FERRERMAN- AGAIN?

My algorithms last night brought me the story of a combat Marine whose first war experience was in 1968 at the brutal siege of Khe Sanh. His was a good story. He was from a good, middle-class family in Connecticut. His parent's plan for him was to go to Notre Dame in South Bend like his father did. I think  his mom went to St. Mary's but don't quote me on that. The young man didn't really have the grades for Notre Dame, but worse than that, he didn't have the football talent either. Dad, an FBI agent and an alum, wrote letters to get him in there anyway, but the son knew it wasn't for him. He gave it two years before it became evident that, yes, he really didn't have the grades, and he flunked most of his courses and left school. His father (and mom) was livid, seeing it as an act of rebellion and a personal affront to them. The boy went to a USMC recruiter in New Haven and signed a contract. His dad had sternly warned him that losing his college deferment m...

Voltaire (allegedly) said that "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". Whether he did or not (the quote doesn't appear in any of his writings) I am saying it now and you can quote me on that. Is there anything more absurd in our lifetimes than Trump and Maga? Anything more absurd than the notion that Trump was sent by God or that there is a "War on Christmas" or that Haitians were eating the cats and dogs in Ohio? The answer, of course, is "no". And I know absurdity. Why, yes, I've been married.  We are not yet at the atrocities portion of this regime's game plan, but you can definitely see it from here. You only need look back at Hitler's rise in Germany in the 1930's. It didn't start with death camps and the Holocaust. He had to work up to that. He first had to set it in German minds that his goal was to make Germany Great again. With that goal in mind, everything else he did would seemingly ma...

 I like cop shows. Everybody likes cop shows. They are the staples of American cinema and television. You have your good cops, bad cops, funny cops and sexy girl cops with arresting personalities. Cops in fast cars and cops in beat-up old Peugeots. You got dicks, public and private. Fat country sheriffs and wizened lawmen as well. Cops come from the general population, and it truly takes all kinds.  Politics is the same way. Politicians come from the general population as well. They haven't yet begun to manufacture them in the laboratory, even though it may seem like it. More often than not they are derivations of the same, tried and true, themes. I've had friends over the years who didn't share my interest in politics. They would shrug and say things like, "They're all crooks!"  Well, I'll be damned if they weren't right! But they were right for all the wrong reasons, in that broken clock sort of way.  For the last damn-near 250 years of this country ...

 Much to my surprise I am watching- and enjoying- "The Sex Lives of College Girls". Yeah. This is what happens when you don't have NFL channels because of the capitalist patriarchy. And you're cheap. But it's a good thing. I'm expanding my television horizons.  I remembered seeing ads for it on HBO/MAX when I was bingeing "The Sopranos" and thinking it looked kinda stupid. If I had had to guess, I'd have thought it was like 'Sex in the City Goes to College', but I never watched "Sex in the City". I watch things like the Sopranos, so I don't know.  I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did. It's clever, very funny and got a good amount of titties and bottoms in it. And I'd have to say, several episodes in, that it doesn't take itself too seriously. It's about four girls from different backgrounds, rooming together in their freshman year at a Vermont college. Naturally they are dealing with boys- and girls too- a...

 I get that it was disappointing to all, but doesn't page upon pages of completely redacted evidence just fucking spell "guilty"? Sure, it doesn't delineate who is guilty (not officially) but, then again, it does! That is because, we all know who dunnit. We have pretty good knowledge of other guilty parties involved as well. Aside from the current President, other men involved were captains of industry, politics and even a legal scholar. Little Mike Johnson (spokesgremlin for the current regime) somehow feels these men need to be protected, that just because they were there, doesn't mean they were there.  Maybe so, but who is he to be the guardian of guilt or innocence? I mean, was he there?  We know who all the suspects are. Boatloads of black ink certainly are not going to exonerate them. You could hope that Noam "NOAM!" Chomsky was an innocent visitor, but not if he's as redacted as the others. Apparently 11 pages of Bill Clinton were fit to print...

