I didn’t actually watch last night’s debate between President Trump and “Slo’ Joe” Biden live, nor have I yet to watch it in its entirety. Perhaps if there were another moderator assigned I might have warmed up to the idea, but I despise Chis Wallace and his phony-ass elitism. I admired his dad Mike even though I knew he had a liberal bent, but he was at least genuine. His son is a fraud, a pea-wit masquerading as some intellectual giant. He’s an intellectual gnat, a joke.

I don’t waste my time watching jokers anymore.

As a result, I can’t say who I think won or lost the date based on the substance of anything that went on, but being a fairly savvy watcher of all things politics, I can tell by the mainstream media’s collective wisdom that Biden illustrating he can handle a ninety-minute debate with Trump’s relentless aggressiveness put the debate’s results in Biden’s favor couldn’t be further from the truth. I say this knowing full well that by Saturday you can expect to be inundated with polls showing a big move towards Biden as a result of Tuesday’s debate.

Don’t believe it. It’s all bullshit.

My view is that anyone at this point who allows a presidential debate to swing them towards voting for or against a particular candidate ought not to be voting to begin with. I see all those polls out there with so-called “undecideds”; are there really any true undecideds out there who by this time need a presidential debate to make them fill out a ballot or show up at an election precinct on November 3?

No.

Politics in 2020, perhaps more than any other election year is about motivating your base. Any politician preaching a message to undecideds at this time is wasting their time and resources. Doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican; were I advising your campaign I’d be preaching a message towards motivating one’s base. And that goes for all the down-ballot races.

Which is why I didn’t need to actually see the debate to know that Trump did what he needed to do, and that Biden didn’t do what he needed to do. One look at the headlines in the mainstream media tells you everything you need to know. Trump pushed and pushed hard at Biden – something his base expected him to do. Biden survived, something his base needed him to do, but in doing so he revealed himself to be nothing much more than a shill for himself.

I could count just from the highlights I watched at least five shots the Biden candidacy absorbed that reflects poorly on his candidacy: (1) his statement that Antifa was an idea, not an organization; (2) his excuse for not calling an end to the violence in Portland and other cities because “he wasn’t in elected office”; (3) his inability to respond when Trump asked him to name one law enforcement endorsement; (4) Trump pushing Hunter Biden’s acceptance of money from the wife of Moscow’s mayor; (5) his disavowing support for his Party’s “Green New Deal”.

I honestly don’t care about the concerns of some that President Trump was too aggressive in the debate and that he needs to back off on Biden in the debates going forward. In fact, I think he needs to push Biden even more forcefully, most especially on the Biden family’s corruption in the Ukraine and his views on China. Biden cannot take a punch anymore, and Trump needs to exploit that fact going forward. Which I can guarantee you he will.

Of course, Trump can’t go all negative: he’s got a record to run on and needs to exploit his role as protector of the American worker against Biden’s role as protector of the Washington swamp.

In a base election – which is what this election is going to be – that is a winning formula for Trump. Which is why I didn’t need to watch the debate to know that he won.

Our long national nightmare is over. I was puttering around the house this afternoon when all of a sudden the thought came into my head, “I ought to go hit some golf balls.” So I put my sneakers on, threw the clubs in the trunk, and headed out to the Kokopelli G.C. driving range. It had been a looooong time since I’d been out there. The COVID-19 shutdown hadn’t hit yet. I was still employed in IT. I was still a Goodboy. The idea of being a pool supply guy for the summer was as far from reality as “Slo’ Joe Biden’s mental acuity.

The signs of fall – and I mean, like fall were everywhere as I lugged my clubs to a spot on the vacant driving range. I’ll grant her this: Jill Biden’s campaign rally in Nebraska attracted more voters in Nebraska than folks I saw while at the driving range:

The sun, while still hot, had a lower than usual angle to it, which made it difficult to see where my shots were going. The lush green green winter rye I remembered from March had long gone brown, then replaced with Bermuda, and now the Bermuda was all brown, awaiting the winter rye treatment. So go the seasons. The only difference from March was that I paid for my large bucket with a mask on.

