Well, time to get off the holiday break and get back to rambling about s**t. It was a nice break spent with family and friends, food and drink, books and puzzles. We came down to the beach house on Friday and had big time storms over the weekend with 1.7” of rain on Saturday alone and 6.48” of rain since January 1^st according to my weather station. I just hope we don’t get an ice storm like last January when we were here and couldn’t get back to the mountain for a week because of road closures, downed trees, and power outages. Keeping our fingers crossed that we continue with this mild January weather, as I have cataract surgery at the end of the month and don’t want the missus, my chauffeur for the event,  to have to fight ice and snow getting me to and fro. Anyhoo, you don’t want to read about me. You want me to get on with my musings.

We’ll start with thoughts I had during the break and you probably won’t like what I have to say, but here goes anyway. The Democrats are in deep doo doo. They (we), earned a grade of F for this election. The campaign, which spent a s**t load of money, didn’t focus on what the voters were interested in and how the Democratic President would meet their interests and needs, but instead just kept repeating how bad tRump is and what it would mean for democracy if he were to be elected again. Most voters know what tRump is all about, so there was no need to make that the focus of the campaign. In an opinion piece in the New York Times several days ago, James Carville one of our best Democratic strategists in my opinion, wrote, “Although the U.S. economy remains the strongest in the world, with GDP soaring and inflation subsiding the American people did not settle for us being better than the rest or take that as good enough. Mr. Trump, for the first time in his political career, decisively won by seizing a swath of middle-class and low-income voters focused on the economy. Democrats have flat-out lost the economic narrative. The only path to electoral salvation is to take it back. Perception is everything in politics, and a lot of Americans perceive us as out to lunch on the economy — not feeling their pain or caring too much about other things instead.” I agree with his post-election analysis that the American people who voted him in don’t give a rat’s ass about his indictments, his impeachments, his indecency. What they care about is what they are paying at the grocery store, the gas station, not being able to go out to dinner, and those darn immigrants taking our jobs. Over the next four years we need to quit the anti-Trump rhetoric and instead mount an opposition to the Republican party economic agenda – tax cuts for the wealthiest in America; tariffs that will drive up costs for the common man; the cost of healthcare and what that party has done or not done to provide some relief. The Dem’s will be wasting their time if they think they can pass any kind of economic agenda over the next two years, but they can propose some wild ideas that would be popular and appeal to low income and middle class folks and then sit back and watch the Republican opposition. As I’ve said in the past, we’ll just have to sit back and wait for the day that the people who voted for Trump realize that what he said he would do to put more money in their pocket isn’t happening (unless you are one his billionaire buddies). You know, it’s always about the money.

Next, Joe is really pissing me off in these last couple of months of his presidency. It started with his full pardon of Hunter, his son, who is on the same level as Don Jr., Eric, and some of the other Trump allies who try to get away with as much as they can. Joe showed he is no more honest or true to his word as the people he criticizes on the other side of the aisle. Now we have his Surgeon General wanting to mandate warnings on alcohol bottles, just like cigarette packages, that alcohol is a cancer risk. I think that most people who drink alcohol know they are not consuming a health drink. I keep reading that obesity is one of the biggest health issues in America today. If this nonsense continues we’ll have health warnings on that next Snickers bar or package of Oreo’s that you buy. As much as I hate to say it, I will welcome an administration that doesn’t make an effort to regulate every personal freedom I have. I don’t want the government telling me that I have to drive an electric car in ten years. I would love to have a gas stove if I lived in an area with natural gas. How many of these government overreach actions end up costing us more money?

Don’t worry, I’m not turning into a Trumpy, but I have reflected on the past four years and it hasn’t been total wine and roses with a Dem in office. I’m guilty of just being a Trump basher now that he has been reelected, but realize that I need to be more objective in my musings in the future. With that said, I am now going out for a walk and breathe some ocean air. Wishing you a great 2025!  Ziggyman

Tis the night before Christmas and a time to take a respite from the state of the Union. There will be plenty of time in the near future to get my bowels in further uproar. So tonight the missus and I will just relax, have some hot toddies and reflect on our blessings of 2024. I hope y’all just do the same. If you don’t want to reflect on your blessings, just think about the wonderful things we can look forward to in our future. We won’t have to show our passport to get into Canada any longer since they will just be another State, our 51^st State. It’ll be just like crossing over the bridge from Oregon to Washington. I’m not sure how our neighbors to the North feel about it, though. I think they might have some reservations about our healthcare system compared to what they are accustomed to. There is a significant difference in coverage for medical care in Canada and the United States. In Canada, all citizens are covered by a publicly funded, universal system that provides access to medically necessary hospital and physician services for all residents, while in the United States, studies suggest that 7% of U.S. citizens do not have adequate health insurance, if any at all. I also doubt if Justin Trudeau wants to go from being the Prime Minister of Canada to Governor of the great State of Canada.

