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 |   Tales from real life |
| Well, if they're not true, they oughta be! |
| If you're not abusing power, then you don't really have any. - The Gospel of Trump Actions speak louder than words. Joe Biden’s pardon of his son is a more eloquent concession speech than any losing candidate has ever made. Yes, Kamala Harris lost the battle, but Joe Biden lost the war. The choice in the 2024 election was clearly between the down-home appeal of Joe Biden and the elitism of Donald Trump. Joe Biden is the faithful husband and loving father that Donald Trump has never been. Biden is the competent and accomplished politician that Donald Trump will never be. Joe has been a model of decency and public service for his entire life, concepts that 'The Donald’ can’t even comprehend. Kamala Harris offered a vision of hard work and self-sacrifice, asking that all Americans join together to make our nation good again. Donald Trump offered the big lie, a me-first vision of greatness declared rather than achieved. Now, the election is over. The people have spoken. America has gone all-in on corruption and the abuse of power. On January 25th, 2025, the most prolific liar in American history will be sworn in for a second term as U. S. President. He will stand up in front of dozens of cameras and publicly perjure himself by taking an oath that he has promised to break on his first day in office. The American people have made their choice. They’ve rejected the challenge to love their neighbor and work together for the greater good. They’ve endorsed the big lie, government corruption, and the abuse of presidential power. Everyone who voted for Donald Trump should be cheering the pardon of Hunter Biden. And they should take great pleasure in the fact that Joe lied about granting it. There could be no more definitive acknowledgment that we're now living in Donald Trump’s America. Joe’s action doesn’t need to be explained or excused. The will of the people is that neither law nor ethics apply to the presidency. Trump’s base fought hard to be ruled by dictatorial whim, and this is a first small taste. Instead of criticizing, they should be celebrating. And beyond that, every MAGA voter should be sending Joe Biden flowers and thanking him for sparing Donald Trump’s life. Joe is the sitting president until January 25th. The Trump legal team argued before the supreme court that a sitting president may execute his political enemies. The conservative majority agreed and issued a ruling that President Trump has immunity from prosecution for any and all crimes committed while in office. So, Donald lives only at Joe’s pleasure. I’m not calling for Joe to go all ‘Dirty Harry’ on Trump. I’m merely pointing out that he can. And Joe has that power because our soon-to-be dictator rigged the court. It would be poetic justice if Donald Trump became the victim of his own scam. |
A friend and I were lamenting the decline and fall of Sears Roebuck today. We agreed that they were once a mainstay of the middle-class lifestyle. I suggested that they were the Amazon of the 20th century. My wife and I shopped regularly at the big Sears store in the Overlake Shopping Center. And you might not find an unusual item in-stock, but you could order almost anything from their catalog and get it in a week or two. It's a shame that their management couldn't understand and adapt to internet shopping. They already had the warehouses, a huge catalog, and a good reputation for service. My friend wistfully recalled the Craftsman brand hand tools and their iron-clad guarantee. And that reminded me of a story. When I was in high school, my dad bought a 1950 Ford F5 truck with a dump bed. The well-maintained vehicle was an impulse buy from an estate sale and Dad named it Homer. It was over 20 years old and we didn't need it, but the 1.5-ton capacity came in handy sometimes on our small ranch. Homer had a flathead V8 that made only 100 HP, but the transmission had a compound low gear that would allow us to pull stumps if we could get enough traction. A friend of a friend talked my dad into using it to move a small house early one Sunday morning. We didn't have permits or flashing lights, just a pace car with a red rag on a stick waving out the side window. The 500 square-foot building had been jacked up and put on axles the previous day so that we could start at first light. I rode in the cab with Dad, and it took about three hours to make the 15-mile trip over gravel roads. A few early risers were justifiably annoyed, but the house arrived safely at its new location, and we were home in time for lunch. Homer didn't get a lot of road miles, so tires tended to age out rather than wear out. Either way, a flat is a flat. And the big dual rear wheels had split rims that made tire changing dangerous. My dad had experience as an auto mechanic, so he knew better than to try to work on a split rim with hand tools. Instead, we would take the wheel off and have a garage change the flat tire for us. Some of Homer's wheels hadn't ever been removed and the giant lug nuts were rusted solidly in place. One afternoon, Dad had a 3/4-inch drive flex handle attached to a 2-inch socket and couldn't get enough leverage to break the nut loose. He grabbed a 3-foot length of steel pipe from the junk pile and slid it onto the end of the flex handle. But even with a 'cheater', the lug nut wouldn't budge. In the end, Dad was hanging off the sidewall of the dump bed, swearing and bouncing his full weight up and down on the 'cheater'. Oddly enough, the flex handle broke off at the pivot point behind the socket. That derailed our plan to get the flat tire fixed, so we had to go to town to look for a new flex handle. But remember what I said earlier about the Craftsman guarantee? Dad took that broken tool into our local Sears store and showed it to the clerk. The guy didn't bat an eye, he just handed Dad a brand-new flex handle. On the way home, Dad laughed and told me that he'd actually bought the 3/4-inch socket set at a second-hand store. Sears replaced the broken tool with a new one and didn't even ask to see a receipt. Now that was service! p.s. Dad could be very resourceful when brute strength failed. He used a propane torch to get that lug nut smoking hot. And once it had expanded a bit, it popped loose easily. |
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