2024: i just can't believe

 That a a 78 year old socio-path can be elected president of the United States.

Again.

But I was sure that couldn't happen the first time.

But it did.

Happen.

But this time my feeling that that can't happen -again - is based on sociology and medical science, not politics.

Politics.

Which were seriously impacted by the Russians in 2016.

I have made several posts documenting how that all worked.

I DO know, that Fox says that that is all conspiracy; I rest my case.

And I also read the Mueller Report.

And Fat Billie aside - he lied and obfuscated about that report - and the Press accepted his lies and obfuscations, (I guess they had never seen a lying sack of shit pretending to be Attorney General of the United States before) and we went on about our business with a traitor at the helm; but I guess that's just 'Merica. 

So: donnie will be 78 in 2024; he seems to wax fat and prosperous on his All-KFC diet, but even a walruss finally dies of an all blubber diet. 

Or so my friends who are walrusses have told me.

I am pretty sure that walruses don't eat blubber, but, like Fat Billie, I am taking literary liberties.

What fun.

But back to donnie.

So he may not even make it to the hustings in '24.

But, his blubber aside, donnie is increasingly losing any grip on reality.

Even his previously really shaky grip.

On reality.

As attractive as that is to many 'Mericans (a president with no grip on reality) chasing the dilusion of making 'Merica Great Again Again, when we only became a laughing stock under donnie's  recently terminated ludicrous flail at national leadership, I can't lose the belief that they are a diminishing tribe of nuts.

About Time For Some Images

 

Shaggy Mane mushrooms: I found these growing in the tree island of Costco store number one's parking lot; of course I harvested and cooked them.

Grammy Lill taught me to make potato cakes.  

You can find the recipe at Grammy Lill's Potato Cakes.

Look for the Grammy .. etc. tab and click on it.

The Eiffel Tower is a lot more interesting when framed in a non-traditional surrounding - I think.

A lot of editorial content gets stenciled on the walls of Paris.

This little guy was in the place adjacent to the mouth of the Paris Catacombs. 

Trees need to be barbered; these are; it's in Jardin du Luxembourg.

Life on the Seine

More life

And more life; I love it.

What can I say that I haven't already said?

Paris cops

Some museum, probably la Louvre

How to make a statement on a thistle

Our internet went out so they sent this stuff out to fix the problem.

Coming off a hill in Florence

I had just had fish and chips made with sardines - really good - when I saw this scene on the Mediterranean Sea; we were in CiCi in October; what a good time to be on the coast of Italy.

What can I say?

"Experiencing" A Word That Obfuscates

 Reagan purged the mental health hospitals back in Morning in America.

As with many of the things he did, and around the campfire of which modern day republican cretins dance with glee, he screwed us.

Or at least those of "us" (remember: "We the People etc. etc. etc."?) who had the misfortune to be too other world to do well in this world; since I believe that we are one great tribe, I can with confidence assert that Regan screwed "us".

When I take a taxi from the airport in Paris I see major shack-towns on the periphery of the preipherique; when, after getting to my apartment, I walk up Canal St. Martin, I see tents along the canal housing the un-housed.

In 2006 I lived in an apartment near Avenue Rapp; on Avenue Rapp lived two men on a tarp sheltered sort of by the overhang of an adjacent building - but they lived on the sidewalk - they were known to all of us who lived in real human abodes near them; some of us - I wasn't one of them - delivered food to them daily; the men got sandwiches.

And that was better than starving, I would suggest.

But, even in "socialist" France in 2006 that was the state of affairs.

I spend some time in Seattle.

We - Seattle - have all the tents and tarps and hopeless, hapless, horrendously left behind members of our tribe that I have seen incessantly in Paris.

I hear they have them in Portland; I hear they have them in Omaha, etc. etc. etc.

"Experiencing" is a word that just doesn't get it done. 

An Odd Interlude In My Musical Preferences

I guess Irish trumps all.

I never liked Big Band Music, that was my parents' thing.

But Jimmy Dorsey put this piece out, even as I was savoring Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly; and it still is one of my favorite pieces of music.

 (15) Facebook

Lady Bug On Thistle

 Serendipity?

Or;

Careful planning?

I have no idea.

The RF Trio

 I have written here and there over time about what I really always wanted to do for a living.

I have recently found some images that document what that might have looked like.

More in Saigon 1967.

Mathematics: The Enemy Of Pipe Dreams

 We now have the trillion-dollar infrastructure law signed and going into effect.

All parties responsible are running around crowing about the cornucopia of projects that will be unleashed by the passage of this public works expenditure law: broad band, bridges, passenger rail, highways, water systems, replacement of poisonous pipes, expansion of ports and airports and on and on and on.

The trillion dollars is the amount committed to projects over the next ten years.

So, the actual amount of money is a hundred billion dollars a year.

The estimate of the cost of fixing the Northeast Commuter Corridor is one hundred seventy-six billion dollars; and caveats are added: there are sure to be overruns of unknown magnitude.

That means two or more years of the new law's funding will need to be spent on one project; maybe they can get to broadband in year three.

I guess a trillion dollars doesn't go as far as it used to.

I Have Never Been Happier About Being Wrong

 The other day I opined that the Brunswick verdict would parallel the one in Kenosha.

Instead, justice prevailed.

At Le Départ St Michel

 My favorite place to sit and eat and drink and watch the world go by is a cafe at one of the mouths of Metro/RER St Michel.

It's like the Ton Son Nhut Officers Club in 1967: if you sit and wait and watch long enough you probably will see everyone you have ever known.

Or maybe everyone you have never and would never have known if you hadn't sat there drinking and eating and listening and watching.

Here are some images.

"Conspirathon 2021"

 From The Daily Beast:

"Since former President Donald Trump decidedly lost the 2020 election, the MyPillow CEO has been on an unending crusade based on lies about widespread voter fraud. Lindell has continually promised that after his investigations prove his conspiracy theory, the election would be overturned and Trump would be reinstated. But his self-imposed deadlines have repeatedly come and gone, including a deadline for Trump to be reinstated by early August.

{PARAGRAPH DELETED - it enumerates various Lindell flailings non-relevant to the point of this post.}

"Lindell concluded his Monday evening live stream by promoting his 96-hour virtual “Thanks-a-Thon” event set to kick off Wednesday night at midnight and feature four straight days of even more election conspiracies."

Is this going to be like a Jerry Lewis telethon? I thought I heard someone say.

I guess Lindell will be better than the traditional Lions game.

Paris Still Life

 Bent Beer Can With Green Plants

The beer that is the favorite of the street people of Paris (by my informal, unscientific survey).

Art On Canal St Martin

 

The Ahmaud Arbery Trial

 Now that a jury in Kenosha has ruled that an unarmed man who grabs the barrel of the gun pointed at him by an armed man is absolutely grounds for the armed man to gun down the unarmed man things are looking up for the three men on trial for gunning down Ahmaud Arbery.

Mr. Arbery was being chased by the three as he was midway through his daily jog.

The three were in a pickup truck; Mr. Arbery was in Nikes.

Apparently the Swoosh ultimately lost out to the Ram 500 diesel, or whatever it was: Mr. Arbery gave up trying to outrun it and them.

The three clearly felt their lives were threatened by this clearly hostile action - a black man stopping in the middle of white men's street - and did the obvious; one of them cut Mr. Arbery to pieces with shotgun at point blank.

That white man has testified that he was overwhelmed with fear for his life.

That worked in Kenosha; for sure it will work in Brunswick - (Georgia, for god's sake!).

Maybe today's gunfire at Hartsfield was a premature celebration of the imminently inevitable not guilty verdict.

A Response To "More About The Volunteer Military"

 I have every now and then posted thoughts I have about the all volunteer military

Wednesday was one of those times.

This time I got a response, an email from a friend of mine.

It seems so spiritually kindred to at least part of what I was saying I want to post it as part of my blog.

I am taking editorial liberty a couple of places and am formatting it the way I format my stuff.

**********************************************************

"Here are my thoughts. 

"I have been a proponent of mandatory national service for decades. I thought it was a good idea in high school.  At least 2 yrs{,} not just military however.  Maybe this could be a source of person power for Biden and the Dems Infrastructure staffing. I'm certain this would be objected to as it would actually force people to do something with their  lives. It would also be a source for job training. 

"There is a large ship building company down {here} who has completed several Navy contracts. They just won a contract to build 10 new Coast guard cutters only to find out there are not enough welders available and has met with a trade school to beef up the Welding part of their school. I see major benefits to an action like this and it has been successfully done by other nations.

"I'm afraid hell will freeze over before anything like this is even whispered in the halls of Congress; something like this would require leadership and a backbone neither of which exists in Washington".

Six Pictures From Paris

Une Cygne a la Seine

Potatoes delivered at dawn

Man and dog on the Seine

Institute de France, and, I am pretty sure, Saint Chapelle; I am total unsure where I was when I took this, though.

Canal St Martin

Boeuf tartare (sans oeuf) at le Départ St Michel