Day 19 of 366 Crazy introspection

There are times when I wonder how much damage parents inflict on their children. Think about Trump Or DeSantis for a minute, as repulsive as it is. There hasn’t been a day thus far in 2024 when the majority of the media coverage hasn’t focused on Trump and his antics.

They were children once. What kind of childhood did they have that created them to be ruthless and vindictive? Can we really place all the blame on their parents? I’m not sure. But then I wonder what really influenced them to become these flawed creatures.

Look at DeSantis for a moment, was he so badly damaged by reading books that he wants every book he dislikes banned. If you don’t want to read a book, then don’t. Books invite discussions and those discussions help us look at issues that concern us or make us aware of things that we may not have known. Irrational fears if a child reads a book, they’ll become a lesbian or gay or even transgender are ludicrous.

Jane K. Cleland in an article in Writer’s Digest about Thematic Writing that all writing has themes when done well. Her example of an epigraph that made me chuckle was “the Godfather by Mario Puzo where the theme focuses on dueling dichotomies, crime and justice and loyalty and betrayal. The epigraph reads, “Behind every good fortune, there is a crime.” Unfortunately, many of our wealthy personas have taken that to heart.

Could that epigraph also apply to Trump or DeSantis with a slight word change, “Behind every politician lies a criminal.” However, in all fairness that epigraph could apply to any one of our politicians right now in Congress, even our local governments. That thought is repulsive but unfortunately true. It saddens me immensely that our culture is attracted to criminals and their fifteen minutes of fame.

The more repulsive things Trump Or DeSantis say and do the higher the polls rise for the Republican Party. Which is terrifying to me because so much has changed in our country and I’m not convinced it’s for the best. I realize our country needs to make changes that our forefathers couldn’t have possibly anticipated but looking at all the candidates at this time I can’t help but wonder how much this country can endure with any of them at the realm.

I find myself wondering how much crazier things are going to get.

Virgin Air’s Flight VS127 was prevented from taking off on 15 January after a passenger saw that the tops of four fasteners were missing on a panel on one of the wings. It was cancelled in order to allow engineers to carry out an additional inspection of the aircraft. However, a Virgin Air representative said in an interview that ,”Each of the wing panels on an Airbus A330 has 119 fasteners, so the fact that only four were missing did not impact “the structural integrity or load capability of the wing, and the aircraft was safe to operate.” (1)

I don’t know about you, but flying is looking less and less appealing to me. Airlines have been accumulating profits, but I think it’s long overdue since they’ve invested in maintenance.

The death toll from the polar vortex is still rising with today’s number at fifty. Sixty-six million people are affected by winter weather alerts. (2)

Las Vegas doesn’t have snow but it’s going to have different issues. The Super Bowl is here and along with that comes insanity for the residents. (3) It’s already challenging to drive here because there aren’t any bypasses like Philadelphia or Washington DC. so if you’re going to a location on the other side of the strip, you’re stuck in traffic. Most of us haven’t forgotten how difficult it was to get to different locations off the strip when the Formula One race was here. Many businesses were financially impacted from the road closures and disruptions and the Super Bowl is going to repeat a lot of that chaos.

The Financial Economics versus the residential needs on paper look ideal because the highly anticipated Super Bowl LVIII is set to take place in Las Vegas on February 11, 2024. “Held at the state-of-the-art Allegiant Stadium, this is an opportunity for the city to showcase its world-class facilities and attractions to a global audience,” says Andrew Gosselin of Money Inc.

Reality check Allegiant Stadium may be state of the art but the seating costs to attend a game or a concert for a local is astronomical. According to TicketIQ, the Raiders have the most expensive tickets of any NFL team for the upcoming season based on the average list price on the secondary market. It’s the third consecutive year this has been the case. Las Vegas has an average price of $1,035 per game. I don’t know about you but a thousand dollars buys a lot of groceries. I told you crazy knows no boundaries.

