floundersgreatadventure

I just read an article on CNN.com about all these rock stars going out on tour this summer. The article was saying it was the last hurrah for classic rock. Looking at the ages of these people they could be right. The Rolling Stones Jagger and Richards are 78, Bob Dylan is 81, the WHO Daltrey is 78, Townsend is 77, Paul McCartney is 80, Brian Wilson is 80, Clapton is 77 as is Rod Stewart, Elton John is 75 and Roger Waters is 78. the list goes on. There has never been such a collection of again superstars on tour at relatively the same time before. It’s ROCK and ROLL history in the making. The only problem is how much it will cost you. Bruce Springsteen tickets are going at Ticket Master for as much as Four or Five thousand dollars a seat. Now, if you have never seen one of these groups before, you probably think this will be my last chance, so let me tell you a little story if I might. When Frank Sinatra was in New York I think he was in his mid to late 70’. I went to my mom who was a super Sinatra fan. My mom surprised me by saying no she didn’t want to see him when his voice was cracking and he couldn’t do certain songs she wanted to remember him as a young man full of life. I should have listened to her as years later I went to see BB king the great Blues legend who I had never seen before. A friend of mine warned me he was now talking more than singing. He was right, he did 4 of his classics that night and just talked about the old days the rest of the time. The point I’m trying to make is with the price of these tickets today it might be better to get a case of beer but the stereo outside and crank it up with your favorite. You don’t want to see a slighter version of your music God. This has been FATS and ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

The problem we face now is we have politicians that are old or unqualified for the positions they have. Let’s start with the president and the candidates for that office. On one side we have Joe Biden a good man a nice man, but one whose age is beginning to show. He is qualified at this time, but he’s not getting any younger. On the other side, there are two candidates for the job Donald Trump and Governor DeSantis of Florida. I believe that since Trump has already had the job and has proven ( at least to me ) that he is not qualified for the job he shouldn’t get a second chance. He is also over 70 and if you add that into the equation along with his Narcissism you have a recipe for disaster. DeSantis on the other hand appears to take the moral high road but he does so to such a degree that he also is a disaster in the waiting. so. What is it I’m saying? I’m saying that we need to not only listen to young people when it comes to the climate and racism but also to how our country is governed. When Kennedy got elected he did so with young people at his side. When Martin Luther King marched for racial equality he did so with young people at his side. The young people of today are becoming so disenfranchised with politics that it’s going to take a very special person to wake them up and get them fully involved. I don’t see one on the horizon right now but hopefully, they just need a nudge to get involved. I’m FATS and I’m 76 years old which makes me far too old to run for any political office. My mind is sound today but who knows what tomorrow will bring, that’s why I say we need young people, not one like me whose life has run its course and won’t be around to be held responsible for their actions. This is FATS and his best friend ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

There has been a lot of talk about this new golf league from Saudi Arabia. It’s all politics folks the Saudis have an unusual and secretive relationship with the US going way back. You remember me writing about how the only plane in the air after the towers came down on 9/11 was taking members of the Saudi royal family home. This deal goes back to the original formation of Aramco oil company (Shell, Exon, Mobile, and others along with Saudi Arabia). I know a little about the company because of my uncles. One worked for Shell the other Mobile. The one that worked for Shell spent about a year in Saudi Arabia as the controller for the company. I have read articles on Google about how the company started and our relationship with the country but I don’t think they tell the whole story. I believe the Republican party and some of its members such as the Bush’s are invested in the company and the country. We have armed and trained them to be the best fighting force in the area. So yes we’re invested the question remains why we’re still friends after 9/11. What’s so important, that we would let a country hide Ben Ladin ( who is related to the royal family) for 10 years and also is a sponsor of State-supported assassinations. I don’t think I’ll live long enough to get an answer so it’s up to you guys to find out. This is FATS and ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia

When I say new blood I’m talking about the Democratic party. I recently heard rumors that there might be a push for Hillary to run again, please no. I think it’s time for a young President and young senators and congresspeople. I don’t mean wack jobs like a lot of the younger Republicans but there has to be someone out there that can galvanize the public like Trump but for the betterment of everyone not just themselves. I don’t mean people like Clinton and Kennedy that couldn’t keep it in their pants. I mean someone who can bring both parties back to the real world and start trying to save us rather than enslave us. I want change and have for a while now but all I’ve seen is the same old shit and even worse than before. I’m not a Politician and obviously not a diplomat. I’m just an old guy that wants this country and democracy to survive and prevent ego maniacs like DeSantis and Trump from turning this country into something out of a novel. I wish I was smart enough to write here the solution to this but, I’m not and at my age, I don’t think I’m going to have any kind of epiphany and solve the problem. This has been FATS and ANTONIA ( I‘ve received a little grief about using the ancient one) saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

When I was much younger I used to look at other countries and say that they were ahead of us in understanding morality. Then came the sixties and we caught up to them. This week we went backward in women’s rights and raised the threat level to civil rights. We are no longer the world’s leader in Democracy but are heading towards an Orwellington form of government. Our Supreme court is no longer the unbiased interpreter of our constitution but rather a biased dismantler of Democracy. This court was never meant to be a political tool of political or ideological groups. They are giving the Republican radicals an excuse to not just reinterpret but to rewrite the Constitution, starting with the Bill of Rights. These people are ready to use force to bring about their view of how we live. They are not the Communists we’ve feared for years they are our neighbors. The people we’ve invited into our houses and broke bread with. These are now the greatest threat to our way of life. Those who sit around and do nothing, because they don’t want to rock your boat, should look at history. That is precisely what the German people did until it was too late and they woke up with Nazis at their doors. This is the ANCIENT ONE and ANTONIA saying wake up before it’s too late from Medellin, Colombia.

