School Year is Over & Now Summer is Officially Under Way!

Yes, it's finished, at least for a few months.

Sure, there are those singing, "See you....in September!"

But for now, we have long, summer days, and no school. My son had his last day of the seventh grade on Wednesday and I, surprisingly, worked right to the very last day, which was yesterday (Thursday).

In truth, I was working like crazy the last few weeks, and felt exhausted, just spent and always tired. Between that and a new job on the overnights that I am still learning the ropes for, it has been truly draining.

This was the first day when I knew, getting out of the night job, that I would not be heading half an hour away, to my next job, during the day shift, for another two and a half months or so, at least. 

See you in September indeed!

Today was the longest day of the year, at least here in the northern hemisphere. I hardly got any sleep, and so as I write this, my fatigue level is through the roof. 

Yes, I am extremely tired. But also content. It all seems like a blur now looking back. Yet, there were times when this school year felt long, like it was dragging and would never end. There were times when it was hard to imagine the next time that I would get one good day or two to sleep and take it easy, catch up on my rest, if you will. Recharge my batteries.

Now, the opportunity is obviously here for that, and truth be told, I cannot wait until it is time for me to go to sleep. I want to get a good amount of sleep tonight, which will be my one night off before another block of overnights. But I intend to catch up on rest quite a bit over the next week and change or so. The time and opportunity should be there now, with minimum conflicts of interest, which it felt like the school year was loaded with such. 

And so, if you are still reading this, and if I am even still making sense by this point - I was not kidding about being very tired, and my concentration is really beginning to wane - then here is hoping that your summer got off to a great start as well and that you enjoy the best summer possible, and are looking as forward to your summer vacation plans as I am (it's not all about catching up on sleep, although that is one of the most promising aspects to it). 

Happy Summer 2019!

Trump Claims That Inflated Military Spending is "Making Up" For Lack of Military Service & Courage Decades Ago

During the lead-up to his recent trip to France to honor the veterans of World War II who stormed the beaches of Normandy and began the liberation of western Europe, Trump actually suggested that his dramatic increase in military spending made up for his complete lack of military service when he was called upon decades ago.

Someone should tell him that this is not how things work. Especially when you insult veterans who actually served, when you pick fights with Gold Star families and attack a decorated war veteran, even going sop far as to continue attacking him after he has died. 

This man is so delusional, it might almost seem like a comedy, if indeed the consequences of his idiocy were not so serious and, thus, tragic.

Yet, he seems able to get away with so much of this nonsense, because a base of his supporters almost literally seems to think that this pathetic man walks on water, and cannot do anything wrong. Thus, he is never held to task by them, and he uses that like leverage against the rest of the country, and even against the world. Truly sad days in the United States, as our standards continue to fall dramatically, as does our reputation around the world. That will be Trump's lasting legacy, a legacy that, I have no doubt, will be spit upon and cursed by future generations, who will not understand how so many Americans allowed this crap to go on. 

It still stuns me just how blatantly obvious just how much of a phony this man is, and how so many tens of millions of people still somehow do not manage to see it. 

Here are the links to this ridiculous story - yes, yet another one involving President Donald Trump - three words that should never have been combined - and his apparent belief that a greatly inflated military budget today makes up for his cowardice in years past:

Trump says he's 'making up' for lack of military service with defense buildup by Dave Boyer - The Washington Times - Wednesday, June 5, 2019:

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/jun/5/donald-trump-says-hes-making-lack-military-service/



Trump says bolstering military’s budget makes up for his draft deferment By Mark Moore June 5, 2019:

https://nypost.com/2019/06/05/trump-says-bolstering-militarys-budget-makes-up-for-his-draft-deferment/?utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_campaign=SocialFlow&sr_share=facebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow&fbclid=IwAR1Kse9r0w-1hxH_zfYwJYO06thegQpD3m59SIWmyxXTd5AIj8G8RBYZM2A

While Canada Works to Ban Single-Use Plastics, It Becomes Increasingly Clear That Trump's United States Stands Alone & Increasingly Isolated in Denying the Science of Climate Change

I believe that I have mentioned this before, but sometimes it feels like the entire world has changed, and is still embracing change, while here in the United States, we seem to have entered a mindset, at least politically, of complete and utter stagnation.

The Republicans, ever since Reagan, seem to want to turn back the clock several decades, to at least the fifties. Under Trump, this tendency is even more pronounced.

