Too Dumb to be a Dictator?

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

John Bolton has served as a controversial foreign policy operative in two administrations, first as George W. Bush's Ambassador to the United Nations, a position for which he was unable to win Senate confirmation so instead served in the position for nearly a year and a half as a "recess appointment," and later as Donald Trump's National Security Adviser where he also served for a little less than a year and half.   Bolton is a foreign policy hawk, and The Economist called him "the most controversial ambassador ever sent by America to the United Nations."

Bolton's dynamic personality and hardline foreign policy beliefs began to clash with Trump's dynamic personality and spasmodic foreign policy actions, and eventually he either voluntarily offered his resignation (according to Bolton) or was fired (according to Trump), and their bromance ended abruptly in September of 2019.  Since that time Bolton has spoken harshly of Trump in his book, "The Room Where it Happened," and also labeled the January 6, 2021, insurrection as an attempt by Trump to overthrow the US government.

John Bolton remains out of favor with the American left, and he is certainly on Trump's shit list.   Perhaps that is why the political extremist without a country this week sought release of his pent-up rage at Trump through the foreign press.  Bolton recently sat for an interview with the French news outlet, Le Figaro, in which he cut loose on Donald Trump's quest for absolute power.

Le Figaro asked John Bolton if Trump has tendencies that mirror dictators currently in power whom Trump has praised, people like Putin and Kim Jong-un, or, put another way, is Trump a potential dictator?  Bolton's answer was scathing.   He said that Trump "hasn't got the brains" to operate a dictatorship, before adding, "He's a property developer for God's sake!"

Ouch!  That had to hurt!

However, I don't think that John Bolton is necessarily correct.

Donald Trump may be a glorified slumlord, but he knows how to manipulate the under-educated and embittered masses, and he also surrounds himself with hardened ideologues and people whose vested interests are (like Trump's) in themselves and their own well-being, and not necessarily the best interests of the nation.   Trump may not be smart or energetic enough to run a competent dictatorship, but he will have a whole host of fascist and racist rats racing around the White House and constantly massaging his ego who are fully adept pulling the levers of power in a manner that would make the Third Reich proud.

Trump doesn't have to be in charge for a dictatorship to take over the nation, hell, he doesn't even have to be competent.  He just has to go play golf and stay out of the way.  His staff will tell him what to sign, and where, and when to rage, and about what.  And somebody will take care of his make-up, like they do now, and someday he will croak and Trump II can step up - and the staff can run his dictatorship, too.

North Korea won't have anything on us!

Glory days!

Biden Gets to Work While Congress Squabbles

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I came across an article on the internet this morning that highlighted how drastically Congress has changed in less than twenty years by comparing congressional reaction to two massive bridge failures.  In 2007 the I-35 W Mississippi River Bridge collapsed in Minnesota, a tragic event that resulted in the deaths of 13 people and created huge traffic disruptions.  The US House of Representatives voted unanimously two days later to approve federal funding to start rebuilding the bridge and repair the major traffic artery.  The Senate quickly agreed and the bill was on President Bush's desk five days after the bridge had fallen into the water.

Those were the good old days.

When the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed this past Tuesday in the early hours of the morning after being struck by a disabled cargo-container ship, there was no unanimity in the current Congress where reactions ranged from hints that it might have been a deliberate attack (Marge Greene, R-GA), to complaints that it was President Biden's fault for not spending enough on bridges in his infrastructure bill (Nancy Mace, R-SC)), to even one suggesting that rebuilding that bridge - which is critical to the regional and national economy due to its connection to the Port of Baltimore - was not a responsibility of the federal government (Dan Meuser, R-PA).

The current Congress is far more impacted by the milieu of conspiracy theorists, partisan punditry, and social media than any of its predecessors, all of which helps to fuel its skepticism, cynicism, and occasional outbreaks of pure lunacy.   Well known conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said on X, "Looks deliberate to me.  A cyber attack is probable.  WW3 has already started."   (Head to the shelters, Alex.  We'll check on you in a decade or three!)

Maria Bartiromo of Fox News suggested that the tragedy had something to do with "the wide open border," and while there is no obvious connection with the bridge collapse and US border policies, the eight construction workers who went into the water when the bridge collapsed were all originally from Mexico and Central America, so perhaps that figured into her political calculus.  

There were also some tweets on X that seemed to somehow conflate the bridge collapse and political pressure to rebuild with the fact that Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore is black.  One referred to him as the DEI mayor, and another - by the Michigan GOP - used the term "colored communism" in reference to the mayor and his desire to get the bridge replaced as quickly as possible.

But standing above all of that noise was the President of the United States who was saying that the collapsed bridge is a federal responsibility and that the government would move aggressively to get the site cleared and get the bridge replaced.  Four days after the catastrophe, the largest crane on the east coast has been relocated to the site of the collapse, and $60 million in emergency funding has been allocated to the state of Maryland to get the process started.   

That's from Joe Biden and the White House.  Congress is still squabbling.

Bed Wars and the Royal Pecking Order

by Pa Rock

Servant of Dogs

This year on September 1st little Rosie (11 pounds) will have been a member of my household for ten years.  Her eyesight is failing, but Rosie's hearing remains exceptional, and she is fully aware of everything happening within a hundred yards or so of our house.  She is a wonderful companion and a good friend.

Rosie and I lived by ourselves for several years and got along fine.  A few years ago my oldest son and his very large Boston terrier, Riley, who was built like an English bulldog, came to live with us.   Rosie and I both had to go through some adjustments learning to live around others, but we managed to navigate those changes.  Riley, who had become very protective of Rosie, died of old age two years ago, so Rosie had go to through another adjustment phase in her life.   She inherited Riley[s big, soft dog bed and loved it.  I'm sure that it evoked memories of her departed friend.

Gypsy, a seventy-pound-plus bulldog/pit-bull crossbreed, bounced into our lives a couple of months ago, and poor Rosie had to begin adjusting all over again.  Gypsy loved to play - and bounce - and it didn't take her long to begin tearing up Riley's old bed.   Rosie, who is sweet and normally docile, would just get out of the way and let the big dog be her puppy-self.  Eventually I had to get a new bed for Rosie and figure out strategies for keeping Gypsy away from it.

Meanwhile they sampled each other's food, begged for each other's treats, and even traded water dishes.  There were all kind of games at play and the two canines, one small and elderly and the other enormous and still a puppy, remain in the process of learning to co-exist.

Rosie's new bed was a sticking point because I was bound and determined that Gypsy was not going to play it to shreds.  At first the big dog seemed to resent the new bed and the fact that she was denied access to it, but gradually her demeanor changed and it was more like her feelings were hurt because the little dog had something which she didn't.  So yesterday when a larger, new bed that I had ordered for Gypsy arrived in the mail, I thought she would be one big, happy puppy.

Of course I was wrong.

Gypsy sniffed around her new bed for awhile and even laid down on it, but she was unimpressed.  Rosie, on the other hand thought it was great, and this morning she is the Queen of the House sleeping peacefully on the new dog bed, and the big princess is sleeping soundly in a sunny spot on the floor.

The royal pecking order has been established.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Grifters have used religion to make a quick buck for generations, peddling everything from forgiveness, to salvation, to holy relics, to holy books.  One classic (fictional) religious charlatan was the totally charming Bible salesman, Moses Pray (a.k.a. Ryan O'Neill), who  traveled the dirt roads of the Midwest during the Great Depression selling Bibles to people who could barely afford to put food on their tables.   Moses Pray and his even more charming daughter, Addie (Tatum O'Neill), lit up the big screen in 1973's classic film, Paper Moon.

