Trickled down

Once again, because, as humans, we can, and do and willingly permit history to repeat itself, we, as Americans are faced with a little ditty titled “Trickle Down Economics.” It’s the kind of tune your grandparents, and some of your parents have danced to in the past, but somehow for the very uninformed and selfish the rhythm still gyrates within the core of their body, and for some reason the newest iteration of “Trickle Down Economics” seems a catchy tune…ONCE AGAIN!

But this blog IS NOT about the failed attempt by such awful Republican administrations as Reagan or GW Bush, and the current crop of creepy Capitalists…this BLOG is about the very real term of Trickle Down with the word POLITICS replacing the word economics. This blog is more concerned with the REAL drip drop of the kind of shit that truly falls down, not like the economics parts, which have never trickled down in the past but have always flooded the top tier of humans, known as the 1%.

What we are witnessing in 2017 is the Putin Trickle Down Plan to drown and destroy Democracy. We are watching, most of us helplessly, the trickle down effect of collusion/blackmail/and political power play, falling freely and corroding any sense of decency, values, or morals by and from the Republican Party and with great earnest and energy by anyone Trump. In its mist simplest form the Putin Trickle Down Plan works like this: Compromise Trump, let him have delighted in the glorious back rooms and gold plated halls of the Kremlin. Keep his ego stroked, understand his lack of emotion, nurture his narcissism, and all the while take pictures/audio and visual electronic surveillance for good measure. Then find a willing chump as in Mitch McConnell. Understand McConnell’s own distaste for fair and equal. Throw in a few other guys and gals who only want fame and fortune and say fuck democracy, claiming to be Patriots but who are only pathetic professional politicians; of course loaning them dirty, dark money as a present. Hack the elections with the support of the RNC, and help elect a man to the Oval Office, hiding as best you can all of the puppet wires, of course using the paid to play GOP who can only gain governance by greed, by cheating and ignoring any and all principles of democracy.

Trickle Down, once again has reared not only its ugly face, but ist selfish motives, all owned and operated by Vlad Putin/Donald Trump/Mitch McConnell and pretty boy Pau Ryan. God Bless America!

It's a Good Life

I am a fan of the Twilight Zone, the abundance of stories with monsters, creatures and the most bizarre environments have always added fuel to my already hungry imagination. But for me, the scariest of invented monsters where never the ones from alien worlds or those lurking under the bed or in that dark corner of the closet; the real creatures to worry about were made of flesh and blood. One of my favorite Twilight Zones, is called “It’s a Good Life”. It aired in 1961, I was 12 years old, but even then the possibility of ANYONE having the kind of powers as the character in this story had, scared me then and frightens me now:

This is a portrayal of a nightmare. It's one of those things where you hope you'll wake up. It's about an entire community that has been taken over by a child brat who is totally self centered and sociopathic. He probably doesn't realize the error of his ways. Any effort to educate him would result in being "sent to the cornfield." This is a state of limbo. When your adversary has no conscience, he cannot be approached in a rational way. This story is about fear. Not only are the people under constant threat, the world the boy is creating is one that is becoming bleak and vacuous. We never know if he has the power to bring things back, but it appears not. We know at some point he will be all that is left.

Currently all I witness is a sociopath, self centered not sitting in a farmhouse, but a brat in the Oval Office. He has conveniently controlled any conscience still left in the bodies and minds of the Republican Party leadership, and with the assistance of Putin and I am certain plenty of dossiers of juicy blackmail, is ablate keep his gaggle of GOP’ers in constant threat, willing to make the world in which we live, in which I live nothing but bleak. In the Twilight Zone episode, of “It’s a Good Life”, no one dares tell the young brat he is wrong, ruinous, and ridiculous, for fear they will be sent to some unknown void. In the current episode of our 2017 version of the Twilight Zone, Republican men and women of Congress are more concerned about their own pettiness, and self importance, being as amenable to the monster named Trump, as the characters behave in “It’s a Good Life”. For me, the biggest fear in the world are not the monsters brought to life by writers, but human beings born without souls! 

