The Devil Called Him Home

 Gone but not forgotten, his ideological decisions destined to keep the “right” people feeling safe in their homes and on Rodeo Drive, we just celebrated the 8th year of Antonin Scalia’s passing a couple of weeks ago. I remember when I heard the news that he had died in Marfa, Texas I wondered if he was another victim of Dick Cheney’s friendly fire. Being reminded of his passing, I used commercial breaks to Google items of interest on Scalia. I figured that there had to be more to the man than my own lowly opinion of him. In fairness, if I was going to write about him, I should at least try to bring up his good features. You know, like he didn’t kick dogs, stuff like that.

At the time of his passing, I’m sure that all of the smart money was on his best friend on the court Justice Ginsberg being the first to go. Justice Ginsberg was 83 and barely able to keep herself awake during the first few minutes of the State of The Union address that year. Not that being put to sleep by a State of the Union address is any indicator of vitality, it’s just that Justice Ginsberg looked so weak at the time that it was a shock that Scalia preceded her. Her frailty and Scalia’s passing underscores the proposition that appointing people to life time positions is a bad idea. People are not like wine, we don’t improve with age. We get cranky, close minded, uncompromising and generally just hard to deal with.

Justice Scalia was the first Italian-American Justice, appointed to the Supreme Court in 1986. He was part of the Reagan Revolution, in which Reagan elevated Justices to the court that were far more conservative than even his own views. Scalia cloaked his bigotry and misogyny under the guise of Federalism. By turning back every challenge brought to the court that impinged on human liberties as being a matter for the individual states to decide, Scalia reinforced his disdain for the Declaration of Independence. “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” were just words to be determined by the state where you reside, unless you are a corporation. Corporations are given special powers in a Scalia court, like unlimited campaign spending and ignoring provision of the Affordable Health Care Act.

Scalia was exactly what every Republican talks about when they use the phrase “legislating from the bench”. The Republicans never complained about Scalia’s legislating, though. Scalia made law or struck down laws, without benefit of Congress or the President. He was the “decider” and he bullied all of the other Justices to support his view. In fact, Justice Clarence Thomas gave up long ago having an opinion. Uncle Clarence would just point at Scalia and say, “what he said”.

Thomas has since aligned with the other really right wing Catholic on the court, Justice Alito. Since we know “birds of a feather, flock together”, maybe it’s time to stop nominating Catholics to the court. Prior to Scalia’s death, they were a 6 to 3 majority, they are now a 7-2 advantage. Not that all of Scalia’s bad decision’s were based on morality issues. Just the ones involving, race, sexual orientation and women’s rights.

Scalia could also wreck havoc in areas other than human rights. He was instrumental in the Supreme Court forcing George Bush in as President, over Al Gore. Scalia didn’t even have enough of a conscience to recuse himself from the Bush suit, which was brought by the law firm where Scalia’s son worked. Scalia was convinced that his “moral majority” on the court had the right to decide who was going to be President, over the millions of us ignorant voters.

Scalia also refused to recuse himself from a Supreme Court case involving Dick Cheney, even though he and Cheney were hunting buddies. It was Scalia’s belief that the Constitution was not a living growing document, but could only be interpreted through the eyes of someone like Scalia who saw the world as how it was in 1776. To that end, Scalia could make determinations favorable to friends, political parties, corporations or others that were based on his insight to the founding fathers minds, not any sort of legal precedence.

Scalia believed in the devil, and I’m sure Scalia is with him today. While Scalia is arranging the chairs in Hell to his liking, I’m sure he’ll be looking in on how we mere mortals will handle his departure. Battle lines are being drawn, and it looks like it’s Scalia’s favorite battle, good versus evil.

Sadly, my research didn’t uncover whether Scalia kicked puppies or not, so the jury is still out on that one.

Implied Liability

You listen to the news every day hoping to hear that one kernel of good news that will restore your faith in humanity. These are sad times, desperate times, and a lot of times it doesn’t seem like the good guys are winning.

A blurb about Alex Jones reminded me about the little sliver of good news that poked through when the Sandy Hook families were awarded $73 million for their loss on December 14th 2012. That news was compounded when the courts awarded the families $1.5 billion from the mendacious broadcaster for defamation. I can say for a certainty that each one of those parents would gladly refuse the money to have their child back. I think we can all agree that there are some things that money can’t compensate. Society’s only hope is that the punishment is strong enough to deter the guilty from repeating their behavior.