I knew the history associated with Juneteenth but not the specifics of it, and for that I am sorry. I blame that and the fact that I didn’t know it was a holiday while living in Colombia. The news I get is somewhat watered down a little. I read stories based on headlines and if the headline doesn’t grab me I move on. I know that’s no excuse but it’s the only one I got. When they were talking about the 19th down here it was Father’s day they were referring to. They had to move that day because of the Presidential election, it is now June 26. The election also contributed to my ignorance as it consumes the news down here. I know with all the bullshit going on and the rise of racist Politicians in the US people are worried and I think they should be. I think parents should turn around and look at their kids and realize they may never get to vote in a free election. They should let their kids see Orwell’s 1984 and the Handmaid’s tale. People of color, Latinos, and Native Americans could face something worse than Segregation and women could start losing all their hard-won rights. It won’t happen overnight but if it does we sit around and say how did this happen or more correctly how did we let this happen because this won’t happen because of some attack from outside this will happen because we thought it never would. Antonia and I hope all our friends, no matter their race or skin color, have a wonderful Father’s Day and do all they can to protect their futures. This is THE ANCIENT ONE and ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Every Sunday I sit at this computer and say I can finally get away from writing about Trump and something appears in the news to change that. This week they started the public hearings about Jan. 6. All it did was bring back memories of the OJ Simpson trial. You remember. What I remember most about that was his Lawyer Johnny Cockrin saying in an interview that is wasn’t rich he would have been convicted in weeks. I took this to mean that the average person doesn’t stand a chance of getting real justice because real justice is expensive or to put it more simply MONEY TALKS BULLSHIT WALKS. People want to compare this to Watergate, this is much worse. Donald Trump deserves to be in jail not just for what he did on Jan 6 but for his business dealings as well. He has made politics not about a government for the people an by the people but rather white vs color and male dominance vs famine rights. If by chance he does get near indictment he’ll probably run to Russia, North Korea, or some other home for despots. He showed the world our bad side. Russia, for years, has waited, as did we with them, for us to tear ourselves apart, it would appear that the wait might be over. They have rared him as the worse President ever, yet there’s a better than 50-50 chance he could be elected in 2024. I guess with these hearings going on I’ll be stuck writing about politics for the summer. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Americans will wake up and end this mess, but I won’t hold my breath. This is THE ANCIENT ONE and his best friend ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

If you’ve read any of my stuff on gun control you know I have a couple of problems with what’s out there. I really don’t want to ban guns but I do need a reason why people need 15, 20, 50, or more capacity magazines. I was a member of a rifle team in high school and an expert in the National Guard. We didn’t have all the automatic weapons available now, we actually had to see what we were shooting at. I’ve always thought that the Marine Sniper motto One shot One kill worked pretty well if you were a hunter. I don’t own guns anymore because quite frankly going out to shoot with a guy who has a 25-round mag in his rifle scares the shit out of me. They limit the number of rounds you can have in a shotgun in New Jersey and no one complains, but if you say you can’t have 30 rounds in your rifle people get crazy. When I ask why they need that many bullets to go hunting or target shooting they don’t have any kind of answer that makes sense. There is at least one legal gun for every person living in the US. Now tell me this has nothing to do with the increase in mass shootings. We have one of these at least once a week. Are street gangs to blame for all the gun violence? Sometimes, it has become increasingly more about people with extreme views and unstable minds. Who do we blame for this? It’s all of us. We can’t sit back and expect our politicians or law enforcement people to do it all. First of all, politicians are only interested in staying in office with their cushy little jobs. The police are not just overwhelmed but we have restricted them as to what they can, and can’t do. Those restrictions are needed so are new laws with greater penalties. People are going to have to choose what’s more important their 2^nd amendment rights or the lives of their kids. This has been brought to you by THE ANCIENT ONE and ANTONIA CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well, they’re voting for President of Colombia today, they’ll have a runoff in two weeks. It’s the usual run of corrupt dick heads plus one outstanding ass hole. Gustav Petro, he is a card-carrying communist and has been for years. That’s not what bothers me. He was removed from office and reinstated twice for corruption as mayor of Bogota. You would think people would make a big stink about that, but not here. He has some ideas for the economy and depending on who you listen to or read they will either be great for the country or turn it into another Venezuela. He wants to immediately stop oil exports and when your economy is 70% oil-based doesn’t sound like a great idea. Like many other politicians, he has an idea that is not bad on the surface, but when you don’t know how to replace that income, you end up screwed. On the other side of things, it appears most of the views on this blog came from China last week. We know what the means guys they want to Hack me. Now I’ve really made it when china wants to hack my blog. God, they do that and I’ll have a billion Chines pissed off at me. I have to get some coffee so I’ll say this is the ANCIENT ONE and ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.

Well, this has been a busy day I went to church for the second time in twelve years. I only go for funerals and Christenings, today was a Christening. It was for ruby’s great-niece. Everything went smoothly except it was sweltering. The party after was at our complex and remnants are sitting in our living room at this moment. That means we got stuck with the drunks. We had a hell of a thunderstorm come through. It seems we’re getting a lot of big violent storms this season. It was good to see some people because I hadn’t seen them in two years because of the Pandemic.

I read about this retired US general who was smiling when he heard that Putin was making critical decisions in the war. I think he remembers Hitler took control of the war at the end and that had a lot to do with Germany losing. It’s sort of like when someone defends themselves in a court of law and it’s said they have a fool for a lawyer. Don’t worry Putin will blame someone else for the loss he studied at the Trump school of politics. I think I’m going to stop here it’s getting a little loud out in the living room and it is Sunday, so this is the ANCIENT ONE and ANTONIA saying CIAO from Medellin, Colombia.