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scoutshonor56 · 4 years

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COP NATION

“Bad boys, bad boys, watcha gonna do…”

As I’ve watched our country being torn apart these last three weeks, I’ve been tempted to voice an opinion, but I thought I would let things simmer and roil a while before setting my thoughts to words – see how events evolved. What has become obvious is that what we have are two separate issues, albeit both intrinsically woven together, joined at the waist: Racism, and what America calls “law and order”; specifically, those who are tasked to uphold this social contract, the police. Those sworn to protect and serve.

Well, like America’s fixation with guns, I have also written about race many times – so many times that I’ve given up writing about either years ago; there is simply nothing more to be said, nor has anything significantly changed. So instead, I’m going to put out there some observations and insights about law enforcement here in America. I draw upon mainly two sources: Last Monday’s (June 8) John Oliver show, and a recent post in the social platform, Medium: Confessions of a Former Bastard Cop.

A quick addendum about the Medium piece: some may question it’s validity and alleged source, as is wise today – there is a huge, digital quagmire of untruths and bullshit floating around the mass communications world, where anyone is free to write anything and instantly put it out there. I myself am a stickler for checking sources and facts before voicing an opinion. That being said, I choose not to waste time digging and poking around on this one for the simple reason that it’s irrelevant; in my 64 years I’ve seen it all happen – a lot. From the war protests and race riots of the 60’s, to the beating and drowning of Joe Campos Torres by the Houston police my first year down here (‘77), to the fatal shooting of Dennis Tuttle and Rhogena Nicholas during a “no knock” botched drug raid January 18th of last year - yes, just like the one that lead to the death of EMT worker, Breonna Taylor, of Kentucky, who was shot eight times, in her home, just last March 13.

Also, a lot of the material touched on in this ex-cop confession is mirrored in the Oliver show. For instance, you might ask yourself, “Is there really such a thing as a ‘killologist’ who regularly trains our police force?”

Why yes little Sarah, there is indeed, and you can see him on the Oliver show!

I encourage you to read the post in Medium (it’s lengthy, but if anything, at least read the closing suggestions) and watch the Oliver show, and then ask yourself: Why does America far and away lead the civilized world in police use of firearms, death by firearms, and imprisonment of its citizens? What are we, as a society, doing wrong or differently?

How did a simple case of an Atlanta black man, Rayshard Brooks, inebriated and asleep at a Wendy’s drive thru, result in his shooting death just days ago? By the way officer Rolfe, bravo sir, bravo! Job well done – so how does it feel to take a human life, shooting him twice in the back for the offense of being drunk and resisting arrest? Hey, here’s a crazy thought, a wild reimagining: Considering America is now a tinderbox just waiting for a spark over policing methods, how do you think this would have played out if you and your partner, after finding Mr. Brooks too inebriated to drive, said “You know anyone you could call to take you home? You can park your car right over there, come pick it up in the morning…”

The days of dismissing these incidents as “a few bad apples” are long gone; thanks to today’s technology, everyday citizens (not to mention the ubiquitous security cameras that are everywhere) now have the power to record with a handheld phone; anywhere, anytime, and it has become increasingly obvious that no, the problem runs deeper - right to the core of police culture and training. A culture that recently got Tulsa Police Department Maj. Travis Yates in hot water when during a recent podcast he said that systemic racism “just doesn’t exist”, and further suggested research shows the police are shooting African Americans “24% less than we probably ought to be.”

Uhhhh - wow…

Maybe it’s time to look at this nationwide problem from a totally different perspective; maybe we continue to put Band-Aids and cosmetic patches on something that needs to be addressed before the bleeding even starts. The cause, and not the symptoms.

Yet, once again we assuredly will see some tepid policy changes, banning chokeholds, mandated race relations seminars, increased accountability and monitoring, policy reviews, blah, blah, blah – as we’ve seen it all before, for decades (Hey, remember Rodney King?), and in the end nothing changes. If these methods were effective, why are these incidents only increasing in frequency? I join the many who have seen enough; who feel America needs to erase the board and start this equation over, or this bloody ugliness will continue, and only get worse. For an expansion on this, read an excellent recent editorial written by Mariame Kaba, featured in the NY Times.

Unfortunately, the Dems have come up with a reasonable start, but decided to call the initiative “Defunding the Police”. Really? That’s the best you can do? Something that anyone could easily interpret as “let’s starve the cops financially!” Until what – they die on the vine?

No. But let’s take a look at what this financial restructuring really means, and start with the fact that the police force militia (which it has now become) is amply funded. This is because every politician, be they a Democrat or Republican, loves running on a “law and order” platform – it’s an easy grab line. Who doesn’t support law and order in our society? And if it means the police want something from a military garage sale, like a Humvee, an assault vehicle, military grade ordinance and all kinds of fun urban warfare toys? No problem!

Jeez, why does America accept this as necessary? Because our culture, out TV shows, our movies, are saturated with the fairytale myth of “they’re out there everywhere, the ‘bad guys’, and the only thing protecting the sheep from the wolves are the police!” We glorify and promote the idea of our security and protection depends on a steely-eyed squad who are not afraid to use a gun; from the days of the old west, to organized crime during prohibition, to Nixon in 1971 making drug abuse “public enemy #1”, declaring war on the scourge of violent drug dealers that overtook our streets and enslaved our children!

Which, I might add, has proven a laughable failure by any and all standards, and has cost the U.S. over a TRILLION dollars since 1971, while glutting our jails to overflowing with non-violent offenders and ruining countless families.

Watch a cop show (or movie) and see how long it takes before the guns come out to finalize justice, to provide closure and a happy ending. Justice ends with the scum bleeding out on the sidewalk. “COPS”!? Are you fucking kidding me? I didn’t even know it was still on the air – 31 years… Oh, we feel so safe and secure in our homes as we watch the shirtless rabble led off in handcuffs to the squad car!

Who watches a show filled with actual arrests for entertainment?

Meanwhile, let’s leave fantasy land and take a look at the real world: Did you know the vast majority of police action is what they call “reactive”? Meaning responding to noise complaints, issuing parking and traffic citations, dealing with the homeless, domestic disputes, and other noncriminal, societal issues. Most cops make one felony arrest a year – one. And here lies the nut of the problem: armed police being called out mostly to deal with issues such as these.

Things that should, and could, be handled by trained professionals in these fields, not some cop who got 1,000 hours of training at the academy, little of it having to do with these issues. And I say this in defense of the police, and this is what “defunding” really means. They shouldn’t have to deal with these problems, and most are ill equipped to do so – they’re cops! If all you have is a hammer (club and gun), and you were trained to be a carpenter, everything gets treated like a nail. This is ridiculous that our police are expected to wear so many hats and are so over extended. Free them up to deal with actual criminal issues. If one of the other scenarios turns violent or threatening, then call the police.

Why does America find this concept so alien – so non-applicable here in the USA? What, are our citizens somehow different than in the rest of the world?

Bottom line, these are problems that exist because of the anemic funding in areas such as education, housing, and our shameful, for profit healthcare system that leaves millions uninsured and one medical emergency away from bankruptcy. The positively obscene gap of income inequality that grows ever larger. The false promises of politicians. America is increasingly angry and frustrated with a government that is structured to favor the rich. So yes, let’s try diverting some of police funding and instead put it into social programs involved with education, housing, mental health, etc. These areas and the lack of funding are the seed, and then the root of most of society’s ills today – and yes, that often grow into crime and violence. Often these are people that we’ve let fall thru the cracks, who didn’t get the same chance, the same opportunities; and who need a little help.

Pay the police a better wage, attract and demand a more educated and diverse pool of applicants, and free them up to do what they are ideally supposed to do – PROTECT AND SERVE THE COMMUNITY. They shouldn’t be seen as our enemy, nor should we be theirs.

“You have to dominate, if you don’t dominate you’re wasting your time – you’re going to look like a bunch of jerks…You have to put them in jail for ten years and you’ll never see this stuff again.”

- Trump addressing governors during a video conference call, June 1

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scoutshonor56 · 4 years

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FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE GRIDIRON

Reaaady, 20! 20! HUT! HUT! HUT!!

Well campers, we have a first tonight: the following post is a reader’s response to my previous blog. Full disclosure, sorry, but I rarely check my “questions/comments” section; not like I have a wide readership anyways, so those that do comment reach me directly at rdseddy@gmail,com. But anyways, this one is from a longtime compadre and good friend who for tonight’s purposes will be identified as Dr. Om. Obviously, being a friend of mine probably means he shares a similar outlook on life, along with a slightly bent sense of humor – oh yeah, and likewise wields profanity with the best of them – read on:

Love it dude, great post! I had to google that last quote from Jon Voight. I just don't get it. Such glowing comments would sound ridiculous for even someone remotely deserving, and there has never been anyone deserving of such over the top flattery, particularly any politician. Unless you are trying to get laid, no one talks like that. Or you are a Branch Davidian. So unless Jon Voight is trying to fuck Donald Trump and/or is a Branch Davidian believing Trump to be David Koresh incarnate, there is some colossal joke here of which I have been left out.

In an age where everything can be fact checked, yet so many don't, or so much audio/video tape that contradicts Trump's daily assertions, yet so many ignore; it is beyond baffling why this vile freakshow continues to enjoy the astounding level of credibility that he does, and not just with his inbred, backwoods base, but the vast majority of the GOP!

It's hard to believe this ship will ever be righted because if so many people are so easily hoodwinked, then rational thought has no part in the decisions we make as a country anymore. When you reach this level of fanatic tribalism, like we are watching some fucking football game and I am indebted to not only cheer against the other team but actually internalize visceral hatred for them and their fans, maybe just because this dancing sock puppet mascot running up and down the sideline told me to, then how can you expect any progress whatsoever? A universal healthcare system that while directly may benefit themselves, they are told to see as a touchdown for the other team, so they hate it. That's the level of stupidity in the country. And frankly, I don't see how you overcome that.

I'd rather just move to Canada!

