Kamala Harris

 

Into The West

And all will turn
To silver glass
A light on the water
Grey ships pass
Into the West

JD Vance is a LOTR fan?

One of the most disturbing images that came out of the Republican National convention was JD Vance in Gandalf’s’ hat blowing smoke rings like a hobbit.  This was an illustration in a story supposedly because JD Vance is a Lord of The Rings, LOTR, fan.  Challenge accepted, fan boy to fan boy.  Sir, I have read LOTR many times and you, sir, are no Gandalf or Frodo.  If you appear to be anyone it is Denethor the fallen Steward of Gondor; Saruman of Many Colors, Grima Wormtongue, or any of the anti-heroes who were deceived into thinking that they alone could fix things.  Time that the voters do a little Scouring of the Shire ourselves.

My favorite characters in the LOTR embody Truth (Treebeard), Justice (Samwise Gamgee) and the American Way of inclusion (the shieldmaiden Eowyn).  In fact if there is an embodiment of a LOTR character in the 2024 presidential campaign my vote is for Kamala Harris.  When the old King of Rohan,  Theoden, is struck down by the Lord of the Nazguls in battle, she heroically defends him in her guise as a simple soldier.  When the Lord of the Nazgul says that “No man can kill him” and is about to choke her, she takes off her helmet and reveals that “she is no man” as she slays him.  https://youtu.be/8Q_HM5EMX6E?si=I4IehTWOs8Xd1Tk8

LFG Kamala.

Joe Biden

 

Hey, Joe

Hey, Joe
Where you gonna run to now? Where you gonna run to?
Hey Joe, I said
Where you gonna run to now? Where you, where you gonna go?

Wherever you go, or whatever you do, thank you Joe!

President Joseph Biden shocked the political world when he walked away from his campaign for re-election. He thus deprived the voters of saying a resounding thank you for all that he has done. Does he deserve to be Grandpa Joe? Absolutely. He has more than earned all that and much, much more. Contrast this behavior with that of January 6^th , 2021. Joe Biden willingly gave up re-election to the office of President for the good of the country he loves. God bless you, Joe. To Sir with Love.

And Donald Trump has the nerve to say that the Republican Party should be reimbursed for fraud for all of its campaigning against President Biden. And here I thought given all of Donald Trump’s criminal and civil court cases that  understood all about fraud by now. Maybe DJT should listen instead of sleeping in court?

Vice President

 

Simply The Best

You're simply the best
Better than all the rest
Better than anyone
Anyone I've ever met

How about simply the worst?

Donald Trump has done it again. Of all of the possible candidates of those who might have been selected as his running mate, he has picked the worst one. It is perhaps not surprising. Marco Rubio and Doug Burnham had the possibility of pulling a Mike Pence on Donald Trump and putting the constitution above Trump’s interest. No such worries with J.D. Vance.  He will put personal ambition over constitutional duty every single time. But if I were Donald Trump, I would use taste testers before accepting any food or drink from Senator Vance. He has to be very careful that J.D. Vance’s personal ambition does not overcome any loyalty to his President. The Vice President is only a heartbeat away from the Presidency, which does not speak very well for Donald Trump’s heart, if he has one.

Good Intentions

 

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood

Baby, can you understand me now?
Sometimes I get a little mad
Don't you know, no one alive can always be an angel
When things go wrong, I seem to go bad
 I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood 

The problem is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions! 

If you could change one historical event in your lifetime, what would it be? Mine would be Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon. Do I believe that the pardon was done with the best of intentions.  It was Gerald Ford after all, and I personally believe that he had ONLY good intentions. The spectacle of a criminal trial would be devastating to everyone in the  United States. Take the fascination with the  OJ Simpson trial and then go nuclear. That is just the general public who are not invested in the outcome of the trial. The fight put up by Richard Nixon and his allies would have also been epic, costly, and damaging. A consequence of the pardon is that the spectacle and fight did not take place. However it also meant that crimes committed by a President while in power were never tried and possibly punished. If there was no pardon of Richard Nixon, then maybe there would have been no Ronald Reagan presidency, no George Bush presidency, no Donald Trump presidency, and no partisan Supreme Court to grant an opinion of presidential immunity to Donald Trump. It might have been with good intentions at the time, but 50 years later, boy was it misunderstood.

