PROBLEM FOR THE PARTY

Trump Running, Major Challenge

Last night, Donald John Trump announced he has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Committee to run for president in 2024. It wasn’t much of a surprise; it was almost as if Trump were trying to beat some mysterious deadline. This will be his third race, and his move might have less to do with running for office and more to do with having a stay-out-of-jail card. He’s being naïve if he genuinely believes that running for president will provide inoculation against indictment. It’s just another lie he perpetrates and believes.

Now before we get into the minutiae of media manipulation and maniacal mental meanderings, let’s take a walk down history lane for a brief lesson in ego and politics.

In 1901, President William McKinley made a trip to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, where the new technology of an X-ray machine was demonstrated. Something horrible happened there. An anarchist shot the 25^thpresident. After eight days in bed with his wounds, McKinley passed away because doctors were unable to remove the bullet. Some thought the new X-ray device could help surgeons seek the slug, but the machine’s inventors warned that a piece of metal exposed to X-rays would have a detrimental effect on the patient, so they did not use it. But wait, the story gets better.

Some corrupt New York politicians and certain other elements of the political machinery hated Teddy Rosevelt, so they pushed him into the VP slot during McKinley’s second run. Well, McKinley won the election but lost horribly in Buffalo, therefore the crooked powerbrokers now had Theodore Rosevelt as the 26^th President. They had gambled and lost.

Teddy Roosevelt served out McKinley’s second term (which only lasted one month due to death), but when running for reelection he said that, if elected, he would serve no more than one term. After winning reelection, Roosevelt began to regret his disclaimer. Nonetheless, he remained true to his word, and after completing his first elected term he left the office. Another Republican, William Taft, became president in 1909.

Roosevelt went off to explore the world and years after being away he returned to New York where the city threw him an outrageous welcome and parade. Teddy’s ego was ignited and he decided to challenge his buddy William Taft and run for president again. The fight went all the way to the Republican National Convention, where the egotistical Roosevelt lost the party’s nomination. In anger, Teddy marched out of the hall, got up on a flatbed truck and announced to the adoring press that he was forming a third political party, the Bull Moose Party.

What Teddy did to his own party and to his former friend Taft was unsightly and undignified. With a third party in the 1912 election, Roosevelt and incumbent William Taft each garnered roughly 25 percent of the popular vote. Princeton University President Woodrow Wilson won 42 percent of the vote to become the 28^th US President.

Wilson was an unhealthy, bigoted racist human who was also woefully unskilled in world affairs. His lack of attention after World War I and inability to push back during the Treaty of Versailles discussions plunged Germany into financial ruin, which gave birth to the Nazi movement. One might be tempted to blame Teddy Roosevelt for this, but it’s impossible to know what he or Taft would have done at Versailles.

I think it’s safe to say Teddy Roosevelt’s ego was bigger than anything we’ve seen until Donald Trump, who’s now at his Mar-a-Lago resort screeching how he wants to be president again. Curiously, with his declaration that he is running again he’s also admitting that he LOST in 2020. So, I guess the big lie is useful only for raising money, not for legal declarations. But there is a bigger problem here.

If the Republican National Committee is smart, which is a giant stretch, they will rid themselves of the leadership of Ronna Romney McDaniel who is a Trump sycophant and terrible political operative. Just look at the midterm results. As for Florida Senator Rick Scott trying to unseat Mitch McConnell as minority leader in the Senate, well that’s much like appointing the fox to the night security position at the hen house. Rick Scott was the person who talked about eliminating Social Security and pushed the lousy slate of Trump-picked midterm bozo candidates. How in any logical world is this man ready to lead anything? And of course in a secret vote, Scott lost to McConnell who must have lewd pictures of everyone in the Senate.

Now we arrive at the crux of the matter. Let’s say that in about five hundred days a bunch of people run against Trump for the Republican nomination. Sure, we’ll have debates, and the primaries in states like Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina and others that might deal Trump a blow “like we’ve never seen before.” Further, let’s speculate they have the “come to Jesus meeting’ and tell Donald he’s not the guy. Oh, Boy!

Should that happen, I’ll lay money on Trump’s narcissistic personality disorder erupting and leading him to form a third party to burn down those who don’t like him. The action of an angry little boy taking his ball and going home will cause death and destruction along the way that will take decades to fix. By making a third-party run, Trump will pave the way for a Democratic win, even it if were Kamala Harris. Mark my words.

Politics is not a predictable concept, as proven by the recent slate of research figures. It’s always a gamble. We have no way of knowing what a given candidate might do as president. In this case, however, Trump is the devil we know, and he’s clearly stated he will get back at anyone in his way, pardon all the January 6^th insurrections and, once again, tear away at American democracy.

As the Trump 2024 flags and signs go up, let’s all remember that America hates a loser. If Donald Trump wants to be the Buffalo Bills of politics it’s fine with me, but in the off chance he becomes president again I might be looking for a new place to live. Trump has just caused major problems for the RNC and those who work there. Watch out, kiddos. If you don’t make him president, he will take your ball and go home.

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WHY AM I SO IRRITATED?

The Cost of Caring

I like to think that I am a reasonable person. Of course, my enthusiasm sparks up at times and I can be a snapping turtle in an argument, but I’ll admit something to you. I have lived in five different states, but since moving to Florida I have a profound problem — everything Governor Ron DeSantis says makes me angry. When I lived in New York, George E. Pataki was the governor for a time, and I found him to be a sensible person. Both George and Ron went to Yale, but they are totally different people.

The only time DeSantis seemed to be evenhanded, and non-partisan happened when he dealt with the condo collapse in Dade County. As soon as that tragedy left the front page, however, Ronnie got back to his unreasonably vindictive and harshly negative approach to governing.

As I see it, the man killed people with his dishonesty about the pandemic and his virus directives to communities across the state. DeSantis was against masks, vaccination requirements at businesses and resorts, pushing his head in the sand regarding medical and scientific realities.

I was flabbergasted when I saw this front-page headline, “Fla surgeon general backs DeSantis with megaphone.” In a state where almost 60,000 people have died from Covid-19, and even given our affection for all the Disney characters, should we be turning to Goofy for medical advice? DeSantis brought Dr. Joseph Ladapo onboard to bash mask mandates, throw doubt on the vaccines and construct an uncaring health policy for the state. If you want to see how this was rolled out, here’s the video.

I’m sure that Ladapo has a paper diploma, so why does he spread more “scientific dishonesty” than truth? Here are the facts. Ladapo is against masks, he doubts the efficacy of the virus vaccines and he pushed hydroxychloroquine as a remedy. If that “miracle cure” was so good, why did so many people die? Dr. Ladapo signed the Great Barrington Declaration that said “herd immunity” was the only way to cure the global pandemic, while most experts say that would entail unnecessary deaths. Now, Ladapo and DeSantis are promoting a Covid-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor’s company has invested millions of dollars. Why? We already have vaccines. Dr. Ladapo insists the rights of parents are more important than the health of their children. Well, that’s a deal breaker for this parent. With all the challenges we face in America, why would Ladapo be attacking the state’s Commissioner of Agriculture? Florida’s Surgeon General should not be involved in politics.

When Dr. Ladapo went to visit a Democratic lawmaker, he refused to wear a mask saying it hinders his ability to communicate. I would hate to encounter a doctor in the emergency room about to operate on me when he’s not wearing a mask. Ladapo claims he didn’t know the lawmaker was suffering from breast cancer at the time of their meeting, but I can’t help wondering if he was mask-less just because he doesn’t like the look.

It could be his stance is based on the knowledge that a person doesn’t get hired or stay long on the job when they publicly disagree with their boss. It’s laughable when a doctor says he’s not anti-vaccine, but then blurts out that vaccines just aren’t that good and anyone who disagrees with him is not qualified. All of this leads me to question whether Dr. Joseph Ladapo has gotten a Covid-19 vaccine and, if he did, which one? Full disclosure, Doc.

When people talk about the great divide that exists in America, here’s my reaction, “If you keep repeating it we will never be able to cure it.” I wonder if we truly do have an unchangeable divide. Why would the governor of a major state not implement simple plans to help defeat Covid? Why does he take such an anti-science position when that’s not what he actually believes? He sends his kids to a private school believing that will keep them safer, but safer from what?

I was saddened by the news that Casey DeSantis, Ron’s wife, has breast cancer. Would Ron feel comfortable if his wife was seeing a doctor who hasn’t been vaccinated and who refused to wear a mask in the exam room? When it gets personal, you see, all the narrow-minded rhetoric goes out the window. Could it be that everything DeSantis says or does is guided by his desire to never piss off Donald Trump? You might ask why DeSantis would care. Well, he wants to be President of the USA, not some whiny governor in the Sunshine State. The character he plays is a shrill, far-right lunatic and his totally outward ambition repulses Democrats. He cares only about the Trump base of the Republican party and that’s fine for Florida, but beyond the sugarcane farmers and thin-blue-line cop coalition he’s just another grifter politician.

DeSantis isn’t at all sophisticated and fighting the federal government’s Covid-19 policies and regulations cannot make 60,000 deaths go away. If Ronnie was smarter, he would realize that his copycat Covid routine is what led to Trump losing the 2020 election. There are good people running against DeSantis in the upcoming midterm governor election, and should he lose he will probably start right in on a 2024 presidential campaign, if Donald Trump lets him. This brings me to the greatest reason why I dislike the guy. He’s not working for all Floridians because his focus is on just one part-time state resident, Donald Trump.

When Ron DeSantis goes on TV to brag about the magnificent way he managed the global pandemic, he’s just a fool trying to suck his constituents into his historical rewrite. He’s just another large blotch of mold, an unsightly stain of mildew on the good ship USS Face Makeup. The worst part of this story is that it’s not even original. DeSantis is merely a small version of the hideous orange algae we exterminated last year and hopefully will never see again.

It’s not me, it’s him. Ron DeSantis has become my most unliked governor of all time. Instead of putting up with him I could move, but many of the Republican governors in the country are idiots. I would not recommend Ron DeSantis for higher office, ever. Perhaps he’ll sue me for telling the truth. Napoleon syndrome.

CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS

Don’t we all have it?

I’m not sure exactly why, but I have never liked Steve Bannon. He’s a purveyor of false statements and conspiracy theories, plus he holds disdain for any institution with which he disagrees, including the American judicial system. Stephen K. Bannon was not only the architect of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign, but for some time became a trusted advisor to the 45^th President in the White House. Bannon, along with two other guys, also ran a private fund-raising effort named “We Build the Wall,” to bolster the president’s signature initiative along the Mexican border. Those three guys were dipping their grimy hands into the money pot and taking funds. Ironically, the small section of the wall that they built was washed away during a storm.

Trump pardoned Bannon in the waning hours of his presidency. This was highly unusual because the prosecution’s work was in the preliminary stages, and it was clear that a trial was months away. The pardon was a favor — a quid pro quo intended to keep Bannon from ever testifying against Trump. That bubble is perhaps about to burst because Bannon’s possible role in the January 6^th insurrection occurred before his pardon, which contained no mention of the Capitol Hill riot. Not only can Bannon be called to testify, but if he played any wrongdoing in that matter the pardon would not protect him. By the way, if you want to see all the people Donald Trump pardoned you can go here.

Bannon was subpoenaed to come before the January 6th Special Committee and testify. Both he and the records that also were part of the subpoena did not show up at Congress last week. Now, the committee will present the matter to the entire House of Representatives for a vote on Contempt of Congress. What is that you ask? Contempt occurs when an individual intentionally interferes with congressional action. Congress has the power to restrain such individuals by declaring them in contempt of Congress, which is similar to contempt of court.

