Monday Music "Do The Hustle" by The Real McCoys

I have been enjoying the run of songs, I never had a theme last this long, and I am  really enjoying it in a weird sort of way,   I have several more weeks in mind, perhaps longer.  As long as I can flog er work the muse, I will,
     I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs.  This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", it is a facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia.  We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....

One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines and prepare yourself.

 I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song that is related to Disco and Porn in the 1970's.  What can I say, My humor is warped....just a bit. Next week will be "Lets All Chant" by Michael Zager Band, Somehow Disco seems to fit the theme better....?

   I decided to do this version of "Monday Music" on the Hustle, it was very popular during the Disco era.

"The Hustle" is a disco song by songwriter/arranger Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony. It went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts during the summer of 1975. It also peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the UK.It would eventually sell over one million copies. The song won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance early in 1976 for songs recorded in 1975.

While in New York City to make an album, McCoy composed the song after his music partner, Charles Kipps, watched patrons do a dance known as "the Hustle" in the nightclub Adam's Apple. The sessions were done at New York's Media Sound studio with pianist McCoy, bassist Gordon Edwards, drummer Steve Gadd, keyboardist Richard Tee, guitarists Eric Gale and John Tropea, and orchestra leader Gene Orloff. Producer Hugo Peretti contracted piccolo player Phil Bodner to play the lead melody.
During the summer of 1975, "The Hustle" became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Soul Singles charts. Billboard ranked it as the No. 21 song for 1975. It also peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Singles Chart (Kent Music Report) and No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart.
According to producers Hugo & Luigi who owned the Avco record label that originally released "The Hustle", McCoy met with them shortly before his death in 1979 to discuss ideas for a new, longer version of the song, in order to appease Avco's UK and German affiliates who were clamoring for a 12" disco single release. The new version, clocking in at just under 6-and-a-half minutes, was assembled posthumously as a remix, using parts of the original recording plus new parts, including drum, Syndrum, and a "little" Moog synthesizer. It was credited to Van McCoy alone or with an unnamed orchestra, mixed by "The Mix Masters", identity unknown 

I got the movie I was waiting for from Amazon...

Yeah I know that there were some some inaccuracies in the movie, but overall I thought it was a good movie and the Actors they had mirrored the real life people pretty good, Woody Harrelson even Played a good Admiral Nimitz.  There was one person that I heard a bit about a  long time ago in a book I read then I forgot about it, until I saw it in the Movie, was the Machinist Mate running into the back of a Dauntlass and shooting down a twin engine bomber and it missed the carrier and tore the tail off his plane.  Then I saw it in the movie.

Disregard the Cheesy Music, was the only clip I could find on youtube that wasn't tied up in trailers.

On 1 February  1942, five Japanese twin-engine bombers made it through the USS Enterprise (CV-6) combat air patrol (fighters) defenses following the U.S. carrier raid on the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.  All the bombers missed and turned away, except the badly damaged lead plane, piloted by Lieutenant Kazuo Nakai, which turned back in an attempt to crash on the Enterprise.  As the aircraft neared the ship and anti-aircraft fire seemed ineffective, Aviation Machinist Mate Third Class (AMM3/C) Bruno Gaido leaped out of the catwalk, climbed into the back seat of a parked SBD Dauntless dive bomber (his normal position as radioman-gunner when the plane was airborne), and swiveled the plane’s aft twin .30 caliber machine guns and opened fire, standing while pouring accurate fire down into the low-flying bomber’s cockpit, causing it to lose control. The bomber barely missed the flight deck, its wingtip cutting the tail off the SBD Gaido was in and spinning the parked aircraft. Gaido continued firing on the bomber throughout, until it crashed in the water on the opposite side of the ship. Gaido then calmly grabbed the fire bottle from the SBD and extinguished a pool of flaming gasoline on the flight deck left over from the crashed bomber.  Thereafter, he disappeared into the ship, worried that he would get in trouble for leaving his watch station. Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, the task group commander, ordered that the unidentified gunner be found. A search party eventually located Gaido and brought him to the bridge, whereupon Halsey spot-promoted him to First Class, as everyone who observed the event credited Gaido with keeping the Enterprise from being hit in the extremely close call.

USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6)
flight deck scene, 1 February 1942, during the raids against the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. Note belts of .50 caliber ammunition being carried around by the crewman in the foreground. The aircraft in the background are part of the carrier’s air group Douglass SBD-3 Dauntlesses.

A damaged U.S. Navy Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless of bombing squadron VB-6 on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), 1 February 1942.  With the date of the pic and the missing tail, I surmise that this is the actual plane that Gaido used.

Gaido already had a reputation on Enterprise for his mental and physical toughness.  In June 1941, newly reported pilot Lieutenant Junior Grade Dusty Kleiss got into his SBD to make his first carrier landing, expecting to fly solo, only to find Gaido, who identified himself as Kleiss’s radioman-gunner,  sitting in the gunner’s seat instead of the usual pile of sandbags for initial carrier qualification flights. Kleiss tried to talk Gaido into getting out of the aircraft for his own safety, but Gaido persisted, responding, “You got wings, don’t ya?” Buoyed by Gaido’s confidence, Kleiss made several perfect landings with Gaido as a passenger.
At the subsequent battle of Midway on 4 June 1942, Gaido was a gunner in an SBD piloted by Ensign Frank O’Flaherty, one of 28 planes that dive-bombed the Japanese carrier IJN Kaga (the bomb just missed, possibly because smoke and flames from four previous hits obscured the target). While returning to the Enterprise in a group of a six stragglers led by Lieutenant Charles Ware, the flight was jumped by six Japanese “Zero” fighters that broke away from Japanese carrier IJN Hiryu’s dive-bomber counterstrike that was heading toward the carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5). Ware had earlier improvised a tactic of turning into the attacking Japanese Zeros, and did so again, creating an arc with the trailing SBD’s that enabled all rear seat gunners to concentrate their fire on the leading Zeros. Two Zeros were so badly shot up they had to return to Hiryu; one ditched en route and the other barely made it to the carrier. Although it is impossible to tell which SBD gunners did the damage, given Gaido’s previous history of accuracy, it is possible he did his fair share. The remaining four chastened Zeros broke off, but were unable to catch up with Hiryu’s dive bombers before they were intercepted by F-4F Wildcat fighters from the Yorktown, which shot down most of the undefended dive bombers (the seven bombers that got through scored three severe direct hits and two damaging near-misses on Yorktown, so every Japanese plane lost was critical to Yorktown’s survival at that point in the battle.)
Unfortunately, Gaido’s plane had been holed in the wing during that or an earlier encounter with the Zeros, and was losing fuel. O’Flaherty had to ditch in the open sea. Of the other five SBD’s, one was able to ditch near the Yorktown for rescue, but the other four, including Ware’s, missed the U.S. carriers and disappeared without a trace into the Pacific. O’Flaherty and Gaido were picked up by the Japanese destroyer IJN Makigumo, interrogated and probably tortured. The Japanese claimed to have gotten useful information from them about the defenses of Midway Island, but the two provided nothing of value regarding the U.S. carriers. However, neither had been to Midway Island so neither had any way of knowing what was on the island (even the skipper of USS Hornet’s torpedo bomber squadron did not know that a detachment from his own squadron, which had been left behind in Norfolk to transition to the new TBF Avenger, had arrived on the island). My assessment is that O’Flaherty and Gaido, under torture, gave up plausible but phony information. Certainly everyone who knew Gaido adamantly believed that he would not have cracked. However, on 15 June 1942, the Japanese decided the two aircrewmen were no longer of use. Weights were tied to both and they were thrown over the side to drown. Japanese accounts state that both met their end with stoic and dignified defiance. Gaido’s fate was not known by the U.S. until after the war. None of the responsible Japanese officers survived the war, so there was no war crime prosecution. Gaido was subsequently posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Some Big German Mistakes during WWII

