War as Politics

As we all have seen by now, all hell has broken loose in Ukraine and the Russian invasion has commenced. I’m not going to be one that analyzes all the war activity… there are too many others that will do this far better than I.

I’m more inclined to look into the political aspects of it here at home. The thing about war is that it becomes a huge political weapon, even in the countries that aren’t in the line of fire, especially in the current political, zero-sum, fight for power. I’m watching the Radical Right jump all over this because as it’s been pointed out, yesterday’s armchair epidemiologist is today’s geopolitical scientist. So let’s pull apart some of the things I found over the weekend.

I wonder, are people killed by COVID any less dead than those blown to bits? Both are nasty ways to die, it’s just that one is less dramatic. Yes, even under siege, COVID could still be an issue. That’s the thing about viruses. They don’t care about what else is going on, they just keep spreading to whomever possible.

As bad as it sucks dying of COVID in a hospital, it’s got to be worse someplace without even basic medical care. I mean, “My kingdom for a Tylenol,” right? So why tempt fate? Vax and mask status is a legitimate factor.

In fact, it could be a masterstroke of evil from Putin. For all we know, he could have sent infected Russian nationalists down into the crowded areas for the sole purpose of spreading COVID. That’s the kind of sneaky shit the KGB was known for. How demoralizing would it be to survive an armored onslaught, just to succumb to a virus? Vlad wants the real estate; he doesn’t give a shit about the people.

Then there are the people desperate to blame the invasion on Biden, and [stifling a laugh] think TFG would have prevented it.

Seriously? There would have been no need for the Russians to invade because TFG would have rolled out the red carpet for them. He was under Putin’s thumb from Day One.

Who held up arms sales to Ukraine via extortion? Trump.

Who lifted the US sanctions on Russia for invading and annexing Crimea? Trump.

Who praises Putin at every turn, even praising his smarts regarding his invasion? Trump.

Who pulled US troops out of European bases? Trump.

Who wanted to pull out of NATO? Trump.

Who is the only president to meet with the Russian leader with no witnesses and no transcripts? Trump.

Who backed up Putin’s take election meddling, taking his side over that of the entire apparatus of US Intelligence? Trump.

Who abandoned a leadership role on the world stage and left it to the French and Germans? Trump.

Who probably agrees with Bluto and thinks the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Trump.

Who stood up to Putin at least one time? Not Trump. Not ever.

Name one foreign policy maneuver from his term that didn’t benefit Russia? Every move he made was to Russia’s advantage, one way or another, right down to downplaying the coronavirus. Anything that has Americans fighting each other is just fine with Putin.

In fact, I’m sure Trump envies his audacity and wishes he could send our troops up to Canada to defend the Trucker blockade. TFG would be zero deterrent to Vlad’s plans. Putin owns him lock, stock, and barrel. Anyone who thinks otherwise is massively uninformed, either willfully or otherwise.

Is Biden banning or burning books? No, Republicans are.

Is Biden forcing women to give birth against their will? No, Republicans are.

Is Biden coming after the free use of contraception? No, Republicans are doing that.

Is Biden erecting barriers to free elections? That’s the Republicans again, creating legislative powers that allow them to overturn election results as they see fit.

Is Biden running companies that are using this opportunity to jack up prices while simultaneously coming off a period of huge profits and executive pay hikes? No, that’s the modern Republican businessman, price-gouging for profit and power, knowing that their actions will be blamed on a convenient political scapegoat.

Is Biden letting the Russian invasion carry on without repercussion? Nope, he’s levying and supporting the strictest sanctions ever placed on Russia, which is working like a charm. The ruble isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on. Their economy is collapsing and the oligarchs are pissed. People are even protesting in the streets, a true rarity in Putin’s Russia. It’s Republicans like TFG and Tucker C. who are praising Putin’s tactics and wondering why we don’t support the invaders.

And while we’re at it, talking about fragile feelings…

Who is campaigning on removing accurate portions of the history curriculum so that it doesn’t upset little white kids? Racists… I mean, Republicans.

Who is trying to bring back Jim Crow laws and apply them to gays? Homophobes… I mean, Republicans.

Who is pitching a fit about rules created to prevent mass casualties, using proven scientific methods? Republicans, who would rather die than admit they’re wrong.

They whine about minor inconveniences being an assault on their “freedom,” while real patriots in Ukraine bear the true assaults on freedom.

If people are genuinely feeling an assault on their “family, finance, and freedom,” they need to look beyond Fox “News” and the GOP troll farms for valid answers.

Side note: They also like to use this war as an excuse to keep their home arsenal intact, ignoring the geographical reality of Russia and Europe. There, countries are stacked up right beside each other, with multiple borders to defend, where we have only two neighbors, both of whom are allies. If either of them ever amassed their armies along our borders the way Russia did, we’d know in an instant and they’d be bombed out of existence minutes later. Anyone coming en masse from across the ocean, we’d see them too and the military would be all over it. There is no need for armed the kind of armed civilian resistance these yahoos are salivating over thinking they’d execute. “Red Dawn” was not actually a documentary.

They’re still trying to tag Biden with the price of gas. So as a public service, here’s a little primer on gasoline:

You know, gas spiked under GW Bush (of the Bush Oil Dynasty) too. But never heard a peep about it coming from the right.

As for the crack about the 2AM vote count, that’s what happens when Republican-controlled states ban counting the votes in advance… the states have to work into the night, where, brace yourself, results are tallied. Sometimes you like them, sometimes you don’t. It doesn’t mean they’re not legit. And if you think you know something, put up or shut up. Show the proof. So far, every single lawsuit alleging democrat-driven voter fraud has been laughed out of court, by judges appointed by both parties.

