Good Place to Park a Boat for the Winter

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There have been a number of stories in the news lately discussing what some see as Donald Trump's apparent cognitive decline.  With Joe Biden leaving the presidential race in July before he could become the Democratic Party's official nominee, Donald Trump now holds the dubious distinction of being the oldest presidential candidate in our nation's history - and many are finally beginning to openly comment on the elderly candidate's lack of focus and tendency toward confusion when he speaks.

In fact, as often as not, Trump's rambling incoherence seems to overtake whatever topic he is supposed to be addressing. This week, following a speech to the Economic Club of New York, Trump was asked what specific legislation he would seek to lower the cost of child care for working families - a good question on an important issue that begged an exact response.  But instead of a clear and concise answer, Trump coughed up this hairball:

"It's a very important issue.  But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers I'm talking about, that, because, look, child care is child care.  It's something you know you have to have it, in this country you have to have it.  But when you talk about those numbers compared to the type of numbers I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly. - and it's not going to stop them from doing business with us, but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send products into our country."

When reporting the story of Trump's plans for child care or tariffs (take your pick), some journalists tried to translate his gibberish into an understandable response - while others accused  the first group of "sane-washing" what Trump had said.

But gibberish from Donald Trump is like lava from an active volcano - it just keeps flowing.

Earlier in the week Trump held a rally in Potterville, Michigan.   The complete transcript of his speech at the rally is available on the internet, but the following segment, which is fairly representative of the speech as a whole, has been popping up extensively on social media.  In it Trump's "train" of thought appears to be more akin bo "bumper cars" of thought.  The bard of Mar-a-lago had this to say about his opponent in November - at least it started out being about his opponent:

"She destroyed the city of San Francisco, it's - and I own a big building there - it's no - I shouldn't talk about this but that's OK I don't give a damn because this is what I'm doing.  I should say it's the finest city in the world - sell and get the hell out of there, right?   But I can't do that.  I don't care, you know?   I lost billions of dollars, billions of dollars.   You know, somebody said, 'What do you think you lost?'  I said, 'Probably two, three billion.  That's OK, I don't care.'  They say, 'You think you'd do it again?'  And that's the least of it.  Nobody.  They always say, I don't know if you know.  Lincoln was horribly treated.  Uh, Jefferson was pretty horribly.  Andrew Jackson they say was the worst of all, that he was treated worse than any other president.  I said, 'Do that study again, because I think there's nobody close to Trump.'  I even got shot!  And who the hell knows where that came from, right?"

Sherlock Holmes would have trouble finding a clue in that mental mess!

If you happen to be looking for a big empty place to store a boat for the winter, there might be space available in . . . well . . .  never mind.  I won't go there!

Rush Limbaugh's Cousin Rules Against Missouri Abortion Amendment

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Christopher K. Limbaugh, an Associate Circuit Judge with Missouri's 19th Judicial Circuit (Cole County), ruled on Friday that the proposed reproductive rights petition, also known as "Amendment 3," does not comply with state law and is therefore ineligible to be on the state ballot on November 5th.  The deadline for removing amendments from the state ballot is next Tuesday, and Limbaugh said that he would wait until then for the amendment to be removed in order to give the appeals court time to weigh in on his decision. (Two whole business days.)

The Missouri State Legislature, which is dominated by Republicans, had passed a law that would almost totally eliminate abortions in the show-me state when and if Roe v. Wade was ever overturned by the US Supreme Court.  When that happened with the Dobbs Decision in June of 2022, Missouri became the first state in the nation to outlaw the healthcare procedure.

This year Missouri citizens used the initiative process to secure a place on the ballot to have their say on the matter by proposing a reproductive freedoms amendment to the state constitution.   That amendment would ensure a woman's right to an abortion up to the time of fetal viability, along with protections surrounding other reproductive healthcare such as miscarriage care, birth control, and in vitro fertilization.

A coalition calling itself "Missourians for Constitutional Freedom" organized the movement to collect enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot which would reinstate the right to abortion services while protecting other reproductive freedoms.  They needed  a minimum of eight percent of voter signatures from six of Missouri's eight congressional districts (more than 171,000 total signatures), and wound up turning in petitions with a total of 380,159 signatures - more than double the number needed.

(Full disclosure:  This blogger is proud to declare that one of those signatures was his!)

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a conservative Republican who himself opposes abortion rights, certified the measure as eligible for the ballot last month.

This past Friday Judge Limbaugh, in responding to a suit filed by a group that included some hard-right Missouri legislators and others, ruled that the amendment did not comply with state law in that it failed to identify specific statutes which would be overturned if the amendment to the state constitution was approved.

Judge Limbaugh, a Republican, is the former prosecuting attorney of Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, and has also served as the General Counsel and Chief Legal Officer to Missouri Governor Mike Parson, a Republican who went on to appoint him to his current position as an associate justice with Missouri's 19th Circuit Court.

It all feels like one big family!

And speaking of family, Judge Christopher Limbaugh was also a cousin to Missouri radio provocateur, the late Rush Limbaugh.

Sooner or later the people of Missouri will be heard on the subject of reproductive healthcare, and when they do have their say, it will be a mighty roar indeed!

Enough of the games already - let the people vote!

A Drawback to Voting by Mail

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This past week I happened to catch a special episode (a subscription preview) of the podcast "Pollercoaster" which is hosted by Dan Pfeiffer and is part of the Crooked Media group of shows.  I have recently became a regular and avid listener of "Pod Save America" which is the flagship program of Crooked Media, Inc., and the episode of "Pollercoaster" that I heard this week ran in place of a regular "Pod Save America" presentation so that the "Pod Bros" could have Labor Day off.

The episode of "Pollercoaster" that I heard contained interviews with a couple of well known national pollsters, Celinda Lake and Terrence Woodbury, and was entitled "State of the Race."   Ms. Lake, a longtime pollster and political strategist with the Democratic Party spoke first, and because I had attended a small panel discussion in which she was a participant her many years earlier, I was particularly interested in hearing her views and concerns regarding the Harris-Trump presidential race. She and Woodbury, as well as the moderator, all stressed the likely closeness of the race in November, but it was her thoughts on mail-in voting that really caught my attention.

Celinda Lake noted that as much as Donald Trump has ranted and roared over mail-in voting, that Republicans are nevertheless encouraging their voters to use the process when they can.  Trump may see the concept as somehow unfair to him, but the GOP writ large views it as a way to get more of their people to actually vote.    But, she also noted one big potential drawback.  With mail-in voting husbands and wives will often sit down together to mark their ballots, and the husband could exert undue pressure to force the wife to vote like he does - and Trump has an advantage with male voters.

"Hey, what are you doing?  You can't vote for her.  We're Trump voters!"

I hadn't thought about that before, but voting together at the kitchen table could lead to family discord or blatant coercion.  There is a reason that voting booths are constructed for use by one voter at a time!

(Note:  The panel discussion in which I had heard Celinda Lake talk about polling took place in a small art gallery in Key West, Florida, in February of 2007,  It was held just as the Democratic primary race between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was beginning to take shape.  The event was one of several workshops presented as part of an educational cruise that was jointly sponsored by the National Association of Social Workers and Ms. Magazine.  It was nine months later when I started this blog, and I didn't get around to writing about the cruise until a year after that - in October of 2008.  The panel discussion referred to here today was covered on October 18, 2008, in a posting entitled:  "The Feminist Cruise:  Part Two (Key West)."

