Narcissism and Mental Health

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) is a recognized mental health condition.   People with the disorder often exhibit a heightened sense of self-importance, a desire to be admired, and a lack of empathy for others.  They expect special treatment, seek constant praise, believe they deserve special privileges, and exploit others without regard for their needs or feelings.

While narcissists are the type of people others generally try to avoid in social situations, if they possess money or power, they can command attention, an ability which feeds into their mental health disorder.

A raging narcissist might soothe his inner demons by placing his name on buildings, or golf courses, or battleships.   He might place his image on things like coins, or gild his home and work space as though it was some royal splendor from ages past.  He might try to increase his self-importance by seizing things which do not belong to him.  He would very likely take great care in his personal appearance and go to extremes to appear younger and more virile than he actually is.

A narcissist is not a person who would be expected to rush out and help a friend in need.  He might profess interest or friendship, but only while it was of direct benefit to himself and his own interests.  He would not make a good confidant, baby sitter, or neighbor - and he should certainly not be trusted with power, responsibility, or money.

The primary and consuming interest of a person with Narcissistic Personality Disorder is himself.   Once others are aware of that and internalize it, the commotion and distractions caused by the narcissist can be seen for what they truly are:  symptoms of a mental health disorder.

Putting a narcissist in charge exacerbates his mental health condition and can have negative impacts on those must operate and survive under his leadership.  

People suffering from mental health disorders need mental health treatment, not unchecked power. 

Just sayin . . . 

Pa Rock's 2025 Holiday Newsletter

Deck the Halls, Jingle those Bells,

Stuff the Turkey, and Spike that Egg Nog!

Christmas greetings from the Macys of West Plains, Missouri.  This holiday season finds us relatively healthy and happy.  My little dog, Rosie, is eleven now, which makes her seventy-seven in dog years, the same age as I am in human years, so we both can appreciate each other's occasional aches, pains, and infirmities.  My oldest son, Nick, lives with us and is a major help around the house and property, and his dog, Gypsy, rounds out the household.  Gypsy wandered into our lives last year, like a true gypsy, and is easily the happiest and most pleasant member of our little family.

We are hunkered down for the winter and only suffered one catastrophe so far with the furnace being down for nearly two weeks, but it was repaired late yesterday just as the warming trend began to kick in - and we survived just fine pulling space heaters around from room to room.  Sadly, there are many people in the world whose troubles outweigh ours, and we are very thankful for our conveniences and modest luxuries.

2024 had been a year of travel for me with a long drive across southern Canada to Oregon, and other travels to Chicago (by train), New York City, and Salt Lake City, but 2025 proved to be much more restrained.  I did drive to Oregon again this year, but this time took the much less scenic route across Kansas and up into the northwest.

While I was in Salem, Oregon, visiting my daughter Molly and her family, she and I and two of her children, Willow and Judah, took the train from Salem to Seattle, Washington, where we spent three days experiencing, among other things, the iconic Space Needle and Seattle's extremely unique "Gum Wall," an ever changing work of urban art that began more than thirty years ago when a club with its entrance in an alley would not allow patrons in who were chewing gum, so they began placing their gum on the brick walls along the alley.  Today there is a block or so of alley whose walls are covered in colorful chewed chewing gum - as high as the tourists can reach.

Forgive me, friends, for I have strayed.  The Christmas season has little to do with chewed chewing gum.  That's what happens when you get old - the mind wanders!

Molly and two of her kids, Sebastian and Willow, came to visit us over Thanksgiving along with my son, Tim, his wife, Erin, and their children, Olive and Sully.  That was fun!  We went to the river where most of the group skipped stones while Nick and Sully enjoyed some time together fishing.  Sully and Gypsy bonded well and became fast friends.

While I didn't put in much time traveling this year, we did invest in furniture and now have two new chairs and a couch in the living room which all recline, new mattresses, and I have a new office chair which is so comfortable.   "Comfort," in fact, is Pa Rock's word of the year for 2025!

(Did you know that the terminology for office chairs has changed?   My beautiful, fully padded, swiveling office chair on wheels. exactly like the ones business professionals have been using for decades, is now called a "gaming chair."  (I guess they might be exciting for racing downhill, like in a "soap box" derby - but crappy for hide-and seek!)

Other highlights this year included a SREAVES (my mother's family) reunion in Newton County, Missouri, in March which was planned and carried out by my sister, Abigail.  That was fun reconnecting with cousins that I hadn't seen in years.  I had cataract surgery in Springfield, MO, in May, which was uneventful but gave me an opportunity to spend some time with Ranger Bob and his wife, Sandy - and to have a very nice meal at their home!  Other than those highlights, Rosie and I took a couple of weekend trips to visit Tim and his family in Roeland Park, Kansas, and I went to several dozen doctor's appointments in exotic locales like West Plains, MO, Mountain Home, AR, and Springfield, MO.

That's what old people do - visit doctors and stand in line at the pharmacy!

Come see us in West Plains if you get the chance.  That would give me something to write about next year!

Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years!

Pa Rock and Rosie - and Nick and Gypsy

End of an Era at the KC Rep

 

by Pa Rock

Theatre Aficionado

Yesterday afternoon the Kansas Macy's and Pa Rock enjoyed our holiday tradition of attending a stage production of "A Christmas Carol" at the KC Rep Theatre on the campus of the University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC).    We have been attending for a decade, and I leave the theatre each December saying the most recent production was the best one yet - and this year was certainly no exception.  It was indeed the best one yet.

The KC Rep has produced "A Christmas Carol" for the past forty-four years, so attending is a tradition for many families in this area.  It usually runs nightly along with afternoon performances on the weekends from mid November through just before Christmas.  Some families have been attending across three generations.  

This year is witnessing the end of an era because the very fine actor who plays Ebenezer Scroogs - Gary Neal Johnson - is in his final season of playing the lead.  Mr. Johnson has been a member of the cast for all of the forty-four years that the play has been performed, and he has played Scrooge for the past twenty-five seasons.  Many members of the large cast have also been sa part of the production for multiple years, and for those who are regulars in the audience, going to the annual performances feels like reconnecting with old friends.

This complex production is something that should not be missed, especially for avid fans of live theatre and the work of Charles Dickens.   A revolving stage allows the characters and carolers to move steadily across the stage, and they occasionally roam into the audience.  The effect is that the people watching get a heightened sense that they are part of foggy Victorian London.  The production is very much a total theatre experience.

I'm sure we will do it again next year and meet the new Scrooge!

Happy holidays!

McDonald's Milk: A Sucky Operation

 

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

Rosie and I are both currently seventy-seven years of age, and both painfully aware that we are getting too old for road trips.   Comfort is a prime consideration, and long hours crammed in a car are definitely hard on tired old bodies.   Closely related to that is the necessity of eating and making comfort stops.   Any stop extends te total time on the road.  Comfort stops can't be helped, but time can be saved by packing meals or using drive-thru lanes and fast food joints.

So on the road, Rosie and I eat way too much junk food when we would rather be home eating healthier.

Today got off to an ugly start due to an encounter with road food.  We are spending a couple of days with my son and his family in the Kansas City area, and this morning, being the first ones up, my little dog and I decided to go into town and get a bag of breakfast sandwiches for the family to have as they began waking up and coming downstairs.  There are several options close by, and this time I chose the local McDonalds.  The service was friendly, the order correct, and we took our bag of breakfast and headed home.

