Well, another Dalíesque week in Kleptolandia. The
protestors in “war ravaged” Portland played for keeps, since it seems that ICE
thugs are terrified of frogs.
Not to mention a T-Rex with serious moves.
Meanwhile, ICE thugs in Chicago—defending the White
Christian supremacy, as ordained by the Orange One—shot a pepper ball point blank
into the head of a Presbyterian minister who was <checks notes> doing
nothing except urging the ICE snipers on the roof to think about Christian teachings.
And the Kleptocrat said the quiet part out loud:
There is no longer a First Amendment in that
dementia-fueled world of his.
Pro Tip: The courts—including an actually non-dysfunctional
SCOTUS—have upheld flag burning as protected speech. Of course, with these six
clowns, it may be up for grabs, especially as Thomas has declared that
precedents are not even really guidelines.
Finally, today Cadet Bonespurs is getting his second “annual”
medical checkup of 2025. It’ll turn out that he’s 6’4”, 225lbs of nothing but
muscle and once again aced that test. You know, the one no one’s ever aced like
he does.
So our earworm for today is the “Imperial March”. Typical of John Williams' oeuvre, it's heavy-handed, bombastic, hollow and overwrought. Like every Republican in office.
Even as Lowe’s is ready to sell you seasonal yard monsters,
do not be concerned that they’re going to short change the Christmas
opportunity. Because right next to their Halloween
display, they have these:
(For some reason, the twinkling Nativity just gets me.)
After my recent
Costco run, where I discovered Christmas décor had pushed out Halloween
stuff (in September), I made a trip on Monday to Lowe’s, because I knew they’d
be doing
it right.
They did not let me down.
And of course I pushed all the Try Me buttons. All the buttons.
Found this literally in the gutter on my morning walk
yesterday, and I have questions.
The seal on the wrapping is still intact; I wonder why the
owner (possibly the recipient of a gift?) never even opened it to look at the
inspirational sayings for each month?
We’re ten months in to 2025—why ditch it now?
Why dump it in the roadside gutter? Typically, that’s where
people toss crap out their car windows—did they drive around the People’s
Republic to find exactly the right place for this sad thing?
What a statement about the futility of marking the passing
of days, no matter how hopeful the framing, in these times.
NGL—after events of the past few days, I’m struggling to
find macro things to be grateful for today. Federal government shutdown, which Republicans
are flat-out lying by saying it’s the Democrats’ fault (Rs control the House,
the Senate and the presidency; Dems said they’d vote for the CR if Rs take out
the slashing of ACA subsidies and Medicaid—which exposes millions of Americans
to exponentially higher healthcare costs).
Kleptocrat and SecDef in ill-fitting suits engaging in
willie waving before the assembled military leadership at Quantico. More willie
waving as the Kleptocrat threatens to send US troops to invade US cities.
Violations of international law as US forces sink Venezuelan boats in
international waters because “drug cartels”. Ordering a full-blown perp walk
for James Comey—sending out a call for “the beefiest” FBI agents to show up in
full tactical gear for the photo op on a summons to appear, not a warrant.
ICE thugs—they’re a category of their own. Raiding an
apartment building in Chicago and disappearing all the residents into unmarked
vehicles; entire families. Ziptying toddlers’ hands behind their backs. Getting
stuck in traffic and not liking the jeers of onlookers, so they popped a can of
tear gas into a residential neighborhood. Assaulting peaceful protesters
wherever they encounter them. Pepper spraying a vocal but non-violent protester
in the eyes.
Because they can.
These are dark days.
So I’m going to be focusing on the beautiful
not-quite-Autumn weather we’ve been having here in the District They Call
Columbia. Temperatures in the 60s and 70s, low humidity. Leaves changing color
(but to brown, not reds or golds, so no pix), crisp mornings. Pretty soon the
mosquitos will die off, and I am here for that.
(I’m reminded of a friend of mine, Uhura, who once said
that some days she’s just grateful for her favorite preserves on the morning
toast. We find what we can.)
For those of us who thought last week’s speech at the UN
General Assembly was the dernier cri of batshit lunacy, Tuesday at
Quantico showed us that we have far to go before we hit bottom. First SECDEF
Hogsbreath (“I’m not a cabinet officer but I play one on right-wing TV”)
lectured 800 generals, admirals and senior NCOs on manliness, White supremacy
and grooming for an hour. He was followed by Cadet Bonespurs (the guy who
evaded the Vietnam-era draft five times and who comes from a long line of
military service dodgers) delivering 70 minutes of spittle-flecked invective
against Democrats, democracy and constitutional rights, and instructed military
leaders to ignore international law, the Posse Comitatus Act and common
decency.
