Archives for January 2025

Sunday, January 12, 2025

I have just finished reading an article in Rolling Stone that reports on analysis of what the Trump campaign did versus the Dems and Harris campaign. The Trump campaign sought out marginal voters via streaming platforms. They hammered the same messages over and over again. This started back in 2016.

The Dems depended on their data and kept changing their message depending on which ad they test did the best. It came across as unfocused and they all blended in. The Dems didn’t go after edgy streaming podcasts. They bought time on the sphere instead of billboards on the highway.

Okay. Got it.

What wasn’t mentioned in the article was the huge right wing media machine. Nor did anyone mention doing a sanity check. Granted, this should have been what the Dems could have done, but man. Remember Goldwater? His ad line was “In your heart you know he’s right.” That was followed up by a whisper campaign “But in your guts you know he’s nuts.”

Yeah. Nothing like that emerged in this campaign.

I got to hand it to the Republicans for the last fifty years. They hammer away at “tax and spend” and blame the Dems, all the while they are the ones doing it.

Time to start a whisper campaign?

Time for some Dems to go on Fox and Joe Rogan and ask, “Well? How do you feel? Being lied to? Being a tool, a pawn?”

The Republicans and the Trump campaign have, once again, figured out how to message better than the Dems. Okay. Have they figured out how to govern? How to do anything, other than belly up to the trough?

Remember Paul Ryan boasting that with the huge tax cuts they gave to the rich now a woman could afford a membership at Costco? Is someone going to hold their feet to the fire? Are they going to confront the Hannities and Rogans and call them out? Is there going to be an undercurrent of outrage and economic truth?

I don’t know. It seems that the Harris campaign and the Dems writ large made the same mistakes this time as they did with Hillary. Maybe, it’s not a woman issue or a black woman issue, but a really poor job of messaging, and messaging in the right places?

It’s sad to see that people are this ignorant, but what can we expect while the right destroys our schools and education systems and tries to get rid of child labor laws and public safety laws all in the name of being anti-woke or anti-trans?

How far will it go? Well, I’ve been wondering that since Reagan. It hasn’t gotten better, that’s for sure. I keep hoping that enough folks will wake up, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. When you actually trap a  MAGA or a right winger with facts they revert to either: “I don’t believe it,” or to some magic wand idea, like “it will go away on its own.”

I see these memes that show how much CEOs make compared to the hourly wage earner. The hourly wage hasn’t increased but the CEO’s salary and bonuses? Through the roof. Somehow wages don’t go up all by themselves. Who knew? Well, anyone who has taken basic economics or been in labor negotiations or been a boss. Same with viruses and pandemics. They don’t go away on their own. We have hundreds of years of data to show this. And people like Robert Kennedy Jr and Bill Maher who claim if you stay healthy, eat the right food, and exercise are full of it. I mean tell that to the American Indians who were 80-90% wiped out by disease. 

Sorry, went off on a tangent. It’s so annoying. Not going off on a tangent, but the utter stupidity of some of this. I mean, really? If a few people had done their jobs we wouldn’t be in this mess. But they didn’t. They read some data too and concluded – can’t live with them; can’t live without them.

There are no heroes, only nebbishes afraid of their own polls.

Ahhh. Gag me with a spoon. Explain that to Gen-Whatever.

In other bitchings:

Sam of Sam and Dave died. He got over shadowed by Peter Yarrow’s dying. I mean – really? I saw Sam and Dave perform at the Fillmore East. What a show. So much energy. They had a trumpet player, a big man, who near the end of the show called for the spot light to be put on him. 

After the show I went to a nearby restaurant to get a sub. A bunch of the guys in the band were there. I mentioned I liked the trumpet player. They called out to him, “Hey Tiny, This man liked your playing.”

It turns out the Sam and Dave weren’t friends. They got together because one of them couldn’t remember the words to a song he had to sing so the other got on stage with him to help out. They hit it off – musically. But they never developed that bond of friendship. Dave died in a car crash years ago.

Some of their songs run through my head. As does “Knock on Wood.” Not theirs but they covered it. Great showmen. Now? Now we got some fast talking guy acting angry and it’s called music. Sorry. No. It’s a fast talking guy you can’t understand.

Hey, I also learned how ZZ Top got their name. Back in the 60s and 70s their were posters put up all over a town like Baltimore announcing musical acts coming to town. These posters were in garish red, orange, and green with big letters. They’d be stuck on the plywood barriers at construction sites. One after the other. Same poster. They announced people like: BB King and Little Richard, Ray Charles and The Delphonics.

ZZ Top liked those acts and wanted to mimic something like BB KIng. They went to the other end of the alphabet and took “ZZ.” ZZ King didn’t sound right. Nor did anything else but Top. I mean you’re top of your game, etc. So it was ZZ Top.

Still can’t get over that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted John Mayall with only a mention on their show.