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scoutshonor56 · 4 years

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HOCUS POCUS!

Pick a card, any card…

Snape, visibly losing patience: “All right…”

Little Donny Dumblefuck: “Five of clubs!”

Snape: “Holy Hufflepuff, are you kidding me!? Are you fucking kidding me!? Even Weasley can manage this one for Slytherins sake!”

Little Donny: “OK, OK, let me show you the three cups and a chestnut…”

Snape: “You tried that one yesterday and I gave you three chances! Exactly what can you do?”

Little Donny: “Well, I can make really stupid people believe anything I say…”

Snape: “Oh really – and what is the incantation may I ask?”

Little Donny: “Fake News!”

Yes, Little Donny wasn’t much of a wizard, and failing that, a pretty inept and lazy magician, but he was blessed with a really stupid and gullible audience.

I knew we were in trouble early on in this nightmare administration when I first heard blond bimbo/magician’s assistant, Kellyanne Conway, use the phrase “alternative reality” - as in dual reality. Now there’s a concept you don’t often hear mentioned outside of science fiction or quantum physics.

But that’s all a little complex for the simpleminded, so like with so much about this merry band of fumblefucks, they had to dumb it down – hmmm, we need a catch phrase, something simple that even he can remember…GOT IT! FAKE NEWS!

Now most aspiring despots worth their salt, past and present, follow the first rule of creating an autocracy: control the media; the message to the rabble. And when dealing with people a little smarter than the Trumpkins, you go with the direct approach: achieve military authority and neuter the free press by force, leaving only one unified, state run media outlet to carefully craft and control the propaganda machine (see N. Korea).

Aww jeez, that sounds like a lot of work though - let’s just try this: whenever the king hears something he doesn’t like, something critical, or other than outright praise for his greatness, he simply says “FAKE NEWS!”

“Hmm, I dunno… you think they’ll buy it? Is anyone really that stupid?”

“Come on! Have you seen this crowd? Hell yes they’ll buy it!”

You can pick any of countless times over the last three and a half years that this has been proven true, so today let’s stick with the current topic on everyone’s mind – the Covid-19 virus.

Last week I read a sadly horrifying and grim editorial by Timothy Egan in the NY Times (you know, that “failing” news outlet), which pretty much could be viewed as a report card on the U.S. response to the virus so far, and how our once great nation is now viewed by the rest of the modern world - I highly encourage you to read it. Among the statistics sited:

Within 1.3 million reported cases, the United States, just 5% of the world’s population, has 33% of the sick. As we approach 100,000 deaths, we’re also at the front of the pack in that catagory.

Globally, the average death is 34 people per million. In the United States, it’s more than six times higher – 232 per million.

By the end of April, new cases in S. Korea were down to less than 10 a day. In the United States at that time, the pandemic raged at a daily rate of more than 25,000 newly sick.

And yet, here in the United States we spend more on health care, per capita, than any other modern, developed nation.

Brief interlude here: even as I typed this recap, I thought, looking around today and reading the news - can we really still call ourselves the “United” States?

But that’s another story – meanwhile, this cheap shyster with clown hair and more than a few parts loose in his dusty cranium continues to insist his government has done a “spectacular job” with the Covid-19 pandemic. “And I’ll tell you, the whole world is excited watching us because we’re leading the world.”

What – in doing a shitty job?

So again I have to ask myself, as I have so many times during this sham of an administration: “How does he perform and maintain this level of mind control without some mass hypnosis, or serious pharmaceuticals in the drinking water?” How could anyone continue to put their faith in this petulant, narcissistic moron who at any given moment can state that “I never did that”, or “I never said that”, when every one of these incidences of ignorance and buffoonery are filmed and recorded, broadcast for all to see daily? You’re the fucking president, not the schoolyard gossip. Everything you say and do concerning this country is recorded! No, this isn’t an episode of one of your reality shows, where we can creatively – and I mean creatively - make sense of it later in the editing suite.

Throughout most of January, Captain Assclown wasn’t even mentioning the virus, until finally, on the 22nd, when he proclaimed “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China. It’s going to be just fine.” By mid-February it became something that “will go away by April”, magically dissipating like old snow with the spring warmth. On the 24th it was “Very much under control in the USA…” He also tweeted, “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” While addressing a group of African American leaders at the White House on the 27th, he once again turned into a mystical Nostradamus, saying, “It’s going to disappear. One day – it’s like a miracle - it will disappear.”

In Charleston, N.C. on the 28th, at his last Trumpapalooza RA-RA Rally (before the shit really hit the fan and lockdowns started) his rabid, red meat crowd was told the whole thing was simply the latest hoax, perpetrated by the Dems to finally bring him down.

“Watch the tiny hands closely – nothing up my sleeve, aaaaand Abra Cadabra, GONE!”

Watch out though, remember who’s driving the car! Hang on! In mid-March famous demolition derby driver Donny Crash, who insists on not wearing a helmet, comes out with this head-spinning, WTF gearshift moment: “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.”

Sigh - you can’t make this shit up.

How about a current assessment, Crash? Glad to! Just last week (May 8) Donny tells the press, “I feel about vaccines like I feel about tests. This is going to go away without a vaccine. It’s going to go away and we’re not going to see it again.” Wow…

Is there anything this sack of soggy, mashed French fries with clown makeup could say that would make his followers pause and think, “Hmmm - I don’t know about that one…”? If he said the Earth was flat, would they believe it?

Oh, never mind – we all know the answer to that.

This goes way beyond loyalty to a person or a party; it’s much closer to zealous and blind religious fealty. This high priest of pandemonium and bullshit once again has absolutely no plan or clue; he makes decisions about this country like he’s approaching an All-U-Can-Eat fast food buffet: “Let’s see, gimme a Whopper first, and one of those fried pies! No, nope, I’ll take the bucket of chicken with the mashed potatoes! Nooo, wait a minute! Give me the jumbo McDonald’s fries, yeah, that’s it! DOH, I changed my mind, I want the McNuggets first! Yeah, gimme the McNuggets! OH, OH, what are those, over there behind the chicken!?”

His thoughts randomly bounce and pop around erratically in his head like farts in a bathtub. His brain is a broken pinball machine with a dozen paddles and no hole.

And I can think of no better example of his fans than a quote I recently read from washed-up actor who hasn’t been in a decent movie since 1972’s “Deliverance”, Jon Voight – who surprise, surprise was last November awarded the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities by the White House. That’s right my feeble-minded minions – say something flattering about me and you might just get a shiny prize! Or maybe even a job on my team! For some reason there always seems to be an opening…

So let’s crack that Trump loving skull, raise the hood, and take a peek at the gears, hoses, wiring, and pistons that drive your average everyday Trump acolyte:

“We see President Trump as a magnificent soul, raising up this nation… He will go down as the historic president of this millennium. He will be etched in stone with a gold medal, a hero and a president of the United States who won the battle. The war of 2020. He is Donald Trump. God bless.”

I rest my case.

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scoutshonor56 · 4 years

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WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST!

Scotch please – make it a double, and no ice…

I’m not sure exactly, when I first spotted the iceberg up ahead in the cold and still darkness – a large patch of black on the horizon, standing out against the panorama of stars bright as diamonds… But I would estimate sometime around when I heard Captain Trump angrily sputter over the loudspeakers that he had “absolute power!”. Within that same hour, or shortly thereafter, he was heard again – this time encouraging the officers and shipmates to mutiny, yelling rather loudly, “LIBERATE THE TITANIC!” My first thought was, “Surely the man has gone quite daft under the dire circumstances…”

Where am I going with this silliness? It is a well-documented fact that as the Titanic’s fate became clear, the brave and selfless members of a small string quartet chose to stay aboard and play on – and other gentlemanly Brits chose to keep their formal dinner wear on and proceeded to the bar, I presume to indulge themselves with a round of final toasts with their preferred liquor – perhaps a large snifter of Remy Louis XIII, or a stout Macallan Lalique single malt…

“To Her Majesty, the Queen!”

“Huzzah! So, Colonel Pettibone, what do you believe will be served for breakfast tomorrow morning?”

“I would venture sand, Sir Burroughs!”

“Good one, indeed! Oh, Clayton my good man – another round for me and the colonel if you please…”

OK, I made that bit up – but as I enter my 64th year on this planet and in this country, I think I’ll join that group down at the bar – life is too short to be angry and frustrated over things that I have absolutely no control over, chief among them, that sack of stupid with the clown hair that is bleeding out stupidity at a surprising rate lately, even for him – and amazingly, he still sits in the Oval Office of this once great land. No need to innumerate, or go into detail - I mean who can even keep track anymore? It was hard enough when his eruptions of stupidity were limited to daily ramblings that resembled a word salad falling down the stairs – he has the attention span of a moth. But this virus has put him into stupid overdrive.

I imagine this is because this desperate, petulant child, who I’m going to guess is in the advanced stages of senility or syphilis (or both), has finally come across an adversary not of his own making. In other words, he can’t lie his way out, can’t dismiss it like a subpoena, can’t gloss over it, can’t have his Attorney General fix it, can’t do something even stupider to distract everyone’s attention, can’t blame others for it (although God knows, he has tried), and he can’t buy it off for a $130,000 – nope, it’s a very busy microbe. DOH!

So meanwhile, yes, I’ll be down at the bar, this whole thing has gotten WAAAAAY too crazy for me! And I used to do drugs. And what doubles down on the crazy factor is that yet, there is a sizable chunk of American citizens who continue to not only swallow the stupidity, but rally around it like the home football team.

Please! All of you, step out of the gene pool! You’re not helping… America needs to literally break off and isolate a large, desolate area of say, Idaho, where all these folks can relocate to and elect Donald Trump as their Chief and Grand Poobah; I actually think they would go along with that anyway: no more pesky “facts”, no east coast/west coast know-it-all elites and their Socialist ideas. They can all interbreed, watch Fox News, shout “LOCK HER UP!” till they’re blue in the face, use pictures of Obama for a target at the gun range, wear their flag hats and flag underwear and have parades where they can rant, chant, and rave about their freedoms and liberty… just a suggestion.

