Archives for January 2020

New Day 1083 Let’s Get Behind the president

Tuesday January 8, 2020

300 Days until the 2020 election and 376 days to the Inauguration

Are you a Trump supporter? Yes? Then I urge you to get behind and support him because he needs you now more than ever. Please go to the recruitment office and sign up for war. Get personally involved.

You know Iran is a very bad country, lot of bad people. The president boldly took out one of the baddest because there was – an “imminent threat.” What that was we don’t know yet. It might be awhile until we know. (Me? I’m still waiting for his folks to come back from Hawaii with the “surprising things they’re finding” on Obama.) 

Oh wait. It’s no longer an imminent threat. It’s that the general was a bad guy. We knew that. Well, I didn’t until “we” killed him, but Barack knew, and W knew; and they did nothing! But Donald did! Well, he didn’t until someone told him in a recent meeting. Apparently, they put the option on the table to make the extremes wider apart and they were “flabbergasted” when he took it. My only question is, “Why?” (Why flabbergasted? Why put the option on the table? But that’s just me.) 

Don’t worry, all will be explained by Vice President Pence next week.* There’s some whys for ya? Why a week? Why Pence? Why not the president? You know Mike has been known to bend the truth a bit, like a lot. What’s that called? Politics? No. Lying, yeah that’s it. But hold on, he’s not as big a liar as Trump. We can take comfort in that right? Hum. Wait. He’s as big a liar as Donald; he just doesn’t lie as often. I think that’s because we don’t see his lips move or his twitter feed as often as Donald’s is the only reason. Maybe not, I’m mean when it comes to lying and unreality Donnie has Mikey beat.

*Problem – Pence’s man resigned, The one who knew about all this stuff. And the Defense Department has had similar resignations. Wonder why? (Some say it’s too bat shit crazy, but I disagree. No, I don’t (see earlier paragraph about changing ones mind.) I think what we might see is reality as the gravity of what Donald hs dine sinks in. I mean what if Iran starts killing U.Sl troops? Just asking the question.)

Then there’s the Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, yeah he went on the Sunday shows and told us what was going on, That was until he changed the story a few hours later. (Hey, that business about “earlier paragraph, should have been later paragraph. Here it is.)

But come on. A person’s allowed to change their mind, to have their memory refreshed. 

One thing I don’t understand is why we aren’t getting out of Iraq. The Iraqis voted for us to leave, Iran wants us to leave. We sent an official letter to the Iraqi government saying we were leaving. And now? we are saying, “Just kidding, big mistake, not a real letter, just an internal document.” Don’t we alway do what our adversaries suggest?

Let’s show our support for the president and take to the streets like the Iranians did. I’m sure we can amass a bigger crowd, don’t you think?

Nevermind, I’ve got a photo here of a big rally in Washington. We’ll use that photo. (Just white out the words at the bottom “Women’s March” and put in “Rally to Support the president.” No one will know. Sure we’ll have a rally too. Get on the phone call all your friends and tell them. What? You have three friends? That’s it? Oh, everyone else unfriended you? But these three are solid, right? Will they sign up to join the army and fight for the Donald? Bone spurs, you say? Yeah, me too. Okay, we’ll send some meme around on facebook accusing the Democrats of something. Yeah, that’s the ticket. 

Can you imagine those Dems trying to impeach the president? I liked Jay Suck-a-low (I think that’s how you spell his name). He’s the president’s lawyer. The one not being paid directly by the Russians. He said, “Show me a law that the president broke.” 

Well, okay. There’s bribery. Oh wait that’s mentioned in the Constitution. That’s not a law, that’s a high crime. Then there’s the Mueller Report that sites chapter and verse from the criminal code. Oh wait, that isn’t the current charges.

See no crime. Well, maybe there was a crime, but not a high crime. Yes, bribery is specifically mentioned in the Constitution but what the president did in his “perfect” phone call was not bribery. It was extortion. Totally different. Besides the Senate trial is not a criminal trial, It’s a political trial and Mitch has the votes to do what he wants. Moscow Mitch and Putin’s Pal Donald are in close conversation as should be the case right? Doesn’t the defense get to tell the prosecutor what to do? I swear I’ve seen that on TV. Just before they both get hauled off in chains, but hey.

300 Days until the 2020 election and 376 days to the Inauguration

PS This is Chaya soup. It is a Mayan super food. Imagine that the soup is the stuff swirling around Donald and the white sour cream is the evidence and Donald is in the center of the soup. (Everything suffers – eventually – in metaphor. I got nothing.) Have a nice day!

New Day 1081 

Monday January 6, 2020

302 Days until the 2020 election and 378 days to the Inauguration

Trump is a liar.

Pompeo is a liar.

Putin is a liar.

The Iranians government officials are liars.

Yet, we are asked to believe.

Sorry. No.

Next?

Oh snap, Trump didn’t tell anyone he was going to kill the #2 guy in Iran?

That’s okay he was a bad man.

What?

Surely you told the gang of eight in Congress? No. 

Why bother with stinkin’ procedure? Just gets in the way.

Besides, he had a golf date and had to get going.

(I don’t know if the last part is true, but I bet it is.)

