Disregard the Obsessed Sycophant Behind the Curtain!

 I don't care bout Natalie Harp.

As a Christian, I care about her as a person. But as to whatever's happening between her and the orange clown, I don't much care.

Yes, it's a concern because she is close enough to the Narcissist-in-chief to be filtering what he sees and bases his impulsive decisions on. Yes, for all I know, she may be a foreign spy of some sort, especially since she resisted having a security check for so long. Yes, that bag may be full of diapers. I don't know, and I don't much care.

Is this affecting his purchased relationship with Melania?  I doubt it.  But in the words on the back of Melania's jacket - "I REALLY DON'T CARE - DO U?"

Is anyone surprised by this? Does anything not fit the profile of this serial adulterer and someone who wants to be surrounded by sycophantic loyalists?

She is a symptom of what is rotten in Trump World, but she is not central to what is happening in the everyday lives of American citizens and, really, people all around the world.

We're concerned about the soaring cost of goods and services - groceries, gas, housing, education, medical care. We're smart enough to see that a candidate who ran on affordability is now disavowing the word and calling it a 'Dumbocrat Hoax'.

We can see with our own eyes and brains that the 'no new wars' candidate has charged America into a new forever war, one that is stupid, purposeless, and unwinnable. We've destabilized the entire planet because our moronic leader was led by the nose into a conflict all other presidents were smart enough to tell Netanyahu NO,

Global warming leading to dangerous climate change is ruining our future faster than ever before, and what does our fear-filled nincompoop do? Doubles and triples down on fossil fuels, slaughters wild horses, opens our national parks to destructive development, and deregulates the EPA, gleefully turning his back on reason and science. What does he care what happens as long as he and his family accumulate billions and live like royalty?

Americans are quickly learning the dark side of deregulation as more and more products once considered safe are now dangerous. Our food supply is contaminated, AI Data Centers are stripping us of water and power, and diseases once defeated are surging back.  

The right to vote is being challenged, unless you're white and live in the right area. ICE, surveillance, and Flock cameras are coming for you all, noncitizen and citizen alike.

Our media is increasingly in fewer and fewer hands, and those billionaire hands are streaked with the fecalness of the Trump administration. 

Separation of church and state is now a fiction, as the reich-wing Chrustians are intruding into public schools and destroying/neutering public libraries. We're a Christian nation? Really? Which version of Christianity are we? Because the version that is taking hold is about as far away from anything I recognize as Christianity as you can get.

So, do I care about Natalie Harp?

Not really, no.

Maybe she'll help take him down. But I doubt it.

We have to stop counting on other people. It has to be you and me. Especially if you've supported him in the past. His popularity needs to tumble further. The candidates he endorses must lose, and lose badly. 

Toto is pulling back the curtain. You must see what's really happening.

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain? PAY EVERY ATTENTION TO HIM, and don't overthink the obsessed sycophantic nursemaid standing back there with him.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Choosing the Right Sacrifice is a Task: Rose Aldridge Column #3

 This is Rose's third column, from March 4, 1982.  It presents what sacrifices to make during Lent.  At this time, Rose was a member of Blackshear Presbyterian.  Later, with Grace Episcopal, Lent would become even more prominent.

It's always hard with Lent, trying to balance something that will be a sacrifice, but not in a criplling way. When I was working as a CPA, I wanted to give up tax returns for Lent, but that really didn't fit.  So, it usually wound up being some sacrifice of social media and/or certain foods.  I also interpreted it as doing something more, whether charity or Bible/devotioanl reading,

I'm continuing to work on the presentation of these columns.  Right now, they're not really readable unless you enlarge them, which, based on last week's, many of you can do.  But I know that is still leaving many of you out, so I will continue to work on it.

Today is Rose's birthday.  She would have turned 77.  We're doing our best to remember the good times.

We miss her dearly.

Skating Near the Abyss

 

We are skating on the abyss. Every day seems like one where it could crack, and we get dragged under.

Some things happen that make one hope that we will avoid the freezing abyss, where democracy ends, where our fragile hold on this planet erodes, where love and charity and hope are dragged under and drowned by hate, intolerance, and fascism. 

No one can listen to a speech from Senator Jon Ossoff and not hope there is a way out. His rhetoric crushes the illusion of Trumpism, and we most clearly see the petty narcissist behind the curtain.

Many times our beleaguered court system holds as a bulwark against some of the most egregious edicts of Trump. Not always. Judge shopping is a favorite Trump sport. Sometimes, though, they put a stop to or slow some truly heinous stuff. I am very impressed by a Judge who halted the disastrous ballroom by the most common-sense ruling - the White House is OUR house, not his. He is merely a short-term tenant, and only Congress can approve these idiotic projects.

And it continues that anything he touches turns to crap, like the National Mall's State Fair disaster, the brutally stupid and nonsensical Trump Hunger Games, and the destruction of the Reflecting Pool.

His popularity is in the low 30s. Should it be lower? Absolutely! But our media is dominated by reich-wing voices, and that is a hard filter to get through.

It has been inspiring to see so many progressives emerge from the Democratic Party primaries. It is a process, though. Some of those candidates will win. Some will lose. But I am convinced that if we have any hope of surviving, they represent the future.

But many other things are occurring that make me fear we will not make it off the ice.

The Iran War dribbles on, rudderless and purposeless, destroying our standing in the world and only increasing Iran's power. The conditions aboard a navy vessel, the USS Abraham Lincoln, are pooh-pooed and denied, coldly saying that their extended mission is not too long yet, not nearly long enough.

Inflation persists due to the war and to his tariffs.

Deregulation and vaccine-deniers have destabilized the medical system and caused a noticeable uptick in diseases once defeated, like measles, and in uninspected foods, leading to things like an avalanche of explosive diarrhea. 

Many are harassed and endangered by ICE, undocumented immigrants and documented immigrants alike, and also include citizens as well. No one is safe from their reign of terror.

He continues to dance with the devil (dictators throughout the world). Just yesterday, he proclaimed his love for North Korea over South Korea. I cannot even fathom that, and what it might lead to.

He continues to threaten that IMPERIAL America will take over and subsume vast swaths of the planet - Canada, Cuba, Greenland, Mexico, the Straits of Hormuz. It never ends.

We are no longer trying to stop or mitigate global warming*, and instead accelerating it. The rise in average temperature is undeniable, and its effects are already felt. All life on Earth will be negatively affected. We are running out of time.

He is making it clear that he will dismantle and RIG our electoral system, and if that doesn't work, he will void the elections and declare martial law. We still have some who think he won't go that far. I'm not one of them.

We continue to see his health deteriorate, both physical and mental. Impeachment and the 25th Amendment should have been used months ago. But the Republican Party, the same Party that forced out Nixon, continues its shameful, cowardly dissent into subservience to fascism.

The ice we are skating on is getting increasingly fragile. We are at risk of falling in and never coming back out.

I have no magic answers as to how we get out of this.  

We can only hold on to everything we can, and pray and hope that a better time will come.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

* I know that many are using the alternative term climate change in the hopes it may placate some deniers. I do recognize climate change as a threat, but it stems from global warming - as the Earth warms, it leads to more and more destabilization of climate and weather - increasingly violent storms, including changes in precipitation, leading to drought in some places and deluges of rain and/or snow in other places. And yes, this is primarily a man-made phenomenon.

Some views on living in a small town: Rose Aldridge Column #2

 

This is Rose Aldridge's second column, appearing in The Blackshear Times on February 28th, 1982.

I find it difficult to read at this size, but I've been told that some people can enlarge it so they can read it. That might be true for my mobile phone users, but I'm less sure about my desktop readers.

Please let me know if you find it readable or not.  

I'll keep searching for alternatives.

Thanks,

T. M. Strait

Lunch With the Telly

 Yeah. I watch TV. DEAL.

Many (not all)* of my generation were the first TV generation. With multiple channels (sometimes as many as FIVE!), the rise of prime time, local shows from Afternoon movies to children's shows like Bozo or jumping Kenny Rogers, Saturday Morning Cartoons, and the advent of LIVING COLOR, TV was spectacular! Especially for an imaginative introvert like me.

Now that I am retired (for the most part) and with dozens of channels and streaming services, I could turn to an Ursula with a remote.

But I haven't. I still have my prime time habit. The big difference is I no longer have to be at the TV at a set time, or I miss the show. I don't even have to record a show on a VHS tape (like I often had to do with Buffy). I can call up any of tens of thousands of programs when I'm ready to watch.

During the rest of the day, there is not much. I used to watch morning news, but they've all been swallowed by right-wing media moguls, blathering far-right talking points. Even MSNOW has the interminably awful Joe Scarborough.

About the only thing in the daytime now is an occasional soccer game.

And, of course, my lunch program.

I'm a den eater. I like to eat while watching something. Particularly when it's just me. So, I have my lunchtime program.

I rotate between watching three programs. They change over time, as I complete different series. These are the three I'm rotating between now -

Smallville, which I am currently in Season 9, is part of a broader Superman re-watch that I have been doing for several years. I started with the Max Fleischer cartoons of the forties and have been moving forward chronologically. This includes movies (Christopher Reeve Superman), cartoons (Superman: The Animated Series), and TV shows (The Adventures of Superman)**

Currently, Season 9 puts me in 2009 of my re-watch. I like Smallville. Tom Welling does a good job of portraying a young Clark Kent. Erica Durance is outstanding as Lois Lane, capturing her wise-cracking intensity and bold spirit.

Sometimes the storylines are repetitive, focusing too much on characters being possessed so that the actors can present a different personality. And the WB network made teenage angst a specialty. But over the years, they presented a good number of characters from the DC comics. Green Arrow is portrayed by Justin Hartley, who went on to some minor series like This Is Us and Tracker.

I usually watch half a season at a time, one episode each lunch hour.

After that, the next one in rotation is -

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, filling my mystery/anthology slot.

Before this, I watched Alfred Hitchcock Presents, a half-hour anthology that ran seven seasons. Any anthology series will have a mix of really great episodes with some meh episodes. It's amazing how many spouses wanted to kill each other.

For someone of my age, seeing some of the actors I recognize from that time is fascinating. Some are in their pre-movie star phase, such as Robert Redford.

I usually watch six episodes before rotating to -

The Avengers, filling my spy/SCiFi slot.

I'm in season 3, and Emman Peel isn't even in it yet. John Steed's partner is Honor Blackman, who played the Bond girl, Pussy Galore, in Goldfinger.

The episodes are ok, in black and white, with cheap sets. Sometimes the episodes are suggestive of what's to come as it veers more into camp and sci-fi. I'm patient, though. We'll get there.

Earlier this slot was filled with The Man From U.N.C.L.E, a favorite from my youth. I still have Season 4 to see, but I have to buy that. It's not accessible any other way.

This is all courtesy of the power of streaming.  

Happy viewing - whatever your cup of tea and crumpet!

**I mean, all of that generation were in that TV era - just not all became as absorbed in it as I did. In fourth grade, some of my classmates proclaimed loudly that they NEVER watched TV.  Then those same classmates did a skit in class based on The Jack Parr show (the forerunner to Johnny Carson). At the time, I didn't even know who the hell that was.

* Those mentioned are just examples of each category.  There are a number of others, such as The Adventures of Lois & Clark, where Dean Cain, the far-right extremist and short-lived ICE agent, plays Superman.  To be fair, I did not know that when the show was originally on.

MAGA in the Upside Down: Saturday Political Soap Box 306

 

First, we had to read the book. Alison read it. Then I finished it a few days ago. So, last night, we finally watched it.

Project Hail Mary.

It was excellent. Very worth the wait. Yes, it was slightly different than the book, but not in any way that took away from it.

A recent Academy Winner (which I am pretty sure Project Hail Mary will be joining that rank) was One Battle After Another. Thinking of that title made me realize that Project Hail Mary is...One Scientific Crisis After Another!

And that's true to the way science is. It's not a straight line. It's discovery and exploration, trial and error, solving and evolving. Every discovery leads to a new set of questions to resolve.

Our handling of COVID-19 was like that. As we gained more experience with what we were dealing with, the advice to handle it became more precise and refined.

Compared to other pandemics, the science progressed fairly rapidly. And that was in large part due to a man who had devoted his life to analyzing infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Millions of lives were saved because of the hard work of Dr. Fauci and many scientists and health care workers.

But we can't leave that alone, can we?

History has to be revised by fools like Senator Rand Paul, the orange conman, and an army of misled MAGidiots.

It was masking, social distancing, and eventually the vaccine that mitigated the extent of the Pandemic. As new information and discoveries emerged, scientists would refine their advice (e.g., how the virus spread less effectively outdoors).

America had a higher casualty number than virtually all other nations, but it DEFINITELY wasn't because of Dr. Fauci. It was MAGA didn't want to mask up. They didn't want to social distance. They refused to vaccinate. They didn't care who else they infected, because it impinged their own rights. Personal "freedoms" mattered more than human life.

This is evidenced by the fact that MAGA red counties had the highest death rates, especially during the time that the vaccine was available.

Last week Senator Paul led a committee whose sole purpose was to denigrate Dr. Fauci and use an unearthed PRIVATE diary to catch Dr. Fauci in a contradiction that could be used to accuse og him of perjury and send him to jail.

MAGA and Paul were trying to put us in the Upside Down. They were trying to turn the heroes into villains and the villains into heroes.

Disgusting.

We are now living in a time when diseases that were under control, like measles, are now roaring back, when lettuce has become feared because it may contain cyclosporiasis, when the corporations' right to pollute supercedes our right to be safe, when the Depatrment of Health and Human Services is led by an anti-vaxxer who swims in raw sewage, eats road kill, and drinks raw milk.

And what happens if the next pandemic hits while this parade of fools reigns?

God help us all.

We are so far from the cooperative, inquisitive, evolving science of Dr. Fauci and Project Hail Mary that it makes me weep.

T. M. Strait

AOC '28

Another Round of Inspire Me

 

One of the things that has lagged, as I slowly try to get back in the habit of writing, is fiction.

I don't know why.

Twice winning runner-up in the Mysterious Photo flash fiction contest in the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine has inspired me. Still, the fact that the magazine has not published a printed magazine since February has diminished that source of inspiration.

To hopefully re-inspire, I am going back to a writing exercise that I have used on here several times - the InspireMe app that brings up three random words to build a flash story around.

So, here we go!

Court, Key, Substance

"Don't be late for your court date," Wally warned. "They could throw your junk back into the trunk!" I think Wally meant county lockup, but I wasn't always sure with Wally. He wasn't always clear, but he was the best lawyer I could afford. Which was free, as we were childhood chums.

"The key to your freedom is your confession," the coppers had urged. They lied. What a surprise! Now I had to recant and hope for the best.

I wasn't late, but I'm not sure it helped much. Despite Wally's inept description of the substance of the case, there was a book, and the Judge tossed it at me.

Well, heckers. I guess I should have never thrown a cream pie at the Mayor.

Tail, Pass, Class

Barky wagged his tail as I prepared to enter the school bus. How could I leave while my precious black lab puppy was urging me to stay? How could I pass up spending the day with my beautiful, playful buddy?  

"In or out, kiddo?" the bus driver urged. "C'mon, I ain't got all day!"

My best friend, Wally, shouted from an open bus window, "You have to go, Daz! We got that big test in Mrs. Comer's English class! It's a quarter of the final grade!"

I coughed spectacularly, bent down as if a big ol' barf was coming. The bus driver pulled back in horror, slamming the bus door. 

"Sorry, Wally! I'll just have to make it up later!"

Barky and I retreated up the dirt driveway to our farmhouse. Some days were too valuable to waste sitting in a stuffy classroom.

Colony, Represent, Plastic

He planted the flag on the beach with dramatic flourish. "I hereby, in the name of the Queen of Pazoria, declare this island a colony of her Majesty, to forewith forever to be known as Rojeci Island!'

The native watching this was slightly miffed. "I'm sorry, Sir, whoever you are. You do realize that this island nation is already occupied?"

The Admiral, Sir Wallace Beery, looked down at the short native, sniffed, and said, with great regal disdain, "Who...are...you?"

The native puffed up, standing firm. "I am Dazman, and I represent the peoples of this island. We have been here for millennia, and categorically reject your impertinent colonization!"

"Do you?" roared the Admiral. "I reject your ignorant nativism! Don't you realize what advances we can bring to you?"

"What? Like plastic?" queried Dazman, pointing to the plastic skiffs that bore the Pazorian Navy's advance team. "Plastic just poisons and ruins the environment, don't you know?"

"You reject all advances. I've had enough of this nonsense!" warned Sir Beery. "Take aim, men!"

"Well, we don't reject all advances," assured Dazman. "For instance, we are very keen on catapults."

Before the Pazorians could fire, rocks rained down on them.

Thus ended the foreign occupation of the short-lived reign of Rojeci Island.

Well, anyhoo, it's a start.