THE ALLEY WAY

 Our Alley Way, during the day, was a treasure chest inviting the neighborhood kids to create new games from the early morning, lasting until the first speck of dusk. All was well in the Alley Way which ran parallel to our row house, and the fact that the teeny tiny entrance to our house, had a wide opening looking out at the Alley Way, meant when breezes decided to cool off a humid Pittsburgh summer, we could stand, (too small of a space to sit) and embrace the wind, almost ready to grow wings, wishing we could fly! Why, even in the most horrendous of downpours you could wait outside, smell the innocence of the rain, and dare Mother Nature, to get you wet. (Of course with the first crack of thunder, all mothers living in our row houses, shrieked in unison, “Get inside now!”). The day was a delicious diet of running through…stopping in the middle…playing in the backyard at the exit…OF the Alley Way. Safe, sure, and secure…UNTIL night, and then, the ALLEY WAY, transformed into a haven for monsters, extraterrestrials, and creatures too scary to even think about! And only a game of I DARE YOU, with extra special prizes might entice you to run from the entrance of the ALLEY at the font of our house, to the exit of the ALLEY which led to the BACKYARD, (another location not for the bravest of kids, when night FELL!)

 

The kids living on our street, during the summer would play outside until 11:00 PM, when a newscaster in Pittsburgh, named Bill Burns, would ask, “It is 11:00 PM, do you know where your children are?” And indeed, as if rehearsed, all the mothers would yell from their screened-in living rooms, “Time to come inside.” But prior to Bill Burns asking the burning question regarding the location of said children, most nights, were reruns of the Alfred Hitchcock Show (back in the day summer meant time to catch up on your favorite episodes, no cable channels to permit that). My father would sit in his lounge chair, no lights on, and all you could see, when you stood outside of our house, where the shadows of black and white TV dancing a maniacal jitterbug, the movement of the floor fan, almost separating the horizontal and vertical lines (As might Busby Berkley in one of his musicals with hundreds of women); which when happening all at once, added to a BIZZARO kind of world happening inside our living room. (My father would nap at times, and often times he looked as if he was a ghost, not moving, but THERE!)

 

If my little sister and I were thirsty or hungry (Oh the days of a metabolism burning and burning), we would have to walk past the opening of the ALLEY WAY, once on our porch, pass the opening which provided a 20/20 view of the ALLEY WAY, walk into the living room which once inside, somehow made the zig-zag dancing lines look like large, outstretched arms of something from the ALLEY WAY having found footing inside the house. We would then walk into a dark scary living room headed toward the back of the house and to the kitchen. All of this as the Alfred Hitchcock theme played in an ominous Minor Key, and usually a scream of two from someone murdered in the show! But then it was time for the 11:00 PM news light would be turned on, and all of the horror and imagined terror would fade!

 

Hurricane Ida/COVID Variants/Republican and Red State Legislatures with no hesitation to promote suicide, manslaughter under the guise of personal freedom/FOX Lies and Propaganda/ Trump still a free man/Ending a war that never should have been started/Drought/Mitch McConnell seemingly with more power than a President/Insurrectionists held as heroes/The Big Lie, looming like a really large silent fart…How I wish someone would turn on the lights and let these monsters die!

HOMELESS

  

“…In my sleep I see her begging
Reaching police
Although her body's not mine
I ask now I do, now I do

She's just like you and me
But she's homeless, she's homeless
As she stands there singing for money

La da dee la dee da… La da dee la dee da…” (Gypsy Woman/Crystal Waters)

 

An overcast, 50 shades of gray kind of day (no sexual reference, just the mere idea that grey on the East Coast has that many hues of one of the most mundane colors, after, the first place, BEIGE…but imagine how much of a non-best seller 50 Shades of Beige would have been?) Gloomy outside, looking like a 1950’s motel on old Route 66, the clouds seemed bored and just hung low and still, there was no wind, and if you really concentrated you could hear Mother Nature moaning about not giving a shit, at least in my town of North Truro!. Mother Nature might be bored on the Cape, but damn she has been mighty busy on the Gulf Coast, and in particular, the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans. (August 23 to August 31, sixteen years and a few days ago, Katrina paid a visit, and emphasized how unprepared and disconcerting our Federal Government was and how poorly its leadership CHOSE to fail).

 

But believe it or not, that is not my gripe, today… (I could write a dissertation about how we can maintain satellites at the edge of the universe but have no idea how to keep levees from flooding or power outages from happening). No, my gripe is about the callous and almost cavalier comment made on the Weather Channel regarding HOMELESSNESS. It seemed one of The Weather Channel’s look at me I am dressed in North Face/Eddie Bauer cool weatherproof clothing, paid to entertain and not educate, was preaching that everyone should stay home in New Orleans…pausing a minute and clarifying his statement…by saying…” except emergency responders…AND THEN, THE HOMELESS,”  adding, “but then every large city has a HOMELESS POPULATION, so you know, they will be outdoors, I guess!” to say the least THAT PISSED ME OFF… OH HECK, OH DARN, OH GEE, THE HOMELESS, why if they knew better they would not be homeless because WE ALL KNOW, suffering and misery are something all of us wish for, FOR OURSELVES AND THOSE WE LOVE! FUCK YOU WEATHER CHANNEL TALKING IDIOT!

think about it

 Way back when…WHEN?…exactly 20 years ago (I was, then, about to become a man of a certain age, (51) an ageless innuendo suggesting, that old has not arrived, young has departed, and limbo is a place to reside for a while!) I as well as way too many Americans discovered that invincibility and krypton no longer existed on or in the landmass known as THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. We were rocked to our core, robbed of our innocence, and had to learn how to ruminate about the spoils of victory and the agonizingly rotten spoils of defeat. Jolted and jarred, sad, scared, and suddenly quite AWAKE, I found myself TOO AWARE of the fact that evil is not some sudden eruption, but EVIL is a continuous contamination concocted in a cauldron prepared by insidious people whose only resolve in life is to RUIN life! My tale for today’s BLOG is not one of caution or concern regarding September 11, but a cautionary concern regarding the hereafter which had found us shocked and awed (thanks George W. for identifying BULL SHIT in three words) over January 6^th, and still in a coma regarding the Dark Ages which had descended upon this nation ever since Putin and his cadre of puppets presented their prize stooge, TRUMP onto the political arena of AMERIKA! 

 

During the TRUMP and McConnell years of acid rain, nuclear summers and winter, and the drainage of fact, science and thought, I had discovered the difference between CONSPIRACY thinking and MANIPULATION, the difference between LIES and MANIPULATION, the difference between IT TAKES A VILLAGE and MANIPULATION. Usually when an era ends, somewhere in the distance, (if you stare long enough) a speckle of sunburst chases the gloom away, and whispers “there is no place like home”; but albeit TRUMP is not sitting in the OVAL OFFICE any longer, his stench has continued to keep away speckles of sun.

 

To the point (damn it, I could drone on and on). I believe that the events (which have oozed out of Afghanistan as if they were the rot of a badly infected wound ready for an amputation) were and are a part of the PUTIN/TRUMP, exit plan. I believe, from just observing all coziness between TRUMP and PUTIN, that booby traps had been set in place, by the TRUMP ADMINISTRATION, to try and create such havoc and chaos, that in the minds of VLADIMIR, all of this deadly deceit would cause a rift so huge, as to cause Americans to distrust President Biden. Facts to prove it, maybe just the observation that HOW IN THE WORLD COULD WE HAVE ALMOST HAD AN INSURRECTION AND COUP!

