Short and sweet today as I have a meeting I can't miss.
Absolutely one of the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes ever produced, featuring the Canadian Steve Rogers, Zap Rowsdower (Is that a make up-less clown?)!
Enjoy 'The Final Sacrifice!'
Something I can't deny; I'm older. I try to do some things from when I was in my 20's and I'm in pain for a week. I try to eat like I did at 19 and I'm doubled over in pain. It's normal, but as this new reality settles in, you do get a much better prospective of the elderly family and friends who went before you.
Today I'm getting hip replacement surgery. In 2018, I started noticing what I thought was a pulled muscle or ligament in my leg. It gradually got worse and worse. I got it checked out in 2019. I was shocked to find out I have arthritis in my hip, pretty bad too. Eventually it would need to be replaced.
For a temporary measure, I opted for a steroid injection into my hip joint and it worked great! For about five months into 2020 I felt fine. I got another shot in June of last year and that seemed to hold out through the summer. All this time I was very active, hiking like a fool 4-5 times a week through parks and trails in Minnesota. I also got back into biking, something the insane amount of bike trails around the Twin Cities makes incredibly enjoyable.
But then came December. The bike went into the garage and the walks were less frequent. Finally, when we started getting really cold, I took a few weeks off. It was then I noticed the pain in my hip and leg was getting pretty unbearable. I went back into the doctor and got a third steroid shot into my hip, but three weeks later I was starting to feel the pain again.
When the weather started to turn warmer, I was convinced I could just get back out onto the paths and the pain would start to fade away. Not so much. Two to three mile walks I did with ease last summer had become shockingly painful. I got the bike back out and after some initial success, it too starting hurting far more than I was comfortable with.
It's time. I need to get this done, and so I'm off to have what is a pretty amazing procedure done, supposedly outpatient (there is a slight chance I might be in the hospital for a night. We'll see).
It does present an interesting psychological problem: Has my hip been hurting really bad for awhile now and I just pushed it aside, but now with surgery coming I'm no longer having to be the 'brave soldier,' OR is the hip pain really not that bad but as I approach the surgery my mind is convincing myself it's much worse than it really is? Interesting...
Everyone who has this procedure tells me the same thing; it's a life saver. One listener, a teacher in St. Paul, wrote to tell me you won't realize how much you're compensating for the bad hip until it's fixed. He added there is an undeniable dark cloud over the head of anyone who is dealing with long term pain, a cloud that manifests itself over time. When that starts to clear, it's glorious.
I'll watch a lot of TV, and I'll get shuffling around as quickly as possible. I'm grateful to be in the position when I can have this surgery.
One of the things I've thought about: what would my life would be like 100 years ago with this same problem? My life as I know it would've been over. I'd be in a wheelchair or hobbling for my remaining days, most of them in constant pain. Modern medicine is truly amazing. Now if we can only make sure everyone can get affordable access to it. People in America shouldn't have to make due with 100 year old medicine.
A busy week here, with the biggest news being the three guilty verdicts handed down by the jury on former Minneapolis police officer, and murderer, Derek Chauvin. Finding some justice for George Floyd felt nice but the truth is we have a long way to go to really be able to say real change is happening in America. As we celebrated the Chauvin verdict, we also saw the funeral for Daunte Wright, the black man tragically killed after being pulled over in Brooklyn Center on a racially profiled police stop.
One step forward, and another step back...
The Friday Link this week is about a few more lesser stories which made this week shockingly busy. Let's start off with the Oscars, which air of Sunday. Delayed due to COVID, it's pretty competitive this year. Looking past the Oscar nominees, WatchMojo put together a great list of movies which were complete snubs from the Academy Awards. All of these movies were released with the intention of trying to get some nominations, but they all failed. I remember many of these films being marketed as slam dunk Oscar contenders. Not so much...
In 2019, after former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor was convicted of 3rd degree murder and manslaughter in the death of Justine Damond, a very deserved conviction, I said on my radio show "Now we see what it takes for a Minneapolis cop to be convicted of clearly murdering a citizen of the city. They have to be black."
Noor was Somali-American and while I don't necessarily want to get into the detail of his case, I made the comment back then "what happens from this point forward when a white cop is found to have done a comparable crime, or even worse, and we have undeniable evidence of the white cop's guilt? If that white cop get's convicted of their crime, then (although it can clearly be labeled 'minor incremental change') it would show all cops can be held accountable for their crimes. If the white cop gets found not guilty, then we know the only way the public will get justice is if the officer involved in the crime wasn't white."