I always order a carton of white milk with breakfast on the road to coat my stomach before I consume a greasy sausage or bacon burger, and, up until today, the milk had come in a small, round, plastic bottle with a screw top lid.   But that didn't happen this morning   I received  the milk in a rectangular carton that had a very small circle of foil hear the top with the words "insert straw here."  The foil circle was significantly smaller than the diameter of the only straw that I received - the one for my other drink, an unsweet iced tea.

Oh bother!

When we got back to Tim and Erin's, I worked at getting the small carton of milk open.  I couldn't get the top of the carton to unfold and open up, and if I had succeeded milk, would have undoubtedly gone everywhere.  The thought occurred to me that the carton was probably designed for one of those hard little straws that used to come with fruit juice boxes, but they had not included one of those with my order.   I dug through the kitchen drawers looking for some sort of sharp knife, but never found the knife drawer.  (Maybe they hide the knives when I visit!)   Finally, however, I did locate the perfect instrument for the job - a corkscrew!

I inserted the tip of the corkscrew into the tiny foil circle, gave it a turn or two, and wall-ah!  Soon I was standing at the sink with the milk carton held above my upturned mouth, squirting a small stream of delicious milk across my parched tongue and down my thirsty throat.  It was almost like drinking straight from the cow - and we've all been there before, right?

McDonalds, and all you other roadside grease pits, if something works, leave it the hell alone!  Go back to those convenient, easy-to-open, round plastic bottles,  When I'm roaring down the road at a hundred-and-fourteen-miles-an-hour, I need something that I can open with one hand and my teeth.  I don't have the luxury of being able to slow down to eighty in order to dig through the glovebox looking for my Swiss Army knife!

Safety first, Ronald, safety first!

You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You

 

by Pa Rock

American Voter

Donald Trump is not an "employee" of the United States in the true sense of the word.   His team manages the country according to his dictates, prejudices, and whims, but the majority of his "leadership" comes from late-night rants on social media and general shit-posting.    Trump, who weaves in and out of coherence, makes an annual salary of $400,000 plus $50,000 for office expenses, which is very low by corporate standards, though more than he can actually justify - and Trump says he donates all of that $400,000 back to the government.

But $400,000 is just chump change in American politics.  The real money comes from political donors - rich individuals, corporations, and foreign royalty and governments.   Filthy rich South African Elon Musk famously poured around $250 million (that's a quarter of a billion dollars) into the Trump campaign in 2024, and New York banking heir, Timothy Mellon, kicked in $200 million.

Miriam Adelson, the widow of gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, gave $106 million to Trump's 2024 campaign, and according to Trump (not a reliable source), she has promised to up that figure to $250 million if he runs for a third term in 2028 - something he is constitutionally prohibited from doing, but according to legal beagle Alan Dershowitz, might just be able to do anyway.  (Dershowitz has paid a social price for licking Trump's boots, and claims that his friends and neighbors on Martha's Vineyard no longer invite him to parties and other social events.  Boo-effing-hoo!). 

So if Alan Dershowitz can get Trump on the ballot, and our social and financial betters like Adelson, Mellon, and Musk, can finance a campaign far better than a public effort, and if the new plane from the Qatari royal family has been retrofitted at taxpayer expense to where it is worthy of a Trump campaign, maybe the citizens of the United States can spend four more years watching Trump doze at meetings, hurl insults at dead people, and prance around his new ballroom like slumlord royalty.  

It would be a very sad state of affairs for America and our democracy, but it could happen.   If it does, he won't be working for us.  He has never worked for us - he works for them, the donor class, the oligarchs.  They have the best access to the American presidency and the American treasury that money can buy.

As the late Molly Ivins so eloquently put it:  "You got to dance with them what brung you."  The people who bought the presidency for Donald Trump own him - they brought him to the dance - and the rest of us just pay the bills and clean up the mess when they all go home.

Happy holidays.

The Annual Holiday Road Trip

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

Rosie and I are on the road today heading to Roeland Park, Kansas, in the Kansas City suburbs to spend three nights with my son, Tim, and his family.   Sunday afternoon we will be in the audience at the KC Rep (at the University of Missouri at Kansas City - UMKC) for their annual production of "A Christmas Carol."  We have been attending these annual performances since Olive was four - and she is fourteen now.  The stage show did not happen in 2020 due to the pandemic, but we have been at every other performance - usually center stage, somewhere in the first two rows.

The KC Rep does a wonderful job with "A Christmas Carol," and each year there are always a few changes in the production to keep it fresh.

This will be my third big out-of-town trip this week.  Tuesday I had a doctor's appointment in Springfield - 100 miles from West Plains, at the eye clinic - and hit the Costco while I was in the "Queen City of the Ozarks."  Yesterday I drove to the far end of Mountain Home, Arkansas (55 miles from West Plains), for another doctor's appointment, one that was very painful.  Hint:  the appointment was with a uruologist!   I did see a double rainbow while in Mountain Home, but have no idea whether that portends something special or not.  There are no doctors waiting for me in Kansas City today, but our drive - one way - is 270 miles.

It's a good time to be on the road because the furnace still has not been fixed.  I like road trips, the driving and listening to music help to take my mind off of the vulgarities  spewing out of our nation's capital.   Sooner or later I will write about Piggy wanting his name on the Kennedy Center, but it will take several more days before I can calm myself enough to tackle that affront to civilization and the arts.

So, for this weekend at least, I will be enjoying Christmas in Merry Old Victorian London.  Ebenezer Scrooge had his issues, but he looks like a choir boy compared to our Felon-in-Chief!

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come needs to drop by 1600 Pennsylvania late some evening put on a personalized show for Piggy.  Or maybe they could hold it at the Kennedy Center!

 

Another Macy Spelling Phenom!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

My youngest grandson, Sullivan Macy, lives in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City with his parents, Tim and Erin, and his older sister, Olive.  He is nine years old and in the fourth grade.   Late yesterday morning Sully's father sent me the following email:

"We just got back from the Crestview Spelling Bee.  Sully did so good considering he was the youngest one up there.   They started with about 20 spellers and he made it to the final two.  He squared off with a sixth grader who eventually got him, but there was a long battle where they both kept missing really hard words.   But he spelled a lot of tough ones.  The crowd oohed with surprise as he spelled "fabulous" and "democracy" correctly.

"I was so proud of him."

I'm proud of Sully, too - and told him so yesterday evening over the phone.

The Macy family produces great spellers.  I was in a classroom spelling bee when I was in second grade.  Two other students and I made it halfway through the third grade spelling book before I was finally eliminated.  One of the best surprises I had as a child, also around the time I was in second grade, was when my mother brought home a dictionary.  I was fascinated with the new book and laid on the living room floor scanning and consuming it page-by-page to come up with new words to conquer.  The biggest word that I encountered in that new Webster's dictionary was "spondylotherapeutics," a non-standard medical term dealing with spinal conditions.  Seventy years later I still remember that big word and how to spell it!

Sully's older cousin, Boone Macy, Uncle Nick's son, went to a large rural K-8 school near West Plains, MO, called "Junction Hill" where he was, I think, the classroom champ in the local spelling bee each of the nine the nine years he attended.  Boone, who is now twenty-six, was a spelling machine!  Now he is a guide in a commercial cave where he has to deal with "s-t-a-l-a-c-t-i-t-e-s", "s-t-a-l-a-g-m-i-t-e-s", and 

"b-a-t-s"!

And Sully's dad, of course, is a successful screenwriter, a heck of an editor, and a fairly decent speller!

Congratulations, Sully, and thank you for carrying on a proud family tradition!

