100 years of the blues.

  I tell you what, I am sick and tired of being in such a bad mood all the time. It's getting harder and harder to put up with anything and everything either gets on my nerves or depresses the hell out of me. My damn sciatic nerve is acting up, too, just to make things that much more pleasant.

 Otis wants to go outside. What he does is go around to the other side of the garage, look around for a bit, and want to come back in. We've done that like four times this evening. If I don't take him out when he wants to go out, he looks for something to rip up, either the carpet or just whatever he can get his mouth around. And then has the audacity of looking like I'm whipping him when I pull him away. He doesn't even need me, that's the real pisser. It's tiresome because if he's awake that's all he wants to do, walk around the garage and then come back inside. One of the reasons I stay up all night is both he and Momma are asleep so I can get some peace and quiet. 

 Ah well. That's life and it'll all end soon enough, I suppose. Okay, then, the News. Pretty decent week, if nothing special. We kept up with Elsa, the Delta Variant, and the condo collapse in Miami. It's been kind of a depressing week, what with the Pacific Northwest burning up and New York City being flooded. I did some writing about music at the Tumblr place, too, so check it out.

 I don't know what else beyond I just don't have it in me to do this tonight. I'm tempted to go ahead and shut it down, maybe come back to it after a nap. I never get enough sleep and I'm drowsy all the time. In any event, it's going to sit here for a while until I come up with something.

LATER: Nope, napping didn't help a thing. Still pissed off and still dull in the brain. There's plenty going on. There's that teacher in Tennessee who got fired for teaching what some people think Critical Race Theory is. There's booger-eating white supremacist Nick Fuentes booting from Twitter and subsequent clown show at CPAC. There's CPAC, which just gets nuttier and nuttier each year. There's flatlander fraud J.D. Vance shit-talking New York City like anyone believes a thing he says. He's going to get stomped into a mudhole in the primary. You'd almost feel bad for him if he weren't such a transparent douchebag.

 But I don't feel like writing about that shit. Maybe I'll be more inclined to face the foul realities of life in these United States tomorrow. I've done pretty well this week with previous Gibberish. Jumping thoughts, I'm currently - as in, as I write this - watching Lucio Fulci's The Beyond. It takes place in Louisiana and features a haunted hotel's basement. If you don't know why that's funny, I can't help you. For what it's worth, it's very much a "style over substance" movie with not much plot to get in the way of the story.

 I guess that's plenty. I'm up for another hour, at least, so maybe something interesting will pop out. Of course, we know how that goes.

Plant that bell and let it ring.

It's been a cool six months since I've smoked any weed. This isn't by choice. I currently live in rural Mississippi, and my only options are buying it from young people that I would otherwise have absolutely no contact with or from a guy my cousin's mother-in-law buys her pills from. He's called "the Tater Man". I ain't buying nothing from "the Tater Man".

 Plus, I'm living with my mother and she's got rules that we will respect. Put simply, my dad passed away a couple of years ago and she turns 71 this year and ain't getting any healthier. Plus, she's taken care of someone - either Daddy or my uncle or my grandmother - for the past 20 years and was apparently at extremely loose ends. I've lost count of the number of people - people I've known all my life or people who've moved into the Valley since I moved out and don't know from Adam's housecat - who've said to me, "Thanks for coming back. We were worried." So far, it's worked for all of us, but back to the topic at hand.

 This is the first time in let's say 15 years that I haven't stayed constantly stoned except when I was on the clock. Good weed, too. I got to a point where I wouldn't mess with any ditchweed, or what they called in New Orleans, reggie. Getting stoned works for me. You know how people will say getting high has a bad effect on them or makes them uncomfortable? Well, I'm the exact opposite. It sharpens the world and brings it all into clarity. What I enjoy straight, I enjoy even more and at a deeper level when I'm high.Same goes for LSD or mushrooms. I don't think I've ever had a bad trip. I've tripped in bad situations, but the trip wasn't the problem.

 One of the many reasons I put off moving home and initially intended to move on as soon as possible was I was worried how the lack of the good smoke would affect me. It really wasn't all that bad, though. I've always been easy-going with occasional storms of gloom and grump, high or not, and that really didn't change too much. I'm not going to lie, though. I would completely whip someone's great aunt for a joint right about now.

 That was last night. This is this morning. I initially started that for the Tumblr site before I realized I was passing on some grade-A Gibberish. So there's that there then. I stayed up most of the night playing Civilization VI. It's really not my sort of game but once I got into it, it was pretty engrossing. I was able to turn Spain into a combination Jewish-Muslim state before I gave in.

 It's 8:30 a.m. and I can feel myself crashing. Luckily, I'm done with the Actual Paying Work for the month, barring requests for rewrites from the Chief. I figure after this month's pay I'll be two-thirds of the way towards the new laptop.

 I wrote this on Twitter but I'll write it here because I think it's a good stroke. In short: if you don't want to "debate" with someone, don't. You don't owe anyone your time, especially if they're not paying for it. Particularly on social media, very few people are arguing from a place of honesty. Most of the time it's just to get you upset so they can mark a "win".

 But here's the thing. Debates, arguments, what have you aren't really meant to win. They're for sharpening your thoughts and clarifying your ideas. It's not a contest, there are no prizes or accolades. You don't owe anyone your emotions and you don't owe anyone the benefit of the doubt. And as for cries of "echo chamber," let's just clear the decks on that right now. First off, anyone who uses that phrase seriously is not worth paying attention to and doesn't deserve your time. Furthermore, if they have Twitter they also have the entire internet at their disposal, just like you do. Because you don't want to waste your time and emotion on some limp-dick jackass who's not going to listen anyway doesn't mean you're in a bubble. Just means you're not going to give your time to a limp-dick jackass.

  You know, I think we'll tie this off here. If something clever comes back around, well... we'll see. We're supposed to have a rainy afternoon and I foresee a lazy day.

All my friends are wearing worried smiles, living out a dream of what they was.

 Man, it's been a weird week. Don't deny it, this is just not right and keeps getting dumber. Not only did the President of the United States of America in front of God and everybody asked one of his advisors if injecting disinfectants into COVID-19 cases would cure them, but he, his office and the general wingnut collective tried to shove it off three or four different ways. That might be scariest of all.

 But before we get too deep into it, let's serve up this week's News.

Monday

Wednesday

Friday

 I think Friday's offering is particularly worth a look, as I go into one of my deep dives on just what he said, why he said it, why it's worrisome and why, no matter how they try, is it going to change a mind one way or another. The Base is unshakable.

 This is a milestone week, though. I got zero hits for the News. I mean, not a sausage, and I usually get at least three or four. I did pick up a new follower, so I don't know how that works but there you go. Got a lot of activity at the Tumblr site, though it was all for older stuff. Check out that Otis Spann tune, though, it's pretty good.

 Ah, the damn internet is dropping in and out again. Apart from lack of access to good smoke, that's about the only downside to living out here in the boonies. Dodgy internet and even when it's running, it's sometimes slow as Christmas.

 I just got back from a two-mile walk with my buddy Otis, the Jack Russell, and he thinks he wants to go out again. He's sitting under my chair sighing loudly. Every day he does this. We go for a walk for a mile or two, just long enough for him to get wore out, and after a short rest he's ready to go back out. And he'll keep doing it until past dinner, sleep for a while, and then spend another hour being a pain in the ass before calling it a night. It's getting on my nerves.

 Okay, enough of all that. No one wants to hear me gripe and I don't particularly want to, anyway. As weird a week as it's been, it's also been an okay one for me. The Actual Paying Work is going well and keeping me busy. The Bossman is happy with what I'm doing and it's nice to have something "serious" to show potential clients apart from this gig. It's boring as hell, but what are you going to do. I do get to write up a COVID-19 update and can have a little fun with that.

 But, like I tell the Bossman, it's good to have to occasionally write to someone else's rules. One of the biggest problems with today's media world is far, far too many writers are allowed to run loose with too little editing. And, no, I never thought I'd say that 20 years ago.

 It's keeping me busy and since it's Actually Work it's wearing me out. I'm kicking around the idea of dropping a day of News or Gibberish, and both of this week's offers of the latter reflect that. Goddammit, there goes the inter... hellfire, it's back. Anyhow, I thought about dropping a day, so what'd I do? Started another blog, of course.

