Kristofferson is Gone: Me and Bobby McGee are Sure Gonna Miss Him

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Kris Kristofferson, who passed away yesterday at his home in Maui at the age of eighty-eight, was a complicated person.

Kristopher Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas in 1936, the oldest of three children.  His father, who would later rise to the rank of Major General in the US Air Force, did his best to direct his oldest child into a military career.  Kris eventually did join the military, but that was after the Rhodes Scholar had graduated from Oxford University in England with a Masters degree in English literature.

Kris joined the army in 1960 where he graduated from Airborne School, Ranger School, and flight school.  He qualified as a helicopter pilot while serving with the US Army in Germany.  Young Captain Kristofferson wanted to take his skills as a helicopter pilot and put them to use in Vietnam, but the army instead assigned him to teach English literature at the US Military Academy at West Point.  Kristofferson, who was disappointed that he could not go to Vietnam, left the service and moved to Nashville where he took a job as a janitor at Columbia Studios - and where, in his spare time, he worked toward his serious goal of becoming a songwriter.

And the rest is history.  

Kristofferson achieved auspicious success not only in writing songs that became a permanent part of the American soundtrack - classics like "Me and Bobby McGee" which  became a Janis Joplin super hit, and "Sunday Morning Coming Down," a song in which Johnny Cash seemed to reveal his soul.  Some of the other many songs that Kristofferson penned include "Why Me," "For the Good Times,"  and "Help Me Make It Through the Night."   

The very talented Mr. Kristofferson was a recording artist and concert performer in his own right, and he as a member of the singing group,"The Highwaymen" along with country legends Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.  Kris, too, was an accomplished film actor and starred with Barbra Streisand 1976 version of "A Star Is Born," (a movie that happened to be released on the day my daughter was born - yea Molly!)

Kris Kristofferson was also a social activist and a highly principled person.  He partnered with British actress Vanessa Redgrave in the late 1980's and early 1990's in speaking out about the plight of Palestinian children, and he gave concerts for their benefit.  His stance in support of the children of Palestine, according to Kristofferson, impacted his career negatively, but, he insisted "When you support human rights, you've got to support them everywhere."

I had the good fortune to see Kris Kristofferson in concert along with his wife at the time, Rita Coolidge,  in 1977 at the relatively new John Q. Hammonds Center in Springfield, an enormous venue both then and now.  (John Q. was very similar to Trump in that he had to have his name on almost everything he touched.). The place was packed to the rafters, I know that because I could almost touch the ceiling from where I sat in the farthest reaches of the nosebleed section, but, cheap-seating aside, it was a great show anyway.  At the end of the two-our performance, he and Coolidge (a legend in her own right) trotted out their three-year-old daughter, Casey, to smile and wave at the thousands of people who had gathered to watch her parents perform.

Today Casey is also an entertainer, as well as a mother of three.  Somehow she is fifty - something that certainly seems impossible to me!

Kris Kristofferson left behind his third wife, a lawyer named Lisa Meyers to whom he was married more than forty years,  eight grown children, and a host of grandchildren.

The amazing man, Kris Kristoffeerson, is gone, but his eighty-eight trips around the sun left humanity a better place than it would have been had he not been along for the ride.  He was an inspiring voice for human goodness and decency, and me and Bobby McGee and a whole bunch of others are sure gonna miss him!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday! (Getting Old Ain't Easy)

 

by Pa Rock

Emergency Room Frequent Flyer

I'm a morning person.  I can't help it, it's a curse.  When the sun comes up I am already out and about getting my day underway, and as the sun is setting I am thinking about bed.  That's the way I roll.

My routine is to take a morning walk, usually 5,000 steps or more while Rosie takes her morning constitutional.  Then I come back in the house and take my daily meds before I shower,  a nice variety of multi-colored pills and capsules (two of which are blood-thinners), as well as an insulin shot.   After that is my shower, followed by breakfast.

As I was drying off following my shower this morning, I suddenly realized that my feet, which were firmly placed on a bathroom throw rug, felt sticky.  Looking down I was not especially surprised to see both of my feet covered in blood and a large pool of blood collected between my feet on the rug.  It was going to be one of those days!

I had done this dance once before, back in June, and at that time had managed to track blood into literally every room in the house as I rushed around trying to get ready to drive myself to the Emergency Room.  Today I somehow got myself dressed, collected my wallet and keys from the bedroom, and exited the house barefoot (while carrying a pair of fresh socks and sandals), and made it to the car while only tracking blood through about half of the house.  I also took along my bloody bath towel and put it on the floorboard of the car to keep the blood splatter on the car's carpeting down to a minimum.

I self-diagnosed the problem because I had encountered almost the same situation last June.  At  that time I had picked a scab from my ankle, not realizing that it was attached to a varicose vein, and triggered rapid bleeding not unlike an Oklahoma oil gusher, though on a much smaller scale.  Today I hadn't intentionally picked a scab, but the towel had probably rubbed one loose, and blood was literally spraying from one foot to the other - and all points in-between.

I knew that I could make it to the Emergency Room under my own steam because I had done it before, but this time when I got there, instead of walking in and bleeding all over the floor, I stood in the entryway and signaled for them to come get me - but I still managed to paint a path through much of the patient area, nonetheless.

The doctor stitched me up with a thread that dissolves on its own, an improvement over my visit in June when another doctor used a thread that had to be physically removed - at an "Urgent Care" while I was on vacation in Oregon.  It's good to know about the dissolvable option.

As the nurse worked at cleaning my feet before dismissing me from the ER, she told me that she had a patient with the same issue a few months earlier and that his treatment had been complicated because he was fixing to leave on an extended vacation.

"Yes, I remember it well," I replied.

Getting old ain't easy!

Make Racism Wrong Again!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

(Note: The title of this post was taken from a bumper sticker that I happened to see last week.)

The Democratic Party has a history of having extreme racists within its ranks, but if Orval Faubus  and George Corley Wallace were alive and running for office today, it is almost a certainty that they would be doing so as Republicans, because the. GOP is the party where racial intolerance seems to have gone to incubate and flower.

Here are some recent examples:

Last Wednesday afternoon Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican member of Congress who resigned his position with a Louisiana police department several years ago rather than face a disciplinary hearing over his reported assault of an unarmed Black man, posted the following racist tweet on his official government X (Twitter) account:

"Lol.  These Haitians are wild.  Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere, clubs, slapstick gangsters . . . but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP.

All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th."

Higgins left his vile tweet up until a major furor began to develop on the floor of Congress regarding it, and then he quietly pulled the tweet.  Rep. Steve Horsford, D, NV, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, introduced a privileged resolution in the House to censure the Louisiana congressman for his angry, racist tirade.

Higgins posted his tweet in response  to a report that the leader of an Ohio non-profit representing the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, had invoked a citizen's right to file charges against Donald Trump and JD Vance over threats and disruptions that Springfield has had to endure since the two politicians began spreading false rumors about the local Haitian population eating pets.

In addition to intentionally spreading lies about the legal immigrant population of Springfield, Ohio, as a political maneuver, something Vance refers to as telling "creative stories" to draw press attention to real problems, Trump has also gone off on a tangent repeating unverified stories that Venezuelan gangs have taken over some apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, a story also being ginned-up by some right-wing news sources.   Local officials have denied the stories, and when residents of the apartment complexes have been interviewed, they say their problems are with the slumlord apartment owners and not gangs.  But Trump keeps promoting the gangs story because that fits his narrative that America has gone to hell under Biden, and it also folds in nicely with Trump's historic racism.

