Rick Kinnaird

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Bike racing is a crazy sport. You pedal for 100 miles, up mountains and down. The descent at speeds that are terrifying. If you go off the road you will probably die, and every few years someone does. The race will end in a sprint or an exhausting up hill climb. You can’t win on your own; you need a team because you need to be in the slip stream of someone else. If you are in that slip stream your pedaling gets much easier. You can feel it. (I checked with someone who knows.) 

Races are done in stages: one day, one stage. Typically, a stage is one hundred miles, give or take thirty. If you are going for the least time overall (called GC – general category) you will be sheltered by your team for every stage for almost the whole way. Near the end of a climb you’ll break out ahead of the pack (called the peleton) and claw your way up a mountain and get a better time than anyone else, which will be the difference. You’ll have the fastest time of anyone else, provided that you kept up with everyone on every stage. 

To win a stage you have to go all out. If the stage ends in a flat approach then it’s a sprint. Sprinters are a special breed. They can accelerate faster than anyone else. Mark Cavendish, the fastest in the world was going 46 miles an hour in a sprint to the end of one stage in The Tour de France when his gear slipped and he lost by a length. He then “crashed out” in another stage. Actually, it seemed a moment of inattention when his front wheel hit the back wheel of a team mate and he went over the handlebars and broke his collar bone. This left the way open for the next fastest man in the world Jasper Philipsen to win all the sprint stages, including the one where Mark’s chain slipped. There was only one sprint left. Stage 21 on the Champs-Élysées, 71.4 miles with the final part being eight laps around the Arc de Triomphe to the les Tuileries and the Louvre.  

Typically, the GC (best time overall) is obvious who the winner will be by stage 21 and that team sits back and lets the sprinters have their final moment of glory.

Jasper Philipsen was the fastest sprinter left in the race, having every sprint stage so far, could he do it again? The commentators all picked him, with one exception.

In order to win a sprint you need a good lead out team and a great final lead out cyclist. Remember that slip stream thing? You need your team to pedal as hard as they can, and you the sprinter stay tucked in until the last moment. Each cyclist does what they can before pulling off and letting the next one go hard. Finally, you get down to the lead out man and the sprinter. The team is trying to make sure no one else can go as fast as they are going, and their sprinter is waiting for the right moment to break out and go for the finish. Go too soon and you run out of gas. Go too late and another team’s sprinter could beat you.

So here’s the finish, after 71 miles and eight laps. Jasper is on our left. Another cyclist is on our right with two in between. Who won?

Tune in tomorrow.

Earlier editions had Mads Peterson not Jasper – big mistake, bummer.

Monday, July 24, 2023

Picasso was known to make a lot of paintings with the same face from two perspectives: straight on and in profile. I never really liked them. It seemed a easy cop out to sell stuff, because it didn’t take much effort. Few mention that there’s a museum in Paris where African masks and art are displayed, which show this idea. And to quote the master, “Good artist steal.”

There have been several issues that I am of two minds: one is the economy. We have good numbers for jobs, and inflation. Yet, businesses are seeing a slow down. An inverted yield curve tells us that times are good now but not long term. Is that wrong this time? I don’t know.

Rachel Maddow has a six part podcast called “Deja News.” There’s a gopher sticking its head out of its hole as the image on the app’s icon. It took we a while to get it. (Bill Murray? “Groundhog Day”? Okay it’s not a gopher it’s a groundhog.)

Each segment of the podcast is thirty minutes long and each episode draws an example from history to make the point that what we are seeing in our politics and the politics around the world is not new. It’s been done before. Ron DeSantis shipping folks north to sock it to the Libs? Done in the 60s. Then it was black people sent to Hyannis Port to show JFK a thing or two. (He wasn’t there.) Stage a protest of right wing fascists that resulted in a government overthrow? Done and succeeded in France, Feb 6, 1934. That government went on to collaborate with the Nazis and shipped its own Jewish citizens off to death camps. I never understood why until now. They, Pétain and the Vichy government, hated Jews.

Those and four other examples are illuminating and reveal that what is going on now is nothing new. The question really is what will happen this time? The interesting thing is the tactics and the arguments are the same. Take power; change the rules, pack the courts, spread lies (sorry disinformation and conspiracy theories), blame “the others,” imprison/humiliate/intimidate “the others” and potential voters you don’t think will vote for your party etc. 

