As I sit down this morning to put fingers to keyboard, my heart is heavy. Our Country, whom you and I fought to preserve Democracy for, now indulges in a free-for-all of anger and retribution. Internecine warfare is even rending families into two camps of thought. The level of vitriol, which was already at a fever pitch, continues to grow in intensity. How sad.

America was once a shining star in an International sea of mediocrity. America was once the Land of Dreams where you could be all you wanted to be. Sam Walton and Bill Gates epitomized the budding potential in every American. Somewhere along the line, we succumbed to a different metric- one where we’re all victims of race, prosperity, job discrimination, sexism, ad nauseum. I never thought I would live long enough to see two people of the same sex marry legally. That is not to say I oppose it but the incongruity of it is glaring. You don’t see two male robins or bluebirds build a nest together. I don’t need to drown you in further analogies so I’ll refrain.

I never expected to see a law enacted that would allow a boy to legitimately enter a girl’s bathroom because he perceived himself more ‘feminine’ than masculine. Again, I do not dispute the logic. I merely find it a non sequitur. If certain of us feel trapped in the wrong body, the repair order is to provide another ‘unisex’ bathroom for their privacy. The 2016 politically correct idiot’s delight repair order is somehow to ask the female populace to acquiesce to this and allow males in-or vice versa for women who feel equally that they are really a male. I would give my eye teeth to see a woman so inclined use a urinal.

I never expected I’d have to choose between two chowderheads for President-neither of which is qualified in the least for the job. I discount the third party candidates as they have no possibility of winning regardless of their qualifications. Notwithstanding the poor choices this election season, I never thought I would ever ‘unfollow’ or cease the newsfeed of someone who chooses to hang all manner of tripe on my Facebook page thus trying to imply that I subscribe to their beliefs. One of my strongest beliefs above and beyond the sanctity of human life is free speech. As many as come to my blog site with contrary opinions, I fervently uphold their right to speak and to embrace opinions contrary to mine. I incorporate that as “You have the right to remain stupid”.

Several weeks ago, I got into a donnybrook with a friend about the white moisture that congeals in the atmosphere above 20,000 feet behind jet engines. Having served in the Air Force and witnessed condensation trails from extremely close up, I’m very familiar with the phenomenon. In addition, having been an Air Force brat from 1951 on until my induction in 1969, I saw it at Air Force Thunderbird demonstrations as well. It’s fairly easy to see the difference between air foil-induced condensation trails off the wings of an aircraft  and smoke or herbicides sprayed from aircraft. I watched a Pilatus Porter PC-6 make spraying passes with Agent Orange/Blue on Lima Sites to kill unwanted vegetation growing in the path of extremely short landing strips in 1970. Often it was impossible to reach these places to spray by hand. The product fell instantly and was not a white cloud. It looked mostly like rain in the distance and didn’t stay suspended in the air for more than a minute. Likewise, motor oil injected directly into the exhaust of an F-100 Super Sabre looked like a product of a fire. It occurred only at the low altitudes where the planes performed and dissipated in short order.

Mostly, an argument that what we see as condensation contrails-as opposed to some nefarious plan to hose us (or kill us)  with mind controlling “chemtrails” fails for any number of reasons. To begin with, any chemical capable of this would have to be dumped in quantities that would preclude passenger travel in the aircraft involved in it. Aircraft have X amount of lift based on size, engine thrust, cargo and passenger weight at takeoff et cetera. C-123s used in Vietnam for Ranchhand spraying had no passenger seats. The entire aircraft was a series of tanks and compressors. If they were used to spray with meaningfully, they would need to be 3,000 feet above us- not 30,000. Spraying western Washington state at 30,000 feet will result in it landing in Ohio. Oddly, the only contrails we do see seem to occur directly behind the engines.  Spraying any product other than kerosene directly into a jet engine would cause it to flame out as well as changing the chemical composition of the ingredients to charcoal. Lastly, there is the matter of physics and moisture at altitude where it’s -23 Fahrenheit outside. Spraying at 30,000 feet would result in frozen chemicals falling in a condensed pattern on a small area-hardly what the Tin Hat Brigade maintains is the preferred application technique.

In order to quell my friend’s fears, I offered to split the cost and take him to the airport for a flight to witness the phenomenon personally. This would him allow a complete inspection of the aircraft to ascertain they had removed all spraying gear and chemicals before we took off. Seemed like a fair way to settle it, n’cest pas?  Part of a valid scientific observation is the ability for anyone to reproduce it over and over again. The response I received was that I was extremely ignorant and unschooled in science and politics. His scientific proof was to “look up”.

Spoken recently “Most of my life, I’ve been a woman”

The similarity of ‘look up’ science seems to carry over into our quest for our next president. One school of thought is that we have to elect a candidate based entirely on her sex. We did that based on race the last time and all we have to show for it is “If you like your doctor, you get to keep your doctor.” Well, that and we get to keep about $7.4 trillion more in National Debt.

Another espouses ‘Make America Great Again’. Voting for either seems to be fraught with problems. He pulled the pony tails of the girl sitting in front of him in sixth grade? Well, hey. That shows blatant sexism and no respect for women…forever. Or whoa- that he engaged in locker room talk with another male in 2005- over eleven years ago. If folks were to go back to 1970 and witness me, I’m sure the takeaway would be that I was a serial killer and enjoyed frying gooks with napalm every chance I got. I did back then but that’s beside the point. Seasons change and so did I. A valid snapshot of a person must capture every facet and be current.

