Saturday, April 08, 2017

President Trump, following through on Obama's Red Line

Some are no doubt already making the case that Obama's shifting red line encouraged Syria and President Bashar al-Assad to attack a small Syrian village with chemical weapons killing and injuring scores of children. One can use the word "allegedly" but for all intents...President Trump followed this within 24 hours with 59 air strikes with Tomahawk cruise missiles of a Syrian airfield believed to harbor chemical weapons. Now things get complicated with Russia refusing to cooperate with the U.S. over avoiding air conflicts over Syrian airspace. Russian warships have already moved into the region closer to our fleet so you have the seeds of a major world crisis in the making. Trump is getting bipartisan support on this one from Marco Rubio to Charles Schumer usually a critic but the base is mighty unhappy with these developments. There's that Pat Buchanan strict non-interventionist/isolationist wing to deal with. Obama was too much the Hamlet intellectual with this aspect of our foreign policy. Trump of course is taking some flack for not consulting with the UN Security Council and Congress first but if first showings are any indication we may be dealing with a very militaristic and action-oriented president on the world stage. As long as he stays away from the nuclear codes.

82 comments:

  1. Could he be clearing that part of Syria for a new Trump
    Hotel? We recall 2013, when Obama asked the GOP congress
    for support in dealing with Syria. Got zilch..fast forward
    four years and they blame him. Why does that remind me of
    Benghazi, where Hillary's request for security funding was
    denied by the GOP congress and a year later they began siz congressional investigations for the 4 people 'murdered'?
    Is that when alt-facts started? Reminds me of Merrick Garland, denied even a hearing for SCOTUS for a year, while
    Gorsuch was so critical, they used the nuclear option to
    confirm him in no time at all. GOP has been playing by some
    funny rules lately. Their 'voters' love it. Wait til they
    find out what they have bought. heh

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    Replies
    1. That's fine but the thing is Obama didn't enforce his own red line perhaps emboldening Assad.

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    2. I guess we had rangers in there assisting the Kurds, then the Russians offered to help. (Beware of
      Russians helping). There has been a lingering dislike of wasting US ground troops in the middle east going back quite a few years...couple of them
      buried in the plots across the street. So, N Korea working on IBMs with nuclear capability. Knowing their technology, I'm concerned they might miss LA,
      SF, Portland and hit our little mountain valley.
      I don't need fallout poisoning in my old age, BTW.

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  2. So what's the deal with O'Reilly, no one will advertise on his show because he's a sex predator? Some woman came home and found him in her closet?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess Fox paid off $15 million to various women without a word to him about his extracurricular activities. Trump, of course, thinks he's a great
      guy. IMO, O'Reilly has been a fake from day one, sort
      of a Hannity, but educated, ya know?

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    2. I can't explain it but there's been a weird downward trend since the Cosby revelations came out.

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  3. Jared Kushner, Prince Rihbus..er Reince Preibus and Steve Bannon. What do they do, pick out Melenia's outfits? Another hundred days and people will be saying, "What would
    Hillary do?" I see the Keystone Pipeline will bring 34 jobs. The Trump economic team is hard at working seeking to
    build another 500,000 pipelines and figuring out what to do
    with all the new coal the happy miners are boring into. Citizens United-what a deal. Thanks, Scalia. Big windstorm through here yesterday. Lights went out and I couldn't find the handle on the toilet. Trees down on main trunk, substation fried, so we went to McDonalds for supper. It
    was closed and out of power, so we went to the hardware store to get an LED lantern. It was closed and out of power, so we came home. The power company guys brought back
    electricity to 13,500 locals in one hour. I'm for putting them in charge of the US government.

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  4. Now I vaguely remember after the last attack Bashar al-Assad wasn't supposed to have any more arsenals of chem weapons. You remember the UN inspectors...do we just forget stuff?

