Kind of an uneventful week. I’m relieved it’s over. On Thursday, I managed to slam my right thumb It’s actually throbbing so often that it wakes me up from sleep.
Paperwork working. I don’t have to get the roto-rooter up the next five years.
Still trying to figure out what the rest of the year will be.
Kind of behind last few days on my normal smorgasbord of podcasts and news articles.
Ozzy died. Theo from Cosby Show died. Hulk Hogan died.
When I sent this post, I hadn’t seen the news on The Hulk.
None of those was really a big figure in my life growing up. The Cosby Show was something that was about kind of unobjectionable moral values. WWF was mindless entertainment after learning that it was, largely, scripted. (Though, as an adult, I appreciate more the physical prowess required to do those moves.)
I was listening to a podcast of a national radio show despairing about these things. There was another column from a “right-wing” website with similar despair. I don’t remember whether Adam Curry was similarly-distraught on No Agenda, though he did recount some memories of the rock show in Russia where Ozzy was prominently-featured.
But those media personalities are all born in 1964; the tail end of the Baby Boom.
Rarely have I been so tempted to come back with an “Okay, Boomer” quip.
So, the late-Boomers are trying to meld themselves into Gen X. See the title.
Those of us born 65-79 are in a strange place in history.
Things happen. Deal with it.
Can you even imagine what the response today would be to something like Challenger, Tiananmen, or the Berlin Wall?
WORST. THING. EVER.
There’s not many things I have complete control over, and I just need to try to be the best person I can be.
Again, mixing up the songs of the generations as I’m writing.
Gen X:
And the Boomer anthem popping up randomly in my Apple Music mix:
I don’t. And I can’t.
Why am I so behind on stuff? Medical procedure on Friday. I like Propofol probably more than I ought.
And several summers before.
To paraphrase Ice Cube, it ain’t over, mothafucka.
From early in his administration, there were notable media outlets accusing President Trump of treason for whatever he’d done in Russia.
The pandemic and the simultaneous things happening with the Summer of 2020 led to the “mostly peaceful protest” on January 6, 2021.
That same protest where many MAGA stooges ended up with Federal convictions for parading around the Capitol in search of votes that just weren’t there.
The overreach in penalizing people for that day is remarkable for so many reasons. I think about Brandon Staka who didn’t do anything more serious than being unruly. He pleaded guilty to a charge saying basically that, but he spent how long in the awful DC City Jail?
Then they sprung things back into action in advance of last year’s election.
I am happy that President Trump pardoned him, and others like him.
I am not happy that a litany of people who appeared on cable news from late 2016 until the Pandemic get by without the scorn they so deserve.
In my experience, it’s not hard to get a dedicated CNN or MSNBC viewer to nod in violent agreement if you casually mention the things that Michael Cohen did in Prague.
Leaving out that bit when trying to wipe away what DNI Gabbard uncovered is amazing.
Matt Taibi’s reporting over at Racket News has been pretty spot-on. As I’ve explained repeatedly, I didn’t vote for Trump. EVER.
To be kind, it’s convenient to paint over what so many did surrounding an investigation that was predicated on Clinton campaign disinformation.
No. Nobody should ever question what law enforcement on the Intelligence Community said, much less what they did.
I’ve heard some lawyers describe the elements of RICO. Many of these weren’t in reference to Gabbard’s referrals, but to the RICO charges Diddy faced.
That some of these things are old news is noted with interest, but there were raids that can be traced to what DNI Gabbard released until 2023.
It ain’t over.
Lately when I’ve listened to various old people’s music, I’ve thought more than I probably ought too much about the way telephones used to weave so much into popular music, and how younger people just have no idea about what the authors were signing about.
It’s all YOUR fault I screen my phone calls.
CALL ME! On the line. You can call me anytime.
In the modern era of social media, you can just block people. Or, even more passive-aggressively, mute people.
But, no, in my experience, a phone call provides a lot of opportunities to straighten out any issues.
Speaking with someone else is incredibly important. There was a long argicle this morning in The FP by Chris Arnade talking about the importance of walking around cities, and meeting other people.
STFW for TFAuthor…..
The other end of Gen X; as close to Boomer as I am to Millennial. Perspective.
So much can be accomplished by just speaking to another person.
But so many people don’t ever do that anymore.
As I was trying to rework my MetroAccess ride yesterday, I ran into similar issues.
Could I tell the driver that, no, my appointment was just cancelled, and he should he should just take me home? (The doctor got caught in an emergency situation. Which is fine. I understand. It happens. And I’m happy that her PA called to tell me).
