If the repubs won’t convict in the senate…

Well…as we watch the impeachment proceedings that have already revealed that the idiot trump has committed multiple felonies while in office and before…and as Mitch McConnell has made it clear that he will not allow trump to be convicted in the senate no matter what the evidence is or how much he has betrayed the country, the dems need to come up with a new strategy that will guarantee that trump pays the price for his crimes after the repubs can no longer protect him. Now, I have never seen such a corrupt party as the repubs now are in my long life…so it left up to us to make sure that whoever comes next sees that, while it may take a long time, they will not be allowed to commit crimes with impunity.  I propose that we use the impeachment inquiry as a grand jury that will gather evidence that will then be given to prosecutors across the country to bring charges against trump and his minions after they are out of office…and we need to make the country aware that, if it wasn’t for the cult of trump that the repubs are willing members of, idiot boy would be convicted in the senate and removed from office. One component of of this action would be a letter from Jerry Nadler to trump telling him that this is what is going to happen and that there is not a damn thing trump can do about it since it is within the power of the House committees to release whatever evidence they want to whomever they want. One last thing that need to be shouted to the heavens is that ALL repubs who have decided to not uphold their oaths of office are part of this conspiracy and just as guilty as trump…we need to play hardball to make sure trump knows he isn’t going to get away with all of his crimes…

November 30th

Well…that was a little weird…didn’t get up til 6 and slept through the night, mostly, and don’t feel too bad this morning so I’ll take it…I did get some work done yesterday for the first time in a few days and will finally get the vestibule painted today…after F1 qualifying and while soccer is on…need to find my painting clothes and get a little more sanding done first but that will wait until after I have some coffee…had an okay day yesterday and got a nice bike ride in but it looks like the next few days are going to be rainy with some snow/ice mixed in so it looks like some hibernation time is going to happen and that means I’ll have time to get started on the cabinets at the end of the hallway and then move on to the spare bedroom…that one is going to take a lot of prep work before paint but I have the time so no big deal….not much to do today…after painting I need to clean some and start getting the tools put away so the place doesn’t look too messy…I still don’t need to cook for another couple of days but I do need to think and plan what is going to be next….more later….

The Irishman…

Well…with all of the hype about how wonderful the new Scorsese movie “The Irishman” is, I decided to take a look at it and invest 3 1/2 hours into it last night….hmmmm…while I think it was a serviceable movie, I really don’t think it lives up to reviews that called it “a masterpiece”…especially after watching “The Godfather” earlier in the day which truly is a masterpiece. One of the most jarring parts of the movie was the attempts to de-age the main characters to show their earlier lives but DeNiro and Pesci still looked like they were in their sixties and the scene where they met over a broken down truck where Pesci called DeNiro “young man” was just weird…and during the rest of the movie, to see DeNiro doing entry level mob jobs when he still looks to be in his 60′s was jarring to say the least and destroyed the believability to me….so, would I recommend this movie? With a few cocktails, maybe…but I didn’t walk away saying wow! And that is what a masterpiece is to me…like watching “Casablanca” or “the Big Sleep”….and I sure wouldn’t rate it an 8.9 like it is on IMDB….

Just bought the last thing until January….

Well…yeah, I know…I said I wasn’t going to to spend any money until the first of the year but amazon had a deal on a soundbar that I have been looking at so I decided to buy it for 10 bucks off at 55 bucks….and it comes with the optical cable I need to connect it to the tv that is about a 12 buck option for other low priced ones and it comes with free shipping…I guess it has free shipping all the time if it’s over 25 bucks so that’s no selling point…but it does have 70 watts and a remote control for volume and an equalizer with three presets…and I may be able to take the audio out and play it through the big speakers if I want so that will be cool….so, NOW I can’t spend any more cash until January…but I’m set up with everything I need until then so no big deal….

November 29th

Well….it was an okay day yesterday and the turkey came out great again and I ate too much as always…but, my eating too much is really not a lot when I think about it…I mean one plate of food for the whole day? And no pie this year? Yep, so I shouldn’t feel too bad about it…and I don’t. Slept okay last night but feel pretty worn out today so I think I’m going to take it easy and just do some small work around here….I really have to clean more around here than I did at the apartment but I haven’t gotten that all figured out yet….I know the space is bigger but there’s more to it than that…it just seems that I track a lot more dirt in from outside than I did at the apt….and this place is really dusty, too…oh, well….I am going to check on amazon today to see if they have the soundbar I want on sale for black Friday but that is about all I want to spend money on right now…the new basement equipment I ordered is coming Sunday so that will be cool but I do need to not spend any more money until after the first of the year to let my reserves build up again…and I really don’t need anything but there are a few things I want that I have to put off for now….but, I’m used to that…have done that my whole life and it’s pretty easy….more later…

November 28th

Well….5 bucks for the GR press? Just went out to get the big paper of the year and they charged 5 frickin bucks just so I can get bombarded with ads? Okay, the ads are the point of today’s paper and it is a little treat for me so I guess I shouldn’t bitch about it…although that’s a buck more than I paid for my 14 pound turkey to put it in perspective….I think I may have found a sleep aid that works every time…a couple of days ago, I watched “The Mandalorian” and I fell asleep on the couch during it…so, I decided to watch it again last night since I am a big Star Wars fan and the same thing happened! Fell asleep multiple times as the loudness of the fight scenes woke me up time and again…so I think there may be something to it….slept okay last night and don’t feel to bad right now other than my thumb hurts like crazy again this morning…I did get out for a bike ride in shorts yesterday since it was 52 at 8am but it will be full thermasuit today…and I got the new front sprocket for the bike that I need to install but I’m not sure if I’ll get to that before I ride today…I think I can get through one more ride with the old one and I don’t want to miss Man U playing at 11 this morning…not sure how long it will take to change it out but I think the last one took about a half hour….not much to do today…just cooking, eating, and watching the Lions lose…and some cleaning if I can get motivated but I’m not holding my breath…more later….

