Morning AB, All. As always, thank you AB for doing this thread so reliably and keeping the peace with gentle thread policing. Thank you Bray for weekly written wisdom, Thank you Rodguy for fishing tales and political perspectives from all angles, Thank all yon contributors for excellent commentary to flesh it all out.
Below are the words from my daily political diary. It is quite long so scroll on by if not interested. But do stay around and add your commentary and point of view to the thread.
Tues-9/3/19
HURRICANE DORIAN
As of this writing, 9/2/19 2:30 pm, Hurricane Dorian has hit the Bahamas and no one’s heard a thing from any human on that island.
It is expected to hit, at this time, around the Carolinas and less directly into Florida. And I have tongue-in-cheek about the Bahamas. The islands are still there but not much word about the damage at this time.
We’re keeping eye on this storm because a part of it appears that it might hit Delaware. Oh it will be category 1, if even a hurricane at all, by that time.
I’ve lived through many hurricanes.
The worst, to me, will always be Hurricane Hazel , hitting when I was a young teen. That hurricane flooded most of Penna and Merryland.
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SHOOTING IN ODESSA, TEXAS
Since that strange mass shooting in Odessa, Texas, not much has been said about the killer who did the deed. Usually these things hit the headlines with threats that Comey and his gang are coming to take away our guns.
Not that Beto O’Rourke and various other idiot politicos didn’t mention gun control as soon as a camera was upon them.
Turns out he wasn’t a white supremacist or a Nazi or a Trump voter. So the matter, along with a hurricane boiling off the east coast, has been largely ignored. Turns out he is a nut job. The motive for his shooting spree is, as of this writing, unknown.
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The man who killed seven people in Odessa, Texas, over the weekend had been fired from his trucking job hours before the mass shooting, according to multiple reports.
The gunman, identified Sunday as Seth Aaron Ator, lead officials on a high speed chase during which he indiscriminately fired on motorists and police officers. Ator was killed after being chased by officers.
The New York Times first reported that Ator had been fired from his trucking job in Odessa.
He was pulled over Saturday by state troopers for failing to use a turn single before beginning firing, according to police.
An additional 22 people were injured in the mass shooting, which was the second to strike Texas in August.
Ator had a criminal record but there were no open warrants for his arrest.
Despite the reports of his firing, police say a motive is still not known for the shooting.
POLITICAL MISCELLANY
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Not big news but some tidbits worth mentioning.
PRESIDENT’S PERSONAL ASSISTANT FIRED FOR BEING A TRAITOROUS BITCH
A personal assistant seems like someone any individual would know very well. As it turns out, Madeleine Westerhout was President Trump’s personal assistant. She just got fired.
The woman was a staffer for Mitt Romney and is reported to have sobbed when Trump won the 2016 election.
Odd that she was kept around now almost three years into the Trump presidency.
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Madeleine Westerhout, President Donald Trump's personal assistant, who has been described as a gatekeeper to the president, resigned on Thursday after leaking to the press earlier this month. Several White House officials had long suspected her of disloyalty to the president. A former staffer for the Republican National Committee and Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign, she had reportedly cried when it became clear Trump had won in 2016.
"She was a spy from day one who sought to use her proximity to the president to curry favor with his detractors," a former White House official told CBS News.
Westerhout's resignation came after Trump learned on Thursday that she had "indiscreetly shared details about his family and the Oval Office operations she was part of during a recent off-the-record dinner with reporters staying at hotels near Bedminster, N.J., during the president's working vacation," The New York Times reported.
Westerhout was immediately considered a "separated employee" and was not allowed to return to the White House on Friday.
According to CBS News, the New Jersey dinner was not the first time Trump's personal assistant had gossiped with reporters present. At a farewell event for former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she bragged about her gatekeeper status.
WHAT THE DEMOCRATS PLAN FOR US SHOULD THEY WIN.
Beto, guns and curse words.
The fabulous and foul-mouthed (he said “f***** up” on CNN this past Sunday and was not deleted) Beto O’Rourke said he will take our guns. Yep. Come right to our house and abscond with them.
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2020 Democrat hopeful Robert “Beto” O’Rourke announced he will enact “red flag laws” and forcefully confiscate AK-47’s and AR-15’s if he’s elected president of the United States.
“And more importantly and politically difficult to say, buy those weapons of war back — mandate that — not voluntarily. Let’s be clear with our fellow Americans. No place for an AK-47 or an AR-15 on the streets of our communities,” Beto said during an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday.
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Sanders and air conditioners
And let’s not forget Senator Sanders who plans a federal takeover of our electricity. Imagine what a delightful life we shall lead with the gubmint setting our air conditioners and heaters.
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During an appearance on MSNBC Thursday night, Sanders told host Chris Hayes that the U.S. needed an "aggressive" federal approach to producing electricity and nodded after Hayes claimed he proposed a "federal takeover of the whole thing."
Sanders agreed with Hayes' assessment that he wanted to create a "Tennessee Valley Authority [TVA] extension for the whole country." "You can't nibble around the edges anymore," Sanders added.
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So there you have it. Beto comes for our guns and Sanders comes to set our air conditioners.
Life will be grand with the Democrats in charge.
Weds 9/4/19
HURRICANE DORIAN UPDATE
If ever there was a big “disappointment”, I say softly because as it appears to be turning out this is good news….it is Hurricane Dorian.
He started out big and scary and for a few days he got bigger. Eventually he reached a category 5, the largest of hurricane ranking, and the news people were all over the place in their hysteria. “Global warming” many declared in sanctimonious voices. They shrieked and screamed and devoted entire programs to Dorian.
