Rick Kinnaird

Thursday, November 13, 2025

While many are bemoaning the political and economic situation I think it important to celebrate the victories in life.

Last Tuesday, November 11, 2025 was Poll Worker Appreciation Day. This was voted on by the Virginia Legislature and passed. Now, I know, some are confused because wasn’t the election the week before? (Yes, and I worked 14 hours!) And wasn’t November 11th Veterans Day Yes. But it was also Poll Worker Appreciation Day. There’s nothing to say we can’t celebrate two things on the same day. Similar to holding two facts in your brain at once. But I’m a veteran of sorts – a veteran poll worker! I mean I’ve poll worked more elections than I can count on one hand (provided I don’t use my thumb.) so, I’m a veteran. Probably not good enough to get into the Veterans credit union – but still.

So, I asked my 13 year old niece Claire how she was going to celebrate Poll Worker Appreciation Day and she came up with the boffo idea that we should go out for gelato. A most excellent idea. I brought along some candles and matches to light the candle (I thought one was enough.) Unfortunately, the matches were NFG. (Not Very* Good – *I have a lisp:) These are the same matches we have had for 10-20 years and they never work. The little white tip that is supposed to ignite the bigger red part doesn’t. It appears to be too small (maybe a defect in manufacturing?) and crumbles when dragged across the side of the box’s lighting surface, which has be pretty much scraped smooth through multiple attempts at using it to ignite these sticks they claim are matches. Maybe, I should throw them out? I say that every time. Then I put the match box back in the drawer.

Here is a video that my wife took of the glorious celebration.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4Y4QxvE9HFw

I thought the festivities would end there – but I was wrong.

Claire wanted to go the back way to her house, which took us through tree lined neighborhoods. People were out and about. This gave me another boffo idea, which I mentioned to Claire. Maybe, I should stop, roll down my window and ask the strollers how they were celebrating Poll Worker Appreciation Day?

“No, Rick,” was her immediate answer.

Then I saw a couple walking toward us on the opposite side of the road.

I mentioned again – maybe I should ask them?

“No, Rick. Oh god, I know them. Don’t stop!”

This led me to start screaming, “HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO CELEBRATE POLL WORKER APPRECIATION DAY?”

At this point Claire decided it was a good time to investigate whether my car had a hidden pocket between the far side of the passenger seat and the car’s super structure.

I continued yelling, “HEY. HEY! HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO CELEBRATE POLL WORKER APPRECIATION DAY?”

Unfortunately, things happened so fast that I didn’t have time to roll down my window. I mean what with Claire screaming and all. “No Rick.” and “Please don’t.” and “Oh my god!” Actually, I’m not sure exactly what she was saying. And my yelling into the glass, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO CELEBRATE POLL WORKER APPRECIATION DAY?”

But I think I did us proud. As an uncle, and parent, and poll worker I think I helped inform the younger generation.

When I told her MTV was going away internationally she asked, “What’s MTV?”

So, there is still work to be done.

Thursday, October 16, 2025

I saw an interesting graphic the other day. One of the Voyager spacecraft approaching the Van Oort Belt. This is a region way out from our Sun, but still part of our Solar System. It will reach the edge of this belt in 300 years and be through it in 30,000 years.

I also saw something that said if you got in your car and drove to the nearest other star you arrive in the century 30,000.

I also read the Betelgeuse the red giant in Orion is about to blow up. Of course, I’ve been reading that sort of thing for my lifetime. So “about to blow up” is kind of a relative term when talking about the cosmos. It makes geologic time here on Earth seem like an eye blink. By the way our solar system, which is halfway out on one arm of the Milky Way makes a complete orbit roughly every 225 million years. So, I’m not watching the sky every night thinking “this is the night Betelgeuse blows up.” Besides, when it does it will be plenty bright.

So, what about all these folks that postulate that some advanced civilization visited our planet in the ancient past? The reasoning of these folks is that it is impossible to conceive that our ancient ancestors were able to move large rocks. They ignore the obvious. They did move the rocks and these provocateurs are to lazy to figure out how they did it.

The classic example for me is Easter Island. When locals were asked how the stones got to where they are the answer was, “They walked.” 

It took decades to confirm but that’s exactly what happened. It has been shown that you can rock those statues side to side and wiggle them forward. The bases of the stones that were walking to their site and then abandoned show the base was wider than those in place, thus allowing a bigger “step.” Not only that, but the eyes were unfinished, because that is where the walking ropes were attached. Therefore, the eyes and the bases were finished once they were in place. Some didn’t make it. They fell over and were thus left where they fell – unfinished.

