tracker7 | Entries tagged with politics

Today marks my one-year anniversary at the job that brought me back to Louisville. I still don't love the gig, but sometimes I kinda like it. I'm looking for something else, because of the dissatisfaction, but also because who knows if the position will even exist in a year. We're a non-profit that relies heavily on Federal funding, and the stupid bastard in the White House is destroying Federal agencies right and left.

I'm on vacation next week - some time to myself to celebrate a birthday. Not entirely sure where I'm going, but I have some candidate destinations in mind. I really just want to get away for a while. Going to get the Impala's oil changed this weekend and throw my duffel bag in the back seat and point the nose in whatever direction.

Turnout for early voting was fairly high over the weekend, for whatever that's worth. The Tuesday night group decided to play on Election Night and leave our phones in our cars. I'm not hopeful.

Got on the road Friday morning. Weather was good until I got south of Charleston, and that convinced me to head to Christiansburg instead of diverting to the New River Gorge. Checked in, went to C&C's new home, went to dinner, caught up. A good day on the road and a very good evening with friends.

Went to Roanoke Saturday morning. Lots of good stuff to see - the J looks like it's doing 70MPH just sitting there, the big A-class is almost as impressive as a C&O Allegheny, and I think I want to add an E-unit of some stripe to my collection. Checked out a couple of other places - Center on the Square had great aquariums and Mishap Gaming impressed with the amount of not-D&D5 on their shelves.

Today's weather was much better, and the drive to the Gorge was quite nice. The bridge is a damned impressive structure, and the Gorge is just beautiful. The sense of the age of the place is daunting - the Appalachians are incredibly old, and the New River predates the rise of that ancient mountain range.

Stopped off in Charleston to have lunch with Gena. Great pizza at Pies & Pints - Gena's vegetarian, and their white pizza was a good fit for both of us. Got home ... around 7, I think. Gonna watch part of the Sunday night NFL game, then take some sleep medicine and call it a night.

Back to the literal madness tomorrow.

The Dodgers are the 2024 World Series champs! They won Game 5 last night, a banger of a come-from-behind win, final score of 7-6 after spending four innings down 0-5. I would have liked to have seen the win at Dodgers Stadium, but winning at the opponent's park is just fine.

The Trail game was not good. Had two players more interested in their Noo Yawk accents than pursuing the investigation that others were there for. It happens, I guess. Sometimes even Han Solo got boarded, sometimes even I run a bad game. On to Eclipse Phase in a couple of weeks.

Tried to vote around 9:30 this morning. Traffic around my first choice of sites was quite heavy, backed up a quarter-mile. I opted to run a couple of errands and try again elsewhere and had better luck. In and out in about 15 minutes. Poll workers said the site had been busy all day.

The site was the hotel convention space that used to host Conglomeration. I hadn't been in there since the last Conglom in '19. The mind's eye saw the registration table in the main hallway and the vendors' tables in the room where I cast my ballot. Sic transit.

I ran through the final season of Star Trek: Picard. Not bad, but it was a heavy nostalgia trip. Most of the TNG regulars got screen time, but one notable recurring guest showed up in one episode only to die, and I wasn't in love with that decision.

Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop movie was enjoyable enough. There's a chase scene that doesn't quite work for me, but the rest is fun. A few years ago, I rewatched the first movie, and was surprised that, wow, that was a genuinely good movie.

Less than six weeks until I can start looking for another position within the agency. I've been watching the postings off and on, and there are some good options. There are parts of my job that I do like, but they're heavily outweighed by the parts that I very much don't.

It sure is July 4. Every doofus around is setting off the fireworks they bought at whatever tent set up in whatever parking lot. I figure there'll be a few rounds of that hit new guessing game Fireworks or Gunshots tonight, and the news tomorrow morning should be good for a few uncomfortable chuckles.

Charcon's coming up. Still waiting for the GM discount code to arrive. I'm comfortable enough with the adventures I schedule, and should be more so after the test session Tuesday evening. I'm looking forward to this trip - looking forward to seeing some people and getting some breakfast at Tudor's.

I gotta wonder how things are going to be when I read this entry in a year. I figure that things are going to go pear-shaped and that orange bastard will get re-elected and ... the republic ends.

