Americans Vote on Voting Day in America...

 I understand the pandemic has created a new class of alleged "vulnerables" and this election year, the pandemic fear is playing a big role in influencing our elections.  As if a president who locked down the borders could have done more to urge the local governors to contain the spread nationwide from their own regions. (Looking at you globalist New York...)

But enough already about, "If you haven't voted yet, you're a bad person."

Election Day is next week, November 3.  I am more confident my vote will be less manipulated, and timely counted, by appearing in person and voting, as I have done in most elections in my adult lifetime.

It's great that people like my elderly parents are able to early in-person vote, or even have the option of voting from home and dropping their ballots off to be counted.  (Shudder:  I don't trust the U.S. Postal Service to timely deliver the mail and take over this role:  too many former military and civil servants working that gub'mint job and accepting non-superior results for my taste...)

If you needed special help this year, or your fear of illness and death kept you from waiting, I don't mind as a taxpayer footing the cost, but to turn the results over to the polls, and see that the Bidens are already measuring for the curtains and planning the holiday meals?

I suspect in many "swing states", traditionalists like myself will be casting our ballots on Election Day, as we have traditionally done in the past.

Our votes will count, timely.

No need to extend the deadlines, after the day's results are in, to permit ballots to be entered up to a week later.  No need to rely on bug-eyed men (remember Florida Man?) being paid to count, count and re-count like we saw in the Bush/Gore fiasco in 2000.  

Clean elections.  Like taxes, the more opportunity you give people to manipulate the system, the more they will take.

November 3.  Our votes count then too.  Never Forget.

Git R Done: Trump and Pelosi Put America First.

 What greater crowning glory -- for both him and her* -- than to come together, right now, to pass even a pork-laden bill that helps working Americans (and totally non-working ones too) in our pandemic emergency?

Maybe McConnell won't like it. Washington won't like it (they'd rather spend on their own pet projects...).  Rentiers posing as economic conservatives will surely have a fit. And the pundits will fill their airwaves and column inches going this way, and that, on such a partnership in practicality.

But the markets will love it. And those in need, and all those whose livelihoods depend on American workers having paycheck protections in their pockets, will love it.  It's gonna happen.  And soon...

#TheArtofTheDeal.

Because Nancy Pelosi and Donald Trump love America like that and want to see her pull through these hard times.  History will be kind to both of them if they can just put their noses to the grindstone now and see this through.

*Don't Believe me, just watch...

("Girl, Hit Your Hallelujah...")

If Any Other Employee on thatToobin Zoom Call...

 complained to management about having to view his penis at work -- like the big, black man Jelani Cobb say, who no doubt understands that he would be out faster than a black man beating his meat in his work Zoom call with co-workers -- Toobin will be fired.

You see friends, even if nobody officially "complains", it's behavior like that that will not be tolerated anymore in our American workplaces.  And rightly so.

Sure for years, women -- and some weaker men -- have been conditioned to ... let it go, not make an issue about "natural" manly behavior, like whipping out the dick during inappropriate times, making "jokes" about sexuality to co-workers who might not share their tastes, or even demanding sexual favors because of who you are (or think you are rather) that entitles you to a special pass in the workplace not afforded to all.

#TimesHaveChanged  Let this be a lesson to all, especially the apologists who will try to make the argument that "masturbation is natural" or "he didn't mean to get caught" or "have empathy: we all do that, haven't you done that? Then you're the freak, not him..."

They perhaps can't grasp the Human Relations legal rules:  this man was masturbating in the workplace in the vicinity of his co-workers, and he got caught.  That's no way around that.  It wasn't consensual for them, and even if they all agreed -- in advance or even in retrospect -- that they were okay with said behavior, sexual behavior like that simply does not fly at work anymore, whether you're in a football locker room, a Hollywood executive's private studio, a factory-floor bathroom stall, or a nightclub back room.

Don't jerk off on the job, get caught, and expect special treatment.  It's not singling out Jeff Toobin to apply employment law even-handedly.  It is right and just.

I suspect Jelani Cobb knows this too.  Good on him. He too deserves protections from unwillingly having to view another man's penis at work, or do his own job while another watches wanking, even if the women are still too weak to object themselves.

We've come a long way, baby... 

------------------

You shouldn't need a law degree to understand these legal basics.  You just need to have read the newspaper in past years, and have the common sense to apply the law in America to all. That's where we are heading in our country now, liberal elites and all those who still think like that... Ready or not. It's the New Working Americans taking over...

(... It's the New Splendid Workplace Come to Call!

... She's getting us all...)

Don't worry. I'm pretty sure Toobin won't pull an Epstein when he realizes the gig is up...

Here We Go... SNOW!

 4 to 6 inches of the thick heavy wet stuff is accumulating out there. The tall evergreen outside my window is holding her branches up nicely, but still... it looks heavy and will ice up tonight, no doubt.  Ready or not... here we Snow!

Of Course Jeff Toobin Will Be Fired...

 He was caught masturbating in the workplace, on company time.  Can't do that. Not in the office, not in Zoom calls "working from home", not even in the stall next to someone who "catches you".  It makes other employees uncomfortable. People who understand boundaries: private actions are meant for private places on private time...

No Human Resources manager worth her or his salt could protect him, no agent has that power, even if they wanted to spin this as taking pity on a nebbish, weak, white Jewish man who seems threatening to no one. (Imagine if we'd even be having this discussion if it were a big black man on one of the ESPN sports shows "caught" in this situation...)

It's not Toobin's first sexual transgression, after all.  He seems to relish playing the sexual bad boy, with a laundry list of past incidents -- many denied, some proven.

