Guilty!

 Well, the son of a bitch finally won a popular vote. Unfortunately for Trump, it was a jury of 12 that won him that vote, unanimously I might add. How many electoral votes is that worth?

As the media hovered over the courthouse and the media back at the studio breathlessly speculated that every little thing like jury instructions and jury questions and the time they deliberated meant a hung jury, or an acquittal, or that Trump would flee to Russia, the only thing you can conclude is nobody knows nuthin about juries. What a waste of time the 24/7 news is. They fill the 24 hours with talking heads and people who know nothing more than anybody else does yet pretend they do. 

When the verdict came in, the Trump sycophants and toadies went to social media to express their outrage over something they have no idea about. All they know is their Dear Leader has been held accountable for his criminality and though many of them hope privately that the fuckin anchor around their neck goes away for life, they must support Kim Jong Trump or the base of angry white trash may turn on them too. The death threats and swatting and the temper tantrums scare many politicians into blind fealty to this felon. Thus, I laugh at most of them as they flail for relevance and votes.

Trump is guilty, 34 times. The legal system did what it was supposed to do, just as it did when that slimy punk Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted by a jury of 12. But the MAGAts don't like the legal system when it does something they don't like. Its "corrupt" or "rigged" or "biased" against rich white men. The judiciary was made to do its job, independently, by those guys that MAGA claims to worship, the Founding Fathers. It did its fucking job today just like it was set up to do.

Donald J Trump, convicted felon. Thats a fact. No pardon is coming even if he wins. It's a state charge and it will remain a state conviction. There's nothing the lickspittles in Congress can do about it.

After 70 years of being a complete narcissistic, soulless scumbag, Donnie has been held accountable. It's about time. 

Trump Trial!

 Well, its over. The trial of Sleepy Donald Trump took 6 weeks to finish, had a slew of shady witnesses, just the kind of people Trump has surrounded himself with for 50 years. And now the chickens have come home to roost.

Trump didn't testify after promising to for weeks but who really expected him to get on the stand and commit perjury. Nobody with a sense of reality. Trump lies constantly with no consequences but fortunately he may have lied one too many times and will be a fucking convict by weeks end. 

This trial has gone on for so long we actually were there almost a month ago. As stated, the MAGA presence was minimal despite the Defendant crowing that thousands of MAGAts were being kept from being there by police or imaginary feds. Once again, we literally saw 3 people with Trump signs, none of whom spoke English. Can you say minimum wage? 

I won't pretend to be a lawyer and yap about intent and the constitution and other legal issues I know little about. I don't know if Trump will be convicted or not. I just hope so and if it's because I hate the motherfuckers guts, so be it. It's like Trumps hero, the man he keeps referring to as his role model, Al Capone. Everybody knew Capone was a murderous thug, but the way to get him was not paying taxes on his ill gotten gains. Same with Trump. Everybody knows he's a scumbag lying mob boss, but if the way to get him is his balance sheet and fraudulent entries, so be it again.

Trump is a danger to democracy. If he wins, he will take his revenge and this country will turn into what the right has wanted for 50 years. A right-wing dictatorship that will make white men supreme again. This is the goal and Trump is their puppet. The fact he is so close makes one wonder about Americans. The dumber we get; the danger becomes more relevant. 

The jury can do America a favor by convicting this son of a bitch and Judge Merchan can do the country a favor by jailing the thuggish blowhard. The evidence be damned. Save America!

Moulin Rouge!

When the 2023-2024 Broadway touring season was announced, and I saw Moulin Rouge was the season closer I was excited. I like Baz Luhrman movies but never remembered a damn thing about the 2001 movie other than the Patti LaBelle song Lady Marmalade being in it. I was looking forward to this one.

When you enter the theater you see a giant bright red sign that glows Moulin Rouge while actors walk around smoking and pacing behind the sign like caged tigers. The set is impressive. Perhaps the best I've ever seen. And then.......