Parental Responsibility 101: Father of School Shooter Arrested

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In a stunning victory for commonsense, law enforcement officials in the state of Georgia yesterday arrested a father for being complicit in the deadly crimes committed by his son.  The father's arrest was starkly reminiscent of the arrests and subsequent convictions of  parents James and Jennifer Crumbley after their son, who was fifteen at the time, murdered four of his classmates in a Michigan high school in 2021.

The individual arrested yesterday in Georgia was Colin Gray, the 54-year--old father of the 14-yeear-old high school student who was arrested the previous day and charged with killing two students, two teachers, and causing injury to several others.  Authorities are saying that Mr. Gray is being charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder, and eight counts of cruelty to children.  The father could face up to 180 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The 14-year-old boy, a high school freshman, is being charged as an adult with four counts of felony murder.  The boy is facing the possibility and likelihood of life in prison.

The FBI received information in the May of 2023 indicating that the young man who would later become the school shooter was making on-line threats regarding a potential school shooting.  That agency informed the Jackson County Sheriff's Department in Georgia where the youth was residing with his father, and the sheriff's department interviewed the father and son.  The son denied making any on-line threats and said his social media account had been hacked.  The father said that he had hunting rifles in the household that were not loaded.  He said that he had been trying to teach his son to hunt and that the boy had shot his first deer that year.  The Jackson County Sheriff's Office reported to the FBI that they had no grounds to hold the father or son, and that they would make local schools aware of the allegations regarding the boy.

(The boy's mother and father were separated, and she was living in a separate residence where she had custody of two younger children.  The mother was arrested for keying the father's truck, and arresting officers found drugs and drug paraphernalia in her possession, for which she was sentenced 46 days in jail.)

Seven months after the father and son had been interviewed by their local sheriff's department and the father had denied that his son had unsupervised access to weapons, the father purchased an AR-15-style assault rifle for his son as a Christmas gift.  The father's arrest warrant states that he provided his son with a firearm with "knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others."

James and Jennifer Crumbley were each sentenced to 10-15 years in prison for enabling their son to kill his classmates.  Mr. Gray already had a clear wake-up call on the possibility of his son becoming a school shooter, and he chose to make the boy's Christmas extra-special later that same year with the gift of an assault rifle.  Clearly he owns a significant portion of the blame for what went down at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, this past Monday.

Gun deaths in American schools are directly related to the ease with which young people can acquire guns, and the ready availability of assault weapons maximizes the flow of blood down the hallways of our schools. And yes, Republicans are right on one thing:  mental health is a significant issue in school shootings.  It's a shame they refuse to do anything to address it.

School Shootings: America's Bloodsport Is Back for Another Season

 

by Pa Rock

Former Student and Teacher

Labor Day has come and gone, the big yellow buses are rolling, and most of America's elementary and secondary school students are back in school.  Books have been distributed, seats assigned, lockers located, assemblies held, practices and games scheduled, contraband confiscated, detentions assigned, and, of course, loners are already being singled out and ridiculed by their classmates.

And school shootings have resumed.

Yesterday morning, just two days after Labor Day, a fourteen-year-old boy armed with a semi-automatic, AR-15-style, assault rifle walked down the hall of his high school in Winder, Georgia, and opened fire.  He killed two of his fellow students and two teachers.  Nine others at the high school were hospitalized as a result of the shooting.

Summer vacation had officially come to an end.

The boy had been identified as a troubled individual and potential school shooter in May of 2023 as a result of some of his internet activity, and the FBI sent a referral to the sheriff's department in a neighboring county where the boy and his family were residing.  The child was interviewed by deputies who deemed him not to be a risk.  The father apparently assured law enforcement that the only weapons he owned were hunting rifles and they were secured.    It will be interesting to learn where the AR-15-style assault rifle came from and how the boy accessed it.

School is back in session, and four individuals who walked into Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, yesterday morning were in body bags when they left the building.

Law enforcement has said that the fourteen year-old suspect is being charged with murder and will be "handled" as an adult.

America's political class rushed to the microphones to decry the shooting, to offer thoughts and prayers, and to say that now was the time to grieve for the victims and we could worry about policies to address the issues of gun violence and school shootings sometime in the future.  The can was kicked on down the road, just as it always is.

Donald Trump said the boy who killed four at the Georgia high school yesterday as a "sick and deranged monster."

Joe Biden put a bit more thought and care into his response.  President Biden said, in part,

"Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write.  We cannot continue to accept this as normal."

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added to President Biden's statement with some recommendations for policies to address the issues of gun violence and school shootings: She said:

"This is not normal.  Congress needs to take long overdue actions including: 

• Bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines;
• Establishing requirements for the safe storage of firearms;
• Investing in violence-prevention programs; and,
• passing a national red-flag law.

(This tired old typist would add "Universal background checks of all gun-purchasers, regardless of how or from whom they purchase their firearms" to Ms. Jean-Pierre's list.)

And this from Vice President Kamala Harris:

"It's outrageous that every day in this country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. . . It is a false choice to say you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's gun away.  I'm in favor of the Second Amendment, and I know we need reasonable gun safety laws."

Lax supervision of guns seems to be a community norm in at least parts of Georgia, one that is backed up by the state legislature.  The state is ranked 46th in the nation in gun control measures.  In 2017 the Georgia State Legislature passed a law allowing guns on college and university campuses.  In 2022 the state legislature passed "permitless carry" legislation, and Georgia law does not require private gun sellers to do background checks.

First question, Georgia - and America:  Where and how did a child get access to an assault rifle?

Second question:  Who's school will be next?

This is not normal!

Young Men at a Fruit Stand

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

I noticed a new "structure" in town early last week. It sits in the parking lot of a small manufacturing business on a fairly busy thoroughfare.  It's not a building or anything of permanence, but simply a sunshade of white plastic trimmed in blue and stretched between four lightweight poles, and it covers what looks to be about a five-foot by ten-foot space.  That description was obtained through a couple of drive-by observations because the enterprise itself is not something that would ever draw me in for a visit.

The structure, which looks like a roadside fruit stand, is actually a makeshift Trump campaign store - and instead of selling Ozark berries, peaches, and apples, or fireworks, or Granny's quilts, it is distributing (for a price, I suppose) Trump yard signs and other campaign paraphernalia. One interesting thing about the enterprise is that it seems to be staffed entirely by boisterous young white guys, a demographic that I keep hearing is one of the strongest elements of the Trump base.

The parking for the political venture appears to be adequate, but even so, the endeavor does not seem to be doing as much business as one would think it should in an area like this.   The guys manning the site are having fun whether they are making any sales, or converts, or not, and they seem to be more grounded in raucous noise than they are in political ideology. Driving by the site brings to mind one of those high school, car-washing affairs where the whole point of the project is to have a good time.

And they are having a good time - while ignoring the world around them.

Party on Wayne!

Party on Garth!

It will be a while before the bills start coming due.

And don't mind me - I'm just envious of your naïveté! 

Doing My Part for the Local Economy

by Pa Rock

Cool Dude

It's a beautiful morning here in the Missouri Ozarks.  The sky is clear and the temperature is sixty-nine degrees F, with an expected high of seventy-nine.  The leaves have not begun to turn, but other than that, it feels like autumn.  Summer is definitely on the wane.

