Missouri's Jim Crow Gerrymander

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

Yesterday I used this space to highlight the reemergence of Jim Crow practices across the American South by focusing on this week's congressional redistricting in Tennessee, a political farce in which the Tennessee legislature drew and passed new congressional district maps for "partisan advantage," but which also spoke loudly to racial disadvantage and will effectively eliminate the  state's only Black member of Congress.  The core of Tennessee's new plan is to divide the city of Memphis, which is about two-thirds Black and heavily Democratic, and place it in three other districts, thereby diluting not only Democratic power, but also Black power.  The new maps, in fact, should not only dilute Democratic and Black power, it should stop either of those political forces from reaching Congress from the Volunteer state of Tennessee.

Tennessee was able to get away with that travesty on democracy by virtue of a recent US Supreme Court decision which gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and essentially ruled that although racial discrimination in the drawing of congressional district maps remains unconstitutional, it is alright to draw political maps for partisan advantage.    The fact that most Blacks tend to vote Democratic and were therefore split up when the legislature divided heavily Democratic Memphis into three neighboring congressional districts, was just coincidental - and Tennessee will no longer have any Democratic or Black representation in the US Congress.  

Too bad, so sad, that's just how Trump version of democracy operates, and his judges say so.

In the blog posting yesterday I noted that Missouri's backwater legislature would undoubtedly do something like that with our sole remaining Democratic (and coincidentally majority Black) congressional district that basically encompasses the city of St. Louis.  At that point I should have elaborated on, but instead totally ignored, the current political situation with our other major city:  Kansas City

Last year our right-wing GOP legislature here in the Show-Me state drew new congressional maps that decimated the political power of Kansas City.  The legislature, which is dominated by people from rural areas and large cow towns like Springfield, split Kansas City into three neighboring districts and created a situation almost certain to unseat one of the state's current two Black and Democratic congressmen.  The new districts all come together in downtown Kansas City and then stretch out into the rural parts of the state.  One of those districts covers roughly the top third of the state, and is so large that it borders four other states.   Some residents of downtown Kansas City will be in a congressional district that stretches all the way to Illinois!

So, Missouri has its own Memphis.

Missouri citizens did not take the legislature's partisan and bigoted assault on democracy lying down.  Petitions to get the new maps before the voters for their approval (or not) were promptly passed and adequate numbers of signatures were collected, but the Republican secretary of state, a CPA - which means he should be able to count - has not rushed to verify signatures, and now, if they are verified by the secretary of state, the referendum on the new maps will not be on the ballot until this November when the new maps will already be in effect.  That means that Kansas City has officially lost its Democratic and Black representation in Congress for at least two years.

The St. Louis metropolitan area is already divided into four congressional districts (including the one in which I reside - and I am about a four-hour drive from downtown St. Louis - and yet one of those districts, Missouri's 1st, is the core of the city and still has a Black Democrat representing it in Congress.    I am not a political cartographer, and I suspect that drawing a map that would smash that district would be very difficult, but I would still wager that there are farmers and car dealers and lobbyists sitting around coffee shops in Jefferson City today who are hell bent on finally turning the Missouri delegation to Congress into a completely White and Republican group, as God intended.

It's not a legitimate government unless we all get to participate.

Jim Crow Born Again in Tennessee

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Jim Crow, a patron saint of of bigotry, racism, and marrying your cousins in much of the United States and particularly in the American South, was thought, or at least hoped, by many to have succumbed to mortal social wounds during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's, but he miraculously sprang back to life yesterday in the Tennessee state Capitol building in Nashville.  

Both houses of the Tennessee State Legislature voted to pass a new congressional district map that will completely eliminate all Black and Democratic representation in the state's congressional delegation.  If the voters vote as their masters in Nashville are counting on them to do, Black citizens and Democrats will no longer be represented in Congress by anyone elected in Tennessee.

Tennessee only had one (of nine) congressional districts that was Black majority and Democratic to begin with, but that was one too many for the raging racists of the Volunteer State.  The vote in the legislature, after a day of  loud demonstrations inside and outside of the Capitol building, was a decisive 64-25 in the House and 25-5 in the Senate.  Tennessee's Republican Governor Bill Lee signed the measure the moment it reached his desk.

One of the highlights of the protests was Democratic State Representative Justin Jones of Nashville burning a paper Confederate flag inside of the Capitol building.  Jones and one other state representative, both Black, were expelled from the State House of Representatives in April of 2023 for leading a protest inside of the Capitol, but were quickly voted back into the legislature by their districts.  

The GOP Tennessee Legislature was quick to act on its political wet dream after the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 on April 29th to nullify Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act that had kept Black representation in place.  Now, with that ruling, state legislatures can draw congressional districts based on political party affiliation, and since the majority of Black voters are reliable Democratic voters, states in the south immediately began looking at breaking up "Democratic" districts instead of "Black" districts, a political sleight-of-hand.

In the previous congressional redistricting Tennessee had one majority Black and Democratic district, a tight georgraphical area around Memphis.  (Memphis is almost two-thirds Black.). Now, with the new maps, the city of Memphis is part of three separate congressional districts, one of which stretches nearly three hundred miles from the city's center.  The new districts encompass enough rural areas to ensure that each becomes reliably Republican.

With this last minute change, it is unclear whether overseas voters or military voters from the new districts will have adequate time to cast their votes in the upcoming primary elections or not, but those people were clearly not a priority of the Tennessee State Legislature and governor as they rushed to make Tennessee White Republican again.

Other southern states are already knee-deep in drawing maps to eliminate their own Black Democratic districts, and the Republican troglodytes in the Missouri State Legislature are undoubtedly chomping at the bit to give St. Louis the Memphis treatment.  

Praise Jesus and pass the keys to the White restrooms!

The Old South has risen!  Jim Crow is born again!

Warmongers Face Challenges on the Home Front

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The three primary instigators of the big wars currently plaguing our planet - Putin of Russia, Netanyahu of Israel, and Trump of the United States - are not only focused on aggression beyond their borders, but are also having to closely monitor their rearguard as they try to control dissent at home.

News reports indicate that Vladimir Putin is worried that he could be personally attacked by Ukraine in response to the brutal war that he unleashed on that independent nation initially in 2014 with the Russian  annexation of Crimea, and has been fighting with full-on since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 - more than four years ago.  Ukraine, like Afghanistan before it, proved to be a tougher nut to crack than had been anticipated.  

Ukraine has been launching drone attacks deeper and deeper into Russia, and this week they managed to strike an upper story of a luxury residential skyscraper in the heart of Moscow.  Last December a Russian General was killed by a car bomb in Moscow that was reportedly planted by Ukrainian intelligence services, and last week a Russian military officer was killed in a remote town by a bomb in a military barracks that was believed to have been orchestrated by Ukraine.

Clearly the war is not going Putin's way and he has cause to worry about his own personal safety.  But in addition to direct threats from Ukraine, Putin is also reportedly facing threats of assassination at home over the way the war with Ukraine is playing out and the impact it is having on the Russian people.  He is said to have spent months in bunkers and avoiding his three primary residences.  People who work in close proximity to the Russian leader are having to forgo bringing their phones or devices with internet connectivity to their work sites.

Growing paranoia on Putin's part seems to be the order of the day and he worries more and more about his own personal safety.

But Russians aren't the only people who are growing tired of war.  Dissent is also growing in Israel where the country has been at war with the terrorists of Hamas since its attack on Jewish settlements on October 7, 2023.  Israel's subsequent utter decimation of Gaza in retaliation for the attack was so total and devastating that it ultimately began to stir condemnation from much of the rest of the world - and grew to the point where the Israeli leader, Benjamin Netanyahu was even facing harsh criticism from Israeli citizens.  The anti-Netanyahu political forces in Israel have grown since Israel and the United States launched a war with Iran at the end of this past February, and Israel has also started bombing Lebanon to eliminate Hezbollah (another militant group) forces in Lebanon, turning parts of that country into rubble piles like those of Gaza.