And, how about Greenland? I didn’t know it was for sale. But, then again, neither did the Prime Minister of Greenland. We do have an air base on the island of Greenland, Pituffik Space Base, which is our military’s northernmost installation. Their mission is to perform missile warning, space surveillance, and satellite command and control for the United States. I’m not sure how President Musk feels about acquiring Greenland, but his underling Don tRump says that it is a necessity to acquire the island. Trump floated this idea in 2019 and according to Malte Humpert, a senior fellow at the Arctic Institute, “This idea remains as ludicrous as it was in 2019.” If numb nuts isn’t careful, we might find that our presence there isn’t welcome any longer.

If this talk of acquiring Canada and Greenland isn’t enough, add to it the idea of retaking the Panama Canal, another “hair brained” idea the “Man of the Year” is spouting about. Lordy, Lordy my bowels are starting to uproar and I was just going to kick back tonight and be reflective of this wonderful 2024 (other than November 5th). Enough of this rambling. I have to go check my Amazon stock and see how it did today.

Merry Christmas and have a wonderful Christmas Eve!  Ziggyman

Need I say more? Okay, I will. I begin today with this meme created by Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett from Texas. This AI generated piece of art depicts what many see happening right now. The richest man in the world is playing tRump like a puppet. MuskRat is probably thinking tRump breathed a sigh of relief after winning the presidency and thus saved from becoming Bubba’s prison bitch. MuskRat to tRump, “Who’s my bitch now, boy?”

The Democrat’s have begun taunting Trump by calling Musk the president. For example, Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on X on Thursday, “This holiday season, House Republicans want to break a bipartisan deal and furlough millions of hardworking federal workers— including 50,000 in my district—to placate the richest man in the world, President-Elect Elon Musk and his VP JD Vance.” And, Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders posted a statement on X: “Democrats and Republicans spent months negotiating a bipartisan agreement to fund out government. The richest man on Earth, President Elon Musk doesn’t like it. Will Republicans kiss the ring? Billionaires must not be allowed to run our government.”

How long will it be before Trump goes bonkers over this. Eventually, the thin skinned “Man of the Year” and his new ally Elon are going to have a falling out over the perception MuskRat is the leader of this nation and Trump is his servant. My friends, that show is going to require two bowls of popcorn with a bottle of champagne on the side.

Thank goodness clearer heads prevailed and the bill passed the House and Senate last night and was signed by Biden today. We have until March and then the game begins again. I have to agree with Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank focusing on budget, tax, and economic policy who wrote: “For four Biden years, GOP lawmakers railed against deficits and especially debt limit hikes. Then Trump wins, and GOP passes $310 billion in spending hikes with no pay-fors, and most vote to suspend the debt limit so Trump can add unlimited debt. The open hypocrisy is comical.” Come March, the hypocrisy will become even greater because Trump will officially be in office, Musk will officially have been the budget cutting czar for two months, and the GOP will be in full control of both houses, so the GOP will vote to suspend the debt limit or risk tRump’s and MuskRat’s ire and we will be on the road to cost cutting measures that will affect the Common Man. The bill that was just passed pulled pediatric research funding from reauthorization and as a result has devastated the child cancer community. These types of cuts are going to be more common under the MuskRat regime, so start planning for it.

Well it’s time to go get cleaned up for the Christmas show at Skyway by the Steelhead Stalkers band. Hope you have a great evening. Ziggyman

As I sit here beginning this rambling, after having survived the Christmas grocery shopping frenzy, we still don’t know if the government is shutting down tonight at midnight or not. It looked like Speaker Johnson had the votes all wrapped up on Tuesday, but then we got a glimpse of what the next four years will be like. In his typical fashion, tRump didn’t like the negotiated bipartisan plan that would have kept the government funded at it’s current annual rate, provided an additional $100 billion in disaster aid for storm-hit states and another $10 billion for farmers. tRump didn’t like the plan and demanded it be rewritten to include no debt ceiling until 2029, the end of his term, or be abolished all together. At that point, President MuskRat got involved and started a marathon tweet session telling GOP House members they better vote for this new plan or they’d be looking for a new job. Johnson presented that plan on Wednesday and it was soundly defeated by the House on Thursday, including 38 Republicans who basically gave tRump the finger. So here we are again, experiencing the chaos that tRump thrives on. Unfortunately, the new president, Elon MuskRat, seems to echo that same form of leadership. We might just have to start popping that corn sooner than January 20^th, as it appears the s—t show is starting earlier than expected. As Yogi said, “it’s déjà vu all over again.”

