Well…just when you thought Bill Barr couldn’t get any worse, he open’s his mouth and spew more garbage into our air. Just the other day, Barr came out and justified his interference in the Michael Flynn case by saying that he can do anything he wants in any case in the US…and he can investigate anyone he wants and the rules that every AG in history has followed don’t apply to him….he can charge anyone he wants and the FBI, instead of being the independent investigative service that it has always been is his own personal police force that he can use any way he wants and they have a personal duty to him and not the oath they take to defend the constitution. This is some pretty fascist stuff right here and you know whey he said it…he is getting ready to announce bogus investigations into Biden with information that came from a Russian spy and he’s coordinating with Ron Johnson and rudy to get that done before the election…the so called “October surprise” that is supposed to tip the election to the idiot trump. Oh, and to show how batshit crazy Barr is, he went off at a speech at the ultra right wing Hillsdale college here in Michigan that lockdowns and requirement that people wear masks are the greatest threat to civil liberties in the history of the country to which the historian John Meachem replied that he was just so much bullshit, to paraphrase. This is what is at stake in this year’s election…fascism or our democracy….should be an easy choice, huh?
All posts by James DeVol
A good day…so far…
Well…sometimes you get a good day and it makes you feel pretty good, and today is one of those…I got an early start with the first bike ride then got back here and had my bagel and coffee before I started on trying to take the last awning down to prep it for paint…and it came down pretty easily although I had to bend a flange out of the way so I could get vice grips on the head of one of the screws I couldn’t get out with a screwdriver…after all, they have been in there for 40+ years and I was surprised they came out at all….once I got that done, I mowed the lawn and watered the repaired spots that have started to sprout new grass that I planted last week…then I was back on the bike by 10:30 for the second ride, and when I got back here I got a call from the woman I’ve been working with at the compliance department for the city of GR and she had good news…the guy who has been smoking up this neighborhood since I moved in here, has two weeks to move the smoker or the fines will start…and he has been working with the zoning commission to find out where he can move it to make it legal…that made my day when I was expecting that he was going to get a zoning variance that would allow him to keep smoking up the whole neighborhood but she said that can’t happen…so now I know that it’s going away…and soon…so, a pretty good day so far…and I’m going to take a break for an hour or so before I do another one of these and get out to wash the awning so I can start sanding it tomorrow….more later….
September 17th
Well….this is uncanny….another 6:03 wake up and I think I’ll start counting the days since this is around 9 days in a row of getting up at that time…yep, I’m weird that way so why not make it some fun? This is strange too…I’m walking around here in very little pain and, with how I felt yesterday, I never expected to feel this good this early in the day…we’ll see how long it lasts but right now I’ll take it….I did take some ibuprofen for it late in the day so maybe it’s the carryover from that….it was pretty busy yesterday and today looks busy too with getting the rides in, mowing the lawn and I’m going to try to get the side door awning down by myself…I have a plan and it looks like it only weighs about 40 pound or so and it needs to be done…that one is probably in the worst shape of all of them so it will take some time to prep it and paint it…but the weather looks great the next week or so and that will help…won’t have to put it in the garage to let it dry when I get to paint….and it will feel good to have them all done….it looks like I’ll be down to one ride a day for the next few with the low temp in the 30’s tomorrow and Sat…I did get to 4500 miles yesterday so I’m only 85 miles from getting to a new personal best for miles in a year….and that means I’m only 500 from hitting the goal of 5,000…have decided that I’m going to take a day or two off after I do just to rest…then no stress for the rest of the fall….probably won’t do that again but It was a good goal for the last one….more later….
I think I’m wearing out…
Well…sitting here hurting everywhere after riding and working most of the day and it hit me that I may finally be wearing out…could barely get off the bike when I got back from the second ride and it took me a few minutes to be able to walk without pain in my hip and now my back is howling in pain after standing on my feet for three hours working downstairs…and I have been exhausted for the past few days too….I know I’ve been riding and working a lot but no more than I did since I started on this place last July…I wonder if there is a cumulative effect that is hitting me? I know I’m getting old but to have it hit so fast like this makes me hope that it is a temporary thing and there is a way to correct it…not sure what that would be but the exhaustion feels like I’m not eating enough with doing 36 a day…and the pain could be from overuse so maybe some ibuprofen can help….crap…don’t like how it feels to get old…I was just thinking the other day that I really am thankful that I can still do 36 hard miles at my age…I wonder if this is the start of the decline..that would suck…
Daniel Dale should get combat pay….
Well…yeah, it has been a busy day and I am running late again…but I did want to talk about the fiasco of a town hall that ABC put on last night with the idiot trump being asked questions by a group of undecided voters…and let me interject right now…if you are an undecided voter after the last 4 years of the trump shitshow, you are not smart enough to vote and probably shouldn’t. Of course trump lied and lied and then lied some more…and that kept Daniel Dale busy, again, oh, probably should say that Dale is the fact checker for CNN who should get combat pay for covering idiot boy every day…but, his work is pretty easy at this point since trump lies about the same thing all the time…pre-existing conditions? The “great” repub plan to cover them is two weeks away just as it was in May, and as it was last year and the year before that…reminds me of the old saw about fusion power…it is always 30 years away and has been for 50 years…this time, the host of the town hall…George S actually called trump on his lies and made it clear that trump and his cronies are in court right now to remove coverage for them as they try to dismantle Obamacare…and that put everyone in shock since he is not known for actually doing journalism….oh, one jaw dropping part of the night was when asked about why he didn’t institute a mask mandate for the entire country, trump asked why Biden didn’t do it…and he had to be reminded that Biden isn’t president and he is…man, the debates are going to be lit if this is a preview of trump’s performance….let’s just leave it by saying that yes, this was shitshow and whoever thought this was a good idea in the WH is probably packing up his desk right now….geez….
