A White Man can no longer represnt America.

BB's take: Using the oft-stated premise that a “White” man can’t represent all the people of this country is like saying a black male, or a woman of any color, or a gay person can’t represent this country and the citizens. Color or sex has nothing to do whether a person is both qualified and prepared to be President.

We citizens need to quit listening to the news and look around. Every grocery store, restaurant, business, and entertainment venue is packed with people spending the money they are making RIGHT now.

Forget the polls, forget the partisan politics. Of course there are exceptions, especially if your company is affected by tariff changes that will balance eventually or be replaced with something else. Examine your own life and then make a decision if living in the USA is for you or not, cause I'm prospering.

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The 5 stages of a geocacher

The 5 stages of a geocacher
 A geocaching primer by BaytownBert (Bert Marshall)

I love geocaching. I love planning my next string of unique geocaches and usually start compiling my list the day before – or earlier. I read the page for clues and seeing I am rapidly becoming a fossil, I use GSAK and load a pocket query into my Garmin Oregon 750. I didn’t start out that way and I also use my Android. Let me explain the 5 stages a geocacher goes through if they play the game any length of time. I’m thinking 5-10 years, but you may be a quick learner. Me? Not so quick on the upload, if you know what I mean. Murphy’s Law is my middle name.

(1) In the initial stage of geocaching, the newbie is so overwhelmed with the possibilities (and swag!) that they go to the dollar store and buy $23 worth of precious loot to spread all across the geocaching universe! Never mind that they only find Micros and nanos and are soon disillusioned and wonder if they messed up... but if they survive, they move into the next wonderful stage.

(2) It’s all about the numbers in this 2nd stage. It doesn’t matter what the D/T rating is as long as they get a bunch of them. Trackables? Are you kidding? AR0213  They bought $200 worth off of Ebay the 1st month (Note: A Jedi-geocacher may move up and down in the 5 rules over the years).  Cacher is in true form and sets person record by logging 144 LPC’s in 7 hours. Cacher calls in sick the next day.

(3)  Now we come into the Navy SEALS of geocaching and we all know who they are. These amazing folks have more hormones than Arnold and only tackle the highest D/T grid caches and are known to swoop into an unfamiliar area and wipe out the resistance. Kudos to those who can do this, but I am not that gifted.

(4)  The next stage is also an elitist bunch that have entirely specific needs, desire, wants, and aspirations in this game. They take geocaching to a level akin to a NASA moon launch. They are the puzzle makers/solvers and to be honest, I wouldn’t trust them to look in my cellphone. I love them, but know I will never join them. My brain would either melt or explode.

(5)  Finally, we are at what I like to call the black banana geocaching community. We are seasoned geocaching veterans, right? We have scars, bruises, and tales...tails? However, on any given day, we may act like a newbie and arise only to find that we can possibly zip in and literally steal FTF rights from one of our geocaching peeps! Never mind that we had to pee before we left! Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!

Or, we may team up with 4 other cachers and hit a power trail, regretting it as the miles wear us down. You get the picture that being a well-rounded cacher is more than a stat – it’s a life style.
This has been an attempt at humor, but let’s talk grown-up geocaching and it ain’t all fun and games. The game has changed and to me, it is not entirely a good thing. I think Groundspeak in their attempt to boost the already bloated game, thought that Adventure Labs would be a great addition... In my opinion it is nothing more than inflationary fluff that detracts from the original nature of the game.

Let me backtrack for a little personal history. I helped my city set up a Geotour and it is everything it is supposed to be and I have no qualms with that particular area of this game or my city. The Geotour has boosted tourism. Now that I’ve established this fact, the Geotour and cachers need to get the coin and swag severely dampened how many of my caches people looked for. I noted this in an earlier article. In other words, cachers only look for the Geotour and leave the area.

This spring I was invited to start a 5 cache Adventure Lab and I was a bit hesitant, but wanting to see the inner workings of it, I accepted. I wish I wouldn’t have.

Forget that the 7 pages of instructions were tedious and getting everything working was difficult. I consulted the grand designers a bit and possibly this has improved since I did mine in the spring. The problem is the AL info goes straight to Groundspeak and I get an excel file if I take the time to find out who played it. There is no communication between me and the players.

Last and this is a big one. Between the city Geotour (30+ caches) and the 2 Adventure Lab’s (15 caches total), no one looks for anything else in this town. Folks zip in and walk right past large caches with TB’s inside and do not bother to look for them. Take this into account when you invite this Adventure Lab/Trojan horse into your town.

In my opinion, Groundspeak would improve the game by restricting new geocache hides for newbies until they found 50 caches.

Ordered into the war, 1972

 

Sgt. Bert Marshall, Takhli RTFB, Thailand 1973

Journal entry, April 1972: Danang, Vietnam orders cancelled at the last moment and about 3 weeks later, I was at Takhli RTAFB working my hind end off. It happened so fast. I out-processed immediately, went on leave. I was 19 years old and visiting my family in Houston with no idea I was about to experience 651 days living a National Geographic wartime documentary that would mold my future.

 A call from the Air Force cut my leave short and there I was. Flying via orders to Travis AFB, California, I took a flight to Alaska. Boarding a long low and crowded Flying Tigers turbo-prop, we flew across the ocean to Yakota AFB, Japan. Being a lowly E-3 Airman 1^st class, I believe I had the lowest rank of the many troops on the plane. The reason I say this is I got the only seat on the full plane that did not recline and for over 20 hours, our plane traveled across the ocean.

We left Japan and headed for the now long-gone Clark AFB, in the Philippines.  It was full-blown monsoon and the area was under about 2 feet of water. We had an 11 hour layover and we told to not leave the base under orders. I met a black Airman at the layover in Japan and he told me he had connections at Clark, so off the base we rode... in a 1957 Chevy sedan! The water was above the floorboard as we cruised down into the red-light district. However, I was warned that I would be dealing with pros and I kept to myself, enjoying the adventure.

Back at Clark AFB with time to spare, I realized I was the lone human cargo to fly across Vietnam into Central Thailand to a primitive base just reopening called Takhli. It had closed when the F-105’s Thunderchiefs left and was going to take on the F-4’s leaving Danang, Vietnam... and that is why me, a supply clerk was sent ahead. I was assigned to the Avionics warehouse inside the Supply compound.

Wow, the smell when the door opened on the C-130.
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Understanding the standard Democratic goal

As a voter, sometimes it is difficult to figure out who is telling the truth and who is promising a non-existent Utopia.  If you like what Trump is doing for the country... vote for him again in 2020. If you are still on the fence over the other party, understanding the standard Democratic goal is simple. I say it is a simple formula because all of the Democratic candidates have the same message.
 

Through legislation, they plan to outlaw :
1. the right to own or bear firearms including revoking civilian gun permits.
2. decision to chose your own food, including beef.
3. decision to control the thermostat in your house/work place/stores
4. right of freedom of speech.
5. remove representation from taxation.
6. install rigid guidelines to enforce the "protection of the environment" over citizens rights, including mandatory community gardens co-ops.
7. Remove the choice of any healthcare other than Socialized medicine they provide, including triage of the aged, infirm, and imperfect.
8. Further restrict travel to only the State level without a passport.
9. Further dilute the abortion laws until there are none.
10. Turn every law inward to make the populace more dependent on government. Eventual confiscation of all private business.
11. Remove all reference in the English language concerning gender differences.

I couldn't find anything they want to "give" us that doesn't include first "taking" from us through higher taxes, or restricting our freedoms and all in the name of The People.
Am I wrong? Did I get something terribly wrong or did I miss something even bigger? 
Note: none of this is from copy and paste.

Spanish conquistadors killing in the name of God... for gold.

With the "Spanish" Hispanic population growing in the USA, let's take a look at an oft-claimed consensus of "We were here first". I've heard versions of this for the last 40+ years and it tells me how little folks know about the history of these two continents. Here we go and I invite reasonable discourse:

"It is estimated that during the initial Spanish conquest of the Americas up to eight million indigenous people died in a series of events that have been described as the first large-scale act of genocide of the modern era."

What is so ironic to me is how so many Hispanics are proud of their Spanish heritage when the Catholic Spaniards were invaders who wiped out the indigenous occupants for the most part. In their constant search for gold, they murdered anyone they found... or converted them from being a heathen to a good child of god. This was nothing more than a form of mental enslavement and taxes in the form of offerings.

Spanish Conquistadors exploring the Grand Canyon in the 16th Century

Yeah, it would make me proud also to claim Spain as my heritage if it were so. My people were Irish and we fled our country to assimilate into US Citizens. I might look Irish and I am and some Scottish, but I look and act like an American first. Let that sink in. I am an American first and secondly, if I was of a mind to, I would honor my past heritage.

