Iran Over It

Trump apparently signed a deal regarding fourteen points for peace with Iran to end what has been the shortest lost war in American history with consequences that will last a long time.  

Mr. Trump and his fourteen points bore me.  Even God Almighty has only ten.

Under the deal, Iran gets to keep its ballistic missiles, continues to enrich uranium, gets $300 million for reconstruction of areas destroyed in the war, and can close the Strait of Hormuz any time it wants.  Plus, it gets fees for its usage.  In the memo of "understand" that Trump endorsed, the issue of funding terrorism in Lebanon and Yemen remain unresolved.  These topics are for discussion later.

Much later.

To recap: 

Ladies and gentlemen, America is the latter-day Habsburg empire.

Time to break it up for good.  

Pulling the Plug On My VW Blog

My blog advocating that the base eighth-generation Volkswagen Golf be included in the U.S. and Canadian Volkswagen lineups is being terminated as of April 30.

I have numerous reasons for ending my blog.  No one is engaging with me, I'm running out of things to say, and my readership is puny . . . but most of all, VW is obviously not bring the base Golf back to North America any time soon or any time later.  This should have been apparent to me when Volkswagen AG decided that it was a waste of time trying to convince enough Americans to buy their European products, like hatchbacks, to make VW a big player in the United States (something it's never been, even when it was the top selling import car in the United States thanks to the Beetle, because the import market was much smaller then), and so Volkswagen wants to offer more American-style vehicles, like SUVs.

Did I happen to mention that SUVs accounted for five out of six Volkswagens sold in the U.S. in 2022? 

War's over.  I surrender.  Volkswagen has betrayed its American fan base.   I don't think I'll buy a new Volkswagen until and unless I move to Europe . . . and my only business with Volkswagen while I still live in the States is and will be buying new parts to keep my Mark 6 Golf going. 

Still Quitting

About six months ago this time, I announced here that I was giving up on just about everything - my goals for the future (some of which were for a part of my life now in the past), numerous activities, and just about everything else.  Here's an update: I'm still giving up.

My social life still isn't what it should be.  Despite a day trip to the Jersey Shore with my friend Clarisel to take pictures, I haven't been able to follow up on that with other social experiences.  I had hoped to see a woman I'm friends with through social media sometime this fall, but right now it looks like I won't have the time, meaning I'll have to put it off for at least six months. And even in the spring, I may not get to see her.

I'm still disengaged from politics.  I'm aware of what's going on, but being aware of something should never be confused with the ability to do anything about it, and since there's nothing I can do about the country becoming the sort of place no sane person would want to live in, I'm pretty much on the sidelines watching its downfall happen in real time.  (The Beto O'Rourke gubernatorial campaign in Texas started sending me e-mails, and I unsubscribed from them. When asked why I was unsubscribing, I replied by explaining that I don't live in Texas and Beto's not going to win.)  I would advise anyone planning a big celebration for a quarter millennium of American independence in 2026 to just call it off.  What is there to celebrate?

Annual activities? Like auto shows and Beatles conventions?  Those fashion-business reunion parties I go to by virtue of documenting models on my beautiful-women picture blog?  Well, those annual parties are probably done due to COVID, the plague that will not end, and COVID is keeping me away from anything else.  Actually, I stopped going to Beatles conventions after 2016 because they cost too much, and COVID wasn't the only reason I gave up on auto shows.  The other reasons were that some auto marques aren't taking part in New York's annual show and those that do offer up pathetic displays, which I noticed on YouTube.   I did plan resuming to go to an outdoor annual classic-car show devoted to cars with air-cooled engines - mostly Volkswagens, of course - held every third Sunday of September.  Unfortunately, I learned too late that the organizers no longer sell tickets at the gate and that I had to buy one in advance; by the time I tire to, they were all sold out.  I went to a smaller car show elsewhere, but it wasn't quite the same.  For one thing, there was only one Volkswagen. 

Ahh, who cares?  Everyone laughed at John Mellencamp when he sang about how life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone, because he made it sound like there's no thrill to life even when you're healthy enough to enjoy it.  The pandemic showed just how life can go on without the thrill of living, so that stupid song lyric now sounds like genius.  But then maybe a thrill that goes away someday comes back.  Maybe when the pandemic finally eases, when we get a handle on climate change, and when Trump and his ilk are finally washed-up has-beens, life will get better and I'll have reason not to give up on anything.  But in the meantime, I'm lying lower than a snake's belly.  

See you 'round the clubs.     

I Surrender

I think I'll be . . . I'm leaving . . . the band now. - George Harrison, at the Beatles' Get Back/Let It Be rehearsal sessions 

Clearly, under present circumstances, this campaign cannot go on. - Gary Hart, withdrawing from the 1988 presidential campaign after failing to put a sex scandal behind him

Both George Harrison, realizing that a Beatles concert for a live and television audience wouldn't work, and Gary Hart, realizing that no one would stop talking about his cruise to Bimini with a woman not his wife until the end of time, knew when to pull the plug.  True, Harrison returned to the Beatles, who then finished the Let It Be project and recorded Abbey Road, and yes, Hart got back in the 1988 presidential campaign, but the Beatles were done a year after the Get Back/Let It Be sessions and Hart never become President or finished higher than sixth or seventh in the presidential primaries before dropping out a second time.  Both George Harrison and Gary Hart got back in the race even when it became apparent that the race was all but run.

Similarly, I feel a need to quit after trying again and again to realize my ambitions.  March may not be going out like a lamb meteorologically (damn thunderstorms!), but it is for me.  I had so many ambitious goals before COVID hit two years ago, and despite the easing of the pandemic, its end is still  a long way off - it may not come at all.  For years, I've been tying to travel abroad, but something always happened to prevent it, and the pandemic, as well as the war in Ukraine, makes it very unlikely that I'll go anytime soon or anytime later.  Attempts to see people in person again have mostly fallen flat, I'm going through the motions at the two jobs I work for, and I feel like a prisoner in my house.

I've had to deal with this problem of unrealized goals before.  After a year and a half of making plans to go to graduate school back in my twenties, my plans fell through, and I let my GRE scores expire without ever retaking the test.  When it became apparent that graduate school was out of the question, I spent many months trying to get an entry-level job in publishing or broadcasting and ended up achieving neither.  I took an editing course at the School of Continuing Professional Studies at New York University, and while I got my editing certificate, attempts to find an editing job went nowhere and the skills I picked up have long since atrophied.  My basic situation hasn't changed in years. After 34 years out of college, I still live with my mother. 

I don't see much to look forward to in the future.  Climate change is irreversible, America seems to be on the verge of civil war, and the next presidential administration is likely to be a right-wing dictatorship - and when that happens, I'll likely be sent to a labor camp in North Dakota for sedition.

This waiting game simply cannot go on.  I feel like I've been on a journey to a better place only to end up having to stop in some deep, dark forest, build a log cabin and make myself comfortable where I am until I can figure out what to do.  That's going to take a long time.
I'll still be here on my blog.  But don't expect me to find me way to where I want to be.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have severe thunderstorms today to worry about. 😩