Bulletproof backpacks

Over the last ten years there have been more than 230 school shootings.  Congress still has not addressed the gun issue that is the cause of this carnage, but good old American ingenuity has risen to the challenge.  

You can now buy your 2nd grader a bulletproof hoodie or a backpack with a removable ballast shield.  How about a bulletproof three-ring binder?  Also available are bulletproof classroom desks and bullet-resistant hand-held shields.  And there’s more!

I won’t even comment on how stupid this is.

Info for this post is from Emily Baumgaertner and Alex Kalman, “Grabbing School Gear in Case of a Shooting, New York Times, (Sept. 22, 2024, p. 20.

All you need to do is flatter him

In his new book H.R. McMaster, one of Trump’s National Security advisors, explains how he tried to prep Trump on a visit to the Far East.  McMaster warned Trump that Xi would try to trick him into praising China.  He told Trump that the phrase “win-win” really meant “that China won twice.”

Trump seemed to agree, but in the Great Hall of the People Trump agreed with Xi that military exercises in South Korea were “provocative” and a “waste of money.”  Trump also suggested that Japan’s Senkaku Islands might actually belong to China.

McMaster passed a note to Gen. John Kelly, the chief of staff.  It said Xi “ate our lunch.”

The book is entitled At War With Ourselves.  It’s available for $32.50.

The end of human life

There are three main candidates to cause the extinction of humans.

The first is nuclear war.  As more and more countries acquire nuclear weapons, the chances for an all out nuclear war increase.  Accidents can happen.  Madmen can decide a nuclear war is winnable.  Countries may intend to use “tactical” nuclear weapons and end up with a full “exchange.”  The various agreements on nuclear weapons between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. made during the Cold War are lapsing and are not being renewed, and now we have many more countries developing both weapons and delivery capabilities.  If the blasts don’t wipe us out, the fallout and the nuclear winter will.

The second is pathogens.  A number of countries have experimented with biological weapons, including the U.S. and Russia.  We still don’t know absolutely if Covid was natural or an escapee from a Chinese lab.  Even if governments stop this madness, natural pathogens can still occur or can jump from animals to humans.  

The third candidate is global climate change.  The earth is obviously warming, plant and animal species are disappearing, the sea is rising, forest fires are growing in intensity, and storms are worsening.  Of the three this is the slowest moving threat, but it is also the one that is already occurring, and it seems to be picking up speed.

Notice that the threat of nuclear war and global warming and and most of the threat from pathogens are caused by humans.  You know, the species with the large brain that can solve problems and think rationally.

Something else just occurred to me.  All three threats will be more dangerous and more likely if Donald Trump is elected.  Think about that. 

Trump's health and his relationship with Black women

His health:  He won’t release his health file.  If elected he would be 82 years, 7 months, and 6 days old when his term ends in January 2029–if he lives that long.  He has all kinds of issues (obesity, cardiac risk factors, rapid cognitive decline).  If he does survive, he will be older than Biden is now.  Think about that.  Of course he may have other problems.  We don’t know because he won’t release the records.  What is he hiding?

His relationship with Black women:  Here is what radio personality Charlamagne tha God said about that:  “Trump hasn’t had a good relationship with a Black woman since they took Aunt Jemima off the bottle.”  

Liz Cheney and Kamala Harris in Ripon, Wisconsin

In 1854 a group of men from two political parties, the Fee Soilers and the Whigs, gathered in a one-room school in Ripon, Wisconsin, to discuss the issue of slavery and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  They emerged as members of a brand new party, the Republican Party.  In 1856 the party ran its first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont.  Fremont may have had the best political slogan of all times:  “Free Soil, Free Men, Fremont.”

Four years later the Republicans elected their first president, Abraham Lincoln, although Southern states refused to accept the election results and started the Civil War.

I think the Republican Party will split after Trump loses the election in November.  it is already coming apart.  Trump and his followers comprise one faction; normal conservative Republicans comprise a smaller unorganized faction, but in this day of social media and instant communication, that faction can quickly expand.  People like Liz Chaney, campaigning today with Kamala Harris, is a conservative who believes in preserving the constitutional order.  Millions of Republicans are ready to join her.  I’ll even suggest a name.  “The Traditionalists.”

Stealing signs

A few weeks ago the chair of the Carbon County Republican Party wrote a letter calling upon Democrats to stop stealing Republican signs.  He said with ring cameras and game trail cameras the Republicans would catch those nasty sign-stealing Democrats and they WOULD PROSECUTE!

This, girls and boys, is called projection.  The MAGA people have made sign stealing into an art.  I have already gotten calls from at least five people who need replacements for Harris signs taken from their yards.   I have not yet seen any defacing of signs, but I certainly saw lots of that four years ago, and I’m sure it will happen again.  

Democrats also don’t call the cops when signs are stolen.  We understand that the police in Carbon County have far better things to do that worry about yard sign theft by some misguided and immature MAGA clowns.

I do know of one instance where a guy with limited mobility living in Weatherly had a Harris sign ripped down and thrown into the street, and his MAGA neighbor picked it up and stuck it back in his yard.  I thought that was kind of sweet.

I also got a tip on something that won’t prevent your sign from being stolen, but it may may the thief wish he had not taken it.  Coat the sign with clear Karo syrup.  Sign stealers will regret it as soon as they grab the sign.  

Kris Kristofferson, 1936-2024

Well I woke up Sunday morning

With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt

And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad

So I had one more for dessert

Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes

And found my cleanest dirty shirt

Then I washed my face and combed my hair 

And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day

On a Sunday mornin’ sidewalk

I’m wishin’, Lord, that I was stoned

‘Cause there’s somethin’ in a Sunday 

That makes a body feel alone

And there’s nothin’ short a’ dyin’

That’s half as lonesome as the sound

Of the sleepin’ city sidewalk

And Sunday mornin’ comin’ down.  

or this one:

I don’t care who’s right or wrong

I don’t try to understand

Let the devil take tomorrow

Lord tonight I need a friend

Yesterday is dead and gone

And tomorrow’s out of sight

And it’s sad to be alone

Help me make it through the night

That is as good as it can get.