Large unmarked bills. Small unmarked cargo plane.

Totally disgraceful.  And Hillary set it up.

Two Party system

This morning NPR was touting third party candidates for President.  Couple of guys whose names are new to me, couple of parties, Libertarian, Green.  Then they segued into a  pro third party pitch, and denounced various state laws making it hard for poor old third parties to get on the ballot.  Sounded dreadful.
   In real life, the two party system is a good thing that makes legislation possible.  In a two party system, if you have the votes, you can pass your legislation.  Once we let more parties into the game it becomes difficult to impossible to get anything done.  On any political issue there are always six of seven different courses of action.  If you have six or seven parties, each one of them will pick one of the possible courses of action, but none of the parties will have the votes to push it thru.  France, going all the way back to the Third Republic, worked like this.   The French had half a dozen parties, all going there own way, and they could never get anything done.  This pattern of French politics persists to this day.  It brought France invasion and defeat in 1940, Diem Bien Foo, the Algerian civil war, and overall weakness and confusion for nearly a century. 
   In a two party system, the six or seven courses of action get whittled down to two, one for each party, by internal party negotiations and log rolling.  Then the party with the votes gets it's program passed.  With only two partie, one of 'em will have the votes to pass its legislation.  If, like today, the country is evenly split on a lot of issues, nothing happens, neither party has the votes.   When the country is evenly split, it's probably best not to do anything. 
   And, consider this.  The last third party candidate to win the presidency was Abraham Lincoln and that was a long time ago.  To my way of thinking, casting your vote for a third party candidate is same as throwing it away, or not voting at all. 

We need some Cruel and Unusual Punishments

For robo callers who ring my phone and don't answer when I pick up.

Military in Politics???

I am hearing some chat on TV about how retired military officers should not engage in politics.  I beg to differ.  Once retired, a military officer is just an American citizen, with all the rights and privileges thereto, such as shooting his mouth off in public, or even at the Democratic convention.
  Active duty military is another kettle of fish.  On active duty an officer commands the armed forces of the United States, under the direction of the commander in chief (the president).  On active duty, criticizing the political leadership is criticizing your military superior, a big no-no, and a court martial offense in the US armed forces.
   But after retirement, a military officers is just another civilian, and if he wants to politick, that is his right and privilege.    General Washington,  General Jackson, General Grant, and General Eisenhower all made first class presidents.   In fact I'd be happy to trade our current crop of presidential candidates for any one of them.  Too bad they are all dead. 

Zitka in Florida

According to the TV newsies, a very small area in Florida, maybe a square mile, north of Miami is the cause.
   You would think a few hundred gallons of DDT, or whatever less effective insecticide the greenies allow us to use would solve the problem in a day or two.    TV newsies aren't saying anything about spraying the skeeters.  Maybe they haven't thought of it, maybe spome greenie regulation prevents it, who knows.  But a one square mile pest hole is treatable.   Best to treat is now, before it spreads.

Touristing to Portsmouth NH

Haven't been to Portsmouth in fifteen years or more.  And then only to Strawberrie Banke, a historical village setting.  I needed to buy a few new clothes,  the khaki's and sports shirts bought at Good Will Industries years ago are wearing out, and Good Will Industries has downgraded itself below my fairly low standards.  Portsmouth has down some good work on reviving the down town into a tourist trap.  Lotta nice side walk eateries. They had plenty of tourists hiking around the down town.  Parking is tight on a Saturday, I finally had to use my credit card to pay off a parking meter at $1.75 an hour.  Google maps showed nearly a dozen men's clothing stores all on a three block run of Congress St.  It must have been a bad year for men's clothing.  Only two of the stores that showed on Google maps were still there.  One was a unisex place (not my style ) and the other was a women's clothing place, (also not my style). 
   Infrastructure was good.  I drove down on secondary roads, and they were all in good shape, fresh black asphalt, easy curves, generous sight lines, broad shoulders.   Makes me think the infrastructure catastrophe is limited to New York State.  Real states like NH are keeping their roads in good shape. 
   And I'm glad I retired in upstate NH where the traffic is light.  Traffic around Manchester was thick.  There was some kinda hangup in Concord that had southbound traffic on 193 backded up to Boscawen by 2 PM.  Which is early for people to start for home after a weekend in upstate NH.  That one made in onto the air on WBZ. 

Wanna bet hacked DNC computers were running Windows?

Windows, Bill Gate's gift to civilization, is like Swiss cheese.  It's got so many holes that high school kids can hack into it.  Far as I am concerned, running Windows is hanging a hack me sign on your fanny. 
   If you care about security, don't run Windows.  Run Linux or Unix or Macintosh.  They are all a hundred times more secure than any flavor of Windows.