“As the city prepares to host one of the biggest sporting events in the world, the Las Vegas Super Bowl Host Committee is working diligently to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Their primary objective is to create a memorable experience for visitors while leveraging the benefits of the massive influx of fans,”. says Gosselin (4)

(1) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12982309/virgin-atlantic-flight-stopped-noticed-missing-bolts-wing.html

(2) https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/more-than-50-dead-66-million-under-winter-weather-alerts-as-arctic-cold-blankets-the-nation

(3) https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/skies-airport-runways-will-be-packed-for-super-bowl-week-in-las-vegas

(4) https://moneyinc.com/what-is-the-economic-impact-of-the-super-bowl-in-las-vegas/

Day 11 Crazy, how all the Trump supporters are engaging in violence

Bomb squad called to Trump judge Arthur Engoron’s  house hours before end of the fraud trial. “What has happened here is a fraud on me,” Trump angrily told the judge. “This is a political witch hunt, and that should be set aside. We should receive damages for what we went through.” (1) At this point, it’s unclear when the verdict will be delivered by Engoron. “The former president raged about Engoron’s decision on Truth Social on Wednesday evening, claiming that the “Trump hating judge” was working alongside James to “‘screw me,’ even though I have done nothing wrong.” Kaitlin Lewis posted in Newsweek. “The lawsuit as we know it, was brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who claims that Trump inflated his net value to deceive insurers and banks to receive better loan deals. James’ original lawsuit, which was seeking $250 million but has since been bumped up to $370 million in penalties, was already partially agreed to by Engoron, who found that Trump misstated his value on financial documents.” (2) But, I’m sure Engoron is not amused having his home invaded at 5:30 am in Nassau County on Long Island. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first-time unusual occurrences have happened since Trump has been on trial. Engoron’s staff has been subjected vitriolic criticism and bombarded with death threats. This scenario seems to follow Trump and his cronies. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Hopefully, no one will be hurt before the buffoons committing these atrocities are convicted.

Accuweather says Pacific storms are clashing with Arctic air in the Northwest which will bring more snow to the Rockies. We had a dusting in Las Vegas today but not enough to linger. Snow is needed desperately to replenish the Colorado River, but the Colorado’s snowpack could use some help from those storms. Data out today, (January 2, 2024) shows snow totals well below what’s considered normal. (3)

It’s hard to believe five years have passed since Covid became a house-hold word. There have been numerous variants and unfortunately there’s another one JN 1. It’s already accounted for 62 percent of the new reported cases in 2024. The CDC wants us to remember covid activity is high because of the cold temperatures and people are in close contact.

I’m working on the P-51 Mustang still. I didn’t have as much sewing time yesterday. Wednesday afternoons, I have a zoom meeting with the writing group I used to attend in person. Now, we’re scattered and only meet online. I’ve been reading posts from the in-person writing group here in Las Vegas called Sin-City Writers. They meet on Tuesday night and Saturday mornings. Tuesday wouldn’t work because that’s the only night our family can have dinner together with our crazy schedules. Quality time is so important.

(1) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/bomb-squad-called-to-trump-judge-s-house-hours-before-end-of-fraud-tria

(2) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/judge-engoron-s-courtroom-joke-turns-heads

(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aThQxreEXs

Day 10 of 366 Craziness and Political Grand storming, so fed up with our government

I’ll begin with the weather for a moment with 49 states with weather alerts for Finn. And now it looks like Gerri will be following suit in areas that haven’t recovered from the predecessor. My question is how many times does history have to repeat itself before we create methods to reduce the flooding and tornado damage. I know many low-income families reside in mobile homes but why aren’t the manufacturers required to make them safer during tornadoes. The construction trade has to change and stop cutting corners to reduce cost. If a tornado came thru Las Vegas, these houses would be destroyed because they are not built with plywood walls, they are stryofoam covered with stucco.

Stucco is a cement-type mixture made of Portland cement, lime, sand and water. It is a thin finish coat that goes on the outermost layer of residential and commercial constructions. Modern stucco has polymers and other agents for increased flexibility that improves its resilience but is it enough to withstand tornado or hurricane force winds. I’m not convinced because I’ve hit the wall on our house by accident trying to hang Christmas lights and it broke into pieces exposing the styrofoam underneath.

Let’s talk about the political grandstanding with the Biden impeachment hearings. The Republicans wanted to cite Hunter Biden for contempt because he declined to do behind closed door interrogations. Apparently, the democratic party wanted to know why the Republicans refused to do it publicly. I want to know also why these discussions have to be behind closed doors. Are the people involved afraid to let their constituents see them in action?

