skulzwerks

  August the month is over for all intents and purposes. Augustus was some Roman Caesar guy. I added the 'us' to 'August' to spiff it up a bit. Pretty spiffy...no? So America is done with Afghanistan. There was a four star general on the television yesterday afternoon explaining all the military nuts and bolts for bugging out of the AfghanisNam. Yes the "withdrawal" is a military bug out or retreat or however you may be inclined to call America's getting out a getting out. We's gone everybody. Just like the fall of Saigon then fast forward to Kabul and dang if'n that isn't about some deja vu or what. On an unrelated note, I think that four stars is about as starred a military general can get. The last five star general was Dwight D. Eisenhower. So Afghanistan is over and the 'next six months' will be filled with political insight, bluster, bullshit, recriminations, and hypocritical conjecture from armchair military advisors of all shape...

  A fallen Utah Marine arrived home in a box yesterday. That would have been Sunday August 29, 2021. The arrival destination is at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. That's where President Joe Biden is from. Anyway, the Dover Air Force Base is where all of the U.S. military's soldiers arrive after being...killed in action. President Biden attended the arrival of the soldiers killed at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. I'll bet you didn't know that the airport in Kabul was named after Hamid Karzai. I didn't. Hamid Karzai was the Afghan 'president' for quite some time. Ole Karzai buddy is a real peach and helluva human being. Sure he is. Oh yes and it just so happens that President Biden's being in attendance at the Dover Air Force Base is referred to as "a dignified transfer." That 'transfer' honors returning remains of soldiers killed in any theater of operations declared active by the U.S. military. So that falle...

  ISIS-K. Who exactly decided to call the Afghan terrorists 'ISIS-K'? Maybe it was the Afghan terrorists themselves. Abdul says to Osama Jr., "why don't we call ourselves ISIS-K so people won't think we're all that bad? You know like those Korean pop boy bands?" Sure, that's how it happened. Makes as much sense as just about anything else. We are living in some damn strange times. So I suppose ISIS-K the terrorist pop boy band is what we'll be living with for the next five to twenty years depending on whomever at the Pentagon is asking for six more months. You know, to hunt those pop boy terrorists down and bomb the bejesus out of wherever they might be hiding in plain sight. With the anniversary of September 11, 2001 dawning in about less than a month, the interim should prove to be interesting to say the least. Every last goddamned terrorista all across our Planet Earth is going to want a piece of the action and won't that just be a barrel of...

  Today is your last chance to shop on a Saturday for the month of August. Christmas decorations are starting to pop up in retail outlets all across the America and it won't be long before those Christmas "deals" will be too good to pass up. Pass by? Pass over? Oh get it? that last one is a funny. Pass over and/or Passover? Bad joke and I can admit that. The last week of August seems a bit early for Christmas crap to be showing up but, there it is nonetheless. On an unrelated note, Utah hospitals are having to put patients out on the street. You see there aren't any beds left in Utah hospitals on account of Utah dummies refusing to get vaccinated for the Covid-19 with all the various variants of the Covid in full swing. Utah's dummies refuse to wear masks under any circumstances. Yes Utah dummies are dangerously stupid. Anyway, Utah's hospital-less sickly banded together and started up a sickly ward under an overpass in downtown Salt Lake. Not even Utah's ...

  The very last Friday in the month of August is upon us and this very last Friday looks very much like any number of last Fridays just about anywhere. With the possible exception of more atrocity and death, same old is same old. The Afghaniscam is ending almost exactly like how it started, atrocity and death. A lot of death. President Biden is promising "revenge" on the ISIS-K terrorists that detonated suicide bombers at Kabul International Airport. That might only take about fifteen or twenty years. The "revenge" thingy. So the 'ISIS-K' band of merry terrorists aren't very chummy with Afghanistan's Taliban. This could prove interesting in the very least. One band of terrorist assholes pitted against a second band of terrorist assholes and the outcome will be a bloody damn mess. No doubt. We can thank George W. Bush for all the Afghaniscam blood and debacle. On an unrelated note, the newly minted ISIS-K terrorists would be an anagram for the band Ki...

