United

If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times. The question was directed at Trump, that will you admit that you lost the election to unite the nation.

So. Let me pose this lesson to you. If you are in a group that choses the left fork, do you take the same left turn, when you know it is right to turn right?

If I am in a group of 300 million and they all turn left and I know that left is wrong, I’m going to take the right fork when I know that right is the right fork. I’m not at all going to be concerned about unity.

I have looked at the facts. I have seen that the laws and rules were not followed. Even the dems would have to admit it if confronted right. Their argument was that it was because of the virus. Regardless, they did not follow the rules and laws. for whatever reason. Hence they cannot prove they won the election lawfully.

I am never going to join that unity.

I Don’t Guess I Can Say

Maybe this isn’t a proper reply. I guess I am pretty well traveled. I have been about all over southern California, including much of Camp Pendleton, mostly while afoot and and running.

I have been almost totally from one end of I-40 to the other. I have also been along much of Route 66 before I-40 was half done. Speaking of visiting cities, there must have been at least 30 cities along 66 just in California alone. Seemed every time we got up to speed, we had to slow for another town.

I have flown most of the various aircraft, including, C-117, & C-130. And I have flown into & out of Los Angeles, Dallas, Sydney, Da Nang, Ft. Smith…. You get the idea.

Getting back to the question, my thought is a little different. I’d sort of like to see all the US cities… with an RV… about 30 feet. I’d visit the northern ones in the summer and the southern ones in the winter. It has been a life long dream.

Now, I know. That’s not going to happen. I have a wife and 2 sons instead.

Daily writing prompt
What cities do you want to visit?

Involuntary Walking

As I mentioned, my wife has been in the hospital for the last few weeks. I have been visiting her daily. Naturally, the only parking spaces are a mile from the hospital. Naturally, I have to walk another half a mile inside the hospital to get to her room. Altogether, that is a 3 miles a day.

At 78, you would think I could park in a handicap parking space but unfortunately, old age is not listed as a handicap in Mississippi. Not yet anyway. Maybe after my funeral.

Daily writing prompt
What are your favorite physical activities or exercises?

Did Someone Whisper In His Ear???

I’m not totally sure, but I am hearing rummers that the current director of the FBI will be resigning. This does surprise me in that I was thinking the man was going to dig his heels in and hold onto the post as long as he can.

I first heard the news about 10 this evening and I started trying to make sense of it. Then I heard about an 11 page letter that Rep. Grassley sent to Wray. My first thought was that he said something in the letter to make him change his mind. However, I am suspicious it was something else and they, the powers that be, want us to think it was the letter. The letter certainly does give Wray an excuse to back our of his previous stand.

Then, I got to thinking. It is most likely that someone whispered to him, somewhere out of sight. I don’t know. It’s just conjecture but it does make sense.

It might have been a threat, maybe to reveal something from his past. On the other hand, it might have been an offer, maybe to work in some big law firm. I am convinced that deals like that are made all the time, you know.

Then I reconsidered. Maybe it was both.

Ever-which-way, he sure did make that decision in a hurry. Moreover, it appeared they didn’t need to twist his arm nearly as much as I thought they would.

The Thought of Competing

One of the things that happened when Old Joe took office was that many jobs went to Mexico and China, among other places. Without having to face the tariffs, the jobs went, well, south, as well as a few other places. Most notably, this was in the auto industry. However, other industries noticed it too.

This just might have been one of the major contributing factors to the dems losing the election. You notice many of the unions, such as auto workers, did not endorse the dems. This, of course, while the rank and file got behind Trump.

Still, in general, the press continues to support the dems, even to the point of being an integral part of them.

So…. Might I suggest a change. The network news corporations generally broadcast from NY, NY. Might they start broadcasting from Canada. It is just a few hundred miles away and with modern technology, they can set up in, say, Montreal with anchor news men getting maybe one or two hundreds thousand instead of one or two million.

It would work just as good there. I don’t see any problem and I suspect there are a few hundred folks up there that can read copy as well as those in NY, NY.

The fact is, we might even be able to operate out of Mexico. Either way, can you imagine the savings to the news agencies of all the news networks.

The thing is, if one network did it, the others would have to follow, that is if they hoped to maintain competition.

