Thoughts and Advice

Us sentient humans who are paying attention to what's happening in the world around us are STRESSED right now. We're near the limit of our ability to withstand the insanity and pressure. Amirite or amirite? You know I am. The storm's only gonna get more intense so we all need to find ways to lower our tension levels so's we can continue to fight and make it to the other side.

How? A few ideas.

Somatic Exercises
'the fuck is that? Slow movements focusing on bodily sensations to release tension, improve awareness, and connect mind and body. Examples include yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, gentle stretching, and conscious breathing.

Check out the Somatic Self Care page at Johns Hopkins Medicine. There are Somatic shorts, which are five minute sessions, as well as full practice sessions which are ~15 minutes per exercise.

Water
For some of us (*cough* ME!) water is healing and calming. Swim in it – do laps at the Y or just float in a corner of the pool. Walk along the seawall, stroll down the riverwalk, follow the path by the stream. Listen to the waves lap the shore. 

Tetris                                                                               
I’ve seen a lot of people recommending Tetris as a stress reliever. It’s apparently a video game.

…differently shaped blocks drop at varying speeds, and, as the blocks descend, the player must rotate and arrange them to create an uninterrupted horizontal row on the screen. When the player forms one or more solid rows, the completed rows disappear. The goal of the game is to prevent the blocks from stacking up to the top of the screen for as long as possible. (source) 

I’m not a video game person but, hey, do what distracts and chills you out.

Bird Feeders
You don’t need to be Christian Cooper  to enjoy watching our modern-day dino friends. Just set up a bird feeder, stock it and try to keep the squirrels at bay.

Smoke a bone.

Keep a diary where you’re as silly, as angry, as childish, as condescending as you wanna be. Doodle dicks and boobs and cats faces. No one’s gonna see it but you. Indulge yourself. Get out your frustrations and anger. Be as immature as you wanna be. If you think it'll be incriminating, burn or bury it when you're done.

Cry, grieve, and get back up again. 

See a therapist. 
Not all of them are wicked expensive. Some, like lawyers, have sliding scale fees. Don’t want to ask your friends or your PCP for help in finding a therapist? Don’t know where to start? Maybe try Betterhelp.com.

Take a long, hot, steamy bath bubble bath. 
Keep adding in more hot water. Don’t get out until you’re completely raisined. If you have hearing, put soothing music on—Eno’s Another Green World, David Byrne’s The Forest, Ravel’s Bolero, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. Go full metal Enya.
~~~
I found some great info on dealing with tear gas from Stephanie Snow, a nurse practitioner posting on Threads:

1) Get out of the area 
• Move upwind if possible
• Get to open air, higher ground 
Avoid the canisters and enclosed space

2) Don’t touch your face 
• Rubbing spreads the irritant 
• Makes eye and skin symptoms worse

3) Flush your eyes ASAP 
• Use copious amounts of cool water or saline 
• Blink repeatedly while flushing 
• Continue for 15–20 minutes 
Use more water than you think you need. The goal is dilution.

4) Breathe slow and stay upright 
• Lean slightly forward 
• Slow, controlled breath

5) Contacts out 
• Remove immediately 
• Do not reuse

6) Skip the “fixes” 
❌ Milk 
❌ Oils 
❌ Vinegar 
❌ Baby wipes 
❌ Soap in the eyes
There is no magic solution. Time + flushing works. 

7) Get medical help NOW if: 
• Wheezing, chest tightness, or trouble breathing 
• History of asthma, COPD, or heart disease 
• Severe eye pain or vision changes 
• Symptoms worsen after leaving the area

8) After you’re safe: 
• Remove outer clothing if possible 
• Shower with mild soap 
• Let water run over you, don’t scrub 
• Wash clothes separately

9) If you’re asthmatic, a well-fitted respirator or gas mask can significantly reduce lung irritation but make sure it’s something you can breathe through comfortably. Pair it with eye protection and always have your inhaler handy. 

10) Treat tear gas like a chemical exposure, not a minor inconvenience. Save this info so you don’t have to remember it when you're exhausted, in pain, and covered in gross gunk.

Be prepared. Take care of yourselves. We're in for nasty weather. 

Random Thoughts

It’s Monday and I’m not quite sure all my brain’s cylinders are fully functioning this morning. It’s COLD outside, dammit!

Found on Threads:

Most advanced telescopes use mirrors so we really have no way of knowing how many vampires there are in space.

This is important people! 
~~~
I’ve mentioned that Jen, Oni, and I have been watching (and LOVING) The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. We’re at the point where she’s opening for Shy Baldwin in Las Vegas. The year is 1960.