The range was quiet; just me and the sounds of mourning doves and geese by the pond adjacent to the #9 green. The usual 70s music I remembered from the last time was still playing over the clubhouse patio. I poured the bucket on the ground, grabbed my 5-iron, took a practice swing, and proceeded to stripe one straight down the middle. Easy peasy Japan-ese. So my brain still remembered the swing thoughts I was working on six months ago. Simplify. Stay on top of the ball. 3/4 swing. Compress the ball and take a divot.

The rest of the bucket was hit or miss (more hits than misses) but the only important thing was that I was back out there. After the bucket I did a little short game work and some putting, and I walked back to the car with a sense of real peace. There was no pressure: I just wanted to hit some balls on late summer afternoon. I might try to squeeze in another bucket before I go out and play nine holes at “The Koke”.

It has been a good day. I figured out the last remaining problems with the new laptop: the 100% disk utilization and Windows Media Player hanging after twenty minutes or so. Turns out, uninstalling the McAfee security software that came with the machine (I prefer Malwarebytes) and tweaking some settings with WMP seemed to do the trick. I found some beautiful stargazer lillies for Tracey (our anniversary is Monday), and, hot and sweaty after hitting balls, enjoyed a refreshing dip in our 80-degree pool before making myself a Hemingway daiquiri. I mean, how much better can life get? If there is one thing I am learning in these days of early retirement is enjoy everything for what it brings. Because once you’re eligible for Medicare things ain’t necessarily going to get any better. As Jim Morrison once sang, “the future’s uncertain and the end is always near.”

I think this picture captures the 2020 presidential race in just about the starkest terms possible:

Tuesday night is the first presidential debate. Will “Slo’ Joe” show? In the immortal Frank Zappa’s words, “I figure the odds be 50/50.”

If you truly want to see the difference between Democrats and Republicans in this year’s presidential cycle, look no further than this fine Don Surber article. In addition to contrasting loons who go beserk over Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s death, there is this money quote:

And as the headline says, Trump supporters are having all the fun. They get to hold rallies. They get to see their candidate belittle the media. They get to enjoy watching Wile E. Coyote Democrats blow themselves up again and again. I truly believe now that all Acme Products are made in Red China.

…Biden supporters aren’t having fun because they don’t exist. If they existed, he would have won in Iowa and New Hampshire instead of finishing fourth.

…Oh, there will be people who vote for Biden. Millions of them. But they are voting against President Donald John Trump, not for anyone. They have no candidate, and that is not fun because they have no team really. So in their anger, they tear up cities, they tear up campaign signs, and they tear up their own cars.

I think this is right.

Finally, after much testing I have perfected the Pusser’s Painkiller, finely tuned for The Great White Shank’s (and your) discerning tastebuds. Here’s the recipe:

1. Mix 1 oz of pineapple juice, 1/2 oz. orange juice, and 1 tbsp of Cream of Coconut together until smooth.
2. Add 2 oz. Pusser’s British Navy Rum into shaker 3/4 filled with ice.
3. Add fruit juice mixture to shaker and shake vigorously.
4. Pour into a whiskey glass. Add twist of lime and a dash of nutmeg.
5. Enjoy!

Phew! It took nearly a week, but I finally have the new laptop converted over and using all our other technology properly. The hardest thing was having it recognize our Thinkvision monitor – it took a $25 adaptor and three hours of futzing around with various cords and cables, but I finally got it done. I’m still struggling with getting my Microsoft / Google accounts working correctly. That’s a morass I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy! I’ve also been diligently working on my LinkedIn profile in case I decide to tip my toes back in the IT industry. I’m still not sure I want to go there, but you still have to do the “due diligence”. One of these days I’m actually going to try out retirement. 🙂

A few other thoughts while waiting to see what happens over the next few days. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think 2020 is done with its bombshell events.