Germany made some big mistakes during WWII, besides declaring War on the United States on December 11, 1941 pushing the United States into War in Europe.  If he hadn't done that, all the American soldiers, most of the resources and other things would have been directed against the Japanese, and the Postwar map would have looked a lot different.

 Alternate Reality, German Soldier Stationed in London on Occupation Duty.

Throughout WWII, Adolf Hitler’s political ambitions interfered with his plans or the plans of his generals. Several high-profile military operations were canceled, sometimes against the advice of his commanders.
In July 1940, Hitler signed Führer Directive No. 16. It was the order to instigate the invasion of Britain entitled Operation Sealion.(Operation SeeLowe)
The invasion was planned for August 25. Forty-one divisions were to cross the Channel, along with two divisions of airborne troops. Landing along the south coast, they would encircle London, bringing the British government to its knees. It was a detailed and well-considered plan.
Tanks were waterproofed and fitted with snorkels so they could be dropped off in water and drive up onto the beaches. The French coast between Boulogne and Sangatte was filled with artillery batteries to fire across the Channel.
As the invasion fleet was assembled, the Germans hit snags. Grand-Admiral Raeder pointed out that they did not have enough transport to send all the divisions in the first wave. Mine clearance was made difficult by British bombers.
To succeed, the Germans needed aerial superiority. From August 8, the Luftwaffe sent up to 1,500 aircraft over Britain every day to bomb radar stations and airfields. British technology and home ground advantage helped counter the attacks. When Hitler became distracted into targeting cities instead of military bases, he lost the chance to destroy the RAF. The Battle of Britain was effectively over.
Operation Sealion was repeatedly postponed throughout September, then put off until the spring. As Hitler turned his attention to invading Russia, the plan was abandoned.
                               German invasion barges. Bundesarchiv

In the late summer of 1941, the German invasion of Russia was beginning to falter. The persistence of the Red Army had robbed the invasion of some of its impetus. The Germans were advancing, but not with the incredible success of their earlier invasions of Poland and France.
Most of the commanders on the ground wanted to push hard for Moscow. They believed a powerful drive in the center could bring them a critical victory.

Heinz Guderian in Kiev with members of his staff. Bundesarchiv 

Hitler disagreed. During a visit to the front, he stopped them pushing for Moscow. Instead, he ordered them to take Leningrad in the north and Kiev in the south. According to Hitler, once those cities were captured, Moscow would fallHeinz Guderian, one of the few generals willing to argue with the Fuhrer, was sent to try to change Hitler’s mind. Guderian failed.
After Kiev had fallen on September 26, Hitler changed his opinion. Troops that had been diverted away from Moscow were sent back there. By canceling and then re-starting the attack on Moscow, Hitler had wasted effort and left it too late. The weather had turned. Autumn rain arrived, followed by the snows of winter. The Russians rallied their forces, halted the advance on Moscow, and then counter-attacked.
The opportunity had been missed.
     The island of Malta was crucial to the war in North Africa. As a safe harbor for Allied ships, it helped secure Allied supply lines and presented a constant threat to Axis convoys.
When Field Marshal Albert Kesselring took over as Supreme Commander South in November 1941, Malta soon drew his attention. Hitler told him that one of his most important jobs was to defeat the Royal Navy. Kesselring proposed invading Malta to achieve it, but Hitler turned the plan down. Germany lacked the resources to carry out the invasion. Given their performance in the war so far, he did not trust the Italians to do the job.

Albert Kesselring in 1940. Note the Knight’s Cross at his throat. 

As the tally of lost supply and transport ships mounted, Kesselring’s plan was revived as Operation Hercules. It was to be an airborne assault on the island. Hitler and Mussolini approved the plan on April 29, 1942.
Then Hitler got cold feet. The Italians were still proving ineffective. The invasion of Crete had shown how costly an aerial invasion could be. He had other battles to fight.
The invasion was canceled, dooming Axis supply lines in the Mediterranean.
     The advance on Moscow was not the only operation Hitler canceled in Russia.
The winter of 1942-3 had left the Germans in an awkward position. A Russian counter-attack had created the Kursk Salient, a sector of Russian-held territory projecting into the German lines. It also created an opportunity for the Germans. If they could cut off the salient, they could trap over a third of the Russian forces and shorten their battle lines by 500 kilometers.
Hitler’s generals insisted it should be done quickly before the Russians dug in. However, Hitler delayed, and Operation Citadel did not begin until July 5.

