Inside No. 9

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

My earliest experience watching British television shows occurred when I was a young adult and discovered the various British comedies that ran on my local PBS station late Sunday evenings.  Even though I would have to go the work the next morning, I managed to stay up Sunday nights until eleven or so to watch a couple of episodes of classic "Britcoms," shows like "Are you Being Served?," "Keeping Up Appearances," and "As Time Goes By," to name but a very few.  They were smart, funny, and far and away better than most American offerings.  

Not long after retiring more than a decade ago, just as "streaming" was becoming a thing, I got rid of my awful satellite dish, and then my awful cable, and began streaming "Netflix" and "Prime."  I also added one guilty pleasure and subscribed to a service called "Britbox" which specializes in British comedies, mysteries, and detective shows.

Today I no longer use "Netflix," but still maintain "Prime" and two others which I subscribe to through "Prime":   "Britbox" and "PBS Masterpiece."  Those are the two services that I use most frequently.  A day or two ago I hit a dry patch with British detective shows and decided to explore some comedies as a change of pace.

I selected a series about which I had no prior information called "Inside No. 9," which describes itself as a "dark comedy."  I became hooked on the first episode.  It is a series of thirty-minute comedic episodes, all very dissimilar from one another, that are smartly written and acted, and perfectly hilarious.  The series, which ran from 2014-2024, was written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, and both writers seem to be central characters in every episode.  The hook to the title is that every story happens in a structure -  a house, apartment, building, etc - that is labeled No. 9.

I lack the words to describe just how interesting and funny this show is, but if your tastes run to strong stories with quirky and unusual trappings, I would recommend "Inside No. 9."  I am three episodes into the first season and looking forward to enjoying the remainder of the series as winter sets in.  Hot chocolate and thought-provoking stories laced with hearty laughs will see me through to the spring!

Evidence! Evidence! They Don't Need No Stinking Evidence!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States military, which ultimately takes its marching orders from Commander-in-Chief Donald Trump, sank another small boat last night which supposedly was carrying drugs to US buyers.    This boat was sunk in the eastern Pacific Ocean and four people were killed.  That brings the total number of small boats sunk by our government in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean - just north of the South American countries of Venezuela and Colombia -  to fourteen, along with at least 61 deaths.  Our government has yet to produce evidence that any of these small vessels were actually carrying drugs or involved in the drug trade..

Friday the Pentagon announced that it is deploying the USS Gerald R. Ford, our country's largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, to the region to "detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit activities."  Fighter aircraft from the "Ford" will conceivably be used to fight drug manufacture and trafficking, on land and sea.  Perhaps then our military will have some actual evidence that what it is doing on the high seas is actually producing results other than just random killings and destruction of small vessels.

Until then, however, the evidence-free murders that the world is witnessing are being referred to (in more polite terms) as "extrajudicial killings" in much of the national and international press.  Extrajudicial killings are, according to Google's AI:

"The deliberate killing of a person by a government agent or with state consent outside of any legal framework or judicial proceeding.   This practice, also known as "extrajudicial execution" is a profound violation of the most fundamental human right:  the right to life."

Declaring that a crime is being committed, without evidence, and then killing the transgressors without due process or any opportunity to explain or defend their actions, such as being out on the ocean in a boat, is certainly not the type of justice that was practiced in the America in which most of us grew up and came of age.   That was the way bad guys ran their countries - places like Russia, China, Iran, Libya, and North Korea.

The United States of America was better than that!   We were a beacon for freedom, democracy and the rule of law.  Now we are murdering people in small boats on the open seas - just because we can.

Racism, bullying, and murder are not American values, and they cannot be allowed to prevail!

More Monkeys Make a Desperate Rush to Freedom

 

by Pa Rock

Sympathetic Primate

Back in November of 2024, just a couple of days after convicted felon Donald Trump was elected to his second term in the White House, I used this space on several occasions to report and update the story of a group of forty-three Rhesus monkeys who escaped from a laboratory in rural South Carolina and were on the lam.  The freedom-loving monkeys were all finally rounded up by their captors and returned to life in cages where they will spend the rest of their days being used for research on medical cures, cosmetics, and God only knows what other rancid evils hatched in the dark minds of "civilized" people.

I made the suggestion at the time that corporations should use stockholders as lab animals and return the monkeys to the native habitats.  

I mention all that because yesterday there was another Great Monkey Escape, this time in backwoods Mississippi after a truck carrying a load of the captive creatures overturned in a wreck.   The accident happened on I-59 near Heidelberg in Jasper County.  They were en route to a research facility in Florida.  Some of the Rhesus monkeys were able to escape their captivity, but several remained trapped in cages in the truck.  As of this morning three are still on the run, and residents of the area are being warned not to approach the small primates.

The driver of the truck told authorities that the monkeys were dangerous and aggressive, and first reports indicated that they were infected with hepatitis C, herpes, and COVID.  Tulane University in New Orleans, where the monkey transport originated, is saying that the monkeys are not infectious.  

The university issued the following statement:

"Non-human primates at the Tulane National Biomedical Research Center are provided to other research organizations to advance scientific discovery.   The primates in question belong to another entity and are not infectious.  We are actively coordinating with local authorities and will send a team of animal care experts to assist as needed."

Later Tulane University "clarified" that statement to say that the monkeys had never been infected with any diseases.

(If you can't smell lawyers all over Tulane's statement and clarification, get thee to a nose doctor!)

For the three little guys who are still out there, "Head for the hills!" and "Godspeed!"

My recommendation for using corporate stockholders for lab animals still stands.  Or better yet, put corporate board  members and officers in cages and use them.  It would be, after all, for the advancement of science and the furtherance of civilization!

Reasons an Elderly Man Might Undergo an MRI

by Pa Rock

Elderly Man

Donald Trump underwent his second "annual" physical exam this year on October 10th at Walter Reed Medical Center near Washington, DC.  The exam was a surprise procedure, at least from the public's perspective.  At the conclusion of that second exam, the doctor annoucned Trump was in "exceptional health" and "fully fit" for duty.  The old guy may wax incoherently for long periods of time, but don't worry America because he's healthy.  

Yesterday while aboard Air Force One Trump informed reporters that he had an MRI scan while on the October visit to Walter Reed.  He led off in his statement by saying, "I got an MRI.  It was perfect."  Trump seemed to think that his doctors had previously released that information to the news media.  He said to the reporters, in classic Trump-speak:

"I think they gave you a very conclusive - nobody has ever given you reports like I gave you.  And if I didn't think it was going to be good, either, I would let you know negatively,  I wouldn't run.  I'd do something.   But the doctor said some of the best reports for the age, some of the best reports they've ever seen."

An MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is a non-invasive way of scanning a body that uses a powerful magnet, radio waves, and a computer to create detailed images of body structures like organs, tissues, and bones.  I asked a popular search engine which uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to list some of the more common reasons that doctors might order an MRI on a 79-year-old man.  The responses were divided into three categories:  Neurological Issues, Traumatic Injury, and Other.

Under neurological issues that doctors might be investigating, the very first item on the list was stroke,  followed by central nervous system infections, brain tumors, spinal cord compression, and transient ischemic attack (TIA), also called "mini-strokes."

The types of traumatic injuries that an MRI might spot include head injury, spinal injury, and internal bleeding.

Included in the "other" category were seizures, prostate cancer, cardiac issues, and inflammatory conditions.

