h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

On my way to work this morning, I saw an electronic billboard announcing that May 25th was National Missing Children's day.


And I thought, "Oh, that's nice for them innit? They could really use a holiday."

I bought a travel trailer (caravan).


I think I got ripped off.


I recently decided it might be nice to have a toilet, shower, a/c, fridge, &c when I go camping. So, I looked around online and found a nicely equipped 14 foot camper. It had everything I wanted and only weighed 750 dry. When I looked at it Saturday, I asked if there were any issues, specifically with the A/C and fridge, any leaks, &c. I was assured there were no leaks and everything worked.


So, I bought it, taking their word.


I think they lied. The A/C isn't working. There are leaks, one causing water damage to the wood interior and also a BULLET HOLE in the front window. The fridge doesn't seem to be working either. Nor does the "surround sound audio" system that I wasn't even expecting. My father noticed a problem on the shower floor. It could be sign of yet another leak and more water damage.


Since this was a cash sale, I don't expect there's much I can do about it now. Caveat Emptor and all that.


So, I'll probably have to take it to a local RV dealer and see what it will cost to get it usable.

If I can keep the repair and replacement costs under a couple of grand I think it will still be a decent purchase.

How did you miss the bullet hole?

That was easy. The front window is covered by a plastic cover and has an accordioned curtain on the inside. The bullet hole is rather small, maybe a .22 cal. The glass is also cracked from top to bottom at the hole.

Ah, nuff said.

I was reminded of this by a question elsewhere on the interwebs.



I heard a story from a someone of an earlier generation. He and his twin (non identical) brother had pulled a small scam in their home town when they were young boys. Their local dentist would give away "prescriptions" to the local ice cream shop (future business investment?). One of the brothers stole an "Rx" pad from the dentist so they could get free ice cream. They didn't want to get caught so they used a fake name, Archie Tuttle (or something like that). They thought little of it as the years went by and nearly forgot about it altogether.

Until their 18th birthday when they received notification to register for the draft...

And so did Archie Tuttle.

So, this last weekend, the Barr Summary (of the actual Mueller report) was released. What it says outright is that Trump and his campaign did not "collude" with the Russian Government. It makes no conclusion regarding obstruction of justice.

This report, as it stands right now, has delivered a major victory for the Trump admin. Trump insists that he's been 100% exonerated and vindicated. Faux News, of course, is going even further and is both celebrating and bringing out the pitchforks and torches for everyone who questioned the President.

Even some of the late night talkshow comedians seemed to acquiesce and take the Barr Summary at face value and concede defeat seemingly.

But the Barr Summary is NOT the Mueller report. I'm not convinced it actually says what everyone thinks it says.

The Barr Summary focuses squarely on only the subjects of Collusion and Obstruction and takes an extremely narrow view of both. Regarding collusion, it only concludes that no one in the Trump campaign directly colluded with *The Russian Government*. Well, that's not really surprising. (Although no one knows exactly what has been spoken between Trump and Putin at their many clandestine and off the books meetings.) It does not say that they didn't collude or coordinate with intermediaries. It does not address Kisliyak, Kolimnik, and many others who have ties with Putin, but aren't directly employed by the Russian government. We also don't know if this is just an example of "plausible deniability" on behalf of Trump and his inner circle. Trump, besides being a compulsive liar, also constantly uses weasel wording to keep from directly implicating himself. He never directly asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, he just said it would be very nice if he did .

I have no doubt at all that the infamous Trump Tower meeting was a direct attempt at negotiating a quid pro quo between Russians and the future Trump administration. Even Trump's dismissal statement that the meeting was all about orphans doesn't even negate this. THAT WAS PART OF THE QUID FOR THEIR QUO! The Russians were hinting that they'd deliver dirt and emails on Hillary in exchange for the US Government dropping sanctions on Russia and many of the oligarchs. The adoption issue was a retaliation policy from Putin against those same sanctions, so they were offering to lift that adoption ban as well. I believe Trump, his son in law, and his son were just too ignorant to realize what exactly was being offered. Both sides were speaking "around" the subject of the sanctions, but one party was too stupid to get it. So they purportedly walked out before the actual deal was done. Does that clear them of collusion. Was it "Attempted Collusion"?