Happy Birthday, Molly Files

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

My daughter, Molly Files, was born forty-nine years ago today at what was then the almost new Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Missouri.   She grew up in a variety of small towns in the Midwest and moved to Arizona as a young adult where she lived on her own for several years, eventually marrying and having her first child there.  She and her young family migrated to Salem, Oregon, eighteen years ago where they still reside.  Today she is a very active parent of three teenagers

Molly was born with little red curls, which my mother loved, but today her hair is long and black.  It's funny how some people age!

Due to the distance between where we live, Molly and I only get to see each other once or twice a year.  I drove to Oregon in June of this year to visit Molly and her family - and had a very nice time, and then a few weeks ago I received an email telling me that she would be back in Missouri for Thanksgiving - and she and two of her kids came to West Plains to spend a day of their all-too-brief trip.   That was a very nice surprise!

Molly, I hope you are having a great day and have been able to do something really special for yourself.  I think about you every day and will see you in the spring.

Happy 49th birthday!

Tales from the Ice Maiden

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is a man who tries to control every news cycle with his never-ending carnival of outrages, but over the past few days he has been caught up in a couple of outrages that he cannot control.  First Trump brought down a buttload of righteous indignation upon himself for his tactless and bizarre remarks on social media following the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife, remarks which seemed to indicate that the Hollywood director had been murdered over his political differences with Trump.  The Reiners had been killed by their son, a family tragedy,  and Trump's desperate attempt to insert himself into the story was a repulsive example of his unbridled narcissism.  

In a follow-up a day later to his highly disturbing post about the deaths of the Reiners, Trump got even uglier by saying that Rob Reiner was "very bad for our country."   Many Republican officials expressed concern and even indignation over Trump's callous and very troubling reaction to the double murder.

The public controversy over Donald Trump's disrespect toward the Reiner family was still at a full boil when a second story broke that also escaped Trump's control.  His White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, a woman he refers to as "the Ice Maiden," and who seemingly controls much of the traffic  and paperwork that makes its way into the Oval Office, and who is notoriously press-shy, had somehow been convinced to sit for a long series of interviews with Chris Whipple, a reporter for Vanity Fair magazine.    Whipple's article, based on eleven interviews that he conducted with Ms. Wiles, ran this week, and it had a shock impact on national political players of all stripes.

Apparently, the Ice Maiden became relaxed during the series of conversations and let her guard down.  While she is not yet claiming that portions of what she said were off the record, she is asserting that some of her views and statements were taken out of context, and that she had never been apprised that the conversations were being recorded.   They were more like unguarded, friendly chats.

One would think that a person whose primary function is keeping sleazeball politicians and conniving billionaires away from the President of the United States, would have shown more caution around a journalist whose job is ferreting through other people's lives looking for things of interest.  

But Susie talked, boy howdy did she talk!  Part One of Whipple's article was posted on the internet yesterday.  In it, the White House Chief of Staff gives her unvarnished opinions on several characters who are central to Trump's second term in the Whtie House, including the President himself.

Ms. Wiles, whose father was former professional football player and sports broadcaster Pat Summerall, an alcoholic, talked about alcoholics and their "big personalities," and she described Trump, who does not drink alcohol, as someone who has "an alcoholic's personality," and that he governs with the mindset that "there's nothing he can't do.   Nothing, zero, nothing."  He has, according to Wiles, a "big personality."

She described Vice President JD Vance as having been a conspiracy theorist for more than a decade - to which Vance replied yesterday that he only believes in conspiracies that are true.  Her remarks about Attorney General Pam Bondi generally portrayed the government lawyer as a lightweight with competency issues.  She even went after former Trump buddy and billionaire Elon Musk, citing his goofball eccentricities like sleeping on the floor in the Executive Office Building in a sleeping bag, even during the daytime.   She noted Musk was "an avowed ketamine user," and referred to him as "an odd, odd, duck."

The published article in Vanity Fair was unsettling to the Trump world, but for now they are circling the wagons and waiting to see which direction Trump explodes.

All in all, this was not a good couple of days for Piggy.   The news is so much better (for him) when he controls it.  Tonight he is going on television to address the nation.  Perhaps he will give Rob and Michele Reiner another good trashing and try to escape the Tales of the Ice Maiden - and then he might "weave" off into the Epstein or affordability hoaxes. 

Pass the ketamine.

Three Presidents Eulogize Rob and Michele Reiner

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Famed Hollywood director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele, were knifed to death in their Los Angeles home Sunday evening, and their 32-year-old son has been arrested for the bloody murders.  Donald Trump, who was not a fan of Rob Reiner, could have issued a generic statement of condolence or he could have remained quiet.   But Trump, who lacks the ability or dignity to remain quiet when he smells an opportunity to troll, stormed onto social media and banged out one of his most reprehensible and disgusting postings ever.  With Trump, the objective is always to make things about himself while tearing down others, and he did that in spades!

Here is what the President of the United States had to say about two murders and a family tragedy in Los Angeles:

"A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood.  Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once a very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS.  He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps as never before.  May Rob and Michele rest in peace."

Quiet, Piggy.  It wasn't about you.

Here is how another United States President eulogized Reiner in a social media post.  Barack and Michelle Obama were scheduled to meet with the Reiners in the evening on the same day they were murdered.  Barack Obama had this to say about the tragedy that enveloped the Reiner family:  

"Michelle and I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his beloved wife, Michele.  Rob's achievements in film and television gave us some of our most beloved stories on screen.  But beneath all of the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people - and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action.   Together he and his wife lived lives defined by purpose.   They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired.  We send our deepest condolences to all who loved them."

That's how you do it, Piggy.

And finally, this from Bill Clinton, another President of the United States:

"Hillary and I are heartbroken by the tragic deaths of our friends Rob and Michele Reiner.  They inspired and uplifted millions through their work in film and television.  And they were good, generous people who made everyone who knew them better through their active citizenship in defense of inclusive democraccy, setting an example for us all to follow.  Hillary and I will always be grateful for their friendship, unfailing kindness, and support."

Are you getting the full picture, Piggy?   Any old hog can wallow around in a gilded sty and believe himself to be loved and important, but it takes a person with empathy and respect for others to be presidential and successfully carry the weight and responsibility of the office.    The presidency is about building people up, not tearing them down, and it is about making life better and providing opportunities for all - not just your family and rich cronies.

Piggy, give the hate speech a rest.  It diminishes you, bigly.

Ozark Cold

 

by Pa Rock

Icicle Man

It's not Arctic cold, or Antarctic cold where the penguins splash in the sea regardless of the temperature, or Siberian cold, Greenlandic cold, or even Great Plains cold, but Ozarks cold is damned cold nonetheless.  Yesterday morning it was ten degrees outside just at daylight when Rosie and I go for our walk, and this morning it was fourteen degrees..  (This morning I whistled the tune to "We're Having a Heat Wave" as we walked and shivered our way up and down the driveway.)

I grew up in the Ozarks, so I can handle this cold crap, even at the brittle age of seventy-seven, and I know that it will get worse before the winter is over.   I can handle that, too.  But this year it's different.  This year our damned furnace went out!  This year we are staying warm by dragging a couple of space heaters around the house trying to keep the pipes - and humans and dogs - from freezing.

On the plus side out little house is well insulated and the doors and windows fit tight, so there are no drafts.

Rosie and I would take off and go to Hot Springs or someplace civilized for a couple of days, but I have three doctors' appointments this week, all very necessary, so we are stuck at home.

It's supposed to start warming up today.   But, this is only mid-December, and the weather forecast in the Ozarks can change hourly.

The furnace man, who is very conscientious and a good guy, has been out twice, but has now had to order a part which we await.  Worst case scenario is that won't work and I will be buying a new furnace - Merry Christmas - but at least we will be warm!

