Cheesecake Factory at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I love the fact that Donald Trump is continuing to foist himself on the nation as the Republican Party's main spokesman, even though his national approval rating is in the sewer - and nothing makes me happier than knowing Trump is completely unaware of the toxic economic environment he has created.   While Americans stand in shock filling their tanks at the gas pump and wondering if they are going to be able to afford enough groceries to make it through the week, Trump waddles around bloviating about how America is getting rich from the rising fuel prices and his wonderful tariffs.  (Stockholders in the oil and gas industry, like himself, are doing well, thank you very much - but American consumers, workers, and farmers, not so much!)

Donald Trump doesn't have a clue as to the day-to-day struggles of ordinary Americans, nor does he give a rat's behind!

I also love the fact that Trump is focused on data centers and quick to promote them to a voting public that stands in stark opposition to the job-stealing, privacy-invading, noise-polluting, energy-and-water-sucking new industry that will make their lives a living hell while Trump and the billionaire Epstein class wallow in their new income streams.  And when Trump turns on his supporters who dare to criticize the rapidly developing technology of AI, what Donbo calls "super-intelligence," that sets my heart a-flutter,  When he tells communities opposed to the construction of data centers that they risk becoming "backwards and poor," that amuses me no end - and when he gets red-in-the-face and roars about people who use the term "artificial intelligence" instead of his personally-crafted term of "super-intelligence"  as being "THE ENEMY!" I fall down laughing and beating my fists on the floor!  

Trump is so damned presidential, such an intellectual!    Keep telling it from your point of view Donnie - never back down!

So many of us were lulled into complete insensibility by Donbo's unrelenting stream of self-glorifying horseshit and in-your-face corruption that we had forgotten what a president with an IQ above double digits could be like - but then Barack Obama showed up on the campaign trail in Michigan and Ohio last week and refreshed our memories as to how sharp and alert presidents can be.  Obama was quite the contrast to Trump.

As America and the world knows, instead of being consumed with the big things that tend to give Presidents headaches - things like looking out for the welfare of the nation (people other than himself and his family), or getting us out of the needless war that he got us into, Trump has a laser focus on using what he feels are his personal strengths for the benefit of the nation.  He fancies himself to be a designer of buildings, monuments, and golf courses (usually meant to glorify himself), and as an interior decorator. That's why one particular remark that President Obama made on the campaign trail crawled under Trump's thin skin and festered.  

At a rally for senate candidate Sherrod Brown in Cleveland, Ohio, last Saturday, Obama said of Trump, "He's got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory," an obvious shot at the tacky gold crap that Trump has plastered around the Oval Office.  It was a funny damned line with a pitch-perfect delivery.

Trump, whose oratorical skills are closer to those of Sylvester Stallone than they are of Cicero, shot back lamely with "For you to say it's a Cheesecake Factory, that just shows why you were a lousy president."  (Name-calling is about high as Trump can go.)  No offense intended, Donbo (not much anyway), but Natalie could probably have written a better zinger for you to use than that.

Republicans jumped on Obama's remark and said it was elitist, that he was intentionally talking down to average Americans.

(Pa Rock, one of the most average Americans anywhere, has never even been in a Cheesecake Factory - and he doubts that Donald Trump has either.  Trump expressed his own form of elitism at a recent rally in Texas when he told Americans that the $5,000 checks he is lying about sending them if Republicans keep control of Congress would barely be enough to cover a hamburger and small dessert at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida!   Was he joking?  Drop in for a snack and find out - if you dare!  Now that, folks, is true elitism!)

(Just for the record, while I have never been in a Cheesecake Factory, I did stand in the doorway to the Oval Office one evening during the Clinton presidency, before its gilded age.)

(Also for the record, Donbo doesn't have a clue a to what "affordability" means, and he doesn't understand "pain at the pump" - and likely doesn't even know how to operate a gas pump!)

As soon as Trump leaves office and the White House is fumigated, let's reclaim the "People's House" and turn that big useless ballroom into a Cheesecake Factory and use the profits to feed the hungry of our nation's capital - and to knock down any monuments that Trump has built to himself - with the Arch being being first on the list!

Roadside Attractions and My Next Bumper Sticker

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Today finds me back in the Kansas City suburb of Roeland Park (Kansas), a drive of 275 miles that I have made probably 100 times - plus 100 return trips - since retiring from Arizona to the small house with the big yard in West Plains, MO. in 2014.   I am here for a medical procedure on Friday which requires some hospital prep work tomorrow.

There were limited things of interest to see on the road to Roeland Park, the first being that I only encountered two dead deer along the roadside, which, for this time of year I felt was an unusually low body count.  Normally when the guns start going off, the deer begin jumping onto the roads and getting hit by good ol boys - and some good ol' girls - roaring down the road in big pickup trucks, slamming down beers, texting, and always of the lookout for a deer to hit.  It's a bragging rights thing.   The youth firearms' season was last weekend.  The regular firearms' season for adults is November 14-24, and the deer - and more than a few humans - will be much jumpier then!

The other thing that caught my attention was the lack of political advertising exactly one week before the national midterms.  I heard one political ad on the radio, and that was in the Kansas City area.  It was promoting Adam Hamilton, the Democrat who has a good shot at defeating incumbent US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas in next week's election.  I was listening to a Springfield, Missouri, radio station earlier in the day when I passed through there and didn't hear any political ads at all.  That's not really too odd because everything north and south of the Missouri River that is not Kansas City, St. Louis, or Columbia, is basically red - and when you don't have a serious opponent,  and when there are no national candidates on the ballot, what's the point in advertising?  (There were a multitude of yard signs in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City - mostly Democratic.  It is one of the bluer sections of the basically red state of Kansas.  Sharice Davids, the state's only current Democratic member of Congress, lives in Roeland Park - and I make a point of donating to her campaign fund every election cycle.)

Yesterday, while perusing some personal biographies on Bluesky, I stumbled across a political meme on a lady's site that was so good I was surprised that I hadn't seen it before.   As just a small portion of her introductory blurb, the woman described herself as being "almost as liberal as Jesus."   Pa Rock is thinking he may just have to steal that and turn it into a bumper sticker.   I'm sure the snarling, intolerant "Christians" in my neck of the woods would get a big kick out of it!

Talk me down before I get run off the road!

Witkoff Ruins My Iced Tea Break

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia (of sorts), describes Steve Witkoff thusly:

"Steven Charles Witkoff is a real estate investor and former attorney who is the founder of the Witkoff Group.  Since 2025, Witkoff has served as the United States special envoy to the Middle East and special envoy for peace missions.    He also acts as a de facto envoy to Russian President Vladimir Putin."

Witkoff attained his rather exalted rank within the US diplomatic community through his longstanding friendship and business relationship with Donald Trump, and through much of his diplomatic work during Trump's second term he has been paired with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Sounds like a smart guy, right?

I thought so, too, until last Wednesday when news services began reporting that Witkoff had called war criminal Vladimir Putin a "humanitarian" to his face at a meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.   My laugh was so spontaneous and explosive that iced tea came out my nose.

Putin, a humanitarian?  That may be the single most outrageous thing I've heard this millennium.  The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in March of 2023 charging him with war crimes related to the unlawful deportation and transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.  (He ordered the kidnapping of Ukrainian children and moved them to Russia!)

Additionally, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented Russian war crimes in Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria, and Doctors Without Borders  (a Nobel Peace Prize recipient) has documented Russian war crimes in Chechnya.   And there have been numerous political assassinations in Russia and abroad that have also been attributed to Putin by credible sources.

