Five (well four) Non Political Thoughts plus daPodcast under the Fedora

Posted: March 7, 2020 by datechguy in Uncategorized

There are few problems that can’t be, if not solved, made to feel less painful for an hour by finding a good small diner to sit and eat while reading a real good book. That clears the mind most excellently.

Speaking of small diners I was at my local one this morning nextdoor to the now closed Romano’s Market when I saw Michelle the young lady who Mike said 10 years ago could be a good butcher there with her five year old daughter. She’s back to being a full time Nanny and loves it but she does miss the shop and the people.

Simply seeing her there made me feel great, and it seems to me that a lot of the old Romano’s crowd has been finding itself at that diner lately.

Tax season is here and for some reason I just have not been motivated to get started I know the clock is ticking and there is a lot to do but nothing seems to be moving me.

I wonder if that’s a product of age?

My Dynasty All times great league is in playoff modes as of this writing the 1954 Cleveland Indians hold a 3-1 lead over the 1970 Orioles while the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers and 1962 San Francisco Giants have yet to begin their series due to scheduling conflicts among the managers.

However we do have your MVP’s and Cy Young votes in

AL MVP Joe Dimaggio 1939 NYY NL MVP Gil Hodges 1955 Bkyn & Rosgers Hornsby 1929 Cubs (tie)

AL Cy Young Tex Hughson 1947 Bos, NL Cy Young Sandy Koufax 1965 LAD

Here are the leaders in the various categories overall leaders are in bold

Battling AL Dimaggio 39 NYY .373, NL Hodges 55 Brk .371

OBP AL Williams 46 Bos .456 NL Hodges 55 Brk .456

Slug AL Simmons 29 Phil (AL) .651 NL Hodges 55 Brk .639

OB+Slug AL Dimaggio 39 NYY 1.070 NL Hodges 55 Brk 1.095

Runs AL Dimaggio 39 NYY 142 NL Mays 62 SF 150

Hits AL Dimaggio 39 NYY 228 NL Hodges 55 Brk 225

Doubles AL Greenberg 34 Det 75 NL Hodges 55 Brk 46

Triples AL Goslin Wash, Rice Wash 24 NL Hopp 42 Stl 21

Home Runs AL Powell 70 Balt Simmons 29 Phil (AL) 42 NL Aaron 57 Mil 51

RBI AL Greenberg 34 Det 159 NL Wilson 29 Cubs 159

Stolen Bases AL North 73 Oak 18 NL Wills 65 LAD 80

Walks AL Williams 46 Bos 160 NL Robinson 55 Brk 116

Pitching

ERA AL Hughson 46 Bos 2.94 NL Seaver 69 Mets 2.19

Wins AL Blue 73 Oak 20 NL Drysdale 65 LAD Newccombe 55 Brk 21

Losses AL Fischer 34 Det 19 NL Johnson 71 Pit 20

Saves AL Klinger 46 Bos 32 NL Labine 55 Brk 24

Blown Saves AL Narleski 54 Cle 5 NL Bolin 62 SF McMahon 57 Mil 7

Innings Pitched AL Blue 73 Oak 279 NL Seaver 69 Mets 279 2/3

Strikeouts AL Grove 29 Phil (AL) 211 NL Koufax 65 LAD 323

All stats below require a min of 154 IP to qualify

K per 9 inn AL Earnshaw 29 Phil (AL) 7.30 NL Koufax 65 LAD 10.98

BB per 9 inn AL Hughson 46 Bos 1.50 NL Newcombe 55 Brk 1.43

Avg against AL Blue 73 Oak .204 NL Seaver 69 Mets .180

WHIP AL Hughson Bos 1.05 NL Koufax 65 Lad 0.93

HR per 9 Inn AL Garcia 54 Cle 0.40 NL O’Dell SF 0.48

Finally if you missed Friday’s live podcast “Biden My Time” You can watch it here

If you’re free and awake Monday at 12:35 AM I’ll be back for the next live stream

The Difference Between Candidate Donald Trump and Candidate Bernie Sanders Explained briefly

Posted: March 6, 2020 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, elections, politics, primaries
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The results of Tuesday’s primary has illustrated one of the most interesting things in the regular comparisons between the Bernie Sanders campaign of 2020 and the Donald Trump campaign of 2016.