I bet he didn’t even know, or care, to tell Congress’ Gang of Eight.

Why bother? What do they know? Besides, he has a very good brain.

That’s why he’s hiding his college records from us, because if we saw them we’d know how really smart he was. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Australia is burning. Don’t worry, the rising sea levels will put it under water and no more fire.

Problem solved. Next?

That’s it?

Okay. Let’s hit the links.

302 Days until the 2020 election and 378 days to the Inauguration

PS Now for some real news!

Day 1196 We Gave War a Chance

Thursday January 3, 2020 

310 Days until the 2020 election and 391 days until the Inauguration

It’s a new year, a new beginning, time to reassess the countdown (Somehow it got off.)

There are 1456 days between the election and 78 days beyond that to the inauguration.

( That’s from 11/8/2016 to 11/3/2020 to 1/20/2021 )

As of 1/1/2020 Trump has been in office 1075 days.

As of that date we have 308 days until the election and 386 days to the Inauguration.

Therefore, as of January 3, 2020 when I started writing this piece, the rejiggered count is:

Day 1078 January 3, 2020

305 Days until the 2020 election and 381 days to the Inauguration

And the countdown continues with the rejiggered modifications.

Where was I? Oh, yes. Two data points:

1) I was outside of Quantico, Virginia, which is a large military base, when I saw a bumper sticker that read: “GIVE WAR A CHANCE”.

2) I heard a piece on the radio that talked about the idea of treating people with drug dependencies as a heath problem rather than as a criminal problem.

These two ideas made me think about Reagan and his “War on Drugs”. 

I asked President Reagan, “How’s that going?” (Too bad he’s dead. Oh well.)

Then Iran and the killing of their general happened.

Brooks of Shields and Brooks on PBS this week pointed out the long term effects of war from a purely troop count level. He mentioned that we still have troops in Korea, Japan, and Germany. That’s from the Second World War and the Korean War. Also, Saudi Arabia and the middle east, and Afghanistan and Iraq. This doesn’t count the  trash left around – like bombs. The French are still finding ordinance from WWI. There are whole parts of France that are still off limits due to the bombs still in the ground from The Great War. Farmers regularly find bombs in their fields. They pick them up and lay them by the roadside for the bomb squads to come and get them. This is from World War I.

When I was in Angkor Wat there was a war museum that I visited in Siem Reap. It has lots of rusting artifacts. There were sheds with rifles and land mines on display. What surprised me was the number of different devices designed to maim when you stepped on them. Vietnam has lots of them still in place. Every year people get a limb blown off. Usually, it is children. The man you owns the museum held up a rifle and said, “Do you know what this is?” He held it with authority. Obviously, use to handling that particular weapon, “It’s an M1,” he said. He hoisted several rifles, told us their names and explained how they were used in the war in Vietnam. When we got to the land mines he explained that when it came to land mines, if one of your buddies stepped on one and got his leg blown off you couldn’t run over to help him. Rather, you had to take your Bowie knife, turn the blade upwards and run it along the ground, looking for a trip wire to another land mine. Oftentimes these devices were planted in such a way that those who came to help would be maimed as well. Nice. He then pulled up his pant leg to reveal his prosthetic limb.

So, how’s the war going? Or should I say, “How’s war? Have we given it enough of a chance?”

Maybe, there’s another way? I don’t see that we are winning the war on drugs, or the wars in the middle east, or the war in Afghanistan. Just sayin’

The woman who talked about treating drugs as a health problem pointed out that doing so reduced the amount of crime, improved the health of those depend on drugs, and put the opioids under control. She pointed to Portugal that has done this and there are statistics to show it’s working out quite well for that country.

Not only does it seem to be better for society, but it’s cheaper.

The same might be true for war. Would it be cheaper to buy all the heroin that Afghanistan can make rather than fighting to keep it from being sold illegally? We’ve been in that country for 18 years. What if we had spent our money on roads and education along with buying their dope and offering to buy other cash crops? Somehow, I’ve got to think that would be cheaper. 

Now the talk of war with Iran is raising its ugly head again. We’ve been at odds with that country for what? 60 years? How’s it going? Yes, the guy we took out was a bad man. Has that solved anything? 

We had a deal with that country, then we welshed on it. What do we have instead? Possible war and the distinct possibility that they will have a nuclear weapon sooner, rather than later. Great. Do you remember the 2016 Republican debates and all their tough talk about Iran? How Hillary and Obama had done such a bad deal? Blah blah blah. Let me remind everyone that the current administration has done squat in this regard. Where’s the bigger, badder, tougher deal? 

Meanwhile fires rage in Australia, Brazil, Africa – how are you doing on climate change? Oh that’s right, it doesn’t exist.

What about health care? It was John Boehner that said in the twenty five years he was in Congress he never say the Republican put forward a health care bill. Has anything changed? Well, the Trump administration is doing everything they can to repeal the health care we do have, putting 130,000,000 at risk of losing it. Is that your idea of winning?

National debt – big bug-a-boo when Bill Clinton and Obama were presidents. Now? This administration has racked up the most massive debt this country has ever seen.

Gun violence? Naw. Nothing. Nada.  

In fact, what have the Republicans and Trump done since being in office? 

Enriched the rich.

Packed the courts so the idea of a fair trial is negligible.

Oh yes, and kicked people off of voter rolls in key states so they can cheat out another win.

With the help of Russia.

305 Days until the 2020 election and 381 days to the Inauguration

PS Mr. Potatoe* Head

*Yes, I know. That’s a shout out to Dan Quayle (Ha ha ha ha ho)

Day 1193 Rollercoasters, Pelosi, Warren

Tuesday December 30, 2019

312 Days until the 2020 election and 393 days until the Inauguration

We’re watching the game. Virginia Tech is about to score. Shelby’s phone rings. It’s Claire, our niece.

She’s on a rollercoaster at King’s Dominion. She’s with her friends and the park is open late and they are going to stay all day and into the night. The rollercoaster is going up. She’s screaming. Screaming with joy and exhilaration. Tech scores a touchdown. Shelby missed the actual play because Claire is describing her time on the rollercoaster.

Which brings me to the end of year shows and Nancy Pelosi (come on that’s a natural segue.) Actually, they were end of the decade shows. By that I mean they reviewed the past ten years in pictures and interviews. Talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Two pieces really struck me. They were on Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi. 

There was an interview with Elizabeth Warren that they replayed. I’m a Warren supporter for President. I like her because she is talking big transformative change. She is addressing the big problems we have, and she has plans for how to do those changes. One thing she mentioned was that it didn’t matter who was in charge as President the person running the Fed was from Goldman Sachs. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump – didn’t matter. The person running the Federal Reserve was from Goldman Sachs. She pointed out that in the latest round when Trumo was coming in he appointed the chairman of Goldman Sachs. Sachs gave that guy 250 million dollars on the way over to run the Fed. They didn’t have to do that. Why do you give someone $250,000,000.00 when you don’t have to? Interesting question. 

Warren has the knowledge and the experience, backed up by a record of success when it comes to taking on big business and making them play fair. I like her. She mentioned that the first thing the Trump administration did when they took office was to pass legislation that let big business off the hook, and they didn’t say a word about it. 

It was the precursor to Goldman Sachs that wrote the original legislation that set up the Federal Reserve. So this is a sweetheart deal that has been going on for decades if not since the very beginning. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think any modern country needs a strong central bank system headed up by an institution that controls it. If you don’t have that you end up with a private firm doing it. Think Fisk and Gould or J. P. Morgan (the man, not the bank). Then as now, these men, these people will not bet against their own self interest. What we need is a strong central bank and regulations backed up by laws that allow the economic system to automatically put controls in place when certain thresholds are met, without having to get politicians involved. The problem with politicians getting involved is that they act too slowly and by the time they do they are out of sync with the economic conditions. They end up voting in fixes that exacerbate the system rather than make it better.

Warren, better than any other candidate understands this and many other economic problems that we face: both as individuals and as a nation. She has fixes. But they are big changes. Businesses will squeal. They already are. When asked who she would have as a running mate, if she could pick anyone from anytime, she didn’t hesitate – Teddy Roosevelt. He had the balls to take on big businesses and he stopped their chicanery. Business is back with more chicanery and it is high time to stop them.

Claire called back. She was on another rollercoaster. This one moved a different way. Sideways somehow. Who was she there with and who brought them? So and so and so and so’s mom. She was screaming in delight. Virginia Tech scored another touchdown and Shelby missed the actual play, but that was okay because her niece was having such a good time at King’s Dominion. It was special because her niece had decided to include Shelby, her aunt, in the fun. 

Then there’s Nancy Pelosi. There was all the yelling about her being too old, too this, too that. Those critics have pretty much all admitted that she has admirably steered this Congress and her majority in the House with skill and finesse. Outmaneuvering Donald Trump at every turn. It’s really not outmaneuvering; it’s standing up for truth, for what you believe in, and doing the right thing. 

The picture of her standing up across the table from Trump is classic. All the others in the photo, all the men, are sitting there while she is standing up to the bully in chief. The hand clapping at his State of the Union speech was another moment. Her speaking about not hating Trump, how she prays for him, is something he doesn’t comprehend. He can’t imagine it. Lastly, when she banged the gavel on the measure passing the impeachment resolution and her side started to cheer: one look, one wave of her hand and there was silence.

Hey Donald, you want to see real power? Real authority? Real restraint? You want to see an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove? Watch that video.

We didn’t get anymore calls from Claire.

Tech lost by a point. (One more call and we would have won.)

Shelby texted her brother Ben, Claire’s dad. She and her brother often compare notes on the game. Shelby mentioned Claire’s being at King’s Dominion and didn’t know she was going that day.

“King’s Dominion?” Ben texted back. “She’s in the backyard on her swing.”

312 Days until the 2020 election and 393 days until the Inauguration

PS The happy couple at midnight (in bed with champagne).*

*Okay, I set up a camera on tripod starting around 11. It took until 11:45 or so to figure out how to use the easy to use app to connect the camera to the phone and take a picture and then transfer it to the phone so we could put it on facebook. But we managed to hit the upload button at midnight!

Happy New Decade!