Archives for June 2021

Sunday June 27, 2021

The Trump Organization is due to be indicted. I’m not sure what that means for the orange one, but it’s not good. Some say it will bankrupt him. I don’t know. He’s a slippery devil. I mean how do you go from losing nearly a billion dollars a year for four years straight, have a string of bankruptcies, and convince a majority of  the voters of a major party that you are a good business person and worthy of being president?

I saw a thing that said, “If Fox News had been around in the 50s we’d still be fighting polio.” That about sums it up.

Meanwhile. Bret Kavanaugh wrote a ruling in favor of NCAA athletes. Apparently, he thinks because the colleges are making billions off of them they should get a slice of it. 

Been watching some of the Olympic trials. Wow. Amazing stuff. How does Ledecky swim so fast and have that hardly moving scissors kick? And Simone? Well, she is from another world. Have you seen the Geico ad with Maroney’s look? Great stuff.

Now, onto important stuff. The Tour. I didn’t really remember last year’s tour, but a new guy came out of nowhere and won by seconds. This year started out disastrously. A woman was holding a sign and looking at the camera, not the riders as they swept by at 42 mph. Tony Martin got clipped by her and her sign. He went down and most of the riders in the peloton. It has changed the whole complexion of the race. Chris Froom who missed last year’s tour due to a horrific injury the previous year was back and involved in the pile up, either that one or one later in the race. He’s now 14:47 behind. Fourteen minutes is impossible to make up. It’s a shame. Still it’s a good race. Stage 2 finished with the top new guns and a few of the old in the top 10. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about what is going on politically in this country. The new Georgia voting law is being challenged by the Justice Department. Why? Well, it seems the white Republican politicians in Georgia looked at the last election and asked themselves what were the ways black voters got to the polls? And then they crafted a bill to do as much as possible to eliminate that.

This is the stuff not only of undemocratic principle but the bedrock of authoritarianism. We have one party in this country that is trying to uphold our democracy and another bent on doing the will of the fascists, the authoritarians, and those with lots of money and power. 

That idiot congress woman from Georgia who was stripped of all her committee assignments has called AOC “a little Communist”. Cute. AOC’s response? “Well, first off, I’m taller than her.”

The Washington Post did a piece on Satan and his contracting Corona virus. His condition was bad. Really bad. He got a lot of life saving experimental drugs, which saved his life. Many hoped he would change his mind and be more reasonable and compassionate. Silly people. He doesn’t care about anyone else. Really? You thought he’d do his job as president? Not a chance. He yelled at his staff for letting the gold star families get all over him. He wanted people at his next rally to not wear masks. Yet, he wanted them kept away from him. 

It is despicable, chilling and all too predictable.

Our democracy is hanging in the balance. I don’t know if we will prevail or if the authoritarians will win. 

BTW Michael Beschloss has been finding old TV shows where the bad guy is named Trump. One was a snake oil salesman who wanted to build a wall, saying he alone has a message to bring, forecasts the end of the world, and is arrested for business fraud.

Yeah, we’ve seen all this before. Will we stand up to it? 

I visited with Val Govig the other day, June 18, 2021.

She is a wisp of the woman she once was. Down to ninety some pounds, white graying hair, so weak she has to be fed. It’s a far cry from the beauty she has always been. 

Several months ago she began having seizures. Doctors determined there was a tumor in the front of her brain. It had been there, growing, for forty years. Now it was affecting her motor functions. It had to be taken out. The question was in which side of her head would they go? Either way, she would loss some function. 

“It takes Mom a long time to now form words.” Her daughter Kari told me.

In the time I sat and visited with her she only uttered three: three sounds? Three words? 

I asked her if she knew who I was. She looked at me with clear eyed and cogent and said, “Yes.”

I showed her several pictures.

One was her receiving the Ediken Award.

Another was my 21 foot Cody kite sequestered in the pit of the Plim Plaza Hotel at Ocean City during the first AKA convention.

