Friday Homestead Dispatch
Simultaneous Stymied Stimulus
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1.
I had never read a Stephen King book before. My wife said, “Read The Stand. I loved it.” So I checked it out from the library. I had to use a dolly to get it to the car. 1153 pages. “You’ll love it,” she said. And it actually was pretty engaging. I managed to return the book on exactly the day it was due. Sheesh.
One of the unexpected surprises were the illustrations by Bernie Wrightson, whose art I first saw in various issues of Marvel comics in the early 70s and was the primary artist for DC’s Swamp Thing starting in 1972.
2.
Once again, bigot-with-a-pulpit Tucker Carlson came through with homophobic remarks regarding new father Pete Buttigieg’s parental care for his and his husband Chasten’s infant twins. Bleated Carlson, “Pete Buttigieg has been on leave from his job since August after adopting a child. Paternity leave, they call it, trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went.”
Apparently, over four million bigots tune in to watch this smarmy salesman on Fox ‘News’ so he’s not going away anytime soon. ‘Murica…ain’t it grand?
Buttigieg, of course, took the high road telling CNN’s Jake Tapper that “The work that we are doing is joyful, fulfilling, wonderful work. It’s important work, and it’s work that every American ought to be able to do when they welcome a new child into their family. I campaigned on that.”
Jessica Mason, senior policy analyst for economic justice at the National Partnership for Women and Families, said "The reality is that men increasingly want and expect to be involved fathers and caregivers. It's actually out of touch and insulting to parents, suggesting parental leave is some abnormal thing that people don't want or need regardless of their gender."
3.
Speaking of bigoted, our (Arizona) very own representative, Paul Gosar, has outdone his own bad self, posting an edited anime video depicting him killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and attacking President Biden. Twittered Gosar, "the creativity of my team is off the hook." I’d say.
“Everyone needs to relax,” Gosar’s digital director, Jessica Lycos, said in a statement as she took another swig of snake oil purchased from the website of the nasty-orange-man who still thinks he’s prezdint.
Also, Rolling Stone recently reported that Ali Alexander, who helped organize the events of January 6, said in a since-deleted livestream broadcast that Gosar and two other GOP members of Congress helped him formulate the strategy. In that broadcast, he said, "I was the person who came up with the Jan. 6 idea with Congressman Gosar, Congressman Mo Brooks, and Congressman Andy Biggs. We four schemed up on putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting so that we could change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body hearing our loud roar from outside.”
The 14th Amendment says that someone who "engaged in insurrection" cannot serve in Congress. When is enough enough? A group of House Dems plan to introduce a resolution to censure Gosar but it seems that prominent crooks and liars are immune to accountability these days.
4.
Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. My father, Chas, never talked about his time in the war zones. He also did not want his sons going to Vietnam. We didn’t.
Take a few minutes to read Jim Wright’s (veteran and writer) Veteran’s Day editorial posted yesterday:
“Nowadays I’m certain that my haircut and bearing broadcast my status to those paying attention - along with the fact that I often wear the ratty fading sweatshirts from my former commands and so it’s no secret that I’m a veteran. But I emphatically do not feel entitled to thanks from Americans for my military service – or whatever you call it, I’m not inclined to argue the semantics of it. I went of my own free will and for my own reasons, America owes me nothing for it. I’d like to think America will make good on what I was promised, but I cynically don’t expect it. We are a free people, we are Americans. For us there should be nothing glorious about war. We should honor the soldier, certainly, but we should honor the peacemakers to a far greater degree.
War is hell. War is violent and terrible and immoral. Certainly there may be acts of heroism and valor in war, but there are also endless acts of craven cowardice and ignorant stupidity and wanton violence and vicious cruelty. War should always be a last resort, embarked upon only under the most dire of necessity and not some goddamned glorious spectacle.”
Wright ends his editorial with this:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
― Dwight D. Eisenhower, Soldier, General, President
5.
A gig-filled week coming up so hope to see some of you.
Sunday, November 14
Sunday Sessions with Kevin Pakulis
Borderlands Brewing Company
119 E. Toole Ave, Tucson
2:30–5pm
Monday, November 15
Determined Luddites at Congress
Meet Me at Maynard’s event
311 E. Congress, Tucson
5:30–7pm
Wednesday, November 17
Private Event, Tanque Verde Guest Ranch
with Kevin Pakulis
Thursday, November 18
Tirebiters (Lex Browning, Steve Grams, Matt Mitchell)
House of Bards
4915 E. Speedway Blvd, Tucson
7-10pm, outside on the patio
(Hey, we hope to see some of you at the House of Bards gig! Tucson resident leftie/hippie Frank Sanzo has cobbled together an ‘Americana’ series on Thursday nights there, no cover, so come out, grab a bite to eat, have a beer, and check out this relatively new band.)
Saturday, November 20
TKMA Folk Festival fundraiser
Tirebiters, Eric Schaffer, John Coinman
Hotel Congress Patio
311 E. Congress, Tucson
Doors 6pm, Show 6:30pm
6.
I have to post the brilliance of Mike Finnigan (RIP) along with LFK’s Bill Lynch, James Gadson, and Abe Laboriel at Lynch’s Write Off Room, Los Angeles, Ca, 2019.
and now…
I especially liked the Gosar piece and the Veteran's Day piece - keep up the good work!