Hammer Mill Days

You may say I've got a lot to learn. Seems like this is the perfect spot to learn. No, I'm NOT playing Vegas ... not yet, anyway. (Though I did spend a summer in Reno once. Long story, which I'll spare you.) Raining like hell here at the Cheney Hammer Mill. Wish we had invested in that new roof a few years back, when we were overflowing with Neptunian shekels from our last interstellar tour. Those were the days .... NOT. Yeah, the water is coming in like ... well ... water from the sky. The mansized tuber is loving it. Not Marvin (my personal robot assistant), though. His brass finish is getting tarnished in the humid summer weather we get up here in upstate New York, and this is certainly not doing it any good. (Kind of vain, actually, that robot. I think he sees himself as a Tyrone Power lookalike. He needs to download some newer movies.) Over the last few weeks the humidity has been rising. Our mad science advisor Mitch Macaphee, inventor of Marvin, insists that it i...

Pressed again this week, so I'm going to comment briefly on a few topics. Stop me if I get ahead of myself. Eliminate the middleman. I guess it's official: Donald Trump is a phenomenon. Of course, in a field of seventeen candidates, all you need for first-tier status is to poll in the double digits. It's not surprising that a quarter of the Republican activist electorate find his brand of arrogant, reality-star crackpotism attractive. He does make one valid point, I will admit - he doesn't need another billionaire to bankroll him, unlike his 16 rivals. That's because he's his own billionaire. So that's his competitive advantage, right? No middleman necessary. Let the rich rule directly. Let's hear it for feudalism! Submit yourself to the will of the landlord! Schumer's gambit. Senator Schumer has defended his decision to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran by suggesting that a deal more favorable to the U.S. and Israel can be forced through ext...