Soviet forces in Russia with antitank rifle Sovfoto

What followed was intense fighting, as the Russians brought in reserves the Germans did not know they had. Despite the setback, the Germans made progress, and General Manstein believed they were on the verge of a great victory.
Then came an order from Hitler. The offensive was too costly in men and resources. Attention needed to be turned to defending Italy, following the Allied invasion of Sicily.
     On the cusp of victory, Citadel was canceled.
In December 1944, as the Allies advanced on Germany, Hitler planned Operation Autumn Fog, a counterattack in the Ardennes. Paratroop commander Friedrich von der Heydte assembled a unit to be dropped behind Allied lines to secure roads for the advance.
Not enough fuel was provided to get Heydte’s troops to their airfield. Only a third of his unit, around 400 men, would be able to go into action. At the last minute, their drop was canceled.

Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte. Bundesarchiv

Unfortunately for Heydte, like the advance on Moscow, the canceled operation was reinstated. Autumn Fog was faltering. He and his men were sent in to block American reinforcements.
Hastily re-started, the operation was a fiasco. The paratroopers were scattered across the countryside far from their targets. Heydte and many of his men were forced to surrender.

Citizenship and the Republic

I shamelessly clipped this from SSG.     The debate of who is is a citizen has been a debate in American almost since the founding, and of course the same debate was done by the Greeks and the Romans.  What are the duties and responsibility of a citizen and the privileges of a citizen compared to a non-citizen. 

There is considerable debate in America about what citizenship should mean practically. Is ‘citizenship’ just another word for ‘nationality’? Should citizens and non-citizens receive equal access to government services?  Should it matter if non-citizens are here legally or not? Should the census even consider whether people living here are citizens at all? In another debate, should citizens be allowed to possess dangerous weapons that might enable individuals or groups to do serious damage, or should such weapons be kept in the possession of officers of the state who can be kept under closer control by the government?
What is missing in all of these discussions is a clear theory of citizenship. What role does the citizen play in a legitimate government? How does the government relate to the citizen, as opposed to non-citizens? Should the government control citizens, or should the citizens control government? Once we have a clear idea of what the citizen’s proper role in legitimate governance is, the answers to these questions should all emerge.
I propose that the citizen is an officer of the state.  More, if the American Declaration of Independence is morally correct, citizenship is the office in which the sovereign power resides. The sovereign power is originally all the power, some of which is delegated to the formal government. Even after delegation, however, the sovereign retains the power to determine when the rest of the government may exercise the powers delegated to it by the sovereign.
For normal day-to-day governance, this comes up most obviously in the role of the jury. Juries can only consist of citizens. The formal state has to come before this jury and present a case for why the government should be allowed to use delegated power against someone. Not only is this true before punishment can be applied, as at a criminal trial, it is also true of grand juries. Even to bring a charge against someone, the state has to ask for the sovereign’s consent. Only the sovereign can declare the person guilty of the charge, unless the accused should waive their right to such a trial.
More exceptionally, the citizens can set aside a law via their participation on juries, both in an individual case they determine to be unjust, or in general if they decide the law itself is unjust. Citizens who believe an accused is being railroaded can vote to find that person not guilty, regardless of whatever evidence the prosecution brings. If a bad law has somehow made it onto the books, jury after jury can refuse to convict anyone for having broken it. This is one important safeguard against the formal government becoming corrupt, or passing corrupt laws. If juries will not enforce a corrupt law, that law becomes effectively null and void. Citizens thus defend each other’s liberties against their own government if it becomes necessary to do so.
It has been argued that any law that juries will not enforce should be considered invalid by a legitimate government. In the United Kingdom, Law Lord Patrick Devlin wrote a lengthy work called The Enforcement of Morals that argued that laws juries would not enforce were invalid. This was because (he argued) the morals of the nation can only be practically grounded in what the people themselves believe to be right or wrong, at least once the state ceased to recognize an official religious view of morality as correct and mandatory. If the people reliably refuse to consider an illegal behavior to be immoral, and thus refuse to apply the laws against that behavior, the laws are out of order with the only moral standard available. Immoral laws are wrong, so laws that violate this sort of morality are wrong. Pragmatically, too, it is a waste of time and resources to arrest and prosecute people when juries will refuse to convict them.
The UK is a little different in that it has subjects rather than citizens, and theorizes sovereignty to exist in the Queen or King. Still, one can see how the argument would apply a fortiori in the American context. As the citizens are collectively the sovereign here, the sovereign decision about morality can serve as a final standard for the legitimacy of moral laws.
The citizen is the officer the Declaration of Independence is thinking of when they speak of the “Right of the People to alter or to abolish” any government that becomes destructive to the defense of their rights. The citizens, and only the citizens, have the right to make that awesome decision. No foreign power may dissolve the United States Constitution, and no elected nor appointed executive officer, nor a Congressperson, nor a judge nor Justice of any kind. The citizens alone have that sovereign right. They may delegate it to a constitutional convention, called by their other delegates in the legislatures. They may instead take up arms and do it themselves, as Washington and his generation abolished British rule. But whether they do it the one way or the other, no one may do it against their will nor without their consent.
If this theory of citizenship is correct, a number of our debates become easier. It may well be that officers of the state entrusted with dangerous weapons should usually be kept under close controls by the formal government; but it cannot be the case for the citizenry. The government is not meant to control the citizenry, but the citizenry is meant to control the government. The problem of making sure that individuals or small groups do not pose an unacceptable danger has to be resolved within the context of making sure that the citizenry remains too potent for the government to dominate.
Likewise this theory of citizenship reinforces the importance of citizenship. It matters who the citizens are, so of course they should be counted as such in a census. They must be known in any case in order to form juries, which can only be composed of citizens and which are necessary for the ordinary process of legitimate governance. Citizens also are the only ones who ought to have voting rights, and making sure to provide safeguards to ensure that only citizens can vote is necessary to ensuring that the sovereign power is neither diluted nor stolen.
Citizenship proves to be fundamental to legitimate government. A government that becomes hostile to its citizens or their rights cannot be a legitimate government at all.

Some goings on at Casa De Garabaldi and some musings...

I am staying home unless I have to go out.  I had to stay out of work this week because I have a cold and people give you the hairy eyeball if you are hacking up a lung in their vicinity.
     Since I have been staying home, I have spent the time binge watching Netflix again

 Looks kinda like Old NFO

   With the exception of the idiots stampeding Sams and Walmart, most people have been behaving well.  In Walmart when the scare first started, there were some strong arm robberies of peoples stuff, but after others started carrying pistols, that quickly vanished.  Since then it has been pretty quiet.  I am not concerned, we keep over 30 days of food at the house as a matter or principle.  Even ammo, I did go to Academy to buy some 30-06 for my Garand.  I and my friends have learned after Sandy Hook not to get caught short again.

