Putin's Puppet

And another sunny day is in store for us here in Central PA!  Once again our afternoon high is going to be in the mid 60s (F).  This is perfect autumn weather.  Leaves are slowly beginning to change color.  The air is not quite crisp yet.  We need to enjoy it while it lasts.

Yesterday retail was slow.  That doesn't mean I wasn't working.  There is a "store walk" with the regional vice president on Tuesday, so those associates not helping customers are tasked with making the store look like it's opening day.  I've been through these before, in fact I've experienced a "walk" by a corporate vice president, even having a small conversation with her.  The real issue is that every store manager within driving distance will show up for "the walk," as will every store manager in training, and anyone with aspirations of climbing up the corporate ladder.  This means there will be about 125 people meandering up and down the aisles.  These are the people who will whisper among themselves about the empty spots on shelves and overall store appearance.  There was a time when I cared, but now?  What the hay?  I'm not even scheduled to work on Tuesday.

Last night was my hometown's Halloween parade.  Usually there's an easy detour around it, however, that detour was closed because of road construction.  Normally it's a 16 minute drive from the store to my house.  Last night it took almost 45 minutes to get home.

A bit about the Lindsey Graham sex revelation that was not so much of a revelation.  Had it been about Josh Hawley?  That would have been an explosive revelation.  I don't know who  thought this news was going to shatter the voters in South Carolina, but most of the people down there are shrugging it off.  One of the sex workers was seventeen years old.  It's not like Lindsey corrupted some fresh faced school boy, the young man was a sex worker.  This news is not going to rock the midterm elections.

So, Orangie had another one of his rallies last evening, this one in Sioux City, Iowa.  He doesn't really speak any more, he rambles.  Once again, there were the hecklers.  He also glitched 3 times, twice making odd noises and once simply standing there with his mouth open.  Last week there was a video of him leaving the stage and walking past his car, heading towards a field.  His dementia is growing more and more apparent.  What we really need to start doing is asking loudly, just who's running the government?  Who's making the decisions?  I suspect he truly is Putin's puppet, with Vlad's orders coming through various sources, Witkoff, Miller, and Rubio, to name a few.  This administration's policy is clearly aimed at aligning us with Russia.  You can bet that this pleases Vlad to no end.

And evidently there are a lot of people in the Department of Defense who want Hegseth gone.  Tick, tock.  Tick, tock.

Rally Fights and Hecklers

I know this might be difficult to believe, but our outside time is 57 (F).  That's warm for an October morning.  Our high this afternoon is predicted to be in the upper 60s (F), that's fine.  There's little moderation in the long range forecast without any rain until the beginning of November.

Yesterday was another cleaning day, including the aquarium.  I actually spent very little time looking at social media.  This timeline is too distracting.  It's become an excuse to not do what should be done, like writing the words.  This doesn't mean I wasn't looking for an excuse.  I had lunch with one of my local editors a few weeks back, and while the conversation was pleasant, it was obvious to me that he wasn't too pleased with the first 9 chapters of the new book.  Shit!  This doesn't mean I didn't know what the problem was, I just needed someone to put into words what I didn't want to admit to myself.  In a book titled The Body in the Words, there were just too many words.  Let me clarify that.  There was too much exposition. So I printed off the first 60 + pages, grabbed my red ink pen, and started cutting.  I was reminded of a scene in Amadeus where the emperor says, "there are too many notes," and since I'm not Mozart, I fully agreed with the emperor.  Words were cut.  

I work this afternoon.  It will be interesting to see if business has picked up.  On Monday, people were beginning to buy their Halloween decorations.  I'm interested in seeing if that trend is still holding.  Our display was a lot smaller this year.  The same is true with our Christmas display.

And evidently Orangie had one of his "heckle me hoot-nanny's" last evening in South Carolina.  In between hecklers, and there were 12, he brought Darlene Graham Nardone up on stage for a few seconds.

Evidently Deeny's not that popular with the voters of South Carolina and Orangie thought he'd help by going and talking about himself.  This is, I believe, the 2nd rally at which punches were thrown.  Protesters now seem to be mandatory when ever he tries to fill half a gymnasium.  He claims they're paid to protest.  Me?  I think these are people who simply hate that bitter, old man.

There are also reports of voting issues in Tennessee, with votes defaulting to the Republican candidates.  This wouldn't surprise me, since the Republican motto has always been, if in doubt, cheat.

And Elonia is really beginning to freak out.  Countries are dropping his Starlink.  Here in the US, both Republicans and Democrats are calling for an investigation into his manipulating the service.  People are realizing that it's bad for some ketamine addicted wack-doodle to have the power to turn the internet off.  I wonder if Elonia understands that if he does that, Wall Street will crash.  Probably not.  That little nugget of comprehension might be too big for addled brain to grasp.