Thoughts before I head into the gauntlet of the last great week of pool supply retailing in terms of hours and commitment. One of the guys is on vacation so I’ll be picking up the slack by working the next six days. But after this here’s hoping my hours and level of commitment start (to quote Paul Simon) slip sliding away.

You want to talk courage in this day and age? Look no further than Jonathan Isaac of the Orlando Magic. As David Hookstead tweets:

Orlando Magic player Jonathan Isaac stood alone for the national anthem.

This is what courage looks like. When the rest of the NBA took a knee, Isaac stood with pride for America.

Sometimes, when you stand for what is right, you must stand alone.

Amen.

Even though the Amazon review are pretty awful, I think I’m going to pick up Richard Caillat’s book “Get Tusked” about the recording of Fleetwood Mac’s iconic album. It’s #4 on my list of all-time list of great albums, and I hear something new every time I listen to it. Was the work primarily the result of Lindsay Buckingham’s insufferable ego Probably. But it wouldn’t have been realized with out it, and one cannot discard the fact that the rest of the band worked hard to follow Buckingham’s vision that Tusk not become a “Rumours II” effort. That would have been the easy thing to do, and it’s one of the reasons I hold Buckingham, ego and all, in such high artistic regard.

Speaking of over-inflated egos, is there anyone more insufferable than former President Barack Obama? Watching his over-the-top and incredibly divisive political speech at Congressman John Lewis’ funeral on Thursday, I was struck by how much Obama has become a caricature of himself. The same bullshit rhetoric backed by the same insufferable “I know better than y’all” kind of folksy mannerisms and tone. The guy is, and has always been, a bullshit artist of the highest magnitude. More than Bill Clinton could ever dream of being. And Democrats just eat up his bullshit.

…of course, one can argue that President Trump is as equally a match for Obama when it comes to peddling bullshit, but there is one significant difference: Trump promotes the unity of “America First” and its ideals while promoting himself, whereas Obama promotes himself while hawking over-heated rhetoric and what divides, rather than unites, us as a nation. He should be ashamed of himself, but that’s far beyond someone of his lowlife character.

…the fact is, Barack Obama had the greatest opportunity anyone at any point in the history of this world had ever been given to bring this country together once and for all, yet his ego and his radical upbringing simply wouldn’t allow for it. At the end of eight years, his presidency had not only done little for African-Americans and inner cities, he squandered the potential people saw in him as a a truly transformative figure while, in fact, making racial relations worse as a result. And I despise him for it.

OK, I’ve been more than willing to go along with the whole mask-wearing thing all while knowing the science of wearing masks to mitigate the impact of the COVID–19 virus is, at best, dubious. But I will never – and I do mean NEVER – wear goggles as a COVID-19 preventative. These people think we’re all a bunch of f**king morons, and perhaps they’re right.

…make no kistake about it: I will draw a very hard line against wearing goggles, and I think that would be the breaking point for a lot of Americans. Speaking on my behalf and my behalf only, I didn’t spend nearly $4K back in 1999 to eliminate the need to (and the stigma of) eyeglasses to then start wearing them because some fraud bureaucrat who hasn’t been right about anything tells me to. I’d go to jail and pay fines first, and you can take that to the f**king bank. F**k Fauci. The guy is an absolute clown.

Column of the week goes to the inestimable Kurt Schlichter, who writes the following:

You watch the freakish Rep. Jerry Nadler mouth off to AG William Barr about how those poor, hug-giving rioters of love in Portland are being cruelly provoked by that federal courthouse that racistly refuses to be burned down, and your mind generates several questions. The first is whether he somehow forgot that we’ve actually seen pictures of those enthusiastic Biden supporters destroying property and attacking cops. The next question is how someone as lumpy as The Nad ever managed to pull off his escape from Willie Wonka’s factory. Maybe he hid in a dumpster of garbage and it worked because no one noticed him nestled inside, perfectly camouflaged.

…Truth exists, and we can see it thanks to alternative outlets and social media. And we still think lying is a bad thing, though our opponents disagree. To the left, truth is just a bourgeois conceit, something to be discarded as necessary in the struggle against horrible things like racism, sexism, transphobia, colonialization, and Democrats not being in power. It’s optional. And the left is opting out.

…And another thing – while we are already woke, lots of people who don’t dog paddle through the political cesspool every day like many of us do are watching this unfold and they are getting angry. How many folks have you talked to who were apolitical or even Democrat-curious who now whisper to you that we have got to reelect the president? I had one just yesterday, and I’m in Ted Lieu’s district. Think of how much more prevalent that phenomenon is out in America.

…Let the garbage cities burn. Let the idiots who voted for chaos enjoy it. If they refuse to learn the easy way, let them learn the hard way. Pain is a better teacher than a million man-bunned TAs instructing Goucher College sophomores about 14th Century transgender poetry of Eritrea.

…And another thing – while we are already woke, lots of people who don’t dog paddle through the political cesspool every day like many of us do are watching this unfold and they are getting angry. How many folks have you talked to who were apolitical or even Democrat-curious who now whisper to you that we have got to reelect the president? I had one just yesterday, and I’m in Ted Lieu’s district. Think of how much more prevalent that phenomenon is out in America.

Anecdotally, I had someone come in on Wednesday for a water test. He was wearing a Bernie Sanders T-shirt. We got to small talking, and I asked him in a joking manner, “so how’s that T-shirt working out for ya?” He leans in closely, says to me, “F**k Biden, I’m voting Trump.” I don’t think he’s alone.