Bernie Sanders had campaigned on Socialism

Donald Trump campaigned on Conservatism

There was a good chunk of the conservative base who hesitated to support Donald Trump (myself included) during the primary season because we weren’t sure that he actually meant what he said. At the time we didn’t know if we could believe him. (He’s sure made believers of us now).

On the other hand it turned out that there was a good chunk of the Democrat base who hesitated to support Bernie Sanders during the primary season for exactly the opposite reason.

They didn’t reject Sanders because the thought he was lying about supporting socialism, they rejected him because they thought he was telling the truth and wanted no part of it, at least not openly.

That’s the real irony here. Trump was mistrusted because voters weren’t sure who he was and what he believed but if Bernie loses the nomination it will be because voters were convinced he was exactly what he claimed to be.

Life is funny isn’t it?

If we could stop looking to the federal government to solve our problems that would be great

Posted: March 5, 2020 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
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It is abundantly clear from the transcripts of the Constitutional Convention and the transcripts of the Ratification Debates, the framers of the Constitution would never have dreamed that the federal government would become the primary solver of all the problems facing the people of the United States.  In fact most would be horrified, saddened, and confused to learn how it is now.

The framers of the Constitution would be horrified to learn that most problems are now solved on the federal government level because they knew the end result of this would be an extremely large and powerful federal government.  They knew that such a large and powerful federal government would be an extreme threat to the rights and liberty of the American people.  They took great care to write a Constitution that would prevent the federal government from growing so large and powerful.

The framers of the Constitution would be saddened to hear that the American people chose to abandon the constitution that they so expertly crafted for us.  Only by abandoning the Constitution could we allow the federal government to become the solver of all of our problems.

The framers of the Constitution would be confused that the federal government is now the primary solver of most of our problems because of all the provisions they worked into the Constitution to make sure the federal government would not have power and authority to carry out this role.  The federal government created by the Constitution was only meant to carry specific roles namely, to defend the United States as a whole, to represent the United States as one nation diplomatically to other nations, and to prevent the individual states from squabbling with each other.  The Constitution created a federal government with a very limited number of powers, all of them clearly spelled out.  None of those powers grant the federal government the power and authority to solve problems such as healthcare, poverty, education, and so much more.

The framers of the Constitution knew that the individual States, local governments, and individuals were the proper places to solve the problems of this nation,  That is exactly the blueprint they used when they wrote the Constitution.

Here is my solution to the healthcare crisis that would fit into the Constitution, and has a remarkable probability of working: let each state come up with their own unique solution to the problem for the residents of that state.  The government of each state could communicate with each other to find out which solutions worked the best and perhaps copy it.

The federal government has tried to fix education and has only made the problem far greater.  The same holds true for poverty.

To increase the prosperity of individuals the federal government needs to get out of the way.  For far too many decades the federal government has smothered private businesses with too many regulations.  President Trump has begun to dial this back, however, there is so much more that needs to be done.  Greatly slashing tax rates would be a tremendous help also, the first Trump tax were only a small step in that direction.

The war on poverty has only resulted in more poverty and way too much dependence on government handouts.  Private charity would do far more good along with the greatly increased standard of living that would be generated for everyone with slashed regulations and taxes.

So many other problems we are looking to the federal government to solve would actually be solved at the state and local level if we let that happen.

Joe Biden Saved by the Mrs. Tessi Democrats

Posted: March 5, 2020 by datechguy in culture, elections, politics, primaries
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Back in Jr high I had a crush on a girl named Mary Beth Tessi.

She was not only beautiful girl (oh what eyes!) and as Italian as her name implied but brilliant. As far as I was concerned time stopped when she entered a room. Alas for the dreams of a 13 year old she married someone else, a very fine and devout fellow and like myself has been married over 30 years. Both are very lucky to have each other but I must confess 40+ years later I still melt a bit on the rare occasions I see her.

Oddly enough while I rarely see her the person I DO still see regularly is her mother who I never knew in my youth. She’s in her late 70’s early 80’s is very devout and I admire her greatly. While considerably younger than my mother (who would be 96 if alive today) they were friendly and despite my balding head and occasionally gray beard she invariably slips me a five dollar bill and tells me to buy myself and DaWife some ice cream when she sees me.

I constantly run into her at Church or Catholic events or in adoration but there was one time she really threw me off.

It was about five years ago during the primaries, I had run into her at Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the subject of the primaries and election came up in passing and she expressed her hope that Hillary would be able to win.

I was Gobsmacked. There could not be a candidate more antithetical to the values of a devout Catholic than Hillary but as I spoke to her a bit on it I suddenly realized something.

Mrs. Tessi came of age at a time when the most powerful Catholic from Massachusetts was John McCormick a devout Catholic. Her daughter Mary Beth was born during the term of John F Kennedy the 1st Catholic President of the United States and her 2nd when Bobby was still alive. During her 40’s the biggest name in the Democrat party nationally and in the state was Tip O’Neill as Catholic as you can get. Furthermore Hillary had stayed married to a cheating husband a very Catholic thing.

She wasn’t a person who followed politics and when she thinks of the Democrat party she still thought of it as the party of McCormick, O’Neill & Kennedy and I certainly wasn’t going to able to shatter that illusion, in a few minutes when my own mother didn’t figure it out Jan 2010 two years before she died.

And that brings us to SuperTuesday and Joe Biden.

If you look at the exit polls there was a huge divide when it comes to age on the Democrat side. Among the worst groups for Bernie Sanders were Democrat voters over the age of 65 (15% for Bernie). For Joe Biden this was among the best groups for him (48%). Meanwhile the best group for Bernie were people age 18-29 (58%) and 2nd were those from 30-44 (41%). Those age brackets were Biden’s worst (30-44 23%, 18-29 17%).

This is very significant, because one of the things I’ve observed in life is that what you were taught in school tends to stick with you.

The age groups who voted for Joe Biden were born at a time when Democrats and Republicans alike were cold warriors and taught in school that still extolled Capitalism and discussed the Horrors of communism. If you were born in 1975, the low end of the 45-65 you were being taught American History while Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and St. John Paul II were bringing down the Evil Empire of the Soviets. If you were born in 1965 you were taught the evils of communism and if you were born in 1955 or before odds are you had a family member who fought against the communists in Korea. It’s worth noting btw that voters age 45-65 AND 65 or older do didn’t vote for Biden went for Mike Bloomberg the vocal pro-capitalist in the race.

For the last two weeks when it became likely that Bernie Sanders could be the Democrat nominee those voters who were taught the evils of communism and socialism were confronted by an MSM who fearful of what an unrepentant communist at the top of the Democrat ticket would do to races at the bottom for the 1st time did not sugar coat Bernie Sanders love of Communism and history of backing folks like Fidel. They finally saw Bernie Sanders for what he was not because the media and party which knew all along, finally found it in their interest to tell them.

And so remembering the lessons of their youth they turned out and voted against their cold war adversary. For those who decided that they just couldn’t vote for a human gaffe machine who couldn’t tell his sister from his wife ended up voting for Mike Bloomberg the unrepentant Capitalist in the race. It’s no coincidence that among the groups that Bloomberg did best with were the 45-65 & 65 and up age groups while voters who were in school in time to hear Socialism and Communism glorified (ages 30-44 & 18-29) loathed him.

It’s fair to say that for now Barack Obama’s efforts to push Mayor Pete and Senator Amy out of the race might have saved Joe Biden’s political life. It’s even fair to say that Joe Biden’s political life was saved by Black voters who remember him as Obama’s right hand man.

But I think that Joe Biden campaign lives another day because the Mrs. Tessi Democrats remembered the lessons of their youth and voted to save their party against an evil they still recognized.

Alas in four years there will likely not be enough of them to do so again.

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