Category: Trump

Happy Thanksgiving – 2024

photog Current Events, Reclaiming the Family, Trump , ,

I feel virtuous tonight.  I got up early, worked on the novel, did my exercise, got outside with my camera to get some shots of ice crystals on the grass and leaves and even spent some time today with Princess Sack of Potatoes going over the facts on the planets of the solar system.  I told her about the deeply anti-American decision to strip Pluto of its status as the 9th planet and the very questionable nature surrounding ideas about a manned voyage to Mars.  But I said it was still a wonderful idea to dream about.  And she drew her versions of what the planets look like.  I told her to add the Great Red Spot to Jupiter and pointed out the Polar Ice Cap on Mars as a feature.

So, in many ways this was a model of what a productive day should look like.  I did go on line from time to time and even checked up on Ukraine (things look even more dire than they were).  But I skipped the crying Leftists videos and even passed over the “Trump’s Cabinet Picks Explained” category too.  So, all in all, I’m a model elections-anonymous twelve stepper.

And here we are the night before Thanksgiving and really all I’m thinking about is where we can fit everybody in the dining room.  I wanted to adjourn to the living room.  I like elbow room, lots of elbow room.  But Camera Girl, like all women thinks it’s a big deal to have to break down some folding tables after dinner.  I told her that is silly.  I’d mobilize the men and boys and it would be done in a minute and a half and it’s good to move around a little after eating all that food.  But blah. blah, blah.  So okay, we’ll be squeezed together like sardines.

Alright, for Thanksgiving we have to be thankful.  And even before Trump won, I was thinking I’ve got lots to be grateful for.  Everybody is healthy including my many siblings and their families.  Camera Girl hasn’t come to her senses and decided to murder or divorce me.  The kids and grandkids are apparently flourishing and a few days of rain has prevented New England from burning to the ground.

And alright, I’m grateful that God allowed Trump to win and thus permitted me to indulge my baser instincts with an orgy of schadenfreude that I have now ended in a sensible way.  And also, I am grateful that it is possible that Americans may be blessed with a second chance to claw back some of our freedoms from the Deep State in 2025.  But if it doesn’t happen, I am grateful for all the other things listed above that make life a remarkable experience.

So, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Whatever I may think about the inauthenticity and self-serving nature of the propaganda that the ruling class has passed off as patriotism, I’ve always believed that Thanksgiving and Christmas are an amazing gift that families get to spend together.  The happiness and good feelings are a tonic for the soul.  Enjoy.

Stop the World and Let Me Off

photog Current Events, My Fiction, photog's Corner, Science Fiction / Fantasy, Trump , , ,

Okay, it’s enough.  I’ve watched my last screaming progressive video.  It’s not fun anymore.  And I’m good with the Trump cabinet picks and his agenda.  Honestly, that’s his problem.  He’s responsible for avoiding weasels and psychopaths.  That’s what we hired him to do.  Every once in a while it will be interesting to note how that’s all going.

I will admit I’m watching very intently the madness in Ukraine.  Apparently, the neo-cons running the war have decided to start WW III before they are physically dragged out of office.  And, I assume this is also the case for the Pentagon.  So, I can’t say I’m done with Ukraine because it’s not done with us yet.  But I restrict my attention to a few daily checks on some YouTube channels that cover the war.  So, until the mushroom clouds blossom over Dunwich I’ll take a watch and wait approach.  Which is about as much as I can logically hope to do.

So, what does that leave for me?  Well, as I’ve been reminded, I’m supposed to finish up that book.  And, lo and behold, I have been doing some work.  I put together a list of changes and additions to round it up and I’m rereading it to find any weaknesses or mistakes in the story.  And I’ve recognized a few.  Connors’ role in Iraq needs to be clarified and justified.  After all mega-billionaires aren’t usually strolling around forward operating bases of a war zone as if it were Silicon Valley.

