Where's the Outrage?

Mates, this post will be short.

You're probably supposed to be doing other things too.

Yesterday, when the president returned to the White House, this is what was found:

There is no indication in this photo that he even acknowledged the American flag lying on the ground.

Did he fire the guy responsible for the care and upkeep of the flags during the government shutdown? 

This from the "uber-patriotic" president that had two 100-foot tall flag poles installed on the White House grounds.

The president who "hugs" flags when he is near them.

He even kisses them!

 Ewwww!

Who knows where that mouth has been!?!

CAPTAIN'S NOTE: I'll bet Jeffrey Epstein did!

And yet he stalks on by as that ginormous flag lies on the ground!

So sad! 

CAPTAIN'S NOTE: Some have tried to argue that the wind from the helicopter's rotors knocked the flag down as it was landing. Photos prior to the landing prove that is not true.

Of course, it has been obvious to many of us that he, in fact, does not treasure the flag as he claims. 

MAGA, are you paying attention here? 

 

All the News That's Fit to Read

Mates, one of the reasons the Captain writes these posts is to document what is going on in the world and in my life.

With my memory as it is, I’ll need the extra help.

So today’s post will read more like “Headline News” than any deep commentary.

Although there might be a wee bit of that.

So, let’s cast off, shall we?

Let’s begin with some good news: elections were held last week in several states and Democrats swept the important ones!

Even some of the less-important ones.

This was a sign of great hope in the midst of an otherwise hopeless news cycle.

Of course, Trumpf claims the Republican losses were because he wasn’t on the ballot.

Oh, but Donald, you were on the ballot!

Each and every ballot!

*** 

In the quiet parts of the news, the U.S. military is building up an invasion force off the cost of Venezuela.

Now, one might ask, “What did Venezuela ever do to piss off the United States?”

Yer Captain has no idea.

He also wants to attack Nigeria because someone told him Muslims are killing Christians there.

The Nigerian president denies such claims.

Are we headed back to the Crusades? 

Seriously, Trumpf wants a war.

But it has to be one he can win.

Typical bully.

But at the same time, he is begging – literally begging – to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

In the meantime, he’s still blowing up boats in international waters, claiming they are drug boats headed for the U.S.

He doesn’t know that for sure.

The DOD has shown no proof.

Never mind that it would take numerous fueling stops before these boats ever reached the U.S.

BOOM!

Dead!

No arrests. No trial. No jury. The evidence lies at the bottom of the ocean.

He probably ejaculates just a little when he watches the military videos. 

The Captain only hopes that somebody is keeping count here for when the president stands trial.

*** 

Continuing in his habit of throwing around “Get Out of Jail Free” cards, this week Trumpf officially pardoned around two hundred people involved in his effort to overthrow the 2020 election. That includes Chesebro, Powell, and even Rudy Giuliani.

Remember Rudy? The guy who was mayor of New York on 9-11 and was hailed as “America’s Mayor” for his response to that crisis?

The same guy who staged a Trumpf Rally in front of the Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia thinking he had booked the Four Seasons Hotel?

Yep. That’s Rudy. Right there between a crematorium and an adult novelties shop.

*** 

This week SCOTUS refused to hear an effort to overturn the court’s 2015 decision, Obergefell v. Hodges, which protects the right to same-sex marriage. The former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, who claimed signing a marriage certificate for a same-sex marriage was against her “deeply held religious beliefs” and now her First Amendment religious rights, is still beating that drum.

She lost. Again.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: The Captain doesn’t know what religion she professes, seeing that she has been divorced three times and married four.

The Captain also doesn’t understand how someone’s “same-sex marriage” in any way degrades hetero-sex marriage.

Go figure.

*** 

Since at least July of this year, Trumpf has been assessing “tariffs” on anybody and everybody who does business with the U.S. His right to assess tariffs is currently before the Supreme Court, since such actions are assigned to Congress, not the president.

Regardless, the European Union is not having any of it.

Italian pasta makers, looking at a cumulative 107% tariff on their product (tariff plus “dumping” fee), just announced they will no longer be sending Italian pasta to the U.S.  

