Walz and Harris ... Rumors of Misbehavior

Andrea Widburg who writes regularly for American Thinker notes there are rumors about Tim Walz and underage boys. Do you suppose what happens in China stays in China?

Is there anything to these allegations? I have no idea. Widburg claims no personal knowledge either.  Walz does give off weird vibes, but a lot of Dims do the same.

Perhaps if some young men come forward and go public we'll know more.

----------

Kamala Harris, when running for Attorney General in California in 2009, worked with a ghost writer to publish a book entitled Smart on Crime.  In it she plagiarized an entire Wikipedia article without giving citation credit or using quotation ("") marks. The book contains several other lapses of giving credit where due. 

Unlike the sexual issues involving Walz noted above, where only the participants know for sure, this misdeed can be checked out.

How ironic that Harris could be guilty of the same infraction which took Joe Biden out of the presidential nomination race in 1988. Maybe most people don't much care about plagiarism, those of us who write do care. We consider it theft of intellectual property. Watch the legacy media ignore this story.

Hat tip to Lucianne.com for all of the links in this post.

Word Play

A wordplay quote attributed to Dilbert creator Scott Adams. Say it aloud and listen to yourself.

The more diverse government is, diverse it gets.

And it was bad enough already.

Family History

The other DrC has a neat story at her blog, about my mother as a little girl growing up in pre-World War I small town Oklahoma. She chronicles a trip to Dallas my mom took with granddad. It's a story she never told me, but did tell my wife. I think you'll enjoy it.

That same determined lady, as a young adult in the late 1920s, bought a Ford coupe, in which she and a girlfriend drove roundtrip from OK to VA and back to visit the other gal's relatives. It was summertime, school wasn't in session, and they camped on schoolyards so they could use the temporarily idled outhouses. 

I believe both were clericals for a federal agency and were on vacation. I guess many roads were unpaved. It was a gutsy thing for two unaccompanied young women to do.

Saturday Snark, a Day Late

 

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

A Tentative Prediction

When Kamala Harris ran for the Dim nomination in 2020 she was such a flop that she dropped out before the first primary vote was cast. Still Joe Biden picked her to be VP, because he’d promised to name a BIPOC woman, which she is.

Before Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance the conventional wisdom was that Kamala Harris was a failed Vice President. She was seen as a DEI hire who performed even more poorly than such hires normally do. 

It turns out the conventional wisdom about her was correct. Even with the party behind her and abetted by their lapdog media, four years later she has done a poor job of being the nominee. It begins to look like she won’t win.

Friday Snark, 2 Days Late

Images courtesy of Politico's Nation's Cartoonists on

the Week in Politics.

Religion … Bigger Than BBQ in TX

RealClearPolitics provides a link to a New York Times Magazine article about how Christian fundamentalism dominates politics in Texas. It’s behind the NYT paywall but you can see a disapproving summary of the article here.

Our personal experience with TX occurred early in retirement when we ‘moved’ there for a year, for fun. We were offered teaching contracts for a year in the area northeast of Dallas at an A&M branch campus. 

We were both amazed at the robust role of religion in the lives of many of our students. Texans are friendly people, not standoffish, but we concluded we’d make few close friends of the sort you’d hang out with after work because their friendship networks were largely based in their churches. 

At the time Texans took a very relaxed view of “the separation of church and state.” Separation was largely ignored in our experience. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were still largely true.

At an on-campus welcoming dinner party for new A&M faculty we saw our host, the university president, offer a long, detailed and specific Christian blessing before we ate. Since we’d all introduced ourselves I knew there were several likely Jews among the new hires. I wondered if they were feeling like strangers in a strange land? The other DrC saw morning prayers offered at rural public elementary schools she visited as part of her job.

What we’d just experienced we would have never seen in CA. It was an eye-opener. Relatively serious Protestant Christianity is as widespread and influential in TX as you’d imagine Catholicism is in the Irish Republic. I’d bet few win TX elections without making their faith a part of their campaign pitch.

One requirement for an MBA course I taught was to create a career plan for the next several years. Nearly half of the responses included how they also planned to become more involved in their churches. They considered this an integral part of their career, obviously we were using different definitions of the term.

Update

Postings here will be somewhat scarce for the next 2-3 days. We will be driving for substantial portions of both Thursday and Friday, and tired when not on the road. Right this moment I'm taking a brief break from loading our truck with stuff headed for our winter quarters. 