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    Replies
    1. Too much to remember. UN Inspectors have investigated and reported on several incidents involving toxic chemicals: after the fact, witness
      reports, etc. The on the ground inspection arranged by the Obama Admin and the Russians, was carried out by the OPCW experts in the production, storage and use of chemical weapons. It
      is believed that 90% had been removed. The most recent
      gas attack may have been old remaining sarin, or some
      secret site was producing more. Reminds of those Indonesian women that wiped VX persistent nerve agent on the N Korean. There is thought to be an ongoing, but yet unsuccessful attempt by ISIS and Co. to get their hands on enough radioactive material to make a
      'dirty bomb' eg. conventional explosives that scatter
      'fallout' in every direction. Dunno, what does O'Reilly say?

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    2. Yes it's in the NY Times today. After the 2013 sarin gas attack Obama negotiated with Mr. Assad to surrender all of his chemical weapons. Of course there had to be inspector teams put in place. Bottom line Assad was no longer supposed to have chemical weapons or am I missing something?

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    3. Obviously, we should have sent our TSA airport inspectors over there. The old ladies probably hid
      the secret stuff under their abayas. I found out yesterday that Jared Kushner is a life long Democrat. Go figure.

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  5. The Syrian 'civil war' is a conundrum. 350-450,000 ideaths and some million refugees; the gov't and numerous
    affiliated and unaffiliated rebel groups and constant warfare. But the place is a sandy desert. Where do they
    all come from? The country is a treasure of archeological
    sites from Ebla and Ugarit, where the proto Canaanite/Hebrew
    alphabet originated, to Hittite settlements to the imposing
    Crusader castle, the Krak Des Chevalier. The Mideast has been a battle ground for millennia..it goes on and on.

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  6. This message is for the little Pantywaist AKA RN. You are the epitome of ignorance, stupidity and holier-than-thou characters. Enjoy your freedom while you can. I see a long time under lockup for you.

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  7. There doesn't seem to be anyone left here except for the same old 3 jackasses that were left here 3 years ago.!

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  8. Hmm, you seem to have attracted the Who's Your Daddy minions. Tom, Luke, Sue, Kid, Beakerkin, Radical Redneck, Rattrapper, Free Thinke, numerous sock puppets et. al.
    Prolific blog, that. Reminds us of the song from 'Bandwagon':
    We do everything alike
    We look alike
    We dress alike, we walk alike
    We talk alike
    And what is more
    We hate each liberals, RINOS and logic very much.

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  9. We have a possible escalation with Russia, our ships are heading off the Korean Peninsula, we have Kim threatening to nuke the world or whoever insults his 'do...one day I'm gonna be at work, look at the notifications on my smartphone and Drudge is gonna have World At War.

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    Replies
    1. You get one of those high paying jobs building The Wall yet? Putin looks to be one of the predictable
      types in the current alt-reality.

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  10. Trump and Kim Jong Un continue the decades long chess match.
    Trump is unpredictable, but Kim moreso. Not only does he have absolute power, but a quirky pugnaciousness. Trump is
    restrained by a democratic system, so we guess any military
    action would be initiated in that quarter and the response
    limited by R. China, Russia and US allies. In all likelihood, the chess game continues on.

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    Replies
    1. Although the Trump Administration has openly talked about assassinating Kim Jong-Un. Of course that didn't work too well with Castro.

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  11. Ahmadinejad is filing papers to run for president of Iran again. Finally a voice of reason.

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  12. Trump has changed his mind on Syria, NATO, Russia..what's next. His far RW base is upset. IMO, he has run into the hard reality of geopolitics and doing some maturing.

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  13. I think bases run you into trouble. Left-wing base right-wing base same thing. What's the deal with Spicer? First he said Hitler did not use chemicals then said well at least he used "Holocaust centers" and not planes like Assad. I could be drunk and not say this. An interesting case for neuroscience no?