The manufacturer of the AR-15-style weapon that killed the children, Remington, has come out of bankruptcy and reformed as two companies, one of which is located in LaGrange, Georgia. We Georgians love our guns so much that we even give the manufacturers tax abatements as well as utility and infrastructure improvements to locate here. According to our Governor, “Georgia’s firearms industry is responsible for thousands of jobs and millions of dollars of investment in our communities”, which I guess is the only consideration for encouraging a new business. The Peach State is also the “proud” home to Glock, another dispenser of indiscriminate death.

What makes the Sandy Hook settlement a big deal is that gun manufacturers have hidden behind a federal law since 2005 that protected them from lawsuits based off of liability. The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act basically insulates the arms manufacturers from any suit other than outright manufacturing malfeasance. It is like Congress conspired to say what is the bare minimum these manufacturers can be held accountable for, and we’ll lower that bar a little. Fortunately, the Connecticut Attorney General opened a legal path to holding the arm manufacturers accountable for some of the carnage their products cause.

I hear a “hold on there little cowboy” in the audience. “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” True enough, but guns make it way too easy to kill people, especially children. Every day, 22 children and teens (1-17) are shot in the United States”. That can’t be acceptable, not for one second. In my mind, the wounded children are the result of bad policy coupled with the insatiable greed of the armaments people. Even the association founded to promote gun safety bears a tremendous amount of liability for their part in the slaughter.

There are many things that can be done to make gun ownership safer. Sadly, in this article the NRA is promoting the idea that a lighter trigger pull is always a good thing. Ironically, in this article we can see that the necessary strength to pull a trigger exists in a four year old. I recall the story about a three year old that shot his mother to death in a parked car. Clearly gun manufacturers should be held responsible for making their products child safe. My God, even the pill bottle manufacturers can do that and their products cost pennies. It’s ridiculous to think that the manufacturers of weapons that cost thousands of dollars can’t make their products child proof.

One area that the Sandy Hook settlement did seem to provide a way forward is a way to hold gun manufacturers liable for their advertising. Romancing the idea of gun ownership is morally repugnant. I hope that going forward we can be spared any more tragedies committed by wannabe Rambos. Teenagers have enough to sort through without a gun manufacturer telling them that they have the solution to all of their problems.

Hopefully the Sandy Hook settlement will provide a way for everyone touched by a gun tragedy to get some some vengeance on the death dealers. Maybe there will be a class action suit. I can’t wait. The lawsuit / settlement would be enormous. It seems to me that if we can put a man on the moon we should be able to prevent a toddler from shooting his Momma.

Guns And More Guns

Am I overstating the problem? Not in the least. When it is more likely to be a victim of gun violence if you are an elementary school child than a police officer on duty, we have gone down the rabbit hole.

The Gun Violence Archive tracks deaths by gun of all types across the United States. The statistics are just staggering. Look at the numbers posted each year for children 0-11 and police. The numbers are far too close for what we as a society should expect. The police have a dangerous job, which, in my opinion, would be helped by some form of gun control. Elementary school kids are just trying to go to school. Do ads for bulletproof backpacks not scream enough is enough?

Why the insurance companies? Because the federal government won’t do it and the insurance companies are the only industry big enough to take on the gun industry.

Think about the industries that insurance companies have moderated in society. Automobiles and tobacco are a couple of huge, huge industries that were made to modify their behavior because of the insurance industry. All cars are tested now for crash-worthiness. Smokers pay higher premiums and are actively encouraged to quit by PSAs. What if gun owners had to at least buy liability insurance in the amount of one million dollars for each gun they own?

Obviously there would be a sliding scale on the weapons. The premium for an AR15 with extra magazine would be significantly higher than a 410 shotgun. Just like an 18 year old driving a Corvette paying more than a 35 year old driving a Honda CR-V, the insurance companies will develop the strategies that will keep them from paying out rewards. We can trust the actuaries to work it out, they’re good at that stuff. It worked for cars and tobacco.