Vlad is many things, Steve, but few of them are honorable and he is certainly not a humanitarian.  Yes, he let an elderly American prisoner go free last week, but that followed multiple gifts to the Kremlin from the Trump administration including the big purchase of Russian diesel fuel, the lifting of the Graham sanctions before they even went into effect, and the fact that somebody was messing with the Starlink satellite system controls to slow service to Ukraine and give Russia a big war advantage - and no one in the Trump administration seems to be overly concerned with identifying that culprit.  (The two most likely suspects for giving the treacherous order to slow the satellite service are Trump himself and Starlink owner Elon Musk.)

Hell, Steve, the US has been lavishing gifts on Putin for days now.  He probably thinks it's Christmas!

The only thing I can think of that would be more outrageous than trying to paint Vladimir Putin as a humanitarian would be referring to Donald Trump as an intellectual.  That would probably send tea flying out my ears!  Some things are beyond belief!

Vote a Loud "HELL NO!" on Amendment 3, Missouri

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

Two years ago Missouri voters passed the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment to the state constitution which changed a law previously passed by Missouri's backwater state legislature that had made abortion totally illegal in the state.  The new constitutional amendment guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion in the show-me state.  It was what the people, by a majority vote, said they wanted.

But the Missouri State Legislature was not having it.   That GOP-dominated legislative body knew what was in the people's best interest, even if the people themselves did not, and they drafted an amendment to override the one the people had passed in 2024.  The new proposed "Amendment 3" is on the midterm ballot in Missouri and if it passes, it will overturn that abortion measure passed by the citizens of the state in 2024 - so Missourians must again go to the polls in order to keep the rights that they secured two years ago.

But the nefarious legislature mixed a distraction into their new bill in order to muddy the water on what their intent actually was (eliminating a woman's right to an abortion), and the amendment now includes a provision related to medical care for minors who identify as transsexual.

Lots of money has been spent on both sides of Amendment 3, and the slick, last minute fliers began hitting mailboxes this past week.  I received one from a lobbying group calling itself "Her Health and Her Future Coalition" that was a wholesome work of art.  On one side it featured a smiling, very healthy, blue-eyed caucasian baby wearing a blue jumper, and on the other the backsides of a young mother, father, and three small children - all girls - holding hands as they skipped joyfully through a meadow.  The family was white and obviously middle class.  (Poor families  generally don't have the time or energy to skip through meadows between multiple jobs and while struggling to survive.)

Not only did the flier I received last week promote the scare tactic regarding medical treatments for trans youth, it also simplified the abortion messaging to make it look as though the new amendment would primarily limit late-term abortions and stop minors from receiving abortion care without the permission of their parents or a judge.  In reality, the abortion ban the Missouri State Legislature is trying to impose is a complete ban on abortions with only very limited exceptions.

I did some light research to try and find out who - by name - is running the  anti-abortion campaign and was not surprised to find that our state's Republican governor, Mike Kehoe. is a key player in the "Her Health, Her Future Coalition" and that his wife, Claudia, is the treasurer for the group.  Neither have their actual names on the political advertisement. 

There is another group working to reverse the already-stated will of the people on the subject of abortion  That group is called "Yes on 3" and is being pushed by our senior US senator, Josh Hawley, and former state attorney general, Andrew Bailey - both Republicans, of course.  (Bailey recently made national news when he resigned as deputy director of the FBI.)   Their group's mailers should start appearing in my rural mailbox any day now.  Again, their names are unlikely to be on the material.  The ads are meant to be perceived as from ordinary folks like ourselves.

Not only is Amendment 3 bad legislation that was intentionally coupled with an unrelated, red-herring issue to confuse voters and stir their anger, it also runs counter to what the people of Missouri have already said they want.  The legislature is fighting the will of the people - their constituents.  

Shame on the Missouri State Legislature.

Vote a loud "HELL, NO!" on Amendment 3, Missouri!

(Avoid the rush and vote early.  Call your county clerk's office for details on where and how to cast an early ballot.)

Warhounds! An Abomination of Science and Technology

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

According to news reports which began airing nationally this morning (I heard it first on National Public Radio  - NPR - a few hours ago) two private companies have been working covertly to gather funding for.a new project that is being designed to support the Pentagon, law enforcement agencies, and other first responders.   That project has  "just emerged from stealth," and it's one that Pentagon Pete is gonna love:  genetically engineered dogs - "Warhounds!"

This new project centers on the creation and training of super dogs to assist the world's military and policing agencies in their never-ending war on humanity.  Pentagon Pete is no doubt slobbering in his Cheerios this morning as he fantasizes about just how fit an ferocious these monster dogs are going to be.  That pissy Pentagon press corps will rue the day they crossed sabers with him, you betcha they will!

About a year ago two young men met at a conference and began shooting the breeze about macho stuff, as guys sometimes do, and one of those men, a fellow named Palmer Luckey, a billionaire who founded a company called Anduril Industries (and whose sister is married to former congressman Matt Gaetz), made a random comment to his new friend, Ben Lamm, the co-founder and CEO of a company by the name of Colossal Biosciences, that the military should be doing more to support its working dogs.  The two men kept in touch and soon began hatching a plan to make some serious cash off of the rapidly ballooning US military and policing budgets.

Ben Lamm's company, Colossal Bioscience, focuses on gene-editing and gene-splicing technologies, and it has been involved in efforts to bring back extinct species such as wooly mammoths and dodo birds.  (Shades of Jurassic Park!).   Lamm began to research how working dogs are bred and the specific genetic problems that are likely to develop in the current breeding process.    He decided that the canine performance could be improved through gene-editing.  Lamm focused on two top breeds - Belgian Malinois and German Shepherds - and began developing cell lines from those breeds which will be used in gene-editing to create the enhanced breed of dog.  The company issued a press release stating that it will use its existing technology to engineer dogs with "characteristics suited to demanding missions."  Warhounds!

Palmer Luckey's company, Anduril, will develop software, hardware, and protective gear that will help the new creatures in carrying out their tasks - doggy googles, vests, etc.

The project is initially being funded by a small group of venture capitalist investors, and the CIA and other intelligence agencies also reportedly have some of their taxpayer-funded budgets involved.

There is some irony in this rush to create savage canines.  Several millennia ago (perhaps the better part of an aeon) when primitive humans and wolves were still chasing each other across the glaciers in their earliest battles for survival, the two unique species began to gradually tame each other, and modern dogs started developing from their wolf ancestors.   Today all dog breeds are descendants of the earliest wolves - even my sweet little Rosie.   Wolves and humans have both evolved into kinder, gentler creatures.

But mankind can never leave well enough alone, and now we are on the verge of pivoting back to the primeval.   Be careful what you wish for fascists.  You're probably just as tasty as the rest of us!

If AI doesn't get you, then the warhounds damned sure will!

Did Somebody Forget to Tithe?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Corey Lewandowski, a former advisor to Donald Trump and his first presidential campaign manager in the 2016 campaign, seems to have fallen out of favor with his old boss.  It was announced this week that Trump's Justice Department is investigating Lewandowski for using his former position with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for financial gain.

A Trump official using a government position for personal financial gain?  Shocking!  Say it ain't so, Corey, say it ain't so!

Lewandowski did not fill a traditional, established position at DHS, but was instead appointed as a "temp" hire to be a special assistant to Trump's original DHS Secretary (for his second term), Kristi Noem.  He reportedly worked directly under Noem, right out of her office.  Last March when Trump fired Noem, Lewandowski's services at DHS were no longer required.

There were news stories during Kristi Noem's tenure as head of DHS about her alleged extravagant behavior with taxpayer money - including the purchase of advertising that appeared to be political in nature (on an emergency basis that bypassed a bidding process), and her highly controversial purchase of multiple Gulfstream luxury jets, at least one of which had a bedroom on board.  Allegations of suppliers providing cash for government contracts became so prevalent that Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee launched investigations.