I had been told last Friday when my home air-conditioning unit died that getting a service person out to assess the situation would be a very long process, that they are a self-important lot with plenty of business and enjoy making people wait.  Yesterday I phoned two, one was the company that spends the most money on advertising and is the best known in town, and the other was a smaller company recommended by a friend.  It was Labor Day and I did not expect that either would be answering their phones - and they weren't.    The better-known company did not ever have its answering machine on, but the small company did, and I left my information.

I was pleasantly surprised early this morning when the small company called back.  The owner of the firm said that he would have time in an hour or so to come by and take a look at my unit, and an hour later he was pulling in the drive.   The owner of the company, who was doing his own service calls, was a young man (40-ish) who came across as both knowledgable and hard-working.  He said that my unit (which looks like it was purchased used from Fred Sanford not long after Lamont was born) was vintage 1996, and that it was suffering from an infestation of ants - which was not what had caused it to cease working, but the ants needed to be dealt with nonetheless.  After some testing he announced that the compressor had gone out.

The long and short of it is that the unit is too old for repairs and the replacement, for which I opted, will cost about as much as a one-owner, low-mileage used car with new tires, a kick-ass sound system, and a full tank of gas.  The new unit should be here next Monday or Tuesday.  The good news is on my end was that the warranty should outlast me.  The good news for the owner of the air-conditioning sales and service company is that now one of his kids can go to college.

Pa Rock does his part for the local economy!

Now we will see if my summer karma can last another week!

Summer Is Shutting Down

 

by Pa Rock

Man of Many Fans

Summer officially comes to an end in about three weeks, but as someone who came of age working in the tourist industry, I always considered Labor Day Monday to be the final day of the season.   When the tourists left our little cabin court by the river on that Monday in early September, we quickly got to work cleaning the cabins one last time and shutting down for the winter.  School would start the next day, and our lives would be completely transformed until Memorial Day weekend in the spring when the tourists would start flocking back in.

Now the schools are air-conditioned and start before Labor Day.  The buses here were rolling last week, and that left me feeling sort of sad.  It was too damned early for the kids to be going back to school.  But I'm old and I no longer clean cabins or teach school or do much that amounts to anything.  I guess I just need to keep quiet and stay out of the way.

It was uncomfortably hot here the first couple of days of last week, but by Friday the temperature was beginning to break.  That was fortunate because on Friday our creaky old air-conditioning unit went on the fritz and was dead by the end of the day.    Businesses were closed by the time the AC breathed its last, and as I sat at the computer that evening trying to figure out who to call the next day, it quickly became apparent that ALL of the places that service or sell air-conditioning units are closed on Saturday.  

(When my father sold window air-conditioners and other major appliances fifty years ago, he could have never closed on a Saturday because that was the day that the people who plucked the chickens and hammered mobile homes together had a day off.  It was our busiest day of the week.  Today people who punch the clock on a regular basis still normally have Saturdays off - but now lots of business owners apparently think they also deserve the day off.  That's the attitude that helped Walmart kill off Main Street.)

But crappy business practices are basically none of my business.  I just need to keep quiet and stay out of the way.

West Plains does have a few alternatives to Walmart for weekend shopping - the various "dollar" stores - and I went to a couple of those on Saturday and bought some fans.  Also, my son had a portable air-conditioning machine that he had previously purchased in a junk store, so we didn't suffer.  The weather Saturday was pleasant, there was some rain that evening and Sunday morning, and now we are at Monday and the weather is still pleasant.  All things considered, it was a great weekend for the AC to go kaput!

(One of my California cousins commented on my air-conditioning situation and the fact that the weather was cooperating, and noted that I have "good summer karma.")

The air-conditioner places were all closed on Sunday so the business owners could stay home and watch their neighbors go to church, and today is a holiday, so I will make a few calls but hold no hopes that anyone providing a potentially life-saving service like air-conditioning will be working on any day when they can avoid it - so maybe tomorrow.  I have my list ready.

It's not too hot out today - yet.

Things will get better.

I just need to keep quiet and stay out of the way.

Guess Who Thinks He was the Real Arlington Victim!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In an article posted two days ago for The New Republic entitled "Trump's New Rant Over Arlington Scandal Should Wake Up Dems," staff writer Greg Sargent focused on remarks Trump gave at a Michigan rally this past Thursday in which he went on an "extended rant" about what had occurred during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday.  That incident involved Trump campaign staffers allegedly pushing a park official and shoving her aside while they filmed Trump laying a wreath and then giving a short speech to Gold Star family members in commemoration of the fallen during the final days of the Afghanistan War.

The cemetery official who was assaulted by members of the Trump campaign team was doing her job of trying to prohibit filming at the cemetery for political purposes - which is a violation of federal law.  She filed a report regarding the incident with military authorities.   Arlington National Cemetery is managed by the Army through the Office of Military Cemeteries.   The female employee, who Trump campaign staffers referred to as "unpatriotic" and "mentally unstable," declined to press charges out of a fear of retaliation by over-zealous Trump supporters.

Trump denied that he was at the cemetery for political purposes, saying that he does not need the publicity.   He said that he was there to pose for pictures with the families of the soldiers who had died during the final evacuation from Afghanistan, but members of his campaign staff were there making a professional video, and it appeared on TikTok as part of the election campaign soon afterward. 

Now Trump is using the incident to further his ad nauseam complaint of being a victim, and to tie it all in with the "deep state" paranoia that he tries to gin up among his followers.

Greg Sargent, in his article for The New Republic, had this to say:

"At a rally in Michigan on Thursday, Donald Trump released an extended rant about the confrontation this week between his campaign staff and Arlington National Cemetery officials.  Shockingly, he offered a highly distorted account of the scandal and painted himself as one of its victims.  Trump even linked this to a bigger lie about the Deep State being out to get him, backhandedly illustrating a big reason why all this matters in the first place:  It reveals a level of contempt for the law and public service that's incompatible with democracy."

Mr. Sargent argues, rightfully, I believe, that the public has a right to an accounting of what actually took place at Arlington National Cemetery last Monday.  The cemetery employee who was physically confronted by the Trump campaign staffers may have been intimidated into not pressing charges, but she did file a report with her superiors, and now Senator Tim Kaine and Rep. Gerry Connolly, members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committee, respectively, are calling on the Army to release information that it has on the incident - information that should include the report filed by the cemetery employee.

A campaign video was made in a national cemetery in violation of federal law, that video has already been aired as a part of a political campaign, and now all Americans should be allowed to hear the facts as to why and how this desecration of hallowed ground took place.

It's our cemetery, and we have a right to know!

"Don't Even Think About Using My Music You Fascists"

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The title of this blog posting is from a post that singer Jack White placed on Instagram this week in response to the Trump campaign using a song by White's duo, The White Stripes, without his approval or permission.  The campaign's use of the song, "Seven Nation Army," was at the center of the controversy.   The song was playing in the background of a video of Trump boarding an airplane on his way to some swing-state rallies.  Jack White was quickly threatened legal action.  The offending video was removed that afternoon.

But Jack White, who had been seriously triggered, was not finished with the former President.  He also used the opportunity to say his piece regarding Trump's highly controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery earlier in the week, a visit that was ultimately featured in a Trump campaign promotion.  The singer added this:  

"And as long as I'm here, a double f--- you DonOld for insulting our nation's veterans you scum."

Damn, Jack, tell us how you really feel!

This week the Swedish singing group, Abba, issued a similar, though less vitriolic, statement when they discovered that the Trump campaign had also been using their music.  They are demanding that all promotions by Trump using their music be taken down.  