And another development as part of this fiasco is an idea being thrown against the wall to see if any of it will stick. Make MuskRat the Speaker of the House. The Speaker does not have to be an elected Representative and thus you could end up with a non-elected Speaker, like Musk or Kari Lake or Herschel Walker as the leading member of the House of Representatives.  What a precedent this would make for the future. It sounds like MTG, Rand Paul, and some of the other circus clowns  are getting some tingly feelings about this possibility. MuskRat, the richest man in the world, has no problem shutting the government down and then sitting back and watching the mess. I’m glad I won’t have to be at an airport trying to get to Christmas dinner across the States or trying to catch a plane home if this shutdown occurs in the next few hours. What a Christmas gift for the non-essential Federal workers who would be furloughed with this shutdown.

Speaking of MuskRat, I wonder how many MAGA folks depend on their Social Security checks for living expenses and Medicare for health insurance. I don’t have time to start on this topic, so will just throw it out as a tease and discuss it in the next rambling. At some point after January 20^th, those MAGA lemmings out there are all of a sudden going to wake up one morning and realize that ‘what’s happening to me isn’t what I voted for.’ Sorry, you can’t cut the  2 trillion dollars from the Federal budget that Musk says is coming and not cut into those two entitlement programs that most Americans rely on. Stay tuned.

TGIF. Oh wait. I’m retired. Every night is Friday night. Hope you have a good one and remember to check your popcorn supply, cause I thinks you’re going to need it sooner than originally expected. Ziggyman

December 18, 2024

WTF!! We just had our 83^rd OTAP of 2024. What’s OTAP you ask? That would be “Our Thoughts and Prayers”, which we hear from politicians to those families and victims after every school shooting tragedy. Isn’t that what you hear each time there is a school shooting? On NBC News last night they reported that this was the 83^rd school shooting this year, but I think they meant this was the 83^rd in which someone was killed. According to an article in the Milwaukie Journal Sentinel, using data from a national K-12 school shooting database, there have been 323 school shootings this year. https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2024/12/16/323-school-shootings-in-u-s-this-year-database-says/77029027007/ Whatever definition you want to use for a school shooting or the database you want to look at, any number over zero is too many. A fact that doesn’t need interpretation is that firearms are now the number 1 cause of death for children and teens (ages 1 to 19) in the United States. This statement is from multiple reports including the Office of the Surgeon General from the Department of Health and Human Services. The leading cause of death for children is not from an auto accident, cancer, or other medical disease, but from a firearm. Now, I’m not a stand on the soap box guy shouting that Americans have to give up their right to own guns, but I do believe that we need to put in place some controls for gun ownership. In too many cases a student aged school shooter obtained the gun in their household because it was unsecured, or a parent had purchased the gun for their child as a hunting weapon or for target practice, or it was a stolen gun bought off the street. We can’t continue to say that providing more mental health services or arming teachers will solve this problem. From my background in education there are teachers that “no way in hell” do I want them in the classroom with a 9 millimeter in their purse, briefcase, backpack or ankle holster. Besides Yogi Berra, you gotta love Betty White and her great quotes. I bet she was thinking of Ted Cruz, the legislator who received the most money from gun rights advocates, when she said, My thoughts and prayers are with the Senators that voted down gun control. My thoughts: do your job. My prayer: you’re voted out of office. She has another quote from her book that fits Ted, the guy who let Donald walk all over him during the first term debates. It references male and female body parts, but I was afraid if I put it in here you would cancel me like I did to Time magazine for their “Person of the Year” cover. Oh, I did get my refund from them, deposited to my checking account today. So I guess I better be off to the liquor store to get my bourbon. Here’s a Betty White I can put in today’s rambling – “Vodka is kind of a hobby.” (to David Letterman). If you want to quote me, I say, “Bourbon, the drink of the professional drinker.”