Three Republicans walk into an ICU

  

Remember when jokes started out as: “…THREE PEOPLE WALKED INTO A BAR…” We laughed, or made that face which included rolling our eyes, or pretended that we really did not know the relative or friend telling the joke! How about this sad, sick, sorrowful joke: “Three Republicans, DeSantis/Abbott/Cruz, on their journey towards the lowest denominator of the Republican Base of Voters, stopped into an ICU at an already overly taxed hospital due to anti-vaxxers using up ALL the Incubators, Beds and Medical Equipment, hoping to pick up a few more absentee votes (before this plethora of peons pass-on) intended for their certain run for the GQP nomination for Presidency in 2024…”

 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's COVID-19 expert Jay Bhattacharya was asked in a trial about school mask mandates, "What would be an acceptable death rate for children?" "What would be an acceptable death rate for children?" Gallagher asked Bhattacharya.

Bhattacharya responded, "I reject the premise of the question. The question is not what's an acceptable death rate. The question is: What are the trade-offs?" (Newsweek)

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order banning the use of vaccine mandates in the public sector and for businesses that contract with the state. Abbott insisted he was putting “personal responsibility” ahead of “government mandates.” But, as the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael R. Strain noted for Bloomberg, Abbott has it backward. His order, Strain wrote, “is heavy-handed government stopping private entities from exercising their own understanding of what is responsible and what their customers and employees want.” (MSNBC)

 

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is proposing federal legislation that would ban both mask and vaccine mandates — and prohibit vaccine passports — even in the private sector. “My legislation also provides civil rights protections for employees from their employers,” Cruz, a Republican, announced, “to stop discrimination based on vaccination status.” (NBC News)

 

 

 

To Spew

 I have grown quite tired of a few subjects:

Ashli Babbitt stormed the Capitol with the intention of joining a group of treasonists/insurrectionists/ domestic terrorists in an attempted coup of our government…enemy combatants, even dressing in a matching mask and scarf risk being killed for trying to kill our democracy!...20 years a war, Trump sided with the Taliban having had them promise to NOT kill any Americans while Trump remained in office but looking the other way as they accumulated more and more power. Trump gave no shits about the Vets who forged a war for the War Criminals Cheney-Bush, risking and losing their lives and certainly the stability of their mental health, instead, as usual, considered his own agenda and self-interest…do not EVER raise your voice regarding Biden’s predicament in trying to end an endless war!...DeSantis wants to be President, his role model the insanity and conspiracy moron named Trump. DeSantis is a smart enough man to understand, that for the Base of the Republicans immorality, unscientific, and QAnon thinking will get him the nomination…please stop asking him for a conscience, he knows Trump never had one, so why should he!

 

Talking heads on Progressive Leaning Cable TV, please stop with the dramatics, as if the more soap opera-ish you get somehow you think you have put the EVIL Republicans and Right-Wing Nuts in their place. A joke might be asked how many Liberal talking heads does it take to stop the Right Wing, umm none…because whenever there are more than one Liberal Talking Heads talking they all seem to say the same thing, and take a whole lot of time saying it…California wake the fuck up, you really think Larry Elder or Caitlyn Jenner give a shit about human rights, your rights, civil liberties, COVID vaccinations…Get real Californians a recall is the next best thing to an Insurrection, you know all the feign indignities without Capitol Police getting murdered. Gavin Newsom may not be God, but damn is certainly the devil you will permit to darken the doorsteps of Sacramento!

 

So-called Pro-Lifers, ENOUGH bullshit already. And for all those religious leaders who have remained silent regarding the Pro-Pre-Meditated Christians, exactly what are you waiting for, to open up your mouths from your pulpit and preach that if indeed your God created the Earth, your God also must have permitted VIRUSES to thrive…so ask YOUR God to stop VIRUSES by telling your SHEEP to fucking wear a mask get vaccinated and TRULY appreciate PRO-LIFE, by aiding and abetting the science and medicine and not the self-pontification and self-glory of those who could care less if granny or grandpa die. Oh yeah, and for you HETEROSEXUAL parents who have always questioned how single parents or same-sex parents, or parents whose skin color is not the same as their kids can ACTUALLY be responsible adults…IF YOU are one of the way too many who somehow thinks Marjory-Taylor Q-Anon is a doctor, or that FOX News swears animal fertilizer or animal drug, or anything given to an animal will somehow stop COVID…please place your kids up for adoption NOW!  Phew…just had to spew all of that!

 

 

my parade and rain

 Don't tell me not to live

Just sit and putter
Life's candy and the sun's
A ball of butter
Don't bring around a cloud
To rain on my parade! (‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’/Julie Styne)

 

1942, Barbra Joan Streisand born.1964, Funny Girl premiered on Broadway. 1968, Funny Girl premiered at the movies. 1968 and a half, I fell in love with Barbra Joan Streisand. No, one comes out of the closet as a fan of Barbra…one does not come out of the closet loving Broadway musicals…no one comes out of the closet enjoying sounds, sights, colors, and storytelling with lavish costumes…I was born Caucasian, brown hair, brown eyes (damn my father had blue eyes), I had my tonsils (removed at 5 years of age), still have my appendix (my sister Bonnie was rushed to the hospital and I remember to this day that she wanted to wear her pretty pajamas), I was a very good track and field competitor, I almost failed Geometry, BUT give me a writing project, ask me for a creative idea and to embellish it, I AM YOUR PERSON. To this day, anything BARBRA is still exciting for me, except for the fact that until the day she turned 67, and I turned 60, I had never realized just how close in age we both were…I had considered her a MILF! (only kidding, but actually thought of her as the same age as perhaps an older relative. (I am sad to discover so many people I adored are in fact closer to my age or younger!) Oh, and by the way, there was never a closet I chose, but society preferred to build one for me, and sadly at first I accepted the offer!

 

For those who are Streisand adverse,  and swear they NEVER ever liked her or viewed ‘Funny Girl,’ the scene in which the song ‘Don’t Rain On My Parade’ takes place has Barbra, putting her foot down, and taking action…first a streetcar, then a train and finally a Tug Boat, as she panoramically is shown leaving Manhattan…sort of breaking free (kind of a prelude to the movie “Titanic, minus the iceberg and Leonardo DiCaprio) My point being, that Barbra had enough, was finished and decided to leave. She may have told us via lyrics and music by Jule Styne and Bob Merrill, but her actions made the drama movie beyond if only and took the audience toward more of “A YOU GO GIRL!”

 

The pace of evacuation flights out of Kabul accelerated today after a double suicide-bomb attack that killed 13 US troops and 72 Afghans – the deadliest day for US troops in more than a decade. Joe Biden addressed the masterminds behind the attack in an update to the nation yesterday, telling them: “We will hunt you down and make you pay.” (The Guardian) I support President Biden. I believe his intention is for good and better to triumph. I think most elected officials identifying as Republicans could give a shit about good and better. Life is not a musical, but perhaps it might be. President Joe Biden, don’t tell us what you may or may not do regarding these TERRORISTS, JUST DO IT. Tell us about after they have been destroyed. Watch a musical. Oftentimes saying goodbye is saccharine and sugary, actually doing the deed and then singing about can cause a standing ovation!

 

 

smiling faces sometimes

 “Smiling faces sometimes

Pretend to be your friend

Smiling faces show no traces

Of the evil that lurks within (can you dig it?)

