Saturday Song Share: Morocco - Moon Taxi

Catchy little tune for this week...

Richard Painter - Worst Political Ad of the Season

Up here in Minnesota, we love our quirky politics.  We'll elect a wrestler as a Governor, a comic as a Senator, and on and on.  Therefore, in this environment, this passed as a good political ad:



This clown is running for the US Senate!  And that's the best they could do?  They need to take a page from the book from this guy:

"We Have a Great Chance To Inflict One On Him (a Political Price)"

"Journalist" John Heilemann lets the mask slip, and shows just exactly what we all already knew - the media = the Democratic party:



Not only that but Heilemann's rant generates a full swoon by his on-air partner.

Journalism in 2018.

How Much We Hate Each Other - #2

The world is officially going insane.  The rhetoric is getting way too heated, and the cold war between liberal and conservative is quickly turning hot; pushed by Social Justice Warriors that feel compelled to punish those with whom they disagree politically.

Consider, in the just the past week alone:

• Kevin McHale was outed as attending a Trump rally in Duluth, Minnesota.  Immediately calls went out for him to lose any employment he had with the NBA and with ESPN.  His career needs to be ruined.
• Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, was run out of a restaurant by a group protesting her mere presence.  The protests have continued to her home, which has been surrounded by protesters chanting and playing audio of crying kids.
• Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was having dinner with her family at a Virginia restaurant, but the owner, unable to tolerate a political perspective that was any different, demanded that Sanders leave her restaurant.
• An ICE agent was accused of having a racist tattoo.  Twitter erupted, but it turns out it wasn't a racist tattoo at all.  It also turns out he's a veteran and double-amputee. 
• The Attorney General of Florida was screamed at as she was leaving a movie theater.

This was all last week.

So when does this all end?  Not anytime soon, especially when Maxine Waters is stirring up a crowd to do more of it:



Interesting that a black woman would be screaming about people and saying "you're not welcome!"  

History may not totally repeat itself, but it does indeed rhyme.  In the meantime, look for more and more businesses to be forced to take a side.  No, we can't have dinner with each other anymore.

That's how much we hate each other.

Evaluating the Trade

Just shy of a year and a half ago, we were faced with a big decision:  Do we continue to live the lives we were leading, or do we take a chance on a better life?  I'd be giving up a lot - a top leadership position in a large company and all the good things that went with it, a lot more pay than I'm making now, a really nice house on a golf course, a great team, and other things that made our lives pretty comfortable.

Not only that, but we'd be moving to small town, making a hell of a lot less, I'd be off the grid for future gigs, and career risk was abound.  That being said, our opportunity got us back to Minnesota, and I was truly at the end of my rope at my old gig.  I was putting in huge hours, felt terrible, looked worse, and started getting depressed every Sunday starting at about 3:00.  

Every Sunday.

We jumped.  While it's not been completely easy, we had no idea how good our lives could be.  People here are WONDERFUL. They're happy, engaged, and truly care about you.  The town, while small, feels a hell of a lot bigger than Green Bay, and I'm not exaggerating.  My dog goes with me to work, where I have nothing but good people and basically no dysfunction.   I'm able to do really cool things at work and am definitely leaving my mark.  I leave that gig at a little after 5 every day, and if the weather is nice, we hop on the boat.  On Sunday nights I look forward to the morning and starting the week all over again.

I'm wildly happy.  I had no idea I could ever be this happy.  No, it's not perfect, but damn it is close.

I have been through a lot in my career.  I'd like to think that all of this is payback for those dues that I paid.  

So how was the trade now that things have baked in a little?  This is like the Hershel Walker deal, and we're the Cowboys.  It's that good.

I've been truly blessed.

Saturday Song Share: Judas Priest - Breaking the Law

100% fine metal classic:

How Much We Hate Each Other - #1

Trump visited Duluth a couple of days ago, and as a result, Fox and Friends came to Minnesota to cover the event.  They broadcast from a local diner, Uncle Loui's Cafe, as the cafe felt the exposure would be good for their business.

Wrong.

Since they dared let the hated Fox News into their establishment, Uncle Loui's Cafe needed to pay.  How dare they mingle with the Nazis of Fox News?  They needed to be shut down, and their livelihood destroyed because that's how much we hate each other now.

Read the article here.

We're quickly devolving where we can't just disagree anymore.  No, those that disagree with me must be ruined.

That's the end game.  That's how much we hate.

Stay tuned.

Trump Derangement. All Day. Every Day.

The exploding heads on TV have been a constant since election night.

Every day.  Literally.

We've gone from Russians, to pussy hats, to Stormy Daniels, to guns, to shrinking Antartic ice, to the latest on the kids on the border.  And I'm sure I've missed a dozen more.

You know what they all have to do with each other?

• They all come from the same people
• They are all designed to "get Trump"
• They've all failed miserably 

Why the failure?  Because people's lives are tangibly better under Trump.  They're working.  They're making more money.  And all of those other things never come close to impacting their daily lives.  At all.  Not even close.

The full weight of Hollywood, the media, and our elite betters have been pushing against Trump since the jump.  Until Mr. and Mrs. America finally get hit in the pocketbook, it will continue to be a fool's errand to do so.

But try they will.  All day.  Every day.

