Elections Matter
If I have not learned anything else in the last 6 weeks, I have learned that elections matter and elections have consequences. In the upcoming election, our choices are not great. One party has chosen a former president who is a convicted felon among other things. The other party has chosen someone who is well past his prime and admits that he should not be doing anything official after 8 pm.
In 2016 our choices were not much better. I described it as two people we couldn’t trust for different reasons. This led to the election of 45 and his MAGA extremists. During his four years, 45 was able to appoint three supreme court justices who fell in line with 45’s politics. In addition, he was able to appoint many other judges who fell in line with his politics.
The appointment of the three supreme court justices has changed the course of our country. In the last two years, SCOTUS has reversed Roe vs. Wade and just recently granted the president immunity from prosecution while carrying out the duties of president, even if those duties are illegal. The icing on the cake occurred this week when a judge appointed by 45 dismissed the charges against 45 in the presidential document case. The judge in the case referenced Justice Thomas’ comments in the presidential immunity case as something that influenced her decision on the dismissal.
The justices and judge ruling on the above-mentioned cases dismissed over 50 years of previous legal proceedings and precedent in making their decisions. We will be living with those decisions for the next generation or more.
I am sure that the founding fathers are rolling over in their graves. Getting out from under the rule of a king who was not subject to any laws, was the primary reason for the American revolution. I am sure our founding fathers are wondering how we got where we are today. We are closer to having a king than we ever have had in the 248 years of our country.
If 45 becomes 47, we may be celebrating his coronation at our country’s 250-year anniversary in 2026. Think about that when you go to vote in November.
Assassination Attempt
No matter what I think about 45, I was very upset about the assassination attempt on Saturday. It brought back memories of the 60s when assassinations happened way too many times in this country. There is no place in this country for violence against another person because of differing points of view.
Preliminary indications are the would-be assassin operated alone and was not part of a plot or conspiracy. The country is fortunate the attempt was not successful.
Reaction to the Assassination Attempt
I was appalled by the blame game that started immediately after the assassination attempt. The Right and Left were blaming the other side. Crazy things were said that made no sense, but in today’s day and age making sense does not matter. The only thing that matters is playing to one’s political base.
There will be a thorough police investigation into the assassination attempt and the murder of a former fireman and two other attendees who were critically wounded. There will also be various congressional investigations. Let’s wait until all the facts are known before getting into the blame game.
The worst reaction I saw was by some of the right-wing extremists who blamed the woke policies of the Democrats for weakening the Secret Service through woke/DEI policies that allowed for the hiring of women into the Secret Service. Here are some of the comments.
“Look, I’m not sure about who the individuals are on the individual detail, Secret Service, but I can tell you under this Biden administration, the one thing I’ve seen is massive D.E.I. hires,” Representative Cory Mills of Florida said on Fox News, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
“And I can tell you when you primarily, when you primarily go after D-E-I,” Mr. Mills continued, “you end up with D-I-E.”
Benny Johnson, a right-wing commentator, was more blunt in a social media post viewed nearly 9 million times: “Absolute humiliation for this gaggle of female Secret Service Agents,” he wrote in a post that showed the chaotic aftermath of the shooting, adding: “DEI Secret Service make Presidents LESS Safe.”
I find the above so offensive that it makes me sick to my stomach. Furthermore. this is personal to me. My daughter Katy is a federal agent who puts her life on the line everyday she goes out into the field. She works out every morning, she has completed multiple triathlons, including a half an Iron Man. She played on the Division II National Championship Softball Team at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. She stays current on all of her training requirements. If I had to choose one person to protect me in public, I would choose her. She is as tough as nails, and she will not hesitate to protect and honor those she serves. She like so many other female agents have had to prove themselves above and beyond as they try to succeed in a male dominated field.
Screw you Benny Johnson. Screw you Cory Mills. And screw everyone else who thinks like them.
Senator Menendez is Found Guilty
To no one’s surprise, Democratic Senator Menendez was found guilty on all counts. Hopefully, he will now resign from the Senate. We do not need a convicted felon holding one of the highest offices in our country.
I found it amazing that it took only 8 months for his case to work its way through the system from indictment to verdict. How did this happen to such a high-powered Democrat at a time when the Democrats are using the justice system to attack the MAGA party? Something is not right.
MLB All Star Game
As I mentioned last week, two of the umpires that were part of the training staff at the Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp that I trained under were the umpires in yesterday’s MLB All Star Game. James Hoye was the plate umpire and Nic Lentz was the third base umpire.
At a break in the middle of the game, there was a special ceremony related to Stand Up for Cancer in which all of the players, coaches and umpires held up signs in which they mentioned close friends or relatives were fighting the cancer battle.
Nic Lentz held up a sign that had the names of Jack Miles and Dan Sr, who were also part of the staff at the Southeast Michigan Umpire Camp. Both Jack and Dan are close friends of mine who are fighting advanced stages of cancer. When Dan saw the sign that Nic was holding up, he started crying like a baby.
Another member of the SEMUC staff, Bill Parker, was able to edit the picture of Nic holding up the sign from the telecast and send it to Dan this morning. The picture is my Image of the Day See below.
Jack Miles and I were talking earlier this week about what a close group the brotherhood of umpires can be. There is no doubt that I could reach out to any one of the many umpires that I have worked with over the years, and they would be at my side in a nano second if I needed them. We always have each other’s back.
An Orchid and Onion to the USPS
There are certain stories that are hard to believe. This is one of them.
In mid-December I mailed from Petoskey, Christmas cards with money in them, to my step-grandson’s Gregory and Sean. I mailed them to my son Christopher’s address in Saline.
When I had not heard from Gregory or Sean a few days before Christmas, I called to see if they had received the cards. They had not. I called the Petoskey and Saline post offices, but neither had any record of the cards not being delivered. The people I talked to assured me the money was not stolen. After Christmas I called each post office again with the same result. When I returned from Alabama in early March and the cards were not in my returned mail. I Venmoed the money to Sean and Gregory and considered the whole process a $200 lesson learned. But there is the rest of the story.
On Monday July 16, my son Christopher called to tell me the cards had arrived in the mail that day and they were fully intact. He then sent me a picture of the two envelopes with the cards enclosed. He asked me what to do with them. We decided he would hold them until December and give them to Gregory and Sean for Christmas. Hopefully, I will remember this and not send them cards with money again.
For their efforts, the USPS gets both the Orchid of the Day and Onion of the Day.
Feel free to share my blog with others. To receive the blog in your email, please use the sign-up button which is located at the bottom of the blog below the Video of the Day.
Quote of the Day: “We in the Republican Party are the law and order team.” House Speaker Mike Johnson told the Republican national convention, He said that as they prepare to nominate a convicted felon to be president. A man who spent over a year lying to the National Archives and Justice Department about the fact that he was keeping classified documents in publicly accessible bathrooms and the ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago resort. From Joyce Vance today.
Orchid of the Day: USPS see above story.
Onion of the Day: USPS see above story.
Question of the Day: Why do women vote for candidates from the MAGA/Kamikaze Party when the men of the party have such a narrow and jaded view of women and their abilities?
Image of the Day:
