POLITICS AND RACE AT THE POLICE UNION

by Bob Walsh

Things are not wonderful in Inglewood, N. J.  Nor are they wonderful within the Inglewood P D or the Police Benevolent Association, the union which represents  the cops there.

The union has suspended eight officers from membership.  Seven of those officers are Black.  The Chief and Deputy Chief are Black.  There was a vote of no confidence taken by the PBA directed against the Chief and Deputy Chief by the PBA in the wake of the BLM bullshit earlier this year.  The suspended officers were largely supportive of the current administration.  Several other Black officers quit the PBA in solidarity with those who were suspended.

The union says the suspensions have nothing to do with race and everything to do with the officers allegedly divulging confidential union information when they sent a letter out supporting the Chief and Deputy Chief, directed to the mayor and City Council.

Inglewood has a pupulation of about 28,000, about 1/4 of who are Black.

WHATS NEW AND WONDERFUL IN CALIFORNIA

by Bob Walsh

Several interesting but probably not real helpful laws will kick in in the formerly great state of California in the New Year.

Police are now legally prohibited from using choke holds or carotid holds on resistive criminals.

Persons who have been convicted of crimes can challenge either their conviction or their sentence by asserting some level of racial bias at ANY STAGE of the legal proceedings against them.

Parolees are now legally able to vote in CA.

The old California Youth Authority, now the Division of Juvenile Justice, is dead and stinking.  Effective 07-01-21 the Office of Youth and Community Restoration will operate at the county level to oversee the treatment and rehabilitation of youthful offenders, including those who are truly violent and dangerous.  As far as I can tell this "treatment" will essentially involve telling them repeatedly that they are victims of society and are not really bad people just because they are murderers, armed robbers and rapists.  

In addition newly passed AB2425 makes it pretty much impossible to unseal a juvenile police record.

It is now specifically illegal to ride a bicycle in a public swimming pool.

In San Francisco you can not now legally get naked at a public event unless that event has a legitimate police permit.  

Driverless cars are not allowed to drive faster than 60 MPH in California, and must have a licensed driver in the car who is financially liable for damage caused by the vehicle.

Also, though it is not a new law (in fact it is old) it is illegal in California to eat frogs that died during a frog jumping contest.  Really.

MERRY CORONAVIRUS

Like millions of other Americans, I disregarded the CDC warning to stay put and went off to celebrate Christmas away from home ..... for a Merry Coronavirus at the hospital

 

By Howie Katz

By now, most of you must have noted my absence from BGB.  Like millions of other Americans, I disregarded the CDC warning to stay home and went off to celebrate Christmas away from home.

Well, it wasn't exactly like that.  After two hard falls within a 19-hour period on December 22, my son took me to the emergency room at Clear Lake Regional Medical Center.  The ER nurse was very proficient, giving me a thorough examination.  

A nursing student from College of the Mainland where I taught criminal justice for years, started to take my temperature when I noticed she was about to stick a rectal thermometer in my mouth.   When I said, "whoa there young lady, do you realize you're about to stick a rectal thermometer in my mouth," shy became hysterical, ran out of the ER bay and yelled,"you can stick it up your ass!" 

The regular nurse laughed and told me not to worry, that she always became hysterical whenever someone questioned what she was doing. Anyhow, my temperature was over 101 and a coronavirus test showed that I was suffering from COVID-19.  They put me in an adjacent holding room waiting for a regular hospital room to come available.  

After about 4-hours the nursing student shows up and tells me she's taking me to a room.  She rolls me down a long hallway till we get to a dead end.  The hallway to the right reads "Main Tower" and the hallway to the let reads "Pathology."  Guess which way she turned?  That's right, to the left.  After rolling me down this hallway, we come to a set of double doors guarded by a man sleeping behind a desk.  She barged right on by until we found ourselves in a long and cold dark room with about a dozen beds holding bodies covered by white sheets.  "Holy shit!" I yelled, "we're in the morgue!"  The nursing student promptly passed out.  After about 15-minutes, someone heard me yelling and took me to my room.  As for that nursing student, she needs to switch from nursing to cosmetology just as soon as they pick her up off the floor.