I feel pretty lucky…

Well…as you know, I read a lot and one of the sites that I read the most is DailyKos since it has like minded people there from the more progressive side of the country…but, this one is not about the politics that I write about a lot but it is about the real pain that has been coming through a lot of the writing there over the past few days. One of the best parts of the site is the fact that, while they do have some paid writers there, a lot of the content comes from what is called the community…and any member is encouraged to add his two cents on any topic they choose…and this time of the year, there are a lot of people who are living through loss and loneliness…and are having such a hard time dealing with the change in their lives that comes with the death of a parent or estrangement from family that it is heartbreaking to read. But I do read some of them and comment when I think I have something to say that might help…and with that reading, a revelation has come to me that I am pretty lucky…I don’t see my family a lot and my kids spend the holidays with their inlaws…but I don’t feel the loneliness that other people feel and I realize that loss is part of life and have been fortunate to be able to let that go as just that…part of life that we all have to deal with in our own way. A few years back, I had quite a few friends who didn’t have any place to be on Thanksgiving so I would cook a huge turkey and invite them all over for the “Orphan’s Thanksgiving” and we would eat and laugh and drink a lot of wine…but, things have changed with many of them having their own families and new traditions but I still cook the huge turkey by myself and for myself and I still consider myself to be really lucky to still be able to do it and not be sad about being alone….I just wish that the posters at Kos could find some of the peace that I have…and find some little reason to smile that will lift the veil of depression for just a shining little while….

trump loses another one….

Well…even with the despair that most of the country feels as trump and his criminal cronies get away with committing crimes every day, there are small bits of news that offer some hope that our institutions are going to strike back with the rule of law….and that happened Monday when a federal court judge ruled that yes, Don McGahn has to testify in the impeachment investigation (or this one is from the Mueller investigation) and the judge went on to say that no one is above the law or a king who can just do whatever the hell he wants…and the opinion went on for 120 pages where the judge tried to teach trump and his cronies what the constitution says about the separation of powers and that the legislative branch is well within it’s rights described in the constitution to conduct oversight of the executive branch. But, that little hope is tempered by the fact that trump and his enablers have put so many shitty judges on the bench that most of them don’t even know what the constitution says and those folks are the ones who will be deciding the case when the inevitable appeal hits the courts…and, of course, with Kavanaugh on the supreme court, trump really could shoot someone on 5th avenue and he and the rest of the conservatives would say that it’s just perfectly fine and a president can do anything without consequence. So, where does that leave us? We need to vote, vote, vote to throw these criminals out in 2020 and then our task will be to restore the rule of law and codify that yes, a sitting president can be indicted if there is evidence of a crime…just like anyone else….

November 27th

Well…running a little late this morning for no reason other than I wanted to get the turkey into the brine for tomorrow and didn’t want to wait to do it….tried adding some veggie broth to this one just for something new and put some bay leaves, brown sugar, rosemary, thyme, and sage in to give it some really good flavor…so we’ll see tomorrow…I was a little concerned that a 14 pound bird wouldn’t fit in my roaster but it was just fine…and one of the biggest turkeys I’ve ever cooked….and the fridge downstairs is huge so it fit easily…looking forward to having a big dinner tomorrow and I need to use up all of the leftovers I have in the upstairs fridge so I’ll have a place to put them….slept okay last night but tossed and turned more than normal so I am a little worn out this morning but really don’t have much to do but make a run out to the south end to get some venison…I did get my refund from my apt deposit yesterday so I have 207 bucks to spend and spent some of it on some basement equipment yesterday for 79 bucks…and I think I may buy a sound bar for the tv for 65 bucks and then use the rest to have some cash on hand….found money is always fun…it’s 52 degrees outside right now and I may try to get out on the bike in shorts if it’s not too windy and it quits raining…that would be cool…more later….

A win for democracy here in Michigan….

Well….as the repubs continue to cheat to win elections and to rig the votes through gerrymandering, the judicial system has come through to protect the citizen initiative for fairly drawn districts. Just yesterday, a federal judge dismissed the repubs lawsuit that tried to get the non-partisan redistricting commission law thrown out even though 61% of the people here in Michigan voted for it…showing that the repubs don’t give a damn about the people of Michigan’s wishes but just hanging on to power any way they can….and the only way they can is to cheat since fairly drawn districts would put them out of power possibly permanently…or until they become a party that actually cares what the people want…and that is not more tax cuts for the rich that decimate the services that all of us depend on. So, of course you know how this is going to play out…the repubs will appeal and try to run out the clock so the commission can’t do it’s job for 2020 and the cheating districts that the repubs rigged will have to be used…isn’t anyone else tired of the repubs undermining our democracy for their own venal needs? I know I am and want every damn one of them gone….