Judas Priest And Sabaton!

 

Head banging at my age is not easy. But if you get the opportunity to do so, especially when metal gods like Judas Priest come to town, by all means conjure up your 20 something self and go for it. Priest came to the Baxter Arena last night and blew the roof off the place.

Opening act Sabaton, with whom I've become familiar with over the past few weeks, is a Swedish metal band whose songs are based on historical events, mostly wars. Their 1-hour long set was crazy. With a fake tank onstage, which held drummer Hannes Van Dahl at its top, Sabaton hit the stage with Ghost Division and Last Stand, songs about a German Panzer division in WW II and the Battle of Thermopylae, which the movie 300 was based on. Yeah, these guys are heavy duty history buffs who turn head banging into an art. Lead singer Joakim Broden belts out the lyrics with a force that makes your ears tingle. The band itself is loud and proud and never stops coming at you like Stormtroopers, another song about WW II. You get Joakim playing a pink Hello Kitty guitar during Resist and Bite, yet another song about WW II Belgian fighters resisting the Nazis. You get Joakim coming out for Attack of the Dead Men in a gas mask and a firing smoke at the crowd in reference to WW I gas attacks by Germans. This is a band that is obviously ready to rock AND teach you something about history if you want. They are yet another Swedish metal band that opens for rock legends. Much like when I saw Ghost open for Iron Maiden, I must check out Swedish metal. It's smart, it pierces your ears, and it slams you in the grill with a force that you can't help admire. 

Judas Priest hit the stage to a recording of War Pigs and immediately went in to Panic Attack, You've Got Another Thing Comin and Breakin the Law, getting some of the better-known songs out of the way early. Priest is legendary. Lead singer Rob Halford is one of the best front men of all time and at age 73 he proves it. His piercing voice and energy is still there, he doesn't do much talking and leaves the stage through a curtain often, presumably to change outfits and drink lots of water (Sabatons lead singer also left the stage a lot, but presumably to read a history book). All the Priest classics are there. My personal favorite, Turbo Lover, involved a captivated crowd to sing along. The head banging never let up for an hour and 45 minutes. The encore got the crowd involved also with a sing along to Livin after Midnight and then, it was over. It went like that. This is great stuff.

Sabaton and Judas Priest, touring together, is an event you must not miss. Look, my tastes are all over the board. Just this summer I've seen Lionel Ritchie , Earth Wind and Fire, Steve Winwood, the Doobies and Ringo Starr. As great as those artists are, it's not head banging. Keep yourself honest. You cant head bang every night any longer, at least I can't, but the energy saved from just enjoying great, diverse music, means you CAN head bang once in a while. Standing for 3 hours is stressful. Head banging is stress relieving. Between the two of them it doesn't matter, my knees are killing me today.

I cant wait for the next one.

Blue Dot Nebraska!

 You may have heard of this blue dot phenomena occurring here in Nebraska. These lawn signs are popping up everywhere in Nebraska District 2 which is basically Omaha, a city of half a million people in a state with two million. The state is red as hell. It's been red as hell since 1968. It used to be a reasonable red, which means the Republican politicians were not batshit crazy. They included Mike Johanns and Chuck Hagel and Dave Heineman and Charlie Thone. Now it's Pete Ricketts and Deb Fischer and Jim Pillen and gang of 32 legislators who do what they are told to do by the GOP powers that be.

The blue dot. Nebraska has, since 1992, a system that allocates electoral votes by congressional district. We have 3. District 3 is full of dying small towns and people who vote Republican because their daddy did and his daddy did and blah blah.. District 1 is Lincoln but contains enough small towns in the surrounding area to keep it red. Then we have District 2, Omaha and its surrounding area and is purple. The first time my vote counted was in 2008 when Barack Obama won the district and thus, one of the 5 Nebraska electoral votes went to him. The second time was 2020 when Joe Biden won the district and in 2024 Kamala Harris will win it because quite frankly people in this big city are sick of Trump's shit.