I remember when …

🙂

Saturday, January 11, 2025

I happened to catch some of DJT’s press conference comments on Seth Myer’s show from Jan 9th. My immediate thought was, “What a clown.”

I had heard that he said he wanted to annex Greenland from Denmark. He had said this in his previous term. Now he expanded to include Canada and the Panama Canal. And then he said he wanted to rename The Gulf of Mexico to The Gulf of America. I hadn’t picked up on that, and earlier had wondered why all the jokes about it. Now, I knew.

Imagine you are a cartographer working somewhere in the U.S. government and you get a memo telling you to write Gulf of America on the maps? Or imagine you are a general and you are told to draw up an invasion plan for Greenland?

I’m hearing the old refrains of “He doesn’t mean it,” and “He’ll never do that.”

Just to be clear this is what he said he’d do to bring down grocery prices.

And yes, yes he will do those things. And, he won’t bring down grocery prices. He’s now admitting that.

This is an uneducated man. Yes, he walked around the campus of a well known school, but his older sister did his homework. He claims to be a business man. However, it is reported he can’t read a balance sheet and it is well known that he had six bankruptcies. In fact, I don’t know of any of his businesses or projects that turned a profit. (Well, okay maybe they made money via “contributions” but actual real profit? I don’t think so.)

And let us not forget that some in his inner circle have declared they want to destroy “The Administrative State.” What does that mean? To put it bluntly – they want to wreck our government. What form will that take? If they can get away with it they will fire as many experts as they can and put yes-people in their place. They will try to sell off or give away as many agency responsibilities as they can, and they will end programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicade.

This will include such things as privatizing the reports of The Weather Service. Then the only way you will be able to get the weather information is via subscription, which you will have to pay for. The giant portfolio of Agricultural Department low interest farm loans will be given to the financial industry so they can jack up the rates, which will in turn throw more farmers off their farms. 

Don’t say, “He won’t do that.” He will. He most definately will. “Will he be stopped?” Who knows. The better question might be “How far will he go?”

And in the midst of all this Greenland fuss a tiny little headline mentioned he wants to end The Consumer Protection Agency. 

But fortunately, we won’t have Joe Biden around. I mean he’s a little older that Donald. He led the greatest and fastest economic recovery the world saw, and he strengthen our ties with allies. Yeah. Now Trump will ride the coattails of this spectacualr economic recovery for a few years like he did last time with Obama’s economy. Then he will destroy it by putting our country in further debt – currently we are going in debt at the rate of $10,000,000.00 per day. That will seem miniscule when he’s done.

We have a few more days of bliss. Enjoy them.

The shit show is coming. More like a storm. No, a hurricane. Much like the storm on Jupiter. It won’t end but go on and on. It will be ugly and it will get really really ugly soon.

Friday, January 10, 2025

There’s a place in a remote part of Indonesia called Gunung Padang. It’s an ancient site. Four or six terraces that have rocks shaped in long rectangles and six or eight sided long blocks. Many of these have been arranged to describe larger recatngular areas, including opening with the blocks stuck in the ground like gate posts. Many blocks are lying around, randomly.

When I was there our guide held his hadns near a stone, but didn’t touch it. “You can feel the energy,” was his comment. 

People wanted to know how these blocks came to be and how they got there.

Fortunaltely, we had in our group a geologist. He was recently retired from the U.S. Park Service and had spent much of his time on the big island of Hawaii, studying the volcano. He was also brought in when Mount Saint Helen’s blew and spent several days after its eruption trying to figure out what happened. Interestingly, he said there was so much smoke they really couldn’t see much.

When you are looking at rocks it really helps to have a geologist, because that’s what geologists do – study rocks. I know this may come as shocking news to some folks – that geologists study rocks. And it may follow for some that if you want to know about rocks you can ask a geologist and they may know more than you do about the rocks you are looking at.

In this case our geologist on tour glanced at these rocks and said that the kind of shapes we saw were created by volcanos. Period. End of analysis. Okay, wait. This just in. These rocks were created when lava flowed out of a volcano. When lava cools under certain conditions it forms rocks in four or six sided shapes.

In the last few days a report has surfaced claiming that possibly the mountain (or is it a hill?) on which these rocks are strewn could be a pyramid. A few years ago there was a claim that this might be the site of one of the oldest examples of a civilization. It seems the same fellow made both claims.

Okay, let’s analyze these claims. But first, let’s deal with the energy feel from the rocks. I remember reading in Turn Right at Machu Picchu that a person claimed the large rock perched there had energy. The local guide said, well yeah. If you are sitting out in the sun absorbing the sun’s rays all day you will have energy. Wow! Who knew?

