I had to come in and take a rest, so thought I would ramble a little bit. Had a cord of firewood delivered on Saturday and today is such a beautiful, warm day, I wanted to take advantage of it and start the stacking process. The firewood rack is 100 feet from the pile, of course, so I have to load the wheelbarrow, push it to the rack and then stack. You start feeling your age after about 15 trips. Oh well, you can never have enough firewood, wine, or woodworking clamps, so it’s worth the sweat. The weather has been so cold, we’ve had a fire in the wood stove just about every night. Hopefully that will change starting this week.

The missus and I had a great day yesterday with daughter Jen, son-in-law Bill, and grand dog Charlie at their house for a combined Mother’s Day and Father’s Day barbeque. We’ve only been able to see them twice since the “stay at home” recommendation went into place, so it was good to spend time together. Yellow lab Charlie wears me out playing “fetch,” but since we haven’t been to the gym, the workout was good for me.

Like I insinuated in my post Saturday, tRump’s world is all of a sudden “blowing up” or “going to hell,” however you want to look at it. The narcissist who listens to no one because he knows it all and is superior to everyone, got a bigly reality check on Saturday night in Tulsa. The reality is that a number of his previous supporters are now “on to him.” They’re smart enough to know this coronavirus is not over, like Trump has been saying, and they are thinking, “Man, he doesn’t care about my health and safety.” “Sign a waiver to not sue him if I get the coronavirus after attending his cult gathering?” “He said the economy will be the greatest it has ever been and I would see my financial situation reap the rewards.” “Maybe the generals and Bolton are right. This guy doesn’t give a rat’s ass about America and our democratic principles.” “He seems to care more about the White Supremacists and the gun-toting crowd than trying to work on the racial divide.” “Maybe he isn’t as smart as he says he is. Ya know, when my 10 year old son talks he sounds smarter than Trump.” “Geez, when my kid lies, I whip his ass. I’m startin’ to wonder about all this here lyin’ from our president.” I don’t want to say that he’s “done with,” especially after the 2016 election, but it sure looks like he’s digging a deeper hole every day, and it’s going to become difficult to dig out of it. Does this look like a man who thinks he is the most adored super leader in the world, specimen of health, critic of Joe Biden’s age and mental acuity, playboy extraordinaire? I don’t think so.

Just saw that two more of the Trump campaign staff have the coronavirus. That’s up two more from the six on Friday. Now you do know that their boss has stated that the coronavirus, or “Kung Flu” virus as he describes it, has been eradicated, right? We’ll keep checking the data over the next 14 days for positive cases in and around Tulsa following the Saturday night Trumpster party and the Trumpanzees flaunting no masks. “Hell no, I ain’t wearin’ no liberal, pansy ass mask. Make America Great Again!” And what was that s**t about “telling my people to slow down the testing.”

Okay, I need to move on and enjoy another hour of a beautiful evening up on the mountain. Keep smilin’. There is hope out there. Wash your hands frequently, wear your mask proudly, socially distance, and if you encounter someone not wearing one — walk up to them meekly and then in your loudest voice behind your mask, yell “hey dumb f**k you got s**t for brains!!!” No, just kidding. Don’t do that. The missus won’t go shopping with me anymore, because that’s what I do. Don’t do what Ziggyman does. Be nice. Ziggyman

