Missouri Midterms Are a Mess

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

The US midterm elections are now officially less than two months away.   Mail-in ballots are being sent out in some locations beginning today, although the US Supreme Court has yet to issue a final decision as to whether the US Postal Service can limit the delivery of those ballots to persons on approved voter lists provided by state election officials - as per the wishes of the Trump administration.  (The states undoubtedly know who their eligible voters are, so it looks as if the Trump administration is trying to build its own national list of voters - even though the US Constitution clearly leaves the process of running elections to the states.)

But trying to obtain voter lists is not the only way the Trump administration has interfered with US midterm elections.  Many suspect, with ample good reason, that street-gang thuggery by ICE agents is aimed, at least in part, at intimidating qualified minority voters and keeping them away from the polls. 

Also, in June of 2025, Donald Trump floated the idea of doing a mid-decade congressional redistricting in certain states to increase the number of Republicans elected to Congress in 2026.  One of the first states Trump and his democracy disruptors targeted was Missouri which has eight congressional districts.  Six of the Missouri congressional districts were  basically suburban or rural and were represented by Republicans in Congress.  The other two districts - St. Louis and its surrounding communities, and Kansas City and its surrounding communities - were urban and represented by Democrats in Congress, both of whom were Black.

Apparently the St. Louis area district must have looked impregnable to the weasels redrawing the maps for Trump, and they chose to leave it alone.  The other though, Kansas City, was ripe with potential for gerrymandering, and its urban center was quickly sliced into three separate districts, all of which were attached to enough farmland, to likely insure the elimination of Democratic Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, the former mayor of Kansas City, Missouri.

Trump bootlickers in Missouri's GOP-dominated state legislature quickly followed the orders of their masters in DC and drew the new maps which broke greater Kansas City into three distinct congressional districts, each with more rural and suburban voters than urban.  The city of Kansas City would be without an actual representative in Congress.

The citizens of Missouri have had some major successes over the last decade in going around our lobbyist-driven state legislature and gaining much needed reforms through the initiative and referendum process - passing petitions, collecting signatures, and putting matters before the voters for approval - and they quickly did that with this gerrymander.  Citizens collected over 300,000 valid signatures to put the redistricting matter before the people on q referendum ballot, BUT Missouri's Secretary of State, Denny Hoskins, refused to recognize effort saying that referendum procedures do not apply to redistricting because that, according to Hoskins, is strictly in the purview of the state legislature.

A circuit judge in Cole County, Missouri (where the state capital is located), agreed with Secretary of State Hoskins and ruled in the state's favor - and primary elections were held in August based on the new maps.

But here is where it gets really interesting:

Yesterday the Missouri Supreme Court ruled on the matter, and justices at the state's top court declared unanimously that voters have a right to challenge redistricting in the "show-me" state through the initiative and referendum process - and - that the matter must go on this year's midterm ballot - and - until the matter is resolved at the polls, the old congressional district boundaries remain in effect.   (All of that is after candidates for Congress from Missouri were chosen in August based on the new district lines.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, mentioned unkindly in this space just yesterday, has vowed to appeal the matter directly to the United States Supreme Court of Donald J. Trump.

Better overnight that sucker, Cathy!

(That's another fine mess you've gotten us into, Donald!)

Missouri AG Spends Public Money to Defeat the Will of the People

 

by Pa Rock

Taxpaying Missouri Voter

When the US Supreme Court, with the Dobbs' Decision in June of 2022, overturned a half-century of women in the United States having a constitutional right to abortion procedures, Missouri's cracker GOP-dominated state legislature was ready.  It had already passed a measure that would "trigger" a complete abortion ban in Missouri the moment that the US Supreme Court overturned Roe V Wade - which it did with the Dobbs' Decision - and minutes after that decision was announced Missouri became the first state in the nation to completely ban abortions.

Our legislators here in the "show-me" state had shown themselves how very proud and gallant they were to protect the rights of their wimmin folk by denying them the right to make their own healthcare decisions, something the gals were obviously incapable of doing without the help of Republican politicians.

But Missourians, and especially Missouri female voters, were not happy to sit quietly in that patriarchial sludge and let a bunch of farmers and preachers in the legislature tell them what they could and could not do with their own bodies.  Two years later, in 2024, Missouri citizens passed petitions in an initiative process and got a referendum on the ballot to amend the state constitution and reinstate a right to abortion -  and it passed!  That measure was called "Amendment 3;  The Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative."

But the good ol' boys (and a few good ol' gals) in the Missouri State Legislature were not happy with the vote of the people and quickly convinced themselves that the people had made a grievous error - no doubt due to direct interference from Satan.  So our self-righteous legislators fought implementation of the new constitutional right as long as they could while drafting a counter measure for a vote of the public - a proposed a new constitutional amendment that would nullify the last one.   In what was likely a move to confuse voters, this measure is also called "Amendment 3," and it will be on the ballot in Missouri this November.

Recently it was revealed that Missouri's GOP (of course) attorney general, Catherine Hannaway, a former Speaker of the Missouri House and a failed candidate for governor, has used public money - our tax dollars - to promote the new Amendment 3, the one that would, again, strip away the rights of Missouri women to control their own bodies and healthcare decisions - and again deny them the ability to seek abortions within the state.

Hey, Cathy this Missouri voter and taxpayer - of more than half-a-century - does not want his tax dollars being used to confuse voters into overturning the recently passed will of the people.  If you want to get out and support a state constitutional amendment to subvert the rights of women in Missouri, USE YOUR OWN DAMNED MONEY TO DO IT - NOT MINE!

Other than that, have a nice day - and we'll see you at the polls in November - again!

The View from the Rearview Mirror

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

The 275 miles of busy road between Roeland Park, Kansas, and West Plains, Missouri, are now safely in the rearview mirror.  I didn't sleep at all last night, probably due to too much iced tea during the day, so I knew as I headed out at straight-up 7-ish this morning that the drive would be challenging, and in that regard it did not disappoint. I put my little Korean smart car in auto-pilot mode at about the 2/3 mark, and when i finally came to, it was parked in my driveway at home.

I almost didn't recognize the place.  My oldest son, Nick, and a friend of his had taken down two maple trees in the back yard - trees which would have eventually fallen on the house.   A big limb from one of them fell across the deck last spring during a storm, but amazingly did no damage  So I was glad to see them gone, and their removal really opened up the back yard and now we can see some of the other trees for a change - including more maples, oaks, and singleton hickory, cedar, pear, and walnut trees.

Nick also completed a wooden handrail on the back porch while I was gone.  He's trying to keep his feeble old man from falling down so much - and his old man is greatful.  The railing is solid and very nice.

Yesterday afternoon, Tim, my youngest son, and I had a very good visit with my new heart doctor at KU Med Center about ten miles from Tim and Erin's home.  She struck me as very bright, young enough to still be current on her medical training, yet old enough to have solid work ethics, and in possession of exemplary social skills.  The doctor took her time in explaining my current health status and what she could do to correct things.  She also answered all of our questions carefully and thoughtfully.

I will be returning for a procedure that will require an overnight stay in the hospital during Halloween week.  I haven't decided whether to go in costume or not.

Nap time - before I start to get goofy!

The Things I Forgot

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

I'm back in the Kansas City area today for a doctor's appointment this afternoon.  The heat is so cruel that  I left my traveling buddy, Rosie, at home.   She is no doubt snoozing in the air-conditioning while I am bouncing around town running errands and having flashbacks to a previous life in Phoenix.

