Thoughts!

Look, on the shores of The Grift Pond, there are people putting their hands into the scummy green water and being arrested by "undercover" thugs for vandalism. Yeah, there's not a jury on earth that would convict people of "vandalism" (except maybe in Texas) but Jeanine Pirro, the failure of a wine box DA, will certainly try to please her master, who sits in his room thinking up conspiracies to keep him from King status. It's pathetic. Nobody is vandalizing that stinkin pond except the incompetent cronies that Trump hires to do "projects" as payment for past bribes  contributions to Trump's favorite charity. Himself. 

The SAVE Act, a truly hideous bill that's only purpose is to suppress the vote of women, minorities, immigrants and Democrats to save the Orange King's crooked ass. Voter ID, ok fine you win. Even though we prove our identity when we register to vote, showing a driver's license or whatever at the polls is unnecessary but is not a hill to die on. Enough right? Ohhhhh nooooo, not to Trump and his liars in the Senate. Liars like Mike Lee and Pete Ricketts and Joni Ernst continually crow about "rigged" elections (didnt they all win?). They all know it's bullshit but party over country of course. This SAVE act also forces you to provide a birth certificate on top of the ID. I mean come on. Where the fuck is YOUR birth certificate? Do you know? And what about women born Jane Smith and now are Jane Johnson? Sorry maam, this doesn't match your ID. Go away. Kill that 19th Amendment, kill that naturalized citizen right and only let white men vote. Mail in voting? Oh, the thing Trump himself does? It's banned. That's the goal and we all know it. Suppressed voting in blue states. But not only that, the SAVE act, for some reason, contains anti-transgender parts. No men in women's sports (there are none) and no transgender treatment for minors (there isnt any). What in the UFC fuck is that all about? What does that have to do with voting? Fuck this administration with a fork.

Trump doesn't have the votes for the SAVE act, thus he ran off with his pet bat, Stephen Miller, to meet with Senate Republicans, as cowardly a group as exists. Allegedly it turned into a clusterfuck of yelling and screaming and threats. But afterwards, the Felon in Chief, still didn't have the votes to pass his only white people vote bill. I'm sure the vampire bat is coming up with schemes to fuck the country as we speak.

The peace deal with Iran. In other words, the surrender of America to the mullahs. Trump is a terrible deal maker. Despite his bullshit book with I admit is a great title, The Art of the Steal Deal, Trump couldn't negotiate the end of a one-man parade. He's too lazy. He has no attention span. Plus, he's stupid. Iran gets everything it wants plus an ungodly amount of money to "rebuild" what Trump destroyed with his war he started. Gas prices are out of control, and the midterms are coming up. Trump is so dumb he started this war which blew up in his orange face and now faces blowback not only from the world but by Americans. 30% approval. Jesus H Christ, only the insane back this guy now (my theory has always been 25% of people are insane and can never be brought onboard). The only people who back this scumbag now are paid to do so, are deathly afraid of him and his goons, racists who yearn for an all-white country, or just plain stupid. See, 30%. 

Finally, Mamdani, the Mayor of New York. A Democratic socialist endorsed 8 progressives for various offices in New York. They all won their primaries. 8 for 8. Trump is so envious. Thus, he went right to the "Communist" card thus proving he and his 30% don't know shit about anything. Democratic socialism is just that. It's like democracy and socialism, ya know, like fixing roads and having cops and fire fighters and Social Security and Medicare and a safety net for the growing poor and their kids. We already have that but the real problem is a good curve ball. They don't like the "democracy" part. in fact, the countries these economic illiterates always put forward, Cuba, Venezuela, and the like are actually just what the Trumpers want. Authoritarianism in the name of freedom. They don't want Denmark or Sweden or Germany because of that whole "democracy" thing. They want thugs like Orban and Trump to rule with an iron fist, moving tax money to their buddies and themselves. Mamdani not only faces rants from Trump but from so called "moderate" Democrats who have no real interest in doing anything that jeopardizes their power. Power is a helluva drug, and mainstream Democrats want to keep it. Mamdani, that young whippersnapper, is upsetting the power brokers. Good!

Look the bottom line is any government that contains octogenarians and mental octogenarians is a dying government. But they aren't going to give it up until the voters decide to neuter these ancients. The boomers won't do it. Their own fading dominance is at stake. Gen X won't do it. They are in their money-making years and nothing comes between them and their careers. So, it is up to millennials and Gen Z. Vote you lazy clowns. you HAVE the power to change it all. Getting rid of anyone over 70 is up to you. If you stay home this boomer bunch of jokers will stay in power and nothing changes. You will still owe thousands in loans, never buy a house, never have kids cuz you can't afford them and stagnate in a society run by your senile grandparents. You like that? Christ, I'm a boomer and I hate them politically. Get rid of them, kiddos.

