Hows Your Short Term Memory!

 Its 3 weeks away. As it gets closer I'm beginning to dread what I think is coming. Its really this simple. Are you willing to throw away democracy AND any chance of restoring it because inflation is bad and gas prices are high? Not that the GOP will do anything about it because they will not but to put these monsters in power because your gas receipt says whoaaaa and your airplane ticket is more expensive as you fly to Cancun or whatever is insane.

But thats America folks. Instant gratification and if I dont get it screw you. The long game isn't existent any longer. People get upset at the old 401K going down and they're 45 fuckin years old. They somehow think its and interest paying bond instead of a retirement plan that goes up (no comment) or down (throw shit around like a zoo animal) but cant be touched till you're 65. Americans have no problem sitting in a theater watching a 3 hour plus Marvel movie but if their lives arent 100% happy at any time its somebody's fault and it aint them. 

The GOP thrives on this. It also thrives on the fact they think your short term memory is shot because of Tik Tok and snap chat. It may very well be.

The Republicans want you to forget Herschel Walker's domestic violence past, his abortion fees past, his lies, his deadbeat Dad past and of course his obvious CTE. 

The Republicans want you to forget JD Vance calling Trump "America's Hitler". They want you to forget his sucking up to Alex Jones calling him a credible source, and how Vance wants to make it difficult to divorce and impossible for women to control their own health decisions.

The Republicans want you to forget that Senator Mike Lee openly emailed Mark Meadows to let crazy people like Sidney Powell or John Eastman into the tent and let them attempt the overthrow of a duly elected government. 

The Republicans want you to forget Don Bacon and his ultimate goal not of banning abortion at 15 weeks, but of the adoption of a Personhood Amendment which would outlaw women's health choices the minute they became pregnant. They want you to forget that they care only to control women and again look at the above votes above, they don't give a shit about the baby or the mother.

The Republicans want you to forget that numerous of their candidates pushed the idiotic litter box story about children pissing in a litter box because they identify as a cat, this of course is nothing more than made up response to trans Americans who they loathe. Unfortunately there's a lot of GOPers who are dumb enough to buy the story.  They want you to forget that.

The Republicans count on you to forget it all. The votes listed above, they want you to forget it. And according to some polls you are. Forgetting their treachery and their complete devotion to their donor class is their goal. They don't give a fuck about you. They only pretend to. 

Thats what is up for grabs in 3 weeks. Instant gratification unfulfilled in the form of Fascism or a continuation of the constitutional republic for which it stands.

Its up to you. 

Nebraska District Two!

 

There's a lot going on in the state of Nebraska lately. Elections are generally putting some Republican dullard into office and in some cases Republican devils into office. 

The District 2 House race has taken a turn for the worse as the incumbent, a former Air Force General named Don Bacon (Dullard-Ne) has gone scorched earth on his opponent, a Democratic state Senator named Tony Vargas, One thing about District 2, though we've usually sent Republican back benchers to the House, on occasion we have rocked the boat with a Democrat or two. The District was recently gerrymandered by the GOP led legislature to take away city dwellers in suburban areas in favor of a rural county with a county seat called Wahoo (Letterman fans may recall). The District nonetheless is a very urban district, a district that overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden but for some reason (The Democratic opponent probably) put this stiff Don Bacon back into office. So we are weird.

Bacon is a tough spot. He beat an incumbent Democrat back in 2016 well because Trump was running and the crazies came out. He then beat a progressive Democratic opponent twice though barely in 18 and 20 and now she's gone away opening it up for a Democratic opponent less scary in Tony Vargas.

The polls showed a tight race but Bacon had enough of a lead to run his goofy commercials which contained nothing but puns about his last name, ya know, the Dad jokes that make you roll your eyes but really dont offend. Then came the Taxin Tony ads where Bacon accused him of voting to raise taxes which of course you can do to any politician alive. That didnt appear to work cuz the polls showed a dead heat. Now Bacon has gone full the blacks and brown are gonna kill your wife and impregnate your daughters if you vote for Tony Vargas. Absolutely no source information at the bottom of the screen, Bacon's goons are now to the point where they just make shit up. Vargas wants police defunded (lie) Vargas defended "rioters" "attacking" Omaha Police (lie) Vargas wants to release Charlie Starkweather, ya know the same old scare tactics aimed at suburban and rural voters afraid to come into Omaha past I 680 for they might see a minority.

Meanwhile Tony Vargas keeps eating pizza and telling you what he WILL do if her gets to DC. No shit about Bacon being a personhood amendment freak who would force birth EVERY woman no matter what because rape and incest and miscarriages and life and health of the mother is like 1% of all abortions per Don Bacon. That may come later and I hope it does but in the meantime Bacon continues to attack Vargas as some sort of Che Guevera. He's worried and that makes me happy.

