New Year Syntax

 poor georgie’s almanack:

We live in the present tense but think in the past tense.  Thus, we see a world that has lost its syntax … especially in states that ban marijuana.  Happy New Year.

New Star Wars ...

poor georgie’s almanack:

Haven’t seen the new Star Wars.  You really gotta go. 

Hint: Sit near the aisle closest to the bathrooms.  

It is two-and-a-half hours long.  

Race

poor georgie’s almanack:

Subtle?

Meghan Markle usually is identified as bi-racial.   

Barack Obama usually is identified as black.

harpers bazaar photo from pinterest

Sea legs

poor georgie’s almanack: 

In-gene-uity. 

An octopus somehow edits its own genes to prolong its life. Humans can’t … yet.

Maybe we will need six arms and two legs, and when the air sucks, survive in salt water. 

It could happen. 

Whale ancestors came from the ocean, didn’t like land, returned to the sea and flourished.

Torque

poor georgie’s almanack:

Turns out, life is all about torque.   

neither here nor there

poor georgie’s almanack:

Without support it is impossible to get from here to there.

R or D Caucus?

poor georgie’s almanack

It is hard to tell if this is the Republican or Democratic Caucus

Blowing Smoke

poor georgie’s almanack:  

Industry political PACs propose a plan to clean up dirty coal.

picture by Pawel Kuczinski

Green

poor georgie’s almanack

 

Theory: Legislators protect the many. 

 

Fact: Legislators protect their money.

 

STATEMENT OF THE UNION

poor georgie’s almanack:

DEM: Delusionally Entitled Men

GOP: Groping Old Predators

SAP:  Stupefied American Public

Media difference

poor georgie’s almanack:
There is a difference between Streaming-Media (left) and Main-Stream-Media.

on the other hand ... golf

poor georgie’s almanack:
On the other hand, maybe it would be better if politicians spent more time on the golf course.

Thanksgiving in America

poor georgie's almanack:

Watch your fingers.

Today's word is "grateful" not "hateful.

Religion branding

poor georgie’s almanack

Birth, where branding begins.

Big Mac, Big Statement

 poor georgie’s almanack: 

This may be the most hopeful commercial statement in a decade … “McDonald’s is committed to being America's best first job.”  

old physics joke

poor georgie’s almanack: Old physics joke. 
A photon checks into a hotel. 
Clerk asks, do you have any luggage? 
No, photon responds, I am traveling light.

Evangelical 10-Step

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Re: Judge Moore. 

AA for evangelicals who drank the Tea Party Kool-Aid.  

home but not home

poor georgie's almanack:
Back home but mind remains in New England.

Awaiting test results

poor georgie’s almanack: No posts for a few days. Awaiting test results to determine if all previous almanack posts and your responses came from a Russian bot.

Image Credit: Shadow Robot

Today's headlines

 poor georgie’s almanack. 

Because many of you on this email list do not follow social media I am being overly presumptuous and sharing a version of my posts after reading the very first headline.

Immediately, I looked for some humor, but could not find any and wrote.

Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of a very bad joke ... 

“A Gates, A Manafort and a lawyer walk into the bar.”

Then the seriousness of the situation sunk deeper …

What have you and I done? 

We listened to false prophets and allowed the Ds and Rs to present us with two very flawed candidates. Today, the winner must be totally consumed with saving his reputation and his family from jail just as he is about to embark on an Asian trip in which his distractedness could determine, as I have said before, whether our children will be fried (rare, medium or well) or starved. You and I may think we are not part of the problem. We are the problem.

And finally for the day …

We made an error of biblical proportions. We believed and posted and toasted far and wide the stories of the false D & R & Putin infused gods who told us WHAT, not HOW, to think. 

Alas, Dear Pogo, you were right.

first 2020 predictions

poor georgie’s almanack;
As of today it looks like four major parties in the 2020 presidential race. Traditional GOP and DEM, plus Progressives and an updated version of the popular 1855 Know Nothing Party (seriously, look it up). Also, as of today my candidate for President is Neil deGrasse Tyson. Don’t laugh. He’s much smarter than any of us and, because he is America’s most popular scientist, he really can figure out how to drain the swamp.

Query ... the letter P

poor georgie’s almanack:

What are the duties of the president/prime minister, congress/parliament, states/provinces?

And why do so many start with P?

panhandlers in a cashless society

poor georgie’s almanack

Do panhandlers who take Visa have a $10 minimum?

General Kelly

poor georgie's almanack:

 

The reincarnation of a 5 Star General ... a suggested new title for a work by M Pugliese 

 

 

poor georgie’s almanack:

I fell for fake news.

Maybe you sent it.

Why should I believe you or you me?

I no longer can believe what I know.

Prayers for War

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Sir Isaac has been proven right in scientific and non-scientific terms ... every action has an equal and opposite reaction. 

So, please ask those passionately praying for a preemptive attack on N Korea if they prefer their kids rare, medium or well done?

Passwords

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Each day, Humans spend over 1,300 years typing passwords, a Microsoft researcher claims.  

No word yet on time spent looking for them.

Curses, foiled again.

poor george’s almanack

Last week, on return from Chicago to Washington,
we opened our suitcase and inside was a Billy Goat. 

You gotta hand it to them

poor georgie's almanack: This applies to most countries.

"Our politics seems deeply divided between those who think the country is going to hell in a handcart and those who believe the country is going to hell in a handbasket.” 

That's my nomination for today's best quote.

It comes from a man named Michael Gerson in The Washington Post.

chicago

poor georgie’s almanack

Went to Chicago for the first time in decades.

Somebody shrank The Wrigley Building.

North Korea and Radioactive Fallout

North Korea and Radioactive Fallout

poor georgie’s almanack

Jet Stream & fallout from bombing N Korea:

Remember the U.S. panic after Chernobyl’s nuclear reactor’s meltdown in 1986? 

Korea is much closer.

picture from the scooper

Dr. Seuss ... immigration

poor georgie’s almanack

Sweet Dr. Seuss once was a political cartoonist. 

New USA immigration policy brings him to mind.

On getting soft

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Then: Strong handshake, strong sincere smile, strong eye contact. 

Now: Soft handshake (arthritis), soft smile (old teeth), soft eye contacts. 

Blues, blacks, browns and whites

Poor Georgie’s Almanack

The view of USA from abroad. 

Paraphrasing the great Chicago Bluesman Big Bill Broonzy’s long ago lament … If you are white, that’s all right. If you are black, oh brother get back. If you’re brown, stick around … unless you are Puerto Rican.  The Hurricane was your fault and you will just have to sit in the putrid water and rot away along with your kids and cats. 

McCain and the Houyhnhnms

poor georgie’s almanack:

Johnathan Swift wrote about a chap named Gulliver who traveled a lot.

He visited a country where white was black and black was white.

Human looking, semi-domesticated animals were herded around.

As if the 17th century author was writing today, the ruling Houyhnhnms were seemingly intelligent, reasonable horses.

In their language all words sounded like horses neighing (naying).

A dissenter probably would have been called McCain. 

The blood still flows.




poor georgie’s almanack

Random thoughts on wedge issues. 

"A House divided against itself cannot stand."
 
We still are bleeding from the last time that was relevant.

EARTHQUAKE/HURRICANE/TEARS

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I stood in the bare-bones pediatrics unit of a partially refurbished neighborhood hospital in Mexico City. The massive, violent 1985 earthquake had devastated the building, the staff, and the people they serviced.

Mexico City’s mayor had organized a day of appreciation for the Pan American Development Foundation’s (PADF) board of directors to honor our help in making the hospital and the city whole again. We actually did a lot. having a plane load of supplies on the ground just hours after the quake. Its cargo included high-powered saws that cut through concrete and other debris. The saws were crucial to rescuing trapped survivors.

Having tools like high powered saws stored in our warehouse and the ability to get a company to donate a plane to deliver them on a moment’s notice, were the kinds of big-picture stuff we annually did across the Caribbean and Latin America.

For years as a board member it was important, but abstract … until I experienced it.

