EVEN THE APPLE TREES...

APPLE TREES ON HWY. J...

...IN THE ORCHARD COUNTRY, APPLES PICKED, AND LEAVES TURNED A  BURNISHED GOLD

Monday, 9:00 AM.  53 degrees F at the ferry dock, 50 on the back porch.  Wind SW, very gusty.  The sky is partly cloudy but clearing, the humidity 69%.  The barometer is more or less steady, currently at 30.08".  Seasonally mild weather continues for the next ten days, with highs around 50 and no frost or significant rainfall.

   I have never seen a longer or more colorful fall.  Usually the apple tree leaves more or less turn dull yellow-brown and fall off.  This fall, even the apple trees are glorious.

OFF THE CUFF

I think Donald Trump will win in a landslide.  It will be a stealth election, coming seemingly out of nowhere.  The reason?  Trump supporters are reluctant to be identified;  reluctant to put up signs (mine has been vandalized twice) and to put Trump bumper stickers on their vehicles because they don't want them "keyed" in a parking lot.  They don't want their home spray painted, or worse.
   They are tired of false and politicized science,  political dirty tricks, and a politicized and demoralized military devoted to arcane social policies.

   Trump supporters are unlikely to speak up in public, because they don't want to be called racist, or homophobic, or  sexist, or a Nazi.  They are fearful of being targeted by the IRS.  They are tired or being classified as "unredeemable" or worse, just because they believe that aborting 50 million babies in the US in the last thirty years was the wrong thing to do, and that killing a baby in the birth canal is infanticide; or because they see our foreign policy as flawed, or race baiting as destroying our society.  Or, because they believe no one should be above the law.  Or, just because they have a different world view than someone else.  Or, just because they are a  Christian.

   So the Trump supporters keep quiet unless they are surrounded by others of their persuasion at a rally, or when they are with a few others in the barber shop, or the beauty shop, or anywhere they can feel each other out and find that they are among friends.

   Political correctness and unprecedented intimidation have turned our country into a fledgling police state. Thank God for the sanctity of the voting booth, where a ballot can be cast in private, without intimidation or personal attack.

   

HANG ON TO YOUR HATS...AND TO YOUR GUNS AND BIBLES!