charge him?

Then there’s Rudy. Seems like he might be disbarred, discredited, broke, and in jail – soon.

Then there’s the Stormy Daniels hush money thing coming to the fore again, or is that one of the ten charges in the Mueller Report? I forget.

A whole bunch of states have passed or are in the process of passing voter suppression (integrity) laws. Will they get away with it? Or will the Senate pass the Voting Rights bill? Or will Justice sue the bejesus out of each state? 

Meanwhile, the very conservative Liz Cheney may be out of her leadership role in the Republican Party for stating the truth. The party is way past that and are looking to Stefanik to replace her. Stefanik who has a record of voting with the Dems more than almost all other Republicans is looking to replace her. Of course the problem is that she has drunk the Satan laden Kool-Aide and no one knows where she really stands, but does it matter? Talk about a world turned upside down and inside out!

The economy got really good marks last week, this week a crappy jobs report. Why? I’ll tell you why. Whatever you think about the speed at which an economy moves you are wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. It typically moves slower, except when it moves faster. Okay? This is a corollary to my, “Anyone who thinks the price of a stock has all the news factored in doesn’t really trade.”

There has been a lot of analysis of the Republican Party and where it is headed. Answer: In the toilet. They have no real leadership. A bunch of whiney petty pols. One super conman. None of them are smart. Not that it matters. And they have decided that the best thing they should do is destroy our democracy. I wish Jeff Bezos would buy them all, put them on a boat, get them drunk, and sink the damn thing. I mean, “How much are we talking here?” To buy them out? Putin got Trump for how much? Ten? Twenty mill? And a bunch of promises, nods, winks, and threats. Oh and some girls pissing on a bed. I’d pay for a tape of Ted being pissed on. All while reciting Green Eggs and Ham.

Where was I?

Several folks mentioned they liked my idea of leper colonies for the unvaccinated, but were silent on the roving gangs of vaccinators screaming, “Show me your papers!” And jabbing people who weren’t quick enough. Couldn’t we get Smith and Wesson to make an AR-15 that shoots vaccine slugs? I can see the news headline now. “In yet another mass vaccination a man armed with a Vac-15 broke into a ’Stop the Steal’ rally and managed to vaccinate 37 people in less than a minute …” 

Mitch McConnell has made it official. He ain’t voting for anything Biden proposes and he says the rest of the Republican Senators won’t either. When pressed on the point later he said it depends on what it is. Oh you are so sly. This proves Lucy with the football is a Republican.

Friday May 9, 2021

Okay, okay. I usually don’t go on and on about one topic, but just when you think it can’t get any dumber, any stupider, it does.

Rachel reported a little something last night I had not heard before. There’s a chain of association here, so hold on. Rudy has let his “entourage” go. Turns out he usually wanders around with five people. He has to cut back to the son of a friend as a part time driver. Tough. Money problems? Maybe Donnie hasn’t paid him? Well, we know that to be true, because Satan wasn’t happy with him. So now Rudy is pleading with Trump to join him in a lawsuit and he’s also asking the RNC to come to his aid. Rudy may be getting ready to be disbarred from New York. Whoops. Double problem. Where’s the pressure coming from? Well, he’s been personally named in a billion dollar law suit. It’s all about the voting machine stuff he and others on the right claimed about the election. The suit and others are holding up in court and various right wing media have published retractions saying, basically, “We lied. We’re sorry.” Which I hope doesn’t mean they get out from under the legal lawsuit that could crush them. And here’s the new bit. There was a guy who has not recanted a word, says it’s all true about the election and the voting machine fraud, and he wrote a position paper all about it. Turns out that’s what Rudy, and the various news organizations, and politicians used to claim that the voting machine were “in on the steal.” Turns out there’s nothing to any of the claims. And here is the new-new thing – the guy behind all that is the guy who is head of Cyber Ninjas, who is conducting the ballot re-examination in Arizona.

Now, here’s where it gets weird. (What? You thought it was already weird? Come on.) None of the ballot stuff is true, just like none of the election fraud is real and they are both emanating from the same guy. So it seems to me that the election re-examinaiton will end by or before May 14th as they will have no where to do the job after that. There will be charges from the Feds and a suit for $1B from the voting machine companies. 

Then what? 

Well, I have a theory. It revolves around a gentleman from my hometown. He went to the music teacher and asked to be taught a few opening bars of a really great classical piece. Didn’t he want to learn more? No. Just a few bars. Why? He said at cocktail parties there was frequently a piano in the room. He wanted to be able to go up to the piano, hit a few really impressive notes and then say, “You don’t want to hear the rest of it.” The secret he told my dad was, “to never sit down at the piano.”

This idiot sat down at the piano! He got trapped. Maybe, he never thought that anyone would actually pay him to inspect the ballots and he could keep thumping his chest. Or ..

Maybe he really believes his own BS?

Does Satan actually believe he won the 2020 election?

Are we seeing a Stockholm Syndrome at work, but on the perpetrator and the victim are one in the same?

I think it highly likely. How else can you explain this behavior?

I get that the Republicans in Congress may or are going along with this nonsense because they are raising a ton of money off this scam. But beyond that? Are there true believers? What does this say about us?

Switching gears. Completely. The other day I asked Alexa to play “The Blues Project.” Maybe, they’ve faded from view, but Al Kooper was in the group at one point. Their second album “Projections” didn’t even list the members on the record sleeve or cover. A lot of classic blues numbers are on that album like “Two Trains Running”, as well as “some other stuff that is hard to classify. Not blues, not rock, kind of Classical instrumental? I dunno. Great album. When I asked Alexa to play The Blues Project one of the songs she played was Catch The Wind. There’s nothing fancy about the rendition. It’s clean, bare, and beautiful. The way Dylan would have done it with a band if he could sing beautifully.

I forget sometimes how wonderful some of that music is. This is music that grew out of the folk music of the early 60s like what The Kingston Trio and Peter Paul and Mary were doing. Jefferson Airplane on the Surrealistic Pillow album had Grace Slick’s two iconic songs: “White Rabbit “and “Someone to Love”, but there were also plaintive folks ballads – “Coming Back to Me.” Wow. (Sorry that was titled “Today.”)

There was blues and speeded up blues, and folk, and classically trained musicians playing their instruments and just some great stuff.

Now? I don’t get that feeling or sense from most of what I hear today. It’s a shame. But, in a way, a fast talking make-no-sense-as-long-as-it-ryhmes song kind of fits the times, doesn’t it?

PS A WWII bomber with the Norden bombsight. My dad was working for Perkin Elmer and this was one of their first jobs. It was Top Secret and my dad never talked about it. Mom said he carried a book with lots of equations in it. Perkin Elmer made the optics for the site. That means they ground and fitted the lens together. Mr. Perkin worked on a fixed cost basis and therefore never wanted to be the one who had to submit endless paperwork for cost over runs. I think Rand had their name associated with making the bombsight, but what the operators were really looking through was P-E optics. When I checked with Tom Crouch at the Smithsonian, Perkin Elmer’s name is not mentioned in any of their paperwork. Pity.

The problem with he initial design was that no one could assemble the thing. Mom said Dad spent a lot of time “fishing in a tube.” Had he not figured it out, I doubt Perkin Elmer would have survived.