Bobservations

The kitchen remodel is coming along, though we’ve had a couple of glitches. Nothing serious, but things just slowed down progress. The countertops are in and I am in love with them … The light for above the sink is ordered, as is the hood for the stove, and the knobs and handles for drawers and door. I am now looking into tile because I have this idea … more on that later.

We have been using the laundry room as our makeshift kitchen, with an espresso machine, a coffee maker, microwave and crockpot moved into it. Carlos has dubbed it the “laundritchen” and the dining room is the “pantrining room.”

And Carlos is loving the chaos … I kid.

This Tuxedo Says is from June 2021:

I would never suggest Tuxedo buys into conspiracy theories but every so often he comes up with a thought that makes you wonder …

He just had questions, you know.

I have been looking for something to do when I retire and then I saw this and thought, Yeah, I could do that.

My wife and I went into town and visited a shop. When we came out, there was a police officer writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said:

“Come on man, how about giving a couple of senior citizens a break?”

He ignored us and continued writing the ticket until I called him an “asshole.” He stared at me and then started writing a second ticket for having worn-out tires so my wife called him a “shithead.” He put that ticket on the windshield and then started writing more and more tickets; this went on for about twenty minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. He finally finished, sneered at us, and walked away.

Lucky for us, because just then our bus arrived and we got on it and went home. We always look for cars with those red Make America Great Again bumper stickers on them because we like to have a little fun now that we’re retired.

I realized that, living in South Carolina, this could keep me busy all day long.

Out there in Utah, of all places, a judge just terminated the  Republicans’ gerrymandering attempt and ordered a new map that includes a new Blue seat.

In Utah, the Resistance is at work.

In good news, 93-year-old Ruth Gottesman donated $1 billion to the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to make tuition free for all students permanently. The donation, which is the largest ever to a U.S. medical school, comes from the fortune left to her by her late husband, David “Sandy” Gottesman. 

Ruth Gottesman, a former professor and current board chair at the school, specified that her only requirement is that the institution not be renamed in her honor. 

Again, in a world of Bezos and Musk, be a Gottesman.

And also be a Barack Obama …

This week the former President recently surprised a plane of veterans arriving in Washington, D.C., ahead of Veterans Day; the vets were traveling with an Honor Flight from Madison, Wisconsin, when Obama boarded the plane to greet the veterans, many of whom were from the Korean and Vietnam wars.

After his brief remarks, Obama stood on the jetway and personally shook the hand of each veteran as they deplaned and presented each veteran with a Presidential Challenge Coin. 

That’s my President.

Last weekend, Cyndi Lauper was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and sang her song “True Colors.”  When she got to the line, “Don’t be afraid …” she stopped singing and raised her fist.

Don’t be afraid.

Two days later the Supreme Court ruled to maintain marriage equality for same-sex couples.

Don’t be afraid.

As with Cankles, I also try not to use her name, and simply call her That Woman.

She turned seventy this week and threw herself a birthday party/thirst trap and I saw one website that mentioned how great she looks and that she appears to be aging backwards. But, um, she has clearly invested thousands and thousands of dollars into plastic surgery and Botox and injections and peels and deals with the Devil. She is far from the natural beauty some seem to suggest.

PS One of the guests of honor at her party was … wait for it … her plastic surgeon. That's him down there with her newest face.

Go figure.

Kirill Kabachenko is a Ukraine-American real estate agent in New York City and a working model. I wonder is he shows houses dressed in just his briefs and I also wonder … Would You Hit It?

Just The Facts, Man; Barack Obama Was A Far Better President Than The Convicted Felon

After celebrating Barack Obama Day, we still have The Felon’s supporters saying that they suffered under Obama’s eight years, so let’s just take a stroll back in time …

The day Obama took office, the Dow closed at 7,949 points. Eight years later, the Dow had almost tripled.

General Motors and Chrysler were on the brink of bankruptcy, with Ford not far behind, and their failure, along with their supply chains, would have meant the loss of millions of jobs. Obama pushed through a controversial, $80 billion bailout to save the car industry. The U.S. car industry survived, started making money again, and the entire $80 billion was paid back, with interest.

While we remain vulnerable to lone-wolf attacks, no foreign terrorist organization has successfully executed a mass attack here since 9/11.