And I have to inject more personality into my main characters.  This means I have to invent scenarios where they interact beyond strategizing how to pick off evil intelligence officers and their goons.  And, heaven help me, I might even have a relationship break out between Connors and Grace.  It would tie up some loose ends and add to the emotional interest in the story.  And so, I’m looking at those things.  But what I’ve noticed is that when you start a story by the braille method (that is, without a somewhat detailed outline) it’s hard to tack an outline onto it once it’s gotten beyond a certain point.  It’s like an off-the-rack suit that doesn’t quite fit in a bunch of places.  Trying to make it fit requires a lot of alterations.  And some of these alterations feel awkward or rub the author the wrong way because they seem antithetical to the way you originally saw a character or an event.  It’s a very uncomfortable activity.

What it’s made me aware of is that starting a story with a good road map ahead of time is an invaluable asset to finishing the story.  So, the lazy lout in me says, “Well, put this story aside and start another one from scratch with a good outline.  But I know myself too well.  That’s terrible advice.  What needs to be done is to bite the bullet and put in the work and wrestle with the problems until they’re resolved in a creatively satisfying way.  So that’s what I’m going to try to do.

What it will require me to do is put a few hours in every morning to get it done.  And that’s few hours every morning that won’t be devoted to reading the news and political stuff.  Well, I guess the world will survive with me at half strength.  You folks may notice a certain slackness on the site but I guess it can’t be helped.

Anyway, let’s give it a try.

Next Stop, 2025

photog Current Events, Trump , ,

Where are we headed?  And by we, I mean the non-leftists in this country.  I’m not saying “conservatives” because according to many people on the Right, there is no such thing as conservative.  And I don’t need to fight that war of words.  It doesn’t matter what label we end up with.  I can define myself by what I’m not.  I’m not a progressive.  I think the traditional definitions of things are sufficient to describe the world.  I think the traditional institutions like marriage, family and nation are valid and sufficient for people to live their lives in a meaningful way.

I also like the “rights” that were spelled out in the United States Constitution two-hundred-some-odd-years ago.  I like the idea of having freedom of speech, religion, self-defense, and to live my life as I choose as long as I don’t try to tell you how to live.  And to associate with people that agree with me on how to live.  All that seems very desirable to me.  And it seems quite believable that it can be maintained as it was in the early years of the republic.

This month by some incalculable miracle Donald Trump won re-election.  It’s as improbable to me as that Space-X booster that was falling out of the sky and then in one graceful arc lands in the cradle like an egg that a cook places in an egg cup.  It’s inconceivable.  But it happened and I guess there is an equally unlikely chance that Trump succeeds in doing all the things he’s said he will do.  Basically, he’s sworn to fix the country and make it great again.  And by great I think he means free and prosperous.

Well, I guess after his Houdini act, I should give him the benefit of the doubt and let him try to fix America.  If he does then the answer to my original question, “Where are we headed?” is easy.  We’re going back to the heaven on Earth that was this country a hundred years ago.  Now I’m sure the folks on the far-right will remind me that we’re not the same people we were back then, what with demographic change and women voting and all that jazz.  And they’re right.  We are different.  Whatever changes in culture and demographics have wrought won’t be erased.  Even the descendants of Old America have changed.  Their ancestors were religious people.  Their descendants are for the most part atheists or at least agnostics.  So, we have to acknowledge that.

My answer is that different people can play the same game and even though there will be differences in style and skill level if they play by the same rules, then basically it’s still the same game.  So, from my way of looking at things we’re most likely to get back mostly the same kind of country if we make everyone play by the original rules.  This I believe is known as civic nationalism.

Well, that’s a lot of ifs.  Trump is battling the most powerful accumulation of power since the Romans conquered the Mediterranean after knocking off the Carthaginians.  The Deep State and the vested interests that are their clients are the people Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex.  He warned us about them sixty-five years ago and they’ve only become more powerful over time.  They now also operate the surveillance state that knows everything we write, say or maybe even think.  They essentially control Silicon Valley because they are their paymasters.  They are not going to just roll over and play dead.

