Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Municipal Violations (HBO)

How municpalities fill coffers from fees on top of fines.

Ronnie Raygunz: Contra-diction

For the young among you who haven't learned history and thus might unwittingly or even wittingly repeat it, St. Ronald Wilson Raygun, a minor B list Prez ruling in a time of change held strong anti-terror views--until of course he needed money for his terrorists--the Nicaraugan Contras--so St Ronnie sold US weapons to still other terrorists in Iran.

Therein lies a lesson how checks and balances of hte US Constitution ought to work but did not in this case

Saint Ronald Wilson Reagan, aka. Grandpa Caligula, Teflon Ron, or Ronnie Raygun (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was a god aong men B-movie actor with a long career.
If you want to know how the United States transformed into an international laughingstock in the course of 30 years, here's a pretty good place to start. http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan

(Suck on that, ron.)

Inside Amy Schumer - The Universe - Uncensored

Hit Him Again!

Kick Him While He's Down!  You go girl!

Although some, according to Huffpost, speculated this video stems from a drama enacted for our viewing pleasere, nevertheless having seen many such douchebags act like that in my bar going years, loved seeing the way waitress just put this guy on his ass.

He deserved it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/25/russian-waitress-groped_n_7439204.html

Holy Over Reaction, Batman: Sheriff calls SWAT team on homeless man with food

[By Mike Denison,     Palm Beach Post Staff
A Florida sheriff brought in an armored truck, helicopter, dozens of deputies and even SWAT members on a man presumed to be armed and dangerous.

What they found was a sleeping homeless man with a bag of food, the Miami Herald reports.

Manatee County sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow told the Herald that law enforcement saw what they thought could be a weapon. It was a bottle of wine in a bag.]
Report: Sheriff calls SWAT team on homeless man with food

Man charged for assault with a deadly Whopper.

Steve Earle Makes Me Feel Awright

No typo in the title, just my feelin'.  Now, to the bar.  Where did you hide the good whiskey?

Tallying the Dead of World War 2

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/24/video-world-war-ii-s-hellish-numbers.html

Reality of Memorial Day

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/19/memorial-day_n_7314836.html

Republican Jesus

Starbucks: Over roasted coffee with tons of calories & chemicals

You will get better coffee if you grind your own beans, get a stove top espresso maker, and a decent coffee machine.  (Death to Keurig.)

Bob Dylan : "The Night We Called It a Day" - David Letterman

Raw: Atlas V rocket launch carrying mini-shuttle

Raw: Atlas V rocket launch carrying mini-shuttle

Marco Rubio: The dog ate my homework

Look, these toads and trolls keep flubbing an easy question.  Should the United States have spent trillions of dollars and shed the blood of our young men and women over lies cooked up like rhetorical metheamphetimine by neo-conservative idiots?

The question seems practically inevitable; everyone on Earth new it would come except for the Republican'ts running for President.

Actually watching  Marco Rubio flounder and flail while trying to answer this question gives hours of enjoyment, fun for the whole family.

Every sentient being deems the war a catastrophic failure, except for a handful of dead end neocons, W., President Cheney, and Ron Roby.  Facts won't change their mind; so watch and enjoy Mr Still Wet Behind the Ears Rubio go down in flames.

Taylor Swift: Just Because

Must admit I protested as the Taylor Swift juggernaut gathered steam and laid waste to the land, considered her just another pop princess with vapid and cheesy songs about lost loves.

Then, a funny thing happened; she grew up and embraced feminism.  She embraced and became a proponent of girl power and feminism.  Girl grew up.

Now consider her music as deeper exploration of the human condition, relationships as essential existential philosophical questions, except for me and my lone wolf life: ".... because that's what fascinates me more than anything else — love and what it does to us and how we treat people and how they treat us."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearless_(Taylor_Swift_album)

Indeed, interpersonal connections form the basis of human experience.  So watching Ms. Swift grow, from country singer ingenue to existential feminist philosopher, has looked like quite a ride.  Who knows what kind of dept her songs will have when she turns 30?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcIy9NiNbmo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

JEB! Bush Advised by only Man on Earth Less Qualified than Himself

As God is my witness, sometimes you see stuff on news so catastrophically ironic as to make you spit beer out your nose.

John Ellis Bush--known as JEB! because these patrician Phillips pricks with old $ and US Senator grandfathers want gullible public to believe them men of the people despite helping the Nazis and creating better humans by pseudo science of eugenics, while believing family money and castle type Maine summer compound makes him above questioning from we commoners, the rabble, the hoi polloi--picked the only man on the planet with less knowledge of the world as a foreign policy adviser, George W. Bush.

