Well…now that the idiot trump has been slapped down by Nancy Pelosi both by depriving him his SOTU and by saying no to his stupid border wall and getting the government back open, there is another group that deserves some thanks, too…and that is the good folks who labor every day to keep this country running who just said enough of working without pay and stopped air travel on the East coast. This was the straw that got the repubs back to negotiating and shows us the path forward if this ever happens again…and one of the things we need to do as dems is to give labor and unions all of the support we can on every issue since it is the right thing to do…and will be a huge factor in recreating the middle class in this country. We are all in this re-construction together and we need to welcome all groups who want to be part of it even it they have different ideas of how to get things done…and we do need to get things done, we need to start to repair the damage that the repubs have done over the past 40 years and make sure that everyone has a chance…not just the rich and entitled…and we need to get ready for 2020 when we can use our popular message to win and transform this country…that starts now…
All posts by James DeVol
January 26th
Well…it looks like getting up at 5:15 is now a thing and I am sure that I’m not too happy about it…even tried to go back to sleep and after 20 minutes I decided to just give up and get up…I guess that will just mean that there will be a nap later when Daytona is on…had a good day yesterday with getting out to have a nice lunch with T and getting my soap that she beings back from the Bahamas…and that little waft of scent makes me smile…a bonus was that the car didn’t leak any coolant at all with warming it up and then out and back to lunch…and that is a good thing with the brutal weather that is coming for the next week…it looks like I’ll be hunkering down here and hibernating for the next week or so and, with the foot of snow were supposed to get Monday, pool probably won’t happen….and Wed’s high is supposed to be below zero so there will be much warming the car up…almost 10 below wed night so I may do the grocery run wed since I won’t want to wait for the day to warm up thurs to start the car…not much to do today…just going to ride the bike after injuring my shoulder again working out with full weight yesterday and do a little cooking…but right now I’m going to have more coffee and read a little news….more later…
It’s all a distraction…
Well…it just came across the news that the idiot trump has agreed to re-open the government for three weeks without funding for his stupid wall…and I am surprised that no one understands the real reason for this about face…could it be the arrest of Roger Stone today and the need of the idiot to get it out of the news as soon as possible? We all know that trump sees the entire world only as it relates to him…he does not give a shit about opening the government or about the damage his shutdown has done…he just needs another distraction from the tightening noose that the Stone charging papers have put around his neck…that Stone was directed to break the law by high officials in the trump campaign and the only ones he dealt with were Steve Bannon and trump…that’s why this shutdown announcement of the past few minutes is just a distraction to get the news talking about anything other than Roger Stone and his arrest and role in helping Russia install trump. Impeach….
January 25th
Well…sitting here waiting for the coffee to finish and I wonder if I should change the start time on the timer since I’m always up before it starts at 6:30….and that’s true today with getting up at 5:11 and not being able to get back to sleep…so, here I am again, looking at being exhausted again this afternoon but I don’t have anywhere to be so I guess that’s okay…didn’t take anything for my shoulder before bed last night and it doesn’t hurt much this morning so that’s more progress that I am happy about…I am going to work out again today to see if I can do two days in a row without hurting it again….that would be real progress…didn’t do much yesterday but work out and ride the bike and today will probably be the same with maybe having lunch with T…okay, the coffee is done and I need some…there, have a cup and maybe that will clear my head and get me moving…I am a little depressed about cold that is coming for the next week…the high wed is only going to be 3 degrees and that cold is going to continue as long as the weather channel has forecasts and that is well into feb…brrrr….more later…
So far, so good…
Well…just a short update on the car and the coolant leak I have been searching for…the last day it was warm enough, I went out and tightened every clamp on every hose and kept my fingers crossed that would do it…so far, so good…warmed the car up this morning and there were no leaks under it and none at Meijers when I went over for groceries this morning…and I just moved the car so they could plow and there was still nothing under it so that kind of makes my day and I am going to keep my fingers crossed that I get through the rest of winter with no more work…yay!
