Happy Monday! Wasn’t it a great weekend here in Oregon? Mid eighties on Saturday and Sunday in early May is almost unheard of. I hope you just relaxed, worked in the yard, took a long walk, and refrained from trying to do a one-upsmanship of our president and sending out over one hundred tweets. I know you had better things to do than that. Didn’t you? The missus and I worked in the yard and did outdoor projects on Saturday and Sunday. We figure that we probably won’t be doing much more than spending a lot of time at home this summer, so we are going to get our “Clear Creek Park” all spiffed up and ready for some serious bbq’ing and alcoholic beverage consumption for that day in the future we can have friends and family over again. After all that hard work yesterday, we relaxed around an outdoor fire, sipping a very fine 2015 Pinot Noir that Andrea and Jer gave the missus earlier for making some masks for them.
I didn’t catch the show 60 Minutes on CBS last night, but I read this morning that they had a segment hosted by Scott Pelley that detailed how “a political disinformation campaign” led by Republican Congressman Matt Goetz of Florida, a tRump loyalist, falsely claimed that the National Institute of Health gave a $3.7 million grant to a Wuhan Lab, which the conspiracy theorists say created the virus. In fact, the grant was given to a non-profit scientific organization headed up by a highly esteemed American virologist who has worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology to study pathogens originating from bats. Anyhoo, the grant to our American organization was cancelled as a result of this false information, spread by Goetz to Tucker Carlson to tRump to the NIH. And, of course, our president had a tweet for CBS following the segment.
This brings me to the word for the day — Gaslighting. One of the books I am reading at the present time is Gaslighting America: Why We Love It When Trump Lies To Us, by Amanda Carpenter. Gaslighting is a manipulative tactic in which a person, to gain power and control, plants seeds of uncertainty in the victim. The self-doubt and constant skepticism slowly and meticulously cause the individual to question their reality, and is a method commonly used by cult leaders and dictators. Some examples of gaslighting that I gleaned from the website Thrive Talk include, 1. Blatant lying. People who gaslight tell obvious lies. You know that they are lying. The issue is how they are lying with such ease. 2. Deny, Deny, Deny. You know they said what they said. However, they completely deny ever saying it. 3. Words vs. Actions. A person who gaslights talks and talks. However, their words mean nothing. 4. Confusion. Without a doubt, people crave stability, and the gaslighter knows this. The constant confusion that the gaslighter has instilled leads one to become desperate for clarity. 5. Projecting. If the gaslighter is a liar and a cheater, they are now accusing you of being a liar and a cheater. You constantly feel like you need to defend yourself for things you haven’t done. Are you following my drift here. Does any of this sound like something we are experiencing almost daily from tRump and his administration and congressional loyalists? There is an opinion piece in today’s Washington Post by Greg Sargent that is worthwhile reading to get an understanding of how we are being gaslighted, ‘Trump’s latest effort to gaslight America is falling apart.‘
Okay, that’s it for the day, but before I go, this was last night’s dinner. Beef kebobs on the grill, Chinese blistered beans, fried rice, grilled filone bread, and that nice Pinot Noir I mentioned above. Have a great evening! Ziggyman
It was a beautiful evening up here last night. When this is our living room you can keep me quarantined. Ha, ha.
We drove over to Hood River today with Chris and Jim to pickup our wine club order at Marchesi Vineyards. What a nice drive over the mountain and through the woods. We packed a picnic lunch and sat at a picnic table in the little railroad park in Parkdale soaking up the sun and enjoying a little vino with our lunch. I can’t wait for the day we can sit in the tasting rooms of our wine clubs and taste their latest offerings and be up at Skyway listening to music and eating some good bbq from their new smoker. Now, I just read that Clackamas County is probably two weeks out from meeting the prerequisites for reopening some businesses. I received this message in an email from Clack County this afternoon.
“We understand people want to return to normal as quickly as possible, especially with Governor Brown’s announcement. We are working on the Phase 1 plan to submit to Governor Brown, but this is challenging due to our county’s size and unique make-up. Per the governor’s guidelines, we must first reach established goals with contact tracing, a decrease in the prevalence of the virus, and hospital admission data. We are at least a couple of weeks away from meeting these prerequisites. We ask residents to continue to abide by the governor’s order, to ensure the progress we have made against the virus is not lost.”
What I read here is that Clackamas County has not been adequately preparing a Phase 1 plan to submit to the governor. It will be interesting to see how many counties do get the approval to reopen on May 15th after submitting their plan. I’m glad I haven’t sent my ballot in yet.
There are two injustices in the news today that have me fired up. One is the amount of time it took Glynn County Georgia to arrest the white father and son who shot an unarmed black man jogging down the street. It was two months ago that the incident occurred and had drawn little attention until a video of the shooting showed up online on Tuesday and was widely shared. Had the public not seen the shocking video and made it go viral, the white father and son would probably be still sitting at home whooping it up. Had it been a black father and son shooting a white jogger, do you think it would be two months before there was an arrest? No, they would have been in jail the same day. I hope there is a thorough investigation of this incident and not by AG Barr’s Department of Justice. That’s the second injustice of the day. Barr’s office drops the charges against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn after he had admitted to lying to the FBI. Unbelievable. I have never in my lifetime seen anything like what is going on in Washington, D.C. No wonder the rest of the world pities us.
Cocktail time! Don’t forget your sunscreen tomorrow. Keep smilin’. Ziggyman
You may have noticed I took a day off yesterday and didn’t publish a post as the day just got away from me and before I knew it, it was cocktail time. Lot’s going on in the world, though, so plenty to talk about. Let’s start with “Mourning in America,” a one-minute advertisement by the Lincoln Project, founded by George Conway, Kellyanne’s husband that was released on Monday. It is a play on Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” campaign ad that featured images of Americans going to work, and a calm, optimistic narration that suggested that the improvements to the U.S. economy since Reagan was in office were due to his policies. The Lincoln Project’s ad shows our current presidents first three years in office as the opposite of Reagan’s. The Project’s ad shows shots of Covid patients and people in unemployment lines in masks as a voice says “There’s mourning in America, and under the leadership of Donald Trump, our country is weaker, and sicker, and poorer. And now, Americans are asking, ‘If we have another four years like this, will there even be an America?” Well, as you can imagine, this really pissed tRump off. He went bat shit and for hours was tweeting about the Republican “losers” from the Lincoln Group who “Were a disgrace to Honest Abe.” And one that was directed to George Conway, “I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad.” I would just love to be a mouse in the corner of the Conway household. Today, George wrote an opinion piece in the Washington Post that is a must read. He hit’s the nail right on the head regarding this president, and remember this is coming from a fellow Republican. He begins the article with this chilling statement, “Americans died from Covid-19 at the rate of about one every 42 seconds during the past month. That ought to keep any president awake at night.” “Not Donald Trump.”
Governor Brown has just had a news conference and outlined her Reopening Plan for Oregon. I have not been a big fan of the governor in the past, but I do believe she has shown positive leadership in dealing with the coronavirus in Oregon. She has been praised for her leadership keeping Oregonians as safe as possible during this crisis and, also strongly disapproved of by those who felt she was being dictatorial in her actions. If you look at the data state by state, we look very good for the number of reported coronavirus cases and number of deaths compared with most other states. I am looking forward to a gradual reopening of businesses and activities but also realize that it will be a lengthy process before we see anything close to normal before this all began. Keep smilin’.
Finished my pork rib challenge last night with meal #5. I made a brown rice and pork rib bowl with sauted corn and onions, scallions, tomatoes, avocado, and cheddar cheese. Tasty. So, the missus and the old man had five different meals using that $7.16 package of boneless pork ribs. I think that beats my chicken challenge from a few years back.
Enjoy the next couple of days and remember to put on your sunscreen. Can’t just be thinking about the coronavirus getting you, and remember this
Buenas Tardes mis amigos and Feliz Cinco de Mayo!! I’m sure all of our Hispanic friends are relieved they don’t have to see a bunch of drunken white folks in Sombreros slobbering all over themselves this year thanks to that corona dude. For the missus and me it’s going to be a big ol’ taco salad and queso with chips. Might make a slushy margarita or two. How about you? Are you going to have one or two, too? Ha, Ha! Ain’t that poetic?
