There's an Opportunity Here......

The pending retirement of Senator Jeff Flake has set off a flurry of speculation as to whose hands the seat will wind up in.  Governor Doug Ducey already ruled out running as that he'd rather be a governor than a Senator.  There's some talk that my own Congresswoman, Martha McSally, will make a run for it.  McSally is a favorite of the Establishment, and I'm thinking......if they really want her in there, then why are they failing to make use of an opportunity before them?

In other words, why doesn't Jeff Snake (oops!) step down right now, and allow Governor Ducey to appoint a replacement?  He could name Martha McSally to the seat, and the Establishment could entrench her there and better position her against any potential primary challengers.

There are a number of reasons for this.

One.  The governor doesn't want to get involved in national politics at this time.  He's very likely going to sit back and let the primary process sort itself out.

Two.  The Establishment doesn't yet know whether to keep McSally where she is for a while, and then have her run for McCain's seat.

Three.  Martha McSally may feel the need to stay where she is to keep her seat in Establishment hands.  She narrowly defeated Ron Barber to get the seat in the first place, and she might stay where she is as that eventually McCain's seat will open up.

Four.  The Establishment is waiting to see what the Trump faction is going to do.  Right now I'm sure most of the Trumpites will be supporting Kelli Ward for this.  The thinking is that she would have gotten 53% of the primary vote in a matchup against Jeff Snake, (dang it, another typographical error!), but now that that is out the window the latest poll suggests she's not going to get that percentage against other candidates.

Five.  Jeff Flake (this time I got it right) hasn't yet gotten his next job lined up.  I'm sure he'd like to go work for CNN or MSNBC, but the catch here is that they have to make him an offer and until they do he might as well continue basking in his power.  This gives him more time to weigh his options.  I wouldn't suggest a book deal as that I'm not sure he sold more than 2000 copies of his book, and it doesn't look good for him if he can't outsell Hillary.

I think in this case, there is a rationale for this wait and see mentality, if that's what they're really doing here.

But I can't help but wonder why, though I think donor money has a lot to do with it right now, and the big donors themselves haven't yet figured out where to go from here.

Good Riddance, Senator Flake

Senator Jeff Flake, as of this writing, is Arizona's junior Senator.  He hails from a rural part of eastern Arizona, where a lot of good Americans live.  When he ran for, and won a seat in, Congress, he pledged he would only serve three terms and then step down.  Of course he went on to break that promise, ran for two more terms, and then ran for Senator in 2012 and won.

Senator Flake immediately got in good with the Republican Establishment.  Among his first actions was to join Senator Benedict McCain in the so-called "Gang of Eight" to force a largely unwanted piece of immigration legislation down our throats.  I didn't vote for him for Senate because I didn't trust him, and so it wasn't a situation where I personally was suffering from buyer's remorse here.  However, some others did.

Phoenix-area radio talk show host Bruce Jacobs, who is heard here in Tucson when Garret Lewis goes on vacation, immediately took to calling him "Jeff Snake" (it does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?).  Bruce Jacobs went on so far to say this summer that if "Jeff Snake" won the primary, then he would vote for his Democrat opponent........even though "Jeff Snake" would win.

There was every indication that Jeff Flake would run for re-election.  He started getting himself on national TV more often.  He wrote a book, shamelessly lifting the title from one of Barry Goldwater's books.  Garret Lewis and his gang would give us daily morning updates as to how many copies of his book were being sold..........the numbers weren't pretty.  Polls started showing that he was in trouble....which I guess would be good if you could trust them, which I don't.  I personally thought Arizona had elected a career politician for a lifetime in office, who would have had the longevity of Fidel Castro.

But then something happened.  His book wasn't selling.  His approval rating plummeted down to 17%.  His only announced primary challenger, Dr. Kelli Ward, was gaining traction.  "Jeff Snake" doubled down on his attacks on President Trump.  Then this week, he announced he would be retiring from the Senate.

My first reaction to his announcement was that this was the greatest news I've heard in six months.  But I found myself disgusted at the parting shots he took on the Senate floor, and I'm thinking, we've still got a year and a half of his "I know what you want but here's what you need" attitude towards us.  I'm not buying his phony argument that he's doing this out of honor.  I can tell exactly why he is leaving, and that's because he had reliable intelligence that there was no way he was going to win re-election.