Jim Jones? Charlie Manson? David Koresh? Meet Donald Trump!

Quite frankly, I’m genuinely amazed that there hasn’t been a shooting yet… although, wait a minute - they are trying: just saw a minute ago that 53yr old attorney, James Troutman of Kentucky, has been arrested and charged with “terroristic threats” against the life of Gov. Andy Beshear…well, to be fair, Beshear is just another know-it-all bossy Democrat trying to infringe on their God-given right to ignore science and infect other citizens with a deadly virus…I mean come on, what’s next? I can’t bring my totally legal AR-15 into the delivery room when my wife gives birth!? I’m there to protect the rights of that child!!

Yup, I’m done here - the icy cold water of stupidity is now lapping at my waist...

“Oh, say Clayton – you wouldn’t happen to have another of those exceptional Cuban cigars back there now, would you my good man? Oh, and please offer those gentlemen in the quartet a round, lovely playing – put it on my tab of course, eh?”

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scoutshonor56 · 4 years

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KWID DOH NO!

Our Kartoon Prezident

Well, as year #3 of this torn and frazzled, circle-the-wagons administration comes to a close, it’s time to look back and reflect on the Little King’s record thus far. After all, “some” say he’s the greatest president since Lincoln, maybe even better! Well, OK, he does anyway… Oh Little Donny, you are one for the history books, you’re certainly right about that!

In the short span of three years in office, due to your ego, stupidity, and gullibility, you’ve made our country a punchline and a bad joke to the rest of the free world. You’ve soured relations with pretty much all the major democratic nations of both hemispheres and it’s become abundantly obvious that you prefer the company of despots and dictators, because they curry your favor and feed your ego while playing you for a sucker and a clueless rube. You play international diplomacy not like a shrewd card shark, but someone who still gets confused when playing “Go Fish”.

While your own top advisors, the CIA, and our National Security team strongly suggested you throw in the 4 and the 7 and take two cards, you said, “But I asked them, and they said they got nothing – I’m betting it all on what I have!”

Did Putin rig the 2016 election? “I asked him, he said no…”

Does Kim Jong-un intend to stop his nuclear proliferation? “I asked him, he said yes…”

Did Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman order the killing, dismemberment and disappearance of Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi? “I asked him, he said no…”

It’s just a theory of mine, but I suspect that you find the intricacies of democracy waaay too complicated; too much reading! Whereas in Russia and N. Korea, it pretty much boils down to “the supreme leader makes the rules, and if you don’t like it, tough shit.” – see? Simple is good!

Fuck it, what do my own hand-picked Intelligence team know anyways? They didn’t write my best seller, “Art of the Deal”! They lack my incredible business insight and my sharply honed negotiating skills; my intuitive judgement of character!

No argument there Mr. Prezident… well, except for the six former associates, cabinet appointees, and campaign advisors now spending their holiday in prison for a few minor offenses like tax evasion, campaign finance violations, lying to Congress under oath, lying to the FBI, conspiracy against the United States, obstruction of Congress, and witness tampering… oh, and your revolving door of high level appointees and cabinet members who pass through the White House like the line at a drive-thru McDonalds, or a frantic, rookie coach trying to stabilize his list of starting players as they drop one game after another on their way to another losing season.

As a matter of fact, you’ve had more turnovers during your first three years at the helm than any other previous first term president during their entire four-year term - many of them replaced multiple times!

Hey, I get it – shit happens when you’re a “stable genius” big-time finance wizard like yourself, who built a huge casino in New Jersey primarily financed with junk bonds, ran it into the ground, stiffed all the construction contractors and workers out of millions, and turned Atlantic City into a ghost town.

Oops, well, and there are those six bankruptcy filings while you were in the private sector… and the bogus Trump “University” scam that you quietly had to settle out of court before taking the oath of office to run the country, paying out $25 million to the students (dupes) who showed up one day only to find the front doors locked and a sign taped to the glass…

Oh, and the Trump “Charity” organization, which was recently sued by the New York Attorney General and found guilty of misuse of funds, funneling millions toward your election campaign and paying off business debts… oh, and the purchase of a huge $60K vanity portrait to hang in one of your exclusive country clubs. The “Charity” foundation was ordered liquidated and $2 million was dispersed among actual, non-affiliated charities… Whadda guy, am I right!? A true philanthropist, with a heart as pure and genuine as his hair!

Well, OK, but that’s all dollars under the bridge, now you’re in the BIG chair, running the whole show – how’s that federal deficit coming, the big hole in our national budget that in your 2016 campaign you promised to fill in eight years? Yikes! Lotta shoveling still needed there, better roll up the sleeves, put down the golf clubs and get to work; looks like the federal deficit for this past year surged 26% from 2018 to $985 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects it will top a record breaking $1 trillion next year, primarily due to your 2017 tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit the rich and mega-rich.

Speaking of golf, let’s return again to 2016 and your campaign rhetoric:

“If I am president I'm not going to play much golf, because there's a lot of work to be done... Obama went golfing every day. 'Little Obama, go play golf every day.' He's played more than most PGA touring professionals play... I'm going to be working for you. I'm not going to have time to go play golf."

You leave me speechless. There are whoppers and then there are WHOPPERS! And we all know your whoppers are triple beef patty and cheese, hold all the green and tomato, extra bacon! This past weekend, down in Par-a-Lago, you teed up for your 251st game at – of course - one of your own exclusive resorts. Yup, the president of the United States owns twelve courses across the U.S., three in Europe, and one in the Middle East, with three others still under construction. You even wanted to hold the 2020 G7 Summit at your exclusive resort in Miami until your own party members quietly suggested, ahem, this might not go over too well with the rabble… could be seen as gratuitous and self-promoting.

You know, it’s not everyone who can get elected to president of the United States even after tapes are uncovered of him saying ten years prior to running, “Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.”

Damb! J.F.K., Bill Clinton, sit down you amateurs! You nervous, pimple-faced freshman at your first high school dance trying to cop a sweaty feel! Donny was putting it to a well-known porn star just a year after his third marriage and just months after the birth of their first child, Barron. His longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleaded guilty to eight federal crimes, including making illegal contributions to the Trump campaign on the same day he admitted cutting a $130,000 to said porn star (AKA Stormy Daniels) to buy her silence before the election.

“I did not have sex with that woman.” Oh, those were such innocent times, the ‘90’s! A little hanky-panky with an intern, a cum stained blue dress… To date, Trump has 25 allegations of sexual misconduct against him, and those are just the women who came forward.

I could go on and on… and on, but let’s stay with the big picture, the broad brush strokes for now, and start to bring this sordid summary to a close. So, you’re the champion of coal and the petrochemical industry, and the chief spokesperson for the nostalgic days of big, gas guzzling cars. You get a hard-on whenever you see a tank, sparking fantasies of military parades down our streets, you’re a climate change denier, think wind energy is produced by windmills that give you cancer, and are the Darth Vader to renewable energy in any shape or form. Your target list also includes endangered wildlife and protected federal land and you are quickly closing in on 100 rollbacks (95) of any current environmental regulations. You’ve essentially turned the EPA into a paper lion with missing teeth, a bunch of token federal workers down the hall who may as well show up whenever they feel like it, take long lunches, spend their days web surfing, and punch out around 3:00 for all the good they can do under your watch.

Wow, what an impressive resume! We haven’t even touched on the constant barrage of lies and fanciful fabrications that spill out of your mouth daily like food spray, the daily policy “briefings” conducted by Fox News, the obsessive tweeting, the complete blurring of truth and fact, the drastic rise of nationalistic, racist hate crimes over the last three years, the rambling conspiracy theories, the child-like pettiness and immaturity, the juvenile name calling and belittling, the paranoia, the preening and neediness of a textbook narcissistic sociopath…

And now, to cement your place in the annals of history you’ve graduated to being only the third sitting U.S. president to face an impeachment hearing - bravo Mr. Prezident, bravo! You sir are indeed one for the books! A true piece of work never before seen, or even imagined, in our 224 years of American politics, and I salute you!

You let him in the game America; you wanted him, you got him! I can’t wait for the next four seasons of everyone’s favorite reality show, “Little Donny’s Playhouse!”. And if his mentally blunt and rabid fans have anything to say about it, afterwards it will go into re-run syndication for years and years to come!

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em!

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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The Uninvited Guest

Have you ever had an uninvited guest? You know, the one who promises to help around the house, get along with the wife and kids, stay in the background, kick in some money for food and bills, just until he finds a job and moves out in a timely fashion…

…and then does none of the above? Now, 8 months later, the wife is one more “incident” away from filing for divorce, your kids are hardly ever home, and the funds are getting so lean you’re pulling extra hours at work to compensate (and avoid homelife) and even brown-bagging it for lunch. I know some countries that probably feel that way - it certainly reminds me of our relationship with the Middle East.

As I watched American troops withdrawing from Syria last week, being pelted with rocks and potatoes, angry mobs of Kurds shaking their fists and holding up signs, I had nothing but shame for my country; shame and anger. Yup, shocking even those in his own party and members of his cabinet advisors, our reality-challenged Moron in Chief announced that he was bailing on strategic ally, the Ukraine, in his fairy tale effort to spin his own story and “Bring our troops home!”

Oh BOY, that phrase has such a positive ring to it! It smells of mission accomplished, implying some sort of victory! Tears and hugs, excited dogs, welcome home parties, and a return to mom’s Sunday beef stew and apple pie with the family!

Whooo-WEE did that one push the bullshit meter needle into the red; all we’re doing is moving the tokens around the board, and not very far at that. They are already being re-deployed two steps over, primarily back to Iraq. This occupation - let’s call it what it is - has become a marathon game of insanity and blood, where there is no end and everybody loses. It’s an open scrum played on a dangerous field of rock and sand with no rules, no boundaries, and goal posts that were torn down long ago - just make shit up as you go along.