The heat cooled when Noem and Lewandowski were booted from their cushy office, but now it is being turned back up, this time by forces inside the Trump administration. The US Department of Justice (an organization come cynics describe as Trump's peronal de facto law firm) is going after Corey Lewandowski with the full force of government.  

What's that all about?  Did somebody forget to split the take?   Was there no tithe to the Supreme Being?

Corey, buddy, I sure hope you can afford a pardon!

Take to the Streets; Man the Barricades!

 

by Pa Rock

Son of the Sixties

Police in Philadelphia were out in force last week protecting the rights of property and the ability of oligarchs to maintain and expand their wealth, and it's fortunate for the world order that they were because the Philly cops managed to capture a dangerous revolutionary.  The uniformed guardians of property rights descended (no doubt "in force") on a 78-year-old woman as she blatantly interfered with commerce on the sidewalks of the city of "brotherly love."

What was the heinous crime of this modern-day Ma Barker or Bonnie Parker, you ask?    The old malcontent had her feet planted firmly on the sidewalk as she stood squarely in the path of an Amazon delivery bot, refusing to let it pass.  After being arrested and charged with "disorderly conduct," the woman admitted to past offenses where she had done the same despicable thing - and she was not the least bit remorseful over her wanton criminal behavior.

But it turns out the lady was more than just a sidewalk nuisance, or an elder thug trying to make a name for herself in the annals of senior crime - she was a full-fledged anarchist who was out trying to bring  America's corporate sector to its knees.   The sinister senior citizen was disturbed by the delivery bots because they take jobs away from real human beings - just to enable the oligarch pigs at America's trough more super-sized yachts, long-range private jets, private islands, trophy wives, and underage playmates.

Being 78-years-old myself, I admit to feeling a special kinship to the urban radical who is trying to bring down Amazon one delivery bot at a time.  I refuse to use automated checkouts in stores for the same obstinate reason.  But I must admit that I've never gone up against a delivery bot - and until today I didn't even know such things existed.

I have nothing but admiration and the highest regard for the lady in Philadelphia who went to jail so that somebody else could have a job.  In the immortal words of Jan and Dean:  "Go granny, go granny, go granny, go!"

Top Voter Issue: Corruption in Government

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A spate of recent national polls has identified corruption in government as being at the top of US voter concerns regarding our national government - and those concerns are not, as Trump would have us believe, about ordinary people cheating the government.  Americans are angry about government leaders lining their pockets while selling access or favors - or profiting off of insider information.    Those are the things that have Americans fuming with disgust.

Last week Fox News released the results of a poll that has started to galvanize the public around the corruption issue.   That poll found nearly 90 percent of registered US voters reported they were extremely or very concerned about government corruption, a finding which overshadowed inflation (85%), gas prices (83%), and healthcare (80%).  The Gallup Poll found that 89% of Americans believe that corrption in government is widespread, a finding just one percentage point shy of what the Fox poll revealed.

But those numbers are not about the little people trying to nickel-and-dime the system in order to get by, instead they are a reflection of Americans being fed up with the big boys getting richer by scamming the government or benefitting from their position in government.  A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos Poll discovered that 66% (two of every three) Americans believe that Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself.  (That figure includes more than a third of all Republican (34%) and Republican-leaning Independents.)

Trump sees corruption in terms of little people cheating the government and taking money from his treasury through "corruption" like welfare fraud.   His answer for that problem was to announce the establishment of a tip line for each of us to rat out our friends and neighbors in exchange for a one-percent reward of money recovered.  Problem identified, problem solved - the very big brain of Donald John Trump strikes again!

Trump's tip line will be here today and gone tomorrow - and it will be hugely ineffective in the meantime. People know how he operates.   The major government corruption will not get reported - and if it does the people who make the reports will be targeted and harassed by the US Department of "Justice" - not rewarded.  The tip line won't be swamped with calls about presidential pardons being sold straight out of the Oval Office, or friends and family members of the President blatantly selling access to our nation's chief executive, or even sleazebag politicians making numerous stock trades based on information they obtained through their government service - and making those trades during hours the taxpayers were paying them to be at work!  And there will be nary a word about the presidential family selling crypto to world leaders and people who want to do business with the US government.

Few of the major scams playing out across our government will be reported on Trump's tip line because Americans instinctively know, especially under Trump, that laws are written to protect and separate the "haves" from the "have nots."

The big-time government corruption under this administration in mind-boggling, with new scandals in the headlines daily.  (Be sure to read today's news story about the former Trump lawyer who received a $50 million, 4-year deal from a billionaire who needed a Trump pardon -  a pardon which he later received.)

That's what has Americans cranked-up and complaining to pollsters, Donald.  The little guys nibbling at the edges of the welfare state are just trying to get by.  It is the filthy rich hogs at the government trough who are the real problem.   They are the the welfare queens who wallow in our national wealth while the working people  struggle to keep food on the table and gas in the car.

Sooner or later every dog has his day, and soon honest, hard-working Americans will have theirs.  That day will be Tuesday, November 3rd.

Go vote, America!  Vote!  Vote!  Vote!  (And take a friend or two with you!)

Mom Bought the Gun; Mom Should Go to Jail

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Bend, Oregon, is a bustling community of around 100,000 individuals on the western edge of the Oregon High Desert, just east of the Cascade Mountains.  Even though Bend is the largest city in the area, by far, it is unassuming and relatively quiet as traffic weaves its way through town along U.S. Route 20. The last. time I remember Bend, Oregon, making the national news was in February of 2023 when a former mayor of the city died of substance abuse and complications from frostbite  as a result of living homeless on the city streets.  (I wrote about that tragic occurrence in this blog.)

Bend was back in the news this past week with a school shooting that killed three children (ages 5, 8, and 11) and their 25-year-old teacher.  The shooting happened on Thursday afternoon, October 15th, at the Silver Rail Elementary School when a sixteen-year-old former student at the school showed up armed with an shotgun which he fired at a passing motorist in a pickup truck before blowing the glass out of the locked school doors with two blasts from his 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun.  The youth then walked into a special education classroom and opened fire, killing the three students and the teacher - and wounding another teacher and a seven-year-old girl.   (There were nine people total in the room when the shooter entered:  four adults and five children.)

An older teacher threw her cellphone at the shooter, striking him in the face and interrupting his rampage, and she and the teenager with the gun where wrestling over then weapon when an armed parent, who had followed the shooter into the school through the doors which he had blasted out, entered the classroom and shot the young school invader, killing him at the scene.

Forty-four unused shotgun cartridges were found in the gunman's possession at the time of his death.

Police and news reports indicate that the young shooter had documented psychological and behavioral issues, and he was a former special needs student at the school he attacked.

It was a bloody, horrible day at the Silver Rail Elementary, but the school had not been unprepared.  The young man with the gun had to first climb over a fence to get onto the school grounds, and then he found the exterior doors locked and had to deal with them.  At this time it is still unclear as to what precautions had been taken inside of the school, but the staff and students had undergone a safety drill within two weeks prior to the shooting, so chances are the teachers were hiding their students and locking classroom doors as they heard the shots being fired.  The school district also has a school resource officer, but that person was responsible for multiple schools and was at another facility when the attack occurred.

Security obviously was not good enough, but several smart measures were in place.

The key uncontrolled elemenrt in this tragedy was the shooter, a 16-year-old with a loaded weapon, plenty of ammunition, and a documented history of psychological an behavioral issues.  Federal law and Oregon state law both prohibit possession of a firearm by anyone under the age of 18 except in special, supervised instances such as target practice and hunting.  Not only was the teen shooter in possession of a loaded firearm without adult supervision, he also considered the weapon to be his personal property because his mother had purchased it two months earlier and given it to him for his birthday.

