Possible USA Presidential Election chaos twist?

Possible Presidential election chaos twist:

The GOP splits into two parties, the Trump wing and the establishment Republicans. Three strong contestants (Trump: Clinton or Sanders: and an old-school Republican) for the election.

None of the three win an absolute majority of the electoral vote.

Thus, the election is thrown into the House of Representatives.

The ***newly-elected*** Congress would choose the President under these rules: *** one Presidential vote per State. ***

If the newly-elected Congress had the same makeup as the current Congress, the Republicans would have about a two-to-one margin in States. But would they split between the old guard GOP and the Trumpers?

If they can't agree on an absolute majority, then the newly-elected Vice-President becomes President. But if there is also a three way split amongst Veep electoral votes and no VP candidate has a majority, the way I read things, the Speaker of the House would become President- at least until someone gets a majority.

Thus, we could have President Paul Ryan next year? At least for a while?

I'm not saying Tom Gill Predicts this officially, but you heard it here first.

Chicken Fried Steak and the Mysteries of Culinary Linguistic Geography

After I moved to Texas, the first time my parents came to visit from California, I took them out to dinner. Dad ordered chicken fried steak and was perplexed and surprised when he got a beef dish. He thought it was a chicken dish. A fried steak of chicken.  My momma, may she rest in peace, actually often made a similar dish for Dad and I, growing up in California. But she called it "Swiss Steak."   “Why didn’t they tell me I’d be getting swiss steak?,” Dad asked.

Similarly, the first time my good friend Javier came from Mexico City to visit me in Texas, I took him to dinner.  He was confused about an item on the menu- chicken fried steak. I explained to him that it was a Texas version of a "milanesa." "Ahora me acuerdo," he said.

And come to think of it, analogously, when I had colleagues come over from Europe, I had to explain to them that in Texas, "chicken fried steak" is the equivalent of what they know as "wiener schnitzel." And, to confuse them further, the place named "Der Wienerschnitzel" doesn't serve wienerschnitzel, or chicken fried steak, but instead, is a place to get hot dogs. Which are frankfurters. Not made from dogs. And now Burger King sells something called "grilled dogs," and every time I see that on the sign at the Burger King down the road, brings to my mind that they are barbecuing puppies or something awful like that.

I love these mysteries of culinary linguistic geography!

Pancho and Henry

100 years ago yesterday morning, Pancho Villa and his Mexican rebels invaded the United States at Columbus, New Mexico, about 100 kilometers west of El Paso, coming in across the border from the adjacent village of Palomas (next to Laguna Palomas, one of the dry desert lake beds that occasionally floods and also is a regular source of massive dust plumes- all things we're researching). That set in motion the "Punitive Expedition" led by General Pershing, or, as my grand-pappy called it, the "Mexican Fracas."  Records of the campaign discuss how the stifling dust storms of the Chihuahuan Desert created a great challenge for the American forces, and allowed the Mexicans to take cover and escape or hide (a tactic now used by ISIS and other forces in the Middle East).  

 

My grandfather Henry F. Kamps (photo below in the Army uniform, near the end of his career) was one of Pershing's sidemen, chasing Pancho into Mexico. As a little boy, Grandpa would entertain me with tales of riding his horse in the wild West in the Army- for a young lad, that was a double dip of awesomeness, whoa, Grandpa was a soldier AND a cowboy!   About a decade ago, long after Grandfather died (he passed in the early 1970s), my mother and I were looking through some old family records, and found out that Grandpa was the first member of my family to live in El Paso- he was stationed at Fort Bliss- and could be said to be amongst the first Americans to do on-the-ground field reconnaissance of the Chihuahuan Desert terrain, as well as undoubtedly observe its arid landforms and dusty winds.  My oldest sister tells me that Grandpa Kamps told her that since he was young and just starting his military career at the time, they wouldn't let him carry a gun, but instead, he was one of the mounted troops carrying the American flag in the Punitive Expedition.  Grandpa was apparently quite a good cavalry officer: we found records that he took part in equestrian competitions at Fort Bliss on his faithful stallion "Rex," and won awards for horsemanship.  

General Pershing liked Grandpa well enough that (lucky him?) Henry was chosen to go over to Europe with "Black Jack" and the Allies when the USA entered World War I, and he supposedly helped survey and lay out some trenches (via the US Army Corps of Engineers or equivalent) in the last days of trench warfare; he participated in at least one of those infamous battles, and luckily survived.  Grandpa Kamps had a long career as an army officer, rising to Lieutenant Colonel, and staying on active duty through World War II (as an administrator/manager of a military depot in Oregon, as well as in the Army justice/legal system) and finally retiring after the Korean war, living in the Cleveland area before moving to California.

The last photo below is me, little "Tommy," apparently a horsethief as well as rebel (notice my "Texas Stallion"?), perhaps pretending that he was one of Pancho's men firing back at Grandpappy's forces.  Little boys in the USA like to play Cowboys and Indians, or, perhaps, soldiers and revolutionaries?

And now Henry Kamps' grandson is using satellites from space, lasers, and atom smashers to study that same dusty terrain Grandpa traversed with the flag ​on horseback.  How far we've come.

For our local newspaper retrospective, see this:  http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/history/2016/03/08/100-years-later-columbus-remembers-pancho-villa/81465718/​

And as a coda, here's a video clip of one of my favourite songs ever.  It's got Pancho, Lefty (I can't remember if my grandpa was left-handed or not?), "the desert down in Mexico," dust (bit down South), and Cleveland.  I have to admit I feel like Pancho (in this song) sometimes- after all, I almost indeed met my match, you know, on the desert down in Mexico a dozen years ago.  

Six Rules To Remember

SIX RULES TO REMEMBER IN LIFE:

1. Forgive your enemy, but remember the bastard's name.

2. Money can't buy happiness, but it's nicer to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle.

3. Help somebody when they're in trouble, and they'll remember you when they're in trouble again.

4. Many people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them.

5. Alcohol doesn't solve any problems, but neither does milk.

6. The grass on the other side is greener because it's fertilized by bullshit.