Trump's historic racism?

In 1989 after five Black and Latino male youth (ages fourteen to sixteen) were wrongly convicted of the brutal rape of a white female jogger in New York's Central Park, Donald Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the execution of  "the Central Park Five."   The boys had been coerced (beaten) by the police into confessing, but then pled innocent in court.  There was no DNA or physical evidence linking them to the crime, and in 2002 another man confessed and the five men were exonerated and released from prison.  

But Donald Trump had gained some positive vibes from vilifying them and began to appreciate the power of racist attacks.  In the summer of 2017 when the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent and deadly, Trump, who was President at the time, famously  tried to paper over the turmoil by saying there were "good people on both sides."   Today he is still at it with his bungled attempts to demean Kamala Harris for either being or not being Black, his own personal history as a landlord, and his never-ending attacks on immigrants from "shithole" countries and those from south of the US border.

Interestingly, both Trump and Vance are married to immigrants and have children by them.   Two of Trump's three wives have been immigrants.

This week a 61-year-old man in Michigan was arrested for assaulting a mail carrier and lunging at her with a knife.  The man was upset because the carrier placed a political mailer for Kamala Harris in his mailbox, and he did not want that "Black bitch" in his box.  He also called the mail carrier a "Black bitch." The mail carrier used pepper spray to stop the attack.

A Black man was executed in Missouri this week for a murder he supposedly committed in 1998, although now it looks as though the evidence against his was circumstantial at best and was was mishandled by the prosecution - and he did not receive a fair trial.   The current prosecutor called for the man's sentence to be converted to life in prison while the case could be investigated further, and the victim's family was also calling for his life to be spared.  Missouri's Republican governor, a former rural county sheriff, declined to intercede on the man's behalf.

But Haitians, other Blacks, and Venezuelans aren't the only political punching bags of the American right.  Native Americans also serve as ready targets - as they have for the past several centuries.  Tim Sheehy, a former Navy Seal who is running for the Senate in Montana as a Republican (with Trump's endorsement), got in some political hot water a few days ago when recordings surfaced of him making seemingly disparaging remarks about members of the Crow tribe living in Montana, with Sheehy saying, among other things, that some members of the tribe are drunk at eight in the morning.

Scoring political points by pillorying others primarily on the basis of their race is a cheap and sleazy way to campaign, a ploy that appeals to the very lowest rungs of society in America.  It is an indecent way to run for office, but as long as the Republican Party is under the control of Donald Trump and his minions, it looks as though it will be GOP standard operating fare.  Trump has led his party into the sewer, and as of this point few seem to recognize that they are afloat in filth and hate.  

But they are, and Donald Trump brought them there by allowing the MAGA subculture to give voice to its deepest, most foul, racist beliefs - and then cheering them on.

It is clearly time to :  MAKE RACISM WRONG AGAIN!

Manchin Swirls into Irrelevance

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Independent Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a politician who alleges to have one time been a Democrat, is currently taking one final swirl around the toilet bowl of national politics and next January 3rd will be flushed into a cesspit of irrelevance - and it couldn't happen to a more deserving individual.

During his two terms in the United States Senate (when he generally wore the "Democratic" label) Manchin steadfastly fought against doing away with the filibuster rule (which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation instead of just a simple majority - thus giving the minority party unwarranted and unearned power), voted against efforts to control climate change, fought to weaken Democratic efforts to enact voting rights and election reform, voted against codifying the protections of Roe v Wade into federal law, and was the only Democratic senator to vote to confirm Trump's appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

In an almost evenly spilt US Senate, Joe Manchin was often able to use his vote to foil Democratic priorities.  It was role that he openly relished, and it gave the West Virginian a sense and aura of extraordinary power.

Politicians feared Joe Manchin.  They kowtowed to him.  They stroked his ego and readily humiliated themselves in seeking his favors.

But that was then . . . and now the crusty old politician is halfway out the door, and it is swinging closed behind him, and his importance is waning, and soon he will be completely irrelevant on the national political scene. How demoralizing that must be!

This week Joe Manchin tried to reassert his relevance by launching a broadside at Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President. Manchin, who has always been a protector of the filibuster, got righteously incensed when Harris said she supports doing away with it.  Manchin was so pissed, in fact, that he announced that he would not be endorsing Harris for President.  So far there has been no response to that political affront from Kamala - because she probably doesn't give a rip!

Get over yourself, Joe.  You're as good as retired and nobody, NOBODY, cares what you think about anything, any more, and certainly not who you deign to endorse.    Get aboard your cabin cruiser and putt on back to West Virginia, or the Outer Banks, or Timbuktu, and have a nice retirement, but don't expect anyone to care about your circumstances, thoughts, or endorsements because you - like this tired old typist - are destined to become more irrelevant with each passing day.

Say what you want, get mad as hell, but just don't expect anyone to be listening - or to care.

Enjoy your retirement, Joe!

Free Trip to Mars

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A friend told me the other day of her distress over a "news" story that she had heard which claimed that Leon Elon Musk was offering a free trip to Mars to people who supported Trump in the next election. My friend felt that it was very unfair that ultra-rich people like Elon could use their wealth to influence elections.

I responded to her concern with some superficial generic thoughts that it would never happen because sending even one lucky tourist to Mars would cost more than Musk would probably care to spend, and there is no current technology that could transport tens of millions of people to the Red Planet.  Also, travel to Mars would not be like a luxury cruise to Bermuda.  The average distance between Earth and Mars in 140,000,000 miles, and the trip in a small, cramped space vessel could be expected to take six to nine months - one way!

I suspect that my friend got her "news" from some social media site that has a dubious relationship with facts and truth:  perhaps 'Truth Social" or "X."  But that is not to say that I wouldn't like for the story to be true.  Loading millions of Trump supporters into space-going cattle cars and shipping them off to Mars?  That works for me, and it would certainly punch a big hole in America's welfare rolls!  Knock yourself out, Elon!  

Musk, the current de facto head of the US Space Program, says that his private company, SpaceX, will send an unmanned mission to Mars in two years, and a manned mission two years after that.  It's unclear who will "man" that mission, though it would certainly be sure way for a narcissistic spotlight-chaser to achieve immortality.   Jeff Bezos, America's other billionaire space cowboy, actually rode one of his rockets into space.

Elon Musk has plenty of money, but somehow I doubt that he has the "right stuff" to lead his own mission to Mars.

Prove me wrong, Elon!

An Early Autumn Drive in Arkansas

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

Yesterday I traveled across northwestern Arkansas to visit my sister in Rogers.  Abigail had surgery last week and is starting to resume her old routines and getting out and about.   We visited in her senior apartment and then went to lunch at Cracker Barrel, a favorite haunt of old farts.  

Rogers, and in particular the part of the city where my sister lives, was hit by a devastating tornado last spring, and this was my first trip over that way since the big weather event.  There are still trees down, and, in fact, three young men were taking a storm damaged tree out of the neighbor's yard while I was there.  Much of the damage has been cleaned up and fixed, but there are still plenty of signs around attesting to the power of that storm.

Rosie stayed home.  She doesn't enjoy traveling as much as she used to, and she doesn't like for me to travel either.  But she is always happy to see me when I return.

I had the"Golden Pan-Fried Pork Chops" at Cracker Barrel, which were, in reality, two boneless pork steaks, but good, nonetheless, with sides of hash brown casserole, a comfort food with heavy salt, and "fried apples" which were actually baked.  My sister, who is on some dietary restrictions because of the surgery, had a hamburger steak along with green beans and applesauce.  She cut up about half of her hamburger steak into fine bits and sent them home to Rosie, which will be part of Rosie's lunch today.  Thanks, Aunt Gail!

Abigail and I had a nice visit.  I didn't see anything of interest along the way - not even so much as a bumper sticker or a political yard sign.  I did notice that many of the motels in Eureka Springs, the gayest town in Arkansas, seem to have changed their names since the last time I drove through that picturesque hill  town.  

I was going to put one of my new Harris-Walz bumper stickers on the Kia prior to the drive over to Rogers, (four hours each way), but decided at the last minute not to.  The route goes through Harrison, Arkansas, lengthways, a community that has very recently displayed billboards promoting "White Power Radio" and "Klan Television."    Things are hopefully improving there because I didn't see any racist signage yesterday.  Good work, Harrison!

My nephew who lives in northwest Arkansas has magnetic Harris stickers on his car which he can pull off to keep his car from getting keyed while he is parked and out of the vehicle.  That's probably the way to go.

Nice day, nice drive, nice visit, tolerable lunch but with very good service.  I need to go again in mid-to-late October when all of the trees are in their autumn glory.

Who knows, Rosie might even want to go by then!

Ted Bundy's Political Bent

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Former Washington governor and US senator Daniel J. Evans passed away last weekend at the age of ninety-eight.  I read one news article about his passing that said he was the last surviving United States Senator to have been born in the 1920’s.   That, however, will not be the only interesting footnote to the political career of Dan Evans, because he also had a political relationship with one of the most notorious serial killers in American history - although Evans never had a clue as to the true nature of the young man who would go on to become so infamous.  
 
Dan Evans, a Republican, officially entered politics in 1956 when he won a seat in the Washington state legislature.  In November of 1964 he was elected governor of Washington, a position which he held for three terms from January of 1965 through January of 1977.   The former governor was appointed by a later governor to serve the remainder of Scoop Jackson’s US Senate term when the veteran senator died unexpectedly in 1983 leaving almost a full term remaining.    Evans won a special election later in the year to complete the entire term. His career in elective office ended after that one senate term because he chose not to seek re-election out of frustration with the senate which he described as being “too rancorous.”
 
Ted Bundy, who had grown up in Tacoma, Washington, had suffered a couple of false starts in college, and by 1968 the then 21-year-old was exploring an interest in politics.   Bundy volunteered to work in Nelson Rockefeller’s presidential campaign in the state of Washington, and later Bundy was even a Washington delegate for Rockefeller at the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami, Florida.  Daniel Evans, the governor of Washington, gave the keynote address at that convention, but did not endorse Richard Nixon, the eventual nominee.   Evans chose instead to support Governor Rockefeller of New York for the nomination.
 
It would seem very likely that Dan Evans and Ted Bundy were acquainted at the time they both were in the Washington state delegation to the Republican National Convention in 1968, particularly since they were both supporting the same candidate.  Four years later Bundy secured a position as a campaign aid to Governor Evans who was then in the process of running for this third and final term as governor of Washington.
 
Some reports say Bundy was employed by the campaign and others credit him as being a volunteer, but whatever his pay status, he wound up with a position where he routinely had the governor’s ear.  Bundy’s job was to stalk the opposition candidate, a former Democratic governor by the name of Albert D. Rosellini, and make tape recordings of his speeches.  The political stalker would report back to Evans where he and the governor would reportedly discuss the young aid’s take on what the opposition candidate had said.
 
Later Governor Evans appointed his former campaign aid, Ted Bundy, to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee, and at one point provided a reference to help Bundy get into law school.
 
The accomplishments of Daniel J. Evans are too numerous to try and list, but he always had an eye toward the environment and meeting the needs of the people of his state.  He was a moderate influence at a time when American politics were beginning to heat-up and get “rancorous.”  A University of Michigan study in 1981 named Dan Evans as “One of the Ten Outstanding Governors in the 20^th Century.”
 
Ted Bundy went on to admit killing thirty women across several states over a time frame that possibly extended back into the late 1960’s, with many of those women also being raped by Bundy and suffering other brutality.  He escaped from prison twice during his long criminal career and was finally executed by the state of Florida on January 24, 1989, at the age of forty-two, three weeks to the day after Dan Evans completed his only term in the US Senate and retired from elective politics.

The fact that Dan Evans seemed to have had a good working relationship with the younger version of Ted Bundy should come as no surprise.  Sociopaths can, and often do, present as very charming individuals.  In 1971 Ted Bundy took a job with the Seattle Suicide Hot Line Crisis Center where he worked alongside a former Seattle police officer by the name of Ann Rule.   Ms. Rule, who would later become an internationally recognized author of “true crime” books, was every bit as surprised as Dan Evans when they each learned that their old friend was a man who had committed dozens of heinous rapes and murders.
 
Ann Rule titled her 1980 book about Ted Bundy “The Stranger Beside Me.”   While she had a background in dealing with criminals, Rule did not have a clue as to the monster Ted Bundy really was.  In the book she referred to her former co-worker as “a sadistic sociopath who took pleasure from another human’s pain and the control he had over his victims, to the point of death and even after,” a far cry from the supposedly caring counselor whom she had known and worked with at the hotline.
 
Ted Bundy once offered up a bit of introspection when he described himself as “the most cold-hearted son-of-a-bitch that you’ll ever meet.”
 
Dan Evans and Ann Rule knew the public persona of Ted Bundy, but his victims fell prey to the bloody savage hiding beneath the All-American boy facade.

Tim Macy has a Birthday!

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

Autumn officially arrived yesterday, September 22nd, a fact that I noted in this blog, but forty-five years ago the season of falling leaves began a day later, on September 23rd.  It was a Sunday.  I remember that day well because it ushered in the birth of my youngest child, Tim, who was born at St. Francis Hospital in Mountain View, Missouri, sometime around ten in the morning.

Tim was a big boy, a few ounces north of ten pounds.  If he had been a girl his name would have been Autumn Rose

Tim had an older brother, Nick, who was six, and a sister, Molly, who was two and would be three just as that fall season was ending.  He came home from the hospital to a very active household where he proved to be an extremely quick learner as he chased around after his two older siblings.  

The youngest of the Macy brood was, in many ways like his own children would later prove to be - inquisitive, outspoken, very funny, and basically fearless.  When he was a toddler he would run and jump into the kiddie pool at the outdoor community center and send the other toddlers crying and running for their mothers.   We had a large, smooth valley (okay, it was a sinkhole) behind our house in Mountain View, and Tim was still a toddler when I happened to look out the window toward where he was playing with Nick and Molly, and I watched in shock as he got on a very small roller board with a steering handle and rode laughing, at a rapid clip, down into the giant depression in the backyard!  When Tim was still less than three his siblings rushed into our big house at Noel and reported that their daredevil little brother had just jumped from the sitting wall of the front porch to the ground, a drop of about eight feet!

As I have written about many times, Tim wound up with a good portion of the creative genes in the family and has produced an archive of written material that will be read, performed, and discussed for years to come.   Tim  and his wonderful wife, Erin, have also produced two delightful children, Olive and Sully, who will carry their family legacy well into the future.