Now on those occasions of a fatass politician finding himself sailing on that kind of boat, what are your options?

One:  you can do what Arlen Specter did.  You can jump over to the Democrats and join them.  Arlen Specter did exactly that when he learned he was going to be defeated by his primary challenger.  He went over to the Democrats, and then found that the Democrats don't exactly like turncoats either.  He was no longer a committee chairman or a ranking member.  He went down to the lowest possible seniority in the Democratic heirarchy.  Harry Reid would not permit him to occupy a higher position.  An up and coming Democratic candidate was bumped off the ballot in Pennsylvania to make room for Arlen Specter.  And Arlen Specter still lost.

Two: "Jeff Snake", upon seeing what happened to Arlen Specter, isn't going to jump ship.  He's not quite the level of backstabber that the senior Senator from Arizona is, but he's a backstabber nonetheless.  He's "Jeff Snake" after all.  He's got a primary challenger.  Now he could run in the primary, but what does that make you look like if you lose?  He saw what happened to Richard Lugar.  The Arlen Specter option is out.  And now the Richard Lugar option doesn't look good either.

Three:  you do what Bob Corker is doing.  You say you've had enough, your party has been hijacked, you don't fit in anymore (which you don't, Senator), and you have your temper tantrum designed to elicit the maximum amount of praise from Organized Media.  This option is preferable since you get to do damage to your voters who are too stupid to realize that they need your mastery over them.

There is the fourth, and that's to resign outright, and go home.  That would be the honorable way to go, but I'm not going to even jokingly suggest that your average fatass politician is capable of this kind of honor. 

The bottom line:  the base has been emboldened by last year's victory of The Donald.  We're mad as hell at the long list of broken promises.  We're not sending you, Senator, to Washington so that you can play "Let's Make A Deal".  We want Obamacare overturned, The Great Wall of Trump, tax reform, and domestic job creation as opposed to "free trade".

In short Senator, we don't want the Republicans to be the party that they defeated in 1994.

Now please have the decency to resign.

Monday, 10/23/17

I haven't exactly been a prolific poster here.  Not on this blog anyway.  I am much more likely to post on my ham radio blog.  I'm not sure anyone reads that either, but ham radio has been proving to be a great deal more fun than I thought it would be given the sunspot lull (that translates into poor band conditions).

I could have posted about Las Vegas and the shooter.  I almost did.  I quickly realized that anything I would have wanted to say about that would have been covered elsewhere.  Was the shooter a part of ISIS?  I can't rule that out any more than I could rule it in.    I lean towards him being an ISIS sympathizer, but if he was the government isn't going to tell us that as that they don't want to be stoking panic.  If that is the case, then I'm good with it for the time being, but eventually they're going to have to tell us what they know.

I could also post about work.  Trouble is, I don't like to talk about work here.  What happens at work stays at work.  I may or may not witness some interesting situations, but if I do I'm not immediately going to talk about it.  I may tell you some stories about my time at Pay Less Drugs in San Jose, or my time at Radio Shack in San Jose.

I guess what I can post about is that I'm aware that I am a very blessed person.  I'm still not 100% healed from the surgery, but the surgery was 100% succsessful.  It's given me some things to think about and a reason to be grateful for my blessings.  I'm not going to go into what happened just yet.  I may not ever.  All I'm going to say is that resting up from surgery is the most tiring thing I've ever done in my life.  It was nearly three weeks before I got my energy back.

Anyway, I came here tonight to check in, and let you know that I am alive and well.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

The Decline and Fall of the NFL

The National Football League has dominated the headlines these past few days.  Ratings are down, ticket sales are down, but publicity is up.  Publicity can be a good thing, it can be a bad thing, but it is publicity, and the NFL has been getting a lot of of it lately.  I also think we haven't heard the last of this.

The publicity of course, is due to the NFL players showing a disrespect to the country and to their fans like we've never seen before, and it's also due to President Trump taking shots at the NFL.  Some are supporting the players, and others are burning jerseys.