There will also be delays when you have mobs of people hindering the counting, under the guise of “supervising.”

The bullshit about voter fraud is now and always was, a nothing-burger. The fact that this stuff is still being trotted out is really an indictment of how little they have to complain about. I guarantee that if all the results were posted before 11:00 PM, they’d say that it was rushed, or the count was predetermined.

It doesn’t matter what happens; Republicans will find fault and blame Democrats. They don’t actually create their own policy points, all they have left is a race to claim victimhood. 

War, Assault Trucks, Inflation, and Justice

Well, it looks like the Dogs of War are barking up a storm. The morning and afternoon news was all about how we now expect Russia to invade and not only engage with the Ukrainian military but move against civilians, especially those who they deem as likely to resist Russian occupation. They’re expecting abductions, assassinations, detentions, and the like. So how’s your 2022 going?

Here’s one angle I haven’t heard covered yet, regarding the reasons for Vlad’s insistence in pursuing this universally decried aggression. I think it could be more election manipulation.

If they can make the US look bad or ineffectual, he knows the right will put the blame squarely on President Biden. Those who don’t follow the details are likely to agree, given the hue and cry they’ll see coming from the Right. Maybe this is a way to get another Russian-friendly stooge in office, to eliminate the largest and most effective source of resistance. Maybe it’s the former stooge again; maybe it’s another devoted MAGA.

They’ve already spent a great deal of time and resources engineering the 2016 election, why not try another tactic? This way he reclaims old Soviet territory and neuters his opponent at the same time, killing two birds with one tank.

Asked and Answered

Answer: Just as soon as there’s no more regulation on trucks regarding their speed, loading limits, driver qualifications, and requirements. I’m sure the NRA can let them borrow some legal language to pursue to convince the courts that driving a truck anywhere at any time is somehow a Constitutional right. If more people start getting killed by trucks, that’s just the price of freedom.

Misplaced Nostalgia

And I could really go for accurate information once in a while. Can conservatives ever make a catchy meme that isn’t skewed, invalid, or just plain wrong?

·        Gas was $1.87 because there was a pandemic sweeping the nation and people staying home and not driving. It was simple supply and demand. The demand was torpedoed. When that happens, prices fall. Is it really worth hundreds of thousands of deaths so that you can have cheap gas?

·        Inflation comes with the cost of a recovering economy. And it wouldn’t be nearly this bad if corporate America wasn’t vested in keeping things expensive. All the large corporations are posting record profits, all the while raising prices due to “inflation.” Inflation of their bonuses, maybe. (And I think this is also a backdoor way of getting more Republicans elected. If the 1% can keep the “inflation” talk coming, they’ll see some more sympathetic congressmen elected this fall and maybe a president further down the road. They know Democrats have a target on their massive profits to target for taxes, you know, so the lower and middle classes might enjoy a slight respite from carrying the country’s financial load for the last 20 years.

·        I think the panic about empty shelves is overblown. I’ve been out shopping several times in the last months and there have been no bare shelves to be seen. Occasionally a store is out of one thing or another, but that’s no different than any time prior. Maybe Baltimore is just an oasis in the vast food desert but I doubt it. It’s supposed to be a pit of death and destruction, isn’t it? That’s what Tucker keeps saying. Yet our shelves are full. This is another Republican gambit to maintain the image of general mayhem and catastrophe, to use for electioneering.

·        Fuck your alibis for “mean tweets.” This is coming from people who want to change history because it might make little white kids sad. Presidents are supposed to model uplifting behavior, not sling slurs at people they deem “less than,” for whatever reason. The party of “Fuck Your Feelings” is only talking about other people’s feelings, not their own. Those are sacrosanct.

Lock Them Up

The heat is really getting turned up on The Former Family (TFF). Now he’s trying to pull the same shit he used to with the Mueller investigation back then and that Maryland’s State Prosecutor is right now, which is claiming innocence because the prosecutors have an agenda. I’ll say again, if you don’t commit a crime or cheat on loans, land deals, and taxes, there’s nothing to find. But they have reams of evidence on paper. They have all the proof they need right now. I can only suppose they’re not charging yet because there’s still so much more to add to it.

Of course, none of this makes a difference to the MAGA crowd. It’s only a crime when a Democrat does it, especially Hillary.

They’re all for locking their political opponents up or even giving them the death penalty but expect their people to get away with anything and everything. They storm the Capitol, kill and injure cops, destroy the facilities, and they’re all martyrs because they were held accountable.

Modern conservatives literally stand for nothing, except “Me first.”

Bite This

The Olympics has finally come to an end. I, for one, enjoyed watching. I think the winter games seem so exotic. I’d tell you what I think about them but I basically said everything in 2018 that I would say now. But I’ll repeat one part because it still pisses me off.

“One thing that always bugs me: the way photographers badger gold medal winners into posing while biting their medal. Can we please stop this? It's as pointless as it is trite. These aren't 1800s gold prospectors, they're elite athletes. And curlers. If I was a gold medalist, I'd shut that shit down in a hurry. They'd be like, "Hey, bite the medal." And I'd be like, "Hey, bite my ass, you no-talent hack! Why don't you go somewhere and grow an original thought?

More Dad Stories

For some reason, my dad had a thing about wearing glasses. Granted, for most of his life, he didn’t need them. He was proud of his eagle-eyed vision. But age takes no prisoners. Once he hit his 70s, it was obvious to all that he needed glasses. He’d always say his eyesight was fine, he just had a problem in dim light. But he wouldn’t wear glasses then either.

Eventually, I hear, he lowered himself to wearing non-prescription “cheaters,” from the drug store. But never in front of anyone but Mom.

