If You're Confused, Blame Greg

 

by Pa Rock

Calendrical Calculator

If my parents had possessed the good sense to conceive their first pregnancy just twenty-three days before they actually hit the jackpot back in the 1940's, I would be celebrating my 19th birthday today instead of staring down the shotgun barrel at the imminent arrival of number seventy-six in just a little over three weeks.

Wouldn't that be something, to be sitting down to a birthday cake with my name on it and just nineteen candles!  Of course I would still be 912 months old - aka 27,759 days old - and possibly not have enough wind or energy to blow out nineteen flames!

Welcome to Leap Year 2024 - the only time the month of February will have twenty-nine days between the February that occurred in 2020 and the one that will happen in 2028.  The solar calendar, the one used by most of the world, was designed to reflect a complete cycle of the Earth's orbit around the Sun, but that orbit actually takes about three hundred and sixty-five and one-quarter days, so an extra day (February 29th) was added every four years to keep the calendar and the seasons aligned.  We call that auspicious date "Leap Year."

But even the adjustment of an extra day every four years does not  completely end the discrepancy, and to bring the solar calendar into even tighter alignment with the time it actually takes for the Earth to travel around the Sun, one Leap Year has to be dropped in three of every four centuries.  In the Gregorian calendar, the one established by Pope Gregory XIII and the one we use today, there is no Leap Year for years ending in double zeros - unless those years are divisible by four.  So, after Greg finished putting his new calendar together in 1582, and 1600 rolled around, there was a Leap Year because 1600 is divisible by four.  But there was no Leap Year in the years 1700, 1800, or 1900.    But, when 2000 arrived - our beloved New Millennium - there was a Leap Year - which would have given me my 19th candle - if today was my birthday - which it isn't.

If you're confused, blame Greg - and tax the church!

Happy Leap Year anyway!

Number 24 Keeps his Mouth Shut

by Pa Rock

Senior in a Warm Spell

Yesterday was beautiful, absolutely gorgeous.  When Alexa woke me before daylight, she announced that the temperature outside was already in the mid-fifties, and during the day it would likely reach the mid-eighties.   That's not too shabby for late February with several weeks yet to go before spring officially arrives.  

I've had jonquils blooming for two weeks, and the narcissus are just a couple of days away from showing their own blossoms.

I spent yesterday morning in front of the computer, like I always do, banging out some thoughts for the blog.  As I watched the birds at the feeders being blown off of their perches by the warm, gusty spring breezes, I typed a posting about people who set themselves on fire and burn to death as a form of social protest.  Then, when that obligation was complete, I decided to capitalize on the beautiful day by doing something entirely for me - and I grabbed a few supporting documents and headed off to the local DMV to get my driver's license renewed!

Ah, spring!

The DMV was crowded, like it always is, but they have a system set up where customers "take a number" from a dispenser when they enter the building.   I headed straight to where the little ticket dispenser had stood on a counter for the past several years, and was panicked to discover that it was no longer where it belonged.   Finally a good Samaratan (Number 23) who was sitting next to the door, directed me to the ticket dispenser's new location and I pulled out ticket Number 24.  The counter on the wall said that Number 15 was currently being served, so I found a comfy spot out of the way and began concentrating on clearing the spam from my phone.

"Sixteen."  Great, we were starting to move!

I have the unique ability to entertain myself in group settings without bothering others, but unfortunately that does not seem to be a skill shared by the people who tend to congregate around me.   As I sat there trying to do my own thing, I kept being drawn toward the conversation of two old coots sitting further down the row.  Both of the men were there for driver's license renewals, just like me, and one was busy describing to the other a piece of land and an old house that he owned in a community that is about seventy-five miles away from West Plains, the place where the discussion was occurring.

As the man got into his spiel I quickly realized that although I did not recognize him, the land and house that he was describing were familiar to me.  I had heard that same long-winded description given in the very same office at some point in the past.  Perhaps he and I had both been there on the same day three years earlier when we had our drivers' licenses renewed the last time!

I didn't hear the property owner give his age, but the listener, a well dressed man who was there with his wife, announced that he would be ninety-two in a few days - which means the he likely got his first license on just about the day I was born.

A couple of clerks finished their dealings with customers, and instead of calling new numbers, disappeared.  It was lunch time and the office which didn't close for lunch, nevertheless allowed its employees to eat.  Just my luck.

"Seventeen."  There went the man with the out-of-county property.  I focused on my phone with a vengeance out of fear that his 92-year-old buddy would turn on me for conversation.

"Eighteen."  The property owner had been sent out to secure another document, and his clerk was open for a new customer.

"Nineteen.  Twenty.  Twenty-one."  A worker had returned from lunch and the first two numbers he called had apparently given up and left.  I had cleared my in-box and messages, and was working on emptying the spam and trash when things in the office suddenly began to get interesting.

"Twenty-two."

A very old and large man who had been holed-up in the most remote corner of the lobby slowly got to his feet, leaned on his lethal-looking cane, and said in a loud, yet solemn voice, "What happened to twelve?"

"Twelve?"  A young worker at the counter asked with more than a little trepidation in her voice.

"I'm number twelve and I'm still waiting on my turn."  The man was bald, but there was a small black storm cloud gathering above his head that resembled a toupee.

"Sir, we've already called twelve and nobody answered."

"No you didn't."  He did not look or sound like the type of person who would take "no" gracefully.  

There was undoubtedly a sign somewhere that said firearms weren't permitted inside of the DMV, but I hadn't seen it - and we were in Missouri - so I started looking for cover, but that proved to be unnecessary.  The lady who was dealing with the man had apparently been to an inservice training based on just this contingency, and she handled the matter expertly.  The clerk apologized and promised the individual that he would be the next served, and nobody down the food chain, including the usually problematic Number 24, offered any objections whatsoever.

And thirty minutes another clerk called my number, I yelled "bingo," and thirty minutes after that I was home and typing again.

Today it's colder, but I will still head out to cardiac rehab in an hour or so dressed in gym shorts and a sweatshirt.  When you're my age, you live life with the throttle wide open!

The Shock and Power of Self-Immolation

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A young man with a Palestinian flag set himself on fire outside of the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta on December 1st, and while he did not die in the incident he did suffer very serious injuries in his highly personal protest of Israel's unrelenting attacks on the civilians and children of Gaza.

This past Sunday Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old member of the United States Air Force, set himself on fire outside of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC, again over the savagery that the Israeli military has been unleashing on the Palestinians in Gaza.  Airman Bushnell, who live-streamed his self-immolation on social media, died from his injuries the following day.

That type of personal protest, setting oneself on fire, is not original, but it does tend to be highly effective in drawing the eyes of the world to a specific problem.

On June 11th, 1963, a Buddhist monk who was living and working at a monastery and orphanage Hue, the old capital of Vietnam, decided that he would set himself on fire as a protest to the United States' growing involvement in the civil war in his homeland.  The monk, Thich Quang Duc, loaded his Austin Westminster Sedan with a few younger monks and a couple of cans of gasoline - and drove off to Saigon where he notified several foreign journalists of a planned "shocking political protest" that he was going to hold against the government of South Vietnam which was being backed by the United States.  The monk told the journalists where and when the protest would be held, but only one showed up, a photojournalist named Malcolm Wilde Browne who wound up winning a Pulitzer Prize for taking the time to attend the monk's protest.

When Thich Quang Duc arrived at the scene he seated himself on the curb in the lotus position and waited as several hundred people gathered.  Then the young monks carefully and thoroughly doused him in gasoline, and the seated monk struck a match and set himself ablaze.  For the next couple of minutes the burning monk chanted prayers while the flames consumed him - and the journalist took photos

The ;photographs of the burning monk resonated with people around the world, and President Kennedy was reportedly so affected by the image that he began to reevaluate his position on the war in Vietnam.

