Month: April 2015

I read in the New York Times that Russia hacked into some of President Obama’s emails. That’s not good. But it gives a sliver of hope to the Congressmen investigating Secretary Clinton’s emails that she deleted: maybe Putin has ‘em.

Democrats are predicting that Mrs. Clinton will raise $2.5 Billion for her campaign for president.  Actually they only need to raise half that much because it can be matched 50-50 by money collected by the Clinton Foundation.

A new book shook up the Clinton campaign. She has said nothing herself about the content of the book. That’s no surprise because since announcing for President she has said nothing about anything. She thinks it’ll blow over and nobody will remember it except a few Republicans.  Democrats figure if she says nothing till November 2016, she’s in.

Meanwhile the Koch Brothers are trying to decide which Republican candidate to support with a $1 Billion donation.  One of the potential candidates, Donald Trump, responded, “Is that all?”  Mr. Trump is ready to put in $2 Billion, but only if the candidate is named Trump.

With all this talk of billions for politics, there’s one group of folks that could use a modest donation: the newscasters and commentators that work for MSNBC. They have spent so much time on television insisting the wealthy should pay a bigger share in income taxes that they forgot to pay their own. Al Sharpton is the leader of the scofflaws, being $4 million in arrears. Three or four others owe thousands.  Don’t count on the Koch Brothers to bail them out, but Clinton might.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” DT #1154, April 7, 1930

April 19 is a date that lives in a special kind of infamy because of deadly attacks by deranged kooks, including the one in Oklahoma City 20 years ago.  So far it seems we have gotten through another April 19 without any kind of terror attack on American soil.

I’m guessing our nation’s security forces were all on heightened alert today. If that wacky postman had delayed his mini-helicopter ride to the Capitol grounds until April 19, he would have been shot down for sure.

Hillary Clinton campaigned in Iowa last week. Iowa is where every candidate has to start, then on to New Hampshire and South Carolina. She stopped at a vocational school where about 50 reporters were waiting for her near the front door. But she had her van driven way around to a back door, with the reporters running wildly to get a glimpse of her before she disappeared inside. Another day she dined with a few hand-picked Iowans, but reporters were kept away.

She has been campaigning a week as the “champion for the middle class” but has avoided answering a single question about the middle class, or another other class. Other candidates were answering questions on the Sunday morning news programs, but not Hillary. So far the media are not complaining. She sent them an email that she will be in New Hampshire this week. So they are camped out in Manchester, waiting anxiously. Don’t be surprised if she avoids them completely and shows up in Myrtle Beach instead. You know, if she can successfully avoid media questions for another month, maybe they will simply avoid her.

Republicans are making fun of her Chevy van. Well, it won’t be long till at least a couple of the Republican candidates are campaigning in a bus. In Nashua, New Hampshire, Friday and Saturday, about 20 of ‘em gave speeches, one right after the other. Can you imagine sitting in the audience, having to endure 20 unique critiques of the Obama-Clinton administration.

What we want to hear, from all the candidates, is how to get the economy moving in high gear. It has been sputtering along, month after month. Oh, once in a while there is an optimistic report that things are getting better. Then the next month our hopes are dashed, with fewer new jobs and less spending by consumers.

I wrote last time about the California drought. City folks are complaining about having to cut back 25% while farmers don’t have to cut their water use at all. All the news articles say the farmers “use 80 percent of California water.” But they don’t, nowhere close to it. You might be surprised to learn that agriculture uses about 40%. Here’s the shocker: about 50% of all the water in California dams goes down the streams straight to the Pacific Ocean. Environmentalists insist on it. So, I suggest the city folks tell the governor to hold on to half of the half that’s currently “spilled” so they can take a bath as often as they need to for good hygiene.

Historic quote by Will Rogers:

          “I know part of the presidential candidates personally—well, I know about 18 or 19 of them. The others I know by reputation. So I am going to give you the real facts as I see them.” WA #76, May 25, 1924

This was a big week for lawyers. Indiana and Arkansas passed laws and Iran and President Obama reached a deal. And nobody agrees on what was agreed to. Lawyers and diplomats will be arguing over ‘em for decades.

The President says the only alternative to signing the deal with Iran is “another war in the Middle East.”  Actually, most Americans think we are already in a war in the Middle East, and Iran is winning. Iran is supporting Hamas, Al-Qaida and other radical Muslim Islamic terrorists in Syria, Iraq, Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Libya, and Somalia. Oddly, sometimes we find ourselves on the same side as Iran.

The reason no one agrees on what the Iran agreement says is that our copy is written in English and their copy is written in Farsi (Iranian). Secretary of State John Kerry and the President say the deal prevents Iran from getting a nuclear bomb for 30 years. That’s what it says in English. But in Farsi, Iran claims they can keep right on building their nuclear facilities, hidden under a mountain. They do agree on one thing: the US and European nations will hand over a hundred billion dollars that has been withheld from Iran, and we’ll resume full trade.

Then there’s an unwritten agreement, which is in neither English nor Farsi. What do you suppose Iran agreed to? No nuclear attack on the US or Israel, at least until after January 20, 2017? Or maybe, no attack until a month after Secretary Kerry accepts the Nobel Peace Prize?

Back to Indiana and Arkansas. Based on the opposite reactions maybe those bills were written in Farsi. As near as I can make out, the Indiana argument came about because somebody organizing a gay wedding decided that instead of a 3-tier cake they wanted a double crust pizza. The owner of a pizza shop refused, “We’ve been serving pizza for thirty years. But no one ever ordered pizzas from us for a wedding, and we don’t want to start a new trend. Of course, if those folks want to host a party to watch, say, a championship basketball game, we’ll be delighted to sell ‘em all the pizzas they want.”  Then Wal-Mart jumped into the fray, threatening to close every store in Indiana and move their headquarters out of Arkansas to China.

California is drying up. The drought has been going on for four years but they are just now realizing it hasn’t rained in a while. And this winter all the snow that usually lands on the Sierra Nevada Range stayed up in the air until it reached Boston. There’s an argument over who should get the little bit of water that’s left. City folks are being asked to cut back, but they complain that farmers get a big share of the water. Of course the farmers must irrigate their crops that contribute about $50 billion to the state’s economy. I doubt that irrigated lawns and backyard swimming pools contribute much of anything. Those of us who eat fruits, vegetables and nuts from California would side with the farmers and let their lawns, pools, and golf courses dry up. (But when it comes to polo fields, I ain’t sure the ponies would like running on bare ground.)

If you’re planning to visit California, Governor Brown definitely wants you to come, but he suggests you bring your own water. In fact, if you can rent a tanker truck and haul a load of water from home it might pay for the whole vacation.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“Nations don’t do things (the easy) way. If they did there would be no diplomats, and diplomats are nothing but high-class lawyers —  and some ain’t even high class.” WA #5, Jan. 14, 1923

“The government is doing what they can (to solve the drought), but even a Democrat can’t make it rain.” DT #2476, July 10, 1934