Merry fifth day of Christmas

 Well, been extremely busy for 90% of the time and extremely lazy the other ten percent of the time. So guess what gets laid to the wayside.

I hope you had a wonderful, joyful and safe Christmas and I wish you a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year. 

Things have been crazy and way too many topics to catch up in one day, yet we will discuss all that has happened, will happen, what we didn’t expect or forget it all on another day, for now relax, find a safe spot to chill for the rest of the year and stay out of harms way.

Cheers

Headlines and comments

 Okay earlier today I saw a story that there are people living in Palm Beach who are suing to keep Trump from living at Mar-a-Lago. 

Trump homeless? We all know that won’t happen, but that is hilarious to think about. I am not one to wish bad upon people, but the irony of just the thought is worth a moment.

And then to my amazement there was a story that says Dr. Fauci was making comments about how strange of a virus is Covid 19. And I am looking for a date on this story, yet it was from yesterday I think. We have all known this virus was crazy months ago. Why is he all of a sudden saying we need to study why some people get sick and others don’t? Seriously, they should have started this study in April. Anyway I was caught off guard by him having this epiphany publicly.

Oh and I really want to start a whole of host my own conspiracies. I have made half baked attempts in the past, but conspiracies have gotten so out of hand we should have contest or something. And I want to join in. Apparently they are real easy if you know the right crowd. It is crazy. Which is worst? The virus or the conspiracies and just like the virus conspiracies infect some and not others. That is another study that needs to be done even though most of us already know the answer. Kinda leads to that ole phrase an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 

Stay safe, stay warm, stay sane

Just like so many others

 Our illustrious Attorney General William Barr realizes Trump isn’t who he thought he was or wasn’t who he wanted him to be.

I am guessing has realized this a bit longer ago than he is letting on.

Mr. Barr resigned today and even earned some accolades from the President as he heads out the door. All that doesn’t matter though. Mr. Barr joins a growing list of ex staffers, ex supporters who thought they were supporting someone who was going to do something or had a real conservative agenda.

The President never had a clue to what an agenda is and now Mr. Barr can decide how he wants history to judge him. Does he go quietly and let bygones be bygones or do we hear “book deal” in the background? I doubt we see a book though. Mr. Barr is probably going somewhere to lick his wounds and figure out another way to create the ultimate power in the Presidency. Trump let him down as he lets the country down. For Mr. Barr though there had been hope of a new era in the Presidency, now he is looking over his shoulder at the tattered dreams he had as had so many other people who never fully drank the kool aid have realized. 

The next few days will be interesting for Mr. Barr as he winds down to “leaving for the holidays”. When Barr said there was no election fraud, you caught a peek at his resignation and now it is in full view. And again I think he was out the door long before the election. I don’t like his policies, but he is a man with a plan and a brain and he saw the writing on the wall like most of us did months ago. He just couldn’t move because he was holding out hope Trump might turn things around and win. And if so, he could go back to re-imaging the Presidency in ways he has dreamt for years. Now, history won’t be kind and Biden’s Presidency will set back his dreams a few years if not for much much longer. 

Trump ain’t quiting yet, but for Mr. Barr the time has come and gone.

Stay safe

I want to apologize

 for Ken Paxton, I’m not, but I want to, no not really.

I didn’t vote for him so he is not my responsibility, yet those that did vote for him are cheering him on. Why you ask?

Damn good question. I wish I had the answer because it is more than mind boggling the hold Donald Trump has on so many people in this country. 

I am more conservative than Donald Trump and have been for decades, yet “conservatives” seem to think he represents them. Any real conservative knows the truth about him, yet somehow millions of Americans are blinded by something Donald has that no one else seems to have. Thank goodness I do not have it. 

Some need to be told what to do by a strong leader would be one thought or reason, but he isn’t really strong. He whines excessively and makes lots of noises, but he is not strong. 

He has no agenda. He has no pie in the sky ideas. Paul Ryan then Mitch McConnell used him to get a few things they wanted, but Mr. Trump has not produced any public policy. Sure he played with Tonka toys on the border sand and some semblance of a wall exists in certain areas, but policy??? Even his wall is a failed concept and does not actually produce any results. Illegal immigration goes on. So his actions do not benefit his supporters.

So why do millions of Americans believe this crazy notion that the election was stolen from him? There is no proof whatsoever. None or none they have produced, yet these millions of Americans cannot seem to get past this notion there was fraud, the election was stolen and their world is going to fall apart. It isn’t, but that doesn’t stop the belief.