Self-immolation is a drastic measure of passion and self-sacrifice that is very effective at drawing attention to an issue.  We may question the ultimate sanity of those who choose this recourse, but their commitment to the cause is beyond doubt.

Rod Stewart is Still Making his Music

 

by Pa Rock

Music Fan

Alexa and I are listening to Rod Stewart and Jools Holland's new album, Swing Fever, this morning, and it has the house a-rockin'!

Rod Stewart first pounced on the music scene with Maggie May, more than half a century ago (1971), and he has gone on to sell more that 120 million records including ten number one albums and six top singles.  In his spare time Stewart has shared his life with five long-term female partners and three wives - and accumulated eight children and a knighthood along the way.  Today, at seventy-nine, Sir Roderick David Stewart is still performing fifty or sixty live shows a year - and continuing to share his full-throated, raspy voice with the world.

Stewart's latest, the swing-jazz collection, Swing Fever, is a collaboration with British pianist an band leader, Jools Holland, and it is a clear change of pace for the old rocker - very smooth, rhythmic, and jazzy - and a pleasing break from the Rod Stewart we have known and enjoyed over the many years that he has been performing.  In some ways the new album reminds me of when Willie Nelson changed his pace with the Stardust album or when Linda Ronstadt's What's New with Nelson Riddle and his Orchestra took her and us to another time.

The cuts on Swing Fever, which just came out three days ago, are:   Lullaby of Broadway (with tap dancing!), Oh Marie, Sentimental Journey, Pennies from Heaven, Night Train, Love is the Sweetest Thing, Them There Eyes, Good Rockin' Tonight, Ain't Misbehaving', Frankie and Johnnie, Walkin' My Baby Back Home, Almost Like Being in Love, and Tennessee Waltz.

(Yes, Stewart and Holland even jazzed up Patti Page's old hit, Tennessee Waltz, and gave it new life!)

Young Rod probably could have stolen his daddy's cue back in the 1960's and make a living out of shooting pool, but this tired old typist, for one, is mighty glad that he didn't!

Rock on, Sir Rod!

More Political Interference in Reproductive Rights

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Reproductive rights were in the news again last week when a group of Cracker Jack lawyers calling itself the Supreme Court of Alabama issued a ruling declaring that frozen human embryos are de facto human babies and deserve the same rights and protections that Alabama hopefully gives to its babies who have passed through a birth canal and are now breathing air.  A day or so later GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a married Christian mother of two grown children, entered the discussion by saying that she also regards human embryos as babies.

In vitro fertilization is a procedure in which eggs are removed from a woman's ovary and combined with sperm cells outside the body to form embryos.  The embryos are grown in the laboratory for several days and then placed in a woman's uterus or cryopreserved (frozen) for future use.  The overall process is generally referred to as IVF.

Last week's decision by the Alabama Supreme Court was in response to couples who lost their frozen embryos because of an accident in a south Alabama storage facility.  The court said that the couples could sue under the state's wrongful death law.  That sent shock waves through hospitals and laboratories involved in IVF, and three Alabama hospitals - including the University of Alabama Hospital - have since announced that they will no longer be involved in IVF procedures until the law is clarified and personnel involved in the procedures have legal protections.

IVF is a fairly common procedure used by couples who encounter difficulties in procreating.  There are currently an estimated 800,000 to one million frozen embryos in the United States.

Politicians, and Republican politicians in particular, who often have an outsized interest in reproductive issues, and who have generally been opposed to procedures like abortion, surrogacy, and even birth control, seem to have been caught off guard by the wide public support of IVF, and many are now scrambling to get onboard with the well established medical process.   Donald Trump, a politician who reportedly favors a national abortion ban, has sprung to the defense of IVF and called on the Alabama state legislature to pass a law safeguarding the procedure.   Joe Biden, a more ardent supporter of reproductive rights than Trump, has called the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court "outrageous and unacceptable."

With the Big Kahunas of both major political parties spurning the Alabama decision, perhaps it will be legislated away before the elderly politicians (of both genders) on the US Supreme Court feel compelled to weigh in - and God only knows what type of egg they would hatch!    A quick legislative solution at the national level would be ideal, but, of course, the current Congress is one of the most ineffective in the history of the republic, so a remedy from them is unlikely.   The impending lack of a quick, national solution opens a whole Pandora's box of other issues.

If a frozen embryo has a right to life, what other rights does it have?  Should it have representation in government as a person - or perhaps as a "partial" person as the Founding Fathers originally deemed slaves in America to be?  Will it have a right to legal counsel or public assistance in the event it is abandoned by its donors?

It is truly a shame that our political leaders do not take the same level of interest in meeting the basic needs of living, breathing children as they do the "babies" in the freezer.

Letitia James Kicks Political Butt!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

New York's relentless and ferocious attorney general, Letitia James, has just felled her third political giant in less that four years - and the second in less than a month - feats that mark her as a political force in her own right 

In 2021 Ms. James began looking into allegations of sexual harassment of female state employees by the three-term Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, the son of a former governor and the brother of a well-known national news television correspondent.  The state attorney general, herself a Democrat, did not let party affiliation interfere with her investigation of the women's complaints against the governor, and in August of that year she issued a finding and a lengthy report stating that Cuomo had harassed current and former state employees as well as a number of women outside of state government.  A couple of weeks after her report was released, Cuomo bowed to mounting public pressure and resigned as governor.

Score one for the giant killer!

Ms. James also brought a fraud case against Donald Trump in the state of New York alleging that he had defrauded the state out of millions of dollars by intentionally distorting and misreporting the values of his properties in order to obtain preferential loan and tax tax rates.  A little over a week ago the judge in that case ruled that Trump owes the state of New York in the neighborhood of $450 million - nearly a quarter of which is back interest on that debt.  (Post-judgment interest on that debt is nearly $112,000 per day.)  Trump is whining about political persecution, and Ms. James is countering that the state will begin seizing his New York assets if he does not pay up - and she was reportedly looking at Trump Tower when she said it.

Score two!

The National Rifle Association, a non-profit gun-rights group which was based in New York, became a target in 2020 when Attorney General James sued the the group for violating state law governing how charities registered in New York can operate.   A particular target of the suit was alleged extravagant personal spending  by Wayne LaPierre, the group's leader for the past three decades, as well as spending by some other members of top NRA leadership.  LaPierre resigned his position within the group as the trial began, but that did not allow him to escape legal consequences for his past actions.  Yesterday the National Rifle Association and Wayne LaPierre were found liable for misspending millions of dollars on extravagant perks.  LaPierre himself was found liable for $5.4 million in damages - much of which went for expensive vacations, flights on private jets, and fine Italian suits.

And that makes a three-bagger!

Letitia James is a political dynamo, someone who is not afraid to deal with corruption where she finds it and to face down the political giants of our time - of either party.  Some would have us believe that that there are no US political leaders-in-waiting who are capable dealing with Kim Jong-un, Xi Jinping, or Putin, but Letitia James would no doubt disagree - and so might Andrew Cuomo, Donald Trump, and Wayne LaPierre.  And at sixty-five years of age, she is still a pup by the standards of both major political parties, but that pup sure can bite!

February Is Now be the Cruelest Month

 

by Pa Rock

Observer of Nature

For those who plan their lives around a calendar, spring traditionally begins during the third full week of March, and for others of a more intuitive nature spring has sprung when the roses begin budding and blooming, the baby birds are hatching out, and the sounds of lawnmowers start to fill the air - and all of that often happens in April, or at least it did up until a few years ago.

The 14th century poet, Geoffrey Chaucer, saw April as the time of rebirth.  In the prologue to his "Canterbury Tales," Chaucer declared:  

"When April the sweet showers fall

And pierce the drought of March to the root, and all

The veins are bathed in liquor of such power

As brings about the engendering of the flower . . . "

And nearly six centuries later American and British poet T.S. Eliot expressed a very similar view in the opening lines to his epic poem, "The Waste Land:"

"April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain."

But weather patterns have changed and poets today who want to bang on about the arrival of spring might feel pressured by reality to forgo the pleasant two-syllable "April" and instead go with the clunkier four-syllable "February" in celebrating nature's annual rebirth.

The temperature was in the seventies here in the Ozarks yesterday, and it will be again today - as well as much of next week.  Winter almost never happened, and it certainly did not get cold enough for long enough to interfere with the coming summer's crop of ticks and chiggers.  This summer will likely be an itching and scratching fiasco!  

The sprawling old lilac bush that stands in front of my house and tries to pull me off of the mower whenever I get too close is already heavy with green buds.  It's veins are drawing liquor from the dead land and preparing to burst forth into fragrant flowers - and it's only February!

Can the dandelions be far behind?

The arrival of spring stayed fairly constant during the five hundred and thirty years between the time Chaucer penned his Canterbury Tales in 1392 and Eliot described his Waste Land in 1922, but now, just one century past Eliot's classic, spring has advanced two full months.

It's called global warming, and it is a product of global capitalism raping, and smothering, and poisoning the only home that we have, the home we all must share - and it has been done solely through greed so that some may live better than others.

Chaucer and Eliot would both be aghast and ashamed, and all of us should be.

(Note for language purists:  Yes, I realize that I spelled "cruelest' two different ways.  It has one "l" in the title because that is the American spelling and this is an American blog-posting, and the word has 'two "l's" in the quote from "The Waste Land," because that is the British spelling and the poem was composed and published in Great Britain, and that is the spelling which was used by the poet - who was actually a native of Missouri.)

A Politician Pimping Sneakers

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One day after a judge in New York hit Donald Trump with a whopping $355 million dollar fine in a business fraud trial, the consumate huckster was back at it with all of his grifter flags a-flying.    Trump showed up at Sneaker Con in Philadelphia promoting his new golden, high-top "Never Surrender" line of sneakers.  The gleaming, golden footwear are adorned with American flags on their backsides and a capital "T" embossed on each individual shoe.  They sell for just $399 per pair - and the pre-sale of 1,000 pairs apparently had already sold out by the time Trump took the stage in Philadelphia to tout his latest retail sales triumph.

Over the years Trump has also sold hats, wine, steaks, a board game, and "university" degrees - and there is apparently no shortage of customers for his wares.  In fact, there is probably one born every minute.

Newsweek made an effort to find out where the Trump shoes were being manufactured, but has so far been unsuccessful.  The business responsible for the shoes in headquartered in Wyoming - on paper, at least.  Looking for the union label would probably be a waste of time.

Congratulations on the launch of your new business, Donald.   The state of New York and E. Jean Carroll are cheering you on!

The Agony of de Feet

 

by Pa Rock

Rural Resident

(Note:  The following story was told to me by my old college friend, Mike Box, over breakfast this past  weekend in Mission, Kansas.  It had occurred last fall in Howell County, Missouri, the rural southern Missouri county where I reside, and Mike's retelling of the news account was the first that I had heard of the gruesome tale which follows.  My friend has since forwarded a copy of the newspaper article where he got his information.  It was in the February 15, 2024, edition of the "Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader,"  The article, written by Ryan Collingwood, was entitled "Willow Springs man staged farm accident, paid someone to cut off his feet, authorities say."  The title for today's blog posting was provided by my old friend.  Thanks, Mike.)

This story begins in November of last year when the Howell County Sheriff's Office was notified of a farm "accident" near the town of Willow Springs where an elderly person, a man in his sixties, had lost his feet in a brush-hogging accident.  (A brush-hog is a mower deck that attaches to the back of a tractor and is used to clear large acerages of sprouts and brush.)  

The sheriff's office responded by sending out an experienced investigator to see exactly what was going on, and the investigator quickly developed concerns about the truthfulness of the report.  For one thing, the man's feet appeared to be truly lost - they could not be located by the medics or deputies who responded to the call.    The investigator also noted that the wounds where the feet had been removed were too clean to have been the work of a brush-hog, which would have left them more mangled.  Another curiosity was the fact that the man's legs had tourniquets applied before the responders arrived, and it was unclear who had provided that first-aid treatment.

The man's feet were eventually discovered by a relative.  They were hidden in a bucket and obscured by some tires.

There were too many questions and too few answers for the tale the tale that law enforcement and medics were being given.

The sheriff's investigator determined that it had been a "staged accident" and a news release was put out to that effect not long after the incident occurred.  The "victim," who was known to be a paraplegic in his lower extremities, hired a man from Florida to come to Missouri and chop off his feet with a hatchet, with the ultimate objective being insurance fraud.

(He put out a "hit" on his own feet!)

The "victim" was not arrested because he ultimately did not follow through with the insurance claim and had therefore not committed fraud, and he was not charged with wasting law enforcement time and resources because the sheriff's office did not want to go through the expense and bother of incarcerating what would have been an expensive and problematic patient/prisoner.  He also was not mentioned by name in the article in the Springfield newspaper because the Howell County prosecutor never charged the man with a crime.  He did, however, have a prolonged stay in the hospital.

The case was recently closed, but it remains one of the more interesting tales to emerge from the Ozarks in recent years.  If there is ever a sequel to "Winter's Bone," perhaps this bloody incident will merit a cameo!

Missouri's Presidential Preference Selection Process is a Mess

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Citizen Journalist

Voters in Missouri do not register by political parties.  The state has an "open primary" system in which people who show up to vote in a primary election may choose the ballot of either party, even if it is not the party that they generally voted for in the past. 

There are two major ways in which ordinary citizens make their voices heard in the selection of presidential candidates, by presidential primary elections or by party caucuses.  Caucuses, which are precinct or county meetings of voters in a particular party, are a burden for people with full-time jobs or young children, so often a very small percentage of actual voters show up at caucuses, and the party leaders and elected officials dominate the process.   Presidential primaries are simpler and just involve going to the polls and voting.

Years ago my state, Missouri, used party caucuses to select their delegates to the presidential conventions.   By using caucuses the party bosses and political leaders kept the power of delegate selection to themselves and essentially froze the common people out of the process.  It was the anthesis of democracy - where the people would get to decide.

In 1984 I was responsible for setting up a presidential preference caucus in a rural Missouri county.  It took a lot of work to find a good location, advertise, get the rules printed, provide for refreshments, etc, but my team and I managed to pull it off.  The caucus was held in the county courthouse, and about forty people showed up - and of those, about a third were actually members of the other political party who had attended just to mess with our results.  Forty people from an entire county bothered to attend, and most of them were party committee people, office holders, and saboteurs.  The general public essentially had no say in that highly important political matter.

Not long after that, Missouri, is a gush of democracy, switched over to a presidential primary system, one that lasted through 2020.  Then, in 2022, our Republican-heavy legislature decided that the state had had enough democracy and switched to a goofball system which let the political parties decide for themselves. how they would select their delegates to the national conventions.

Missouri Republicans, not being big fans of democracy, chose (or their party leaders chose) to use a caucus system and return to the good old days of the party bosses running things.  The state Democratic  Party went with a primary election system, but since the state is now officially out of the process, the Democrats are funding and conducting the primary on their own.  It is far from a perfect system, and in the case of the Republican caucuses, it is far from being a fair system, but it is what it is, and the requirements of the law are being met - so far.

But certain people are worried that there will be some "cheating" occurring by people who cross party lines and participate in the other party's process - like those people who didn't belong at the county caucus that I organized in 1984, but showed up anyway - or the people who chose the other party's ballot in a presidential primaries.

So enter Missouri's illustrious Republican secretary of state, Jay Ashcroft, the man responsible for elections in the "show me" state.  Ashcroft is apparently paranoid that the selection processes won't remain pure, and he has released some garbled information which seems to be aimed at getting Missourians to register an affiliation with one party or the other.

