Dear Evan Hansen!

 

We dont get much live theater in these parts. Oh of course there's community theater which I find wonderful, there's high schoolers doing their best where one person seems to be the Tom Brady while the rest are Mike Glennons. Then there the traveling Broadway shows of which I never miss.

Dear Evan Hansen came thru town this week and I really looked forward to it. The Tony Award winner has been in my wish list for years and when it got cancelled last year I was bummed.

I knew virtually nothing about this musical and that was on purpose . I didnt see the movie which most people said was awful. I never listened to the soundtrack. I never heard any of the songs other than the ubiquitous Waving Through the Window which is a pleasant enough tune. I only knew it involved teen suicide and its affects on the people left behind.

Like the first time you see anything you know nothing about, it was a surprise. I assumed the anxious kid was going to kill himself. I assumed he would be bullied throughout. I assumed the burn out kid would be his nemesis. Well as it turns out the bully, Connor, kind of was. 

This play is about feelings, grief , more feelings and a lie that spirals out of control. Evan spends the play trying to avoid going down the drain of deceit. Every scene makes it worse. Evan, the medicated anxious loner, suddenly is thrust into the spotlight where he has fake friends, adoring fans, and is thought of as a hero when in fact hes just a liar. He gets a girlfriend based on the lies, he gets a new "family" due to his untruths and he ignores the only real friends and family he had. All the while you know this will not end well.

I am one who accepts fiction as fiction. Thus, as Evan dug himself deeper and deeper into his hell hole, I knew that something so popular as this play had to right the ship at some point. Did it? I think so thanks to Evans mother, the true hero of this story.

Dear Evan Hansen was pretty much all I thought it would be. As unpleasant as Evan was making it to watch, you knew the character was not what he had become. Its well worth the time and money to see.

PS: As much as I expected this play's story to turn around and make it right, Max was angry at the character being a "sociopath" during Act 1. He also thought it trivialized suicide. I am not that serious about a damned musical. But its a valid critique. 

So basically you will find Evan a lonely kid who rights his wrongs or you will think Evan is a complete narcissist without a care for others.  

Kyle The Killer!

 Well he is on the right side of the political fence. You know the gun nut afraid of black people itchin to kill somebody side. The side that gets Mommy to drive little Kyle across state lines with an illegal weapon to "protect" private property from the rampaging blacks burning the whole city to the ground because hey Im sick of video games and T***P night not be re elected and this is practice.

Kyle the Killer was set free today. Set free in a state where apparently you can shoot black folks 7 times in the back and kill two white protesters and severely wound another for daring to take the side of justice. Thus now every white gun kook with a lot of free time and the standard issue AR 15 and lots of military equipment can go to a protest they dont like and gun down people at will. Or at least thats what the mayonnaise militia morons think. 

Between that and the yeah go ahead and run people over at protests laws the GOP Fascists have passed I am really afraid its too goddamn late  to change this. I hope I'm wrong.

Ive never shot a gun in my life. I hate guns. Im not fond of hunting. But today I understand the saying "liberals have guns too".

Rittenhouse!

 

This damned thing is over finally. The jury chosen out of a hat like its a Harry Potter hat was chosen by the defendant? The judge is a villain in a John Grisham novel. The defense attorney is a bellowing baboon who put the victims on trial as asking for it. The prosecution is a bumbling production of some satiric courtroom drama who points AR 15s at the jury and continually violates the crazy judges instructions. The defendant is a no chance punk raised by a monster who should go to jail with him. Nobody seems to want to win this.

Look I will be shocked if this jury convicts this little shitheel of anything. Despite the fact his mommy drove him across state lines to Kenosha with an AR 15 he couldnt legally own so he could serve as a "medic". What ended up happening we all know. He killed two people and wounded one other. He was looking to kill somebody when he went up there and with the cops encouragement he blasted two people into the ground.

But in this society, where white people are terrified of EVERYTHING, this kind of vigilante murder will not be punished. The white jury will sympathize with this white kid, who had business being there, because well, ya know.

But the worst thing said in the farce of a trial was should have troubled everyone was when the defense claimed that it was ok to shoot somebody 7 times so it should be ok to shoot 4 times in a thinly veiled reference to prosecutors failing to prosecute the cop who shot Jacob Blake in the back. To relate a law enforcement officer to a 17 year old outsider looking for trouble is abhorrent. In this dsy and age nobody cares. And of course since an acquittal has been in the works from the start, and since that will result in more "riots" the Wisconsin state government will activate 500 National Guard troops to keep "order".

We all know the "riots" occur whenever the left doesnt get its way. When the right doesnt get its way, no big deal. They're all fine people just like your plumber or the local cops. Fine people right up thru the time  they kill cops and shit in the Capitol. Ya know, touristy folks.

This country is degenerating into a shithole that it may never recover from. The justice system is a joke. The GOP has rigged every election in some states from now on with its suppression of voters of color and its outlandish gerrymandering. 

Fascism is here. Rittenhouse is just another brownshirt thug. The sad news is theres thousands more out there ready to go. Fuck.

Wise Up!

 Somewhere around the end of the Soviet Union's rusty reign of error, the GOP decided it needed a new enemy. The party had relied on a fear strategy for over 40 years scaring the bejesus out of Americans with tall tales of Soviet world dominance when in reality they knew the Soviets were a collapsing bucket of corroded bolts. 

Then came Bill Clinton. The GOP needed a new enemy to maintain the fear they relied on to win elections. No more godless commies. So turn on your own. Other Americans.

They've been doing it for 40 years. Demonizing fellow Americans. Appealing to the same assholes who saw a commie under every bed and feared the sudden surge for equal rights. Hey man, it works. 

The GOP has degenerated from a party of Lincoln and Roosevelt and Ike into a group of cynical exploiters reliant on white America's fear of equality.   

Meanwhile Democrats continue to prefer being the smartest guy in the room to actually winning elections. Their constant need to explain why somebody else is wrong by quoting policy and other wonky shit to people who hate them because of that need has to stop. You may be smarter than most people, you are definitely more well read, but to ignore peoples emotions and ignorance is a sure loser strategy. Yep, thats why they hate you.

Condescension is a losing strategy. Just fucking stop it. It may make you feel like you won but what actually happened is the exact opposite. You lost.

I am what they call a progressive, we used to be called liberals or commies, but what I realize is I will take what I can get. If I am offered two pieces of pizza while I'm looking at 8 pieces and I'm hungry and its apparent I aint getting the whole thing and probably not even 3 pieces I will take the two. I cant stress that enough. Take what you can get. Dont whine and scream and follow people into bathrooms and block people from leaving garages because you are arming the other side with your belligerence. The other side lies, and they twist things to fit the lies. And it works.  You armed them.

I dont want to spend my remaining years in some fascist shithole led by mean nasty assholes like Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz. Or Donald Trump.

But thats what coming. If this same loser strategy is continued. Wise up and stop trying to Rise Up 24/7! You're trying way too hard to to lose. Try winning for a change. THEN do what you want.

Debt Ceiling "Showdown"!!

 This stupid debt ceiling (dont ask what it is I have no idea nor apparently do most Republicans) "crisis" has been solved till at least December when this bullshit will all go down again. Because Senate Republicans are bound and determined to bring down the Biden administration and hopefully the entire nation by being a cockblocker ad nauseum.

I've often criticized Democrats, so afraid of "offending" people who keep sitting on their chest and saying stop slapping yourself. So scared of "offending" a random T***P voter who would justify fire bombing "Democrat" HQ's and attacking them on the street as far left radicals or whatever the latest Josh Hawley (Traitor-Va) insult they remember. 

But Thursday evening after the debt ceiling "crisis" was avoided with phony Republican help the wet noodle leader, Chuck Schumer (Sweaty Handshake-NY), stood up to speak. And the Noo Yawker in him came out. Now he didn't walk over to each Republican Senator and say "fuck you" and "fuck you too" to each one as I would have preferred, but he did show a version of pissed off Chuck I've never seen.

