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Clinton: No charges that we’ll hear about until infinity

Without a doubt I am likely missing a “talking-head fest” on CNN or other cable outlets right now. I could turn my television on in perhaps a flat two seconds, maybe a shorter period of time. But I ask myself, why?

One wouldn't want Hillary as your IT director. But she isn't going to jail, at least anytime soon. Government photo
One wouldn’t want Hillary as your IT director. But she isn’t going to jail, at least anytime soon. Government photo

Unless the President, who is on the campaign trail with presumed Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton, made some serious gaffe or in a moment of excitement decided to expose himself “in front of God and everybody,” the topic will likely be Hillary.

FBI Director James Comey made a step-by-step statement this morning concerning what government investigators found in their long investigation over e-mails used and sent by former  Secretary Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But, said the FBI director — a Republican appointee of George W. “GW” Bush — there was nothing found in the investigation into Clinton’s e-mails other than carelessness. Certainly, nothing was found that would make a prosecutor want to proceed with criminal charges against the presidential candidate.

Of course, GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump cried foul six ways to Sunday. “The system is rigged,” whined Trump.

Trump surrogates and mouth pieces lit into the decision that most likely means Clinton will unlikely face any charges into faulty e-mail practices. And probably into the next General Election will we hear all kinds of complaints about Clinton and the “damn  e-mails,” as Independent/Democrat U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said during his campaign against Clinton for the D nomination.

But we will continue to hear about the e-mails and Benghazi from now until who knows when.

Well, I have just enough time to do a quick edit on this before I turn on the local news to see if our local TV reporters are better today than they were yesterday in covering what’s happening in our area. There’s always hope. But hope doesn’t get ya ratings!!!

Boy, do I really need a life.

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July 4, 2016 — Happy Birthday to the U.S. of A.

Happy Birthday, America! Eat hotdogs, ribs, goat, or some fajitas. Whatever you want to eat. Raise a toast. Drink but don’t drive. Watch some fireworks. Don’t blow off your hand.

Above all, remember what this day is for and why it is so celebrated:

Courtesy of the National Park Service.
Courtesy of the National Park Service.
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Suffering political fatigue? Just think of “Fog.”

Someone, I think it was a journalist, on National Public Radio was speaking about an interview this morning by the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart with Attorney General Loretta Lynch at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. The person speaking, it might have even been Capehart, told NPR that even if Hillary Clinton is elected presidents the Republicans will continue to hound her for the email scandal and the Benghazi attacks in which U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens along with Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and two CIA security contractors, were killed by terrorists.

That is unnerving, that should Clinton win the election over presumed GOP candidate Donald Trump, the Republican congressmen and other grudge-holding party hacks, will continue to spend millions of the taxpayers’ dollars for made-up scandals — Benghazi and e-mail — intended to hurt Clinton and the Democrats.

Lynch says she was speaking about her so-called chance encounter with former President Bill Clinton when he boarded her plane and they supposedly chatted about “their grandchildren” and matters that didn’t have anything to do with the Justice Department probe of Hillary or, as Bernie Sanders said, ” … her damn e-mail!”

Of course, if the American electorate has any sense, they will reject Trump by the highest margin ever, and perhaps send a solid majority of Democrats to the Senate. Maybe even a sufficient number of Democrats will make their way to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Even so, that is depressing news, for the non-Dem-hating public to be told to expect the same old bullshit over and over ad nauseam. Of course, if we have to endure such foolishness, it will be the voters’ fault. The people elected Billy Jeff Clinton, and may just elect Hillary R. Clinton. HRC is a much better choice than Donald Trump on any day. But I think Hillary barely edges Trump when it comes to likeability.

I am not so sure as whether all Democrats are so wild about Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as a vice presidential candidate to run with Clinton. I mean, politically, she is a firebrand and seems to be a progressive in the line of Bernie Sanders, the independent/Democrat, U.S. senator from Vermont. While that might be good for political unity among the Democrats, I just think the progressive wing of the party is going where they will just end up disappointed.

A hefty Democrat majority in Congress, both House and Senate, is a requirement for pushing measures forward such as a $15 per hour minimum wage or free public college tuition. Whether either Democrat wishes have a chance in hell, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens in November. And, as well as likely beyond.

I feel a major case of campaign fatigue coming on. However, I expect I will let it come and go, to paraphrase Carl Sandburg, like fog on little cat feet.

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

— “Fog” by Carl Sandburg

 

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Navigating the world with a nagging Siri

Sometimes this digital world gets really crazy.

I have always wondered what would happen if I said something particularly vile to Siri, the automated personal assistant on my iPhone. Nevertheless, I try to be a polite and not-so-profane person, even to Siri. I don’t believe the time I spent on a ship in the Navy was particularly helpful toward such an aspiration. But I honestly try to control my profanity although sometimes it just busts on out there.