As of this writing he is down to a category 2 and appears to be skirting up the Atlantic seaboard bringing naught but tropical storms to east coastal areas.
The Bahamas, wow, not much known about those islands as of this writing but Dorian did spend a couple of days destroying that country.
We’ll be updating as more is known.
STRANGE BOAT FIRE WE HEAR LITTLE ABOUT.
A few weeks ago we had two huge gun shoot-outs, one in Dayton and one in Texas. This past weekend some nut got a parking ticket and drove around in a stolen postal truck randomly shooting people on the street.
But this past weekend we had a boat catch on fire at about 3 in the am, killing 34 people, 33 passengers and one crew member.
Here it is Tuesday and finally somebody admitted that people died but still we know not names or cause.
Boats do not just, boom, burst into flame burning the humans sleeping below deck alive.
As of this writing nobody seems to know why the boat caught on fire. Five of the six crew members were able to jump off the boat as they were not sleeping in a locked below deck bedroom like those poor victims.
It was a ship devoted to taking divers out to see to dive and enjoy the sights below the sea. At night the guests sleep in bunks below deck. I guess nobody gave any thought that these people might have to get out.
And further, nobody has been on TV today demanding the elimination of all boats and the banning of divers who wish to enjoy their happiness.
I think 34 people dying suddenly on a boat that blew up, God yet knows why, is a big deal.
More will be coming out and we will keep eyes and ears open.
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The Fire Department said 34 people died, but the U.S. Coast Guard, which first reported a rescue operation near Santa Cruz Island, has not confirmed any fatalities.”
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Political cartoon of the week
Thurs 9/5/19
THE HURRICANE FROM HELL
It’s not that Hurricane Dorian isn’t a respectable bit of weather. But darn if the thing hasn’t lasted forever and two days. As of this writing Dorian is expected to barely touch Florida and hit North Carolina with a Cat 2 Wham.
It’s getting old.
But the damage done to the Bahamas, folks, is astonishing.
America does not own the Bahamas so while we should help our neighbors in their great need, we are not obligated to pay for the damage.
This country appears to be so badly damaged that it might be best to get a huge plow, push it all into the ocean, and start again from scratch.
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NOT POLITICS BY PAT
The British Royals
We hear Harry and Meghan, the newlyweds and new parents of the royal type, are looking for a home in Malibu. That’s right, Malibu, California.
Harry wants to be in movies I’m thinking.
Speaking of Hurricanes
I understand that the concept of “categories” in hurricanes is based on wind speed. Through Dorian I learned that a cat 5 hurricane has winds up to 150 plus.
Once upon a time this meant nothing to me. I understood car speeds and this was all I needed in my life.
But during Hurricane Matthew my niece and I happened to be crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Matthew had only brushed this area of the Atlantic coast so niece and I decided to take our planned trip.
The lady at the toll booth told us when the winds went over 60 mph the bridge would be closed. I was driving a Jeep. We proceeded over the bridge and the wind speed light told us that the winds were upwards over 55 mph.
Worried about the wind exceeding 60 and the possibility that we would be stuck on the bridge I drove carefully.
Folks, that Jeep wiggled and weaved but it stayed on the road. All around us lesser cars were pulled aside, such was their inability to navigate the winds.
If 60 mph winds do this to a Jeep….why I cannot imagine what the winds of a Hurricane Cat 5 can do and the fear it can install.
Fri 9/6/19
DORIAN FINALLY HITS LAND IN THE CAROLINAS
I hear that Floridians are mad because everything was closed down last week and as it would turn out, for no discernible reason. There were even mandatory evacuations that were not rescinded even though it was obvious that Dorian was not going to hit Florida all that hard. And yet certain residents HAD to evacuate and ironically many had to more further north where the hurricane REALLY DID HIT!
Any way, Delaware expects to receive two inches rain from Dorian Friday night into Saturday.
We will survive.
We are the state of Biden. We are tall, proud and sometimes we get things mixed up.
SPEAKING OF JOE BIDEN
Seems that Biden’s left eyeball has a little bleed that evidently occurred the night of the Democratic debates on CNN. Picture below.
Folks, this Biden stuff is scary. Now his freaking eyeballs are bleeding!!!
No way this man should be president.
Sat 9/7/19
SARAH SANDERS NEW FOX POLITICAL PUNDIT
I have been looking forward to the introduction of former White House Spokesman for a couple of weeks now.
She did a great job the morning of this writing and I am happy that she’s on board. Lord but she’s got to be better than that horrible Donna Brazille and Jessica Tarlov with the voice from hell.
Beyond being better than the worst, Sarah has a personality that appeals. She was chased by nut jobs out of a restaurant. She told us about her three children and how glad she is to be home with them.
She brings a pundit addition to Fox and Friends that can’t be beat.
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ROBERT MUGABE, NOBEL PRIZE WINNER WE SHOULD GIGGLE, DIES
Zimbabwe used to be a great African country. People owned and farmed their own lands.
Then this Mugabe person was made president and he became a tyrant and ruined that country, once the most prosperous in Africa.
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Robert Mugabe, the first prime minister and later president of independent Zimbabwe, who traded the mantle of liberator for the armor of a tyrant and presided over the decline of one of Africa's most prosperous lands, died on Friday. He was 95.
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How do these horrible people win Nobel Peace Prizes? I remember President Obama won one and again, for what?
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FINAL GIGGLE OF THE WEEK
look familiar?: 
and finally: 