Election year dos and don’ts:

this is how you DO political ads in the 2020 cycle.

…on the other hand, this is how you DON’T express your hatred for President Trump and his supporters. In the case of the latter, John Lennon got it just about right.

Maybe it’s just me, but I watch Joe Biden here, and Nancy Pelosi and Jerry Nadler here, and I can’t help ask Democrats how they could have let this happen to their once-great party. Frankly, you deserve it.

…of course it didn’t need to be this way. One of my “go to” Twitter accounts is Carlos Osweda. Here he writes about Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. Frankly – and I’m writing this as an avowed Trump supporter – had the Democrats nominated Gabbard instead of “Slo’ Joe” Biden, she’d be a virtual shoo-in as President. Not necessarily because of her policies (which are fairly progressive and globalist), but because she’s relatively young, very photogenic (The Great White Shank’s term for “hot”), and athletic (she surfs!), her perceived centrist route would have brought in many disaffected Democrats and women who will not pull a handle for a decrepit, senile creepy old geezer. Of course, her criticism of the Democrats’ nomination process and the stranglehold the Clintons and the Washington swamp had on it doomed her candidacy.

the bradfordfile is right: Breonna Taylor would be alive if her boyfriend didn’t shoot at police. But yeah, blame last night’s riot and the two police shootings on the cops. That’ll work.

…you go back all the way to Ferguson and the same theme holds true: obeying police instructions works both ways – it prevents a situation where either party might overreact and cause a tragedy.. Following instructions protects you as much as it does them. I don’t really have any sympathy for those who choose to push the police’s buttons. If there’s injustice involved you can always sue. All lives matter.

Anna James Ziegler is absolutely right when she writes:

Almost every political moment of the last four years can be explained by the fact that they never, ever thought Hillary would lose. They remain in shock, lashing out like spoiled kids who cannot believe they were told, “No.”

Regardless of what some in the media – and others – will try their best to portray them as, these are not right-wing protestors. And I wouldn’t even call them protestors – they’re nothing but bullies and thugs, storm-troopers for the Marxist, anti-fascist agenda that the Democrats and their political operatives in the mainstream media wholeheartedly support. If “Slo’ Joe” is elected expect the 2020s equivalent of what Winston Churchill called an “iron curtain” to descend upon this country and its institutions.

…don’t believe me? It’s already happening; here and here are just two examples. We are losing America by the day. If this is what you want the country to look like, by all means vote for a dementia-addled, once formidable used-car salesman grifter.

Today’s the last full day of summer. And what a summer it was! I never would have ever – like, ever – imagined spending a summer doing pool supply retail work. But the summer’s over, and with it my pool supply gig. In fact, this week is the first seek since early May I’m not scheduled for any hours. It feels great. Strange, but great.

Not that I mind – I have this depressing image in my mind of what it would be like come, say, the second week of December, the clouds gray and thick overhead, a cool spitting rain outside, and me sitting on the counter of the pool supply place waiting for a customer to come in, my only company being the dumb music they play overhead. Because that’s the way it is around here in the deep off-season according to my store manager: you can get whole days where you might see two customers all day. That to me would be a complete waste of valuable time simply in order to make minimum wage dough-re-mi.

Don’t get me wrong: if it were something I had to do in order to put bread on the table and a roof over my head I’d do and do it willingly. But the fact is, I don’t. Technically, I’m still employed as a pool supply guy, but my time going forward will be only to cover if the manager or the assistant want to take some vacation time. How bad-ass is the pool supply business? You can’t take any vacation whatsoever between May and mid-September. Imagine that? So if the guys need me to work a weekend or a few days during a week so they can enjoy some vacation I’ll gladly fill in for them. They deserve it. But that will be about it going forward. They’ve already asked me to come back to work next May on the same schedule I had this year, but it’s not really something I want to do. As I’ve said before: this gig was the right thing to do at the right time. I’m glad I did it, but enough is enough.

