Ehh - Who Needs It

We are in soooo much trouble. We live in a super dangerous world with a large portion of it wishing America harm. On any given day, armed conflicts are taking place all over the world. Death and destruction are everywhere. Plots are being hatched against us by the largest world powers all the way down to the smallest terrorist cells. We are being attacked from all angles - economically, technologically and militarily just to name a few.

With an "I don't give a care" attitude, our president-elect has shunned the daily intelligence briefings the  future leader of the free world should put as a top priority on his "to do" list. Instead, it seems, his twitter feed comes first. He's getting his intelligence from "other sources" such as his phone calls from other world leaders (like they're not as much of a liar as he is), or the internet and social media (and we all know everything we see and read there is the "gospel truth"), or finally Fox News (no comment needed).

Not only are Americans gonna take a hit from this election, but all the citizens of the world who have held the US as a beacon of hope against the tyranny they face every day are gonna take a hit as well. Like I said - we are all in soooo much trouble. Till next time - R

Waaa Waaa Waaa

"Number of Trump tweets about the recount: 12

Number of Trump tweets about hate crimes: 0"

Interesting that Donnie spent the better part of his presidential campaign claiming the election was going to be "rigged" and he wouldn't accept the results unless he won. Well, at least he's kept his word on that one. He may have won the electoral college by 70 votes, but he's lost the popular vote by more than two million and still counting. Three of the states he won - Mich, Wisc, Penn - account for more than the 70 electoral votes needed for him to be elected president. Folks, he won those three states by just a tad over 100,000 votes combined. He won the state of Wisc by only 20,000 some odd votes. Easily within the margin of error if a recount is performed, especially if there was some kind of outside tampering going on as has been claimed.

It's no wonder the trumpster camp is starting to freak out. Not only do you have Donnie going on twitter ranting and raving about how this is a "scam" by Jill Stein to make money, or how it doesn't matter because he's already won with Hillary conceding (sorry Donnie, you don't officially win until Dec 19 when the electoral college votes, no matter how many times Hillary concedes), but now you have him claiming he would have won the popular vote if millions of people hadn't voted "illegally". That last one came out after Clinton decided to participate in the Wisc recount which means the weight of the whole Democratic Party and their legal team is now involved. How could millions of people have voted illegally with everyone watching so close. Didn't happen. Now he's threatening to go ahead and prosecute Clinton for her "crimes" as Sec of State or even sue her if she doesn't back off. Not only is that a childish reaction, but it sounds like someone running scared to me.

I do know one thing. The mind of the person, who in a few weeks is going to become the most powerful person on earth, should be on infinitely more important things. Things like world affairs, national security, the state of the economy, the environment, trying to find common ground to bring people together in this divided country and most important of all, the future for our children.

It looks like Donnie is going to be a president who stays holed-up in the oval office or Dump Tower, (as it's referred to on Google Maps) hiding from the press and the public, with only his smart phone and his twitter account while letting all his cronies run the country for him, as he keeps everyone distracted with his idiotic tweets. Kind of a genius strategy really. Seems to have worked extremely well so far. I mean this latest rant took our minds and the headlines right off all of his corrupt business dealings that everyone was focused on.
 

This strategy is completely misleading and dirty, even something Nazi Josef Goebbels, Hitler's propaganda chief, would be proud of. Like I said - kinda genius. Till next time - R

America The Beautiful

"O beautiful for spacious skies

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties,

Above the fruited plain.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea."

Words that should bring a tear to any American's eye. Unfortunately over the next few years those tears will be shed for other reasons.

Most people don't realize that for the last eight years, some of President Obama's greatest achievements have been his efforts to save our environment. He helped push through the Paris Agreement - the most significant climate change deal among the countries of the world so far in history. He took it upon himself through executive action (because the repub congress refused to do anything) to institute the Clean Power Plan that has been described as the strongest action ever taken by a US president to combat global warming. This plan put into action through new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that included such things as 1) new clean air standards for automobiles, factories and power plants to lower the amounts of toxic and greenhouse gases they were spewing into the skies above us; 2) the installation of solar energy panels on all federal buildings in the country and the conversion to clean energy type vehicles for the federal fleet - thus not only helping clean the air, but saving the taxpayers millions of dollars; 3) the protection of land and water (265 million acres), more than any other president in history - including the establishment of the world's largest marine reserve; 4) and many more green initiatives than I can list here.

