Three Days After Thanksgiving

Greetings and Salutations.  I trust this finds you all very well.  Here in the SW we are finally getting the payoff for dying from the heat all summer.  Last Friday was a tad chilly all day.  We gave ourselves a stern talking to about not being weather weenies and got on the bikes.  It was cold!  We cut out a down hill section of the route and added a hill to stave off frostbite.  Today was much better, and the rest of the week is looking good.  Unfortunately, it's getting down to 37 at night, so it takes awhile for the day to warm up.  Actually, it doesn't really matter, what else do we have to do?

Arizona has stopped accepting Covid-19 patients from out of state.  Case numbers are rising, free ICU beds are dropping.  One can only hope that one is not in a terrible car accident at this time.  Jenna and Rudy are coming to Phoenix tomorrow for another airing of grievances.  It's inside, no masks will be worn.  I really hate these people for their indifference to the pressure they're placing on the health care system.  

I took some pictures, which I will share with you, since I have zippity doo-dah all to report.  I took these in the afternoon, when the sun was getting low.  That's the hop seed hedge and the palm tree that belongs to the neighbor behind us.

The always lovely Golden Gate mountain, with a Queen Palm foreground.

I was reading an article about how Utah is being over run by people who are stir crazy from being cooped up by the pandemic.  They mentioned the large number of novice hikers going up to Angel's Landing.  Full disclosure:  I started up, but my knees were going up and down because the trail scared me so badly. We did not ever hike that trail.  Anyway, had we done it, this is what we would have seen at the top.

Here is twitter humor.  In one of his call in interviews on Fox, the orange wombat was heard to say that if you were a Republican poll watcher, you were treated worse than dogs.  I don't think he understands how "dog" works in the US.

 

Other than this paltry offering, I have nothing interesting to add.  We continue to isolate and await a vaccine.

Thanksgiving Eve

The loser presidential lunacy continues unabated.  Today, in Gettysburg, Rudy and Jenna held a "hearing" which has been compared to the "airing of grievances" from the Seinfeld show.  Basically they got nothing, but they're whining without ceasing.  The orange wombat called in on Jenna's cell phone which she held up to the microphone, and the wombat wailed for 10 minutes.  It was pitiful.  He's inviting Republican legislators to come to the White House to brow beat them into selecting a different set of electors.  PA law forbids that.  Today, the wombat pardoned Mike Flynn.  The terms of the pardon are not yet public.  Wombat is such a criminal.  Being a criminal is just business as usual in this administration.

So how is your week going?  We made the decision not to set foot in a grocery store this week, due to crowding for the stocking up for the American day of over consumption.  The downside to that decision is that there will be no pie.  Quelle domage.  We don't actually need pie, we just like it.  Our steenking chicken is still frozen pretty hard, hopefully he'll thaw out by tomorrow.

There has been riding Monday and today.  We're both feeling stronger, it may be time to introduce another hill into the route.  This happened Monday.  See the fuzzy thing at the end of the arrow?  That's a cholla pup.  They get flipped up by the front wheel and lodge in my flesh.  If you look carefully, you can see it pulling on my skin.  It was a minor impaling, the last one was in way deeper.

We're losing upper body strength due to not going to the gym.  I tried ordering hand weights on Amazon.  Nope, not in stock yet.  Dick's out east had one weight we wanted, and Dick's up north had the other weight.  I've ordered a weight bench from Amazon, but it won't be here until mid-January, what with the broken supply chain and all.  Anyway, we drove east, then north and then tried to go home.  Nope!  The road we were on was not moving much.  In fact, forward progress was only being made because cars in front of us were turning around.  As it turned out, at the intersection of our street and AZ86 one could go neither to the right or left.  We turned around, tried to get to the alternate route.  Nope!  Another crash had that one closed.  We turned around, and ended up going over Gates Pass.  It took forever to get back to the house.  The light was pretty good, it was close to being the golden hour, so it was a pretty drive.

The amount of price gouging on Amazon is amazing.  I'm running low on Aleve, but they're inflated the cost to the point that I decided just to wait for the next Costco trip and hope they have it in stock.  It's irritating, they're no better than privateers.  

In news of the good, the Army Corps of Engineers has denied the request for a permit to mine for gold and copper in the Bristol Bay watershed in Alaska.   It's one of the last best salmon fisheries, and destroying that would have been devastating.  Hopefully, President Biden will be able to put the kibosh on that forever, but it will depend on what support Murdering Mitch will give to the effort.  You can read more about it here.

Other than that, I have nothing much intelligent to say.

