I’ve always been a law and order kinda of guy. Well, at least since I overcame that naturally occurring adolescent urge to rebel against everything. But for me, law and order means Murphy’s law and total disorder. For example, technology has made everyone else more productive. Computers, smartphones, smart refrigerators, smart toilet paper and the like. It’s never worked for me. Literally. I have to tweak every gadget, every piece of software, every device because they never work as advertised, for me. I look at others around me, who seemingly have no problems and I wonder why I do. Before you get on that high horse, let me tell you that on most every occasion, I seek geek advice and ask them to try it (whatever the flavor of it is, in that instance), and they fail. To me, technology is a word that in my dictionary means, “There are a bunch of gremlins living in this digital ethos that are out to get me!” Plain, simple and as sure as death and taxes.
Two days before our scheduled departure for Mexico City, alleged drug cartel thugs landed on a popular Cancun tourist beach and assassinated 2 presumed Mexican nationals in a suspected turf war. Initial reports said no tourists were injured, just scared to death. Not exactly a warm and inviting atmosphere for a our upcoming trip to Mexico. I don’t know if my companion was aware of the event.
Our United flight to Mexico City, Mexico was a bear to get on. My wife’s daughter, a flight attendant bought and scheduled our tickets, thanks to her for that. But, checking in was a nightmare. I have the United app on my phone, and have for awhile. I know how to use it and used it 2 weeks ago, when it worked fine. But, not this time. I received 8 texts from United to check in for my boarding pass the day before departure. Each time I clicked on the included link, I received 3 more texts, all were exactly the same. And, none of them allowed me to check in. I, also, got a message that I needed to provide passport information and that I could do so by photographing it with my smartphone and using the United app to submit it. Failed, no I couldn’t. Every time I tried, I was returned to The TextMessage that was exactly like all the other texts inviting me to check in via the spiffy United app, that didn’t work.
On the day of departure, 5:30 am, I check my texts to find that my flights were cancelled, but rescheduled for 45 minutes before the cancelled flight was scheduled to leave. With a 2 hour drive, it offers me the choice of fucking up the whole trip or hauling ass to the airport. I hope Big Brother doesn’t see this, but we made it with more than a few potential traffic violations. At the United counter, we did get special service for check in. We made the flight by the hair on our chinny, chin, chins.
Then, we flew for 1 hour and 10 minutes with me bored as a bat because the United in-flight entertainment software was not compatible with my browser. But it was just enough compatible to tell me that it wasn’t compatible. There was no in flight monitor and United wants $9 for 1 hour on their in-flight internet service. I think, not! That is equivalent to $1,944/month for wifi service.
In Chicago, we arrived at concourse E and had 10 minutes to get to concourse C. We made it using some of those chin, chin hairs, again. No time to eat. The 3 hour flight to Houston was equally a trip of torment. The 3 seats in front and back of me and the seats on either side all had in-flight entertainment. And, personal device entertainment. Guess what, I didn’t. The passenger to my right and my companion tried to help. I talked to the flight attendant, who pointed to the controls on the arm rest and walked away, as if the problem was solved, leaving me with non-functioning in-flight entertainment. So, I watched 3 hours of United’s commercial loop telling me of all the wonderful technology United wasn’t providing me, over and over again. I was ready to go ballistic. But, I didn’t want to be That Guy pulled off the plane by Chicago Police and on a video clip on Fox News, leaving my minor travel companion stranded and traveling internationally, alone.
Now, we looked forward to arriving in Houston with 15 minutes to get to the next terminal, that was advertised as being 19 minutes away according to United’s app, for the flight to Mexico City. We walked up to the boarding line and directly onto the plane. They had already boarded groups 1, 2, and 3. This flight was uneventful, except that one of the flight attendants could not see me. Five times I tried to get an Mexico immigration form to fill out for my companion and he totally ignored me. Finally, I got one from the head flight attendant.
Once through the terminal and immigration, I just followed the signs to Salida (Exit) and we found Julio and his brother Jesus waiting. Although my companion has no memory of her father ( they were estranged when she was 9 months old), she has been in virtual contact with him for several years. The reunion tore my heart out and washed away all of the negative aspects I’ve been dealing with on this trip and for years. Tears and hugs and it was obvious that she was very comfortable with Julio and Jesus.
On the way to the hotel, Julio asked if we had any trouble in customs. We didn’t because the signs led us directly out the door and totally bypassed the Customs inspection station. Julio was surprised, but this isn’t the first time I’ve illegally immigrated to Mexico.