I hope y’all survived the storm last night. Our power on the mountain went out in the middle of the night, so this morning had to get up and start the generator and then get in the truck and run down to the gas station. Earlier this week I got rid of all the old gas in the cans from last year and, of course, the generator only had a quarter tank of fuel in it. I hope the beach house survived the gusts they were expecting on the coast.

Anyhoo, I hope you have a great evening and can binge on Christmas specials the rest of the week. Don’t forget to start storing up on popcorn. January 20th will be here before you know it and I’m sure there will be a run on it as we approach the beginning of the s–t show. Cheers. Ziggyman

It sounds like Mar-a-Lago is kind of like the DMV right now. I hear folks step up to the gate and take a number and then wait in line to grovel before King Donald. ‘Okay #6 come forward, King Donald will see you now. Mr. Cook (Tim Cook, CEO of Apple) did you bring the million dollars you promised for our inauguration? Good boy.’ An hour later, ‘Okay #7 you’re up.  Mr. Zuckerberg (CEO of Meta/Facebook), did you bring your million dollar pizzo  (protection money) to our skipper? Good boy.’ And so on and so on. I didn’t think that once you became a billionaire you had to suck up to anybody. Guess that’s why I’m not a billionaire. Silly me. I guess Jeff Bezos’ (Washington Post owner/Amazon founder) ticket number is 27, so he won’t grovel until later in the week.

Ladies and gentlemen, the results are in and the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary “Word of the Year” is POLARIZATION, and it doesn’t mean Santa Claus going polar on us from the North Pole. It surely became the word of the year as a result of this election cycle, but has gradually been ramping up to the point where we are today.  Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor at large says “Polarization means division, but it’s a very specific kind of division. Polarization means that we are tending toward the extremes rather than toward the center.” Kind of like a divided nation, right? Liberals vs. conservatives; urban vs. rural; “elites” vs. the “common man”. It seems that both sides of the political spectrum are moving to the extreme ends rather than a movement toward the center. Members of each party  feel that the leadership of the other party is an extreme threat to our country. You know where my leanings are and it is obvious from my writings that I consider our President-elect a threat to what has been our form of government since our Founding Fathers formed this nation. Folks who lean to the right, who are now the majority, think that the policies of the Democratic party and the current leadership are an extreme threat and the cause for all the problems of this nation – high inflation; women thinking they own their own bodies; having to subsidize medical care for the low income; bathroom invasions; trying to take away our guns; an army of free-loading government service workers; the cost of beer and groceries, and so on. So, to solve this problem, the majority decided to elect “The Man of the Year.” By golly he is our savior and will get revenge on them damn libtards.

Speaking of the cost of groceries. The missus ran down the mountain to Uncle Freddies yesterday to get eggs and other provisions for making Christmas cookies. Have you bought eggs this week? $5.99 a dozen. I s—t you not. $5.99. This is not a typo. Eggs $5.99. If Biden hadn’t given the flu to them thar chickens we’d be able to afford to have a breakfast that includes eggs. Thank God our Mr. Trump’s new health guy, Bobby Jr., is going to take care of this flu deal. And he’s also going to get rid of a bunch of those dumb shots that kiddos have to get before they  can go to school. And he’s taking that fluoride poison out of our drinking water. Billy Bob told me that Bobby Jr. is going to save us a lot of money. He’s a real smart guy, you know. We won’t need special education classes anymore because getting rid of those shots and that fluoride stuff will eliminate ‘ottism’, and you know them there ‘ottistic’ kids cause all the trouble at my kid’s school. We are so lucky to have the Apprentice King take over on January 20^th because he really knows how to hire great people and this is going to Make America Great Again. Billy Bob told me so.

Well, I think I’m starting to get a little loopy, so I’m going to go down and see if the missus has any of those million dollar Christmas cookies out of the oven ready for my consumption. Y’all have a great day. And you might think about going down to the Feed store and buy yourself some chickens to lay eggs just for you. That’ll show them libtards. Ziggyman

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.

