April 10, 2019

Joe Bonamassa, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Samantha Fish, Walter Trout - Going Down - KTBA Cruise

March 20, 2019

Jared Kushner's Harvard Admissions Essay (satire)

Hat tip to The New Yorker

September 11, 2017 Issue

Jared Kushner’s Harvard Admissions Essay

By Megan Amram

Dear Harvard,

How are you? I hope you are well! My name is Jared Kushner, and I would like to go to you. As an example of how smart I am, here is some money.

I heard from my daddy and my friends’ daddies that you are a big house for smart, good boys. I am a good boy! I am nice and my face is very smooth. Would you like a hundred-dollar bill? It has Benjamin Franklin on it! He is silly, because he only has hair on the sides, not on the top. Here are some of him!

Here are some facts about me: I am Jared. I am more than six feet tall, which is funny, because feet are on your legs, not how tall you are! That always makes me laugh. My favorite color is green, like money. My favorite shape is rectangle, like money. I also like round, which is like some kinds of money that poor people use for littering in fountains.

When I was a kid, which was last year, I got mad that there was no sixty-nine-dollar bill, so my daddy paid the U.S. Treasury to make one special for me. I showed it to all my friends and we all laughed and then I gave it to our maid because I was bored with it. She cleaned it and gave it back to me so that I could throw it away.

I am a good student. I got straight D’s in high school. “D” is the first letter in the alphabet. At first, the teachers said “A” was the first letter, but my daddy paid the teachers to teach us a new alphabet song so that I wouldn’t feel bad about my grades. It worked! In school, my favorite classes were recess and lunch. I did very good on the SAT because I filled in every single bubble, even the ones for my name, which was a trick question. I am so smart! For me, tests are as easy as D-B-C!

continue at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/09/11/jared-kushners-harvard-admissions-essay?mbid=social_facebook&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_brand=tny

March 16, 2019

The US military SoCom established a FOL base on Curacao in 2000

and has a contract with the Dutch (who handle foreign affairs for the Dutch Antilles) extending to 2021.

Some articles:

http://curacaochronicle.com/local/fol-until-2021-in-curacao-and-aruba/

https://www.curacaochronicle.com/post/main/fol-curacao-helps-to-seize-five-tonnes-coke/

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/curacao.htm

https://www.12af.acc.af.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/319233/curacaoaruba-forward-operating-locations/

February 14, 2019

Department of Water Resources - California Data Exchange Center

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/index.html

Lots of data and current conditions.

December 28, 2018

PufPuf is Pacific Giant Salamander

in Karuk.

December 24, 2018

My favorite Christmas present ever was not a toy and not the favorite at the time.

When I was 9 (1962), my favorite uncle and his wife spent Christmas with my family and he dressed as Santa.

My gift from him was my great grandfather's gold scale from the California Gold Rush era. It was no longer then (and still not now) functioning but sits in my office, across the room from me at this moment.

Uncle Ellis (born 1899) was my Dad' oldest brother and the family historian. I have various old family and mining records, photos, deeds, etc. that people assume came from Dad but were from Ellis, giving them to me periodically up until his death in 1995. He had no children of his own. I have been sorting through them and gifting items recently to the county historical society. Locally my family was prominent in Gold Rush and subsequent times and in the various publications and accounts.

One book is In the Land of the Grasshopper Song. If one skips ahead to the last chapter page 308, Jonas Salstrom is my great grandfather. I have the cast iron and silverware from the meal as well as Jonas's rattlesnake cane, pocket watch, and other ephemera. My grandmother was a young woman at that meal. The mine was purchased by my great great uncle in the 1860s and sold to Jonas, his BIL. There are some factual errors in ITLOGS (Jonas had owned the mine for 35 years, not 20 years, the women knew Uncle Willy and had social meetings with him rather than the two dramatized encounters with him in the book, etc.) but the book is unique and an excellent read (or gift). BTW Uncle Willy died in my childhood in the 1950s when he was butted in the head by a goat. Note: I have no interest in the book other than liking it).

https://www.amazon.com/Land-Grasshopper-Song-Klamath-Country/dp/0803236379/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1545616285&sr=1-1&keywords=land+of+the+grasshopper+song

My Dad and grandmother were born on that mining property / farm and spent his entire life except 3 years in Europe in WWII there. I spent my childhood there and now live on part of the former mine in my old age and retirement.

November 20, 2018

'I give Diana Credit for Saving Our Town,' Says Stirling City Fire Chief"

‘I give Diana Credit for Saving Our Town,’ Says Stirling City Fire Chief About Humboldt County Firefighter

As teams sift ashes in Paradise today searching for bone fragments of those who were killed in the deadliest fire in modern California history, not far away, residents of a much smaller town, Stirling City, return to their untouched homes after being evacuated for 10 days. They do so in part because of Division U Supervisor Diana Totten, a Humboldt County resident and one of the few transgender wildland firefighters in the nation. Totten and a Mendocino County man alternated the Division U Supervisor position–for over ten days, they traded off sleeping and doing paperwork while the other ran the line. At times they had close to 300 personnel under their direction battling the Camp Fire.

