A New Sheriff

I read today that Ben Boyce has endorsed John Mutz for sheriff. That's good enough for me. We badly need a new sheriff after that office and the district attorney failed the community and shrugged off the killing of Andy Lopez.

Rexit

I'm sitting here this morning watching the talking heads on TV discuss the belated news that Rex Tillerson has been fired. Actually he got fired on Friday,  but the news was kept secret until today, Tuesday. So far no one has commented on the timing, which is interesting. (No one cares about  Rex Tillerson, who was worse than a failure.)

Rex Tillerson was pretend-fired today, Tuesday, because the Republicans are probably going to lose a special election for congress in Pennsylvania this evening. This is in a district that Agent Orange carried by 20 percentage points 16 months ago. After a year of cascading corruption, the Republicans look bad. Trump runs the White House by attempting to control the headlines one day at a time. He thinks life is public relations.  Today he wants to divert us from the special election and from the possibility that Stormy Daniels may soon post photos of his junk on the 'net. At last some may get to compare Little Trump to his tiny hands.  I plan to avert my eyes.

Don and Stormy

While his wife was recovering from delivering his latest son, Don Trump took time off from his cascading corruption to have an affair with a porn actress, Stormy Daniels. Now he's trying to drag Stormy down to his level, but she's putting up a strong battle. Daniels wants to discuss the matter. More power to her. 

The Fate of Businessboy

Marvel Comics is looking for superheroes, which may explain the rumor about a new dynamic duo, Agent Orange and his son-in-law, Businessboy. Agent Orange's super talent is found in his tiny paws. He grasps humans by their parts, rendering them helpless, and, at the same time, using his free paw, clamps on any money they might have and extracts it with loud boasting. Businessboy's super talent is to make things smaller, particularly real estate investments, whose values shrink whenever he buys properties. 

These two don't fight evil alone. With them comes a small army of helpers, mostly urinators. The ironic catch is that Businessboy's father is a really nasty ex-con, and Businessboy seems to be heading, against his will, down the same road. Yet there's nothing he fears more than the shame of  prison food. Businessboy is secretly petrified by his seemingly inexorable fate. His stony face, very smooth, is hairless with fear. And there's apparently nothing he can do to stop his slide into urination, spankings and a tiny barred room on the Hudson. 

Fire McMaster

Who influences Mad King Trump the most? At first it seemed to be Jared Kushner, business boy. Then this dude and that dude.  In fact the key adviser for recent Presidents has been the national security advisor. Right now that's General H. McMaster.  How long will he last with Trump, and should we care?

Look at what H. McMaster published in the Wall Street Journal.

General McMaster: "The world is not a 'global community' but an arena where nations, non-governmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage. We bring in this forum unmatched military, political, economic, cultural and moral strength. Rather than deny this elemental nature of international affairs, we embrace it."

In short, the world is an arena and simultaneously a forum where actors and businesses compete. We have unmatched moral strength, especially when grabbing international affairs by the genitalia. And we like it that way.

McMaster's view of our human interactions as ruthless, elemental and brutal combat is nuts, but if you are a dim-witted general, what you see in the arena from your soft seat at the forum will always be combat. If you are a hammer, what you see is nails. It's time for McMaster to retire. 

Look at the Second Amendment (and what it doesn't say)

"A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Take a look at what the Amendment does not say.

It does not say that the militia has the right to bear arms (which would be like saying that our army has the right to bear arms).

It does not say that people have the right to own guns to defend themselves or their homes. (It does imply that people have the right to own guns to take to a local militia call up to defend against the British or the Indians.) 

It does not say that guns should be regulated (which in those days meant "well trained"). It says local militias should be well trained. 

It does not say that people have the right to carry concealed weapons.

While the First Amendment grants the right of people to assemble, neither the First or Second Amendment states that people have the right to take weapons to churches, bars or school board meetings (or Donald Trump rallies, where for some reason guns and Bowie knives are forbidden). 

The First Amendment was adopted because the Founders thought a national army might become the fist of a tyrant. Instead of an army, they proposed militia, by which they meant local volunteers in a town, say, who would train together. (They weren't proposing our current National Guard, which is an army.)

***

But that's ancient history. Our courts have, over the centuries, interpreted the Second Amendment in new ways, and that is settled law, I guess. Depending on which state you live in, you can own some guns but not others, defend your home, maybe secretly carry a gun when you go to church, etc. You can not drive around in an armed tank, but maybe you can carry a military assault rifle--or maybe not. We know this much. In the states with stricter gun laws, there are fewer gun deaths.

(on Facebook) 

The Oscars Problem

I find the Oscars a gigantic bore of 1950s dancing and music, but I have developed a way of watching that speeds things up. I record the Oscars, then shoot through them, stopping only when I see the emcee. His appearance means that the next segment will be an actual award. If the award is for best lip-synching or whatever, I speed up again.

Every year there are complaints that White men have won too many awards--as if giving more awards to women, gays and people of color would change things. That approach has been tested, and it failed.

The real problem is that White men make 85% of the movies. Of course they win most of the awards. If green monsters from Mars made 85% of the movies, green monsters would win most of the awards. The problem is not awards.  The awards are a symptom. Giving more awards to so-called minorities (soon to be a majority) will solve nothing. Gays, women and people of color should be financed to create more films. We will get better films that way. And the awards will come.  

Jefferson Blowregard Sessions

Yesterday I heard Attorney General Jefferson Blowregard Sessions talking on TV about honor. It struck me that I had never heard anyone talk about honor other than tiny Southern political hacks. Among actual people, honor is not a topic.

Politicians talk of honor when not a single politician in America has some. I don’t blame them. We badly need skilled politicians, and the best have probably lengthened my life by banning smoking, for example. But the nature of the political job (cutting ugly deals with corporations) and how you get the job (begging rich people for campaign cash, dumping old political friends in the rush for power) rules out honor from the start. That’s our American system.  As Harry Truman said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. 

You can trust your dog. The politician closest to honorable is the one who, once he’s been bought, stays bought. 

Trump's Revenge

As many know, California sued to stop the building of a border Wall near Mexico, and then we lost in court. President Trump this morning threatened not to build our part of that Wall: he “decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved.”

In short, Trump wants the Wall, California does not want the Wall, and Trump is punishing California by not building the section of the Wall that California tried to block. 

Damn the man and his cold heart! And I hope he doesn’t realize that he can further punish California by forcing on us a huge federal grant for bridge and road repairs.