Baldwin’s character was inspired by real life crooners like Harry Belafonte, Johnny Mathis, and Nat King Cole. 

In the show, there’s no sign of the racism that existed and exists in real life. 

As Sammy Davis Jr. once recalled, "In Vegas for 20 minutes, our skin had no color. Then the second we stepped off the stage, we were colored again...the other acts could gamble or sit in the lounge and have a drink, but we had to leave through the kitchen with the garbage.” (source) 

It was on March 25, 1960 that the Moulin Rouge Agreement was signed. Jim Crow restrictions were lifted. Black people were allowed to gamble, stay in Las Vegas resorts, and attend shows. Broad change did NOT happen overnight but change began.

Mrs. Maisel and Shy Baldwin are playing Vegas that year. Were they at an enlightened casino – one that didn’t need to be integrated by law, by force? Were Shy and his crew housed at the casino’s hotel along with the white performers or did they have to stay in boarding houses on the west (Black) side of town as Sammy Davis Jr. did (until Frank Sinatra stepped in and threatened)?

I’d like to know.
~~~
I *think* that, because I’m watching Mrs. Maisel, so many odd memories from my childhood – fashions, clothes, cars, prejudices, names, places – are coming into my mind. 

Fer instance:

Pia Zadora. Who the fuck was she? I googled. Incredibly (to me), she’s only a few years older than me and still alive. Apparently she was an horrific actress, winning multiple Razzies for Worst Actress and NYTimes film critic Vincent Canby’s pronouncement that her performances are "spectacularly inept.” Also, she was a decidedly failed chanteuse. I don’t recall ANY of her movies. Santa Claus Conquers the Martians? Butterfly? Voyage of the Rock Aliens? Her music? Sorry, no fucking memories at all.

It seems her first husband was quite wealthy and much older. The second was a low level director. The third, near the end of her laughable career’s death, was/is a cop.

Her Wikipedia page reads like a broadly drawn caricature of every aspiring fame chaser with far more ambition and vanity than talent or self-awareness. WHY is her name cluttering up my mind? 

Then there’s Joey Heatherton, a low level actress, singer, dancer, and supposed sex symbol (for what audience???). I can’t say I’ve seen any of the teevee shows or movies she’s listed as being in. Not to sound elitist or anything but, somehow, I managed to miss The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington and Love, American Style.

I seem to recall her doing commercials for mattresses back in the early ‘70s though. At the time I wondered WHO is this and how does her name boost mattress sales? 

I didn't know this then but she’s FIVE years younger than Grace Slick. She came off, to me anyway, as though she was from the previous generation. Like, she should've been appearing alongside Dean Martin, Perry Como, and Doris Day.

Wikipedia tells me that she was married to some football star who was into flashing his peen to 10-year-olds. Guess he was a Republican. She divorced him. 

In any case, the site tells me she hasn’t done anything, film-wise, since 1990 when she was 46. Heatherton, unlike her career is still alive. Good for her.

Not everyone can be Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michelle Yeoh, Alfre Woodard or Viola Davis. Ya know?

Don't Be A Zombie

Desensitization
A decrease in emotional responsiveness to a negative or aversive stimulus, such as reduced empathy for victims of violence and other forms of abuse, due to repeated exposure.

He’s throwing SO MUCH shit at us constantly in the hope that we become numb, so that we stop caring and/or are so desensitized that we’re no longer able to respond. 

This is a tactic. If they overwhelm us, we’ll be unable to fight back or resist in any meaningful way.

This administration and its backers, like Musk, Thiel, and The Heritage Foundation, to name a few, want us to be compliant zombies.

Briefly and just off the top of my head he’s:

• Threatened world war because Denmark wouldn’t give him Greenland with a nice pink bow. Lied, saying The U.S. needs Greenland for defense reasons when it was all about wanting their inaccessible rare minerals.

• Bombed more than 36 Venezuelan fishing boats, killing more than 126 people, lied that they were drug boats headed for the U.S. Then invaded the country, kidnapped their president (and his wife), saying he was a narco-terrorist. Meanwhile, the whole charade, all the deaths, all the U.S. taxpayer buckos spent on military actions were because Pedo wanted to get his mitts on Venezuela’s oil that, oopsie, the big oil company’s aren’t actually interested in. Oh and all the money from the sale of Venezuela’s oil? Yeah, that goes into a special bank account in Qatar. Sounds legit, right? This was never about drugs.

• How about the Soviet style $45 million birthday parade that Stinky threw for himself and slept through?  

• The pants shitting maniac had the East Wing of the White House demolished without he required congressional authorization or full approval from federal planning commissions. Why? He wanted a giant-ass ugly ballroom – 90,000-square-feet of gold painted filigree and crap. For comparison’s sake, an American football field is 57,600-square-feet. The Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC measures 35,000-square-feet and holds 2,000 people.

• He had a personal private army formed. It’s made up of the January 6th insurrectionists, white nationalists, pardoned criminals, people too stupid, violent, and out of control to become cops, join the military or become security guards at their local mall. Their job? Domestic terrorism – ethnic and political cleansing. With them Prez Pedo wages war on Blue cities and states like Los Angeles, Chicago, Minnesota, Portland, Maine, and more.

• MINNEAPOLIS and all the Trump sanctioned murders!

• And, of course, the Epstein/Trump files. Though 3.5 million new, horrifying pages (including more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images) were released on Friday, apparently that’s not all of it. Prez Pedo’s personal AG, Bleach Bondi, is withholding roughly 50% of the files while claiming to have fully complied with the law. 

• Pedo wants to build a big, beautiful memorial arch to himself. 

How next will Pedo, his private army, and faithful henchman – the Republican Party, take a sledge hammer to democracy, liberty, the Constitution, our rights as citizens and humans on this fucking planet?  

If we are to survive, if we are going to get to the other side of this mondo shitstorm, we canNOT become desensitized. How is that possible though?

Pick causes to focus your energy on. Don’t spread yourself across the whole board. If you do, you’ll become overwhelmed, overloaded and crash. Probably. Unless you’re Superhuman. I’m sure as fuck not.

Actively manage your news consumption by setting a strict time limit (e.g., 60 minutes per day). Stop when the time’s up and focus on other shit like reading a book, watching a movie, baking, crafting, painting, making music, going for a walk, photography, bowling, playing with your cat, whatever. I'm bad at this – it's a goal I'm after though.

Feeling emotionally numb? Stop. Rest. Pet a cat. Volunteer and/or donate. Go work at a shelter (people and/or animal). Spend time with folks in nursing homes. Don’t like people? You’re socially awkward (like me)? Volunteer to run errands or clean.  

Look for positive stories too. It’s not all doom out there.

Really.

Though still severely endangered, researchers have spotted 21 North Atlantic right whale calves off the Southeast U.S. coast and this encouraging.  

Electric vehicles (EVs) are outselling gas cars in Europe for the first time. Yeah, it’ll be a LOT longer before that happens over here but, it WILL happen. 

Three big U.S. offshore wind farm projects are back under construction after Prez Asshole ordered them stopped. Federal judges cockblocked his little mushroom.

SEE? There IS some good news.

I Need an Attack Grizzly Bear

I know the comparison has been made before but, Bezos’ new wife looks like some untalented waxworks tech tried to create a female version of Stephen Tyler but got blind drunk on Mad Dog 2020 first. The wax “artist” ended up with a twisted anime/Aerosmith porn mashup. OOPS!

By the by, Tyler is 77 and, for all his sins, still looks good. Sanchez is 55. They appear to be close to the same age. I don't think her Mar-a-Lago look is gonna age well. Call it a hunch.

I may be thinking about this too much. I blame the weather. I’ve been stuck inside for too long. Plus, I need to raid Trader Joe’s snack aisle. Seriously. I’m way overdue for a Trader Joe’s run.
~~~
“Border Czar” and 50 grand bribe taker Tom Homan, AKA Ham Face Homan, says Border Patrol agents are “living in fear.”

Good. They should be.

Oh, I was I supposed to feel some level of sympathy for sadistic, savage, raging fuckos who get their jollies by executing fellow humans for NO fucking reason? I guess I missed that memo. 

This dumb fuck who looks like Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson’s love child is all hotand bothered to play big, tough WAR GUY in charge. That act was laughable on that teacup, cosplay nazi Bovino and it’s equally so on Ham Face. I’m sure Teacup and Noem can recommend tailors so Ham can get just the right outfit for his, assuredly, brief stage time.
~~~
The Guardian has a brilliant review up of Bezos’s gift to Prez Pedo. Here’s a snippet: 

No doubt there is a great documentary to be made about Melania Knauss, the ambitious model from out of Slovenia who married a New York real-estate mogul and then found herself cast in the role of a latter-day Eva Braun, but the horrific Melania emphatically isn’t it. It’s one of those rare, unicorn films that doesn’t have a single redeeming quality. I’m not even sure it qualifies as a documentary, exactly, so much as an elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, horribly overpriced and ice-cold to the touch and proffered like a medieval tribute to placate the greedy king on his throne.

The reviewer starts out trying to be generously kind but it's unsustainable. Of course. Really, you MUST read the whole piece. There’s no paywall and the writer is a Michelangelo of takedown.

Someone on threads gave a short movie review:
…like the Real Housewives without the depth or wit. 

Having seen neither, I’m unequipped to judge. Oh well.

Another person said that they can’t believe Trump had to release the Epstein files to cover up the bomb of Melania. OOF!

The, now wholly inaptly named, Justice Department released a total of 3 million pages of files on Epstein and Trump’s horrifically sick, vile acts of sadistic depravity on the movie’s American opening day. 

Honestly, the files are far worse than what I’d anticipated and I’ve only seen bits and pieces so far. I mean, this is sick, serial killer level shit. The only difference is that Epstein, Trump, and the rest of these barbarians are wealthy – obscenely so. 

Walt Handelsman

A brief thought on one bit:

The part about Epstein, on stage in front of an audience, checking the captive, trafficked children’s vaginal tightness with his fingers? Then Trump auctioned off the 13-year-old children to men in the audience? Elon Musk was in attendance. Beavis, Butthead, and Ivanka Trump were there too.

Christ almighty. These people, all of them, deserve to be not-at-all-carefully disassembled by a hacksaw wielding 13-year-old who’s feeling just a wee bit cranky. No, there will be no anesthesia or sedatives for these most disgusting, evil pervs. Maybe the early adolescent with the very sharp, spiky hand tool will have a nice eight foot tall, 700 pound, growly grizzly bear behind them. You know, just in case any of the malefactors have an urge to bolt.

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. 
~ Albert Einstein

Definitely the evildoers will make and have made a big-ass dent in humanity's demise. It's up to us to stop them. Do something. Resist and fight in whatever way you're able. FIGHT!

I Have Big Thoughts and Questions

There’s a for reals Craig’s List posting up for free tickets to the First Hooker's documentary with the added bonus of, supposedly, 50 smackarinos if you manage to make it through the whole heavily filtered snooze-fest. Naturally, I have thoughts and questions.

• Given Pedo’s infamous history of stiffing workers, contractors and such, WHY would anyone be stupid enough to believe that check’s ever gonna come?

• How would he know if you split early? Are viewers expected to submit the movie equivalent of a book report afterwards as proof?
• That he’s paying people to go to her movie is more than a bit rich. This from the asshole who’s always saying that protesters are getting checks from Soros. This from the same fool who, infamously, paid people to show up to his rallies. No Stinky, we protest against you for free. Hell, we take time away from our paying gigs to register our massive discontent and rage with you and your vile regime, gratis.
• The only possible upside to the free tickets is that it’s winter. It’s fucking cold out and we’re due for another storm on Sunday. This could be a good way to keep unhoused people warm and dry for a few hours. There will be bathrooms. Maybe folks can get sink baths. I bet they could sleep through a few showings and nobody would notice.

Given that I’m deaf and could just read a book (on my tablet) during the flick, why wouldn’t I go after an easy 50 clams?

Despite all the surgeries, I do still have more than half a brain (really!). I know those dead presidents will never materialize AND even if they did, there’d, doubtless, be a zillion strings attached. When you sign up for those “free” tickets, what kind of info are they expecting you to hand over? (mother’s maiden name, your date and place of birth, first car, first pet name, recent pic, the last nine digits of your social security number?) NOTHING is free in Trumpville.

I only mention it BUT the tickets are free but he’s not covering concession stand purchases? No surprise but WHAT a cheap ass motherfucker. C’mon man, what’s a fuckin’ movie without a bucket of popcorn?! Also, the fuck I’m gonna throw at the screen when I’m pissed off? Tell me!

The final reason I won’t take advantage of this "AMAZING" offer? Even if KKKarolyin’ Lievitt herself personally handed me the $50 as I walked out the cineplex door, that ain’t nowhere near enough dough to get me to sully my eyeballs with toxic Trumpian sewage. You’d need to add at least a few zeros to that number, give me the moolah in small unmarked bills IN ADVANCE, and that large bucket of hot buttered, popped corn is nonnegotiable! I’m still reading my book during the show though.

Also, THIS is why I’m on Threads – dude wrote a riff and the Threaderatti carried on with it. Here’s a bit of it:

I just watched the Melania movie and I don’t understand why she puked on the priest?

I just watched the Melania movie and I don’t understand why she shot Bambi’s mother.

I just watched the Melania movie and I don't get why she kept muttering "my preshuuuuussss."

I just watched the Melania movie & I don’t understand how throwing water on her made her melt. 

I just saw the Melania movie and I don’t understand why she wanted to turn all those puppies into a coat.

I just watched the Melanie movie and I don’t understand why she broke that guy’s ankles with a sledgehammer.

I just watched the Melania movie and I don't understand why she kept saying "here's Johnny!"

My comment?
I just watched the Melania movie and I don’t understand how she burst out of that guy’s chest.

Apparently, none of us envision Prez Pedo’s wife as a sympathetic character. I’m stunned, I tell you, just SHOCKED!

National Shutdown January 30th

Alex Pretti, Renee Good, Silverio Villegas González, and Keith Porter Jr.  have all been murdered by the Trump/Miller/Noem/Homan Goon Squads. They’re not the only ones – just the most most recent – the ones getting the most press. Why all the press? Probably because we have obvious, irrefutable video of Renee Good and Alex Pretti being murdered. All of the administration’s lies can’t change what we’ve seen with our own eyes. 

What is a general strike? It's a mass coordinated work stoppage. ALL possible economic activity comes to a halt.  Schools, shops, theaters, museums, manufacturing, etc. are shut down. Labor is withheld.

What should stay open/remain operational during a national shutdown? Critical, life-sustaining services like hospitals, emergency medical services, basic water and electricity maintenance.

The purpose of the shutdown is to exert max pressure on Prez Pedo to cut the shit with his and VP Stephen Miller’s out of control, rabid, private army. You know, the ones tasked with the ethnic and political cleansing of America. The strike is also a call to Congress to wake the fuck up and cut the funding that supports ICE. 

Will a one day general strike/national shutdown make everything all better here in the U.S.? No but I bet it’ll achieve at least SOME of the goals. Which are:

• Immediate Withdrawal of ICE/CBP from Minnesota
• Accountability for Murders and Deaths (both outside and in the concentration camps) 
• National Action – Defunding of ICE/CBP
• Economic Disruption (demonstrating the collective power of workers and consumers to force changes in the political and economic order)

I want Jonathan Ross charged with the murder of Renee Good. I want his fellow ICEholes who stood there letting this happen and keeping a medic from attending to her, on trial as accomplices to first degree murder. I want their names.