The following was taken from an article entitled "GOP to hold caucuses, Dems to vote by ballot" on page A-5 of "The West Plains Daily Quill" on February 14, 2024:

"No longer are voters able to choose a ballot, regardless of party, to weigh in on their nominees of choice;  instead, voters must choose a ballot in alignment with their official registration.  The three recognized parties in Missouri, according to the office of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, are the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian Parties.  Voters who do not want to choose a party ballot may request a ballot containing issues, provided the jurisdiction in which they are voting has issues on which to vote, the office adds."

Missouri law does not require voters to register by political party!

When I read that article, I picked up the phone and called the county courthouse.  No, the nice lady told me, Missouri does not register voters by party, but I could declare an "affiliation" if I wanted to.  She also informed me that when I showed up to vote in our state's August primary election I could choose whichever party ballot I desired.  Missouri is still an "open primary" state.

Then I called the newspaper and spoke with the editor, who was also the person who had written the article that had gotten me wound up.   Yes, she said, you must register by political party to be involved in the presidential preference selection process, but as we talked she seemed to agree that the process was confused and that she did not understand it herself. Much of it seemed to be based on a press release from Jay Ashcroft.  But there was some original reporting in the piece.  The editor/reporter had spoken with local organizers of the upcoming county GOP caucus and quoted them as saying that a prospective participant should be a "true and faithful Republican."

That does not sound like a requirement to officially register or "affiliate" to this skeptical old codger - who will participate in one party's selection process without registering an affiliation.

Over the past two years there have been a couple of state legislative attempts to redefine Missouri's voting system to some sort of registration or affiliation by party, but so far those have not been successful.

Missouri had a system that worked, and our legislature broke it.  Next Jay Ashcroft tried to define it to suit his, and his party's, agenda, and now we have a fermenting mess.

Perhaps it's time to for Missouri to replace its legislators with chimpanzees who carry laptop computers.  They would certainly be less harmful than what we have now - and they might actually accomplish something that would make life better for the citizens of the state.

Missouri does not require voters to register or even affiliate by party regardless of what our Secretary of State would like for us to think.

Jay Ashcroft wants to be our governor.

Have mercy!

End of spiel.

Tuck Everlasting, the Musical

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

"Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit is a pre-teen and teen novel that has been regarded as a classic in the genre almost ever since it was first published in 1975.  I read the book in the late 1970's while taking a "Children's Literature" class in college, and found the story so compelling and enthralling that it has stuck with me through the ensuing decades.  This past Saturday night I was able to enjoy Natalie Babbit's wonderful story again as I watched a youth performance of the material presented in a musical stage format.

"Tuck Everlasting" is the story of a young family named Tuck - a father, mother, and two teen sons - who are early American pioneers.   At some point a couple of centuries ago they had the good fortune, or perhaps the misfortune, to drink from a spring hidden in the woods, and the spring water turned them into immortals.  From that point on they never aged, nor could they be killed.  They were constantly challenged with finding ways to stay hidden in society and not forming long-term relationships with others.   A century or so later when a little girl from the community meets them and discovers their secret, she is given the opportunity to join the Tuck family on their never-ending ride through time - but would that be something that a person would really want to do?

The play was performed by a cast of dozens of "older" students (ages 12-18) with the Culture House of Olathe, Kansas, staged at the Goppert Center on the campus of Avila University in the Kansas City area, and produced four times over a three-day period.   I had a great seat for the final performance on Saturday night.  I was there to support my very talented granddaughter, Olive Macy (age 12), who was a member of the dancing chorus and was on stage much of the evening.  She was, as always, marvelous - and so were all of the other young singers, dancers, and thespians who created such a stunning and memorable show.

Unfortunately, when I arrived back in the Ozarks yesterday I found that I had neglected to bring a program of the play home with me, so I am unable to give accolades to cast members by name.  Some of the older cast members have been involved in Culture House productions for several years, and they are becoming quite proficient  in performing on stage.  Seven were seniors in high school, and some of them, if not all, will undoubtedly be treading the boards in college productions over the next few years.  

I do know that the director and choreographer of this Culture House production was a young woman by the name of Lana Gage (I looked her up) who did an amazing job of getting the show from first-read through opening night in less that six weeks.  (As a former teacher, it would take me almost that long just to get the students seated and listening!)   The people, whoever they were, who adapted the novel to a stage format and wrote the musical score, were also extraordinary.  It all stayed very true to the book.

"Tuck Everlasting" was another great production, Culture House.  You are doing really fine work.

Olive, your old grandpa remains very proud of you.  Never stop reaching for the stars!

Ivanhoe

 

by Pa Rock

Reader

I’ve just finished reading the classic tale of chivalry and romance in medieval England, “Ivanhoe,” by Sir Walter Scott.  The fictionalized story of life and excitement in the 12^th century was originally published in three volumes in 1819.   The version that I tackled was a 200^th anniversary edition of the original, and it weighed in at 457 pages of beautiful, and often challenging, writing, that did not lend itself to a quick read.  It also had some very good illustrations of life in that period.
 
The central character of the book is Wilfred, the Knight of Ivanhoe and the son of an important Saxon noble.   The knight (aka Wilfred, aka Ivanhoe) had just returned from fighting the Muslim infidels in the Holy Land along with England’s Norman king, Richard (Plantagenet) the Lionheart.   Ivanhoe was returning to a father who had disowned him, and Richard was coming home to a brother who had betrayed him.  Both came back to England in disguise, and both were intent on regaining the positions that they held in the social order before they left for the Crusades.
  
At the point where this story begins unfolding there were three dominant political forces in England: the Saxons, or the past rulers of the country who had been displaced by the French conquerors from the Normandy region of France in 1066, the Normans (as the descendants of William the Conqueror were called) who had become the dominant nobility of the country after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, and the Catholic) clergy.  All three groups are ably represented in Sir Walter Scott’s tale of England as it was more than six centuries before he put quill to paper to craft his story of that age.
 
(All references to the “Church” in this tale are to the Catholic Church, basically the only Christian denomination of the time.)
 
Two other components of society were also present in the story of Ivanhoe:  the Jews, who were reviled by the church and others because the Christian stance against usury (money-lending for interest) left the practice the exclusive domain the Jews, allowing some to become very rich and influential as they loaned money to the nobles, and the poor as represented in the novel by the notorious outlaws such as those of Sherwood Forest – Robin Hood and his band of merry thieves, poachers, and highwaymen.
 
Sir Walter Scott laced his account of life in Middle Ages with tournaments including competitions like jousting and archery, castles with moats and dungeons, knights laden with armor and riding astride horses bred for battle, beautiful damsels in distress, a jester, and even a swineherd.   His plot wends its way wistfully through romantic settings and situations, and always strives to comport with the rules of chivalry.
 
While Ivanhoe (Wilfred) the title character is fictitious, some of the action in the book is tied to actual historical individuals such King Richard the Lionheart, the evil Prince John, and Robin Hood.  The action also alludes to and explains some of the history of that era:  the assassination of Thomas Becket (the “meddlesome” priest) at the order or suggestion of Henry II (the father of Richard and John), the centuries-long conflict between the Saxons and Normans, the impact of the Catholic clergy on the different strata of society, and a basic understanding of how the Knights Templar operated.
 
“Ivanhoe” offers an expansive view of history in the 12^th century as it was playing out through the social and economic structure of feudal system, rules of chivalry, the Church, and the rising independent spirit of the masses.  On the one hand it is an exciting tale of good versus evil painted on a medieval canvas, and on the other it is a very relatable way in understanding a unique period in European and world history.
 
Reading “Ivanhoe” took me to medieval England.  It wasn’t easy to get there, but the journey was worth the effort.     The book is a literary classic which I highly recommend.

