Rick Kinnaird

Monday, January 22, 2024

Remember, I predicted the Bills and Tampa Bay in the Super Bowl?

Remember, I told you that the moment I predict winners they’re gone!

Yeah, well Allen and Mayfield are done for the season.

I feel sorry for Allen. He threw some unbelievable passes, but to quote Tom Brady’s Ex, Giselle, “He can not both throw and catch the ball.” For this truth she was greatly criticized. 

So now who am I going to predict?

Hum.

Well, the best upcoming game will be the Chiefs and the Ravens. The Ravens will win. (Sorry, see ya. Bye!)

Lions/49ers? I’d love to see the Lions win, but it will be San Francisco. This prediction may give the edge to Detroit. Ravens win the Super Bowl!(No wait, they were eliminated by my picking them over the Chiefs. So it will be the Chiefs, thus this prediction dooms them and the Lions will be left winning. Go Lions.!)

In other news Ron De Santis dropped out of the race for President, because “He didn’t see a way forward.” No kidding? A guy with the social skills of – I don’t know…a witless idiot? – couldn’t see a way forward? And throw in that as Governor he tried to show what a tough guy he was by booking a jet and flying immigrants from Texas to Massachusetts to what is it? Oh yeah, “own the libs.” And to arrest people for voting. They weren’t supposed to vote, yet his agency issued them voter cards. Not to mention his cringe inducing social interactions with folks.

This leaves Nikkie Haley and whatshisname. What are Nikkie’s chances? I dunno. She was educated in a South Carolina segregationist school that taught the Civil War was about state’s rights. Her dad is a Sikh. Wait til the voters see him in his turban. Plus, she’s a woman in a misogynistic racist religiously fanatical party. I give her better than even odds. One, she’s pretty good at evading questions. They call that being diplomatic. It’s not, but good enough. Second, if Trump gets found guilty and thrown in jail he might be done, and then she’d get the nod. We’ll see.

Now there’s scuttle butt that Fani Willis may have been having an affair with one of the prosecutors she hired. To which I say, “Oh yeah?” and “So what?” Doesn’t make Trumpy Trump any less guilty. In fact, I would think the Republicans would embrace her as one of their own. You know, being one of the boys, and all that. 

We went and saw the musical Annie at the Altria Theater in Richmond. Everyone knows it as The Mosque. Pretty funny, the big theater in town to see shows celebrates architecture of the Muslim religion. The show was good, not great. Some of the scenes seemed rushed or not well done in terms of intonation. We couldn’t remember any of the scenes except the opening (“It’s a hard knock life”) and “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow.” I wonder how many of the young people know who Herbert Hoover, FDR, Dillinger, or J. Edgar Hoover are? Fortunately, we don’t have Hoovervilles anymore, just veterans and homeless sleeping under bridges. Damn immigrants. Close the Border!* (Saw a good one asking, “how can immigrants be both on welfare and taking jobs?” Or the other one asking, “When have you heard an American bemoaning the fact that their job as fruit picker was taken by an immigrant?”) 

* I keep asking how closing the border (actually closing the offices where you’d apply to legally enter) helps, and after you do that, what is the plan “to fix” the situation? Current Republican plans for the border are to try and impeach the head of Homeland Security for doing something (not enough!) and to vote down immigration bills so as to make the situation worse so they can use it in their campaigns, and to bring court cases trying to close immigration offices so as to create more chaos at the border. Fix it? F*ck it! seems to be their motto.

As we walked by the stage entrance to Annie there were four 53’ semi tractor trailers parked nearby. Most show have two. And I’m thinking Taylor has one hundred. Speaking of Taylor Swift. I gotta say that Buffalo needs to do some serious renovation to their stadium. I mean Travis scores a touchdown and they pan to the box Taylor is in and she’s backlit. WTF?

