Mama, Mama, talk to you daughter for me.

 The House passed a bill to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. The Republicans are losing their shit over this because they see it as just an attempt by the Democrats to put two more solidly blue seats in the Senate. For their part, the Democrats aren't really disputing it but counter that not only do the citizens of D.C. want representation in their government, there are enough folks there to make it worthwhile.

 First off, if it's just a power grab... so what? That's politics, isn't it? Are we supposed to believe that if D.C. didn't vote reliable GOP the Republicans wouldn't have a hard-on to make it a state? Because I don't believe that all and anyone who does only has themselves to blame.

 The arguments they give are fairly specious, too, whether it's the dubious claim that it'd require an amendment to the Constitution to the borderline racist jibber-jabber from clowns like Jody Hice and Tom Cotton. The actual government part of D.C. would fit into a ten-square-mile slice of land and they've got that all laid out. Conservatives are also suggesting giving the city to either Maryland or Virginia or splitting between both, despite none of the parties being down with that.

 Maybe the most specious argument is the whole "what the Founders intended" shtick. I want to go on record here: who gives a shit what the Founders intended. That was over 230 years ago and I don't think it's too much of a stretch of the imagination to say whatever the Founders intended would be unable to deal with today's reality.

 I will say this, though. The Founders knew change would come and wrote the Constitution to reflect that. We have 27 amendments that are basically saying, "Well, what we actually meant" after all. That may be the true genius of the document: it allows for something to happen the people who wrote it never considered as long as - and this is important - it falls within the rules of what the government can't do.

 And that's the thing. For the most part, the entire Constitution is full of things that limit the power and scope of the U.S. government. Twitter banning you isn't a First Amendment issue because they're not the government. That sort of thing. In fact, the one time the government tried to use the Constitution to ban something, they had to go back and reverse it because it was such a clusterfuck.

 That's what it boils do to for me: does the Constitution specifically forbid it. If not, I say go nuts if that's what the people of D.C. want. Same thing with Puerto Rico or Guam, and if Republicans are boo-hooing because they won't get the votes from these new states, perhaps they should step back and ask themselves why.

 So much for all that. Until I hear otherwise, it goes into my "haven't heard a good argument why not" pile with expanding the Supreme Court, national legalization of marijuana, and getting rid of the Electoral College. Whatever the "Founding Fathers" meant is an appeal to tradition fallacy in my book and just will not swing.

 Anyhow. Epic dropped its weekly freebies today and one was Hand Of Fate 2. I've been intrigued by it since seeing a Zero Punctuation episode about it, but since I have no background (or interest) in card games, I never pulled the trigger. A Lucky 13 harmonica I order on eBay from a place in California will be a solid week late tomorrow, and I'm starting to get irritated. It's been well over a couple years since I ordered stuff like this and it's striking just how bad Louis DeJoy has fouled up the Postal Service.

 I reckon that's good enough for now. I've spent more time reading some truly dumbass arguments against the whole statehood thing. I'm going to go play some video games and leave you with what Momma said after I told her about the bill passing:

 "Oh. The Mets are giving this game away again. I wonder why the announcers are in different booths?"

You know, I'm tired of being lonesome, on'ry, and mean.

 It's the first weekend in April, it was a beautiful day, I'm buying too many harmonicas, and I have a back tooth that's working its way loose. Periodontal disease is a drag, kids, don't skimp on those dental cleanings. But, hey, life goes on and I've got dental insurance.

 Anyhow, let's get down to business. I really don't have much to ramble about tonight so we'll try to run out the clock and see what pops out. First off, let's do the News. It was a lot of daily wraps up because it was that kind of week. We looked at our weird Spring weather Monday while touching on the beginning of the Derek Chauvin case and the union fight with Amazon in Alabama.