Are y’all getting ready? Ready for what, you ask. Answer: the civil unrest that is just around the corner. We’ve seen it in Michigan, Texas, California, Georgia, and now this afternoon in Salem, Oregon. I see where a salon shop owner is defying the governor’s orders and has reopened her shop with support from about 40 protesters, some with their infants and children, waving to cars going by, carrying flags and listening to Toby Keith’s song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” This, after over one thousand protested on Saturday at the state Capitol. What I find amusing is that the salon owner’s name is Lindsey Graham. Anyhoo, I’m not surprised. We are a very divided country right now and, in my opinion, it’s going to get much worse. On Facebook I see posts from those on the far right, those on the left and from some moderates. Their messages, especially from those on the far right, are getting more tense each day. At one time, those whose ideology was on the other side of the aisle from you would be called a Democrat or a Republican. Now, I see it as a contest to see what the most insulting or derogatory names can be used to describe the other side. For example, libtard, commie, nazi, ideologue, snowflake, and so forth. Much of this is centered around the discussions and decisions being made by the elected officials and our president for “opening up the nation,” because “I don’t agree with your decision, we’ve been shut down long enough, and you’re taking away my freedoms” or “you gun-totin’ jerk trying to infect us all at your rally.” I think we are going to start seeing more businesses and churches defy the shut down orders, especially when they are emboldened by the support they get from those who want things opened up so we can get our nails done or Praise the Lord. The incident yesterday where a security guard was shot and killed at a Family Dollar store in Michigan for telling a woman’s daughter she needed to wear a mask in the store is an example of the tension that I see escalating. This is the same state we saw photos of protesters armed with assault rifles last week on the steps of their capitol. So don’t be laying on your couch eating too many Twinkies while you’re holed up in your abode, because you might need to be at your fighting weight in the near future.
Okay, an update on the pork rib challenge. I made meal #4 last night with some of the leftover ribs, a rib and Rancho Gordo bean enchilada casserole. If you will recall, I bought a 3 1/2 pound package of boneless pork ribs for $7.16 last week and was going to see how many meals I could get out of that package. Meal 1 was baked ribs in barbecue sauce from a Chowning’s Tavern recipe. Meal 2 was a rib sandwich on a hamburger bun. Meal 3 was ribs diced up and added to cooked beans. Last night was Meal 4 with the enchilada casserole with a salad and 2015 Reserve Mission Hill Cabernet Sauvignon from our trip to B.C. a couple of years ago. I have enough for one more meal, so we’ll see what I can come up with.
Time to get the fiesta started. Have a great evening! Ziggyman
OMG! Those cupcake desserts the kids brought today were delicioso!! Todays 70 year old birthday gal had an orgasm saying 6 or 7 times, “yum,” as I looked at her thinking, “I’m as yummy as those cupcakes, cupcake.” Anyhoo, they were very tasty. Dinner was scrumptious. Dessert was heavenly. Now going to get my old bones into my dream machine beddy poo and get ready for another “same shit, different day” scenario. Hope y’all are as happy as my birthday gal tonight. One more time, sweet dreams!! Ziggyman.
The missus had a milestone birthday today — 70 years old. She’s trying to catch up with me. I haven’t gotten out by myself for ages, so I had to make her birthday card on the computer, and in it I wrote, “Now that you’re in your 70s, it’s time to grow up and stop acting like an irresponsible 60-year-old.” Some friends dropped by and gave her gifts as we socially distanced in the driveway, and then the kids’ came up with Charlie, which really made her day, since we haven’t seen them for weeks due to the current situation we are all in. We stayed outside in the cold the entire time following the distancing rules. It was so cold today it actually snowed up here a little bit this morning. Have a nice birthday, dear.
Notice the excellent social distancing. Even Charlie is following the rules.
I see that Former President Bush went on video yesterday and called on Americans to put aside their partisan differences in the face of the shared threat of the coronavirus pandemic. “Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat,” Bush said. “In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God. We rise or fall together.” A nice call for unity. How does 45 respond? “Oh bye (sic) the way, I appreciate the message from former President Bush, but where was he during Impeachment calling for putting partisanship aside.” “He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!” He was on a roll today, I won’t even get into the other tweets about President Obama masterminding a “hoax” to take him down, Adam Schiff withholding transcripts, threatening aid to states hard hit by the virus unless they sucked up to his immigration policy, and hitting the media again with “GOING WELL DESPITE THE FAKE NEWS!” It seems that Sunday’s have been difficult for him lately.
Well, I’ve gotta go get ready to start the birthday dinner for the missus. New York strip steak, baked potato in the air fryer, green beans, and cupcakes that the kids brought us today. Tomorrow I will discuss some thoughts about relaxing the stay-at-home orders as I read comments and see reactions from trumpanzies to the lockdown and it goes kinda like this.