A little more than a year later, former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin (who is very white and looks like a villain in a Spielberg film) was filmed crushing George Floyd to death on Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis. He drove his knee into the neck of Floyd, who was handcuffed and displayed minimal resistance, FOR THE 9 MINUTES AND 29 SECONDS CHAUVIN HAD HIM PINNED. Most of the time the Minneapolis cops were piled on top of Floyd, he was already dead.
As the jury now begins to determine Chauvin's guilt as it takes over the case from the court, the test I alluded to in 2019 begins.
Let's just cut the crap. Chauvin is guilty. He's guilty of all three charges against him, 2nd degree murder (unintentional), 3rd degree murder, and 2nd degree manslaughter. The prosecution in the case MORE THAN proved their case. They showed the video, they brought in the eyewitnesses who pleaded with the officers to stop killing Floyd, they talked to the emergency responders who realized they were called to a murder scene, they presented the senior members of the Minneapolis PD who all called Chauvin's actions out of line and inexcusable, they talked to Chauvin's trainers who all insisted Chauvin was trained to never do what he did, and they brought in medical experts who (using the video itself and science) proved the cause of George Floyd's death was the officers killing him, mainly Chauvin.
Meanwhile the defense sounded incompetent at times. They so wanted to character assassinate Floyd, vilify the witnesses, and dismiss the experts, but every time they tried they sounded ill prepared and desperate. Their own witnesses not only didn't display any evidence which contradicted reality, they were picked apart by a far better prosecution team who even had the defense witnesses backing up their version of what happened.
And then there is the video, all 9 minutes and 29 seconds of it.
Yet the outcome of this trial is far from galvanized. I find it next to impossible to think the jury would vote not guilty on the manslaughter charge, but a lot of legal experts have said the convictions on 2nd and 3rd degree murder are not guaranteed.
Police in Minnesota benefit from two things. The first is police accountability rules written by Republicans which basically create a zero accountability standard for police (unless you're a black officer). All any police officer has to do is scream "I was SCARED(!)" and it becomes near impossible to convict them in Minnesota.
I've often made this analogy: A Minnesota cop could be off duty, drunk as a skunk in a bar. They could go up to someone and say "I hate you and I'm going to go get my gun and shoot you!" They then, drunk, drive home, get their weapon, drive back to the bar and raise their gun at the person they threatened. At that point the soon to be victim raises his hands to attempt to surrender but is shot and killed by the off duty drunk cop. It doesn't matter the intent, recklessness or premeditation of the situation, all the officer has to do is scream "I was SCARED when the victim raised their hands, and I feared for my life." Under that specific scenario, there's a 50/50 chance the Minnesota cop walks free.
Insanity!
Chauvin's lawyers have tried to modify the "I was SCARED(!)" argument. They have insisted the crowd begging the officers to get off of Floyd were scaring them (even though they never threatened the officers and there were five officers on the scene, including one specifically doing crowd control). They also implied Floyd had to be subdued like he was because at any moment he could become bequest with super strength and throw the officers off of him like he was the Hulk. Neither of those defenses seemed to work on the jury.
The other benefit to white Minnesota cops (and all white cops for that matter) is there's a substantial portion of the population who'll never convict a white police officer of a crime. No matter the evidence, they just won't do it. For some it has to do with a family member who is/were an officer, but for most it's a more evil internal decision. Cops keep bad guys in line, and for most of these people 'bad guys' can be defined as Black, Latino, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Liberal, LGBTQ and any other group they dislike. They might not like the tactics they use, but they tolerate them because of who is being abused by the police's heavy handed approach.
The defense also tried their hardest to tap into any juror who might share these thoughts. Not only did they focus on George Floyd's drug use (even though there wasn't enough drugs in his system to warrant any concern), but the entire closing argument was a buffet of excuses for a pro-cop juror to lean their wrongful non-guilty assertions against.
For goodness sake! The defense's argument is Floyd didn't die of being crushed into the pavement, but rather of an enlarged heart, CO emissions from a car, non-existent drugs in his system and paramedics who should've gotten to the scene faster. Only a cop apologist would find such a ludicrous argument feasible. It'd be like saying "sure the shark ate him, but in reality he died of cancer seconds before being eaten. THAT was the real cause of death."
Crazy.
But yet here we are, wondering what the jury will find Chauvin guilty of, if anything. If 'not guilty' is read repeatedly when it comes to the verdict, I feel this city (and this country) will explode with anger. If 'guilty' is read three times, I think this city will become the sight of the largest dance party in history.