He also whined about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize
(which—he claimed—he doesn’t want for himself, but for the country) and was this
close to begging the audience to applaud, cheer and laugh.
It was, at once, cringeworthy and terrifying. In the most
disordered way conceivable, he was publicly telling the leaders that he
expected them to go anywhere he tells them, and kill anyone he tells them,
including Americans here in America. Every uniform in that room was filled with
a person who’s served more than 20 years in the military, and is quite familiar
with both the Constitutional limitations on use of the armed forces and with
the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Most of them take those things seriously
and they know that issuing and following illegal orders are crimes.
(Remember—there are whackjobs in uniform. E.g., Mike
Flynn. But I think they’re in the minority.)
When Whiskey Pete finished—on what he obviously felt was a
high note—there was deadly silence for a few beats; then the assembly was
called to attention to mask the lack of positive response. When the Kleptocrat
finished, there was tepid applause for a few beats; then a Souza march was
blared to drown that out.
It was a shameful performance by both of them, at the cost
of millions of dollars to bring the audience to Quantico. But they’re all about
the performance and not the substance, so they’re taking it as a win.
Meanwhile, our government shut down as of 0001 Wednesday
and the administration is violating the Hatch Act all over the place as
official communications channels blame the Democrats. (Republicans control the
House, the Senate and the Presidency. They put forward a budget that slashes
social support and demolishes ACA subsidies, which doubles or triples what
people have to pay in healthcare premiums—and that’s what Democrats wanted as
the price of passing the bill.)
Klepto has also announced that—due to the shutdown—he’s
going to dismantle “Democrat” agencies. They’re also withholding all manner of
funds to states that have Democratic governors.
So—given all this, today’s earworm is Spike Jones’ immortal
“Der Fuehrer’s Face”. We're getting there.
After Tuesday's absolutely batshit lunatic performance before 800 admirals, generals and senior NCOs at Quantico, I'm just going to post my equivalent of touching grass.
Sunday night I realized that my dishwasher wasn’t draining.
I had the problem back during the Great Plague, and I was lucky to get a repairman
out to fix it. I assume it’s the same thing?
Anyway, I’m on his schedule for today between 1100 and 1400.
Hoping for the best, because I hate having to wash dishes by hand.
Then, yesterday morning, for no apparent reason, Windows 11
stopped recognizing my external input/output devices. Nada, zilch, zero, bupkis.
(I’d only just on Sunday fixed the issue of “New Outlook” not running
spellcheck—after hours on the web trying to figure out what was going on.
Evidently the geniuses at Microsoft decided that they’d “streamline” the user
interface by making you set up preferences in an email (not in the
application) and then clicking multiple times instead of two overall. Also, this
has been a known user issue since <checks forums> 2023.
(However, I still
can’t get it to recognize keyboard shortcuts for diacritical marks; in fact—it doesn’t
seem to have the capability to insert symbols from the toolbar. Oh—I have to press the Windows key plus > to do what you used to be able to do with a tab on the toolbar. Of course. But still no diacritical marks.)
(The same update that did the above also somehow managed to reset my home page in both Chrome and Firefox to Bing, so I had to change them back. I only use Edge when a website won't let me view with an ad blocker on.)
I again spent several hours trolling forums, updating
drivers, rebooting and all…before finally unplugging the docking station and
plugging it in again.
That worked, but I gotta tell you it’s been a hell of a
week and it’s only Tuesday.
One of the goals of my Costco
run last week was to get some frozen vegetables. Since the pandemic,
grocery stores seem to have gone more towards pre-packaged vegetables, as
opposed to pick-your-own, and I end up with a crisper full of vegetable soup before
I can eat them.
I hate wasting food.
Since I have a 17-cubic-foot freezer, I decided that bulk
and frozen is the way to go. So I slapped down $50 for three bags’ worth,
partly based on recos in the Costco sub on Reddit.
(For comparison, $50 at Wegmans would get me three containers
of mushrooms and an 8oz package of haricots verts, none of which I could pick
for myself out of bins.)
First out of the chute was the Provençale Vegetables; I had
them as a side for salmon with rice on Thursday, and hokey smokes! Spread them
out on a pan with a splash of olive oil in the toaster oven—so good I considered
making a second serving.
(Sheet pan and vegetable mélange are coming up soon on the
rota.)
And that’s my gratitude for today: that having the freezer
makes it possible for me to solve the veg intake/food waste problem, and that it
turns out to be delicious.
