Through the Keyhole - November 2020

 

NOVEMBER 2020 Through the Keyhole Take a break from your day... Not your typical company OR newsletter

"This location is where tomorrow a Nationwide election will be held to determine the occupant.  Regardless of your political affiliation, I strongly encourage you to get out and vote.  As an American citizen, you have the right to choose your leadership. Please do so." Can you guess the location? Why the Electoral College Exists? This is a very interesting piece... In their infinite wisdom, the United States' Founders created the Electoral College to ensure the States were fairly represented. Why should one or two densely populated areas speak for the whole of the nation? The following list of statistics has been making the rounds on the Internet. It should finally put an end to the argument as to why the Electoral College makes sense. It needs to be widely known and understood. There are 3,141 counties in the United States.  In 2016, the following results were seen as follows: - Trump won 3,084 of them. - Clinton won 57. There are 62 counties in New York State - Trump won 46 of them. - Clinton won 16 Clinton won the popular vote by approximately 1.5 million votes. - In the 5 counties that encompass NYC, (Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Richmond & Queens) Clinton received well over 2 million more votes than Trump (Trump won Richmond, Clinton won the other 4 of these counties) - Therefore these 5 counties alone, more than accounted for Clinton winning the popular vote of the entire country. These 5 counties comprise only 319 square miles. The United States is comprised of 3,797,000 square miles. When you have a country that encompasses almost 4 million square miles of territory, it would be ludicrous to suggest that the vote of those who inhabit a mere 319 square miles should dictate the outcome of a national election. Even though Chicago is one of those big cities in these 319 square miles, our founders did not believe that big city populations should determine the elections for the rest of the country. Who won Halloween? Guess the Location Game Last month the winner of the guess the location game was John McDonnell  who guessed the right answer.  I appreciate all of the participation.  THANKS FOR PLAYING! ANSWER: Independence Hall, Philadelphia, PA This location is where the primary guiding documents of the United States were debated and adopted.  This city is home to some of the most aggressive and rabid sports fans in the nation.  Home to fictitious prize fighter, a famous bell and some really good sandwiches." Can you guess the location?"  They risked everything — “their lives, their fortune and their sacred honor.” During the blistering summer of 1776, 56 courageous men gathered at the Pennsylvania State House and defied the King of England. Eleven years later, representatives from 12 states gathered to shape the U.S. Constitution, finally creating one unified nation. George Washington’s “rising sun” chair dominates the Assembly Room which is arranged as it was during the original Constitutional Convention. In the adjacent West Wing, the actual inkstand used to sign the Declaration of Independence and an original draft of the Constitution are prominently displayed. Pro-tip: Guests who tour Independence Hall during January or February may even get a chance to see the second floor of the iconic building. Text of the Declaration as follows:   When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature; a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands. He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers. He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent of our legislatures. He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to the civil power. He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation: For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us; For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states; For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world; For imposing taxes on us without our consent; For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses; For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these colonies; For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments; For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation. He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions. In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress, in the most humble terms. Our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. Eatin' good in Philly ~4 min. Things to do in Philly - ~13 min. A park ranger gives a tour of Independence Hall ~3 min. Interesting Maps... Red and Orange sections have equal populations. Word Play... When one door closes and another door opens, you are probably in prison. * * * * * * * * * * * * To me, "drink responsibly" means don't spill