Either way we'll have a definitive answer to the test.
This has been a tough week in Minneapolis/St. Paul. We were heading into the third full week of testimony in the trail of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police officer accused of murdering George Floyd, and then on Sunday another tragedy struck the city. Daunte Wright was murdered by Brooklyn Center police on what can only be described as a racial profiling traffic stop which ended in horror as the officer seems to have confused her service weapon for her taser, a mistake which is frankly hard to believe.
And we are in the middle of other wave of the CoronaVirus, this time mostly caused by people going on reckless Spring Break trips and kid's sports, which have become super spreader events in the state of Minnesota.
...(deep breath in, deep breath out)...
We start tonight with Julie Nolke, a Canadian (she says "eh" a lot!). She's a very funny actress and comedian with her own You Tube channel. She came across gold with her 'Explaining to Her Past Self' series, little vignettes on how her future self is trying to educate her past self. I really liked her explaining the pandemic to herself, one year later.
This was a smile I needed this week.
This week we delve back into history.
First up is a British version of the Townsends You Tube Channel. Townsends does a lot with historic cooking in America, and Modern History TV has a similar series of videos, only dealing with the foods of ancient Britain.
We're getting a look at commoner food which is being prepared and presented as it would've been in Medieval times. On top of that, the food actually looks really good! Seriously, I'd gladly become a peasant if I can eat a meal like that every night!
Speaking of Townsends, we have another video from them tonight too, but this time they are not talking about food, but rather one of the oldest houses still standing in the United States.
As many of you know I'm a Catholic. When I bring up religion it's not about trying to covert anyone. That's why I often say this disclaimer: You do, or don't do, whatever it is you do or don't want to do.
Nor do I talk about being Catholic to give anyone an insight into my life, although I've been very straight forward. I'm a Progressive because of my Catholic faith. Frankly I'm stunned anyone can read the Bible's New Testament, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four books of the Bible which relay the story of Jesus, THE REASON WHY ANY CHRISTIAN IS CHRISTIAN, and be anything but a Liberal. Feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of the sick, welcoming in strangers from strange lands...it's all pretty clear.
I primarily talk about my religion for one reason. The Conservative Right has taken Christianity, a faith built on love, compassion, peace, welcoming and caring, and turned it into a weapon of hate. They use Christianity to push a very narrow political agenda. What's amazing to me is how the Conservative Right has gotten so many "Christians" to ignore the teachings of Jesus himself, and boiled down Christianity to a handful of angry tropes, primarily 1) Anti-LGBTQ, 2) Anti-Abortion, 3) Pro-death Penalty, 4) Pro-guns.
I bring up my religion to try to stop far right loon balls from mutilating Jesus, his teachings and the Bible itself.
For the record, nowhere in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John does Jesus, THE MAN WHO MAKES CHRISTIANS CHRISTIAN, condemn the LGBTQ community (he doesn't), or demand women should have no choice in their own healthcare (he doesn't say squat about abortion, and by the way the Bible is FULL of questionable treatment of babies and the unborn!). And it's frankly laughable a man who was publicly executed in a horrific manner would be pro-death penalty. As far as weapons, Matthew 26:52 pretty much makes any Christian pro-gun argument moot (and just silly).
The Far Right work around on Jesus is to downplay his direct teachings (or outright ignore them), hype up other books of the Bible to promote their point of view (primarily Paul's letter to the Romans, which was Paul not Jesus, and Leviticus, a barn burner of a book from the Old Testament which is a really a double edged sword. You might want to read that book completely before calling it "gospel."), try to take passages out of context, or outright making up religious passages which have nothing to do with Jesus.
The reason for this is simple. The Far Right's politics is far more important that their Christian Faith. They also know their politics, for the most part, is incredibly anti-Christian, so they eagerly distort the teachings of Jesus to make their politics seem righteous.
This is why I'm writing today. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to talk to a Far Right Chrisitan about Jesus' teachings, especially in regards to feeding the hungry, healing the sick and welcoming in strangers from strange lands, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM says something to the effect of "Oh I'm for doing all of that, but..." They always have some political excuse which suddenly overrides the religion they say is the most importing steering principle in their lives.
Didn't used to be this way. This bastardizing of Christianity as a political weapon began in the 1970's in the aftermath of Nixon's resignation, and became a much more prominent movement in the Reagan 80's. Since then, this Far Right version of Christianity has become more and more focused, forcing many of their followers to abandon large swaths of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and only focusing all of their attention on one or two political issues.