Besides, I’ve got enough to keep me busy for the next couple of weeks. We just bought a new laptop to replace the one presently running on fumes. And that’s a lot of work getting everything swapped over. And with the weather not quite as hot as it has been I’ve started taking daily bike rides around the neighborhood. I may be in shape for the pool supply gig, but I’m not in bike riding shape! Lifting tubs of chlorine tabs doesn’t get you in shape for bike riding, so I’m going to enjoy getting myself in shape that way. And I am dragging the golf clubs out of quarantine this Friday as an official first step to reducing my handicap six strokes (from 26 to 20) by the time the heat comes back in next year.

I’ve also got a LinkedIn profile I need to get up to date to see what kind of nibbles there might be out there from a IT gig perspective. I’m still not sure I want to go back to it: some days I feel ready to dip my toes back in, other days I start feeling all PTSD-y about it. We’ll see: I’ll do all the “due diligence” and see where it goes from there.

There’s something sadly sweet and sentimental about the end of summer, but here in the Valley of the Sun – and most especially this year – we’ve still got plenty of warm weather before (and if) the heat gods choose to “swip the flitch” and set our weather to “Arizona winter”. That would be nice.

Summer’s gone.

‘Nuthin’ else you need to know. When I first heard this song I was a moron who hadn’t quite grasped the early style of Jeff Lynne and ELO; but hearing it recently all I could think was, “Hey, that’s a Jeff Lynne production. It’s cool to think that Lynne would go on to the Traveling Woodburys and The Beatles. In my mind he’s right up there with Phil Spector as far as putting an indelible imprint on one’s production techniques.

Been a while since I heard this song, but it never ceases to amaze. Co-produced by George and Phil Spector. Phil’s footprints are all over this song with a bit of “Wall of Sound” here and there (especially the way the rhythm simmers starting at 2:45).

Truth is that George Harrison was the very first artist to turn his musicianship into social activism, long before charlatans who would employ efforts like the “Live Aid” and “We Are The World” bullshit as a means to make million-dollar stars feel good about themselves. George was real, and he never expected anyone to elevate him to be anything but.

A great rock and roll performance by Burton Cummings (one of the all-time great rock vocalists) and Randy Bachman. This is just a great balls-out, tits out rock and roll performance that the young pimple-faced, cellar-dwelling morons would have no clue as to what it’s all about, yeh?

PERIOD.

Still one of the greatest performances of American pop music. Ranks right up there with anything George Gershwin created. One can’t help but wonder how pop music history would have been changed had SMiLE been released between The Beatles’ Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, as originally intended.

There’s little question SMiLE was ahead of its time, but sometimes that’s just the way things go. Unfortunately, Mike Love pushed back hard, and Brian wasn’t strong enough (and, truthfully, didn’t have his brothers’ support) to see SMiLE through.

Take 45 minutes of your time to hear an American original that will still be talked about hundreds of years from now.

Seriously.

Start at 12:45 and 37:00 and you’ll be amazed. It’s that good – and original. Brian called it “Mrs. O’Leary’s Cow”. It’s exhilarating and frightening all at the same time. Of course he was on drugs at the time, but then who wasn’t? It still defies description.

But the truth always comes out, doesn’t it?

R.I.P. Ruth Bader Ginsberg. While we were on entirely different sides of the aisle politically, I respected her; she was true to her beliefs and expressed them with passion and conviction. And, she was an inspiration to many women and cancer survivors. May she rest in peace.

Did I not predict something like this? I wasn’t bold enough at the time to predict someone’s death (and I never would do this, anyways) but I had a feeling something like this was going to happen. After all, it wasn’t as if 2020 wasn’t chaotic enough, right?

