The Ugliness

It is Halloween, but right now I'm focused on a different holiday, Veteran's Day.  Less than two weeks from today we'll take a day to recognize and support the troops, active duty and veteran, alive and deceased, as well as their families.  It is the least we can do, but for some Republicans, they'll salute the troops only as long as they don't run afoul of the Republican's political agenda.

I remember in 2004, when John Kerry was running for President.  Among the many things which dotted his resume was some extraordinary bravery while he served in the Navy.  In Vietnam, in 1969, Kerry led an attack on the enemy as he commanded a Swift Boat and pretty much single handedly took on an enemy position and won, getting injured along the way.  For his bravery, he was awarded a Silver Star.  This was one of the many brave things Kerry did while serving.

In total Rove-ian politics, his military record of bravery became a weapon to use against him.  The Republicans recruited so called "veterans" to challenge Kerry and the US Navy's description of what happened.  They called him a coward and a liar, striking deep at his military record.  Right wing media jumped in, accusing Kerry of being a traitor to the country.  Some even said he should be prosecuted for falsely attaining a medal they felt he hadn't earned.

After the 2004 election, the same Republicans who spit on Kerry put on their fake earnest faces and insisted they never once questioned his bravery and honor.  They insisted they only questioned Kerry's record because of the "veterans" who had baselessly attacked him; they ALL saluted his bravery.  An interview conducted with some of the "veterans" after the election called them out for not actually being a witness to what happened in 1969, or even serving with Kerry in his unit.  The closest any of these "veterans" had actually gotten to Kerry was one guy served in the motor pool and occasionally saw Kerry.  They all lied.  They insisted they were innocent, that the Republicans orchestrated the attack on Kerry.  One was upset because the local military organization he was part of had expelled him for purposely lying.  Boo freaking-Hoo.

As a Veteran myself, the Republicans and so called "veterans" who attacked John Kerry can burn in hell.  That was the last election I voted for anyone Republican.

We all remember Benghazi, and the 8 investigations into the tragic deaths of four people at a US diplomatic mission in 2012.  Even after the first two investigations found no wrong doing by President Obama and then Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, Republicans conducted SIX MORE, all screaming they still had questions.  After all of them, they STILL found NOTHING, but they were already planning on two more investigations (9 and 10) if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016.

This due diligence doesn't exist with Trump in the White House.  In 2017, four US soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger.  Trump took 12 days to even acknowledge the sacrifice of the brave soldiers.  Trump then got wildly disrespectful to the mother of one of the dead, and when the details of that conversation came to light, the Republicans machine went to war with the soldier's mother.  [Paraphrasing] 'How dare she not take Trump's crap ass condolences as the greatest moment in her pathetic life.'

There were A LOT of unanswered questions revolving around the ambush in Niger, and what exactly was the Administration's culpability (they clearly were guilty on certain levels), but not one Republican who demanded 8 Benghazi investigations asked for ONE investigation in what happened in Niger.  It seems when brave Americans die due to bad policy and lackluster leadership from a Republican White House, then "the soldiers knew what they signed up for!"

The latest outrage from the Right toward our military comes in the form of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.  The Lieutenant Colonel, the Director for European Affairs for the US National Security Council, was called to testify in the Impeachment probe of Trump.  He was actually listening in on the call between Trump and the Ukrainians and was concerned about Trump's demanding political dirt on the Biden's in exchange for already approved US aid.  Not only did he corroborate the stories of others, he exposed the Trump Administration had omitted crucial elements from the transcript they'd released.

The response from the right?  Numerous Republican mouth pieces, including former Deputy Assistant AG John Yoo, former Rep. Sean Duffy, right wing talk host Laura Ingraham and Trump offspring Donald Jr., attacked Vindman, without any proof, calling him a traitor, a spy more concerned about Ukraine over the United States.  The only "evidence" they had against a HIGHLY decorated 20+ year Army career was that Vindman was born in the Ukraine and moved to America when he was 3.   That's it!

By the next day, after being brutally savaged for their misguided attack, the people who had called him a traitor were trying to walk back their allegations, implying they'd never questioned his patriotism.  Of course they did.

The Republicans, the same people who used to bash people over the head bellowing "Support the Troops," do not care about the active duty military, veterans, military deceased and the family members of service members unless they agree with their political point of view.  That is NOT supporting the troops!

