Humans always behave better when they are dealing with tangible difficulties, like digging out from a blizzard or piling sandbags to hold back floodwaters. In the absence of real problems, politicians, merchants and advertisers more than happy to sell us things that are bad for us by playing upon our fears and appetites.
Florida Boy's recorded music is worse than just being "recorded music", not like his bizarre "dancing" to Y.M.C.A. What he plays is the recorded music of his choir (or band) of traitors, seditionists and felons who recorded themselves from prison singing something that he praises as he calls them "hostages." In a news article about his New Hampshire spewings, I read a quote from him in which he said that he has (paraphrasing from quote that is not in front of me now): "91 indictments, more indictments than Al Capone; you know Al Capone - probably the greatest mobster of all time. " He didn't say "worst mobster" or "notorious mobster" or any of the possible applicable adjectives. He said "greatest mobster." And for this "mobster" people in NH and NYC lined up to cheer and clap and get themselves quoted, yet again with these words, "He's doing it for us."
Wasn't there something in the Bible about scales on the eyes? About evil somehow putting scales on the eyes (reminiscent of the snake, the serpent, that ruined paradise)? Can't we send out an army of opthalmologists to check the eyes of the cult members, see if the scales can be removed?
Or even better: can't Florida Boy be sent to some really, really secure location back in Florida, and soon, somewhere where he can practice his "Be Best" mobstering alone and leave our country, and the world, out of his nefarious schemes?
And if the notion that trauma brings people together, why isn't the poisonous miasma he has spread over the country - profoundly traumatic - bringing citizens together instead of having the opposite effect? Honestly, I don't think it IS well with HIS soul and he's making all the rest of our souls pretty dang un-well, too!
As I recall, the Florida Boy (with the orange makeup --where does he get that?) has been sued for using (i.e. stealing) copyrighted music of others.
Saw a shot of him in profile, where the line of applied makeup stopped just in front of his ear with a thin line of his real complexion in front of the ear.
Yes cold... So cold I wondering where in the world is that Global Warming when you need it. But I piled my three Carpathian’s in bed and we had a lovely three dog night. Nice and toasty, and remember when they were pups they would all pile on top of me and there was this beautiful full Wolf moon... And my thoughts were how many have enjoyed the thermal warmth in the lunar light of a cold winter’s night under a litter of wolf pups.
Indeed, Florida Boy aka Republican Jesus is clinging ever harder to the precepts of his mentor Roy Cohn in the apparent belief that Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon weren't criminal enough (of course, all three were "suckers" in his view). Yet his hijacked "GOP" thinks he's their best bet, so we're experiencing something like Star Wars in reverse, with the good guys manning the Death Star and the evil villains risking everything trying to find the vulnerability that will blow up the whole thing.
I think it's important to remember that when we talk about insurrectionists and fascists, the conversation is by no means about politics.
Now you've gone and done it Garrison, you've made my day once again. This morning's writings have just the right amount of Subtle sarcasm about the upcoming election and the underlying tone of "the big lie" to satisfy my need for honesty, which is in very short supply. What got me out of bet this morning so early you may ask? Well, it is a posting I viewed just before going to bed last night by a front office worker at our very Catholic church here in Fremont Nebraska. I only spent a few seconds trying to understand the thrust of the document but what I gathered it was advertising was that the January 6th episode of three years ago never really happened, it was all a hoax. I've been seeing and hearing rumblings recently pointing in the same direction and have assumed is part of the plot to bring him back. I arose with the intent to take miss holier than thou to the woodshed for a bit of truthful spiritual conversation, I've now decided too not. Thanks, Garrison, for your words that talked me down off the ledge. rroeder
I suppose miss holier than thou greatly disapproved of Pope Francis's decision to fire the Texas bishop Joseph Strickland, who among other things offered a prayer at a religious event for trumpers in D.C. ahead of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. I assume that her preposterous posting was on social media; perhaps the proverbial woodshed would have been as well. I'm not sure--honestly, not sure--that I agree with Garrison Keillor here. Sometimes I think that we've all been too gentle, too polite, too "respectful" of people who promote these conspiracy theories, beginning with birtherism or perhaps even the Central Park Five. Has it done any good? Could it be that we all need to speak up more rather than less? What could the average German have done to prevent the rise of the Third Reich? I shudder to think that so many Americans are blindly devoted to someone who routinely uses threats of political violence, someone who says any election he ever loses is fraudulent, someone who publicly urges our Supreme Court justices to show their loyalty, someone who argues that he should be beyond the reach of criminal prosecution no matter what crimes he might commit.
