Your brow is sweatin

 and your mouth gets dry,

Fancy people go driftin' by.

The moment of truth is right at hand,

Just one more nightmare you can stand. (Robbie Robertson)

Perhaps the most heartwarming moment from last nights MLB all-star game came just prior to the National Anthem. Commissioner Rob Manfred took to the field and addressed the stadium over the PA and a world wide audience on television and appropriate streaming devices. Mr Manfred delivered an emotional and heartfelt apology to the great citizens of Atlanta and the state of Georgia , he was sorry......sorry that MLB caved to the progressive left with a kneejerk reaction and hasty decision and moved the all star game OUT of Atlanta back in 2021.......a move that was advanced and supported by then POTUS Biden....the move was in reaction to Georgia passing an election reform bill that required voters to present an ID , and it prevented people from passing out snacks, food, water and other free stuff to people waiting in line to vote......at the time Rob Manfred and the Demonrats slandered the state of Georgia as being a pack of hillbilly racists , Biden,  or one of his interns with an auto pen ; called them Jim Crow on steroids. Manfred went on to explain in detail WHY now, after a few years; that MLB was back in Atlanta for a rescheduled All Star game.......he admitted that Democracy did not die and voters of color were not denied the right to vote.....in fact voter turnout #'s actually increased...there wasn't a dry eye in the house i tell ya. 

See the man with the stage fright

Just standin′ up there to give it all his might.

And he got caught in the spotlight,

But when we get to the end

He wants to start all over again, hmm hmm,

in Dime stores and bus stations

 People talk of situations

Read books, repeat quotations
Draw conclusions on the wall (Dylan)

and so one year ago.....Donald Trump, the American people and the entire planet dodged a bullet......literally and figuratively. It was much more that the shot heard round Butler, PA....it echoed through the canyons , across the plains, down every Main Street and continues to reverberate across the oceans.....to the mountain tops and the Dead Sea....It confirmed for MAGA nation that the threat was real....."THEY" really were conspiring to Kill HIM and silence US......it made the talking heads of the mainstream media look silly when they were dismissive towards MAGA and forged on with their scripted lies....the worm turned....and it bit the head off the dragon.

I was in my yard enjoying a cool glass of beer.......i had just turned the music off and turned the sound up on the TV, i wanted to hear what the DONN was saying....it was surreal when i saw him grab his ear and then get tackled by the Secret Service....i thought he was hit for sure......it all happened so fast, but i was already mentally preparing for the news that he died on the way to the Hospital...the tried and true Kennedy formula.......and then he popped up, and started pumping his fist......i doubt we will ever again see something quite like that on live TV........i bought a T shirt the following week that reads MAKE AMERICA DEFIANT AGAIN......i were it proudly.....i am happy to witness this...i am Happy to be a part of this American rebirth.......this time i think Mr Trump realizes that time is of the essence....he has to push through as much of his agenda as soon as possible....the obstructionist RINO's need to stand down.....they have never accomplished anything meaningful....Murkowski, Collins, MCconell and friends ......they all need to GO.......we have 3 1/2 more years to save the nation, get this Cadillac's wheel out of the ditch and back onto the New Lee Highway and road to recovery.........but our chances get better with each passing day......with every trade deal, both the ones that get signed and the ones that get torn up....with every penny of Tariff collected.....with every reporter slammed by Karoline Leavitt and every piece of common sense legislation.....GOD Bless America......2+3=BEEER

Some speak of the future
My love she speaks softly
She knows there’s no success like failure
And that failure’s no success at all

you're a man of the Mountains

  you can walk on the clouds
Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister
You’re going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain’t nobody there would want to marry your sister (Dylan)

there is a vile scum element in this country. they are deranged, ill informed and very dangerous.

This past week the worst of the worst on the democrat side were on display and on the airwaves....no shame for themselves and no compassion for innocent victims they have never met. The immediate attacks on the Trump administration after the historic and horrific floods in Texas.....the false claims that a budget that was passed 72  hours prior,  somehow impacted staffing and created shortages at the National weather Bureau ....that was technically impossible but also 100% inaccurate....records showed that they were actually overstaffed in the region...........so they shifted to a new line of attacks and claimed there were no warnings or alerts.....sadly for them it was also debunked.....multiple alerts warning of flash flooding were indeed sent out hours in advance.......we know they hate the orange man, we know they want the world to end , so they can say I told you so......but there are families grieving the loss of young children...give it a rest.....when the dust settles and the dead are buried, if there are lessons to learn then so be it......but tame your ignorance in the interim.

