Rick Kinnaird

Make it nine.

Wednesday, August 2, 2023

I pause in reading the inditement to give you a few other things going on:

1. Every governor is popular (ie more people approve than disapprove)

2. The local Republican party in five states is broke or in serious financial trouble

3. The USA women’s soccer team seems rudderless

4. Florida now has leprosy, malaria, and a fake university that is promoting false history, which is being pedaled in the schools

5. Economic news is good while consumer demand is weak

6. Republican state attorney generals continue to insist on receiving personal private health records so they can pursue their citizens out of state and charge them for the crime of getting health care

7. Tommy Tuberville continues to be allowed to gum up the works of military promotions

8. Mick Jagger “now 80” has a two year old kid with a woman who is 36. When he’s 96 the kid will be 18.

9. Sinead O’Connor and Peewee Herman died. Fortunately, the tributes overlook their shortcomings and remark on their good qualities.

So what’s going on?

In regards to #1 it seems Joe Biden’s economic plan is helping regular people in every state.

#2? Seems Donald Trump is sucking all the small donor money out of the various Republican parties and putting it into his legal slush funds.

#3 The women seem to have lost their mojo. Not sure why. But the team to watch out for is Japan. Japan plays a 1,4,4 and basically challenge teams to break through their double defensive lines. Every once in awhile they kick a ball to their one forward who races down the field, outrunning the defenders and then places a perfect shot into a corner of the goal.

#4 Florida under Ron DeSantis is going further and further down the tubes, but they aren’t alone. The Republican legislature in Ohio has been pushing a 6 week abortion ban. It’s so unpopular that the voters have put a change on the ballot to stop them. What has the Ohio legislature done? Well, they aren’t taking this sitting down. No sir, they are trying to change the rules. No majority vote for this, nope, super majority is what they’re trying to force the vote to be. 

#5 Despite economic predictions of economic problems job growth is up, inflation is down. This is reflected in the fact that #1 above shows every governor has more favorable ratings than not. Demand is weak in long term demand. this results in an inverted yield curve. Money is hedging their bets.

#6 Hey. You think your health records are your business? No way. Republicans want them so they can charge you with crimes, like taking care of yourself. What can I say? Is it unpopular? You betcha.

#7 When will Mitch lower the boom on Tommy? I don’t know. He doesn’t seem very with it these days.

#8 Obviously, the rock and roll life style is good for your long term well being.

#9 I’ve heard, once again, Sinead’s ephemeral voice. Besides her hits, I’ve heard her version of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” Wow. 

People need support not derision, not laws infringing their freedoms and well-being. They need to hear the truth, not half baked lies.

Guy Kawasaki had a 103 year old homeopathic doctor on his podcast “Remarkable People” recently. She had a suggestion that we put dogs in schools. Not guard dogs, but dogs that kids could learn love and compassion from. And loyalty and hurt and faithfulness. Maybe the disaffected that are loners that have wandered into our schools killing their fellow students would experience something different.

Back to reading the indictment …

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

“Despite having lost the defendant was determined to stay in power.”

That’s in the beginning paragraph of the 42 page four indictment charging document of Donald Trump.

From what the lawyers whom I have seen reading it, this legal document is a very well done detailed piece of work.

While listening to the analysis I stopped and wandered down the guide to Fox. You will be shocked to hear that they have said The Justice Department is political and the only reason is because Trump is running for President. And, and what about Hunter? Fear not, Hunter, according to the Fox folks, got money from China. Wow. (Just like Ivanka? Hum?)

What amazed me was how quickly the commentators were able to get to the news table.

Over at Fox they are saying the DOJ is an embarrassment. And some former Trump lawyer is trying to argue that it’s a First Amendment issue. And also the Mueller Report was based on misinformation. Really? No. The Mueller Report has laid out in detail ten crimes that Trump committed. And, it’s not a First Amendment issue. It’s an issue of lying in court. You can express anything you want to say in public. You can lie to them if you want. It’s not a crime. But if you lie in a court of law or a legal proceeding or the FBI, it’s a crime. If you use those lies to try and overturn an election that you lost and rope others in to help you it’s a conspiracy.

I’m on page 13 of 45 of the indictment, but here’s my favorite part so far:

“I’ll obviously hustle to help on all fronts, on all fronts, but it’s tough to own any of this when it’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.”

