Some Thoughts From An Angry Old Man

Ya know, if you have to constantly tell everyone that you're an "alpha male", you are definitely not an "alpha male". The proof to this is every guy on Twitter who claims to be an "alpha male".

The only way I can see this country ever having sane gun laws is if a whole bunch of elected Republicans get gunned down. Maybe then...

It's nice that the Supreme Court gets to set its own ethics code--and then ignore it. Nice for them, not for us.

Speaking of the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has set a standard for self-hating Black men that may never be broken. I have two words for Clarence: the first one is House...To be fair, he has to wake up next to Ginni most days, and isn't that punishment enough?

And one more thought regarding the highest court in the land: 23% of Americans identify as Catholic, but 66.6% of the Supreme Court are Catholics. And most of them seem to be practicing a positively Medieval version of Catholicism. They are stuck in the Darkest of Ages, and they want us all to join them.

If someone had beaten some sense into Donald J. Trump when he was a young man, he might have turned out to be less of a festering, sexually predatory, turd. Might. My late mother-in-law had a simple solution for rapists: Cut off their balls. She was not a violent woman, but you did not want to cross any of the lines she drew.

Every time I hear "Macho Man" for the rest of my life I will think of a morbidly obese man, wearing a ton of makeup, kitten heels, a poorly fitting blue suit,  a clownishly long red tie, a diaper, and something pretending to be "hair" on his empty head. This is probably not what the Village People had in mind.

Marjorie Taylor Greene desperately wants to be Trumpie the Clown's running mate. The best she can reasonably hope for is adjoining cells.

Kari Lake will never be governor, but there are openings at Fox Nausea--I mean Fox "News", and all she has to do is keep lying her fool head off and she's as good as hired. You go girl!

Signor Baseball's Somewhat Belated 2023 MLB Preview

It's really very simple: Some teams spend money and some teams don't.

The thing to remember is this: They all have money. They're all owned by billionaires or near billionaires or a consortium of very rich people.

Sure, the major market teams have more money. The local TV money for the Yankees or Dodgers is much greater than it is for the Royals or Pirates. Life isn't fair, after all.

But every team has enough money to spend to be competitive.

So, if your favorite team consistently fails to sign free agents--or keep young talent once their rookie deal expires--it's not because they can't. It's because they don't want to.

With that in mind, here goes:

AL East

Arron Judge can hit 70 homers and the Yankees still won't have enough pitching.  And there isn't a weak team in the AL East to fatten up against. So...

As of this writing the Tampa Bay kids are 14-3. If they can maintain that pace, I'm guessing that 135-27 will probably win the division.

Toronto is good, too. No glaring weaknesses, unless you count that AstroTurf field of theirs. UGH.

Baltimore is better than they have been. Probably not good enough yet to win the division, but certainly good enough to cause problems for the other teams.

Boston isn't better than they have been. But the Red Sox will still find a way to be competitive. And no matter what their record, nobody wants to have to play important games against them at Fenway in September. Things can get weird up there in a hurry.

New York may have to settle for a Wild Card--if that.

AL Central

Minnesota, Cleveland and Chicago are all flawed teams. And each has a chance to win this division. The Twins pitching isn't very deep, the Indians don't have too many power bats, and the White Sox desperately need Mike Clevenger to return to Cy Young contender form. It wouldn't be surprising for a team right around .500 to win the division. Whatever their relative weaknesses, somebody has to win. Let's go with the Guardians to repeat. But it wouldn't be much of a surprise if Minnesota or Chicago won.Very little chance of a Wild Card team here.

Elsewhere in the Central, Kansas City and Detroit are just bad.

AL West

This is still Houston's division. Even without Verlander, I don't see them being caught by any of the other West teams. Seattle has the best shot if the Astros suffer a whole bunch of injuries or a few season long slumps. Finishing a strong second should get the Mariners a Wild Card slot.The single best thing that could happen for baseball is for the Angels to make the playoffs. Trout and Ohtani haven't even sniffed the post season--and that verges on the criminal. And if they don't make it this year, and it's a long shot, Shohei Ohtani may decide to move on to greener pastures. This isn't basketball and merely having 2 great players doesn't guarantee anything.

Texas added Jacob DeGrom, who has spent the last three years injured off and on. Healthy he's an ace. But he hasn't been consistently healthy in a long time. So...good luck with that.

Speaking of luck, out in Oakland, the A's run of luck with money ball has simply run out. They will not be scrappy over achievers. They will simply be bad.

NL East

Well, if the Mets don't win this year, there will be one very unhappy hedge fund billionaire. Having spent 350 million bucks on his team's payroll, anything short of the World Series should be considered a failure.

And Atlanta is right there, hoping to help them fail. The Braves can seemingly reload on the fly without suffering a decline. Nice trick. Probably a solid Wild card pick--maybe take the division if the Mets falter.

Philadelphia spent a whole bunch of money only to finish 14 games out last season. They are still spending a whole bunch of money this year, and chances are they'll still finish way back of the Mets and Braves. They're not a bad team, they're just in a very tough division.

Miami has great starting pitching and not much offense. The Dodgers of 60 years ago used to regularly win World Series with that combination. But that was then and this now, and the way the ball flies these days, you better have a few big boppers to go with those good young arms.

And in D.C. the Nationals have spent the years since their World Series victory divesting themselves of almost all of their talent. An interesting approach, to be sure.

NL Central

Like the AL Central, we're looking at teams with a few weaknesses. 

St. Louis looks to be the best bet, with Milwaukee right behind them. The Cards are consistently solid--not great, but always competitive. And the Brewers are developing the same sort of consistency.

Chicago added some good pieces, but not quite enough to win the division. Pittsburgh keeps finding good young talent and then losing them to free agency. And Cincinnati will battle the Pirates for last place, yet again. Two good baseball towns doomed by bad ownership.

NL West

This may be the year that the Dodgers don't win the West. They still have an edge in pitching, but damn that every day San Diego lineup is scary. Probably whichever team finishes second will be a lock for a Wild Card.

The Giants are rebuilding, but .500 should be attainable. And their ballpark is still one of the best, if not the best in the MLB.

The Rockies are always rebuilding.

In Arizona, the Diamondbacks have a whole bunch of young (potential) talent. If the majority of them pan out, they will be at least competitive. If the majority of them don't pan out, it will be another long season. The highlight of which will be the constant whining from their front office about the physical state of their stadium. 

Which, even when brand spanking new, has always had all of the charm of a Costco. Such is life.

Shocked! Shocked! And Other Seemingly Random Observations

Shocked! Shocked to find out that Fox "News" talking heads lied to their viewers! 

That they knew they were lying and still did it!

That they repeatedly said one thing in private and the complete opposite on air!

That they did all of this to keep their ratings up, for fear that the MAGAts would abandon them if they didn't! 

That Rupert Murdoch did nothing to stop the lies.

Shocked!!!

I mean, who can we trust anymore? 

In the interest of Truth, Justice and the American Way, the Freedom Caucus should change its name to the Treason Caucus.

 

If Marjorie "Howler Monkey" Greene wants out, if a national "divorce" truly is "inevitable", I say a good first step would be for her to resign from the Congress. Not to worry; any district that would elect and then re-elect something like her, would no doubt send someone equally bad as her replacement.

And Marge would quickly end up at Fox, or Newsmax, or OAN, where she would be welcomed with open arms by all the other feces flingers, and quickly make up all that lost revenue she moaned about suffering while serving in the House.

So, a win-win?

 

In assessing why Republicans do all the awful things they do, don't get lost in the weeds. Just apply Occam's razor: the simplest solution is preferable to more complex ones. So, it's either they've been bought with Russian/Corporate money, or they've been blackmailed with Russian Mob Compromat. Those are the simplest answers. And those are the correct answers.