All that was fine and good, but when it’s time to renew one’s driver’s license, it gets real. But Dad found a way to weasel out of that too. When it was his turn to go for the eye test, he just repeated the series of letters he heard the guy in front of him say. Worked like a charm.

How he managed that with his bad hearing is still a mystery.

Homeless Thoughts - The Outraged Edition

 It looks like they’ve finally wrapped up the Canadian “Truckers” blockade that was sealing off our border bridge. It’s about time. From all accounts, they were not gracious visitors.

But you wouldn’t know it judging from conservative memes. They were downright giddy about this action, which had Canadian truck drivers protesting Canada’s “draconian” COVID protocols. You know, like get your shots, wear your masks, and try not to spread the infection to everyone you meet as you drive across the country. I saw lots of things like this:

It’s funny how the people I saw posting this stuff were the same people who were having aneurysms over BLM protests. Those people (who were protesting getting killed in police custody for minor offenses) were just a bunch of lawless criminals, with no right to block traffic.

Gee, I wonder what the difference is between the two groups of protesters. I just wonder…

More Outrage

The same person that posted the first pic above also posted this:

I’d hate to break it to him but as usual, there’s a simple answer to his issue. There is more Rogan outrage because Ghislaine Maxwell has been tried, convicted, and is in jail for the foreseeable future. And the principal offender in this case? He’s stone-dead. So there’s not much left to be outraged about, is there? Everything’s handled.

I’m perfectly happy for the government to investigate all passengers on the Epstein Shuttle and let it go wherever it goes. But I’m pretty sure the MAGAs are going to want to stop the presses when the investigation rolls into Mar-a-Lago, to follow up on at least a dozen pictures of TFG with Jeffrey and Ghislaine.

The Rogan thing is still unfolding and looking increasingly serious after a video compilation surfaced of old Joe’s looseness with a certain word that starts with “N.” And then just as suddenly, a whole slew of his podcasts have just “disappeared.”

Have you noticed how no one is putting forth that the video was doctored and he didn’t really say all those things? It’s funny how the “smoking gun” videos proffered by Republicans always turn out to be selectively edited, stripped of context, or otherwise doctored into something other than the truth. I haven’t seen anything analogous from the Dems. They seem to keep coming up with the real deal. That’s what happens when one side deals in reality and the other has to create an environment of its own liking, just to keep their Ponzi Scheme ideology intact.

Even More Outrage

Thank you, Republican National Committee, for creating the phrase “Legitimate Political Discourse,” to describe the events of 1/6/21. I love that this is coming from the Republican “establishment,” and not the usual wingnuts who can be written off as the lunatic fringe. This came from the mainstream GOP.

Now it becomes the Democrats’ job to make them wear this around their necks until November. Every candidate should have a commercial asking if storming the Capitol, ransacking the offices, and assaulting and killing police officers in an attempt to overturn a valid-by-every-legal-standard election, counts as “legitimate political discourse.” They should run pictures like this constantly:

Republicans need to be shown as the party of political extremists trying to seize power by any means necessary, which is most certainly NOT the “American Way.” We do not stage coups in America and that’s exactly what the riot on 1/6 was.

Local Outrage

Back in 2019, when Chicago elected Lori Lightfoot as their first Black female mayor, I wrote a post with words of caution that merely checking statistical boxes for race, gender, and sexual orientation did not guarantee clean, effective leadership. I pointed out that Baltimore’s last three mayors had been Black women and all three left office under a cloud or an indictment. Now there’s another local scandal, this time involving our State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby.

If you’ve heard of her, it’s probably because she took center stage in prosecuting the cops in the Freddie Gray case, the one that caused days of riots here in Baltimore.

Well, it seems she filed a request to withdraw money from her 401k without penalty, as allowed as small business relief to compensate for losses due to COVID. The problem was that she had no business and her career income hadn’t suffered in the least. In fact, she was awarded a $10,000 raise on her annual salary.

She did have two businesses set up but it was on paper only. There were no actual businesses there to lose money. No building, no payroll, no service, no staff, no nothing. So there were no losses there to be a basis of compensation. That’s illegal. There are also issues with fraudulent statements on her loan application.

When all this came to light, she went right to the typical excuses of the day, that this was a political witch hunt from her enemies, and that she was innocent of all charges.

But the thing is, the Feds don’t bring charges like this unless they have you dead to rights. No doubt they’ve seen her paperwork claiming financial hardship. They know she withdrew the money and what she spent it on. (Property in Florida.)

So it’s true that her prosecution might very well be executed by political enemies, of which she made a lot. Prosecuting the Freddie Gray cops was a big part of it. And she also made public that there was a list of Baltimore cops that her staff could not use to testify in court because they were considered unreliable witnesses, due to investigations into their professional misbehavior.

She’s also decreed that her department would not be prosecuting cases of marijuana possession and wanted police to direct their effort to harder drugs and violent crime.

Now, I’m all for all of those things, but the police department is NOT on her side.

She’s also married to a guy who became City Council President, meaning she wields outsized influence over city government.

But the mere fact that her enemies are after her doesn’t mean she’s not guilty. If she’s so worried about people gunning for her, then why on earth hand them something so easily provable, right there on a silver platter? If people are trying to take you down, keep your nose clean! Is that really so difficult?

I swear, I’m amazed by the degree to which politicians think they can hide things. This stuff always comes out, eventually.

More Local Outrage

I enjoyed watching the Super Bowl last night and was looking forward to the analysis in this morning’s paper. But alas, there was none. The game ended too late to make the morning paper.

When they say newspapers are dying, it seems to be a self-fulfilling prophesy. The game was over by 10:00 PM (Eastern), so it’s not like it went into the wee hours. They should have held space for what they knew would be a big story with high interest and provided at least cursory coverage. Sure, they refer readers to their website, but if I wanted to go there, I wouldn’t have a paper delivered in the first place. It’s like they’re just begging me to cancel my subscription.