Yeah. But. But. Look at the huge stone of Tawankanu. How did they move those huge stones? And why were they left where they were? 

Okay, remember Lake Titicaca had been much larger at some point in time. Do you think maybe they floated the stones and once they beached them they couldn’t move them?

How about the large stones at Ollyantayambo? They are huge. They weigh tons. How did they move them? Well, they were quarried down a slope from where they are now and there’s an angled roadway leading right to the site where they were placed. Not only that but the roadway has rounded stones placed in it. do you think that might be a ramp? And the stones were there to reduce the friction of dragging the big slabs?

And it goes on and on, like that.

Von Daniken, who is still alive, age 90, made claims of ancient aliens visiting. He started writing in the late 60s and he continues to this day making such claims. His wikipedia page also says he was convicted of fraud and fined $1,000 and 3 1/2 years in jail. He claimed an arch in a Mayan cave was built by aliens. Geologists pointed out that it was a natural formation.

Basalt tend to crack in ways that make it look like it was man made. There some bedrock in the Caribbean and another formation off the coast of Japan where this has happened. Atlantis! No cracking rock.

And speaking of Atlantis Herodotus listened to a guy from Egypt who told him of this place. It was Santorini, a city on the edge of a volcano that blew. It was and is in the Aegean Sea. It turns out the Greek word for a unit of measure sounded very similar to the Egyptian word for a similar unit. The only difference was a factor of ten. So when the Egyptian guy said, “300” Herodotus heard, “3,000.” Therefore he concluded it had to be out past the Straits of Gibraltar out in the Atlantean Sea and hence Atlantis and the Atlanteans were born.

The city that was spoken of was in Crete and 30 miles across. Herodotus heard 300. People have been searching ever since. Good luck.

When Santorini blew in 1600 B.C. it ended the Minoan civilization – pretty much. That’s Crete and all the little coastal towns. It’s estimated that the volcanic eruption cause a tsunamic wave 270 feet high. What does one do when they see such a wave? Typically, they stand in awe until they are subsumed. And remember waves set up in groups of seven, so if the first one doesn’t get you the second, third or seventh just might. The sound of the explosion was so loud that it was heard in what is today Israel and Lebanon (called The Levant) and the waves reached the shores of Gaza. 

But yeah, a civilization from a star system or galaxy no one can find visited us in ancient times. They went around the world piling up stones – big stones at that. Then they left, leaving no trace of themselves.

It like religion or the folks who claim they know when the world is going to end. “Oh, hum, there was a mistake in my calculation I should have taken the figure in Revelations in Greek units not Egyptian and now it’s a factor of ten different. So send me money so I can continue my work…”

Please.

Meanwhile, people are gearing up for The No Kings Rally. There is much talk of which inflatable suit to wear. Some are so tall that short people wearing them won’t be able to see out. I told one person that was okay. Katy Perry’s dance team had pioneered that with Left Shark. Not to Worry.

I’m waiting to see videos of ICE clubbing a dinosaur or an inflatable chicken – I mean, talk about terrorists and criminals running amok in our cities! 

Carry on.

Monday, October 13, 2025

We have ICE in Portland, Oregon looking out from atop their building and seeing people in chicken costumes and other assorted creatures and declaring that these animated animal people are rioting and causing the impeding of their operations. Wait? What? People in chicken suits are the problem? Why is ICE there in the first place? Would the chicken suit people be at the ICE building if ICE wasn’t there? Of course not. So the problem in Portland is ICE.

Moving on to economic issues. OMG. Let’s start with Argentina. Our government is sending twenty billion to Argentina to prop up there currency. This seems to be the Latin American playbook. It’s been going on since, I don’t know – the 1930s? with Evita and her husband? Here’s the thing – it doesn’t work. It hasn’t worked. It won’t work, and there is no way it will work. Somehow, a bunch of hedge fund guys thought this time it would be different and put money into Argentina. Now they realize they will be holding a large bag of excrement so they got Trump to give Argentina money so he can give it to them the hedge fund guys so they can get out with their skin singed but not burned off. 

Now we get Trump’s revelation that China is playing the tariff war game, and he is stunned that they would do that to him. Paul Krugman has stated that there is one difference between what China is doing and what Trump is doing. Now, Paul has been awarded a Nobel prize in economics so he knows a bit about what he speaks. His assessment is that the difference, the key difference is this – China knows what they are doing.

How will this turn out? Hum. Lemme see. We need China’s rare earth stuff. They would like to export to us, but they don’t need to. Lemme put this in the EVALUATOR. Conclusion: USA loses. 

