Revenge of the astrix

 The weather cognoscenti all agree we are getting a big dose of Climate Change today with frigid temperatures, sub-zero windchills, and up to a foot of snow. I call it winter.

We were advised to cut back on the thermostat and throw on an extra sweatshirt because natural gas prices are on the rise. Seems there is a developing shortage. 

Biden* has put a moratorium on fracking and drilling so the once so plentiful natural gas supply we were exporting it is starting to dry up. Who saw that coming? I suspect we will see $4 gas by the end of the year. But the pouty Scandinavian teenager will be less unhappy, so there is that. More importantly, Trump can’t tweet mean things any more. 

Thanks for that Biden* voters.

Thoughts XIV

 I spilled spot remover on my dog

Now he is gone 

Oh, Happy Valentines Day

Karma Komodo Dragon

When I was eighteen I was still getting into movies at “child” prices.

I was routinely carded when I was well into my thirties when buying beer.

Even in my forties I looked young for my age.

Today? I’m not even sixty and I look ten years older. 

I don’t feel old. Most days. The mirror tells the truth, though.

Life is sure funny.

Fact

 The Godfather is undoubtedly the greatest movie ever made.

You may argue in the comments. If you put forth that The Godfather II is better, I might listen. Otherwise you are wrong in your opinion (my statement is fact).

Don’t even think about proposing that weak Rosebud the sled movie. 

Thinking again

I keep hearing the impeachment advocates arguing that Republicans need to have open minds. They say they need 17 GOPers to vote guilty. 

No one mentions that every Democrat is assumed to vote guilty. 

I guess open minds only works in one direction 

Dear Bruce

 After four years of your decisiveness, hate, and general assholery, I refuse to listen to you lecture me on reuniting the country. Kiss my ass.

And Jeep you can pucker up too for paying for that piece of crap ad.

Why would any company go out of its way to antagonize fifty percent of its prospective customer base? 

Slouching Towards Banana Republicanism

James Madison wrote the Constitution with remarkably clear, concise, and simple prose. It remains eminently readable some 230 years later. Consider Article I Sections 3.6 and 3.7:

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

So to parse just a bit (even a non-lawyer like me can read this plain English) : "shall not extend further than to removal from Office". Since Trump is no longer holding public office, impeachment is not available. To disqualify Trump from future office is included only through the "and". It is not an either/or/whichever we choose option*. The text is clear. You cannot impeach someone is is not in office. Further, the Chief Justice is not presiding, making the entire affair extralegal. 

I will not even get too deep into other issues with the impeachment. For instance the notion that Trump incited the riots when the justice department has charged some of the participants with "conspiracy" -- meaning they had advance plans for a crime, thus Trump could not have incited the riots. Nor the totally un-American notion of justice when the supposed "Judge" gets to vote on the conviction. I don't se a lot of justice there. 

Trust me on this, the Democrats will rue the day they have taken this unprecedented act of political revenge. Biden participated in the unlawful spying on the Trump campaign with Obama. His dealings with Ukraine and China are still suspect. Can we go back and impeach Clinton again? No future politician will be safe. Jackson and Wilson and LBJ used the N-word with abandon. Several owned slaves. Are we going to go full Stalin and erase the history of any predecessor whose politics we do not like? Is the mere expression of one's First Amendment Rights a crime now?

This is a sad farce and politics at the most evil basic level. I spit on all concerned.

* Don't even start with the morally bankrupt Cabinet Officer from the Grant administration. He should have been allowed to resign and charged with the full might of the law for his malfeasance.  First that guy was not the President, besides, precedent is not set in stone.  I'm looking at you Dred Scott and Plessey vs. Fergusson. Do not waste my time on that specious argument.

Thoughts

 Seems there are two types of people: Those who love Tom Brady and decent human beings.

Cowboys

 A lady went into a bar in Waco and saw a cowboy with his feet propped up on a table. He had the biggest feet she’d ever seen. The woman asked the cowboy if it’s true what they say about men with big feet being well endowed. The cowboy grinned and said ‘Shore is, little lady. Why don’t you come on out to the bunkhouse and let me prove it to you?’

