THE NEW DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY

Donald Trump met with President Joe Biden at the White House today. Four years ago, Trump was the first president in a long time not to have invited the incoming president.,,,Biden. Worse, Trump did not bother to show up for Joe's Inauguration, the first absentee outgoing president to do this since Andrew Johnson's skipped Ulysses Grant's 1869 swearing-in ceremony. Apparently all went well today.

Senate Republicans voted on their new majority leader and picked John Thune of South Dakota. John Cornyn of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida also ran. Mitch McConnell was the longest serving leader in Senate history. Scott was the only MAGA endorsed candidate, so Thune might not be what Trump will desire.

One significant change to be instituted by the re-elected President Donald Trump will be to create at least one new department to allow for only true loyalists to serve in his bureaucracy. This new one will be called the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by two billionaires, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The president has authority to do this, with limited oversight from Congress. But both houses will be Republican-controlled, so Trump will essentially go ahead and do whatever he wants.

Note that dog above. This is a Shiba Inu, a Japanese hunting dog. Doge is the acronym for the Department Of Government Efficiency, and also an internet meme of a Shiba Inu. Kabosu, a Shiba Inu dog, became famous through a blog site. Read the story of how dog was intentionally misspelled to doge, and how it became associated with Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency. Kabosu passed away in May of this year at the age of 18.

While the 53-year old Musk is the richest person in the world with a net worth of $263.8 billion, 39-year old Ramaswamy is only barely a billionaire. When Ramaswamy ran as a presidential candidate, he pledged to eliminate the FBI, Department of Education and Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Well, back to our 31st day on the Norwegian Encore. Some photos, beginning with an earlier lunch on Day 29.

Dinner of Samosa, followed by a steak.

Walked 3134 steps on Day 29.

Day 30 at sea. Lunch

Dinner of shrimp, ziti, salad and pork scaloppini.

On to the Social Club for a 50's-60's hop.

Good walk day of 4853 steps.

Day 31 arrival and departure from La Coruna, Spain.

Lunch.

Soon after lunch, departure at 4PM. From our veranda, some photos. It was chilly.

Tomorrow, at-sea.

There are four ocean storms around the Philippines. The two more serious ones attained hurricane strength today. Typhoon Usagi already is already up to a Category 3 at 130 MPH. The track will skirt the north side of the country, then head for Taiwan.

Tropical Storm Man-Yi has been slowly heading towards the Philippines. However, Typhoon Man-Yi will tomorrow reach Category 2 strength, making landfall over the Philippines on Saturday, passing north of Manila, then head for China.

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These a...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

THE FIRST 84 YEARS OF MY LIFE

The first half of my life was spent preparing myself for my final 42 years. This was a mostly trying and stressful period involving a less than ideal youth, then struggles to get through school, my first few jobs and accompanying life, ending two months later on a Sunday with Part 15E , so it was a spiritual conclusion to my final transition. I never did count the number of actual postings, but I suspect it was around 25 parts. The ending had to do with golf, the disappearance and re-appearance of an 8-iron cover. That was the final clue to whether the beyond after death would be eternal gloom or Heaven. Today, I provide only one transition, but hint about a final one, for this, after all, is Sunday. I'm 84 years old, so let me summarize what happened during the first phase, from 0-42, and follow with the years 42-84. As this is 2024, that key transition year was 1982. I can't seem to find this photo, but as a one-year old baby, I was fat....

Search This Blog