back stabbers

The back stabbers (back stabbers)

(They smile in your face)

All the time they want to take your place

The back stabbers (back stabbers) {“Backstabbers”/O’Jays}

Those of us who really cared understood that Mitch McConnell NEVER held any regard for American democracy. He made it quite clear that anything President Obama required or requested would be discounted if not disregarded. What many of US didn’t realize was what I believe the true reason for treasonous acts, that he (McConnell) was already on the payroll of Putin, and he (McConnell) had a plan to undermine the idea of checks and balances/one person one vote/and the environment for fair and just elections. Putin picked Trump as his lacky, a laughable, lunatic of self-serving narcissist, too stupid to see past his own needs, and too smart to NOT want more, more and more money. Every dummy needs a voice, so McConnell became the voice behind the newly created dummy (Trump) and the ventriloquist act was formed. However, as smarmy a politician (McConnell), he was still part of the Putin carnival act and with just enough blackmail, McConnell also became a puppet for Putin.

Here-say, and inconvenient truth CONSPIRACY theories…perhaps if this was still America in 2008, I might use the same words to describe this blog, but since the inception of the Trump for President campaign way too much evidence has found footing, and as much as REAL AMERICANS don’t want to even consider a coup against our democratic principles, we have been duped by Mitch McConnell and the leadership of the Republican Party. Years and years of committee meetings on anything Hillary to distract us from anything GOP. Silent donations to the RNC by Russian oligarchs…withholding a fair and just nomination to the Supreme Court by Obama, a man sent into office with a vast majority of voters…lack luster efforts to currently discover any collusion or interference by the Russians…sudden winners in key states during the 2016 election, providing the GOP with a majority in the Senate and the House…both the DNC and RNC websites hacked, but ONLY the DNC stolen information shared and used as propaganda.

Lets get real here folks, Trump is a con a delusional idiot, fine game for Putin to use and blackmail, but it is the brains and and TOTAL disregard for anything democracy, by a cunning and calculating creep like McConnell to REALLY lead the coup against fair and equal. Putin holds lots of secrets, but I believe not all are against Trump; but many certainly include McConnell and his gang of anarchists in the GOP. “The back stabbers/they smile in your face!

hope

It was Christmas time for Joe I and in Buffalo. The Bruno family siblings and their partners all together celebrating a holiday, built upon treasures of family life from the past with the added bonus of current events soon to sweetly be swept into the memory category of family life together. No matter the single digit weather of the inches of snow on the ground, my husband’s family including all of the nerves and nephews gathered together eating, drinking and wondering as we looked around, where had the time gone, when suddenly most of those present were once so much younger. But then time is a magician, it will take decades of years squish and squeeze them and presto chango, turn them into NOW, and what was younger is older, what seemed just a few seconds of life becomes do you remember when, and just how many decades later THEN really happened. But for my (MACHA-TUN-UM, Yiddish for a family you inherit when you married) Christmas is then or now is just the medicine necessary to keep hope alive.

I promised Joe I would NOT smother myself with the current events of the day, I secretly understood my addiction, and kind of sorts of crossed my fingers behind my back and just nodded my head. (Perhaps not really answering aloud, made this a fib, or JUST a white lie) I was good, I really tied to avoid anything on TV with the words TRUMP, LIAR, FASCIST, REPUBLICAN, or GREED. But this being America in the year 2017, all of that vocabulary has become the norm and avoidance was similar to not inhaling oxygen, it had become a way of life.

We arrived back to LA, to our routines, and low and behold, even as I wished and prayed that somehow LAW and Order and the American Constitution would reclaim victory and power in the US, TRUMP was every where, his poison scorpion tail, lashing out, his venemous narcissism spewing, and his snake oil still being bought and sold. Now, it seems the newest ploy in the Fascist playbook of the GOP is to define anyone in the government who disagrees with the dictatorial methods employed by Trump as attempting a coup de’etat. Most authoritarian insecure men and women, throw that phrase around when nothing else seems to work. Hmmm, here we go once again. As I heard the Talking Heads, pretend to KNOW ALL, being paid a pretty penny for not really KNOWING ALL, I had to set my internal clock back to Buffalo, I already needed an escape from what has become a Twilight Zone of reality, and tried hard to remember what the Bruno family counted on each year at Christmas time…HOPE! I wish all of US who really care, who really think, who really understand good from bad, HOPE for the new year!