Since July and the onset of tariffs, rumors have circulated that the president plans to give a $2,000 bonus check to every American, using money from the tariffs – which he (wrongly) claims is coming in “by the Trillions!”

This week he repeated the claim, adding that the rest of the tariff money would be applied to the National Debt, which has soared to over $38 trillion!

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Perhaps they should ask Elon Musk for a loan? Elon has been approved for a $1 trillion payday if he can meet certain benchmarks over the next ten years.

Unbelievable!

Shortly after the president’s proclamation, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent clarified that the $2,000 might come, not in a check, but in the form of tax benefits – like the tax breaks already promised in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that Congress is still squabbling over.

Others who have done the math have determined there is not enough money yet received from tariffs to pay off everybody.

And it is possible the Supreme Court will strike down the Trumpf tariffs, which means some will get their money back.

The Captain advises, “Don’t hold yer breath!”

*** 

And this week the “genius” president floated the idea of a 50-year mortgage to help home-buyers deal with the high cost of purchasing a home.

By his thinking, stretching your mortgage payments over 50 years would bring down the monthly payments!

So, for example, the Captain and First Mate purchased our first house five years ago for $200,000. We borrowed $150,000.

If we did that today with Trumpf’s plan, over the course of 600 months (50 years) at 5.98% interest, the monthly payments would only be $1,162.39.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Our interest rate was about half that, so that’s right about where our escrow payment is right now.

Escrow including insurance and taxes too!

Affordable!

But over the course of 50 years – and yer Captain would be 112 – interest payments would amount to $322,434.59 – more than twice what was borrowed! The total paid on the loan would be $697,434.59 – more than 4 ½ times what was borrowed.

What a deal!

Affordable? Perhaps.

Stupid? Definitely.

Is it any wonder Trumpf’s had so many bankruptcies?

*** 

Now for the elephant in the room.

On day 41 of the government shutdown, eight Democrats in the Senate finally gave in and voted for the Republican’s Continuing Resolution, thus setting the stage for re-opening the government.

Of course, Trumpf takes credit for re-opening the government!

As a reminder, the Democrats were holding out since money for the Affordable Care Act was not included in the resolution.

Without those tax credits, it is projected that a couple in Kentucky earning $85,000 per year would see their insurance costs jump from $7,225 to an astronomical $30,886 per year.

Not affordable!

On the other side of the aisle, Republicans were withholding SNAP (emergency food benefits) to some 40 million Americans to force the Democrats’ hand.

Basically the Republicans were saying ‘You can have health care or food’… a decision no American should have to make.

For the record, Trumpf went to SCOTUS twice to prevent SNAP benefits from going out, and his administration even ordered the states who stepped in using their own money to claw back what they had given out.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Meanwhile, Congress is still getting paid, as is I.C.E. (although I.C.E. funding has yet to be approved by Congress); the military, air traffic controllers, and other government workers have not been paid for more than a month.

Why do Republicans hate Americans so much?

So why did the eight Dems cave? Among other things, they were promised a straight vote on the ACA by the second week of December.

They might as well have asked for unicorns and free ice cream.

The Republicans still control Congress, so the likelihood of such a vote passing is slim.

AND…

The House of Representatives has not agreed to such a deal.

In fact, the Speaker of the House, Little Johnson, says he has no plans to hold such a vote.

So, basically, we’re screwed.

Whether you are on the ACA or not, expect your healthcare costs to rise.

In addition to health care, the shutdown has significantly affected transportation. Thousands of flights are being canceled because air traffic controllers are not showing up for work (since they are not being paid).

On the upside, since the Dems have voted to re-open government, Little Johnson must now call the House members back to Washington, which means he now has no excuse for not swearing in Adelita Grijalva, the elected representative from Arizona.

And Adelita has already said she would be the final signature on the Epstein discharge petition. We may yet get confirmation that the president, among other important people, did participate in Epstein’s sick child-trafficking business.

When the call for the release of the Epstein Files got heated up, Epstein’s side-kick, Ghislaine  Maxwell – serving 20 years for child trafficking – was moved to a minimum-security prison, where she is being treated like a queen.

