Monday, October 7, 2019

Monday, October 7, 2019

 I've decided to quit using the ampersand. Ticks and quirks are fine, but when the text is copy-and-paste to anything else, it gets screwy. I'm not trying to conserve space, anyway.



 Well, the heat finally broke. We woke up to a pretty good rain this morning and it's been sprinkling heavy off and on all day. Cool, too, it's 63 right now and it's been mostly in the 70s all day. It finally feels like Fall, but it's still on the warmish side for October.

 So while it does feel cool and crisp like the beginning of a Northeast Mississippi Fall like one would expect, it's still a stunner from the blisteringly miserable heat of up until yesterday afternoon. We got between an inch and inch-and-a-half. Some places got over three. Collectively, not only did the general area - basically everyplace that goes to Memphis rather than Jackson - get more than all of September, there was enough that it's considered extra-but-not-too-much rain enough for both September and October. Saw it on the news.

 Otis has enjoyed it. Because it's been rainy and cool, he'd rather be inside. Like, this is what he prefers if he's going to be inside, cool and humid. I guess because this is what New Orleans is like for most of the year, if not as breezy. He likes the heat but the dry kind of drains him. I imagine it's because his breed comes from England and it's supposed to have shitty weather all the time.

 I need to share Ry Cooder's version of "The Bourgeois Blues" from the 1976 album Chicken Skin Music. The original was written and performed by Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, for reasons I never full understood.

 Anyhow, along with his wife and A-bomb-level Musicologist Alan Lomax and his wife were thrown out of number drinking establishments in Washington, D.C. because it was a mixed-race party. This pissed Leadbelly off and deservedly so; at the time he was one of the most famous, popular and in-demand performer in the country. So of course it pissed him off, don't give a damn what the cultural norm of the time, white man's making money hand over fist off him and he can't have a drink in a nice club?

 Being a songwriter, he wrote a fairly blistering tune off the experience, maybe one of the fiercest American protest songs ever, as much as "This Land Is Your Land" or "Masters of War" or "Mississippi Goddamn". But it does use the n-word a couple of times and it's meant to sting. Ry Cooder's version is straight what Leadbelly sang 'cause that's the kind of musician he is. I guess he thinks he's good enough to pull it all off, and he's almost right. What's interesting, though, is listening to all the other versions - from Odetta and Pete Seager - and most don't drop the bomb.

 And that's all too heavy for Twitter these days. There's always a chance that some wit will pretend to be shocked and outraged at the racism when in all actuality they're mocking someone who would be legit offended if it were something be offended by. Usually, it's not. I caught a load of the feebs when I criticized Nikki Haley. Like, get the fuck out of here, self-proclaimed "edgy" person, you have n credibility anymore and you're not funny. I've been going through Amazon Music and I'm not finding a better version. Some are pretty good but way too many are honky blues or punk rock, and... come on, man. Let's not bullshit each other.

 Okay. Hmm. Well, well, well. I've sort of wandered all over, haven't I? The News? The News is crazy, man. For whatever reason - and I ain't saying it's a "wag the dog" thing, but come on - the Blind Idiot God has announced that he'll pull U.S. troops out of the conflict of Syria, pretty much abandoning the Kurds, which we do almost on the regular. Surprised the hell out of everybody. Depending on who you ask, this is either the shining moment of his first term or yet another horror caused by our misguided, selfish meddling in the Middle East, one we've been perpetrating in one form or another since we helped reinstall the Shah in Iran (at least).

 Again, I won't claim he's doing this because the Impeachment vice is leaning hard on his nuts and the Trump Administration is in such a sorry state that this is all they got left. When all else fails, go find some smaller country and throw it against the wall, preferably one you've already stomped good and hard. Apparently we're not wagging our dick at Iran quite as fiercely since John Bolton got the boot.

 The wrinkle here, though, is our splitting does the most good for Turkey who're prepared roll right into that place and do god only knows but I doubt it'll work out well. I've had roommates and friends and bosses from Turkey. and I've always had an affection for the area. But the Turks don't fucking play and you forget that at your peril. Furthermore, Sultan Recep Edrogan is one of those hard-assed, stone-hearted nut twisters that get Trump so gooey in the shorts. Plus, he has one of his nasty buildings there.

 And the Republicans are not happy about this at all. Believe that.

 Rick Perry is no longer quitting, it seems, and while he fesses up that he did make that call to Ukraine, neither Joe Biden nor his son was brought up. Trump himself is screaming impeachment for Nancy Pelosi and Mitt Romney, apparently unaware that Senators can't be impeached, so that's the new normal. Along with being shitty about the Syria situation, they looking for places to stick the knife on his own Impeachment woes.

 And that's good for that. I think I'll go ahead and ask for some assistance on the Twitter from someone who actually makes rent via writing. I don't know what, exactly, I'm going to ask. I may just lay out the scene. Right now, this is fun. More often than not, I don't have to go looking for something in the News once I get started, it just flows right out. It is fun, I'd just like to make a buck off it.

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