This is gonna be a quickie, comrades. It’s been a busy couple of days and I haven’t had time to sit down and share my thoughts with you in a rambling, but there is an overabundance of material to chat about. It is now 7:00 pm Pacific Time at the homestead, so the cult gathering is just about coming to an end, and I’m thinking that Donnie can’t wait to get off that stage and start screaming at his campaign manager and staff. The Trump campaign has been touting the number of attendees who would be at tonight’s rally all week, saying millions have requested tickets. They even had an overflow stage area outside the arena for Trump and Pence to continue with more speeches after the main gathering. You know when you’re having a party and you worry no one will come? Looks like that’s what Don and Mikey experienced tonight. Lower turnout and no overflow crowds. While tRump is inside giving his oration, crews are quickly taking down the outside stage, since the campaign has cancelled it due to low numbers. Of course his campaign manager, Brad Pascale, is immediately attributing that to protestors and the media. Everything I am reading tells me that the protestors were peaceful and not confrontational whatsoever. I think Brad Pascale will be fired tomorrow as you don’t ever want to over promise and under deliver. As you recall, the numbers of Trumpanzees at his party and how he is adored by them are all that matters and he couldn’t miss seeing that there were a bunch of empty seats. As I watched Don up on the stage (with the sound turned off) with that silly ass grin, looking at the crowd to the left, the crowd to the right, I saw people yawning, talking to each other while he was speaking, their arms crossed in boredom. Today is only Saturday and he doesn’t usually get ramped up on twitter until 3:00 am on Sunday, but he is ending this week with his panties all in a wad. Get ready for a doozy of a Sunday.

I really don’t have time to keep rambling, but like I said, there is so much more to talk about. We have the firing of the Prosecutor of the Southern District of New York by tRump this morning, which is going to be a huge problem for Don, as even members of his party in Congress are going to be asking questions about that decision. His poll numbers just keep going South, but he claims they are manipulated by the media and not accurate. He got slapped by the SCOTUS twice this week regarding LGBT rights and DACA. A federal Judge today denied the attempt by Trump to block Bolton’s book. His niece’s book is coming out soon that might be even more surprising than Bolton’s book. Hell, I’m not even sure he wants another term in office. He just might be trying to self destruct on purpose.

Anyway, keep washing your hands frequently, social distance, and wear your mask in public. Don’t be a Trumpanzee and think that doing those things is just a political statement and is anti-Trump. And be sure to thank our president for “making Juneteenth very famous.” Without that “good thing” he did we would never have known about Juneteenth, like him. Ziggyman

Last night I took a book from the shelves of my library that I think was from a college class back in the late 60’s. The title is “The Medium is the Massage,” by Marshall McLuhan and has a copyright date of 1967. I opened to the middle of the book and on that page I opened is a cartoon of two girls walking in the hallway at school. One girl says to the other, “It isn’t that I don’t like current events. There have just been so many of them lately.” That brought a chuckle from me as I thought ‘how true.’ Just think about events since January. The U.S. airstrike that killed the Iranian General Soleimani. On January 21st the U.S. announced the first case of the coronavirus in the states. On January 26th Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and 7 other people were killed when their helicopter crashed. The impeachment of Trump trial that began in the U.S. Senate on January 16th and concluded on February 5th with his acquittal. The coronavirus, The George Floyd murder, the daily protests and demonstrations, the daily political drama. Anyway, you get the point. There’s been a lot of s**t going down in the last five months. So if you’re feeling worn down, there is good reason to feel that way. Hang in there, it will get better. Before you know it, it’ll be November 3rd and we can dump the turd.

Wow! For the second time this week the Supreme Court has ruled against tRump and boy is he getting pissed. Today, it was a rejection of the Trump administration’s attempt to dismantle the program protecting undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children known as “dreamers” or “DACA.” He was stunned that John Roberts, one of the conservative judges, agreed with the liberal judges and ruled against his administration. Of course “twitterfingers” immediately sends out a tweet saying that the DACA ruling and a ruling earlier this week that federal law protects LGBTQ workers were “shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives.” You can tell he is getting pretty ramped up as he then sends out several more tweets during the day, “We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else,” “Vote Trump 2020!” “Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?” I guess he thought that the SCOTUS worked for him and would protect him from rulings by lower court judges. Thank God Justice Roberts is an independent thinker and bases his decisions on the law and not on the rhetoric of this President.

Here’s a music tip for y’all. I just bought and downloaded some tunes by Meghan Andrews, a songwriter, songstress, and excellent guitarist. Check her out at bluecoastmusic.com. She does originals, as well as covers by the likes of Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails, and Townes Van Zandt. I’m always lookin’ for new artists and she’s a good one.