Obama ordered the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden.

He drew down the number of troops from 180,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan to just 15,000, and increased funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

He launched a program called Opening Doors which, since 2010, has led to a 47 percent decline in the number of homeless veterans. He set a record 73 straight months of private-sector job growth.

Due to Obama’s regulatory policies, greenhouse gas emissions decreased by 12%, production of renewable energy more than doubled, and our dependence on foreign oil was cut in half.

He signed The Lilly Ledbetter Act, making it easier for women to sue employers for unequal pay.

His Omnibus Public Lands Management Act designated more than 2 million acres as wilderness, creating thousands of miles of trails and protecting over 1,000 miles of rivers.

He reduced the federal deficit from 9.8 percent of GDP in 2009 to 3.2 percent in 2016.

For all the inadequacies of the Affordable Care Act, we seem to have forgotten that, before the ACA, you could be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition and kids could not stay on their parents’ policies up to age 26.

Obama approved a $14.5 billion system to rebuild the levees in New Orleans.

All this, even as our own Mitch McConnell famously asserted that his singular mission would be to block anything President Obama tried to do.

While Obama failed on his campaign pledge to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, that prison’s population decreased from 242 to around 50.

He expanded funding for embryonic stem cell research, supporting groundbreaking advancement in areas like spinal injury treatment and cancer.

Credit card companies can no longer charge hidden fees or raise interest rates without advance notice.

Most years, Obama threw a 4th of July party for military families. He held babies, played games with children, served barbecue, and led the singing of “Happy Birthday” to his daughter Malia, who was born on July 4.

Welfare spending is down: for every 100 poor families, just 24 receive cash assistance, compared with 64 in 1996.

Obama comforted families and communities following more than a dozen mass shootings. After Sandy Hook, he said, “The majority of those who died today were children, beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.”

Yet, he never took away anyone’s guns........

He sang Amazing Grace, spontaneously, at the altar.

He was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two terms without personal or political scandal.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Obama was not perfect, as no man and no president is, and you can certainly disagree with his political ideologies. But to say we suffered?

If that’s the argument, if this is how we suffered for 8 years under Barack Obama, I have one wish: may we be so fortunate as to suffer 8 more.

Teri Carter, Lexington Herald-Leader

Why Is It ... But First ....

… that people need to remember that the TV is always on in my house because it’s my emotional support background noise.

… that the other day I told my boss I was going to the bathroom, burt didn’t say which one, and so I just went home.

… that when I tell people I’m in a good place right now, I don’t mean emotionally, I mean at a bar with good drink specials.

… that people named Debra will go by Deb but never Bruh.

… that while the best response is no response, but since I have a smart mouth you’re gonna hear from me.

… that I am a good person up until I see someone driving the speed limit in the left lane.

… that I just realized that I have reached that age where I am bothered by lights left on, open doors, loud noises … and people.

… that people need to know that once I unfriend you I will go to your profile and unlike my likes, unlove my loves, unwow my wows, and I will even unhaha my hahas.

… that some people need to know that I am in the the studio writing a diss track about them. Be afraid.

Jimmy Carter Said ...

… in his inaugural address as Governor of Georgia:

"I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few, but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend upon it."

… in a New York Times op-ed in January 2022:

"Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late."

… after the January 6 insurrection:

“This is a national tragedy and is not who we are as a nation. Having observed elections in troubled democracies worldwide, I know that we the people can unite to walk back from this precipice to peacefully uphold the laws of our nation, and we must. We join our fellow citizens in praying for a peaceful resolution so our nation can heal and complete the transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.”

… about his wife, Rosalynn:

"I’ve never won an argument with her; and the only times I thought I had I found out the argument wasn’t over yet."

… what he and Rosalynn said to each other every day of their 77-year marriage:

"I love you the goodest."

… on Jesus and gay people:

“I'm a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who never mentioned homosexuals in any way — certainly not in a deleterious fashion. And when it has been mentioned in the New Testament, it's been combined with things like selfishness or something like that. So I've never looked upon it as any sort of reason to condemn a person. I think it's an inherent characteristic just like other things that we do with our lives. I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that’s just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”

… in his Presidential Farewell Address, January 1981:

“But we know that democracy is always an unfinished creation. Each generation must renew its foundations. Each generation must rediscover the meaning of this hallowed vision in the light of its own modern challenges. For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival; liberty is human rights; the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.”