Rosie's nose is cold, as it should be, which means she is well, and I'm still bitching which indicates that I am fine, too.   We're staying warm, and hope that you are as well!

The Tenant from Hell

 

by Pa Rock 

Citizen Journalist

The White House, the primary residence of Presidents of the United States and the office complex for their top officials, is commonly referred to as "the Peoples' House" because it belongs to the people of the United States of America and not to the building's temporary tenant.  Modifications have been made to our house over the past two centuries, yet those changes have not been done willy-nilly at the demand of the tenants, they occur after a thoughtful process that is accomplished by several of our fellow stakeholders in the property.

Last month the Trump administration quietly orchestrated the demolition of the East Wing of the White House without any official authority to do so, and most of the structure was in rubble before the American public, the owners of the property, were made aware of its destruction.  Trump has said that he was going to erect a ballroom capable of accommodating 1,000 guests in the area next to the East Wing and that the new ballroom would not actually have physical contact with the Wing.  He lied, of course.  Not long after that statement was made, the entire East Wing was bulldozed to the ground.

Part One of Trump's dastardly plan was achieved.   With the East Wing gone, he could proceed with Part Two, the construction of the actual ballroom, but again, with no input from anyone other than Trump and his family and cronies.  His nod to the public was that he would fund the project entirely through donations, presumably from his oligarch, billionaire buddies - all of whom benefit from doing business with the US government.  (The American public did not need a say in the matter because they were not paying for this monstrous addition to their home, he and his rich pals were footing the bill.)

All of that, of course, is not the way things are supposed to work.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded non-profit organization designated by Congress to protect historic sites.  The National Trust should have been consulted before a third of the White House complex was intentionally destroyed, and now they are suing to block the Trump administration from constructing its vanity ballroom until the Trust has time to evaluate and act on the matter.

The National Trust filed a lawsuit this past Friday in the US District Court for DC asking the the project be stopped by the Court until a standard federal review for building projects could be completed and public comment on the proposed changes have been sought and collected.   In other words, if you want to modify the People's House, first you go through a review process and then the public is given an opportunity to have its say on modifications to Our House.

In its legal complaint the Trust states that plans for the project were not filed with the National Capital Planning Commission as required by federal law and that it failed to get an environmental assessment or impact statement as required by the National Environmental Policy Act, and that construction was not authorized by Congress.  

Trump is a builder.  He knew there was a process to go through before tearing down one structure and replacing it with another, there always is.  He simply chose to ignore the process and bull his way through without any official approval.  

The complaint filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation states - in part:

"No president is legally allowed to tear down portions of the White House without any review whatsoever. - not President Trump, not President Biden, and not anyone else.   And no president is legally allowed to construct a ballroom on public property without giving the public an opportunity to weigh in."

The lawsuit is asking that all work on the project cease immediately until all necessary reviews have been completed and all approvals have been acquired.

For anyone who is blissfully unaware of the havoc that a bad renter can cause, please consider watching the film "Pacific Heights" (1990), a deeply disturbing look the hell that a pair of idealistic young landlords (Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith) unleash upon themselves when they rent their dream home to absolute worst renter imaginable (Michael Keaton).

The White House does not belong to Donald John Trump.  It is ours.  He is a tenant on a four-year lease, and right now he is clearly the tenant from Hell - and he makes Michael Keaton look like a lightweight!

Impeach and evict!

Dick Van Dyke was born a Century Ago Today in West Plains, MO!

 

by Pa Rock

West Plains Resident 

Entertainment legend Dick Van Dyke turns one hundred years old today, undoubtedly celebrating in the company of family and friends at his home in the foothills of Los Angeles, California.    But the actor and comedian (and singer and dancer) was not always a resident of the Hollywood scene.  He was born in the small, very rural burg of West Plains, Missouri, and his family relocated soon after to their hometown of Danville, Illinois, where Dick and his also famous younger brother, Jerry, grew up.  

Van Dyke joined the US Armed Forces in 1944 during his senior year in high school.   He hoped to become a pilot but was instead assigned to Special Services where he served as a singer and dancer entertaining troops overseas and in the continental United States.  It was during his military service that the young soldier was once again reunited with the Missouri Ozarks.  Van Dyke spent part of his enlistment at Camp Crowder (the largest inland military base in America at the time) near Neosho, Missouri, less than two hundred miles from his birthplace in West Plains.  Van Dyke's time at Camp Crowder was mentioned several times and even depicted on occasion on his hit television series, "The Dick Van Dyke Show," in the 1960's.

Dick Van Dyke was a struggling actor when he landed the lead in the 1960 Broadway production of "Bye Bye Birdie," a role for which he won a Tony Award.   He took a week off from that Broadway hit to audition for a new televison show that Carl Reiner was producing, and landed the leading role.  "The Dick Van Dyke Show" premiered on CBS in 1961, and the young actor was soon a household name.   He won three Prime Time Emmy Awards from his work on that show.    The versatile entertainer even won a Grammy Award in 1965 for Best Children's Album.  Some of Van Dyke's better known movies include "Mary Poppins," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," and "Bye Bye Birdie."

Dick Van Dyke was still working in 2023 when he appeared in four episodes of the daytime television drama, "Days of Our Lives," and his voice was featured in an episode of "The Simpsons" that same year.  

The circumstances of Dick Van Dyke's birth are an interesting commentary on the social mores of life in the United States a century ago.  The entertainer reportedly said on "The Tonight Show" twenty years or so ago that  his mother, who was pregnant with him and unwed, was sent from her home in Danville, Illinois, to stay with relatives in West Plains until the baby was born.  The common version of the story in West Plains is that his father was a salesman who was working in West Palins at the time of his son's birth, and the family returned to Danville soon after the arrival of the baby.

There is a story on the front page of today's West Plains Quill which was informed by Dick's sister-in-law, Shirley, Jerry Van Dyke's widow.  According to Shirley Van Dyke's account Hazel McCord, a young stenographer, met Loren "Cookie" Van Dyke, a saxophonist and dancer at a lawn party where he was performing in Danville, Illinois.  They were married in Danville in June of 1925 and immediately hit the road in his vehicle headed for California where the groom hoped to become famous as a Hollywood star.  They made it as far as West Plains, MO, where, according to Dick, they must have run out of gas.   Hazel had been "in the family way" when they married, and after the baby was born in West Plains, the young family packed up and went back to Danville.

Whatever the circumstances, it is certainly an honor to know that someone as famous and influential as Dick Van Dyke drew his first breath right here in the hills and vales of West Plains and the beautiful Missouri Ozarks.

Happy birthday, sir!  May they keep getting better and better!

Indiana Stands Strong!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

After suffering an array of threats against themselves and their families, their property, and the well-being of their state, members of the strongly Republican dominated state senate in Indiana yesterday stood strong and gave the Trump administration a one-finger salute as that body turned down the new congressional maps that had been ordered by the White House.  In the end the vote wasn't even close.  The Indiana State Senate voted the measure down 31-19.

Not only did members suffer threats of violence and harm from random nut jobs, they also received an aggressive amount of political pressure from individuals and organizations outside of their state, with Donald Trump and JD Vance being two of the more prominent bullies.  In the hours before the vote was taken a posting on social media by the right-wing "Heritage Action" subtly reminded Indiana state senators and voters what was at stake:

"President Trump has made it clear to Indiana leaders:  "If the Indiana Senate fails to pass the map, all federal funding will be stripped from the state.   

Roads will not be paved.  Guard bases will close.   Major projects will stop.  These are the stakes and every NO vote will be to blame."