Oh The Republicans suddenly hate the system they put in. Ordered by their boy and his minions like Charlie Kirk and Cat Turd, the GOP tried to take it back and install winner take all this year because Trump is in trouble. It failed to come to pass in the regular legislative session and again during the recent waste of $200,000 on a special session that accomplished nothing. Recently the issue came up again because Trump is panicking. 

Call yet another special session, Governor Pillen, and get this winner take all system installed by November 5th. Shhhhh, but the only other state that does this is Maine, and they can't change to winner take all after September 18th. So, on September 19th here comes Trumps lapdog, Lindsey Graham, to put the screws to the Republicans in the state legislature that Trump wants winner take all and that Kamala doesn't represent "Nebraska values" whatever the fuck that means.

Mike McDonnell is a state senator from Omaha. He used to be a Democrat then his feelings got hurt so he changed to Republican. He's a former Fire Union head from Omaha. He's also a professional Catholic pro-life advocate who has let that run his life. McDonnell got a call from Trump. He is the 33rd vote to do Trumps skullduggery and make Omaha irrelevant in presidential elections. Whay will he do?

Today Mike McDonnell announced he was NOT going to be the 33rd vote at this time. McDonnell is term limited out of the state legislature, so he's done. But Mike wants to run for Mayor of Omaha and if he blows up the system he's probably toast. So, Mike is not going to be that 33rd vote, at this time.

Pfew! At this time anyway. Meanwhile the blue dot signs permeate this city from I-680 east to the Missouri River. West of I-680 is scared, well off white people and not so many exist out there. 

The blue dot is real. The excitement for Kamala is off the hook here. She will take the district and one electoral vote. Now we just hope the coattails take down District Two's milquetoast Congressman Don Bacon, a retired General who pretends to be nonpartisan but in reality, is just another MAGA vote in the House. He may be a nice guy, but politically he's no different than MTG, Matt Gaetz or Trump himself. His TV ads portray him as a reasonable sort who works with both sides to get shit done. Meanwhile the PACS that support him portray his opponent, State Senator Tony Vargas, as a commie loving criminal advocate spendthrift. Don stays nice, the PACS do the meat chewing.

The blue dot means that Bacon is in perpetual trouble. He won last time because too damn many people voted for Biden and Bacon. But the win was razor thin. This year, with the blue dot excitement, he may be fried bacon. Lets hope so.

Want a blue dot sign for your yard? Go to BlueDotNebraska.com and find out where and when you can get one. It makes one feel like you are not alone.

Martin Luther Whaaaaat?!!!

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Things That Make Me Go Doh!

There was another "assassination" attempt on The Felon. This "assassination" attempt occurred Sunday when some career criminal who ranted about wanting cowardly Nikki Haley and the dumb guy's idea of a smart guy, Vivek Ramaswamy, to be the GOP ticket instead of Trump showed up in Florida. So, he camped outside Mar A Dumpo for 12 hours with a commie weapon (AK47), took a shot at Trump playing golf, oh no wait, he didn't shoot at anybody, was arrested and now is where he belongs, in a Florida gulag. But the right-wing echo chamber has taken up the bullshit and accused the "assassin" of being a left-wing nut because of course that's what they do. Lie. Facts are facts. There was no assassination attempt. The only shots fired were from the Secret Service and Trump was never in danger except for the hooks and shanks that his golf shots tend to be. Meanwhile the least funny man on Earth or Mars, Elmo Musk, tweeted out asking why nobody was taking shots at Kamala followed by the thinking emoji. It was a joke cmon now. Musk is a weirdo.

Springfield, Ohio cant catch a break. They have become the focus of this week's obsessive media after the infamous "They're eating dogs" debate moment that will live forever as Trump's legacy. Of course, nobody is eating cats and dogs or geese or ducks or zoo animals in Springfield, Ohio. This is a subject created by some racist white lady who really doesn't like seeing black people in her town. Wow, she never ever thought it would go national and have a demented presidential candidate go down her rabbit hole and thus deleted it and hid. The fact is in 2018 (Trump years) 20,000 Haitian legal immigrants moved into Springfield to accept the jobs no white people want to do. But facts don't matter to scummy opportunists like Trump and his loyal hillbilly sidekick, J D Vance. They just keep saying it. Meanwhile, poor Springfield is closing schools and city offices and churches because of MAGA nuts calling in bomb threats on a daily basis. It's what they do. Disrupt. Look for more of the same on November 5th when these same MAGAt kooks phone bomb threats to polling places in Democratic precincts. It's gonna happen, Springfield is a dry run.

