What it is about

 Make no mistake, Trump was really convicted of winning the 2016 election. The Democrat party has done everything possible to destroy him since.

Those of you who disagree, can you say with 100% certainty Trump would have been prosecuted had he not proclaimed he was again seeking the Presidency in 2024?

Yeah, I know the answer and so do you. 

What a joke

The kangaroo court has spoken.

I’m not surprised. 

It just convinced me to vote for Trump, and that was no sure thing before.

Even People in Banana Republics are Shaking Their Heads in Confusion

Let me see if I have this right. A prosecutor runs for election on the promise he is going to prosecute a person for some crime, any crime. He will decide later.

That individual is finally charged. The crime is a misdemeanor. And yes, that misdemeanor was way past the statute of limitations, but if the prosecutor can tie that crime to another crime then it is OK to charge the defendant.  Legal experts all over try to tell the prosecutor that is not how the law works, no one ever has been charged like that, but the prosecutor says "But I promised to get him for something, anything."

The judge decides the defendant cannot exercise his First Amendment rights because the judge doesn't like the fact that the defendant says the judge is biased and his daughter is a fundraiser and major supporter of the other political party, even though it is absolutely true. The judge threatens to fine and send the defendant to jail if he says anything negative about his trial.

The star witness is an admitted perjurer and felon. He lies in his testimony, and admits he is a thief and embezzler, but we should ignore that because the crimes he is testifying about are so heinous. 

What are those crimes? Despite the Sixth Amendment, which says "[the accused is] informed of the nature and cause of the accusation...to have compulsory witnesses in his favor." The prosecutor and judge decide that naming the crime is prejudicial against the State's case. And to confuse the issue the Judge lets people testify to salacious details that are fun and exciting, but have absolutely nothing to do with bookkeeping entries that may or may not be illegal. 

The judge tells the jury they can choose what additional crime the accused committed. The judge will not tell them the law, the defense cannot have witnesses to describe the law, and believe it or not, the jury does not have to agree on whatever additional crime the defendant did, as long as all twelve think he did something, anything, illegal. 

Oh, the defendant is a politician and of the other party from the judge and prosecutor. 

But we are not to think any of this is political nor unfair.

Flattened

Yesterday was a cluster of inconveniences. I went out about noon to check the mail and discovered the Grand Cherokee had a flat. Remarkably, I did not swear. My drive slopes toward the street. It is not all that steep, but more than I want to worry about jacking up a big old SUV. 

I dragged out my little tiny air compressor and plugged it into what old phartz like me call the cigarette lighter port, even though cigarette lighters in the car disappeared years ago. I blew the tire up to about 25 psi and backed the car into the street and parked next to the curb. I decided to see what happens. I moseyed back out thirty minutes or so later and the tire had lost maybe a pound or two of pressure.

I filled it up some more and drove a couple of miles to the tire store. They said they could get to it in a few hours. I called the wife and she picked me up. 

The tire store called to tell me the key for the locking lug nuts was nowhere to be found. Only one other place has ever touched the vehicle; the dealer where I get it serviced ( it came with three years of free oil changes). I had the wife drive me there. I was willing to buy a new lug nut key. The company would pay, it’s their car. 

Dealer parts guy says can’t help me. Suggests I talk to service. Service guy shrugs and says he can’t help me unless I have the car. I keep my cool and tell him there is no way I’m paying to tow a car when they lost the key. He shrugs. Standoff. I swear under my breath as I tell the wife to take me to the tire store. 

I find the package of lug nuts they replaced with the locking nuts and the empty slot where the key went. The kit was a Mopar kit. Of course the Chrysler Jeep dealer can get the key. I swore some more. Tire store filled up the tire with air and I managed to get the car to the dealer. 

I triumphly shoved the package in the service guy’s face pointing to the empty key space. “We can’t get to it until tomorrow,” he tells me. It is now 5:45. I’m not surprised at all. I tell him to change the oil while he has the car, it is due in about 1000 miles anyway. 

“And while you are rotating the tires, put the regular lug nuts back on,” I tell him. I never wanted the fancy locking SOBs anyway. The dealer added those as a way to jack up the cost to the leasing company. I don’t want to deal with it going forward. 

A Great Dane makes a lousy lap dog

Happy Tuesday. This will be a short work week and I’m good with that. 

I went get some more mulch yesterday while it is still on sale and I swing by Chik-fil-A on the way home to grab us some lunch.  Why is it there is always that one tool who cannot get with the program? 