Wicked!

 Wicked began its new tour in Omaha, of all places, and if you've seen it before it is a whole new experience. This was my third time seeing it. The first time I was enthralled, found it fascinating and loved every second. However, the second time I saw it, I was soured. Act 1 was great buy Act 2 seemed to be a walk through, phoning it in so to speak, thus it kind of lost its appeal to me. Then came the movies, which were good, again Act 1 great, Act 2 not so great. I wasn't sure about this third time.

You knew it was gonna be a lot of acrobatics and high flying when before it started, you saw stagehands climbing a ladder to the top of the stage to do their thing. And then it starts with a bubble coming down that contains Ga-Linda, the self-centered egomaniac of the show. She is there to tell the story of how this happened and away we go.

Claudia Bennett makes her national debut as Glinda. A recent grad of USC, she takes her cue from Kristin Chenowith and Ariana Grande in her narcissism. She's got a great voice and a presence that made you believe she was a grizzled vet of theater touring. She plays the role perfectly as she moves from total self-absorption to opposition to The Wizard, a total fascist by the way.

When Elphaba, played by a big voiced Aline Mayagotia, appears onstage for the first time, the crowd reacts with applause and enthusiasm. And then, Ephaba takes control of the play. She is green, she is outspoken, she is tough and she has taken her being bullied into a rage against authority. When she arrives at Shiz University, she is there to watch out for her wheelchair bound sister, Nessarose. When Elphaba and Glinda are assigned as roommates the transformation begins. Doctor Dillamond is a professor, a goat, who is eventually taken away as the Wizard starts a animals should be seen and not heard campaign. The Doc says if animals are put in cages and forbidden to speak, they forget how to talk. Elphaba is pissed and becomes the opposition to the Wizard. Glinda is a coward, refusing to back her friend's activism. 

Ok Ok this play is a metaphor for fascism. Written way before Trump came along, it is a warning to anyone who sees it that authoritarians earn power thru indifference by the residents. Glinda is the epitome' of this unwillingness to speak out, protect her own power while allowing others to be oppressed. Animals and green witches first then Glinda herself.

The Wizard of Oz story is flipped on its head here. What you saw every year on TV was a lie. The Wizard was the villain; Glinda was the chickenshit. The Tin Man was created as a punishment for Boq, a munchkin who had the audacity to fall for Glinda. The Scarecrow was created as punishment for Fiyero, who had the audacity to support Elphaba's resistance. The Lion was an animal staying under the radar and speaking freely. And the Wicked Witch of the West was the revolutionary fighting for freedom. Wow, what a new way to look at it.

The songs are great. Of course, you get Popular and the end of Act 1, the showstopping Defying Gravity. But this particular cast keeps the energy alive. Act 2 was just as captivating as Act 1. The songs were wonderful, the acting was incredible and it works. Maybe it's simply a new cast, a new energy and a new vibe that makes it work. Perhaps the last time I saw it the cast was tired and done. Hey it happens. How can it not?

Anyway, this musical continues thru July 5th here in Omaha. It's worth a see. 

Savannah Bananas!

Normally Memorial Stadium in Lincoln is fill of red clad crazies watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers lose a game they should have won, but last night there was a baseball field there and the barnstorming Savannah Bananas came into town and sold the place out. 85,000 people showed up to watch the crazy brand of baseball played by these talented athletes. No bunting, no walks without a throw around, if a fan catches a foul ball the batter is out (it happened twice) and the fans get to challenge a play once during the game. Theres a guy on stilts who batted and whiffed. They have catches behind the back, back flips amid the fielding of grounders and fly balls, lots and lots of current music I had no idea what it was, an attention deficit reaction that results in an overwhelming sense of overload, and a left field fence 197 feet (Polo Grounds like) from home. Lots of home runs were hit into the leftfield stands including the walk off homer by the Washington Generals of Banana Ball, the Firefighters to win the game.

Look, being a fanatical baseball fan like me can trigger emotions when somebody plays this kind of baseball. But it's fun. For about an hour. After that initial hour, it became tedious. The trick plays became routine, the whole walk thing with all 9 players having to touch the ball leaving the runner able to go as far as he wants. That rule is not exciting because nobody ever gets past first base. The special guests were Eric Crouch, Heisman winner, and Tom Osborne, the HOF coach, who got a huge reaction and Go Big Red chants. It's based on baseball, but it is definitely not baseball. It's a state fair midway of child pleasing activity that quite frankly probably bores adults. Now if you have a kid and you take them, enjoy watching them have fun. They sing along to the music us olds have no clue to. They screech, they holler, they eat horrible stuff and they seem more aware than adults. It's fun for them thus it's fun for their parents. We went with our kid, who is in his 20's, so he's an adult and thus, he became bored also. 