Smiling faces, smiling faces, sometimes

They don't tell the truth

Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies and I got proof

Oh, oh, yeah.” (Smiling Faces Sometimes/Strong and Whitfield)

 

The more detail that has finally found daylight, regarding, what I believe was an intentional middle finger BY TRUMP, toward the Biden Administration and THUSLY, toward the American People, (AND, AS I BELIEVE, one more subservient kowtow towards TRUMPS PUPPET MASTER, PUTIN, TRUMP, and his cadre of INSURECTIONIST LOVING CULTISTS), was intended to set up a total failure in any possible transition within Afghanistan, and the exile of American Troops. Why not destabilize any kind of action by Biden, and help this nation begin to rectify its original bad intentions (THANK YOU CO-PRESIDENTS…CHENEY BUSH) …if the OUTCOME meanders into a political ploy! A dire situation, AFGHANISTAN, a dour outcome, AFGHANISTAN, doomed from the beginning, because from the BEGINNING, one has to ask, was there ever an exit strategy? And be it women/allies/the common AFGHANI citizen to the Troops who have died, those still suffering from PTSD to the families who have anguished and remain angry…there IS EVIL that lurks from within…but for me, I have to say, I DO NOT condemn President Biden, for trying to do the right thing…BUT once again I become so UPSET, so UNDONE, so UNIMAGINABLY pissed off, by the Orange Smiling Face, and his witches cauldron of domestic terrorists, many known as Republicans. 

 

Bush is painting, Cheney has a new lease on life with his new heart transplant, Rumsfeld dying without any apology, Karl Rove promoting election results, the Dems in power at the time, falling for God Bless America…the list can and should go on and on…and as it goes on and on, all I can think about are the SMILING FACES SOMETIMES. And never to be outdone, Liz Cheney has called this exit an “EPIC FAILURE,” but somehow as she smiles, she overlooks the sinister face of her father!

no time at all

 I woke up, reached for my phone, (somehow I can no longer use the toilet without having a phone in my hand), headed into the bathroom after the facial recognition kicked in (the I phone still has a problem identifying me while wearing a mask and sunglasses, but bed hair, bad hair, and bedroom sour face, has no problem with my I-Phone). As I was about to officially begin my day (we all know what that translates into), I took a peek at the face of my I-phone, and suddenly it was as if I was on an acid trip (only once in my life, and never again, as I am a control freak), and dancing across my eyeballs were the words, DOOM, AND GLOOM! I immediately placed my phone on the little plastic charger, and said to no one but me and Albert Einstein, (I think of him because he said all our energy will float into space), NOT TODAY, NO, NOT TODAY! I must add, here, that this trip to the toilet was the fastest EVER, for me!

 

So, today, I thought, I will reminisce about the bad old days, which at the time seemed bad, but compared to the co-joined years 2020/2021, those bad years actually were at least more tolerable, and suddenly morphed into the good old days. Of course, I am talking about Pre-Fascism/Pre-Putin’s Puppet/Pre- Right in your face Authoritarianism Days. (seems like eons ago).

 

Those were the days, when I ranted and raved about people on cell phones walking into me, never looking ahead just at their phones…The days when three people would walk on the sidewalk and never move out of the way when it was approaching them from the opposite direction… The days when drivers would triple park and their only acknowledgment of anyone trying to pass them was the raising of their middle finger…The days before the “I want to speak to your managers, were NOT NAMED KAREN…The days, when people did not clean the dog poop off of a sidewalk, pretending they just planted a flower bed… AHHH, I thought, placing my phone face down, not looking at NEWS Notifications, CNN headlines, etc., who KNEW how many shitty things in hindsight were shitty but never smelled as much as the crap of today!

 

Oh, it's time to start livin'

Time to take a little from this world we're given

Time to take time, cause spring will turn to fall

In just no time at all....(No Time At All/Stephen Schwartz)

 

 

 

 

A PUTZ

 An LAFD captain attacks city’s vaccination requirement, prompting internal investigation. “I am done being silent on this matter,” said the man, who identifies himself as a Capt. Cristian Granucci, a 31-year veteran of the department. “And so are many of our members.” “This isn’t about vaccinated about versus unvaccinated,” Granucci said in the video. “This is about freedom of choice.”(LA Times)

 

Captain Cristian, what a PUTZ (A stupid fellow, a fool, a jerk; also a slang term for the penis, and for this reason, as Leo Rosten cautions in The Joys of Yiddish (1968), “Putz is not to be used lightly, or when women or children are around.”). You are a spoiled fool, a mere mortal showcasing your sad-sack life. And to think you actually are considered a FIRST RESPONDER.

 

So, let’s take your ARGUMENT about FREEDOM of CHOICE, even a slight bit beyond the buffoonish, childish self-centered behavior you demonstrate, SHALL WE, CAPTAIN? HMM. So let us consider the arsonist, who feels it IS his freedom of choice to choose to start fires. Let us then consider, as in your case of no mask-wearing or concern for the Village, that this arsonist thinks that the people whose property burns, have no more freedom than he, and HE just wants to ignore the sanctity of life, limb, and emotions of anyone else; of anyone else but HIS own FUCKING STUPID CONCEPT of ME, MYSELF and I. Seriously DUDE, or is the word DUFUS, FREEDOM OF CHOICE…please tell me…NO PLEASE DON’T I ACTUALLY DO NOT WISH TO HEAR FROM YOU…but I ask what freedom of choice do the kids have, the infirmed have, the immune restricted have, the elderly have when YOU somehow decide to act in a form of manslaughter as you provide them all more chances to grow ill and die, spreading COVID, as a MASKLESS FOOL? 

State, of MISSISSIPPI

 The State, of Mississippi…A state, in a supposed First World Country…a state which ranks 49^th of its population receiving COVID VACCINATIONS (The only state with a lower vaccination rate is neighboring Alabama, with 36.3% of the population being fully vaccinated).…a state which has six electoral votes in the Electoral College. Trump scored a convincing victory in Mississippi, a socially conservative Bible Belt state…A state with a political trifecta when one political party simultaneously holds the governor's office and majorities in both state legislative chambers, those being REPUBLICANS… If MISSISSIPPI were a state of mind, one might expect to find MISSISSIPPI receiving large doses of coma-induced drugs to calm its tendencies toward suicide…if MISSISSIPPI was a state located anywhere else in the world, one might wish that any country with HUMANITARY Priorities come and rescue it, from itself, and its political hacks! 

 

Mississippi Is Pleading With People To Stop Using A Livestock Drug To Treat COVID-19 The Food and Drug Administration has also weighed in, writing in a tweet this weekend, "You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it." "This is medical treatment. You wouldn't get your chemotherapy at a feed store," Dobbs said. "I mean, you wouldn't want to treat your pneumonia with your animal's medication. It can be dangerous to get the wrong doses of medication, especially for something that's meant for a horse or a cow. So we understand the environment we live in. But it's really important if people have medical needs to go through your physician or provider." (NPR)

 

I would normally add my snark and sarcasm, my disgust and dismissive voice, my, can you believe this…BUT, somehow, all of that seems useless and so unconvincing…in the STATE of MISSISSIPPI, it seems to me, loathing, hate, bigotry and sheer love for fiction instead of fact, and a constant CULT-LIKE inbreeding have finally taken charge, and I am sad to say it looks like very soon, there may no longer be a STATE OF MISSISSIPPI!  

oops, oopsie

 Former President Donald Trump is fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus and encouraged his supporters to get inoculated too during a Saturday evening rally in Cullman, Ala.

 

"I believe totally in your freedoms, I do, you have to do what you have to do," Trump said to cheers from the crowd. "But," he said as the crowd quieted, "I recommend take the vaccines, I did it, it's good, take the vaccines." The crowd immediately lost some of its energy, and some boos could be heard. Trump apparently detected the lukewarm response and went back to discussing freedoms.