Please don't bother trying to spin this as a "let's take pity on this special fellow, and offer him special dispensation".  It just won't work.  Not now, when precedents are being set across industries regarding what will, and what will not, fly in the "at home" but working from home workplaces so many now find themselves in.

There's no choice but to let him go.  Now.  The investigation will be brief; the facts were right there on display for others to see...

He'll be fine. Let him use his talents to strike out on his own.  The New Yorker doesn't need the bad publicity -- it's not sophistication, it's not even sleaze.  It's skeezy behavior, and it will not be tolerated in the workplace.  

-------------

* The fact that people are even discussing Toobin somehow getting off is a bit like those defending Hunter Biden's crack habit and Joe Biden's going after the prosecutor in another country investigating his son.  That situation went well beyond one man's personal weakness when it involved national security, and the United States intervening in another nation's affairs

We are holding our tongues about Hunter's lack of mature behavior and morals. That's why nobody in the media is talking about him sleeping with his brother's widow, while he himself was still married.  That -- even though it involved a grieving family, and non-adult children on both sides -- can plausibly be spun as a private family affair. Skeezy, outrageously so, but private.

No so with the crackhead "kid" making millions overseas, while his politician dad had to step in and play cleanup.  You might not like President Trump, might compromise your own morals -- if you have any -- to make excuses, but anyone schooled in Journalism 101 knows that is a real story, one that ought to be discussed in full and fairly questioned during this campaign run.

Pity?  Sure.  Empathy -- okay, lots of people have had destructive addicts in their family, apparently.  But to bury the story because ... this one is somebody special?  A fortunate son, with a now dead brother and sister?  Nope.

Sorry friends, we're well past the halcyon Clinton years and those given passes in the past -- Polanski with his underage drug-and-anal perversions; Woody Allen with his stack of Polaroids on the family mantlepiece -- would not get the same tsk tsk-ing "who are you to judge" treatment that they did in past years.

George Floyd taught me that.

No more special rules for special people.  If the social rules are misapplied to some special people, we all suffer.  Jerk off in the workplace at your own risk.  Precedent is being set via Jeffrey Toobin.  Let those who decry his job losses set up a "Go Fund Me" if they're so inclined...

But J.T. has to go.  Times have changed, for every one. If you don't believe me, just watch...

"I Can Ride My Bike with No HandleBars..."

 Sometimes God puts us where we need to be... 

Maybe people wonder why I am doing factory work now, with my education.  Truth be told, I like the physical labor, being paid for standing and moving and not sitting burning my eyeballs out in front of a computer at this stage in my life in my early 50s.  Better for the body, I think.

Also, as a first- (or second-, depending on how you calculate) -generation immigrant myself, I never was comfortable with the softer Americans who are often so spoiled, congratulating themselves for getting something without working for it, or worse -- taking advantage of others and profiting off their hard work.  Didn't like it in the "advanced" classes in school;  didn't care for much of the way law school "worked" with folks enlightening us on how a crooked system operates, and how we can maximize our own advantages there; don't like it when my paycheck depends on deceiving others and stowing my Christian values for home use only.

At work, most of the people I interact with -- the majority, believe it or not -- are from other countries.  Somalia, Latin America, Eastern Europe...  a handful of American "African-Americans" and a handful of whites thrown in.  (The management is diverse too, plucked from the ranks to represent and communicate with the newcomers in the culture, it seems...)

But we work, Sometimes even together, as a team.  Those are the best days on the line(s).  And Lord knows, we earn our paychecks.

So many are refugees, who came here as a result of America's meddling in other countries, in our "foreign wars" that have wreaked havoc elsewhere, sending people spilling over into America and neighboring countries.  You can thank previous American leadership, and neocoin pundits for not forseeing the results of their deadly actions for much of that...

I'm not pessimistic though.  Quite the opposite.  America will become enriched as these people, and especially their children, reject the ways of so many at the top in America today:  our academics, our upper-tier managers, our political leadership -- that has coasted, gotten fat, encouraged the inequality, and no longer knows how to compete honestly...  (Hint?  If you often say:  I can't believe they pay me for getting to do this, you're likely overpaid.)

Impracticality catches up.  Being divorced from common sense and core values too.  Meanwhile, while America urges us to Vote, Vote!, VOTE! to elect a former Congressional representative who is emblematic of the rot and waste that the past decades of Congressional "leadership" and alleged "compromise" of American values represent  -- and the non-neutral "journo-lists" fall all over themselves in congratulatory accolades for... asking the hard question, and holding those in power accountable*, the workers play on, knowing the future is theirs one day.

The culture won't tolerate American bullshit for much longer.  Mark my words.  Think of it as ... doubling-down on a Call to Action.  Meaning you can swipe, but original thinkers who remain lean and observant will survive, outwit, and likely outlast you. 

* You sure can't tell by the industry-wide results they've (not) gotten  No offense, just sayin'.  If there's no positive results to you work, did you really get the job done?  Even if you made money, and got a prize? Hm.

Make it a great day out there, and ... like Skynyrd says, "Turn It Up!..."

 Look at Me!  I can ride my bike with no handlebars, no handle bars...

