Riding with my dead brother

Cranky Old Man #92
a frothy mix of leftovers and links

Trump’s fake electors: Here’s the full list

In addition to the chair, former chair or co-chair of the state Republican Party in all seven states, the group includes people for whom political controversy and investigations are nothing new...

♦ ♦ ♦

My dad was driving the family's enormous GMC Suburban through a dream last night. What a behemoth that old truck was. Dad complained that it got six miles to the gallon when it was new, and less than that as it got older and rustier. He'd happily traded it in on something newer and better fifty years ago, but through the magic of dreams the GMC was back.

Mom was in the front passenger seat, talking about the ladies of the church, and then scolding me for something I'd done. No idea what I'd done, but I always deserved the scolding.

Thing is, I'm in my 60s now, and all our ages were accurate in the dream. All six of the kids were in the car, but none of us are kids. We're all old enough to be grandparents, and most of us are grandparents. So stop scolding me already.

My brother Ralph was there, which must've been an effort for him, since he's dead. We'd once talked about dying, and he'd predicted he'd be shot and killed by a cop. Seemed like a reasonable prediction at the time, because he was a career criminal. His last years were law-abiding, though, so I'm proud to say it was cancer that killed him. In the truck last night he looked pretty good for a man who's been dead for years. No noticeable fleshrot or anything.

Cancer killed my dad, too, thirty years ago, when he was younger than I am now. In the dream, while driving the GMC, he was reciting a comical story he'd told us every six months or so when we were kids. Knowing the story by heart, I amused myself by calculating the total age of all the Hollands in the truck. Came out to well over 500 years of family, or less if Dad and Ralph's ages stop accumulating once they're dead.

I always enjoy seeing the family, of course. When I woke up, though, my main thought was the gentle surprise that I can do math in my sleep. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

The Masked Singer on NBC is just right-wing propaganda with a beat. You can dance to it. 

♦ ♦ ♦

Biden says US raid in Syria killed ISIS leader 

I heard the news today, oh boy, when a happy upbeat voice on an ABC Radio top-of-the-hour newscast reported that someone I'd never heard of — Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, allegedly the leader of ISIS — had been killed in a U.S. attack. My first thought was, why is this unknown voice so darn happy? And then in a slightly less chipper voice, the voice finished its perhaps 30-second story with word that "several civilians were killed, including an unknown number of children."

That's the footnote to news that's supposed to be good news. 

Hours later, we're told that "in a final act of desperate cowardice he, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up." I'd find that more believable if it wasn't announced hours later, but we're a long ways away, and who knows what to believe?

America. Sometimes I say it with all the disdain of an angry drunk shouting Jesus Christ.

♦ ♦ ♦

I'm not sure I agree with every jot and tittle of this, but I see no toehold for disagreement.  

"The U.S. media are still flummoxed by the question of how to cover Donald Trump’s actions, even a full year after his ejection from the Oval Office..."

The media is not "flummoxed," they are willing collaborators.  Since Ronald Reagan made it possible for the mainstream press in this country to be purchased lock stock and barrel by huge corporations, it has become nothing but one more tool, like the Republican party, to force the will of rich sociopaths on the country.  It is what they are paid to do, not the result of their not understanding what is going on.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

National Butterfly Center on Texas border closing indefinitely after attacks from right-wing conspiracy theorists 

As dangerous stupidity like this gains unchecked traction, I walk further and further from my long-time belief that freedom of speech must be an absolute. Bullshit must be denied a mass-media platform, or democracy doesn't survive.

♦ ♦ ♦

A 95-year-old Dutch bridge, "officially protected" as a historical site, will be partially-dismantled so Jeff Bezos's yacht can pass underneath. 

Related update.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

NASA plans to retire the International Space Station by 2031 by crashing it into the Pacific Ocean 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Church sues after Oregon town says it can give away free meals only twice per week 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Huge human inequality study hints revolution is in store for U.S. 

There’s a common thread tying together the most disruptive revolutions of human history, and it has some scientists worried about the United States. In those revolutions, conflict largely boiled down to pervasive economic inequality. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Facebook use falls for the first time in 18-year history 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Chipotle won't allow customers to give big tips. 

♦ ♦ ♦

CNN sucks, and Jeff Zucker sucks. He gave us Trump, and made CNN noticeably worse under his tenure. With a pecker embarrassment he's gone, and good riddance. It's an opportunity for CNN to improve itself — maybe put a journalist in charge, instead of a ratings-and-money man. But they won't, of course.

♦ ♦ ♦

Will the Gates Foundation’s board ever hold Bill accountable? 

No. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Crosby, Stills & Nash want their music removed from Spotify in support of Neil Young 

♦ ♦ ♦

“Penetration test:”
Hacker takes down North Korea's nascent internet 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Mosques be trippin'. 

♦ ♦ ♦

One-word newscast:
• climate
• COVID

Dead:
• Robin Herman
• Monica Vitti 

♦ ♦ ♦

 Mystery links  — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

—①—
     —②—
          —③—

♫♬  Sing along with Doug ♫

The Way You Look Tonight — Mouse Rat

 

2/3/2022  

Tip 'o the hat:
All Hat No Cattle • Linden Arden
BoingBoing • Captain Hampockets
Follow Me Here • John the Basket
LiarTownUSA • Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero • Ran Prieur •
Voenix Rising

Extra special thanks:
Becky Jo • Name Withheld • Dave S.
and always, Stephanie

Cranky Old Man
← PREVIOUS          NEXT →

itsdougholland.com
← PREVIOUS           NEXT →