* sigh * 

Hats Off Mounds View Pitcher

In a recent High School baseball game, Mounds View was facing Totino-Grace for a berth to go to the State Tournament.  With two out in the last inning, the pitcher was facing his childhood friend and got two strikes on him.  He was one pitch away from going to State.

Here's what happens next:


This has gone viral, as it should.  We need more of this kind of behavior.

Transgender Sprinter Dominates CT State Girls' Meet

This is the state championship race, where things like scholarships are on the line.  The boy racing against the field of girls dominates.  Who would have guessed?



Watch the body language of the girls he beats.  

Expect to see more of this.

Anthony Bourdain a Hero? How About an Abuser?

All over social media this past week, people have been lamenting the loss of Anthony Bourdain.  They talk about him like he was a friend and lament his suicide as their loss.

Let me make this clear: Anthony Bourdain was a man of privilege.  He literally had the world at his feet and had access to the finest of everything, including mental health resources.  Instead, he took his life and left his 11-year-old daughter to deal with a lifetime of untold trauma.

His action is disgusting.  Was he suffering from mental illness?  Yes.  Do those that, say, abuse children also suffer from mental illness?  Yes.  In both instances, due to the act, children and loved ones are left with wounds that will stay with them their entire lives.

Their entire lives.

If this guy abused his daughter, we’d not celebrate him.  But he still delivered a dump-truck load of dysfunction on her, dysfunction that will impact her as long as she lives, and we lament our loss?  

How about we shame this for what it is – a selfish, cowardly, and hurtful act?

Why in the world would you so traumatically hurt the ones you supposedly love?  

Spare me the depression that leads to the "they're better off without me" self-talk that can occur.  We do stuff for people we love because we love them.  Up to and including sucking it up and finding some way, any way, to go on.  

Likewise, when you have a kid, your job is to take care of them, and certainly not to emotionally cripple them for the rest of their lives.  When you have a kid, your rules change.  It's not about you anymore.

What Anthony Bourdain did was not heroic, understandable, or justifiable.  It was sick and abusive. 

God bless his poor little daughter.  She's going to need it. 

de Niro at the Tony Awards

Our President is negotiating a deal on nuclear arms on foreign soil, and this is how Robert de Niro chose to engage the Tony awards crowd:



How was it received?  Standing ovation.  Unanimous standing ovation.

If I'm running the Trump reelection campaign, this would be my campaign commercial.

This is how much the left hates those that dare disagree.  Scary.

Politics in Comedy Routine = Bad Comic

Pretty much everything is all politics, all the time.  We've retreated into our tribes, and we seek to make points spreading our vitriol to those who see the world differently than we do.

The same goes for comedy.  Comedy is rife with politics.  You can't get away from it.

Comics have always gone after politics, but it's a different world now.  There isn't equal disdain for both sides of the aisle - it only goes one way now.  Likewise, comics aren't shooting for laughs anymore.  They want applause.

That's what comedy is devolving into - what can I say to my tribe about our political opponents to get claps, not laughs?  Thus when Samatha Bee calls Ivanka Trump a "C" word and suggests that she has sex with her father, Bee is just reflecting what passes for successful comedy in 2018.

Want to be a good comic?  Leave the politics alone.  By going political the reactions you're getting are cheap at best, and at worst, you just flat suck as a comic.

Why Don't We Connect?

There are recent studies galore that reveal the abject loneliness in which many of us live.  How shocking, especially in this time of extreme connectedness.  

There have been lots of theories espoused on why this may be, and many of them revolve around the shallow nature of our communications, and subsequently, ultimately with our relationships.  

It's all so superficial. When we go, we don't go deep (if we even go at all...)  

Fr. Don weighed in on this recently:

"Who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me" (Luke 1:43)? In the Gospel event that we call the visitation, these words are Elizabeth's response to a visit from her cousin Mary. The pregnant and elderly Elizabeth doesn't give a self-centered response: "Where were you? It's about time" but "How did I ever deserve this?" Elizabeth receives the gift of Mary's time and effort as an unexpected, most welcome kindness, a gift.

Daily life offers all of us opportunities to give generously and also to receive with gratitude and joy what others give. In our day the phone, letters, the Internet as well as convenient mobility make it possible for us to bring consolation, light, even some excitement to the lives of the lonely, the ill, the neglected, the aged, the suffering. Yet with so many technology-enhanced opportunities for communication and contact, we still plead "no time." Visitation in some form or other of those who would benefit from it is a snap for us today compared to what it was in Mary's time. What keeps us from doing more of it? Perhaps it's our lack of identification with the selflessness of Christ, something he learned at least partly from his mother. 

Lots to take away on this one...

Saturday Song Share: Robert Palmer - Looking for Clues

I'd like a clue about what the hell this video is all about

Mark Robinson Lays Down Some 2A Truth

Thanks to my Cuz, I got a peek at one of the most accurate and passionate speeches around the Second Amendment that you can find out there.

Enjoy:

Saved by Sunfish

We were up at the cabin last week, and walleye fishing was tough.  Fortunately, I got a hot tip on an incredible panfish bite, so the next morning we took the 35-minute boat ride to Sucker Bay (and the furthest reaches of the bay at that).

It was worth it:

Here's Fuzzy with a 60 fish, 3 man limit.

While they took forever to clean, it was worth it as they made for an incredible fish fry.

Panfish aren't nearly as sexy as their bigger cousins, but when the action is that hot and the fish that tasty, you just can't beat them.