Ben Sasse was a United States Senator from Nebraska. The guy was an OG GOP weirdo. He sold Runzas at football games, he drove Ubers and secretly thought he would be President someday. But alas, after winning re-election in 2020, because of course he has that R next to his name and here in Nebraskastan that's' all you need to win office, Sasse went rogue and voted to convict Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors. This caused a backlash among the cult. Sasse decided it was time to make money and left the Senate to become head of the Florida University system. Meanwhile back here in the "Stan", newly elected R next to his name Governor Jim Pillen, who's main claim to fame was falling on a fumble in 1978 while playing football at Nebraska, appointed his mentor and chief financial backer, former Governor Pete Ricketts to fill Sasse's seat. Now among the conspiracy minded, the fact that Sasse left to work for Ron DeSantis, and Rickett's financial backing of Pillen, that all of this was pre-planned. Anyway, back on track, Sasse recently left that job in Florida after it was revealed that Ben liked to parrrrrrrrrtay on the taxpayer's dime. Lavish parties, fund raising events and hiring his cronies to work remotely from DC at salaries unbecoming a Republican hack. Sasse was a drunken trust fund kid spending Daddy's money, just like Ricketts. Go Big Red!

Finally, Ohio parent Nathan Clark, who lost his 11-year-old son, Aiden,  to a tragic school bus accident a year or so ago, has enough to deal with. The death of his child, and now the using of Aiden's name to score political points for the anti-immigrant racists. You see, the school bus was run off the road by a Haitian immigrant, which to the GOP ratfuckers is nothing but an opportunity to scare white people. Nathan Clark read a statement at a council meeting in which he said Hey, stop demonizing Haitians and stop using Aiden's name to unfairly bash them as a whole. Nathan spoke about his sons legacy, the vomiting of racism by Republicans and how Aiden loved everybody and was curious about other people's culture. But that didn't stop Vance and Trump who care about nobody but themselves. Aiden Clark is just another prop to Senator Eye Liner and his boss, the 34 times convicted felon and sexual assaulter. They are soulless scum just as we all know.

How the fuck is this race close?

Ringo!

 You may not even think Ringo Starr was the best drummer in the Beatles. You may dismiss him as a clown who happened to luck into his stint with the greatest rock band of all time. You may think he only sang the stupid Beatles songs like Yellow Submarine and Octopus' Garden. And ya know, you could be right. But I don't care. He's a Beatle, he's Ringo. And I love the guy.

Ringo Starr brought his All Starr Band to the Astro Amphitheater last night and made a bunch of boomers like us very very happy for a couple of hours. This years version of the traveling road show includes the ever-present guitarist Steve Lukather of Toto (who has let his dark bushy hair go completely grey), sax player Warren Ham of Kansas and Toto, bassist Hamish Stuart of Average White band, drummer Greg Bissonnette of numerous bands, keyboardist Buck Johnson of Aerosmith and Colin Hay of Men At Work. 

The way a Ringo concert goes has been the same since he started this concept back in the early 2000's. It's an oldies tour. But with real band members and 3 hits apiece. It moves along, it changes directions, it keeps you interested the whole time and it's got no speed bumps.

The concert starts with Ringo, cracking jokes, singing off key (as is his schtick) and playing Matchbox and It Dont Come Easy before running back up the stairs to get behind the drums (yeah he did trip on his way up ). Lukather, one of the greatest and most underrrated guitarists of all time, takes over for a Toto tune, Rosanna. Now it's rollin. Stuart took over with Pick Up The Pieces, a hit from 1975's Average White Band, a great instrumental featuring the smooth sax of Ham. 