Krugman points out that the Trump administration is and has been systematically destroying all the things that Make America Great. Wait. Wasn’t he going to make it great? Again? Let’s put that through the EVALUATOR ie “Make America Great Again” and the basic fact that “Everything Trump touches turns to shit” and let’s see what we get. Oh no, doesn’t look good.

Krugman did a quick run down on what were the things that has made America great?

A. Great Research and the ability to attract the best minds from around the world.

Trump and his minions (TAHM) have ferociously attacked the halls of learning and research. Worked tirelessly to make it near impossible for foreign students to come here. And have taken away funds in a haphazard and mean spirited way. They have told researchers what the conclusion is they want them to reach and if they don’t reach said conclusion they will see their funding go away.

B. Strong Alliances – TAHM has worked tirelessly to undermine and destroy our alliances. They have cuddled up to foreign powers that have been aggressively opposed to us and our way of life. 

C. Strong Economy – Trump inherited in his first term a strong economy from Obama. It took him three years to out it in shambles and left Biden not only with a tattered economy but a disaster withdrawal in Afghanistan. This time Biden left Trump with the strongest economy in the world and the U.S. in a great position with its allies. It took TAHM only three months to destroy the economy and our position with our allies. The talk of recession is now ever present. it’s really no longer a question as much as a question of how bad it will be.

Left unsaid was the whole immigration disaster and the use of the FBI and the Justice Department to go after his perceived enemies. 

The amazing thing is how quickly he was able to accomplish it. I remember when I was growing up the saying was, “It takes a carpenter to build a house, but any jackass can kick it down.” No one considered having a whole herd of jackasses, at one time, stomping and kicking.

Will our democracy survive? Will our nation as we know have known it?

I give the democracy question a less than 50% chance. Something will emerge, but I doubt it will be like it was.

As to our nation, yes. It will emerge, but it will be smaller and less able. It will not be the global leader it had been. It will be a shell of what it once was. It didn’t have to be this way. But in a country where basic facts are not just ignored but injected with lies and fabrications, where researchers are told what to conclude before they start, where people who have no experience and a total misunderstanding of the basics of the job they are supposed to be doing we are in for a fall. The question isn’t will it happen. It already is. The question is how far? We are 3/4 of the way through the first year with three more years to go. Trump has managed through his cutting efforts to make our government smaller, less effective, and spent more than in any previous year. The two trillion in debt has now been surpassed, which was last year’s mark.

What will happen? Where will we end up?

We’ve always been terrible predictors of the future. If I were to bet I’d say the future does not look good.

Time to put on a chicken suit.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Breaking News (as opposed to news? I dunno.)

I saw this earlier on Facebook and could hardly believe it. But now I have verified it.

The Portland riot that Kristi Noem saw from the top of the ICE building in Portland.

The following report is in conversation with myself:

Self 1 – Earlier today someone posted Kristi Noem looking down from the roof of the ICE Building in Portland.

And this is what she saw.

Self 2 – A guy in a chicken suit?

Self 1 – That’s right! Well, we can’t ascertain if it’s a guy. Could be a girl.

Self 2 – But a chicken suit?

Self 1 – That’s right!

Self 2 – And?

Self 1 – And what? That’s it. That’s the radical left or maybe Antifa.

Self 2 – The guy, or girl, in the chicken suit?

Self 1 – Yes. Yes. Now you’re catching on. guess what Kristi said?

Self 2 – I can only imagine.

Self 1 – “If the mayor of Portland isn’t ready to keep their city safe we’ll flood the zone with agents.

Self 2 – From a guy in a chicken suit?

Self 1 – I guess so.

Self 2 – How did the media report it?

Self 1 – Well, MSNBC showed her on top of the building. The camera person was sweeping the area  and went right past the chicken suit guy, but quickly came back to him.

Self 2 – The chicken suit guy?

Self 1 – As best I can make out. Yes.

Self 2 – Was that it?

Self 1 – Oh no. Fox got the real skinny.

Self 2 – Which was?

Self 1 – They set off a red smoke flare and went in and knocked a guy down the red smoke makes it look really dramatic. See.

Self 2 – And I see the chicken suit guy.

Self 1 – Yeah. He’s right in the middle of the riot.

Self 2 – Riot? You mean the red smoke?

Self 1 – Yes. Exactly. A lot of people don’t know this but if you set off red smoke or other such devices it makes things look really confusing.

Self 2 – Because of the smoke.

Self 1 – Yes. Because of the smoke.

Self 2 – And there’s the chicken suit guy.

Self 1 – Yes off to the right.

Self 2 – Did they arrest him?

Self 1 – I don’t know. I think they missed him.

Self 2 – In the red smoke?

Self 1 – In the red smoke.

