CLAUDINE LONGET

Claudine Longet was a mediocre French pop singer married to Andy Williams, a TV and recording personality for many years and then divorced. All this happened before 1975, the era of ridiculously “soft” love songs and she fit right in, bossa nova and such. Details because this happened when my kids were either very young or not born. And the name is "lon jay".

After her divorce, she shot and killed America’s most famous skier, “Spider” Sabich. She was convicted of a watered-down charge and now lives at the age of 78 in Las Vegas.

I was a fan of Saturday Night Live in the 1970’s, not at all now. One of the 1976 skits I thought was hilarious then and still do now was banned later. It showed stock footage of skiers falling overdubbed with gunshots. The skit was titled “The Claudine Longet Invitational.”

So sue me for having a bad sense of humor.

CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL RACES, UPDATE

December 2, a full month after the election, the last Congressional race in California has been called. 

There were 8 of the 53 Congressional seats not called by the day after the election, all where Republicans led. Some by a wide margin. ALL of those 8 have now been won by the Republican. Does it seem fishy that only the races where Republicans led were still in doubt? Waiting for a truck to back up with some "found" ballots like in 2018 in the 21st District?

Leave that behind for a moment--why isn't any news outlet "discovering" the wacky de la Fuente family who run in multiple races in multiple states? The Dems should be a bit miffed at Ricky for taking at least 7,000 votes that could have gone to the loser in the 21st District.

What are their motives? Just to become millionaires like the others who get elected to Congress? 

Don't hold your breath waiting for the "media" to consider them.

Why is the media/AP/NYT so reluctant to call an election outcome in favor of a Republican? For some of us, that isn't difficult to figure out.

CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 21

District 21 has just been "called" by the AP with 97% of the 170,000 votes counted and the Republican candidate ahead by 1 full percentage point. Kind of a dangerous call given that two years ago, the Republican candidate, this year's winner, was "called" soon after the polls closed leading by about 6,000 votes out of the nearly 175,000 votes that could potentially be counted.

Again, it is November 28 and they are still counting. In 2018, the votes that came in late, some of them "harvested" (and if you don't know what that is, look it up), which were nearly all for the Democratic challenger. Then, the Democrat, Cox, won by 862 votes.

Seems like there should have been an investigation, but since the Democrat "won" in California, that was not going to happen.

This time, "harvesting" was not supposed to happen. Valadao, the Republican, was ahead by 52.1% on November 8. Now, he is ahead by 50.5% to 49.5%. Well, this is a bit misleading as Ricardo (Ricky) de la Fuente received 7,309 votes as of November 4, or a bit more than 4% of the current vote total. I was unable to find any reference to Ricky recently.

You might know of Ricky or his dad, Roque (Rocky). Ricky ran in a bunch of primaries, and in three Congressional races--The aforementioned California 21st District which is in the agricultural Central Valley around Fresno despite his birth and residence in San Diego; in Florida's 24th Congressional District (he was defeated in that primary); and in the Texas 27th District where he lost in the November election. We live in the 27th District, and he received 35% of the vote despite...well, despite!!

Rocky ran in a whole bunch of primaries, several Congressional races and for President He received about 60,000 votes for President from the voters in California.

There were eight Congressional elections in California (out of the 53 seats) that were not "called" on election night or soon after. All eight were where Republicans led. Eventually, seven of the eight have been called for the Republican. The eighth seat is very close...

Back to Ricky and Rocky. Why are they running? I wonder if it is because of deep affection for the people of Texas, California (and elsewhere) that they want to serve? Or, is it because they saw that someone could graduate near the bottom of his law school class, start as a Representative in a very small state, like Delaware, move up to the Senate and serve for 47 years, becoming a multi-millionaire in the process? I wonder if they saw Congress as a ticket to millionaire status?

Anyway, despite the reluctance to call any election in California for a Republican, the Republicans flipped 11 seats in Congress nationally, three of those in California with another Republican leading.

Most states have some sort of residency requirement to run for these kinds of offices. Texas does not. Apparently, Florida does not. Wondering if that might be something to fix?

FOREST FIRES

 "... our court system is manipulated by activists and how, in this instance, that has resulted in unmanaged and mismanaged public lands."

The above quote is from a rancher whose family has lived on and used these lands since 1852. Recently, the fires consumed nearly 320,000 acres and killed most of their cow-calf pairs. The legacy is gone.

Courts, lawyers and activists now dominate how the Forest Service does its job and it is not good.

We recently drove to Dakota Dunes and while passing Omaha, we noticed that our eyes burned and it was hazy. Yep, smoke from the fires. Maybe California, maybe Colorado. I just returned from Denver and was informed that the air quality is worse than India.

How are we going to figure out how to deal with extremists who are able to finance court battles that destroy our land? Let's do something! Or the whole country will be like California, Portland and Seattle.

UNCLE DAVID

 

Linda often recounted the outstanding qualities of her Uncle David—he was a highly respected OBGYN in Spokane, played clarinet in the symphony and jazz bands, sang in the opera, was a chess master, a successful real estate developer and the list goes on.

Truly a Renaissance Man.

He and Aunt Jenny adopted several children then had a bio-child later. Aunt Jenny was a nurse and a wonderful person all around and she still is active in her mid-90’s.

Uncle David died last Friday, October 9, two days before his 96^th birthday. A few weeks ago, he had been moved to the higher-level care area of their facility. He didn’t hear well, couldn’t see well, not eating, etc., the signs of an aging body, but when they set up his chess set, he proceeded to beat the staff most games. 

The remaining children, being what they are, didn’t tell Linda. So, instead, on Saturday night and again on Monday night, before she knew he was gone, an owl came in the wee hours to sit in our back yard and give her some hoots. We all believe it was a messenger from Uncle David, who loved her very much, letting her know since she had not heard.

She saw the post by one of the kids on Facebook on Tuesday. The owl has not been back.

BASEBALL 2020

 I haven't written about baseball in years. Expect baseball in 2020 to be as odd as the rest of the year.

The Royals have a better record at 20-29 right now than:

• Washington:  17-29
• Pirates           14-33
• Dbacks          17-31
• Boston           18-31
• Rangers         17-31

I am not in the mood to look up the payrolls, but my guess is that the Royals have a payroll that is more like a AAA payroll for some of those bozos, like Boston.

Just a bit of good news for us old school guys.

TWO IDEAS

 

I believe there are two things that would benefit our republic, and they are not new ideas:

·         Mandatory service

o   Accommodate young people with disabilities

o   Right after high school or if drop out

o   Teach civics as part of the 2-year curriculum

·         Term Limits

The latter, term limits give an advantage to the huge states at the expense of the poor, small states. California has 53 representatives in the House, so you can imagine who gets the Chairmanship of all the important committees if there is no scheme to limit that power. The ability for someone like Bernie Sanders, unemployed, a failure, to get on the gravy train and end up with multiple houses worth a lot of money, without proposing or passing any useful legislation (EVER!!) is preposterous. Joe Biden was left in the dust back in 1988 when he blatantly lied about his accomplishments and background, only to continue to get elected. Now, after 45+ years, he blames others for his misdeeds.

Mandatory service would be an antidote to the Gen Z entitlement programs they have enjoyed so far. Imagine the idea of being busted out of the service, only to be put into another “program” and that stigma would follow you the rest of your life? Sort of what the rest of us have tried to do—a lifetime of achievement. And the mandatory learning about the way our government runs might avoid somebody like AOC not able to answer the question, “What are the three branches of government?”

Just a thought.