It wasn’t until I showed her the photo of Bill Tyrell’s 450 square foot parafoil that flew that same day on the beach north of where I was announcing that she made any sound. It was a babble of recognition. This was the photo that she put on the reprint of Clive Hart’s book, “Kites, An Historical Survey.”

I had little to tell her about kites and kiting. I did tell her what I had been doing in the last few years. I told her of my travels in the steps of Richard Halliburton and of going to the Mayan area with David Stuart. I spoke of David’s ability to read the glyphs on a Mayan stela like I would read a newspaper, seamlessly translating into English after reading it in Mayan.

At that point, Val said the only sentence she said in my hour and a quarter visit. “Great stories Rick.”

She listened attentively. Her eyes were alive. 

But then her eyes began to close. She needed to rest.

I inducted her into The Rainbow Warriors as an honorary member. I took the stamp Corey had made and given me and had placed the seal upon a strip of pillow case I had carefully cut for the purpose. It was the neatest hachimaki headband I ever did as a warrior. All others had been ripped moments before the kite rokaku battle, usually in the back of a van while drinking beer.

There’s a long history to all that. I don’t know how much of that was understood by her at that moment. 

I spent the night at Kari’s house with her and her husband, Steve. We talked about all sorts of things. I slept in Val’s apartment, surrounded by mementos and pictures, many of which I knew. In the morning while Kari made coffee I told her of the graduation picture tucked in a crisscross band board. I said to Kari that the young gorgeous woman was a spitting image of Val’s other daughter Dana.

Kari smiled and said, “that woman is my twenty year old grand daughter, Angel.”

Kari and Dana were around during the heyday of The Maryland Kite Society and the forming of the AKA from a mailing list started by Bob Ingraham and formed into an organization by Val, but they were not active participants. Both Mel and Val would mention with pride whatever their daughters were doing, but it was separate and apart from kites.

There was a time, a brief time, where Kari came to help Val with the magazine, Kite Lines.

I remember well being in Detroit at the AKA convention that Pat Gillgalan had organized. I remember standing on a street corner with Dom Jalbert as he stood close to me and said, “Riick, Riick. You know there is really only one kite. One kite that stays nailed to the sky!”

I thought, “Yes, yes. I know Dom.” I nodded.

“And that,” Dom said triumphantly, “is the parafoil!”

It was at that convention that, knowing Kari had had a child, I asked her how old her baby was now. Kari has an unflinching way of looking at you. Her delivery is often with little or no change in timber or cadence. She looked at me an in that plain deep voice said that her baby was now seven. 

When I reminded her of that incident she told me that baby was now forty.

I ran my mouth way too long that morning. I left late. But it was good.

Kari and Steve live in the area where Steve grew up. It is rural: corn, blueberries, wheat, squash, cucumbers are all part of the environs.

Val is in a nursing home. Kari goes to visit most days (every day?)

She would love to have things to show her mom.

Maybe you have a picture. Hopefully, one of you and Val together. A little vignette of what Val has meant to you. How she affected your life. Remind her who you are, hopefully she knows. Kari says there are good days and bad.

Maybe it’s a video. Some story of kiting. Something about KiteLines. Send it to me and to Kari.

I will try (maybe) to assemble all into a memory album. Kari will show them to her mom.

Time is not on our side. Don’t delay.

As I left the nursing home and drove back to Kari and Steve’s I rolled the windows down. It  had been hot, but was now cooling off, at least in the shady parts of the ride. A threshing machine that had stood idle on my way to see Val was now back at its task. Golden brown dust was churned up behind it. What it was threshing looked like dried out grass a foot and a half high. Steve confirmed it was wheat. They planted in January then no rain came, then a deluge. It stunted the growth. Such is the discussion in a place like this. It is a cycle. A cycle that reached back eons in time.

The awful truth is on her doorstep. She is happy. She is grateful. She knows.

Don’t delay.

I can be reached on Facebook or at rfk at rickkinnaird.com

Kari Honeycutt can be reached at honeycuttkari at gmail.com

Rick Kinnaird

Photo Credits to Ted Manekin. Except my selfie with Val and the one he is in (probably Lisa Hayes, his wife took it.)

