4759 The Supreme Court

 C’mon, guys, we all know what you’re doing.  You’re hiding behind nonsense so a black woman is not the next Associate Justice of the  U.S. Supreme Court.  And you will fail.

All the bickering by republicans opposing Ketanji Brown Jackson’s appointment are baloney.  The republicans just don’t want a black woman sitting on the country’s highest court. Or they’re playing to the hometown crowds with the usual expectations for their own re-election bids. Or both.

It’s politics as usual.  And it’s about time that stopped.  Have you heard anything about her qualifications?  They’re certainly good enough especially when compared to some of the dolts who’ve been confirmed for that job.

Yes, yes, one has to put nominees through major hell. But enough, already. She’s good enough.  And maybe better than a lot of the men who’ve sat on that bench. If she were white, there wouldn’t be the kind of upset we’re seeing among the senators who oppose her.

It’s the 21st century, people.  This is not a hard thing to understand.  It’s not a total shock. It’s not even all that interesting.

The court has been given a strong right wing lately.  Now it’s time for a different voice.  And just because the nominee is both black and female scares a lot of the political hacks in the Senate.  They didn’t do all this to Sandra Day O’Connor in the 1980s, though there were some minorish efforts.  How tough is it to approve this woman and won’t you please get to it.  Like, now.

Face it, Senators, the time for an all white government is past its prime.  If you don’t approve the current nominee, there’ll be another who thinks, rules and looks just like her.  It’s already past the time when you can do these tricks so that a black woman can’t sit on the nation’s highest court.  And in your heart of hearts, you know this.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4758 Enough Winter

 

Winter can’t go away soon enough.  There has only been one of the pictured snowstorms.  It was while ago and the snow that was dumped from above has nearly disappeared.

 

The Sky is clear.  But there’ll be more snow sooner or later.  Nature can’t read the calendar. But if it could, it might skittle back north where people are used to it. Or don’t care about it. Or post posters of Florida or Arizona on their walls. 

 

We’ll get another bunch soon enough. Too soon, maybe.

 

Is this the grumbling of an old man trapped in a house? Yeah.  After all the winters in all the places I’ve been, I’ve had enough.  And moving to Florida isn’t the answer.  Have you been following what goes on there these days?

 

We won’t round it up for you, but we can describe it as pretty messy.  Even without things like collapsing buildings and the stupid internal government stuff that goes on everywhere.

 

About the governments of this and every other state’s: Do we constantly elect people these days who don’t know what they’re doing?  Or does it just seem that way? Is the pandemic part of the problem?  Yes, but not so much that we can put all the blame on it.

 

A local congressman has suggested that we prohibit snow of more than two inches.  That’s a good idea. But if we do, what will the penalty be and who will “pay” it?  Almost all lawmaking is fraught with that kind of problem.

 

Yes, yes, this will all go away in a couple of months … at least in most places.  But the NOW problem will remain a problem.  Would that there would be some way to enforce a law that prohibited snow except from Friday afternoons to Sunday mornings.  Think of the money we’d save.

 

Snow is a beautiful thing.  As long as it’s not near.  Would that it were possible to position the downpour to land in specific areas.  Like rivers and totally uninhabited regions.  

 

Then we could get dustings at home and dispatch photographers to take and post pictures of the Great Inundation of some uninhabited area.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

 

4757 Goodbye February

 Why do we need a 28 day month that sometimes turns into a 29 day month?  No one has yet figured out why February is so short.  It’s something to do with the number of days in the year.  But couldn’t we just make every month 30 or 31 days?

The calendar has been in its present condition for a very very long time.  But maybe it’s time to change it. Why not make every month the same length? Why does the year have to be 365.25 days? And who pays any attention to that quarter day, anyway?

We need to consider a 365 day year.  Of course, getting rid of the quarter of a day would complicate matters. Considerably.  But we’d get used to it, just as we have gotten used to everything else.

Wars, prosperity, poverty, whatever. These things change all the time.  At the moment Russia has started a war with Ukraine.  They’ll study this one with other small incursions 50 years from now like everything else we consider that long after the fact.  No one has figured it out for now.  Fifty years from now, either no one will remember the thing or it will just simply be accepted.

We of this generation have to leave something significant to the following generations.  There’s so little left of that kind of thing that maybe it’s time to reexamine the length of a year and the number of months in one.

Where did that day count come from to begin with?

Who says it has to continue as it probably will?

What would be the result of recalibrating a year to last 360 days. Or 400? Or even (gulp!) just 300?

So many questions.  They dazzle the brain. And if anyone has answers, please send them.

Shrapnel:

--Jail sanctioned tattoo artists are cleaning up in Chicago. The city started a “get out of the life” program that allows conversion of gang tats into innocent nothings, like animals and rainbows.  Is that going to reduce the number of gang members when they get out or just hide the fact that they either are or were members?

--Americans and other non-nationals jailed in Russia and other former soviet states are concerned about what this mini-war will have on their futures.  One little-known worry: what will happen to non-Russians and non-Ukrainians jailed in the warring countries? Those prisoners who are talking share that worry, but so far our State Department remains silent.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.(R)

Any Questions? 

wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4756 What to DO on a Crummy Winter's Day

 

You may think there’s nothing to do but stay in and watch the other people freeze.  You may also think that it’s a good time to catch a few extra hours of sleep because you’re so busy the rest of the year.  

You may think you finally can fix that window that doesn’t fully close and raises your monthly fuel bills.

 

But there’s much more to do. This is the time of year you can catch up on what the rest of the world is doing. There are so many news sites now you can pick the one or ones that suit your own …um… bias.

 

Examples:  Biden.  Fox will tell you a different story than the Associated Press.  The situation in Ukraine? You can choose between Fox and a whole host of other sites. 

 

Maybe you’re fixated on more obscure problems like the farmers of India.  There still are plenty of places to go for your side of this issue, something I’ll leave to you to figure out.

 

You say you don’t care about farmers in India? OK, how about Queen Elizabeth having Covid?  Maybe you didn’t know that.  But it’s true. Probably caught it from Prince Charles.  What will that mean for the British Monarchy? (And why do you care about that?  But if you do, there are plenty of places to read up on it.)

 

So we in this century and in this country have so many news sites now that we can pick one that suits our point of view. Keeps things either peaceful or war like at home. Pick your view of that. 

 

Regardless of your viewpoint, there are so many places to find out what’s happening, you never have to leave home.  Not only that, but you can order your groceries over the internet and they’ll be delivered relatively quickly.

 

But there IS one thing you can’t do without expending some effort.  That is getting out of the house when the weather is terrible -- or was terrible and has yet to be fixed.  And this can be a major problem.

 

Getting out of the house is a major step in keeping one’s sanity.  There is no substitute except napping.  And you can’t nap all day and then go to bed at night.  If anyone has an answer to this, please publicize it.

 

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions?  wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

 

4755 The Superxxxx

 The NFL is very protective of the name of the football game played last night.  So in keeping with their whim, we’re going to talk about the game without ever mentioning its name. 

Well, that’s not true. We’re going to talk about what went on around it while America was riveted to its TV sets and the two sets of players, one from the XXXX and the other from the YYYY who clashed on national TV.

Wessays does not bet sports. But if we did, we’d figure that this had to be the least profitable betting game since the ZZZZs won in 19MM.  There were a few interesting moments.  But nothing extraordinary.

Maybe that’s the beauty of the game.  Yes, both teams did relatively well during the regular season. But neither was spectacular.  And there was no Tom Brady to gawk at. And the crowd at the game sight pretty much behaved itself.  

The halftime show was ok.  We expected more from the star, Nnn Nnn.  But that’s usual for this game which is really a trick to make money.  Oh. Yes it is.

The game itself was… well, a football game. And now, half a day later, it’s hard to find the score.  All the stories are about the commercials which we found less attractive than in previous years.  Maybe it’s staff aging. Or maybe it was just only a moderately exciting game.   For now, it’s time to forget the sport and concentrate on more important matters.

Like Spring Training.

And getting the snow off the driveway.

And breakfast.  And lunch. And naps.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

Do I really have to type this every time?

© WR 2022

4753 trump Again?

 One down, eleven to go and we’ll be exchanging happy new year greetings again.  Seems that while the days drag, the years just fly by. Since the end of the trump era and before the start of trump’s will-he-won’t he era, time runs at warp speed. 

Frankly, I can wait.  But it is worth looking at the picture now and maybe comparing it six or nine or 12 months down the road.

 

The former president sits around in Florida and probably, he’s fuming and plotting and planning.  “This'' has to happen, “that” can’t. Can trump actually do anything about the conditions on which he’ll insist take place before he decided whether to run again?  

 

If they DO happen, is he likely to jump into what probably will be a massive hodgepodge of candidates?  If they DON’T happen, what then?  We have to remember he’s going to be 76 years old in June.  Can a 76 year old come out of an enforced retirement, run for president, win the presidency and then not completely screw up?

 

The probable answer is yes.  Should he?  I think you can safely assume this corner is not the same as his corner, but in the world of politics, that doesn’t much matter. 

 

But you also can assume that he’d like to be president again and will come thisclose to running if he decides not to and won’t tell anyone about that until the last possible month.  Or week. Or minute.

 

He'll probably waffle for a while, then, if he scares off most if not all of the other candidates, will run again. Now is the time for you to be sure you know what you're going to do when he does that.

 

SHRAPNEL:

--Governor Newsom of California wants to turn San Quentin prison into a healing venue and will be moving death row inmates to other prisons.  Sure. Why not? Spread the happiness around.

 

--Biden welcomed Qatar as a major non-NATO ally for helping us get people out of Afghanistan.  Does that actually mean anything?   Or was it just a gesture to the visiting head of the Qatar government and designed to be forgotten tomorrow?

 

--Connecticut offered help to restaurants and other food vendors hit by the Corona virus.  They haven’t come up with the money.  And dozens of restaurants are saying if they don’t soon, they’ll close.

 I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4752 Here come the Russians

 So Russia looks ready to attack Ukraine.  For what? Oil? Nah. To increase population? Nah. Just because they can.  

And we, warlike since at least the 1950s, are ready to… are ready to… What? Why are we interested?

Putin has nothing much on his mind these days so he wants to start a little war, one that he probably can win, eventually and then what?

Then Ukraine becomes part of what is apparently a re-growing Russian empire?  And THEN what? 

Then nothing. Life goes on. Commissars from Russia come into Kiev, take over the running of government and the Ukranians just take it?  Sure. They probably have to. There’s no way Ukraine can win this war.  

And Putin goes fishing. Or rides a horse and gets photographed doing so.

But it’s more than just adding a bunch of square miles to his fiefdom. The reexpansion of the former Soviet Union takes another step backward.  And it’s a big step.  And it won’t be won easily, but it will be won.

Unless, of course, we step in.  Then it becomes another Vietnam or worse. We just can’t seem to avoid little wars, though this one could be big. And it would take years to settle.

If it DOES start, it will probably start big.  The Russians probably can defeat Ukraine easily except for the dozens, maybe hundreds of underground resistors that will develop suddenly. Or that we’ll suddenly notice.

This war in the making has been coming for years.  When it happens, we’ll all get excited.  This will make up for the lack of caring among the Ukranians who have seen it coming for years longer than Putin has planned it.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4751 Foundations

 If you listen to public radio, you hear an awful lot of commercials for foundations. And many of these foundations are not supporting much. The foundation is left. The building is gone.

First, let's clear up something in the first sentence with which you may disagree. You might say "There are no commercials on public radio, just announcements of who contributed the money for the particular program." And you'd be wrong. The networks and the individual stations often have full scale sales departments, with people who go out to businesses and foundations and sell time. Except they don't call it the sales department. They call it development. Development is academy speak for begging and selling.

Now, as for those foundations. Notice that many of them were started by or named for people whose companies were sunk. Take the "William T. Grant Foundation," a frequent contributor to NPR. W.T. Grant was kind of an upscale Woolworth's with delusions of Wal-Mart. It went belly up in 1976, and was at the time, one of the biggest bankruptcies in US history. The foundation, started the same year as the first Grant store, 1906, goes on. It has money. The former stockholders have, well, souvenir stock certificates. The foundation’s investors did better than investors in the business. There's nothing wrong with the remaining foundation, and nothing unusual about a foundation outliving its founders. But it just seems kind of funny to see in the imagination a Grant store with a huge "CLOSED" sign in the window, while the surviving entity has a spiffy website and offers some decent opportunities.

Then, there's the John S. and James L. Knight foundation. The Knights had lost control of their newspaper empire long before the company was sold to McClatchy in 2006. Which is what often happens when institutional investors are "guiding" (some might say manipulating) a business about which they know nothing. To the foundation's credit, there is one Knight left on its board of trustees. And she probably knows her stuff, as most in that family did -- or at least seemed to.

Knight also is a big sponsor on NPR.

This posting was made possible by a grant from the Wessays Foundation, bringing nonsense into homes since um.. well, for a few years now, anyway. On the web at wessays.blogspot.com.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any questions? Wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

4750 Stop Nagging

 So comes a letter from a new credit card company which has taken over a long running account.  It says “Why Wait? You Owe Us Money. Send Now and get it over with.”  Oh?

Well, OK, I’ll send you a few bucks now and then a few more later when the Social Security check lands in my bank account -- assuming it will.  

C’mon guys, I know you’re there. You’ve never stopped reminding me since taking over the account maybe nine or ten months ago.

I’ll pay you when I always pay you.

And I won’t leave you hanging with a partial payment, either.  You get the whole thing at once. Of course, that’ll deprive you of some interest.  But that’s the price of doing business with me.

Let’s get one thing straight between us: You always get … something. Don’t rush me. I’ve been dealing with your predecessor for years. I’ll deal with you the same way. Once a month.  Second Wednesday. Same as always. If you want to change that, we can talk about it. But be warned: I don’t need you.  

Of course, you don’t need me, either. But you agreed to take over the business, so for now, you’re stuck with me.

I’m not as hard to deal with as some of your new customers.  I really DO pay you regularly and usually eight or ten days before the deadline.  But I don’t have to be that way.  I can stall. I can pay at the last possible second. You know-- all the stuff that people do to credit card companies.  I can overpay you which makes everything bolix up at your end. I can underpay you by a penny or two and that confuses your systems.  

So let’s get this business straight right at the start of our “new” relationship.

I look forward to many years of having to deal with you. But at this point, who knows?  We’re here one day, gone the next. And be aware that I can mess around with your system any time I want.  

Consider this your once-only warning.  I’ll be watching you just as you’ll be watching me. And I’m a tough guy to deal with when you get my back up.  Oh, and please remove me from your “pay up now” list. I don’t need reminders.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Any Questions? wesrichards@gmail.com

© WR 2022

We'll be back Monday, 1 17 22

 See you then.