Schumer called out the Republican seditionists for taking the country to the brink of default as a cheap political stunt and even called out by name that turtle looking evil motherfucker, Moscow Mitch McConnell, by name. As he did this , the Republicans clutched their pearls, put their hands over their mouths and fell onto the fainting couch provided by Lindsey Graham (Tiny Little Coward-SC). Oh mah stars. A "Democrat" tantrum. Thats so out of line. Meanwhile as Schumer spoke his mind behind him was Joe Manchin (R by proxy-WV) put his head in his hands, and making sure he was on camera, made his eyes go back in his head, and acted all "offended".

Willard "Mittens" Romney walked over to Schumer afterwards and said it was no time to be ungrateful as if him sitting behind Hawley glaring laser beams thru him as Hawley back on 1/6 carried on with his doe eyes staring lovingly at the camera praising a band of trash, arsonists, anarchists, and goateed white criminals who tried to kill Mittens. 

But Manchin ( Drug Profiteer-WV) was the cats pajamas of pretend victim. Manchin ,who WILL switch parties at some point , called Schumer's speech "fucking stupid". He got up and walked away during the speech, again after making sure he was on camera, Walk back to Huntington or Charleston or wherever the fuck you're from, Joe.

But McConnell, the utter epitome' of evil, the guy who openly roots for the destruction of democracy, the guy who lies for a living, the guy who gets a boner from power, the guy who despite having a 32% approval won re election in a landslide, the guy who makes Kentucky look dumb as hell, the guy who gets off on poor people getting evicted, this motherfucker was the worst. Swearing the Republicans would never help again the country avoid default, McConnell, who apparently allowed the filibuster to die so the actual vote could take place, in other words he blinked, Moscow Mitch did Putin's work for him yet again.

This is getting uglier by the day. Mars Attacks is getting more desirable. 

Chuck, they hate you already, they will never come around , the base will kill you if they ever get a chance, let Pissed Off Chuck rule.

Nuke them NOW.

CATS!

 Is Cats a classic musical? I've avoided it mostly because many many people have told me to avoid it but when it comes up as part a a season ticket package for traveling Broadway series I guess I've been trapped in a tree I cant avoid. 

Cats came through Omaha last evening and for the first time in nearly two years I set foot in a theater to watch something in person. It was bizarre. Masked up, paranoid and hoping that fucking virus found me deplorable enough to avoid we entered the place to observe Cats from the front row of the balcony.

Did I like Cats, the 40 year old play that people either love or hate? Let me take 3 steps to do this.

1) The Orpheum Theater 

This place was built as a movie and vaudeville house damn near 100 years ago. It deteriorated over the years and I remember seeing a movie there as a kid in the 1960s for being a great Safety Patrol guy. Me and everybody else.

In the 1970's the old place was remodeled and turned into a Performing Arts Center and featured concerts and plays and whatever religious scammer blew into town. I saw Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine , Dizzy Gillespie yeah ok Im a jazz fan. But the Orpheum was built for 1927 people and  are lets face it 1927 people arent 6 foot 2. The first row of the balcony may seem great in theory, but theres a cement wall there and a railing.  6 Foot 2 guys cannot possibly get any leg room. In other words quite honestly the place is a dump for 2021. 

2) Cats Act 1

A bunch of talented actors, dancers and singers dressed as cats hop around a stage made to look like a junk yard sing some tunes, and with no apparent story line or plot it began to resemble a haphazard concert with some decent tunes and some that you couldn't wait to end. Then came the end of Act 1 with a rendition of the former guys favorite tune, Memories.

Now most people I've talked to left at this point having heard the only damn song anybody knows. Whats the point of going on? This is a plotless, pointless exercise in futility. We thought about bailing but stuck it out.

3) Cats Act 2

In the words of Larry David, it was pretty pretty pretty good. The tunes picked up, the plot didn't really improve but the old cat got to sing Memories two more times and I was entertained. The Magical Mister Mephistopheles sequence with a dancer doing flips, coat changing colors , and an energy that was quite remarkable was the highlight. Then it ended with the old cat singing Memories yet again and I was now aware why "nobody" likes this play, They all freakin leave at halftime.

My advice. Get there 90 minutes after the start time and you will think damn this is good.  I also just wish Andrew Lloyd Webber would write a play named DOGS!

And one more thing. Even the baffling Act 1 would have been better than the alternative act playing in town last night. The fuckin Eagles. Dude.

Nebraska Shenanigans!

 Years ago Alexander Payne made one of his quirky movies and called it Nebraska. The plot involved a small town in Nebraska and its group of rural folk and a lottery and anyway it was great. And if you lived here you knew all those people. And quite frankly it was scary. Scary in the sense that nobody who lives in the cities wants to live in that small generic town featured in the movie. Yet we are that close. And Im sure those rural folk dont want to live among us city dwellers either. What with our theaters and stores and the blacks and browns. Oops did I spill the truth?

Nebraska is a state with a weird unicameral system. We have a state legislature of only 49 "non-partisan Senators. There's no House. Just a gang of 49 people who get paid shit wages, consists mostly of old white men and a few old white women who want to keep their Dust Bowl values . But lately there are more and more blacks and browns and city women getting in the Unicameral and are sick to death of the fucking 1950s. 

We also have a unique voting system(and you too Maine) that splits electoral votes by congressional district during Presidential elections. So in 2020, the city of Omaha looked at that bull in a china shop traitorous shitbird, Donald Trump, and said no more. Joe Biden won this district by 9 points and thus got an electoral vote out of Nebraska. Oh yeah and by the way Barack Obama accomplished the same in 2008. In 2011 the GOP in Nebraska gerrymandered the 3 congressional districts by making our district more Republican. Thus we lost in 2012 and 2016 to a Mormon robot and a fucking reality show host who wears diapers. But 2020 was different. 

Now in 2021, the heavily Republican lege is screwing around again. They REALLY dont want a Democrat to win anything ever again anyplace in the state.  And instead of just appealing to people with your political philosophy, they just do what the GOP does to win. They cheat.

Gerrymandering is an art in other states. Here its just a blatant outright scam. The Republicans in the lege, and our Covid loving Governor with national aspirations (HA makes me laugh everytime) have an easy solution. Just split Omaha in two. Make the largest population base in the state the least populous by sticking half of Omaha in a heavily Republican area and sticking the other half in a even more Republican area. And of course then try and make it a positive by stating out loud.......ok wait for it now.....hey you city people, this way you get TWO Congressmen. Get it? 

But instead of accepting your GOP gift like a good Republican in rural Nebraska we here say hey fuck you. Thus, the fighting has begun. The legislature, in special session called by Pandemic Pete Ricketts, is hollering at each other. Rural white geriatric Senators ranting that the 2020 vote was fraud because the "illegals" all voted in Omaha and thus this is is nothing but a noble attempt to secure our already secure elections. The city led core of mostly younger females and POC's are fighting hard to avoid becoming the crazy liberal in the hick town. I dont know how this will end because generally we run about 50 years behind the times here, but it doesnt look promising . 

If this is happening here, its happening everywhere and has been for 50 years.

Pay attention dammit. These Republican fuckwads cheat better than anybody. Its in their nature. Like my old man said whenever a perceived good person got arrested, oh hell he went Republican.

Nebraska is already Republican enough. If they bust up the biggest city, its over for us blue dot people. We in Omaha have no desire to be governed by a gaggle of hayseeds from Wahoo. 

Insanity!

 

Disorder in Afghanistan. The perceived botching of an evacuation. Forced forward by a political party that openly supports an insurrection to restore a mad man to office though he lost by 8 million votes. Jump on Biden, blame him for the deaths of 13 Marines blown up by a daily occurrence in that country. A suicide bomber. Call for his impeachment, call for him to resign. Call him senile. Divert attention from their true goal. To gain back power. 

Meanwhile the chaos going on in this country gets worse and worse. The vaccinated Republicans casting doubts on the prevention of even further damage. Ginning up a base of weak minded cultists to deny science, refuse masks, hawk quack remedies of horse de-wormer and snake venom instead of simply getting a free fucking shot . Look, idiots, these GOP ghouls don't give a rats ass about you. They care about retaining their money funnel. And by denying Joe Biden any progress on getting this pandemic behind us, by denying Joe Biden the credit for one of the most efficient evacuations since Dunkirk, by doing nothing to advance the country they load their bullshit guns for 2022. Hey and it may work.