Should Joe Biden Drop Out?

Shut Up and Dance

"Oh, don't you dare look back
Just keep your eyes on me.”
I said, "You're holding back."
She said, "Shut up and dance with me!"
This woman is my destiny
She said, "Ooh-ooh-hoo
Shut up and dance with me."

Should Joe Biden run in 2024?

No. But if Joe Biden had run in 2016, and maybe we wouldn’t have Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe would not be running in 2024 because he would have completed two terms anyway.

And while we are at it , Obama should not have run in 2008 except George  Bush did such a bad job somebody had to clean up. George Bush should not have won in 2000 and the SCOTUS should not have interfered, then Gore would have been president and maybe no recession in 2008 and no 9/11. And while we are at it, if Hinkley had better aim, then maybe George W Bush might have stopped the voodoo Reaganomics Tax Cuts and maybe Iran-Contra would not have happened. Are we going to play the “what if “ game some more? How far back are we playing? Shut up and dance with who brung you. Don’t look around for a better partner. 

Forrest Gump

 

Woodstock

I'm going on down to Yasgur’s farm
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm gonna try and get my soul free

Joni Mitchell did not go to Yasgur’s farm, and neither did I

Joni Michell wrote the definitive song about Woodstock. She was supposed to perform at Woodstock but the closest she got to Woodstock was flying over the festival. Her staff would not let her land or perform due to the crowd. I had a similar reason for not going.

I was at the Newport Jazz festival in July of 1969, just weeks before Woodstock. Because of Lee Giguere, we even had backstage passes ( Lee’s father worked for Pepsi, and Pepsi supplied the backstage areas). The Newport Jazz festival program that year included Jazz and Rock. As part of the program on Friday evening I saw Blind Faith ( newly formed with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood), Ten Year’s After, Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull, Blood Sweat and Tears, etc. The show on the next evening was going to be headlined by Led Zepplin and James Brown. The problem was that the crowd surged through the fence during our show, our show was stopped, it was announced at the time that all subsequent shows were cancelled.  I left and never returned.  (Ultimately, the shows were NOT canceled). But because of the fact it was temporarily cancelled, I decided that Woodstock would have similar problems as well, so why go to Yasgur’s farm. Boy was I wrong. It was NOT cancelled! My tickets might never have been collected, but the music played on.  Forrest Gump was not the only one who lived through historical events without even realizing it.

Old Friends

 

Once Upon at Time

Once upon a time, the world was sweeter than we knew
Everything was ours; how happy we were then
But, somehow, once upon a time never comes again

But once upon a time it  happened, even if it never comes again.

In 1969 the four Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists were announced for Rhode Island.  Not to make it all about me, but they included:

·        James Joyce, my best friend in grade school and a member of my Cub Scout Den who lived around the corer from me;

·        Barbara  Casey who sat next to me in 7^th grade and on whom I had an unrequited, and never expressed, crush;

·        Lee Giguere, my best friend in high school; and

·        myself. 

At the time I blamed Lee for myself not getting into MIT, which was my second choice for college.  Lee got in to MIT but was miserable there, took every Liberal Arts elective that he could, and graduated with a Bachelor Of Science in Journalism. My first choice for college was the US Naval Academy, but I failed the physical test because of my eyesight.  I had to settle for my “safe” school, Brown University.

The last time I saw Jimmy was in high school. The last time I saw Barbara was in 1971 when she was also taking the Federal Civil Service exam for a summer job. The last time I saw Lee was at his wedding after graduation from MIT.  But once upon a time I was Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon from all of them.