Noise Pollution Delivery System

I was sitting in one of my cafés the other day, minding my own damn business, when my tranquility was violently interrupted by the pounding of insufferably bad dance beats which are not to be mistaken for music. The godawful racket was right behind me, coming from this monstrosity of an automobile.

If someone were to offer this ridiculous car to me for free, but stipulated that I had to play at full volume the obscene trash this person was blasting on his stereo system which probably cost more than most people’s entire automobile, I’d politely decline. I’d rather take the bus.

I could only imagine that this gay disco on wheels belonged to a footballer, as we don't have many cartel leaders in this part of Spain. I suppose that this thing is made for pulling up to the valet parking at a trendy night spot, but taking it to run errands on a Saturday morning seems embarrassingly absurd, or absurdly embarrassing.

Super-Spreader in Chief

I resent it when people refer to the present White House situation as a “shit-show” or however you write that. Sorry folks, I’m nostalgic for the days when it was merely a shit-show which sounds almost benevolent and cuddly, compared to the current state of affairs which is toxic and lethal.

The Trump White House has fallen from shit-show to somewhere you’d need to walk up about 300 flights of stairs to see rock bottom, and another 300 flights to reach shit-show.

Las Crónicas del Taco - The Taco Chronicles

What I knew about tacos before watching the series, Las Crónicas del Taco, would have fit inside of one little tortilla. I thought I knew a lot about Mexico and the people there, but now I feel that I know the country and Mexican much better. You are what you eat, as they say.

 I was watching the first episode one evening while I was eating a pizza I had made from scratch, a pretty darn good pizza, if I do say so myself. Looking at all of those wonderful images of tacos was making me hungry…while I was stuffing my fat face.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the food of Spain and have adopted it completely, but I really miss the food of Mexico. I can make versions of it here. I even have a tortillera, or the press for making tortillas, although I don’t make them very well. There are markets here that sell dried chiles, and we even have a stall in my neighborhood market that sells fresh jalapeños and habaneros.

Valencia is famous for its Mercado Central, but the views of Mexico City’s Mercado de la Merced is like a revelation. But what I really need is to take another trip to Mexico and really explore this world of tacos.

Or maybe I can just go to L.A. “Estamos aquí en la ciudad de Los ángeles, una de las ciudades más mexicanas del mundo.”

 

Far Fewer People on the Wrong Side of History than Trump Campaign Expected

Trump finds out that there are a lot fewer mindless hicks in Tulsa than he was counting on for his rally to reaffirm his bigotry and ignorance. It’s a good thing that so few people were on hand to hear his talk because it was one of the most unhinged, moronic ramblings in his career of moronic, unhinged ramblings. You don’t have to cherry-pick the talk to come up with insanity, just go anywhere and start reading:

“One thing about Air Force One, we got plenty of televisions. We have televisions in closets. You open up the closet, got a television. We got a lot of televisions. It’s a great plane. Great everything. By the way, we ordered new ones. No president wanted to do it. They thought it was luxurious [inaudible 00:45:44] wait a minute, Air Force One is 31 years old. People don’t realize that. So I said, they gave me a charge, very early in my administration like how about the first week? “Sir, would you sign for this plane?” Now it’s actually two planes. “Would you sign for this plane? Air Force One?” I said, “How old is the original or the one we have now?” “Sir, it’s 31, 32 years.” I’d see people coming in from foreign lands that can’t compete with us, rich countries but they can’t compete with the … They have a brand new beautiful 747-800, and I say, “Wait a minute. That country has new and we have a 31-year, so somebody had to do …” 

So the deal was made and it was made for a lot of money. I think it was $5.7 or $5.6 billion. Now in all fairness, it’s two planes and there’s a lot of stuff in those planes I won’t talk to you about. So I told Boeing, the head of Boeing, they said, “Sir, please, we’d like to get started on the planes,” I said, “I do too, but I’m not paying $5.6 billion, and I’m not paying $4.6 billion.” I said, ” It has to have a three on the front of it.” That’s a hell of a lot of money too, but it is a rather complex situation. They said, “No way.” No way. This was before Boeing had problems by the way, but Boeing is coming back. They’re coming back. Greatest company of the world and that’s their big problem.”

Other dictators have had weak attendance at their rallies.