Monday, Again..Still, With More to Come

 - Got news for some: Gibson guitar company is NOT selling $3500 instruments for $9.95 plus shipping. Normally I’d suggest if (when) you see these, report them to whatever ‘social’ ‘media’ site you frequent as scams and  attempts at theft, but insidious morons at Facebook told me on 3 separate occasions the advertising does not violate their ‘standards.’

- Thursday lunch time looked out the window and saw 3 police vehicles behind a high schooler’s truck, lights flashing, etc.  I’ve seen the vehicle over there many times. Anyway, the driver and at least one passenger were cuffed, vehicle searched, then towed away presumably as evidence.  Don’t know exactly what’s up, but I do know I’ve seen as many as 15 kids hanging out at that particular truck before. Methinks some sort of debauchery.

- For the longest time, republicans = conservative democrats = liberals. As evidenced by the recent leak of a GOP sponsored bill so secret no one is supposed to know what’s in it, this is no longer the case. Secret bill. Do any of those people remember “you have to pass the bill before you can see what’s in it?”

I genuinely believe that the number of elected officials in federal government now counts less than the number of fingers I have, and that the overwhelming majority of elected folks have abandoned, forgotten, or never knew our entire system of government was designed to protect us from runaway government.

- Seen: any dog can be a guide dog if you don’t care where you’re going. That’s pretty deep

- I’m thinking the matter between Texas and the Neros  in the White House administration don’t result in the deployment of F16s like the sniveling twerps in the administration keep threatening. My gut says Texas now more than ever should consider this like a bad marriage, with one of the partners up and leaving.

- That said, it’s being reported that the Border Patrol union stated, rather emphatically, agents will not remove any defense barriers erected by Texas. Hell yeah

- I always feel kind of weird when picking out cucumbers at the store.  Read into it what you will.

- Anyone with cognitive abilities greater than an onion understands how corrupt our election process can be. What I would like to know are a) how long has it been going on, and b) what can anyone do to stop it

Thursday…

 - Just an opinion…but ‘Union’ ‘representatives’ should not be making 4-5 times more money than those they claim to represent.

- Do homeschooled kids need a note from someone if they are absent? Does anyone anymore?

- I’ve been told I’m the total package…a package that tragically got all screwed up during shipping and handling 

- I’m surprised the Supreme Court decided it was ok again for feds to cut state installed barbed wire at the Texas border. The feds don’t care who enters the nation as required by the constitution, and have basically surrendered the right to control *any* aspect of border security…but fighting FOR illegals to break federal law and enter the country at will seems at the very least willful neglect of constitutional duty, sworn to by ALL federal employees. I could not nor would not take willful steps in aiding and abetting federal crime.

That said…I seriously wonder when the dipshit in the White House a) will activate all members of the Texas national guard, and then order them to remove the razor fences they just put up, bypassing the state governor altogether, and b) order in a different state’s NG to take whatever means necessary to stop Texas from enforcing constitutional mandates.  Right now I call it even money.

- CBS political reporter Katherine Watson posted online the other day that in order to save the planet, humans must become extinct. Yes, an adult telling us what the political news is wants our species dead and gone. To this, I say ‘lead by example.’ 

- Saw a meme intending to be funny, but the concept warrants consideration. ‘Student debt cancelled = college diploma cancelled.’  If student debts are erased, then the benefits should also be erased…as in if your mortgage is forgiven, you get evicted…as in if student debt is waived, then the forgiven amount should be considered taxable income…it’s only fair to the millions of us who paid theirs off. I’m told a portion of negotiated debt relief is taxable, so …

- If in the complete impossibility that I would be encouraged (with an or else attached) to report back for active duty service, I’d be screwed.  Why you ask? Because they’ve changed the names of so many army bases, I’d have no idea where I was supposed to go. I imagine some pentagon types are now looking for a whole new way of screwing up history.