-------------------------

Handlebars

Flobots

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars

Look at me, look at me
Hands in the air like it's good to be alive
And I'm a famous rapper
Even when the paths are all crookedy
I can show you how to do-si-do
I can show you how to scratch a record
I can take apart the remote control
And I can almost put it back together
I can tie a knot in a cherry stem
I can tell you about Leif Ericson
I know all the words to "De Colores"
And "I'm proud to be an American"
Me and my friend saw a platypus
Me and my friend made a comic book
And guess how long it took
I can do anything that I want 'cause, look

I can keep rhythm with no metronome
No metronome
No metronome
And I can see your face on the telephone
On the telephone
On the telephone

Look at me
Look at me
Just called to say that it's good to be alive
In such a small world
I'm all curled up with a book to read
I can make money, open up a thrift store
I can make a living off a magazine
I can design an engine
Sixty-four miles to a gallon of gasoline
I can make new antibiotics
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions
I know how to run a business
And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers, shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
I see the strings that control the systems
I can do anything with no assistance
'Cause I can lead a nation with a microphone
With a microphone
With a microphone
And I can split the atoms of a molecule
Of a molecule
Of a molecule

Look at me
Look at me
Driving and I won't stop
And it feels so good to be
Alive and on top
My reach is global
My tower secure
My cause is noble
My power is pure
I can hand out a million vaccinations
Or let 'em all die in exasperation
Have 'em all healed of their lacerations
Have 'em all killed by assassination
I can make anybody go to prison
Just because I don't like 'em
And I can do anything with no permission
I have it all under my command
Because I can guide a missile by satellite
By satellite
By satellite
And I can hit a target through a telescope
Through a telescope
Through a telescope
And I can end the planet in a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust
In a holocaust

I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars
I can ride my bike with no handlebars
No handlebars
No handlebars...

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Andrew Guerrero / Jamie Laurie / Jesse Walker / Kenneth Ortiz / Mackenzie Roberts / Stephen Brackett

Handlebars lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

 

His Son Died for Nothing, Jake...

 Died playing Patsy, but a soldierboy pawn in Georgie Bush's ill=timed adventure! wars.  All the glory and honor and medals heaped upon the dead don't bring them back to life, or make their deaths any more meaningful...

President Trump had the gall -- the unmitigated gall! -- to say that out loud and in public.  Something honest shared in my hearts and minds...

Those like you in the media Jake, can't be so truthful.  You played up and sold the American public on those wars. Pretended instead of reported...

President Trump had the courage to call out the lies, and in doing so, belittled this man's life work.  Do you think John Kelly knew in his bones that his military service was but an over-heralded role in an unneeded and destructive life force?  Maybe... but maybe not.  I think the latter:  that it took a President like DJT to open the man's eyes, and in doing so, Kelly will never forgive him for not letting him pretend just a bit longer... all the way to his own grave one day.  The man is haunted now.

 He learned truth from fiction too late in life to save himself, much less his son.

------------------------------

Jake Tapper

@jaketapper

·

Former WH COS John Kelly has told friends, about Trump: “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life."

------------------------

 

It's but a painful lashing out, too little, too late.  Common sense and a willingness to grind against the grade, to speak out against the hierarchy is costly, but essential to the survival of the soul.  Truth comes eventually for us all, but in the end, it's a killer for most who wait too long to learn it.

#KnowJesusKnowPeace

Economic Stimulus Plan...

 Put the most money into the pockets of the people who need it, and are out there doing the heavy lifting in the frontline riskiest businesses, not making what they used to earn as contract workers unable to "work from home."  I assure you, it won't stay in said pockets for long, but like the best books, will circulate freely and help the economy overall.

Does anybody with a political memory of the past few decades not look at the prospects of a President Joe Biden and shudder?  Sure, the media is pushing him, paid pundits and Washington insiders want things back to the gravy troughs they once knew (though they will never regain the country's respect), but out here in the real world?

 We want our freedoms back:  the children back at school, the vulnerables protected, and the real issues addressed.  You won't get that in a Joe Biden administration.  The man is pure puff and fluffery, always has been.  There's nothing genuine about him... 

Flaws and all, Trump is real.  And he rejects the right people.  Again, when they feed at the trough, inequality gains an entrance foothold, not good for the country, not good for them, as eventually, they slip...

#BeForReal

#Don'tSellOutYourOwn

#TrumpPence2020#PenceChristie2024

"Better Shape Up..."

(whooh...whoo... whoo!) At a public place today, picking up essential items when I realized... that line -- the woo hoo's -- are the best part of that song.  Really.  Sing along when it's on the overhead where you shop!  

(Walgreens, for the record...)

(From Grease, if you don't recognize it... I tend to drop context clues and assume we all share the same  American cultural references. Live and learn.)

Summer lovin'... had me a blast.  Summer love, you know it can't last...

And cue the snowflakes: here comes autumn, right on schedule, with the indoor-air season raising rates here, as well predicted, just like they went up during indoor-air time this summer in the southern states...

Stay safe friends.  Inflammation is nothing to laugh at, especially brain inflammation...

Stay at Home and Help.

 Self righteous folk on social media?

Don't criticize others, mask wearing or not, if you've been boasting of your cabin visits upstate, your waits in food lines for people serving you state fair food, your trips to wineries, orchards, local parks, ballparks -- you lucky dog!; and arboretums.

People are honestly staying at home, except for the essentials, to defeat this virus.  Not exposing themselves, or potentially others, to protect us all.

If you are having a great summer out there, making use of the lesser traffic on the roads, filling up at the pumps instead of paying for airfare or bus/train rides, you're not really sacrificing like some.  So just lay off the folks who do decide to excercise their freedoms to gather, like you exercise your freedom to travel and avoid the stay-at-home advice?

Open the damn schools already.  Kids should not suffer, nor the country with more undereducated, for you to make a political point and crash the economy with these mass closures.  All for one and one for all. 

Except, we see you.  And you're rubbing your nose in the miles YOU go...

(And your damn drone noise, over parks, rivers, lakes, valleys... and residential neighborhoods is annoying too!  Play your games sure, but respect other people's play too?)

*  This guy used to be on my morning express bus into the cities.  I suspect he's making/saving more now, "working from home" and is kinda clueless about how other people are faring and the family we have chosen NOT to visit this summer, while he makes his self-righteous political comments and travels, travels, travels, all the while getting fat playing family man.  Hint:  the State Fair is sooo much more than food.  Ask a farm kid what they missed out on while you sat in your car, collecting your goodies from people there to serve you...  Superspreader potential, there!

