1000 Saturdays: Week 04
Last Book Read: Act of Defiance by Andrews & Wilson – A Jack Ryan Novel ( 2024 published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons ) (see opinion review in Week 01 column)
Current House Book: Shadow of Doubt by Brad Thor – A Scot Harvath Thiller ( 2024 published by Emily Bestler Books )
Current Road Book: Ghost Solider by Mike Maden – An Oregon Files Novel ( 2024 published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons) (see opinion review in Week 01 column)
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Starting this week, we start a new book by one of my favorite current au-thors, Brad Thor. The Scot Harvath series, currently on book #23, is a hard core, real-life, real-world series that carries on from book to book in sequence. Yes, each book is self-contained but they read much better when read in sequence. People get hurt, people die, things get found, lost and destroyed, including critical items that if known about could upset the world today. To say that things move at a “brisk pace” would do injustice to the stories.
In this story, of which I have only just opened today, our protagonist has just left the active war zone deep in the Ukraine where he had been battling a group of Russian mercenaries turned treasure thieves leaving a trail of death and destruction across the wasteland there. Now, Scot Harvath has returned to the US to recover and get back to running his organization, the Carlton Group based in Washington DC, because aren’t all good spy agencies based in DC?
This book promises to be another rip-roarer, “A Thriller” as Mr. Thor titles his series, as Harvath doesn’t even get on the ground coming back to Washington before he’s in serious fight on the plane! This character lives with so very little down time that while it would be exciting to be him it would also be difficult to live the 23 lives he’s had so far with all of the aches, pains, injuries, death, destruction and loss of friends and associates. The character needs a week on a beach at the very least!
When I get a little further into the story, perhaps halfway or so, I’ll be back with an update. “Shadow of Doubt” is now available at all decent bookstores, online at the usual booksellers and of course at https://www.bradthor.com where you can get signed editions as well as many other neat items and information from Brad Thor via a blog. In life lately, I’ve been getting signed books from my favorite authors although I have yet to get a personalized book. I tell you, living in the wilds of Wyoming is tough…and so is a fixed income. Buy the book. Or start the series. You will NOT be disappointed.
Observation / Opinion
This week has been a hell of week, hasn’t it? A hurricane still ripping through the southeast part of the country, a new record in futility out of Chicago, saber rattling in the South China sea and in the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone impacting two countries, the Prime Minister of Canada surviving a no-confidence vote Israel doing what the IDF seems to do best ( eliminate terrorists ), the end of MLB season, the start of the WNBA Playoffs (of which I care less than the entire season of the MLS of which I care ZERO). And that doesn’t even cover the opening of the United Nations Session or the retirement of the NATO Chief, Jens Stoltenberg after finishing 10 years of a 4-year term – no, that’s correct. Usually, NATO hires their Chief for only 4 years but Mr. Stoltenberg decided he’s stay for multiple appointments after his original four-year term expired. This from a man who was also TWICE the Prime Minister of Norway.
Notice I didn’t even include the multiple stories on the America Presidential race? And there’s only 37 days left before we all go vote. I know I don’t usually discuss politics here but this public service announcement needs to be madeI believe – VOTE! I won’t say for who but you need to VOTE! Too many people have died so that you can do that. It’s best if you do it in person, with an ID, on election day to insure that your vote is registered and you’ve made the best choice possible given the information you can obtain. President Biden, if he were still running, would not have been a very good choice if you had voted 40-45 days before the election. Not because I don’t like his politics but because even he real-izes that it was time to wrap it up and move on. Everywhere in the country it seems every election, a dead person is elected somehow. Sometimes you can’t know that person is going to pass on. Sometimes we do know that will happen. But isn’t it better to vote in person, live at your local polling station, for a person you believe is capable and ready to lead the nation rather than just toss your ballot in the mail and hope for the best? I think it is. So on November 5, 2024 – VOTE!
Moving along, I’m still worried about so many people I know in Florida, Georgia and South Caroline due to the monster Hurricane Helene. A huge storm over 500 miles wide prior to landfall as a Category 4 ( 130 to 156 mph ) along with a rainfall output that was recorded at 10 times the monthly rainfall in some areas, this storm has killed a known 52 people as of this posting. I expect that number to go higher. Rescues have been reported in a variety of ways since the storm came ashore in the middle of the night near Perry Florida, a small town just under 7,000 in population. It has since roared north at about 30 miles per hours since then. It is now a tropical depression and wandering around Kentucky. It is still a dangerous storm as it a rainmaking event. Flooding is widespread even beyond where the storm is “located”.
I’ve stuck with the hurricane not just because it is a serious newsworthy event but also because I noticed something in watching the video reports from the Southeast yesterday and today. WHY do people drive into rushing water???
If you know there should be a dip in the road by the little river bridge and you can’t see the road, the bridge or even the defined river, WHY are you still driv-ing there? Mother Nature can be a bitch. She WILL kill you given a chance. Unless you are on the way to a hospital, there is no need, NONE, to drive into rushing or standing water! Your little car, your pick-up truck, hell your 18-wheeler can and will be swept away…along with you, to be found five days later downstream when the waters subside. smh…
I watched a live rescue today by a weather news reporter. He was standing at a flooded intersection doing a live shot in the blowing rain. The nearby stream had overflowed to about a foot or less below the street sign. A foot or less! And along comes this little car, chug chug chug, plowing hood deep into the dirty water covered roadway. Surprisingly, the car didn’t stall but it reached a point where it was not moving forward but instead floating down river. smh To the news report-er’s credit, he stopped his report, hiked out in chest deep water, rescued the women driving and carried her to dry ground on his back. Great guy and great job. I can’t say that about the driver.
So many unanswered questions! WHY was this driver out in the middle of a hurricane? On the way to the hospital? Didn’t look like it. On the way to a job? She didn’t look like hospital/police/fire worker. On the way to a job? WHY? What ever would demand her to be there in the middle of a hurricane??? And WHY would you be going to a job IN THE MIDDLE OF A HURRICANE??? arghhhhhh….
I have other questions too but, what’s the point? You know, this isn’t 1960 or even 1970 any more. Weather forecasting has progressed to give you 2 to 5 DAYS of warning for almost every weather except maybe a tornado. Even then, there are many ways to be warned of an impending tornado toady. However, hurricanes are seen, watched, flown into, reported, tracked, path forecasted and warned. You should have time to get out and a way from the rain, wind and events of a hurricane in today’s America. So why, during the very height of impact, would you be out DRIVING in it??? smh
Being from New England, I remember my younger days when I worked in a supermarket. About 12 to 24 hours before a snowstorm was forecast to strike, we saw a large amount of people flood the store to buy “supplies” for what could be 2 to 3 days of homebound life due to snow. It happened every snowstorm it seemed. Do you know what those “supplies” were? Usually a quart of milk, a loaf of bread and a half pound of deli meat. That was all. Just the basic three day survival mode food. That would get their family of four through the snowy shutdown.
I honestly hope to God that the driver who plowed into a fast flowing river hadn’t forgotten the milk…
End of rant…I mean, Observation / Opinion for Week 04.
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Local News Item:
During the past week of 9/20 through 9/27/2024 within Natrona County Wyoming (population ~79,000 of which ~60,000 people live in the physical confines of Casper) there were 99 reported arrests made with the arrested ranging in age from 19 to 72 years old. The majority of these reported arrests were for public intoxication, open container, DUI, failure to comply and a smattering of tres-passing and/or drug situations. There are few other situations but there were no weapon charges, wild shootouts or a reckless driving arrest listed. Of course, those could be under the State Police files but not listed in the county records. I didn’t hear them on the local news reports or on the local news sites so I am assuming there weren’t any.
Almost all of these arrests, if not all of them, have one thing in common. Good local police on foot or in cruisers going up to people, talking with them, placing them under arrest and then taking them away for their assigned punish-ment. Face to face, talking to them, type of police arrests. Very un-television style arrests. Personal and professional. It’s the best way to police in a small population base where in a week .0015% of the population break the law enough to be arrested. Reportedly anyways.