Congress’ ability to impose a contempt charge against an individual interfering with its duties is considered an implied power of the legislature. Experts believe that one who withholds information or testimony can be judged in contempt and held for a period between one day and a year. Although our Constitution does not explicitly provide for Congressional power to hold individuals in contempt, such power is considered implied because Congress could not effectively perform its duties without it. So, where will this Bannon situation go?

Remember that even if Steve Bannon appeared before Congress, he could invoke the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer any question on the grounds it might incriminate him. Under law, no American can be forced to testify. Past Congressional committees have used the court system to incarcerate people. In 2005, a federal judge sent New York Times reporter Judith Miller to jail for 85 days for refusing to divulge her confidential source to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of a CIA agent’s identity. She finally testified. Why wouldn’t Steve Bannon be put in jail for not talking about what caused the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6^th, 2020?

Here’s some insightful background on Steve Bannon. He was an officer in the United States Navy for seven years in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some believe that Bannon harbored a distaste for military command and disagreed with not only the way the Navy was run but also how we fought wars.

After his military service, Bannon worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs for two years. Some say he made tons of money there. In 1993, he became acting director of the research project Biosphere 2, and he was also an executive producer in Hollywood. He produced eighteen films between 1991 and 2016, and he was an investor in the production company that funded the TV show Seinfeld. In 2007, he co-founded Breitbart News, a far-right website he described as “the platform for the alt-right.” He saw the Trump bandwagon as a way to effect change of the highest order upon the United States, but his outspokenness got him in trouble with Trump. The Donald so disliked Bannon’s candor that he diminished his status, but never his influence, within Trumpworld.

Many of Trump’s most radical policies and speech patterns came from two people in the Trump White House, Steven Miller and Steve Bannon. When Trump said, “There were good people on both sides,” he was probably repeating something Bannon had said to him. Bannon believes that all problems in the United States government are fundamentally the result of bureaucrats and elected officials running amuck. He openly declared war on what he called the “administrative state.” This was not a novel or new idea.

Most self-appointed experts believe the administrative state’s weaknesses are 1) Nondelegation, interference from above on those executing policies, 2) Judicial deference, believing the courts should be allowed to judge and rule without review or oversight, 3) Executive control of agencies to the point where a president, governor or other official believes they have the right to hire and fire those at any level of government, 4) Procedural rights, due process given to people who do things wrong, even if those things are really bad, and 5) Agency dynamics, where a head of a commission, committee or local agency is given the ability to enforce regulatory compliance and adjudicate disputes.

I agree that all of that seems confusing and in conflict with itself. It’s like the guy at a homeowner’s association meeting complaining about the board making all the decisions. The president could stop the proceedings to lecture how representative government works, but that would waste time. Logic dictates that one cannot complain about an institutional structure and demand majority rule on every issue, because the majority’s position may not agree with that of the complainer. On the other hand, giving greater authority to one person and demanding micromanagement on every issue could deter productivity.

In general terms I don’t think Steve Bannon knows what he’s talking about, but I do believe he knows a lot of about what happened on January 6^th. He should be locked up if he refuses to testify and comply with the Congressional subpoena. He beat the fraud charge because Trump pardoned him, but if he thinks he’s got a shot at destroying democracy over some illusion of self-worth and misinterpretation of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, I say, “Fuck him and the big orange horse he rode in on.” If that disheveled man had anything to do with the insurrection he should be put in jail. Period. Yes, you might say I have contempt for Stephen K. Bannon.

JUST BLAME JOE FOR EVERYTHING

Let the clawing and finger pointing begin!

Christian political operative Ralph Reed appeared on Bill Maher’s show last week to share an interesting observation. He claimed that the founding fathers argued a lot and what we ended up with was not so much a consensus but a compromise of ideas. That may be true, but those having a say were all white men, wealthy landowners and self-professed Christians. Whatever compromises were made did not harm them individually or collectively. These are facts.

So, now that we are closing in on nine months of Joe Biden’s presidency, many have forgotten the daily chaos that Donald Trump created just by opening his little round mouth or tweeting out lies each and every day. I believe that in the not-too-distant future average Americans will have forgotten all about the Afghanistan war and its cause. The withdrawal from Afghanistan was certainly not one of our shining moments and, let’s be honest, fighting there for twenty years was our collective sin. Nothing good will happen in that country now that we have left, but that’s based on our own definition of “good.”

It’s not Joe Biden’s fault that we got into Afghanistan and it’s not his fault that we stayed there so long, but Joe will take the hit for a shitty drawdown that was more escape than extraction. I think those using the word “retreat” don’t understand it’s meaning, but it seems to me that Republicans often vote for war then soon are opposed to the very war they started. The lame-ass, hypocritical statements being made by many members of the GOP are dreadful and dishonest.

People are going to investigate and analyze in an attempt to find forensic proof that Joe Biden, through a cabal of scheming deep-state operatives, was singularly responsible for more than a dozen US forces being killed at the Abby gate of the Kabul Airport. Now we must suffer those who will blame others for those things they created in the first place.

So, go ahead. Blame Joe for everything you don’t like about America. But somewhere along the line you must answer one basic question. Is what you are doing making America great again? If you think that outlawing abortions by way of citizen arrests and sending kids and teachers back into more Covid is a good thing, then you need to have your head fixed. You cannot be serious that the election was stolen. You cannot truly believe there are chips in the vaccines. A corpse might move a leg now and again but would never believe any of that QAnon shit.

Right now, the media folks just want to keep your attention. They pursue the golden rule of ratings and understand the powerful pull of drama and conflict. Sure, rev up the old “fair and balanced” positioning of your programming to blast away at our president’s administration. Biden’s whole staff are sitting ducks, but they don’t need you to understand every “why” and they certainly don’t need your pity. They hold the nuclear codes with solid awareness that their number one job is protecting the nation. Biden and company are running the show now, and if you continue to scream and post horse manure you will lose all credibility with the thinking people of America. So go ahead and take your cow de-wormer meds to be safe from the Delta variant, but don’t be surprised if it retards whatever is left of your brain.