Selling the written word of God is a dependable scam, one that makes people feel good (for awhile) if they part with their money, and leaves them with a sense of guilt if they don't.

Donald Trump, a politician who compared himself to Jesus multiple times last week, is now helping to peddle Bibles for profit.    In an announcement this week Trump has endorsed a product called "The God Bless the USA Bible," which is being marketed nationally for just one penny under sixty dollars.  It is a slim-line version of the King James Bible that also contains copies of some founding documents of the United States such as the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Pledge of Allegiance, in addition to a copy of handwritten  lyrics to  "God Bless the USA," a song by Lee Greenwood which Trump uses at his rallies.  The patriotic version of the Bible is apparently Greenwood's project, but Trump will receive a cut of the profits for his endorsement.  It is the only Bible officially endorsed by Trump.

Praise Jesus!

A Trump autograph would undoubtedly be extra.

Praise Jesus!

In hawking the book Trump said, "All Americans need a Bible in their home, and I have many.  It's my favorite book."

Praise Jesus!

But if sixty bucks is a budget-breaker, you can always wait for the second coming of Moses Pray.  He was far more charming, anyway.

(For those who can't afford the $59.99 price but would still like to get into Heaven, all of the patriotic materials as well as the complete text of the King James Bible can be found FREE on the internet.)

Biden Wins Missouri Democratic Primary

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Citizen Journalist

Incumbent US President Joe Biden swept to an easy victory in last Saturday's privately held Missouri Democratic Primary which was sponsored and paid for by the Missouri Democratic Party.  The big surprise in the primary wasn't Biden's win, which was expected, it was the fact that 19,100 were able to figure out how to obtain mail ballots or where to vote if they wished to do so in person.  The extremely low participation was due in no small measure to the feeble-to-almost-nonexistent attempts by the state party to adequately publicize the event.

Four years ago when the state ran the presidential preference primaries, 666,112 votes were cast in the Democratic contest.

Here are the results of this year's contest:

• Joe Biden won with 16,295 votes (85.3%) and received 61 of 64 delegates to the national convention;
• Uncommitted:  2,229 votes (11.7%) and three delegates to the national convention;
• Marianne Williamson:   298 votes (1.6%);
• Dean Phillips:   178 votes (.9%);
• Stephen Lyon:    40 votes (.2%);
• Jason Palmer:   36 votes (.2%);  and,
• Armando Perez-Serrato:   24 votes (.1%)

Congratulations to all who participated, either on the ballot or by voting.

Missouri Legislature Guts Democracy

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Citizen Journalist

Four years ago 666,112 registered Missouri voters had a say in who the Democratic presidential candidate was.  Granted, by the time our traditionally late presidential primary rolled around on March 10, 2020, 12 of 15 candidates had already left the race and Biden won it with 60% of the vote, so we didn't't have as much say as we should have.

During the intervening four years between then and now, the Republican-controlled state legislature did away with the state's presidential primary system and said the parties could just determine who they supported at the national level however they wanted.  Missouri Republicans chose to go with a county-level caucus system which keeps many public servants, members of the military, and those with mobility, transportation, or child-care issues out of the process - and Missouri Democrats chose to have a privately-funded-and-run primary system, one which was under-publicized and in some counties almost a secret affair.

The Missouri Republican vote tally in that party's 2020 state presidential primary was 311,793.  This year's total of participants in the state's GOP county caucuses appears to be a closely guarded secret, but I was able to locate figures for two counties.  In 2020, when the GOP had an incumbent running for President, 8,183 people in Boone County (the home of MU's main campus and the city of Columbia) voted in the Republican presidential primary, and this year just 263 Boone Countians showed up for the GOP caucus - a participation rate of just over three-and-a-half percent from the very light voter turnout in 2020.

In Cole County, the home of the state's capital, Jefferson City, the GOP county caucus had just 240 participants this year, which was just over five percent of the 4,721 voters in the 2020 GOP presidential primary in that county.

Those figures show an abysmal drop in voter participation over the past four years, and, no doubt, are part of the reason that Missouri Republican officials have been reluctant to share statewide caucus figures for 2024.  Shame on them, and shame on our GOP-controlled Missouri State Legislature for hobbling democracy!

But the figures were even worse for the state's Democrats, though they did not hide their participation numbers.    19,100 registered voters participated in this year's privately-run Missouri Democratic  presidential preference primary.  Four years earlier, in 2020, (as mentioned above) 666,112 votes were cast in the state's official Democratic presidential preference primary.  This year's total number of voters was less than three percent of 2020's total.

Missouri's new system is not democracy by any stretch of the imagination.  It is politicians tightly controlling what they try to pass off to voters as democracy.

If they wanted our opinion, they would ask for it.   But don't hold your breath.

Leave the Crazies and Go!

 

by Pa Rock 

Citizen Journalist

Mike Pence, the man Donald Trump chose to be his running mate in 2016 and who served a full term as Trump's Vice President, says he will not endorse Trump in this year's presidential race.

Lisa Murkowski, a senior Republican US Senator from the ruggedly independent state of Alaska, says that she will not vote for Donald Trump, and she is even considering leaving the Republican Party over its continuing adoration of egomaniacal Donald Trump.  Murkowski voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial.

Maine's senior US Senator, Susan Collins, also a Republican, said that she cannot see herself endorsing Trump in the 2024 presidential race.  She also voted to convict him during his second impeachment, the one which followed the January 6th insurrection that Trump inspired and encouraged.

US Senator Mitt Romney of Utah, who is a former governor of Massachusetts and was the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, says he "absolutely" would not vote for Trump over Biden.  Romney voted to convict Trump in both of his impeachment trials in the Senate.

Former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney is scathing in her condemnation of Trump, and her father, former Republican Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, is strongly opposed to Trump as well.

The US House of Representatives which began the current session with a small majority of Republicans has been largely dysfunctional as much of the caucus focuses on pursuing Trump-inspired vendettas and neglecting the business of legislating for the nation.  Two additional Republican members have announced early retirements within the past few weeks, both seemingly due to the dysfunction within their own party in the House, and the GOP will soon have a working majority of only one vote.

The nation's only surviving former Republican President (besides Trump), George W. Bush, is not actively supporting Trump's third presidential bid.

Nikki Haley, the former Republican Governor of South Carolina and Trump's Ambassador to the United Nations, ran against Trump for this year's GOP presidential nomination before finally dropping out of the race earlier this month.  Haley has not endorsed Trump and she is still drawing double-digit support against him in the primaries even though she is no longer in the race.

Other Republican notables who are not supporting Donald Trump in his current presidential bid include General John Kelly, Trump's former Chief of Staff, John Bolton, Trump's National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, another Trump National Security Adviser, Mark Esper and General James Mattis who each served as Defense Secretary for Trump, Rex Tillerson, Trump's Secretary of State, and Bill Barr Trump's Attorney General.

Four cabinet secretaries (and potentially at least two more), two National Security Advisers, a US Ambassador to the UN, and a Chief of Staff - each and every one of whom was appointed  by Trump and worked directly for him - are declining to support his effort to get re-elected - and so is his former Vice President - wow!

Lisa Murkowski and all of the other Republicans who can't stomach Donald Trump ought to change their party affiliation because their old party, the one that recognized the importance of working for the public good and being accountable, has pulled up stakes and left them.  The old Republican Party, the one that gave us decent people Dwight and Mamie, is gone.  It has been obliterated by raging lunatics and replaced by a cult of personality whose fealty isn't to the Constitution or the public good, but simply to a tyrannical and self-absorbed despot.  The leader of the new, purer group, has referred to it as the "MAGA Party."