But one of the police situations of the past week involved police, a minor school child and the Casper School System. It was unusual because it was reported as the police finding information online, as in “it was on the internet” and then investigating the situation, which turned out to be “non-credible”. Apparently, it was something akin to “Oh yeah? Well, I’ll just “beeeeeeepppppp” your “beeeeeeeppppp” idiot!” (Sorry, but I don’t need the cops banging on my door. Thanks anyways.) It probably didn’t take the officer or officers very long to resolve the situation but it make me stop and think. Are our police online more than on-streets these days?
In reviewing the county arrest record last week, I didn’t see any breaking and entering arrests. I didn’t see any type of apprehended in the act arrests. Now granted, as of this post there are only 107 police officers in Natrona County WY with 101 police officers in Casper WY. I must admit, since I moved to the Teton Valley and then on to Casper starting back in 2019 (pre-covid, who knew?) I have not seen a lot of police cruising around. Heard some but from a distance not out behind me in my vehicle. Not that I’m complaining. But being from New England / Boston, police were usually not very far away from where I was because they were always visible to make it known you should just play straight.
Is it like this in other parts of the country? Have we reduced our police forces to the rate where patrols are not a thing anymore for lack of manpower? Or has crime reduced to where police patrols aren’t necessary anymore? I have to be-lieve the former and not the latter. But if that was the case, why are police trolling the internet looking for Columbine Wantabes instead of putting their faces out there as deterrents? Yes, I get it. No police officer wants to be seen as a walking poster for potential problems where people walk and scatter as they walk the town center or the school hallways. But are doorbell cameras, stoplight cameras, internet cameras and posting so ubiquitous these days that we only see police officers when they knock on our door to arrest us? Strange…
So, in a world where “influencer” is a real job description, where it’s far safer to say something online than face-to-face, where middle school bravado can be brought as a chargeable offense in a court of law, I guess it only makes sense to work the term “keyboard warrior” into the field of policing our communities.
What times we live in!
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National News Item:
We will just have to put this in the category of “Oh…My…GOD!” with an asterisk noting the “Streisand Effect”.
First, for those of you who don’t know, the “Streisand Effect”, which even has a Wikipedia page, because doesn’t everything have a Wikipedia page?, is listed as being and I quote “the unintended consequence of attempts to hide, remove, or censor information, where the effort instead increases public awareness of the information.” It is so named due the efforts of Barbara Streisand to suppress/remove from the public realm a photo of beach erosion which highlighted her cliff top Malibu mansion inadvertently. The attempt to remove it amplified the picture instead. And seeing that there is a whole Wikipedia page dedicated to the effect, we will have to put that effort in the “FAIL!” column.
However, in a “Hold my beer!” moment, it seems that Governor Gavin Newsome of California decided this week to go one…bigger. Signing into law a bill that “makes it illegal to create and publish deepfakes related to elections 120 days before Election Day and 60 days thereafter” he went after a particular meme he didn’t like that was CLEARLY listed as parody ON the video of Vice President Kamala Harris with a voice over sound-alike listing all of her faults and failures.
The signed law didn’t even make it out of the room before it was brought up to the courts for appeal. To be fair the law does NOT prevent or outlaw parodies or memes or political lying. He signed three bills into law that “address the use of deepfakes and other deceptive digitally generated or altered content in election cam-paigns” that would be published 120 days before an election and 60 days after the election. It doesn’t outlaw memes.
But boy, did it ever backfire.
Where as before hardly anyone had ever seen the parody video, now EVERYBODY has seen the parody video. In California, reports of it being loaded to a video billboard have been made but, I haven’t seen the proof of that. Sounds about right though. The fact remains that what Newsom is trying to do will, like the Fast Food Pay law they signed, only make things worse.
There are few things in life that are a guarantee – death, taxes, political lying. Those last two words go together better than the first two words. Without going into detail, during the last Presidential debate, both candidates lied with complete conviction and lied A LOT. Just because you didn’t get “fact checked”, a 2021 made up phrase meaning “I don’t like what you said so I’m going to get an expert to ‘refute’ that statement”, doesn’t mean you told the truth. Is there a law against that?
No.