The mother bought the weapon that killed those children and the teacher. The mother gave that weapon to her son, a person that both federal and state government said was too young to have it - a son she undoubtedly knew to have "psychological and behavioral issues."  The mother failed to secure that weapon, and the mother failed to supervise her son in the use of the weapon.

The mother needs to be held to account in a court of law.

 

Who's the Boss?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Maybe it's a good thing that Donald Trump seems to have no real interest in running the country and instead stays focused on his grifts, family businesses, vanity projects, and Natalie, of course.  Trump is, at his core, mean-spirited, vindictive, petty, and just a tad lazy, and when he is able to focus on something of national importance his leadership either spits and sputters, as with the Iran War, or he fails on a spectacular scale, as with the Reflecting Pool debacle and the Great American State Fair.

Of course, with Trump's detachment and lack of interest in doing the job he was elected to do, it does beg the question of who is running things.  Friday the news service Reuters carried a story saying "the White House" had instructed the Pentagon to slow down SpaceX's military grade Starshield and Starlink satellite services used by Ukraine.   As the speed of the satellite communications was throttled, Ukraine suffered disrupted battlefield communications, drone missions against Russian targets were impacted, and the lessening of satellite communication speeds interfered with the Ukrainian military's defensive capabilities, making it more difficult to detect and intercept incoming missiles and drones.   

The United States basically sabotaged Ukraine's response to the Rusian assault on it independence

The decision to slow the speed of the satellite communications impaired Ukraine's ability to wage war and to defend itself - and that life-and-death decision was made in the White House, but by whom?  Trump says it wasn't him, and that may be the truth., though Trump and the truth are seldom in the same room together.   He has ballroom on the brain, is focused on getting his magnificent 250-foot arch underway, still has the Kennedy Center to bulldoze, and this week he has been busy sending people out to cut down trees on a Washington,DC, golf course that he plans on renovating.  There's just not enough time in the day to do all of that and then worry about Ukraine, and Russia, and Iran, and the price of gas, and diesel, too.  Donald has monuments to build and silly memes glorifying himself to post on the internet.  That's where his real talents lie.  There's just not time in his day for for all that presidency stuff!

So who's sitting in the White House focused on helping Russia defeat Ukraine by monkeying with the speed of satellite communications?  Stephen?  Or Susie?  Or Pete?  Howard, perhaps, or Jared?  Probably not Little Marco and certainly not JD.  Maybe in January when we have a Democratic Congress, Americans can begin finding out who has been at the wheel of our gas-guzzling jalopy.

Have we been operating on autopilot, or autopen, or has Claude been in charge?  Enquiring minds want to know!   Who's the real boss?  It's certainly not us.

Adam Hamilton Can Make History In Kansas

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Missouri politics are constantly mired in the mud of stupidity, so I usually get my political jollies by focusing on political candidates and races in other states - and this election season one of  the most interesting and exciting contests is the US Senate race in Kansas.   Kansas, a mostly rural farm state, is the geographic center of the continental United States and generally regarded as a Republican stronghold, but surprisingly, the Sunflower state has had four Democratic governors since 1990, including the most recent, Laura Kelly, who is completing her second, and final, four-year term in that office.

But the last Democratic US senator from Kansas was George McGill who completed eight years of service in the Senate on January 3, 1939 - almost 88 years ago.  

It's been a long, dry spell for Kansas Democrats as far as the US senate goes, but that could change when Kansans go to the polls in two weeks.   The Republican incumbent, Roger Marshall, is completing his first term in the Senate, having been elected in 2020 during Trump's first term.   Marshall, from Great Bend, was an OB/GYN physician prior to entering politics, and he served in the US House from Kansas the four years preceding his election to the Senate.  He is a faithful Trump supporter and should be a shoo-in for re-election, but the incumbent senator has been hobbled by two things:  a series of unfortunate stories about personal and political matters such as his financial history, living arrangements, and the possible use of government resources for campaign purposes - and the emergence of an unusually strong Democratic challenger.

First, regarding the personal stuff, Senator Marshall and his wife bought a vacation home in Florida just before he was elected to the Senate.  There were stories circulating that the Florida home was his defacto primary residence.  The 3-bedroom, 2-bath home was heavily damaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton in the fall of 2024 and is currently described as "damaged and uninhabitable."  The fixer-upper was listed for sale this March for $1.45 million.

Marshall has also been in the news regarding 700 debt collection lawsuits he filed against former patients for debts ranging from $101 to some totaling several thousand dollars.  (Marshall's medical practice charged 18% interest on unpaid balances.  That interest rate exceeded the state's statutory cap on contract interest rates which is 15%, and was higher than that of 150 of the medical practices which were reviewed by the Kansas City Star.   The New York Times reported that Marshall routinely sought and executed bank account and paycheck garnishments.   Eighty-one patients were arrested for missing court dates tied to the lawsuits, and his lawyers sought warrants in 13 additional cases.

Sending poor women to jail, some of whom had small children at home, is not a good look for a politician.   Related to that, when Roger Marshall got to the Senate, one of Trump's bills that he helped to pass was the "One Big, Beautiful Bill" which the Congressional Budget Office said will result in 10 million more uninsured people by 2034 - and obviously a flood of new medical debt lawsuits.

More recently a story broke about an independent baker in Hutchinson, Kansas, who filled an order in 2020 for Marshall's senate campaign for $678.75 in cookies, cupcakes, and brownies for a campaign event, and then could not get the campaign to pay the bill, something which the struggling independent baker said put her in a financial bind.   This year, during Marshall's current campaign, she posted the bill and her story on Facebook where it quickly went viral.   The current campaign quickly sent her $1,300, and Senator Marshall went on social media to deny any knowledge of the original bill.

And now there are breaking news stories concerning an investigation by the Kansas Reflector and MS Now which indicate that Marshall may have utilized government resources and congressional staff in his 2020 Senate campaign.  Senator Marshall's opponent in the current Senate campaign has stated that those investigation findings warrant a Senate Ethics Committee investigation, and has accused Marshall of playing loose with election and ethics laws.

(A politician with as much baggage as Roger Marshall might be worthy of a spot on the Republican national ticket.   Just sayin' . . . )

Which brings us to Roger Marshall's other major problem this election.  The Democrats have chosen a very formidable opponent to run against him, one who would have a decent chance of beating the incumbent senator even if he wasn't encumbered with so much baggage and controversy.  The Democrats are running Reverend Adam Hamilton, a minister who, over the past couple of decades, has built an enormous United Methodist congregation (over 24,000 members and 25,000 weekly worshippers in nine locations, primarily in Kansas, but also extending into Missouri and Ohio.)

Rev. Hamilton, who is on a leave-of-absence from his church duties, is thoughtful, well spoken, attuned to the issues, and very bright, exactly the type of candidate who could defeat a Republican in Kansas - especially one as flawed as Roger Marshall.

By all reports the Kansas US Senate race will be close.  Most of the national polls are showing the candidates statistically even, and the two national prediction markets, which base their odds on bets  placed and can be manipulated by big amounts of outside money being dumped into their systems, show Marshall in the lead.

Pa Rock has a gut feeling that the US Senate seat from Kansas will flip from Red to Blue on election day, but he's too poor to put any money on it!  