Go, Lisa.  Get out while you can - and leave the door open so that others can follow.  Take the real Republican Party someplace else  - away from the crazies! 

Seize the Tower, or at Least the Gold Toilet!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Today is the day the bills supposedly start coming due for Donald John Trump.   Trump has been ordered to pay a $454 million judgement (including interest) from a civil fraud trial in New York.  This particular case was the one where the state of New York argued that Trump and company had defrauded lenders and insurers out of millions of dollars by adjusting the values of properties in order to secure better deals.  

A jury agreed with the state, and a judge set a judgement in the case equivalent to how much he calculated that the Trump Organization had profited from the high-stakes sleight-of-hand.  Trump, of course, appealed the decision, as he always does, but he had to post a bond to cover the judgement and interest before the appeal could go forward.   New York Attorney General Letitia James generously granted the self-proclaimed billionaire thirty days to come up with the money or post the bond, and it comes due today.

Trump reports that he has been unable to secure a bond because - he says - lenders won't finance a bond that large.  He is now appealing the amount of the bond as well.   But Trump, who does not want to be seen as strapped for cash, has now told Fox News Digital that he does indeed have $500 million in cash, but:

"That doesn't mean that I'm going to give money to a rogue and incompetent judge - the puppet of a corrupt attorney general who's failing with violent crime and migrant crime and whose only purpose in life is attempting to get Trump."

(Do they teach the Blowhard Defense at Wharton Business School?)

Letitia James could begin the process of seizing Trump's assets today, and Donald the Showman is already trying to incite the his followers with fanciful hallucinations about her potentially entering and attempting to take control of Trump Tower.

The seizures won't happen today, they won't happen a week or a month from now.  They just will not happen.  Donald Trump has lived his life without consequences, and that's not going to change.  But it's nice to imagine, even for just a few minutes, that it could.  Converting Trump Tower into low-income housing would take most (if not all) of the homeless population off the streets of New York, and his Westchester County National Golf Club would make an exemplary summer camp for disadvantaged city youth, and perhaps turn the mansion on the grounds into a year-round trade school.  So many possibilities!

Wouldn't it be good for the soul to know that Donald Trump finally did something to benefit people who were in need, even if he did it kicking and screaming?

Nice dreams - like winning Powerball - but they will never happen.

He will never go to jail, either.

Laws in America are to control me and thee - but not him.

If Birthday Wishes Were Fishes, My Stringer Would be Full!

 

by Pa Rock

Old Goat

My 76th has come and gone, and if you read yesterday's blog posting you know that means that my contract to sit around and bitch incessantly has likely been extended for another full year.  In practical terms that should mean that I have twelve more months to conclude the long writing mess that I have been slogging away at for over a year.   It is now west of  350 pages and north of 150,000 words - and is showing no signs of drawing itself toward a conclusion,  This blog, which has been around going on seventeen years, is in addition to the other never-ending writing mess!

Twelve more months of typing aimlessly in search of a plot, or a purpose.  Goody.  Sometime during that twelve-month extension, probably in May, I also want to make a trip to Salt Lake City to complete two family books that have been languishing in my computer files for way too long.  The extensions won't keep happening forever, so it's time to get stuff done!

The first person that I heard from yesterday was Mineko, a lovely Japanese woman who lived with our family during her senior year of high school.  Mineko is in her early sixties now and lives in Tokyo were she is becoming a political activist and working to save some of Tokyo's green spaces.  Her early morning email was most welcome and appreciated.

My first phone call of the day was from Imogene, a former work colleague who is also retired but much younger than me!  Imogene lives in southern Missouri about a hundred and fifty miles from where I am at.  We usually call each other on our birthdays, and I hardly ever forget hers because it is Christmas Day!  Imogene offered some sage advice yesterday when she said, "I refuse to mow my yard in March!"  "So do I," I agreed.  Solidarity forever!  (That's the kind of stuff that retired people talk about!)

Carla, an old friend from college in the 1960's called and we talked about kids, grandkids, politics, and Easter -  sometimes as individual topics, and sometimes as a stew of subjects.  We also have dogs in common.  (Those are other things that retired people talk about.)

Ranger Bob sent birthday greetings in a response to yesterday's blog, along with a dining suggestion which I followed to excess!  Bob's a happy guy who always makes me smile!

Granddaughter Olive telephoned and granddaughter Willow texted birthday greetings.  My son, Tim, in Kansas, who had already gotten me a comfortable pair of shoes for my birthday, called, and my son, Nick, here in West Plains, grilled a nice steak for my dinner last night and baked his speciality, a pineapple upside-down cake.  Delicioso!

My sister, Abigail, called, and her daughter, Heidi, one of my two favorite nieces, sent a nice email which caught me up on some of her family's adventures.  Cousin Joyce sent email greetings from her home in Arizona.  Joyce is another person who always makes me smile!

It was a fairly eventful day for an old goat who spends the better part of every day sitting in the front window typing and watching the buffalo!  I always enjoy hearing from friends and family! 

A Club without Meetings, Dues, or Benefits

 

by Pa Rock

Senior Citizen Journalist

Several years ago I stumbled across a mention somewhere of a very diverse group of deceased individuals who all share one very unique thing in common:  each of them died on their birthday.  It's exclusive in the sense that prospective members must meet one mandatory requirement - that of dying on their birthday - but inclusive in the sense that anyone, regardless of their circumstances in life, automatically becomes a member if they happen to die on the right day.  Here are nine who made the cut:

Raphael, a noted Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance period, was born on April 6, 1483, and passed away exactly thirty-seven years later in 1502, making him a senior member of the club.

 

Noted Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare, another senior member, was baptized on April 26th, 1564, but was generally thought to have been born on April 23rd, 1564, precisely 52 years to the day before he shuffled off this mortal coil on April 23, 1616.  

Kamehameha V, the King of Hawaii, passed away on December 11, 1872, his 42nd birthday.

American outlaw and train robber Sam Bass died in Round Rock, Texas, on July 21, 1878, his twenty-seventh birthday, after having been wounded in a shootout with Texas Rangers the day before.

Movie actress and former trombonist in an all-girl band, Gertrude Astor, died on her 90th birthday, November 9, 1977.

Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish actress who starred in "Casablanca" and other notable American films, passed away on August 29, 1982, her 67th birthday.  Here's looking at you, kid.

Feminist and author Betty Friedan passed away on her 85th birthday, February 4, 2006.

American entertainer and talk show host, Mike Douglas, died on his 86th birthday, August 11, 2006.

And lastly, country music singer and songwriter Merle Haggard, a native Californian who was proud to be an Okie from Muskogee when he wasn't smoking with Willie, had made plenty of great music by the time he passed away on his 79th birthday, April 6, 2016.

If they are meeting somewhere, I hope Bill Shakespeare is keeping the minutes. What an interesting gathering that would be!

"Premonition" is the wrong word because it carries a connotation of fear, but I have had a "notion" or perhaps a "feeling" for several years that I would probably someday become a member of that very elite club, and each year when my birthday passes I have a sense that my contract has been extended for twelve additional months.   I mentioned that to a friend the other evening, and while she seemed to regard the matter as somewhat macabre, she did say that our sense about those things is often right.   I expect that she will probably call tomorrow to check on me.

And yes, today is my 76th.

