The Great America First Eclipse

On Monday, August 21, 2017 (two days from now) the Sun will go dark. Only in the USA, and only across a certain west-to-east linear portion of the USA. Oh, and it will only last for a couple of minutes or so.

Of course, I am talking about the upcoming total solar eclipse of the sun. On Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible in totality within a band across the continental United States, touching fourteen states, staring with Oregon, and ending with South Carolina. A partial eclipse will be visible in many more states, and will still be worth checking out. People in other countries will only see a partial eclipse. Sorry other countries – this one is ours and you can’t watch it.

I’m kidding – of course you can . News outlets will do their part to broadcast pictures and video of the eclipse to everyone who has an interest.

On Monday, you can go to www.nasa.gov/eclipselive, where you will be directed by default to the NASA TV broadcast. You will see views of the eclipse from several locations, including from the International Space Station.

This really is a big deal. The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire contiguous United States was June 8, 1918.

The next time a total eclipse sweeps across the country will be August 12, 2045, and it promises to be, not only the best of this century, but the best ever, with a different, much wider path of totality, sweeping across a different lineup of states, and totality lasting more than twice as long. The very best place in the continental US to view this eclipse is said to be a residential street in Port Saint Lucie, Florida.

And the future promises still more total eclipses, visible from at least some states, and partial eclipses visible from even more. There are so many great eclipses coming this century that some have coined the term “Generation Eclipse” to refer to babies born recently and in the near future. See more information about this and the lineup of future eclipse at: http://americaneclipseusa.com/future-usa-eclipses/ .

Remember to follow safety guidelines. Don’t look at an eclipse for any longer than you would glance at the noonday sun without proper eye protection. Make sure your solar glasses are the approved type.

I find it amazing that our local part of the universe is so predictable. I also think we also need applaud the generations of astronomers and mathematicians who have worked out the solar and lunar cycles so exactly that we can predict to the second when the eclipse will be in certain parts of the planet. This is amazing.

And there are still those who don't trust the vast majority of scientists who are warning us about the increased amounts of greenhouse gasses we are putting into our atmosphere. We need to listen to them and head their pleadings for us to do something about humanity-induced climate change.

If we don’t, then you, or your children, may need to anchor a boat to view that eclipse in Port Saint Lucie, in 2045.

Bill Maher Drops the N-Bomb

Last Friday, June 2, Bill Mahar used the N-word on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Tomorrow night, we will see what he has to say to follow-up on his use of the word and his subsequent apology.

I will not defend Bill Maher's use of the N-word on his show, except to say that it was a joke -- a bad joke . A quick, one-liner that might have been funny if he had phrased it a bit differently. Or not. Anyway, Sasse gave him the perfect straight line and Bill Maher, who is a comedian first, went with it.

When I heard it I thought, Uh OH, there is going to be some blowback from this, and I was not wrong.

Most of the attacks I have heard and read have been from liberals. That is the problem with liberals -- they attack their own. They demand them to be perfect, lock-step, progressive and PC all the time or they crap on them. Bill should have apologized right away. He did apologize later, and I understand that HBO is deleting the offensive remark from subsequent broadcasts of the show. (I don't know if it even made it into the so-called "live" airing that goes to the West Coast, which is delayed by three hours.)

This kind of censorship by HBO is unheard-of. Maybe Maher asked for the edit.

Not only did he apologize, but he has been a voice for sanity in an increasingly screwed-up world. Maher has shown time and again that he is not a racist person, and they know that. One ill-conceived joke, which was apologized for, does not make him a racist.

If HBO did retaliate and cancel his show, I would seriously consider cancelling my subscription. Even Game of Thrones could not keep me if I decided to do that. It would be my version of: "Shame...Shame...Shame."I do not condone use of the N-word, but I do strongly believe that "freedom of speech" means exactly that. A network can police what it puts out over the cable-waves, and it needs to have some control over it. But HBO has shown countless black comedians and rappers throwing out the N-word like Hansel and Gretel dropping bread crumbs in the forest. If we truly believe in racial equality, then we don't give one race an unchecked license to use a word and crucify a member of a different race, who uses it once and then apologizes.

Nobody should drop the N-bomb in this day and age. But, we need to not give any one word that much power over us. We need to ask ourselves, why do we -- especially we liberals and progressives -- hold our comedians and writers to a higher standard than the country as a whole holds its president.

I know, all distasteful subjects lead to Trump, but Trump has made so many absolutely outrageous statements and told so many out-right lies -- and never apologizes for anything! And don't get me started on Kathy Griffin. Not my favorite comic, and I never thought I would feel sorry for her, but this is another case of liberals, the media, and others tearing her apart for something that might be considered bad taste, but that's all. And she is getting death threats as well as investigated by the Secret Service.

Strange how Ted Nugent actually did threaten to kill Obama, and he was not investigated. No, he became a guest on Fox News.

