Saturday, November 11, 2017

Impeach or imprison?

 A request for signatures on a petition to impeach Trump came up tonight. Apparently whoever is doing it has two million signatures already. The problem is, no matter how many signatures they get, impeachment is unlikely in the current atmosphere. In order to impeach a president, a majority of the House of Representatives must vote for the charges proposed. If that happens, the president is then tried in the Senate where a two-thirds majority is needed to convict. As long as Republicans control Congress that seems like a pipe dream.
To my mind what seems better is a path through the criminal and if not that the civil courts. Robert Mueller's investigation could lead to that as his investigators get closer and closer to the president.
What I would like to see and what would be more possible is indictments coming out of the investigation leading to criminal charges to be tried in a state court. The Southern District of New York (which includes New York City) where the US Attorney there is already involved sounds like a good bet. Why a state court? Because a president cannot pardon anyone for conviction in state courts, only federal courts. One can hope that would lead to a conviction and prison time. At that point Congress could not get away with not impeaching.
Leaving it all in the political spectrum rather than the legal one makes room for all kinds of manipulation.
I am sure this is an oversimplification of the process, but to me it seems a more likely course to take if something needs to be done in the next year. The trick is not to be impatient. Mueller has been described as a methodical investigator and the time this is taking to me means he is being very careful and making sure everything it discovers and develops is solid evidence and it takes that to make a complicated case like this one stick.

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So it's fun to carry impeachment signs and demonstrate and feel like we are contributing, but the eventual outcome is going to be decided in the trenches of the legal system and let's hope it happens in time to prevent Trump and his gangsters from destroying the Republic.
#fakenews It's so easy anybody can do it

Wednesday, November 8, 2017

Take it to the House

For lack of a coherent thought train these days, offering up some incoherent random thoughts about life and other matters.
What a treat to wake up and go through my morning Internet routine and not end up depressed and angry. Yesterday's elections (Nov. 7, 2017) seem to indicate the American electorate is regaining its intelligence. However in politics victories can be short-lived and major battles to rid the country of the Trump/GOP scourge remain. With that in mind, I am offering the following as a rallying cry for the coming year leading to the mid-term elections next November:

"TAKE IT TO THE HOUSE." Go!
I swear nuthatches must be the pickiest eaters in the bird world. I watched one today land on a hexagonal bird feeder then hop around to each of the six perches, picking and tossing away two or three seeds at each stop then flying off. I'm not sure she took a seed with her. At least she was feeding the grosbeaks who seem to prefer the ground.
From Introverts are Awesome facebook page
I have ended up once again, sitting here in November waiting for enough snow to move to the East Pole for the winter. I've seen posts saying moving is one of the five most stressful situations people face. No doubt but I had never applied that to the annual trek to the cabin. But sitting here waiting with everything but perishables purchased and packed, I go up and down, anxious to go, but dreading the actual first moving day. Then this meme came up on facebook today. A gentle comment on the favorite Alaska pastime, always getting ready. Amen brother.
A couple of days ago a fellow came by to check the well water (and sell me a $2,000 filtration system). Very friendly social sort, who never stopped talking.  My favorite kind of person, right? :=D. He asked several questions that to me seemed a little too personal and made me a little uncomfortable. I finally told him I had to get back to work just to get him out of here. Perhaps it was the question he asked that made me do that. He asked where I was from originally. I told him and then he asked what did I miss most about the place where I grew up. That question stopped me. I finally answered "nothing." He looked surprised. There's nothing you miss about where you're from?" I thought for a moment and said, "nope, I belong here." He gave up then. But later my response bothered me a little. Why wouldn't I miss something from the place where I lived for the first 25 years of my life? I thought through it and there was a submarine sandwich shop I liked and then when you think of my home country and sandwiches, roast beef on Kimmelweck rolls might count. But nothing else really comes to mind. It's not that there aren't memories of good times and bad, and people recalled with fondness, but I came to the conclusion that I'd rather be here than there and I can't think of anything I miss enough to want to go back. Have to wonder if this might be personality flaw.
We all have signs that winter is upon us. I became aware of a new one this year, something I just realized though it has happened almost every year of my life. You know winter is coming when you have to fight your way through at least three layers of clothing to whiz. It's a man thing. And that's all I have to say about it.
Now, speaking of waiting for winter this list crossed my mind. Kind of a reverse bucket list
Alaska things I've  done:
Drove the Alaska highway and on entering Alaska asked them to close the gate.
Built a cabin in the bush and lived in it
Lived on a boat
Faced down an approaching grizzly bear.
Fished commercially for king crab
Drove a dog team.
Drove a boat through the Inside Passage (several times)
Crossed the Gulf of Alaska in a huge storm in a 40-foot sailboat.
Sailed Alaska to Hawaii
Split cords of firewood.
Wrote books about Alaska. (5)
Twice made it through a whiteout in a small airplane
Operated a fishing charter boat
Experienced several 7+ earthquakes
Caught all five species of Alaska salmon. Aware there are a sixth and seventh species (not counting farmed) but not in Alaska.
Hit a moose with a car (twice, though the second one hit me)
Traveled  hundreds of miles on snowmachines.
Was in Nome twice for the finish of the Iditarod
Survived life in Anchorage
Fell through the ice on a snowmachine into the Talkeetna River
Served as editor of the Nome Nugget newspaper
Hit icebergs with a boat (well, burgey bits anyway)
Built three houses mostly by myself,  all three of them in winter.



But keep this in mind. No matter what you have done in Alaska, somebody has done it better, gone farther or higher or deeper, faster and under tougher conditions than you have.

OK now I thought this was titled Take it to the House, but it's not. The song with that title is a rap with lots of objectionable language. This is from the old Tim Allen Show Home Improvement, the band from K&B Construction. Burning down the house. Same message lol.

Best headlines ever

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel

Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

“You’re either into the wall or into the show”—Marco Andretti on giving it all to qualify last at the 2011 Indy 500

Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel