Category Archives: Politics

Grand Finale

I generally don’t post long videos here (they take up a LOT of space on my corner of the WordPress site and I’m paying for that) but I think this is worth it. The “grand finale” from last night’s fireworks display at Anaheim Stadium.

The Angels won again today, so they’ve taken two out of three games in each of their first three three-game series. By the standard of their dozen or so most recent seasons, that’s about the best they’ve done in a long, long time. There are still 153 games left to go, but 6-3 is a lot better than 3-6 to start, and that losing record is more of the norm.

Enjoy the fireworks and big booms! Try to not stress out too much over the news tomorrow and for the rest of this week. Especially since there’s not much any of us can do about it. The train is out of control, there’s a mad man driving it, those who have the power to stop him are mostly helping him, and the rest of us are just along for the ride.

Keep breathing, folks.

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Filed under LA Angels, Politics, Video

No Context For You – April 02nd

Stormy and dangerous times are indeed upon us, and I’m not talking about the weather. When we started celebrating stupidity and worshiping cult leaders who lie to us with every breath, we set ourselves on a road to destruction. When we turned our back on science, medicine, and knowledge in a time when we desperately need expertise and experience, we put ourselves in an untenable situation.

I fear not just for our nation, but for our society, our civilization, and our long-term existence as a species.

Those storms on the horizon may be upon us sooner than anyone expects, and they may be far more violent and deadly than we can believe.

I hope that I’m wrong. I fear that I’m still underestimating the danger.

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Filed under Paul, Photography, Politics

Distorted

On the one hand, it’s just a picture of a reflection in the side of an office building with the unflat glass distorting the image of the under construction office building across the parking lot.

On the other hand, I had just been doomscrolling about the complete, world-class clusterfuck which is the current US government, and I was thinking about how I don’t even know what’s a satirical article from The Onion vs. what’s front page news from the Wall Street Journal any more. The constant lies and misinformation being spread by folks we were supposed to trust absolutely is distoring reality in ways we’re not prepared to deal with on a 24/7/365 basis.

I fear that it’s having effects on me that I can’t prevent, can’t counteract, and can’t avoid. And I’m way, way too old to deal with any of this Civil War II shit.

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Filed under Photography, Politics

February Ends On A New Low

It’s truly depressing how quickly our government is being dismantled and a century of hard-earned alliances and trust just tossed into the trash by the psychotic traitor in the White House and his cult. I knew it was coming – I just had no idea it was coming so incredibly fast.

Today’s embarrassing debacle in the Oval Office is a new low, even for this group of ignorant chucklefucks.

Maybe March will be better… (I’m putting my hopes in choelesterol and ketamine.)

In the meantime, the only advice I’ve got to share is to go outside, watch clouds, breathe, relax, and get your blood pressure back down.  The clouds here this morning were lovely!

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Filed under Photography, Politics, Weather

Sunday Sunset

As I was getting home from the ALS Network LA Walk & Ride To Cure ALS  on Sunday evening, it got pretty.

The GOP misinformation machine would have you believe that SoCal is a cesspool of vice, trash, grafitti, and crime.

Obviously. Why would they lie about something like that?

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Filed under ALS Network, Christmas Lights, Critters, Los Angeles, Photography, Politics, Sunsets

Norms & Traditions

It’s no secret that I put up a LOT of Christmas lights and enjoy it. But they NEVER start going up before the day after Thanksgiving. Which would be two weeks from today.

But the Universe has decided that we’re shredding all norms and traditions – see “US 2024 elections,” “Constitutional rule of law,” and “fascism” for examples.

So we’re going to need all of the good cheer and happiness we can find, and if the bad guys can sell out the US government to the Nazis and Putin, how bad can it be if I put up a couple of strings of Christmas lights a few days early?

Tomorrow I’m going to get my flu and updated COVID vaccines, while they’re still legal. After that? Who knows, if I don’t feel like shit from the shots (and I rarely do) then maybe it’s time to pull out the laddars and string a few extension cords, C5s, C7s, LEDs, and icicle lights.

Maybe.

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Filed under Christmas Lights, Health, Politics

Signs & Portents

Well, isn’t THIS just a fine fucking little nightmare!

I don’t even have words to start to express my disappointment and disgust with my fellow Americans.

Then I came out to this on the front porch this morning. It might have been an omen. Or is it a portent? Whatever.

Having the US flag ripping loose and hanging upside down seemed to be appropriate, especially with the leftover Halloween skeleton there.

(Image from ForeFlight app)

Probably not quite a sign from the gods – the winds had been pretty viscious all night. Whiteman was reporting winds at 45 knots, gusting to 60 knots, with Van Nuys, Camarillo, and Burbank all reporting similar readings.