Say goodbye to it all. Because these are executive actions and EPA rules, Donnie can abolish all of them on his first day in office - which he has promised to do. Not only is he recommending either Sarah Palin of Oklahoma gov Mary Fallin for interior secretary (both huge fans of drilling and digging everywhere on earth) and installing his oil and coal billionaire buddies into other posts in his administration, he has been quoted as saying: "Climate change is bullsh*t. I'm very much into fracking and drilling. I will cancel job-killing restrictions on the production of American energy, including shale energy and clean coal. That's what we want, that's what we've been waiting for." He has vowed to dismantle the EPA completely, repeal the Clean Power Plan, "renegotiate" the Paris Agreement, cancel restrictions on "clean coal" (is there even such a thing) and approve the Keystone XL pipeline - all within his first 100 days in office.

Yes sir. There are going to be many tears shed in the coming days. Not for us, but for this good earth and our children and their children. Till next time - R

 

Let Them Eat Cake

"My campaign is about reaching out to everyone as Americans, and returning to a government that puts the American people first. We will offer a new future, not the same old failed policies of the past. Our party has chosen to make new history by selecting a nominee from outside the rigged and corrupt system."

That is a quote from Ol' Donnie laying out his "economic vision" for America given at a major address in Detroit last August. Donnie presented himself as a champion of the "forgotten Americans" and worked hard for the support of the white middle class worker. Well, he succeeded. They literally came out of the woodwork - to his rallies and on election day. They came seeking that carrot on a stick he was dangling in front of their faces. Unfortunately, they placed their faith in a consummate and pathological liar who never had any intention of looking out for their best interests. By-the-way, the average household income in the US is about $55,000. Keep that in mind.

It hasn't even taken Donnie and his transition cronies two weeks to rain on that parade. They're rapidly filling his administration with a gaggle of millionaires and billionaires - oil and coal magnates, hedge fund managers, wall street bankers, corporate CEO's, sports team owners, just to mention a few, with the list going on and on and on. It's estimated that so far, his appointees net worth added together is well on the north side of 35 billion dollars. That's $35,000,000,000!!

Looking out for the working class guy my behind. This upper class have absolutely no concept of how the average person lives. The best we could possibly hope to get out of people like these, would be for them to spit on us if we were to somehow get in their way. Take a real close look at the image above. It's the entrance way to one of the rooms in Donnie's 90 million dollar triplex in Trump Towers that most of our "future leaders" have passed through in the last few days to meet with the top nut-job himself. Frightening isn't it? Looks like King Midas swooped through and touched everything in sight.

Well now. If you're not a millionaire/billionaire and your net worth is not in the top 1%, then I hope you're wearing protection, because you (and I) are fixin' to get royally screwed. Till next time - R

School's Out

"School's out for summer

School's out forever

School's been blown to pieces"

It looks like the repubs under Donnie are finally going to screw up our educational system into something worse than it already is. For years they have been trying to sell us on this idiotic idea of charter/private schools and school vouchers being the answer to all our educational woes. Ol' Donnie is wanting to appoint Betsy DeVoss to be our Secretary Of Education. She's a multi-billionaire who has probably never set foot in a public school in her life and who just so happens to be this country's most fanatical supporter of charter/private schools and school vouchers.

On the surface it sounds great doesn't it? If you don't like the public school your child is attending, you just send them to the nearest charter/private school where the environment is a real bed of roses. Life is good. Better yet, if you can't afford it, you get a school voucher from the government to pay for it. (Remember, these are the same politicians that refused to pay for health care for those that couldn't afford it. Too socialist.) Sounds like a sweet deal doesn't it.

Here's the rub. 1) Where's the money gonna come from? Who's gonna pay to build all these charter/private schools and who's gonna pay for all those vouchers? You can bet your sweet behind it's not gonna be the rich paying for the poor kids to go a private school. 2) What's to stop every parent who has kids in public school from putting their kids in private school and applying for the vouchers? I'm pretty sure you would see the public schools empty out in a flash. Then you've just transferred the "undesirables" from one place to another. 3) What about all those public school teachers that are going to be put out of jobs? I don't even want to think about that. 4) Here's the biggest problem. Obviously there won't be enough charter/private schools to handle the load. Suppose there are 8000 students in your city and 1500 openings to the available charter/private schools. So who will make the decision on who attends or not? Could this actually be a ploy to segregate the kids by race, religion, economic status, sexual orientation or even political beliefs? Surely Donnie and the repubs wouldn't stoop that low would they? Hahahahahahahahaha

I don't care who you support politically. If you care about the future of our children, you will fight this. It's a no-win situation for everyone but the select few. Till next time - R

A Thanksgiving Tale

Let me tell you a tale of a Thanksgiving long ago. The year is 1968 and America had just completed one of the most brutal presidential campaigns in history. The Vietnam War and the Cold War with the Soviet Union and China were raging. At home, social upheaval was at it's peak - war protests, race riots, assassinations, bombings, the sexual revolution and a great division between the World War II generation and the Baby Boomers, who were just becoming adults. The aptly named "Generation Gap".