Other artists who have objected to the Trump campaign using their music without permission (as taken from a posting on Wikipedia) include Adele, Aerosmith, the Animals, the Beatles (the estate of George Harrison), Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, Credence Clearwater Revival, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Eddie Grant, Elton John, Everlast, Foo Fighters, Free, Guns N' Roses, the estate of Isaac Hayes, Johnny Marr, Leonard Cohen, Linkin Park, Luciano Pavarotti, Neil Young, Nickelback, Nico Vega, the O'Jays, Ozzy Osbourne, Panic!  at the Disco, Pharrell Williams, Phil Collins, the estate of Prince, Queen, R.E.M., Rihanna, the Rolling Stones, Sinead O'Connor, the family of Tom Petty, Twisted Sister, the Village People, and Yoann Lemoine.

That is quite a chunk of the contemporary music scene, but if the world's neediest politician craves some musical love maybe he could turn to one of the musicians who actually support his campaign. That list includes Jason Aldean, Kanye West, Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus (but not Miley), and several hip-hop artists and groups with whom this tired old typist is woefully unfamiliar.  However, I somehow doubt that any of them can hold a chord to "the Boss," Bruce Springsteen, belting out a loud chorus of "Born in the USA!"

The evidence would indicate that creative minds tend to vote Democratic - and dull minds tend to steal music!

Imaginary Trading Cards - Get Yours Today!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This week while Vice President Kamala Harris was carefully laying out policy proposals that will affect the lives of Americans and citizens of the world for generations, her opponent in the presidential election, Donald Trump, was also busy.  Trump, the elderly, convicted felon was re-hashing his greatest hits with an announcement of the sale of a new batch of his digital trading cards and pieces of another of his old suits.  

The contrast between the two could not have been more pronounced.   One is a clear-eyed, optimistic, and highly competent leader focused on taking us into the future, and the other is a deranged carnival barker who longs to wallow in obscene wealth.  One is for us, the other is for himself.

I have been doing some reading on digital trading cards, trying to figure out just what the hell they actually are, and why anyone would want them. They are modeled on baseball and sports cards that are sold in small packs, with the idea being that buyers (or collectors) will trade or swap cards with other collectors until they have a complete set.

But with "digital" cards there is no card, just a digitized photo of a card that the buyers (collectors) can pull up on their computers and  look at when they want to see how they have spent their money.  It's a great plan as long as your wi-fi is working, or your computer hasn't been stolen, or that slip of paper where you wrote your password to access the digital trading cards hasn't disappeared, or a computer virus hasn't eaten your cards, or North Korean hackers haven't stolen your cards and held them for ransom, or lightning . . . 

The cards are a great value at just $99 each, and to sweeten the deal, suckers investors who buy fifteen of the imaginary cards (just $1,485!) will also receive a real one that will have a fragment of the suit that Trump supposedly wore the night he debated President Biden.)   What a deal!

Who says MAGA is a cult?

Donald, have you ever considered that all of this politics stuff is just a giant waste of your valuable time.  Selling imaginary crap over the internet is the way of the future.  Overhead is low and it is almost all profit.    Why not digitize the menu at Mar-a-Lago and offer the rubes digital fine dining at prices they can almost afford?  Why shouldn't Billy Joe Bob be able to take Loretta Irene out for a digital surf-and-turf in the digitally remastered main dining room at Mar-a-Lago on their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary?  Heck, if they've managed to save enough of that crypto money, maybe you could even rent them a digital room for the night?

And think of the money you could make renting out digital apartments in a digital Trump Tower to social climbers in the Midwest!  Imaginary renters will never clog the toilets or be late with the rent, and if they are - just delete their accounts.  Easy, peasy!

Donald, your true talent is grifting.  Stay in your lane!

Subversive Magazines, Aisle 3

by Pa Rock

Citizen Shopper

My little town has four grocery stores, but only two sell greeting cards.  One of those is the most expensive grocery store in town, and the other is Walmart, a place where I choose not to shop.  So the other day when I needed milk, bread, and a card for a special occasion, I found myself in  the aforesaid most expensive grocery store in town standing in front of a display of greeting cards - which was right next to display of magazines. I'm a sucker for books and magazines, so I quickly found myself pivoted to that section.  

The first thing that caught my eye among the magazines was a glossy publication about Vikings.  Years ago I had the good fortune to visit Birka, a small island in the Stockholm Archipelago that was once home to a large Viking colony, and I have been interested in the Vikings and Norse mythology since the time of that visit to Birka.  So I picked the magazine up and prepared to give it a quick scan, but as I lifted it from the rack I discovered that it had apparently been used to hide the store's single remaining issue of another magazine - The Time Magazine" August 26th issue with Kamala Harris on the cover.  (Just $8.99 plus tax!)

That set me off on a tangent to see what other election-related materials were in the store's literature department - either in plain sight or hidden.   I discovered one stack of glossy souvenir election magazines with Donald Trump on the cover, and a stack of Kamala's, too!  (Both of those were a steal at $14.99 plus tax!)

Being a fool with plastic in his pocket, I bought the last copy of the Kamala issue of Time and one of the Kamala souvenir magazines ($26.00, tax included!)   I wanted to be able to peruse the publications in the privacy of my own home rather than having the town watch me as I skimmed them free in the grocery store.  I am handling the magazines with extreme care so that I can repurpose them as Christmas gifts to my granddaughters!  They will make nice souvenirs of the inauguration of our nation's first female President.

The most memorable part of the transaction at the grocery store was the priceless look of disgust that I got from the older gentleman who rang up my purchase.  Now I am undoubtedly on a list somewhere!

Oh, and I decided against buying the magazine about the Vikings, so I put it back on the shelf - directly in front of the Trump souvenir magazines! We all can play that game!

Political Stunt Disrupts the Peace at Arlington

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump paid a visit to Arlington National Cemetery near our nation's Capitol on Monday.  He brought along his political entourage as well as a few family members of the 13 US military troops who had been killed at the Kabul, Afghanistan, airport's Abbey Gate as our nation finished its withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, a move that had been set in motion by the Trump administration but had been concluded while Joe Biden was President.    Trump's sudden interest in the fate of members of the US military appeared to be more closely tied to national politics than it was to honest concern over the victims or their families, and he has been accused in the press of trying to draw attention to the chaotic withdrawal and place the blame for that on Biden.

Trump, who has a long history of disparaging members of our military and has reportedly referred to American veterans and war heroes as "suckers" and  "losers," had also been at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in 2017, while serving as President of the United States, with retired Marine Corps General John Kelly,  Trump's one-time Secretary of Homeland Security and later his longest-serving Chief of Staff.  They had been there for the annual wreath-laying ceremony, but then took a stroll through the cemetery to visit the gravesite of Kelly's 29-year-old son who had been killed in Afghanistan.  While they were at the son's grave, Trump turned to the bereaved father and said, regarding the dead service members:  "I don't get it.  What was in it for them?"

And to Trump's credit, he undoubtedly did not "get it."  The Trump family has avoided military service for generations, and Donald himself avoided the draft during the Vietnam War when his father was able to locate a doctor who was creative enough to save the younger Trump from the bother of going to war - and diagnosed the avid golfer with "bone spurs" of the feet.

Praise Jesus and pass the Big Macs!

In November of 2018, Trump, who was still President, travelled to France on the taxpayer's dime to, among other things, take part in the one-hundred year anniversary of the Armistice that had ended the First World War.  While there he suddenly declined to take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at an Allied cemetery where many American servicemen were interred because the weather had turned rainy and Trump was fearful of mussing his highly-shellacked hair.

A few years later General Kelly revealed that Donald Trump did not like to be seen with military amputees because "It doesn't look good for me."

Last week Trump, now a "former" President was again in the news on a military-related matter when he publicly compared the Congressional Medal of Honor with the Presidential Medal of Freedom and declared that the Medal of Freedom was "much better" than the Medal of Honor because you did not have to be wounded or killed in order to receive it.  Al Lipphardt, the head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) issued a statement in which he called Trump's remarks on that subject "asinine and crass."

And so this week, Donald John Trump, a man with a long and sordid history of disparaging the US military, shows up at Arlington National Cemetery with some family members of US war dead in tow along with campaign staff, and a videographer and photographer - just over two months out from a national election that could keep him out of jail - and proceeds to hold a ceremony that smells like a partisan political stunt.

According to those in charge of the national cemetery, federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries.

In a report on National Public Radio (NPR) an incident occurred when the Trump group showed up on Monday and proceeded to photograph their ceremony.  A cemetery official attempted to keep them from filming and photographing in the area where the graves were located.   A verbal and physical altercation ensued and the cemetery official was verbally abused and pushed aside by members of the Trump campaign staff.   She has filed an official report on the matter.

Trump's campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, referred to the cemetery official as a "despicable individual" and Steven Cheung, a campaign spokesperson, remarked that the cemetery official was "clearly suffering from a mental health episode."

Officials from the Trump campaign calling the cemetery official, who was just trying to do her job by adhering to federal law, "despicable" and questioning her mental health.  Oh, the irony!

She is a patriot well worth a salute and a handshake!

Our Doggone Dog has Done Come Home!

 

by Pa Rock

Chaser of Dogs

Gypsy, our large pitbull/bulldog mix, has been in residence at our home since her arrival last December 17th,  She was on a walkabout from her previous home when she arrived here and decided to stay, and since that time she has gone on several short day trips to the local park and other areas of interest on her own and definitely without permission.  My son named her Gypsy before we understood her proclivity for travel, and it has proven to be an exceptionally good fit.

(My son was able to locate Gypsy's previous family, but problems developed after a brief reunion, and they asked if we would take her back - which we happily did.)

Our big dog was close to a year old when she arrived the The Roost, and she has recently begun to give up some of her annoying puppy habits such as getting in the trash or ripping her toys to shreds - and it has been several months since she last chewed-up a remote control. but she still likes to occasionally slip away on her own and take a goodwill tour of the community.   

Gypsy is easily led astray by a male mongrel dog who has captured her fancy, and when I see him lurking in the community, I keep her inside.  She also loves the high school track students who run by in small groups on our country lane, and will enthusiastically join in their runs.  Their runs usually end at the park, so I know where to begin looking for her when she does go missing - and she is becoming well known, so a couple of times people have brought her home when I had tried to find her and failed.

Gypsy is basically a day-tripper, and had never spent the night out on her own - until this past weekend.

She and I were outside Saturday morning, just barely after daylight, when a young lady who was going for a run passed in front of our house heading north to where our country lane intersects with another about two hundred yards further on.  Neither one of us noticed the runner until she had reached the corner and turned east, still running along our property line.  She was on the other side of our tall-grass field and moving at a good clip when  Gypsy spotted her and began running through the overgrown field in pursuit.  I watched helplessly from afar as she caught the young woman, introduced herself, and then lopped beside her on down the road.

I couldn't have caught them on foot, so I continued my morning walk for a few more minutes, then went in the house, gathered my keys and wallet, backed the car out of the drive, and went looking for the truant dog to give her a ride home.  I soon found the human runner and told her that I was looking for the dog who had been running with her.  She told me what a "sweet" dog she was, and pointed to another country lane and said that Gypsy had followed her down there but had not come back with her.  I drove the entire length of that road, three miles or so, but could find no trace of the runaway.

Throughout the day I kept calling Gypsy from the back porch and taking drives up and down the road where she had last been seen, but she was apparently enjoying herself and not wanting to be found.  When my son returned from work in mid-afternoon he took up the search but did not have any luck either.  Late Saturday evening a young man who had encountered my son on one of his searches, stopped by the house and told me that he had seen Gypsy just off of the road that we had been searching the entire day, but that she would not come to him.    I went and looked again, but still did not locate her.

Sunday was filled with several more fruitless searches, and by that evening I had given up hope and assumed that something had happened to her - a predator had gotten her, or someone had given her a ride out of the area.  I didn't expect to see our girl again, and I was surprised at just how sad that made me feel.  But then, just at dark when I was getting ready to fix supper, the back door opened and my son guided our extremely tired and happy-to-be-home dog into the house.  He and a friend had found her not far off of the road that we had been searching for two days.  

Gypsy took a long drink of water from her bowl and then crawled onto her bed and slept soundly for about twelve hours.

Our doggone dog had done come home!

Another Grift Is Coming Down the Pike

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

When angry protesters took to the streets of many cities in America following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in the summer of 2020, Donald Trump, who unfortunately was President at the time, referred to the demonstrators as "anarchists" and "agitators," and he sent "tactical teams" from sixteen government agencies into several American communities to help restore order - whether the communities wanted the federal government's help or not.  Many local officials claimed that Trump's interference and use of federal force made the situations worse in their cities.

Trump made it clear from the get-go that he was no fan of public protests, but that tough-guy attitude suddenly changed when people protested in support of him.  Donald Trump does not refer to the January 6th rioters at the US Capitol as "anarchists" or "agitators" - or even "rioters."   He calls them "patriots," "warriors," and "victims," and even "hostages."

One must suppose that it's all in the eye of the beholder.

Trump said at a rally in Waco, Texas, earlier this year,  "Under Joe Biden, American Patriots are being arrested and held in captivity like animals."    He also declared on "Truth Social" that one of his first acts as President next year would be to "free the January 6th Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!"  

"Law and order" no longer appeared to be  a Trump priority.

This past week it was announced that a Trump political action committee (that is not affiliated with the Trump campaign)  and a private non-profit group will be hosting a big fundraiser to help cover legal expenses of the January 6th "protesters."   The event is being called the  "J6 Awards Gala" and it will be held at Trump's Bedminster golf club in New Jersey on September 5th.  Tickets will start at $1,500 and the groups sponsoring the event hope to raise over one million dollars.

Trump probably hopes they will raise that much too, since his business is sure to pocket a considerable portion of the proceeds.

Trump's picture as an "invited guest" is being displayed prominently in the advertising promotions for the fundraiser, though his campaign is saying that he will not attend in person.  Even so, he will certainly be there in spirit with all of those generous supporters of the wonderful patriots, warriors, victims, and hostages.  If it's a really big group, maybe they can even pass the hat to help build some more wall!

I wonder how much the parking fees will be?

(It would be nice if a few of them rolled up their sleeves and pulled the weeds from Ivana's grave while they are there!)

The Prosecutor Makes Her Case

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The full text of Kamala Harris's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention, as well as video of the actual speech itself, are available across the internet and undoubtedly will be forever.  It was an amazing presentation that highlighted her own story as a native Californian who was born to immigrants from two different parts of the world, ambitious young people who came to the United States for education and the opportunity to be successful in life.  She talked about her childhood, the community in which she grew up, and the important people who helped to safeguard and guide her through the early years of her life, many who were non-relatives but she referred to with terms of endearment like "Aunt" and "Uncle."