- Ever just sit someplace and watch people? It's more entertaining now than ever before.  But then I start wondering if they are happy in their worlds, realize only they can decide if they are or not.  When I was young, people my age were generally content but will to live within their means.  These days, not so much, and I'd hazard a guess that the 20-45 crowd is significantly less content in the world, even though they have significantly more than I did at that age. 

- The state of Kentucky has 22,000 civilian federal employees, excluding FBI, DEA, Secret Service)…at the time this info was published last week, there were a shade over 16,000 border patrol agents on the border. Louisiana had reportedly 28,000 bureaucrats.  Somehow, this seems upside down 

- I have to be very careful and wary whenever bad news strikes. It’s real easy for me shift from ‘well, that sucks’ to a degree of hopelessness and feelings of futility when negatively charges news affects me personally.

Whoa, Monday

 - A Kentucky lawmaker has introduced legislation to legal 1st cousins to marry, have sex, etc.  sometimes the jokes write themselves 

- I’ve spend most of the past being self employed. During the majority of that time I was drastically understaffed and under qualified…definitely underpaid 

- Commentary:  the reason we see such voracious examples of stupidity in claims of the various “isms” is not because decision makers in companies and positions are wobbly kneed wusses, it’s because there are unscrupulous lawyers making big bank from fear.  Corporate and school leaders know that if they don’t appear pro-active in ‘combatting’ various fringe only matters, they are subject to long and expensive litigations. People in leadership basically have one job, to ensure the money is safe. Hard to do when there are sleazebag lawyers who identify things that **might** make them money, convince others that they should be offended, and tie up millions in court. Lawyers are typically paid whether  they are successful or not

- I’ll never understand teenagers’ propensity for fighting on school property.  They get caught, almost every time. If you have to fight, do it anywhere off campus, just not my yard.  

- Read a thing stadium security were on alert at the last Cowboys game, forcing fans to stay until the end of the game. Don’t know if true. (Relax…it’s a joke)

- But what ISNT a joke is a president of a particular party yet again stating that no matter how dysfunctional the feds are, nothing will change because they have F16 fighters and we the people don’t. 

- It remains an absolute mystery how gender is confusing to some people. There is no changing one’s DNA. Like it or not, people are stuck with what they were born with. Regardless of what someone voluntarily does to the wrapper, one is still either male or female. Expecting anything else just proves ignorance and lack of ability to grasp the real world.

Now, if a male chooses to become feminine in appearance, conduct, mannerisms, whatever, that’s fine with me. Everyone deserves to be happy, but threatening those who don’t refer to altered males as females just don’t cut it (pun fully intended).  Adapting a feminine manner to participate is sports, though, is just wrong, for obvious reasons 

- Played in San Angelo Saturday night, drove back home. Sunday morning I attempted to hurkle durkle, the Scottish word for laying in bed in the in between zone of half asleep and half awake. One of Deb’s cats wasn’t having it, and pawed/clawed the sheets off so I had no choice but to get up. Cats can be such a-holes, especially *her* black and white tomcat.

- I wonder what the chances of a key (house, car, assorted lock,whatever) would work on someone else’s stuff. 

- I wasn’t rooting per se for Buffalo Bills, but I knew that if they had won we’d be rid of Taylor Swift

Thursday, But Not Everywhere

- OK, I fibbed. It IS Thursday everywhere the day this was published.  

 - Continuing the tradition, the Cowboys play a brilliant season, but choke the moment someone says playoff game. No, I didn’t watch.

- As to football, I did watch the Houston Texans whoop up on the Cleveland Browns. Seems their quarterback is 22 yrs old. I routinely wear clothes older than the lad, but my clothes don’t make millions of dollars throwing a ball

- The newly crowned Miss America is an active duty Lt in the Air Force.  Wow! Runner up is Miss Texas.

- A friend who raises chickens found almost all of his hens dead, looks to be from a really mean rooster getting too rough while being aroused.  Authorities suspect foul play. 

