5-4!

I sat in my chair last year with my busted leg and watched Neil Gorsuch, the fucking interloper sitting in Merrick Garland's Supreme Court seat, say ah shucks a lot and talk about walking the streets of Denver and golly gee he was going to the rodeo with his daughter and gosh darn it Senator I just dont really know about that hard issue you just asked me about. When finally a Democrat with a spine decided to actually ask him a question about why he decided in favor of a corporation firing a truck driver for leaving his truck in freezing weather rather than stay with it and die, Gorsuch aw shucksed his way out of it. Al Franken (Real Democrat-Mn) didnt give a shit and told Gorsuch yeah you're a fucking monster, which of course he is. The folksy motherfucker wanted a man to die rather than leave a corporate owned truck. It was at that point I knew that Neil Gorsuch was one nasty excuse for a human being. Worse than Scalia by far.

Today the United States Supreme Court upheld a Bigot in Chiefs ban on Muslims entering the country that sparked protests over a year ago by a 5-4 vote. That 5-4 vote will eventually take this nation into fascism legally. You see, by now going full Trump because what the fuck, the Court can uphold travel bans and religious bigotry and white supremacy and then claim in a folksy manner ohhhh no no no the President didnt mean a travel ban was against Muslims thats not what he meant so banning Muslims isnt really banning Muslims at all. You dont even need to tell the fucking truth at all any longer. Trumps Klan rallies prove that.

Also today the United States Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote upheld the right of lying Christians who set up phony "Emergency Pregnancy Clinics" to deny information to women seeking advice or care by talking about nothing but Jesus and bullshit information about cancer and how the 2 week old fetus can sing and dance. Oh no no no its not really about lying to women, its about free speech and even lying sacks of shit have that right. 5-4! Thats going to be it from now on. 5-4 black is white. 5-4 Up is down. 5-4 only whites can vote. 5 to fucking 4.

Earlier the United States Supreme Court upheld the right of Texas Republicans to suppress the votes of Texas minorities by drawing districts that weaken the influence of the votes of anybody in Texas except whites. Oh its not because the districts are discriminatory and favor white people oh no no no, its just not Texas Republicans intent and how dare you think otherwise.

This makes the 2018 midterms even more important. We need to steal these seats back that McConnell stole in 2016 from the black guy. The only way is to vote like mofos and take this Congress back so any bad things that happen like RBG going away will mean nothing.

Its now the folksy ways of Gorsuch, a truly rotten to the core human being, a nice face on authoritarianism. Oh no no no we arent out to harm you in any way, now how about a shower?

5-4 is as far as it should be allowed to go.

VOTE!

Imagine Dragons!

Is Imagine Dragons the biggest rock band in the world? Well, I doubt it frankly, but you'd get a huge argument from the sold out crowd in Omaha on Sunday night.

Frontman Dan Reynolds is certainly an argument for that. His boundless energy is undeniable. The guy ran out shirtless and ripped and began a 2 hour workout that would have exhausted anybody. Launching into Radioactive immediately, Reynolds pounded the floor, a drum and sang with a zeal for life. It was quite honestly, refreshing.

I understand that 30 year old rock stars are not yet cynical or tired but Im not sure Reynolds ever will be. His fun nature and seeming honesty is quite contagious. As the Imagine Dragons blasted through hit after energetic hit the crowd never let up its cheering. Now granted, a helluva lot of kids, many young enough to still want the accompanying parent to buy them a glow stick, were in attendance and lets face it, have more stamina than us old people, but even us old people got into it.

Imagine Dragons also has a sense of whats going on in an arena. After a good 75 minutes of hard pounding pop rock, the band took a stroll down the floor of the arena to the back where a small stage had been set up with a cello, a viola and a keyboard for a short acoustic set in which Reynolds endeared himself to me at least by stopping to shake a young boys hand. During I Bet My Life, Reynolds took the extraordinary step, lots of steps in fact as he climbed the arena steps, slapping hands and singing, walked through the concourse, singing, and back down some more steps, singing, back to the acoustic stage where when finished they strolled back to the mainstage to finish up with a string of power hits like Thunder, On Top Of The World complete with bouncing balloons and confetti and Believe, a closing number that sends you home happy you went.

Hell, maybe they ARE the biggest rock band in the world. They certainly are the biggest pop rock band on earth.

And oh yes, a 14 year old girl named Grace Vanderwall opened the show with an 10 song set of pop songs perfectly delivered. You may recall her as the ukelele playing 12 year old who won America's Got Talent two years back. I havent paid money to see a 14 year old do anything since Max was in theater in middle school, but this girl has talent. I look forward to what she does in the future.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Wont You Be My Neighbor, the documentary about Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers, has gone to full release and I cannot urge you more to go see it. There, the plug is over.

This movie, which you may think is a sugary tribute to Mister Rogers, is anything but. In fact, on one hand, it may be one of the more depressing movies in years yet it is also one of the most hopeful movies in years.

