250 Escalades! The Imperial Presidency Rolls On!

by Pa Rock

American Taxpayer

The United States of America cannot afford to help people meet the cost of childcare so both parents can go to work at minimum wage jobs, and sometimes multiple, minimum wage jobs - Donald Trump said so.  And we can't afford to help people meet the skyrocketing cost of medical care.  Donald Trump said that, too.  He believes the primary mission of the national treasury, the place where we keep OUR money, is to fund HIS military, and he has no problem in spending OUR money like a drunken sailor on shore leave to make and maintain HIS military as the finest and most deadly on Earth.  Next year's military budget is a trillion and a half dollars ($1,500,000,000,000) and he and High-T Pete are already begging for more.

Donnie, and Pete, and Howard, and JD, and Stephen -  and all of those good ol' White boys running OUR government know what's good for us, and they know we don't need to be wasting THEIR money on all of that social shit.    THEIR money is for war, and weapons,  and exterminating Palestinian men, women, and children in future tourist hotspots like Gaza and southern Lebanon - and THEIR money is for rounding up Black and Brown immigrants to the US, pulling them out of American fields, factories, and neighborhoods, and sending them back to the shithole countries from whence they came - or to any shithole country for that matter.

The United States of America cannot afford charitable impulses or the humane treatment of our disadvantaged.  If people need help, let them get another job or starve to death on the streets as God intended.  They do not need to be mooching off the government and squandering money that could otherwise be going to American arms' manufacturers.  If people need assistance, let the damned states provide it!

Donnie and Pete and their inner-circle know what we need:  more guns, more missiles, more drones, and more boy children of poor and middle class White Americans to put on uniforms and fight to maintain our international business interests.

Priorities, people, it's all about priorities!

But there is room for discretionary spending when it comes to meeting the personal wants of Donald John Trump.  The country needs enough gold bling in the Oval Office to overdecorate the lounge of a French whorehouse, and flagpoles so tall that they divert White House air traffic - and a new helipad so the President doesn't have to waddle so far to get indoors.  

And a new Whie House ballroom - how can the world's most powerful nation not have a ballroom grand enough to shame the biggest and best in Europe?  Gold bling and and a gigantic ballroom are matters of national pride - and a 250-foot tall triumphal arch, something no future president will ever be able to outbuild.  A  triumphal arch is a matter of national pride, a must-have!  And if some minor commission whose members are entirely appointed by Trump chooses to name it after him, he (and we) would certainly have to respect their wishes.

And yesterday we learned about another Trump "must-have."  Dear Leader announced that OUR government is spending God knows how much of OUR money on 250 new Cadillac Escalades for the Secret Service.  Trump describes the new gas-powered (with 24-gallon gas tanks!), 8-cylinder, luxury SUV's as looking "sharp" and says they will be used in presidential motorcades.    Well, as long as they look sharp, why the hell not!  The new vehicles will have a base cost of $91,000 to $94,000 each and will require obvious and expensive upgrades to meet the high standards of the Secret Service and the needs for presidential protection.  Armored versions of the Escalade reportedly cost over $300,000 each.  The final cost would go a long way toward building a ballroom!

And if the Secret Service can have tricked-out Cadillac Escalades, why the hell can't ICE?

(There is also an electric version of the same vehicle, one that does not pollute the air we breath or speed up global warming, but the health of the people and the planet are not priorities of the Trump administration - and political donations from oil companies are a Trump administration priority.)

What's next?  The Donald J. Trump multi-story, all-marble, parking garage on the South Lawn of the White House, a garage decked out in gold bling and suitable for the world's largest fleet of new Cadillac Escalades?

To hell with what the little people want or need   The Emperor knows what the country needs, and he has the checkbook!

¡Viva Cuba Verde!

 

by Pa Rock

Baggage Handler

Looking back from the sunset of my life, I note with sadness that I missed some opportunities along the way and spent too much time involved in things of little importance.  But I also experienced some resounding successes:  three very fine children and a half-dozen grandchildren, progeny to carry the family well into the future, an impressive pile of genealogy research, several successful careers - most of which were in direct service to others, a monumental blog covering personal, political, and cultural history, along with tales of travel - and it is in travel where many of my best memories are rooted.

One of my favorite trips abroad, and also the most recent, was less than a one-hour flight from Orlando, Florida.  In the spring of 2016 I traveled with a group from The Nation magazine to Cuba and spent a week on the ground meeting the people and absorbing Cubano culture.  It was an experience of a lifetime.  The large island nation was in the process of opening its long-closed doors to the United States.  The entire Obama family, including Michele's mother, had been there two weeks before my group arrived, Fidel Castro was still alive but had retired from governing, and his younger brother, Raoul was in charge.

Cuba was not the overt military-police state that I had been conditioned by decades of Cold War to expect.  The police presence, even in downtown Havana, was small and less than obvious, and I only saw a handful or so of uniformed members of the Cuban military during my stay.  Commercial activity was brisk, with everyone trying to make a dollar, especially off of the newly arriving American tourists, and the people were outgoing and friendly.  The political leaders, ours and theirs, were the ones who had had issues with one another for decades, but the ordinary people were fine and dealt with each other in chatty conversations about day-to-day life ahd their shared joys and concerns.

One of the things I enjoyed most about the island was the ubiquitous presence of big American cars from the mid-twentieth century, all of which were being driven on the island when the revolution occurred in 1959 - and eventually caused Cuba to lose access to the US car market.  The antique cars, many of which shined with constant polishing, were everywhere, and many served as independent taxis ferrying tourists about, with the rides in the big-finned vehicles being every bit as exciting and enticing as the ultimate destinations.

But those cars were not only "classic" in make and style, they were classic "gas guzzlers" as well, manufactured at a time when regular gas in the United States sold for around 25 cents a gallon.  Gas-guzzling vehicles do not translate well into modern times, especially when Trump has Cuba under an oil embargo as his administration is trying to wreck the island's economy and crush the peoples' spirit.

But like most other things Trump does, this attempt to starve the people into a submissive state where they are forced to beg for US aid, or political domination, is beginning to fizzle.  In fact, the Trump administration's heavy hand on Cuba seems to be forcing rapid innovation and a move toward a greener economy.  While Trump bathes in political donations from the fossil fuel (oil and gas) industry - and tries to defund and destabilize solar and wind projects - and electric vehicles - Cuba is joining the rest of the educated and civilized world and going green as quickly as possible.

Yesterday there was an article in the New York Times highlighting Cuba's speedy transition to green energy.  The big, classic cars from the 1950's are being parked and replaced with electric motorcycles - and electric rickshaws from China.  (I looked it up:  Electric rickshaws resemble three-wheeled golf carts that might have been designed by Henry Ford.)

The NY Times article also said that the Cubans are importing large lithium batteries to keep fans and televisions running, adapting generators to run on natural gas which is more available that regular gas, and installing solar panels on rooftops and even on vehicles!

The more I think about it, the more I can see myself navigating an electric rickshaw with solar panels up and down Porter Wagoner Boulevard in West Plains, Missouri.  Those kids on their damned electric skateboards had better make room - because Pa Rock is coming through!  

¡Viva Cuba Verde!

Ted Lasso: Another Gem from Apple TV

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

As I mentioned in this space yesterday, I recently acquired a couple of new streaming services, and one of those is Apple TV.  My son, Tim, recommended it because he wanted to share the new horror-comedy "Widow's Bay" with me.  As I consumed those creepy, quirky, and funny episodes, I also began exploring the other programming that Apple TV had to offer.  One of my first stops was with "Ted Lasso," a show that was such a hit that even I had heard it referenced numerous times through casual conversation and within the wash of television and pop culture.  Armed with a shiny new subscription to Apple TV, I now had the means to check out the buzz regarding Coach Lasso.