The Trump administration has apparently not yet taken ownership of those sentiments, but should those punitive acts begin occurring, their genesis will certainly not be shrouded in mystery.

The new maps in Indiana would have stripped the Indianapolis area of its representation in Congress by attaching parts of the city to surrounding rural districts, and the two Democratic congressmen from Indianapolis would have likely lost their seats.   One of those two Democratic seats also belongs to the state's only Black representative in Congress.

The Trump administration put pressure on several states to redraw their congressional maps in an effort to keep GOP control of the US House nexxt year.  Trump ordered the Missouri legislature to redraw its congressional maps to eliminate the Democratic seat covering most of Kansas City, and the Missouri State Legislature  quickly complied.  (Missouri citizens are fiercely fighting back against Trump's interference in their state's politics - and it will likely be overturned by a vote of the people.)   But Indiana showed far more determination and resolve to maintain their state's sovereignty than Trump's bootlickers in the Missouri Legislature were able to do.

Nobody likes bullies, and Indiana had the cajones to stand up to the biggest, meanest, and nastiest bully of them all!

Salute, Hoosiers!  Well done!

Fishing, Lies, and Penance

by Bob Randall

(Editor's Note:  I hadn't heard from Ranger Bob for awhile and was starting to grow concerned, when I received an email from him earlier this week letting me know things were fine - he had just been away fishing. Bob went on to describe his fishing weekend with friends in his typical humorous fashion.  I asked if I could share the email here for others to enjoy, and Bob agreed.  For those of us who can't visit one of Missouri's beautiful state parks this fall, we can live vicariously through Ranger Bob!  Thanks for sharing, old friend. - Pa Rock)

On the Montauk State Park fishing trip of December 5,6, and 7, four of us had a great time.  On Saturday morning I returned to the location I had successfully fished the previous afternoon below the rearing raceways.   If you're familiar with the area, it is downstream of the old historic mill.  Fishing a soft hackle fly in the stream between the river and the rearing area outflow, I used the same method of swinging a soft hackle which might have mimicked any of the common aquatic insects in their emerging stages.  I have listened to a professional fly fishing class which cost me nearly $150 (what the heck, it's my birthday present to myself), about swinging nymphs.   He swore that most fish are caught within 15 seconds of the swing, and when your fly reaches the end of the swing (I call it the dangle) it's time to recast to a quartering downstream position.  I never caught any fish on the swing.  I caught all of those on Friday afternoon on the "dangle."  Sometimes I had to let it sit at the end of the swing for a minute or so and then all of a sudden: bam!  A strike.  The nice thing about a "dangle" strike is that you let the fish set the hook itself.   You can lollygag, watch birds, other fishermen, water conditions, or even daydream and let the fish set the hook for you.

Back to Saturday morning.  Using the "dangle" technique, I caught a fish right off.  Another cast, recast, and then I caught a lunker that put up such a fight that it broke my fly rod! .........................

As I wrote that previous sentence, I could hear my dad's voice from when I was about ten years old., telling me not to lie.  I recall that he looked at me sternly and said, "Don't lie.  I don't like liars."  So in obedience to Dad, I admit that I did not catch a lunker that broke my rod.  I caught a tree.

Any seasoned fly fisher will tell you that when you get hung up, you should pull the line with your hand, not by trying to rip it away with your fly rod.  I knew better.  I gave a swift and strong sideways jerk with my rod, trying to get the fly free.  My rod snapped.   At nearly a $300 value, my pride and joy of fly fishing was destroyed;

Oh, the feeling of shame!  I experienced anguish, disgust, embarrassment, mortification, and self-blame.  It morphed into rage.  I said some very bad words.  I finally got my line free, but not so much the fly.   The fly still ornaments the tree limb in a gloating display of taunting evil.  I hate that fly!  I hate that tree even more!

What's a guy to do?  I had not brought a spare rod because I was trying to save space.  I could maybe rent a rod from the park store.  Wait.  My fishing buddy is a hard core angler and he knows not to leave home without a spare rod.  He is so good he even had a spare spare.   Two spare rods!  I eventually got back to fishing and caught seven more that afternoon.  I missed at least three hours of life's precious moments of fly fishing.

As penance for my indiscretions, I offer the following advice to any reader who is fool enough to care:

1. Never try to rip a fly loose from a snag with your rod.  Grab the line with your hand and pull straight back until it becomes free or the weakest part of the leader breaks.
2. Never go fishing without a spare outfit.
3. If you don't have a spare outfit, find a fishing buddy who always brings a spare.
4. Telling a lie about the size of a fish you actually caught or got away is different from telling a lie about how you broke your fly rod.  A really good fish story transcends honesty.  (Failing to admit that you fell in the river is a lie of omission.   That's another story.)
5. If it crosses your mind that I should stop fishing, bite your tongue, and don't speak to me again.
6. Life is better when you fish.
7. Finally, I offer you a mathematical formula for successful fly fishing:  fewer trees = more fish.
8. Finally, part II:  Keep your lines tight, mend your line when necessary, adjust the line for a proper drift, read the water before you cast, don't walk behind a fly angler when he or she is casting, catch and release requires you to return a live, healthy fish to the water.  KEEP THEIR GILLS WET!
9. Finally, part III:  It is better to fish before you die than to die before you fish.
10. Finally, final:  I step down from my soapbox a wiser, more equanimous man.

Missouri to Enact Gerrymander in Spite of Citizens' Initiative

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter (of the pissed-off variety!)

The GOP dominated Missouri Legislature pushed through a gerrymander of the state's congressional districts in September at the command of Donald Trump.  The elderly entertainer's White House staff told him that with some devious juggling of congressional district lines in Missouri, one more Democratic seat in Congress could be eliminated and gifted to the Republicans.  The fact that particular seat was held by a black man only served to make the change even more appealing to Trump and company.

The GOP Missouri Legislature rushed to do Trump's bidding and eliminated Kansas City's voice in the next Congress.

Several court challenges were filed, and there was also a citizen's movement organized to fight the injustice through an initiative (petition drive) to stop the new gerrymander law from going into effect.    It will take about 110,000 valid signatures of Missouri voters to place the question on the ballot in 2026, and yesterday a group called "People Not Politicians" turned in 691 boxes of signed petitions to put the measure on the ballot and let the voters decide if they want the gerrymander or not.  The petitions contain about 305,000 signatures, enough to make it very likely there will be plenty which are valid.

The Secretary of State for Missouri, a Republican named Denny Hoskins, is now in charge of going through the petitions and verifying the signatures.  Once he is done, if there are the number of valid signatures required, Hoskins will put the matter before Missouri voters.

In the past when petitions were submitted that would change or stop a law from going into effect, the law was put on hold until after the signatures were counted and the follow-up election - if there was one -  was held.  Hoskins, however, said that on advice of his own attorney and the state's attorney general, another Republican, he would not halt the implementation of the gerrymander and that it would go into effect tomorrow.

That high-handed maneuver by the state's Republican Party will be heading to court as well.

I live in Missouri, I vote in Missouri (every election), and I understand the basics of Missouri politics.  The Republican Party in my state resists democracy.  They are still smarting over voters lifting the GOP's abortion ban in the state a couple of years ago - and before that voter's rejecting the "right to work" legislation passed by the state legislature.  The Republican Party in Missouri is even trying to change the "initiative" process in Missouri to ensure that voters are never again able to change the will of the GOP legislature.