How Low Can the Bar Go?

On the evening of Tuesday, February 28, 2017, President Donald Trump made a speech before congress.

And the crowd went wild!

The Republicans in the Congress applauded like parents of a slow child whose every accomplishment is met with joy and celebration.  “Just look at Donnie. All the insults, all the self-contradiction, all the hanging out with the wrong people – none of that matters now as he looks so presidential, reading that speech, just like all those ‘real’ presidents who came before him.”

Some media pundits and news reporters were just as quick to heap on the adulation, saying things like, “Donald Trump just became President of the United States.”  They talked about the “pivot,” as though Trump had never changed his public point-of-view before.  Trump has done so much pivoting during the election and after that he should be sick, or at least dizzy, by now. He has changed his mind from one day to the next, from one appearance to the next, and even while uttering a single sentence.

So, what did Trump have to do to appear presidential the other night? He had to dress in a suit, stand at a lectern, and read a speech that has been written for him, pausing at appropriate times for applause.

But still, he earned praise for something that even some of his supporters thought he couldn’t do. Like you might feel when that wild orangutan you captured and decided to make a pet suddenly learns to stop making messes in the house.

I am not criticizing Trump for reading a speech he did not write. I don’t think any present in recent history has written all of his own speeches, at least not by himself. It would be impossible. The president works with a team of close colleagues. Among them is the president’s speechwriter and, most likely, others who contribute to the speech before it is delivered. There were a few times when I thought he might be reading parts of the speech for the first time. Trump is not known to be reader. He likes his reports short and divided up with bullet-points.

Some of the mistakes he made didn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

For instance, near the end of the speech, he said: “Finally, to keep America safe we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war — if they must — they have to fight, and they only have to win.”

That’s a weird thing to say. Was he saying that he’s going to make it so easy for them to win that all they have to do is follow a specific, simple plan, and they will have victory? Or is this some version of  the historic cry of the ancient Spartan mothers to their sons, marching off to war, “Come home with your shield or on it.” And you thought your mom’s advice was cold sometimes.

What was loaded in his teleprompter and handed out to the press made more sense.  “Finally, to keep America Safe we must provide the men and women of the United States military with the tools they need to prevent war and — if they must — to fight and to win.”

Being Trump, he had to throw in some of his own idiosyncratic modifiers and amplifiers.

For instance, he said “Finally, the time has come to give Americans the freedom to purchase health insurance across State lines — creating a truly competitive national marketplace that will bring cost way down and provide far better care.” He had to ad lib: “So important,” like a preacher throwing his own “Amen, brother!”

Not too bad. I’ll bet presidents have thrown their own little comments into their speeches since there were presidents or speeches.

At least one of his off-the-cuff comments didn’t go over all that well some speech listeners, in the chamber or at listening via the media.  

Trump introduced Carryn Owens, the widow of a U.S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William "Ryan" Owens, who had been killed (along with, it appears, more than two dozen civilians) during a January 28 anti-terrorism raid in Yemen. There was a long ovation following this introduction, and Trump’s description of Owens’ brave sacrifice of his life for his country. After the extended applause, Trump, ever the self-congratulating showman, quipped: “And Ryan is looking down right now, you know that, and he’s very happy because I think he just broke a record.”

I wonder if Carryn thought, Well, I have lost my husband, but mention of his name did break a record for the longest outbreak of applause during an address to Congress. So, it’s all good.

No, I don’t think she thought that at all. And I don’t think we can attribute similarly positive vibes to Ryan’s parents, who were not present for the speech.  Owens’ father, Bill, a veteran, has called for an investigation into the incident and into his son’s death. He had refused to meet with Trump when the president met his son’s body at Dover Air Force Base.

I don’t know if the uproar of applause broke a record or not, but that is totally beside the point. It is just like Trump to, in truly carnival-barker fashion, never let a moment pass, be it a happy one or a profoundly sad one, without basking in the glory he sees generated by it.

Maybe that is where he gets that bizarre orange tan.

I will leave it to others to discuss the address and how it agrees with and contradicts promises he has made on the campaign trail and afterwards, and how he talked about lowering taxes and investing in American infrastructure and building that stupid wall he has such a fetish for – and how he is supposedly going to do this without adding to the debt that he refereed to in the speech.

He made the speech and has garnered some accolades for it. Our President has shown that he can stand in front of an audience and not resort to throwing his own poop. Bravo! He has stepped over that bar, which, by now, is just about laying on the floor.

Oh My God, Someone Took a Big Orange Trump in the Oval Office!

So many leaders have been compared to Hitler by those on the left and the right. My reaction has almost always been, oh please you don't know what you are talking about. Save that comparison for when it really matters.

Well, guess what? The Trump has been played. This is the time when the comparison is appropriate and maybe even obvious.