I thought you weren't supposed to talk about this stuff

 Trump reveals the CIA is conducting covert operations in Venezuela.  Kinda like saying you have a mole in the Mafia.  Meanwhile Trump continues to blow fishing or drug boats out of the water.  Whatever happened to boarding the vessel first and checking for flares and life preservers?  Does Hegseth have enough hair gel?

A broken clock is right twice a day

 By my calcs for every ten bad things Trump does he does one good thing.  The release of the remaining hostages in Gaza or trying to get Big Pharma to lower drug prices.  So for Trump to do five good things he has to do fifty bad things.  You do the math.

Trump wasting time on Kimmel

 Jimmy Kimmel is back on late-night.  Trump is blasting him on his Truth Social.  Says he may pursue legal action against ABC.  OK this needs to be said as I've been fairly civil up until now and it needs to be said NOW.

This ISN'T conservatism this is just assholeism. 

Trump is not guided by any consistent political or even philosophical principles just his own Ego.  I have a more mundane analysis of Kimmel's low ratings and it has nothing to do with politics or lack of talent.  Most people have to go to work early the next day and are not going to stay up to hear the late-nighters' take on the day's events.  Conan, whoever.  Even many retirees go to bed after Wheel of Fortune.  As for me by Kimmel time I've long since downed the last few drops of the Christian Brothers and hit the hay.  Nothing political about it.

BTW I didn't know Tylenol/autism was even a thing.  Take it from Dr. Trump.  Maybe I need to get out more;)

Why I was against the Jimmy Kimmel suspension

 There's the free speech thing of course but more than this it makes Kimmel into an undeserved martyr and he will return Tuesday night puffed up with his own self-importance.  Also his lame joke about the Charlie Kirk shooter being MAGA widely missed the mark.  If you read the kid's texts to his trans lover right after the shooting he's not all that right-wing as it turns out.  Middle-wing or even left-wing maybe but since Kimmel is way past my bedtime anyway meander down any tributary stream of discussion you like.  My bones are getting old.  In my drawer I have the Tylenol arthritis version.  What do I do now?

Trump wants to ban drug advertising on TV

I see it as a free speech issue but Trump being Trump wants to protect us.  I see a little Bobby influence here.  RFK Jr. the nation's doctor.  Actually these Big Pharma produced TV ads are so well made you want the drug even if you don't have the ailment.  Guy or gal climbing a mountain at sunrise or kayaking.  Rare side effects may include swallowing your tongue or sticking your head in the oven.  I don't think Trump will ever get to the cost-of-living in his second term.  Too much on his plate.  Maybe he's saving it for his third term.

And Happy Tremfya to you.

I suppose I have to talk about it

 I had wanted things to become less contentious around here but it's inescapable.  RFK Jr. being grilled by the Senate.  From the clips I watched seemed mainly about covid and the covid vaccines.  They really built a religion around these covid vaccines so many people were predicting there would be an orchestrated coordinated attack against RFK Jr. by the elites right about now.  In fact there's a leaked memo from Bio about this.  The rest of us have moved on however but some people are still taking the shots.  I'm not sure when full immunity is supposed to kick in maybe after the 17th booster?  I'm thinking there would be at least a public clamoring for a better product on the market by now.  This is not about the public health it's about the $$$$$$.  I didn't want to go down this road again.  Not a fanboy of RFK Jr. but a large swath of the public has lost faith in ThE SciEnCe.  You know it's really weird the Left used to criticize Big Pharma.  Guess times have changed:)

Gain of Fauci

 So what's new on the health front?  YouTube is the McDonaldizing of information so I tend to go there.  Bite-size med news.  Casual hobby of mine poking around health topics.  Did not know gum disease can cause severe headaches.  Teeth can be at the root of a lot of stuff.  The human body is complicated.  The lymphatic system is your sewer system and it can get clogged from time to time.  In my YouTube feed.  After 60 everything goes downhill.  Ass leakage, fungal toes.  Sore hip.  Hair growing out of your ears.  Scattered sleep.  You laugh you pull a muscle.  Brain fog.  Nowadays when you see the doctor you're supposed to tell him what drug you want him to put you on.  Saw an old guy once in the library walking down the stairs backwards.  My late Dad did that.  Supposed to ease the pain or something.   Things to look forward to.

