Month: January 2017

 

On Friday at noon a million people in Washington saw Donald Trump become our 45^th President. On Saturday a million women were in Washington complaining about the job Trump is doing as President.

A fellow has to be careful what he says these days. Years ago a guy could say something witty or sarcastic, and even controversial, and people would say, ‘Oh, he’s just trying to be funny.’ But now, if you put something on Facebook or Twitter it don’t take much to get ‘em riled up. I put this on Facebook last night: If Hillary Clinton watched the millions and millions of women marching in over a hundred cities she must have been disgusted with them, “Where were you on Nov. 8 when I needed you?”

Although President Trump has no laws passed, it seems the women’s protest was related to birth control. A lot of the women were wearing hats that looked like a cat, ironically unaware that the main method of birth control for cats is spaying.

Ringling Brothers circus has been forced to shut down. The radical anti-animal groups HSUS and PETA took away their elephants. As Will Rogers noted in 1928, putting on a stage show without a name performer would be “like Ringling bringing in his circus and announcing that he is sorry but the elephants, clowns and horses were not with it.”        The circus will soon be history, so HSUS will take on zoos, rodeos, county fairs, and farms that produce eggs, milk, steak and bacon.  HSUS gets their money from people who sign up for a $19 a month forever commitment (thinking the money is going to local animal shelters), and includes a bunch of the women who marched in their cat hats.

As President Obama moves into retirement, we want to compliment him and his family for serving as a role model for our youth and young parents for 8 years. The family flew to Palm Springs for a vacation in sunny California. The only problem is rain and floods arrived with them. Maybe they can go kayaking on a golf course.

The New England Patriots and Atlanta Falcons won their football games today over the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers. Both games were lopsided; the combined score of the two was 80 to 38. Let’s hope the Super Bowl is more exciting.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

“(Roosevelt) is a fast worker. He was inaugurated at noon in Washington, and they started the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, and before it got halfway down there, he’d closed every bank in the United States.” Radio, Apr. 30, 1933

“There is nothing impresses ‘common folk’ like somebody that ain’t common.” DT #612, July 12, 1928

“Things in our country run in spite of government; not by the aid of it.” DT #1930, July 28, 1930

“People don’t change under governments; the governments change, but the people remain the same.”  There’s Not a Bathing Suit in Russia, 1927

“Every man gets an opportunity once in a lifetime.” DT #2077, March 31, 1933

The country is preparing for an Inauguration in a few days. We have gone 24 years with just three men holding the reins, and folks are not sure what to expect from the next one.

Since the election President Obama has been giving orders left and right, trying to cement his legacy. And Trump has been giving his opinion on practically everything. On January 20, they will reverse roles. Trump has used Twitter for his pronouncements; Obama will use the media to stay in the news.

Have you been invited to the Inauguration? Are you going? Eight years ago a million people filled the Mall all the way to the Lincoln Memorial. This year there is more news about who is not attending the Inauguration than the ones who are. Protesters may outnumber the ones there to honor the new President. And the next day, more busloads of protesters have promised to show up. Now, I know that Trump is a fast worker, but it’s doubtful he will get any laws passed through Congress in 24 hours, so what are they going to protest?

The ones who have a beef with Trump are lawyers. The lawyers and other lifelong politicians have been running the government as their own, and Trump wants to replace a bunch of ‘em with business people. Paper companies are worried because it takes a lawyer a thousand pages to write a new rule, and a top business person will say the same thing in a page or two.

Radical Islamic terror seems to be ramping up. It used to be during a war we would hear how many had died in various battles. Now, there’s no declared war, but every day the newspapers have another story about an attack: a shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport, a truck ramming soldiers in Jerusalem, a fuel truck explodes in a Baghdad market, slaughter in Aleppo. And if somehow ISIS misses a day, we can depend on Chicago to kill and maim a few. Even Al Capone would be shocked at the Chicago murder rate.

Historic quotes by Will Rogers:

          “How do we stand all this uncertainty? Here it is ten days till inauguration time and we don’t know what (President-elect) Hoover is going to do and we don’t know what (President) Coolidge is going to do. Mr. Hoover ought to announce his Cabinet at once, for lots of times a Cabinet attracts more attention between the time they are announced and the time they take their seats, than they ever do afterward.” DT #801, Feb. 19, 1929

“Say, this (new President) Roosevelt is a fast worker. Even on Sunday when all a President is supposed to do is put on a silk hat and have his picture taken coming out of church, why this President closed all the banks and called Congress in extra session, and that’s not all he is going to call ‘em either if they don’t get something done.” DT #2055, March 6, 1933 [the “bank holiday” lasted 5 days]

“If there is one thing that a Politician hates it’s somebody that is not in their business.” May 31, 1928

“They talk about civilization. Say, there ain’t no civilization where there ain’t no satisfaction, and that’s what’s the trouble now, nobody is satisfied.” WA #367, Jan. 5, 1930

Will Rogers wrote about 3 of the 4 teams in the 2016 college football playoff games, Alabama, Washington and Ohio State (but not Clemson).

The University of Alabama was selected to play in the Rose Bowl, Jan. 1, 1926, against the University of Washington. Alabama was a huge underdog because southern schools had no respect from college football powerhouse teams in the North and West.  But that changed when Alabama won 20-19.

Will Rogers was at the Rose Bowl game and wrote, “I could tell from the way they played that the whole of Alabama was a football fool. And if Washington thinks it was a fluke, I will bet my last piece of rope and chewing gum that “Old Tuskegee,” the monument to Booker T. Washington, can come out here and confirm the victory. After seeing that game you will never make me believe that the Civil War was fought on the level. Poor refereeing must have beat ‘em.”

Alabama played again in the Rose Bowl, Jan. 1, 1935, and beat Stanford 29-13. Will was there, and had written a week earlier that pro football had become so popular by passing the ball more, “Audiences like clever passing and lots of scoring, not 0 to 0, or 7 to 6…. Well Alabama must [have read my article] because they just said it’s easier to throw this thing over there than it is to carry it over and, as a consequence, 85,000 people went nutty… I don’t blame Stanford for not getting in the way of those passes. Why, those things would kill you if they hit you.”

Will Rogers also wrote about Ohio State University football, in January 1927: “Dr. Wilce, the Ohio State coach, just showed me their new stadium, seating 100,000, built by hard study and excellent scholarship. They can seat 200 students to every book in the university. They lost to Michigan [17 to 16, on Nov. 13] by a kick after touchdown. He has 400 students practicing day and night to kick goals… I suggested they practice making another touchdown, they then wouldn’t have to worry about the goal kicking.” (Coach John Wilce was also a professor of clinical and preventive medicine.)

On Saturday undefeated Alabama beat Washington 24-7, and Ohio State was shutout by Clemson, 31-0, setting up the championship game January 9.

OSU could not score a touchdown and their kicker missed 2 field goals, handing them the first shutout since 1993. Urban Meyer makes enough coaching football he doesn’t have to moonlight as a professor of medicine.