Also this week 10 people were arrested for their involvement on an attack on ICE agents . One in Portland....and another in Texas......the one in Texas saw these terrorists lure the Police to an ICE detention center with a fake 911 call.....and then they opened fire on the first responder.......at what point do we charge the likes of Hakeem Jeffries, Tim Walz  and all the other scum that have called for ICE to be unmasked.....that have called ICE the Gestapo, that have urged their followers to take the fight to the street, get arrested, spill blood.........these people are not stupid....they know exactly what they are doping.....they saw 2 assasination attempts on Donal Trump ever calling him Hitler and an existential threat to Democracy.....they know full well there are plenty of deranged people in this country....they lie and tell them that the ICE, and TRUMP are coming for them...coming for their Medicare....coming for their Social Security and coming to deport or Jail them for being different......they hope that someone, anyone will pick up a gun and do their dirty work......this HAS to stop....we need to find a way to charge the agitators .

SCJ Jackson is one incredibly dumb, arrogant black female that does not understand the world or her role on the planet.....she continues to render decisions based on her personal and political beliefs....she can not be bothered to listen to arguments and reach decisions based on constitutionality.....it is as if she thinks she is running for office and that her decisions are also an endorsement of the case matter......case in point....she was the only Justice to vote NO on whether POTUS can reorganize the Federal work force....her dissent was solely based on her opinion that federal layoffs could be "bad" for some people.......forgetting her shortsighted ignorance for a moment....she fails to understand that her role is SOLELY to decide whether or NOT the constitution gives the President the authority to do what he is doing....it does.....even kagan and sotomayor can see that........this moronic spoonjiah is a living breathing argument against DEI.......remember joe biden said he didn't know whom he was going to nominate for the court...BUT it would be a black female.....and now we are stuck with miss jackson , if you must......she lacks a grasp on what her job is......the right needs to call her out at every turn....i didn't like Ginsburg, but at least she took her job and her role seriously and she put in the work to site precedence when she offered her decisions....

anyway....the court did reach one unamimous decision yesterday.....i am surprised it did not receive national attention.....but the court ruled 9-0 that 2+3 does in fact = BEEER

Friend to the martyr, a friend to the woman of shame
You look into the fiery furnace, see the rich man without any name

Wile storm clouds gather

far across the sea
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free
Let us all be grateful that we are far from there
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer (I. Berlin)

Woody Guthrie did not care for Irving Berlins ode to America, he though it was too elitist....and so he countered with "This Land is Our Land", but then again Woody was a communist , pacifist and an atheist.

Irving Berlin wrote God Bless America shortly after being drafted during WWI, while he was stationed on Yaphank Long Island.......100 years later it still stands alone......as we kickoff the year long celebration for AMERICA 250 it is crystal clear that God is indeed still Blessing America....it is frightening to imagine how different things would be if the  Butler shooter was a 1/4 to the right.

2+3= Stars & Stripes

God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with a light from above
From the mountains to the prairies
To the oceans white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet home
God bless America, my home sweet home

 

i'm just a poor wayfaring stranger

 I’m trav’ling through this world below;

There is no sickness, toil, nor danger,
In that bright world to which I go. (trad)

over the years i have enjoyed sharing tales of the Characters of the Night that i have crossed paths with or even shared a ride along on the road to insanity for a while. One fella slipped through the cracks......and even though i have often talked about Diego Garcia, there was one guy i haven't thought about in a long, long time......that ended last night.....and i think i know why........in my Uber from Raleigh the other day, the driver seemed familiar to me......i knew that i did not know him, buy he sure reminded me of someone.

