i see the clouds that move across the sky

 I see the wind that moves the clouds away

It moves the clouds over by the building

I pick the building that I want to live in (David Byrne)

i saw something the other day towards the end of an article in the Post that first had me chuckle....and then scratching my head and finally growing angry.....just another case of bureaucratic bullshit....meaningless virtue signaling by the elitist political ruling party. It seems they reached a deal for the soon to be built 5 World Trade...it will primarily be housing.....1,200 apartments......now the funny stuff.....80 apartments would be set aside for 9/11 survivors ....no joke.....i wonder what constitutes a 9/11 survivor ? I have to assume that since i was in the building that day and i am an inaugural member of the  WTC Health Registry and a voluntary participant in the annual survey since year one.....that i should at least be in the conversation.

Truth be told i would never live in Manhattan, let alone at ground zero; but i was still curious enough to consider applying for one of these coveted dwelling spaces. I wondered how many people that were in the buildings and survived are still alive today and or will be alive in 5 years when the construction is complete ? 

Then i read the final caveat.....you would also have to eligible for low income housing .....so a married couple of two would have to have a household income between 50-100 K......let's be serious....even if you were an intern of 18 in September of 2001.....you would be 45 when construction is complete.....how many married 45 year olds are making less than a combined 100K in 2028 ? 

And if by chance you worked in the WTC in 2001 and now you and your wife are making less than 100K combined, can you really afford to live in lower manhattan ? even if the rent is cheap, you will not be able to afford anything else.

Ando that's why i was angry......this has nothing to do with WTC survivors. Put aside the silly charade of Patriotism and just call it what it is Miss Hochul.....yet another govt program to provide low income housing for migrants and or crooks that hide their true income...........just as well......Matteau would never signoff on a move to the city......... 2+3= Beeer

It's over there, it's over there
My building has every convenience
It's gonna make life easy for me
It's gonna be easy to get things done
I will relax along with my loved ones

singers smoke it

 And players of instrument too

Legalize it, yeah, yeah
That's the best thing you can do (P. Tosh) 

well it took a long time since Peter Tosh gave his impassioned plea in the mid 70's , but now several states have decriminalized the sale and possession of marijuana. In fact just yesterday i saw several new pot stores opening in Newark and New York...they are part of Chris ( no timeouts) Webbers' initiative to finance and or lend seed money to entrepreneurs entering the legal weed scene......one catch....you have to be black to qualify for his assistance. Funny how the people who demand we end discrimination are usually the ones who discriminate the most...once they get a taste of power.

oh well i am just hoping these hypocrites don't change their progressive tune when the shoplifters and looters turn up......you know, the apologists who say CVS is a big Corporation and they should not stop shoplifters.....they have insurance......and besides, these people are only taking what they need to survive.....same with the smash and grab animals in San Francisco......they probably have hungry mouths to feed.....and the self-loathsome corporations like Lowes who would rather fire an employee for trying to stop a shoplifter than hire a few armed security guards to protect their assets .....let's hope good ol webber has a chat with these new shop owners and explains to them that theft is just something we all have to live with......don't stop or try to apprehend the thieves, and for goodness sakes do not EVER call those racist police........yeah, well....we shall see.

2+3=Beeer

Doctors smoke it
Nurses smoke it
Judges smoke it
Even lawyer too

the man standing next to me

his head was explodin'
Whoa, I was prayin' the pieces wouldn't fall on me (Dylan)

sometimes when i watch the news it feels as though my head were exploding....it's as much about what they don't say as it is about the stupid stuff they do say.  For 3 months now every network has been tripping over themselves to talk about AI...AI....AI......even Kameltoe said " A I it's two letters rights, hee hee hee" ......all this talk of artifical intelligence and robots taking over the world.