Going left…
Well…one of the things I’ve noticed with the latest batch of dems elected last fall is that most of them were elected by running on true progressive ideas like healthcare for all and everyone paying their fair share in taxes along with protecting the dignity and rights of all Americans, and that means everyone, not just the chosen ones that the repubs think deserve representation. I am hoping this drives the final stake in the notion that you can’t win elections other than by moving to the center…but the center is where ideas go to die and you just get repub lite that can’t really move this country forward…but, I hesitate to label these ideas as left since they are only labeled that by the repubs trying to smear them and make them the “other” that they are so good at demonizing. What this new wave of progressivism is is just a returning to the values that made this country great…it is a rejection of the hate and division that the repubs have used to motivate their nativist, racist base and an embrace of the diversity that has always made this country better…and that goes for immigrants, the LGBT community, the poor and the marginalized…that is who this new group is fighting for…and for honesty and governing for the protection of all Americans and the clean air and water they need to thrive. My only advice to this new generation of dems is go left…and be proud to be a progressive dem since those ideas are American ideas that most of the country supports…go get ’em….
January 24th
Well…just looked at the weather for the next couple of weeks and it is going to be brutally cold around here with a couple of days that the high is going to be zero and many of them below zero at night…so it does look like the hibernation for the winter is going to start this week…slept okay last night but have a cough like a cold this morning and feel like I have one…can’t figure out why I’m so exhausted lately and this may be it….my shoulder survived the night with just a little pain so I think I’ll try the weight machine again after the grocery run and coffee…not sure if I’ll try to do anything else today other than ride the bike but I should at least try to clean some…but, racing from Daytona starts this afternoon and I will probably just veg out and watch that instead…I did send a bitch letter to the complex here yesterday since the new company they have clearing snow is doing such a shitty job that there are piles of ice now that I have to climb over to get to my car and this is the first time in years that this has happened…I even moved my car yesterday so they could clean and they just ignored it and left the snow…will probably bitch to the guys today so that will get back to these incompetents…more later…
Shoulder update….
Well…after a month of not being able to work out on the weight machine, I decided to try it this morning since I have noticed a loss of muscle tone and I do need to use the 300 calories or so that it takes to do the workout. So far, so good…there was pain during the workout but not nearly as bad as two weeks ago where I couldn’t complete it since it felt like I re-separated the collar bone…but, today…the pain was perfectly tolerable and there was very little carryover to getting on the bike…it even is just a little stiff right now but I may need to take some ibuprofen later to be able to sleep on it tonight…would like to not do that but I know that tendon injuries in that shoulder have always taken a long time to heal…and I do want to sleep tonight…at least a little…
Clothing is speech…
Well…have been searching around for a topic for today and it just popped into my head that maybe I should talk about clothing…specifically, clothing that has a message on it, and the fallout that comes from the message it sends. In the news lately, we have the Covington Catholic school boys who were filmed harassing a Native American man while wearing MAGA hats…and justifying the hats by saying they are just hats and a fad in their community. Yeah, right…those particular hats are connected to the racism, misogyny, and hatred that the idiot trump spouts every day…and I agree that they ARE the new white hoods like those worn by the KKK to terrorize AA’s throughout our history…they are just modernized versions of those hoods and are meant for the same things…to intimidate people who are not straight, white, and christian…and these kids understand that…especially when videos have surfaced of other kids from CC in blackface screaming at an opposing black basketball player…and not one damn adult is saying anything to them…no teacher, no administrator, no parent thought there was anything wrong with it. As it was in the 70’s when those of us opposed to the Vietnam war wore peace signs on our clothing and through today when we wear articles that support women’s rights…clothing can send a message either of peace or of hate…and a MAGA hat sends just that message of hate…it’s not ironic as some defenders of the CC kids have tried to assert…it is just about hate and white privilege…things that are acceptable to the CC community…and to way too many others in this country….
January 23rd
Well…I can tell I’m going to be grumpy today since it is just a little after 6 and I am feeling it…slept okay last night but did the tossing and turning all night so I still feel exhausted and that is making me grumpy, too….at least my shoulder doesn’t hurt too much but I did take something for it before I went to bed…it’s been over a month and it just needs to finish healing and that is making me grumpy, too…did I say I feel grumpy today? I am going to try to get back on the weight machine today with reduced weight just to ease back into toning up my muscles again….I can feel myself getting flabby again and that is making me grumpy, too…didn’t get a lot done yesterday and it looks like cleaning off the car will be the major project for this morning…it snowed quite a bit last night but is going to get to 40 this aft and I need to make sure the car melts before the cold comes back tomorrow…it is really depressing that it is going to be extremely cold from now until March but it is Michigan in winter and I have been through this before…don’t like it much….at least it’s warm in here….more later…