Seriously though, I spent seven-days in the hospital including Christmas day.  I got back home Tuesday evening.  I feel terrible because I'm constipated.

NOTE: I've got word fro Bob Walsh and all those who mock the lockdowns and the wearing of masks and social distancing.  Stop mocking those measures!  I've now caught coronavirus, albeit a mild case, and it's no mocking matter.

HEROIN DEPRIVED SONNY LISTON OF HIS HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING TITLE

Muhammad Ali the greatest of all? ..... far, far, far from it!

By Howie Katz

Ali takes full advantage of Liston's heroin high

Boxing writers and his fans have credited Muhammad Ali as the greatest fighter of all time.  Let's give Ali the credit he is due.  Ali was truly a great fighter, but the greatest of all?  Far, far, far from it!

 

Under-reported or just plain ignored by the boxing writers was the fact that heroin robbed Sonny Liston of his heavyweight boxing title.  Early on, Ali sustained such a beating from Liston that at the end of a round he begged his handler Angelo Dundee to stop the fight.  Dundee refused to stop the fight and heroin took control of Liston, depriving him of his championship. 

 

Ali miht well have gone on to win the World Heavyweight Championship, but not against a drug-free Liston who is suspected of dying from a heroin overdose in 1970.

 

Ali was a really great rhymer.  His best known rhyme: "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

 

But there were a number of other heavyweights that would have made the rhyme sound more like: "Float like a rock, sting like a butterfly."

 

Beside a sober Liston, there was undefeated Rocky Marciano, the great Joe Louis, a Jersey Joe Walcott in his prime, Jack Dempsey and now marijuana manufacturer Mike Tyson, all of whom could have sent Ali packing off to a life of poetry.

 

Comparing fighters is a relative thing because it does not take into consideration differences in weight.   For instance, had the great Sugar Ray Robinson been a heavyweight, he would hae given Ali the boxing lesson of his life before knocking him outt cold.

 

Then there was Featherweight Champion Sandy Saddler .  

 

 Saddler (left) vs. Willie Pepe in one of their epic four bouts

Saddler pound for pound was probably the hardest puncher in boxing history.  Saddler was also a polished boxer.  Had he been a heavyweight, Saddler would have made Ali listen to the birds tweet.

 

Among others was Stanly Ketchel, the Michigan Assassin.

 

The great middleweight Stanley Ketchel

David vs. Goliath: Outweighed 49 pounds, Stanley Ketchel floors Jack Johnson in the 12th round

Stanley Ketchel was a fearsome and fearless middleweight who would take on all comers no matter how much they outweighed him.  He even fought the great heavyweight champion Jack Johnson.  Although outweighed 49 pounds, the Michigan Assassin managed to knock the Galveston Giant off his feet in the 12th round before Johnson got up off the floor to flatten the challenger.  Can you imagine what would have happened to Ali had he fought a heavyweight Ketchel?  The Michigan Assassin would have sent Ali rushing to the dustbin of boxing history.

 

But that was then and this is now.  Boxing is no longer politically correct!  We are now in the Obama era of peacemaking where we appease our enemies to avoid a fight at any cost. 

OMG, HE'S GOT A GUN

by Bob Walsh

Yes, it is true.  Two members of the Los Angeles City Council are moving to arm the 30 L A City Park Rangers.  Within the last four years there have been a total of 38 homicides, 167 shootings, 267 rapes and 1,844 assaults in the city's 450 parks.  

Park Rangers are peace officers under the law and have arrest authority, but are specifically NOT permitted to carry arms on duty under city law.  

This move is supported by the LAPD and various other interest groups, but probably not by BLM, Anti-Fa or other groups that actually count for something in LA so the outcome of this proposal is dubious.

STOCKTON RACKS UP HOMICIDE # 56 THIS YEAR

by Bob Walsh

Early Tuesday the crime-ridden and gang-infested excrement pit that is Stockton racked up it's 56th homicide of the year.  It is extremely likely there will be at least one or two more on New Year's eve.  This won't be a record for Stockton but is certainly worth an honorable mention.

The large majority of homicides in Stockton seem to be gang related, though we do have our share of domestics and ordinary street crime as well.  A well rounded city is nice.

THE FEDS ARE COMING TO TOWN

And They Actually Are Here To Help 

by Bob Walsh

The feds have sent military medical teams to assist staffing at Lodi Memorial Hospital in Lodi and Dameron Hospital in Stockton.  They have adequate space to deal with overflow of Covid-19 patients, but are critically short on staff.  This also occurred back in July.

The current team is two doctors, two PAs, seven respiratory therapists, 24 RNs and assorted support staff.  They are anticipating surges due to people getting together for family gatherings from Christmas and New Year celebrations.  Strangely, transmissions from restaurant visits are less than 2% according to the contact tracing programs, but the restaurants are still shut down and people are going broke.

TREE HUGGERS ARE IN A QUANDRY

by Bob Walsh

The Sage Grouse is an interesting bird, native to northern California.  Its numbers are seriously declining, due to intrusion into its habitat by a non-native grass.  This grass makes the area very susceptible to wild fires, which is kind of hard on the birds nesting areas.

There is a herbicide that is very effective in controlling this stuff, but of course if you say "herbicide" or "chemical spraying" to the tree huggers they either faint or start screaming obscenities at you.  Unfortunately if they do not do something about it pretty soon the birds may be gone.  It's kind of like a Christian Scientist with a hot appendix.  Damned if you do, dead if you don't.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article247379964.html?ac_cid=DM353769&ac_bid=-1011580384

COUNT CLEAR AT MINUS ONE

by Bob Walsh

It seems that one of the boys terminally rehabilitated his cellie at New Folsom Prison in Sacramento County, CA on Christmas Day.  The dead guy had a bunch of puncture wounds in his body and the not-dead guy didn't have any.

The dead guy was doing 11 years for ADW out of Yolo County.  The not-dead guy was doing 8 years for arson out of Sacramento County.

Prisons will continue to be unpleasant places until we start incarcerating a better class of people.

737 MAX EARNING MONEY AGAIN

by Bob Walsh

The Boeing 737 Max is back in passenger service in the U S as of 12-29-2020.  They did something pretty radical and actually supplied training for the pilots.  In the previous unfortunate rollout the "training" was an iBook program and no simulator time.  That has been remedied.  Also, if I recall correctly, they now have as standard equipment two air speed indicator sensors so with a bit of luck the plane will know the actual air speed.  Also the pilots now know how to turn off the frigging computer and actually fly the damn airplane if the computer starts telling them stupid shit.

Automated system can be very nice.  Modern airliners can even land themselves if the airport has the right equipment.  However it is nice if the pilots can actually control the aircraft if excrement occurs.

NOW THIS IS FUCKING SCARY

by Bob Walsh

New York Assembly Bill 416. if passed into law, would allow the Governor to order the "removal or detention" of person who are, or who are SUSPECTED OF MAYBE BEING, infected with or carriers or spreaders of Covid-19.  They could be detained in a facility designated by the Governor for this purpose.  The Governor may confer with public health officials on the identification of such persons, but is not required to do so.

Maybe he will lock them up in rehab facilities after he has killed off another several thousand residents. There will be plenty of space then.  

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2021/a416

CA LOCKDOWN TO CONTINUE UNTIL MAMMALS BECOME EXTINCT

by Bob Walsh

The God-Emperor of the formerly great state of California, Gavin Newsom, has announced that he intends to decree that the lockdown of most of the state (excepting high-end restaurants in wine country) will likely continue until mammals become extinct by natural selection.  This will leave liberals and other invertebrates relatively unaffected, though it is not clear who will pay the taxes to keep the state semi-functional.  Perhaps the Federal Money Fairy will drop by to rescue the staste from it's own idiocy.  I am, however, unsure I would count on that. 

LORI LAUGHLIN SPRUNG FROM THE BIG HOUSE

by Bob Walsh

Actress Lori Laughlin has served out the required portion of her two months in federal camp friendly at Dublin, CA and is now home.  I wonder if she got any interesting tattoos or had any amusing close personal encounters?  Probably not.

