Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

There is a particular feature of a particular shopping center in the beautiful, historic center of Prague which I have always detested. I have always detested it doubly because all of their advertising brochures (which I often do the proofreading for) brag about how they have gone to great lengths to preserve the historic beauty of the site, which essentially means “we did the bare legal minimum.” There are a couple of places, as you walk around the mall, that you will see some bits of ancient stone structure under plexiglass, and there’s one very pleasant fountain made out of 18th or 19th century horse troughs, but then there’s this one feature: a huge plastic panel, blocking the view of the top floors of the building, and featuring the logos of many of the shops within. It is the exact opposite of quaint and historical and it totally dominates the square where the building is. Even if it were a billboard beside the freeway, people driving by would say “That is a particularly large and obnoxious billboard, isn’t it” but in the center of Prague it was a flat out insult to the eyes.
And now it’s gone. My wife (who has some inside knowledge, or at least ready access to the rumor mill) says it’s gone permanently and I hope she’s right.
But here’s the funny thing. I was standing right in front of the building and didn’t even notice it was gone until she told me. Sort of like how you have an itch and then it goes away, you aren’t saying “I’m glad that itch went away,” you just forget all about it. Or when you have a song in your head that just won’t go away, and then it’s gone, you don’t start thinking “Oh, I’m glad I haven’t thought of that song for a while” because if you did, as soon as you did, it would be back.
Presence is noted more than absence. Just the way our brains work, I guess. In any event, I’m glad it’s gone.

Build Back Better is no better a slogan than Ridin’ With Biden or No Malarkey. None of them actually mean anything, and all are easily mockable. With Build Back Better, that could be rendered meaningless the first time Melania Trump says Build Back Best, because according to those on that side, Best is even better than Better, and none of their people are looking for specifics so there you have it.
It’s not going to attract any progressives because it’s right there in the name, we want progress, we want to go forward, we don’t want to go back at all.

I can’t really say my man Howie Hawkins is doing any better, even though he has so much more to work with. H’20, i.e. Hawkins 2020 but scrunched up so it’s similar to the chemical notation for water, says nothing at all and reminds old people with long memories of Barry Goldwater (Au H2O) in 1964, and look how that worked out.
For Hawkins, I think he should go with “Save the Planet -Vote Hawkins” or “Vote for Hawkins and Medicare for All” or “Hawkins/Walker – Smash the Two Party System” or “Vote Green – the only party that doesn’t suck.” You know, a slogan that actually says something.

Really, I don’t know. The information is sketchy. But according to more than one source, some really strange shit is going down in Portland, Oregon. And by strange, I mean fascist, or authoritarian at least.

Apparently, people in military apparel (cops? or actual troops?) are going around in unmarked vans and arresting people en masse, without any provocation or charges.
One person said they were taken to a federal building, where he was released after demanding a lawyer and asking to actually know what he was being charged with.
Oregon governor Kate Brown has identified the men as federal law enforcement officers and she tweeted “This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety. The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.” She went on to say that they should leave Portland.”
I doubt the federal government will give a shit, though.
This is very, very bad.

Sometimes when I am looking for something to write a blog about, I just scroll through Facebook and say I’ll write a blog about the first news item that everybody in the world hasn’t already written a blog about.
I just tried to do that but it didn’t work out so well. My entire feed is talk about either the American election, which isn’t until November and is a done deal anyway, as well as the most embarrassing clash in American history. No matter who wins, the American people for the next 4 years will have a right wing, pathologically dishonest, mentally incompetent old man with severe personal space issues as a president. Or, Covid-19, and all the comments are about how stupid people who refuse to wear a mask are.
Nobody’s talking about space exploration.
Nobody’s talking about AI.
Nobody’s talking about the therapeutic properties of LSD.
Nobody’s talking about the cool trips they are taking to exotic destinations because nobody’s doing that right now.
I’m seeing far fewer pictures of food (maybe that’s over now, and maybe that’s a good thing) and cats, and babies.

Because there is just so, so much ugly shit going on in the world. I wish I had more reason for optimism, but it does look as if things are going to get worse before they get better.

I guess the guy who owns Goya Foods is a big Trump supporter and donor and whatnot, as a certain variety of extremely rich people sometimes are, and so people are boycotting Goya foods, because’s Trump’s a dick.
So, Ivanka Trump poses holding a can of Goya black beans. And she gets plenty of flack for that because, despite the original boycott, it’s kind of unseemly for the president’s daughter to be using her position, and her name, to advertise a product for a private company. It would seem to be using her office (she does have some position in government, I don’t know what it is) for personal gain, which is one of the definitions of corruption.
The Goya guy is a multimillionaire, I’m sure he can get through this without her help.
So, anyway, Ivanka gets owned by AOC, and plenty of other people, on Twitter, so Daddy has to jump into the fray, posting a photo (from the oval office? Appears to be so) with a whole bunch of Goya products spread out on his desk, sitting behind it with a big old thumbs up sign.
He’s using his office (literally) to advertise the product of a company whose boss is giving him money.
And nobody’s going to do a damn thing because congress is filled with losers and sycophants.