I know it’s been a long time, so it’s understandably easy to forget, but the invasion of Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, and soon expanded into Iraq on March 19, 2003. Meaning in two short years, we will have reached the twenty-year mark, the longest war by far in America’s relatively short history. There are teenagers today who have known nothing but this occupational war. It has literally become part of our national fabric, background static in our everyday lives; and like an ever-present mild tinnitus ring in your ear, you soon learn to live with it, tune it out. Put a WE SUPPORT OUR TROOPS bumper sticker on your car and carry on with your day, feeling secure that you’ve done your part.

It’s filler for the media when they run short of something more “interesting” to prattle on about, something more eye-grabbing! This war is sooo old news – it has no cute, fuzzy animals doing funny things, not even any chesty cleavage for God’s sake! And where are the celebrities, the Hollywood scandals!? Oh never mind, switch the channel to “America’s Got Talent”, or “Dancing With the Stars”, or “The Voice”…

Again I ask myself, why is it that America, in all it’s nationalistic hubris and arrogance, simply can’t imagine the horror and hatred generated by military occupation of one’s own country? What if it was us that had M2 Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees patrolling our streets, troops banging down our doors, searching our homes, families rounded up in our streets and being harshly interrogated in a language we don’t even understand. The ever-present “accidental” shootings and beatings, tempers flaring, hospitals, social events, and schools bombed, all justified with the flippant term “collateral damage” - OOPS!

Proud cities laid in ruin, jobs lost, and forced mass migrations pushing you here, there, and then back again as the bloody conflict moves from place to place, country to country.

And I might add this is something we’ve had a lot of practice at over the last century; this is far from the first time we have flexed our misguided muscle in a world that we continue to see through our myopic American eyes. “Surely everyone shares and envies our values and culture, right?” Granted, there may have been a time not long ago when this was true, and the premise still holds some validity today, but no ride lasts forever, and this is a new century with a new game that is already seeing a lot of new players. It’s time this country and its people came to grips with the reality that as of 2019, we comprise 4.27% of the world’s global population.

Many might say, “Well yes, but we’re liberators, not aggressors…”

To which I would say, let’s hold off on the flag waving until such results are achieved – until then, and after almost 20 years, the distinction to me appears rather blurry. Or more to the point, let that call be made by the hapless bystanders and victims caught in the middle; let’s ask them if all the sorrow and rage is/was worth it. Then let’s be honest and open with the American people and tally up our cost, and then put it on the scales of justification:

According to a study at the Watson Institute at Brown University, the combined cost of this war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq so far is just shy of, and soon approaching, 6 trillion dollars; that’s trillion.

According to this same study, there have been an approximate total of 500,000 people killed, and that’s not even including another half million deaths attributed to Syria, a bloody skirmish we joined in 2014. How much of that can be directly attributed to our involvement? Certainly debatable I grant you, but you can cut those numbers in half and they still represent a staggering figure.

According to Military.com a record total of 321 active duty members of the American military took their own lives just last year - that’s almost an average of one a day. I’m no psychologist, and I’m sure there are a myriad of complex reasons, but quite frankly I don’t find it that difficult to understand the feeling of hopelessness and absurdity as you contemplate a life that you used to know fading from your day to day reality. Home? Home will never be the same for you, especially if you are one of the maimed and scarred…

Maybe I’m being idealistic or naïve, or reading too much “fake news”, or simply not clear on how we keep score in such endeavors, but I’m not seeing much of anything on the plus column here yet…

Meanwhile, let’s imagine a parallel universe where America embraces a much more effective and sane method to “win the hearts and minds” of countries in turmoil, who are tipping on the brink of political and social chaos. What if we took a tiny chunk of those trillions of dollars, let’s say 5 or 10 billion, and built schools to educate, libraries, and hospitals. Sent over professional and knowledgeable advisors instead of soldiers to help with a country’s medical needs, sustainable farming techniques, and developing new industries to generate a stable economy. How do you think the rest of the world would judge us then? How many nations would not only become willing allies, but maybe even emulate this humanitarian effort that recognizes we are all people sharing the same planet.

Now for the bonus feature that enhances life here at home – we could utilize a couple of those trillions of dollars to rebuilt and modernize our roads and bridges, our water management systems, airports, and mass transit infrastructure. I can’t tell you how many documentaries I’ve watched where American engineers grade all of these areas as antiquated and sorely in need of repair or replacement. Did you know nearly 85% of our bridges were built before 1970? Major airports around the world put ours to shame. As our climate rapidly changes, flood management has now become a major concern here in America. We could greatly expand and improve renewable energy, making it more cost efficient and readily available.

Improve our schools and pay our teachers a competitive wage. Why would any country not treat the education of its citizenry as a top priority? Schools are the very soil in which we carefully nurture the human seeds of a globally successful and competitive society, critical today more than ever. According to an international study done by the Pew Research Center in 2015, our educational system rates middle of the pack, or worse – how do you think that bodes for our future in a rapidly changing and developing world?

And we would still have plenty left over to maintain a robust Defense Dept.

Instead, we continue to feed an insatiable Defense budget. A gluttonous monster that holds sway over our politicians and lobbyists. Last year alone we spent more than the next seven countries combined, and yes, that includes China and Russia. Our military budget for 2020? $738 billion, and it goes up every year.

While we now have a record breaking deficit of over 1 trillion dollars, military spending eats over half of our discretionary budget annually. Why do we continue this madness of “might makes right”? Pursuing peace through aggression and intimidation, carrying the biggest club? According to The Wall St. Journal, America has more than 400 military bases around the world, located on every continent but Antarctica. As of this year we have an inventory of over 6,000 nuclear warheads – now that’s what a call a redundant backup…

This is exactly the madness that retired five-star general and former president Dwight Eisenhower warned about in his farewell speech at the White House on Jan. 17, 1961. He called it “the military-industrial complex”, referring to the growing and dangerous union of our defense contractors and the armed forces.

His successor to the highest office in the land, John F. Kennedy, once said:

"And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient - that we are only six percent of the world's population - that we cannot impose our will upon the other ninety-four percent of mankind - that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity - and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem."

Just maybe it’s time to try a little harder at getting along; to lead by example, instead of might. America first? Great, I’m all for it - let’s start in our own backyard, because it’s a mess.

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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American History

Capitalism

To me, capitalism is one of those concepts that, in theory, is sound and based on common sense. After all, at its core it is a monetary system of reward for hard work and initiative, often involving significant risk.

Those willing to dedicate and apply themselves are rewarded proportionally, often leading to advancement, growth and prosperity – sounds fair to me. Certainly everyone, regardless of effort, shouldn’t be rewarded equally. Many folks, myself among them, are pretty much content to hold down a steady job that provides a modest, comfortable income and at the minimum, some type of health care and some basic “bennies”; everyone is different, and this works out well within the system.

The problem starts when this system goes unregulated, and the opportunity becomes not fairly available to all. When over time, this dream becomes a runaway money train with only a small, select group of privileged passengers. In short, unlimited greed while the rest are exploited; the “rest” are left to build the tracks and walk.

So, where did it all begin? Well, here in America anyways; what gave America the template for big corporations and their punitive relationship with their labor force? There are a lot of facets to the horror and history of human slavery in this country, but to be honest, I was surprised to find out that this was one of them. I became aware of this thanks to a recent piece featured in the NY Times, which is running a series of stories this month entitled “The 1619 Project” to mark the 400 year legacy of slavery here in America. It’s quite a lengthy read, so as best I can I will cover the basics, and of course, for the full story in detail you can refer to the article.

To lay the groundwork for this blog:

Did you know almost half of the American population makes under $15/hr? That middle class wages (when adjusted for inflation) have been stagnant since the late ‘70s while CEO wages and benefit packages have increased exponentially to obscene amounts? That the number of Americans receiving food stamps has increased 40% over the last ten years, yet we have over twice as many billionaires? That the richest 1% of America owns 40% of our nation’s wealth, while a larger share of working age people live in poverty here than in any other nation belonging to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.)?

This impartial organization also rates its capitalist members in the category of worker rights and how easy it is to fire them. As far as worker’s rights, the U.S. shares second to last place with Malaysia, and out of 71 nations, the O.E.C.D. scores our country #1 in ease of being able to fire workers. In other words, “You’re Fired!” isn’t just our reality show president’s favorite tag line.

So let’s crack open the history book you won’t find in your average school curriculum, because here in America we much prefer our taught legacies with plenty of smoothing out, touching up, masking of flaws, and finishing with a thick, glossy coat of varnish.

There was a time, just before the Civil War, when the Mississippi Valley was home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the United States. Cotton grown and picked by slaves was the nation’s most valuable export, a font of phenomenal wealth. New Orleans suddenly had a denser concentration of banking capital than New York City, and the backbone of all this selective wealth was the thriving slave trade, where the combined value of slaves exceeded that of all our factories and railroads. Can you imagine? An enterprising person with an entrepreneur’s spirit and ambition finding himself in a new world of seemingly endless natural resources, cheap land, and free labor? Its a capitalist’s Disney World of profit, filled with promises of limitless growth.

Well, OK, that was hundreds of years ago – what does that have to do with the workings of large, modern corporations today? Well, other than the obvious Golden Rule of Capitalism: maximum productivity out of your workers while spending the least amount of money on wages, health care and benefits…

Have you ever fired up your PC or laptop at work in the morning only to see yet another memo from management? A memo that came from your “team leader”, who got it from lower management, who got it from mid-level management, who got it from upper management, who got it from regional management, who got it from the “Big Boss”, who first had to get it OK’d by the BIG, BIG Boss? Well there you have it, the inner workings and corporate-like hierarchy of a typical slave labor work force on a typical large plantation.

