The World Cup team from Japan made news the other day when it was revealed that they… wow, you should probably be sitting down for this… cleaned up and made their locker room look like no one had even been in there. Apparently, the Japanese fans have done the same and picked up trash around their seats after the matches.

I guess this is news, especially here in the U.S., where such behavior might be viewed, at a minimum, as strange and unnecessary. It’s really a principle similar to what we were taught in Boy Scouts—leave the campsite in better condition than you found it.

Clean up after yourselves.

But that reeks of a certain humility and consideration of others, which is somehow… un-American?

Elon Musk needn’t poke the bear (Apple). Just because he singlehandedly bought a public speech platform for $44 billion doesn’t mean he gets to say and do whatever he wants. He has too many playthings.

Why is the business world often portrayed as a cutthroat, take-no-prisoners entity? Companies emerge and grow because they’re managed well and offer products consumers actually use and… love? And they almost inevitably become prey, or targets. Why would someone want to mess with such a winning formula? Musk and others apparently don’t care about this because their motives are selfish, merely about some degree of financial gain, winning and losing and big egos and pushing their own agenda.

All this talk about free speech being at issue is a cover for wanting to go after a company they can’t stand, that espouses a different philosophy, differing opinions from what Ron DeSantis and Musk himself apparently believe. All this concern over free speech is a smokescreen, a “false flag operation,” as Fox News is so fond of putting it.

Add this pursuit to the list of time-wasting items the Republicans are cueing up.

Why does Mike Pence sound so insincere when he talks? It seems as though he’s aiming for the opposite, but he ends up, more often than not, sounding like a voice-over guy trying not to misspeak. To this day still measuring his words, trying not to say anything too incendiary about anything or anybody, including Donald Trump.

His “style”, his delivery, his demeanor has always bothered me. Like something out of a Barbie and Ken play set, a true plastic man. And he’s wound tighter than a cow’s ass in fly season.

Holiday spending. Gotta have it. Black Friday served as a bellwether, and all indications point to an appetite for parting with the sawbucks. This despite inflation. There is pent-up demand for stuff, and I wonder if there isn’t a bit of fatalism in play as well. People look around at what’s going on in the world and have decided, “What the hell?”

It’s a variation on the old “can’t take it with you” rationale, though right now it might be more a case of wondering how much longer life as we’ve known it will continue before it all goes to hell. Might as well live a little, even if it means running up a tab with the plastic.  

I watched almost the entirety of the Argentina-Mexico match yesterday. Almost 90,000 people in attendance. I guess it was very loud there. The match itself was a nondescript struggle for the first half, but Lionel Messi broke the ice in the second half with a typically accurate worm burner to the lower right corner of the net, the goalie’s left. Messi’s side ended up winning 2-0 and kept hopes alive that he might get a chance to play for the one trophy he doesn’t yet have.

What was driven home yesterday, besides the other-worldly megastar status of Messi, is just how much time is wasted with the theatrics—fake injuries and dramatic writhing. It’s obviously part of a (sometimes) fast-paced, high-impact sport, but it’s still ridiculous and hard to watch.

I’m not sure if this is what people are considering when they call futbol the beautiful game, but it must be something the players work on in practice. I love the fact that we get to watch 45 minutes plus stoppage time of uninterrupted action with no commercial breaks. But the silly drama cheapens the product- it can be difficult to know when a player is actually hurt, when trainers and a stretcher on the pitch are for real or just part of the schtick.

Not only does one have to be a top notch athlete. They also have to have a flair for the dramatic. It gets hard to separate real effort from mere stage performance. Kudos to the ref, for having the patience and smarts to maintain an air of authenticity, and keeping it from turning into a WWF event.

Just scanned the headlines and the only one that really jumped out was the report of Trump dining with Ye and a white nationalist who denies the holocaust. A true Who’s Who of rogues and dimwits. A Summit of Sadness. There were other stories, but none of them dredged up the same feelings of abhorrence and fatigue.

