Yeah, so I went ahead and created my own contribution to the #BernieMittensMeme. What of it??

I was having a spirited debate with some friends regarding a quote in an article about Garth Brooks and his performance at President Biden's inauguration yesterday. The article said, "Brooks has played almost every inauguration since Jimmy Carter’s presidency, save for Ronald Reagan’s and [45]’s." 

“He’s small. He just looks small.” 
—Dana Bash, CNN, describing Cheeto Pres as he boarded Marine 1 to leave the White House for the last time. 

The closer we get to Inauguration 2021, the more nervous I get about the fact that the Democratic Party is going to have full control over both the Senate and the House of Representatives as well as the Presidency.

I am proud to be an American. But, right now, I’m just not proud of some of the people who call themselves my “fellow Americans.”

...Junction, what's your function?
Hooking up phrases and clauses that balance, like.

Okay, sorry, no more Schoolhouse Rock. Though the temptation be mighty! This is about the great Conjunction in the sky... the alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth that happens every 400ish years and is theorized by Johannes Kepler as being the celestial event that guided the wisemen to Jesus' birth manger in Bethlehem.

I knew it was coming. We all knew it was coming. That didn’t make it any easier, though, when this popped up on my phone earlier this afternoon...

I completely forgot that with a new Democratic White House, that Ajit Pai, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman, will likely be canned, if he doesn't quit first. To him, I sing (with apologies to Don McLean)...

My name in my Twitter profile has, over the last four days, changed from “So damned disappointed” to “Things are looking up” to, finally, “doing much better now... thank you.”

This is the greatest thing I’ve seen on the Web in God-only-knows how long. The creativity that went into it... outstanding! Well done, @_gh0stn!

Some think of this solely as a map of the United States showing how Electoral College votes are going in light of the 2020 Presidential Election (thru Thursday, November 5).

This is my world and I am world leader pretend
This is my life
And this is my time
I have been given the freedom
To do as I see fit
It's high time I've razed the walls that I've constructed

Too much COVID crap going on. Way too much. Make it all stop. Please!

Just as I’ve been saying that they both need to and should do, the State of Illinois is firing up a resurgence mitigation plan for dealing with a pretty major flare up of COVID-19 cases in a regions 7 and 8 around the Chicagoland area. This will begin on Friday, October 23.

I know he’s not the greatest candidate. I know he may not be everyone’s first choice.

I really had no idea what I was going to blog about today and then the news came down the wire... Eddie Van Halen, lead guitarist and founding member of Van Halen, succumbed to cancer at the age of 65. 

“Because you weren’t President screwing things up!”

–Joe Biden

’nuff said.

I thought I had seen everything there was to see regarding footage of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City. A buddy sent me the link to this documentary made by two French filmmakers who were there. 

Blew my mind earlier tonight to hear that Chadwick Boseman — the brilliance who starred as Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and James Brown, as well as bringing to life T’Challa, also known as the Black Panther — died from stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 42, Jackie’s jersey number. 43.

Because I get my prescriptions from Walgreens, I’m subscribed to every email under the sun that they send out. Typically, I delete them sight unseen. But one came in today with the following subject line that caught my attention immediately...

I’ve paid very little attention to any sort of sports this season mostly because they’ve all either been canceled, postponed, or abbreviated to the point where they feel pointless. Don’t get me wrong, I miss sports, but I’ve missed them for years now. 

It’s official! Joe Biden’s running mate for the 2020 U.S. Presidential election is California Senator and former Attorney General Kamala Harris. 

One thing I’ve noticed when going out on walks or trekking across the occasional parking lot or stopping at a busy intersection is that the regular assortment of outdoor litter is now being supplemented or supplanted by face masks. 

I've gone a little hypocritical here in that, despite (or maybe "in spite of") my antiracist cries, when it was announced that the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company was retiring their Native American "maiden" logo, Katie and I may have gone online and ordered some maiden-adorned apparel. Please don't judge us too harshly.

</psa>

A coworker, who is a fellow parent and part-time teacher like me, shared this video. I am, in turn, sharing it with you. It's powerful. And heartbreaking. 

I've been following the news of more and more states defying Republican hopes (prayers?) and instituting vote-by-mail full scale for the November General Election. It's been very good for my heart and soul to see this happening. 

I know most of you have, at the very least, heard of the band Rage Against the Machine. They were a heavy metal/rap-rock band that started in the early 1990s and are very well known for their highly politicized songwriting. They are, IMHO, the guitar-driven equivalent of my beloved Public Enemy, although Megadeth is up there as well.

On the negative side of today, Netflix’s Space Force was, um, strange to say the very least. Some of the driest humor to come from Greg Daniels ever. 

I wish I could focus on the cool stuff that happened today, like Falcon 9 successfully going to space and whatever else. But I cannot.

I'm going to be honest, I have not been a space exploration nut since I was a kid. I used to love shuttle launches and I even saw Sally Ride's first launch live. I had toy space shuttles and posters and postcards and photographs in my room until my teen years.

I remember a joke I've heard several times over the course of my life that goes something akin to "What's the one profession where you can miss 7 out of 10 times and still be considered an all star? A baseball player."

If social media is any indication, people are at least trying to maintain a healthy sense of humor in the age of the Coronavirus pandemic. Here are some faves...

A certain Midwest-based furniture chain announced recently that they are going out of business. Why do I care? Well, I owe them money for a mattress that we financed a couple Black Fridays ago.

Kirk Douglas has died. Bumblebees may soon be extinct. Donald Trump was acquitted.