Today they were giddy to report that Congress wants to bring forth a bill to raise minimum wage to $17 an hour.......so much fun..........it's all wine and roses.......and yet not one single report linked the rising minimum wage to the exploding interest in A I .

it doesn't really matter where we stand on the robot debate, the reality is that in board rooms across the country the conversations/arguments are being held. American corporations are faced with a woke, entitled and unreliable workforce. ( a robot never calls in sick after a Juneteenth BBQ) and when that workforce also becomes too costly.....well it's easier to sell the board on a capital investment on machinery to replace manpower.........it's business Tom, nothing personal.......Mcdonalds can't pay everyone $17-25 an hour and still only charge you $3.99 for a quarter pounder........and so what happens to the next generation ? .......slower, fatter, no real work experience as a teenager and horribly addicted to Tik Tok videos..........yep, like lambs to the slaughter.........and what happens in the inner city to the handful of kids who are willing to work in taco bell as they try desperately to claw their way out of the projects ?  the lifeline to respectability has been yanked away from them....shame.......but whenever a well intentioned economist tries to voice this concern...they are labeled a slave owner that wants to keep everyone down on the plantation.........did i say we were circling the drain ?   well we know it;s far worse than that...........2+3=Beeer

I put down my robe, I picked up my diploma
Took hold of my sweetheart and away we did drive
Straight for the hills, the black hills of Dakota
Sure was glad to get out of there alive

try that in a small town

 See how far ya make it down the road

Around here, we take care of our own
You cross that line, it won't take long
For you to find out, I recommend you don't
Try that in a small town (Jason Aldean)

well the miserable liberal left just can't help themselves or learn from their mistakes....this week the progressive left waded into the swamp of country music with hysterical results.

first they went after Luke Combs for his cover/remake of a song by Tracy Chapman from the 90's. Tracy chapman is a black female lesbian singer songwriter and the left was incensed that a white male would cover her tune.....cultural misappropriation, right ? 

wrong...to her credit Ms Chapman said she was happy for Lukes success with the song and thanked him for introducing her music to a new audience that probably never heard of her before.......later in the week she said she was "Honored" to be the first black female solo artist to have a song at the Top of the Country charts. good for both of them.......but it's sad and obvious that the one thing the left hates more than anything (except Trump) is racial harmony.......it destroys their argument at the core......they want blood in the streets and blacks and whites at each other's throats.....music has always been a unifying force in this country and it frustrates those that wish to drive a wedge between the races......music is colorblind. 

also last week they went after a song by Jason Aldean about small town values. CMT immediately banned the video....not sure if i even have CMT , but i will put a parental block on that channel if it turns out i do.....i only block 2 stations in my house.....CNN and the NBA channel..im sure the corrupt FBI has a file on me........They tried unsuccessfully to say the lyrics were violent and or racist.....when that was proven false, they went after the video itself and said he created footage to incite violence.....but Aldean did not produce the footage...it was all real news video that aired on mainstream television in the aftermath of Sleepy Floyd.........who was trying to incite violence back then. Lastly they went after the fact that the Maury County Courthouse that was used in the background of the vidoe.....apparently in 1927 a black man was lynched there.......umm....okay......so what ? Hannah Montana's movie was also filmed outside the courthouse and several videos and movies and a Christmas special.....if quentin tarrantino makes a movie about NYC in the 1970's or 80's and uses footage of the world trade center in the background , should we boycott his movie over 9/11 implications ?  of course not, besides we can probably find 20 other better reasons to boycott that cop hating dirtbags movie....ah but i digress.

Not surprisingly both songs skyrocketed UP the Charts and each held the spot at #1 this past week...and i am happy to say i purchased each song on Itunes.....just so my voice can be heard......

the greatest jockey that i have ever seen.....Mike Smith won his fourth Haskell yesterday.....it is nice to see that some things have not changed......and 2+3=BEEER

Got a gun that my granddad gave me
They say one day they're gonna round up
Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck

the taxmans taken all my dough

 

And left me in my stately home
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon (Ray Davies)

when is a tax not a tax.....spoiler alert it always is....but clever/devious politicians have been waging war against the middle class under the disguise of obama's wealth redistribution for a long time....and the latest salvo comes courtesy of the MTA (money taking agency).

a new pilot program is being launched to test out free bus routes in.....you guessed it, the poorest black and brown communities. so the MTA will no longer pretend to charge fares for the stymies ...it's free....yipee......but of course it is being paid for by the Suckers in the middle class who will once again face fare hikes......the hard working, law abiding last of the Mohegian citizens that still give this miserable city an ounce of respectability will once again be forced to pony up more.

how much does it cost to ride the subways these days ?  you do the math......2+3=Beeer

