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My Turn - RNC dumps dumb deal
Thomas Vaughn
Thomas Vaughn
Published: Feb 4, 2024, 3:10 AM

A Republican National Committee member, named David Bossie from Maryland floated briefly, and then sank, a resolution. It read, “RESOLVED that the Republican National Committee hereby declares President Trump as our presumptive 2024 nominee for the office of President of the United States and from this moment forward moves into full general election  mode welcoming supporters of all candidates as valued members of Team Trump 2024.”

Given the obvious fact that Trump currently has only 32 delegates, and he needs 1,215 to nail the nomination, this was a dumb idea. It would be tantamount to a coronation of Trump by the few to the detriment  of the many avid Trump voters waiting  to vote him into and beyond the magic number of 1,215.

Ironically, even Donald Trump opposed the resolution, “While I greatly appreciate the Republican National Committee (RNC) wanting to make me their PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE, and while they have far more votes than necessary to do it, I feel, for the sake of PARTY UNITY, that they should NOT go forward with this plan, but that I should do it the “Old Fashioned” way, and finish the process off AT THE BALLOT BOX.” That’s all Trump wrote, but it was enough to deep six a dumb idea.

Oscar Brock, an RNC member from Tennessee, said he heard of  the resolution Thursday  afternoon and feels it “certainly violates the intent of” of RNC rules around the presidential primaries. The rules specifically say you’re not the guy until you you’ve gotten 50 percent  plus one of the delegates required for the convention. I would think that we would be more open to to letting more people have a say in this  process before declaring it over.”  

 Apparently, some members of the RNC, who thought doing it Trump’s way would take too long, must have been  suffering from what I call Coronation Complex Disorder (CCD). In my view, that mindset is antithetical to the American way of elections, national, state and local.

Meanwhile, let the British and others have their time-honored traditions of pomp and circumstance. But here in “The land of the free and the home of the brave,” let us continue to nominate and elect those who serve us and work for us, the old-fashioned way.


Retired Army Colonel Thomas B. Vaughn may be reached at tbvbwmi@benlomand.net.
Where Did That Come From? - Cat Nap
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Stan St. Clair
Published: Mar 14, 2025, 1:19 AM

Well, I want to wish all my appreciated readers a happy St. Patrick's Day!

At my age, I feel like I need a cat nap every day!

Forms of this metaphoric expression have been used for 200 years to describe a short period of sleep during the day. Cats sleep long periods at a time, so it may seem strange to call it by this name. Some researchers say it started in Ancient Egypt when cats were sacred and Pharaohs began to emulate the way cats sleep. But there are no records to indicate that.

When cats sleep, they are sound asleep one minute and awake the next - there is no drowsy period trying to wake up; hence, the cat nap. The first use was actually 'cat's nap.' The earliest known citation is from The Pioneers, or the Sources of the Susquehanna; a Descriptive Tale by James Fenimore Cooper, 1823, on page 156:

"Why d'ye see, Squire, the parson was very solemn, and I just closed my eyes in order to think the better with myself, just the same as you'd put in the dead lights to make all snug, and when I opened them ag'in I found the congregation were getting under weigh for home, so I calculated the ten minutes would cover the lee-way after the glass was out. It was only some such matter as a cat's nap."

Cooper used it the same way 2 years later in Lionel Lincoln, on page 111, 1825:

"Wine should never slumber on its lees until it has been well rolled in the trough of a sea for a few months; then, indeed, you may set it asleep and yourself by the side of it, if you like a cat's nap. As orthodox a direction for the ripening of wine ..."

It continued to be cited in books as cat's nap for the next ten years, then in 1835, Harper and Brothers in New York published Matilda Douglas' Blackbeard: A Page from the Colonial History of Philadelphia in which contained the following at the beginning of Chapter XIX, on page 225:

"Towards two of the morning, not long after the moon had gone down, Nero, who was sitting up for his master, was aroused from a cat-nap, into which he had insensibly fallen, by a subdued murmur of rough voices, and a heavy tramp of many men passing along Penn-street ..."

In the late 19th century three dictionaries were published listing 'cat-nap'. The first was Americanisms, Old and New, 1889, by John Stephen Farmer.

"Cat-nap. — This is given by Lowell as a short doze"

(Presumably famed American writer-poet John Russell Lowell)