We take our electronics, of course, and our meds, plus some clothes and our 3 office tubs. Living in two places for months at a time, we need our files with us. That's in addition to what we'd normally pack for a trip - toiletries, change of clothes, etc. 

Making the semiannual moves is a lot of work for two seniors, we'll keep doing it as long as we are able. We've been doing it for roughly 30 years, so we don't have to reinvent much. We have wheels under much more of what we take than was formerly the case.

One thing we added to our summer place this summer is a handicapped ramp. It's around back where it doesn't spoil appearance, but is no end of handy for wheeling stuff down to the truck instead of schlepping it down several stairs.

Kamala's Doug, a "Me, Too" Abuser

Writing for PJ Media, Victoria Taft itemizes the "Me, Too" complaints against Kamala Harris' husband Doug Emhoff. She has citations for each allegation. The record isn't pretty and the mainstream press is ignoring it (of course).

Fifteen years ago he impregnated his child's nanny, causing his first marriage to end. Twelve years ago at the Cannes film festival he slapped his then-girlfriend, and she hit him back (good for her).

And now, Emhoff is accused of being a creepy, lecherous, misogynist while at the Los Angeles law firm he managed. The Daily Mail reported Monday that from 2006 to 2017 Emhoff was brusque and mean to women at work and used women colleagues as arm candy at events.

Sounds like another Harvey Weinstein wannabe, doesn't he? Hollywood is a evil place most days, and Emhoff was a Hollywood lawyer. Kamala is his latest "arm candy."

Doth the Worm Turn?

There is a rumor going around politics mavens that Biden wants Harris to lose. The following is from a Steve Hayward Power Line column, he attributes it to an unnamed former colleague and longtime friend.

There’s only one thing worse than seeing your enemy win, and that’s to see the people your thought were your friends and political comrades-in-arms win after they betrayed you and stabbed you in the back.

Remember what Joe was caught saying into a hot mike with regard to Hunter’s legal issues? “Nobody f*c*s with a Biden.” I have no doubt he meant every word of it.

It certainly explains his recent surprise appearance at a KJP press briefing where he bragged about how closely Harris was involved in his policies. He really undercuts her promises to "turn the page" on the present Biden-led situation nobody much loves.

A Conspiracy Against Your Interests

In a small town in Pennsylvania named Charleroi, we see in miniature the forces enabling illegal immigration. Chris Rufo and Christina Buttons write for City Journal how the town's local packing plant likes cheap labor, as NGOs provide the leg work and volunteers to direct Haitians there and get them settled and employed. 

Meanwhile the Biden/Harris government facilitates the whole thing and to some degree funds the NGOs. It is importing a replacement population more to its liking. 

The old GOP supported this sort of undercutting of American wages, since the party was then run by a country club set which neither included nor represented factory workers. They liked their cheap pool boys, maids, gardeners and caddies. 

Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are the most visible remnants of that old GOP. There are days when Mitch McConnell sympathizes too. 

The Trump-era GOP, demonized as MAGA by the Dims, agrees with most American citizens that the influx happening in Charleroi, and many other places is evil, needs to stop now, and be reversed to the extent possible. I agree and I hope you do and will vote accordingly.

This CJ article is very interesting and well-written; I recommend reading it and sharing it with friends. Hat tip to Power Line for the link.

Our Rejectionist Elites

Writing at Substack, Chris Bray says something that can't be repeated often enough. Plus, if you follow the link to his prior writing, he takes a richly deserved poke at Jackson Hole.* Bray writes:

Just a few days ago, I argued that whole layers of high-status American political and cultural figures are “no longer culturally American.” They don’t see the country, they don’t like the country, and they don’t have the most basic American instincts.

He's thinking of John Kerry and his Davos-loving buddies. It really applies to a much wider swath of upscale urban America and chi-chi ski resorts like Aspen, Vail, Sun Valley, and Jackson Hole. Doug and Kamala are certainly included. 

Tim Walz is a wannabe, but career enlisteds really aren't "our sort." Goofy Walz represents what the high-status folk think us proles to be, when they think of us at all. Hat tip to Instapundit for the link.

*For example, the Jackson paper reprints with approval New York Times opinion pieces, unbelievable cheek in otherwise bright red Wyoming. Jackson would prefer to be part of California ... minus its high taxes, of course. 

My Answer

The prosecutor looking at then-President Trump's activities on and around Jan. 6 - Jack Smith - has filed additional materials in the prosecution he is heading. Meanwhile on the campaign trail Republicans keep getting asked if Biden won the election four years ago, mostly they hedge their answers. I've been thinking about how I'd answer that question.