Tim O'Brien, one of my favorite authors, wrote a couple of books dealing with his time as a young soldier in Vietnam, with the best among them being, IMHO, a series of related short stories entitled "The Things They Carried."  The title story  describes  a squad of young American's on patrol in terms of the things they took along with them, from necessities like guns, ammo, multiple canteens of water, c-rations, salt tablets, and the military's famous industrial-strength mosquito repellant, to cigarette lighters, chewing gum, plastic-wrapped letters and photos from sweethearts back home, and other small items to help them cling to sanity as they trudged through jungles and swamps in a very strange and dangerous land.   As the author recounted what was in each man's rucksack and strapped to their bodies, very intimate portraits of the fighting men, who were little more than scared adolescents, emerged.

The thing that brought my focus to Tim O'Brien this morning was a random thought that I could throw some illumination on my life by writing about the things I forget to bring along when I travel - and the older I get, the more I tend to forget.  (Mr. O'Brien is a year-and-a-half older than me, so he, no doubt, knows that of which I speak!)  Every time I hit the road, something important gets left at home.

Two trips ago, sometime last spring, when I came up this way, I forgot my laptop computer, which caused all kinds of issues.  I was able to borrow a loaner to get the blog up, but couldn't connect to my Wordle account and my long string of consecutive wins got wiped out.  (The older one gets, the more serious their minor issues become.)  

The next trip, which was four or five weeks ago, I made a point of remembering my computer, but forgot to bring along deodorant, a staple for functioning in polite society, which necessitated a quick run to the local CVS.   This trip I remembered to bring the laptop, but again forgot the deodorant as well as my ubiquitous "bucket" hat which keeps the skin cancer on my big head in check.   (My hat size is "8," which most stores don't carry, so I purchased a sock cap at Lowe's that advertises "Coors" - which will no doubt impress my new doctor, and in a few minutes I will head back to CVS to buy yet another two-pack of deodorant.

At one time I had a very clever mnemonic device for remembering what to pack - at least I think I did - but I must have left it someplace.   I guess if I am defined by the things I forgot, this trip I am a beer advertisement that smells bad!

A Private Entrance to Yosemite

 

Note:  I am slowly learning to ignore most of the tsunami of garbage that flows from twisted mind of Donald John Trump, but last week when news broke that his administration was in the process of transferring a "slice" of Yosemite National Park to a private developer so that people who bought into his development would have easier access to the heart of one of America's most scenic wonders (one rich guy doing a solid for another rich guy - to give special privileges to other rich guys) I was steamed.  My reaction was to contact my good friend, Ranger Bob, a retired Ranger with the National Park Service, and get his informed take on the matter.  It follows.  ~ Pa Rock

 
 
A Private Entrance to Yosemite
by Bob Randall
 
The Trump administration is processing the transfer of land for a new, private road into Yosemite National Park (YOSE).  It was all quiet and out of public consciousness until recently.  Now it's out in the open thanks to NOTUS, a digital newsroom that covers the US government and politics.  Read about it at:
 
https://www.notus.org/agencies/trump-administration-yosemite-private-developer-deal

The land in question is not a large slice of the park as it would accommodate about a quarter mile of road.  But it's a private road and in no way is to the American public's advantage.   The deal would be a land swap, something that is not illegal on its face as the National Park Service and other land agencies sometimes make land swaps which are to their advantage.  For instance, the CBP will swap 70+ acres of historically important land to Harper's Ferry National Historical Park for 25 acres of marginal land in West Virginia.   As a retired NPS Park Ranger, I'm aware of another swap between the NPS and the US Forest Service.  No big deal as long as it plays a positive role in conservation/preservation.
 
However, we're talking about YOSE and the land being swapped to the park is not high value land.  The deal isn't to improve or protect YOSE, it's to benefit a private developer whose land value will skyrocket with private access to a glorious national park.  It's about Trump doing deals for donors and buddies.
 
It's not a done deal, but it's now out in the open.  Additionally, it is not clear that it will be stopped.  A similar deal was stopped in the courts in a 2007 lawsuit.  However, those were different times with different pressure points and different lawyers.  Now we have a president eager to make deals.  In Trump's mind, a bad deal is better than no deal at all.  He's made enough of them.
 
Some thoughts:

• It's true that land swaps can and have been made in the past to facilitate land management.
• There will be lawsuits if the deal proceeds, but lately courts have been denying suits based on lack of standing and lack of damage to the plaintiff.  If you wanted to sue to stop the land swap, would you have standing?  If you don't, who does?   What damages are applicable to you that you could prove?  Are there damages prior to the act, or do we have to wait until the deal is done and the road is built to claim damage?
• If Trump gets this through, what will be next?   Trump has reduced the size of other park areas in Utah with little political penalty.  It is undeniable that he is an authoritarian who has no interest in democracy or the public interest.
• The midterms may have some sway on the decision depending on the pressure that can be imposed on Trump.   I'm not sure that it will matter.   He may just cause another kerfuffle to distract from this kerfuffle and proceed anyway.    What should be a lame duck period over the next two years may not be so lame if the Dems don't have big time electoral gains.
• If Trump is able to interfere in the midterm elections, Dems may not gain anything regardless of the vote.  That's the plan, Jack!
• The swap won't require congressional approval.  The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to adjust boundaries, at least small adjustments.  Another piece of authority that Congress has given away to the Executive Branch over the years.
• Oh, yes.  While we're ruminating on what will happen next, will he change the name from Yosemite to Trump National Park?

 

(Thanks, Ranger Bob.  We love hearing from you at The Ramble! ~ Pa Rock)

The Great Immigration Whitewash

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The expression of racist attitudes, whether in speech or action, used to be frowned upon in polite society and was, in many instances, illegal.   Being labeled "racist" was an attack on one's character and intellect.  Skin color was not to be regarded as a determining factor in in determining a person's opportunities or position in society.

That high-mindedness, of course, went out the window when Donald Trump and his crew of terminally aggrieved individuals took control of government power and vowed to make the country great "again," which seems to have been shorthand for returning it to the days of Jim Crow when white men, because of their superior intellects, ran things, women stayed home and raised babies (as God intended), having gay sex was illegal, and everybody knew their place.

The Trump regime began with a focus on identifying and removing any advantages that had been built into  the government and society which were designed to benefit minority groups (like women, gay, lesbian, and trans individuals, and members of racial and ethnic minorities).  Programs to support those groups had been launched to increase "diversity, equity, and inclusion," or DEI, in society - a concept that Trump quickly demonized by telling poor white Americans that any problems they were experiencing were the direct result of the government favoring minorities through something called called DEI.

After making sure that every Trump supporter in America understood that DEI was an evil force holding them down, the Trumpers controlling government then set about eliminating DEI programs and challenging racial quotas that were used by some schools and businesses to ensure people who had been historically barred from their services, primarily because of their race or gender, were now guaranteed to have some representation on their campuses or in the hierarchies of their businesses.

The Trump administration argued that guaranteeing a certain percentage of admissions to minorities amounted to "reverse discrimination" against qualified white applicants - and conservative judges, many of whom were appointed by Trump, had no problem in ignoring the effects of centuries of racial segregation and buying into the Trump "logic."

Trump's war against DEI has been especially apparent in the US Department of Defense where female officers and officers of color seem to be being pulled from promotion lists at a higher rate than white men, and minority officers already in top roles are being removed at higher rates than would normally be expected.

Trump also showed his racist hand by an overt defense of Confederate monuments and military base names by  claiming a "cultural heritage," that, even though it represented America at its racist worse, nevertheless merited being preserved as an in-your-face tribute to the glory days of slavery.