 

An analysis of county vaccination data has shown that counties that voted for Joe Biden have higher vaccination rates than counties that voted for Trump, and the partisan divide has only grown over time. (SF Gate)

 

During the dour days when I somehow feel doom drip dropping like the infected blood of those afflicted by the ZOMBIE VIRUS in the movie “Twenty Eight Days Later,”----(the teeniest droplet of blood entering an opening on the body caused immediate transformation)----and I wonder aloud, or to Chance, our dog, stuck in the house with me, and cannot talk back, telling me to STOP WORRYING ALREADY, when has a bridge too far already been traveled, and where were we all, when we witnessed the point of no return! Call it opening Pandora’s Box, call it spitting in the wind, call it whatever trite or vague concept you may, BUT I must beg the question, “WHEN IS TOO MUCH, THAT MUCH MORE, WHEN IS TOO FAR TOO DISTANT, WHEN IS SIMPLE NO LONGER EASY?” So now, the Trump Cult is ready to drink an even more mortal form of Cool-Ade. Imagine the consequences of that GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE!

 

 

 

Manifest Destiny

 Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, is the idea that the United States is destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent. (Oxford Dictionary)

 

The warnings and watches were issued throughout New England, HENRI’ was somewhere beyond our Blue Horizon, and all caution could no longer be to ignore the wind, or rain or dark of night or darkness of day once HENRI’ decided to pay a visit. Of course, there were the runs on gasoline stations, some uptake at our only Super Market, (perhaps in the Outer Cape, toilet paper is not as necessary as there was a plethora of soft white tissue, and harder less expensive sandpaper generics screaming pick me, pick me. (We are a bit BLUER, but maybe Trump’s bullshit behavior rubbed off as there were very few rolls of paper towels!) 

 

I had been homesick for the grey bumpy, bruiser-looking clouds, piling up as might the pins in a bowling alley, ready for a large object to blast them apart. (Living in LA, did not often afford a good ole’ fashion Pittsburgh style thunderstorm, you know the kind that begged you to find an afghan knitted by your grandmother and even in the heat of the summer, cuddle up and watch a black and white movie, with lots of background music filled with the string section of an orchestra!) But even though we did not get the wham bam, thank you ma'am, storm, the bleak sky-scape, the flurry of the oak trees, maple, and pine, created a tableau of trouble in river city, the sound and the fury, and baby it looks cold outside. All of which, PERHAPS, only dwelled in my mind…BUT cause my mind to meander, contemplate, and damn it ruminate!

 

MANIFEST DESTINY, a term used vaguely in elementary school Social Studies, (BUT SADLY, WAY TOO PROUDLY) suddenly popped into my head as I reluctantly read (RELUCTANTLY, because even though I would like to escape this current reality, ESCAPE, is not an answer in trying to ANSWER our current human-made dilemma) …and it provided a bit of an ANSWER to me, as to why, way too many inhabitants of this nation, think they can take a shit in the same place they eat and sleep. Perhaps the calliope of citizens have no idea of the term Manifest Destiny, but I believe somehow, like acid rain, ozone, and the chemicals found in almost all fruit and vegetables we eat, the poison propensity of sheer self-interest has formed inside the bodies and has taken over! Amazing how a day of no sun, tons of wind, and lack of black and white movies, make me wonder!

 

 

pick a little

  

 

“Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more… Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more (Music Man/Meredith Wilson)

 

Surprise: Fox News Hosts Are Following Strict COVID Protocols While Telling Viewers Masks and Vaccines Are Liberal Plots

It’s almost as though they treat their audience like gullible idiots. “(Vanity Fair)

 

Republican Lawmaker Mo Brooks Says He “Understands” the Motivations of the Guy Who Threatened to Blow Up Capitol Hill

Instead of denouncing the violence, Brooks chose to essentially encourage it. (Vanity Fair)

 

“Good Fighters” and “Great Negotiators”: Donald Trump Is Weirdly Full of Praise for the Taliban

He also declared the organization very “smart.” (Vanity Fair)

 

Republicans Who Stood by a Presidential Lunatic Are Now Demanding Biden Be Removed via 25th Amendment

They were fine with Trump trying to overthrow the U.S. government but insist Biden must go. (Vanity Fair)

 

Well, “HOLY SHIT,” and a few “I WILL BE DAMNED”, add into the mix,” WHAT ME WORRY”, not to mention a bunch of, “HUH’S,” slowly roasted with “IS THIS HAPPENING IN REAL TIME”, always include, “THIS CAN’T BE REAL,” and for your personal taste always include, “PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS JUST A NIGHTMARE AND I WILL AWAKEN SOON!”

 

In AMERIKA, in the year 2021 (Gregorian Calendar), 5781 (Jewish Calendar), The Year of the OX (Chinese Calendar), Hijri 1443 (Islamic Calendar), “WE THE PEOPLE,” are witnessing the following: A Propaganda American Broadcasting Corporation demand that all who watch forgo life, liberty, and intelligence and commit a form of CULT SUICIDE…A current Congressman and an almost shoo-in Senator provide concurrence and encouragement, for a homegrown terrorist to shoot ‘em up!...A wanna-be dictator and thug promote wildly insane men with Napoleon complex’s murder and destroy democracy…and INSURRECTIONIST loving Fascist embracing Republicans choosing AUTHORITARIANISM  over Democracy! And SO FAR, it seems to me all we are doing is: “Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little, Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more… Pick a little, talk a little, pick a little, talk a little Cheep cheep cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more (Music Man/Meredith Wilson)

 

 

 

AMERICA, america

  

1. “Oh, beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. For purple mountains majesty, above the fruited plain! AMERICA! AMERICA! God shed his grace on thee, and crowned thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.”

 

Did we seriously expect the anti-mask crowd to shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down? A Franklin County, Tennessee school board meeting that ended in a district-wide mask mandate led to a three-ring circus of conservatives chanting, “We will not comply,” and one man yelling, “We know who you are! You’ll never be allowed in public again!” Someone with a Batman complex reportedly shouted to a crowd of masked people, “You can leave freely, but we will find you!” (Scary Mommy)

 

2. “Oh, beautiful for pilgrim feet, whose stern, impassioned stress, a thoroughfare of freedom beat across the wilderness! AMERICA! AMERICA! God mend thine ev’ry flaw, confirm thy soul in self -control, Thy liberty in law.”

 

As the delta variant overtakes the country at a rapid, horrifying clip—and infects kids who were once thought to have been spared the worst of the pandemic—some families are swapping pencil-shopping and backpack-buying for fits of fear and rage about mask mandates and vaccines. Teachers and students are getting sick, parents are fighting for and against mask policies, and school board meetings are turning tense and nasty as a result. (Vice)

 

3. “Oh, beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life! AMERICA! AMERICA! May God thy gold refine, Till all success be nobleness, And ev’ry gain divine.”

 

"As soon as we started last month, I made a big deal out of the fact that messaging has to be about schools as we go forward," said Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee. "It's the teachers unions that want to keep the schools closed. Democrats are ignoring the science, and they're standing with their special-interest donors instead of the students." (NBC News)

 

4. “Oh, beautiful for patriot dream, that sees beyond the years. Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears! AMERICA! AMERICA! God shed his grace on thee, And crown they good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.”

