Blog: If I understand this

Odd thing I recall:  We dropped more tons of bombs on Vietnam than we did on Germany in WWII.

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“It is too late to be concerned after a ship has capsized.”

–quote from my old academy text on ship stability, in the chapter, “Large Angles of Inclination.”  The author was our instructor, who had a dry sense of humor.

Perhaps right up there with a mate’s saying: “A collision at sea can ruin your whole day.”

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Per ABC News: “The Trump administration has drawn up a secret list of targets in Venezuela the U.S. could strike upon orders of the president.”  – What, no declaration of war?  No one shooting at us?  No authorization from Congress?  No problem, this is Trump, the head of the Republican Fascist Party!  The Trump administration is inching closer to entering the U.S. into war with Venezuela without providing evidence justifying it, pursuing any formal debate or authorization or outlining a plan to deal with the chaos experts say will almost certainly ensue.  — Wait, can’t we at least have a phony incident, like the Gulf of Tonkin attack, or Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction?  And wouldn’t that hinder Trump’s efforts to get a Nobel Peace Prize?  Or maybe he can buy that?

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Advice from CBS News:  Claims from an unknown source that your computer has been hacked (or when it looks like someone else is controlling it) is one major tip-off that someone is trying to swindle you.  From Me: Turn the power OFF.

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Didja Know Dept.:  That Henry Ford was an antisemite?  It was highlighted in his 1938 acceptance of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Hitler’s regime.  Hitler also kept a picture of Ford on his desk.

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The Food and Drug Administration is restricting the use of fluoride supplements used to strengthen children’s teeth.  I am an old guy, and per my dentist’s suggestion, still use things with fluoride in them.

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In case you have wondered what our troops would do if given illegal orders, the verdict is in:  Most of them will obey orders.

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Free child care?  New Mexico says it will have that.  Interesting.  Dunno how much it costs or who pays, everyone?

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Per Robert Reich: 

The incomes of America’s billionaires have been rising by an average of 7.5 percent a year since the start of the pandemic — in sharp contrast with the measly 1.5 percent average increase for median-income Americans.

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Factoid of the Day:  You may be surprised to learn that colors, despite being such an important part of the human experience, aren’t universally perceived the same way. Two people may look at the same object and experience the color differently, depending on various factors such as how their eyes and brains process light.

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Odd Thing:  I can’t say that I never won anything, like in a raffle.  I once won, get this, 100 gallons of propane!  We were new to having a tank and the company had a customer day.  We happened to have other business nearby, so we stopped.  They had burgers, etc. on the grill, and a raffle.   

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This week in history Dept.:  November 10th marks the 50th anniversary of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, perhaps the most famous of all the estimated 6,500 ships that have gone down in the Great Lakes.  Famous in large part, of course, for the most memorable song about any of them.

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Didja Know Dept.:  The word “God” does not appear in our Constitution.  Neither does “Jesus Christ” or “Christianity.”

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You heard it from me:  Gavin Newsom will be the Democratic Party nominee for president in 2028.

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The Trump administration has taken the government shutdown as an opportunity to end federal oversight of the education services offered to more than 8 million children with disabilities in America. Last month, the Department of Education attempted to fire nearly every staff member left at the Office of Special Education Programs. – From The Atlantic.  Some of you know that in retirement, I spent three years working in Special Ed. at a local elementary school, so you can imagine how I feel about this.  And they have cut funding by millions as well.  Damn those kids for being born “special!”

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Dateline Monday:  It is 5:15 p.m. here now, and getting dark.  As I said, I don’t like this time stuff.  It is true, however, that out on the ships we had to change our clocks often, especially when going mostly east-west than north-south.

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Want all your issues to seem “small?”  This from ABC News:  Scientists have spotted the brightest flare yet from a supermassive black hole that shines with the light of 10 trillion suns.

The flare came from a supermassive black hole that’s 10 billion light years away, making the flash the most distant one observed so far. It hails from a time when the universe was rather young. A light year is nearly 6 trillion miles. 

Yet again, distances and measurements so vast I cannot comprehend them.  How can they even measure a brightness like that? 

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Have you read about that missing girl?  This is weird and suspicious:

Ashlee Buzzard, the mom of missing 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard, allegedly switched license plates during their road trip in an apparent effort to avoid detection, authorities said. – She had a rental car from Ca.  and switched plates during her trip, then switched them back again when she turned the car in – without her daughter.

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Remember when the R’s made Biden’s age an issue?  Trump is older than he was then.  Wait, Kevin, you forget – that’s different!

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From Huffpost:  Under the Constitution’s Article I Section 8, when it comes to levying or imposing taxes, it is Congress — not the executive branch — that has the “power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.” Well, now we’ll see what the Supremes say.

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So, lessee.  Trump says he has sympathy for ex-Prince Andrew (sexual assault?); he pardoned a bitcoin fraudster who now works with him (business fraud?); is there a pattern here?

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Quote I came across:  Eighty-eight years ago, in his Second Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt told America that “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

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Hippos can’t swim. Hippos really do have big bones, so big and dense, in fact, that they’re barely buoyant at all. They don’t swim and instead perform a slow-motion gallop on the riverbed or on the sea floor.

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Dateline Wednesday:  Today is a happy day!  It was actually enjoyable to read the news, thanks to the election results.  Hope you felt the same!

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In South Korea, Trump was presented with a replica of an ancient golden crown. “I’d like to wear it right now,” he said, only eleven days after millions of Americans had gathered to protest his assumption of near-monarchical powers, in hundreds of No Kings rallies around the country.  Then, he had a “Gatsby” party the night before millions of Americans would lose their food stamp benefits.  Does that tell you all you need to know?  If not, throw in the extra-judicial killings of boat operators in international waters, or the destruction of the East Wing of the White House.  Or him cheating at golf.

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All take care,

Kevin