It has also been obvious from day one, page one of the first Trump administration that racism is the driving force behind his immigration "crackdown."   The goobers in the hills were sick and tired of seeing people from other countries (especially Mexico, Central America, and Black Africa) come in and take menial jobs that they, themselves, would never stoop to perform.  Trump smelled their racism and fanned its flames relentlessly to generate fear, anger, and votes.

(One of the more memorable political lies of the 2024 election was Trump and JD Vance both raising the alarm about Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, eating dogs and cats.  Everyone knew that was a blatant lie except for the hardcore Trump supporters living furthest from paved roads - and they ate it up - a campaign issue steeped in stupid that resonated with the bottom rungs of Trump's base.)

And speaking of Haiti, there are currently two big immigration stories circulating through the press which clearly expose the political machinations of the Trump administration in stark black and white.  

Following a Supreme Court decision in late June and a federal court final order in late August - moves sought by the Trump administration - Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has ended for Haitian nationals residing in the United States.  That means 330,000 to 350,000 Haitians in this country have lost their work permits, and no longer having work permits means they are now subject to deportation back to Haiti - an extremely dangerous place rampant with violent street gangs.  In fact, a Level 4 US State Department travel advisory is in effect for persons wanting to travel to Haiti.

And while our government officially deems it unsafe to travel to Haiti, that same government has increased deportation flights to that island nation from monthly to weekly.  Trump and Stephen Miller are living their dream!

Haiti represents the black part of the equation, but while the administration struggles to deport black immigrants, and generally any immigrants of color, it is also striving to attract white immigrants, people like Donald Trump's mother and two of his three wives, people from what Trump refers to as "nice" countries and not "shithole" countries like Haiti.

In the search for white immigrants from nice countries, Trump and his team focused on South Africa (the country that gave us Elon Musk) and promoted spurious claims that white South Africans were being mistreated by their black-dominated government, something the South African government denies and which has not been documented in the international press.

But Trump says the white South Africans are being horribly mistreated - and we must do the humane thing and bring them in.

In fiscal year 2026, over 99% of all refugees admitted to the United States have been white South Africans.  This past May the official cap for refugees allowed into the US was raised from 7,500 to 17,500 with all 10,000 additional slots being reserved for white South Africans.

And while our country is increasing the allotments for white South Africans, a population whose need for refugee status is questionable at best, admissions for applicants from war-torn nations like Afghanistan, Sudan, and The Republic of the Congo remain completely frozen.

Haitians who have lived and worked in the United States for years are being sent home into extremely dangerous circumstances, people from countries that are experiencing war and violence arre being barred from entering our country, and white South Africans with a questionable need to immigrate are not only being encouraged by the US government to relocate here - they soon will begin receiving up to $4,500 in direct federal aid for moving here!

Black and brown individuals are being barred from coming to America, and if they are already here, they are being sent home - while white immigrants are being paid to move here.

That is about as explicit as it can get.  If you aren't seeing the racism, your eyes must be closed.

The US immigration system is not being fixed - it is just being whitewashed.

That Guy at the Office

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is like that guy at the office who can't be fired because of who he knows or his family connections.  The rest of us have to meet our quotas or serve our customers efficiently, without complaint, while stepping around him.   

We punch a time clock, and he comes to the office at his leisure, spends much of the day eating and watching television, and leaves when he feels like it.

We keep the place running while he posts on social media, plays games on his phone, or bloviates endlessly, in rambling nonsense, about his "very, very large brain" and how everybody loves him.

We meet deadlines and worry about how to get the kids to baseball practice and dance class after school, pay for car repairs, medical bills, and put food on the table - while he's "busy" changing the names of places on maps like they belong to him personally.

We struggle and work tirelessly to get our names on diplomas, vehicle titles, and housing deeds - while he schemes to get his name on public buildings built to honor others, and build monuments to himself with our tax dollars.

We work and sweat and try to keep the bill collectors at bay - while he trades stocks based on insider knowledge and sleeps through important meetings. 

We hold second and third jobs in families where both parents have to work, while he makes money on side hustles based on the job he is completely unqualified to hold.

We buy and sell clothes at yard sales, eat leftovers, and look out for our neighbors.   He scams and sells crypto, eats fast food (in excess), and looks out only for himself.

We run across the street twice a day, rain or shine, on our ten-minute breaks to grab a sode or a cup of coffee, and he pushes a button on his desk to have a Diet Coke delivered.  

We drive to work on gas that is 25% more expensive than it was six months ago due to a war of choice that he started with neither the consent of Congress, nor the taxpayers who fund it, and without consideration for the troops who ultimately fight it. 

We shop in discount houses where the prices of all foreign goods have risen dramatically due to import tariffs that he imposed by fiat, a.k.a. "executive order."

And for all his braggadocio and bluster, we are far less prosperous, secure, or healthy now than we were when he first showed up at the office.

We survive (if we're lucky) - while he thrives.

I guess that's a benefit of being firmly rooted in bullshit.

Decapitation Station Parks Next to Supreme Court

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The United States is one of the world's most dangerous countries thanks in large measure to politicians who have been bought and paid for by the gun industry - and benign neglect and insane decisions handed down by courts and, in particular, the US Supreme Court.  Everybody in the USA who wants a gun, has a gun - and often several.  Criminals have guns, spouse abusers have guns, drug addicts and drunks have guns, school kids have guns, preachers, politicians and other cult leaders have guns, and even pissed-off, near-sighted grannies have guns.

The American gun industry and gun rights groups have slathered their money through state legilatures, the halls of Congress, the White House, and into every level of nation's courts.  Legislators, governors, judges, Presidents, and even we the people are owned by guns to such an extent that much of the world views us as criminally insane.

So it must have been with an hysterical level of hypocrisy that members of the US Supreme Court and their expansive security detail got rattled this week when a 35-year-old tourist out of California parked his Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck in close proximity to the Supreme Court building.  They were excited by the fact that the fellow had a 10-foot tall, handcrafted, guillotine sitting in the bed of his truck.  

Had the dangers of too many dangerous weapons on the streets suddenly come home to roost for our nation's top judges?  Was the unchecked proliferation of deadly weapons not such a good idea after all?

When Philan Tam Duy Le parked his pickup in a "permit-holders only" space near the US Supreme Court, Capital Police and representatives of its Intelligence Division along with US Supreme Court investigators showed up and  questioned the driver.   Mr. Le freely admitted that the guillotine was the "real deal" and in working condition, but he denied having any plans to use it.  He said that he was not in Washington DC, for any specific purpose.

Police asked Le if he had a concealed weapons' permit, and he said that he did, but that he did not have is gun with him.  They swept the trashed out vehicle (the driver had been living in it) for guns and explosives, but found none.  Capitol Police arrested the tourist from California and charged him with "possession of a dangerous weapon" but the charge was later changed to a misdemeanor of "attempted possession of a prohibited weapon."

Arresting officials asked the judge to hold Philan Tam Duy Le in jail because he had been driving around for three weeks living out of his vehicle and had no roots, but his court-appointed attorney countered by saying that he (the attorney) had just come off of a seven-week road trip himself - and that living in your car was not a crime.

The judge pointed out to the disappointed Capitol Police that Mr. Le had not threatened anyone and he had been completely cooperative with their investigation.  The judge released the man on his promise to return for his court date in late September.

In America every lunatic with a pulse and a trigger finger has the right to bear arms, but the right to bear heads may still be up for discussion and interpretation by the courts.  It may be time for those with strong opinions on the matter of guillotines to begin investing in gavels.

