From “America’s New Paper of Record”. Let it be said right up front: Joe Biden is a joke. He has always been a joke, an empty suit. For the life of me I never understood why Barack Obama chose him as his running mate back in 2008; he could have chosen a myriad of other Washington swamp pols with extensive foreign policy experience to bolster the gravitas of his presidential ambitions, but he chose Biden. Why? I’m tempted to say that Obama knew that his choice of Biden was because he knew the guy was a doofus and wouldn’t get in his way, in any way. Like window dressing, ya know?

At any rate I always say Joe Biden as the worst example of some car salesman emploring you to buy the under-treatment for only an extra $2K that he’ll throw in for free. And then when you balk, he’ll say, “C’mon man, how can I save you money if you don’t buy this car?” The guy’s a joke, always has been, and not only that, he’s a damned racist joke. How does anyone who’s not a racist come up with bullshit like this:

“What you all know, but most people don’t know. Unlike the African American community, with notable exceptions, the Latino community is incredibly diverse community with incredibly different attitudes about different things,” Biden said. “You go to Florida you find a very different attitude about immigration in certain places than you do when you’re in Arizona. So it’s a very different, a very diverse community.”

Can you imagine the uproar had President Trump uttered words like this? The fact is, Biden is a joke. He’s always been a joke. And now he’s a bad joke on the Democratic Party. Were I a Bernie Sanders supporter it would piss me off to no end to think that this clown, this empty suit, was allowed to take the Democratic nomination because the Washington power base saw its position imperiled by a Sanders candidacy. Biden was the so-called “safe” choice. And that “safe” choice is going to send the Democrats down to their worst defeat since Mike Dukakis. And they deserve it.

This monsoon season is starting to look like a “non” soon season. We’ve had a little more than 1/10 inch of rain in one minor event, and now the weather folks are saying the likelihood of no monsoon activity is pretty good through the end of the month. Which leaves us with only September to try and make up for rain we should have had by now. It’s just dry dry dry.

Here are a couple of predictions for you:

(1) I don’t see “Slo’ Joe” Biden picking Barack Obama’s national security advisor Susan Rice as his VP choice. Not only (In my view) would that make him look weak (after all, Biden is supposed to be a foreign policy “expert” with all his years in the Washington swamp), but it would also send the signal that Biden isn’t his own man and that, if elected, his presidency will be executed in the shadow of Barack Obama’s legacy. Personally, I think Biden is too proud for that to be allowed to happen. Which is why I think he’s ultimately going to go with California senator Kamala Harris.

(2) Mark it down that sometime around the end of September Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg announces her retirement. She’s already been having well-publicized health issues with the return of her cancer, but the Biden campaign is going to need a jolt delivered to its base to turn out for the November 3 election. Think about it: what else does Biden have to run on? Sure, he’s been wooing progressives by surrounding himself with the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and “Beto” O’Rourke as his advisors on climate and guns, respectively, but he knows he’s going to need more than that to energize the Democratic base to come out. What better way than to focus the election on the Supreme Court and the issue of abortion rights for women? Ginsberg knows that. Biden knows that. So mark it down as a Great White Shank prediction you can take to the bank.

…one thing’s for certain: Biden’s campaign is going to need a jolt of something, especially after the week he’s had. He’s always been an empty suit, but the clearly racist comments he made (and still hasn’t really explained) has made him look like a senile old coot. I thought “creepy old geezer” wasn’t a good look for him, but “racist senile old coot” is going to be a harder image to dodge.

It’s good to see President Trump back on the offensive against Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi. While like (I’m guessing) most conservatives we’d rather not see the President have to resort to executive actions that invoke measures traditionally reserved for Congress, the fact is that: (1) the Democrats have shown little desire to work with the President on anything that doesn’t serve their own political needs, and (2) the Democrats have only Chief Justice John Roberts to blame for upholding Barack Obama’s EO on the DACA issues as law.

…I’m not exactly sure what Roberts was thinking about when he made that decision, but there’s little doubt that in doing so the Court opened wide the door for further EOs – good or bad – by presidents who, for whatever reason, didn’t want to work with Congress on certain issues. It was a lousy Supreme Court decision, but Trump is using both that and Democrat insistance on expanding COVID-19 taxpayer relief to include for such non-starters as universal mail-in voting and “blue state” bail outs as a way to get what he wants.

…and if the Democrats want to sue to have the President’s EOs on payroll tax, eviction, and student loan debt payment relief overturned, more power to them. Not that they care about anything except maintaining their own power – after all, Pelosi’s Congressional district is a shithole and she could care less.

Had to laugh at Senator Chuck Schumer’s pathetic call for schools to reopen. All I could think is that Chuckles (1) has looked at the polls and is seeing just how devastating the polling is for the Democrats, or (2) he wants the schools to open hoping that the COVID-19 virus emerges big-time just in time for the November 3rd election to make President Trump look bad. You know damned well he’s not doing it out of some noble sense of wanting what’s best for thie country. He’s a joke, and ought to be treated as such.

