October 19, 2021--In Jeopardy

 Jeopardy has helped me make it through the pandemic. 

Each evening I can't wait for questions about American History. One of the few categories in which I can come up with answers or do I mean questions?

It's a great distraction. So I thought to try out an answer for you--

Thomas Heflin

Key Pittman

Walter E. Edge

Samuel Nicholson

Andrieus A. Jones

William Calder

Lee Overman

Edwin Ladd

Robert L. Owen

Morris Sheppard

Carroll S. Page

Joe Manchin

Kyrsten Sinema

So what's the question?

The last two listed should be a clue.

Would it help you come up with the question if I told you there are just 100 of them?

I suspect you'll tell me the question is "What's a senator?"

You'd be half right. I wouldn't expect you to get it fully correct (even if you were Ken Jennings). That all but two served in the Senate in 1922 during the height of the Teapot Dome Scandal.

None are really even known to history. They've slipped into oblivion. 

As will Manchin and Sinema. Which is a good thing.

And a lesson.

October 6, 2021--The Most Powerful Woman In America

She is not Speaker Nancy Pelosi, nor former First Lady Michelle Obama, not Oprah Winfrey, nor Vice President Kamila Harris. 

In fact she is not only the most powerful woman in America, arguably, she may also be the most powerful American. Female or male. Period.

Also one of the craziest.

She is Arizona's senior senator, Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat, who, with her Senate partner Joe Manchin, is holding her party's caucus hostage--if members refuse to back her domestic priorities she is threatening to vote against Joe Biden's legislative program, which will doom it since to pass it requires all 50 Democratic senators' votes. 

If even one votes against it it may very well be that no meaningful legislation will be passed and this will mean the effective end of Joe Biden's presidency. 

And thus the reelection in 2024 of Donald Trump. 

Now, that's powerful.

Here's a little of what Maureen Dowd on Sunday had to say about Senator Sinema--

"As one top Democrat called her, she is 'the Greta Garbo of Congress.'

"Sinema rarely gives interviews and shuns the scrum of reporters at the Capitol. But she is not shy about drawing the spotlight, whether she is swathed in fur stoles or bedecked in pink, purple and mint-colored wigs or bedazzling in glittering stilettos. It is hard to believe that the Senate had a nutty sexist ban on sleeveless outfits on the floor. But the mandarins quit worrying about it for members once their colleague blithely turned the hallowed marble halls into an iconoclastic catwalk."

It's come to this.

October 1, 2021--Just A Couple of Guys

You've got to hand it to Vladimir. He knows how to have a good time. Especially with best buddies such as The Donald.

Now we're hearing about the translators Putin arranged for Trump when they met at guy-guy summits like the one in Osaka in 2019.

No news was made which then became the news. That is until the other day when we learned that the translator appeared to know less about Russian than looking good. (See linked photo--that's her.)

We also learned that Putin, knowing Trump is a germaphobe, whenever they met coughed and wheezed all over him.

Some card that Vlad.

Anything to gain an edge.

So we not only have to look out for Russian bots and cyber warriors, we also need to proceed delicately when hiring translators.

Well, maybe not that delicately.