Albert Hall Is Gone, Too

 

by Pa Rock

Entertainment Junkie

Two of my favorite entertainers have passed away this week, and it's only Thursday.  Dolly Parton died in Nashville on Tuesday, and stage and screen actor Tim Curry, expired yesterday in Los Angeles.  Both were 80-years-old.   

(I will be eighty in just over eighteen months, so their demise has captured my attention.   True story:  yesterday I took the dogs to the vet for their annual shots and a few minor repairs, and while the vet, a young man somewhere in his forties, was commenting on Rosie's increasing signs of decrepitude as she ages, he suddenly looked me in the eyes, bedpan serious, and said, "How are you doing?"  I had to admit that, like Rosie, I would like to sleep most of every day, too!)

But back to the celebrities . . . 

I wrote about Dolly yesterday, so today I want to make a few comments about Tim Curry.  The performer, who was born in northern England and harbored ambitions of becoming a rock star in his youth, instead turned to acting where he became famous for taking on quirky and out-sized roles, the most famous being the lead in the 1975 cult-classic movie "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."   Curry played Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist and a "sweet transvestite from Transsexual Transylvania" who labored in the laboratory in his creepy mansion, in fishnet stockings, to create a man, a handsome creature whom he named "Rocky."  

The film, which had earlier been a London stage play also starring Tim Curry, ran for years in a few select theatres, often midnight showings, and the audiences were populated with people in costume who would stand in front of the screen as the film rolled and act out certain segments involving their characters - and at times, quoting dialogue in unison with the actors on the screen - essentially making themselves part of the evening performance.   Some audience members were reportedly so obsessive about their participation in the late-night events, that they would ridicule newbies who showed up trying to join in the fun. 

I never tried to see "Rocky Horror" in a theatre and would have surely been picked on by the show's possessive audience, but I have seen it staged by a couple of amateur theatre groups, and I also have the movie on DVD.  It's enormous fun with plenty of great music that still holds up well - including a scene and featuring "Meatloaf," who roars into the mansion on a motorcycle.

Another of my favorite Tim Curry roles was his portrayal of Miss Hannigan's younger brother, the cocky "Rooster," in the movie version of "Annie."

I have been sitting on a Tim Curry anecdote for fourteen years that I felt reluctant to share while he was alive so as not to invade his privacy - and now that his privacy is no longer an issue, I will share that curious tidbit here:

Tim Curry suffered a serious stroke in early August of 2012, one that ended his film and stage career.  He was living in Los Angeles and admitted to a medical facility there.  I had just arrived home from my two-year work stint on Okinawa a few weeks before and drove from Phoenix to Los Angeles to visit friends for the weekend.  One of my friends happened to have been in the hospital where Curry was admitted earlier in the day, and she mentioned it to me that evening.  The friend said he was signed in under the name "Albert Hall," (as in the famed London entertainment venue, the "Royal Albert Hall," which was named after Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert).  Pa Rock thought that was damned clever - and funny!

Tim Curry is gone now, so I feel safe in outing his alter-ego.  Tim Curry is no longer with us, and neither is Albert Hall.  Rest in peace, gentlemen.

Goodbye, Dolly

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

American music icon, film star, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Dolly Parton passed away yesterday at a cancer center in Nashville following a brief illness.  Songs she wrote and recorded comprise a significant part of the American songbook and include such major hits as "I Will Always Love You, "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors," and "Nine to Five."

Parton, who was known beyond the music industry for her business acumen, founded a range of successful enterprises including "Dollywood," a major family theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near the Great Smoky Mountains, "Dolly Parton's Stampede," a dinner theater near Branson, Missouri, and she recently opened "Dolly's Tennessean Travel Stop near an exit on Interstate 65 in Cornersville, Tennessee, about an hour south of Nashville.  She was at the opening of the travel center last month, an event which proved to be her final public appearance.

Dolly was also a noted philanthropist who managed to give much of what she made to people in need.  Her "Imagination Library," which she started in 1995, provides a free children's book every month to thousands of children under the age of five in the United States and in several foreign nations.  To date more that 330 million books have been provided in her effort to promote literacy and give little kids something of their own.  She donated a million dollars to coronavirus research during the pandemic, and started a program to lower the school dropout rate in her home county in Tennessee that was hugely successful.  And there were other examples as well - Dolly had a focus on helping others and always being ready to offer a hand up.

Dolly Parton's husband of nearly sixty years, Carl Dean, passed away in Nashville last year.  Dean owned and operated a construction firm.  The couple had no children.

I have a Dolly Parton story which I shared in this space one other time but will shamelessly repeat it here anyway.  In the late 1960's or early 1970's while Dolly was still a regular Porter Wagoner's television show, she and Porter appeared at the Shrine Mosque in Springfield, Missouri.  Some college friends and I had nothing better to do on a Saturday night and decided to walk the several blocks to the Mosque and see the show -  and it was great.  Dolly and Porter both sparkled like human disco balls, and her songs were angelic.  

Years later I was at a barber shop in West Plains, Missouri, Porter Wagoner's hometown and my current place of residence, and it was Dolly's birthday - a fact that somehow got into the general conversation at the hair emporium.  I bragged to the barber that I had seen Dolly perform in person in Springfield in my younger days, and the barber quickly shot down my boast when he replied that he had seen her singing atop a hay wagon in the public square of West Plains!

And I didn't doubt him for a minute because that's who Dolly Parton was - one of us, a common person from a hardscrabble background who had the gumption to get on a bus the day after she graduated from high school and move, alone and on her own, to Nashville and make a name for herself in the music industry.  A person with that level of grit and resolve would not hesitate to climb on a hay wagon and sing for a few hundred strangers.

Dolly Parton did well in life, and she set the bar for sharing her blessings with others.

The President of the United States has ordered that our nation's flags be flown at half-staff for the next seven days out of respect for Dolly Parton.    It is an honor well deserved.  

Better Tools for Digging Up Dead Relatives

 

by Pa Rock

Family Historian

Having been involved in the meddlesome hobby of digging up dead relatives (genealogy / family tree research) for over half a century, I have acquired more than just reams of information on my ancestors.     I have also learned how to research families through newspaper files, school records courthouse records, and even cemeteries.  

I have mastered the use of microfiche readers, communicated with other researchers with everything from hand-written letters along with stamped, return envelopes, to email and text messaging, navigated computer databases, and learned to search the internet..  Over the last few years I have even learned how to access and use DNA to make and verify familial connections.  Keeping up with the technological and scientific advances has been as challenging and exciting as discovering a new family line to research.

As science and technology advance, so too does the reach and accuracy of family tree research, and nothing illustrates that more than the blossoming field of DNA research.

Today there are several large companies which maintain DNA databases for the primary purpose of genealogy research.  I've had my DNA analyzed and entered into the systems of two of those companies, and they have informed me of biological connections to other individuals as they registered with them.  Some were first cousins whom I have known all my life, but gradually connections to strangers located further out on branches of the family tree began emerging.   

The list of relationships expanded as more people registered their DNA - and they widened as DNA research became more sophisticated.  Where I once received notifications of the existence of specific first or second cousins, today notifications are likely to reveal relationships to people who are much farther out on the family charts - and show their relationship with surprising specificity.

As an example, yesterday I received an email notice from Ancestry.com that I am related to a man who recently submitted his DNA sample to that company, one of the places where my own DNA is registered.  Because we both chose to be registered as "public" on the company's database, the email gave me the individual's name, our kinship status, and a way to message him.  It also had a brief bit of his family tree which showed no connections to my own.

But the reason I am mentioning all of that is the kinship status that the email revealed.  The other man and I are related in one of two ways according to our 3% of shared DNA:  we are either "half 1st cousins two times removed" or "2nd cousins one time removed."  How's that for specificity!