Veterans and active duty military, the Republicans only suck up to you so they can use you as a prop.

This Veteran's Day, Republicans are going to eagerly get in front of soldiers, insisting they support them.  Considering the decreased quality of services and the lack of quality care Veterans and their families receive under the Republican's leadership, and considering the Republican party will CLEARLY turn on the soldiers in a heartbeat, maybe it's time for the Veterans to say "thanks, but no thanks."

Operation Orange Shield

It became fairly clear by mid 2017, halfway through his first year in office, Donald Trump wasn't going to benefit from populism.  His poll numbers spiked briefly after the Inauguration, but the easily provable lies and Trump's pettiness over the Inauguration crowd size quickly turned any willingness to give Trump the benefit of the doubt sour.  He has consistently had 52-58% of the population disapprove of him, and his best days in office were when his approval numbers were less than 10 points underwater.

The herculean response to prevent Trump from ever having to face his floundering support has been amazing.  The Republican Party and the Administration have effectively shielded Trump from most criticism, something which is remarkable in this day and age.  Occasionally someone leaves his TV on CNN or MSNBC, prompting a Twitter lashing at whatever unflattering story the other news networks covered.  Occasionally his legal team has had to come to him with negative news about legal issues, also prompting his social media ridicule.  But outside the occasional bad news comet roaming into his solar system, Trump seems to be securely insulated from the negative world.

Trump's vacations/weekends off (can anyone tell the difference) are almost exclusively at his own properties, surrounded by not only paying rubes who want to rub elbows, but employees who look at him as their boss.  His international trips are usually with people who are kissing his butt, loving the validity their despotic regimes are given by having the USA's leader kiss their ring of power.  And even when Trump ventures out into the country, his actual interactions with the masses are a coordinated event, designed to make sure he never sees anything negative.

He leaves the White House, goes to the airport, gets onto Air Force One, flies to what ever city is hosting him, is greeted at a secure spot at the incoming airport, is whisked away to the underground parking garage under the arena he's appearing at, an arena which has been vetted and screened to ensure 99.9% of the crowd worship Trump, get's told to go on stage, speaks to the adoring masses, then goes back to his car to be shuttled back to Washington DC.  He doesn't interact with the masses like any of his predecessors.  His handlers know if he was to take a wrong turn, he would find himself face to face with REAL Americans who HATE his guts.  His fragile ego couldn't take it.

This is why what happened on Sunday night was a real head scratcher.  Trump decided to go to Game 5 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros.  I have no idea if anyone tried to talk him out of it, but for whatever the reason he decided to go WAY off script.  Trump went to a 45,000 person filled stadium, filled with people who hadn't been screened for their loyalty.

I think the Trump team felt the news from earlier in the day, the death of ISIS leader Baghdadi, would give him a bump.  They felt there'd be some boos, but most of the crowd would cheer.  There were plenty of HUGE red flags the Trump team seemed to ignore.

The National's ballpark can seat far more people than who attend his rallies, and at his rallies, many in attendance travel show to show like he's the Grateful Dead (my guess from the Minneapolis rally which had 19,000 Trump fans in attendance would be at least 50% of the crowd was transient).  Those loyal Trump followers would not be able to get a World Series seat, even if they had the $500 needed for a bad seat.  This was in Washington DC, a Democratic stronghold.  It was at an arena where beer had been getting poured for a few hours prior to the introduction.  It was a crowd who had not been screened, but knew Trump would be attending.  And it's a city where most of the people are employed by the Federal Government and are getting a front row seat for the damage this Administration is doing.  What could possibly go wrong?!?



Trump's facial expression at not being greeted as the hero was actually kind of sad.  For a second I felt sorry for him, but then I thought about all the crap he's done to people he doesn't like, and I realized he's only getting a small taste of what he's eagerly handed out.  He got a peek behind the curtain to see the real world, something he's completely unaware exists.  Plus, he didn't take Barron, his own son, to a World Series game.  That's really sucky parenting.

As much as Trump supporters try to argue this was a fluke, that somehow only anti-Trump Antifa zealots had gotten tickets to a World Series game, just in case Trump attended, the reality is this destroys the idea Trump is the popular one, and the polls which he insists are rigged, are actually telling the truth.