- The way I see the 2024 election as of today: Trump will  annihilate everyone running against him in the primaries and the general election. Dems know it, Reps know it.  In the interim a large contingent of so called public servants and elected officials will be embedded as to make Trump 2’s administration a shambles with potential whistleblowers and ‘insiders’ coming out of the woodwork.  If DT would listen to US instead of career advisors, he would give 98% of the anointed bureaucrats their walking papers effective immediately on Inauguration Day, and embark on the path of no revenge, just leadership we so desperately need to survive as a nation.

- So called pro Palestinian ‘protestors’ basically harassed, get this, a cancer hospital and it’s patients in New York City on Monday. Being loudly obnoxious to patients in a cancer hospital because the facility has ties to Israel. This is what humanity looks like now. I guarantee at some point sooner than later these protestors will result in violence.

- One thing about the uptick in political interest: it’s all fairly meaningless blather with the primary goal of media talking more out their asses than talking actual facts about actual topics. I’m starting to think I’ll start learning Mandarin Chinese in pig Latin, with a lisp.  Would be more beneficial than what’s being touted as relevant news.

- Read about the Big Spring VA deploying its mobile eye care vehicle. A fully equipped and self contained eye clinic to treat veterans with vision needs at remote locations. I absolutely love this level of common sense care

- Anyone with an ounce of academic integrity knows the barrage of legal actions Donald Trump are nothing more than political warfare in some attempt to prevent his running for POTUS. That said, I wish he would just shut the hell up while courts are in session.  Really, such conduct is not fitting a former and future president, or any actual citizen of the nation.

- Nuclear truth:  One disorienting thing about getting older that no one tells you about is how weird it feels to get a passionate, extremely wrong lecture from a much younger person about verifiable historical events you can personally remember very well.

Monday

- Well, shoot.  The blog platform I use does not have any means of recovering entries that got accidentally deleted.  Im having to reconstruct today's page from scratch. That's what I get for trying to get some things done before my 4th cup of coffee.

- Facebook is absolutely out of control right now.  Saturday I spent way too much time deleting 'ads.'  No, people, I'm not interested in playing slot machine games, don't have any need for viagra like products, don't need a single thing that works on PC platforms only, don't need any brassieres for overweight women, don't need any beginner guitar lessons, no interest in over 65 dating sites, the list goes on and on.

In the meantime, legitimate business and community oriented sights like regional recording studios, volunteer fire departments, and the like are being permanently deleted by the Facebook overlords and their controlling algorithms.  At some point, more people like me and my peers will just tell the multibillion dollar platform to shove it.

- Also interesting to note is a couple of eBay employees were found guilty of harassing a Massachusetts couple by sending them dead fetal pigs, a pig’s head, planting GPS devices on their automobiles, fake posting on sexually explicit websites in their names, and several other crimes of corporate mentality turning into childish revenge. eBay was fined over $3 million, is under corporate oversight for three years, and so on. The victims involved reportedly did not receive any compensation, but we’re apologized to (???) for blogging how eBay was not treating their sellers fairly.  Wow.

- A friend is a veterinary surgeon known for his VERY fast surgical procedures. Just the other day he did one on the fly.

- It seems Friday the US Commander in Chief, guardian of the constitution, and basically the leader of the free world, was campaigning but forgot he is the president.  Jerk-wad introduced himself to a crowd saying he worked for the government as a senator.  This is so sad, to think THE face of the United States is so mentally incapacitated he doesn't know what he does.

- The union representing the US Border Patrol came out the other day fully supporting everything that Texas Governor Abbott is doing at the Texas-Mexico border. Everything.  

- I don't get many weekend nights off anymore, thank the Creator.  When I do, Deb and I try to make a point of going out to support local and regional musical acts.  We did so Friday, going to see Johnny Blaine and the Spur Band.  Great evening.  It was interesting to note that I had played with exactly everyone in the band at some point, some a few months ago, some a few years ago, some several decades ago. It was also interesting that at the venue, I knew as many people or more than not. Ive come to appreciate each and every one of them.