Netanyahu has been involved in a corruption trial in Israel since 2020 that is on hold during his tenure in office, and cynics see this push for continuous war as his way of staying out of court and out of jail.

Netanyahu's warmongering may come to an end, not through violence such as that feared by Putin, but by the ballot box.  Israel is scheduled to have legislative elections no later than this coming October, and those could take Netanyahu out of power and bounce him back into court where justice might finally be meted out.

And then there is Trump, the American, who professes loudly that he does not like war - and he even campaigned on the promise that he would not drag America into a protracted war.  Yet, here we are in our third month in Iran with no end in sight.

Trump was led into the war against Iran by Benjamin Netanyahu who played to the American president's ego and vanity with promises of a quick and glorious victory.  Trump had just come off of a successful snatch and grab in Venezuela and was probably feeling invincible, and when Netanyahu pulled him by the nose he had no qualms in going along for a second quick win.  But Iran wasn't Venezuela and today we are stuck firmly in the muck of war.

Trump, like Netanyahu, has to worry about elections, not his own, but those of the next Congress which will occur this November.  The Republicans are in danger of losing both Houses of Congress, and if that happens not only will Trump's ability to get things done in Washington, DC, be limited, but he will also likely face impeachment charges over corruption in the House and a removal trial in the Senate - for the third time - something that is unlikely to remove him from office but will certainly eat up a lot of time that he has left as President.

The Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released this week shows Trump's approval rating at only 37%, the lowest of his current term in the White House, and his disapproval rating at 62%, the highest of either of his terms as President.  Those ratings, which have been impacted by rising prices which in turn have been impacted by the war in Iran, could likely have a significant impact in November's Congressional elections.

Three old men - Putin (73), Netanyahu (76), and Trump (79) - politicians in precarious political positions - have begun wars that may hobble or consume them.   The arc of the moral universe truly does bend toward justice - eventually.

Boone Macy at Twenty-Seven

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

I am the grandparent of six fine individuals, the oldest of whom, my grandson Boone, was born in the previous millennium, twenty-seven years ago today, in the community of West Plains, Missouri, only a couple of miles from where I sit typing this morning.   Other than his birth, nothing much of consequence has ever happened in this community.

Boone lives about two hundred miles from here, and I rarely get to see him - and much of that is on me because I have a car and can still see the road.  He is a college graduate, always has an interesting job, and is single, something I wasn't when I was his age.  Being single is a good thing, though, and Boone, I encourage you to enjoy your independence because life after thirty is a wild ride on an out-of-control toboggan!  It flashes by far too quickly!

Boone, I hope you have a wonderful birthday and get to do some fun things.  Your card from me will be late, it's just going out this morning.  (The mule that carries the mail from West Plains has been ailing.) Enjoy your day and come see us when you get the chance.

Much love on your birthday.!

Ultra-Millionaire Tax Act

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

American billionaire Elon Musk, currently the planet's richest human with a net worth hovering around $800 billion, aspires to corral even more wealth and become the world's first trillionaire - and he appears to be on track to do so relatively soon.  The 54-year-old Musk has a life goal of accumulating $10 trillion in wealth.  As his grotesque levels of wealth grow, so too does his influence and power over the other inhabitants of Planet Earth.

Musk has also said that he expects to pay $500 billion in total taxes over his lifetime.  $500 billion is only five percent of $10 trillion, and that would have been spread out over a lifetime.  Clearly Musk does not see taxes as being a major drain on his lifetime financial situation.

One measure of Elon Musk's wealth that has been bandied about the internet for almost a year is the fact that he has more wealth than over 52% of American households combined - more than half of American households in total!   Another measure of Elon's wealth is that it is more than 65 million times that of the average American. (Or, as Senator Elizabeth Warren so dramatically expressed it, if the average American's wealth was represented by one grain of rice, Elon's wealth would be a 350-pound bag of rice!

But Elon Musk is just one pig-rich American, albeit he is the biggset hog in the lot.  Google AI says that the US leads thte world in billionaire population and that there are somewhere between 987 and 1,135 billionaires currently residing in the United States of America - with a collective wealth of over $5.7 trillion.

And you know what?  All of them could get by quite nicely on less.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, one of the Senate's top financial watchdogs, is proposing a wealth tax on America's uber-rich.  Senator Warren's wealth tax proposal involves a 2% annual tax on the net worth of households and trusts with over $50 million in assets, and rising to 3% on fortunes of more than a billion dollars.   She believes her proposal will raise $3 trillion to $6 trillion over a decade to address societal issues like child care, health care, homelessness, and education.  

Senator Warren's proposal would effect ONLY households with a net worth of over $50 million, literally none of my friends and neighbors - and it will provide life-sustaining assistance when, in the very near future, Artificial Intelligence decimates the job market.

But that is a whole other blog posting.

The people of the United States are fortunate to have fighters like Elizabeth Warren on their side as they battle the greed of the oligarchs and rage against the machines.

Dems Could Flip US Senate Seat in Kansas

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A 61-year-old white, male minister of a protestant megachurch in America's heartland does not sound like  your average Democratic candidate for a major federal political office, but that is exactly who Adam Hamilton is and what he is doing.

Reverend Hamilton founded the Resurrection Church of Leawood, Kansas, in 1990, with a mission of attracting congregants who were not regular attendees of a church, and over the next thirty-six years his small church has blossomed into the largest United Methodist congregation in the United States.  Not too shabby for a fellow who started literally from scratch and holding his early services in the borrowed facilities of a funeral home.  Today the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has over 24,000 members, including several satellite facilities in the KC metro area and even downtown.

Kansas, which will occasionally elect a Democrat as governor, has not had a Democratic US Senator since the last one, George McGill, left office in January of 1939, giving it the dubious distinction of being the state with the longest continuous period of not having a Democrat in the US Senate.  Adam Hamilton aims to change that, and by most accounts it is entirely possible that if he gets the Democratic nomination, he could defeat Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall, a man who spends much of his time residing in  Florida, in the November general election.

I became aware of Rev. Adam Hamilton earlier this week when I read an article on-line which stated that he had been toying with the idea of running for the Senate from Kansas as an Independent, but had done a listening tour of the state where people encouraged him to run as a Democrat instead so that he would not split the anti-Marshall vote in November.  Last week Hamilton filed for the US Senate seat as a Democrat, a move that was not popular with the Kansas GOP which immediately began lobbing sour grapes and accused Hamilton of using church assets to further his candidacy - and urged the feds to investigate.

I have an old friend in Kansas, though not as old as me, who has three passions in life of which I am aware:  his grandchildren, his religion, and politics.  When I read about Reverend Hamilton's bid to become a United States Senator, I emailed my friend to learn more.  As a part of his response, my friend replied that by filing as a Democrat instead of an Independent, he thought that if Hamilton won the Democratic primary - against eight other candidates, he would go on to defeat Roger Marshall.

My friend knows Kansas and its politics - and his prediction is good enough to garner a modest donation to Reverend Andrew Hamilton from me.  A Democratic US Senate seat from Kansas would be be a gift for the ages!

Prediction Markets as Polls

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

(Disclaimer:  Pa Rock, the wretched old typist who puts out this daily blog, has no involvement in the crypto or prediction market industries whatsoever.   He is not an investor in any prediction market company, nor has he ever placed a "bet" on one of their sites.  Today's posting is based solely on information that is readily available over the internet.)

