Music Friday: "Stop"

Since it's the Fourth of July, I thought I'd share a song that epitomizes American exceptionalism and arrogance. 

Music Friday: "Black Dog"

On TikTok there are some channels that have various people listening to tunes and getting their reactions. 

The ones I've seen the most often are people reacting to System of Down's "Chop Suey!"

But today, and I'm late with this post, I'm going with Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog," which is also featured in such videos. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I read an article in Mother Jones about Rep. Maxwell Frost: "Why Maxwell Frost Wants Democrats to 'Get Caught Fighting.'"

Later that day he was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He's sharp as hell. 

When he turns 30, he needs to run for the U.S. Senate to kick out one of the GOP douche bags in Florida--hopefully that penis-look-alike Rick Scott. 

Lately I've become irritable about the drivers where I live. They drive so damn slowly. 

So this past weekend I was in Muncie, Indiana for a baseball tournament, and the drivers around there might be even morse. 

People were driving so slow, especially around corners. It's like I was in the Deep South again with all these slow-ass drivers. 

What's the deal with people calling sports stars/personalities by their first names? My in-laws do this with professional golfers they follow. Or most notably they use when they talk about Caitlin Clark. They call her "Caitlin" in casual conversation. 

I just find that weird because using the first name connotes a personal connection. 

Well, the U.S. under President Adolf is back to bombing brown people because of "weapons of mass destruction." 

We've seen that move before. The president's poll numbers are in the crapper, so the administration gets into some kind of military intervention based on shoddy intelligence. 

There are some consequences here. First, Congress is the only entity that can wage war, not the Executive Branch. Moscow Don has basically involved us in a war because he's just doing what Israel wants. 

Second, one can assume Iran is going to react in various ways, whether it's related to the Strait of Hormuz or sleeper cells inside the U.S. doing terrorist activities.

The Trump administration is making America poor and making American less safe again. 

Music Friday: "Horses"

They've been playing this tune quite a bit on SiriusXM The Spectrum. I liked the song and decided to purchase his album, Middle. 

Here's "Horses" by Jesse Welles. 

Random Notes from a Crank

 

I saw this image from the Radical Centrist on FB. I thought I'd share. 

If you were to make a Venn diagram of these assertions, that Venn diagram don't hunt. 

I don't understand why Tottenham Hotspur appears not to be showing any interest in the Canadian striker Jonathan David. 

He's a free agent. He's two-footed. He's productive. He's in his mid-20s. And there's no transfer free. I think he's a fabulous player. 

In a recent YouGov daily survey, 50% of people polled said "Yes" to this question:"Would you ever vote for a third party or an independent candidate?" I said Yes to that question. I'd vote for one for sure if the candidate was viable. 

The third question was "Do you think a third major political party is necessary for the United States, or are the Democratic and Republican parties enough?" 55% answered "A third party is necessary in the U.S." Only 20% agreed with "The Democratic and Republican parties are enough to represent Americans." 25% were "Not sure." 

Mother Jones has a solid short article that describes the importance of preserving and probably expanding wetlands: "The Economic Case for Preserving America's Wetlands." 

As the author relates, wetlands work like sponges, so they can prevent the massive flooding events that are only going to be more frequent because of climate change. Unfortunately, under the the administration of President Adolf, I doubt many projects like the one in Raleigh are going to get going.  

A frightening article in that same issue of Mother Jones is one about Clearview AI, a facial-recognition tech company whose founders have ties to right-wing extremists, Holocaust deniers, and Neo-Nazis. 

Check out "The Shocking Far-Right Agenda behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI."

Here are some interesting statistics from the June "Harper's Index":

• Percentage by which tourism to the United States is projected to decrease this year: 9
• Percentage increase this year in seizures of eggs being smuggled into the United States: 48
• Percentage increase last year in the number of U.S. households that owned chickens: 28
• Factor by which the word "notable" appears more frequently in AI-generated sentences than in those written by humans: 13
• By which the word "esteemed" does: 120

I'm surprised the decrease in tourism is only projected to be 9%. I thought it would be in the high teens.