Wow! Time magazine names Donald Trump the person of the year and this time Don doesn’t have to make a fake cover — he really has been given that honor by the owner of the magazine, Marc Benioff, who is also the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, a cloud-based software company that had over 31 billion dollars in revenue last year. In a post on X, Benioff wrote, “This marks a time of great promise for our nation. We look forward to working together to advance American success and prosperity for everyone. May God bless the United States of America.” It’s interesting how all of a sudden these billionaires are coming out of the woodwork to suck up to King Donald. Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of the Washington Post and Amazon founder, who in the past has been critical of Trump, has now changed his tune and will be having dinner with Donald soon.  Bezos said he’s “actually very optimistic” about another Trump term.

Speaking of billionaires, my brother referred me to an opinion article in a recent issue of USA Today titled  “Hey, MAGA voters: You’ve been had. Trump’s plans for the economy may ruin you. | Opinion” https://www.yahoo.com/news/hey-maga-voters-youve-had-220513815.html The writer of this article says that “Biden’s cabinet had a net worth of about $188 million, while Trump’s thus far is at more than $300 billion. Counting Trump, his administration-to-be now includes 14 billionaires. The point being that these billionaires don’t give a rat’s ass about the common man who voted Trump to office on the belief that his/her grocery bills, gasoline, healthcare, etc. would soon be way lower than what that doggone Biden/Harris team has done to them over the past four years. Sorry guy’s, the jokes on you. What we will have is a lowering of taxes for these elites, while common man will experience a reduction in services that those taxes covered. And with all of the other wonderful, wonderful ideas this team has planned for tariffs and deregulation we’ll just see how happy the common man is a year from now.

Groceries, the word that probably got Trump elected. In his interview over the weekend on Meet the Press he told host Kristen Welker, “I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries. Like almost — you know, who uses the word? I started using the word — the groceries … I won an election based on that.” In August Trump said “ You just watch: They’ll come down, and they’ll come down fast, not only with insurance, with everything.” He added in September: “Vote Trump, and your incomes will soar. Your net worth will skyrocket. Your energy costs and grocery prices will come tumbling down.” That’s what he wanted voters to hear in August and September leading up to the election, knowing that he can bamboozle many of the common man to believe what he says. Unfortunately, now that he won on that word, groceries, and reality is setting in, his tune has changed somewhat. In his interview for “Man of the Year” when he was asked if his presidency would be a failure if grocery prices didn’t go down, he said, “I don’t think so.” “Look, they got them up (Biden and Harris). I’d like to bring them down. It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up. You know, it’s very hard. But I think that they will.” What happened to those grocery prices tumbling down? Y’all just better get used to it. It’s time to get out the BS meter again.

We got up to snow this morning and it hasn’t stopped all day. Time to go put another log on the fire and think about a cocktail. Stay warm and safe. Ziggyman

How about this run of rainless sunny days? It certainly has been nice to not have a rainy, dark, and dreary daytime while I’m looking out the window or driving around town. It looks like that may change for a couple of days beginning tomorrow, but possibly get back to sun and no rain after that for the rest of next week. I look at this as the “calm before the storm.” You know we’re going to get hit with at least one weather event this winter, it’s just a matter of when. Remember last January 13^th? That was the beginning of a week long storm that shut everything down across Oregon. Icy roads, snow, power outages, broken pipes, schools closed, the whole shebang. Anyhoo, enough about the weather, although we do have another storm coming, which is forecast to arrive on January 20^th. It will  have been brewing for 11 weeks. I’m beginning to prepare now for the s–t show that that I’m expecting. There will be a run on popcorn in the days leading up to the 20^th, so I suggest you buy now before the stores run out like they did with toilet paper during the pandemic. It might not be a bad idea to stock up on TP and antacids, not knowing how sh—-y things get.

I see the ol’ bait and switch game has just started. Do you remember Donald saying not to worry that he would preserve entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare? Sorry to tell ya, but those were just voter-pleasing campaign promises. A couple of days ago Utah Senator Mike Lee went on a Twitter tirade against Social Security just like the statements he made in 2010 when he promised to “rip it out by the roots.” This is a guy who has said that the only reason he ran for the Senate was to dismantle Social Security. As a Senator he will get taxpayer funded healthcare for the rest of his life while he is now  working to take away benefits of every American. The scary thing  is that he may be getting support from Elon Musk, who retweeted with “Interesting thread.” Remember, Musk and his cohort Vivek Ramaswamy are aiming to cut $2 trillion in federal spending as they head up the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The problem is that only $1.7 trillion of the $6.1 trillion  budget outlays is discretionary. So to get to their goal it appears they would have to look at entitlement programs for some of the cuts. There has been talk for years by the GOP to overhaul Social Security and Medicare, but when their constituents begin going berserk they quickly stop talking about it. It may be different this time with Co-President Elon at the wheel. Get out the popcorn, this is going to be a drama as good as Yellowstone.

