Language Lesson
Voting Blizzard
October 20, 2020
It's snowing today. It's early to have a shovel-able amount of snow in Minnesota. Early snows are thick and wet.
We interrupt this weather report to bring you a language lesson.
The Dakota word for vote is: WOWAPI IYOHPEYA
The Ojibwe word for vote is: AAZHIDEBII `IGE
The Norwegian word for vote is: STEMME
The Spanish word for vote is: VOTA
The Hmong word for vote is: POV NTAWV
The Somali word for vote is: CODEE
Now
back to the weather report. Minnesota talks about the infamous
Halloween blizzard of 1991 as a shared disaster for those around at the
time. Green, red, and yellow-gold maple leaves were still on trees,
lawns, and filling road gutters.
The rain started as a heavy
afternoon downpour -- a monsoon rain -- unfamiliar in the
upper Midwest. Our storm drains do not have monsoon capacity, and
the leaves helped clog the drains. After the roads flooded by
dusk, the freezing rain hit, followed by several feet of blowing,
drifting, gluishly sticky snow. The ground never froze. The upper water
on the roads became several inches of a weak Styrofoam-like ice-snow,
covered with snow. Plows couldn't plow the roads. They sunk and
couldn't free themselves. Heavier vehicles became stuck while lighter
vehicles skated by, somewhat. Tree branches knocked down power lines,
and utility vehicles couldn't get to the downed lines.
Oh and the winds blew the snow horizontally, aiming for the eyes, no matter which way you faced.
It was hell-frozen-over but nothing compared to the pile on of 2020 disasters.
Music Association: Molly Hatchet - Flirtin' With Disaster
Slow Fall
So Fly
October 10, 2020
October has already been an incredible decade. Yesterday's Star Tribune newspaper headline was astounding.
Maybe
people are just numb to how wrong this is. It's a corruption of
everything that should be. And because Bizarro-Bozo is in the White
House, we are expected to ignore 83 degrees in Minnesota's October and
more significantly that September 2020 was the hottest on record.
Climate
change should be the number one issue, with the Covid-19 pandemic a
close second. Instead we have to salmon our way past voter suppression
to make voting count, while ignoring the circus sideshow...
The
week's best sideshow of a sideshow comes from the freakishly robotic
Michael Pence of Indiana and his excrement loving fly. The fly landed
on Pence's head during the Harris v. Pence Vice Presidential debate. I
didn't watch the debate, but the fly garnered all sorts of attention.
The National Bobblehead Museum
in Wisconsin is selling the Mike Pence and Fly bobblehead set, complete
with Plexiglass shield and mini-flyswatter. Not to be outdone, the
Biden-Harris campaign store sold out of the Truth Over Flies flyswatter after selling 35,000 flyswatters for $10.
Music Association: Frank Sinatra - Fly With Me
October Surprise
The Trump Virus
What Is It?
How Did He Get It?
October 2, 2020
President
Trump announced his first positive test late yesterday. It was the
first case of someone catching a hoax. His first symptom was a lack
of taste.
Trump is high risk due to being elderly, obese, and
low-income. But he has quality, government-sponsored health care
despite wanting to take health care away from others during the
pandemic.
And he is most at risk to a Covid-19 lie now after
having failed to debate former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday and
having the bone-spurs that kept him from serving in Vietnam.
It is what it is.
Music Association: Rod Stewart - Tonight's The NightStay away from debate
Stay away from the campaign trail
Disconnect your Twitter feed
Turn off Fox Newsortainment too
Take off the orange skin crap
Unknot your $70,000 hair cap
You'd be a fool to meet Joe again
Just lay in bed and take a nap
Cause Trump has Coronavirus
Time to use all the idiotic cures
That you've been blabbing about
for more than six months now
Maybe you'll get some pitiful votes
Maybe the news will write positive notes
Maybe you'll win and stay out of jail
But Donnie this ploy will probably fail
Cause Trump has Coronavirus
Time to use all the idiotic cures
That you've been blabbing about
for more than six months now
Cause Trump has Coronavirus
He can't win another debate
With all the voter suppression
There ain't no stopping him for four more years vote!
A Clown Living On Credit
$750 = Trump's 2017 Tax
September 28, 2020
For ten of the last fifteen years, Trump had zero federal taxes. For 2017 federal taxes, he and Melania paid $750. He paid Stormy Daniels $130,000.
