JOE BIDEN

   Here’s my take on good ‘Ole Joe.

   I don’t think he wants to be president.  I think he doesn’t expect to be president.  I think he is the sacrificial goat for the deep-state Democrat Party.  So, Joe is having a ball going around tweaking everyone with his gaffs and wild stories.

   The deep-state Democrat and Republican powers-that-be want to maintain the status quo of the deep-state power structure that has existed in Washington for many years. Trump upset their apple cart, and they don’t like it. They look aghast at the current crop of socialists running for the Democrat nomination, but voice no objections of consequence for fear of repercussions.

   They hate Trump, but fear the socialists more. The likes of Bernie, Elizabeth, Beto, et al.  So, not to totally capitulate to the socialists they persuaded good ‘Ole Joe to run with the expectation he can’t win against Trump.  That his candidacy for president will garner enough votes to marginalize the socialist element in the Democrat party.  They, the deep-state cabal, can tolerate Trump another four years with the expectation they will gain control after Trump and reinstate the deep-state run by the Democrat and Republican powers-that-be.

   Just my wild speculation.

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY) 14th District - parts of the Bronx and Queens in NYC)

   Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a.k.a. AOC, a few days ago said:  “I think that young people are more informed and dynamic than their predecessors.”  There’s a big difference in being informed and being educated.  Being told where the library is located is being informed.  What’s in the library is being educated.

   I took this from an Internet post on the AOC topic:  “Most young people can't find their own country on a globe. They have no familiarity with their country's history or how the economy works. They are being taught to "feel good" about themselves, to believe they can "do anything." They are an enormous group of ignorant pawns in the hands of the communists, currently referred to as “woke.”  I couldn’t say it better.

   When I was young (I’m now 90) I thought I knew everything.  The longer I live the more I come to understand how little I really know.

   “Those who think they know it all have no way of finding out they don’t” - Leo Buscaglia, American author and motivational speaker (1924 - 1998).

TRUTH, FACTS & GAFFS

   Good old Joe.  He is gaff-a-minute.  A recent notable gaff was he takes truth over facts.  Or, was it actually a gaff?  The news media (pro and con) made a lot of hay over it.  Did old Joe accidentally stumble onto a truism?  Facts are often distorted, embellished, misleading, incomplete, cherry picked, and on and on.  The Internet bulges with facts, yet a significant number are of questionable validity. The news media often misrepresents facts or gets them wrong.

   Maybe old Joe is on to something.  Filter facts through a net of truth, if any can be found.  So, let’s cut good old Joe some slack. 

CLIMATE CHANGE?

   Climate change advocates run around wringing their hands with their hair on fire.  They say the world as we know it today will cease to exist in twelve years if we don’t do something now.  I’ve been here long enough to see several iterations of this same thinking.

    First, it was an ice age was coming.  We would all freeze to death.  I remember long ago a baseball pitcher in the major leagues came in as a relief pitcher and threw one pitch which the batter hit out of the park winning the game.  When asked by a reporter how he felt about it he replied, “Ten thousand years from now when earth is just a big ice cube no one will give a damn.”

   Then it was global warming. The planet temperature was rising.  We would all be either dead or in dire straits in thirty years if we didn’t do something now.  Well, it’s now fifty years later and we’re still here.  The mantra now is climate change, whatever that is.  I wonder what it will be like in twelve years when we’re all still here.

   I’m 90 years old.  I plan to be here twelve years from now just to see. 

