Category: Politics

Monday

Two thoughts on baseball. First, the Dodgers won the National League Pennant. Better the Dodgers (who aren’t from New York but used to be) than the Mets (who actually are from New York). When I was a kid there was a stretch of time where the World Series was the fucking Yankees vs the Dodgers over and over again. I just googled it and it was really only twice, 1978 and 1981. They met in 1977 too but that was before I started following the game. Whatever, it feels like the two teams have met in the World Series 10000 times.

Suffice to say that I am totally rooting for the Dodgers even though I really, really hate them. As much as I hate them, I don’t hate them nearly as much as I hate the fucking Yankees. There is no team in the sporting universe that I hate as much as I hate the fucking Yankees. My big question though is why the hell is Major League baseball waiting until Friday to start the series? The match up was set on Sunday and we’re not playing a game until Friday? Is the goal to make sure all of America forgets about baseball completely? Friday? Really?

Super subject change. It is October 21st. Early voting in Massachusetts started two days ago, on October 19th. I have not voted yet. I am hoping to get to it tomorrow (Tuesday). If not it will probably Thursday, or maybe over the weekend. If you live in Massachusetts, maybe you’ll join me in voting early. It’s fun and it takes some of the pressure off, even if the pressure doesn’t really exist and is only in your (my) head due to the whole fascist threat to democracy thing.

Vote.

Vote Blue.

Vote for Harris.

Vote

We are less than a month away from the 2024 Presidential Election where We The People will once again show that fascist piece of shit that we don’t want him around anymore.

I had two questions come to mind that always come to mind just before a big election. One, what is the status of my voter registration. Two, when does the early voting period start.

Massachusetts has handy online tools to answer both questions. First, how’s my registration looking? I went here and found that I am active and all is well, as it should be.

Next, I went here and found the following early voting information:

Early Voting Periods

In-person early voting takes place during a designated early voting period, set by state law.

For statewide elections, early voting periods include guaranteed weekend voting hours for every community.

November Election Early Voting Period: October 19 – November 1

Okay, that sounds good. Now that I knew the dates involved I went to my city’s website to get specifics and found this:

There you have it. If you, like me, live in Methuen, MA… you’re welcome.

Weird Day

I’m having a weird day. I don’t know what it is. I’m just out of sorts somehow.

Jen and I made a small donation to the Harris for President campaign. After we sent it, yesterday I got three emails and two texts from the campaign asking for money. Today in the last 30 minutes I’ve received two more emails. Come on, people. Leave me alone.

I don’t believe in omens. I don’t believe in signs from the universe or things like that. This morning when I pulled into the parking lot at work it started to rain. I mean, the instant I put the car in park the sky started falling. I was early so I figured I’d wait a few minutes to see if it slowed down. It didn’t. I said I don’t believe in omens… but if this is a sign of things to come for today… I’mma gonna be pissed.

Goal Within Goal Within Goal

So I am doing this 50 songs in 90 days challenge thing. If you have spent more than two seconds on this little pagey page you might have seen me post something about it.

July 4 through October 1. 90 days. Three calendar months. I also have a personal sub-goal along with the 50 songs thing. It’s to do an RPM Challenge style album in each of the three months. That’s either 10 songs written entirely within the calendar month, or 35 minutes of music. In July I somehow, magically, ended up with 20 songs. In August I only managed 14. Those combined with a few songs that were started in one month and finished in another had me at 42 songs on September 1st. That means that in order to finish the album in a month for September I have to get to 52 songs. Okay. I can do that.

I have a third goal now. It’s a mini-goal based on the three times in the past that I have completed the 50 songs in 90 days challenge. The first time was 2014. I ended the 90 days with exactly 50 songs finished. There was a 51st song but I never finished it. I still haven’t. The next time I completed the challenge was in 2020. I finished with 51 songs. Suck it, 2014! I beat you by one! The next time I pulled it off was 2021. I finished with 52 songs. Victory is mine, once again! 2021 rules, 2020 drools!

That leads me to this year’s goal within a goal within a goal. This year I want to get to 53. 50 songs completes the main challenge. 52 will give me the secondary challenge. 53 will give me the third challenge. I have 40 songs complete right now and nine more in progress. I have to finish those nine and then add four more.

I can do it. I think. Yeah, I can do it.

But first… it’s bed time.