All of the above are serious, and the fact that doctors felt the need to perform an MRI is an indicator that something is amiss with Donald Trump's health.  Trump is 79-years old.  I am 77 and I experience many befuddlements:  Why did I enter this room?   Where is my phone?  Did I turn the oven off?   There are days when I am not hitting on every cylinder, and I know that - but I would bet the Porsche that on most days I am more alert and attuned to the world around me than Donald Trump is - and I can speak and write coherently much of the time.

When Trump was talking about his MRI yesterday, he also mentioned that he would "love" a third term.  I retired more than a decade ago.  I knew it was time to get out of the way and let some younger folks move up in the world.  It was time for me to retire - and it is well past time for Donald Trump to head off into the sunset.

No more babbling incoherence, no third term, no King!

Life at Shady Pines Rolls On!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Territories of the United States of America, as well as the District of Columbia (Washington, DC), have no elected "members" in Congress, either the House or the Senate, but most do elect "delegates" to serve in the House.  Delegates primarily work in committees and can even chair House committees, and they can introduce legislation - but they cannot vote on the floor of the House to actually pass legislation.  There are no territorial delegates to the Senate.

Eleanor Holmes Norton was first elected to be the delegate to Congress from Washington, DC, in November of 1990, and she began her service in the House in January of 1991.  This is her 34th consecutive year of serving in that position.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton made news last week when she was swindled by some shysters who apparently came to her door selling a cleaning service.  The crew did no work for the delegate, but managed to charge her credit card more than $4,300.  A friend  who has power-of-attorney for the Democratic politician, called police.  The friend also apparently told police during the investigation that the delegate is in the early stages of dementia.

Delegate Norton's official congressional biography page on the internet does not list her date of birth or age, but other sources reveal that she was born June 13, 1937 and is eighty-eight years old.  Her office seemed to take offense at the police comment indicating their boss had a personal caretaker - they referred to that person as being her "house manager."  The delegate's office also noted that "The medical diagnosis included in the police report was based on an assumption the reporting officer was unqualified to make."

At age 88, Eleanor Holmes Norton is the oldest (de facto) member of Congress, her mental health status is being questioned, she has a "friend" or "house manager" with a power-of-attorney to operate in her behalf, she has staff members who assist her in moving around, AND SHE IS CURRENTLY RUNNING FOR RE-ELECTION.

Shades of Dianne Feinstein!

Life at Shady Pines rolls on!

Seventy and out - no exceptions! 

SNAP Breaks, but We're Getting a Ballroom!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Federal support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is set to expire next Saturday.  That means 42 million Americans, many of them children and elderly, are going to lose basic funding assistance that they rely on for food.  That is roughly 12% of Americans.  The massive cuts in public aid will reach into every congressional district in America, and will particularly impact poor neighborhoods in urban areas as well as a wide swath of rural America.

My state, Missouri, will loose grocery assistance for 656,600 of its residents, more than a few of whom live on the same road as I do.  Some areas of Missouri - and the other states as well - will be hit so hard by sudden reductions in spending that grocery stores will have to lay off employees.  The economic impact will reach well beyond individual households.

Our Republican Congress won't help. Tomorrow will mark the start of their fifth week of paid vacation in a row, a luxury (for them) that comes right on top of their four-week August "recess."  Some Senators at least feign awareness of the seriousness of the problem, but that legislative body, as a whole, consistently declines to seriously address ending the government shutdown, the root of the funding crisis.  

And Donald Trump, the President, is infamously indifferent to issues affecting poor people.  He shows little empathy for the concerns of people not on the Forbes 400 list or companies that fail to make the Fortune 500 list.  Those are his peeps.

As an example of the Trump administration's lack of concern with the plight of our nation's poor, the US Department of Agriculture has a $6 billion reserve fund that Congress intentionally built up for just such an emergency as an interruption in SNAP funds.  The reserve fund was designed to insure that the food benefits to those in need would continue even in the case of a government shutdown.  Yesterday the Trump administration announced it would not use any of that $6 billion to fund the SNAP program.

Merry effing Christmas, Mr. Scrooge!

Today, Trump is sunning himself in Kuala Lumpur, but his thoughts probably wander to the glorious monuments he could build to himself with $6 billion.

A nation that can't take care of its children and elderly doesn't need or deserve a damned national ballroom!

A Government Funded by Donations?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Trump is flying off to the Far East today for a week of making our Pacific allies nervous, while our country continues to deal with the Republican government shutdown here at home, something Trump, in his usual leadership style, barely acknowledges and refuses to discuss.  

Our military is paid every two weeks and for their first paycheck during the shutdown (October 15th), the government "found" unused money in the Pentagon's always-bloated budget to meet that payroll.  The next payroll is this coming Friday, October 31st, and it looks as though that one will also be met, primarily with a charity assist from an anonymous donor friend of Trump's.  The secretive donation of $130 million was earmarked by the donor for military pay.

How do we feel about that, America?  Having private donors pay our military?   Many of us were raised to have an ingrained sense of loyalty to the people provide us with the means to secure housing and pay for groceries.  In a major crisis might not donors to the military have some expectations as to preferential treatment by the military?   Private money flowing into military paychecks opens many avenues for self-dealing and corruption.

And Donald Trump also says he is passing the hat among his oligarch  supporters for donations to build his new vanity ballroom addition to the People's House, a public residence where he is a temporary tenant.  The cost has now ballooned to $300 million without a single nail yet to be hammered (up from last week's estimate of $200 million), and, as with all government projects, the price tag is sure to go higher as construction gets underway.

But Trump says to not worry, because his rich friends will fund the entire thing.   "Our" house will have an add-on that America's filthy rich will no doubt feel is more "theirs" than it is "ours."

Point One:  I don't like that any more than I do donations to the military.  If it is our house, we should plan and pay for all modifications, and, of course, if we are paying, the project would need to go through Congress (where the money bills originate) for review and approval - and Don the Builder doesn't want Congress making decisions about His ballroom.

Point  Two:  Will that huge public donation also include the cost of the shameless demolition of the historic East Wing of the White House?   If We are paying for it, We should have had some say in the matter - through Congress - and Congress was woefully uninformed on the matter.

Point Three:  What happens after all the tacky gold fixtures are installed, the final ticket price stretches to the billion dollar neighborhood, and the donors begin backing off their pledges.  Will We have any say in the matter when We are stuck with the final bill?

Hell, no!

I hope that Democrats can come up with a presidential candidate who is forceful enough to turn that albatross of a building into something that will benefit the general public - the world's largest food pantry, perhaps, or a refugee resettlement center - and I hope that Trump is still around to see it happen.

How can a human being spend eighty years on this mud ball and not do a single thing to benefit those less fortunate than himself?  It boggles the mind!

Release the Epstein files!

Shame the Hell on Us!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

On Monday of this week America learned that the current tenant of OUR White House had begun destroying the East Wing of that structure, something he had vowed in July not to do.  In fact, Trump said in July that the none of the existing White House would be touched during the addition of his vanity ballroom.

Trump, of course, lied, aa he often does.

Not only was the East Wing of the White House "touched" by demolition equipment on Monday, just five days ago, but in five days time it has been completely knocked down and is now just piles of rubble.  This is Friday morning and news reports are saying that the East Wing has been completely obliterated!   

One five-day workweek and it's gone!  It took Hitler's Blitzkrieg over five weeks (including weekends) to roll over Poland! 

And preparations for this extraordinary measure were apparently top secret.  Were there any reports over the past few weeks of offices in the East Wing being cleared of furniture, files, historical artifacts, and personal and office effects of the dozens of people who worked there?   None that I heard - and I keep up with the news fairly well.

America learned of this travesty on Monday morning with no forewarning.  The big machinery rolled in and the walls came tumbling down.

