I'm glad to see everyone's alright. I don't even pretend to give half a damn for racing in general or NASCAR in particular, but Dale Earnhardt, Jr. always struck me as a good ol' boy.
Hey, how's that for "journalism", cowboy? I've decided to not pay any attention to any pundits on Twitter no more than I have to. That goes double for, well, guys like me: straight white cis middle class bourgeois males from this particular stretch of time. I know what I think. Unless, of course, it's like Paul Krugman on economics or Kevin Kruse on history, & they know their shit, even if it's the most specialized bland, basic shit, it's still good to know. People say shit like "that's Econ 101" like the fundamentals don't matter.
Still, otherwise, I can keep my mouth shut & listen to another perspective. But, yeah, there's no need to pay attention to Ben Shapiro or that Tracey kid or that goofy woman from Australia. That's the downside of living in the Era of Everyone Having A Megaphone: to wit, if you can't beat them with substance, baffle them with bullshit. There is absolutely no reason anyone should be paying any attention to Charlie Kirk, not none whatsoever.
One day I'll put together a list of must-follows on Twitter, but not right now. For what it's worth, I think the world is richer for the existence of something like Twitter. Up-to-date news & information from what you consider a reliable source of news. Completely free communication with people from across the spectrum of everything. I've carried on conversations with some of my favorite musicians & authors about Spider-Man or Smokey & The Bandit. I can keep up with my friends who I'm no longer where I can reach out & touch them, or the ones who're no more than words on a screen (maybe) but are still friends. Smart people debating a topic & having a reasoned argument, & even if they don't reach an equitable conclusion, wisdom is nevertheless shared.
Granted, we're assholes about it. The fucking President got another country to bar the entrance of a couple of two Representatives that have his number from entering said country because fuck you. We're not coming back from this, you know, but I digress. Twitter's a mess because the guy who makes so much money off it does so in great part to how big a mess Twitter is at any given time.
But I still find uses for it & think it's better than any alternative available & have no idea how to "fix" it nor do I know what "fix" would be. Frankly, if we'd all just stop acting like buttholes, we wouldn't have to worry about it. Ah, but it is what it is, & that's why I won't retweet someone's dumbass opinion to dunk on it anymore. News stories don't count. Anyhow.
Decent enough day. The news is never good, but we preserver. I'll be working the runoff election come Tuesday, I guess, but nothing's written in stone. Still anxious &, I don't know, tetchy. Just don't want to be around anybody, just don't want to hear it. But it's not bad, & frankly, if I keep to a schedule & not overindulge, but the naps & the night's sleep kind of work out.
I've just got to get this down. Listening to a compilation of Brinsley Schwarz, & it has a real early version of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding", & boy howdy, the closer you get to the bone, the more you believe that was originally a parody. Sort of like when you realize the guy in "He Stopped Loving Her Today" not only committed suicide but that it was original written as a comedy song.
Enough of that, let's take a quick look at the news.
Steve King (Racist Fool-IA) can't keep his damn mouth shut. See, this is why you don't have to pay attention Mainstream Conservative Pundits.* The actual lawmakers are bigoted pinheads who don't have enough sense to sit down & be quiet for a bit, maybe let things cool down. I wonder if he gets a call once every now & then, "Steve, the President shat himself again. You need to take one for the team." King's probably got a binder full of Christian supremacist folderol just waiting in the wings.
(*Mainly just because they have a podcast & apparently I'm supposed to take them seriously.)
Let's see, what else. See, this is the worry that I have, that my pendulum moods will swing away from politics (as they have) to whatever they decided to obsess over next. But, it's keeping me busy & does get easier. Here's some more about some of the shady shit Mike Hurst has been pulling. Recall, he's the guy who sicced ICE on chicken plants in Mississippi owned by Koch Foods, netting 780 at first, but winding up having to turn over 300 loose because, hey, brown guy, he can't be here legally, says ICE. This was all on the first day of school - good job, y'all - & the owners haven't received so much as a slap on the wrist, because fuck you, that's why. This article goes into some detail on that particular point.
I want to keep up the hue & cry on this as best I can, because this right here? This is some some fascist, borderline Nazi-esque bullshit, & I am being very, very generous & you must understand how seriously I take those words. It's wrong. Not only wrong, it's mean & stupid, & of course it's racist.
Speaking of mean & stupid racists, apparently the damn President wants to buy Greenland? Hell, I don't know. Maybe the thick-headed dope thinks that'll be primo real estate when the ice caps melt. For what it's worth, I don't believe anyone as plugged in as people on that level don't believe we aren't fucked, environmentally speaking, & will grind us into food for their dogs before they do anything that Cuts Into Profits. So who the hell knows what he thinks, that guy is weird & does not see the Universe like the rest of us do.
Apparently, the whole "Build The Wall" thing was just a suggestion by his staff during the campaign to help him remember to focus on immigration & be racist about it, & he decided it was supposed to be a real thing that we should spend money on & encourage waterheaded clowns to shoot up Wal-Marts. So, there's no telling where the goofy bastard will take this.
Ah. Anything else. Some good reads. This one's from Salon, & it just amuses me because I'd never thought I'd be agreeing with Neil Diamond about anything. Was watching an discourse on Twitter dogging John Denver, & it was of supreme effort to not tell them off. I must be getting old.
Here's a neat thread I found on Twitter concerning the apparent dichotomy between Evangelicals blind, near golden calf level of worship they have for Trump with what they purport to believe, & why it's sort of silly to think about it like that. Being spiritually unaffiliated, I don't have a dog in that hunt, but I grew up in rural Mississippi, so you ain't going to tell me church goers can't be rotten bastards & cheap swine. Dig it.
That should be plenty. Have a candy bar.