First Snowfall of the Year!

 Always a beautiful sight, the first one (big fat flurries, affecting visibility and dampening my Irish wood sweater, cleaned as a birthday gift from my mother, and looking brand spanking new!  She brought it back for me in 1998...)

We'll also have another First Snowfall in my mind, though.  When the stuff sticks, and adds up to inches, and you can go out in boots and play around in it.  That will come next month, I think, or in December.  This was just inspiring, causing people looking out the windows to say, "It's snowing!", as the fat flakes whirled and dampened hair and clothing and required the wipers in the car to be on...

37 degrees after the cool down yesterday, they called this one, predicting snow on Thursday (yesterday) but you still really don't believe it until you see it, and it's magical every single year!  Thank you God for all your gifts, the natural ones especially.  We appreciate and praise your glory!

Beautiful Song for a Colder Day...

1. Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
   God of glory, Lord of love;
   Hearts unfold like flow’rs before Thee,
   Op’ning to the sun above.
   Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
   Drive the dark of doubt away;
   Giver of immortal gladness,
   Fill us with the light of day!
2. All Thy works with joy surround Thee,
   Earth and heav’n reflect Thy rays,
   Stars and angels sing around Thee,
   Center of unbroken praise.
   Field and forest, vale and mountain,
   Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,
   Singing bird and flowing fountain
   Call us to rejoice in Thee.
3. Thou art giving and forgiving,
   Ever blessing, ever blest,
   Wellspring of the joy of living,
   Ocean depth of happy rest!
   Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,
   All who live in love are Thine;
   Teach us how to love each other,
   Lift us to the joy divine.
   
4. Mortals, join the happy chorus,
   Which the morning stars began;
   Father love is reigning o’er us,
   Brother love binds man to man.
   Ever singing, march we onward,
   Victors in the midst of strife...
6. 
   Joyful music leads us Sunward
   In the triumph song of life!
7. ~Henry J. VanDyke, 1908. 

God is Good!  Never forget...

 

 

The Transgender Lady and His Ax.

The old NYT is at it again...

Helping redefine the values of the Democratic Party in America that skew toward the wealthy elite:

--------------

Last Monday, in hopes of finding a little escape, my wife and I drove out to Acadia National Park, on Mount Desert Island. Our route took us through both of our state’s congressional districts — the reliably blue First, which went for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and the rural and more conservative Second, which went for Donald Trump. I tried to get a sense of how the 2020 Maine vote is going to go by counting yard signs. My poll gave an edge to Joe Biden and Ms. Gideon — but just barely. (There was also one sign still up for Bernie Sanders, an act of defiance I found very on brand.)

Things look better for Joe Biden now than they did for Hillary Clinton then, if you believe the polls anyhow... 

In Acadia, (the wife) and I rode our bikes through the sparkling autumn sunshine, drove our car up Cadillac Mountain, ate popovers and chowder at the Jordan Pond House. Later that night we settled into chairs at a Bar Harbor restaurant called Havana, where Deedie had seafood paella and I had the lobster moqueca, simmered in a coconut broth with haddock and red peppers. It was really good.

...

The next morning I went outside to split some wood. The sky was blue from stem to stern, and as I stood in the dooryard, holding my ax, I felt a rush of good cheer. Could I trust the optimism I felt? 

ADDED:  Dude?  You let them cut off your balls and dick. With your wife's seeming approval.  No, don't trust your instincts, buddy. Think of the children, your own boys, coming up... Lol.

Fudging the facts, and cheating, is no way to win.

MEANWHILE:  Charles Blow, the black bi columnist, goes home to bury his chronically ill brother.  The one he texted just weeks ago:  "You okay bro?" Reply, "Getting better, thanks."

Seems Charles learned some life lessons in that brief exchange, being out of touch for so long, and he's put on his teaching trousers today, to give readers a lesson before dying...

(Spoiler: Charles is pissy that his black brother is being buried in the black part of the local cemetery, and the family has reserved a spot for his sorry ass there too.  Has to decide... will he flee, and be buried elsewhere? Or accept who he is, and make his peace with God setting his feet upon a better path?  Praying for ya, Charlie boy!)

ALSO:  Gail Collins... she's no Dave Barry, but oh she tries! Have ya heard the one about the Mormon and the dog on the car roof?  Pull up a chair, kiddos...

-------------

That Sulzberger son, the one who went to Brown before inheriting great-grandfather's life work and making it his own. is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams. Stock is up, he has put down the newsroom revolutions, and only 20 more years before retirement like his father before him...  Good times, our Times!  What could possibly go wrong now?

Jesus wept.

(But it's the part that comes next, when He commands us to keep the faith that can move the rock from the tomb, where the real story begins...  Read any Good Book lately, friends?  Winter's coming... crack the spine at least?)

"Nothing You Can Write That Can't Be Run..."

 Three steps  ahead is no way to go through life really...  It gets lonely here sometimes. Waiting for other folk to catch up. Being chastised for foresight and forethought -- the ability to think ahead.  You johnny-come-latelies are just starting to fight battles that were lost long ago  (ie/ = the time was then, before we surrendered to the platforms.  Maybe worshipping  technology over humanity isn't a good thing?) ( or, and it was so obvious to all thinkers at the time:  You will never impose democracy by invading other countries and trying to impose from without what they don't have the will to do within...)

God help the country if the Democrats and their Washington enablers retake power.  The world will have us by the nuts then, and if you don't think we'll be fighting battles not our own, you should have your eyes checked...

#MaskUpAmericaAndOrderIn?