 An LA Rams wide receiver got in trouble for making an antisemitic gesture as part of his touchdown celebration. I had no idea who the guy was because who can afford to watch football these days? I was also kind of curious what the gesture was. I assumed it might be the rubbing of the fingers against the thumb that people do when someone is cheap. It turned out to be the rubbing of the hands together, one curled under the other open hand that we've all seen and maybe even done over the years. It signifies greed. I had no idea it was antisemitic. Just thought it was overacting. The player likely had no idea of the implication of the gesture, the connotation, if you will, thinking (as I would) that it meant he was greedy for touchdowns. He got kinda duped into doing it by a shitbird podcaster who probably did  know what it meant.  The rubbing of the fingers gesture is more familiar to me. Seen it throughout life, and often a reference to Jews is made while the person is doi...

Due to recent purges, I've had an interesting change in my television viewing habits. It's not an entirely bad thing though.  I have to admit that YouTube TV was the best service that I've come across. It's expensive though (currently $82.50 a month) and I did not  like their shitty cancelling non-feature. Won't go through all that again but suffice to say it was way too Brokeback Mountain. Very hard to quit. It really had everything I wanted though. The NFL, NHL, some MLB and the network channels which seem useless, but come in handy at times. I was thinking about this when I read how pissed off Survivor fans were that Trump's crazy national address interrupted the season finale. I wasn't a serious fan, but I looked at Survivor as comfort food for the mind. Same thing every damn season, so predictable and safe, like a ham sandwich for the soul. It was there if I wanted it. Once I discovered how fucking hard they made it to quit, I was very dedicated to defe...

A guy wearing a cowboy hat on CNN, made a very important point about the murder of Rob Reiner and his wife in regard to how Trump so abusively handled it, and the reactions by other, less-titled assholes, to Trump's obscene remarks. He held up a newspaper photo of Rob Reiner and noted that most Americans only knew him as "Meathead" from "All in the Family" and from him directing many wonderful films. Most of the US didn't know- or care- that he was a democrat and an activist. They liked Meathead for his movies.  To a much lesser extent, when Charlie Kirk was murdered, most Americans had no idea who he was. That he was shot on a college campus probably had much of America shaking their head and saying, "Oh, another school shooting..." There is nothing really odd about that. Rob Reiner was famous for that TV role and a whole bunch of great movies- not  his politics. Kirk was somewhat famous, in a smaller circle, only for  his politics, nothing else. ...

 I'm damn-near 20 years removed from Memphis, but reading an article this morning about the ICE 'mission' there took me back. There isn't a lot on the news about the ICEholes in Memphis, because there is less resistance from the citizens than in Chicago, Portland and LA. Memphis is the largest majority black city in the country and that has to be a factor. A big part of the story of America is ethnic rivalries in cities where other minorities are viewed as competition for the US dollar. A black majority is still a minority in Memphis though. Being from the Chicago suburbs, I was a bit of a migrant myself, and at times felt the distancing and persecution from what I laughingly call "my people". This was, of course, before Trump and Maga, but the seeds of republican assholery were long ago sown in the south, and thrived in Memphis where, if they don't cherish the lost cause  on a daily basis, they will upon hearing a Yankee voice. Such uncivil war sentiment ...

 What offends me about Trump, Theil, the Mercers- whatever billionaire pricks are involved- is the majority of Americans just want- and deserve- to live the American dream, even if it is an illusion. The audacity of these pricks is obscene. The illusion of the American dream is pretty damn nice! It's also available to pretty much everyone. Your mileage may vary, of course.  You should be wary of anyone who tells you how to live, particularly if you didn't ask. Cut your parents some slack because it is actually their job to raise you, at least for the first 18 years of your existence here. They may get it wrong, but they are  mom and dad and they are at least trying. Beyond mom and dad though, advice should be taken with a grain of salt. Advice, whether solicited or not, is usually delivered without caveat and based upon the giver's life experiences and (possibly) their expectations for you. An example here; A police officer has just pulled you over. He's interrupted you...

We have all seen Trump deteriorating before our eyes. Sooner rather than later he'll be somewhere south of living. We all want this as soon as possible, because he's a despicable, ugly person that we tired of years ago. If anyone needs a citation for this, check out his entire existence. As wonderful as his demise will be, it's far from the solution to America's current problems. But there is hope. As I have said here many times in the past, Trump is a patsy and a fall guy for the real brains and money behind him. He was the only guy they could get in the White House to enable them to destroy democracy. He's an old-timey toy that you wind up, and watch wreak aimless havoc on the floor. Amusing, to child-like minds of all ages. Incredible that anyone took him seriously in 2016 or now, but 348 million people allows for millions of stupid countryfuckers. 77 million at last count. Those 77 million are starting to fall by the wayside. The reality of Trump 2.0 is that eve...

