Afternoon folks!

This week we start off with a bang, it's the 1972 Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival, featuring lots of great classic Chicago blues artists and others. After that, Jimmy Witherspoon mellows thing out followed by a late 70's Dr. John album. Following that it's off to the realm of blues-rock with a live album from Creedence Clearwater Revival, a Blues Image album and another overlooked album from Robin Trower and Jack Bruce. Finishing up we've got an EP from the Kinks.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great weekend!

Good morning, good people!

Seems a few of you are getting rain in your neck of the woods. I hope it is needed. Here is East Texas, we have a hot weekend, then a cold front for next week. A chilly thanksgiving.

A/C and heat pump both get workouts.

Meanwhile, we have a courthouse security office who acts as bailiff for county court dockets. It is his job to take people's call phones away from them if they go off during court.

Last week, during a long afternoon probate docket, the Judge's phone rang at least 4 times during hearings. He complained from the bench that he turned the sound all the way down.

After court, I had a talk with the officer. I said he should nab a 12 yr old kid. (raised eyebrows.) Take the kid to talk to the Judge. (mouth opened) Have the kid take the Judge's cell phone and show the damn Judge how to set the ring tone on mute. (laughter..."Great idea!") The people waiting to have their case heard would appreciate it. (No kidding!")

Well, this week, I suggested he have "that talk" with the Judge about posters on the entrance doors of the courthouse announcing holiday closures. See, the Thanksgiving poster features a little Pilgrim-dressed baby turkey under a banner saying "Happy Thanksgiving!" Well, somebody clue the judge in that only a crazy baby turkey would enjoy that day. Kids coming in the building might be traumatized. The officer wholeheartedly agreed.

As we move toward a country of more abridgment of our rights, this sense that the border wall is a back door introduction to freedom ending CBDS, would any of us try this to escape?

It's been a little over two weeks since the election. Things are moving at a breakneck pace. We're in the midst of one of the most dangerous periods in this nation's history, both on the geopolitical and national political fronts.

I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that a sitting president would sabotage an incoming president-elect. A president that was too feeble to run for a second term because of his cognitive impairment, yet is competent enough to start world war III by allowing Ukraine to launch long range missiles into Russia. He's gambling with everyone's lives, for what? This has got to be one of the most despicable presidencies in a long line of despicable presidents.

We hear nary a word from congress about stopping him, or whomever is in charge. Then again if congress were to take action and impeach him that would mean that Kamala Harris would become the president. What's that old maxim, something about vice presidents being picked as an insurance policy to dissuade congress from impeaching sitting presidents?

Hmmmm.

Anyway, nice precedent you've established mr. president (I purposely use lower case). Is the new normal laying booby traps for the incoming president now? That ought to be quite fun in the future, if we have one.

I'm seeing a pattern. Trump's most controversial cabinet picks aren't going to be approved. If they aren't picked off by public opinion then they'll be picked off by the senate who won't approve them. I hate to tell the Trump fans but they've been played. All the chest thumping, back slapping, shading the opposition and rose colored futuristics has all been for naught. I'll be surprised if Tulsi Gabbard and RFK, Jr. get approved as well.

It will be the same old same old. Oh, Ukraine may disengage from Russia and come to an end, but then reengage through Iran. I doubt much of Trump's agenda will be realized, just like his first term. There's a good chance it may be even worse. There's so many things that can go sideways in the next four years. We're going to need some luck.

In retrospect I'm glad I didn't vote for either one of them.

Duh!

Yesterday (Tuesday) there was an article in the news: 'Bill Clinton suggests US is more likely to elect female president if candidate is Republican'. Bill Clinton basically said that the first woman elected would probably be from the right wing. I wanna tell him all the upper ranks of his party are center or right-wing too. Hah.

The thing is, I've known this little truth for a long, long time. In English type countries, like America, Canada, Australia, UK (not New Zealand, go New Zealand!) the dislike isn't really over gender, it's over politics, and maybe over the way the person running for high office rose into their role in those politics. Electing a right-wing woman is easier than electing a supposed left-wing woman, especially if the right-wing woman has a political history of her own and is not riffing off that of her husband. An example: Thatcher (whom I despised), in the UK, had her own political history. She wasn't there because of who her husband was and the positions he'd 'served' in.

NOT her husband, but close enough, heh. (from the Washington Times)

In a fit of desperate generosity, Brandon gave us that $6 he stuffed in his back pocket
a few years back. Or was it $60? Now we can buy back our freedom on a long- term

Since election day I've noticed a shift in the media in its attempts to manipulate Trump's appointments to various cabinet and administration posts by "leaking" picks he has already made that turn out to be erroneous. Pompeo being the first.