Month: August 2015

President Obama is spending a few days in Alaska. I don’t blame him, it’s beautiful in August. He’s mainly going there to speak against global warming. Global warming?  In Alaska?  Above the Arctic Circle?  Maybe he should return in February, go to Point Barrow and ask those folks if they object to their outdoor temperature perhaps rising a couple of degrees.

Apparently the President is going to tell Alaska to leave their oil and gold and copper in the ground. Just make your living moose hunting, salmon fishing and dogsled racing.

For oil, maybe Obama is doing Alaska a favor. Instead of selling it at $40 a barrel, hold it a few years till the China economy recovers, then sell it for $100.

The deal with Iran on nuclear bombs has been brewing the whole month of August. Two-thirds of Americans are against it, but so far the only ones in Congress they can persuade are Republicans and a handful of Democrats. It appears the Democrats will stick with the President and Secretary Kerry. Their negotiations will give Iran $150 billion, let them buy Russian long-range missiles, and keep four Americans in prison. Oh, Iran did promise to not work on a nuclear bomb for a while, but they insist on doing their own verification inspections.

The President is convinced his deal will keep Iran from building a nuclear weapon, at least until after he leaves office. What happens if Iran does develop a nuclear bomb in a few years? Well, he will claim that our next President and the hostile Republican Congress messed up the friendly relationship that he started with Iran’s Supreme Leader. He’ll say the majority of Americans who strongly oppose the agreement created such a negative atmosphere that Iranians continue to yell “Death to America” instead of loving us.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump continue to dominate the news on the 2016 race. Trump said he would not object to paying a bit more in taxes as long as rich Wall Streeters pay more and none of it goes to illegal immigrants. Hillary continues to evade discussing her email server (which she wiped clean, with a cloth) and claimed that Republican views of women are similar to those of terrorists in the Middle East.

An interesting poll asked for a one word description of the candidates. For Trump the top word was “Arrogant” and for Clinton it was “Liar.” Trump is likely proud to be called arrogant, and Hillary figures being labeled a liar won’t hurt her campaign. After all, Bill lied, and everyone knows that Iran is lying. President Obama was not exactly truthful about the affordable healthcare act and he got reelected.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

 “Rumor travels faster, but it don’t stay put as long as truth.” WA #65, March 9, 1924

“A diplomat is a (person) that tells you what he don’t believe himself, and the (person) he is telling it to don’t believe it any more than he does.” Saturday Evening Post, June 9, 1928

The Iowa State Fair is drawing a lot of attention this week, and not just for champion hogs, corn dogs and a butter cow. About a hundred candidates for President descended on the fairgrounds. Most arrived by automobile, but one literally descended, in a helicopter. Yes, it was Trump.

The one who got the most attention was Hillary Clinton. The FBI confiscated her infamous email server last week, months after she had it scrubbed clean. (She apparently did not want the public to see any video clips of her doing yoga exercises in her bedroom.)  She was asked again if her emails contained any classified documents. She denied receiving or sending any emails marked ‘Top Secret.’ Of course, the State Department has already identified five percent of a sample of her 30,000 emails as ‘Top Secret’.

She’s getting into a quite a bind; she was supposed to turn in the server the day she left office as Secretary of State in 2013. Well, that’s not exactly the truth; she was not supposed to use her private email server for government business. But she did anyway. Maybe she should recall a couple of things I wrote 85 years ago, “If what they call you is hitting at the truth and kinder getting you in your weak spot, why you start hollering and denouncing at once.” (DT #1370, Dec. 14, 1930); and “The truth can hurt you worse in an election than about anything that could happen to you,” (WA #470, Dec. 27, 1931)

If the FBI and Congress want to know what all was on her email server, they may have to call Vladimir Putin. According to Secretary Kerry, he probably has all her emails. For the right price, Putin might give ‘em up. He’ll probably insist on keeping the yoga videos.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

(Will Rogers died 80 years ago, Aug. 15, 1935, at Pt. Barrow, Alaska. Here are highlights from his final three daily newspaper articles.)