     Some pithy musings though..

   There was a stimulus package going through the congress and it was bipartisan, until Nancy Pelosi pulled out her list and it was loaded of stuff that was near and dear to their far left, from the "Green New Deal" to the $15 an hour stuff and massive union involvement.  Several of the rank and file democrats complained that this is to have Trump veto this so he can't score a win.  This is all about sticking it to Trump rather than help the country.  I am seriously pissed off.

     Apparently the fix is in and various democrat candidates have dropped out of the race and endorse Biden, leaving the Old Grumpy communist fuming about getting shanked again...

And speaking about "uncle Joe", he is a gaffe machine waiting to happen and he has made many gaffes, from the Iron-worker to saying that he is running for senate.

   It will be interesting who he picks as his running mate, some say the *PIAP has a possibility, the fake Indian Elisabeth Warren andothers said that Stacy Abrams Tank has a shot.  I am betting on Stacy Abrams Tank, she has 3 of the demographics sewn up, female, lesbian, POC and if she has a "Cripple Placard" she will get the gimp check off also.

       It will be sporting in June at the Convention in Chicago when the Bernie Bros get shanked......again by the establishment DNC and their minions.

*Pig in a Pantsuit My name for Hillary Clinton, along with Felonia Von Pantsuit.

Monday Music "More,More,More" by Andrea True Connections.

I have been enjoying the run of songs, I never had a theme last this long, and I am enjoying it.  I have several more weeks in mind.
     I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs.  This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", it is a facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia.  We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....

One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines and prepare yourself.

 I figured it would scar the alphabet boys if they come busting in and hearing a song that is related to Disco and Porn in the 1970's.  What can I say, My humor is warped....just a bit. Next week will be "Do the Hustle" by the Real McCoys.  
       My copy of this song was on my copy of "Super Gold Hits from Ktel, and you can see my copy of "Saturday Night Fever in the background,

I had to go digging for it in my collection of records.

"More, More, More" is a song written by Gregg Diamond and recorded by American disco artist Andrea True (under the name Andrea True Connection). It was released in February 1976 and became her signature track and one of the most popular songs of the disco era. In the U.S., it reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent three weeks at number three on the Cashbox chart in July of that year. In Canada, it was a number-one hit.
The song was originally recorded in Jamaica where True, a porn star, had been appearing in a television commercial. An attempted coup prevented her from leaving the country with her wages from the commercial. Resourcefully, True called on Gregg Diamond to come down to Jamaica to write and record the song with her, along with other studio musicians which formed the backbone of the "Connection" project.
Buddah Records originally released the song only to discos in the winter of 1975/1976. The popularity of "More, More, More" was immense. Widespread listener interest convinced Buddah to release the single commercially in the spring. The song rose to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number twenty three on the soul singles chart. The single was a successful disco hit peaking at number two. Overseas, the song peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart.

The Andrea True Connection's version of "More, More, More" has appeared in Whit Stillman's movie The Last Days Of Disco (1998) during scenes between Alice (Chloe Sevigny) and Tom (Robert Sean Leonard) at the disco and then back at Tom's place. The song is part of the movie's soundtrack album.
The Andrea True Connection's version of "More, More, More" has appeared in two episodes of The Simpsons. In the 2003 episode "Dude, Where's My Ranch?", after Moe Szyslak kidnaps David Byrne (who guest-starred in the episode as himself), a parody version of the song plays on the radio featuring Moe singing, "Moe, Moe, Moe! How do you like me? How do like me? Moe, Moe, Moe! Why don't you like me? Nobody likes me." The song is credited to "The Moe Szyslak Connection". The song also appears in the episode "Sweets and Sour Marge", where Disco Stu plays the song after "snorting" lines of sugar.

"More, More, More" also appears in the documentary Inside Deep Throat. The song appeared in the 2002 film Dahmer during a nightclub montage. In 2006, the song appeared in Click and was used during one of the flashback scenes. On the show The King of Queens, the episode "High Def Jam" opened with Doug Heffernan singing a parody version, "Doug, Doug, Doug". The song was featured in American Dad!, Season 3, Episode 2, "Meter Made". The late professional wrestler Larry Sweeney formerly used the song as his entrance theme.
Stevens' version of the song is used in adverts for the UK sofa company ScS. A version of the song by Dagny was used by Target in a commercial campaign introducing its line of new products in the fall of 2017.
Andrea True Connection's version appears in a 2019 commercial for Applebee's.

Lucky Talismans of Famous Men

Most people believe in "Lucky Charms",like Rabbit foot and other things.  When I was in the service I had a Lucky Charm on my Helmet.   All GI's had something on their helmet kinda like a "lucky Talisman".  I put this stripper clip guide on it when I first got in country and left it on....It is still there.  

I still have the Helmet...and the Talisman.   Since Times have changed, and I can't carry a magazine clip follower, appearances and all.  I had picked this up quite a while back...

And Old Fashioned "Wheat" Penny, I keep it in my wallet.  Superstitious I know....but hey.

I shamelessly clipped this off "Art of Manliness"

Superstitions — beliefs that are neither directly religious nor logically sound — have surely been around since time immemorial. Humans have always sought to get the edge on the seemingly supernatural forces that govern fate — to ward off bad woo-woo and attract good luck. And while the idea that some cause can influence some entirely unrelated consequence isn’t based on reason, it does have its own sort of rationality: some research shows that superstitions can significantly improve one’s performance, as they do in fact boost your sense of confidence.
Certainly, many of history’s most famous, and otherwise quite level-headed, figures have sworn by the strange efficacy of fortune-courting superstitions, including the use of lucky charms. All kinds of talismans have been carried in pockets, packed in luggage, and tucked into dresser drawers; they’ve accompanied men in high-flying cockpits and civic corridors, earthy trenches and outer space.
Below are a few of these famous figures, and the lucky totems they toted: 

Theodore Roosevelt

When Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated president for the second time in 1905, he wore a gold ring, which held, under a clear stone, a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair. Knowing that TR was a longtime admirer of Honest Abe, John Hay, Roosevelt’s Secretary of State who had once been Lincoln’s private secretary, gave Teddy the ring on the eve of the inauguration as a gift and talisman, telling him, “Please wear it tomorrow; you are one of the men who most thoroughly understands and appreciates Lincoln.” Throughout his life, the ring remained one of Roosevelt’s most prized possessions.
After his presidency and before leaving for a safari expedition, TR was given another totem, this time by his friend and occasional White House guest, heavyweight boxing champion John L. Sullivan. The Boston Strong Boy presented Roosevelt with a gold-mounted rabbit’s foot, of which the former president said, “I carried it through my African trip; and I certainly had good luck.”

Babe Ruth

Not only was the Sultan of Swat himself surrounded by an air of superstition in the form of the infamous “Curse of the Bambino,” he seems to have been personally superstitious as well.
According to professional baseball player, coach, and manager Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth had “a locker full of charms, fetishes, and tokens,” which included a miniature totem pole which sat on a shelf and a wooden horseshoe, engraved with a four-leaf clover, which was fastened to the door.
Collins, who as a batter had his own eccentric habit of sticking a piece of chewed gum on his hat, and then putting it into his mouth to chomp whenever a pitcher had two strikes on him, said that athletes like him and Ruth didn’t really believe that charms and rituals won them games, but did feel as though “Having them gives confidence.”

The Astronauts of the Apollo 11 Mission

The astronauts of the Apollo missions were each allowed to bring a “personal preference kit” or PPK on their spaceflights. These PPKs were fireproof cloth pouches, a little smaller than an average Dopp kit, into which the men packed mementos like coins, stamps, and miniature flags (which would become valuable collectors’ items upon their return to earth), photos of their families, personal effects — and often, good luck charms as well.
On the Apollo 11 mission, Michael Collins, who flew the lunar command module around the moon while his fellow astronauts landed on its surface, packed a small, hollow lucky bean from India in his PPK. Inside the bean were 50 tiny ivory elephants that a friend planned to give away as gifts when the astronaut returned to Earth.

Inside Buzz Aldrin’s personal preference kit was stashed his mother’s lucky charm bracelet which was inscribed with the names of her children and grandchildren. (As an interesting, little-known aside, contrary to NASA’s prohibitions against bringing alcohol on the spacecraft, Aldrin also smuggled a small vial of wine and chalice in his PPK, and used these items to celebrate Christian communion after landing on the moon, “much as Christopher Columbus and other explorers had done when they first landed in their ‘new world.’”)

The third member of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, didn’t pack a lucky charm in his PPK, unless you count a piece of the propeller from the Wright Brothers’ “1903 Flyer,” which he brought along in homage to the pioneers of aviation history, but perhaps as a kind of talisman as well.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Ike always carried what he considered to be three lucky coins in his pocket: an American silver dollar, a British five Guinea gold piece, and a French franc. During WWII, whenever the Supreme Commander was stressed and needing to make a big decision — like when to launch the D-Day invasion — he would reach his hand into his pocket, and finger these coins as he weighed the different sides of the issue.

Ernest Hemingway

Papa kept several good luck charms throughout his life.
In A Moveable Feast, which describes his years living in Paris as an expat journalist and fledgling novelist, Hemingway says of himself: “For luck you carried a horse chestnut and a rabbit’s foot in your right pocket. The fur had been worn off the rabbit’s foot long ago and the bones and the sinews were polished by wear. The claws scratched in the lining of your pocket and you knew your luck was still there.”
When Hemingway was a war correspondent during WWII, his son gave him a red stone for a lucky charm, which was then replaced by a champagne cork, for reasons he explained to his friend A.E. Hotchner:

one morning in England when I was scheduled to fly a mission with the RAF, the floor maid at my hotel brought back my pants from the cleaners and I realized that I had left the stone in one of the pockets and the cleaner had thrown it away. The RAF car was already waiting for me downstairs to go to the airfield, and I was really sweating over hitting a mission to Germany without the lucky piece. So I said to the maid, ‘Give me something for a lucky piece—just anything and wish me luck on it and that will do it.’ Well, she didn’t have anything in the pocket of her uniform but she picked up the cork from the bottle of Mumm I had drunk the night before and gave me that. Damn good thing I had it—every plane on that flight got chewed up except ours.

Years later, Hemingway received a tip on a horse race in Paris, and he and his friends decided to place a grand wager on a 27:1 pony that was supposed to unexpectedly have a breakout performance. But when he realized he now couldn’t find his lucky cork to bring to the track, he instructed Hotchner to find a new lucky piece, again using his catholic criteria: “Anything, as long as it’s pocket-sized.” Hotch offered a chestnut that had fallen on his head “where the Champs Elysees comes into the Concorde.” Papa rubbed the nut to the side of his nose to sanctify it, put it in his pocket, and told his young friend, “Never lose your faith in mysticism, boy.”
The long-shot horse took first.

My experience buying ammo.

I was at academy looking for some ammo for my garand and there was a father and son there. They were looking at all the 5.56×45 and were totally lost as to the selection to buy. The Dad was not a native speaker, whereas the son was. I recognized them in the parking lot earlier, one don't forget someone face or vehicle when they almost clip me on my motorcycle. They kept looking but didn't know what to buy. I finally asked them, "y'all need help?" The son told me that they were looking at AR ammo, the dad just bought one and didn't know what to buy. I asked him "do you know what caliber?" Because AR's are "multi" now. They didn't know and I said "that can be tough, don't want y'all buying the wrong stuff and getting hurt." The son explained this to the dad and the dad nodded then exclaimed in his language and pulled out a bullet he had in his pocket and it was 5.56. Excellent, the dad then showed me a picture of a compact AR with optics and a forward "handle". I then started looking at the sparse selection and academy had a 3 box limit. So I pulled out the 120 round boxes, and they were wanting to buy the 855 62 grain stuff and I told them that they are better with the 55 grain stuff, bit cheaper. I explained to the son that the 62 grain stuff is a hotter round, made for the A2 type barrel. Where the 55 grain can be shot by any type of AR. I wasn't trying to overload them with too much jargon. They were happy and I told the son" please take a shooting course or have someone who is very familiar to show y'all how to shoot it safely." They again said "thank you " and left.
      I am not super concerned about stocking up, I learned my lesson after Sandy Hook.  I just want to get some ammo for my Garand so I can take my friend who has never shot any rifles to have some, I had told her, she would be shooting a piece of history.  We will try to go annoy Mack at his play of employment in the next few weeks.