All this means there is a range of outcomes next year that runs the gamut from complete Trump failure to complete victory.  Of course, the most likely outcome is something in the middle where neither side totally wins or totally loses.  But Trump has earned the privilege of us watching and waiting to see what he can manage.  I don’t expect perfection.  I do expect him to make my life better and mercilessly torture his enemies and make their lives a living hell.  I think he owes that to himself and to me.

I want him to restore all of our rights under the Constitution including freedom of association.  And I want him to eliminate affirmative action from all aspects of American life.  If he does all that, he will be a success in my book.

I want to see a long line of FBI executives with cardboard boxes in their hands walking out of the J. Edgar Hoover Building with really sad faces.  I want NPR defunded.  I want the Education Department closed.  I want men in dresses drummed out of the military in great bunches.  I want everyone whose name is associated with Ukraine in the State Department unemployed.  I want all the prosecutors at the Department of Justice who spent their last four years prosecuting J6 fired.  I want the military budget for weapons systems halved and the VA fully funded.  I want Fauci prosecuted and all his co-conspirators rounded up.  I want a true analysis of the “safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines.  I want Trump to declare martial law at the borders and refuse to let anyone in without a valid visa.  And if the visa cases become backlogged the candidates will wait outside the country for their turn.  And I want him to deport a million aliens a month.  And I want him to make the wall solid and equipped with drones that catch people climbing it and throw them back onto the outside.

And that’s the start of what I want.  I guess this is my Christmas list, Santa Trump.  Do the best you can.

Don’t Cry Baby, Don’t Cry

photog Current Events, Trump , ,

Don’t Cry Baby, Don’t Cry

Donald Trump takes office in about two months.  Can we avoid a nuclear confrontation with the Russians until then?

I’m really not sure.

 

Comcast is going to spin off MSNBC.  And Elon Musk has jokingly spoken about buying it and putting Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones on the air.  Is it just a joke?

I’m really not sure.

 

Donald Trump says he’s going to deport thirty million illegal aliens and rip the Deep State out of the federal government by the roots and put RFK Jr. in charge of the HHS and let him dig out the truth about modern medicine and eliminate DEI from the military and the rest of the federal government.  Can he do any of these things?

I’m really not sure.

 

There’s a sense of unreality about a lot of our world.  People claim that misinformation is the reason that so many things that we are told turn out not to be true.  But I don’t think that’s the only reason for this growing uncertainty in our environment.  I think that the system may be coming apart at the seams.  I think the “people in charge” are themselves unsure about which way things are headed and therefore unsure which way they should head.  And without the rich and powerful putting their weight behind a particular outcome, random factors and herd instinct has a greater influence on day-to-day happenings.

Take the first example above.  The United States and England both gave the Ukrainians permission to fire modern medium range missiles into the heartland of Russia.  These are very advanced weapons and in fact, the Russians know that the missiles are being fired by American and British technicians.  And the Russians have responded to these attacks by clarifying that they consider attacks with modern weapons that come from the Ukrainian territory are the same as attacks by nuclear powers and can be answered by striking back at those nuclear nations directly.  And to emphasize their seriousness they launched a new class of medium range multi-warhead ballistic missile into a target in a Ukrainian city.  Now of course this missile was not armed with nuclear warheads.  This was saber-rattling.  But that’s one hell of a saber.  Since that launch the Ukrainians have not used any more American ATACMS or British Storm Shadow missiles.  But the war is not going very well for the Ukrainians and many people say that the State Department and the Pentagon are determined to do everything they can to force the Trump administration into continuing the war.

Well, how far will they go with nuclear brinksmanship?  How well are they calibrating Putin’s willingness to ignore their provocations.  Or are they actually trying to provoke an attack on NATO bases outside of Ukraine?  Are they looking to let things go nuclear?  And who are they?  It’s a cinch that Biden isn’t calling the shots.  He can barely remember his name.  But is it even Blinken and the Joint Chiefs?  With things winding down is it even a lower-level cadre of idiots?  But whoever it is, are we staring down catastrophe because these weirdos lost an election and won’t get to play God in Ukraine anymore?