 I'm not sure what, if anything, I'm going to do about it. Spread across three blogs on three different sites at vastly different times, what I have going now is sort of sloppy. As of right now, it's going to be a place to dump links of articles or pieces of writing I find interesting but aren't inclined to read when I first come across them. Might do it with YouTube vlogs and whatnot, I don't know. I have a fairly dark take on the COVID-19 virus that I've gone back and forth on where to post it. It occurred to me today that the new site could be the "professional" site; that is, the one where I don't cuss like a sailor and call the president a moronic dirtbag who leads a horde of complete dirtbags. I don't know yet. Anyhow, it's here if anyone's curious.

 Dammit, there goes the... shit, it's back. You know, between this and Otis's constant whining, I'm developing a headache. Bah. Sometimes he gives in and goes in his box, but he is particularly petulant tonight.

 I broke down and bought XCOM: Chimera Squad yesterday, and though I've only given it an hour, I'm pretty pleased with it. It's a fun little game with a neat premise. If the first game is Independence Day and the second is Battlefield: Earth (for lack of a better reference), this one is Alien Nation, if anyone remembers that little gem. Five years after XCOM 2, the big bads are defeated, and the Earth is full of either alien POW's or formerly enslaved soldiers now dealing with freedom.

 You run a sort of military-slash-police group that's part of the XCOM organization. At least one of the characters from the second game, Jane Kelly, works as sort of a liaison between the Chimera Squad and the larger organization. The crew tries to keep peace in a specialized city populated by humans, various aliens, hybrids, and what all where someone is trying to disrupt the fragile peace.

 Most of the game mechanics are the same, though the turn-based part of it is less like the original games and more like something found in Divinity: Original Sin. You do a little door kicking, a la a SWAT team, called "Breaching" that's a fun little new addition to the game. Rather than trying to keep countries or continents from panicking, you're trying to keep neighborhoods from falling into anarchy. It's less than ten bucks until May 1 and well worth that price. It bumps up to $20 after that, and is still worth a buy.

 Because Fanatical was having a sale, I also picked up Breach & Clear, an XCOM-esque game that uses real world military groups, and The Long Journey Home, a space sim rougelike that has sort of the same backstory as Star Trek: Voyager. The player controls a spaceship made up of four crew members with different skills trying to get back to Earth from the other side of the galaxy. I'm not really familiar with either game, but since I'm a complete sucker for turn-based strategy games and off-the-wall outer space science fiction that aren't military based. I can add that to the backlog of games I haven't finished or need to give another shot. Good thing I've got nothing better to do.

I ain't trying to get into, I was just swingin' on your gate.

 Before we get too deep in the big muddy today, I want to post a link to this superlative piece of journalism from Caleb Bedillion, Tina Campbell Meadows and Blake Alsup of the North Mississippi Daily Journal. Less than a month after Gov. Tate Reeves initially pooh-poohed the very real threat of COVID-19, especially to the people of Mississippi who're more poor and less healthy than the rest of the nation, Tippah County finds itself going under and sinking fast.

 Long story short, this county of 22,000 on the Tennessee line has the among the highest per capita infections in the state with 14.1 known cases for every 10,000 people. There have been three deaths so far, as well, and I know that doesn't sound a lot to y'all what live in the civilized world, but you have to understand what kind of place Tippah County is. Small, rural, close-knit and known for one helluva Labor Day party.

 As of last night, the only county in Mississippi that doesn't have any recorded cases is Issaquena in the Delta. However that county has barely 1,400 people - down from the 2,700 noted on the 2000 Census - a per capita income of just over 10,000. Furthermore, it's mostly African American, and we're learning that of everything that's being shut down, racism in America is still going strong. I've no doubt when the state gets around to it, they will find sufficient.

 So, read that piece. It's pretty good. Also check out this New Yorker interview with Fran Lebowitz. She's a hoot.

 Another link I want to share is this piece I wrote for the News yesterday evening concerning Bernie Sanders dropping out of the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination for President of the United States of America, how it affects the upcoming election as well as the legions of soi-disant leftists left out in the cold, and Just What It All Means. It's not quite as good, but I think it's a pretty solid slice of uncut journalism, but check it out yourself.

 I will say this. Since yesterday, a large number of those aforementioned "soi-disant leftists" have been gnashing their teeth and rending their garments that Sanders wasn't just given the nomination by the party he's been telling to suck his dick for the past five years. For his part, Sanders isn't being obnoxious about all this and hopes to use the delegates he has won (and could continue to win, since he'll be on the ballot for a while) as leverage to get more of his ideas into the party's platform for the election come November. As we say back in the Hills, "that's politics, baby."

