Planes and Politics

I heard about the Russian plane that the Turks recently shot down. The Turks claim that the plane was warned several times that it was in Turkish air space, and that the Russian pilot didn't respond. I assume there is a protocol for that. I mean the Russian pilot couldn't have been expected to understand Turkish, so there must be some standard signal or something that is used in cases like that. I understand that English is the lingua franca of commercial aircraft and air traffic controllers, so maybe it's the same for the military. I haven't heard the Russian version of the story yet. I'm pretty sure that, if the Russians shoot down a Turkish plane in retaliation, nothing will be done about it. After all, nothing was done about that commercial jet that they shot down over the Ukraine. I also remember, decades ago, when they shot down a commercial jet out of South Korea with many Americans on board, I believe the flight number was 007. There was much ranting and raving but, in the end, nothing was done about it.

I haven't heard about the latest Trump-ism. You say he claimed that thousands of people were cheering from the roof tops when the World Trade Center was destroyed? What kind of people, Muslims? Mexicans? I remember, when the ashes had not yet cooled, that some people were saying that the Jews were actually responsible, and that the Muslims were pure as the driven snow. Then there are some who still believe that our own government did it. There are enough real bad guys in the world, why do some people see the need to manufacture more of them out of thin air? You know, it's people like that who give us paranoids a bad name.

I find it incredible that many people are taking this Trump guy seriously. This whole Republican primary race is nothing but a three ring circus anyway. Why do they need to put up so many candidates in the first place? They did that last time and they lost the election. I'm still voting for Rand Paul. He's dead last in the polls, but he seems to be the only one not intent on making a fool of himself, at least not yet.

I won't be writing Thursday because we are going to my daughter's for Thanksgiving and won't be back till late. She has bought a house in Charlevoix, which is a half hour farther away than where she used to live in Petoskey, which was an hour's drive from Beaglesoina. I don't know what's wrong with kids nowadays. Why do they need to live so far away from their parents? I may not log on tomorrow either. We've got company coming in the evening, but I might stay home and go on line in the afternoon instead, depends on whether or not I go hunting in the morning.