"In August 1521 the city fell and the Aztec empire became a Spanish dominion. Temples were destroyed and the locals were reduced to the legal status of minors. In traditional accounts Spanish smallpox killed up to three quarters of the native population. Undoubtedly the European invaders were ruthless adventurers."
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Greenpeace protests Big Oil in Baytown

How is it possible an old white man wasn't involved in the felonious Greenpeace act of protesting big oil while dangling from the Fred Hartman Bridge? ? I thought old white men (OWM) were pretty much responsible for everything going wrong. Oh! I get it. It must have been planned, funded, and sanctioned by an OWM, right? Wrong!

Well, now that we have that out of the way and can dismiss that stupid notion, regardless if the media loves to try to make it so. Getting over the Houston Ship Channel only has a couple options and stopping traffic at any time of the day will make anyone sympathetic to Greenpeace HATE THEIR GUTS!

The reason for this is we are still in summer here and it is hot. Stopping traffic to protest big oil after arriving in a gas-powered van and causing a rear-end collision is hardly an earth-friendly start to their protest. Many people were stuck in their idling cars without their medicine or bathroom facilities. We have many hospitals here and traffic was at a near stop for many hours. No, we hate Greenpeace zealots and many here wish they would have cut the ropes, no joke.

Annie Leonard - Greenpeace

Greenpeace is not directed by an OWM, but a female and of the total number of felons involved is growing with warrants issued. Texas passed a law earlier this month over unauthorized protests that include this one, making the crime a felony. I would be willing to bet Greenpeace didn't know that. However, they have other people's money to burn, so big deal. The Greenpeace protesters, who were involved in Thursday’s incident in which 11 individuals suspended themselves from the Fred Hartman Bridge over the Houston Ship Channel, were identified Friday and arrested or warrants were issued.
 
The protesters, from 13 states and the District of Columbia, have been identified as:

• Mary F Zeiser
• Sarah Francis Newman
• Cole Taylor Martin
• Tyler N McFarland
• Shavone Torres
• Dakota Paige Schee
• Jonathan Butler
• Chelcee Price
• Piper Werle
• Jayden Chayanne Allen
• Sydney Lae Cliffard not in custody to-be-warrant
• Ryan Harris
• Zeph Fishlyn
• Heidi Nybroten
• Christian d Bufford
• Heather Glasgow Doyle
• Amanda Lee
• Mariah De Los Santos
• Stephanie Hillman
• Brianna Latrell Gibson
• Graham Evan Clumpner not in custody to-be-warrant
• Daniel James Rudie not in custody to-be-warrant
• Mitchell Wenkus not in custody to-be-warrant
• Tamura Russel Seiji
• David Lynn Mcnew not in custody to-be-warrant
• Tracye Redd
• Richard Alex Sisney
• Julie Ann McElvain
• David A Rappelet not in custody to-be-warrant
• Irene Kim
• Michael Anthony Hebert

I am all for peaceful protests that comply with the law. What these folks did amounted to a crime, plain and simple and in this area, hurt their cause more than helped it. By the way, my Bride and I were some of the thousands who sat in our vehicles for hours waiting for our law officials to handle these people in such a manner that would be accepted world wide.

Sharpie-Gate in not Journalism

This was submitted in the Baytown Sun September 11th issue of the Baytown Sun. Note this is the 9-11 anniversary, but this cartoon was more important.

The Baytown Sun management really came out providing a valuable opinion on a timely issue - this "biggie story" Sharpie-gate! Using what appeared to be a self-made Presidential stupidness-scale as a guide, they declared the “fiasco has gone on long enough”. If they really believe this, why write more on the subject? Did they find something really earth-shattering to inform us Baytownians? I thought we have Washington politics covered in about a thousand other outlets, so why once again is this in our paper?

How about editorials about Baytown politics and our issues? The good Lord knows there is fodder enough for actual local journalism rather than copy and paste opinions off the Internet. I suspect the majority of the Sun’s subscribers have already locked into a political party and the choices are so wide, nothing will budge a voter to change.  

What we as subscribers need is what goes on here in our city.
With newspapers failing around the world, our Baytown Sun needs to stop choosing sides over silly editorials and write about our city. 

My opinion is the paper is so out of touch with its readership, that in the ten years I wrote for the Sun, none of the clerks knew who I was when I visited AND when asked, they admitted they did not read the paper or my column!

“Sharpie-gate is simply politically motivated obfuscation to justify a serious mistake by Trump”.
 

The dubious photo

The last sentence of the editorial is the most perplexing because Conservatives have learned that no amount of apologies or concessions would allow Trump to move on in the eyes of the Liberals. Their goal is resistance regardless. They are looking at losing the next election, so their only recourse will be to up the violence and destructive Constitutional behavior and make living in this country worse.