It's hard for Trump to speak at the UN without most of the UN turning on him, so this wading into unfamiliar waters must have been refreshing for the people in attendance at the game.  It's a shame it costs you hundreds of dollars to be able to boo Trump to his face, but it seems worth every cent for those in attendance.

Expect the Trump team to dramatically limit any future appearances where Trump might actually have to come face to face with the people he actually is in charge of.

The Friday Link for 10/25/19

Considering next Friday will officially be November, I have to do my Halloween post tonight.  So be it!

Three completely unrelated videos.  First off, from the same people who bring you CinemaSins, it's TVSins.  Same concept, smaller screen.  This week its Everything Wrong with It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  Warning, the TV special is kid friendly, but the commentary along with this video is quite adult.  You've been warned!



Next up; I cannot stand when a 'best of list' ignores classic films and only front loads the list with things from the last 20 years.  I was pleasantly surprised with the 60 plus year spread for the movies featured in WatchMojo's Top 10 Scariest Giant Movie Bugs list.  There are some scares and gore in the clips featured here so viewer be warned.



Finally, it's the scariest thing I could find!  Rudy Giuliani!  Well not actually Rudy, but the best damn impression of him I have seen, courtesy of John Lithgow, and The Late Show.  "I'm not falling into that 'Proof Trap'" could be one of the funniest lines I've heard in a long time.  I needed it after this week.



Have a great weekend everyone!

The Franconia Sculpture Park

For the last two years I'd been hearing of a sculpture park in the nether regions of Minnesota.  It's out there; located in Franconia, 10 miles from the end of the metro area (and I'm being generous), but the rave reviews had peaked my interest.  Minneapolis is blessed with great sculpture.  Multiple Sculpture gardens, random top notch statues and even satellite sculpture gardens (at places like the arboretum) are scattered around the Twin Cities, so when multiple art friends of mine start raving, I get interested.

With MEA Weekend in Minnesota (teachers conference) last weekend, we decided to hit the state park in Taylor's Falls and make the stop to see what people are talking about.

The Franconia Sculpture Park is on the corner of US 8 and Highway 95.  It's free, expansive and worth the trip.  Here are some of the photos I took but these do not do it justice.  Go see for yourself, and it is very kid friendly!

Being Proven Right and Seeing the Future

This blog post was actually a letter I wrote and had published in MinnPost back in 2008, eleven years ago.  Considering the college football hacks are already saying an undefeated Minnesota will not be worthy of being in the BCS Championship regardless of how the rest of the season goes, I felt it was time to revisit the stupidity of NCAA Division 1-A football.

They need to fix college football.

Fumble, How College Football has Destroyed Itself

            The people who run Division 1-A college football, primarily the folks behind the Bowl Championship Series (BCS), have come to believe something bizarre; a loss is better than a win.  They even think, in certain cases, two losses are better than two wins.  Why is this?  It allows them to forgo unbeaten, but less glitzy teams in order to try to get a super-mega college football championship game for the television network, bowl game organizers and sponsors who seem to have complete control of their sport.

            Division 1-A college football is the only sport where this insane concept is accepted.  None of the other football leagues, the NFL, CFL, and Division 1-AA, Division 2, and Division 3 college football consider a loss better than a win, and, to no surprise, all of those leagues have a playoff system where the championship is determined on the field and not in some board room, television studio or programmed computer hard drive.  Division 1-A college football is scared to death of a playoff.  They think unless the two teams playing to determine the national champion are from 20 or so premiere teams, the sponsors and viewers would not show up.  So to make sure the “right” teams are in the big game, a loss has to become better than a win.

            Imagine the Vikings win the NFC North, but the NFL informs them that since they played a winless Detroit Lions twice, their strength of schedule has been deflated so the Dallas Cowboys, who coincidently have a larger fan base, will go to the playoffs instead.  Crazy.  And forget the fringe colleges who make a run at it (Boise St., Utah, Ball State), if the Minnesota Gophers went 12-0, there is no way they would play in the national championship game either.  Their crime would be they are not popular enough college football school, as opposed to Ohio State, Texas, or Florida.  The funniest part would be the college football “expert” screaming how “Minnesota is not worthy of the BCS Championship Game because they play in a Big Ten Conference having a down year,” only to follow it up 30 seconds later by saying “an 11-1 Ohio State team does deserve the chance to play in the game because they play in the tough Big Ten.”

