Blog: If I understand this

During WWII, American soldiers were known as G.I. Joes (G.I. for “Government Issue”). Because they drank large amounts of coffee, the drink soon earned the popular nickname “a cup of Joe.” Provided by FactRetriever.com – I thought maybe a few younger readers might not know this.  And, yes, “joe” is in the Scrabble dictionary!  There, it means an average fellow, a “joe.”

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From CBSD News:  Washington — The Trump administration violated federal law by withholding congressionally appropriated funding for the Head Start program from being spent, according to a new report by Congress’s independent watchdog. – Damn those poor kids!  Next thing you know, they’ll want lunch at school!  Or, gasp!  — health care!

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Baseball expression I don’t like: “Right on it!” – this is often said by an announcer when the batter fouls a pitch off, and it goes straight back, like a line drive over the umpire’s head.  I understand the meaning, that the batter timed it right – but the bat was not in the right place.  Come on, if he “was right on it” it would have been a line drive base hit, likely a single or a double.  Better to say he “just missed it,” or was “right under it” or some such.  And I will reserve judgement on those same announcers who routinely imply that it is mistake to swing at the first pitch!

Also in baseball — the Dbax, one of the highest scoring teams, has now scored one run in the last 30 innings — and that was in extra innings when you start with a runner on second and no outs. Ouch.

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From Robert Reich:

“America is directly implicated in this (Gaza) humanitarian crisis.

Netanyahu is a war criminal. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor.”

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From interestingfacts.com:  It seems incomprehensible that a big-name founding father like Thomas Jefferson missed out on signing the U.S. Constitution, but he never inked the deal. He was actually absent during the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention in 1787, as he was across the Atlantic Ocean in Paris, France, as the U.S.’s envoy.

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There is no prejudice here:  Fox News has indeed shied away from Epstein coverage ― just as Trump has asked. The report by Media Matters for America finds that on Monday, for example, Fox News mentioned former President Barack Obama 117 times and Epstein just twice.

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If you are a woman and use Uber:  Uber is piloting a program for its US app that will allow female passengers to request women drivers, a new step in the company’s work to combat sexual assault. It will soon launch in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit after previously being available in 40 other countries. – just fyi.

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From Susan Glasser (New Yorker):  A man who can win reelection after inciting a mob of supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol is hardly going to be brought down by more quotidian offenses like monetizing the White House for his own purposes or openly defying court orders. – she goes on to suggest that, oddly, it might be the Epstein scandal that brings him down.  Gee, he is already guilty of sexual assault, why not?

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To paraphrase a Mark Twain saying (look out, I am reading a book about him):

“First, get the facts straight – then you can distort them all you want!”

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Are you onto this?  Immigrants who have applied for asylum sometimes have to go to an immigration court for a hearing.  ICE agents get the list of names and wait for them, in court, then arrest them for deportation – see, I guess because they have not yet been granted asylum . . .  I still say we should, to show fairness, deport some folks from white countries, like Norway or Slovenia . . .

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And yes, without hammering you with more details, RFK Jr. continues to staff his agency with non-vaccers.

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I am now the owner of a model kit for a B24, the kind of plane my bombardier dad flew in during WWII.  I intend to hang it in a corner of my room, near his crew picture.  I had a smaller version of this when I was a kid, and liked to put models together (planes, ships, tanks, etc.  — gee, how did I end up at a military college?).

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Didja Know Dept.: Incredibly, between 15,000 and 18,000 books have been written about Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. – I had no idea it was that many!

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Speaking of presidents, didja know that Grant had throat cancer in his later years; he struggled to complete his memoirs, which Twain published, at a great profit (Grant’s widow got a fair share).  Today, his condition would be operable, but not then.  Everyone knew he was dying.  When he had visitors, he would wrap a scarf around his neck.

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In a related story, I did not know this:  According to the Walt Disney Archives, the company’s namesake never wanted to be photographed with a cigarette in his hand, although he was a prolific smoker who ended up dying of lung cancer.  In later years, his staff digitally removed cigarettes from photos of him.

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Nice day here.  Had a visit from our part-time neighbors, including Teddy the dog, and Amelia, the one-year-old. She went to a petting zoo this time!  I remember doing those kinds of things.

We have sent away for some gumbo food items from a place in Louisiana that is as authentic and old time as they come – Jacob’s, since 1928.

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About time for my daily walk.  It helps to clear my head of the troubles of the world that blanket our news.  Better to think about gumbo.

 All take care,

Kevin