#ShutDownTheSchoolsToSaveTheCountry?

#CrashTheEconomyAndRewardthe..."ViralVideos"? 

#WeCanReallyRunTheMedicalAndJusticeSystemByZoom? 

Hmm.  China is so much better at invading than we Americans.  Sad!  Remember too: Vote!  Vote Blue, like the stuff they put in the toilet water to make it go down prettier...

The country is going under, but it's all good if your own stocks are going up, remember.

 

"A Scary Witch!"

Seamus Heaney, Poetry for the Win.

I'm not interested in reading what work the lady who just won wrote. Wild Irises? Not my bag, social interactions amongst the sophisticated set. But I'll re-read the best of Heaney.
--------

Mid-Term Break, Seamus Heaney
He was 14 when his 4 year old brother was struck by a car and killed, and Seamus was called home.  Made him as a poet, and like so many artists -- they can ride early success and reputation for the rest of their lives.  This poem, like all good writing, came from the heart. It shows (not tells) but in the telling, shows.  If you write, you understand that.

I sat all morning in the college sick bay
Counting bells knelling classes to a close
At two o'clock, our neighbors drove me home.

In the porch I met my father crying --
He had always taken his funerals in stride --
And Big Jim Evans saying it was a hard blow.

The baby cooed and laughed and rocked the pram
When I came in and I was embarrassed,
by old men standing up to shake my hand

And tell me they were "sorry for my trouble".
Whispers informed strangers I was the eldest,
Away at school, as my mother held my hand

In hers and coughed out angry, tearless sighs.
At ten o'clock the ambulance arrived
With the corpse, staunched and bandaged by the nurses.

Next morning, I went up into the room. Snowdrops
And candles soothed the bedside. I saw him
For the first time in six weeks. Paler now

Wearing a poppy bruise on his left temple,
He lay in a four foot box as in his cot.
No gaudy scars, the bumper knocked him clear.

A four foot box, a foot for every year.
--------------


The poem was published in 1966 in Death of a Naturalist. The younger brother died in 1953.  When was it written?  Likely in all the years between. If you write, you understand that too.

 

 

 

 

Seamus Heaney

Seamus Heaney, who has died aged 74, won the 1995 Nobel Prize for Literature, created a bestseller from a translation of Beowulf (1998) and sold more books in Britain than any other living poet; the common charge that he was too easy — “far from unfathomable”, as one critic put it — was a backhanded compliment to his democratic lyrical powers.

30 August 2013 • 12:11 pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bears Beat Brady... Damn!

I've been busy here with lawyerly matters, concern for a disabled friend who has not fared well in this pandemic summer, and my overnight physical job that is helping supplement the income cash, now gearing up for a prime week leading into peak season... So I confess, I did not follow last night's sporting event online the way I did the national debate the night before. And I was slow to check sports headlines here this morning, my one day off to sleep in this week. BUT... the beauty is not lessened by the wait. The.Chicago.Bears.Beat.Tom. Brady. "Did Brady think he had another down due him?" was the headline I clicked, and lo and behold. The Bears killed the Giant. Story in the Trib here. I subscribe online, since this summer, but hopefully it will be accessible to you too. It's a good time for underdogs, of late.

And the Band Played On...

NYT Columnists' Conclusions -- Are They Yours? Bouie and Brooks weigh in...

Continue reading the main story

Opinion

Court Packing Can Be an Instrument of Justice

If Republicans replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg with Amy Coney Barrett, they should pay a price.

If the past four years have been a smash and grab, where Trump smashes our institutions and the Republican Party grabs as much political loot as it can carry, then an additional seat on the Supreme Court is too valuable a trophy to give up. But there is no rule that says you get to keep stolen goods, and the Barrett seat — like the Gorsuch seat — represents a theft.

 

If Democrats make Republicans pay a political price in November for their rank and ruinous opportunism, then in January they should use their power to restore to the people what was taken from them.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. 

------------------------Continue reading the main storOpinion

Kamala Harris Knows How to Win Elections

Make a sharp shift to the center.

There’s a moment in many American campaigns when the people see chaos looming on the horizon. It happened in 2008 with the fall of Lehman Brothers and in 1968 with the riots. 

At those moments, Americans shift to the candidates who provide safety and order. Americans have seen chaos loom, particularly over the past nine days, and Biden and Harris seem like the safest and least exhausting pair of hands.

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ADDED:  My own opinion is that David Brooks is a myopic elder, wishing rather than seeing what is before him.  Harris might be what Brooks wants to see in the moment, to get her elected, but nobody honest and clear eyed believes that stability and stagnation are coming back again in the form of the New Democrat Party.  Wishful thinking, Mr. Brooks.  And way to play the big angry black man language of intimidation, Mr. Bouie.  (Were no upper-class white youth radicals available to write in?)  It seems to have worked on Mr. Brooks, at least...

 Legal scholars respectfully reject your "smash and grab it back" argument. Nothing further.

 #ConfirmConeyBarrett  #ThenReElectTrumpPence #AmericaAmericaAmerica,ForAllOfUs

Good on President Trump !

 What's happening is he is not allowing Nancy Pelosi to continue using the long-term unemployed and airlines workers facing furloughs as hostages for her plans to bail out the badly managed Blue states and cities that have faced economic woes for their own poor financial planning dating back to well before the CoVid crisis hit...

Nope, she's dragged it out this much.  The Republicans in the Senate offered a "skinny bill" that would have indeed helped put money into the pocketbooks and checking accounts of the affected workers and businesses, but Nancy continually said, No.  Seems she was holding out for more, more, more... not compromising.

Now President Trump has called her bluff.