            What has this led too?  A handful of colleges have seen their fan base rise dramatically.  Just head over to the Mall of America and look into the numerous hat and jersey shops.  Along side all the pro sports teams, are the same 20 or so college teams in every store.  But the NCAA’s cost for this popularity is the apathy for college football with the fans of other 90 plus teams.  Sure they might get good crowds for the rivalry game, but that’s it.  It’s reminiscent of the NFL when the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49’s were the only two teams with a real chance every year.  The NFL realized having only two teams in your sport matter was killing their league.  With the changes they made, the NFL now is unpredictable and the most popular league in the country.  Since we should never go back to the old bowl system, I propose two solutions.  

            The first is what I think the people behind this mess really want.  Take the 20 or so teams currently in the running for the title each year and put them into a “Super Division.”  This allows the BCS people to get weekly must see games, ending in a monster championship game.  You can then give the bowl games back to the regular Division 1-A and forget the whole loss/win fiasco.  There are two downsides to this.  You’d have to realign the conferences, probably eliminating two, and in the regular 1-A, the bowl games would revert back to their imperfect solution, but this would be over looked by the Super Division’s lineup.

            The second solution begins by making every team play 12 regular season games, eliminating any conference championships.  At the end of the season, take the top 16 teams, including any undefeated teams, and slot them into a playoff bracket by record, where 1 plays 16, 2 plays 15 and so on, with the higher ranked team hosting.  The weekend leading up to Christmas you play the eight-first round games, the weekend leading up to New Year’s, you play the four-second round games, and the first weekend of January you play the semifinals.  Then the weekend between the NFL’s conference championship games and the Super Bowl, you have a must see, true national championship with an undisputed winner.  And for those who need the Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange Bowls, those games would go to teams not in the playoff bracket, and they would be played on New Year’s Day.

            Until they solve this debacle, let me salute the Boise St.-Utah Championship game that will not happen.  I hope you both win your bowl games and force these idiots into pretending (1) two undefeated teams are not as good as the one loss winner of their BCS game, and (2) their system, as broken and flawed as ever, doesn’t need to be fixed.  Let this be a lesson to all sports leagues:  when you put people who are more interested in money rather then the betterment of your sport in charge of it, don’t be surprised when you hear asinine arguments to justify your sole-less product.

The Friday Link for 10/18/19

For this week, I'm sharing what has become one of my favorite shows, The Good Place.

What I like most about The Good Place is how well it's written, and how well those lines are delivered.  This is one of those shows where there are so many jokes, some episodes you need to rewatch to catch everything.

The cast is exceptional starting with America's sweetheart Kristen Bell, but at any point, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, Manny Jacinto, Ted Danson or D'Arcy Carden steals a scene or an episode.  A special shout out to Danson who's doing his best TV since Cheers and the unbelievably talented Carden whose Janet is such a pivotal character on the show.

Also the gags are relentless and hilarious.  The references to how people are tortured in The Bad Place, the mocking of Jacksonville and Florida as a whole, and the occasional deep cut ethics and philosophy references/puns are great.  There's a moment in Season One where demons are forcing Ted Danson's character to dance while they karaoke the Nixon Tapes (you read that right).  It's freaking brilliant!

For this week, here are the blooper reels for Seasons 1, 2, and 3. Of course there's some naughtier language, so you've been warned!







Catch the first three season of The Good Place on Netflix and the final season is currently airing on NBC.  Have a great weekend everyone!

Autumn Flowers

I took some good shots of Autumn flowers at the Minnesota Arboretum last weekend.  Enjoy!

What We Learned on Thursday

On Thursday, Trump came rambling into Minneapolis trying to fire up his base by having a rally in the 'belly of the beast;' the House district of Representative Ilhan Omar.  The idea was to show the country Trump's appeal (even in a Democratic stronghold like Minneapolis) was far stronger than Democrats want to believe.  On the contrary, what we learned on Thursday is Trump's no longer unconditionally loved by some of his own supporters, as they realize they've been dancing with the Devil.

