For those of you that are interested. Spread the word.

In a previous post I mentioned that the Japanese PM had acquired a taste for SKIPPY (brand specific) peanut butter and I am going to send her a jar.

Someone asked me for contact information. 

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi
1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8914, Japan.

I just thought of something. Maybe we can get something rolling. Spread the word and see if we can get a few more people to do this.

Maybe we can get something rolling. Spread the word.

If nothing else the Japanese security weenies will go nuts. 

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The fastest form of communication is Rumor Control.

Back in the 90s sometime the subject of rumor control was being discussed by a couple of us in tha parking lot before crew change. 

Alvin, John and I were talking about it. John and I were old salts. Alvin was sort of a newbie. John and I decided to show Alvin how well it worked. We made up a rumor and decided to spread it to see how fast it made the rounds.

The rumor was a corker. 'All barges are going to be issued sextants and navigation tools and all tankermen are being sent to the six week celestial navigation course at Piney Point.' 

The alleged reason was so anchored barge crews could check and see if their anchor was dragging.

Never mind the fact that celestial navigation isn't all that accurate. Few tankerman know anything about it.

The three of us set our watches as this was pre-cell phone. Most of us didn't have one then because they were terribly expensive. Tugs and barges did have fixed cell phones installed.

They were supposedly for official use only but like a lot of things that got stretched.

John, headed to New York Harbor, would start the rumor at exactly 1300. Alvin and I would log the time it got to us via the jungle telegraph. John would log when it got back to him which would cover his ass because he could now honestly say he had heard the rumor from someone else. There really was no way the office could trace it back to anyone.

At 1304 the barge cell phone rang and sure enough, the rumor was in full swing. By about 1308 people started calling their port captains asking "What's this $hit I heard about having to go to school at Piney Point for six weeks?"

By 1309 people had started calling their reliefs and passing the word. There were people at home that were living in places like Idaho.

About the only one of us that didn't get the word was Jimmy Beardsley because he was incommunicado because he had taken his family to see the Grand Canyon or Yellowstone or some damned thing and was out in space somewhere.

A couple of days later the tugs all got faxes denying everything which was really too late because the rumor died about as fast as it started. When the office denied it early on Rumor Control spread the denial almost instantly.

The next time I ran into Alvin he told me he was astonished. I told him to keep everything under his hat because if the office ever got wind of who started this there would be hell to pay. I didn't have to tell him twice.

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Trump's Pearl Harbor comment to the Japanese reporter

could probably be described as being so tasteless it was tasteful.

Fact it it was hilarious and the Japanese PM had a hard time keeping it together..

Time has passed and of the original 16.4 million American participants the estimate is that under 45,000 are still alive. The median age is about 98 years old. Estimates are that by 2030 under 8000 will be alive. For the Japanese the estimates are now under 1000. Don't ask me why this is. I believe about 7 million Japanese served.

The war has been long over and with the participants gone healing is pretty much complete.  

As a kid I brought home some anti German/Japanese things from school and my father sat me down and told me the war was long over and pointed out that the Axis military people were no different than our GIs. None of them wanted to be there. They just wanted to go home, marry the girl of their dreams and raise a few kids.

He also pointed out to me that a German that had gotten taken prisoner in North Africa and was sent to a stateside PW camp lived nearby. He had decided shortly after repatriation to Germany to move to the States because he saw it as a land of opportunity. IIRC his kids were a bit younger than me so I never hung out with them.

I'm reasonably sure that Sanae Takaichi, the Japanese Prime Minister took little or no offense to President Trump's comments whatsoever. From what I have seen she likes Americans.

In 1928 a (then) Japanese captain named Tadimichi Kuribayashi came to the States as a student/attache and lived here for about two years. He made many American friends. Kuribayashi is best known for his incredible defense of the Island of Iwo Jima. From what I have read about this man he's my favorite WW2 personality that I would want to have dinner and drinks with.

PM Takaichi has something in common with Kuribayashi. She, too spent two years in the States. She lived here working for a Colorado representative on a modest stipend and reportedly acquired a taste for Skippy peanut butter. I'm sure she knows how we are and much like Kuribayashi generally likes us. She broke both Japanese and American protocol when the President met her at the White House door. She neither bowed not took his offered hand. Instead she charged up to him and gave him a big hug. 

That tells me she know Americans when she abandoned protocol.

It would be interesting to find out what the general Japanese population thought about their PM breaking protocol. It would also be interesting to see what the average Japanese citizen thinks over his comment.