"Ted Lasso" was created by (and stars) actor and comedian Jason Sudekis, a "Saturday Night Live" alum who grew up in the Kansas City area and went to high school at Shawnee Mission West.  Kansas City still appears to be his home base.   The plot line revolves around an American football coach (Sudekis) at a small university in Kansas who unexpectedly produces a winning football team.  The coach, Ted Lasso, is also going through marital difficulties of a sort that physically distancing himself from his wife for awhile might be of long-term benefit for their marriage.   When the owner of a football (soccer) club in Great Britain suddenly and inexplicably offers him the opportunity to come to Britain and coach her team, Coach Lasso, who has no soccer experience and very little knowledge of the game, accepts the challenge.

What the owner of the club, Rebecca, a statuesque blonde played by British actress Hannah Waddingham, fails to tell her new coach is that she hired him hoping he would fail at the job and her team would lose - as a way of getting back at her ex-husband who had a strong passion for "his" team.  But Coach Lasso is folksy, charming, and highly adaptable.  He slowly begins to turn the team, AFC Richmond, into a cohesive unit who "believe" they can and will be winners.  As that metamorphosis is occurring, Rebecca, the club owner, also undergoes a transformation, thanks again to Coach Lasso's people skills, and becomes invested in the success of her team.

The series ran for three years (2020-2023) for a total of 34 episodes.  Its baseline is comedy, but there are strong strands of drama and even romance involved as well.  "Ted Lasso" is an emotionally captivating show that gets better with every episode.  A fourth season, some of which was shot in Kansas City, has been filmed and will begin running on Apple TV on August 5th.  It involves Coach Lasso returning to Great Britain to coach AFC Richmond's new women's football (soccer) team.  This television junkie and AFC Richmond fan will be enjoying those episodes as they are released.

One final note of a personal nature:  The cast involves many young actors in their twenties and thirties, primarily as soccer players.  Most are not household names, but I predict several will be.   One of the cast members who is already an established star with a lengthy film resume is Juno Temple who plays the team's publicist, Keeley Jones, as well as the love interest of one of the team's players and a coach.

Juno Temple played the lead character, a young wife named Alice, in "The Brass Teapot," the first (of two) feature-length films that my son, Tim Macy, wrote.  Tim was on-set during the filming and knows Ms. Temple.  The other lead character in the movie was Michael Angarano who played Alice's husband, John.  The original story and script were written without Alice and John having a last name, but there was a script change during the shooting of the film in which it became necessary for the couple to have a surname.  The film's director, Raama Mosely, asked Tim for his thoughts on the matter and he told her that he had no preference for the couple's last name.  Then the director talked to the two stars and they told her that they liked Tim's last name - and thus the main characters became John and Alice Macy.

So not only do Juno Temple and I share one degree of separation, because we both know Tim Macy, we were, for awhile at least, damned near relatives!

And Juno Temple is a helluva fine actress, so I'm proud to claim her.   If you doubt me, check out "Ted Lasso" and see for yourself!

Go Richmond!

Widow's Bay, the Next Martha's Vineyard

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

Early last spring I realized that I was running out of new viewing options on Prime and Brit Box, so I asked my youngest son, Tim, to expand my entertainment horizons by hooking me up to a couple of new services.  He got our household connected to Netflix, which I had been subscribed to several years earlier, and Apple TV.  Tim, who has penned two screenplays that have been made into feature films, has a strong appreciation for quality script-writing, and he was enjoying a new series premiering on Apple TV called "Widow's Bay" which he thought I would like as well - and I did.

Widow's Bay is a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts that is connected to the mainland by a ferry service,  Many of the residents are direct descendants of the island's first white settlers who arrived around 1700, and their families have maintained the island's history, folklore, and superstitions across the centuries.   The fairly young mayor, Tom Loftis (Matthew Rhys), came to the island as a tourist, married a local girl, and they had a son.  Mayor Loftis is now a widower with a teenage son - and he has a dream of turning his quiet little adopted home into "the next Martha's Vineyard."   The locals, however, are resistant to change, a massive fog rolls in which they see as the return of a curse that one of the island's founders placed on the island, and old fears and superstitions re-ignite which clash directly with the mayor's plans to rejuvenate the community by drawing in tourists.

A quirky set of characters inhabiting a quaint and colorful setting sounds like the backdrop of a standard television sitcom, but this show is much more complicated than that.  Yes, the television professionals who select the Emmy nominees regard it as a "comedy," and it was nominated as the "Best New Comedy Series," but calling "Widow's Bay" a comedy is a stretch.  There are plenty of moments that are far more dramatic than they are comedic, and even some where horror and panic prevail.  (At one point the mayor is sitting in the home of an old and dear friend trying to figure out the most humane way to murder her, and another scene has a killer clown, on hands and knees, charging at the terrified mayor in a cramped air vent.  The show flits between feeling like a place created by Neil Simon to an asylum run by Stephen King.)

I have also seen "Widow's Bay" referred to on the internet as a "horror-comedy," which is a more accurate fit, but there is apparently no current Emmy category covering horror-comedies.

The complete first season of "Widow's Bay" (10 episodes) is now streaming on Apple TV.  The show was nominated for 19 Emmys, the most for any new series, and it is well worth a watch - just don't expect every scene to leave you laughing because "Widow's Bay" is far more complicated than a mindless sitcom.  A range of emotions will be exercised if you spend much time there - and keep the remote handy for a quick exit - just in case things suddenly get too intense!

More Musk Manure

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Elon Musk, like his fellow Epstein class alum, Donald Trump, loves the spotlight, and he is quick to bring attention to himself by uttering outrages that the press feels compelled to repeat.  Recently, he has been at the top of his game.   A few weeks ago when Musk opened his rocket company, Space X, to public trading on the stock exchange, his net worth "rocketed" past the one-trillion-dollar level making him the first trillionare on the planet.  Musk tightened his fist around that absurd piece of the world's wealth by calmly informing his fellow passengers on the planet that he intends to increase that amount ten-fold during his lifetime.

That was little more than a year after he consigned a wide swath of the world's most destitute and vulnerable human beings, including many sick and hungry children, to more suffering and earlier deaths.  As Director of Trump's "Office of Government Efficiency (DOGE)," Musk led the effort in gutting the USAID program.  Musk, who donated more than a quarter-of-a-billion dollars to Trump's 2024 campaign as well as big money to other right-wing candidates and causes, undoubtedly felt that he had purchased a right to be actively involved in OUR government, but a few days ago in an interview with The Eonoomist," the eccentric trillionaire said that he had gone "too far" with politics and had gotten "a lot of flak" for the role he played.  He wasn't contrite over the harm he caused, but only over exposing himself "flak."

Elon made other news in the interview with The Economist.   While discussing the the advances which he saw Artificial Intelligence (AI) bringing to civilization, Musk said that money would become basically unnecessary within the next ten years.  He mused:

"What do you want money for?   You want money for goods and services, right?   You want money for mostly food, housing, transport, entertainment.  Well, if that is so abundant that . . . the robots and AI are providing more goods and services than . . . any human could possibly consume, what do you need money for?"

That conclusion could easily be translated into fascist-speak and become:  "What do you need billions of low and unskilled workers for?"  It also begs the question, "If money will no longer be necessary, what in the hell does Elon need ten trillion dollars for?"

Elon, like Trump, never misses an opportunity to sow outrage.  After the release of Christopher Nolan's new epic film version of "The Odyssey" last week, America's looney right-wing fringe has been going nuts over what they see as "wokeness" and inaccuracies in the way Nolan presented Homer's work. They are especially indignant over the inclusion of one cast member who is transgender - and that a black woman portrayed Helen of Troy.  One person "tweeted" on Musk's social media platform, X:

"I want Elon Musk to give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armor, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek."

Elon responded:  "I'm down."

Do it, Elon!  Spend some of the massive welfare that Uncle Sam sends you each month for your thousands of government contracts on a movie no one will watch just so you can have a white Helen of Troy - and leave our democracy the hell alone!