The woman wanted to find out for herself, so she spent the night with him. The next morning she handed him a $100 bill . Blushing, he said, ‘Well, thankya, ma’am. Ah’m real flattered. Ain’t nobody ever paid me fer mah services before.’ ‘Don’t be flattered… Take the money and buy yourself some boots that fit.’

 

I have always hated the title of this blog

It is Monday, a new week. A dusting of snow lies on the ground. Cold air leaks in the office window as I type on the ancient laptop keyboard. I stare at the cursor and realize yet again I have nothing to offer here at the old blog. I could talk about last night's dinner (I made lasagna). I could grumble about work. I could toss up a righteous rant about the Astrix and Kaaaamela; reminding you that you are about to get a dose of what you voted for good and hard. I could whine about the Cubs or bore you to tears with photos or music or old jokes. In other words, the same stale content. 

I just don't have it in me any more. I am just short of sixteen years of posting nearly every day. I have written almost 7,000 posts*. To what purpose?  

I first started blogging because I worked in an office by myself. My company was in Italy and I had little contact with the outside world unless I was on the road. I was in a bad place and needed to vent. I spent much of the time writing this blog as a travelling salesman. Life on the road is a solitary existence, despite your preconceptions. Hours in the car, sitting in airports, dining alone, staring at a hotel TV. A few hours with customers. But I saw stuff and experienced stuff that occasionally made for good blog fodder. 

That life is behind me for now. Someday soon I hope to get back to what I love and am good at. I remain optimistic.  Maybe then I will have some new stories.

I seems to me content is a shell of what it once was**. I am bored by it, you have to be. 

I am taking a break. It might be for a day, it might be a month. It might be forever. I just don't know. I will still read your blogs. I will still read your comments. I just will not be writing here for now. It will be no great loss. I suspect the Google Overlords are going to shut it down for insurrectionist content in the coming crackdown anyhow. No, despite my penchant for sarcasm, that was not written tongue in cheek. 

So long for now and I thank you for you patronage. The fact that you read here at all is humbling. I lack the vocabulary to express how much it means to me to know you bothered to stop by, whether it was once or 6,961 times. 

Who knows, perhaps the new administration will tick me off so much I cannot resist the temptation to comment. Maybe I will run across a joke so funny that I will just have to share. Maybe life will toss me a fast ball thigh high I can hit out of the park instead of yet another curve. You will be the first to know. Or not. I think time away is what is needed most.

Thanks for everything, mon amis.

*6,961, but who is counting?

** I make no claim that it was ever good on a regular basis. But I think I did throw up a few good entries overt the years -- you know monkeys, typewriters, etc.

Headline Hits

 I went to a bookstore last night. The sign said they had hard to find books. 

Nothing was alphabetized.

The feature you didn't ask for

Let's go tease up some big hair and put some padded shoulders in our suit jackets. Go heavy on the eye makeup, girls, we are heading back to the eighties for our Friday music today. 

Heck, lets do an eighties twofer:

Do we dare go for three?:

Go forth and have a great Friday.

On a different note, like F sharp

I'm going to be upfront with you, unless I get really ambitious and do two posts today, there will be no post for you tomorrow. 

I know.

I have the late closing shift today. I have the opening shift on the morrow. 

That's what I said too. Not really, the powers in charge called me into the office last week and said pretty please, we need you, so I agreed to work that schedule.  I'm a great guy, eh wot? 

The little one is not coming over this morning. Too bad, since I am home all morning and early afternoon. My daughter may have the dreaded Chinese Covid, so is in quarantine until test results come back. That means the kids are in lock down too. Luckily, we haven't been exposed to our daughter, so protocol says we can mingle with the genpop until if and when the grandgirls test positive. I will advise if you need to double mask, slap on the rubber gloves,  and stay six feet from me if the need arises. Your internet health is important to me. Really.

xxxxx.   Whoa, that was close. I almost made a political observation and commentary. I have been directed by one of my commenters to not delve into politics. You see, having an opinion "doesn't help". Mmmm OK.