In other words, nothing the man does will get the nod of approval from the Liberal Socialist-driven agenda they want to cram down everyone's throat.

They will not be happy as long as any Republican or non-Liberal sits in the big chair. Then they will reach back and blame, Trump, then Bush, then... This “editorial” on Sharpie-gate is simply politically motivated obfuscation to justify a Liberal agenda by our local media. It is yet another example that what this city really needs is a newspaper that is more concerned with Baytown and the surrounding areas than anything all of us can pull off the Internet.
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Jeffrey Epstein Preferred the Taboo Life

Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein

The man is a lesson is extremism. The more he had, the more he wanted. The world's most beautiful women were not enough for him. He wanted taboo and his money would buy that in the uttermost. Be careful what you wish for folks. If you were to get whatever it was that lures you, it might also ruin your life. I don't ever want to get to the place that a nice walk or bike ride satisfies my inner man. I do not need extreme in my life. I need moderation. Isn't that taught in the Bible somewhere?

I have unsubstantiated belief that 95% of the women and girls who came in contact with this man, had full knowledge they were playing with fire. Now what that fire means is another story. However, in the circles this man traveled, women coming to him most likely knew what was in store. As far as the minor girls go, this important point has to considered on a global scale. In New Hampshire, if the parents give consent, a daughter can marry at 13. In Massachusetts, a girl can marry at 12 if her parents sign off!|

I have no information on how many underage "girls" were in his company during all the years he was active, but again I suspect very few girls were with him against their will and all felt to benefit either by money or a boost in their career. The man is dead by his own hand (or with help). He has paid for his sins in this life by forfeiting his own life (thankfully for many, because the trial would have been so damaging to so many powerful people).

I predict because of his far reach, the press will be fed bits and pieces until no one cares anymore and then years later a book will expose everyone and again no one will care.

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No More Mr. Nice Guy, No More Mr. Clean.

It is time to bury “Women and children first”.

"Women and children first" is a code of conduct dating from 1852, whereby the lives of women and children were to be saved first in a life-threatening situation, typically abandoning ship, when survival resources such as lifeboats were limited. However, it has no basis in modern culture or in an established society.

We need to stop this ancient anti-male practice immediately. Women and children are no more valuable to an established society, than men. In fact in many instances, they have little impact on their loss. If this sounds harsh, blame the women’s liberation movement for removing women and children from the endangered species list. Women especially are now given the exact same status as expendable men and this is the goal of the feminists. You’ve come a long way baby.

In some ways this is extremely liberating to men. No longer do you have to entertain the idea of opening a door for a female, or stepping to the side to let a woman or child enter first. Walk in like you own it men, because now, whoever can step in the lifeboat first gets the seat!

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Better buy a pair of hammers

Folks, you may not realize how hard working some citizens are in attempting to tear down the Constitution and it goes on right here among us.

Here is my response to one local anti-gun activist in the online edition of the Baytown Sun, who basically wants everyone to turn in all their evil firearms:

"I talked to a Russian citizen who had a Visa to drive an 18-wheeler here. Knowing citizens in Russia are forbidden to own firearms, I asked him about murder there. His exact words were, "In Russia, when we want to kill someone, we use a hammer."

Another local bellowing activist asked this golden question: "Is baytownblert's point supposed to be if the US banned all guns like Russia has done, then American white supremacists would instead use hammers to murder Mexicans?"

Now, FYI, this active radical is a 55+ year old white guy who is a true radical Leftist and extremely active. He never rests and sees nothing good about anyone or anything. I call him and his kind curmudgeons. They never contribute anything positive and never stop trying to stink up any place they visit.
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No cookie cutter parks please!

As you all know I am an advocate of unique park amenities and I especially believe by making our parks unique, we can draw people to Baytown. "No cookie cutter parks" has been my battle cry for some time.

Because of my endless droning over the years about how hostile Baytown area drivers are to pedestrians and people who still enjoy walking, hiking, and/or riding a bicycle, I was shocked to see the Baytown Poll recently. 31% of our citizens chose the option that our Parks are a waste of money? I sat in disbelieve when I read that.

The simple answer here is fully one third of our population don’t get out of their cars except to shop or get gasoline. If their doctor ever orders them to get exercise, they will suddenly become an advocate for places to walk, let me tell you. My area is near Blue heron and daily I watch as seniors “pound their feet” on the cement trail.