The Kansas City and St. Louis urban areas - and Boone County where the University of Missouri is located - are the state's three Democratic strongholds, and Republicans are constantly on the lookout for ways to manage those areas and control their voting power.  The latest affront to democracy in the "show me" state (the gerrymander) not only deprives Kansas City of a congressman who will be attuned to the voters' needs of a major American city, it also strikes a strong racist chord by denying the state and Congress itself of fairer representation for a racial minority.

And racism is a big part of the gerrymander movement, both nationally and in Missouri.

The Game Changer

 

by Pa Rock

Decrepit Typist

Being old, I have many aches and pains and medical conditions to occupy my time and conversation.  Of late, the top of that list has been "balance issues."  I have had two falls over the past five years that have each resulted in a broken arm, and four or five other falls that should have had serious consequences but instead just resulted in pain, discomfort, and an increased fear of falling.  Aging has also made my bones more brittle and my joints more resistant to movement.  When I sit for several minutes and then stand, I sound like an adolescent kid banging on his first drum set!

I had a hard fall on the driveway a couple of weeks ago which should have broken some bones but fortunately did not.  I used Ibuprofen to stave off the first round of pain, but after that just let nature run its course.  A week after the fall I was barely able to walk, but kept hobbling on because, being retired or not, there are still things that need to get done.

My Dad was stubborn and pig-headed, too.  Sixteen years ago he was an eighty-five year old landlord out delivering Christmas gifts to his renters on Christmas Eve when he slipped on a frost-covered porch, took a hard hit to the head, and still managed to drive himself home and function for the rest of the day.  Dad was in Missouri, and I called him that evening from my home in Arizona like I did late every afternoon.  He told me about the fall, said he was alright, but going to bed early.  He called an ambulance later that night and died in the hospital before daylight on Christmas morning - from old age and the effects of a fall.

I have not done the research, but nevertheless I would venture to guess that we generally tend to reflect our parents lives in our own, and that we can expect to live roughly the same length of time as they did, though maybe a little longer due to improvements in medicines and medical care, and that we are likely to expire from the same causes as our parents.

Hence my concern with fallling - that and the fact that balance is becoming more and more of an issue.  

The outlook has been gloomy - but today things seem brighter, and it is because of the new mattress that I mentioned in this blog yesterday.     I had ordered new mattersses for my son and I prior to Thanksgiving, and they both arrived yesterday.  Last night I slept better than I had in a very long time, and I awoke ready to be active and get things done.   Most of my aches and pains were gone and I even felt more secure in my balance.  Nick said his sleep had been better as well.

Today the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I have twice the mobility that I had yesterday.

If life is giving you signals that the race is about over, consider getting a new mattress.  It might be a game changer!

New Mattress Arrives

 

by Pa Rock

Plodding Typist

This morning as I was still pondering what to write about in today's blog posting, two  middle-aged fellows arrived in a pickup truck with mattresses that I ordered a couple of week ago.  After they had taken mine back to my bedroom and gotten it situated on the bed, one of the men commented on a chess set that I have set up on an end table in the bedroom.   The set and the board are ones I purchased fifteen years ago while living on Okinawa.  They are unique.

One of the men complimented the chess set and asked to take a closer look.   As he examined the pieces, which are made from a heavy metal, he began talking about his love of the game and how he had been an avid chess player in high school and had gone to the national high school chess championships three years in a row - where his best game had garnered him 10th place in his third year of competition.

Being an old high school teacher myself, I was very impressed with that achievement and said so.  I asked if he had attended one of our local high schools, hoping to learn more about the local cultural scene.   The man, who is of an age now to have children of his own in high school, said that he had gone to school in Alabama.  Sadly, he said, things like chess were not much of a priority in the local area.

But they are, or at least "were," in Alabama?  That shot some of my favorite misconceptions right in the ass!

So now I am in a funk over he way Missouri's backwater state legislature has turned its back on public education by steadily defunding our schools and keeping teacher pay at miserably low levels as a way of insuring that Missouri children are denied access cutting-edge math, science, and computer science and technology - as well as a broad exposure to the arts and humanities.  Instead our state legislature spends it few weeks a year in session figuring out ways to to divert more and more of our tax money and state revenue into religious schools that nourish right-wing politics and ferment hate.

The degradation of education by public officials from the White House (what's left of it), to the state house, to the county court house makes me very, very sad.  Out country and our future are being ravaged  by immoral greedheads and religious hucksters who want to control every aspect of our lives and ensure the masses have groups on which to focus their hate (immigrants, gays, socialists, Blacks, Jews, whatever), and are too busy hating those they want to keep down that they ignore their economic oppressors who pose the real threats to their health, safety, and financial stability.

Chess?  America don't need no stinking chess.  It might foster the ability to think and to strategize.  What America needs is a vengeful white God and an elite white (and straight) master class that will do our thinking for us.

But on the flip side, at least I have a new mattress.  Maybe it's time for Grandpa to go take a nap and restore his equanimity.  

Minnesota Has It Going On!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Trump was on a tear last week in his cabinet meeting on Tuesday against Somalia, Somalian immigrants in the United States, certain politicians in Minnesota, and even the state of Minnesota itself.  I wrote about some of his remarks in this space shortly after they burst from his mouth like an explosive case of diarrhea, but the things he said were so disgustingly vile and offensive that they merit further examination.

Trump's cabinet meetings, which occur infrequently, are, like his rallies, known for being long and boring.  Not only are the cabinet secretaries crammed elbow-to-elbow at the long oval table which barely fits into the room where it is used, they also have to sit patiently while each takes a turn fluffing and stroking the raging narcissist who sits at the center of the table.  

But the cabinet secretaries are just the warm-up acts, the real show, as with any Trump event, focuses on the Big Kahuna himself, and Trump, who always proves to be incapable of following a script, can be expected to bounce around to a variety of topics as various things flit acorss his tired old mind - and then drone on, and on, and on.

Trump was apparently in the midst of disparaging Afghan immigrants at last week's meting when he suddenly changed lanes and began dumping on Somalis who live in the United States.  As I noted last week, he referred to the country of Somalia as "garbage," and said the Somali immigrants to the US should go back to where they came from - to a country with "no laws, no water, no military, no nothing."   

During Trump's xenophobic and racist, diatribe, his singled out the state of Minnesota for its acceptance and defense of more that 80,000 immigrants from Somalia.  He bragged about sending ICE agents (uninvited)  to Minnesota to begin deporting the Somali's whom he labels as either gang members or people who sit at home defrauding the state's welfare system.  Trump also used that cabinet meeting to attack Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a native of Somalia.  He said, at his presidential best:  "Ilhan Omar is garbage.  She's garbage.  Her friends are garbage."

On Thanksgiving Day on a lengthy social media post, Trump had also attacked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz with regard to the Somalis in his state.  Trump called Governor Walz "seriously retarded," again very presidential - by Trump standards.

There have been several indicators in the news this weekend which suggest Minnesotans have taken their farm gloves off and are fighting back against the rampant xenophobia an racism oozing from the sewer lines beneath the White House.  As I mentioned in the earlier post, Governor Walz shot back at Trump's remark about him - the one where he called the Democratic governor "seriously retarded,"  with a simple four-word rejoinder, "Release the MRI file,"  a reminder to America that the presidential doctors have at least some medical concerns about their primary patient.  (Trump claims to not even know the reason why an MRI was administered during his second "annual" physical examination for 2025.  That statement in itself could be an indicator for the reason for the MRI!)

Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar also issued a very simple, yet damning, response to Trump's attacks on her.  She said of Trump (a known associate of Jeffrey Epstein), "His obsession with me is creepy.   I hope he gets the help he desperately needs."

