A few random thoughts as I frantically try to catch up from that extended absence:

It’s amusing, sad, and all too predictable to watch the mainstream media and Beltway “UniParty” politicians go all loony and apoplectic over President Trump’s unwillingness to lay sole blame for the violence resulting from that “Unite The Right” protest over the planned removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia that turned into a wild and violent melee, resulting in the death of a young women and injuries to a bunch of folks. Anyone who has watched the videos can clearly see that there were two camps that were spoiling for a fight: a bunch of white nationalists who joined up in support the original protest, and anti-fascist “Antifa” protesters who showed up ready to make sure heads were busted. There’s no virtue on either side – thus the President was right (as usual) in putting the media and weasely politicians on their heels.

…the point being, there is such a thing as the right to free speech and assembly, and it’s obvious Virginia law enforcement were instructed to stand down and allow the violence to escalate. Here’s hoping a few civil lawsuits make the city and state pay for not keeping the peace and the two parties separate from each other. There’s really no excuse for what was allowed to happen.

Mark me down as in favor of the PGA of America’s decision to move their major from August to May starting in 2019. It makes sense in so many ways: 1) it compresses the majors into a four-month period, 2) it allows the PGA TOUR to move up the Fed Ed Cup a couple of weeks and get the season over before the college and professional football seasons get underway in earnest, and 3) most importantly, it allows the professional golf season to actually have an off-season – something that every other professional sport has. It’s good for the game, and it gives the PGA Championship a chance to try some locations in the south and southwest that heretofore would never be considered for a major. Who knows, maybe Scottsdale, Arizona?

Samuel Adams Grapefruit IPA is a discovery, a better beer for summer than even their Summer Ale. I like them both, now I have some variety for summer quaffing!

…but it’s ridiculous to see Sam Octoberfest at the supermarket when the outside temperatures are still over 100. Can’t they wait until at least, say, Labor Day?

The Red Sox are a very dangerous team right now. Rafael Devers is working out at third base better than anyone had reason to hope, and so is starting pitcher Doug Fister. Depending on how David Price comes back, it’s not hard to see how formidable they could be in a short series.

13 Alfred Hitchcock movies you have to see before you die (in a shower or otherwise).

This sounds like good news to me. Funny how no one in the mainstream media is giving President Trump any credit whatsoever, If this were President Obama, OMG, they’d be nominating him for another Nobel Peace Prize!

Word around is that President Trump will issue a pardon for former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio during a rally next week. I certainly hope so. Did he have a monumental ego? Yes, Did he do everything to resist the Obama administration’s attempts to thwart his efforts against illegal immigration? Yes. But Sheriff Joe’s criminal contempt conviction was just retaliation from a liberal Obama judge appointee. It’s the right thing, and will be a popular thing, for the Prez to do on behalf of “America’s Sheriff”.

Been a while since I’ve posted, there’s been a lot going on. The past two months have been a whirlwind: not just working my butt off getting ready for the Goodboys Invitational weekend, but having to get a whole lot of professional development training behind me so I can meet work requirements and easily keep my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification going past next year. It’s tough to even think about blogging when you’ve spent the better part of the day staring at videos made by a bunch of Ph.Ds who find ways to make 1-2 hour videos on such riveting topics as building high-performance teams, conflict management, and initiating change at work. B-O-R-I-N-G!

On top of that, a high-profile business conference for work and all kinds of running around as we try and wrap up my sister-in-law’s divorce and dentistry. As for the latter: hey, that’s what happens when you marry twins – you marry both of them!

But here it is, the middle of August. My local Fry’s supermarket already has Halloween stuff greeting you as you walk in, and today I saw the first six-packs of Sam Adams Octoberfest in the beer aisle. That’s freakin’ ridiculous – you’d think they could at least wait until Labor Day! But the sun angle has started changing so I no longer have to close one of the plantation shutters for my daily 7 AM calls to block out the sun. The shadows are already lengthening around the swimming pool to keep it less in the direct sun during the day; pretty soon it will start its slow but gradual drop out on the low 90s – too bad, during a heavy monsoon rain the other night I swam in luxurious warmth while the night air cooled to ten degrees less than the water. Out here the kids are already back to school, but it’s right around this time of year that I can still remember thinking that summer was just about over when discovering the school bus routes published in the Merrimack Valley Advertiser. You knew right then and there that the jig was just about up.

It’s been a pretty boring monsoon season around our specific area, though there have been really bad storms in other parts of the Valley, and not that far away from us. The storm that brought the rain last Saturday night was a stunner, though…lots of non-stop thunder and lighting an hour before we got drenched with over an inch of rain. Wouldn’t mind seeing a little more of that before the season closes up shop a month from now.

I haven’t even looked at my golf clubs since they came back from Goodboys weekend nearly a month ago and I’m guessing it will stay that way for another month. The days of beating balls and playing rounds in the stifling, dusty heat of June and July seem almost like a dream to me. Watching this past weekend’s PGA Championship triggered just a bit of an urge, however, but that urge will stay on the shelf for a bit longer. I’ve got lots of cleaning to do around the house, and all kinds of cleaning out back around the patio and the Tiki bar with all the dust that’s blown in here during this monsoon season.

Just wanted y’all to know I haven’t gone anywhere and hope to be back to somewhat regular blogging starting this week. Lots to write and comment about – see y’all soon!

Immersed in employee certification training and getting ready for a big business conference. hence, this is kind of light.

Hey Dems and libs, this is what winning looks like. Get used to it.

This is such a great song. Honestly, I thought it was David Bowie. Then I thought it could have been Iggy Pop. Either way, it sure sounds like it would be a perfect fit for a James Bond flick.