W., the figurehead President, let real President Cheney talk him into a disastrous military misadventure in Iraq, which practically guaranteed the long suppressed Shia majority would align itself with Shia Iran and got hired as foreign policy

The insurgency that ensued after initial combat operation robbed the invasion of success. Today, the United States has less influence in Baghdad than Iran does. Iraq is a Shia-dominated state with an alienated Sunni minority, rampant violence and virtually no control over the Kurdish north. At least 134,000 Iraqis died as a direct result of the American invasion, and the violence there continues. 

Violent Salafists from Syria and elsewhere have swept through the Sunni areas of Iraq, routing the Iraqi army, seizing important cities and declaring an Islamist caliphate. (emphasis added)

As a result of the evil intentions of President Cheney (actually the power behind the puppet W.), the entire Mideast has turned into a chaotic mess, as cataloged by the foreign correspondent of the London Independent, Robert Fisk:

Let me try to get this right. The Saudis are bombing Yemen because they fear the Shia Houthis are working for the Iranians. The Saudis are also bombing Isis in Iraq and the Isis in Syria. So are the United Arab Emirates. The Syrian government is bombing its enemies in Syria and the Iraqi government is also bombing its enemies in Iraq. America, France, Britain, Denmark, Holland, Australia and – believe it or not – Canada are bombing Isis in Syria and Isis in Iraq, partly on behalf of the Iraqi government (for which read Shia militias) but absolutely not on behalf of the Syrian government. 

The Jordanians and Saudis and Bahrainis are also bombing Isis in Syria and Iraq because they don’t like them, but the Jordanians are bombing Isis even more than the Saudis after their pilot-prisoner was burned to death in a cage. The Egyptians are bombing parts of Libya because a group of Christian Egyptians had their heads chopped off by what might – notionally – be the same so-called Islamic State, as Isis refers to itself. The Iranians have acknowledged bombing Isis in Iraq – of which the Americans (but not the Iraqi government) take a rather dim view. And of course the Israelis have several times bombed Syrian government forces in Syria but not Isis (an interesting choice, we’d all agree). Chocks away!

It amazes me that all these warriors of the air don’t regularly crash into each other as they go on bombing and bombing. (emphasis added)

Meanwhile back in America, John Ellis Bush has changed his answer on the last Iraq war 4 days in a row, finally aligning himself with the prevailing winds of public opinion.  Nevertheless, he still manages to pack 2 lies into 1 sentence, as analyzed by Michael Tomasky, chief among them that following false intelligence led to war with Iraq.

The painful truth remains the neoconservative Republican chickenhawks had a fixation on oil in Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein.  Johnny Bush has many of the very same ideologues who cooked up false intelligence as his advisers, those who ignored solid reports that Hussein had no nuclear weapons, those that dreamed up Weapons of Mass Destruction like advertising copy to sell the war to American people, to make us forget those who would bear the true costs of war: US troops killed, maimed, in wheelchairs, and missing limbs, and last but not least over 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians.

He couldn't even answer question of a Young Democrat college student on whether he supported the decision to go to war over non-existent nuclear weapons in Iraq, a decision that led to death of 4809 United States troops over a lie, over a damnable lie.  Then as a Republican cickenhawk piece o' crap, Johnny! modifed over 4 days his stand on the central foreign policy issue of our time, his brother's failed war, finally falling back on the metaphor of last resort, respect for our troops.

Then he tried to walk it back. He “interpreted the question wrong,” and isn’t interested in engaging “hypotheticals.” Anyway, “going back in time”is a “disservice” to those who   Who served in the war.

Take a moment to savor the cowardice and vileness of that last remark. And, no, that’s not hyperbole. Mr. Bush is trying to hide behind the troops, pretending that any criticism of political leaders — especially, of course, his brother, the commander in chief — is an attack on the courage and patriotism of those who paid the price for their superiors’ mistakes.  (Emphasis added to highlight hypocrisy of JEB!)

John Ellis' list of advisers looks like recycling the same colossal failures from previous Bush administrations.  One just awaits the eventual hiring of the "dumbest fuckng guy on the planet." Douglas J. Feith.

Who one hires indicates how one will govern.

Why should we, the Ameican people, subject ourselves to another Bush administration?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/13/politics/jeb-bush-iraq-2016/

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/meet-jeb-bushs-new-foreign-policy-adviser-his-brother


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/09/jeb-bush-religious-freedom_n_7247922.html

The Lord Must Have the Blues; "Blues Boy" King Called Home

The blues got pregnant, and they called the child rock and roll, someone once said.

