No-trump

It is far passed time to stop giving the new President, Donald Trump, free coverage for the insanity that he is exhibiting. He has set the stage for trying to get the American public to stop listening to the legitimate Press who refuse to blindly go along with all of the wild agenda items he is implementing.


Instead of reporting that "Trump said this or said that, did this or did that..." the media must concentrate on that which he did. "Steve Bannon says media should keep its mouth shut." "Sean Spicer repeats lies which are told to him." "EPA and other federal entities are muzzled by Executive Orders." "Gag order on FDA information endangers Americans health and safety." "EPA shackled by funding cuts and demands to have all scientific reports vetted by Republican Congress."

All of these types of reporting leave the current President out of the picture. He doesn't need any more coverage than he can obtain by tweeting his opinions and claims of being victimized by dishonest press reporting. The lies are only the smoke and mirrors to divert out attention from the actions he is taking without dissent. Congress is not standing up to the man because he is furthering THEIR hopes and goals. He is acting like a "one man wrecking crew."

Even if he is eventually deposed before the 2020 elections, he will have stripped more of the social policy, most of the environmental protections and all of the safeguards which have been put in place since the 1920s. Using the excuse of a need for security he is using collective fear to curtail dissent by striking out at a few of the first adopters of protest.

The people who voted for the man are probably lost to any counter attacks against him. The opposition needs only to point out the results and impacts of his decisions and policies. After all you can't insult a racist by calling him a racist, nor a Fascist by calling him a Fascist. In both cases the label is a badge of honor. But stopping the label making and concentrating on the outcomes of the bad decisions give people the opportunity to get behind the new message. We need to stop characterizing his as a twit even though and especially You Can't Argue With a Twit.

RealInterestConflict Problem

Here is the #realInterestConflict problem we are going to have.

Joint Chiefs of Staff: "Mr. President, we spent $150 million and engaged 312 covert personnel to ascertain what the Russian motives are in Poland. We are advising you of the buildup of assets, personnel and munitions within 5 miles of Poland's border. Our best assessment is that Russian forces are poised to move across the border and retake Poland as a Russian Territory."

New POTUS: "Hold on right there. There is no such thing happening. No one knows exactly whose troops they are and to what state they belong. They could be ISIS, they could be Syrian Refugees. Nobody really knows until we figure out what is going on there."

JCS: "But Mr. President, we do know what is going on. We can see in in the satellites imagery...."

New POTUS: "You're telling me you can determine Russian intentions from a satellite. I think not. Really, I don't think. I don't have to since I have the greatest business sense of anybody in this room. I can pick up the phone and call V. Putin and just ask him. He and I have the bestest relationship. He will tell me the truth without all the political maneuvering like I see in these failed meetings. MY sources tell me that the Russians are merely moving to Summer quarters."

JCS: "Mr. President. This nation depends heavily on our professional assessments of geopolitical threats."

New POTUS: "Look Gentlemen, all I have to do is Tweet out what I think and the people of this country will see how great my mind is and what I think. They will come together and tell YOU what is going on. Even my son, here, knows more about Russian intentions than all the satellites you wasted billions on. Tell them, Barron."

FLBOTUS: "Well, I..."

New POTUS: "See what I mean? He is a yuge asset to my oligarchy".

Seriously now, the foregoing highly realistic "Fictional" account only touches the Dip of the Iceberg. Getting and using information from unknown sources, intuition and known foreign parties is a formula for disaster. Expressing opinion as fact through insecure channels invites the Principle of Imminent Collapse to manifest a failure. A nudge will be all it takes to initiate.

P-E T has 18.8 million followers on Twitter. Many of them are quick to react to whatever they read. Since P-E T has the reputation of saying incendiary things at odd-hours of the night, how difficult would it be for any state sponsored hackers to co-opt the feed and make the world believe the President of the United States said this or said that? In conjunction with the wildfire nature of these messages, the damage will be done before the Secretary of Walking Things Back, Kellyanne, can say what was really said, or not said as the case may be.

In this flash-point world we live in, sparking matches and flipping them toward a bucket of gasoline is utter madness. Yeah, most of them will be extinguished, but don't try this at home, or abroad for that matter. And please never try it on Twitter.

