Tuesday 15 July 2025





Tuesday 15 July 2025 10:40:44 PM CST

Another nice hot day but down in the low 90s and a breeze. At least the grass isn't growing even with the occasional light rains. Looks like about a dozen new pecan trees courtesy of the squirrels and a couple or three in just the right places so I won't have to move the. Figure on mowing about twice more before a final one or two in Septemter. Oak trees get mowed over these days as they won't grow straight on their own unless they're in between two other trees close but with pecans just keep the limbs cut off up to wherever you want and after about eight feet they're all good. Gotta be about that high anyway so the rollbar on the tractor don't hit them when I'm mowing. You can fold it down but that's a lot or work for this old man and I ain't got more'n three or four good falls in me. I see guys - mostly on zero-turn mowers - run'em that way about all the time. Looks janky too.

Amazon dropped off the Blue Oyster Cult 50th anniversary set yesterday. That's the second night - 2 CDs and a DVD. Was probably going to get it anyway but having Flaming Telepaths on it made it mandatory. Don't have a lot of good live versions of that for some reason and I was never lucky enough to be at a show where they did. Dunno why, it's one of their best. Haven't ripped it to the library yet so dunno how it sounds on this one. Buck and Eric are the only original members but Richie has been with them for just over 20 years so there's pretty good continuity. Alan passed away some years ago so they were already down by one and the Bouchard brothers dropped out early so Buck and Eric pretty much are BOC. Mick Box was the only original member of Uriah Heep when they apparently hung it up at somewhere past the fifty-year mark but Bernie had been with them for about forty of those years so he was almost like an original to most fans. I believe Mick is also the only extant original member.

What the fuck!

Gotta stop sayin' that. Jessica don't cuss. Did I use to cuss?

Hafta ask her. Not now though.

Alex didn't even reach for his gun. He knew it wasn't there. It was probably the first time since Harry had warned them about the threat that he'd even opened the door without being armed. Now there was a couple hundred feet between him and the house, and he was inside a building with only two exits. One was the big roll-up door, which was closed. The other was blocked by...

Vinny and Frankie? Looks about right. It's a hit, like Harry said.

They were inside now. Big guys with baseball bats. Aluminum baseball bats.

Not taking any chances.

Alex retreated, backing away through the narrow space between two long tables.

Human Harvest (2022)

Whiskey of the week is Evan Williams 1783 Small Batch. It's a little fancier bottle and price at around $40 for a 1.75 where the regular is about $35. It's said to be 90 proof and while I believe the regular black label is 86. About the only higher proof I drink is the Turkey 101 stuff and never drink enough of any at one time to notice the difference. Turkey seems to be Baer Creighton's favorite since he quit making his own on account of he's a fugitive and can't set up a still at the site of each new adventure.

Starting with Memphis where another teacher diddled a student. This was over in Mississippi but just south of Memphis and no river in between like Arkansas where Left Memphis is. Not bad looking but sometimes they aren't. When they are they should get extra time for being ugly and molesting children.

What, Chris?

Just my opinion. Dunno age of the student but at least it was male. Sometimes it's a female teacher and a female student and if it comes out officially it takes a while most time. Same with male on male predation but both need to get extra time for that. This guy was just getting started early on an important part of his future job. Don't say it, Chris. Lately you see it being called CSAM and I think of ISAM and VSAM. Most folks weren't ever IBM programmers so probably don't think of that. ISAM shows up in modern databases generally - MySQL and forks anyway.

Holly Springs is another town in Mississippi not far from Memphis. Seems some juvies burnt some school buses over there. Two minors arrested so no names or pics. Demographics say... sorry, survey says...

What, Chris?

Yeah, could be as Henry said after Mark Smeaton's testimony "Still, could be true." Staying in Memphis just a bit longer the illegal that was living here in the USofA for over twenty years and couldn't habla no English is still getting some love from the usual suspects. Not much of a crowd - Memphis ain't LA and about now the resources of the minions of the cabal are concentrated there. And at Alligator Alcatraz. Amazon has the T-shirts if you want some. I ordered a couple for me and one of my best girls.