Background:   Prediction markets, gambling operations where people place bets on the likelihood of certain things happening in the future, are a fairly new way for people of average means to pass their modest wealth on to the world's oligarchs.  Donald Trump says he is basically opposed to prediction markets.  According to Google's AI-powered search engine:

"President Trump has expressed disdain for prediction markets, saying that they make the world a 'casino' and that he is 'not happy with any of that stuff'.   While he finds them 'intriguing' and finds that 'smart people' use them, he conceptually dislikes them and is concerned about insider trading, despite his administration and family having ties to the industry." 

("Insider trading" is where individuals use privileged information that they acquire from work or from others involved in certain work or activities, and use that information to make money for themselves.  Several members of Congress and other prominent political figures have profited off of stock market investments or prediction market bets in manners which suggest they may have had special advance knowledge of certain events to which ordinary investors did not have access.)

But, despite his lukewarm stance toward the notion of prediction markets, Trump does not want them banned in the US because other countries have or use them, and even though he fears they bring a casino-like feel to the world, he does not want states regulating prediction markets as they do other gambling ventures.  Again though, those sentiments are likely connected to involvement in the prediction market industry by Trump associates and his family.

As to Trump family involvement with prediction markets, Google's AI notes that "Trump Media is planning to roll out its own prediction markets," and regarding the President's son, Don, Jr:

"Donald Trump, Jr, is actively involved as an investor and adviser in the prediction market industry, specifically with Polymarket and Kalshi.  He is a stakeholder and adviser for Polymarket, and acts as an adviser to Kalshi, both of which have seen significant betting volume on his father's political actions."

I have written a couple of times in the past about odds established by Las Vegas bookmakers in elections and how those serve as polls - of a sort - of public perception of various candidates.  The odds are established by the amount of money "bet" on each candidate.  I had in mind to do that again this election cycle, but then came up with the notion of using the odds of prediction markets instead, since they seem to have a strong focus on politics.  

I began this effort by looking at the two primary markets, Polymarket and Kalshi, but after learning that Polymarket uses crypto (something I know even less about than prediction markets), I decided to keep it as simple as possible and see what the Kalshi was saying about 2028's presidential race.  One thing to remember as to the reliability of polls and prediction markets, it's easier to lie to a pollster than it is to mislead in a prediction market where your own money is on the line and doing the talking.

(The odds on both sites change constantly due to the ease of on-line betting, but the most recent numbers (below) have been relatively stable over the past few days.  People can bet either for or against a certain prediction based on the odds at the time of the bet.  A candidate with a 20% chance of winning would have a smaller payout than betting on a candidate with only a 5% chance of winning - but if you bet against those candidates, the odds would be roughly reversed.

Here is what a few of your friends and neighbors - as well as many, many government insiders - are saying on Kalshi about the presidential race in 2028:

On the Democratic side:

1.  Gavin Newsom  (24%)

2.  Kamala Harris  (11%)

3.  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  (9.3%)

4.  Jon Ossoff  (8.4%)

5.  Rahm Emanuel. (6%)

6.  Pete Buttigieg  (5.4%)

7.  Josh Shapiro. (4.4%)

8.  Mark Kelly  (4%)

9.  Andy Beshear  (3.7%)

10 - 11.  J.B. Pritzker and Ro Khanna (tied at 3%)

The list stretches through 34 additional names on whom people have placed bets, including such notables as Jon Stuart, Mark Cuban, Jamie Dimon, and Lebron James.

On the Republican side:

1.  JD Vance  (38%)

2.  Marco Rubio  (24%)

3.  Tucker Carlson  (7.7%)

4.  Donald J. Trump, Jr. (5.9%)

5.  Ron DeSantis. (4.1%)

6.  Donald J. Trump  (3.5%)

7-8.  Glenn Younkin  and Thomas Massie (tied at 1.4%)

9.  Marjorie Taylor Greene  (1.3%)

10.  Ivanka Trump  (1%)

The list has 25 more including Lara Trump, Elon Musk, and Nicki Minaj.

And the odds as to who will ultimately be elected President  of the US in 2028:

Kalshi's current odds for which party will win the presidency in 2028 have the Democratic Party over the Republicans by 62% to 38%.   

Small wonder Donald Trump, Sr, does not like prediction markets.  Kalshi has him at Number 6 for his party's nomination (even behind his own son!), and has his party losing the White House by 24 points. That's some legacy, Donbo!

Iran War Temporarily Terminated

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States of America was involved in combat operations (actual war) in Vietnam for eight years, from 1965 through 1973, without ever going through the formal and constitutionally-mandated process of Congress officially declaring war.  (In August of 1964 Congress did pass a joint resolution - the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution - which permitted President Lyndon Johnson to use military force in Asia without a formal declaration of war.)   The result was an "unofficial" war that dragged on for years and resulted in millions of casualties and the deaths of over half-a-million American troops.

Vietnam was a helluva bloody mess, and Congress did not want to risk being led into another disaster by another vainglorious President.  In 1973 when the war ended by treaty in a stalemate that quickly morphed into a rout of American troops, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution to keep from being sucked into another Vietnam.   That resolution required the President to end unauthorized military activities within 60 days, or, in other words, if the President deems that a war needs to continue beyond 60 days, he must get approval from Congress for that to happen.

Today marks the 64th time that the sun has risen over American military involvement against the country of Iran, but the Trump administration has yet to approach Congress and request an extension of its right to assert warfare against a foreign nation.  What's up with that?

Donald Trump is the answer to that question.    He put on his grifter garb and began playing sleight-of-hand games with Congress.  Trump initiated a very ill-defined two-week "ceasefire" with Iran on April 8th, one which may or may not have involved our partner in the war effort, Israel, and one which is murky at best because blockades and hostilities continue.  But Trump, for purposes of dealing with Congress, maintains that the cease fire is a real thing (at least in his mind) and the war is at an end (at least for the time being).  It is temporarily terminated.

Gas prices remain high and are climbing, and our troops do not appear to be returning home, but Trump says the war has ended and the 60-day clock has been stopped.  He says it with a wink and a nod because it is a fiction designed solely to meet the 60-day congressional mandate for an authorization to continue.  (A Republican Congress would conceivably give him his war authorization, but this is an election year and almost two-thirds of Americans oppose the war with Iran, so politically authorizing that war would be a very dumb move.  The Republican Congress feels better protected politically by just accepting Trump's specious logic that the 60-day clock ended with a cease fire.  House and Senate members are also winking and nodding.)

And so, in short, the United States war on Iran goes on, but it is shrouded in semantics and political gobbledygook.   Bullets are still flying, vessels are still being boarded, and soldiers, civilians, and children are still dying, and bellicose politicians are still belching threats all night, every night, on social media.  A war by any other name is still a cruel and bloody nightmare.  

Our military is being controlled by show horses and incompetents, Congress is manned by individuals whose primary motivation seems to be getting re-elected, and the war is being fought by young people who don't have clue one as to its purpose.

It certainly feels like we are still at war, a very ill-conceived and poorly executed war, but a war nonetheless.

Donald, you need to wind your clock and get some sleep.

Schumer Blows It in Maine

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Despite the best efforts of leaders of the US Senate to keep their chamber looking like a retirement home, the gerontocracy suffered a major setback yesterday when the sitting governor of Maine, 78-year-old Janet Mills, a Democrat,, suspended her campaign for the US Senate.  Mills, who is almost three months older than the senile reprobate who is typing this blog post, was handpicked by Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, to seek that nomination and to run against Maine's Republican Senator Susan Collins in the fall.  

Janet Mills was supported financially in her effort by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, DSCC, in the primary election in Maine.  The DSCC formed a joint fundraising committee with Mills last October with the aim of helping her defeat the other Democratic hopefuls and be able to take on Collins in the fall.  The DSCC is headed by New York's Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who was appointed to that important position by New York's other US Senator, 75-year-old Chuck Schumer.