I’ll end this rambling with last night’s “fine dining” menu. Grass fed ground beef smothered with mushroom gravy, and a stir fry of broccoli, green beans, cabbage, onions, slivered almonds, and harissa ( a spicy and aromatic chile paste that’s a widely used staple in North African and Middle Eastern cooking). Accompanied by a 2016 Cathedral Ridge Bourdheauxd Red, pronounced “board-head” for the Hood River, Oregon wind surfers and kiteboarders. Delicioso!

Stay away from Tulsa!! Stay home, stay healthy, stay sane!!!!!!!!!! Ziggyman

Ugh! The gym hasn’t seen this once perfectly sculpted body (LOL) since March 11th and I’m beginning to feel like a miniature Donnie boy. We’re eating healthy, drinking too much, and haven’t done our walks for awhile. Prior to quarantine I’d workout four and sometimes five days a week and felt great. Now I read that the gym is about the last place you want to go to for virus avoidance, so I guess I’ll have to follow the Dr. Ruth “workout” suggestion. You remember Dr. Ruth don’t ya’? Any hoo, time to move on.

Hang on to your hats! Bolton’s book is going to be a bombshell. I just read some excerpts that the New York Times printed this morning, and my guess is that Donnie is s**ting his trousers. Now, I realize Bolton is somewhat of a “loose cannon,” but he can’t be making this stuff up. Even if the DOJ and Barr(f) are successful in their attempt to have the book held from release, the NYT has a copy and will continue to provide excerpts. If you would like to read the article, here it is.

The missus and I have been doing more work on the property since the quarantine began, getting the front and back all spiffy since it looks like we’ll spending more time at home this summer and fall. Last week I worked on the solar lights, putting new batteries in them and checking the wiring, but some still wouldn’t work. As I began waking up one morning after doing the solar maintenance, I got this idea to repurpose the ones that didn’t work. After the morning coffee, I went out to the shop and checked out what I had in my scrap rack and found some short pieces of cedar from some long ago project. I got the “dead” solar lights and started taking them apart. They have nice glass “globes” I guess you would call them, so I took the top off the lights, took out some of the guts, got rid of the stakes, built a little frame with the cedar, drilled some holes, and came out with this neat little candle burner with citronella tea lights in the globes. I was “on a roll,” so found some more cedar scraps, built a frame, took a tin can out of the recycling, painted it black, screwed in a shiny little pyramid piece from the aforementioned solar lights and voila. You may now call me Mr. Pinterest or Etsy Mikey or just an “old” hippie SOB.

See, I have other things I can ramble about besides our current administration and Trumpanzies. I haven’t shared our “homestead fine dining” for awhile, so here’s a photo of flatbread pizzas I made the other night. One is the “big meat” with Italian sausage, salami, pepperoni, kalamata olives, onions, tomatoes, cheese, and homemade pizza sauce. The next one is grilled chicken, caramelized onion, and spring herb greens on the homemade pizza sauce, but with a little bbq sauce added. The last one is a veggie, Margherita style, just olive oil, lots of parmesan cheese, and some scallions. Last night was Mu Shu pork and chicken over rice with the leftover Italian sausage and grilled chicken, accompanied by veggie pot stickers. This is making my tummy growl a little. Must be getting hungry. With no working out and eating like this every night, no wonder I’m over my “fighting weight.”

One night last week I thought the martians were getting ready to land. It’s not the best “space ship” we’ve seen coming over the mountain, but it was a nice evening to land. How about those clouds laying in the middle of the mountain?

