October 17th

Well…running late this morning, again, and part of it is the grocery run…and part of it is commenting out at Kos…had to do a cheers and jeers this morning and almost forgot to come back here for this one…yesterday was a really, really down day for me with the rain and darkness all day…and the funny thing is I used to love those kinds of days…and today looks like a repeat…going to skip the bike ride since the rain has started and the radar looks pretty ugly for the next few hours…but, the legs have been really tight lately so a day off might not be too bad…slept okay last night and I am really starting to like no cocktails at night…I feel the best I have in a long time today but that might be I ate enough yesterday….not much to do today..I am still going to do the weight work this morning and then get some stuff done around here…might go out for a couple with G later and then there are both Wings and Tigers on tonight so that should keep the boredom at bay…more later…

Republicans are nothing but grifters…

Well…one of the most sickening press conferences I have ever seen was just on tv where Ted Cruz the idiot senator from Texas admitted that the only reason he damn near put the country into default and spurred the shutdown of the government was to raise money from his idiot tea party base…and he admitted that the petition on one of the conservative websites gave him two million names that he could use to grift even more money out of the rubes…all the while he knew that he could never get Obamacare repealed but he just didn’t care that he was costing the country billions of dollars….and his assertion that two million people signing his petition meant that a majority of America wanted it repealed just reveals the repubs only passing acquaintance with math…after all there are 330 million people in this country and I think that is quite a lot more than 2 million…but not on the right or in the Fox news world…what a delusional bunch…geez…

Republican waste…

Well…with the deal to end the shutdown and raise the debt ceiling almost done…let’s do a short tally of the cost of this tantrum to the US economy and the people it has directly affected…first, there is the 6 billion dollars in direct cost of the shutdown…yep, the party that talks insistently about waste in government has just wasted 6 billion dollars that could have been used to feed children, take care of the sick, or lower college debt…but no, these pricks would rather waste money spouting their nonsense and preening in front of the cameras that take care of the people…but, that’s not new…these folks don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves and they show it every day….then there are the 900,000 people who have been put out of work by the shutdown and who have not been paid for three weeks…but, again, the repubs don’t give a crap about them if they can try to score political points…and last, there is the long term damage to the economy that will again be in the billions by the increase in borrowing costs that will come from this bullshit brinksmanship…there are already ripples of this spreading through the economy…and for what? So Ted Cruz and Michelle Bachmann can get on stage and spout their nonsense? I wish the election was next week and we could say goodbye to this crap forever….geez…..

October 16th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday but an electronic failure had me running out to replace some necessary equipment…but, got that done so everything is back to normal…or as close to normal as my life ever gets…got the chance to go over and see the youngest son’s new house and it is really nice…that’s pretty cool…and it is three minutes from here….slept okay last night and another no cocktail night has me feeling like I have a bit of energy today…but, that usually ends after the bike ride so we’ll see today…the Tigers really stunk up the joint yesterday and I don’t think they are going to make to the WS…but, the Wings won so that was a good thing…not much to do today…I do have to catch up here so that is the goal for the day..and, with the big court decision coming this aft on the gay marriage ban here in Michigan should give me at least one topic for later…and I will have to do one on ole Boehner’s failure as a speaker…and as a person for that matter….more later…

Scott Walker is at it again…

Well…there is no other description necessary for ole Scott of Wisconsin than that of a liar and a thief…the latest outrage centers on what he is doing for his cronies that work for him in the state government…with controls on the amount of pay he can pay his synchophants, he has devised a scheme to circumvent the laws of the state by moving them into phantom jobs and raising their pay since it is a “new” position even though they continue to do the same job they had before….then, he does this a few more times, allowing him to reward these cronies while he cuts the pay of union workers and takes away their rights…this is the face of modern republicanism that I have railed about here for years…they hate government until they find ways to use it to steal for their friends and donors….this crap should be illegal and this hypocrite should be in jail….geez…

October 15th

Well…it was an okay day yesterday and with it being a no cocktail night, I feel pretty good this morning…I wonder if I need to make every night a no cocktail night? That will be something to think about…didn’t sleep well…but, I will take that over feeling like crap all day…and, I am going to the youngest son’s house for the Wings game tonight so that is something to look forward to…even bought beer….and I did have a nice lunch with T that always raises my spirits…I did freeze my butt off on the bike yesterday but I am not ready to go full thermasuit yet…or even to wear gloves…I even put the top down on the car going out to lunch while I was still shivering….but I just had to…it LOOKED warm…not much to do today…the normal routine and then the Tigers play at 4…and I do have some errands to run so that will be something…more later…

Boehner owns the shutdown…by shenanigans…

Well..have been having a reading day today and one neat, little tidbit of information (another one, not the last one) jumped right out at me that says the ole Boehner owns the shutdown…he and his cronies (Ryan, Cantor, Sessions, et al) changed the rules of the house on the eve of the shutdown that took away the rights of all of the house members to bring legislation to the floor and replaced it with a new rule that said only the majority leader could bring legislation to a vote. Never mind that this has been a rule since the start of the country…with this change we now have one representative for 330 million people…and, with this change, we can see that the repubs had no intent for anything other than a shutdown. Now, we need to make them own it…that there is no role that anyone played but the establishment repubs no matter how much they are are trying to blame it on the tea partiers….these kinds of shenanigans should be prosecuted as sedition…as a person trying to bring down the government of the US…these folks should go to jail…geez…

Blame Citizens United…

Well…I am going to try to get out of this funk I’ve been in by taking on a couple of topics that I have been reading about over the past few days…and one from Think Progress that kind of distilled it…there has been more of the false equivalency that is rotting the press over the past few days that is trying to shift the blame from the repubs who own this mess since they are the ones that wanted it…and it is heartening to see that it’s just not working with the poll numbers of the repubs tanking like never in history…but, that’s not what I wanted to talk about…I want to talk about this little tidbit I read this aft about an analysis of the money spent in the last election in the wake of Citizens United that allows unlimited money from the rich to buy elections…but it is not even the elections that is the problem, it is the threat of primary opponents for the repubs that have allowed these rich people to get their way since the only thing the repubs think of is keeping their seats, not doing what is right for the country. The worst of it all is that there are only 216 people that gave over 530 million dollars for the last election…and if you think that money is not buying influence, you are crazy as the right….so, we have the supreme court to blame for the gridlock and nastiness in Washington…and they are just loving it…geez…

October 14th

Well…it was just another day yesterday with football and baseball in it…and a lot of boredom…but, I survived it to get to another Monday morning…didn’t get anything done so that adds to the malaise but I hope to do better today…not sure how….slept okay and the heat came on for another night and it looks like fall is here…not a thing I wanted to see….not much to do today…might have lunch with T but I’m not sure yet…and then the regular stuff….more later….

The wooly bear slalom…

Well…was going to write this one yesterday but the malaise that has settled here prevented that…but, I hope today is different so here goes….it has been so funny on the trail with all of the wooly bear caterpillars that have been crossing it lately…I wonder where they are all going? Oh, that’s not it….the funny thing is that I have been trying to miss them as I ride since every one that is killed means one less butterfly next summer….so, it has been a slalom as I miss them…and, I feel good that I have not run over one of them this year…it does look a little weird with me moving all over the trail; dodging things that can’t be seen…the really funny thing is that I found myself doing the same thing in the car the other day….I’m not really sure how I can see a little caterpillar at 50 yards out but I was doing it on the way out to pool…yep, I’m weird…but you know that…