I'm not saying I didn't have fun, I did. That it's a baseball Harlem Globetrotters is not a bad thing. But it's for children and introducing them to the sport is a good thing. I had a similar experience as a kid watching a clown show called the 1964 Chicago Cubs. It hooked me on the sport, the stadiums, the green grass, the strategy and the home runs at Wrigley. Kidding of course. The Bananas do what they do and it's entertaining. Would I go again? Not a chance. 

I will leave the hard-to-get tickets to somebody with young children.

The Firefighters won 3-2. If that matters.

A real game is much more entertaining. To me anyway.

60 Minutes & Pride Month!!

 60 Minutes has been gutted once and for all as Bari Weiss and this Nick Bilton guy fall all over themselves to please the authoritarian asshole. Just in the last few weeks, Weiss and Bilton have 86'd Celia Vega, Sharon Alfonsi and two 60 Minutes staffers for doing their jobs. Reporting on scandals and wars and power grabs and frauds, in other words Trump, Weiss has probably gotten a list of "miscreants" directly from the White House to deep six. Alfonsi was the reporter whose Cecot prison story was delayed because Weiss felt that the story about an El Salvadoran shithole prison, where Trump's goons were sending so called "illegals", including Americans of good standing, gay hairdressers and fathers of children needed some bullshit both sides response from the White House. Alfonsi resisted, publicly, and was then sent packing. At the same time, Vega was let go a year short of her contract expiration and two staffers were also let go. Now that is bad enough.

Scott Pelley, veteran 60 Minutes correspondent, a man with no fucks left to give and a lot of fuck you money, let the 60 Minutes killers have it. Pelley stood up for Alfonsi, Vega and the rest. Pelley, again a veteran reporter and 60 Minutes legend, wouldn't take the let's meet in private later bullshit from typical middle managers to take the pressure off themselves. Pelley continued, refused to accept the corporate horseshit, and pressed on. Weiss and Bilton ran away, plotted, and fired Pelley the next day "for cause". Good luck on that lawsuit you fucking Maga lumps. CBS is now Fox Lite. The Tiffany network of Murrow, Cronkite, Rather, Paley and other greats is dead. It's now just another suck up bottom-line oriented parrot of one Donald Trump. Your turn, Bill Whittaker, Leslie Stahl, and Jon Werthheim. Stay or tell them to fuck off. You all have fuck you money. Use it, it's the American dream to tell your boss to GFY cuz you have enough money to survive without them. 

This is Tennessee twat, Andy Ogles, with his Pride Month "wisdom". This seems to be the trend in Hillbilly America, aka red states, of declaring June to be Happy Nuclear Family and Have More White Babies Month instead of Pride Month. We here in Hillbillyaska, aka Nebraska, have a philandering drunken Governor who does anything he's told by former Governor and current Senator Pete Ricketts (Trust Fund Baby-Ne) and declared here in Nebraska to be Happy We Hate Homos Month.

Pillen is a disaster here. He turned a budget surplus into a $600 million deficit. He gave a no bid contract to a female "acquaintance" he "travels" with for $2.5 million. He accepted Trumps order to open "Cornhusker Clink" by closing down a work release minimum security prison and installing a facility to be used for the undocumented. He's often in public in what appears to be an altered state. I personally witnessed him slurring and stumbling over a swearing in ceremony for Nebraska National Guard recruits. Not sure it even was legal with his stumblebum oath.

But Pillen, like most "Christian" fanatics, hates the gays, wants Nebraskans to pray for rain, signs all sorts of anti-trans bills, tries hard and fails to eliminate our Blue Dot, and is obsessed with bathrooms and who uses them. Pillen is running for re-election and will be pushed by Democrat Lynn Walz. However, I am not confident this human lush will lose. The rural voters of our infamous Third District, a vast open wasteland of cows, dying towns and professional Republicans, always just marks in the person with the R next to their name cuz grandpappy voted R and Daddy voted R and by gawd I vote R, it's a family must. Vote against your interests cuz the libtards might say "woke" or something.

It's Pride Month, and all your political denial of that is irrelevant. Enjoy haters, and just hope nobody checks y9our hard drives.

Lucy Darling!