Governor Mills cited difficulty in raising campaign cash as her reason for exiting the race.  That was true, at least in part, even with the financial support of the DSCC, but she was also being swamped in the polls by Maine novice politician Graham Platner, a 41-year-old oyster farmer and Marine Corps combat veteran.  Platner was leading Mills by more than 30 points when she left the race yesterday.

(In the most recent polling Graham Platner is also leading the Republican senator he hopes to beat in the fall, Susan Collins, by between 6 to 9 points, so a Democratic pick-up there seems possible, or even likely, despite the best efforts of Chuck Schumer and the Democratic political insider establishment to stomp out Platner's candidacy in the primary.)

Schumer and the DSCC are also being accused, with reason, of putting their thumbs on the scales in US Senate races in Iowa and Michigan. 

Chuck, here is my unsolicited and free advice:  focus on New York politics and on making the US Senate function.  There is a 34-year-old, highly popular Democratic Socialist mayor in New York City, one whom you declined to endorse, who could develop an interest in taking your US Senate seat, and there certainly will be some younger members entering the Senate shortly, probably even Graham Platner, who will be focused on electing more dynamic and aggressive leadership to run that body.

Either that, Chuck, or go sit in a corner someplace and ride out the rest of your term by writing "sternly worded' letters.   A generational tide is washing in, finally, and you would be wise to get out of the way.  Here's what Bob Dylan had to say about it when you and I were teenagers:

"Come senators, congressmen

Please heed the call

Don't stand in the doorway

Don't block up the hall

For he who gets hurt 

Will be he who has stalled

The battle outside ragin'

Will soon shake your windows

And rattle your walls

For the times they are a-changin'"

Political Rodents Want Public to Pay for Ballroom

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Last October when the historic East Wing of the White House was demolished by the Trump administration with no prior warning or approval from Congress, Donald Trjmp announced that the fresh pile of rubble would be bulldozed away and replaced with a gilded, 90,000 square-foot ballroom that would seat 999 people.  Trump assured the public that the glitzy edifice to himself would be paid for entirely by his rich oligarch friends in their never-ending quest to purchase influence with the government.  The cost would be $100 million.

Trump being Trump and Washington, DC, being Washington, DC, the estimated cost quickly doubled to $200 million, and not long after that it doubled again to $400 million because . . . well, why the hell not!

It's always easy and fun to spend other people's money.  The political rodents in Washington, DC, know that very well!

And when it comes to spending other people's money, nobody does it better than Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.   Earlier this year Senator Graham was a cheerleader for getting the US involved in a war with Iran and stated that he would have no problem in asking South Carolinians to send their sons and daughters to fight in the Middle East.  It was no skin off Lindsey's wallet - and now, just over two months later, the US has already sunk more that $25 billion into that war and we appear to be stuck in it indefinitely, and the price of gas, thanks to the GOP/Trump/Graham War on Iran, has jumped from less that three dollars a gallon to more than four dollars a gallon, and, well  . . .  Lindsey's still good with it because it's other people's money!

But Lindsey's not done yet.  Not only is he still hosing our money - yours and mine - onto the dumpster fire in Iran, he has also decided that the public treasury (your money and mine) should be used to pay for Trump's gaudy ballroom - still a steal at just $400 million!  

Senator Lindsey Graham (R,  SC), Senator Eric Schmitt (R, MO), and Senator Katie Britt (R, AL), have collectively shown that they have no shame and introduced a bill in the US Senate to have US taxpayers foot the bill for Trump's big, beautiful ballroom!  Was that the plan all along?

Lindsey, you need to dust off your bubble wand, head back to Disney World, and share your global insights with Goofy - and Eric, you would do well to return to Missouri and spend some quality time visiting with your constituents at a few gas stations and grocery stores - and bring Jason Smith with you!

America needs healthcare for all, affordable housing for all, daycare for working families, quality public education for all in safe schools, renewable energy, quality mass transit coast-to-coast and border-to-border, safe jobs that pay living wages, free post- secondary education, and so much more.  What America does not need is another endless war or a damned vanity ballroom!

Absurd New Heights in Vanity

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It now looks as though Donald John Trump and his merry band of co-conspirators have found something else to taint with his name and image.  It was announced yesterday that the US Department of State, currently under the small-fisted control of Trump appointee and toadie Marco Rubio, is in the final stages of redesigning US passports, and they will henceforth feature a scowling likeness of Trump and his signature, in gold, superimposed over the US Declaration of Independence.

I object, of course, to the whole notion of a sitting and living US President being featured on my personal passport or on any coins which I might happen to have in my pocket, and I emphatically object to having to carry items such as a passport or coinage which depict a person convicted unanimously by a jury of his peers of 34 counts of fraudulent business practices - all felonies.

I don't want my good name connected to a criminal lowlife anywhere, let alone on an official State Department document (passport) that I would need for international travel.  I object, I object, I object!

But it is far more than just passports which are being besmirched by a convicted felon's ego.   In December of 2025 a board of trustees appointed by Trump changed the name of the "Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts" to the "Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts," placing Trump's name before and above that of a highly respected US President who was never charged with or convicted of any felonies.

Plans have also been announced to place Trump's image on two separate US dollar coins, a silver one which will be in general circulation and a special golden commemorative one which the US Treasury has reportedly been instructed to make "as large as possible."

But the glory doesn't end there.  The US National Park Service is also preparing to issue new passes for our nation's national parks which will feature the scowly, jowly face of . . . you guessed it . . . Donald John Trump!

Trump's signature will soon be on US currency, and many federal buildings in Washington, DC, now have large banners on display outside bearing his image.   Trump has splashed his name around government programs including the "Trump" gold and platinum cards which assist rich immigrants with buying their way into US residency.   He has had his name placed on the US Institute for Peace, and his Big, Beautiful Bill Act started an IRA scheme to help children save called "Trump Accounts."

Then there is also the new government website to help with prescription drugs called "TrumpRx," and a new type of battleship which the planners are referring to as "Trump class."

Take all of that, and what is surely yet to come during the remainder of his presidency, and add to it all of his private properties which bear his name in unbearably large letters, and a new level of narcissism emerges, one that only Gods dare to imagine!

Leave my passport, national park pass, and pocket change the hell alone.  While others may enjoy the excitement and intrigue of associating with criminals, Pa Rock definitely does not!

Shooter's Manifesto Trips a Politician's Trigger

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday I wrote in this space about the armed mayhem at last Saturday night's annual White House Correspondents' Dinner at the Washington Hilton.  Donald Trump and members of his entourage and cabinet were sitting at the head table focused on a "mentalist" who was performing for the packed venue (which seats 2,000) when an armed intruder who was apparently intent on doing harm to Trump and his administration officials fired off several rounds in the hotel, one floor above where the banquet was being held.  I mentioned in that posting that a "mentalist"was performing because Trump has an aversion to comedians who make fun of him - and poking fun at sitting Presidents has pretty much been standard fare at WHCDs  for years.

Donald Trump lacks the ability to take a joke about himself graciously.  Trump is also one of the most prolific name-callers in the history of American government, and , not surprisingly, possesses extremely thin skin and cannot easily withstand any criticism of himself.

The shooter on Saturday night, a 31-year-old white male named Cole Allen from Torrance, California, caused harm to one Secret Service agent whom he shot in the chest.  The man was wearing a bullet-proof vest and suffered no life-threatening injuries.  The shooter was never able to reach the floor where the banquet was being held, though he did earnestly try to get there.  His "body count" for the evening was zero.

Cole Allen was arrested at the scene, and yesterday he was charged with attempting to assassinate the President of the United States, transporting a firearm, and discharging a firearm.