That, mates, is what ye call the sound of silence.

She now wants a presidential pardon like everyone else!

So that’s what’s happening right now.

We must never forget.

Especially next year at the mid-term elections.

But yer Captain isn’t all doom and gloom. Let me end here on a humorous note.

So…

This week, Dr. Oz, the TV talk-show doctor and now administrator for Medicare and Medicaid, announced the lowering of prices for prescription weight-loss drugs. 

Apparently food can't fix it. 

He expects, through lowering the price of weight-loss drugs, Americans will lose 135 billion pounds by the mid-terms!

Awesome!

That's not the Captain's plan for the coming year, but good for him!  

But again, smarter people did the math: 135 billion pounds would require just under 400 pounds per citizen.

And, presumably, forced injections?

So, cheer up, mates! It can still get worse!

 

 

The Golden Age, Part 2

As Congress has effectively shut down for the rest of the year - without a continuing resolution much less a budget - we have federal workers still on the job but not getting paid. 

Most notably TSA agents and air traffic controllers - if you were wondering why your flight was delayed or cancelled.

CAPTAIN'S NOTE: For some reason, one of the president's rich friends sent $130 million to help pay the military. One has to wonder what he'll get out of it. 

Oddly, I.C.E. is still getting paid and large signing bonuses are being thrown around like rolls of paper towels at a hurricane recovery center! The Immigration and Customs Enforcement currently has a larger budget than the U.S. Marine Corps.

And, of course, Congress still gets paid too - even though the House Majority Leader has no intention of calling the House back into session until January. 

CAPTAIN'S NOTE: Little Johnson knows that as soon as he calls them into session, Democrats will have enough support to force a vote on releasing the Epstein Files. 

But then there's the SNAP program. Formerly known as "Food Stamps", SNAP stands for "Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program". Approximately 42 million Americans receive some amount of SNAP benefits, which helps them put food on the table.

Some are disabled. Some are children. Some are employees at WalMart and Amazon. 

Some even serve in our military!

As a bargaining chip to get the Democrats to give in and approve the Republican-proposed continuing resolution, the government has decided it can't pay SNAP benefits in November. 

Yes, withholding food support from 40 million Americans!

Now, shame on the Democrats for not giving in to Republican demands, right?

Do the Democrats want American citizens to starve?

No. The Democrats are fighting to restore funding for the Affordable Care Act - an item intentionally left out of the Republican bill. Without such funding, medical insurance for those same poor people will skyrocket to beyond reach. 

So the Republicans have left us with the choice: you can either have food or medical care.

Leading the Captain to wonder if America great is yet?

In my blog of April 1, 2025, I addressed a comment made by the president's press secretary, in which she claimed the president is working toward another "Golden Age" in America.

Either she said the quiet part out loud, or she is not familiar with history.

The so-called "Golden Age" in America was at the turn of the previous century. The now famous "Robber Barons" made their fortunes on the backs of hard-working Americans. 

To be quite honest, that is exactly where the president is leading us right now.

 Here's where I'm headed with this. 

On Halloween - the day before SNAP benefits were scheduled to end - the president threw a party at Mar-a-lago, his Florida country club and residence. 

The theme for the party: "The Great Gatsby". 

Truly tone-deaf - some of our wealthiest citizens and government leaders rubbing salt into the wounds of our poorest citizens.

Has the president not read the famous novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald?

Does he not know that the title character, "Gatsby", is a big phony who made his money in bootlegging and other criminal activities in a failed attempt to impress a woman he couldn't have when he was poor? 

Did no one instruct him in the depiction of the inherent inequalities in life? About the racism depicted in the book? The sexism? 

At least someone should have told him how the book ends - with a desperate poor man mistakenly shooting Gatsby in his own swimming pool.  

The gall of this man to flaunt his wealth the night before those struggling to get by in this new "Golden Age" are losing their food supplement! 

UPDATE: Lawsuits were brought against the administration to force the payment of SNAP benefits - since the FDA has an emergency fund specifically designed to continue SNAP should there be a government shutdown. Two separate judges ordered the government to meet its commitment by today.