Once again, I’m really not sure.  And I’m beginning to believe no one else does either.

All the crazy stuff going on seems to be outside of the control of anyone with a lick of sense.  It’s almost as if every attempt to fix the problems elicits an even stronger and more dangerous response from somewhere.  But where?

 

We’re living in strange days.  If you’re the praying sort this might just be the right time to do it.  You could do worse.

 

“These are the days of miracle and wonder.  …   A loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires …  and don’t cry baby, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.”

Trump vs Morning Shmoe and Lycra

photog Current Events, Humor, Trump , , ,

Update:

I don’t normally revive an old post.  But this post from 2017 just seemed timely due to Joe and Mika’s recent antics.  It seems back then I spelled Schmoe without the c.  Well potato, patatta.

 

 

Morning Shmoe (MS) – Welcome back from that commercial break and it’s 13 and 1/8th minutes after the quarter hour and we’re here at the newly refurbished set of the Morning Shmoe Show.  And Lycra Spandexy and I were just saying how much better it is to be us, young and in love and not old and racist like President Trump.

Lycra Spandexy (LS) – Yes, he’s a creep with small hands and bad hair.  He’s not beautiful like me.  I am still very, very young and don’t need a facelift and would never get one and besides it’s called a dermatological procedure and everyone gets them because they’re young and not because they need them.

MS – That’s right sweety.  But this is not about us.  It’s about this very bad man.

LS – Yes, he’s a very bad man.  And there was no blood and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

MS – Okay honey, let’s move on.  So, as you all know we’re deeply in love and being together here on the show and also constantly morning, noon and night, all day every day is great.  We never tire of each other’s company and we do everything together.  Every single blessed thing.      ….        And it’s great!   Really, really, really   …     great.

LS – Yes, and I tell Shmoe every little thing that pops into my head.  Like yesterday when the girl doing my nails told me that I had a cold sore on my lip and I said it was a white-head and she said it was herpes and I told her that my dermatologist told me that you can tell if it’s herpes because you get that tingling feeling ahead of time and then you use the Abreva and then it’s a lot less icky and nobody can notice it under the make-up on the show and I don’t have to go on assignment for a week and that’s really great and I told her that it was a white-head and I knew that because it looked like a white-head and I popped it with a pin and squeezed out the puss and then it hurt but not much and it looks like it will heal without a scab that’s noticeable so I won’t have to go on assignment for a week.  And Shmoe was so interested while he sat there listening and drinking that scotch without the water and I asked him if he wanted some water but he just kept filling up that tumbler and I said, “Boy that’s a lot of scotch and he just kept smiling and nodding his head and it was great.”

MS – Yeah that was great.  Really, really, really   …   great.

LS – But Producer Jorge says we have a caller on the line.  Hello caller, you’re on the Morning Shmoe Show.  What would you like to say?

President Trump (PT) – Hello Lycra, it’s me President Trump.  I was told by some of my friends who are forced to watch terrible shows like yours for a living about the nasty things you’ve been saying about me.  I figured I’d call up and set the record straight.

MS – Trump, you’ve got a lot of nerve calling us up and invading our safe space.  But we’re not scared of you and we won’t be intimidated by your bullying.

PT – I won’t need to bully you, I only want to ask you one question.

MS – What’s that?

PT – Did the network force you to marry her for ratings?  Because if not then I don’t get it.  I mean to have to listen to that blathering for an hour or two in the morning is doable, but all the time?  I mean come on!  Don’t you ever feel like just putting a bullet in your head to stop the incessant babble.

