IT’S ALL HAPPENING!

by John Walters
https://mediumhappi.org/?p=7840

by John Walters

Tweet Me Right


Quenton Nelson played football at Notre Dame, where former teammate Jaylon Smith (now with the Dallas Cowboys) was nicknamed Murder Train. Why not both of them?

Starting Five

California Nightmare

People who live in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, and we know a few, are extremely pleased with their choice of where to live. They’re living the California dream, after all, and if you’ve ever visited there from the Northeast between, say, now and April Fool’s Day, you get it. You wake up on a lovely, sunny, warm December morning and, especially if it’s after a hard rain, you can spot the ocean in one direction and the snow-capped San Gabriels in the other.

It’s heaven.

But not in the past week. A shooter took 12 lives in Thousand Oaks and then wildfires have turned Malibu and Zuma Beach into a hellscape.

2. Deluge

This dude knew he wouldn’t melt….

Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, known at the time as The Great War or The War To End All Wars. World leaders convened in Paris with the plan being to attend a wreath-laying ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, approximately 60 miles from Paris.

The site was picked as a way to commemorate the Battle of Belleau Wood, where 1,800 American soldiers lost their lives fighting alongside British, French and Canadian allies. There was just one problem: il pleut.

(Trump’s actual fear)

Yes, rain. And that was enough to keep our Commander in Chief from attending. Consider this: Angela Merkel made it, and she is the leader of the country that was the enemy that day. And yet she found the will to brave the rain. But not Donald, the man who once publicly opined that “STDs are my personal Vietnam.”

Trump’s latest foray into hypocrisy (“I love the troops!” followed by “Cant’ get my hair wet”) opened the door for some world-class trolling. Here’s Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, by far the greatest leader in North America whose last name begins T-R-U…


And here’s the French Army Twitter page, acting as if a little rain is a life-or-death measure.

Last thing: On Friday afternoon TCM aired an old war movie, The Fighting 69th. Draped around a World War I backdrop in the French trenches, Jimmy Cagney plays a tough-talking outer-borough New Yorker who is actually a first-rate coward whose craven behavior gets many of his fellow soldiers killed and whom no one in his outfit can stand. That film was made nearly 80 years ago but, wow, so prophetic.

3. “Lieutenant Dan”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKaakjMVtyE

It’s always nice to see a simple-minded yokel and a Lieutenant Dan bury any past grievances and make peace, don’t you agree? We can’t commend Lieutenant Commander Dan Crenshaw enough for showing up and for accepting Pete Davidson’s apology, which absolutely was owed. It was a powerful moment and a funny moment and it took us back 40 years ago to our childhood when people were actually nice to one another and yet still funny on TV.

Above: That’s a two-time Best Actor Oscar winner, our nation’s current fictional president (I’d take her in a swap without a second thought), the country’s fiercest advocate for veterans’ rights (who puts his time and money where his mouth is), and an Asian actress whom if our actual president met her his first question would be, “Where are you from?”

4. Carmelodrama (Cont.)

When we read over the weekend that Houston Rockets officials and Carmelo’s people were in discussions as to how this arrangement could work out, we chuckled. Here’s how it works out: shut your damn mouth and listen to your coach. But of course, that’s so GOML of me.

This is exactly why I would’ve never wanted Carmelo to play on my team. You wanna be your own brand? Fine. Prove that you can win first. And not just at Syracuse for one year. That was then. This is the NBA.

Anthony is 34 and he’s the fifth-leading scorer on the Rockets at 13.4 ppg. That’s not horrible at his age. We’re not sure what he wants. When he retires, people are going to lobby for him to be in the HOF and he’ll probably make it, primarily because he salvaged his rep in the Olympics. But here we are in his 16th season and, with all that talent, he’s only taken a team to the conference finals once.

So much talent. So much attitude. At least that’s what it’s always looked like to us.

5. “I’m Melting!” (Part 2)

Here’s the BBC with another disturbing story on climate change. This is the northernmost town in Greeland, Qaanaaq (automatically, as a lover of adventure and palindromes, this must move to the top of Steve Rushin’s bucket list), and what you don’t see here that you should is…SNOW. Or ICE.

Here’s Qaanaaq as it should look:

The good news about the end of days is that you’re not going to have to worry about credit-card debt.

Music 101

God Only Knows

This 1966 song by the Beach Boys (really, by Brian Wilson and a crew of talented session musicians while the rest of the band was touring in Asia) is as close as we’ll ever get to knowing what heaven sounds like. But you just can’t create heaven on a lark. This video provides some context as to how much effort went into it. For such a tortured soul in real life, Wilson knew exactly what he wanted and needed in the recording studio. A genius. He was 23 years old.

Remote Patrol

Into Alaska

10 p.m. Animal Planet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-B0heZjq5M

It’s a brand new show about Alaska and wildlife and we’ll just get high on the fumes.

 

7 thoughts on “IT’S ALL HAPPENING!”

    • I’ll fall back on my “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” defense, Wally. But thank you. I had wondered why he said “2017.”