But maybe people should be smart enough to check on things and then see if they believe them. It’s not hard.
Now, if you excuse me, I have to email a Nigerian Prince and claim my $21 Million reward.
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International News Item:
While this would seem to be a National News Item, I can tell you that this impacts people, companies, countries at both ends of the situation. There is a dockworker/longshoreman strike pending in the USoA due to contract negotia-ions that stalled back in June 2024. This would idle about 45,000 workers across the country at 36 ports of entry to the USoA, half of all ports available. The largest ports, places like NYC, Norfolk, Savanah, Brunswick and Houston would grind to a halt for offloading ships bringing products to America. At this time it appears that ports like LA, San Diego and other West Coast places would not be impacted…yet. Worse, it would halt all shipping leaving those ports and 29 others on the East and Gulf Coasts from the USoA.
There hasn’t been a nationwide longshoremen’s strike in this country since 1977, just after the Oil Embargo and the US economy shut down in 1973 and the new OPEC pushed the higher oil prices onto the country. Then, like now, the con-tracts for longshoremen were all either expiring or expired. Both sides sought to make the best deal they could with both sides thinking they held power cards that made a strike impossible. Not surprisingly, both sides were wrong.
I would love to say that the Union here is totally at fault. I have little love for most unions as they seem to only drive the train for more pay and more bene-fits. I get it. We all think the jobs we do are worth FAR more than we are getting paid. We are wrong. When you take the whole of the business into consideration, the total costs top to bottom, we are probably all overpaid. Vastly overpaid. Longshoremen do an incredible job, in all kinds of weather, keeping the huge wheels of businesses running. Think of the Post Office on steroids. Mega steroids. Like Bane from Batman steroids. So I don’t think they are unworthy of a raise in pay. Especial in Bidenonmics America today. They do the “work”, physical labor in the elements mostly moving containers without knowing what is inside them.
I could also say I’d love to blame port management in this situation. Sitting there controlling the demanding flow of traffic, timetables and supply chain, trying to squeeze more income out of the flow of containers from each ship, working to make turnaround times even shorter, all while controlling unplanned costs that are usually “non-productive days” i.e. vacation or sick days or weather days, things they can’t control. They don’t have the physicality of the job per se, but rather they spend their time reading weather charts, ocean tides, trucking schedules, overseas political actions and the economy here in this country. They do the “work”, using mental efforts to try to make everything flow and fit smoothly.
I’ve been on both sides of this picture. It’s like watching two pigs wrestle in a mud and dung covered pen. At first, it’s just a little pushing and grunting. Pretty soon the shit starts to fly and everyone gets covered. The pigs all forget why they were fighting and only remember the other one flung crap at them. In the end, even a good hosing won’t get them clean. And they remember the flinging for when the nest wrestling match comes up. I never liked either side of that fight.
We all want more in life. More money to buy what we want. More time off to do what we want. More power to control how we want. It seems to be very basic human tendencies. Those tendencies are bad if you aren’t compassionate to the people on the other side. Some people would say that if inflation in the USoA was 3% then an annual raise of 6% would be reasonable and a raise of 10% would be generous. Some people. Would those numbers get you up from a little 2 door Eclipse to a 4 door Expedition? Hell no. A raise isn’t meant to change your life. A raise is meant to praise you for your last 12 months of work efforts and keep you at the company. No Powerball wins here! A raise isn’t even a guarantee in life.
The last longshoremen contract that was agreed to by both sides was signed in August 2023, retroactive back to July 2022 (end of the previous contract) and running until July 2028. The raise was for 32% per each of the 22,000 West Coast longshoremen covered under the contract. In 2022 the average annual base pay (no overtime, no benefits) for a longshoreman was $56,000.00. The new contract gave each longshoreman a $17,920.00 per year raise. As with MPG ratings, your exact numbers may vary. Also, I did not see that the new contract included annual cost of living raises, but it is rumored to be part of the deal.
Currently, the estimated annual pay for a East Coast Longshoreman is about $81,000.00. The request for a $5.00 per hour increase ( $10,400.00 per year) made at this time comes by the longshoremen has been met with a $2.50 per hour increase ( $5,200.00 per year ) by the dock management. There’s also an annual increase of about 2% said to be asked/given as part of the contract proposals. It doesn’t sound like much but think a little deeper.