One iota of a factor is they feel downtrodden because the big ole world is out to get them and steal their livelihoods. Now this is a concern, but the real crooks stealing their livelihoods is the same swamp Trump promised to get rid of. Instead the swamp got bigger and Mitch McConnell makes the swamp monster from the 1950′s look like a catch.

So why am I saying the obvious, there is nothing new to say here. Most rational people have watched this develop for the last nine months and expected this madness. So what gives? 

What gives is how do we hold the Trump and his gang of four (plus) responsible for their actions without alienating his supporters or base? Seriously we need to somehow find a way to move them forward. That is one problem, but the more pressing problem is how do we hold Trump responsible? Somehow the Supreme Court needs to hear his cases or Paxton’s case or whatever and read them the riot act on National TV. I mean have them look all these lawyers in the eyes and say put up or shut up and if you don’t put up and then don’t shut up there is a cost you have to pay because that is the root of the problem. They can do all this madness because there are no consequences for destroying democracy. None. Nothing. They can wash rinse repeat this madness forever. 

Someone has to say you can’t burn down the house, scream fire, watch as everyone riots in the streets and not be held accountable. So we need real consequences for these actions. AGs need to be disbarred, Rudy, Jenna and now Eastman need to be disbarred, all these politicians that keep shouting fraud with no proof need to be sued for trillions of dollars, yes trillions, put them in debt to the American public. Heck they aren’t protecting us anyway, might as well have them pay our bills. And this money cannot come from the government, but from their pockets. I know I am exaggerating, but the consequences need to hurt them so it will make future fascists think a bit before they might act. 

The only fraud is the fraud of Trump and his minions lying to the American public about fraud. And that needs to stop and again they need to be held accountable in ways that it hurts them or otherwise they will destroy democracy and for what? One man’s ego. How sad is that? There needs to be razor sharp teeth in the consequences for this destruction of the country we all love, even most of the people that support Trump. Can you spell sadly ironic with capital letters? I am talking money and jail time here folks. 

And on a side note; is Paxton just trying to make sure he gets a pardon since he is under indictment for securities fraud?. How sad is that?

So I won’t apologize for him even though I am from Texas. A true Texan would never have fallen in such lock step. The root of Texas is being independent, not kowtowing to a very weak demagogue. And this last paragraph goes for little Teddy Cruz also. That man is so not a Texan. 

There was a point

 Last night I made a comment about great writers and then made an attempt at humor to dismiss the idea of being a great writer. Yet the whole idea was to make a point about an article I read and how much a slight change of context means quite a bit.

I was reading an article and the author was talking the election lawsuits and there was a comment that wished Mr. Giuliani well and we will continue to try and overturn the election. Now that is an interesting phrase, try and overturn.

It was not in quotation marks so was it attributable to the person wishing Mr. Giuliani well or was the author injecting their opinion into the conversation? I mean if one of the people working to prove fraud actually said they were working to overturn the election, that in itself is fraudulent activity. 

Who knows since this was yesterday and I cannot find the article today. Yet it is scary there is no clarification. Putting words in people’s mouths especially in these trying and divisive times needs to be addressed on a professional level. You cannot insert a belief or presumption into an article just because you do not like the people you are discussing in an article. Again though if one of the President’s front and forward allies are actually saying in public that they are trying to overturn the election, that needs to be addressed by the DOJ. And yes I know this means AG Barr, but force it upon him and make him take a stand. You cannot overturn an election by forcing others to change the process or interfere in the process or as one person asked the Governor of Georgia to call a special session to basically disenfranchise millions of votes.

And what is funny about these attempts to sidestep the vote and have the legislators decide who the winner is, they are even disenfranchising the voters that voted for Trump because once an election is changed everyone that voted just got cheated out of their vote. And somewhere down the road that will come back to haunt them as more and more elections get stolen and eventually they lose actually having their vote matter. 

Anyway the point being what you put in article can have serious repercussions because of your belief. People tend to pick up on those nuances and pass it off as fact. Or failing to identify what is really being said by individuals in positions of power can cause catastrophic consequences. 

Either way being just a responsible writer, much less great means making sure your audience knows exactly what you are trying to say without distorting the truth or facts. Otherwise you are just practicing propaganda and are no better than the fools who are trying to steal the election. Or can you tell who is trying to steal the election by what is said. 

Stay safe

a bit of a hypothesis

 So now that Mr. Giuliani has unfortunately tested positive for Covid-19 and he will have to quarantine will there be more Q posts and theories spread throughout the Q world? Or what happens if Mr. Giuliani gets real sick and is immobilized, will there be any new Q theories, conspiracies, or posts? Or will the posts go quiet?