So he dropped off the other rider, pulled to the side of the road to let me navigate through the weird phone system just to speak to someone who could program the driver’s computer to let him take me home.
This required, no kidding, three-plus minutes of waiting for all the options to be play.
Part of the reason I ended up, again, at Georgetown for my care is that I got sick of dealing with the phone system at another research university in DC. Hmm. I saw this doc at Georgetown before. Maybe she’s accepting new patients. Yep. And I’ve been very happy with the care I’ve gotten from them.
But this morning I got a strange call about a similar circumstance to this. It was a bill that hadn’t been paid. It happens. Did I get a phone call about it? Nah, that’d be too easy. Let’s just sell it off to a collections agency.
I understand the benefits many get from face-to-face communication. Maybe for many that’s better than speaking. But I’m nearly blind. I can still listen and speak.
If there’s a problem, call me.
Really, speaking to someone else is not dangerous. Do it.
My email to the person responsible might be causing intense fear…
Please give me a call sometime Monday so we can discuss.
No, if you’d done that first, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Last week, I went down to Biloxi to see family. As I’ve done, now a couple of times, I took Amtrak down. Roomette allows me privacy and food for a couple of days. It’s slow, but, generally it’s a relaxing trip. The trip down was just that. Poured through podcast queue, and listened to some stuff on Apple Music.
The trip back, on the other hand, was an absolute shitshow. The ride from Biloxi to Hattiesburg wasn’t great because the car’s A/C wasn’t working. The train was running about twenty minutes behind to board. The morning of the trip, I got notification that my assignment had been changed. It appeared that I’d been switched to a bedroom, something I’d considered. I didn’t feel like bidding up, but given that it was Independence Day, maybe the rooms weren’t sold. Whatever. The roomette is fine; I don’t need a whole bedroom to myself. So, car ####, Bedroom 2. Fine. I didn’t pay any more for it.
Got on the train, and the conductor directed me to my room. And it’s a roomette in a new car. The car is a bit warm, but it’s probably something with power being on and off. Once this blocking freight train moves off, it’ll be fine.
There’s also no toilet in the new roomette, which was annoying. I would have to make sure I’m dressed, and wearing shoes to go use the bathroom. Annoying. Is there a roomette with a toilet in a different car?
But we finally pulled out of Hattiesburg, and things aren’t working. The A/C never really kicked on. Wait for another freight train, and it’s getting hot. Down one of the water bottles. Stumble down to the toilet, and it doesn’t flush. Well, just number one, and it went down the hole. I did blow my nose with a piece of toilet paper, and that was still there. Whatever.
Head back to my talentless-roomette. Why are we stopping? When is that A/C going to kick on? It’s like 95 degrees outside. I’m starting to sweat through my shirt.
When I get hot, two things happen. First, I have trouble with my diaphragm; the MS Hug. Second, my vision gets notably worse. (Strangely, I’ve really not had problems with this when I’m in the gym. I can go hard, and my vision seems to be, generally, fine.)
Now we’re going back to Hattiesburg because there’s a power problem. Great.
We were told that we could go into the station to cool off while they figure out what’s wrong. Leave my suitcase, but take the laptop bag.
I was not very nice to the car attendant who finally escorted me off into the station. I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to get home from Hattiesburg, my legs weren’t working, and I couldn’t see.
I might have even used the dreaded F-word.
Were they going to cancel the train? If so, where the hell would I go? It’s not like there’s a ton of ways in or out of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The guy running the counter in the station wasn’t an Amtrak employee, and he seemed at least accommodating to my physical distress.
After about 45 minutes, we finally were put back on the train. I apologized all over myself about my discourtesy earlier.
The actual roll up to Virginia was largely uneventful, though it was uncomfortable having to walk to the two toilets at the other end of the car periodically.
The pod queue got pretty much emptied, but I was really working through a few things.
My ire might have been fueled by this FP article. This kid was publicly-shamed for something he absolutely did not do, and it had major effects on his life. The adults at the school basically kicked him out, and the people responsible for that remained nameless hidden behind a veil of academia.
No. That’s fucked up. (There I go again) If you are at all responsible for this misdeed, you lose your own right to privacy. Sign your name. For almost everything I’ve done in my life, I’ve made sure that with the exception of things that are between myself and my wife, there’s few things in my life I’m ashamed of.
UPDATE: Amtrak, after an hour on hold, gave me a credit for what i experienced. Still, I’m probably not going to use them nearly as often. The trip back sucked.
I’ve seen a catchphrase used often lately; Don’t huck his/her/my yum.