The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, the two largest cities in the state and the places where most of the Somali immigrants reside, have expressed strong support for their cities' immigrant populations - and Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara issued a warning to police officers under his command that if they observe ICE agents using undue force, he expects them to intervene.   The chief said that if any of his officers fail to act when they observe ICE overreacting with people they are questioning or detaining, they will lose their jobs.

Donald Trump may roar like a mighty lion (when he's awake), but the powers that be in Minnesota are roaring back.  They are fostering and protecting a diversified population where all people are seen as equal and all are openly included and encouraged to participate in that vibrant society.

Minnesota is going places - while Trump has the country in reverse and is sleep at the wheel!

Being a Blithering Racist is Cool Again

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US has always had more than its share of racists, but over the past few decades they had quietly begun to disappear from public view.  They were still with us, but just staying out of sight in the privacy of their homes and clubs, and avoiding the harsh glare of public scrutiny.   But with the ascendancy of Barack Obama to the White House, race again became a topic of concern and debate, and proved to be fertile ground for fomenting a race-based political response to Obama.  Donald Trump emerged to reclaim the white supremacy political mantel, and enthusiastically fanned the embers of racial unrest until he managed to reignite the old fire that had consumed generations of Americans with its smoke, and rage, and hate.

Now, being a blithering racist is cool again.

I heard two seemingly unconnected stories on the news this morning, but upon closer inspection it was obvious that racism was the underlying factor in both.  The first, a domestic story, noted that the Trump administration has changed a policy that allowed free entry to America's national parks on certain federal holidays, two of which were the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday in January, and "Juneteenth" or June 19th, which honors the emancipation of America's slaves.   Both of those holidays are of special significance to the Black citizens of America - and the Trump administration had decided they no longer merit a free day in the US National Park system.   

But, in a stunning display of narcissism and showing people who's boss, the Trump administration did add June 14th - Trump's birthday and also Flag Day - as one when people could get into the parks free.

The other racist outrage, this one performed on the world stage, happened yesterday when the Trump administration issued a new national security strategy paper that portrays our once staunch European allies as weak based on their migration and free speech policies.   Trump's national strategy paper suggested European countries were opening themselves to "civilizational erasure," something which sounds like it was lifted straight out of a Jim Crow hymnal and smacks of the racist "great replacement theory."  Trump's strategy paper is also seen as supporting the nationalist political movements which have been destabilizing European politics and sovereignty.

Just two bits of racist drivel fermenting in the West Wing, but add to that the steady drumbeat of eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from the American lexicon and all government agencies and programs, bringing back Confederate names and statues, returning culturally offensive names to professional sports teams, gerrymandering black voters into multiple districts to dilute their political power, denigrating  and slandering black politicians, referring to poor black immigrants from poor black nations as "garbage," and on, and on, and on . . . and the racism is so in-your-face that it is not possible to look away.

Donald Trump has done this to America, and he seems very proud of his achievement.  He has made racism great again.

Somalis ARE NOT Garbage, Diversity IS a Strength

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past Tuesday at one of his rare cabinet meetings, Donald Trump, who was in the midst of castigating Afghan immigrants, suddenly switched gears and began disparaging Somali immigrants.  During his tirade Trump referred to Somalis as "garbage" and said they should go back to where they came from -  Somalia - a country that Trump describes as the worst on earth with "no laws, no water, no military, no nothing."

Trump also gets off on railing about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a Somali immigrant who represents Minnesota in Congress.  Omar is one of several Democratic politicians whom he likes to refer to as "communist," a popular political slur from the 1950's when Trump was in elementary school.

Later his administration announced that it was expanding its war on immigrants in Democratic-led states and cities by sending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents into Minnesota, the home of 86,000 Somali immigrants.  The Somalis will be the focus of ICE activities in Minnesota.

The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul - the area where most of the state's Somali residents reside - are standing by their immigrant citizens as is Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota. 

The nationally known humorist, Garrison Keillor, is a native of Minnesota and is one of its better known native sons.  Keillor currently lives in New York City, but remains solidly connected to his home state.  In his internet column today Keillor discusses arriving at the Minneapolis-St Paul airport this week and the difficulty he was having struggling with his three suitcases.  Keillor, who is 83, said that he managed to get the attention of a Somali airport worker pushing a luggage cart  who immediately came to his rescue.  As they traversed the busy airport, the entertainer struck up a conversation with his helper and learned that over a thousand Somalis are employed at that facility.  (Trump likes to depict them as either being gang members or sitting at home drawing welfare.). 

Keillor refers to Trump's on-going false and negative depictions of Somalis as "racist slander," and race does seem to be a determining factor in whether this President deems particular groups of immigrants to be of value to our country - or social leaches and terrorists.   In January of 2018 during his first term in office, Trump showed his preference for white immigrants when said he would like to see more immigrants from Norway - while disparaging immigrants from Haiti and much of Africa which he referred to as "shithole" countries.  Donald Trump's own family is heavy with white immigrants - including his mother and two of his three wives.

But Somalis are "garbage" in Trump's worldview - all Somalis - even the one who rushed to help an 83-year-old man ferry his luggage across a crowded airport.

Don't worry America.  ICE will be relentless in its crusade to rid our land of it's foreign-born baggage handlers, hotel maids, landscapers, roofers, farm workers, military service members, hospital techs, teachers, computer techs, scientists, and all of those other freeloaders whose biggest crimes are looking different from real (white) Americans, having the ability to speak more than one language, and maybe practicing a religion that is different that the one the government seems to think we all should be supporting.

(Of course, the great national cleansing by ICE will not affect Elon and Melania.)

Donnie, some Americans speak garbage, you, for instance, but ethnic and racial groups of people are not garbage.  Diversity is a strength, despite what you and people like you would would force us to believe.

Lighten up, buttercup.

Acclaimed Novelist Daniel Woodrell Dies

 

by Pa Rock

West Plains Typist

Nationally acclaimed author Daniel Woodrell passed away at his home in West Plains, Missouri, last Friday, November 28th, at the age of seventy-two.  His wife, Katie Estill-Woodrell reported that his cause of death was pancreatic cancer.  Woodrell had suffered from colon cancer more than a decade ago and defeated that malady.

(Do you know what elevates an author to the rank of "acclaimed"?  When he is eulogized in obituaries in The New York Times, the New York Post, the Washington Post, Variety, and other national publications - that's what!)

Daniel Woodrell was born on March 4, 1953, in Springfield, MO, and had lived in West Plains since the mid-1980's, a place that he and his wife liked and decided to call home.  He grew up in Springfield in southwest Missouri, and moved with his family to Kansas City during his adolescence.  He didn't like life in Kansas City and moved on by joining the Marines at the age of seventeen in 1970.  He was stationed in Guam where he learned about "pacifism" and had his mind opened to a broader world.

Woodrell graduated from the University of Kansas at Lawrence in his late twenties with a bachelor's degree in English, and he went on to attend the famed Iowa Writers Workshop where he earned a master's degree.  He published eight novels, most of which were set in the Missouri Ozarks and the most famous being Winter's Bone which was made into a movie starring Jennifer Lawrence - and garnered the young actress her first Academy Award nomination.  When Woodrell completed the novel Give Us a Kiss in 1996, he coined the term "country noir" to describe it, and that appellation has since been adopted for the genre of writings focused on the hard lives of America's rural impoverished class - a genre in which Daniel Woodrell was very much at home.

By moving to the Missouri Ozarks, Daniel Woodrell was able to enmesh himself in the world about which he was writing.  In an interview with Esquire Magazine in 2013, the author mentioned being "tormented" by his "tweaker neighbors," a not uncommon happenstance in the Ozarks.  When he penned stories of the hard lives in rural southern Missouri, such as the characters depicted in Winter's Bone, Daniel Woodrell knew the personalities, circumstances, and lives of his subjects.

