Random Thoughts on Friday Morning

Friday musings

Joe and Donald John: threats and a fist-fight — c’mon guys. Haven’t you outgrown this stuff yet? What’s next . . . a contest to see who can piss the farthest?

Friday headlines

SoCal rainstorm: two-and-a-half days of heavy rain with evacuations. For us it was about 18 hours of intermittent showers, very little of it heavy, but, at least, I didn’t have to water the lawn this week — and the gardener was able to squeeze in a lawn mowing Thursday morning.

Trump gets bipartisan support for China tariffs (LA Times headline): DJIA down 700+ points.

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) plans to reduce nicotine in cigarettes and will look at menthol and other flavors that entice young people to smoke. Huh? Tobacco companies spent $5 million on politicians in the last election cycle — 84% going to Republicans. What’s with this? Could it be that FDA Commissioner Gottlieb (a former vaping company board member) is trying to give Big Tobacco a helping hand into a new market for electronic cigarettes and new addictions?

O.C.’s plan for the homeless seems to be falling apart: Really? Did District Judge Carter and the Board of Supervisors really think that HB, Irvine and Laguna Niguel were quietly going to allow them to set up camps for the homeless — hundreds/thousands of homeless — within their boundaries without some opposition?

Trump signs $1.3 trillion budget bill: $1,300,000,000,000 (I think that’s the right number of zeros.) — That’s about $4,000 for every man, woman and child in this country — I think. “Glad” my wife and I paid for several people other than ourselves. Hope Trump did too — I’d still like to see his tax returns.

Violence

Protesters take to freeway, arena over killing of unarmed black man / Video shows woman’s fatal shooting by police officer: One was armed with a cellphone and the other a knife. Since when do we teach our police that a gun is the weapon of first-resort? Aren’t there other ways to arrest and disarm people without shooting them? Must armed violence always be the answer? No, just no, no, NO!

“Reality” TV

McMaster out, Bolton in as Trump’s national security adviser: a reality TV celebrity with a reality TV news commentator as his security adviser — well, I guess it had to happen sometime. I just hope the script writers are better prepared than they were for the original shows.

Witch hunt

Legal shake-up in Trump team may suggest shift in strategy: hmmmm . . . maybe Trump has logically decided that since there was no collusion with Russia neither Mueller nor anyone else will find evidence against him — because it just doesn’t exist. If he just ignores the investigation, when they finally admit that Mr. Trump was right all along, Donald John can just laugh and say, “I told you so.”

Kids today

Balancing homework and changing the world: Parkland, FL students with a “real-life” lesson in civics. Hmmm . . . do civics classes still exist? Do they teach that with rights come responsibilities? And that that goes for supporters of the Second Amendment as well as for those of the First?


Note: the above headlines were taken from today’s LA Times and OC Register.

Note 2: On TV screen — Roseanne returns in 4 days — gods, talk about being bereft of ideas.

Guess Who? -- 1977 -- probably not taken on a Friday
Guess Who? — 1977