Imagine being so uninformed, so unable to observe the world around you, so isolated in your Fox News cocoon without any reasonable person to challenge your conspiracy theories that you say yeah, I want four more years of this shit.
I’m happy to hear about a group of people who are concerned enough to form an Anti-fascism group, but no, the ends do not justify the means. Violence gets a hard no every time. No exceptions.
Consider you’re a white house staffer. Maybe even Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. You’ve got a global pandemic happening on your watch, uncertainty in the markets and now levels of racial tension not seen since the 1960’s. What to advise oh dear leader?
Well, obviously the right thing to do is to address the nation with a message of calm and try to get everyone to settle down. Assure everyone that justice will run its course in due time and urge people to hold fire. But he can’t do that.
Because every time he opens his mouth he steps in it. So the best advice they can offer is to say nothing at all, which in itself is a message isn’t it? It appears they convinced Trump to hold his tweets because he held off for 11 hours or so after the “LAW AND ORDER” tweet. But man, he’s taking a beating today on Twitter with the various #Bunker hash-tags calling him out for hiding out in his bunker while our cities burn.
That is indeed a choice between bad and terrible. Thoughts and prayers for KellyAnne and Mark.
Albeit a minor one, but taking a stand nonetheless.
I’ve waffled back and forth about this for years and finally decided to do what felt right. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Facebook for years. On the plus side, it’s pretty satisfying to post a happy event and get 60 “likes” from friends and acquaintances. On the downside, it’s run by Mark Zuckerberg. A guy who could is all-to happy to take payment in rubles from outside influences intent on wrecking this country. It doesn’t seem right to participate.
His excuse is not wanting his company to have to be the “arbiters of truth” and I get that. It’s a tough proposition. But maybe after he cashes his check for $5B we can have that discussion about first world pain and suffering. Give me a break.
Twitter isn’t much better. Jack Dorsey should have suspended Trump’s account years ago for violating Twitter policy. Finally, after years of using his power to send subtle hints to his “2A group” and lying through his teeth unchallenged, Twitter qualified one of his tweets with a pointer to some accurate information. But at least it’s not a total pansy.
It doesn’t help Zuckerberg’s case that he wines and dines with the Republican establishment. I have just lost all respect for the guy and no longer want to participate in his platform.
The truth is, probably 90% of the friends I had on Facebook won’t even notice. My bad for posting too much political activist content over the years. That content isn’t for everyone and I get that. People use the platform for vastly different reasons. It’s all good. No judgement. I’ll miss keeping up with what’s been going on in the lives of friends, neighbors and acquaintances for sure. In retrospect we probably didn’t need to post all of our meals on there. It’s possible to do TMI and I may have posted at annoying levels at times. Probably guilty. Oh well.
The other thing I got to thinking about is the time sink that social media can be. If not careful, it can be sort of addicting. I got to thinking about several people I know who either don’t have a Facebook account, or had one and gave it up. They are all doing fine. Maybe it would be a positive thing to model them? I dunno, those thoughts crossed my mind for sure. Live in the moment as they say. I’ll be spending a little more time on the blog. I can say what I want here and people can decide if they want to read opinion pieces or not.
Random thoughts. Not a big deal. Just life. Carry on.
It boggles the mind that even after all the criminal exposure Trump has had these past 4 years, combined with all the other blunders that he is still within range of pulling off an electoral college victory. Write it off to that’s how cults work I guess.
Had he shown a modicum of presidential character he would probably have 2020 sewn up. Republicans, expert yarn spinners when it comes to their trickledown sales pitch would probably be in position to carry the day November 3rd. It takes a lot to give back the advantage of incumbency, but Trump is on course. He won’t lose because Joe Biden is an awesome candidate who inspires hope in people. He’ll lose because he’s an asshole.
From Keely, Barry, Erick, Scott, and Sandin at the Sweetbrier Inn, Tualatin circa 2000.
Simply amazing. We were spoiled living so close.
You’re the Biggest Part of me
Ain’t Nobody
Minute by Minute
Summertime
Georgie Porgie
Crazy Love
Birmingham
This Masquerade
Blue Bossa
Get Here
I’ll be Over You
Centerpiece
Simple Life
Arthur’s Theme
Fields of Gold
Stand by me
Norwegian Wood
Who will be the fool / What you won’t do for love
I just finished watching the tribute to the class of 2020 and was struck by the job the producers did in representing a very diverse America. The graduating seniors have had a tough go of it this year, but they are a talented bunch and I don’t think they are fooled by the messaging of Trump’s Republican party. They know they are witnessing white man’s last vestiges of holding onto power.
Barack Obama, class guy that he is, delivered a nice speech to the graduating class where there was strong messaging about not ceding your power to the older generation because they’re quite capable of screwing things up. You’re going to have to get involved, ie. vote. Trump is completely incapable of delivering such a speech. He would have made it about him and blathered on about what a great job he’s doing on the pandemic.
Let’s hope the kids get out there and register to vote.
Inspired by Stephanie Grisham’s decision to leave a job she never did; I am announcing today that I am retiring from baseball and will no longer play centerfield for the New York Yankees.
Jon’s dad wasn’t home at the moment and his mom didn’t seem to care what happened to that wood so we were good to go.
With an abundance of wood, we could build the coolest fort the neighborhood had ever seen. I’d built a couple of tree forts prior to this, but those were merely boards between a couple of branches up high to sit on. This was going to be an impressive structure.
We couldn’t be bothered with architecting anything for this endeavor, we were in too much of a hurry to have a fort. I made a quick trip home and returned with a handsaw, hammer, and some nails and before you knew it we were on our way.
We could tell from the stockpile of wood that there was about enough material to make a structure that was going to be approximately 4′ high by 6′ long and 3′ deep. It was going to have an open entrance and some see-through slots that would act as natural windows without having to cut an actual window slot out.
As the afternoon heat set in, the hand sawing ended up being the most challenging part. We would take turns sawing through a big longboard for our sides and top before slapping it on with a few nails. Often we would saw 3-4 inches, rest, saw a few more inches, rest. My arms grew numb after a while but we had our sights on the end product and it was going to be a thing of beauty.
By later afternoon we were sweaty, dusty, and tired, but our structure was coming together. Jon’s dad came home a little after 5pm and checked in on our project. He was impressed with what we had done with the boards. We felt like we had really accomplished something. He likes it. Whew!
The very next day we were enjoying the fruits of our labor and naturally making big plans for phase II. There was one thing about the fort though. It was reasonably square at its sides, but overall it had a little wobble to it.
The wobble bothered me, and it felt a little like unfinished business. Easy enough to fix though, I said to myself. All we need to do is attached the fort to the house. I don’t think Mr. Alger will mind.
So we dragged the fort to where it was butted up against the house for fastening, then proceeded to drive several nails from the side of the fort into the house. Top and bottom for maximum stability.
There, much better! Hardly any wobble.
Jon’s mom made us lunch that day so we could take it out to the fort. We spent the rest of the day inside trying to figure out how we could ever top this accomplishment.
Mr. Alger did come home that evening and was not pleased that he now had a 72 square ft. addition to his house. Free of charge mind you! Some guys are just natural complainers. And that was the end of the fort project.
View from my PDX Window 