A few thoughts as the Richard hacienda gets ready for Halloween. We’ve got three bags of candy (KitKats, Snickers, and Reeses) and we’re going to fire up two Tiki torches in the pots by the driveway. I’ll have Pink Floyd’s “Careful With That Axe, Eugene” and “Absolutely Curtains” playing, and we’ll see just how many ghouls and goblins we get!!

…if the neighborhood (and good taste) would allow it, I’d go without clothes to costume myself as one of former California congresswoman Katie Hill’s interns.

—-

In a battle of wits between President Trump and the New York Times the latter is deemed unarmed. Honestly, folks, what goes for “journalism’ these days is pretty pathetic.

Meet Eric Ciaramella, the so-called “Ukrainian whistleblower”. Of course, those of us who follow Greg Rubini’s Twitter account knew all about this two weeks ago. But I’m not picky who breaks it, as long as the news gets out. And it will.

—-

Just as I’ve been predicting. Funny how these things tend to start coming into focus, isn’t it?

Headline Tuesday: “Former Bill Clinton adviser: Only one thing is keeping Hillary out of the 2020 race“. Which as it turns out, would be Hillary replacing Joe Biden if the latter were to drop out of the race:

“My feeling is that she wants to,” Morris said. “But she’s hesitant because she realizes the timing is bad. She’s got to wait until Biden drops out because he’s obviously next in line for it, and if he goes away, there’s an opening for her.”

Headline Wednesday” “Joe Biden in Danger of Humiliating Loss in Iowa, Top Democrats Warn“. Talk about “Here’s your hat, why are you leaving?”:

Joe Biden risks a humiliating third- or fourth-place finish in Iowa early next year, according to nearly a dozen senior Democrats in the state who attribute the prospect to what they see as a poorly organized operation that has failed to engage with voters and party leaders.

With fewer than 100 days until the Feb. 3 caucuses, Biden is failing to spend the time with small groups of voters and party officials that Iowans expect and his campaign’s outreach has been largely ineffective, according to 11 senior Democrats in the state. That could send Biden to a crippling loss behind Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg, who have highly organized campaigns in Iowa, said the Democrats, most of whom requested anonymity to speak candidly about the campaign.

Look, it’s obvious what’s going on behind the scenes. Regardless of Barack Obama’s heralded status as a president, the fact is he was never a great Democratic fundraiser; he never promoted anything but himself. Alternatively, it’s the Clintons who remain the movers and shakers with the deep-pocket donors sitting on the sidelines just waiting for the word to come to the money-starved Democratic National Committee that help is on the way. So what you’re now seeing is Biden’s continued flaws and weaknesses as a candidate creating a gaping hole big enough for the Wicked With of Chappaqua to ride her broom through. I’ve already laid out the scenario for y’all, the only question is whether or not Biden makes it to Thanksgiving. I say not.

Prediction: watch for some crushing headlines in the next week or so further indicting Biden’s behavior with even more countries besides Ukraine, China, and Romania. Were I a conspiracy theorist, I’d almost believe that President Obama, knowing “Slo’ Joe”‘s predatory instincts for shaking down foreign countries to line both his pockets and those of his sons, gave him free reign, knowing it would all come back to bite him were he to run for president again. Hence, Obama’s reluctance to endorse his candidacy. Now Biden’s campaign – as predicted – is floundering, and where’s Barack? Nowhere to be found, that’s where. You have to give the Clintons credit – when it comes to politics, few – if any – have been as ruthless. If he wasn’t such a pathetic, senile clown one could almost feel sorry for “Slo’ Joe” – he actually believes he’s presidential material.

—–

I didn’t vote for Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema but I have to admit I’m pretty happy with her willingness to be her own person and not just blindly tow the Democratic Party line. How do I know she’s got the courage of her own convictions? Red State’s Bonchie observes that left-wing rag Politico isn’t happy with the Senator’s willingness to play nice with the opposition:

A politician who thinks for themselves is oddly refreshing, even if she’s a Democrat. Reportedly, Sinema and Ted Cruz are fairly close, working together on the Commerce Committee. She’s said to spend as much time with Republicans as Democrats. Of course, her voting record, while decidedly more conservative than every other Democrat (including voting for several Trump appointments), is still fairly liberal. Yet, the tact of shunning Washington elitism and seemingly only caring about things that affect her constituents is a lot closer to the original intent of the Senate than the nationalized monstrosity it’s become.

