Those Sunshiney Smiles

I am approaching the middle of my work week.  Yeah.  After today I'll be on that downhill slide.  Three days off!  Of course, there is always sobering reality to take the sunshiney smile from my face.  Following that 3 days, I get to work for 6. Then I'm scheduled to have 2 days off... followed by another 6 day stretch.  Groan.

Business is beginning to slow down - except for appliances.  We're running a good sale, though if you decide to purchase one that sunshiney smile will probably slide off you face when you hear how long you'll have to wait for delivery of your new washer, or dryer, or refrigerator (we don't talk about freezers).  Right now think late October or early November, unless you happen to be buying one of the extremely expensive models.  You can get one of those in about 2 weeks mostly because no one wants to spend $5000 for a refrigerator.  Damn.

In case you've were under a rock yesterday, you know by now Bobby Woodward has been releasing snippets from his upcoming book "Rage."  Of course, none of it is going to make the Idiot Jerk in the White House look... (dear, what is the correct word?)... (perhaps a phrase?)... like anything less then the evil, despotic tinfoil dictator he desperately wants to be. (Did I get it right?).  One of the mini-headlines I saw was "Kayleigh (I'm never going to lie to you) McEnamy lies he way through a very difficult press briefing."  That happy, sunshiney smile had been wiped from her face before she even opened her mouth.

Quite a number of people have been using these revelations in an attempt to evaluate the Idiot Jerk's mental reasoning.  Is he madder than a hatter?  Or just evil.  One of the most intriguing was in the Washington Post.  The idea here is that he lies just to get through a bad news cycle.  Yeah, he knew Covid was going to lead to bad press, so... he lied about it.  Yeah, that's right.  He was worried the terrible truth was going to wipe those sunshiney smiles off the faces of his loyal base.  Not only did he say nothing, he verbally attacked Governors and Mayors who attempted to slow down the spread.  This is what we've come to expect from the heart and soul of the Republican Party.

And finally, my roses are blooming... again.  Now, tell me these don't bring a sunshiney smile to your face?

Censored!

Here it is, Tuesday, my 2nd day off and the rain has not stopped.  Oh, yeah,  it's only a drizzle right now... but then it was only a drizzle most of yesterday... and it's supposed to be only a drizzle until sometime Thursday.  Oh, and don't think Thursday's supposed be clear and sunny.  No way, the forecast is for heavy clouds and high humidity... and then it starts to rain... again.  The eastern seaboard of the United States is turning into a rain forest, no doubt the result of global warming.
I had to email a copy of my POA for my Mom to Pinnacle Health yesterday so I could get her billing address changed.  They mailed a $1750 bill for her last hospital vacation to her senior living address - I got page 2... yep, only page 2.  That's pretty good when you take into account she's 85 and has dementia.
"Fear" comes out today.  For those who don't know (?) "Fear" is a tidy, little expose by a gent named Bob Woodward who has made quite a career of gathering nuggets of truth about presidents and their administrations.  He provided tasty morsels on George W which provided much insight into how a feeble minded, Crazy Christian struggles to survive.  Yeah, that's the tome in which W says he "talks to his higher Father."  Oops.  Of course, we know the Idiot Jerk has no 'higher Father.'  There is no one being in the known (and unknown) universe who is smarter than he, which is why Crazy Christians love him so much.  He has become their surrogate deity.
Today we honor those who died during the attack on the World Trade Center.  Many died in those attacks.  Many, many more died afterwards in a war 'W' chose to wage against a poor, Muslim country.  None of those attackers came from Iraq.  Fifteen of them came from Saudi Arabia, a very wealthy Muslim country, which, interestingly enough, is not part of the Idiot Jerk's travel ban.  When money talks, the Idiot Jerk listens.  Think of him as this fat, ugly pole dancer with orange/yellow plastic hair.  Your average Joe watching him might get a jiggle of cellulose, he only rolls down his G-string for the big tippers, like those high rolling, Saudi princes and kings.

PICTURE OF IDIOT JERK IN A G-STRING CENSORED

On a lighter note, I did buy 2 new throw rugs for the dining room.  Originally priced at $99 each, I bought them when they went on clearance:  $25.03 each.