The winter remains mild. I don't really mind. I wouldn't care much if we got a heap of snow and frigid temperatures either. That's how I roll.

I think that is about enough nonsense for today. I tell you what, I will close out this waste of letters and punctuation and throw up some music for a Friday post.

No, you will have to come back tomorrow to see what I chose. I have a tune swirling in my brainpan, I may or may not use that one. Decisions, decisions.

Enjoy your Thursday.

Switching gears

Enough politics. 

What else is going on? I am still drastically under-employed. Looking, applying, praying without success. 

The Colts lost a playoff game they could easily have won. That is sports. The Cubs are reverting to historical suck mode. They gave the fans a taste of success. Now it appears the ownership will be content with mediocrity going forward. Like the Wrigley family and Tribune Companies before, the Ricketts have discovered they can make a lot of money off the fan base without spending for decent players. 

We continue to have a relatively mild winter so far. I think north Texas has now had more snow than we have. Crazy. I guess we really do need to ban cars, engines, oil, and plastic to battle globull warming. We all wish it was colder and snowier and more unpleasant in the winter. AmIRight? 

I reflect on my family and I remind myself yet again that I indeed have plenty to be thankful for.

Have a great day.

Not so deep or original thoughts

Funny innit, how all those lefties were all about defunding and ridding the world of the police until rioters* showed up at the Capitol? 

They sure liked having the boys in blue around then. 

*can we stop with the “insurrections” label? No one was trying to overthrow the government. They were trying to make a point and protest. They went about it wrong, but treason wasn’t in it. If that is insurrection, we better start rounding up a bunch of folks from last summer.

The Final Solution

 The couch commandos, the recliner revolutionaries, and armchair admirals are screaming for a civil war. I ask, which of my neighbors I should shoot first? Perhaps I should start with the occupants of the house down the street that had a BLM sign in their yard last summer and a Biden/Harris placard in the fall? I don't know, their kids are kind of cute.

Perhaps you warriors in waiting propose I go after politicians? I ask honestly, which side do you think the police will fall? How successful will I be as a lone gunman? What organization should I join? As far as I can tell the militia movement is populated with ex-reenactors and wanna bees. Like the Klan, I suspect there are three actual members of the Militia movement, plus two FBI agents, and seventeen police informers in the rank and file. Sorry, Red Dawn was a movie.

So where do we go from here? Nobody wants to hear it, but if you want change it has to be on the local level. You can't effect things nationally. Those POS politicians were bought and sold before they ever took office. Consider that a candidate spends tens of millions to get a job that pays about $150K. What more do you need to know?

At the Statehouse is where you make sure another election is not stolen. Elect people who intend to fix the election laws. Vote out the corrupt judges who think there are exceptions to the law. If the law says no mail-in votes then you can't make exceptions because of a virus. The law does not work that way. Vote those judges out. That is not a Federal issue, it is a State issue.

Your State representative cannot hide from you like the swamp dwellers in Washington. Your Senator likely doesn't even have a home in your state anymore. Your State representative probably shops at the grocery or Walmart in your town. Make sure he/she passes laws to get rid of mail-in voting. The polls are open for weeks before an election, there is no reason for anyone outside of medical reasons not to show up, present a picture ID and vote. 

Elect right-thinking county councilmen, county clerks, and judges. Get control of your city council. Vote for like-minded representatives in your State. Vote for a good governor. No more elections will be stolen. The power of the big city voting machine is minimized at the local level. 

If you are really concerned, sign up to be a poll watcher, observe the vote counting. If you believe the election was stolen, then you need to recognize it was done at the local level; at the precinct, at the county, at the state. Fix that, and the rest will fix itself. 

I know, it is far more satisfying to vent and rage and "resist" on the internet. Unfortunately, it is far more effective to make sure the leftists are voted out in two years.  

Should the Leftist hordes decide to take your guns by force or round us up for re-education, or otherwise infringe on our God-given freedoms, then I will be with you in going for the guns. Until then, how about we back down on the rhetoric a little. Frankly, some of you sound suspiciously like the Kooks on the other side four years ago.