And speaking of clueless Democrats, you’ve got to hand it to Democrat governors like Minnesota’s Tim Walz for sheer chutzpah: he allowed the Minneapolis riots to get out of hand as a result of his own incompetence, now he wants the federal government (a.k.a. U.S. taxpayers) to foot the bill for fixing the destruction wrought that that incompetence. Hey, Governor Walz, I’ve got two words for you, and they ain’t “Mickey Mouse”.

…and speaking of shitholes, how pathetic is it to see New York Governor Andrew “COVID-19 Killer” Cuomo begging people to come back to his state so they can be taxed relentlessly and beaten down relentlessly by Cuomo’s corrupt and incompetent government. No one in their right mind would hang around New York (and most especially New York City) the way Cuomo and “Comrade” Bill deBlasio are running things. Those who want to live in these “blue” states also have to take responsibility for how they are run. You want to live in places like New York, Massachusetts, Washington, and Oregon? Fine. But don’t expect me to help bail you out because smart folks are realizing they’re no longer desirable places to live and raise families.

“Retired. What the hell’s retired mean? …It doesn’t mean ya don’t do nothing. It means ya relax, rest up until there’s something to be done. Then ya do it. Then ya go back to resting.” — Bert “The Shirt” d’Ambrososia, One Strange Date by Laurence Shames

If you haven’t read Shames’ series of Key West Capers starting with Florida Straits you’re missing a good read and laugh during “these uncertain times”. Bert “The Shirt” is one of the recurring characters and his entrance always brings a smile.

…as does whenever I have a morning before having to play “pool guy” and join Dilbert creator Scott Adams for his daily Periscope TV chat, complete with the “simultaneous sip” where everyone is encouraged to join in for a sip of your favorite morning beverage. I may not always agree with his perspective, but he has interesting, common sense views on things and you’re cheating yourself if you don’t at least give it one try to see how you might like it.

This week was the last week of serious hours and days for “pool guy”. Starting next week I’m down to just spot duty of approx. 12 hours over three days and (yeah!) no more Sundays. Sure makes Saturday nights a whole lot more relaxing. I’m looking forward to the rest of August and September as much–deserved “down” time until I decide what my next steps are (if any) are going to be. I am starting to think about taking my clubs out of quarantine. It will be soon, but not yet.

The same holds true for my watching of professional golf (or any professional sport, for that matter) on TV. I guess the PGA is taking place this weekend. Is it the only major that will be played this year? I don’t know and, frankly, I don’t care. Perhaps when I pick up the game again I might take a look but it sure won’t be the same as it once was. 2020 has changed just about everything as far as I’m concerned.

…that won’t be the case for the Red Sox, however. As a result of their support for the Marxist Black Lives Matter clowns they are now and forever dead to me. I don’t support organizations whose only goal is to destroy this country (don’t believe me? Check out their website – which I refuse to link to here). The Red Sox support for BLM means they either support BLM’s goals, or (probably) they’re a bunch of fu**ing pussies afraid of today’s cancel culture. BLM is nothing but racist, hateful, evil vermin. No more, no less. And I refuse to support anything and anyone who supports it.

At the pool store we’re still continuing to see lots of new arrivals here in Arizona from places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Washington, and California who have bought houses with pools and need help in learning how to manage and maintain them. The real estate market around here has never been hotter; still, these are folks who (obviously) make good money and have chosen to take their taxpaying and spending capabilities to a place like Arizona where, even with our own governor’s incompetence with dealing with the COVID-19 bullshit (which has never been nearly as bad as the media has made it out to be), we’re a heckuva lot more responsible in terms of government overreach and how competently things are run.

This is a quickie post – too much “pool boy” work this week. But everyone’s talking about that incredible explosion in Beirut, Lebanon today so I thought I’d let y’all in on which I have been following as to what really happened there. Powerline blog has the conventional view with contribution from as supplied by The Times of Israel.

For a less-conventional view, the great Carlos Osweda is absolutely the go-to Twitter account for stuff like this. If you don’t believe me just have a look. There’s at least circumstantial evidence that this explosion was caused by a DEW (direct energy weapon) employed to destroy Iranian missile capabilities as employed by the likes of Hezbollah against Israel. Now, there is no way the Israelis would ever explicitly acknowledge an attack like this; it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the Saudis were involved with the help of Israeli intelligence.

The cool thing about DEWs is that the energy from the weapons (at least as I understand Osweda’s thread) is that the energy is deployed within, as opposed to without. Therefore, while the blast you are seeing reminds one of atomic tests performed in the Nevada desert and the South Pacific in the ’50s and ’60s, those blasts sent the energy outward while the Beirut blast was primarily upward, reducing the number of deaths and impact on the surrounding neighborhoods. When all is said and done, what looks like the kind of explosion that would (at least theoretically) kill thousands of people will probably only result in a lot of property damage and a death count far less.

These are very strange and interesting times we live in. I highly recommend following Osweda’s Twitter account – you may not agree with everything you find there, but I guarantee you’ll find it interesting.

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.