The show begins with a chorus line of dancers singing Lady Marmalade and we are introduced to the emcee, Harold Zidler (Robert Petkoff) giving us the rundown on the Paris nightclub. We see Christian (Christian Douglas) arrive in Paris from Ohio, meet the two bohemians, Toulouse-Lautrec and Santiago who are writing a musical and helping them with lyrics. Then we see Satine (Gabrielle McClinton), the star of the Moulin Rouge, promised to the Duke of Monroth (Andrew Brewer) but wacky confusion arrives as Satine thinks the Ohio rube, Christian, is the Duke. They fall in love within 5 minutes, the Duke takes over the club and possesses Satine, love falters, Satine coughs, which of course means she's dying, and she dies breaking Christian's heart. 

I didn't care about any of the characters. Everything was so rushed. There are what seemed like a million different pop and rock songs sung for less than 10 seconds before moving onto another song for 10 seconds and on and on and on. It drove me batty. It was so utterly frustrating to hear the opening notes of a song only for it to be cut short with yet another song. It's like a goddamned night watching Name That Tune. The entire first act was like this including a weird ass version of Katy Perry's Firecracker. It annoyed the hell out of me. I wanted to leave. Act 1 was a freakin mess.

The came Act 2 opening with an entire song. Lady Gaga's Bad Romance was the highlight of the show at that point. After that came more songs with longer snippets that were tolerable and even enjoyable. Act 2 was definitely better than that mish mosh of a first act.

Is it a jukebox musical? Not really, it's more like a crazy person hitting shuffle every 10 seconds on Spotify. Somebody does that in a car and you gently throw them out at the next rest stop. They do it on a stage and people go nuts applauding. I didn't get it.

The performances are fantastic. Nick Rashad Burroughs as Toulouse was especially on target. He was impossible to take your eyes off when he was onstage. Robert Petkoff as the emcee Harold Zidler was also on top of his game. The main characters, Christian and Satine, were great singers but their "love story" was a snooze. Andrew Brewer's Duke tried to be an evil presence but I didn't particularly see it. 

Anyway, the touring Moulin Rouge is in Omaha all week. You may like it if you're into hearing recognizable songs for 10 seconds or so then moving on. It's definitely a show for the attention span challenged.

Bill Walton!

 There is no basketball player that I loved more than Bill Walton. Even when he was playing for the hated Boston Celtics. I couldn't help but hope he did well on those terrible feet, but that Kareem kicked the Celtics ass. I mean was there a better center in basketball history than Walton? Wilt, Kareem and Shaq were great centers, but Walton played the position unlike anybody. He was built for the position and was sneaky tough. He wasn't an imposing physical specimen like Wilt, or as smooth as Kareem, but he was a player that never pretended to be anything but a center both at UCLA and in the NBA. In my opinion he was one of the 6 best players of all time along with Jordan, Kareem, Wilt, Bird and Magic. 

Bill Walton was a man of the 60's. He protested the war, went to Dead shows, grew his hair long and had that red beard, and had a constant big smile on his face enjoying his life and enjoying yours also. Bill Walton was one of those guys who actually listened to people. He heard what the average person had to say and commented back in that oh so weird way. I loved the man. I once drove my VW Bug to Kansas City to see the KC Kings play the San Diego Clippers just to see him play. Alas, he was hurt, not even in the arena and I guess Tom Chambers would have to do (at least once I saw the Warriors play in Denver and Steph Curry sat the game out but was on the bench in street clothes) .

When Walton had enough of basketball due to his chronic health problems, he turned to broadcasting. Cmon man, was there ever a better analyst than Bill Walton? The guy was a human LSD experiment. You never knew what he would say. He had an interest in so many things that when whatever it was entered his mind as the game became tedious, he said it out loud (Have you ever been to a volcano) I would stay up late at night to watch PAC 12 basketball. I didn't give a damn if Oregon would hold off USC, I cared about what Bill Walton might say. 

When he did a White Sox game in full ty dye and claimed he had never ever been to a baseball game before he summed up baseball summed up baseball as "the offense doesn't have the ball, the defense touches the ball and there is no time limit, I love timeless things like Dead shows, this is gonna be great".

The man had a teepee in his back yard for self-reflection and meditation. I've loved that fact about him for years and want a teepee of my own. Not kidding,

Bill Walton died of cancer at age 71. Fuck cancer again. 

The world is a less fun place right now. I hope there's a Dead show in the sky he can attend perpetually.

Rock on dude, wherever you are. That place became even more fun with your arrival. 

Billy Idol!