 But because not running the risk of being slapped 'cause you're an asshole brings out the worst in people, Twitter's been full of The Faithful - both random dickheads and people whose opinions are supposed to matter - being tedious bores about the whole thing. If they're not demanding Joe Biden personally get down on his knees and perform fellatio on them for their vote, they're declaring their intention to take their ball & just note vote, which will certainly show the Democratic Party, since it worked so well in 1972, 1984 and 2004.

 Hold on, I want to show you something.

 See that? That's my brother, the tail-end of a very good thread of his as to why this whole "I can't in good conscious vote for Biden and another four years of Trump wouldn't be so bad (for me)" is just so irrevocably, undeniably stupid a stance to take. Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer - two of the four leftist voices on the Supreme Court - are both getting on in years and will probably have to retire before 2024 comes around. If you don't think a 7-2 Supreme Court with four Trump judges all in the same vein of Brett Kavanaugh but worse if he could get away wouldn't put give a death blow to any hope of any even slightly liberal rulings for the next two generations - as well as active attacks on contientious things like abortion, privacy laws and right to sue corporations - you are far, far too stupid and myopic to pay any attention whatsoever when it comes to politics.

 Now, I posted that picture of Baby Brother's gracious admission for a little context. For a good two decades, I was the guy that gave you shit and mocked you if you didn't vote. I was the guy who called you small minded when you said things like "politics doesn't matter" or "both parties are the same". I was the guy that worked registration booths and irritated you at work because of your bullshit reason why you didn't bother to take any sort of active participation in deciding who gets to tell you what goes and what doesn't, and why you were a ninny for giving that.

 That was then and this is now, though. I still think voting is important, even necessary, and I firmly believe that not voting as a protest is one of the dumber aspects of American culture. I do think that if we could get more than just maybe 40%, if we're lucky, of the voting age populace to actually take part in the process we wouldn't have to be dealing with, for example, a half-bright effete fancy lad who's never accomplished anything on his own except trading on his name and stirring up the worst aspects of the American psyche. This is your life. You have a say in how things go. You should take it.

 Except I really don't give a shit what you (the royal "you") do anymore. Vote or don't vote, I could give less of a damn but I'd have to be dead. This may be a facet of middle age, cynicism and nihilism taking over, or merely an aspect of my chronic depression, but I don't feel this is my world anymore. I will be 45 come Sunday and I doubt I'll see past than 30 more years on this, the third rock from the sun. I don't have kids. Indeed, I have nothing really invested in the future. I cherish my cousin's little ones, but I am not taking responsibility for them. I'm one of those sorts who has little sympathy if you decided to bring another human being into this veil of tears and it turns out to be a tough row to hoe.

 Much as I hate to say it, I'll be okay. For one, I'm a middle-class straight white guy and it's going to be a long time before we start feeling the cold and hearing the wolves howl. Furthermore, I have a good bit of land in my name and enough investment in such that so long as nothing drastic happens, I'll have plenty to keep me fed for the next 30 years. Even if that falls through, my extended family really likes me and would probably let me put a trailer in their backyard. Plus, I have guns in case shit really goes south.

 But this is your world. You're the one with kids. You're the one who has something invested in the future. You're the one who's choosing to live in this cold, cruel world and sharing the ride with 300 million of your nearest and dearest. You're the one who has to make a decision to boil that frog or do the very least to pull everything back from the Abyss. Read a little history and you'd be amazed at what human beings can pull off once they put their minds to it.

 Finally, I got to say it again. If all it takes for you to throw in the towel and give into pigs and bastards of the world is that the guy, the only guy, you put all your hopes and dreams onto didn't win the race he agreed to run, I have to be frank. I really don't think you really care beyond your ego and I certainly don't think you've got it in you to do the actual work it would take to move this world to what it should be for everyone.

 Prove me wrong or piss off.

They say that murder ain't the cause of the weapon

 I had to shut it down today. Woke up from yesterday's nap in a foul mood that only got worse as I knocked out last night's News. Woke up this morning even gloomier, as bad as I've been in a while. Just one of those days, you know?

 Thankfully, today's nap seems to have shaken things loose. I'm not exactly dancing on the ceiling but at the very least I don't have that black cloud sitting on my face. Every little bit helps, I suppose. Part of the reason I'm in such a squirrelly mood is because I am, at best, a neurotic mess. I may have mentioned it here, but I've got a possible job opportunity I'm working on. Long story short, I haven't heard back whether I have the gig or not and I cannot stand having to wait to hear back from people.