As I sit here writing today’s post, it is pouring down rain. Several times the wind has gusted through, bouncing tree branches off the roof with a sound like rocks being dropped onto the house. It will be a good day to drink some afternoon tea, read, and just be lazy before pouring the evening cocktail and setting up for Live PD. I’m going to take a break from the pork rib challenge for tonight and make beef burritos with ground beef we picked up on Thursday and resume the contest on Monday with Rancho Gordo beans and cut up ribs. It looks like we’ll end up with four meals from that package of ribs. You’ll have to read the posts for Thursday and Friday to understand what I’m talking about. Last night was shredded ribs on a bun with coleslaw and cheddar cheese, and leftover Mexican rice added to sauteed broccoli stalks, onions, mini red and yellow peppers, cabbage, a diced up leftover sausage, and my favorite new spice, Penzey’s Rojo Taco Seasoning (it’s liquid).
Happy May Day!! We probably won’t be dancing around the May Pole or delivering a May Day Basket to our neighbor today, but we can hope that this will be the month that we are able to start taking some baby steps to opening up the country a tad bit. People are getting grouchy and bored and starting to let their guard down, as evidenced by our grocery trip on Wednesday (I’m the grouchy one). And then we have the lockdown protests orchestrated by right-wing groups, such as the one in Michigan where armed idiots entered the capital and stood outside the governor’s door with their assault-style rifles.
I love this dude’s response to them.
Let’s move on to something on the brighter side of life. Here’s a post from my former blog back on March 7, 2011, in which I posed a little challenge to myself.
$5.34 Chicken
You’re thinking, “what the hell is a $5.34 chicken?” Well, I’m about to tell you about my $5.34 chicken and the game I plan on having with that 5.39 pound plump Poulet.
Soooooo, when the missus and I went down to the “Big City” last week for our provisions from Uncle Freddies, I picked up the plump Poulet on sale for .99 per pound. As I cut through the wrapper yesterday and pulled la poulet out of the bag, grasping it by the legs, admiring the large breasts, I says to self, “how many meals can I get from this fine specimen?” So, that’s the game —- how many meals? For years I have said that when I retire maybe I will teach low-income families how to shop the sales and get several good meals from one main meat. Meal #1: Roasted the bird yesterday. Pulled all the meat off the bones — bones in one bowl, meat in another. Made chicken and dumplings for dinner last night with less than half the meat. We’ll get one more meal from those leftovers. Meal #2: Made chicken stock with the bones this morning. Forgot to mention that when we were getting our vittles for the week, I bought a 10# bag of taters for $1.88. Made potato and cheddar soup using a little over half of the stock and only about 2# of taters. Still have enough soup left for about three more meals. Used some of the meat to make curried chicken salad sandwiches from a Tyler Florence recipe. Yes, the chix and dumps last night were also from Tyler. I’m into his recipes at the moment. Still have one and half large, juicy breasts left to do something with, plus about one quart of chix stock.Thinking maybe pasta with the boobies — will then have pasta leftover for another meal. Save the stock to do some sort of Asian meal at the end of the week. So there you have it — this poor pensioner probably will have meals for a week off of that $5.34 plump poulet.
What does that post have to do with anything today? Well, when we were grocery shopping on Wednesday, I bought a package of boneless pork ribs for $7.16. Sooooo, I am going to repeat my challenge from the chicken contest 9 years ago, but this time with the pork. I have a really good recipe for ribs that I got out of Gourmet magazine in 1970, called Chowning’s Tavern BBQ Ribs, from Chowning’s Tavern in Williamsburg, Virginia. Last night I made the ribs, cooking all of them so we would have leftovers for my challenge. There are enough leftover ribs that tonight I will shred a couple of them to use on buns for sandwiches topped with coleslaw and cheddar cheese. There will still be some left over, so some of those will be chopped up to be added to a pot of Rancho Gordo beans that I will cook in the next day or so. I will keep you posted. Dinner last night was a big rib for each of us, homemade french fries in the air fryer, Yaw’s famous coleslaw, and an excellent bottle of 2013 Apex Cellars Tempranillo. Here is the recipe for the bbq ribs if you would like to give it a try.
Barbecued Spareribs Chowning’s Tavern
In a roasting pan arrange 6# spareribs, cut into 3 rib pieces, in one layer. Bake at 325 degrees — turning them for 1 hour, or until lightly browned.
In a skillet, sauté ½ cup chopped onion and 2 garlic cloves (minced) in oil until onions are soft. Stir in 2 cups tomato puree, 5 tablespoons brown sugar, ¼ cup lemon juice, ¼ cup vinegar, 4 teaspoons Tabasco, 1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard, salt and 6 bay leaves. Bring mixture to a boil.
Drain fat from roasting pan. Baste the ribs with half the sauce and bake them, basting with the remaining sauce and turning several times, for 1 hour.