A lot of off-year elections yesterday. Here, our stellar incumbent governor won his re-election bid against a MAGA-adjacent challenger. Very good news, but blunted by the Republican sweep of everything else on the ballot. Governor Beshear ran a good positive campaign, and he's done a great job in a term that saw COVID-19, a couple of tornado outbreaks, and devastating flooding around the state. He's pushed for economic investment and infrastructure improvements, and the state is in good shape under his leadership. We've got another four years, and there's already talk of him making a run at Senate in 2028.

Assuming there are elections after 2024, of course.

Up in Ohio, the right to abortion will be made part of the state's constitution, despite the best worst efforts of regressives. Also, they legalized recreational marijuana, so that's something for somebody.

Virginia's governor made a lot of noise about gutting any access to abortion if he got Republican control of the legislature. Well, that didn't happen. One chamber stayed in blue hands and the other flipped. No supermajority in either, but it's good news for our eastern neighbor.

So, plenty of wins for the good guys yesterday. There's plenty of noise about this being a repudiation of Trump and his MAGAts, and to a degree it is, but that is a deep-seated awfulness and it's not going away over off-year defeats. People showed up for issues they cared about, and that's good. To steal from Jim Wright, if the Republicans are going to win in 2024, they're going to have to disenfranchise a lot more voters. I'm sure they'll try, but now maybe it'll be a lot harder.

Hey, I got a response to an application this morning. County health department, closer to Louisville. I like to think I'd be a pretty good fit for the position, especially if there's the opportunity for some job-related training. I would certainly take the offer.

No-excuse early voting started today, and I exercised that right late this morning. I was darned close to going for a straight-ticket vote, but did cast my vote to re-elect our secretary of state. He's done a stellar job in the office, including promoting and expanding voting options, and he's pushed back against some of his party's excesses in the legislature. Those are good enough reasons to give him another term.

On the other hand, my vote for governor was about 75% for the incumbent and 25% against a useless AG whose campaign has been consistently dishonest and has relied heavily on the endorsement of Donald Trump and fucking fuck that sideways with a cactus. I'm hopeful that we'll be ride of Daniel Cameron come Tuesday evening.

I'm about as prepared as I can be for the little convention this weekend. Characters are printed and filed, as are the modules. I'd like to play something, too, and there are some good candidates. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends and getting some plans in place for 2024 events. Gods, I miss my friends.

The Rangers won the World Series last night. After 62 years and two World Series losses, I guess they were due. I didn't follow the Series closely this year, or baseball as a whole. Just a lull in my usual fervor for the sport. Football's got my interest for the next couple of months, then the long dead time of waiting for the next Opening Day.

I feel like a glutton. Came home and made so much spaghetti. Two batches, one with meat sauce, one with meatballs. Ate way too much, and now I'm heavily settled into the recliner. Just huge. Many meals of leftovers to come.

Cardinal football beat Notre Dame Saturday night. Record home crowd, beat a Top 10 ranked team, pretty exciting. ABC's commentators turned into apologists in the fourth quarter, trying to excuse Notre Dame with "oh they had midterms" and "oh it's a night game" and all that. Well, guess who else was playing a night game after midterm week, you chumps? The University of Louisville - the team that just manhandled their opponent.

Just not enough fight in the Irish.

Hamas launched a sizable assault on Israel over the weekend - huge rocket and artillery barrages and paramilitary operations attacking military and civilian targets inside Israeli borders. Most US media is describing it as "terrorist attacks," and I can't wholly disagree - Hamas has taken dozens of hostages and one of the targets was an open-air music festival, killing 260 or so people. The US is promising help to Israel, of course, but since the House of Representatives is recessed because there's no Speaker, and a college football coach that Alabama sent to the Senate is blocking US military promotions, and we have no ambassador to Israel because of Rand Fucking Paul ... well, this'll be a mess. More than usual.

My fair commonwealth recently legalized gambling on live sports. State constitutional offices are up for election this year. Know what that means? We are in an absolute hell of dreadful television commercials. Our useless trumpian attorney-general is running for governor, and his campaign says very little about what he'll do for Kentucky, instead putting forward half-truths or outright lies. On the gambling side, we're treated to Kevin Hart's little-dude-yelling shtick, and that was old long before Draft Kings or whatever hired him to be their spokesman. Bleah.

Today was the NFL's first full day of the 2023 season. The Bengals got manhandled by the Browns, and the Ravens got an opening week win. There was an Indycar race at Laguna Seca, too, and that was a joy to watch. Laguna Seca's one of my favorite tracks in Gran Turismo, and it's just a beautiful facility. Scott Dixon won, after an early penalty and a lot of cautions.

