Talarico Markets "Talafreako"

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist 

When scandal-plagued Texas attorney general Ken Paxton won the GOP nomination to run for the US Senate last week, both he and the propaganda wing of the Republican Party, Fox News, hit the ground running with personal attacks on the Democratic nominee for that Senate seat, State Representative James Talarico, of San Antonio.  Talarico, who is just thirty-seven-years-old, is clean cut, soft spoken, highly intelligent, and an 8th generation Texan who is also enrolled in a Presbyterian seminary and has no trouble weaving a positive strain of Christianity into his thoughts and remarks on the futures of Texas and the Untied States.

Paxton, who defeated four-term Republican Senator John Cornyn in last week's primary election runoff with the help of a last minute endorsement from Donald Trump,  has been plagued with personal scandal, accused of impropriety in his state job, impeached, and embroiled in a nasty divorce within the past couple of years.  Talarico, on the other hand, comes across as squeaky clean.  The choice between Paxton and Talarico is stark, night and day, and many Republicans feel that Talarico could conceivably beat Paxton in November's general election.

Paxton seems to think so, too.  

Before the ink was dry on his election cerificate, Ken Paxton and the Republicans were coming at Talarico with all their political guns blazing, but unlike Paxton, Talarico seems to have led an exemplary life and does not have a closet packed with skeletons to deal with.   So, sleazeball Republicans being sleazeball Republicans, cut straight to the chase and began lobbing personal attacks.  Fox News spent the better part of a day implying that the single Talarico might have some gender identity issues or even possibly be gay, and one commentator seemed concerned with what she perceived to be Talarico's "soft skin."

Paxton also formed a line of attack trying to link Talarico to trans individuals, and finally got down to bare-knuckle name-calling by referring to his opponent as "Talafreako."  Good one, Ken!  (Not!). At another point the Paxton campaign painted Talarico as not being a real Texan because he didn't eat barbecue - to which the young Texas lawmaker replied that he had been eating barbecue "since before Ken Paxton's first indictment."

Everything's nastier in Texas!

This week, in response to the homophobic attacks, Talarico introduced his girlfriend of the past several years to the press, a very beautiful lobbyist for the Texas Medical Association named Brianna Menard.  At one time, before they were dating, she was the chief of staff in Talarico's office.  Then the young politician also displayed some new merchandise in his campaign store - tee shirts with logos saying "I'm a Talafreako," and "Texas Is Talafreako Country!"

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade - and whn life gives you catchy slogans, you make teee shirts!

Well played, Jimmy!

Marilyn Monroe at 100

  

by Pa Rock

Fanboy

Perhaps the most iconic rendition of the musical standard "Happy. Birthday" ever recorded was the one Hollywood sex bomb Marilyn Monroe sang to President Kennedy at his 45th on birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden in New York City on May 19, 1962, a Saturday night.  The blonde actress's breathy and voluptuous rendering of the classic is one for the ages, sounding more like something that should have been sung privately, maybe between satin sheets, rather than in a public venue with more that 15,000 people sharing the intimacy.

Certainly no one could have guessed that the singer, who was 35-years-old and that time, and the 45-year-old President would each live to celebrate only one more birthday.  Marilyn turned 36 on this date (June 1st) in 1962 and died of a barbiturate overdose in Hollywood just over two months after her birthday on August 4th, 1962.  Kennedy, who turned 46 on May 19, 1963, died from an assassin's bullet in Dallas, Texas, just over six months after his birthday.

During her very short lifetime, Marilyn Monroe starred in some of the most memorable movies of the 1950's, and early 1960's.  Some of my favorites of hers include:   Niagara (1953), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), River of No Return (1954), Bus Stop (1956 - my second favorite), Some Like It Hot (1959 - my all-time favorite), and The Misfits (1962 - the last feature-length film of both Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable).

In 2007 a friend and I stayed at the historic Del Coronado Hotel in San Diego where Some Like It Hot was filmed, and a couple of years later my daughter, Molly, and her husband, Scott, were married on the beach behind the Del Coronado.  My other brush with the ghost of Marilyn came on a weekend in August 1n 2012 when (for the only time in my life), I happened to spend a weekend in August visiting my son, Tim, and his family in West Hollywood and Los Angeles.  That was also the weekend that encompassed the 50th anniversary of Marilyn's passing, so I made a point of thinking of her while I was in town.

Marilyn Monroe's flame burned brightly and too quickly, but during her brief time with us she managed to leave an indelible mark on American culture.  Happy birthday Lorelei, and Cherie, and Sugar Kane,  and Marilyn.    I hope someone special is singing to you today, maybe Joltin' Joe Dimaggio!

Judge Orders Major Improvement for Kennedy Center

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The news out of Washington, DC, last week was more than just political blather about grotesque $250 bills, a UFC fight ring turning the White House grounds into a veritable amusement park, and a massive national "state" fair that is being boycotted by many entertaianment acts.  Last week in our nation's capital also featured a court ruling which pulled at the very soul of Donald John Trump.

Federal District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled on Friday that Trump's name had been illegally placed on the Kennedy Center and must be removed within two weeks.   Judge Cooper said that the building had been named by Congress and only Congress had the authority to change it.  The judge further ruled that the cultural center could not be closed for two years for renovations as had been previously been scheduled by the commission Trump appointed to oversee operation of the esteemed public venue.

Trump, who does not take criticism or direction well, issued the following rejoinder:

"Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this institution back physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ' NEVER, NEVER, LAND.'"

The Whiner-in-Chief took his toys and went home - after being thrown out of the game.

In a related story, Trump's "Great American State Fair," which is scheduled to run from June 25th through July 10th on the National Mall, was to have been kicked-off by a concert featuring 10 nationally known artists and groups.  Most of those, however, had agreed to perform under what they later regarded as false pretenses, and by yesterday eight of the performers and groups had withdrawn.    But never fear because Donald Trump rushed in to save the day and said he would hold one of his rambling rallies as the kickoff event.

There are two distinct groups putting together programs for our nation's 250th birthday.  One is a bipartisan congressional commission called "America 250" that works at the national, state, and local levels, and the other is a competing organization formed by executive action that is essentially a White House task force and which has more of a MAGA focus.  It is called "Freedom 250."  The Trump group, "Freedom 250," is planning the "Great American State Fair," and some of the artists who cancelled said they had agreed to perform because they mistakenly thought the program was under the auspices of "America 250," and that they did not want be be a part of what would be more like a Trump political event - which it now blatantly will be.

Trump, being Trump, was quick to trash the artists who chose not to perform at his "Fair," people his group, Freedom 250 had originally sought out and hired.  He called them "highly paid, third rate artists" and "over-priced singers who nobody wants to hear, whose music is boring, and yet who do nothing but complain."

Trump understands "boring," just ask the people walking out of his rallies while he is still trying (and failing) to speak coherently.   He also understands the fine art of complainig.  It is his life force.

America could use a President, instead we are saddled with a gold-plated narcissist who likes seeing his name of things and thinks he has a flair for interior design and music appreciation.   We could do so much better.

Pentagon Pete's Endless War on Fatties

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former weekend personality on the Fox News network, has a penchant for physical fitness.  He enjoys setting the example by running with troops in formation during physical fitness training, usually with a photographer at the ready,  and doing push-ups.  Boy howdy, does Pete love his push-ups!  (He also likes to pull his shirt off on occasion and display his crusader tats.). It's hard to be more manly than Pete.    He is macho from his toenails all the way up to his nose hair!

Last September when Hegseth called the nation's top brass (generals and admirals) back to the DC area for a meeting to show them who was boss, he took the opportunity to lecture the auditorium filled with his betters on the importance of looking fit - and his strong bias toward that outcome.  Part of Pete's command performance included this gem:

"Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops.  Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon leading commands."