I am very proud of all of my children and their children and wish them lives steeped in sunshine and happiness!

Have a wonderful day with your family, Tim - and a great birthday!

A Good Druid Is Hard to Find

 

by Pa Rock

Time Lord

Today is the autumnal equinox, the day on which we experience as much daylight as darkness, and also the day which marks the arrival of autumn.  Some years it arrives on September 22nd and other years the season changes on the 23rd.  It would probably take a Druid to explain why - and a good Druid is hard to find.  The amount of daylight per day started decreasing in late June (when summer officially began, and it keeps shrinking until late December when we experience the shortest amount of daylight just a few days before Christmas.

Celestial events have been observed and chronicled for thousands of years, and they have provided mankind with stories and legends, rituals and traditions, religions, superstitions, holidays - and all manner of ways to segment "time" into measurable and recordable units.

Summer is gone, but it will not soon be forgotten, at least by this tired old typist.  I began the summer somewhere along Canadian Highway #1 driving westward across the prairies of Manitoba and Saskatchewan while listening to Canadian talk radio hosts discussing the change of seasons and then harking back to how hard it is to start your car in a Canadian winter.  That discussion was enough by itself to quell my fantasy of moving to Canada during the next Trump administration.

Summer proved to be my big season of travel.  Not only did I roadtrip through Canada and on to Sandpoint, Idaho, and Salem, Oregon, I also took the train from Kansas City to Chicago where I was able to spend four nights in a classy hotel, watch a creative performance of a work that was written by my youngest son, and see much of the city through personal guided tours provided by my niece.  It was another great trip - and neither of those outings involved being herded onto an over-crowded airplane and constantly reminded that passengers are the least important component of air travel.

But that was then.

In late October I will be traveling once more, and this time it will be by air, something I had vowed never to do again.  A friend and I are flying from St. Louis to New York City via Delta, a company that stole the price of a round-trip KC-to-Boston ticket from me after a pandemic cancellation on my part.  (My friend did the reservations research and assures me we are getting the best deal on the flight, but fie on Delta anyway!)

The purpose of the trip to the Big Apple is to watch a professional workshop of the musical play (story by my son) that I saw in Chicago.  We will arrive on Wednesday morning, see Tim's work on Friday morning, and fly back to St. Louis on Saturday afternoon.  During our "free" time in New York we will attempt to see three Broadway shows, have a meal at Ellen's Stardust Diner, and I will try to connect with an old friend from my days on Okinawa who now lives and works in Brooklyn.  (Nefredia, if you are reading this, forewarned is forearmed!)

I have only been to New York City one other time.  That was in January of 2009 when I assisted a friend in sponsoring a group of college students from Kansas as they toured the Big Apple.  The friend that I traveled with then is the same lady whom I will be traveling with this time.  She has been back a couple of times since.  It was while we were on that trip in 2009 that Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger had to land US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after a flock of Canadian geese got sucked into the jet's engines, shutting two of them down.  Passing boats managed to rescue all 155 people on board as they walked out onto the wing and waited for rides.

(Captain Sullenberger's plane had been flying out of LaGuardia and was headed to Charlotte, NC, and on to Seattle.   The ill-fated plane was pulled out of the river a few days later and eventually made its way to Charlotte where it now resides in the Carolinas' Aviation Museum. )

Hopefully we won't stumble into any international news stories while we are on this trip, but if we do I'll log them in the blog!

Autumn is here, the leaves are already falling, and the grass is still growing.

Happy equinox!

Democratic Boomers Aren't Done Yet!

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Democrat

A few weeks ago I used this space to mention a Trump political effort which I had observed in my community of West Plains, the county seat of Howell County, Missouri - a place extremely prominent local author Daniel Woodrell refers to as "Howl" County in some of his books.  There really isn't much need to put forth an effort for Trump in this political backwater because he won the county in 2016 against Hillary Clinton with just north of 79% of the vote, and he increased that margin to just over 81% in 2020 when he ran against Joe Biden.  (But I proudly voted against Trump both times, and I suspect that the fellow who wrote "Winter's Bone" probably did, too.)

The Trump political activity which I wrote about two weeks ago in a posting entitled "Young Men at a Fruit Stand" discussed a group of rather raucous yahoos who were making noise and attracting attention along a well traveled street in town.  They were standing under a plastic tarp on poles and selling or distributing Trump campaign paraphernalia.  They looked as though their primary skill sets might have included beer pong.  A day or two after I published that piece, their roadside venture abruptly disappeared.

Last week I saw a notice in the town's newspaper which stated that the local Democratic Party had opened a shop on the square in West Plains, and I made a mental note to stop by on my first opportunity and pick up a couple of bumper stickers.  This past Wednesday proved to be the first time that I managed to escape my duties as a full-time dog valet, and I headed to town to run some errands.   While I was out, I also went to the square to checkout the Democratic headquarters.  The "square" which goes around the county courthouse, is now actually a "traffic circle," and I was overly conscious of cars dashing onto and off of the circle while I drove around it twice searching in vain for the building where the county's few Democrats had set up shop.  I returned home disappointed that I had not been able to find it.

Had the headquarters opened and closed in less than a week?  Or had their materials proven to be so popular that they ahd exhausted their supply and closed up?  Or, more likely, had a group of modern-day bald knobbers ridden into town on horseback and taken the community misfits out into the woods to re-educate them?   It was all very concerning.

Yesterday afternoon I was in town again for a different batch of errands, and just on a whim I decided to take another spin around the courthouse square circle to see if I could spot what I had been unable to see two days earlier - and I did.  There were plenty of Democratic signs in the two large windows and a big sign that said "Open."  The only thing that was lacking was a handy parking space.  I circled the square again and found a spot in front of the "Courthouse Annex," which is across the street from the actual courthouse.  The annex is where the county clerk and collector have their offices -  a building run and completely staffed by Republicans.

The Democratic headquarters was staffed by two very nice ladies who had probably been in high school about the same time as me.   I was the only visitor at that time, and they remained seated but chattered merrily as I perused their wares.  In addition to yard signs (for several Democratic candidates), bumper stickers, and campaign buttons for sale, they also had some interesting posters on display which were not for sale, and a silent auction in progress which contained some art work and political books.   It was a well organized political store with a good variety of materials.

One of the ladies told me that she had a retaining wall in front of her house that had discolored with age, and that she had tried to wash the name "Kamala" onto it.  That project had not gone as well as she had hoped, and now she was considering mowing the word "Kamala" into her yard.  I love elder radicals!

I resisted the urge to enquire as to the well-being of their cats.

One of the not-for-sale posters was of Kamala done in the colors and style of Shepard Fairly's iconic Obama "Hope" poster.  This one was an homage to female empowerment, and I knew that was something my granddaughters (both aged twelve) needed to have.  The ladies gave me ordering information.

I normally make a practice of carrying fifty dollars or so when I am puttering around town, but I had already bought a couple of things when I found the political store.   Being a cautions shopper I knew that I had two ten-dollar bills and eight ones in my wallet when I entered the building, so I was able to shop without embarrassing myself at the checkout - or so I thought.   I picked up one yard sign ($20.00) and two bumper stickers ($5.00), paid the ladies, and left.

(I made sure that the Republicans scurrying about in the Courthouse Annex like so many cockroaches got a good view of my new Harris-Walz yard sign as I put it in the car!)