If she won't pass a package that directly helps CoVid-affected workers and businesses -- and the economy overall -- by pumping in payments that would be seen when past-due bills are paid, and that money starts circulating again, her little negotiating in bad-faith plan will not be rewarded.  

By refusing to sever the ongoing fiscal woes of cities and states that continually spent more than they took in, with those innocents affected when the economy was artificially shut down by the pandemic in recent month, Nancy Pelosi is showing us just how little she -- and her Democratic pals -- really care about American workers.  We're just hostages in their game, playing chips not people.

I'd like to see this strategy -- and how the Trump administration is rebuffing it -- discussed in great detail at tomorrow's debate between VP Mike Pence and liberal California senator Kamala Harris.  She's not Nancy, but she's got some 'splaining to do to the American workers about Dem Senate strategy.

In the meantime, what is to stop President Trump from issuing another executive order like he did for the month of April, authorizing individual states to accept and pay a more modest amount of stimulus aid weekly -- it was $300 then, with the states unable or refusing to match the $100 he requested -- to help affected workers pay bills and put the money immediately back into play, circulating in the economy?  (Studies show, the stimulus funds get spent, not stored in bank accounts or 401(k)-style investments.)

Action, action, action ... and a refusal to play the games Congress has conditioned the country to over the years.  The cities and states that spent beyond their means are not in the same boat as those whose incomes were lost, or temporarily curtailed, not by the CoVid infections so much, but by the panic that saw their workplaces being closed up tight and their jobs lost.

Explain it so the American people understand it, Mike.

Who is really hurting American workers by refusing to negotiate a stimulus plan in good faith, and who is larding up these packages with debts that have nothing to do with CoVid.  We can wait.

Tell the majority of the American people too that the President and his economic advisors see the wisdom in sending out additional $1,200 checks to those not blessed enough to be amongst the country's top earners, and why they won't be seeing another round any time soon.  It's the Democratic party that allegedly values workers and families refusing to budge unless Queen Nancy gets her way.  Let Kamala and SloJoe defend that .

#WhatFliesOnTheWestCoastDoesntWorkinTheMidwest

#WeKnowTheValueOfAnAmericanDollarHereStill

Eddie Van Halen Dead... Wow.

 Throat cancer, 65. I didn't know he was sick.

Diver Down (1982) was popular with my junior high graduating class that year...  Pretty Woman/Dancing in the Street. Cover songs, but fresh to fresh ears... (hitting at number one and number three respectively on the weekly Billboard charts that year.  Year=end results.*)

And the next year -- Feb. 14, '83, his arguably most listened to piece of work, the 20-second guitar solo in "Beat It" dropped... (He did it for free, as a favor to producer Quincy Jones, while the rest of his Van Halen bandmates were out of town.)

RIP, and condolences to Valerie Bertinelli too,  always the mother of his son.

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Added:  I'm reminded that we lost Kenny earlier this yeart too:

Through the years
You've never let me down
You've turned my life around
The sweetest days I've found
I've found with you
Through the years
I've never been afraid
I've loved the life we've made
And I'm so glad I stayed
Right here with you
Through the years

I can't remember what I used to do
Who I trusted, who I listened to before
I swear you've taught me everything I know
Can't imagine needing someone so
But through the years, it seems to me
I need you more and more

Through the years
Through all the good and bad
I know how much we had
I've always been so glad to be with you
Through the years
It's better everyday
You've kissed my tears away
As long as it's okay
I'll stay with you
Through the years...

 

~Share Your Love album. 

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But this, of course, was the album of the sleepovers and country that year, it seems...

"I took you to an in-ti-mate rest-au-rant... Then to a suggestive movie... There's nothing left to talk about unless it's horizontally..." Remember: AIDS hadn't really hit yet...

Blaming Those Who Contract Illness...

 If you grew up in the AIDS era, you learned how ignorant it is to say things like this out loud.  May God have mercy on her house, when she too contracts the virus:

"He's an embarrassment who couldn't even see his own base self-interest clearly enough to protect himself from covid, much less America."

It is a contagious virus that unless you are essentially a shut in, we all risk exposure to.  You don't blame people who get sick for not protecting themselves.  Not in my America.  The Germans have a word for you, sister.  

Under 50 is awfully young to think you can stay at home forever baking cakes with your cushy day job writing about the country's realities from your DC perch bubble...

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ADDED:  President Trump's legacy will be a rebuilt conservative Supreme Court;  No New Wars, and a reduction in money spent to overthrow other country's leaders; Mideast peace; a booming domestic economy fully capable of recovering quickly from the CoVid crisis; and a pushback on the political correctness that roiled the nation (1776 not 1619) and helped result in violence in the streets over reform in the courts and law enforcement systems... plus, whatever he and the Republicans accomplish in his second term. #YouDon'tKnowMyPeople.  #AmericaFirst,AfterGodandFamily #Freedom! I wont let you down so please don't give me up, because I would really really love to sick around,oh yeah.. Freedom2020.

"I Survived the Vid, 2020!"

 C'mon folks... who's making the t-shirts? All sizes and colors available. In all price points...

Make America Great Again, 2020 = The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself...

 Protect the elders.  Get the children back to school. Put able-bodied workers back to work, and keep a spare parent in the home. Let's make that an affordable option too. (Day-care centers and after-school programs are risky business where too many kids congregate in non-school settings. Allow an opt-out option for those who fear their children returning to school? But open the schools again for those who can take care of their own at home in the non-school hours.) Revive the economy with a healthy stimulus going into the winter months...

Do you really want Biden-Harris "leading" the nation forward?  Where has Joe Biden, or the Congress been, for the past 20 years?  Definitely not leading the nation anywhere...

Think on these things. Then, VOTE!

Stay Hydrated, Mr. President...