While young Mr. Allen's bizarre and very dangerous behavior did not result in the spilling of any blood, he was able to use his crime to make a statement.   The shooter left behind a 1,052-word manifesto that apologized to his parents and several others before going on to outline his motivations.   The document, which was signed "Cole 'coldForce' 'Friendly Federal Assassin' Allen," read in part:

"On to why I did any of this:  I am a citizen of the United States of America.  What my representatives do reflects on me.  And I am no longer willing to permit a paedophile, rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.   (Well, to be completely honest, I was no longer willing a long time ago, but this is the first real opportunity I've had to do something about it").

Donald Trump has been able to distance himself from certain embarrassing words in news stories and public discourse by threatening massive lawsuits, but the night after the WHCD dinner, a journalist finally confronted Trump with two words that Trump vehemently does not want used anywhere near his own name.  Trump was being interviewed on the CBS News show, "60 Minutes" Sunday evening by journalist Norah O'Donnell when she read aloud from the shooter's manifesto the part about the crimes of a "paedophile, rapist, and traitor" coating the shooter's hands.

Donald John Trump, the politician who called another female reporter "Piggy" to her face in a public setting just weeks prior and had also called a black female aide of his a "dog" during his first term in office, exploded in anger:

"I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would, because you're horrible people.  Horrible people.   Yeah, he did write that.  I'm not a rapist.  I didn't rape any body."

At that point, O'Donnell interjected:  "Oh, do you think he was writing about you?"  Touché.

Trump ignored her and concluded, "I'm not a pedophile."  He was finally forced to go on the record with denial - and not just avoidance of the Epstein questions that have been swirling about Washington, DC and the nation for years.

Game, set, and match, Ms. O'Donnell!   It would certainly be nice to get the Epstein matter before a judge. and get some compelled testimony under oath.

Salad Man: The Classiest Act at the WHCD

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Things were undoubtedly chaotic and dramatic, perhaps even a bit cinematic, as hundreds of guests at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in Washington, DC, Saturday night "hit the deck" and dove beneath their tables when shots rang out.  Even though they were still on the salad course, most politicians and journalists forfeited their remaining lettuce for the safety of sitting scrunched up beneath their tables in formal attire as a major news story unfolded around them. 

Mentalist Oz Pearlman was the featured entertainer for the evening since Trump can't take a joke and is not a fan of the television comedians who would normally host such a gathering.  Pearlman was at the front table in the middle of his act and performing a personal trick for Trump, Melania, and Presidential Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when shots were fired outside of the ballroom, one floor up - and serious commotion broke loose.  Interestingly, Pearlman, a man who makes his living seeing into the future and into the dark crevices of the human mind, failed to see the shooting before it happened, and, as he scrambled beneath a table, feared that he might have given his last performance.

The shooter, a 31-year-old tech engineer from the Los Angeles area, was staying at the hotel where the dinner was being held, but never even made it all the way down to the actual floor where the reporters and politicians were breaking bread together.  By the time people began crawling back out from under their tables, the Secret Servie had the shooter, apparently a lone gunman, in custody.

That was the overview of the activity at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, last Saturday night.  the meal did not continue, but many of the "after parties" apparently were held in spite of the drama.  Trump, who had never attended the White House Correspondents' Dinner before as President, seemed to be buzzed by all of the excitement in which he was in no immediate danger, and he began promoting it as grounds for building his vanity ballroom.  He is also demanding that the event be rescheduled within the next two months, although his position in the affair is simply that of "guest."

There was an interesting sidebar to the evening of chaos that news reports initially missed.  After films of the commotion were reviewed, it was revealed that one guest, a man, remained sitting calmly at his table enjoying his salad while everyone else was taking part in the panic.   The diner was quickly tagged with the monker "Salad Man," until it was finally established that he was Michael Glantz, a big-name talent agent who represented some of the people hiding under the tables.

When Mr Glantz was interviewed later regarding his odd behavior during the event, he said that he was used to activity and sirens, and he had not been scared - and he added that he wanted to watch the excitement.   The talent agent suffers from a bad back, is a "hygiene-freak," and was also wearing a new tuxedo.   Salad Man summed up his situation on Saturday night by saying:

"There was no freaking way I was getting on the dirty Hilton floor in my new tux.  It was not happening."

Salad Man was most likely the classiest act of the evening. 

Another Day in Retirement Hell

 

by Pa Rock

Unartful Codger

There are no "golden" years.  That's just a ruse pushed by social engineers tying to get old people to leave the work force and make way for younger people to enjoy the chains of wage slavery.  The supposed "golden" years are consumed with physical and mental deterioriation, and spending days with predictable chores - much like those encountered in the good old days when we were punching the time clock at the factory.  There is no rest for the wicked - or the retired.

As old people slowly fall apart, a few basic activities take up more and more of their time and become the equivalent of daily "jobs."  Most maintain homes or apartments, a vehicle,  and make purchases to  support their lives and lifestyles - while gradually downsizing as time races by.   But some activities of old people also tend to increase with the passage of time - doctor's visits and trips to the pharmacy, for example, and as those activities increase so does interaction with insurance companies - a major time-suck in the lives of the elderly.

Dealing with doctor visits, trips to the pharmacy, and insurance companies are a constant in the lives of old coots.  We can't have medical programs that pay 100% of costs like other countries do, we can't have insurance plans with standard care options and coverages - they all have to be different in order to force us to patch together plans that heighten confusion and out-of-pocket expense.

Old people are vulnerable to a political system that looks out for the needs of the wealthy, a health care system that many cannot access or afford, medicines that cost more here than in other countries, and a profit-driven insurance system whose primary goal is to take care of their stockholders.  It is a constant battle with bureaucracy where some days the only comfort is in knowing that the little pisssant giving you needless grief over the phone will one day be retired, too.

Old people are so busy keeping up with government and business regulations and assaults on our lives and integrity, that some days there is not even adequate time for bitching.  Fortunately, for me at least, today is Sunday an I was able to make the time!

Gray Power!

Impeach and Remove!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Congress abdicated most of its power as a co-equal branch of government the day Donald Trump's second term in office began.   Our national legislature, which has the constitutional authority to tax and set tariffs,  handed Trump the power to set international tariffs, no questions asked, and he saw that as a way to make our treasury fat.  Trump quickly imposed  tariffs on imports coming into the United States from most countries in the world.  What a clever boy he was!  Happy days were here again!

Those of us who didn't fully understand how tariffs worked learned very quickly.  Import tariff's,  a.k.a. taxes on imports, are not paid by the countries sending their products and foodstuffs to America, but rather by the companies in America who are importing those goods.   They then pass those added costs on to consumers, chumps like you and me.  The "logic" is that by making it more expensive to import things, companies would start buying from American manufacturers.  The reality is that even if that principle worked, America does not have the manufacturing capability to replace all foreign imports, and American workers prefer a living wage when they can get it.

Long story short, American importers - a.k.a. American busineses and retailers - paid the import duties and then passed those increased costs on to consumers - you and me.  The treasury got fat - on our money!

Congress also gave up its responsibility to carefully review presidential appointments and quickly gave its stamp of approval to every hare-brained and incompetent nominee that Donald Trump put forward.  That is coming around to bite Trump and the rest of the country right now as he has removed three cabinet secretaries in the las two months and needs to pull (and will likely pull) several more.

Then there is the very important responsibility of Congress to be the branch of government to declare war.  Unfortunately, several recent Presidents - Reagan and two Bushes - have taken us into wars on their own and later asked Congress for approval, so Donald Trump had no qualms whatsoever about getting all blustery and patriotic and sending our troops off to fight in Iran.  Since the disastrous war began Democrats have tried multiple times to get Congress to exert its authority and set limits the scope of the war, but Congress keeps voting down those efforts along very narrow party lines, and leaves the conduct of the war totally in the hands of Donald Trump and his Defense Department which is headed by a former Fox News weekend host whom he appointed and Congress quickly rubber-stamped..