Americans are not smart. They believe whatever they see on Facebook from some Russian bot. The refuse facts. They hang in their bubbles and think anything that goes against them is rigged. They worship a game show host with fake hair, a fake tan, and a fake sense of humanness. Because they're dumb.

Covid 19 should be completely manageable by now. But these mush brains, fueled by Republican bullshit artists, Republican bullshit TV news networks, and Russian propaganda designed to create this chaos have stalled any progress. In fact we are regressing. Going back to square one. Record number of infections, unvaccinated children put at risk, Republican Governors participating in the stalling to satisfy their own political ambitions to be the next Cult Leader. Loudmouthed thugs disrupting meetings designed to save lives, the sight of nurses and health care workers demonstrating outside overcrowded hospitals against vaccinations. It is insanity. 

The only silver lining? MAGA devastated by their own ignorance. I'm just not above it any longer. Just fucking die already.

Thinking Again!

 Its been awhile. Its overwhelming to live normally any longer. If you're not a drugged out zombie lurching from day to day in some happy pipe dream every single day brings a new outrage, a new realization that humanity is close to extinction, that people in this nation have no desire to learn anything new, that America is fast becoming a nation of mean nasty assholes and fascism is the preferred choice of way more people than I ever thought, it sometimes depresses you to the who the hell cares mode. Im over that now.

1) The entire L part of the country, ya know that L on the map going from North Dakota down to Texas and over to South Carolina is a gigantic tumor on the rest of humanity. What motivates these people? Anything other than owning the libs? A feeling of inferiority that can only be handled by getting even dumber, more crass and putting your own life at risk just to feel in charge. Here in Nebraska, usually a reasonable race of people, the two cities with any sense of diversity and liberal thought, have over 70% vaccination rates, while that overall state rate is barely 50%. Basic math tells you that if you remove the cities from Nebraska (oh be still my heart) the rest of the state is resisting big time. The recent study showed that in each Nebraska county the bigger percentage of the vote that T***P received, some as much as 90% , the vaccination rate plummeted. That'll show em right MAGA? This is insanity . Welcome to Rickettsastan.

2) Texas. How in the fuck did Texas residents allow this to happen? Texas is between 45-50% blue. Yet the GOP terrorists have such a stranglehold that they are allowed to turn it into Taliban State. The abortion law in Texas written by white males with real repression issues isn't about saving lives, its about controlling the harpies who tempt them. For chrissakes, Texas whacks living breathing real humans all the time, some of whom may even be guilty and not railroaded to save a DA's reelection bid. So why the sudden concern about a rice sized glob? Control. Control of a gender they fear. And the deputization of rootin tootin vigilantes to enforce it is perhaps the most Texas thing since they assassinated a President. Abbottistan may be worse than Rickettsastan. Makes you wish the tree had been bigger.

3) College football is back. Packed stadiums full of maskless morons screaming and spitting at each other over watching 20 years olds play a game. Announcers are so excited they are just short of masturbating right there on the air.  The reaction of this year, full stadiums, no masks, no vaccination proof, is a direct reaction to last year's mandates of no fans, no fun and the most important factor, no money . Athletic directors all over, basically money changers, are risking lives to rake in the bread. Cross your fingers and hope nobody dies is sound medical strategy. 

4) A personal story related to the above. My Dad's college of choice after WW2 was Fordham University in New York City. I used to enjoy his stories of 1940s New York, Yankee Stadium, The Polo Grounds, being a messenger in Manhattan, Joe DiMaggio, heckling Ted Williams, bad football. This year my alma mater, the University of Nebraska, scheduled Fordham to be a paid sacrificial ram in the first game in Lincoln in 2 years. I was giddy. Oh how my Dad would have loved being there in Fordham gear and telling everyone he a Fordham grad. So I was going to be his surrogate Fordham fan. I had his old FU hat, his old Fordham t shirt he only wore once before he passed. I had to be there. Then came the University non policy. No requirement for masks, no vaccination proof, just business as usual. Jam yourself into a seat made in 1923 for 1923 asses and have the person next to you sitting on your lap. Thanks Nebraska. My dream crushed yet again by your 1923 vision of life. I didn't go. Sorry Dad.

The Woodstock 99 Doc!

HBO/Max dropped its Woodstock 99 documentary over the weekend and though at my age of 60 something I still have a Woodstock 1969 poster on my wall, the 1999 version I barely remember and all I could recall was they started fires and shit.

So I watched it on Saturday. Oh My Gawd! To me this was the beginning of MAGA. The crowd was massive, at an old abandoned Air Force base in Rome,New York. Promoted by the same meatheads who promoted the 1969 and 1994 versions but THIS time they were going to make money, goddammit. The attendees, basically angry white males in their late teens and early 20's there to see heavy metal bands, some good some shit, drink, get laid, and cause trouble. The documentary begins with the planning, the obvious greed of the original promoters, the ass kissing all is well boisterous attitude of the Rome mayor, openly battling complainers of the rowdy poor preparation.

It began on a Friday night when DMX took the stage and did his song "All My N****s" the crowd chanted the N word with reckless abandon, happily, merrily and like they've said it many times before. Now I'm not the demo for hip hop or rap but of somehow I wandered into a show and the star urged me, a white guy, to chant along with him that word, uhhhh sorry, not happening. But to see thousands of white people screaming that word was not a good sign for the future.

The subsequent groping,  sexual assault, disrespect and eventually the rape of numerous women should have that shit down THEN. The lack of facilities, the lack of water, the greed, and the fact people were rolling in what they thought was mud should have shut that shit down THEN. But alas.

Saturday came and Kid Rock got things started. He was a dick then too by the way. Alanis Morissette did a set right before Limp Biscuit which makes no sense. The foreign objects flying out of the crowd at her made me fear for her safety and it happened 22 years ago for chrissakes. 

Fred Durst is a meathead. His band stunk. His message was thuggery and frat boy bullshit. And he got it going big time that Saturday night. Even when asked to tone it down by officials cuz shit was gettin real out there, he egged it on even more. Nobody likes this guy.

Sunday culminated with the inevitable violence. The frat boy angry white males began acting like animals. Looting and pillaging and raping and starting fires. Hey Red Hot Chili Peppers with Flea up there swinging his dick around , maybe playing Hendrix's Fire wasnt such a good choice.

This documentary was fascinating. Maybe its taking it too far to think these same animals at age 20 were the same 40 year old animals trashing the Capitol on January 6th but I really do think this was the start of MAGA. Rolling around in shit at Woodstock 99 to smearing it in the Capitol isnt that big a stretch.

Watch it.

Jim Morrison!

 50 years ago today was the summer between freshman and sophomore year in Catholic high school. I had been into music for a short period of time, the Beatles, The Monkees , Creedence, The Supremes and for some reason The Doors. Hendrix had died, Jani had died and anyone with any sense knew he was next. Except me. All I knew of Jim Morrison was I loved his voice, his songs and his weirdness. His dark lyrics. His screaming. I dont really know what it was, but he was the guy.

I wasnt really old enough to understand alcoholism, drug addiction and self destructive behavior. All I know is one day he was dead. It mad me sad. It still does,

I first heard Light My Fire in 1967 and it mesmerized me. The flair, the organ, the jazz drumming and the voice. I am of course referring to the radio version. When I discovered the local FM station and for the first time heard the longer version it sent me in to a frenzy. I begged my Mom to buy me the album. $2.98 mono $3.98 stereo. She did. $2.98 of course and I listened in my room. Wow!

What the hell was going on? Break on Through started it all with its psychedelia . Soul Kitchen made me sit up and take notice. I still love that song. The Crystal Ship, before you sink into unconsciousness. The poppy 20the Century Fox .The Whiskey Bar and then the full beautiful Light My Fire.

Side 2 started with Back Door Man with the primal scream. I Looked At You. End of the Night and Take It As It Comes. 

And then right before I was about to turn the record back over to listen to Light My Fire endlessly as kids do...... then The End started.

As it progressed and got weirder and weirder I became weirder and weirder. The song affected my mood. I had no idea what Jim was singing about as I was only 11 or so. But it did make me want to learn more. This remains my favorite Doors song to this day. It has the ability still to affect my mood to this day. Sometimes not to my benefit.

Anyway when Jim died I was crushed. I still wonder what would have become of him. What kind of new weird shit would come after his Paris sabbatical. But he never came back. So we will never know.