Made by Morgan Neville, the director of the marvelous 20 Feet From Stardom, a film about backup singers in which you constantly are saying oh yeah her, Neville has taken archival footage of Mr.Rogers Neighborhood, combined with interviews with his family, friends and co workers and put out a film that will make you laugh and cry and at times feel like you do anytime Trump opens his blowhole. Its amazing, and I believe a political statement when early in the film we see the PBS show's King Friday 13th attempt to build a wall around his castle to keep change out. In 1968 this was shown.

Can you imagine what the Fascist in Chief would have tweeted about that? "Moron Mister Rogers is using propaganda and taxpayer money to criticize me and the very important wall. #DefundPBS"

Of course most of the words would have been misspelled.

Wont You Be My Neighbor is a fascinating look at a man who according to all people involved was as nice and gentle off screen as on. Its hard to believe he's gone and has been gone for 15 years. In a way, he's lucky, because Fred Rogers was depressed at the end of his life. When asked to make PSA's trying to help children understand the lunacy of a 9/11 he said what good will it do? What good will it do? Oh my. When Mister Rogers sinks to my level, something is wrong with the world.

There are truly remarkable interviews with Fred's wife, his sons, his coworkers, his guests, all of whom still after all these years have a smile on their face talking about him.

The laughs? Oh theres plenty. The pranks on the set, the footage of him messing up lines, the joy of his optimism and the looks on children's faces as he speaks to them about serious subjects as if they are just miniature adults.

Will you cry? Yes. It may be at different moments than me. But you will find something in this documentary that will get to you. Foe me it was the assassination show on 6/7/68 just a couple of days after Bobby Kennedy was killed. An entire show on assassination. To kids. Who does that?
But the moment that happened to make involuntary tears come was the section of the documentary where the actor who played Officer Clemmons, Francois Clemmons, spoke about Fred Rogers telling he liked him just the way he was. For two years. You see, Francois Clemmons is gay, and was banned from going to gay bars in the 1970s by the show and Fred Rogers under threat of being fired. The scene where Francois realized Fred had evolved was telling HIM he liked him just the way he is. Francois choked up thinking about his "surrogate Dad" and so did I.

You dont even get to compose yourself because next scene is Fred talking to a young man in a wheelchair about things no person would bring up. Whats it like to be in a chair, do you get blue? Oh man.

Why is it depressing, Max's Dad? Well kids, its depressing because you realize as bad as society was in 1968, 1978, 1988 and 1998 in the last 15 years since Fred died, we have devolved into the same people Fred Rogers dealt with in 1968. Maybe worse. All that hard work with children to make them understand the shitty world didnt work. Since its much easier to be pissed off at progress and change, much like King Friday the 13th, its not so hard to stay calm and speak rationally, like Fred Rogers.

There are a couple of scenes of cynics going after Mister Rogers. One is of Tom Snyder asking him basically if he was a phony and Daniel the Tiger turning the chain smoking Snyder into a blubbering mess as he realized nope this guy is for real. The other is of Fox News, the state run propaganda network for dumb assholes, calling him "evil" and criticizing him for telling every child they were "special". What a crime according to the creeps on Fox News. Telling a child to be who they are. And of course at the end, at Fred's funeral, the Westboro Baptist Church degenerates and their signs. It sucks.

Go see this movie. Nobody is killed. No hero swoops in to save the day. Nothing blows up. But there is a superhero and his name is Fred Rogers.

Carpool Karaoke With Paul McCartney!

I'm not a big James Corden fan. I mean he seems a fine bloke and all. His Carpool Karaoke does nothing for me.

But this is Paul McCartney.

There was a time when I didnt care much for Paul McCartney. Lennon was dead. George was ignored. Ringo was irrelevant. But Paul was making shit with Michael Jackson that quite frankly was horrible and shitty. Paul was the sugary lame ass Beatle who was wasting his talent. I was wrong. As wrong as I've ever been.

This Carpool Karaoke is guaranteed to make you smile and cry.

When James Corden sings Let It Be with Paul and suddenly realizes what is happening he tears up about how much his grandfather would want to see this and says how much he wishes Gramps was there, Paul perfectly times a "he is" line. Its why he's a genius.

Paul McCartney walks through Liverpool shaking hands and seeing his old haunts. He turns old ladies young again. They become 16 year old teenage girls again. The citizens who now live in his old hood tell him how much he means to their lives and he listens to them.

James Corden is all of us. He is starstruck. Paul McCartney is rich beyond anyone's dreams yet he maintains a humility and a genuine interest in making people happy. He's a rare breed. He's more Ringo than John now. Most of us are. Thats a good thing.

When Paul takes the stage with his band at a pub the crowd reaction is stunning. WOW! The people are happy faced and goddamnit it makes you happy too.

Watch this. We need stuff like this.

I'm Sickened!

This is not a fake picture. This is not anything but a picture. Its a picture of a scared little girl driven from the only home she's ever known by gangs of drug runners intent on selling their shit to Americans. She's not MS13. She's not a rapist. She's not the killer of an American citizen. She's brown and frightened and this administration doesn't give a fuck.