 Trump Trump Trump 24/7 who doesn't need a break? Carisa Hendrix brought her character Lucy Darling to the Orpheum Theater last night and she killed all Trump vibes in the sold-out crowd's minds for a good hour and 40 minutes of hilarity, magic and the greatest crowd work I may have ever seen.

Lucy is the character, a kind of drag queen magician naughty girl who can gut a front row attendee with some of the best insults the person doesn't even know just happened. Lucy began with her story. Australia, Covid, Tik Tok, and the accidental discovery of crowd work when she had no material. Lucy will kill you with a velvet hammer and most people welcome the killing.

She began the show with a short monologue, a slam on the new Omaha skyscraper that looks like a well ya know. We do seem to have a phallic fascination in this state with the State Capitol and this new Mutual of Omaha shaft. Lucy hammered her previous stop in Des Moines by insulting Des Moines (and tonite in KC she will hammer Omaha Im sure). She began her crowd work with a couple who'd only met a month ago yet looked like a couple married for 20 years. She then bantered with a young male music teacher who showed up alone. Poor "Wheel" as he became the theme of the night. She moved on to a young lady with multicolored hair and then realizing the comedy gold in this young guy's play along sweetness she went back to "Wheel" the middle school music teacher. And she never let it go. I think this young man had the time of his life while at the same time dreaded being her muse for the night. Like I said her crowd work is unparalleled. So quick and so spontaneous. It really was phenomenal to watch.

The magic was very good, yet there wasn't much of it. Somewhere during the first act, Lucy mentioned to her piano player, The Hebrew Hammer as he called himself. that the crowd work had gone so well that they were running over the time limit. This may have limited the magic because the crowd howled and screamed and applauded and obviously loved the interaction. But the whiskey bottle magic act was pretty pretty pretty good.

The crowd was energetic, young, gay, and hip. Some of the jokes went over this old straight white man's head but considering Max's Mom and I may have been the oldest people in the theater that's to be expected. A pineapple joke that drew a serious gasping reaction, I looked up in the car going home and THEN I laughed.

Lucy Darling is such a pleasant surprise. You probably never heard of this act. But please see it if you get a chance. She is a treasure.

As she said at one time during the show, "the gay people laughed at that, then the straight people thought hey they're laughing I guess I should too". That's it folks. Funny is funny.

Slush Funds and Mass Murder!

 

Wrongly prosecuted. Victims of government oppression. Poorly treated in prison. Just a bunch of patriots, tourists and great guys angry over a "stollen" election. Uhhhhh Bullshit. Every one of these violent white trash traitors belongs in prison in El Salvador.

This septic tank of an administration is putting all its rotten eggs into a slush fund of $1.776 (how "clever") to pay these pieces of shit for their "troubles". I am not going to rewrite history here and argue because these people are lunkheads and traitors, period. Their Dear Leader sent them to kill Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and every other person who wronged Kim Jong Moron.

These people were convicted by juries of regular people, indicted by grand juries of regular people, pleaded guilty to crimes, were sent to prison by Trump appointed judges and went through the legal system that has worked for 250 years. But now? Thes criminals are "patriots", the violent are "tourists", Trump is a god, and the 2020 election was not legit (even though Republican senators were all reelected and Republican House members-maintained control).

Iran Contra, Watergate, Teapot Dome, Boss Tweed and the Iran War were all scandals that pale in comparison to THIS blatant corruption. Ya know, political crooks USED to do their dirt in secret. These political crooks do it right out in the open and the other two branches of government take a powder as it happens. If this blatant payoff of tax money to a bunch of birdbrains without the self-control to act normally when their orange deity tells them to riot and stop the certification of the election goes forward, it's time for action.  The normal Americans need to stop it. Never ever let up on the resistance to this graft. Why give these convicts money? They'll just spend the cash on meth, trucks and new merch like Trump flags to put up in front of their trashy property. Until their demigod orders another touristy invasion of the very existence of America. Fuck all of this and because a building burned in Minneapolis doesn't justify this. Unless they want to include those vandals in the settlement too.

Yesterday in yet another sketchy mass murder, a mosque in San Diego was attacked by a couple of teens with guns who killed 3 people, including a security guard who may have fought them off and kept these two Columbine type freaks from killing children. Not only did they attack the mosque, kill three adults trying to stop them, they fled and decided to shoot at landscapers as they drove. Then fortunately for all of us on Earth, they killed themselves making the world a better place.

Not much is known about these two incels, other than it has been called a "hate crime" by the police. Reports say there were hate messages written on the guns, The mother of one had called police saying her son was "suicidal", had stolen her car and was armed probably with a friend. Yep, that about sums it up. Attack a mosque, kill kids, and kill selves. Why not reverse that timeline? 

