The Wolf in a Bunny Suit

 TMFKAP (the man formerly known as president) is not stupid, he is not ignorant, he is simply uneducated, and perhaps incapable of being educated.  But he has a remarkable sense of survival.  He is the cockroach of mankind, the cayote who lives by his wits, adapting his lifestyle whether it be open prairie or urban sprawl.  

Failure is but a minor setback, and always someone else's fault.  He rebounds from personal disasters like the ball in an arcade game; bouncing from one collapsed venture to another, always running up the score, but leaving a wake of carnage behind him.  Smiling all the way to the banks, the banks that continue to back his play for fear of calling in loans on worthless properties and looking like the fools they were.  The banks that can't hedge their bets, throwing good money after bad, betting on the strength of a name.  A true pyramid scheme, one built on illusion, and rotten at its base. 

TMFKAP does know one thing, if he runs for president, he will never be indicted - for anything.  Why you ask; because the United States fears looking like a third-world country that imprisons popular dissidents who challenge the the incumbent government.  There are dozens of scenarios that bear that out; the latest being Manual Ortega of Nicaragua.  Ortega jailed any contenders to his election, but in doing so, encountered the wrath of democracies around the world, including the U.S. 

Russia's Vladimir Putin routinely imprisons populists who garner support from the populace, if they are lucky.  If they aren't so lucky nerve gas has a more permanent effect.  TMFKAP absorbed that lesson well.  He couldn't find Nicaragua on a map with GPS, but he does know that Ortega and Putin will be 'president for life'.  

Imagine if you will, even bringing TMFKAP to trial.  It would be impossible to empanel a jury, unless the panelists had a death wish.  Whatever the outcome would be, it would be untenable.

As it is the country is close to a breaking point, there is talk of another Civil War, and there are enough loose canons on TMFKAP's side willing to fire the first shot.  Merrick Garland has the unenviable job of playing Solomon meting out justice in an unjust world.  The Federal Justice Department  is charged with prosecuting those persons involved with the January 6th insurrection; and make no mistake it was an insurrection.  Most of the sentences have been for minor offenses; trespassing, and illegal entry - misdemeanors at best - and involve no jail time.  

Did I not see these people charging the building, beating police officers, breaking windows and doors, and ransacking the interior of the Capitol Building?  Is it me that is delusional?  Or was it as some people say, just tourists visiting their congresspersons?  Is it the wisdom of Solomon to turn a blind eye and pretend that none of this happened?  Or are the Democrats supposed to acquiesce for the sake of the union? 

Six years ago, many Republicans, most Democrats the Press and most of the world scoffed at the idea of a buffoon becoming president of the United States.  We did so at our peril and we paid a dear price for our foolishness.  The Press, especially, has been ridiculed and reduced in prominence as a source of what is true and factual.  They are relegated to defend themselves from the stigma of 'fake news'. 

Our choices now are standing up for what is right and just, or appeasing the unruly mob.  Can we prove to the world and to ourselves that TMFKAP is guilty of attempting to to tear down our democracy and should never be given the power of the presidency again?  Can we look into the face of mutiny and say this will not stand?  Or will we tell ourselves  'this can't happen again'.   The odds of being killed by a bunny are very low; but they are not zero.

                                                                       I'm just sayin'   

And So Begins the Post Mortem

 Today I tore my membership card to the Democratic Party in two and sent it back in the envelope that  the party had sent me to renew said membership.  They have become the party of fools - clowns.  Patsies, all of them, mollycoddling a charlatan parading as a fiscal conservative all the while lining his pockets with tens of thousands of dollars from those who might be harmed by the legislation he has been blocking for months.

And then the Dems are giving credence to the ditsy junior senator from Arizona, who couldn't find her hat with two hands. She is seeking her fifteen minutes of fame, and now wants to extend it to an hour.  She knows it will cost her her senate seat, most probably to a Republican, the next time she runs.  Does she care - not a wit.  She has her eye on the seat of a Fox News panel as a political commentator.  She knows she can outdo anyone on Fox for just plain idiocy.  I can kiss good-by to the money I sent to the Arizona senate race  last year.  Fool that I am. 

When Liz Chaney turned her back on the Republican Party's devotion to trump, the party knew how to punish her.  The party faithful stripped her of her power as second in command and installed Elise Stefanic in her place - a woman whose one-eighty made my head spin.  But Lizzy recites the party's mantra.  That's how you keep everyone in lock-step.