…Politico really doesn’t like that though. Sinema, for all her leans toward moderation, is still a liberal Democrat. That’s not enough these days. You’ve got to set your hair on fire and run around screaming about impeachment to really be part of the club. You also can’t be liked by Republicans at all.

I’m more than willing to cut the senator a break. For one thing, I don’t vote for robots – Democrat or Republican – and have no “litmus test” as to whom I’d vote for. The fact that Sinema is willing to take positions reflective of her constituents (Arizona, after all, being a red-to-purple state) shows both intelligence and guile. She’s also (at least as politicians go) a fox – not Katie Hill caliber, but a fox nevertheless – and the fact she’s not adverse to being her own self is just another reason to like her. She’ll never always – even perhaps often – vote my way, but I do respect the fact she appears to follow the same kind of independent track Arizonans in Washington have always been known for.

…and no, I’m not talking about “Maverick” John McCain – he we was nothing more than a attention-seeking fraud.

Happy Halloween, yall!

I know it has been a while, but click on the links and I’m sure you’ll agree the wait was worth it.

I know I’m sixty-four, but I’m not dead, right? So if disgraced Democratic congresswoman Katie Hill plans on running for election in, oh, say, 2022, and she’s looking for an intern, here’s letting her know The Great White Shank is at her service. 😉

Sure, not everyone likes President Trump, but everyone loves dogs, right? So I’m guessing the Belgian Malimois that helped take down and shake down sleaze-ball terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is gonna get a lot of attention over the next few days. Americans love heroes, and Americans love dogs. And check this video out – what a breed of dog!!

The Babylon Bee is best political satire site out there, bar none. In fact, with headlines like this one has a hard time believing it truly is satire.

See, this is how it’s done. God, my brother Mark would have loved to have watched this. And this. It has such a dreamy quality about it, and you can’t beat the drum fills (which was what Mark was all about)!

…and these guys do such a great job on the Floyd’s “Atom Hear Mother” (one of my all-time favorite pieces) that has to be watched to truly enjoy. I always found the original album – given the technology of the times – to be quite muddy, thus hiding the genius of the composition and vocal arrangements. With this video you can experience it all in great clarity; to watch the vocal performers handle the truly unique and difficult parts is something to behold.

What is it about liberals that want to suck the joy out of everything they hear about or come in touch with? To me, the return of the Tiki bar can only be a good thing, right? Hat tip to all you liberal snowflakes out there: it’s not “cultural appropriation”, it’s something y’all might have heard something about but never experienced it for yourselves: it’s called “having a good time.”

I had to laugh hearing the Democrats and their political operatives in the mainstream media complaining about neither Nancy Pelosi nor Adam Schiff being informed about the al-Baghdadi raid. Honestly, is there anyone out there who truly think these two raving, drooling Trump-haters wouldn’t have breathlessly leaked it to the mainstream media, thereby either putting our soldiers in harms way or causing the mission to be cancelled outright? After all, it’s happened before. What’s different today is that Donald Trump isn’t a fool, he know who the liars and leakers are. How do you think the raid was pulled off without a single leak?

…which is why I’ve always been of the opinion that a lot of what you hear printed in the Washington Post and New York Times quoting “White House officials” are nothing more than planted stories designed to identify the leakers. Donald Trump is playing 4D chess in a town filled with Chinese Checkers players.

How big a hurdle are Democrats facing with independent and centrist Democratic voters in 2020? This big.

Fifty years ago it was Abbey Road. Forty years ago it was Tusk. Truly great albums, (#s 7 and 4, respectively, on my all-time top ten list of greatest albums of all time.

I’m trying my best through my GOP and conservative channels to make the Party leadership realize that coming out strong against this kind of thing is so winner winner it’s chicken dinner. But it just goes to show you just how powerful the LGBTQ lobby is out there. For the life of me I just can’t understand where the feminists are when it comes to this; this is nothing more than perverse, f**ked-up biological males encroaching on women’s sports turf and – at least up to now – getting away with it.