I miss the guy but have the albums and I listen regularly. It became kind of chic to criticize Morrison and his lyrics lately. I dont give a damn. Some of it may be dated, but as sa product of the time, it made me want to learn about things. Something Hello Goodbye never did

I miss ya Jim. Ya left too soon.

Lee Evans!

 Lee Evans died this past week. Who you say? Well let me tell you.

Lee Evans was a track athlete. A runner. A sprinter. An Olympic 400 meter specialist. He was a social activist willing to blow up his career for what was right. But Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two American heroes, beat him to it in 1968 in Mexico City . After the famous protest after the 200 meter sprint by Smith and Carlos, black gloved fists in the air during the National Anthem, Evans was willing to leave the Olympics , giving up a dream, to support Smith and Carlos. But they said no, run and win and win he did. He set a world record in the 400 that stood for 20 years. 

On the victory stand, Evans and his fellow Americans wore the black berets, stood in defiance of being used by a country that would never accept them as equal men. The country would use them as propaganda, then force them to the back of the bus again after crossing the border. But they didn't  do the fist thing, instead removing the berets and standing at attention during the anthem. How difficult that must have been.

Lee Evans was an American hero, he just happened to be the 3rd place guy to two others who beat him to the punch. He died in Nigeria while coaching track teams there to be their best.

Rest in Power

GOP Gaslighting!

 This entire week foreshadows the future. The Republican members of the House have no intention of getting to the truth about what happened on January 6th. The truth being of course is that a Bloated Orange Florida Man unleashed his trash upon the Congress, The Veep, and the police to save his ass from being called a LOSER. No matter that people would die, people would be injured, the Capitol would be trashed, it was all about HIM, the LOSER.

Republicans in the House are for the most part a gaggle of brain dead puppets beholden to their brain damaged voters in the first place. But instead of playing a long con, of getting rid of a LOSER and moving on, these idiots continue to do whatever the LOSER tells them and what he tells them is that the election was stolen, the scum that wiped their shit on the walls of the Capitol were just white people out for justice and he will be their Dear Leader forever.  

Thus we get the spectacle of House Republicans gaslighting everyone with their tall tales of white tourists orderly in their manner walking around gazing at the statues screaming their love of country, U-S-A as they beat Capitol Police and vandalized offices because they loved them. Had they gotten ahold of Mitt Romney, or Mike Pence, or Nancy Pelosi they would have simply posed for selfies and shaken their hands. This is what the short con is. Lie. Lie. Lie. As their LOSER Leader learned, some people are so fucking stupid they dont even believe their own eyes. The GOP is on it. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene (Gym Rat-Ga) went all stalker on her secret crush, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, down the hallways of Congress screaming about terrorists, antifa and why wont you love me AOC? The woman had a tape surface from 2019 of her and a couple of meatheads banging on AOC's door and looking thru the mail slot and defacing her guest book. Remind yourselves that this butter faced kook was 45 years old as she played teenaged delinquent laughing and smirking at a camera with a couple of future insurrectionists. 

The GOP did it. They got rid of Liz Cheney (Horrible But Not a Liar-Wy) and replaced her with a T***p dick licker named Elise Stefanik ( Back Stabber-NY) making the top 4 GOP "leaders' total T***p acolytes willing to do anything to prop up a blubberous Florida blob thus ensuring their survival with the MAGA morons. If I was McCarthy (Invertebrate-Ca) or Scalise (Asshole-La) and thank the powers I am not, Stefanik is like living with an uncaged rattlesnake. Eventually she will kill your dumb ass and be smart enough to not rattle before she does it. Good luck boys. You'll need it.

Finally, Matt Gaetz (Child Molester-Fl). He's currently on a farewell tour with AOC fan girl MTG to stir up the base of violent white supremacists and retirees one last time. Oh he's going to prison. Not because he's a talentless grandstander without an ounce of sense, but because as the Florida version of Junior, he's an entitled rich prick who thinks he can rape and pillage at will. And apparently it doesnt matter what age the victim is. Because he's Matt Fucking Gaetz, mouth breathing real life Butthead. Oh the sweet signs of indictments and resignations and prison time. Lets hope he gets 17 years.

Mud Wrestling In The GOP!

 Yeah I know one looks like she just had her lips super glued together and the other one looks like her old man in a wig but this fight is not one I will avoid just because the GOP is devouring itself from within. I want to see it. But I also cannot stay out of it.

Elise Stefanik (R-NY at her parents summer home) burst onto the scene during the first impeachment hearings. You remember that one about what seems like 20 years ago where a bribery artiste, a traitorous thug, and a quid pro quo enthusiast was accused of threatening the Ukrainian President with non delivery of arms to fight off another traitorous thug unless he lied about Joe Biden.. Now you can argue that for the only time in his miserable life that the Other Guy was right about something and that something was that Joe Biden was going to kick his ass but lets digress.

Stefanik, an obscure Paul Ryan recruit who is a Harvard grad, used her parents summer home, dahling, to establish residence in New York and won a Congressional seat in 2014. She governed as a moderate Republican (they exist?) , refused to even say the name of the Other Guy as he steamrolled through the 2016 primaries, supported John Kasich even after the Orange Cheeto secured the nomination, and then voted with his disgusting bigoted agenda only 65% of the time. Yes that sucks but its respectable. She supported LGBTQ rights. opposed the Wall, opposed the kidnapping of children from their parents and voted against the tax cuts that blew up the deficit and debt. But then came impeachment and the realization that grifting MAGA rubes was so easy. Stefanik raised mucho cash by simply going on Hannity's nightly infomercial and starting a fight with MAGA villain Adam Schiff (Patriot-Ca). Money and a sudden endorsement from the Pussy Grabber Himself made Stefanik into just another con artist blinded by the power and the money pit she was staring into. During the hearings, Stefanik railed at Schiff, defended a thug and made herself a surprising MAGA trash hero. I thought these idiots hated the Ivy League.

Now its the fight with Liz Cheney (Very R-Wy) the third ranking GOP member in the House. I cannot stand Liz Cheney, she's a carpetbagging Wyoming Neanderthal who hates people, hates immigrants, thinks the poors should just stop being poor, supports killing foreigners in wars of profit, and is generally a  lousy excuse for a human being. BUT Liz Cheney doesn't need a numbskull peasant like the Other Guy to prop her up. Her name alone does that. And she doesn't much care for a fascist like the Other Guy, just fascists like her old man. She voted to impeach the son of a bitch, she voted to certify Joe Biden's huge victory and she made it known that the Other Guy was nobody she would ever support in the future if the crook runs in 2024.

So now, Stefanik is moving in to take advantage. Probably something she's done her whole life, Stefanik sees opportunity. And since the Republican Party is a cult led by a failed game show host with a huge following of slithering reptile brained lame brains with guns , Liz Cheney must go.  Led by a spineless Irish sycophant named Kevin McCarthy (Jellyfish-Ca) and a Louisiana shooting survivor who somehow became an even bigger asshole even after staring death in the face, Steve Scalise (Alliterative Asswipe-La) the party is perfectly willing to dump Cheney and install Frau Stefanik into the 3rd place seat.

This hasn't actually happened. Yet. But if it does, and it looks like it will, the two losers here are McCarthy and Scalise. Those two idiots have no idea what they are about to do. They will have promoted a blatant opportunist, one whose principles do not exist, into a place where they have their backs turned to her at all times. Once the opportunity comes, Elise Stefaniks shiv will hit paydirt.

Et Tu Elise.

 .

Happy BIrthday Say Hey Willie Mays!

 

Willie Mays turns 90 today. Wow. How time flies. 

It was 1964 in Chicago. I was a small tyke on a road trip with the family. My Dad was taking us to Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play the San Francisco Giants. I had no idea who either team was. I hardly knew what baseball was. I remember seeing Comiskey Park from the Dan Ryan and wondering if that was the place. We arrived at Wrigley. We walked up the ramp and I saw the grass. The greenest grass I've ever seen. It literally was one of the most beautiful sights I've still ever seen. I fell in love with baseball at that moment. I didn't care what they did on that green field I just wanted to sit there and look at it.