OK, that first one didn't last long. Seems to have been just talk and some of the right people didn't like what they heard. President Trump is pretty good at picking up the vibes from the base - let's hope he does on the Blondie/Epstein thing. A colleague who thinks the way I do had been uneasy for a while and as it turns out for good reason:
Everyone I know including me knew Bondi was a lightweight. She maxed out the Peter Principle scale as AG of Florida and was in no way prepared to deal with anything at cabinet level and especially the Epstein matter. But it was what Trump wanted and now he has to fix it. I would suggest that he give her the option of announcing that she has decided to spend more time with her family and give her the boot if she doesn't. Then appoint an investigator and the investigation takes a year. Whatever the reasons - my guess there are some vulnerable Republicans but if they are let them remain safe until after the midterms and then heave them over the side. But whatever he does this has to be dealt with.

MiniLindy@MyndCryme
Pretty much where I am. Moving right along do some people not know how to avoid getting AIDS? And if we must help dropping leaflets in the indigenous language should help them get it straight. That would be cheap enough I wouldn't object to a few of my tax dollars going for it. Actually made in U.S.A. has not always meant made by immigrants. There were a lot of clothing factories - Wynne had a shoe factory and a men's trousers factory back in the day. Unions killed them as they did electronics and automobiles. Now if by clothes - and they appear to - they mean the high-dollar fashion wear made in sweatshops there probably are mostly immigrants doing that. I may have have commented earlier on how the two billion spent on the 'No Kings' affair was pretty well wasted - hardly anyone outside the news and participants noticed. Kinda like Juneteenth and the pride stuff whenever that was. Another politician FAFO'd in New York. The rest doesn't deserve a comment. Neither did most of what I commented on.

OK, a couple more from Memphis. Seems a quarter of students in Shelby County - that's pretty much Memphis - met or exceed expectations on the TCAP tests. I'd like something more definitive than 'expected' like satisfactory or not satisfactory but OK, what are the demos? I'd be inclined to say that it's pretty bad but to say how expectable it is consider that some demographics have more children in school than others. Still it looks bad.

Finally - for the moment - we have a guy riding a motorbike on I-240 and had a mishap and ended up on the road they way people who have mishaps while riding motorbikes sometimes to. Police put up the orange cones and stuff and a couple of people just drove through and ran over the guy what was laying in the road. Ones they arrested was in a BMW but you see them in all kinds of pricey cars these days. No word on whether it had Xeroxed license plate.

As usual not much news from Wynne. It's funny that way - pretty calm but you don't know much is actually nothing going on or somebody looking the other way as much as practical. Notice I said practical and not possible. Some drugs and some gambling operations about it.

Little kerfluffle over in Pocahontas. Pocahontas is a little smaller than Wynne and actually growing a bit. I was up there a bit back in the day. Way back in the day and probably drove through a few times in recent years. Here you got the different sides each sayin' was t'other done something in appropriate. Later a guy associated with the Corruption Channel was arrested for contempt. Best thing to do is you see people creeping around acting odd you watch and as long as they don't break any laws watch but leave them alone. Could be somebody doing a First Amendment audit. Never heard of one before this but whatever.

Let them think I'm cornered, easy kill.

Seein' as how I AM cornered.

He took a quick look over his right shoulder. The left one was still stiff.

The fire axe was lying on the workbench, its handle in just the right position.

Too heavy. Not room to swing anyway. The hatchet though.

Its companion tool was there. A hatchet, with a spike on the back side of the blade, like the axe.

He used them to dig out protruding roots around the poplar trees, and had brought them into the shop to clean and sharpen the blades.

One of the goons was between the tables now, about to enter the open space.

C'mon Vinny.

Human Harvest (2022)


Am I supposed to have sympathy for people who continue - after seeing that the door is closed - continue to attempt to reach the land of free stuff? I realize that the traffickers will try to hide that fact so as not to lose so much business but the fact is that if you really are just seeking a better life you should do it honestly ethically and legally. To do otherwise is to accept responsibility for a bad outcome. OK? Rare earth minerals - like oil and natural gas and such - are locked up here in the USA. Or were, as they become accessible the prices will fall everywhere but domestic production will be competitive. Standing up for immigrants means trying to help the invaders avoid being caught and deported. I'm sure that a place that has been a hellhole for centuries continuing to be one is all the fault of Donald Trump. No matter that after hundreds of billions pumped in to those places they are still the same. Assuming that all that money ever was used for the betterment of those places. The process of removal continues. Book banning refers to the decisions of some public and school libraries to remove certain material:
When I was a kid - 30 or so years ago - there were these cheap paperbacks that some kids at school acquired and passed around. They were about 90% people having sex with as many people as possible and it was boring after a handful of pages. Like skin mags you see one you've seen them all. The books in the libraries that are being "banned" are about the same quality but with the intent of corrupting young minds.

Alex@MyndCryme
Yeah. The remainder doesn't merit much more attention than the first part. More women in the boardroom makes companies safer? Does it outweigh the damage done by having women in a position solely because of sex? And probably the Iranian regime won't collapse real soon - I could be wrong and hope I am - but I do suspect its days are numbered. Possibly not even in triple digits.

Looking at the Jonestown paper editorials they finally had a cartoon that made sense. Problem is conservatives despise Bondi for legitimate reasons and Dims hate her because Republican. She needs to go and soon and I suspect someone will get the word to the president before long.

Bondi maxed out on the Peter Principle scale before she was the Florida AG. Kissing up to the right people got her there and it was a friendly environment. Unfortunately Trump's BS detector either didn't buzz loud enough or he ignored the potential problem. Either way he's got a problem. Without going into details the solution begins with her going home to spend more time with her family voluntarily or not. If she had any decency she would have already resigned but she has been a political social climber all her career and doesn't get it. She will probably write a "tell-all" book after her exit - don't they all? - but it will probably end in Dollar Tree with the other failed politicians.

Nikki@MyndCryme

Yeouch! I agree. Whatever the situation is - sparing the Republicans until after the midterms or something more sinister - it needs to be resolved. Maybe the biggest obstacle to a solution is Trump's innate honesty. He has no time for politics and dissembling but that might be required.

Hey Chris, Did I do anything on Paragould yet? Nevermind, lessee what we got lately. Like Florida Man stories locally we have Paragould man or woman or Jonesboro man or woman. Like this one. And sometimes it a Memphis Man in Paragould or Jonesboro. There used to not be many Memphis people in Paragould until somebodyorother started encouraging HUD people in Memphis to move to Paragould. Apparently there was a housing shortage n Memphis which is kinda strange because the population of Memphis has been steadily declining but apparently so has the habitable housing. So Paragould got a big slum out on the east side and mostly north of 412. I drove in from east of town every day and saw the transplants walking across the highway to a gas station/convenience store there. Get some smokes and beer and lottery tickets and maybe a phone card and whatever else. By the time I moved they had the door and window bars and it looked like Race Street in Jonestown. So a lot more Memphis people in Paragould. Already was in Jonestown from way back. I heard an interesting conversation between a couple of associates back then:

Marcus: The HUD people in Memphis advised them there's plenty of houses in Paragould?

Elaine: Memphis is eighty miles away. That's a long drive to work.

Marcus: Work? Those people don't have jobs.

Yep. Back in Arkansas it seems there's a white supremacist outfit establishing a colony up around Ravenden. Never seen a white supremacist in person and the ones on TV are mostly the FBI fake outfits - guys in polo shirts and khakis and sunglasses. Real ones are probably kinda strange people, like sovereign citizens and such. Probably some mental illness or lack of mental in most. It's a white people only place so I dunno if they fancy themselves supreme or just want to be separate. There people like that to some degree or other in all races and colors and some do get extreme about it.

Kate: OK, I give up... what's this?

Harry: This is the Fillmore chapter of the VFW... Very Few Whites"

The Enforcer - 1976
The Black Separatist Big Ed or whatever was played by Albert Popwell. I believe he was in all the Dirty Harry films except the last and even Clint didn't really want to be in that one. He was usually a bad guy (the first one Harry asked if he felt lucky and a pimp in Magnum Force) and Big Ed was an kinda not so bad guy and in Sudden Impact he was a cop and got killed by the psycho dude. Between that psycho and Scorpio in the first film it's hard to pick a favorite.

Alex grasped the handle of the hatchet as Vinny came within range, prepared to swing the bat.

Alex blocked the first blow, almost losing his grip on the hatchet.

Wish this thing had one of those loops on the handle.

He moved past Vinny before he could recover, to face Frankie. Not soon enough, Frankie's bat hit his left arm, numbing it.

Dammit, hadn't healed good from the fall yet.

Fuckers tryin' to kill me.

Human Harvest (2022)

Did I do Wynne lately? Where's Chris? Whatever, some new stuff here. A Cherrry Valley Man and an Earle Man were arrested in separate incidents - the Wynne paper sometimes combines unrelated things in the same article. I guess since both were arrested they're related thataway. And both the Wynne Man and Earle Man were in Jonestown when they done the infamous deeds. One of them was infamous anyway - beating up a pregnant woman. Who the hell does stuff like that? Beating up a woman what ain't with child is bad enough.

Parkin ain't Wynne but it's in Cross County so the shooting in Parkin was in the Wynne paper. What used to be a paper anyway - the tornado damaged the offices and it never resumed printing. Actually they were having it printed by the Forrest City paper. Back in the day - way back in the day - an older sibling worked there while she was in high school. A linotype operator. That's how it was done and they had the big printing machinery and all.

And finally we have the Wynne Woman who went to Jonestown and stole stuff. People come from Memphis and Little Rock to steal stuff and people from Paragould and wherever in the area come to Jonestown and steal stuff so why not people Wynne? Some people still don't know about cameras and license plate readers all over the place or act like they don't maybe didn't figure the businesses in Jonestown would get together to catch them when they do stuff like this. Maybe she'll claim Trump's Big Beautiful Budget cut her SNAP allowance and she was stealing to buy food for her offspring. Yeah, that's it.

Climate change. Check. Illegals caring for elderly peoples. Check. A crazy guy documented to be part of the Democrat regime in Minnesota killed a Democrat politician. Couple of crazy guys tried to kill President Trump (while he was temporarily not president), more corporate sponsors bailed on Juneteenth. And pride stuff. Attack ivermectin some more especially since it saved a lot of people during the Plandemic and is good for a lot of other stuff. Bad times coming (food shortages) and more climate change nonsense shot down by the Supreme Court. More climate change.

Yeah, I skipped the Bowie one. I believe the only things I saw him in were The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Hunger. The latter being worth watching and for former a curiosity. Bowie was one of the most creative and talented musicians of his age and was always interesting (musically) whatever he was doing. The little acting I saw was so-so. That do for you?

Stopped at a favorite gas station to grab a soda and a snack and scored a 5-pack of Good Times Black Sweet cigars. To be only $1.29 a pack they're pretty good. The green sweets are pretty good too and when I deviate from Swisher 4x30s it's usually Good Times. It cooled off some about dark and I made a EW and Coke (they putting people names on the bottles again and I got an Alexis) and had a smoke and libation on the front deck. Good times. Yeah, it was one of the Black Sweets I picked up in town.

Frankie was preparing to swing again. There was no time to look to see what Vinny was doing. Alex bent his knees, into a crouch to Frankie's left side. Swung the hatchet up, the spike toward Frankie's chin. It penetrated to its full depth, and as Alex pulled it back it brought Frankie's head down with it. Frankie fell face down, the bat rolling away just in time for Vinny to step on it.

Some things just meant to be.

Vinny managed to stay on one knee and hold on to his own bat, but as he tried to rise Alex brought the hatchet down on top of his head. The crunching sound as it split the skull was sickening. Or maybe it was just seeing and knowing what made the sound that made it so. Vinny joined his associate in a similar posture.

Fuckin... dammit, gotta stop this or find some new words.

Human Harvest (2022)


Nope, just National Guards sent in to secure federal properties. Use the shotgun if necessary. Does the cartoonist get it? I would guess that he does but the narrative is more important. I'm gonna call it a day. Two general categories of political cartoonists - one is the lefties and haters of the Republic and all that is good and decent and the kind like Branco that eviscerate the lefties with unerring precision. Problem for the propagandists is that to be funny there has to be at least a little truth in it. I could laugh at Republicans, even Ronald Regan, when it was real. The lefties got nothing factual in theirs.
What it must be like in those heads. In almost all there must be a grain of reality, the knowledge that they're lying and doing so out of hatred for what is right and good. That has to hurt but somehow I don't believe they get it.

MAGAHurtz@MyndCryme

I started with BOC and might as well sign off with them. Somehow got into a discussion with someone about BOC songs. Probably my fave is Flaming Telepaths and some guys calling theirselves Voodo Screw Machine do one of the best covers. Check'em out if you have time. They seem to have a sense of humor appropriate for doing Cult songs. Most fun to listen to regulary? Naturally Don't Fear the Reaper and Burning for You for the iconic riffs and flow and of course Flaming Telepaths. Live recordings of Veteran of the Psychic Wars where Buck lays it down for a while Freebird style, Astronomy and some others like Joan Crawford. That one was weird. Weird for BOC? Doubt it. Catchyalater.