Joe Manchin is the chairman of the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources - a joke without a punch line as the only natural resource he protects is coal and the only energy source he knows is coal.  To kill two birds with one stone, the Dems could remove him from the committee and install a conservator in his place.  That's how you teach people to play nice.

The Virginia governor's race was McAuliffe's to lose.  He bet that by hanging the trump name on Younkin he could ride Biden's coattails to victory.  Except Biden has no coattails, why, because everything he has tried to accomplish has been derailed by party in-fighting and the help, or lack of it, of those two fools who think more about themselves then about the country or their party.

The Republicans are willing to lie, cheat and strongarm their way back to power.  And make no mistake they will do it, and when they do imagine the damage they will do this time.  Imagine, if you will, an unleashed trump with the congress behind him all the way.  I would rather not, but I fear it is coming.  And the Democrats are too busy fighting amongst themselves to even care.

The pundit can say that Biden lost big yesterday, I say America lost even more.

                                                                I'm just sayin   

No Such Thing as a Free Netflix

 A day or two ago workers at Netflix walked off the job in protest of Netflix airing the Dave Chapelle show.  It is a monologue, supposedly funny, which featured jokes about transgender persons.  The strikers  considered it transphobic, I cannot say as I didn't see it.  Not because I don't consider Chapelle funny - which I don't - but because I don't subscribe to Netflix.

Netflix offered me three free months of their programming some time ago.  I accepted their gracious offer and in the ensuing three months I could not find one single thing that I felt was worth my time to watch.  At the end of the three months, I thanked them politely and cancelled the contract.  They seemed genuinely surprised, I would guess most folks just forget to cancel and keep paying the $8.95 a month forever.  And since these same folks never check their credit card statement except to find out what the minimum payment is, they don't realize it.  It keeps the folks at Netflix happy and it also keeps their teen and pre-teen children happy. 

But I digress.  What was so egregious about the Chapelle monologue as to cause a boycott at Netflix, in my opinion, cannot hold a candle to the South Korean series Squid Games.  It is without a doubt the biggest hit Netflix has had in years.  From what I have read, the series is set in a futuristic society where there is a monumental divide between social classes - the haves and the have-nots.  For entertainment purposes, the haves offer a life changing amount of money to the survivors of a children's game.  The losers are dispatched in various horrific ways; the viler and more gruesome the better.

Their biggest audience, teenagers.  Impressionable young adults who are becoming inured to these horrid acts.  They discuss the torture at school and over social media.  All this is done at a time when there is a trial of Nikolas Cruz happening.  Cruz pleaded guilty to murdering seventeen students and injuring seventeen others on February 14, 2018 at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland Florida.  Perhaps we should ask the survivors of the shooting spree on that awful day what their opinion of the Squid Games is.

I am not belittling the feelings of transgender or cisgender people, I believe the feelings of disrespect are justified.   I am asking where is the moral indignation that should surround the Squid Games? Have we become so callous, so emotionally unfeeling, so insensitive that we can watch this depth of depravity and enjoy it with popcorn and a beer?  I am glad I walked away from Netflix when I did and I wish more people would join me.  Companies like Netflix respond more to the bottom line than to the picket line. 

                                                                I'm just sayin'

Lest We Foget

Deuteronomy4:9

However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen, not let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children's children.

 On January 6, 2021 I sat down early in the day, turned on the television - which I never do before the five o'clock news - and with pen in hand I was prepared to watch the official end to the Trump era and to record my thoughts for this, my blog. 

  That morning the Congress was to meet and the Senate was to certify the votes and proclaim Joseph Biden the next president of the United States.  There was talk that certain Senators were going to object to certifying the votes from several states where Biden had won.  It was going to be an interesting morning.  The ceremony began with the clerk opening the sealed boxes and so the count began.  The count from the first state was read and a Senator stood to object. There were no grounds for the objection, just a procedural objection.  Pretty boring stuff, really.

The channel I was watching then cut away to Donald Trump making a speech in front of a large crowd.  He was giving it his all, and the crowd was enthusiastic in its response.  Trump was calling on the crowd to march down to the capitol, he would lead them, and they were to stop 'the steal' as he called it.

What followed next was inconceivable to me. Thousands of people were storming the Capitol Building, while their leader, Trump, was securely ensconced in the dining room at the White House watching the events unfold on television.