Let the freak-out begin. A few thoughts:

1. There’s no way Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lets this opportunity to replace RBG’s seat on the court slide. Indeed, he’s already said there will be hearings and a Senate vote. After all, the Republicans have the Senate and the White House, and when there is a vacancy on the Court, regardless of the circumstances involved, the White House and the Senate have an obligation to fill that vacancy in a timely fashion.

2. Normally – at least as far as the Founders were concerned – this should not be that big a deal. After all, they perceived the Supreme Court and the Judicial Branch as co-equals to the Executive Branch and the Legislative Branch (do they even teach Civics in school anymore?), so the prospect of replacing a Supreme Court judge would be seen by them as a normal part of the branch upon which it occupies. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has turned our judicial system into an activist branch of the Party’s agenda and ultimate goals. So now all hell is going to break loose.

3. The fact that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s first tweet following her death contained no condolences tells you everything you need to know. These people (and by that I mean Democrats in Washington) have no compassion, no soul, no humanity. They see everything in terms of politics. They are nothing but walking, living death and evil. Schumer and “San Fran Nan” Pelosi are despicable human beings, so you can expect them to use Ginsberg’s death as a way to gin up the heretofore invisible support for “Slo’ Joe” Biden’s candidacy. I like to say it won’t work, but the election is now a crapshoot.

4. In reality, this is all RBG’s fault. The liberal left were literally begging her to retire during the last year of the Obama administration and step aside so President Obama could select someone younger and just as (or even more so) politically progressive. I have it on pretty good word that it was Hillary Clinton (shocking!) who encouraged RBG to stay on out of the supreme confidence Clinton had that she would be elected President. As I understand it, RBG would then shortly thereafter announce her retirement, thus allowing HRC to choose yet another woman and one equally (if not more so) politically inclined. Talk about hubris!

5. When Donald J. Trump was elected, there was little RBG could do but try and hang on as long as she could in the hope that Trump would be a one-term president. She was fighter and hung on as long as she could, and I respect her greatly for that. But there’s something also sad about it: I can’t help but wonder what pressure RBG was under by those whose sad and pathetic lives revolve only around Washington politics. I just hope she had some time to enjoy her last days on earth and take time to smell the roses before she passed.

6. So now all hell is going to break loose. And I believe that to be the case, literally. Expect the liberal and progressive left to turn its afterburners outage to maximum
and do everything it can to intimidate McConnell and Republican senators, and use the mainstream media to make them cower to their demands. You thought the Kavanaugh hearings were bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Expect marches in the streets and renewed violence as a weapon of intimidation.

7. I wish I could tell you how it will all go and ultimately fall out, but this is a wrench into whatever machine the White House, McConnell, the pollsters, and senators on both sides of the aisle could ever have imagined. The election is now basically in free-fall, and it will take days – if not weeks – to see how this all fleshes out.

8. Keep a close eye on how all sitting senators decide to handle this. I already see AZ’s Martha McSally come out in favor of pushing forward with a judicial nomination. I think that’s smart: this will definitely be a factor in her race against Mark Kelly, and we’ll now see if the GOP has enough power in Arizona to pull her over the finish line along with Donald Trump. I think this also helps challengers like John James in Michigan. On the other hand, incumbents like Susan Collins in Maine and Cory Gardner in Colorado are really going to get squeezed politically.

9. For folks thinking it would be politically better for President Trump to hold off a judicial nomination because it’s so close to a presidential election, keep in mind the Democrats have publicly already stated they will do whatever it takes from a judicial point of view to win this election for “Slo’ Joe” Biden. The President, therefore, anticipating the need for Supreme Court rulings related to voting and vote counting, would be doing himself a great disservice were he not to follow though on nominating a replacement for RBG to ensure a full court has the opportunity to rule on election practices if needed.

10. Strap yourselves in, folks, if you thought 2020 was already a bumpy ride y’all ain’t seen nothing yet!

Now this is the kind of thing I’m talking about!

Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ

Wouldn’t it be nice if this was a message we all could agree to?