Kamala's parents, and particularly her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris (a biomedical scientist), steeped her and her sister, Maya, in the importance of civil rights and addressing injustice, and Kamala, the eldest of the two siblings, went on to become a lawyer who dedicated her entire legal career to representing "the people," first as a prosecutor, and later as the Attorney General of California.  It was in those roles that she built a formidable reputation for taking down the bad guys, both human and corporate.

After using her speech at the convention to introduce herself, Kamala Harris, the prosecutor, calmly and factually introduced Donald Trump from "the people's" perspective.  Her remarks represent a brief and very succinct account of Trump's legal situation as well as his past and current threats to democracy.  They have the sound and feel of a skilled prosecutor's summation to a jury at the end of a complicated trial.

Kamala Harris said, for the people:

In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man.

But the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious.

Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. 

Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes.

When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers.

When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite. He fanned the flames. 

And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans. And separately, found liable for committing sexual abuse.

And consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. 

Consider his explicit intent to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol. 

His explicit intent to jail journalists. Political opponents. Anyone he sees as the enemy. 

His explicit intent to deploy our active-duty military against our own citizens.

Consider the power he will have— especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution.

Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. How he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States. Not to improve your life. Not to strengthen our national security.

But to serve the only client he has ever had:  Himself.

Very well said!  We know who she is, and we certainly know who he is.  The choice is clear.

When I go to the polls to vote, I focus on my children and grandchildren.

I will proudly be casting a vote to elect Kamala Harris President of the United States this November, and that same vote will also signify my strong desire to keep Donald Trump out of the White House.  Both of those goals are critically important in securing a government steeped in freedom, democracy, and human decency.

That's the world I want to leave for my children and grandchildren.

It's no longer about me.

It's about them.

Pa Rock's House of Speed

 

by Pa Rock

Man of the Times

Living in the country is a normally a quiet and peaceful existence that promotes good health outcomes through things like better sleep and less day-to-day stress.  But country living also has its downsides.  Getting to a medical specialist, a large entertainment venue, or a major transportation hub can require several hours on the road, and finding certain products often involves placing orders with a remote provider and waiting for them to be delivered.

One particular problem that I encountered ten years ago when I moved from the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the US to a home outside of a small rural town in the Missouri Ozarks was public services.  The house that I chose to buy and inhabit was located about a mile beyond the city limits.  The city, a community of 12,000, had extended its electric service to the area where I lived, but not water, which meant that I got my water through from a well and disposed of sewage through a septic tank system.  Wifi was available through several providers, none of whom were local or reasonably priced - and the quality of service was sporadic depending on exactly where your dwelling was located.

Eventually I managed to get the house connected to a rural water company and retire the well, but the septic system and poor wifi remained - and with the advent of television through "streaming" services and "smart speakers" for music and news, wifi became more and more important - and as our home's dependency on wifi increased its dependability decreased.  A month ago it was to the point that when I would boot-up the computer, the television would pause, and it was almost impossible to get through any program without several pauses of varying lengths regardless of what else was pulling the wifi.  (It sort of reminded me of the telephone "party-line" days of my youth when we had to wait on the neighbors to finish their calls before we could make ours.)

I suspected that I could get a faster internet speed from my provider, but had been reluctant to start that process because every phone call to the "local" provider gets bounced to a call center in a foreign location and I have trouble understanding and making myself understood, so I had just let the bad service go unchecked for way too long.

Last week my son had a friend over from work, a young man who seemed to know quite a bit about technology.  So since we had an available expert to answer our questions, we asked a few.  His ultimate diagnosis was that our internet was very slow - on a par with the old dial-up modems of a couple of. decades ago.  

Duly shamed, I decided it was time to take action.

That very day I phoned the "local" internet provider, and instead of being bounced to Pakistan or Bangladesh, this time I wound up speaking to a very nice young lady in Central America, or perhaps Ecuador, and after a brief discussion in which she sold me a better service, and a lengthier discussion in which she tried to convince me to rent faster modem that I ultimately bought outright, we were in business.  The modem would arrive in two days and I would be responsible for installing it and the new speed would increase on Monday.

Sunday evening the old wifi service was shut down without warning, and the new modem did not arrive until the next afternoon, so that was inconvenient as hell.  On Monday morning I took my laptop to town and wrote and published the daily blog in the McDonald's parking lot, and then came home and spent the remainder of the morning working on Word documents that did not require a wifi connection.  That evening my son's friend came back over and got the television, computer, and printer hooked up to the new modem and life was grand - until he discovered that "Alexa" and her good friend "Dot" would come on board.  Knowing that those two devices were several years old, and I had experienced several problems with "Dot" previously, I suggested that I might replace both with newer models, and my son's friend thought that would be the way to go.  (If they didn't work, I could always return them through Amazon's liberal return policy.  Thanks, Bezos!)

Time to shop!

I have, for over a decade, had an old radio/alarm clock on the bedside table.  I never use that alarm because I wake automatically before dawn every day, but I like to have a clock close by so that when I wake up in the middle of the night I can readily see how much time I have left before I have to get up.  The radio quit working years ago.  As I shopped for a "Dot" replacement, I saw that they now have a "Spot" which had a clock face.  The "Echo" family, including "Alexa," "Dot,"and "Spot," get their time from the Marine Corps Band or some other government agency and reset automatically whenever the power goes out, so I was really interested in this essentially worry-free small "Spot" with a clock face.  One item down.

I didn't see the primary "Alexa" that resembled my old one, so I contacted my Kansas City son and asked for his recommendation.  He liked the most expensive option - of course he did - thanks, Tim! - a squat and heavy speaker called the "Studio."  Two items down.  Shopping complete!

The new smart speakers arrived yesterday, and I determined to try and  hook them up myself.  Both required a fair amount of reshuffling clutter and dusting before I could proceed, but eventually I had a clean space in the bedroom for "Spot" and a bigger space in the living room for "Studio."  "Spot" required pulling-up the "Alexa" app on my phone (I could handle that), plugging the device in (managed that one, too), and then scanning the bar code thingy that appeared on "Spot's" screen.  That took a call to Tim, but then I managed to do that one also.  After that I checked a couple of boxes on the app while "Spot" made its own adjustments, and a couple of minutes later it was lit up and playing "Whiskey River" by Willie!

The hardest part about setting-up the much larger "Studio" was just finding a place to put it.  After that I plugged it in and moments later Hank Senior was rocking the house with "Jambalaya."

(If it is simple enough that I can do it, folks, it is really, really simple!)

And I'm back in business.   The television plays without interruptions, and the computer races through a couple of hundred emails a day without those unnecessary and very annoying delays that I had endured for years with the old wifi service.  I learned yesterday evening that the "Studio" will even find and boot-up shows on television - as long as they are on Prime.

I'm in techno-heaven, and all for an extra $10 a month (and some new equipment).

I probably should have done it sooner.

Best Democratic Convention Ever!

