What you don't see while you're watching 24/7 Trump news

The New York Times had a story the other day about how the Reverend Al Sharpton and Donny J are the best of "frenemies."

Of course they are! Both of them have always been ruthless publicity hounds more than willing to butter one another's bread for mutual advantage. They have a lot in common!



Photos like this wouldn't have raised an eyebrow before Trump declared his candidacy for the 2016 election.

Then Trump won that election. Then he became a racist. Then he introduced lying to US politics. What a disaster!

It's been a godsend for American media of course. They quickly made the man they suddenly love to hate, after thirty years of obsequious slobbering over him, the number one news story all day every day. He's been a ratings bonanza for them.

American mainstream media obsessively focus on largely irrelevant "outrages" perpetrated by the liar in chief. So he called Baltimore a "rat-infested dump?" Cue a thousand hysterical op-eds denouncing his egregious racism!

That is neither news nor racism. Plenty of folks have made the same observation before Trump. But while nothingburger stories like that hog the headlines, what are you missing?

How many hysterical op-eds did you see when Trump made Jerusalem the home of the US embassy?

How many hysterical op-eds did you see when Trump gave the Golan to Israel?

How many hysterical op-eds did you see when Trump gave himself and his billionaire buddies (the same crew who own that mainstream media we're talking about) the biggest tax break in history?

How many hysterical op-eds have you seen about America's military budget going up by almost 50% since Trump was elected?

Next to none, I'll wager.


Wake up America! Your "free press" buries the important stuff while burying you under an onslaught of fear-mongering bullshit.

Picnic with Junior

Took old Boomer, age 98 in dog years, down to the city for lunch with Junior.

Junior is still in his twenties, and he just logged four years working in the same joint, a milepost I didn't hit till I was well into my forties.

Junior recently broke his elbow.

He broke his elbow because one night a couple weeks ago, when he got seriously fucked up on pot and beer, he ran out of cigarettes at three in the morning.

So he decided to skateboard the twelve blocks to the nearest all-night variety store.

He hadn't skateboarded since the last time he broke his elbow, and he was never much good at skateboarding to begin with.

That's my boy!


He knew enough not to take the car.


***

After driving around aimlessly for ten minutes, discussing possible lunch venues, we settled on having a take-out picnic by the Speed River, mainly on account of not wanting to leave Boomer in the car.

We settled on a KFC picnic. The gal at KFC was young and pretty. She was also an airhead. It wasn't till we unpacked our lunch that we realized Young and Pretty had packed us macaroni salad instead of potato salad, and had forgotten to provide those single-use plastic utensils that are destroying the planet while simultaneously being absolutely essential to eating either macaroni or potato salad.


It's a messed up world...

But I'm happy to report that Junior seems to be on top of it.

Great Lakes Rising

Seems to me the water in this part of the Great Lakes Basin has come up about two feet since last year. That's in my mind's eye, so perhaps it's the last two or three years...

If and when it comes up another two feet, and whether that takes one year or two or three, once it's up another couple of feet we'll be having some problems in these parts.

Right now, the parking lot at the Wiarton waterfront park is already starting to flood. For the first time in my recollection the breakwater has been blocked off because it's partially submerged.

Water is also beginning to encroach on the parking lot at the marina. If the water came up another two feet, the marina will be toast.

As will the waterfront park, and what they call "the flats" in Wiarton, which is about half the houses in the town.

In Owen Sound, the Pottawatomi River has come up enough that the walkway behind the Kelso Villa retirement home is partially flooded. If the Pottawatomi were to come up two more feet, the residents of Kelso Villa would have to relocate, although most of the town would be alright. There are no "flats" in Owen Sound.


Oddly enough, this isn't something you hear much about in the local media.

Did Putin get to Mueller too?

After Robert Mueller and his team spent over two years examining how Putin put Trump in the White House, many found his appearance before the House committees something of a disappointment, to say the least.

Mueller didn't seem particularly well-acquainted with the report he'd compiled. In fact, the man came across as something of a dimbulb.