Forget what I said last night about getting your sunscreen ready for the weekend. Two days ago the weather forecaster said it was going to approach 90 degrees on Saturday and Sunday, tonight the report is for rain this weekend. I am going to end this day’s rambling mildly. I have not gone on an irreverent tirade about Trump, his sycophants, the lemmings, Trumpanzees, or his minions. In case you haven’t been following the latest Covid-19 updates and have just been listening to Pence and tRump spout that the virus is “contained,” and that there is not, and there will not be a second wave, then good luck. Head to the cult gathering in Tulsa this weekend. Just kidding. I’m pretty sure folks who follow this blog know the data and are not Trumpanzees. Soooo, keep washing your hands frequently, wear your mask in public, social distance, and stay healthy. Time to go pour a drink. Keep smilin’. Ziggyman

It looks like tRump has given the V(ery) P(athetic) Pence his marching orders. ‘Get out there and create an illusion,’ ‘The economy has recovered and the coronavirus is in check.’ “Yes, sir. I’m on it.” So he goes out and writes an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal today that is far from reality, but is his typical kowtow to his boss. He writes, “Thanks to the leadership of President Trump and the courage and compassion of the American people, our public health system is far stronger than it was four months ago, and we are winning the fight against the invisible enemy.” He purports that new cases are in a downward trend, which is not true. The average number of new cases has been flat for over a month at a little under 22,000 per day. The good news is that the number of deaths per day has decreased, but until we dramatically reduce the number of new cases per day, we aren’t anywhere near “out of the woods.” Pence and Larry Kudlow have said there is not a second wave of the virus and there won’t be one. They are correct on the first point, the problem is we aren’t even out of the first wave. It’s interesting that he wrote this piece for the WSJ whose audience is more educated and perceptive than had he written it for Fox News Online or some other comic book based publication. In addition to misleading the reader about a downward trend, he failed to mention that new cases are on the rise in over 20 states and hospitalizations are up in several states. In Arizona ICU”s are overwhelmed. It will be interesting to see how many new cases are reported in Oklahoma over the next three weeks following this weekend’s “s**t show” in Tulsa. Oh silly me, what am I thinking. There’s no problem. That nasty little “seasonal flu” has been contained as General tRump lead us through a heroic battle to defeat it and it has now “magically disappeared.”

Two books to add to your summer reading list. ‘The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir’ by John Bolton. Available June 23rd (unless the Justice Department wins a lawsuit to stop it’s release). And on July 28th, the book byTrump’s niece, Mary Trump, will be released, ‘Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.’ I think both of these books have the Donald puckered up a bit.

Does this surprise you? A new survey released today reports people in the U.S. are more unhappy today than they’ve been in nearly 50 years. The study was done by a group at the University of Chicago. The survey, conducted in late May, draws on nearly a half-century of research from the General Social Survey, which has collected data on American attitudes and behaviors at least every other year since 1972. Just 14% of adults interviewed said they were very happy, down from 31% in 2018. I’m sure this will change, however, as we “Transition to Greatness.”

Time to go pour a drink. Make sure you have your sun lotion on hand for the weekend. Lookin’ good. Ziggyman

Wow, the Donald and all of his conservative, evangelical, holy roller, gun-toting, immigrant hating comrades had a little surprise this morning from the Supreme Court of the United States. First, in a 6 to 3 ruling, with two of the conservative judges voting with the liberals, the Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of sex,” includes LGBTQ employees. This ruling surprised court watchers, as the conservative biased court was expected to rule otherwise, and just as surprising was that Neil Gorsuch, one of the most conservative judges on the Court, wrote the majority opinion. But we’re not done yet. A little while later, the Supreme Court turned away 10 appeals that sought to broaden 2nd Amendment firearm protections, a move that struck a blow to the hearts of the gun-rights movement. And finally, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s challenge to California’s sanctuary law, leaving intact rules that prohibit law enforcement from aiding federal agents in taking custody of immigrants as they are released from jail. Get ready for ‘twitterfingers” and his cult members to start going crazy over these SCOTUS actions.

