We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
What we are seeing here is something about how the Cloud People view the Dirt People. Loyalty to a society has always been anchored in loyalty to the people in that society. A man is willing to take up the sword on behalf of the king, because the king is doing the same for his subjects. In other words, you’re not fighting for the king, you’re fighting for what the king embodies, what the king represents. Loyalty flows in both directions.
Technically, the USA is still around, of course. We have the framework, sagging and rotted as it is, of what the country means still in place. There are the habits of a Republic still here. Technically we still vote. In name at least we have representatives in office. All of it still looks more or less the same. Its just been gutted, like the shell of an insect that has been burrowed out from within by parasites.
The only direction this nation goes from here on out is away from liberty, away from the founders, away from the great experiment, and toward inevitable failure and tyranny. There's only one vector, even if it staggers a bit once in a while.
Thunderdome: Gone Savage For Trump - The
Trump phenomenon is neither a disease nor a symptom – he is instead the
beta-test of a cure that the American people are trying out.
Heard somewhere today, paraphrased: "Since all of the geniuses in Washington for the past 7 years screwed up almost everything they touched, maybe it makes sense to elect a semi-bozo with common sense like Trump."
From the driver's seat of a 40 mule team. These rigs were used to haul Borax out of Boron Ca. & then loaded onto railroads for manufacturing. All this so you could do the laundry!
Well, maybe 40 mules = one twenty-mule team. I knew a mule once, named Charlie. He did not like to follow commands. An Irishman I knew walked up and told me to learn how to gain respect from a mule, and gave Charlie a left hook in the face along with a harsh talking-to. Mule remained a bit more docile for a few hours. Main thing with mules is that they have to be tired out - and do not feed them oats. Anyway, I do not mess with mules anymore.
Non piu andrai, Marriage of Figaro. Translated lyrics here. Mozart was pretty good, ya know.
He is mocking Cherubino the way guys always mock other guys: as a weeny skirt-chaser pussy, a narcissist pretty boy - not a tough warrior. In humor. No Safe Space.
My Dad said he used to sing this aria to himself the two times he was called up to the US Army (WW 2 and Korea). Learned to hate war. Was he a farfallone amoroso in youth? I do not know but I do know that he was always enchanted by pretty females and that they liked him too. In truth, Dad was an impressive specimen physically and mentally and he loved grand opera. (Subtitles here are Spanish)
Are gals best off finding a fellow with military service? Sure can make a case for it.
I have never hunted rabbits (Beagles are the rabbit dog), but most supermarkets and butchers have rabbit. Rabbit is usually braised. I like the Italian ways, with or without tomato but preferably without. Tomato overpowers all other flavors in my view so it's best avoided unless raw and from the garden.
13:1 At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
13:2 He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans?
13:3 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did.
13:4 Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?
13:5 No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."
13:6 Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none.
13:7 So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?'
13:8 He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it.
13:9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"
Focused on food after having been on a liquid diet for a week after some unpleasant oral surgery. Now I can at least have soft food. I want some Ricotta Gnudi with Wild Mushroom puree. That's Italian!
Gnocchi is boring and I don't really care for pasta. Gnudi is basically a ravioli innards, cooked naked. A fine Primi.
Since Trump has never held public office and seems to have few firm beliefs about anything aside from his own unparalleled competence, it’s hard to predict what he would do as president. Clinton, by contrast, has a long, almost uniformly awful record of public service. Whether Americans decide to be stabbed in the stomach or shot in the kneecaps, the consequences will be painful.
This moose team belonged to W.R. (Billy/Buffalo Bill) Day. They were found by a Metis near Baptiste Lake in 1910 and were reared by bottle and broken to drive by Mr. Day at Athabasca Landing during the winter of 1910. Mr. Day and the moose team hauled mail and supplies.
Poverty, Middle-Class, and Wealthy. This chart at AVI is mostly for fun, I think, because it is so oversimplified and reductionistic. For examples, there are distinctions between Poverty and Genteel Poverty, and between New Wealth and Old.
But let's just say some of it generally applies, sometimes. Differences In Attitudes. Click on chart to biggify.
Most Maggie's Farmers love coffee. Most Americans love coffee, and do not fuss too much about how good it is as long as it is hot. Or iced. I drink plenty of Dunkin Donuts coffee. It's not very good at all, but it's a familiar routine. Just remember the rule "Friends don't let friends drink Starbucks."
My favorite coffees are Espresso (as made in Italy) with sugar. I have yet to find a decent espresso in the US - too watery. I like Iberian Cafe con leche. Also, a cappucino is a good breakfast. What I have enjoyed most, recently, is Arabic (aka Greek, aka Turkish) coffee.
Do you remember percolators? They still sell them, can get them on Amazon. They basically boiled the heck out of your Maxwell House coffee, but nobody cared. You put them on the burner, later plugged them in before Mr. Coffee was invented.
In European 1930s street-brawling fashion, no one knows quite whether Trump is a 1990s Clinton Democrat, a 1980s Reagan Republican, or a Perotist misfit. He has thrown a ball and chain through the pretentious glass of American campaigning. Trump excites voters because he can profane, smear, interrupt, fabricate, and be profane—on the premise that as a performance artist he reifies what they think but don’t dare say about a corrupt political class and its warped, politically correct values. Trump reminds Americans what deterrence is: the supposedly courageous media, the so-called truth-to-power leftists, and the sober and judicious careerist politicians are all terrified how he might reply or react to their criticism. None of them want to spend 2-3 days trading smears with Donald Trump.
Just How Much Power Does
When I Seafood, 
I have never hunted rabbits (Beagles are the rabbit dog), but most supermarkets and butchers have rabbit. Rabbit is usually braised. I like 