One of my neighbors, a former military man, said this, “He’s the President, the Commander in Chief, you have to respect him.” He was speaking about Donald Trump, but why doesn’t leader of the free world Joe Biden deserve that? Some spoke about respect when the least respectful person imaginable sat in the White House, but now you want to hang a guy who made the right decision to end a stupid, fruitless war? You are exactly who George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams warned us about, a person who holds loyalty to something other than our country and our remarkable Constitution. After you take your last breath on this earth, no one will be reading your posts.

We were asked to give Donald Trump a chance and get beyond his political rhetoric, but the 45^th President made every comment and decision to please a base of buffoons who can hardly be categorized as civil citizens. Joe Biden has been a civil servant for most of his life and we know his story. Sure, there have been moments when we question his judgement or actions, but he’s like that wise uncle with perceptive insight and shrewd actions. The best part is he means what he says.

We are beyond the endless lies and deceptions of Donald Trump as we march into the future with a competent leader. We all wanted to get out of Afghanistan, and Joe made it happen. Yes, the effort was flawed, but there were many issues. It’s time to stop second guessing Afghanistan and move on. Here at home, we must contend with border immigrants and asylum seekers, major court decisions, and keeping our elections safe and accurate. While some scream “Why are we trusting the Taliban?” perhaps they should take a look at Texas where elected officials are denying women’s rights and making it harder for people to vote.

We must stop pouring money into countries that cannot breathe our kind of democracy. And, for sure, why should one more life have to be taken by our flawed world policing and nation building? Let’s just judge the actions of our president and decide if they reflect a true care and concern for America. I think they do.

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THE QUICK & THE DEAD

Can you escape your sins?

I have been watching the CNN Original Series “Jerusalem: City of Faith and Fury” and I must say it has shown me the self-righteousness and political fallacy of the Holy Land. Come to think of it, all the major religions are grounded in the writings of a small group of people who lived within 500 miles of each other three-thousand years ago. It’s as if nothing was happening anywhere else in the world that mattered to God.

Clearly, it was a long voyage from a polytheistic to a monotheistic belief system, but how did the early Jews, Christians and Muslims determine that the Egyptians were wrong? It’s too simplistic to say that God told them so. I attempt to follow the logic but here’s what confuses me. Why would one religion, Judaism, teach that a messiah was coming but when he finally arrived, they disowned him? Mohammad’s relationship with God is like that between Jesus and God, but Islamic elders say there is no savior walking in today’s world and they treat the prophet’s words as the word of God, but alas, have been fighting for more than four hundred years on which wing of the religion is the rightful heir to power.

The political hogwash in the scriptures is disturbing. Some of what appears in both the Old and New Testaments seems more like the thoughts of insecure men rather than the timeless guidance we would like it to be. For example, scripture warns that those who sin, both the quick and the dead, will be judged by Jesus Christ. In other words, it implies that God will act on the sins of a person regardless of whether they are alive (quick) or have passed into the afterlife (dead). So, dying doesn’t erase what a man or woman has done in this life? Boy, I sure am glad I’m not Donald Trump!

As I watch more than 600,000 of my fellow citizens die because of a vicious virus, I can’t help wondering why perfectly good people have been taken from their families and loved ones. Have their earthly sins been so great that they had to suffer a terrible death in a hospital bed, alone?

The uniformed and disbelievers ignore science, and their actions and inactions are causing more death and destruction. Many Americans cannot discern the difference between a myth and a well-researched fact. Millions of people today gravitate toward the worship of idols, as did the Israelites when Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments. Aaron built a golden calf and those waiting for Moses sought comfort in that shiny metal idol.

Similar to past plagues, many today cannot understand how minor things can be totally disastrous. Like flies on the bellies of rats who stow away on ships bringing goods from faraway places, many people are just along for the ride. Early Americans had no understanding that the pus from a body infected with smallpox could inoculate them from the disease. Their self-righteousness led them to ignore the tribal methods of Africans which then forced smallpox on the world. As man “conquered” the world, viruses and germs continued to kill millions of people. What good is a world that ain’t worth keeping?

I had a thought when waking up this morning, Is God allowing millions of people to die who will also be judged in the next life? Yes, the “quick” die hard, but the dead are dead. Why would a supposedly merciful God, who so loves the world that he gave us his only son, go around taking people away from those they love? The stupidity is not just a current infection.

Do you believe that we killed God’s only son because of the same politics that keep the Middle East from being a peaceful place on this earth? Jesus was a true prophet who spread a unique anti-temple sentiment while pitching the concept of a direct, personal connection to God. Why, then, are we going through high priests, saviors, prophets and politicians to talk to him? Oh, one more question; how do we know God is a man?

I truly believe that if Jesus Christ or Mohammed were to return to the world today and urge everyone to get a vaccine, the deceivers would say they are democratic operatives. You can save the fire and brimstone. The uninformed still smoke cigarettes and send their money to Donald Trump, so why would they believe Jesus? They don’t even grasp the golden rule. They believe that a certain political religion controls the media and all the banks, so why would they move a muscle for a real savoir? They truly envision their leader coming down from the mountain on August 13 of this year to retake the crown and smite his enemies.

In this case, the quick are the dead. They are walking corpses who cannot understand they are the virus out to destroy the only “God-endorsed country,” the United States of America. They think Jesus was a white man who spoke English. Some of the unwashed even believe that Jesus walked around America. It’s true, just ask Mitt Romney. But it’s not about any one person, it’s about what or who we choose to trust. If we truly Trust in God, then why aren’t we listening?

Moses gave us only ten rules, and the first one is about God and the rest about me, me and me. It’s an egotistical, era bound list that doesn’t stand up to the test of time. One would think God should have been able to see the future so perfectly he would construct a set of rules that could be applied to any age. What, did he mail it in?