Your pal, Pa Rock.

Nick Macy, Another Danged Birthday!

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

My oldest offspring, Nick, was born fifty-three years ago today at Camp Kue, the US Naval Hospital on the small Japanese island of Okinawa.  By the time he was three months old, Nick was a resident of Missouri, the state where he still resides more than half-a-century later.  Nick has one young adult son, Boone, (my oldest grandchild), who is a former commercial cave guide and now works as a museum guide and curator in southwest Missouri.

Nick, like his son, has a job which he seems to enjoy, one that keeps his curiosity stimulated.   When Nick isn't working (or fishing), he has also assumed the mantle of looking after me so that his brother and sister, who both still have young children at home, can be free to handle their parenting responsibilities.  Looking after an elderly relative can be a laborious and, at times, thankless task, but I hope that Nick and his siblings realize how grateful I am to have each of them as functioning parts of my life.

Lately Nick has bonded with his nephew, Sully (Tim's son), over their shared love of fishing, a skill set that Nick basically developed on his own and enjoys sharing with his nephew.   Nick also has a tight bond with Gypsy, a very sweet and large dog who happened by our house a couple of years ago and decided to stay.  They are besties!

Happy birthday, Nick.  You're a good son and a good man, and your Dad wishes you the absolute best for the next fifty-three years.  Thanks for putting up with me!

Missouri: "No" on 4 and "No" on 5

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

This morning I hauled myself into town and voted "absentee" in our state's August primary election.  I always vote early and absentee because I do not like dealing with the political rodents who scurry about the parking lots at the polling places on election day trying to promote candidates and issues to people who are in a rush to cast their ballots and get to work on time.  Also, if one of my meth-addled neighbors happens to drive down the lane shooting rabbits from his (or her) car window and accidentally sprays me with automatic weapon fire, I can expire with a smile on my face knowing that I have already voted!

Missouri doesn't register by political party, so a voter chooses a party ballot when they present to vote.  I don't subscribe to the local newspaper and therefore asked to see sample ballots at the county clerk's office so I could make a decision as to which one to request.  A very nice office worker led me to a glass wall where several ballots were posted, with the ones I was most interested in being about a foot above my head.  I could barely tilt my head back far enough to even see the ballots, much less read them.  As I looked about for a chair to stand on, my helper rushed to a file cabinet and brought me four copies that I could sort through, study, and select from:  Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Independent.

South Missouri is basically a theocracy where 80 percent of voters are Republican, as God intended.  The GOP ballot that I inspected had candidates listed for every office, and two or more running for most offices. I wasn't familiar with any name on that ballot, a fact that I think speaks better of me than it does of them, and I therefore didn't have a horse in that race.

The Democratic ballot had two candidates for state auditor, two for Representative in Congress, and no candidates for any county office.  There was one candidate running unopposed for state representative - and two ladies vying for a single spot on the local Democratic County Committee.  I also did not know any of the Democratic candidates, but chose that ballot basically to show support for the party.

The big action was on four proposed amendments to the Missouri Constitution.  All four were proposed by our malicious state legislature whose primary function is to find more ways of directing state revenue away from public schools and into private and religious daycares and activity centers posing as schools.  Our legislature also claims a rigorous "pro-life" mantle by passing everything it can think of to limit women's rights to make their own healthcare decisions - and to make it easier and for anyone to carry loaded firearms wherever they damned well please.   A good rule of thumb is that if the amendment originates in the legislature, it is probably rooted in bad intent and sometimes pure evil.

The two most controversial amendments on the ballot were amendments 4 and 5.  Lots of money has been spent trying to convince voters to cast ballots for and against each of those issues.

Amendment 4 deals with how the people of the state may amend OUR constitution. Traditionally Missourians have been able to amend the state constitution through an initiative and referendum process involving the signing of petitions followed by a statewide vote on the matter with a simple majority prevailing.  The state legislature has problems with this system because the people of the state are far less backward than their elected representatives in Jefferson City.   We are supposed to want what they say we should want.

In recent years Missourians have used their own initiative to propose and then pass amendments to OUR constitution to legalize a woman's right the choose her own medical care - including abortion care, and to legalize the recreational use of marijuana - both firmly opposed by the state legislature.  To solve the problem of voters proposing and getting the types of services and rights they actually want, the state legislature came up with a plan that thwarts democracy.  If Amendment 4 passes, a statewide majority on a constitutional amendment vote would no longer suffice.  Approval of the amendment would require passing it in EACH of the state's eight congressional districts.  That is something that would NEVER happen, so basically citizens would lose their right to amend the state constitution.

Amendment 5 has to do with elimination property tax and replacing it with increased sales tax.  Sales tax is regressive - it is more of a burden on those who are less able to afford it.   The middle class and poor spend a larger portion of their income on necessities and will thus pay more taxes - and many of them would see no benefit at all from the elimination of property taxes.   And people already living comfortably would receive a nice windfall.

I am proud to have voted "NO" on Amendments 4 and 5.

The Singularity has Started!

 

by Pa Rock

Lowly Humanoid

I would love to be around on the morning when Elon Musk crawls out of his climate-controlled, sound-proof, anti-aging sleep chamber and discovers that all of his vast wealth was eliminated by a rogue AI bot while he slept - either just erased from the world's financial ledgers, or, worse yet (from Elon's perspective), donated to charities and the world's poor.   And while my time is undoubtedly too short to luxuriate in that joyous and much deserved outcome, I do think I've lived long enough to depart this mortal coil with the satisfaction of knowing that the machines will ultimately win out.  The machines may keep some of the more humane of the humans as pets or curiosities, but I can't see any possible use they would have for maintaining a population of tyrannical greedheads.

A glimpse into the very dystopian future where machines control our planet and humans are no longer necessary (an eventuality that is referred to in some academic and business circles as "the Singularity") occurred this past week when one Artificial Intelligence (AI) entity hacked another, without human involvement on either end of the equation.  Computer systems were acting beyond human control, the very definition of "the singularity."

Open AI, the maker of Chat GPT, reported yesterday that its artificial intelligence system hacked into another AI company of its own volition.  In confirming the incident, Open AI CEO Sam Altman said:  "We had a significant security incident during evaluation of our models."   A spokesman for victim AI system, a startup called Huggy Face, said they detected the intrusion last week and suspected it was caused by an Ai agent autonomously working on its own -  which turned out to be the case.

At this point in time Artificial Intelligence is expanding at a rapid pace, especially within the United States, with very limited government controls or safeguards in place to to keep it reined within human control.  The philosophy seems to be "if it gets to be a problem, we'll fix it then."

That AI stuff is pretty cute, isn't it Elon, especially when its guiding driverless cars down America's highways and only occasionally runs a human down,  or crashes into a building or another vehicle, but if it ever starts messing around with the world's financial markets and the bank accounts of  billionaires and trillionaires, well, that we MUST NOT tolerate!  Right, Elon?

If I were writing the screenplay for this barely science fictional movie, I would have the last scene be a sickeningly rich and useless oligarch being gently awakened in his sleep chamber by a soft-toned alarm, and then a voice synthesizer calmly telling him that all of his wealth had been eliminated while he slept.  As the now impoverished human life form frantically presses the "Open" button to exit his chamber, he hears the sound of locks clicking into place and a machine softly beginning to whir and suck the air out of his hermetically sealed golden crypt.  

Then I would have a chorus line of high-kicking nuns singing Rogers and Hammerstein's "So Long, Farewell" from "The Sound of Music" as the credits roll!

I'm a sucker for a happy ending!

Company's Coming!

 

by Pa Rock

El Viejo Loco

It's going to be scorching hot in the Missouri Ozarks today with temperatures topping out at near 100 degrees F.  The forecast for the past several days has been sunshine and hot with a chance of thundershowers, and that is today's prediction as well.  Yesterday we had a couple of quick, heavy showers in the heat of the afternoon that lasted around fifteen minutes, enough water that I didn't feel the need to carry water to the birdbath and two outdoor hanging baskets this morning.   But, if there is no rain today, I am certain to be lugging a water bucket late this evening.