 It's perfectly natural I haven't heard back after a day, as they no doubt have more important things to worry about than my mood. The one thing I have learned from this whole big nothing is how much of my own mental well being I have wrapped up in being able to consider myself a writer. Whether that right there is healthy or not, well, that's the issue.

 For what it's worth, this whole blogging thing and all the different types of things I do, from this Gibberish to the News to whatever I wind up calling the Tumblr stuff, ain't really giving the rush I need. Back when I was a working journalist, I got a little buzz out of seeing my name in a byline or even when I wrote something anonymously. Knowing people seeing it was enough.

 Ego is one of the greatest reasons any sort of artist (writer, musician, dancer, etc.) does what they do where someone else can see it. It's not the sole reason but if anyone tells you otherwise, they are lying. Sure, people see this, or so the viewer counts tell me. I still haven't managed to garner more than 10 readers a day apart from once or twice. I don't know if I even have any regular readers. I'm not sure how to get them. By nature, I am not comfortable advertising myself.

 There's no reason to be blogging, really. I could just bang out some stuff on Google Docs or a writing app I've downloaded. Since getting back into writing, I've read a lot of stuff on the mindset of being a writer, how you're supposed to think of yourself to be one. Frankly, the best advice I've ever seen still comes from Billy Crystal's character in Throw Mama From The Train: "A writer writes. Always."

 I used to think - and still pretty much do - that three things define a writer: a need to tell a story, having a story that needs to be told, and just being enamored of the physical, mechanical process of writing. Somewhere in there, it becomes a way to make a living, and you become either a newspaper reporter (or content creator or medical transcription writer or what have you) or Philip K.Dick. When I got burnt on writing back years ago, I lost the third aspect. It got painful and caused much misery. I like telling stories, but I've always dug putting words together to make something coherent.

 And, as it turns out, when I stopped writing, I lost sight of what it meant to be me. I just drifted through the world. This all ties together, because once I quit writing and once my last relationship ended, all I did pretty much was work, sleep, smoke pot and start it all over again. The last four years in New Orleans are a serious blur and all I remember is working jobs I hated.

 So, now I'm thinking of myself as a writer but the total lack of success or feedback is an issue I need to figure out how to crawl over. I don't have to do this to make a living anymore. It's just for fun, and it has been a lot of fun. I keep telling anyone who pretends to care that this right here is the best part of my day. It occupies my entire interest for the day, what to let out for the Gibberish or what to pay attention to for the News. I'm having a good time, it'd just be nice if I was helping someone else have a good time. Ah, well.

 That's enough bellyaching. The lovely weather we've been having turned to rain this afternoon and it's supposed to get cooler, with more rain peeking in once in a while. I'm still working on the goddamn From Eternity To Here because it asks a whole hell of a lot. Last couple of days I've been revisiting Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen and it is a barrel of monkeys. Your standard high fantasy hack-and-slash third-person RPG, it's got some weird aspects that set it apart from the pack as well as a really fun combat system. It's a couple years old and starting to show it, but if you're into games like Skyrim or The Witcher, it might be worth checking out. I'd wait until it's on sale, though.

 Okay for now. I think that's enough. Sorry for the bellyaching, but sometimes it's necessary. Thanks for putting up with it.

I can't call her "sugar", sugar never was so sweet.

 I'm just posting a quick round of links. I have some actual paying work I'm going to try to get done tonight and don't want to tap myself out. Long story short, all three WordPress links are about the United States' continuing struggle with the COVID-19 virus, how bad the federal government is handling things and how the states are having to pick up the slack, with varying results.

 Monday.

 Wednesday.

 Friday.

 I was fairly active over at the Tumblr site, as the Jukebox In My Mind did a lot of work. Here's something about Dallas band The Old 97's and here's something about John Prine. He's currently battling the COVID-19 and we wish him a lot of luck. I'm a fan. I haven't yet wrote about Bill Withers yet, but I'm a huge fan of his and want to remember his passing.

