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Bandits

The Tucson Chamber of Commerce should hype the city as a haven for bandits. We love them. The town celebrates the John Dillinger story with enormous reference. So much you’d think he was homegrown.

We are especially fond of Mexican bandits. Like Pancho Villa, arguably the best and grandest public statue in the city. His gang shot and killed gringos in New Mexico, which really pissed off the American government, which couldn’t catch a cold much less a Mexican bandit turned general.. Then out on Silverbell, there’s Joaquin Murrieta Park. Murrieta was a California bandit, a Robin Hood allegedly. It is also alleged that he was the inspiration for Zorro, the greatest of bandits.

Alas, the only true Arizona bandits are today’s Republicans of the Arizona Legislature, which in their collectively infinite stupidity gave us Proposition 123, on which we are to vote in May. This is a plan to finance the state’s education needs for the next 10 years by robbing Peter to pay Paul. Peter in this case is the state land trust and Paul, the state’s under-funded schools. Arizona education is under-financed because the Republicans refuse to abide by the mandate of the Arizona Constitution. So this gaggle of intellectual pygmies banded with the governor to propose that billions be sucked from the trust  over 10 years for schools. At the end of 10 years, the billions apparently disappear. This is a replay of the Ant and the Grasshopper, only the timeframe is different.

It’s nuts. We in Tucson should erect a monument to this robbery caper by the Legislature. I suggest a modest bronze of a pile of horse pucky, maybe next to Pancho Villa’s horse with a suitable plaque.

Meanwhile, we should think about naming a nice park after Richard Nixon. Or George W. Bush. Hard to figure which of the two committed the greater crime.


Why does Ted Cruz want to be president? He hates public lands, national parks, Medicare, Social Security, Obamacare and taxes. If he is elected, one might wonder, would he eliminate all those hateful programs? Or maybe he just wants a few years riding Air Force One? Blind ambition is something to behold.


If you have Amazon Prime, you should watch the fourth episode of Mozart in the Jungle in which Bernadette Peters sings Come On A My House. It is, above all, memorable. The same episode also features Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell and Lang Lang.


Got this doggie chew toy as a spiff for ordering some doggie meds. Here is what the tag sez:

!Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.

Hey that’s just the thing — carcinogenic chew toys. What will they think of next?

Clouds, OPEC and vain cardinals

The clouds over the east end of the Catalinas were spectacular this afternoon. It was raining there but from the Rillito Park it was sunny and in the low 80s. The morning rain was modest but enough to cut the dust. The iPhone lens doesn’t do justice to the mountains.

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The NY Times reports that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is meeting in some Middle Eastern metropolis to decide allegedly how much oil should be produced. This comes down to the fact that the Saudis and the Russians are pumping at full capacity. The Iranians want to pipe in, but then the Saudis hate the Persians and vice-versa. The Russians hate everybody. OPEC has been fracked royally by the Americans who have made North Dakota a haven for moles the size of Godzilla.

It may seen odd, but I miss Sheikh Amed Zaki Yamani. He was the head of OPEC for 25 years. He was very sophisticated, a Harvard Law graduate with a nifty mustache and great suits. He smiled warmly and sincerely as OPEC and his kith and kin in Saudi Arabia were fracking the Americans right up the petro dollar. I will never forget a column by the greatest nattering nabob of his time, William Safire, then a columnist for the Times. It carried this phrase: “Yamani or your life.”

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Left the door open for a while today and when I went out to the garage, there was a lady cardinal on a imageswindow ledge. She was lovely, never so flashy as the male. There was a male cardinal that regularly showed up at work. He was attracted to window panes with mirror reflective coating. He saw his image and kept trying to meet up with himself. He did these loop-de-loops. It would have made a terrific video set to a song by Carly Simon.

The Living Dead

Here is the last graph of an op-ed piece in today’s NYT by Utah’s extremely Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch. It argues that Scalia’s replacement should wait until after the election:

Considering a nominee in the midst of a toxic presidential election would be irresponsible. Doing so would only further inject a circus atmosphere into an already politicized confirmation process. Conducting a thoughtful and substantive deliberation after the election is in the best interests of the Senate, the judiciary and the country.

Everybody loves the circus. You need no further proof than the up and coming billionaire circus barker Donald J. Trump. The man with the ORANGE hair is the chief Republican ticket seller and promises to transmogrify the Grand Old Party into the party of the Living Dead. You know this has already begun. Just look at Gov. Chris Christie, his hollow eyes looking but not seeing. At least the Living Dead will not perpetuate the Republican Senate’s favorite fiction that it does anything or stands for anything. It will dispense with the platitudes piled high with arrogance and topped with a thick layer of hypocrisy. Can anyone remember when the Senate engaged in “thoughtful and substantive deliberation”? Certainly not in this century and likely long before Hatch came to it in 1977. “Thoughtful and substantive deliberation” in the context of the current United States Senate is an oxymoron for the ages. At least, with the Living Dead, what you see is what you get.