In a typical stalling tactic, the government lawyers argued there is no process in place to transfer the money and, with the government shutdown, no employees to make it happen.

The judges were insistent and today it was announced that SNAP recipients would receive half their usual benefit for November.

Some day. 

This is an unfolding story.

But a truly horrid government led by a truly horrid president.

 

 

 

 

 

Yer Captain has been under the weather this week and hasn’t felt like writing, or much of anything else.

I believe we have what is clinically referred to as a “Man Cold”.

I’ll be penning my obituary next.

Speaking of obituaries, the local funeral homes are apparently using AI to write obituaries now. Because yer Captain is a preacher too, I read a lot of them and they’re all starting to sound alike:

“Robert Leroy Smith, affectionately known to family and close friends as ‘Robert’, passed away on Saturday at the age of 86…”

As noted above, I’ll be writing me own, thank you very much.

So, since the Captain has been homebound for a few days, I’ve been able to partake of all the news that is news, and then some.

Despite the sniffles, yer Captain did stand with 1,500 other “No Kings” demonstrators this past Saturday afternoon. After being labeled all kinds of nasty things by Trumpf administration officials, with so many of them predicting “typical Democrat violence” like we saw on January 6 – no wait, that was them! – more than 8 million people gathered in rallies across the nation to protest the growing tyranny of the current president. 

And not a single No Kings participant was arrested, there was no violence… except from a few MAGAts trying to incite shit!

THEY were arrested.

The president’s response to 8 million citizens protesting him: he released an AI video of himself flying a fighter jet over the No Kings crowd and dumping a load of feces on them.

That pretty much says everything you need to know about this president.

The Captain found the half dozen or so counter-protesters in our community just a wee bit confused. One held a sign that read, “There is no king but Jesus”, which made me think she should have been on our side of the street.

Another sign read, “Commies make me sick!” Again, possibly standing on the wrong side of the street.

In other related news, the president has declared “open season” on any suspicious-looking boats in international waters. So far, on his order, the Navy has destroyed eight such boats, claiming they were transporting fentanyl to the U.S. 32 people have died in these attacks, with all evidence laying on the ocean floor. 

The president has declared a "war on drugs", which makes these deaths "enemy combatants". Tom Homan, White House Border Czar, wants to declare Fentanyl a "weapon of mass destruction" (WMD).  

The President of Colombia spoke out against one attack, insisting it was simply a Colombian fishing boat. In response, the Trumpf administration released an intentionally misleading photo taken in 2024 of a Spanish boat loaded with drugs.

In response, Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of the U.S. Southern Command in charge of these operations, resigned his commission, saying he could no longer stomach the president’s questionably illegal and immoral orders.

Surprisingly, two people survived a recent attack, were rescued by the Navy, then reportedly returned to their respective nations – never to be heard from again.

What could they have possibly told us?

It has been more than a month since the outspoken Right-Wing podcaster Charlie Kirk was shot dead on a college campus in Utah. Supposedly the shooter was captured – turned in to authorities by his own family – but the early findings could not connect him to any Left-Wing cause.

And suddenly, no one is talking about this anymore.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: I found a brief piece, likely untrue, that says the bullet that struck Kirk came from a different direction and the slug remained lodged in his neck, suggesting that the captured shooter was not the real guy. Other conspiracies also suggest that Kirk is not really dead.

Don’t know.

Don’t care.

What the Captain does care about is that now Turning Point USA is trying to get established on high school and even middle school campuses in an effort to start grooming the next generation of young voters.

Parents, wake up and pay attention!

The president’s tariffs have created a crisis for soybean farmers as China, our biggest buyer of soybeans, has turned to other countries for their beans. And Trumpf recently announced he would bring down the price of beef by opening the door to imported beef from Argentina, which would effectively drive American beef producers out of business and still NOT lower prices.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: I remember when Mitt Romney was running for President. His supporters argued, “We need a businessman, not a politician, to run the country like a business.” They thought they had that in businessman Donald Trumpf. 

How’s that working out for you?

The government has been shut down now for 22 days as the Democrats are remarkably holding fast to not approving a Republican Continuing Resolution that does not include money for the Affordable Care Act. The House is in recess as the Senate has voted 11 times to not re-open the government until the ACA is secured. Senator John Thune, the Majority Leader, tried to convince Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer to get his party to approve the Republican continuing resolution with a promise they would immediately take up the ACA issue once the government was re-opened.

But Schumer wasn’t born yesterday.

So, many federal offices are closed and those who are working are doing so without pay. The president has said he will not negotiate with the Democrats until they re-open the government.

So here we are.

Meanwhile, the administration is taking this opportunity to lay off more federal workers and the American people continue to suffer.

All of that is background material for what I write to you about today, my fellow shipmates.

While the rest of the nation suffers, the president has forged ahead with his plan to build a $250 million ballroom attached to the White House.

The nation looked on in horror as images leaked out yesterday of cranes tearing off portions of the East Wing.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: The East Wing was built in 1902 and enlarged by FDR in 1942 to provide office space for the First Lady (at the time the famous Eleanor Roosevelt) and her staff.

The president told us the new addition would not affect the current structure; it would stand nearby but not attached.

“Nobody loves the White House like I do,” he crowed.

UPDATE: The cost is now projected to be $300 million and the entirety of the East Wing will be demolished. Trumpf claims "world-renowned architects" have studied it and there is simply no other way. 

But seriously, what builder starts a project without knowing exactly where the footprint of the new construction will be? (My comments following, originally written as sarcasm, are becoming an even greater possibility every day.) 

The president boasts that every president over the last 150 years has asked for a ballroom of this magnitude – 90,000 square feet that will accommodate 900 guests – and he’s been the only one to deliver!

A questionable claim typical for this president.

The $250 $300 million price tag is supposed to be covered by private donations – and at least one bit of extortion from YouTube. He even implied that some of the money would come from him.

With his track record, that is extremely doubtful.

Now a thinking man might ask, "Captain, how did this come to be?"

A very good question, mate.

The president wrote an Executive Order.

And apparently the person he put in place at the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) has interpreted the rules in such a way that the NCPC only has to approve new construction… not demolition.

Stupid. I know. 

So has the NCPC approved the construction of the new ballroom?

No.

We don’t know who drew up the plans.

We don’t know who will do the actual construction.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: I am reminded of the U.S. Embassy we tried to build in Moscow in 1980. The building was so riddled with Soviet listening devices installed during construction that the whole structure was razed.

Trumpf officials assure us they will file the necessary paperwork soon.

Meanwhile, the NCPC office is not open due to the government shutdown…

…which means the construction will probably begin without the NCPC’s consent.

Then there is the National Parks Service, the U.S. Commission for Fine Arts, the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House Chief Usher / Facilities Management Office that also need to weigh in…

… but probably won’t get the chance.

The 90,000 square foot edifice will completely dwarf the 55,000 square foot White House.

One can only imagine Trumpf then tearing down the remaining structure to rebuild the White House more to his awful taste. 

We can rest assured that all of this will be done on the up-and-up though, as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has ordered the nearby Treasury Department employees to refrain from taking and sharing photos of the demolition and future construction.  

 As we have learned over the past nine months, Trumpf is going to do what he is going to do. No one in Washington apparently has the balls to stand up against him.

But the optics couldn’t be worse. As the citizens of the United States struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table, we are outfitting an airplane – “gifted” by Qatar for the President’s use – at the price of nearly $1 billion; we are paying for – not one but – two private jets for Christie Noem’s Department of Homeland Security; and Trumpf is building himself a vast golden ballroom, which most of us will never see or be allowed to dance in.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Frankly, aren’t “Balls” just a little bit anachronistic? Yer Captain doesn’t even own a tux! And the First Mate wouldn’t be caught dead in a ball gown!

Trumpf even wants to erect a Paris-style “Victory Arch” on the National Mall. 

So Trumpf fiddles while America burns.

And it seems like no one cares. 

Even those who are on fire still cheer him on.

For those of you who voted for him, I hope you are happy. You got what you deserve.

 

 

Happy Whatever You Celebrate Today!