The pattern is a bit unattractive, but the quality is fairly good.  At that price they're throw-a-ways, good for maybe 3 or 4 years (big dogs, you know).  They're nice, though I will admit the color palette in the center is not one I'd have chosen:  black, and red, and gold, and grey, and some sort of off taupe color.  Still, a deal's a deal.  

The Axiom... repeated.

Today is go back to work day for me... I'm not excited.
Yesterday I checked my 401K.  Once a year I'm allowed to transfer funds tax free into a safer place, where the stock market will have little to no effect on my savings.  No, I don't convert it to cash and hide it in my mattress, if that's what you're thinking.  Interestingly enough, while everybody is crowing about how great the stock market is, since April, my 401K is down 2.26%.  The only funds there are the ones being deducted from my paycheck.  Matching funds from my company have all been lost.  Okay, so what's wrong with this picture?  Maybe the economy isn't quite as good as Republicans say it is.  Sure, unemployment is down, but where's the money!  Show me the money!
And, of course, the Idiot Jerk in the White House is doing flaming cartwheels over Bob Woodward's book.  Can we talk about salty nuggets which leave you wanting more... and more.  I might actually buy it, you know?  As I was reading little snippets yesterday, all I could do was laugh.  If this thing is even halfway true, it makes dysfunctional look downright normal.
At the same time, I was horrified at how reprehensible the Republican Party has become.  They support this monstrosity of humanity simply because he gives them what they want.  Their hatred for America has never been so obvious.  They want a Republican dictatorship, and he is only too happy to oblige.  Except he, very, very unpopular.
For those who have never heard it, I'm going to repeat Dave's Axiom..  "A popular president can move the country to either the left, or the right and the public will go along with him.  An unpopular president, trying to force the country to either the left, or the right, will move the public in the opposite direction."  His disapproval rating pretty much sits at 60%.  Almost 2/3's of the country believe this Idiot Jerk is totally unfit to be president.  They want him out of the office.  Believe me, he will be gone sooner than you think.
On a lighter note, I started playing Skyrim again.  This is probably my fourth play through, though I don't know if I'll finish.  Mostly it's to hold me over until the next Assassin's Creed comes out.  From the reviews I've been seeing, that game is going to be simply spectacular.  They're saying the story is over 100 hours longs.  That's simply amazing.  Here's some game play with Alexios on the island of  Lesbos.

Hot, right?  Really Hot.  This is where he fights Melania, you know?   Chick with the snakes in her hair... wait, you're telling me Melania doesn't have snakes in her hair.  Then it must be that other chick... Medusa.

Bob Woodward's temper tantrum.

There seems to be quite a bit of finger pointing going on right now between Bob Woodward and the White House.  Just what it's about, I don't really know.  Personally, I suspect it's just Woodward throwing a petulant, little fit.  Why do I say this?  The more I read about him the more I understand how there is something in his ego which shrieks "I need to be an icon... no, I need to be something more!"  Just like pop musicians who know the need of having a good hook to sell a song, he knows he needs to have a good line to hook an audience.  Unfortunately for him, however, ever since the Bush administration his writing seems to be more "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."  I became aware of this way back when in one of his books about Bush he quoted the president as saying "I go to my higher father for advice," or something like that.  I remember the first time I read that all I could say was Holy Shit.  I was so surprised Bob Woodward was pandering to the Republican base.  For quite some time after that, it seemed as if you couldn't turn on the television without seeing Woodward's smiling face.  I'm sure he sold quite a few books to social conservatives who, up until that point, never gave him a second thought.  It was at that moment I realized he was less concerned about journalism then he was with ego.

Not really invited to the party

While he has published "Obama's Wars," it wouldn't surprise me if this administration is not as Woodward friendly as he wants it to be.  Of course, Bush was only popular among his base where as Obama has an obvious consensus among a majority of the voters.  Bush needed Woodward, Obama doesn't.  There's a party going on in the White House and Bob wasn't invited as the guest of honor, more like the busboy.  Now there is this little, pissy shit war going on between Woodward and and the White House. Dig deep enough and I suspect you'll find the root cause is the small bones the administration has been throwing to him.  One hundred years from now Bob Woodward does not want to be one more forgotten journalist, just a foot note in time.