I believe I'd answer that Joe Biden ended up with more ballots cast for him than were cast for Donald Trump. Biden was elected, inaugurated and is president. 

My concern about the 2020 election is that it appears likely that many of those Biden ballots were cast and/or counted under conditions that violated the laws of the state, should have been ruled invalid and thus not counted. Instead they were counted.

The excuse given was the Covid pandemic, then ongoing. Private funding by wealthy individuals also influenced the collection and counting of ballots, which should be unlawful.

The schedule and structure of our system means there is no feasible way to challenge irregularities after an election. Our system presume a disinterested non-partisan aloofness in those operating the process and, in 2020, altering it at the last minute. 

It is an aloofness that manifestly did not exist, and probably never exists. Governors and others took advantage of the pandemic to act unilaterally, using emergency powers in biased, self-interested ways. 

You may argue Covid was a "black swan" event, unlikely to recur. However, now the precedent is set, expect similar "emergency" claims in future, for example Hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Where Coal Is King

Power Line's "Mr. Charts" posts two tables that show the world is using more coal than ever and plans to use more. Whatever minor reductions the rest of the world makes cannot compensate for the enormous increases in China and India. 

Why don't the Greens go pester them, and not waste time with us?

Update

The leaves on the aspen trees have turned a pale, clear gold, the mountain maple hasn't done much of its deep red yet, and the deer which had tan coats all summer are getting their grayish brown coats of winter. 

We are well into autumn in the high country, but haven't had a hard freeze so far, and no snow either. We'll be leaving later this week and heading south to our winter quarters on the NV side of the NV/AZ border. If we've timed it right, our place down there will have seen its last 100 degree day before we arrive.

We are busily getting our place here ready for its winter hibernation. We sometimes think of our home as Brigadoon. It wakes up each spring, flourishes during the too brief summer, basks in autumn, and sleeps for the other half year. 

This year we will have been "in residence" for 5.5 months, most years it is closer to 5. This is a particularly beautiful time of year here, it is normally scenic but autumn, while short, is quite special.

We aren't young, and when we are no longer able to return here each spring it will be a sad time indeed.

Oikophobia Today

The terror attacks in Israel happened a year ago today. Are the perpetrators any better off today than they were then? By any reasonable calculation they are not. Many thousands are dead, their cities are rubble, and most of their leaders targeted and killed.

Are the Israelis better off today than a year ago? By some measures the answer is “yes.” They were mired in political squabble a year ago and today they have been unified, as only an active external enemy can do. 

Today we are likely to see demonstrations across Europe and North America in support of the Palestinians and in support of the ugliest forms of terrorism. These should be dealt with severely, but likely won’t be.

We are led by wusses and weaklings, abetted by Islamic immigrants who should never have been granted entry. The issue is oikophobia, and it can turn out to be our downfall. Weak people project their weakness onto the society and hate it for the very shortcomings they see in themselves but cannot face. 

Sunday Snark

Images courtesy of RealClearPolitics' Cartoons of the Week.

Walz Speaks Mandarin

Politico has an article about what happened on the trips Walz led that took high school students to China.  The article, if accurate, suggests Tim Walz is somewhat fluent in Mandarin.

A web search turns up a BBC article which reveals that for a year in 1989 before his marriage, Walz lived and taught (English?) in China. This explains (a) how he learned some Chinese and (b) the choice to return there on the Walz honeymoon.

Chinese schools were desperate for teachers of English at the time. In 1986 the DrsC toured in China and were both offered jobs+housing on the spot. We declined the offer.

Should we suspect a Manchurian Candidate (1962)? Probably not, but likely a friend of China. We got a taste of the expat experience during a year on Guam; it can be very interesting. 

We still have warm feelings for Guam and have since gone back twice to visit. However Guam is not an adversary and potential enemy of the U.S., while China is exactly that. It is entirely realistic to question whether Walz is willing to act against Chinese interests.

Taking "Never Again" Seriously

Former Israeli ambassador to the United States and Deputy Minister Michael Oren has written at Substack about how the war happening there is viewed in Israel. Some quotes that I liked.

Our Western allies ... inhabit a universe utterly alien to ours. In their world, the mass murderers in Tehran can be induced to deescalate by means other than escalation. In their reality, wars against terrorists who hide behind and under their civilian population can be won without harming those civilians and jihadists can be mollified by creating a Palestinian state. American and European leaders live in a simple, rational region that bears not the slightest resemblance to the real Middle East.