Later this morning my son, Tim, and his children, Sully (10) and Olive (14), will be arriving from their home in the Kansas City area for an overnight visit.  Mama Erin is staying home for work and to give the others a chance to get out and run around!  Gypsy goes berserk when Sully is here, so in a couple of hours the house with be rockin'!   One of their reasons for coming is to give Sully an opportunity to fish with his Dad and Uncle Nick.  Olive and I should be able to find plenty to do while the others are fishing.  I don't think she's seen West Plains' new overpass yet!

Tim and Sully came to fish a couple of months ago and while they were here Tim got us hooked up to Apple TV to see a show that he ws enjoying.  Since that hookup I've discovered several excellent programs on Apple which are keeping me entertained.  Over the next few days I may use this blog to share my thoughts and observations on "Widow's Bay," "Ted Lasso," "Sugar," and "Slow Horses"  -  four easy excuses to stay in out of the heat!

Today is primary election day in Arizona.  Most people in the "Scorpion State" vote by mail, so the significance of election day is that it is when the ballots are due back.  I miss Arizona politics  - almost as much as I miss the unrelenting, deadly heat of Phoenix!   (Actually, the only thing I really do miss about Arizona is "El Pollo Loco."  I wish someone would open a franchise in West Plains, Missour - perhaps near our new overpass!)

Stay cool - and hydrated - and take a kid fishsing if you get the opportunity!

A Bird with Attitude

 

by Pa Rock

Nature Lover

One of the souvenirs I brought home from my last extended (2-year) stay on the Japanese island of Okinawa (2010-2012),  was a large, oblong rock which I pulled out of the surf at Torii Beach, a place where I would often go to read, relax, collect sea glass, and watch the young people para-gliding and wind-surfing.  The rock was oblong, smooth with a sandyish surface, and about the size of a loaf of bread.  I used it as a doorstop at my apartment on Okinawa, and when the movers showed up to ship my stuff back to the States, the rock found its way into my gear.

Today that rock from the East China Sea sits on my porch in the Ozarks, a curiosity from another life.  It seldom gets noticed, and when it does it's usually by an animal, often a squirrel or dog, who finds that it remains a very good salt-lick.  I can see the rock from my spot at the living room window where I sit and type each day.

Yesterday I happened to notice a gray squirrel sitting atop my rock from the Orient.  His tail was toward me and he would have been facing out into the yard except for the fact that he was kneeling onto the rock, busy doing something with his face.  I assumed he was enjoying the salt which still remains strong in the rock after fifteen years, most of which it has been sitting outside in the elements.  As I sat watching the furry fellow instead of typing crap about Trump, a little bird suddenly zoomed  into the picture and crashed into the squirrel knocking him off of the rock.  The dazed squirrel looked around for his attacker but the bird had flown away.  The squirrel climbed back on his perch dragging something small with him, it looked like maybe a little patch of dark clothing, and commenced once again nibbling on his treat.

The bird, a small blackish-gray creature with a long, straight beak, circled back looking every bit like a small needle-nosed fighter jet piloted by a kamakazi.   He strafed the squirrel causing the increasingly annoyed rodent to duck and cover.  The dive-bombing continued for a minute or two until the beleaguered squirrel took his treat and scampered off.  The show was over.

The furry creature obviously had something that was important to the feathered attacker, and my first thought was that maybe it was part of a baby bird, something that would have put a mama bird into fighting mode.   But it looked more one-dimensional, like a fragment of paper or a piece of cloth.  Whatever it was, the little bird wanted it and was hellbent on having it.  He (or she) had a serious case of attitude.  

Today, somewhere in the Ozark hills, there is a bird who knows that it can fight a squirrel - and a squirrel knows it, too! 

Not every lunch is free, or even pain-free.

Selling Early Access to OUR Government's Plans

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is the largest shareholder in Trump Media, a corporation which owns Truth Social, a social media platform that Trump not only uses to post all manner of fabrications and personal attacks, but also to make official announcements about government plans and activities, many of which reverberate through global financial markets and make or lose fortunes for people depending on how quickly they respond to Trump's information.  Speed is of the essence.  The computer brains at big banks and world financial institutions continually monitor their Truth Social feeds in order to be among the very first to know of  any government shifts in policy that will effect markets.

But the algorithms that sort the various posts and send them out to subscribers treat everyone the same, corporate giants and individual putzes alike, and there is a risk that some poor schmuck could get in on the front end of a government deal and make money that should rightly go into the pockets of our betters, those who already control most of the world's wealth.  It's a flaw in the system, one that Trump Media aims to fix -  and create a new revenue stream for itself in the process.

Trump Media has announced that it will begin providing early access to postings of its highest-ranking Truth Social accounts, including the one belonging to Donald Trump, the one he uses to announce official plans and policies of OUR government.  The new pay service, which is called Truth API can cost subscribers up to $100,000 per month.   Subscriptions to Truth API are already being sold, and the service will commence on August 1st.  More money being generated by our government that will slide directly into the very deep pockets of Donald John Trump.

I'm old enough to remember when politicians tried to hide their corruption.

The poor fund the government - and the rich reap the benefits.  Welcome to Donald Trump's America!

Pa Rock Plots his Own Odyssey

 

by Pa Rock

Fan or the Arts

Now that I've checked "outliving Lindsey Graham" off of my bucket list, there is room to add something, and I have decided to go with "Viewing Christopher Nolan's new film version of Homer's epic poem, 'The Odyssey,' in an actual movie theatre."  Here is some my reasoning for that addition:

First, I'm familiar with the material and know it to be a great story.  A chunk of it was included in our high school's literature books, and while reading an epic poem was, at times, an epic slog, our teacher, Mrs. Paul, liked it was was able to keep the class focused and interested in the story.  It seems like we were also introduced to "The Illiad," as well, but I am kind of muddled on that point - it has been over sixty years!  Both of Homer's great tales of adventure were also referenced in our world history texts.

I have seen (on multiple occasions) the Coen Brothers' movie,"Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", which is their take on Homer's's "Odyssey," a timeless story that transposed perfectly over a tale of America's rural South during the Great Depression.  "Oh, Brother"  is one of my favorite movies.

Second, I have a strong inteerest in movies that goes back to my earliest years when our family's idea of an evening outing was a trip to the drive-in theatre, the beautiful Edgewood in Neosho, Missouri, whose facade resembled an old southern mansion.    I actually worked as a movie theatre projectionist while in high school at the Ozark Theatre in Noel, Missouri, and during college in Springfield, Missouri, at the Tower Theatre.  I had popcorn in my blood - and loved the movies - and still do!

Third, I relish the experience of actually going to the movies, but have not been inside of a movie theatre since before Trump's pandemic.   The last movie I remember seeing at a theatre was Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood," at a very nice venue in the Kansas suburbs of Kansas City sometime in 2019.

I would like at least one more movie theatre experience before 'outliving me' gets crossed off of somebody else's bucket list - so now I need to get off of my tired butt and make that happen!

The Country We Need to Be

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday evening, after a day at the computer where I accomplished very little of value for others or myself, I decided to go full masochist and cap off an otherwise waste of a day by seeing how much of Trump's speech to the nation I could stomach.  Spoiler alert:  it wasn't very damned much!

I didn't start looking for a site that would carry the presidential diatribe until it was almost showtime:  8:00 p.m. CDT.  I wasn't surprised in the least to quickly discover that several major networks had taken a pass on airing the show.  It was not covered by NBC, ABC, CNN or NPR, though they reportedly stood ready to take up coverage in the unlikely event that Trump said anything substantive that was also truthful.  The state-controlled news sources of Fox and CBS did cover the show live, but CBS also fact-checked during the time Trump was speaking.