Understanding Chinese Propaganda

I shamelessly clipped this from SSG.  China has been on a ascend since the late 1989 after Tianaman square.   In the 1990's they were caught funneling money to Bill Clinton's campaign in exchange for American Missile Technology. 

Are you curious why China is suddenly spreading obvious lies suggesting that the United States was behind the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan? It is a departure for them:  not in that they are suddenly using propaganda, but in that they are suddenly being obvious about it.  Propaganda is everywhere in Chinese media, and in fact in Chinese life.
Normally the propaganda is carefully concealed. On the 10th of February, Chinese state media company The People’s Daily put out a tweet showing quarantined coronavirus patients dancing. The tweet read, “Virus can’t put out the passion for life!”  Similar videos have emerged from Italy, too, where people are dancing on their balconies or playing music for neighbors. You could easily believe that the video of the dancing Chinese quarantines is just as spontaneous. Yet the ‘dancing to show how happy they are in their prisons’ videos have a history in China that they do not have in Italy. When the BBC went to the prison camps in which China’s Uighur minority is being re-educated, they too were shown dancing:  Uighurs forced to perform for them, forced to smile and say that everything is all right.
Having lived in China myself for a time, I can attest that propaganda suffuses Chinese life.  This has been the case since the Communist revolution following World War II. Mao took his propaganda very seriously, commissioning endless posters, and crafting endless mottoes for the people to learn and repeat. He put together both government and non-governmental organizations of people to push the government message into public life, and to identify and publish anyone who refused to speak the words as if they believed them. Chinese state police were part of the enforcement, but so were the Red Guards, a student paramilitary movement that enforced speech codes against their own professors (and everyone else, though the rare foreigners had some leeway).
Chinese propaganda generally has two faces, one facing the Chinese people, and one facing the outside world. The inward-facing Chinese propaganda is universal and all-encompassing. Its fullest expression is in the “Social Credit” system that China has developed, which checks every aspect of your life that can be checked and digitizes it all into a single score for how good a ‘citizen’ an individual ruled by the People’s Republic is. This controls everything about your life, from how free you are to travel to whether you can get a loan, or what jobs are open to you.
The Chinese people know they are being constantly propagandized, and constantly monitored for compliance. They mostly go along with it (with rare heroic exceptions) both because challenging the propaganda is costly, but also because Chinese culture underwrites this approach. In China it has long been considered very rude to say anything that creates a public upset, and polite to float an untruth if it would calm a situation or allow a beautiful mask to be maintained. Propaganda flows organically atop this social etiquette: what the government says is true becomes the polite fiction to be maintained. It is not just the threat of punishment, then, that makes Chinese-facing propaganda so ubiquitous and pervasive. It is also based on a deep cultural desire to maintain public social harmony.
When Chinese propaganda faces outwards, it tends to try to be completely unnoticed. As the Heritage Foundation’s James Jay Carafano points out, this sudden obvious lie is really a departure for a program that normally attempts to operate stealthily. That matches my experience. Chinese propaganda attempting to persuade Americans tends to operate on the principle that a carefully edited truth is much more powerful than an obvious lie. The whole time I lived there I never saw English-language Chinese state media make a false statement, yet I was constantly aware that their presentation of the facts was deeply misleading. If you checked their facts, you’d find that all the facts were true. It was always the interpretation that was false and misguiding.
Truth is a force multiplier in propaganda operations. The more often you can tell the truth, the more credibility you build with readers. The more often they check your story and find that it lines up with reality, the more they will trust you. The more that they trust you, the more you can guide them to believe what you’d like with carefully crafted framing. You can omit, you can distract, and you can interpret the facts that you do present in the light you would prefer. Because your audience has found you reliable in the past, they won’t question your interpretations all that much.
It is even more effective when you can mask your involvement. Chinese state media is always going to be a little suspect to the average American, no matter how often they avoid telling obvious lies, because of state media’s direct connection to a totalitarian state. If you can encourage American media to carry friendly stories, however, you will get a lot farther. China has invested vast sums in US media and technology purchases, allowing them to apply pressure behind the scenes to ensure that American media covers stories (or does not cover them) in ways that advance China’s interests. Their technology purchases also gives them a way to influence Chinese-language speakers in America, and to monitor them — and the rest of us who use apps with Chinese ties. That monitoring provides invaluable feedback to them on how messages are being received and interpreted here.
It’s not just news media that Chinese propaganda has come to touch here. Hollywood has also seen very large Chinese purchases and investments.  So have video game producers. This means that China can influence how its government and culture are portrayed in American movies and to a lesser degree our video games. When was the last time you saw a movie that portrayed Communism as evil? How about Chinese government or military leaders in the ‘bad guy’ role?
By contrast, when was the last time you saw a movie or television show that raised doubts about America or portrayed an American government official as corrupt or wicked? All the time, right? Of course, most Americans do think that our government and its leaders are corrupt — at least that ‘the other side’ is. Indeed, many of them are. It’s a strength of our culture that we are able to engage in robust criticism of bad practices by our leaders. As Carafano points out, however, the Chinese are very good at leveraging our own divisions against us. They never have to say anything bad about any American: they can just re-broadcast what we say about our own.
The shift to an obvious lie, combined with the expulsion of American reporters, thus marks a surprising shift in China’s propaganda war. Carafano thinks it may be aimed at Africa, where similar tales of alleged CIA malign activities are already widely believed. That may be right. It also may be that the coronavirus efforts are not going as well as they hoped, and they are trying to get the American free press away before that story gets out. In that case, the obvious lie was a provocation designed to give China ’cause’ to expel the journalists.
In any case, it is a departure. We shall keep an eye on the People’s Republic of China.

Angry Staff Officer :Readiness in the time of the Covid-19

I got this from Angry Staff Officer, I can recall "Camp Devens" but when I was there it was "Fort Devens" in 1986 while I was in AIT.  Back in 1918 an Influenza outbreak hit the post and about 850 soldiers died. 