SICK

The older I have grown the more difficult it is for me to watch slasher movies, films about torturing victims, and any production which includes the suffering of the innocent by calculating villains. For me, it is not entertainment, nor a form of art, for me, suffering, persecution and dying are too real and if there is anything way I can stop ANY of it I will.

On Wednesday, December 20, 2017, Trump and his cohorts, the treasonous Republican Party (all of the GOP members of the Congress, stood in front of America, as if they had produced a miracle, as if they had just accomplished the greatest gift to the American people, as if ALL of them just finished a SELF-LESS act. (If you looked at the screen close enough, you could even see the puppet strings attached to all of these reprehensible Republicans, being pushed and pulled  by the billionaire Koch Brothers, the Mercer Family, and maybe some of the betsy DeVos clan). I tried my best to witness a moment in American history where the actual government turned against its own citizens. But I discovered, just like the slasher movies, torture films and the suffering of innocents I became ill. It was as if I wanted to VOMIT, as if the insides of my gut were about to explode. The sinister show of insincerity and self righteousness caused my body to almost suffer a seizure.

McConnell and Ryan, both Republican leadership most likely on the Putin payroll, could hardly contain themselves, and Orrin Hatch, one of the longest serving Senators and rumored to be one of the wealthiest Senators, also began a dissertation praising Trump as the GREATEST president EVER. It was as if we were in North Korea, or Iraq, or Nazi Germany, as the peons in the government, praised without guts or conscience the dictators of a lawless nation. And then to top it off, the anarchists started to list some made up achievements of a government hacked into office and owned by Russia.

What they forgot to mention was: that 70% of Puerto Ricans are still without water and power…that the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is not funded for 2018…that with the Tax Scam at least 36 million Americans will either not have affordable health care or be unable to afford any health care offered…that an admitted sexual predator is still sitting in the Oval Office…I watched as the GOP enemies of the state cheered and celebrated the dismantling of our democracy, and I grew so SICK 

American Pie

“Bye, bye Miss American Pie

Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry

And them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye

Singin' this'll be the day that I die

This'll be the day that I die” (‘American Pie’-Don McLean)

We are not that village once spoken about, willing to band together and provide for all of its inhabitants. We are no longer the land for ALL, to pursue happiness. We are not that shining city on the hill, a once con artist professed, being a beacon for equality. We are no longer an example of the will of the people, unless those people have been Corporations rebranded as People. December 20, 2017 people like Sad, Sinister Susan Collins, Phony Foolish Jeff Flake, Corrupt, Conniving Bob Corker, and Lying, lousy Lisa Murkowski, along with every other bought and paid for Republican sold the soul of our nation to the highest bidders, and shot the first ballistic missile creating a war of rich versus poor, have’s versus have nots, and in the midst of ALL of that chaos, added a little more Krypton to a sinister self absorbed bully named Trump.

Trickle down only floods the pockets of the wealthy. Capitalism has become a religion, and its followers must adhere to the first principles of selfishness. Politicians have become well paid puppets, Fake is true, truth has died. There is NO more music to be played to carry the spirit of a nation once capable of freedom and equality for all. “I can't remember if I cried

When I read about the widowed bride

Something touched me deep inside

The day the music died” (‘American Pie’-Don McLean) No longer can we remain silent, or in denial, no longer can we pretend someone else will come to resurrect the music. It IS now up to us, no matter what the action!