Then came Colin Hay. Colin Hay has some of the most distinctive pipes of all time (IMO) and his brief time on top in the 80's with Men At Work was glorious. I loved Men at Work. Hay's voice was like an instrument of its own. And dammit, he still sounds great. Much the same as when I saw him at the Civic back in 1984. Down Under was fabulous.

Taking turns on the hits we all knew backwards and forwards, Lukather did Africa, with Hay hitting the high notes and Hold The Line with it's distinctive keyboard opening from Johnson. Stuart fronted Cut The Cake and Work to Do. Hay sang Overkill and Who Can It Be Now with the same gusto he had in the 1980's.

Then Ringo would come front and center to close it out with Photograph (geez buddy stop yelling Photograph the entire concert) and With a Little Help From My Friends along with a bit of Give Peace a Chance.

I've seen this band of greats 4 times now and it's truly different each time because the band changes members except for Lukather who is never not working. We have seen Gregg Rolie doing Santana songs, Todd Rundgren doing his thing, the dude from Mister Mister hitting the high notes and one year had Randy Bachman doing Guess Who and BTO stuff.

If you are of a certain age, your youth is getting farther and farther away every minute. Ringo is 84 years old. McCartney is 82. Your chances to witness even a sliver of what the Beatles meant to us is fading. Go see this band before you can't any longer. You will be in heaven for two hours.

Debate Afterthoughts!

It is in the rear-view mirror. The debate. There probably will be no other as Trump's advisors will tackle him to keep him off that stage a second time.

While Trump ran off to the spin room to claim he won, get his terrible debate "advisors" like Tulsi Gabbard to claim he won and the rest of them to blame the refs, Kamala went to Cherry Pier, a converted warehouse where Democrats held a watch party and spoke for 20 minutes. She didn't need the fucking spin room, all she needed was an audience. It was a total disaster for Trump who came across as a crazy old man, which he is. But onto to other thoughts.

Who the fuck is "Abdul"? Trump claiming he spoke with the head of the Taliban prior to the exit. "I told "Abdul" don't do it anymore.....And he said why did you send me a picture of my house? I said you're going to have to figure that out, Abdul." Abdul? To Trump it's just a racist name covering all Arabs. Trump started the withdrawal by letting 5000 "Abduls" out of prison under the promise they wouldn't be murderers and women haters. Oops.

"In Springfield, they're eating our dawwwwgs, people that came in, they're eating the cats, they're eating the pets of the people who live there, and this is what is happening in our country". Yeah, he said that. Kamala Harris flashed the WTF face as she realized she was "debating" a lunatic. Trump fell into the trap of repeating bullshit made up by Russian operatives and given to right wing "influencers". This sound bite can't get into ads fast enough. 

"They have abortion in the 9th month. They even have the Governor of West Virginia (wrong Virginia Gramps), the previous Governor of West Virginia (wrong again Grampa Simpson). not the current governor, who's doing an excellent job (get that kiss ass in), but the governor before. He said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, he will execute the baby". Excuse me? Between the dog eating and the execution of live babies, Trump has achieved full maniac mode. He just spouts off whatever he saw on television, whatever fascist channel he lands on looking for somebody to say something nice about him. The lies about dogs and cats were bad enough. This lie was absolute trash and needed to be fact checked as it is NOT a fact. SMDH!

Trump claimed tariffs will not be passe on to the consumer. He's either an economic illiterate or just a dumbass, or both, but what kind of 1850 bullshit is that? Of course, a tariff is passed along to the consumers. Its Econ 101. Exactly why did the Trump administration give farmers $22 billion in payoffs in 2019? Yeah, because of tariffs taking money away from them. JFC. This is so basic.

Again, Trump denied any involvement in Project 2025. Despite the fact that it was his advisors that wrote the damn plan to turn the country into a right-wing circle jerk. Despite the fact the head of the plan rides on Trumps plane. Despite all this, Trump still denies any kind of support. Hey even if true, which of course its not, check out Agenda 47. It's Project 2025 on roids. And THAT is 100% Trumps.