The game started. In inning 1 up came a man named Willie Mays. My Dad leaned over and said thats Willie Mays, pay attention, he's the best player maybe ever. Ok Dad. I was munching popcorn or something and trying to pay attention. Then I heard maybe the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. Mays swung at a pitch and the crack of the bat was loud as hell. The crowd roared. The ball sailed out to left field, I stopped eating, to admire what I was seeing. The ball went over the left fielders head and landed in the stands. It was a home run. Dad leaned down with a smile and said to me "Never forget this, you just saw Willie Mays hit a home run" Dad had watched Willie as a rookie at the Polo Grounds  when the Giants were in New York. He was thrilled what happened. I could tell he hoped I remembered. I do. 

My Dad never stopped asking me if I remembered that day. Nope Dad, I remember it as clear as day. Willie Mays hit a home run and I saw it just as you had back in the day. It was glorious.

But the real reason he wanted me to remember was what happened after the home run landed in the left field bleachers at Wrigley Field. After he told me to never ever forget that I saw Willie Mays hit a homer a middle aged black man sitting in front of us turned around with a huge smile on his face and looked at us. He said to me "Boy, you listen to your Daddy". Dad was even more thrilled about that. It was 1964 and the civil rights movement was starting to roll. A white man raised in Western Nebraska and a black man from Chicago came together over a home run by Willie Mays to put an impression on me I've never forgotten. 

Happy Birthday Willie Mays. You made my Dad and an anonymous man in Chicago very happy that day with that blast. 

You were the greatest player ever. Just because of that day.

Oscars 2021!

Its Oscar time and though nobody gives a shit, nobody has seen all the movies, and nobody will watch I will because I still love movies, films as we snobs say. Here's my list of irrelevant opinions for tonight.

Best Supporting Actor

Who Will Win-- Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah

Kaluuya is a great talent. He can play good or bad. He's a charismatic actor willing to take chances. He was brilliant as Fred Hampton. He's gonna win and we can all hear his British accent as half the audience goes he's British?

Who Should Win--Sacha Baron Cohen for Trial of the Chicago 7

Cohen is fearless. His portrayal of Abbie Hoffman was also brilliant. The Trial of the Chicago 7 was dialogue heavy. It was an Aaron Sorkin talkfest. Some like that some dont. I do.

Best Supporting Actress

Who Will Win--Youn Yuh-Jung for Minari

I have no idea what this movie is about . I 'll see it eventually but this Oscar category is prime for unknowns. She is as unknown as they come. I'm sure she's great.

Who Should Win--Maria Bakalova for Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

This unknown Bulgarian actress was the perfect choice to hold together the only movie out in 2020 that held MAGA accountable for their treason and nuttiness. As fearless as Cohen is, so is she. Not to mention she had to put up with MAGA kook Rudy Giuliani

Best Actor

Who Will Win-- Chadwick Boseman for Ma Raineys Black Bottom

What tragedy this young man has happen to him. He was one of the most charismatic actors of his time and could have won Oscars already. He will win this one and he should. It was great performance

Who Should Win- Chadwick Boseman

But lets talk about Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal. His portrayal of a heavy metal drummer going deaf and being in denial was brilliant. Any other year, I'd fight anybody about this. But this year sorry Riz.

Best Actress

Who Will Win--I think Viola Davis has a lock on this . She is the new Meryl Streep. She can do anything and her portrayal of Ma Rainey was yet another fearless acting job. The only way she doesnt win is if the old white Academy was turned off by a buxom gold teethed brave black woman telling them what to do.

Who Should Win-- Viola Davis

But like Davis, Frances McDormand dont give a fuck what you think of her. Her portrayal of a homeless van living woman in Nomadland was genius. Very few actresses could have pulled it off as easily as she appeared to do. If she does win, I wouldnt be surprised. 

Best Picture

What Will Win--Nomadland

Nomadland is a generational movie. If you're older I think you can appreciate this more than younger folks. For example , Max thought this movie was a big Meh. Why does someone choose to live like this? To us older road trip folks, why wouldn't a person choose this lifestyle? Other than lack of courage or a desire for order in your life, who wouldn't like to travel the nation as free as you can be? The use of real life nomads made this even more real and I loved every second of it.

What Should Win-- Nomadland

But lets talk about Sound of Metal. This movie about the heavy metal drumming nomad with a bad hearing loss was as interesting a movie as can be. Its the only movie I watched twice. The 2nd time made it even more brilliant. Riz Ahmed going to the deaf rehab center, being in denial, getting "fixed" in an attempt to get back his old life and his ultimate acceptance really got to me, especially the 2nd viewing. The last movie I watched twice was Moonlight. This one is similar. We all know what happened with Moonlight.

Enjoy. It will be watched by hundreds

Red State Racing!

 

Hey its been a long month. 2021 is arguably better than 2020 but not yet. I am fully vaccinated as is virtually everyone I know. I still wear a mask in public but a trip to rural Nebraska on Friday showed me a whole different world that I really want no part of. I hadn't seen a live horse race in 6 years since the old Lincoln Race Course closed down and being off work allowed me to take a 2 hour trip to Central Nebraska and a run down horse track called Fonner Park. 

Fonner is probably the finest track left in Nebraska as the powers that be in leadership roles in this ass backwards state attempt to take us back 100 years to a time of hardship and Calvinism. While the Governors and legislators live in luxury the rest of us are required to submit to a state full of guns, Jesus and nothing much else. But Fonner Park remains. And as long as it does, I will go.

The fans of this dying sport are few but rabid. They show up. The last time I was at Fonner was 25 years ago. Lincoln is much closer but that track is no longer. Omaha's track is a tiny little crowded building with no barns and about two weekends a year which brings out everybody in town making it an unbearable situation to this claustrophobic fan so I dont go.

The fans in rural central Nebraska were many. Not packed but there had to be a couple thousand. I was masked and looked at like I was a space alien. 99% of the people wore no mask, drank like fish, and screamed and yelled like it was 1999. No pandemic, no danger, no cares. It was uncomfortable as hell, But I am vaccinated and more than 2 weeks out so I stayed. I was surrounded by people who all looked like they'd proudly stormed the Capitol back on January 6th. Picture that crowd of rabble. This is what it looked like here. Maskless men in baseball hats, goatees, and who looked like waving a T***P flag would be right up their alley. The women the same. Rural aint my bag man.

The races themselves were entertaining to me even though they consisted of broken down elderly horses running for their lives. Its my jam. The cruelty of the sport notwithstanding, not one horse broke down, not one horse collapsed, not one horse ran into trouble. It was a good day. 

Except for the red state denial and lack of humanity. I liked the horses better .

Another "Normal" Week!

 Ya know this has been a week that normally would be something talked about for years. But this crazy shit happens every freaking day in 2021 America and I for one just want normal still.

The trial of the century is happening. A cop, a killer, a cold blooded killer is on trial in Minneapolis for the murder of a man named George Floyd. A murder everyone saw. A murder that nobody can defend with the exception of racists and morons. And it is excruciating to watch.

Everyone has seen snippets of the 9 minute 26 second video of a police officer slowly killing a man while smirking at a crowd of bystanders pleading for the mans life. But very few had seen the entire video played beginning to end without interruption. You had that opportunity this week. It was the worst thing Ive seen perhaps ever. It wasnt a bad police shooting, it wasnt a terrorist slicing some journalists throat. it wasnt some racist punching someone. It was 9  minutes of a slow torturous death perpetrated by a human being sworn to serve and protect. George Floyd was not only murdered, he was tortured first and then murdered. I will never be the same.

The testimony of guilt stricken witnesses, the testimony of police superiors stating this is not defensible, the testimony of  EMT's shocked at the hostility of Minneapolis cops preventing them from helping, the testimony of decent folks baring their souls on how they lay awake at night regretting how this entire murder could have been prevented. The tears, the regret, the anger and of course, the utter stupidity of defense lawyers attempting to portray these people as being an angry mob of black radicals interfering with police business. 

The defense of this act of cold and calculated homicide isnt going to work. This cop is going down hard. Even in 2021 America where Blue Lives Matter turned out to be nothing but racist  bullshit when it came to "patriots", this cop is done. There isnt a decent human being who cannot see the despicable lack of humanity that happened in the 9 plus minutes. 

But then again, decency is becoming rarer and rarer in this day and age. 