The other news stories of the day: 1)Trump’s health in question after his unsteady walk down the ramp after his speech at West Point on Saturday, which of course brought a predictably angry and dismissive tweet response, and his need to use two hands to drink from a glass of water. The best twitter response I saw to Trump’s tweet regarding the ramp came from Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, “It’s undignified to mock @realDonaldTrump’s health issues. That’s off limits. Let’s focus on the issues. Hope you recover, Mr. President.” 2) The president’s niece, Mary Trump, is set to publish a tell-all this summer—and to reveal that she was a primary source for The New York Times’ investigation into Trump’s taxes, including how he was involved in “fraudulent” tax schemes and had received more than $400 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire. This is the first time a Trump family member has written a tell-all that is highly critical of the president, and it is coming out just prior to the election. Should be good reading. 3) Don has threatened that John Bolton will face “very strong” criminal repercussions if he moves ahead with plans to publish an explosive tell-all book about his tenure as Trump’s national security adviser. A press release last week says it is filled with damning details about Trump, including accusations that his impeachable conduct extended far beyond his Ukraine scandal and permeated his entire foreign policy agenda. Naturally, Bill Barr(f) has all but said he will do Trump’s dirty work and sue to block the book’s release. 4) The FDA withdrew its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, drugs that “Dr. tRump” repeatedly promoted for treatment of covid-19, saying the medications “were unlikely to be effective” for covid-19 and that any potential benefits were outweighed by safety risks, including heart problems. As you know, Don claims he took the medication a few weeks ago, which might explain his neurological complications as of late. 5) The poll numbers for Trump just keep getting worse and worse, which is really getting him unhinged. The polling data has so peeved the president that his campaign sent a cease-and-desist letter to CNN, demanding that it retract and apologize for a poll it published showing the president trailing Biden by 14 points among registered voters nationwide. The poll, the campaign claimed, was “designed to mislead American voters through a biased questionnaire and skewed sampling.” 6) My favorite story of the day, however, concerns Teddy Cruz, that pathetic little bitch boy from Texas who grovels at the feet of a guy who called his wife ugly and his dad an assassin. Over the weekend he got in the middle of a twitter feud between Ron Perlman, known for his roles in Hellboy and Sons of Anarchy, and Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, known for being an asshole (like wearing a gas mask in congressional chambers at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic). Cruz then challenged Perlman to wrestle Rep. Jim Jordan, you know, the guy with the rolled up shirt sleeves and ex-wrestling coach who was accused of covering up a sex scandal at Ohio State. Perlman then challenged Teddy to the wrestling match, but Teddy was having nothing of that, once again setting up a challenge for a Jordan vs. Perlman match. Pathetic.

Oh man, I just see where Oregon has a record 184 new cases of the virus today. Not good, my comrades. Don’t get complacent. Wash your hands, wear your mask, social distance, stay home if you can. You don’t want to have to resort to the Presidential Sippy Cup if you get the virus. Have a good evening. Ziggyman

The code of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” 

Then why in hell is “General Bone Spur” allowed to give the Commencement Address at the US Military Academy this morning? The West Point cadets were summoned back to the campus, where 15 of them tested positive for the coronavirus, because tRump wanted to plow ahead with the ceremony irregardless of the pandemic. Days ago, a group of several hundred West Point alumni sent a letter to the 2020 graduating class blasting Trump’s politicization of the military. I have not watched the address, but read summaries of it and, as usual, it was pretty much a “me, me, me” speech. From the guy who has been working his “tail off” to divide this nation, especially in the past few months, he says to the Cadets, “The class of 2020 come ‘from every race, religion, color, and creed’ but must be ‘one team’ as they graduate into a ‘crucial time in American history’.” He went on to vow that the US military will not be the ‘policeman of the world,’ congratulated himself with a list of investments he had given to the military over the past 3 years, and then attacked China over the coronavirus pandemic. While he was giving his speech, demonstrators lined the streets to protest against him, and protesters in sailboats and kayaks were out on the Hudson River outside West Point holding up banners with his picture alongside slogans, like ‘unfit’ and ‘fascism.’ The cadets had all been sent home in early March as the coronavirus outbreak spread across the US and they had not returned to campus since, but tRump wanted a photo-op, so they were all summoned back. Senator Tammy Duckworth, an army pilot who lost both of her legs when her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during the Iraq war said, ‘Trump’s reckless decision to gather 1,000 Cadets at West Point for a speech puts our future military leaders at increased risk – all to stroke his own ego.’ Also, mention of George Floyd or the protests going on across America were absent from his speech. Notable in the above picture showing his salute was how dark his orange facial makeup was compared to his lily white hands. I hope someone points that out to him so he can fire his makeup artist.

