Going for Supplies

Driving to town for groceries - for supplies, like Ma and Pa Ingalls - can be entertaining.  I had to pick up pre-ordered groceries, fill the gas tank, refill the drinking water jugs, and get a flat white at Starbucks.  Sometimes I have to go to the post office, just like the old-timey days.  I also have to make the heavy duty supply run for giant bags of dog food, 50 pound bags of horse feed, sometimes for salt block, and sometimes for bags of water softener salt (whenever I realize I haven't put salt in the bin for awhile).  That is a lot of running around all over Topeka, or sometimes Manhattan.  Going to town can be a little adventure, even a bit entertaining. 

Yesterday I noticed an old 90's Ford Ranger truck.  It was brightly painted metallic lime green - with a deep red junkyard replacement tailgate.  One end of the rear bumper was still bent and wonky.  The little-engine-that-could was smoking just a tad, and it sounded as if the exhaust system needed some work, but it was rolling on down the road like a brand new $75,000 Ford Truck, thank you very much!  

Those small Ford Rangers were GREAT trucks!  I had two, each driven off the lot with less than 50 miles on the odometer.  Both were still running when I sold them with very high mileage.  The second one had close to 275,000 miles on it, I think.  I hated to see the new owner drive it away.  Seeing the little green Ranger still chugging along, dutifully fulfilling its engineered destiny as reliable American transportation, made me smile.  I fondly recall my Rangers.  And, now that I have traded in the old car that doubled as a farm truck, I need a truck.

The Ranger's color scheme was the key to this little adventure.  It reminded me of another vehicle I once owned and loved - a Volkswagen Beetle.  Its red paint was deeply oxidized, and it had junkyard replacement lime green doors!  Someone had put a Native American beadwork design decal on the bottom of both doors.  It was the hippie mobile.  Seeing the same color scheme on the Ranger reminded me, and I was grinning like an idiot.  I resolved to say something to the driver if we came to a red light together. I wanted to know how long he'd had his truck and if he loved it.  I was even thinking of asking if he would sell it, but he eventually changed lanes ahead of me, ending that silly idea.  

Sometimes even the Universe is curious where such impulses might lead!  The truck pulled into a Subway drive-through.  Since the traffic was very light, and I was in no hurry, and yeah, I had been stalking the guy for several miles, I impulsively pulled into Subway, too.  There was room to pull up beside the little green Ranger.  The poor guy driving looked over at me, wondering what level of crazy might be grinning at him through the window.  I motioned for him to roll his window down.  He started to then shrugged his shoulders as if to say he couldn't.  (I know for a fact a big ol' guy like that could have easily reached to roll down the window because I could do that in my Rangers.)  We are teetering on total anarchy right now, so I do not blame him.  I just cupped my hands and yelled, "I love your truck!" 

I drove away, smiling to myself when I regretfully thought, what if he did not realize I was goddamned serious about that?  Then I thought, he owns a Ford Ranger.  He understands.

Later the same morning, I noticed a personalized license plate that read: BRATIT.  I am aware that my mind is not the tightly wound, well oiled thinking-machine it once was.  The wiring seems to have loosened a bit.  There is some play in the connections, allowing for thought processes that are not entirely reliable. I said out loud, to myself, "What a dumbass! Bra Tit?  Really, you adolescent boy?"  

Sad to say, I thought about this for more than a few miles on the drive home, being mildly scandalized by it.  (As if I have nothing better to worry about!) It finally came to me that they most likely meant "Brought It", as in "I brought the Heat!"  Also rather "adolescent boy", especially on a totally non-hot rod truck with Grandpa Farmer vibes, but still better and far more understandable than BRA TIT. 

What's for Dinner?

It is a difficult time for half of the voting country, and a Make-America-Great-Again kind of day for the other voting half.  I cannot speak for the MAGA crowd, but I can certainly sum up the general feelings on my side with this quote from Justin Halpern's Dad:

"We're having fish for dinner.  Fine, let's take a vote. Who wants fish for dinner? Yeah, democracy ain't so fun when it fucks you, huh?" 

I still believe that as Americans, we basically all want the same things:  a safe place to raise our kids. A job that pays a livable wage.  Affordable health care (not interference from for-profit insurance companies). Safe schools.  Reasonable gun laws.  A working, humane, timely path to citizenship.  We all need protections from corporate greed and avarice, as consumers, tax payers, and employees.  We just disagree on which path to get to those things.

For the life of me, I cannot understand why it was the worst man in America that the MAGA crowd rallied behind.  When my brothers and cousins were enlisting in the military in order to have some small choice in light of the Vietnam draft - when my classmates and the boys from my hometown were either enlisting or being drafted, Trump's father paid for a bone spurs exemption, not once but a few times.  Trump then became a man who spent his entire adult life, among other things, stiffing the working contractors who built his big hotels and casinos and golf courses.  Small businesses that did not have the time or money to fight him in court.  It is information easily available online from scores of various sources, so it is not "biased  media".  

By chance or by election interference, he became President, this crass, fatuous, classless, pathological liar, cheat and confirmed lecher.  Somehow, all these enormous character flaws were dismissed by his followers, and that allowed him and his family to flagrantly enrich themselves via the office of the United States Presidency.  The same voting crowd tolerated the obvious, outrageous power-mongering and clearly illegal wheeling and dealing of the worst First Family in the entire history of the United States.  The Trumps did not even attempt to hide their lucrative personal gains made possible by their blatant disregard of the Constitutional clauses meant to protect the Office of the President from undue influence.  Not to mention the nepotism that turned the stomach of almost everyone.     

So, that was the first time.  This time?  A man who kept classified government documents in the bathroom of his night club estate, where anyone who wanted could access them.  The same crowd of voters who were almost dying of personal outrage that Hillary Clinton used the wrong hard drive for her emails apparently do not have the same concern for boxes and boxes of classified documents left out where anyone who might need a quick buck could copy and sell anything interesting.  This time they knew exactly what kind of guy they were voting for. A convicted felon.  An obviously guilty insurrectionist. A man on public record speaking 30,537 lies in four years.  And they are okay with it.

How in the world can any thinking person believe rounding up people for wholesale deportation is going to be good for anyone?  Just a quick look to our own history will remind us of the enormous tragedy and loss in the dealings with Native Americans, enslaved peoples, Japanese-Americans citizens during World War II. 

Imagine if the MAGA government put the enormous resources at its disposal to actually fix immigration, to work with the entire elected House and Senate to actually fix the problems at the border, instead of opposing every single attempt anyone has made in the last 50 years?  Rather than causing untold suffering, they could chose to be humane, helpful, and even kind. 

I hope the mass deportations are as successful as his "build a wall" efforts were - that is, an utter failure.  Trump has some very radicalized minions who are certainly capable and very willing to inflict enormous suffering on people who are as hardworking and honest as the rest of us.  The immigrants pay in to a system they cannot benefit from.  MAGA people are willing for this horrible act to happen while not being concerned that the same politicians are actively dismantling consumer protections, riding roughshod over civil liberties, inexorably squeezing the life from the USPS, Social Security, Education, Environmental Protections - the list is endless and tragic.  It is all out there, plainly documented but somehow the MAGA people cannot see it.  They overwhelmingly voted against their best interests. 

It is too late now.  The people have spoken.  They want fish for dinner.  I respectfully decline.  

Quote from the book "Sh*t My Dad Says" by Justin Halpern, published 2010