The Politics of Exclusion: Not a Winning Strategy

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

At the center of today's Republican Party is a very large subset of white nationalists, religious fundamentalists, and garden-variety good old boys who send love and money to Donald Trump with unswerving loyalty and regularity.   Trump has referred to this core group as the 'MAGA Party'.  While the MAGA Party has never represented a majority of American voters, it does seem to hold a firm grip majority of the national Republican Party, and politicians who want to rise in the Republican ranks have found that they must first genuflect to Trump and his cadre of crazies.

Trump and the MAGAts are very rigid in their beliefs and they see party purity as a strength.  Last January as Nikki Haley was still hectoring Trump in the Republican primaries, the always loud and petulant Florida politician announced that anyone who sent donations to Nikki Haley would not be welcome in the MAGA Party.  It was his party and he was going to keep it pure.  Haley, who was Trump's former UN Ambassador, held on as long as she could -  and then some - before finally dropping out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination on March 6th.  As she left the race, Haley said she hoped Trump would go out and "earn" the support of the Republicans who had supported her.

Trump, being Trump, instead voiced antagonism for Haley and her supporters and said that he did not want them.  Joe Biden's Democratic campaign was quick to put out the word that Haley supporters would be most welcome in his camp.

Here are a couple of examples of why Trump's scorn of Haley and her supporters is political ignorance:

This week Haley, who had been out of the presidential race for nearly two weeks and was no longer campaigning or spending any money on the race, captured nearly 20% of the vote in the Arizona Republican primary - or somewhere north of one hundred thousand votes.  Granted, Arizona has early mail-in voting, and some of those votes were cast before Haley exited the race - but some weren't.  Joe Biden beat Trump by just 11,000 votes in Arizona in 2020, so clearly Donald Trump needs all the support he can muster in the Scorpion State, and telling Haley voters to take a hike is just plain stupid.

This past week Haley also pulled in nearly 15% of the vote in Trump's current home state of Florida.  Based on the state's recent voting history and the fact that Trump and all of his hard-working adult children live in Florida, he should expect to carry the state in November with relative ease, but 15% of Republican voters in the state just sent him a less-than-subtle message that he should not take their votes for granted.

From this point on, every vote for Nikki Haley (and I suspect there will be plenty of them) is a message from a Republican with a soul and a conscience to Donald Trump telling him that he should not take their vote for granted.  The MAGA Party may be pure, but there are still some Republicans who haven't joined the cult or who have been excluded, and those sheep may turn out to be goats who wander off and chart their own trails in life.

Keep purifying your political party, Donald, and spending those campaign donations to pay your criminal attorneys.  It sounds like a golden campaign strategy.

The Coming Fire Sale

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald John Trump, the world's most persecuted individual in at least the last two thousand years, still hasn't been able to raise the $464 million bond that he needs in order to appeal a civil fraud judgement rendered against him by the state of New York, and the state could begin seizing his New York properties as early as next week in order to settle the fine.  Yesterday, in one of his standard angry outbursts, Trump said that his situation was so dire that he might have to begin selling some of his beloved properties at "fire sale" prices in order stay the collection process through an appeal.

That actually sounds like a fair resolution to the matter.  It was Trump's wheeling and dealing with many of those same properties that got him into this particular legal mess to begin with.   He adjusted the purported values of his properties in order to gain favorable terms on bank loans and insurance policies to the point that even he probably had trouble keeping track of their actual worth.

Well, Donnie, soon we will all know the values of at least some of your properties because the "value" will be determined by what the next owner is willing to pay.  

Good luck with the fire sale, whether it is conducted by you or by the state of New York.  It couldn't happen to a more deserving person.

Where the Buffalo Roam

 

by Pa Rock

Farmer in Spring

As a retiree with strong OCD tendencies, my life tends to operate along well-established routines.  Sometimes surprises happen which impact my schedule, but I try to get everything quickly back in order and functioning with comfortable monotony.

One of those sudden changes happened a couple of months ago when a young, bouncy, seventy-pound puppy showed up at our house and decided that she wanted to stay.  She was with my son and I for a week or so and quickly became a part of our lives, but then her rightful owners showed up and took her home.   A week or so later they called my son and said they were having trouble with the dog and asked if we would take her back, this time for keeps - and Gypsy came to live at our house where she remains to this day.

Gypsy adapted to us, and we adapted to her.  Routines were modified and life went on.  But we are still in the process of adapting.  This past week Gypsy taught me some more about her likes and dislikes.

There are fenced pastures in our neighborhood that are maintained by people who live elsewhere, and they use those pastures to run a few head of cattle, so it is not uncommon for the neighborhood dogs to occasionally come across a few cows or even deer.  Gypsy likes to lie out in the sun by the fence and watch the cows on our side of the road graze.  They pose no threat to her, nor she to them.

There is a pasture across the street that often sits idle, but sometimes has as much as a couple of dozen cattle grazing.  The pasture is flat and cleared with a good fence, except for the part directly across from my house which is brushy and on a rise with a poorer quality fence.  Occasionally cows will wander up there, but normally it is more apt to be frequented by white-tail deer.

A few days ago I let Gypsy out to do her morning business and then went back into the house.  I was only inside for a few minutes, however, when our new dog, a creature who hardly ever barks, went into a literal barking fit. I rushed back outside to see what had our big pup so riled up.  

Gypsy was facing across the road and barking toward the brushy area of the pasture.  There, behind the old fence, were gathered what appeared to be six or eight adolescent buffalo!  They weren't doing anything, just standing there looking at the excited dog, but Gypsy not a fan!  

That afternoon I took Gypsy to the yard again, and she had only been outside a few minutes when the buffalo appeared and set her to barking, so that outing was cut short as well.  The past few days have been buffalo-free, so perhaps they have been moved to another part of the pasture.   But if they are still around, Gypsy will adapt and eventually ignore them like she has learned to ignore the neighborhood squirrels and cats.

And Pa Rock will also adapt as he looks up from his typing and instead of seeing the occasional white-tail deer darting through the brush, he will now sometimes be able to focus on a small heard of buffalo staring back at him.

A home in the country is almost like living at the zoo!

The Price of MAGA Hats Is About to Skyrocket!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday purported billionaire Donald John Trump was forced to admit that the is unable to raise a paltry $464 million to post as a bond so that he can appeal a judgement leveled against him in a New York civil fraud trial.  His lawyers told the appeals court that he has approached companies representing thirty underwriters and that none are willing to post the bond.  The underwriters are looking for cash and stocks to guarantee their loans, and are apparently not interested in having the loans secured with Trump properties.

Trump is asking the appeals court to let him slide on the bond until after his appeal of the case has been completed.

Trump, in typical Trump fashion, bellowed on Truth Social claiming the size of the bond is:

"unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine.  The bonding companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before, nor do they have the ability to post such a bond, even if they wanted to."

Which they obviously do not!

Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, got even more colorful in denouncing the situation:

"A bond of this size would be an abuse of law, contradict bedrock principles of our Republic, and fundamentally undermine the rule of law in New York.   President Trump will continue fighting and beating all of these Crooked Joe Biden-directed hoaxes and will Make America Great Again."

So it was Crooked Joe who made Trump inflate those property values.  That figures!

Trump is asking the First Department of the Appellate Division (of the New York State Court system) to let him wait on coming up with all of that cash until after his appeal has run its course.  If the appeals court does not comply with Trump's request, seizures of some of Trump's New York properties could begin next Monday.

Get those credit cards ready, Republicans - because you are about to get tapped - hard!