 

"Most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated and the Democrats like to blame Republicans on that," said Patrick. "Well, the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated. The last time I checked over 90 percent of them vote for Democrats in their major cities and major counties, so it's up to the Democrats to get just as that it's up to Republicans to try to get as many people vaccinated." (Newsweek)

 

Katherine Lee Bates wrote the poem America the Beautiful…Men and women of AMERICA, (YOU KNOW PARENTS, CARETAKERS OF CHILDREN, made the news), and ARE permitting the pre-mediated murder of Children, Educators, and Educational Professionals…The majority of  Republican Politicians, Trump Insurrectionist Militia, and the Dandies who themselves have been vaccinated, pretending that death and dying is FREEDOM, are perpetuating FEAR and LOATHING, understanding that the race to the bottom is a crucial way to make AMERICA DIE. Commentary by Gerry Buncher who is so sick and tired of being sick and tired!  

 

HUMANISM

 Measles make you bumpy

And mumps'll make you lumpy

And chicken pox'll make you jump and twitch

A common cold'll fool ya

And whooping cough'll cool ya

But poison ivy, Lord'll make you itch!

You're gonna need an ocean of calamine lotion

You'll be scratchin' like a hound

The minute you start to mess around (Poison Ivy/Jerry Leiber)

 

I was weeding, yep, spending my sunny and humid days in our backyard, weeding, mulching, planting, and doing my Mother Nature, activities. I had my earbuds placed snuggly in my ears, was playing my song list from 1967 to 1972, covering my graduation and college years, and I was safe and sound in my BACK IN THE DAY MUSIC, remembering the good, acknowledging the bad, and permitting myself to let all of that just remain as history. I was a counselor damn it; I earned my One Match Fire Badge; I took my campers to the Nature Craft Specialist at least three times a week. I learned about building a campsite, placing food in one place, and sleeping bags in another place, and ask me about kindling tinder, etc., etc.! And I swear I knew how to identify POISON IVY…I had been weeding in MY backyard, and what the fuck, somehow, POISON IVY, did not look like Emma Farm, Harmony PA, POISON IVY, and lo and behold, I became covered in it. So, today, after itching and scratching, destroying my skin, trying Witch Hazel/Rubbing Alcohol, Cortisone, I went to the Provincetown Clinic. 

 

Let us be real AMERICA. MEDICAL CARE should never be a big business, a corporate delight, a privileged piece of the pie, for some to enjoy and others left to starve. Let us be real AMERICA. MEDICAL CARE, for all, is a human right, not a particular perk for the have’s in which, the have not’s having to prioritize food, shelter, thriving! I am lucky enough to have affordable HEALTH INSURANCE. I was in a clinic where not everyone had affordable insurance, or for that matter any insurance. Men and women had to take time off from work, complaining to one another, they were losing wages, and then after fewer wages, they still had to pay for the care they received this day. And as I listened and watched, I wondered, why is HEALTH CARE FOR ALL CALLED SOCIALISM. I mean we are all human, so why don’t the rest of us, the people who actually are Pro-Life, just call HEALTH CARE FOR ALL HUMANISM CARE!

 

 

WAKE UP AMERICA

 Just days into the new school year, thousands of kids are under quarantine in public school districts across the U.S. after being exposed to COVID-19. Cases and hospitalizations among children are on the rise, with the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus making up about 90% of new infections among kids, according to experts. Children under 12 are currently ineligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, making schools a potentially dangerous environment. (USA Today)

 

Please America, say these words EVERY DAY as you wake up and kiss your kids, hold your grandchildren, hug your nieces and nephews, wave hello and goodbye to your friend's children, ABBOTT/DESANTIS/TEXAS/FLORIDA/PRE-MEDIATED MURDER/ASSISTED SUICIDE. Ask yourself, America, to define PRO-LIFE, and then ask those who swear to their GOD, they are PRO-LIFE, and, if that LIFE means the same thing once the zygote or fetus is outside the womb.

 

Please America, understand that those granted the authority to LEAD, are not necessarily LEADERS, Actually, LEADERSHIP is thinking about the greater good, and NOT considering YOUR OWN GAINS for political purposes:

 

The state of Iowa implemented a mask mandate in November, but in February Gov. Kim Reynolds lifted the requirement.

"We know what we need to do, and it doesn't require a government mandate to do it," Reynolds said at the time. "Prior to November, Iowa didn't have a mask requirement, but most Iowans wore masks, and I am confident they will continue to do so." On September 4, Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican Governor of Mississippi, lifted the state face-covering requirement. Reeves lifted all mandates across the state on March 3, saying on Twitter case numbers had "plummeted, and the vaccine is being rapidly distributed. It is time!" "We've always encouraged masks from the very beginning ... In our state, it's not about what government says, it's about what people do and if people can socially distance if people are in places where they need to wear a mask, we've seen people step up and they are doing what they need to do and that's reflected the numbers." "We've always encouraged masks from the very beginning ... In our state, it's not about what government says, it's about what people do and if people can socially distance if people are in places where they need to wear a mask, we've seen people step up and they are doing what they need to do and that's reflected the numbers." Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, has taken a hands-off approach to Covid-19. In October, she wrote in an op-ed that the government should not mandate a mask requirement.

"As I've said before if folks want to wear a mask, they should be free to do so," she wrote. "Similarly, those who don't want to wear a mask shouldn't be shamed into wearing one." (CNN)

 

PLEASE AMERICA, let’s stop the passive response to the GOVERNORS and STATE LEGISLATURES, who think only women should be told what to do with their bodies…only the LGBT community should be told what to do with their bodies…only those in pain, unending pain should be told to do with their bodies…I love my children, respect all children, love my family old or young, care for my friend's family older and younger…I AM SO TIRED OF ABBOTT/DESANTIS/GOVERNORS OF MISSISSIPPI/IOWA/NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA, acting so CAVALIER about COVID!

no compassion

 Op-Ed: As a doctor in a COVID unit, I’m running out of compassion for the unvaccinated. Get the shot. A doctor featured in a Times article published Sunday on the latest wave of COVID-19 speaks for herself in a searing letter to unvaccinated people. (LA Times)

 

com·pas·sion: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

 

A partly cloudy day in North Truro. August 17, 2021, to be exact. The loud cacophony of the August Bugs (those were the less creepy-crawly insects that suddenly found their voices and their lights when August meandered onto the calendar way back when I was a kid in Pittsburgh and played a light and sound show kind of symphony announcing the end of summer and the start of fall. And worse their arrival predicting the imminent beginning of SCHOOL.) This, all mixed with the first leaves dressed in a hint of red have made their appearance, and I even saw a commercial for Pre-Season Football, and for the Patriots… (I am a die-hard Steelers Fan). The dog days of summer in a wimpy kind of way, have tried to infect the morning and afternoon hours, but this year to little avail, due to the change in climate, causing a less of a what the fuck kind of reaction. Standing in my backyard, as puffy clouds taking on the shapes of the most inanimate of objects and actually wildlife, whisked by, I closed my eyes and for a second, as a breeze whispered something a bit garbled, but nonetheless a message, I thought, Ahhhhh, safe, sound, secure and sanity!

 

I then remembered, that somehow in this nation, sanity and safe, do not equate to security, and the sounds I actually hear consist of AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM/PERSONAL FREEDOM/FUCK YOU IF YOU DON’T WANT ME TO BREATHE ON YOU/ and ONLY COMMUNIST NATIONS WILL MAKE YOU WEAR A MASK! Death, doom, dying, destruction, selfish, self-serving, me, me, me… I no longer have compassion for those who have decided that PRE-MEDITATED MURDER AND SUICIDE are the answer to COVID. And like the Doctor, if I am so sick and tired of your sheer STUPIDITY! 