This past September we marked the twentieth anniversary of another momentous occurrence, September 11th.  I know people who still ask 'what were you doing when...' and its been twenty years on.  It supplanted the same question asked about November 22, 1963.

September 11th will enter the history books along-side November 11, December 7, and November 22.  These days have one thing in common, they involve a foreign force attacking our institution  of government.  But what occurred on January 6th, was home-grown.  We as a nation turned on ourselves. We became the ouroboro destroying ourselves.

I do remember feeling intense sadness when Kennedy was assassinated, and sadness mixed with horror when I watched the twin towers fall.  However, watching the assault on the Capitol filled me with overwhelming sadness, but also anger, and lastly a feeling of despair.  I have written this blog for several years now.  My next entry was to be about the official closure of the Trump presidency.  But I found I could not put pen to paper, could not sit at this computer and relate to you what I felt, there were no words to express what I felt.  

And so it remains and will remain unwritten.  One day when I can make sense of what is happening perhaps I can find the words.  Until then this remembrance will have to do.

Do not forget the things your eyes have seen...

                                                                         I'm just saying

What Any Fifth Grader Knows

 1/4 - 2/3 - 4/6 - 1/2 - 8/12: just a random series of numbers that seem totally unrelated, but back in fifth grade you learned something very important; you learned about common denominators.  The one thing that brought all these numbers together, they all had the same root the number twelve.  To add them, subtract them, or multiply them you must first find the common denominator.

Today, April 19, 2021, in three different United States cities, in three different states, at three different times, twelve people were murdered, and several more were injured.  Totally random unrelated killings until you look for the common denominator; a gun.  Since the beginning of this year, 2021, in less than four months, there have been 154 mass shootings, mass shootings defined as killing of four or more people.  In one hundred and ten days at least 616 people have been shot to death.

That number does not include other shooting victims and suicides with a gun; the most prevalent method of suicide.  And yet there are people who say it is their constitutional right to own a gun, to carry it on their person, in their car, in their house.  Some people own several guns, they hang them on the wall, display them like works of art.  They say that guns don't kill people, people kill people, I say, no, people with guns kill people.

In 2020, almost 19,380 people were killed by guns, excluding those who died of suicide with a gun, another 24,000.  And gun related injuries totaled 39,425.  Americans account for 393million guns, or 46%  of the world-wide privately held guns; there are 120 firearms for every 100 residents in the U.S.  So, if I own zero firearms, someone has enough fire power for a small army.  Why?!

The cost of this human carnage is staggering, but to look at it another way; the firearms impact on our health system is enormous.  The cost of fatalities and injuries caused by guns amount to $300 a year for each and every citizen.  You, I and every man, woman and child coughs up $300 a year to pay for the vanity of someone owning a gun.  These figures are compiled by independent groups because since 1966, when Congress passed the Dickey amendment, it has been illegal to use government funds to advocate for gun control.

But to combat the problem of out-of-control proliferation of firearms in this country, we need data, numbers, hard facts, and we need to spend more money to get that data than the advocates for gun ownership spend.  And we need up-to-date data bases and files on who has guns, how many, and for what use.  If  every person who kills a another person with a gun is mentally ill, I would say we have a lot of crazies walking the streets in America.

Let's take a look at our neighbor to the north, Canada.  Canada, the home of the rugged individual, where men are men and so are the women.  Canada has some common sense gun laws.  Americans would consider them draconian but they are middle of the road when compared with the rest of the world.  In Canada, firearms are classified; non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited.  To purchase and own a firearm you must have a government issued permit.  To get the permit, you must complete a firearms course given by the Canadian Mounted Police.  Fifteen hours of training with non-operative guns and blank ammunition.  To get a permit to fire the gun, you must attend an additional class.  Then you must fill out a four-page application of why you wish to own a gun; note: self-defense is not a valid reason for owning a gun and it will get your request denied.  At any point you may be denied a permit if the instructor feels you should not have a firearm.  After all this, you have to wait at least 28 days before getting the permit.  And you must renew the permit every five years.

In the latest figures available (2019), Canada had a population of 37-million people, 2,219,000 were permit holders, or about 35 guns per 100 people.  Their gun homicide rate was 249 that year.  The United States had a population of 327-million people and 13,958 gun homicides that year.   