Israel will strike back at Iran—promptly, painfully, and manifestly disproportionately. Israel will defend itself not to spark a total war but to preempt one. Israel will retaliate against Iran and its venal proxies because defending our people from those who seek to massacre us is much of what our state is all about. Israel, at the risk of aggravating our allies, will survive.

FAFO, Israel takes "Never Again" seriously. It is likely Oren knows what Israeli leadership is thinking and planning. As such, his views are of interest to those Americans who are committed to Israel's continued existence and well-being. Hat tip to Power Line for the link.

Saturday Snark

Images courtesy of Power Line's The Week in Pictures

and its Comments section.

A Sign of the Times

These signs are being posted in various boroughs of New York City, reports the New York Post. It's an epic troll.

Israeli Policy Since Oct. 7

Writing at National Interest, Robert D. Kaplan looks at the changes in Israeli military policy following the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Here are two key quotes:

Up until October 7, Israel had arguably an extreme and, therefore, admirable view on protecting civilian lives and doing everything in its power to get back hostages and prisoners of war. Even when targeting the most ruthless terrorist leaders, it would sometimes use the smallest bombs possible to avert civilian collateral damage and would trade many hundreds of Palestinian terrorists in its jails in return for just one Israeli hostage.

By its (new) willingness to incur significant collateral damage in terms of civilian lives, Israel has ripped away the greatest strategic asset that Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the radical terrorists in the West Bank have: the ability to hide behind women, children, and the elderly. All of these terrorists are suddenly naked without the protection of human shields. Netanyahu’s very bloody-mindedness in this regard has shown how Iran and its proxies have miscalculated.

Basically, Israel has given up trying for a good opinion in the world’s eyes. Pre-Oct. 7 they made that effort and the world hated them regardless. 

Post-Oct. 7, they’re going to keep killing until the jihadi push-back stops. It is a rational but not especially humane policy. 

The U.S. has followed this same policy in several instances noted in the article. I’d add that is exactly what FDR’s “unconditional surrender” policy meant in World War II.

Hate As a Motive

Our former WY Congresswoman Liz Cheney (R-WY) is now supporting Kamala Harris for president. As Red State notes, she does this not out of a change of political philosophy but out of hatred for one man - Donald Trump. 

What the article doesn't say is why she hates Trump. It is, I believe, because he dissed her father - Dick Cheney - and his former boss George W. Bush. 

The truth is Bush/Cheney didn't accomplish much, weren't very upset by the Democrats' open borders, and weren't populists. They did wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that proved nothing.

Trump did what no Republican is supposed to do. He said Bush/Cheney were ho-hum, nothing special guys who hadn't deserved the office they held.

Liz must really be a Daddy's Girl, she has never forgiven Trump for that slur. She is at present the biggest publicly avowed quisling the GOP suffers, although Mike Pence comes close. Hate seems her primary motive, and it blinds her to everything else that should matter to her, and to our country.

Afterthought: Making a sports analogy, lose two Cheneys, gain a Musk and a Zuckerberg. It is a decent trade.

About Union Endorsements

 Fascinating quote from the Financial Times, concerning unions endorsing Kamala Harris.

The fact that so many union presidents appeared on stage at the Democratic National Convention to endorse Harris should be understood to mean only that union presidents are in her corner. No inference should be drawn from it about the preferences of workers.

Old wisdom: don’t ask a question if you won’t like the answer. Union activists intend to support Democrats, so they don’t poll their members, many of whom prefer the GOP. And it is true that the existence of right-to-work laws - normally perceived as anti-union - is mostly thanks to the GOP. 

Friday Snark

Images courtesy of Politico's Nation's Cartoonists on 

the Week in Politics.

A Family Man

People write and say a lot of hurtful things about Donald J. Trump, some of which are probably justified. What I don’t see commented on is that he has kids from each of his three marriages, appears to love them all, and none of them have turned on him. 

How many people with five children haven’t managed to alienate at least one? He even appears to get along with his ex-wives, a near-miracle, rarely duplicated.

Sure, his money doesn’t hurt as an attractant, but he seems to be all about family. It’s an old-fashioned value. That must say some good things about his character, I believe.

How the Choice Is Made

The attention to the VP debate has me thinking about VP choices and what they show about the person making them. Take Donald Trump’s two quite different choices as a recent example.