September 16th
Well…this is getting a little weird…have gotten up at 6:03 for almost a week now and that consistency is a little unnerving….and I had strange dreams that had me in a library trying to find a book that I had seen on tv but couldn’t….that is another thing…have been having dreams again and that hasn’t happened in a long time…I wonder what the change is? I was just exhausted all day yesterday and can’t figure that out….have felt pretty good lately, getting lots of rides in and lots done around here but it felt like a lack of calories but my intake hasn’t changed much…I did do two full rides yesterday to get 36 miles in…maybe that’s it…it’s going to be a really busy day today with trying to stay on the 36 mile pace and then lots of work on the downstairs project along with finishing up the trim paint on the exterior of the house…..and I do need to find a house by the end of the month which is going to be a crunch….but I think that will wait til tomorrow since I’m going to be so busy today…and that looks like it will continue the rest of the week with more work on the gardens and getting everything ready for a big project that I need to do next week…or the week after….more later….
It’s just too easy…
Well…with all of the criminality of every damn person around trump that has infested out government, it’s just too easy to write about the latest outrage and it has made me lazy and closed my eyes to other topics that I used to write about. I have been struggling to find things that as important as the crisis this country is in but I know it is as disheartening to you as it is to me…so maybe I’ll alternate politics with other things as we move toward the election….let’s start with something lighter…does anyone else have hundreds of green tomatoes on your plants that have stopped ripening? I just noticed that this week and I’m not sure if there is anything that can be done about it…I did pick a few of them to just put them in the bowl on the kitchen table and see if they will ripen…if not, I think I’ll just start cleaning out the gardens and tossing them…it is a shame that I didn’t get to make spaghetti sauce with all of those tomatoes but I did get tired of homemade salsa and pickles so I probably would with the sauce too…at least I learned something about gardens that I can apply to the garden at the new house if I can ever find one….one of the the worst things about this summer is not being able to see anyone and give away all the excess produce, luckily you can freeze jalapenos and green peppers but I only got one of those off of 6 plants so I guess I didn’t have to worry about that….okay, that’s enough for now…yeah, this isn’t working for me either…I live for politics so I guess I’ll get back to that soon….
September 15th
Well…running a little late today for no reason at all but I can’t get motivated…and I am miserable from my allergies…my eyes have been itchy and dry for the past week or so and it will probably get worse over the next few weeks so I have that to look forward to…might even have to start taking something for it during the day but that will mean I won’t have them for night time and that will probably keep me up all night….hmmmm…I am starting to get concerned about the pain in my knees since they hurt every day now…they just need to hold out for about 550 miles and then I can rest them some and see if that is the problem…didn’t get much done yesterday but go out and get a smaller garden hose so I don’t have to lug the big one around to keep the patches in the front lawn watered….man, it was a pain getting the big one rolled back up to put it away…that one will stay in the garage from now on….I do have to do the grocery run today since I have some tasks to do Wed that are going to take a few hours in the morning….not much to do today…just the rides and groceries but I should get on the last indoor project today….just a couple of doors on the linen closet that should only take a day or so and then the interior will be done…more later….
Listen up, parents…
Well….yeah, I know…I said I wasn’t going to talk about the idiot trump for a while but this one just popped into my head after talking to my friend K yesterday and how hard the distance learning they have been forced to do is on her and her daughter…and I just want the rest of the parents in this country to understand this one fact as they struggle to juggle their lives and keep their children moving forward…it didn’t have to be this way…almost every other damn country that took the virus seriously and made plans and followed them are returning to their normal lives, schools are opening, people can go out to restaurants and movies, and grandparent can see their grandchildren…but not here…and it is all because of the idiot trump and his incompetence and utter disregard for the lives of Americans…including your children. I’m especially talking to the voters who wanted something different, who didn’t like Hillary and wanted to take the chance on someone else…where did that get you? Have you learned yet that trump and the repubs don’t give a damn about you? Have your lives been disrupted enough that you can help this country throw out the chaos that comes with trump? That’s what needs to happen…we need people of goodwill who made a mistake in 2016 to come back to sanity and make the good man, Joe Biden, the next president…compare the two, who do you think will help us out of this nightmare? trump? If you think that, you are too far gone to be helped or to help us rebuild this country and restore the dignity that every American should want for our country…because of trump, we are laughed at around the world and our influence is at an all time low…our ability to help the world to help ourselves is gone…and it is all trump’s and the repubs fault…remember that when you vote…don’t you want some calm back in your life? That will never happen until trump is gone…vote…
What a selfish prick….
Well…if you read any of the Woodward book or saw any excerpt from it on tv, it is perfectly clear that the idiot trump doesn’t care about anyone but himself….especially since he knew how dangerous the virus was back in Feb but decided not to do anything about it since it would “make him look bad” if he did take it seriously…and this selfishness was on full display at his racist rally in Nevada last night when asked about the virus and that it might spread to his supporters….his answer: “I’m on stage and it’s very far away…and so I’m not at all concerned” …for him that is…but for the people who packed into this factory in a state that has an 8.5% positive test rate and who are NOT far away from each other he just doesn’t give a damn if he gets his jollies and gets to chant “lock him up”…and doesn’t see the irony that it is him that will be locked up when he loses the election. You know, I need to stop writing about this selfish asshole…I am going to consciously start looking for other topics that will help my brain calm itself and not feel so polluted…I think I have PTSD…