A conclave and Nancy Grace will be in her glory

 Diddy trial to start any day now with jury selection still underway.  Don't know the questions the potential jurors get.  "Did you ever see the music video 'Hypnotize' with Biggie and Puffy?"  Got to thinking if I had even a fraction of Diddy's money uppermost for me would be major home improvement e.g. electric staircase going up into the attic with wifi and cupholders.  Telescope up there too.  Kitchen and bath remodel.  The backyard - Inground swimming pool, small Chinese garden/pond with exotic fish, some Greek statuary here and there.  It would never dawn on me to run a sex trafficking ring.  He ain't livin' right.

The Conclave - I don't follow the stuff.  Mainly older Italian guys with a few Africans thrown in the mix.  Keep getting videos in my YouTube feed about the last pope of the End Times but I don't get my theology from Mel Gibson.  You have your Catholics who are more into bingo and bake sales then you have your more eschatologically-minded Catholics who speculate about Antichrist stuff.  YouTube sends me things all the time I never searched for.  A gorilla fighting an alligator.  Clickbait.

So we got a couple of topics going.  A diversion from the usual Trump stuff.

Pope Francis passes away one day after meeting with JD Vance

 There could have been a heated exchange about migration.  Maybe Trump wants to annex the Vatican.  A Homan/Francis meeting would have been most interesting.  The Breaking News - Pope Francis passes away at 88 after a bout with a long illness.

Kind of controversial among popes.  Not popular among the more conservative Catholics who felt he was confusing in his mixed messaging and didn't exactly uphold Church teaching at all times.  Big on climate change.  More liked among progressives is a fair assessment. 

Catholicism an ongoing topic of interest to me.  Varied and diverse.  Catholic prophecy - Fatima and LaSalette.  Rome losing the Faith.  Antipopes.  3 Days of Darkness.  Mystical phenomenon.  The Saints.  Keep getting Padre Pio videos in my YouTube feed.  He said cats are special and God put them into your life for a reason.  I love Church music.  Acoustics in my house of worship are bad.  Can't hear what anybody is saying or else I need an amplifier.  How much money do ushers make?  One Sunday morning usher looks like he came out of Hawaii Five-O.

Vance said he was happy he got the opportunity to meet the Pope.  Francis might have been wondering where is the Christian Brothers?

Taylor Swift and Kelce

 I don't give a rat's ass.

Ah well there's always ice fishing

 MN Governor Tim Walz was "a little surprised" he and Kamala Harris lost the presidential election to Donald Trump.  He feels "I did the best I could."  Not in the VP debate with Vance you didn't you knucklehead.   In his first post-election interview with KSTP a Minnesota news outlet he said "It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way."  Rallies can be a lot like rock concerts.  You go to a blink-182 concert and you think the whole world likes blink-182.  So puberty blockers and transgender surgery for minor kids had nothing to do with your loss.  It's really that the rest of the country isn't progressive enough is his take.

I hope you run into a nice school of yellow perch.

50 Shades Of Diddy

 Not a whole lot to report on the culture front.  Actor Robert De Niro thinks Trump won't relinquish power if elected to a second term.  He needs to reacquaint himself with our system of government first.  84-year old actor Al Pacino now has a 1-year old son.  Don't play too rough and give Dad a hernia.  The T. Swift/Travis Kelce romance.  Pop star Sabrina Carpenter getting competition from upstart Chappell Roan.  I was driving to work this morning, stopped off and sent in my mail-in ballot for Trump/Vance then on the radio they were talking about the sad and tragic death of 31-year old One Direction member Liam Payne who jumped or fell from his room in a Buenos Aires hotel.  TMZ facing backlash over pics they posted of his. The Al Smith Dinner tonight.  Trump came but Kamala Harris didn't.  She sent in a pre-recorded video instead.  Who does this?  NY Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan disappointed.

Got anything? 

Trump is pretty fly for a white guy

There's a growing list of black celebs and influencers who support Donald Trump.  TV personality Amber Rose.  Don King (I thought he died).  Rappers Kodak Black, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg (do a video together?), Sexxxy Red, Azealia Banks, YG, Waka Flocka Flame.  Also 50 Cent likes his tax policy but sometimes he's wavered.  That's the short list.  Essence magazine lists at least 17 others.