Every one of these congressmen and congresswomen and representatives are public employees but they seem to forget that fact. Why are we paying their salaries to behave like buffoons. Tit for tat? Seriously, they all need reality checks.

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene seems to be leading the witch hunt on President Biden.

“Hunter Biden was and is a private citizen. Despite this, Republicans have sought to use him as a surrogate to attack his father,” Lowell said.

Lowell accused Republicans of caring “little about the truth” and trying to “hold someone in contempt who has offered to publicly answer all their proper questions.”

“I am here to testify at a public hearing, today, to answer any of the committees’ legitimate questions,” Hunter Biden said. “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say. What are they afraid of? I am here.” (1)

I’m so over our tax money being wasted for this tit for tat behavior. We unfortunately allowed a reality star idiot to become president and now we’re the reality show to the world. If they have grounds to indite Biden show it now as Jared Moskowitz insisted, they do so. Chairman James Comer said, “We think, we do.” Again, they volleyed back and forth wasting valuable time and resources, that comes out of the American people’s wallet.

Biden may or may not have been involved in his son’s business dealings. Nine other Presidents have also faced misconduct charges and not removed from office. “Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, questioning whether the president profited from that work. We didn’t bat an eye about Cheney’s involvement with Haliburton, did we?

Nor do we seem to want to convict the buffoon reality star, who has numerous charges pending but still is actively campaigning for presidency which he has blatantly said, he will be the dictator because the laws and the constitution do not apply to him. Lawyers for Trump made the legal argument Tuesday — in a real courtroom, before actual US judges — that a president could order the military to assassinate his political rival and not be prosecuted for it as long as Congress was cool with it. (2)

If you looked into the Bureau of Prisons, the largest stockholders in the prison system are senators. They make profits on the supplies needed to run the prisons in addition to other secret dealings. I would love to see every single financial dealing as public record before anything goes forward with this finger pointing at Biden. Especially since, it recently became public record how much Trump’s businesses profited from foreign countries while in office.

Let’s get real, we’ve lowered ourselves into being witch hunters.

Remember, “John 8:7-11 King James Version (KJV)So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again, he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.”

Although in our present-day situations, we don’t practice actual stone-throwing in our courts of law, the image still resonates. “Because lobbing anything in judgment of another is happening all the time. It’s a painful visual, even today, to hurl your anger at someone with an object intended to harm. And that object can be insults, lies, accusations, or any number of hard options, “says Lia Martin (3)

Today’s embroidery block for the quilt is the P 51- Mustang. It was among the best and most known Army fighters uses during WWII. The only plane I was familiar with was the Marines Vought F4U that the Flying Tigers used to score aerial victories. There used to be a series, I loved about the Flying Tigers specifically the Black Sheep Squadron led by “Pappy” Gregory Boyington. The show was based on Boyington’s autobiography Baa Baa Black Sheep. That show and his biography spiked my interest in military history which has evolved over time to also include the Civil War and WWI.

Boyington is best known for his exploits in the Vought F4U Corsair. .Boyington died of cancer on January 11th, 1988 at hospice in Fresno, California. He was laid to rest in Arlington with full military honors. (5)

There was a study done to determine which plane was more effective. U.S. Army Force pilots who flew the P51 Mustang said it was the best performing fighter of World War Two. Many might agree. Many, but not all the branches of the military agreed., Navy and Marine Corps aviators who flew the Vought F4U would argue that the Corsair, hands down, holds the title as best fighter of the Second World War.

(1) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/hunter-biden-makes-surprise-appearance-at-contempt-of-congress-hearing/ar-AA1mKarV

(2) https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/a-law-professor-grades-the-legal-argument-trump-s-lawyer-just-made-about-presidential-immunity-

(3) https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/bible-study/what-jesus-meant-when-he-said-let-he-who-is-without-sin-cast-the-first-stone.html

(4) https://militaryhistorynow.com/2021/10/03/mustang-vs-corsair-inside-the-u-s-navys-1944-match-up-between-the-two-fighters/

(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pappy_Boyington#:~:text=Boyington%20is%20best%20known%20for,F4U%20Corsair%20in%20VMF%2D214.

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