This location has dual drive-thru lanes. The nice workers take your order and then you pull forward to where the lanes merge into one. Any right thinking civilized person can see you merge right, left, right, left. Even if you cannot grasp the concept you should get it through the example of the cars in front of you, yet there is always that one jerk who absolutely NEEDS his food one car sooner and shoves his way forward out of turn - right, left, right, right. What is with these people?

Anyway, I finished filling in the area by the patio with mulch. It looks much better. I will have to go back down to Lowe’s today to get a refund on two bags of mulch that had some mildewed/molded mulch in the bag. 

It’s work time. Have a great day. 

Decoration Day

Today is the day to remember those who gave their lives in service to their country. It is a day of sober reflection. 

Take a moment to remember those fallen heroes. 

Just music

 

Cloudy with a chance of napping

I stayed up late last night. I’m up early this morning. That’s not a combination I recommend. It means a nap this afternoon, I suspect. 

Some thunderstorms rolled through late yesterday evening. It wasn’t supposed to rain at all yesterday. I swear if I was as bad at forecasting as the folks at the weather bureau, I would be out of a job. 

There’s a couple of paragraphs of pure complaining. Sorry about that. 

I have classic country music playing on my spy device. Johnny Cash was just followed by Dolly singing I Will Always Love You. I always forget the original version is beautiful in a different way than Whitney Houston did it, proving a great song is a great song. 

I’ve rambled enough this morning. Enjoy your Saturday.

I lost you to the summer wind

It is finally Friday. Better yet, it is the Friday of a long weekend! The summer season is upon us, I don’t care what the calendar says.Woot! I may knock off early , the piles of paper on my desk notwithstanding. Okay, there are no piles of paper. It is all electronic these days. The only paper on my desk is a stenographer’s tablet I use as a scratch pad. I keep notes, numbers, and all manner of stuff scribbled in the pages. The handwriting is front and back of pages in a never ending mishmash of gibberish to anyone but me. 

Usually the notes are simple stuff. I might write down a part number, the cost, and the markup to get the price so I can type up a quote. I might write down topics to cover in my weekly meeting with the boss. Nothing of interest to an outsider, but a steady reminder of things going back to day one on this job. I’m on my second or third notebook.

How did we get off on that tangent anyway? If the weather stays nice this afternoon and no more time-sucking emergencies arise at work, I may try to get a little yard work done this afternoon. 

The rest of the weekend? As far as I know we have no plans. But I won’t be sitting at my desk, that’s for sure. 

What? Of course I can play someFriday music. That is why you are here isn’t it? 

We are having a little party

Yeah, yeah I haven't forgotten about you. The paying work sometimes gets in the way of my hobbies. This is just such a day.

You will get over it.

Hiding behind the shrubs

Can someone, anyone, tell me where I can find all of the White Supremacists the president and his cronies keep telling me are everywhere? Where are the losers in their pee-stained bedsheets marching around and burning crosses? Are there secret Nazis in great numbers planning to resurrect Krystalnacht? I want to know, because I too hate Illinois Naxis.. 

I live in the whitest of white suburbs and I cannot find any separate but equal bathrooms. The schools are not segregated. People of color are in pretty much every store and restaurant I visit— shopping and eating, not working. 

I don’t understand how a country as racist as the democrats believe and claim is true about the US allows scholarships exclusively for black people. How did we allow a museum of African American history as part of the Smithsonian if the President is telling the truth?

I am unaware of any place where only white people can vote. Any citizen, regardless of melanin levels can run for office, providing they meet residence and age requirements. 

Given the attention from the a president in his recent speeches, I was sure I would see rallies, meetings, protests, and recruitment from these huge white supremacy groups reported on the local news. 

I guess these low lifes are in your neighborhood, city, town, and state, because they aren’t in mine. 

Look, I know there are racists out there. There is no shortage of bigots. But I do not believe there is cabal of white supremacy fighting to hold down people of color. It is a bogeyman to buy votes and it helps no one.

What do you mean it is only Tuesday?

I could type out a  scorching rant about the obvious cognitive dysfunction of the President. He thinks he was VP under Obama during the pandemic. We won’t even get into the slurring of words, falling, and stumbling around lost on stage. If you are so blinded by partisan leanings you refuse to see things as they are, well rest assured our political enemies around the globe sure do. 

Unfortunately, the Veep is possibly worse in so many ways. 