The Artemis mission seems to be on course, the murders in Idaho remain unsolved and will be featured at some point on a “news” show, probably Dateline, hosted by Lester Holt. The Colorado Springs shooter had a death note, no doubt containing much wisdom and blame to share with the world. Not surprisingly, two brands of cell phone made in China have now been banned from sale here due to spying concerns (how many are already in circulation?). The US men played to a 0-0 tie with England. I watched the first half– the action was a bit more exciting than the score.

Oh, and Vladimir Putin is still a tiny man with a giant penchant for being a scumbag.

We gathered with family at a road race, spent the time between Start and Finish sitting at a long table in a cozy coffee shop in town, enjoying the company of folks we don’t see very often. Seems idyllic in comparison to headlines involving deprived behavior and relentless bombing and a lack of electricity as winter approaches. A generally atrocious, heinous treatment of fellow human beings. Talking about you, Vladimir P., you fucking scumbag.

Such dissonance, such melancholy, such hateful, disgusting behavior. It brings us all down, or should. But we get to sit in the warm glow of coffee and baked goods, walking off a gluttonous meal, enjoying unabated family time uninterrupted by gunfire and assaults on our lives, if we’re lucky. We should be grateful every minute of every day.

Thanks giving? It must be really hard sometimes to find a silver lining, or the heart for gratitude.

I’ve been on a roll and don’t want it to stop, so this entry is a sort of filler, an extender that gets me to a 39-day streak on WordPress and brings me to blog post #800. Officially, #801, but one of the recents was a short apology for a previous post. I don’t really count that as a post.

Anyway, I’ve been at it for five and a half years now, maybe a bit longer. Just words on a page, for the most part, but a mix of rewarding, cathartic, and something to do for my brain. I hope that, on occasion, I write things that make sense, strike a chord, or reflect some level of thoughtful observation and analysis. There’s usually no shortage of material.

Except for today.

I’d hate to think that the Saudi victory over Argentina at yesterday’s World Cup match was anything other than a huge upset. I don’t know why I almost immediately started wondering if bin Salman or some emissary just waved cash in front of Messi and the rest and got them to somehow play a bit less focused, just enough to make it look legit. Wow. I know FIFA isn’t the most honorable of organizations, but does it extend to the players, too? Please– the answer must be “no.” Though… futbol players are known for being pretty good actors.

And another supermarket shooting. Well, another Walmart shooting, this one in Virginia. Prepare for many solemn expressions of concern and makeshift memorials and handwringing over weapons possession and the Second Amendment, and then… nothing. Only six deaths reported at this point– might not even move the needle.

It is a dizzying prospect when one contemplates having to listen to politicians offer their version of an answer to questions about Donald Trump and his place in the Republican party. Paul Ryan, Nikki Haley, Chris Christie and the rest are trying to chart a new course for the party while tip-toeing around the 76-year-old toddler and purveyor of fine bombast.

This is all fine and good except for the fact that the Republican party—even the old guard or more mainstream membership—is still a one-trick pony. They pride themselves on “conservative” values as this applies to everything from spending and taxation to views on religion and sex. They have trouble dealing with life as it comes at most of us. Even the sane ones seem to have trouble recognizing that life will not, cannot be as neat and tidy as they wish it would be.

They’re unduly influenced by their Christian beliefs, seemingly stuck in some nostalgic time warp, reluctant to acknowledge real need or perhaps simply ill-equipped or unwilling to address it. The irony has always been that as self-proclaimed followers of Jesus, they behave as if they really don’t believe that. For them, it still appears to be more about law than gospel.

Maybe we should dispense with the labels, namely “conservative” and “liberal,” and instead simply assume that Republican concerns will always align more closely with maintaining material wealth and a rigid moral code, while Democrats at least attempt to see the world as it actually is, and aspire to change it for the better. For everyone.