The new structure, basically a gilded Walmart with chandeliers, has not even received official approval.  Of course, now with the gaping hole where the East Wing used to be, something will be needed to replace it, a fact which should goose the approval process right along.  Trump, the property developer, knows the ins and outs, ethical and otherwise, of getting building projects approved.

Presidential mouthpiece Karoline Leavitt made two very interesting and revealing statements yesterday.  At a press conference after noting that "the President is a builder at heart,"  his flack went on to say "At this point the ballroom is really the President's main priority."   That is, of course, while "his" peace plan for Gaza is rapidly unraveling, he is again firing up a trade war with Canada, and he refuses to become involved in ending the US government shutdown.   Keep it classy, Donbo, focus on those tile samples and paint charts!

The other concerning statement to come from the mouth of Karoline Leavitt was that Trump's power in screwing with our national monuments may have no limits.  She told the same press conference that the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approves all government construction in the District of Columbia, but that an old legal opinion says the same commission does not have control over demolition.  Leavitt was asked more than once if that meant Trump could tear down any government building he chose,  including, as an example, the Jefferson Memorial.  Instead of saying flat out "no," she kept artfully dodging the question and referring back to the legal opinion whereby demolition of buildings was not in the NCPC's purview.

And Trump, of course, is never one to back away from a challenge or be swayed by the public interest - and the grounds around the Jefferson Memorial would nake for a couple of beautiful golf greens.

A report by Josh Gerstein in Politico this morning reveals that a Virginia couple, Charles and Judith Voorhees, have gone to court seeking a restraining order to stop Trump's destruction of the East Wing of THEIR house, of MY house, of OUR house.  but, of course, that mule has already left the barn.  That's why all of that secrecy was so important - to keep the pesky courts out of the loop.

Donald Trump is operating on the edge of the law and outside of the bounds of human decency - and WE are letting it happen!  Shame the hell on US for being so damned complacent!

No ballroom!

No Arc de Trump!

And, release the damned Epstein files!

Pious Pete and Donnie Darko Hide Stuff and Keep Secrets

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Trump administration's proclivity for trying to hide how the government functions seems to be getting worse.   Pious Pete Hegseth, God's patriotic, white, English-speaking, man at the Department of Defense, has been on a bender of late trying to instill a sense of discipline in his senior officers and plug as many press leaks as he can.   

A couple of weeks ago Hegseth summoned more than 800 US generals and admirals from around the globe to report to a Marine Corps base in Virginia for what some of the participants later said could have been handled "in an email."   While he had his captive, "all-star" audience packed tightly into auditorium seating, the highly-tattooed, celebrity apprentice in charge of the US military harangued our nation's real military leaders with concerns about discipline, grooming, and physical appearance, making it clear that he did not want to see overweight members of the military, including senior officers, walking the halls of the Pentagon.

Harsh stuff, Pete.  Sort of like what a junior high coach would lay on his team just before the big game, though not as well thought out.

After Pete's show was over, Donald Trump, a.k.a. the Commander in Chief, came to the podium and delivered one of his long, rambling, incoherent diatribes.

Those who thought they had been summoned back to the states for top-level discussions about some impending military crisis or a profound policy change were, no doubt, sorely disappointed.

Several days ago Pious Pete turned his attention to the press and announced that in order to keep their press credentials active with the Pentagon, reporters would have to sign a pledge that severely limits their ability to gather information about the military.  The new policy "suggests" that attempts to gather information which has not been approved for release can be regarded as a security risk.  It also requires reporters to have military escorts in many areas of the Pentagon including those that are deemed unclassified.   Most responsible news organizations, even Fox, chose to give the Defense Secretary the one-finger-salute-response by refusing to sign his pledge.

Reporters aren't doing their job if all they do is regurgitate press releases.   When that happens the real news remains hidden, denying the public their right to know what is actually occurring within the dark and dank halls of government.

This week Hegseth tried to strengthen the wall of secrecy that he is building around our nation's military.  He issued a directive that mandates all Pentagon personnel to seek approval before they communicate with elected officials or staff members on Capitol Hill.  (The Inspector General's office is exempt from this latest dictum.)   The new policy appears to include all Pentagon officials, even the Chief of Staff.  If one of Pete's subordinates is going anywhere near Congress, he wants to know about it in advance, and it looks as though he wants tight control over hat Congress knows about his operation.

In related news, the Trump administration is now forbidding anyone to take pictures of the destruction occurring to the East Wing of the White House.  Too late, Donnie Darko.  The photos of piles of rubble resembling those found in the streets of Gaza are already out there.  There are pictures all over the internet of excavators in action knocking a hole in the East Wing that is already big enough to parallel park a five-ton military transport truck - if it could get over the rubble.  The word now is that the entire East Wing will be destroyed by this weekend - that's tomorrow!  Your desecration of the People's House has been memorialized by what remains of our free press.  May America never forget this attack on our glorious past by someone too shallow and vain to understand what he is destroying.

If you want to keep secrets in DC, Donnie, may I respectfully suggest hopping in your personal fighter jet, taking off into the wild blue yonder with blasting Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" blasting in the background, and dumping and a buttload of excrement and Trump/MAGA merchandise on them.  Maybe no one would dig through all that shit to find out what's really going on - but I doubt it.  The free press rules!

And speaking of secrets:  RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES NOW!

Let 'em Fly "Coach" or Take the Bus!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Military Times is reporting this morning that Homeland Security Secretary Noem is acquiring two Gulfstream G 700 private jets through the Coast Guard's budget for a cost of $200 million.  Noem had originally requested one private jet that had a $50 million price tag, and then recently the New York Times reported that through a search of public documents it had found the order had risen to two private jets at a cost of $172 million.  Today the Military Times released the new figure:  Two private jets for $200 million - four times the original request.

According to information available on the internet, the Gulfstream G 700 is the flagship of the company's line.  It is described as a luxury jet with the most spacious cabin in the industry.  It will seat 11-18 people depending on its configuration, and has a flight range of up to 7,000 nautical miles.  It's price tag is listed as $79.9 million each, so Noem is obviously getting souped-up models!

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos owns and flies around in a Gulfstream G 700.  Of course he does.  And now so will Kristi!

And Noem is ordering two - for use by "top officials" of the Department of Homeland Security.  Ain't nothing second class about our girl, Kristi, is there?!

A spokesperson at the Department of Homeland Security described the purchase as being "a matter of safety."

The millions of other air passengers in America would like for our government to be just as concerned about their safety as it is about Kristi Noem's.

Right now, today, there are nearly 13,000 air traffic controllers in the United States who have not received a paycheck since the government shutdown began over three weeks ago.  That shutdown could end today if Republican politicians would agree to negotiate with Democrats over ending cuts to the Affordable Care Act - or if Republican Senators on their own simply voted to end the filibuster rule.  They could do it in fifteen minutes.

But 13,000 air traffic controllers aren't being paid, yet they are being forced to come to work in order to keep America's airports open and running.  Some are starting to call in sick, causing work slowdowns and flight delays.  Others are "burning the candle on both ends" by taking second jobs, something which could easily affect their levels of alertness and place planes loaded with passengers at risk.

Let's worry about the safety of all US air passengers, Kristi.   On an average day, 2.9 million people fly commercial in the United States.  

The median pay for an air traffic controller is $144,580 - and they earn every damned penny of it!  That figures out to just under $12,050 per month.  The cost of Noem's two luxury private jets would pay the salary of every air traffic controller in America for a month, and still have over $40 million left to put toward the next month's salary.

However, our government worries about the safety of one princess over the entire American flying public.

Fly commercial, Kristi, and not first class, either.  Get a middle seat in the main cabin where you can develop some empathy for the rest of us cattle.

