My dad was (among other things) a draftsman when he was young. He made blueprints and drew technical pictures. He had an impressive drafting table and some really cool drawing tools.
This was WAY before computer art.
1/10
He had a set of drawing tools--a compass, a ruler, stuff like that--he once told me had paid for the downpayment on the first house he bought.
I remember that house. It was a tiny 2-bedroom thing in a Chicago suburb. I was five when we moved out.
2/10
Dad qualified for the mortgage loan on that house because he got a VA loan. He was in the National Guard during the Korean War, and until I was about six. They taught him drafting. They also taught him to play the tuba. He was in the marching band.
3/10
He later took what he learned about the tuba and used to to learn to base the bass. Back then, there were no bass guitars. He had this enormous and beautiful string bass he plucked.
He inspired me and my brother to learn music. I played keyboards, my brother played guitar.
4/10
Dad would write sheet music for us, and we'd practice, the three of us, a sort of little family band. (My keyboard was an accordian. This was decades before Weird Al made accordians cool.)
Dad eventually got an electric bass guitar. It's a vintage Fender bass.
5/10
My nephew, my other brother's son, now has his grandfather's bass guitar.
Dad played in bands until the week he died. He retired to Florida, and put together a band. It wasn't the first band he'd assembled. He loved music. The National Guard gave him that.
6/10
The Guard taught Dad music, as they taught him to make technical drawings, as they paid for his college, as they underwrote the mortgage for his new house.
That gave me the chance to learn to love music. Dad kept up with popular music even better than I did.
7/10
The Guard gave me my first home. It gave my family the chance to live a middle-class American life. I am today building a house into which my wife and I will retire, and part of that, I owe to the National Guard.
8/10
Dad was a pacifist. He was also a patriot. He joined the Guard so he could serve America, but not be sent to an active war. The Guard repaid his patriotism, and me--and my brothers, and our children--still benefit from that.
9/10
Republicans are trying very hard to dismantle all the programs that gave my family everything we have today. I do not want to pull the ladder up behind me. I want everyone to have the chance to live the life I've had.
Okay, this was a little bit political.
10/10
PS. I was reminded of his drafting skills today, because Dad once sat with me and my brother in a hospital waiting room, and patiently drew a series of sketches, feehand, to explain to us how a car worked. Mom was in the hospital. Dad took the time to distract us from our fears.
I was reminded of that because my son asked me some questions about how a car works. I remember how and when I learned.
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The far-right Cato Institute is feeding its poison to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramasmarmy, giving them advice on how to disassemble America and sell it off for parts. Here is their manifesto.
I'll summarize what they threaten to do to Social Security.
1. Raise the retirement age by three years. Currently, you can take early retirement at 62, and full retirement at 67. Raise that to 65 and 70.
2. Reduce the annual Cost Of Living Adjustments. COLAs are now figured on Consumer Price Index. They want to use Chained CPI.
2/9
That second suggestions is really technical, but the upshot is that Cato is recommending that Cost of Living Adjustments should NOT be figured based on the actual cost of living, but on a different formula that, over time, moves seniors into poverty.
3/9
People who have guns in their house die from gunshot wounds at about ten times the rate as people who don't have guns in their house.
This makes sense in an obvious sort of way.
1/4
After all, you can't die from a gunshot wound unless there's a gun involved. If there are guns handy, it makes sense that you'd be more likely to die from a gunshot than if guns are not handy.
2/4
The most interesting aspect of this fact means people who own guns to protect themselves from people with guns are far more likely to die from guns as are people who don't own guns.
3/4
On Jan 21, 2017, the day after his first inauguration, Trump created his reelection committee and began formally campaigning for reelection in 2020.
He lost, of course, but the point is, he started his campaign the day after his inauguration.
I mention this for a reason.
1/4
We know Trump is Constitutionally prevented from running for a third term. We also know he wants to remain president forever--mostly to grift and to stay out of prison.
I expect Trump to take action immediately after his inauguration next month. I'm not sure what he'll do.
2/4
He might create a 2028 reelection committee, and dare anyone to stop him from campaigning.
He might demand repeal of the 22nd Amendment.
He might bring a court challenge somehow reinterpreting the 22nd.
He might begin moving toward a declaration of martial law.
3/4
The problem with going into survival mode is that it is ultimately selfish. It says, "I will do what I must do in order to survive," which inevitably requires throwing other people into the mouths of the lions, and--then lying about who YOU are.
Then you become that.
1/2
And the even bigger problem with survival mode is that the oppressors don't care. They will come for you anyway.
Here is the truth:
"We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."
-- Benjamin Franklin
2/2
The leopards will eat =everyone's= face. You won't be spared by lying about who you are.
But if enough people stand up and say "No!" we ultimately can defeat the leopards.
As she aged, she grew increasingly leftist. She raised me on the Kennedys. She loved Barack Obama. She watched Rachel Maddow.
She died in January of 2015. She didn't have to endure the age of Trumpian fascism.
1/7
She would have been ecstatic if Hillary had been elected in 2016, and would have been devastated at the tragedies of what happened on 11/08/2016 and 11/05/2024.
She'd have loved Kamala Harris.
2/7
The Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote was enacted only ten years before my mother was born.
She saw the Great Depression and World War Two. She was born only 27 years after the Wright Brothers' first flight, and she saw men walk on the Moon.
3/7
Wanna know how much Republicans care about free speech?
A bill protecting reporters' sources, and shielding reports from prosecution, passed the House UNANIMOUSLY. (You read that right.)
Trump just ordered Republican Senators to kill it.
1/4
Let's watch and see if they follow Trump's commands, or if the bill passes the Senate.
Senate rules allow one (1) Senator to slow a bill down. The Senate has a lot of work to do in the next few weeks. It will be easy for some Trumpsucker to kill it.
2/4
Trump is also telegraphing that he intends to order his "Justice" Department to prosecute reporters he doesn't like, and so doesn't want this new law standing in his way.
Let's see if Senate Republicans value free speech.
3/4