Is there anybody listening? Queensryche

Queensryche: Jet City Woman

Since I'm in Seattle, I've been thinking about one of my old faves:

S.Korea squashed their wanna-be dictator.... hopefully we can, too

I'm in Seattle for a work trip. Took a bus to Mount Rainier today for a brief excursion... And ended up hanging out with a college student from South Korea. She told me about their president who is now in jail...Yoon Suk Yeol. He was charged with insurrection after declaring martial law. He declared martial law to prevent corruption investigations against his family. The former head of Samsung is in jail with him. This guy had also been living on a diet of right-wing propaganda in South Korea. I pointed out the similarities to our felon president and she agreed. The only thing different is the opposition party controlled their Congress and voted down the martial law, then impeached him. Unfortunately we do not have that luxury. Somehow I had not even heard of this.... Possibly because I have been laying off a lot of news because it is too traumatizing.

My trip to a diner tonight :(

So....I went to the Wilmington Diner tonight with my bi-racial foster child (12 years old). I've been there before and enjoyed it. Tonight got off to a bad start and got worse---Faux News was on the big TV which, unfortunately, I was facing. I couldn't hear it--thank God--but the scrolling text said things like "Latest Left-Wing Effort Flops" etc. etc.

So I ignored that. Then an older white couple walked in and sat behind us. I overheard them say something about "Elon Musk" and Tesla. Optimistically, I hoped they were pointing out how evil he is--so I tuned into their conversation as best I could. What I heard were the most insane right-wing Q-Anon-type nonsense I have heard in public in a while. Highlights: FEMA used up so much of their resources housing "illegals" that there was no money left to properly help the good people of North Carolina. Now people want help for the leftists in California. Then something about some right-wing state trying to impeach a "leftist," who they felt should actually also be deported. Then how the department of education is wasteful and should be next on the chopping block.

I didn't confront them, but I did say out loud "OMG--I think there are real-life Nazis near us!" before we left. They looked like a normal elderly couple--I am shocked at the level of gullibility of "those people"

Help me understand: Iran, Russia, Israel

So....Israel & the US talk about attacking Iran. But Iran builds drones for Russia's war on Ukraine. Russia wouldn't like anyone attacking Iran, right?

The only thing I can think of is that we wouldn't attack Iran's conventional weapon factories (so they could keep pumping out the drones).

And could Saudi Arabia cut off Kushner in some way?

The Middle East is going to be an epic mess.

In 1993, Ford and GM hybrids

Combined batteries with small diesel powerplants and got 72 MPG trying to achieve challenge of 80 MPG set by President Clinton.

Bush v. Gore happened and that all went to crap 😭

]https://www.carscoops.com/2024/04/snag-this-2000-ford-prodigy-concept-that-inspired-the-five-hundred/

https://moparinsiders.com/meet-dodges-20-year-old-four-door-sedan-that-got-72-mpg/

Imagine what the world would be like if Carter had a second term, Gore wasn't shafted, Russia didn't help 45, and Kamala/Tim had won.

The Last Resort TV show

I hope that, if it comes to it, we have honorable people in the military who will disregard Trump's orders (which will no doubt be destructive to us and our current allies). Like in this great but short-lived show. If they remade it now, I'm sure it would have a huge audience (unfortunately). Seemed far-fetched at the time I guess.

Russia/China/Iran/N.Korea

I have some hope that the oppressed people of these countries will rise up and take down their dictators. That would go a long way to de-funding Trump & Musk. Will be ugly & costly in terms of human sacrifice, but may be one possibility that could save us 🙏. Eliminate the Axis of Evil....so our leader won't make us join it.

I love voting in Delaware

Even though we only have 3 electoral votes and are solidly blue (despite our fake hillbilly culture downstate).

What I like is how our voting machines work---when you check in to vote (all I show is my driver's license) they hand you a blank ballot. You go in the booth, put your ballot in a slot and it gets sucked in. Then you select every name that has a "D" behind it and a lighted up "X" appears next to the person. Then you hit a button that says "Complete" and it sucks the ballot through so it appears behind a glass panel for your review; your selections are printed on it. You then hit "Vote" if it's correct (it always is) and it gets sucked through to be stored. Then you leave, happy to know that you protected democracy!

Drove up to Millersville today

Through Strasburg from Delaware. Lots of icky Trump signs everywhere. Notably, one row of houses had 9 of 10 with Trump signs, 1 in the middle with a Harris-Walz sign. God bless whoever lives there!

Then I read a Yahoo news article this evening that 100,000 new voters have voted in PA--and overwhelmingly were females registered as Democrats. So after the election, they can take their signs and shove them!