Don Bacon is a back benching nobody. The only things hes accomplished in 3 terms is the renaming of a Post Office. He brags about voting NO on "wasteful spending " and in the same fuckin ad brags about getting federal money to build a runway and fund the medical center. He's truly a General Jekyll and Hyde. A nice family guy playing with his grandkids eating bacon yet also a screeching fascist with thinly veiled racist ads against a child of Perevian immigrants.

This whole thing cant get over fast enough. The ads from the GOP side are sickening. While its a fact that Police attacked seated BLM protesters in a street that started a "riot" the ads portray the exact opposite with the Omaha Police Union President , an accused domestic abuser, stating the poor cops have Vargas "sitting on the backs of police". Well though thats not even remotely true, some of us take it as a good thing. Somebody needs to corral the Blue Lives Matter crowd. Gawd help us if they keep control.

Nothing Compares 2 U!

 The Showtime documentary starts with the post SNL concert in New York where she gets booed. The damage it did to Sinead O'Connor's psyche is apparent. If permanently damaged is a face you can make, she makes it. But ya know what she was right when she ripped the Popes picture in two and declared "fight the real enemy". She knew about the sordid history of Catholicism and nobody else did...yet.

The documentary follows O'Connors chaotic life. Her very nature of doing what nobody expects comes from Catholicism. It's a rebellion deeply rooted in dogma you cant logically process. Trust me, I know.

O'Connor burst onto the scene in the late 1980's with that classic album The Lion and the Cobra. The voice, the shaved head, the obvious pain was right there. It was tremendous. She took on religion like a fearless fool. Oh not like Madonna did with her clownishness, but dead on head butting ferociousness. And it cost her. But most pioneers bear the cost of their own ambition. 

The documentary, narrated by the present day O'Connor in many segments, really does tell the whole story, from the radio banning her music for refusing to allow the national anthem to be played before a concert, to the SNL debacle, to the suicide of her son. Yes she can be extremely self righteous but Sinead O'Connor was #MeToo before there was a #MeToo.....its a really good 90 minutes. 

The Cult!

 My last concert before the pandemic was Cher because dammit, Cher is a fucking legend. So its been over 3 years since I have seen a concert and well over that for my preferred type of concert which is rock n roll (though Cher's Abba medley was rockin!).

The Cult has new album and the songs are just as good as anything they've ever done but lets face it, the 50-65 year old dudes that made up 90% of the crowd wanted She Sells Sanctuary and Fire Woman. The concert was at an old social hall in South Omaha renamed the Admiral and remodeled to resemble well an old social hall. I'd seen various bands there in the distant past (Collective Soul, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Mazzy Star) and to be quite honest I was a helluva lot younger then, The place has no parking, no seats, and no fucks left to give. Its small, you have to stand and 75% of the clientele is drunken dudes out for the night and ready to raise hell. I don't really drink anymore so my horror of being around drunks when you aren't drunk phobia kicked in real fast. The place quite frankly looked like they were having a biker convention. Lots of head scarves, tats, leather vests, shaved heads, goatees hey wait a minute this must have been what it was like at the Capitol on January 6th. Look I'm no 60 something lookin white guy in a polo and a $200 haircut , my look is a cross between old hippie and homeless vet , but I have no tats, Im not drunk, no leather, no head scarf I'm just here to listen to the Cult, probably my favorite rock band from the 80's.

The opener I actually felt sorry for. King Woman, a woman fronted band playing a sort of dirge death rock. Shoe gazers, minimal movement, slow mournful music, the sound blew chunks, and the lead singer seemed a bit pissed after the last song throwing down the mike and walking off stage. They did 10 songs though honestly it may have been one loooong song for all I know. Nobody wanted to hear it. I did pull them up on Spotify later and liked them so I apologize for hating them at the time.

The Cult came on at about 9:45 way past my bed time.  Opening with Rise it was apparent from the start that lead singer Ian Astbury could still sing his ass off and had the whole front man shtick still intact. I was close enough to snap pictures and they continued on with 80's hits like Sun King, Sweet Soul Sister, Edie, Wild Flower, Peace Dog, Aphrodisiac Jacket, Fire Woman. The old dudes loved it, phones were raised, they were high fiving and fist bumping me like crazy at the start of every recognizable song. It was wonderful as us old geezers bonded for a legendary band playing a small social hall on a Sunday in Omaha.

Astbury has always had a sort of Jim Morrison vibe, some would say an obsession, in his dress and his stage presence. In fact, during an instrumental break during Peace Dog, he began a 2 minute medley of Doors music like Riders, Break on Through, and The End. But Astbury is and has always been one of the most underrated front men of rock history and his voice is phenomenal still. They sound great and Billy Duffy can play the guitar with any of the greats.