North Dakota's War on Geriatric Politicians

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This June voters in the state of North Dakota will have a chance to weigh-in on a on a citizen-driven ballot initiative designed to set an upper age limit on members of Congress elected from North Dakota. The proposed legislation would prevent anyone who would reach the age of eighty-one before the end of the term for which they are running from getting their names on the ballot.  That would apply to people seeking to be US Representatives or US Senators from the state.

The specific language of the ballot initiative reads:

"No person may be elected or appointed to serve a term or portion of a term in the US Senate or the US House of Representatives if that person could attain 81 years of age by December 31st of the year immediately preceding the end of the term."

The state's political establishment does not seem to be getting too excited over the issue, assuming that if the populist measure is passed, it will quickly be challenged by some moldy, old politician and ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court, a political body that is unlikely to look kindly upon the notion of upper age limits for self-important government officials.

There was a big push across the United States at the end of the last century to control the amount of time that people could keep a seat warm in a legislature, and several states passed term limits for members of their state legislatures, often through citizen initiatives and much to the chagrin of many sitting legislators.  But when the talk turned to limiting the number of terms that a national legislator (US Representative or Senator) could serve, the Supreme Court got involved and ruled in 1995 that the states cannot set qualifications for Congress beyond those set forth in the Constitution.  Clarence Thomas, the only member of the current Supreme Court who was serving at the time of the term limits decision, dissented saying that the states or the people can act on issues where the Constitution is silent.

Clarence, of course, may view the entire matter differently now that he is finally in a majority in the Court, and it has become a bulwark of right-wing political machinations.

But, regardless, it's always entertaining to watch the US Supreme Court as it tries to justify its actions in thwarting the will of the people.

(My preference would be a lower age limit:  "75 and Out!" has a nice ring to it!)

Of Unions and Starships and Cannibals

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

On Thursday of this week right-wing influencer and billionaire Elon Musk took time out from his constant battle to keep the proletariat from unionizing Tesla to watch another of his companies, SpaceX. launch a massive "Starship" rocket into space - and this time, the third attempt, it actually worked!  Starship, the largest rocket ever built (standing at nearly 400 feet), launched successfully and made its way into orbit, but was lost during reentry.  The flight was still regarded as a success though, especially since the rockets on the first two attempts last year had exploded shortly after takeoff.

But Elon's week was not over.  On Friday he focused on another of his business ventures, X, formerly known as Twitter, and managed to get involved in the current gang violence and government chaos in Haiti.  Musk, in what some see as an attempt to stem the flow of non-white asylum seekers to the United States, posted a tweet that purported to show cannibalism being committed by some of the Haitian gang members.  The video was unverified and X decided that it was likely based on misinformation and took it down - even though it had been posted by the boss! 

 (It turns out that the same video had been posted on social media two years earlier, well before the current civil unrest in Haiti.)

It's the weekend now, so perhaps Elon can focus on the things in life that give him pleasure, like spending quality time with his three ex-wives and eleven children.  He can get back to the grind of trying to control the world on Monday.

Interesting Times

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Two years ago next week President Biden told a news conference in Brussels, Belgium, that he would be "very fortunate" if he were to run against Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.  Biden has long seen a rematch against Trump as being his surest way to stay in the White House for four more years, and he likes to pat himself on the back for being the only person to have ever beaten Trump in a political race.  (Unspoken is the fact that Trump has only been in two political races in his entire life, and he lost both of those substantially in the popular vote.)

But Joe thinks he can defeat Trump again - easier than he could the other Republican hopefuls - so he cheered on Trump toward the nomination.  God love Joe's blue-collar swagger, and God help us if he is wrong. 

Conversely, Donald Trump has also said that he is eager to have a rematch with Joe Biden.  Each candidate sees the other as being his weakest potential opponent.

Politico ran an article two days ago by Catherine Kim dealing with the topic of "double haters," or voters who do not like either of the two major parties' presumptive nominees - and their numbers are not insignificant.  Three polls - Marquette Law School, New York Times-Sienna College, and Morning Consult - all came up with the same number - 19 percent.  (That 19 percent is basically equally divided among Democrats and Republicans, and tends to lean slightly younger and more Hispanic.)

Roughly one in five Americans are dissatisfied with both Biden and Trump being on the national ballot. That sounds like prime fodder for third-party votes, a situation which could easily upend the election.

The two candidates each believe they have gotten lucky and drawn the weakest opposition, and a big chunk of the voting public seems to think they are both right.

Age, mental acuity, criminality.

We live in interesting times.

Sitting Along the Road Watching the World Rush By

 

by Pa Rock

Time Minder

When I have a meeting or an appointment, I am there early.  It is an OCD thing, and it is a big part of who I am.  That is especially true for medical appointments, of which I have plenty.

Yesterday I had an appointment for an eye exam in Springfield, Missouri, a very large cowtown which is one hundred miles exactly from my home in West Plains.  I have recently had some vision issues as well as difficulties with a couple of local eye doctors, so I had my personal physician refer me to a group in Springfield which he felt could deal with my eyesight and fit me with glasses that would meet my needs.  It was an appointment that I desperately wanted to keep.

The appointment was at 10:15 in the morning.  I had carefully packed all of the things that I needed to take the previous evening and had them in the car, ready to fly in the morning.  I left the house at about 6:30 a.m. and headed to Sonic for my standard roadtrip breakfast, a bacon and egg toaster sandwich (so yummy!) with a Route 44 unsweet iced tea, and by 6:45 a.m. I was pulling out onto the highway with the better part of two hours to spare!

Vroom!  Vroom!

Things were pleasant for the next ten miles.  It was still dark out, thanks to daylight savings time, and the traffic was light.  I finished my breakfast and was listening to a political podcast (thank you, Alexa) and the miles clicked by.

Drive, drive, drive.

Drive, drive, drive.

But then:

Thump, thump, thump!

I haven't had many flats in recent years because I keep good rubber on my vehicles, but I recognized the sound of a flat tire when I heard one.  I found a good place to pull over, said a few choice words, and proceeded to figure out how to respond.  I had left with what I thought was plenty of time to spare, so the day was not lost - yet.

I have changed many tires in my wild and wicked youth, but I am seventy-five now and no longer engage in that particular activity - and I honestly did not even know if the Kia had a spare tire or not.  My car insurance has roadside assistance and my four new tires, which were less than a year old, were also insured, so I knew that it would just be a matter of finding the right numbers to call and then waiting.

The first obstacle that I encountered was that I couldn't figure out how to get the car's interior light to come on, but my phone was handy and I knew how the flashlight function worked.  I found my insurance card in the glovebox where it belonged, and called my insurance agent - whose office I knew would be closed.  The call automatically transferred to an after-hours' assistance line with an automated responder.  I was asked a series of questions and had to respond with the phone's keypad.  Eventually my issue was understood by the machine, who was also able to find my location through the phone, and I was told that a wrecker would be dispatched.

I sat in my car and waited patiently as the sun slowly rose and vehicles began rushing by at a faster pace.  Everything roared by except for my tow truck.  After thirty minutes or so I got a call from the tow truck driver who told me that he had been getting another vehicle off of his truck, but was now out on the road looking for me.  (I was on a major highway, heading north, in a readily known location - very close to where the towing operation was headquartered.)

After another thirty minutes I called the driver back and asked, nicely, if he had gotten lost.  No, he said, he was on his way.   Thirty minutes after that he finally pulled up.  By the time he got the car on his truck and drove it and I back to West Plains to the tire shop where I had purchased the tires, it was almost 9:00 a.m. and I looked to be third in line.  I phoned the eye clinic in Springfield and cancelled.  

The tow was covered by my car insurance (thank you, State Farm).  The tire place had to put on a "loaner" tire yesterday and my new one should arrive this morning - and the cost of it is covered by the insurance that I bought when I purchased the tires, although I understand there will be a couple of hidden fees that will come out of my pocket.  

Now I have a new appointment with the eye doctor for next month.  Perhaps I should go up the night before and get a motel room!

Being old is damned hard work - even with insurance!

More Arrests in Super Bowl Shootout

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Last month the Kansas City Chiefs won their second consecutive Superbowl, and on February 14^th, one month ago today and Valentine’s Day, there was a big parade downtown followed by a rally in front of Union Station.  More than a million people were in attendance.  The joyful activity, however, was brought to a sudden halt when gunfire erupted out in the cheering masses.  One person was killed and twenty-two injured, some of them children, in the ensuing bloody mayhem.
 
Local police arrested two adult males six days later and each face charges of second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action, and unlawful use of a weapon.  The shootout was the result of a disagreement, and others in the crowd pulled weapons as well.
 
Yesterday it was announced that three additional adult males (ages 19, 21, and 22) have been charged for their roles in the trafficking of firearms and straw purchases of firearms related to the shooting.   None of the three are being charged as shooters in the deadly crime.
 
The Kansas City Police Department did not rest on their laurels after arresting the shooters.  They went out looking for the source of the guns, and, in the process made three more arrests – and - made their city safer.  Every American city should be focused on not only taking down the shooters, but also on taking out the people responsible for putting guns into the hands of criminals.  All the registration, licensing requirements, and waiting periods in the world will not be effective while straw buyers – people who can pass background checks – are purchasing weapons and then transporting them on to people with criminal histories and evil intent.
 
Surely there is room for federal authorities to provide much closer scrutiny of gun sales without forcing our cowardly politicians to have to vote on the matter.  All levels of government should be using all available means to reduce the number of guns on American streets.
 
Focusing on gun traffickers and straw purchases makes good sense in the war on gun crime.  When guns are used in crimes, they should be confiscated and destroyed – no exceptions.   (Melt those suckers into 2^ndAmendment paperweights and sell them to raise money for local law enforcement agencies.  I would buy a couple!)
 
Kudos to the Kansas City Missouri Police Department for casting a wide net.  Taking five criminals off the streets is clearly an important step in the right direction!
 
And while I’m at it, kudos also to the courts of Michigan for bringing charges against James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of Oxford, Michigan, school shooter, Ethan Crumbley, a troubled teen who killed four students with a gun that his parents had purchased for him in 2021 – even though the young man had pronounced mental health issues which the parents actively ignored.  (They had also declined to take him home just prior to the shooting when school officials had requested they do so.)  Holding parents to account for the actions of their children sounds like something that should be considered every time a student shooter wreaks havoc and carnage in our schools.
 
Law enforcement and the courts both already have substantial powers to rein in gun violence, and they need to be proactive in using those powers relentlessly.

All the Psychos Have Gone to Durham County

 

by Pa Rock

TV Junkie

I am a big fan of mysteries, both in print and on the screen, and I have a particular fondness for the mysteries and police procedurals produced by the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) which I regard as essentially the cream of the crop as far as television programming goes.  (I subscribe to Brit Box, a service that delivers the best in British comedy and drama straight into my living room.)  Lately I have found myself in the unique position of having seen most of the mysteries which are currently available from the BBC, and there are many, so I have been looking elsewhere for my entertainment.

A couple of weeks ago I came across an older series from 2007-2010 airing on Amazon Prime entitled "Durham County," a police procedural that was filmed in Canada and ran for three seasons.  Prime is airing the first two six-episode seasons free to subscribers, and will no doubt offer the third season for sale at some future point.  (Bezos, you're a sniveling greed head!)

The introductory blurb on the show's Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) site reads:

"An extraordinary series with an electric, oppressive atmosphere.  A spiral of violence, unhealthy manipulations and tortured characters, Durham County excels in the detective series genre."

The writing on this show is exceptional and creepy. so creepy in fact that I would hesitate before moving into the same neighborhood as any of the writers.  The primary writers of the show were Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik, one of the show's creators who wrote seventeen of the episodes, and Bruce M. Smith who penned one episode.  

The cast includes only one actor of whom I was previously aware:  Helene Joy, a former regular on the Canadian television series, Murdoch Mysteries.   She plays the cancer-plagued wife of the lead homicide detective.   Joy's character is also a doctor and mother of two who becomes emotionally involved with their neighbor who is a serial killer.  Other stellar performers in the series include Hugh Dillon as the homicide detective, Laurence Leboeuf, the daughter of the detective and the doctor who also aspires to be a homicide detective, Greyston Holt, the son of the serial killer neighbor who would. like  to be a writer, and Louis Ferreira as the psychopathic neighbor.  The cast is superlative!

I finished the first season, which revolved around two independent serial killers who were focusing on several of the same young women, and I am now two episodes into season two which looks at serious, and even fatal, child abuse.  Obviously there are characters in both storylines who are  psychopaths, individuals who are devoid of standard human emotions, particularly empathy, and operate strictly on meeting their own twisted needs without regard to others, but what is surprising about this show is the number of psychopaths populating the stories.  Those deep in the weeds of psychopathy include not only the two serial killers, but at least two cops, a psychiatrist, and a couple of children who seem to be in the process of becoming untethered from family and reality.

The program is dark and menacing, and the actions of the characters are relentlessly insidious.  It is a struggle for me, an old hand at this type of show, to sit through a complete episode without becoming emotionally charged, angry, and sometimes even nauseous.  

For those who relish the thought of having nightmares about a television show that you have just watched, "Durham County" might be right for you, but for those who prefer a more peaceful sleep experience, this show would be a good one to avoid.  At this point I honestly don't know if I have the stamina to sit through the final four episodes or not.    "Durham County" has more whack jobs than a Trump senior staff meeting, and keeping up with them is emotionally daunting.

Where have all the psychos gone?  Gone to Durham County, everyone. When will they ever learn?  When will they ever learn?

Tyson is Betting on Crickets

 

by Pa Rock

Consumer of Food

There was a cricket in our house a couple of mornings ago.  The annoying insect didn't seem to be doing anything other than just making noise - which he did with sheer joy and gusto,  He drove me nuts for a couple of hours, and then the noise abruptly stopped.  I like to think that perhaps Rosie, who is a ferocious little lion of a hunter in HER house, found the irksome bug and ate him.

My family took two "vacations" to California when I was young, once in the summer of 1955 just after I had completed first grade, and the other in the summer of 1958 after I completed fourth grade.  My parents did not believe in wasting money on luxuries like motel rooms, so we drove straight through on each trip and piled in on relatives once we were there.  Because it was summertime - when my sister and I were out of school - and because much of the trip involved driving across the desert, my folks took turns driving at night, when it was cooler, and then finding places to pull over and rest during the days.

One night (it was probably during the second trip because I was ten then and remember the incident vividly) we stopped at a gas station in Needles, California, and found the establishment covered with screeching crickets, thousands upon thousands of crickets!  The entire place - building, cars, gas pumps - was black with with crickets and the sound was horrendous.  I remember crickets rushing into the car when my Dad got out to do some simple maintenance on the car while the attendant filled the tank.  Rod Serling, who was in his writing prime back then, could not have scripted a wilder, more bizarre scene!

I found a mention on the internet the other day indicating that American meat producer, Tyson Foods of northwest Arkansas, the owner and operator of numerous poultry processing plants across the United States, might soon be opening a "cricket plant" for the purpose of processing the irksome insects into food for human consumption.  I did some quick research on the internet and learned that Tyson was buying a minority stake in the French company, Protix, the world's leading insect ingredients company.

(I'm old enough to remember fighting to keep insects out of our food chain, and now we are intentionally bringing them in!)

I grew up in close proximity to a chicken plant, a plant which Tyson eventually purchased, and I can testify to the fact that pollution around that facility was a continual problem.  Waste from the chicken processing, and there was a lot of it, was pumped into a lagoon where it was treated with chemicals and was supposed to eventually disappear.  Of course, when the inevitable floods came, they washed across the lagoon and into the river where they quickly contaminated a large portion of our area's once scenic beauty.  And the smell - oh god, the smell!

Tyson closed that plant last year and put hundreds of good people out of work.

Apparently Tyson's agreement with Protix with give the American chicken king 40% of the French bug company, and they will enter a joint venture to construct a cricket processing plant somewhere in North America that will use waste from poultry processing plants to feed the crickets, a move that could conceivably solve - or at least lessen - the pollution issues associated with poultry plants.

Cricket flour is already a thing - a thing you can buy over the internet - and, I am sure, through speciality health and grocery outlets.   It is supposedly rich in proteins, antioxidants, and many other things that are associated with positive health outcomes.  I have also read that some prepackaged baked goods are already being manufactured with cricket flour.

Insect production is unlikely to replace American meat production any time soon, but it does seem to be an emerging alternative source of protein that could significantly impact our lust for meat in the future.  The big players, like Tyson, aren't tearing down their chicken houses just yet, but they can hear the crickets chirping - and they know that change is always coming.  Tyson has put a modest bet on crickets as playing a role in our sustainable future, and it is one that is very likely to pay off.

Will our great-great-grand-babies be "chirped" instead of "burped"?  I really don't care, just as long as they are healthy and happy!

Jason Smith Whines about the State of the Union

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It's a rare day indeed when my Republican congressman, Jason Smith of rural southeastern Missouri, does anything but complain, whine, and be divisive, so it should not be surprising when he chooses to project those failings onto Americans who are actually out trying to get good things accomplished for their country.  President Biden's State of the Union speech before congress last Thursday night got Jason wound up good and tight, and this morning, in his weekly email newsletter, Jason lashed out at Biden's dynamic delivery of the constitutionally-mandated annual report to Congress as "the most divisive in history."

I saw a photo of Jason sitting in the House chamber during Biden's speech.  He was a couple of seats down from Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman and national distraction from Georgia.    Congressman Smith showed up in a suit and tie, but Rep. Greene, who obviously wanted the cameras on her, arrived on th House floor in full MAGA regalia and spent much of the evening directing catcalls at the President.  One internet meme described her as looking like "a waitress at a KKK Fridays."  That's what "divisive" looks like, Jason.  I'm surprised you could even hear President Biden over Marge!

But Jason was angry that Biden had attacked Donald Trump in his speech before Congress, and Jason was particularly enraged that Biden had tried to blame problems at the border on Republicans.  The border is a Republican issue, a key component in his party's plan to retake the White House and appoint more fascist judges, and the fact that a Democrat would try to steal that issue was just . . . . just . . . . divisive!

(Biden, of course was correct.  There was a bi-partisan bill presented to Congress last month, and Donald Trump told GOP members of Congress to let it die because he wanted to campaign on border issues, and Jason and members of the House refused to even take up the measure.  So yes, the current dysfunction at the southern US border is a result of Republican neglect on the matter - at the command of Donald Trump.)

Oh, and social security, too.  Joe Biden rightfully pointed out that there are Republicans trying to kill that life-saving program for senior citizens.  Jason did not like revelation that nary a bit!  No siree, Bubba, he did not!

But facts do not matter to people like Jason Smith of rural Missouri.  Jason got so danged mad about Joe Biden's State of the Union speech that he went on Fox and Newsmax to whine ad nauseum!  Biden should have sounded older, more somber, more sedate, more boring.  It's Trump's place to be hurling cheap shots and insults, not Biden's.  And the show should have focused on Marjorie Taylor Green.  How dare Biden upstage her!  How utterly divisive!

Mama mia, there he goes again!

I've Officially had My Say, but I'll Say More in November

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Democrat and Voter

For those who follow this blog, an admittedly small number of people who must lead exceedingly sad lives, you were already aware of my discontent on a couple of issues with regard to the upcoming presidential contest.  I have been, and remain, massively unhappy that our ultimate choice will be between two elderly white men who are each older than me, and I am equally unhappy about the incumbent President rushing full-throttle to arm Israel while the death toll of civilians in Gaza, many of them women and children, roars past 30,000 with no end in sight - and his challenger who is barking mad to assume office and begin his own full-battle-rattle support of the genocide.  (Yup, I used that word.)

It is very disappointing to me that Missouri is always a late participant in the presidential selection process.  I have donated money to a candidate over each of the last two election cycles, and in both cycles (2020 and 2024) the candidate that I donated to had already dropped out of the race by the time I had an opportunity to weigh in with a vote.  In fact, the candidates for both parties had already been determined before Missouri had any say in the matter.  That sucks.

I have also expressed my displeasure at the sporadic and tilted ways in which these poor choices for candidates are selected by the parties, and I am very disappointed that the GOP majority Missouri Legislature did away with our state presidential primary thus effectively denying most of our state's voters in both parties a practical way to participate in the process.  The Republicans of Missouri recently held their caucuses, and participation from people who were willing to give up a Saturday morning and go sit in a room with hardened GOP politicians and loudmouthed Trump supporters and hecklers was tiny compared to the participation in the previous state-run presidential primaries.  Most people, hundreds of thousands, chose not to participate, and that is exactly what the politicians and party leaders wanted.

The Missouri Democratic Party chose a different route, one that also will see much less participation, and that also bothers me.  The Democrats chose to fund their own primary through a private "election contractor."  For a Democrat, such as myself, to participate in the process, that person first has to hear about it and learn how to apply for a ballot.  Even though I had gone to the trouble to request information ahead of time with the state party, I learned about how the election would work and how to get a ballot through my local newspaper.  The article contained misinformation, and when I called the editor, who was also the lady who wrote the piece, she doubled down on the misinformation.   She told me that prospective voters had to be officially affiliated with the party to join in the Republican caucuses or the Democratic primary.  I knew that was wrong and I called the courthouse to confirm that it was wrong.  But the editor was persistent, very pleasant, but persistent in the error.

Using the information provided in the newspaper through what was basically a press release, I got on the internet and requested a Democratic primary ballot.   The first thing I received a few days later was a shiny brochure inviting me to send in $35 dollars and become an official party member.  (As a senior, the ad said I could become a faithful Democrat for only $25.)  I declined to send in anything because, if it was a request for money in order to vote - and the brochure never actually said that - but if it was, that would be a poll tax, and poll taxes and literacy tests are both outside of the bounds of my political religion as well as unconstitutional.

I was already a "proven" Democrat anyway by virtue of being a former Democratic County Chair in Missouri as well has having contributed recently to the state party and a couple of high-profile state candidates.  But I was not about to chip in a poll tax have my say - that is not the way MY America works.

The ballot arrived last Thursday, and I marked it and sent it back on Friday.  It is due into the election contractor's office by 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 23rd - my 76th birthday.  The results should be tallied by the next day.

The seven choices on the Democratic ballot were, in this order:  

Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

Dean Phillips

Stephen P. Lyons

Armando Perez-Serrato

Marianne Williamson

Jason Michael Palmer

Uncommitted

(Jason Michael Palmer is an interesting character.  He is a politician and entrepreneur who defeated Biden in the American Samoa Democratic Caucuses on March 5th, so far the only person to deal Biden a loss in the current election cycle.)

I cast a vote of conscience.  It will be interesting to see if my minuscule participation has any impact on the ultimate selection and membership of the Missouri delegation to the national convention.  But I had a say, officially, and that's all I wanted.

Now I would like to have a say in the national results, but as a resident in a very red state in a time when popular votes are superseded by electoral votes, that will be virtually impossible.  Both candidates are already exclusively focused on a handful of "swing" states where the results could go either way, and the voters in those swing states will choose the next president.   Those of us who live in solidly red or blue states will just have to be content with watching the process play out on television.  The election does not really concern us as far as the campaigns are concerned - we are taken for granted, and our down ballot candidates (state and local candidates who could benefit from a visit by a national candidate) can go pound sand.

Well, here is where I stand on that:  I will not vote for a candidate who does not hold at least one official campaign stop or rally in Missouri between the time of the convention and the election, and I would not vote for Trump even if he campaigns nonstop in Missouri the entire time.

Make of that what you will.

Marty and Mary Come Calling

 

by Pa Rock

Reminiscer

The last time my friend Marty came to visit was on May 3rd, 2019, the year before the plague.  I know that date is correct because I wrote about his visit in this blog the following day in a piece entitled "Forty Years Have Slipped Away!"  Now, of course, almost five more years have slipped away.

My wife and I both began our teaching careers in August of 1977, during the same week that Elvis died.  I was getting close to thirty-years-old, and she was a few years younger.    We had two young children to support when we signed those first teaching contracts with Mountain View-Birch Tree Schools, a large rural school district in southern Missouri, for a whopping $7,200 per annum each.  Fortunately, the state came up with a little more money over the summer after we had signed agreeing to teach, and our salaries were $7,600 per year by the time the school year actually started.

Marty was one of the students in a history class that I taught.  He was bright and not bashful about speaking up.  Marty was a kid who was easy to like.  In fact, he still is a kid who is easy to like!

The first year that we lived in Mountain View we rented a drafty old Victorian home.  As that year was ending and we had been offered slightly better contracts to teach another year, we decided to try and find a house of our own, and with a much-appreciated assist from my parents, our family was able to do that.  Mountain View was and is a small town, so it was not surprising that one of our students would be living right across the street from the home we purchased - and that student was Marty.

Marty and his parents had moved to Mountain View from the Chicago area not long before we had arrived.   His dad, Bill, had taken an early retirement from his job at a factory and needed someplace less expensive than Chicago in which to spend his golden years.  Marty's older sister was a young adult who had chosen to stay behind in Chicago.  Over the five years that we lived in that house we became good friends with Bill and Theresa and watched Marty finish high school and begin his college career.  When our third child, Tim, was born in September of 1979, it was Marty, an ace photographer with his own darkroom, who came to the hospital and took the first official photos of Baby Macy.

One of my memories of Marty as a neighbor occurred one warm afternoon while I was doing some work in the yard when all of a sudden Pink Floyd came blasting through the summer calm declaring "Teachers, leave those kids alone!"  Message received!

We didn't hear too much out of Marty or his family once we left Mountain View in 1983 and moved back to Noel.  Bill and Theresa did drive over for a visit one afternoon, but they hadn't phoned ahead and we didn't know they were coming - so we were out, and they spent their time in Noel becoming acquainted with our new neighbors.

Marty and a friend of his showed up at a cabin that I was living in out in the woods near Noel in the late 1990's.  He was driving a big convertible which reminded me of the one in which Patrick Swayze had chauffeured himself and his drag queen friends across the county in the movie, "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!  Julie Newmar" - a veritable boat of a car.   That cabin was so small that I couldn't get the mattress and box springs up the tiny stairwell to the bedroom where my iron bed was assembled and waiting, and Marty and his friend helped to lift those big items up and in through the door of the small porch/balcony on the second floor.

The next time I saw the kid from Mountain View was twenty years after that - as referenced above - when he showed up unexpectedly at my home here in West Plains in 2019.  The convertible was gone, and he was driving a large, shiny black pickup truck.  We had a nice visit that morning, and I'm sure Rosie was all over us as we talked about days gone by.

Marty came back yesterday, and this time he brought his wonderful wife, Mary.  They have been married quite a few years, but yesterday was the first time that Mary and I had a chance to meet.  She is a retired public school teacher (elementary) so we had that in common.  She told me that "principals" had driven her nuts, and I told her that as a principal, "superintendents" had driven me nuts!  Marty is a retired state worker who is now in a second career working for the large metropolitan city government where they live.

Marty told me that he is sixty-two, which, of course, is not possible - so he must have been lying!  

Marty's vehicles continue to fascinate me.  This time he was driving a new Ford Bronco which he had specially ordered, and one which attracted favorable comments from a couple of locals later at breakfast.  It is an odd shade of green which Marty said is called "Area 51," and he had a winch installed on the front bumper for which he claims no practical need.  I loved it and am thinking that I might like to have a winch on my Kia Soul, just in case I ever get the big lawnmower stuck in a ditch or need to pull down a building.  You just never know!

When Marty and Mary arrived I let the dogs maul them for awhile as I dragged out photos of the kids an grandkids, and then we went to town for breakfast at the Ozark Cafe where we enjoyed delicious food and a long conversation that stripped the hardened varnish off of our lives in Mountain View nearly a half-century earlier.

It was a truly wonderful visit.  Marty and Mary, thank you so much for coming to see me and the dogs! Please do it again sometime!

Musk Goes after an Ex-Wife, Just not his Own

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Billionaire Elon Musk, who at times clocks in as the world's richest human, is a thrice-divorced father of eleven who is happy to share his opinion on just about anything.  That passion for sharing his opinion and trying to influence others is part of the reason he flushed more that forty billion dollars down the social media rathole with his purchase of Twitter a couple of years ago.   This week Musk used Twitter, which is now called X, to go off on the topic of ex-wives, though the one who got him cranked-up was the ex-wife of a fellow billionaire and not one of his own.

Elon seems to be righteously pissed at MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropic ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.  Actually, MacKenzie, who was married to Bezos for more than twenty years, helped to found Amazon and get it up and running, and when they divorced a couple of years ago she received $38 billion in Amazon stock.  If MacKenzie had been a good ex-wife and just settled into a life of country-clubbing and shopping, Elon would have probably had no problem with her, but the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos instead went out and began giving her money away to a multitude of charities and good causes - things that were based on correcting social inequalities and benefiting marginalized groups - usually with no strings attached.

In 2022 MacKenzie Scott reported that she had given almost two billion dollars to 343 organizations "supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities."   One of her more controversial gifts was a $275 million dollar gift to Planned Parenthood.

The day before yesterday a tweeter on X posted a comment noting that MacKenzie Scott gives money to organizations that deal with "race and/or gender," and that particular comment got Elon's attention and set him to typing.  He responded:

"Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse should filed (sic) be listed among 'Reasons that western civilization died'"

Later in the day Musk deleted his tweet.  Perhaps he decided that his valuable time would be better spent trying to control the vagaries of his own ex-wives!

Kudos to Jeff Bezos for landing a truly classy individual as his first ex-wife - and super kudos to MacKenzie Scott for showing her fellow billionaires how they could be benefitting humanity with their wealth.  

And raspberries to Elon Musk who tried to show his wit and wisdom, and instead just showed his ass.