Wednesday, July 6, 2022
I finally posted Sunday’s bitcherie wherein I said we’d have to put stuff aside while the Tour was on. Now, we’ve got new stuff to worry about. I’d say, “thank god,” but the new stuff is so awful.
I was getting tired of the rehash of how brave Cassidy Hutchinson was and how pathetic and cowardly her former boss, Mark Meadows is, and all the rest of the gang. Then it comes out that the ex-pres is using some of the money he scammed from his followers to buy lawyers for the underlings and then sent them “be loyal” messages. Nice. Oh that’s a crime? Says who? Ya caught me? So what? What ya gonna do?
Now we’ve had two shootings one by an disaffected white guy who was taken into custody without a shot being fired at him and was offered free food, and the other by a black guy who tried to run away and was shot in the back sixty times. The BLM folks are all stirred up. However, after watching and listening to the bodycam footage I gotta say I see what happened. Just before the guy exited his car the police thought they heard a gun shot, thus concluding he was armed. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell you know that the most dangerous position to be in is when multiple police are on the scene because they will out do each other. I don’t know if the police knew the kid was black or white. It was at night. Now, one thing we do know is that the cops get real squeamish if they think they are outgunned like in Uvalde. The kid only had a hand gun and that was found on the seat of his car. So it is possible that he fired the gun once. What he should have done was pulled out an AR15, laid down suppressive gunfire, strapped on body armor and throw some smoke grenades. That or he could have sat in his car and let the police possibly arrest him or shoot him as he sat.
We can now debate Black Live Matter/Police Brutality versus more mental health, when the real culprit is too many guns.
Speaking of the Tour, I was thinking watching the Tour is like following a baseball team for a season. Most of the time nothing is happening. Then it dawns on you that this might be a no-hitter, or when your team is way behind all of a sudden with two out and two men on base the batter puts one over the fence and your team is back in the game.
Is that what’s going to happen to the U S of A?
Hard to say. Right now there’s a lot of discussion about codifying Roe V Wade and how a small minority is gumming up the works. The best idea I’ve heard is that some billionaires who support democratic principles could pay $50K for several thousand young people to move to Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming. They could flip those four states and elect people who were willing to do something and that would be the best investment in democracy we could make. Can you imagine the whining?
Me? I’m with John Oliver who said that every time there’s a problem the Dems ask for another fifteen dollars. You know what? I’d like to know what they do with my money? At least with the right wing we learn from investigative reporting how they are scamming and stealing it then using it for illegal activities.
I was wondering what happened to Heidi Przybyla. That last name is a bunch of consonants with a few not really vowels thrown in. I looked her up. She had left her job. That was the day before yesterday. Yesterday she resurfaced with a report that the underlings around the Trump stop the steal MAGA horse manure are still mining the fools and doing quite well. I hope they all go to jail, and not for five months but twenty years.
Meanwhile, Fani Willis in Georgia has issued subpoenas for the clown car of fools that tried to sway the outcome of the Georgia election. She seems like a no nonsense person. I hope something comes of it. Of course, I hoped something would come of Robert Mueller’s report. Why would it? He only laid out in specific details of ten crimes. Ten crimes. It’s kind of like that Ron White routine where he talked about the LAPD who got in a gunfight with some criminals at point blank range and no one got hurt. “What happened?” “The police engaged the suspects in a gunfight at POINT BLANK RANGE!” “Then what happened?” “Everybody went home.”
Our democracy is in trouble. The Earth is in trouble. The oceans are in trouble. The air is in trouble.
(please note due to my not finishing this screed until Friday 7/8/22 there’s a time shift in the writing starting about here…:)
Stage four of the Tour is today. Did you see Stage three? OMG. Hours of riding, not much happening then on the last climb the yellow jersey was led out and broke away leaving the peleton in the dust and won by 18 seconds. The guy who came in second sprinted to the line and sat up as if he had won. Obviously, not realizing someone had been ahead of him. What did he say? What could he say? After congratulating the guy who came in first he then said, “ObviouslyI am very pleased with my second place finish.” Nice.
What? You want me to go on about the shootings? The testimony? The anticipated testimony next week? The cowards? Be they police or politicians or hangers on? Come on. Old news. Covid? It’s still here. You know, in most countries of the world they don’t allow people to walk around with guns and they wear masks. You are safer in almost any other country than here. Move you say? Land is still cheap out west. Abortion and the dishonesty of the anti-abortionists? Yeah. Well. All this to freak out about. I mean now that we’ve survived the random fireworks of the Fourth. How’s you dog? Still freaked out at night? How about the kids?
Terrible.
Well, ya know. Free expression and all that. Besides these killings are being done by well-regulate militia members. Apparently, these lonely disaffected racist young white men are not so lonely now. They have groups that meet on-line and track the shooting and they long to up the body count. Nice. Nothing we can do. Gotta keep our guns. Besides we have Hollywood that pumps out “the good guy wins” movies. In the real world? Not so much.
But we can’t be concerned about all that – The Tour is on!
Yesterday the leader of the race went out front in the breakaway. Why? I haven’t heard the reasoning. He got caught and fell four minutes behind. What was he thinking?
Three sports I would not like to compete in: bike racing, cross-country skiing and long distance running. all three sports are hallmarked by complete exhaustion and pain.
Yesterday’s stage of the Tour demonstrated that no matter how good an individual you are you need the help of the other racers. If you go it alone, you will lose. So the question becomes, “How long do you stay in the pack (ie peleton) and when do you go for it?” It’s a huge psychological battle and one of strength and restraint. Go too early and exhaust yourself; go too late and miss crossing the finish first. Yesterday, was a classic. Here the Yellow Jersey went out early and ended up alone for miles. Then he got passed. Now it was up to four riders in front of the Peleton. One broke out and went for it. The other three let him go. He exhausted himself before the finish line and those three passed him. He finished fourth.
Yeah. There’s a lot to worry about. But we’ve got until Tuesday before anything happens. Will the Jan 6th Committee reveal enough that voters will realize that Trump is a criminal and turn on him? Will the Republicans retake the House and gut the committee? Will the Justice Department finally arrest someone?
It like watching the rider going too early for the finish line. Will someone make a move?
Meanwhile, I keep thinking. “Will you let that ten year old who is pregnant get an abortion?” “Will you stop saying that the heartbeat is the sign of life when in fact that heart has not been formed? (it’s an echo of a biological process. – btw.)” “Will we continue to be the only country in the world that allows ever idiot to have a weapon of war?”
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