Time to pour a cocktail, turn on News at 5, and begin the weekend. It’s been a busy week. Have a great weekend my friends! Ziggyman

Hi y’all! I’m back from a nice Thanksgiving break and ready to ramble on. While I was taking that break, our President-elect continued to exhibit his kakistocracy tendencies. If you will recall from an earlier Mountain Man Musing, kakistocracy is government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state, or in the words of Nancy Friedman, “government by the shitty.” The first announcement was his nomination of Kash Patel for Director of the FBI. This shocked not only tRump’s ardent critics, but also some of his allies. This guy has very little law enforcement or management experience, but would be Trump’s political executioner. Colleagues and supervisors have not been impressed with his legal acumen, but he sounds like a hell of a salesman. Since the end of the Trump administration he sells pro-Trump merchandise and wrote a series of children’s books paying homage to, and I’m not bull shitting you, “King Donald.”  Following  the playbook of J. Edgar Hoover,  Patel has openly vowed to find ways to punish those that Trump has called his enemies. I don’t think I need to tell you that this would be using the Justice Department for political purposes to punish those who have hurt the Donald’s feelings. Patel wrote a book in 2023 titled “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy.” In the book he lists 60 people who are “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” In his role as Director of the FBI he will seek justice for those who have wronged “King Donald” and thretens to prosecute them as retribution for those perceived wrongs. What’s scary is that if Patel is confirmed as the Director, his boss (if confirmed) Pam Bondi, has made similar statements about retribution. Oh well, he’s not the only least suitable. We move on to John Phelan, who tRump is nominating to be Secretary of the Navy. Mr. Phelan’s qualifications include being a major donor to Trump’s campaign and an art collector, having an extensive art collection. Phelan has no military experience or even had a civilian leadership role in the service. I’m sure he has many beautiful paintings of boats, the ocean, perhaps some sailors. He will, however, do what the King wants done and not push back. Let me see now. We have a Commander in Chief who has no military experience. A Secretary of the Navy with no military experience. A Secretary of Defense nominee with no military leadership experience, but is a good drinker and is alleged to have met some of the other requirements for being in the Cabinet (think Matt Gaetz). Tulsi Gabbard, nominee for National Intelligence Chief, with little intelligence experience, but likes to cozy up with Russia and Syria.  Are some of these nominees starting to make you a little nervous about where the good ol’ USA is headed in these times of global tension and unrest?

Today, as you probably saw in the media, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law in his attempt to ban political activity and censor the media. Fortunately, the South Korean Parliament rejected him and called for his impeachment. He later reversed his decision, but not before his actions created extreme chaos in their capital city. Now, the real scary thing about this is we have a President-elect who would love to do the same thing using our military and his retribution seeking Cabinet members.  And, unfortunately, a Congress that would not have the cojones to stop this abuse of power. But hey, in the words of that great American cultural icon, Mad Magazines Alfred E Neuman, “What, Me Worry?”

I’m conflicted about Biden’s pardoning of his son Hunter. I recall Joe Biden standing in front of the camera several times saying a pardon for his son was off the table. He talked about the importance of the rule of law and the need for independence of our justice system. I understand some of his reasoning as far as his son being targeted for prosecution because of his last name, but what about the inordinate number of black men who have to go before the judge and jury for alleged crimes a white man would not even be arrested for. Hunter was convicted by a jury of his peers, but he’s the son of the President of the United States, so he gets a pardon and won’t have to see cement walls as his living quarters in the future. You can bet your sweet bippy that this action will ‘cement’ the Donald’s decision to pardon all of the insurrectionists convicted of January 6^th crimes. He’ll be standing in front of the microphone and tell the nation that “I had decided to let justice prevail and not pardon those wonderful patriots, but then old hypocritical sleepy Joe gave his son a jail free card and I just couldn’t stand back and let that inequality thing go, you know. It’s a wonderful thing to be King and have the power to absolve injustices done to my people. Wonderful, Wonderful!”

Well, the missus went to bed an hour ago and I have only two sips of wine left in my glass, so I must excuse myself from providing you further ramblings this evening and trot off to my warm bed and begin what I hope will be sweet dreams and not nightmares. Sweet dreams to y’all. Ziggyman