Let’s talk about the upside for state and local governments. Just like proof of ownership and liability insurance for cars is required by law, so would gun ownership. Thinking about walking around downtown with your Uzie, fine. The police have the right to ask you for your registration and insurance. No insurance, no problem. Big fine and confiscation until proof of insurance is secured. Just like with your car.

Want to buy a gun because you’re really ticked off at your neighbor and something needs to be done? No problem, you can pick up the gun when your insurance has been secured. Society will rely on the insurance companies to do their due diligence and your neighbor will be happy they did.

Is my proposal crazy and farfetched? No. The city of San Jose, California has already enacted such a plan. I’m not going to quibble with them over who thought of what first. “There’s no good idea that can’t be improved on”.

One would think that the state of Alaska would want to be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon. They lead the country in firearm mortality according to the CDC. Of course the south comes in a close second. We do love our guns. I just hope we love our children more.

The State of the Union

President Biden gave his State of the Union address last night. Even if I wasn’t the bleeding heart liberal that I am, I thanked my lucky stars that the 2020 election went as it did. My guess is there are some people with a more right wing bent that are glad too. There’s nothing like having someone the people can look up to in a time of crisis.

I watched the President and I saw a man who projected, “I’m here for all of you, not just the one percent. I’m not here for just the Democrats, or just the people that voted for me, but for all Americans.” With all of the uncertainty going on in the world, and at home, it was reassuring to hear the President say to everyone, “It’s going to be ok”.

As I watched, I was struck by the joy that Kamala Harris exuded from her spot behind the President. At one point she jumped up so fast and high to applaud that she almost slipped off the podium. The V.P. wasn’t the only one energized by the President’s words.

Republicans have been told to sit on their hands and voice their opposition to any plan the President proposes to better the life of average Americans. The Repubs couldn’t even rise to support stopping fentanyl at the border or the President’s actions against Russia in defense of Ukraine. Strange times indeed.

Speaking of the idiot Putin, and the invasion of Ukraine, how much better off is the world now than it would have been if the former guy had a return to duty? The Donald had publicly stated that he wanted the U.S. to pull out of NATO. It’s clear from his current fawning after the invasion that there is no wish that the Donald would have denied Putin. “Want to roll the tanks into France, no problem. Just don’t salt the earth. I might want to put a golf course up there someday.”

Of course President Biden doesn’t just have the threat of WWIII hanging over his head, he’s still got mop up duty with the worst pandemic in over one hundred years. Seeing the Congress without masks was a reminder of how lucky we are that Biden took over when he did. I forgot how old some of those people are. Just kidding./s They are old, really old and seeing them without their masks reminded me how desperately we need to enforce a retirement age.

Even so, wasn’t it great to see them acting social and friendly? Maybe being able to see each other smile will encourage congress critters from both sides to work on the President’s agenda. There’s still plenty to do even though Biden illuminated a healthy list of accomplishments so far. With that said, here’s some of the list:

* $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package. Those pot holes aren’t going to fix themselves, or haven’t in the last couple of decades. Twenty years of kicking the can down the road has resulted in failing bridges all over the country. Biden has brought both sides together to finally fix them.

* The $1.9 trillion Covid relief deal. It’s hard to imagine what the vaccination program would have been like if left to the pharmaceutical companies. How many people would have gotten vaccinated if the shots were $500 a piece? The fact that the program provided financial relief for people affected by the crisis economy shows what a truly compassionate man Joe Biden is.

* Ended the war in Afghanistan. Was the withdrawal completely without issues, no, but we’re done with that hell-hole. No more American lives lost in vain.Trillions of dollars of American taxes will be freed up to pursue the challenges that need immediate attention like climate change.

* The American rescue plan. In Biden’s first year in office, the economy grew at the strongest rate in nearly 40 years. From beating back COVID to creating over 14.8 million new jobs, Biden has given the average American a path forward. The national unemployment rate has dropped to 3.7 percent from 6.3 percent when Biden took office.

* Appointment of federal judges. Biden has appointed 181 federal judges, the most since Ronald Reagan. He has also placed a moratorium on federal executions, reversing a policy that the Donald drug out of the closet.

Well, that’s just five off of the top of my head. I guess I could go on for days, but I won’t. Let’s just say that I think President Biden will be viewed very well by history, particularly with a look at the lack of cooperation he has received.

The State of The Union is stronger than it ever has been and will continue to get stronger, thank you President Biden.

