December 25, 2021

Alta, Utah ski area can't run lift due to Covid

Alta Ski Area outside Salt Lake City Utah can’t run it’s Wildcat lift due to an outbreak of Covid among their staff.

Many ift operators and other employees live in employee housing at the ski area in dormitory style accommodations, with two or more to a room, and shared shower and lavatory facilities. A quickly spreading Covid outbreak has affected so many employees that they are unable to staff the Wildcat Lift, one of two main lifts that take skiers from the base of the ski area up the mountain.

Tickets at alta are $179.00 per day. No discount is being offered. The parking lot ($25 for day skiers, reservations required) is full. Lift lines are long.

Tickets at Aspen Snowmass in Colorado are $204.00. Tickets at Deer Valley, near Park City, Utah are $249 per day.

December 19, 2021

He seeks money to insulate from the future

Let’s face it. The future looks grim. Climate catastrophe, the break down of civil order, vigilante terrorism in towns across this country and hot wars breaking out in Eastern Europe and Asia. Money, big money, and favors from powerful friends may insulate The very wealthy from a lot of that. Joe is wealthy but not thousand-acre-ranch in Montana wealthy. Not owns-most-of a Hawaiian island wealthy. He wants to get as close to that as he can and this is his way of doing it.

November 24, 2021

Democratic message? We're for the little guy!

Here’s a message to pound again and again: we’re for the little guy!

Which means we’ve got to be for the little guy. Me, for instance. You.

I used to be a middle class guy. Lots of us are in the same boat. But lately we’re just hanging on.

Which makes us fodder for a populist message

Unfortunately, tfg was the last guy to go there. It worked. His handlers took the message from FDR, the last American populist who harnessed that energy, slightly repurposed it, then sold it to the disgruntled.

FDR called out the powers that be, bankers, oil barrons, steel , transportation barron’s. He called them enemies of the little guy. Every little guy who heard that knew was telling their truth, knew that he understood and was validating their reality.

All Biden and company need to do is stand for the little guy and point to/attack the big guy.

Less than 1% of Americans possess 90% of the wealth. Say it again and again. That imbalance is visceral. People get it!

FDR called out the oil companies and the oligarchs of the time. The little guy rallied to him

Should Biden follow FDRs blueprint we win. Follow some moderate path and we get our asses kicked by the rights ass kicking brand of populism.

October 31, 2021

We're not the only ones calling out garland

Some of us get called out here for our impatience with Garland moving slowly-or not at all-on tfg and his cronies. Turns out we’ve got good company.

Raw Story has the full lowdown. The basics, though, are what we’ve been saying. If Garland won’t act, he should get out of the way

Maybe pressure in the House will help get Garland to move—or get gone.

August 24, 2021

CA Gov recall: which Dem alternative?

In the California Governor recall election voters have two choices. One is a yes or no question: Should Gavin Newsome be recalled. I’m voting no, of course. But voters can also vote for a replacement candidate no matter how they vote on the first question.

The California Democratic Party urges Dems to vote “No” on the question of recall. But in an incredible act of hubris, they have not put forward or endorsed a Democratic alternative candidate should the recall pass.

In fact, if I understand the situation correctly, they suggest that Dems select no replacement candidate, thus leaving the selection up to Republicans if the recall succeeds. How f’ing stupid is that? Go to the CA Democratic Party website to see how lame their action there is.

But that’s not the point of my post.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a reasonable Democratic replacement candidate to vote for? The apparently front runner, Kevin Paffrath, seems to be an equivocating, lightweight. But, I dunno? Is he the best we can do? I d rather have a lightweight Dem than any of the front running Republicans

Who should we rally round?

August 17, 2021

Wear an N95 mask to own the dummies..

I wore an N95 mask that I got off Amazon into a convenience store in rural Idaho today. Of course I was the only one in the store wearing a mask of any kind.

I picked up all the important food groups, six pack of Uinta Brewing Hazy Nosh IPA (you can get good beer almost everywhere these days), a box of Wheat Thins (an American classic), and a Hagen Das Dark Chocolate ice cream bar. Standing waiting my turn at the register, a guy crossed the store to ask me why I was wearing a mask. Before I could answer, he said, “you know that masks don’t protect you, don’t you? They only protect other people.” And he said it in a way that implied I was dumber than he was.

I stepped into his space and said, “you got it wrong pal. It’s those blue masks that protect other people. This is an N95s mask that protects me from people who don’t wear masks. I don’t really give a shit about anybody but me. That answer your question?”

I held his gaze while he fish mouthed for a few seconds then turned away.

The moral of this story is that it’s easy to get N95 and KN95 masks which really do protect the wearer from exposure to airborne viruses like Covid. They’re not 100% effective but way, way more than those blue and white masks are at self protection. There’s a ready supply from various well known suppliers like 3M on Amazon. Since a large percentage of the general population refuses to do the decent thing and wear a mask to try to protect the people around them, you may as well protect yourself from them by wearing an N95 mask.

July 24, 2021

Use Clapton to promote COVID immunity

Let’s sponsor an Eric Clapton tour that provides unvaccinated attendees free tix. They can all get together, swap viruses, and those who survive will possess some measure of immunity, thus helping those of us who get the shot!

July 1, 2021

Prepare for disappointment

Mueller’s report goes clunk. Manafort and Flynn got off. Cosby walks. We sigh. We listen to Rachel and her panels talk on about what could be coming next. Don’t worry, there is supersceeding stuff that could happen to make this mess right. hope burns eternal

But what if none of those carrots we hold out in front of ourselves don’t deliver the comeuppance we hope for. What if the Trump Org indictments deliver less than we hope? What if all these initiatives drag on to the mid terms, one disappointment after another until gerrymandering voters rights occluding Republicans retake the House and Senate (and they will unless we see some real progress somewhere).

Prepare yourself. That is the likely scenario.

We talk here about fighting like Republicans do.

Prepare yourself to do that on the street level. Prepare yourself to be the Antifa that Republicans talk about and fear but that we are not actually-yet.

June 2, 2021

Lamest of the four?

It’s pretty easy to get discouraged. Schumer won’t even require a talking filibuster to make it a tiny bit harder for Republicans to use the filibuster to thwart democratic lawmaking.

Now Nancy has identified four ways Congress might move forward to instigate the January insurrection. I have a pretty good guess which one it will be. The answer, when it comes, will say a lot

May 31, 2021

My Dad was ANTIFA

He joined the Army Air Corps when WWII broke out. He flew B17s and later B29s in the Paccific with missions over Iwo Jima and then Japan. He flew transports into and around Korea during that ‘police action’. He did the same during the Vietnam War. He retired as a colonel.

Though often gone for long periods, he was a great dad. He didn’t talk much about his war experiences. However, we were station at an Air Force base that had an active rod and gun club. After shooting skeet, my Dad and his shooter pals would sit around drinking beers and telling stories at the club’s bar. My brothers and I and the sons of other Dad’s would sit quietly drinking our Cokes at nearby tables listening, sometimes looking at each other with wide, shocked eyes from what we heard. About two thirds of the stories ended in laughter. The other third ended with all the men getting quiet and staring off into the distance.

My Dad was a an Eisenhower Republican who voted for Carter because he said that submarine guys were nuts, but you could always trust them to be cool and do the right thing. I believe he voted for the first Bush because of his service record. He called the second Bush “a dumb son of a bitch’, the worst thing my Dad could say about anyone.

He’s buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl in Hawaii.