Note from the Next Day: Tuesday morning's paper featured one local opinion piece on the Rams' coach and an AP piece on how they built their team this year. Not a word about the actual game.

While I didn’t have a dog in this Super Bowl fight, I was rooting for the Rams. There were a couple of reasons:

·        Cooper Kupp was very good to me in fantasy football this year. So was Matthew Stafford, to a lesser degree.

·        I’m a Steelers fan and I'll never root for division rivals.

·        And even more pointedly, I will never root for any team whose fans have threatened, harassed, or attacked me when I’ve been in their stadium. (Basically just for being there, wearing the visiting team’s jersey.) I never want to see their fans be happy. I want them to question their self-worth constantly.

Natural Segue into a Dad Story

I totally get it from my Dad. Back when I was a kid, sometimes the Browns and Bengals would be playing each other and neither team winning would provide an advantage to the Steelers. I’d ask Dad who he’s rooting for and he’d say, “I’m rooting for a 0-0 tie with lots of career-ending injuries.”

I’m pretty sure he was kidding but it taught me to take division play seriously.

What Happened to Retail?

While going through Infidel753’s Sunday Link Roundup, I came across an interesting post about the declining future of brick-and-mortar retail. It posits that while COVID hasn’t done it any favors, the decline has been in effect for years now.

Anyone who lives near what used to be a mall can attest that physical stores are going away fast. The main culprit is, indeed, online shopping. COVID is just piling on.

While far from perfect, it’s hard to beat the vast selection of whatever you want, delivered to you within days, or sometimes even same-day (if you live in a market with an Amazon warehouse.)

When you look at what people want out of a retail outlet, it comes down to these main things:

·        Wide selection of items in stock

·        Helpful and available clerks

·        Low prices

These “wants” are why brick and mortar is fading. All three can no longer be had at the same time.

To have a wide selection you need room for it, or in other words, a large showroom. Retail real estate is expensive. You also have to front the money to buy the additional stock to sell.

To attract reliable, intelligent, personable clerks, you need to pay a living (or at least significantly above minimum) wage. You should also provide health insurance and benefits if you want serious, career-minded people. Multiply all that by the number of clerks you need.

Both of these two things raise costs considerably. To be able to turn a profit, prices have to rise accordingly, which is counter to charging low prices. Unless the owner is willing to take losses, (and what business owner would be?) you simply can’t have all three.*

*I suppose there could be a business where the product is dirt cheap to create and the demand is such that high prices are supported, but there aren’t many. How many iPhone stores can a market tolerate?

Add to that the convenience, low cost, and increasing reliability of online shopping and you see why it’s pulling people out of stores.

To run an online business, all the money goes into the nuts and bolts. You get your website set up, which is primarily a one-time outlay (aside from maintenance and security updates) you have your warehouse space, which is cheaper than retail space, buy your stock, and then have a minimal crew to stock the shelves and pack the boxes.

I, for one, leapt at the chance to avoid going out to shop and buy stuff from my computer in my jammies. I pretty much buy everything but groceries online and have since the mid-2000s. That probably has more to do with my own anti-social tendencies than anything, but it works for me.

To me, the real tragedy is that there’s a whole employment sector that was there when I was young that has since disappeared. Where are young people supposed to get jobs now, with a whole industry that relied on them is just gone? Grownups all say, “Get a job! Don’t be a slacker. Don’t take handouts,” etc. But where? Doing what? Malls are gone. Movie theaters are on life support. Restaurants are struggling. All carry risks of getting themselves sick with COVID or being abused by jerks who don’t care about anyone but themselves.

Frankly, I’m surprised there are any brick and mortar establishments left at all.

I spent 12 years in record/CD retail, video rental, and several more working in a grocery store and at a gas station. It wasn’t much but it allowed me to pay for my own college education. With the way tuition has skyrocketed (and wages haven’t) doing that is pretty much impossible today. The only way to get oneself a college education, (short of being independently wealthy or having parents pay your way), is to get student loans, which end up as a never-ending albatross around people’s necks for the rest of their lives.

As much as people have always complained about retail stores, we’re really going to miss them when they’re gone.

Book’em Danno

Regarding the book burnings in Texas, Tennessee, and other repressed places, I have only this to say:

Here endeth the lesson.

More Dad Stories

My dad used to be an altar boy so, in light of all the modern priest/altar boy scandals,  I asked him if a priest ever did anything untoward with him.

Dad said there was one certain very old priest with whom all the altar boys had a problem.  Seems that when they would help him up out of his genuflect, he was known to pass some gas on them.  He said when you saw those robes billow, you knew you were in trouble.  Anyway, the altar boys policed this themselves by assigning the altar boy with the least seniority to this honor.

Odd Bits - SCOTUS, Spotify, and Cornhole

Fox “News” is predictably up in arms over President Biden’s advance declaration that he intends to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. “Reverse Discrimination!” they cry, which is the only discrimination they ever acknowledge. Oh, those poor oppressed White men, who have landed all but seven Supreme Courts seats throughout the country’s history. Such an oppressed segment of the population, no?

Naturally, people like Sean Hannity are complaining that proclaiming a race/gender qualification ahead of time is a big deal, much like everything else Democrats do. The revered St. Ronald of Hollywood stated in advance that he was going to place a woman on the Court, and followed through with Justice Sandra O’Connor. No one said diddly about that, then or now. The Former Guy also spoke of putting another woman on the SCOTUS bench. Again, no one said boo.

I’m starting to think the issue here is the Black part and not so much the Woman part. Just a hunch.

