All posts by James DeVol

December 3rd

Well…this being broke crap is starting to be a pain in the butt…I would at least like the option of going out and doing something even though I probably wouldn’t…it’s like I’m trapped here with my head barely above water and it continues to rise inch by inch. One consolation, I’ve had two nights of good sleep for me…only up a couple of times each night…maybe there will be a pattern here? Hope so….I guess you have to take the small victories as they come. But that doesn’t relieve the boredom…and, there’s not much to do today…the damn dish is screwed up again and they are supposed to come to fix it today but that is about it….and not much of a weekend either….but I guess I’ll have to make the most of it and just read a bunch and cook. I will have one large topic for later today…Obama has lost me and I now see him as no more than another political hack that is breaking the law with his refusal to honor our treaties and prosecute the torturers….more later….

Eric Cantor is no James Madison….

Well…talk about your delusions of grandeur…Ole Eric Cantor and Bob Bishop of Utah put forth their plans over the past couple of days to fundamentally change the way government does business..proposing that if a few states don’t like a federal law, they can band together to ignore it…ignoring the fact that this “nullification” idea has been rejected by every court that has had cases dealing with it come before it….there are so many ways that this is wrong that I am almost left speechless…but, if you know me that won’t last for long. First, why are the repubs wasting time with this frivolous crap when there are still things to be done on the economy, UI benefits, the START treaty, and other important issues that will affect how the middle class fares in the near future? And, do they really think that they can improve on the document written by the founders? I, for one, think that Eric Cantor is no James Madison, someone who he has taken to comparing himself to and feels he knows what Madison would think about revising the government. These delusions of grandeur along with their continuing mis-interpretation of the election results is fostering the worst kind of demagoguery and a return to the faith-based ideas of governance where the facts don’t mean anything when they get in the way of their right wing political agenda. I fear for this country if these are the “leaders” we have to look forward to…geez…

December 2nd

Well…a pretty low-key day yesterday but it was interesting with the first real snowfall….tell me one thing…how does falling asleep on the couch for 15 minutes keep you from sleeping for 3 hours? That’s been happening some lately and it gets frustrating not sleeping…but, after the complaining, I did sleep okay last night…how’s that for strange? Oh, well…I think I will keep up the no drinks thing for a few days…or probably until Monday at least…I just feel so much better that it’s not worth it any more. It helps that I’m broke….but I am going to get some groceries since the leftovers are finally gone…except the turkey carcass for soup, that is…not much to do today…I think I’m going to start running again but I’m not looking forward to it…it hurts way too much but I have to do something for exercise since I can feel my fitness draining away even after a couple of days…and it gets worse as you get older…it takes you months to get into shape but about 4 hours for it to all go away…maybe not 4 hours but it seems that way…more later…

This is the repubs idea of compromise..

Well…I hope this latest round of political theater convinces Obama that the repubs are not worthy of even talking to, let alone compromising with and we will get some spine growing back in the Dems. First let’s talk about Susan Collins, the repub senator who has said she will hold up the START treaty vote unless ole GW tells her it’s okay…hasn’t anyone told her the he is not president anymore? Could you imagine the howls that would come from the right if any Dem senator said he was going to hold up a vital treaty until Bill Clinton said it was okay to vote for it? These guys are quickly slipping down the rabbit hole….when did senators stop thinking for themselves?

Then, we had Mitch McConnell, fresh from the invite to the White House to talk about how they can work together to move the country forward stepping up to the microphones and basically repeating the repub line that the only people that need to and have to compromise is the Dems….and proceeds to block a vote on UI benefits and all other legislation until these extortionists get to give away 700 billion dollars to the rich as soon as he gets back to the senate. It’s what I have been proposing for quite a while now…you can’t work with or compromise with these thugs so they need to be set up to take responsibility for ruining this country…and shame on Obama if he can’t figure out how to do it…geez…

Oh, then the third thing…and probably the most absurd is the continuing repub pledges to fight the repeal of DADT…what happened the the old repub saying that they would defer to the commanders? Just to make this clear…all of the commanders have come out for repeal….but you know why the repubs are still resisting this…it is red meat to their base and they want to make sure they can still use it for turnout in two years…what a cynical bunch of pricks…

December 1st

Well…another night out in Ada and I lost at pool again….I guess I’ll have to start concentrating more…and I did not sleep at all so my brain is just idling…can’t get it to start…life looks really quite strange at 3:08, and 4:12, and 5:03….and still looks that way right now at 7:43…not much to do today…have to go out for supplies but that is about it…still trying to conserve cash so it looks like I’m in for the next week or so…oh, well…man, I am so tired that I’m going to put this on hold for a while…back later…

Okay, back for a while after coffee and I feel just a trifle better…bet you haven’t seen trifle used in a sentence in a while…the snow was a little bit of a shock this morning but it is December in Michigan so you kind of expect that…and people were not being stupid on the roads so far so that is a plus…I’ll see more after I go out on the e-way this morning…it is kind of depressing knowing the bike riding season is over….I think I’ll start doing the maint on it that it needs and clean it up….it’s going to be a complete veg day today…tuesdays are starting to wear on me but I am grateful that I can just kind of curl up and watch some movies…I’ll be back with topics for later….more idiocy by the repubs that has left 2 million people without UI benefits…

Here they come….just as I told you they would..