I get it, I shouldn’t covet my neighbor’s wife or house, and I guess we all have oxen out back. Why are the commandments written to men but not all genders? Is it okay for a woman to covet her neighbor’s husband? The biggies —Thou shall not murder, Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not steal, Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor — all make sense. However, I would have preferred Mo and God directly saying, “Thou shall not lie.” If I am going to be judged by God as being “quick” or “dead” I would like to know the rules.

The list doesn’t include, “Thou shall not avoid getting vaccinated in order to help my neighbor stay alive.” We also don’t see, “Thou shall not mock the mask to make the virus worse.” Okay, I know God couldn’t think of everything and the tablets of stone were only so big.

Why doesn’t God just send an email to all of us stating clearly what we should do? Or maybe God should have a TikTok channel so he can dance and rap and tell us all to take care of our fellow men and women. Sure, I am being silly, but really, just when we need an all-powerful deity, where are they?

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GUARANTEES & WARRANTEES

Spoiled Americans with Unreasonable Demands

I am sick and tired of people complaining. I live in a town where the median age is 69.1 years of age, and old people love to nit-pick, but I’m turned off by it. Maybe they have lived so long they believe all things should be working perfectly. Well, they just aren’t. I find myself repeatedly asking these days, “Why is that? For example, when I google Pandora 50% of the time I get links for the jewelry company and the other half I get those of the music service. They should know I use the music service and present only those.

People quibble over the least important aspects of life. Let’s take Mike Huckabee. He’s 65-years-old, so he’s bound to say something stupid half the time he opens his mouth. But his daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is only 38 and she’s running for Governor of Arkansas. You’d think she would know how to avoid saying stupid things, but no! Here’s a little back story for you. Arkansas currently is one of two states with the largest increase in Covid-19 cases. So, young Sarah Huck-a-wanna-bee rode to the rescue and wrote an op-ed piece to convince more Arkansans to get vaxxed.

If you want to read her diatribe you will find it here, but let me throw out some tidbits. Ms. Huckabee opens with a rather astonishing and unbelievable remark, “Like many of you, I have had a lot of misinformation thrown at me by politicians and the media during the pandemic.” Really Sarah, what exactly did they say that was WRONG and why did you wait so long to get the vaccine you gratuitously labeled the “Trump vaccine?” In your overbearing idol worshipping you mentioned his name 17 times in your article. Yes, okay, we can thank the former president for giving big Pharma the money needed to start the gears turning, but he did nothing to promote confidence in the vaccine. 95% of everything he said when the vaccines were rolling out had to do with the big lie about the election. So, what good was he?

My frontal lobes burst into fire when reading, “I was also reassured after President Trump and his family were vaccinated. If getting vaccinated was safe enough for them, I felt it was safe enough for me.” Yes, young Sarah, but why wasn’t Trump promoting the vaccine and its effectiveness? If he’s responsible for this great thing, why does he never mention it? His only recent claim was people stopped getting the shot because they don’t trust the Biden Administration. Really? What does that have to do with the TRUMP CURE?

Ms. Sanders proclaims that events and church should not have been shut down, and there shouldn’t have been mask mandates. Sarah adds, “As the number of covid cases and hospitalizations once again rise exponentially in Arkansas, information is emerging that I hope people will consider. Recent data demonstrates that those Arkansans who are not vaccinated are at significantly greater risk for serious illness from covid. In fact, 98 percent of covid patients currently hospitalized in our state and 99 percent of recent covid deaths were people who were not vaccinated. It’s clear that the Trump vaccine works and is saving lives.” Sarah, the immunizations are neither the “Trump vaccine” nor the “Biden vaccine,” they are AMERICA’S vaccines. We paid for them. They are being made by Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, not by any administration or president. Get off your hyper-partisan high horse and start making sense.

It’s a ridiculous approach to ask people to do what is medically right for America by wrapping it in a Trump flag with the expectation that vast numbers of people will now stick a needle in their arms. All Sarah Huckabee Sanders has done is confuse people, which seems to be easy to do in Arkansas. I mean, really, they elected both Bill Clinton and Mike Huckabee as governors and now they will probably put her in that chair. OMG. I want my razor back — to kill myself.

There are no guarantees in life and during a global pandemic words truly matter. More than once, Baby Huckabee lied to us from the press room in the White House. As they asked Michael Cohen, “Why would we believe you now?” Does anything Sarah Huckabee Sanders says carry meaning? She does point out that, “Many of our hospitals are now dangerously close to maximum capacity due to rising covid cases.” Yeah, but is that true? Sorry, I am being ironic there. I hear those hospital statistics from reliable sources, you know, the media you go out of the way to malign in your piece. You speak with forked tongue.

The bottom line? Sanders is merely using vaccination to pitch her run for Governor. She’s not a worthy messenger. If it’s a Trump vaccine, why isn’t his picture on every vial? You know, like Colonel Sanders’ face is on every bucket. Sarah, you could’ve gotten the shot seven months ago. Where were you then? Perhaps too busy trying to overturn an election? I’m glad you got the shot but hope you don’t get the votes.

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WHICH PILL WILL YOU TAKE?

The Lessons of Fantasy and Inner Conflict

For today’s post, I kindly ask that you suspend reality and think not only outside the box but beyond this world and the next. Place yourself far away in another galaxy, where reality is less discernible and evident. I was recently draw back to the movie The Matrix when it was mentioned in the book Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. I dusted off the DVD and watched it again.

So far, The Matrix is a trilogy, but The Matrix 4 is slated for release on December 22^nd of this year. The richest and most well-designed scene is in the first movie of the series, which nicely lays out the premise. Laurence Fishburne plays the role of Morpheus, who wears strange sunglasses without temples that are affixed to his nose by only the bridge. An incredibly young Keanu Reeves plays the part of Neo, a brilliant hacker and computer programmer.