The choices for president that year were not very desirable. America had to choose between 1) Independent George Wallace - a former Alabama governor who was literally a card carrying member of the KKK, and an old south racist; 2) Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey - Vice President to Johnson who would not run for reelection because he didn't have the stomach for Vietnam anymore. The democrats were split that year. Humphrey wanted to maintain the status quo in Vietnam and Robert Kennedy stood for those who wanted to bring the troops home from Vietnam right away. As we all know, Humphrey won the nomination by default when Kennedy was murdered; 3) And then we have the Republican Richard M. Nixon - Nixon went after the "Silent Majority" vote or the WWII generation of working class Americans. He promised them the moon, especially the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. His battle cry was "peace with honor". These were not very good choices.

Nixon won with less than 1% of the popular vote, but with a comfortable lead in the electoral college, mainly because Wallace took five southern states. It didn't take very long to figure out that "Tricky Dick" (as he was affectionately known) had conned and lied to all. For one thing he failed to tell us that his "peace with honor" withdrawal from Vietnam would happen at a snail's pace. There were more young men and women killed in the next four years during Nixon's "withdrawal", than the entire time prior to his being elected.

I cannot end this tale without telling you how the young people in America, at that time, kept up the pressure on Nixon without stopping. Every day for years until eventually even the WWII generation couldn't stomach their sons and daughters coming home in a box anymore.

Fast forward to today - Thanksgiving 2016. History sure does have a way of repeating itself doesn't it? This is my message to the young people of today. The torch has been passed to you. Keep up the pressure. It's much easier these days with mobile devices and the internet than taking to the streets. Flood your Congressman's phones,  their emails and their social media with your protests. Do the same with Donnie and his cronies. Draw a line in the sand like the youth of 1968. You can make a change. Happy Thanksgiving.

I was 15 years old in 1968. Till next time - R

Personal Note: For those of you who think I'm just an old radical hippie from the 60's - there's some truth to that. But I also gave twelve years of my life in the service of this country. Call me what you will, but I am a true American patriot and it breaks my heart to see what's happening today. I'm not gonna stop till I see this nightmare ended.

Not So Crooked Hillary

I'm sure everyone knows by now that "Lock Her Up" was the battle cry used at every Trump rally to stir the crowd into a frenzy. "Crooked Hillary" was the label used by Donnie at his campaign stops, his social media posts, his call-in to Fox news every morning and even in front of millions of people during the live debates. He even promised her straight to her face during the second debate to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate her and "put her in prison". His supporters across the country went into a tizzy. Social media lit up like a Christmas tree. Ol' Donnie's supporters were not only still chanting "Lock Her Up" at his victory speech, but are still chanting it outside Trump Tower to this day.

Well guess what? There's going to be no special prosecutor appointed, no criminal charges brought forward and no Hillary going to jail. Could it be she did nothing wrong after all? Could it be she isn't really "crooked". Could it be that she really is a decent person who cared more about America than herself? Could it be she didn't even come close to deserving all the horrible and hateful bullsh*t said and written about her by Donnie and all his millions of rabid little trumpsters? Could it be America is going to wake up one day and realize what a "yuuuuge" mistake they made? Could it be we are going to pay a tremendous price for that mistake?

Think I'm making all this up? Kellyanne Conway, Donnie's campaign manager, admitted yesterday that his promise to appoint a special prosecutor and throw Hillary in jail was just a "political stunt" to rile up his crowds and win votes. A dirty trick to get elected. Ol' Dick Nixon must be bursting with pride from whatever corner of hell he's residing in now. I mean he was forced from office for much less than this. How times have changed. The old saying needs a 21st century upgrade to: "All's Fair In Love, War and Presidential Politics". Till next time - R

 

Trump's Way Or The Highway

So - Did you hear the one where our illustrious president-elect had a secret meeting with 30 to 40 of America's television/radio/print media executives, along with major newscasters and writers to discuss future relations between the white house and the press for the next four years? I mean we're talking front line, top of the heap representatives from all the major networks and media outlets in the country. Just a private, off-the-record meeting with Donnie where they could form bonds of friendship, cooperation and access for the next four years.

HaHa - The joke's on them. Before they even got settled in their chairs, Ol' Donnie jumped up and started going off on 'em. He started one of his famous rants by saying over and over things like: "We’re in a room full of liars, the deceitful, dishonest media who got it all wrong". (Gloating there much Donnie - very mature!)  He kept going on and on with this tantrum by repeatedly calling the media dishonest and deceitful liars. He called out Jeff Zucker by name and said everyone at CNN was a liar, and CNN was a network of liars.

