Venn Diagram for Upcoming Election

Apologies to the comedian Don McMillan, an engineer who has forged a very good comedic career using Venn diagrams. This is not his Venn diagram, but I like his idea of using Venn diagrams for such things. Check him out on YouTube.

If you like what the Enshittificator-in-chief has done to this country, the economy, the world, our relationship with our allies, the return of childhood diseases, a food inspection program in shambles, a military in disarray, the dismantling of our social safety nets, ICE harassing folks simply for the color of their skin and murdering citizens and non-citizens, climate change about to hit us like a sledge hammer, a man who idolizes murderous dictators, a man who started an unnecessary, unwinnable war that has killed hundreds of innocents, a man who has made $2.2 billion using the office of the President,  a man who has made the United States the laughing stock of the world, and a man who is mentioned 38,000 times (according to the New York Times) in the Epstein files, then by all means vote Republican in the upcoming mid-terms.

Remember that Trump could not have done any of this without the Republicans enabling him or minimally, lacking the backbone to stop him.

Venn diagram of what happens when corruption meets incompetence

May Ahura Mazda save our souls.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #5,697

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

I have decided that I want to get into a poker game with a bunch of MAGAs.  They obviously do not know when to fold a losing hand or how to bluff convincingly about such a losing hand.

But then again, they might follow their idol’s example and ignore the rules. Thus, claiming their pair of jacks beats my 10 high straight. An argument would ensue with the flipping of the card table sending chips, cards and cash flying to all corners of the room causing a mad scramble for the greenbacks. Phones would be drawn, racing to post a video of the bad behavior on social media. They neighbors would hear the clash and the loud voices.  They police would be called and I and the others would spend the night in the hoosegow for disturbing the peace and illegal gambling.

Perhaps I should forego the opportunity to pad my wallet.

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The USA’s Problem in One Image

The image below is circulating on social media.

There is so much wrong with this image, I am at a loss as to where to begin. While the majority of our Founding Fathers were deist, and many other presidents were not particularly religious, Abraham Lincoln comes to mind, Trump does not believe in anything except himself.  And I am even doubtful of that. I do not even believe him to be irreligious as that would imply he has thought, even if only shallowly, about religious beliefs.  If he has a god, it is green or gold. If I were a religious person I would view this depiction as a gross sacrilege. Come to think of it, I am not religious, and I still view it as a gross sacrilege. If there is such a thing as unholy, the definition is: See Trump.

What is sad to me is that politics and religion have almost always walked hand in hand.  Both are efforts to control the behavior of large groups of people.  Religion tends to pretty it up with ideas about improving the person and society, with ideas about aiding the believer to get to heaven or, more importantly, stay out of hell. Politics frequently dresses itself up as doing the most good for the most people, but often does not even bother with that. In the end  they are both about the same thing, power and control.

The melding of conservative politics with fundamental religions is as scary to me as various theocracies, past and present. There are good reasons the Founding Fathers were so adamant about the separation of church and state.

God save us from the religious.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #5,351

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

Spellcheck…

I am trying to decide which is the lesser of two evils.  To release one of my puerile little blog articles into the wild with spelling errors, or to release it with spellcheck having unknowingly substituted my original intended word with a word spelled somewhat similarly but with an entirely different meaning.

Between my fat fingers and the inability to edit my own writings, it is of deep concern for this poor, deluded scribbler.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #5,070

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

Back in the day… what used to trigger my decision that I needed a haircut was when my bangs began to interfere with my vision, or in recent years when Señora began chasing me around with her scissors.  As the years have descended on me like a rugby scrum, my decision is frequently triggered by my eyebrows having grown to the point that they are interfering with my vision.

Gotta love this getting old gig.

*****

Señora has been cutting my hair for years now.  Her doing so was a combination of things.  First, there was COVID with everyone staying home afraid of being around other humans.  Then, the barber who I had been going to for years had a series of small strokes.  She was still trying to work, but her quality was less than optimal.  I hung with her as long as I could out of loyalty, but at some point I had had enough of her hacking up my hair.  A lot of other customers must have felt the same way as her shop closed up not too long after I stopped going there.

Gotta love this getting old gig.

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Quote of the Day – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence.  I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.

 “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.” ~~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Yup, that Roman cat Cicero was prescient about our current situation in the United States… just saying.