“This Alaska is a great country. If they can just keep from being taken over by the U.S. they got a great future.  (Fairbanks) is the greatest aviation-minded city of its size in the world. There is only 30,000 white people in Alaska and there is seventy commercial planes operating every day, in winter on skis… There may be some doubt about the Louisiana Purchase being a mistake, but when Seward in 1868 bought Alaska for $7,000,000 he even made up for what we had overpaid the Indians for Manhattan Island.” DT #2815, Aug. 13, 1935

(from Anchorage) “Well, we had a day off today and nothing to do, so we went flying with friend Joe Crosson, Alaska’s crack pilot, who is a great friend of Wiley’s, and Joe Barrows, another fine pilot. In a Lockheed Electra we scaled Mount McKinley, the highest one on the American Continent. Bright sunny day and the most beautiful sight I ever saw. Flew right by hundreds of mountain sheep, flew low over moose and bears down in the valley. Now out to visit Matamuska Valley, where they sent those 1935 model pioneers.” DT #2816, Aug. 14, 1935

(from Fairbanks) “Visited our new emigrants [the Matamuska Colony was set up to give a new start for destitute farm families, and continued to thrive into the 1970s]. Now this is no time to discuss whether it will succeed or whether it won’t, whether it’s farming country or whether it is not… As I see it, there is but one problem now that they are here, and that’s to get ‘em housed within six or eight weeks… it’s just a few weeks to snow and they have to be out of the tents… It’s houses they need right now… You know after all, there is a lot of difference in pioneering for gold and pioneering for spinach.” DT #2817, Aug. 15, 1935

The campaign for 2016 got serious this week as 17 Republicans debated in Cleveland.

Democrats gave themselves until October to round up enough candidates to hold their first debate on CNN. They are hoping Joe Biden will jump in the ring with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders so they can draw over 20 million viewers like the Republicans did on Fox News.

Here’s a way to guarantee a big audience for the follow up debates: switch a few candidates. Just like major league baseball has interleague play, invite a couple of Republicans to join a Democrat debate. I suggest Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee. Then the Republicans can make room for Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley in their next debate. Is there anyone who wouldn’t like to see Sanders take on Trump, or Hillary and Carly battle it out on stage?

President Obama gave a speech on global warming and how the burning of fossil fuels has to be cut drastically. As I listened to his passionate plea to save the world from carbon dioxide, I assumed he was speaking in China. After all, China contributes more to global warming than Europe and the United States combined.

But, no, he was demanding that we shut down our coal-burning power plants and cut back on natural gas and oil consumption. He did, however, assure us that our bills for electricity, heating, food, and driving would go down, not up, as we switch to wind, solar and renewable fuels. I’m surprised he did not remind us of the economic prosperity enjoyed by all Americans when we previously relied mainly on wind, solar and renewable fuels. That was about 150 to 200 years ago. Yes, the good old days.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

(Will Rogers died 80 years ago, Aug. 15, 1935, at Pt. Barrow, Alaska. Here are highlights of his newspaper articles for Aug. 9, 10, and 12.)

“Bad weather. Not a plane mushed out of Juneau yesterday… Tourists are still arriving by the boatload. Mining activity everywhere. Not much news of Congress and what we do get is mostly bad. Guess it’s about the same down there.” DT #2812, Aug. 9, 1935

“Get your map out and look this up (Aklavik, Northwest Territory). The mouth of the Mackenzie River, right on the Arctic Ocean. Eskimos are thicker than rich men at a ‘Save the Constitution Convention.’ We are headed for famous Herschel Island in the Arctic. Old Wiley (Post) had to duck his head to keep from bumping it as we flew under the Arctic Circle.” DT #2813, Aug. 10, 1935

“We are sure having a great time. If we hear of whales or polar bears in the Arctic, or a big herd of caribou or reindeer we fly over and see it. Friday and Saturday we visited the old Klondike district, Dawson City, Bonanza, Eldorado. Say, there is a horse here, the furthest north of any horse, and he eats fish and travels on snowshoes.” DT #2814, Aug. 12, 1935