Donald Trump did not serve in the military and, in fact, actively avoided doing so five times during the Vietnam War, and Pete Hegseth, the secretary of Defense, served as an infantry officer in Iraq and Afghanistan and achieved the rank of Major with the Army National Guard (the lowest "field grade" officer rank), but had no experience commanding large numbers of troops or in running a business as large and complex as the US military.  Hegseth is faulted in the press for viewing the US military as being the equivalent of a crusading army advancing the cause of Christianity, something which undoubtedly makes many US military officers and troops uncomfortable.

Donald Trump has obvious issues with competence, impulsivity, and temperament.  He likes to be seen as being in control, and he has a lifetime history of being a bully - none of which lends itself to being an effective leader, yet Congress insists on standing aside and letting Trump conduct his egomaniacal war on Iran without adult supervision.   It all feeds into a very dangerous situation.

And while Congress refuses to see Donald Trump's obvious limitations, his own staff are painfully aware that the boss in not up to the job.  

The White House "Situation Room" is a five thousand square-foot highly secure room in the basement beneath the West Wing of the White House.  It is often the presidential command center when something dangerous is occurring in the world which could effect US security.  According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (a newspaper owned by Trump ally Rupert Murdoch - the same person who owns Fox News) - Trump's staff barred him from the Situation Room early this month when plans were being carried out to rescue two downed airmen from Iran after that country had shot down their fighter jet.  The news report said Trump "screamed at his political aides for hours," concerned about the political impact of the  situation, and that staff finally removed him from the room and telephoned him with updates about the progress of the rescue effort.  The story said that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and other aides beieved Trump's impatience and behavior would not help the operation.

Ya think?

Trump's impatience and behavior are so extreme that his own staff had to remove him from the command center???   On Easter Sunday he banged out a tweet threatening to end "an entire civilization."   Those are not the actions of a rational human being.  Trump's staff knows it, and Congress damned well knows it, too!

The Untied States of America is adrift if treacherous waters without a rudder or a sail, and we are being pushed to and fro, with no plan or direction, by a very big wind!

Congress, do your job!  Impeach and remove!

Oh, Joy! Toys Returning to Cereal Boxes!

 

by Pa Rock

Kid at Heart

Cereal companies had a big influence over children back in the Stone Age when I was growing up, particularly with the use of their child-focused cartoon characters who promoted their products.  Three elfin characters, Snap, Crackle, and Pop, performed a catchy little jingle that became an indelible part of the soundtrack of life in the mid-twentieth century, and when they stopped promoting Rice Krispies for a moment and took a breath, Tony the Tiger was always close by to fill the noise void by reminding us of how GRRREAT! Sugar Frosted Flakes were.   And then, as an added measure to insure that little kids screamed at the top of their lungs in grocery stores as their mothers tried to frugally go about the challenge of buying nutritious food for their families, the cereal companies began putting toys in the cereal boxes, particularly the sugary varieties with little or no nutritional value, so that kids would have their say in the selection process.

The toys in cereal boxes faded from the shopping scene several years ago, primarily because young children were putting them in their mouths and some choked to death when the cheap plastic trinkets broke apart and stuck in their throats.  Cereal companies also began abandoning the practice to save money.  Even toys in the popular Cracker Jacks went from plastic doohickeys to very tiny paper booklets - and as any child knows, BOOKS ARE NOT TOYS!  It was the end of an era.

But stuff those lamentations, children of all ages, because toys in cereal boxes are about to make a comeback!

The WK Kellogg Company, the corporate parent of Snap, Crackle, Pop, and Tony, has announced that beginning this Sunday it will be placing toys connected to the movie "Toy Story 5" into special edition boxes of Frosted Flakes, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, and Corn Pops - none of which seem to be overburdened with excessive amounts of nutritional value.

Kellogg has said that "Toy Story 5" is a good fit with their reintroduction of toys into cereal boxes because the movie looks at the role of toys in a tech-driven world.  Seriously.

Does RFK, Jr, know about this latest affront to child health and safety - and as long as children don't endanger themselves by taking childhood vaccinations, does he even care?

How to Get Rich Quick in Arkansas

 

by Pa Rock

Stranded Medical Tourist

The city of Mountain Home in north central Arkansas, is a busy and vibrant community on the shores of beautiful Lake Norfolk.  All roads leading into Mountain Home are wooded, hilly, and very scenic,  It would be a lovely place to live and work, or retire - the median age is 47.1 years.   I live fifty miles to the north and east in West Plains, Missouri, and travel to Mountain Home often to shop in stores which are not available in closer proximity to where I live, and for medical services from a couple of providers. The small city has extensive medical services and providers and a fine hospital.

This week I had a medical appointment in Mountain Home that involved a hospital procedure and required me to have a driver on hand before I could be released from care.  My normal driver has a new job and was unavailable, so I decided to go the evening before, get a room, and Uber to the appointment the next morning.   When I checked that plan ahead of time with my doctor's office, one of the nurses told me over the phone,  "If Mountain Home has an Uber, I'm unaware of it."   But I persisted and came the evening before and found a nice motel.   The desk clerk said, "If Mountain home has an Uber, I don't know about it."

Mountain Home has a population of around 13,000, but it sits in the center of a metropolitan area of over 40,000.  Of course it would have an Uber.  West Plains isn't nearly as large, and it has several.  (The last one I hired in West Plains was an old farm truck driven by an old farmer - all of which smelled like an old farm - but it got me where I needed to go.)

After getting the motel room, I called my son in Kansas City who handles my rare Uber needs.  He found one and arranged for the driver to pick me up at my motel on Wednesday morning in time to get me to where I needed to be.  Wednesday morning came and the driver cancelled at the last minute.  Uber then notified my son that they had no other drivers available.  He then found one taxi driver, but he, too, was unavailable.  I finally resorted to driving my car to the hospital and having the procedure.   A couple of hours later when it was time to leave, I learned that the hospital was serious when they said you must have a driver.  They kept me in the procedure room until a member of the nursing staff was able to procure a taxi.  The nice taxi driver brought me back to the motel and arranged to meet me this morning to take me back to the hospital to pick up my car.

The point of this tale is that Mountain Home, Arkansas, would be a goldmine for some ambitious Uber drivers and/or a vigorous taxi company.  The scenery and the town are appealing, but the transportation system is appalling.  

Old Age Is Such a Bitch

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

(Written in a motel room on Tuesday evening.)

I am in Mountain Home Arkansas, tonight, resting up for an early morning heart procedure where a very competent cardiologist whom I really like and respect will give my heart an electric shock to try a course-correct an irregular, rapid heart beat, a condition commonly referred to as AFib.  I went through the same process about a year ago and it worked temporarily.  The doctor wants to try it one more time, and if that fails, he has a new physician arriving at his clinic over the summer who specializes in electro heart stuff.

I decided to travel to Mountain Home the night before the procedure because it is an hour drive and the show will start early.  Then, because I have no driver accompanying me, and the hospital doesn't want me driving after the procedure - undoubtedly a liability issue -  I will Uber back to the motel for a second night.   This is my early spring mini-break!

I worry about Rosie during my absences.  The sweet old girl barely has any vision lwft and is about as disoriented most of the time as I am.  She will miss me terribly - as I miss her.  Pets are such a concern - and such a comfort.

And old age is such a bitch.

