Pressure's gonna drop on...

  Toots Hibbert died last night. He went into the hospital last week with problems breathing. Last I'd heard, his family said he was showing some improvement. Life is fleeting and death comes quick.

 I don't remember when I became a fan of Toots, really. For the longest time, like a lot of white boys, I thought reggae began and ended with Bob Marley. Going to college in the mid '90s, his greatest hits collection Legend must've been handed out at high school graduations because I could recognize every note by the time I finished up at UF. It sort of burnt me out on reggae, I'm not going to lie.

 It was probably the first time I saw The Harder They Come. That movie revolves mainly around Jimmy Cliff and the title track is legendary, but there's a scene where Toots & The Maytals sing "Sweet & Dandy." You rarely see that much joy singing. I never got to see him live, but I'm told he was like that when performed right up until the end. He dug what he did the most, and I always, always, dig on that.

 In my own personal pantheon, he's up there with Junior Wells and Otis Redding. They're singers who, for me, epitomize vocalizing joy in their genre. Soul music and the blues sound celebratory when they sing, and it was the same with Toots. For the record, probably my favorite album was his Toots In Memphis because it brought those two worlds together.

 Willie Nelson probably does it for country music, best I can tell. Moreso than even the blues, country music is Buddha's First Noble Truth - life is suffering - if it has any substance at all. Of course, that's just me being an old stick-in-the-mud lost in the past. I may not be all that turned on by modern country radio but I can't find much more tedious than hearing yet another dingbat get snooty about "real country music." There's always been reaching for pop in country music. Look up George Morgan, for cryin' out loud.

 I've wandered off-topic. That's okay, though. I still don't have too much to say, not really. COVID-19 continues to ravage the country and the unwashed horde continues to be shitasses about it. Momma asks me about once a week why people get so angry at people who chose to wear a mask and, every time, I remind her that to do so, they'd have to admit they were wrong about something. That is just not something America does.

 The fires out in Oregon and California continue to rage out-of-control, displacing almost half a million folks in the Beaver State. Despite the pleas of firefighters, the FBI, and the local police, Twitter dingbats are still trying to say a motley collection of teenagers and young adults who don't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of are doing this for... reasons. The logic is since they're "burning down Portland and Chicago," it's only natural they try to destroy a state that's mostly cool with them living there.

 Which is a stupid thing to say for two reasons. One, you can look at the local news in both places to see that neither Portland nor Chicago is anything but what they always are and are certainly not apocalyptic wastelands. Secondly, and this is the hanger for me, they want me to believe they actually give two shits about Portland or Chicago or the people living there. And I simply do not believe that, not after paying attention to the last 20 years of American politics and the wingnuts therein.

 Yesterday was 9/11. Someone on Twitter mentioned that it's a hell of a thing that people who hate New York City 364 days a year pretending to give a shit about what happened there 19 years ago for one day before they go back to hating it. What's really funny is how many chowderheads this set off. "Well, that's why we hate New York City and New Yorkers." Not helping disprove the original argument, kiddo.

 Trump was asked about the killing of Michael Reinoehl, the man under investigation for shooting Patriot Prayer thug Aaron Danielson. He called it "retribution" and that is simply not encouraging. It's especially rich coming from a guy who claimed he downplayed the danger of COVID-19 initially because he "didn't want to cause a panic." There are wingnut a-holes in Oregon stopping people trying to get away from the fires because they think Antifa or Black Lives are doing nefarious things regardless of a total lack of proof. They saw it on Facebook somewhere and everyone knows you can't lie on the internet.

 It's been... relatively quiet since the Danielson killing, but I wonder how long it's going to last. The other day, some police organization in, I think Boston it was, said someone at a Home Depot made a "bacon" crack in a cop's presence and was roundly mocked. Rightly so, too, given how many times the police have flat-out made up instances of abuse against them just this year. There's still a lot of dick-wagging and mumbled threats, mostly from the right but the left is talking plenty of shit, too.

 I wonder if it's avoidable. It doesn't have to be like this. Two of my cousins' kids - cousins themselves - have to be quarantined because of exposure to COVID-19 at school events. It didn't have to be like that. The closer we get to the election, the more worry there is that Trump will in some way or another try to nullify the results if he loses. He isn't helping things by going on Twitter and telling North Carolina voters to, essentially, vote twice. All the while, he's still trying to undermine mail-in voting and insinuating that the only way he could lose is if the Democrats cheat.

 At the same time, the actual government is finding evidence of tampering in the election by agents connected to China and Russia, except on the Republican side. The GOP is also spreading around that liberals - who they consider weak and cowardly, mind - will riot if Trump wins again. There's almost a sense of hope in the claims like they're looking forward to having an excuse to open fire on political opponents. On the flipside, a lot of liberals and leftists - which the right falsely connects because they can't be bothered to pay attention - are locking and loading right along.