My girlfriend's run off with my car
And gone back to her ma and pa
Tellin' tales of drunkenness and cruelty
Now I'm sittin' here
Sippin' at my ice cold beer
Lazin' on a sunny afternoon

you take Sally, i'll take Sue

 There ain't no difference between the two

Cocaine, running all 'round my brain (Rev Gary Davis)

and so the Secret Service has given up the investigation into whom the bag of cocaine found outside the situation room belonged to. First we were told the Coke was found in a common area were tours have access......when that was debunked we were steered to believe it was found need an area where construction workers were.......it was later confirmed that any construction worker would have had to pass through  a security gate....then we were told it was found in a cubby hole on a bookshelf near the situation room and Now we are supposed to believe that the most secure building in the United States does not have adequate surveillance video to capture the comings and goings.

Can you imagine the coverage and the investigation had this happened under Trump or any Republican President ? 

110,000 thousand people died in the USA in 2022 from Fentanyl poisoning .

3,000 people lost their lives in NYC in 2022 alone.

How many arrests have there been ? how many dealers were tracked down and sent to Prison?

I don't have the answers.

I do know that Sofia Haley Marks was known in lower Manhattan as the Percocet Princess.

I have read that she was well known for selling drugs to high school aged kids.

I have read that she was on the Feds radar.

I know that she would still be walking the streets and selling drugs possibly to your Kids or Grand kids EXCEPT.....she sold them to blowhard Liberal Actor Robert Deniro's grand son...and he died....and so she was immediately arrested and now they will surely throw the book at her .

If only Sofia had kept selling to a bunch of nobody's....then nobody would have cared.

hypocrisy 24/7.......can't wait till Bobby D starts crying about illegal drugs and the border.

2+3= Beeer

I was talking to my doctor down at the hospital
He said, "Son, it says here you're twenty-seven,
But that's impossible
Cocaine you look like you could be forty-five"

I've been aware

 of the time going by

They say, in the end, it's the wink of an eye (Jackson Browne)

something about going to the wake of a friend that brings a lifetime of memories to the surface. I have not had a decent night sleep in the past week.....strange dreams followed by laying awake staring at the ceiling thinking about trivial details from events 50 years ago.....it's all there in the echo chambers of the brain, and then it's triggered and comes back to the forefront.......i think most people my age have also come to the disturbing realization that when our friends die, it's no longer an anomaly but rather the norm. it still feels too young, but on the precipice of 60....it's not that rare.......the beauty of growing up in a town like Bayridge was that we all knew so many people. some closer than others, but friends just the same......as we get older that beauty can evolve into a curse....it feels at times that the phone never stops ringing and the bad news never stops flowing......but stoicism is another trait we embrace......if we weren't stoic we would have all checked out in 2001......nope, we roll up the sleeves, ice down the beer, turn up the music and soldier on....some days are tougher than others.........2+3=Beeer

Are you there? Say a prayer for the pretender
Who started out so young and strong only to surrender

i will not condem you

 nor yet would i deny

"I would ask the same of you
but failing will not die  (Hunter-Garcia)

President Trump had sanctions on a Chinese company by the name of Syngenta .

President biden on his first week in the office cancelled the China initiative and removed sanctions on multiple chinese firms including Syngenta.

Syngenta is being taken public by Goldman Sachs in a record breaking IPO this month.

Chinese public offerings do not have to follow or comply with the strict regulations and accounting practices that the SEC places on American IPO's.

short sighted greed will provide the money china needs to destroy the United States.....but hey let's focus on what really matters.....men in dresses playing sports and showering with biological girls.

2+3=Beeer

"Take up your china doll

it's only fractured -

and just a little nervous

from the fall"

 

who's all hung up

  on that happiness thing

Who's trying to tune all the bells that he rings
And who's in the corner and down on the floor
With pencil and paper just counting the score (N.Young)

some things are so ironic that they can't be attributed to irony. yesterday i received a shocking phone call that a lifelong friend had suddenly passed away. I was standing in the Silver Bullet Bar at Monmouth Park....An hour or so earlier when i walked into the bar i scanned the barstools and Pub Tables looking to see if this friend was there.....for it happened to be the place i had seen him the last 3 or 4 times..(outside Clavins of course was another common meeting place). In fact yesterday i almost texted my friend to give him a heads up that i was headed to the Track as i usually do.....but i wasn't sure exactly where we were going to be and so i did not.....but he was certainly on my mind as i drank my beer and read the racing form. ....i was positively stunned when i picked up the phone and learned that he had died.

I suppose i was about 10 when i first met him and for the next 7 or 8 years we were very close....when summer came and a lot of the guys we knew left Bayridge for a few months , me , Mac, Dano and Dermott would hold the Ft in the schoolyard , 76th street stairs and the hockey court on Shore Rd....drinking cold beer, listening to the Dead and waiting for the September return of the Breezy crowd.......over the years we would drift in and out of touch but our paths crossed a lot on Wall Street..at Concerts ...The Belford Ferry..Ranger games...Monmouth County Bars  and of course the Racetrack. it was at the track on Derby morning that i last saw him....we bumped into each other and chatted for a good hour about everything from the old neighborhood to who we liked in the Big Race and everything in between. I'm very sorry this morning coming to grips with his passing....Rest in peace my friend, for a kid from Brooklyn you achieved a great deal in a short life.

Who's saying baby, that don't mean a thing
'Cause nowadays Clancy can't even sing

Since i'm passing your way today

 I just stopped in cause I want to say (Hunter-Garcia)

oh what a strange time to be living in a strange world, there is literally zero consequence for any action.

The SCOTUS itself has lost it's self-respect and impartiality. Those traits are crucial to the court and their decisions being accepted and acknowledged as the last word.

No, i am not talking about recent decisions (those decisions have been a flickering light of hope in the downward spiral of this nation. I am instead talking about the public statements and dissenting opinions of the left leaning judges. 

In case you missed it, and you probably did because the MSM is of course not reporting it much , Ketanji Brown wrote in her dissenting opinion on the Affirmative action ruling some outrageously racist and demeaning remarks towards african't Americans. here is the direct quote.

"It saves lives. For marginalized communities in North Carolina, it is critically important that UNC and other area institutions produce highly educated professionals of color. Research shows that Black physicians are more likely to accurately assess Black patients’ pain tolerance and treat them accordingly (including, for example, prescribing them appropriate amounts of pain medication). For high-risk Black newborns, having a Black physician more than doubles the likelihood that the baby will live, and not die,"

where to begin ?

Black people need black physicians ?  sounds like segregation to me . are we to accept her premise that only a black doctor can assess, diagnose and communicate with black patients? If true, then perhaps we should have all black classrooms with black teachers at every level ? and black neighborhoods with black police and black firefighters ?

It's the states responsibility to use affirmative action to produce these black doctors ? are we to accept her assertion that there are no Black candidates for med school that can succeed on merit ? that all black college applicants need head of the line privileges to get into school ahead of more worthy candidates? sounds racist to me......imagine if you or I held these beliefs and shared them in a public forum ?

a black physician for a black baby doubles the likelihood that the baby will live ? For this to be mathematically possible, the current survival rate would have to be below 50%. The true survival rate for a black baby in the USA is greater than 99%. but hey, math can be tricky for a Harvard grad...albeit a Harvard grad that benefitted from Affirmative action......i should be careful, i don't want to sound racist.

yep, just another day in the upside-down world of America, where certain classes of people can say or do anything, but others are persecuted for what they may be thinking.

i think 2+3=Beeer

 Maybe you had to much to fast

and just overplayed your part

Let's hear it for Ohio

 and the rippling red-wood forest

The Sawmill River Parkway &

Oklahoma's strange panhandle

Aren't they wonderful ? Loudon Wainright iii

"The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha in the history of America "                      John Adams July 3rd 1776

and so on THIS date in 1776 , the Continental Congress voted YES for Independence....it then took 2 days to draft the language for the official Declaration. Some celebrate today as our true Independence and others prefer the traditional 4th. I can't decide and so i try to stay equally drunk from sundown on the 1st  until the wee hours on the 5th ......so as not to insult anyone.......often historians tend to leave off Mr Adams other memorable quote...my personal favourite.....2+3=BEEER

You know we have our heroes
I mean Washington and Lincoln
Including Audie Murphy
Including old Jack Ruby
Wasn't Jack wonderful?
Oh, you know he certainly was