it. * * * * * * * * * * * * Age 60 might be the new 40, but 9:00 pm is the new midnight. * * * * * * * * * * * * It's the start of a brand new day, and I'm off like a herd of turtles. * * * * * * * * * * * * The older I get, the earlier it gets late. * * * * * * * * * * * * When I say, "The other day," I could be referring to any time between yesterday and 15 years ago. * * * * * * * * * * * * I remember being able to get up without making sound effects. * * * * * * * * * * * * I had my patience tested. I'm negative. * * * * * * * * * * * * Remember, if you lose a sock in the dryer, it comes back as a Tupperware lid that doesn't fit any of your containers. * * * * * * * * * * * * If you're sitting in public and a stranger takes the seat next to you, just stare straight ahead and say, "Did you bring the money?" * * * * * * * * * * * * When you ask me what I am doing today, and I say "nothing," it does not mean I am free. It means I am doing nothing. * * * * * * * * * * * * I finally got eight hours of sleep. It took me three days, but whatever. * * * * * * * * * * * * I run like the winded. * * * * * * * * * * * * I hate when a couple argues in public, and I missed the beginning and don't know whose side I'm on. * * * * * * * * * * * * When someone asks what I did over the weekend, I squint and ask, "Why, what did you hear?" * * * * * * * * * * * * When you do squats, are your knees supposed to sound like a goat chewing on an aluminum can stuffed with celery? * * * * * * * * * * * * I don't mean to interrupt people. I just randomly remember things and get really excited. * * * * * * * * * * * * When I ask for directions, please don't use words like "east." * * * * * * * * * * * * Don't bother walking a mile in my shoes. That would be boring. Spend 30 seconds in my head. That'll freak you right out. * * * * * * * * * * * * Sometimes, someone unexpected comes into your life out of nowhere, makes your heart race, and changes you forever. We call those people cops. * * * * * * * * * * * * My luck is like a bald guy who just won a comb. My Nephew's Short Film Great work Spencer Kolssak.  ~3 minutes BLINK BLINK BLINK Lawyers should never ask a Georgia grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know me?' She responded, 'Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.' The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, 'Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?' She again replied, 'Why yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster, too. He's lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.' The defense attorney nearly died. The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and, in a very quiet voice, said,   'If either of you idiots asks her if she knows me, I'll send you both to the electric chair." Woah! More Nonsense. Venice Beach Shampoo Prank Imagine if you couldn't get the shampoo out of your hair... VIDEO ~7 minutes. Peanuts sings ZZ Top... This is AWESOME..... ~4 min. Good Vandelism? Amazing Beer Trick Check this trick out - VIDEO ~ 5 minutes Colorized Vintage Historic Photos... Then vs. Now... Randomness... Bourbon Bacon and Beef Chili Ingredients 1 big can crushed tomatoes 2 big cans (haha) of diced tomatoes 2 habanero peppers diced 1 serrano pepper diced 2 white onions diced 1 green pepper diced 2 poblano peppers fired, peeled and diced 2.5 lbs. beef tenderloin trimmed and cubed 1 lb. ground chuck 24 oz. maple cured bacon cooked and diced 1 dozen Whole chilis de arbol Real maple syrup ½ cup good bourbon ½ cup brown sugar Cayenne pepper powder Chipotle pepper powder Chili powder Caldo de sabor de rez Directions Cube and trim the tenderloin. Season with Caldo con sabor de rez (beef boullion) and cumin.  Cook with a dozen chilis de arbol until cooked.  Strain and remove chilis.  Cook ground chuck in a similar fashion using some chili powder, salt and chipotle pepper seasoning to taste.  You are trying to create different tastes that will combine nicely.  Remember that. Strain and leave with the rest of the beef.  Set aside.  Cook the bacon on parchment paper in the oven at 400 degrees until done.  Use the bacon grease to cook the onions and peppers until soft about 7 minutes.  Then add the canned tomatoes.  Simmer for a while reducing the mixture.   Dice the cooked bacon, place in a bowl and cover with maple syrup.  Add ½ cup of good bourbon and ½ cup brown sugar. Set aside.   Once the tomato / onion mixture has cooked off some of the water, add the bacon mix.  Cook down mixture a bit and add drained beef.  Add cayenne pepper, chili powder, 4 cloves of freshly pressed garlic and salt to taste.  Don’t forget about your poblano peppers that should be diced and added.   Place contents into a crock pot on low and stir occasionally to ensure it does not burn.   Serve with Mexican Crema, raw diced onion, corn bread and shredded cheddar cheese if you like.  Enjoy!