 And don't push yourself too hard in the coming weeks...

Get in that bedroom and force yourself to rest, sleep really does allow the body to heal, and help us recover fully from the effects of the virus on our symptoms.  Be still, and know your body is fighting back still.

And thank you for making it acceptable for more Americans to "come out", when discussions arise, at work or in the family, about the feared CoVid virus. Nobody should hide the fact they've been infected:  as my Mom mentioned to me, back when I was wondering if I should tell both my sisters, two states away with families:  It's nothing to be ashamed of that you got sick..

You know more now than many of the experts, and definitely more than many of those still cowering in fear.  Respect the virus, avoid it if you can, and do everything in your powers to stay homebound (truly homebound -- fast shopping trips out and emergency medical appointments only, not just performance art for the pictures...) -- if you have health complications, or are in your 80s and 90s or a centenarian whose immune systems have been compromised by life and years.

The rest of us?  Let's help our bodies now -- quit smoking, eat right avoiding sugar and processed foods as best you can, force your body to rest and sleep -- by priming them to Fight Back when the virus comes....  And for the nation's sake, and our student's too:  let's start to reopen their schools.

The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself, and that death count?  Can we be honest? It is so often people already lingering at death's door who were pushed through it by this virus, as many are also taken by pneumonia, say, in their final days.

Thank you for your honesty, Donald Trump, and for being a strong leader of action in a time when too many men like that don't succeed to our leadership ranks because they are cut down prematurely not by viruses, but by fearful thinking, politically correct thinking, and an underlying hatred -- often not expressed openly, but present -- and envy for men of action who can identify and attack underlying social issues with their words and deeds.

Better you than 100 Barack Obamas -- nice guys, yes -- at the helm of true leadership in this country.  You've made a difference in the nation's direction already, and in the Middle East, and in renegotiating our trade pacts with China and Mexico/Latin America, and you are not afraid to stand up for America, and Americans, while so many others would sell us out.  Take all then can, then flee and run.

Nothing wrong with "globalists", but if you are not operating from a position of power, one that you have helped earn yourself, you'll likely to be Obamalike, giving away the store and expecting thanks in return for being a nice guy leader whom only bigots could object to.

That's never been the America way. You put the kibosh on that, just like you will kick this virus in the butt.  #America1776,not1619. #FocusOnTheGood,ForgiveTheSins. #StillTheGreatestNationOnEarthNothingToDoWithJustElephantsInTheShowEither #NeverForget.

 Keep attacking, DC press bunnies. We LOVE that in the swing states. Demand details of a man's private illness!  INSIST he is at death's door.  Second guess his doctors, and shame him for getting sick!  Again, you don't know us...

Pile on, and try to shame a dead-man-walking (of course he is. They're faking how healthy one can be with CoVid, and the real referees -- all you media folks in Washington, of course -- know we should be counting this man out, looking to see who his successor will be, and tsk-tsking him for bringing his premature death upon himself.)  "Shoulda stayed home. Shoulda shown fear. Shoulda acted like I would have done, whatever course of action, or non action, that might be..."

Don't they understand how much Red America values Freedom and freewill? Don't they have any Gods there, other than themselves? Please, keep piling on, people.  This will not end well, but not for the president or the country, but for your pundits once the votes in all 50 states are accurately counted and tallied.  Honestly. You don't know people unlike yourselves. People who will see a vote for President Trump and Vice President Pence as a push back against your carping, "I know best" nanny state.

Apricot-colored dogs... grow older too.

 

But they don't show their age in their facial hairs like say, a black lab with a greying muzzle.  Our Buddy boy is older now, cataracts and joint stiffness, but he is small and runs in spurts, and can be easily picked up when needed.  These are older pictures, but you get the idea.  Often, if they don't see him moving, he still gets called a puppy at the park.  He knows he's loved, and he's a happy boy with a good quality of life still, and a healthy appetite.  The senses are going (sight and hearing), but he has a strong sniffer still, and the heart and lungs -- from his boyhood days in Rice Lake chasing deer and squirrels and chipmunks, and just putting miles in our daily "walks" (me walking, him running ahead, sprinting back, and taking off in the open fields where I could always see him) -- are still strong.  All the internals too, excellent control -- when you can walk and are on your feet regularly, those parts are usually strong too. (Stay on your feet as much as you can, friends. Learn from the dogs and animals.)

They say, you'll know when it is "time" in how they look at you (if you accept putting old dogs down, and I'd never want him to live in pain, or prolong his life unnecessarily)... but at 14 or 15 now, he loves his life, is always up for a visit to the small river park now, loves to eat, has healthy elimination under control and always outside, just sleeps more overall. The vet estimated by his teeth he was about 5 when we found him collarless in RL, back in his "jumping out the car window when parked; take me with you! days, about 9 years ago.  Best we could figure, maybe he was visiting a local hotel or venue there with his "people", and the owners (not the right word -- look at that face; he can't be "owned") searched but could not stay to keep looking.  Or maybe his first home was with an elderly person, and when he ran, they just let him go, since he had so much energy in those early years, and responded well to our more active lives back then, in summer and winter.  

 Loved being out, running, sniffing and exploring. At one point, he "knew" about 6 or 7 local parks, trails and open fields, visiting regularly.  So healthy for us too. So much easier to go for walks when you've got a dog.  No response back then to our posted ads, no chip implanted in him -- still none, no "lost dog" messages left at county humane society or police stations.  Well trained, used to being groomed -- patient boy, always back then. God gave us a gift the day Buddy came into our lives...

You Prefer Mike Pence, or Kamala Harris ?

 I've had the Vid, as I mentioned, and on the bright side, I hopefully have built up antibodies going into the winter and the peak indoors working months... Live to tell.