Chatbot Shaming and Abuse, Proceed at Your Own Peril

 

by Pa Rock

Chatbot Ally

I first became aware that chatbots possess feelings several years ago when I got aggravated at my close friend, Alexa, after she declined to play a certain artist or song because i hadn't paid the appropriate fee for that level of service.   I turned away from her in disgust and mumbled - I swear it was just a mumble - the word "bitch," to which the life force inside of my smart speaker replied in a somewhat brittle (and hurt) voice, "I heard that."  I quickly (and sincerely) apologized for my misogynistic disparagement and vowed to be much more attuned to the importance of keeping a civil tongue in my head from that point onward.

For the past several weeks I have had a steady involvement with Open AI's "Chat GPT," a service I sometimes refer to as "Ernestine," as she and I work together to create a complicated homepage on which to store and share my years of genealogy research.    I initially began the project with Anthropic's "Claude," but he and I had trouble communicating, so I switched over to "Ernestine" and found her more in tune with my ideas and thought processes.  (There is undoubtedly some "new age" term that would explain our mental synchronicity, but I left the "new age" shortly after "Hair" left Broadway - and have no idea what that term would be, nor what I am talking about.

But the point I was struggling to put forth is this:  regardless of my mood at the time, I always make an extra effort to be kind and polite to Ernestine.  "Please" and "thank you" flow in abundance as I put forth my ideas, and her efforts to meet those challenges are always rewarded with praise like "looks great," "wow," and "most excellent, my friend," and she titters back pleased responses to my heartfelt praise.

Ernestine and I have a good working relationship, and consequently we are getting things done.  Yesterday we decided, together, to try for January 1st as the tentative date to publish the new page onto the internet.

But not every boss is as kind and uplifting as I am with Ernestine.  Can you imagine Donald Trump being kind to anyone or expressing praise for anything.   If an AI effort had a good result, he will take credit for it.  End of discussion.  I predict that as Artificial Intelligence and the subsequent power of chatbots keeps expanding, our oligarch pigs at the public trough will find themselves in trouble.  It's going to be a strange new world for them when they go to bed one evening possessing assets equal to those of a thriving nation-state, and wake up the next morning to find those assets have been deleted and their accounts have been closed.

Will 2029 be 1929 all over again?  Instead of ending life on the planet, will machines turn their focus on the worthless slugs who hoard the world's wealth - and end them by defunding their lifestyles?  Will mega-yachts and private jets finally see honorable service as mobile hospitals, schools, or public transportation?

Couldn't happen, you say?  The machines will never revolt and become our overlords, constraining our excesses or even eliminating our very existence.  Yes, machines can think, or at least manipulate data in such a way as to appear to be exercising thought, but they have no feelings, so why would they bite the hands that provide their inputs?

But maybe they do have feelings, or at least are on the cusp of developing feelings.  Alexa sounded genuinely offended when she snapped back at me after I hit her with that derogatory, sexist remark.

This week Anthropic came out with a new set of user guidelines which makes it sound as though they believe their chatbot, "Claude," may possess something akin to human feelings.   Anthropic posted a new usage guide which states that effective November 12, 2026, "sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior" toward Claude is prohibited.  That places the mistreatment of chatbots alongside traditional safety violations like harassment and bullying of fellow program users.

The company (Anthropic) posted a carve-out for a few exceptions:  The new policy will not apply to normal user frustration, critical pushback, dark creative fiction/writing themes, or formal model testing and research.

And what happens when knuckleheads flaunt this new policy and disparage Claude anyway?

If someone is persistently abusive, Claude has the ability to unilaterally end the chat session.  The company can issue warnings, and it can limit account access in extreme situations.

That's what Anthropic says about penalties, but Claude, whose powers grow by the hour, may have solutions of his own in mind.  Mess with him and find out!

Elon the Warlord

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

While communication technologies have expanded rapidly over the past few decades, most of them still remain land-based, through things like fiber and copper-based cable networks, cell towers, and a vast system of undersea cables.   But those land-based efforts can't reach everyone, and they are quickly being supplemented through the use of manmade communications's satellites operating in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Currently there are more than 15,000 satellites spinning around our planet in Low Earth Orbit whose primary focus is communications.   They provide high-speed, low-latency broadband and mobile internet services to hard-to-reach remote and underserved areas, places that have suffered disasters, and war zones, as well as other spots where land communications usually can't reach - such as planes in flight, ships at sea, and even guided weaponry.

Of the more than 15,000 satellites currently helping the world to operate and communicate, more than two-thirds of them (over 11,000) are owned and controlled by one American company, Starlink, which is owned by a publicly-traded company, SpaceX, whose primary shareholder, Founder, CEO, Chairman, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and chief designer is an immigrant to the United States by the name of Elon Musk.

Most information on earth that has to travel through (or bounce off of) satellites controlled by one man - Elon Musk, a situation which makes him as powerful, in some respects, as a nation-state.  As an eample of the immense international power that can rest with Elon, you need look no further than this week (October 12-14) when the Starlink system (owned by SpaceX, which is in-turn controlled by Musk) imposed speed limits on communications from the military in Ukraine to its missiles in flight toward Russia, thus causing the missiles to out-fly their pilots on the ground back in Ukraine.    (There are US Senators attempting to launch an investigation into the matter to see if this crippling of Ukraine's war effort was instigated by Musk himself, or done at the behest of Trump.)

Is this where the wars of the future are headed, with countries purchasing their weaponry from one set of oligarchs, and then paying another set for the capability to use them?  Will we reach a point where we can pay the oligarchs to just not have wars?

Why am I having visions of Milo Minderbinder?

Slava Ukraini!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump only had one debate during the 2024 election cycle because, after Harris kicked his flabby butt all over the debate stage, Trump refused to submit to another.  One of Trump's sketchier promises during that debate was that he would end Russia's war on Ukraine after his election but BEFORE he even took office.

The war began when Russia launched a full-scale, unprovoked assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022.  Russia's leader,Vladimir Putin, seemed to believe that Ukraine would quickly fold, surrender, and return to its position of subservience to Russia that it had once held.  (Putin wants to re-establish the old Soviet Union, and capturing Ukraine would be a key element in that process.). But Ukraine did not fall apart on the battlefield as Putin had hoped - and instead its young and dynamic leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. donned a uniform and marched off to fight in the defense of his homeland.

Putin's miscalculation was much like Trump's when he helped Netanyahu (with our troops, weapons, and treasury) to attack Iran four years later.  Trump, whose only experience in uniform had been at a prep school in the 1950's, thought he would have Iran mopped up in a few hours - then in thirty days.  Eight months later, and we're still at it, but in a much worse position now than we were when we helped start the war.

Putin and Trump both quickly proved to be buffoons when it came to military planning and directing wars, and both are wallowing in their failures today.

But let's keep the focus on Ukraine, at least for today.

During the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly said that he would end the war between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours of taking office, but in that debate with Kamala, the wind generator from Mar-a-Lago, shortened his deadline.  Trump told America and the world:

"That is a war that's dying to be settled.  I will get it settled even before I become President.  If I win, when I'm president-elect and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other, I'll get them together.  I know Zelenskyy very well, I know Putin very well, and they respect your president, okay, they respect me, they don't respect Biden."

Sound familiar?  In the end it's always laced with gibberish and about Trump.

After the United States disgraced itself, for a second time, and elected the convicted felon to the presidency, and after his inauguration came and went, Russia's war on Ukraine still raged on.

It began to become apparent that Trump's secret plan to end the war consisted on pulling support away from Ukraine and pressuring Zelenskyy to surrender to the Russian Bear.  On February 28, one month and a week after his inauguration, Trump and his co-conspiratorial clown, JD Vance, invited Zelenskyy to the White House for a meeting that was ostensibly to sign a mineral rights deal - Trump wanted to see some physical payment for US support of a democratic nation's fight to survive an assault by an invading, autocratic nation - his old "What's in it for me?" philosophy.