Jesus Christ, NBC still uses the country-pop person for their Sunday night game intro. I love you, television remote mute button. Looks like we're going to be spared any kind of WTC attack commemoration - since the game is at New York - well, East Rutherford, New Jersey - I figured we'd get that. Again.

Gods, I'm just a ray of sunshine this evening.

The Cyberpunk Red demo went really well. Three players, and they got into things quickly. Had a funny moment when a customer passed by and asked about the big battle map I had out on the table. He asked if the characters were low-level, and seemed just gobsmacked when I told him that the game didn't have levels.

The week's been uneventful, notable only for the heat. Heat indices have gone over 100F; at 7:35PM, we're sitting at 86F, indexed to 97. The two window units have struggled, and I haven't slept all that well. Stormy weather is forecast for tomorrow evening, and that'll help. For a little while.

As I'm writing this, an ex-POTUS is being processed at a jail in Fulton County, Georgia. Lots to, well, process here. In my interested layman's opinion, Georgia has a solid case against the miserable bastard - state-level charges, a stack of evidence, and what looks like some co-defendants flipping. Gods, I hope the fucker faces real consequences.

Got around to watching Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Pretty good, and a solid sendoff for much of the cast. Great soundtrack, unsurprisingly, and it's put In the Meantime on repeat in my head, and I am fine with that.

Even better - the first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka. It, so far, feels very much like a continuation of Rebels - Hera and Chopper and Sabine are front-and-center, and Clancy Brown put in an appearance. I have the feeling that Sabine is going to just going to steal the show out from under everyone.

Sickness backed off quite a bit Friday evening, and Saturday morning, I felt good enough to drive over to Harrodsburg for a model train show. It was small, but pretty well put together. A half-dozen layouts, plus a few tables covered in large scale stuff. A few vendors with some decent N scale offerings, and I picked up a couple of cars. Stopped off in Danville to stock up at Aldi and get lunch, then back to the farm.

The sick came back with a vengeance Saturday evening. Fever, sore throat, coughing, and I'm salivating like mad. It hurts to swallow, so I'm being disgusting and spitting into a plastic soft drink bottle. On top of that, a case of conjunctivitis joined the party Sunday morning and that was just all kinds of foul. Overall, 0/10, do not recommend.

Also sickening, it's primary election season here, and we are just overrun with awful ads for awful candidates. Motherfuckers loudly and proudly calling themselves "Trump Republicans" and doing their damnedest to attach themselves to the orange son-of-a-bitch. Gods, I cannot imagine voting for a Repub candidate for any office at any level.

Ick ick ick. Ibuprofen is barely working, Dayquil's not doing much either. The home test says it's not Covid-19, but this is right up there with my bout with the thing last year and the sinus infection from a couple of years ago in terms of raw misery. Wasn't even up to a Discord RPG session yesterday afternoon.

There was a nifty little surprise yesterday afternoon. Looked out the front door and there was a flock of wild turkeys out in the field. I counted 13 of the birds, including a pair of solid white ones! A buddy on another Discord channel suggested that I try hunting one for dinner; I could only thank him for his estimation of my marksmanship.

A couple of big turkey drumsticks sounds really good though. Maybe after the discounted packs of chicken things and pork chops I picked up at Aldi are gone.

This has sure been a week.

Ivy had to go back to hospital. Thought at first that it was a staph infection, but it was something else and Dad can't remember what it was, but anyway my niece and grandniece are back home now.

The local nerd community got a real shock Tuesday morning. The Louisville Game Shop is closing for good at the end of the month. I'm not too proud to say that the news just broke my heart. TLGS has been my game store of choice since Colin opened up 18 years ago - even when I lived 80 miles away. It's the best game store in Louisville, far and away, and, to be honest, I think it's the best in the state. I've ran demos there, played someone else's games there, lost a few tournaments there, and made good friends there. I understand why Colin and Clay are closing their doors, but I don't have to like it.

So, now, what to do? There are other stores in town, but they aren't the LGS. Heroes seems to be deteriorating and there was some drama between the owner and some customers that I wasn't privy to. There's Miso's, but it's really a toy/collectibles shop with some gaming stuff on the side. And nobody else is doing Bits & Mortar.