 A couple of times I got clever about the vocation and, if you will, art of journalism. It's super easy to hate on the "mainstream media" but most folks do it in a way that manages to blind them to not only the good and necessary journalism brings to the party but obscures the actual real flaws that mustard up the whole affair. So here's a riff on a Twitter thought and a pair of quotes, one from Kolchak: The Night Stalker by Jeff Rice and the other by Hunter Thompson's second book of letters Fear & Loathing In American: The Brutal Journey of an Outlaw Journalist. For the record, both books are recommended.

 Maybe more tomorrow, we'll see. Wish me luck.

Don't you never cuss that fiddle, boy, unless you want that fiddle out of tune.

 Though we're just now getting into the change, I'm really trying to keep the news and politics stuff over at WordPress for the News while keeping the Gibberish over here. Sure, there's going to be some bleed but I do want to keep it to a minimum. If for no other reason that separation of strokes being good practice.

 That being said, it's tougher than I thought it'd be. Granted, one reason is my life is pretty dull and won't change much since I like it that way. I don't remember who asked, but the only thing holing up due to CORVID-19 is keeping from doing what I enjoy is traveling. I love to ramble from here to there without a set schedule, getting there anyway whims take me. Otherwise, I haven't left the house in two years except to go to the gym and see whichever doctor I have to check in with.

 Nice thing is, though, I haven't been in the mood to do much rambling since last year's Big Trip and even if it weren't for the pandemic spreading like wildfire, I'd probably still be staying put for the time being. So it works out just fine. Beyond that, though, politics and the media have been so much a part of my life for the past 20 years I can't just shake free. It is baked in.

 As an aside, so many people who spent the past two decades telling me to stop worrying so much about politics are the ones who're full-throated roaring with indignation with the latest pig-eyed bullshit the President and his GOP lackeys are pulling. I'm glad for it, as it takes some of the load off me, and I try my best to not remind them that if they had been listening to me for the past 20 years, we might not be in this mess. I still get a bit of a kick out of it in any event. Anyway.

 I must admit, though, this is all starting to get to me. Not the "social distancing" part or even the changes in society that's popped up. It's the mendacity and pettiness of the president, Republicans in Congress and Republican governors, especially ones in the South. Worst of all is the Base, the people who hoot like seals for Trump and will slit the throat of anyone who crosses him. I am completely convinced they will drown in their own juices rather than go against their Idiot King. The rotten bastard has even owned up that if we do everything from here on out and we're extremely lucky, we're looking at least 100,000 dead.

 They're still calling it a hoax. They're still demanding the president "reopen the country." They're still saying that the doctors and experts calling for more caution and the media reporting on them - which is doing a fine job, apart from a few instances - are just trying to bring down the president. They're still saying it's Democrats alone who're clamping down on civil liberties and wrecking the economy just because they hate Trump.

 They are, in essence, pretending nothing is happening. Mississippi's unemployment claims jumped over 1,500% from last week with 31 million people applying. Percentage-wise, Mississippi leads the nation in hospitalization for coronavirus. We're having over a thousand people nationwide dying from it, with their families separated from them and dying alone. We've topped a million cases worldwide in less than three months. And they still say it's all a big con to make Trump look bad when the dopey shit gibbers through a daily rally that does it well enough.

  Six million people have filed for unemployment across the country. When asked if he'd open Obamacare to help the uninsured, Trump's claiming that the one-time $1,200 check coming maybe in three weeks will take care of that. I guess, though, if nothing else this rips the mask of a number of social shibboleths we've long taken as axiomatic.

 People who stock shelves and cook deserve a wage that's enough to live on and more because they're one of the most important segments of the economy. We can do most of our work via teleconferencing and don't have to keep coming to an office to kiss a boss' ass. We can pull up two trillion dollars in less than a week to bail out the airliners, so the idea that we don't have enough money for, say, single payer or Medicare for all is horseshit. Making the rent each and every month isn't as big a hanging matter as we thought.

 I wonder if it'll stick. I know the average MAGAt is a lost cause, as is most hardcore conservatives and the average libertarian. I'm seeing my own mother, who is very conservative, starting to question things that were considered gospel two weeks ago. I'm not seeing this on Twitter, which is the first bastion of the truly wacky, but I'm seeing it here in Mississippi, which is not liberal at all. We are at a "boiling frog" moment, like with FDR and LBJ, and the strain is starting to get to us.

 Well, it's getting to me, that's for damn sure. I will say I am extremely glad I don't have kids or anything really invested in the future, nor do I have any real reason to interact with the world outside this hill apart from getting groceries and seeing doctors, barring unforeseen circumstances. Anyway.