Sen. Susan Collins waded into the mess too, calling out a “clumsy handling” of the nomination process. Gee, thanks for weighing in there, Senator. And tell me, how graceful were the last few nominations? Like nominating a drunken frat boy with a rapist past, or stonewalling one nomination for 10 months while hustling the next one through in two weeks.

Listen, Susie, the next time I want your opinion, I’ll just ask the Federalist Society. The death of Roe vs Wade will be laid at your feet because you could have stopped it.

See Spot Run

I’m enjoying following the ongoing Spotify controversy, wherein Neil Young and Joni Mitchell both asked to have their work removed from Spotify if they continue to host Joe Rogan’s meathead podcast. They take issue with the deadly misinformation that streams forth from said podcast, which has resulted in the continuation of the COVID pandemic.

So far, in a move that is not remotely surprising, Spotify has granted their requests. I’m sure they’re doing the math and as soon as the amount of money lost due to principled artists pulling their music tops the income brought in by Rogan’s podcast, THEN they’ll do something about it. But until then, dream on because money talks!

I’m not sure how much of an impact the music from a couple old hippies will have on Spotify. Maybe if additional artists, more current or popular artists join in, they may have to rethink things.

And of course, the protests from the Right about freedom of speech are as misguided as they are short-sighted. The First Amendment protects speech from government interference and does nothing to require that private companies support or not support any given speech. It’s purely a free market issue and the market ultimately answers to the people. I find that Republicans consider the free market the answer to everything, right up until it infringes on something they like. Then it’s a race to claim victimhood and cry “Oppression!”

Hole in One

When looking over the cable TV menu the other day, I came across this surprising viewing option:

Seriously? They have freakin’ cornhole on TV now? What’s next, televised church bingo? The World Yahtzee Championships? Professional Solitaire?

I mean, I have nothing against cornhole. It’s a lot of fun to play. But watching someone else play while I sit on my couch? Please. To me, it’s the same with bowling, billiards, poker, fishing, and golf… fun to do yourself, mind-numbingly dull to watch others play.

I am a bit surprised that they didn’t find a new name for it, given the risqué nature of its original name. If they really want to jazz it up, they should make a few changes… like play with Jarts. At least then you’d have a chance at seeing a serious impaling. Or have a drink requirement, like whichever team loses a round has to drink a shot or chug a beer. Anything to break up the monotony of watching people toss beanbags into holes.

Please, if you ever find me watching people play cornhole on TV, just put me out of my misery right then and there. It would be a mercy killing.

More Dad Stories

At my dad’s memorial gathering, we invited people to share their stories about him. One such person was Dad’s oldest friend Sam. They knew each other since first grade, having lived across the street from each other. Sam was as Irish as Dad was Italian. Both went to the local Catholic school. This was one of Sam’s stories:

“One time Jimmy and I decided we were going to go to one of the dances in (a predominantly Jewish suburb of Pittsburgh), and see if we could pick up some nice Jewish girls. Unfortunately, they seemed completely uninterested in these two Irish and Italian boys. So we decided we’d change our names so they couldn’t tell. The next time we went back, I became “Sammy Greenbaum” and he was “Jimmy Diamond.”

But even with our new names, we still struck out completely.

As we headed home, I asked Jimmy, “Do you think maybe we should have taken off our St. Christopher medals?”

DINOs, Food Trucks, and Meat Loaf

I’m becoming alarmed by the extent that the blame for inaction on much-needed legislation is being laid on Biden and the Democrats. Whether it’s TV news or newspapers, all the headlines/top stories involve “Democratic failures.” There’s barely a nod to the 50 Republican Senators who are intransigent as ever. Regardless of what the party hierarchy wants, there are rules, most of which revolve around numbers, which are just not in the Democrats’ favor.

They would be, if not for two DINOs who have been bought and paid for by the 1% of the country who don’t want any grand plans coming to pass that would put a dent in their quarterly earnings.

Manchin, a coal-man from the get-go, has played the game with moving goalposts. Every time they meet one of his demands, he finds a different reason to vote no. This tells me his “no” is predetermined and he’s just trying to make it look good.

Sinema is going with just plain NO, without offering any ideas of what it might take to turn her to YES, or even what her objections are. It’s just NO, which is also a hallmark of a predetermined vote.

When every Senator is required to vote together, any straying from that derails the whole process and there’s nothing Biden or Schumer can do about it.

Rather than blaming Democrats in general and bellyaching about the gridlock, the Sane Middle needs to join with the rest of the Democrats and vote in more Democratic senators, so that these two clowns won’t hold up the works any longer. And make sure any prospective new senators go on the record regarding their intentions toward Build Back Better and Voting Reform, lest we end up with another DINO surprise.

There is no benefit to having Democrats openly grousing about their own party. Things may not be going as expected, but if the Republicans come to power again, we’ll be salivating over the prospects of things going back to the way they are now.

It’s clear that Republicans are only interested in propping up the upper class with tax cuts, stripping government regulations that protect us and the planet, and cementing their own places at the altar of power.

All Republicans have to go on is distorting what Democrats actually want.

There’s no question that the GOP pushes these fake arguments… I’ve written about every point on this list. Since the media has been derelict in pointing out the fallacies, we have to do it ourselves. “Owning the Libs” has been elevated to their primary tenet. Actual governing doesn’t even make a cameo appearance on their list of priorities. (I would say “Party Platform,” but they never bothered to create one for the last election.)

And now, this:

I think this is an excellent idea. If people are too wrapped up in their own selfish versions of freedom to get themselves vaxxed and provide proof, they deserve to eat out in the parking lot with the rest of the rats and leave the decent people to eat in peace.