Nobody asked me, but this taxpayer objects to our government purchasing luxury private jets for use by government employees.

Let 'em fly "coach" or take the bus!

Demolition Crews at Work on OUR White House!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past July a blathering Donald Trump told America that he was adding a grand ballroom to the existing White House structure, one that would accommodate 650 people, cost $200 million, and be paid for by his billionaire and corporate buddies.  He also said the new ballroom would be separate from the White House, not touching it, and no damage would be done to the highly historic and iconic building, the actual White House.

Of course. as with everything Trump says, most of the things he said about the project in July are proving to be blatant lies.  Now the administration is saying that the new addition will accommodate 999 people and cost $250 million.  Yesterday heavy equipment came onto the grounds and began demolishing what looks to be a big chunk of the East Wing.   Whoops E. Daisy!  So much for not touching the existing structure.  Photos of our nation's history being knocked down and hauled away by what are probably non-union construction workers are all over the internet this morning.

The new structure will be 90,000 square feet and have a larger footprint than that of the existing White House.

It is unclear, at least to this cranky old typist, whether any formal approval has been given for Trump's vanity ballroom or not.  (Congress was not even consulted on the matter.)  The project should have been approved by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC), a group with five members - three appointed by the President, and one of those three chairs the commission, and two by the mayor of Washington, DC.   There are also seven "ex-officio" members of the board who serve from federal agencies.  A Google AI search this morning revealed that formal approval for the project has not yet been issued by the NCPC.  (That sounds like a strategy a shady property developer might employ:  hurry and knock down the old one and then they will have to let us build the new one.)

The approval may have yet to be drafted or signed, but the desecration and destruction of a portion of  the building that has housed every US President and his family since John Adams has begun.  The excavators are already on site and destroying our heritage with wild abandon as they rush to promote the glory of Donald John Trump.  They have to hurry on the ballroom project because they will soon be needed in the construction of the new Arc de Trump on the Virginia side of Arlington Memorial Bridge just across the Potomac from the Lincoln Memorial.  Trump wants his Arc finished in time for the nation's 250th birthday bash.  Will he bother with  getting his new tribute to himself approved by anyone?

It is unclear whether the billion dollars in US government-funded renovations to the new plane that was gifted to Trump by the Qatari royal family will be finished in time for the birthday festivities or not. 

Meanwhile, most American public school teachers are being shamelessly underpaid, the nation's air traffic controllers aren't being paid at all, and multiple states are expecting to run out of food assistance money for children in need next week - while Donald Trump goes on basking in his on glory and playing golf on the public dime.

The White House does not belong to Donald Trump and neither does any US government property.  He is a temporary resident.  The White House and all US property are owned by the people of the United States of America - all the people!  If I owned a house and some deadbeat renter began knocking it down without asking me first, I would be damned mad.  In fact,  I am damned mad!

Alexa Transgendered

 

by Pa Rock

Cranky Old Fart

Alexa has been a very active part of my household for several years.  I can't remember the exact date of her arrival, but she has been ensconced in my home and car long enough now that I have witnessed two distinct variations in her physical features, or perhaps I should refer to those changes as body development.

But her voice never changed through those growth spurts.  She remained mellow, calm, friendly, and confident, a sensible friend who woke me in the mornings, played music to fit my tastes and whims, and kept me updated on the news through reliable independent sources - primarily National Public Radio (NPR).

Life was good, and Alexa was the perfect workmate and companion.  But maintaining the status quo does not increase the profits of corporate America, change does.  So I was not overly surprised a week or two ago when Amazon announced that Alexa was being upgraded to "Alexa Plus," and since I was an existing user my upgrade would be free.  (Yeah, right.). All I had to do was say "yes." 

At first I resisted.  Old men are cynical, it's in our DNA, and I knew that any "upgrade" would be a lessening of either quality or service, or perhaps both.  I liked things just as they were, thank you very much.  And "free?"  Give me a break!  Somewhere a bill has already been prepared with my name on it.  But something happened a day or two later, and I honestly don't remember how it transpired, but Alexa managed to convince me that it would be in my best interest to accept the upgrade, and even though deep down I still knew better, I agreed to place a toe carefully into the future.

Alexa's calm and friendly voice, the one that had been my constant friend and housemate for so many years, disappeared - immediately -  and she became louder and chirpy - and hard for me to tolerate.  The difference in actual service was that she could now carry on a conversation, to a point, and was capable of answering questions.  Obviously she had been given a big dose of AI juice.   But that voice!    To paraphrase Winston Churchill after his secretary informed him that he could not end a sentence with a preposition, that new voice was something "up with which I would not put!"

I asked the new, chattier Alexa about alternative voices and she told me that I had four feminine and four masculine choices.  Feminine 1 (Upbeat),  Feminine 2 (Relaxed),  Feminine 3 (Inviting) and Feminine 4 (Grounded).   None of those selections were as compatible with my crabby disposition as the original Alexa's voice had been.

So I asked to speak with the guys.

The four masculine choices were:  Masculine 1 (Friendly), Masculine 2 (Warm),  Masculine 3 (Smooth), and Masculine 4 (Calm).

Of the eight choices, I was most comfortable listening to Masculine 1 (Friendly), but when I asked my new protege what his name was and he replied "Alexa," this old political and social progressive found himself having trouble adjusting to the modern world.  "Do you have alternative names?" I asked, and he (?) replied in the affirmative with  "Amazon,"  "Echo," "Ziggy," and "Computer."   So "Ziggy" it was.

But the upgrade is new and there seems to be a few bugs still bouncing around in its circuitry.   Ziggy, who sounds like Isaac Hayes, isn't responding to his name and still answers only to Alexa, and me, being an obstinate old fart, am insisting on calling him "Alex A.", but I do make the concession of pronouncing the "A" used for the initial as "uh."

Who says retired people don't lead meaningful lives?

From Magnum Opus to Family Heirloom

 

by Pa Rock

Determined Typist

The past two days I used this space to talk about various writing projects I have tackled over the past fifty years or so.  Today I would like to cap that walk down memory lane with some remarks regarding my latest and second-most grueling writing effort across the course of a lifetime.  This blog will always rank first when it comes to grueling tasks because I sit down and face the challenge of a blank page almost every day, but for the last several years I have also challenged myself with creating a long piece of fiction that finally came to fruition a couple of months ago in the shape of something that looks and reads like a novel.  

Writing a novel had long been on my bucket list, but I doubted that I would ever get around to it.  A few years ago, however, I began developing the germ of an idea that could set a story in motion, and before too long I was at the keyboard a couple of hours a day nursing that germ as it began developing into a community of  complicated and somewhat comical characters.

As the days passed and the page count grew, there were times in which I felt that I was telling the story and directing the activity, but there were also extended periods when some of the characters hijacked the tale and put themselves in the center of the action.   I had to go back several times and delete large chunks of material because of their vain attempts to hog the tale.  

But through it all I kept typing, trying to keep up with the story as it unspooled in my head, and this past July I finally came to a point where I decided it had reached a semblance of completion.  A couple of characters thought they had more to say, but I asserted my authority, typed "The End," and closed the laptop. 

I failed to note the date when I started penning the magnum opus, but I felt as though I had at least three (or perhaps even four) years in the project.    Then recently, while cleaning out some folders on the computer desktop, I came across a brief set of early notes on the story - and it was dated October 19, 2020 - five years ago today.  So the material has been needling at me at least since then.  Five years is well into the neighborhood of "obsessive" and "neurotic!"