We spend a lot of time in the Army talking about readiness. But what does readiness look like in the face of a pandemic? Do we stop training? Stop pushing out new equipment? Where does one draw the line when it comes to providing a trained and ready force, while also looking after the health of the force? Can you practice social distancing while striving for readiness?
I mean, just ask snipers, they’re experts at social distancing. Or maybe anti-social distancing.
On September 29, 1918, a U.S. Army doctor stepped away from his wards to pen a letter to a friend and fellow physician. The Army was three days into the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (September 26-November 11) in France – America’s bloodiest single battle of all time – but this physician was fighting a different enemy. He described the situation to his friend:

“Camp Devens is near Boston, and has about 50,000 men, or did have before this epidemic broke loose. It also has the base hospital for the Division of the Northeast. This epidemic started about four weeks ago, and has developed so rapidly that the camp is demoralized and all ordinary work is held up till it has passed. All assemblages of soldiers taboo. These men start with what appears to be an attack of la grippe or influenza, and when brought to the hospital they very rapidly develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen. “
Source: A Letter From Camp Devens

Just a few days earlier, on September 17, the announcement had been made that, “Owing to the epidemic of Spanish influenza at Camp Devens, Army and Navy celebration day postponed.” Out of the 35-50,000 U.S. troops stationed at the National Army cantonment at Camp Devens in late 1918/early 1919, 15,000 would become infected. By January, over 800 had died. But it might have been far worse had not officials begun the crackdown.
This scene was recreated at National Army cantonments across the country. These were temporary installations set up by the Army as processing and training centers for the millions of draftees pouring in. Essentially, they were readiness centers: men were processed into depot brigades, underwent initial inspections, were issued uniforms, and received some rudimentary training before being pushed to either advanced training schools or to other units.
And in the fall of 1918, readiness was uppermost on the Army’s mind. Having been engaged in combat action in France for just about a year, the force there had swollen from just a few thousand men in October of 1917, to over 2 million troops by the time of the Meuse-Argonne. As part of the Allied push to end the bloodletting once and for all, the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was doing its part along the Meuse River and in the Argonne Forest. Casualties were catastrophically high that October, and more divisions were badly needed to take over the grinding drives.
Those divisions were filled with draftees, since the Army had realized very early in 1917 that volunteerism just wasn’t going to cut it. But in the middle of this very urgent need for more troops, the War Department stopped the draft. It even debated stopping the movement of any troops to France, at all. All training camps were quarantined. Soldier health was determined to be the prime driver of readiness.
The War Department was not prepared to risk the debacle of 1898. Over 20,000 recruits contracted typhoid fever in their mobilization camps in the U.S., with over 1,500 dying of the disease. This was all before they even reached anywhere even close to the front lines. Poor sanitation and little awareness of how to deal with pandemics proved to be the underlying cause for these largely needless losses.
The Influenza of 1918 proved to be far deadlier than typhus in 1898. However, the Army’s reaction – quarantines, halting unnecessary travel, and education – prevented things from getting even worse than they could have.
While COVID-19 may in no way be as devastating as the Influenza of 1918 – public health has improved, there’s no major world conflict that is throwing millions of people into contact with each other, etc – many commanders might be asking, “What is the priority now?” As it was in 1918, the health of the force is our utmost readiness priority. The Army has already begun implementing travel bans, quarantines, and other protective actions.
Even during this, however, we need to be mindful of the needs of the force. Do families have everything they need? Are reserve component Soldiers experiencing hardships due to job loss because of the pandemic? Are they aware of the benefits available? Is the chain of command issuing clear, precise, and timely guidance?
Think of ways to continue to build readiness without Soldiers being near each other. Platoon and squad leaders can build practical exercises that can be done from home. There are always evaluations to be done and distance learning modules to be knocked out. Mandatory training briefs can be pushed out in slideshow form with some kind of check on learning involved. Don’t forget that many Soldiers might not have CAC readers at home, so ensure they’re receiving information on their civilian emails. Consider some sort of group video chat on Zoom or Google Hangouts where team or squad members can do PT together, or just talk about the things that concern them. Loneliness can inhibit the immune system, so let’s make sure we’re checking in with each other if quarantines begin in earnest.
Leadership matters in times of crisis, so be that leader for your troops. But at a safe distance. Readiness during a time of pandemic looks like good communication, care for those who need a helping hand, and ideas for how to train in non-standard, safe ways. We’ll get through this together.

Monday Music "Don't Pay the Ferryman" By Chris DeBurgh

I have been enjoying the run of songs, I never had a theme last this long, and I am enjoying it.  I have several more weeks in mind.
     I am continuing my string of "bugaloo" songs.  This discussion was started in the "Monster Hunter Nation, Hunters Unite", it is a facebook group with enthusiast of the ILOH "International Lord of Hate" A.K.A Larry Correia.  We were talking about what song would we use if we looked out of our window or glanced at our security camera and saw this.....

One of the alphabet bois lining up to take down your house...What would be your "Valhalla" song and you would set it up to play as you load up magazines and prepare yourself.

The song tells the story of a man who boards a ferryboat and sets off. A storm approaches and the ferryman demands payment. The song's narrator warns the passenger not to pay the ferryman until the boat arrives at its destination on the other side.
The repetitive lyrics are believed to have a connection with mythology. The song describes the ferryman as "the hooded old man at the rudder", and seems to connect to the classic image of the Grim Reaper, a hooded being (usually a skeleton) who leads lost souls to "the other side", also a lyric in the song. The ferryman demanding his payment is also similar to the Greek ferryman of the dead, Charon. He demanded an obolus (coin) to ferry dead souls across the River Styx. Those who did not pay were doomed to remain as ghosts, remaining on the plane of the mare, the restless dead.
In the bridge of the song, lines from Shakespeare's The Tempest can be heard, spoken very low by British actor Anthony Head.
[Act 5, Scene 1, lines 230 - 237]

BOATSWAIN: I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep

And (how we know not) all clapp'd under hatches;

Where, but even now, with strange and several noises

Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains,

And moe diversity of sounds, all horrible,

We were awak'd; straightway at liberty;

Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld

Our royal, good, and gallant ship;

This section of the song is omitted from the version of the song released as a single, which is approximately 20 seconds shorter than the album version.

Ruins of civilization.......and the media

  I can't believe how fast shit changed, a week ago we were a first world nation with first world problems, like what restaurant we gonna eat at tonight kinda stuff.  A week later the mobs are moving through subdivisions looking for Toilet Paper, yesterday they hit a house 2 doors down...the screaming was surreal as the people at the house realized that they lost whatever chance they had to survive the pandemic that has hit the nation and destroyed civilization.