 Much as I hated to do it, I had to touch on the Matt Gaetz unpleasantness Wednesday and Friday. We also looked at some of the brilliance that comes from the Mississippi Legislature as well as Joe Biden's upcoming $2 trillion infrastructure plan. There was also some good news on the COVID-19 front and yet another mass shooting. And we touched on the MLB's decision to move the All-Star Game in response to Georgia's contentious voting bill.

 There's something to that. Conservatives are outraged that a corporate entity is doing something they don't like and reacting like they always do. That is, threats to never watch baseball again unless MLB does what the government wants. Yeah, that's never a surprise, nor is their glee at Georgia's smacking Delta's wrist for daring to question the state government's motives behind the radical and apparently unnecessary bill.

 This comes as no surprise to anyone. Indeed, it was predictable and will probably have as much an effect as the NFL boycott over the whole kneeling business. It wasn't a whole lot, actually, and last year's pandemic had more of an effect on the ratings than any boycott. I'm sure some folks will actually go through with it, but sports fans are more interested in their preferred sport than the political whatnot that goes on around it.

 It's all so tedious. Honestly, if it weren't for the News, I probably would drop completely out because it has become so boring and predictable. There's news that the Trump people really rooked the rubes that donated to them and the only thing less predictable than that is how little effect it's having on their support of the crooked fucker.

 What else? Well, as I said, I've been buying different brands of harmonicas all week. I've got a Marine Band today to join my Blues Harp, with a Fender Blues, a PowerDraw, and an Easttop on the way. Once my birthday comes - less than 10 days away from being closer to 50 than 40 - I'm going to get me a Lucky 13 Bass harp and perhaps a Lee Oskar of some sort. I figure I'll stick with G's, D's, and C's though the Blues Harp is already an A. I've also made a breakthrough on learning tabs, something I've always had trouble with, regardless of the instrument.

 That's the best thing about learning or relearning something. When you're able to break through some barrier or leap some hurdle that's been hanging you up, and you can do it like it comes naturally. It's like having a superpower. Anyhow, that's good enough for now. Maybe later I'll write some more after I eat something. I will say we finally got fiber optic here and it's nice to join the 21st century in one way, at least.

Would you cry if I said I'd lied?

  You know, I had the whole shpiel worked out. I was going to rant and rave about the latest iteration on "cancel culture," specifically how it's not actually a thing much less a significant threat to life in these United States. I was going to go off on how you have to actively deny reality in order to stay outraged and how maybe - just maybe - some things and people deserved to be "canceled," or rather deal with the consequences of their actions and words.

 But by the time I got home and sat down and then took a walk with Otis and laid down for a bit of a nap after reading and listening to Little Walter, I found I just didn't care anymore. Of course, I am referring to the recent kerfuffle surrounding Dr. Seuess and, to a lesser extent, the Potato Head and Muppets controversy. Just for posterity's sake, conservatives are losing their goddamn minds about the three.

 The Seuss people decided to pull six of his books from publication due to racist content, and yes it is extremely racist, while Hasbro decided to stop calling the sets "Mr. Potato Head" and "Mrs. Potato Head" but nothing else. As for the Muppets, whatever streaming service was broadcasting "The Muppet Show" wanted to add a disclaimer to a couple of shows where the humor might a bit too risque for the children watching a show that was originally intended for an adult audience anyway.

 And of course, all that is being twisted into a conspiracy by socialists to ruin America because conservatives are not only stupid and gullible, they're also too lazy to fact check their claims of impending doom. I've even read where Joe Biden is supposed to be directly responsible for the Dr. Seuss business, which was actually decided by the people who represent Theodore Geisel's heirs. The other two are decisions by massive corporations who made these moves to protect their bottom line.

 Look, y'all, "cancel culture" is not a thing. No one forced Disney or Hasbro to do anything and both are rich enough if that they really believed they were being "bullied," they could tell protestors to go skip rope. The only person I can think of who's actually been "canceled" and pretty much removed from the public scene is Michael Richardson. After he went on that weird racist tirade during a stand-up appearance, he pretty much dropped off the radar. "Seinfeld" is still on the air, as far as I know.