These men and women should have expected this because Ol' Donnie doesn't believe in checks and balances. He doesn't believe that we have freedom of the press in this country to hold people like him accountable. In his view the press is there only to give him good publicity and if not, then you're the enemy. He must have made everyone pretty mad. Man - talk about kickin' an ant hill! Hopefully that'll wind up being one for our side. Till next time - R

 

Heil Victory

Well, it's happening right before our very eyes. The alt-right (the modern, 21st century name for the KKK combined with the neo-nazi's) have surfaced from the underground sewers where they belong, right out into national view by holding a well publicized conference this past weekend in Washington DC.

Held at the Ronald Reagan Federal Building only a few blocks from the White House, the keynote speaker, Dick Spencer, quoted original nazi propaganda IN GERMAN!!! He also included in that speech: America, he said, belonged to white people, whom he called the “children of the sun,” a race of conquerors and creators who had been marginalized but now, in the era of President-elect Donnie Trump, were “awakening to their own identity.” (White people in America marginalized - come on, gimme a break!) Once he finished, the audience stood, and with the nazi salute, started shouting "Heil the people! Heil Victory! I kid you not. I am not making this up.

You might be thinking "so what"? This is just a pimple on Donnie's behind right? I would agree except for one thing - Donnie is filling his administration with the most bigoted and racist people he can find. Take Steve Bannon for example. He's one of alt-right's biggest supporters and he's now the president-elect's #1 advisor. Or how about Jeff Sessons for Attorney General. He was once denied a federal judgeship by a republican senate for being too racist. He's having the last laugh now isn't he. How's that for karma. These are just two of the many of the dregs of society our president-elect is surrounding himself with.

I want everyone to know that I am white and I was born and raised in the south. I know first-hand what it's like to be completely surrounded by racists and bigots. I do not include myself in that group. The America I believe in is for all - no matter your race, religion, gender, country of origin or sexual orientation. But, I'm afraid if you don't fit into that alt-right definition of America, then you, and I, are in for a loooong, hard ride. Till next time - R

Apologize My Eye

"Vice President-elect Pence, we welcome you, and we truly thank you for joining us here at “Hamilton American Musical,” we really do.

We, sir, we are the diverse America, who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights.

But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.

Again, we truly thank you for [inaudible] this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men, women, of different colors, creeds and orientations."

These are the words spoken by the cast of the musical "Hamilton" to Mike Pence the other night after his attendance to one of their performances. Instead of our president-elect reassuring us that he is listening and will work hard towards uniting us together for the common good, he chose to first tweet how Pence was "harassed" and then tweeted how "rude" the cast were towards Pence and they owed him an "apology". I mean we are talking about Mike Pence - just the most hardcore homophobic person on the whole planet! Where are his apologies for the things he's said?

Call me crazy, but I simply cannot for the life of me find anything rude, or worth apologizing for in the statement above. Does anyone else think it's scary that our president-elect holds so little regard for our freedom of speech? You would think that Donnie would have enough on his plate without having to spend time on something so trivial. If he is going to be this childish and petty during his administration, then may the Lord have mercy on us all. Till next time - R

PERSONAL NOTE: I do not post on Sundays, but through the miracles of modern technology I was able to prepare this post on Saturday and have a little bot post it for me on Sunday. Very cool. Keeps me in good standing with the "Big Man" up above. Have a good one.

War Pigs

"Generals gathered in their masses

Just like witches at black masses

Evil minds that plot destruction

Sorcerers of death's construction"

Those are the opening lyrics to one of the greatest protest songs of all time. If you google the lyrics for the entire song, you'll have to agree.

Looks like we're going to have to dust off some of those great songs protesting a war that should have never happened. All those poor men and women - over 53,000 of them dead - along with all the physically and mentally maimed souls that made it back alive. I had two brothers included in that group. It still breaks my heart to think about those times.

Now we have a new administration being loaded down with extreme right wing war hawks. The last time we had a president that surrounded himself with war hawks, we went searching for weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist and we had to mourn over a whole new generation of flag covered coffins and the thousands upon thousands of damaged men and women returning from the desert. Donnie himself has already said we should just bomb the sh*t out of 'em and now there is already talk about how regime change is the only solution to the "Iran problem".