GOV. ABBOTT COVENES EL PASO STUDY COMMITTEE

   Texas Governor Abbott is convening a committee to study the El Paso shooting.  First, a study committee is usually a gaggle of people (mostly politicians) that talk much and accomplish little.  Second, the most effective committee is a committee of one.  Whatever results (good, bad or otherwise) any committee proposals are usually killed by the legislature.  Too many beneficial contributors object.
   This reminds me of something my mother told me years ago.  She was part Cherokee born in Indian Territory.  (No, Elizabeth Warren is not my mother.)  The tribal elders decided it would be good to educate the kids. They set up a school of 1st through 8th grades. They finally employed an elderly man that could do arithmetic.  Kids from very young until late teenagers were encouraged to attend the school.  Attendance varied from a handful to a dozen or more day to day and week to week depending.  After a while two big teenage boys began to harass the elderly teacher.  It was their version of fun.  They made physical threats and sometimes actually hit him.  Finally, one day they threatened the teacher with a gun.  He was so unnerved that he resigned.  The school was without a teacher for over a year.  Finally they found a young man from elsewhere willing to come teach, but only on his terms.
   The first day of school after all were seated at their desks, the young man sat at his desk, slowly but deliberately opened his desk drawer.  He very plainly removed a six-shooter and laid it at the front of his desk.  He announced, "The previous teacher was hurt and threatened with gun.  If anyone here is threatened or hurt it will not be the teacher."
   Mother was one of the very young kids. She said that was the meanest looking gun ever and it was on his desk every day.  No more trouble.  Over the next several years the attendance actually increased to about forty students.  Mother completed the 8th grade there, passed a county certification test, and returned as a second teacher at the school.
   Whatever, a show of force is usually all it takes.

DRUGS & TRAFFICKING

   We, the people of the United States of America, are deluged daily by the various news venues that we have a drug and trafficking problem. Much is said about it by all kinds of pundits, political and otherwise.   They wring their hands in despair and proclaim various cures.  I have news for them.  There is one cure, and one cure only.  For every seller there has to be a buyer.  No buyers no sellers.  Problem solved.  So why do we have buyers?  As a nation we’ve lost our morals.  Our moral compass points due south.  We have it too easy.  We have it too lax.  We have it too available.  Too many people have too much time on their hands to contemplate the marvels of their navel all the while the devil is working his magic nearby.

   A cure is highly improbable.  There are far too many people in far too many high places that make far too much money from the  weaknesses of far too many people.  The perfect formula for exploitation by those evil enough to prey on the weaknesses of lost souls.  And, there’s a lot of ‘em. 

PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE

I’ve long said the man does not make the office, the office makes the man.  He hones his ideas, issues and deportment to fit the templet of traditional governance.  Trump is an anomaly.  He makes the office.  His ideas, issues and deportment do not fit any templet, governance or otherwise.  He is unruly.  He is unpredictable.  He is tenacious.  He is outspoken.  He is his own man.  He beats his own drum.  What a difference from things past.  Therein lies his popularity with a large segment of the population that yearns for such a man as their president. Therein also lies one of the many reasons socialist thinkers hate him.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

   Epstein is accused of trafficking in young underage girls for sexual favors.  His little black book has the names of many notable and famous people with Bill Clinton among them.  His network reached to the four corners of the earth.  He smoozed the upper echelons of society and powerful people among the untouchables.  Sex was the name of the game. 

   I do not approve or condone anything Epstein did.  I do have a nagging question that begs for an answer:  Where were the parents of these underage girls?  Don’t they have some culpability?  Granted, the girls may have been runaways.  They may have been in situations  for easy enticement.  But, what was the home situation for these girls?  Why were they so easily recruited?  Were they kidnapped?  I can understand that once the girls were in the nest they may have been too scared to squeal or attempt to leave.

   This whole sordid thing is indicative of where our morals are today.  I don’t foresee much change for good, at least not in my lifetime. 

EPSTEIN

News Headline:  JEFFERY EPSTEIN FOUND DEAD IN JAIL CELL . . .The Russians did it to protect Trump

   That makes about as much sense as he died from self inflicted wounds in a federal correctional jail in New York.  If you believe that there’s a bridge in Brooklyn for sale.  Epstein was a predator octopus.  His tentacles were many and long.  They reached deep into the proclivities of high value notables.  They have to be protected.  Dead men don’t talk.  The circumstances of his death are being investigated by the FBI.  That’s precious with their creditability and propensity for hiding high value individuals under a cloak of secrecy to protect them for nefarious reasons.

   We’ll never really know.