 So who knows. It didn't have to be this way, history is not an inevitable tide and a story that can only be told. Existence just is. It doesn't have to be this way and doesn't have to go further. But here we are and it will probably get worse.

 Americans can never admit they were wrong about something, after all.

Got to be to tough.

  I've got some Actual Paying Work to do tonight and I'm still in whatever weird mood I was in Tuesday. So we're just going to gonzo this out to fill the white space. Bear with me, perhaps one day I'll have an interesting thought again.

 Blogger's apparently changed the labeling system. That's good because whatever they had going was a mess. I'm still not sure why they changed what worked perfectly well, but then again, I'm not sure if anyone still uses Blogger.

 I wish I could put my thumb on what's causing this weird mood. Maybe then I could do something about it. All that comes to mind is that it's been six months since I talked to anyone by my family, and maybe just four of them, and it might be making me wiggy. I haven't reconnected with anyone since I've moved home nor have I made new connections, and I don't want to. Still, one underestimates the importance of talking to someone from the outside once in a while, even if it is the Therapist or the Psych Doctor. Or, for that matter, the guy behind the counter at Bill's Quick Mart.

 A source close to him has said Trump's refusal to visit a cemetery of American World War I dead wasn't because of the poor weather preventing the helicopter from flying there and the Secret Service's refusal to drive him. Instead, it was because he thought the rain would mess up his hair, which we already knew about.

 What we didn't know is it was mainly because he doesn't feel war dead should be honored. He calls them "losers" and "suckers," and considers the whole process a waste of time. Furthermore, former Chief of Staff John Kelly has said Trump took a similar stance at the funeral of Kelly's son, a combat casualty in Afghanistan, saying he "couldn't understand what was in it for him."

 Now, I'm on record as having little use for the military and while I see no need in dissing the dead for no good reason, I'm not going to pretend that I am shocked and disgusted at these revelations. It's tacky, sure, but anyone who didn't know Donald Trump bled gaucherie hasn't been paying attention to him the past forty years. He's dissed Gold Star parents and widows and showed little concern about military deaths during his administration. Far as I know, he hasn't even acknowledged the Russian bounty accusations, and that's been going on for four months.

 No, I'm not surprised nor am I going to pretend this is the straw that breaks the camel's back with me. The best way I can see to honor war dead is to stop war of any kind, but that's neither here nor there. As usual, what's going to be interesting is watching how the Base reacts to this. As of right now, they're still firmly in the "Fake News" mode, pretending it's all made up, but that's to be expected.

 When it becomes something they can't deny, though, what will they do? Will they ignore it like they've ignored all his explicitly anti-veteran stances or will they agree with him? I imagine it'll be the former, but it's only a matter of time before they do the same. It took them no time, remember, to shit on John Kerry back in 2004 and that was before they'd found their Savior.

 Anyhow. I just learned that a Valley girl's sixteen-year-old daughter has been hospitalized with COVID-19. The mom I've known all my life. She grew up down the road for me, maybe 10 years older. We never were what you'd call close, but there is a bond between people who grew up here in Peaceful Valley, particularly back in those days. Furthermore, her mom is one of Momma's closest friends.

 Both the girl's parents are in high-risk groups. My homegirl, matter of fact, has dealt with Lyme disease for the past 20 years. The father's diabetic. This didn't need to happen. It didn't need to be this way. We could've acted like something other than spoiled children for the first couple of months and maybe we might've been able to get a better handle on it. But, no, we can't be seen as "weak" for being concerned with our health and the health of others. It also doesn't help we have a president enthusiastically embracing the dumbest conspiracy theories concerning the epidemic, but that's the kind of country we are now.

 To end, let's all send good vibes to Toots Hibbert. The 77-year-old reggae godfather had to be put into a medically induced coma after having trouble breathing. He was tested for COVID-19 last week but the particulars aren't known yet. However, as of this morning, his family says he is doing better.

 I am a great admirer of Toots & The Maytals and Toots In Memphis is one of my favorite records. He just put out a new album, Got To Be Tough, and it's one of his better latter-day efforts. So check it out from your favorite indie record store, and send those good vibes his way.

 And if you've got enough good vibes, spread them around. Do something nice for your neighbor or postal carrier, just something small. It's a mean ol' world and getting worse. And believe you me, it's a bummer to go through without the help of marijuana. For my own sanity, I hope we pass the medical marijuana initiative come November. I'm not sanguine because Mississippi must get off on being miserable for Jesus.