But Travis’ brother was there too. I mean years the NFL, best center of his generation, blah blah blah. His brother scores a touchdown and they pan to him, and a backlit Tay-Tay. Here he is shirtless, standing up, hairy chest, waving something around in the freezing cold. I’d expect my brother to do the same of course. On the next touchdown they pan to the booth and there’s Taylor and Mahomes’ wife and shirtless bro. He’s seated, bare-chested knocking back a tequila. I wonder if Brittany, Taylor and mom had to help Jason out of the box?

I also thought if Taylor played Buffalo again (she’s been here three times, but smaller venues) she’d probably play in this stadium and have more in attendance than were at this game. Would Jason be there? Would he be shirtless? So many questions? How many bracelets would he be wearing on his wrists?

Today. Monday. Will Trump campaign or be in court? Are his court appearances considered campaign rallies? So much to consider. Will he claim a write off on his taxes or take money from his campaign claiming that court appearances are campaign events? Will someone throw him in jail? Hello, Seal Team Six, you busy?

Oh sorry. So tasteless. 

Saturday, January 20, 2023

Okay, Super Bowl predictions: Buffalo Bills vs Tampa Bay. Bills win.

(Please note: my predictions doom whomever – be it football team, singer on The Voice, or Star dancing. The moment I confidently predict, they are gone ASAP. Therefore it will be the Texans, Ravens or Chiefs versus either the Packers, 49ers, or Lions with one of those six winning it all. You can bet on it!)

Moving on, The Orange One says he could have Seal Team Six assassinate his rivals. He does realize there is someone in The White House right now that’s not him and has the ability to call up ST6, right? In fairness, and for “complete transparency” he is not sure who it is in The White House. Sometimes, he says Obama, other times he says the crooked Joe Biden. He does say he’ll use the Justice Department, the FBI, and the military against his rivals, and immigrants, and everyone else. But for now, he’s bitching because they are doing that legal stuff. Against him! Imagine that?

In other news there is continuing speculation as to how much it will have to cost him to shut up. I say $530M. And maybe that isn’t enough, but it’s a start.

The Republican House of Representatives has passed either 14 or 24 bills. The lowest number ever, and I don’t know how many of them were for post office names and special days declared, but talk about DO NOTHING. 

Meanwhile, the economy keeps on keeping on despite dire warnings and woeful predictions.

The Supreme Court could make a decision that would destroy the working of government as we have always known it. Yawn.

Republican firebrands are outraged at the mess at the border. There is a bill that according to conservative Senators is the best deal they can ever hope to get. What should the House do? Move to vacate the Speaker, if he tries to bring this up for a vote. In the meantime they will continue to bemoan that the head of HomeLand Security has been doing things to help make the border more secure. Republicans are outraged and calling for his impeachment! Also, they chant, “Close The Border!” By this they mean close the offices where people can apply, legally, to enter the U.S. Then the only way to enter the U.S. would be illegally and they can bemoan the terrible job those in charge are doing, while forgetting to mention that they created and exacerbated the mess.

In other spiffy Republican moves they have gotten funding for the IRS cut some more. This will have two effects: 1) more people will be able to get away without paying their taxes, specifically the rich, 2) This will increase the national debt – something Republicans say they are against doing. Yet, somehow they happily do it. 

And I think it’s time to review some of the accomplishments of the Trump Administration:

– First President since Herbert Hoover to create net negative job growth

– Was able to make U.S. response to COVID 250 times worse than South Korea

– Created tariffs on goods from China thus increasing the cost to U.S. consumers

– a policy he promises to do more of if elected

– Destroyed U.S. farmers relationship with China thus eliminating that market for U.S agriculture

– Increased National Debt – Trump Admin is responsible for 25% of the National Debt

– Managed to lose the House, the Senate, and the White House

– Gave away northern Syria to Putin, Assad, and Erdogan, thus letting our allies be slaughtered.

– Created a catastrophic situation for withdrawal in Afghanistan that the next President was forced to deal with. This has led to him boasting what a terrible job was done in withdrawing. A situation he created.

– Planned and led an insurrection against The United States of America

It’s an impressive list.

Let’s not forget his promises:

– The Infrastructure Bill

– The Health Care Bill

Which version of each did you most like? 2016? 2017? 2018? 2019? 2020?

