MAGA MIGA and MAHA

 Sounds like a science fiction movie.  Pass the popcorn. 

Don't mess with the Zohran.  Former dishonored Governor of NYS Andrew Cuomo yesterday lost the Democratic NYC Mayoralty primary race to this guy Zohran Mamdani who I never heard of.  I'm guessing Cuomo has some kind of law background to fall back on or maybe his brother Chris can help.  Maybe he can become the custodian at an auto dealership or slice deli meats.  It appears a fair number of New Yorkers still wanted him as Mayor but that's it for the comeback groper.  Maybe he can run for Yonkers Sidewalk Commissioner.

Trump is at war with his own country

 It might be any day now Marines come up the Hudson River to land at the Yonkers City Pier.  As I said in my last post the majority of today's conservatives ain't that freedom loving to begin with.  Yes I'm looking at you Hannity.  They have no issues with the Trump Administration censoring pro-Palestinian speech on campus.  They're ok with the Administration monitoring the social media posts of foreign students.  They're down with the possible militarization of major US cities in response to the growing ICE protests.  No libertarian concerns whatsoever.

One of the first things any would be dictator/fascist does is go after freedom of speech.  MAGA is just a bunch of gutless wonders, a cult at this point.  In my view Trump is a hater and a joyless prick no matter how FOX News and Dr. Phil try to spin it.

The PBS thing is to distract you from not getting your $5,000 DOGE check

 Trump is the everything but the cost-of-living president.  Trump also wants to defund NPR through executive action.  Actually ending taxpayer funding for both NPR and PBS would require an act of Congress as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was created by that body in the first place.  I don't listen to NPR so don't have much to say.  As for PBS let's say they do have a political slant most of the shows on PBS have nothing to do with politics.  Saw a sewing show once that put me to sleep.  Bob Ross takes the edge of a rough day and you have your penguin documentaries and cooking shows and music specials.  Also a lot of stuffy British fare.  Don't watch PBS as much anymore.  Heavy channel-surfer or just watch YouTube.

When is Trump gonna take over Yonkers?

Warehouse cat. Union job.

 

Yonkers has a bit of a rat problem.  Messy neighbors.  Yards that look like Sanford and Son's.  A cat will wait patiently for over one hour to catch one rat.  He's on vacation btw.

The dork with a chainsaw

 I'm just waiting for some sense of normality from this Administration but we're not getting it.

You gotta be careful with those things.  Musk had a chainsaw at CPAC but I recently bought a polesaw at Lowe's last summer to cut up some dead branches in the backyard.  Dealt with a lot of dead branches down through the years from Yonkers storms.  The polesaw is a version of a chainsaw a handy tool for dealing with unwanted small trees on your property or at least when the limbs pose a problem.  Only used it a couple of times.  Tricky getting the chain tension just right.  Came off a couple of times while testing it out no harm.  I wouldn't hire Musk.  A nerd with a power tool scares me.  Don't know if he even knows how to use a condom.

The weird theater is becoming tiresome.  Will Trump sign off on the House plan to cut Medicaid and break a campaign promise?  Maybe it's time to free himself from Musk.  This bromance can't last forever.

Trump reminds me of Mr. Mayhem on the Allstate commercials

 Shock and Awe.  The DOGE.  Have Musk and Trump showered together yet?  Do we really need cancer research?  When am I going to get my tax refund?  Will Trump change the street cleaning days in Yonkers?  Layoffs of thousands of federal workers.  When can I expect my first DOGE check?  Will Medicaid still cover nurse visits?  When is ICE coming to Yonkers?  Trump wants Zelensky to pay the money back with rare earth minerals.  Like what?  Hannity was more interested in what Musk had to say.  Why does Musk want the personal details of millions of Americans?  When are we going to Mars?

Chaos.

But does he know how to install an attic ladder?

 On a budget. Contractors charge too much.  So I woke up this morning to find the front gate wide open, went out to close it and found a homeless Mexican sleeping on the front porch in the corner with his own bedding and about three of those reusable shopping bags.  Regardless of the situation I ALWAYS go downstairs first to set the coffee and then feed the cats I mean if the house isn't on fire or something.  We called the cops they came and the man got up and took his stuff and left.  I asked the lady cop if they take him anywhere and she said no.  Homan might offer him a nice place to stay with three square meals a day and running water dunno.  The homeless guy left empty peanut shells all over the place snacking during the cold night.  Also left his bedding on the sidewalk which I had to throw out.  Code Enforcement you know can't take a chance.  Welcome to the Big YO.  What would Hannity have done?

Patio needs a little work.  Does he do masonry?  Ho ho ho and a bottle of Jose Cuervo.