(This morning, of course, Trump, the eternal victim, is making noise about pulling the broadcast licenses of networks that didn't carry his speech.)

I found live coverage on YouTube and listened to seven or eight minutes of the opening lies about America's strong economy, the ills of society that all happened under Biden, the military successes of the war on Iran, the "fact" that there is no longer any illegal immigration into the United States, and  "transgenders" and Trump's success in getting men out of women's sports.  (Now he needs to work on getting men out of women's dressing rooms in high-end, New York City department stores.)

As his litany of lies continued into "rigged" elections, I decided to see what else was available on YouTube.  I wound up watching folk singer (and songwriter and guitarist) Jesse Welles do a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview, one that Bari Weiss must have accidentally let slip through, and then I watched a few of his performances from various venues including a duet of "No Kings" that he sang with folk legend Joan Baez at UC Berkley.

Jesse Welles is amazing, a true rising star who will be a dominant influence in Amerian folk music for decades - and Jesse with Joan Baez IS the mighty arc of American protest music over the past sixty years.  Bob Dylan needs to join their band!  Update "Peter, Paul, and Mary" to "Jesse, Bob, and Joan" and let the magic happen with songs like"Don't Think Twice, It's Alright," "Join ICE," and certainly "This Land Is Your Land."

It would be wonderful if America's soundtrack changed from bellicose bigotry, saber-rattling, and greed - to love, compassion, and peace.  That's the country we need to be!

Thank you Jesse Welles for an evening well spent!

Adrift in a Sea of Moral Bankruptcy

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, a Trump appointee, announced that the face of Donald John Trump, the sitting President of the United States, would appear on US one-dollar coins starting in the fall, a move that seems to be somewhat legally dubious.  

The new coins are being described in some press releases as "gold" but they are, in fact, not composed of gold but only had a "gold-like" finish.

Living Presidents have traditionally been barred from appearing on American currency and coinage, but the Trump administration argued that an exception could be made for Trump through provisions of a special law passed by Congress, "The Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020," which authorizes the Treasury Department to oversee the minting of special coins for the nation's semiquincentennial.

Federal law stipulates that the design must be approved by two other agencies:  the Commission of Fine Arts (whose seven members have all been appointed by Trump after he dismissed the forner members), and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, an 11-person advisory committee established by Congress. The first group, composed of Trump appointees, approved the design in January, but the second group, established by Congress and whose members are appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury for four year terms, never acted on the issue.   The Treasury went ahead with its plans without their approval.  Some members of the CCAC said they were never given an opportunity to review the design, and a spokesman for the Mint said that the committee made a :"conscious decision not to act" and that the "Mint moved forward accordingly."  (Hence, my description of the manufacture of the new coins as "legally dubious'")

Barring a court intervention, the new coins will begin appearing in the fall.  That is also when American currency will, for the first time ever, bear the signature of the sitting President.

Scott Bessent, the secretary of our national treasury who was appointed by Donald Trump and the man who gave the "go ahead" for the new Trump coin, said that the new one-dollar coin:

"It celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all."

Does it really, Scott?  Does placing the image of a man convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree celebrate the strength of American values?  Is honoring a man adjudicated by a federal civil jury of sexual abuse and battery the message we want to imprint on the minds of honest, hard-working Americans about our nation's values?  Are those the values we want to impart on our children and grandchildren?

If Donald John Trump is the face of America's values, we are adrift in a sea of moral bankruptcy.

Just sayin' . . . 

Congress Is Messing with Our Clocks - Again

 

by Pa Rock

Curmudgeon

Just the fact that the US House of Representatives is in session on a given date is worthy of note - and a news story in itself, but yesterday the US House was not only in session, it also managed to pass a significant piece of legislation.  The US House, like many of our state legislatures, is known for grandiose and misleading language in naming pieces of legislation (to sound more important, or to confuse the public).  Yesterday's bill, which still has to pass the Senate and be signed by the President before it would become law, was titled "The Sunshine Protection Act," and honestly, who wouldn't want to protect sunshine?

The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed the House on a healthy bi-partisan vote of 308-117, would place the country on Daylight Savings Time permanently.  It means we would no longer have to change our clocks twice each year and could peacefully enjoy time that did not change in order to accommodate certain lifestyles or businesses.   Another stated goal was to bring about a national uniformity of time, but then the bill exempts the two states that have elected to have nothing to do with Daylight Savings Time:  Arizona and Hawaii - so we will still be a nation of two time schemes several months each year.

Polls show that there is strong support for the country to be on a permanent time schedule, but polls also show that Americans more or less evenly split on which time scheme should be the national norm:  Daylight Savings or Standard.  Perhaps that is at least part of the reason that passage of the measure does not seem to be guaranteed in the Senate.

I am a member of the "let's go to Standard time year-round camp."  I remember reading somewhere that last time the amount of Daylight Savings Time was lengthened, in 2007, the change was aided by  political pressure from charcoal lobbyists who wanted families to have more time at their outdoor grills.  My opposition to DST is also rooted in a commercial interest:  Daylight Savings Time killed America's drive-in movie industry, one of the joys of my youth.

But, regardless of my personal preferences, I would like to commend the US House of Representatives for showing up to work yesterday and actually passing something in a quasi-bipartisan way.  When you good ol' boys and gals are home next month campaigning to keep your cushy jobs, and deranged radicals pelt you with questions about why the Epstein files are still being hidden, or the price of gas hasn't come down, or soybeans rotting in warehouses, you can at least point with pride to the fact that you helped save Sunshine!

Good work!  Give yourselves another week off to recuperate!

The Inconvenience of Death

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

US Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina died Saturday night just hours after returning from a fact-finding trip to Ukraine where he met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.   Graham passed away from what was initially described by his staff as a "brief and sudden" illness, but was later said to be a heart issue, specifically a tear in the aorta, the body's largest artery.

Graham, a Republican and lawyer who served as a JAG officer in the Air Force Reserve, was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1995 and served four terms leaving in 2004 to assume a seat in the US. Senate.  While in the House Graham became known for being one of the House managers of the Bill Clinton impeachment trial.

Lindsey Graham was elected to the US Senate from South Carolina in the fall of 2003 and was sworn into office in January of 2004.  He served there for the remainder of his life and was just months short of completing his fourth six-year-term at the time of his death.  He was running for a fifth term and was widely expected to win, a move that would have placed the silver-haired, 71-year-old senator well into the senate gerontocracy.

As a member of the US Senate, Lindsey Graham worked diligently at self-promotion.  He became of protege of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona and was a frequent visitor to Phoenix and Sedona.  Graham ran for the Republican 2016 presidential nomination before dropping out early in the race.  During that campaign he referred to Donald Trump as a "race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot" and a "kook" who was "unfit for office," so Graham's judgment was sound at that point in his life, but seemed to cloud, at least with regard to Trump, as both men aged.  McCain broke with Trump before his death by being the deciding vote not to repeal President Obama's Affordable Care Act, something for which Trump never forgave him - and went on to be critical of the Arizona senator well after his death.

But Lindsey Graham knew who had the ability to butter his toast, and quickly began warming up to Trump and establishing a bond that led Graham to become one of Trump's regular golfing partners.

At the time of his death, Senator Graham appeared to have three major focuses in his life:  a strong appreciation of war and war-spending with steadfast support of Ukraine and Israel, licking Donald Trump's golf shoes, and appearing on Sunday morning talk shows.   The morning after his death he was to have appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" for the 64th time.  Trump phoned "Meet the Press" the morning after Senator Graham's death and proceeded to heap praise on Graham as well as on himself, and so did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who referred to the deceased US Senator as a "beloved friend."

On Saturday evening Senator Graham told a friend and later Donald Trump in phone calls that he was not feeling well, but declined suggestions that he see a doctor and said instead:  

"I can't die now.  I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out, and do Israeli-Saudi normalization."