June 17, 2021

Headlines recently have said that the only people still getting Covid are those that are unvaccinated. Huh? Like there’s some sort of connection, who knew? Speaking of which, an eighth grade buddy of mine has been posting some right wing memes. I let that go, but then he posted a picture of Dr. Fauci with words that said something like “I should wear sunscreen so the person next to me doesn’t get sunburned.” That did it. I responded. I don’t know if my old classmate was trying to be funny or if he was poking fun at Fauci and the push to be vaccinated. But it’s that kind of subtle stuff that undermines us all.

One of the side effects from Covid can be a really fat tongue, like that of a cow or a gooey duck clam. I need to find the picture I saw and keep it with me just in case I run into a person who doesn’t believe in being vaccinated and ask them if they want to look like that.

Moving on.

Putin reportedly seems to enjoy pushing back on reporters who ask him tough questions. Here are a list of his answers: I’m not a killer. That is American propaganda.

I think Biden is smart, so is Trump.

Navalny was put in prison for failure to check in with authorities while overseas. (He was in a coma but so what?)

We here in the U.S. are continually reminded that Russia has the economy equal to Italy or Canada. Really? So why are they such a pain in the ass?

I like that Biden asked Putin how he would feel if the gasoline’s lines got shut down. Kind of Soprano Godfather style stuff. That’s something Mr. Putin understands.

I was hoping that Biden would say something like, “Well, as long as it is not your government that is doing the cyber attacks from your country you don’t mind if we help find these people?” 

Ah me. Didn’t happen.

Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress and Fox News are repeating Russian talking points. Really, authoritarian talking points. 

We have a choice: democracy or a strong man.

Now there is something else, seems Mr. Trump and his Chief of Staff and others in his orbit did. They tried to bully their Department of Justice to get Georgia to overturn their election results. This was more than a casual thing. It went down the line and the chief Federal prosecutor for Georgia resigned. Not only is this stuff, un-American, anti-democratic, but also it’s a crime.

I keep waiting for the shoe (dime? Whatever) to drop.

I hope it’s not a question of if, but when.

Stay tuned.

Saturday June 12. 2021

Okay, let’s see. Where to begin? 

The Justice Department has just been revealed in 2017 it began collecting the phone records of Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and other politicians and reporters. Then the companies that were forced to give up these records (noteably Apple and Microsoft) were sworn to secrecy. This secrecy thing was renewed every year Trump was in office.

Let’s make sure we all have the proper context, 2017 was before Trump’s first impeachment. He had just been elected to office. Jeff Sessions was Attorney General. This practice continued under Barr. Why? What was Trump trying to do? 

He was trying to do his Nixonian best to stay in office by getting something on people he saw as his enemies. This is who he is.

Neither Barr nor Sessions say they knew anything about this. Yeah. Right.

How did we find out?

The New York Times published an article about it.

How did the current Attorney General learn? Apparently, from reading the paper.

I think this calls for a third impeachment. 

Now let’s move along. There is a concerted effort up and down the line to attack election officials and their families. This comes from Trump supporters. Who is using them? Ah, that is the question. I’ll answer it. The same Fascist elements that supported Franco in his war against the democratically elected government of Spain. That would be the people behind Texaco Oil for instance. Who is that you might ask? Why it is none other than Charlie Koch’s father or was it his grandfather? Listen, the game hasn’t changed. It’s the same game, the same tune. The same crap – only super charged by Trump, Q, Fox and the ilk. 

Remember “trickle down economics”? Yeah, someone will get paid to clean out the horse stalls and serve them drinks on their yachts, but after that? Forget it. Better to call it “Pissed on Economics.”

Martin Luther King spoke about the Filibuster. It hasn’t changed. It’s the same argument today as it was 50 – 60 years ago.

Then there is the phony audit in Arizona. Which is now trying to be exported to other states. What? These idiots aren’t doing anything. Yet, other Republican held state legislatures want the same treatment. Listen, I’ll do that audit for half the price. I’ll dress people in various colored t-shirts, bring in black lights, and look for folds and bamboo. Then what? Then nothing. We’ll go home.