Suddenly, the current anchors might just have a different way of looking at at tariffs.

There is a hitch. I don’t see any way of putting tariffs on broadcasting. If there is a way, I am sure the current anchors would figure one out. It would either be that or move north… or south. Well, they could find another job, one that doesn’t pay so well.

The point is, if it would work or not, people really have a different perspective when they actually have to start doing real work for a dollar or two. Many a dem became Republican when they discovered what it is like to have to get your hands dirty to make a living.

Maybe, He Would Have Been a Good Man to Know

I have no earthly idea what brought the subject up, but during a conversation, I mentioned that the guy that invented the pull tab made millions off of it. Suddenly, I was the center of attention. Everyone else had forgotten the throw away tab.

So now I have another thought that makes me feel old. I can’t believe that it was that long ago that the throwaway tabs have gone the way of the dinosaur. I guess you ask 10 people if they remember them and seven of them will look at you like your nuts. (at least 6)

Just for grins, I looked up the thing on the internet. Yeah, I found some writeups on them, though they seem to conflict somewhat so I hesitate to quote anything. From my own personal experience, it seems the stay-in-place tab came out in the early 80s. Seems to me, I was returning cans without tabs at least a couple of years into the 80s.

However, this much, I did find out, the man that invented the throwaway tab died with 40 million in the bank, so to speak. It is a shame. I never got to know the man. I would have liked to. I am sure he wouldn’t have objected to me borrowing a million or two. And, of course, if I forgot to pay him back, he’d not have missed it.

As an aside, while I was reading, my memory was jarred. I mean, do you remember the days you needed a can opener to open cans. That’s right. Don’t much care for it but they used to call them church keys. Regardless, I haven’t seen one in years. It would seem they have gone the way of the buggy whip.

And, here’s something else. The drink cans were made from steel. As I read it, I remember it now. However, up until then, it had completely left my memory. Can you remember drinking beverages from steel cans? Just figured I’d remind you. No reason for me to the only one to feel old.

Finally, don’t know how much truth is in it, but the story goes that the idea of a stay-in-place tab idea came from a doctor who swallowed one of the throw away tabs at a baseball game.

I had always thought the reason for inventing the stay-in-place tabs was the ecology. Apparently, many kids had swallowed the tabs and they decided to fix that problem.

Let the Punishment Fit the Crime

The above is from an old song, about 1900 plus or minus. I don’t know. It might be a quote from an earlier saying. The words have been set to a catchy tune. You might want to look it up. It is by Gilbert and Sullivan and the tune is from an operetta, “The Mikado.”

Gilbert and Sullivan premiered the show in Japan, English actors with makeup to make them look Japanese, which showed some courage as it was about a Mikado, or a, so to speak, king in Japan. It is very funny and the Japanese thought so, as they loved the operetta. Surprisingly, not one person found it objective. You should have no difficulty finding both the song and show on the internet. It took me 2 minutes. The song lasted about 4 minutes. Certainly you have that much time to listen to it.

The point of the song is that the actor is saying that his object is subline, to make the punishment fit the crime.

I know… Here I go again talking about operettas and Gilbert Sullivan again. Well, I can’t help it if someone ignored your proper music education. We were listening to Gilbert and Sullivan in the 5th and 6th grade and all the kids thought it was great.

At any rate, I keep hearing these people going around saying the Trump is going to go after the dems that were going after him. It’s the wrong attitude. Perhaps if the dems had listened to this song they would realize it.

The question should be, is the Justice Department going to prosecute the guilty. Are they going to let the punishment fit the crime or are they going to just let them go as the dems hope they will.

The point is this, don’t you think anyone that has committed a serious crime should be prosecuted, no matter what letters are after their name. Or do you think that, no matter how serious the crime, all people with Ds after their name should go free regardless of the crimes they committed.

If they prosecute only those guilty of crimes, why should any of the dems have anything to fear? On the other hand, if their hands are full of guilt, why should they not fear the law, as any criminal.

To be sure, in a properly running justice system, the punishment should fit the crime, no matter who is guilty. Isn’t that the way it is supposed to work?

I’m Not Going to Try to Figure It Out

I guess about a year now, I noticed that I got most of the local channels except five, (NBC) on the antenna. A few days ago, I lost all channels, every one. After trying many other things, I tried doing a TV reset. (It makes the TV as if new.) As an aside, I had already tried to do a channel search and all that happened was the TV just looked at me as if I am dumb. Maybe I am for looking at the thing anyway.

At any rate, just for grins, I decided to do another channel search after I reset the TV. This time the search actually started, which was my first good sign. I mean I had already tried the usual stuff. You know, turn it off and on, unplug it, wait ten minutes and plug it in again and of course stand on my head, stand on one leg and rub my belly and the top of my head at the same time.

Thankfully, to my surprise, the reset seemed to work. Don’t ask me why. Before I retired, I used to work on electronics. Mind you, I worked on it. The more I worked on it the less I understood about it.

Wait. I’m not done. As I was going through the channels, I realized I had channel 5. If I had never reset the TV, I’d have never figured that out. The TV does not allow me to add channels. The only way I can do that, I have to do a full channel search. (I’m still trying to figure out why the engineers did it that way. It does create problems that I won’t confuse you with right now.)

At any rate, I picked up the NBC affiliate, channel 5, WMC-TV as well as seven more sub channels, including a news channel. Mostly, I don’t much care about anything but the news.

So, just for grins, I decided to watch the Chiefs football game. I ask you, can any one football team win more close calls? I mean, the kicker almost missed a chip shot. At first glance, I thought he did.

I am sure to the one team, it will be a night of celebration. On the other hand, I mean the other team was ahead and they almost won.

And to think, if the TV hadn’t messed up and made me rescan the channels, I’d have missed a pretty good game. And by the way, I do have the news channel now too.

Then, today, on the news, I heard a notification that WMC-TV did some work on their transmitter, making the signal stronger and added 7 substations. The suggested that we, all of us antenna users, rescan the channels. I don’t think any of the other stations would have made the suggestion. So I would not have heard the prompt to rescan the station.

So, I guess, when my TV went out on me the other day, maybe that was a good thing, though it did cause me a lot of confusion and anger. Who knows, if they keep adding channels to the antenna TV stations, I might have a better selection than when I had cable. The hitch is, I won’t know until I rescan the channels.

Odd as it is, strange as it seems, I think the picture clarity is better on the antenna than on the cable. If it is, I don’t think the cable companies will be nice enough to tell us.

Unseemly?

I saw the interview of Trump by Kristen Welker this morning on CBS. I noticed she liked to answer the question many times before asking it. To me that seems unseemly, or improper, if you will. To keep the post reasonably short, I will give one example, though I could give at least a dozen.

She could have just asked, “Are you going to insist that you really won the 2020 election?” Instead, she said something to the effect, Everyone knows you lost the 2020 election, so are you going to admit that you lost the 2020 election to help unite the country?

Though it was a horribly biased and badly biased question, Trump came up with an excellent reply. The country is divided now and who’s the president now. I think Welker realized Trump got the better of her there, but I must admit, she went right back to her question, though she must have realized that Trump got the better of her on that question. It reminds me of the adage that a lawyer should never ask the witness the question if he knows not the answer.

Nonetheless, she couldn’t leave it alone when she asked, if the dems won the 2020 election by cheating, why didn’t they win the 2024 election by cheating?

Trump casually replied, “Because I won by too much.”

To some degree, I believe that is true. However, let me add 2 more things to the mix. Even with over a billion dollars, Kamala was unable to purchase the election, regardless of the method. Might I also add that the media, like Welker, like TV and radio stations provided more campaigning in kind in favor of Kamala; this without conscience. Trump still won the electoral college and the popular vote.

As a parting note, that must have really irked the dems. No one of them were able to use that saying they have used in the last 3 elections the Republicans won. Back then, you could hardly turn on a TV without hearing that complaint that they should do away with the unfair electoral college. Strange you don’t much hear a word about Trump winning both ways. Do I detect a little embarrassment? Just maybe there was a mass embarrassment there, I mean, as I said, they don’t like to mention it. If they do like to talk about it, why haven’t I heard one liberal member of the media say a thing about it.

I think the instructions have been distributed, “Do not mention the electoral college. Don’t even hint about the popular vote.”