"I'm Not Good, but I've Got Guts"

Dad passed away on Good Friday almost 40 years ago, and since that time I've vowed to teach myself to play his Ukulele.  I don't know whether he learned to play chords or simply strummed to amuse us as kids, but I loved it, and him.

About 5 yrs ago I took it to a music store to replace a broken string, and as soon as I was home and STRUMMED, it broke again.  I put it back on the shelf, but took iti down a couple months ago thinking, "Either do something or get rid of it," for I'm off to 'Jersey tomorrow to retrieve my goods in storage, finally and I've been making space for weeks.

(Photo, right: this was the 1960s, when one of the world's first supermodel Twiggy's hair was in style.  Of course I looked nothing like her plus I had braces; it was a rough pre-teen time.  Anyway, there's the uke on one of those rattan shelves popular at the time) I digressed, but even my hairdresser never heard of Twiggy, what a shame.

I debated for years how I'd paint the mahogany-colored instrument (it's not a Stradavarius), until I looked at something I'd painted which now holds my combs and brushes, painted Tiffany-style, like the gourd lampshades I made in Puerto Rico, here's a link to some more.

It's a Tempo brand, which I couldn't find online except for a mention in the Ukulele Underground Forum - someone had one and asked if anyone heard of it.

"I HAVE," I shouted excitedly but no one else had, so I joined the group but have yet to post.  The paper label was shot, and after debating painting around it, I took a picture and yanked it off.

More "Told You So's..."

This, from last June's The Emperor Has No Clothes:

"After he's emptied the jails of January 6th 'Patriots' and Rappers for Trump, he'll have room for Democratic leaders, journalists and public figures.  Then, because he'd have to face judicial consequences after he leaves office, he'll work like mad to amend or remove completely the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting the number of terms a President can hold office.  Imagine his first argument:

"They meant three terms in a row - I've had a break between mine." (Note today: that's exactly what Steve Bannon's throwing around.) To continue,

"If that doesn't work, he'll promote his sons as the rightful MAGA successors: 

"They still want to muzzle me, but I'll continue fighting for you through Don Jr., Eric and later Baron."  (Note today: Trump will never agree to the VP becoming President and then stepping aside.  Vance has too much ambition, that's evident; but we're assuming Trump keeps him the full 4 years, I doubt it. 

Here's another disturbing one, from Trump's Third Term Is Coming:

"I'm waiting for them to make Obesity a crime.  Don't be surprised when (our) excess pounds wind up on their chopping block.  It'll be under the guise of Make America Healthy Again.  Public weighings...right next to the gallows."

Did you hear or read what RFK Jr said the other day about the Governor of West Virginia needing to lose weight (about 30 lbs) while they were co-hosting some event:

"Morrisey, 57, introduced Kennedy, 70, to the stage for the event. During his speech, Kennedy began to fat-shame Gov. Morrisey, as seen in a video published by The New York Post. He made several comments about the Republican politician’s weight, even suggesting public monthly weigh-ins."

I thought they were trying to teach kids not to do that kind of thing.  Ho-hum, I've already begun my diet but if I hadn't, I'd sure get going fast. 

A Matter of Principle

The latest: the release of sensitive/classified/JUST SHOULDN'T BE OUT THERE material which Pete Hegseth and the others put out via Signal, complete with 😮😨😶's.

Well, that's what we get when television personalities are put in charge.  Reagan was an actor but at least had relatable experience between Hollywood and Pennsylvania Ave, but these guys?  The majority of rational people are saying they should have just taken responsibility and said, "Oops, our bad. Won't happen again."  Not that they wouldn't still have gotten grief, but at least we could have found a smidgen of something to admire them for: character; ethics; integrity...but what they're trying right now?  Telling us outright that they think we're STUPID ENOUGH TO BUY THEIR LAME EXCUSES

...by first passing the buck amongst themselves, then denegrating the reporter, Democrats, everybody but those responsible.  Ah, well, I'm not surprised, nor am I concerned about the possibility of them releasing any more state secrets - that's a given.  As a poor person with limited belongings, I don't have as much to lose as the rest of you when we go to war, another given.

If any one of us had made an equivalent blunder during, say, the negotiation of one of Donald Trump's real estate deals, do you suspect he'd simply shrug?  "Don't let the door hit you in the," you know the rest.  If you don't think that's true, then you're reading the wrong blog.

I've joked in the past about possibly becoming a political target, once they get around to coming after the 'little people' who disagree.  People here cheered on those in Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong and for a time, Ukraine.  How many people are languishing in prisons around the world for their political views; and will we create the same?

They're already swiping people off the streets like Stormtroopers; don't get me wrong, scary people should be deported or locked up, illegals or natural born; but six officers for one female student protestor?  Talk about Waste, Fraud and Abuse.  They said they'd be going after hardened gang members - how long did that assurance last?  Will people stand up for non-celebrities, or only cute assassins? Or will people be too afraid by that time to stand up to bullies?

What Trump really wants is the Nobel Peace Prize - that's why he's bound and determined to fix things in Ukraine and Gaza - not because he feels badly about (sic) 'all those poor people being killed'.  You see how he and his cronies took no time making money off the Presidency/our backs.

I'd really hoped that whichever incoming administration would really try to pull this country together, but all I hear when I pause on Fox is utter contempt for Democrats in general.  Every time I try to listen to what the 'other side' has to say about a particular issue, they're either denegrating Dem's or ignoring the issue completely, which immediately tells me the story's true.

Democrats are responsible for everything wrong: past, present and future. We're responsible for Teslas going up in smoke; couldn't possibly be a pissed Republican who got canned by DOGE.  Trump's following the Dictator's Playbook by directing people's anger towards a particular 'group' responsible for society's ills.  I'm sick of his Whiner-Baby rants, "It's all Biden's fault!"  They're looking around now for just the right target:  Palestinians; Trans-Genders; Medicaid Recipients.  But I think they like the way Radical Leftists plays.

I never liked being arbitrarily lumped into a group and I don't appreciate Republicans doing that with all Democrats:  we're ALL leftist radicals; we're ALL Wokes (a term they still can't define: it's awareness, particularly relating to social jutice.)  Well yes, I support tolerance; along with equality; declaring Economic Position and Property Protected Classes; and helping the Homeless and Lower Class.

God, I'm a horrible person.  Oh, you don't mean me but people like AOC and Bernie Sanders; why is that?  Who are they fighting for, those terrible radicals?  POOR PEOPLE.  That's why the current Billionaire Boys Club decry such voices - they're afraid of a rising demagogue (look it up). 

Let's See Musk's Kids (not the biological ones)

They keep talking about these 20-something 'kids' running amok in our Federal agencies, making grown workers cry - well, I want to see them!  Why aren't they being interviewed, or at least lined up as a backdrop to Musk instead of his black-capped Mini Me?  Do they even exist, or is it  another conspiracy theory? Are they Leprechauns?  Likewise the woman in charge of DOGE, on paper, at least; or is she still on vacation in Mexico? 

I realize lots of you don't care about the abrupt firings without cause or compensation, or vindictive bosses setting their sights on someone's family; happens all the time in the corporate world. Everyone's for a reduction in waste, et al;  but the government works differently than private industry, and like it or not, federal workers have protections by law to protect them from such arbitrary actions, which is why there are so many suits heading for court.  Most federal workers can earn lots more in the private sector (I certainly did), so don't be so heartless.  What goes around comes around.  What counts is we follow the LAW, silly me.

I don't particularly care about the Venezuelans being deported IF, as they claim, the deportees are indeed part of that gang, Tren de Aragua,  f___ 'em.  But since Due Process has flown out the window, how can we know?  Aren't we supposed to be Innocent until proven Guilty?  I'm no 'gang fan' but I am a fan of our basic laws as laid down in the Constitution, and this one's a biggie (from the Legal Information Institute):

The Fifth Amendment says to the federal government that no one shall be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." The Fourteenth Amendment , ratified in 1868, uses the same eleven words, called the Due Process Clause, to describe a legal obligation of all states.

Let's see how the current Administration goes around that.  Change rarely occurs overnight but gradually, like the erosion of our laws and rights.  Look at how they're splitting hairs over defying a Judge's order.  Doesn't matter whether it's one judge in some obscure place - if Trump was principled he'd have turned those planes around and filed an objection in the meantime.  Land 'em in Guantanamo, why not?