What went wrong?

Fear, my friends... FEAR!

The dramatic assassination attempt on Sergei Skripal, coming as it did smack-dab in the middle of the Mueller Inquiry, was a warning to all who would cross Putin. Skripal was lucky that his UK hosts were able to save his life, and is no doubt grateful to be held in protective isolation ever since.

But the damage was done. From that moment on, Mueller lived in fear that his doorknob might be next. He faced a stark choice; bury the truth, or possibly face an attempted poisoning and protective isolation himself. Sadly, he selfishly put his own well-being before the interests of the nation.


What America needs now is an Inquiry into the Mueller Inquiry, to really get to the bottom of things...

Is Chrystia Freeland Justin Trudeau's brain?

Whatever else you might say about Chrystia, she is a person who sticks by her convictions. I guess you could call that, from a certain perspective, "integrity".

Whereas Justin always came across as a not-too-bright trust fund kid whose heart was in the right place. His universe was pretty much confined to a school-teacher's routine complimented by dinner parties and reefer after work. Nice enough guy, but perhaps not quite Alpha enough to be a real leader.

He doesn't come across as a guy who had any particular convictions on anything. Sure, he can toss out the vacuous bromides with the best of them, but it's not "conviction" in the sense Chrystia has convictions.

Justin had a liability that others, perhaps a little more savvy than he, thought they might leverage into an asset, given the right strategy. He had the Trudeau name.


And here we are...

Zelensky, Nazis, Chrystia Freeland, and our "free press"

Yves Engler is a Canadian journalist who you'll never read in the mainstream for the same reason you'll never read me there; he's about more than regurgitating the official establishment narrative.

This story caught my eye this morning. It's now official; Chrystia and Justin have been up Trump's ass from the get-go. That's something I've been saying from the get-go. They work really hard to convince the public otherwise, but the facts are the facts; the constant Russia-baiting, the support for fascist elements in Ukraine, the me-too toadying every time Trump issues another round of sanctions against some country that is reluctant to play lap-dog to Empire, the "leadership" role in America's regime change obsession with Venezuela...

Lloyd Axworthy is one of those establishment ciphers who is shuffled into a fresh sinecure whenever he gets bored with the last one. He's a regular election-observer in Ukraine, leading a Canadian delegation to make sure everything is on the up and up and Putin isn't doing any hanky-panky with Ukraine's democracy. (US hanky-panky, on the other hand, as revealed in the infamous Nuland-Pyatt tape, is never a problem!)

Lloyd reported that the recent Zelensky election appeared to meet Canadian standards, but he expressed surprise that the extreme right Canada has coddled didn't win any seats, whereas a number of Russia-friendly parties did very well!

Well, Lloyd, no need to scratch your head over that! Here's another article from someone you won't find in the pages of the Globe and Mail;  Zelensky's dilemma. That writer and that article strike me as vastly better-informed than anything I've ever read on the subject in our "free press."


Which I suppose is the reason our leaders are so keen on silencing alternative media.

Did baby crap her nappy?

Thank God they've come up with an app that will answer that question! No longer does the over-worked parent have to move in for the sniff test. Instead, they can continue to obsessively focus on their phone and ignore their child, until the screen itself informs them that a diaper change is due.

Unfortunately, this tech breakthrough comes too late to be of any use to me. My diaper-changing days were done long before smart-phones were invented.

Then again, perhaps this innovation will benefit me going forward, as I barrel towards my second childhood. The PSWs (Professional Shit Wipers) at Gateway Manor will get instant notifications on their phones every time I shit myself.

I can see it now...

Scene in staff lounge at Gateway Manor Nursing Home. Two PSWs enjoy a break while staring into their phones.

PSW A: Aw, for f@cks sakes, Neumann shit himself again!

PSW B: Again? What's that, the third time this shift?

PSW A: At least! Guess we'd better go and fix the old bastard up.

PSW B: Nah... let him sit in it; he won't know the difference. We'll get to him the next time the app goes off.


Who says there's no such thing as progress?