  NASA is planning on a decommission of the International Space Station. Sometime in the near future, according to NASA, like about 2030 or later than that. I didn't know that the ISS was NASA's to decommission. 2030 or later than that. In real time that's not exactly soon. NASA made that announcement and the announcement was covered by CNBC news. I didn't know that CNBC covered NASA news or even 'space' news. However as it turns out, there's money involved so enter CNBC. Maybe CNBC could get NASA to launch that annoying Cramer guy into deep space. Without a return rocket would be nice. Anyway it seems that NASA is looking to private industry to build a next generation space station and one Sierra Space out of Colorado and Axiom Space out of Houston, Texas are well on their way to producing space stations that might contend for the title of an 'official NASA' space station. Maybe it'll be just one however two space stations are not out of the equ...

  The statement/question is of course both rhetorical AND lyrical. Thank you to the 'Clash' with some minor changes. By me of course. Most of America's "politicians" want President Biden to delay the bug out from AfghanisNam. Yes this freaking disaster is EXACTLY a replication of America's withdrawal from VietNam. All that's needed to finish the metaphor is U.S. Navy guys pushing helicopters off the decks of American aircraft carriers. The Navy guys did allow the South Vietnamese tucked ever so sardine-like inside those soon-to-be fishbait helicopters to get out and on to the desks of those aircraft carriers. This time the U.S. military is using those gigantic C-17 Globemaster jets to remove Americans and Afghans from the AfghanisNam. Jam those people inside the jets like sardines in a really REALLY big freaking can. The C-17 is one large military jet. I got to see one, once, and holy crap I couldn't figure out how that monstrosity could fly. Pack'...

  Is it too late for any day? So many existential if not rhetorical questions. Is it possible to teach a narcissistic man to be humble? Does donny 'boy' trump lick the toe jam from between Melanoma's toes? Yes that was sort of gross. So with it being obvious I've got nothing for this fine day, we'll move on to the machine art and dispense with the prattle and bullshit. lost - some rough country there boy - TTFN 😎

And today it is. Monday August 23, 2021 and there is breaking news but, I really don't care so let's leave it alone. For now. I mean what could possibly be new to the news? We get the same depressing bullshit day after day and it seems to never end. Which is probably a good thing for the news reporters/talking heads. Seeing as how the t-heads are damn close to being irrelevant now, well, if there weren't any news to report all the bobble headed dumb ass news readers would be out of a job. I can't figure out how it is that George W. Bush has managed to escape scrutiny for the Afghaniscam debacle. Bush, at the behest of Dark Cheney, started the Afghaniscam war and not a word seems to get mentioned about that. The news rapists seem myopically fixated on President Joe Biden   and his withdrawal of American troops from the 'Scam'. Now the Afghaniscam is a freaking mess? Newsflash for ya guys, the Afghaniscam has been a fucking mess for a long time now so, where in he...

  Not in prayer oh hell no. It may in fact be a Sunday but, I'll not be offering up any manner of supplications to "god." One more time, oh hell no. The 'bow our heads' reference is about hanging American heads in shame. Shame, disgrace, and a disgusted sense of hubris. A way back just a wee bit after the 9/11/01 tragedy, then president George W. Bush involved these United States of America in Afghanistan. Pay back for 9/11/01. You see there was some dodgy "intelligence" that maintained the Afghan Taliban were in cahoots with the al Qaida terrorists and therefore were complicit with the 9/11/01 attack on the World Trade Centers. Turns out the Afghan Taliban didn't really have much to do with the al Qaida terrorists and really didn't even get along with the al Qaida freaks. So and working on very little credible intel, Bush got America involved and the rest is "six months tops" history. "Six months tops" turned into 20 bloody a...