 Even Bill Maher and the Dixie Chicks made comebacks, mainly because theirs was mostly reactionary pants wetting itself. Louie C.K. is receiving standing ovations at his Las Vegas shows. Mel Gibson still makes movies. Their star may not shine as brightly, but tough shit, you did awful stuff so suck it up, buttercup. The Earth rolls on, and society doesn't owe to you to remain static.

 Well, damn, I guess I went into the rant anyway. Ah, well, it is what it is. I broke down and bought Star Control: Origins out of a Humble Bundle yesterday. Apparently, Stardock and the original creators have made peace and the former isn't shitting all over the latter anymore. It's all right, basically an upgrade of Star Control II without the original names of the aliens. Or so far, anyway, I'm told it changes after a bit. I should take another whack at Star Control II. It's a good game but it gets above me fairly easily.

 Okay, that's plenty. It's late and I'm tired and, frankly, I just don't give a shit. It bothers me sometimes that my initial reaction to far too much of the national Zeitgeist is "fuck it, let it burn."

I'm going to the city. Gonna breathe that city air.

  I mentioned the other day that I finished that Hank Williams biography and it thoroughly bummed me out. For whatever reason, it's put me in a melancholy mood as we move through this last weekend of January 2021. Being depressed these days is a drag, partly because I know it's just my own brain wiring messing with me but mostly because I can't get stoned. Anyhow, here's this week's News.

 It was a pretty good week, more or less. Plenty to write about and something to explain, which is always fun. Monday was another slice of Today in the Biden Administration, but Wednesday and Friday were the fun ones. I tried to explain the whole GameStop-short stock business even though, as I note, I've never been able to wrap my head around how it actually works. Sort of like matrices in algebra or baking, it just plumb evades me.

 As far as that goes, it is entertaining as hell to see regular stock gambler types lose their shit because the hoi polloi is forgetting its place. Frankly, they should be thankful that we don't live in a just universe which would mean they'd be strung up by their own intestines, kept alive by medical science, and pelted repeatedly with pecans. That being said, people whose opinion on these matters I trust are saying the joke's starting to a bit long in the tooth and it's possible it might start causing some real danger.

 Of course, that just casts into sharp relief how flat dumb our economic infrastructure is. But that's beyond me and I won't pretend that it isn't. It'll be interesting to see where all this goes from here but I'm not going to act like I'm qualified to give a proper prediction nor give thoughts on what should be done.

 The other bit of crazy that's taken up this week's news is newly elected Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene showing the entire world that, yes, she is loony as a coot and probably shouldn't be allowed around sharp scissors, much less high-powered weaponry or the laws of the nation. She's a 9/11 truther, and I'm amazed there is still a healthy group of those dickholes. She's also a believer that the Parkland and Sandy Hook were "false flags," and that just shows a rotten, black soul. The one that got me, though, was the suggestion that the wildfires regularly bedeviling the West are caused by space lasers operated by International Jewry so as to clear land for high-speed train projects.

 That's just dangerous goofy. That Boebet woman's a thick-skulled crook who'll probably get busted for using campaign money to keep her restaurant afloat. That weird Nazi fanboy from North Carolina is going to lie himself right off the planet. But Greene's a danger to her fellow Representatives. I don't trust gun enthusiasts I don't know well enough to know that they know what they're doing. This woman is a prime example of gun nuts you don't trust. I'm not kidding. If she gets through her 15 minutes without shooting one of her colleagues, I'll be shocked.

  Anyhow, I'm tired and all I got to talk about still is that I've been playing The Shadowrun Trilogy with some of the player-mad scenarios modded in. One of these days I'm going to write about what it's like coming back into gaming before the days of open and encouraged modding, but today's not the day.

Listen to the rain a-fallin'. Can't you hear that lonesome sound?