In the House of Representatives, the Republicans have a slight majority, but there are enough rebels and vandals and the like among their number to keep a Speaker of the House elected. It's a little bit funny and more than a little bit pathetic. Elect a bunch of clowns, expect a circus, I guess.

In Monday night's NFL game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a serious injury. Clean play, he defended against a Bengals receiver, and the hit ... It stopped his heart. Just a confluence of factors. He was taken to UC Hospital, which has an incredible trauma center. He was intubated for a while, but that's over now, he's speaking to family and teammates, and his docs don't think there's any permanent neurological damage.

The midterm elections finally wrapped up last night. Georgia sent Raphael Warnock back to the Senate, but his margin over the Republican candidate was tighter than it should have been. The Senate now sits at 51 Dems, 49 Repubs.

Artemis 1 is heading home. Successful mission so far, with splashdown scheduled for Sunday.

The LeNoue humongous holiday party is this weekend. So very much looking forward to this.

The Repubs are going to get the House, but we're keeping the Senate. Georgia's going to have a runoff election between Raphael Warnock and some dude who played football several years ago. A Warnock win would be tremendous, as that would mean there are enough votes to advance legislation without having to bow to Manchin or Sinema. Word is, Kevin McCarthy will seek the Speaker of the House position, and I think he'll get it if he does; I've read here and there that he doesn't have the chops to wrangle his fellow Representatives, though - made some enemies along the way. Still, Democrats fall in love while Republicans fall in line.

The orange bastard announced his candidacy for 2024 yesterday. See above - some of his allure is probably gone after 2020 and his chosen candidates' losses in the midterms, but, there's that benighted cult.

After a hojillion delays, NASA got the Artemis 1 mission underway this morning. The SLS is a mighty rocket, and the launch was spectacular. The Orion is already on its way out of Earth orbit and towards Luna. Still a long-ass way from a crewed mission, but it's a forward step at last.

On the returns side of the scoreboard, one USAF's X-37Bs quietly (well, without much fanfare, anyway) landed at KSC a few days ago after 900+ days in orbit. I know those things are up to no good, but it is a nifty little craft, and I would have loved to have seen another version of the X-37 enter service.

Andor continues to be darned good Star Wars. This week's episode got some spaceship fighting in, so there's some SFX action to back up the vary darn good storytelling, personal drama, and everything else.

Thanksgiving's next week. Looking forward to seeing Dad and the Doberman, not looking forward to the time on the road.

Mid-term elections were yesterday.

The bad: Rand Fucking Paul got his third Senate term. This is the guy who campaigned on two-term limits in 2010. Not surprising, barely even disappointing - Paul is an ongoing embarrassment.

The good: two terrible amendments were defeated. Amendment 1 would let the General Assembly call itself into special session, a power currently reserved for the Governor. Amendment Two would have established that there is no right to abortion under the state Constitution.

But wait! The state AG announced today that his office has filed a motion with the state Supreme Court explaining why this election result shouldn't matter. AG Cameron has been pretty well garbage since he started showing up on the statewide stage - his campaign during the primary election was little more than him and his opponent arguing about who was the most Trumplike.

Nationwide, there are some results still to be determined. The GOP's hoped-for "red wave" didn't happen, but they pick up some seats in both chambers. I think the Senate can still stay blue, and that's good. Not as good as I would like, but I'll take whatever wins I can get.

Picked up the Escape Thursday morning. Glad to have the little SUV back - the big Taurus and its 305HP were okay, but the novelty wore off. I like the better sight out of the Escape, and it is much more nimble. Anyway, back to something like normal.

I should have taken advantage of early voting, but I let work and other stuff keep me from doing it. I'll be able to go after work Tuesday morning - wish my precinct's polling site was still at the JCC just down the street, but I'll manage. Might be the last time I can vote, y'know?

NerdLouvia returned this weekend. I ran two sessions of Alien, both going pretty well. Saw some friends, bought a couple of books. Didn't do much besides playing games - the magician put on a good show, but the Friday evening burlesque show did less than nothing for me (like, I think, every such show I've found myself at), and like hell I was going to stick around for karaoke. But, yeah, a good time all around, and I should get my comp from Free League soon.

I'm still having too much fun with GT7. Went through the Pan-American Championship with a monster Camaro this morning. It was darned unforgiving, and I had to make a couple of tries at one of the tracks before getting the placement I needed.

Holy cow, it's July 1 already.