… about then-Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy for president:

“ I think that this breakthrough by Barack Obama has been remarkable. When he made his speech (on race) a few months ago in Philadelphia, I wept. I sat in front of the television and cried, because I saw that as the most enlightening and transforming analysis of racism and a potential end of it that I ever saw in my life.”

… on how he wants to be remembered:

“I’d like to be remembered as a champion of peace and human rights. Those are the two things I’ve found as a kind of guide for my life. I’ve done the best I could with those, not always successful, of course. I would hope the American people would see that I tried to do what was best for our country every day I was in office.”

… on his life:

“I’ve had a wonderful life, I’ve had thousands of friends, and I’ve had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence.”

RIP Mr President

There are but a few people I consider heroes but, alongside Rosa Parks and Harvey Milk there has long been a space for Jimmy Carter, who passed away at the age of 100.

I have always said that, while he accomplished some great things while president—promoting human rights for all at a time when many in this country were marginalized, adding to the national park and preserve system, reestablishing governmental credibility after the Watergate Crisis, and with  the Camp David Accords, forging a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel—it was his post-presidential life and work and message that proved him to be the greatest ex-President who ever lived.

In 1946, Jimmy Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and then joined the Navy submarine branch, working his way into “Rickover’s boys,” the unit of America’s nuclear submarine fleet championed by Admiral Hyman Rickover. Carter was on his way up until a death at home changed his destiny …

His father Earl, a farmer and businessman, passed from cancer in 1958 so Jimmy and Rosalynn, and their children, returned to Georgia to take over the family farming business. It was there he first ran for school board, then state senator. He was elected governor in 1970, serving one successful term before launching an improbable bid to become president, winning the Democratic nomination and then defeating Republican President Gerald Ford in November 1976.

 I remember seeing footage of inauguration day when Jimmy, Rosalynn, with their daughter Amy, chose to walk from the capitol back to the White House. He was an everyman; he was any man.

In November 1979, Iranian militants stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took hostages. Carter tied negotiations, then launched a rescue mission that never reached its target because of helicopter failure. Carter’s Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher completed negotiations under Algerian auspices to free the American hostages, who were released after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president so he often gets the credit, but it was Jimmy Carter who brokered the release.

Jimmy Carter returned to Plains and he could have lived a quiet life, but instead he chose to step up and live his last, best act. He and Rosalynn began volunteering for Habitat for Humanity, building houses for the poor; then the couple founded the Carter Center, which focused on making peace and spreading health and democracy around the world.

As leader of the Carter Center, he won the Nobel Prize, the United National Human Rights Prize and many other notable awards from countries, organizations and world leaders, and both Jimmy and Rosalynn were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, who said:

”Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter have done more good things for more people in more places than any other couple on the face of the Earth.”

Rice University history professor Douglas Brinkley wrote in his book “The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter”:

“People will be celebrating Jimmy Carter for hundreds of years. His reputation is only going to grow."

Rosalynn died a little more than a year ago; the couple is survived by their children Amy, Chip, Jack and Jeff; 11 grandchildren; and 14 great-grandchildren.

RIP Jimmy

And thank you for showing all of us the way.

Thanks Joe

I never thought I'd see this, read this, or hear this; it was unthinkable to me. But the decision isn't mine or yours or theirs; it's his, and he made it, doing what he thinks is right, though it might be a tough decision, but the best right decision for America.

My Fellow Americans,

Over the past three and a half years, we have made great progress as a Nation.

Today, America has the strongest economy in the world. We've made historic investments in rebuilding our Nation, in lowering prescription drug costs for seniors, and in expanding affordable health care to a record number of Americans. We've provided critically needed care to a million veterans exposed to toxic substances. Passed the first gun safety law in 30 years. Appointed the first African American woman to the Supreme Court. And passed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world. America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today.

I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our Democracy. And we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.

It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.

I will speak to the Nation later this week in more detail about my decision.

For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.

I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can't do - when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.

Thanks Joe, for standing up for us against the policies of The Felon; for getting through COVID,  as many of us watched our friends and loved ones die; for helping us get back on our feet, spiritually, emotionally, and financially.

