What – October!

It seems completely implausible that it is already October. The balmy temperatures lately may have thrown off the ole internal clock or something but the tenth month snuck up on me in true ninja fashion. New England weather is doing its usual best to be utterly unpredictable as well. We had almost no rain in September until yesterday when I guess Someone finally noticed and issue the entire month’s worth in a couple of morning hours. Buddy was not pleased.

View Out my Office Yesterday

At least the recently installed Buddy blocks installed on our stored furniture in the basement proved effective. The dog just does not like rain. It was the first day I’ve missed the two car garage (wait until winter I keep telling self). With only one garage space you know whose car is kept there – the commanding officer’s. For someone from one of the rainiest countries on the planet you would think she would be more adept at handling precipitation. I think Buddy gets his fear of moisture from my Favorite Panamanian.

Trump at Keene High

At least the Red Sox are finishing the year watchable. They jettisoned the expensive dead weight they signed over the past winter and look like a completely different team, one that cares about winning. Of course it is all too late, with only four games left in the season but I did stay up late watching them last night as they took their third in a row from the hated Yankees in extra innings. The wholly unbelievable Trump campaign rolled into my hometown last night. It was a bit disconcerting to see him wandering the hallways of my old high school in news reports – who knew the movie Idiocracy could have been so predictive.

Our sainted president is getting his foreign policy ass handed to him again by his designated tormentor, Putin. While Obama has dithered and ineffectually addressed the problem of ISIS and Syria in general Putin blew into Damascus over the past few days in a fashion our politically correct/foreign policy challenged president should learn from. Putin didn’t worry about alienating potential allies or building a coalition of approval. He came in on the side of his ally, Assad, and effectively told the US to stay out of his way.

Go Ahead Keep Your Eyes Firmly Closed - Pay No Attention to my Latest Adventure

For public consumption he told the world he was bombing ISIS (everybody’s boogie man) but most of the air raids were against other rebel forces, some of which are US backed. Putin’s entry into the vacuum created by the Ditherer in Chief signaled the end of any chance of removing Assad from a post war Syria, the linchpin of Obama’s Syria policy (if we’re feeling generous enough to call it policy). At least it will give us a chance to assess Russian military competence. If the bombing videos chosen for airing by the Russian Defense Ministry are any indication they’re not very good and you would have to assume they chose only the very best for release. All indications are they’re going to get a lot of practice to improve. I’m sure a very strongly worded protest is being drafted at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave as I write this.

I'm Sure this Scared the Hell Out of the People in the Building They Were Aiming For