 I was supposed to have some Actual Paying Work to do tonight. However, I was told to hold off on it for reasons beyond my control, so I find myself with a free evening and no idea what to fill this space with. I've gotten to like the idea of doing a quick check-up of Gibberish on working nights, mainly because it gives me an excuse to be lazy. And if there's one thing I love above all others, it's being lazy. Mainly because I'm incredibly good at it.

 So we'll gonzo it tonight and see what we can shake loose. The country's still insane. Joe Rogan - who I never got, partly because I make it a policy to ignore people who claim the moon landing was faked - is spreading rumors that the fires out in the Pacific Northwest are due to left-wing activists, which means the current All-American Enemies Black Lives Matter and Antifa. This comes on the heels of police and firefighters in the area, as well as such radical lefties as the FBI begging people to stop spreading rumors.

 And people are still trying to debate this down. One argument I see is it's "understandable after Antifa lit so many fires in cities while protesting, despite there being not only absolutely no evidence for that but, indeed, plenty of evidence at least a few were started by right-wing agitators. Another one I saw said it was something COINTELPRO, which might be even dumber. I'm not completely sure how that's supposed to work.

 The fires happen every year, but Americans can't remember past the week before. The Pacific Northwest has had a particularly dry summer, but Americans don't take climate change seriously. There have been a few folks attempting arson for completely apolitical (usually because they have loose screws), but Americans don't want to believe anything that doesn't fit their Narrative.

 This is just another iteration of the rank Dumbness that has taken over the country. Dingbats who have no inner life are rubbing their blue-vein throbbers of the idea of getting violent against people they think won't be able to fight back. While all this is going on, we're being told that we need to reach out to people who don't share our ideological viewpoints, which means liberals/leftists shouldn't give conservatives any guff. If it's any consolation, I don't even pretend to understand.

 Moving on. Today is Hank Williams' birthday. I am a huge fan of his music and long have had a fascination with his place in pop music and American culture. Like my brother said, he's one of those hinges of society. He made songs that were designed to be enjoyed by everyone, so they were, plus he was a mean-ass, hard-drinking miserable redneck bastard, as earthy and Too Real as they come.

 He didn't live long enough to grow out of it but he also didn't live long enough to start making shit music, either because his well was dry or his hard-living caught up to him. The very real pain and misery in his life came through in his vocals, regardless of how jaunty the tempo or amusing the lyrics. And the songs? The songs are fucking great, some of the best ever written.

 So, I dig me some Hank Williams. I've written two, count 'em, two 20-plus page papers in college on Hank Williams for non-musical classes. The one music appreciation class I took, I wrote a 10-page paper on ol' Hank. He's kind of like Otis Redding or Sam Cooke; it's a shame he didn't live long enough to produce more music and we've heard all we're probably going to hear, but it's all such concentrated awesome, there's just no chaff. Like with Elvis or the Rolling Stones, who both had some stinkers.

 Okay, what else. Joe Biden did a Q-&-A with voters tonight. Apparently, he did so well the wingnuts are saying he must've got the questions beforehand. This means the guy they've been saying has dementia for the past six months is still sharp enough to memories a bunch of rather complicated answers. Sure. I really shouldn't be surprised at how quickly and effortlessly conservatives change their tune - it was beyond a doubt way before Trump became president - it nevertheless gives me a sad chuckle every time it happens.

 Speaking of which, with all this talk of cancel culture and repression of free speech (or telling racists to fuck off), I'm reminded of the Free Speech Zones during Bush Jr's second nomination. None of this is new. The Hoover government sent the Army on World War One vets who were protesting. McCarthyism destroyed life after life, career after career, and with the full backing of a cowed United States government. Palmer raids, the MOVE bombings in Philadelphia. The Whiskey Rebellions and the Free State of Jones County. None of this is new.