Too Aloof

While we wait for the next mass shooting, and, I hear one was averted by a traffic stop in Indiana, I wonder what form of tragedy is it going to take before some people’s humanity is finally awakened.

We learned about the RWNJ headed to Washington with an AR15 and a hit list during the testimony of Dr. Fauci before Congress this week. Rand Paul, one of the two Senators from Kentucky that could effectively be replaced by door wedges, took an aggressive stance with his opportunity to question Dr. Fauci during the hearing on the pandemic. Instead of using his time to glean insights into Dr. Fauci’s specific knowledge of the facts, Paul chose to expound on some of his favorite conspiracy theories. Thankfully Dr. Fauci shut Paul down with the revelation that Paul was using “Fire Fauci” as a fund raiser on his Facebook page.

History bears out that there’s never a time so dire, a national emergency so acute that some people won’t bend the facts to their advantage. Dr. Fauci summed up this exchange with another Repug lawmaker so well that I can’t really improve on it. “What a moron” is a phrase that could be used universally against the current crop of Republicans.

How on earth did we get here? How did the country turn its back on the universal truth, “we just want our politicians to be smarter than we are”? Democrats at all levels are calling on their counterparts in the Republican party to act with courage and defy the RWNJ elements of their party. Seriously, which one of the 5 G’s is smarter than the guy that changes your oil?

Of course the Repugs won’t change their ways. Courage is the first thing removed from a Republican candidate, along with the will to serve the public. Meanwhile, the press has to blame someone for our fall from grace in standing with the rest of the world, so they ask the question, “Is President Biden too aloof?”

Too aloof, well I guess so. I know I prefer a leader that runs through the woods like his hair is on fire every time somebody pushes the hot topic button./s I guess in that regard the press will love having the Donald president again, until he bans the free press once and for all.

Speaking of another term in office for the great lurker, how is it that the sentient members of the Republican party, and I do think there are a few of them left, haven’t just decided to bathe in Clorox and get the stench of the Donald off of them forever? Some of them are safe in their districts no matter how much the misinformation machine attacks. It makes me wonder if physical threats aren’t thrown in with the Donald’s fealty oath. One speculates if the old veiled threat “nice family you’ve got there, it would be a shame if anything happened to them” is getting a lot of work these days.

Speaking of threats, and aloofness, I’m more than amused by President Biden’s welcome in Atlanta this week. Some black groups chose to not represent because they felt that Biden has been “aloof” to their needs. The threat by some black leaders to not keep strong with the Democratic party is madness in my opinion. I’m not sure how much sympathy blacks will get from the descendants of the “Back to Africa” movement. The old adage, “you got to dance with the one that brung you.” comes to mind. It might have been a Republican president that freed the blacks, but this is not the same Republican party.

While I totally agree that the future of America as a democratic country is truly on the line, it’s not like the President isn’t dealing with an existential problem 24/7. As near and dear to my heart as voting rights are, I can see where voting rights might not have been front burner for the President in his first year. 839,000 Americans have died due to Covid and the hospitals are bursting at the seams again with the sick and dying.

So, aloof, I don’t think so. Busier than a one-armed paper hanger is more like it.

Transparency

A Slow Bern

I find that the older I get, the less likely I am to venture into “new things”. I’ve also noticed that I become more frustrated and irritated when my ventures don’t turn out as planned. That’s one of the many reasons I wonder how in the world Bernie Sanders and his followers ever thought he was going to make it into the White House. People criticize President Biden for being “polarizing” and he’s about as an accommodating human being that ever walked the planet. Bernie Sanders is not shy about delivering his opinion to one and all.

Don’t get me wrong, I love everything the senator from Vermont is saying. He is “speaking truth to power”, as they say, and I love him for doing it. I just see that he’s never really had a snowball’s chance in Hell of pulling off a win in a presidential election. Even with the youth demographic behind him, he would never be able to pull enough progressive voters together to offset the “he’s a socialist, he’s a socialist” crowd. It’s sad that the label defines the man, but there it is.

I see Bernie not as a power broker but more of a conscience for the party. Perhaps it’s quotes like this that rope the young people into Bernie’s corral: “What being a socialist means is… that you hold out… a vision of society where poverty is absolutely unnecessary, where international relations are not based on greed… but on cooperation… where human beings can own the means of production and work together rather than having to work as semi-slaves to other people who can hire and fire.”