If anyone has figured out what the silver lining or bright side to this debacle is, please let me know. I’ve got nothing.

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Filed under Photography, Politics, Weather

At The Edge Of The Abyss

When bored, I will sometimes flip through videos on Instagram and the other social media sites, and since the algorithms will feed you more of what you have already liked, I tend to get a lot of videos of roller coasters, bunjee jumpers, skydivers, BASE jumpers, and so on.

That’s the feeling tonight. Or, as the meme my daughter shared said, “Srong night-before-Helm’s-Deep vibes today.”

Fledgeling birds learn to fly by leaping and having faith that they’ll figure out the flying thing before they get killed. I’m optomistic by nature. I want to believe that we’re not staring into THE abyss, just maybe AN abyss. Maybe this time we’ll learn to fly before we crash and burn and die.

But I remember 2016. I remember after the “grab ’em by the pussy” tape and the mocking the handicapped video and the porn star payoff and all of the THOUSANDS of other offensive, disgusting, ignorant things that TFG did, any one of which would have permaently eliminated him from the possibility of public office, and then after he left office in 2020 the top secret documents and all of the illegal activities he’s been caught doing and the coup on January 6th, my god, THE COUP! And yet he’s still here and there are ways for him to win and I never, EVER thought that he could win to begin with and now I swear I’ve got PTSD from being exposed to him for all of these years.

And just about when I’m about to have another panic attack thinking about another 4 years of him, or more likely 4 weeks of him and then who know how many years with Vance and all of the Nazis behind Project 2025 and the horrors that are lurking, I think about how incredibly ANGRY women seem to be now. And kids, the generation that are voting for President for the first time, who grew up with active shooter drills every month the same way we used to have tornado drills in Kansas City.

Back on August 18th, when the Democratic campaign was energized and reinvigorated by Harris’s entry, I went on http://www.270towin.com and created my “aggressive & hopeful” map.

If I’m in my good head, if I’m not listening to the demons of my TFG PTSD, the only thing I would change tonight is that I think Iowa will turn blue. I think it will be something like 456-82 to Harris. But I’m mentally prepared (I hope) to be more disappointed than I’ve ever been in my entire life.

Get out there and vote tomorrow if you haven’t voted early. In so many ways, this truly could be the end of the world as we know it.

I’m really not feeling so fine.

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Filed under Deep Thoughts, Politics

The Next Week

I’ve seen this meme a dozen places in the last 48 hours and it’s ringing so very, VERY true right now. Another one says, “It’s like the whole world is waiting for biopsy results on Tuesday.” That’s true too, although I’ve been feeling more like the characters in “Melancholia” or “Deep Impact” waiting for the comet or rogue planet to hit the Earth.

Let’s keep the faith, keep breathing, keep our sense of humor, and hope for a

over the next 72 hours.

In the meantime, we’ve been experiencing our first good windstorm of the winter, which meant that the roads this morning were littered with palm fronds (which can shred a tire in an instant), small tree branches, tumbleweeds, and the odd, migrating Halloween decoration. In our back yard,

We will rebuild!

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Filed under Memes, Photography, Politics, Weather

No Mo’ NaNoWriMo

Tomorrow November starts, and in many years that would have meant the kickoff of a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) effort on my part. If you’re curious, you can look back in the archives here and search for that term – I’ve always published my feeble and incomplete efforts on here. A couple of them I liked, a couple were just embarrassing. You pays your money, you takes your chances.

This year there’s no way on Earth I have the time or energy to even think about another campaign. I’m already on such physical and emotional thin ice with other time pressures and priorities that it would be suicide.

In addition, in the last year there have been “issues” with the management of NaNoWriMo, which runs as a non-profit. A number of the issues are serious, and while some heads have rolled and some changes have been made, I’m not convinced that the problem has been adequately addressed. So I won’t be a part of the NaNoWriMo organization or efforts, even if I did have the time.

There is at least one other group trying to get a new organization going (I forget the name of the group) but I haven’t heard much, just that it was trying to get started, so maybe we’ll see where we’re at this time next year.

For now – as expected, not a single trick-or-treater tonight at our house, primarily because we live off the beaten path a bit on the top of a huge freakin’ hill. Again, we’ll see where we are at this time next year, hopefully in that legendary Forever Home in a more pedestrian and family-friendly neighborhood.

November starts tomorrow and it will be a big one, especially with the US national election in five days. The fact that it could still go either way is terrifying. For the life of me, I truly can’t understand why it’s not 95/05 in the polls, or more. And even if it does turn into a resounding defeat for fascism, what the Mango Mussoli and his cult do in the days afterward has the potential to be horrific.

C’mon, November. I know you got the short end of the stick and a tough assignment. Make us all proud!

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Filed under Forever Home, Politics, Writing