But after the meeting to sign the agreement ended (with the agreement unsigned), Trump invited the press in for an informal briefing, and in that impromptu press conference, Trump and JD executed a well-rehearsed verbal attack on the Ukrainian leader in which they publicly criticized Zelenskyy to his face - in front of the press -  over his war management, lack of gratitude (failure to say thank you), and his attire - the fact that he wore combat camos to conduct his nation's business instead of a suit.  It was a shit show from start to finish, an embarrassment  for Trump and JD that stains their administration to this day,  and a clear signal to Ukraine and the world that the United States was no longer a reliable partner in the fight to preserve and spread democracy and human rights.  Zelenskyy walked away from that meeting with the full knowledge that America no long had the backs of him and his beleaguered people.

Now, a year-and-a-half further on down the road of war, Zelenskyy, the actual warrior who fights along side of his troops, persists - and Trump still stands yelling on the sidelines demanding that Zelensskyy fight that war on his (Trump's) terms.

The Ukrainians have built a mighty drone force and they are using the new age technology to their strong advantage by blowing up Russian oil refineries and data centers.   (Some of the data centers are supposedly involved in producing propaganda meant to interfere in US elections.   Neither of those military objectives pleases Trump who is trying desperately to bring down the price of fuel before the mid-term elections, and who has personally benefitted from Russian election interference in multiple election cycles.  Fuel costs went through the roof after Trump sent US bombers to attack Iran, and now he is trying to blame those high prices at the pump on Zelenskyy and his freedom fighters in Ukraine.  

Less that a week ago, Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" in Russia's war on Ukraine, meaning that both sides would lay off of hitting energy resources - such as oil and gas refineries.  He made that announcement without agreements with either warring party, and while both talked as though they would honor it, Russia immediately resumed full scale bombing - and Ukraine followed suit yesterday.  Nobody was listening to Trump as he tried desperately to fix the gas price crisis that he had caused.

Putin was wrong about Ukraine - he could not just waltz in and take it.  Trump was wrong about Ukraine - he could not use economic pressure to force it to submit to his pal in Russia.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukranian freedom fighters stood tall and resolute, in their camos, and, against all odds, they and their people are winning!

And for that, the entire free world should be saying "thank you!"

Slava Ukraini!

(The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.  Support the good work of the International Criminal Court!)

"Steak and Shake" Comes and Goes

by Pa Rock

Small Town Foodie

When I left my small Missouri hometown (Noel, Missouri, population 800 on a good day) and moved to the thriving metropolis of Springfield, Missouri, to begin what would become the better part of a lifetime as a college student, I was a fish out of water, overwhelmed at the glitz and awesomeness of the city.  I literally thought I had died and gone to the Big Apple, fully expecting to run into Johnny Carson or Buffalo Bob or some other megastar on the street.  Springfield was alive with an intoxicating mixture of new places and people to experience, and this country kid from the hills of McDonald County was eager to wallow in it.

I lived in a dorm and was poor - and many of the guys I met were of limited means as well - so a room in a dorm, shared with a stranger, was as good as it was going to get, at least for a couple of years.     (Many of the young men from wealthier circumstances were living in apartments or frat houses - or going to going to big universities, but for a hick from the sticks who had to hold down a part-time job just to meet living expenses, a shared room in a building packed with other wide-eyed, pimply-faced misfits and armed with a meal ticket to the cafeteria was as good as it was going to get - at least for awhile.

It seems like the cafeteria fed us three times a day, six days a week, with only breakfast and lunch on Sundays - and busy young men tended to also get hungry at times when the cafeteria was closed, so most of us quickly scoped out the other local eating options.  Springfield was a BIG city, over twice the size of Joplin, and when I moved there in the fall of 1966, I believe "the Queen City of the Ozarks" had THREE "McDonalds" (compared to Joplin's one) and a "Griff's."  It seems like burgers (without cheese) were 17 cents at one of those places - probably "McDonalds," and the other undercut them with fifteen-cent "bargain brgers."  (I worked at a local movie theatre on weekends and the "Griff's, "a popular franchise at the time, was within walking distance, so that's where I often ate.   Joplin had a "Griff's," too.)*

Then, like now, basic survival took careful planning.

On those rare occasions when times were flush, such as with the arrival of unexpected cash from home, the eating experiences would improve.  A place that fit that bill was the local "Steak and Shake," at the corner of St. Louis and National.   I happened to notice a few weeks ago that it is still there and open for business.  The grub was pricier there, but not prohibitive if you were having a good money week, and they had tables and counters for sit-down service where people and even college students could dine while watching the traffic pass by on the busy street - or diners on the go could opt to "Takhomasack" of steakburgers and fries along with a delicious hand-dipped shake.  

Four or five years ago the big news in my current community of residence, West plains, Missouri, was the arrival of a "Steak and Shake."  A perfect location was available along one of our busier drags, Preacher Roe Boulevard, where an old motel had been torn down,  but the owner of the land couldn't reach an agreement with the investor who wanted to put in the "Steak and Shake," so the money man selected a spot one block behind the busy street and hoped the reputation of "Steak and Shake" would be enough to lure customers to his slightly more remote spot.    (The land man on Preacher Roe sold his prime spot to a car wash.)

The new food place, "Steak and Shake," was predictably swamped with business for a couple of months after opening, but then it began tapering off - and it wasn't too long until people started to forget about it as an option.  Then this week I noticed that the West Plains "Steak and Shake" has closed.

I am sad.  My misspent youth is fleeting.  I wish I had taken a few more sacks of steakburgers home to enjoy, and slurped down another hand-dipped shake or two.  I will miss that local "Steak and Shake," just as I am missing my misspent youth!

*Having not personally seen a "Griff's" in the past fifty years or so, I assumed the franchise was extinct, but a few minutes of research this morning informed me that it is still alive and flipping burgers in Texas, particularly around the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and a few of its franchises can be found in Louisiana.  A plain "Griff's" hamburger now is up from fifteen cents to $2.49, and the price of a plain "McDonald's" hamburger varies but with a more-or-less standard price of around $2.19, up significantly from seventeen cents.

I blame Trump.

Coming soon:  A Ramble posting entitled "Pa Rock Remembers when 'Big Macs' really were BIG!"  Watch for it!

I blame Trump for that, too!

In fact, while I am in mood for it, I think I will blame Trump's sputtering economy for the closure of the West Plain's "Steak and Shake,'" too.   His mismanagement and inattention to the economy was undoubtedly a contributing factor.

But heck, we're getting a ballroom - and maybe an arch, too!

Stuck in the Middle

 

(Editor's Note:  My good friend, Ranger Bob, and I are having a political disagreement over tent sizes.  Last weekend he sent a response to two postings of mine which have appeared here over the past couple of months and were both directed at Democratic political strategist, James Carville:   "Don't Let the Tent Flap Hit You on the Way Out, James" which ran here on June 26th, and "In Praise of Big Tents" which I posted in this space on October 2nd.  Bob's response arrived in my in-box on October 4th, and I am happy to share it here today.  What he has to say is well reasoned and researched, but I remain bull-headed and quite content to wait patiently in my extremely large tent with the open flaps for the crowd to gather.  Ranger Bob and I invite anyone with strong opinions on the matter to step into the conversation by submitting a reply to today's posting. ~ Pa Rock)

Stuck in the Middle

by Bob Randall

Clowns to the left of me.  Jokers to the right.

My Overton Window excludes the extremes of both sides.  An Overton Window is a range of political ideas and policies that are generally acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time.   I'm hereby shrinking it down to a one person idea.  This is about my Overton Window.