Support a Central Florida Person

For the life of me, simply fail to fathom why otherwise reasonable people choose to go into a "game" where they will face near starvation, broiling heat, and betrayal and calumny from all sides.

Also fail to get why I occasionally watch, watching middle class folk face food insecurity, getting to feel hunger pains many children (20%, 1 out of every 5 children) feel when schools closed and they have no access to subsidized food.

Watching makes me feel guilty, especially as weasel in chief, Jeff Probst, presides over ever more cruel "challenges" like a modern day Caligula.  How far can reality teevee shows go before someone dies, captured in colour of course by gopro cameras, Naked and Afraid indeed: producer surviving a snake bite,and last but most gross a maggot infested buttcrack.  And on the must look at wrecks on the highway principle, "Maggot Ass" Jeff gives us the inside poop on the Madagascar episode.

God help me, feel like a horrible person for ever watching the show.  That puts me on the same moral plane as bloodthirsty Romans in the Coliseum watching Christians get torn to shreds.  We dress up these bloodthirsty urges by calling them reality TV or American football, the latter certainly cut from same cloth as watching gladiators slay each other, if not actually a more honest endeavour than our own form of modern atavistic spectacles.

Nevertheless to my credit, managed to go 15 years without ever watching American Idol.  Once, even crawled across broken glass on floor of my apartment to get to teevee remote to switch channels before the show came on; lost lots of blood but kept my streak intact.  Thank teevee gods it has gotten cancelled with but a swan song to go.

So why a fellow University of  West Bithlo graduate wants to go back on Survivor escapes me, but am going to vote for Monica Padilla; plus, this gives me chance to post first blog bikini pic.

Remember, vote now, vote often, and women folk, y'all can choose your favorite male returnee to Survivor.

Monica Padilla, UCF grad, practicing attorney.

George Clooney Makes a Real Movie?

Trailer for this movie, Tomorrowland looks really cool.  Sure, Gravity with Clooney won several Academy Awards, including Cinematography and Directing but Clooney's part kind of penciled in as One Who Makes Heroic Sacrifice So Lead Lives.  Really, the part gave him no room to really act.

While movie trailers designed to pique one's interest, nevertheless perhaps it shows Mr. Amal Clooney gets to show some acting chops in this movie by showing a panoply of emotions: some heroic, some humourous, even as action hero.

Honestly just joyful trailer shows He Who Never Ages with gray hair at his temples.  Made me feel better 'bout my decrepit self.

Time humbles all if you live through your youth.

Did someone ask for more Lttle Steven?

Recognize the rhythm guitarist?  Look up Jean Beauvoir.

Cecily Strong at the 2015 White House Correspondents' Dinner

Moms' Day: "A Surprisingly Dark History"

Nevertheless: [But the holiday has more somber roots: It was founded for mourning women to remember fallen soldiers and work for peace. And when the holiday went commercial, its greatest champion, Anna Jarvis, gave everything to fight it, dying penniless and broken in a sanitarium.

It all started in the 1850s, when West Virginia women's organizer Ann Reeves Jarvis—Anna's mother—held Mother's Day work clubs to improve sanitary conditions and try to lower infant mortality by fighting disease and curbing milk contamination, according to historian Katharine Antolini of West Virginia Wesleyan College. The groups also tended wounded soldiers from both sides during the U.S. Civil War from 1861 to 1865.

In the postwar years Jarvis and other women organized Mother's Friendship Day picnics and other events as pacifist strategies to unite former foes. Julia Ward Howe, for one—best known as the composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"—issued a widely read "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1870, calling for women to take an active political role in promoting peace.

Around the same time, Jarvis had initiated a Mother's Friendship Day for Union and Confederate loyalists across her state. But it was her daughter Anna who was most responsible for what we call Mother's Day—and who would spend most of her later life fighting what it had become.]  emphasis added because the celebration of modern commercial "Mothers' Day" has become a crass capitalist exploitation of the original concept.  Imagine that crass commercializing in America!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140508-mothers-day-nation-gifts-facts-culture-moms

Have Gun Will Travel: "Never Help the Devil"

We usually help the devil ourselves.  Which perhaps explains why Paladin has become my role model.

Food Revolution Day

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: "Who's Gonna Stand Up & Save the Earth?"

"Who's Gonna Say She's Had Enough?"