A Delicious Start to the Day

 

by Pa Rock

Breakfast Gourmand

Mike Box, an old friend from college in the 1960's, swung by Tim and Erin's and picked me up for breakfast at 7:00 this morning.   As I climbed into my friend's nearly new pickup truck, I was proud that I had almost 600 steps already on my pedometer.  Mike, whose  daily walking routine begins in the dark, was already at 8,200!

We ate at "The Big Biscuit," a locally-owned, chain restaurant franchise that specializes in breakfast and lunch, in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, about two or three miles from the home of the Macy's of Roeland Park.    The relatively new restaurant was easy to access and comfortably roomy with plenty of parking and seating  - and a fine assortment of selections on the menu.    The wait staff was some of the most cheerful and pleasant people that I have ever encountered in any eating establishment.

My friend, who had eaten there before,  settled on the "waffle platter," one of the very first items on the menu, and, it being my first time at a "Big Biscuit," I decided it would be prudent to follow his lead.  And it was a very wise choice!  The meal centered on a large Belgian waffle that was absolutely the most delicious waffle I have ever eaten.  It was accompanied by two eggs, breakfast potatoes, and a choice of bacon or sausage.  Mike washed his down with coffee on ice and I had iced tea.

Our breakfast was an exceptionally fine meal punctuated with lots of discussion about grandchildren and other things of mutual interest.

It was a delicious and most enjoyable way to start the day.  (I brought some of it home for Rosie, and her day is off to a great start as well!)

Now I am listening to "Bookends" by Simon and Garfunkel.  That is where my head is at as this beautiful new day begins to unfold.

Thanks for breakfast, Mike.  It's always great spending time with old friends!

Pissing in the Snow

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

(Note:  The title of this piece, 'Pissing in the Snow," was shamelessly taken from a collection of Ozark humor with the same title that was published by the late Ozark folklorist, Vance Randolph, many years ago.   It is highly recommended by this tired old typist, if you can find a copy.)

Rosie and I are in Roeland Park, Kansas (a suburb of Kansas City), after nearly five hours on the road.  We are here to see my granddaughter, Olive, sing in a play tomorrow night.  Our drive north today from West Plains, was long (279 miles) and unusually difficult.    The first one hundred miles were calm and relaxing, except that I chose to listen to my favorite political podcast, "Pod Save America," the entire way - and those young men, all in their thirties and forties and veterans of the Obama administration, are always wired - and fun and informative to listen to.  So by the time we hit Springfield I was  getting fired-up about the upcoming presidential election.

But there was a sudden change of weather in Springfield right at the start of mile one-oh-one, when a hard rain began.  Then by the time I pulled on to Interstate 40 for a three-mile jaunt over to the next highway north, the skies opened and we found ourselves trying to navigate one of the busiest truck routes in America with very limited visibility.  We stopped thirty more miles up the road in Bolivar, the home of Missouri's current useless governor, for bathroom breaks, and Rosie reluctantly did her business in a heavy mist.  But, sixty  miles on in the big town of Clinton, Missouri, we had to go again, and that time Rosie had to walk and squat in a steady snowfall with snow already accumulating on the ground.  (Hence the title of this blog posting.)  Rosie was not amused.  

Pa Rock, an elitist, was able to go inside of the convenience store and use their facilities to relieve himself.  While I was in the store, I did purchase a hotdog which I shared with Rosie as we travelled on toward Kansas City, and she was mollified a bit.

The play that Olive is in is called Tuck Everlasting, and it is based on an award-winning adolescent novel that I read many years ago in a literature class.  I enjoyed the book and am anxious to see the play.  I always love performances which feature any of my grandchildren!

Breakfast tomorrow with old friend, xobekim, at a new place in town called The Big Biscuit.  Looking forward to it!

Home Sunday.

Chief's Celebration Ends in Gunfire

 

by Pa Rock

Missourian

Missouri, one of the gun-happiest states in the US, chalked up another mass-shooting yesterday when a victory celebration for the Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs was brought to an end with gunfire that killed one and injured more than twenty others, nine of them children.   Some of the wounded are reportedly in critical condition.   The woman who was killed was a Kansas City area radio DJ and the mother of two children.  There was also a report that the children of the woman who was killed were injured in the shooting.

Two fans tackled and brought down one man with a gun.  Police reportedly have three people in custody who may have played a role in the shooting.

The shooting occurred at the end of the parade route near historic Union Station in Kansas City where more than a million people had gathered to honor the Kansas City Chiefs after their overtime win against the San Francisco 49ers in last Sunday evening's Super Bowl LVIII.  In addition to the Kansas City Chiefs' team members, owners, and management, the crowd also included Kansas City's mayor, chief of police, and many local dignitaries.  One news report stated that over eight hundred area police were on duty in and around Union Station at the time of the shooting.

Missouri's Republican governor, Mike Parson, and his wife were also at the event, and after the report of the shooting, Parson, a former rural county sheriff and gun rights supporter, was throwing out thoughts and prayers like they were parade confetti.

The Missouri Republican legislature has done everything within its power to insure that tragedies such as what happened in Kansas City yesterday go right on occurring.  The state lawmakers have checked every box on the NRA's wishlist.   In Missouri you do not need a permit to purchase rifles, shotguns, or handguns, nor do you have to register any of those weapons.   Owners of guns are not required to be licensed in the "show me" state, and permits to carry are not required, even for concealed handguns or open-carry guns.

The "Wild West" begins at the St. Louis Arch, and our politicians are proud of it.

Stand strong, Kansas City, in defiance of the craziness.   Ignorance and violence cannot be permitted to prevail and rule our lives.

An American Game, an American Hero, and an American Response!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Three weeks ago three men pulled onto a baseball diamond at a park in Wichita, Kansas, cut a life-sized, bronze statue of baseball great Jackie Robinson off at the ankles, put it in the back of their pickup truck, and then drove off into the night.  The statue was a focal point for a baseball league of disadvantaged youth called League 42 - so named in honor of Robinson's uniform number 42 which he wore during his decade with the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Wichita Police announced yesterday that one of the three men who were seen on security camera video removing the statue has been arrested, a 45-year-old male named Ricky Alderete, and they said that they anticipate the arrest of the other two people who participated in the desecration of the ballpark and the theft of the statue as well in the near future.  Police further indicated that some other individuals may have had involvement in the incident after-the fact.

Police found parts of the statue in a burn barrel at a nearby park, and they have also located and are in possession of the pickup truck used in the crime.

Mr. Alderete has been charged with felony theft (an item of over $25,000 in value), aggravated criminal damage to property, identity theft, and making false information.

There was originally some thought that the theft of the statue of Robinson, a civil rights icon who broke the color barrier in professional baseball, could have been a hate crime, a crime based on his race and history with the civil rights movement in America.  Wichita police now believe, however, that the criminals were motivated by greed.  They wanted to melt the bronze statue down and sell it for scrap.

The community, and indeed the country, has rallied to support the kids of Wichita as they deal with the loss of their important point of pride.  Reports indicate that donations of nearly $300,000 have poured into the league to support the young players and the replacement of the statue of Jackie Robinson.   Additionally, several major league baseball teams and individual players wanted to be a part of the effort, and Major League Baseball has said that their organization will pay for the statue's replacement.  The extra money that has come in will be used for repairs and upgrades to the host park and its athletic facilities.

The original bronze statue cost $50,000 to create and cast, and officials placed its current value at $75,000.  The artist who made it has since died, but the original mold still exists and a firm in Colorado will cast the replacement.  

All of those involved in this quick resolution of the crime and the rapid response to getting a statue of Jackie Robinson back in the local ballpark should certainly be proud of their efforts!  It's an American game, an American hero, and an American response!

Salute!