 

 Kevin Durant hurting himself in a non-contact pre-game layup drill is the most Phoenix Suns' thing I can imagine. And I've been watching this circus since 1968.

Crashing And Burning Are Totally On-Brand For Tesla, Aren't They?

So this is what happens when you rush technology into the market place before it's ready.

Your "self driving" cars run over things. Or into things.

Sometimes they burst into flames, too, as a sort of bonus.

Not to worry, though.

I'm sure once Elon "My Entire Body Is Made From Marshmallows" Musk decides he's finished ruining Twitter by making it a safe place for every Nazi, white supremacist, Putin apologist, Russian Bot, and brain dead Republican/Libertarian, and fixes his super genius gaze on the problems with Tesla, everything will be just fine.

Uh huh.

The sooner this twat blasts off for Mars, the better off we'll all be.

Dead Man Walking

All this talk about Trump running in 2024 is just that: talk.

The bloated, orange faced traitor is just using the possibility of another campaign to grift a few more dollars from his incredibly gullible base.

Apparently many MAGAts are still, even after all the country has been through, stupid enough to send Trumpie the Clown money. Alas, there is no cure for that kind of deep, deep, stupid.

The members of the Main Stream Media, on the other hand, are, for the most part, smart enough to see that Donald J. Trump is nothing more than a dead man walking.

But, and this is the crux of it, the mere possibility of that putrid sack of shit running again is good for their ratings.

And ratings are ALL that matters.

So there will be hysterical speculation about his imminent return, and his potential running mates: Marjorie Trailer Park Greene? Kari "I'm not a loser--you're a loser!" Lake? Stormy "Like a little mushroom" Daniels? George "Who am I today?" Santos in drag? The possibilities are endless...

That breathless hysteria is designed to get your attention and keep you watching. After all, a circus is always more entertaining than discussing the nuts and bolts of governing.

And Trump is nothing if not a clown.

But, fortunately, the reality is very different.

Donald J. Trump will spend most of whatever is left of his miserable, traitorous, life in court, in jail, or in exile somewhere without an extradition treaty with the US.

WTF Was Kry$ten $inema Doing In Davos?

Was she doing field work for a graft sub-committee?

No? 

Oh, then she must have been there to get patted on her head and her tummy rubbed by her rich owners.

I can hear them now, "Good job Kry$ten. Good girl! Here's a cookie."

No other reason in the world for her to be there, hobnobbing with the billionaires.

In addition to being a fake progressive, she is a corporate whore. A wholly owned subsidiary of whichever oligarch has the deepest pockets.

Her high five with that cunt Manchin pretty much sums it up.

I am reminded of a quote, variously attributed to Churchill, Lord Beaverbrook, and Groucho Marx:

"We've already established what you are, ma'am. Now we're just haggling over the price."

Credit Where Credit Is Due

Without Donald J. Trump we never would have known just how many racists, traitors, and out right imbeciles our great nation contained.

Now we know that there are millions, and millions, and MILLIONS, of them.

Without Donald J. Trump we never would have discovered that there is no bottom to how low the Republican Party is willing to go. Before Trump, the Insane Clown Posse was just a band's name. Now it's the name of an entire political party.

Without Donald J. Trump the true moral depravity, soul less greed, and general nihilism of Fox News and Rupert Murdoch would have just been a rumor, and Ingraham, Carlson and Hannity would have just been annoying idiots, running their mouths about everything to incite the rubes and enrich the Murdochs. Now, thanks to Donnie Boy, we know them to be nothing more or less than an ongoing threat to Democracy.

Without Donald J. Trump the number of Americans, AMERICANS, willing to sell our country out to Vladimir Putin would have remained unknown. Flynn, Stone, Manafort, Bannon, Ginni Thomas and their ilk are all traitors, and should, at the very least, spend the rest of their miserable lives in prison--along with all those Republicans awash in Russian money. (Although it seems to me that a firing squad would be a more efficient and effective deterrent.)

So, when anybody tries to tell you that Trump never accomplished anything positive for this country, just remind them of the above items.