 Billy Idol is one of those not quite great rockers that I don't understand why isn't considered great. Idol has been rocking so long and has so many hits and deep cuts that it was a shock to me that at 68 years old he's older than me. In your face, Idol! 

Idol and his band rocked the Pinewood Bowl in Lincoln Thursday night for a solid 90 minutes that got the overwhelmingly over 50 crowd home early. Just as we olds have learned to love.

Opening act, The Effect, obviously a new band, played only 4 original songs and got off stage within 30 minutes. The band has one helluva pedigree with band members including Nic Collins, son of some drummer from England and Trev Lukather, son of some guitar player from LA. No seriously, this is the kind of breeding that would make this band a favorite in any horse race. They are good.

Billy Idol took stage at around 8 pm and launched immediately into hits Dancing with Myself and Cradle of Love, my personal favorite Idol tune. We were off to the races. Idol and his guitarist Steve Stevens obviously have a chemistry from the decades of working together. Idol lets Stevens shred the guitar so often it's like getting two concerts at once. The hits were there, Mony Mony, Eyes Without a Face, and the show closer Rebel Yell. Other songs played included newer songs like Cage and the haunting Running From the Ghost, a ballad/rocker Idol wrote about his heroin addiction. 

The encore included the mandatory White Wedding which is a song not dated whatsoever.  People all on their feet singing along as Idol allowed the crowd to sing the chorus. So much fun and then at 9:30 pm he and his band were gone and we all high tailed to the car.

My only problem was we didn't hear Don't Need a Gun, my second fave Idol tune. But if that is all I can complain about, I had a great time.

Bill Idol at 68 can still get it done. Yeah, his voice isn't as strong as it was in 1986 and he can't hit certain notes but he allows the crowd to fill in the blanks and lets Stevens take control when necessary. And he can still "owwww" with the best of them.

If you get a chance, the answer is yes yes yes to see what I consider a great rock n roller. He delivers.

Nebraska Primary Day!

 It's primary day here in the "heartland", ya know where "real Americans" live and have kept the same shitty slogan for 50 years "The Good Life".  Nebraska is flyover country, for good reason, but if you live here, you can make sense of it and then leave if you can. If you're stuck here, well make the best of it, which is my choice. If you want to know what it's like to live here, watch the Alexander Payne movie, Nebraska. Thats a brilliant study of the rural parts of this state while Election may be a better study of Omaha or Lincoln. Anyway, don't worry yourself. you'll never live here.

The Nebraska primary is really nothing more than a repeat of the middle of the country as a whole. You have Republicans with a sense of delusions that MAGA is THE way and anybody with a working mind or a sense of compromise is a cuck who deserves nothing but hate. 

Earlier this year the Nebraska Republican Party, taken over in 2023 by a band of book banning fascists, decided to put out their endorsements of Nebraska's five incumbent congressional candidates, who are all Republicans.

Don Bacon is a Republican who claims to be a commonsense conservative. He's not but because he doesn't throw shit all over the Capitol walls and act like a fucking drunk baboon, he's considered a "moderate".  He is the incumbent Republican House Rep for Nebraska District 2. And because he is the incumbent with a pretty good chance of being re-elected, of course the Nebraska GOP endorsed a guy name Dan Frei, a MAGA freak who thinks Bacon is a Bolshevik and would not hesitate to shut down the gubmint. Frei isn't going to win because he's already saying he will join the kooky Freedom caucus and start sucking up to Large Marge Greene and this district voted for Biden by 6 points while crossing over to put Bacon back into that snake pit, The House.

In the 3rd district, Nebraska's permanent Republican playhouse, where men are men and women are stuck in shitty marriages to these men, the NE GOP has endorsed a dude named John Walz. Now the district hasn't elected a Democrat to Congress since the Dust Bowl, and has an incumbent, Adrian Smith, who is as vanilla as they come just like the district itself. But the Ne GOP wants Walz because Smith isn't Nazi enough. Walz answered a question on why he wants to run this way:

"In high school, my involvement with the John Birch Society spurred my fascination with America’s founding. I took great interest in the Revolutionary War, our Christian heritage, where our rights come from, and the role of governments."

What? John Birch Society? That still exists? A high school nerd Bircher? Damn I haven't seen Birch shit since my childhood dentist left the Birch pamphlets out on the waiting room table and pissed off my mother. Ok then....