By and large, I agree with the sentiment. At the same time, there’s things that I like or dislike that aren’t the business of anyone other than a select few people. What I do in a private setting is my and one other person’s business. Nobody else needs to know.
Those preferences are held in confidence; the world doesn’t need to know.
While they’re not shameful, I don’t need to share them with anybody.
Perhaps it was a function of being in the “Bible Belt,” but two things came to mind.
Lewis Grizzard’s Don’t Believe Ida Told That was the first thing that came to mind, along with Sister Bertha-Better-Than-You from Ray Stevens’ Mississippi Squirrel Revival.
The public confessional thing in the Protestant churches is something that’s unfamiliar to me as a lapsed member of the Papist Conspiracy.
You share your deep secrets to a priest who’s bound to keep them secret. They are among you, the priest, and God.
Nobody else needs to know. For most things, there’s nothing to be proud of.
Discussion, too, of Disability Awareness Month on Twi^H^H^HX.
I didn’t know that there was a pride month for those. I’m not proud that I have MS, or that I’ve been diagnosed with OCD, two of the disabilities covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act. The mental disability might well be a function of some really bad coping mechanisms I developed to deal with my physical problems.
Why should I be proud of that?
Yeah, it might seem like I’ve got a case of the Mondays, but Lawrence’s response, to me, is 100% correct.
Nobody needs to know.
Same is true of so many things in life.
I’m listening to EconTalk on specialization.
Whatever you’re good at, whatever you like, is none of my business. I don’t have the right to make you do things for me. If you’ve produced enough excess that you’re willing to trade with me, wonderful.
My mind is wandering. Time to take a break.
Woke up after a bad dream that I’d slept through my stop on the train. This past week’s trip, well, the trip home, was remarkably bad. Amtrak will be getting a call later this morning.
Listen to No Agenda, which has good information about the flooding in Texas. No, it wasn’t unprecedented. No, NWS cuts didn’t cause the problems. Adam Curry, who lives just north of the affected area, gave a pretty good recap of what’s happened recently. But, when your entire role in life is blaming everything bad that happens on Trump, it has to be about changes that have happened in government.
After figuring out that I wasn’t on the train having missed my stop, onto seeing what’s on FB. Typical zOMG SHARE THIS thing from ActBlue or similar groups. Because now I’m awake, let’s go through the points.
Maybe I can fall back to sleep. Geez.
Listening to more arguments about the Iran strike, which I supported.
There seem to be a few different arguments against.
The first one I am skeptical about. Yes, many of the strongest proponents have been right about everything all the time, that they were even refining Uranium argues against that position. I don’t at all think this is even remotely true. If they were just interested in nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes, there’s a laundry list of countries that’d be happy to supply energy-grade fuel. That they insist on doing it themselves, and refining it, indicates that their intentions aren’t pure.
I understand the arguments for the second bullet, but they really fall short for me. Congress, and the actions/inactions of many previous administrations and congresses, disprove this. Yes, there should be checks, but Congress has for so long abandoned those to the Executive Branch that it doesn’t convince me at all. It’s similar to the zOMG DUE PROCESS!!1! arguments about immigration/deportation. No, those duties have been dispatched by Congress to the Executive Branch. If they don’t like that, they can change the laws they passed. Yes, it’d require a super-majority, but Congress did this to itself. (It also speaks to my idea that every law should have an expiration date which would let everything revert to Common Law, but nobody seems excited to do that…)
Point three. There’s multiple things there. I’m inclined to think that it did work. So did Stuxnet. How long it’s going to delay the efforts is subject to debate, but it would have knocked things back a bit, at least. As for it provoking Iran into moving even faster, perhaps. But let’s say they get enough material to build a bomb; does it even work? Can they get it where they want it to go? Yes, I understand that it’d be safer if I got a vasectomy, but you should be about to start, and who knows if things coming out of me even work; I don’t need to wear a rubber.
The things that float around my scarred brain….
Kind of ham-handed callback to a movie I was really too old to remember.
Will get back to this in a moment, but it’s all related to some of the reaction I’ve seen the past few hours about the US operation in Iran last night.
After further consideration, my feeling is very similar to how I felt after OBL was killed in Pakistan.
Were all the Fs crossed, Js dotted? Probably not. Does it matter? Nope. In my opinion, the right thing was done.
Lots of people I follow are disagreeing with that. Jersey Dave Smith is really upset that the oh-so-peaceful IRGC got their shit blown up. Democrats are doing what they do, which is call Trump a fascist.