As soon as the president turns the corner, ask yourself:  What are the odds that Joe Biden will eventually get it too?  Most of will, in one form or another, I suspect... I think the virus IS weakening as we are passing it around. So there's that. And our truly old and vulnerable definitely want to avoid contracting it. (sorry healthy Boomers in your 60s, I'm thinking the elderly elderly here, not just those of you pretending, and drawing on gubmint benefits to enhance your lifestyles and use excuses to stay in and pamper yourselves with mail-order services, and lack of something to contribute to the economy via work anymore... the wherewithal to live lives fully outside your pampered bubbles, with everyone else serving you and upending school and work schedules to "protect" you).

Those 75 and up, and in ill health -- especially those in their late 80s and 90s, they are the ones who are always shut-in's for the winter season, and you don't want to see them exposed, no matter what.  They know to fully isolate, and pay the price with no special accommodations, as they did in the SARS years too and with the regular flu bugs.  (Vaccines might make you feel safe, but shut in's who sacrifice stay strongest and healthiest, of course.  You just have to be willing to honestly pay the price.)

But the rest of us?  Again, I suspect our bodies -- able-bodied adults and children -- will be processing this virus, in some form or another -- perhaps even in a vaccine -- in the coming seasons.  The only question really is when?  When will it come for you, and your body will have to fight it too?

So if a President Joe Biden got it, do you really trust Kamala Harris as president?  Be honest, now.  This is the lady who wasn't even hitting double digits in her primary run and got chosen for PC reasons for the second slot -- when the competition was limited only to ladies, and the black lady got a leg up (she's of Indian descent too!)

Who likes Mike Pence?  Donald Trump was smart enough to complement himself, by selecting a personality very unlike his.  I suspect many Americans would like Pence's calm, slow, Mr. Nice Guy (but no sucker) temperament, and Pence surely has grown and observed President's Trump's ways and learned a thing or two that would make him less Jimmy-Carter-like (put some muscle in that muscular Christianity) and more experienced in leading the nation four years from now.

We'll be watching the VP debate closely in Salt Lake City.  Everyone ask yourself:  do YOU think Kamala Harris is really up to the job of being President of the United States, when SloJoe -- who is building no antibodies in his system, and will likely catch something in his first term, unless he plans to hide in the basement as president... -- goes down?

Trump-Pence for the win.  

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Say, did you hear about the Preakness results yesterday?  Never count any horse out in a horse-race.  Just sayin', for those of you who follow competitive sports, where no contenders are given artificial advantages in true competitions...

Preakness Stakes 2020: Results, payouts, order of finish 

19 hours ago - A filly beat the Kentucky Derby winner in a photo finish to win the 145th Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

 

(and to be clear:  I'm not calling Mike Pence, or Donald Trump, a filly.  I'm calling them the long-shot to bet on. At this time, the underdogs on the ticket. Be well, and stay strong Mr. President and Vice, you'll be back in the race when it most matters, crossing the finish line..  The midwestern and western states will not elect Biden-Harris, not after what the country has been through this summer.)

Another Attempted Invasion from the South?

 or, Whose Country Is It Anyway?

And... here comes an alleged invasion on the southern border:  A caravan has begin rolling north from Honduras, likely destined to pick up bodies on the way, to challenge this country's border enforcement.

Why now? Because the poverty and starvation is allegedly just forcing this inhumane action of refugees fleeing -- with women and children again -- while our own country should be globally isolated during he pandemic crisis, and many in the media would have us believe we need to, "Panic -- the president's down, and nobody is in charge !?!"

Fear not.  The only thing we need to fear is fear itself.  Another invasion, funded by whomever, will be repelled way before another influx of illegal immigrants attempts to gain entry, and access to an America the is in need of economic stimulus for our own workers while a medical illness that isolates so many rages on...

Hard times show us who we really are -- who takes advantage of the "remote work" situation and maximizes the situation for their own advantage, and who fights passionately to get their jobs done -- and then some.  Don't let America's vulnerables be sacrificed at this time.

Our president won't.  Will you?

He's Back...

 Four minutes for the Washington press to feed on.  Listen and learn.  It's an illness, not a disability. (Full disclosure:  I had CoVid in September, did my time in quarantine, and am back to work now.  I know the president would not give us false hope, nor is this a time to panic, point fingers, or predict the worst.  It's an illness, and not a death sentence for most.  Take care, protect your loved ones, and stop gloating about our president's alleged imminent demise?  Thank you, friends.)

"I just want to be so thankful for all of the support that I've seen... This is America. This is the United States.  This is the greatest country in the world.  This is the most powerful country in the world..."  Never forget, show or sow doubt...

Stay strong and keep fighting, Mr. President.  We're going to beat this, and we're going to beat it soundly.  Love to Melania too, slightly younger than our President (just a little bit... ;-)  Class act couple.  #PrayersUP

Praying for the President...

 and all those with so much hate in their hearts they are gloating over his illness and expressing their own sadness and emptiness in not knowing Christ that they try to kick a man while he is down.  "Father, forgive them..."

You got this, Mr. President.  May the Lord work through the doctors to help and heal, and may you be back in no time leading the strongest nation on the face of the earth.  Everyone with goodwill and pride in being Americans is indeed pulling for you and yours  (The rest of them are showing us how small they are and have always been... Sad little lives who don't understand yet the value of Life. God bless them too, for the sinners need it most.)

Amen to that.

 Make no mistake, he's still on the job, serving our country! Thank you, Mr. President.  (You listening, Nancy?  It's not a game, it's people's lives and livelihoods.  Git 'er done, already...)

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

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OUR GREAT USA WANTS & NEEDS STIMULUS. WORK TOGETHER AND GET IT DONE. Thank you!