 

by Pa Rock

Democrat

Anyone who traveled to Chicago hoping to witness a standard Democratic Convention of back-biting, in-fighting, intrigues, out-of-control protests, and political upheaval laced with spitting, cussing, and fisticuffs, is probably heading to the bus station this morning feeling sorely disappointed.  (Well, there was one nationally televised dick joke,  but it was at Trump's expense and very, very funny!)   The Democratic Convention of 2024, the Kamala Harris and Tim Walz convention, was organized well and carried out flawlessly amid an atmosphere of joy and exuberance, and the speeches were some of the finest oratory to ever grace the American political scene.  It was a far cry from the mess of a Democratic Convention that Chicago and then Mayor Richard J. Daley hosted back in 1968.

The speakers this year, and especially the ladies, were amazing - from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripping into Trump and calling him a "two-bit union buster," to Hillary, and Nancy Pelosi, and Oprah. But, up until Kamala Harris took the stage herself last night, the absolute show-stopper was former First Lady Michelle Obama.  This morning I read some commentary on the convention that had been written by comedian and radio host Garrison Keillor. He had this to say of Michelle's speech at the convention:

"Nobody could ever claim that AI pieced this big sweaty raucous circus together from old Bears and White Sox clips, it was by God real, the two nominees, the two ex-presidents, and the one who stole the show, Michelle Obama.  You had to get tears in your eyes to see the close-ups of Black women, the pride gleaming in their faces when she lit into Trump:  "Most of us will never be afforded the grace of falling forward.  We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth.  If we see a mountain in front of us, we don't expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top.  No."  And then came the punchline, snatching up Trump's line that illegal immigrants are taking "Black jobs":  "Who's going to tell him that the job he's currently seeking might just be one of those 'Black jobs'?"  The roar that followed was truly a hurricane."

Michelle Obama is smart, and lovely, and very, very real.

And so, too, are Coach Walz and his family.

And so, too, is Kamala!

Six weeks ago I was mired in bleak despair, absolutely certain that Donald Trump and his world of greed and bigotry and hate would prevail at the polls in November.  Now that despair has gone, completely evaporated, and I have a surging optimism that Harris and Walz are going to win - and win big - so big that the cancer of Trumpism will be eradicated from our great land forever!

Several of the speakers at the convention talked about the buzz of excitement in the air.  It's there, it's real, and we all need to work to keep that buzz of excitement - of hope, and freedom, and joy - alive and moving forward!

We are off to a great start with a great team!

Kamala Harriss and Tim Walz in 2024!

Undersecretary for Roadkill

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, a once-prominent member of one of our nation's best known and most influential Democratic families, has been on a quest seeking the presidency.  He entered the race as a Democrat in April of 2023 but dropped out before any primaries were held.  He talked about running as a Libertarian, but in October of 2023 declared his candidacy for president as an Independent.   

Kennedy currently has qualified for the ballot in 24 states, and signatures on his ballot petitions are still being counted in 22 others, including the District of Columbia.  He failed to reach the required number of signatures in four states (Kentucky, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Wyoming), and the state of New York has blocked him from that state's ballot over his purported use of a fake address.

Regardless of how many different states qualify Kennedy for their ballots, the candidate's personal quirks and odd beliefs seem to have severely limited his appeal to voters.  Not only does he seem quick to embrace conspiracy theories, Kennedy is public in his concerns over some aspects of modern science and has particular issues with the use and worth of vaccines in combating disease.  Kennedy also made news when he said that doctors had found a dead parasitic worm in his brain, and that the worm had eaten part of his brain.  

Kennedy recently admitted dumping a dead bear cub in New York City's Central Park ten years ago, a bear the he said was roadkill and that he had planned on eating.   According to a story in The Guardian on August 8, 2024, Kennedy told reporters "I have been picking up roadkill my entire life.  I have a freezer full of it."

(Eating roadkill and then being infected with a parasitic worm?  Could science have something of value to say about that?)

Before the big shake-up a month ago when Biden dropped out, Kennedy was consistently polling around 10% nationally, and higher in swing states - but Joe leaving the race seemed to take Kennedy with him, and the Independent's numbers dropped precipitously - with many of his supporters apparently realigning with Kamala Harris.

But still he persisted - for awhile.

Recently Kennedy has reportedly met with the Harris people and the Trump people looking for a cabinet position if he drops out of the race.  He wants a reward for any votes he might be able to shift to one of the major party candidates.  The Harris campaign has shown no interest in offering a job to Kennedy, but Trump told CNN on Tuesday of this week that he would "probably" bring Kennedy into his administration.

The talk now is that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, and his running mate, billionaire Nicole Shanahan, will have an announcement tomorrow in Phoenix where they are expected to withdraw from the race and throw their remaining support to Donald Trump.  Trump is also scheduled to be in Phoenix tomorrow.

(Phoenix in August - been there, done that - never again!)

So if the country - and world - goes to hell in November, at least we will have our first-ever Undersecretary for Roadkill with the US Department of the Interior - or, better yet, a new Special Assistant to the White House Chef!

Be sure to try the "Chef's Surprise," Donald!

Dear Chuckles

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Senator Schumer:

When I saw you literally dance up to the podium last night at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago I was hopeful that you would use your five minutes of prime time to not only deliver your professionally-crafted applause lines for Kamala Harris, but also put in a plug for the Democratic Senate candidates -  the incumbents as well as the aspirants - and you managed to do that, kinda sorta.

I took some time this morning to listen to your speech again and make a few notes.  You singled out five Democratic incumbents who are in tight races:  Jackie Rosen of Nevada, Jon Tester of Montana, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.  We all understand the importance of keeping Democratic control of the Senate, and re-electing those five is a critical part of that calculus.

In your pivot to highlighting the aspirants, you labeled them "our amazing candidates" and put the spotlight on Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware, Collin Allred of Texas, and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of Florida.   They are a fine group of individuals and clearly all have the potential to be great senators.

Chuck, would it have interfered with your obvious buzz yesterday evening to have mentioned Lucas Kunce in Missouri?  The young and dynamic native Missourian and Marine Corps veteran has been campaigning relentlessly for over a year now to unseat Missouri Senator (and Virginia resident) Josh Hawley - and Kunce is running a very credible race.

You're aware of Hawley, aren't you Chuck?  He was the senator who had his fist in the air outside of the Capitol on January 6th giving open encouragement to the insurrectionists - and then later that same day he was running through the Capitol building in full panic mode as he fled from the same group of terrorists that he had been supporting just a few hours earlier.  I'm sure you must remember all of that Chuck.  I know I do - and so do thousands and thousands of Missourians - and we've all been waiting patiently for Election Day so that we can show Hawley just how well we remember his treachery and cowardice.

Not only did Josh Hawley openly support the US Supreme Court Dobbs' decision which took away the constitutional right of women in this country to access abortion care, his wife, Erin Hawley, is associated with the "Alliance Defending Freedom," a conservative Christian advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious influence and practices in public schools and government, outlaw abortion, and oppose LGBTQ rights.   They are a dangerous power couple on the order of Clarence and Ginni Thomas.

Did you know, Chuck, that Missouri ended almost all access to abortion services literally within minutes of the Dobbs decision, the first state to do so - and that the "show-me" state now has a constitutional amendment on the ballot for this November that will restore those rights?  That amendment is going to pass big time, and not only will it pass, it will also draw voters to the polls who would not normally have shown up.  And Chuck, those voters are very likely to support Democratic candidates.

You should not only be mentioning Lucas Kunce when you rattle off your list of "amazing candidates," you should also be sending some of the DSCC cash his way.  You certainly have no qualms about begging Missouri voters for donations to the DSCC.