When I got home and was putting things away, including my wallet and car keys, I happened to glance in the wallet and noticed that it contained three one-dollar bills and a ten!  I had shorted those old dears ten bucks!  I was mortified!  I rushed back to town to correct the error.  By then there were two more ladies in the room - all four seated and chatting as I walked in shame-faced and admitted my faux pas.

They said they had not noticed the mistake, and one insisted that I had given her a twenty and three ones, but when she pulled out her currency, which she kept in a roll, and pulled off the last transaction, there was the ten with three ones.  I had stiffed them!

So now we're straight and I guess I will be welcome to stop by the Howell County Democratic Headquarters again - and I will.  It's always pleasant visiting with others like myself who don't even know how to play beer pong!

Don't even try to stick a fork in us Democratic boomers because we aren't done yet!

Things Get Weird in North Carolina

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Mark Robinson is the Republican lieutenant governor of North Carolina, a position to which he was elected in 2020 and with his term expiring in January of 2025.  Robinson is currently the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, a race he seems destined to lose.

Prior to entering politics in the previous decade, Mark Robinson, a Black man, was a weekend minister whose regular paycheck came from working in the furniture construction industry.   Robinson, who has the oratory skills of a well-practiced preacher, first came to prominent public notice when he delivered an impassioned defense of guns at his local city council meeting in the spring of 2018.  His speech went viral on Facebook, and a politician was born.

Donald Trump, apparently referring to Robinson's oratorical skills, has called him "Martin Luther King on steroids."  Trump endorsed Robinson for Governor in this spring's GOP primary in North Carolina, and the candidate went on to win a three-way statewide race with 64.8% of the vote.

Robinson was already controversial when he won the gubernatorial primary and was on record as having made inflammatory remarks that were homophobic, transphobic, racist, anti-semitic, and Islamophobic.  He is like Trump in that he seems ready to say anything that happens to flit across his mind.

A big part of Mark Robinson's political persona is built around his staunch anti-abortion stand.  A few weeks ago he and his wife announced that back in the 1980's when they were dating, he had paid for her to have an abortion.  Now he says publicly that he thinks the process should not be allowed after the 12th week of pregnancy, and he has been quoted as saying privately that he actually prefers that the number of weeks be reduced to zero.

Robinson has been identified by personnel from businesses that sell and rent pornography as someone who used to frequent their places of business, and he admitted to once having an interest in pornography.

A report from CNN yesterday leveled several new allegations at the Republican gubernatorial candidate in North Carolina including statements allegedly made on a porn site more than ten years ago when Robinson allegedly referred to himself as a "black Nazi" and pined for the return of slavery saying that he would pcertainly purchase a few.  He had also supposedly posted remarks critical of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, the man to whom Trump sought to compare him.  Among other things, he reportedly referred to Dr. King as a "commie bastard."

CNN reported that Robinson, a man who had previously called transgender and gay people "filth," had, according to the messages that he allegedly posted, had watched and commented on-line about enjoying transgender porn.

And there was more, with CNN indicating that some of it was so salacious that they had chosen not to report it.

Mark Robinson is denying the allegations by CNN.   While the messages do exist, he is denying the authorship of those messages.

Republicans in North Carolina were of apparently two minds on the issue of Mark Robinson and his colorful past.  One group stood behind the candidate and encouraged voters to vote on issues rather than personalities.  Another group, noting that midnight yesterday was the deadline for dropping out of the race, seemed to be encouraging the candidate to throw in the towel.   He resisted the encouragement to do so and remained in the race.   North Carolina began sending out their absentee ballots this morning - and Mark Robinson's name is still on the ballot as the Republican candidate for governor of the state.

One news report this morning said that the Trump campaign's internal polling shows Mark Robinson trailing his Democratic opponent, NC Attorney General Josh Stein, by 14 points.

(Note to Donald Trump:  Be careful what you wish for!)

Killer Pagers

 

by Pa rock

Citizen Journalist

Isn't it a comfort to realize that in a world where we still cannot come up with a cure cancer or even the common cold, people are being wildly successful, nonetheless, in developing new and extremely clever ways to kill one another.  It's great to know that all of that expensive post-secondary education is not going to waste!

The week we have been treated to some amazing Orwellian, or perhaps James Bondian, tales in the press about mankind's obsession and dependency on electronic gadgetry being turned against some of us by others of us.  

On Tuesday at least a dozen people, including two children, were killed and thousands wounded in Lebanon and parts of Syria when their small, personal pagers began exploding.  The following day, Wednesday, there was another round of unexpected blasts in that same war-ravaged area, this time from personal walkie-talkies blowing-up.  During that attack twenty-five died and more than six hundred were wounded.  The attack of the killer walkie-talkies resulted in fires in at least seventy homes and shops in Lebanon as well as car and motorcycle fires.

An Israeli official reportedly told American officials that the attack was engineered by Israel.  The intended victims were members of the Hezbollah militant group which is headquartered in Lebanon and has been carrying out attacks on Israel since the start of the current war in October of last year.  During that time Israel has also been involved in a prolonged counter-offensive with Hezbollah.  The military group began relying on pagers earlier this year after leaders became concerned that Israel might have the ability to hack their cellphones.

There is still much speculation as to how Israel, or whoever instigated the attack, was able to arm the pagers and get them into the hands of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and Syria.  The brand of the pagers involved was "Gold Apollo," a company owned and operated (somewhat) in Taiwan.  That company, however says that it only supplied the name for the pagers, and that the actual work of making them was farmed out to a company in Hungary.  From there they were headed to Hezbollah, but the shipment was stalled at some port for three months due to restrictions caused by various sanctions on the receiving countries.

Speculation currently is that agents opposed to Hezbollah intercepted the shipment at that point and placed small amounts of explosives and tiny metal balls into each of the pagers, and that the explosions were then detonated by special radio signals that caused the pagers' batteries to rapidly overheat.

Whatever the specifics of how the deadly process worked, the important thing is that it did work and terrorists who had the pagers deep in their pockets were killed, and so were children who happened to be standing nearby, and people in shops who were just going about their daily routines, and people on buses, and all manner of innocent civilians.  The indiscriminate nature of the attacks, in fact, has led to accusations that they amounted to "war crimes."

But that was there and this is here, and here in America we aren't dependent on gadgetry that could be used to control, defeat, or eliminate us.  We are smarter than that.

Or are we?

McAlister's Deli Comes to West Plains!

 

by Pa Rock

Backwoods Gourmet

I don't know the history of the establishment, but up until recently one of our local grocery stores had a parking lot that was literally more than twice the space the store needed to run its business.  Early last spring ropes and markers began going up on the far end of the parking lot indicating that something was afoot.  A few days after that one of the people in my cardiac rehab group announced that she had heard that a "McAlister's Deli" was going in at that location.

A new place to eat is big news in a small town, and while some in the cardiac rehab group were unfamiliar with the McAlister's chain, those of us who were experienced travelers assured the rest that the business would be a welcome addition to our town's grub supply.   

(I have been to two McAlister's:   one inside of the airport in Springfield, Missouri, and the other in northwest Arkansas near where my sister, a McAlister's fanatic, lives.  I gave up coffee many years ago and now get my caffeine buzz through unsweetened iced tea, and I know from experience that McAlister's has really good iced tea!) 