Really?

Trump says he will not attend Biden’s inauguration.

Harrison, Garfield, McKinley, Roosevelt, Kennedy, and even Nixon had a good excuse. 

In Trump’s case I can only attribute it to a lack of class. 

Present for duty

I am here. Settle down. I have been putting in copious hours at work in a strange schedule. By the time I get home I am too tired to devote time to the secret blog. So it goes.

You may or may not be shifting from foot to foot, dancing the peepee dance in anticipation of my comments on the current political shenanigans. 

Trump has destroyed in a couple of days all of the good things he accomplished in his one-term tenure as President. He will go down in history as the first US President to resist the outcome of the election. History will define his Presidency as the guy who incited a riot over the results of the Electoral College. 

You may argue the election was tainted. You may be right. The courts do not agree with you on the evidence. The individual States do not agree with you on the evidence. In a federalist system, which I believe wholeheartedly, that is enough. The election was decided when the Electors met last month. 

Were I King of the World ( and we all know I should be), the rioters would have been shot when they breached the Capital Steps. I said the same about the summer riots too. 

Cocaine Mitch cut off his nose to spite his face. He handed the Democrats a perfect storm of votes in the Georgia election when he refused to have a vote on increasing aid to Americans. Now the Stupid Party is back where they obviously feel most comfortable; as the minority Party. It is far easier to complain than to lead. That way they can say "we tried" instead of having to do the hard work of leading. 

I suspect many of my long-time blog friends will have issues with this post. So be it.

A post for today written in the past

I have the very early shift at work today. I will already be at work when you see this post. My schedule is strange this week. I start out opening and by Friday I will be closing, and working the midday shift in the middle of the week. I am thankful for the hours, even though it is a crappy low-paying retail gig. They are working hard to give me full-time hours even though I am a part-time employee. On the bright side, I have two Saturday's off in a row. I'm not sure how that has happened.

I would like to say I am sorry for going off on a rant against the ruling class yesterday. But I am not. I regret the curse words. Not the sentiment. Sometimes the only way to get a point across is to drop an F-bomb. 

It was my intention to post some music yesterday, not go off on the jackanapes that occupy Washington. Here is one of my favorites:

Naked and Ugly

The Christmas stuff is coming down today. The lights have been off since New Year's day. As much as I enjoy the festive look the lights on the staircase, the house and the trees give the old homestead, the season is behind us. 

I received my $600 from the government. I'm thankful. It has helped us catch up on some past due bills. But I take great exception to Cocaine Mitch's assessment that this 600 bucks is "socialism for millionaires". Screw you, Mitch. Here is someone making taking taxpayer money nearly three times the median income of Americans as salary lecturing us plebes on his generosity? If he and the other Republicans think $600 makes much of a difference in the little people's lives, they are more out of touch than I imagined.

No, the Government can't afford the "payments". But what the politicians of both parties don't get is that the pork-laden bill should have returned money to Americans first, not studying transgender rats in outer Mongolia, or funding vaccines for the poor of Elbonia, or even sending cash to museums that no one can go to because we are in lock down. Why do the shitty airlines get another influx of my taxpayer greenbacks while the local restaurants, and small businesses go bankrupt like it is October 1929 all over again? I thought no one was too big to fail anymore? 

That money Congress is so quick to spend is not their money. It is my money. It is your money. It is our great grandkid's money. It is China's money. After decades of profligate spending, we are suddenly going all Mr. Potter on the American People?  

We are told things are two times worse because of the China virus than they were in the spring, yet suddenly we are only willing to help the average American half as much?

I last voted for a Democrat back in the 1990's when my neighbor ran for coroner. I have held my nose and voted for the Republicans, despite the party's innumerable flaws. But in this case, I may make sure I vote against my current Senators when the time comes. I don't care if I do help elect the next AOC or Bernie Sanders. 

Fuck 'em all. Rope and tree. None of them care about the American people. I have known it for a long time.