Looks like we're going to have a whole new generation of young men and women to break our hearts. Assuming, of course, there will be any of us left with a crazy man having his finger on the nuclear trigger.  Till next time - R

Pants On Fire

Ahhh - The good ol' days. I'm old enough to remember first hand when Tricky Dick Nixon was forced out of the oval office for lying. Nowadays it seems to be the new norm. I mean the candidate who can tell the biggest whopper is the one who gets elected.

Take for instance our new president-elect who with his narcissism, megalomania and god complex, simply cannot help himself from taking credit where credit certainly is NOT due. Donnie tweeted that he was responsible for Ford Motor Company keeping one of its plants operating in Kentucky instead of moving it to Mexico. All well and good except that it was a big fat lie. When Ford was contacted for confirmation, they denied ever intending to move the Kentucky plant.

Pretty insignificant isn't it. My point being is this. How can someone who takes the time out from what must be a tremendously busy schedule to lie about something so small be trusted? How can American citizens ever believe anything he says? Especially when it comes to the big stuff and especially when it's not going his way.

The answer is simple - we can't....and that's a really scary thing. Till next time - R

 

Lock Em All Up

"Give me your tired, your poor,

your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" 

Beautiful words aren't they? These words were not only etched onto the base of the Statue of Liberty, but etched into the hearts of many of our ancestors seeking a better life for themselves and their children. Now those dreams are being shattered by a president-elect and his incoming administration who do not believe in these ideals. All this talk about building walls, restricting immigration, national registries, tightening our borders with force, massive roundups and deportations, curbing religious freedom and now there is even talk of internment camps.

It makes me sick to my stomach to think these words will no longer have any meaning. These words that meant so much to so many of our families who pulled up roots and made the difficult journey here seeking what this beautiful country has to offer. Lady Liberty is surely crying for us all. Till next time - R

Sweatn' Up A Storm

Boy - Was it hot this summer or what? The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) just put out their annual report a few days ago telling us the past 5 years have been the hottest on record with 2016 breaking last year's record. Did you know that Arctic Sea ice was 28% below the average for the last 5 years? Or how about a couple of months ago a chunk of ice breaking off Antarctica the size of New Hampshire. THE SIZE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!

Yet with impending doom for our children and grandchildren staring us in the face, Ol' Donnie boy has appointed one of his old cronies - Myron Bell - to head up his transition plans for our energy policy and the EPA. What a coup!!! Just the biggest global warming naysayer on the planet. Gone are the Paris accords on global warming. Gone are higher mileage standards for vehicles (let's all go get a gas guzzler). Gone are restrictions on fracking - health hazards be darned. Gone are any hopes of stopping environmentally unsound pipeline construction. Gone are the protection of federal lands from all sorts of mayhem in the name of energy production. Gone are the funds for research into renewable energy. Gone are tax breaks we get now for installing solar or wind power sources. Gone. Gone. Gone. Any strides we've made in the last few years to help our future generations - just gonna be gone. Makes me wanna cry for poor ol' mother earth.

The oil corporations, the coal industry, the power companies, the auto industry and more are all about to go on a feeding frenzy at our expense. Gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight! Till next time - R

Drain The Swamp

I must admit that Donnie is already fulfilling one of his campaign promises to "drain the swamp" in Washington DC of lobbyists, influence peddlers and career politicians. Now that sounds good doesn't it. What he failed to tell all you citizens who voted for him was he drained the swamp right into the White House. You poor, poor middle-class suckers who was hoping for help from this new administration. I feel for you because Ol' Donnie boy is surrounding himself with the most vile anti-middle class team he can dig up. I mean these are people even the republicans have rejected for many years as being too extreme. Instead of rats leaving the sinking ship, they're climbing aboard in droves. Yep - I'm afraid it's us that's going to get flushed. What do you expect from a man who does his number 1 and number 2 on a solid gold toilet. Think about that - a 24 carat solid gold toilet. He's for the average guy my behind. Till next time - R

Brotherly Love

Well Donnie all the votes weren't even counted before Ol' Vlad was formally asking you to pull back US and NATO troops from the eastern borders of EurAsia. Boy - How much would he love that? Can't you just see him rubbing his hands together with glee at the mere thought of it. Says it will be a form of detente and will improve relations between the US and Russia. Yeah - I've got a bridge in New York City I'd like to sell ya. (No mention of him pulling back Russian troops by-the-way.) Ahhhhhh - don't it just take you back to the good old glory days of Germany in the 1930's. What's your answer Donnie? I mean, you've already promised all those people who voted for you that you wanted to pull out of NATO if they couldn't "pay" their own way. Like they have the resources and the manpower to go up against Russia alone. Kinda like the Poles on horseback against German Tiger tanks in 1939. So... what's it gonna be? Till next time. - R