  Yes my friends as horrible as this might sound, there are only 126 shopping days left until Christmas 2021. Dang it if'n time don't just fly by when you're having fun. We are having fun...aren't we? President Biden has got the fall of Afghaniscam almost under control, Covid-19 the Delta Variant is well on it's way to savaging the unvaccinated Americans that were too stupid to get the vaccine when the vaccine became available, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is planning a run for president 2024 under the Nazi-esqueRepublican Party For America ticket. Yup and the Greene shrike from Georgia is gonna have Matt Gaetz as her veep. Gosh if that isn't about a presidential ticket from racist hell, well, I almost can't imagine what one might be. 126 shopping days left so what are you waiting for? Get out there and shop until you drop. Or vomit. Or commit ritual seppuku. Or simply stay home and steer clear of the shopping madness. Of course Amazon would prefer that one do...

  If you happen to be thinking about coming to Utah for a vacation or a visit or a whatever, don't do it. Utah has finally de-evolved into a hateful and murderous place to live. Utah has been tracking this downward slide for sometime now. Don't be fooled by Governor Cox's 'ah gosh and a shucks' demeanor. That facade couldn't be further from the truth. If you're planning a move to Utah and you have children, ditch those plans and head for somewhere else. I couldn't tell you where you might want to consider moving to, just don't move to Utah. The cat is finally out of the bag. Mean spirited homophobic and utterly intolerant Taliban types have taken control of just about ALL forms of governance in Utah. The State's legislative body, school boards, town councils, county councils, and most of Utah's media are in the control of some really scary and crazy fucking assholes. Recently a lesbian couple living in Moab were found shot to death at a local...

  Then came the rain. It rained and rained and rained and you can probably catch my drift here. Rain finally showed up in significant enough amounts to wet more than the driveway. Problem is, the rain wasn't enough to wash the wildfire smoke out of our air. The air now smells like a wet campfire. Thanks California. Yes the smoke in our air is from California wildfires. Oregon got their hellacious wildfires under control. For the most part. California wildfires are jumping ahead of fire lines faster than the firefighters can keep up. And so the future is spelled out in no uncertain terms. Prolonged drought then massive wildfire then heavy rainfall replete with flooding and mudslides. The mudslides are coming off the massive burn scars that now blemish what was, once, beautiful forested land. Bye bye beautiful forested land and hello hellish and barren empty forests. No trees, no bushes, no wildlife, and mostly burned stumps and debris. So with the forests now turned to charcoal...

  We have, once again, arrived at that 'special' day. We have much to celebrate on this fine Wednesday. Why there are more wildfires in California, Texas Governor G. Abbott has the Covid-19 and the variant remains undisclosed, Florida Governor 'Rumbles' DeSantis has gone into hiding, and life is good all the way around. Or not. The quality of life will be heavily dependent on where you might live. A way out here in the smoke choked American West, we've finally received some rain. Not enough to put out all the wildfires but enough rain to back ambient air temperatures off just a snidge. Yes we've really got it going on today. Of course there is the ongoing crisis of whether to mask the going back to school children. Utah's grandiose legislature doesn't want ANY school district to mandate the wearing of masks. A surprising number of school districts have informed Utah's legislative body of Mormon zombies to fuck off and stay out of it! Good on them. It...

  President Joe Biden is having to defend his decision to pull American troops out of the Afghaniscam. About damn time. President Biden made the right decision. It cost the American taxpayers roughly $2.261 TRILLION dollars for the Afghaniscam. Give or take a billion or so. So yeah, the Afghaniscam was one really REALLY expensive mistake. ExPresident George W. Bush owns this fucking war criminal mistake lock stock and with artificial arms and legs tossed in for good (?) measure. Trump had a "deal" with the Taliban that was, allegedly, to get the Taliban to make nice. Yeah and one would be a really titanic dumb ass to believe anything the trump might have to say about anything. How is this lame fucker not in prison? The entire United States Congress, both the House and Senate, Democrats and Republicans, are a complete and total incompetent failure and waste of time. Talk about disgrace. America's Congress is that. A disgrace. Three bullshits do not an argument make. Or for...