…but it just goes to show the power of the LGBTQ lobby in the mainstream media when you have a situation such as this allowed to the point that it has. It’s more than obvious the mother has more than a few screws loose, so how a jury could not see this as anything but blatant child abuse is beyond me.

…to cop a phrase from one of my all-time fave Pink Floyd tunes. Between work, a mortgage refi, and just generally feeling mentally and physical worn down I needed a break. Not to worry, however – I’ll be back. Could be tomorrow, could be days, could be weeks. But I will be back. Nothing really has changed: President Trump continues to play the mainstream media and the liberal left like a piano, the Democrats continue to reveal themselves for the America-hating Socialists that they are, and the New England Patriots continue to be the envy of hundreds of thousands football fans here in the Valley of the Sun.

Stay tuned…

Not much else to say.

When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I’d been out till quarter to three
Would you lock the door
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?

You’ll be older too
And if you say the word
I could stay with you

I could be handy mending a fuse
When your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?

Every summer we can rent a cottage
In the Isle of Wight, if it’s not too dear
We shall scrimp and save
Grandchildren on your knee
Vera, Chuck, and Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line
Stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me your answer, fill in a form
Mine for evermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me
When I’m sixty-four?

The years have been flying by. Still find it hard to imagine myself growing this old. It’s been quite a year, emotionally and physically. I should be gearing back with an eye towards retirement, but I don’t think I’ve ever had a full year where I’ve worked this hard, and I’ll admit that I’m feeling pretty worn down and burned out. One of these days I’d like to have a few days off to recharge the batteries but with work the way it is and the pressure the way it us that ain’t coming soon.

It’s been an interesting last few months since July’s Goodboys weekend. Things that once interested me (my golf game, for example) now hold little interest to me, as does the whole idea of being a “Goodboy”. And after this year’s GB weekend I’m thinking that perhaps it might be time to kick back and let some younger whippersnapper with joy, passion, and vision take my place. Maybe it’s the whole anemia thing that has brought me up close and personal to the cancer patients at the MD Anderson Cancer Center that has changed me; it certainly reinforces my opinion that life is for the living, that every day ought to be lived like it’s your last, and the focus needs to be on truly what matters to you and what doesn’t.

Most recently I find that my dreams have changed; lots of work (I can’t get away from it) but also dreams of my departed mom and my brother Mark. I’m not sure what that means – they’ve never been in my dreams much, if ever. I’m tired, emotionally, physically, spiritually. Oh, I can focus alright when needed, but the energy comes in spurts but is expended almost as quickly as it appears. I find it harder to be able to concentrate through a whole day of work without my precious hour nap in the afternoon. I’ve started thinking about life after my current healthcare IT thing and can’t see myself ever working in an office ever again. I find myself longing to look inward and think inward, seeking some return to living a more spiritual life sans the emotional baggage that the whole decade involving the Church and the priesthood thing left behind a decade ago. Something’s calling me to something, but I’m not exactly sure what it is; rather than force it I’ll allow it to come to me in its own good time.

These are all heavy thoughts. Now that the clock has struck twelve, I’ll enjoy a Sam Adams Boston Lager on my back patio under happy pineapple lights. The evening is cool and pleasant, exactly why folks live in the Valley of the Sun.

It would be nice to spend the weekend doing outside chores but work has been especially brutal this week. So, rather than reorganizing my woodpile and getting started on painting and restaining my Tiki bar deck, much of the weekend will be spent indoors. In the meantime:

I must say I sure like Accuweather’s Winter forecast. Cooler and wetter in the Southwest ain’t gonna bother no one around these parts. Here’s hoping for massive snows in the Sierra Nevadas to fill up all those aquaducts and, most especially, Lake Mead.

Coming to a Democratic presidential nomination race near you:

Hillary Clinton loathes other people, but is incapable of existing without them. She can’t do what every other contender did and go away because she has nowhere to go. There’s a mansion in New York, but it has too many mirrors. And at night, she might start wandering and muttering, “Out, damned spot.”

And she won’t be talking about the neighbor’s dog who committed suicide in a local park.

Desperate and malicious, Hillary’s restless spirt wanders the nation and the world, haunting random supermarkets, gyms and colleges. To paraphrase her inspiration, Karl, a specter is wandering D.C. That’s where Hillary showed up to George Washington U to claim that she only lost Wisconsin because of Republican voter suppression. It had nothing to do with her failure to campaign in Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, only 300 people turned out to hear her latest set of pathetic excuses and lies.