I remember when churches rarely said anything which could be construed as political. Now it seems politics is constantly being preached in some churches, even occasionally mine! I remember when former Arch Bishop Nienstedt demanded all priests in the Diocese take an anti-gay marriage stand in the 2012 election. My church's priest, Father Kennedy, came out and said [paraphrasing] "The diocese has given me a list of political things I'm supposed to tell you, but I won't. You're intelligent people, you can make up your own minds about things." He got a standing ovation for about two minutes.
Considering this deformed version of Christianity has been around for 40 years, you have an entire generation who have grown up around it. Have the 'hate über alles' Christians been able to resonate with the average person? Gallup just released a poll which shows not only has this new version of 'hate Jesus' not resonated, but people are abandoning religion as an institution at a stunning rate.
Starting in the 1930's, when Gallup first asked "do you belong to a house of worship," the results show 70+% of Americans did. It stayed above 70% all the way up until 1999. Then a change started to happen. People started leaving organized religion in droves. By 2018 people who said they belonged to a house of worship was down to 50%, and this year, for the first time ever, we actually have less than 50% of Americans who have a regular place of religious worship, 47%.
I'm convinced this is a direct result of taking the love, compassion, peace, welcoming and caring out Jesus' teachings. Why would anyone be part of the church when the first thing they tell you is who you have to hate. The church leaders have no one to blame but themselves. In their strive for political power, they themselves allowed their religion to be mangled beyond recognition. When the people who were supposed to be the keepers of the faith were the ones who were forsaking it, they pushed parishioners out the door, firmly.
To be fair, the Gallup poll does refer to all religions, but in the US, the only way you are getting this level of decline is if people are walking away from Christianity. There are many other reasons for some people not belonging to church. The sex scandal in the Catholic faith was a big reason, but most of that attrition happened before 2015, and these numbers hare still dropping, and fast. I don't know too many football fans who go to church any more unless their team plays a night game. But to be fair to sports fans, the question is not how often you attend church, but rather "do you belong to a house of worship?"
Maybe this is why some of the more extreme Far Right Christians are trying to find ways to force Christianity onto others. Until they stop with the politically butchered version of Christianity, the number of people walking away from church will continue to rise.
I don't see the Far Right stopping anytime soon.
Apologies! I'm in the middle of Spring Break week with my kids so this is the only post I have for you this week.
I've really enjoyed the Marvel Series on Disney+. WandaVision was exceptional and did not shy away from the idea that the hero can become the villain in a blink of an eye.
The second series Marvel has released is Falcon and The Winter Soldier. This series takes two of the lesser characters from the Captain America comic book universe and gives them their own series, and as enjoyable as Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are in the title roles, it's Wyatt Russell who is stealing the show.
The replacement for Captain America in the Marvel world is actually a character in comics more known as the US Agent John Walker, and he's quite the jerk. Seriously as kind and righteous as Chris Evans character was, Walker is a hollow shell of the original Cap. I was very concerned they would try to soften the character, but so far Wyatt Russell is absolutely crushing it.
Wyatt is the son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and before he got into acting was quite a good hockey goalie, even playing college level. The Friday Link this week starts off with a few cuts from Off Camera with Sam Jones. The first cut is how Wyatt, as the son of two very famous Hollywood actors, had to find his own path through hockey.
Howdy everyone!
Let me start with a plea. Take the pandemic seriously until it's over. Right now across Minnesota we have outbreaks being fueled by these new variants which are threatening to move Minnesota back into a shut down pattern. Wash hands, wear a mask, social distance and try to limit contact with large groups.
The good news is if we all do that now, soon we should be able to return to a pre-pandemic life. Governor Walz has opened up vaccinations for everyone 16 and older in Minnesota starting on Tuesday. Get vaccinated and stay safe and this will be over a lot faster.
This week, short and sweet with Mystery Science Theater and their classic riff on The Unearthly ("Ladies and Gentlemen the Edgar Allen Poe Marching Band!"). It also includes the classic shorts Posture Pals and Appreciating Our Parents!
Be healthy and be safe!
Have a great weekend!
Sometime you get a perfect storm; an absolute idiot proposes and absolutely idiotic idea. When it happens, magic occurs.
The latest example of this involves the idiotic Minnesota Representative Jeremy Munson. There have been a lot of dumbs things this clown has done, but prior to this, probably the stupidest was when he started dishing out medical advice to diabetics. Munson does not have (to my knowledge) diabetes, nor is he a licensed medical professional, but neither stopped him from handing out insulin advice in a WalMart parking lot.