  Yup, the air really stinks a way out here in the wide open and burning American West. Burns the eyes and clogs your lungs. Dang smoke particulates fall out the sky and coat your automobile with wildfire particulates. Well and your lawn and flowers and bushes and trees and the little birdies that have to live in the wild wide open. Your dog and cat and chickens and pigs and goats and all those very pricey llamas. You know, the alpacas and vicunas, those sorts. The ski resorts too but the ski resorts are sort of look on the profitable side of the western wildfires, the wildfire particulate crap is falling like snow up at the resorts so...the resorts are gonna allow skiing on the wildfire particulate stuff when the particulate stuff gets about three feet deep. Won't take too much longer. Skiers should have your smoke surfing gear ready and at hand. So aside from the fires and fall of Afghaniscam and Senator Lindsey Graham emphasizing he had no part in the Afghani...

  August is half gone. Wow if'n time don't just fly when having fun. I'm thinking that it must be sun up HOWEVER, I'm really not certain...I CAN'T SEE THE FREAKING SKY! Wildfire will do it every time. So we'll just cut to the chase. Machine art - marching charging feet - flourescense - ewww...pretty colors! 😎

  It's almost like deja vu all over again. A way back in the last century, America the wonderful was fighting a communist take over of Vietnam. America the not so great was getting pounded by the North Vietnamese/VietCong and after clearer heads prevailed in the Nixon administration, getting the hell out of Vietnam was the prevailing strategy. The last bastion of American corruption in Vietnam was the South Vietnam city of Saigon. Saigon was the capitol of South Vietnam. Anyway and so Saigon was surrounded by the North Vietnamese/VietCong (loving referred to as the 'VC' and there were other names for the VietCong but we'll leave that alone for now) and the U.S. military braintrust decided it might be a good idea to get the fuck clear of Saigon. Thus began a military airlift to get remaining Americans and Vietnamese "friends" of the U.S. out of Saigon and Vietnam altogether. In U.S. military jargon the authorized retreat from any besieged city is called a ...

  Joe Bonamassa performed in Salt Lake City last night. That would have been August 12, 2021. Wow and you know what? Today is Friday the 13th! Be suspicious of anyone named Jason. So back to the party of the first part...Bonamassa played in the land of Zion and I'll bet it was a killer of a show. Bonamassa is pretty dang good on his guitar. Not bad with the vocals either. So the point of all this Bonamassa prattle is this, the tickets to get in to see Bonamassa live were not cheap. Not even close to cheap. Tickets for the front row were in excess of $300.00 dollars a pop. Floor seats reduced in price the farther back from front row you got. Be that as it may, floor seats in the overall were really pricey. Then there were the aerial seats and the nose bleed seats. Aerial being an upper deck in the Eccles Theater and then the freaking way up upper deck seating. The nose bleed seats were just a shade under $100.00 dollars a pop. I didn't go see Bonamassa. Nope that's too dam...

  That's right and the people of Earth are doomed. Our Planet is squarely in the crosshairs of Asteroid Bennu and wham bam thank you ma'am, we're gonna get hit. So it would be wise to get all your affairs in order and kiss you sorry tookas goodbye. Yup it's all over now but the hysterics. Asteroid Bennu will hit the Earth , if NASA is to be trusted here, in about 300 or so years. That targeted hit coming in 300 or so years isn't really much to get all worked up over. However IF NASA has the numbers wrong, well, good night nurse. NASA would only have to be off here by about anywhere from 290 years to about whenever Asteroid Bennu makes up it's asteroidal mind to smack the third rock from our Sun into a pan-galactic side pocket. But given the hysterical nature of our Earthbound hysterical types that seem to be just about everywhere these days, why wait for some far off panic to begin. Start panicking about Bennu's collision with Planet Earth today. By the time...