LS – Hah, that’s ridiculous.  Just because you are a cave-man and don’t value women for their intelligence doesn’t mean all men are that way.  Shmoe loves to hear my opinions.  Like this morning when we were in the middle of that long commute from Jersey and I started telling Shmoe about what my mother told me the other day about how when I was a little girl and my sister stole my “My Pretty Pony” doll and I told her to give it back and she said it was hers because she said I promised to give it to her if she told me what Marcy said about me to Charlene but I told her that I found out from Debby what Marcy really said and it wasn’t what she told me and my mother said that I really hurt my sister’s feelings and to this day she still wants that doll and she told my mother that my face looks too tight after that dermatological procedure that I didn’t have done and I told Mom that that was mean and I thought that my sister’s butt had gotten really fat and I wasn’t going to give up the doll.  And then I asked Shmoe wasn’t he going too fast and why was he swerving toward the guard rail and then he laughed and laughed.  And he laughed so hard that a tear was in his eye and then I told him that I was enrolling us in a couple’s yoga class and there was a jazzercise section too.

MS – I’m sorry folks but I’m out of time.    …  BANG.

PT – Thought so.

It Couldn’t Hurt

photog Current Events, Trump , , ,

The unthinkable has occurred.  Camera Girl has joined the resistance.  Somehow, she’s discovered the 4B Movement.  I don’t know how it happened.  I keep her inside a hermetic bubble, into which no outside influence is allowed.  Like a Svengali I mold her every thought and gaslight her entire notion of what’s going on in the world.  But somehow, it’s happened.  She has declared herself part of the 4B; No barbecue, burger, brisket or bologna.  And as a further sign of her radicalized state of mind she’s added another 4B’s; no breakfast, bagel. bialy or bacon.  Shades of Lysistrata!

A complete food strike.  It’s diabolical.  And there’s nothing I can do.  I don’t know how to buy or cook food.  I’m not even sure what I currently eat.  The dishes she makes for me are complex and confusing.  If left to my own devices I’ll probably wander through the supermarket buying the easily identifiable items like bananas and seltzer.  It looks pretty bleak for me.  I tried to placate her.  I told her I’d stop watching YouTube videos of Kamala voters screaming and crying.  I told her I’d let her watch NCIS and other girly soap operas.  But she just ignored me.  Her tactic is to eat her meals before I get up in the morning.  When I get up at 10:30 am I can still smell the coffee and bagels wafting around the dining room but all that’s left is an empty coffee mug and some everything-bagel crumbs on a plate in the sink.

I can’t figure out where she’s hiding the food.  I suspect it might be in the kitchen cabinets but because of the illogical way she arranges things I’ve never been able to find anything but trash bags and window cleaner in those places, so what’s the use.  In desperation I’ve been sneaking out to the edge of the swamp looking for the crumbs and crusts that Camera Girl leaves at the edge of the water for Moe the Crow.  I’ll give him this, he puts up a pretty stiff fight for his food.  But I’m just too strong for him.  I will have to get there a little earlier though.  The bread gets very soggy from the ground water almost immediately.

I’m thinking of getting some outside help.  I’m going to write a letter to President-elect Trump and see if he has any advice for me.  I mean he’s always fighting with “nasty women” and he’s managed pretty well for himself.  Well, he did get sued by that harpy who claims he raped her in Bloomingdales.  And he is on his third marriage.  And he did have that Million-Woman March against him back in 2017.  But probably all of those experiences have made him wiser about women and anyway I feel he owes me after I stuck up for him with Camera Girl and all the other women who over the years have argued with me about what a terrible man he is.  Surely that wisdom can do me some good in my present predicament.  The “art of the deal” must have a chapter on food strikes.

Well, if all else fails. I will fall back on what every man has as his birthright; the male brain.  As Shakespeare very beautifully expressed it in Hamlet, “What a piece of work is a man, How noble in reason.”  That’s right, how noble in reason.  We are the thinking animal and we can think our way out of any crisis.  I will buy food myself and by trial and error I will figure out how to cook it.  I can write the equations for the heat transfer of an electrical resistance stove top.  I can figure out the amount of time it takes for a quart of water to reach its boiling point at a particular power setting.  I know how the proteins in animal muscle become denatured at high temperature.  Fire is the invention of some male ancestor of my species and I can master its application to any technology.  As Prometheus is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!

Maybe if I tell her how nice her hair looks lately, she’ll make me some coffee and a pumpernickel bagel.  It couldn’t hurt.