Wow! That's stupid!
Munson has outdone himself with his latest suggestion, that basically the western 2/3rds of Minnesota should secede from the state of Minnesota and join South Dakota.
This week I shall bask in the brilliance of The Daily Show, both current and past incarnations.
I will warn you now, A LOT of bad language!
One of the things I love which current host Trevor Noah does is the ease at how he explains complex issues no one else is talking about. I featured him a few months back with his brilliant story on the farmer's strike in India, but last week he took on a more underreported story; how in the heck did an absolute slime ball like Madison Cawthorn win a Congressional seat?
The Daily Show is also continuing with the track record of exceptional correspondents. Roy Wood Jr. so deserves his own show. Here he is giving us a geography lesson in exactly "who hates who?" By the way, his points about the US and Canada are spot on.
I hope you've enjoyed the week. Here in Minnesota it's warm (relative) and melting. Delightful!
First up this week is the return of The Hood Internet. This is the dude who does the insanely good dance remixes with the songs from any given year. Check out all of his years, but he just released 1995, and it was an excellent year for music. This is great.
I'm hesitant to go down this rabbit hole as the people who REALLY need to read the following post will outright refuse to do so, like a petulant 2 year old refusing to eat their veggies. But after I posted on a friend's social media post, a post which celebrated the Texas Governor Greg Abbott's insanely stupid idea to re-open Texas completely, a decision he announced on Tuesday, I felt as if we needed yet ANOTHER reminder of the dangers of going down this path. My response to the original post:
"I am tired of death. I don't want anyone else to die. All the health experts say this will cause more people to die. Sorry if I don't stand up and applaud the likely unnecessary deaths."
My friend who posted the original praising of this Texas foolishness took his usual stance, one where he completely understands the sadness of the deaths, but reopening is somehow (in his opinion) a better option. I completely disagree.
But then Pat decided to chime in. For the record, she made this comment on a social media post available for the world to see, but I'll hide her identity outside of her first name. For the record, I don't hide mine.
As many people who visit the blog know, I host a radio show which features regular guests with specific specialities, who occasionally come on and share their wisdom. One of them is my food expert and wonderful chef, Terry John Zila.
A few years back I asked him, "why are shows like 'Man Vs. Food' so popular?" Man Vs. Food is a cable show where the host (originally Adam Richman) would go tackle major food challenges at restaurants; like the ten pound hamburger, or the El Diablo chicken wings, or the 5 pound steak with all the sides. Some of these food items would have a time constraint for consumption to completed by, others would require you just finish everything on the plate. The show was popular. A lot of people liked seeing these challenges which appeared on various menus across the country, challenges they themselves would never try.
Without skipping a beat, Terry said "because shows like that allow people to live unhealthy, while not actually engaging in the unhealthy behavior." He went on to add how many people might look at a ten pound hamburger and say that looks delicious, but they're smart enough to avoid ordering one themselves. Adam Richman could do it for them, subjecting himself to a massive meal. By the time Richman got halfway through his challenges, it became more of a public service announcement: "here is the professional eater being brought to his knees by this. Don't be dumb enough to try this yourself!" People lived vicariously through the show, without having to endure the digestive nightmare.
I'd seen this play out every Minnesota State Fair. When I broadcast at KSTP, we were right down the street from the Sweet Martha's Cookie booth, probably the most popular Fair food booth. People would order the bucket of cookies, a heaping large pail of cookies; easily more cookies than person should eat in an entire year, given to them in one 'serving', a serving which could feed forty people. I'll never forget the faces of the people as they began their walk from Sweet Martha's to our booth. Their faces went from pure joy to 'what was I thinking' in a matter of 20 steps. We'd always have abandoned buckets left on the broadcast stage (and bees), left behind by fools whose internal desires overrode their common sense.
Rush Limbaugh passed away from cancer on February 17th. He was undeniably a racist, sexist, homophobe, bigot, fear mongering jackass. He was! That was his brand! Just some of the things he said: "Barack the Magic Negro," (towards Latinos) "You're a foreigner...You shut your mouth and get out," he attacked Katrina victims, constantly attacked the black members of the NBA, NFL and the NAACP, "women shouldn't be allowed on juries where the accused is a stud," his insanely racist anti-Asian rant against Chinese President Hu Jintao, he attacked people dying of Parkinson's, called Sandra Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute" for advocating for universal contraception coverage, referred to LGBTQ+ politicians as "the tranny community," constantly said white people should be proud of their record on slavery, he was the driving force behind the completely made up Seth Rich conspiracy and in turn tortured Rich's family, a career of targeting the homeless, he attacked the dead CONSTANTLY including Robin Williams, George Steinbrenner, Trayvon Martin, and Kurt Cobain (among MANY others), he attacked Joe Biden and Joe Biden's family when he went after Biden's dead wife and child, as well his Beau Biden who died of brain cancer, and he openly mocked and laughed at the victims of AIDS.
