We are on the Norwegian Encore from Miami to Southampton, UK, and will be at-sea for the next few days.  This gives me an opportunity to wonder how the USA got to the point where a convicted criminal, liar, misogynist and all-around lout, former president Donald Trump, has a 50-50 chance of getting re-elected tomorrow. About the voting public. Most of them have gone through our K-12 school system, which, in addition to academics, teaches you to be a good citizen, with some pride regarding our country.  Just about all states require students to daily recite the  Pledge of Allegiance .  Written by minister Francis Bellamy in 1892, it is short, simple and meaningful. I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This was adjusted in 1954 when President Dwight Eisenhower, concerned about the Communist threat, asked Congress to add "under God." I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Uni...

Well, the day finally came, for former president Donald Trump was arraigned in a Florida court, indicted, electronically fingerprinted, plead not guilty to everything, released, should get $2 million at a fundraiser and will  give a speech tonight  at 8:45PM EDT from his Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.  On what, who really knows.  But his judge has not limited what he can say. You can read the details  here .  Some might want to watch the analyses on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow and her cohorts at 8PM EDT. Here is my take: The court cases are getting more and more serious for Trump.  Sure, "stealing"  15 boxes  of  more than 300 ( 325, actually ) confidential files  and  11,000 records  from his office when he left the presidency was a concern.  Worse was his effort to defy the government which tried to get those papers back.  This was nothing like Biden and Pence embarrassingly returning mostly trivial infor...

  The   New York Times   had this bar graph of Republican candidates for the Presidential election next year. After all his legal problems and moral turpitude derangements, it defies any kind of sensibility for Donald Trump to still be supported by 45.6% of Republicans for the next President of the United States.   Then for Ron DeSantis to be the #1 second-tier hope, by a factor 5 over Mike Pence, because more and more party voters are beginning to be convinced that there are too many flaws for Trump to gain the presidential nomination in mid-July of 2024, places the party in a truly uncomfortable position.   I've long touted New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu as their best choice.   And what about  Liz Cheney ?  Republicans are afraid that she will run as an independent candidate with an attractive Veep partner, like Adam Kinziger.  Or perhaps a conventional Republic off-shoot party as an alternative to Donald Trump, if he ga...

Politics later.  I first start with something startling.   Hawaii is the best place in the world to watch the total eclipse of the Moon tonight . Starts at 10:02PM Hawaii time, turns blood red at 12:16PM, stays this dark reddish-copper color for 85 minutes, and ends at 3:46AM.  Duration:  5 hours, 42 minutes. And you can watch without wearing any safety glasses, which are required for solar eclipses. You would think that New York, which is now 5 hours ahead of Hawaii, would end at 8:36 AM when the sun would have been up for 2 hours.  But eclipses don't work that way.  For New York: Begins at 3:02 AM. Peaks at 5:59AM. Ends at 6:41AM, with the sun rising just before at 6:35AM Duration:  3 hours, 39 minutes. Thus, Hawaiians will see the whole lunar eclipse longer than anyone else. The next total eclipse will occur on 14March2025. No one won the  Powerball $1.6 billion  Saturday night. You needed to have white balls 28,45,53,56 and 69, plus ...