“I give Diana credit for saving our town,” Pete Cuming, Chief of the Stirling City Volunteer Fire Department, said warmly. Over the years, Cuming who has been chief since 1987 and been a volunteer firefighter since 1980, has poured a lot of love into his community. He has carefully restored the oldest house in town, built his own trucking business, and created a scale model of the old mill which he has lent to the local museum.

clip

“We were there with a group of dozers operators,” Cummings explained. “She introduced herself as Division Uniform.”

Totten remembers the incident well. She said that one of the operators said something about Division Unicorn–a reference to her transgender status. “I don’t think he thought I would hear,” she said. From then on she adopted that as the group’s name–they became Division Unicorn.

“It was instant chemistry,” Cuming said. “Diana loves input. She asks for input and then can make an educated decision.”
Totten said the chemistry was mutual. She, like Cuming, had been a logger. They both came from small communities they were passionate about, and they were both determined to save Stirling City. “It’s a cute little town,” she said.

“We were trying to build a battle plan for the north side of the fire,” Cuming explained. He said he and his men worked to give the two Division Supervisors “as much local knowledge as possible.”

Cuming credits Totten for coming up with a way of reducing fuel between the town and the massive, deadly fire racing towards them by clearing out dozer lines and backfiring huge swaths of land. “She was able to build a plan and her plan worked,” he said.

“We use fire to fight fire,” Totten explained in an earlier interview. “Those backfires are a very good strategy…Now the fuels are gone ahead of the coming fire.”

Long article and many pictures at: http://kymkemp.com/2018/11/20/i-give-diana-credit-for-saving-our-town-says-stirling-city-fire-chief-about-humboldt-county-firefighter/

November 17, 2018

Russia Warns U.S. Must 'Immediately' Leave South Syria

Source: newsweek via msn.

Russia has called on the United States to withdraw from a base established by the Pentagon in southern Syria, alleging the presence runs contrary to international law.

Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Moscow's National Defense Control Center, addressed a joint session Friday of Russian and Syrian committees tasked with returning Syrian refugees and blamed the U.S. for deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Rukban refugee camp. The settlement is located within a U.S.-controlled security zone surrounding the Al-Tanf base on the harsh border of Syria and Jordan and has witnessed starvation deaths due to lack of supplies.

"Such a situation in which the camp finds itself reminds concentration camps of the Second World War, which seemed to be long gone. How is it possible in the modern world?" Mizintsev said. "Why, in these conditions, the world community, which cares so much about human rights, continues to persistently keep silent about the humanitarian disaster in the Rukban camp? In fact, being held hostage.

"Why are the official structures of the United Nations responsible for providing all-round assistance to refugees, in fact, are not active and persistent in resolving global humanitarian issues related to the terrible situation of Syrian citizens in the Rukban camp?" he added.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/russia-warns-us-must-immediately-leave-south-syria/ar-BBPNc24?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=spartanntp

October 20, 2018

That is not that accurate a map. Here is a more specific map of California.

October 20, 2018

I have been an SF Giant fan since going to first game in 1959.

It was a family thing.

I have participated for years on a private SF Giant blog and this is the issue today second only to the Dodger-Brewer game. Seems everyone including the blog owner is aghast.

The Giants and Charles Johnson have issued statements. The statements and discussion is at this link I cannot text to copy here.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2801849-giants-issue-statement-on-owner-charles-johnson-donating-to-pac-behind-racist-ad

Here is an article from Think Progress:

Owner of Major League Baseball team among funders of racist super PAC

White billionaire Charles Johnson is among those funding Black Americans for the President's Agenda and its outrageous racist radio ads.


more at: https://thinkprogress.org/san-francisco-giants-owner-bankrolling-racist-pac-5e1292058573/


From a 2016 Huffington Post article Charles Johnson has a history of $$$ support for Trump and right wing causes.

"The main super PAC supporting Trump did not report its finances Saturday. It will next report in October. However, two other super PACs formed to boost the Republican nominee did disclose their donors.

Great America PAC, a super PAC run by longtime GOP consultant Ed Rollins, raised $2.4 million mostly from small donors. Its largest donation was a $100,000 contribution from San Francisco Giants owner Charles Johnson.

Hedge fund billionaire and conservative activist donor Bob Mercer provided $2 million to the Make America Number 1 super PAC. The group was formerly organized to support Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the Republican primary, but Mercer has since shifted his support to Trump. As a funder of the conservative website Breitbart, Mercer is an instrumental player in the many moving pieces of the infrastructure now making up the Trump campaign. He is also now one of the largest donors to Trump’s election efforts."

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-campaign-finances_us_57b9cb79e4b03d513688f5f2?section=us_politics