 Went down an interesting rabbit hole of rural, distressed Illinois towns on the YouTube. The host has been all over the country videoing similar locales, so he wasn't picking on my people. I've been here and there in the country myself and wasn't too surprised by his findings. Of all the curiosity one might have about why anyone lives where they do, why people live in small towns dying a long, slow death is a tough call. The host didn't get too far into that. Much of his journey is filmed from his car as there really isn't much to explore. Aside from a lot of rundown houses, it was a couple episodes in before he even found anyone out on the street. It was rather depressing. He gives stats on the town and a bit of history, if there is any. Pearl, Il. a bit north of St. Louis (if you care where that boring city is) was so named because they harvested pearls from river mollusks for buttons on shirts, early in the 20th century. At some point the demand for that decline...

With a good amount of snow already this winter (and we're still in the alleged "fall" portion) I recently broke down and bought a new pair of boots. The old pair was a real struggle to get into and out of. and old they were as they certainly were purchased years ago down south when work boots were a serious requirement on nearly every job. When I returned north, I was still doing commercial work, but nothing remotely big-time that required proper footwear. These boots were only occasionally used for big snows. I gotta tell ya- I'm tough as nails and more often than not I shovel the walk and drive, in my deck shoes or a pair of gym shoes. If you do it right, you are never stepping in deep snow. And, like I said, I'm tough as nails.  The old pair was a size 8.5. Clearly the new ones would have to be at least a nine. Now, I know what you are thinking; Ferrerman, you need to go and measure yourself in your men's department and see if anything else got bigger! No, ...

Last night's effort got me to thinking about autopay and whose side they might be on. It is very convenient for a professional crastinator such as me. I like my bills paid on time and I got to believe the companies I deal with like that too. If you have a reoccurring bill like utilities or internet, or even a monthly streaming service, it's nice on both ends to know these things are taken care of so there is no disruption of service or furrowed brows coming your way. I use it for phone, internet and utilities. I generally like it- except when it comes to YouTube TV and their Brokeback Mountain relationship techniques. They do  make it hard to quit them. I believe I compared it to George Costanza trying to break up with his girlfriend and her deciding that, no, that wasn't going to happen. We've been over that weird relationship with YTTV.  It got me reminiscing though about two knuckleheads I worked with years ago, Crackhead Tim and Fucking Danny. Those weren't thei...

Maybe I wasn't meant to watch football.  Some dedicated non-readers might recollect that when I decided to stop paying $82.50 a month to watch TV on YouTube TV, they made it harder than a divorce on me. They made it very  hard for me to leave the month-to-month pre-nup agreement we had. They refused to quit me- loving that monthly stipend too much. I had agreed to put them on autopay with my bank and since I had initiated that, I couldn't undo that. Well, OK. My banks solution was to cancel that debit card and give me a new one, one that YTTV couldn't use to buy drugs or hookers with. This worked! FULL DISCLOSURE: I do not know that drugs and hookers is what they spent my money on, but I do not not know that either. So, flip a coin.  Anyways, I went a couple of months without paying to watch TV and was doing pretty well at that with free stuff like Pluto and Tubi. They came with the Vizio TV I have will likely remain free until someone buys them out and makes them a monet...

 I would imagine that any branch of the military is like a corporation or- if you will- any criminal organization. There is a boss, and there are bosses' underneath him, but he is THE boss. Corporations and mob families are all ultimately about the man at the top. He can be replaced, but for the time he is in power, he is the man, and no one usurps his authority. They only do what they are told.  There's no doubt in my mind that the 'kill 'em all' order originated from Trump. How could it not? He is the toughest, most powerful man alive. When he is asked about an event and replies, "I don't know anything about that" he is playing 5D chess. What- do you think he's an idiot who only exists to golf and scheme money? Fuggeddaboudit. The bucks all stop at his desk. He knows, because he says so. Capiche? Criminal organization, corporation or military, every downstream decision is based on what the boss says. Trump, as Commander in Chief of the military (...