For 2016 federal taxes, he and Melania paid $750. But in 2017, he paid
$15,598 in taxes to Panama, $145,400 in taxes to India, and $156,824 in
taxes to the Philippines. Wasn't his slogan -- make the Philippines great again, or something?
Trump's 2016 federal taxes = $750
Trump's 2016 hush money to Stormy Daniels = $130,000
Trump's 2017 federal taxes = $750
Trump's 2017 Panama taxes = $15,598
Trump's 2017 India taxes = $145,400
Trump's 2017 Philippines taxes = $156,824
Trump cheats on his taxes, he cheats on his wives, and he cheats at golf.At a rally on July 17, 2019, Trump said, “If you don't support me, you're going to be so God damn poor.” Evangelicals had a problem with his swearing... not with his lies, his racism, his adultery, his sexual assault, his rape of a 13 year old, his treatment of migrant children, his contributions to the climate crisis, his betrayal of the military, his malignant narcissism, or his closeness to Putin (kompromat). Evangelicals haven't had a problem with Trump making the Covid-19 pandemic worse by denying its existence and damaging the economy. Evangelicals haven't had a problem with Trump attacking the election and damaging the Postal Service. Trump crossed the line with his blasphemy. It's not like he uses the Ten Commandments like a checklist:
adultery
✔
false witness, lying
✔
coveting what others have ✔
Lord's name in vain, blasphemy ✔
Music Associations: The Beatles - Money, Pink Floyd - Money, & The Flying Lizards - Money
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
1933-2020
Unstack The Deck
September 19, 2020
The
last wish of Ruth Bader Ginsburg was to wait until after the election
to nominate her replacement to the Supreme Court of the United States
(SCOTUS). Of course, President Trump will not do that. He's already
said that, and Mitch McConnell agrees. With only 45 days until the
election, he will rush the nomination for one of the most important
positions in the country.
The Democrats have a way of unstacking
the deck. Federal law, not the Constitution, establishes the number of
justices on SCOTUS, which is currently nine.
“One
way for Democrats to make clear they will not tolerate Republicans
trying to fill this seat in advance of the election would be for them
to pledge that, if they take the White House and Senate in November,
they will increase the size of the Supreme Court to 13 justices.” - Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, for the Los Angeles Times
SCOTUS with 13 justices could make it more inclusive, to better represent the population of the United States.
Music Association: Stevie Nicks - Leather and Lace
#SCOTUS-13
Vote Minnesota!
September 18, 2020
It's here! It's finally here!
At 46 days away from November 3rd, early voting has started in Minnesota.*
Vote at your county office (if possible) or vote early by mail. Check the Minnesota Secretary of State's website for details or call 877-600-8683(VOTE) .
Music Association: Van Halen - Right Now* Also South Dakota, Virginia, & Wyoming
“Have you no sense of decency?”Trump Thief
September 9, 2020
Two articles recently have shed some light on President Trump's visit to France on the weekend of November 9-11, 2018.
On
Saturday, November 10th, Trump was scheduled to go to the Aisne-Marne
American Cemetery near Paris, but he didn't want to go for
fear his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he
did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to
four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a
conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled
visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.”
In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more
than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. A
retired four-star general said that Trump “can’t fathom the
idea of doing something for someone other than himself. He just thinks
that anyone who does anything when there’s no direct personal
gain to be had is a sucker. There’s no money in serving the
nation. Trump can’t imagine anyone else’s pain.” [The Atlantic]On
Sunday, November 11th, after spending the night at the official
residence of U.S. Ambassador Jamie McCourt, the palatial Hôtel de
Pontalba in Paris, Trump pointed his stubby little fingers at a Benjamin Franklin bust, a painting of
Franklin, and a set of silver-chrome figurines of Greek mythical characters, and
insisted the pieces come back with him to Washington. Ambassador
McCourt was startled but didn’t object. The artwork was loaded
onto Air Force One and brought back to the White House. The Greek figurines that caught Trump’s eye found a new home on the fireplace mantel in the Oval Office.
It gets worse.
The
figurines dated to the early 20th century and were made by Neapolitan
artist Luigi Avolio, who was trying to pass them off as sculptures from
the 16th or 17th centuries, according to London-based art dealer
Patricia Wengraf. Wengraf described the figurines as “20th century fakes of wannabe 17th century sculptures” and of little value.