Another gun enthusiast exercised his 2nd Amendment privileges right this week in California by coldly chaining a gate closed, walking in to a building and murdering 4 innocents, including a 9 year old child. This is news you say? For fucks sake it happens 5 times a week anymore. We have proven that we dont care who these maniacs kill, even 6 year olds or 9 year olds over the last few years. As long as everybody, including the mentally ill and the just plain evil have unfettered access to mass killing weapons of war. The video of Congressional hobbit Lindsey Graham firing a weapon of mass destruction may have the been the most absurd video of the year. I am so sick of it. And of him.

Major League Baseball has pulled its All Star Game from the city of Atlanta since Georgia has decided to go all Lester Maddox and take an axe handle to those pesky black folks who vote. Georgia, who gave us the Senate, started a fight with those people who stood inline for hours and voted not the way the Orange Monster wanted. Passing a voter suppression law that will make it even harder for what happened in 2020 to ever happen again. Basically its a only whites can vote law to ensure that backwards ass hillbillies dominate Georgia politics as has been done for 150 years. I'm not sure what's worse though, The fact that this was passed or the fact white people just cannot be trusted to do the right thing. 

Other states are now trying it. Iowa, Texas, Floriduh, Wisconsin, Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee, Louisiana all seem to want Republican gerrymandered legislatures to be able to just scream voter fraud and overturn elections simply because the wrong folks voted. The fact this even is an issue shows the desperation of a party of fools dominated by a fascist con man. 

Years ago I wondered what would happen once white people's share of the vote went down to a point where they no longer decided elections on nationwide scales. Now I know my answer. 

Its full blown panic. 

Pull other shit out of these states. Hit em where it hurts. Cancel the culture until it doesn't even exist any longer. The culture sucks. Its based on hate, ignorance and meanness. Cancel it all as far as I am concerned .

NOW

Excuses!

 Im sick of it. I am sick of not only mass murders of Black folk, Jewish folk, Gay folk, Muslim folk, Children, Latino folk and now Asian folk but I am sick of law enforcement, politicians, and everyday white folk making excuses for these asswipes. Any time a white person commits some horrid act of violence, murder, or mayhem we hear excuses.

The T***p scum that attacked the United States Capitol were just frustrated patriots upset over voter fraud that was perpetrated upon them and cost them 4 more years of their Dear Leader's wise and firm leadership. US Senators backed them and felt sorry for them, The human furrowed brow Tucker Carlson says they did nothing wrong. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Klan) said out loud he was never scared of his fellow white rioters because they werent black or wild eyed white guys with crazy hair.

Kyle Rittenhouse murdered two people in the streets of Kenosha because he felt compelled to travel somewhere he didnt live to "protect" property he didnt own. 

In 1998 Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson abducted a young gay man named Matthew Shepard and tortured and beat him to death near Laramie Wyoming.

Dylan Roof prayed with black churchgoers before killing 9 of them in a South Carolina church basement in 2015. 

Patrick Crusius drove 650 miles across Texas to murder 23 Latinos at an El Paso Wal Mart in 2019.

Robert Bowers walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and murdered 11 Jewish  folks minding their own damned business.

In 2008 Jim Adkisson walked into the Knoxville Unitarian church and started shooting what he perceived as liberals after being indoctrinated by the likes of Sean Hannity. He killed 2 innocents before the liberal churchgoers tackled him and hopefully beat the shit out of him.

And then last night in Atlanta a 21 year old loser named Robert Long walked into 3 massage parlors and murdered 8 people, 6 of them Asian women.

What do they all have in common other than being murderous scum? They are all white, they were all taken into custody alive, and they all had excuse made for them by fellow whites.

Long had a "bad day". Roof was taken to Burger King by cops after his arrest. Crusius was concerned about immigration. Rittenhouse was defending property and was praised by cops after he killed two people. Bowers was just angry about Jews and was raised by a rapist. Adkisson was "insane" and couldnt help himself. And of course the "patriots" who killed a cop and trashed the Capitol were just frustrated and caught up in the moment. Henderson and Russell were in some sort of "gay panic".

Excuses y'all. 

Only made for white folk who lose their shit. 

Its as disgusting as mayonnaise . 

Shut Up Nebraska!

News from the state making every attempt to become Texas, or Mississippi or South Dakota or Iowa, no wait all those states have touristy shit like casinos and places to visit. Nebraska is making that attempt to qualify as the absolute most boring goddamned place on Earth outside of Nebraska 02 of which I still couldnt be prouder. Its leader is the man above, Governor and Trust Fund Kid Peter Ricketts. And by leader I mean a man so utterly despised by the two places in which actual people reside, Omaha and Lincoln, but worshipped anyplace else because he has that R next to his dumb name and dumb face.

Just listen to him. This dumb son of a bitch couldnt get elected to the board of the Chicago Cubs by his own family so they sent him here to get him out of Illinois. We now know why. This shiny headed talking thumb (thanks John Oliver)  says this stupid shit all the time. Marijuana kills kids. Undocumented immigrants cant get the Covid vaccine because they dont exist here. People with underlying conditions cant get the vaccine because they arent old enough. Yet somehow in the sticks, the places not Omaha and Lincoln, the places nobody lives, the places that voted for him twice by Saddam type numbers in the 90% range, all seem to be fully vaccinated. This guy is walking Dr Evil. 

I mean we are already thought of as dumb hicks worldwide, but we dont need Ricketts to further embolden that view (did I mention Ne 02?). We are not all a gaggle of knuckle dragging rubes barely remembering to breathe and Republican brain dead to boot. Yet here he is, our Leader, a T***P ass licker, saying OUT LOUD that a plant that is used to keep children in his own state from having seizures will kill them. Yeah the plant is also used to get high as a kite, but who wouldn't want that living in this Ricketts dominated wasteland? Ricketts, a man who attempted to obtain illegal  drugs so he could kill a guy, suddenly opposes a drug legal in 30 plus states. Perhaps in Ricketts logic, he should just give death row inmates a pile of pot and let them "kill" themselves.

This dumb prick is term limited so we have two years left of his shitty leadership. Lets hope by then he has granted all of his loyal subjects the privilege of being vaccinated from Covid, not just the ones who voted for his dumb ass. But then, he will run for the United States Senate in 2024, a job for which Daddy failed to buy for him in 2006 because he got fucking crushed by an actual Nebraska Democrat named Joe Manchin  Ben Nelson. But that of course was before 2008, when white America lost its ever lovin mind. So who knows if the people of this state will be stupid enough to send this dope east. If we do, I am going to commit suicide by plant.

Meanwhile for you football fans. yes indeedy, the suck fest that has befallen the once mighty Nebraska Cornhuskers only gets worse. Yeah we stink, we havent had a winning season in years, but our name is still marketable. The state lives in the past not only politically but footbally . Its still the 90s here in terms of football. Ya know back when we were good, maybe great. The problem is young people not only dont remember when the greatness existed, they also cant get stoned legally when the Huskers find yet another stupid way to lose. 

But anyway. Remember the Nebraska vs Oklahoma series? Man was it good, trust me kids. It ended in the late 90s  because we left the conference to get our ass kicked in the Big Ten. But this year, it is 50 years since the Game of the Century in 1971 and a celebratory game was scheduled for this year in Oklahoma.

'

Whoaaaaaaaaaa there pardner. History be damned and along came Nebraska to attempt to weasel out of the game in which they will lose by 30 or 40 points and replace it with a home game against some patsy who could easily rise up and beat them anyway but at least the millions of dollars would be deposited in the coffers. Oklahoma blew the whistle on Nebraska's attempted chicanery and the rest is us looking all dumb again all  in one week. 6 hours after the news broke of Nebraska's attempted deviousness they folded and tried to blame Covid for the confusion. Yeah they are playing Oklahoma. And how dare you think any different. Oh man.  

Please Nebraska. Just shut up and stay uninteresting again.

Creighton's Plantation!