DUMBNESS

As the “Main Street” Media begins to base the bizarre reporting by the Far Right conglomeration of FOX News, Breibart Noise, and Nationalistic Nostalgia for everything Nazi, as debatable truth, lending their own Talking Heads to help undermine, the truth, we once again have resurrected the case against Hillary, but this time lets just refer to it as the case against the FBI. Little facts, hundreds of falsehoods shared by phony journalists and more likely entertainment hacks, the “Main Street” Media once again develops amnesia forgetting just how hard they fell for the BOGUS BULL SHIT during the 2016 Presidential Election. The amazing capacity, that the Republican Conservative Propaganda has in creating false talking points, weird and wild, suddenly become debatable. When will the “Main Street” Media understand just how much of a stooge, a variable for the dumb, they willingly choose to become for the treasonous, anarchist Fascists of the Trump Administration? 

The House is now voting on their Tax Scam. Simply put a way to placate the rich, eliminate the poor, and leave anyone else in a kind of Twilight Zone existence. Lying as usual, pretending that Jesus, would approve, and of course refusing to talk the fact of the Tax Scam, the House will vote and INSIST then American thing to do is rob the poor and pay the wealthy. And every person watching FOX, reading Breibart, paying Pat Robertson hundreds of dollars to talk say a good word for them, OR those who think Steve Bannon and Vladimir Putin are more American than apple pie, will gleefully shout hurrah, we won! 

America has such a lousy track NOT repeating history. We’ve seen the devastation, destruction and complete DUMBNESS of not reading the lessons of history, but preferring the lies of lunatics!  

Con Again

The most unreliable of news sources once again has become the premier broadcasters in the nation, duping the so called main street media, the so called liberal press to report, aloud, stories based on nothing but anti Mueller investigation propaganda. From FOX News, Breibart Press and all of the other White Supremacist Rags, fictions stories are raging like the wild fires in California proclaiming everything from illegal investigative work by Mueller’s Team, the FBI to a supposed coup de’etat at the ready to overthrow (and here is the laugh) a legitimate presidential administration. Just like BENGHAZI, BENGHAZI, BENGHAZI and of course HER EMAILS, the Conservative press, without real knowledge of facts is doing its darnedest to disseminate incorrect and corrosive information, just to protect the BAD GUYS and screw the rest of America. And just like BENGHAZI and HER EMAILS, the Cable News and the corporate news departments are being snared by the blatant lies, swallowing the bait and debating ALOUD, about a moot subject with no substance, no there, THERE, and acting as if it is news. And just like the anything HILLARY, the so called professional Press are enabling the false news, the misinformation to somehow become real. Real enough to sway public conscience to consider the most STUPID of thoughts…perhaps Trump and his list of anarchists from his Family members to the Republican leadership are INNOCENT. The Con seems to work even when the duped dummy swears that NEXT time you won’t get me.

who to do the right thing

Back in the 1950s, my father had been a “Beat Patrol Man” for the city of Pittsburgh’s Police Department. Pittsburgh, albeit a Northern city, still suffered the consequences of unofficial segregated neighborhoods, one of which was called Homewood, and whose population consisted of at 99% African Americans. Back in the day, it was a single patrol, with the hours of patrol varying week to week. It was about 1955, when I truly grasped what my father did for a living, as he became famous for delivering a baby to a single mother living in Homewood. The Pittsburgh Press took a picture, wrote an article, and there was my father holding a new born baby, sitting next to her new mom. My neighborhood in Pittsburgh was almost 99%Caucasian, and had a majority of Jewish Families living there. As far as I knew, life was white, life was Jewish and life was safe. But, seeing the picture of my father and the baby, I grew curious. All I had known from television was that, “Colored” neighborhoods were dangerous, which meant that, “Colored” people had to be bad. There was never any talk about bad “Colored” people in my house, but somehow I became disturbed as to where my father had been working. After all, how could television and even the movies lie about things as important as to whois good and who is bad? My fairer and I had a brief discussion regarding is “Beat”, and he said, “The thing about life is, to believe that there IS always someone, smart enough to do the right thing. Try hard to ignore the noise, so you can listen to the quiet words where wisdom live.”

This is now 2017, and I am afraid. I am afraid for my family, my friends, my belief in democracy and my country. All I hear is noise. Noise in the form of NOW censored words by the Government, lack difference, and deference to those whose only goal in life is to hate. Laws ignored, overlooked, or completely removed. Lies as truth, truth as if was something to debate. The lack of checks and balances, so blatant, that an inquiry into collusion, corruption and the introduction of fascism into our nations foundations. All I seem to hear is the noise of the guilty and the gullible. I have believed in the many words my father provided me, but the longer the republicans permit Trump to remain in the White House, thew more I doubt that there WILL BE someone smart enough to do the right thing!

Little Marco

Little Marco Rubio, is like a parasite, he sucks the blood out of the unsuspecting, is an annoyance, is noticed, only because he is such an annoyance. Little Marco Rubio, is a conniving liar. He plans his lies well, its all about timing, and of course the PR that goes along with the timing. Little Marco Rubio, likes to pretend he has something important to say, using the moment to speak his bull shit, when he understands that stupid will listen. Little Marco Rubio is dangerous, not in the Trump kind of disastrous danger persuasion, but more in a cunning and conning way of danger. Little Marco Rubio, like to pretend he cares about his Constituents, while all along he is conniving, contemptuous, and nothing but a charade hiding behind a facade.

As if Little Marco Rubio WAS EVER going to vote no on the GOP TAX SCAM. As if he would do the right thing and turn his back on all of the Republican donors who feed the pockets of this self-serving hack, Little Marco Rubio got the 15 minutes of fame he needed to keep his lack luster profile as a Senator alive. You see, America, just as the Alabamian’s insisted electing a child predator was their business, and the rest of America should bud out, the Floridians have in Little Marco Rubio a failed Senator, who is not only bad for the majority of stupid Floridians who voted for him, but INDEED is bad for America. It may be your state Senator, be he or she becomes the person who makes the laws for the rest of us.

So, now Little Marco Rubio can pretend he had a conscience, say he made a difference, confuse the most stupid of Constituents into thinking he is an advocate, while raking in the money from the real people that count his wealthy DONORS. Little Marco Rubio has once again proven to be a sham and a shame.

5 Years Ago, Yesterday

5 years ago, yesterday, December 14, 2012, my daughter was 32, my son was 34. In the preceding 5 years since 2012, I have been able to “kvell” at the movie, “Hole in The Wall”, written and directed by my son, and listen to almost 2 dozen songs written and performed by my daughter and her friend Scott from their group called TeamMate.  In the 5 years ago, since yesterday, I have witnessed my kids becoming young adults, pursuing careers, achieving goals and celebrating their lives, my daughter is now 37 and my son is 39. Since December 14, 2012, I have spent 5 years understanding my role as a father, my role as a friend, sharing my unconditional love throughout the period. I never take for granted those past moments, but I do with a full heart appreciate the memories made, between father, daughter and son.

5 years ago, yesterday, December 14, 2012, murder came to Sandy Hook Elementary School, and ended the minutes, moments, memories to be made of the lives lost, by an insane individual permitted to find access to guns. The wonders of the world ahead ended, the dreams and desires stopped, and the future collapsed as the victims died. No more smiles, sighs, snickers, laughter, or love anew, all of those who lost victims of the senseless murders at Sandy Hook, had to say goodbye. Parents no longer could hug their children, or watch them dream.

5 years ago, yesterday, December 14, 2012, a whole bunch of Republican lawmakers, extended their hopes and prayers to the victims and their families. Most of those Republican lawmakers, left their Washing DC offices, returning to the arms and souls of their own children. 5 years ago, yesterday, December 14, 2012, the GOP insisted that NOW, right NOW when the murdered were dying due to gun violence, was not the time to discuss making changes toward Gun Laws. Wishes, prayers, hopes, were all the GOP could offer, for fear that their Sugar Daddy, the NRA might provide them with a lump of coal for Christmas. Of course ALL of the Republican lawmakers had a great Christmas with their kids, and many most likely for the past 4 years and this coming season will continue to have a delightful and Merry Christmas, with their children. There is so much WRONG in this nation, so were so many opportunities to turn that WRONG into something RIGHT…But politics, selfishness, greed and lack of conscious, ALWAYS get in the way!

small victories

I understand the old adage that it takes small victories to win the war, and I am pleased that a majority of Alabamians understood the difference between right and wrong, having morals vs lacking values, but it was a tight race considering one of the two men had been accused of predatory unlawfulness, and the other man actually was able to convict Ku Klux Klansmen on murdering children. It was a victory, but the war on Democracy and the democratic principles is still in effect.