His choice of Mike Pence reflects Trump’s status as an outsider to politics and his need to have someone who’d spent a lot of life in politics alongside. That Pence had bona fides with evangelicals didn’t hurt when Trump had the show biz baggage and serial wives. Pence was old GOP.

Contrast Vance with Pence. Vance is new GOP and almost an outsider himself. As a successful President, Trump is no longer a political novice and doesn’t need the sort of legitimacy Pence provided. Now he needs an outreach to younger voters and a MAGA true believer, which Vance has become. 

It’s likely Vance has a future in Republican politics (see below). His non-white wife and mixed race kids are a bonus in the increasingly multiethnic GOP.

The Downward Spiral

One of the talking heads who write for Politico Magazine was impressed enough by J. D. Vance’s winning performance in the debate against Tim Walz to write an article (behind paywall) calling it:

The First Debate of 2028

Here is the abstract they’re willing for us non-payers to see.

J. D. Vance's debate performance may not have done much to help Trump--but it set him up as a top contender next time around.

We’ll see if Vance helped Trump. I expect he did by showing Walz to be a doofus whose selection reflects badly on Harris. It’s tough for a VP to push somebody up, but Vance pulled Harris down, which has much the same net effect in a de facto two party system. 

Consciously or otherwise, Harris has made the same sort of VP choice Biden did. “Knucklehead” Walz would be so lame as VP you’d pray for Harris to stay healthy. 

I’m imagining a spiral of less and less able people as Democrat candidates until we end up with someone off the short bus with an IQ of 40. That right there would be some serious inclusiveness.

Dock Strike Over

The East and Gulf Coast dock strike is over, according to the New York Post. I had written about it two days ago. The workers are supposed to go back to work immediately. 

I wonder if Gov. DeSantis calling out the FL National Guard to run the FL ports had anything to do with the quick settlement? The union secured a 62% raise over six years, but had asked for more.

It's an odd settlement. They've agreed on the money issue, but will continue to negotiate other issues between now and Jan. 15, 2025, while continuing to work. This means last minute Christmas shipments will come through.

Why Pin on a Target?

Something I've long wondered. Why do people with nefarious secrets in their past allow their (or their spouse's) names to be put up for public positions? The opposition research is almost sure to ferret it out and make it public. 

I have three current examples in mind. The first is Tim Walz's various exaggerations about his military service and his trips to China. The second is Doug Emhoff, husband of Kamala Harris, who is said to have slapped a girlfriend perhaps 10 years ago paying hush money to cover it up, and did impregnate a baby sitter while married to his first wife. His current wife can't be loving having her name forever associated with the smirking Willie Brown.

I bet we could come up with dozens more. What would be even more interesting, if hard to learn, is how many people with something shady in their past have consciously avoided public roles where the press might take an interest in them? It's a rare person who doesn't have something in their past about which they are embarrassed,  about which they don't wish to be questioned or hectored.

J. D.Vance wrote a book about his marginal childhood, his addicted mother, absentee father, foulmouthed granny, etc. Even sold the movie rights. It strikes me he did the smart thing and left little for the diggers to find. Now he gets credit for overcoming all that and becoming a success. I bet Walz wishes he'd written his own tell-all autobiography.

Review: Furiosa

I watched Furiosa last night on the plane, and managed to hear most of the dialog. The critics haven't been kind to this Mad Max universe episode. I liked it rather more than they did.

Anya Taylor-Joy has a very mannered, artificial, opaque, frankly odd-but-attractive public persona when interviewed. Maybe it's to show she's acting when she's filthy, wounded, clad in rags and crazy mad as she is in Furiosa.

The make up and costuming folks had fun with this, as did the mechanically creative who dreamed up the various outre' vehicles upon which much of the action hinges. The skeletal face masks and paint and whatever else that constituted their outfits were creative, well-executed, and imaginative in an S&M sort of way. Think psychotic bikers with a necrophiliac twist and you'll be close.

The male characters were a collection of testosterone-poisoned guys except those who were out-there perverts of various stripes. Everybody postures, everybody is tougher and sicker than the next guy, and absolutely nobody is reasonable or normal, though one or two come close, briefly. A couple of the guys had long hair a coed would envy, a la Fabio.

Mostly the characters are there to make the action scenes work and they do. The stuff's fun to watch, if you're able to suspend belief. You'll like it or hate it, I doubt there is any middle ground with this flick.

Young Migrants

Nostalgia sells, who knew? The Wall Street Journal reports (no paywall) increasing numbers of graduating seniors in the northeast and the rest of the country are applying to colleges and universities in the Southeast. 