Today many US parents of school-aged children (and many others) are appropriately concerned about the current Attorney General, Merrick B. Garlan, identifying them as domestic terrorists, especially at local School Board meetings. I wonder why? Seeing as how liberal based Attorneys General have been murdering, attacking and in general at opposition with US citizens for quite some time. This post is only a brief look back into recent history. And, we all know what Uncle Dave thinks about not knowing history.
Former Attorney General William Barr, a professed pro gun-confiscation activist, served as the 77th AG under George Bush the Elder and as the 85th AG under Donald Trump. Yes, Bush the Elder was a Republican, but not a conservative and Barr was a flaming liberal registered as a Republican.
As the 77th AG, he sanctioned the shooting of Randy Weaver in the back, the shooting Weaver’s wife, Vicki, to death while she was holding her infant son in their house, the shooting Weaver’s 14 year-old son to death and the shooting of Weaver’s dog by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Barr spent the rest of his term defending the FBI sniper that murdered Vicki Weaver from prosecution. “Courts subsequently largely exonerated Weaver, while excoriating the FBI and the Department of Justice.”1 Bill Barr has not been held accountable for any of these deeds.
Janet Reno was the 78th US Attorney General under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. She was the first woman AG and served the second longest term as AG.2 Janet Reno has a bunch of other firsts.
The World Trade Center was bombed by militant Islamist on 2/26/1993 in an attempt to collapse both towers and kill tens of thousands of Americans. It killed 6 people, injured over 1,000. This violent attack by foreign agents occurred in New York City, New York, USA under the noses of Janet Reno and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.3
The Branch Dividian compound in Waco Texas, between 2/28/1993 and 4/19/1993, underwent siege by the Federal Government, ending in the conflagration by federal agents of the compound and the murder of 80 US citizens. Janet Reno authorized the assault on the compound because of suspected gun violations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. While the cause of the fire was and is disputed, the tear gas incendiary canisters that ignited the fire were the same as those used by the FBI, according to arson investigators.4 No one has been held accountable.
Many believe that the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building April 19, 1995 by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols was an act of retribution for the Waco and Ruby Ridge murders by the Federal Government. This bombing killed at least 168 (including children in a daycare facility for government employees), injured 680 and destroyed the building.5
This unexpected attack succeeded because Janet Reno failed in her duties to the USA. This attack was conceived, planned and executed by US citizens in the USA under the noses of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Ft. Davis, Texas hosted a 6 day kidnapping and stand off by the Republic of Texas cabal in 1977. Once it became known law enforcement swarmed to the site, including local police, county sheriffs personnel, the Texas Rangers a few Border Patrol Agents and, wait for it, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI, who have jurisdiction over kidnappings in the USA. That FBI. Captain Berry Carver of the Texas Rangers said, “Janet Reno told all the federal officers to get out because if things went bad again, it would be another black eye, and they couldn’t afford it,” he said. “Sometimes you have to think outside the box because it’s hard to get into the mind of a kook like that.”
The conflict was de-escalated by Carver and the kidnapping resolved by the Texas Rangers. So, because of fear that the FBI’s reputation couldn’t stand the public scrutiny of a bad outcome similar to the Waco affair of 4 years earlier, Janet Reno relinquished her federally mandated duties to the state institution, the Texas Rangers.6
——-In 2000, Elian Gonzales, a 7 year old Cuban child was motherless because of a boating accident while his mother was attempting to illegally immigrate to the US. Elian was found 4 miles off the coast of Florida, floating in an inner tube and in poor medical condition. He had a natural father, still in Cuba. Elian recovered and was released to his great Uncle in Little Havana, Florida. An International custody battle ensued involving relatives, the US government (in the forms of the Attorney General, district courts and several branches of federal Law enforcement) and Cuba; including relatives, Fidel Castro, Elian’s teachers and fellow students. Well, Elian went back to Cuba, having been forcibly taken from US citizen-relatives at gun point to become a marketing tool for Cuban Marxism and Fidel Castro. He became a member of the Young Communist Union of Cuba at age 14.
All in all, Janet Reno succeeded in returning a Cuban national who had succeeded in traveling under great peril to a free country that pledged to honor Cuban immigrants that succeeded in arriving on US soil to a communist regime in a communist country that was a militant enemy of the United States of America.7
Janet Reno was of paramount importance in militarizing law enforcement all across the United States of America. In this speech8, she made repeated references to chemical and biological weapons. Chemical weapons like incendiary tear gas? Biological weapons like coronavirus? She said, “Also under review is clarifying the definitions in the biological weapons statutes and expansion of these statutes to provide better controls over biological agents.” She also said, “A terrorist attack using a biological weapon may not be immediately apparent…,” but justified her actions bringing military technology to law enforcement.