Gimme a sec! I’m sure if I STFW, I can find some definition of fascism that fits whatever OrangeManBad did today. We’re not going to call him something else that might be a better fit, because the shoehorning is already done. And the Antifascists were right, even though they killed a hell of a lot of people, maybe more than the fascists did. (I might argue that both Trump and Biden are closer to Syndicalists than anything else…)
But my message is stop trying to make fascist happen. There are myriad reasons I never voted for him. Many in the Libertarian world are feeling regrets after they’d jumped aboard with his appearance in DC last year.
But they’re upset because he attacked the good folks in the dictatorship that is post-Pahlavi Iran? Um.
But they’re the same people who are a-okay with what Russia’s done in Ukraine. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
Let’s just sweep things that the mullahs have done into the memory hole.
You don’t have to actually know anyone from the Persian diaspora to know they’re evil.
I know they were a long time ago, but I do remember Khobar Towers, and the AMIA bombing.
Reflexively I wanted to beg pardon for my reaction, but, no. Israel and the US can continue to pummel Iran until the IRGC are gone. My disdain might for them might be on-par with my disdain for the Norks’ leadership. I’m okay not negotiating. I’m okay with them being cast into the wastebin of history.
“Okay With This” is what I called my Substack. I still haven’t written anything there. I really haven’t had anything terribly insightful to write about. I mentioned last week the problems with Lacey. Unfortunately, we did end up having to put her down on Wednesday. In spite of a quick rally late last weekend, she worsened again pretty quickly, and wasn’t really eating or drinking.
She was a great addition to our family, and will be incredibly missed. Am I okay with this? Um. No, honestly no. I’d imagine it’ll get easier as time passes, but the emotions are still pretty raw. I do find myself doing the sorts of things I’d do to look out for her, even though I know she’s not around.
The doggie departure, along with difficulties I’m having with the insurer for my disability policies, has kept me from finding something to write about. Things are still going on with the Israeli operation in Iran, but who knows when that’ll finally be over.
I am sure the dog is somewhere better than the last Qads commander. I’m hoping they shoot themselves dry, and something positive happens.
Workouts are progressing; I’ve stayed on the schedule I’d set for myself, and whould be able to keep to it until I leave for my trip.
Maybe I’ll think up something I can plunk away about while I’m on the train.
Haven’t written much this week. Dealing with the gymnastics of getting my private disability squared away, and dealing with a sick puppy, have taken a lot of time and energy.
It also finally got hot inside the Beltway Swamp, so going and doing much of anything has been tough. That hasn’t stopped me from sticking to my exercise goal, though it’s getting to be uncomfortably-humid inside the community facility may days.
So, kind of go piece-by-piece on this.
Kind of the middle of last week, the dog started drinking lots of water, and having accidents inside. And on the couch. Friday and Saturday were largely spent both finishing season three of The White Lotus, and trying to figure out if we were going to be without our little dog friend very soon. She is almost fourteen, but still not something we are, or ever will be, prepared for. My wife had taken her to the vet late in the week, and there was discussion that she might be in kidney failure. We’d planned on getting an expensive test done to check, but that got cancelled after we had to hit the emergency vet on Sunday. I accompanied. She had a rather-nasty UTI. Antibiotics, etc., but it really wasn’t until yesterday that she seemed kind of normal.
So, what else?
The Israeli attack on Iran Thursday night was very interesting. Credit to Chris Cuomo over on NewsNation about exactly who the IRGC are. I disagreed with President Trump’s efforts to even negotiate with them, almost as much as I disagreed with john Kerry’s blessed JCPOA. If Iran needs nuclear electricity, they don’t need to refine it themselves. They might do well to refine their own gasoline to start. They certainly don’t need to be enriching uranium to refinement levels far above what would be needed for electracy generation.
But that’s what they were doing in addition to building additional processing sites. And so Israel attacked. It sounds like they’ve done some serious damage, and killed. Much like the North Koreans fighting in Russia, these people are slaves.
Two other things…
No Kings protests. Following along on X, looking at the crowd sizes. Unimpressed. But the message about who’s funding all this is getting out.
No tie-in with the stuff back in the winter. Nope. This is all organic. Repeat until enlightened — “Orange Man Bad.”
Trying to catch up some on what’s going on with the shooting of pols in Minnesota. Big headlines will be that a DFL (Democrat Farm Labor) politician and her husband were killed last night.
Pull out your Jump To Conclusions Mat, and assume it was a Republican.
Except there’s now reporting that some of the more radical parts of her party were upset that she compromised with Republicans to keep the state government open.
Moving on…..