Why you might ask. Because being conservative, those southern schools are still delivering what kids think college should be. Homecoming, pep rallies, keggers, a lively fraternity and sorority culture if that's your bag. Winning athletic teams, school spirit and pride, minimal or no protests, and tailgating. Add in warmer weather (and friendlier people) and a thriving economy with jobs on offer. What's not to like?

Who's suffering? The Ivies and other 'prestige' schools in the Northeast. Who's winning? The South's state schools. Actually the South is winning because out-of-state students pay more, and a large percentage of students take jobs after graduation in the area where their school is located. What do you bet their parents end up following them South?

Brain drain - North; brain gain - South. Another example of the marketplace and consumers picking winners, leaving losers behind.

Personal note: My undergrad campus was known as a "party school" (but is no longer) and I spent most of my career teaching at another "party school" (probably also 'former' since I left). Nice places, nice students, good experiences, decent degrees. 

Weird Hydrology Science

Elon Musk, today's version of Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison, has been quoted as saying desalination of water has become "absurdly cheap." Of course, when you have his money everything is absurdly cheap, but a Brit who likes to search statistics and crunch numbers has decided to see if he is correct for the rest of us.

It turns out to be true for developed countries, if you're talking about household water for drinking, washing, etc. Less so for poor countries.

Here’s the surprising figure. Producing enough drinking water for someone — assuming 3 litres per day — costs just $2.30 for the entire year. That’s less than the cost of a single bottle of water in many countries.

Where it becomes absolutely not true is when you factor in agriculture which uses most of our fresh water. Using desalinated water for agriculture would double or triple the cost of basic food stocks.

It might just be economic in fringe cases for high-value crops, grown in conditions that are much more water-efficient — such as indoor farming — but we’re still pretty far from having solutions that could make a big dent in meeting water demand for staple crops.

In other words, dope farmers could make it work; corn and wheat farmers, and ranchers of meat animals not so much. Food production will have to continue to utilize naturally occurring sources of fresh water.

Caveat: As the author notes, she made some unrealistic assumptions, like we will get all of our water from desalination. Obviously we never will. It isn't going to stop raining and snowing, ask the folks in North Carolina, who wish for less of nature's bounty.

Weird Aeronautical Science

Skydweller Aero, a firm in Oklahoma, has developed an unmanned autonomous aircraft powered entirely by solar cells, that will be able to stay aloft more or less indefinitely. They have had two successful test flights recently, each lasting most of a day. The craft generates zero carbon emissions. DOD is one funding agency.

The Skydweller aircraft, made entirely of carbon fiber, boasts a wingspan larger than a Boeing 747 but weighs as little as a Ford F-150. These uncrewed solar-powered aircraft are designed to perform ultra-long duration missions, such as maritime patrol, monitoring naval activities, and detecting smuggling operations, all while leaving zero carbon footprint.

I can see these aircraft replacing geosynchronous satellites for certain applications. Putting these in the air has to be much cheaper than boosting a satellite into orbit. Needing to provide no human support, they can fly high above the weather with their enormous wings, circling gently over a point on the ground. 

Afterthought: That carbon fiber body might not reflect radar waves, turning a big target into a little one.

Morning Musings

I just ate breakfast using a fork, looked at the fork and began thinking about when and how it joined our family. When I was a kid too many years ago some of the first package mixes for cakes and biscuits came out under the Betty Crocker brand, produced by General Mills. Each box had a coupon printed on it which indicated the number of points it was worth. My frugal mother collected these, and saved Green Stamps too.

When you accumulated enough points, those coupons and a modest amount of money would bring Twin Star-patterned stainless knives, forks, and spoons mailed to your home. The tableware was sturdy, well made, and close to indestructible. I’m certain the fork I used this a.m. is 60-70 years old and looks brand new. 

It has lived in homes, apartments, motorhomes, travel trailers, and vacation homes. It isn’t scratched, worn-down, or discolored in any way. It entirely as functional as the day it was made. For all I know it may outlive the pyramids of Egypt and the Yucatán.

Unearthed by an archeologist 1000 years from now I expect it will look much the same. They will read the lettering on the recessed underside and see “ONEIDA COMMUNITY STAINLESS” all in caps and wonder what that meant. And what its ceremonial purpose or function might have been.