It took me a very long time to write this piece, there have been thousands, no hundreds of thousands of words written on this subject.  I have had the facts and figures for several weeks, I was just hoping things would get better, but they are getting worse.  I don't have an answer to why my country stands alone in gun violence.  People say you can't get rid of all the guns in this country, really?  Stranger things have happened, but the people must be the ones to cry out for change.  In 1996, there was a terrible mass shooting in Australia, and a groundswell of Australians said 'enough'.  In twelve days the government enacted the strictest gun laws of any country, and they began a buy-back of firearms.  Over 700,000 guns were initially collected and destroyed and now the number is over one million.  Australia has not had another mass shooting since.

Yes I know one million guns is just a drop in the bucket in the United States, but it would be a start.  The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and the first step is always the hardest.

                                                                        I'm just sayin'

Who Are You Calling Old?

 With another birthday occurring the week past, I have been thinking just how old is old?  It has been several election cycles since I voted for a president older than I, and 2020 was no exception.  In recent days there has a hue and cry about the age of some persons in our government.  The President, Joseph Biden is the oldest man ever elected, but he is a spring chicken when compared to some Congresspersons.  For example:  Dianne Feinstein - 87, Charles Grassley - 87, Pat Leahy - 80, James Inhofe - 86, Bernie Sanders - 79.

Some of these people have been in Congress for decades; Bernie Sanders has spent 8 terms in the House and 3 terms in the Senate, Pat Leahy has been in the Senate since 1974, Charles Grassley has served 7 terms in the Senate, the rest have been in Congress between five and seven terms, terms which are 6 years long.  That is longer than the majority of Americans  have been alive.

You may ask what these septuagenarians have in common with the people they represent?  Most do not remember what it was like to put in forty hours for a pittance, and then cough up 25% of that for a health care plan that is marginal at best.  They don't remember fighting rush-hour traffic, standing in a line, washing and ironing, scrubbing floors and toilet bowls.  Yet they pass the laws that affect all our lives,  is it any wonder that there is a call for term limits for Congress.

The United States Constitution establishes the Congress in Article I.  I believe the framers felt that the congress would be the true representatives of the people and thus be the most important branch of government.  They, in fact make the laws that set the direction of the country.

Article I, Section 2 sets the qualifications for a member of the House of Representatives to wit; their term of office shall be for two years and they shall be at least 25 years of age at the time they are sworn in.

Article I, Section 3 sets the qualifications for the United States Senate to wit;  their term of office shall be for six years and a candidate must be 35 years of age at the time they are sworn in.

The House of Representatives, the larger of the two bodies, initiates laws and spending bills, but the Senate , that is thought to be the more deliberate of the two bodies, may revise those laws and spending bills and return them to the House for another vote.

The framers obviously thought that a maturation rate of ten years should give the Senate a more nuanced and pragmatic view of the world.  The Senate would be the cool debater to the heat of the House rhetoric.  Perhaps, when the life span was somewhat short of sixty years, ten years experience had more impact.  The framers gave credence to age and maturity.

I know I am not the person I was at age 35, and I dare to say neither are you, dear readers.  The passions that drove my actions then, are laughable now.  What I thought so important a half a lifetime ago, has been relegated to the dustbin of history.  But many of the things that I fought and marched for are still in the forefront today; civil rights, women's rights, health care.  They were were problems then and they remain unsolved yet today.

Cold wars have been replaced by hot wars in places I could not have located on a map back then.  The world is a much more complicated place now, the lines are blurred between friend and foe. We have had good presidents and truly bad presidents in the ensuing years,  We have always had gridlock in Congress before but I cannot remember it being this bad.  But I do think if you asked most people how their elected officials are doing, they would not or could not tell you.  I for one, being a resident of Wisconsin have more than enough call to say that I will work very hard to get rid of our Senator, Ron Johnson.  He is an embarrassment to our state, and yet he has a wide contingency that just loves him.

And that is why the same people keep returning to Congress year after year.  Because my Senator is really great and your Senator is real ass.  So the next time someone tells you there should be term limits on Senators and Representatives, tell there are.  It is written in the Constitution.