Cenk Uygur Speaks Truth to Stupid

photog Current Events, Trump , ,

This is hilarious. Cenk Uygur is the voice of reason?  Well, compared to a fruit cake like presidential historian and pollster Allan Lichtman and his “13 keys” nonsense about picking presidential winners he is.  Cenk is a Bernie Bro.  But he’s a veritable Einstein compared to Lichtman.  At one point Lichtman accuses Uygur of blasphemy for mocking his keys!  It’s wonderful.  And it may be the exemplar for the whole election.  Blame the voters for being too stupid to see how great everything is under the Biden administration.  Inflation is great, illegal aliens are great, crime is great.  We just were smart enough to enjoy it.

Going, Going, Gone

photog Current Events, Trump , , ,

As I noted today, Morning Schmoe is kneeling in the snow outside the Pope’s window begging for clemency.  And he’s just the first.  There isn’t enough money at CNN and MSNBC to employ 20% of the talentless hacks that are currently on the payroll.  I can’t imagine that Warner Bros. Discovery wants to continue paying Anderson Cooper $20 million a year for doing whatever it is he does.  And there’s no way on Earth that NBC Universal is going to pay Joy Reid anything at all for the toxic sideshow that she puts on over there.  But the question mark is who gets to stay?

Will they keep some of the marquee players to maintain the pretense that these cable channels are “serious” journalism?  Or will they keep the cheapest talent and try to turn a profit that way?  If they’re smart, I think they should follow the latter course.  Their ratings have already reached the bottom so quality is no longer a consideration.  Cutting costs might extend the viability of these companies for a little longer.  But what’s going to happen to all of these unemployed “journalists?”  In a way CNN did a favor to Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon by letting them go first.  They got the first chance to find jobs before the glut of their peers.  Both of those guys probably lined up some sweet assignments with Uber and Papa Gino’s.

And things aren’t going to be much better for the Fox News guys.  Cable News is a dying industry.  For the foreseeable future it will be like a giant game of musical chairs with fewer and fewer chairs to go around.  Think of all the amazing characters that will disappear from your tv screen (well, that is if you regularly watch MSNBC and CNN.  Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough.  Jonathan Capehart, Chris Hayes, Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell, Lawrence O’Donnell, Jen Psaki, Joy Reid, Al Sharpton, Chuck Todd, Dana Bash, Anderson Cooper, Van Jones and Jake Tapper.

Look at those names.  Irreplaceable talent.  Almost like friends; like really, really annoying friends.  The kind who says inappropriate things and borrow money.  The kind who won’t leave at the end of a party.  And suddenly they’ll all be gone.

Well maybe I can cope with the sadness of their loss by making a game of it.  Maybe I can start a betting pool on who goes first.  Who cries on screen?  Who takes the largest voluntary pay cut?  Who has to share an office with the security staff (my money is on Lawrence O’Donnell, he looks reasonable)?  Who goes postal (Mika)?

But most interesting is which if any will make the ultimate compromise and become a conservative to try and get a job at Fox News?  I’d say the early money is on our good friend Joe Scarborough.  After all he was a Republican congressman before having the lobotomy.  It wouldn’t take hardly any makeup to turn him into a rabid MAGA attack dog.  And I’m sure Mika could make the same transition with no real difficulty at all.  Boy, it’s good that the fourth estate is there to take care of us.

Morning Schmoe and Lycra Spandexy Bend the Knee to Trump

photog Current Events, Trump , ,

I guess we all should have seen this coming.

Is there any lower form of life than Morning Schmoe?  The answer is a resounding no.  After attacking Trump for eight years he crawled on his belly and did obeisance.  And he even dragged his half-witted ditz along for moral support.

What’s next?  Will Keith Olbermann be the next lefty hack to wash up on the shore of Mar a Lago begging for forgiveness?  Has word gotten out that this is the only way to escape from right-wing death squads?  How about Rosie O’Donnell?

I don’t know.  The whole thing is so embarrassing.  The next thing you know Bruce Springsteen and Robert DeNiro will be seen wearing MAGA sweatshirts.  No self respect.