So, here we are: Watergate Defcon Status 1: The Trumpocalypse in Full

I've been meaning to post something on recent events for a couple of weeks, now, but a few things have kept me busy and events quickly keep overtaking any coherent thoughts I try to put down in writing.

We are all now in the center of the Trumpocalypse.

The news cycle has spun out of control, with events piling upon events. To sum up for posterity, the White House tried to quash a whistleblower complaint that Trump was holding up military aid for Ukrainse to force them to manufacture political dirt for him to use on Joe Biden. To prove his innocence, a couple of weeks ago Trump had the White House release a transcript proving ... well, proving that he was holding up military aid for Ukrainse to force them to manufacture political dirt for him to use on Joe Biden.

Very shortly thereafter, the US House finally opened an official "impeachment inquiry."

I'm not even going to try to track down the higgledy piggledy that ensued, except to say that the muck gets deeper and deeper as Trump flails about and the GOP tries to duck and cover and avoid the truth.

The elected officials of the Republican Party have been supporting a deeply corrupt, lawless man as their President. Why? In exchange for tax cuts for their billionaire patrons and crazy-ass right wing judges to appease the Evangelical wing of the party. That's what they care about, and that's what they got.

As near as I can tell, elected Republican officials are all okay with that deal. In 2018 billionaires paid less in overall taxes as a percent of their income than all other income groups. Republican appointed judges are overturning decades and centuries of decided law to benefit their party's financial benefactors. And in the face of overwhelming evidence of corruption and abuse of power, the entire Republican controlled US Senate doesn't make a peep beyond Mitt Romney tweeting that the denials "strain credulity." Give Mitt another few months and he may express "concern" about it all.

In the midst of this chaos, I'll commit a bit of prognostication and punditry:

My best guess is still that Mitch McConnell eventually decides his best chance to keep control of the Senate is to give Trump the boot. If so, the final collapse of this rapidly deteriorating house of cards may be fast, in the form of a discussion with Pelosi and a deal to bring one clean, direct charge swiftly through the House and Senate to remove him, and to leave the rest of the disaster that is GOP control in Washington stand in place. They have an easy charge to prove with Ukraine, and the 20 or so GOP Senators that are up for re-election can go home and pontificate about how they hated to do it, but they believe deeply in the rule of law and Donald Trump had -- inadvertently, they're sure -- overstepped his bounds, and how President Pence is healing this glorious nation of ours, God Bless America.

Then they will try like hell to bury every other thing that happened during the Trump administration, while Fox News treats the name Donald Trump like, "New phone. Who 'dis?"

But what do I know? I never thought the Republican Party would ever nominate a sociopath like Trump. Go figure, electing one of the worst human being in America to the Presidency has turned out to be a horrible, corrupt disaster. Who could have possibly see that coming?

If nothing else, we owe Donald Trump thanks for proving that the rot in the Republican Party political structure runs all the way to the core. The GOP is irredeemable. If they were a corporation they would literally change their name and rebrand. Since they all live in the Fox News bubble, I can only assume they'll add another bald eagle to their iconography and ooze on.

At the outset my only hope for the Trump Administration was that we might somehow make it out of this disaster without a nuclear exchange in Korea or the Middle East and without a needless war that would lead to hundreds or thousands of deaths. Despite the deteriorating world condition I thought we might make it. But last night's White House statement that we're abandoning the Kurds has made me lose even that hope.

Not a very cheery blog post. But the world isn't in a very cheery state this morning.


P.S. And then, literally as I was writing it, this gem of a tweet came along from Trump. This is a deeply disturbed mind, cracking under pressure. Things are going to get worse before they get better.

A fun day with the FUN MG in photos, part 2: The British Invasion, plus a lovely dinnertime lineup

After I got back from my visit with the vintage racers yesterday afternoon, Monique and I took the FUN MG down to the Inn at St. John's in Plymouth. The Concours of America is happening there today, Sunday. As part of Concours weekend they host a variety of automotive events, and last night they had a gathering for all British cars. It was a really fun event with a great variety of cars.