More to come …

Monday, July 31, 2023

New charges were brought against former President Trump bringing the number to forty. The evidence sited, according to legal experts who have looked over the charging document, is stunning in its brazenness and hamhandedness (a technical legal term). According to one legal expert if Donald was found guilty and was a regular person he would be facing eighty years in jail. Seems fair.

There is more good economic news, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics June was the 30th month of consecutive job growth in the U.S. and wages beat expectations by 4.4%. Inflation is down, The Consumer Price Index grew 3%, down from 9% last summer.

So what are the Republicans in Congress doing? They are talking about bringing impeachment charges against the President for his family business dealings. Like their committee to investigate weaponizing the FBI the accusations are based on no evidence, but rather on right wing conspiracy theories. At some point don’t any normal Republicans ask, “What does Jim Jordan, MJT, Gosar, Boebert and the rest of the Freedom Caucus do that is related to legislating?” None of the people I just mentioned have ever brought forth a piece of legislation. So why are they still there? How have they helped the American people?

Moving on, who designed the air filter lid for the Toyota Rav4 cabin air? They should be relieved of their duties. OMG. First you can’t undo it, then you can’t put it back in place. 

Okay. That covers all the important stuff.

Carry on.

Wait. One more thing. The second half of the FIFA Women’s World Cup game between Columbia and German was a lesson in great defense. And a fabulous finish. It may still be around on replay. The first half? Not so much.

Saturday, July 29, 2023

There was a guy I worked with at Western Electric’s Baltimore factory. He was a well respected supervisor. We both passed the test to become Account Executives for AT&T Long Lines and went to training in Cincinnati Ohio. He was a nice guy friendly, smiling, but he had a chip on his shoulder. He used phrases like “What? He thinks his poop don’t stink?” and “We put our pants on the same way.”

I don’t think he had a college degree. I’ve found many folks who don’t seem to have this sort of attitude. The “I’m just as good as them” fixation. I have to ask myself, “If I you are (just as good as them) why do you have to keep bringing it up?” It seems the only person who doesn’t believe that they are just as good is the individual themselves. This is a long way of saying that it’s more about the person than whomever they are comparing themselves to. My friend quit the program and went back to being a supervisor.

This kind of behavior and speech seems to be a fixture on the right, any right wing party, here or abroad. It is  centered around the idea of a strong man. Someone who will come to power, take control and fix things. Make them right. Part of the strongman’s speech is always to blame “the other.” Someone else is to blame for their and your ills. It could be negroes, the Irish, immigrants, Jews, queers, protestants, Catholics, Muslims – doesn’t matter. Someone else is to blame for the current plight.

The right seems fixated on the left. They want to show the liberal elite, the woke mob, the anti-fascists, the people in the ivory towers. Why the fixation? Because if they didn’t have someone to blame they’d have to look at themselves. Or as Pogo said, “We have seen the enemy and them is us.” Whoa. No way! You’d have to swallow something (your pride?, your self righteousness? ) and face the situation. Better to avoid, and kick the can down the road.

I’ve been hearing this whining and blaming my whole life. It really hasn’t changed. They play a game of three card monte, except it’s more than three cards. It’s been compared to whack a mole. There’s the “What about?” phase. (“What about Hunter’s laptop?”, “What about Hillary’s server?”) Then there’s the blame and derision phase. (“Disgraceful,” “Lock her up!”) then there’s silence and a new topic. That is when confronted with the facts over and over again (maybe). What happens? Time to move on to a new (old) topic. 

There’s:

the left, Antifa, the Jews,

some proof of wrong doing (often pointed out to be false), the whistleblower (who was in fact a Chinese spy), The Dem’s server in Ukraine (non-existent), the child porn sex ring being run out of the basement of a pizza store in Washington DC (kind of hard to have a basement when your store is built on a concrete slab), the Coast Guard station on Long Island where a woman showed up with a high powered rifle to kill someone for some reason that Glenn Beck was yakking about, the crimes of the immigrants (they commit crime at half the rate of the citizen population), …

It’s never ending. 

The sad thing is when the shoe is on the other foot.

Never has it been more on display the last few days as more charges against Donald Trump have serviced. Quotes by him, outraged at the made up behavior of Hillary Clinton and what he would do to her; now he is faced with committing the same crimes.