Maybe Trump can give a movie review of "Superfly."

The Speech

'Twould have been nice if Donald Trump's acceptance speech on the final night of the RNC had started around 10:00 as some folk like myself have to get up early the next day to get ready for work but Kid Rock had a new song to perform.  The whole night took on a Wrestlemania turn which is not my thing and I could have sworn Hulk Hogan used the term "scumbags" but I was already on my second glass of Skyy.  Trump said early on in his speech that he wants to be president of the whole country and not just half and that "we must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement."  Turned out to be the longest acceptance speech in convention history and I held out as long as I could but finally hit the hay.  Critics are saying his speech was not very unifying but you still have to deliver the meat and potatoes.  Did you expect Trump to start singing Kumbaya? The long speech covered all the topics which we can get into in the comments section.

Thoughts?

This is what you came for

 I honestly think Taylor Swift only goes out with well-known men for the sheer publicity of it all.  Nothing ever comes of it.  Conspiracy theorists say she hooked up with Travis Kelce because he's pimping for Pfizer.  I don't take it to that level it's simply par for the course for her.  She's 34 now and her biological clock is ticking.  I can't check out groceries at the store without seeing her on most magazine covers.  Dua Lipa or any other artist doesn't get this press.  She's a whole sub-economy now.  What are your Swifty thoughts?

The Impeachment Inquiry etc.

Kind of tangentially following the political stuff because I don't care anymore. A lot of other stuff on my plate of late but re this impeachment inquiry for me it's kind of weird that there's some kind of connection between the Ukrainian president and digging up dirt on Joe Biden himself and his son. It'd be like saying there's some kind of Tanzanian connection for that matter but the bottom line is you can't impeach someone for simply being an asshole so you have to have something. Hell Trump might complete two terms with the constant background chatter of impeachment talk. Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings just died at 68 because of poor health. Sen. John McCain died while still in office and of course Alex Trebek with pancreatic cancer is still doing Jeopardy. Seems a trend now work 'til you drop. That ain't gonna be me and I don't see the nobility in it. Soon as I reach the required minimum I'm going online to file my SS. Just saw an interview with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns last night on PBS. He reminds me a lot of Neil deGrasse Tyson for some reason. Their smartness is annoying and do they ever question their own smartness? Burns just did a whole documentary on Country Music which I'm not really into and never could get into not for lack of trying ("...They shot my horse and my wife ran away...") but I did watch parts of it anyway because I like Johnny Cash. Now Burns said he's gonna do one on race which that's another one to slog through God help us. I think we've reached the point where most of us would like to move onto other subjects. Burns said in the interview that Thomas Jefferson had something like a hundred slaves on his estate and we know now that Columbus killed the Indians so you can't really honor anyone these days. I don't know man talk about what you want.

& the award for Best New Political Artist goes to AOC

I get the feeling Trump wins reelection in 2020 because the Democratic field is so diluted from which a real powerhouse is unlikely to emerge.  What are there twenty candidates now?  Cardi B may as well run.  Impeachment seems not much worth it to quoth Nancy Pelosi.  My mind is tired.  I've moved onto other things.  It might be a good thing if Maroon 5 stopped churning out new songs.

The death of Prince, a break from the Trump cycle

According to the wiki meaning provided by Prince himself Purple Rain means "the end of the world, being with the one you love, letting your faith/god guide you."  Prince was a religious sex symbol and according to one Times writer his sexual orientation was he loves You.  Prince dead at 57.  Why do the world's dictators live such long lives?  Former SS guards live into their 90's, Manson still getting three squares a day?  Prince 1958-2016 RIP

Papal thoughts

Re the wonderful papal mass at MSG it would have been such a nice touch if that great cantor got to sing the Prayer of St. Francis.  I have a somewhat more positive view of Francis after his trip to the States although he needs to get off the climate change.  What's up with Boehner?