I'm not in for any Independence Day celebrating this year. The Supreme Court's doing a stellar job of shoving things backwards a decade or five, and while I do love me some fireworks, I'd rather some other things get blown up this year.

Cancelled my hotel reservation for Charcon. The event list just isn't looking strong enough to justify the trip. There's the argument to be the change or whatever, but when it's a 500-mile round trip, there's got to be more change than just me.

That weekend is also DCC Day, and if I'd made this decision sooner, I would have coordinated that again.

So, here we go. The SCOTUS reversed Roe, and a shitload of states - including my benighted commonwealth - immediately moved to outlaw abortions and criminalize health care and prepare for all kinds of other heinous shit. I figure these miserable fuckers are going to come for peoples' marriages before the end of the year, and then, gods, who knows. I expect violent acts to come from this. I think the Supreme Court has just about trashed its legitimacy with this and some other decisions this session, and people way above my influence level look to be of a similar mind. Locally, our next mayor has said that his administration will instruct LMPD to not enforce any state laws targeting women who seek to end a pregnancy, and while I'm not too excited about yet another business-friendly moderate Democrat, I'm good with this statement.

I don't much want to be here anymore. Kentucky is a beautiful state, but damned if we don't have some ugly people in our government.

No surprises in the primaries. Current mayor's going to be replaced by someone without much difference. Current Representative's chosen successor should slide right into the seat. A darned good candidate with a great message and real love for the state's people is going to lost to Rand Paul and whatever that symbiote on his head is.

USA Today had a solid article on states that are preparing to become abortion havens once the current Supreme Court wipes Roe v. Wade. The article focused on Illinois, and it got me to thinking about looking into relocating there. Virginia's on the list, too, and somehow North Carolina. I love the good people of my state, but I don't know if I'm going to have a place here much longer.

In the time since I quit playing X-Wing, there's been some kind of gamer drama between the old group and the host store. My curiosity is piqued, but not a whole lot. Until I get back on a healthy work schedule, I won't be out to Heroes or Miso's - the new store - on Friday evenings, and, well, such is life.

Primary elections today. Most races are already won or lost, so I did what I tend to in primaries - voted for the most progressive candidate. This was a first for me, to the best of my memory. Every candidate I voted for is Black.

I don't feel good about this coming November. My district is solidly blue, but it's a tiny island surrounded by a deep red sea. If the Repugs don't win fairly (and I think they will), then they're going to cheat and then the very best thing we can hope for is a couple of years of nothing getting done. I don't want to dwell on the worse outcomes.

Denis Detwiler wrote this week that there's going to come a day in the US when the shootings start, and just don't stop this time. I think he's right. We're in real trouble, and I don't know that it's going to get turned around. Around, hell, I don't know if it can be turned away.

After no real debate, I bought a Sunday badge for GenCon. If I go, I'll have a good day trip, and if I don't go, I'm out $16 and I should be able to handle that.

The Rams won the Super Bowl, 23-20. Cincy's offensive line was porous, allowing at least nine sacks. The Bengals had a good chance at a late-game score; the Rams broke up a pass and took possession to run out the clock.

Wasn't impressed with the halftime show. Lots of talent and a nice-looking stage, but it just didn't work for me.

I may have set a high bar for entertainment with my pre-game viewing. Wasn't expecting a Willem Defoe noir/proto-cyberpunk double feature, but Streets of Fire and To Live and Die in L.A. delivered.

There was an assassination attempt in Louisville today. Single shooter, walked into Greg Greenberg's office and started firing. One shot grazed Greenberg and the shooter was arrested outside the office. Plenty of rumors - shooter is an unmedicated schizophrenic; antisemitic violence; right-wing crazy. Whichever, it's a bad thing, and another point in favor of finding somewhere else to live.

Dad's maybe coming up tomorrow. I'm not planning to do anything to celebrate my birthday, but if my father wants to come see me and for us to spend some time together, I'm not telling him no. It looks like a nice day, weatherwise, so we can find something to get up to.

Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Red Rooster

How Could I Love Her so Much

Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man

You Wanted More

Longfeather

All I Ever Wonder

Listen to the Sky

Take the Journey

Looking Through Patient Eyes

Most High

I Get a Kick Out of You

Rings of Saturn

Across the Lines

Message to My Girl

Three Sixty Four

Good Stuff

Strange Game

Best Coast

The Way You Used to Do

And For Where I Just Don't Know

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June 2025

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