The mainstream Democrats, meanwhile, seem to keep wanting to drag us back to a time when one of their presidents was popular, particularly the nineties under Clinton, or more recently, under Obama. Presidential candidate Joe Biden, the alleged frontrunner in the Democratic field for the White House right now, keeps touting the accomplishments of the Obama/Biden years, and is apparently running on the strength of that record, 

With both major parties, there has been a decided lack of progress. What progress we may have seen under the Obama years - and it was hardly overwhelming to begin with - is quickly and thoroughly being undone by Trump.

European nations have invested heavily in cleaner alternative energy development for years, and it is really beginning to pay dividends. Japan has done the same as well, and China is increasingly developing green technology and filling in the vacuum of American leadership ever since Trump first took office. India is trying to move in a more greenward direction, as well, as is so much of the rest of the world.

Even small and economically modest nations, like Costa Rica, are emerging as leaders in environmentally friendly policies and alternative energy investments.

In Europe, single use plastics are on their way out, as we have come to understand the damage that these wasteful products do to our environment. And as this New York Times article by Dan Bilefsky (see link below) suggests, Canada is also now joining the fight against single use plastics.

Here in the United States, Donald Trump and his administration have been very busy pulling the nation out of the Paris Climate Accord, and weakening environmental laws. Trump seems fixated on undoing any good that Obama did, and so what are referred to as "Obama-era regulations" to protect the environment are also relentlessly under attack. 

The whole world seems to have accepted that human activity has indeed damaged the prospects of life on this planet, and that we need to get serious about taking responsibility and action to fight this, and to at least minimize our own footprints.

Meanwhile, we have elected an almost literal clown into the White House, and he is too busy praising and admiring himself and pocketing whatever corrupt money he can grab to give a damn about real problems in the world, thus assuring that those problems grow larger still.

Elect a clown, expect a circus. Shame on us, collectively, as arrogant Americans, too good to admit that we had a role in creating the climate crisis that we now face, and which is rearing it's ugly head everywhere, in myriad ways. And let's face it: no other country has contributed nearly as much to the greeenhouse gases that have accelerated climate change as the United States. Yet, we keep electing  irresponsible imbeciles who deny the science behind it, and seem intent on making matters worse, instead of taking any steps to begin to seriously address this. We cannot be bothered to make even the smallest sacrifices. What have we become as a country? No wonder the rest of the world seems to be turning away from American values and a lack of leadership from our end. It is enough to make you believe that we, as a nation, deserve the fall that we are currently clearly under. 

I applaud how the rest of the world is, at least, increasingly taking action to develop cleaner energy and government policies.

Canada Plans to Ban Single-Use Plastics, Joining Growing Global Movement by Dan Bilefsky June 10, 2019:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/world/canada/single-use-plastic-ban.html?fbclid=IwAR1GUPE6Rw-of0xvUdFKu8DPA0-aNKp0_yVpk-K7uWPSVT4UQ5vPPCwN0Os

Happy Birthday Sir Paul McCartney!!

Photo courtesy of RV1864's Flickr page - Paul McCartney: https://www.flickr.com/photos/summer1978/17049437322

Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

Today marks the 76th birthday of Paul McCartney, who was born on June 18, 1942 in Liverpool, England.

He went on to have some modest success in his musical career.

Hey Paul, you say it's your birthday?

Here is a clip from a concert that I actually was blessed enough to have attended, and which was like a life dream in music come true. This is a clip of Ringo Starr's 70th birthday concert at Radio City Music Hall, with Paul McCartney making a special guest appearance. McCartney was on base, Ringo was on drums, and it was touted as half of a Beatles reunion. It was as close as I'll ever get to actually having seen The Beatles as a band, and again, I felt extremely privileged to have seen such a thing in person!

And here is the entire concert!

Trump Thinks His Supporters Might 'Demand' He Serve More Than Two Terms

Here is a horrible news story that, admittedly, is not really much of a surprise to anyone out there who knows anything about this megalomaniac.

Trump is saying that his supporters might "demand" that he not leave office after two terms.

Mind you, he has not even completed his first term, which he acquired by "winning" an election in which he lost the popular vote by 2.7 million. 

Also, the 2020 election is well over a year away, and even though I believe that Trump unfortunately has a real chance at "winning" in a similar fashion to the way that he "won" in 2016, it is also far from a foregone conclusion, regardless of what he or his ridiculous, blind supporters think or say. 

Yet, this man has suggested that his supports might not accept an outcome in that election that does not win re-election, which obviously smacks of aggression. He also once suggested about how the United States might want to think about getting a "President for life," even though he later claimed that he was joking, and everyone supposedly knows full well that he was joking. Yet, now he is saying that his supporters - who constitute a clear minority of this country's population - might "demand" that he get more than two terms in the White House.