 I really haven't done much the past couple of days except for the News. Still not sleeping for shit, still reading on the same book - science books take a little more time to dig through - and taking the daily constitutionals with Otis. The wound on Bounce's back is getting better. I woke up with an Old 97's song in my head this morning, so I wrote about it for the Tumblr site. It's pretty good, I think.

 Beyond that, I just don't know, man.

Monday, March 9 to Friday, March 13, 2020

 Here's this week's Gibberish. Basically a daily chronicle of how CORVID-19 spread through the U.S., catching us almost flat footed. "Matt," I hear you say, "You barely touch on the dumb shit the President had to say or the worthlessness of his entire being that he's portrayed in public." Listen, neighbor, at this point you can just assume there's a "Yes, Trump is a useless, avaricious, truculent moron" clause in every one and move on. I ain't got the time, man.

 Anyhow:

Monday, March 9

Tuesday, March 10

Wednesday, March 11

Thursday, March 12

Friday, March 13

 Plus, a few things on the recent primaries and the unhelpful (to say the least) reaction from some people, via Tumblr.

 And, in the interest of a little housekeeping, we're going to try to be a bit more News, a little less bellyaching/navel gazing over at WordPress. If it needs to go anywhere, it'll go here. We'll stick with that format until it becomes untenable or I just decided to change my mind. You ain't paying for this.

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

 Okay, time for tonight's Gibberish. It's actually a two-parter, as wrapping our head around the outcome and consequences of yesterday's Super Tuesday elections needs that much space. The nuts-&-bolts are at WordPress and a more off-the-cuff take at Tumblr.

 Also, I screwed up the dating on the WordPress site, but it seems we're going to have to live with it.

Sunday, March 1, and Monday, March 2, 2020

 I don't know why, but I skipped posting last night's gibberish from WordPress, so I'll post it here with tonight's gibberish. Here's Sunday and here's Monday. Basically, we discuss the reassessment of the Democratic nomination process after Biden's commanding win in South Carolina Saturday, as well as Buttigieg and Klobuchar dropping out, which is great because now everyone's name is easy to spell. Also of note, no one currently in the running for president is under 70. Most people don't see that a problem and, indeed, it's considered ageism to bring it up. Me, speaking as a Gen Xer rapidly approaching 45, I do find it an issue, but what are you going to do.

 Also, here's a thing I wrote on the Tumlr site about Robin Hood, anarchism and the importance of remembering who you're fighting for if you're claiming to fight for anyone besides yourself. You'd be amazed how often most folks, once you scratch the surface, are perfectly willing to sacrifice others for their goals. Or maybe not, I don't know how cynical you are.

Sunday, February 16, 2020

 Okay, we're ready to do this. It's 8:15 p.m., Hillbilly Standard Time, and those were pretty good ribs. I just pounded out a thousand words on honky-tonk royalty, so I don't know if I'm even going to try hitting 500 words.

Saturday, February 15, 2020

 Well, shoot. Another day where I really don't have anything kicking around my noggin screaming and clawing to get out. Ah, but we persevere and the Work must be done.

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

 A little insight on how all this goes down if you'll indulge.

Sunday, February 2, 2020

 I don't know how the weather is wherever y'all are, but today's one of those days that almost makes rural Northeast Mississippi worth the effort, even if it's just in knowing the summer's going to be a booger. Even now, it's going be nasty before the week's out. But for the nonce, let's all just enjoy it.

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

 The first month of the new year, of the new decade. Far out, man.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

 Today would have been Sam Cooke's 89th birthday. My advice to you? Go listen to his 1963 album Night Beat. You'll feel better about whatever it is.

Monday, January 20, 2020

 Really not up for, well... anything today. We are in the grip of some Serious Dumb, friends and neighbors, and despite the bright, shining sun, I am not optimistic about our chances for smartening up anytime soon. Regardless, Work is Work, we'll knock this out quick and go back into hiding.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

 I'm going to go ahead and bang something short out. I got wired & inspired earlier in the day, and knocked out a piece at the Tumblr site. So go check it out.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

 Well, apparently we're not going to war today, so that's nice. Been a weird 72 hours, though, and I'm not sure anyone has any clue what we're doing, much less the guys who're supposed to be running the show. Okay, so let's get up to speed.