PRAYER

   This is from a newspaper clipping sent by my sister-in-law:

   O God, encourage us to listen well so that we might learn
rather than being quick to speak about matters of which we
have little knowledge.  AMEN

   I've long said that part of our problem is we have more and
more people making more and more decisions about more and
more things we know less and less about.

   The longer I live the more I come to understand how little I know.

SPELL CHECK IS KILLING ME

   In my previous post, NONAGENARIAN,  the word "agree" should read "argue."  I hate machines that do my thinking.  Spell check NEVER gets the right word when correcting.  I want it to just tell me the word is misspelled.  Don't substitute some inane word that wrecks the meaning.  My car automatically locks all doors if it sits idle a certain  time.  I don't want all my doors locked.
   As we get older the simple things in life become more difficult .  

NONAGENARIAN (90+)

   For all my faithful readers.   I was an octogenarian (80+) when I began this blog a number of years ago.  I am now an established nonagenarian. Time flies.  The older you get the faster it flies.
   When my grandmother was 90 years old she lived with Pat and me.  One day she said something about time being shorter.  I told her time is always the same, a second is a second, a minute is a minute, and an hour is an hour, and time never changes.  She told me I didn't understand.  She said time is only as it relates to you.  When you're 10 years old a year is 1/10th of your total experience. When you're 30 years old time is 1/30th of your total experience.  And, when you're 90 years old a year is 1/90th of your total experience.  That is a lot shorter than 1/10th or 1/30th, therefore time is getting shorter.  Yes, grandma.  How could I agree with that logic?
   My father had a more succinct explanation.  Years later when he was 90 years old he said something about time is getting shorter.  I asked how so?  He said life is like a roll of toilet paper.  The closer you get to the end the faster it goes.
   I now know exactly what grandma and dad meant.

WHAT’s IT ALL MEAN?

   As a nation we mourn the loss of innocent lives as the result of two back-to-back mass shootings.  It’s terrible and shocks the conscience of our nation. 

   We’ve had previous mass shootings as long as over 50 years ago.  August 1966 a guy ascended the Clock Tower on the University of Texas campus and with a rifle killed 17 and injured 31 people.  Another was the San Isidro McDonalds mass shooting July 1984 killing 21 and injuring 19 people.  And, there are others more recently.

   Politicians of every stripe rush to the closest TV microphones in the immediate aftermath of each mass killing.   They have a mixed variety of solutions. They call for gun control, assault weapons ban, firearms registration, expanded background checks, red flags, ban ammo clips, license to purchase ammo, etc. There is even much ado to get rid of the 2nd Amendment.

   We, the public, have heard all this before.  It’s the same.   After  a while it quiets down as the news hounds and politicians seek other sensational headlines.  Nothing is done to take care of the problem.

   There is no easy short term solution.  I’m fearful that in the rush to pass more legislation it will become even more convoluted.  Just what is meant by red flags?  Does that mean kids are encouraged to expose others they perceive as a threat?  That’s reminiscent of the Nazis prior to and during WW II encouraging kids to expose their parents and friends.  Expanded background checks?  Does that mean various governmental authorities will dig deep into your personal life exposing all manner of things?  Don’t we have something called due process?

   We must dispel political theatrics and tread lightly, thoughtfully and with profound reason.  I’m not overly optimistic.  

SIGNS HAVE MEANING

   I know a guy that is president of a small Texas bank.  He had a sign placed at the bank entrance that guns were not allowed inside.  The bank was robbed three times in the subsequent year.  In desperation the president had a sign  installed at the entrance that guns were allowed inside and armed people were on the premises.  That was four years ago.   The bank hasn't been robbed since.
   I know of an instance where a guy bought a new sofa.  He placed the old sofa in the front yard next to the street with a sign that it was "Free for the Taking."  Three days later the sofa was still there.  He changed the sign to "For Sale $100."  The sofa was gone the next day.
   Years ago I worked for an American oil company.  I was sent to Iran as an equipment and materials specialist (fancy words for warehouseman).  Anywhere from 20 to 30 local laborers were on site at any particular time depending on what work was needed.  I was there only a few days when I saw a local native worker hunched down in the shade of the gasoline dump puffing on a cigarette butt he picked up.  I told my assigned interrupter to get that man out of there.  He replied, "Me no.  Maybe go boon."  I told him to have one of the native foremen to get him out, which he did.  He didn't know better.  I handed pen and paper to my interrupter and told him to write very clearly "No Smoking" in the local language which he did.  Late that night I made several signs very carefully copying the characters from the paper.  I hung the signs in appropriate locations including the door to the warehouse.  Next day when my interrupter came to work (late as usual) I saw him look at my sign.  He broke out laughing.  He was laughing when he came in to the office.  I asked, "What's so funny?  Can't you read it?" He said, "Yes, I read.  Only I read.  All them no read."  Dah!
   Signs do have meaning.  It depends on how you word them.

MASS SHOOTINGS

   There is no quick solution.  The problem has been festering for well over 50 years, much like the old Chinese water treatment of one drip at a time.  The bucket eventually fills and runneth over.  Our bucket now runneth over.  It didn’t happen overnight.  It took years and years.  Any viable cure will take decades to rectify.

   The beginning goes back to the gradual government take over of more and more aspects of our lives.  Government policies came to have more and more socialist tendencies   As a result we gradually became more and more secular.  Prayer was removed from our schools, and gradually removed from the public square.  Morals and respect were less and less taught  in our schools.  Traditional marriage  came to be more and more passe. Children were more and more reared in fatherless or one parent homes.  We became obsessed with the concept that everything had to be fair.  That children must be protected from failure at all costs. 

   These elements today are all ingrained in our social being.  It will take massive change over years and years to overcome the allure of socialism with faith, patriotism, honor, respect, and individual responsibility for your actions and acceptance of your failures with the intestinal fortitude to learn from them, and become better.

EL PASO SHOOTER

   Today a 21-year old white male took it on himself to shoot up a Walmart in El Paso killing 20 people and injuring 24.  It’s been all over TV this afternoon and evening.  Much has been said by various political and law enforcement officials about a thorough investigation to determine the shooter’s motives.  No leaf will be left unturned.  It will take several weeks or even more to complete the investigation for motive and lessons learned.

   There’s been five mass shootings thus far this year.  It seems the lessons learned, if any, never receive much TV and news media coverage.  What are the lessons?  What was learned that can be used to prevent or at least curtail these random shootings to kill as many people as possible?

    I think it may be beneficial to search today’s cultural social manifestations.  Have these youngsters from the very beginning never experienced failure?  Have they been pampered all their life and told over and over how exceptional they are?  Are they shielded from any and all unpleasant situations or disappointments in life?  Are unpleasant situations soothed over?  Are they the 4-year old kid throwing tantrums and food all over the table and floor of a public restaurant making an unpleasant scene all the while no punishment, but told it’s okay?  The kid knows he’s in control, not the parents.  Hours and hours on social media and video games blowing peoples’ heads off may also be factors.

    I grew up in a time when my importance was minimized and was told my failures were opportunities to be better.  Even as an army paratrooper trainee I was told jumping is just mind over matter, that they didn’t mind and I didn’t matter.  These pampered kids reach young adulthood only to sadly realize they are not exceptional.  That they are just ordinary, or even less than ordinary.  They can’t cope with this sudden revelation.  It’s much too difficult to squarely face their situation and do something positive about it.  So they seek some way in their twisted minds to do something that will give them exceptional significance.  The easiest most effective way is pick up a gun and kill people. 

JUSTICE?  DAH!

    I have trouble getting "equal justice for all" wrapped around my head.  It appears more and more every day, every new revelation that we have multi-tier justice.  In fact in high levels some even escape being brought to justice for their misdeeds.  Hillary violated several laws through various nefarious deeds. She skates free. The Department of Justice decides not to prosecute Comey for mishandling classified material.  His refrain is he didn't "leak" the documents, he "communicated" them.  Dah!  He "didn't know they were classified." Dah!  He was Director of the FBI and didn't know what constituted a classified document?  Dah!  I've come to believe more and more that though Lady Justice is blindfolded she certainly knows the smell of money.