The salty tears in that little pediatrics unit were matched by a couple of nurses, also in tears. They were showing us how the most rudimentary medical instruments we had provided, along with the mechanisms to boil the water used to sterilize the instruments, were simple, but life saving.

Yet, while the power saws in downtown Mexico City were freeing people on TV, the boiling water in the pediatrics unit was saving even more lives.

It was a monumental lesson that big can be boastful but small is more likely to be beautiful.

You can help put into the right hands something as simple as a sterilized scalpel and metal tray, or sophisticated construction equipment, or a hidden program to help kids messed-up by an earthquake in Latin America or a hurricane in the Caribbean. You will be as worthy as Bill and Linda Gates and Warren Buffett. (Who really are worth-y.)

Send your spare change, what’s in your pushkie, to PADF, at this web site. https://www.padf.org/donate/. Don’t give until it hurts, but do give until it feels good.

South Park on the Potomac

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Of course he’s sexist and racist and hurtful. 

In many ways, so are you, and so am I. 

It’s just that he doesn’t seem to realize it, or care. 

Good people

poor georgie’s almanack:
In part, good people are good because they were young, they were in love, they still are, and they still hold hands. Think about it.

Immigration walls are not new...an anniversary.

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Walls are not new. 

They come in different flavors and reflect different fears and insecurities. 

100 years ago an Immigration Act requiring literacy was aimed at Irish, Italians, Jews, gays, Asians, and all other non-whites.

Let Us Prey to Let Us Pray

 poor georgie’s almanack:

A Pray on Words.

They said Let Us Prey.

For too many people, all that will be left is Let Us Pray.

Against Mother Nature's advice to the native people, they said, do not let the underbrush burn naturally, we want to live there and enjoy the beauty and smell the fresh air as it is. The land is here for our use, they said. If a 100-year event occurs, our governments will protect us and make us whole, they said. For weeks the forests and houses have burned and ashes have been raining down on America’s west coast. The air has been desecrated. They stay inside.

Against Mother Nature’s advice, they said it is too expensive to build the infrastructure to handle the 100-year winds and rains and floods along the south and east coasts. We assume our governments will protect us and make us whole, they said. As event-after-event occurs, waters and lands have been desecrated. They stay inside, if they have an inside to stay in. 

Against Mother Nature’s advice and relying on Human Nature, they say lower our taxes and cut the local, state and national government services to protect us and make us whole and to keep the power on. And they wait inside for help that others provide and pay for.

Meanwhile, an obviously frustrated Mother Nature is dealing with billions of other planets like ours with semi-intelligent life … planets where her advice is more likely welcome … because it is the nature of any mother to pay more attention and nurture those who follow her advice.

bad hearing

poor georgie’s almanack:
All dressed up for lunch and I heard Susan say, “You look great.”  Turns out she said, “Stand up straight.”

Heartless

poor georgie’s almanack:

Good news for haters.

The list of victims and innocents to attack is unending.

And the heartless shall inherit the earth.

Sugar = Donations

poor georgie’s almanack: 

Political Sugar = Donations. 

Congress is coming back.

 “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the Medicaid go down…”

I'm wrong, are you?

 poor georgie’s almanack.  

Who knew (and Who is not talking). Irish slaves once were cheaper than African.  South Africa treated its slaves worse than the USA.  

After recently reading a lot of history, humanities and science … new, heavy stuff above my grade level … I learned how wrong I’ve been about a lot of things. Some new science is beyond science fiction. That stuff about other universes might just be right. 

Some new historical research shows my high school and college teachers, bright and lovable as they were, were flat-out-wrong. For instance, the pox from pigs that Spanish Conquistadores brought to the New World killed up to 90 millions Native Americans, which is why a few white guys and their camp followers could take over two continents.

I no longer am comfortable in my media/history/religious bubble.   Learning is not only interesting, it is fun. For instance, there is are historic reasons the guy in N. Korean with the funny haircut acts the way he does … evil as he is. And why China, Japan and Russia, his immediate neighbors, react in expected ways. I have not been reading up on grammar, but whoever, or whomever, of the men (always the guys) who said “Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it,” really knew his stuff. But, science is way more fascinating.