Sad part is that he was writing about a situation in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, and it still applies today. As a species, it seems we never learn some very basic lessons, we seldom learn from our mistakes.  What was it a renowned sage once asked, “are we suffering  the Arrogance of Ignorance, or the Ignorance of Arrogance?”  Either way, we are screwed.

And so it should not go.

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,341

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

There is a book that came out about 34 years ago, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. I have been thinking there might be room in the market for a book about the differences between girlfriends and wives.   If there is room for that book there there is probably room for a book about the differences between boyfriends and husbands.

Let’s get back to differences between girlfriends and wives.  One section might deal with if a woman’s man has been somewhat remiss in his “manly” duties.  A girlfriend will frequently use the art of seduction to remedy the problem. A wife simply jumps straight to guilt induction.

Which reminds me of a joke I have told many times:

How many Jewish mothers does it take to change a light bulb?

Don’t worry dear, you go ahead and go out and play.  I will just sit here in the dark.

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Quote of the Day – Dolly Parton

Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence.  I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.

*

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose. And do it with purpose. Don’t ever sacrifice who you are, your principles and your morals and your values to just try to get ahead in business. It ain’t worth it.” ~~ Dolly Parton

Dolly was famously loved by the LGBTQ community and was supportive of their right to be who they are.

“… [I do not] believe that we should criticize and judge other people. I think we should be accepting and loving. We are all God’s children. We are who we are, and we should be allowed to be who we are…. I just think that we should be more loving, more caring. We are who we are. If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight, and you should be allowed to be, you know, how you are, and who you are.” ~~ Dolly Parton

She has frequently stated:

“We’re all God’s children and God should be the one to judge, not other people.” ~~ Dolly Parton

For a great summation of the life and career of Dolly Parton here is a link to Richard Cox Richardson’s news letter, Letters from an American: August 26, 2026

She was a special soul.

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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Dolly Parton – Stairway to Heaven

As I am sure you know, Dolly Parton passed away yesterday at the age of 80.  She has been one of my favorite entertainers for decades.  And while it is hard to tell with public figures, she always came across to me as a truly good person, something very rare, especially in the public sphere as so many of those folks seem to be driven by neurotic needs.

Here she is singing what I – and many others – consider the best Rock ‘N’ Roll song of all time. According to Parade Magazine Dolly Parton’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Cover Was Really a Love Letter to Husband Carl Dean as it was his favorite song.

I am betting, though, that Robert Plant never envisioned the song arranged with a banjo and steel guitar.

Enjoy.

A few years ago I posted a video by a collaboration of Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and EmmyLou Harris (does it get any better than that?) that resulted in two albums, Trio and Trio II. They are covering the Neil Young song, After the Goldrush.  It is truly haunting.   If you would like to listen to that here is a link to my article: After The Goldrush Live – Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt

Just one more Dolly Parton song.  Years ago after a bad breakup I made a mix CD that I am still listening to after decades. One of the songs on that CD was
Dolly Parton  – I Will Always Love You Of course, this was a mega hit for Whitney Houston as well as Dolly. Dolly also talks briefly about the history of this particular song.

She will be missed.


I have listened to Stairway to Heaven countless times, and I have always interpreted the song as a woman trying to buy her way into heaven.  Thinking about that I decided to look up the lyrics.  A deeper dive into the lyrics also describes a saner, more naturalistic approach to the woman’s goal… which she is probably not going to take. I suppose at an even deeper level it can be considered a Christian song as the core belief of Christianity is that you cannot achieve heaven by good works or money.  This differs from all the other major religions I have studied.  Having said all that,  I have no idea of Robert Plant’s religious beliefs.

Here is a link to the lyrics: Lyrics to Stairway to Heaven

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Quote of the Day – Ray Bradbury

Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence.  I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.

“I don’t think the robots are taking over. I think the men who play with toys have taken over. And if we don’t take the toys out of their hands, we’re fools.”  — Ray Bradbury

I am more and more convinced that if we did not open Pandora’s Box with computers, we are doing so with AI (Artificial Intelligence).

I would make Kurt Vonnegut‘s debut novel, Player Piano, required reading.  It is not his best work, but it has an important message. Given that the novel was published in 1952, Vonnegut was amazingly prescient about our current world.

But then again, I would also make George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, required reading. I have read this novel three times for various reasons.

To see more Quotes for Day, visit this link: Quotes for the Day

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