The owner (or group of owners) supervised a top lawyer, who supervised another lawyer, who supervised an overseer, who supervised multiple bookkeepers, who supervised a group of enslaved head drivers and specialists, who finally supervised hundreds of slaves. Like today, accountability was foremost and strictly adhered to. Laborious and complex spread sheets were developed by hand for the first time in American industry, and volumes of data were kept to breakdown all aspects of bale production. Everything was tracked, recorded, quantified, analyzed, and accounted for, including meticulous record-keeping of a slave’s age, sex, when bought, performance, expected productivity over the years, potential value, breeding history, etc.

Sound familiar yet?

Who hasn’t endured the sweat inducing “performance review”, where you are essentially forced to appear before the low-end management judge to plead for your job, bringing evidence of your worthiness to the company? You may want to feel lucky that today you might get an upbraiding, maybe a negative mark that will go on your record. The poor black slave was faced with walking that fine line of performance, where his production must be maintained at a level of competence and profitability without being too much of a pacesetter in the fields; that not only got his fellow workers a cruel beating, but himself included if he (or she) didn’t maintain that level every day.

More than once over the years, when reading about the millionaires through our history, the billionaires and mega-billionaires of today, I’ve pondered the question: when is enough, enough? Is there even such a thing as “enough”? Is there ever a point where you sit back, think about throwing in your cards and spending the rest of your life enjoying your bottomless bank account and investments?

Kind of a moot point. A person who had a single billion dollars at their disposal today would have to spend $40 million a year for 25 years before they ran short of cash; which would mean burning through $3 million a month, or over $100K a day. And that’s just a single billion… I recently read an article that shed some light, or clarity onto this supposition, and according to the author, at some arbitrary point it does become no longer about money. It becomes all about power and position among your peers. Your image, your perceived position in this exclusive pack – who are the big dogs at the front of the sled.

My apologies if you find this all too unsettling, or uncomfortable; in which case feel free to refer to one of those Board of Education sanctioned history books where you can read the softer, more palatable version: how white Europeans came over to the New World, claimed it theirs (in the name of Manifest Destiny), got rid of those indigenous savage heathens who were ignorant of the one true god and didn’t know how to exploit the land properly anyways, and soon began shipping over the “darkies” from Africa to give them a much more fulfilling life on our cotton and sugar plantations, where they could contently live out their lives singing happy spiritual songs in the fields and enjoying a higher standard of living, thanks to the largess and Christian charity of “the masta’”. For those interested in the harsh truth, you can check out all of the chapters in this series so far at The 1619 Project.

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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100 posts! (continue reading below)

#100 posts #tumblr milestone

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Vickie Lynn Gallo-Eddy 2/8/56 – 3/16/2016

It was three years ago today that I lost my life partner of 30+ years to cancer. That doesn’t make me an expert on death and dying; it only means that I’ve joined the club of millions who have lost a spouse. Looking back, what I have found interesting is that living with that loss is an ongoing process, for I am not the same as I was a year ago; and last year I was not the same as I was the year before that. But your sense of loss and grief are permanent – you will never be the same. That half of you that shared life’s best times, and it’s worse, with someone you thought you would always have, is gone. Your spirit can heal, but it will forever remain scarred.

Yet your grief and sense of loss doesn’t have to define you, because once your loved one takes that final step to the other side, you have the simplest, yet hardest decision of your life before you: you can choose to stay and stagnate in your sorrow, forever longing for something that is no longer yours, or you can move forward. You can continue to experience life and all it still has to offer, tempered by the reality of its impermanence.

I have always been an avid reader and what I like to call a “student of life”, so it is inevitable that sometimes I come across a particular piece of writing that rings true on a personal level concerning death in all it’s mystery. I remain fascinated by the fact that it’s something that we will all face some day, our mortal demise and hopefully “something” beyond that, yet it will forever be life’s one great mystery; the unknown Yang side of the Ying.

So for my 100th blog posting (actually a three parter, this being the first), I thought I would share with you two pieces of writing that I recently came across that brought me a sense of comfort and acceptance. The first, below, represents the Western/Christian ethos, and the next, Eastern/Buddhist. Whichever you follow, or believe and practice, I think both represent the best of man’s search for meaning in this grand cosmic equation: faith and hope.

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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A Single Breath

The dead are never far from us. They’re in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.

That’s the final sentence from an excellent book titled “Ordinary Grace”, by William Kent Krueger. It takes place in a quiet, small, rural town in Minnesota during the early 60’s, and the story unfolds from the eyes of a 13-year-old boy whose father is a Methodist minister. The boy’s older sister, a musical prodigy (piano), is in her final year of high school and heading to Juilliard in the fall when her body turns up in the local river. Below are the words of her father at her service:

I see with mortal eyes. My mortal heart this morning is breaking. And I do not understand. I confess that I have cried out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?”

When we feel abandoned, alone, and lost, what’s left to us? What do I have, what do you have, what do any of us have left but the overpowering temptation to rail against God and blame him for the dark night into which he’s led us, to blame him for our misery, to blame him and cry out against him for not caring? What’s left to us when that which we love most has been taken?

I will tell you what’s left, three profound blessings. In his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul tells us exactly what they are: faith, hope, and love. These gifts, which are the foundation of eternity, God has given to us and he’s given us complete control over them. Even in the darkest night it’s still within our power to hold to faith. We can still embrace hope. And although we may ourselves feel un-loved we can still stand steadfast in our love for others and for God. All this is in our control. God gave us these gifts and he does not take them back. It is we who choose to discard them. In your dark night, I urge you to hold to your faith, to embrace hope, and to bear your love before you like a burning candle, for I promise that it will light your way.

And whether you believe in miracles or not, I can guarantee that you will experience one. It may not be the miracle you’ve prayed for. God probably won’t undo what has been done. The miracle is this: that you will rise in the morning and be able to see again the startling beauty of the day.

Jesus suffered the dark night and death and on the third day he rose again through the grace of his loving father. For each of us, the sun sets and the sun also rises and through the grace of our Lord we can endure our own dark night and rise to the dawning of a new day and rejoice.

There’s an American Indian in this mystery tale, and when the narrator returns to his hometown 40 years later at the book’s conclusion, he runs into him:

As I walked away he called to me and when I turned back he said, “They’re never far from us you know.”

“Who?” I asked.

“The dead. No more n’ a breath. You let that last one go and you’re with them again.”

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Impermanence

A recent story from the NYTimes:

As a palliative care doctor, I spend much of my time face-to-face with pain and suffering, debilitating disease and death. When I began my training, I thought I was comfortable with the idea of mortality, and with the notion that fighting death at all costs wasn’t the sole purpose of medicine. But I hadn’t expected that the type of medicine I’d chosen to practice would require a strength and perspective that medical training hadn’t offered.

It was a chance encounter with a sand painting that helped me learn how to doctor patients I knew I would lose.

At the time, I was in the middle of my yearlong fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine, seeing patients at a county hospital in San Jose. I’d immersed myself in learning how to treat patients living with serious illnesses: end-stage heart failure, widespread cancer and devastating strokes. I’d learned how to help families anticipate what dying looks like. It had become second nature to talk openly with patients about the severity of their diseases, and to ask them how we might work together to maximize joy, meaning and comfort in their waning lives.

I hoped that projecting an acceptance of death and comfort with it might soothe my patients and their families. But I had grown progressively more anxious, and occasionally despondent. I didn’t understand why death had come for a 35-year-old mother of three with a rare and aggressive cancer, or why a marathon runner was dying after a sudden heart attack when he’d been a marathon runner.

My parents, both Hindus, had taught me that understanding death as inevitable is necessary to appreciate the meaning and beauty of life. But knowing this didn’t make it any easier to lose patients within days of meeting them.

One of my attending physicians noticed that I’d become more withdrawn, less punctual and occasionally distracted. “This is difficult work,” she told me gently, reminding me that I’d need to care for myself in order to care for my patients. I tried massages, therapy, hiking and meditating under the shade of Marin County redwoods. But when my sadness grew stronger, I longed for a place where I might find community among others searching for support. I found a Vietnamese Buddhist temple that was just a short drive from the hospital.

There I whispered the Sanskrit and Punjabi prayers I’d learned as a child. Sometimes I approached the altar and spoke quietly to the statue of Buddha: Help me find the strength to do this work. Show me how. Please, take away my sadness.

One evening, the temple’s main hall was unusually crowded. People had gathered around a group of Tibetan monks hunched over a table, where they were creating a sand mandala. Metal cups filled with sand of every conceivable color — bright pink, deep navy blue, silver, maroon and mustard yellow — lined one end of the table.

I remembered my father pointing out a photo of a mandala in a museum years ago, explaining that its circular shape symbolized both the cyclical nature of birth and death and the indestructible nature of the universe. Using small scrapers and metal funnels, the monks methodically piped precise amounts of sand to create an intricate geometric pattern. That first evening, they painted a flower with multicolored petals. By the next evening, the flower was surrounded by circles of deep blue and pink and rectangles of turquoise and gold.

The following Sunday morning, the temple was overflowing with people. We all looked on as the group of brightly robed monks surrounded the mandala and began to chant in low, guttural tones, their eyes closed and palms pressed together. I stood on my toes and craned my neck to glimpse the mandala, hoping to see it encased in glass.

Instead, I looked on in shock as one of the monks began to move a feathery brush over the mandala, swirling together the gold and the navy, the circles and the rectangles. He moved along the edges of the table, sweeping away his work just as methodically as he had placed grains of sand in the same space, transforming the mandala from pattern to pile. Hot tears filled my eyes, not only because the mandala was gone, but because the hands that had created it were content to let it go.

The Bhagavad Gita, which my father had read to me as a child, emphasizes that change is the law of the universe. The Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us that “impermanence does not necessarily lead to suffering. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent when they are not.” Yet it was the sweeping away of a sand painting that helped me truly understand that change and impermanence are not just spiritual tenets but laws of nature — ones that I’d struggled against and had been taught to ignore throughout much of my medical training.

