“Rain fallin’ down, sun never shine..."

“Rain fallin’ down, sun never shine, got a lotta things, but none of them are mine.”

That’s the opening line to a Siegel-Schwall tune out of Chicago that always rolls around in my head when it’s raining in LA, and it’s been raining all day. My cat nonetheless refused to come in all day, just crouching miserably under a table on the back deck, the only dry spot outside.

Gonna make this a set of short notes and links to things I thought worth pointing out in today’s papers and such:

Some kids in Hyattsville Maryland won the right to vote. At age 16. And before you scoff, I’d point out a couple of things. Voting is a family tradition. If your folks voted regularly, you probably do too. And people who don’t vote have never been encouraged to…by someone they actually know. So what’s that got to do with this? If we could vote at 16, we’d be registered, and have voted, with friends, encouraged by teachers, before we left high school. High school’s the last place America makes an effort to mold us as citizens. Maybe we ought to add voting to the mix.  Hey, Padilla, here’s a #BoostTheVote suggestion for ya.

And then there’s who they might vote for: Jeb, Huckabee, Romney…all recycled. But there was a picture in the paper NYTimes today of Jeb, with governor Rick Scott, both of whom, as governors of Florida, consistently cut Medicaid, food stamps, and WIC. And there they are, handing out food baskets before Christmas. Now, I’m not a Scrooge, but this is the kind of photo-op crap that makes me want to scrape “Random Acts Of Kindness” stickers off every bumper they're on. I mean, first, create reliable streams of kindness, and support, like food, clothing, housing and education, to mention a few…THEN do some random acts. But don’t think that handing out a few food baskets relieves you of the miserliness of every other minute of your year. (Of course, the Times didn’t put the picture on-line with the article. Typical.)

Staten Island  may not have any higher percentage of assholes than Los Angeles, but its Republican Party has been showing them off more lately.  Now-Former Congressman Michael Grimm, R-NY, decided to step down a couple weeks ago, after being convicted of tax fraud. Like Jon Stewart mentioned, probably tough to represent from prison. So guess who’s running to replace him? Daniel M Donovan, Jr., the district attorney  who was so incompetent that he couldn’t get an indictment against the policeman who choked Eric Garner to death…on camera…while Garner gasped “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe”. Yep, this is the best the GOP has to offer out on Staten Island. Kinda takes your breath away. 

And speaking of incompetent Republicans, Mittens is thinking of running for president again. Hoping third time's the harm, I guess. For you Psy fans of Korean music, here’s a little callback to the 2012 campaign, Romney-Style.

Finally, about the rain outside here in LA. Could be worse. You could live on Hawaii right now…and be an astronomer.  A foot of snow has come down on the volcano Mauna Kea, and the road to the observatories is an ice slick. It’s been below zero up there for over a week. 

Oops. Almost forgot. A long time ago, I grew up in the Midwest, largely in Ohio. And Ohio State was all there was. Football built character. Football built men. And Coach Woody Hayes was God in Ohio. Here’s God’s last game at OSU, playing Clemson in the Gator Bowl in 1978. OSU’s in white. God is wearing a maroon jacket and a black ballcap. It’s a close game, but this play’s what lost it for OSU. And for God. And that’s why I say: Go Ducks!

PS: I didn’t post yesterday. I wrote something, about a skeevy bit of op-ed writer, who’s not fit to print, and yet is, twice weekly. But responding to what he wrote yesterday would play into his hand, showing that people read him, and I hadn’t, in years, until yesterday’s,… well, until his bowel movement yesterday.  Sorry. It was that bad. It’s still in my wastebasket, and I can smell it from here.

‘Scuse me while I take out the trash.