Riding the waves

 Back in 1974, after coming back to the USA from the unpleasant conflict in Southeast Asia, I was stationed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc, California. Vandenberg has 20 miles of coastline that is basically closed to the public and people in residence, regardless if you are in the military or not. This rule didn’t seem to affect my fellow airmen and I from going body surfing on a lonely stretch of beach, far from controlling authorities.

 

There was a submerged shelf that ran out a couple three hundred yards from the beach that was flat and about 6 feet deep.  You could swim way out there and as the ocean waves came in, they would hit that shelf and make 5 feet high waves that white-capped all the way in. Now mind you, this was pre-Jaws and none of us had ever heard of a Great White shark. Year later I read where this stretch of beach was prime habitat and a couple years ago, an airman was killed right there.

We had been in the 65 degree water for about an hour and I was turning blue, but I caught a terrific wave and all but washed up on the shore.  It was amazing and the best ride of the day.  It was akin to catching a big fish after not catching anything for hours. I immediately swam back out, even though we had all decided to come in. Needless to say, I found myself 300 yards off the beach and alone. In between waves, the ocean is very calm and I could see my buddies as they swam in and they were a long way off.

Suddenly, in the calm, I heard a splashing sound and because the salt water had made my vision a bit blurry, I thought it might be a SCUBA diver. It wasn’t.  It was a very large elephant seal and it was about 20 feet from me. I remember looking at it and then at my friends way off in the distance and then swimming for my life. Now, I’m not what you would classify as an elegant swimmer. What I did, looked more like a spastic person imitating a meth head in 6 inches of water. I pretty much attracted everything for 10 miles with my flailing, but made it to shore unscathed.

My buddies, who were all drinking beer by this time thought my exhibition was for them and were laughing when I all but cut a furrow in the beach with my fingers and toes. Now here is the ignorance of people in 1974 concerning Great White sharks.

“Oh, it was a seal? Don’t worry, cause if there are seals present, they scare away the sharks!” To this day I can see that big seal staring at me and now I know the truth. Sharks eat seals.  A few short months later, I was out of the service and the war and I tied my horse in Baytown. My brothers and I went to Galveston to swim in the Gulf and 2 weeks after that? We saw Jaws! I got to relive my experience all over again and one of the fellows in that movie was named Bert of all things! Remember him? He was on the dock that got pulled out and had to swim back! “Swim Bert!”

People forget what this movie did to us in 1975. It was traumatic to put it mildly. I remember a couple of airmen and I went to Universal Studios before I departed the Air Force and there was a mock-up of the Jaws shark hanging from a big structure and we looked at it and laughed.  I think it was about 25 feet long and 6 feet thick. We put it in the same category as King Kong and just as likely. It turns out, according to the record books the record stands at 36 feet.  What?

There’s no moral to this story that I can tell and just a memory that surfaced like that seal did. I know one thing. After watching the movie Jaws, I was so scared of water that for 6 months, I had trouble sitting on the throne!

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Sounding Brass or a Tinkling Cymbal

If you are sick of big politics on both sides of our government, pay attention to this next fact concerning both parties. They do NOT want to back someone they can't control. If the Party itself is pushing one candidate over another it is because they think they can continue business as usual when their candidate is in office.

American voters should take a hard look at their favorite candidate's voting record before jumping on the band wagon. In the case of Donald Trump who has no voting record, the very fact that both parties are SCARED TO DEATH he will get elected tells me he is going to rip apart politics as we know them. They know this and will do anything they can to make him lose or drop out. Some believe Ted Cruz is also a threat, but I’m not so sure. 

If either party can successfully gain the seat with the candidate of their choice, then it really doesn't matter who is elected. It will be the same old same old all over again.

In order to get elected, Obama blamed Bush for everything (and still does occasionally) and vowed to change all of it. Well, did he? Not really. Guantanamo is still open. In fact, last November he signed a bill making it almost impossible to close. We are just as involved in the mess in the Middle East as we were under Bush. “I will end the war in Afghanistan is 2014.” Last October he once again delayed our exit from the war there.

This is a few examples of what they say they will do is not necessarily what they will do. I understand that some legislation has to be compromised and that situations develop that require a change of strategy and this may be the reason he couldn’t follow through with his campaign promises. However, he did promise to do these deeds and that helped him get elected. Chances are his advisers told him in advance that he wouldn’t have the support to follow through, but hey! It got him elected, didn’t it?

Big politics is a big power trip and these law makers are masters at smoke screens. I am no expert on American politics, but I’m not stupid and I read and re-read the news like a fiend. What I see is business as usual no matter which party is in office. The Clinton’s claimed they left the White House on the verge of bankruptcy, but in the 18 months leading up to her presidential bid; she earned over 21 million dollars simply for flapping her jowls to… rich people.

"In the 18 months before launching her second presidential bid, Clinton gave nearly 100 paid speeches at banks, trade associations, charitable groups and private corporations. The appearances netted her $21.7 million — and voters very little information about what she was telling top corporations as she prepared for her 2016 campaign." NY Times

According to CNN, $153 million in Bill and Hillary Clinton speaking fees were paid to the money-strapped couple, yet supposedly they are the voice of the poor. In reality, they are akin to the civil rights activists that leech off the very people they claim to represent.

This is a person who supposedly represents the little man, but has in fact peddled her wares to the rich. The reason for this is she is indeed very rich and wants to keep every single penny she gets – just like those fat cats in the Republican Party and me, the simple man. The only difference in these two parties is what they say they are going to do to get elected, so they can do the same old song and dance once in office and tax me to pay for it.

And we lemmings line up at the polls and punch little chads or buttons, or some such thingy and walk away thinking our vote is going to change things. To prove my point that they are all stinkers and in it together, let’s take a look at Hillary. She has committed so many felonious acts concerning top secret communications that she should be jerked off the street, cuffed, and slammed into Lompoc’s luxurious Federal Correction Institution… yesterday.

How this is continuing to be ignored by the professional politicians makes them complicit in my view. David Petraeus couldn’t get away with one iota of her crimes and it ruined his amazing career. He had one affair with a woman who was a West Point graduate and a world expert in terrorism and shared a bit of classified info with her and was all but tarred and feathered for it. Hillary’s husband had a secret adulterous affair in the Oval office as President and finished out his time and is a much sought after public figure.

Hillary expunged massive amounts of correspondence before handing over her servers, even though she was court ordered to hand them over immediately. Pallet loads of printed email are being brought forward to prove she exposed our country’s security to our enemies, and yet she is still free AND running for commander in chief? Seriously?

I think the woman could admit to eating baby seals or kittens for breakfast and people would ignore it and giddily sing her praises.  How can this happen in our country and it still be okay, let alone allow her to run as the top executive? The reason is all of these politicians are in it together. All they are worried about is their share of the prize. They stand up there and wave their bony arms and make promises, but in the end, it’s simply smoke screen politics as usual. 

Fairly early on in this race, Donald Trump was asked what he would do if he was actually elected and please pay attention to his response. I heard him say it, but it vanished just as quickly from the press. “I will surround myself with the brightest and sharpest people and listen to them.” What? You won’t surround yourself with your cronies and award them for their support? What a novel approach! Has anyone ever done this before? That’s not politics! You are right. It’s not. Its smart business and its time this country was ran like a business, instead of a network of carpet-bagging back-slappers.

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