Thank you so very much Garrison. You serve as a fine example of what our country needs most now. True diversity!! Loving your brother without judgement. Where are others like you? I can’t find them.
Mr. Keillor, I'm a bit younger than you. Reading your loving, lovely notes here in northern AZ. Thanks for your ongoing essays. You're not only one out there howling against the wind. Take care of yourself, please. Best regards.
Woke is being aware of societal difficulties, inequities, and injustices, and trying to do something about them. It's a complement, not the pejorative used by conservatives.
"Like most Americans I'm a stranger to hopelessness" That is a refreshing thought and, if true, the hopefuls will vote florida boy into obscurity come November. He truly is a psychopath.
I am hopeful that you are right about Florida Boy's future. You see his true colors as hopefully most of us sane Americans see also. It seems that hopelessness is a fashion trend among some of our fellow citizens. I honestly am quite tired of the facade that people portray because they feel their political wishes weren't elected. Garrison's sings "America the Beautiful" to warm up his audience at his outings. I say, "Sing on and sing it loud", we are so blessed to be Americans.
So I'm being asked to be tolerant of a middle-aged mid-American woman with an arthritic shoulder loving her AR-15, on the morning after the Federal report on the Uvalde school shooting in which 21 innocent Americans were killed by an AR-15-wielding gunman? Great timing.
The DOJ report was devastating for its indictment of Texas law enforcement and its outright cowardice and confusion as innocent children were shot down by a demented man while uniformed officers milled around for an hour. Everyone knows that guns can kill people and the report wasn't about that. Pay attention.
I am a native Minnesotan and find it interesting that I would need to go south to find real winter weather. I look forward to seeing your show this July in St Paul. I miss the days when you brought your show to the Minnesota Sate Fair and to Crooners Lounge where I met your wife, daughter and sister. Being 81 is not bad at all, I once was 81 and now are getting close to 92. So, happy 50th and see you all in July.
Well-said. I’ve even learned to engage the divergent pov with, “I know the guy who started Gray’s Sporting Journal”. The opinion piece in WAPO six months ago, Florida Boy rewrites curriculum on slavery, drew so many negative comments I stopped counting. That was a truly hopeful sign!
"They were very very nice people". Sounds like something the Florida boy has said a number of times about various groups and/or individuals who are obviously not. I wonder how many bullets the woman with the sore shoulder has to remove from the kill lest she get lead poisoning later eating the flesh? Garrison is to be admired for his efforts to offer "feel good" stuff to the rest of us. However, a more realistic approach might also be of interest. While he was out singing "America" with his crowd, another group of people were braving the same elements in Iowa to vote for a "Florida Boy" who at the very same time was sitting in a NY courtroom as a convicted (by a jury of his peers) sexual predator more specifically a rapist. There is a very large "choir" out there who are not singers at a sing-a-long.
If you're comparing the couple I had breakfast with to the white nationalist Proud Boys who Florida Boy praised in Charlottesville, you really are stretching a point. This is why I don't call myself a progressive anymore, because of the self-righteous anger on the left that is undermining their own cause. Your logic defies sympathy.
I wasn't comparing the couple you met with anybody. I was comparing your use of "very very" with Trumps repetitive style (he's semi literate as we know). You were obviously using the words to emphasize the fact that the words "AR-15" and "Oklahoma" didn't necessarily brand them. However, my comments were also to not hide my disdain for anyone who shoots kills wild animals in this day and age for sport, food, or any other reason - with such a grossly overbearing weapon particularly because it "doesn't hurt my shoulder" and "admiration for its mechanical design". They don't belong in the "progressive" camp no matter how "nice". I've been around longer than you have - 87 years and haven't formed this opinion over night. Spare us the niceties.
I have cousins on the rez who hunt for food for themselves and others, so I’m not too far removed from “gun people,” if they can be called that. They also bow hunt, and still don’t like combat weaponry. (I’m not sure whether those clauses have anything to do with one another.) There are plenty of other things to talk about than what divides us, and more things that bind us together, so I try.
Humans always behave better when they are dealing with tangible difficulties, like digging out from a blizzard or piling sandbags to hold back floodwaters. In the absence of real problems, politicians, merchants and advertisers more than happy to sell us things that are bad for us by playing upon our fears and appetites.