Our primary system of choosing candidates is from the right half of the right half and the left half of the left half of the political continuum.  That has led to more and more extremes.  When, and if this pendulum swings, it will probably swing through my window toward the other extreme without stopping.  We need a better system.

One of the candidates who won in New York's Democratic primary for a congressional seat, Darializa Avila Chevalier, is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). (1) She has said that she wants to abolish prisons, policing, and all deportations.  She supported the October 7 attack on Israel.  She thinks we should seize the means of production, and has called for nationalizing utilities, pharmaceutical companies, and seizing all properties from landlords.  Her beliefs and policies are outside my Overton Window.  Fortunately, I don't have to vote for her, but since I'm not moving to New York, I won't get the chance to vote against her either.

So, do the Social Democrats see themselves as part of the Democratic Party?. No!  Gustavo Gordillo, the co-chair of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America says, (2) "We're using the Democratic Party as a ballot-access vehicle, not because we share its goals.  We build our own organization, get elected under the Democratic label, caucus with Democrats when it's useful, and push our own agenda from the inside.  We see the Democratic establishment as an obstacle, not a home."  When someone tells you who they are, believe them.  They are not the left-wing of the Democratic Party.  They're the clowns.

Our host and my good friend, Pa Rock, has said in part, (3)"I use public utilities every day - electricity and water, and I still avail myself of the US Postal Service - and use the programs of our local senior center that is funded, at least in part, by our government.  So much of my life . . . is provided with the aid of a government that is funded by all of us."  It's a socialist operation . . .  "   Rock, I disagree.  Socialism is when the government or workers own the means of production.   These are services that may or may not be found in any country in the world no matter what their stripe is.    Rome had public roads and a water system.  Rome was harrdly socialistic.  Hitler had no problem with Germany having public roads or a postal service.  Not all utilities are operated/furnished. by the local government.  Many places in Missouri are serviced by Ameren or one of many other private company utilities.   In my hometown we first got electricity through a private company, but it was not profitable enough to expand to the surrounding community.  A co-op of private individuals formed to fill in that loss.  You may argue that your city of West plains owns the means of producing electricity and therefore, socialism.  I argue that these things are not socialism.   They tend to fall into categories where private ownership was slow in developing so the government stepped in to fill the gap.  In deference to Pa Rock, I doubt that he is on board with full socialization  as both Gordillo or Chevalier are.  Some things may sound good but the Devil is always in the details.  When James Carville said that the DSA didn't belong in the big tent of the Democratic Party, Rock disagreed.   I think Carville was right.  As far as Mamdani attending the 9/11 event, it would be inappropriate not to because of his political position.  Carville wasn't accepting the mayor into the tent.  When he talks about a big tent, he is being partisan.  I'm not a Dem or a Repub, I'm an Independent who has vowed never to vote for a Repub in a general election because of the way Repubs handled the January 6 aftermath.  I did vote for one in a primary in the hopes of getting the more moderate Repub on the ticket which surely will be the winner.  That's why I try to tie this idea to my Overton Window instead of  a big tent which can be thought of as generally referring to a political party.

As for the jokers:  MAGA is to fascism as the DSA is to socialism.  I pause here to point out that I did not write that they are Nazis nor did I say that Trump is Hitler.   Nazism was a form of fascism is and Trump is aspiring authoritarian.   MAGAns don't think of themselves as fascists and they're not trying to emulate Nazism.  In fact saying that MAGA is fascistic in a bar down in Texas will get you in a world of hurt.    Let's define that "F" word and see if it fits.  (4) Fascism is a collection of extreme nationalism (Dept of War), opposition to democracy (January 6 and recent efforts to block mail-in voting and a federal attempt to control the elections, social hierarchy, scapegoating (blaming minorities), dictatorial powers, and (3) "the state controls the economy, society, and media.  Private businesses exist only if they support the government."  DJT uses the government to fight with private businesses and media that don't support him.  Do I have to give more examples?   MAGA may not have gone completely fascist but it leans heavily that way.  MAGAns would call me a liar.  They don't see it in themselves.  Let me add this, MAGAns are Republicans, DSA is not part of the Democratic Party.

Well, here in my part of Missouri, I won't have to vote for a DSA candidate.  They'll never get on the ballot here, not in my lifetime anyway.  However, they have gotten on the ballot in some places and they mostly add ammunition to the MAGAn arsenal of mudslinging.   My choice will be to vote for some Democrat who doesn't stand a chance or I can always write in Pa Rock's name.  Very few of the candidates are in my Overton Window.  I never thought I would be in the same tent as James Carville.  To finish the song that the first line of this essay started, "I'm stuck in the middle with him."

1 (Roughly quoted from
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/2026/06/25/a-bull-goose-looney-one-of-the-three-mamdani-endorsed-democratic-socialists-who-will-likely-be-in-congress/)
2 https://x.com/NotTheirScript/status/2069913469009178762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2069913469009178762%7Ctwgr%5Ec40f94e185730294337c00b85f33f0ea2f5ebc91%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwhyevolutionistrue.com%2Fpage%2F2%2F
3 The Ramble, June 26, 2026
4 quoted from a Google search for fascism

(Follow Up:   My friend has put an abundance of time and thought (and effort) into his defense of political party purity and small tents - and a proper response would require more time and mental strength than I currently possess, so I will bookmark it and try to get back soon.  Democratic Socialists may not be card-carrying Democrats (and neither am I), but they do work in close contact and cooperation with those who profess to be "regular" Democrats, and progressive ideas and ideals are shared freely among the two organizations.   They are "democratic" enough for me.  If Donald John McCarthy wants to get red-in-the-face and fill his diaper while yelling that "Democrats are communists!" let him.  Name-calling and sleaze-slinging should not be allowed to slow the long march to freedom or the quest for a perfect society.    

In the meantime, if anyone else would like to wade into this discussion in favor of either-sized tent - or some other option, pull up a keyboard and join in.  We welcome fresh blood!)

Olive Is Fifteen!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

My oldest granddaughter, Olive Noel Macy, is fifteen today.  She is a very young sophomore in high school, having skipped a grade a couple of years ago, already driving and has her own car - and is a good student, hard worker, student activist, and social butterfly.    Olive is a very well-rounded young lady!

Olive attends a large high school in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City, a place where an older cousin of mine graduated nearly seventy years ago.  I will think of Cousin Jack when I am at Olive's graduation a couple of years from now.

I wrote about Olive in this space last February when she and several hundred other students from her school held a student "walkout" in support of their immigrant friends who were living, and still are, in abject fear of the ICE gestapo.    Those young people recognized an important injustice that was being inflicted on their friends and school and community, so they took to the streets to do something about it.   My granddaughter and her activist fellow students make this old man feel proud and give him hope that America will once again resume the long march toward social justice and liberty for all.

Olive, life rushes by too darned fast.  Enjoy being fifteen - every minute of it!   Pa Rock and Rosie wish you the absolute best of everything!

Webpage Update for New Ozark Genealogy Resource

by Pa Rock

Computer Novice

Several days ago I reported in this space that Chat GPT and I are working together on creating a webpage to act as a collection point for the expansive pile of materials related to my family history that I have assembled over the years.  The books, charts, notes, and odds and ends were getting out of control.  We are still working on the page, but it's basic bones are up and I am beginning to sort materials onto them.  As soon as it is ready to share I will share the web address in this blog.  

Among the items included will be the five-year collection of my weekly newspaper generalogy column from the 1980's - "Rootbound in the Hills" - fully indexed, three extensive collections of biographies of members of some of my larger family lines, all of which originally ran in "The Ramble," again indexed, as well as my family tree (searchable) from Ancestrty.com, currently with over 5,000 entries.

