Monday, December 30, 2019

Monday Musings - December 30, 2019



1. Welcome to the last Monday of 2019 and the next to last day. The year ends tomorrow night, which appropriately is know as New Year's Eve.

2. It was a great weekend with the weather being mild, although rainy yesterday. I got to play golf to celebrate the end of the year.

Axis and Allies 1942
December 27, 2019
Elkridge, MD
3. The guys in the family reenacted WW2 on Friday.  It was a "do over" from Black 
Friday. In the end, the Axis again scored a "probable" victory. We classify it as probable because we only played for 5 instead of 12 hours and had to make an assessment when time expired. 

4. Family NFL results for the last week of the regular season. There were only two games as the family teams played each other.

  Ravens defeat Steelers 28-10. Ravens are the #1 seed in the AFC. The Steelers miss the playoffs because the Titans defeated the Texans.

  Cowboys defeat Redskins 47-16. Cowboys miss playoffs because the Eagles defeated the Giants. 

5. In the in-between Christmas and New Year's period, it is hard to keep focused on the task at hand and not what the New Year's Eve plans are. 

6. In just less than two months, I will be in Sarasota attending some Baltimore Orioles Spring Training games. And playing golf.

7. Rainy days are dark and dreary. Yesterday was an example.

8. I have completed watching the first season of The Mandalorian. It was excellent and I was shocked that it had only 8 episodes. Here is a shout-out for Baby Yoda!

9. Today in History, 1922. In post-revolutionary Russia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is established, comprising a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (divided in 1936 into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics). Also known as the Soviet Union, the new communist state was the successor to the Russian Empire and the first country in the world to be based on Marxist socialism.
During the Russian Revolution of 1917 and subsequent three-year Russian Civil War, the Bolshevik Party under Vladimir Lenin dominated the soviet forces, a coalition of workers’ and soldiers’ committees that called for the establishment of a socialist state in the former Russian Empire. In the USSR, all levels of government were controlled by the Communist Party, and the party’s politburo, with its increasingly powerful general secretary, effectively ruled the country. Soviet industry was owned and managed by the state, and agricultural land was divided into state-run collective farms.


Headlines

California Is Booming. Why Are So Many Residents Unhappy? - The New York Times

U.S. Attacks Iranian-Backed Forces in Iraq and SyriaU.S. Attacks Iranian-Backed Forces in Iraq and Syria - The New York Times

For China’s Pickup Artists, Sex Is the Goal, Urging Suicide Is a Tactic - The New York Times

North Korea's Kim urges 'positive and offensive' security measures at key party meeting - Reuters

Evacuation order in Australia's south-east as bushfires rage and temperatures soar - Reuters



Ronald Reagan Quote for the Week

This year, the future of the nation and the world is particularly on our minds. We are thinking of our nation because, in the year ahead, we Americans will choose our next President. Every adult citizen has a role to play in the making of this decision. We will listen to what the candidates say. We will debate their views and our own. And in November, we will vote. I'll still be President next January, but soon after that, the man or woman leading our country will be the one the American people pick this coming November. 
 - Transcripts of New Year's Greetings From Reagan and Gorbachev on TV published in The New York Times, January 2, 1988


-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD

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