Lib-Tard

 Lib-Tard  (noun, portmanteau, late 20th c. Amer. Eng.) A person of Liberal political and social views, who is too fucking stupid, or too lazy to vote. (see also Lumpenproletariat, Hoi-polloi)

 Who's a Woke Snowflake now?

MAGATs want "The Wizard of Oz" banned, because it is offensive and hurtful to people without Brains, Heart, or Courage.  This triggers them something awful...poor dears. 

Solstice 2023

Dear Ones,
—We have met the enemy, and he is us.—Pogo

Fffffuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkk! I just had to get that off my chest. What’s a solstice letter anyway, without an F-bomb or two? Our most recent lap around the sun has been a rollicking ride. Each successive year is so much crazier than the prior, that words escape me, something that doesn’t happen to me all that often. The year started off with so much excitement...the Chinese sent a spy balloon over the US and Canada, to check our weather, according to them. It even said so on the balloon: “WEATHER BARROON—TOTARRY NOT FOR SPY”. We shot it down anyway. In Britain, (wait for it) the Artist formerly known as “Prince” became King. (yawn). Sorry. Back in the US, Television and Movie Writers went on strike, suspending many popular shows and causing the cancellation of many others. No wonder mass murders are up...Cut the herd’s feed off, and you can expect some bad behavior. Mitch McConnell began posing for the Madame Tussaud’s Waxworks version of himself, generally in mid press conference. Apparently, he was about to say something true a couple of times, and just froze up. He got over it, though. Fox Fantasy Entertainment found itself caught in years-long pattern of lies, all acknowledged under oath by Rupert Murdoch to be done for ratings and money. This defamation of Dominion Systems will cost him 787 MILLION, and the second suit for SmartMatic will follow soon. What the settlement did not include, alas, was a requirement that the perpetrators, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson, be stripped to the waist, bound to a grating, and flogged properly by a bosun’s mate. That would be ratings gold. Tucker, true to his almost perfect first name, was fired in an act of phony contrition, and now runs his own Libel Mill. The “corrupt” DOJ has now convicted hundreds of January 6 sightseers, including Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders, and continues to slave away in the salt mines to hold those tourists accountable. The unintended consequence is, between all those rednecks in prison, and rising fuel prices, you can get a killer deal on a slightly used 2022 Dodge Whoop-Ass 3500 pickup. Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the House, after 15 ballots and hostage taking by the self-annointed "Freedom Caucus", and was unceremoniously dumped by the same hostage takers, establishing a new record for shortest tenure. He lasted only slightly longer than a red-shirt crewman on an away team on Star Trek. And, at long last, George “Silver Tongue” Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives, because of his hideous outfits and pathetic make-up. The drag queen knew better, but just didn't keep it together. It is hard to process this all in one year, I get it. It is like a nightmare from which we just can’t quite awaken. I toss and turn wishing that the Dow-Jones Average would reach 37,000, and that unemployment was at record lows, or that inflation were under control, with interest rates flat or even falling. I wish we would invest serious money on our infrastructure. Then I wake up from this fever-dream, and all of these things are REAL. WTF?? So why is everyone so gloomy? Maybe it’s because the so- called liberal press are so afraid of the label, that they cannot bring themselves to be “Liberal”. Maybe they have not leaned even a little left-of-center since the 80s, but the radical right narrative is that they are biased against the right. The reality is, the goal posts have been moved, and they are more or less center-right. But they play “fine people on both sides” games, and the truth falls through the cracks. Our daymares lie elsewhere than in the economy, though, even as our self-centered population and the so-called pundits obsess about the economy. Neo-Fascist strongmen are popping up like toadstools in Europe, South America, and even Kansas. The established strongmen rattle their sabers and posture, while the new crop mimic like mynah birds. Kim Jung Un just launched an ICBM that can reach our shores. China waits to invade Taiwan, and harasses shipping and fishing in the whole western Pacific. Putin continues to savage Ukraine, despite gritty and effective resistance by the Ukrainians. We dither and posture here and in Europe about funding Ukraine’s defense, not acknowledging that the cost will be a hundred times worse if we fail now. Putin will never be appeased. He must be defeated, and decisively. And Hamas, a terrorist iron-age religious death cult, slaughters Israelis, and revels in the deaths of its own people, used as shields, and as agit-propaganda. Israelis must avoid playing into their hands, but may not be able to stop themselves.

Meanwhile, the longest losing streak since the Washington Generals first faced off against the Harlem Globetrotters continues for the Donald. The Supremes, his fave R&B group, preliminarily agreed to consider his motion that he has “Complete Immunity” against any criminal charges for any and all acts done as President. Nowhere in the Constitution, Common Law, Case Law, or Statutory Law, does this privilege exist. The wishful and legally unmoored pleadings of his lawyers (sic) are abjectly pathetic. But time is of the essence, and so we should have the decision of the Supremes relatively soon. Even the Supremes, from the lofty-mist shrouded altitude which they inhabit, can see that their jobs and even their lives are on the line, since after all, what need have Kings for Supreme Courts? I predict an 8-1 verdict to Deny DJT’s motion, (Justice Thomas in dissent, of course) and the resumption of the trials. I suffer from a real problem. As you may know, I am still a licensed attorney and sworn agent of the Courts, bound to uphold the Constitution. I honor and cherish that duty, but I just cannot believe that so many of my fellow court officers have abdicated all honor and duty in the pursuit of power. I am likewise disheartened by the fact that so many of us generally, ignore the plain evidence of our eyes, accept and amplify such blatant hypocrisy. This is willful, malignant ignorance, done for a nefarious purpose.  The truth is that those who know better outnumber the shameless by quite a lot, but unfortunately don’t seem to care enough to vote. They had better start caring. Get your lazy Lib-Tard asses up and vote. Else we and our Republic are doomed.

