Random Notes from a Crank

I got this image and quotation from some dude's Bluesky posting. It's true. 

Poltico has a good article about how gas prices are hopefully a major issue that voters take into account when they vote in the midterms: "A 'Sleeper Issue' in Red States This Fall: Diesel Prices." 

I've written about this important issue in a previous post: "Musing of the Moment: US Debt, Gas Prices, & Inflation." 

I agree with the professor quoted in the Politico article about how the Democrats are not seizing on this issue like they should. They need to talk less about "oligarchs and the billionaires" and more about pocketbook issues related to high gas prices, inflation, and food safety. 

Keep it simple stupid: Talk about affordability issues. 

MAME: Making America More Expensive

I'm in Week 2 of my basic writing class that I'm teaching, and based on the results of my second reading quiz, I can already tell who has a strong chance of passing the class and who is more likely not to pass. 

Reading what I assign, paying attention, and coming to class on time make a difference.

Musing of the Moment: U.S. Debt, Gas Prices, & Inflation

 

Here's one of the many gas pumps I visited as we drove back from Victoria, British Columbia after taking our oldest kid there for their start to graduate school. 

As The New York Times reports that the U.S. is in debt up to $40 trillion dollars, see "U.S. Debt Hits $40 Trillion as America's Borrowing Binge Continues," everyday Americans are getting screwed by sky-high gas prices and inflation. 

Moscow Don and MAGA are really MAME. 

Making America More Expensive

Americans are getting gouged at the pumps because of this stupid war the US has no business being in. And that price per gallon above isn't even close to the diesel price that are directly connected to all kinds of shipping costs.

As Americans suffer difficult economic consequences because of the Iran War, the feckless Republican cowards in the House and Senate do nothing to hold the current administration accountable.

Instead, the complicit cowards will kiss the ass and lick the Florsheims of a very dangerous, clownish, narcissistic, boorish, moronic mountebank.

I hope the mid-terms are a reckoning for good.

Random Notes from a Crank

It's that time of the year when the state track meet comes to town, so this week the town I live in has an influx of all kinds of people with high school students residing in some of the college's dorms. 

So the dorms' parking lots are full of high school buses that show the mascots of the high schools. 

Some of the most popular mascots are Bulldogs, Tigers, and Trojans. 

The high school my kids both graduated from had the mascot of the Trojans, which I find curious. 

They lost the Trojan War because of silly wooden horse. You would think people would use the side that won that mythical war, but they'd just have to call them the "Greeks." And that's not going to work. 

The closest moniker we got is the Spartans, but that was only a part of the Greek force in the Trojan War. 

I like entities that have interesting mascots, such as Crimson Tide, Wooden Shoes, Cornhuskers, Bunnies, Grey Ghosts, and so on. 

Here in Dumbfuckistan, The New York Times have a succinct article about about how the Iran War is MAME: Making America More Expensive: "What The Iran War Is Costing You." 

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert had its final episode on Thursday. I'm pissed off because that show was basically my form of therapy during the Trump administration and the pandemic. Check out "Stephen Colbert's Last 'Late Show': Laughing Well Is the Best Revenge." 

It looks like I'll be watching The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel from here on out. 

Fuck CBS.