I particularly love the fact that the young people are so energized by him, and that they turn out in droves to support him. Someone needs to energize the youth of our country and the fact that an 80 year old is doing it is totally cool with me. I just hope that Bernie’s Brigade is not a part of some bizarro hipster movement that will turn it’s attention elsewhere when they get bored with the old guy. I hope they continue to “Feel the Bern” long after Bernie has left politics. I also wonder where the Bernies-in-training are. Katie Porter maybe?

History/memory informs us of another totally left candidate who played very well to the youth demographic, George McGovern. It was a very different time, one when the youth of our country were out marching in the streets every day to put an end to foreign excursions, civil rights, empowering women and other social issues. The presidential election of 1972, left the Democratic candidates George McGovern and Eugene Shriver crushed in a 61-percent to 37-percent defeat to Richard Nixon. The Electoral College total was 520 to 17, for Nixon. At the time, this was the second biggest landslide in American history. I’m not saying that I don’t think that a totally Progressive movement would have the same results today, I’m just offering up a recollection from the past. After all, “those who don’t remember the past are doomed to repeat it”, as the saying goes.

So, as excited as I am to see the progressive ideas expostulated by Bernie take hold with the American people, I know that the realities of his age have got to be catching up with him. At what point will some dip ask Bernie some dumb question, and Bernie lose it and go total octogenarian Rambo on them? I know it’s a possibility I deal with everyday, and Bernie’s got a few years on me. What if Bernie calls a fool “a fool” on the Senate floor and is censured for his truthfulness? Will he continue to try to serve like a Supreme Court Justice until the last functioning brain cell gives way? I hope not, he has meant too much to too many of us for his legacy to become tarnished in that way.

I hope that when when Bernie’s last race has been run that those of us who call ourselves Democrats will keep this Bernieism in our heart: Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent – a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice – that struggle continues.”


Selective Memory

It feels warmer this winter than I ever remember it being for this time of year. Of course my memory fades. Truth be told, I don’t really object to a mild winter. I just pray that it is not a harbinger of an asphalt melting summer. Bright sun-shiny ninety degree days don’t hold the attraction for me they once did. Of course if the weather turns sub-zero with snow and ice I’ll start longing for those “balmy” days of summer. My aversion to hot days will be superseded in my memory by the immediate discomfort of cold hands and feet.

That’s how memory works, we try to forget the bad, and reinforce the good. Some would call that a product of evolution, but I don’t want to give my neighbors another reason to distrust me.

Memory is also tainted by opinion. We all remember certain seminal events that were “once-in-a-lifetime events”. Everyone of a certain age can remember exactly where they were when Kennedy was shot. A later generation will remember 9-11 as their “everything changed after that” incident.

I remember being home from school and watching Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV. While there are thousands of conspiracy theories, and hundreds of books have been written expounding them, the opinionated memory can not change the black and white facts. Jack Ruby walked directly up to Lee Harvey Oswald in a garage in Dallas filled with police officers and shot the man accused of killing a president. No amount of supposition or conjecture can change what millions of us saw live on that day. Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald; one man took the life of another.

57 years, 1 month and 14 days later, millions of us watched in horror as another seminal event played out before our eyes on national TV. A group of misguided sycophants attempted to overthrow the government of the United States. They weren’t subtle about their intentions, they even brought along a gallows to deal with the vice-president they felt betrayed them. They were armed not only with weapons but inside information as to where to attack, where the defenses were the weakest.

The inside information was provided by congress people that had had enough of the democracy experiment. The insiders had decided that being re-chosen by their constituents every few years was too taxing on their Zen and that being installed by King Donald the 1st was more in line with their personal beliefs. I don’t suppose any of them had polled their districts with the simple question: Democracy or Monarchy? That would have been too obvious. Better to create a “Constitutional crisis” out of the mob storming the Capitol.

As one who has been unhappy with a lot of what my government has done in my name in my seventy plus years, I’ve always respected the process. I’m miserable when the Republicans are in office and less so when the Democrats take charge. As a youth I marched in the streets to end the war, but I also registered for the draft. It was what good citizens were supposed to do. Work within the system to bring about the change you wanted to see, not trash it for everyone. Not write in our feces on the Capitol walls.