Progress on the project was slow, and the actual construction did not start until summer.  But once the builders arrived,  it went up fast and some (me included) suspected they were shooting for a Labor Day opening.  That holiday came and went, however, and still the new place was not open.   Not long after Labor Day I was in the grocery store next to where the new food place was standing empty, and I asked the lady running the checkout when the McAlister's would open.   She looked around before answering, and then leaned across the counter and whispered, "The 16th."  

"Is it a secret?" I asked, incredulously.

"Oh, no."  She said, in her regular voice - and then continued ringing-up the high-priced groceries.

The overly dramatic checkout lady was right and the new eating establishment did open this past Monday morning, September 16th.  My son and I had planned to go there for dinner that evening, but we each had occasion to drive by during the day, and each time the place was packed - so we will check it out later after the novelty begins to wear off.

Our community's "daily" newspaper, which offers a print version only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, had a front-page photo today showing the crowd waiting to get into the new business when it opened its doors for the first time at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.  The newspaper reported that more than one hundred people were standing in line for the event.  It was definitely a big deal in a small town!

McAlister's, welcome to West Plains.  May your business and our community both benefit from your decision to open one of your delis here. I'll stop by for an iced tea and a sandwich just as soon as you have a table to spare!

Missouri Senate Race Shaping Up to be Closer than Expected

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Josh Hawley won his US Senate seat in Missouri running against a formidable Democratic incumbent, Claire McCaskill, in 2018 with just 51.4% of the vote.  After six years of learning the ropes in the Senate and working to develop a national profile, and without McCaskill in the race, he should have been looking at a relatively easy re-election this year, but that is not what is happening.   Hawley's effort at re-election against Democratic newcomer Lucas Kunce seems to be facing surprisingly strong headwinds.  

Not only has Kunce proven to be a strong fundraiser and campaigner with a compelling personal story, he has also benefitted from Hawley's missteps, some of which are almost legendary.

Hawley has managed to embarrass himself - and his state - on multiple occasions.  Just two years after assuming his position as a US Senator, Hawley raised his fist in the air on the grounds of the Capitol in support of the traitorous scum who would later in the day be storming the building. That same day Hawley was the first Senator to announce he would object during certification of the electoral vote, a move which former US Senator Jack Danforth (also of Missouri) said "set the stage" for the deadly riot that followed.  After the rioters were inside of the building and all hell was breaking loose, Hawley was filmed running in panic away from the same mob that he had helped to incite that morning  - clearly not the sprinter's finest hour!

Jack Danforth, a retired Republican politician who had finagled behind the scenes for Hawley's election, said the following day that supporting Hawley "was the worst mistake I ever made in my life."  A few days later Danforth compared himself to "Dr. Frankenstein" for his role in helping to "create" Hawley.  

David Humphreys, a major donor to Hawley's 2018 campaign said that the Senate should censure the young senator over his role in the events of January 6th, and Hallmark, a major corporation headquartered in Kansas City, asked Hawley to return its donations to his campaign.

Another way in which Josh Hawley has differentiated himself from his (supposed) Missouri roots is in the area of abortion.  While Missouri is a red state with a very red legislature which has enacted an almost total ban on abortions, that is not the way regular Missouri citizens feel with regard to a woman's right to control her own body and healthcare.  This year there is an amendment on the Missouri general election ballot that will reinstate a woman's right to an abortion up to viability of the fetus - around 24 weeks - and polling indicates that the amendment is likely to pass handily. Hawley and his wife, Erin, also an attorney, are both active and prominent figures in the anti-abortion movement, a stance which should whittle away at his November vote totals.

Lucas Kunce stands a very real chance of defeating Josh Hawley this November, a fact which seems to be routinely ignored by the national press and the national Democratic Party.  Kunce is currently running stronger than the national Democratic ticket in the show-me state and is polling at just a few points shy of Hawley.  I have donated multiple times to his campaign and probably will again - which means I get some sort of email "ask" from the Kunce campaign about every fifteen minutes!

Here are portions of two that I received yesterday.  (I just copied the parts focused on describing Josh Hawley, and I thought both were exceptionally good.). The first is from actor and comedian (and native Missourian) John Goodman:

"I’ll be honest: I’ve been ready to defeat Josh Hawley since January 6th, 2021.

He totally disgraced my home state that day… raising his fist because he wanted to look strong, and then running away like a little coward out the back door.

But Josh Hawley has done a lot more than just that to embarrass Missouri over the years, stuff you probably wouldn’t even believe.

Hawley himself played a major role in overturning Roe V. Wade — he even bragged about it! He backs the total abortion ban in Missouri, co-sponsored a national abortion ban, and is a pioneer of the legal movement threatening access to IVF and birth control nationwide.

Hawley forced Missouri taxpayers to cover his legal bills after he broke the law — $250,000, in this economy! He’s refused to invest a single dollar in Missouri, instead spending all his time writing stuff like his “Manhood” self-help book.

It’s just shameful."

The other is from Jason Kander, a a Democrat and former Missouri Secretary of State who came extremely close to defeating Roy Blunt for his US Senate seat in 2016.  Mr. Kander, who like Lucas Kunce, is an Iraq and Afghanistan War veteran, is a prominent figure in veteran's causes and issues.   He had this to say about Josh Hawley:

"Now let’s talk about why Josh Hawley is so vulnerable.

Hawley famously popped popcorn in his dorm room to gleefully watch the invasion of Iraq and then claimed a decade later to have opposed the war.

And since he’s represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate, he’s also become known as a desperately anti-union scab who is self-consciously obsessed with manhood.

From blocking defense nominations to voting against health care for veterans exposed to burn pits, Hawley has put his personal politics ahead of national security and the needs of military families. And he’s used his office to build a family business dedicated to restricting abortion access nationwide as his allies in Jefferson City enacted one of the nation’s most extreme abortion bans.

Now with five years under Hawley’s belt in the U.S. Senate, Missourians don’t like what they’ve seen.

Approval polling from Morning Consult shows that Hawley has the lowest approval of any GOP senator running for reelection in 2024, lower than Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida. And even his mentor, Missouri’s former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, has called backing Hawley the “worst mistake I ever made.”

Donald Trump recently commented on Hawley’s race too — “So interesting that the Democrats are looking hard at the Senate races in both Missouri and Texas. Josh and Ted must be very careful, stranger things have happened!!!”

Hawley is vulnerable, and everyone knows it. The proof is in his rapidly changing election-season rhetoric, Republicans in Washington fretting about their draconian abortion bans across the country, and Hawley’s billionaire allies launching a new pro-Hawley super PAC right after Lucas entered the race."

It's a clear choice in November for voters who reside in Missouri.  Lucas Kunce needs to be elected, and Josh Hawley needs to be returned to his posh Virginia suburb where he an Erin can enjoy a quiet and very private life of minding their own business and leaving us alone to mind ours.

Get to the polls on November 5th - seven weeks from today - especially if you live in Missouri - and take your friends with you.

Missouri can do so much better than Josh Hawley!

Saying You Hate Taylor Swift Probably Isn't Smart Politics

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

It's been almost a week since mega pop star Taylor Swift issued a long and flowing endorsement of Kamala Harris for President.  Swift made that endorsement last Tuesday night on her Instagram account after the presidential debate, and that account has over 280 million followers.  Ms. Swift's endorsement also contained a link to the website vote.gov which facilitates voter registration, and more than 400,000 people hit on her link to that site within the next 24 hours.

Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz was a very big deal, and it read, in part:

"She (Kamala Harris) fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.  I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader, and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos."