I had not realized that William Rehnquist had been active in voter intimidation of minorities when he wa a lawyer. He, like John Bolton, had been standing on voter lines telling certain people that they were not allowed to vote. Later, he became Chief Justice. He wasn’t able to repeal or gut the Voting Rights Act, that was left to his clerk who succeeded him, John Roberts.

So, like Picasso, and our economy, I’m of two minds about what is going on politically here and around the world.

One of the people who commented on one of the episodes said of the right wing folks, “Eventually, they will come for you.”

And lastly, I still don’t understand the motivation to ban abortions. Yes, I’ve heard it’s to disenfranchise women or to keep power over them. Maybe, it’s just the conspiracy theory that every life is precious. How can that be if they are happy to send “others” to certain or near certain death?

Well, I can’t solve everything today. Gotta leave something for tomorrow. But in the meantime let us remember the words of Marjorie Taylor-Greene who has unmasked the real thing the Biden, Harris, and the Dems are out to do:

“Joe Biden

had the largest public investment

in social infrastructure 

and environmental programs

that is actually finishing

what FDR started,

that LBJ expanded on,

and Joe Biden is

attempting to complete.

Programs to address 

education,

medical care,

urban problems,

rural poverty,

transportation,

Medicare,

Medicaid,

labor unions.

and he still is

working on it.” 

– Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Yesterday, I saw a new ad for Joe Biden. It was terrific: succinct and to the point. In fact, it was perfect.

Simultaneously for all my MAGA friends it revealed the plot of what Biden and the Dems have been up to.

Not just under Biden but stretching back to FDR and LBJ.

These words, spoken by a MAGA Republican revealed the truth! They reveal exactly what those Democrats have been up to all along. TRUTH!

You, me, everyone has a choice to make. Are you going to allow this to continue? Or are you going to stand in the way? (or in Donald Trump’s case hold a press conference and do nothing.*)

PLOT REVEALED!

What Joe Biden and the Dems are up to.

Truth!

Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene, July 16, 2023, Turning Points Action conference, Palm Beach Conference Center, Florida:

“Joe Biden

had the largest public investment

in social infrastructure 

and environmental programs

that is actually finishing

what FDR started,

that LBJ expanded on,

and JoeBiden is

attempting to complete.

Programs to address 

education,

medical care,

urban problems,

rural poverty,

transportation,

Medicare,

Medicaid,

labor unions.

and he still is

working on it.”

This morning I saw another ad from the Dems with sleepy Joe saying, “Come on folks …”

OMG! Don’t blow it. Play that funky Maga woman’s words over and over again. 

She is clear and succinct.

people can understand what she is saying.

Enough with Bidenomics and “Come on folks”

Go with a winner! Go Greene!

In 35 seconds she encapsulated what you’ve been up to.

Don’t try to improve on it. Just beat it!

Beat it good.

Are you for education, medical care, solving urban problems and rural poverty like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Dems are for?

*To be fair to Mr. Trump. My above comment suggested he did nothing. This is not true. He actively sought to centralize power in his hands and use the levers of government against his enemies. and the people. He was kind of amateurish about it, but now he has a team and a plan and he has let us all know that if he gets back in power he will actively put in place thugs, reprobates, and sycophants who will do his bidding. In short, he has said he will do whatever it takes to end our democracy. I just want to be fair and make sure that is clearly stated. 

Friday July 21, 2023

Well, I have to ask what Trump’s game plan is. It seems to be to get re-elected and then pardon himself. That will work for Federal crimes, but not state. Maybe, he’ll run for governor in each state where he’s under investigation? In the meantime his defense seems to be nothing on the merits except to say, “Witch Hunt,” and “It’s a disgrace,” which are two handy phrases to use for any legal situation.

The other avenue open to him is to find one juror who won’t convict him. Given that some 30% of the population seems to believe his “It’s a disgrace” comments then maybe he can pull it off.

However, he has to pull it off in: Michigan, Georgia, Manhattan, New York, Washington DC, Florida, and possibly Arizona. Those aren’t good odds. Especially, when he’s committed crimes right out in the open with no apologies, and he’s admitted to them. 

But he’s got friends in Congress. Mattie Gaetz is on the case. Yup, Mattie-boy is introducing legislation to defund Jack Smith. Way to go!