I want the names of the maniacal fucks who fired into Alex Pretti’s body as he lay subdued on the ground. I want the names of the ICEholes who did nothing to stop the murder. They should all be suffering in the most disgusting prison for the rest of their lives.

I want ICE completely abolished.

Social strikes have been used effectively in other, smaller countries like the Philippines, Chile, South Korea, Serbia, Madagascar, Nepal, Poland, Haiti, South Africa. One key factor is that the strikes made it impossible for the regimes to function.

While strikes for specifically political purposes like deposing political leaders or affecting legislation are common in other countries — as illustrated by many of the non-U.S. examples mentioned above — they are a rarity in the U.S. An exception was the 23-day strike by 42,000 West Virginia coal miners in 1969 that forced the state legislature to pass a law providing compensation for victims of black lung disease. (source) 

The only national general strike in our country’s history was organized by the labor movement to support a decades-long campaign for the eight-hour workday. This was May 1, 1886. A third of a million workers walked off their jobs – considering the U.S. population at the time was around 55 million, that’s a LOT. The biggest demonstrations were in Chicago – they went on for days.

The family resemblance is striking, no?

But a rally protesting police murders of strikers was interrupted by a bomb, followed by brutal repression. Assaults by the authorities on civil liberties, especially harsh for immigrant workers, included death by hanging of several labor leaders in a transparent miscarriage of justice, an episode now known as the Haymarket affair. This “red scare” set back the eight-hour movement for decades, but also resulted in May 1 being declared International Workers’ Day by the Socialist International to honor the eight-hour martyrs. (source) 

Is the U.S. just too big, too ideologically diverse, pigheaded, and economically fucked up for a sustained (multi day/month) general strike to work? I think the fact that many of us are living paycheck to paycheck and healthcare being so obscenely expensive (to the point of often making it unaffordable to remain alive in America) makes extended strikes impossible for many.

What to do? Boycott, vote, stay informed on local, state, and national issues, be a nagging pain in the ass to your elected officials, if you still have MAGAt friends and family – confront them with reality, the truth. Don't be a bystander. Don’t give up.

Finding Out

 As of yesterday. 86.42% of Democratic congresscritters have signed on to a resolution to impeach Killer Kristi Noem. Even Chuckie sternly-worded-letter Schumer and Quisling Fetterman have come out, big and bold, that the puppy killer needs to be taken to the gravel pit.

It’s gonna happen but it’s not enough. This entire regime needs to be put down. Goebbels Miller, Prez Pedo, VP Name of the Week, the Heritage Foundation – all of these lying-ass motherfuckers need to be sent to a farm upstate where they can live happily ever after with all their other fascist friends.

Did you see? The ICEhole brigade in Minnesota are now using LRAD (long range acoustic device) weapons, at close range, against peaceful protesters. Also known as “sound cannons,” these make extremely loud, high-frequency sound and are specifically intended for the scattering crowds. Close exposure (within 20 meters/65 feet) can cause permanent hearing loss due to nerve damage, tinnitus, damage to eardrums, migraines, intense sinus pressure, and nausea. LRADs are dangerous even for deafies like me.

You do know that Stephen Miller’s ICEholes are also using LRADs because the pain and permanent disability they cause make ICEhole’s nearly nonexistent, useless peens stiff. That and pics of the First Porn Model of the US are probably the only things that'll inspire a rise in 'em.

Gary Markstein