Never Bring a Gun to a Cheeseburger Fight

Never Bring a Gun to a Cheeseburger Fight

Nobody ever killed their spouse with a cheeseburger. No toddler ever killed his parent or sibling with a loaded cheeseburger. Nobody ever used a cheeseburger in a roadrage murder. Nobody ever dropped their cheeseburger and killed a bystander. Nobody ever jokingly put a cheeseburger to their head and shot a pickle slice through their brain. Nobody ever sexually assaulted anybody by holding a cheeseburger on them. Need I go on? Maybe you can?

This just proves once again that You Can't Argue With a Twit.

Ironically, The largest portion of hand gun deaths are self inflicted... dare I say Suicides? 

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

Y'allQaeda at Malheur

You can't argue with a twit. Hence the impasse between Ammon Bundy and the entire Federal government. The Federal government has been especially diligent in not turning the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge into a bloodbath after its dubious beginning as the most ludicrous protest in recent US history. The self-styled Constitutional Patriots drove up to the closed building at the refuge and moved in for the long-haul. They immediately realized they were wholly unprepared to last the "many years" if necessary and put out a plea on the Internet for snacks and warm clothing and everything else they might need if they were opening a Bed & Breakfast.

"Snacktivists" of every ilk quickly picked up on the absurdity of the occupation and mercilessly bombarded the armed militants with internet memes and actual "care packages containing "Gummi Dicks" and a plethora of dildos for their use during the long winter months.

Aside from the absurd maneuver they perpetrated by armed intrusion onto Federal property, a crime of sedition and possible treason, their demands for actions that will end this tempest in a teacup are supremely absurd.

The Chief spokesman and militant Mormon manipulator has said he will end the occupation when the Federal government surrenders to his ragtag rabble rousers and turns over all of the Federal land  (of at least the Refuge) to local control. He seems to think that is a viable negotiating position.

What is a more likely outcome is that the patient Federal agencies, FBI and BLM, will listen to the request of the Oregon Governor, Katherine Brown, and will escalate the standoff to the level of crises. Until now (Jan 22) the debacle has been more a point of parody and satire on the part of 15,500 "Snacktivists" on the Facebook page "Snacks for Y'allQaeda". This group of earnest patriots and wannabe weekend warriors have been on the receiving end of volley after volley of the sharpest of wit. Every day more criticism than support weighs against them.

From the "Daddy Swore an Oath" videos of numerous bearded men sitting behind the steering wheels of their vehicles to the destruction of pole-mounted cameras and barbed wire fences, these little men in their jungle camo clothes believe they can cherry pick parts of the Constitution and Bill of rights to their own agenda.

At the end of this standoff they will have damaged their brand beyond hope of recovery. The Federal Agencies are letting them have sufficient lengths of rope with which to hang themselves. Each member of their Band of Bothers will be arrested or be buried when the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is once again open for the public to learn about the birds and other species who are the intended inhabitants of the preserve.

TOTD for Syrian Refugee Paranoia

25 Republican Governors (and a couple of Ds) and the remaining 8 to 10 GOP presidential candidates collectively receive the "Twit of the Day" recognition. These men and women are using the lives of tens of thousands of people who are fleeing the ravages of the war that was instigated by the Republican mentality that permeates America.

They are telling Americans that these refugees are dangerous, or better yet "might be dangerous" and must be kept out of their states in order to protect us from the extremism which is alleged to be in each and every one of them. The extremists are really the GOP governors and the candidates who want to force refugees to be wear tags that label them, refuse them food, medical care and shelter in the GOP led states.

It is the Federal government who will decide which refugees and how many will be resettled here in the States. While there may be a couple of extremist refugees in among the huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we already have hundreds of thousands of extremist terrorizing people already here in the US and nobody seems concerned about them. They are Americans, born here of American parents and grandparents. They are unprincipled and undocumented gun owners, who take the lives of over 30,000 people every years in the US. Where is the GOP Governor or GOP Presidential candidate who want to beat the war drum about them?

All the rhetoric and vitriol spewed by these "good conservative" possibly Christian politicians is focused on pleasing their respective electorates for election and re-election. The claims of threats and danger from refugees is a Red Herring to divert our attention from the real purpose, elected office. It is fear mongering, pure and simple.

Once a refugee has walked a thousand miles to interim safety and passes the 18 to 24 month investigative vetting process of the US Government, he, she and their families are allowed to arrive in the USA. From that point they can travel to any state that choose, if they have the funds to do so. Therefore, Governor Abbott's (R-TX) can say and do anything he wants to to make life difficult for people seeking safety and a stable future, but they will come anyway.