There was more. Election denial (he lost). Pipelines stopped (no pipeline was stopped) $85 billion of "beautiful" military equipment left behind in Afghanistan (its $7 billion tops). He was "shot" because of Harris (he wasn't shot he was shot at). Ashli Babbitt was murdered (she fucked around and found out). Blah blah blah. It was all bullshit.

Let's just say whenever Trump opened his tiny mouth, he lied. It's what he does and will always do. Meanwhile, millions of gullible Americans will suck up every word because they want to believe their lot in life is shitty because of somebody else.

I hope there is another debate. There probably won't be but please please please, keep digging, Donnie.

The Debate!

 She won the debate right here. Walking over to the cowardly misogynist, introducing herself like a normal human, forcing him to participate in a ritual he had no interest in. It rattled him. It pissed him off. The strong confident woman in effect telling this bum you have no power over me settled this early.

Trump started lying immediately, even as Kamala dodged the better off than 4 years ago question. He somehow went from inflation to immigration and the tone was set. Trump is going to appeal to racists. Its his only hope. Double down on the racism and the lies. Double down on ridiculous theories about Haitians eating people's dogs and cats in Ohio and Venezuelan gangsters taking over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado. This is all he has. The right-wing bubble of people who buy anything said on Fox News or Newsmax or tweeted by Elon Musk, perhaps the most gullible kook on Earth. Gangsters taking over apartments, illegals killing people left and right, fentanyl killing millions, Haitians eating cats, killing babies after birth, and Comet Pizza. None of that shit is true, but the vacuum living cult aren't about to accept reality now because it would invalidate the last 9 years of their miserable lives. 

Harris wiped the floor with Trump all night long. She pissed him off about crowd size and called him boring and this idiot fell for it. He bit. And he lost his credibility by going back to his butthurt self. I'm the victim, everybody loves me, I have millions of fans, none of them are bored, no no YOU have fake people. The toddler that dominates Trump's personality cannot be tamed. He is never ever going to admit he was wrong and like all bullies if he gets backed into a corner and there's no way out, he denies reality. It wasn't me. I never did that. 

Trump got crushed in this debate tonight. It was like watching Ali beating up on old Sonny Liston. Trump had no response other than the same old shit he says day after day, rally after rally, video after video, tweet after tweet. Trump is a one note Donnie. He CAN'T change. He's an old man yelling at clouds. Ever change an old man's mind? Nope, not gonna happen.

Is this election over? Well in any other free country on the planet, yes it would be over. But it's here where bullshit reigns supreme. Where dumb people represent a majority. As Carlin said think of the average person and how dumb they are and think, half the people are dumber than that guy. Between the $787 Million dollar losers at Fox, the right-wing blogosphere, the right-wing influencers getting their money and disinformation directly from the Kremlin and the cowards that back Trump out of fear of his thugs, this election is NOT over. Shit, Trump could still win this. If enough bigoted white people and their minions of cultists turn out in force, this could be the end of democracy. Yet on the other hand, if the youth and the people who love America turn out in force, Trump is cooked. 

After the debate tonight, somebody named Taylor Swift suddenly posted that she was a childless cat lady, watched the debate and was supporting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Does that matter> Of course it does because there are literally millions of Swifties ready to do whatever she says. Ya know, like the people who will do anything Trump says. How ironic the very thing that allows Trump to breathe free, his adulation from his cult, will also bite him in the ass by another cult that adores Taylor Swift.

My hopes are alive. The Trump apologists are out in force blaming his insanity on the moderator's "bias". Blaming the refs so to speak, the only excuse losers really have left after their team shits the bed like Trump did. saying how the moderators never fact checked Harris but did so to Trump. Yeah, because Trump's blabbering about killing babies after birth is a blatant lie. Trump's rambling about Haitians eating dogs and cats also a blatant lie that needed to be fact checked. But he saw it on television so it must be true. What a dope.

The fact remains that Trump was allowed 9 more minutes to speak, rant if you will, than Kamala and maybe thats why the Trump sycophants were so upset. The moderators let Trump hang himself.

Operation Let Trump Speak was a success.