Yesterday was a hot summer day in Southeast Texas. I am without air conditioning in my truck, supposedly because I need a new compressor. I had an appointment this morning at the VA Hospital in Houston with my podiatrist and it was scheduled sort of early in the morning. So I rented a car to drive to Houston and to overnight at a hotel in order to beat the early traffic in the morning.

Well, that all worked well this morning but yesterday was a different matter.

The rental agency didn’t have the kind of car I had requested. I had asked for a compact, but they didn’t have one clean. So I ended up getting a 2016 Jeep Trailhawk for the same price. Sometimes you get whatever you get at a car rental agency and sometimes you get even better. I liked the 4 x 4 Trailhawk, although its dominant color was red, but at least I could see where I had parked it in a large parking lot.

Siri, Do you know the way to San Jose?
Siri, Do you know the way to San Jose?

I left Beaumont Tuesday on I-10 just after 3 p.m. All was going well. I stopped off at Winnie for gas and some iced tea. I noticed the skies in the west were growing increasingly dark. It was probably five or six miles after Winnie when I ran into rain, and I’m talking heavy rain.

The heavy rain probably didn’t stop until I was almost halfway to Houston. Then not long afterwards, I heard on the radio that a left lane was blocked on I-10 in East Houston  because of water on the road. Well, I saw water on the road but none that was worth closing the highway. Then, what else? Traffic. Bumper-to-bumper traffic was all the way to only a few miles from my destination.

My destination was a hotel on South Main near the NRG Stadium and the Astrodome. But I was still unsure just how I should proceed there on the city streets. Well, that is when I clicked onto Siri for help with directions.

I don’t like nor recommend talking on the phone when you are driving, but as long as Siri understands what you are saying, she is pretty good at directions. I mean, there are problems. But yesterday Siri heard me loud and clear. Not far from my destination, I encountered a blocked lane with someone pulling in front of me. Talking to no one — especially Siri — while trying to negotiate traffic I uttered: “Bullshit!”

All of a sudden Siri retorted: “I hope you don’t kiss your mother with that mouth!”

Well, I could have become indignant what with my mother having died more than 30 years ago. But instead, I laughed out loud. I suppose Siri is not fond of my profanity. But I could not help cracking up. It was just too f***ing funny!

The trip back home today was much better. No rain, no traffic.

Best of all, there was no scolding from Siri. Maybe I should really have really gotten married all those many years ago.

 

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Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism: Chaos from Korea (North)

Say “Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism” three times, speaking fast. Can’t do it? I doubt many care.

But this seems to be the cult of personality pushed nowadays by North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. The ever-entertaining Korean Central News Agency of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or KNCA, expounds upon a June 24 “National Seminar on Kim Jung Un’s Ideas and Lines.” The seminar at the Pyongyang People’s Palace of Culture sought “to deeply grasp and thoroughly implement the ideas and lines set forth by supreme leader Kim Jong Un in his report to the Seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea,” the KNCA says.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is escorted by NK Army leaders, from left, Larry, Moe and Curly. (North) Korea Central News Agency photo.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is escorted by NK Army leaders, from left, Larry, Moe and Curly. (North) Korea Central News Agency photo.

Okay.

 “Choe Thae Bok, vice-chairman of the C.C., the WPK, and other speakers said that the revolutionary lines set forth in the report including the clarification that the general line of building socialism and the self-development-first principle serve as the strategic line to be consistently maintained in building a socialist power and realizing the cause of modeling the whole society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism are an encyclopedic and political great programme which gives perfect answers to the theoretical and practical issues in the revolution and construction,” the KNCA reports in an amazing one sentence description.

What does it mean? Well, the crack(ed) writers at the KNCA further explained by reporting:

“They (the speakers) noted that the programme for modeling the whole society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism clarifies the correct orientation and ways of firmly preparing those in charge of accomplishing the cause of the popular masses for independence, the socialist cause, and the driving force, enhancing their role, transforming all fabrics of social life as required by Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism and triumphantly advancing the revolution and construction.”

Clear as mud? Here is more:

 “They (the same they) pointed out that the WPK and the Korean people will straightly advance along the immutable orbit of independence, Songun (military first) and socialism and discharge their pioneer role in the struggle to realize global independence as the defenders of independence and justice under the leadership of Marshal Kim Jong Un no matter how the situation may change and relations with neighboring countries may alter.”

Ah yes, that great struggle to realize global independence as the defenders of independence and justice under the leadership of Marshal Kim Jong Un. Sounds a little like Superman. I wouldn’t want to imagine Kim in the blue, skin-tight costume. And by the way, how many titles do Kim Jong Un have? A totalitarian for all occasions.

I truly wonder who this mouthpiece for the Pyongyang leadership — again Kim Jong Un — believes that it is addressing? If this is the crap being fed to the masses, then this nation is in worse shape than it seems.

I’m sure a President Trump would understand though. Perhaps The Donald and his Secretary of State Dennis Rodman will make the historic first visit to this closed society.