I have been a student of psychology from the time I began college in the 60’s and continue to study the field. In 1999, long after I graduated, a psychological phenomenon called the Dunning-Kruger effect was developed, coined by the psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger. This psychological effect is a cognitive bias in which poor performers greatly overestimate their abilities. The research shows that underperforming individuals “reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.” This incompetence, in turn, leads them to “hold inflated views of their performance and ability.” Do ya kinda see where I’m going here? This theory along with the Peter Principle of “In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence” is illustrative of the “stable genius’ who holds the position of the most powerful person in the world. Scary, ain’t it?

It is now 3:30 pm. It has just hit 50 degrees after sitting around 48.5 most of the day. The missus is in taking a nappy poo. I look out the front windows and it looks just like winter, without the snow. Oh, I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post. We had a thunder and lightning storm the night before last that was unbelievable. It started at 9:50 pm, when the entire inside of the house all of a sudden was lit up by lightning and about 2 seconds later came thunder that literally shook the entire house. If not for seeing the lightning, I would have thought it was an earthquake. The storm had to have been right on top of us since the thunder came right after the lightning. It went on for about 15 minutes then came back about 2:00 am, though not as forceful. I loved it!!

Enough rambling for today. Have a nice evening! I guess the missus and I will have to watch a movie tonight since A&E has cancelled Live PD amidst the protests related to police actions across the nation. Probably a good decision. Ramble at ya soon. Ziggyman

Well we had our first “date night” last night since we were up at Skyway on March 15th for St. Paddy’s day music. They have reopened for “take-out,” but being friends of Tom and Tracie we were able to have our meal out back in their outside dining area with our friends John and Marci. Just before everything shut down back in March, Skyway ordered a new smoker to replace the DIY one they had used for years. The new one is A+ and produces nicely smoked meats after being brined and marinated and rubbed with Chef Hornor’s secret recipes. I had the smoked pork shoulder sando and the missus had the pastrami. Both were very good. Unless a second wave hits us soon, they will hopefully be able to open for dine-in and resume the fabulous food and music they bring to the mountain. It was also nice to see the happy faces of the staff, whom we have missed these past three months.

I’ve been thinking about all of the demonstrations and actions occurring across the country over the past few weeks and remember back to 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. What I am seeing today is probably more happening in the civil rights movement than anything that has been significant over the past 52 years. Not to diminish any of the work that Dr. King did because he was truly an activist, but the name George Floyd and his “assassination” just possibly may be written in the history books as the impetus for the most forceful radical change and equality we have ever seen in the civil rights movement. Just in the last week, the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the NFL was wrong not to listen to its player’s protest of racism and police brutality and apologized to them for bending to President Trump’s demands. Y’all remember tRump calling any football player who kneeled during the National Anthem “a son of a bitch” and suggesting the owner of the team fire that player? Yesterday, NASCAR announced “…The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties,” after a challenge by Bubba Wallace, the only full-time black racer in NASCAR. The confederate flag has been a branding for NASCAR for decades, so this was a huge action. On Wednesday, the head of the U.S. Soccer Federation announced it had repealed its policy requiring players to stand for the National Anthem. Yesterday the GOP led Senate Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the annual military spending bill that would require the Defense Department to change the names of military bases and assets named for Confederate leaders. Across the country there is a movement to “defund” the police. On Tuesday the Senate unanimously confirmed Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the Air Force’s chief of staff, elevating a four-star general who is the first black man to hold the position. Some 43 percent of the 1.3 million men and women on active duty in the United States military are people of color, but the people making crucial decisions, those at the top, are almost entirely white and male. The changes are coming “fast and furious,” and I believe it is happening because of the name George Floyd. And then you have the Imperial Wizard planning his “Transition to Greatness” rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 19th. Tulsa, in 1921 was the site of one of the bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence in U.S. history, in which white mobs attacked black residents and businesses, and June 19th has come to be known as Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery. I am going to save that rambling for another post, as we have a few days yet and I need to get “pumped up” for that ramble.