First, the money will have to come from somewhere. It won’t be manage-ment’s pockets. That’s nonsensical. It’ll come from increase port fees, increased shipping costs and increased supply chain fees. ALL of those costs will be paid for by…the end consumer. You. Me. Even the longshoremen themselves will pay in higher prices because, well, contract costs just increased! Don’t get me wrong. Those prices WILL go up, from Europe, South America and Africa down to the United States. The question is by how much.
The last thing to think about is this. The strike is supposed to start this Monday. That’s October 1, 2024. The people that will be sitting at the negotiating table until, probably through, October 1, 2024 will NOT be a 6 month hire from the Houston dockyard doing his first real job. Nor will it be a Junior Level 6 month supply chain analyst working on their degree in his first real job. Nope. They’ll be high level, long term, well paid people long past doing hard physical or the mental work in the shipping industry whose lives won’t be too impacted by a three day / three week / three month post-strike. It’s what we should all be thinking about as the news and numbers come out on this in the next couple of days/weeks.
With that thought….Merry Christmas! Your presents will be here in 8 to 10 months…with a MUCH higher cost.
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Law Enforcement Attack of the Week:
On Sunday morning recent, September 22, 2024, Officer David Lee of the St. Louis MO police department, a 18 year veteran of the department, was working an auto crash on Interstate 70 when a speeding drunk driver came up, lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the back of the patrol car, striking Officer Lee. Of-ficer Lee later died in surgery.
Born and raised in St. Louis, Officer Lee had been married for 19 years. He was well liked and well respected in his community. He reportedly liked his job, his community and his life. That is what we all aspire to, isn’t it? To be liked for both our personality and our professionalism? Officer Lee had both of those things and will be missed heavily.
What adds even more misery to this story and makes my blood boil is the “accused” driver in this situation. He is a 24 year old male who is charged with DWI death of a law enforcement officer, a felony, exceeding the posted speed limit and operating a vehicle on a highway without a valid license.
But wait! There’s more…
This 24 year old male is not a U.S. citizen…
He had an immigration status hearing set in October 2024…
He was on supervised probation for domestic battery from 2022…
And he ran over a cop.
I am a Christian and when asked I respond in kind.
However, I find it hard to have the faith and forgiveness here that others might scream I should have.
So be it.
Rest in Peace Officer Lee. You’ve done well.
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Missing/Kidnapped Person:
As the Yellowstone National Park season begins winding down to a close (last full open day will be October 31st) it is sad that there is still an open missing person case inside the park at this time. A 22 year old male hiker went missing on September 17, 2024 after solo summiting Eagle Peak then contacting friends and family. He reported at that time that it was cold, foggy and with sleet on the park’s highest peak, listed at 11, 373 feet. He made it up but so far, not down.
As the Father of a young man who likes climbing and has done some solo 3 and 4 day climbs, this is my biggest fear. My heart goes out to the family and fri-ends of this young man. Reportedly, but not officially, the situation has gone from “rescue” to “recovery”. As it becomes 11 days with no contact from the young man, I could see where it might go to a recovery effort. People do forget that Yellowstone is not an “amusement park” or a “zoo”. It is essentially a wilderness park full of lit-tle tiny trails through great vast swaths of wild nature with plenty of animals in it that would be happy to show they are better than you on their home court. And if the animals don’t get you, the natural environment will.
By all accounts, this missing climber was not inexperienced but rather an amateur climber, only because of his age. That doesn’t mean inexperienced in my book. It means he had the skills to climb up AND down from the mountain which is listed as difficult because of the terrain. In my book, and with my own Son’s situation, I’m not sure if anyone is a “professional climber” unless they have the title of Sherpa attached to them. All the rest of us? Learning as we go.
I am afraid that this is going to be one of those situations that we won’t know about for a long time. It could be like our missing biker from a few weeks ago but, 11 days is really pushing that possibility. I’m hoping that’s the case. So far, 96 people, 2 helicopters, a dog search team and a drone team have been out in the area where his cellphone last pinged from. More will be out looking soon.
