Category Archives: Politics

June 1, 2026 · 22:53

WARNING – Politics – Bad Words

Tomorrow’s the primary here in California. (A lot of other states also, and if it’s not tomorrow it might be soon in your state. Same rules apply.) And yes, we have already voted. We dropped our ballots off in a secure ballot box and got confirmation by email and text that they were received and counted.

Here are my simple rules for voting.

Rule #1: Never, EVER, EVER vote for a fucking Republican. ANY Republican. Not for President. Not for Federal office. Not for state office. Not for local office. Not for junior assistant apprentice dog catcher. Or anywhere on the spectrum in between. NEVER! Every Republican until the heat death of the Universe can FUCK OFF! It doesn’t matter if God Herself appears before you in a towering pillar of flame and says She’ll kill your puppy if you don’t vote for the Republican. DON’T DO IT!!!

Rule #2: Never, EVER, EVER vote for a fucking billionaire. Doesn’t matter if they’ve got really good sounding ads and sound bites and they started playing them a year ago. Billionaires are EVIL. Especially the ones who are power mad and want to get into politics because it sounds cool! Pro tip – if you’re a billionaire and you really, REALLY just want to help folks and make the world a better place, simply take the hundreds of millions of your personal cash that you want to blow on an ego-stroking campaign and simply start helping folks. If you’re a billionaire and you’re just too fucking stupid to figure out how to do this, contact me – for an extremely reasonable consulting fee I can research various programs and non-profits that will maximize the good that you can do, get you the biggest bang for your buck.

Rule #3: Your candidate doesn’t have to be perfect. “Perfect” is the death of “good,” the “perfect” candidate doesn’t exist and never will. Pick someone who’s better than whoever the current chucklefuck is – that bar is surprisingly low these days. Vote for them. Don’t “protest” vote, that just hands the election to some billionaire Republican. (See Rules #1 and #2 above.)

Rule #4: Read Rules #1 and #2 as many times as necessary.

Rule #5: ALWAYS vote!!! There is no election too trivial to not bother. “Oh, it’s just the school board…” Have you seen what these white supremacist Christo-fascists are doing on school boards, even here in “liberal” California? Banning books, kicking trans kids off of sports teams and out of school, making sure that the Ten Commandments are illegally put in every classroom while school lunches and textbooks are not.

Any disagreements? Let’s assume I’m right, you’re wrong. GET OUT THERE AND VOTE, AND VOTE FOR SANE, COMPASSIONATE, INTELLIGENT CANDIDATES!

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May 7, 2026 · 23:36

Since You Asked…

WARNING – my sense of humor is being let off the leash today, and it’s likely to offend some, so if you’re bothered by gore in classic horror films, maybe I’ll just see you tomorrow.

Bank of America has a new advertising catch phrase, a question, which I had an immediate response to when I first heard it. Now I have to use their app to securely log in every day for work and I see it over and over again.

What would I like the power to do? Easy!

If Bank of America didn’t want my answer, why do they keep asking? So far, no joy on delivery, but there will be signs, particularly in the metro Washington, DC area.

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May 6, 2026 · 23:58

And Another Thing!

So, let’s pay the cat tax right up front. This is Oreo, also long departed. She was shy and we knew the end was near when she stopped being world-class aloof and reclusive and actually wanted to start curling up on folks’ laps for naps. When she started plotzing on The Long-Suffering Wife,

Yesterday I expressed frustration about the way our current political and social climate has destroyed my trust in much of mainstream media, and how angry it makes me that I can’t get accurate information any more. Those feelings were poked at again today with the passing of Ted Turner, who may have been a loose cannon in many ways, but he created CNN which, for a news junkie like me, used to be like high-grade heroin to an addict.