“I was the first person who ran for president in more than 50 years without the protection of the Voting Rights Act,” she whined.

The Voting Rights Act had been put into place to stop Democrat voter suppression in segregated states in 1965. Not to protect Hillary. It had nothing to do with why a rich white Democrat lost Wisconsin.

If there is a more repulsive, despicable, liar walking on the face of this earth I have yet to see it. Were she my wife, not only would I cheat on her, I’d find the most ugly, vile woman I could find, bed her, and then brag to the world that she’s the girl I’m cheating with. Call Hillary the “B’ word. Call her the “C” word. It doesn’t do either of these words poetic justice.

…speaking of Hillary, it’s all working out as predicted. Once you have the kind of left-wing mouthpiece that Politico is publishing this kind out thing it’s only time before Biden is finished. Combined with Bernie Sanders’ sudden health issue, funny how these things work out, isn’t it, Hillary?

Personally, I can’t wait for The Trump Network.

Can you imagine something like “Blazing Saddles” being made today? No way, and that’s a sad thing. If there’s one thing our culture has lost in the onslaught of liberalism it’s the ability to laugh at ourselves. It’s no wonder liberals are so miserable!

Joe Biden looks like the very definition of “Dead Man Walking”. He’s done like dinner, and I think even his campaign knows it.

If you’re stupid enough to allow a beer vendor to charge you $724 for beers, maybe you’re the ones that ought to be arrested – for stupidity!. That’s why I ALWAYS Request a receipt, no matter where I am and what its for. Of course, we’re talking about Miami Dolphins fans, so what can you expect?

This is what’s called going on the offensive. I guarantee this will be looked back on as the week the GOP came out swinging, and it’s a lock Democrats weren’t prepared for it. I suppose when you have virtually the entire mainstream media as your mouthpiece you can get lulled into thinking you can spew whatever lies you want, but there comes a point where even the mainstream media can’t swallow Adam Schiff’s repeated lies.

…and it’s about time the GOP started treating the Democrats with the same disdain the Democrats hold for them; one can only hope that Republicans running for Congress and the Senate in 2020 will follow suit.

Meanwhile, while Democrats flog the same poor mule called impeachment, President Trump continues to look after this country’s interests. Not to mention, a rockin’ economy. It’s no wonder the Democrats are only focused on impeachment!

Did you see this video? Thirty seconds into it, about where she says the world only has “a few months left”, I knew AOC and her audience was being punk’d. Turns out it was someone affiliated with the Lyndon LaRouche PAC. I do have to give her credit for an amazingly realistic bit of agitprop. Someone hire her – she’s a great actress!

…The fact that anyone (and I include many of my fellow conservatives in this) could actually think this person was serious shows you just how crazy the loony left has become. Not to mention the fact that, oh BTW, AOC was actually treating this person as someone serious ought to tell you just how serious AOC should be taken as a spokesperson for liberals everywhere. She’s still damned cute, tho, and she looks great in black.

Went to the Australian Pink Floyd Show down the street in Chandler last weekend and it was fantastic. Could have been a bit longer with a few more “deep tracks”, but if you’re a Pink Floyd fan and you get a chance to see it, by all means do. They opened with “Obscured by Clouds” (a personal favorite) and it seems they used this live performance as their inspiration. It was totally awesome.

If this is what goes for political punditry in Washington these days I have swamp land in Florida to sell you. The sad truth is, there are a small cadre of “Never Trumpers” who the mainstream media uses under a byline of so-called “Republican consultants” purely to further their own anti-Trump agenda. I’ll tell y’all plain: anyone who thinks for a minute Mitt Romney has any kind of support within the Republican Party is deluding themselves. And Romney is a vile, whiny numb-nutted elitist who, to this very day, I can’t believe I pulled a lever for. I should have voted for Barack Obama – at least with him I knew what I was getting! These so-called “political pundits” are beyond clueless.

This movie sounds positively fascinating. Can’t wait to see it.

Nope, not only have I not even thought of picking my golf clubs up again, I haven’t watched a minute of PGA TOUR golf yet this year.