The Dukes of Hazzard problem

To start off I don't think this old show was particularly great but it anchored my Friday night tv schedule when I was growing up.  I remember it well, Dad and Mom would come home from food shopping and Dad would give us a box of Devil Dogs but Mom would say go eat an orange.  So TV Land is yanking the show because of the whole Confederate flag controversy which wouldn't be that much of a controversy had that young Aryan racist not shot up that black prayer meeting.  Wondering does Katy Perry now have to tweak her hit song "California Gurls" because it includes a line about Daisy Duke bikinis?

Maybe it's not so much the NSA, maybe it's Google

Slow day at work so we got to discussing Google. A woman thinks Google+ is a good idea but I said I wasn't comfortable. That's a public profile so if you're not big on privacy folks can get to see that you downloaded The Advanced Guide to Rimjobs let's say or a self-help book regarding substance abuse. I was reading an app review for Yonkers PD Tips and there's an actual guy's name who commented and I clicked something and got to see his literal movie, book and music library on whatever devices Mike has. Now they make conservatives out to be nosy people poking around in folks' business but I really don't care to know all this. Google Maps and the Street View, guy at work told me how they get those images. They have a team who drive these white cars around with yellow things on top that take the pictures and they do this every six months. Hey BB there's a job for ya. Of course out in CA Google is test-driving driverless cars and then there's all the Glassholes out there. It's ALL OUT THERE but it ain't all good imo. Dunno, maybe the Snowden rage is misplaced or could be divvied up more. Mommy there's a Google monster under my bed.

I'm not an appy camper today

I lost my techno-virginity a few years back, I know a few moves. Now I don't have the same knowledge as one of those e-dorks you see hanging out at the public library all day with their devices but I do feel I'm fairly literate in the area now. We can talk about the pros and cons of sideloading .apk files and I'm comfortable. So lately I installed on my tablet one of those much-ballyhooed cleaner/sweeper apps to improve memory and storage and so there's an option for cleaning your media files so I read the prompts and messages very carefully and took my time mulling it over. Now nowhere does the app say this will delete your media files, the very word "delete" is not even used but the operative word is clean so eventually I went ahead. Lo and behold my entire music library was deleted as well as a few videos I downloaded. Not the end of the world, there were no important docs but I just sat there on my bed and it was a warm and muggy night and I was just stunned just the same. Mind you this was an app update so I went to read the app reviews and the vast majority were negative. Now instead of actually addressing the complaints of the app-users the Mobile Support Team kept repeating one or two stock answers over and over again. Very annoying. So I HAD to uninstall the little monster yesterday else it might one day actually eat up, inhale my tablet. I've kind of come to the conclusion over time that while Apple is vastly more expensive than anything Android the iOS is not as annoying and frustrating as the Android OS and they say malware is not really a problem. Read any tech support forum devoted to Android users and you get the drift. WHY all the suffering, is it necessary? I mean folks are busy, they don't have time for this. So yesterday I did my first Google Maps street views and while it's creepy it's also fascinating. Is that BB there trimming his hedges? All these techno-issues though, no wonder everyone's walking around so irritable. Maybe this is what happened to Shia LaBeouf, dunno:)

The contradictory world of technology

This happened to me once, you'll be on your tablet and a startling message comes up - "You're running out of storage space." Once you calm down you realize it's not all that tragic as you have many files that aren't that mandatory for you but you were in a downloading mood. Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" video never made sense anyway but all the same you were encouraged to put all that content in in the first place. So this important notification suggests deleting media content, unpinning stuff, uninstalling apps so you get yourself a cache cleaner and you feel like you're cleaning house. Google Play boasts they have over 700,000 apps in their appstore and not that long ago you were actually encouraged, nay pushed to get all the apps you could muster but now a very important app comes along, actually it's an App Uninstaller because you may have installed too many apps that you don't really use that much. I was looking over my download history this morning and this mobogenie apk file must've automatically downloaded like over 10X. I don't know whether to say thanks for the pup, I actually like mobogenie but I feel like BB sometimes that maybe it's a good idea to take a break from the technological scene once in a while. You're pushed to download as part of this digital consumerism then you're told you should clean house. It's like taking up smoking just so you can quit.