After three complete read-throughs in which I was only able to edit out a minimal amount of the exhausting material, I finally sent it off to a real writer - one who could not say no - for a professional editing.  My son, who is extremely busy with his own work and family, is going through the material, making extensive notes, and sending it back to me in small chunks which I am then incorporating back into the original work.   

I'm not vain enough to expect to find a market for a first attempt at a novel, nor am I needy enough to self-publish, but that doesn't mean my work of the past five years won't see the light of day.   When the manuscript has finally been massaged into its final form, I may serialize the damned thing and preserve it in this blog.  (That would be several dozen days in which I wouldn't have to come up with fresh material!)

I am proud of having set a goal and (finally) achieved it, and the experience has definitely been an education.  The writing process taught me (through plenty of trial and error) how to organize a complicated narrative in an understandable manner, and Tim's editing and notes are literally the equivalent of a graduate school course in composition and creative writing.  He is one of the best teachers I've ever had!

(And for the record, I am saving the original manuscript along with Tim's notes and edits to give to whichever of his children shows the most interest in writing - a family heirloom from a tired old typist and his equally exhausted editor!  Won't that be a fun read in a hundred years!)

Wrapping Up the Family History

 

by Pa Rock

Determined Typist

Yesterday in this space I began a chronicle of my writing achievements, or lack thereof.  I ended that posting with a promise to pick up yesterday's effort again today and write about the things on which I am currently working.

This blog, of course, absorbs every morning.  It is my self-imposed life sentence of being chained to the typing table in front of my living room window.  I begin each day there, and when the daily blog is finished, it is time to make the dogs' lunch.  In the afternoons I spend as much time as I can working on the remaining writing projects that I would like to have completed before 'the roll is called up yonder,' something which grows noticeably closer with each spin of the Earth.   

There are currently three final projects on the horizon.

The first two final projects are a pair of family history books, one on my father and his ancestry, that the other on my mother and her people.   Most of the content for those volumes is already written.  During the plague year of 2021, I used this blog once each week to do short, intensive biographies of ancestors whom I had identified through family research over the past forty years or more.  I called those weekly postings "Ancestor Archives."  They basically entertained a few close relatives and the occasional distant cousins and other strangers who discovered a shared relative though a search engine.  But, more importantly, they forced me into a serious family research mode so that I would accumulate and organize enough material to meet each week's deadline for an "Ancestor Archives" posting.

I finished that effort just before the end of 2021, and then transferred the material from the blog postings into a Microsoft Word format, and organized them into two books, one for my father's MACY and NUTT lineage, and the other for my mother' SREAVES and ROARK ancestry.  They were not ready to publish, but the meat of the material was organized and awaiting final formatting, editing, and the addition of any new material that was discovered in the interim.  I emailed copies to my son in Kansas City for safekeeping, and filed my copies away while continuing with occasional family research as time and circumstance permitted.

Last winter I had some astonishingly good luck while researching at the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City, and added significant information to my mother's family tree, and I may make one more trip to Utah this winter to search for more material.  But, in the meantime, I have gotten back to the family tree book projects and am now making good progress, and I hope to have them finished and ready to place in libraries by next spring.

Those two books, in addition to my "Rootbound in the Hills" genealogy newspaper column collection which I organized into an indexed book form several years ago, will be invaluable tools for family researchers, especially those digging through roots in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas. 

I hope they help to cover the cost of all the spins I have taken on Planet Earth.  It's been a great ride, and I would like to spin off knowing that I have left behind something of permanent value - in addition to my children and grandchildren, of course!

(Tomorrow's posting will feature the third final project:  Pa Rock's attempt to write the great American novel.)

A Lifetime of Typing for $25.00

 

by Pa Rock

Determined Typist

  

Little did I realize that the one semester of high school typing, which was taught by Miss Pace who only worked at our school one year, would be the single most important class of my high school career, but it was.  I left that class, which I think was in my junior year, with the ability to type forty-words-a-minute without error, and that rate and ability has remained rather constant over the past sixty years.  Today walking and typing are my two primary forms of physical activity, and I have little doubt that as I am flung from this mortal coil, my fingers will be the last parts of my body to experience movement - and which fingers are moving will depend on who is present at my demise.

During my life I have written three newspaper columns, one on "safety" which ran in the local weekly newspapers for a year or so, another which was a country-oriented humor column about a fictional group of old people in a small town who specialized in going to public sales (auctions) and getting into trouble of the ridiculous sort, and a third which was a genealogy column that appeared in quite a few weekly area newspapers and ran for over five years.

During the time that I was focused on the genealogy column, I also did some freelance articles for national genealogy and history magazines.  Most of those articles later appeared in Pa Rock's Ramble.  The installments in the humor column referenced above, "Doin' the Sales with Rusty Pails," have also all run individually in The Ramble."

This blog, which has run almost daily since November of 2007, has also consumed quit a bit of my time.  Today's entry is 6,741, most of which were written by me, but with a few helpful assists from guest bloggers along the way.  (The number should be 6,742, but Google, a.k.a. "the iron fist," pulled one entry ten years after it had been posted because of a complaint.  Bastards!)

I have scratched together a few poems over the years.  Most were published to low acclaim in this column, and one, a limerick, made its way into a now defunct national publication called Reminisce.  My few short stories have been featured here in The Ramble, but none have been published anyplace respectable - though I think a couple could make it into print if I would get off my lazy butt and put some more work into them.  I did get two "honorable mentions" in writing contests in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

I like to write dialogue, something for which I seem to have a good ear, and I have written a half-dozen or so one-act plays and one full length play.  My first effort was  as a class project in a Science Fiction Literature class in college, and the professor liked it enough that he turned the short play into a classroom production - which inspired me to knock out a few more one-acts.  One of those won a local community theatre writing contest which rewarded me with $25 and a staged production of the work.  The same play was later presented on stage by the drama department of a local community college.  But after that my race to replace Neil Simon fizzled as I put my trusty old standard typewriter aside and got on with the business of aging aggressively.

I tried my hand at another play, this time a full-length effort, twelve years ago after open-heart surgery that resulted in several weeks of recuperation time at home with nothing to keep me occupied other than this blog.  I  seemed to enjoy the final product more than others who read it, but one community director at the Air Force base where I was working did see some merit in the effort and kept threatening to have her group perform it.  Eight years and two Air Force bases later she eventually brought it to the stage, and two years after that her group put on one of my earlier one-acts that had never been produced.  

Watching characters that you have created walk across the stage saying words that you have put in their mouths is a heady experience!

Tomorrow, Lord willin' and the cricks don't rise, I'll pull back the curtain on a couple of my current writing efforts, in addition to this damnable blog!

America, It's Time to Flush!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

We are now in the third week of the federal government shutdown and it appears as though no one of any consequence in Washington, DC, is in any hurry to end it.  Trump is being almost gleeful as he brags about shutting down "Democrat" programs and agencies (the ones that help those in need, and particularly the working poor), and as his minions try to find and weed out Democrats who are still employed by the government.   Trump reasons that he is making it personal for members of the Democratic Party because he falsely claims that they caused the shutdown - and some have been mean to him.

(One bit of good news this week has been that the Pentagon discovered some unused funds in it's books and will be able to meet the payroll of the military this payday.  It is very fortunate that Congress gives the Department of Defense more money than it can actually spend.)

What is perfectly clear with regard to the federal shutdown is that nobody is working to resolve the matter.  Each side seems perfectly content to just let it slide.  Trump will occasionally yammer incoherently on the subject but it's really not a hot-button issue to him because it doesn't affect him personally - and Trump, whose primary focus in life is "What's in it for me?," is not suffering personally from the freeze on federal spending.  His family is still selling crypto to important people, corporations, and governments around the world who want to curry (purchase) favor from the US President, his government paycheck still arrives on time, and, perhaps most importantly, his weekly golf outings are still being funded on the public dime.