Okay, it’s Friday and the end of a long week, so I am going to retreat to the kitchen and begin the preparation for strawberry daiquiri’s. Stay safe, stay healthy, and keep washing your hands frequently. And get up to Skyway for some good ‘BBQ’!

I haven’t rambled much about the coronavirus lately other than to give my concluding message about staying safe and healthy, wash your hands, and keep your social distance. It appears that perhaps the virus is starting to come back to the forefront as we see a sharp increase in cases across the country. Quarantine fatigue may be causing folks to become complacent, as I see more and more people exhibiting a “don’t give a s**t” attitude and an increasing relaxation from the early recommendations by the experts. Yesterday the missus and I ventured down off the mountain to Costco and were pleasantly surprised by the behavior of people shopping there. We saw only one person not wearing a mask, and he must have taken it off when he got to the back of the store because the greeters were making sure that everyone had on a mask or they gave you one. People were also very conscious of social distancing. On the way home we stopped at Fred Meyer in Sandy and had the exact opposite experience. Other than the employees, the missus and I, and two other older folks, no one was wearing a mask, and social distancing was like a foreign language. This does not bode well if we want to see a decrease in cases of the virus, as cases in Oregon and half of the rest of the country are now trending up again. On Sunday, Oregon reported 146 new cases of COVID-19, the largest single-day total since the pandemic began. States like Arizona, Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Alabama are seeing record numbers of cases daily after they became early rebooters for reopening and lifting business restrictions. The stock market is reacting to this today as the Dow has plunged 1870 points while I am writing this post. We are approaching 2,000,000 cases in the United States and had 20,486 new cases today compared to yesterday’s total cases. I hate to say it, but “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings,” and I don’t think she’s even started warming her vocal chords yet.

Holy S**T!! In Ohio, a republican state senator by the name of Dr. Steve Huffman, during a hearing on whether to declare racism a public health crisis, asked if “the colored population” is hit harder by the coronavirus because perhaps they don’t wash their hands as well as other groups. Huffman, an emergency room physician, asked a witness before the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday why COVID-19 is hitting African Americans harder than white people and goes on to say, “could it just be that African Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as other groups or wear a mask or do not socially distance themselves?” F*cking Unbelievable!! Have we not been going through weeks of civil unrest because of systemic racism in this country? This dude just illustrated what racism looks like and why there needs to be the discussion of racism in this country. The Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President Stephanie Howse, D-Cleveland, said Huffman’s word choice and question represent systemic racism and that he implied African Americans are dirty and not smart enough to wash their hands.

Today I have renewed respect for General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after he apologized for being at tRump’s photo op and acknowledged it was a mistake being there. Good for him. Hopefully, more of the sycophants surrounding the POTUS (Piece Of Totally Useless S**t) will take a look at themselves and see what their complicity is doing to this nation. Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Rich Moscow Mitch, Tom Cotton, and on and on. If they aren’t looking the other way with his antics they are lying about it. It’s funny how all these guys have Twitter accounts, but when asked about some of the s**t tRump tweets they respond that they didn’t see it, like Marco Rubio, “I don’t read Twitter, I only write on it.” That statement was made after asked about Trump’s tweet saying the 75 year old guy was ANTIFA and faking his fall. It seems the standard republican response is “I didn’t see it.” I am, however, gaining more respect for Mitt Romney who recently hasn’t been a chicken shit like his other Publican colleagues and hasn’t been afraid to stand up to the Emperor. Regarding the tweet, his response was, “I saw the tweet,” “It was a shocking thing to say and I won’t dignify it with any further comment.”