In case you are missing my point, speaking as a Catholic, Rush Limbaugh is BURNING IN HELL for eternity. That's not even debatable.
What's stunning is how all the sudden the Evangelicals are now trying to portray Limbaugh as some sort of über-Christian divine being, an angel who had visited earth, taken from us too soon. These people listened to Rush for years, many of them laughing at his daily unforgivable comments. For his entire career, Rush's fans never condemned any of Rush's CLEARLY anti-Christian hate speech. They all heard it, AND THEY LOVED HIM FOR IT...AS CHRISTIANS!
You see, Rush was like a far right extremist political version of Man Vs. Food. Down deep inside Rush's Evangelical and 'Republican party over Jesus' Christian fans, they wanted to say the racist, misogynist, homophobic, bigoted, anti-Democratic, anti-Immigrant, anti-poor comments Rush was willing to say, but they knew if it came from their mouths, they'd be called out immediately for their anti-Christian behavior. That's why they adored Rush. They could embrace the anti-Christian rhetoric/comments without having to say them themselves, just chuckle along with the bigot! They could eat their 10 pound hamburger, or in this case the 1000 pound crap sandwich, without ever having to chew for themselves.
And now that he died, the Evangelicals and far right Christians are now looking at his true legacy; the hate and division he sowed, the legacy of anti-Jesus comments he spewed. That's why they are frantically trying to portray him as something Rush Limbaugh NEVER was, a good Christian. They are trying desperately to paint him as something misunderstood, noble and righteous. He was NEVER that.
Rush fans are walking away from the Rush Limbaugh booth with a bucket of his hate. They eagerly bought the bucket of venom and loathing, giddy with delight as Rush filled it with more and more anti-Christian dictum. Now that they're walking away from Rush, they're realizing they've become gluttons, freely gobbling up super size servings of bombastic, evil sermons. Out of desperation to change their foolish loyalty to 'something the other side just doesn't understand,' they now insist they never embraced what Rush said, but rather they only bought into Rush for the bucket the hate came in.
Stop lying to yourselves and to everyone else. You loved Rush for the hate he belched every day. Evangelicals and far right Christians, just be honest:
"We will miss Rush because he said all the non-Christian things we wanted to scream. Instead, we never had to say it directly. All we had to say was, 'I love Rush Limbaugh.'"
Howdy hi all.
To start off this week, we go back to Caitlin Doughty, from Ask A Mortician. A few weeks back we featured her plea video, as she was searching for help in Los Angeles County, demanding leadership as the CoronaVirus death count had overwhelmed the morgues, funeral homes and every other business associated with dealing with individuals who have passed away.
Her update is not exactly positive, but it is hopeful.
I've been chuckling lately at the insistence that 75 million Americans are about to engage in an armed insurrection against the government and install Trump as 'Dictator of Life.' Any conservative pushing this Stephen Miller fan fiction is a nut, but not just because they're at the point of embracing the destruction of western Democracy for Trump, but because they actually think all of his supporters are ready to take up arms and begin Civil War 2.
Before I get going, we have to be honest about the number of votes Trump got. He only got 74,222,960, over 7 million less than Joe Biden. You can't just round up 780,000. If you're going to round that number, you'd round it DOWN to 74 million.
How many of that 74 million is ready to take up arms and start shooting at any Democrat they see? One thing is for sure, it's not even close to 74 million.
I know I'm about to paint with a wide brush, and a good chunk of this is pure speculation, but there's a real big difference between politically supporting a candidate for President and that same person actually murdering people they disagree with politically. I do understand there are going to be exceptions for every one of these hypotheses, but I feel pretty confident we can whittle away large chunks of your 'Trump Army.'
First off, wealthy people aren't going to fight. The super wealthy would never jeopardize their wealth for (what will be) a grossly outnumbered group of far right thugs. A few might secretly bankroll a treasonous army, but for the most part wealthy people are not fools. They like America just the way it is.
What would be the break point for what you consider wealthy? I think any household making $200,000 a year or more would make a good break point. Factoring in some numbers from Statista (on household income in America, realizing this would probably include both adults in most two person households) and the New York Times (on who exactly voted for whom in 2020), that's going to be somewhere around 10 million of your voting base who likely will sit out your insurrection. 74 million - 10 million = 64 million.