It's Over - Biden Wins

Welp - it's over.  Michigan certified.  Biden/Harris have enough electoral college votes to take the presidency.

Marc Elias is the lawyer who has fought the stupid lawsuits that the orange wombat's legal team has been filing.  

GSA Emily has, at long last, released money for the transition teams.  In her stupid letter on the subject she says she was only doing her job by holding out this long.  She was doing what the wombat told her to do.  Her release of the funds is probably all of the concession we'll ever get from the loser president.

Houses and Sunset

 As you all no doubt recall, when we bought our current house, we purchased it as a winter home.  We still had the RV then and intended to continue to travel in the summer - until we didn't.  As a winter house it's fine, as a full time house it's a wee bit small.  We really wanted a third bedroom, but since this was the only house we saw that we could tolerate, we bought it anyway.  So, we've been half heartedly looking for a three bedroom house with a pool.  I'm still on the fence about pool maintenance, but after this last summer, I think we would like having it.  Anyway, we went out to an open house today.

This is what is on Zillow.  Isn't it lovely?  I think they used a drone and the sparkle/shiny camera filters when they took the photo. 

This is what we saw.  The lots are actually fairly small, and the entire neighborhood looks somewhat dingy.  The car in front of the house had just disgorged four children, two of which were very active, so we bailed.  Three out of four masks were not covering noses, so - nah.

We saw this magnificent tribute to the 45th president on the way out.  I had to stop and take pictures.  It's hard to see, but in the middle they've hung the flag wherein the orange wombat's head has been grafted onto Rambo's body.  He has something wrapped around his head, and is holding a rocket launcher.  Wonder how long this will stay up.  It appears to be listing a little.

Finally, there was a good sunset.  As we get closer to December, they'll improve as the sun gets lower.

So, that's what's happening here.

Some Winning, Some Losing

Last night we had a semi-decent sunset.  It was pretty much the highlight of the day. Now I'm going to talk about politics, so you've been warned.

Here is reporting from today's court ruling released in Pennsylvania.  Rudy the Ghoul lost yet another case.  Marc Elias might as well get silver shoes and a cape for the amount of work he has done defending voting rights in this year's election.

The latest case wanted to disenfranchise about seven million voters.  That would be the entire state of Pennsylvania.

 

Additionally the judge had words to say to the Giuliani legal team. 

We've feeling a little lighter, but not light enough.

In Wisconsin, the Republican observers of the ballot recount are slowing the process.  As you know doubt recall, the orange wombat paid $3M up front to recount the two counties with the largest Black populations.  At times, the watchers have objected to every single ballot pulled out of the box.  One of their objections has been because the ballots had been folded.  If I'm lying I'm dying.  I think they're trying to make Wisconsin miss the December 8 deadline for state certification.  I'm not sure what happens if that happens. More can be read here.

Michigan is in an uproar because Republicans want a recount, but state law says no recount until after certification.  I'm depending on the Secretary of State, who is a Democrat to bring this to a just conclusion.  I believe Michigan election law allows the Governor to appoint electors in the case where no consensus can be reached.  Governor Whitmer is a Democrat.

Nevada has not yet certified, but the stupid lawsuits appear to have reached the end of the line.

So, it's like watching a soap opera.  It just keeps going.  Meanwhile, we're facing a government shut down, Mnuchin (Secretary of the Treasury) clawed back the money the Fed was using for keeping the economy afloat, hospitals all over the country are full, there is a shortage of nurses and doctors, people are traveling for Thanksgiving, food bank lines are now measured in miles, and case counts continue to rise.  If I haven't sufficiently depressed you, HuffPost did a horrific article on how the wombat is undercutting the Great America Outdoors Act.  There will be drilling in ANWR and Utah. It's worth reading.

The 45th President Still Will not Accept the Election Results

Greetings Earthlings! How are things in your neck of the woods?  I personally feel like I'm in the movie, Ground Hog Day.  The days are all running together in their sameness.  Cases in Arizona are on the rise, so we're not moving around all that much.  Although there is a new West Elm calling for me to visit, it's not worth dying for.  Maybe next year.

I took this last night with the cell phone.  I'm fairly impressed with the camera.  It did better than my big camera in seeing the two planets over the moon.  The big camera was crisper on the moon, so it's about a push.  The big camera will not see the palm trees in the dark.  The arrows are pointing at the two planets that are visible over the moon.  They're really faint.  I used to know which planets they are, but I forgot.  Sorry.

