Well…I really don’t like the fact that we here in Michigan are in the spotlight today due to repub shenanigans about the certification of the votes from the election….it seems all of the damn repubs only think elections are legal when they win them and they will break any law to make sure they do “win” them. So, today here, about 25 minutes ago, the state board of canvassers met to just count up the already certified votes from every country and then certify that count is correct….but two of them 4 on the board are repubs so do you think they are going to follow the law? Not a chance and that is why we need to prosecute every damn one of them for breaking the law…there needs to be consequences for screwing with our elections….and one way would be to prosecute the two repub members of the board for not certifying the vote under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 where it specifically says that failure to certify the votes in any state is a felony….and this was put in the law since it was one of the favorite tactics of the racists in the south to certify white votes but to not certify votes that came from predeominately black areas…and that’s just what the Wayne county repub canvassers tried to do…not certify the votes from Detroit while certifying the votes in the surrounding white suburbs. So, it’s not a “constitutional crisis” like the repubs are bleating, it’s a simple case of breaking the law by not doing their jobs that the repubs are doing here…and they need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law…and now…
All posts by James DeVol
November 23rd
Well…man, I feel crappy this morning and I know it’s from staying up a little late and getting up a little early…4:34 and I barely got back to sleep so today is going to be a trial…and I woke up feeling pretty depressed for some reason and that is not going to help….and that is after feeling almost happy for 10 minutes or so yesterday….oh, well…at least I’m not in too much pain today so that’s something…and the car ran great for 80 miles yesterday…I am starting to like the tires I put on it earlier in the year…no vibration and they ride pretty good compared to the ones that were on it…I am a little curious how they are going to work in the snow since I am leaving them on the car this winter…the snow tires are just too worn out to use again…unless these are just terrible in the snow…didn’t get anything done yesterday and only have a grocery run to do today…want to get the things I need today so I don’t have to be anywhere near the stores before t-day…ran out of bay leaves and I need them for the brine and for turkey soup that I’m going to make later….not much to do today…I am going to get a ride in later and do some cleaning but that is about it….more later….
We’ll see tomorrow…
Well…as everyone with a functiuonal brain and who has not been asleep for the past 30 years knows, the repub party is corrupt from top to bottom and really doesn’t give a damn about our republic other than how it can be used to enrich themselves and hurt people they don’t like. Tomorrow, we’ll see how deep that rot goes here in Michigan as the state board of canvassers meet at 1pm to certify the votes in the 2020 election…look, the only thing these people are supposed to do is do a little math to see what the votes say…and tabulate them…that’s it, they’re not supposed to look for “voter fraud” or even consider anything other than the counts…and for every year since there has been a state of Michigan, this has gone off without a hitch no matter what party affiliation the canvassers had…but with trumpism staining the repub party, the two repub members of the board are making noises that they won’t certify the vote unless there are audits…yadda yadda…and I guess until they are given ice cream and patted on the head so they will stop their tantrum. Every election official in this state has said that there is no fraud, no under count of trump votes, or any other delusion that the repubs have fished out of thin air. Trump lost the state by over 155,000 votes and no amount of “audits” or “recounts” is going to change that…so these repub canvassers need to just do their jobs and stop hurting our democracy by these lies of fraud and uncertainty int he outcome of the election…idiot boy lost and lost big and no amount of Qanon tin foil hat bullshit is going to change that…get the frick over it….
That was a bust…
Well…just got back from driving 78 miles to see the house that came up in my e-mails yesterday and it was such a bust…Muir is the dumpiest little village I have ever seen and I can’t believe anyone would want to live there…let’s start with the “paved” road the house is on…it may have been paved 40 years ago but now it’s just crumbles of asphalt and the “good neighborhood” it’s in consists of the house next door that may have been painted in the 1800’s when it was built but it sure looks like it hasn’t been since then….and the next door neighbor is a rusted out trailer with at least 3 derelict cars in the yard…but I couldn’t tell since the entire lot was overgrown with brush and weeds….if you say the words “white trash”…that is the description of the entire area…I mean trump signs in almost every yard right beside the burned out cars and roofs with blue tarps on them all over the place….it looks like the place was abandoned by time in the 1930’s….so, yeah, a pretty big bust but I guess that’s to be expected….some realtors really do lie…..
November 22nd
Well…running a little late today with looking at houses that came in my e-mail yesterday…slept okay last night but woke up coughing again this morning and that is just damn annoying…but, it’s better now and I am going to get out on the bike here in a few minutes….after feeling cold all day yesterday, I feel warm this morning like I have a bug but I think it’s the same thing I had for the past week just doing it’s yo yo thing like colds do so I’m not really concerned….didn’t get anything done yesterday and I think I’m taking today off, too….might just watch some soccer and football and just veg it out…I am getting closer to finding a house to buy…found one I’d buy in a minute if it wasn’t 40 miles away in Muir….and that is 8 miles to the east of Ionia but it is cheap at 80K and has two garages on the quarter acre lot and a walkout basement…and it’s 1100 sf but the interior would need a full rebuild since it has some really ugly paneling that I just couldn’t live with…but my payments would be 264 bucks a month and even with taxes and utilities total cost would only be about 600 a month and I could easily swing that…driving in to shoot pool would be a pain, though, so I’ll have to consider that…and the lawn is big enough that I’d have to buy a tractor to cut it….I’m going to think about it and talk to my brother tomorrow about putting an offer in….probably should just pull the trigger but I have 4 months to find something closer….not much to do today…I probably should run out to look at that house just to see how bad the drive is out M21 and to get a look at the neighborhood but I think I don’t feel like it today….we’ll see…more later….