She Sells Sanctuary's opening notes started and the place went nuts. A whole new level of old man energy. Unfortunately for me, standing for this long is difficult because my back is old and I'm fat. My back was on fire during one of the greatest songs of all time so I slowly moved towards the door as the audience went crazy. As soon as the last note was played and they pretended to leave for good before the encore I was out the door and struggling up a hill to get to my car. Damn getting old is a bitch.

Lessons learned

1) The Cult is still worth seeing. There is no slowing down with these guys. They rock

2) I need a seat at concerts. My back is shot. Standing is not an option any longer. 

The End

GOP Grifters!

 Lets just assume that the GOP leaders we have in Congress are real idiots. Is that true or is it just a grift? Are many of the GOP leaders that goddamned stupid or are they just that goddamned evil? There's a combo of both but I want to concentrate on the ones I know aren't dumb but act that way for money, fame, attention and more money . These people KNOW better, but also realize that MAGA, the ones left anyway, are gullible as hell and like the phony televangelists know, these people are ripe for the grift .

1-- John Neely Kennedy Republican Senator from the Swamps of Looziana

Kennedy was a Democrat until 2007 when he realized the pot of gold waiting for him in conservative country. Kennedy went to Vanderbilt, got a law degree form Virginia, then went overseas to Oxford where he piled it even deeper with yet another degree. Not exactly a dummy right? He even talked like an educated man, endorsed John Kerry over W in 2004. He lost attempts to win a Senate seat as a Democrat and then it hit him....Start talking like Foghorn Leghorn and switch parties. In 2016 he won the Senate seat formerly held by prostitute enthusiast David Vitter and the rest is the con. Kennedy isnt dumb, he just acts that way for power.

2-- Ted Cruz Republican Senator from the Texas Republic

Rafael Edward Cruz was born in Canada sometime in the Middle Ages the son of a Cuban vampire named also Rafael. After Rafael abandoned the family when little Rafe was only 4 and flew to Texas, poor little Rafael was stuck in Canada where he would have been nationally ridiculed as a geek. But later Junior Rafael moved to Texas to be with his Papa where at the age of 13 he dressed up in a tiny suit, imagined himself to be President, and changed his name to Ted because Texas is totally not racist. Ted went to Princeton and then to Harvard Law when he came back to Texas and began saying y'all. So with that Harvard Law degree, Ted decided that more importantly it was mandatory to talk about "elites" like him and hope nobody in Texas noticed. They didnt, or at least enough of them didnt and Ted went to the Senate in 2013. It was also here where Ted decided to portray himself as a condescending asshole which led to the famous Lindsey Graham quote that if Ted Cruz was murdered on the floor of the Senate there'd be 99 suspects. Ted is the opposite of acting dumb when he's not, he's just an evil prick

3--Elise Stefanik Republican Congresswoman from New York where her parents live

Elise was born in 1984 where she was vaccinated with a sense of sociopathic ambition. Another little girl who probably idolized a hated woman like Maggie Thatcher because of her sociopathic disease Elise entered Harvard and obtained a degree in Government.  She hacked around working for W and Alfonse D'Amato and helped prepare fellow Ayn Rand enthusiast Paul Ryan for his catastrophic 2012 debate with Joe Biden who kept gesturing who IS this fuckin guy whenever Ryan opened his Randian scabbed mouth. It was at this point Stefanik pounced. Ryan was on his last legs and this was HER time. She moved to her parents congressional district, and ran for Congress and won at age 30, a little old to be Tracy Flick but whatever. Stefanik laid low voting as a moderate and then when Trump was impeached she leaped into action becoming a TV pimp for the Former Guy totally changing her modus operandi . She slipped right in when the MAGAts made Liz Cheney walk the plank and grabbed her leadership spot. Stefanik isnt dumb either, shes just a back stabbing ambitious sociopath who will kill anyone in her way to the top.

4--Kyrsten Sinema Republican Senator from Arizona

Ok I know "officially" she's a Democrat but she's also the major boulder in the road to getting anything done. Kissing up to Mitch McConnell and looking for all the attention she can get either by acting weird or dressing like a clown, Sinema was born Mormon. She went to BYU and then at the age of reason moved to Arizona and gave up her hope of Planet Kolob being real. Getting a Master of Social Work from Arizona State (wow) Sinema began working for Ralph Nader and joined the Green Party. She said she was a socialist, hated Joe Lieberman and called Reagan and W "the real Osama lovers"....JFC I'm in love with 2005 Kysten Sinema...Then she ran for Congress and the money began to roll in. Socialist Sinema became capitalist Sinema and here we are. Her Senate campaign in 2018 against the disaster known as Martha McSally was successful and even MORE money rolled in making Sinema rich as long asshe looked out for her donor class. Sinema isnt dumb, she's maybe the smartest person in any room she's in, but her mental state is complete me me me and she may be the most sociopathic person in the room, unless Elise Stefanik or Josh Hawley is around.