In the scene, Morpheus tries to explain the Matrix to Neo, using terms and poetry that might lead you to believe he’s talking about a divinity or God spirit. He warns Neo that, “It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” Neo wants to understand the Matrix and believes Morpheus has the answer he desires. It’s the classic tale of a young man seeking universal truth.

The ever-curious Neo asks, “What truth?” and Morpheus explains, “…you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, kept inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind.” The older Morpheus explains that the truth, and thus the Matrix itself, is something he cannot talk about, others must see it for themselves. With that, he opens his hands and shows Neo two pills — in his right hand a red pill and in the left a blue one.

Now one could start there with an analogy of red representing right-leaning or conservative viewpoints and blue signifying left leaning or liberal thinking, but that would be too easy. As we learn, nothing about the Matrix is easy.

Morpheus lays out the conundrum by saying, “This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back. You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed, and you believe whatever you want to believe.” I have always thought that this choice thing was a setup, a trick, because it didn’t matter which pill Neo took. He would always be in search of the truth because that is the way he is wired.

Morpheus then explains the other choice, “You take the red pill, and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. Remember that all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.” This is where is gets good. Neo takes the red pill, of course, because he believes the “Wonderland” of truth theory where there is no reality and he’s trusting someone else’s binary choice, not his own.

I will go no further into the plot here. If I’ve piqued your interest, then go watch the film. However, be aware of the complex set of plotlines that can spring forth from a mind wanting to be manipulated. “When you take the blue pill and the story ends,” could mean the pill makes you feel secure knowing that there was an election, the bad guy lost and you are ready to go on with your life. You believe this because you’ve attached a thick layer of fact molecules to the various scenarios of life. You know the basement of that pizza place in Washington, D.C. wasn’t where babies were sacrificed for their blood to feed Democrat operatives. In fact, there is no basement in the Comet pizza establishment.

What about those who have taken the red pill? Well, they are seduced into various “rabbit holes” where they are forced to adopt, believe and fixate on whatever their handlers dish out. As they digest the large red conspiracy pill, brainwashers like Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity narrate their reality. These guys are not modern-day Morpheus-like leaders, they are agents of hate, lizard-like liars and armed conspiracy anarchists.

In the film, agents are the guardians within the computer-generated world of the Matrix, protecting it from anyone or anything that could reveal it as a false reality or threaten it in any other way. But be careful. Those taking the red pill are depicted as the heroes. Are you lost yet? Well, don’t get confused. People who say they are seeking the truth after taking the red pill can be traitors, like the character Cypher, played by Joe Pantoliano. They are picking the truth they want to believe, not the real truth.

Once someone goes down a rabbit hole, like Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Paul Gosar have done, they have totally given up cerebral control. They are compelled by a sinister need to shock, disrupt and interpret truth for those they believe will follow them down into the next rabbit hole. Whether it’s Jewish space lasers or Joe Biden sending “brown shirts” into Missouri to encourage “human experiment” vaccines, they are off their rockers. Paul Gosar has said, “If the Pope wants to devote his life to fighting climate change, then he can do so in his personal time. But to promote questionable science as Catholic dogma is ridiculous.” First, I am sure the Holy Father doesn’t punch a timeclock at the Vatican. Next, Mr. Gosar lives in a district that had the highest temperatures in the history of recordkeeping. He’s not going to burn in hell, his trousers are already aflame in his very own backyard.

Which pill will you take? Will you trust a certain news source because they hold the pill? Do you really believe they would do anything to lower their ratings, such as telling the truth? Fox News deals not in truth. They are part of a Wonderland created by exploiters and con artist wanting to get your viewership and money. Donald Trump is like Agent Smith, The Matrix head agent out to capture and destroy those who disagree with his premise or opinion. Here’s a question, how would Donald Trump even know if the election was rigged? Seriously, he doesn’t know anything other than the shit he makes up or things members of the armed conspiracy anarchists tell him. He didn’t look at the ballots. He didn’t see bamboo in the ballots. He didn’t go to Comet Pizza and ask to see the basement. He wouldn’t know a fact if it blew into his bellybutton.

I took the blue pill a long time ago. I go to sleep at night, then wake up every morning believing in the facts as presented by truth-tellers. I never bought into Stephen Colbert’s “Truthiness,” instead thinking that black and white outlined facts and gray areas were designed for mood management and psychological stability. When Morpheus says the truth is something he cannot talk about, one must see it for themselves, he is right. The people who have been sucked into the deep dark rabbit holes are not helping America. We need to be deeply concerned they are in positions of power, and we must work to change that now. Even Paul Gosar’s siblings have said he should be removed from Congress and called him a traitor to this country. I am sure a more strongly worded reaction is forthcoming.

Take the blue pill, my friends, and stop wasting your time on trying to see things that aren’t real.

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THE STORY OF DAVID & GOLIATH

Which one does Donald Trump think he is?

Most people know the general plot of the David and Goliath story, which comes from the Old Testament of the Bible. But for those who don’t, the classic story is about a little guy defeating a far more powerful giant. Yes, there is some “tortoise and the hare” in there.

David’s brothers went off with the Israeli army to fight the Philistines while the smaller David stayed home. The Philistines were a people who came from the island of Crete to Canaan (which is Israel today) and controlled the area for some two hundred years before this final war. The Philistines’ primary weapon was a nine-foot giant named Goliath who not only kicked butt but had a nasty habit of bad mouthing the Israeli God. Little David traveled to the front and confronted Goliath with the only weapons he had, a sling shot and five smooth rocks. The small guy declared to the ogre that God was on his side, and he launched one rock that hit Goliath in the forehead. The oversized bully came crashing down and Israel won the war.

Given the way Donald John Trump announced his new lawsuit against Facebook, Twitter and Google might lead one to think he’s a little guy out to slay the dragons of high-tech. He names the CEOs of the three firms in his lawsuit and declares it’s a class-action complaint, believing his claims can be aggregated with other lawsuits against a defendant that has allegedly caused him and others harm. I might be a candidate for that class-action because I have been banned from Twitter for life, but I wouldn’t get within spitting distance of anything initiated by Donald Trump. There are a huge number of possible reasons why this case will most likely be thrown out, but if it does move forward the defendants could call Trump to a deposition.