Travel Blogging Coda

We’re home, Travel Blogging will end for a couple of weeks until we leave for our next cruise, when it will resume. I consider this trip a success even if the other DrC did catch the “ship’s cold.” I will probably get it from her. It is a definite downside of cruising. Coop up 200+ people on a ship and someone will have brought a cold. It will circulate among those aboard. 

In the old sailing ship days of months-long voyages, the first few weeks out would see the colds circulate and eventually die out. Then they’d be mostly healthy until they hit a new port and brought a new strain of respiratory virus on shipboard. Rinse and repeat.

Knowing this is why they quarantine astronauts for weeks before a launch, so they don’t take a virus with them. It makes for more comfortable trips. This NASA precaution is never going to happen on cruise ships so we deal with “the ship’s cold.”

Afterthought:  Jackson airport has none of those covered tubes that cozy up to a plane and make walking off easy. We have to descend to the tarmac and walk to the terminal. 

Upon arriving at Jackson I discovered that two weeks away - starting at 800 ft. in St. Paul and ending at or below sea level in NOLA - had destroyed our bodily adjustment to living over a mile high. 

I got out of breath just walking the maybe 100 yds. to the luggage carousel. Since we're only here a week before heading south, I probably don't have time to regrow those extra red blood cells that had become redundant down near sea level.

Travel Blogging XVII

Atlanta, GA: We are on our way home, we had to fly here from NOLA to get a direct flight to Jackson, WY. That was a brief flight, this next one won’t be. 

We boarded a bus in “Nawlins” this morning at 8:30 and got here around 1 p.m. local time. We’ll board our next flight around 5:30 p.m. and arrive in Jackson around 8 p.m. mountain time meaning about 4 hrs in the air. 

Say a half hour to get our luggage and then a drive home that will take over an hour. Most of the day spent sitting and traveling or sitting and waiting.

When you live in remote areas this is how every trip ends.

—————-

American Cruise Lines is amazing, I’m a fan. You pay plenty up front but we didn’t spend an additional cent for 15 days, there was zero nickel-and-diming going on. Every time you turned around there was food on offer, plus booze, juices, soft drinks and fancy coffees.

Three entrees to choose from every night, one a seafood. Three desserts, ice cream plus two others. Pizza on offer at lunch almost every day except when they ran out and couldn’t get a delivery, burgers cooked to order, and snacks just there for the taking. Movies to watch on the TV, plus broadcast TV.

They build their own ships, own their own buses and the drivers are employees who follow the ship down the river to each stop, The logistics of making all of this work boggles the mind. 

The crew are all Americans but multiethnic as anything. Whoever does their hiring is good at their job, everyone we dealt with was pleasant and, as the other DrC notes, kind and caring too. She had a cold so they took the meal I ordered for her to our room, including a beverage. And our cabin attendant showed up daily with a different sweet treat for two.

Sacking the Coach

The early returns are in, there’s wide agreement Vance won last night’s debate with Walz. The two didn’t do a lot of personal attacks - someone called it “Midwest Nice” - and the debate was deemed policy-heavy. 

It turned out about as expected from their lives to date: a lifelong successful enlisted man vs. clear officer material. Vance has upside potential, Walz doesn’t. 

Vance is president material, Walz is another Joe Biden, as MN governor he has already reached what Prof. Peter called his level of incompetence. Trump picked someone smarter than he is, Harris picked someone who won’t threaten to outshine her.

I would like to predict four more years of Trump followed by eight of President Vance, but our electorate is too fickle for that to be likely. Be happy with last night’s win, and keep fingers crossed going forward.

Travel Blogging XVI

On the River: We are southbound having left Baton Rouge during supper - crab-stuffed lobster tail, pilaf, asparagus, and crème brule’ on the menu. 

The Big River is a very different ‘animal’ south of Baton Rouge. Ships travel faster, the river is both wider and deeper, and plenty of ocean-going ships sail up river as far as BR. They are a shock to see after a steady 'diet' of barges and push boats.

We disembark tomorrow a.m. around 8:30 and are bussed to the NOLA airport. Tonight we pack and look for reports of how the VP debate went.

Escalation Dominance

The Washington Post's Mark Theissen interviewed Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago and managed to get a clear statement of the Trump foreign policy, as contrasted with that of Biden/Harris.

Listening to Trump discuss how he deterred America’s adversaries, a theme emerges: Biden emboldens our enemies by signaling that he fears escalation; Trump makes our enemies fear escalation, which causes them to back down.

