Author: Matthew Groff

  • Oh, Bill

    Bill Barr that is. Oh, that poor old guy. He is having a very rough week, and sadly, no one feels bad for him.

    This is the same guy who auditioned for the role of Attorney General by writing an obstruction of justice memo that supported Trump’, and appearing on Fox News. To me that says the guy knew how to get Trump’s attention and what Trump would react positively too.

    And this is the same guy who was in on all the Ukraine things. Not only did John Bolton say he was in the room, but Trump even named the Barr as being a part of the deal on the phone call to the Ukrainian president.

    But somehow with Roger Stone does Barr claimed to be bullied, and have to stand up for himself? Hell man, Jeff Sessions seems to have more backbone and respect for the Justice Department. And that is not saying a whole lot.

    Yeah… So… Do I even need to remind everyone of the false summery of the Mueller Report, or the speech he gave at Notre Dame? This guy knows what he is doing. He sucked up to Trump so he could be in a position so he could push forward his ultra-Conservative agenda.

    The bed you make…

  • Report on the Politicians, and the Reporters Who Follow the Campaigns

    I follow the politics of the country as if it were a form a reality television; It tries to imply that its real, but it’s all fake. And that fake show is reported as reality. Not that I blame the press for it, but I also feel that no one really has been honest about it for a while. Like, even the people on “The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth,” seem more interested in looking cool, or that they know how phony it all is, but they are right in the middle of it. I don’t think anyone has been honest about the whole fake business that politic and the reporting of politics has become sine Hunter Thompson in “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail “72.”

    I was trying to describe this to my wife the other night as the New Hampshire results were coming in on cable television. And then we switched over to watch “The Circus,” and that’s when the idea hit me; I would like to follow all the campaigns and the reporters, and share with everyone all the crazy shit that happens in the stage craft of campaigning. I’m not a reporter, so I have no idea what the ethics of that job is in those situations.  I would be an outsider peeking in.

    I wonder if I could do this, and get someone else to pick up the tab?

  • Been Awhile…

    I am trying to avoid using ellipses… I was told recently that it is a sign that you are a person who is a Gen Xer or older. I can’t have that, though I oddly find myself thinking now that 311 wasn’t that awful of a band.

    I have been back in New York City for three weeks, and though happy to be back, I am having some trouble getting back into a grove, or feeling that there is solid ground under my feet. Part of it is making the apartment feeling like our home again, which is difficult to do as our stuff is sitting in a moving box. On one level, I want to get all of our things back. Yet, the other thought that is banging around in my head is that is we have gone three weeks without said items, do we really need them?

    The other major issue is finding work. I have been very fortunate that I have been going on job interviews pretty much right off the bat, but as you can see, I have yet to land a job. I know it will work out, but it is stressful, because I have to have a good job. We have to dig ourselves out of the debt we have encored from the two moves in 14 months, and pretty much get back on our feet.

    The last thing is that I haven’t found my rhythm when it comes to writing and reading. There is a new coffee place around the corner which has worked well, but that does mean I have to spend money to use that place, and I am trying to reserve from doing that. Reading has also been difficult to accomplish. I know it’s about making time, but I feel like every second there is some new little project that I have to accomplish, and then at night, I just collapse and fall asleep.

    Again, it is just trying to find my way back to my grove…

  • Back in New York

    It has been a silly crazy, stressful, and all around hectic three months. After the fires hit Sonoma County, my wife got laid off from her job. It was a pretty sickening one two punch, but it made us look at each other and ask if we were happy, and if there was something else we wanted to do? In a sort of funny question, we asked each other, “Do you want to return to New York?” Clearly that was pretty much impossible. Like that was the most out of left field thing we could do with the situation we were in.

    But the more we sat on it, then more we liked the idea. It still didn’t seem practical, though.

    Then we ran the numbers, and it turned out that it was more affordable to live in Manhattan than Sonoma County.

    Yes, you read that correctly. Not San Francisco; Sonoma County. It really makes me kind’a sad to say that out loud, and I will get on a soap box soon to talk about the wealth gap in America, and the homeless problem in California, but I don’t want you to think that the Bay Area is some sort of shit hole. It’s beautiful, and amazing, and magical, but completely unaffordable for the rest of us now. That’s another blog for another day.

    When we discovered that New York was more affordable, it pretty much sealed the deal, and we decided to go. We had to get through the Holidays first, and as soon as Christmas was over, it became a two-week marathon to get it done. Selling a car, packing everything up, getting the kid into an NYC school, flying cross country, and now, sitting back in my old neighborhood, writing a blog. Last week, I was at a U-Haul store loading a box wondering if we would ever get this done.

    We did.

    Now, on to Act Two…

  • As Goes Britain, So Goes America

    If you haven’t noticed, there was an election in the UK. The Conservatives won, and now Brexit will happen. Is that what is best for the UK is anyone’s guess, but what it does mean is that the structures that were put in place after WWII will soon come apart.

    And it means Trump will be re-elected.

    Yes, I said it, and I don’t like it, but it is what will happen.

    I point out that the first Brexit happened, which no one thought would happen. Then trump got elected, and no one, even Trump, thought that would happen.

    The wisdom going into the second Brexit vote was that it would fail, as no one had been able to get a majority to agree to make it happen. What no one counted on is that the English population has been worn out. Johnson clearly knew that as he slogan was “Get Brexit Done,” was easy to understand, and also the exasperated exclamation under everyone’s breath, usually followed with, “for fuck’s sake!”

    American Liberals heed this warning! The end is near, and no amount of health care or wealth tax will assuage the plague that is Trump. Everyone is tired of Trump and has been worn down. Trumps slogan will be along the lines of, “Let Me Finish the Job,” and Americans will say, “Fine, finish the job, and go away… for fuck’s sake.”