The big news is that this picture is not of a little girl separated from her family. Therefore, of course, to the heartless right, its fake news. More liberal media propaganda released to make a lumbering Savior look bad. The little girl doesnt matter any longer. She's nothing but propaganda from the left who wants gangs of Latinos to come into the country willy nilly instead of gangs of white people from England or Germany to come in to keep America white great.

That picture should win the Pulitzer. It sums up America's paranoia and current lack of empathy. I take that back. That picture summoned such outrage and sympathy from MOST Americans that the Traitor in Chief changed the policy that days before never existed or was the result of some phantom law. The policy,separating children from their parents at the border, was implemented by this putrid administration and was not the result of any law or anything other than a gang of old white men going to the hostage card to get funding to build a giant wall. Thats all it was, an attempt by bigoted baboons to hold children hostage by kidnapping them from their mothers and fathers. Is it a new low from an administration that hits a new low on a weekly, if not daily basis? Well yes, because kidnapping is about as low as you can go to accomplish your goals. In fact there's a lot of people doing life for that very thing.

I'm sickened by it. I'm sickened by a minority of soulless white people who push the criminals get separated from their kids all the time line.

I'm sickened by nasty blonde white ladies who deny a policy exists that obviously exists because of reality.

I'm sickened by racist old elves who justify separating 2 year olds from parents because of the fucking Bible.

I'm sickened by photo ops from a First Lady visiting a sanitized concentration camp with a stupid jacket that distracts from that nonsensical trip.

I'm sickened by a President traveling to jack himself off by holding rallies in front of clueless racists who cheer his every word.

I'm sickened by unnecessary executive orders, more photo ops, changing a policy the nasty blonde lady standing behind him denied even existed two days before.

I'm sickened by family feuds on Facebook where you find out that some people you are related to either by blood or marriage are really not worthy of your time.

I'm sickened by an egomaniac in chief using relatives of murdered children as a prop to divert attention from his policy of kidnapping brown kids.

I'm sickened by Steve King (Racist-Ia) continuing to double down on his ignorance and appeal to dumb fucks who vote for him.

I'm just sickened. Period.

The Cowardice Of The Republican Party!

Ive lived in Nebraska all my life other than a year or two in other places close. I remember the Nebraska State GOP holding convention after convention full of old gray haired stick in the muds afraid of progress. I remember them sticking with Nixon right up to the bitter end. I remember one of our illustrious United States Senators being the last holdout to support Nixon. Its quite frankly embarrassing what comes out of this state's GOP as far as candidates go. In the 60's and 70's we had a US Senator proclaim OUT LOUD that an unqualified Supreme Court nominee should be approved because even mediocre citizens need representation. We have been so embarrassed by some of these simple minded Republican puppets we actually went through a period of electing Democrats to state and federal offices. But since the formation of the Tea Party and the choosing of sides that occurred in about 2008, hmmmmmm wonder what happened then that sparked this return to Republican dimwits?

So now, in 2018, we have a talking hard boiled egg as a Governor, a rancher welfare queen as a Senator and another US Senator so goofy he has a second job as an Uber driver. We have an Attorney General who thinks his only job is to kill people, keep casinos out of the state, keep legal pot out of the state, and defend corporations from pesky consumer lawsuits. We have two nobody Congressmen from dying farm town districts and one whose main qualifications are a stupid grin and a propensity to run from crowds of angry constituents.

This is what the State GOP gives us and of course, because its all about cult over country now, that R next to their name is all that matters.

But the cowardice of these candidates came to the forefront yesterday when at the annual gathering of snowbird Nebraska Republicans all the elected officials ran and hid when by a vote of 109-101, the state of Nebraska GOP voted to condemn Robert Mueller's investigation of their cult leader in chief, Donald F Trump. Calling Muellers investigation a "perversion of equal justice", this band of elderly cultists also condemned any Republican who aids in the investigation as “notorious and unfit for office”. This all comes when the inmates run the asylum. The allegedly "responsible" GOPers who sit on the Resolution committee unanimously voted to table this idiotic screed supporting a madman and his lawless activities. But the GOP hypnotized faithful refused to listen and by that narrow vote placed themselves directly into the cult. Say hello to Alex Jones y'all.

Once again, this was done after all the elected leaders of this death cult party left the venue as to avoid being tarred with this nonsense. I can hear the faux concern now as these spineless cowards deal with the cult of elderly bitters who make up most of this party. Its quite frankly sad yet terrifying that a gang of so called normal heartland values allegedly nice people have fallen into the death stare of an authoritarian nutjob traitor. Since when did "real America" become Russian stooges? Oh yeah, when the black man won.

The Nebraska GOP Convention. Just as dull as always yet taking an even duller turn. To dull fascism.

Go back to Arizona and stay there.

Fathers Day!

I cant believe its been almost 20 years since the toughest man Ive ever known passed away. Happy Fathers Day Dad!

I so wish I could just hear what he had to say about the current occupant of the White House. I get the feeling that as soon as he got off the golf course, he'd be at the Resist Rally because he'd be so pissed off he'd spent 4 years fighting the very people who have taken power.

Love you always Dad!