Tuesday, March 20, 2018

You gotta wonder about that FBI

Jeff Sessions just fired the FBI's number two man, Antony McCabe, based upon the FBI inspector general's written recommendation.  Just to make it hurt a little more, McCabe was within hours of retirement, with a full pension.  Getting fired means no pension, a pretty harsh penalty. 
   Question, if McCabe was such a crumb bum, how did he rise so far in the FBI?  I assume McCabe joined the FBI twenty years ago as a junior agent, or what ever the FBI calls new troops.  Since over twenty years, he got himself promoted up to number two at the Bureau, he must have had a lot of supervisors writing good performance reports on him over the years.  Is it a case of a good guy turning bad in his later years? Or is it case of a lot of McCabe's supervisors thinking McCabe's way of doing things was good?  That in fact a lot of the Bureau's supervision is just like McCabe?  And that maybe some more weeding out is in order?

Monday, March 19, 2018

Don't Fire Mueller

The lefties have been drum beating for Trump to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller.   If Trump were so foolish as to do so, it would convince an awful lot of voters that Trump has something to hide.  That he is dirty. 
   I like to think that Trump understands this and that he is smart enough to avoid shooting himself in the foot.  Let's hope.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Beat the Press

They were at it again this morning.  Lotta talk about firing that FBI guy, Tony something-or-other.  More talk about Trump's tweets, investigations into Russian collusion, and that Pittsburgh special election that the Democrats won by a hair. 
  No talk about dealing with the NORKS,  Trump's tax bill, the steel and aluminum tariffs, dealing with the Russians. Does this mean that the Democrats think these subjects make Trump look good?  So they don't talk about them? 

Saturday, March 17, 2018

Puerto Rican bonds are hot on Wall St this year

Cannot understand why.  Puerto Rico is broke.  They will never have enough revenue to pay off their bonds.  In fact they have declared bankruptcy, after getting a special act of Congress allowing them to do so, and a bankruptcy judge will decide how much (how little) the bond holders might get paid, if Puerto Rico ever comes up with some cash.  Which they probably cannot do.
   So why does a Puerto Rican bond have any value what so ever on the Street?  Inquiring minds want to know.  

The New Hampshire Death Penalty

Concord is all hot and bothered about repealing the death penalty.  I wonder why.  NH hasn't executed anyone since 1939, nearly eighty years ago.  We have one cop killer on death row right now. He has been there for ten years, with lawyers billing the state for ten years of appeals and foo for raw. 
   Could it be that our gallant state reps and senators have found a headline grabbing issue, that doesn't require any funding, and are playing it for publicity? 

Friday, March 16, 2018

That Miami bridge collapse

It got a lot of TV coverage yesterday and the TV newsies are still going on about it today.  I gather that the bridge was a prefab and newly installed.  No mention of the installing contractor's name.  Far as I am concerned the guys who installed it are liable if it falls down within a week.  Also no mention of the company that made the prefab bridge.  When sued, the installer will claim his people did everything right but the prefab bridge was defective in design or manufacture. 
   Either the TV newsies are so ignorant as not to understand the liability issues here, or they are being paid off to keep it quiet.  Trust worthy those newsies are. 

The many names of a house cat

Cat came to me from my daughter.  It had been her college cat.  She graduated, and signed up for a hitch with the Peace Corps.  She said something like "Aw Dad, you will take care of the cat.  Won't you?"  And since I am very fond of daughter, and it was a decent cat, the deal was done.  The cat bore the name of Hecate, which seemed like a pretty pretentious name for just a house cat.  After a couple of highly amusing goofs on the cat's part, I began to call her Stupid Beast.  For a while I could stand out on the deck and call "Stupid Beast" and the cat would actually come home. 
   In warm weather, cat would sprawl out flat on the floor, spread out to lose as much heat as possible.  I began to call her "Flat Beast"   This lead to "Fat Beast" and "RAF", short for Round and Flat.  Along with Her Flatness, and Fatress.  And often I just call her Cat, as in "Hello Cat" when she greets my return from a store run.