Jerome Timms from some tiny forgotten town in the great State of Georgia was indeed a character from the road.......he was approx 35 when i met him...i was 20.......a 2nd Class Petty Officer working in the Post Office and the Airport on Diego Garcia....just like me.......and he lived next door on the 3rd floor of the Barracks ....he was an African American from a dirt poor area in GA....he was always in clean, starched and ironed uniform and he had his hair cut almost every week...he was good at his job and he took his role in the Navy seriously....a lifer for sure.....but a great guy........it took a while for him to warmup to me....he was guarded, and he thought I and the other guys & gals in the Post Office drank too much ..go figure......but one day i was sorting the mail for our division and saw a newspaper in a brown wrapping addressed to Jerome Timms.......so since we lived next door, i brought his paper back to the barracks and knocked on his door.....he was very appreciative......here is where it gets weird.......this was the spring of 1986....and this black guy fm Georgia was a subscriber to the PACKER REPORT ...it was published by Ray Nitschke , it was approx 30 pages and was published on a monthly basis and it was cover to cover stories on the Green Bay Packers.......the Packers were avg at best in the mid 80's....far removed from the Lombardi Days, and Brett Favre was a decade away......so as Timms opened up his newspaper he asked me if i read it on the walk over.........i laughed and said no......he then insisted that I could borrow it as soon as he finished reading it......again i laughed and said no.......Timms had a roommate named Robert B.A Bivins from Americus Georgia......and Timms considered Bivens to be a Big City Boy because Americus had running water, electricity and a population of about 10,000......( I wish i could remember Timms town)........compared to Timms town i guess Americus was like NYC.......so Timms said to me , "Hey T.O. , you better call dibs on my paper, i think old Bivens wants to read up on my Packers"........to which Bivens would protest and insist he didn't give a SH!T about the Damm Packers.......and then i realized that Timms had a great sense of humor and loved to try to get under people's skin....and that became our running joke.......everyday....and i mean everyday he came into work , he would ask really loud if anybody seen his Packer Report........and people took him serious and would answer NO, and or try to help him find it...........meanwhile he had it in his back pocket the whole time........we had 30 people in the division and he called everyone PC ...(we were all Postal Clerks and our rating was PC) except he took to calling me T.O for my initials ......if someone new came into the office for work he would yell over "Hey PC, you seen my Packer Report ?" .......and i would chuckle.....and this  went on all day....everyday.......the Big boss was a Senior Chief....he didn't mess with him....but he would come over to where i was working with a few other folks and would say "I  think Ol Senior Chief took my damm Packer report....he was eyeballing it last month".....and some people would try to convince him that Senior Chief would never do that.....and i would crack up laughing.....one other guy he never messed with was another Black Guy...also in his 30's...a Big Dude named Larry Groth from Chicago......and he didn't find Timms to be funny.....so when Larry came into work Timms would talk quietly to himself , but loud enough for me and Bivens to hear..."Mr Larry Groth did NOT take my Packer Report....he's too angry.....he wishes the Bears had their own newspaper"...........eventually he started coming to the enlisted club with us after work, and whenever there was a lull in the conversation he would ask someone how they thought the Packers were gonna do this year......or, of course; if they had seen his Packer Report....or wanted to borrow his Packer Report.......and whenever his roomate Bivens would chastise him or tell him to shut up, he would say "ya see T.O. , ol bivens mad, those big city boys don't like small town guys"........"Americus is BIG, BIG city....he has no use for the rest of us".....then he would wait 10 seconds and say " Allright B.A. , you can borrow my Packer Report"......when we used to have mail call, people from all over the Island would come to pick up their Divisions mail......and Timms would always ask people to check their mail and let him know if they found a copy of the Packer Report mistakenly in their mailbag.....he would make up a crazy story about some Admiral that was hot under the collar because he hadn't received the Packer Report in 2 months.....and people promised to bring it back if they found it....and he and would crack up.....when we used to go to the Chow Hall for meals he would ask the Fillipino workers if they had seen a copy of the Packer Report....sometimes he would come into the Bar during baseball season with a dead serious look on his face and walk up to someone and tell them....."Mr Ray Nitscke thinks we can be real good this year, i read it in the Packer Report" and he would keep nodding and walk away...... .never really figured out WHY he loved the Packers......he told me he did not have a TV growing up in the 60's when the Pack were winning titles....i guess he listened on the radio and fell in love with the team....i think i was the only mental patient that really got a kick out of him......most of the other people would talk about him behind his back and most thought he was retarded....but me and Bivens knew better......I remember the day he left the island , i told him i would have a shot for him if the Pack ever won another Super Bowl......not sure if i kept that promise......but if you are still out there Mr Timms, God Speed Brother.

2+3= Nitschke

I want to sing salvations story,
In concert with the blood-washed band;
I want to wear a crown of glory,
When I get home to that good land.

I’m going there to see my brothers,
They passed before me one by one;
I’m just a going over Jordan,
I’m just a going over home.

and when i hit the ground i was making tracks

And they were just taking my car down off the jacks,

so i threw the man a twenty and jumped in and fired that Mother up (C. Daniels)

Do you think when Charlie Daniels tipped his mechanic that he wanted 28% of that twenty to go to the IRS ?? No Sir...and so the first piece of common sense legislation in decades is close to becoming a reality, the first change that will truly benefit the working man and women....the lower and middle class will finally see a significant boost to their bottom line......the Big Beautiful Bill contains the most important change for main street.....NO TAX on TIPS.

10-15 years ago everyone carried cash and paid for most service items with cash.....bars, restaurants, taxis etc etc......but today nobody carries cash.....people pay for a lousy cup of coffee with their debit card......and thus...if there is a tip , it is electronically recorded and ultimately paid to the employer and NOT the poor slob slinging drafts.....the Employer of course notifies the IRS for every penny that eventually makes it's way into the servers hand and they are taxed on it.......we know this government has a serious taxation problem, they have an insatiable thirst for other people's money......but if i decide to give a bartender an extra $10 or $20 for going above and beyond, there is no reason the Federal Govt should get a piece of that $$$ , so they can then redistribute it to someone who deems bartending work as beneath them, or they are too lazy to work for .....or to pay college tuition for an illegal or to chop the nuts off some teenager with mental health issues that wants to become a Nancy.

you might think this would be bipartisan.....that even the demonrats would support such common sense  legislation that benefits sooo many voting Americans...but they are so crippled with Trump Derangement Syndrome that they just can't agree with The Donn on anything.......if he cured cancer they would bitch about the job losses in the health care system.....but hey.....let hem keep standing with the 20% in these  80-20 issues........i mean seriously...how many Americans have never worked for tips or earned overtime ?  this one is a no brainer.......like 2+3=BEEER

The Rangers drafted a defensemen in the 6th or 7th round of the draft by the name of Passmore.....no joke.........if the Blue seats still existed i bet it would only take one or two shifts before they started chanting "Shoot the puck Passmore, shoot he Puck"

But I figured I had better go ahead and split before the cops got there
When I hit the road I was really wheeling
Had gravel flying and rubber squealing
And I didn't slow down 'til I was almost to Arkansas

Headed Down South

 to the land of the pines

And I'm thumbin' my way into North Caroline
Starin' up the road
Pray to God I see headlights

I made it down the coast in seventeen hours
Pickin' me a bouquet of dogwood flowers
And I'm a hopin' for Raleigh
I can see my baby tonight ( Ketch Secor - Bob Dylan)

I had a very difficult few days in the Garden State.......highs and lows.......Track was an amazing reunion/celebration day.......perfect weather, great turnout and cold beer.....it was the highlight of my trip.........sadly my days in the office were marred by NJ Transit........a total nightmare...and i won't bore you.........Amtrak was a disaster both going and coming.....and i was so rattled and frazzled that i left  a day earlier than planned.....skipped Alexandria and rode the train for 14 straight hours to Raleigh.......I had to get on the right side of the Mason Dixon.....spent the night in a hotel downtown, went out for a few drinks in Wolfpack Territory and tried to unwind.......the following day at sunrise i found myself in a $300 uber desperately trying to reach home base at Capt Archies before they opened at 11:00 a.m. ....one the way out of town the above song came on the stereo.....i had no idea that Bob Dylan wrote the chorus for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid soundtrack and received a co writing credit........the version by Old Crow Medicine Show is both beautiful and haunting and it summed up my trip........it remined me of the time i was leaving  Dublin in 92....and Dirty Old town came on the radio......it was defining moment for me.....the my life was in flux and a state of change....the haunting sound of Shane McGowan was powerful.....a song that has stayed with me to this day.......but i digress.........as i rolled out of Raleigh i embraced the fact that I am a Southerner Now....this is my home....my safe space...the place i want to be.....and i love it......i take it all in and i am enjoying myself........BayRidge and Little Silver were great to me....and i loved my time there.....but this now is what i am all about....and i am grateful to be livin the dream......I will be back to Raleigh someday soon.

2+3= GRITTS

And I gotta get a move on before the sun
I hear my baby callin' my name
And I know that she's the only one
And if I die in Raleigh
At least I will die free

So rock me mama like a wagon wheel
Rock me mama anyway you feel
Hey mama rock me
Rock me mama like the wind and the rain
Rock me mama like a south-bound train

Hey mama rock me 

Good old Randy Newman

 No one likes us-I don't know why

We may not be perfect, but heaven knows we try
But all around, even our old friends put us down
Let's drop the big one and see what happens

We give them money-but are they grateful?
No, they're spiteful and they're hateful
They don't respect us-so let's surprise them
We'll drop the big one and pulverize them

Asia's crowded and Europe's too old
Africa is far too hot
And Canada's too cold
And South America stole our name
Let's drop the big one
There'll be no one left to blame us

We'll save Australia
Don't wanna hurt no kangaroo
We'll build an All American amusement park there
They got surfin', too

Boom goes London and boom Paree
More room for you and more room for me
And every city the whole world round
Will just be another American town
Oh, how peaceful it will be
We'll set everybody free
You'll wear a Japanese kimono
And there'll be Italian shoes for me

They all hate us anyhow
So let's drop the big one now