Faithful shipmates may recall back during the ill-fated 2024 Biden-Trumpf debate, the Captain wrote about Trumpf’s debate technique known as “Gish Gallop”. Coined in 1994 by the anthropologist Eugenie Scott, it is named after the American Creationist Duane Gish, who was dubbed the technique's "most avid practitioner".

The Gish Gallop is a rhetorical tactic in which a debater overwhelms an opponent by making a rapid-fire series of arguments, with no concern for their accuracy or strength. The sheer volume of false, misleading, or specious points makes it impossible for the opponent to refute them all in the allotted time, creating the illusion that the person making them has "won" the debate.

During that fateful debate, President Biden stood by, befuddled, unable to keep up with Trumpf’s lies. 

Biden was quickly replaced on the ballot.

What we’re seeing in American politics today is the Gish Gallop on a far larger scale. Mass lay-offs of government employees, the unprecedented deployment of National Guard and U.S. Marines in American cities based on lies, yet another government shut-down due to the Republicans’ failure to pass a budget or even a continuing resolution, the assessing-then-rescinding of outrageous tariffs and the accompanying lies about who pays the tax, lies about reducing costs of goods and pharmaceuticals by numerically-impossible thousands of percents, the unilateral sinking of foreign vessels in international waters without proof of wrongdoing, the on-going flurry of Executive Orders and the usurpation of the role of Congress in all of this – not to mention that most of this is illegal and is slowly wending its way through an overwhelmed court system – it’s hard for the average American – and the Captain – to keep up. 

And while the president keeps us occupied / distracted with all of that, much more sinister deeds are being perpetrated on the American people.

Humans are capable of only so much outrage before we surrender to the lies.

Yer Captain will never surrender – that’s just not in my blood. But only nine months in, I am growing weary of it all.

The Captain wakes up every morning to a Facebook page filled with outrage.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Yes, I have purged most of the MAGAts out of my FB feed with no regrets, but my liberal-minded friends continue to rage about the daily pronouncements of the president.

I am sick and tired of seeing the president’s ugly mug every time I open FB or my news apps or even when I turn on the Today Show. I have a couple openly-MAGA neighbors who wear their gear proudly, which I try to ignore. The Nightly News is filled with more Trumpf nonsense, and the late-night talk shows just beat the day’s news like a dead horse.

Is there nothing else left to talk about in this world? Can we not go for a single day/hour/minute without him invading our consciousness?

I yearn for a return to the day when my feed was filled with cat posts!

I’d even settle for the return of that annoying Farmville!

Since Trumpf lost the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to a Venezuelan actually working for democracy and peace in her country, others are trying to assuage the man-baby. Israel is considering giving him a made-up Israeli Peace Prize for his “peace through strength” attitude.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: The announced cease-fire between Israel and Hamas (who was not included at the negotiating table) has not been signed by Hamas, although I understand today the hostages have been released. I don’t expect the fighting to end.

And because today is Columbus Day – a day Liberals recognize instead as Indigenous People Day in opposition to the mythology of Christopher Columbus – Trumpf issued edicts for his minions to reclaim Columbus Day, for which the National Italian-American Federation publicly praised him.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Although they did not give him the prestigious “Meucci Award for Italian-American Man of the Year”, which they gave to Michael Corleone in 1979 (a Godfather 3 reference). 

So, instead of Trumpf, today let’s talk a little about Christopher Columbus and why the U.S. recognizes Columbus Day.

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) has long been hailed as the one who discovered America; we were all carefully indoctrinated from grade school on up. An Italian-born explorer and navigator, he developed a plan to seek a western sea passage to the East Indies, hoping to profit from the lucrative spice trade. He convinced the Spanish (Catholic) monarchs, Isabella I and Fedinand II, to sponsor his voyage with three ships.

Thus, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”.

CAPTAIN’S NOTE: Recent DNA research suggests that Columbus was a Sephardic Jew, so sailing under a Catholic banner strikes yer Captain as odd, but I guess it pays the bills.

