Rant #3,671: I'm On the Outside Looking In

What has happened to our country?

And by the way, the Republicans and the Democrats are unified in finding new ways to destroy the United States of America.

But today, after the Democratic fillibuster--or whatever that idiotic display was--let's focus on the Republicans, and squarely on our president, Donald Trump.

I posted this on Facebook yesterday, and it pretty much speaks for itself.

"There go my wife and my retirement savings.

These tariffs are killing the stock market, and taking away everything the two of us worked hsrd for for decades.

Tough times for people like us, at least short term, until the market rejiggers itself. Who knows when that will be, if ever.

But everything we have gained, we have now lost.

There are only so many hard times we can endure.

The idea is a good one--to boost U.S. manufacturing--but this is NOT the way to do it, on the backs of people like us.

Are you listening, Mr. President?"

Disgraceful. Totally disgraceful.

And I wasn't quite done yet.

"The Dow dropped 1,200 points. Last month, my wife and I lost quite a bit of money in the market, and now this. We aren't wealthy, so it is a huge hit for us."

It was the worst day in five years, and whatever "gains" our country experiences, if any, will take years to realize.

And I had plenty more to say.

"The president said on his social media site, "The operation is over. The patient lived, and is healing. The prognosis is that the patient will be far stronger, bigger, better, and more resilient than ever before.'"

Time shall tell, but right now, my wife and I aren't too happy."

And I summed it all up with this last missive.

"They are great fears. We are barely managing as it is. We have cut lots of corners to even get to that point, but there are just so many corners you can cut before there is absolutely nothing to cut anymore.

And where are we with the president's pledge to rescind Social Security taxes?

The honeymoon, I'm afraid, is over."

Wall Street is one thing, but all of this stuff is hurting the general population on Main Street.

Whatever buying power we have is totally negated when everything costs so much more than it did a year ago.

And you just know that the cost of all of these tarrifs is going to be passed down to you and I, the general consumer who can't afford much anymore with what little money we have.

Yes, I do get a pittance from Social Security, but let's be honest about my salary; I am making maybe one-third of what I should be making at this point in time from my remote job compared to if I was working full time.

Both my wife and I are supposedly retirees, me not by choice. My wife is forced to work, I am forced to work, and we are probably going to have to work until we expire.

My son can't find a job doing anything, and what is a family like us supposed to do?

Again, what the president wants to do is not a bad idea, but what he is doing to reach his goal is destroying our international friendships, making us appear to be tyrannical, and is destroying the backbone of ths country--

The middle class.

If this type of direction goes on any longer, that class will not exist anymore--

There will be the "haves" and the "have nots," and most people will be in the latter category.

And that's just not right.

Have a good weekend, and I will speak to you again on Monday.

Rant #3,670: Some Like It Hot

It's Earth Month!

Everyone complains about the weather, and I certainly do.

It is certainly the craziest during the spring, when temperatures can range from the high 20s to the low 80s overnight.

We had a day like that last week, when one day, it was in the 80s and the next day was in the 30s.

People went from shorts and then right back to winter jackets in one fell swoop.

Yesterday, it was in the 40s, and as busy as I was, I still felt it, having the heat on in the car for at least part of the time that I drove from here to there.

Mother Nature has it all on us, and we can't control the weather--

We can just experience it, and do the best that we can.

Some people believe that moving south is the solution, but that isn't necessarily true.

And if it isn't the weather, you have hurricanes and other weather disturbances in Florida and other southern states to contend with.

For me, the south is a nice place to visit, but I don't know if it is a place where I want to live full time.

There are plusses, and there are certainly minuses when you compare the north with the south.

On a post that spoke about the crazy weather we have experienced in the winter and the spring this year, some of the posters put up that they want to move south to experience more warmth.

Yes, I have been in Florida and Georgia many times since 1975, and yes, during those 50 years, I have enjoyed the heat like anyone would.

But the first time I went to Florida, in 1975 or so, I did not feel the heat at all.

Here is what I wrote:

"My first trip to Florida was in 1975, and that was the Spring Break where for the first time, temperatures in Miami Beach reached only 32 degrees.

My friends and I were in a room with air conditioning that you could not shut off, and we put towels over the air conditioning and slept in our winter jackets.

All the coconuts froze up, so you couldn't even get one that was good without a lot of trouble. 