Mindless in Gaza

 In addition to Canada Greenland and the Panama Canal Trump now wants the Gaza Strip.  He said at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it would be a good idea if the U.S. took control over it.  I didn't know Gaza was for sale.  Trump says it could be rebuilt into a Riviera of the Middle East but first the Palestinians should get out and live somewhere else.  Egypt?  Jordan?  Yonkers?  Many are calling this a call for ethnic cleansing but it is sure to appeal to the far-right elements in the Israeli government. 

Every president tries their hand at peace in the Middle East.   The Trump Plan a golf course some hotels and casinos in Gaza but no Palestinians allowed.  Is there a Nobel Prize in the works?

In a surprise move Homan deports himself

 What do you guys think of the ICE raids?  They haven't hit Yonkers yet but I didn't check the list.  Obama holds some sort of record for deportations.  Unk Joe deported his share without the fanfare.  Are there any women out there who find Homan sexy?  Can Homan deport Diddy?  The Pope and the Bishops have issues with Homan and Trump and Vance said some things.  Is Melania going back to Slovenia?  Maybe Gordon Ramsay can have a spinoff Top Illegal Chefs winner doesn't get deported.  Selena Gomez was crying.  Maybe we need a boring president like Gerald Ford.

Forgive the clickbait. 

How much weight do Executive Orders have?

 I mean beyond the merely administrative technical stuff.  They never really impressed me as having the permanence of real law and besides that they can be legally challenged.  Laws or proposed laws have to go through the cumbersome process of passing through legislative bodies first where they are then debated and discussed.  Executive orders instead give off a whiff of whimsical autocracy.  "I hereby declareth I don't like polka dot ties."  The other thing that strikes me as silly is each succeeding president can simply issue executive orders that are the exact opposite of those of the previous Administration.  Trump wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico.  I don't care if he wants to rename it the Gulf of Yonkers it has no weight with scholars or academics or meets international standards of acceptability.  How 'bout the Yucatan Peninsula?  What strikes Trump's fancy here?  Where does it end?  There's a whole bundle of Trump executive orders dealing with immigration alone that are sure to be challenged in the courts.  This is not the way government is normally run it just gives any new president a sense of ephemeral power.  It's like a make believe scepter.  Go play with your crayons.

How 'bout an executive order that declareth that henceforth and going forward there shall be no more executive orders?  Forevermore.

Bibi was only playing around

 He bombed a few hospitals in Gaza but Trump has promised "all hell will break loose" in the Middle East if Hamas does not release the rest of the Israeli hostages by the time he is inaugurated.  I almost said installed as Trump has a kind of monarch complex.  It won't be good for Hamas or anybody else he said.  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? Also where can Netanyahu travel these days?  The ICC has issued a warrant for his arrest for war crimes and the Polish PM said he'd arrest him if he comes that way.  Our own House in turn has voted for sanctions against the ICC.  If Trump follows through on his threat to unleash hell in the Middle East he too could wind up on the ICC docket someday.  Meanwhile Trump said he will sign 100 Executive Orders on Day One.  About what?  Sidewalk cleaning in Yonkers?  Also where is T. Swift these days?  Will she send a multi-million dollar aid package to LA County?

Day One of the New Year

 A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the entrance to the Trump Hotel in Vegas.  Being investigated by the FBI as a possible terrorist event.  Driver killed and a few others suffered minor injuries.  Also a truck plowed through crowded Bourbon Street in New Orleans around 3 in the morning and killed at last count at least 15 revelers and injured 35 others.  42-year old Army vet and Texas native Shamsud-Din Jabbar was the driver and killed in a shootout with police.  Had an ISIS flag in his pickup.  Both the Cybertruck and pickup both rented through the car renting app Turo.  Possible link between the two events being investigated.  FBI thinks Jabbar was not a lone wolf but possibly had terror associates.  NYC and Yonkers recorded their first murders of the New Year.

Not an auspicious start.  It would have been really nice not to have anything to blog about today.  Ease into the New Year ya know?

For your consideration

 Considerable discussion has been given to the Dead Internet Theory.  My own view we're at least halfway there.  As far as conspiracy theories go there are scraps of truth.  This is a real post btw.  I really do have to cut my sidewalk grass in Yonkers.

Building a better blog

 Cats?  Pipe smoking?  The Middle East?  No foreign policy post for Dennis Rodman in a Trump Administration?  My drone is better than your drone?

Recent case in Yonkers.  A couple brought a very young cat which was severely injured to a local vet clinic and dropped it off without giving their names or phone numbers.  Anonymous good Samaritans but there's a bad twist.  Cat later died and tested positive for rabies.  The County Health Department is desperately trying to track the couple down to have them tested for the virus.  Got me googling rabies again with my hundred other topics.  Rabies is still generally considered fatal but...

