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

Trump may be learning one of America’s interesting political lessons

 Power in the United States is fleeting.

Many Republicans are acting all benevolent about the vote counting, saying we should let the votes count etc. Many are pushing back a bit at Trump, well maybe not pushing but leaning sideways right now. Why?

The answer is simple and obvious. They are thinking it will be easier to beat Biden in 2024 than have to deal with either Trump making noise about a third term or one of his children running and dominating the Republican party and splitting the Republican vote. 

Guess what President Trump, as long as the numbers keep skewing Biden the noise from within your party is going to get louder and once it looks like Biden wins you can scream all you want, but many prominent Republicans are going to start singing their own tunes. They all know McConnell will prevent Biden from being successful so a Republican can win in 2024. The positioning among the Republicans is already beginning. 

If you want to get ahead of the game for bandwagon jumping, see who works the most with McConnell in the Senate or which Republican Governor tries to find themselves on the national news as much as possible maybe trying to cherry pick Trump’s issues and verbiage to capture his base. 

We haven’t determined a winner yet, but politics in America never stops. 

vexatious litigants

 A 'vexatious litigant' is someone who persistently begins legal actions but doesn't have sufficient grounds for doing so. Vexatious proceedings include cases that are started or pursued: ... to harass or annoy, to cause delay or detriment, or for another wrongful purpose

The above definition actually comes from the Australian Courts.

Legal proceedings started with malice and without good case. Vexatious litigation is meant to bother, embarrass, or cause legal expenses to the defendant. A plaintiff who starts such litigation either knows or should reasonably know that no legal basis for the lawsuit exists. 

The above comes from a reference from Cornell Law School.

And Wikipedia says this:

Vexatious litigation is legal action which is brought solely to harass or subdue an adversary. It may take the form of a primary frivolous lawsuit or may be the repetitive, burdensome, and unwarranted filing of meritless motions in a matter which is otherwise a meritorious cause of action. Filing vexatious litigation is considered an abuse of the judicial process and may result in sanctions against the offender.

A single action, even a frivolous one, is usually not enough to raise a litigant to the level of being declared vexatious. Rather, a pattern of frivolous legal actions is typically required to rise to the level of vexatious. Repeated and severe instances by a single lawyer or firm can result in eventual disbarment.

And why the dive into the term vexatious litigant, because the Courts shouldn’t decide the election, the voters should.

Yes, the Republican Party is about to put this country through hell because they know they have a better chance in the Courts than they do with the majority of the voters. There are people who are supporting Trump and who will vote for him, but if the counts goes against them, the potential for an onslaught of worthless litigation is about to be filed. Even the man Trump himself is saying they have an an army of lawyers or something like that to be ready to go.

If you have an army of attorneys ready to go, you do not believe you have a legitimate chance of winning. So as citizens can we file suit in all these state courts that Trump and the Republicans that follow him be considered vexatious litigants? Look I do not want Trump or Biden to win, but realistically one will, yet it should determined by the voters not by how many votes you disqualify. 

Any excessive litigation to get there is a crime.

And on a side note, the better half and I not only didn’t vote for a Republican or Democrat, we actually voted for someone from a party we like.

Ya’ll get some sleep tonight, tomorrow is going to very interesting.

The Hispanic Vote

 Yes, one full day to the last day people can vote and I am going to talk about something called the Hispanic Vote. Bit late to try and make massive inroads for either party, so why the effort at this point.

First of all, the so called Hispanic vote is actually very diverse. Mexico, Central America, South America and some of the Caribbean make up most of the roots of some type of blanket term like the Hispanic vote. Even though there are many differences amongst this group there are two distinct reasons to group all this together. The first is immigration and the second is most of the culture from all these groups is very family orientated which lends to most of them generally have conservative tendencies. Add the immigration component and most have become successful through hard work you create a very large dynamic multi ethnic group that you could lump together as a voting bloc and not surprisingly would label as conservative or would lean conservative. 

So what gives, why talk about it now? Well for two reasons, one I have alluded to this before that this vote by nature is a conservative vote and the Republicans screwed up in 2012 when they didn’t follow through on being inclusive. Second and this caught me off guard. I was going to write about the Hispanic vote at some point anyway, but listening to Fox News radio on Friday afternoon one of the commentators went all in on the Hispanic vote being conservative and made many of the points I would have made. I didn’t get his name because I was listening in as I always do with all news groups and it was Fox’s turn, when lo and behold, the commentator went down a litany of reasons the Hispanic vote would tend to be conservative. I was impressed. I think it was a show with three or four commentators with the host being a woman, but again I was not paying that close attention till one did a good job of breaking down why he thought the Hispanic vote would go for Trump. I disagree with the Trump part, but a respectable candidate that didn’t tear up the immigration issue and the conservative candidate would have a significant advantage. 

Just a thought for those that might be interested going forward. 

Originally my post would have gone into greater detail, but I didn’t hit on it first earlier last week so feeling a bit beaten to the punch by Fox on this one, but hey, I have brought this topic up before, and it was strange hearing Fox make a rational argument about an opinion I feel strongly about. So tonight I watched the Cowboys almost play football for part of a game, but overall a third string quarterback is not the guy who can win a game in the NFL while helping the better half with something she wants to get done and ended up staring at bedtime still wanting to talk about this topic. I will come back to it because going forward in this country the Hispanic vote whether people like it or not is going to be a major factor in the future. 

So as always a new conservative party that is inclusive realizes that immigration is a hot button issue, and overall recognizes they believe in family, hard work, many own their own business, the success of their children, going to church is going to be successful in courting this vote. It is not all the same and there are many individual interests, but as a group that really isn’t a group the Hispanic vote is very important to the future of our country and better to include and help them to incorporate the values of our Constitution than ignore or marginalize going forward. It will make or break the success of either party or hopefully a new one going forward. 

Again a more detailed discussion will be posted again, but for this election there were missed opportunities in not engaging this group overall.