Then comes the middle class and lower income suburban voter. Little over half the people who voted in 2020 came from the suburbs, with Biden holding a slight lead over Trump 50 to 48. Still that would translate to 35 and a half million Trump voters. Many of these people live and work in the cities where their suburbs are located. Their kids go to school there and the parents are part of the PTO's/PTA's. They volunteer, shop, eat and go to church there. And now you're saying all of them, including the more moderate Republicans who voted for Trump out of a long strained party loyalty, are going to pick up a gun and start blasting their neighbors away?
Sure some might, but those kooks will be the rare exception. These people have good jobs, jobs they'll lose if they start killing co-workers. Suburban dwellers might like to go to a cabin or go camping a few weeks every year, but they're not likely to abandon everything they've worked so hard to earn and head into rural American to join a deplorable hillbilly brigade. If they're going to fight for Trump, they'll have to do that! They won't be able to anonymously spring attacks on their neighbors and then just go back to mowing their lawns. They won't be able to put down a successful military strike on the local Democratic politician's office and then be done by 5 so they can be a junior's Legion Baseball game.
So how many of the 35,500,000 suburban Trump voters, minus the already deducted wealthy, will be on the front lines of the new war? At most, AT MOST, 5 million, and that's being generous. 64 million - 30,500,000 = 33,500,000.
The next numbers would surprise you. Trump got more voters from the inner cities than the rural parts of America. Cities of 50K or more in population counted for 29% of the vote, of which 38% (17 million) went for Trump. Small cities and rural America was 19% of the vote, which 57% (16.5 million) went for Trump. Focusing on the cities, I have zero doubt a small handful of Trump supporters would try to lash out at the masses, but they would quickly be killed. Any inner city Trump voter who wanted to partake in a war against the country would have to leave everything behind too. If they got 1 million to leave their inner cities and go fight, I'd be surprised, but for arguments sake, I'll give them 2 million of the 17 million from cities. 33,500,000 - 15 million = 18,500,000
But here comes Trump's bread and butter! A lot of the 16.5 million rural Trump voters would eagerly sign up to serve in the Trump Army. Mind you most of them would be terrified of even going into the suburbs to fight, but they'd get their uniform and walk back and forth in some field claiming they were on the front lines. Some rural Trump voters won't have the stomach for gunning down their neighbors in the streets, but I'll be generous. Only 2.5 million of the 16.5 million rural voters will say no. 18,500,000 - 2,500,000 = 16 million.
Now we are getting to a FAR more realistic number. Granted we have not factored in the 80 year olds who voted for Trump, who clearly wouldn't be able to fight, but we also haven't factored in the children under 18 who will be encouraged to kill liberals by their parents, as well as the anti-voting extremists who would quickly come out with their guns. Factoring in both, I'll give (generously, and I do mean GENEROUSLY, I'm downplaying the elderly vote for Trump and upselling the 17 and younger/militia types) the Trump Army an additional 2 million.
16 million + 2 million = 18,000,000
Eighteen million! That's the number of soldiers in the Trump fighting force ready to take to the streets.
18 million...in a country of 331 million. 5.4% of the country verses the other 94.6%. GOOD LUCK!
And that's not even factoring in the huge problem of the police and the military. I know the Trump army has convinced themselves law enforcement and the armed forces will turn on America and join them, but they're going to be in for a very rude awakening when most officers and soldiers stay loyal to the USA. It will be a hoot to watch a bunch of weekend warriors with limited training and skills get destroyed by the 10th Mountain Division! Sure Trump's Army might try for some terrorist strikes, truck bombs and drive by shootings, but our special forces units will quickly take them out. Do you know how many cameras there are watching everything? There's no way the Trump army conducts a strike on a major city and then gets back 50 miles into rural America without getting lit up. And I'm sure with the US' tracking systems any safe houses in the metro areas will quickly be leveled too. The US government will shut down the roads to Trump strongholds, and wait them out like Vicksburg. It will not be pretty.
Plus you have to look at the structure of the Trump army as an organization. I can already tell you many of the Trump faithful will want to be a leader not a follower, and they'll insist on leading from behind, staying back in relative safety as they send others to go do the dirty work. I would guess only half of the Trump army would be willing to be on the front lines.