That said, our year has mostly been uneventful. We did cruise British Columbia (BC) in Tortuga, our trawler-boat. The trip was going to include Alaska again, but I had to shuffle off to Buffalo in the spring to help me Darlin’ Mither with the sale of her Lake Erie beach house. She now has funds enough for her support for the foreseeable future, so that is all good. It is a sad transition, with lots of great memories had there, but time marches on. We then steamed off on a foreshortened but leisurely trip in BC, culminating in an 80 nautical mile crossing of the Hecate Straight, a dangerous body of water famed for forty foot waves in southwesterly storms. The Straight separates Haida Gwaii from the Mainland. We timed our passage well enough, and enjoyed a week visiting the various Haida villages and gravesites. These areas are tended by “Guardians”, who live over the spring to fall at the sites, and serve as tour guides, protectors, and conservators of their unique culture. It is wild there, and you are definitely on your own while there. We returned from the south of the Islands on a long 120 nm passage to Vancouver Island, and made our way home. As always with boats, there were a few things to fix, and I fixed them.

Catherine has completed Level II of a master hand-knitters program, and has commenced the final Level III. It keeps her busy, but I have no hope of conversation while she is knitting. She retreats to her lair and hangs up a “Piss Off” sign, and emerges later, cursing. While we were on our trip north, we saw a flyer for an Irish Jack Russell puppy for sale, part of an accidental litter, not from a breeder. Irish ones are bred to be shorter legged, and more tractable, or so they hope. Cath decided she wanted a small dog, so we met with and bonded with our new family member.

What came over Catherine is an enduring mystery, but I don’t argue. We picked him up after our return. He does not count as an anchor baby in Canada, I am disappointed to report. He is named “Rocco” after a Jack Russell You-Tube star named Rocko, who hikes all over Canada and the US with his master, Foresty Forest. Like Rocko, our Rocco is a good little hiker, and apart from his serious chewing addiction and some adolescent rammy-ness he is settling in. At 7 months, he wants to drive, and sneaks out behind the barn for a smoke sometimes. Everyone agrees he is a sturdy little lad. He seems to have a positive effect on both of us.

The kids are all good. I’ll leave it at that for brevity.

As for me, this year has been spent catching up on deferred medical work. I just had left hand surgery for Dupuytren’s contracture and a carpal tunnel release, with another scheduled just after Christmas for the right. I have had 4 dental implants, and finally await a hip replacement this winter. My right hip has gone to hell, bone on bone as they say. I am well past my sell-by date anyway, but maybe I can still eke a few thousand more miles out of this unit if I get a new right wheel. I sure can’t outrun a saber-toothed tiger—I’d have been tiger-poop decades ago, except we killed all the saber-tooths. That is a pity, but I digress.

Many fine folks have shuffled off this mortal coil this year, so I pause to note a few. Rosalynn Carter and Sandra Day O’Conner were women of note. Henry Kissinger has slunk off at last to whatever fate he deserved, and Jerry Springer has written his last check to a hooker. Oodles of Actors have taken their final bow, including Tom Sizemore, Glenda Jackson, Raquel Welch, Richard Rountree (just talkin’ ‘bout Shaft!) David McCallum, Michael Gambon (Dumbledore II) Tevye, Lance Reddick, Piper Laurie, Ryan O’Neill, Alan Arkin, Suzanne Somers, and Gina Lollabrigida. Mobs of musicians have had the long final fermata, including Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach, Sinead O’Connor, Gordon Lightfoot, Jimmy Buffett, Jeff Beck, Randy Bachman of BTO, Shane McGowan of the Pogues, David Crosby, and Tina Turner, a personal fave, as she was friends with my Uncle Billy. Miscellaneous others included Cormack McCarthy, Bob Barker, and Robbie Knievel. Sportin’ lifers Bobby Knight, Jim Brown, and Dick Butkus of the Bears, who was the inspiration for the expression “You don’t know butkus.” Finally, Pat Robertson had better hope he was wrong about all that. Sad farewell also to the additional 100,000 dead this year in the US, of Covid-19.

And so, ye stalwarts of my life’s acquaintance, having labored along this far, I wish for you each a better year than this bedraggled specimen of roadkill we just passed by. That is a small wish, so I wish for you all, a great and wondrous year, satisfaction, security, health and friendship. Beginning tomorrow, the days grow a few minutes longer each day, and the fog of winter lifts. Let us hope that the fog of complacency, lies, and conspiracy also lift. We are due a return to sanity, but that is not guaranteed, nor even all that likely. It is just necessary, and we must draw together to make it happen. Read a banned book. Find solace in small victories, pleasure in small wonders around you every day, and we will talk again soon.

Cheers, Best, and Hasta La Vista, Baby.

—Any man who does not like dogs and want them about does not deserve to be in the White House.—Calvin Coolidge

—Never trust a man who doesn’t like dogs.—Bill Murray

—FFS, Donald, even the Grinch has a dog!—RWC