This all seems to have started when Colin Kaepernick decided that he wasn't going to stand for the National Anthem anymore.  He stated that it was his way of calling attention to injustice.  As can be expected, he had his supporters as well as he had his detractors.  He later decided to take the knee as they're now calling it, and it wasn't long before other players were joining in.

Of course this generated more chatter, and President Trump said some things that the players didn't like.  The reaction to that was more players taking the knee, others locking arms, and some doing both.  In London, several players took the knee for our Anthem, but stood for the Anthem of the United Kingdom.  And we've had flagrant displays of disrespect.

Now those who support the players are making the "free speech" argument.  They say it's a First Amendment expression.  Although no court has ruled that you must stand for the Star Spangled Banner, my argument is that the First Amendment does not apply in the workplace.  The football field is a workplace (I know I'm stretching the term "work" here) just like being behind the counter at McDonald's is also a workplace.  McDonald's employees, if they say rude things to a customer, are going to be fired, and that employee does not have First Amendment recourse in any litigation that they bring against their employer.  If you doubt me, and you need something to do, call up your local ACLU and ask them about this.

That said, I'm fine with football players saying bad things about their country.  As I sometimes do here, I'm going to ask you to hold that thought for a moment.......I'm going to come back to this, after I come back to the First Amendment angle.

As stated, it's a workplace setting here.  But there's something else here involved.  That something else is the rulebook and the expected code of conduct for a professional football player.

NFL rules state that a player must stand for the National Anthem.  That player must stand and face the flag, with their helmet removed.  The rules are the rules.  There are rules that set the conditions for how the game is played and scored.  There are rules for how many players can be on the field.  There are rules for how many players can be on a team.  There are rules for who can be on the sidelines.  There are rules that tell you what can be brought to the sidelines and there are rules that list prohibited items.  Players on the bench are not allowed to harass opposing players........and clearly that is a situation that is not subject to First Amendment protections.

Now let's get back to how the players feel.

Again, I don't care what the players think of their country.  They're entitled to hate this country.  They can gripe on their Facebook page if they want to.  They can tweet their disgust.  I of course won't be reading it since I don't do the Facebook thing and I don't tweet.

That said, I agree with the President that they're disrespecting their flag and their country.  These guys are making in one year what others will not make in a lifetime.  The very country that enables them to make this kind of money is being spat upon here, and because of that they're losing fans.  In one way I want them to double down on this and to keep going, and in another way I'm sad.

Truth be told, I stopped watching the NFL three, maybe four years ago.  I think that Saints Super Bowl win that I posted about several years back may have been the last time I watched an entire game.  In the seasons after that, I got to thinking of the NFL as being a corrupt institution that could not possibly be honest due to the amount of money involved.  I stopped long before Colin Kaepernick started taking the knee.

I felt that I wasn't the only one, but didn't really know that until last year.  Their ratings started going down last year.  The league of course denied that it was the anthem protests that caused it.  They said too many people were distracted by the election.

Well this isn't an election year, and guess what?  Ratings are down even further.  Last Thursday the 49ers had a half empty stadium for the first time in decades.  The two teams who returned to Los Angeles (yes, the Chargers used to play there) can't sell out their stadiums.  Whether or not the league wants to admit, they are in real trouble........and it's going to get worse.

What do you think will happen at after the next Super Bowl is won?  Is the MVP going to thank the fans, God, his family, and his team...........or is he going to go on an obscenity-laced tirade against President Trump?

I for one, won't know until I read about it on Drudge after the fact.

And it could be uglier than the picture below.

Medical Leave

Last month something was wrong and I got examined for it.  I won't at this point in time say what it was.  I was referred to a specialist, and one week later that specialist examined me and didn't waste any time scheduling me for surgery.  It was an out-patient kind of thing, but that kind of thing that would have me out of commission for a few weeks.

So on Wednesday, the 30th of August I reported to St. Joseph's Hospital here in Tucson.  The buildup to this wasn't pleasant.  The previous afternoon the damn phone wouldn't stop ringing.  People kept wanting to call me up and waste time going over things that a previous caller did.  I was about to tear into the last caller. "Can we do this tomorrow?  If I had known that I was going to have to waste six hours on the phone to get ready for this, I'd have taken the day off!".  It was one of those days where I hated having a phone.