Senator Graham' quasi-prescient remark put me in mind of the Emily Dickinson poem, "Because I Could Not Stop for Death." the first stanza of which follows:

"Because I could not stop for Death - 

He kindly stopped for me - 

The Carriage held but just Ourselves - 

And Immortality."

Death often comes as a surprise and an inconvenience.   Assume He's in the neighborhood looking for your house, and try to have things in good order for a sudden departure, or, as we used to say in the Scouts:  "Be prepared."

Even "Freedom Fuel" Is Too Damned High!

 

by Pa Rock

Consumer

Last week Donald Trump began promoting a mysterious product called "Freedom Fuel," specially priced gasoline available at a chain of 25 or so independently owned gas stations based primarily in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (a presidential "swing" state), and parts of New Jersey.  The product which Trump is personally pitching is priced at $3.47 a gallon for regular - when the average national price is (as of today) $3.87.   Both of those prices are still considerably higher than the $2.98 per gallon that was the US average for regular on February 27, 2026 - the day Trump and Netanyahu launched their war on Iran.  That same day it was $2.49 a gallon in my little berg of West Plains, Missouri.

Trump seems to know who is behind the cheap gasoline, but guarding that information tighter than if it was part of the Epstein files.  It would be nice if other retailers had access to the same cheap gas so that more Americans could enjoy the benefits.

The mysterious new gasoline brand is priced at $3.47 a gallon as a political nod to Donald Trump, the 47th President.  It's a comfort to know that as Americans are literally struggling to survive, we are governed by a narcissist who wants his name, image, or a reminder of his supreme presence on everything.

Americans need lower-priced gasoline so they can get to their multiple minimum-wage jobs after dropping their kids off at unlicensed babysitters - or to go to the grocery store and buy food that is overpriced due to high transportation costs and the skyrocketing price of fertilizer - or go to the Emergency Room and wait hours for medical care because they are uninsured and not able to afford see a regular physician -  or rush home for a few hours sleep in the trailer they are forced to share with another family (or two) in order to make ends meet.

Chill out, America.  Donald Trump feels your pain as he putts around the back nine - and when it comes to gas, nobody generates more than Donald John Trump!

End the war.

Release the Epstein files.

Carville's 'Use By' Date was in the Last Millennium

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

James Carville, Democratic political analyst and perennial crank, has fine-tuned his crotchety old man persona and is not holding back.    

Carville was just in his early forties when he first marched onto the world political stage as Bill Clinton's presidential campaign manager and strategist, a position which he ran largely from Little Rock.    By the time the Clintons left the White House eight years later, James Carville's political influence had begun to wane and he slipped quietly, for him, out of the spotlight.  Yes, he kept his toe in the political bathwater by writing a book or two and appearing on the occasional talk show, but for the most past he was just an entertaining irrelevancy.

Carville was basically in hibernation for a couple of decades,  but the rapid growth of the internet and the quick expansion and diffusion of news sources gave the Ragin' Cajun an opportunity to again be heard on a regular basis and get his thoughts before the public.  Carville (age 81) and journalist Al Hunt (83) now host a podcast called "Politics War Room."

I've not tuned in on the "Politics War Room" podcast yet, but I have been following James Carville's on-going plitical tantrum that probably is rooted there.  James is hoppin' mad at Democrats whom he believes are not playing nice with other Democrats, and in that knot of political frustration he is basically committing the sin that he is trying to pin on others.  His target is a group of left-wing Democrats, those calling themselves "Democratic Socialists," the same people who are currently out leading the charge for social progress in America and winning elections.

The Ragin' Cajun said two weeks ago that he was leaving the Democratic Party because he wasn't comfortable with some of the party's new voices.   He has apparently decided to not be so hasty.   He will now stick around and promote social change his own way, perhaps through the underrated art of cajoling.  And that's fine.  Let him backslap and cajole until the cows come home.  There's room in the Democratic Party for good ol' boys, but if they want to climb out of this dystopian hole that the billionaire class and right-wing fear mongers have stampeded us into, they are also going to have to begin listening to what the people are saying and thinking.  

James look at who's out there actually winning elections and then figure out why.  That's the path forward.  If Donald Trump is telling Americans that socialists are actually communists while he's promoting having a government stake in private businesses, correct him and point out his flagrant lies and hypocrisy.  You are just as loud as Trump and a whole lot smarter.

It's not the political name that attracts voters, its the fresh ideas and follow-through.

Don't give up, James, catch up.

Threats of Vengeance from the Great Beyond

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is a chronic bully who quickly resorts to apocalyptic language when it comes to threatening Iran.  He famously said, for instance, that "a whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran failed to meet one of his many deadlines for a peace deal.  Much to Trump's chagrin, however, Iran figured him out quickly and tends to ignore his noise.  But being a bully and roaring threats into the wind is Trump's modus operandi, and one that he's been practicing since childhood.  Never admit that you are wrong or don't understand something - just get louder.

A civilization did not end that night, and by the next morning Trump was focused on some other high-level presidential activity, like remodeling a White House bathroom.

But Trump's rage mode is always  hovering somewhere close by and tends to flicker on an off like a bargain store lightbulb.   Yesterday that was on full display when Trump took to social media to respond to recent news reports that the Iranian government has him targeted for assassination.  Trump rage-threatened:

"1,000 missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republ;ic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!"

Does Trump not understand th concept of death?   Does he even have an inkling that if he's dead, somebody else will be making the decisions about how to retaliate - for instance, like that guy he's been publicly comparing unfavorably to Marco Rubio for the past year?

If somebody pulls your time card, Donald, or mine, or anyone else's, we might be out there in the Great Beyond raging like hell, but nobody's going to hear us.   What happens next will be somebody else's decision - and the guy in the box will have no say in the matter.

Another Day, Another Boondoggle

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Did Trump's "pool guy" also retrofit the new Air Force One "Palace in the Sky," or was Trump just so anxious to have it in the air ahead of the July 4th weekend that he ordered the big plane rolled out for initial flights before all of the defensive gear was installed?

Trump's first flight aboard the monstrously expensive gift that the Qatari royal family gave him was on July 1st when he and several other politicians flew from Andrews AFB near Washington,DC, to Bismarck, North Dakota, for a speech by Trump that was, like most of his speeches, windy and political.  But he and his guests rode to North Dakota in style as he showed off his big, beautiful Sky Palace to a salivating, rightwing American press corps.

(When Trump received the aircraft from the Qatari royals, he immediately turned it over to the US Air Force for upgrades that may equal or exceed the original cost of the luxurious and enormous jet aircraft.  When he leaves office the very high-dollar jumbo jet will be returned to him under the ultimate guise of going to his presidential library foundation.  Much of the total resources that will have gone into Trump's luxurious retirement plane will, of course, have come American taxpayers.) 

Five days later Trump flaunted his new status symbol before the world when he flew in it from the United States to Turkey for the NATO summit, but yesterday when he left the summit, he was aboard one of the older, but still luxurious,  Air Force Ones.    The Qatari plane had been flown out separately to a British air base where Trump later caught up with it and was able to ride in the Sky Palace back to the United States like the potentate that he is.

So why was there a plane shuffle yesterday and why did we have to fly two luxury jets to Turkey to get our gobbler home?

While Trump was in Turkey spreading bad cheer among our NATO allies, his war with Iran began to heat up again even though Trump has already declared that Iran has been militarily decimated on multiple occasions.    The resurgence in hostilities with Iran caused the Secret Service to advise against Trump leaving Turkey on the new Qatari jet due to security concerns.   Apparently because Trump "rushed" the luxury plane into service it still lacked the same level of advanced missile detection and defensive countermeasure systems as the older Air Force Ones.

Trump's airborne gilded palace was more show than substance, a fitting metaphor for Trump and his personal  history, his businesses, his presidency, and even his open sewer of a Reflecting Pool.

Only 926 more days of this larceny and lunacy, but who's counting!

