2016 Presidential Election - This is it

Today is election day 2016. Mrs. Bill Clinton and The Donald have been at it seemingly forever, but hopefully it will all end today. Hopefully. Saw a bumper sticker this past weekend that looked like any presidential bumper sticker out there. It said, "Giant Coment 2016". Probably many were wishing for that after the political antics of the past year, decade, century? I have implemented a media blackout for today. I will avoid the 'media' until there is a definitive result. And as my nephew says, if it's important, someone will tell you. Alas, I do miss today's celebrity news. I'm left to wonder what Kim, Kanye, and all the other PoS out there have done overnight. I wonder if this fascination with "celebrities" will ever end? Will people finally say that they've seen enough train wrecks performing on stage that they no longer care to see any more? I have noted that this presidential election maybe one of my last, certainly one of a very limited number that reman for me. I know that when I am dead, it is one thing that I will not miss. However, I will miss hot fudge sundaes and mountain tops, but not the Amerikan political scene.

Midnight in Paris/Mildred Pierce

Just a quick word--watched Midnight in Paris. The premise of the movie was good, but why do they stick Owen Wilson in places where he simply doesn't belong? He's sort of one dimensional actor, if that much. Still, I liked the movie. The period color was good. Speaking of color, we started watching the HBO miniseries "Mildred Pierce". The setting is California in 1930 or so, and Mildred (Kate Winslet) is struggling to recover from a broken marriage. The first two episodes were sort of dark, but the story remains interesting. I think Kate Winslet won a Golden Globe for her performance in this one. (I now see that the series won 5 Golden Globes.) Highly recommend this one.

Neutral?

I always have had my doubts about the very religious country of Ireland. Now this from the BBC website..."Gerald Morgan, long-time professor of history at Trinity College, Dublin, explains...The uprisings, the civil war, all sorts of reneged promises - I'd estimate that 60% of the population expected or indeed hoped the Germans would win." So they were pulling for the people who would massacre six million Jews to win WWII. Nice people. Right up there with the Swiss, another supposedly neutral country.

A Short Note

I watched "Due Date" last night and found it to be one of the worse movies I have ever watched. I was expecting so much more, as Robert Downey has at least been entertaining in his other movies. Bad editing and an even worse script made this unbearable. And I need something to laugh about.

EADS and Their Russian Handlers

Some recent news included the announcement that the Thales Group, a European defense conglomerate based in France, was planning to sell two French Mistral Class Amphibious Assault Vessels to Russia. The fear in NATO is that Russia will use these ships against Georgia, a country which aspires to be free of the Russian yoke of tyranny. Latimir Putin, Russian despot extraordinaire, must be put in his place. Russia is a second-class power that has failed in every political endeavor it has embarked upon over pretty much the last century. As a communist experiment, it could barely feed its own populace; and now as a 'dimocratic" nation, it passes power like a ping pong ball back and forth between two equally incompetent dictators.

So the Thales Group wishes to throw its cards in with the Russians. So be it. The United States must equivocally demonstrate that such behavior will cost them access to the US defence market, and that the US will seek to exclude them from any NATO dealings. Since the US provides some 50% of NATO funding and has by far the largest defence budget, the Thales Group had best prepare for some lean times. Investors would best be advised against buying Thales Group stock, and other companies considering linking up with Thales had best reconsider that position. Are you listening EADS and Northrup? They could likewise find themselves on the outside looking in.

Where are we going???

Just a short post to say 'hi' and to say that I am becoming extremely disappointed in the current leadership of this country. Not only have flubbed the health care and economy, but they are looking to complete the trifecta with a disaster in Afghanistan. I cannot help but think that the man that was elected president is in so far over his head that he will fail in such a spectacular manner as to become a new watermark in presidential incompetence. The national debt rose by almost $100,000,000,000 last month alone and now is forecast to exceed $10 trillion in the next eight years! This is so very frightening. And the Congress says nothing about reigning in the debt. It is like a vast conspiracy of silence. Hey, you all better wake up and soon.

The American dream is nearly dead. Surely, it is on its last leg.

DEATH to the Red Devil Russia!!!

Haven't posted in a while, so I thought that I would start with something topical-- the Russian invasion of Georgia and its latest threats against the Ukraine and Poland.

But first things first. It is time to expel any and all Russian students on campuses in the United States. Their presence here represents a real threat as we do not know if they are, in fact, sleeper agents working for the Hier Putin and his new Communist Gestapo. They could be building a network of computer bots that will devastate the United States network structure in time of crisis. They could be planning on sabotaging critical elements of the US infrastructure using readily available materials such as nitrogen based fertilizers or create deadly toxins like ricin of anthrax. Remember, these are educated individuals who have access to resources not normally available to the average American citizen. They are a clear and present danger on our shores, and we have no way of knowing where their loyalties lay.