Just as I’d expected that the gorgeous mandala had been created in order to be preserved, I had also expected that my patient in her 30s should live to see her children graduate from college, that the marathon runner should have lived to run more races. I’d expected, partly as a result of my medical training, to change and control what wasn’t necessarily mine to change and control. How might I doctor my dying patients differently if I remembered that everything worldly — a painstakingly crafted mandala, a sky ablaze with color, our fragile human lives — is also temporary and subject to change?

Accepting that life is finite wouldn’t prevent me from drawing upon science to diagnose and treat disease, to use every tool available in medicine to alleviate suffering. But I wondered if it would make it easier for me to endure the inevitability of change and loss that both my patients and I would experience. Perhaps it could bring me solace to remember that just as my patients’ lives are temporary, so is their suffering.

I wiped my eyes as I looked upon the remaining heap of swirled sand, itself a thing of great beauty. The monks scooped teaspoons of sand into plastic bags, handing one to each of us. Through the bag, the sand felt both tough and soft, the bright blues and pinks particularly visible when I held it up to the light.

When I returned to the hospital the next day, I thought of the mandala as I sat with a breathless man my own age dying from lung cancer, and an agitated grandmother in the final stages of dementia. I would feel compassion for both of them, but I didn’t leave work that day consumed with grief, withdrawn and disengaged. By accepting my patients’ circumstances, rather than fixating on their inherent tragedy, I could focus instead on changing what I could: easing breathlessness and agitation, explaining hospice services to their despondent families.

Before leaving the hospital that night, I removed the bag of sand from my wallet, holding it up to the light as I have so many times over the past five years when I’ve needed to remind myself of the circularity of all things, of change as life’s only constant.

Sunita Puri is medical director for palliative care at Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center of the University of Southern California and the author of “That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour.”

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Fate of the Union

February 5, 2019

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Burning Down the House

With a new year upon us, I decided to leave our pouting, petulant, and clueless “president” alone for a while. I’m at the point where I don’t want this blog to become a regular, though fun and cathartic, critique of this moron’s day to day behavior. Besides, who can keep up these days? Certainly I never intended this blog to become solely a political airing of grievances anyways, when started back in November of 2016 - but then, who would have ever envisioned the likes of Donald Trump in the White House?

So today I’m going to address an issue close to my heart; the wellspring that nourishes my spirit and is essential to the health and well-being of every living thing on our planet – the environment. You see, I’m a baby boomer who grew up in the 60’s, and was quite the impressionable 14yr old on April 22, 1970, when the first official Earth Day was proclaimed. That year also saw the creation of the EPA, and like most of us from “back then”, I still hold onto many of the ideals of an aged hippie -

Those who know me also know I later worked for NASA - another touchstone for my generation - at Johnson Space Center, inside the television/communication contract, for 14 years. During that time I got to watch the Space Station being built piece by piece, from when the first module, Zarya, went up on a Russian Proton rocket, to the first crew occupation, to its successful completion.

I still pay attention to our space program as a tax paying enthusiast, although not nearly as much, and thus I watched a fascinating show on NOVA a week or so back, entitled “To Pluto and Beyond”. It was about the continuing voyage of NASA’s New Horizons exploratory spacecraft, which is now traveling at roughly 37,000mph some 5 billion miles from our planet and still able to send back data and outstanding imagery to its home base here on Earth (taking over 4 hours to do so).

In a nutshell, when New Horizons was first launched, in January of 2006, scientists and astronomers didn’t even think much existed past what they call the Kuiper Belt (the area in space past the planet Neptune), other than insignificant, floating chunks of minerals and ice of varying size and shape – such as Pluto, now not even an officially termed “planet”.

But soon that would change as our telescopes got larger, more sophisticated, and certainly more powerful (such as the Hubble), revealing a wealth of new discoveries and vastly widening out view, and theories, about space past our solar system.

In just a little over two years after its successful flyby of Pluto and its moons, sending back stunning and never before seen imagery, project managers were able to plot a new course that would enable the probe to fly past what is now called 2014 MU69, or its more colorful nickname, Ultima Thule (which sounds much more bad-ass!)

To go into any detail about the show and this discovery would require a whole different blog, so for my purpose today, let’s just say the level of technology, engineering, and computational math involved in this exploratory endeavor is right up there with just about any other high achievement in man’s history; an incredible display of determination and shear brain power that simply boggles my mind. Sure, it was just an unmanned flyby, a probe…but successfully plotted over billions of miles, traveling at 37,000mph through orbiting planets, asteroids, and clouds of space debris, where a collision with something the size of a pea could mean instant disaster? Where the tiniest fraction of miscalculation can put the craft literally millions of miles off course? In the harshest and most unforgiving environment imaginable? You may as well try to explain quantum physics to me.

So what - what’s this got to do with a Talking Heads song... my point is this: excuse me if I don’t buy into this long running campaign of bullshit and misinformation put out by the petrochemical and carbon-based conglomerates, their money-wallowing and soulless lobbyists, and the special interest groups, who for the better part of fifty years have retained a complete stranglehold on our politicians and policy makers. They continue to control the discussion of our energy sources with fairy tales and scare tactics in support of a technology that is over 200 years old. Let’s dim the lights, roll out the boogyman, and wind him up:

“It will cost jobs!! The transition to renewable and clean energy is too expensive, the sources unable to compete in today’s economy!! The technology and infrastructure have yet to be fully worked out!! It’s much more difficult and complicated than you can possibly understand!! It’s simply going to take more time – it will be a long, slow process, and oil and gas will continue to play a dominant role in the meanwhile!!”

And on, and on, and on…

Bullshit! Germany now gets 40% of all its energy generated from renewable, clean sources. There are other countries in Europe harnessing tides to generate energy. Our planet is a hotbed for thermal energy potential. A recent study done here in Houston, at Rice University, claims Texas (who leads the nation in wind generated energy) has enough sun and wind to completely wean itself off coal within the near future.

Since when did America become the nation that couldn’t; that shied away from a challenge, technological or otherwise; that chose to follow instead of lead… was I stoned during that period? Did I miss something? Fifty-eight years ago, President John F. Kennedy stood at a podium at Rice University Stadium and declared:

“We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon...We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.”

To put this into context, at that time it had been just over a year since America had launched their first man into space: Alan Shepard riding a Redstone rocket 116 miles into suborbital flight, lasting fifteen minutes. Back then NASA scientists and medical professionals didn’t even know if a human could survive such a trip, or for how long. Would they retain their vision, their mental capacity? Would they lose all sense of direction? Pass out? Would they be able to endure and function during the required long duration flight to the moon and back? How would we even achieve such a feat?

OK, some might say, “Well, sure, NASA had a limitless budget - and after all, the space race was strictly for nationalistic reasons anyway, to beat the Russians to the moon…”

All true, but umm, have you looked out your window lately? Pay attention to any news? And no, Fox doesn’t count. According to a recent analysis, published in the Journal Science (see the story in the NY Times), our oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought; like 40% faster on average than a United Nations panel estimated five years ago. Researchers now conclude that ocean temperatures have been breaking records for several years straight. Compounding the effects of our melting polar caps, warm water also takes up more volume than cold water, resulting in sea levels rising at an estimated rate of .13 inches (3.2mm) over the last 20 years. Satellite measurements tell us that over the past century the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) has risen by 4 to 8 inches.

Right now, over the last decade, we are seeing an increase in the number and severity of hurricanes, monsoons, tornadoes and wildfires. NEWS FLASH Gomer and Thelma Lu, this isn’t a conspiracy perpetrated by greedy and alarmist eggheads in lab coats, nor is it “fake news” or fuzzy science; and it certainly shouldn’t be considered, or treated as a political issue. It’s rock-solid, provable science that is accepted by 97% of scientists, climatologists, and geologists all around the world, who continue to ring the emergency bell. It’s happening today, all around us, and the bad news is we’re already too late; at this point, if we were to get serious this year, 2019, it will still be a game of damage control; of mitigating the consequences of our greed, ignorance, and gullibility.

In comparison, the goal and challenge of beating the Russians to the moon seems quite miniscule to that of restoring and maintaining the health of our little blue lifeboat called Earth.

“Whatever, our planet is a dynamic, ever changing thing - Earth has gone through similar climate changes before!” Yes, true – but over the span of tens of thousands of years, you moron. Man has achieved the same results in barely two hundred.

Just curious, but what part of 2.5 million pounds/second of co2 pouring into the relatively thin, fragile layer of atmosphere that protects our planet don’t you get? Too hard to think about, or conceptualize? Or is it easier for your lazy, flabby, unexercised brain to simply believe that it all just dissipates into outer space – you know, where the alien abductors that beamed you up into their mothership that weekend reside…

Make America Great Again? What a sad, short-changed, and utterly empty joke of a campaign slogan… Here, I’ve got one for you: SAVE OUR PLANET! For your children’s future and their children’s future. There simply is no option; no magical, last minute solution. No plan B. No spare planet accessible, sorry, this isn’t a movie - its real.

I simply don’t understand; why isn’t this the number one issue of concern for everyone? Could there possibly be a greater threat and more important challenge facing us all today?

Ah well, what the hell – we’ll all be fine in a couple thousand years after we evolve with gills and become aquamen and women… Although, good luck finding something to eat, as we’re also killing the entire food chain of life in the oceans, from coral reefs to the dolphins, the sharks, and the whales…I guess we could become aquacannibals – now there’s a surefire idea for a hit movie! Hmm, I wonder if we could talk Jason Momoa into that hard turn in the movie series plotline…

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Trumpville: 2017-2019

MERRY CHRISTMAS MR. soon-to-be EX-PRESIDENT!!

Zuzu: “Look daddy - teacher says every time a bell rings, somebody rolls over on the president!”

George: “That’s right…that’s right - thanks Mr. Mueller (wink)!”

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Armistice Day, Paris, France - 2018

On the 100th anniversary of the end of WWI, and in observance of the ultimate sacrifice paid by approximately 40 million people, both military and civilian from around the world.

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism by saying, ‘our interest first, who cares about the others?’”

- President Emmanuel Macron of France at the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe to denounce self-interested nationalism.