So, does Trump perceive himself as David, the disadvantaged martyr, or Goliath, the invincible warrior? I see Trump as a goofy giant being told by all his sycophants and followers that he has superior weaponry and his god, the almighty dollar, and he will win the day. Truth is, this is just another stunt to get on camera and raise cash from his rabid but naïve fans. He will pocket the money.

Trump may view Facebook, Twitter and Google as monolithic corporate overlords, but they are simply websites and search engines that are not owned by the government. Just as Trump and his expensive attorneys were able to run out the clock on obtaining damaging witness testimony at the former president’s impeachment trials, the billionaires behind these social media sites are not about to go down easy. The anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft lasted more than three years and the Supreme Court has no appetite to get involved.

Trump is lame brained, and he misses a fundamental fact. The First Amendment states that the government cannot restrict speech. It has nothing to do with corporations. Facebook, Twitter and Google are not the government. In fact, the First Amendment protects them from being told what they can or cannot host on their sites.

In the end, the little Davids of this story, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, will use weapons of exclusion. Goliath-Trump tried to keep us off his presidential Twitter account, not understanding he didn’t have the right to do so. The recent court decision stating Facebook is not a monopoly will embolden them. Trump is hoping this lawsuit will incite people to rally around him, but he’s an aging idiot who becomes less relevant with each passing day. By the way, where is that Trump social media site he claimed would be coming?

Caste is a recent book by Isabel Wilkerson. She presents a great explanation about the way people hold racists beliefs and are influenced by those long-held prejudices. I suggest that Trump followers have been captured by his rhetoric and are blindly following a false prophet. Here’s a quote from Wilkerson that fits perfectly, “People who do not know that they are captive will not resist their bondage.” Yes, those who continue to believe the “Big Lie” and other aspects of Trump’s foolishness are in bondage. Maybe the modern day Davids will smite the giant’s head and knock some sense into him.

You heard it here first. This off-base lawsuit is dead on arrival because Donald Trump’s remedy would hurt America and help no one. And that, dear friends, is just one of oh so very many reasons why Donald Trump is an asshole.

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RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA!

What did we learn from the Summit?

Both Russia and the US have said that the relationship between the two major countries is at an all-time low. Most Democrats would agree with Putin’s comment that Biden is a “very balanced person,” which implies Putin believes that last guy was not mentally predictable. But after hearing the President of Russia say that its relations with the US are so bad, I have to ask why.

Despite all the glowing things our former president said about getting along with Russia and Putin, and all the actions he took despite advice from experts in the State Department, somehow the result was zero good will between the two powers. What did our last president do that caused Putin to be unhappy with us?

Remember that Donald Trump and Putin talked behind closed doors. No one knows what was said, but relations between the two countries didn’t change one bit. Trump’s verbal gymnastics in Helsinki only made things worse. It remains unclear if he didn’t see any reason why Russia WOULD or WOULDN’T have interfered with our elections? We have proof of what Russia did, but Putin continues to deny, deny, deny — as any mobster worth his salt should do.

Okay, big newsflash here. Vladimir Putin doesn’t give a shit about the United States of America, and he could not care less about our president. His focus is staying in power. He has already changed the laws of his land to do so for the rest of his life, and he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way. Short of an aggressive form of prostate cancer, he will continue tormenting the world for quite some time.

Let me offer this perspective, the economies of Russia and Texas are roughly the same size, but our comrades overseas don’t have the frills and fabulous lives we have here in the good old USA. Amazon isn’t making multiple deliveries to Russian homes. The principal driver of the Russian economy is the energy they sell to the rest of the world. It’s fortunate that we buy more vodka and caviar from them than energy. Now, consider this. When was the last time you picked up a product at Walmart and saw a stamp saying “Made in Russia?” Economically speaking, we can only hurt them. Putin understands this and that’s why he often talks about sanctions.

Russia has always been the underdog and they carry an inferiority complex into every meeting with the outside world. Yes, they helped us beat the Nazis but, as Joe Biden pointed out, that was self-interest and not an altruistic response to a madman. The Soviet Union lost about 27 million civilian and military lives in World War II, but the Russians want us to believe it was 20 million. Had Hitler been successful in the east, there would be no Russia today.

Joseph Stalin was no angel. Some people believe that the 1930-1933 Russian famine, in which 7.5 million people starved to death, was a plot concocted by that “man of steel” Stalin to “liquidate” prosperous peasants (“kulaks”). By getting rid of those who controlled agriculture, their lands would transfer to Moscow and the capital extracted from the countryside could build Soviet industry, fill government coffers and line the pockets of the country’s so-called leaders. That’s terrible, if true, but truth in Russia is a rare commodity.

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin stood in front of the world press in Geneva and said that it wasn’t his people who hacked the US; it was the US itself. When asked why Russian opposition leaders have been poisoned, imprisoned and murdered, Putin claimed he had nothing to do with any of that. When asked about peaceful Russian protesters being arrested, Vlad cited the US January 6^th Insurrection in a feeble attempt to create a false equivalency. Putin said he wants to avoid the same thing happening in his country, clearly disagreeing with the Republicans in Congress who claim January 6^th was just another day of leisurely tourism on Capitol Hill. While our Republican sycophants stomp their feet and claim Biden is negotiating from a position of weakness, Putin is saying that all those anti-democracy Proud Boys who attacked Congress on January 6th should either be put in prison or poisoned.

Vladimir Putin doesn’t care if Alexei Navalny dies in prison. Should the dissident die in prison, Putin will go on TV to say it was an unfortunate outcome and “that guy” should never have protested. The little dictator will continue going after anyone who disagrees with him with a deathly vengeance. Nice guy, eh?