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  14. Trump proudly announced the first use of the MOAB bomb on
    the Afghan border, (MOAB=Massive Ordnance Air Blast) or
    (Mother of All Bombs). A 10 ton guided thing dropped from
    a cargo plane, apparently to see what effect it would have on the robust tunnel ISIS has in the area. Probably not much, given the inverse cube law of explosives, plus it is
    not a penetrator (the military considers multiple smaller
    bombs more effective). But PresTwitter announced that between that and the cruise missile strike, that his admin
    had done more to end ISIS in the last 8 weeks that the previous dozen years. Yeah, right. BTW, the British used
    several dozen similar 10 ton bombs on sub pens on the French
    coast in WW2. The subs kept coming.

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    Replies
    1. What worries me is Trump seems to be working up to the Big One, the Mother of the Mother.

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    2. Bomb family escalation; Putin's father OAB.

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  15. Watched another movie from Jennifer Lawrence's pre-Hunger Games movie career. This one called "The Beaver" starring Mel Gibson and directed by Jodie Foster. Strange is the best way to describe it, off-center but interesting and very poignant towards the end. You don't know where the movie's going but it goes places you never expected.

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  16. Trump recently met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the main topic of course was getting China's help to boot the N. Korean strongman. Read that Trump might throw in some trade goodies to sweeten the pot. Doesn't China already have the better end of the stick re trade? Everywhere I look we got stuff Made in China. Oven mitts at work Made in China and they suck (my burns can tell). I once saw a box of toothpicks Made in China. What we don't have the technology?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trump was elected by claiming Obama was not transparent: Once in office, Donald declared the white house visitor list top secret (Obama's was open to anyone), refuses to release his tax returns (all
      presidents since Nixon have done that). He said Obama
      was unfit because he golfed to much: Trump has been on the links 19 times and Mara Lago costs us $3 million a weekend, making Obama look cheap by comparison. Meanwhile he fills up the white house with
      Wall Streeters and family. Is it just me, or do most Jr. High class presidents have more gravitas? We used to purchase tons of explosives precursor chemicals from China, sent an engineer to check sources, he spent a week riding in a boxcar on some bumpy railroad. (We bought worse stuff from Israel, oddly enough). I don't blame the Chinese: our big bizz
      designs the stuff and they make it and we buy it.
      Any idea where Kim Jong Un has his hair cut/

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    2. I think Rachel Maddow released his tax returns for him if I'm not mistaken. What the heck is an ISIS-K? You read stuff in the papers and it's like who knew? Sounds like the Big Boyz are gonna play their war games soon. 99 Luftballons.

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    3. ISIS-Khorosan is the eastern division of the motley
      crew: far eastern Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and seemingly some S. Uzbeks. Sometimes they fight with
      the Taliban, sometimes they are united, sometimes they fight with each other. Like the bigger western
      bunch, the goal is immediate caliphate, sharia and
      extermination of local infidels and anybody they
      don't like. Read someplace they are financed by big
      donors in S. Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, etc. In
      general, a bunch of thugs and gangs, less religious than even me.

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    4. Oh I heard of Khorasan but ISIS-K sounds like a breakfast cereal.

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  17. You'd think they'd have chocolate Sasquatches for Easter at least in the states where they reside.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hershey is missing out on that. I bought some Reese's
      easter eggs (white chocolate shell, peanut butter yolk) and was surprised to see that Hershey made them.
      Sort of; Reese and Hershey were both in PA and they
      merged. Reese actually sells more and is non union compared to the more staid unionized Hershey. Semi
      sinister big chocolate, I guess.

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    2. You wonder what doctors eat on the big holidays. I always get the sense they're not enjoying life.

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    3. I've been wondering if Marie Osmond eats at all...

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    4. She looks good to me but the Nat'l Enquirer has had Angelina Jolie on the verge of death for five years now.

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  18. Riots over tax returns?

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  19. Transparency, a big part of the Trump run.

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  20. But protesting over tax returns? Forgive my lack of passion.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dry subject. Why don't we ask the IRS. Logic it out. If he owed more or was hiding something wouldn't the IRS come after him? Look at Wesley Snipes.