Florida Boy's recorded music is worse than just being "recorded music", not like his bizarre "dancing" to Y.M.C.A. What he plays is the recorded music of his choir (or band) of traitors, seditionists and felons who recorded themselves from prison singing something that he praises as he calls them "hostages." In a news article about his New Hampshire spewings, I read a quote from him in which he said that he has (paraphrasing from quote that is not in front of me now): "91 indictments, more indictments than Al Capone; you know Al Capone - probably the greatest mobster of all time. " He didn't say "worst mobster" or "notorious mobster" or any of the possible applicable adjectives. He said "greatest mobster." And for this "mobster" people in NH and NYC lined up to cheer and clap and get themselves quoted, yet again with these words, "He's doing it for us."
Wasn't there something in the Bible about scales on the eyes? About evil somehow putting scales on the eyes (reminiscent of the snake, the serpent, that ruined paradise)? Can't we send out an army of opthalmologists to check the eyes of the cult members, see if the scales can be removed?
Or even better: can't Florida Boy be sent to some really, really secure location back in Florida, and soon, somewhere where he can practice his "Be Best" mobstering alone and leave our country, and the world, out of his nefarious schemes?
And if the notion that trauma brings people together, why isn't the poisonous miasma he has spread over the country - profoundly traumatic - bringing citizens together instead of having the opposite effect? Honestly, I don't think it IS well with HIS soul and he's making all the rest of our souls pretty dang un-well, too!
As I recall, the Florida Boy (with the orange makeup --where does he get that?) has been sued for using (i.e. stealing) copyrighted music of others.
Saw a shot of him in profile, where the line of applied makeup stopped just in front of his ear with a thin line of his real complexion in front of the ear.
Yes cold... So cold I wondering where in the world is that Global Warming when you need it. But I piled my three Carpathian’s in bed and we had a lovely three dog night. Nice and toasty, and remember when they were pups they would all pile on top of me and there was this beautiful full Wolf moon... And my thoughts were how many have enjoyed the thermal warmth in the lunar light of a cold winter’s night under a litter of wolf pups.
“Hopelessness is not a good motive for falling in love, raising children, or writing a novel. Or for voting.” Well said.
Indeed, Florida Boy aka Republican Jesus is clinging ever harder to the precepts of his mentor Roy Cohn in the apparent belief that Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon weren't criminal enough (of course, all three were "suckers" in his view). Yet his hijacked "GOP" thinks he's their best bet, so we're experiencing something like Star Wars in reverse, with the good guys manning the Death Star and the evil villains risking everything trying to find the vulnerability that will blow up the whole thing.
I think it's important to remember that when we talk about insurrectionists and fascists, the conversation is by no means about politics.
Now you've gone and done it Garrison, you've made my day once again. This morning's writings have just the right amount of Subtle sarcasm about the upcoming election and the underlying tone of "the big lie" to satisfy my need for honesty, which is in very short supply. What got me out of bet this morning so early you may ask? Well, it is a posting I viewed just before going to bed last night by a front office worker at our very Catholic church here in Fremont Nebraska. I only spent a few seconds trying to understand the thrust of the document but what I gathered it was advertising was that the January 6th episode of three years ago never really happened, it was all a hoax. I've been seeing and hearing rumblings recently pointing in the same direction and have assumed is part of the plot to bring him back. I arose with the intent to take miss holier than thou to the woodshed for a bit of truthful spiritual conversation, I've now decided too not. Thanks, Garrison, for your words that talked me down off the ledge. rroeder
Hyperbolically incredible conspiracy theory.
I suppose miss holier than thou greatly disapproved of Pope Francis's decision to fire the Texas bishop Joseph Strickland, who among other things offered a prayer at a religious event for trumpers in D.C. ahead of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. I assume that her preposterous posting was on social media; perhaps the proverbial woodshed would have been as well. I'm not sure--honestly, not sure--that I agree with Garrison Keillor here. Sometimes I think that we've all been too gentle, too polite, too "respectful" of people who promote these conspiracy theories, beginning with birtherism or perhaps even the Central Park Five. Has it done any good? Could it be that we all need to speak up more rather than less? What could the average German have done to prevent the rise of the Third Reich? I shudder to think that so many Americans are blindly devoted to someone who routinely uses threats of political violence, someone who says any election he ever loses is fraudulent, someone who publicly urges our Supreme Court justices to show their loyalty, someone who argues that he should be beyond the reach of criminal prosecution no matter what crimes he might commit.
Thank you so very much Garrison. You serve as a fine example of what our country needs most now. True diversity!! Loving your brother without judgement. Where are others like you? I can’t find them.
Mr. Keillor, I'm a bit younger than you. Reading your loving, lovely notes here in northern AZ. Thanks for your ongoing essays. You're not only one out there howling against the wind. Take care of yourself, please. Best regards.
My wife's father (till the day he died at 93) also suggested that what 'this country needs is a good depression.'
Re: “Woke” - Woke is just a negotiation over manners. But, most of human interaction is just a negotiation over manners. It’s what we call life.
When academics announce that the word "field" is racist because it brings to mind slavery and cottonfields, that's not manners, that's b.s.
Woke is being aware of societal difficulties, inequities, and injustices, and trying to do something about them. It's a complement, not the pejorative used by conservatives.
"Like most Americans I'm a stranger to hopelessness" That is a refreshing thought and, if true, the hopefuls will vote florida boy into obscurity come November. He truly is a psychopath.
I am hopeful that you are right about Florida Boy's future. You see his true colors as hopefully most of us sane Americans see also. It seems that hopelessness is a fashion trend among some of our fellow citizens. I honestly am quite tired of the facade that people portray because they feel their political wishes weren't elected. Garrison's sings "America the Beautiful" to warm up his audience at his outings. I say, "Sing on and sing it loud", we are so blessed to be Americans.
So I'm being asked to be tolerant of a middle-aged mid-American woman with an arthritic shoulder loving her AR-15, on the morning after the Federal report on the Uvalde school shooting in which 21 innocent Americans were killed by an AR-15-wielding gunman? Great timing.
The DOJ report was devastating for its indictment of Texas law enforcement and its outright cowardice and confusion as innocent children were shot down by a demented man while uniformed officers milled around for an hour. Everyone knows that guns can kill people and the report wasn't about that. Pay attention.
I am a native Minnesotan and find it interesting that I would need to go south to find real winter weather. I look forward to seeing your show this July in St Paul. I miss the days when you brought your show to the Minnesota Sate Fair and to Crooners Lounge where I met your wife, daughter and sister. Being 81 is not bad at all, I once was 81 and now are getting close to 92. So, happy 50th and see you all in July.
Well-said. I’ve even learned to engage the divergent pov with, “I know the guy who started Gray’s Sporting Journal”. The opinion piece in WAPO six months ago, Florida Boy rewrites curriculum on slavery, drew so many negative comments I stopped counting. That was a truly hopeful sign!
"They were very very nice people". Sounds like something the Florida boy has said a number of times about various groups and/or individuals who are obviously not. I wonder how many bullets the woman with the sore shoulder has to remove from the kill lest she get lead poisoning later eating the flesh? Garrison is to be admired for his efforts to offer "feel good" stuff to the rest of us. However, a more realistic approach might also be of interest. While he was out singing "America" with his crowd, another group of people were braving the same elements in Iowa to vote for a "Florida Boy" who at the very same time was sitting in a NY courtroom as a convicted (by a jury of his peers) sexual predator more specifically a rapist. There is a very large "choir" out there who are not singers at a sing-a-long.
If you're comparing the couple I had breakfast with to the white nationalist Proud Boys who Florida Boy praised in Charlottesville, you really are stretching a point. This is why I don't call myself a progressive anymore, because of the self-righteous anger on the left that is undermining their own cause. Your logic defies sympathy.
I wasn't comparing the couple you met with anybody. I was comparing your use of "very very" with Trumps repetitive style (he's semi literate as we know). You were obviously using the words to emphasize the fact that the words "AR-15" and "Oklahoma" didn't necessarily brand them. However, my comments were also to not hide my disdain for anyone who shoots kills wild animals in this day and age for sport, food, or any other reason - with such a grossly overbearing weapon particularly because it "doesn't hurt my shoulder" and "admiration for its mechanical design". They don't belong in the "progressive" camp no matter how "nice". I've been around longer than you have - 87 years and haven't formed this opinion over night. Spare us the niceties.
I have cousins on the rez who hunt for food for themselves and others, so I’m not too far removed from “gun people,” if they can be called that. They also bow hunt, and still don’t like combat weaponry. (I’m not sure whether those clauses have anything to do with one another.) There are plenty of other things to talk about than what divides us, and more things that bind us together, so I try.
Also, I’m 78 and still anxious about dying young.