Corruption Overload and More Retail Therapy with PapaDeanBear and PapaDan.

Yup, PapaDeanBear is back with more domestic bliss and his usual bug up his ass.

Another fucking week, more fallout from the midterms, more Hegseth (Kegseth) getting a new asshole ripped from all directions, Howard Lutnick (or is is Nutlick hmmmm) getting his ass in the wringer over the whole Nvidia/embargoed chips being sent to China/Jensen Huang boning a Chinese spy AND a fellow Nvidia executive thing. Yikes! Corruption overload!

Okay, you know that I like to document the little retail trips and dining out experiences that Dan and I have. It’s just as much for my sanity (*alleged*) as getting things that we need for personal and household use. Papabear did his usual shit, which is wake up, drink coffee, eat a couple (or more depending) of cannabis gummies, and bury his snout in the news. Well, I have been getting news fatigue lately. Skim the headlines, click on an article IF it piques my interest. YouTube is kinda the same thing, I haven’t going to my usual political favorites (Jack Cocchiarella, MeidasTouch, Brian Tyler Cohen, LegalAF) as much. It became SSDD (same shit different day, not solid state disk drive (which I have in my dual 24 inch monitor AMD Ryzen 5/Windows 11 Professional workstation.)) When Dan asked if I needed to run errands, I said yes, I needed the respite. So he said, “Get your ass dressed and lets go.”

So once I got my ass dressed, I settled in the seat of the Compass and laid out the itinerary:

First stop, my credit union to withdraw cash (I like to keep cash on hand in case of emergencies, and he knows where I keep it in case he needs some.)

Second stop, the cigar store (for cigars and lottery tickets.)

Third stop, the dispensary for the aforementioned cannabis gummies.

Final stop, Price Chopper for grocery items.

So Dan and I venture out into the wilds of Onondaga County, in our trusty CUV (compact utility vehicle that looks like there is a duck invasion on the dash,) armed with my debit card and a mission. Since the Interstate road system here is a total clusterfuck at the moment (because of the Interstate 81 construction) we take the surface streets, which is a challenge in itself. Basically, instead of the usual political conversation, it was Dan and myself ranting about the dumbfuck moves that other drivers are making (and yes, Papabear was quite profane. Do you expect anything else? – PDB)

Make it to the credit union, wait a little bit, then get called up. Make the withdrawal, make chit-chat with the teller. Tell her that I like having a *little* extra cash on hand just in case things start to go south. (Yeah I was decompressing and still showing a couple of little signs of paranoia.) She apologized for the wait, I said it’s wasn’t necessary. (Hell, I’m retired, what the fuck else am I gonna do?)

Back on the road to the cigar store. Again, on surface streets (except for Burnet Avenue, it’s brutal on the suspension.) The road that we take, Erie Boulevard East, passes underneath the Interstate 81/Interstate 690 interchange) and we see all the trees that were growing there since the interchange was constructed were all ripped up. Nature again takes a back seat to progress. (sad face emoji) On the trip in, we did touch on was, if Hegseth is impeached…he loses everything. Government housing, security detail, his military pension and the pension he earned at Secretary of Defense (or WAR, as roid boy/Fox News weekend anchor likes to call it.) If he thinks that he is going to go back to Faux News as an anchor…yeah right. They ain’t gonna touch that with a full hazmat suit on top of wielding a ten foot pole.

At the cigar store, I shoot the shit with one of the clerks while I am cashing in the lottery tickets and getting more (scratch offs for Dan, MegaMillions and PowerBall for me.) I get my usual cigars, finish my purchases, and head back to the car (or CUV if you wanna split hairs, like I give a shit.)

Now to the dispensary…sativa and indica gummies (I take the sativa during the day, and we both take the indica during the night.) Let’s face it, sometimes you have to alter your mental state to deal with the shitshow that society has become. (And not so surprising, I see a lot of people in my age group shopping there.) So I get back to the Compass, and we head off to our next stop (so I think.)