I'll be on the lookout for "notable" and "esteemed." 

Random Notes from a Crank

I know the Trinidad & Tobago national team is a weak side, but the US Men's National Team had a solid match against them on Sunday in the Gold Cup. As a Tottenham fan and as an American, I want Pochettino to succeed.

 

I like his brand of football. 

But what is the definition of success for the USMNT? 

Saturday's insanely expensive so-called celebration of the military/military parade for Moscow Don/President Adolf was a resounding failure in terms of what Adolf expected it to be. 

The videos on TikTok and the truthful media coverage have been satirically ruthless about how pathetic and how poorly attended the event was. 

So low energy...

So much like a guy with a small dick trying to compensate...

Tottenham hired Thomas Frank after sacking Ange. Of the options available, he was probably the best choice. It should be an intriguing transfer window. 

I just hope we keep Romero and Son for at least another season. Ideally, I'd like to see Spurs extend Son for one more season, have this coming season be his last at the club, and sell him to whatever club he wants to go to for a decent fee. 

I want to see Archie Gray playing in the 6 and the 8 positions. He's a midfielder. Playing as a right or left back or even as a center-back should be emergency option.

Musing of the Moment: Father's Day Thoughts

There's a common saying that goes, "Happy wife--happy life." 

I don't like that expression at all. It's based on common gender stereotypes that women direct their husbands' happiness and that the husband's (or father's) mainly depends on keeping the woman happy. 

In addition, the expression is heteronormative. 

Just think if there was an expression that started "Happy husband"? 

People might think, "Wait, why is he happy? What's he up to?" 

It's still uncommon for people to think that husbands/father's can be sad, which is a point Bill Burr makes in Drop Dead Years about the "male sadness epidemic."

I too have the "regular depression," not the clinical kind. I can be "sad." 

Today on Father's Day I'll be drinking the last bottle of wine I took from my father's assisted-living apartment after he passed away.

He died years ago. A couple of years I drank the other bottle I had from the apartment, which was a Chardonnay. 

The one I'm drinking today is a Pink Moscato, which isn't really on-brand for me. I'm more of a drinker of Zinfandels, Cabernets, Merlots, Syrahs, and red blends. 

Regardless, cheers to all the sad dads out there. 

And I miss you Virg. 

Music Friday: "Everyday People"

I was hanging out at our hotel last night, and basically there was a conversation beginning that was bordering on racist talk about the "Blacks." The conversation was started by two rednecks from Louisiana. 

Because I knew how the conversation might progress, I just left rather than listen to a bunch of dumb white people talk nonsense. 

And all this comes this week when the musical genius who was Sly Stone died. 

Here's to a brighter vision of accepting everyday people.

 

Music Friday: "Change of the Guard"

I finally got around to grooving on the music of Kamasi Washington. 

Here's the opening tune on The Epic. 

Fumbling Toward Culinary Talent: Modified Pasta alla Zozzona with Mushrooms

This recipe is a modification of the "Dumbed-Down Pasta alla Zozzona" I made recently. 

I cut the bacon and added garlic and mushrooms. 

Ingredients

1 lb. of Italian sausage

1 medium yellow onion, diced

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1/2 cup of Parmesan-Romano cheese

A healthy amount of cracked black pepper

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 bay leaves

1 package of fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes

1/2 cup of dry white wine (I used a Chardonnay)

1 bottle of pasatta (I used the Rutti brand)

1 lb. of penne pasta (use the tubular pasta of your choice)

Process

I used a Dutch oven for this dish, but if you have a very large saute pan, that will work too. 

I cooked the pasta and then drained it while doing this. Reserve some pasta water in case you need to thin out the sauce a bit. 

Set to medium heat, add a little extra virgin olive oil, add in the onion and bay leaves, cook the onion for roughly ten minutes, and add in the sausage. Cook the sausage thoroughly. I broke up the sausage with potato masher and mixed the sausage and onion together.  