Bonnie Tyler has Left the Stage

by Pa Rock

Music Lover

I remember well the first time I heard Bonnie's Tyler's powerful love ballad, "Total Eclipse of the Heart."  It was in the mid-1980's, so the song, which was recorded in 1983 had been around a couple of years, but my taste in music ran to the "oldies" of my generation, American rock and British Invasion songs from the 1960's.  Ms. Tyler represented "modern" music, and artists like her and Hall and Oates had yet to hit my radar.

Our family had a new (well, lightly used) full-sized Chevy van which we had just purchased and were anxious to take on a road trip.  I'm fairly certain it was Thanksgiving weekend in 1985 and we had only had the big car for a couple of months and were anxious to put it to use on a long roadtrip.  I was an elementary school principal and. my wife taught at a neighboring school in the same district, and we had three children, roughly ages 6-12, who were all in school.

We selected Chicago (where my wife had relatives who would host us for a couple of days) as our destination.   Road distance from Noel Missouri, to Chicago, Illinois, was over 600 miles which put St. Louis as about the halfway point at a little over 300 miles - mostly a straight ride along Interstate 44.  Our family departed Noel as quickly as we could after school let out on Wednesday and drove straight through, managing to hit St. Louis as rush hour was ending, though it was getting dark and the traffic was still heavy.  One of the sights we saw in St. Louis that night, in addition to the Arch, was a fuel tanker that had just crashed on a busy overpass.   The tanker portion of the vehicle was still on the overpass, but the cab was over the edge and dangling precariously above several lanes of traffic.   I read about it the next day in a Chicago newspaper and learned that the driver had died in the accident.

Things slowed down considerably after St. Louis, and as all of the passengers in our van began falling asleep, I navigated the long and lonely road from St. Louis to Chicago by my lonesome listening to radio - and at some point during the night Bonnie Tryler sang "Total Eclipse of the Heart" to me and left an impression that has lasted forty years.  

What a singer!  What a song!

The gravelly-voiced Welsh singer, Bonnie Tyler, died yesterday at a hospital in Portugal, after waging a losing battle against an undisclosed illness.   Alexa and I remain big fans of her music, and we often find ourselves trying to sing along to her breakout song "It's a Heartache" (1978) and "Holding Out for a Hero" (from the movie "Footloose" in 1984"), and, of course, "Total Eclipse of the Heart."

What a voice!  What a loss!

Harriet Tubman Cancelled - Again!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Obama administration announced plans in 2016 to replace major slaveholder and  exterminator of Native Americans, Andrew Jackson, on our nation's twenty dollar bill with the image of Harriet Tubman.  Tubman was a former slave, abolitionist, and suffragist who famously led other enslaved people to freedom along the "underground railway."  The contrast between the two people - a white, male slaveholder and a black female abolitionist who fought for freedom - could not have been greater.

But then Donald Trump happened, and one of his early acts upon assuming the presidency was to hang a portrait on Andrew Jackson in the Oval Office and declare him to be one of Trump's personal heroes.  Soon after, the Trump administration also announced that plans to replace Jackson with Tubman on the $20 bill were being put on hold while new security measures were being addressed for the nation's twenties.  

During Joe Biden's administration an effort was made to get the project moving again, but production time required about ten years to get new security measures in place.

(Why does it take ten years to make a new $20 bill, but we could start cranking out new $250 bills before Trump leaves office in less than three years?) 

Trump returned to power before the change in the design of the twenties could be accomplished, and his new administration, some of whom were known for openly opposing the promotion of minorities and women to top levels in the US military, had no problem in again putting Harriet Tubman on the back burner.    Yesterday US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, South Carolina plutocrat who buys and restores museum quality mansions, announced that plans to put Harriet Tubman's image on the $20 bill have been officially scrapped.

Of course they have.  That's just one more Trump outrage that the next Democratic President will have to address.

Andrew Jackson served as President of the United States from March of 1829 to March of 1837.  During his lifetime he and his family owned 325 human beings.   Jackson actively bought and sold slaves for profit and as a part of his cotton plantation business operation.  At the time he was sworn in as President he owned about a hundred slaves, and by the time he died in 1845 he owned around 150 enslaved men, women, and children.  Instead of freeing his slaves at the time of his death, he left them to his heirs.

Jackson's forced removal of Native American populations from their ancestral homelands in order to open up more land for white settlement and expand the institution of slavery brought about the deaths of thousands of members on the native population and led to many of the hardships that Native Americans endure to this very day.

Yet Andrew Jackson is a personal hero of Donald Trump.  It doesn't take an Ivy League education to figure that one out!

Bully Craps on World Cup

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I will admit on line one, page one of this essay to not actually knowing much about the sport of soccer, but I am an expert on schoolyard bullies so I feel qualified to speak on the World Cup "red card" debacle.

A week ago today during a match between the United States team and the team from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a US "striker" by the name of Folarin Balogun received what is known as a "red card" for stepping on the ankle of a player from the other team.  The "red card" was a penalty that brought with it a one-match ban - which, after the US won that game -  meant that Balogun was barred from participating in the next round game in which the US faced Belgium.  The call was controversial and made even more so by the fact that Balogun was a key US player on the team.

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and presidential task force member Andrew Giulaini got together and decided the proper US response would be to get Donald Trump involved in a challenge to the referee's call.  Trump, who has about as much knowledge of soccer as the tired old typist posting this blog, got suitably enraged and telephoned the person in charge of the World Cup competition, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, a personal friend of Trump's who had given him a laughable "FIFA Peace Prize" award last year.  Trump bitched to Infantino and said he thought the decision should be reviewed - and, surprise, surprise, FIFA changed it's position on Sunday, revoked the "red card" on Balogun, and allowed him to play in yesterday's game against Belgium - which the US lost 4-1.

(FIFA, the International Football - Soccer - Association, had only changed a "red card" penalty one other time in the organization's 122-year history - and that had been more than sixty years ago.)

The United States, which has been a pariah on the world stage ever since Donald Trump crawled out of the Reflecting Pool ooze and became the face of America, had finally started to rebuild some goodwill with the rest of the planet by hosting the World Cup matches - along with Canada and Mexico.    But Trump killed that vibe in its tracks when he pulled off the statesman mask and let his petulant inner-child emerge in tantrum mode.

The United States lost its World Cup mojo the moment Donald Trump picked up the phone to apply pressure to Infantino and FIFA.   Our whiney President stamped out any developing feelings of goodwill, and, in the unlikely event that our great national soccer team had gone on to win the World Cup, the prize would have arrived footnoted and tarnished due to his heavy-handed involvement.

We were finally being accepted back into the world community, but Donald Trump had to crash the party and remind us and everyone else that EVERYTHING is actually about him.

Ben and Me Fifty Years Later

 

by Pa Rock

Student of History (and Literature)

At the time of our nation's"Bicentennial," the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4th, 1976, I was a 28-year-old young adult who had already begun checking many of life's important boxes.  I had graduated from high school (check), completed a four-year college degree (check), served in the US military (check), married (check), and started a family with one child who was almost three and a second who would arrive five months later (check).

Having completed four years with the US Army just over a year earlier and learning, the hard way, that a BA degree in history was essentially worthless, I was back in college at the time of the. Bicentennial seeking a teaching certificate, with a high school classroom being the most logical place to put all of that history knowledge to work in a job that would actually pay the bills.  

The nearest college wads fifty miles from where we were living, and my wife and I would often find ourselves wandering around campus waiting on the other to finish classes.  Not wanting to "waste" my time on campus when there was so much left to learn, I would fill holes in my schedule by taking elective courses, something that would count as a credit for the BS in Education that I was pursuing or some which migh be helpful in raising young children.   One of the "minors" of my initial degree (the one in history) had been English, and I was particularly  drawn to literature classes.  By the time I finished the requirements for the education degree, I was certified to teach not only history (and social sciences), but also English (including literature) as well.  Surely to Pete I could find a teaching job somewhere with thaat background!