Anyway, the procedure went smoothly, though I was in for a rough 48 hours afterwards.  I was on pain pills and pretty much wiped out.  The followup exam the next day explained more about recovery, and the next followup was scheduled in a week.  Within that one week I wasn't needing the pain pills any more, and I was cleared to drive - - locally.  I still had to stay at the same elevation for two to three more weeks. 

My energy didn't return until last Saturday.  I told Sheila and a few others that I had no idea that resting up from surgery would be so tiring.  I don't remember very much from that first week as that  I slept a lot and was sore where they did the surgery.  I'm still somewhat tender there and I have not undertaken very much in the way of physical activity.  My plans are to return to work on the 28th.

In the meantime, ham radio is helping to pass the time during those days where conditions are good (we're not getting very many of those days).  I've done some reading on what I want to do with my station.  I had a quick contact with a station in Cuba last Saturday, and I've also QSO'd (as we call it) Mexico twice already.  I'm also building up my code speed.

Time off from work is nice, but not when you have to do it like this.  It does appear that the surgery will be 100% successful when I am finally done healing.

Hurricane Harvey and Joel Osteen

The big news this past weekend was the arrival of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and the aftermath of flooding.  It's reminiscent of Katrina in 2005, and as I'm typing this I'm now thinking of Hurricane Betsy in 1965 and a story I should tell sometime.  Reactions on the net are similar as to what they were twelve years ago, only the players have changed.

As is to be expected, there is a lot of criticism towards President Trump.  I've seen online comments blaming him for this by pulling out of the Paris accords for climate change, and even more comments about his visiting Texas.  Presidents don't cause hurricanes, but you wouldn't know otherwise if you believed the comments I'm reading.

Another genre of comments is blaming God for this.  These run along the lines of "God is punishing Texas for [fill in the blank]".  That blank is sometimes filled with the word racism, and sometimes it's filled with Texas supporting Trump in the election.  I think that's patently absurd, as that God doesn't sit around from day to day trying to come up with disasters to send to people.  I believe that God *allows* them to happen for his own reasons; read the Book of Job sometime........Job never got his answer as to *why* he was afflicted.  Of course those making these comments don't really believe in God and most of them don't want other people believing in God, but it's an opportunity to trash religion and there's no way they're going to let go of that.

And with that, we come to another observation, that of the reverend Joel Osteen not opening his megachurch as shelter for those who are displaced by the flooding.  What I'm about to say here may not be what you would like to read, but hear me out, as that I have my own reasons for this viewpoint, and I'll make them clear before I sign.

I think Joel Osteen has every right to keep his church shuttered.

I'll say that again.

Joel Osteen has every right to keep his church shuttered.

One reason I say this, cmes from that libertarian streak within me that feels that a government should not and should never have a right to dictate what a person or organization does with their own property.  We have a Constitutional amendment to that effect, which says that the government cannot require a homeowner to house troops, and I don't consider it an unreasonable extrapolation to state that this would also apply to housing victims of disaster.

But I have another reason for saying this, which I want to emphasize.  First, a digression.

Joel Osteen is one of those televangelists who fall into that mold of "Prosperity Gospel".  His contemporaries include, but are not limited to, Mike Murdock, Paula White, Benny Hinn and Creflo Dollar.  If you remember Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, they were in that club too.  The members of that club are an elite amongst themselves.  They preach a message that God wants you to be rich, and to become rich, you have to plant a "seed", which is a financial contribution (preferably monthly), which after being planted, you will find your way to riches, wealth, happiness, Corvettes, coins, whatever.  Hell, you might even have an air-conditioned doghouse for your best friend!

Now I personally believe that God is concerned with wealth, but not a material wealth.  I think he wants His people to be spiritually wealthy.  That's a difficult term for me to define, but let's say that it means that you're well-grounded in your faith, and that you will hold firm when your time of trial comes (and you're going to get more than one trial!).  If God wanted people to have a lot of money, then the Prosperity churches would be plastered all over the globe and we'd have 85% of the global population being filthy rich believers.