(Hint: They are all the same. ie nada. Nothing. Blank.)

And he has promised more of the same if re-elected.

To be clear, other than saying these things were going to happen nothing did.

I have to wonder if he thought holding a press conference was all he needed to do to make these bills appear? (Much like the joke about the ad man sitting on the edge of the bed telling the woman how great it’s going to be.)

Much like his thought that Covid would just go away and disappear on its own. It didn’t. It took concerted research, coordination, planning, and execution. All of which were done after he left office. Let’s not forget that his team had no plan for distributing the Covid vaccine, but they want you to know they gave money for its development. Forgetting that it was Dolly Parton giving a million to get it started.

There was some on the job training, to wit:

“Who knew health care would be this hard?”

“Puerto Rico is an island surrounded by water.”

Although, I have to think that the statement about Puerto Rico is more 4th grade geography, which he finally grasped as President.

Saturday, January 13, 2024

I remember watching a Smothers Brothers skit entitled, “They Say.”

Dick and Tommy were sitting in an office with the words “They Say” etched on the office door glass.

Here they were throwing phrases back and forth. I don’t remember exactly but it went something like this:

“ ‘They say a rolling rock picks up no grass’…”

“No. ‘They say a stone rolling down hill has no moss’ …”

And it went on like that for a while. I don’t remember how it ended, but it pointed out an interesting cultural phenomena. The development of a saying, which could become a belief. So many of these sayings are silly and might help salve the wounds of pride or defeat, but they aren’t necessarily reflections of reality. However, once those beliefs become – well – believed, they are hard to let go of. In negotiations I hear talk of “positions hardening,” or a phrase like “in for a dime in for a dollar.”

I wrote it yesterday about the persistence of stupidity. Maybe ignorance is a better way to phrase it, or how about “I’m a dumb ass and I like it.” When facts come up against belief, belief often wins. I think about the Egyptian burial practices, which went on for thousands of years, despite no evidence that any of it made sense. So too with the Mayans and many other cultures and civilizations. Are we any better now? I don’t think so. I think it was astrophysicist who as a kid when told god was in heaven and heaven was in the sky where god sat in the clouds asked, “Which cloud?” and then pointed to one and asked, “that one?”

I saw a George Carlin routine where he skewered the people who pound their chests proclaiming The Sanctity of Life. “Says who?” asked Carlin. He then went on to point out how the question then turns on “Do you believe in god?” and “Do you believe in my god?” if not Bang, you’re dead.

And recently the news has said Trump has the writings of Hitler on his bedstead. Remember when he was running in 2016 it was the speeches of Mussolini? I have a hard time believing he reads. I think suggesting that he has the speeches or writings of two of the most evil men of the Twentieth Century is giving him way too much credit. I think you can say that he is a narcissistic sociopath and that as such he could pretty easily come up with the stuff he says.

If you look at the development of Quanon and Trump believers and evangelic Christianity in the U.S. it seems to all stem from the same behavioral belief systems. And once you go down the path of whatever, it’s hard to say, “Gee, I was mistaken.” You want so hard to believe you were right from the beginning. It takes an overwhelming amount of evidence or a catastrophic event to change your mind. Like the people in Galveston Texas when the water left the bay and they stood there in wonder. Minutes later a giant wave came hurtling towards them. At what point in time did they say to themselves, “Oh Shit!”? Or did they? Were they too busy running for their lives?

We are in the middle of such a catastrophic event. The bay is empty of water. It is time to run. Okay, bad analogy. How did I go down this path? It is time to stand and fight the wave. Yikes, that isn’t much better.In fact, that’s terrible.

What surprises me is how far people are willing to lie to themselves to protect their earlier bad decisions, thoughts, or beliefs.

Be it saying the FBI was behind January 6th to saying Trump is standing trial for them. It’s mind blowing.

My newest hero is Jasmine Crockett who said that there are those who talk about “The Biden Crime Family” but who is in court defending themself?