 Look I admit this. I despise Creighton University. Its an elitist Jesuit college here in Omaha  that overcharges students and puts itself on a Hilltop above all. With an alumni full of physicians and lawyers who pretty much run the government around here, the place has infuriated me with its iron grip on this town for many years. So when it goes thru tough times, whether it be passing illiterate basketball players right through the system to keep them playing and then discarding them like trash, or when assistant coaches get nailed by the FBI for taking bribes I take great pleasure. But this latest problem, in which the head coach, a man named Greg McDermott, uses what can only be described as racially insensitive language at best I dont take any pleasure in this. Because once again, it highlights this nations greatest shame. Racism.

McDermott, after a loss at Xavier Saturday night, stood in front of his team in the locker room, a team of majority black players and said "Guys, we got to stick together. We need both feet in. I need everybody to stay on the plantation. I cant have anybody leave the plantation". Plantation? To a bunch of unpaid black players? I assume he didn't use the Foghorn Leghorn voice as he said it.

The blowback has been brutal. McDermott got out in front of this. He apologized. He offered to resign. He has been doing the mea culpa tour of local talk shows. And he hasnt even gotten to New York, where his conference tournament will be held. Where his worst days will occur.

White Omahans are weighing in, as if it matters. Universally it is at best well he didnt mean anything by it to at worst the cancel culture morons defending his words. But this locker room fuck up, by a well respected coach says a lot about all of us. What lays deep inside the minds of white people can come out when stressed, sometimes awkward and badly stated at best, to hateful and nasty at worst. McDermott is a farm boy from Iowa. What the fuck does he know about plantations? Well apparently something took hold inside his psyche and out it came. Maybe it was one of those things you say that as its coming out of your mouth you try to suck back in. We have all done it. Maybe McDermott did it too. But wow man. That was bad.

I don't know if McDermott survives this. Creighton doesnt take well to bad pub. They have a rep to maintain. They are after all a Jesuit University. The Jesuits are highly educated priests who from what I've experienced, don't even believe in God. So if McDermott stays on, and I honestly don't see how he does, he's a twice wounded animal. Thru the FBI scandal and now this. Yeah I hate Creighton, but this is just another embarrassment suffered for us white folks.

Years ago, 1970 or so, when my Dad had season tickets to Creighton basketball games, I'd often go with him. The racial tension in the student section was apparent. The white privileged students would sit together and be the loud vulgar assholes they still are, and the black students sat together, didnt stand for the anthem and openly rooted for only the black players no matter what team they played for. It was uncomfortable to even be there. One game after a white student threw a chair on the floor and a miniature brawl broke out among blacks and whites who went to the same school, Dad stood up, put on his coat and said lets go. We left early. On the way home he told me he doubted if he'd ever go back stating that school has problems and I dont want to get caught in the cross fire when it blows up.  Those problems apparently remain.

CPAC 2021!

 Yeah its the annual gathering of the nuts, CPAC 2021, this time live from Florida where none of the attendees need to wear a mask. No need to protect others or themselves from the T***P virus hoax. Where they can let Jesus or Satan or you know who protect them from all evils near and far, like socialism or reality.

The first thing the insurrectionists running this little Cop Killer Woodstock did was cancel culture a black wingnut named Young Pharaoh , who had some very strange things to say about Jews. So cancel culture the black kid, they really didnt want any of them there anyway. The second thing they did was construct a stage in the shape of an Nazi SS symbol, haha, a little dig at the libs, or anybody else with a sense of humanity. Madison Cawthorn, wheel chair bound Hitler enthusiast, who doesn't seem to understand his heroes would have wheeled his dumb ass right to the showers, probably was mind fucking Himmler when he saw it.

The third thing was the sight of a Mexican made Golden Calf  , T***P being wheeled into place for the evangelical Bible thumpers to worship without realizing the irony of the moment. The Golden T***P was quite popular among the Cult 45 members who wished for a Myanmar type takeover of this Biden government that got thoroughly routed by hundreds of millions of votes proved by the fact Biden rallies didnt have as many attendees as the rallies they went to because Covid is a hoax and all. PROOF!!!

The CPAC 2021 list of speakers contained the most insurrectionist sympathetic list of goons perhaps since 1937 at Nuremberg.

You could sit back and watch Josh Hawley (Moron-Mo) double down on his overthrow attempt. Ted Cruz, looking refreshed and tan, scream FREEDOM! like a lunatic while his constituents froze and died back in Texas. Donald Trump Jr (Cokehead-NY) express his outrage over cancel culturing the Muppets while sniffing like a stopped up camel. Can this guy just OD already? Lauren Boebert (Coup Conspiracist-Co) saying no more times than she ever has in her life combined . Marsha Blackburn (Dumbest Woman in Senate Ever-TN) soft talking her condescending bullshit. You could watch people stand in line to get a selfie with butter faced bigot Marjorie Taylor Greene (Gym Banger-Ga).

Oh its an insurrectionist heaven. There isnt one person there who if the FBI raided the place wouldn't be detained for days, if not years. But hey its America . The God given white nationalist playground that got all stained by Slaves and Mexicans and Asians and uppity chicks and the homos. The CPAC 2021, given a hall pass, would eradicate all of that, and is attempting to do it now via voter suppression laws so that only white people can elect other white people who will keep them privileged and in white only sub standard housing and trailer parks living the good life.

Insurrectionist Heaven will conclude with a speech from the Golden God himself . The only True Leader who will totally be re installed on March 4th  or May 19th or whenever the next date is dreamed up by internet con artists. 

One man who declined to participate, probably for good reason, was Mike Pence, the guy the Golden One put a hit on back on the 6th of January. Had he shown up, Pence would have been booed at best, and strung up at worst as the insurrectionists completed their failed mission.

All bow at the feet of the Grifter in Chief. The con continues. The GQP. Ya gotta feel a tinge of pity at the rube-ness of this bunch. At least as the jail door slams.

Nomadland!

 Look, you'll either get this movie or you wont. Like the wonderful Pixar animated classic Soul. if you're older and not full of youthful arrogance about being indestructible, you will like this movie, rather appreciate this movie much more than the kid you tell to watch it who then goes yeah old person, it was boring.

Here's the deal (I'm all Joe today), you either thrive on seeing the country and world by slowly letting it unfold thru the window of a vehicle stopping at places no sane person plans on seeing (obscure museums and roadside attractions of giant dinosaurs), or you prefer to have an itinerary of airplane flights, upscale hotels, planned tours and sitting around on a beach chair doing nothing. I prefer the former and that's why Nomadland struck me so hard.

Its a road movie. But its also a commentary on America. Nomads are real in America. People who wander from season to season doing odd jobs and living in a van or a camper , sometimes down by the river. They are "homeless" so to speak. They are also more free than most of us ever could imagine.

In Nomadland, Frances McDormand (a Mount Rushmore actor if there ever was one) plays Fern , a 60 something woman living in Empire, Nevada when the 2008 economic crash occurs, closing a sheetrock factory after 88 years, and shutting the town down. Fern stays, her husband dies of cancer, and Fern grabs her shit, loads it into a creaky van, and leaves. 

She works at Amazon during Christmas, loads up her shit again and heads for Arizona where she meets the nomads at the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous, a gathering of people like her who follow a nomad guru named Bob Wells  (real guy on Youtube). She meets nomads, who are played by real people not actors, she falls in with them and relationships form. People live, people die, people drop out of the lifestyle, people need help, people help. It makes humanity look tolerable quite frankly.

The details include trips to South Dakota, Nebraska, California ,Arizona, Nevada for seasonal work. The same characters keep popping up. Like a family, its great to see them. These nomads have been acting all their lives and this film contains no awkward not an actor moments. I'm sure when these people tell stories its simply them telling the truth about who they are. Its just fascinating.

Now about the actual actors.

When a female actor turns oh I don't know, now maybe 50 in the past 40, she tends to lose work. They grasp for their glory days and get work done, their lips swell, their faces become unrecognizable and dammit it still doesn't work. But some actresses say fuck it, I am who I am and you can all go to hell if you don't like it. That's Frances McDormand. She is 63 . She looks 63, she acts 63 and she is a delight. I am not sure there are more than 2 or 3 other American actors who could have pulled this off. She is so damned appealing, she comes across as a truly nice person who can draw you in with nothing more than a stupid Happy New Year hat, a sparkler and a quick smile and nod. She's going to win every award known to the industry, that's just a fact.