During his tenure at the Pentagon, Hegseth has moved to tighten physical training standards (which are normed on male troops) and the physical appearance of the troops.  His team did away with outdated weight and height tables and replaced them with a Waist-to-Height Ratio of less than .55.   As an example, a troop with a 36" waist and a height of 70" has a .51 ratio.

Two weeks from tomorrow, on Donald Trump's 80th birthday, the President will be hosting an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) on the White House grounds, and in an effort to produce the best possible photo ops, the Pentagon announced yesterday that active duty troops are being invited to come to Washington, DC, and attend the event.  One stipulation is that they must pay their own transportation to the nation's capital.  Another is that they must all wear summer dress uniforms and meet the standard of less than a .55 waist to height ratio.  ABSOLUTELY NO FATTIES IWLL BE TOLERATED.  There were no specific requirements for female troops other than they must meet the same standards as the men.

Last year Trump had a miles-long, Russian style military parade on his birthday that was a dud,  so boring he even slept through part of it, so this year he's bringing his own audience, an assemblage of people who are used to taking orders.

It should be quite a show, with the photogenic audience cheering and clapping in lockstep and maybe even singing:  "Happy birthday to you, sir, happy birthday to you!"

The Ooze of Corruption and Vanity is Exhausting

by Pa Rock

Taxpayer

Alas, I am not rich enough to evade paying taxes, which means that my coerced contributions to the government are helping fund the never-ending river of corruption and vanity currently oozing from the White House.  American citizens of modest incomes are funding a war with Iran that few of us want, and a clandestine national police force which seems to have the authority to harass and detain people (and sometimes worse than that) without fear of oversight or consequences.

Trump's most recent financial disclosure, the one for the first three months of this year, reveals that his organization, over which he supposedly has no direct control, made more than 3,700 stock trades during that period, covering hundreds of millions of dollars, and involving companies in direct dealings with the United States government or companies that Trump has publicly praised.

Trump also secured a phony "settlement" to a lawsuit that he brought against his own government that sought $10 billion in damages for the illegal release of his tax records, something which occurred while he was President and in control of both the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service, the targets of his ire and his lawsuit.   When it became obvious, even to Trump, that his case would be thrown out of court, he quickly got his Justice Department to settle the case out of court - and that settlement set $1.776 billion aside for his "weaponization"slush fund that would reimburse people supposedly hurt by the actions of the Biden administration - and it barred the Treasury Department and the IRS from being able to audit the tax records - past, present, or future - of Trump, his family, or. his businesses.  

It's hard to even imagine anything more corrupt than that very, very, very. sweet deal.  Trump's slush fund would be overseen by a committee under the control of Donald Trump.  The Trump administration wants that committee to basically be operated in secret, without oversight or accountability.  Likely candidates for these secretive payouts will include the January 6th rioters, many of whom were convicted of their crimes in courts of law before being pardoned by Trump, and some of whom physically assaulted police officers during the Capitol riots.   

Trump got that "settlement" by using the US Department of Justice as his own personal law firm. Not only is it helping to line his pockets, he is also using it to exact retribution on his enemies, people like James Comey, John Bolton, and now E. Jean Carroll, the woman who got two court judgments against him, one for sexual assault and the other for Defamation, that total almost $90 million.  The Justice Depatment is supposed to represent the people of the United States, and not to serve as the Presidents personal law firm and avenger.

That's OUR money he would be slathering on his contemptible private army of rioters.  That's OUR money going to no-bid contracts with inflated billing like the one for the slipshod painting of the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.  That's OUR money that Trump wants to build his vanity ballroom, and he's going to build it on the spot where he tore down part of OUR house without warning or official approval.  That's OUR money being used to investigate and proescute Trump's personal enemies.

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg do not have to sit by and watch their money swirl down the toilet bowl of Donald Trump's ego.  All of that is funded by the "little" people, you and me, and the excess amounts that even we can't cover are put on a tab that will have to be paid by our children and their children.    While the little people pay the bills, the nation's cohort of oligarchs squeeze tax breaks from a well paid and highly compliant Congress for things like tax deductions for the purchase of private jets and personal yachts the size of cruise ships.

We don't need endless oil wars, secret armies, government handouts to domestic terrorists and anarchists, ballrooms, Trump's name and image on money, passports, entertainment venues, and public buildings, or UFC fights and car shows on the White House lawn.   It's one embarrassing news story after another, and it's all so exhausting.

We need competent leadership, young enough and healthy enough to sit through a cabinet meeting without falling asleep, honest and bright enough to manage the country, its laws and institutions, and the economy, and stable enough to represent us on the world stage in a dignified manner that would garner actual respect.

Trump looks out for Trump, and the rest of us must look out for ourselves.

The only thing OUR money is procuring for us under Trump is the shaft.

Sully and Uncle Nick Go Fishing

 

by Pa Rock

Dog Sitter

My youngest grandchild, Sullivan Macy, and his dad, Tim, drove down Tuesday afternoon from their home in the Kansas City area so that Sully could go fishing with his Uncle Nick on Wednesday, Nick's day off from work.  Sully, who will be ten next month, is quite the fisherman and never misses an opportunity to cast a line in the water.  (He is also quite the basketball player,  and his team won their league championship last season with a 6-0 record.  Tim is their coach.)

                                                (Uncle Nick and Sully)

Our big dog, Gypsy, who has only met Sully once, during a visit last November, was so happy to see him that she did everything BUT backflips!   I thought she was going to have a stroke when Sully and his dad walked into the house, and she stayed at her boy's side constantly throughout the visit - but the poor girl did have to say home with Rosie and I while the Brothers Macy and Sully went fishing Wednesday morning.

Sully caught the most fish during the outing, including one bass in the three-pound range, which he said was his biggest catch ever.  They were fishing at a catch-and-release pond maintained and run by the Missouri Department of Conservation, so he didn't get to bring his trophy catch home for dinner.  

Sully and his family are going to Colorado in July for a family reunion where one member of the gathering is going to give hands-on instruction on fly-fishing.  My grandson is definitely looking forward to that, yes he is!

The other highlight of the trip was dinner Tuesday night at a new restaurant in West Plains which specializes in Indian food and brick oven pizzas.  We had a pepperoni pizza that was the best I've ever eaten - seriously - even the crust was delicious, and it was all spiced just right.   Check out The Brick and Barrel the next time you are slumming around West Plains, Missouri!

Sully and his dad went home Wednesday after their fishing excursion because my grandson has basketball practice today - and neither he nor his coach wanted to miss that!

Thanks for coming to see us, Tim and Sully.  Rosie and I will be up your way before too long!

Papal Hang-Up

 

by Pa Rock

Angry Old Crank

Prior to his promotion to Pope of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, Cardinal Robert Prevost (aged 69 at the time) was a resident of Chicago, Illinois, the city of his birth.  Not long after his ascension to the Papacy and the adoption of the name Leo XIV, the new Pope phoned the branch bank on Chicago's South Side where he routinely had done his banking.  He told the nice lady who answered the phone that he had moved overseas and needed to change his contact information.  She ran him through a list of security questions, all of which he answered correctly, and then told her caller that he would still have to appear in person at the branch office in Chicago to make the change official.  

There are two different versions as to what happened at that point.  One story goes that the Pope asked the lady on the phone if it would make any difference if he told her that he was Pope Leo - and she promptly hung up on the Pontiff, thinking she was being pranked.  The other version is that the Pope's brother was also participating in the call, and that he asked if it would make any difference if she knew she was talking to Pope Leo - and she hung up in that version also.    Eventually the Pope called a muckety-muck in the US Catholic hierarchy and he called the bank's president who was able to resolve the matter.

Don't take it personally, Leo.    Old people are routinely disrespected and shunted aside by petty tyrants manning the phones for major corporations.  I've been fighting these battles ever since I retired nearly fifteen years ago.  The older you get, the less courtesy you receive from soulless bureaucrats over the phone.  If you think the bank experience was frustrating, God help you when you have to deal with an insurance company!

But stay calm.  I'll be praying for you!