When the hard-working Dustin Schubert was the park planner, I begged him to install not only a certified 5K trail with obvious markers, but to add elevation changes, as we live on the flat, right? Runners, cyclists, and exercisers have nothing short of our bridge or overpasses to get in some hills. No park that I know of has a certified 5K trail for runners to practice on. Believe it or not, our brains are not working as well as we think when we are running, so putting a person a course that is easy to follow is very important to runners.

To my knowledge and disappointment, this has not happened.

The grandest fantasy of us walkers/runners/cyclists would be a flyover pedestrian trail from Blue Heron Parkway over the RR tracks to Jenkins. I envision a steady stream of exercisers coming to Baytown specifically to walk/run/cycle this new pedestrian bridge. I cannot exaggerate how big of an attraction this flyover would be.

Finally, I propose we add 3 elevation changes to the new trail addition in Jenkins Park. This will get people to the far South side trail like flies to a potato salad picnic and give Baytown something many other parks do not have. I'm including an image and each elevation could cover an easy 150 feet beginning to end. Fill dirt could be used and I do not believe this is a budget breaker. If it is as successful as I think, we can add numerous more elevations changes and soon runners are coming from all over to use the new challenge.

Input from the public can be shared by writing your city council person and believe it or not this is exactly the kind of input they need and desire before they make changes in the city policies.

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Do the two mass shootings realy represent gun violence here?

 Would someone please shed light on this for me, because I'm having trouble getting the impact of the two shootings in Ohio and Texas on gun violence in general in the US.

Homicides and gun violence of this magnitude takes place every weekend in Democrat-controlled Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, and New Orleans, so how is this different? Chicago is not even listed!
Oh gosh. Now I get it. It's a white Supremacist guy shooting people of color! Never mind that "people of color" regularly slaughter each other with total abandon in our big cities...

My bad. Move along. No news here folks. Here are the stats: Of the 36,383 Americans killed with guns each year, 22,274 are gun suicides (61%), 12,830 are gun homicides (35%), 496 are law enforcement shootings (1.4%), and 487 are unintentional shootings (1.3%).

- Firearm violence: Nationally, about 12 people are killed with guns for every 100,000 US residents.

- Vehicle accidents: Nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled. More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among young adults ages 15-44.

- Choking: In the United States, the odds of one dying from choking on food is around 1 in 2,696. These odds are greater than the odds of dying from an accidental gun discharge or as a passenger on a plane. In 2017, there were around 1.6 deaths from choking per 100,000 population.

- Prescription drugs: More than 70,200 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2017, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids—a 2-fold increase in a decade.

- Marijuana overdose: “We know from really good survey data that Americans use cannabis products billions of times a year, collectively,” argued Keith Humphreys, a former senior policy adviser at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, “Not millions of times, but billions of times a year,” the policy adviser said. “So, that means that if the risk of death was one in a million, we would have a couple thousand cannabis overdose deaths a year.” Clearly this is not the case as there has only been ONE unexplained marijuana overdose in recorded history in the US.

The Nihilist Squad and their goal

If you watched the movie, The Big Lebowski, you learned their antagonists are Nihilists, who, "don't believe in anything". "The term nihilism has been employed to denote a wide range of phenomena. It has been variously used to express contempt or horror on the one side, approval and admiration on the other. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it has almost always been an emotional and axiological term, frequently employed to cut off debate on a moral issue by representing a particular position as absolute, totalizing, and extreme."

This is the goal and aim of AOC and the "Squad" of absolute, totalizing, and extreme politics. They know they cannot win, but they can make inroads new fanatics will plunder and violate in the future. Their ultimate goal is the collapse of our constitution. This group won't be able to do it, but the next and the next and the next will succeed.

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Give Me The Cage Anytime!

Typical caged conditions of border crossers, minus crying babies, as depicted by the media.

In this country, people who love tennis are forced against their will to play inside a cage.  Conditions can be brutal in the Texas humidity and heat and often debris must be cleared from the cage in order to use the facility.

I worked inside a cage for almost 40 years in the Chemical Plant industry and they wouldn't let me leave when I wanted and rarely fed us and acted like they were expecting something in return! When they did feed us, you would think it was amazing by the way they acted, but a lot of times we had to stand in lines and stuff -  just terrible. Showers were available, but they kept me busy enough I never really had time to take one. It was awful.

The reality is the "cages" on the border look nothing like what people envision when the slanted news coverage appears.

Bamboo Cage used to hold prisoners.