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Michael McLeod

I have no problem seeing posts - the most recent one being from janie at 2:40 today, oct. 7, or posting. That's about all I can say as I'm a know nothing when it comes to the technical side of things.

As well as many other things - figured I'd say that myself to save the rest of you the trouble.:)

David Mitchell

Still cant find Tim's post

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

I read Tim's post...perhaps he deleted it.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Hurricane Milton

Any of you in that Tampa and those surrounding areas have or are preparing to evacuate?

Jim

David Mitchell

I texted Tom and Tess about 2 hours ago. No response yet. Hope they have left by now.

They live in Clearwater - almost dead center of the impact area. This looks like a really, really  bad one!

Hope you are okay too Mike.

Michael McLeod

I'm ok still have power storm came through orlando and had weakened no major damage here or injuries as far as I can tell dave I'm sure tom and tess are ok but i will keep checking 

Michael McLeod

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html

Joseph Gentilini

I am glad that you are alive after Milton. Hope there was little damage to your home.

David Mitchell

I'm on a long string of people getting texts from Tom McKeon (in Clearwater) and it appears they dodged a bullet. I think this is due to the fact that they are north of the storm "eye" and therfore got some "reverse surge".

Further south - where the "on-shore" surge hit - not so good. 

Didn't come anywhere near us in SC.

David Mitchell

To anyone reading this:

Does anybody have any contact with Carolyn or Dennis Winchester?

Michael McLeod

Dave: if you want, give me some basic details about them and I will see what I can do.

Jobs, address, etc,

Beautiful day here as is often the case apres la tempete.

Something Florida folks get schooled on is how much science goes into predicting one of nature's most unpredictable phenomenons. The slightest atmospheric shift can change the course of a massive storm system. The models were dead on in weighing all the variables and predicting this latest one. I'll be fixing a fenceline that is leaning precariously at the moment but my cozy one story mid-50s home - roof still intact - rattled like crazy all night long, lost power just as the storm moved on past us, but that was restored the very next day and at this point sun's out and I'm cleaning the pool and mending the fence and counting my blessings here in Orlando -- the very middle of the state.

I wouldn't live on the florida coastline for anything - well not since the few years I worked at the Pensacola Journal and went through a couple of them personally and as a reporter. 

Mark Schweickart

Dave -- I think Dennis was a big shot at Quikrete (I think his father founded the company) and years ago they moved their headquarters to Atlanta. You might try contacting the office there. Dennis may have retired by now, but they would probably have contact information for him. 

Michael McLeod

I don't want to get into politics here.

I just thought you'd appreciate the descriptiveness and the sly humor of the very last line of the opening few paragraphs of this story in today's paper, which is about the trump style as more or less a bizarre combination of politics and what I'll call performance art. 

David Mitchell

Mark,

I was aware of that. Dennis had told me some years back that he had a vacation home on nearby Fripp Island (about an hour from here up near Beaufort). But after that conversation I lost track of him. And Carolyn and her husband popped in for about a half of a reunion, several reunions ago - they were with us for the first half of the evening, but then disappeared when we all sat down to dinner.

I might try the Quickrete source again.

Janie Albright (Blank)

I don't have current info on Dennis. I tried to get from Carolyn some years ago but she was not forthcoming. Since their mom passed away they don't seem to come back to Columbus and she has ignored all reunion communications. Carolyn lives in Houston. mMark is correct. Gene Winchester started Quikcrete and eventually moved it to Atlanta. The boys were all involved in the business. 

Trivia. The house they used to live in before Brookside was in Colonial Hills next to the Colonial Hills school. When they sold the Hemmelgarns moved in. David Fredrick's would know if my memory is correct on this. 

David Mitchell

Thanks Janie,

Carolyn and Dennis and I became buddies when our older sisters (Patty W and Jeanie M) graduated together from Marquette. I spent lots of time in that house up on McVey. I dated Carolyn for a while and then we stayed close long after that ended (I met a new girl named Tess). I called Carolyn a couple of times from flight school in Texas when I was homesick. And spent a night with them and their kids in St. Louis when we were moving back from Denver.

I knew Dennis had followed his dad and brothers when they all moved Quickrete to Atlanta. It wasn't Dennis' choice but his dad made it his choice, if you get my drift. It prooved to be a great financial success for all in the family.

P.s. that house on McVey (behind Brookside Country Club) is now the home of Charlie Kaps and his family.  I think Dennis and Charlie became better friends as classmates at John Carroll University in Cleveland (where my daughter Sara later captained the swim team). 

Small world ain't it?

------------------

Both our families spent a weekend in Milwaukee for the two girls graduation from Marquette. Thats when the twins and I became friends - running arounf the hotel together for a weekend. The graduation ceremony was exhausting. It went on for about five and a half hours! There were two guest speakers instead of just the usual one. 

A famous doctor was the invited guest speaker and went on quite long. But another honored guest was not told that he was not a gues speaker. He was only supposed to receive an award (or honorary degree maybe?) But he also spoke and went on forever. His name was Bobby Kennedy.

Michael McLeod

By Lisa Lerer and Michael Gold

Published Oct. 15, 2024Updated Oct. 16, 2024, 7:46 a.m. ET

With three weeks left before Election Day, former President Donald J. Trump is pushing to the forefront of his campaign a menacing political threat: that he would use the power of the presidency to crush those who disagree with him.

In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Mr. Trump framed Democrats as a pernicious “enemy from within” that would cause chaos on Election Day that he speculated the National Guard might need to handle.

A day later, he closed his remarks to a crowd at what was billed as a town hall in Pennsylvania with a stark message about his political opponents.

“They are so bad and frankly, they’re evil,” Mr. Trump said. “They’re evil. What they’ve done, they’ve weaponized, they’ve weaponized our elections. They’ve done things that nobody thought was even possible.”

And on Tuesday, he once again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power when pressed by an interviewer at an economic forum in Chicago.

With early voting underway in key battlegrounds, the race for the White House is moving toward Election Day in an extraordinary and sobering fashion. Mr. Trump has long flirted with, if not openly endorsed, anti-democratic tendencies with his continued refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election, embrace of conspiracy theories of large-scale voter fraud and accusations that the justice system is being weaponized against him. He has praised leaders including President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary for being authoritarian strongmen.

But never before has a presidential nominee — let alone a former president — openly suggested turning the military on American citizens simply because they oppose his candidacy. As he escalates his threats of political retribution, Mr. Trump is offering voters the choice of a very different, and far less democratic, form of American government.

“There is not a case in American history where a presidential candidate has run for office on a promise that they would exact retribution against anyone they perceive as not supporting them in the campaign,” said Ian Bassin, a former associate White House counsel under Barack Obama who leads the advocacy group Protect Democracy. “It’s so fundamentally, outrageously beyond the pale of how this country has worked that it’s hard to articulate how insane it is.”

David Mitchell

Hear hear, Mike.

John Jackson

It’s hard to imagine which is worse – Trump’s fascist threats of prosecution of his political opponents (see Mike’s post above) or his tariff plan which no serious economist on the right or the left has said is anything but lunacy.

Trump is a very sick man and it’s impossible to know if he’s lying about his claim that foreign companies/nations pay the tariffs or if he is just so far gone that he actually believes what he says.  But I have first-hand experience with tariffs since I import from China about 10% of the lasers I use in my business.  And let me assure you that my business, and not our Chinese supplier, pays the 25% tariff on the lasers we import.  A\d I pass this cost along to my customers.

Beyond the lie/fantasy that foreigners pay the tariffs (which will instead raise prices significantly for many/most goods that everyday Americans buy) there is so much wrong with his plan and the Washington Post article below (”Off the Charts - How Trump Tariffs Would Shock U.S., World Economies”) is a good summary of why you (and your retirement account) should be very afraid if Trump gets what he wants.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/10/16/trump-tariffs-impact-economy/

Michael McLeod

I generally steer clear of politics over here.

But this is as scared as I've been since Vietnam.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Thanks guys for remindng to me to go vote early!

John Jackson

MM, you would consider voting early?   After Trump swore in 2020 that mail voting was the cause of all that “fraud” that stole the election?

Funny how things change...

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

You can't say we never learn!!!  If you can't beat 'em join'em!  The best way to secure elections is to vote on one day & declare Election Day a holiday.y

James Hamilton, M. D.

I agree with MM regarding actual voting only at a polling location on election day.

However, that probably will never again be a reality. 

We are not ultra trusting of the USPS so Janet and I use the El Paso County Citizens Center - about a ten minute drive from our house - with a a drive though ballot drop off box which is manned by election officials (usually multiple) during voting season. There are also security cameras in addition to these actual people who are present wearing identification and handing out your "I Voted" stickers. 

Standing in long lines at the local elementary schools on cold November days is a thing of the past that we were always willing to do. And we would still do if we had to. But we are confident of this system here in Colorado Springs. 

Besides, frost bite is also less of a danger😀!

Jim

John Jackson

Thanks, MM - I'll interpret your response as you recognize that the Trump charge of widescale fraud in 2020 mail voting was bogus.  

And Jim, are you suggesting that the U.S. Postal Service, under Republican Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, appointed by Trump, is messing with ballots?