Your buddy, Pa Rock

Cuba Has Already Been Liberated!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

My guess is, based on internet news sources, that the United States will invade the sovereign island nation of Cuba sometime this week.  Trump is desperate to not only deflect the attention of Americans away from their re-emerging interest in seeing what (and who) is in the Epstein files, but now that he has crapped the bed with his impulsive war on Iran, he needs to draw attention away from that fiasco as well.  The Trump regime has been starving Cuba of fuel and basic humanitarian assistance for months, especially since gaining control of Venezuela's oil production this past January, in an effort to either bring about the collapse of the government or to weaken it to the point where it would be unable to resist a US invasion.

Now, with the war in Iran rapidly going to hell in a hand basket, Trump will surely revert back to the art of distraction.  It will either be Greenland or Cuba, and from Trump's glitzy and gold-plated view of the world, Cuba makes the most sense.  He wants to be the "liberator" of the socialist island nation.  One problem with that is, of course, Cuba has already been liberated.  That happened on January 1, 1959, when brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, Dr. Che Guevara, and other guerilla warriors who had been fighting their way across the island for two long years and gaining the support of the populace as they went, stormed into Havana and drove dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile.

Batista was a tool of the American mob, the man who turned Havana into a cesspool of shiny hotels and casinos and a major hangout for American mobsters.  His government helped to fund the swanky mob-operated hotels and casinos, and in return he received massive kickbacks from the American criminals.  As an example of the connections between Batista and the American mob and how tightly they were bound, Batista appointed famed American crime boss Meyer Lansky as director of Cuba's "gambling reform" in the 1950's.  Lansky was the primary architect of mob activities in Havana, 

When Batista fled, so too did many wealthy Cubans, the majority of whom flew to Miami, Florida, and began new lives in the United States  Today the descendants of those well-heeled Cuban refugees harbor dreams of returning to the island of their parents and reclaiming the properties they abandoned in order to maintain some semblance of their status and lifestyles in the United States.  Marco Rubio, the current US Secretary of State, is one of those focused on reclaiming past glories and possessions of his family, and he is certainly prodding Trump to increase his legacy by becoming the American President who "liberated" Cuba.

I had the opportunity and privilege to visit Cuba ten years ago last month as part of a tour sponsored by The Nation magazine.  The flight from Tampa to Havana aboard a commercial airliner was fifty-one minutes.  The following is part of the post I wrote on April 23, 2016, in the evening of our first day on the island.  Internet service was awful, so the posting did not go on-line until April 30th.

"When Fidel and the other revolutionaries took over on January 1, 1959, the US-backed dictator, Batista, cleaned out the banks and fled with much of the nation's money.  Ordinary Cubans stormed the Mafia casinos and piled all of their gambling equipment in the streets and burned it.  It took less than ninety minutes for those hardy souls to eliminate gambling on the island."

Donald Trump is a big fan of glitzy hotels and casinos.  He is also a big fan of shady characters who stroke his ego and buy his crypto.  It doesn't take a genius to see where Cuba will be headed if Trump "liberates" it.  The island, and Havana in particular, will be returned to its former gangster state in short order.  

The good people of Cuba deserve so much more than just a rehash of their inglorious past.   Trump will find more resistance there than he did in Venezuela, and his pal, Putin, may also weigh in on the matter -  so a quick and bloodless victory is far from a sure thing.  But if Trump is successful in  re-liberating Cuba for the Rubios of the world and his own vanity, it is almost certain to be another case of . . .

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Viva Cuba libre!

Missing the Almighty Johnsons

 

by Pa Rock

Television Junkie

I am currently only subscribed to three television streaming services:  Amazon's Prime, Brit Box, and PBS/Masterpiece, and my general practice is to work my way through one show at a time, one episode per evening.  Recently I spent several weeks watching a complete series on Prime entitled "The Almighty Johnsons," 36  episodes (3 seasons), all of which were filmed in Auckland, New Zealand.  The show originally ran from 2011 through 2013.

"The Almighty Johnsons" is a quirky comedy/drama based on the premise that four brothers (the Johnsons), ages approximately 21-40, are reincarnations of major Norse Gods whose ancestors secretly migrated from Norway to New Zealand two centuries earlier who arise with each generation with limited powers.  There are dozens of Norse Gods and Goddesses in the Auckland area, but the four Johnson brothers are some of the main ones and they keep the story going.

The tale begins when the youngest of the four brothers, Axl, turns twenty-one.  He knows nothing about the God business because the arising generation of Norse Gods aren't invested with their godly identification and powers until their 21st birthdays.  The brothers take Axl to a special spot in the woods where they convince him to stand naked while holding an old Viking sword high in the air.    As he does,  a bolt of lightning strikes the seord throwing Axl to the ground.  When he arrises his older brothers explain what has just happened and ask him which God he has become.  Young Axl announces that he is Odin, the supreme All-Father in Norse mythology.  Baby brother has become the big Kahuna!

As the story progresses Odin is on a quest to find "Frigg'," his soulmate throughout history.  She is ultimate the Queen of Asgard through her marriage to Odin, and regarded as the goddess of marriage and motherhood.    Odin (Axl) comes to understand that none of the current batch of Gods will have their full powers until Odin reunites with Frigg, and he also knows that this reunification will likely start Ragnarok, the Norse end-times war, and send him back to rule in Asgard.  

The over-arching plot is Odin's quest to find Frigg, and the episodes are more focused on the lives and interactions of the Johnson brothers as they struggle to help, and sometimes hinder, their youngest brother on his search.  While the show makes strong use of mythology and magical realism, the story itself is compelling and pulls the viewers in - at least it strongly impressed this viewer.

If "The Almighty Johnsons" sounds like something that would capture your interest, check it ou on Prime.  It is based in the same mythos as the Netflix series "Ragnarok," and both are exceptionally good.  And if both of those yank your crank, then explore the book "Norse Gods" by Neil Gaiman, an informative and very entertaining read.

And speaking of that superb writer, Neil Gaiman, my current television binge is "Good Omens'," also on Prime, which is based on the 1990 novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett entitled:  "Good Omens:  The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch."   It has a cast of big names including David Tennant (my favorite "Dr. Who") and Michael Sheen as the primary stars and guest appearances from many big names including Frances McDormand as the voice of God and Benedict Cumberbatch as the embodiment of Satan - but all of that is a whole other posting.  

For something highly original and very entertaining, begin with "The Almighty Johnsons" on Prime (or Roku, Tubi, and a few other places).  I finished the series last week and already miss those guys!

Forget the Apology, Joe Bob!

 

by Pa Rock

Yard Farmer

I need to begin by posting an apology (of sorts) to Joe Bob down the road whose character I impugned yesterday by suggesting that he may have stripped the blooms and buds from the beautiful rose bush that sits out at the end of my driveway near the road.  It produces buckets of beautiful yellow blooms several times a year, and this spring they were stunning - until every bloom and bud disappeared last Thursday night.  

A friend who also lives in a sylvan setting but in another part of Missouri, emailed yesterday after reading that post and reported that she, too, has a rosebush that produces yellow flowers, and she said the local deer always eat them.   I, too, have an abundance of neighborhood deer, so although I have never personally seen them stripping any of my rose bushes, and I have never lost any of my yellow roses in the past, I suppose it is possible that the local deer enjoyed a floral dessert on me.  Apologies to Joe Bob.

I have several pink roses in a grouping close to the road that produce masses of flowers but aren't as stylish as the yellow ones close by - and the pinks never get bothered by two-legged or four-legged vandals and miscreants.  Why would deer prefer yellow?  It's a mystery.

Speaking of mysteries, I recently read a story in one of my mystery magazines in which one of the quirky characters was an unemployed woman who lived in a stylish neighborhood - and who took her shovel and stole yard plants from the neighbors whenever they were away from home, often planting the stolen plants in her own yard.  That lady had nothing to do with the murder the story revolved around - but was just an interesting red herring.   However . . . 