RIP

It was a very blue weekend at Chateau de Bluz, as I woke up Friday morning to the news that one of my musical idols, Meat Loaf, went on to the great beyond. Initial reports declined to list a cause of death, although TMZ said it was COVID, which was parroted by other outlets later on.

I’m aware that Meat was a Trumper and anti-vaxxer and that had puzzled me. I thought he was entirely too nice a guy to be Republican. It’s probably the byproduct of being Texan and also appearing on Celebrity Apprentice. I remember watching when TFG mentioned that he may run for president and Meat said he’d vote for him.

I was like, “No, Meat, don’t do it! It’s a trap!” I hoped that he was just practicing the toadying that is required to have a long stay on that show. Non-ass-kissers always washed out quickly.

But regardless of all that, I’m devastated. I’ve been a fan of Meat Loaf since early in my college days. And when I say a fan, I don’t mean I like his two albums that got radio play. Check this out:

I have all* of his CDS, plus a bunch on LP as well. OK, his last couple I could do without I’ve always enjoyed his main body of work, including the ones in between the Bats out of Hell. I especially liked his follow-up to Bat Out of Hell, called Dead Ringer. The title track was a rockin’ duet with Cher, of all people. I figured they were trying to recreate the vibe from Paradise by the Dashboard Lights.

*I’m aware that he released an album of duets prior to Bat Out of Hell, called “Stoney and Meat Loaf,” but that’s not worth counting.

Meat Loaf is my nominee for Greatest Rock Singer Ever.  Geez, I must have worn out 2 or 3 copies of the Bat Out of Hell cassette over the years.  When I was driving to and from college and the weather turned bad, I used to think, “If I’m going to kill myself smashing up this car, I at least want to go out to some great music.”  Could there possibly be better car crash music than the song “Bat Out of Hell?”

Anyway, when the snow fell, I’d crank up the Bat and somehow I’d always make it home.  I soon began to consider that tape to be my good luck charm.  When the weather got bad, I knew The Loaf would get me home. I always wanted to tell him that, but the one time I got to meet him, I chickened out.

As a wedding gift (for my first marriage back in 1993, when I worked at the home office of a major music retailer) my co-workers gave me two tickets to see Meat Loaf in Boston, in a warm-up show at the Orpheum Theatre, prior to his three-year world tour for Bat Out of Hell II.  Backstage passes were included.  I was thrilled... I was gonna get to meet The Loaf!

But the crowd of people amassed to see him after the show was considerable and I didn’t want to take up his time with a long-ass story, so I kept it to compliments and pleasantries and settled for a picture with him and a couple of autographed albums. But he seemed genuinely glad to meet every single person.  You never got a sense that he was thinking, “I can’t believe I have to do this.”  He loved meeting his fans. He was a complete professional and a consummate showman. The full story of meeting Meat can be found here.

If I had to pick one album as my all-time favorite, this is it.  “Bat Out of Hell” is practically perfect.  It’s got brain-stinging guitar, flawless harmonies, wicked lyrics and a sly sense of humor, hooks a mile wide, and a complete wall of sound.  The Loaf had a voice that could both blow apart a cinderblock or tickle you under the chin like a feather.  When he brings a song to a climax, you feel the earth move.

I first obtained the LP when I joined Columbia Record Club, back in the late 70s.  I got it primarily for “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad,” and “Paradise By The Dashboard Lights,” or “that one with the baseball rap” as I knew it then.  I didn’t know anything else on the album.

I put the needle down, lay down on the floor with the lyric on the inner sleeve and my head between the speakers, and soaked it all in.  It damn near fried my brain right there.  It had power and fury, desperation and escape, living fast and dying too young.  It was a masterpiece.  And the end… holy shit, on that last “Like a bat out of HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLL,” he hits that note so freakin’ hard, and just holds it longer than any human should be able to do.  That was a life-changing event for me, right there.

To see Meat Loaf in concert is like going to a rock opera.  Everything is over the top, and oftentimes, acted out as a stage play.  When I saw him in Boston doing small warm-up shows before his Bat Out of Hell 2 tour, he did this thing where he got the audience to do this whole call and response bit, without speaking a single word.  He just used gestures and facial expressions to communicate and it worked like a charm.  That was when I realized why he’s been so popular all over the world.  No language barrier.

I saw an interview he did back in the 80s, on a talk show that comedian David Brenner had, and was talking about an album he recorded in Germany.  Brenner asked him, “What did they call you in Germany, ‘Herr Loaf?”

He answered, “They mostly called me MEEEEEAT!  Like, ‘You vill sing now MEEEEEAT!’”

I love that Meat was game for anything. Did you ever see that movie “Sausage Party?” (It was an animated movie featuring Seth Rogan, about how the food comes to life after hours in a grocery store. It’s extremely filthy and just as hilarious.) Anyway, one of the food characters was a package of meatloaf, which they gave the face of Meat Loaf, including the use of his own traditional font and frilly tuxedo shirt. No way he didn’t sign off on that, which makes him a good egg in my book.

He also has a hilarious song included on a South Park album, a duet with “Chef” (Isaac Hayes) called “Tonight is Right for Love (with Meredith Baxter-Birney).” The first part is a soul love ballad done by Hayes. Then it abruptly changes into a total Meat Loaf parody song, which Meat performs in a racing stream of images of fire, torture, demons, and death. Meat really had to be a good sport to participate in that one. 

How Meat Loaf isn’t in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is beyond me. The guy has been a touring dynamo for decades, selling zillions of albums and packing arenas. I think maybe the top brass at Rolling Stone had it in for him or something. As far as I’m concerned, he should have been inducted 25 years from the day that Bat was released.

If there is an afterlife, I hope he can get together with Jim Steinman again. Maybe start up a new band. I’m sure they won’t be lacking available talent.