      Reply

  2. Another day, another global embarrassment for the USA courtesy The Sociopath & ALL WHO ENABLE HIM.

    So, it looks like the DEMOCRAT won the AZ Senate seat! Or almost, don’t think it’s been officially called yet. Plus, I looked at the House & Dems won 5 of the 9! Does this surprise you, jdubs? That AZ is no longer a total blue state?

    Also, IA is not a “Red” den of racism that the Nazi King’s re-election suggests – just that ONE district voted for a Republican in the House, the rest are Dems.

    Alas, not much hope for Nebraska. Jacob – please tell me again why Nebraska votes the way it does. And Indiana, what the heck is wrong with them?!

    I was looking at population stats the other day & 55% of the country’s population live in just 10 (TEN) states. Which of course means in the rest of the 40, count ’em, FORTY states, live the remaining 45%. And most of them live in just 10 other states, so the bottom 30 states have less than 25% of the population. The Electoral College MUST GO! How much longer can our country be held HOSTAGE to a political party that manipulates our elections?

    Reply

    • Susie,

      I do wonder that if the EC was abolished would those in states that have “predetermined” outcomes but vote opposite of the majority would be more motivated to go to the polls.

      For example, there’s very little reason for a California citizen who is a card carrying member of the GOP to vote in a presidential election.

      Reply

      • Hi Okerland, I believe you are 100% correct – if people REALLY knew THEIR vote truly counted, we would have higher turn-outs. Calif is like MD which is surprisingly like many other states – the most populous counties of a state can determine the Presidential vote. In MD, 5 counties have 75-85% (!) of the population & we tend to vote strongly DEM. The REST of MD (largely rural) does NOT; at least not for the past 30 years as they vote strongly GOP. So, if you live in my old home rural largely GOP county, your vote for President DOES NOT COUNT as my current big-pop, heavy DEM county wipes out your vote by a factor of 10 or more. If I still lived in that county & was an idiot, er, I mean voted GOP 😉 , I’d be pretty pissed. VA is now like this too, Northern VA (DC suburbs) votes HEAVY DEM & the rest of the state, not so much & boy are THEY pissed.

        By giving ALL of a state’s electoral votes to the ONE candidate who may have eked out a tiny majority in each state, we are guaranteeing that all our votes do NOT matter – the exact opposite of what the EC was ostensibly to ensure. It is also manipulating the TRUE voting wishes of the ENTIRE populace so that twice in just the last 20 years a “President” gets installed that did NOT WIN THE ELECTION, they won a FACSIMILE, a CONCOCTED FALLACY. And yes, I’m a bit “salty” on the topic. 🙂

        Reply

    • Susie B.,

      Nebraska just represents what Josh Brown said the day after the midterm elections (also featured on this site): https://twitter.com/ReformedBroker/status/1060012402496991233

      Check out this map: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/election-results

      You see those two blue counties? It so happens that each of those counties host both Lincoln (Lancaster County) and Omaha (Douglas County). Lincoln, as any college football fan knows, is home to the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, the largest university in the state. Therefore, the demographic tends to skew more educated.

      Omaha holds all the same characteristics, with the added caveat of being 4x the size in population.

      Now, what about the rest of the state? That’s good old rural America, which I was a member of for the first 18 years of my life. It’s quiet, isolated and tends to skew more elderly and white. And there are farmers. Many, many farmers. My observation is that many of these individuals don’t get out much and tend to see white people everywhere.

      Oh, but Nebraska is home to the “best” college football fans in all of America? See, there is such a thing as Midwestern nice. However, that nice usually only applies to those that share the same interests and skin tone as the resident.

      I could continue, but it isn’t any new news for anyone.

      BUT Medicaid was expanded in the state, which helps rural hospitals out tremendously. They only hate the welfare programs that are dished out to others. This is just a showcase of empathy (or, rather, the lack thereof). It’s not rocket science.

      It’s cheap to live there, though. Has that going for it.

      Reply

      • Thanks for answering Jacob. I’m actually fascinated why certain states vote the way they do. Has Nebraska ALWAYS been GOP country or did this come about in the early 80s? My state & the ENTIRE SOUTH was Democrat for more than a hundred years & THEN Watergate happened & the potential dissolution of the Republican party. It desperately looked around at what/who they could combine (manipulate) to stay afloat & RACISM, FEAR, & LIES were their ticket. Still is.

        I always laugh at those on the “Right” who trumpet “hard work & self-reliance & NO HAND-OUTS!” & yet, they never turn down a handout for THEMSELVES. “Oh, that’s DIFFERENT” they huff. Call it “stimulus”, call it “incentives”, call it “tariffs”, call it “handouts”, they are the same damn things just gussied up in different ‘clothes’.

        Question – isn’t Minnesota also a “Midwestern state”? Why do you think they are heavily “blue” these days while Nebraska is not? Is it because MN is no longer that rural, compared to NE?

        And is “rural” a synonym for “undereducated” &/ or “racist” these days? If you remember, I also grew up in a rural area & it is partly racist & undereducated & yes, they’ve voted heavily GOP since the early 80s.

        HOW the GOP convinced the white, lower money classes that it was on THEIR side is the BIGGEST CON of the 20th & 21st centuries. (Take billions out of the public schools, make higher education prohibitively expensive -> KEEP ‘EM STOOPID!).

        Reply

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