Marjorie Taylor-Greene says they have all this evidence on the Bidens. Yeah? Somehow other than saying it, they haven’t shown any of it. You’d think if they had it they’d be pounding it on every media outlet they could find. Like Rudy, who kept and keeps saying, they have this evidence, and they know about all these phony votes and blah blah blah. Yeah? but when asked to produce they got nuthin’

Like the Smothers Brothers and their “They Say” skit. The right wing keeps pumping out falsehoods and creating the illusion that something terrible is happening. But when asked to show what they’ve got. They’ve got nothing.

In other news, health care. The window is closing to sign up for the ACA for this year. It’s been a historic success. So what are the Republicans doing? Badmouthing it. Trump says it sucks. The Republican congresses tried to repeal it seventy times. But to quote John Boehner who led many of the votes to repeal it , and replace it, he never saw in his decades in Congress a Republican health care plan.

Remember Trump’s health care plan? Kayleigh MacEnany gave Sixty Minutes the Trump health care plan. It was a big stack of papers. Words were on some of the papers. Some said medicine or health, I guess, but it was nothing more than that – a bunch of paper. It was no plan. It didn’t even pretend to be.

I recently saw video clips of Trump’s promises on health care and based on that I have to ask, “Which of his health care plans do you like better: 2016?, 2017?, 2018?, 2019?, 2020?, 2021?, 2022?, 2023? or his latest 2024? (The ‘Obamacare sucks’ with thumbs down gesture)?” Every year mentioned he promised a health care plan and every year nothing was produced.

Remember his Infrastructure plan? Which of his infrastructure plans did you like better: 2016?, 2017?, 2018?, 2019?, 2020? Because every year he promised one. It was a standing joke in Washington.

And yet, there are some that believe! Believe what? Believe ever since Truman tried to get national health care and Republicans stood in the way that things have changed? That the Republicans who voted against Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan, but show up at the groundbreakings in their district that they are going to change?

Personally, I think Joe is to soft on them saying, “God Bless them” (for finally showing up.) No, I’d be more in the Eric Swalwell camp of asking, “why didn’t you vote for this when it was in Congress?”

That somehow, trickle down will work? That the fat cats whom the Republicans represent care about you?

Friday, January 12, 2024

There was a great meme on Facebook a few days ago. Rene Descartes with his eyes bugging out that read,

“When Rene Descartes realized there were people who exist that don’t think.”

(This a play on the French philosopher’s famous, “I think, therefore I am” statement.)

I’ve been surprised by the lack of legal argument by Donald Trump and his lawyers in his New York fraud case. Similarly, Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon in their cases. They offer little or no defense or explanation in court for their actions. I guess because the offenses are so egregious. I don’t know.

Yesterday, Trump made a statement outside the courtroom that they prosecution had offered no evidence and that they, Trump and his team, had offered millions of pages in their defense. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fraud was so bad that the judge decided to skip the trial all together and move to damages. Before that I had heard lawyers exclaim that this was beyond an open and shut case and that any lawyer with one arm tied behind his back could win it. Pretty damning stuff. Yet, here’s Donald Trump saying the opposite – outside the courtroom. Inside? That was another story. After offering no defense the judge let Donald ramble for five minutes and then cut him off. Naturally, Trump did not abide by the restrictions and caveats, hence the cutoff. Caveats like “you can’t present new facts in closing arguments,” which we all know from watching Perry Mason or Law and Order. Warnings like “Stick to the case. Don’t make political speeches.” Yeah. Right.

The prosecutor was originally asking for $250 million, but she has now upped it to $370. Aside from probably (no certainly) not having the money. There’s the problem that Trump, his sons, and the Trump organization won’t be allowed to do business in New York for like ten years, Aw, too bad.

Meanwhile, down the hall Wayne La Pierre was on trial. I wonder if he and Donnie had a cry session in the hallway. Bemoaning how unfair it was that they were being treated like normal people?