Meanwhile, Republicans from coast to coast are silent. Waiting for the Demon in Chief to speak on how they should feel, he said it was "terrible", and to them it's silence. The goons might get mad and death threat them again. Sorry Andy Ogles (Bigot-TN) no Islamic children were killed. 

I hate to get into guns again since that's a losing battle, so I won't. Go buy all the guns you want America. I don't care any longer. You paranoid freaks go ahead and keep killing your own kids, wives and innocents who knock on your door. But when you gun enthusiasts stick up for a 17- and 18-year-olds "right" to own weapons of mass murder it's really a bad look. You are justifying a couple of losers with broken brains because no girls want anything to do with them raiding mosques and synagogues and schools with intent to kill. It's a disgusting attitude.

What next? Financial compensation for murderous scum because they were treated badly in prison?

The real question here is this. How much of the $1.776 billion will the Despot in Chief skim off the top? Oh, I know the "settlement" states that the Tyrant in Chief and his crime family get no money, but since when has the Swindler in Chief ever paid attention to the fine print?

So just another day in the Racketeer in Chief's America. Graft, slush funds, paying off criminals and dead people in a mass shooting. 

Since WHEN is this fucking normal?

Mrs.Doubtfire!

 The touring musical of Mrs. Doubtfire blew into town last night and anyone who didn't know it sure as hell did after the LOUDNESS of this stage production hit the stage. This thing is LOUD. 

I never saw the 1993 film starring Robin Williams and Sally Field. Williams was a genius, but his comedic roles exhausted me. His dramatic roles were his true talent, not the cocaine fueled manic nonstop talking. But Robin was an original and making a musical about one of his roles may not have been a good idea.

The story is concerning the Hillard family. Daniel Hillard is a man child father of three. Nothing this guy does is normal. He screams, he makes bad jokes, he screams some more, screams yet again and quite frankly I hated his guts within 5 minutes. When his wife, Miranda, asks for a divorce within 15 minutes, I about screamed myself, 'WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?". She's no prize either, an uptight "career girl" complete with 1993 stereotypes. Their three kids are upset. The oldest, Lydia, is sick of Dad's constant inability to act his age, Christopher is the middle kid, and he just loves his dad. Natalie is the youngest and she also just wants normalcy.

Daniel Hillard loses custody, gets help from his gay brother and his husband, and becomes Mrs. Doubtfire, a nanny who is hired by Miranda to look after the kids. He acts much like his real self, lies and lies, and is also loved by the kids of course cuz Mrs. Doubtfire is dear old Dad. The kids figure it out; cover up the true identity of Mrs. Doubtfire and chaos occurs. Daniel is juggling chainsaws here between the court, the job seeking and his attempts to be a good Dad in drag. Yeah, it fails.

Look I have no problem with the performers. They are all quite good. Craig Allen Smith is a wonderful slapstick performer as Daniel and Mrs. Doubtfire. His quick changes onstage are quite remarkable. Melissa Campbell is fine as the long-suffering wife, Miranda. She has a great voice and kind of gets buried in the craziness. Then we have the characters I wanted more of. Brian Kalinowski as Frank Hillard, Daniel's brother and his husband Devon Buchanan, Andre. Their few scenes were a highlight. The children, Lydia, played by Alanis Sophia, has a wonderful voice for a kid. Christopher, played by Chance Challen, was the glue who always loves his Dad. Natalie, played by Vivian Atencio, can sure sing for a 10-year-old. 

I didn't despise this as much as Max's Mom and Max himself. They would have left at intermission if I'd have agreed. I was hoping for a better Act 2. I got that. Act 2 shines at times. The Dancing Mrs.Doubtfires with vacuum cleaners was a cool scene. The Marx Brothers like restaurant scene where Daniel juggling chainsaws come crashing down is also good. But the musical as a whole? No. The music is not memorable, the LOUDNESS of the screeching is annoying, the story itself is interesting, but they can't pull it off. The entire experience is kind of exhausting and could have been a one act musical.

The sound problem at the Orpheum is back. It may have because they YELL so much you can't understand the lyrics. Not that it matters, I guess. This is hardly Les Miz or Hamilton.

Anyway, the crowd seemed to agree with me. Awkward laughs in Act One, and much more involvement in Act 2. You like the movie? I guess you'll like this then. Though why will be beyond me.

Theres a reason this lasted only 83 performances on Broadway before it was shut down and turned into a touring madhouse. New Yorkers know what's good and what's not. They were right.