 

 

 

An eerie silence

 A falling capital’s final hours: Fear, havoc, and gridlock — then eerie silence...

In Kabul, hunkering down and fearing the worst as the Afghan capital changes hands…. The war in Afghanistan has spanned the administrations of presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump…. Bush was president in 2001 when he ordered the invasion of the country, a short time after the Sept. 11 attacks. Members of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden, took responsibility for the attack. They trained in Afghanistan, where the U.S. alleged the Taliban provided them sanctuary….The US invasion of Afghanistan became the first phase of the War in Afghanistan (2001–present). US President George W. Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden and expel al-Qaeda; bin Laden had already been wanted by the FBI since 1998…. Research by Brown University estimates losses in the Afghan security forces at 69,000. It puts the number of civilians and militants killed at about 51,000 each. More than 3,500 coalition soldiers have died since 2001 - about two-thirds of them Americans. More than 20,000 US soldiers have been injured…. As of April, the U.S. has spent $2.261 trillion on the war in Afghanistan, according to the Costs of War project housed at Brown University's Watson Institute and Boston University's Pardee Center. (GOOGLE Search)

 

I am not a Military Professional. I am not a Politician. I am not a Huge Corporation producing articles made to wage war. I am not a Historian. I am not a Pacifist. I am not a War Monger. I am not an Afghani Civilian. I am not hiding from the Taliban. I am not a Militant. I am not Bankrolling a war for profit. None of these PARTICULARS identify me. All of these PARTICULARS, however, concern me, worry me, and beg more questions from me. 

 

3 presidents, 20 sessions of Congress all invested somehow in exerting American Exceptionalism overseas, exhibiting American Patriotic actions, enacting Democratic principles, and the honest question must be asked, EXACTLY for what? Many more questions I must ask/ How many of the political leadership of the last 3 presidents, and 20 sessions of Congress have felt the weight of war on their physical selves and the duress on their mental selves? Of those who profited from the War in Afghanistan, how many of those have felt more than the pangs of a winning or losing BOTTOM LINE? How many of those initiating war, have ever served in a war zone, in a battle, had to ever run for their lives, watch the lives of those they love either suffer or die? I am not judgmental, because I too have NEVER felt the sweat, the sweltering singe of rot and ruin, running for my life, staring into doom that war can bring. But with 3500 dead Troops, 20,000 injured troops, and over 51,000 Afghani’s dead, as a HUMAN I must ask and ask WHY AND WHAT FOR!

 

 

 

 

 

history once again ignored

  

Congress and the Pentagon had been pressuring him for weeks to move faster on evacuating Americans and their South Vietnamese allies, and now time was running out. That’s what Gerald Ford faced on the evening of April 28, 1975, and it is history repeating itself now. After 20 years of U.S. involvement, the Taliban entered the Afghan capital, Kabul. on Sunday morning, as the United States scrambled to evacuate embassy staff and accelerate the rescue and relocation of Afghans who aided the U.S. military. Helicopters began landing at the U.S. Embassy early Sunday and armored diplomatic vehicles were seen leaving the area around the compound, the Associated Press reported. Smoke rose from the embassy’s roof as diplomats destroyed documents to keep them from falling into the Taliban’s hands, anonymous U.S. military officials told the AP. (Washington Post)

 

A lottery drawing – the first since 1942 – was held on December 1, 1969, at Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C. This event determined the order of call for induction during the calendar year 1970; that is, for registrants born between January 1, 1944, and December 31, 1950. I was 20 years of age. I remember to this day, as Walter Cronkite read out loud the birthdates, each when they were announced proclaimed who would be drafted, who might have to wait to be drafted, who, perhaps were able to avoid being drafted. My number was 274, which meant depending on which direction the War in Vietnam went, I was safe until January 1, 1970, or still could be called up until December 1969. Unlike many people I knew, who decided to enter the military, I did not want to fight; to this day I think of those friends I lost, and am amazed at the will and strength of those who did enlist and did serve. 

 

There was no draft for the now just short of 20 years’ War in Afghanistan, and once again many Americans enlisted and offered to serve this nation. And as a parent, luckily my children had not been called to serve, as I had been lucky enough to have a LOTTERY NUMBER which was never activated. AND, as in Vietnam, the Vets return, and many bring home the mental and physical maladies, the PTSD, the agony and nightmares…and ask I am certain the same questions…WHY, WHOSE WAR WAS THIS, HOW DID YET ANOTHER WAR EVOLVE, WHAT EXACTLY WILL MY COUNTRY DO FOR ME, NOW! And as was the case in Vietnam, for the people of that nation who acted as allies for the American Government, I believe the Afghanis’ who served the American government, they wonder what is next? History, YET ONCE AGAIN, repeats itself, as if nothing had ever come before it!

Flowers Gone

 Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time passing.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Long time ago.

Where have all the flowers gone?

The girls have picked them every one.

Oh, When will you ever learn?

Oh, When will you ever learn? (‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone’/Pete Seeger)

 

I was a counselor at a camp called Emma Farm, located near the small town of Harmony PA, really close to two other small towns called Freedom, and Mars PA. (I mention the names, because way back then while we were at camp all of us sought harmony and freedom and considered life back in Pittsburgh as living on Mars!) It was the late sixties, and all around me were Hippies, Protests, Fighting for Fairness, and Equality of every sort, we wore bell-bottomed jeans, the wider the cooler, tie-dyed T-shirts, facial hair for the guys, and for the really hard-core feminists, underarm hair! This was the culture we thrived upon. Working at this resident camp for 8 weeks during the summer, the apparel also consisted of work boots or sandals, macramé jewelry, hand-cut denim shorts made from your second most favorite pair of Levi’s (the first most favorite pair were worn on Saturday nights, sitting around d the campfire, after all the campers were in bed), and the really, REALLY coolest of all Camp Staff, were the one or two kids who could play the guitar, and immediately pick up any song and play as if he or she had known this music forever! We were into Creedence Clearwater/The Who/Crosby Stills Nash and Young, but there was ALWAYS room for some Peter Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Pete Seeger. The lyrics to the song ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone,’ to this day, so simple as to almost just ignore them and tap your toe to the melody, I find simple and sad, precise, and damn too predictable, as to how too many of us live our lives, OBLIVIOUS TO THE OBVIOUS!

 

I read three stories online regarding COVID/American Extremists/Climate Change, today, and ALL THREE TOPICS are neither new and hauntingly as horrible as when we heard about them for the first time. There are answers for all three topics, but it seems even sadder that no one is asking the questions, RATHER, just regurgitating the situation…you know as in WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

 

……The US Department of Education sent letters Friday to the Republican governors of Texas and Florida, as well as Florida school administrators, amid an escalating battle between the White House and state officials over school mask guidance as the Delta variant surges…'Your child will wait for another child to die.' Amid Covid-19 surge, Dallas County has no pediatric ICU beds left, county judge says. (CNN Politics)…….. Online extremist rhetoric is strikingly similar to the buildup to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, with increasing calls for violence linked to conspiracy theories and false narratives, Homeland Security Intelligence chief. (CNN Politics) ……We just experienced the hottest month, as a planet, in any of our lifetimes — and we saw the weather extremes that resulted from. (CNN Politics)

DELIBERATELY

 I DELIBERATELY hesitated, and finally decided to NOT write a Blog on Thursday, August 12, 2021. I DELIBERATELY, waited and waited, weighing, and weighing my options as to writing, not writing, how to tackle a subject, yet not too overblown, or to continue and rehash the already overly rehashed concerns and consequences of the common man just remaining so common! Torn by either the same old, same old pile of shit, which is now called current events, or, thusly, trying to discover new deeds of rot and ruin, which seem to populate an overgrown forest of low hanging fruit; I said to myself, “NOT TODAY,” and DELIBERATELY resisted my urge to express MY angst, frustration and to at least stop the excess speed of chaos, in which I see all of us heading toward!

 

But one day off does not make matters better, nor, I have also discovered neither can one day more, cure the cooties which have corroded the lives and living, of all living species. But within that ONE DAY, of course, too much bad had been expended, too many more lies told, and way too many facts and truth have erupted from the ground as might a harvest after a day of torrential rain, only to make their best effort at surviving among the weeds and overgrown brush.

 

Suicide pushing Cruz and Paul are so beset in winning the race to the bottom of the barrel they both prefer to push lies about COVID, and somehow seem to encourage the base of bogus peons to choose death over science. The FOX favorites of the Red Hats, White Robes, and Good Nazi’s continuing to peddle snake oil, hoping that pre-meditated murder will bring them better ratings. Climate change is beyond change and more into climate morphing, and yet the wealthy folks and the wealthier corporations still refuse to admit too hot is too hot. And now as we finally pull out of a war at least TWO DECADES in the making, and as we leave behind many friends and allies to NOW fiend for themselves in Afghanistan, even more horrors of HOW AND WHY we even started this war emerge as fast as the Taliban. Frustrated and Furious at how easily HUMANKIND can be so UNKIND, I had to write my BLOG, and ask out loud, why is all this CRAZY created so DELIBERATELY!?!?

FORE AND HIND SITE

 More than 175 public health experts, scientists, and activists on Tuesday demanded that President Biden take urgent steps to confront the global spread of the coronavirus, warning that without immediate action to inoculate the rest of the world, newer variants are likely to emerge — including ones that may evade vaccines’ protection. (Washington Post)

 

Usually, for me, if the day is dreary, the temperatures a bit chilly, and our house is begging me to just give in, and do absolutely NO EXERCISE, or form of EXERTION; perhaps a bottle of Pinot Noir is calling my name, “GERALD, GERRY, GER,” as our sofa magically has transformed itself into a day bed, and even our dog Chance is giving me a hypnotic eye, and some sort of telepathy saying, just watch a bad movie full of terrifying What If’s and tons of Oh My God’s and a myriad of END OF THE WORLD WORRIES. Having little to no ability to ignore this inviting EXCURSION into drama trauma, we will be saved in the end in the nick of time-LAND, I acquiesce and indulge in one of my favorite passive pleasures and watch A MOTHER NATURE is gonna get you kind of movie. And as I watch it, I think, “Oh Come On, How Obvious Is The Answer, OR, This All Could Have Been Avoided, OR Does It Always Take A Nerdy Scientist, A Buxom Blond, One Of Two Slighted People of Color, And Many Times An Adolescent, to stop a VIRAL OUTBREAK, a ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE, a DANGEROUS MAN AND WOMAN EATING AMOEBA, from ending humankind? And after two glasses of Pinot Noir, a few pauses on the remote for bathroom breaks, taking my dog out for his bathroom break, some nosh, and a wasted two hours I say to myself, PHEW, glad it wasn’t me and my family and friends, caught up in that MESS! Oh yeah, all of that was soooooo AVOIDABLE!

 

The day is sunny, the wind warm, the humidity laughing at just how sticky it is making me; our house has not yet begged me to just relax, and I had already exercised, so there is nothing COMPELLING me to watch a DOOMSDAY FLICK. But instead, I read the NEWS, lots of the NEWS, from a ton of sources, and low and behold, the NEWS reads like a bad script from an even worse movie, and all I read, is that as per usual, HUMANKIND, is acting like UNKIND HUMANS, and ignoring MOTHER NATURE, FATHER TIME, pretending that every warning, every time is running out, every, JUST DO SOMETHING, doesn’t matter. HINDSIGHT it seems is just as blind as FORESIGHT!

kids, kids, kids

 “Twins! Twins!” Ten-year-old Eva Mozes clung to her mother amidst the chaos of the selection platform at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Before arriving at the death camp, she had been stuffed into a train car on a seemingly endless journey from Hungary. Now, she and her twin sister Miriam pressed close as Nazi guards shouted orders in German. Suddenly, an SS guard stopped in front of the identical girls. “Are they twins?” he asked their mother. “Is that good?” she replied. He nodded, and Eva Mozes’s life changed forever. The SS guard grabbed her and Miriam, whisking them away from their mother as they screamed and called her name. They never saw her again. Eva and Miriam had just become subjects of a massive, inhumane medical experimentation program at Auschwitz-Birkenau—a program aimed solely at thousands of twins, many of them children. (History)

 

During the Holocaust, (and yes QAnon Greene, and Dip Shit Boebert, THE HOLOCAUST was a real man and woman made disaster and horrific example of the evil within some people) … kids were as vulnerable to the horrific machinations of crazed politicians, and insane officials of Germany, and considered a kind of collateral to make or break careers. VERY FEW OCCURANCES throughout HISTORY can compare to the devious, deceit and direct assault on humankind as was THE HOLOCAUST, but way too many circumstances originated by the most mentally ill AND PSYOCOTIC AND SOCIOPATHIC remain as REMINDERS of the VILE, VENOMOUS AND VILLAINOUS attempts to destroy and demean!

 

AND NOW THIS: Florida school superintendents who require masks for students without giving them a way to opt-out could have their salaries withheld, Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said Monday. DeSantis last week barred local school districts from requiring students to wear masks amid a rise in cases, but at least one Florida school district said they will be mandatory when classes begin Wednesday. (NBC News) Dr. Death DeSantis, in his bid to become the BIGGEST BULLY and to out trump, TRUMP, to win the minds and hearts of the Good Nazi’s/FOX Conspiracy Theorists/The South Will Rise Again Christian Nationalists and MAGA Bigots has decided that YOUR KIDS are useful tools in HIS TOOLBOX to clinch the title of GQP Presidential Candidate in 2024.

 

 

Dumb and Dumber Part 2

  

 

Dumb and Dumber is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly,[1][2] who co-wrote the screenplay with Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin. Starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, it tells the story of Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Daniels), two dumb but well-meaning friends from Providence, Rhode Island, who set out on a cross-country trip to Aspen, Colorado, to return a briefcase full of money to its owner, thinking it was abandoned as a mistake though it was actually left as ransom money. Lauren Holly, Karen Duffy, Mike Starr, Charles Rocket, and Teri Garr play supporting roles.

 

While Joe Biden calls on elected officials to help fight the pandemic or “get out of the way,” Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are outdoing one another to see who can make their state more virus-riddled…….. 

Thanks to Ron DeSantis, the profoundly cynical and incorrigibly smug Florida governor, the Sunshine State had led by a nose in this race to the bottom. DeSantis has mocked public health officials as caseloads skyrocketed, pursued an idiotic offensive against Biden, and enacted rules designed to prevent mask and vaccine requirements and to forbid municipalities from instituting their own COVID safety measures. “We think that’s the most fair way to do it,” DeSantis said last week, introducing an order making masks optional in schools. 

But Texas, led by Greg Abbott, who has also banned local COVID ordinances, has come roaring back. On Thursday, the state released new guidance that somehow makes DeSantis’s effort to block cruise ships from requiring vaccines seem smart: Under recommendations from the Texas Education Agency, schools do not need to conduct contract tracing and do not need to let parents know if a student has tested positive for the virus. If a student does come into contact with an infected person, a parent can still send them to school under the new guidance. (Vanity Fair)

 

At first, upon meeting Junior Trump and his Little Bro, Eric, (and I MUST add IMMEDIATELY after their public debut as SPAWN of the First Fascist Regime’s First Family, I viewed them as more malevolent versions of the characters from the movie Dumb and Dumber) What rampaged through my head was “run for the Hills!” HOWEVER, unlike the movie which ended, and I could then resume my life laughing at imbecilic idiots, THESE dour TRUMP DUFFUS’ became a sad and pathetic reality, much like the reality show produced from within the White House. For some reason, it seems the Grand QAnon Party insists on discovering the lowest common denominator/the most insidious means by which to patronize the parasites known as the Republican Base/and a penchant for committing Pre-Meditated Manslaughter, justifying their actions as just being SPITEFUL toward anyone identifying as a Democrat. Now Junior Trump and his Bro, Eric is lie flailing fish left to bake in a dry hot sun on a beach; having been recently overlooked in favor of two SHAMEFULLY, SHYSTER SNAKE OIL SALESMEN, Dr. Death DeSantis and All About Me, Abbott. Hard to believe, the sane and thoughtful of Florida and Texas have not demanded a recall of these two purveyors of MASS SUICIDE. But then I suppose in both the NATION STATES OF FLORIDA AND TEXAS, morals, and values have already died! 

STAT

 Let’s talk about Kidney Stones, shall we?  The medical definition is Kidney stones are hard deposits of minerals and acid salts that stick together in concentrated urine. They can be painful when passing through the urinary tract, but usually don't cause permanent damage.

The most common symptom is severe pain, usually, on the side of the abdomen, that's often associated with nausea. But MY personal definition contains a plethora of FOUR-LETTER WORDS/GRUNTS/GROANS/WHY ME GOD, AND NOT AGAIN! My introduction to this wrath of nature began in 1989 and lasted until 1999. Yeppers, for a decade, on or around my birthday in October, I gave birth to one kidney stone a year, for 10 years, and began labor pains on or around my birthday, until plopping out of an opening in my body, (WAY TOO SMALL for anything but perhaps a yellow substance of liquid), was a hard clunk on the porcelain throne, a nugget announcing its fucking arrival!

 

Uh-Huh. And here is the thingie I noticed after my second entrance to Dante’s Inferno…that when arriving at the Emergency Room at any hospital (during my 10 years I visited large, small, urban, rural Emergency Rooms and had, family, friends, and co-workers, bear the brunt of both verbal and non-verbal abuse) there were TWO kinds of Nurses and Doctors…Those Medical Personnel who had either experienced the dubious delight of SEVER PAIN due to something as rotten as a Kidney Stone, or those who HAD NOT. How, you may ask did I know this…EASY…because upon my arrival the Emergency Room Staff would either say “OH IT WILL PASS, DON’T WORRY” (I must add here and now, that to this day I still wish a curse of Kidney Stones on them) OR they would IMMEDIATELY MUTTER, Demerol, or Morphine Drip STAT! (I used to love the word STAT, and eventually, I came to call Demerol and Morphine my Demi Moore, elixir! About my fourth year of KIDNEY STONE HELL, upon my arrival I would wait about 5 minutes, impatient that the STAFF was not listening to THIS PATIENT and become belligerent (One is permitted to become belligerent when the only thing that can almost stop the pain is a combo of DEMI MORRE) and insist I be given NARCOTICS. And once again those who had never experienced Natures Doom, would whisper, was I a Drug Addict, and those who had EVER lived through the Kidney Stone Journey said “STAT!”

 

Recently some friends of mine came down with COVID. They HAD been vaccinated, and when the VIRUS hit them this time, ALL of them were thankful they had received the vaccination, because the symptoms they suffered from, were terrible, but not BAD enough to drive them to the EMERGENCY ROOM. Oftentimes, when asking my friends “What it felt like”, the response was with sentences using FOUR-LETTER WORDS…BUT… always ending with the phrase, “I can NOT imagine having COVID without having been vaccinated.” I am sorry that oftentimes empathy or intelligence, or compassion or common sense, are vacant because YOU or ME have no idea of pain or suffering, duress, or damnation of another. And too often help comes with the word STAT!

EXCEPT

 So today, Friday, August 6, 2021, I thought I would rant and ruminate regarding the DOUBLE STANDARDS AND HYPOCICY regarding the folks of the GRAND QANON PARTY (GQP) and their associated groups the AMERICAN CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS/THE LOVERS OF THE CONFEDERACY AND NAZI GERMANY/THE PRO-LIFE AS LONG IT IS IN THE WOMB/ and THE RED HATS, WHITE SHEETS/ AND BLUE LIVES MATTER (as long as they are not the men and women of the Capitol Police Force. A true Republican RED, WHITE AND BLUE motif!

 

I mean, I was going to complain about how having a vaccination card is an intrusion by our government as if too much intervention by the government is bad……EXCEPT if that intervention means voter IDs, voter suppression, and the ever Fascist ideal of restricting voting to those who support your favorite dictator! And the ever-ready to shout out, “it’s my body so fuck off” ……. EXCEPT if THAT body belongs to a female who is pregnant, or an individual who is so sick and in such pain, and all they wish is to finally find peace in death! And the “law and order” liars who think law and order relate to restricting peaceful protestors from getting run over, black lives from being cut short, or minorities from being singled out…..EXCEPT somehow if you are a BLUE LIFE and care about maintaining democracy, and trying to stop an INSURRECTION OR COUP, you are a bad cop!

 

But all of the above is nothing after I read the following: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) was caught on video telling her fanatical supporters to shoot vaccine workers. "Well, Joe Biden wants to come talk to you guys," she said. "He's going to be sending one of his police state friends to your front door, knock on the door, write down your name, your address, your family members' names, your cell phone numbers, probably ask for your Social Security number, and whether you've taken the vaccine or not." "Yeah, well, what they don't know is in the South we all love our Second Amendment rights, and we're not really big on strangers showing up at our front door, are we? They might not like the welcome they get," she said, getting cheers and applause from the crowd. I mean, WTF…or is it we are fucked!

DeSantis

 I have nothing but disdain for the Dictator, DeSantis of the Nation-State of Florida. On his plunge downward, trying to out trump, TRUMP, as a treacherous, treasonous, venomous villain, deciding that delusion, and danger are the key ingredients to enlightening his flock of lemmings; Dictator DeSantis seems to be planning his Pre-Meditated Murderous LET ME BE THE REPUBLICAN NOMINEE ROUTINE on the lives of the young, the elderly, the compromised of his state.

 

Looking closely at any and all of the probable candidates within the GQP, the most common of nasty denominators is the one which SCREAMS, LOOK AT HOW FUCKING AWFUL AND WITHOUT VALUES/MORALS/ETHICS/AND FACTS I CAN BE. Vote for me, and I will destroy your bodies, your air, your lives, and your planet. Vote for me, because I know how stupid you are because you are too stupid to realize what is REALLY good for you!

 

So, yesterday in the midst of a raging Pandemic within his Nation-State, Dictator DeSantis, calls out President Biden for asking politicians to stop getting in the way of saving the lives of Americans. And hoping the Red Hat/Good Nazi/Proud Boys/KKK/FOX Viewers/ are still so damned dumb, Dictator DeSantis pretends that THEIR fucked-up version of Freedom, Self-Choice/ My Body My Decision (Except of course if you are a female, who is pregnant) will motivate them to vote for Dictator DeSantis for President.