Roy Griffin

Lula definitely wins in Brazil. Contra Bolsonaro, Trump and Zuckerberg…

The Texas Legislature meets every other year & meets next in 2027. If Gina Hinojosa is elected governor and Vicki Goodwin lt. governor, I will feel considerably less angst about 2027 in Texas.

The eros of the US President…

The PlantWave device costs $299. Well, if it were $29.99 I would be tempted. I bet the software has to do a lot of figuring to get those musical sounds out of what I suspect wd be static if the electric charges were translated into raw sound.

People are throwing around treason charges & I guess if they mean a betrayal of American vaues & democracy, etc okay but they should spell that out. We’re not in a declared war with Russia so there’s no basis for a legal charge of treason. Maybe espionage could obtain, but still seems a reach…

A new Democratic President in 2029 will need a strong Democratic Congress to begin the work of repairing and rebuilding all the wreckage that Trumpism has wrought. It makes me tired to think about though all I’ll be doing is voting and bloviating on social media. (In my defense, I am—a senior.)

Trump’s gushing over Husted’s manly beauty & that of sundry MMA fighters provides interesting new context about his remarks about “falling in love” with Kim Jong Un…Out of the closet at 80? Probably not really, still a bit odd…

N.B.

@philosophypills.bsky.social Watching the Spanish series the Final Problem. Have you seen?

Voted today at 1 pm this first day of voting in Texas. Where I voted is not terribly convenient (LBJ School) & while there were no lines people were continuously moving to the voting booths as they became available. My sense is turnout is going to be quite high.

The main characters of the Trump Administration remind me of the caricatures found in the comics of R Crumb and, yes, embodying the sexism and racism that Crumb actually promoted.

Every time he mouths such bs the press should excoriate him. Indeed, everyone should.

Hearing lots of gossip on the Daily Beast that Trump is planning to oust Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff. I wonder why. Too cosy with the reality function?

Now looking for books about the demise of Sears & Roebuck. Niche nostalgia, I guess.

Watching Dr G Explains, a YT body language expert showing clips of Trump at his Alaska rally this time. I think I’m starting to see that the crowds behind him are more excited about being on TV than about Trump. Faces are often blank & some I reckon are showing pity

The “justice” narratives on YT typically feature a black victim of a racist cop or other official—but the victim turns out to have DOJ connections who sweep in and kick ass. Sadly, they seem like fairy tales, especially given the current DOJ which seems intent on shoring up white male supremacy.

My adult daughter asked me about my childhood ‘midst the cotton fields of the rolling plains in the Texas Panhandle & i had occasion to explain that the Sears & Roebuck Mail Order Catalog was like our Amazon. Some may remember that.

When does the federal raid on Kimberly Guilfoyle happen?

Roger Marshall ideally will soon be an ex-Senator because he is no more than a little hunk of fecal matter. Kansas per MS Now is now “lean” instead of “likely” Reoublican. Not quite good enough Kansas but you can make it all the way if you try.

Of all the things I can think of that might provoke a real insurrection, invoking the Insurrection Act in the current context seems the most likely. Would the Insuurection Act suppress it? Idk, but the outcome seems iffy enough to give pause to the Orange One and his minions.

Watched another rug cleaning video to relax. This one was remarkable in that the rug turned out to be not ugly exactly, but rather weird. Reminded me of one of my paintings. I had the idle thought that perhaps they sometimes dirty the rugs up to amplify the final effect. Well, probably not…

I know this elderly gentleman who thinks most modern packaging is overengineered.

Now watching carpet cleaning videos. It’s a good life, but I’m thinking of expanding my horizons after the midterms…

Mary Trump avers there is something wrong with Natalie Harp & she needs help. She went on to say that that Harp has the attributes of a stalker, but curiously this is an instance of the stalkee welcoming the stalker—likely because Trump is fearing abandonment & desperately needs the attention.

I would love to hear Hegseth’s take on the Sermon on the Mount. And what does he think of Jesus having a beard?

I have discovered that pastel pencils simply do not work on watercolor paper. I’m pretty tolerant of my mediocre efforts, but this one was so bad I threw it away—a thing which I have never done before. Going to watch wood-turning videos to soothe my mind…

Watched a clip of Josh Hawley grilling Jack Smith. Hawley is singularly repulsive. He is in the running as the GOP’s best version of Buzz Windrip. His hat will be in the ring come 2028.

Watching wood turning videos while I await the results of the Brazilian election. I am retired, you know…

There’s a lot of political cleanup to be done & as a practical matter I know it is unlikely that Judge Eileen Cannon will be impeached, let alone convicted and removed. But I wonder if there are other sanctions that could be invoked b/c of all the sh*t she’s perpetrated.

Watched a youtube video about the life and work of John Torrance Tate, a mathematician. I understood a few terms like “prime number” and a couple of others, but I had no clue about the abstruse levels of number theory he dealt with. One rabbit hole I will not be disappearing into….

Time for my morning scroll of youtube polls to get my daily schadenfreude…

Reposting just to observe that no matter how bad the 2026 forecast for Republicans is, in my view it’s not bad enough…

Senator Eric Schmitt called Jack Smith a “dirtbag” in a hearing today. And Senator John Kennedy said that Smith made him “throw up” a little in his mouth. Interesting, since the moral rot of both Senators is metaphorically enough to gag a metaphorical maggot.

I honestly believe that Trump has it within his power to achieve a 22% approval rating by one or more respected polling outfits.

The expressions on the faces of world leaders listening to Trump talk—somewhere between incredulity and, I’m not sure…depression?

Guilty pleasure (occasional): the “overwritten” AI revenge narratives on YouTube. I must remember not to use constructions with any form of the verbs “set” or “sit” any time I set out or sit down to attempt to write prose. Pros avoid that sort of thing.

Why are the captions to several of my youtube channels defaulting to Bengali? It’s an elegant script, but I cain’t read it—at all.