Three years ago, a group of wrong headed acolytes of a false prophet rose up to change the world for all of us. This wasn’t the will of the people, over 81 million people voted for Joe Biden, the largest number of votes ever cast for a presidential candidate. Even by the definition of the Donald, Biden won by a landslide. No this was an attempted coup. This was an attempt by a few to overthrow the will of the many by force. We all saw it!

Most of us recognize that we are not guaranteed “Prom King” or “Homecoming Queen” and would never attempt to burn down our high school as a logical response to our loss. Sometimes another candidate for a position that we cherish goes to another. We learn from the experience, we grow and we move on. At least that’s how it works for 99.999999 percent of us.

Many opinions will be offered as to why the insurrectionists did what they did. Many excuses and defenses will be proffered by those brought to trial. There will be suppositions and conjectures aplenty. But no amount of supposition or conjecture can change what million of us saw live on that day. People, police officers, died while valiantly trying to preserve Democracy for the rest of us. Let’s not let opinions make our memories of what we all saw that day become selective.

Thousands Standing Around

We’re watching all of those folks milling around in the Atlanta Airport on TV. If I was trying to get to Dallas or Chicago by airplane, I’d probably be busting a gasket now.

What seems to be plaguing the holiday time of year travelers is the inability of the security at the airports to process the travelers quickly. I use “quickly” in the most generous sense. People are being told to arrive at the airport three hours ahead of their scheduled flight. Three hours ahead of their departure time! Let us cogitate on that for a moment. Three hours of picking up and kicking our bags forward while we try to not upset the people in front of, or behind us in line.

If those three hours were actually spent traveling, where could we go? Well, by car heading north, we’d make it to Asheville, Knoxville, Nashville and almost to Charlotte. Going in other directions we’d get to Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Columbus and nearly to Tallahassee and Savannah. I am told that people fly to those destinations from the Atlanta airport. Now travelers can drive to their port of call in the time they would have spent in line waiting to take their shoes and belt off.

As impressive as that range is, where could we go by train, if the United States had a train system like Eurail?

In addition to the car list, we add Lexington, Greensboro, Charleston, Jacksonville, Panama City, Pensacola and Mobile. It looks like going to the beach would be a piece of cake by train. I’m talking about a slow train, one that averages one hundred miles an hour. If you move up in speed to Eurail standards, then most of the eastern U.S. is within reach. Chicago is attainable in the time you spent kicking your bag along in line. The two and half hour flight time is just time you get added back to your life to live as you see fit. Logical minds are asking, what can be done? At least I hope there are some logical minds somewhere asking questions.

One of the reasons for the big slowdown at the airport has been brought about by the carriers charging more luggage fees for checked baggage. Passengers retaliated by carrying on all of their stuff. TSA agents retaliated by processing your sixteen carry on pieces of luggage as slowly as they could. The lines of angry passengers going out the door of the terminal notified the news agencies that there might be a story here. The story lasts for one cycle because the media is not going to aggravate any of their advertisers. Ad infinitum.

The news agencies have presented the story as one more government agency unable to function properly, not one more money grubbing industry trying to squeeze every nickel out of their customers. The spin that the fault lies with TSA, will of course beg for the opportunity to turn the security of the airports over to private security companies. Think Blackwater, except they’ll probably re-brand as something cute like “Blue Skies”. By the way, TSA stands for Transportation Security Administration not Thousands Standing Around.

It’s been reported that thousands of flyers have missed their flights because of the slow lines at security. What can be done to fix this problem without compromising security? Well, my first choice is to build a first rate train system in the U.S.A., like President Biden has talked about in his “Build Back Better” plan. If only a fourth of the folks flying today took the train, the lines at the airport would disappear. I suspect if the airlines felt any competition from any other source, they’d figure out how to get the lines manageable without compromising security. Without competition, they’re not motivated. For my money, the carriers have created the problem, and will try to shape the solution to something they would prefer. Something like their own security system.

Hometown Delta Airlines has devised a “Delta Check Point Charley” for all of the preapproved Delta passengers. Flyers have the option to join TSA’s Precheck program and use Delta’s face recognition software to speed customers through the line. Blink, blink, zip, zip you’d be through security headed to the gate like in the old days before 9/11. Of course annual dues would apply, and maybe frequent flyers might have to get dinged a little more for their frequent use of the system. Those face readers don’t come cheap you know.