Look, it is a beautiful day and I’m in a good mood. I propose we listen to music instead. I have several songs swirling in my head, but we are going with some outlaw country because I want to.

Pork choppin’

What a Sunday. The grandgirls spent the night Saturday, so I made a coffee cake for breakfast. After they ate they went outside to play until their mom came to pick them up. My drive now sports some beautiful chalk art. 

After the girls left we climbed into the Grand Cherokee and headed off to the big box to pick up some dirt, mulch, and a few flowers. While the wife planted flowers I power washed the front porch and the back patio. Then I spread mulch and cleaned and hooked up my fountain water feature. 

After a quick shower, I threw in some cheesy potatoes from the freezer. The wife had purchased a couple of thick pork chops and I covered them with a nice rub before I tossed them  on the grill next to some corn on the cob. When the chops were almost done I coated them with some BBQ sauce.  I sliced up a big old beefsteak tomatoes we picked up at farmers market yesterday. In all it was a feast. But we weren’t done: I cut up some fresh-pick strawberries we also got at the market. The wife had whipped cream on hers. I had a splash of milk. 

The Cubs lost to the lowly Pirates. Most likely because I was busy doing lawn work and did not watch. Otherwise it was a good day. 

Do the Hokey Pokey

It’s looks to be a gorgeous Sunday here in zgod’s favorite State. It will be sunny and warm. We shall see what projects the wife decides are essential. 

The granddaughters spent the night last night . We went bowling and ate pizza and had a grand old time. The pizza was bowling alley pizza. The girls liked it. I thought it was meh at best. 

I’ve been having issues with my feet. Spending a week standing on barely carpeted concretes and beaucoup walking a couple of weeks ago has contributed mightily to my pain levels. Pushing off on no-support bowling shoes did not help. Last night  I am limping around the house this morning. 

Since my surgically repaired right foot never completely healed, I have put more stress on my left foot and now it is bothering me. Both feet have the same problem- excessively high arches, so it is quite possible I have bone spurs and stress fractures in the left foot too. I just know it hurts this morning. 

I hobble around like an old man these days. Oh wait, I am an old man. 

On this date

 I’m lucky in that I have travelled all over for work. From about 1993 through 2006 I travelled 3-4 times a year to Portland, Oregon for visits to my biggest customer. Given flight schedules and meeting times I usually had a free day to explore. I’ve been up the Columbia River Gorge, to the Pacific Ocean shore, atop Mt Hood, and three times to view the wreckage of Mt St. Helens. 

The St Helens eruption of May 18, 1980 left a lasting scar on the landscape. In my earliest visits, the downed trees were everywhere. In my last visit, a decade later, the forest was already reinventing itself. 

The volcano is something you should see if you are ever in the Pacific Northwest. 

I have often said if I could ever only go on one more trip, this area would probably be my choice. Not the other places I’ve been: Hawaii, Europe, China, Caribbean islands. I love the area around Portland, despite what the leftists have done to the area.

Simple man

I’m not a complicated man. I grew up decidedly lower middle class and my parents made the best out of what we had. I did not know we were poor until I recognized the signs when I became an adult. Mom didn’t want to send me with a handful of change to buy milk. It was what she had that day. 

It was the same with food. Somehow, I learned to actually like casseroles. One of my favorite meals was hamburger, macaroni, and tomatoes cooked together in a kind of Hamburger Helper before the stuff was invented.

I still like it. My wife? Not so much. Nonetheless, I made up a batch the other day and ate way too much. I think it has been a year since we had before this time.

It sounds pretty good right now.  I don't think the wife will agree to eat it again already. 

Yeah, I snuck in some Friday Music.

We have to stop meeting like this

It is a day of on-line meetings. The first kicks off at 8:00-9:30, followed by the next from 10:00-11:00. Then the big monthly sales meeting from 1:00 to probably 3:00. By the end I will be bored to tears. It is likely to be a four coffee day. 

It could be worse, I’m not standing around at a trade show booth. 

Hypocrite much?

If the climate is the number one crisis facing the globe and the Biden Administration has determined that reducing vehicle emission's is paramount to that battle, why did Sleepy Joe just slap a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles? Shouldn’t saving the planet—the whole planet— from catastrophic environmental consequences be more important than any capitalist manufacturing concerns in the United States? 

Apparently, Biden does not want Americans to have cheap electric cars if it means pissing off the unions. 

The climate is only an existential crisis until it gets in the way of re-election. 

Feeding your blogging desires

It was a beautiful evening Monday, so I threw some burgers on the grill. I made a batch of potatoes salad and heated a can of Bush’s baked beans. I made up some deviled eggs since I was boiling eggs for the potato salad anyway. It was a feast any king would enjoy. 

Today? I have no idea what I’m eating for lunch, forget supper. Okay, that is only half true. I probably will have some potato salad for lunch. Definitely maybe. 

I’m glad I’m not my hunter gatherer ancestor. By the time I decided to eat some berries or barbecue up a tasty saber tooth tiger, it would be too late to hunter and gather. I suppose the Neolithic A&P had a limited offering. Wait, did someone say pizza?

Helping the Terrorists

Yes, yes, I am here, albeit late. Monday struck with a vengeance. I knew it would since I was up until nearly 1AM working Sunday night/Monday morning. I was back at it before seven this morning. 

I had more than one hundred emails to sort through on top of major price files to update, repair, fix, and get emailed early. Blah, blah, you don’t care. 

If I understand the news over the weekend, it appears the US has intelligence on where the Hamas terrorists are hiding in Gaza and Biden did not feel the need to share this info with Israel.

This is akin to one of our allies knowing bin Ladin’s address and not bothering to share it with the United States for reasons. How many lost lives are on Brandon’s head for this? 

This isn’t the Enigma machine and Coventry from WWII, this is refusing to get Hitler if you had a chance. Despicable.

It appears anti-Semitic college kids showed their ass all over the country. I can only hope their future employers are watching.

Mom

Happy Mothers Day to all you Mommas out there. 

Tapping into the live feed

 Good morning bloggers. I am back live blogging my life. Not that anything interesting is about to suddenly appear in these electronic pages, but it is not another video, so there is that. 

The automation/robot trade show was boring and a week standing on my surgically repaired foot in dress shoes is painful, but it was great hanging out with my colleagues. We all work remotely, so we only get together a couple of times a year. We ate some terrific food, watched the Cubs win with a walk-off home run, and had a generally good time. 

I was glad to get home yesterday evening. Even though I travel far less than I did in the past, it is amazing how fast I can adapt to living out of a suitcase. And the wife easily goes back into her routine while I’m gone. Thirty years on the road does that. 

I usually throw up some music on a Saturday morning. I think I will spare you that today.

Have a great Saturday.

Heading home

 A little Chicago for my last day in Chicago.

And another time song.

Are you tired of the “time songs yet? It has been eight straight days. 

A double

 

Last Day—Woot!

 

It fits the theme

I could do this all week

 

Trade shows suck

 It is theme week

I lied

 I lied this is a canned post. 

If you want to call it that. 

It is theme week here at the old blog.

Continuing a theme

 

May The Fourth Be With You

 I thought I might watch the dawn start from my patio this morning. Alas, at only sixty degrees that isn’t going to happen. Instead I’m blogging from the breakfast table this morning. I can watch the morning bloom through the sliding patio doors instead. 

We have a busy day in store. We are off early to see the oldest granddaughter in a dance competition. Right after we must rush over to the soccer fields to watch the youngest play. This evening we are going out for her birthday dinner(today is her birthday). I told you last week that topic would come up again. Yes she is our “Star Wars” baby.

Have a great Saturday.

Lost in extra innings

It seems Friday has rolled around yet again. It is almost as if it comes every seven days or something. I want to warn you right up front, posting may be light to non-existent next week. I’m off to the robotics show for the week. As always, I am less than thrilled. Trade shows operate in a strange time warp where every minute you are there only counts as 20 seconds of real time. An hour passes, yet the clock only counts twenty minutes. It is awful. Oh, and you get to do it standing up the whole time. 

I will get to spend time with my work colleagues and that really is the only bonus. I like the people I work with. This year the show is in Chicago instead of Detroit. I don’t know if that is good or bad. We shall see. 

You never know, I may post my usual drivel. I do know this, I have no posts canned and ready, so if you do get something it will be fresh garbage. 

Enjoy your Friday. 

Just Desserts

Columbia University finally did something about the criminals taking over the campus and called in the cops. The ones who occupied the building should be additionally charged with taking hostages since they would not let the workers in the building go for thirty or forty minutes. 

We are about to find out if the prosecutor in Manhattan believes in the rule of law or only if it applies to Republicans. 

I think we know the answer to that.