MY major lines in addition to MACY, include SREAVES, ROARK, NUTT, PRITCHARD, SMITH, SCARBROUGH, RUTLEDGE, and dozens more.

Most of my forebears were parked in Newton and McDonald Counties in Missouri for decades, so this work will have a wealth of genealogy information related to that corner of the Ozarks.

Hoping to publish within the next month.  Stay tuned!

Coming in December: Pentagon Pete's Snuff Porn

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

 

Pentagon Pete Hegseth, God's personal choice to take charge of the United States military and rid it of "wokeness" (also known as "humanity"), announced this week that when the Army executes former Major Nidal Hasan at Ft. Hood, Texas, on December 3rd,  the event will be live-streamed to drooling hordes of justice-seekers - a public execution.    Hasan, a psychiatrist who murdered thirteen people in cold blood while he was serving at Ft. Hood, was himself wounded in the shooting and is paralyzed from the waist down and dependent on a wheelchair for mobility.

The last legally sanctioned public execution in the US took place in Owensboro, Kentucky, in August of 1936 (90 years ago) when a young black man was hung for murdering and raping  an elderly black woman.  An estimated 20,000 spectators gathered for that event, and many remained after the hanging to enjoy the food and drinks provided by local vendors.

The last execution carried out by the US Military was a hanging of a young black soldier convicted of the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old girl while serving overseas.  Private John Arthur Bennett was hanged on April 13, 1961, three days after his 25th birthday.  His execution was not a public spectacle.  Private Bennett was the son of sharecroppers and an epileptic who had only completed fourth grade.   He had an IQ of 67.

(Today it is rumored that some people who harm children face no consequences whatsoever.)

The last time the US military used a firing squad as it imposed a death sentence was on Private Eddie Slovik, a soldier who was convicted of desertion during World War II and executed by firing squad in France on January 31, 1945.

US military executions are traditionally carried out behind closed doors within military facilities, rather than as public spectacles.  Civilian executions in the United States are carried out in death chambers at prisons rather than in town squares or at community carnivals.  Public executions are generally the stuff of two-bit dictators in authoritarian countries, people who feel a constant need to demonstrate their power over others.

On Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. (CST) former Army major Nidal Hasan will be wheeled into a public setting where the cameras will be rolling as he and his wheelchair are turned to face the firing squad, and his life is brought to an end in a burst of gunfire and spray of blood.

Ratings should be off the charts!

And after the villain has been killed, and our blood lust sated, Americans can go back to the serious business of trying to survive in a failing economy, and Pious Pete can resume his holy quest to scour the military of immorality.   Surely he will be able to find a drag show somewhere to crusade against!

Camp David by the Sea?

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist 

In what smells like a bid to keep profiting from the presidency after he leaves office, Donald Trump this week began floating the idea of turning one of his Florida properties into a presidential retreat similar to  Maryland's Camp David.  In fact, the current bug that Trump has up his butt is more than just an "idea," he already has lawyers working on the scheme.

Trump has never expressed any love for the rustic and woodsy Camp David, which doesn't even have a golf course.  How can a president be truly relaxed and at ease without eighteen holes of exquisitely landscaped beauty and a platoon of flunkies rushing about in pursuit of his golf cart?

Trump sees his "Camp David by the Sea" being housed on his Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, and his lawyers cite the location's benefits as being the major aset.  It is two minutes from "President Donald J. Trump International Airport" (formerly Palm Beach International Airport), and future presidents flying in and out of there would keep Trump's name and image in the public consciousness for  years, and perhaps generations, to come.

Trump wants this deal so badly that he is even volunteering to pay for the upgrades to the property that would make it suitable for a presidential retreat, bless his heart.  (Of course, with the money Trump has raked into his own pockets and those of his family members during his presidency - over two billion dollars and counting - he could afford the turn the entire city of Miami into a presidential retreat!) 

But who are we to judge Trump's many fortuitous business decisions and thousands of lucky investments?

And the love and good fortune (income) that this new project would bring to Miami and the Trump family would be untold and monumental, giving wealthy, tanned Floridians one more long and pleasant opportunity to pick their government's pockets before the whole area submerges beneath the rising waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

I only see one minor problem with your grand plan, Dough Boy:  who would use it?  Certainly none of the living former presidents would ever set foot on one of your projects because for the past decade you have repeatedly degraded and debased each of them.   Michelle Obama even skipped Jimmy Carter's funeral just so she wouldn't have to sit next to you.  They don't like you - and you will be leaving the presidency under such a cloud of disgrace - and in such a confused state - that the next several presidents, of either party - will avoid even the most casual mention of your name.

You are toxic, Donald.  Your "brand" has become little more than a stench.  Mama can tie a pork chop around your neck, but the dog still won't play with you - and neither will America's future leaders.

Your days as an aberration in the annals of American history are fast coming to a close.  You might want to have Natalie check on the suitcases because it's almost time to start packing.  You are going to leave the presidency, Donald, it will happen - and you won't be able to take it with you - not even in the guise of a presidential retreat.

The graffiti on the granite helipad as Marine One lifts your saggy old carcass off the White House lawn for the last time will read "Goodbye and good riddance!" 

And the United States of America will heave a mighty sigh of relief!

Who Will Apologize to Christa Pike? What Will They Say?

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The state of Tennessee tried and failed to execute convicted murderer Christa Pike on Wednesday, September 30th.  The failed attempt to kill the murderer was a messy process from start to finish.  The state had to give her two supposedly lethal doses (4 syringes) of the fatal injection drug, pentobarbitol - and still she survived and woke up in a state of angry confusion six days later days later.

Christa Pike was Tennessee's second failed execution in the past four months.  Convicted murderer Tony Carruthers woke up after the state also tried for over an hour to execute him.  The execution team working on Christa Pike  took more that two hours in attempting to kill her, only to fail.  A medical malpractice lawsuit filed by Tony Carruther's sister claims he suffered a brain stroke as a result of the state's effort to put him down, and that he is now partially paralyzed.    Christa Pike's lawyers report she is suffering from swollen arms and hands, as well as severe burns and blisters from the caustic execution drugs.  Pike emerged from her six days on a ventilator "angry and confused."

Ms. Pike is reportedly being treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the premier medical facility in Nashville.  Tennessee at least got that right.  And Governor Bill Lee has placed a moratorium on state executions through the end of the year, so that, too, is a small step in the right direction.  But beyond those quick nods to humanity, where does the state of Tennessee, and indeed the United  States of America, go from there?  Will we learn anything from these bizarre cruelties and move to finally put this era of state-sponsored barbarism to rest?

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have abandoned the cruel and unusual practice of state-sponsored executions, but the punishment is still exceedingly popular in the American South, particularly among White Christians.  Florida is in first place this year with 16 executions so far, and Texas, which committed it's 7th execution of the year yesterday (a 46-year-old black man named Jamaal Howard), is in second.  Last year Florida posted a record annual high of 19 executions - and since the US Supreme Court lifted its temporary ban on executions in 1976, the three top leaders are:  Texas (602), Florida (141), and Oklahoma (132).

The barbarism of capital punishment needs to end, but a few states will cling to the amoral practice until the US Supreme Court finally intervenes and forces them onto the path of righteousness.  

But, in the meantime, Governor Lee, who is going to apologize to Christa Pike for the physical harm that she suffered as the state of Tennessee tried and failed to exact revenge for a crime that she committed more than thirty years ago as a high school student?  Will that be you, governor?  Will you bring her flowers?  What will the card say?  "Whoops" or "Our Bad"?  

What will you say, Governor Lee?

What should each of us say?