That isn't the case, of course.  What the Prosperity Gospel can only guarantee is that those who are in that elite club of televangelist will be filthy rich.......I'm not sure I can call them believers, but I can call them believers in their own efforts of fundraising.  These guys and gals are very slick, they might be able to sell sand to the Arabs on some days, and they already have a ready-made answer for you if you don't get rich by planting a seed......"well your faith isn't strong enough.  Send me more money!"

To get this back to Joel Osteen and his not opening the doors, think about what you just read, and think about this:  isn't keeping his church doors closed an indication of what type of person he really is?

Before that is misconstrued, one other thought.  Some churches are small and can't put up people from their own congregation in cases of disaster.  The larger churches could, but this might get into the realm of what a church should really do......should they preach the Word of God, or should they become a welfare provider?  That's not a question that I can answer, but I have observed church bodies involved with soup kitchens and helping those in need, and I know from my time on a church council that we've donated budget surpluses on occasion to the Gospel Rescue Mission.

As for Joel Osteen, I've been somewhat critical of him here.  No matter what he does, someone (me, maybe) will damn him.  If he makes a donation behind the scenes, good for him; neither you or I should know about it.  If he makes a donation and holds a press conference to boast about it, then people (me, maybe) will accuse him of promoting himself instead of the Word of God.  (Honestly, if he does hold a press conference to that effect, I ought to let that go without comment; I'm really no better than he is).

Personally, I think it would be a nice gesture on his part to provide temporary shelter and meals for those dealing with this tragedy.

However, I don't think it would be right on my part, or on anyone else's part, to shame him into doing this.

As I said earlier, take note of this, and ask yourself if this really reveals the inner workings of a Prosperity Gospel preacher.

Jerry Lewis, Statues, Et. Al.

Jerry Lewis passed away in Las Vegas yesterday.  Although I would not consider myself a fan of his, that guy made me laugh a lot when I was a kid.  It was a real treat to be up late one Friday night during the summer, and learn that a Jerry Lewis movie was on that night.

DC Comics also had a Jerry Lewis series, and those were my favorites.  His dealings with life, his rebellious nephew Renfrew, getting a job at the circus where he was mistaken for a liontamer named Terry Lewis......I am not a comic book collector, but I would love to get my hands on the entire series.

We have lost a legend.

* * * * * * *

Tearing down Confederate statues seems to be the big rage these days.  This isn't a burning issue as far as most of the public goes.  Tearing them down will in no way erase the results of slavery or the Civil War itself, yet the malcontents want this done.

I personally have no issue with the statues myself.  I view it as part of our nation's history.  The way I see it, if we have statues in the North to honor those generals who fought for the Union, why can't we have statues in the South that honor those who fought for the Confederacy?

The reality is that both sides of this war had brave men and great generals.  I personally think it's regrettable that a bloody war such as this came about to settle the issues of slavery, secession, nullification, and state's rights.

In the Manassas Battlefield, there is a statue of General Stonewall Jackson, placed where he earned his nickname......"there's Jackson, standing like a stone wall!"  I attended Stonewall Jackson Senior High School when I lived there.  I cringe at the thought that a bunch of malcontents who have never been to Manassas would demand that the high school be named for someone else.

Reality is, is that when the war was over, Abraham Lincoln wanted reconciliation with the South, and not retribution.  When Lee surrendered, General Grant ordered his band to play "Dixie" for the defeated Confederates.

Tearing down statues, in my opinion, runs counter to what Abraham Lincoln would have wanted.

* * * * * * *

As I have stated earlier, I have been active again in amateur radio, and I really love it when I get to sit down in front of the rig and try to make contact with somebody.  I put up another antenna, this one for the 20 meter band.  I was able to make contact with two stations each in Indiana, Illinois, and Hawaii.  Yesterday I talked to a station in northern California and another one in Pennsylvania.

Conditions weren't really the greatest.  In fact, I can't remember when they have been worse.  Today they are better, but I am away from home this evening to enjoy them, so all I can do is look at the propagation reports and hope that whoever is out there is having a lot of fun.

* * * * * * *

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!