5--Dan Crenshaw Republican House member from the Barbary Coast or Texas

Crenshaw was born in Scotland so there's a bit of an explanation for his goofiness. He went to high school in Columbia which may explain more of his goofiness. Crenshaw went to Tufts University and when out joined the US Navy where he earned a Seal accreditation so he's one tough son of a bitch thats for sure.  He got a lot of medals and got his right eye blown out in Afghanistan. Sounds like the perfect Democrat to me but alas, he went to Harvard, probably got sick of the "elitist" bullshit and went to Texas to grift the rubes. He won a close House race in the Houston burbs by screaming border border border scaring the shit out of white people and the rest is Crenshaw goofy. He caters to the MAGAts but then gets a bit irritated with them and trashes their cultism. So Crenshaw cant really decide what side he's on. He seems to be a bit like an aginner , he gets irritated by whatever the presiding view is around him. He HAS to be the smartest most reasonable guy in the room or else. He aint dumb he just pretends to be at times and that must hurt like hell.

I don't know what to do about it. Pretending to be what you aint may be Politics 101 but that doesn't mean we have to accept it, right? Right?

Max Esq!

 For many many years my Dad wanted to be a lawyer which explains how he knew every defense attorney in Omaha and I got a lot of cool interviews in journalism school. But Dad had things like World War II and life get in the way and the next thing ya know it was too late. I had similar experiences. Well not exactly similar but life got in the way, I wasn't smart enough to be a lawyer for one thing, it wasn't a passion at all, and I wanted to expose the corrupt in journalism. Yeah didn't work out.

25 or so years ago Max came along and the ultimate life got in the way. My only passion became getting him through life without  screwing him up so bad he became me. Max was smart. He read at age two. He could explain things better than I could at age 5. He sailed thru school with an ease I could only envy. He got a scholarship to the University of Nebraska. He sailed through that with as close as you can get to a 4.0. Then he got yet another scholarship to law school. 

I wouldn't say it was clear sailing on that. The pandemic pretty much screwed that all up. But Max pushed on. His passion became NOT being some guy looking for a cushy job at a private firm helping rich people avoid taxes or a job putting people in prison. He worked hard at helping immigrants get visas or getting to stay in this country. His passion was evident. Helping his fellow man, especially the ones with no voice.

Max was sworn in this week as a full fledged licensed attorney in Nebraska courts and federal courts. He begins his work at the Public Defenders office next week. Helping the ones with no voice. Some would say defending the scum that preys on us all if you were a GOPer. But in this nation, for now anyway, even the scum need a voice. Max will be there to give everybody a voice.

I am Max's Dad and I couldn't be more proud. Somewhere someplace I hope my Dad is too.

Earnest Jackson!

 This is Earnest Jackson who at the age of 17 was sentenced to life in prison for being an accessory to murder. Then when the Supremes (back before they advocated draconian solutions) said he had to be re-sentenced and he got 60-80 years instead. Gee thanks for the "improvement".

In the meantime lots of things about this case have come out. For instance, there was a killing. whether Jackson was there or not is in dispute, but the rub is this. The guy who actually pulled the trigger and killed the victim was ACQUITTED of murder and let go on a self defense argument. So there wasn't an actual murder? Yet there was? I'm no lawyer but cmon now.

Jackson hasnt been a model prisoner his entire incarceration. He was a pissed off teen in prison for something he maintains he didn't do so there's lots of "write-ups" for bad conduct . But very few since 2012 when he got his college degree and began to mentor others. 

Thousands and thousands of signatures were gathered. Lots of character witnesses were lined up. The Pardons Board was inundated with pleas for at least a commutation of the 60-80 years. The victim's own family said hey he didn't do it let him go.

Ok the Nebraska Pardons board is a 3 white man panel consisting of the Governor, a shitheel Republican named Pete Ricketts (@govricketts) , a Secretary of State named Robert Evnan ( @NEvnen) and the Attorney General (@AGDougPeterson) who spends his entire time suing the Biden administration for forgiving student loans, joining lawsuits to overthrow the 2020 election, and being a pain in the ass. This board rejected the plea after 2 minutes. Yep 2 minutes. So once again, a man is doing 60-80 years for being an accessory to a non-murder. 

Later on, the Board acquiesced to a pardon request to a former Marine convicted of sexual assault supported by two rows of American Legion members. They voted to pardon this guy 2-1. One guess on what color he is. 

I do not know what else to say. It's an injustice that needs to be fixed. I probably haven't done it justice here.

Read about it here  or 

Read about it here