She continued to justify her actions with public statements and explanations. On a Firehouse podcast, she said, “…the ability to respond to incidents involving chemical and biological agents and nuclear and explosive devices is a crucial component of the OJP’s [Office of Justice Program’s] domestic preparedness initiative.”9 How about that COVID-19 pandemic, how about the 2021 riots over de-funding the police?
A rather infamous career, in my opinion. And no accountability even though Janet Reno admitted the siege was a mistake and she felt responsible. Wonder how those Branch Dividians felt?
So what about the following Attorney General, Janet Napolitano? All she did was make a bold statement that all US veterans were potential terrorists!
In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security produced an intelligence assessment warning that right-wing extremists posed a mounting threat because of several factors that included the election of the nation’s first African-American president. The report, which said that some extremists could come from the ranks of “disgruntled, disillusioned” Army veterans.
So, “In April 2009, federal intelligence officials issued a prescient warning to police departments around the country.”
“Right-wing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat, ”experts in the Department of Homeland Security wrote. “These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists – including lone wolves or small terrorist cells – to carry out violence.”11
“Threats from white supremacist and violent anti-government groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts.”
Janet Napolitano listed the following for why she targeted Veterans and felt that they were ripe for right wing political parties.12
…the consequences of a prolonged economic downturn…
…including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit…
…could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing [SIC]extremists…
Rightwing [SIC] extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African American president…
…growth in the number of domestic rightwing [SIC] terrorist and extremist groups…
…in reaction to increased government scrutiny as a result of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing…
…the possible passage of new restrictions on firearms and the return of military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities could lead to the potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.
…firearms restrictions and weapons bans likely would attract new members into the ranks of rightwing [SIC] extremist groups, as well as potentially spur…violence against the government.
…returning veterans possess combat skills and experience that are attractive to rightwing [SIC] extremists.
DHS is concerned that rightwing [SIC] extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to boost their violent capabilities.
Rightwing [SIC] extremists perception that illegal immigrants were taking away American jobs…frustration over a perceived lack of government action on illegal immigration has the potential to incite individuals or small groups toward violence…
Statement of Janet Reno Attorney General of the United States Before the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and State The Judiciary, and Related Agencies February 29, 2000. 2/29/2000. Retrieved 11/4/2021 from https://www.justice.gov/archive/ag/testimony/2000/reno22900.htm
Janet Napolitano’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis Assessment. (U//FOUO) Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. 7 April 2009. (U) Prepared by the Extremism and Radicalization Branch, Homeland Environment Threat Analysis Division. Coordinated with the FBI. Retrieved 11/4/2021 from https://irp.fas.org/eprint/rightwing.
Elementary education in the 1950s taught that the Queen of France was reported to have said, when told that her subjects were hungry and there was a shortage of bread, “Then let them eat cake.”
A strong case has been made that Marie Antoinette never said this, but it has been used as a battle cry for those peoples disgruntled with the seeming lack of concern for their plight by their very leaders.1
Supposedly, an early Chinese emperor said something very similar during a shortage of rice about eating porridge.
A similar statement was made in 2016 about unemployed Kentucky coal miners learning to code instead of mining coal.
And along comes Joe Biden. Who, wants to give illegal immigrants $450,000 reparations for being separated from family at the border of the USA.2
The US Census Bureau reported that the poverty level was decreasing due to Trump’s economic policies. Then in 2020, the poverty rose as Joe Biden’s economic policies began to be implemented.3 Poverty, in the USA, is considered when a family of 4 has income of $26,500 or less. In 2020 there were about 37.2 million families in poverty in the USA. That is 1/8 of the population and doesn’t reflect those illegal immigrants pressing at the southern border. As of 2018, it is estimated 2,654 cases would qualify. that would be $1.2 billion and does not include the massive surge of illegal immigrants since. You think our trillion dollar budget deficit is overwhelming now?
Hum, …?
From your grumpy Uncle Dave.
I guess that I’d have to restrain from saying that those that forget history are bound to repeat it. Or maybe change to, those that forget what they were taught, regardless of how wrong, are destined to repeat it. (UD, Ed.)
I know most of you didn’t know Mister. And some probably don’t want to or care, but this is one amazing cat. Feline, although if he were human, I’d have called him cat anyway. This cat had long since used up 9 lives.
He was mostly black, with some white spots here and there and of average size, for your common domestic house cat. The most distinguishing features were that he had an over bite, a gimp and a personality that even my brother Jim couldn’t make up. Yup! Let me explain.