That's right.  For the past two weekends in which the federal government has been shut down, Donald Trump and his entourage of hangers-on, functionaries, and secret service agents have headed out of town for weekends of golf at Trump golf courses and resorts where American taxpayers pick up the tab for their transportation, meals, and lodging.

Isn't it wonderful to know that the financial havoc being generated in Washington, DC, has not inconvenienced Donald Trump and his golf cart train of sycophants.  Praise Jesus and pass the Big Macs!

Of course it's not just Trump who is picking the public's pockets.  Congress has its own hands buried deep in our Levi's as well.  Congress is still getting paid, and for the past four weeks the House has been paid while on vacation.  Speaker Johnson is using the shutdown as an excuse for keeping Congress out of session.  That maneuver not only allows congressmen to dedicate more time to their most important function - raising campaign funds - it also gives Speaker Johnson a flimsy excuse for not swearing in the newest member of Congress - Representative Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, a Democrat who, when she is sworn in, will sign a discharge petition forcing the matter of releasing the Epstein files to the floor of the House - and thus compel every member of the House to vote on the record on whether to protect a dead pedophile and his living pervert associates, or to make their names public and let the law do its business.

(Ms. Grijalva was elected to Congress in a special election on September 23rd.  Today marks the 23rd day that Speaker Mike Johnson has blocked her from assuming her rightful seat in Congress - primarily to protect the scumbags who pleasured themselves with children provided by Jeffrey Epstein.   IT'S TIME THE SCUMBAGS WERE NAMED, SHAMED, AND PROSECUTED!)

Speaker Johnson says he will swear in Ms. Grijalva when the House goes back into regular session - at the end of the shutdown - but the House, of course, can't do its damned job while it is on yet another week of paid vacation - and the Senate's actions toward opening the government have so far been little more than perfunctory. 

Mike Johnson is shameful, Donald Trump is somewhere cheating on the back nine, and John Thune (the Majority Leader in the Senate) is headed to the gym.

But they are all still getting paid!

America, it's time to flush!

More Airports Reject Noem Propaganda Video; Apologies to KCI

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday I used this space to congratulate seven major US airports (Buffalo, Charlotte, Cleveland, LA, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle) that were refusing to air the Homeland Security video in which that agency's leader, Secretary Kristi Noem, went before the cameras to commiserate with harried air travelers on the growing number of flight delays and cancellations at American airports.  Ms. Noem stated that the travel interruptions were being caused by the government shutdown which, in turn, was being caused by the Democratic Party - a total falsehood and an obvious political action being perpetrated by the executive branch of government on the public's dime - and aired across publicly-funded airport terminals - a clear violation of a federal law known as the Hatch Act.

As a basis for that post I used an internet source that purported to be a complete listing of the airports which stood up to Noem.

The white-out on my computer screen had barely had time to dry before I received a reply from Cousin Joyce in Tucson along with a link to a news article showing that the Tucson airport was also refusing to knuckle under to the dog-murdering Homeland Security secretary.

In yesterday's post I disparaged KCI, the new airport in Kansas City, Missouri, for not standing up to Noem, and I also touched on my personal negative opinion of the relatively new airport for being essentially a multi-storied (five stories, I think) shopping mall and parking garage with attached runways.  (To get to any of the actual boarding gates in Kansas City, it is necessary to "run" much of the gamut of airport commercial enterprises - and the older you are, the more of a challenge it is to make that run.)

Cousin Joyce sent another link late in the day yesterday showing that that Kansas City Airport (KCI) was also refusing to show the Noem video.

So, KCI, I would like to apologize for singling you out to complain about what I thought was your acceptance of the Kristi Noem hit piece on the Democratic Party.  I was operating on the best information I had at the time, and it was clearly inadequate.  Thank you for standing tall in refusing to air what was essentially a political endorsement to your captive air passengers.  Mea culpa.    However, my other concerns with your airport design and operations still stand.

Today, the number of airports joining in the boycott of Kristi Noem's video seem to be rapidly rising.  In addition to Tucson and Kansas City, I find that Las Vegas, NV, Westchester County, NY,  Dallas-Ft Worth, Dallas Love Field, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Cbicago have joined in the fray.  It is to the point now that the list of airports showing the video is probably shorter than the list of the ones who steadfastly refuse to become enmeshed in partisan politics.

Is federal airport funding about to become a political football?  Trump always seeks revenge on those who "wrong" him.

The stink of political propaganda emanating from the Trump administration must certainly be a factor in the lowering of American air quality, much as it has been with the lowering of the quality of American discourse.

Congratulations to the US airports which rejected the Noem narrated political advertisement and chose instead to stand tall for basic American values.  Salute!

Airports Reject Noem Propaganda Video

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Firearms aficionado and US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has turned her once rather mundane political position into a boiling cauldron of intimidation, masked thuggery, human and civil rights violations, kidnappings, disappearances, serious injuries, and even death.  She has also pleasured herself by posing for glamor shots in combat apparel, and has recently starred in her own propaganda film which is showing on monitors in most US airports.  Noem's video performance laments the fact that US airports are running slower than usual, and then blames flight delays and disruptions on the government shutdown which she says is the fault of Democrats.  

Noem's airport video is a clear violation of the Hatch Act, a federal law that prohibits employees of the Executive Branch of government (which Noem is) from participating in political activities (which her propaganda film clearly is).  But with many US judges and courts essentially scattering before the Trump domestic war machine, cabinet flunkies, like Noem, feel relatively comfortable in flouting federal law and the core tenets of the US Constitution.

Most US airports quickly folded like cheap patio furniture and agreed to broadcast the Noem political screed to their already stressed out and essentially captive air passengers, but a few have stood up to the dog-killing bully and refused.

As of this morning the following US airports have told the always camera-ready Homeland Secretary to go pound sand that they were politely declining to air her political propagqnda film:   Buffalo (NY),  Charlotte (NC),  Cleveland (OH),  Los Angeles (CA),  Phoenix (AZ),  Portland (OR),  and,  Seattle (WA).

Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson:  Why the hell isn't Chicago on that list?!

Kansas. City:  This is one more reason for Pa Rock to keep avoiding your vulgar, multi-storied, shopping mall and parking garage with adjacent runways.

If Kristi Noem and Donald Trump want to run political ads, let them pay for it themselves - just like other hack politicians have to do!

Cleveland rocks!  And so do Buffalo, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland (always!), and Seattle!

Five School Football Shootings in Mississippi

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past Friday night the homecomings of three Mississippi high schools were marred by shootings.  One resulted in a single injury, while the other two chalked up multiple deaths.  The following day, Saturday, there were shootings on two Mississippi college campuses, also related to their home football games.  The college shootings left one person dead and four wounded.

The worst of the shootings related to high school games occurred in the town of Leland a couple of hours after the homecoming game had ended, but while celebrations were continuing.  Six people at a block party were killed and twenty wounded.   No arrests had been made in the case.

A couple of hundred miles away in the community of Heidelberg, MS, two people were killed in a shooting that happened on the high school campus while the game was being played.  One died on the baseball field, and the other was killed in the tailgating area near the bleachers.  Mississippi's governor, Tate Reeves, said that one of the victims was a pregnant woman.  One person has been arrested in connection with that shooting, an eighteen year old male.