It did warm up, but I think over that week, we went to the beach maybe once or twice."

Shiver me timbers!

And that happened a half century ago, when the term "climate change" wasn't even around.

Look, before you know it, it will be plenty warm up in the north, so we just have to bide our time and wait for that to happen.

At least let's be happy that we didn't get too much snow this past season.

I think that threat is over, but Mother Nature generally doesn't care what the date is--

And she may still have an April Fools surprise for us up her sleeve.

Rant #3,669: Don't Breathe a Word

Yesterday was an extremely busy day, and today will be even busier.

I have several things related to employment that I have to do with my son, and I have a ton of other things to do, including work.

I am really busy for another reason, but you will just have to wait a couple of days before I let you in on that.

Don't breathe a word ... but you can't, because you don't know about it ... but if you figure it out, please don't say anything.

One hint: 

No, it has nothing to do with hair suddenly sprouting on my decsdes-long bald head.

That is all you are going to get from me.

But it is all good.

Otherwise, not much has changed with my family and myself, only that I am another day closer to my birthday on April 28.

Twenty-six days, and I finally catch up with my wife in age.

Pretty neat being the young-un here ...

But not really, because our son isn't even 30 yet!

His turn comes in August.

We have to do something special for him, but we haven't decided on anything yet.

I don't remember what I did on my own 30th birthday.

That was way back in 1987; it seems like it happened another life ago, and for me, that is just what it was.

Heck, I wasn't even a father yet!

That is all I am going to say about it.

It is funny that as you get older, you can definitely break down your life in stages.

I will call that era "My Adult Training Wheels" stage, but it didn't last too long, and I was on a two-wheeler stage pretty quickly.

But fast forward to today, almost 38 years later.

And I am as busy as I have ever been.

I guess it is better to be busy than bored.

Rant #3,668: Damn the Torpedoes

Torpedo bats.

April Fools!

No it isn't.

This is the latest, real controversy revolving around Major League Baseball, and it is just a tempest in a teapot.

On Opening Day weekend, the New York Yankees not only bear the visiting Milwaukee Brewers, they nearly obliterated them off the face if the earth.

The Yankees hit a total of 15 home runs during the three games, with four by Aaron Judge alone, including three on Saturday.

I mean, they don't call them "The Bronx Bombers" for nothing, but some think there is much more to it than that.

They point to the bats that some of them used, which are shaped a little bit differently than other bats.

The shape of the bats was supposedly created by individualized information gleaned by the team's analytics department about where certain batters are more likely to hit the ball on their bats.

Each of these bats is a little thicker around that area, and the theory is that if it is thicker, the ball will propel harder off each batter's individual sweet spot.

Not all players are using these bats; Aaron Judge, who hit 58 homers last season, isn't, but Jazz Chisholm, who hit three Homer's this past weekend, is.

So you just know some players believe the team is cheating--

But MLB has quashed that talk, saying the bats are 100 percent legal due to its rule book.

One player from the Brewers said that since it is the Yankees who have benefited from their use of these bats, MLB is letting it go because, "They are The Yankees."

All nonsense.

Maybe the Brewers' pitching staff is really that bad.

Maybe the weather had a lot to do with it, as it was very warm in the Bronx this past Daturday afternoon, the wind was blowing out, and the Yankees were facing their former pitcher, Nestor Cortes, so they were very familiar with his stuff.

That day, they hit nine homers, which isn't a record, bu the way.

All of this probably contributed to the weekend outburst, and maybe the bats had something to do with it.

Other teams are probably a bit jealous thst the Yankees one-upped them and used modern technology to design a bat that can pummel 90-100-mph pitches.

Funny, two points that have to be taken into account, but aren't:

1) The Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton used a variation of this type of bst during the 2024 postseason and World Series, and,

2) The bat was actually at least partially designed by soneone linked to the Florida Marlins' coaching staff ... yes, the same team that is traditionally one of the worst teams in the sport.

So the Yankees were just onto this quicker than other teams, and other teams' players--including the New York Mets' Francisco Lindor--already use the bat (he is still looking at his first hit of the 2025 season, through the first three games).

You just know that other teams will now jump on this bandwagon, and you just know that when one of the users goes 0 for 5 in a game, he will bemoan the moment he tried the new bat.

And that's baseball.