Add the wine, set to high to burn off the alcohol, then move the heat to just under medium heat 

Add in the garlic and pepper flakes and cook for a minute or two. Take out the bay leaves and add the sliced mushrooms. 

Add in the passata and do a low-key simmer for approximately 15 minutes. 

Combine the egg yolks, egg, cheese, and a ton of freshly cracked black pepper. Mix thoroughly. 

Add the pasta into the Dutch oven. Thoroughly mix it in and cook for approximately 5-10 minutes. 

Taste to see if you need to add salt and pepper (I added a little of each). 

Take the Dutch oven off the heat and mix in the egg-cheese mixture. Serve. 

Musing of the Moment: Ineptitude at Tottenham

It's June 3rd, and over ten days after Tottenham won the Europa League, fans like me are not sure if Ange is still the manager, and there appears to be a shakeup with the board. 

It's ridiculous. 

After winning the Europa League and then finishing the season with an unfortunate loss, the chairman of the ENIC board Daniel Levy went on vacation. 

He went on vacation during a time when other clubs are taking advantage of this new mini-transfer window. 

Other clubs are signing players while there's silence in N17. 

Ineptitude. 

Ange In. 

Levy out.

Why did I have to choose a Premier League club that is so poorly run? 

Music Friday: "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

I've been driving a lot this week for a host of reasons. 

This song was featured during the recent episode of David Fricke's show on SiriusXM when he had the lead singer of Little Feat on his program. 

Random Notes from a Crank

 

I saw this on Bluesky and thought I'd share it. 

What the hell is wrong with people in the United States of America to think this narcissistic, incompetent, fat-ass, moronic grievance merchant is the right person to be President? 

I answered the daily questions from YouGov today. 

Here were the three questions:

• Do you generally have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of yourself?
• Do you generally have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of the people you interact with regularly?
• Do you generally have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Americans overall?

With the first question, I chose "somewhat favorable," which was the highest percentage at 46%.

With the second, I chose "somewhat unfavorable," which was only 8%. The highest percentage was 55% for "somewhat favorable." 

With the third, I chose "very unfavorable," which was only 7%. The highest percentage was "somewhat favorable" at 45%. And "somewhat unfavorable" was 24% and "very favorable" at 16%. 

A lot of people in the U.S. won't get this reference, which concurs with my "very unfavorable" choice for the third question, but Americans are Panglossian. 

They lack self awareness. 

And as George Carlin famously said, think about how dumb the average person is and then consider how many people are dumber than than the average person. 

People who back into parking spaces think they're better than everyone else. 

I was at one of my local grocery stores the other day and was reminded of how lazy people were. [In Seinfeld voice] What's the deal with people not returning their carts to a cart coral and just leaving them in at the entryways? 

Random Notes from a Crank

If you want to watch a solid documentary about the somewhat recent past, you need to check American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden. 

The film starkly contrasts the Bush and Obama administrations. They had bin Laden trapped in the mountains, but for whatever reason, the Bush administration did not use troops to scoop up the leader. 

Whereas when Obama had a chance to get him, and it was a risky call that his Vice President advised against him doing, Obama went forward on the special operation to take down what they found out to be bin Laden. 

This contrast goes against the common thinking that the GOP is tough on crime and terrorism, whereas the leader of Democratic Party is one who ordered the takedown of the mastermind of 9/11. 

Tottenham Hotspur won the Europa League, so there's been quite a party going on in N17. 

I'm an "Ange In" guy, so the club needs to get it together and acquire some players that will make us competitive in the Champions League. 

It's pretty simple. He won silverware for a club that hasn't won a competition in 17 years. 

Get it done. 

Music Friday: "Funny Vibe"

I woke up this morning and had my coffee while watching a video on YouTube. 

I thought about what song to feature today, and for whatever reason "Funny Vibe" came to mind. 

Here you go. 

Living Colour is such a great band.