    I have to protect the means for my family to survive the COVID-19(Wuhan Flu) Virus.  Right now the lights are flickering on and off as the power grid substations are damaged by the mob moving from place to place like locust seeking Toilet paper and hand sanitizer.  I have had to make my house look unoccupied, I had parked my sons truck at an angle and set fire to the truck to reinforce the unoccupied look I was seeking.  I don't want to engage in gunfire because there are many of them and they are attracted by loud noises and I can be overrun and my family lost if the mob comes to my house to seize my TP.  My house is in darkness as I nervously grip the foregrip of my Hi-Point Carbine. hoping that I don't have to use the weapon that sets the quality for carbines in the World.  My Friend Mack and his friend Pudge have exholled the virtues of that rifle, especially for Liberal, Democratic supporters  zombies.
      Seriously though, We went for a drive to go to a late lunch and decided to go to Aldi's to grab a few things and the hoarding and stupidness I saw was unreal.  The store looks like a hoard of Locust had descended upon that place.  No Toilet paper, no sanitizers, and no  veggies or meat.  And as I understand it, SAMS and Walmart look like a war zone has descended upon those stores.  President Trump has restricted travel to Europe and that has severely impacted my employer.  I understand the logic for the restrictions.  Italy exploded because of the large number of Chinese transient workers operating there and add the idiot that was a food delivery service, and was told by the Italian Police to self quarantine  and he blew off the Police and continued delivering food and infecting more people.

One of my "Old" Pics from 2015

       The media is ecstatic, they hope the coronavirus fears continue into the general election so they can use it to flog President Trump.  They gloss over the fact that it was the COMMUNIST Chinese that was responsible for this, the combination of Communist ideology of you can't criticize the actions of the Chinese Government because it is an ipso facto criticism of the Communist party and then you throw in the oriental practice of "Saving Face", and it really blew up and got out of hand.
   Something about the Mainstream Media.

 

I honestly believe that the current hysteria is caused by the media, they want to hang this on President Trump.  When we had H1N1 or the  Swine Flu in 2009 and 2 strains of Bird Flu in 2013 during the "Annointed one's" term, the media downplayed it greatly because they didn't want the news  to impact negatively the administration and the image that the administration crafted.

Another one of my old pics I dug out of my "old Blog Pic" folder.  I don't expect "google" to save the image so I manually save the pics on my laptop.

Some pithy comments.....

It has been an eventful few days.  Super Tuesday recently happened and something happened to the Bernie Express...

Bernie was ascending and his supporters are all pumped, they had this vision that they saw, the vision that their utopia was coming to fruition.    Back in 2016 I had used this cartoon to describe the political movement...

 It took 45 minutes of me going through my "old Pic" folder to find it.  

The movement is the same, Both Trump and Bernie supporters are more ardent than the "establishment candidates".  When Bernie gets the shaft at the brokered convention in June, and you know that it is going to happen like it did in 2016 when the super delegates shanked Bernie to give Felonia Von Pantsuit the Nomination to go up against Trump in the 2016 election.  

Now there is a lot of infighting and some people are bemoaning the lack of "Diversity" in the Presidential race. There are 2  old white dude millionaires vieing for the opportunity to go up against the sitting white dude millionaire for President, part of me thinks that it is ironic.

 With the exception of his rabid supporters, most of the rank and file democrats have the hebejeebees in voting and supporting a person that is an ardent socialist and they are very uncomfortable with that option, so they are supporting the other old white guy...

Who has his own baggage besides being in Washington for close to 40 years hasn't done anything of note except create gaffes, and questionable contacts with kids and females and his latest one with the union Ironworker who questioned him on his 2nd amendment policies and Joe called him out on it and threatened to "Take him outside", with the exception of the ideologically pure cost him a lot of union support, they vote with their pocketbook and things have been going good because of Trumps policies.

     This highlights the problems with the democratic party, they have no depth.  The Party was gutted by Obama and his policies, I and many pundits and political junkies have commented that Obama policies totally gutted the center out of the democratic party, the only ones that survived are the fringes that rode on his coattail.   It will be interesting to see what happens to them after Trump wins in 2020 because of all the crap the democrats have pulled since 2017 have pushed the moderates and independents into supporting Trump.  On the flipside I wonder if the Republicans will have the same problem when Trump leaves in 2024.  And speaking of elections the stock market has been flailing all over the place and the incessant drumbeat of fearmongering by the media has scared the crap out of people.

  The media is ecstatic, they hope the coronavirus fears continue into the general election so they can use it to flog President Trump.  They gloss over the fact that it was the COMMUNIST Chinese that was responsible for this, the combination of Communist ideology of you can't criticize the actions of the Chinese Government because it is an ipso facto criticism of the Communist party and then you throw in the oriental practice of "Saving Face", and it really blew up and got out of hand.

So the media is pushing the frenzy and people are running to the store to buy up all the handsoap and toilet paper.....WTF?     Why?    The Coronavirus is only dangerous to people who's immune system is already in deep doodoo for other reasons but lets scare the crap out of people because it is good for ratings and "Orange Man bad".

      And speaking of the 2020 election, there is talk of the establishment Democrats trotting out the PIAP* to save the party from a sure Trump election win.  To the Party insiders, neither Bernie or Biden have the Moxie to go up against Trump, he would crush them.  They are hoping the 3rd time might be a charm, if nothing else it will bring in the female and Lesbian vote, that neither Biden or Bernie has really energized and optics are very important to the intersectional identity politics of the modern left.

Of course Hillary hasn't squashed the rumors, there are talk about her being a Veep for Biden, and if I was Biden, I would hire a food taster ASAP because I can see another casualty of "Arkancide", and it will be "Madam President", which scares the crap out of me, she is evil personified, totally venal and with no human scruples.

     On a personal note, the coronavirus effect has been felt in my industry, my employer is cutting flights and parking airplanes, they are in good shape financially and I don't fear for my job in the near term, but if this goes long term, my job could be in jeopardy and that is the sucky part.  I really don't want to go overseas to do contract work.  My brother had tried to get me to sign up and really make good money using my A&P.  I have resisted this because  my employer pays well but if something happens, then I will have to revisit this.

*Pig in a Pantsuit