Here's me showing off:  The first scenario, that we are "half first cousins two times removed," means that we share one common ancestor, and that person had at least two children by two different mates  Those children were half-siblings, and their children would be half-first cousins between the two families.   The relationship indicated by the DNA results I received would be between one of those half first cousins and the grandchild of another half first cousin.  (Two times removed means two generations apart.  Since I am seventy-eight years old, the other fellow would undoubtedly be the grandson of one of my half first cousins.)

Now, since I am unaware of having any half first cousins, one of my grandparents could have "fathered" or "mothered" a child who didn't appear in the official family chronicle, or . . . 

The fellow and I could be related the alternative way that Ancesttry.com presented:  "2nd cousins one time removed."  That relationship would involve one set of ancestors in common.  Their children's children would be first cousins, the children of those children would be second cousins, and if one of the second cousins had a child, that child's relationship to the second cousins of his parent would be "second cousin one time removed."  Again, because of my age, chances are good that I would be the second cousin and the other fellow would be the child of one of my second cousins.  The ancestors which we had in common would be a set of my great-grandparents who would also be a set of his great-great grandparents.

Simple. huh?  I told you I was showing off!  

The art of digging up dead relatives is becoming as much about science and technology as it is about library reading rooms, courthouse storage basements, and, of course, cemeteries.  It still requires a lot of digging, but the tools are getting better!

Welcome Home, Sailor. Thank You for Your Service!

 

by Pa Rock

US Veteran

A week ago yesterday I used this space to talk about the deplorable living and work conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, an American aircraft carrier that has been at sea over nine months and has not has a port call in over eight months.  Moral aboard that mighty vessel, which was then stationed in the Middle East, was so low that sailors were writing home and alerting their families to the awful circumstances they were enduring.  The families took their concerns to members of Congress and the press, and enough pressure was exerted on the Defense Department and Trump administration that the USS Abraham Lincoln was ordered home and is currently en route back to the United States.

The sailors aboard that aircraft carrier have been treated badly, and they are deserving of our respect and gratitude upon their return home.  They are not deserving of remarks by whiney politicians who say their deployment was not long enough, nor are they deserving of racist attacks by our government upon their loved ones who have been anxiously awaiting their return.

On Saturday Joshua Aviles, a sailor aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln issued the following statement on Facebook regarding his father, Luis Manuel Aviles, a native of Nicaragua:

"I just got a call that my dad was taken by ICE.  If you know my dad, you know that he is a hardworking, humble man who is always willing to help anyone if he can."

The day after that Facebook post, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the US Border Patrol had arrested the father at a routine traffic stop in Key West

The sailor's father has lived in the United States 19 years and has been employed in construction in Key West, Florida.  He has an American driver's license, social security card, and work permit.    He is currently involved in the process of getting a green card.  The senior Mr. Alviles is believed to be somewhere in ICE detention.

The sailor's Facebook post continued:

"We have done everything through immigration to get his green card approved, and we are just waiting.  This is heartbreaking for me.   I don't know how I can continue working 12+ hour days knowing that my dad is somewhere, possibly being treated like a criminal."

Sailor Aviles and his shipmates know full well what it feels like to be confined and treated like criminals.  They should not have to also worry about their families back home being targeted by the government and treated like criminals while they, the generation in uniform, are overseas working night and day to maintain freedom for the entire nation.

Welcome home, sailor.  Thank you for your service.

Being President is Hard Work - Just Ask Natalie!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When Donald Trump first ran for the White House in 2016, he boasted that he could eliminate the national debt.  That was, of course, before many Americans knew that they could never believe a word the old man said.  The national debt was a whopping $19 trillion at the time Trump made that unhinged promise, and last week it climbed past $40 trillion and is still headed due north.

Not only did Trump's multiple tax cuts for the rich greatly reduce treasury income and our ability to pay off the debt, his war of choice on Iran increased military spending on a massive scale and thus inflated the debt.  Trump's grandiose vanity projects have also come at a substantial cost to the country, all of which are being paid for with borrowed money.  In short, Don Trump, the genius businessman, is spending far more money than our government takes in, and he is growing the debt at a time when we must face the reality of  beginning to pay it down - and then off.  But Trump understands bankruptcies and he appears to be wandering aimlessly on comfortable turf.

If our national debt continues to grow, more interest has to be paid each year, and at some point it will trigger a financial crisis of gargantuan proportions.  Something has to be done to correct course and turn the ship of state toward safer seas - and moves of that magnitude will require careful and thoughtful crafting by our elected leaders in Washington, DC.  The current Republican majorities in both houses of Congress refuse to act in any manner that challenges Trump's control of government.  Nothing moves out from Washington, DC, without Donald Trump's explicit stamp of approval.

But Trump is too damned busy to worry about balancing the nation's checkbook.

Today he is hosting an Indycar Freedom 250 Grand Prix on the streets of Washington, DC.  Like Trump's vanity cage fights on the White House lawn in June, private companies are claiming that they are paying to put on the show, but in reality taxpayers are picking up the tab for police, security, and many operational expenses.  And don't expect any help from Trump in dealing with the national debt next week either because he needs to get back to selecting chandeliers and draperies for his new White House ballroom.  The week after that is out, too, because he has to take some time to issue a new series of toothless threats against Iran.   And hell's bells people, Trump can't ignore his whack-a-doodle nightly postings on social media!   His posts are so good that big companies pay big bucks to get them before the rest of us do - and they don't pay their tithes to the nation's treasury to help bring down the national debt, they pay directly to Trump Media for the direct benefit of the Trump family and their rich investor partners.

With Trump, it's his business as usual in the good ol' US of A!

Being President is hard, demanding work.  Just ask Natalie!

Pentagon Pete Attacks "Stars and Stripes"

 

by Pa Rock

US Veteran

The Trump administration's ever-expanding war on democracy and freedom of the press has finally taken aim at the "Stars and Stripes," the de facto hometown newspaper for the nearly quarter million American service men and women who are stationed overseas, many of whom are living abroad with their families.  Their other major news source besides the venerable "Stars and Stripes," is "Armed Forces News (AFN)" which provides canned television and radio updates from around the world - and now, of course, the internet as well.

But the "Stars and Stripes" is still a staple of stateside news, much of which is focused on matters pertaining to members of the US military and their dependents.   The military-oriented newspaper is published Monday through Thursday with a weekend edition coming out on Fridays.   The publication posts news updates on-line and occasionally also prints special editions.  It is a publication that Americans overseas (even some who are not in the military) enjoy and look forward to reading each morning.

I know the importance of the "Stars and Stripes" to American communities overseas because I have spent four years of my life living and working overseas either in the military or for the military.  The newspaper is a lifeline home.  One that Americans abroad depend on for fair and accurate reporting of the news.

Of course, fair and accurate reporting of the news is not a priority for the Trump administration.   Donald Trump has a long and colorful history of mocking reporters whose questions he does not like, suing publications which write unfavorable stories about him, his family, or his administration, and threatening the broadcast licenses of news networks whose reporting, points of view, or program hosts he dislikes.

And with an anti-news bias as big as that, it was inevitable that sooner or later his administration's censorship focus would come to rest on the "Stars and Stripes."

Late this week there were two stories in the news regarding the "Stars and Stripes."  The first said that the publisher, editor-in-chief, and a reporter on Middle East affairs had quit in protest over management decisions.  A second story followed soon after saying the three individuals had been fired in an effort by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (or possibly his wife) to take over direct editorial control of the military newspaper.   Apparently Pentagon Pete (or his Missus) thought the paper was featuring too much "woke" content, and he (or Jen) wanted the paper to refocus its content exclusively on "military readiness."

It's a shame that someone in the Trump administration wasn't focused on military readiness before we launched a war on Iran.  But, better late than never.  If they get the propaganda arm of the military fixed, victory may follow - or not.

There will be none of that "woke" crap infecting our military, right, Pete?  America's forces are at their fighting best when they are completely numb and blissfully ignorant of the world around them.

But censorship is, of course becoming a lost art.   Praise Jesus and Al Gore for for keeping the flow of information alive with the internet!

Doris "Dorie" Miller: A True American Hero

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump's rampaging vanity and never-ending push to get his name on things has resurfaced and escalated - this time to an . . . dare I say it . . . almost insane level.

This story has to do with a Naval aircraft carrier currently under construction, a ship that was mentioned in this space a few days ago in a blog posting entitled "Ballrooms, Bankruptcy, and Bullshit" that ran on August 15th.  In the original story it was noted that the USS Doris Miller, which is under construction and already two years behind schedule, is being targeted by the Trump administration as trial balloon for one of the President's personal penchants.  Trump is promoting the idea of scraping digital electronic catapults to launch planes into the air from aircraft carriers, and instead replacing them with steam catapults, a technology that was in use seventy-five years ago.  Somebody got Trump's ear on the matter and told him that the old steam catapults were easier to repair - and a man with a hammer could do it.  

Today there was another story involving the still-under-construction USS Doris Miller in the press.  Apparently the Navy is having second thoughts about naming the vessel after a bonafide World War II hero and instead is considering naming it after the sitting President of the United States - something that currently is not done.  The Navy has quit using the name "Doris Miller" for the ship under construction and now refers to it only by its hull number, CVN-81.  The keel for the ship will be laid in a public ceremony at the end of this year, and a name will have to be elected by then.

Former Acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Modley, a Trump appointee, announced in January of 2020 (on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) that the ship would be named after Doris "Dorie" Miller, the black son of a sharecropper who joined the Navy in 1939 and was serving aboard the USS Arizona when that ship was attacked and sunk by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.   Miller, a Mess Attendant 3rd Class at the time, was involved in several acts of heroism that day, but managed to survive.   He was later personally awarded the Navy Cross by Admiral Chester Nimitz.  The heroic sailor was killed in combat later in the war.  

Dorie Miller, a US sailor of very low rank whose duties were to perform menial tasks for the Navy, saved the life of his commander at Pearl Harbor and later grabbed an anti-aircraft gun, with no training on the weapon, and began firing on the Japanese bombers.   He gave everything he had for the United States of America.

Donald Trump is a son of wealth and privilege who was born into a family where no one had ever donned a uniform for their country.   Trump actively sought and accepted five draft deferments during the Vietnam War.  

The contrast between Doris "Dorie" Miller and Donald Trump is stark, a study in black and white.  Doris Miller earned the honor of having his name on a US aircraft carrier through blood-soaked valor, a true American hero.  To rescind that honor now and instead award it to an undeserving politician with felony convictions and an obscenely swollen ego would be an insult to every person who has ever worn an American military uniform.

Leave Mess Attendant 3rd Class Doris Miller's name on the new aircraft carrier - and stop this insane effort to steal the glory he so rightfully earned through the ultimate sacrifice - just to assuage the ego of an impaired narcissist.

Thank you, Doris Miller, for stepping into the breach and defending democracy.  A grateful nation remembers and salutes you, sir!

Towing After Dark

 

by Pa Rock

Night Stalker

Monday in a blog posting that had to do with the hot damn weather that my part of the Ozarks was experiencing, I happened to mention that I observed an old, medium-sized pickup truck towing a small pickup that had a large riding. lawn mower in its truck bed.    I made the cynical observation that it seemed like a lot of trouble to go through just to steal a lawn mower.

That happened in broad daylight.

Tuesday night, just after dark while I was out in the yard stumbling around watering a few plants and filling the bird baths, I heard a strange vehicular sound approaching from down the road.  My house sits about twenty-five yards back from a well-traveled, paved country lane on the crest of a small hill - and there are no streetlights.   

Moments later an old pickup passed by.   I could tell by the glow of the truck's taillights that it was towing a small sedan with a rope.  (It could have been the same unmarked truck from the day before, but the gathering darkness kept me from knowing for sure.)  The little car raced along behind the truck, which was traveling at a fairly fast clip, about fifteen feet back.  The car being towed had no lights, front or back, and as far as I could tell, not even any reflecting tape.  While I couldn't see people inside of the car due to the darkness, I am hopeful that there was at least a brakeman sitting in the driver's seat ready to apply the brakes as the  truck eventually slowed and came to a halt - wherever that might have been.

(And he, or she, could have had to slow or stop unexpectedly because dusk and early evening are when the deer are dining.)

(And, even without having to slow, the danged unlit little car could have been rear-ended by one of my neighbors rushing home after a hard night of drinking!)

I'm not sure if I was observing the world's dumbest tow truck driver or the world's dumbest car thief, but whichever, I gives me a bit of country pride to know that we live in the same neighborhood and that he, or she, has the ambition to go out and make a living!

My car resides outside, alone and ungaraged.   I guess I need to start locking it, or at least rolling up the windows.

If you don't have time to go out and search for adventure, just stand in the yard and sooner or later it will come to you.  My life as a retiree is a thrill a minute!

Ossoff Twists the Lion's Tale

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There has been considerable speculation on the internet of late with regard to a rather close relationship that Donald Trump seems to have with Natalie Harp who carries the titles "Special Assistant to the President" and "Executive Assistant to the President" and which generate a salary of $150,000 per year.  Whatever her exact position in the federal government, Ms. Harp appears to function as one of Trump's very closest confidantes - to the point that she carts around a portable printer to produce hard copies of documents on demand as random thoughts drift in an out of Trump's consciousness. 

To say that Ms. Harp's presence with Trump is near constant is almost understatement.  She is reportedly at his side even very late in the evenings when he goes on his social media posting rampages - and types postings as Trump dictates.  Ms. Harp is said to also scour the internet for things she knows Trump will like, such as his recent reposting of a video that made the Obama's look like apes.  Some White House staff are concerned about Harp's complete access to Trump and feel that she is functioning as his ultimate gatekeeper - and supplying him with feedback and advice that may not ultimately be in his best political interests.

Natalie Harp was in the news last week when it was reported that she was one of the special people who accompanied Trump out of Turkey in early July aboard a military plane when Israel and the US Secret Service thought Air Force One might be targeted by Iranian missiles.  Many prominent members of Trump's entourage were left behind on Air Force One -  the bait plane - including two Cabinet secretaries, but Harp was deemed critical enough that she was smuggled out with the President.

There was also a news story out yesterday which said that First Lady Melania Trump is refusing to attend events where Natalie Harp will be present.

Another story in the news this week that featured the 35-year-old Natalie Harp and her 80-year-old boss was the result of a remark made by Georgia US Senator Jon Ossoff who is running for reelection.    Trump, long a practitioner of schoolyardesque taunts, commonly refers to Senator Osoff as "Peewee Herman," claiming the senator resembles the entertainer.  As taunts go, it is second-tier, or perhaps even third - and certainly far from being Trump the Mouth's best work.

But Jon Ossoff is in campaign mode and lobbed a remark back at Trump this week which  got the old man's attention.