Blind Boys of Alabama: "Way Down in the Hole"

Uncle Neil Part Deux

More of Willie Nelson's sons and uncle Neil Young

Earth as Seen by Apollo 17 Crew

http://www.wftv.com/gallery/news/national/photos-amazing-nasa-photos-through-years/gCSY8/#7222889

Beatles Cover Dylan, Bob.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/flashback-the-beatles-play-a-bit-of-dylans-rainy-day-women-20150505


Bob Dylan does Dylan, Bob

Google Doodle Honors Ladies, Nelly Bly

[In 1880, the Pittsburgh Dispatch published an article titled "What Girls Are Good For.” In dismissive terms, the column’s author wrote that women shouldn't be allowed to work because their place was at home.

Days later, a pseudonymous rebuttal appeared in the paper. The response, by a 16-year-old girl whose real name was Elizabeth Jane Cochran, argued how important it was for women to be independent and self-reliant. Within a decade, the author of that response would become known worldwide as Nellie Bly: a hard-hitting young journalist who went undercover at a lunatic asylum and traveled around the world in a record-breaking 72 days.]

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/05/what-girls-are-good-for-happy-birthday.html

To Boldly Brew Espresso Where No One Has Brewed Before

[In case you're wondering, that cup Italian astronaut Sam Cristoforetti is drinking from is designed for use in zero-gravity (and, yes, she is wearing a Star Trek uniform top to go with her reference to the show). NASA pointed out last week in a blog post that six such cups are aboard the ISS — and their job, as the agency puts it, is "more than [to] lift espresso to astronauts' lips."]
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/05/04/404241117/space-shot-italian-astronaut-boldly-brews-espresso-on-space-station

Pic from Eyetalian astronauts twitter feed cause US just sent her an espresso machine which works in zero gravity.  Try that, Keurig!

Then of course, NASA had to continue in typical geek fashion: ""It will also provide data on the passive movement of complex fluids as part of the Capillary Beverage investigation. The results will confirm and direct math models that help engineers exploit capillary fluid physics (capillary fluidics) to control how liquids move by designing containers specific to the task at hand."

Geezum crow, Star Wars geeks have ruined everything

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/boldly-brew-italian-astronaut-sips-first-espresso-space-n353331

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/05/04/404241117/space-shot-italian-astronaut-boldly-brews-espresso-on-space-station

My Niece Graduates!

My eldest niece Helen--and others but mostly Helen--graduating from the University of Florida, off to Austin, TX for grad school as a Longhorn.

You go, girl, a female engineer.

Willie's Sons and Uncle Neil

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-readies-new-album-tour-with-willie-nelsons-sons-20150420


Farm Aid

"The Avengers, Age of Ultron" trailer

WOW! Double WOW even!!

Is Nothng Sacred?

[TAMPA, Florida (AP) - If it wasn't for the loud parties, the owner of a $2 million mansion in northwest Hillsborough County might have continued operating a training school for strippers next door to an exclusive gated community.

The Tampa Tribune reports the all-night, liquor-fueled celebrations, complete with booming stereos and screaming women, drew complaints from neighbors.

Code violations and a misdemeanor criminal charge have been leveled against the mansion's owner and manager, but county officials want to make sure the violations don't recur....]  (emphasis added)
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2015/04/15/school-for-strippers-shut-down/25817415/

(I miss T town)

Rooting Against Mayweather

10 pm Florida time and figger fight just starting.  Took a while to analyze my feelings, and while thinking boxer more likely to win against a puncher--a classic contest--have visceral feeling 'bout this bout.

I don't want a woman beater winning.

"The first known incident came in 2001....," it says in USA Today.

More incidents followed, including those against Josie Harris, who also spoke out bravely.  It takes lots of guts for a battered woman to speak up, a courageous thing to do.

For the love of God, Mayweather beat Harris while their children watched; "In the early hours of Sept. 9, 2010, Mayweather brutally beat Josie Harris as their children watched."  (emphasis added)

Big man beating a woman.

In decades passed, we used to ignore violence against women.  The time has come to say No More!

NO MORE!

Little Steven and the Disciples of Soul: "Justice"

Here's looking at you, Ron Roby.

Remember this, Will I Am?  Used to wear you out with this vinyl.  Still got it--and the record too.

Rolling Stones: "Angie"

C'mon, just had to remind y'all of.......

World Naked Gardening Day:

https://allnudist.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/world-naked-gardening-day-may-2-2015/
(Found courtesy Marci A. on Facebook, and i shamelessly stole it.)

Mad Max Lives

Stones: "My Sweet Neocon" and "Gimme Shelter"

Stones do politics, "You call yourself a Chris-tea-ian."

Ironically, Jr today resumed bike ride with veterans wounded in wars Pres. Cheney started one necessary and one of naked aggression.

Thanks, Tomás Morales Cerda.

Stones: "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" (Early Version)

"It's the shoes!"

Shoes worn by Dante Fowler, former Florida Gator, at NFL draft.