White
House art curators told Trump that the Franklin bust was a replica and
the Franklin painting snagged from Paris was also a copy. The artist's name sounds like Duplicate. The original
was painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis in 1785 and held by the National Portrait
Gallery a mile from the White House. The original Duplessis was borrowed from the National Portrait Gallery and now hangs in the Oval Office, not the replica Trump ferried out of France. [Bloomberg News]
Music Associations: Santana - Evil Ways & Robbie Dupree - Steal AwayQuote Association: “Have you no sense of decency?” - Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy on June 9, 1954
There is nothing more temporary
than the new low
Donald Trump sinks to
every day.
Economic News
Trump Bankrupts AmericaSeptember 3, 2020
President Trump's continued bumbling of the Covid-19 pandemic has caused the United States deficit to skyrocket to $3.3 trillion or 98% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
Under
Trump, the United States is set to out-spend the entire U.S. economy.
Record government borrowing to cover deficit spending on presidential
golf games and trips to Florida has caused the debt to spiral out of
control to $20.6 trillion. The entire U.S. economy is only $20.3
trillion. [CBO report 56517]
Instead of managing the Covid-19 pandemic (with 187,000+ dead) or improving the U.S. economy, President Trump has been golfing, dismantling the Postal Service, and telling his voters in North Carolina to vote twice (voter fraud & a felony).
Music Association: Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
Chadwick Boseman
1976-2020
Economic NewsU.S. Consumer Confidence Falls To Lowest in 6 Years
August 27, 2020
U.S. consumer confidence fell
for the second consecutive month, sinking to the lowest levels in more
than six years as the Trump Administration's handling of the
Covid-19 pandemic heightened pessimism. The Conference Board reported Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Index declined to a reading of 84.8 in August, the lowest level since May 2014.
Because
consumer spending accounts for 70% of economic activity in the U.S., a
drop-off in confidence gets a lot of attention from economists.
About 25% of the 1,000 shopping malls in the U.S. are expected to close
in the next 3 to 5 years. That seems optimistic, just look at the list
of 2020 bankruptcies, including Lord & Taylor which closed today.
The list of retailers declaring bankruptcy in 2020 includes:
Ann Taylor, Justice, Loft, Lane Bryant (Ascena Retail) (filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 23 with more than $1 billion in liabilities)
Art Van (filed on March 8 with $100-500 million in liabilities)
Brooks Brothers (filed on July 8 with $500 million - 1 billion in liabilities)
California Pizza Kitchens (filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 30 with $500 million - 1 billion in liabilities)
Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica (Centric Brands) (filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 18 with $435 million in liabilities)
Chuck E. Cheese (CEC Entertainment) (filed for Chapter 11 protection on June 25 with $1.91 billion in liabilities as of Dec 29th)
GNC Holdings (filed on June 23 with more than $1 billion in liabilities)
Gordmans, Peebles (Stage Stores) (filed for Chapter 11 protection May 11 with $500 million - 1 billion in liabilities)
J. Crew (Chino Holdings) (filed for Chapter 11 protection May 4 with more than $1 billion in liabilities)
J.C. Penney's (filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 15 with more than $1 billion in liabilities)
Lord & Taylor, Jos. A. Banks, K & G Fashion, Men's Warehouse (Le Tote) (filed for Chapter 11 protection on August 2 with $100-500 million in liabilities) closed today
Lucky Brand denim (filed on July 3 with $100-500 million in liabilities)
Modell's Sporting Goods (filed for Chapter 11 protection on March 11 with $1-10 million in liabilities)
Neiman Marcus (filed on May 7 with more than $1 billion in liabilities)
New York & Co (RTW Retailwinds) (filed on July 13 with $100-500 million in liabilities)
NPC (1,227 Pizza Huts, 393 Wendy's) (filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 1 with $903 million in liabilities)
Paper Store (filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 14 with $50-100 million in liabilities)
Pier 1 Imports (filed for Chapter 11 protection on February 7 with $340.6 million in liabilities)
Sur la Table (filed for Chapter 11 protection on July 8 with $50-100 million in liabilities)
True Religion denim (filed on April 13 with $182 million in liabilities)
Tuesday Morning (filed for Chapter 11 protection on May 27 with $42 million in liabilities)
Meanwhile the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota is three months behind on its $1.4 billion mortgage.
Music Association: Semisonic - Closing Time
Voter Supression
Mail Sorting Machines Removed
August 12, 2020
About two weeks ago I warned of mail-slowdown tactics by Republican mega-donor and Trump's new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who has $30-$75 million invested in USPS competitors.