Columbus knew the Earth was spherical (as did most educated people of his time), but he sorely misjudged how large the Earth is. Three months after setting sail, he landed on an island in the Bahamas – only 8,300 miles off-course! – on October 12, 1492, claiming the populated island for Spain and the Roman Catholic Church.

Because he thought he was in the East indies, he called the native people “Indians”.

He made his way through Cuba and Hispaniola and established a colony in Haiti, spreading European diseases, murdering and enslaving the native peoples along the way. By his own accounts, he was brutal toward the native people, and when he returned to Spain in 1493 he brought captured natives along with him. 

Columbus made four such journeys to “the new world”, and for a time was appointed colonial governor of what would be renamed the West Indies. Word of his violent treatment of the native people made its way back to Spain and he was recalled in 1499.

In all this time, he never set foot on what today constitutes The United States of America or its territories.

So why the big deal? Why a federal holiday in his honor?

In 1866 the date was celebrated by Italian-Americans as an Italian heritage festival, not so much about Columbus.

In 1892, after the lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans, President Benjamin Harrison declared a one-day Columbus Day celebration in hopes of ease tensions between the U.S. and Italy. Teachers used the occasion to teach their students about patriotism, citizenship, and loyalty to the United States.

In 1934, after much lobbying by Italian-Americans, Congress encouraged the President to officially recognize Columbus Day. President Roosevelt did so, but that did not make it a federal holiday.

During WWII, 1,881 Italian immigrants were put in internment camps as “enemy aliens”.

In 1942, FDR removed that designation, and offered citizenship to 200,000 elderly Italian immigrants who could not pass the citizenship test due to, among other things, illiteracy. 

The interned Italians were not released until 1943 following Italy’s surrender.

More lobbying followed and President Lyndon Johnson formalized the day in 1968 – to begin as a federal holiday in 1971.

So, in short, we celebrate Columbus Day due to the lobbying efforts of Italian-Americans.

CAPTAIN'S NOTE: It should have been Antonio Meucci Day, who actually did invent the telephone a year before Alexander Graham Bell. 

Many years ago, when I was an up-and-coming Captain, the local mayor proposed erecting a giant cross where the town’s main street meets the Ohio River. Attempting to evade questions of the Establishment Clause, she declared it was to commemorate Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. Throwing caution to the wind, yer Captain put pen to paper and challenged her proposal in the local newspaper: Columbus did NOT discover America, did NOT set foot on American soil, and most importantly, did NOT navigate the Ohio River to our fair town. Why would we honor him?

The proposed cross was never raised.

Columbus Day has lost its luster in recent years - perhaps because the Italians let us believe that Olive Garden was authentic Italian cuisine?

Whatever the cause, the it has been relegated to “just another day” in many states and municipalities. It was replaced with “Indigenous People Day” in Berkeley, CA in 1992, acknowledging the thousands upon thousands of native peoples killed or displaced by the colonialism that built America. That idea has caught on and it is this "Liberal mindset" the president railed against last week in his proclamation.

As for today, the only thing I could tell that is different today is that the mail did not run.

Or was it mis-delivered?

 

 

 

Taking the Day Off

Nah, I'm not really taking the day off. 

The Captain just wrote that title to throw the First Mate off my scent.

I'm at work. 

Because there's work to be done!

But, I am going to take it easy with today's blog post. For the first time ever, I'm going to let someone else write it.

And not just any "someone".

A MAGAt!

I know! Crazy, right!?!

Let me explain.

The Captain is not a Bird Watcher, but I understand a little of what it's like to search and search and search for something until you finally find it, be it a great white whale or a critically endangered Akikiki [Oreomystis bairdi].

Yer Captain just happened to hear a MAGAt in the wild over the weekend and I want to share his words with you today. 

First, the background. 

A couple days ago, Captain Whitebeard posted a frustration on Facebook.  

Yes, we have the same first name.

No, we are not related. 

Captain Whitebeard still has MAGAt friends, and one spoke up in protest:
 

 

 

Captain Whitebeard tried to get a word in edgewise.

The MAGAt responded.

 

This is when yer Captain stepped in with a question referring to a previous comment.

 

And there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. The great American MAGA Boobie -sadly neither rare nor endangered!

 Lord help us!