Why did I think it sounds like David Bowie? Because of this. And this. No matter, it’s all good. And all great songs.

Some good news in an awful world.

Glad to see that personal fave Paula Creamer qualified for the Women’s British Open, but geez, to have to do it at a Monday qualifier shows just how much her game has been off this year. Too bad she didn’t make the cut.

Well this might explain how Hillary Clinton ended up winning the popular vote.

Isn’t the definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result?

Watched CNN’s obnoxious and boorish White House correspondent Jim Acosta get taken to the woodshed today over the White House’s push for legal immigration reform, and it wasn’t a pretty sight to see. If you’re gonna play big-time journalist you oughta at least have a shred of an idea of what you’re talking about:

First of all, is it really un-American to expect immigrants to speak English? As Miller pointed out, some proficiency in English is already a requirement for those who want to be naturalized. Yet, Acosta asks: “Are we just going to bring in people from Great Britain and Australia?” I happen to live in an immigrant-heavy neighborhood, and most of the people around me speak English pretty well. Not one is from England or Australia.

…Is it un-American to give preference to immigrants who have already shown the propensity to assimilate? Is it un-American to prioritize immigrants who have skills in jobs we need filled? Is any reform of immigration — other than to legalize millions by executive fiat — un-American? I may disagree with a certain immigration policy, but changing the parameters of immigration policy is not an unpatriotic act.

This is exactly the kind of proposal that’s winner winner chicken dinner for the White House because it’s an issue that most of the electorate (not including, of course, blue states like California, Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York) both understand and support. Go to any blue-collar bar in the upper Midwest or talk to folks south of thee Mason-Dixon, they can see what’s going on. They know people who have lost technology jobs to H1B workers from India or China or assembly line jobs to lower-skilled immigrants from Central and South America who are willing to work for less. They know folks who have lost retirement, salary and healthcare benefits. They know first-hand what it’s like to have to compete against with H1Bs who never returned after their sponsorship was ended. They know the damage our out-of control legal immigration policies have done to their lives and their households, and the deflating effect it has on their neighborhoods and towns.

Fortunately, this is a White House that understands how a blue-collar worker in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Alabama or Wisconsin feels when they’ve been displaced by a H1B worker. This White House understands the damage when an American citizen can’t get an entry-level job because an immigrant willing to work for less has taken the job. Some might call this capitalism in its purest form, but this White House believes in an “America First” policy in everything it is doing, both domestically and internationally. The mainstream media will continue to do all it can to try and blur the issue and confuse legal immigration with illegal immigration, but these issues are two different sides of the same coin. This country has every right to determine who comes here and who stays here.

It’s great to see a White House that can speak clearly and forcefully on this issue, and Democrats should be cautious about playing their typical obstructionist role when it goes to Congress for a vote. This initiative should be right up the Dems’ alley when it comes to protecting the livelihood of the blue-collar worker who at once time could be counted on as a reliable Democratic voter, but the Democratic Party’s identity politics have fractured that relationship in recent years. If they don’t get on board this time, the Trump Train will use this as a wedge issue in the 2018 midterms and blow them off the platform.

If CNN’s White House correspondent truly speaks for what Democrats have come to stand for in this day and age, the 2018 midterms will be bloody for a Party that already is up to its knees in trouble.

The whole brouhaha over Red Sox star pitcher David Price’s abusive treatment of Red Sox Hall of Famer and NESN broadcaster Dennis Eckersley on the team plane sveral weeks ago was getting a lot of play in Beantown while I was in town for Goodboys Invitational week, and deservedly so. In my view, Price has always been a world-class a-hole, and why the Red Sox thought reeling him in for big bucks was a good idea is beyond me. Hard to say who looks worse in all this – Price, manager John Farrell (who has refused to apologize to Eckersley for the incident), or the team itself. I was just starting to get around to kinda liking and following this team, but hearing Farrell’s pathetic attempt to downplay the issue and then hearing seond baseman Dustin Pedroia defend Price’s actions has turned me off. I’m betting others feel the same way. Chalk this up as a true PR fiasco for the ball club. And just when the Patriots are starting training camp. Great timing, Red Sox.

One marvels at the way Farrell and the Red Sox have handled this incident and compare it with the way coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots organization not might, would have. I can guarantee you it would have: a) been handled in house, and b) resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. In Belichick’s mind, no one is bigger than the team and he allows nothing to distract the team from their one and only goal: getting to the Super Bowl. Obviously, the Red Sox don’t have the guts or willingness to hold Price accountable for his conduct. And it’s been that way from the very start with Price’s treatment of the media in general. Maybe he thinks he’s above it all, but as a member of the Red Sox organization it’s hard to see how this reflects positively on their brand. Perhaps if David Ortiz was on the team things would have turned out differently, but it’s clear the Red Sox clubhouse is sorely in need of a grown-up who can play the role of leader. David Price’s surly sourpuss act isn’t doing them any favors, and it will be interesting to see the reception he gets the next time he takes the mound once his DL stint is over with.

I’m guessing that the end result of this will be that Farrell gets fired at the end of the year. The Red Sox very well might make the playoffs, but it’s hard to see them going deep with the way the Yankees and Astros have positioned themselves. Actually, it’s hard to see how Farrell comes out of this as manager next year; he’s hardly an indispensable piece of the puzzle. He’s a lousy in-game manager, and any manager who loses control of the clubhouse (as he clearly has) is just laying the foundation for bigger problems down the line. I’m guessing the Sox know this, but there’s no way they’re going to let their manager go at this point of the season.

Just because you’re winning a lot of ball games doesn’t make you winners. In this media-conscious day and age it’s all about the brand, likeability, and the bottom line. The Patriots organization understands that better than anyone. I just wish the Red Sox did.