Friday June 11, 2021

Kat Robichaud is going to be releasing a new video on June 25 called “Charade.” I can’t tell you much about it until then, but because I am one of the super cool insiders (Yeah, right.) I know the chorus, (or is it the bridge?) which is the line “None of this is real.” I hope I don’t get in trouble for this Big Reveal before the release.

The other is the term “catfishing” which I had never heard before until I read about the Virginia Tech football player who is charged with second degree murder. Catfishing refers to pretending to be something you are not, especially in romantic or sexual contexts. (I think I’ve got that right.) Apparently, the football player went to an app (Tinder?) and was looking for a sexual experience and found it. However, the person with who  he had it turned out to be a guy and not a girl as he had supposed. This he discovered on their second “date,” and he was pissed and beat the crap out of the guy who died.

So the morale of the stories here is what? If you gonna play expect to die? I dunno.

This brings me to what I really want to talk about. The shocking reveal that CNN got wrong (lied?) to all of us including my right wing friends and their media folks. Yeah. Apparently, the reason for the clearing of Lafayette Square last year was not so the two time impeached president could stroll across the street to hold a bible upside down for a photo op. No, it was because a contractor wanted to build a fence to protect the White House. 

So if this is correct, we are asked to believe (no verily I say “told”) that a contractor has the authority and wherewithal to summon a police force to clear an area with flash grenades and teargas so he can build a fence.

I was going to entitle this screed: “A Lie, A Con, Gaslighting: Yes? No!”

But those things require for someone to be in some way devious or subtle or dishonest – in some way they want you to believe something that is not true. They may do this by word or deed.

In the case of Trump there really is little subtlety. It’s just endless repetition of the same crap, the same lie. And why not? It worked for Hitler and it seems to work for Satan as well.

There has been no end to his lies. Thirty thousand while in office and plenty before he ever went in. I like the one about the slot machines not working in his casino on opening night. He claimed it was overuse. It wasn’t. Something was screwed up in their works. Or the big lie bout him being a great businessman when in fact he was losing close to a billion dollars a year. For four years in a row! This should get him into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Okay, I’m going to go with it. I am willing to believe that The President of the United States, The Attorney General of The United States, and The Joint Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of The Untied States of America did not call for a group of peaceful protestors to be removed from Lafayette Park opposite the White House with force including tear gas and flash bomb grenades, but instead it was some no-name contractor who was tasked at that moment, late in the afternoon, to put up a fence to protect said White House. Not only that but remember all the press were called to the South Lawn, out of view of Lafayette Square and whatever chaos might ensue, because there was going to be a press conference. This was all just coincidence. Just like the fact that the head of the Joint Chiefs was in battle fatigues, something I have never seen before, because he had not had time to change, and yet pictures were taken of him surveying the park like it was a military operation in Afghanistan. Yeah. What’s not to believe?

I want that contractor’s name. I got some work for him.

Meanwhile, there is stiff competition for the dumbest person in Congress. No? No. Louie has taken a commanding lead with an ask that somebody (NASA?) change the orbits of the Earth and the Moon. For some reason, I forget.

But Louie has also been shown to ask hard hitting Jim Jordan type questions. He asked  the FBI Director if there was information about an attack on the Capitol before January 6th. Louie did some quick math and came up with an earlier date, ie January 5th! I think that shows not only the intellectual capacity of Louie but of his ability to ask hard hitting questions. Don’t you think? Can I get a “yes”? How about an “Amen”? (I’m doing a project for my fill-in-the-blank to show them how far a lie can travel around the world faster than the truth…)

Director Wray said it was more complex (complicated?) than that. Yeah. 

Okay. A field office sent up a report that said there might be trouble on the 6th. Apparently, they were looking at the news, looking at the internet, listening to the president – and no one in Washington was.

It’s complicated. 

Yeah. Ya know. We had intel that Pearl Harbor was going to be bombed before it was.

We also had intel before 9/11 that shady Arab characters were learning to fly planes but not land them.

It’s complicated.