As for PM Takaichi, she obviously thought something was outright hilarious but tried to hide it. The question is what she found funny. Personally my best guess is she got hit with a double whammy. Still, I don't think she was so much amused with Trump's comment as she was watching the Japanese reporter ask a stupid question and get brought up short by President Trump. I'm sure she's more than aware that the President is a bull in a China shop and not too surprised to see him to give an answer like that.

I instinctively like that woman. I think I'll mail her a jar of Skippy peanut butter.   

  

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Circa 1970. Buying beer in New Hampshire on Sunday.

before MA repealed some of the Blue Laws in 2004.

From where I lived the NH border was about 2.5 hours, about 140 miles but gas was 19.9 cents a gallon at the Quincy Oil station the next town over. Five buck would pay for gas with some left over. a six pack was about $1.25. 

About 0930 I got a call from one of my running partners. "Hey! Let's go to NH and buy beer!"

Cool! The fact that I was as sick as a dog from Saturday night had nothing to do with it. we were going to NH to buy beer on Sunday. It was flouting a stupid MA law that made it interesting.

The state of NH had and still does have a monopoly on hard liquor sales but smaller stores sold beer. Most NH state liquor stores are on highways and there's one on I-95 just across the border. Back then the MA State police would often have an unmarked car sitting there recording license plate numbers of MA vehicles and would radio them in so the State Police could bust you for smuggling NH beer into MA. It was somewhat of a joke and one time I had been stopped and tossed. 

The whole thing was pretty much MA at it's finest. They had detailed the State Police to enforce Sunday beer smuggling. What was funny about it is that local cops along the border probably did this routinely if they had a Sunday off and wanted a beer. 

The tossing had been cursory as they were looking for a case or maybe a couple of six-packs. For some reason they didn't look under the spare where there was a GIQ, a Giant Imperial Quart. Still, it scared me into taking other action for future runs.

For you youngsters, a GIQ was the precursor to todays 40. It held 38.4 ounces.  

The run that comes to mind was pretty slick. we hadn't been caught and had no intention of spoiling a perfect record. Needless to say we avoided state stores not only because of the State Police parking there and writing down license tag numbers but because we were minors.

The state store checked IDs carefully. Of course this was well before the time of laminated picture IDs. They still issued cards. I had one I had scored at a U. Mass dorm for about $2 that was absolutely perfect. I scuffed it up by carrying it in a separate section of my wallet and actually had a fear of handing it to a cop if I was ever stopped because it was that good.

On top of that in the trunk I had a set of CA license plates scored when someone from CA moved into the neighborhood and had registered their car in MA. 

The whole thing wasn't really about the beer itself but telling the state go go to hell. Blue laws were a stupid leftover from about the time of the Pilgrims and had just been carried over. They made no sense and therefore were to be flouted. 

Anyway, the run I recall was simple. I drove. I snagged my friend and we took off after a quick refueling at the Quincy station filling the tank with Red Hat, the subgrade that ran pretty good in slant and inline 6 cylinder engines of the time. 

We wound through the side roads, grabbed the expressway and started north, connecting to I-95. The rhythm of the road felt good underneath us as the old crapcan Dodge hummed along. There was something about a Slant Six engine. They really were a good engine for the time.

We crossed the state line and shortly we saw the state liquor store and pulled in for a reconnoiter. Business was fairly slow and we only saw a couple of out of state vehicles, only one from MA and the driver's seat was empty. Most likely it was a guy inside buying a jug and his wife was sitting there. She looked fairly old IIRC. 

I saw no sign of a MA Statie looking around. We drove out and continued up I-95 for a short piece and got off the Interstate. 

In short order we saw a general store, predecessor to today's convenience stores with a Carling Black Label beer neon sign so we went down thee road about a half mile and covered our plates with CA plates, went back to the store and I bought a couple of GIQs and a big bag of ice. He didn't even ask for my license.

The GIQs went into a galvanized steel pail and were covered with ice  and wedged into the trunk in a way it would not tip over. There was already a hole in the trunk floor that was a drain from previous mishaps. Back in the day a serviceable automobile could be purchased for $50 or less, sometimes even gotten for free. Knocking a drain in the trunk was no big thing. The next place the car was likely to wind up was the boneyard. 

We pulled out of the general store and drove a quarter mile towards the Interstate and stopped. The CA plates went into the trunk and we were off and running for home. Actually it was more of a nice cruise. IIRC it was October and the leaves were turning so for a while we got off the Interstate and enjoyed the fall colors before going back into I-95. 

We then retraced our steps and as the sun was setting we enjoyed the fruits of our efforts as we swilled down a GIQ apiece in the early darkness of fall.

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This country could use an AMERICAN Foreign Legion

as a pathway to citizenship. 

