Warm and Fuzzy Were the Eclipses

[Disclaimer: I take no position here. Anyone who attempts to pin one on me will be expunged from the discourse, with all possible prejudice.]

By Tuanna2010 (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

Five thousand years of astrology says that eclipses are bad omens. NASA, the talking heads and all the modern “psychological” astrologers say that no, eclipses are warm and fuzzy and “activate” exciting new vistas in your life.

Well, let’s take a little look at the month that just was, shall we?

All Power Out as Hurricane Maria’s Winds, Floods Crush Puerto Rico
NBC News

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Maria is likely to have “destroyed” Puerto Rico, the island’s emergency director said Wednesday after the monster storm smashed ripped roofs off buildings and flooded homes across the economically strained U.S. territory….

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September Drawings

I haven’t been posting my drawings here for awhile. Mostly they’re on Facebook. But I have reconsidered and they ought to be here, too.

So:

Kumbaya for Ostriches part i

Yesterday, Trump took his road show to Arizona, to repeat his campaign shtick, up to and including ‘greatest hits’ like “Lock her up,” et al.

Trump goes to Arizona – Gustav Doré

James Clapper calls Trump speech ‘downright scary and disturbing’
Leinz Vales / CNN

(CNN) James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence, said Wednesday morning he questioned President Donald Trump’s fitness for office. “I really question his ability to be — his fitness to be — in this office, and I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation for it,” Clapper told CNN’s Don Lemon on “CNN Tonight.”

Hours after Trump delivered a defiant speech in Phoenix, Arizona, Clapper said he found the President’s rally “downright scary and disturbing.” Clapper denounced Trump’s “behavior and divisiveness and complete intellectual, moral and ethical void…. How much longer does the country have to, to borrow a phrase, endure this nightmare?”

Well, at least I wasn’t alone in my assessment. It was 77 minutes of deflecting blame and dealing hate the way a Vegas dealer deals cards: slick and mechanical.

Leaks? Leaks! LEAKS?!??

Today’s screaming headlines:

Paul Ryan: Intel leaks ‘the problem of the leaker, not the journalist’
Joe Concha / The Hill

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended journalists Friday, saying that while intelligence leaks compromise national security, it’s “the problem of the leaker, not the journalist. Leaks are concerning because leaks can often compromise national security, but that’s the problem of the leaker not the journalist,” Ryan said at an event in Muskego, Wis., on Friday afternoon.

Ryan’s comment comes just hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a government-wide crackdown on leakers.

Then again, I already WROTE this column., On Valentine’s Day:

Unplugged From The Chaos

I guess I’m not the only one who’s sick of the Trump clown car:

Trump Is Woody Allen Without the Humor
Peggy Noonan / Wall Street Journal

Half his tweets show utter weakness.  They are plaintive, shrill little cries, usually just after dawn.  —  The president’s primary problem as a leader is not that he is impetuous, brash or naive.  It’s not that he is inexperienced, crude, an outsider…

A few weeks ago, we unplugged from cable and went to streaming TV only. The transition was smooth. And, soon, we noticed something wonderful:

‘Assassin’s Screed’, or Why Ted Nugent Fears Me Part ii.

UPDATED BELOW

This is part ii. Part i is here.

Our Story So Far: July 3, 2007, Ted Nugent writes a vicious screed tossing the entire “60s” generation on the bonfire of his own vanity. I respond on July 3. Joe Farah’s scrofulous WorldNetDaily anonymously attacks me for “waxing my eloquence.”

“As a die-hard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who squandered God’s gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hipness. I often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not gagged to death on their own vomit….While I salute and commend the political and cultural activism of the 1960s that fueled the civil rights movement, other than that, the decade is barren of any positive cultural or social impact. Honest people will remember 1967 for what is truly was.”  — Ted Nugent, Wall Street Journal, July 3, 2004

Hannity picks up on the column and cribs it (twice). On July 9, Sean Hannity and Brent Bozell attempt, on Faux Nooz™, to paint me as the liberal equivalent of Ann Coulter. Not having kicked me enough, on July 13, noted craven wussy Ted Nugent goes on Hannity & Colmes to weep crocodile tears, claim I’m a “nut case” and belittle the late Alan Colmes. I am accused of FOMENTING civil war and internal rebellion when, clearly, that is what I was warning AGAINST. Rightie projection über alles.

And now, as we come ten years later, the civil war I warned about is much closer to reality than any of us would care to admit.

‘Assassin’s Screed’, or Why Ted Nugent Fears Me Part i.

No: this is exactly what they did to Clinton, and if we allow it, they’ll steal another legitimately elected presidency. Did you know that less than HALF of Obama’s top appointees are in office yet? The GOP strategy is to completely stymie the art and practice of governance until they can (they hope) retake the government by WHATEVER means, and you who were born before the 2000 election know precisely what I am talking about.)  

~ this blog August 23, 2009 (President Obama’s first year in office)

Ten years ago, the printers were done, and the physical distribution of papers  for  the July 3, 2007 issue of the Wall Street Journal (pre-Rupert Murdoch) was complete. And Ted Nugent had written an editorial attacking a generation in a squalid slander* entitled “The Summer of Drugs” – Wall Street Journal, Jul 3, 2007.

[* Yes, I know it’s ‘libel’ but alliterative imperatives must sometimes prevail. Ars longa vita brevis]