Only the Worst People

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday, Donald Trump fired the third cabinet member of his current administration in less that two months.   Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer hit the White House exit door hot on the stilettos of Attorney General Pam Bondi who was fired on April 2nd and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 5th - all of whom apparently failed to lick the Florsheim leather Oxford dress shoes of Donald John fast enough or shiny enough to suit his male chauvinist standards.  But don't take the assault on your gender too hard, ladies, because FBI Director Kash Patel, a man, appears to be the next neck stretched across the chopping block.

God may have Her day yet, but probably not until National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard's head also rolls.

Howard Lutnick, the Secretary of Commerce, is rumored to be on the way out, but Lutnick is a major Trump campaign donor and a regular golfing buddy, so it might be unwise, or at least premature, to bet the hog on his dismissal.  Competence has never been a major factor in whom Trump chooses to hire or fire - if it was, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, the individual responsible for Making Measles Great Again, would have been gone a long time ago.  

Trump prefers to be surrounded by people who look good on television and are slavish in their devotion to him, but when their behavior starts becoming more outrageous than his own, it's time to let them go and find some other unqualified and untested replacements.

And the beat goes on, yeah the beat goes on . . . 

Harriet Tubman has Endured Another Decade in Chains

by Pa Rock

American Patriot

It was ten years ago this very day that US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that the portrait of abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman would begin appearing on US twenty-dollar bills beginning in 2020.  That plan, however, was quickly scuttled the following year after the surprise ascendancy of the Trump administration to the presidency.  Trump's new Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, announced in 2019 that a new design for the twenty-dollar bill would not occur until 2028.

Mnuchin's pronouncement came after Trump, the new President and ardent supporter of Andrew Jackson, a slaveholder who had defied the nation's Supreme Court and moved thousands of Native Americans off their lands so they could be claimed and farmed by immigrants from Europe, labeled the move to replace Jackson with Tubman on the currency as "pure political correctness."  Trump went on to say that he felt Andrew Jackson should remain on the twenty and that Harriet Tubman would be better suited to grace some other currency denomination, such as perhaps the two-dollar bill.

There was a move during the Biden administration to get the Harriet Tubman twenty-dollar bill back on track, but it did not come to fruition.  Now, freshly designed currency is due to be released in 2030, and it will created with enhanced safeguards to prevent counterfeiting.   It is currently unclear whose face will be on the new twenty-dollar bill, but some prominent members of Congress, led by  New Hampshire Senator Jean Shaheen, are pushing to ensure that the new face on the twenty is that of Harriet Tubman and not that of slaveholder, Andrew Jackson.

Will an a abolitionist and freedom fighter adorn the new currency, or will it still bear the likeness of a slaveholder known for stealing the lands of Native Americans?   That will ultimately depend on the political make-up of Congress and who is sitting in the Oval Office - all of which will be determined by which Americans make the effort to get off their lazy asses and vote in 2026 and 2028.

It's time to break Harriet Tubman's chains of enslavement and finally give her the respect an honor that she earned more than a century-and-a-half ago.   Slavery in the United States ended in the 1860's, and now racism needs to be brought into the light and eradicated as well!

Redbird of Crappiness

 

by Pa Rock

Bird Whisperer

In the spring of 2019 I posted three separate pieces in this space about a pair of bluebirds who were showing a strange fascination with my car which I park outdoors behind the house.  They appeared to be wanting to build a nest either on the car or in the immediate vicinity, and Papa Bluebird was attracted to the rearview mirror on the passenger side of the car.  He stood on the small ledge beneath the car window looking at himself in the mirror for hours on end.  

Eventually Mama Bluebird disappeared, presumably to get on with building the nest in one of the several bluebird boxes that I have scattered about the farm.  Then, in the final post I found Papa Bluebird lying on his back dead in the backyard, possibly a victim of one of the cats who lived here at the time, though he had not been savaged nor eaten.  I buried him under a big pile of pine needles in the hope he would decompose and replenish the earth.

I liked watching those bluebirds flit around the car and the yard, though Papa pooping down the side of the passenger door while he admired his image in the mirror tended to get old!  

After they were gone, the poop problem went away.  During the next year I traded cars and my yard cat, Fiona, who produced three batches of kittens a year whether we needed them or not, was run over on the Indianapolis 500 which borders our little farm.   I gave the last batch of kittens away - and we were finished with cats.  The bird feeders in front of the house stayed busy while my newer car sat in the back unnoticed.  

Unnoticed until this week, that is.  Now I have a very persistent little Mama Redbird who sits next to the car passenger window admiring herself in the mirror, and, of course, pooping down the side of the car door while she chortles on about how beautiful she is.   I pulled into the back drive yesterday afternoon following a quick trip to town, and before I could even get out of the car, Mama Redbird was snuggled up close to window and staring at the mirror while she relieved herself.

I am beginning to think of bird poop down the side of a car as a metaphor for retired life in an idyllic country setting.  Maybe its time to bring in another cat!

A Penny Saved

 

by Pa Rock

Pincher of Pennies

I am not a descendant of Benjamin Franklin, but old Ben and I were cousins - 1st cousins, ten times removed - which means he and I shared a set of grandparents and thus are likely to have some snippets of genetic code in common, even after a couple of centuries.  Ben, who wrote almanacs and was filled to the wig with pithy wisdom, reminded his readers of the virtues of being thrifty and supposedly said unto them:  "Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves."

I have, over the course of almost eight decades, wasted inordinate amounts of cash, but even at the height of those mindless sprees and splurges, I have always kept a watchful eye on the pennies.  I have a balance issue and history of falling which necessitates carefully watching the ground as I walk, an effort that is occasionally compensated when I come upon lost change - which I always pick up and pocket.  (I keep a loose change container in my car for just such occurrences - and occasionally that change makes its way into my savings account.  Ben would no doubt be proud.)

After Don Trump announced a couple of months ago that the US Mint would no longer be producing pennies, many businesses began phasing them out by rounding total sales up or down to the nearest nickel.    Businesses on US military bases on Okinawa were using that exact same system a dozen years ago, and I found it to work well.

Two days ago I made a small purchase at a Casey's Convenience Store in Arkansas, and instead of receiving fifty-one cents in change, the lady at the register handed me only two quarters.   I understood the transaction and the new math, but still was not overly pleased at missing out on my rightful penny.  As I walked carefully out to my car, watching the ground as I went, I spotted a penny lying on the pavement of the driveway.  I picked it up and held it high in the air soe the woman at the counter could see that justice had prevailed.  Then I got in my little car and put fifty-one cents in my change bucket.  

That happened on Thursday.  Earlier in the week, on Monday, I got out of my car in the local hospital parking lot and headed toward cardiac rehab.   It was during the noon hour and many hospital personnel were buzzing in and out of the lot as they dealt with their lunch needs.    As I walked between two cars heading toward the parking lot exit, I came upon some change scattered on the asphalt - which I took the time to bend over and pick up.  It was five coins - three nickels and two pennies - which some hospital employee or patron had dropped while getting out of their car and then not bothered to reclaim. - and Pa Rock was seventeen cents richer.  Hooah!

Why would anyone just walk off from five coins.  They had to have heard them jingling on the hard asphalt, right?  I have a theory on the matter.  Some hospital employee, male or female, was returning from their lunch break and forgotten that the change from the drive-thru was still sitting on their lap.  When the coins hit the pavement, that person, with their highly sculpted and lacquered hundred-dollar nails, perhaps with small paintings of flowers on each and every one - felt they had no choice but to leave them for the first beggar who happened by.  Enter Pa rock, stage right!

I can trace my obsession with lost and discarded change back to my days in elementary school when I was walking from school to town behind a gaggle of noisy teen girls, one of whom dropped a coin on the pavement, and several of whom commented about it.  "It's only a quarter," she laughed, and the whole group walked on leaving the coin behind.  Young Pa Rock knew that a quarter would buy a nice candy bar and a bottle of pop - with a nickel left over.  He went on to have a great afternoon.

