Day: April 21, 2019

Let It Bleed — Yet Another One of Fandango’s Political Rants

Fandango25 Comments

8AD4C5D7-DF97-482F-B97C-0A5D99DC3F3CPlease bear with me while I rant and vent a little about the state of partisan politics in the United States in 2019.

After the release of the full, albeit redacted, Mueller Report, there is a growing debate among Democrats about whether or not to begin the formal impeachment process. More progressive Democrats think members of the House of Representatives must take the initiative and immediately begin impeachment hearings against Donald Trump, even though there is close to a zero chance that such a move would be supported in the Republican controlled Senate.

More moderate Democrats suggest that we continue with ongoing investigations from the House Judiciary, Intelligence, Finance, and Oversight committees and hold open, public hearings so that Americans can see what a slime ball Trump is and vote him out of office in 2020.

I admit I’m on the fence. I’m not a politically astute pundit and I don’t know what would be best for our country in both the short and long terms. But I do know the ugly face of hypocrisy when I see it.

Let us harken back to 1998 when then President Bill Clinton lied to the public and to Congress about getting a blowjob from an intern, Monica Lewinsky, and was then accused of obstruction of justice by attempting to influence witness testimony.

Here’s what Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said 21 years ago:

“[Clinton] doesn’t have to say, ‘Go lie for me,’ to be a crime. You don’t have to say, ‘Let’s obstruct justice’ for it to be a crime. You judge people on their conduct, not magic phrases. The point I’m trying to make is you don’t even have to be convicted of a crime to lose your job in this constitutional republic. Impeachment is not about punishment. Impeachment is about cleansing the office.”

And then there’s this 21-year-old quote from the mouth of an even bigger hypocritical snake, Senator Mitch McConnell:

“Our nation is indeed at a crossroads. Will we pursue the search for truth or will we dodge, weave, and evade the truth? I am, of course, referring to the investigation into serious allegations of illegal conduct by the president of the United States — that the president has engaged in a persistent pattern and practice of obstruction of justice. The allegations are grave, the investigation is legitimate, and ascertaining the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the unqualified, unevasive truth is absolutely critical.”

And now, 21 years later, we have a president who coordinated with Russia to help him win the presidency, who has continually lied about it, and who has done everything possible to obstruct justice. And yet these same scumbags say, with respect to Trump, there’s nothing there.

Where is the outrage Graham and McConnell expressed 21 years ago? How can they equate lying about a blowjob with being a traitor to his country and systematically destroying our American democracy?

Okay, I’m done ranting and venting. Happy Easter, Happy Passover, and for those “non-believers” like me, Happy Sunday.

Written for the Let It Bleed Weekly Prompt Challenge from Saumya Agrawal’s Randomness Inked blog. The prompt for this week is the word “vent.” Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (partisan), Your Daily Word Prompt (initiative), Word of the Day Challenge (ugly), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (snake).

Song Lyric Sunday — When the Weather is Hot

Fandango11 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has given us the theme of seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. The song I chose is Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime.”

“In the Summertime” was the debut single by British rock band Mungo Jerry. Written by its lead singer, Ray Dorset, it celebrated the carefree days of summer. In 1970, it reached number one in charts around the world, eventually selling 30 million copies. Other than “In the Summertime,” though, Mungo Jerry never again charted in the U.S.

Dorset, who was influenced by American beach movies that he watched growing up, called the song, “the teenage dream.” He penned the song in 1968 when he was working for Timex in the UK. The band was just getting started and music was more of a hobby at the time. Dorest says that the famous melody just popped into his head one day, and the next day he wrote the lyrics very quickly.

“It’s got no chorus; all it’s got is a melody that goes over and over again with a set of lyrics that conjure up a celebration of life,” he said. “Especially if you’re a young person: it’s a great day, you’ve managed to get a car — preferably with the top off — you’re cruising around, and if you’re a guy, you’re picking up girls.”

A little bit of trivia: the band’s name, Mungo Jerry, was based upon the character Mungojerrie, from the T. S. Eliot book Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, which later served as the basis for the Broadway play, Cats).

In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky
When the weather’s fine
You got women, you got women on your mind
Have a drink, have a drive
Go out and see what you can find

If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal
If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel
Speed along the lane
Do a ton or a ton and twenty-five
When the sun goes down
You can make it, make it good and really fine

We’re no threat people, we’re not dirty, we’re not mean
We love everybody, but we do as we please
When the weather’s fine
We go fishing or go swimming in the sea
We’re always happy
Life’s for living, yeah, that’s our philosophy

Sing along with us, dee-dee dee-dee dee
Da doo da-da da, yeah, we’re hap-pap-py
Da da da, dee da doo dee da doo da doo da
Da doo da-da da, dee da da dee da da

When the winter’s here, yeah, it’s party time
Bring your bottle, wear your bright clothes
‘Cause it will soon be summertime
And we’ll sing again
We’ll go driving or maybe we’ll settle down
If she’s rich, if she’s nice
Bring your friends and we’ll all go into town

In the summertime when the weather is hot
You can stretch right up and touch the sky
When the weather’s fine
You got women, you got women on your mind
Have a drink, have a drive
Go out and see what you can find

If her daddy’s rich, take her out for a meal
If her daddy’s poor, just do what you feel
Speed along the lane
Do a ton or a ton and twenty-five
When the sun goes down
You can make it, make it good and really fine

We’re no threat people, we’re not dirty, we’re not mean
We love everybody, but we do as we please
When the weather’s fine
We go fishing or go swimming in the sea
We’re always happy
Life’s for living, yeah, that’s our philosophy

Sing along with us, dee-dee dee-dee dee
Da doo da-da da, yeah, we’re hap-pap-py
Da da da, dee da doo dee da doo da doo da
Da doo da-da da, dee da da dee da da

MLMM — Making Sense of Nonsense

Fandango8 Comments

28e02038-5d27-4a55-ab5c-2f4ca1aa27a5.png“What’s that contraption?” Amy asked her father.

“This?” Alex said. “It’s my latest invention, sweetie. It’s a woklecockle.”

“A woklecockle? That’s a weird name. What does it do?”

“What does it do? Can’t you tell by looking at it?”

“Actually, no, Daddy, I can’t.”

“Well, sweetie,” Alex said, “Once I power up my woklecockle, it creates a powerful force field that lights up that receiver on the upper left,” he said pointing. “The faster the wheel goes around, the stronger the force field. Ultimately it sends a signal to a communications satellite that is circling the globe. Once the connection with the satellite has been established, the satellite beams down signals to all of the strategically placed dishes on the device.”

“And then what?” Amy asked.

“And then I send the signals to my TV so that I can binge watch “Game of Thrones” for free, sweetie,” Alex said, proudly.

“But why do you call it woklecockle?”

“Because DirecTV was already taken.”

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver Making Sense of Nonsense prompt, where we’re asked to write a story in which we describe our meaning of the word “woklecockle.” Also for Swimmers One-Word Prompt (satellite).

FOWC with Fandango — Partisan

Fandango14 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 21, 2019 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “partisan.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.