Her husband is about one month into his five month sentence.  He is doing his stretch at Lompoc.  

It is still unknown if she will be able to assume her acting career or if her daughters are even the least bit ashamed of their participation in this debacle.  

I still think it would make a good Hallmark made-for-TV movie.

OTHER GREAT FIGHTER'S I'VE PERSONALLY KNOWN

Beside Rocky Graziano, I've personally known the greats Carmen Basilio and Rocky Marciano, Billy Graham , Buddy Garcia and the not Great Chief Gordon House

 

By Howie Katz

Carmen Basilio: Determination, Perseverance, guts and lots of heart

One day around 1950 I was sitting in the Manhattan waiting room of  a NY fight promoter.  Sitting across from me also waiting to see the promoter was a craggy faced man.  After I introduced myself, he told me his name was Carmen Basislio and that he was from upstate Canastota.  Although his boxing record at the time of the introduction was rather spotty, he told me,"I'm going to win a world championship, you can bet on it!"  And he did, but not only the World Welterweitht Championship, but also the World Middleweight Championship. 

 

Rocky Marciano: A small man for a heavyweight but a heavy puncher who was the undefeated world heavyweight champion 

 

When I was in NY, I used to go to Stillman's Gymnasium every day to watch the fighters work out.  I used to remain after the gym was closed to the public when the ranking fighters work out.  Usually I was sitting next to a small guy with tree-trunk arms.  We would exchange comments about the fighters working out in the ring.  After a week or so it occurred to me that we had not introduced each other.  I told him my name was Howie Katz, and he replied, I'm Rocky Marciano."  You could have floored me with a sledge hammer.  Never in my wildest dream would I have thought I's be sitting with the undefeated World Heavyweight Champion.   Trainers considered him "Too old, almost 25. He was too short, he was too light. He had no reach. Rough and tough, but no finesse." What a nice and unpretentious guy!  

 

Billy Graham: Welterweight had 126 fights, never knocked off his feet         

 

 Billy Graham disfigures Kid Gavilan's mug.

I knew Billy Graham because he was also managed by Irving Cohen, the manager of Rocky Graziano.   One time Billy and I went to the wake of a family member.  The Irish sure know how to hold wakes.  Can't remember ever having had more fun time.  

Buddy Garcia: Galveston's own and a leading lightweight contender

Buddy Garcia was my best friend when I lived in Galveston.  He got me my first job at Todd Shipyards when I got out of the army in 1945.  We remained close until my wife and I moved to California in 1955.  I remember one time I was with buddy in a Galveston club where he was playing poker  One of the players was City Recorder - now known as municipal judge - Eddie Janek.  Suddenly for some reason Janek burst out with a foul anti-Semitic crack.   Buddy immediately jumped up and in front of everybody threatened to kick the shit out of Janek for making that remark "in front of my Jewish friend, Howie!"  Janek went on to become a County Commissioner and was honored by having a county building renamed after him.  Th me, the bastard will always be remembered as an anti-Semitic piece of shit.

Chief Gordon House: How do you keep an alcoholic fighter sober?

Gordon House was not a great fighter, but he was sure a great drinker.  The Navajo Indian fought many of his lightweight fights in Houston and Galveston.  One day in New York, Rocky Graziano's manager Irving Cohen called me into his office and said he had an important job for me to do,   He was also managing the Chief and was getting him ready to take on World Featherweight Champion Sandy Saddler, one of the hardest punchers in boxing history.  Irving told me "Whatever you do, keep him out of bars.!"  Hah, easier said then done.  Gordon and I were walking past an Irish pub when the Chief tugged at my arm and said "Let's get one beer."  He jerked me inside.  There were 3 or 4 men drinking at the bar.  The moment we walked in, the bartender a huge burly man, took one look at me and shouted,"Get your dirty ass out of here, we don't allow damn Jews in here.!"  In the blink of an eye, Gordon grabs the guy, jerks him over the bar, and proceeds to beat the supreme shit out of him.  Gordon told him, "From now on you'll serve Jews in here!"  I managed to pull Gordon of the busted-up bartender and told him we'd better leave in a hurry before the cops show up.  Gordon went on to fight Saddler and actually knocked him on his ass before the champion decided he'd better put a stop tho it, which he decidedly did.  