Mister was acquired by Angie and Stacey before I came into their lives. Sometime, shortly after he came around, he was run over by a car (Don’t laugh, by the end your gonna think Ray Willie Hubbard wrote this). At least that is what Angie surmised. He crawled home dragging his hind quarters. She took him to the vet and found that he had a broken femur (leg bone) and pelvis. I’m sure he got hit because he must of been standing in the middle of the road hissing at the car and refusing to move, as was his style. At the time they didn’t have the money for complete surgical repair. So the vet patched him up with a pin in the femur and skepticism that he would survive. Angie and Stacey carried him back and forth from the litter box and bed, where he spent the next 3 months. Every since then, he walked with a gimp gait that even Hollywood couldn’t have imagined (think Walter Brennan). And every since, he had unique litter box habits. He pooped and peed in the box, missing most of the time, and then pawed the litter to the out side of the box making one hell of a mess in the process.
The over bite was congenital, meaning he was born that way. At the last vet visit, the vet who was new to Mister, he commented that he had never seen, heard of, or read about a cat with an overbite. There was a good 1/4″ gap between the upper and lower teeth from front to back.
Mister had traveled quite a bit in his life. He basically lived with Stacey all his life. Every time she moved, Mister went on a walk-about. It usually would happen a few weeks after moving in to a new place. Its not that he would get lost, because before he left, he would go in and out and come home on a regular basis. He would be gone for as long as 10 weeks and as far away as several miles across town. He had been returned by individuals, vets and he had come home on his own. When individuals had returned him, it was usually discovered that he had been living with them as if they were his family.
Occasionally, Angie and I would cat-sit Mister. He would view these cat-sit trips the same as a move and would take off on a walk-about. Once, after we had let him out, he was gone for 3 weeks and we had written him off to the coyotes. But one day, Angie heard a low growl in the spruce trees behind the house and there he was, scruffy, skinny and attitude intact. After that, we did not let him out.
So, Mister found that the downstairs bathroom had a hole in the sheet rock ceiling where I had done some plumbing repair. He decided that that was the equivalent to taking off on a walk-about. Somehow, gimp and all, he’d crawl up in the crawl space (pun intended) between the basement and first floor and hang out. The opening was 4.5 feet above the nearest flat surface from which to stage a launch. The 1st time it happened, it took us a couple of days to find him. We knew he must still be around because he was regularly making a mess of the cat box and eating his food.
Mister was deaf. As a door nail. Worse than me, even. When he meowed, it was like a banshee (whatever the heck that is) screaming in eternal agony. It was as if he was trying real hard to hear himself. Usually, he would cry when he got home sick or when he thought we were ignoring him. And usually after midnight. Makes me wonder how he survived the coyotes. He also liked heights. For some reason, he liked to sleep, nap, hang out on the top of a book case or a fireplace mantle. Yeah well, those pictures or whatever were not in his way, he’d just push them off onto the floor for fun. When Mister would come over, Angie would go around clearing the top surfaces for him so he wouldn’t break picture frames and what not.
Mister was the kind of cat that would rub up your leg for affection and then hiss, spit and scratch you in the same moment. He would not drink water out of a bowl. Only from a dripping faucet or the toilet. After satisfying his thirst, he would bat at the water drops as if they were a toy on a string. Spreading an otherwise unexplained puddle of water all over the bathroom or kitchen floor. Mister was most sociable when someone was in the bathroom. Even when he wasn’t thirsty, he would come to the bathroom and bat water, for instance, while you were brushing your teeth or washing your hands.
His next to last adventure involved a move to Independence, Mo. They’d been there for a few months and low and behold, Mister turned up missing. Stacey and Jon put a sign in the yard about their missing cat and several weeks later a young guy pulled up and asked if their cat had a gimp, an overbite and an attitude. Yup. Well, it seems that Mister had found the Sonic, about 2 blocks away from their house. This young man was at Sonic and Mister just jumped in his car through an open window. His Mom was a cat person so he called her and told her what had happened and she agreed to take the cat. She lived in Blue Springs, Mo. about 20 miles away. They said that Mister had acted as if getting in the car and moving in with the mom was the most natural thing for a cat to do.
Like I said. An attitude. Mister was part cat, part raccoon and part dog.
When Mister lost almost all of his sight, Stacey fitted him with a collar and would let him out in the back yard on a chain tether. Like one would use for a dog. Mister’s last skill was that of a Houdini-like performance in escaping from bondage. His last walk-about ended in his demise and he was found in a neighbor’s yard, dead. No cars involved. Mister was probably 18 years old cumulative, because that was spread over 9 lives.
In 2009, then President Obama considered General Motors and Chrysler too big to fail.
I guess Walmart, UPS and FedEx feel Joe Biden is too big to fail.
…the president said, noting the commitments he had from Walmart and other companies, like UPS and FedEx, to run 24/7 operations to help quell the congested supply chain.1