The refusees [sic] of the GOP are human beings no different than the rest of us. And while there is a "bad apple" in most every barrel, the numbers are minuscule compared to the vast majority of earnest people.

For all their ignorance and hype, the entire GOP presidential cadre and all but one GOP Governor get the Twit of the Day award.

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

Voted Off The Island

As the wide field of Republican Presidential candidates continues to be Yooge in the patois' of The Donald, it is shrinking. While the more vocal of the club are out and about moaning and groaning about how CNBC treated them in the third debate, at least the moderators and network executives did not exclude any of the contenders.

The initial cadre of candidates exceeded 16 where upon the debate schedulers decided that the four at the bottom of the list would stand at the children's podiums in a separate and far less equal event. Those men did not like it but it was that of nothing.

For the 4th event, two of the survivors have been voted off the island. Gov. Chris Christie and Former Gov. Mike Huckabee got the ax in that vote. Two others previously voted themselves out of the running. Rick Perry and Scott Walker bowed out with a modicum of self-respect.

So it is better to step aside or be pushed? Christie and Huckabee cannot survive being marginalized in the debates even though the poll respondents have already done that to them. My recommended debate approach has not been adopted by any TV network yet. www.bit.ly/GongGOP outline the perfect format for the GOP debate.

Once the primary voting really begins, there will be a swift sword wielded to slay the vastly unworthy pretender to the throne. Quite quickly the field will be pared down to just The Two. Who they will be exactly is yet to be seen. None of the remaining candidates have shown any qualifications for the office.

The three primary job duties of the President are: Commander in Chief of the Armed Services, Economist, and Ambassador to the world. The GOP field all say some variation of "I'll use military might on Day One to settle …" "I'll repeal that legislation on Day One…" And by their personalities, they are all laughing stocks in the eyes of the world with their silly talk and biblical justifications for everything they are paid to support. They all say they love and support the Constitution but then go on to assert that they will take actions that clearly show that they know precious little about that document or how to uphold it.

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

Columbus Day Revisited

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When two people start out at opposite ends of the forest and traipse around until the come face-to-face, it is only a matter of perspective as for who discovered whom. Even as Christopher Columbus sailed home to Europe to proclaim his discovery of the New World to Queen Isabella of Spain, the indigenous people whom he met spread the work of their discovery of some really weird people who talked gibberish and wore metal and leather clothes. The chroniclers of the times were far more prolific in the written languages of Europe than were the indigenous peoples who resided on the lands that were summarily claimed by European Crowns.

This is not a treatise on the voyages of sailing men nor of the facts of exactly where they landed, but is one of how one group of men treated others groups of men to reach the conditions of today. One must keep in mind that the Columbus explorations were entirely economic and he expected to have high position bestowed on him and be paid profits and royalties for his efforts. Everything else paled in comparison.

Columbus and all his successors viewed the resources of this new continent as belonging to them and their benefactors. Even the people were considered as property of the Crown to be bought and sold for their ability to provide labor.

The very idea that Columbus discovered ANYTHING is negated by the fact that he was met by people who had lived there for hundreds if not thousands of years. Columbus merely tripped over an island on his way elsewhere. His voyages were Johnny-come-lately events at best. The ancestors of the indigenous either sailed across the Atlantic from most likely Africa; or sailed across the Pacific from Asia or any of the rim regions; or walked up the eastern Asian coast into (now) Russia and across the Bering Straits, across Alaska and Canada to the American Northwest, all the way across the continent and then across the Gulf of Mexico, et al, to (now) Cuba, The Bahamas and Santo Domingo, et al. Whichever route(s) they took, they did it long before Columbus or his parents and grandparents were born. His glory is unwarranted and a total historical fabrication from the first American History textbook published here to honor that man.

His holiday is a travesty to all the millions of people who were subjugated, tortured, enslaved and killed by these explorers and their followers. In these recent days of heightened social awareness we have reconsidered the esteemed recognition of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Battle Flag and their place in contemporary public display. The Columbus Day holiday needs to be deprecated and replaced with something more universal for this nation of America. Suggestions welcome.

There will be stubbornly defensive support for keeping the holiday just as it is. But there are any number of historical figures who would not be welcome as a hero of the American people. We don't glorify them either.

Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.