Fat Tuesday Comes to the Big Easy!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This has been a big week for learning how various calendars work.  The Lunar New Year, which some refer to as the Chinese New Year in reference to China, one of many nations which form their calendars around lunar cycles, began last Saturday and ushered in the "Year of the Dragon," and now, just a few days later, we are focused on some significant Christian religious events which also have their timing (for the most part) in lunar cycles and phases of the moon.

Today is "Fat Tuesday," the day before the annual beginning of the Christian season of fasting, or "Lent," which begins on "Ash Wednesday."  Ash Wednesday is forty weekdays before Easter, an especially important Christian holiday whose exact date changes every year because it is related to the phases of the moon.  (Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox - March 21 or March 22.)   This year Easter will be on Sunday, March 31st.

The period between "Old Christmas" (January 6th) and Fat Tuesday is regarded as the "carnival season" and it culminates on Fat Tuesday with large celebrations such as the "Mardi Gras" of New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro, events which are alive with parades, parties, music, drinking, eating, and puking - as many good Christians exorcise all of their debauchery in preparation to begin fasting on the following day.

I have been to New Orleans five times, I think, but never for Mardi Gras.  That is my loss, because I am sure that the "Big Easy" did just fine without me and did not even notice my absence.  My family went through New Orleans in the summer of 1957 just after I completed third grade.  My clearest memory of that visit was spending the day on the beach at Lake Ponchatrain where everyone in the family got too sunburned and suffered large water boils on our skin which broke and oozed throughout the remainder of the trip.  We also drove up into Tennessee and visited Stone Mountain, Chattanooga, and Memphis on that trip.

When I was in college I visited New Orleans for a second time when the Student Union chartered a bus and took a group of us to the French Quarter for a couple of nights over the Easter break.  It seems like the fee for the bus ride was thirty-some dollars.  That trip was the most enjoyable time that I spent in that beautiful and historic old setting, and it was on that particular visit that I learned to love Dixieland jazz, fresh cumquats, and the wonderful sugar-coated beignets at the Cafe du Monde. The night life was also memorable.  

The third time I was in New Orleans was also while I was in college, and that time an old high school friend and I drove there in her car and stayed with wealthy friends of hers who owned the major brewery in the city. I remember one exceptionally wild night at the amusement park at Lake Ponchatrain during that visit, as well as several very risqué clubs in the French Quarter. 

The next time that I was in the city of New Orleans was in the early 1980's as an adult sponsor of a high school senior trip.  There wasn't much that those country kids didn't see as they walked and gaped open-mouthed up and down Bourbon Street!  They probably got more education the couple of nights that we were there than they did the rest of their senior year!

My final visit to the "Big Easy" was with a lady friend in the early 1990's.  We reserved a bargain room before we left home, and found out when we arrived that it was so economical because it had no windows!  But that was not a big problem because very few people sleep in New Orleans anyway.  We did Bourbon Street and the French Quarter a couple of times, and also took in some civilized activities like visiting the aquarium and the zoo.  Old age was beginning to set in!

Have a loud, romping-stomping, Fat Tuesday, New Orleans.  I'll be thinking of you.  Party hearty and sling those beads!

Enter the Dragon

 

by Pa Rock

Big Ol' Rat

The Chinese New Year, one of several lunar new years from various country's, happens at the start of the second full moon after the winter solstice (December 21st or 22nd).    The holiday generally falls somewhere between the third week of January and the third week of February.   This year the Chinese and several other nations celebrated their New Year on Saturday, February 10th. 

The Chinese divide their lunar calendar into twelve segments, each represented by an animal (Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig), with each animal reigning supreme every 12th year.  The year of the rabbit (which honors three of my six grandchildren) ended on Saturday, and the year of the dragon began.

I know a little bit about the year of the dragon.  ( In fact, I know just enough about many things to be quite annoying!)

A dozen years ago when I was living and working on Okinawa, a good friend and I traveled to Vietnam for the holidays.  We arrived in Saigon (now officially called Ho Chi Minh City) on Christmas Eve of 2011 and left Hanoi on January 1st, 2012.   During the eight days that we were in-country we traveled in a private car with two young Vietnamese men who acted as our guides.  They spoke very good English as they showed and explained much of their country's history while we explored the countryside and urban landscapes between the two old capitals.

One of our guides was due to become a father in a couple of months, and he was, of course, very excited about that.  He was especially pleased that the baby would be born in the year of the dragon because the dragon represented luck and good fortune.    The guide explained to us that people in his country often planned pregnancies so that the babies would be born in the year of the dragon and the child would be blessed with good luck.

That Vietnamese child should be almost twelve now.  I hope that he or she has been lucky and is enjoying a good life.   (My rabbits are all doing great, one is twenty-four and a college graduate, the other two are twelve and in middle school where they seem focused on the arts.)

But this year is about dragons.  Be nice to them and maybe some of that luck will rub off!

Swift Flight From Tokyo for the Big Game

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Great news, sports fans.   American recording artist Taylor Swift arrived safely at LAX in Los Angeles yesterday afternoon on a nonstop flight from Tokyo with plenty of time to spare in order to make it to Las Vegas for this evening's Super Bowl LVIII.  The game can go on as scheduled!

The singer's motivation for making the long, hurried trip back across the Pacific was to watch her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, play in the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49er's.

Ms. Swift finished the last of her sold-out concerts in Tokyo at 9:30 Saturday night, Tokyo time, and was rushed to Haneda Airport where she boarded her private jet for a non-stop flight across the world's largest ocean to California.  Her jet landed at LAX in Los Angeles at 3:30 in the afternoon, also on Saturday, a full six-hours earlier than her concert had ended.

The singer, of course, lost a day on the flight to the US when her jet crossed the International Date Line, an imaginary demarcation that runs in somewhat of a zig-zag pattern from the North to South Poles.  (One of the places where the International Date Line zigs - or perhaps zags - is the narrow sea passage between Alaska and Russia - and where Sarah Palin can reportedly see it from her house!)

I have crossed the International Date Line six times in my life, three while heading west and into tomorrow, and three while flying east into yesterday.   Sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning Taylor Swift's jet crossed the International Date Line and she and the plane's crew were suddenly back in the wee hours of Saturday morning - with plenty of time to get home before the Super Bowl.

The last two times that I flew from Tokyo to the US (once to Dallas in 2011 and the other time to Seattle in 2012),  I rode in packed monster air buses.  I don't remember now how many humans those planes seated, but they were full both times and both times I was in the middle of the center section which seated eight across.  There were always plenty of crying babies, and, on the flight to Dallas, I sat behind a lady who brushed her hair for most of the trip.  

Taylor Swift, a billionaire (a real one, not one like Trump), probably has a bed on her private jet, and a personal  masseuse who sings her to sleep.  Good for her.  I'm glad that one of us gets to travel in comfort and style.

The international pop star also has a home in Beverly Hills which she likely stayed at last night, but if she did venture on to Vegas, I'm sure she had no trouble finding a luxurious suite somewhere along the strip.  

Taylor, it's been too many years since I've been to Las Vegas, but there used to be a really great all-you-can-eat prime rib buffet at Harrah's that was just $8.95.  It's probably gone up, but check with the concierge at your hotel and you might be able to score some coupons.  A big boy like Travis could make out like a bandit on a deal like that!

Go Chiefs!

Spring Peeks Through

 

by Pa Rock

Friend of Nature

According to reports on Ozark Groundhog News, most of the local groundhogs failed to see their shadows a week ago yesterday when they emerged from their winter burrows for a few minutes to see if the sun was shining.  It was an overcast day, no sun, no shadows, and, according to the old wives who were gathered down at the local Walmart to malign their neighbors and pray for Trump, that means that spring is just about here.

There is probably something to that groundhog thing, because the last few days have been unseasonably warm with highs in the sixties.   It's been so warm, in fact, that the narcissus are all coming up and are currently about an inch-and-a-half high.  Winter is supposed to take another pass through the area on Monday with snow and rain, so the spring flowers still face some challenges.