Mitt Romney had a better grasp of foreign policy

Just sayin'. Most countries these days are responsible for at least one or two positive contributions to the civilization-at-large. Of course everything is Made in China today but Japan has given us superior cars and cameras for example and even South Korea has Samsung headquartered there. Has Russia ever given us a digital camera, a computer chip, a smartphone or a new tablet? Russia is known for two things only - vodka and its military buildup. I remember learning in high school that a large % of the Russian economy, maybe it's even the majority is devoted to its keeping up its military might. Putin is an anachronistic leader and seems to have a very bad case of those cold war blues. Putin doesn't like Pussy Riot, he doesn't like the gays and he's not into going forward. Of course Obama's red lines mean nothing, it'd be like Gilbert Gottfried being a bar bouncer. A former director in the KGB vs. a former Chicago community organizer and I'm thinking my Dad is right Hillary would have been a better president at least on the world stage. So what's gonna happen now if Crimea becomes officially annexed to Russia again? is Obama gonna issue one of them executive orders he likes so much say banning the import of their famous drink? It's like as soon as the Sochi Olympics were over Putin couldn't wait to get back to the action. So has anyone apologized to Mitt Romney yet?

Grammys

Now I know why I never really watch any of those major award show extravaganzas on Sunday nights at least not in their entirety. I skim and surf them at best but when it comes to the music awards shows like the Grammys it always inevitably devolves somehow into black/urban music aka rap/hip-hop which isn't really my thing and from what I saw somehow combining that with Imagine Dragons didn't work imo. Beyonce & Jay-Z, you know if we stopped helping celebrities trend on Yahoo everyday they might not be the massive ego-trippers they've turned into. Help them out will ya, google a major disease instead. Lots of parents and others are up in arms over Jay-Z and his wife's raunchy routine last night, what is it somehow classier when Beyonce twerks instead of Miley? and oh yeah there was some type of gay mass weddings going on although I must've missed that part. I've never liked the mixing of politics and any type of major awards show from LA but they all do it and that's usually when I change the channel to a NutriBullet infomercial or a Sanford and Son rerun. I honestly don't even know who won I was so turned off.

I need another TMI closet

Robin Thicke told Howard Stern he and his wife Paula Patton have done nearly everything. I know all about Sandra Fluke's monthly birth control expenses and how Michael Douglas got his cancer. Katie Couric once had her colonoscopy filmed and John Mayer has had coitus with Jennifer Aniston. There's older stuff like Bob Dole's erections, Bill Clinton's crooked member. Some quite dated Johnny Carson stuff and Frank Gifford has a thing for smelly women. I don't know where to keep all this stuff. Maybe I'll go to Home Depot and get one of them sheds.

Facebook Follies

Let's face it Mark Zuckerberg was a genius and social-networking trailblazer but lately there was the FB IPO which sucked and now in business news AT&T has decided to sell the brand new Facebook Smartphone for just 99cents since that turned out to be a flop on all fronts including even the software and apps.  Facebook has also had troubles and controversy of late with some pedophiliac-themed pages which have popped up every now and then and well anyway now the next big kid on the block is Pinterest and while I don't think Facebook is gonna go the way of MySpace (MyWho?) anytime soon I really think he needs to give the big Ralph Kramden brainstorms a rest for now.  In other news Ariel Castro he of the infamous and bizarre Ohio kidnapping case now says he should have just stopped at two women as sex slaves.  Yeah you got greedy bro!  Also some big ABC News producer, the he became a she and walked on the wild side and the marriage is kaput with two kids in the mix.  Used to be you could practically go days on end in the news cycle and it was boring now it's offensive, strange for some reason but in an interesting way.  I used to like Pink but her songs are now like crabgrass on the radio, new songs every week and I've kinda had my fill and who is this Phillip Phillips guy?  They made a big deal over what Justin Bieber wrote in that Anne Frank guestbook over in the Netherlands but I categorize it probably as a brainfart, basically an expression of a thought you can't even explain or express properly and I thought what people write in the logs at museums and galleries is kinda private anyway.  Got a buck? I wanna go get me a new smartphone, maybe ten.