The late celebrity television chef, Anthony Bourdain, called Daniel Woodrell "the best writer in America."  Bourdain brought his television show to West Plains in 2011 to spend time with Woodrell collecting and preparing local foods.  They skinned squirrels for pot pies and spent time on the Current River gigging for suckers.  It was during that expedition that Woodrell fell from the boat and broke his shoulder.

Daniel Woodrell told compelling tales that captured the hard-scrabble life and culture of the contemporary Ozarks, and he was able to that by becoming a part of that community and culture - and experiencing what he wrote about.  I've read several of his novels, and they all ring true.  Woodrell's passing leaves a void in the genre of "country noir" that will be very hard to fill.

Rest in peace, good sir, and thanks for sharing so much of yourself with others while you were here.

Hegseth Underbusses an Admiral

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Every year new words emerge through popular usage and gain entry into our daily vocabulary.  The big on-line dictionaries entertain us toward the end of the year with their selections of the best of the new words.  Last week the Oxford English dictionary announced that "rage bait" was its word of the year. (Rage bait is something posted on-line with the intent of angering others and getting reactions.)   The Cambridge dictionary went with "parasocial," a one-sided relationship where one party feels an intimacy with another party who may not even be aware of the party of the first part - such as between a fan and a celebrity.

Dictionalry.com  chose "67," (pronounced"six-seven") a term signifying vagueness and indecisiveness and used by people to show they are "in the know" or part of an elite group which understands such vague lingo as"67."   Collins dictionary chose "vibe coding," a software development practice that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate, refine, and debug code based on natural language prompts.

Merriam-Webster, a leader in on-line and print dictionaries, has yet to announce their word of the year for 2025, so I decided to speed things along a bit by offering my recommendation.  It is a verb that I saw used on the internet for the first time yesterday, but knew immediately what it meant - and with Trump in the White House it could slip into common usage very quickly.

The word is "underbus," which sounds as though it might be an adjective, perhaps describing a type of road scale for weighing large vehicles, but in the news story I was reading it was clearly used as a verb.

The story where "underbus" was used is still controlling the news cycles two days after it first broke.  It is the one about Trump's "war" on small boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, one he describes as a "war" on narco-terrorists, and an effort on which he is completely focused except when he is pardoning rich and politically-connected narco-terrorists from the same region.

The Trump administration began attacking small boats in the Southern Caribbean and Eastern Pacific in early September of 2025 and quit releasing information on those attacks on November 15th of 2025.  During the time that the administration was being transparent about its "war," they reported 21 strikes on 22 vessels with a dead body count of 83 people.  The claim was continually made by the administration that the boats were transporting drugs, though no evidence to back up that claim was ever presented to the press or the public.

Last week the Washington Post ran a story which said that in an attack on September 2nd, two survivors were seen clinging to debris in the water, and that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike to kill the two survivors.  The administration response since that story came out has gone from Ramboesque braggadocio about the might of the US and its military, to bickering over legal definitions, and finally to serious underbussing.

Donald Trump, who takes quickly takes credit for anything that goes right or is seen to have strong pubic approval, backed away from the killings when the level of concern from members in both parties of Congress began rising and the public started demanding answers.  Trump decided that he had been unaware of the matter and had left it all with his inexperienced and unqualified Secretary of Defense.   Hegseth roared like a lion for a bit, but as the water he was in began to heat, he underbussed the matter to a navy admiral, and said that poor man ultimately gave the order to kill those evil drug smugglers.  As of yet, the admiral apparently has not passed the blame on to his secretary.

A couple of weeks ago a group of six Democratic members of Congress, all military veterans and/or members of the US Intelligence community filmed and released a video reminding members of the military that they are obligated NOT to follow illegal orders.  The video incensed Trump who used it for political purposes as he referred to those mmbers of Congress as "traitors."  There was even talk from Trump and Hegseth about bringing Senator Mark Kelly, one of the group Trump called "the seditious six," back to active duty so that he could be court-martialed for taking part in the video.

And then the Washington Post broke the story about the murder of the two survivors of the attack on their small boat.    It we are legitimately at war, then the act of killing those two fishermen or sailors could rise to the level of a "war crime."  If we are not at war, those two unarmed individuals clinging to floating debris were murdered.  Either way it will make for a nasty stain on somebody's reputation, and maybe even bring some time in the slammer.

The six members of Congress who reminded members of the military of their obligation to uphold the Constitution and not follow illegal orders have been vindicated.  The buck no longer stops on the President's desk - he was off playing golf and had no knowledge of the incident whatsoever.  The Defense Secretary said he had "moved on to another gig" when the act occurred, so he didn't know about it either.  If you are the lowly triggerman in a war crime - just following orders - you are very likely going to own the entire thing when the underbusing reaches you.

Somebody will ultimately pay for this war crime or murder - maybe - and my money is on the admiral's secretary - unless she has an assistant.

Judah, a Sensible Sixteen

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

Today is the sixteenth birthday of my Oregon grandson, Judah.   He was born in Oregon and has lived in the same house all his life, but he does travel.   The family took a nice vacation in California a few years ago, and the entire family - Judah, his parents Scott and Molly, and his siblings Sebastian and Willow - have also been back to see grandparents in Missouri and Oklahoma on several occasions.

When Judah gets interested in a subject, he digs deep to learn as much as he can about it.  He had a strong interest at one time in the HMS Titantic, and during one of the family trips back to the midwest Judah was able to visit the Titantic Museum in Branson.  He also developed an interest in tornadoes and learned a great deal of factual information about Missouri's Joplin tornado .

Judah's mother and sister came to Missouri this year for Thanksgiving, but Judah, who is now focused on weather, elected to stay home with his Dad in Oregon, at least in part because of the weather forecasts in the Midwest.  He did update his mother with weather bulletins while she and Willow were here.

Last summer, while on my annual trip to Oregon, Molly, Willow, Judah, and I rode the train from Salem, Oregon (their hometown), to Seattle, Washington, where we spent three days hitting the tourist stops.  Judah seemed to especcially enjoy the Space Needle, and on the final evening of our trip he and his mother took a walking "ghost tour" of several haunted attractions around Seattle's famed Pike Place Market.  He enjoyed that special activity with his Mom and had lots to say about it when they got back to the hotel.

Judah is a very bright and inquisitive young man.

Enjoy being sixteen, Judah.  It only comes around once, so make it a year you will always remember!

Willow is Fourteen (and a day)!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

My youngest granddaughter, Willow, turned fourteen yesterday, and I feel awful because I let her big day slide right on by.  My flimsy excuse for the oversight is that even though today is only Monday, it still has been a very hard week!  Willow lives with her family in Oregon, and in my defense, I did personally hand her a birthday card and a gift one week ago today when she and her mother were visiting in the Ozarks as part of a special Thanksgiving trip.

Willow will be heading to high school in the fall.  It is near her house and her older brother went to the same high school, all of which should help take the edge off of the experience, and she told me that she is looking forward to the move from middle school, especially the new activities and challenges that high school has to offer.    I know she will make many good friends during the years that she is there.  High school is an exciting time . . . I remember . . . barely!

Happy (late) birthday to you, Willow.   I hope you scored many nice presents.  I also hope you had a good time while you were visiting in Missouri and Kansas.  We sure did enjoy getting to see you and your mother.  Have a wonderful year - and a great time in high school!

Much love on the day after your birthday from Pa Rock, Rosie, Gypsy, and Uncle Nick!