Occupation of Independence

Let's indulge in a little wishful thinking, shall we? The killing and bombing taking place between Washington, DC and Iran does offer up a great opportunity to the Trump administration. He probably won't cash in on this opportunity, but he could. For the president to look tough during an election year, killing Soleimani is drastically more important than killing bin Laden by the Obama administration. Bin Laden was essentially a lame duck leader when he was killed. Soleimani was at the top of his game. Therefore Trump has secured his bragging rights. He could claim this represents closure or 'mission actually accomplished'.  There is another argument for 'mission accomplished': the USA was supposedly trying to bring self-government to the region. And now the parliament of Iraq has ordered the USA to leave. Shouldn't this be seen as a demonstration of a certain amount of success in bringing democratic self-government to Iraq? Therefore Trump could wit

It wasn't a rare experience I had the other day, so why write about it? Perhaps it was the element of surprise and the intensity. Believe it or not I was at the gasoline pump -- hardly the place you expect to have a 'religious experience.' I walked up to the 'office' to pre-pay for the gasoline. A young Mexican-American woman looked down at me, smiled, and I told her what I wanted. There was something about her youthful smile that almost made me fall over. (And yes, she was pretty.) I thought, "Well, the world will have to go on without me in a couple years. That's not so bad, I guess. As long as it keeps producing young lovelies like her. Let her have my place." And I got my gasoline and drove off, completely fortified for a new day.  dreamstime.com

I have never played the game of making predictions for the upcoming year, at least, not seriously.  But I suppose the big issue for 2020, other than the impeachment fracas, is whether Trump and the Israeli Lobby will finally succeed at getting a real war with Iran.  That is why I have no faith in predictions. How can you predict whether Americans "rally 'round the President" and he gets reelected, or whether they have become indifferent or even cynical about the latest war-cheerleading?  How many times in a row can the War Party trick the American public? It is not a crazy answer to say, "An unlimited number of times," as long as the television news feeds people a steady diet of the right sort. Another issue that is hard to predict is whether Middle Eastern people decide that a presidential election year is a good time to take American hostages of some kind. It certainly worked well 40 years ago. Usually a tactic doesn't work so well the second ti

I pined for a new trailer for years, did my homework, but then waited until I reached the age where you could withdraw funds from your IRA without paying an extra penalty. Since I bought a plain vanilla cargo trailer, and spent two months converting it into a real travel trailer, the experience seemed like quite a memorable adventure. In an analogous fashion, it is now time to buy a newer tow vehicle, since I have transitioned from ObamaCare to Medicare, and can forget about the loss of subsidy that would be caused by a spike in income. But will buying a new tow vehicle be fun or adventurous? I am having my doubts. I am not going to convert the tow vehicle -- I will just buy it. Doing mechanical work on a motor vehicle is my least favorite thing to do. If you were repainting a bedroom, you might make it more fun by at least changing the colors! But my newer tow vehicle will have to be a van, just like the old one. Nothing else makes any sense.  Truck-based SUVs are hardly avai

I wonder how many armchair travelers, stuck under grey skies in the north, look at the postcards put out by Arizona visitors, and immediately fall for the romantic escapism. It probably doesn't occur to them that the winter camper is indoors, in the dark, by 530 pm, and that it is dark until 7am. And what does that camper do for 13 hours of darkness in a little box where you can barely walk? At least at home, in a normal house, you could walk to the bathroom (or microwave oven) during television commercials. In an RV your butt is glued to a chair, or you are twisting or turning in bed, wishing that you could still sleep 10 hours a night. When you finally admit that you don't sleep like a youngster anymore, what do you do with all those hours of darkness? The nearby desert town probably closes shop at 6 pm. There is no social life when camping in the desert, unless you live where people are a bit non-transient, and you get a chance to know them. The easy answer is, "