- $23 million of technology reported as lost or stolen from Chicago schools in SY 2021-2022.  It’s been reported exactly 100% of iPads, phones, chrome books, and the like are now gone, with many students ‘losing’ their school issued devices 4-5 times. Every-single-one? Looks like kids are being groomed for Chicago government or union jobs.

- Why yes…it’s cold. Sunday morning here was 11, with a windchill of below zero. Yeah yeah yeah, I know it’s a lot colder in places up north…but I’m not there, am I? I’m concerned about being cold here, where it gets to 115 in the summer. And, I’m old and cranky regardless of temps so let me fuss.

- Read an article how a man in Brazil was informed there was gold buried under his residence, a 12 story apartment complex. So the man started digging many years ago…the resulting hole measured 120 ft down.  Seriously, that’s what the article said! Making matters worse, he was looking down the hole, lost his balance, and fell to his death.  I can only hope this article was a spoof.

- I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: there are far too many drive through coffee shops. Y’all quit being so lazy and brew your own, and in the process reduce traffic jams from vehicles lined up in the street, Damn y’all.

   

Oogaly-Moogaly

 - Seen: I see Dawn commercials everywhere, but I won’t buy any.  I don’t have a greasy duck

- We have to STOP treating politicians as if they are deities. They are humans, subject to the same errors, the same misspoken words, subject to the same temptations, subject to the same laws be they mankind, ethical, moral, or spiritual. Any person who dismisses a candidate for actions long before they entered a political arena but are guilty of themselves are basically hypocrites. People already in public service who commit unacceptable acts are basically saying they don’t care what the standards of conduct are, they are above it.

Ye who is without sin shall cast the first stone.

- a couple of major cities (AKA shitholes) were shut down a bit on Monday when ‘protestors’ blocked bridges and highways preventing any traffic movement. I’ll go on record as saying do that where I’m affected, and there are 3 things that will happen: 1) I’ll very politely ask you to move, 2) I will TELL you to move with a detailed explanation of what will happen if you don’t, and 3) run your ass over. It’s just not difficult to make your point without disrupting hundreds if not thousands of people.

- I’ve always believed professional relationships are essential.  Working with the same doctor instead of farmed out physicians for example. Scenario: doctors used to know you, literally inside and out, and had for many years. Nowadays, it can be a crap shoot, and whatever family doc or specialist sees you as another source of payment. Instead of a doc having a basic understanding of what’s what in your world we get assembly line treatment in which a doctor *might* read the last 3 entries on your file, and have an approach of ‘let’s start a long process of billable visits,’ rarely curing anything. 

- A recent survey showed 19% of so called Gen Zs took their parents to actual job interviews.  This is so sad

- Seen: Hollywood is boldly combating cinematic piracy by making movies so bad, no one wants to even watch them, much less steal them

- People are so weird. I’ll  never understand the toilet paper hoarding craze at the beginning of Covid.  Food I could see, as well as cigs and booze..perhaps Scooby snacks…but toilet paper?  Gasoline the same thing. Saw photos of people putting gasoline in plastic bags. 

- Seriously, Hunter Biden is either the stupidest man in the nation, is going out of his way to further embarrass his family, or has such malicious disrespect for everything that he though showing up uninvited to discussion about his pending contempt charges, then fleeing, was a good move. Or perhaps it was at his lawyers’ recommendation that he take very active and public steps to ‘prove’ he is not mentally fit for trial. 

- Opinion: when op Ed writers and such talk about white supremacy, they really don’t have any idea about the world they live in.