My news obsession goes back to at least my junior year of high school (long, long before the Internet, CNN, cell phones, and social media), where we got subscriptions to the New York Times and had a couple of classes where that daily print edition was a key part of sevral related classes. Going to Annapolis as a midshipman didn’t help – if you know what the daily routine is like there for plebes, you’ll understand. We got the Washington Pos and Baltimore Sun every day at about 04:00 and had to fill our heads with facts and trivia for “come around” before breakfast. And thus were obsessive habits (and psychoeses) established and cemented.

When I moved to Los Angeles, or more specifically, Orange County (next county to the south from LA proper, home of UC Irvine where I went to school for four years), I had a subscription to the Orange County Register. When I finally moved to Los Angeles, I switched to the Los Angeles Times for almost 50 years.

I also have had over a dozen magazine subscriptions for decades, but those are more focused in terms of subject matter. I did have subscriptions for years to Time and Newsweek, but dropped them ten years ago when I started getting so much more of my news from the internet. But somewhere along the line I started picking up online newspaper subscriptions. New York Times. Washington Post. LA Times. Kansas City Star. Columbus Dispatch.

So with all of that as background, it is significant that with the takeover of the great mainstream media outlets by oligarchs and international conglomerates, and the way all of those oligarchs and corporate toadies have kowtowed to Trump and MAGA and the right-wing cult, I have walked away from them ALL. I haven’t made a big thing about it, but it’s been years now since I’ve had a subscription to the NY Times, Washington Post, or LA Times. I almost never watch CNN. (Obviously, the fundamental right-wing media outlets like Fox News and NewsMax and OAN have NEVER been watched in this household, and if they’re on in the waiting room at the doctor’s office or in a restaurant I’ll either turn them off or find somewhere else to be. The lowest of the low, the slimiest of the slimy.) When Musk bought Twitter, I stopped cold turkey and moved on to Mastadon, Spoutible, Bluesky, and Threads.

I have looked for other outlets that have stayed true to journalistic principles, and I make a point to subscribe to make sure they have that tiny bit of support that I can offer. The Philadelphia Enquirer is one of my go-to sources. Since moving to Hesperia, the San Bernardino Sun is surprisingly good at delivering even-handed coverage of local news. And I still get the online Springfield Reporter from my old home town in Vermont, although that’s sadly mostly for the obituaries.

I’m always on the prowl for other reliable, honest, reputable news sources to support and utilize. In a comment on yesterday’s post here, Jemima Pett recommended The Guardian. I also like Reuters. Yes, done and done, both.

Giving up 50 years of habits and a comfortable lifestyle and walking away from these old news sources is difficult, but it has to be done. When the NYT is running “serious” articles about putting Trump’s image on Mount Rushmore, they’re no longer any more legitimate than those old National Enquirer newspapers at the grocery store checkout lines, with headlines about ‘BatBoy” and how some woman in Kentucky is now pregnant by aliens.

Sad.

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May 5, 2026 · 23:44

Proof Of Life – May 05th

I truly hate that we can no longer get accurate, timely news or information. I don’t trust any of the mainstream media to be honest or unbiased, and while social media is more timely and instantaneous, it’s also got an extremely high bullshit level.

The worst part is hos you used to be able to say, “Well, THAT has to be bogus, nothing that insane could really be happening!” These days? Assassination attempt? Yeah, right. Show me a body. We’re bombing an ally or killing hundreds of innocent civilians? I’m not surprised. Trump said WHAT? It won’t make any difference.

So tonight I’m seeing multiple posts on social media from normally reputable sources that are extremely worrisome. If they’re all true, it might be about to get even worse than I thought that it might. But I’m not seeing a lot of cross confirmations from multiple sources. So maybe it’s just the internet. Clickbait. Bullshit.

None of this is helping me get restful sleep in my old age.

Here, have a cat picture. That seems to help for a lot of folks…

This was a really old cat from long, long ago, Joey Chan. We really don’t want a cat now, even though we have the Forever Home. We’re not really cat people, as cute and soft as they might be.

But a dog? It could happen. The Long-Suffereng Wife has her dream breed in mind and we’ve discussed it. It could happen. I’ve been trying to be level-headed and considering in advance some of the down sides and issues we’ll have to deal with, but maybe that’s wrong. Maybe in these times of grief, stress, and bullshit, having a dog to snore on your lap and make your legs go to sleep and get all tingly might be worth it all.

Maybe.

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January 7, 2026 · 23:20

Proof Of Life – January 07th

Between today’s news, yesterday’s news, the news of the last year, the news of the last ten years, life, the universe, and everything, simply starting to scream is high on my list of things to do. I’m just not sure that I could stop.

I did get a haircut, and I can hear train whistles. I guess things don’t TOTALLY suck.

Tomorrow might be better. That possibility is what gets me up every morning. And prevents a 5150 hold. Well, that and Diet Coke (my caffeine substrate of choice).

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January 3, 2026 · 23:55

Why Is There Brain Freeze?

Especially when you’re eating ice cream. Ice cream is by definition a perfect good. How come it can be turned into a nightmare, a horrible, painful thing by brain freeze?

This is proof to me that there is no kind, benovolent, loving, omnipotent God or Creator. There may be a Creator, or we may be in a simulation of some sort, but there’s no omnipotence involved. There are any number of errors or bugs in the system.

On the ultimate scale of horrors, the top billing of course goes to things like childhood cancer or worms that have their larva grow in your eyeballs and blind you for life. Not to mention the existance and ongoing lack of consequences for a whole raft of current US politicians. Despite all of the press it gets in Bible, we’re not seeing nearly enough smiting these days.

But having had a busy, stressful day and persevering and getting things accomplished and rewarding yourself with some quality ice cream, only to be BLINDED by unstoppable pain after like three bites, that’s gotta be up there on the list. And it’s very personal. (Not that eyeball larva isn’t…)

I’d like to talk to the manager, please!

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December 31, 2025 · 22:46

2005 Was Like Sirius

To be clear, 2005 for me was like Sirius the star, the astronomical object, not Sirius the satellite music service.

Sirius (the star) is the brightest star (other than the Sun) as seen from Earth, over twice as bright as the second brightest (Canopus). It’s been known for thousands and thousands of years since it’s so prominent. It’s the “Dog Star” and when it appears as the morning star it’s the beginning of summer and the “dog days.” Lots of interesting facts about Sirius and it’s history.

Despite being known and prominent for centuries, it wasn’t until 1844 that astronomers noted that it’s part of a binary star system. The huge, bright star we see is now known as “Sirius A” – there’s a much smaller, much dimmer white dwarf which can only be seen with a good sized telescope that’s known now as “Sirius B.”

This is where I make the comparison to 2025.

“Sirius A” = all of the pain and bullshit that was the world (Russia vs Ukraine, etm…) and US politics (the rigged and stolen Presidential election that no one seems to care about, the Mango Manchurian Candidate and all of his disgusting actions and idiotic, psychotic rantings and misinformation, the billionaires who bought Congress and the Supreme Court, the Epstein files, the National Guard in our cities, ICE, Brain-Worm Bobby and his [literally] insane health policies, and on and on and on and one, etm…)

“Sirius B” = our Forever Home, finding it after years of searching, getting the purchase done, getting the move (more or less) done, and still being amazed on a daily basis that we own and live in such a COOL place!

Given the enormous difference in magnitude between the two, it almost seems inappropriate or embarrassing to be so pleased about the house, given the enormity of the suffering and death around the world and in our country. Yet, on an individual level, it really shouldn’t be ignored or lost in the chaos. Yes, big picture, it’s a tiny thing compared to the potential end of US democracy or the start of the Second US Civil War, but it’s a HUGE freakin’ thing in our personal lives.

So, it reminded me of Sirius.

What about 2026? Well, as I might have hinted at, I think Trump should be in jail for the rest of his life, or tried and executed for high treason, and then we need to find a way to sweep the GOP and our illegitimate Supreme Court out of power and change the rules so this can never happen again. I suspect there might be more than enough bribery, perjury, embezzlement, and other crimes in there to put a LOT of the GOP into cells next to Trump’s. Time to clean house and take our country back. (I wish I knew how to do that, but that’s above my pay grade. I’m open to suggestions.)

That’s the biggest day in, day out, universal objective for the new year, but there’s the usual on a personal level as well. There are always things that I can and want to do better, and since I’ll be hitting one of those “red-letter” birthdays in March, as always I need to do a better job of taking care of myself physically.

We’ll see. The intentions are good. The spirit is strong, but the body is weak.

Stupid body. (And holy guacamole, Batman! That’s a metric shit ton of grey hair. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯)

I hope all y’all get through the New Years’ celebrations safely and in one piece. I’m sure you all have your own list of things to be aware of and improve on where possible – best of luck to you all and may the odds be ever in your favor.

If nothing else, “Project Hail Mary” hits theaters in March. How bad can a year be with that coming out to look forward to? (He asks innocently, fully understanding that he’s probably tempting the Fates with such a statement.)

I’ll see all y’all on the other side.

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November 2, 2025 · 22:49

Vote 2025

Only one item on the ballot, no elected offices, no state or federal offices, no Congress critters, no President… Doesn’t matter. Yes, I’m one of those folks who ALWAYS votes, no matter how “inconsequential” or “unimportant” the issues might be to some.

In this case, switching our voting registrations to our new Forever Home address was one of the very first things we did three months ago. So, San Bernardino County, not Los Angeles County any more, but the process was easy peasy.

Did I vote “yes” on Prop 50, the single ballot measure up for voting, the issue being redistricting California’s congressional districts to weight them toward Democratic candidates, in order to offset similiar efforts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and several other “red” states in order to rig t 2016 midterm elections in favor of the GOP and their psychotic, fascist cult? Yes, I voted “yes,” but only because they didn’t have a “FUCK, YES!!!!” option.

Maybe next time I’ll write that in.

(No matter where you are in the U.S., you probably have an election coming up in the next day or two – VOTE! If you’re not trying to fight the problem, you are a part of the problem. No matter what, I pretty much guarantee at this point that you are not panicked enough about how much shit this country is in. Let’s try to vote the evil bastards out while we still have elections, we might not as early as next year.)

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October 10, 2025 · 23:53

Proof Of Life – October 10th

Well, that was one hell of a week! Thank goodness Godzilla is here to finish us off!

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October 7, 2025 · 23:52

Proof Of Life – October 07th

A common question I see being asked of various social media commentators regarding today’s world (i.e., the ongoing destruction of the US government and fascist, right-wing, white “Christian” supremacist dictatorship being put in place) is, “What can I, as a simple, normal, powerless individual do?”

I see the same answers over and over, and I don’t know that they’re wrong. I wish that I felt better about them actually working, but it’s all along the lines of 1) write letters and make calls to your political representatives 2) volunteer to help where you can 3) join a peaceful protest 4) talk to your family, friends, and neighbors 5) spread facts and fight misinformation and outright lies and propaganda.

All good ideas. And finally, 6) don’t let them beat you down mentally, don’t let them make you give up, don’t allow them to steal your joy.

Excellent. Easier said than done, however. I’m finding joy to be in short supply.

But I can still find it in simple things, like looking at the clouds and the birds every day. Look at the stars every night, and the sunrises and sunsets every morning.

I was reminded by a good friend the other day that it’s fun to blow bubbles. Ausgetzeichnet! I’ll have to remember to get some ASAP.

I joined the local astronomy group. I’ll have to get my telescope re-aligned and set up again.

Bigger picture, what would it take to start flying again? It’s a long shot, but I hear that we need to set “impossible” goals. (I don’t know if that link to an Instagram post will work here, it’s the first time I’ve tried to do one on this site. If it doesn’t, jut look up “Mace Curran” and immediately go get her new book “The Flipside.”)

This might all be just whistling past the graveyard, but it’s got to beat just giving up and lying down to die. At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

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