Just a hypothesis.

You know, great writers always seem to enjoy good wine or at least the characters in their stories do, and then here I am drinking “inexpensive” table wine. It is Advent, aren’t we suppose to go to confession. Oh wait that isn’t sin, just a sad self observation. Well at least the dinner was good.

And sometime in the next couple of weeks will be the ten year anniversary for this blog. Absolutely scary! I started on blogspot or blogger and eventually started copying the same posts to Tumblr and Wordpress.

Cheers

It is like that old person who won’t stop talking about their gout or whatever

 Over and over again you read the same stories, talking about the same thing and nothing changes.

It is becoming a broken record...static static click, static static click repeating because the needle is stuck on the turnstile.

It is the old man in the 70′s sitcom where they make the same joke over and over again because of some ailment or they constantly are having to go to the bathroom. Damn it, the joke is old.

Or the worse case scenario, the movie Ground Hog’s Day and none of us get out of the day till some miracle happens and we figure out what we should have figured out weeks ago. 

One day there will be something new in the news cycle. We won’t have to drudge through another article hoping that something different has happened or some promise of a check that will never arrive keeps getting bantered about or that people will quit being angry about nothing because their feelings are hurt. 

You have to be careful, the last time the world got this stuck we ended up in this pandemic predicament with a heaping dose of election madness dolled out like whip cream on pumpkin pie. We definitely do not want another year of that much madness, but at the same time the news regurgitates these two stories to the point we are tired of it all. The next time someone tells me their rights are taken away because they have to wear a mask I will scream into their nostrils. I won’t, but stupid is as stupid does. Or the next time someone writes an article about how someone had their comeuppance on Twitter which is no more than a bunch of pretentious people patting themselves on the back for name calling someone who wrote something idiotic in a Tweet. I will rip their tweeting fingernails off. I won’t but stupid is as stupid does.

Heck are we headed towards another Middle East war?

What revolution is coming next?

Did Kim Jong-Un launch another rocket?

How many people are starving in the world?

Are there any polar ice caps left? 

Did they cancel Christmas?

The news feeds are pandemic and pandonald ranting about being robbed in an election. 

We could have landed on Mars and no one would know.

And at some point in the near future a bunch of politicians will pass an irresponsible budget so we can keep our government open even though the Donald has spent the last four years trying to tear this same government down. And one of the few things he has managed to come close to accomplishing. 

Heck the only new news was when I read that Oklahoma is the biggest pot smoking state in the country or something like that. Oklahoma?!?!?! I thought that was a bad musical. Maybe there is hope because up until then the best thing Oklahoma did was bring us Merle Haggard. I do not care if you are left or right, fascist or commie, Democrat or Republican, independent or apathetic, if you do not like Merle Haggard there is something wrong with you. 

“The first thing I remember knowin'
Was a lonesome whistle blowin'
And a young un's dream of growin' up to ride
On a freight train leavin' town
Not knowin' where I'm bound
And no one could change my mind but Mama tried
One and only rebel child
From a family, meek and mild
My Mama seemed to know what lay in store
Despite all my Sunday learnin'
Towards the bad, I kept on turnin'
'Til Mama couldn't hold me anymore

And I turned twenty-one in prison doin' life without parole
No one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied
That leaves only me to blame 'cause Mama tried

Dear old Daddy, rest his soul
Left my Mom a heavy load
She tried so very hard to fill his shoes
Workin' hours without rest
Wanted me to have the best
She tried to raise me right but I refused

And I turned twenty-one in prison doin' life without parole
No one could steer me right but Mama tried, Mama tried
Mama tried to raise me better, but her pleading, I denied
That leaves only me to blame 'cause Mama tried”

Merle Haggard

Who knows I may get in trouble for printing the lyrics, but that would be par for the course now wouldn’t it?

And if you are really paying attention you know a new year has started and hopefully we will begin a new. This week is Hope.

Salud!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving

 I hope you had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. We were blessed here in North Texas. The weather was great so we were able to eat outside with some of the family. Had a good time, missed the rest though.

Still learning how to balance this being safe versus enjoying the holidays.

So the better half is over here shopping online, got her cards all lined up by the computer. So I am over here paying bills trying to keep the balances at zero. ha ha ha We are doing tequila shots for very different reasons. hmm hmm good, oh wait that is for soup.

Anyway trying to have fun and enjoy the moment except as a Cowboy fan that has become extremely difficult. That team is going south faster than the ducks and geese.