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    2. Why doesn't he release his tax returns, like all the other presidents? Is he special? Arrogant?
      Pays no taxes? Is he, like he promised, the most
      transparent president? He stated that Hillary was
      a liar and to Lock Her UP..but she released years worth of tax returns. The old wellworn GOP double standard. Lock him up, I'm tire of it.

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    3. Society seems to be having a collective psychological issue right now: refusing to accept reality. Donald Trump is now our president. That is our current reality, some might call it an alt-reality. Do we protest over the next four years? I'm just a pragmatist is all.

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  21. Chris Christie has a 20% approval rating. Lower than Trump's?

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  22. A single strand of human genome can store 1.5 Gigabits, accessing the base pairs of the helixical deoxyribonucleic
    acid. As you suspect, molecular biologists and computer scientists teamed up utilize this molecular technology for
    computer data storage. DNA can replace magnetic chips, more permanently and in far less space. Watch for the 'cloud' to be replaced by the ancient
    (but synthetic) 'primeval soup'. You heard it here.

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    Replies
    1. As usual I understand it and I don't. I can watch a movie on my DNA?

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    2. They are probably working on the app.

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    3. The only movie one your DNA is probably the colonoscopy that you missed. Wiggle the toes on your left foot for the audio.

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  23. Bill O'Reilly out at FOX. Who's gonna be the replacement blowhard? O'Reilly's next book - "Killing My Career."

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  24. Same day, Benghazi Chaffetz eager over-investigator of Clinton and Obama
    is hanging it up also. No fun investigating your very own
    president, huh? Unsubstantiated rumors have it that O'Reilly is taking a management position with Yonkers Ghost
    Busters. IMO, they can't replace him. He had a large loyal
    following (mostly men, obviously). Read somewhere that old
    Murdock is letting his son run FoxNews and he is more of a middle of the road dude. Had a mule deer looking over the horse pasture fence this morning. Young one, afraid of the two horses. They chased him back and forth until he leaped
    the 7 foot horse fence and headed down Cedar Drive towards the airport. No idea how he got in there.

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    Replies
    1. Tucker Carlson? Hmmm. O'Reilly was apparently
      crossed the line with women, but IMO, not as egregiously as Trump. One gets fired, one gets elected. Go figure. Old German proverb, der higher
      upen der monkey goes on der flagpole, der more his
      assenschein is exposed. Tucker Carlson?

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    2. I thought he was supposed to replace Megyn. Short attention-span. He's like the default relacement or something like when the big chef leaves somebody slaps an apron on him.

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  25. Seems the Trump team is trying to set up a meeting with Pope Francis in about a month's time. Awkward but obligatory I guess.

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  26. Where the heck is the Trump Armada? S. Korea is furious
    and Kim Jong Un is giggling.

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    Replies
    1. A businessman/mogul contemplating war makes me nervous. WHERE IS RODMAN???

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    2. Steve Bannon sent him to find the Armada?

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    3. I thought the bromance was over.

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    4. Today, Trump announced that Canada is disgusting.
      With friends like him...

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    5. Who can remember Trump calling Hillary unfit?

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    6. & yet by contrast re N. Korea Obama pretty much did nothing.

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    7. Perhaps Trump is too-action oriented in an impulsive way, Obama was not action-oriented enough (Syrian red line, Jong-Un). Obama kept opining how terror is not Islamic. Where did that get us?

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    8. Hard to pre-judge: Trump 91 days in office, Obama
      2970. Obama was considered a wimp by some, others thought his drone strikes very warlike. Yep, one
      is impulsive, the other not. One is thoughtful, the other not. Ever wonder why the Russians worked so hard to get DT elected?

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    9. Cerebral to the point of inaction in some cases. Some consider drones to be a sci-fi form of warfare. War has become a Nintendo game. No idea about the Russkies. Any theories besides golf courses and vodka?