- Speaking of unnatural stupidity, Chris Matthews on MSNBC says rural Americans are cultists who NEED to be changed. Jeez-us

- y’all have a great weekend 

Next Week Already

 - It’s true. The concepts of next week, tomorrow, sometime this month, are really impossible to chart, as there will always be one…until there isn’t.  Point is don’t put things off too long. No telling when the calendar will just run out for any of us.

- Auto body repair shops…do any of them do actual repair anymore, like pounding out dents, reshaping with Bondo or whatever?  Over the past decade or so I’ve had some body damage to both trucks in which nothing was actually repaired , just replaced.  Took in one case MONTHS to get the parts, which were much lesser quality. What do they do with the tons of damaged parts?  Maybe I’m the single example, but I’d rather have repairs than replacements just about every day.

- Took a pair of Justin boots in to get new soles and heels. I’ve had these for going on 30 years, and they are insanely comfortable. What was a shocker was the repair ticket, over $100! At first I was tempted to say to hell with it and just toss em out, but in a split second decided it was a much better choice to pay over $100 for boots that will likely outlast me.  

Should be noted the old Mexican man doing the work has been in the same location since the 70s, and stated the costs/time involved reflect the costs of goods. He also said good boot repair guys don’t really exist anymore, as he’s not been able to find help or an apprentice since 1998. I see this as another sad real life commentary on the disposable world we live in now. 

- Seen: when I look at a piece of chocolate there are 2 voices in my head. One says ‘you need to eat that chocolate,’ the other says ‘you need to eat that chocolate.’

- There’s just NO WAY Barack Obama did not patronize Epstein’s island.  There was a lot of money, a lot of influence, and a lot of lord knows what illegal drugs, some things the chosen one and his sycophants  were  well versed in.  You just know that  BHO, lil joe, et al, were frequent visitors. That’s like presuming a drunk not partaking of an open bar

- A Florida woman has sued Hersheys chocolate because the Reese’s pumpkin candy wasn’t cute enough…the lawsuit is asking for $5 BILLION is damages.  Seriously, she wants the financial equivalent of a nuclear submarine because she didn’t think her candy bar was as cute as represented on the package.

- Remember Ashli Babbitt!

- Dear drivers, a couple of things…

• When the wind is blowing red dust to near zero visibility, please refrain from being idiots by driving 85MPH on curves 
• Driving 30 in a 75 on a clear day may present a hazard to the rest of us
• Everyone stops for gas…but everyone does not need to hear your stereo blasting sonic diarrhea…especially when you leave it blasting when you go inside the store.
• Seriously, no one who’s ever gotten laid thinks your hyper jacked up truck with undercarriage lighting and mirrors taking up 4 lanes is cool, no one except other people who’ve never gotten laid.

- Midland TX may be getting a zoo (excludes humans)…this is fine as long as it is 100% privately funded. The moment it becomes a taxpayer responsibility it should be shut down. Note: if you want to see human zoos I could recommend several dive bars in Midland/Odessa that you’ll find interesting 

- More and more people I know are moving out of metropolitan areas to ***small*** towns. They not only know something I don’t and planned for it, or are just willing to take their chances to get away from metro.  I’m understanding this more and more with each passing day

- 

What in Tarnation Is Going On?

 - Flaming plane crash in Japan…earthquakes…what appeared to be (edit: mostly ruled out) terrorist attacks in Manhattan and Rochester NY.  Only 2 days into the year.

- Seen: just watched a commercial for a wireless bra, and for the life of me never knew they needed to be plugged in

- So…How many on the Epstein list will be prosecuted?  My guess is zero, but if any are, they will be conservatives 

- The US military is reviving tactical posts not used since WW2 in the Pacific.  Wonder if these actions are ‘just in case’ or actual preparation for events known to 

- Biden administration says the impossibly under reported illegal alien matter is due to climate change. How do college educated, usually wealthy people get away with such massive stupidity? Does the recognition and power from high profile tax payer funded positions outweigh their brain functions?