A Lack of Hospital-ity

After a lull during the holiday season, I’m finding my conservative friends are dipping their toes back into the meme world. It’s a good thing because I was getting bored without a regular supply of dumb shit to debunk.

I’m sorry, this meme seems a little desperate, a little insecure, a little…

I think the problem I have with this meme is that there are two versions of the word “authority” in play here.

A parent having authority over their kid? I’m all for that. And no one else is really trying to deprive that. BUT, “being” an authority? Sorry, no. There’s nothing about being a parent that imparts specialized knowledge or wisdom upon you. Kids get sent to school to learn specific things which have been exhaustively vetted. Students have no need to participate in a daily demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger Effect.

If you want the authority to teach your kids whatever cockamamie ideas you’ve ingested, home school them. You don’t get to insist that others teach the version of reality to which you ascribe.

If you want to use home remedies that no medical experts have approved, well, no one’s stopping you. Peace be with your children’s souls and enjoy the three hots and a cot when you’re in jail after their death. Or in a less serious version of this story, I hope you can afford to pay for their ongoing trauma therapy.

Next case:

Oh, so now you want socialized medicine? (No, I know you don’t really care about eliminating medical debt, you just don’t want anyone getting off the hook for their student loans.)

This is just one more piece of the Republican war on education. As I’ve said many times over, the last thing the Republican establishment wants is an educated populace. They want people pliable, obedient, and willing to eat up whatever version of reality they’re pitching that week.

The last thing they want is a voter base with critical thinking skills that might get in the way of whatever boondoggle they’re trying to sell. They want their emotional appeals to do their jobs without getting messy things like logic or context involved. Hence the endless pleas for more kids to go to trade schools and pushback on anything resembling student loan relief.

Don’t get me wrong, eliminating the medical debt for cancer patients is a wonderful idea. But why stop there? There are a plethora of diseases and maladies that create crushing medical bills. The issue isn’t just cancer, it’s everything. We’re the only developed country with a for-profit medical system and it shows it by also being the most expensive. And the Powers That Be (AMA, Big Pharma, insurance companies) will fight tooth and nail against any of that changing because that would derail their gravy train.

In the last few weeks, I’ve had an up-close view of how things are going in hospitals and it did NOT give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

My mom took a fall Christmas night that entailed an ambulance ride to the hospital and a 2-week stay. She suffered a deep cut on the head, three cracked ribs, and a kidney laceration. Sweetpea and I followed the ambulance there but when we arrived (about 3 AM), only one of us could go into the lobby. So she had to wait outside on a bench while I tried to find out where they took her. And of course, they couldn’t tell me because she was still being processed through the ER, and didn’t know where she was going to end up. All I could do was call back in the morning and see where she was.

This meant leaving my mom alone there, with no idea where she was or where her kids were. It was not a comforting situation.

I got there the next day, as soon as visiting hours arrived, to find her in an ER observation area awaiting transport to a room. At least I could go with her for that. And thus began a 2-week span of daily hospital visits in which my sister, brother, and I took turns staying with her from noon till 8:00 PM and advocating for her. And believe me, there was a lot of advocating necessary.

I will say without reservation that the nurses were wonderful, pretty much each one I worked with. They all did the best they could do given the stressful circumstances. It was obvious that the place was understaffed. There just weren’t enough bodies on hand to give timely care.

There were two things that needed tending to. The first was pain medication. I’ve heard that busted ribs are excruciating to bear… it hurts to even breathe. And consider that my mom is about 5-foot-nothing and 100 pounds. There’s not a lot of meat on her bones to insulate her from pain-causing jostling. So there were times that regardless of the medicine “schedule,” Mom needed some additional help to relieve the pain.

Sure, they give you the Call Button, and the desk usually answers right away, but that’s where the breakdown comes… getting word to the people who are supposed to come help.

This was especially an issue with the second recurring need, which was getting help to the bathroom. Now, to some degree, I or one of my siblings could help her move around. The problem was that she was tethered to the bed by various wires and IVs. It was a full-on excavation just to get her out of bed.

So, when it was time to “go,” she’d buzz for help, get assured it was coming, and then have to wait for 30-90 goddamned minutes! And when the nurse or tech would arrive, it was always the same story: “Oh, nobody told me.”

We talked to the head nurse and anyone else we could get to listen but that never changed. They’d always say, “Just call for help,” and it would never arrive in a reasonable time. And note, they had her on softeners and prune juice to get things moving (because the pain killers can be binding. So these two things were working at cross purposes.

Eventually, we just started moving her ourselves, if not to the full bathroom then to the portable pot that we could put by the bed. They didn’t like that at all, but at that point, I didn’t care.

“If you don’t want to clean up the mess, then get your asses in here when she has to go!”

The plan was to move her to a rehab floor for physical therapy, as soon as her vitals stabilized. By the second Friday, she was ready to go. The prior day they contacted her insurance company for approval of PT but no one had heard anything back. That afternoon, a doctor told me, “If we don’t hear from them by 2:00, then we probably won’t until Monday.” That meant they wanted her to stay in the hospital for two more days, not for a medical reason, but because they couldn’t get an answer from Insurance.

I let them know that this wouldn’t be happening. There’s no way we were letting her stay for another weekend in the hospital, suffering personal indignities that go with it, and risking COVID infection with every breath. They could set up PT sessions for home, which was fine with them. We got Mom home that Friday (a week ago).

And one last insult… they lost her driver’s license. Upon request, I handed it to the EMT from the rig that picked her up and no one has seen it since. The hospital says they don’t have it and never got it. The EMT house says they gave it to them in the ER and hospitals lose these things all the time. Just one more clusterfuck, where everyone points the finger at someone else. Good thing Mom’s driving days are over.

