July 20, 2020

Trump's unabashed racism

Why is there not more exposure of Trump and his unabashed racism, which was on full force during the Wallace interview?

When asked about renaming military bases, Trump responds by going on an incoherent rant about these bases and the fact we won two world wars, but he followed up that rambling by saying he "didn't care what the military said" and "Who are we going to name them after Rev Al Sharpton"??

This type of racist vitriol from Trump isn't surprising. It's like he purposefully chooses to throw out the most outrageous shit just to feed red meat to his base. I love Rev Sharpton, I haven't always agreed with him but that's on me not him, but no one on the left is seriously suggesting renaming a base after him. The only explanation for Trump saying this is to incite his racist base.


There are a plethora of heroes we could choose from to rename these bases. Personally, I think Ft Hood should be renamed Ft Audie Murphy. You could rename Bragg for any number of true heroes, of all races, and it would better represent to spirit of that base than a confederate general who is widely regarded as a failure as a leader and strategist.

But no, Trump chooses to be a fucking racist prick by throwing out "Rev Sharpton", because he knows his base will eat that shit up. Screw him and wish he was being called out more for this crap.

July 17, 2020

Schools will reopen in 2 weeks, as parents we're terrified

(I apologize at the outset for the long rant)

My son will by starting 5th grade this year. He's an incredibly bright, inquisitive child who has a real thirst for not only taking in knowledge, but retaining that knowledge and putting it to use. (Case in point: during quarantine, we played NBA2K on PS4 many nights. He became fascinated with learning all he could about NBA greats to the point that he can literally hold a discussion about which players he might want in which positions and why on his historic team; ie Kobe has to play SF so that Jerry West and John Havlicek can split SG, and Bill Russell and Shaq as centers. Sigh, I could go on and on). During the lock down in our state, our son did remarkably well with online learning and, in some ways, it encouraged him to prioritize and organize his time to get the necessary work completed.

In less than three weeks, our schools will be returning in our very red suburb of Nashville. The county has opted for a "hybrid model" where children will be divided by last name into two groups with one group going Mon/Thurs and the second groups going Tues/Fri with Wednesday being on online learning day. For parents who wish to keep their kids at home there is an online "virtual learning" option.

Sounds ok on the surface, but, for us, our situation becomes a bit more complicated. Our son attends the county's magnet school. He worked very hard to get into that program and has thoroughly enjoyed that school. The parents had a "Zoom" meeting with the principal last night in which night he outlined the "hybrid plan" and we were informed that, while the virtual learning option would still be available to us and we would not lose our spot in the magnet school if we chose that route, the virtual learning option would not be a magnet teacher, it would not include any magnet options, we would not have access to the Google classrooms at his magnet school, and if we opted into that program we were committing for nine weeks at a time, regardless of what the Covid status of the county may be.

This school is K-12 and is top rated in the state and nationally. We want our child to be able to have the education they offer, but at what cost?! As parents, we're currently feeling guilted into accepting this "hybrid plan". The extra scary part is that the county is only doing that model in two week increments, so they may be sitting in a full classroom in mid August. If we commit to online only, our child will be in that plan for nine weeks at a time. If we commit to the in person model, we're stuck with whatever the county may decide as far as when to open or close schools.

This is such an incredibly overwhelming time for parents. I'm happy we have the options we have, but it does feel like we're being ask to roll the dice on our child's health vs education.

July 8, 2020

Some people can change and evolve!

I've talked about my conservative upbringing in the south here many times, but I just had to share this bit of personal info with you guys because I'm laughing so hard right now...


My conservative mother, she's a incredible woman and she's actually opening up her world in many ways, texted me tonight and was appalled that someone had posted on her "Next Door" app that the WHO had said asymtomatic Covid patients couldn't spread the disease. This was a post in response to our counties recent mandatory mask policy. Now my mother is a simple country woman but I had to lol at her take:

"That’s exactly what is wrong with this whole thing. You got Orange face saying stupid stuff and all these Orange lovers believe every word that comes out of his mouth."


Lmmfao, my beautiful mother calling the Orange Asshole "Orange face"...I've never once referred to him as that to her. I have no clue where she got it, but damn I love her for that and for the fact that she sees this whole debacle for what it is.

FYI, she's already said she's voting Biden in the fall.

July 3, 2020

Jason Isbell and Amanda Shires "Live at the Brooklyn Bowl" 5/15/20

Posting this mainly for my man, mr Lebowski, but this is a concert done to celebrate Jason's new album release "Reunions", as well as an event to support a local Nashville venue affected by the pandemic. This is a phenomenal "concert" with just Jason and Amanda playing the album through acoustic. It's especially powerful considering the stress the album creating process played on both of them as individuals and spouses. For me, musically and lyrically this is the culmination of "Southeastern" and "Something More than Free" and "The Nashville Sound". The songs have even more maturity and depth than previous work and are extremely prescient. The acoustic atmosphere as well as the mainly Zoom audience adds extra resonance. Hope you guys enjoy!