Don't get me wrong.  A lot of people (shockingly) still love Trump, a good 25-30% of the country, but there are signs Trump's supposed undying support is starting to cough and run a fever.  After the Thursday rally in Minneapolis, I'd be VERY concerned about the eroding of Trump's popularity within his own base.

Let's start with the obvious: Trump didn't fill up Target Center!  He just didn't!  It seats 20,000 for an event like Trump's rally, and the GOP's own online pre-game live stream showed the entire upper ring empty 15 minutes before the speakers started.  Numerous other photographs, as well as the Minnesota GOP's own video, showed most of the upper deck empty minutes before the program began.

This was apparently a mistake by the organizers.  For some reason Trump's people thought 12,000 to 16,000 people would make Target Center look full.  It doesn't.  I heard a story that when it became obvious there were numerous empty seats in the upper deck, the Trump people frantically went outside to the exterior viewing area where a few thousand Trump fans were, and shuffled as many of them in as quickly as possible.  This makes sense as the upper deck was mostly filled prior to Trump's keynote, and it also explains why the outside video viewing area was so sparsely attended, with what seemed like less than 500 people.

But back to Target Center.  It was 'mostly' filled!  The upper three to four rows in the upper deck were pretty much empty. That means it was closer to 19,000 people.  I understand there are a lot of suburbanites who LOVE Trump, but who are terrified of coming into the downtown.  They reside on the outer limits of the metro area, insisting their mostly caucasian communities infested with chain restaurants and stores is the 'nitty gritty city.'  When faced with going into the actual downtown for the evening, even to see Trump, they'll give a hard pass.

Still the Twin Cities metro area is 3.6 million people.  The population estimate for the state is 5.6 million, plus there is western Wisconsin and the insane amount of people who follow Trump around like he's the Grateful Dead.  Putting it all together, the Republicans couldn't muster more than 21,000 people (at most!) in the 16th largest metro area in the country.

Then came the speech.  I'm not going to post any direct quotes (City Pages has the ten most bizarre:  http://www.citypages.com/news/10-things-donald-trump-actually-said-at-his-batshit-minneapolis-rally/562817381) but to say Trump's ONE HOUR AND FORTY MINUTE (!!!) speech was an unintelligent garbled word salad doesn't do it justice.  He bounced around from unrelated subject to unrelated subject like a Minion after drinking four pots of coffee and a dozen Red Bulls riding a paint can shaker in an earthquake.  No one is saving the tape for posterity.

And it wasn't just liberals who got bored with Trump's speech.  Media people on the floor of Target Center started noticing the pro-Trump Republican crowd starting to fade as the speech went into the second hour.  The photographs taken by MPR photographer Evan Frost don't paint a flattering picture of the crowd's receptiveness to what Trump was saying.  This has led to Trump supporters, frantically trying to cover up their clear lack of enthusiasm, insisting the photographs were taken before the event started, posted later to make Tump look bad.  They weren't.  Even Trump's biggest supporters were having a hard time digesting his ramblings.

After the speech was done, a new Republican tradition was played out.  To make themselves into the victims, Trump supporters, as they leave the venue, must paint the scene as some sort of mad scramble for their lives!  Them walking out the venue, out to the parking lot, getting into their car and quietly leaving Target Center morphs into a deleted scene from Mad Max:Fury Road.  "I barely escaped the clutches of Ilhan Omar, as she lead a battalion of Antifa thugs armed with spiked bats and jars of urine on a rampage against anyone who was white!  WE BARELY SURVIVED!!!"

For the record, even though multiple Republican "news" outlets reported Rep. Omar was on the front lines with Antifa in Minneapolis,  Ilhan was actually overseas on an official trip at the time of the Trump rally.

On Thursday evening, there was one arrest and one citation handed out in regards to the protest.  That was it.  Sure there was a burning of Trump merchandise, but it wasn't stuff ripped off Trump supporters.  Police did get a little over the top with pepper spray at times, and there was one case where a Nazi came down to scream at the 'libtards,' only to get slapped, then run off by the crowd.  The apocalypse crowd Trump fans insist was threatening them just wasn't there.  What was there was about 20,000 (or possibly more) protestors who engaged in their Constitutional right to protest, which they did peacefully.

