A man in his mid-20s takes the stage, acoustic guitar strapped on like a cordless power tool to let everyone know he means business.

He’s dressed like some kind of vagabond folksinger from the late 1960s. With deliberate intent, he slightly adjusts the stool awaiting him and then sits down under the lights, placing his motorcycle boots on the stool’s lowest crossbar.

His soft brown hair is long and curly, but not too long and not too curly. He has the barest wisp of a beard, more like facial hair waiting in the wings than tangible whiskers. He wears a blue denim jacket and black denim pants. …

COVID-19 ADVICE

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had some bold advice for FOX News viewers Friday.

He made it clear that he thinks masks are no longer needed for people who fall into two distinct categories.

“If you’ve had the disease (COVID-19) or you’ve been vaccinated and you’re several weeks out from the second dose, throw your mask away and tell Dr. Fauci to take a leap. Because once you have immunity, you don’t need to do this.” — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), during a Jan. 15, 2021, interview with Laura Ingraham of FOX News

As much as I would like to believe Paul, who alluded to a peer-reviewed study out of Stanford before offering his advice, there’s a very good chance he’s fooling himself — and his audience — with his certitude. …

In the summer of 2018, before the Democrats decisively regained control of the House of Representatives, President Donald Trump used the term “Trump Derangement Syndrome.”

“Some people HATE the fact that I got along well with President Putin of Russia. They would rather go to war than see this. It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome!” — Donald Trump on Twitter, July 18, 2018

Trump sycophants had, of course, been using the term prior to the tweet. In a story about the president’s use of the phrase, Associated Press reported that the term is intended to describe “voters who are so angry and opposed to the U.S. …

Parting

I. All the Time in the World

“Later”
the young man
tells his younger friend,
as nonchalantly as he might say
“Now”
— as if the severe implications
of clocks and watches
were mere inconveniences
that pass away with time,
as if all of us alive and kicking
would know a billion tomorrows
and then some.

If Elvis Presley were still with us, he would be turning 86 today. But the King of Rock-n-Roll left for that great concert hall in the sky some 43 and-a-half years ago, meaning he has already been gone longer than the 42 years he lived.

Elvis packed a lot of accomplishments into a career spanning more than two decades before a heart attack brought his life to an abrupt end at his home in Memphis on Aug. 16, 1977.

From the mid-1950s through 1977, Elvis recorded more than 600 songs and released 57 albums, resulting in 14 №1 singles on Billboard. He made 31 movies and two concert documentaries — and he made a lot of songwriters and fellow musicians happy when he covered their songs. …

AIR SHOW

The clouds were playing games that day,
starting with charades after lunch.
But they didn’t wait on separate turns,
They performed as one big bunch.

Could it be they’ve made a kitten’s face
In a section of their floating display?
Yet when I blink and look again
The whiskers have blown away.

Now it looks more like an angry bird
but one that’s perched, not flying.
And just below its clutching claws
A mustachioed clown is sighing.

A teddy bear in a rocking chair
Is reaching for half of a wagon,
And the dark formation that’s drifting in
Looks strangely like a dragon. …

Dogs That Look Like They’re Driving

You know what I mean,
like in G-rated movies
where some clever director
props a pooch behind the wheel,
places its paws
at 10 and 2 o’clock,
pulls in for the closeup
so trained audiences
can bark hearty approval.

I saw the exact same thing
Tuesday morning outside the bakery,
but the car wasn’t moving —
it was parked in a 5-minute zone,
no production crews in sight.
Just a golden lab
with a dangling tongue,
angling to get a better view
of its favorite human being
walking back to the driver’s seat.

Read more by this…

Donald Trump did not invent the Unfairness Doctrine, but he did perfect it for his own personal and political gain. And in Trump’s case, the personal and the political are more or less the same thing.

Just what is the Unfairness Doctrine?

It’s believing that unless something or someone directly benefits your own interests, it must be fundamentally unfair. It’s also believing that you have the right to behave unfairly toward others so long as you don’t admit that you are doing anything wrong.

From the earliest days of his first presidential campaign to the ongoing attempt to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Trump has repeatedly insisted that he is, in effect, getting screwed by the system. Or the media. …