“You know what a globalist is, right? You know what a globalist is? A globalist is a person that wants the globe to do well, frankly, not caring about our country so much. And you know what? We can’t have that.”

- Trump at a recent rally here in Houston.

"They died with their face to the foe and that pathetic inadequate @realDonaldTrump couldn’t even defy the weather to pay his respects to The Fallen."

- Nicholas Soames, a British politician and grandson of Winston Churchill, on Trump’s decision to scrap a planned visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery at the foot of the hill where the Battle of Belleau Wood was fought. Aides cited the rain in canceling a helicopter flight.

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scoutshonor56 · 5 years

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Bad Moon Rising

“I see a bad moon a-rising, I see trouble on the way, I see earthquakes and lightnin', I see bad times today…” John Fogerty & the CCR

Well America, we’ve had two years of Trump when he was riding a win, and now we get to see what Agent Orange is like after losing. Not that he would ever admit to losing, even if it was just the flip of a coin to see who picks up the tab for lunch – “FAKE QUARTER!”

President Barack Obama after his party lost the congressional majority in the 2010 midterms: “A shellacking.”

President George W. Bush after his party lost the congressional majority in the 2006 midterms: “A thumping.”

President Bill Clinton after his party lost the congressional majority in the 1994 midterms: “With the Democrats in control of both the White House and the Congress, we were held accountable yesterday. And I accept my share of the responsibility in the result of the elections.”

Trump after his party lost 31 congressional seats and the majority in the House this past Tuesday: “TREMENDOUS SUCCESS TONIGHT!” adding “I thought it was very close to complete win.”

Uum, yeah, so was the Buffalo Bills 50-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys in their third Super Bowl appearance in 1993 (for the ’92 season).

OK, whatever…so following this wave of fantasy momentum, it was time to roll up the presidential sleeves and get to work! First order of business? Mock and ridicule the members of your own party who lost, according to Trump because they didn’t invite him to their state and play second banana at one of his Trumpapalooza rah-rah fests (11 in just 6 days) – like Mia Love in Utah:

“Mia Love gave me no love, and she lost,” Trump said. In a mocking tone, he continued, “Too bad. Sorry about that, Mia.”

Or Carlos Curbelo of Miami:

“On the other hand, you had some who decided, ‘Let’s stay away let’s stay away.’ They did very poorly,” Trump said, referring to lawmakers who tried to campaign on their own brand instead of his. “I’m not sure that I should be happy or sad, but I feel just fine about it.” (no surprise that when he referred to Curbelo by name, he mispronounced it as Cue-bella).

Or Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman:

“Too bad, Mike!”

On to the second order of business: before final ballots were even counted in all the states, and less than 24 hours after election night, give his appointed Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, the bum’s rush – well, OK, I’ll have my Chief of Staff, John Kelly, do it. Hey, don’t feel bad Jeff, at least you didn’t get blindsided with a tweet while eating your breakfast! Like any good mob boss, Little Donny never gets his hands dirty – that’s what he’s got underlings for.

No surprise here either, other than what took him so long. Donny has made no secret of his feelings toward Sessions ever since the Attorney General recused himself from the Mueller investigation back in March of 2017. For Donny, this was akin to one of Tony Soprano’s trusted street soldiers not showing up for a turf competitor’s beat down:

“Sooo, Rocco – where were you the other night, we were counting on you being there…”

Well, to state the obvious, this was classic Trump Politics 101: when the shit hits the fan, do something crazy and outrageous to get the media spotlight back on you; take their minds and guide their stories off those rigged midterms. And now for the golf swing follow-through: install someone more loyal to the boss as Session’s replacement. Well, this was certainly the easiest call he’s made since picking Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court:

“Mike! Get me the list of loyal lackeys!”

“It’s right there on your desk Mr. President, right next to your picture with Vladimir!”

“Oh yeah… well run down to McDonalds then, and get me my McMuffin, Fox and Friends is coming on in ten minutes! And don’t forget the extra hash browns and ketchup this time!”

This was a no-brainer: Matt Whitaker, who has made a point of going on every network talk show that would have him over the last year to shamelessly charm Donny, with the sole intent of furthering his career. He slam-dunked his appointment with a single statement, repeated often: “The truth is there was no collusion with the Russians and the Trump campaign.”

DING-DING-DING!!! You sir, are the winner in this week’s episode of “Celebrity President”!! What do we have for this shaved-headed young up and comer, Johnny?

Whhhhy, that would be the job of U.S. Attorney General!

Qualifications? Early on, in 2017, he was a private advisor to Donny about how the White House might be able to pressure the Justice Department to name a special counsel to investigate not only allegations of FBI wrongdoing, but also Hillary Clinton. The cincher came in July of that year, in an appearance on CNN, when Whitaker spoke of various ways the White House might sabotage Mueller’s probe. He suggested that if Sessions were to resign or be fired (*wink, wink), his replacement might be able to curtail the investigation by simply refusing to fund it further.

Absurdly, during an interview in 2014, Whitaker expressed the thought that after all “The courts are supposed to be the inferior branch of our three branches of government.” Say what? I can only guess that as a football jock in school he got a free pass from all his American History classes to concentrate on the team play book.

Yup, that’s the guy who is now running a department with more than 100,000 employees, a budget of roughly $30 billion, and with oversight of and input into every federal law enforcement matter in the country. Hmmmm, what does this remind me of……….. Oooh yeah, Rick Perry being appointed to head the Dept. of Energy, that pesky group that during his abbreviated, 2011 GOP primary campaign he stated he wanted to get rid of, during his famous, nationally televised “OOPS!” moment…

Of course going by Donny’s stellar record as an employer, any appointment by him is going to have a “questionable” background, and this former tight end for the Iowa Hawkeyes is no exception. Just last year federal investigators were looking into a company, Miami-based World Patent Marketing, that was allegedly involved in misleading investors – a case that ended with the company ordered to close shop and pay a settlement of over $25 million. Aaaand OOPS, guess who was not only a board member of said company since 2014, but starred in multiple online videos directed at potential sucker clients? Nope, not Bruce Wayne…. Nope, not Groucho Marx….

Oh man, this guy has “TRUMP MATERIAL” written all over him! That’s the guy I want heading federal law enforcement!

But this story might not have a happy ending for Matt. Before President Assclown headed off to Paris this weekend (as it turns out to further disgrace our nation, but that’s a whole other story), he was caught by a group of reporters on his way to Marine One and asked by the press to comment on this matter:

“I don’t know Matt Whitaker.”

GTFO, that’s funny – let’s turn the calendar back four weeks, to when Donny was asked about Whitaker by his gushing hosts at Fox & Friends:

“I can tell you Matt Whitaker’s a great guy. I mean, I know Matt Whitaker.”

As it turns out, Whitaker has met with the big boss at least ten times, often in the Oval Office…

“Ooooh, that was Matt Whitaker? Cue Ball? I thought he was just the guy who brought the donuts and coffee – I mean, I’m a really important guy, I have a lot of meetings with a lot of people – who can keep track?”

Our country is in the hands of a lunatic; a pathological narcissist who lives in a self-made world devoid of any concept of truth, fact, and reality. A carnival conman with illusions of grandeur and the maturity of a 12yr old, who can communicate (barely) only in 280-character tweets. Tweets that fall into two categories: those that praise himself, and those that insult and attack his perceived enemies.

Watching Bill Maher a couple of nights ago, he reiterated something he’s been saying since Trump’s election win: this is a slow-moving coup, taking place right here in our country, and his recent moves certainly strengthen that argument. What began as an undermining of the news media, calling it “fake news”, soon escalated into “the enemy of the people”; and now, just this past week, he turned an open press conference at the White House into a verbal brawl, ending in the unprecedented revoking of CNN’s Jim Acosta’s press credentials, with hints from the White House that “there could be others”, if they did not “treat the White House with respect.”

“Why do we work so hard in working with the media when it is corrupt? Take away credentials?”, Trump tweeted this past Friday. Perhaps he was venting about an earlier incident that day when he responded to a question from Abby Phillip, another CNN correspondent:

“What a stupid question that is. What a stupid question. I watch you a lot. You ask a lot of stupid questions.”

Or about April Ryan, a correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks:

“You talk about somebody that’s a loser; she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing. She gets publicity, and then she gets a pay raise or a contract with, I think, CNN. But she’s very nasty.”

Back in January of 2017 I posted a humorous blog about Trump’s qualifications to be included in the book of dictators and despots, and his sad and unsettling yearning to be a member of their club. He simply loves the simplicity and style of their operating. He has no interest in the complexities of running a democratic nation of checks and balances; he wants to run this country like his own business, with power to hire and fire at will. If he had his way – and he’s really trying – “freedom” of the press would emulate that of his love letter pen-pal over in N. Korea:

“And then we fell in love, okay? No, really - he wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters.”

“Welcome to state sanctioned Kim Jong-un (Trump/Fox) television and radio, honoring his greatness all day, every day!

So needless to say, we can now unequivocally check off item #5 on my list. And now comes the coup de gras, hijacking our highest level of both the judicial branch and the courts, with his appointments of Kavanaugh and Whitaker.

Alarmist? Paranoid? Can’t happen here in the good ol’ USA? Of course not, that would be crazy talk!

Party on Garth, just keep thinking that……

“I hear hurricanes a-blowing, I know the end is coming soon, I fear rivers overflowing, I hear the voice of rage and ruin.”

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scoutshonor56 · 6 years

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Deadheads

What’s the difference between Trump followers at one of his rallies, and a concert crowd at a Grateful Dead show?

At least the Dead fans wake up the next morning and return to a semblance of reality as the acid runs out of steam. The rabid Trump fans? They prefer an imaginary world ALL the time, and they don’t even need drugs; just a shared, healthy dose of righteous anger, stupidity, and fear.