Swift said she was driven to make the endorsement after Trump posted misleading information, including fake AI imagery, which suggested that he was getting her vote.

Trump, the elderly felon, apparently stewed over Taylor Swift's remarks all week, and yesterday he cut loose on his own personal social media platform, Truth Social, with this gem:  "I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!"

Yup.  The angry man-child said it in all caps so that his followers would be able to figure out that he was really, really mad!

Trump has also suggested that Taylor Swift, a real billionaire, would probably pay a price for her endorsement of Harris "in the marketplace."

Keep hawking those Bibles, Donbo.  God loves you whether anyone else does or not!

Ignoramus Vows to Deport Haitians "Back" to Venezuela

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Springfield, Ohio, is a small urban center with a population of around sixty thousand individuals, of whom a quarter-to-a-third are fairly recent legal immigrants from Haiti.  By most accounts this recent influx of Haitians has been largely without incident, and they have been a positive influence on the community.  The Haitians work, pay taxes, attend local churches, support local businesses, and send their kids to the local schools.    

Things had been going well in the small Ohio city, but then a few weeks ago someone posted a meme on social media suggesting that some of these new Black arrivals in Springfield, Ohio, were eating the domestic pets of their neighbors - cats, and dogs, and ducks, oh my!  City officials, including the city commissioner and members of the police department, tried to get out in front of the rumor and denied it, but the story was just too good for Republican Party to ignore.  Yes, the immigrant population of Springfield was by-and-large legal, but they were Black, and, as such, they could be used to whip-up fear among the ignorant masses.

JD Vance, an opportunistic Republican Senator from Ohio who also happeens to be the GOP vice-presidential candidate, reposted the baseless allegation saying essentially that it must be true because it had been on the internet, and then at last Tuesday night's presidential debate Donald Trump, a man who has built his political career by using immigration to scare people, decided to trot out the immigrants-eating-pets hoax and peddle it to the entire nation.

It wasn't true, but Trump, a politician who has never been bashful about lying, said it anyway.  The moderators at the debate tried to correct him, but he pushed on with his shocking lie saying that he had seen people on television talking about it, so again, it must be true.  A day or two later he doubled-down on his false narrative and said that the immigrants in Springfield would be among the first that he would deport when he became President again - completely disregarding the fact that most of the Haitians in Springfield are there legally and they are good, responsible citizens of the community.

Then others decided that they, too, needed to be in on the action of "helping" Springfield, Ohio, deal with its problems.  People began calling in bomb threats aimed at the city government and local schools.  Meetings had to be canceled or moved, and several schools had to shut down - all over an internet rumor that was ginned up and being spread by a few self-serving politicians who get their political strength through dividing people.

Now the stories about Haitians eating family pets have spread on down the road to Dayton, Ohio, and it is not true there either.  When garbage is plopped down on the internet it tends to grow legs and run wild.

Trump is boasting at this rallies that "when" he gets back in the White House he is going to order the biggest mass deportation in US history and that it will begin with Aurora, Colorado, a community he says is overrun with immigrant gangs, and Springfield, Ohio, the place where the savages are eating their neighbors dogs and cats.  Yesterday, speaking from his golf course overlooking the Pacific Ocean in California, Trump said:

"We are going to do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio, large deportations.  We're going to get these people out.  We're bringing them back to Venezuela."

Yes, Mr Trump by all means rip those legal Haitian immigrants out of their homes and lives in Ohio and send them back to Venezuela.  Prove to the world that you are almost as smart as Greg Abbott.  Whether you are impaired by a low IQ, the effects of a private school education, or senility, you need to get control of yourself and quit terrorizing the most vulnerable among us.

Quit being a bully and pick on somebody your own size - like me!  Deport me back to Fiji, or  Bora Bora, or Marrakesh.  I double-dog dare you! But leave the Haitians alone.  They came here to escape the murderous gangs in the small homeland of Haiti (not Venezuela), and to build better lives for themselves and their families - just like your own mother did when she immigrated to the US to build a better life here as a maid, or like two of your three wives did when they also immigrated to America to better themselves.

And believing that Haitians are from Venezuela, well . . . that's just weird! Buy a geography book, Donald, and pay somebody to read it to you - or enroll in a night class a a community college.

Education is the most reliable path out of the morass of fear and ignorance.

The Political Clout of Sarah Palin

by Pa Rock

Political Junkie

A meme has been flitting across social media for the past several days, in multiple forms, that provides insight into the presidential preferences of people who have already either served as President or Vice President of the United States, or who have been a major party candidate for one of those positions.  The results show one group of party elders in a strong position of unity - and the other in raging disarray!

Past (and present) Democratic Presidents are unanimous in their support of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.    Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden are actively backing Kamala and Tim.  Jimmy Carter was not mentioned in the memes that I saw, but his grandson said that former President Carter told him that he is "hanging on to vote for Kamala."  Carter has been in hospice for nearly two years and will turn one hundred on October 1st.

All of the former unsuccessful Democratic candidates for President who are still living have also endorsed Kamala - including, Al Gore (a former Vice President), John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton.  Tim Kaine, Hillary's 2016 running mate, is also actively supporting the Harris-Walz ticket.  In fact, the only Democratic national candidate from whom I could not locate an endorsement was John Edwards who was Kerry's running mate in 2004.

The Democrats were impressive in their unanimity, particularly when compared to the Republicans.

Former President George W. Bush, the only other living former President besides Donald Trump who is a Republican, said that he has "retired" from presidential politics and would not be endorsing anyone.  Bush's Vice President, Dick Cheney, announced last week that he is supporting the Democratic ticket of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.   Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP standard bearer has said that he will not vote for Donald Trump, and at one point Romney indicated that he might write-in his wife, Ann, for President.  Romney's running mate in 2012, former House Speaker Paul Ryan, has also said that he will not vote for Trump and plans to write in some other Republican.  Trump's former Vice President, Mike Pence, has also declined to endorse Donald Trump for the presidency this time around.  Former Vice President Dan Quayle, a Republican, has made no endorsements, but Quayle was instrumental in convincing Mike Pence not to try and overturn the 2020 election results.

The only past member of a Republican national ticket, other than Trump himself, who openly says she will be voting for her party's nominee for president this November is the late John McCain's running mate from 2008, Sarah Palin!

But it would be a foolish to underestimate the political clout of Sarah Palin, because it is very likely that as Sarah votes, so too will Ted Nugent!

Misogynistic Pigs

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Former Republican Congresswoman and current bane of the Republican Party, Liz Cheney, made news multiple times last week:  once when she announced that she was supporting and would be voting for Kamala Harris for President, and again when she let the world know that he father, former Republican Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney, would also be voting for Kamala Harris for President.  Those were stunning announcements, but by the end of the week there was more, and this time Ms. Cheney really cut loose.

Liz Cheney was appearing at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, an annual event that was held September 5-7 this year.  On Friday during the festival Cheney was sitting for a public interview with Mark Leibovich of The Atlantic when she offered up advice to Kamala Harris for the upcoming debate, and that advice was to "let Trump be Trump," which Harris wound up doing devastatingly well!

As she was pressing her point to the writer from The Atlantic, Cheney said that the debate would be "an opportunity where Donald Trump gets to show the American people who he is" and then she went on to clarify that by adding the words "a misogynistic pig."   Then, to insure that she had made her point, Ms. Cheney clarified further while speaking of Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, thusly:  "This is my diplomatic way of saying it:  They're misogynistic pigs."