What about the claim of ancient people being at this site? Well, what was this based on? Apparently, they did core samples and found carbon. They dated it and it was old. Their report concluded that it was an ancient civilization. Some scientists (and others) pointed out that just because you have old carbon doesn’t mean that people were there. I’d say especially if you’re on the edge of a volcano. I mean a volcano could erupt, burn some trees and – ta-dah – you have carbon. That doesn’t mean people were around. In fact, there was no evidence that people artifacts were around in the carbon they found.

Now, let’s look at the claim of this place might be a pyramid. Well, okay, is there any evidence that it’s a pyramd? Well, apparanently not. Well, there’s a high mountain like thing. It could be a pyramid. But is it? Or let me be so bold to suggest that it’s a volcano?

It seems every two years one person makes a claim to try and bring pulicity to this site.

Jan 11 – We got a thin blanket of snow. It makes everything so silent. It’s lovely.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Dateline January 6th 2025 Washington DC

Thousands of Democratic protesters decrying the 2024 election failed to show up to protest the counting of the Electoral Votes. Proceedings were delayed on and off by Republican grandstanding. Instead of taking 15 minutes it took 25.

Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary died. I thought he died a long time ago. 

I think it’s time that Mike Johnson sell his own bible. That way he can insert all the wacky stuff he says is in the Bible. Johnson’s Bible – it’s got a nice ring to it. For instance, he could insert:

For man is man,

and woman is woman.

Because currently it’s not in the Bible as he has asserted it is.

And Trump has started his pre-Presidential time by saying he wants the U.S. to take Greenland by force if necessary, if Denmark won’t give it up. What if Denmark doesn’t give it up? Do they go on the list of shit-hole countries? It’s been asserted that Denmark has offered to buy the U.S. and install universal health care. 

The orange one also wants the Panama Canal back. This is another boffo idea. Ya know they have bars near the base when the U.S. was there that had girls dancing totally nude. This is where John McCann may have gotten some of his views on women. But these were not good Panamanian girls. There were sluts from Costa Rica and Columbia. I wonder if Trump will institute the same kind of policies here. Will we see girls from say New Jersey dancing in New York? Or Idaho in Kansas? So many unanswered questions.

BTW I have decided not to read anything, or should I say I stop reading something, when I see a sentence that states “Me and …” I’m sorry but as I read in a great little book entitled “72 Reasons you won’t get published and 3 why you might” or something close to that as the title had as two of the first reasons you won’t get published: “You don’t know spelling,” and “You don’t know grammar.” I’ll overlook an obvious spell corrector mistake but really? Me? In a subject? That’s grating. Can’t do it. Won’t do it.

In another one I stopped reading a travel article when it stated that she and her husband “road” on a Zodiac boat in Alaska. Sorry. You don’t know how to spell; you don’t know grammar. Next!

Back to bibles for a sec. Ya know there was a very popular bible back in the 1600s where the publisher omitted the word “not” from the commandment about adultery. So, what’s the implication of such a commandment? That you have to commit adultery? God’s will and all that.

Ah yes. Well, I see Mark Z has begun the transition to Trumpism. No more fact checking by experts. Let the community decide. It’s been a disaster for X so let’s do it on Facebook. What I want is someone sitting in a lounger chair drinking a beer deciding if something is correct or not. No friggin’ expert for Mark.

Saw a really good show about neurosurgeons and what they go through to become one. When I tuned in a young woman was having to relieve the pressure on a skull by drilling a hole in said skull. First time. Wow. Talk about tension. She has a senior surgeon there with her, encouraging her and giving advice. Ya know, do we need that? Do we really need to train people to become neurosurgeons? I mean wasn’t there an episode of The Simpsons where Bart or Homer took up neurosurgery?

Can you imagine, your head is throbbing. Someone is looking at your brain scans and it’s declared that you need to have a hole drilled in your head and in comes some dude with a Guns and Roses T-shirt and a giant electric drill from Home Depot and you’re told he’s going to drill the hole. You ask have you ever done this before and he responds, “Yeah, I’ve drilled lots of holes.” 

“In a head?”

“What?” he wasn’t listening because he was scrolling through his cell phone.

You repeat the question and he scoffs at you, “A  hole is a hole. I’ve drilled lots of them on the dry wall jobs. And I’ve drilled a few holes myself if you catch my drift. Huh? Know what I mean?”

At this point you have to be sedated because they think you’re a raving lunatic. The hole gets drilled. “What 3/4 inch was too much? Huh.” And you are forever transformed. Into a vegetable. Huh. Oh well. Next.

Yeah. We don’t need no stinkin’ experts. They just get in the way. Let the people decide. Maybe we should let the people decide when it comes to elections? I mean Trump won and had more votes than anybody else. Maybe, that’s the way we should do an election? Whoever, gets the most votes wins. It’s in the Bible.

And a big shout out to The Donald – not even in office yet and he’s already name calling and belittling, saying that Governor Newsom is doing a terrible job fighting the fires in his state. No suggestions as to what to do better. No aid or comfort – just attack attack attack. It’s going to be a long four years.