Jeez, I’ve got to say, as we get closer and closer to the midterms, this guy is getting harder and harder to write about. Just earlier this week I was putting together thoughts about the brutal Khashoggi fiasco, which was playing out like a 3 Stooges murder mystery, Trump playing his supporting role as the fourth stooge, but I decided that’s still on-going and getting more ridiculous by the day, so let’s move on. I sat down Wednesday to start on today’s topic, but DOH!, news breaks about more pipe bombs from a disgruntled nut in Florida (now captured) being sent to a random number of high-level Trump dissenters and CNN News – all who he regularly calls out at his rah-rah fests and in his tweets like a tired, repetitive punchline - which in turn feeds a never-ending series of conspiracy theories generated by his crowd of loyal angry gerbils. Of course, a conspiracy “theory” in TrumpWorld requires nothing more than him saying, “Well, that’s what I’ve heard from ‘people’…”

Keep in mind, this is the guy who put the flame to the whole Obama “birther” movement, suggested Ted Cruz’s father hung out with Lee Harvey Oswald and hence, could have been involved in the assassination of John Kennedy, and once told Alex Jones (on his show), “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

But let’s stay on point before I get dizzy. My topic? The endless Trumpapalooza tour that started before he was even elected and is still going stronger than ever, Donny playing all the crowd’s favorite oldies. At this rate, he should just get a show in Vegas, playing three times a week at 7:00 and 10:00, special Sunday show at 4:00 for the weekend high-rollers.

He was here in Houston just four days ago, supposedly to give Ted Cruz a bump, who the GOP party sees as their weakest link going into the midterms, and for a good reason - no one from either party would even sit next to him at a diner if they could avoid it:

“Oh, hey, look – there’s a seat by the bussing station, right next to the restrooms and the street person nursing a coffee and pandering for change…”

Poor Ted – sold his soul and swallowed the last crumbs of his dignity and pride to suck up to a guy who called his wife ugly and then beat him for the nod by his own party… Jesus, talk about the poster boy for gutless, political bottom feeders… So being a team player, Cruz – like all the other frightened GOP candidates running in 2018 – gave the boss a great excuse for another ego fix. Another warm and fuzzy id massage. He’s like an alcoholic who will take the flimsiest of excuses to (wink, wink) “make a run to the store.” Because it’s always all about Trump. He would have absolutely no compunction about turning his time behind a church podium at a funeral into a hi-light reel of his 2016 presidential triumph.

But Ted did get to speak for a scant thirteen minutes (half of it spent praising the headliner) before the main event, which lasted well over an hour and would include Cruz getting a token, and brief, re-christening by the king as “Ted the Beautiful”, to be no longer referred to as “Lying’ Ted” – YEA! WOOHOO!!

All these roadshows follow a predictable template – no new material, play the hits – and Houston was no different. Held in the Toyota Center arena, home of the Houston Rockets, it was like a Led Zeppelin concert mashed together with a drunken lynch mob.

Man! T-shirt vendors doing a brisk business along the sidewalks, crowds that have been camped outside the gates since 11:00 the morning before – suck on that Rolling Stones! JUMPIN’ JACK TRUMP IT’S A GAS, GAS, GAS!

I’ve got to say, after living down here since 1977 – and marrying a native Houstonian - I can without fear of recrimination attest to the fact that Texas is a place with a 10-gallon hat full of state pride, with enough left over to fill a pair of size 13 cowboy boots. Which is why I am positively stunned with the force of a Louisville slugger to my forehead at how many of these locals gushingly embrace a millionaire shyster from New York City who probably has absolutely no idea who Sam Houston was, and if he could, would buy the Alamo and turn it into one of his luxury condos. And yet this third-rate used car salesman with a rat’s nest of spun hair and clownishly long ties has the unbelievable gall to tell his worshipping lemmings, “I know Texas better than anybody!”

One of the most tone-deaf parts of this presidential imposter’s speech came when he got around to addressing last year’s Hurricane Harvey:

“Did we help you with that lousy hurricane that you suffered through? That was brutal!”

Wow…there’s selective memory, and then there’s “just make some bullshit up”. Which come to think of it, pretty much describes Donny’s political, and life strategy in a nutshell.

That’s funny, we remember the aftermath a little differently… The Texas congressional delegation had to fight Trump tooth and nail to obtain relief funding, a shocking episode for a state that is used to getting its way under GOP administrations. Well, at least he didn’t throw rolls of paper towels at us, like he did to destitute and desperate hurricane victims in Puerto Rico…

His empathy washed over the crowd like a warm salve as he reminisced about all that rain: “I’m paying for that”, he said, like a rich dad who wants to play the reluctant victim when his daughter insists that the new car he just bought her needs the Sirius satellite radio option.

Oh man, “I’m on a role!” Donny’s thinking as he stayed with the hurricane theme with all the dexterity of a one-armed juggler who’s missing three fingers. I remember this idiot getting positively slammed in all the papers last year over his glib and ignorant remarks made shortly after the storm, and yet, unbelievably, he repeats them to the crowd last Monday night:

“These guys with the little boats, they think they have these great boats…” (crowd starts cheering wildly as they anticipate the story of the heroic folks who performed so many boat rescues here in Houston)

Oh hell no! Come on, this is Trump we’re talking about! He continues:

“Where do these people come from? They want to go out and they want to go into the hurricane, to show their wife how great they are? And then they get out there and they say, ‘Oh my god, I’m dead’”.

Um….yay……?

Oh well – so much for local heroes, who got turned into a lame punchline. But wait! We’re not done milking this hurricane bedtime story yet. Donny goes on to mock our (GOP) governor, Greg Abbott, who according to President Pumpkinskin tried to scam ten billion dollars from the federal government to build (just off of Galveston) what is referred to down here as the “Ike Dike”, essentially a preventive coastal storm surge barrier. What!? After you already twisted my arm for “billions and billions” in hurricane relief!?

“I said Greg, that’s the most expensive dam I’ve ever heard of…would you name it the Trump Dam, please?”

Oh yes he did – you know the best thing about writing about Trump? No matter how outrageous and nonsensical the quote attributed to him, no one doubts the verity of the statement; easy money, no exaggeration or embellishment needed.

Of course those are just the more regional highlights – he went on with all of your favorites, heard at every rally:

At a rally in Nevada he told the crowd they were rioting in their neighboring state of California, “to get out of their sanctuary cities.”

Democrats will soon be handing out free luxury cars to illegal immigrants; “Give ’em a driver’s license. Next thing you know, they’ll want to buy ’em a car,” he riffed. “Then they’ll say the car’s not good enough, we want - how about a Rolls-Royce?”

A Democratic victory in November “would be a bright flashing invitation to every trafficker, drug dealer and illegal alien on the planet.”

“Free welfare for illegals.”

“Radical Socialism.”

Again and again, everywhere he goes, he makes sure to re-enforce the idea that a vote for a democrat isn’t just a wrong vote, but a “dangerous vote.”

After finding out Medicare and guaranteed coverage for those with pre-existing conditions were at the top of voter priorities, he continues to tell people that he and his party are the real ones who will protect both, while it’s the democrats who want to abolish it. Does he think we all suffer from dementia? He and his party have tried to kill the ACA (Obamacare) and every nuance in it over seventy times.

He continues to promise a major tax cut for the middle class before the midterm elections, which has not only his own cabinet, but congress mystified. I guess McConnell hasn’t told the boss yet that congress has been officially on break since the first of the month and won’t be back until the Tuesday following the midterms – maybe he should have sent him a tweet…

And of course, Donny’s favorite boogeyman topic these days, THE CARAVAN! Hidden among this rabble of desperate families, women and children, trekking thousands of miles across Central America are the machete wielding MS-13 gang members and bomb toting, swarthy Middle Eastern terrorists! And it’s all being funded by billionaire George Soros (one of the recipients of this week’s pipe bombs) and the liberal democrats, who have been seen down there handing out fistfuls of cash!

At a rally in in Missoula, Montana:

“But a lot of money has been passing to people to come up and try and get to the border by Election Day, because they think that’s a negative for us... They have lousy policy. The one thing, they stick together, but they wanted that caravan and there are those that say that caravan didn’t just happen. It didn’t just happen. A lot of reasons that caravan, 4,000 people.”

Proof!! Who needs proof! You want proof!? I saw a video clip on Facebook, and our president says so!

(for anyone interested, this is a pretty good, and certainly more realistic, overview from the Washington Post)

Trump lives inside his own reality show; a media whore and camera junkie, willing to say virtually anything to win that week’s ratings war and stoke his legions of the stupid and gullible. He lies so much, when he tells the truth, it’s by accident. Hey, who doesn’t remember the old adage, “Well, even a broken watch gets the time right twice a day…”

But this crowd? They don’t care – Come on everybody, you know the words!

“LOCK - HER - UP!” “BUILD - THAT - WALL!!”

“PLAY TRUCKIN’ AGAIN!” “SUGAR MAGNOLIA!!”

This lathered up mob have no interest whatsoever in what they see as boring, complicated “meat and potato” issues like policies and initiatives.

Tell us what to be angry about!

Tell us who to target with our hatred!

Tell us what to be afraid of!

These aren’t political rallies, they’re cult gatherings, all its members united by anger and fear. They are like a nest of sightless baby birds with their mouths open, waiting for momma bird to regurgitate into it. Angry at the unstoppable reality of a time coming up behind them like a long-haul Peterbilt in their rearview mirror, when the white race will no longer be the majority in their country. When crusty, old-school white men will no longer be making the rules and wielding the power.

They see themselves as victims of a world that is moving too fast and leaving them behind, and they fear/hate any and all who represent that eventuality.

“Truckin' got my chips cashed in,

Keep truckin', like the do-dah man,

Together, more or less in line, just keep truckin' on.”

*My sincere apologies to the late, great, Jerry Garcia – but I get the feeling he would chuckle a little bit and grant me permission to use his band’s legacy for such purpose! I actually saw the Dead once, in a smoke-filled Buffalo Auditorium during my junior year of high school, 1973. I wasn’t a huge fan, but they had a handful of songs I really liked, and it was a good show.

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