I haven’t seen a bill yet but I know it’s going to be a doozy. And to think, they wanted us (or the insurance company) to pay for two more days in a private hospital room, just to wait for a phone call. I bet if she wasn’t insured, they’d have hustled her out post-haste. All I could think was that this is another reason why medical bills are so high. It’s bad enough being forced to pay them to provide pills you have already, or for food that never gets eaten (or often, was never even asked for).

So Mom is recovering at home and making great strides. She had her first PT session this afternoon and a regimen of exercises that should help her regain her strength. She’s fortunate that she had family members that were here for her. There are so many that don’t. I feel bad for those who have to go through a hospital stay alone. It’s already trying just being under hospital care, let alone trying to understand what’s happening and what’s to be expected.

And I feel even worse for the poor souls who languish in hospital corridors or ER areas because unvaccinated COVID patients are occupying all the rooms. To that end, Maryland is in a lot better shape than other parts of the country because over 90% of our state has had at least one vaccination. The hospitals are hoppin’, but they’re not overwhelmed like they were in early 2020, when they were using hotels as hospital overflow.

I’m thankful for the wonderful nurses who did their level best to care for my mom. But they really need to look at their processes and procedures because that shit is just not working.

Old Pictures, Old Ways

 I come from a family of picture-takers. When I was a kid, whenever we visited our relatives, finding and paging through their phono albums was a common activity.

When I was staying with my Mom back in September, after my father passed, I had the chance to go through some old, familiar albums that I hadn’t seen in years. For some of the albums, I just took cell phone shots of the pictures, just because there were so many I wanted and no time to set up for a long scanning session. These albums covered specific periods, from places we lived to ones dedicated to weddings.

Then I got to borrow a couple albums from my sister, which covered our family’s earliest days. One covered the time from my parents' wedding in 1960, through 1964, by which time my brother and I had been born. The other covered 1965-1968, capturing my sister’s birth and the fallout of two boys having a little girl in the house. Those, I had the time to remove from their photo album pockets and scan properly.

Between those earliest albums to the ones Mom had, it was interesting just seeing the development of photographic technology. Some of those earliest shots of my parents’ honeymoon were on old black and white paper, with the edges all wiggly, rather than straight-edged.

Mom and Dad on their honeymoon, looking all cute, like the Champion Poconos Rowing Team.

Others had holes punched across the top like it was torn off a stack of other pictures.

Dad, still on honeymoon, after winning the award for the best-looking guy wearing his new wife’s clothes. (No I’m not posting the pictures of THAT.)

A lot of the color had faded from the 60s shots, and the 70s pix had that bright “70s” look. And I especially appreciated the ones with the white border and the dates stamped on them. That removed the inaccuracy of a fading memory from the equation, (allowing, of course, for the time gap between the activity photographed and when the film was actually taken in for development.) Plus, it was the perfect place for a caption.

And of course, it was fun watching my siblings and me growing up page by page. But I was usually more interested in the background objects…

“Remember that swing-set? Look at that old TV! Oh God, the cuckoo clock!”

And then there were the anachronisms that stood out so starkly from how we live today, starting with the ever-present cigarettes in people's hands. I can still remember my Grandpa’s retirement parties, (there were several because he kept going back to work, probably just to have more parties), that took place in their basement. There was singing, playing instruments, and general high times, conducted by grownups in dress shirts and ties, or party dresses.

That’s my grandpa on guitar.

The rest of the band. Grandpa and the harmonica guy used to like to secretly turn down the other one’s amp.

I wanted desperately to go down there and enjoy the revelry, but the smoke was so thick, it burned my little eyes. Oh, the misery that was me! Now that I think of it, it was probably a conscious decision to create an effective kid repellent, so the adults could get their party on in peace.

Another thing I noticed is how parents used to really dress their kids up for a day with the extended family. Hats were a big thing and I don't mean ball caps… I was 4 years old and walked around wearing a sport coat and fedora like I was a miniature Frank Sinatra.

I look like I just got done coaching the 1965 Chicago Blackhawks.

The other thing that stood out was the apparent lack of basic safety protocols that would result in calls to Child Protection Services if done today. For example, consider this happy picture of my brother (R) and me (L):

What was the thought process behind this carefully arranged shot? I figure it must have been something like, “Hey, let’s put the boys up on the edge of this 4-foot stone wall, right on the ends of the railings. No way they’ll fall off and break their necks. And let the little one keep holding that stick, which surely won’t get jammed through his eye when he falls. And the big one? He’s got a hat on, which is almost as good as a helmet. Besides, that bush will break his fall. Can’t coddle these kids now, can we? OK, everybody smile!” 

The freakin’ 60s…

Same deal with this picture of me and my cousins a few years earlier, up on the same wall.

Maybe they were counting on us cushioning each other’s falls. Or maybe my dad, (far right) thought he could dive in and catch us, like Roberto Clemente going after a short pop fly. I think maybe he wanted to bump me off so he could have my little truck all to himself. And speaking of Dad...

More Dad Stories

When we held the remembrance event for Dad, my Uncle Joe, who lives in California, sent a few words for his son to read on his behalf, which included this brief story:

I’m a lifelong car guy. Jim was not. Jim’s first car was a 1960 Plymouth Valiant. 4-door sedan. The coolest thing about it was that it was a stick, but instead of 3-on-the-tree, it was a floor shift, which I thought was supremely cool.

Now my first car was a 1961 Volkswagen Beetle. The coolest thing about my car, besides that it was a convertible, was that it was not only stick, it was a 4-speed! When I bragged about that to Jim, he was not only unimpressed he said, “Why would anyone want to shift an extra gear?? It makes no sense!”