While speaking at a rally in Georgia along with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Senator Ossoff commented on Trump's lackadaisical attitude toward carrying out a war that he started - and functioning as our country's chief executive.  Senator Ossoff said, in speaking of Trump:

"He doesn't want to do the job.   He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar."  

Trump contented himself by again referring to Senator Ossoff as "Peewee Herman," but other members of his staff were more vitriolic with his communications director referring to Senator Ossoff as "Jack Off."

Trump is quoted in the book "Regime Change" by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan as telling his staff - regarding Natalie Harp - "All of you will go off and make money.  She'll never leave me."

Clearly Donald and Natalie have a significant bond, and clearly Senator Ossoff touched a nerve.

Flock Cameras: Another Tool in Big Brother's Toolbox

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When I began hearing the term "Flock cameras" a few weeks ago, I thought it might have something to do with tracking the migrations of wild geese - or monarch butterflies - but just a bit of quick research revealed that it was a technology focused on the tracking of humans - and specifically humans in their ubiquitous cars.

It seems like in this most recent "ICE Age," our government is insanely focused on tracking human beings, the same government taht likes to bloviate about "personal freedom."

As I sought to acquaint myself with this technology that was suddenly stirring so much controversy, I came across one story that made reference to "F.L.O.C.K." cameras as though the collective noun was actually an acronym, something which seemed readily plausible, but further reading revealed that was not the case.   The cameras are called "Flock" because that is the name of their parent company "Flock Safety."  The company name, however, does not reflect some family named  "Flock," but rather it is a reference to the safety that comes from animals being in large groups - or flocks - the safety of herds.  (Tell that to the buffalo!)

Flock cameras are devices whose function is automatic license plate recognition (ALPR).  They collect information as cars pass by including license plate numbers, make, model and unique features of cars (like bumper stickers, roof racks, and even dents).

That, friends, is a whole lot of personal data in the hands of a wide variety of agencies and individuals (even damned HOAs), all of which can be readily accessed for legitimate or nefarious purpose, depending on the scruples of people with access to the material.

Information collected by Flock cameras is stored in Clouds, and the company has an automatic default data retention period of seven days - BUT, individual law enforcement agencies, or private community customers (like HOAs) can configure their retention periods to match local laws, state statutes, or internal agency policies.

There was recently a case out of Texas which made national news.  A woman took her small child and fled the home she shared with her boyfriend because, according to her, he threatened to kill her.  The boyfriend reported the matter to the police and made the claim that his girlfriend had used medication to give herself an abortion.  The resulting investigation was characterized by police as "a death investigation of a non-viable fetus."  Law enforcement began a search with the listed reason as "had an abortion.  Search for female."  Later, after the woman turned herself in and told her side of the story, law enforcement changed its story to one claiming they had conducted a safety search for the woman and her child believing they could have been hurt by her partner, the person who made the original report.

One of the reasons that heinous tale of law enforcement misbehaving made national news was the way that Texas law enforcement went about looking for the woman. They connected into a license plate recognition system utilizing the combined efforts of 83,000 Flock systems nationwide - all of which could have helped an abuser to re-ensnare his victim.

There are also real concerns that Flock camera systems could be used for stalking and to gather information and lists of people who attend certain political events.  In fact the ways in which is could be misused  are almost endless - and we all are dependent on travel by cars.

Protests over Flock cameras are growing and have even reached into America's heartland.  The small town of Bolivar, Missouri, has been in the news recently over civic protests regarding Flock cameras, with some cameras in the community actually being vandalized.  The city's board of aldermen voted last week to take down their Flock camera system.

It's an emerging privacy issue in a time when artificial intelligence seems to be sucking up and storing ever sordid detail of our lives.

Flock cameras:  one more tool in Big Brother's toolbox.

Thoughts on Stealing a Lawn Mower

 

by Pa Rock 

Weatherman

(Note:  The following is being penned on Sunday afternoon for posting Monday while I am on the road to beautiful Mountain Home, Arkansas, for a medical appointment - in case anything sounds chronologically off-kilter.   It made sense as I wrote it, for the most part.)

I lived in and around the Valley of Hell (Phoenix, Arizona, and its environs) for the better part of a decade, until retiring a dozen years ago, and if there is one thing I completely understand, and there probably isn't, it would be hot weather and the debilitating effect that it has on old humans and old dogs - and Fred Damn Almighty it has been hot in the Ozarks this week!  Not just hot, Phoenix hot!

West Plains, Missouri, was under a 'heat advisory' last weekend which was set to expire on Sunday evening, but as that deadline drew near, the advisory was extended to Tuesday evening - and then to Friday evening, and finally (here's hoping!) it is set to finally expire for good at 8:00 this evening (Sunday).

It's 2:30 p.m. on Sunday as I sit at the living room window banging out tomorrow's blog-posting.  Alexa says it is 98 degrees F outside with a promise (threat) that it will hit one hundred before "Ol' Sol" gets pulled on over toward Phoenix as our tragically mistreated planet spins ever onward and slowly turns to nothing but scorched earth and dust in the wind.  There was a small cloudburst a few minutes ago that lasted all of two or three minutes.  It's only impact was to settle the dust for now, but we'll take what we can get.  Alexa says the heat apocalypse will definitely come to an end  tonight - and tomorrow the temperature will be in the eighties with some chance of rain - and then the possibility of rain during the week.  I will hold her to that - and send her a sternly worded letter if it comes to pass that she has lied.

(Not many people know this, but part of the reason it is so Fred-Awful hot in Phoenix is because the city is built directly over one of the largest, oldest, and hottest furnaces in Hell, an ancient cast iron model that covers several hundred acres.   Satan occasionally jogs in across the Sonoran Desert to check on it, and take Joe Arpaio's pulse, and usually manages to get in a few rounds of golf in Scottsdale while he is there.)

One more thing:  an older, medium-sized pickup truck just drove by pulling an older, small-sized pickup truck with a tow rope.  There was an old riding lawnmower in the bed of the smaller truck.  It was so large that it just barely fit in the truck bed.  That seems like a helluva lot of work just to steal a lawnmower!

The heat is getting to me.

Stay cool.

Despicable Neglect of the USS Abraham Lincoln

 

by Pa Rock

US Veteran

Yesterday I mentioned how military expert Donald J. Trump has ordered the US Navy to install 75-year-old steam catapult technology in its next generation of aircraft carriers instead of state of the art digital catapults currently in use by most militaries around the globe.  Somebody told Donald that the new catapults require experts to perform repairs and that the old ones could be fixed by a man with a hammer - and our Prez, a man who is smarter than anyone else, happens to be a fan of men swinging big hammers.

But as stupid as that story was, and it was plenty stupid, there was another one circulating involving Trump and aircraft carriers that was even stupider.

There is currently a scandal exploding through the national and international press about the horrid conditions aboard USS Abraham Lincoln, our nation's largest aircraft carrier.   It left San Diego on November 21, 2025, and has been deployed for nearly nine months (268 days) as of today. The sailors on board last had a port call in Guam on December 11, 2025 - and in the intervening 248 days (just over 8 months) the giant ship has not touched land and all personnel have had to remain aboard.  Thee USS Abraham Lincoln is now deployed in the Northern Arabian Sea as part of Trump and Netanyahu's War on Iran.

The giant aircraft carrier's original deployment was for seven months and would have ended last May if not for being needed for in the new war.  It has now set a record for the most consecutive days at sea -  and the sailors on board are feeling it.

According to reports sent home by sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the vessel is plagued with plumbing issues, food shortages, supply issues, poor mail delivery - and some of the sailors are experiencing serious mental health issues.  There have even been reports of sailors trying to get off of the ship by jumping into the ocean - literally attempting to "jump ship."

Family members of the crew are growing more and more concerned for the health and safety of their loved ones, and they have sent letters and made telephone calls to the Department of the Navy and the Pentagon - and even to their members of Congress.

Clearly, the USS Abraham Lincoln is becoming a metaphor for Trump's War on Iran.

A couple of days ago, while answering questions about his plans to roll back technology to the 1950's on new aircraft carriers, a reporter asked Trump about the issues facing the sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln.  When Trump was specifically asked if he felt the record-setting deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln of nearly nine months at sea had gone on for too long, Donald John Trump, the Commander in Chief of the US Military, a man who dodged the draft five times during the Vietnam War, gave this tone-deaf and cold-hearted reply:

"No, no, no, not nearly long enough."

The war that was supposed to have been over in days - and then weeks - is now less than two weeks shy of having lasted six months, half-a-damned-year, with no end in sight.  News reports indicate that our missile stockpiles are at dangerously low levels and that it will take years to replenish the supply.  Our military leadership is being pruned of females, people of color, and individuals whose personal appearance the Secretary of Defense finds displeasing - and TROOP MORALE IS AT ITS LOWEST POINT IN YEARS.  And now we have a President who says our men and women in uniform should be giving even more.

Trump's children and grandchildren don't put on uniforms and fight in foreign wars - but ours do!

Trump and his enablers have overstayed their welcome!

Remember that in November!

Ballrooms, Bankruptcy, and Bullshit

 

by Pa Rock

Veteran

Donald Trump missed his opportunity to put on a uniform and go to war for his country sixty years ago because of those danged ol' bone spurs - so now, with his  current gig as "Commander in Chief" of our nation's armed forces, Trump is making up for lost time by imparting his military genius directly on our nation's fighting forces.

Someone about ten years ago (perhaps a golfing partner, or one of the pay-to-play club members at Mar-a-Lago) got into Trump's ear about the catapult systems the Navy uses to sling fighter jets into the air from the decks of aircraft carriers.  Trump liked what he heard - an argument that the Navy should scuttle its current electronic catapult system and revert back to the old mechanical steam catapult system used in the 1950's.   Trump, who is not a fan of intellectuals or ideas that are beyond the bounds of his private school education, was quickly sold on the idea and has been promoting it ever since.

But now he has stepped up his game.

This past Thursday Trump signed a national security memorandum that directs the Secretary of Defense, Tattooed Pete Hegseth, and the acting Navy Secretary, Hung Cao, to come up with a plan within 60 days to equip an aircraft carrier in production, the USS Doris Miller, with steam catapults instead of the modern electronic ones currently in use.  (Construction of the USS Doris Miller is already two years behind schedule.)

But while Donald Trump was cheated out of his opportunity to serve because of those awful bone spurs, there are numerous veterans currently in Congress who have served, some even in wars, and they have opinions on military matters, too - and most of them aren't bashful about expressing their own opinions.

Take US Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, for example.  

Senator Kelly, a retired Navy Captain and former NASA astronaut, was also a Navy combat pilot who flew 39 combat missions during Operation Desert Storm.  He knows more than a few thinga about the Navy and fighter jets.  When Senator Mark Kelly heard of Trump's direct meddling in the design of catapults aboard Navy aircraft carriers, he had this to say in a post on X:

"I've launched off the front of aircraft carriers hundreds of times, have a Master's degree in aeronautical engineering, and am a test pilot, and even I wouldn't suggest to the Navy how to engineer specific systems on its ships.   Donald Trump should stick to what he knows best - ballrooms, bankruptcy, and bullshit."

Well said, Senator Kelly. Well said!  Salute!

One Word: "Sandblaster!"

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In February of 2025, one month after returning to the presidency, Donald Trump took physical control of the nation's premier performing arts venue - The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts - a center initially named by Congress as a memorial to President Kennedy.  Trump fired the center's director and CEO and replaced more than half of its board of directors with his own hand-picked choices, some of whom worked for Trump directly from offices in the White House.   The newly composed board quickly named Trump as the new head of the organization and also voted to put his name in large letters on the facade of the building, directly ABOVE that of President Kennedy.

While Trump basked in the great "honor" of being selected to run the center and have his name on the building, some of the permanent ex-officio members of the board, those who served by virtue of their position in government, rebelled.  One ex-officio member, Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio, who is an ex-officio trustee representing members Congress, took the matter to court.  Fifteen months later, in May of this year, US District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that Congress named the federally-designated memorial, and only Congress has the power to change its name - and that Trump's name had to come off of the building and all signage on the building, its grounds, and digital materials related to the structure.  The judge further ruled against Trump's plans to close the main part of the structure for two years for renovations.

It took a month and a lot of cloak-and-dagger crap of hiding the building facade under tarps while Trump's name was removed, but eventually the big steel letters came down.

By all reasonable expectations, the matter was resolved at that point and should have remained resolved - but Trump has never been known for being reasonable.  This week HIS board of directors at the Kennedy Center decided to pose a direct challenge to Judge Cooper's order.  The board voted to not only resume plans to close most of the facility for two years of renovation work, but also to  carve an inscription onto the building's main marble facade directly beneath the main venue signage.  The CARVED inscription on the marble front of the building would read: 

"Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump"

A potion of the grounds at the center will also be, according to the board's new dictates, be known as "Trump Plaza."

(Somebody had his mad on!)

All of that vainglorious crap flies directly in the face of a federal judge's order, but until Donnie's vanity inevitably slides back into the sewer from whence it crawled, America remains stuck in the throes of his shit show - and it's not just any shit show, it's the "Donald J. Trump Shit Show!"  Carve that on the marble walls of the ballroom - and on each marble base of the 250-foot arch honoring the 1,000-foot ego of Don Trump.

One word, amigos:  "Sandblaster!"

Another Shock to Human Decency

 

by Pa Rock

Taxpayer

Kristi Noem may be back in South Dakota trying to repair her personal life, but the out-of-control spending and legacy of cruelty she fostered at the Department of Homeland Security continues unabated.

Yesterday there were stories in the press about a  new policing tool that the Department of Homeland Security is bringing into its arsenal of offensive weaponry.  A company called "Compliant Technologies" is selling DHS a cache of electro-shock gloves for $20 million - on a NO-BID contract.  

The big gloves (which look somewhat like industrial baker's mitts) are designed to subdue individuals in a non-lethal manner.  They are supposedly already in use by some police departments.   The acronym for these pain-generating devices is G.L.O.V.E. which stands for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter.

While that sounds like a plan for employing humane treatment in subjugation of human beings, there are dead people in Minnesota who would attest, if they could, to the ICE basic impulse of over-reacting.   If there is a way to misuse this new technology to bring about more pain, suffering, and even death, the secret army of ICE will soon figure it out.

But that's an outrage for another day.  Today's jaw-dropper is that OUR government is spending $20 million of OUR money on yet another no-bid contract, just as they did on the Reflecting Pool fiasco.  There is a bidding process in place for federal agencies and has been for many years.    Bids are solicited so that the quality of products can be compared and to ensure the government will get a good deal on its purchases and not waste taxpayer money.  

But Donald Trump, an impulse shopperr who is apparently the world's smartest individual, doesn't like the bidding process.   He knows which toys are best for us and he doesn't believe in wasting time with unnecessary processes and paperwork.  If Trump wants it, somebody had best be on the phone placing an order!

This taxpayer objects to the Trump administration's rampant use of no-bid contracts.

(Note:  As of this writing, there are no known connections between any members of the Trump family and Compliant Technologies.)