This is what the isolationist right does not grasp about Trump: His strategy to maintain peace is not to retreat from the world, but to make our enemies retreat. He employs escalation dominance, using both private and public channels to signal to our adversaries that he is ready to jump high up the escalation ladder in a single bound — daring them to do that same — while simultaneously offering them a way down the ladder through negotiation.

Blame Grade Inflation

Writing about the weak leadership the Labor Party is giving the United Kingdom, but similarly applicable elsewhere, see what the editor of sp!ked concludes about modern society.

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about Peter Turchin’s concept of ‘elite overproduction’, and the tendency of contemporary Western societies, funnelling ever-more kids through higher education, to produce more would-be members of the ruling class than can possibly be absorbed into the ruling class.

But for me, the more pressing failing seems to be quality control. Just look at the supposed, would-be rulers we are (over)producing. Even those who make it to the top are bereft not just of intellectual seriousness, but of basic common sense, too.

Meloni Speaks

Do yourself a favor and go read a short speech given by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. She speaks in English and credits Michael Jackson as her ‘teacher.’ 

Meloni advocates defense of Western values and the need to support and model them in a world grown too fond of authoritarianism. I am impressed with her clear, non-chauvinistic conservatism. Perhaps you will be as well. Here is a key excerpt.

The West is a system of values in which the person is central, men and women are equal and free, and therefore the systems are democratic, life is sacred, the state is secular, and based on the rule of law.

Above all, we need to recover awareness of who we are. As Western peoples, we have a duty to keep this promise and seek the answer to the problems of the future by having faith in our values: a synthesis born out of the meeting of Greek philosophy, Roman law, and Christian humanism.

Travel Blogging XV

Baton Rouge, LA: We are moored in Baton Rouge, capital of Louisiana and home of LSU. The name is French and translates as “red pole, or red cane.” Our cruise is almost over, this time tomorrow we’ll be sitting in the NOLA airport waiting for our flight to Atlanta, with connections to Jackson, WY. Tomorrow will be a loooong day.

This has been our first experience with American Cruise Lines, and we’ve enjoyed it. They really do their level best to keep us fed, housed in comfort, plied with liquor, entertained, and generally catered to. 

We have spent the last two weeks in an all-inclusive luxury hotel that happens to be a riverboat. An example, we needed a couple of AA batteries and they ducked back into the office and gave us four, and not brand X either. 

We don’t drink much but I know the good brands and they’re pouring the good stuff, plus choice of wines at dinner. Three entrees to choose from each evening and if you don’t like any of them they’ll do you a steak, I had one two nights ago.

ACL is an interesting family-owned firm. They own the shipyard that builds all their ships, and they travel only in the U.S. although they have an affiliate that does a similar shtick in Canada. Their crew is American too. Everybody we’ve dealt with is nice, they do “pleasant and accommodating” very well indeed. 

They have itineraries on the Mississippi, the Columbia, and the Great Lakes, plus Alaska, New England coastal and Florida coastal. We’ve signed up for the Columbia next year.

On Strike

There is a major dockworkers strike on the East and Gulf Coasts. Stuff in transit across the Pacific will probably deflect to West Coast ports, which will become impacted as ships pile up offshore awaiting a turn at the docks. 

I’ve no idea  how long the strike will last. It will have a positive impact on rail transport, a negative impact on imports, and cause some grief for retailers trying to amass inventory for the Christmas shopping season which begins later this month. I’d say the stevedores picked a good time of year to withhold services, a busy time.

Expect lame-duck President Biden to speak in favor of the union. If Joe’s aged brain remembers anything, it is his to-the-bitter-end commitment to unions. It makes him an anachronism as a Democrat, their main voting groups now are college educated women and their androgynous husbands, plus every “victim” group that exists.

Dockworker unions have a checkered past. The ones on the West Coast were led by a Communist and the ones now striking are tainted with mob ties. Neither gains them much sympathy.

Thinking about dockworkers, reminds me of the wiry little guys we watched doing the job in Kowloon. This was when Hong Kong was still a Crown Colony. Clad in shorts and rubber flip-flops they clambered all over stacks of containers hooking cranes to the tie-downs built into the containers. 

All of this in 90 degree heat and near-100% humidity on a sultry South China Sea day. They weren’t all young either. They were nonchalantly doing things I couldn’t have done in my prime, too many decades ago.

Which further reminds me of the bamboo and raffia scaffolding around buildings under construction there. Some of these went up maybe 20 floors or more, tied together with what amounts to string. And they did the job. 

Scary but perversely fascinating. Obviously the men who built them knew exactly what they were doing and what would hold together.