She got me thinking about the time many years ago when my wife and I bought a home in Mountain View, Missouri, and were slowly moving in, one carload at a time.  One evening before we had taken up actual residence, we showed up late and found a neighbor lady, shovel in hand, digging up flower beds on our newly acquired property.  As I walked her back to her property, she carefully explained how the people who had sold the house to us had given her those bulbs and she had just been late in collecting them.  We also found her a few months later collecting fruit from our apple trees.  I guess she had been promised that crop as well.

We were living in a different community several years later when we returned home one evening  after work and found that the bank of blooming jonquils behind our house hd been stripped during the day.    A few days later my wife went down to talk to one of the neighbors about babysitting for our children - and the neighbor invited her in where they sat among vases of jonquils while talking about babysitting.  We didn't wind up hiring her.

And then there was my uncle, Bob Dobbs, who lived in a nice house on US 71 in Goodman, Missouri.  Uncle Bob had a blue spruce in his yard near the highway that was about four feet tall.  He bought it as an 8" sapling and carefully nursed the little tree along for several years.  Spruce are not common in Missouri, and Uncle Bob was very proud of his.  But one cold December day he had to run to town for just a few minutes, and when he returned his little spruce was gone, sawed off neatly near the ground, and undoubtedly on its way to becoming someone's Christmas tree.

It's so much easier to enjoy the efforts of someone else than it is to expend the damned effort yourself.  I'll forgive the deer because they have to make do with the scraps that civilization leaves for them, but the people with saws or shovels sneaking around to take take what looks "purty," well, no.  If you need something of mine, come knock on the door and ask for it, and I will extend the same courtesy to you if I ever need something of yours.  But if you "need" a bouquet, grow your own.

I would share the pears that grow in abundance on a single tree in the backyard, but in the fifteen years or so since I've lived here, I have only had a couple of them myself - and they were delicious.  The deer beat me to them every year.  I've seen them standing beneath the tree at dusk or dawn, or their back legs and reaching up into and the poor old tree with their front legs to shake the fruit loose.  The deer work hard for those pears!

And after the beautiful creatures have eaten their fill, they stroll off down the road and Joe Bob shoots them.

Come to think of it, Joe Bob, forget the apology.  I'm still pissed!

Grand Theft Roses

by Pa Rock

Man with a Shovel

I went on a rose-planting binge this very month four years ago and put out a total of eight rose bushes, seven of which are still alive and blooming.  They got off to a late start this year after my son, at my direction, mulched each plant with fresh mulch last fall, and by fresh I mean the mulch was from the branches of two trees that we had just had cut down on the property.  This spring there was a weather quirk that set back things that had already begun to green, and all of my beautiful roses soon appeared to have died.  It was the mulch or the weather, I wasn't sure which. 

But before long little shoots began pushing up through the mulch and new canes formed.  The old canes were dead, but I left them in place to act as supports for the new ones.  Two weeks ago the basically new rose bushes began blooming.

The two most beautiful roses on the property sit close to the end of the driveway next to the road.  One is a floribunda  called "Frida Kahlo," after the famed Mexican painter.  It has large blooms that are striped pink, yellow, and while, very festive and very reminiscent of the artist's work.  Frida produced her first blooms during the past week - always a show-stopper!

I can't remember the name of the other rose, but it was a moderately-priced yellow floribunda that does well.  It produces large buds and striking yellow blooms that begin as dark yellow and slowly fade toward white. This year that yellow rose bush was superb, covered with buds and blooms to the point that it looked like a biblical burning bush.  On Thursday morning I counted twelve open blooms and twelve buds about to open.

On Friday morning my beautiful yellow rose bush had two partial blooms that were faded to almost white - and nothing else.  Some Joe Bob, or maybe his criminal mother, from down the road had stopped during the night and trimmed the beautiful bush for me.  Sadly, they didn't mow my yard while they were here.

This is Memorial Day weekend, so perhaps the culprit was preparing to decorate a grave, though a spray of yellow roses seems a bit gaudy for a cemetery, at least to me.  But if that is the case, I hope the deceased and their family members enjoy them as much as I did.

But I like to imagine that my beautiful yellow roses were used for a more romantic purpose, perhaps as part of a proposal.  If that's why you took my roses, Joe Bob, I sincerely hope they led to success and that your sister said "Yes!"  May your marriage a long one, and may your children be as plentiful as the yellow buds and blooms that were in your proposal bouquet.  You deserve nothing less.

All the best - from your neighbor, Pa Rock!

The War on Iran Affects Us All

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Pentagon says it has spent upwards of $29 billion on the weaponry used to bomb Iran since we helped Israel to start that war on February 28th of this year, but weaponry is just a minor ticket item in the actual costs of war - any war.  Our military has its operational costs (undoubtedly higher than what they are voluntarily reporting), Israel's military has their own costs, so does Iran, and so does every other nation that has been drawn into the war.  There are costs associated the bombs, the planes and drones that drop them, the lives lost and ruined by the bombs, the property destroyed or damaged, and the increased costs to the world economy as a result of the war.  

While Americans at home have been spared the actual threat of bombs dropping from the sky on themselves and their loved ones, they have not been completely spared the economic impacts of war.

Earlier this week The Climate Solutions Lab and Costs of War Project at Brown University released a research brief that showed Americans have spent an additional $42 billion on gas and diesel since the beginning of the war - or roughly an additional $300 per household.

And as the price of fuel rises so, too, do the prices of goods that have to be transported to US markets.  We are spending more to travel to the retail stores, and then spending more once we get there.  And all of that is on top of any import tariffs that Trump had already placed on crops or goods coming to the US from abroad.

We are not drenched in blood nor stumbling through rubble and the smoke and stench of war, but we are definitely being impacted.  And all of the suffering, theirs and ours, is the result of political egos run amok.  

Donald Trump described rising fuel prices as "peanuts," and said that he does not even think about it - one of the few times that was probably telling the truth.

Trump's priority is a grand ballroom and any news story that will keep the public's attention away from Jeffrey Epstein - and we are paying a dear price to stroke his ego and hide his shame.

A Sewer of Political Corruption

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Approximately 150 uniformed police officers were injured during the Capitol riots on January 6th, 2021, and there were five police deaths associated with the criminal attack on the Capitol:  one policeman suffered two strokes and died the next day, and four others died by suicide in the months following the attack.  

The police were literally on their own in trying to protect the historic building and those who worked there, including the members of the House and the Senate, because, according to the final report of the House January 6th Committee, the President, Donald Trump, never made any calls requesting help in defending the Capitol to the Department of Defense, Attorney General, or the Department of Homeland Security.  The Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police of Washington, DC, and a few cops from Fairfax County, Virgina, fought off the attackers by themselves while Trump watched events unfold on television.

To say that Trump displayed an affinity toward the criminals who attacked the Capitol and caused so much damage and carnage would be understatement.  On his first day back in office in January of 2025, Donald Trump gave a blanket pardons and commutations to more than 1,500 people charged and/or convicted in the riots, including some of the highly radical "Proud Boys" and "Oath Keepers." Some who received Trump pardons had been convicted of intentionally causing harm to law enforcement officers.   Trump also ordered the Justice Department to drop any pending cases from the riots.   Those pardons and commutations were an outrageous affront to the rule of law.  They basically forgave criminals for their crimes.  At least one-hundred-and-thirty of those who were pardoned have gone on to be arrested for subsequent crimes - including the sexual abuse of children.

But that was not enough revenge for Trump.  Now, as noted in this space yesterday, Trump has upped his game and is settling a bogus lawsuit that he filed against the IRS by having Department of Justice officials (whom he appointed) set up an "anti-weaponization" fund to compensate people who feel they were unjustly targeted by the Biden administration.  The fund will be available to the Capitol rioters - as well as to Trump, his family members and anyone else who can dream up a scenario in which they were intentionally harmed by the Biden administration.  

A five-member committee appointed by a Trump appointee (the US Attorney General) will make the decisions on who gets payouts and how much, and those names and amounts will not be made public.  Trump will be able to replace any of the five committee members without cause - so basically Donald Trump will have control of the entire process - just as he had control of the entire process in getting the settlement which gave him all of the power to get his special "anti-weaponization fund" weaponized and functioning.

That means the criminals will have not only been officially forgiven, they will also be paid for their criminality which should incentivize them to repeat their illegal acts the next time some right-wing, kook politician feels the need to summon the rabble.  Smearing shit on the walls of the Capitol is a whole lot more fun than working for a living, and if some cops get hurt in the process - or worse - well, that's just gravy!

That's the bad news.  The good news is that two police officers who were injured in the capitol riots on January 6, 2021, have already filed a lawsuit in an effort to block Trump's raid on the US Treasury and the incentive payments for treason.  The officers filing the suit allege the fund will directly finance far-right extremists and paramilitary groups who were involved in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol.  The suit further states that payments funding those groups would violate the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution which prohibits the US from assuming or paying any debt or obligation "incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States."  Hell, yes, it does.

Thank you officers Harry Dunn of the US Capitol Police and Daniel Hodges of the DC Metropolitan Police for bringing this suit as you continue to focus on protecting Americans from sleazeball criminals and anarchists.

Now, if we just had an impartial court system that would stand up for the Constitution.

I can remember when all three branches of government appeared to work for the benefit of the American people, but I'm old, really old, not as old as Trump, but really, really old.   My high school "citizenship" teacher never had an inkling that the political situation in the United States could sink into a sewer of political corruption like the one we are currently mired in, yet here we are just sixty very short years later.

We are living in a highly dystopian version of the America our parents and their parents helped to build.  And it's all basically due to the narcissism and petulance of one grifting man-child.

We must do better.

The Coming Raid on the US Treasury

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Between the years 2018 and 2020, a contracted employee working at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) unlawfully released the confidential tax returns of 405,427 taxpayers, one of whom was Donald Trump.  At the time of this serious breach of taxpayer confidentiality Donald Trump was President and in charge of the executive branch of federal government.  The US Treasury Department is an important component of the executive branch of the federal government, and the Internal Revenue Service falls under the purview of the Treasury Department.  In other words, Donald Trump was the person ultimately in charge of the IRS and its employees when the illegal data breach occurred.

Justice was ultimately served in this criminal matter when the contracted employee,  Charles Littlejohn, was arrested and pleaded guilty to his crime.  He was sentenced to five years in prison in January of 2024.  He currently remains in prison.  Additionally, the US Treasury Department cancelled millions of dollars in contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, the firm that had been Littlejohn's actual employer.  All of the corrective action took place while Joe Biden was President.

Littlejohn released the returns of 405,427 individuals to multiple media outlet including The New York Times and Pro Publica.  In Trump's instance the released files showed that Trump paid no federal income tax in several years prior to 2020, and paid only $750 in his first year as President.  Even though most presidential candidates voluntarily release their tax returns during campaigns for the White House, Trump never did, and he took great personal offense that they were made public.

Trump and his two oldest sons filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the US Treasury Department and the IRS in early 2026, at a time when Donald Trump was again serving as President and overseeing  both agencies.  A couple of weeks ago US Federal District Judge Kathleen Williams was questioning the constitutionality of a case where a President is suing agencies that he oversees, and it looked as though she was preparing to throw the case out.

But, Trump's legal team regrouped and went at the matter a different way.  Trump voluntarily drpopped his damage claims with prejudice before the judge could rule against him, and that cleared the way for HIS Justice Department to agree to a settlement with the injured party (Trump and his sons).  The settlement will reportedly include $1.776 billion of public funds being set aside to compensate Trump allies who believe they were politically targeted by the Biden administration.  It is being called an "Anti-Weaponization Fund."  Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the fund is:  

"A lawful process for victims of lawfare and weaponization to be heard and seek redress."

What Blanche is referring to as redress, critics of the scheme are calling it a "slush fund' to reward Trump cronies and allies - and a blatant theft of public funds.  Congressman Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee issued a statement saying:

"This case is nothing but a racket designed to take $1.7 billion of taxpayer dollars out of the Treasury and pour it into a huge slush fund for Trump at DOJ to hand out to his private militia of insurrectionists, rioters, and white supremacists, including those who brutally beat police officers on January 6th, 2021, and sycophant accomplices to his election-stealing schemes."

Donald Trump, himself, speaking his native Gibberish said the fund would be dedicated to "reimbursing people who were horribly treated." 

Trump's lawyers are saying the settlement would not be reviewable by a judge, but 93 members of Congress have filed a brief challenging the payout scheme.  Senator Elizabeth Warren has referred to it as "corruption on steroids,"   Senators Chris Murphy and Chris Van Hollen described the arrangement as a "pure theft of public funds."

How the Trump Slush Fund will operate:

• A five member commission will be appointed by the US Attorney General (who will have been appointed by Trump), with one of the five members being chosen in consultation with congressional leadership.
• Trump will have the authority to fire any commission member "at will."
• The commission is not required to disclose all recipients of the funds, though it will make a quarterly report to the Attorney General.
• The commission will stop processing claims on December 15, 2028 (a month and five days before Trump leaves office), and if any money is left over it will go back to the federal government.    

The agreement that the Justice Department made with Trump to resolve his lawsuit also contains a provision barring the IRS from pursuing tax claims against Trump, his family, or his businesses.  

That's a very sweet deal, if your name is Donald John Trump.  A person that he appoints to be US Attorney General will chose four members of a five-member commission to run the project, and he will talk to congressional leadership regarding the selection of a fifth member.  Trump can fire any on them at any time without stating a reason,  The commission doesn't have to reveal to whom they are giving the money - and, if any is left over (a very unlikely event) it will go back to the Treasury rather than run the risk of being controlled by a President of the other party.   And, the IRS is prohibited against coming after Trump, his family, or his businesses.

Presumably the list of people who have been "horribly treated" by the Biden administration and seeking cash consolation from our government could (and probably will) include members of Trump's own family, possibly even himself, and the rioters and scum who were attacking police officers and smearing feces on the walls of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.  Trump, in fact, admitted on Monday that those who attacked the Capitol in his name would be eligible for payouts.   The courts and Congress will have no say in who receives the money.

The slush fund will come out of a "Judgment Fund" run by the Treasury.  It is an uncapped, permanent appropriation created by Congress that allows the federal government to pay out judgments and legal settlements without needing congressional approval for each transaction.  The money is easy to access if you control the Justice Department - and way too tempting for a professional, life-long grifter to pass up.

(If Trump's lawyers had been that clever at his trial in New York in May of 2024, he might not have been convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree!)

Brian Morrissey, the top lawyer at the Treasury Department, showed some character and resigned immediately after the deal was announced.

It might be worth pointing out - again - that Trump's original complaint about his tax returns being leaked to the press did not occur under the Biden administration - those leaks occurred under the first Trump administration.  The entire payout scheme is rooted in a lack of supervision of and by Trump's own government employees, all of whom were ultimately overseen by Donald John Trump.

This taxpayer objects like hell to Donald Trump's weaponization of the US government in order to steal my tax dollars - and I object like hell to my tax dollars being used to pay criminals for their participation in the Capitol riots and their wanton physical attacks on police officers!

  

Any member of Congress or government official who enables this theft of American tax dollars and stain on American history needs to be held to account.  Lock 'em up!

Marideth Sisco, Songbird and Renaissance Woman, Dead at 82

by Pa Rock

Word is out this morning of the passing of  Marideth Sisco, one of the best known personalities in the Ozarks.  An obituary blurb already posted on the internet states:

"Merideth Ann Sisco (June 15, 1943-May 18, 2026) was an American storyteller, folklorist, singer-songwriter, author, and journalist.  Her work largely focused on folklore related to the native Ozark Mountains.  Sisco and her music were featured in the Oscar-nominated film Winter's Bone."

Merideth, a true renaissance woman of many talents, was born in the town of Cassville in southwest Missouri and graduated from high school there in 1961. After living in a variety of states as far-flung from the Ozarks as Washington and California, she eventually returned to the land of her roots and settled in West Plains in south-central Missouri which is where I became acquainted with her.  She worked for the local newspaper, The West Plains Daily Quill, for a couple of decades as an investigative reporter and one who covered environmental issues.  She was also a well-known local entertainer who played acoustic guitar and performed folk songs and music native to the Ozarks.

In 2009 Hollywood came to the Ozarks to film a movie based on the novel "Winter's Bone" by the country noir writer Daniel Woodrell, who was also a resident of West Plains.  The book was about the impact of drugs and poverty on rural areas, and many of the references in it were specific to Howell County where West Plains is located.  Woodrell referred to the county as "Howl" in several of his works.  

When Hollywood showed up to make the movie, they were not all that impressed with the county of "Howl" and decided to do most of the filming in Taney County which is east of here in the vicinity of Branson and not too far from Springfield.  (There was undoubtedly more for the West Coast types to do in the evenings around Branson and Springfield than there was in West Plains!)

Most of the cast in the low-budget film were people were unknowns before and after the movie was made, with one big exception.   A 20-year-old actress named Jennifer Lawrence was given the lead in the film and went on to receive her first of three (so far) nominations for an Oscar for Best Actress for her performance.

But there were two other noteworthy stars associated the film, at least as far as this gnarly old typist is concerned:  Daniel Woodrell, the author of the book which gives an amazingly accurate portrayal of the sub-culture he sought to bring to light, and Merideth Sisco whose beautiful vocals helped to make the film so memorable.  The opening scenes of the movie pan across the rugged Ozark landscape with Merideth singing "The Missouri Waltz" a cappella in the background.  Her crystalline voice carrying Harry Truman's favorite song across the majesty of the wooded Ozark hills provides a stunning backdrop to Woodrell's tale.

The amazing voice and personality of Merideth Sisco were so captivating that a special scene was added to the movie just to incorporate her and her singing into it.

Daniel Woodrell, the author, passed away at his home in West Plains last November, and Merideth Sisco died in the same community yesterday.  I never had the privilege of meeting Mr. Woodrell, but Merideth and I met in a cardiac rehab group in which we were both enrolled.  We had several good conversations during the time that we were both in the group, discovering that we agreed on many things and especially those of a political nature.   She was a lovely person, and I feel very privileged to have gotten to know her.  I will never listen to "The Missouri Waltz" again without thinking of Merideth Sisco.   She was a kind and caring human being and a songbird for the ages.

Rest in peace, old friend.

The Clock Is Ticking

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Wars are much easier to start than they are to stop,  That is a scrap of knowledge that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to share with Donald John Trump as he led the US President by the nose into an endless war on Iran.  Netanyahu and Trump initiated their war on the country of Iran with bombing raids on the morning of February 28th, and Trump seemed to fully expect that one, or maybe two, bombing runs would result in "Mission Accomplished!" - a holdover GOP mantra from the days of George W. Bush prancing around the deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in a flight suit.

(There is no danger of Donald John repeating the "Mission Accomplished!" theatre because he can neither fit into a flight suit nor prance.)

But here we are 80 days later and the war on Iran still figures in almost every news cycle.  About the only thing it has accomplished is to take the public's attention off of the despicable sex crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his billionaire buddy child rapists.  (And, of course, that could be the real reason we instigated this war to begin with.)

Trump's plans for demanding the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a war that he helped to start have been put on ice as he frantically searches for a way out of the mess that he gleefully helped engineer.  During the 80 days that the War on Iran has dragged on, Trump has tried every escape hatch he can find. He has, on multiple occasions, declared the war to be over, initially indicating that he (or was it "we"?) had won it on the very first day - to raging threats toward Iran declaring that their entire civilization was about to die.  One day he's a conquering general basking in his own glory, and the next day he is back to shit-posting and threats of annihilation.  

We amp up, we tone down, we amp up, we tone down.

Today, if news reports are to be believed, we are back into the amping up phase.  There were stories this morning stating that the US and Israel are visibly increasing their military presence around Iran. and Trump is back in his threat-belching mode, letting Iran and the world know that his patience is wearing thin.  His current dire warning is "the clock is ticking!"  

This gnarly old typist has been around long enough to know that the world is full of clocks.  I am seventy-eight years old and my own personal clock is ticking louder and faster than ever.  Donald John will be eighty next month and his clock is undoubtedly ticking louder and faster than mine.

We all reach a point in life when its time to put the shit-posting aside and begin working on polishing our obituaries.   I'm there, Donald John, and buddy, you are too.  The clock is ticking!

The Man Who Doesn't Give a Damn

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Republican political hacks have been falling on their swords all week as they try to defend some tone-deaf remarks that their Golden God, Donald John Trump, made to reporters on Tuesday.  Trump, who is unlikely to have ever been inside of a Walmart or a Dollar Store - or pumped his own gas - cut loose on a reporter who asked how much American's economic concerns were motivating his push for a peace deal with Iran.   The king of bluster, replied:

"Not even a little bit."

Trump went on to blather that his focus was on keeping Iran from having a nuclear weapon, something that had already been negotiated and agreed to between the Obama administration and Iran, and inspections were already being carried out, but when Trump came into office he tore up that agreement in his childish quest to erase the achievements of President Obama.  Now Trump has taken us into war and sabotaged the American economy in an effort to just get the United States back to the same military footing that it was on when he came into office the first time.  If he wins his concession, we will ONLY be back where we started - and every day it appears more and more doubtful that Trump and his administration can do even that.  

The price of gas at the pump has risen 50% since Trump and Netanyahu summarily took their two countries to war against Iran.   As transportation costs increase, so, too, does that cost of goods that must be transported to America's stores and markets.  We are all paying the price for this war, and we all know it.  Trump refers to the increase in prices as "short-term pain," but there seems to be no actual indications of when that pain will subside.

After finishing his pitch for an agreement to end Iran's quest to create nuclear weapons, Trump bounced back to the American economy:

"I don't think about Americans' financial situation.  I don't think about anybody.  I think about one thing.  We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.  That's all."

Well, he thinks about that and his billion dollar ballroom.

(Note:  Trump's dismissive attitude toward the economic hardships being endured by Americans because of his war and policies is reminiscent of Melania's famous jacket that was inscribed on the back with "I really don't care, do u?"  Obviously neither of them care very much, at least not about the little people, those of us who aren't in the Epstein class.)

Desecrating a Tomb

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

On Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941, at 8:00 a.m. local Hawaiian time, fighter planes from the Empire of Japan soared through the skies above Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, dropping their payloads of deadly bombs on the American ships lying in port.  It was a bloody and smoke-filled Sunday, and when the attack was  over, 21 American ships had been sunk or damaged. One of the ones which the Japanese sank was the USS Arizona which went down with 1,102 marines and sailors trapped aboard. Now the remains of those brave young Americans are forever entombed in that vessel, a permanent memorial to their lives and sacrifice.

Today Pearl Harbor is surrounded by Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH), and a ferry from the base takes tourists out onto the harbor every fifteen minutes to visit the concrete memorial with sits above the sunken USS Arizona.    There are displays from the attack as well as a video presentation about it at the memorial, and it is a very somber experience.  I was a member of the 1:15 p.m. excursion to the memorial on January 21st, 2018.  (I know that because I saved the ticket for the ferry ride.)

The trip to the Pearl Harbor was a very somber and emotional experience, one which I will never forget.  Fortunately, it was not marred by any high-dollar, VIP tourists flopping around in snorkel gear in the waters surrounding the memorial as they ignorantly disturbed the peace and tranquility of the "at rest" remains of the earliest American casualties of World War II. 

In fact, the VIP snorkel tours were never mentioned the day I was there.  If they had been, I'm sure some of the older tourisis, such as those who had actually served in American wars, would have probably taken issue patent disrespect of the practice.

Normally the only people allowed in the waters above the massive sunken battleship are people with a reason for being there, park employees or marine archaeologists, for example, but apparently exceptions are sometimes made for visiting dignitaries, those folks who are better than us folks, and FBI Director Kash Patel qualifies as a VIP and got to grab his snorkel gear and go for a swim around the massive tomb while he was in Hawaii for a visit to the FBI Honolulu field office last summer.

News sources reveal that Patel's lady friend, a 27-year-old country singer, accompanied him on the taxpayer-funded trip aboard an FBI plane, but it remains unclear as to whether the traveling companion accompanied him on the snorkeling outing or not.  But if she remained on shore, she was safe because she travels with her own FBI security detail which at times includes SWAT personnel.

It feels so good knowing that the Trump administration is hard at work guarding against government waste, fraud, and abuse, and that they are so mindful of the very real and tragic human costs of war.

Party on, Kash!

Sending a Rocket to the Moon is Easier than Weather Prediction

(Editor's Note:  Good friend Ranger Bob took exception to yesterday's post regarding weather prediction and forwarded this informed response.  Bob has good information, as he always does, and I am posting his reply today with his permission.  I learned from it, and others may, too.   Pa Rock)

by Bob Randall

The public's understanding of weather forecasting is unreasonable.  You're right.  Weather prediction isn't an exact science.  I once heard a fellow comment with profound disgust that "We can send a rocket to the moon, but we can't accurately predict the weather."   Here's my take:  Weather forecasting is a prediction of mixing air, humidity, ocean patterns, etc.  Sending a rocket to the moon is easier.  We know the locations of the moon and the earth relative to each other.  We can see it and have been watching ti for millennia.   Modern science can mathematically predict with certainty where the moon will be in relation to the earth at any given moment.   We can apply the amount of force needed to propel a rocket to the moon.  It's not nearly as difficult as predicting the weather with the same accuracy.

We can't see the air, the humidity, or the ocean temperatures, we can only measure them.   With more instruments, we could measure them with more accuracy and make better predictions, but the number of instruments needed would be annoying in our daily lives as we had to zig-zag around weather stations while driving and mow around deflated weather balloons that landed in our yards.   In space travel to the moon, we control the outcome.  In weather prediction, we work with invisible moving tarrgets that we can't control.

In weather predictions, data is fed into models and numbers come out.  They do not necessarily give rain chances in nice, even percentage numbers.  If it says 57.3% chance of rain, Brandon Beck will round it off to 60% when he reports it.  We're used to hearing it in rounded-off numbers.   Alexa was trying to impress you (LOL), or more likely simply reported numbers as she dug them out from the cloud.

Additionally, the public hears a weather report and visualizes it as being for their house.  It's for a general area.   My sister used to complain that it didn't rain at her house. I pulled my hair when she said that.

I'm finished.

61% Chance of Rain

 

by Pa Rock

Weather Watcher

Some evenings before I crawl into bed I spend a few minutes chatting with Alexa,  Since AI has hit its stride, she is getting better in her ability to do things other than just serve as a deejay.  She can answer a broad range of questions on standard subjects like history, politics, and science, and she even performs math calculations.  I haven't asked Alexa for a bedtime story yet, but I have no doubt that my friend could rattle off a doozy.

Last Sunday evening as I was getting ready to go to bed I asked Alexa for the next day's weather forecast.  She replied with a quick encapsulation of anticipated temperatures and weather conditions.  The thing that stood out in her prediction for Monday's weather was a "61% chance of rain."  I was so surprised with the specificity that I asked her to repeat the rain chance - and she did, with the same exact percentage.

It's been a while since I've been to school, but I have a basic understanding of percentages.  A 61% chance of rain means that the chances are 61 out of 100 that it will rain.   Math, however, wasn't my forte, and I never had any classes in meteorology, so I am fuzzy on how she came up with that exact number.  Somewhere there must be an list of observable inputs that get run through a proven math calculation that spits out an exact percentage of rain chances for a specific area.

Lee George, the weatherman on KODE Channel 12 in Joplin, Missouri, in the 1960's, would have been astounded at how far weather prediction has come in just sixty years, and now, with the growth in knowledge accelerating exponentially, every facet of weather will soon become as predictable as sunrise - and perhaps it already is, but Elon and the Gods on Olympus won't release the process until they figure out how to maximize their profits for sharing that knowledge.

It didn't rain on Monday, at least not at my house.  I guess that 61% could have meant that 61% of West Plains would get rain - and I was in the 39% that missed out, but the more likely explanation is that even with our growing knowledge of our planet and its weather patterns, weather prediction is not yet an exact science - but it's getting there.

Unserious Leadership: Unpacking the Clown Car

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In my new quest to describe elements of the Trump era in simplistic terms, something that could easily be engraved on a small participation trophy, I turned from Trump himself, whom I cloaked in my new word, "enfeeblementia," and am today trying to reduce his administration (cabinet officers and agency heads) to a one-or-two-word descriptor.   "Clowns" leaped to mind because many of his selections for important posts come from the field of entertainment, and "unserious" because so many seem to be unqualified or unfit for their jobs.  In fact, it often feels as though thy were primarily selected  just as a way of creating controversy.  

According to an article in Newsweek a year ago this week and written by Peter Aitken, the magazine's weekend editor for politics, at that time Trump had appointed 23 former employees of Fox News to positions of prominence in his government or in the courts, with the latest appointee having been Judge Jeanine Pirro to be the interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia.  She was confirmed to that post on a permanent basis three months later and now serves at the pleasure of the President - until he or his successor chooses to relieve her of the post.

In addition to Pirro, other bad apples that Trump picked from Fox News include Pete Hegseth as his Secretary of Defense, Pam Bondi as Attorney General, Sean Duffy as Transportation Secretary, Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence, Michael Waltz as the former National Security Adviser until he was relieved of that position and is now US Ambassador to the United Nations, General Keith Kellogg who became a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel, Tom Homan as the US "Border Czar," and Don Jr's ex-fiancee Kimberly Guilfoyle as Ambassador to Greece.  Trump also appointed Fox personalities Maria Bartiromo and Laura Ingraham to the Board of the Kennedy Center.

FBI Director Kash Patel was not a regular employee at Fox News, but he was a recurring presence on the network as a regular guest and commentator.   FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino was also a Fox News  retread.  He served as second in command at the FBI for the better part of a year before "voluntarily" returning to the private sector.

(Comedian Bill Mahr noted with regard to Trump's many Fox News hires that he had heard of "state run television" but this was "television run state."

A few other unserious people Trump has placed in important positions include television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services, and Billy Long, a Missouri auctioneer and former congressman, to head the Internal Revenue Service.  Trump removed Long from the IRS less than two months after he assumed the job, and. then transferred him to a new position as Ambassador to Iceland.

Many would argue with plenty of good reason that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, as Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Elon Musk, as head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency, were also unserious hires.

Donald Trump has found his comfort zone and immersed himself in it.  He is sitting blissfully in the backseat of a self-driving clown car surrounded by shallow, unserious sycophants whose main function is to feed him praise. The presidency isn't a job to Donald Trump, it's wack-a-doodle reality television and he is the star.  He's in it for the adoration.

Enfeeblementia: The Public Decay of a World Leader

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The other day I was looking for a single word to encapsulate the conspicuous decline in the mental acuity and physical stamina and condition of Donald Trump.  I wanted to try and come up with a concise synthesis of his deterioration which is occurring right before our eyes.  I finally arrived at the word "enfeebled" as an adjective for Trump in his present state, a snapshot of the man currently in charge of the world's  most powerful nation.  

The thing that got me off on the tangent of Trump's overall unwell-being was the release of the recent Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll which provided insight into how he was being viewed by the general public, and some of those poll results were alarming.  The current results of that highly respected national poll highlighted findings such as:  

• 59% of respondents said that Trump does not have the mental sharpness that it takes to lead the country;
• 55% of respondents said that Trump is not in good enough physical health to serve as President; 
• 54% said they do not regard Trump as a strong leader;  and,
• 67% said they do not believe that Trump considers important decisions carefully.

(Note:  The above poll was conducted on-line between April 24-28, 2026.   2,560 US adults participated nationwide.  The margin of error is 2.2 percentage points.)

Those poll results indicate that a majority of Americans recognize that Donald Trump, who will be eighty next month, is not the man, physically or mentally, that he was once.   Our abilities diminish as we get older - always have, always will.  Time is bringing Donald Trump down, enfeebling him, just as it slowly erodes the vitality and life from all of us.

When I finally settled on the word "enfeebled" to capture the essence of Donald Trump's current physical and mental state, I had the audacity to think that I might have coined a new term, but a quick review of the dictionary and current literature disabused me of that notion.  The word is so common in fact, that The Atlantic magazine had used it last December 9th in the title of an article about Trump by David A. Graham:  "The Enfeebling of the President."  (So much for my own vain attempt at originality!)

The list of Trump's infirmities is concerning and expanding.  He falls asleep at meetings and was recently captured by press cameras seemingly dozing at a Cabinet meeting, footage of which appeared on television.  Clearly not a "presidential look" or a quality to be valued in an important world leader.

But some might argue that Trump is at his best when he is snoozing, and that it is when he is awake that his infirmities are most noticeable.   His inability to stay on topic when he is speaking is almost the stuff of legend.  He'll start out on one subject and drift into another and then another, going wherever his obviously wandering mind takes him.   Trump's verbal and mental meandering is so obvious that even he has picked up on it - and he refers to his stream of gibberish as "the weave."

Trump has obvious issues with impulse control, posting rants or making unfiltered statements on things as far-ranging as insulting someone's physical appearance to threatening the destruction of an entire civilization.  The man who had an immigrant mother and two immigrant wives is quick to display strong animus toward certain groups of immigrants, particularly those from poor nations and those who are not caucasian.  And his proclivity for insults and name-calling is constantly at-the-ready and strongly resembles that found in a schoolyard culture.  Trump has a particular disdain for female reporters and recently addressed one as "Piggy," and called another a "horror show" after telling her that her question was "stupid."

His body is old, and press cameras are constantly catching new bruising and swelling.   Trump's body and ours age by the day on the downward spiral that captures us all in our declining years, making a few vain attempts to stay afloat as we circle the ever-present drain of death.

I'm less than two years younger than Donald Trump and I still have enough presence of mind to know that my enfeeblements are real and accumulating by the day.  When I get to the point that I can no longer recognize or admit my declining physical condition and mental acuity, enfeeblementia will have set in.  I won't know when that hits me.

But even as I am today, somewhere short of enfeeblementia (I hope), I would still have no business being the face of the United States or standing anywhere near the nuclear codes.

There is a point in life where it's time to sit down and shut up - and maybe put it all in a blog that nobody reads!

My Little Kia Set a Record; F*ck the Ballroom!

 

by Pa Rock

American Consumer

I bought my little Kia Soul, used, in the Kansas City area five years ago next month.  The fact that I am not a heavy driver can be attested to by the car's odometer which registered 18,000 miles when I bought it and today still has a little less than 70,000 miles to its credit - and that includes two trips to Oregon and back, one of which traversed much of Canada - as well as numerous trips to and from Kansas which tally about 600 miles per outing.

Earlier this week I pulled into a Casey's Convenience Store here in West Plains, probably for a lunch sandwich and a lottery ticket, and noticed that my gas gage was sitting below a quarter of a tank.  With an empty gas pump beckoning me to pull forward, I did.  It wasn't until I had the fuel flowing that I noticed the sticker which said that it contained Ethanol, or "corn juice" as I like to call the additive to the bastardized gasoline.  (If you haven't guessed, in a country where children go to bed hungry every night, I have issues with putting part of America's food supply into our vehicle tanks - when it should b going into the bellies of the nation's hungriest and most vulnerable.)

But the fuel was already filling my tank, so I let it run.  I noticed that I was paying $3.93 a gallon for the gasoline adulterated with corn juice.  Just a few scant weeks earlier I had been paying $2.49 a gallon for real gasoline.  When the pump finally shut off and after I squeezed a final squirt or two into the tank, the tab was just over $40.00!  

My own $40.00 purchase of gasoline last week was a record.   In the five years that I have owned the little Kia Soul, that was the first time ever that it has had a forty-dollar fill-up!   In fact, I have rarely even had a $30 fill-up.   It's a good thing the tank wasn't completely empty to begin with or I would have probably forked over a fifty-dollar bill just to do a few weeks of putting around!

I heard on the radio this morning that the national average price for gasoline is now at $4.52 a gallon.

Trump owns this mess.

I wish Donald Trump had to pump his own damned gasand pay for it, too.  Maybe then he might have a smattering of a feel for the hell that he is putting ordinary Americans through - but that would take more humanity than Trump could probably muster.

F*ck the ballroom!

Gerrymandering: Political Games with Real Consequences

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The past two days I have focused this blog on the racial gerrymandering of congressional district maps currently being rushed through a few state legislatures in the American South, with special emphasis on those of Tennessee and Missouri.  Both of those states are eliminating a Democratic (and Black) district by skillfully dividing a large urban area (Memphis, TN and Kansas City, MO), into three separate districts, each with a large coattail of enough rural Republican area to place each third of each city under the control of their country cousins.  

I have just a bit more to say on the topic, and then I will let it go.  I promise.

I promote this blog twice a day on Blue Sky.  Yesterday I received a response on Blue Sky from one of those promotional blurbs, and her remark overlayed perfectly with the final point I wanted to make today.  The nice lady from Kansas City had this to say:

"I live i KC about 15 minutes away from my sister.  She's been gerrymandered into MO-4 and I'm still in MO-5.  We'll both end up with MAGA kooks who know nothing about urban issues and won't bother to learn.  A real travesty." 

Yes, that lady is exactly right.   Every single American, whether they have have been gerrymandered or not, will still have a representative in Congress at the end of the day.  Well, not.exactly.  Many of those who have been gerrymandered will have a congressman who is LESS REPRESENTATIVE of their issues and needs.  At the end of the day both Tennessee and Missouri (as well as a few other southern states) will have more people in Congress who are representative of White rural people and their issues - and less representative of both Black AND White citizens of urban districts whose needs from the national government are distinctly different than those of rural Americans.  Those few additional votes squeezed from the gerrymandering process can be instrumental in putting America on a course that falls short of meeting the critical needs of everyone - and the American promise of equal access and opportunity.

Kansas City or Memphis might have a critical need for federal funding to replace a bridge on a busy interstate in order to keep a large factory open and maintain jobs, but if that area of the city is represented by an insurance or real estate salesman two hundred miles away in Hooterville, his interests are going to be more aligned with the needs of his friends and neighbors, the locals sitting at thr regulars' table in the coffee shop on Main Street - and they are going to be focused on the price of tractor parts from overseas or fertilizer costs.  In fact, if the people in that coffee shop each listed a hundred priorities for Congress, that critical bridge replacement in Kansas City or Memphis would not be on anybody's list.

The needs of rural and urban areas are distinctly different in many respects, as are the needs of communities which are predominantly populated by one particular race.  Ignoring those needs by denying community representation to the people, deprives people in those communities of a voice in government.  By virtue of political and racial gerrymandering, some types of communities in the states are getting more representation that they ever dreamed of having, and others are being stripped of their communal voice altogether.

Gerrymandering is about inequality.  Congressional districts should be drawn tight so they can be more reflective of the people who actually live in each area - and promote their specific needs.  Anything less is just political gamesmanship.