Today, the orange wombat is making good on his promise to steal the election.  He has invited Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield of Michigan to the White House tomorrow.  He plans to browbeat them into picking a slate of Trump electors to overturn Biden's significant win there.  Wednesday night he called one of the county canvassing board members and asked her not to certify the votes.  Unfortunately for him, she had voted for certification (after previously refusing to do so).  There is no legal avenue for her to take back her certifying vote.  She was the person who had no issue with tossing all of the ballots cast in Detroit, which went for Biden 80/20 over the wombat.  Anyway...  “That’s not going to happen,” Shirkey said. He noted state law awards electors to the winner of the state’s popular vote. And Biden won the state by more than 146,000 votes, according to unofficial results.  Many of the citizens of Michigan are out protesting, demanding that only Republican electors be sent to vote on December 14.  Democracy be damned.  If Shirkey and Chatfield are not willing to do what the wombat wants, one wonders why they are going there at all. 

Who saw Rudy Giuliani's one hour and 45 minute press conference today?  He was there with Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell.  They're all deranged, making claims that Venezuela and China and others had interfered with the elections.  At one point Cindy Powell said that Hugo Chavez had been involved, which is odd since he died in 2013.  But the best part is that it was hot in the room.  That brown streak is Rudy's hair dye running down his face.

Even Fox News called out the press conference as being a complete and total pack of lies.

More from Sidney.

Currently the administration has lost 32 of its post election lawsuits, and won two.  One of today's losses came at the hands of a recently appointed wombat judge.  Giuliani has filed another suit, again, asking that a federal court stop the certification of the votes in Pennsylvania.  Thus far, their arguments have been little more than "because we want you to."  Their strategy at this point is:

This is all so very dangerous.  The majority of Republicans in the country believe the election was stolen.  They'll never accept the legitimacy of his presidency, even though he won with a significant margin.

After the election, Jim and I both were feeling so much better physically.  I felt lighter and Jim's shortness of breath went away almost immediately.  Now, we're back in the slough of despond.  Did you ever think you would watch a defeated president try to overturn an election?  I never did, always had faith in the process.  That's over.

Clouds and Twitter Humor

In the world of politics, the orange wombat continues to lose in court.  At least one of his legal teams has quit, deciding they would rather not lie in court to a judge.  The million-magat march was today, crowd estimates were between 5,000 and 6,000 attendees (Update: Park Service says 11,666).  Masks were not worn, old people were there watching, and so we expect another spike in two weeks.  You just can not fix stupid.

This past week we've had more clouds than usual.  The first was taken out of the side window of the Jeep, so there is some reflection.

Alabama has sent Tommy Tuberville to the senate.  He defeated Doug Jones, a very qualified candidate and excellent lawyer.  Here is a tweet demonstrating Senator Tuberville's grasp of civics.

And for all of you grammar nerds, there is this.  The "dildo collector" is a reference to the sex shop adjacent to Four Seasons Total Landscaping, where Rudy had his recent press conference.

That's it!  That's all I've got.  It's the weekend, so we can't go anywhere.  Blog fodder is scarce.

More From the Desert

Ho hum, another day of the orange wombat trying to subvert the election.  The wombat's crack legal team is 0-12 (win-loss) in their court challenges.  Some of the alleged mid-deeds being litigated include one poll watcher who thought "people were looking at her funny."  Please.  

The last couple of days have been somewhat unnerving.

These people are all wombat suck-ups.  Unencumbered by facts or data, it doesn't look good to me, but I can't really articulate why.

We rode yesterday, it was cold.  Undershirts and vests were required at the outset.  About half way through, the vests came off.  It was a glorious day, as was today.  This morning we had a visit from a rabbit.  He looks young to me.

Today we hiked about two miles.  We were once again convinced that there is virtually no cross over between hike and bike.  Look at that sky, that's an autumn sky.

This is always a sad thing to see.

A day or two ago, there were pink clouds.

Martha McSally, who has been defeated in her races for a Senate seat TWICE IN TWO YEARS, has yet to concede to Mark Kelly.  It wasn't even close, one wonders what she's waiting for.

So, other than remarking on how out of control the pandemic is, and how many people still equate wearing a mask with being a liberal, there is really not a whole lot to report.  It's difficult when one does not go many places or see any people.

The 45th President Will Not Accept His Loss

Good grief.  The election was six days ago.  Today in Pennsylvania two lawyers have filed papers to ask the courts to block PA from certifying its electoral votes, effectively excluding the state from the electoral college.  AG Barr is authorizing the DOJ to probe substantial allegations of voting irregularities despite no evidence of wide spread fraud.  This contradicts the long standing practice of DOJ not being involved in election results.  I guess if they couldn't win the election, they're going to try to steal it.  I just got my blood pressure down and now I can feel myself getting tense again.  Why can't this party behave with a shred of decency and integrity?

