Buttermilk Sky

 We've been warned.   "This is theft," said some woman at the  Russian Foreign Ministry,  referring to the move by the US and the EU to seize assets frozen by western governments since the invasion of Ukraine.  "It's the appropriation of something that doesn't belong to you."  Russia is something of an expert, having "nationalized" about four hundred  planes leased to Russian airlines around the same time.  Well, it was that or ask North Korea to return its fleet of Tupelev flying coffins.  The plan is to earmark the profits from the frozen assets to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. They should send Ukraine the money now.  Last night the Senate passed a bill worth $95.3 billion in aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, but God spoke to Mikey Johnson in the person of Trump and commanded him not to bring it to a vote.  Can't argue with that. We should listen to the Europeans when it comes to fascism -- they have long memories....

 The people who think  everything is a Satanic ritual or a Pagan signifier (not the same thing at all) have reported back about the  Super Bowl  and it's as bad as we feared.  A rapper named Ice Spice (evidently not one of the Spice Girls) sat with Taylor Swift and wore a gold cross, so she's obviously one of Satan's brides.  Secret signs were exchanged and Usher sang in a (simulated) ring of fire.  These are the Final Days, for sure this time. A little-recognized sign of the apocalypse is the eerie appearance of self-driving vehicles.  To bring on Armageddon, or just to express grief about the 'Niners, some "lunar new year revelers" set fire to this  Waymo cab  in San Francisco's Chinatown.  Whatever happened to paper dragons and fireworks?  (Why is yoga Satanic but not tai chi?) Kristina Karamo  has warned that just about everyone in pop music is Satanic.  Wait till she hears that even country music, the official s...

 Politicians who lie about history should only do so before ignorant, adoring cultists -- like Trump comparing himself favorably with Lincoln.  (Happy birthday, Abe!)  A wider, better-informed audience will slap them down.  When  Robert Kennedy, Jr.,  helped himself to Uncle Jack's 1960 campaign song in an expensive Superbowl ad, he had to apologize to his own family, nearly all of whom have expressed support for Joe Biden and disapproval of Junior's anti-vax position.  Kennedy blamed the ad on American Values 2024, which took $15 million from Trump supporter Tim Mellon.  He's just a really generous guy, no ulterior motives here. Meanwhile on CNN,  Patti Davis  was telling Jim Acosta that her father, Ronald Reagan, would be less than enchanted with today's Republican Party.  No problem with the racism and demonization of the poor, but he would have hated to see Markwayne Mullin and Sean O'Brien nearly throw down "in the Senate chamb...

 As a boomer of 73 I do my best to keep up with the trends.  It's a full-time job just learning the multiple variants of hip-hop and the current rosters of baseball teams.  I give myself a pass on things like reality TV, most podcasts, and mysterious sports like pickleball.  One has to sleep sometimes. Perusing the papers today, I got an inkling about the many loops I'm out of.  For example, I would never have guessed that  Patrick S. Tomlinson  holds the title Most Swatted Man in America.  I had to look him up.  Mr. Tomlinson (who has no Wikipedia entry, itself a little odd) lives in Milwaukee and writes  science fiction,  another area where I have little expertise.  I don't know what he has done to piss people off but some 17-year-old in Florida has dispatched SWAT teams to his house 47 times -- not on his own but through a service he ran called Torswats.  For a quite reasonable fee this punk would send heavily armed pol...

 The verdict in the Trump Organization  fraud trial  was expected this week but is likely to be delayed yet again. Judge Arthur Engoron wants more information from the Manhattan DA's office about a deal with CFO Allen Weisselberg on a perjury charge.  Weisselberg is a key witness in both the fraud and the hush-money cases.  There was a time when this amount of legal baggage would sink a campaign for city council, much less the presidency.  We do not live in such a time. Here's the time we live in:  Mayor Carolyn Goodman of  Las Vegas  thinks the Oakland A's should remain in Oakland.  The current plan is for the A's (meaning Nevada taxpayers) to build a $1.5 billion stadium on the Las Vegas Strip, which is not under the mayor's jurisdiction.  She proposes a larger parcel of land in north Las Vegas which would be less congested.  Failing that, stay home.  Many cities would crawl over broken glass to attract major league base...

 In the forty years since the Golden Age of Reagan  de-regulation  airlines have instituted extra charges for practically everything.  By 2010 the practice had spread to other countries, like low-cost carrier  Ryanair 's attempt to charge passengers to use the toilet.  (This was abandoned after public outcry.)  US airlines, I was mildly surprised to learn, often charge extra to guarantee that adults flying with children will be guaranteed seats together.  Yesterday President Biden tweeted, "It's time all airlines offered fee free family seating."  (Some already do -- the  Department of Transportation  has a chart.)  Who could find this objectionable? Who do you think?  Margie Greene,  of course.  "Joe Biden using his power as president to demand that kids eat free at all restaurants too?" she snarled, followed by another irrelevant complaint about "THE BORDER."  Biden never suggested that kids fly free, or e...

 "Joe Biden needs to stop quoting Socrates and reading Beowulf to the Ayatollah.  These are hard men and they want to kill Americans and they want to kill Jews and they want to drink our blood out of a boot.  And we have to respond accordingly."   Louisiana John Kennedy  making a point about Anglo-Saxon poetry that no one else has picked up on.  When reached for specifics about Socrates, his office said, "Huh?" On February 16 a fifty-year-old wrong will be corrected, when  Franklin Armstrong  gets a better seat at the Thanksgiving table.  In A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973) it was apparently considered progressive to invite him at all.  Now the first (only?) Black character gets a backstory and a seat among the others.  Which Fox pundit will be the first to denounce this "revisionist woke-ism"? Frank Star Comes Out, president of the  Oglala Sioux,  has informed Governor Kristi Noem that she is officially "banished"...