I still have my goblet of Christian Brothers in the evening and two good cups of strong coffee in the morning.   No rest for the weary.  Keep going.  Learn some things.  Posting about Trump everyday hurts the brain.

At this stage of the game if you still have Trump bumper stickers on your vehicle you're a cultist

 I know at least two people like this.  One at my workplace and the other one a neighbor.  After only a few months into Trump's second term any reasonable person left right or middle would have concerns.  I get the denialism up to a point but something has to give.  Trump sending illegals to places other than their home countries how is this even legal?  Trump now suing the WSJ over its factual reporting on his long-standing friendship with Jeffrey Epstein he's trying to chill a free press and the list goes on.  I'm not big on political bumper stickers but sometimes there comes a time you have to scrape them off.  The Trump cult scene at this point it kind of has the feel of the acid scene in the cemetery in Easy Rider.  I just long for the days when we can get a mature adult of whatever political persuasion in the WH again.  You ever notice Rubio's face?  Every once in a while you get that WTF's going on look.

Dunno. I just want my president to act human ya know?

 IMHO Trump entered his second term in an antagonistic attack mode itching for fights.  For instance he could have just deported those Venezuelan gangbangers simply on the grounds they're here illegally instead of invoking some long-forgotten wartime act although Judge Boasberg still comes across as your stereotypical soft on crime leftist judge.  Musk -  DOGE sees fraud and corruption everywhere.   Musk would probably see waste and abuse in the cemetery business.  Time to let this corporatist bastard go.  Let him concentrate on flying around the rings of Saturn or whatever suits his fancy.  Trump goes in and out of the clear state (e.g. Greenland).  He's half mental but Republicans and conservatives are enabling him for some reason.

Pop a Prozac. 

Usha Vance to watch national dogsled race in Greenland

 You can't make this shit up.  Not on my bucket list.  Maybe Vance's wife will spot a Yeti.  No word yet on whether Homan's going.  Is that where all the fentanyl comes from?  Musk and Trump might share a naked sauna together to discuss further government budget cuts.

I wasn't invited.

Biden may as well pardon Diddy at this point

 In addition to son Hunter President Biden has also pardoned about 1,500 Americans mostly released to home confinement during the pandemic for non-violent drug offenses.  Being with the missus can be punishment enough.  In addition Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 federal prisoners on death row who will now be serving life behind bars.  Not a supporter of the death penalty myself but didn't know Biden was such a passionate opponent.  Trump has promised to become an execution machine while in office.  Is there anything not on Trump's to-do list?

Biden also pardoned the mailman for delivering the mail late.

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.

RFK Jr. hit the honey pot

 RFK Jr. tapped to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.  A powerful post which oversees the CDC and the FDA.  Cross-pollination or people who were once in Big Pharma now working for the FDA a big issue for Kennedy.  Also don't expect any massively expedited vaccines on the market without long-range safety data first.  Operation Warp Speed belongs on Star Trek.  Dunno about the raw milk.

An interesting and eclectic Cabinet.

Trump's war on women continues with his selection of a woman to be his Chief of Staff

 Little known Susan Summerall Wiles or Susie Wiles for short.  Was Trump's campaign manager.  67-year old grandma and daughter of the late American football player and broadcaster Pat Summerall.  Back in the day involved in Reagan and Florida politics.

The New Republic.  I used to read this when it was just a mag in Barnes and Noble.  Kind of a liberal version of National Review I would read it on occasion.  With Michael Kinsley as editor I found it a tolerable read.  He's gone on to other things and now it's just straight up deranged political commentary basically untreated TDS.  Reminds me of the scene in Easy Rider when they drop acid in the cemetery.  