So even the the right's final attempt at portraying themselves as being on the moral high ground, the vilification of protestors into something far worse than what they really were, ended up being nothing substantial.

Afterwards, there was a 'canary in the coal mine' in regards to Trump's supporters and their possible wavering support for him.  I posted on Facebook one of the photos from Evan Frost.  Someone picked it up.  So far 345,000 people have seen the one post.  It was a post of this image:

You're welcome America!  This photo of bored Trump fans at the 85th minute of Trump's speech has become a meme upon itself.  My only comment about the photo was how it 1) clearly showed a bored, less than enthused Trump crowd, and 2) how it shows most Trump's fans are old and white.  

Since then, I've found myself inundated with demands for 'civility' from people on the political right.  The same people who spent eight years watching President Obama repeatedly get hung in effigy and were either silent or endorsed the disgusting displays, the same people who watched Trump mock a disabled man, the same people who heard the Access Hollywood tape, the same people who ignored Trump paying off a porn star he had an affair with at the same time his wife gave birth to his kid, the same people who watched Trump attack John McCain's service record, the same people who witnessed Trump attack military families, the same people who see Trump lock children up in cages in concentration camps on the border, the same people who cheer on Trump's never ending Twitter attacks and incompetent leadership are furious at the picture I posted, calling it uncivilized.  THESE people are now demanding civility in political conversations.  Please...

It does lead one to ask why they're making such a foolish request.  Are they starting to ween off of Trump, terrified of the 'told you so's they know they'll endure if they admit they were wrong to back such an incompetent jackass, hence a preemptive call for 'civility?'  Their biggest fear is having to admit the Democrats might've been right.  Are they pleading for civility to avoid embarrassment? 

Here's how I've tackled this.  I'll put up a picture of Trump mocking the disabled man.  This photo:  

Ask the Republican calling for civility what they have to say about this photo.  If their response is "He never did that!  He's innocent!  That's just libtards trying to make him look bad," then F- them! They're trying to get Democrats to honor a civility standard they themselves have no intention of inhabiting.

But if they state (like one woman I challenged) "I wish I'd condemned that more back then.  I was very uncomfortable with that and should've realized Trump has some issues," then go easy on them.  If they're willing to take that first step, even if it is a baby step, let them know there's a path where they don't have to genuflect too much.

We learned on Thursday some Trump supporters are starting to wake up, but much like rabid followers of all authoritarian regimes, it has to get really bad for people to realize the crap sandwich they've been eating is not a filet mignon.  

The Friday Link for 10/11/19

Not a lot here this week as I've been dealing with this:

That's right, the Trump rally came to Minneapolis and I've been a touch busy.  I promise a recap on the blog this weekend.  Photo: Evan Frost MPR.

For this week, I will hand it over to John Oliver.  Two cuts from him tonight, starting with his outstanding takedown of compounding pharmacies.  The best part of his show is how he finds HUGE problems in America that no one seems to know anything about. Compounding Pharmacies are a 'mix to use' pharmacy, and of course they have been overrun with unscrupulous people who'll kill to make a buck. 

The second cut from Oliver is a weird salute to recently passed away Rip Taylor.  Taylor featured uniquely in a really strange segment from 2015 where John Oliver points out Thailand's extremely weird and disturbing fascination with Hitler.  Yes, THAT Hitler.



WEIRD!  Have a great weekend everyone!

The Friday Link for 10/4/19

On today's Friday Link, I'm featuring Omeleto, kind of a Netflix for short films.

They feature quite a few, from pretty much every genre you can imagine, many featuring major celebrities and recognizable stars.  Here are three short films from Omeleto I enjoyed, but a warning, adult themes and rough language are pretty common on these films, as well as some really weird twists and turns.

First up, what happens when a giant alien comes to earth but doesn't seem to want to annihilate us, or help us.  It's 'The Narrow World.'



Next up, a self absorbed man completely misses the end of the world.  Super creepy at the end of 'Lasiurus.'



Finally a heartbreaking story about trying to use a time loop to stave off death.  I actually teared up at the end of this one. 'Exit Strategy.'



There is another short film about time travel which gets REALLY weird and pretty inappropriate at times.  I will not post it but it's called 'I'm You, _____.'  Don't ever let idiots attempt time travel.

Have a good weekend everyone!