TODAY'S RAMBLINGS
I'll be publishing a micro Travel Guide for Oceanside soon.  Until then, you've got to see the baby!

If you've read this blog even once or twice, you know that I have concerns (OK, grave concerns) about our future.  There's the climate crisis.  Wealth inequality.  Justice inequality.  Inflation.  Education.  Our woeful infrastructure.  Housing.  Healthcare.  And now:  war in Europe.  I could go on.

But I've had it with Republicans and their inability to present proposals for addressing any of the above.  I deem them the "What - me worry?" party.  I just wish they were as harmless as Alfred E. Neuman.

Because, instead of focusing ON THE VERY REAL PROBLEMS WE FACE, here are the topics that would seem to matter most to the Republican party.   How do these align with your own concerns for America and its future?

And yet, the Republicans are going to sweep the mid-terms?  Why?

I will absolutely publish without comment anyone that cares to counter my point, and give me examples of real Republican policy proposals and why they're good.  I'm right here, waiting.

Abortion
Republicans loath "activist" judges "legislating from the bench".  Except when they don't.  It is also beyond belief the party of personal liberty just can't wait to get in between a woman and her own doctor, on the most private of issues.  No woman wants an abortion, but if she must seek one, it is none of your or anyone's business.   And remember - Oklahoma is on the verge of passing a law that outlaws abortions, in virtually all cases.  Up to and including in the case of rape or incest.  Think about that for a minute.  How any woman could vote Republican in that state ever again is beyond me.

Flag Burning
Mark my words:  this will come up again, soon.

Kneeling During the National Anthem
Remind yourself that Colin Kaepernick never got another job in the NFL.  I could never understand why the NFL didn't simply give him a $500K/year job at NFL HQ, as a Goodwill Ambassador.  That would have solved about 8 different problems for the NFL.  Gee, I wonder why they didn't do that?

Critical Race Theory
No rational person wants your child to hate themselves because they're white.  But every rational person should want every child (and citizen!) to better understand America's history, and the role slavery played in its evolution.

Don't Say Gay
Here's an awful solution looking for a problem that doesn't exist.  There are no doubt individual cases where a child is given hormonal therapy  or other treatment inappropriately or prematurely.  Have you ever heard of how surgeons have operated on the wrong leg?  So of course, it is possible supporting a non-heterosexual child could go wrong.  That's how life works. 

But it is vastly better than throwing the kid to the wolves.  Geez, remember that a lot of kids still can't be honest with their own families about their sexuality.  In Florida, to whom should those children turn now?

This does a nice job of explaining it.

Christianity Is Under Attack
Yeah, right.  I shared my personal experience with evangelism here recently.  I couldn't believe more in our Constitutional right to freedom of religion.  Please, if you wish to go to church (or temple or mosque or wherever) every single day of your life, I encourage it.  But leave me out of it, and also recall our Constitution also has something to say about the separation of church and state, and explicitly prohibits the establishment of a national religion. 

So, no Virginia, America is not a Christian nation.  But you're also free to believe and practice any religion you wish.  Why is that not enough?

Disney a Problem
Wow.  Never thought I'd see the day.  What's next, a Republican attack on baseball and apple pie?

Bathroom Uproar
One of my favorites.  God, I hope a transgender person doesn't try to groom me when I take a piss at Perry's.

Guns Everywhere
Wow, how I wish there were no Second Amendment.  I fear our sick and twisted love affair with guns will be our undoing.  The number of guns in this country and the violence that stems from them has no equal - not even close - anywhere else in the world, developed or otherwise.  Yet Republicans are insisting we don't have enough guns or enough gun freedom already?  Stupefying.

Make it Hard to Vote
The scam here is so obvious, but it doesn't make it less disgusting.  They have no actual plans or actual ideas that appeal to voters, so Republican states are simply making it harder for non-Republicans to vote.  Problem solved!

(National elections should be a national holiday.  Registering to vote should be automatic.  Mail-in voting should be the default.  Complete transparency will shut down most of the always-bogus claims of voter fraud.) 

Transgender Sports Participation in Schools
OK, I get it.  A person born a man that transitions to being a woman has physical advantages when competing against those born as women.  Can't this just be dealt with on a very local, personal basis?  Exactly how often is this an issue?   

First Amendment Threatened by Big Tech
You have a freedom of speech guaranteed by the Constitution, not freedom of reach.  Twitter tossing Trump has absolutely nothing, nada, zero, zilch to do with The First Amendment.  Twitter is a private company that can allow or not allow anyone it wants on its platform. 

Kind of like how Augusta National can have as many (or as few!) people of color and women as members that it wants.

Taxes?  We Don't Need No Stinking Taxes
Actually, the Republicans do have (and seemingly have always had) a plan for at least one thing:  federal income taxes.  Specifically, cutting them and keeping them low for the wealthiest among us.  Here's the plan:

I will pose a question many have heard me ask previously:  if lower taxes make everything great for everybody, why not just go ahead and cut taxes to zero?  At least for the wealthiest Americans?  You don't want to discourage them from investing, do you?

FROM THE UNWASHED MASSES
As it should have, my link to the red tail hawk's nest in The Presidio brought raves.  From the esteemed Dr. Doreen Downs:

When the Dr. is right, the Dr. is right!  It is such a beautiful sight.  I like viewing it at night, when the parent is sleeping, on top of the two eggs.  So very peaceful.

Thank you to any one that is reading this newsletter.

KLUF
Don't you wanna be my little problem?  Here, on the final album from a Killer band with a sadly self-inflicted troubled career, are The Replacements, and their excellent swan song, "All Shook Down".

(In fact, some consider this to be front man Paul Westerberg's first solo album, as there was not a lot of participation in making the album nor its writing by the other band members.  But it was indeed released as the last Replacements album, I'd guess because the record company figured no one in the mainstream knew of him. 

Last note:  I'm not sure I've ever read a more revealing book about a band than "Trouble Boys:  The True Story of The Replacements".  Highly recommended, although the willful self-destruction was a shame, a waste, and also quite sad.)