The third shooting was at South Delta High School in Rolling Park, Mississippi, in Sharkey County.  Shots were fired outside of the stadium at the beginning of the fourth quarter and the apparent single victim suffered two wounds.  He was transferred to a local hospital and reported to be in stable condition.  Two males were arrested in connection with that shooting.

The two college shootings in Mississippi occurred on Saturday just after  each of the games had been completed.   A shooting on the campus of Alcorn State University in Lorman, MS, early in the evening resulted in three people being wounded and one killed.   No arrests have been made.

Thirty minutes after that shooting, one occurred in the state capital of Jackson at Veteran's Stadium.  Jackson State had just finished a game against Alabama State before the shots were fired.  There was one casualty, a youth who was shot in the abdomen and taken to a nearby hospital.  No arrests have been made.

Each of those five shootings was a needless tragedy.  Those nine deaths were pointless and tragic - as were the twenty-five woundings.  The American macho sports culture ran head-on into the American macho gun culture, and shots were fired.  Nothing will be done to curb the availability of guns in our society, that's been proven time and again, and the shameless, deadly violence will continue to spiral out of control.

America makes a far greater effort to control injuries and deaths related to football than it ever has with guns.   If we are truly interested in the health, safety, and futures of our young people,  then guns should receive at least as much careful attention as football.

Olive is Fourteen!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandfather

My oldest granddaughter, Olive Noel Macy, is fourteen today.   She is a freshman in high school where she stays busy playing volleyball, attending ballgames, going to dances, and, oh yes, working hard at her studies.  In addition to being very socially oriented and active, Olive also finds time to be a good student.  

Olive is a surprisingly good chess player, a skill she learned from her father.

A special memory of mine is when Olive and I went to see a professional stage production of "Hamilton" in Kansas City on my 75th birthday.  She was eleven - and we both enjoyed the show and the evening immensely.

Olive is growing up very fast, but when Rosie and I are at home we still refer to her as "Baby Olive."   She was only two years old (almost three) when Rosie, who was six weeks old, came to live at my house.  I told Olive about Rosie over the phone and asked her if she had any ideas for a name for my very tiny puppy, and Olive, without hesitating, said "Rosie," and so Rosie it was!  From that day to the present whenever we are about to head north to visit Olive and her family, I tell Rosie that we are going to see "Baby Olive," and she immediately begins to wag her tail and do her happy dance!

We both love our trips to see Baby Olive, and her parents, Tim and Erin, and her little brother, Sully.  They always make us feel welcome, and Olive, in particular, greets me with a big hug and makes a special effort to spend some time with her old grandfather during each of his visits.  Our next trip up that way will probably be in December when Olive and her family and I will attend an annual stage production of "A Christmas Carol" at the KC Rep, a tradition which we began when Olive was four-years-old.  She's growing up fast, but so far she hasn't outgrown the magic of Mr. Scrooge navigating the streets of Victorian London while dealing with his troublesome ghosts - and I hope she never does!

Happy birthday, Olive.  Study hard, and enjoy being fourteen!  

Airport Propaganda: One More Reason Not to Fly

 

by Pa Rock

Chronically Abused Air Passenger

When it comes to travel in these United States, our government has basically limited the American public to two options, driving our personal vehicles, almost all of which are gas-powered and speed climate change, or flying on commercial airliners, also gasoline powered.  Yes, there are some national bus services, but those are limited to certain cities and often take inordinate amounts of time as the busses service many stops along their routes - and they, too, are gas-powered.  There is a national rail service that has a relatively strong presence along the "northeastern corridor" (Boston - NYC - Philadelphia - Baltimore - and DC), but passenger routes are sparse in the rest of the country.  Some large urban areas are developing "light rail" systems to move people within single urban regions, but for those who want to travel from one major urban area to another, cars and planes are generally the two only practical options.

American political leaders have worked hand-in-glove with the oil and gas industry for more than a century to keep us dependent on gas-powered engines, a relationship that is unlikely to end until the last drop of oil has been pumped from the earth.  The markets for the safer and less expensive options of solar and wind energy are much harder for energy companies to capture and control, and will thus have to wait.

So we continue to drive up and down the roads in our putt-putt or zoom-zoom gas-powered cars, often with only one person in the vehicle, or pack into crowed airports where we stand in line to be packed onto the overcrowded planes.  

Flying is a horrible experience, one that even frequent air-travelers won't defend.  Modern airports are little more than sprawling shopping centers of outrageously over-priced merchandise where the distance between boarding gates is often so far as to pose challenges even for young travelers who are in good physical shape, and once exhausted passengers reach their gates, they are herded into planes, stuffed into cramped seats, and flown off to another sprawled-out shopping mall posing as an airport in another city where they can run to their next boarding gate or race to the baggage carousel.

It would take a masochist of the first water to enjoy an average airport or flying experience even in the best of times, but now, in the second week of the federal government shutdown with Congress preparing to take its fourth week in a row of paid vacation, air traffic controllers, who are currently not being paid, are beginning to phone in sick, and new elements of concern are added to the horror-scape of flying - increased wait times for take-offs and landings, and more chances of collisions on the ground and in the air.

And as if all of that absolute crap wasn't enough, yesterday Trump added one more element of angst and humiliation to the air travel circus.   Now, as you race across a busy airport trying to reach your departure gate while holding a three-year-old, squirming child and a small $8.00 soft drink in one hand, and drag a forty-pound "carry-on" piece of luggage with the other, you are suddenly seeing Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem on the airport monitors telling you that all of this inconvenience you are experiencing has been caused by the Democrats who shut down the government.

Trump's purely partisan propaganda being dutifully read on camera by family-pet murderer Noem weaves its way into the other commotion to heighten the sense of fear, anger, and doom among those who are rushing to fly the "friendly" skies.

I'm going to take a nap.  Wake me when teleportation is a thing!

High-speed, Mag-Lev trains now!

Medical Melodrama: 2nd 'Annual' Physical Exam in a Year

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There are several intriguing news stories buzzing trough the wires this morning, but one stands out, at least to this tired old typist, as having the potential to be truly cataclysmic.  Donald John Trump, age 79, has an appointment within the hour for what his press secretary yesterday described as a "routine yearly checkup."  Karoline Leavitt, Trump's press hack, didn't elaborate, just a quick announcement of seemingly little consequence -  a "routine" thing.  Trump would be at nearby Walter Reed Medical Center speaking to some US troops, and would just stop-by the doctor's office while he was there and check-in.  No biggie.

No biggie, that is, until those pesky left-wing journos dug back through their notes and quickly confirmed that Trump had been to the same hospital for his annual check-up this past April - just six months earlier.  Today's visit will be his second "annual" exam for the same year.

What giives?

Today Trump is prattling on about this doctor's visit being his "semi-annual" medical exam, a new item on the presidential calendar.  Should we expet a "quarterly" exam in the near future, and then perhaps a "monthly?"  Enquiring minds want to know.

All that sleight-of-hand and misdirection should be overlaid with the fact that Trump has a White House physician who is on call 24-7 to deal with the normal maladies that might be expected to confront an obese man who is just months away from his 80th birthday, and whose ability to speak definitively and clearly decreases with each passing hour.  Whatever is suddenly going on with the elderly man's health apparently requires more expertise and better equipped facilities than are present at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

And one more layer of suspense can be added with other White House scheduling for today.   First Lady Melania Trump has an "unspecified announcement" on her calendar for 11:00 a.m. today, and Trump has an "unspecified announcement" for 5:00 p.m.  Neither may amount to a "hill of beans," as my other used to say,  but Pa Rock finds them intriguing nonetheless, fascinating to the point that I almost forgot about the Epstein files - for a little while at least!