Our republican contender is many things but I suspect what comes out of his mouth is often the overload product from his ass. By the same token, what you do in life follows you. Last year, I became embroiled in a controversy about a certain Veterans Charity and how I felt they contributed very little (perhaps as paltry an amount as 50% or less) of their donations and paid themselves handsomely with the leftover largesse. Viewing the candidates, I note the progressive side began their own charity too and only manages to drop 5% or so on target- consuming the remaining 95% on “overhead”. Seems old Scott Pelley from CBS would have a field day with that the same way they’re examining the opposition’s tax returns and Trump University.

The bottom line is that no one is perfect in this business of life. America, as a nation, has always risen above this fracas and remained neutral… until now. No one can deny that the sitting President just advocated that illegal aliens here with no credentials are free to vote without fear of recrimination. In fact, he is flying hither and yon on Air Force One at $25,000 per hour to stump for a fellow candidate. Any and all security breeches by that one candidate were not intentional and using a private server was/is permissible because prior Secretaries of State did it. In a word, no one is ever guilty now because intent to harm America was not proved- yet America is being harmed irrevocably. Every new revelation of wrongdoing is countenanced by the opposing faction having already trespassed in the same arena.

I know something you don’t know

Until now, anyone who received questions to an exam prior to the testing day, was considered a cheater. That got a few folks kicked out of the Air Force Academy a few years ago. Witness the uproar over the SAT testing as well.We now have the same member of a party running for office who surreptitiously passed a Town Hall CNN question on to her contender/boss who used it to develop an answer in advance. Where is the umbrage? This is akin to plagiarism. Had this occurred  with a conservative candidate, they would have disqualified themselves in advance and unmasked the party responsible. This behavior speaks volumes about the character of someone running for high office. Anyone willing to cheat to win is unworthy of the position. Period. Anyone caught in the act should retire from the field promptly. I have yet to hear a mea culpa from the candidate.

I cast no stones in either glass house. Both are guilty of greed, narcissism, avarice, self-promotion and innumerable other sins that more than disqualify them. How we arrived here is immaterial. It bespeaks a harbinger of where America is headed. Greece and Rome are no longer world powers for similar reasons. When we find ourselves overwhelmed in refugees and cannot take care of our Veterans, we’re in deep doodoo. When we have our citizens in record numbers partaking of food stamps and paying them $1100 a month in SSI yet subsidizing incoming legal (as well as illegal) immigrants to the tune of $1,700 a month ( also with food stamps), we have reached the zenith of stupidity.

Sometimes, making America great involves husbanding our generosity. Sometimes, the realization of reality requires more than just “looking up” to understand that reality. Sometimes, if we’re being inundated in folks coming here for the free room and board, it requires tightening up the entry rules or locking the front door. If something is broken, you don’t leave it ‘as is’ and propose to study it for another ten years. Making America great is a job that requires all walks of life to contribute equally- and with clear, concise ideas. We’ve drowned ourselves in gun laws since President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963 and one look at 2016 Chicago reveals we failed. We do not enforce the laws on the books. Making it harder to get guns accomplishes little yet that is the proffered solution. Make the semiautomaatics with three-round clips? So they can only kill three people instead of 13? I guess the next suggestion would be producing six-shooters with only one chamber in the cylinder. Great for Russian Roulette. A kinder, gentler gun?

America is great right now only because more people care about it than are oblivious to the problem. On the day 50.01 percent of our population fails to give a shit, we are going to be on the road to oblivion. We’re fiddling and watching this bonfire gradually consume the most democratic free country on the planet. Is it anathema to point this eventuality out? Am I racist, sexist, pro 2nd Amendment or pro-life for illuminating the obvious. Am I inherently evil for being politically incorrect and telling the truth? Should I shut up, sit down and convince everyone to look up?

Veterans Day is fast approaching. I prefer to be one of the 21 million Veterans still vertical who love their country more than themselves. I don’t need a special day of recognition, a parade or six attaboys. I sure don’t need some chucklehead slapping me on the back and exclaiming “Welcome Home” forty four years late. Hold the yellow ribbons. Give me back sanity. Give me a world where we all view Flat Earth Society members for what they are- kooks-not as scientists with an alternative geographical theory entitled to recognition. Homeless Veterans are not “financially challenged.” They are deprived of a job mostly by their prior employment. There isn’t much demand for a SAW gunner at the Regional Office (or is there?).  If VA is such a large organization, job preference for all positions -not just those of VAMC janitors- must be viable career paths. We like to mouth the words “You have to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.” Many Afstan Vets are waiting for that conversation to commence. My generation of Vietnam Vets got laryngitis trying.

As I always try to remain politically neutral here at LZ Grambo, I advocate sanity-nothing more. It is said 70% of Veterans vote. I cannot presume to speak for how they will vote tomorrow but keeping my Country great is uppermost in my mind. Whomever succeeds in accomplishing that daunting task is not for any one person to decide. Let’s just hope the amalgam of all Americans makes the correct decision tomorrow. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Happy Veterans Day to all of my brothers and sisters.