And then there’s the plethora of Republican politicians – same schtick: outrage at the suggested behavior of the Dems, now they are faced with one of their own actually being accused in criminal indictment of doing what they were so outraged about before. The hypocrisy and cowardliness of thee people is plain for all to see.

But … But …

Shutup and eat your Cheerios.

Friday, July 28, 2023

Okay, before we get to who won the last stage of The Tour, let’s go over the overall winner. That is the person with the least amount of time, known as The General Category or GC winner, who gets awarded The Yellow Jersey. It’s important to understand this to understand what happened in this stage, before the end of the race.

In 2020 the old guard of The Tour de France was upset by a new comer, Tadej Pogaćar from Slovenia (pronounced “Taddy Po-gacha”). He was young. He dominated the race winning not only the yellow jersey, but The Best Young Rider. He won again in 2021. It seemed he was a shoo-in to win again. But then a young man from Denmark showed up – Jonas Vingegaard (“Yo-Nas Vinga-go”). He was slight of built, short, and seemed tireless. A year before he had been working in a fish factory shoveling ice. He was challenging Tadej There was a dual. They were only seconds apart until one mountain stage where Tadej “cracked” and Jonas got a slight advantage. That was all he needed.

By the way, “cracking” is a term applied to bike racers when their body has been working at too high an output and partially shuts down. You can watch a rider do really well going up a climb and then, all of a sudden, they can barely maintain any forward progress. This is what happened to Tadej in 2022.

In 2022 Tadej and Jonas were duking it out. One shadowing the other, not letting any distance get between them. Tadej was behind on time and needed something to get ahead. Then on a descent, near the bottom Tadej’s bike slipped out from under him. He went off the roadway into a grassy gully. He got up. Jumped on his bike. Jonas was just ahead, pedaling in circles, waiting for him. They fist bumped and continued their ride. Jonas won that year, and Tadej came in second.

That was 2022. Would 2023 be any different?

Nope. It soon emerged that it would be a battle between the two – again.

Jonas led Tadej by seven seconds, then ten. At one point in the middle of the race Tadej did something, I don’t remember what it was, but it made no sense tactically. Christian Vande Velde who was a commentator and had recently retired from bike racing wondered out loud why Tadej was doing whatever it was he was doing. The long time play by play announcer,  Phil Liggett, said, “because he’s Tadej Pogaćar,” simple enough.

By the time Stage 21 came around this year Tadej was over ten minutes behind Jonas. He was firmly in second place with no hopes of catching Jonas, and no one near him to challenge second. All he had to do was finish the stage.

As the riders circled up and down the Champs, all of a sudden Tadej broke out of the pack and led the race.

Why? You now know the answer. (“Because he’s Tadej Pogaćar.”) Tadej is one of the most beloved riders on the circuit. Always, courteous to others. He made a point to congratulate Jonas after every stage, and Jonas’ wife and baby. Tadej is constantly smiling. He’s just so positive.

He couldn’t hold the lead in that last stage, but he did for several times around the Champs. Eventually, the peleton caught up to him. He receded into the pack. And then on the last leg, in the lead out to the finish, here’s Tadej! What was he doing? It quickly became apparent that he was lead out riding for the sprinter on their team.

There were four teams racing for the finish. Jasper was certain to win. He was behind several riders but managed to break to one side and dash for the finish, as did the other three. It was ten, twenty seconds of madness. Jasper was on the right side of the course (left when the TV shot face on). The two middle teams were slightly behind, but who was this on the other side? The helicopter shot from above was useless because there was a banner above the finish line.

All four cyclists pushed their bikes forward to gain that little bit of distance at the finish. Who won? The fellow on the right side of the TV screen was looking to his left when they crossed the line. Jasper was to his right. He looked around and motioned, “Was it me? I don’t know?”

No one knew.

Here’s the photo finish. 

After 74 miles, eight laps, and it came down to this. Jasper (#106) is the bike closest to us. The far bike was ridden by Jordi Meeus. He had ridden in the Tour for six years, never won a stage. And today? He won the most coveted sprint in all of cycling on the biggest stage in the world, by what? The width of a tire?

Long Live The Tour!

ps Correction Jasper not Mads.