To give you an idea of similar situations, in 2021 when the search for Gabby Petito was conducted in Teton National Park, it has been reported that from 4 to 10 other missing bodies had been found in the search grid. Most common number was 9 bodies. Some had been missing for years, some sooner. Most had been murdered. The point is, you can very easily go missing in even our most favorite national parks. And, you can be made to disappear out there, too. It’s not quite “A Million Ways to Die in the West” but let’s face, you only get one death.
Here’s a prayer for a successful outcome to young man. He and his family deserve it.
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USoA Historical Event of the Week:
Another interesting historical week to choose from. Very political orient-ated. You have the 1787 Establishment of US Supreme Court when the first court of 6 Judges were seated in New York City. There was the 1957 start of the school year that saw Little Rock Nine start school at Little Rock Central High School. Or we could look at the 1776 execution of Nathan Hale or the 1779 Bonhomme Richard /Serapis sea battle of John Paul Jones and “I have not yet begun to fight!” fame. All very interesting and all the top of the list for the week. Well, not quite the top.
September 27, 1962 was the day that after four years of effort, an environ-mental science book was published after a year’s delay due to the author discover-ing she had breast cancer. The book came about because a friend of the author wrote a letter to the Boston Herald concerning the spraying of chemicals to kill mosquitoes in her neighborhood was also killing the birds. This prompted a law-suit to stop the spraying but the lawsuit failed. The chemical was DDT.
The author was Rachal Carson. The book was “Silent Spring”.
Slamming into the American consciousness like “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair, the book was supported by a wide range of scientists and researchers of the physiological and environmental effects of pesticides which surprised her. Carson had a wide range of contacts within the US Government, some of whom supplied her with confidential information from programs they were working on. The information, like most government information at that time, was pretty damn-ing. While attacking DDT the book also attacked the indiscriminate and overuse of spray chemicals in the world to control insects and the negative impact humans were having on the natural world by their use.
As you can imagine, the government and, of course, the pesticide industrial complex fought the book and what it reported as what we would call “misinforma-tion” today. Monsanto, perhaps you’ve heard of this company? even published 5,000 copies of a parody book called “The Desolate Year” projecting a world of famine and disease caused by the banning pesticides The problem for both the govern-ment and the pesticide companies is exactly the same as today. The more people looked, did the research, collected the data, the more “Silent Spring” was born out to not only be factual but true. But it wasn’t easy or quick.
“Silent Spring” came out before Earth Day, before conservationism, before widespread Naturalists, before the term “treehugger” came to be. In 1962 few peo-ple went on vacation, understood ecology and Man’s impact on Nature. People didn’t care HOW their food was being produced only how MUCH their food costs them. And did it taste okay. It was a time before cancer exploded across our families, before what was in our foods was more important than what was on our foods. It wasn’t essential high school reading until well after it was published.
Rachel Carson died from breast cancer in 1964. She was 56 years old. Her book sparked a slow but solid build up of grassroots efforts to review the pesticide industry and change it. Her efforts were championed by others with her death and carried forth. Carson and “Silent Spring” is credited with helping to create the Environmental Protection Agency in its proper configuration in 1970 only 8 months after the 1st Earth Day earlier in April of that year. In 1980, then President Jimmy Carter awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, posthumously of course. A wide and varied number of places are named in her honor from parks and schools to forests and buildings.
“Silent Spring” helped run DDT down to almost non-use. As of 2024 only India and 7 African nations produce and use DDT as a pesticide. This is the best known reason to always wash any fruits or vegetables before eating them overseas. That was standard method back in the day here in the USoA as well. Not so much today. The battle against harmful chemicals and pesticides in our foods, on our landscaping and in our natural world continues. As it always will.
For it’s original dismissal and deriding by the government and chemical industry, “Silent Spring” slapped back very well. In 2006, 44 years after its first publication, “Silent Spring” was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time. All because some birds were dying along with mosquitoes and someone noticed.
Look around folks. You never know what you might see…
See you next week.
RAP from 1000 Saturdays, Week 04
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