Blog: If I understand this

From the Borowitz Report:  Imagine a hypothetical job applicant — he can’t spell the simplest words, such as “heal” and “tap.” Confused by geography, he thinks there’s an African country called “Nambia.” As for American history, he’s under the impression that Andrew Jackson, who died in 1845, was angry about the Civil War, and that Frederick Douglass, who died in 1895, is still alive.  Given the alarming state of his knowledge, you might wonder what job he could get. Unfortunately, he’s not hypothetical, and the job he got, in 2016, was president of the United States.  Not to mention he thought windmills cause cancer; Finland was part of Russia; and didn’t know that Great Britain had nuclear weapons. There is more, I won’t bore you.

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Paul Eaton. – Note, from VoteVets:

I write to you now, having witnessed Donald Trump’s ludicrous, self-aggrandizing, politically motivated display at Fort Bragg on Friday.

Trump repeatedly railed against Democrats, and told the assembled Troops to vote for Republicans. – Military folks are supposed to remain politically neutral, at least in public.

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“If anyone sees my toddler today, the zoo is CLOSED because the animals are SLEEPING and it only opens on Saturday morning — thank you for your attention to this matter” – Posted by a young mother.

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From MSNOW, in re: to voter fraud and the need for photo ID:  The average number of arrests since 2004 for impersonating someone in order to cast a fraudulent ballot — happened an average of … one time each year from 2000 to 2024. Not 1,000. One.  And, don’t forget, some, if not many of those were people trying to vote for Trump twice.

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So, the other day we learned that the US had attacked 30 targets inside Syria.  Did we declare war on that country?  Of course not.  Every time something like this happens, it is “terrorists.”  Recall the people shot to death on the streets of Minneapolis were called “domestic terrorist,” the drug runner boat operators were “narco terrorists,” and so forth. 

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I recently played live blackjack at a casino for the first time in about 20 years.  I did ok.  Played three times, for maybe 15-20 minutes each time – won $27, lost $100, and won $235.  And yes, I had practiced.  Was unsure of what to do a few times, like after being dealt a pair of 2’s.  I might try playing this again, I used to like it!  I first played in San Juan, P.R. when I was 22 years old.  I played in Panama a couple of times and have a story or two about that for another time.

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Ah, the Olympics.  I don’t watch a lot of the winter games, but will watch the final of either US hockey team.  One thing I find unamusing is the way the media treats someone who wins a silver medal.  It’s like “So-and-so fails to get the gold in the freestyle.”  That person comes out the second best in the world at something, but it is a “failure?”  Really?

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Good news, imho: The father who gave a 14-year-old a loaded assault rifle for Christmas (!!!), in spite of a “shrine” he had in his room to a mass shooter, is on trial, after the kid used it to shoot up his school and murder several people.

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PORTLAND, Maine — The U.S.’s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale. –ABC

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The Atlantic’s take on the Trump speech, in part: 

The president who has enriched himself and his family by more than a billion dollars in his first year in office called on Congress to clean up its corruption. The president who has collected about $175 billion in illegal tariffs from the American people falsely told them that he had given them a great big tax cut. The president solemnly condemned political violence—the same president who ended his first term by inciting a mob to sack Congress and overturn an election. Maybe most shocking, Trump demanded that members of Congress rise to agree that it’s the first duty of government to protect American citizens—even as his own government by its brutal police methods has shot American citizens dead on the streets and then tried to deceive the country about how those Americans had been killed and why. Then of course there were the many misstatements of fact about the economy, about crime, and about wars and peace—many of which look like deliberate decisions to deceive the public watching on television. – end quote

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At least 6 FBI agents who worked on Trump classified documents case fired: Sources

What, there were not dozens of boxes of documents at Mar a Lago?

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This is not over:

On the morning of the (state of the union) speech, NPR reported that Trump’s Department of Justice had removed dozens of pages of the Epstein files related to allegations that Trump sexually abused a minor.

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We are back from our trip to Tucson.  Had some good time with family there.  Rode the downtown trolley for the first time.  It was handy and I was glad to see that it was free – just hop on and off as you please.  Great idea.  Also, I had never been out to the U of A campus.  I could tell it was a college town by the proliferation of bars and cafes. 

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Why?  Aren’t congressmen shouting from the rooftops that Trump has no authority to attack Iran, or any other country?  Why?

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Still a moron:  Members of the U.S. Olympic men’s hockey team were given McDonald’s fast food during their visit to the White House.

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From CNN:  ICE officers get just 42 days of training. That’s less than agents who investigate exotic animal smuggling or odometer fraud – what about dog catchers, do they get more training than that?

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Dad Joke:

Why was the computer cold?

It left its windows open.

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Odd fact:  Unlike many mammals, bears can see in color. Provided by FactRetriever.com

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Saturday:  So, we are at war with Iran.  Trump’s war.  But he had a new reason:

Trump now claims Iran tried to interfere with the 2020 and 2024 elections to stop him from winning. And he credits that allegation to a story published on JusttheNews.com, which the Media Bias/Fact Check website rated as having a far-right bias and low credibility because it traffics in conspiracy theories, propaganda and failed fact checks. – Huffpost, From Trump’s post.

Of course, this reminds me of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Iraq weapons of mass destruction.  Oh, and add the explosion of the battleship Maine to that list (I am reading about that war).

Of course, few complaints from Republicans.  I guess they think our Constitution gives a president the right to declare war, kidnap a country’s leader and determine what they can do with their natural resources, and oh yeah, murder sailors on the high seas because we don’t like what they are probably carrying in their small boats.  Lest we forget, shooting civilians in America who dare to exercise their first amendment rights to protest; you know, like the Minutemen who protested in Boston in 1775.

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More on Saturday:  So, I have been feeling sad most of today.  The war. The lack of opposition to another of Trump’s power grabs.  Ignore the constitution, the Congress, the courts and common sense.  The weather is good here and I will BBQ on the deck, two things that normally make me happy.  And yes, I blame ALL republicans – they had two chances to get rid of the Trump fungus and failed both times (impeachment trials).

I had to do something about this today, so I gave a little money to VoteVets, an organization I believe in, and yes, I am a veteran, but only the reserves (Navy, 10 years). 

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And if you tuned into the Big Bear Eagle Cam last “season,” they are back on the nest and it has two eggs!

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Now, I will sit out front with my daily beer and watch the hummers in the tree.  We sit about eight feet away, but they are used to us, and will come around.  Plus, their main tree is afire with new orange blossoms!

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All take care,

Kevin