Afterwards, we went out to dinner with some British-car friends and found ourselves in the midst of something truly scenic. Ride along with us...

MGB, Rolls Royce, Mini, Jaguar F-Type, Morgan three-wheeler.

Ken and Melody Klemmer's MG TC. We'll see it again later this evening.

Triumph TR6

Austin-Healey, Triumph TR6, Jaguar XJ6...

... and then an MG TC putts on by.

This Lagonda was lovely.

Lotus, MGB

Monique loved this Invicta.

So this was really cool, a Rolls-Royce Mini. Apparently they built 1,000 of these back in 2018. The interior was every bit as plush as you might expect.

A Reliant Robin three-wheeler drew some of the biggest crowds at the British Invasion. I talked to the guy who owns it and he said it was much steadier around curves than its reputation.

How did it get that reputation?

Top Gear: The Reliant Robin

A nice sample of the variety: a Bug-eye Sprite, a Lotus 3-Eleven, and an old Rolls-Royce.

And that old Rolls was niiiiiiiiice.

Speaking of old Rolls-Royces, this 1909 Rolls-Royce was one of the real stars of the gathering. The details on it were amazing, and the restoration looked immaculate. Let's stop here for a few photos to look closer:

Chauffeur's seating

The second windscreen for the rear passengers

Now *this* is how you accessorize an air hose.

And yes, the rear tail lamps are real lamps.

Speaking of Rolls-Royces, the FUN MG was indeed parked next to one.

At this point I want to point out that the giant puddle of coolant next to the FUN MG did not come from us! It came from a Jaguar E-Type, which is what you should expect when you park a lesser car like that next to an MGB

Another pretty little MGB

Usually I take photos of the exterior of Jaguar E-Types. But this time I was struck by the lovely dash.

Oh, okay, have an exterior photo, too:

Lotus 7

Minis

Morgan

Factory Five AC Cobra replica

Ford Anglia

More Lotuses, these in orange.

Rolls-Royce Corniche. Nice.

Hundreds of *amazing* British luxury and sports cars and what was Monique's favorite? This wee little compact late-1940s Austin.


As the event began to break up, several of us decided to head up to The Garage in Northville, a restaurant in a converted 1930s garage. Much to my surprise, when we got up there with our B, Ken and Melody were waving in the British cars to park in their driveway:

As you might expect, we drew quite a crowd of passers-by. It took quite a bit of patience to catch these pictures of the cars without a crowd around them.

And then after dinner, the British roadsters went on their way....

All in all, an entirely fun automotive day in the Motor City!

A fun day with the FUN MG in photos, part 1: vintage racing

It's been a while since I've done any automotive photoblogging, and I do have a few good pictures to share from this spring...

... such as this photo of our new MG TD!

 But for now you'll all have to settle for a giant two-part photo dump from a fun day I had yesterday with my MGB.

First up was an afternoon stop at the vintage races at the Waterford Hills Racetrack. I got to take the FUN MG on some parade laps on the track itself(!!!), looked at some other lovely British cars, walked around the paddock a bit, and watched some on-track action.

I invite you to enjoy it along with me and the FUN MG:

We're here!

Just a nice little Triumph Spitfire.

And now, some pretty, pretty MGAs...

Parade laps on the track!

We never went all that fast ... maybe 60 or 65 on the backstretch. But it was way fun and a good chance to whip around some corners with a bit of speed.

I'm pretty sure I handled it just like Lewis Hamilton.

Then I walked around the paddock a bit and watched people working on their cars -- getting ready for their sessions or buttoning things up after a session. If you're ever at a race track, it's worth getting access to the paddock. You see a lot more of what goes on than if you just sit on the outside and watch the cars going in circles.

Can I come out and play?

And now, a bit of racing. First some midgets:

Then the bigger cars:

These two Corvettes were very equally matched and swapped places for 2nd and 3rd a few times...

.
... until #90 pushed just a bit too hard towards the end and spun out!

Fortunately, no Corvettes were harmed in the spinning, but the yellow Corvette left was well ahead by the time #90 got back on the track.

Next up, Part 2: The British Invasion, plus a nice dinnertime lineup.