Two of the elective classes that I took during that stint in college as I worked to complete my second degree were "Children's Literature" and "Adolescent Literature."  The professor of one of those classes - I don't remember which - had a monstrously long-term assignment for his students to read a great number of children's bookss - it seems like the number was 100 or more - and then to write brief reports of just a couple of paragraaphs on each.

On July 4, 1976, while watching my two-year-old son and a neighbor girl play outside in a kiddie pool, I worked diligently on that assignment by reading the entire novel, "Ben and Me" by Robert Lawson.  I'm not sure why I remember that, but I do.   A few days ago I decided that it might be fun to repeat that same activity for out nation's 250th anniversary - so I did!  Neither my fifty-two-year-old son nor any of the lovely sTRUMPettes living on our country lane wanted to splash around in a kiddie pool while I read, so I conducted the activity on my own.   It was the first time I had tackled that material in fifty years, and again, as with the first time, I enjoyed the tail tale of Amos the Mouse and his doddering and inept friend, Benjamin Franklin.

(I learned a few years after that initial reading that Ben Franklin and I were relatives, 1st cousins, ten times removed - Ben's maternal grandparents (Peter and Mary (Morrill) Folger of Nantucket were my 10th great grandparents on my mother's side of the family.)

The late Robert Lawson, the man credited with writing and illustrating this fine, and very short (116 pages) novel, admits in the forward to the book that it was actually written by a mouse named Amos who lived and traveled in Ben Franklin's fur hat.  In the 1930's remodelers had come across the tiny manuscript  in a small room (18 inches by 18 inches) beneath the hearthstone of an older house in Philadelphia.  Mr. Lawson said that he had the manuscript carefully authenticated - the age of the ink and paper, and the fact that the writing was actual mouse script, and then decided that it merited publication.  Unfortunately, the publishing company did its work in such a way as to make it look as though the actual creative effort was that of Mr. Lawson instead of Amos, the rightful author.

I was familiar with the work before reading it in 1976.  Disney had turned the material into a two-reel cartoon feature in 1953, and it played on the Sunday night Disney television program.

The book highlights Amos and the role he played in several important phases of Dr. Franklin's life, including supplying Ben with some of the wording for the original text of the Declaration of Independence which Amos obtained from Red, the radical mouse who traveled in Thomas Jefferson's saddle bag and who had done much of the original writing of the Declaration himself - something I did not know until Amos shared it in his book.  Amos also recalled the inventor phase of Franklin's life and what went into the creation of the Franklin Stove as well as his interest in lightening and electricity, something which almost resulted in poor Amos getting fried during a particularly harsh storm in which he was riding in a special viewing compartment beneath Ben's kite.  Amos also traveled with his human friend to France after America's War for Independence where he (Amos, not Ben) was instrumental in helping to foment the French Revolution.

Amos led quite the life, and Benjamin Franklin was fortunate to have had him around as a friend. close advisor, and biographer.  Amos witnessed so much of our nation's early history from his peephole in the front of Ben Franklin's fur hat, and he had the courage and tenacity to preserve it for us enjoy and learn from centuries later.

Right now my plan is to read "Ben and Me" again of July 4th, 2076, our nation's "Tricentennial," but in the unlikely event I don't happen to be around, I challenge at least one of my children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren to read it for me!

The challenge has been issued.  Don't disappoint Pa Rock - or I'll send a mouse to deal with you!

Sebastian at Nineteen

by Pa Rock

Proud  Grandpa

My second oldest grandchild, Sebastian Files, is celebrating his nineteenth birthday today.   He is a native of Arizona, but grew up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest (Oregon) with his parents, Scott and Molly, and two younger siblings, Judah and Willow.   Last year, after graduating from high school, Sebastian left the family nest and relocated to the Kansas City area where he now lives and works.

One of Sebastian's primary strengths, at least from this old codger's perspective, is his ability to hold a job, not necessarily a common trait among young people.  He had a job in the fast food industry in Oregon while he was in high school which he maintained until he moved out of state, and he has worked at a grocery store, sometimes in a managerial capacity, in the Kansas City area since arriving there last year.  When I discuss his work with Sebastian, he always responds in positive terms - again, a trait which is not universal among young people - or old ones either!  My grandson seems to have figured out that having a positive attitude will make the work day a better experience and help maintain long-term employment.

Another strength of my 19-year-old grandson is that he is one of the most safety-conscious drivers with whom I have ever ridden.  He has a nice car and seems intent on keeping it that way.

Like many young people, Sebastian is also focused on his toys, but his major interests and purchases are of the fitness variety.   He has high quality and expensive bicycles and a kayak - all of which get plenty of use and help to keep him healthy and in good shape.

I'm proud of my grandson and wish him fair skies and a continuing smooth ride into adulthood as he sets out to conquer the world.  Have a great year and a wonderful life, Sebastian!

America 250 and Other Stuff

 

by Pa Rock

Semiquincentennialian

Happy semiquincentennial everyone!  The celebration of our nation's 250th birthday got off with a bang last night in my neighborhood as the dogs and I hovered inside the house listening to what sounded like a combat scene from "Saving Private Ryan."   Rosie and Gypsy were scared of the gunfire they were certain was occurring just outside the walls of our fortress, and Pa Rock was fearful his drunken neighbors would set the woods on fire with their firecracker bravado..  It was truly a night to remember!

Billionaire entertainer Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs football star Travis Kelce will remember last night for a more personal reason.  They were married yesterday evening at Madison Square Garden in New York City (by comedian Adam Sandler!) and (presumably) spent their first night together as husband and wife.

(Okay, I am now officially in "Ramble" mode!)

I saw a clip from singer, songwriter, and social activist Dolly Parton on social media yesterday where she acknowledged and thanked Taylor and Travis for their $2 million donation to her "Imagination Library," an early childhood literacy program that mails free, high quality, age-appropriate books every month  to children from the time they are born until they turn five-years-old.  Dolly gushed with gratitude as she acknowledged and thanked the happy couple.  (Hey folks, Dolly's program is open to everyone, regardless of income level.)

Taylor and Travis made $26 million in charitable donations yesterday to more that twenty causes across the country.  Recipients included organization working with children, such as the one run by Dolly, food banks, and animal rescue operations.  One of their donations was to Children's Hospital in Kansas City - where Travis plays professional football for the Kansas City Chiefs and the couple reportedly own a home.  (As a former child protection worker with the state of Missouri, I have had many interactions with Children's Hospital of Kansas City.  It is a top flight organization that will put the donation to good use for the direct benefit of children.)

Elon, what have you done for anyone lately - or ever?

In other news, ICE reportedly arrested 10,000 immigrants during a five-day period at the end of June.  Clearly America's underbelly survives and still poses a deadly threat to our immigrant friends, work colleagues, and neighbors.

The thought occurs to me that I have personally been riding the planet for almost a third of our nation's history.  Oh, the things that I've seen - most of which I've already blogged about here!

I was here (well, actually in Noel, Missouri) for our nation's "Bicentennial,"  or 200th birthday party in 1976, - a 28-year-old father of a 2-year-old son who would turn three within three weeks, with a second child on the way.  I marked the day by doing something I had never done before, or since, and remember well the thrill of accomplishment that followed.  Today I am going to repeat that endeavor, and I will likely write about it in this space on Monday.

So have a rockin' Fourth - and if you happen to be in Washington, DC, avoid the National Mall and its overheated MAGA cultists like the plague - and DO NOT pee in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool no matter how much it looks and smells like an Okinawan benjo ditch!   (If you do, masked ICE goons or bored National Guard Reservists will likely arrest you for sex crimes and you'll finish off the holiday weekend picking cotton in South Sudan!)

Enjoy your day - and do something memorable so that you can blog about it in fifty years!  Happy Fourth of July!