An okay day…
Well…just haven’t been able to come up with a topic in politics that has stoked my outrage so I think I’ll just do this one instead…had an okay day today with getting out on the bike early but damn, I got cold on the bike and never warmed up from it…and that was not good since I went out to K’s to hang out with her and her family and we sat out in the driveway to maintain social distancing…I did have a heater so it wasn’t too bad and the sun was shining and it was cool to hang out and finally talk to someone….and I saw my first C-8 Corvette getting on the e-way at the S-curve and I think it looks a lot better in person than it does in pictures…so, it was an okay day today but of course, I didn’t get anything done after I got back here but make dinner…so we’ll let the cleaning go until tomorrow….after all, it’s a cocktail night and I don’t want to think about working right now…
November 21st
Well…got all the way through til 6 this morning but I don’t feel like I slept well…just worn out and want to go back to bed…but, that’s not how it works so I’ll get to this and lots of coffee….got a nice ride in yesterday in the wind and warm and that put me out in shorts but I’m pretty sure that will be the last one of those for the year since it is only supposed to get a little over 40 for the next few weeks…at least I’ve gotten the blower on the furnace serviced and it is as quiet as it has ever been…I do need to get a couple of filters this week since the ones in there have been there since last year and they are pretty plugged up….I think I did too good of a job sealing up the air leaks in the back door since it is almost impossible to close it now without pushing the storm door open and that is a little funny…I finally have the breeze blowing through here stopped from the leaks in both doors and I hope that will keep the gas bill under 100 bucks a month…I mean I already only keep it 66 in here and I’m not going to drop it any further….didn’t get much done yesterday and I probably won’t do much today other than take the turkey out of the freezer and get the bike ride in later…and do some cleaning but right now I don’t feel like it so I’m going to sit here and drink coffee and watch MotoGP qualifying until soccer comes on….more later…
RIP Arecibo…
Well…okay, this one is a little different in that Arecibo is not a person but is the iconic radio telescope nestled in the hills of Puerto Rico…over the past couple of months, support cables for the receivers that hang above the dish have failed…the first dropping a receiver through the dish and putting a 30 foot hole in it…but the final blow came when another support cable failed and the people in charge have determined that trying to repair it is too dangerous so the telescope will be dismantled instead. For 57 years, this telescope has been on the forefront of deep space exploration…and I’m sure you’ve seen it in the many movies and tv shows it was featured in and I even used it in my first novel as a setting for one of the characters home base. It is always a sad day for us nerds when an iconic part of our nerd world is gone but 57 years is a darn good run for any piece of technology….my only concern is that with the death of this telescope, too much of the essential research that is done to just figure out our universe will be lost since it appears that the politicians (repubs) will only support it if it can be immediately monetized…but that’s not how science works…it always pays off but many times it’s not the put money in and get money out linear progress mistake that is expected…isn’t just figuring something out about the universe reward enough? RIP Arecibo…
November 20th
Well….running a little late today…again..with getting up at 5:14 and then getting back to bed until almost 7….and I don’t feel too bad this morning other than I’m pretty sore again and it’s nice to know why that would be…and I’m going to hurt my legs again this morning with the wind out of the West again at 10-20mph but I am going to try to take it a little easy going out to try to make the damage less…and I’m getting out in shorts for the last time this year with the temp around 55 right now but falling as the day goes on so I need to get out as soon as I can…but I need coffee first and have just started the first cup…I did get a few things done yesterday and I am going to try to do a little more today but most of that will be cleaning but I know I have to repair the paint on the back door again since the damn stripping stuck and peeled some paint off again…I have it figured out what to do now but I wonder why the lube worked like a champ on the front door and didn’t on the back? Not much to do today…need to remember to take the turkey out of the freezer tomorrow morning and figure out what to do with the chicken I have in the fridge…I do like the burger patties I got from DD the other day…there are 8 of them for 1.5 pounds and are the perfect size to make sliders at 3oz each….and at 1.39 a pound it’s a pretty good deal…other than I shouldn’t be eating red meat…maybe I’ll do vegetarian for a while after t-day….more later…
Have an hour to kill…
Well…got everything done too darn early today and I find myself with an hour to kill before I can relax for the night and watch some tv…so, I thought I’d come back here and just noodle a little to fill the time…it was an okay day today and I got out on the bike quite early…left here a little past 8am to try to beat the wind and gusting that was supposed to happen later in the day but it was still blowing 15 mph when I left…and with it coming out of the southwest it was into the wind all the way to the west end of the park and that was somewhat of a struggle….but, I got the 15 in and wasn’t too sore when I got back here so I jumped right into working on the back door…I had to scrape and paint the part that contacts the weatherstripping I put up since the rubber of the stripping stuck to the paint and peeled it off…that has been annoying me all summer and I even put up new stripping, too, since the old stuff had been pulled up and crooked and I put my chain lube on it so it won’t stick…and since it is clear, it doesn’t leave any marks on the door…one thing I forgot is that new stripping is thicker than the stuff that has been on there a year so it takes a real slam to get the door to close…but that will keep it sealed up so I can live with that…I also took advantage of the good weather to clean my bike chain with simple green and a stainless steel brush and then re-lubed it when it dried so that is taken care of…paid all of my bills, too, even though some of them weren’t due for a couple of weeks but I didn’t want to think of them anymore….can you tell I was bored? I still am…but at least I got a few things done…