There are several groundhogs who burrow beneath Rock's Roost, but I didn't see any of them above ground last week.  They should at least be out spotting the narcissus so they know where to dig for yummy bulbs later in the summer.  Maybe the lazy groundhogs will show up at Easter wearing rabbit ears and pooping decorated eggs!

I neglected the birds this week, letting them completely clean out a couple of their feeders, but today I will journey outside and get the feeders filled and ready for the next cold snap.

The neighbor's cat hasn't been by for breakfast in several days.  I think the big dog, Gypsy, has him scared off.  I have heard that there is now a family of cats living in the barn.  I haven't seen them yet, but I still have plenty of cat food in reserve if they get brave enough to come to the house and beg for a meal.  Gypsy, of course, may have something to say about it if they do.

When spring finally does get here the grass will kick into gear, and I am ready.  Last week I sent the big mower, the "Dixie Chopper" in for its winter refurbishment.  It's back now and looks and runs great, ready for the challenges of a long, hard summer of mowing.

It's still early February, so winter definitely is not over - but spring is peeking through!

Presidential Race Takes a New Twist

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Two weeks ago it was looking as though the 2024 US presidential race would have two primary campaign issues:  the Democrats would focus on the rights of women to control their own bodies and healthcare decisions while castigating Republicans for trying to limit those rights (essentially a fight over abortion rights), and the Republicans would center their campaign on the rising numbers of immigrants trying to cross the southern US border.  Both of those issues are still in play, but the Republicans did muddy the water on their efforts to create an immigration panic when they suddenly declined to support a border-strengthening bill that they had essentially designed and promoted.  (Donald Trump told them not to try and fix anything so that he would have the "broken border" issue to campaign on.)

House Republicans had a very bad week after losing two key votes - one to impeach the Homeland Security Secretary in an effort to keep the southern border in the news, and another to provide military funding to Israel without also giving military funding to Ukraine.  

Their likely presidential nominee, Donald Trump, fared better than his party.  In a hearing yesterday before the US Supreme Court in which he challenged the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to keep him off of the ballot due to his involvement in the insurrection of January 6th, 2021, the US Supreme Court justices who heard the case seemed to indicate that they were skeptical of the Colorado decision - an indication that Trump will ultimately be allowed to stay on the ballot.

Trump had even more good news yesterday when Special Counsel Robert Hur released his report which found that Joe Biden did retain classified documents after leaving the vice-presidency and that he shared some of that material with others (a ghost writer working on Biden' memoirs), but the special counsel, a Republican, also concluded that criminal charges were not warranted.  That finding gave Trump some gas for bellowing to the winds that the country had a "two-tiered" justice system, and that he was again being persecuted.   (The difference between the two cases was that Biden admitted his actions, though he tried to  share the blame with his staff, and willingly returned the documents in question to government control, while Trump lied and played hide-and-seek with the documents that he took.)

But the special counsel, Mr. Hur, provided another political gift to Trump when he went beyond his basic findings and editorialized regarding Joe Biden's age and mental acuity as factors in his not pursuing charges against the President.  His remarks in the report characterized Biden as an elderly gentleman whose memory was "significantly limited," and every remark that Hur made regarding the President's mental capabilities will become part and parcel of the 2024 campaign.

Trump, of course, is also an elderly person who has had mental lapses of his own, one of the most recent being a couple of weeks ago when he confused his GOP political opponent, Nikki Haley, with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for several minutes during one of his public rants.

Age is going to be a big issue in the 2024 US presidential race - it just is.   The egos of both candidates will keep them from stepping aside and letting someone younger and more mentally alert have the nomination, and the political parties, even if they had the desire to seek alternative candidates, would never have the political courage to actually do it.    

It should never have come to this.

A Tale of Two Dogs and a Movie about Strays

by Pa Rock

Canine Consigliere

We took both of our girls to the vet yesterday and neither one enjoyed the visit.  Rosie, who has known Dr. Greene for ten years, does not like the man or his clinic, even though he has always treated her graciously, and she begins to shake every time we pull into his drive.   Gypsy is ten months old and has only been with us a few weeks.    This was her first visit with Dr. Greene, but she also was very nervous.   (Several of the personal pets waiting in line to see the Doc were bulldogs of various sizes and descriptions, which should have made Gypsy feel at home, but instead they seemed to stoke her aggressive tendencies, so she had to wait outside until it was her turn with the vet.)

Rosie, whose nails had gotten so long that she clicked and clacked when crossing hard floors, was there for a manny-peddy, and she was trembling so much that it took two technicians to perform the job.  It's  a six-dollar task that I could do myself, but I have this fear of accidentally injuring my best friend, so I leave it to the professionals.

(An hour later I was at the podiatrist having my own toenails clipped.  I leave that chore to the professionals, as well.)

Gypsy began her visit to the vet by getting on the scales.  The big, solid pup weighed in at seventy-one pounds.  She is a sweet girl who craves love and attention, and when she tries to crawl up in my lap to cuddle - like Rosie does - I am trapped under her weight until someone arrives to help get her off or until she gets bored and moves of her own accord.

Yesterday Gypsy got her rabies shot, and in a couple of weeks she will go back to the vet to be spayed.

Last night my son was at work, and the girls and I watched a new dog movie on television.  The film was called "Strays" and it featured footage of actual dogs with human voices (Jamie Foxx, Will Ferrell,  Sofia Vergera, and others).  Rosie, who will sometimes bark back at dogs on television, but generally pays them no mind, dozed on my lap and ignored the very funny show, but Gypsy sat at my feet and watched the movie with great intensity.  She seemed to really be taking an interest in what was happening on the screen.  The show focuses on adaptability and making non-traditional families successful.

Rosie is a ten-pound, ten-year-old fussy and fragile senior citizen who enjoys her naps, and Gypsy is a seventy-one pound, bouncy puppy who always wants to play,   Somehow we WILL make our own non-traditional family work out just fine.

(Note:  Gypsy and I enjoyed "Strays," but caution that it is rife with sexual content and would be inappropriate for young children.  But the movie is very doggone funny!)

A Terrible Day for the GOP

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The US House of Representatives, a group that has passed nothing of substance since Republicans took control of the chamber over a year ago, had an even worse day than usual yesterday.  For months now they have been doggedly harassing the Biden family in an attempt to find something that would merit the impeachment of the President, but to no avail.  The GOP House members, working under the almost direct supervision of Donald Trump, want to get some payback for the two impeachment votes that the House passed against Donald Trump back during his glory days.

Most recently the Republicans in the House have turned their attention on a Biden cabinet secretary, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, accusing him (as a proxy for the Biden administration) of failing to secure the border.  Their goal all along has been to keep the border "crisis" front-and-center in the public eye as a campaign cudgel to use against the Biden administration in the fall elections.

Impeaching Mayorkas was going to be a very close vote because the Republicans had a bare majority in the House and all Democrats were expected to vote against the politically-inspired impeachment, but Speaker Johnson thought he had the votes to succeed.  The tide turned when one Democratic House member, Al Green of Texas, who was in the hospital recovering from abdominal surgery and not expected to be present for the vote, showed up on the House floor in a wheelchair and wearing hospiital scrubs and voted against the impeachment.  Three Republicans also voted against the measure.

Green showing up was an eventuality that the political geniuses in the House GOP had apparently not factored into their calculations, and the impeachment failed by that one vote.

But that wasn't the only torpedo that hit the House GOP paddleboat yesterday.  The Republican members of the House, after abandoning a border security bill that they had helped to inspire, still wanted to get some stand-alone military funding to Israel.  The border bill that they had requested contained military aid to Israel, humanitarian aid for Gaza, and military aid to Ukraine.  They had no desire to help with Gaza or the war against Russian aggression in Ukraine, but the Republican House members did want to get more military funding to Israel, and they put up a bill that would have done that.  President Biden vowed to veto the stand-alone bill for Israel war funding if it reached his desk, but he was saved the bother when House Republicans couldn't even pass their own bill.