And a tweet from the “stable genius” at 5:49 am this morning. For those of you who had doubts about Hitler being one of the President of the United State’s heroes, you now know that he has his own S.S. to protect him. Just like Hitler, he has no qualms tear gassing his own people who peacefully protest just so he can have a photo op. I wonder how his press secretary and his other lemmings will explain this intellectual historian’s use of the S.S. in this administration. The “Schutzstaffel,” or S.S. for short, initially served as Hitler’s personal bodyguards, and later became one of the most powerful and feared organizations in Nazi Germany, responsible for the killing of more than 6 million Jews.

Okay, I’ve gotta run. I have a meeting to attend to prepare for our next attack. Keep smilin’, and do all those things I’ve been preaching for the past two months. Ziggyman

It’s Junember here at the house. It’s been “raining cats and dogs” for two days, and as my father-in-law would say, “it’s colder than a witches tit.” The good news is that it has given us a short reprieve from working in the yard and allows some inside time. The missus can sew and work on her cards, and I can sit on my behind and read or do whatever I feel like.

I just read that Barr(f) had an interview on Fox yesterday and contradicted “Bunker Boy” about the lying assertion that he was down in the bunker during the middle of the day for a “tiny” amount of time for an “inspection.” Last week on Fox News Radio, Trump told a reporter, “They said it would be a good time to go down and take a look because maybe sometime you’re going to need it. I looked at it. It was during the day. It was not a problem … There was never a problem.” According to Barr during yesterday’s interview, the Secret Service moved the “alpha male” in the evening into the bunker while the protests were getting heated outside the gates of the White House. The Donald isn’t going to like his little “butt boy” telling the world that 1) he lied, and 2) he’s not the tough guy that he tries to portray.

And how about this tweet from Donnie trying to justify a 75 year old man being assaulted by the police in Buffalo, New York a couple of days ago. One America News (@OANN) is an online, far-right, conspiratorial news channel that is tRump’s new favorite media outlet as Faux has become more critical of him lately.

Okay, today’s rambling theme is “defunding” the police. I’m not sure what that means. I have seen some reports that it is the cutting back of police budgets, with some of the police funds being directed to other social services and education. Other reports have it as eliminating police agencies completely, such as the talk of dismantling the police force in Minneapolis. In my opinion, it’s about time we recognize that the police have, over time, taken over or been given responsibilities that are not law enforcement tasks and there has been an over reliance by citizens on what the police do. Is rousting a homeless person from the street corner a police matter? Is arresting a person for a heroin overdose something the police should do? Should the police be called to resolve a verbal argument with your spouse or neighbor, or sent to the home of someone having a mental crisis? I say, let’s provide the funding to agencies that are better equipped to handle these tasks. Whatever defunding means, it is clear that reform and the restructuring of law enforcement services is going to happen in many cities, counties, and states. I’ve heard many times that it’s just a few “bad apples” in a department, the other 99% are professional, law abiding officers serving the citizenry, and I believed it. Over the past few weeks, however, I am beginning to see this issue as more of a huge systemic problem with examples of untruthful police department communications following an event to protect their involved officers to the massive power of the police unions and the support they give to the “bad apples.” I do believe we are going to see some reform measures going forward as a result of the recent actions of police in departments across the nation and I also believe that there will be adjustments to governmental budgets with less going to police services and more funding to other more appropriate services. Hopefully, the horrific killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmad Aubrey over the past few months will result in reforms that redefine the role of the police in public safety; reforms that hold police accountable for their actions; and equal justice for all citizens in America. While George Floyd’s funeral is being held today and Joe Biden shared condolences to the family via live video, Mr. Law and Order is busy tweeting away, and I have not seen one mention of George Floyd by the president in any of his tweets.

Time to get up and move around a bit, so I’ll be signing off for now. Remember to keep washing your hands frequently, social distance, and wear your mask in the grocery store — it’s too soon to let up. Sunday had the largest number of Covid cases in one day since the beginning of this pandemic. Happy Gay Pride Month!