The 1st district has an utter mediocrity named Mike Flood as its congressman. Flood is a former speaker of the Nebraska Unicameral and won a special election when former rep Jeff  "Googly Eyes" Fartenberry    Fortenberry was convicted of accepting illegal campaign contributions and then lying to the FBI about it. But then that was a California jury and not a Nebraska jury where he thought he could bamboozle hicks into acquitting him. He's now been re-indicted by a DC prosecutor. The Nebraska GOP made no endorsement in this race. I guess Flood is too much of a gentleman to endorse.

Senator Pete Ricketts was appointed by his bribe taker, Gov Jim Pillen, to the US Senate when previous Senator and Runza salesman Ben Sasse ran off to serve Rhonda Santis in Florida. Ricketts is a trust fund baby who buys anything he wants. He personally paid for an effort to bring back the death penalty after it was repealed by the legislature (a million or so) just so he could attempt to buy illegal drugs so he could kill a guy. Now Ricketts is bankrolling ($500k) an anti-abortion petition drive to put the ban on abortion in the state constitution, a real shitshow of a document. But the Nebraska GOP endorsed his opponent, John Glen Weaver, an Air Force Lt Colonel (retired). The guy is similar to Walz. A bomb thrower who wants to shut down government and cut social security (he says he won't cut it BUT get rid of the bureaucrats there so yeah, he wants to cut SS). He's one of those guys pushing forth the "UniParty" bullshit. Ricketts is as bad a Senator as can be imagined but for some reason (cuz he opposed Trumps choice for Governor?) the Ne GOP says nope, we need the nuttier one. 

Deb Fischer is the other Senator running for re-election. Shes as worthless as the fact you've never heard of her is. A total yes woman who does what she's told by the crazies. She's a loyal Trumper but again she may have pissed the NE GOP for some reason. Maybe she didn't show quite enough fascism for them. She has no primary opponent other than a perennial loser candidate who gets into races because he's got nothing else to do. They neglected to endorse her.

Now the Nebraska Democrats. Hoo boy, where to start. Thet didn't even put up a candidate to run against Fischer instead opting to endorse and independent, Dan Osborn. They do have Tony Vargas, a state senator who came within 3 points of ousting Bacon last time. And they have Carol Blood, another state senator with a good record. but without the chops to overcome the gerrymandered district. But at least they have a candidate.  If you are a long-suffering Nebraska Democrat, like me, you are used to this incompetency. Hell, it wasn't that long ago when this state had a Democratic Governor and two Democratic Senators. But those days went bye bye when the black man won the Presidency and scared the shit out of "real Americans" aka white Americans. Nebraska Democrats need a Fetterman, a Democrat who can relate to rural people. We have none.

The Nebraska Gop, one of those state Republican parties that have actual white supremacists onboard, would rather lose than win because it gives them the opportunity to bitch. Oh, the Republicans won't lose here, but the Nebraska Republican Party will try. It's just a shame the Nebraska Democratic Party will try and lose even harder. 

 

Final Thoughts on Boston!

 Edgar Allen Poe was born in Boston thus they are the 3rd city to claim him. The statue is so cool. Per the trolley driver, Poe hated Boston. 

The first thing we saw after getting to the hotel in Boston was two cab drivers hollering at each other over a stolen fare. It was the most impolite moment we encountered. But it was glorious to see.

Amtrak is the way to go. I'm sure it's different during the week from NYC to Boston but our experience was perfect in the so called "Quiet car" where you cannot use your phone or talk. Perfecto!

Fenway Park, so cool. has a garden on the roof where veggies and the like are grown and served in the ballpark. Since Vegetables and me don't really click at ball games, all I had was something grown on a pig farm and swept up off the floor at a slaughterhouse, aka Fenway Frank.

In the right field bleachers there is a seat painted red. Thats where Ted Williams 500 foot plus home run landed. Nobody has ever hit one as far. The seat is in high demand apparently.

The Red Sox logo from 1950-59 displayed in the concourse is rather strange but then the 50's were rather strange..

Boston is compact. You can walk the entire city if you're in shape and young. If you're old and decrepit, take the subway or the trolley.

I 🤟Boston