That will be quite the legacy. A legacy I hope will be treated with care and kindness by your successor.

I will stand with Kamala Harris, should she be the nominee; and I will stand with whomever she chooses as her running mate. I will stand with every Democrat to take this country forward, and not back to a time when women had no rights, LGBTQ+ people were less than, and people of color were not treated equally, and anyone with brown skin was considered an "illegal" or a terrorist.

Onward, forward Citizens.

Tuesday Thought #3

Bobservations

The other morning, as I was preparing to drive Carlos to work, he came into the kitchen wearing a snappy little ensemble of blazer, bowtie, and nice slacks. He reminded me that in the afternoon I’d be driving him to Columbia where he was going to do a radio show for the Hispanic community.So, I looked him up and down in that outfit and said:

“It’s radio. You know they can’t see you, right?”

“I know that! But I’m getting my picture taken for the newspaper today.”

Now, being a sarcastic ass, and hating to have used snark only to watch it fall flat, I smiled and said:

“Make sure they use that Lucille Ball Mame lens when they take the picture.”

“What does that mean?”

“it’s the lens they used on Lucy when she did Mame and they seared Vaseline all over it to make her look about three decades younger. Ask for that lens.”

Yep, still got it.

PS Here's Lucy without the Vaseline and gauze, and then Lucy with the Vaseline and gauze.

It appears that Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado is considering a run for president.  My one question is: who the eff is Michael Bennet?

Here’s a nice story … a sacred pipe, given as a peace offering by a Dakota chief White Dog to Lieutenant King, a U.S. soldier, while the chief was being held prisoner after the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, has been returned to the tribe one-hundred-fifty years later.

The pipe, which had been owned by a Boston family since the 1880s, was put up for auction last week over the objection of the Prairie Island nation, which regarded it as a sacred object, but the auction went ahead as planned. The pipe expected to fetch $15,000 to $20,000 but sold to an anonymous bidder for nearly $40,000.

And then the anonymous bidder returned the pipe to the tribe. Just in time for Christmas.

Now, he may not want you to know this, but Mick Mulvaney, set to become the _____'s Acting Chief of Staff, is another _____ lapdog who once felt differently about the Fat Bastard; in fact, after hearing that "Access Hollywood" tape, Mulvaney:

"My guess is worse stuff is going to come out in the last 30 days. They've got more videotapes. Everything the guy's ever said is on a videotape or an audio tape. There is going to be some atrocious things that are gonna come out. [But] that’s not going to make Hillary Clinton a good candidate for president. Should either of these people be, be a role model for my 16-year-old triplets? No. In an ordinary universe, would both of these people's past activities disqualify them for serving for office? Yes.”

Cut to 2018 and Mulvaney is _____’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and soon to be acting CoS.

That’s politics in a nutshell.

More good news … this week, former and best, President Barack Obama doled out present to children at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC.

That’s my president and, well, I’m just gonna say it, it’s also my Hot Santa.

Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, is no longer a registered Republican because of the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and the _____ Administration’s treatment of immigrants.

Cantil-Sakauye was appointed in 2010 by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, but is now registered as a no-party-preference voter and as she put it:

“I felt compelled to make a choice now. It better suits what I do and how I approach issues.”

Brava.

I may not know art, but I know what I like … and that painting, by out gay artist David Hockney, is expected to sell for $38 million at auction.

The portrait features Metropolitan Museum of Art curator Henry Geldzahler and his then-boyfriend, painter Christopher Scott.

If I had $38 million, I could find better uses for it. Just sayin’.

Before we get to some Hot Men …though we’ve already swooned over Hot Santa, that’s ______’s worst nightmare up there.

Three strong women—The Notorious RBG, Hillary Clinton, and Gloria Steinem—at the premiere for On The Basis of Sex, a movie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life.

Oh, and since we talked hot men, the film also stars My-Husband-In-My-Head, Armie Hammer, as RBG’s husband Martin. And since it does, here he is …

Um .... Yum.

Three men from Nightflyers, some kind of science fiction show I recorded for Carlos because he loves that kinda stuff.

I’ll be there for the man candy … Eoin Macken, David Ajala, and Phillip Rhys.

That’s all.

Tuesday Thought #3