In news from another litter, Elon Musk, a man with aspirations to become Earth's first trillionaire and who would dearly love to control this planet and Mars, volunteered this week to inseminate pop star Taylor Swift.  Swift, who on Tuesday night after Kamala Harris kicked Trump's tired, old, flabby butt in the debate, endorsed Harris for President on Instagram and signed the endorsement "Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady," an obvious dig at Trump's running mate, JD Vance, a man who seems to have serious issues with women who don't reproduce.  

Clever Elon, a father of twelve children already and a man who imagines he is beloved by millions, took Swift's endorsement and tried to make light of it and her.  On "X" (formerly "Twitter"), a social media platform that Musk owns, he responded with this:

"Fine Taylor, you win . . . I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life."

Talk about misogynistic pigs!

Musk also announced this week that another of his companies, SpaceX, will begin sending unmanned missions to Mars in two years, with plans to follow-up with manned missions to the Red Planet four years from now.   If Elon, a.k.a. the Space Cowboy, would ride one of those rockets to Mars himself, I suspect that Taylor Swift and several million other proud and strong American women would be delighted to help him pack!

Wanda Sykes: Thirty Words on American Education

 

by Pa Rock

Former Teacher

Stand aside Horace Mann, John Dewey, and Maria Montessori, because another powerful personality is making her way to the forefront of the struggle to redefine education in America, and  this cranky, old former teacher believes that the voice of Wanda Sykes is one which needs to be heard, especially as she addresses the bloody issue of school shootings.

Ms. Sykes, a comedian and entertainer, did not write a book on education or school safety, but she did address the topic in one of her comedy routines, and that riff went on to enjoy a second life on TikTok and has since flourished across social media.  In a mere thirty words, the comedian cut right to the chase and identified a major hypocrisy of legislators who believe their primary purpose in public life is to exert their control, influence, and religious values over schools.  Wanda Sykes said this:

"Until a drag queen walks into a school and beats eight kids to death with a copy of 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' I think you're focusing on the wrong shit."

How perfect is that!

Little Johnny's heart may swell with pride and adoration when he finds an AR-15 with his name on it under the Christmas tree as he and his family celebrate the birth of Jesus, but Lord, please don't ever let him come within fifty-feet of a drag queen or a book about diversity.  Some things are just too damned dangerous for children to be around!

For those who live in cultural and educational  backwaters like Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, the thirty words of Wanda Sykes would be easy and very appropriate to include on letters to any member of your state legislature, regardless of the general topic of the correspondence.   And if your legislator is not a reader, there is probably someone around the office who is.  Perhaps a custodian.

Let teachers teach and let students learn - in peace and safety!

Harris Scores Big Win at Debate

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I will admit to not watching last night's presidential debate, but I did listen to the entire performance on National Public Radio (NPR), WWNO out of New Orleans.  By subjecting myself to just the audio of the debate, I missed out on the visual aspects of the show, things like the occasional raised eyebrows and revealing facial expressions.  But that's alright.  I wanted to hear what the candidates had to say without being distracted by the choreography.

From simply an audio perspective, these are the things that I noticed

• Kamala Harris stayed calm and in control throughout the debate, while Donald Trump's mood rose and dropped like some overworked carnival ride.  Harris ignored quite a bit of Trump's malarkey, but he would not let any statement of hers go unchallenged, always blustering objections and insisting on the last word.  I heard on the news this morning that he managed to speak more than five minutes more than she did, not an insignificant amount of time in a debate that was only ninety minutes long.
• Harris remained respectful and usually addressed her opponent by his name or his former title.  Trump, on the other hand, relegated the Vice President to pronouns like "she" and "her," and declined to address his opponent by her name or office even once during the debate.  He came across as loud, brash, and disrespectful - with a dollop of misogyny thrown in for good measure.
• Donald Trump said some of the funnier things of the night, though he likely did not intend for them to be taken as humorous.  When Harris said that Trump was not respected by world leaders, and he shot back that he had been praised by Hungarian Prime Minister (and autocratic strongman) Viktor Orban, I laughed out loud.  Out of a literal world of possible examples, he reached straight to the bottom of the political barrel and came up with Orban!  And then there was the bit where Trump, who famously does not even like dogs, dredged up the thoroughly debunked internet fable that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating dogs and other family pets.  Not funny - but so damned funny!   Or when Rambo Trump said he "took a bullet to the head" because of Democratic rhetoric, or when he said President Biden hates his Vice President because she helped force him out of office.   One laugh line after another!  Donald Trump lies faster than most people can talk - and he can be so damned funny!

Donald Trump had four years at the helm of our government, and he spent most of his time on the golf course neglecting the people he was elected to serve.  His "accomplishments" consisted almost entirely of a massive tax cut for himself and his rich crony friends and corporations - and appointing three justices to the Supreme Court who gave that court the ability to overturn Roe v Wade - which it promptly did.  We cannot go back to "leadership" like that.

Last night's debate highlighted the clear choice voters will have this November.   One candidate is a beacon of truth and hope guiding us - all of us - toward a brighter future, and the other is Donald JohnTrump.  It is a time for moving forward - and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the way forward - and Donald Trump is lost somewhere on the back nine.  

The future is forward.  Never go back!

Hit the Road, Flo!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

As a self-taught family researcher who has been slowly learning the skills involved in genealogy for over forty years, I have become familiar with all types of records and the ways they help reveal aspects of people's lives which otherwise might be lost in the dust of time.  One of my favorite types of records  (and one that I always hope to find when I begin tracking down an ancestor) is some form of an obituary - because obituaries reveal so much about a person, statistical as well as personal.

Obituaries are usually written by personnel at the funeral home handing the final arrangements, and published on the funeral home's website and often in a local newspaper.    Relatives are consulted for information that goes in the obituaries, and sometimes relatives will write the brief biographies themselves.  (I wrote the obituaries for both of my parents.) Occasionally people will even prepare their own obituaries prior to their deaths to highlight what they want remembered about their lives.

Obituaries contain facts about the lives of the deceased which give important clues to researchers about where to look for further information - things such as dates and places of birth, parents' names, siblings' names (and sometimes places of residence), names of children and grandchildren, educational backgrounds, occupations, and even things like hobbies and special interests.  Obituaries tend to offer a more personal glimpse of a person's life than other records like birth and death certificates or census records,  With obituaries you are far more likely to get a sense of who the person really was.

The following very brief obituary has been bouncing around the internet this week, and though it is succinct, it is also quite revealing.  It was penned by the adult daughter of the deceased who had not seen her mother in more than a decade prior to the woman's death, and did not learn of her death until months after it happened.  The daughter, who showed her brutal assessment of her mother to relatives prior to submitting it for publication, said she wrote the obituary with sarcasm and relief, but that "it's real."

Christina's obituary for her mother, Florence, was published in a newspaper in the mother's home state and later picked up a national magazine.  It was just four sentences long, but had a lot to say:

"Florence ______ died without family by her side due to burnt bridges and a wake of destruction left in her path,  Florence did not want an obituary or anyone including family to know she died.  That's because even in death she wanted those she terrorized to still be living in fear and looking over their shoulders.  So, this isn't so much an obituary but more of a public service announcement."

There is an old saying that goes:  "Be careful how you treat your children because they are the ones who will be choosing your nursing home."  It would be prudent to note that they may also be the ones writing your obituary!

Happy trails!