On obstruction, the actual Mueller report, from what Barr quotes in his summary, lays out evidence that both clears and implicates Trump and his minions without concluding whether or not to indict. This is a big fuzzy area. We know Barr was appointed EXPLICITLY because he held a very strong opinion that a sitting president was all but exempt from all accusations of obstruction. Mueller is specifically (and infuriatingly IMHO) not making a conclusion. Remember, there's a huge question within the Justice Department dating back to the Nixon era about whether it can indict a sitting president. Mueller goes by the book so he likely was delivering "just the facts, Ma'am." Barr seems to have taken it upon himself to decide that the evidence didn't meet the level for indictment, something he famously has a specific opinion about. It was not up to the Attorney General to make that decision. That's up for a Grand Jury or Congress. Mueller may have been making a case for future grand juries once Trump is out of office. There may already be sealed indictments of Trump and his associates. We don't know.


What's definitely not mentioned in the Barr Summary is any other crimes Trump and his associates may have committed not directly related to Russian Collusion or Obstruction of Justice. What evidence did Mueller turn up regarding Trump's Moscow Tower project? What about the MILLIONS of dollars that seemingly disappeared from the Trump Inauguration donations? Did Putin have leverage over Trump or any of his associates as suggested in the Steele "Dossier" (Field Notes is a more apt description, but "Dossier" is the term everyone has glommed onto)? Is Trump guilty of Bank Fraud, Tax Fraud, or any other fraud as seems highly likely from what is known publicly?

But right now, it seems like sour grapes to even consider such things. The narrative Barr has given the media and Republicans is that the whole investigation came to naught and Trump's accusers were wrong all along. "The Main Stream Media are LIARS!" is the rallying cry this week.

But we simply don't know what exactly is in the Mueller Report.

But it's hard to fight "The Narrative". Truth doesn't matter anymore.

My cat Greebo died in my lap last night. He was 22. I adopted him 18 years ago. He loved to be near me the entire time he spent with me. My heart is aching. I'm crying at work.

I once read a quote about how owning pets is a delayed tragedy, but I can never find it. Maybe I misremember it. But it does hurt so much to lose those quiet little furry friends. To adopt another would only mean someday feeling this sad again.

It does hurt, doesn't it. I couldn't get another after Dewey and Flossie, even though I might not have to go through the pain of loss again, because at my age a kitten could easily outlive me.

Cat's live a long time in my care. Greebo was about 22. I got Greebo after losing "Pishy Kitty", a cat we got when I was still in school about 19 years earlier.

IF I do get another cat, I'll get two... I'd like to get two adult cats who are attached, siblings maybe. I don't want to deal with kittens.

My parents recently bought a puppy and it was a huge mistake. A friend received a golden retriever from a relative, or friend of a relative, whatever. What she didn't know was it was very pregnant. My dad somehow got the idea in his head that he wanted a female dog as he'd heard/read that female dogs bond with males better. The fat, spoiled chihuahua they currently have, and Dad thought was going to be his lap dog, definitely follows Mom wherever she goes and whines when she leaves the room without him. But since Dad has impaired mobility, I can already tell that the puppy is going to bond with Mom as well as she's the one that's feeding her, walking her, dealing with her constantly, even though Mom really didn't want another dog to take care of. They seriously considered rehoming her twice shortly after getting her. She was just being a puppy, peeing on the carpet, chewing the furniture, and just having too much energy. They finally decided to keep her but she'd need training. So they found a training school in a nearby town but the facility is upstairs and not handicap accessible, so guess who gets to be in charge of training Molly? Mom, of course.

I'm just hopeful that Molly will help my dog, Nessie, become more sociable and lose some of her agoraphobia. She won't leave the house without being lead out on a leash most days. I definitely won't get another dog after Nessie. Well nearly definitely.

I guess this is as good a place as any to post this, (many of my more recent journal posts evaporated earlier this year with the attack on the site).

http://szynalski.com/tone#11418,v0.1

If you click on that link and then click play, you'll hear what it sounds like in my head now.... always... and probably for the rest of my life but worse.

Tinnitus. I first noticed it a couple of years ago, but it was building before that because at night, when it's quiet, I just thought I was hearing the night orchestra of frogs, crickets and other wee buggies. But that was just my brain finding patterns.

But at least it wasn't noticeable when there were other noises to hear.

That changed Friday. Thursday night I did go out to a local music club and it was rather loud, nothing new. In the morning I noticed the tinnitus was louder than usual. It hasn't stopped since and very few noises distract from it now.

So, I need to cope with it. I can't obsess about it. Getting a song stuck in my head used to irritate the heck out of me, but if I can learn to let that go... mostly... maybe I can learn to live with this.
I'm trying to think of some way to think of it as something comforting. Use it for meditation.


It's either that or my head explodes.