And speaking of shopping I miss going to the mall this time of year, not the rest of the year. There was nothing like the decorations, the crowds, the festive feeling, all that was fading before now, but this pandemic pretty much took the rest of it. It may be a generational thing, but one that will be missed by this guy. 

And I wasn’t going to write anything political, but have to say the only voter fraud is Citizen’s United and getting rid of that will drain the swamp much faster.

And I hope you do manage to find something to be thankful for in this crazy year, if not I hope you can find something hopeful soon.

Cheers. 

Hurry up and go President Trump

 It is time to start the Biden bashing.

One thing we know for sure, is there will be some job openings in DC soon. Trump has whittled away a good junk of Washington D.C. and regular career civil service jobs, left untold number of political appointment jobs unfilled, firing people like crazy, so yeah, and add in a Democrat to the White House and the job numbers in D.C. will be positive come February and March, maybe longer.

Other than that Biden is going to be stymied. I do not think Georgia is going to elect a Democrat Senator, much less two so lack of leadership Leader McConnell will sit on all legislation till way past time the cows come home. Why? Because he can and he has no agenda, just power. And frankly he is the swamp, so hey there is another Trump campaign promise not fulfilled. 

The gags are old, the Republicans are older, and once the hurrah of Biden’s first few days pass, Washington will still be the swamp, money will still buy Congress, ineffective bureaucracy will rule the day, and if we are lucky Trump’s tweets or palors or whatevers will fade into the background for awhile as whatever he says now carries absolutely no weight and thank goodness no authority. 

Things will go back to just being another day in the neighborhood all the while our problems fester, money is wasted, the pretentious left will lecture us, and yet they still don’t have a new idea. Wait I do take that back. Like it or not the Green New Deal is a new idea so lets give credit where credit is due. What happens to it, well don’t hold hour breath. And you may have to if we do not do something about fossil fuel and its’ pollution. 

And only Trump can ruin Thanksgiving, well a pandemic also, but I heard he is thinking of staying in Washington to do who knows what. Someone send him to Mar-a-Lago so he can rest and so can we. 

The longer he delays the more fired up his base is becoming, which is his plan, but at some point someone has to tell them the President is just making stuff up, go home, eat turkey and enjoy real life for awhile. Hopefully it will be Trump, but then again I buy lottery tickets also. 

Cheers

Now it is getting funny

 So the talk has been that if Trump ever decides to move on from the White House he might start a Digital Media Company to supposedly wreck Fox News. And I am pulling the above sentence from a news headline from Yahoo’s myriad of stories. 

Yep good ole Donald Trump is going to start another company or business. And I bet Fox News is not holding their breath over this new company because,... well.... it is Donald Trump and he has such a hugely bigly history of business success. The guy use to open a new business all the time and exactly which ones are still in business. Only the Real Estate school seemed to survive until it was shut down by a lawsuit. 

Casinos, airlines, steaks, and whatever offer so much worry to Fox News about anything Trump might do to “wreck” them. 

Now this may be left wing media hysteria or whatever, but no one on either side of the proverbial aisle is worried about a new business venture from Trump. Maybe he gets someone competent to run it so he can spend the whole time ranting and raving about his fraudulent election and for awhile his base will tune in and there will be some advertising dollars. Over time how much can the base stand day in and day out of his same schtick. Sure there will be conspiracies galore to add new programming, but realistically it would start to drone on and on after so many appearances. Sure they will all still like it and may check it every day, but at some point when do they stop paying close attention and deal with their daily lives. Most have jobs, families, church etc so holding their attention for any length of time will be challenging. Okay some are the crazies with no real life, but honestly most do have normal lives and that will take over and make it difficult to constantly tune in. 

It is great to go to a rally once in awhile to get out of the house, but day after day of him standing there with that self satisfied look on his face as his crowd eggs him on will wear on even the most ardent of supporters. It is human nature. 

Maybe I am wrong and playing the hits to his base on a daily basis may be Trump’s true business success, but wait I just said that in a sentence didn’t I. It is just too funny to even think this will happen. 

Good luck there Donnie boy. 

On a secondary note Fox News needs to step up and admit they are a problem in this country. After 20+ years of feeding nonsense that the Democrats are the enemy they are responsible for much of the current division in this country. Time they did some healing, or shoot maybe some of us independents ought to sue them for treason or something. Yes the pretentious left is a problem too, but Fox has ramped up their audience pretty significantly and all for corporate greed. 

The Republicans still own the Democrats

 Not that this is a good thing, yet day in and day out the Republicans are still yanking the Democrats chains over and over again.