And before you consign constantly looking at the ground and snagging occasional pocket change as just some nickel-an-dime crackpot operation, I also found a neatly folded twenty-dollar bill on the floor of the main terminal at the San Diego Airport a few years ago.  After stuffing it in my pocket, I did stand around for a few minutes to see if anyone came by in a panic looking for their money, but when no one did, I decided against yelling in the crowded terminal, "Hey, did anyone lose a twenty?!"

Okay, scouring the roadways looking for loose change is not the most productive and profitable of hobbies, but it is still a step above RFK, Jr's, penchant for scouring the roadways looking for supper!

Wildlife Crossings

by Pa Rock

Traipster of Backroads

Back in the mid-1990's before poor people had access to cell phones or even bag phones (remember those?), and before there were any cell towers to empower those science fiction gizmos, I did child protection work for the state of Missouri in very rural McDonald County.  A large part of my work was child abuse investigations.  On serious cases my co-workers and I rode with county deputies, but on not so serious cases where we were primarily going to check on a child or family's welfare, we would travel in pairs with our co-workers, or sometimes even alone.  

Home visits in a remote area could be a scary experience, both in terms of incensed hillbillies with guns who did not like the "gummint" prying into their private lives, or the ever present possibility of getting so lost on some of the mule trails that we might never be heard from again.

But all of that is just color commentary.   What I really want to write about is wildlife crossing the road.  There are certain spots where particular species of animals feel comfortable it darting across the roadways.  Deer seem to develop preferences for certain places, and my state posts occasional signs informing drivers of "Deer Crossings."  There was one particular spot way out in the woods of McDonald County on what was essentially a cow path that doubled as a country road where someone had posted a sign on a tree that read "Duck Crossing" along with a sketch of a mama duck leading a straight line a ducklings.  I regarded it as country humor until the day that I was driving very slowly down that cow path and came to the sign just as a mama duck and her well-organized line of little ones were crossing.

Man and nature don't always get their act together, but in that instance they had.

Yesterday morning I drove from my home just north of the city limits of West Plains, Missouri, to a doctor's appointment in Mountain Home, Arkansas, fifty-five miles to the southwest of my residence.  It was a beautiful morning and a beautiful drive.    The entire route is a two-lane paved road, with a speed limit of fifty-five mph most of the way.

I go to Mountain Home eight or ten times a year, usually for doctor's appointments and sometimes to shop, and I can differentiate the various times of the year on those trips by the varieties of roadkill that I encounter.  We are currently in "armadillo" season.  I drove past five dead armadillos yesterday, the first I had actually seen since last fall.  They have obviously just dug out of their hibernation and and are out on the prowl for spring sex.   Armadillos can be a particular nuisance at night when they tend to "freeze" in a car's headlight beams and get run over.   I ran over one once on a sudden twist in the road.  It sounded like a large metal basketball bouncing beneath my car, but the poor armadillo suffered fatal injuries and the little car drove on.

Old Joke:  How are armadillos born?   Dead, and lying along the side of the road.

Turtles were also out in abundance in the Ozarks yesterday.  Well, I lie.  The turtle-like creatures which I was dodging on the roads yesterday are actually "tortoises," of the three-toed box variety.   "Turtles" are fully aquatic, and "terrapins" are semi-aquatic, and tortoises spend thieir entire lives on land.  (Is that correct, Ranger  Bob?)    During my drive to Mountain Home, I encountered five live, three-toed box tortoises crossing the road and one who didn't make it.

I feel sorry for these small creatures struggling through the grass, weeds, and underbrush lugging their homes on their backs.  They live 50-80 years, roughly the same life span as humans, and have been around since the age of the dinosaurs, and many might spend their entire lives encountering only a handful of pesky humans were it not for the advent of cars and paved roads,  Now as they slowly shuffle along in search of food or carnal pleasures, the slow-moving tortoises come to the occasional road which they feel compelled to cross, a situation that opens them to capture and degradation as temporary "pets," or, worse yet, death form speeding vehicles and the ultimate humiliation of being food for the buzzards - or, worse yet, for the US Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Yesterday I also witnessed on squirrel getting run over.   He ran across the road in front of my car, and I braked enough for him to get past, but the car in the other lane caught him about mid-vehicle.  My last view of the unfortunate creature was him bouncing in the road after the other dar had driven on.

I have a theory about squirrels and evolution which I may have posted here before.  If I have, please be tolerant because you, too, will have passed your "use by" date at some point in the not too distant future and be repeating yourself ad nauseum. 

In the olden days when I was still a youthful presence on the planet, dead squirrels were more common on the roads than they are today.  Back then it was not uncommon for a squirel running across the road in front of on-coming traffic to get almost completely on the other side, then have second thoughts about the matter and race back toward his starting point - and inevitably to be run over on his return trip.  I have noticed over recent years that they seldom backtrack any more, and consequently there are far fewer dead squirrels on the road than there used to be.  Some of that may be due to a learning process as roads became more common and the amount of traffic increases, but I think some of it may also be due to evolution.  The dumb ones  have mostly been run over and died out, and now it is the smarter ones who live on and are reproducing.  Survival of the fittest

America's roads are alive with wildlife.  Drive cautiously and respectfully.

Deer to ducks to armadillos to tortoises to RFK, Jr, to dumb and smart squirrels - that's all I've got for today!

More White House Quackery

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

People seeking reliable medical advice on any malady or situation should avoid members of the Trump administration like the plague, because when it comes to showcasing quacks, Trump and his team own the pond.  The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., for example, has no training in science or medicine, but was an honor student at Facebook U where he developed an unhealthy skepticism regarding miraculous advancements in the field of medicine, like vaccines, and has tirelessly promoted the false narrative that vaccines cause autism.  

At the height of the pandemic, Kennedy was arguing that the new COVID-19 vaccine was deadly and should not be given to pregnant women, even though safety studies said otherwise.  He suggested that COVID-19 might have been targeted toward certain ethnic groups, and said that HIV does not cause AIDS.  Kennedy promoted the use of Vitamin A over vaccines to protect against measles, fought for the elimination of fluoride in water supplies, and promoted unproven and bizarre treatments to cure COVID including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.  And to cap off his seismic display of medical ignorance, our nation's Secretary of Health and Human Services, a man who admits to having eaten roadkill and snorting cocaine off of toilet seats, has also suggested that WiFi and other radio frequencies can cause cancer.

Kennedy's Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a former television personality who promoted "miracle" weight loss supplements and alternative medical theories that lacked scientific evidence, was, like RFK, Jr, appointed to his current government post by Donald Trump, a man who enjoys watching television kooks and stirring controversies.

Donald Trump, the President, loves social commotion so much that he has also promoted some medical whoppers himself based solely on things he has heard of seen promoted on the internet.  In April of 2020 while the pandemic was rapidly spreading around the globe, Trump. noted that bleach and disinfectant kills the COVID virus on stationary surfaces, and then wondered aloud about the possibility of injecting it into human bodies as a way to defeat COVID.  The blowback was swift and intense, and the next day Trump did a course correction saying that his remarks about injecting bleach and disinfectant had been "sarcasm."  Trump also promoted the use of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine in the fight against COVID-19.

Now, in a news report just released yesterday, it was revealed that (Doctor) Trump is back at it with his medical wizardry.  He has apparently told Dr. Oz of his belief that drinking Diet Coke, Trump's favorite beverage, might help kill cancer cells.

Quack, quack, and more quack!

If you need competent medical advice, talk to your doctor or a qualified medical professional. - and stay the hell away from anyone even remotely connected to the Trump administration!

Those are my quackin' thoughts on the matter!