The only other professional actor in this movie is the wonderful David Strathairn  of what hasn't he been in fame. He's one of those character actors who when you see him you know whatever movie it is has just become better. Oh it may just go from a 1 to a 2 but its his doing that it went up. He plays Dave, another nomad who pops up now and then at the seasonal work sites and obviously has a thing for Fern. But Dave goes another route away from Fern and its irreconcilable in the end. 

Theres no happy ending to Nomadland. Its just real. And the people you meet , like real life nomads Linda May and Swankie and Bob, are a blessing. I want to talk to them for real. But I'm too afraid to search for them.

I watched this movie on Hulu. In my house. And it made us even more angry that this pandemic was so fucked up by certain people. It robbed us of the 2-3 times a year we became Nomads and  drive around endlessly seeing things that would bore others yet fascinates us. 

I cannot recommend watching Nomadland enough. Directed by Chloe' Zhao, I cant wait for her next project. She knows what she's doing.

Bravo!

Rush!

In the 1990s I used to drive around with a Flush Rush bumper sticker on my vehicle. The reactions were varied but I will say it was 5 middle fingers for every raised thumbs up. Once in a great while a shouting match would occur until I realized they had guns and I didnt. The reaction to dissing a radio yakker should have been warning to what was coming. The right loves their blowhards. 

Rush Limbaugh died today after a lifetime of denying reality whether it be his own health or the nations health. I'm not gloating though at one point he was the only human being on Earth I hated. He became irrelevant sometime in about 2000 after his nemesis Bill Clinton left office though he maintained his devotees, aka Cult, that moved on to another blabbermouth sometime in about 2015.

I used to listen to Limbaugh in the late 1980s. He was kidding, right? He made me think. He made me angry. He wasn't really serious, right? I kept expecting , despite Maya Angelou's advice to accept who somebody is when they tell you,  that he would suddenly tear off his fat face and switch sides like all con artists do. But he didn't. 

Limbaugh was the classic example of the overfed, cigar chomping , country club living, golf playing, boisterous bigoted Republican. The classic stereotype of the kind of guy the Republicans should shun. But the GOP decided in about 1994 that this crude, insulting, dishonest way of life was successful and Limbaugh was their bullhorn. Little did we know what was coming.

Rush is gone now. The ultimate white supremacist. The guy who started this nation down the Asshole Highway. Mean and nasty, openly bigoted, speaking his muddled mind, openly disdainful of the gays, the blacks, the kids, he was on par with Joe McCarthy and other demagogues who easily fool the American right. 

I still wont gloat. I stopped paying attention to him long ago. It was despicable that one Loudmouth gave another Loudmouth a Medal of Freedom. Despicable. It cheapened the award forever. But it worked because it owned the libs, me included. And isn't that all that matters to the Cult? The cult that followed one braying jackass to another, The bitters that cannot accept equality because that means they arent more equal like it used to be.

Be Gone El Rushbo! You've now achieved what you mocked others about. You have assumed room temperature. 

Save Us Again Please!

 Its fucking over. Last weeks shit show in which I actually believed for a hot minute that the heated phone call in which T***P brazenly told House Leader Kevin McCarthy that he didnt give a damn about Pence, or McCarthy or anybody else in harms way up there at that there Capitol may have brought some Republicans on board for conviction, it was not to be. 43 cowards voted to acquit a mob boss who is on tape calling his soldiers to arms. 43 chickenshits, whether true believers in the concept of fascism and one man rule, or scared little kittens afraid the T***P thugs will actually kill them or their families voted to let this obese Ox off the hook. It truly is frightening. But its over, right?

At least on a political level. We may never ever have to listen , hear, or see that fucking disgrace ever again. Part of the reason I held the remote in my hand during every moment of that overwhelming prosecution of a  gangster was due to the House Managers playing video of T***P insisting his mob of morons march up the street and kill people and I could mute his voice. My head didnt ache, my neck wasnt stressed into tightness unless I heard that mind boggling bullshit coming out of the  Treasonist in Chief's pie hole. It was just as stressful to witness history as it was to live it. That fucking voice. My Gawd it was like PTSD. He'd been gone for  3 weeks and I was already cured. Like the environment when not exposed to toxic gas, I was healing. Then this.

But its over. He got away with it again, despite the blatherings of Mitch McConnell trying to have it both ways on the Senate floor after he voted to acquit a man he obviously hates. Our only hope now is various local prosecutors like Fulton County DA Fani Wills, who seems intent on indicting this bribery artiste'. Perhaps NY Attorney General Letitia James will get her ducks in a row and put the entire Crime Family where they belong, Sing Sing. 

 Nonetheless, for this Putz in Chief to still be walking around free, emboldened by his perceived victory, and his cult members still willing to kill for him, is dangerous for all of us. His grift continues, his bullshit continues, his cult of personality continues and once again, America may have to be saved by the only thing with the guts to remove this toxic sludge of a man from the hanging by a thread  democracy.

The African American woman. They've saved us before. They can do it again.

Impeach 2!

 The trial of the Traitor in Chief began yet again today even though the fat fuck sits in Florida yelling at the TV. Will the Instigator in Chief be held accountable for sending a marauding mob of white trash up the street to kill Mike Pence and anybody else who got in their way. They managed to kill a cop, and one of theirs got wasted for trying to climb into a place she shouldnt have been in.

Im sick of it. I saw the tape. You saw the tape. What the fuck more do you need  to send this Piece of Shit in Chief away forever never to be see again in politics. For chrissakes they had less evidence on Charles Manson. But now we have a "jury" of GOP cowards ready to acquit. Much like if the Manson jury consisted of Tex Watson, Leslie Van Houten, Susan Atkins and Squeaky Fromme, the acquittal is in the bag. This country is a joke.

After a 14 minute real time video of a man riling up a crowd of mental midgets to do his bidding, the House Managers made a case that quite frankly would convict anybody with a real jury listening. But this is no normal jury. This is a jury of GOP chickenshits scared to death of a gaggle of scum who thinks up is down and that orange is white.

Its giving me a headache again. I thought this was over.

Listen To AOC!

 Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the Instagram last night to tell her story of the January 6th T---p Trash riots and what was going thru her mind as she hid from middle aged rampaging white incels who bow at the feet of another dude. Yeah its weird. The Instagram too. I guess its Twitter for people under 60 or something. 

I dont give a rats ass about the politics of this disgusting incident when it comes to women like AOC hiding from a gang of brainwashed loser men taking out their repressed lives on other people. Whether it be cops or fellow nutjobs or Senators or Congressmen, these middle aged vandals didnt care who they hurt but seemed very intent on putting the uppity chicks in their place . The Nancy Pelosis and the Katie Porters and the Ilhan Omars or the Ayanna Presleys the Rashida Tlaibs and the AOC's. This marauding mob of overgrown juveniles constantly demanded to know where these women were located to oh I dont know hate fuck them to death or whatever these neanderthals had in their lizard brains.

Its trauma. Its fearing for your life. These fuckers werent going to kill Ted Cruz, or Josh Hawley or Kevin McCarthy. They were out to kill women. Women in power. The bane of their miserable existence. AOC last night expressed her fear, her continuing trauma , and her past sexual assault. Her story isnt all that different from a lot of women who are not Congresswomen.Yet some men, like Ted Cruz, isnt having it. Get over it he crows. He tries to debate policy with a woman in pain and she aint having it. She refused to bite and in fact accused him of doing what he did. He supported an attempted murder of a fellow lawmaker. Fuck no, its worse, he supported the attempted murder of another human even after the crime was committed in his devotion to another man.

Ive about had it with the Ted Cruz's and the Mo Brooks (who demanded SHE apologize to Cruz) of the world. These miscreants are suffering from toxic masculinity. Fuckin Ted Cruz wont even defend his wife from the insults of  another toxic abhorrent dude.

This isnt about politics. This is about being a freakin human. I dont give a shit if you absolutely despise Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez because she scares you or her politics offends you., Shes a 30 year old woman who gets death threats on a daily basis and was chased by a horde of T---p flunkies thru her place of work. She thought she was going to die before she even lived. Thats repugnant, I hope, even to her political opponents.

Unfortunately its not to the Get Over It crowd of inhuman deranged nitwits who make up the 2021 political atmosphere.

JFC its getting harder and harder to even care about this country. We need to right course fast.