EDITOR'S NOTE: Now you've see why I enjoyed my time around fighter so much.  Just thought I'd publish this before my time on earth is up.

BIDEN ALREADY BACK-PEDDLING

by Bob Walsh

According to Joe Biden 1 days is the same thing as six months.

You might remember than, among the several dozen things he promised to do on his first day in office, was to essentially open the border for anybody who wanted to come.  Gang members.  Diseased gang members.  People who will sign up for government benefits as they cross the border.  Unaccompanied minors.  Drug mules.  ANYBODY.  

Guess what.  Yesterday, while standing in front of his very official looking OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT ELECT backdrop, he acknowledged that it will be technically impossible for him to do that.  It may take as much as six months.  Of course all those people in Honduras didn't necessarily hear him or believe him.  They are forming up new caravans as you read this.

So, is Joe Biden merely clueless or is he a lying sack of shit?  Since he has worked in the swamp for nearly 50 years I am guessing that he knew very well he could not accomplish what he promised when he promised it.  That leaves.............

CHECKING THE BOXES

by Bob Walsh

Gavin Newsom, the God-Emperor of the formerly great state of California, announced yesterday that he would appoint a Latino to take over Kamala Harris' senate seat, and a Black female to take over the office left vacant by that appointment.  I will not bother telling you the names or the offices involved because it does not matter.  Neither do their qualifications.  Ethnic identity and gender identity are the minimum qualifications for political appointments in California.

ROAD RAGE TURNED DEADLY

But Not For The Good Guy

by Bob Walsh

This one went down near Fort Wright, Kentucky a few weeks back.  This 43-year old man was driving along and got in a modest accident with an aggressive driver.  The man pulled over and called the local constabulary.  While he was on the phone with the cops the aggressive driver got out of his car with a rifle and approached the good guy.  The 911 call picked up the verbal back and fourth, and then the shots.  

When the smoke cleared the good guy got off four shots, the bad guy zero.  The fact that there were a lot of empty alcohol bottles in his vehicle might have had something to do with his aggressive driving and poor gun handling.  The bad guy left in a body bag.  The cops said it was a good shooting.  

It is better to have a gun etc. etc.

ALMOST BEING THE FIRST IS NOT NECESSARILY A GREAT HONOR

by Bob Walsh

The people who keep track of such things insist that there is no RECORDED death of a human being by wolves in North America.  (There was a woman killed in Canada a year or two back by wolf-coyote crossbreeds.)  A fellow in Stevens County, Washington, almost got to be numero uno, a record I am sure he was happy to avoid.

He was out checking his game cameras when he was surrounded by a pack of wolves.  After being unable to scare them away he whipped out his trusty Browning rifle and shot one of the wolves very dead.  The others suddenly remembered they had dentist appointments somewhere else.  

The department of fish and game sent a person out to investigate and the game cameras back up the shooter's story.  I don't know if they let him keep the pelt or not.

COVID WARD MURDER

by Bob Walsh

At a hospital in Antelope, CA it appears that one Covid ward patient murdered another Covid ward patient yesterday.  The 80-year old victim was beaten to death with an oxygen bottle,  apparently by his room mate.

AMONG THE MANY THINGS I DID NOT KNOW

by Bob Walsh

I was reading my new (01-21) issue of The Rifleman and came across an article about the last American shot fired during WW II.  It was fired from a B-32 bomber.  I did not know the B-32 was ever deployed for combat duty during WW II.  There were only slightly more than 100 ever made and production stopped at the end of WW II.  

It seems that two of them went up on a photo recon mission and were attacked by 17 Japanese fighters.  The last American shots were fired by a Browning .50 caliber machine gun, which is hardly a surprise under the circumstances.  The action also resulted in the last combat death of an American serviceman during that war, a poor fellow named Anthony J. Marchiano, a 20-year old Sergeant.