Music Friday: "Space Wrangler"

It's been ages since I've listened to a Widespread Panic album while working at the office. 

This tune came on SiriusXM's JamOn station when I was driving today, and it reminded me I need to go back these great albums. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Politico reports that there's a massive trade deal brewing among Canada, Mexico, Europe, and Pacific Rim countries: "Carney Constructs a Mega Anti-Trump Trade Alliance." 

That forthcoming alliance cannot be for American farmers and manufacturers. 

Please join the resistance against this administration. 

I know a bunch of people are selling the car decals with a loon as a rebel resistance symbol, but this one works for all the subsequent places President Adolf and his goons are going to terrorize. 

I got one on my car and one on my office door. 

Pam Bondi is protecting pedophiles. Here's some excellent work from M2Bulls. 

Talking about the DOW during the House Judiciary Committee hearing is one of the best examples of a red herring I've seen in a while.

Music Friday: "Song for the Dead"

I'm pretty sure I've featured this song before, but I'm featuring it again. I listened to this album this week. 

Musing of the Moment: Bertrand Russell & The Dunning-Kruger Effect

This week's Existential Comic features the point by Bertrand Russell that the wiser the person the less sure they tend to be. 

 

Russell's advice is that "So whenever you see someone proclaiming that they have all the answers with total confidence, think to yourself: This guy is probably a total idiot." 

His advice relates to the Dunning-Kruger Effect, as explained by Psychology Today.  

The Decision Lab also has some details and advice: "Why Do We Fail To Accurately Gauge Our Own Abilities?" 

The section on politics is topical because way too many politicians present solutions to systemic problems with confident assertions. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In this troubling world and in this troubling country run by an absolute lunatic, I need some positivity in my life. 

One of ways to combat all the negativity out there is reading The Optimist Daily. I highly recommend it. 

As I've seen repeatedly on TikTok, all kinds of people are selling the loon in the symbol of the rebel alliance (Star Wars) in solidarity with protests in Minneapolis. 

Instead of getting one of those, I purchased a regular Rebel Alliance symbol for my car (see below) and one for my office door.

I hope the use of this symbol spreads because we are truly going up against evil people, the dark side of America. 

Prior to the election, there was one house on one of my dog-walking routes who engaged in some satire in response to their neighbor having a Trump-Vance yard sign on their lawn. 

They countered with Palpatine-Vader yard sign. Brilliant. 

I haven't watched any of the Winter Olympics yet. I don't know if I'll watch any of it. 

I did like the video I saw of J.D. Vance being booed at the opening ceremonies. 

Music Friday: "Long as You Know You're Living Yours"

I discovered recently that Branford Marsalis put out a new album last year. It's titled Belonging by the Branford Marsalis Quartet. I've listened to it often this week. 

Here's the third track from the album--the album version and performance. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Before Sunday I had no idea what a scorpion kick was, but now I know. Thanks Dominic Solanke. 

And COYS. 

In another special election, this time in Texas, Taylor Rehmet won a State Senate seat in a conservative district that President Adolf won by 17 percentage points. Rehment won it by 14 percentage points: 57 to 43. 

I'm looking forward to all whining about the Super Bowl halftime show with Green Day and Bad Bunny performing. 

MAGA supporters are truly American idiots. 

President Adolf and his lawyerly goons just had another federal judge hand them a loss in trying to shut down a wind farm that is 35 miles away from the coast of New York state (Montauk Point). The Interior department argued that the wind farms were somehow a threat to "national security." 

Nonsense. 

What a bunch of nitwits and losers. They are 0 for 5 in shutting wind farm projects on the east coast. 

Where I live in east central Illinois got a lot of snowfall like most of the upper Midwest this winter. However, unlike where I grew up in Iowa, my town has no law that homeowners who have sidewalks on their property have to shovel them. 

That fact pisses me off. 

I walk my dogs in the winter unless it's unbearably cold, but I'm reduced to walking up and down my cul de sac when sidewalks are not shoveled. And my dogs need walked for a good length of time. They're not being walked very long right now, and they're driving me crazy with having to go out in the backyard so often. 

Plus, as I'm driving around town, because sidewalks are not shoveled, people are just walking on the side of the street, which is dangerous.