The idea of going to war is great when it's in you imagination, but it's a different story when reality sinks in. Bob was a middle manager at a Forbes 500 country who loved Trump for his racists comments and was furious Trump didn't win. Bob killed four people in his neighborhood, loaded up his car and then headed out rural farm country. When they told him he needed to be a front line solder, Bob was incredulous! I've been mid level management. I should be in charge!
There will be too many chefs in the Trump army kitchen.
And how exactly are you going to coordinate this military fighting force. Eighteen million sounds like a lot but they will be stretched thin across most of the country. There will be large contingents in Republican stronghold areas like Mississippi, Wyoming and western Texas, but they will be spread a lot thinner in places like Maine, California and Minnesota. How exactly are you going to move a massive military force across the country without being noticed and napalmed? Also, how exactly are you going to communicate? Phone lines, both cellular and land line, will be monitored, as will short wave radios (how many people even have a short wave radio or access to one, especially one they can broadcast on). The internet? Considering the insane stupidity of the January 6th terrorists, who posted their crimes for everyone to see, these fools would be talking directly to the US military and they wouldn't even know it.
End result, there's no way they would be able to coordinate their maneuvers. The only thing they could do is a series of fractured regional terrorist campaigns, but, once again, attempting to get to their targets and back to their home bases would be suicide missions.
I won't go into the supplying of this fighting force. I can already tell you they would run out of provisions and ammunition in fairly short time, but there's one lingering question. What happens when Trump either dies or leaves the country because of the never ending lawsuits? I'm not wishing Trump dead, but rather just asking what the Trump Army's chain of command hierarchy is. I don't think Pence is next in command, but no one else, not Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, or even a Trump kid would resonate like Trump himself. He's an old man who eats a lot of fast food. You'd better get this insurrection in gear because you are on the clock.
Seriously, try it. I'll enjoy watching the military annihilate you. I'll enjoy your towns and communities being occupied. I'll enjoy you having whomever on your side survives paying restitution to the rest of us for your high crimes and misdemeanors. And most of all, I'll drink up you far right stooges having your mirage disappear and reality smack you in the faces like like a 2 X 4. It will be a delicious wine, flowing freely.
Like I said, Good luck!
Howdy all!
This last week was stellar for comedy so we have 5 clips, FIVE for you tonight. I will warn you up front: I think all of these clips feature rough language and some adult themes. You've been warned!!!
Let's start with a news story you probably have no idea even exists, but it is massive; the Indian Farmers strike.
One of the worst parts of the last 4 years was how Trump sucked all the news air out of this country. I remember when we used to hear about news from around the world, but then Trump and his childish need to be mentioned by the media every 5 minutes led to a stifling restriction of the news from outside our borders. Heck, it stymied a lot of the news within our own borders too!
The Daily Show is starting to look around the world and, as only they can, they break down what is the biggest farmer strike in the history of the planet, all due to the disastrous anti-small farmer policies of their current leadership. And Trevor Noah covers it with a smile!
This week I decided to try to walk everyday, as starting tomorrow the temperature drops down into the nether regions here in Minnesota. Heck I walked today in 11 degrees and nearly froze, and it'll be 25 degrees colder on Sunday morning. I'll be passing on the strolls for the next week.
Hopefully that means I will get some writing done.
For this week's Link, since the Super Bowl is on Sunday, we'll start with a compendium of ads about the NFL. Some of these ads are very good (the best being the 100th anniversary ad at the beginning) and some not so much, but it's a good watch.
Next up a fine take down from Randy Rainbow of one of the craziest people to ever hold a Federal elected position, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Warning! Language!
Sorry for the light week. I had multiple board meetings this week so I kept busy. Plus I went to the Zoo and an art museum. Priorities!
For tonight's Friday link, let me start with Caitlin Doughty. She has an enjoyable little You Tube channel called 'Ask A Mortician,' where she talks about corpses and death. Actually her videos are quite enjoyable, entertaining and informative.
But her latest video is different. Caitlin is an actual mortician and this latest video is a plea for the officials of Los Angeles and California to do something about the massive death crisis they have on their hands as the Corona Virus has ravaged the state over the last two months. This is an emotional call for help, which addresses a lot of problems. Trump was horrible at dealing with the pandemic, but there are plenty of other politicians from both sides of the aisle who need to step up.
And by the way, Caitlin has some damn good ideas which should be instituted well beyond California.
Two more things. First, watch Caitlin's other videos. They are enjoyable...and a little creepy. And 2) Thank God Tim Walz is the man in Charge in Minnesota!
The other clip tonight is from The Daily Show and it is a sensational montage of the Fox News' MASSIVE hypocrisy on media bias!