In the 2016 court case, Edrei v. Bratton the NYPD settled a lawsuit regarding the 2014 use of LRADs on protesters. This resulted in strict limitations on "sound cannon" use. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that purposely using LRAD in a manner capable of causing serious injury to non-violent protesters is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment prohibition against excessive force. In June 2018, the court ruled that the device was an instrument of force designed for “incapacitating and painful effects” and that “the problem posed by protesters in the street did not justify the use of force, much less force capable of causing serious injury, such as hearing loss.” (source) 

So, HOW is it legal for ICEholes in Minnesota to be using LRADs? Guess what – it’s not. This dumbfuckian administration doesn’t give a shit. They think they’re all as Find-Out free as Dear Leader. NO. 

Did you know, there’s a town in Eastern Pennsylvania named Nuremberg. The population, as of a 2010 census, was just 434. I wonder if the place still exists. Seems like it’d be a perfect setting for this century’s tribunals to prosecute the prominent AND lower level perps of crimes against humanity. Everyone from King Pedo down to the lowliest ICEhole needs to be held accountable for the atrocities that have been committed.

Bill Bramhall

If all Confederate leaders had been held to justice after the Civil War; had Nixon not been pardoned; if the army had suffered consequences for massacring the Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe at Sand Creek and the Lakota at Wounded Knee; had William Calley not gotten away with the My Lai massacre maybe, MAYBE we wouldn’t be in the deep-ass mess we’re in today. Maybe motherfuckers would've learned that there are consequences.

Meanwhile, Governor Walz has made it clear to Prez Pedo’s personal lawyer Attorney General, Bleach Bondi, that Minnesota doesn’t negotiate with terrorists. In response to her extortionist demands for the state’s unredacted voter rolls, Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service program data, and repealing sanctuary policies, Walz said, amongst other things: 

“There’s two million documents in the Epstein files we’re still waiting on. Go ahead and work on those.” 

Minnesota doesn’t negotiate with terrorists and dictators. Be like Minnesota.

And Now For Something Completely Different

While we Valhallans are here in the snow packed wilds of suburban Boston, Hillel and his lovely wife are visiting friends in Bangkok. Yep, Thailand where it’s currently a “cool” 85º. Cool as compared to March – June, which is considered the hot season. 

While 85º is too damn toasty for me (I wilt in temps above 78. Hey, what do you expect? I’m a New Englander!) I can’t say I’m overly fond of our current -5º with two feet of snow on the ground.

The 10 day forecast for Bangkok is for sunny weather with daytime temps in the low 90s. YIKES! I’d be an immobile puddle of stinky sweat. 10 day forecast for the Boston area? Daytime temps in the teens to mid 20s, clouds and sun with another snowstorm due at the weekend. Eh. Whatevs. It’s winter and, luckily, I don’t need to go outside until this next Monday.

Ten, Jen, and Oni did all the shoveling which was quite the epic task this time around. Apparently, for some unknown reason, the city hired out-of-towners to plow the very skinny streets of our neighborhood. Instead of depositing all the collected snow on the long, wide grassy area along the seawall, the snowplows just pushed the snow to the side and into people’s driveways. The result? Everyone was blocked in and the barely two lane roads were down to one.

 Someone called our newly elected councilman, who we Vahallans voted for. He came out, walked the streets and had a look see. Plows were sent in again. Yea!

Okay, maybe Hillel could bring home some of that Thai heat. Ya know, just enough to melt the snow and ice off the sidewalks and streets. It can stay on the yards, in the forests, on the beaches and mountains and shit. I bet it's real pretty on the shoreline right now.

Now then, I’m taking a mental health day. No news. No doomscrolling. No fussing about. I’m gonna dive into my new book, Kills Well with Others by Deanna Raybourn and probably, just generally, annoy the fuck out of Cake and Ten all day. Hey, everybody’s gotta have a talent and, apparently, that’s mine.

I’m gonna assume that someone will give me a heads up if the powers that fuel the universe join together, come down to this little planet and take out this administration full of malevolently barbaric, greedheaded, power-mad idiots.

An old babe can dream and hope…ya know.