Self 2 – How embarrassing.

Self 1 – What?

Self 2 – Imagine. They don’t have a riot. They have like one person, maybe two out there not doing anything. Well, I saw the chicken suit guy wave at Kristi.

Self 1 – Yeah. I saw that too. And smiling.

Self 2 – Exactly. So Kristi comes to town to look at the rioting in the streets that Donald said was going on and all they really have is a guy in a chicken suit waving at them.

Suit 1 – Yeah? So?

Self 2 – So what can they do? I mean the head of Special Outfits for ICE (SoICE) comes to town and this is all they’ve got. It’s embarrassing.

Self 1 – And they somehow missed the chicken suit guy.

Self 2 – I don’t think so.

Self 1 – What do you mean?

Self 2 – Okay. Look at it this way. They need a riot or a disturbance – something, and all they have is a guy in a chicken suit waving at them. So they set off a red smoke grenade, grab some hapless person standing next to the chicken suit and club him to the ground.

Self 1 – Why’d not the chicken suit?

Self 2 – Think of it this way. If they arrest the chicken suit guy and put him in a holding cell what’s that going to look like?

Self 1 – Trent d’aqua?

Self 2 – Yeah. Right. The dangerous Venezuelan gang that Trump and the rest of them go on about turns out to be a guy in a chicken suit? Not good optics.

Self 1 – Definitely.

Self 2 – So the best move is to not see him.

Self 1 – Yeah. Got it.

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

There’s an old joke where a guy asks a gal if she’ll go to bed with him for a million dollars. She says yes, and he says, “How about one hundred?” And she says, “What do you think I am a whore?” And he says, “We’ve already established that. Now we are only haggling over price.”

Okay. Okay. So this falls into the area of “brilliant things I wish I had thought to say but only thought of later.” In this case it’s not me but one of the Senators questioning Pam Bondi. At one point she said, “Are you calling me a liar?” To which a great response would have been, “That’s already been established. We are trying to figure out which of the two contradictory statements you made is true and which is false.”

Ta dah.

Okay. Okay. Remember in the movie Office Space where the guy who got hit by a truck and has his head in a giant skull brace has come up with a game called Jump to Conclusions? And then he goes onto say – Maybe you’ll get lucky like me (ie get hit by a truck, thus ruining your body, but you’ll get a big settlement? You don’t remember? Well, pretend you do. You didn’t see the movie? Philistine. Go to Walmart; in the big tub of cheap DVDs you’ll find it.)

So here’s the thing. We collectively everyone but a few in the U S of A has heard that Trump is in the Epstein files many, many times. That they were great friends for like ten years. Then Jeffy gets caught in Florida. Gets a super sweetheart deal. It blows up then he gets put away. Then he dies. Unfortunately, the tape that would show what happened is not to be found. But it’s declared a suicide. Okay. Okay. And now we’ve got raving Senators, right wingers, podcasters, etc. demanding the files be released. That the client list be released, etc. And some folks change sides on this issue when the investigations get close to a black hole I’ll call “Donald Trump.” 

For some reason it goes from “Release the Files” to “Who cares? I’m tired of talking about it.”

So I think it’s time to play – Say it with me:

Jump to Conclusions!

Okay. Okay. Here’s the thing that you can bet on. You can take it to the bank. And that is:

Anything that DJT says, utters, or insinuates is guaranteed to not be true.

Why do I say this? Look at his batting record – it’s 1000. 

There isn’t a statement he has made that is true. 

And add to that the corollary, Everything he touches turns to shit.

So if he says he didn’t  know blah blah blah about Jeff. He definitely did.

And if his minions say, “There’s nothing to see here.” There definitely is.

So let’s stop saying, “We don’t know what’s in the Epstein files.” We know.

And let’s start operating under that premise.

Lastly, Taylor. 

Okay. Okay. She released her new album on Friday. On Monday she’s on Jimmy Kimmel.

I got two observations:

She and Jimmy played three of her songs and she was asked about them.

When Jimmy played the song she did a swaying dance in her seat. It reminded me of what I think a Grateful Dead fan would do when the band hit the first chord in a concert. They’d raise up, sway, and light up.

But in this case the fans don’t light up. They repeat the lyrics. And they did! The audience was filled with women (mostly young, but not all) and they were swaying with Taylor and singing the lyrics with her.

I mean. The album dropped on Friday and by Monday they knew all the lyrics? OMG!

I still have a hard time understanding the words, and most of the songs sound very much the same to me. But there is no denying the impact of that woman: economically and on the (especially) young women. It is a phenomena never witnessed before.

Carry on. I’ll be out and about.