 The Constitution doesn't give you rights. It tells the government what it can't do, and even then, almost every amendment has been circumvented, explained away, or outright ignored. The only actual right you have is the freedom to think whatever you want to think, and far too many of us don't want to put the effort into it.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

 Gonna knock out a quick one today because last's nights piece wore me slap out. Putting that much effort and research into a piece raises my blood pressure and gives a mess of a headache. I thought it was just hardcore political writing that was whipping me like a mean dog, but no, it's just that much work wears me down, whether it's intensely political or not. Don't know quite how to take that.

 And since someone finally poked the Blind Idiot God this morning, Trump gave a speech this evening after spending the morning blaming the Democrats and the media for stirring everyone else in order to "get him" somehow. Undoubtedly, he got this from Medal Of Freedom winner Rush Limbaugh, who spent all day yesterday railing on this and all day today claiming that Trump proved him right. You'd think instead of staying a professional butthole he'd be trying to stay healthy himself - most of the deaths from CORVID-19 have occurred in people with weakened immune systems and he has lung cancer, mind - and spend his more time with his loved ones while he can, but there you go.

 Of course, this has trickled down to the lesser wingnut goons, blaming the Democrats while simultaneously moaning that everyone was blaming Lord Trump. Congress got in on the fun, too, with Marco Rubio, The Man With The Liquid Spine And Cushioned Kneecaps, bemoaning China's influence on our medical supply, despite that being the result of conservative policies and Rubio's dumb as a stump. Health And Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, in answering questions, couldn't guarantee that when discovered, affordable vaccine would be available because free market and fuck you. Hey, if nothing else, the masks are being ripped off in the Trump era.

 Perhaps the single dumbest thing being taken as gospel by the drooling millions in the Trump cult is that the Center For Disease Control can't be trusted because the doctor in charge of figuring this all out is related to someone who made the fanbase mad. No, really. Dr. Nancy Messonnier is the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases is very well respected in her field, award winning with an impressive bio.

 She's also Rod Rosenstein's sister. Remember him? He was the Deputy Attorney General who was a faith assistant lackey of Trump's consigliere Bill "The Pope" Barr until Fox News decided he was responsible for the Mueller Report and the mean ol' Democrats not taking Barr's Cliff Notes version as enough. So, of course, all this is "Deep State" trying to bring down the Chosen One because the world actually works like a third-rate political thriller. Apparently this developed from one of those Q weirdos fever-dream threads and metastasized by Limbaugh and Fox's pet racist pee-paw Lou Dobbs, among others. If Trump isn't tweeting this out by Friday, I for one will be shocked.

 In any event, budget hearings to tackle CORVID-19 are being planned by Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi, and Trump's mulling appointing a "coronavirus czar". I seem to remember czars being a bad thing when Obama was in office, but what the hell, nothing matters anymore. In the meantime, he's put Vice-President Mike "Remember Me? Anyone?" Pence "in charge" of the CORVID-19 response, though you're guess is as good as mine what that means or what that weird bastard will do with that mandate.

 So, there's that there, then. If you're less than confident and that the dippy bastard in the White House and his coterie of criminal, thugs and outright morons will handle this potentially hellacious event with anything coming close to competency, intelligence or compassion, take heart the rest of the world is on the case. Sometime this morning, more new cases of CORVID-19 were reported outside China than there were in country. Something like 10 cases in China but 2,790 in the rest of the world. Interestingly, the vast majority of cases were reported in South Korea with 1,261.

 That fills me with a little more confidence, I don't know about you. South Korea doesn't screw around when it comes to technological advancement. If nothing else, the future of the human race isn't as shaky as all that. Some comfort, I suppose.

EDIT: After I finished this and while I was eating supper, the CDC confirmed the first case of CORVID-19 in the United States that has a "community spread" unknown origin. That is, the first case where the infected hadn't traveled to China recently. Buckle up, it's going to get bumpier.

 Lastly, there was another mass shooting today, this time in Milwaukee. Six people just trying to make a living were killed at the Molson Coors plant. So far, not much is known about who or why except the gunman died of a self-inflicted head shot. This was the 51st mass shooting this year.

 I have nothing at all flip or clever to say about that.