During the pandemic, voting by U.S. Mail (absentee ballot) is more important than ever before.
DeJoy has not just eliminated overtime hours. DeJoy has taken mail processing and mail sorting machines
out of postal facilities in Iowa, which has become a swing-state for
2020. (He's DeJoy, and he's DeLay.) We only know about the removal of
the machines because the Iowa Postal Workers Union complained to NPR. What other swing states have had their postal machines stolen?
When the Grinch stole the Christmas tree of Cindy Lou Who, he explained the crime by saying he was taking it in for repairs.
What's Trump's excuse?
Music Association: Marvelettes - Stop! Wait A Minute, Mr. Postman
In A Nutshell
Back To School
August 10, 2020What's the difference between closing the country then opening schools and opening without closing?
One is a nutshell.
The other is a nut's hell.
Another
thing that doesn't make any sense is sending teachers and students back
to school, expecting kids to behave in ways that no child has ever
behaved in the history of children.
Anyone
who thinks that every kid is not going to spit on their hand and chase
each other around shoving their hand in each other’s faces
yelling out “Covid! Covid!”... has clearly never been
around children. A kid goes to school with a Pikachu mask and
comes home with a Spiderman mask, after trading the Pikachu mask for a
Ninjago mask, which he traded for a Hulk mask, and finally settled on
Spidey on the bus ride home. Masks were used as headbands, blindfolds,
slingshots, and parachutes for action figures. And that's just the
first day.
Could state education departments work with PBS to broadcast educational programming like Massachusetts set up? Could educational TV be set up on a national level like Mexico is doing?
Not in this country with this president it couldn't.
This
president has spent the year barking that Covid-19 was a hoax or would
go away with warm weather or encouraging quackery cures or ridiculing
mask wearers, instead of providing actual leadership to fully close the
country and stop activity for a few weeks. Trump, the king of crybabies,
couldn't make the tough call. He still can't.
New Zealand could
fully close and then reopen because clearly they are smarter than us
and have national leadership. Covid-19 is dead to them. It's as if the
perfect vaccine had already been created and distributed to all New
Zealanders.
With about 165 candidate vaccines,
Covid-19 vaccine is right around the corner, just like the self-driving
car. But just like tomorrow's self-driving car, the vaccine will not be
perfect. It will not be a cure all. The range of common vaccines goes
from the one-time polio vaccine to annual flu shots. The Covid-19
vaccine is expected to be more like the flu shots and less like a polio shot. Not that New Zealand needed any shots at all.
New
Zealand teachers and students can go to school without repercussions,
because they had a national lockdown. New Zealand has gone 100 days without a new case of Covid-19.
Minneapolis
and St. Paul public schools will distance learn this fall. Minneapolis
Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari is calling for a national lockdown for up to six weeks to stop Covid-19, save lives, and save the economy.
Better late than never.
Music Association: Alice Cooper - School's Out
US GDP Drops 32.9%
July 31, 2020The U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell a record 32.9 percent in the second quarter of 2020, the worst quarterly contraction on record. By comparison, Europe's GDP fell 11.2% in the second quarter.
“The
decrease in real GDP reflected decreases in personal consumption
expenditures (PCE), exports, private inventory investment,
nonresidential fixed investment, residential fixed investment, and
state and local government spending that were partly offset by an
increase in federal government spending. Imports, which are a
subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased. The decrease in PCE
reflected decreases in services (led by health care) and goods (led by
clothing and footwear). The decrease in exports primarily reflected a
decrease in goods (led by capital goods). The decrease in private
inventory investment primarily reflected a decrease in retail (led by
motor vehicle dealers). The decrease in nonresidential fixed investment
primarily reflected a decrease in equipment (led by transportation
equipment), while the decrease in residential investment primarily
reflected a decrease in new single-family housing. Current‑dollar GDP
decreased 34.3 percent, or $2.15 trillion, in the second quarter to a
level of $19.41 trillion. In the first quarter, GDP decreased 3.4
percent, or $186.3 billion.” [source: Bureau of Economic Analysis]
Music Association: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Free Fallin'
George Floyd
Covid-19
Trump
Timeline (PDF)Voter
Suppression
Music
Videos
Landmine
Hopscotch
Superman
Impact
Investing
Holiday
Gifs of Cats and Kittens Part 1
Part 2
Part
3 Part
4 Part
5
Southdale
Hennepin Library,
Edina
Library 
Wonder
Woman
Food
Fraud