Trumped up

I becoming resigned to Trump, President Trump. And looking on the bright side, just think when they start building THE WALL, there will be lots of money from the construction. We’ll get big paychecks, businesses will have bloated bottoms (lines) and Happy Days will go on and on. We’ll all be Scrooge McDucks, rolling in gold.
I would bet that prosperity will continue after it’s built. CHAPO GUZMAN and the cartel will reprise its El Topo business and build hundreds, if not thousands, of tunnels under THE WALL. There will be a pot of gold at the end of every rainbow on the border. Along with a Trump Tower.

A metaphor in need of an editor

From today’s New York Times, a book review written by Dwight Garner of “Prodigals” by Greg Jackson:

There’s also the crunch of writers like Ian McEwan and Martin Amis in Mr. Jackson’s prose. Best of all there’s that sense — only the excellent ones give it to you — that whatever topic the author turns his mental LED lights toward will be powerfully illuminated.

A Darwinian future

Assuming Darwin was right, you have to figure in a thousand years our species will be born with hinged ear lobes with pods attached to a mini electrical  umbilical cord with a stereo plug at the end. No longer will humanity be burdened with having to look for the “L” or the “R.”

Thumbs will be sharper, slimmer and double-jointed for ease of texting. The human larynx will be much smaller as the need for speech will be reduced by increased texting, e-mail and standard gestures. This will, in turn, reduce singers to whispers. This will be a problem solved only by enlarged ears that also accommodate tiny electronic hearing aids for the middle ear, the demand for which was much accelerated by technological advances in sound amplifiers that routinely produce rock and roll and hip hop volumes at around 500 decibels, much to the delight of dope-fiend teenagers.

The adaptability of the species will be such that humans will have the power to turn off hearing aids during the political seasons. Moreover, human brains will similarly grow stupid and idiotic during the election cycle and manage to recoup IQ levels somewhat later when they repent for dumb choices. Scientists will trace the beginning of this particular adaptation back to the American presidential election of 2016.

On Cruz control

I think I should be silent about Ted Cruz and his Cheatin’ Heart. Just think of Hank and how he was as honest as the day is long. You heard that honesty in his voice. Other voices project deceit.

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Here is a new-to-me player, Larry Pattis, playing “Waltzing Matilda.” It from an album titled “What Tomorrow Brings.” The is not in everybody’s repertoire.

 

 

 

‘Let’s went’

From time to time I like to remember “The Cisco Kid.” It was on 1950s TV. I adopted a favorite sentence often uttered by Pancho as imagesplayed by Leo Carrillo: “Let’s went.” They also had this thing at the end of every episode when Pancho would say: “Oh, Cisco!” Then Cisco would say: “Oh Pancho!” Then they would both laugh as though they shared a really nasty/dirty little secret. Wish I knew what it was, and that it was at the very least risqué.

I am now rather irritated by the fact I just discovered that Duncan Renaldo, who played Cisco, was born in Romania, in Oancea, a small town on the border with Moldova. His name was Renault Renaldo Duncan and would  have more appropriately cast in a Dracula movie. Or a French flick with Renault driving his Renault.

A Romanian playing a Mexican is just wrong, really, really wrong — like Donald J. Trump playing a presidential candidate.

At least Carillo was the real McCoy, a California native and great conservationist — a state park is named in his honor. I have heard he had family in Tucson, but was never able to confirm it. Incidentally, “Cisco” is short for “Francisco.” And “Pancho” is a nickname for “Francisco.” That makes much too Frank for me, even if “Cisco” is about the city. In which case, it should have been the “Frisco Kid.” In which case, it sounds a little too close to the “Frisky Kid.” In which case, the censors likely would have been involved.

Here is a Cisco Kid movie poster from 1949:Screen Shot 2016-02-21 at 7.45.56 PM

 

urlDon’t think we’ll see another movie of its like, certainly not the title.

url-1The ingenue in the movie was played by Armida, a Mexican actress from the 30s and 40s. She did not land many roles. She was not born in Romania, but in Aguascalientes, Sonora. Her name was Armida Vendrell, and her father ran a movie house in Douglas.

B-dee, b-dee, b-dee, That’s All Folks!

The best solution for the Scalia vacancy is for Obama to nominate Daffy Duck to replace him (Bugs is far too liberal). That way the Supreme Court of the United States would better fit the Republican United States Senate as well as the gaggle of Republican presidential aspirants, and we would be more accurately known as the United States of Looney Tunes.

After shoveling 8 cubic feet of steer manure and needing about 5 more, I feel like I should be on the New Hampshire ballot. I’m dubious that everything will be coming up roses after tomorrow.

It is odd that everyone seems to hate Raphael Theodore Cruz and yet he wins elections. It would be interesting if he were elected: He would lead the charge to end ObamaCare, Medicare, Social Security, federal aid to education, the Veteran’s Administration, the income tax, the EPA the federal reserve and most likely any federal program not designed to kill people. He is the Living Undo Button. (I have been reading Jane Mayer’s “Dark Money.” It should be mandatory reading for every voter. Things don’t necessarily Go Better with Koch.)

 

 

 

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