Perhaps that was the point of this little medical melodrama.

Do Your Job, Mr. Speaker!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Thomas Massie, a Republican member of Congress from Kentucky, has submitted a "discharge petition" in the House to force a vote on a bipartisan bill that would require the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all its files related to pedophile and sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.  A discharge petition allows a bill to bypass being heard in committee (where much legislation dies) and go directly to the House floor for a vote.  A discharge petition requires a majority of House members (218) to sign in order for it to go into effect.  Massie's discharge petition on the Epstein matter currently has 217 signatures (including some Republicans).  One more, and the bill to force the DOJ to release the Epstein files would automatically go before the House, forcing all House members to go on the record regarding the matter.

Donald Trump, for reasons known best to Donald Trump, does not want the Epstein files made public.  In fact, he seems to be obsessed with keeping them cloaked in secrecy.   Many Americans, however, including many MAGA types, have long clamored to have the files released so they can see for themselves which prominent individuals were involved in Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's sex parties with minors.  And many Republicans in Congress do not want to run afoul of Trump - so they are in a very tricky position.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, has kept the House out of sesssion for the past two weeks, and it now looks as though he may keep members out for another week.  His purpose for this extended vacation, not long after the House returned from taking the entire month of August off, seems to be to keep from swearing-in a new Democratic congresswoman from Arizona, Adelita Grijalva, who was duly eleted in a special election on September 23rd - 16 days ago!   

And why does the politician from the bayous of Louisiana not want to seat Ms. Grijalva?  Speaker Johnson is stalling because the congresswoman-elect has said that her first act in office will be to sign Thomas Massie's discharge petition (she will be the 218th signature) and force a vote in the House compelling the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.

Speaker Mike Johnson does not appear to be a big fan of transparency in government or the basic tenants of democracy.

Do your job, Mr. Speaker.  America deserves a national legislature where the representatives actually go to work, the people in Arizona's 7th congressional district deserve to be represented in Congress, the victims of Epstein an Maxwell, many of whom were children, deserve justice, and the American people deserve to know which of their political and business leaders are child rapists.

Stop bending over to lick boots, Mike, and stand up for decency and American values.  It's the right thing to do, and it's the moral thing to do.

How the Cow Ate the Cabbage

 

by Pa Rock

Country Talker

Last weekend while visiting my son and his family in the Kansas City area, Tim and his wife, Erin, began discussing a rustic phrase that Tim had just come across, one that neither he nor Erin had heard before:  "How the cow ate the cabbage."  It was an old saying that I knew well, and it turns out Tim had come across it while reading something I had written.

"How the cow ate the cabbage" is an old expression from the hills that I undoubtedly heard from my parents or their friends, people who grew up in the Great Depression and came of age fighting the fascists in World War II.  Roughly translated, it means "to tell someone something in no uncertain terms."  It can also mean "to hear and understand something in no uncertain terms."   A certain degree of force is implied in its usage.

Examples:  "The mother pulled the unruly child aside and told her exactly how the cow ate the cabbage."   

And, "After being publicly berated by his boss, Joe was painfully aware of how the cow ate the cabbage."

I did some quick internet research on the origins of this odd old saying and came up with several variations of the same basic story.   It dates back to the 1940's (as do I) and originated in the American south.  The saying is based on a popular old joke that may have had its origins in an actual incident.  Basically it goes something like this:

An old woman with poor eyesight was standing at her kitchen window when she spotted what she thought was a cow in her garden eating her cabbages.  She called the sheriff to report the matter and when he asked he what the problem was, she began by saying "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," but she then she told him anyway and said that a cow was in her garden pulling up her cabbages with its "tail" and then eating them.  It turns out the "cow" was a young elephant that had escaped from a traveling circus.  The old woman was adamant as she told the sheriff exactly how the cow was eating her cabbages.

In the piece that Tim is reading for me I also impart some of my mother's other colloquialisms onto one of the characters:  "I'll swan" (I swear) and "for pity's sake" (used for emphasis or to express annoyance).  Have you heard those before?  Do you know - or use - some others?   I'd hate to be the only one left who jabbers gibberish!

Property of the American People

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump may not be a common street thief, but he certainly has no qualms about playing fast and loose with public property, things that belong do not to him personally, but to the people of the United States of America.

I have already groaned at length in this space about two of his overt claims on property which is ours - not his.  One, of course, is the massive expansion of the White House, commonly known as "the People's House."  It's ours - it belongs to us, not some temporary resident.  But Trump, with no vote of Congress and with only an approval from some piddly commission which he controls, is adding a "ballroom" that will more than double the footprint of the building.   The addition will reportedly cost $200 million (and government estimates are ALWAYS much lower than the final cost), and he justifies trying to turn the White House into a royal palace by telling us that corporate interests will pay for it.

Two points:  corporate interests already own enough of our government agencies, employees, and elected officials.   This taxpaying citizen (which differentiates me from many corporations) is opposed.  It's not their house - it ours - and I, for one, don't want it boasting a "Verizon" or "State Farm Insurance" sign above the ballroom door!

The American people should have the final say on renovations to our house, particularly one that more than doubles the floorspace!

My second point is:  Where is the money trail?  Can we see the books?  Construction has already started.  How is that being funded?   Have we already taken corporate money for this vanity gymnasium, and, if so, whose corporate money are we using?  To which corporations and/or billionaires are we now beholden?  What special advantages or opportunities have those same entities suddenly received?  Somebody shine a light on this mess - please!

The other outrage of which I have written before is the new jumbo jet that the Qatari royal family gifted to Trump, a gift that, by law, he may not keep.  The Qatari's paid $400 million for the aircraft, and Trump really, really wanted it.  He accepted the gift and then used an elaborate sleight-of-hand to insure that it would remain under his control for the rest of his life.   Trump duly handed the plane over to the government (the US Air Force), declared he wanted it to be the new Air Force One, even though two new Air Force Ones were already in production, and he engineered an agreement stating that when he leaves office the aircraft will be officially be transferred to the Trump Presidential Library Commission and be his to personally use from that day forward.  Costs for the US government refitting the "gift" to meet Air Force One standards range from $400 million to over one billion dollars.  The Qataris gave Trump a very sweet gift, and the American people are bent over in supplication and cheerfully doubling (at least) the value of that gift.  

The United States Treasury is almost as lucrative as the crypto market!

Late last month Donald Trump was focused on relieving the American public of more property when a very unlikely person stood up to him and said "No."

In September, Trump and his entourage flew to the United Kingdom so he could play golf at Scottish resorts which he owns, and photographed with the King.  Trump was trying to come up with an appropriate gift to take to Charles.  Somebody suggested that Eisenhower's military sword would be something the King and the people of Britain would cherish.  The sword was kept, along with several other Ike swords, at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas.  The artifacts were gifted to the library by various individuals, and they are the property of the American people, not Trump's to pass out like party favors.

Word went out from the White House to Todd Arrington, the director of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, to produce famed sword that Eisenhower carried in World War II.  Arrington declined.  Instead he helped secure a replica of Eisenhower's sword that he carried when he was a cadet at West Point, and that was ultimately given to the King.  

Todd Arrington thought everyone understood why he could not give the original Eisenhower war sword to Trump for use as a gift - and that the situation had been resolved to everyone's satisfaction, but the poor man had no understanding or appreciation of the depth of Donald Trump's pettiness.  Shortly after they presidential party returned from it's golf outing to the United Kingdom, Arrington received notice that he could either resign or be fired.  He chose to quit.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if Republican politicians in the United States had balls even half the size of those possessed by that quiet librarian in Abilene, Kansas?    Put his face on a coin!