As we are going to the street that is on our journey home, he gets in the left lane (instead of the right like we usually do) and I am like “WTF?” Well, when I was in the dispensary, the hubby got a phone call from a friend looking for a ride home. (Ding ding ding! That triggered the altruism subroutine in the hubby’s brain.) What the fuck am I going to do? Say no? Wouldn’t work with Dan (and besides, he does all the driving in our household, Papabear is just along for the ride (and maybe I will go into the reasons that I don’t/can’t drive in the future.) So we proceed to the medical district (an area Dan and I are more than familiar with) and pick his friend up. And proceed to…Solvay. Unfortunately, she had to deal with Papabear. And I have no filter at times, especially if cannabis gummies and the political clusterfuck is involved. And the poor girl had to hear it. (She knew how twisted my mind can be because apparently, I was a frequent subject of conversation with his coworkers.) So, once this little side quest is done, we proceed to the street that will take us to the promised land (also known as Price Chopper.)

Finally! We get there, and proceed to get the items that Dan needs (and stuff that catches Papabear’s eye.) Right at the outset, one box of potato chips that have numerous flavors, and a box of SunChips in various flavors. I cruise by the deli case and grab two tubs of store brand hummus and go looking for Dan. He didn’t use the wormhole, so I found him easily. Now we just wander the emporium of foods, picking out what we need (and want.) Dried veggies to put in your ramen, more chili crisp. A couple of boxes of crackers. The baking supplies that Dan needed (he makes a chocolate brownie bundt cake that is really good.) No cookies, still have Fig Newtons and Oreos at home. Creamer for Dan (Papabear drinks his coffee black, thank you very much.) Oh, yes…a turkey. Forgot that Thanksgiving is coming up. Cranberry sauce. The other items we will get when we are out and about. Once we have passed through the self-checkout (and they changed the goddamn display again, sheesh) and amused the attendant with our old married couple bickering) we exit the temple of magnificent foodstuffs, load our groceries into our modern-day beast of burden and head home. (I don’t need to tell you the what we do next, you saw that in the previous installment of my blog.)

Now, while all this is going on, dear reader, the political situation was pretty much going through in the back of my mind, collating what I know and trying to make sense of it so I can put the words to the screen. My latest takeaways:

The Democrats are going to keep hammering Hegseth with impeachment proceedings until either Speaker Mike [Slang Term For a Penis] gives up and lets it go through, enough Republicans finally get fed up with Hegseth (and there have been a LOT of rumblings on Capital Hill among the right-wing rank and file to override the Speaker and allow it to be pushed through,) Trump decides to cut his losses and fire him, or Hegseth succumbs to the pressure and resigns. (The last two scenarios won’t prevent Hegseth being impeached.)

And now the news has been rife with the scandals surrounding Nvidia (Jensen Huang boning a Chinese spy and another C-suiter at the company) and Howard Lutnick (Nutlick) being involved in the transfer through *alleged* third parties of restricted chip technology that Nvidia has developed. And of course, the fake-haired orange spray-tan poster boy for corruption himself, Trump. He will still whore himself for the cameras and do his usual shtick, which is pontificate about his ballroom, his arch, and the “improvements” to the East Potomac Golf Links to make it a “world-class championship golf course,” which is another grift, because the East Potomac Golf Links is a PUBLIC golf course, and Trump wants to make it so the corporate sycophants and his political cronies don’t come into contact with the public in general because they consider us beneath them.

I am heartened in the fact that people like Trump and their ilk will get what is coming to them. The recent flipping of both the House and the Senate *could* be the harbinger of what is going to happen to the political system as we know it. Come January 1, the tables will be turned on the entrenched right wing, and they will be held accountable for the damage that they have done to this country.

That is all for now, Papabear is gonna finish watching Buff’s Garage and Pole Barn Garage clean up an 1986 Ford F-250 to make it somewhat presentable (and use it as a tow rig.)

-30-

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