In other news Jim Jordan has been busy. He got Robert Kennedy Jr. to come in and testify about government crimes or something like that. I guess there wasn’t time to actually bring up any, or was it that there were none to find? Kennedy said he never said that the Covid vaccine was engineered to target blacks and Jews (or was it Covid? I forget.) Then the Dems on the committee played the video of him saying exactly that. He then said that he has never told anyone that they shouldn’t get the vaccine then the Congresswoman from the Virgin Islands read a direct quote where he said that. 

Kennedy’s voice was very gravely. It sounded like too much smoking or drugs. Probably drugs as he has been addicted most of his adult life, having been found guilty of heroin possession. 

But then we got to the meat of the meeting, and the reason why the Republicans called him in, and now I understand! Hunter’s laptop! I’ve never understood the right’s fascination with, and dwelling on, this subject, but now I do.

See, if we could find his laptop it would reveal things that would make millions and millions of people change their votes for Biden! Ah ha. 

It seems to me like the end of The Raiders of The Lost Ark where the Nazis open the Ark of the Covenant and their faces melt off their skulls.

BTW as I think about all the cases against Trump, all the legal cases against him, and all the enablers and sycophants telling him what he wants to hear, I see Pigpen going over the hill in a swarm of depositions, subpoenas, motions, target letters nd grovelers trailing behind with the balloon, “With Hunt” over top.

Moving on. Sheldon Whitehouse at long last got a vote in the Judiciary Committee on his bill to set up ethics standards for the Supreme Court. It passed by one vote, but not before Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Graham had their say.

“It’s an attempt by the Dems to pack the court.” 

Whitehouse replied, “The Court is already packed.”

“It will end democracy as we know it” or something like that. What? The comment is so out there that one is gobsmacked, and it’s hard to reply. The bill would give the Supreme Court 180 days (six months) to set up their own ethics committee and if they didn’t, then one would be imposed on them. Hum. Where’s the ending of democracy?

Women’s Soccer tonight at 9pm. Thank God.

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Michigan’s Attorney General has brought charges against the 16 folks who signed on to be fake electors declaring Donald Trump to have won that state when they knew otherwise.

So what? So it’s eight counts each with a 14 year term in jail.

Lemms see, 14 x 8 = 120 years. Most of these people are in their 70s. So they’ll get out of jail when they are 190. Sounds fair. How about ten years off for good behavior?

And these folks are heads of the Republican Party in Michigan. That’s okay, you can run the party from your jail cell, right? I mean the current front runner, if he wins might have to rule the country from a jail cell. A state jail cell because he’ll pardon himself on Federal charges but still.

The question becomes, “which state?”

Trump has so many criminal acts he is charged with, in so many jurisdictions, it’s hard to know where he’ll go to trial first and where he’ll spend his first night in jail. 

Important questions remain, like – “Will we get to watch as they shave his head?”

“Will he wear a set of gold diamond encrusted handcuffs designed by his daughter when he does the perp walk?”

“Will Jared be right behind him doing the walk?”

“Will Ivanka?” (I did nothing. – We know.)

So many questions.

When I heard the news people reviewing the cases and the states and the possible dates for trials I saw Pigpen, Charles Shultz’s comic character who was always dirty and was surrounded and trailed by a cloud of dirt, but it was Trump not Pigpen (I could tell by the hair), and in the swirling brown cloud trailing him were subpoenas and torts and arrest warrants, and all kinds of legal stuff flying out behind him. And people, loyalists, trampled underfoot.

The thing that gets me is how little defense he has been able to mount. Other than saying his stock phrases, like, “It’s a disgrace what they are doing,” and statements we’ve all heard before he seems to have little to argue.

One thing I’ve learned through all this is that the law is written in such a way as to say, “Blah blah blah means if you have done the following things you are guilty of the crime of Blah blah blah.”

Volume two of the Mueller Report lays out ten charges against Trump. Six of them there is no question. The evidence is there in black and white. Four might need a little help. Prosecutors have said that any prosecutor with one (or both) arms tied behind their back could get a conviction based on that report. Why that hasn’t happened I don’t know.

Last night I heard Jamie Raskin say that if Trump is convicted of Insurrection he can no longer serve as President. I think that’s what he said. I wonder if Trump would still be entitled to Secret Service protection?

If I heard the Congressman correctly then I guess we wouldn’t have to impeach him again and find him guilty to remove the Secret Service protection?

So many questions.

Meanwhile, a young man won Wimbledon. Perhaps a new era is dawning?