Also today, the orange wombat fired the Secretary of Defense.  The person he installed is an illegal pick because the law says command should have moved to the Deputy Secretary of Defense.  The person he picked also hasn't been out of the military long enough to be a valid choice.  But hey!  Rules don't apply to him. 

The wombat also fired the person who was in charge of putting out reporting on climate change, like ocean rise, temperatures and all of that. I guess we don't need no stinking data.

It rained last night and it's much cooler than it was.  After enduring the past summer, anything under 70 degrees feels cold.  There were some nice clouds this morning.  The light on the agave was nice.

This was taken driving down the street to the grocery store.  At Safeway we observed holes in the supply chain.  Cleaning products are in short supply.  Toilet paper is still available, but there are gaps on the shelves.  In my news feed there was an article about spice shortages, which I can confirm, as well as Libby's pureed pumpkin.  Thanksgiving may be a lot grim this year.

There is some humor to be had in the continued mocking of Rudy Giuliani.  Apparently the wombat tweeted that there would be a press conference at the Four Seasons.  The hotel tweeted back that nope, they weren't hosting that.  So it was moved to Four Seasons Total Landscaping.  They actually went ahead with it.

The twitterverse had much fun mocking Rudy for several days.

Der Speigel had a good cover with their opinion of Biden's win.

I have no idea if the election can be over turned.  What all of this crap does do is make the transition more difficult than it needs to be.  Emily Murphy, of the GSA, will not sign the paperwork to release funds to the transition team, provide government emails, office space and access to department heads for the planning.

It's just bullshit.  He lost.  He should be a human being just for once in his life and accept it and move on. 

We Have a New President

 

I am so happy.

Cloudy and the End is in Sight

It's been cloudy, which is odd for November.  Yesterday and today were very pleasant riding days since the sun was not drilling into our heads.  

Here is my favorite church with clouds behind it.

This is the early morning desert with clouds.

It certainly appears as if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have won.  Apparently the cry baby in chief is threatening to barricade himself in the oval office instead of leaving with dignity.  Good, fine, whatever.  Send US Marshalls to escort him out and arrest him for trespassing on inauguration day.  He's also threatening to boycott the swearing in of the 46th president.  I hope he does, I don't ever want to see him or his evil spawn again.

Meanwhile, we wait for the networks to call it.  My guess is that after the Associated Press went way too early on Arizona, they're all afraid of getting it wrong.  He's got Nevada, there is no path there, and I'm fairly certain he has Arizona.  So, it's over!  

Perhaps this is why none of the networks will call the election? Call it, already!

From The Saturday Paper in Australia, we have this.  

The Irish Times

 I love the cover on this newspaper.

The Election Because What Else is There?

Good grief.  It's November 4 and we don't know yet.  Nevada has suspended counting until tomorrow, for some unknown reason.  They'll be accepting ballots for a week after the 3rd so I guess they won't declare until then.  The orange wombat is making noise about stopping the vote counting, except for Wisconsin where he wants a recount.  Double standard much?

We were supposed to get up and ride this morning, but neither one of us were really up for it, so we didn't. Yesterday was spent in existential dread, neither one of us ate enough which was part of the decision not to ride.  I have never been this anxious, for such a long period of time, ever.

Here are some attractive sunsets as a distraction.

It's very weird.  I no longer recognize this country.  The level of racism, misogyny and general hatefulness is just shocking.  I honestly thought that more people would want the wombat gone and the current administration replaced with a functioning one.  One of the recurring themes during exit polling was that the number of deaths due to Covid-19 weren't the wombat's fault; he'd done the best he could.  HuffPost says that "the report, which included results from 139 counties in 19 different states, found that Trump made a 4% jump in votes ― increasing from 50.1% in 2016 to 54.1% in 2020 ― in areas highly impacted by the coronavirus."  He's killing them and they're voting for him.  

The wombat says he will file suit in the Michigan Court of Claims saying that they have been denied meaningful access to the counting process;  and they want to review all of the previously counted ballots.  (Update to post:  They did file it.)  So, it's starting now, the attempt to delegitimize the process.   The poll challengers in Detroit are now chanting "stop the count."  This is anarchy at its finest.

If you have time, click on the link here and listen to Mr. Glaude.  That was some powerful message he spoke.  It's worth your while.