maga

Randomies and Bits and Bobs…again

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Yeah, it’s a made-up word. I’ve been watching too much British television. So? Doesn’t it sound right?

I’d like to ignore it but there has been a lot screeching from the Trump administration about upholding the law. Bondi, Leavitt, and et. al., have parroted Trump in the shouting about obeying the law. The irony is lost on them and it’s okay, but sheeesh. Have some pride, for goodness sake. Just think “kettle meet pot, pot meet kettle.” At least be a little quieter and show some humility. An old saying of my father’s comes to mind: “it’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool-” You’re a smart reader, you know the rest.

Same with the “liberal bias” nearly everywhere in Trump World. “Fox meet MSNBC, MSNBC meet Fox”. And not for nothing but the “free press” has always been seen as the opposition to the sitting administration. In Trump World Fox is part of the administration so that might be why when the whiners complain of bias in the “main-stream media” they never mention Fox.

A randomy (sic) of note: nearly all of Trump’s Executive Orders deal with, imply, reveal, expose, and try to remedy the insecurity displayed by the MAGA movement. Everything not kissing MAGA’s rings is a threat.

DEI. If you want to see what DEI is, go out to eat in a big city with a partner. Know what the biggest problem will be?: You want Chinese or Italian? Korean? Mexican? Viet Namese? Schnitzel? Creole? Southern?

Or music: Latin, classical, rock, hip-hop, polka, K-Pop, soul, reggae, or any one of the many styles?

And sports fans will rue the day Trump orders all professional sports teams to be made up of only American, white, Christian players. When I wrote this I tried to see how Native Americans fit in it, but, alas. Can you do it for me? **

DEI is all around us. Grow up.

Most Americans, and this includes MAGAs. are incapable of understanding complex issues. That lack of understanding is the major reason we still have big, unsolved problems. The deportations Trump is rushing through, for example. Not one single American thinks deporting bad non-citizens is wrong. Not one. For those that have working minds, the problem isn’t any one individual, but Trump is throwing out so many people, so fast, the only way to get the point about “due process” is if you imagine it happening to you: sent to CECOT by “mistake”. “Administrative error”. The calculus is the same as the death penalty argument: No one is really against the death penalty for someone who “deserves” it, but after so many convictions overturned, for example, do you think it’s possible we, us, America, have executed one, single innocent man?

For some real immigrant fun, watch the Movie “The Gangs of New York”.

Trump’s efforts are being supported by an “the end justifies the means” argument. Again, fine, as long as you are not the one being “ended” by mistake.

In a previous post I mentioned how hard it is to talk with senior people. Another, happier reason not to is how long it takes. Bill (name not changed, there are no innocents) and I often talk before early morning fitness routines about the past. Bill is 84 and has a larger, longer past, but when we talk it isn’t about troubles but about those pasts. He’s 84, driven, successful, gregarious, while I’m lazy, misanthropic, and happy to get by, but the stories we tell are about the same things. And they are all funny…in a slightly wistful, nostalgic way. I’m 110 (sic) per cent sure neither of us exaggerates the stories, but the most important part is this: Bill tells one, I think of two of my own, and I tell one and he thinks of three of his own, and he tells one and I think of ten, and I tell one and he thinks of 20…ad infinitum.

To shorten this story, the pre-workout morning is storytelling and laughing,…with, sometimes, a hint of “did that really happen”? And that “hint” is not about Bill’s stories, but my own, unless he feels the same way and when we part we both go home thinking: “Did I really do that?”

Life is wonderful if you live long enough to realize it, are fit enough to remember it, and find someone who cares to hear you talk about it.

**wonder if anyone is offended

Trump, no more

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Yep, it’s true. These are the last, few sentences I’ll write about Felon47. It isn’t because he’s stopped lying, whining, and doing bad things, but everyone is starting to take notice. Finally. You’ll hear all about it in the coming months. My words aren’t needed, anymore.

So…what do we talk about, now?

My little town in upstate New York was thrust into the “Lake Effect Snowbelt” these past few weeks. It is a phenomenon unique to the states east of The Great Lakes (google them). Cold winds coming from the west, northwest flow over the still warm lakes and suck up huge amounts of water, which gets deposited over land as the wind sweeps off last lake. It doesn’t get deposited as water, but as snow. It snows so much and for so long it’s hard to believe each snowflake is different. AI says each flake is different because “each snowflake follows a different path through the air, experiencing different conditions.” I call bull$%^& and need to see some proof: they all look the same when you’re shoveling.

Historically, the Lake Effect drops snow bombs farther north of my city, dumping as much as 30 feet of snow, annually, on small towns and farms whose denizens are veterans of the flaky onslaught. They relish it. Local parking lots are not filled with cars but snowmobiles. The Tug Hill Plateau region holds the (unofficial) New York State record of 77 inches of snowfall in 24 hours. Each flake unique, beautiful, and fragile. Right. How many unique flakes in 77 inches spread over acres and acres? Bull%$#@. Imagine someone looking at each flake…

How many flakes? I finally understand the concept of “infinity”.

The last two weeks a wind shift has pushed the lake effect south…to me… and I’ve been in The Chair watching it from the warmth and comfort of my second-floor apartment. (And sharing it with my friends in the south, garnering immense pity.) Most days there has been some form of legal restriction on travel: states of emergency, weather advisories, warnings, and often things are just closed so there is no reason to venture out. But some do, with hilarious consequence. Maybe they’re checking the uniqueness of flakes? Or just like to move snow around.

As noted in an earlier “complaint” about snowfall in upstate New York, humans are the best entertainment in bad conditions. We are fun to watch.

The complex I live in has a sense of humor, too. Imagine trying to clear a parking lot full of snow when the parking lot is full of cars. And the snow never stops. Management tried to get us to move our cars in concert during the first snow blast last month. About 50 per cent of us did, which you can imagine, made it worse. So when the next management notice came about moving cars to clear an area no one moved. Now that’s progress.

It’s the end of February so the big lake effect snows may be over, but after a strange, 10 months of unusual weather highlighted by a rare summer tornado and rare lake effect snow, it can only mean I owe the lifetime residents an apology for moving here last April.

For more than that reason, I am truly sorry.

But: Spring is coming! And MAGAns are turning against…oops…almost said that name.

Why MAGA gets a bad rap

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s hard for non-MAGA citizens to understand how MAGA citizens think. Here are some reasons why.

The new MAGA government bans Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, and strives for a “merit based” approach to hiring and promotions. So, Donald Trump’s daughter in-law becomes head of the Republican Party. Trump’s largest donor becomes Co-President Musk. A Fox News Host becomes Secretary Of Defense. All government departments and agencies are ordered to find and remove any employees who will not be favorable to Trump. And Trump fires anyone who did their jobs and investigated him. Who will be the replacements for these employees? Merit, my ass.

Trump was a Democrat until he realized his style was better suited to the whiny Republican Party. All establishment Republicans naturally took offense and whined about Trump as inexperienced, and ill-suited for the Presidency. Until he won. Then they got on the gravy train.

Trump felt he was going to lose in 2016, so he pre-emptively campaigned about election integrity as an excuse for losing. When he won with the electoral the college trick, he had no choice but to continue the election lie and set up a commission, The Presidential Advisory Committee on Election Integrity. It met for 11 months and disbanded with no report or findings. In 2020, Trump ran again, and resumed his claims of voter fraud, amplified to crescendo when he actually lost. In over 60 court cases looking for voter fraud, brought to court by Trump’s legal team, the courts found none. But it had now become “The Big Lie”, and its repetition led to the insurrection of January 6, 2021. In 2024, however, MAGA supporters brought Trump back for another election and Trump won. With very few reports or claims of election fraud. It’s a miracle, right? Must be they found all that invisible voter fraud. Oh, and no insurrection.

Co-President Musk and his DOGGIE (sic) unilaterally tear apart departments funding medical research. The Republican Senator from Alabama, a staunch Trump supporter, complains: her state is losing funding and now whines the cuts should be more discriminatory. The Co-President and President don’t respond. Or did they?

In the last 20 years, and more so in the last 12, MAGA and Trump attacked the “liberal bias” of Main/Lame Stream Media. Meanwhile, the media specifically set up to spread CONSERVATIVE bias is never mentioned. One bias is better than another? In fact, being a member of Faux News appears to be a sure-fire way to get a job in the new MAGA government. Merit?

Last, my most often repeated bugaboo: The Mandate. Trump brought it up in 2016 when he lost the general election. He loves to repeat it. America’s population was 341 million people as of December 30, 2024. 77 million of those citizens voted for Trump. Mandate? Another Big Lie. Less than one quarter (22%) of the population voted for Trump/MAGA. And nearly as many (75 million) voted AGAINST it. The message? Screw everyone but MAGA.

Last one: Why do MAGA and The Modern Republican Party complain so much? Trump has never made a positive, uplifting speech about ALL of America. It’s always doom, gloom, and Biden/Obama’s fault. Who wants to live with a man constantly complaining about others? MAGA does.

And don’t forget the “grab ‘em by the pussy” remark from 2016. It’s mentioned because it is exactly what Trump is doing to America.

Education, shmeducation…

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

As a farmer’s child of the 1960’s, I was acutely aware of the mess adults made of the world. The cities were burning from race riots, friends were being killed in Viet Nam, and politicians were letting the Earth die. My news sources on the farm were late night AM radio, music, books, and Walter Cronkite. Life was a steady stream of reading, listening, and eventually protesting, when Dad and the chickens allowed it. Damn chickens.

The protesting life came to a head on Mayday 1971 when I stumbled into a high level, east coast organizational meeting of antiwar groups in the dining hall at Colgate University. Sadly, my life of organized protest ended when I showed up too late the next day for the storming of the Administration Hall. All my friends got arrested and I got to watch them get carted away. The close proximity to a possible felony–and a baton to the head– scared me straight and I took my disillusion on the road to pursue education in a non-traditional way.

Somewhere in the mid 1970’s, I was married, with two kids, and starting a great job with the state of New York. I began to feel positive about life in the United States and was slowly growing more confident about the future. Why? The Education. My track through the hallowed halls exposed me to others like me, who thought about things, and paid attention. We met in college dorms, YMCA gyms, beer gardens, and even strip clubs. Everyone seemed aware, thoughtful, and critical but with a positive vibe. It was as if everyone was determined to make a better life for themselves, and then for the world. Many did not have the college degree, but had the college/university exposure and could put coherent sentences together. At that level of involvement, with minds like that, the world was in great hands.

It appears the schools I attended, at every level, provided a way for me (and the people I met), to learn to see and think critically. To be active listeners as well as talkers. We were Compassionate Skeptics. My Generation was going to save the world one life at a time. And trees, too. I truly believed it.

It is an old man’s favorite lament: things aren’t like the old days. I don’t know how our country got from Compassionate Skeptics to Election Deniers. Or Flat Earthers. Or Fake Moon Landers. Maybe I was mistaken all those years ago. Delusional. But, um, like, I’m pretty sure, like, that I wasn’t, you know?

At my orientation meeting with 20 incoming freshmen in 1970 the University asked us what we came to College to accomplish. Many had a good idea of where the university could help them, but several of us said “We came here to be educated, to learn how to think, and to find out what we might want to be.” Education was for education’s sake. To learn. To grow. To be able to see.

To this day, I am skeptical of a young person, 17 or 18 years old who knows what he or she wants to be FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE. To be fair, I envy the early drive of doctors, and health care professionals, and Taylor Swift, but most of the students in 1970 who professed a certain career path were doing something else in 1976. At least they got a good enough Liberal Arts education to be able to determine what was best for them. Not so, these days. Liberal Arts education is as forbidden as DEI.

How can we teach kids to think? Don’t know, but maybe after 50 years of screwing it up, we can at least start trying to get it right. An educated populace will find it’s way and Make American Great Again, like it was in 1976.

And if we don’t, what do I care?

Interesting Things I’ve heard, lately

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

There are so many sporting events these days, there is a dearth of announcing talent. In a recent game I heard an announcer say this with all the confidence of a man who knows everything: “You can bet (this player) won’t miss this foul shot. He’s a great free throw shooter. Made 52 percent of his shots so far this year.” For non-sports people 52% is NOT a good number and the shooter did miss the shot. In the same game: “You have to be impressed by their fight the first ten minutes of this second half. They’ve clawed their way back to within 8 points after being down by 8 at the end of the first half.” Most modern announcers not only speak to fill time, but also work hard to make you see how smart they are. Like this former football coach turned announcer: “If it were me, I’d never pass the (football) again. The (other team) is ready for it.” The “other team” wasn’t, probably thinking the same as the old coach? The first team passed and scored a long touchdown.

Its okay, but no one ever acknowledges being wrong. Or gets fired. Or turns down the check. Modern American values, these days.

Speaking of American Values, for some really interesting answers ask any MAGA/Trump supporter when was the last time America Was Great. If they answer, that is. Most babble and bash Biden. Or Obama.

Here’s an easy one. I’m looking at my wall of windows and all I see is white. I look at my weather app and see sunshine. No snow in the next ten days. Yes, I did double check to make sure the app was set to the right location. By the way, if I hadn’t and learned I hadn’t, an apology would be here, trust me. Truthfully, I would have just deleted this paragraph. No need for you to know how stupid I might be, is there?

Back to politics, and apologies for picking on Republicans, but they are the most egregious when it comes to memory loss, forcing them to give interesting answers. Dems do it too, but…so many Republicans have learned to not say a bad word about Trump they have lost all recollection of the January 6, 2021 riots…especially the ones who were actually there. When asked about The Pardons, the usual response has been: “I don’t know anything about that. But Biden was wrong.”

A recent politician brought up a Republican named Trey Gowdy. If you don’t remember him, he was mainly responsible for the $8 million spent on 52 congressional hearings into The Benghazi/Hilary Clinton fiasco. Mr. Gowdy was the usual lead attack dog during the hearings and now works for Fox, criticizing Democrats for wasting time and money on things like impeachment. He said this sometime in the past, probably during a Democratic President’s term: “Process matters. We are not a country where the ends justifies the means.” The Modern Republican Party thinks otherwise. J6 is the perfect, interesting example. Hope this subject appears on Fox News, soon.

Aw, I spent so much time researching Mr. Gowdy I’ve lost my interest in writing. The real lesson learned from Mr. Gowdy and others like him is “The Squeaky Wheel Gets Greased”. MSNBC and Fox, and others are now populated with “talky” politicians who never really did much but talk.

So be it, football is on. Hope I get good announcers….

Huh. Never looked at it that way…

ness23456 Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In the current heightened political atmosphere, the misinformation and out right lies flying out over various media is intended to help one candidate or the other, right? A viral internet video, for example, “shows” Joe Biden not blink for over 45 minutes. The video says he’s been dead for 2 years. You weren’t going to vote for him anyway, were you.

Another video says Kamala Harris is really a man. Maybe she should embrace that one so she doesn’t lose the election because of misogyny.

These types of “attack” ads and videos are currently the sole property of the Right Wing media of American Politics. The Left does white-bread videos like “Trump hates immigrants”, or “Trump is a fascist.” The worst local ad I’ve seen, for example, says a local candidate thinks “Trump is a threat to Democracy”. Lines like that are water off Don’s back.

So what is the purposes of the Right Wing attack ads, hilarious videos, and wild conspiracies? Is it really political gamesmanship?

No. Its about money. Commerce, specifically, e-commerce.

American and foreigner entrepreneur have found the greatest marketing plan, ever: Market to MAGA world. A recent study found most of the frivolous and most outrageous videos and sites are tied to e-commerce platforms, and follow up the unreasonable stories with a chance for the reader to buy “gear”. Or Bitcoin. Or donate to a Super PAC not even related to the Trump Campaign. In fact, the Trump campaign seldom knows about these sites and their stories, at least Donald doesn’t. The sites and stories don’t always come from the Right Wing, they’re simply AIMED at the Right Wing. Enterprising somethings or others, (assuming they are human), know the MAGA world loves conspiracy, anger, and all around snarky, middle-school, mean-girl behavior. More importantly, these capitalist know MAGA-ites love to buy hats, and buttons, and banners, and gold sneakers, and Bibles, and “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirts, among other things.

What a great plan. That fat nerd in his mom’s basement grinding out conspiracy videos is now making money. Maybe enough to move out of the basement?

It helps when MAGA world distributes the marketing by posting and reposting and asking us all “You’re all sheep. How can you not see what’s happening?”

Next time you see an outrageous video or news story, especially if its re-posted, try to get back to the source and see what they’re selling, beside bullshit.

In the mean, I’ll be looking for a way to cash in on the liberal market with some fearmongering of my own, with a link to my book sales on Amazon, as soon as I raise the price, and re-title them to something politically enticing.