Recently, there was a poll that showed 25% of people in the U.S. believe the FBI orchestrated Jan 6th, and 26% aren’t sure with 48% saying, “No.” That means 51% either buy the lie or are ready to jump on the band wagon of the lie. How did we come to this point?

Even more surprising to me was an interview with a young couple in Iowa who believe that Trump’s legal problems are a put up job by I don’t know who but the woman went on to say Jesus died for our sins and Trump somehow is being tried in a similar manner.

I’ve always had a problem with that Jesus dying for our sins bit. In the same way that Alan Sherman said his mom used to tell him to clean his plate because “Children were starving in India.” So he cleaned his plate. He stayed fat and the kids in India kept starving.

I mean, how does that work? Okay, you offer some food or drink or a goat to your god. And somehow your god will then forgive you for whatever. But if it’s really bad you need to up the ante. The Mayans would offer a baby if they hadn’t gotten any rain. Okay. Did it help? I dunno.

If god loves you why do you have to slaughter a goat or one of your own? (I was going to say “a kid,” but no, not gonna do it.”)

It’s never made sense to me. Yet, here’s a young couple in Iowa who are looking at Donald Trump like he is being sacrificed for their … what? Their financial misdeeds? I don’t get it.

Then yesterday or the day before there was the Republican led committee finding Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for not coming before their closed door session where they could bully him, leak half truths and lie. He was willing to come before the committee, but only in public. They weren’t having it. In fact, some members were outraged because Hunter was there! Who let him in? Oh, he’s ready to testify. We don’t want that? We want to find him in contempt. Okay. How about we find Jim Jordan and Mark Meadow in contempt for their not complying? We aren’t here about that. We are talking a valid issued subpoena. See me beat my chest? See me rent my garments? Oh the shame… 

Where was I?

Meanwhile a Republican Special prosecutor is bringing tax charges against Hunter on both coasts. The charges are crap, but who cares? 

Woke, Libby, George Soros…

How did we get here?

The problem seems to be a fundamental flaw in our underlying thoughts and beliefs. Like the Rene Descartes’ meme, we may not be as rational as we have led ourselves to believe. We may not be as smart as we had hoped.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

Dear Bob Whittman,

I received a glossy 8 1/2 by 11 sheet in the mail touting who you are and what you’ve done in Congress.

Interestingly, you don’t mention which party you are affiliated with. (Republican). Your sheet and your website fail to mention that you believe in killing mothers. Excuse me, wikipedia said you believe life begins at conception. Therefore if a woman needs to have a medical procedure to stop a pregnancy that could kill her you would be opposed to that and thus the woman would die.

You also fail to mention that you backed the Jan 6th insurrection. Don’t you think your constituents deserve to know that you do’t believe in free and fair elections? Why else would you vote to not certify the election?

Your glossy says you sponsored or cosponsored 216 pieces of legislation. Yet, a congressional watch group says you’ve only passed eight pieces of legislation including a duck stamp act. You’ve been in Congress since 2007 so that’s how many years 17? So that’s one piece every two years or 12-13 that you’ve signed onto that went nowhere. To be fair most Congress people don’t get that much done.

You also have voted to get rid of ObamaCare, which BTW just passed the 20 million mark in sign ups and has been one of the most successful pieces of health care legislation since WWII. 

In your sheet you wrote “Proudly supported the Lower Energy Costs Act” So I typed “Lower Energy Costs Act” into Google. This is what popped up:

H.R. 1 – Lower Energy Costs Act

It would raise costs for American families by repealing household energy rebates and rolling back historic investments to increase access to cost-lowering clean energy technologies.

Somehow, this doesn’t sound like a good thing for American families.

So to sum up:

– You oppose abortion and would force women to carry fetuses even if it meant they would die in so doing,

– You voted to overturn the 2020 election.

– You are proud that a bill you supported would raise energy costs for families. Yet you claim otherwise.

– You failed to mention in two glossy pages that you are a Republican.

I don’t know Bob, you seem like a lying piece of crap. 

I think you’ve done enough. Time to leave.

Signed,

A constituent.

And I’m sure the ducks thanked you for the stamp.