PS: Still not watching the debate, but social media (which I know is an echo chamber based on my personal political beliefs and all) is hinting that Vice President Harris is effectively mopping the floor with the fascist fucker’s Nixon-esque flop sweat. Sounds epic.

Debate

Tonight is Presidential Debate night here in the USA. I am not watching.

Any time I see that fascist piece of dog shit I want to punch something as hard as I can and I really don’t want to cause any damage around the house tonight.

Fuck that fascist asshole. I hope Vice President Harris verbally kicks his ass all the way back to the stone age from whence he came. Prick.

Two Random Things

Here we have a post sharing two random things on this quiet Sunday evening that have nothing to do with anything anyone other than I would ever care about.

First, I watched an episode of The Trogly’s Guitar Show on YouTube today and accidentally learned something about my first Gibson guitar. It was a Les Paul Deluxe but I never learned what year it was made. Deluxes date from the late 60’s to the mid 80’s (I think). I bought mine in 1987 and always assumed it was from the late 70’s, but I had not learned how to get the manufacture date for a Gibson guitar until after my Deluxe was stolen in 1990.

Thanks to Trogly’s I can narrow the date down a little. The guitar had a Gibson chainsaw case. From a description on the episode I watched it was a version two chainsaw case. Trogly told us that Gibson introduced the version two chainsaw case in 1978. Therefore my guitar (assuming the case I had was the original case) could not have been built prior to 1978. That knocks about 10 years off of the possible dates. Thanks, Trogly!

The second item of note: The anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks is coming this week. That means Jen and I are in now entering our annual 9/11 remembrance period where we binge a shit load of documentaries. We’re watching the first of the season right now. Things have already been super heavy around here due to my father’s passing. Now it’s going to get heavier still.

I just felt the need to share all of that with the wider universe. You’re welcome.

Optimism?

I can admit when I am wrong. It doesn’t happen often (that is sarcasm, it happens constantly) but when it does I can fess up to it.

When the media was going on and on about Joe Biden dropping out of the race I was very much a pissed off red head. No way. We held the primary. He won. That’s it. Yes he is old, but the nazi orange shit clown is old too and Joe is WAY more stable than that putz was even in his prime. I wanted Joe to stay in the race.

Then he dropped out. Shit. That’s when something I didn’t expect happened. Kamala Harris stepped up and somehow… magically… unified the entire party. Suddenly we were all on the same page and ready to go. Had that ever happened in my lifetime? Maybe late in Obama’s first run we might have felt something like this, but I don’t think it was this intense. Maybe it’s a social media echo chamber kind of thing where the algorithms are only bringing me people I agree with (yes, I know that’s a big part of this) but come one, folks. The transition from the Biden campaign to the Harris campaign was electric. It felt GREAT.

I will admit it. I was wrong about wanting Biden to stay in the race. Given what we know now, that would have been the wrong move.

Now we are adding Tim Walz to the ticket as Harris’ running mate and that unified feeling has intensified times a billion. Where has this guy been all of our lives? I feel so good about the state of things right now that I could almost be described as… I don’t want to say it but… I could almost be described as feeling patriotic. Almost. Who the hell saw that coming?

Harris/Walz in 2024. I might want to throw some more money at them. Bring it on!

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

This morning I did what might be the most bad ass thing I’ve ever done. I was in the bathroom, getting ready for my day. I looked down at the floor and saw a spider running toward me. I was barefoot. He was moving really fast. I didn’t have time to pick something up so… I stepped on it with bare feet.

Like I said… bad ass.

Vice President Harris picked her running mate. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He used to be a high school teacher. I think that is outstanding. I think that’s the kind of thing we need. He also never committed treason and tried to overthrow the Federal Government. I think that makes him a good choice.

The Smashing Pumpkins released a new album this week. I really did not like the last couple. I tried. I really did. I just couldn’t get into them. This one though… I’ve listened to seven of the 10 songs so far this morning and it’s really good. I’m enjoying this record a lot.

I did not get a chance to play any guitar this morning before work. I just procrastinated and ran out of time. I wanted to, but I failed. I won’t have time tomorrow morning, so let’s hope for better time management on Thursday. I did take a couple of pictures though. One is basically yesterday’s photo a day picture taken from the opposite angle. How creative of me?

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Finally, in closing… a cat.

Too Good Not to Share

I saw this on Threads today and I think it is too good not to share. It’s very fitting.

This is the post where I first saw it, but there is a comment stating that the person who posted it did not create it… so I don’t know who to give credit for it. Sorry.