- Odd times, when filthy rich folks like Steve Harvey and Sarah Jessica Parker hawk silly internet games to play on your phone.  It’s not like they need the money. I understand they were compensated (well?) for their endorsements and advertising spots, but wow.  Although I do recall my utter dismay and shock when returning from overseas army assignments and seeing Merle Haggard promoting secured credit cards and George Strait advertising (gasp!) Bud Light beer.

- Speaking of odd pairings, it’s being reported that famous rapper/stoner Snoop something or other will be a commentator for the upcoming Olympic Games. Since when did maintaining a positive THC blood content for 30 straight years become an Olympic competition? 

- And then there’s the guy who jumped over a judicial bench and assaulted the judge who denied his bail.  I’m pretty sure that has never worked, and never will work. Again, we don’t need more or better laws, we need fewer and better people…those that have the capacity to understand the basic concepts of what makes us human beings.

- Seen: I can tell someone is lying just by looking at them. I can also tell when they’re standing just by looking

2024? No WAY

 - Here we are, like it or not

- A really stupid news story from Odessa: man breaks into a total stranger's house with a bag full of sex toys to engage in highly kinky sex. The charming man and his intended victim did not know each other, but seems he knew a younger woman lived there.  

- Funny how political winds change. Read an article describing 1 in 5 ‘college age’ people now hold bin Laden in a favorable view. Some years back a James Bond movie featured the brave freedom fighters in Afghanistan coming together to help the MI 6 hero oust Russian troops. The Mujahdeen as they were called are now called Taliban. Political visionaries like Martin Luther King and Pres JFK have been replaced with George Floyd, Trayvon something, and other thugs.  Congressional brand names on the dole for 50 years, never contributing a damn thing, keep getting re-elected, sometimes get elected president.  

- I wonder how hard, if even possible, it would be to drop off the grid. Carrying a cell phone (even if off) or using a credit card guarantees it won’t happen. Answering ‘have you ever’ type games on Facebook can show data analysis types where you’ve been, what you like, what you eat, and so on.  Checking email can pinpoint one’s location with time/date stamps. Using connected smart appliances at home, driving WiFi equipped vehicles, having utility bills, whatever.

I don’t particularly mind having a presence, but when that presence is used nefariously, I mind a lot. Case in point, when Deb and I bought our then new trucks in 2012, we used the Sirius XM freebies for some months.  I provided Deb’s number as mine, and vice versa. To this very day, we get spam calls from all over the globe trying to sell something.  13 year old data and still getting these.

- It’s my genuine prayer that 2024 will see the return on the concept ‘United’ in United States, but I doubt it will happen this year, if at all. Politicians in New York are trying to eliminate our choices for president, California doing its best to force the nation into policies already proven to be failures, Texas being harassed by the feds for enforcing federal laws they abjectly refuse to enforce.  We can’t last much longer with  this.

- Gripe of the day: each year I get older, the tighter jars like spaghetti sauce lids are. I swear those machines need some maintenance. That’s my story 

- Seems now the mental midgets in the White House are introducing legislation to change refrigerators, as they are some sort of hazard to the environment. Someday we’ll have a government that actually identifies real challenges and implements policy to reduce or eliminate those challenges, but it won’t ever happen until we get actual servants instead of thousands of people trying to justify their paychecks. Right now we’ve got a non existent border, millions sucking money without any right to receive, on the brink of World War 3 with the smallest military in 80 years, partisan criminals in every imaginable lettered agency, runaway crime, etc etc etc…but they are worried about the appliances in your kitchen.

- Some things in life are absolutely worth it. Playing music in a *genuine* Texas Dance hall is such a thing. McLean Dance Hall has become a traditional New Year’s Eve gig for the band, with the audience comprised of almost exclusively ranching and farmer families, folks from bare toddlers to over 90, all with the sole ambition of gathering, dancing, and just letting it hang out. Lord willing, when our grandkids are old enough we’ll be taking them up there, show them what being a TEAL Texan is all about