For our President to unilaterally decide which laws he'll follow and which he feels are immaterial is a dangerous thing.  After the gangs, who?  Three-strikers; the homeless; no, wait, Arabs (I just heard of the female doctor at Brown U. deported to Lebanon).  He'll sentence them to manual labor at the Gaza Riviera, like the builders of the Pyramids.  If due process is gone, what's their alternative?   

But I digress.  So who's seen these computer whiz-kids, other than people getting the axe?  And as long as we're publicizing everything about everybody, let's see their parents - are they billionaires, too?  It's only fair - they have access to everything about US.  Why don't we hear reporters asking to see these KIDS as well as proof of the overblown SAVINGS?

It's a Shell Game.  Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Dipping Chocolate to Decompress

Skype is ending in May, that makes a big difference to me.  Back when I lived on the moon outside of Medford I couldn't get any phone reception; but the Internet worked, so I bought a phone number from Skype for, I dunno, about $39 a year plus $5/month - included talk, text; plus I added long distance credit, supercheap.  A few times I did video calls with Pam in England, but then we forgot how to get our computers to talk to one another, or I did, but at least we could have long talks for next to nothing. Germany, too.

But Skype has been losing ground to Zoom, WhatsApp and others, and hard as I've looked I cannot find anything comparable in this world that I trust.  Sure, they have things called VOIP, but you have to buy equipment or pay hefty monthly fees or the people you call have to be on it, too.  One popular outfit insisted I HAD to use an App, what bullshit.

I had a simple flip phone until buying my first Smartphone last October, but I've only used it for work because Skype didn't accept 'group chats.'  If the phone rang or blipped it was nice to know who was calling, plus I didn't get SPAM calls.  It's grueling to change phone numbers on accounts, and I'm individually contacting friends of the change. I don't have that many, but at least they're real. 

After learning the news I lamented at work, "They're ending Skype!"

"I know," Lori said, "I thought of you when I first heard."

We discussed the necessity of more than one phone - did I really need it?

"I can give everyone my new number, but I hardly know how to answer the phone so I'll lose all my friends, boo hoo!"

She assured me I can overcome this but I barely know the basics.  My cousin responded to my text then we briefly spoke, but afterwards I wondered if I was screaming into the microphone so texted,

"Sorry if I yell in the phone, I have to learn."  I got an LOL response, so it must be true.

I receive four separate responses before I can type out, Thanks, I'm good, even using auto-words, how do people manage?  That's what I like about Skype - I can open my laptop and quickly type messages out using a REAL keyboard.  I can make a call, prepare a cup of coffee and when asked for prompts, my account number or whatever, I can switch screens using my mouse.

How'll I talk without my mouse?!  It's a quandry.  My head spins when I ponder future interactions with Amazon, Consumer Cellular or the banks when they instruct me to check my email (or the same phone!) for a code to verify I'm me; they'll wait. 

So after the cake pop debacle (and to distract myself from current events), last month I decided to improve my skills and signed up for a Chocolate Dipping class.   Upon arrival I regretted not taking my camera, forgetting that's what phones are for; for awaiting each pupil was an assortment of goodies and fondue pots with already-melting chocolate, one dark and one milk, to share between dipping partners.  Mine was a nice young fellow who'd wanted some tips before tackling cake pops for his son's birthday, but the class was delayed by snow so he muddled through his like I did mine.

The layout was beautiful:  each (raw) tray filled with strawberries; grapes; pretzel sticks; gummy worms; Oreos, Nutter Butters; dried apricots, banana slices and other weird stuff; marhmallows; biscotti; and rippled potatoe chips, those were really good.  We brought our own whisks and coffee mug (to hold the whisk) and two cookie sheets each.  Of course I also brought parchment paper, Tupperware containers, an apron and a few other things - I always overpack.

There were 5 of us dipping, chatting and laughing, but looking around I noticed everyone else was carefully twirling their fruit with panache while letting excess chocolate drip back into the fondue pot.  Me, I dunked and dropped, alternating between the tray and my mouth but hell, people liked them all the same.  The class went home with 2 large and 2 larger bars of chocolate for homework.

The other day, Lori sent me a Skype text:

"you're famous"

"Famous?"  I assumed an auto-word flub.

"your pic is in a magazine"

"As long as it's not me knocking some kid off their bike," everyone has a phone.

 "its a very good happy picture," bless her.

One of the residents had brought in the latest community college pamphlet stuffed in mail boxes, I was tickled.  The class was 1-1/2 hours, but we were pretty much finished and cleaning up in an hour.  Everyone had a good time and the instructor kept us engaged.  The main points I remember is NOT to allow a single drop of water into the chocolate or it'll fall apart or something; and choc. covered strawberries must be eaten within 24 hrs because they ooze pectin (?) and that, too, will make the chocolate disintegrate. 

MY point is, sign yourself up for a silly class.  It's fun to play in the sandbox again.

But oh, damn, I need to take my own advice - does using my cell phone mean I can't talk to Miguel in Puerto Rico without incurring charges and minutes?  I haven't had to worry about phone bills for ages and if I'm not careful I'll rack up a bundle.  Better look back into that 'App only' outfit which offers free int'l calling, but oh, I'll be too embarassed to tell people I have the old number after all, where's that chocolate?

Left Out of Trump's Promises

I love the way politicians talk about 'a little disruption' in our lives caused by Trump's flip-flopping policies.  This post is written from lower down the economic ladder than most of the people I know, but I have to get this out of my system: I'm definitely feeling left out of any economic 'boom' Humpty's promising.

Let's start with Social Security:  you've heard them talking about removing the income tax, that sounds pretty good.  Except that won't help me, because Social Security below a certain amount doesn't get taxed anyway.  Now before you Harrumph, I receive about $1100 a month, I make due; and compared to many that's quite a bit, so I can't complain. But I still think we all need to get together and advocate for economic equality based on sex;  it would certainly help me now.  Let's force our politicians to pass a law to adjust women's retirement incomes to equal their male counterparts.  What are the chances?

My SNAP benefits will likely be negatively affected, possibly by 25%, if their math's correct.  Back down to about $5 a day for food, can you do that?  I've learned to.  When food prices are only expected to rise further?  Yeah, that makes sense.  No comment on Medicaid at this time.

If we're supposedly helping ALL Americans, doesn't that include people like me? I haven't heard anything about offering the neediest anything other than CUT CUT CUT to services. I also don't hear anything about low-income housing (affordable housing is different) but then why would I possibly want to live in a structure which doesn't rust?  The color's so nice. Some of this may be news to you for you're focused on your own necks, I get it.  This is merely informative.

Here's a prediction I made last June about Trump's future efforts to remain in power:

"...Because he'd have to face judicial consequences after he leaves office, he'll work like mad to amend or remove completely the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting the number of terms a President can hold office.  Imagine his first argument:

"They meant three terms in a row - I've had a break between mine."

If that doesn't work, he'll promote his sons as the rightful MAGA successors.

"They still want to muzzle me, but I'll continue fighting for you through Don Jr., Eric and later Baron."

Don Jr. is announcing his 2028 Presidential run - isn't that one of today's headlines?

I also predicted bounties for illegals, sort of:

"Deportations have quickly shifted from Dangerous Criminals to "and any other illegals" who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Good, you say? Will you also be one of those who reports on their neighbors and families...after they proclaim that anyone who KNOWS of an Illegal Alien but fails to report them will be subject to arrest, or an even better incentive: FINED."

How many missed this (in fairness, I had, when I wrote my piece in January):

"In Missouri, Republican Senator David Gregory introduced SB72 late last year and at the legislative session held by the Public Safety Committee on January 27. “If an illegal alien is arrested and imprisoned  under this section as a result of a report to the information system, the person who made the report shall be eligible to receive a reward of one thousand dollars,” the proposal states. If the tip turns out to be accurate, the arrested person would be charged with “trespass by an illegal alien” and subject to life in prison without probation, parole or release of any kind unless federal immigration authorities take custody to deport the individual."

Here's today's prediction:  they're going to re-introduce Debtor's Prison at some point, I just know it.  

It's all quite overwhelming to me.  Serving the Ukranian people up like Christians in the arena because Zelensky didn't do what Trump wanted years ago concerning Hunter Biden's laptop, come on.  I don't know a single Democrat who feels our party has a sense of direction and we're all feeling sick; and if they don't do something soon...

Well, at least I'll have my Ace - I finally ordered a copy of my Polish Grandfather's immigration record, which, because Poland had been carved up so didn't officially exist, Grandpa's listed as a Russian from Russia.  I said it might come in handy.  I'm picking up the Faberge Egg next month, read Dear Pres. Putin.