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    10. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
      -Alexander Pope, 1709 IMO, Putin was tired of dealing with Obama's chess, and furious at Clinton
      for siding with opposition when Putin kept getting
      reelected. He probably believes he is shrewder that
      Mr. Fly Off The Handle at the US throttle. We shall
      see. Meanwhile, will the Canadians pay for a northern wall, or just cut off their oil?

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    11. Look it's hard to defend Trump. I'm just trying to keep the thread going.

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    12. My birthday today. Queen Elisabeth II and me. She is
      quite a bit older and very much more royal, but I'm
      expecting a card. My first e-mail this AM was from
      my wife's cousin in Zurich, where among other Swiss
      news we report and quote-
      "They brought their friend Kathy from New York along, an extremely friendly and outgoing lady of 66. She lives right on the west side of Central Park and said that her tiny apartment fits twice in our living room. Inevitably, we discussed the new president, who she denies to call by his name or even honour him with the term “president”……..she only talks of “45”. She reported having participated at the “not our president” walk, where a latino man confronted her, demanding this demonstration had to stop and claiming “he (45J) has done a lot for me”. They shouted back and forth, and when she finally shouted back: “So, what HAS he done for you?” he replied: “He has PROMISED me a job”. Well, let’s all promise the world the moon, that should doo, right?" Meanwhile 45 signed
      3 more executive orders, initiating his yuuuuge TrickleDown initiative. Yep, they are still calling
      Obama the 'Imperial President' for HIS executive orders. Tis like watching a kindergarten without a
      teacher.

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    13. Been a lot of criticism of rioting at town hall meetings by
      GOP politicians these days. As if the voters (at least the ones unblinded by crap) don't know that the technique was invented and engineered by the
      Breitbart types was the process that got them elected to replace Democrats. Politics is like
      nuclear war in pre-school.

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    14. The Queen Mum's biggest decision every day is that the color of her bonnet has to match her dress.

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    15. She's overpaid. But better than Henry VIII

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    16. Today she wore a lime green hat to match her lime green dress. Also better than Prince Charles.

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    17. Shy Di. Now there was my kind of royalty.



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    18. Read somewhere that Elisabeth's claim to the throne
      was based on being 1/622 Stuart. Aren't we all?

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    19. The Diana conspiracies. Any thoughts?

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    20. A fairy tale gone wrong? A free spirit in the web
      of royalty and empire, Bride of Chucky and grew unhappy, depressed even. A princess by default. Chasing around and then car crash. Are there conspiracies?

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  27. Rumor that Crosby, Stills & Nash retired. Replaced by the
    new grunge group Cosby, Weiner and O'Reilly.

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  28. What's going on at FoxNews? They have been firing all
    the molesters. Apparently Hannity is not a pervert?

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  29. Talk Radio-
    I've never listened, my truck radio being tuned to NPR classical music when I drive down the hill for breakfast at
    5AM. But I ran across some stats on listeners that are sort of interesting:
    NPR Morning edition 14.7 million listeners a week
    NPR All Things Considered 14.5 million
    Rush Limbaugh Premier Net 13.25 million
    Sean Hannity Premier Net 12.5 million
    ...from which I conclude that listeners are about equally split, as is the electorate.
    ...and, no wonder the GOP is eager to cut funding to Public
    Broadcasting.
    I used to listen to radio when crossing the mountains and great plains by myself. It was mostly country and local. One
    time in a long boring stretch, I caught the radio station in the isolated town of Baker, MT. Got interested, as every
    five minutes or so, they advised us listeners the the 'Hospital Report' would be coming on the hour. Curious,
    I wondered if it was Mr. 'Glicken was kicked by a steer',
    'A new baby wss born' or 'Widow Schmidlap, 98, passed away.
    Pretty fascinating, considering the drive, right? Then,
    right on the hour, a young woman came on loud and clear:
    "Today's Hospital Report is brought to you by Lefstad's Seed and Feed. There were no admissions today and no releases. Stay tuned for the Hospital Report wrap up".
    I turned it off, lit my pipe and scanned the interstate for a car somewhere.

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