December 13, 2024

Yesterday I started my post with the incredulous announcement that President-elect Donald Trump had been named the “Person of the Year” by Time magazine. After posting my rambling for the day and pondering about this during the evening, causing my blood pressure to rise to probable unhealthy levels, I awoke this morning and cancelled my subscription to Time magazine. How in the f—ing world can a man be named the “Person of the Year” who has been found liable for sex abuse; “lit the fire” for the Capitol insurrection that threatened our democracy; constantly makes racist and xenophobic statements to get his base pumped up; a convicted felon for falsifying business records; and a person who is trying to move our country from a democratic nation to one governed by authoritarianism.  My pick for the cover of Time would be former GOP congressman Adam Kinzinger after he told Donald “to bring it on” after threatening to put the January 6^th committee members in jail. In a piece Mr. Kinzinger wrote a couple of days ago he didn’t mince words when he said “If Donald wants to pursue this vindictive fantasy, I say bring it on. I’m not intimidated by a man whose actions on January 6th showed a cowardly disregard for democracy and the rule of law. A man too frightened to serve in the military, and who requires a strong man like Putin to feel secure. While his supporters were attacking the Capitol, Trump sat in the White House, watching in glee as law enforcement and elected officials scrambled to protect our republic.” He goes on to say, “The truth has been laid bare. The American people have seen the evidence, and no kangaroo court or hollow threats will change that. You may fool some of the people some of the time, but the tide is turning, it just may take a bit. I’m confident that the name “Trump” will be a stain on our history, and my son will be proud of what I did. So, bring it on. We aren’t afraid of the truth, but I suspect you are.” https://open.substack.com/pub/adamkinzinger/p/bring-it-on-donald-the-january-6?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email And Hey! The good news is I am getting a refund for my subscription big enough to buy a really nice bottle of bourbon with some change left over for that popcorn I said earlier you should be stocking up on.

I want to give a “shout out” to Senator Ron Wyden for his work on getting Portland General Electric (PGE) to look at making some serious considerations for rate hikes in the future. PGE bills have increased more than 40 percent since 2021, causing hardship for many Oregonians. Senator Wyden met several times with the CEO of PGE, Maria Pope, and sent a letter to her this week memorializing the conversations and understandings for the future. I appreciate his work regarding this as I find the difference in rates between PGE, a Fortune 1000 investor owned energy company, and the rates of Central Lincoln PUD, a Public Utility District, to be the difference between night and day. This year, our PGE bill on the mountain for January was $536.00 and our bill from Central Lincoln PUD at the beach for January was $102.00. We spent the same number of nights for that period at each house. This percentage difference between the two is typical each month, so this shows an understanding of the difference between a “for profit” investor company and a “public owned” electric company. Now if Ron could just get high speed internet for us up on the mountain. Internet from HughesNet satellite sucks!

After going for a week without any musings you got a rambling two days in a row. We’ll see if anything gets me fired up today and, if so, tomorrow might just be three in a row. We’ll see. TFIF! Ziggyman.