Well, whether or not Trump wins re-election, the laws clearly state, with no ambiguity, that a president cannot serve more than two terms. That has been the case for many decades, ever since FDR was elected for four consecutive terms (even though he died very early into that fourth term). 

Maybe this man is "just joking" again. But somehow Trump's jokes always seem to be about him grabbing yet more power, and he always seems to make a point of pushing the envelope to see just how much he can get away with.

I have said it before, and I will say it again: Trump is bad news. The worst news that we have ever seen in the White House throughout this country's history, and that is saying something! He lies, he manipulates, he divides, and he always, always seeks to grab more power for himself. His Republican party, which had grown out of control long before Trump took it over, is now too far gone to even remotely try and place some kind of limits on this man's hunger for more power and more power. This man was the worst - literally no one would have been worse - possible person as a possibility to be in the Oval Office. And increasingly, it is looking very much like once he is in office, he cannot be removed from office, because he is, in fact, a dictator. 

The most tragic aspect of this story is that he very well might be right: his brainwashed and, frankly, militantly stupid supporters may very well insist that he stay in office long after his term limits expire, always assuming that he wins the election next year. This man has been a total disaster for American democracy, and he keeps on attacking it, because he hates what America has always been prior to his political arrival. Democracy places too many limits on his power for his taste. He thinks that he can get away with anything, and right now, so far at least, he has indeed been pretty much able to do that.

This has got to stop. We need to get this horrible man and immediate threat to American democracy out of the White House as soon as possible. If there was ever a point when it was funny - and I do not personally believe that there is anything humorous about this man or his movement at all - then that time is long past. He is a danger to the country, and even to the world. He needs to go. 

Whatever the cost, this man and his imbecile supporters need to understand, point blank, that they cannot simply get away with anything that they wish, that they cannot do whatever the hell they want in whichever way they see fit, whenever they want. They need to understand that what makes America great is it's democracy, and the limits to power that the constitution that they profess to love so much places on those in power. So, when we see a tyrant like Trump take power, it is time to use those laws in place to fight him, or those laws are not worth the paper that they are printed on. It is past time to make sure that Trump and his entourage understand that their time has come, and that they will be out of office sooner rather than later, or American democracy will be itself be over, sooner rather than later. 

Trump says supporters could 'demand' he not leave office after two terms Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY Published 1:27 p.m. ET June 16, 2019:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/16/trump-says-supporters-could-demand-he-not-leave-after-two-terms/1471915001/

Father's Day With My Son at Mt. Fuji in Suffern, NY

My son and I went to Mt. Fuji restaurant in Suffern,  NY,  for our Father's Day meal.

A cool restaurant,  with a literal taste of Japan, both literally and figuratively. 

Here are some pictures:

Women Overwhelmingly Prefer 'Dad Bod' Over Six-Pack Abs & Chiseled Muscles, According to New Study

Here is some good news for us men who fall short of the chiseled, perfect bodies that you see advertised, one way or another, on television and movie screens, or in countless magazine articles and other places. According to some new research, women actually prefer men with what has come to be known as a "dad bod."

Yes, this runs counter to what we would believe is conventional wisdom. But then again, women are smarter than men, and perhaps they have finally grown sick and tired of the ideal, perfect body being promoted tirelessly, like a machine, everywhere that you look. It continues to perpetuate the ridiculous fantasies of some kind of unattainable, perfect life. 

In fact, by and large, the muscleheads whom I have known, and who have those perfectly sculpted, chiseled bodies, tend to be idiots when you get to actually meet them. They often spend so much time exercising the muscles throughout their bodies, that they have little to no time left developing their two most important muscles: their brains and their hearts.

I have heard this news before, but having just run into it again, it felt like something definitely worth sharing. 

Hard to believe? I agree. Here is a snippet of the article:

Really.  According to a new study, 80% of men say they're very happy with their physique. And nearly 70% of people say a dad bod is actually a turn-on.

Even more surprising? Almost half of women say a dad bod is the new six-pack.

Apparently. You knew that this was not going to begin from men, right?

Women prefer a 'dad bod' over six-pack abs, survey finds Grab a slice of pizza and stop sucking in your belly, guys. You look great the way you are. Author: WCNC Staff Published: 10:28 AM EDT June 14, 2019 Updated: 10:28 AM EDT June 14, 2019:

https://www.wtsp.com/article/features/women-prefer-a-dad-bod-over-six-pack-abs-survey-finds/275-a6b79fc1-ddf7-4561-a73d-dcb3b91f413f?fbclid=IwAR2jLRuETd9zxgq5BAQwEhV5S_pYOGK4gGhJw8kkwetTIMB4RgLCKa4G-3w