  I know where the camels aren't...Siberia. Oh yes indeed. It seems and according to a report I read yesterday, the single largest wildfire in our world is burning in Siberia. Siberia? I pondered to myself. There wasn't anyone else around so...yeah I thought about that all by myself. The Siberian wildfire is so large that the North Pole is covered in wildfire smoke. Santa is going to need one of those spiffy KN95 hi-tech masks that has become wildly popular what with the advent of Covid-19 and those damn nasty Covid variants. Santa says..."Ma!, get me a respirator." I feel badly for the Clause's. I feel worse for the reindeer. And the polar bears. Well, and the walrus and seals and Inouit and the whales and oh yeah, the sled dogs. Nobody alive or partially sentient should have to breath that goddamn wildfire smoke filled air. Damn shit stinks and will give you the lung ickies in no time at all. All us poor souls trapped behind the Zion Curtain have been breathing ...

The western half of the United States is covered in smoke from the wildfires burning along the American left coast. The smoke is thick, smelly, and filled with dangerous particulates that'll drop on your unsuspecting lungs even if you're looking. Oh yes, those dangerous particulates will kill you off in about ten or twenty years. The smoke particulates deliver the seed cancers that will send one to a painful and lengthy demise. So...here's what you should do. Head to Home Depot or Lowes or one of the other big box DIY hardware stores and clear the shelves of duct tape and industrial size plastic sheeting. Yes my friends it's the ever so quaint 'Tommy Ridge Do It Yourself Home Sealant Project' that will protect you and your loved ones from those lung defiling airborne particulates that are being fired into Earth's upper atmosphere by all the wildfires burning up the American West. According to the bobblehead weather girl on the local Fox tv station, our air i...

  Just like that it's Monday all over again. Dang it, didn't we just do Monday like a week ago? It could seem like we're trapped in an endless feedback loop of irritating banality. Of course we are...trapped in an endless feedback loop of same old is same old. Day after freaking day with only another new wildfire or Covid-19 variant to break the monotony of did that. Yippee, we get to do this all over again and again... On the brighter side of news reporting for this here Monday, the U.N. has issued a rippingly righteous report that maintains 'climate change and global warming' is a clear and present danger to our shared world so, hold on to your cooling fans kids cause this shit is gonna get real. According to the U.N. "something has to be done RIGHT NOW!" Gosh, really? Is the U.N. certain that "something" has to be done but should have been taken care of like fifty years ago? It isn't like the warnings weren't issued. I'm fully of t...

  Today is 'ate ate 2021'. A play on numbers and words. On account of today is August 8, 2021. August being the eighth month of the year and today being the eighth day in August so... 'ate ate 2021'. Yeah that's pretty lame and that's about the best I can concoct for today. I got nothin'. So let's jump right on in to today's machine art fest. who - ebb and flow - remembering Beit Hanoun (google it) - Palestinian people are of course, Israel's punching bag and target of Israeli collective punishment. 😵

  That's right and the title reads correctly. Utah is number one in the world for polluted and toxic air. Yessiree Utah has really made the big time now. Salt Lake City, which is where I reside to be upfront about the matter, and that would have been yesterday August 6, 2021 earned the title of most polluted city anywhere on or around Planet Earth. Worse than even Beijing in winter time. It should be noted here that Salt Lake has some damn polluted air in the winter on account of temperature inversions so with Salt Lake being ranked as 'worst in the world' for that air pollution, well, that's quite an achievement. Ahhh...breath deep the gathering smoke. Yeah Utah and Salt Lake sort of backed in to the record books due to erratic upper air wind flow and wildfires in California, Idaho, and Oregon. Gosh, thanks guys. The stagnant Salt Lake air was eerily reminiscent of the air pollution days in Los Angeles a way back in the day. The gas and oil producer associ...