There is no “all time low” in our relationship with Russia. It’s just the way it is and always will be. Yes, Reagan was able to get the then-Soviets, to tear down the Berlin Wall, but the fundamental reason they got out of Germany was the prohibitive cost of maintaining a presence there. A young KGB agent stationed in Berlin oversaw the burning of secret documents. His name was Vladimir Putin. He wasn’t happy about his country giving up power then and that continues to be his main driver now. He learned German in high school and speaks it fluently. One could surmise he has a Napoleon syndrome because of his stature, but he probably leans more toward Hitler as an influence.

I don’t want to come off as an asshole, but we don’t need the US media swarm of junior TV reporters pontificating and spouting their theories about the meaning of the summit. The only person who made any sense to me was Fiona Hill. She was a key figure in Donald Trump’s Ukraine quid pro quo controversy and, as Senior Director for Europe and Russia of the National Security Council, she understands Putin and Russia better than anyone at the State Department. Hill’s commentary that Putin will continue to spread disinformation to shape the opinions, policies and actions of other nations is spot on. He’s just a spy who figured out a way to grift billions of dollars from Russia’s energy industry. He’s not a president. He’s an oligarch standing in front of an atomic arsenal.

It’s sad that the day after the summit the American press is more interested in a confrontation between Biden and a CNN reporter rather than the substance of what happened there. What did we learn? I saw a US president being presidential, having a meeting with the ruthless Putin, then coming out to plainly talk about the substance of their discussion. Man, that’s refreshing. We actually learned what happened, while remaining clueless about what Trump and Putin talked about in Helsinki. Trump fears truth while Biden fights for his truth. At least that’s something.

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THE FARCE OF ELECTION FRAUD

State Republicans are Don Quixotes in Drag

One of my friends and fellow writers suggested that we need a simple Congressional resolution that states, “Joe Biden was legitimately elected President; there was no steal.” Bruce Ledewitz is right. It’s a brilliant idea because Congresspeople would then have to go on record to state their belief and some would disclose their faithless dogma. Yes, that’s oxymoronic but it’s exactly what Congress has become.

Bruce also suggested, “As for questions concerning the killing of protestor Ashli Babbitt by the Capitol police, Americans now realize how important it is to investigate all uses of lethal force by the police.” Yeah, with all this Black Lives Matter stuff going on it makes sense to figure out why a US Air Force veteran was shot, but hey, wasn’t that already investigated? According to reports in the Washington Post, “Authorities determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove Babbitt’s civil rights were violated, and that it was reasonable for the officer to believe he was firing in self-defense or in defense of members of Congress and aides who were fleeing the House chamber. Prosecutors did not identify the officer.”

Those Republicans who voted against a 9-11 style commission to investigate an insurrection now refuse to look into this attack on democracy, I guess we don’t need to know why Capitol Police used deadly force that day, but shouldn’t we learn everything that happened? Why weren’t more protesters who were breaching the wall of Congress shot to death? Sorry, I’m just asking. Why didn’t the police defend the Capitol Building?

Recently, I was at a dinner with some power Democrats in Sarasota, Florida and suggested that the state Dems ask for an audit of Florida claiming widespread fraud helped Trump win the state. One of the lawyers at the dinner said that was a great idea. Why no audit in FLORIDA? Because fraud only happens where you lose. Not a single state that Trump won has been challenged.

My friend Bruce continued, “Democrats have a hard time understanding that many of the demonstrators on January 6 were sincere in their belief that the Presidential election had been stolen. Democrats like to think the demonstrators were just a white nationalist mob,” but I protested. A group can be “sincere” in their beliefs and still be a “nationalist mob.”

We all know there would not have been a riot without star speaker Donald Trump, and there wouldn’t have been an insurrection without his urgent words. Had he simply said STAY HERE, they wouldn’t have gone to the Hill. We know that, but why isn’t something being done about what happened? Republican Kool-Aid drinking sycophants keep saying more than 500 people have been arrested and that’s all the investigation we need, but wait, who incited the riot? Why not arrest TRUMP? From the beginning I’ve said the DOJ can’t read the same laws we do and arrive at the same conclusion.

Many Republicans have an opinion that mail-in ballots are a demonic scheme to favor the Democrats over them. They claim mail-in ballots provide a “partisan advantage.”

Does the research show that MAIL-IN BALLOTS favor Democrats over Republicans? Here in FLORIDA, we had 4.3M mail-in ballots, 31.1% for the GOP. We have a million voters with no party affiliation and many of them voted for TRUMP. That’s how he won.

I worked in radio research for years and can testify that by forcing a procedural, methodological or sample change does not always cause a skewing of results. Sometimes the opposite results occur. Would there be decreased Republican turnout if we made it harder for older people to vote? I am not sure the claim of “partisan advantage” should ever be written without quotes.

We don’t know if eliminating mail-in voting would give one party an advantage over the other. There are many places where mail-in voting is used exclusively, and Republicans consistently win there. Those goofy political zealots who believe mail-in ballots somehow affect voting results do so only because TRUMP SAID IT. In fact, Trump was just parroting someone who told him, “If you don’t do something about mail in voting, Republicans will never win again.” Donald John Trump believes he won the election, and if he doesn’t then he’s evil beyond comprehension.

To understand the truth behind all of this, just think of the teenager who said, “I’m not going to wear a mask, the president doesn’t.” That kid doesn’t know anything about elections, viruses or medicine; he knows only what he’s been told. Similarly, many state legislators who are concocting voodoo voting laws don’t understand how elections work. Their only “truth” is the shepherd of lies would never lead them to the slaughterhouse. Do they not fear the shearer’s blade? Do they not know mutton? Sooner or later, someone is going to ask them why they made it more difficult to vote and they will answer, “That’s not true.” At that moment, the debate will simply end. Lord Acton was right, absolute corruption is powerful stuff and absolutely they will eventually have their day in court. We can only hope the judges will see the wolf in a sheep’s cloak.

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