In a dish, blend 1/3 cup flour with 3 tablespoons brown sugar. Sprinkle the ribs with the mixture and bake them for 30 minutes, or until browned and baked through.
That should do it for today. We are approaching the cocktail hour(s), so I need to go get spruced up for my Friday night date. Keep smilin’, stay healthy, stay sane and stay away from these dimwits. Ziggyman
Wow! The last day of the month. Did April just fly by or what? It was just a month ago that I started writing this here blog to give me something to do while sheltering in place and as an outlet to release some of my pent up frustration and anger at the way our current situation was being handled, as well as the daily shit show from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I hope that I haven’t been too nasty and irreverent, and you don’t think I’m some crazy old 70 something goofball. Although it makes me feel a little better for awhile after I have ranted about the rump and the very pathetic Pence and their lemmings, it doesn’t really make a difference. I would like to figure out what I can do to make sure we have a new president in the fall. I always thought Biden was the one democrat who could beat tRump, but I think that with these new sexual assault allegations, it is going to be a bigger battle. I don’t like the fact that Biden has remained silent on the allegation and wish that he would make a statement. Right now, I wish Andrew Cuomo was the democratic nominee for the fall election.
I received an email today from a friend with a copy of an article by Fintan O’Toole, writing in the Irish Times last week. I had actually read the article a couple of days ago and had meant to reference it on this blog. I can’t link it because I don’t subscribe to the Irish Times, but it is such a good article I am going to post it here. Sad, but true.
Irish Times-April 25, 2020-By Fintan O’Toole
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.
However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.
Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicentre of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted … like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – willfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students travelling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fuelled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralysed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground But, this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realization that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
In my ramblings yesterday, I mentioned that several ladies up here were baking some “goodies” as a thank you for essential businesses and services that were open on the mountain. Our friend, Tracie, delivered them and the folks were all very appreciative for people thinking of them. The ladies baked over 450 “goodies.” There were sugar cookies that looked like face masks, 2 different brownies, peanut butter chocolate cookies, cowboy cookies with walnuts, oatmeal raisin, oatmeal chocolate chip, white chocolate walnut dried fruit, chocolate chip, chocolate heath bar cookies and banana bread with walnuts and chocolate chips.
Did you know Willie Nelson has two birthdays? Well he celebrates two days in a row. As the man himself explained on his SiriusXM radio show a few days ago, he gets two birthdays every year: He was born on April 29, but the county courthouse out in Abbott, Texas back in 1933 didn’t record his just-before-midnight birth until the next morning. As a result, April 30 is also his birthday. Happy birthday, Willie, I’m sure you’re partying hardy!!!
I will leave you with this. The restaurant owner is referring to Brian Kemp, the Georgia governor. It’s getting crazier everyday. Stay healthy and have one for Willie. Ziggyman
Well we got out of the house today and drove down to the flatlands of Sandy, Oregon to stock up on vittles and other needed items (still doing okay with TP). We hadn’t been to the grocery store for almost two weeks, so it was time to get some fresh veggies, fruit, meat, and restock some pantry items. It was very interesting in the grocery stores. Probably 6 out of 10 people were wearing masks and keeping an appropriate social distance with other shoppers. Then you had the 4 out of 10 with no mask and looking at us with masks like we were wussies. Safeway now has the aisles marked as one way travel with big arrows showing the grocery cart route of travel. Pretty hard to miss, but you know you always have a few that think it doesn’t apply to them. They push their cart going the wrong way within two feet of me and the missus, and naturally they are not wearing a mask. Being a 70 something grumpy old male whose mask is fogging up his glasses, causing a feeling of craziness, I let them know I don’t appreciate their rudeness and have a choice name for them. Anyhoo. Interesting times we are living in.
Dinner last night was “clean out the refrigerator” to use up veggies that needed to be cooked, so made a vegetable cheddar soup. I was able to use an onion, carrots, celery, potatoes, broccoli, and some cheese. The soup, a nice green salad, and bread sprinkled with parmesan cheese under the broiler made a fine meal. The wine pairing was a 2017 Marchesi Pinot Gris. The weather was so nice yesterday that we were able to sit out on the front deck, sip our wine, and watch the bats zooming over us until it was dark. Oh, also had to fire off a few pellet shots at the rabbit who has been eating the missus’ plants as they come up and form their blooms. Grrrrr.
Hope you all are healthy, cooking delicious meals, and behaving yourselves. Oh, and if you feel like you’re drinking a little too much, limit yourself to just one glass. Ramble to you tomorrow. Ziggyman
Mountain Man Musings 