Six years+ Honorable discharge=full citizenship. 

Plus a full GI bill and in-service educational opportunities. 

Legal entry required, no Green Cards necessary. Entry to the states for the purpose of enlistment permitted, however if you don't qualify you get returned to your home country. I'd also allow illegals to enlist. OTOH if they don't qualify they get handed over to ICE who POLITELY returns them to where they came from.

Maybe out embassies overseas could serve as a screening point. A couple of trained embassy Marines could administer the various pre enlistment tests.

Upon completion of the six years they are eligible to reenlist if they so desire to continue with a military career. Same benefits, rights and responsibilities as regular troops. Hell, they could even transfer to regular military units.

One more thing, a distinctive uniform badge of some sort akin to the French Foreign Legion's distinctive Kepi Blanc. It would give them a source of pride for both members and our citizenry. We could refer to them as apprentice 'citizens'.

One thing about these people is that if they wanted to come from overseas to enlist they should go to the head of the line. They could bypass the waiting lines that extend to up to 20+ years.

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MREs.

I just bought a case so I can toss a couple in my two vehicles as insurance in case I get stuck somewhere or just want to eat fast and run.

I've had limited experience with them in the past and over the years I've stuffed a couple of Hormel Compleats in the bag while traveling. They are rarely eaten but the couple of times I have made me glad I planned ahead for things.  If I am not mistaken the last time was probably J6 in DYW airport after a long delay in my flight home.

Anyway most things of that nature I have eaten cold. 

MREs now come with a flameless heater and I decided to try that out a couple of weeks ago and it really is a game changer of sorts. The heater, although it takes time, turns a bland cold dish into a halfway decent meal although like military field rations everywhere you don't want to live on them for long periods of time.

I guess what made me think of this is that the usual suspects are raising hell over Pete Hegseth feeding the troops a surf and turf meal which has been done for decades.   

As far as feeding the troops goes, I'm like a tug skipper I knew. He said he didn't worry about going over budget. He looked at the trash can. "I look at the trash can. If there's not a lot of food waste in it I don't worry because I know they're eating it."

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One of my favorite airplane stories was back in the day

On February 4, 1969 an eastern Airlines flight from Newark to Miami was hijacked and the pilot was ordered to land in Cuba.

Only one passenger and the entire aircrew was in the least nervous. 

The passenger's name was Alan Funt.

People were cheerful and laughing at the hijacker and nobody realized they were in any danger at all until the airplane landed in Havana.

Funt had been recognized by some of the passengers and spread word. The entire plane thought they were part of Funt's TV show, Candid Camera. 

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Using the exception to prove the rule.

Like the poor 97 year old deaf, dumb and blind woman that has no arms and only one leg and lives in a mud hut atop a mountain that's 123 miles from the nearest town. She can't even get a job because the nearest IHOP is 426 miles away. 

How is she going to register to vote?

It's not fair!

My answer to someone that was using that excuse over the SAVE act was to tell the Democrats she wants to vote Republican. That way they'll travel all the way up to her mud hut, put her in a wheelchair and roll her off a cliff.

Problem solved.

I don't know why woman and minorities allow themselves to be insulted by Democrats claiming that if SAVE is enacted they won't be able to register to vote.

Update before I posted this:

https://x.com/ForecasterEnten/status/2018727149050741020?fbclid=IwY2xjawQgOrpleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEenVJCJyKdx-vrcjcys8pkL0MzRzGiHVYC_LPLNEn-2Jb0fv7VdvS9PP17U3g_aem_qfyyldg98JoYTsPi0zGLaw 

a CNN poll of all things.

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Another quick fix.

When activists glue their hands to the pavement there are two choices.

If traffic can easily be detoured then reroute it. Leave them there glued to the pavement and allow their supporter to bring them food and water. After about a week of having to deal with the elements and calls of nature and sitting in their own waste for about a week they are not likely to try that stunt again.

Of course if detour is not an option than grabbing their forearm and giving a hard quick jerk and carting them to jail should discourage them from further stupidity.

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It's coming soon to PA.

Eventually Democrats will own the PA government.

When that happens laws will be enacted here prohibiting the possession of certain classes of firearms. NY, MA, IL, MD, CY and a few other places already have much in place banning classes of firearms and from what I have managed to gather compliance is still running in single digits and in NJ there has been an increase in the number of fully automatic rifles the police have been picking up. 

The NJ increase makes sense in that if semi autos are illegal, one might just as well go whole hog and do it right.

It's unconstitutional and they can kiss my a$$.

All it is going to do is start a new class of felons. 

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