The weather here in South Korea has finally warmed up a bit. We're supposed to hit the low 60s today. That means hot weather is just around the corner and it was miserably hot and humid here last summer. There's nothing I can do about it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
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Baseball season has started and the Astros are playing about like I expected--they lost their first 5 games before they finally won one. They may have the worst team in baseball, though their first six games were against the Phillies and Reds on the road. Those are two of the best teams in the league. The Rangers have started out well. Of the two Texas teams, they are the only one with much chance of having a decent year. I'll comment on baseball occasionally, but it's not a high priority
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In the news, there's still talk of a government shutdown if there's no budget deal. Shame on the Republicans for demanding a government budget! The Democrats have done a marvelous job the past two years in running up huge deficits without one. The Dems are threatening to shut down the government if a rider is attached to it extending funding to the Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan conflicts, but they are insistent that Planned Parenthood (i.e., abortions) be funded. The Democrats are calling it a "women's health" issure. So American babies can be killed, but our military can't be funded. You've gotta love (pardon my facetiousness) how utterly immoral and amoral the Democratic Party has become. I hope the government IS shut down, and for as long as possible. Those people in Washington, D.C., are the ones destroying America. Go home Congress, and stay there, and let the people take care of themselves. Even the welfare junkies will do it if they have to. That's the way it's supposed to be. In early America, Congress met for maybe 3 or 4 months a year and then the members went home to make a living. What a novel concept.
Addendum (later in the day): About two hours after I wrote the above paragraph, a budget deal was announced. It is to supposed to cut $38 billion from the budget this year and $500 billion over the next 10 years.
I think it's worth noting that it's the Republicans (and the "Tea Party") who forced this to be done.
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Donald Trump has been vocal about pressing Obama for his American birth certificate. Hawaiian authorities say Obama was born there, but they've produced no birth certificate as proof. The governor of Hawaii (a friend of Obama's) says Obama was born there, but he's produced no birth certificate, either. The President and his wife have both said, publicly, that he was born in Kenya. The Kenyans certainly think so. I don't know where the man was born and I don't really care. Neither he nor Congress have paid the least bit of attention to the Constitution anyway, so why should they bother with where he was born? And such ignoring of the supreme law of the land didn't start with Obama and the current bunch of rogues in Washington. The U.S. Constitution has been a dead letter for a long time. Trump has talked about running for President next year. He says he'll announce his decision soon. Even though he has no politcal experience, he certainly couldn't do any worse, domestically, than Obama and the professional politicians who keep getting elected to Congress. Trump might be a welcome change since it's the politicians who are destroying the country. The area of concern with Trump is his lack of foreign affairs experience. He's going to be dealing with a lot of rogues out there, and that would be a challenge. But, again, he couldn't do worse than Obama who is utterly clueless in how to handle world affairs. We ought to mind our own business, anyway, and involve ourselves only in those matters that directly affect us. That ain't gonna happen, though. Today's American politician thinks he can remake America, so it's only one more step to believing he can remake the world. That's the arrogance and philosophy of the modern secular elite.
Trump DOES know how to meet a budget; he would never have gotten where he is otherwise. Perhaps that's the best argument for electing him. Private business must make ends meet or they go out of the business. That's the difference between private enterprise and government. The government can simply borrow, raise taxes, or print more money. There is no accountability except to voters whose votes you are trying to buy...via borrowing, raising (someone else's) taxes, or printing more money.
Too bad government can't go out of business and turn its affairs over to some entity that can effectively handle them without fleecing the very people trying to be helped. Most of what government does COULD be turned over to some other agency, and be handled far more effectively. But that's not the way to remain in power and try to reshape society upon one's own vision of Shangri-la.
If the U.S. government HAD shut down, it would have been reduced mostly to doing the things government is supposed to do--protecting its people. Too bad they worked out a deal.