Security would be maintained without all of us getting to show our privates to amused TSA officials. The downside might be a preapproved gun nut. This year TSA has caught 4,500 firearms in carry on luggage, a twenty year high. I’m not seeing anything in the program that addresses weapons in carry on luggage.

The reduction in the time needed to fly might be enough to hold off developing a first rate Amtrak. We’ll see. There are a lot of us that prefer the comfort and reliability of a good train system. Sadly, we might have to wait until the Hyperloop becomes a reality.


Cruzin’

Al Franken, the great former Senator from the state of Minnesota once said of his relationship with Ted Cruz, “Here’s the thing you have to understand about Ted Cruz, I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”

Known as somebody who doesn’t mind climbing out on a limb, and then sawing it off behind himself, lyin’ Ted Cruz is never at a loss for words. It seems The Cruz has pushed the crazy meter so far to the right that he’s getting a bounce in media attention currently. Describing Biden’s pledge to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court, lyin’ Ted Cruz referred to the decision as “offensive” and “insulting”. Whew!

I think The Cruz has upped his media game to the point that the major news services feel like they need to stay on his coattails, lest they miss something major. The Cruz is so volatile he just might set himself on fire or something. The extra coverage just brings up more wacky stuff that might get missed if the news people aren’t 24X7. Like the fact that The Cruz is currently packing for an extended stay in Cancun ahead of the next ice storm.

Why do people take an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It saves time.

Speaking of trips, who remembers Bruce Jenner’s famous trip to the bathroom on his pilgrimage to endorse the Donald in New York prior to the 2016 election?

Now, I will be the first to admit that I have all sorts of issues with the conversion of Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner. These issues are more about a contemporary, a terrific athlete, one who could have beaten me at each and every event, then deciding later in life that he should have been playing for the girl’s team. That’s disturbing to me. Whether or not he feels his gender assignment was right or not is a personal issue, in my opinion, and should have been handled that way. The fact that he has the world’s most aggressive agent promoting his change, and consequently the news coverage, is just tacky. Not quite as tacky as the Kardashian kids, but still real tacky. The firestorm was released when the Kardashian media machine released a video of Bruce going in the women’s restroom, in Trump Tower, no less. Enter lyin’ Ted Cruz.

The Cruz wanted his faithful to know that if there was ever going to be a Cruz Presidency, no one was going to be allowed to enter a bathroom that they were not biologically suited for. In front of God and everybody, Cruz opined, “It doesn’t make sense for grown adult men, strangers, to be alone in a restroom with a little girl,” Cruz continued. “This is the height of political correctness. And frankly, the concern is not of the Caitlyn Jenners of the world, but if the law is such that any man, if he feels like it, can go in a woman’s restroom and you can’t ask him to leave, that opens the door for predators.”  Ahhhhh, the predators card. I’m glad Cruz played it.

Parents of children of both sexes are always faced with how to handle the potty breaks of little ones before we feel that they’re safe to go by themselves. Mom could be with the son, or Dad with the daughter. Neither parent wants to be caught in that danger zone of taking the child to the bathroom we are “gender assigned” to, but not the child. Or worse, entering the bathroom that is correct for the child, but not for the parent. Then you’ve got the Cruz dilemma of an adult in the wrong bathroom. As the child gets older, this situation gets more and more awkward until we finally decide they’re ok to go to their own bathroom on their own, while we wait patiently for them to return. Billions of parents handle this issue everyday.

It’s only in Cruz world where we have to presume that a trans person is also a predator. In Cruz world laws must be made to preserve the sanctity of gender specific bathrooms, no matter how broken the plumbing is in the other bathroom. Ironically, I bet The Cruz never asked his wife if she had ever used the Men’s bathroom. Heidi is prone to hearing voices, and I bet at some point in time Heidi heard a voice say, “I’ve got to go now and there is no line at the men’s room”. Maybe not, maybe I judge too harshly.

I am sure that The Cruz wouldn’t know a “predator” if one came up and bit him on the butt. I even offer up proof. Here The Cruz is pictured with a very famous predator that called his wife ugly and said his dad helped Lee Harvey Oswald: