The Daily Dose/October 22, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
THE MORE THINGS DON’T CHANGE…: It’s been over a year since Jamal Khashoggi walked into the Saudi embassy in Istanbul and soon found himself dead and dismembered. It soon became clear Khashoggi was murdered by Saudi agents and that it was not entirely beyond comprehension Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was in on it, too.
…The More They Don’t Change: It also soon became clear the Saudis would get away with it. The Trump Administration shamefully waved away the matter and did their darndest to usher the Saudi crown prince back onto the world stage. The veil began to lift at a G20 meeting in June as countries, paced by a disinterested America, went about the process of dismissing Khashoggi’s murder so everyone could resume making money off and with the Saudis again. President Trump did everything but rub the crown prince’s feet while having Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spread za’atar on the prince’s morning flatbread. Pakistan has given the crown prince their highest civilian honor after signing assorted, billion-dollar investment deals.
Fly In The Ointment: The UN did get their shorts in a knot in June when they issued a report saying, among other things, there was:
…credible evidence, warranting further investigation of high-level Saudi officials’ individual liability, including that of the Crown Prince.
Yeah, Yeah, Whatever: This could not have been met with a bigger collective international yawn had prizes been issued for ignoring it. Even we’ve stumbled a bit here. We used to provide occasional updates, but we’ve been too busy ranking lousy college football teams to bother lately.
USA! USA! Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host the November 2020 G20 summit. While it is not clear that President Trump will lead the crown prince pep rally, it is even now expected to be well-attended, which all but assures Khashoggi died in vain and his death will not be punished.
Business As Usual: The killing itself isn’t a big surprise. Governments have been carrying out precautionary murders like this since time immemorial. All of us should be ashamed, though, by our government’s reaction to it. We’ve allowed our government to ignore it, which has allowed the world to ignore it. US insistence on accountability, both in public and in private, would have ensured we would be getting more than the secret trial the Saudis are currently holding. Sure, some hapless lower level prince might be offered up for a severe wrist-slapping, but the Saudis have brazened their way through the murder of Jamal Khashoggi with full US complicity.
God, Lighten Up, Will You?: Like a lot of things with the Trump Administration, we are the lesser for it. We deserve better than this, of course. We deserve a government that abhors and demands answers for murders like this, but we won’t have that until we demand better on Election Day.
Today At The Site
It’s Read Free Week! Enjoy both The Diary of a Nobody and The Bottom Ten on the house.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow gives some tips on money handling. Today’s Diary.
I’ll tell you what, long-time readers of this crap recall my exalted tenure working the Doily Delivery Truck up here for a couple-three years…One thing you learn delivering doilies is you never – and never means not once – deliver or receive anything without a receipt…Say I slid it under the door and they come down wondering where their refund is???…I was prepared to put a note under their door saying their refund was at the front desk when ol’ Sparrow came up with the utterly brilliant idea of videoing my sliding it under the door…And what a production it was, too…I started with a wide shot of my approach to 156, then got a close-up of the door and room number, with a hard cut to the bottom where I displayed the envelope, with the room number written on it, and a mid-range shot of yours truly sliding it under the door…You don’t mess around with money, especially when it’s not yours.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The Bottom Ten/NCAA Week 9: Hut, hut hike! The race for the ESPNCup rolls on.
Here are some funny lines from this week’s NCAA Bottom Ten:
With team having already matched 1869 win total, Rutgers booster(s) have started Project 300, a tricentennial celebration designed to double team’s win total to two (2) by year 2169.
Hawks show mettle of past Continental Cup holders with first shutout loss since last week…
Despite woes, C-USA still managing to post strong .500 mark in conference play.
Read Free Week won’t last forever! Click here to get in on the laffs. We offer 4Ever and Ever access, or cheapskates can purchase books and columns individually.
On This Date
In 1836 – Sam Houston is inaugurated the first president of the Republic of Texas. Houston was limited by the Texas constitution to a two-year term and was ineligible of reelection, though he was elected the third president of Texas in 1841. Houston would later serve as governor of Texas after its annexation by the US and Houston, who served as governor of Tennessee from 1827-29, remains the only person in US history to be elected governor of two different states. Houston was from Virginia and died in 1863 while Texas was part of the Confederacy.
In 1950- The Los Angeles Rams establish a new NFL record for most points in a game, defeating the Baltimore Colts 70-27. The Rams got two touchdown passes each from Norm Van Brocklin and Bob Waterfield and another one from halfback Glenn Davis, who had joined the Rams that year after he resigned his Army commission. The Rams broke the record held by the Chicago Cardinals, who scored 63 points in a 1948 game and the record is now held by the Washington Redskins, who scored 72 points in a 1966 game.
In 1966 – Reach Out I’ll Be There by the Four Tops is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second and final week. It was the third of seven Top 10 hits for the group, their second and final #1 on the pop chart and was their second of three soul chart #1s. The song also went to #1 in Great Britain and would spend two weeks at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart. The Four Tops had the same four members – Levi Stubbs, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Lawrence Payton – from their founding in 1953 until Payton’s death in 1997.
Quotebook
I am not what I would want to be. That is why, to tell the truth, I have failed.
Gore Vidal
Creation
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The five frigates besides the Constitution that were authorized in 1794 were the President, United States, Chesapeake, Congress and Constellation.
Today’s Stumper
What country was Texas a part of before becoming an independent nation? – Answer next time!