Well…back in the runup to the election, one of the predictions that I made was that if the repubs came back to power, you would see the wholesale surrendering of our country to the forces of the “free market” and the religious nuts from the right. And yesterday, in a speech in Detroit, we have one of their presidential frontrunners came out with that exact double whammy; delivered by Mike Pence, the repub from Indiana. In that speech he told the crowd that the big problem in America is the lack of morals in the population and that the only way to solve that is a return to organized religion and more religious involvement in everyday life. Really, Mike? What about those of us that see the folly of organized religion and want the constitutional separation of church and state strengthened? We are tired of you “holier-than-thou” folks telling us that the only way to be a good, ethical, moral person is to belong to organized religion when, to us, religion is the CAUSE of most of the strife in the world.

But, that was not the only thing he felt the need to touch on…he reiterated his opposition to the bailout of the auto industry, along with the Tarp program that helped limit the financial damage in the downturn. His reasoning is that a free market bankruptcy would have been a better way to go…since it would help destroy the unions and turn the US into the low wage economy that his business buddies could then take advantage of…well…I added that last part..this is kind of an editorial after all. Now, you can truly see what these guys are all about….they say we can’t afford extension of UI benefits, or helping American industry survive because it would add to the deficit…but it is just ducky to give the top 1% 700 billion in tax cuts that aren’t paid for…hypocrites all. Geez…

November 30th

Well…running a little late this morning for no real reason…got caught up in the season finale of Dexter and what better way to start the day than to visit with a serial killer. That’s a joke….had fun last night, did go out and have a couple with G but was a good boy when I got home so I feel okay today. There was bad news, though…T hit a deer with her car and did some damage to it…I guess that’s to be expected here in deerville but it’s still not cool especially when the car was just fixed. Not much to do today but Ada…I do need to get some money coming in since I’ve got about 8 bucks in my pocket and 5 of that will go for coffee…I hope I don’t have to quit doing the morning coffee thing…I do get topics from it after all….we’ll see…more later…

Oklahoma goes crazy…

Well…I’m sure you’ve heard of the constitutional amendment passed in Oklahoma on election day that forbids the use of Islamic or international law in court rulings…and that more than 70% of the voters approved it. First, if they are so concerned with religious law being used to settle disputes, why didn’t they include all religious law? But no, that would mean that they could no longer refer to the bible or other christian teachings that they just love to cite when they are restricting the rights of gays and lesbians or a woman’s right to be secure in her own body. What we had in Oklahoma was just another cynical ploy by the right to get their base out to vote…just like they used gay marriage bans to do the same in previous elections….elections where they had no new ideas to offer but they knew if they went back to the divide and conquer playbook, it might just work. And, they got a two-fer with the ruling by a federal district court to stay the implementation on constitutional grounds so now they can continue to delegitimize the role of the judiciary and trot out their tired old attacks on the “activist judges” that are more activist on the right than left.

Isn’t anyone else tired of the right’s continued efforts to divide this country? Geez…

November 29th

Well…a nondescript Sunday full of boredom…but the Roku helped to keep me going until the Wings came on…I am so happy that Thanksgiving is over so I can get back to my normal eating routine…I think I’ve gained 10 pounds and I don’t feel good about it. I will be able to get out on the bike today and I’ll probably do 20 or 30 miles to make up for my laziness over the last week…yep, that’s guilt you hear and you know I’m pretty good about it…oh, the Wings played a great game yesterday and won another one…that made me a little bit happy but just a little. Not much to do today….and that’s probably good…just don’t feel like doing anything….yeah, sounds like the blacks are coming back…I may have to curl up on the couch and let it come…more later…

Let’s talk about START…

Well…the good ole boys in the repub party are at it again…this time opposing the newest START treaty (strategic arms limitation treaty) for the only reason that they can…not for any lack in it’s merits, or for any credible policy differences…in fact it’s a better deal and has one thing that that the repubs were just SO hot for when the bushies ran the show…a credible missile shield for Europe that the Russians were adamantly opposed to in the last round. Across the world, our allies are speechless when asked about the repub opposition…they all know how good a deal this is for them and can’t understand the stupidity of the repubs in holding it up. What happened to the tradition that stood us so well for the last 200 years…that politics stopped at the waters edge and our internal differences were kept in private? That we wouldn’t give the rest of the world an edge by showing that we did have foreign policy differences? It just shows that the repubs don’t give a damn about what is good for this country, the only thing they care about is political gain and ruining the chances of Obama to accomplish anything…even when the safety of the country is at stake. By senator Kyl and his ilk holding up this treaty, and taking away our ability to verify where all the nuclear material in Russia is, he, and the supposedly security conscious repubs are again exposed for the lying, political opportunists they are. They have made it easier for our enemies to get the weapons of mass destruction that they have pledged to use against us and have cynically made us less safe.

When do we get the adults back in charge again? Geez….