Is Trump gonna find a role for Snoop?

Trump is pretty fly for a white guy Part 2

 Apparently there's an issue with not enough black men who are automatically going to vote for the Harris/Walz ticket.  Heresies and blasphemies!  Obama has admonished them and now Kamala Harris has promised $20K in forgivable government loans for 1 million minorities to start businesses.  Harris also wants to legalize pot not an uncommon position but is also looking at it from a business potential angle.  I recently took out two loans through my union but nothing in the fine print about not having to pay them back.  On the pot front my neighbors are big potheads.  I'll be enjoying my fine Navy Flake MacBaren's pipe tobacco on my front porch and the smell of pot is always wafting over from the porch next door.  Modern-day Americana.  Norman Rockwell with a modern flair.  

So too many black folk have a nostalgia for the Trump first-term pre-pandemic economy.  Even the Trump loathing media admits the price of groceries was lower back then.  Black voters thinking out of the box.  A problem for the Dems.

Don't book 'em Danno. It's legal now

One late afternoon sitting on my porch having my fine cigar and a funny aroma came wafting over.  Hi neighbor!  In my travels I'm noticing more cannabis shops opening up.  One changed its sign from Cannabis to Leafology.  A sign might say the Legal Cannabis Store and that's right next to the legal sneaker shop.  Many pot hobbyists are fiercely anti-smoking cigarettes.   Lived in my aunt's apartment for a time and my cousin had a meltdown 'cause I smoked a few.  At the same time he's a heavy pothead who keeps cholesterol graphs for his health.  I'm fine with the Christian Brothers/Tito's scene.  No need to take it to the next level.

The mystery of depression

Whenever I've suffered from depression I can almost always trace it to some major life event that triggers it and it can run the gamut from romantic rejection or breakup, lost loves or betrayal, guilt/remorse/regret to an illness or problem in the family to prolonged joblessness and even job rejection itself can at times get it going. It could be the job itself is depressing, I've had those and they say a major side issue of cancer patients is depression caused by having the cancer. There are those however and there are millions out there who are depressed and don't know why, who can't get out of bed in the morning but can't trace it to any life-situational thing. This is the common everyday depression we hear about in the news and a whole pharmaceutical industry has burgeoned up around it. I don't deny this reality but I've never fully understood it either. It's not spiritual depression or angst or a midlife crisis or a state of mind caused by your overall life situation it's just, well depression. It's all about the chemistry of the brain, neurons and gray matter and stuff. In other words people who should be happy but are dragging all day. It'd be like being in the Garden of Eden before the original sin and not being happy and God scratching His head. It's over my head so feel free to elucidate and clarify.

Hippyfied health care

CVS won't sell tobacco products but medical marijuana dispensaries seem to be sprouting up everywhere these days.  Alcohol continues to be heavily demonized (e.g. nearly every insomnia website warns don't drink before bedtime) but hemp use is actually being medically encouraged within a limited for now framework of course.  Granny don't smoke, Granny don't drink, Granny light up a joint in the cancer ward.

The latest celebrity tragedy

While not an epidemic exactly more and more Hollywood stars have gone off the deep end of late as in over the cliff - Heath Ledger, Philip Seymour Hoffman and now Robin Williams (1951-2014 RIP). Of course the truism holds "money can't buy you happiness" but there are deeper forces at work as there always are - drugs and/or alcohol abuse, depression etc. I kinda think the Bieber and Charlie Sheen antics are all for show, they're actually the least likely to off themselves in some fashion. There was a period of time when almost every movie I watched it seemed had Robin Williams in some kind of starring role. With him what comes to mind is not just a great actor but versatile. To go from comedy to high drama ain't easy, can't imagine Will Ferrell doing that. The last one I watched I think was Insomnia with him and Al Pacino. Suicide imo is the most undignified way to go but ok so we have something to talk about besides Ebola and those immigrant kids. Thoughts? You can even blame Obama if you like:)