Old Trooper

Our laws & societal norms & expectations have been outrun by tech. Flock, filming in public areas, spam calls, data centers, IG prank stunts, AI; the list goes on and on. A new norm requiring adjustment every damn day.

Any day, I'm expecting RFK Jr to advocate Strontium 90 in kid's milk and Thalidomide for pregnant women.

Lovely wife & I went to the local pharmacy & got our flu shot & COVID booster. That counts as a date, right?

In the '50's, Mr. Mason, a widower, lived in the above-garage apt at the rear of our property. He didn't like to do dishes, a task his late wife had always done. So he threw dirty dishes away & bought new ones at Woolworth's every week.

Today: Got my flu shot. Got my COVID booster. 'Cause I'm not stupid. Tomorrow: Casting my early vote, straight Blue ticket. 'Cause I'm not stupid.

Retired, but I still get rumors & stories drifting back from Capitol Hill. GOP members & staff all quietly & privately saying the same thing: Won't somebody (else) PLEASE bell that cat?

Woke up to more food recalls, more stupid squabbles with Canada, continued flailing economy & oppression on our streets. But, disappointingly, no sudden new national holiday.

In 1945 when Hitler died only one country -- Ireland -- sent condolences to Germany. How many countries will send condolences to the US when THAT DAY inevitably arrives? Needer needer doesn't count.

Trump could solve his problems with the Reflecting Pool by simply changing the color of the field on the American flag from blue to algae green. Ta da!

Old 47 continues his renaming spree. The National Mall is now Donald Trump Platz. Constitution Ave is now MAGA Strasse.

Serious question for space telescope operators. Do you ever turn them around to point back this way to stalk your ex?

7 arrested in Scotland for vandalizing Trump's golf course, including spraying grass killer on greens & fairways. I have been expecting that eventually someone would get around to attacking his golf courses. Here it is.

Another morning without a new national holiday on the calendar. Oh, well.

Dems should be putting together task forces of monitors to monitor Trump's election monitors.

ICE thugs are armed and armored to take on MS-13 but find it more efficacious to go after five-year-olds in bunny hats.

Nixon's enemies list (as amended) contained abt 600 names. Trump's domestic enemies list is essentially the US census.

Note that Carney left himself some wriggle room when he declared Canada would match US punitive tariffs dollar for dollar. He never specified Canadian or US dollars.

💔💔

I drove thru backroads Central VA recently. Used to be Trump signs & flags sprouting everywhere, even in non-election years. This time I saw only one & it was on a sign for a known local kook who runs for everything & wins nothing.

The world has lost the wrong 80 year-old. The one the world mourns, not the one the world would cheer.

In 1958, Clennon King Jr. tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Instead, he was committed to an insane asylum. Because, reasoned the judge, a black man would have to be crazy to think he could get in to all-white Ole Miss. (4 years later James Meredith did enroll.)

This looks a lot like the obligations Hitler imposed on Vichy France.

"You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven." -- Yuval Noah Harari "Sapiens"

As a 50's kid, my brothers & I would play the license tag game as Dad made the long drive to Florida & Mom refereed. "Ohio!" "New York!" & check them off the map in the game book. The tags of the snowbirds from Ontario & Quebec teased of exotic unmapped realms.

Of course I can park in a handicapped spot. I'm left handed.

I was stationed in Panama during my US Army days some decades ago. Strangely, the Canal Zone TV station broadcast Canadian, not US, football. Calgary had quite the fan base among US soldiers. Go Stampeders!

Roman emperors used bread (imported cheap/free grain) and circuses (chariot racing) to keep the population docile. Trump offers imported beef and IndyCar. You feeling docile?

Natalie has a job because the women who normally work caring for doddering, fading, diaper-wearing old men are being deported.

Another day that's not a new national holiday. Oh, well. Maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday, St. Louis Cardinals baseball rookie Joshua Baez hit the first Major League pitch he ever saw for a home run. Next time at bat, he hit another. Third at bat, one more. 3 homers in 3 at bats by a rookie. Holy Moly.

Theory: Trump & Kegbreath are trying to goad the crew of the Abraham Lincoln to mutiny, giving them an excuse for declaring a national emergency.

Little chi mix buddy Toby & I were kicking back in the den when a lizard scuttled along the baseboard. Pup immediately dropped back to 10,000-year-old factory settings & went on the hunt. Chase, stalk, ambush. 8.5 pounds of ancestral canine behavior. (The lizard escaped; c'est la guerre)

I would not want to be an aviator flying off the Abraham Lincoln knowing my aircraft was prepped by dirty, hungry, lonely, tired, suicidal, pissed-off sailors.

If you’re grabbed by someone wearing “shock gloves”…your body may convulse involuntarily. It could look like you’re resisting arrest when in reality, you’re in medical distress. The appearance of resistance will embolden ICE to use lethal force. These gloves will kill people.

C'mon, people. ICE needs electric shock gloves to do their job. Look how much trouble they had dealing with a six-year-old in a bunny hat.

Went for a haircut yesterday at local shop run by very nice Korean ladies. My barber lady was wearing a face mask. I thought, "good health protocols." But when she bent close to me for trim work, despite the mask, I learned the truth: kimchi breath.

Woke up this morning hoping this would be a new national holiday. Oh, well. Maybe tomorrow.

Climate change is not all bad news. When the glaciers and polar ice melt, I can set aside my fear of falling into a crevasse.

True confession: I hate cats. I spent the whole weekend playing with a kitten. Maybe not all cats.

FWIW, spent the weekend driving around Central Virginia. Last time I was thru here, the area was rife with Trump & MAGA signs. This time, I saw only 1 & it was part of a local candidate's sign.

Trump bragged his Reflecting Pool repair job would be good for 100 years. It lasted less than one scaramucci.

If only there was something to take to make you as smart as alcohol and drugs make you dumb. Not you, Algernon.

I ordered a back brace from Amzn. Now FB is feeding me a constant stream of ads for back pain relief gadgets. Privacy? What's that?

Kids today will never know the sweet anticipation and joy of the odometer rollover.

I hate to brag but I'm the WINNER for the 43rd straight time of the one-hole water glass putting tournament on my championship living room rug course. Toddler grandkid and pet chihuahua were big LOSERS. Your congratulations would be appropriate at this singular moment of glory.