Monday, January 6, 2025

I have been exposed to many headlines in the last few days. Many have stuck with me. And I’ve learned many things in this year. Chair yoga – I decided to try it. Can’t figure out if it’s working or not. I’ve lost half a pound. But I’ve done this many times. I’d say I’ve lost that half a pound a thousand times. Does that mean I’ve lost 500 pounds?

I assembeld the generator I bought several years ago, the last time we lost power. Started it up. It ran. Then the motor seized. Nice. 

I was on FaceBook and I saw a video that I wanted to read the rest of the explanation. Turns out the “Follow” button is right next to “the rest of the story” button. Now I’ve learned that there’s a blue button that can give you options to unfollow. Upper right near profile. So much to discover and learn.

Listened to a woman on NPR. She’s some kind of media social influencer type. She was asked about TikTok and did she think the Chinese were using it to spy on us. “Of course,” she said. We would too if we had such an app, but they won’t let us in. This is the 1,000 cows situation. Tag one cow – so what? Tag a thousand and you can tell what the herd is doing. We are cattle. Great.

Two headlines in my daily Rolling Stone feed. (btw I used to get the magazine, but they made it too hard to sign up. Besides, the paper isn’t the same since Jan sold it.) 

Headline one) doesn’t matter if you are MAGA or Islam the appeal to men is the same. You are a loser but if you take radical action you will become a winner and have many virgins in heaven – or whatever. Toxic masculinity.

Headline two) maybe the gateway drug stuff ain’t true. 

Ya think?

The huge storm ain’t. Have you looked at the map of this thing? Started in Kansas – moved due east. Weird. But Kansas has always appeared weird. Last time I went through the semi trailer truck containers had pictures of fetuses or what they claimed were fetuses on the back of them. (Turns out the anti-abortionists were taking pictures of mature fetuses and shrinking them and claiming that’s the way the fetus looked like mintues after conception or some nonsense. Yeah, you can’t get folks excited about a lump of cells until it looks human.) But then Kansas voted overwhelmingly for abortion. So, maybe all that anti-abotion chest pounding was their nuttier element screaming and not the salt of the earth types that the state claims to be. Then again = Bloody Kansas. But who knows what that is?

In order to know about Bloody Kansas you’d have to read and another headline said people aren’t reading anymore. Yikes. In fact, the article was talking about historians making a game where they inserted historical facts into it, hoping people would learn. What? (Say that in a dumb monotone. You know like the response you get if you ask anyone under the age of 22 a question. The first time you ask you interupt their scrolling and they have to pay attention. Then they don’t know the answer and have no idea what you are talking about so they google it on their phone and shove what they found in your face. Hey, I’ve got an idea. Make every query come back with “42.” )

I wonder what the average book length is that people do read is? I’ll bet it’s 100 pages or less. No more War and Peace. Moby Dick forget it. What I’ve discovered about Great Literature is that you have to get pissed off, because the damn thing is so long. No one gets pissed off anymore. At least not at that kind of stuff. They get pissed off at brand new generators whose motor seizes.

Well, we didn’t loss power so I don’t need the damn thing.

I’ve taken the recoil mecahnism off and am looking at a nice 1 1/4” nut. If I get a socket to fit and use a six foot pipe for leverage…The struggle continues.

What?

Forget it, kid. You have no idea. go back to your phone.

Another little picture I saw: Marlon Brando, sitting next to 19 year old Sophia Loren, 1953 premiere of On the Waterfront. Apparently, they dubbed his voice. He didn’t know it and got up and left the theater. Idiot. You are sitting next to a gorgeous woman and you leave her?

So whose voice was it? I think it was Brando’s. Maybe they put in a recording of his voice because the screen version wasn’t as good? So many questions. His handlers convinced him to stick around (at a bar) and slip back in five minutes before the film ended so folks wouldn’t think he didn’t like the film. So 71 years ago they were deceiving us.

The deception continues. Only faster and more subtle, or not.

Another thing: I will stop reading anything that starts with “Me and …” . For that matter, I will stop reading any article or piece that has me as the subject of a sentence. Why? You’ve told me what you know, which is nothing. I have to be careful of doing or saying things that I think are way over the top and obvious as examples of being uncouth, because they are frequently seen as not that, but my genuine self. We’ve raised a generation based on The Simpsons. I guess that’s an improvement over The Three Stooges?

What? You were expecting something profound? Now I’m hearing and seeing articles saying how the Dems are out of touch with the populace and what they got wrong and blah blah blah. Yeah, 64% of the populace reads at a 6th grade level or below. Sean Hannity and Fox News are the most watched “news” programs in the nation and you are telling me the Dems got it wrong?

Gas is below $3.00. I’ve seen it under $2.80. Eggs are up to $2.99.