Get Josh Hawley out of the Senate and replace him with a real Missourian like Lucas Kunce, and then, Chuck, you will really have something to dance about!

Keep those feet limber and happy!

Your Pal,

Pa Rock

West Plains, MO

BS Detector Goes Pooey

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There is only so much that any piece of mechanical equipment can be expected to handle before it wears itself out, and in the age of Donald Trump it is not unusual for me to go through two or three BS detectors in a political season.  This past year I purchased a new one, and on the advice of my good friend, Wiley Coyote, I went with the "Acme 2024" a top-of-the-line, state-of-the-art model that is supposedly unsurpassed in its ability to sniff out the poop of the bull.

I was hopeful that I could make it through an entire election year without having to send this detector in for repairs, but realistically I knew that with Donald Trump in the race, that would be a challenge.  The surprisingly durable device held together through the primaries and even through the sexist garbage that Trump piled on his Republican rival, Nikki Haley, much of it stuff that he had also slathered on Hillary Clinton in 2016.  It even withstood Trump's attacks on various components of the legal system as his backlog of civil and criminal court actions finally began the slow slog toward justice.

But Biden flamed out at the debate in late June, and soon after that a teenager attempted to murder Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, and the bellicose, grandstanding Trump went to Milwaukee where he dominated the GOP convention and seemed to be a lock for returning to the White House.  Trump relaxed and the crazy diminished, at least for a short while.

Then that sneaky Joe Biden withdrew from the race and Trump was suddenly facing his absolute worse nightmare -  an intelligent black female prosecutor - and the crazy returned in full force.  This past week as the increasingly popular Kamala Harris began pulling ahead of Trump both nationally as well as in the swing states, and as she and her exceedingly popular running mate, Governor Tim Walz, were preparing for a week of free, and hopefully positive, press coming out of the Democratic convention in Chicago, Trump started to lose it, big time.

Trump has already played the race card to attack Harris, saying that she used to identify as an Indian American but "turned" Black out of political expediency, which is a total lie about the candidate who has always identified as bi-racial - Black and South Asian.    This week stories began circulating that he was referring to Kamala Harris as "nasty" and "a bitch" in private conversations.   But when none of those slanders seemed to be making an impact, he began questioning her intelligence and referring to Harris as someone with a "low IQ," an assertion that is extremely rich coming from him.  He said:

"I don't think she is a very bright person.   I think I am a very bright person and a lot of people say that. I don't think she's a very bright person, and you know what?   Our country needs a very smart person, but I don't consider that an insult, that's just a fact."

And with that my Acme 200 began to shake and move around.

On Saturday at a campaign event in Pennsylvania he said that in her economic speech the day before Kamala Harris had gone "full communist," a term he used twice, and then referred to her as "Comrade Kamala."  He also shared a fake image of the Vice President at an event with a large communist flag in the background.

It was so Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, and the 1950's.   My BS detector did a backflip but had a graceful enough landing to avoid any serious damage.

The true test of my machine's worth came later in the same speech when Trump, who had been seriously rattled when Kamala Harris had appeared on the cover of Time Magazine earlier in the week, and who has created fake covers of himself on Time, decided to compare his own appearance to that of the Vice President.    Trump said:

"But I say that I am much better looking.  I'm a better-looking person than Kamala."

And with that my Acme 2400 BS detector exploded and I have been scraping poop off the walls for the past several days.

It is one of the oldest of political axioms:   Manure in, manure out!

Greatest Bible Huckster Since Moses Pray

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Penultimate grifter Donald Trump released a financial report last week which, among other things, showed that he made $300,000 with his endorsement of the "God Bless the USA Bible."  In addition to the proceeds of his crass commercialism of the Christian holy text, he has apparently also signed some copies of that same version the Bible and its patriotic addendums, and those are currently selling on the internet for the bargain price of just one thousand dollars each.  Get yours today!!!

For those who enjoy tales of a conman sticking it to the rubes, may I recommend the 1973 film, "Paper Moon," a wonderfully funny and poignant tale about a Depression era swindler by the name of Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal) who along with his too-cute-for-words daughter, Addie (Tatum O'Neal), peddles overpriced Bibles to grieving widows across the Midwest.  Moses Pray did not make the kind of money with his grift that Trump did, but he was far more charming and entertaining - and that's worth a lot!

Yes, Donald may have pocketed a cool three hundred grand for selling a book he has never read and doesn't understand - and not given one damn nickel of the proceeds to any charitable cause, but the important thing is that through his salesmanship he was also able to glorify himself - and isn't that the whole point of religion?

The Billies: Hill, Shill, and Pill

 

by Pa Rock

Bumpkin Pundit

Yesterday I used this space to comment on derisive terms that right-wing politicians are hurriedly trying to coin to disparage Democratic vice-presidential candidate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota - a former high school teacher, football coach, weekend warrior, and a remarkably well-liked and all-around nice guy.  So far they are field-testing two:  "hick lib" and "woke yokel."  Those "insults," as with many Republican plans, come with problems.  They really aren't the zingers that the name-callers would like for them to be, and they are, in fact, more humorous than hurtful.  I wouldn't mind being called either one.

Governor Walz is particularly upsetting to the Republican Party because he is stealing the spotlight - big time - from their own midwestern vice-presidential candidate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio.  Vance had risen from obscurity in 2016 when he published a best-selling memoir (at the tender age of thirty-two) of his life growing up in a culture of poverty, drugs, and depression in the Midwest.  That effort was entitled "Hillbilly Elegy:  A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis."  The Ohio State University and Yale Law School graduate was accused by some of using his narrative to exploit his background for personal gain.  At least one reviewer referred to Vance as a "shillbilly" for profiting not only off of his own life and story, but also those  of his friends and family.  "Shillbilly," was a targeted attack with much more of a sting than "hick lib" and woke yokel."

There is another derogatory term that is becoming common in the rural midwestern culture, and while it does not apply to JD Vance, it certainly resonates among a broad group of rural denizens whom Vance does discuss at length in his book, including one in particular who is a very close relative of the author.  The social class Vance talks about are opioid and prescription drug addicts, as well as heroin addicts.   This ever-expanding group of troubled souls have begun to be referred to as "pillbillies."  Drug addiction has become so common in the Midwest that the term "pillbillies" has even worked its way into the professional literature.

I can remember when "hillbillies" were folks in the funnies like Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae, Ma and Pa Kettle, and Snuffy Smith heading out at night to steal chickens.   But there was also a developing culture of moonshiners, thieves, and other assorted miscreants who were living on the edge of the law and slowly morphing into the heavy drug-dependent culture of meth cooks, addicts, abusers, thieves, vandals, vagrants, and other miscreants and social misfits who roam the hills today looking for quick money and their next fix.  

It looks as though the presidential election of 2024 will have more of a midwestern focus than we have seen in the recent past, so it can't hurt to expand our view beyond the big industrial cities and urban centers and out into the small towns with their Main Streets, coffee shops, and Friday night football games - and on down to honkey tonks, cheating spouses, thievery, abuse, addiction, willful mayhem, and all manner of moral darkness.  It's far more dangerous and disconcerting than just dealing with (and name-calling) the few who happen to lean left politically.

There are lots of serious problems in the Midwest.  Tim Walz and JD Vance have both experienced life here, and they know what those problems are.  Donald Trump has already spent four years in the White House and did not fix anything.  Perhaps Kamala Harris will.

I'm for going forward and finding out.