Another big GOP failure.

Add to all of that the fact that the GOP leadership in the Senate appears to be unwinding and Mitch McConnell may be on his way out as the Republican leader with the party rabble in the Senate just itching to replace him with one of their own - and Donald Trump is running up and down the sidelines (as fast as an elderly, diapered, obese man who's worried about protecting his combover can run) trying to manage the business of both the House and the Senate, and it's a wonder they can even pass a motion for adjournment, much less get anything substantive done for the good of the country.

And now Trump, who has been sucking up all of the available money from GOP supporters - both ordinary and corporate - and has spent $55 million in money donated for campaign purposes to pay down his many legal fees, is angry at the GOP chairwoman, Ronna Romney McDaniel because the party coffers are not as stuffed as he would like - and he is strongly hinting that she will soon be replaced.

It would be hard to imagine a major political party in such disarray, but Republicans seem to have achieved a level of chaos that was once the exclusive domain of Democrats.    The best strategy for some Democratic candidates this year might be to just stay out of the way while the Moral Majority, or the Freedom Caucus, or God's Army, or whatever the hell they are calling themselves during the most recent news cycle, brandish their knives and begin taking on each other.

The 2024 circus is unpacking and getting set up - and the Republicans obviously have too many clowns running around trying to please and appease their self-absorbed ringmaster - and the chances of something actually getting done for the good of the nation diminish by the day.

Cliches in the News

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

One definition of a cliche that I pulled down from the internet is:  "A phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought."  There have been two fine examples of cliches used in the news this week, and both have been used over and over and over - to the point that it has become downright annoying.

The first one that has been grating on my nerves is "dead on arrival."  I first heard it about a week ago when that great thinker, Congresswoman Marge Green of Georgia, said that the highly anticipated border security bill that was soon to be released by a senate committee would be "dead on arrival" when it reached the House.   A worn out cliche like that could be expected from Marge, who gets much of her news from Facebook (Jewish space lasers, anyone?), and is not exactly known for original thinking, but the easy-to-remember catchphrase was soon picked up by House Speaker Mike Johnson.   Now all manner of press-credentialed nincompoops are running around talking about the bill being "dead on arrival."

Boring.

Damn, people, mix it up a little!  If you're too lazy or intellectually limited to come up with something original, then at least stir in a few other tired old cliches to fight the monotony.  How about, "The bill will be deader than a doornail when it reaches the House."?   Or, "When the bill gets to the House it will be pushing up daisies."?  

Yesterday another cliche started making the news rounds, and it, too, is already sounding like (excuse the cliche) a stuck record.  Donald Trump is apparently sending out signals that he is dissatisfied with the performance of his personal bootlicker and the chair of the Republican National Committee, Ronna Romney McDaniel, and the story quickly morphed into Trump is preparing to "throw Ronna under the bus."

He's not going to push her off of a cliff, or send her packing, or punch her ticket, or terminate her with extreme prejudice, or even make her his running mate - no, oh no.  Trump's way of dealing with the shameless sycophant who even changed her name to make him happy, is to "throw her under the bus."  It's graphic, easy to remember and repeat, and boring - very, very boring.

So boring, in fact, that it is dead on arrival as far as I'm concerned.

Ted Cruz Wants Special Treatment at Airports

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Ted Cruz, the junior US Senator from Texas, seems to have a special ability to stir up controversies around airports.   He was photographed at the airport in Houston in February of 2021 rushing to catch a plane to Cancun, Mexico, to join his family.  The Cruz's were on a hastily-planned vacation which got them out of Texas during a severe winter storm in which much of the state lost its electrical power supply - and more than 200 people died.   That maneuver proved to be such a political fiasco that Ted felt forced to return to Texas early and apologize for his insensitivity to the plight of his fellow Texans.

Now Ted is again creating an airport-related controversy.  He has proposed an amendment to the FAA's reauthorization bill that would provide for airport security details for federal lawmakers, federal judges, and cabinet members, along with some family members - and it would permit lawmakers (senators and congressmen) to be screened without delay.

Wouldn't that be lovely.  I think we would all like to be treated like that.

Ted, would you have to take off your shoes like the fliers in the cheap seats do when they go through check-in?  And what about helping with your bags?   Could the security detail lug a few suitcases on days when there are no obvious terrorists?   Maybe your personal guard could even stand in line waiting for your food order.  US Senators shouldn't have to stand in line at a Burger King, should they?

Ted, it's almost reassuring to know that the American public can rely on people like you to take care of people like you.

Carry your own damned bags, Ted, and wait in line like the rest of us!

The Real Taylor Swift Threat

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When Taylor Swift was born I was seven years older than she is now - and Joe Biden and Donnie Trump were even older than that - so I am far less knowledgable of her music than my grandchildren are, but I am definitely aware of, and enjoying, Taylor Swift's impact on our culture, and in particular on the current American political scene.

The pop star is coming off of a world tour that grossed over a billion dollars, the first concert tour in history to ever hit that mark.  She has sold over 13 million albums, won 12 Grammy awards along with countless other awards and honors - and Forbes Magazine says that she is worth at least $1.1 billion.

USA Today recently hired a full-time reporter to cover Taylor Swift, and a professor at the University of Kansas has created and is teaching a course on "the Sociology of Taylor Swift."

But Taylor Swift's biggest achievement to date, at least from my very limited perspective, is that she is driving the MAGA world even more insane than they already were.

Donald Trump, the head of the MAGA boil and the most insecure president in US history, said this week that he is more popular than Taylor Swift and that he has more committed followers.  (He wishes - and Trump definitely has more followers than Swift who should be committed.)    The good news for Trump supporters is that so far he has not confused her with Nancy Pelosi - or Nikki Haley, but it's still a long time until November.

The rumors that the GOP, and particularly the MAGA vermin, are spreading involve some feared future involvement by Taylor Swift in the election that would benefit Joe Biden.   Ms. Swift, who is fairly non-political, did endorse Joe Biden in 2020, but was not actively engaged in his campaign.  Now the Biden campaign is again seeking her endorsement, but it has yet to materialize.  The rumors coming out of the Republican Party concern a general fear that she will endorse Biden and become very active in the campaign, and they probably see early accusations of partisanship as helping to inoculate the public against her eventual involvement in the race.

Taylor Swift is also dating Travis Kelce, a professional football player with the World Champion Kansas City Chiefs.  The GOP rumor mill is pumping out a general, ill-defined sludge suggesting that the Swift-Kelce relationship is somehow an intentional pairing that was concocted by someone (maybe George Soros?) to ultimately sway the 2024 election to Biden.  Then, when Kansas City recently secured a spot in the Super Bowl,  the rumor was enhanced to suggest that the big game was somehow rigged and that a Swift-Kelce endorsement of Biden might be part of the victory celebration.

How sad that a sitting president thinks that he needs a pop star's endorsement, a former president is wracked with jealousy over an iconic singer, and an entire political party appears to be focused on limiting the influence of an entertainer.  It all sounds like fodder for the KU sociology class.

Taylor Swift's real power in the current election cycle is her ability to connect with young people and get them registered to vote.  The prospect of big numbers of new young voters is probably unnerving to both parties, but that's the future so let's bring it on.  It's time that our leaders were forced to speak honestly about the raging climate crisis, the horrors being inflicted by American armaments on children in Gaza, and a whole litany of social and economic abuses that older American political leaders have imposed on society over generations to protect privilege.

Here is something to ponder:  Taylor Swift will be 35-years-old, the minimum age required to serve as President of the United States, on December 13th of this year - 38 days before the next presidential coronation inauguration.  Start that rumor, Ronna.

(How sad that the founding fathers failed to include maximum ages for public officials in the Constitution.)