As always though talk about anything you like.

Word on the street is Homan is going to start deporting in Chicago

 Who elected this guy?  He's like a law unto himself.  When does he hit Yonkers?

No drones over Yonkers yet

 If there were I would simply chalk it up to Yonkers keeping track of who's not cutting the grass along their sidewalk and who's late on their property taxes.

Mysterious SUV-sized drones have been spotted flying over areas of New Jersey and New York.  Aliens?  Some weird social experiment being run by a university?  Google?  Iran?  China?  Putin?  The FBI?  The CIA?  The military?  Some brilliant 10-year old young Sheldon type kid operating a fleet of drones from his parents' basement?  A plan to rescue Diddy?  Some type of Trump illegal immigrants surveillance project?  Is Homan operating these things?

People are alarmed.  Congress is concerned.   The FBI doesn't have answers.  Somebody knows something. 

Rachel Maddow and the Covid Chronicles

 Maddow has issues with Trump's cabinet picks particularly Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to head the NIH.  He was a signer to the Great Barrington Declaration out of Stanford University which was basically against covid lockdowns in general and said herd immunity is the way to go.  There was an important caveat to this however: targeted protection for the most vulnerable groups (e.g. the elderly, people with co-morbidities etc.).  In other words during that covid timeframe you didn't invite Grandma over for the holidays.  We all understood this, everyone was on the same page but Maddow has outright lied about Dr. Bhattacharya and his views.  This wasn't exactly the Swedish model that basically said go about your business and the deaths will frontload early and then level off.  In the U.S. we had one of the highest covid death rates despite the lockdowns and mitigation efforts the 6 Foot Rule not even based on science as Fauci later admitted.  No matter to Rachel Maddow.  We also have early footage of Maddow stating emphatically that when you get covid-vaccinated the virus can't use you as a host and transmission stops with you blah blah blah which we now know is not true.  My brother has been hyper-vaccinated which is what most doctors still recommend these days and he still came down with a few cases of hardcore covid.   I'm not even clear whether Maddow and her hero Dr. Fauci even believe we have functioning immune systems but many people say she's in the pocket of Big Pharma and the military/industrial complex.  Word on the street is she's dragging MSNBC down the tubes with her.  Rumor is Musk might buy MSNBC outright.  Maybe Walmart, maybe Yonkers, maybe a feral cat colony island.  The times they are a'changing.

The Trump legal bundle is being dismissed

 As in have a nice day.  DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith says let's move on.  No community service in Yonkers when he leaves.  Nothing.  Meanwhile Trump has said he will impose massive tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on Day One.  A lot on his plate on Day One.  Securing the border, deporting the illegals, tariffs.  So who's coming in from the North anyway?  The illegal French?  Canadian drug cartels?  It's so much bloviating.  I think Day One will be more like settle in, move the furniture around and have a cold one.

A Room With A Liberal View

 Lots of people wondering how "The View" has been on the air for 30 years.  Basically a bunch of liberal chicks sitting around a table with one token conservative.   Sometimes they start yelling.  I thought "The View" was supposed to be a light and frothy show.  Instead you get Whoopi Goldberg's anti-Trump meltdowns.  The other one Sunny Hostin who I never heard of before says uneducated women voted for Trump meaning they never went to college.  So wait a minute your WHOLE education up to but not including college doesn't count?  Then she says racism and misogyny also were big factors that got Trump in.  The price of pet food had nothing to do with it?

Word on the street is "The View" might be on the chopping block along with Morning Joe.  Elon Musk might buy everything that's not nailed down.  Maybe buy Yonkers who knows?

Back in the day we called them stray cats then the breed became romanticized

 

Sometimes alley cats.  Now they're referred to simply as ferals.  Stylistic changes in the language over the years.  I'm always a step or two behind.  Actually cat groups, cat people or the cat industry have come up with official more technical definitions for each.  I don't inquire I simply help when I can.

This is Charlie who I've blogged about before.  Neighborhood tom who now allows me to pet him.  Comes around fairly regular.  All my cats are fixed so there's no shenanigans going on.  Incidentally Google always corrects it to Tom like that's his name.  Clean cat for a feral.  I think the neighborhood people look after him.  Dead rats and mice fairly regular sight around here.  Cats doing their job.  Unfixed toms have a big face.  Mr, Galaxy calls it a face mask to help protect them during cat fights.  Stay out of trouble Charlie.

Tip:  Pulled chicken which you can get at many supermarkets these days share it with the cats.