                                        I'm just sayin'

 

Mama Was Right, You Know

 We've all done it, I know I have and our daughter did it more times than I care to remember; dated a real loser.  You know the one; he dropped out of school or was doing so poorly that they were on the verge of expelling him.  His hair was greasy and unkept, his clothes were grubby and ill-fitting - before that was fashionable - his manners weren't just bad they were lacking entirely.  But none of this was his fault, no one understood him, they picked on him, he was his own man, he marched to his own drummer,

Mama reacted with horror when you brought him home, dad just grunted and buried his head in the newspaper.  Your brother laughed and your sister just stared, as your beau looked at his shoes and mumbled something unintelligible.  You were undeterred, and with a big smile off you went.  When your friends found out they were appalled.  Are you kidding they asked; he's nothing but trouble, he picks fights with everyone, he failed at school, and he can't hold a job. 

But you  were sure he wasn't that bad, he told you it was everyone else's fault.  So what if he a string of girlfriends before you, that only proved how popular he was.  He told you everyone was jealous of him.  He introduced you to his friends, they seemed to be just like him, drop-outs too, a few of them had been in trouble with the law.  How exciting!

You were all of sixteen and looking for someone who would take you away from the hum-drum existence of small-town life.  Get up, go to school, babysit on weekends, hang with your girlfriends gossip; nothing ever changed.  Here was someone who showed you the other side of life, who told you that the two of you were all that was needed to take on the world. 

Then one day you looked around and you saw what everyone else had seen all along,  Your hero was just a lying bum, and you dumped him.  Easier said than done, he hung around outside your house, until one day your dad  went out and had a little talk with him.  Then he wasn't so big and bad and he just went away.  But he didn't go far, he still hung around the schoolyard surrounded by the fawning crowd who basked in his reflected reputation.  Sad!

Sound familiar?  Yup, the world is full of lying bums.  Most don't go very far, but a few, those whose fathers substituted money for loving guidance, had a boost up the ladder.  They were no  better than the ne'er-do-wells who never had a dime, in fact, some don't even dress better.  The one thing they do have is daddy's name to trade on until they can go it alone.  There is a name for them in Arkansas; All hat, no cattle.

I, like so many others, had an excuse.  I was young and dumb and devoid of worldly acumen, even though everyone told me, I had to find out for myself.  I grew up, and got smarter, I found those who cared about me were right all along.  But that fellow, he never changed, his lies got bigger, I hear he is facing jail time, but the hangers-on; they are still there, hoping to profit from the crumbs he tosses them, still believing his lies because they are afraid not to believe.

America succumbed to a fast-talking grifter, who promised he would make her great again.  What he meant was that he would make her white again.  He would take America back to when white men ruled the world, and women and minorities knew their place.  Some people laughed at the thought of a snake-oil salesman pulling the wool over enough people's eyes to make a difference.  My family and friends cared enough to set me straight, but who fought for America?  Not the media, or the party, and America came close to losing her most precious possession - democracy.  

We are slowly stepping back from the precipice of destruction, but the followers who pushed us to that brink are still fighting, as incredible as it may seem.  Yes, some have seen the danger and have stood up to say that they were wrong.  And now they are being punished and shunned by the cowards who were afraid to face the evil before them.  Some still think they can control the monster; they think they have defanged him and he will play nice.  Wasn't it less than a year ago when they thought the same thing?

The menace was a long time in coming and it will not disappear in a few short months, not when the followers are so devoted. Speaker, Nancy Pelosi said it right, "the enemy is within".  Cults, like Q-Anon, have representatives in Congress now, and they are spreading their venomous lies unhindered.  They believe that America's 'values are being destroyed by socialism, multiculturalism, and pedophiles' and these things are destroying American society.  More than half of the GOP agree "traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that they may have to use force to save it".                              More than 40% say "a time will come when American Patriots will have to take the law into their own hands".                                                                                                                                                     57% of Republicans think of Democrats as enemies.                                                                                   More than 75% of the GOP rate the past four years as favorable and 60% want the ex-president to have a major role in the party.                                                                                                                                 And 91% of the people who voted for the ex-president would vote for him again, even after the insurrection of January 6th.

 What can be said in the face of such convoluted logic?  What terrible wrong can be done before more minds will change?  The death of six people, one was a police officer who died defending the lives of the people who later voted to set his murderer free, didn't do it.  The attempted violent overthrow  of the government had no effect.  There is only one thing more powerful than all of this - the vote!  We must keep up the fight, be ever vigilant, never again let complacency keep us from the polling place.  The other side will try, they will change the rules, make it even more difficult to cast our ballot.  But if they win; we will lose more than an election, we will lose America.

                                                                                                     I'm just sayin'