And some of this has nothing to do with Trump.

The Republicans do and say all this border line stuff that is borderline illegal and immoral, but skirt the edge just enough to send the Democrats into hissy fits and they say all sorts of nonsense which the Republicans come back and use to show their base how dangerous are the Democrats.

I have watched this for decades now and the Democrats never seem to learn. Maybe because they rely on pretentious media leadership, maybe because they tend to see problems that can happen, but actually haven’t happened or maybe they are just too sensitive. Whatever it is, it ain’t pretty to watch.

Sometimes I wonder if the Republicans aren’t in their country clubs spouting all sorts of nonsense trying to one up each other on what they are going to say the next day to get a reaction from the Democrats. 

Trump and his people took this to new levels. The problem is the average Republicans don’t realize how dangerous he really is to this country. To many it was just another way to be entertained by Democrat over reactions.

And we won’t get into any policy issues coming from Trump (there aren’t that many anyway), for many Republicans it is worth its weight in gold for the entertainment factor to watch Democrats twist in the wind. Add in people like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity to fuel the hatred all the while gathering Democrat’s overreaction and hyping it up on their show. They make millions, Trump thinks he is a hero and the Democrats help burn the house down because they can’t see straight through their anger. 

Ever wonder why I say Democrats are clueless. 

I truly hate being so caustic but someone needs to wake them up.

No one is singing just yet

 At least in the Republican party

Still way too much going on, too many votes to recount, fraud to uncover, prime time hosts to make money, the disconnect of what people want to hear and what people are actually seeing with their eyes, the pretentious left feeding the machine and inciting even more madness, because after four years of Trump being ridiculed the Trump team is going to get their turn, so we sit through four more years of hate and animosity coming from both sides all trying to make their side feel good. 

Biden might hold himself up above the fray, but he won’t get anything done. McConnell will make sure of that, unless some miracle happens and the Democrats win two Senate seats in Georgia. Last time miracles actually happened was around 2000 years ago, so McConnell is maybe slightly concerned, but overall will keep any legislation that will change anything tightly wrapped up in whatever committee hell or maybe not even that far along in the process hell so the Republicans can come storming back in 2024. And that election is already underway whether Trump throws his hat in the ring or not. 

So what is next. Even a Stimulus package is a far flung pipe dream right now. Trump won’t negotiate, McConnell will gloat, Pelosi will pontificate, and people will die, starve, become disenchanted, alt right conspiracies will only grow in number, content and scope and Don McLean’s song American Pie will take on a new haunting meaning. So yeah, try and have a good day, but...

Many of us will go back to work, pay our taxes, complain about our taxes and the light bill, complain about government, complain about socialists, complain about Qanon, complain about media figures, complain about alt right madness, and generally be the same as they were two weeks ago, but with no election to complain about and still not make enough, still not have decent healthcare, still not have retirement planned, still worry about social security, still worry about potholes, still worry about computers in the classroom, still worry about their kids going to the classroom, still trying to decide if they should cook at home since restaurants aren’t safe, but actually deciding what drive through they can stomach now and burn gasoline like it isn’t polluting the atmosphere waiting in the double line now, and generally wanting a sense of normalcy to return to their lives. 

Too bad 2020 happened. We aren’t going back, some may hopefully get to move forward, others will still fight against hate, there are changes that have occurred that affects our daily lives, some productive some just as wasteful as what we did in 2019, and all in all most of us will live with the changes and what didn’t change hoping  to find that infamous “meaning” to our lives.

Am I a bit melancholy tonight, depressed, realistic, pessimistic, tired, downtrodden, definitely not jovial, upbeat, optimistic, dreaming, energized, or maybe I am buried beneath a velour cloth too frazzled to shed something soft for the moment and deal with the reality that 2020 is coming to an end, and yet that won’t mean a damn thing because Trump and this pandemic ain’t going away anytime soon. 

We still need change. And like it or not we didn’t get it.

If there was ever a year we didn’t need to elect a Democrat or Republican this was the year.

And yet, I am proud of this country. Highest voter turn out in over a hundred years and maybe even more. For as much as I rail against the duopoly the duopoly showed up this election season. It does say something. There is still a third of eligible voters that didn’t vote so who knows why, but maybe someone could have received that vote and changed us. For good or bad, that is not something we will know. Or at least for now.

Both parties will go back to failing us, but for right now, that is what this country wants. One day maybe enough of us will realize that change ain’t so bad. 

Stay safe, stay home, keep cooking, and if you have to go to work, keep your head up and your mask on.

Cheers