Now the gerrymandered, voter restricting Representatives in Congress, the men and women who really HADN’t won their own political campaigns with honor and honesty, have developed a new tool to fool, the easily fleeced…they call it the need for a second counsel. These enemies of democracy refuse to entertain the idea of spending more resources on the current list of committees dealing with Trump corruption and collusion, they spent millions of dollars and staff time on anything Hillary…but NOW with the guilt growing grander, suddenly want to stop progress on saving democracy to creating a more comfy Fascist form of governing. The real enemy are the members of the GOP who understand exactly just how impotent, innocuous, and irresponsible their Party and Policies provide the American people. Who is left to save the implosion and demolition of our Democracy.

And as far as victories go, has anyone heard a concession speech by the bully named Roy Moore? Has anyone heard the Attorney General from the state of Alabama provide the sentences necessary to finalize the victory of Doug Jones. Has anyone heard ANY recognition by the Communist Party (oops I mean the Republican Party of Alabama addressing that democracy has found footing? Small victories, are important, but the war still continues.

Deja-vu

It felt like a bit of deja-vu, watching the race between Doug Jones and Roy Moore, on television, last night. I saw the red blocks of votes and the blue blocks of votes, I heard all of the talking heads, especially the guys who have orgasm’s over statistics, trying to micro-explain why this happened and that didn’t. Commentators, who had never once been to Alabama were pontificating on the citizens of the “Yellowhammer” State trying to psycho analyze voting patterns and voting purposes. And as all of this TOO MUCH BS was playing on my television screen, all I could think about was, have the Russians with the approval of the RNC, hacked this election, thus making nil and void any and all of the words spewing from the Talking Heads!

Joe and I stayed up extra late just to make sure, that somehow, with all of the so called facts being blown around like a sudden wind burst of a summer storm, some unforeseen theft of democracy was not about to swoop in and drag democracy down the drain!

A majority of the people of Alabama did the right thing, not only for their state, but in reality the Unites States, because even though it was an election in Alabama, the winner of that election WILL impact the rest of this nation. To make sure last night was not a horrible dream, and that in fact, Putin was not standing on the capital steps of the Montgomery, hand in hand with Trump, I snuck a peek at the news early in the morning and was relieved that so far Doug Jones was the incoming Senator. But with the GOP and of course Trump, there is never a happily ever after, no, there is always the next chapter filled with cunning and corruption. Now it seems the Tax Scam is of utter essence, and the boys are doing some backroom deals to make sure they will fuck up the average citizen, sooner than later. Oy!

Hanukkah

Tonight, is the first evening of Hanukkah, for those who choose to celebrate, it is a holiday filled with the crisp orange and blue glow of candles, reminding the observer watching the Menorah, upon which the candles blossom; of the need for hope, the knowledge of chance, and the purpose of tomorrow. In my house, growing up, Hanukkah was taught as a lesson to persevere, to believe that one drop of oil, one lit candle will be enough light to get through the night, and begin the new day. The darkness remains scary when no one dares shed a light, but instead chooses to hide from perceived demons, or from those who persecute, or from those whose intention is only for self and not self-less. 

Supposedly there is truth when there is light. Even when light cast shadows, but we can still discern what is really in front of our eyes verses what is imagined. This year, of course I will light my Menorah (I know my mother is looking down from Heaven, expecting me to do so), but as I light the candles, I do so this year with greater need, greater want, greater desire for light to burn away the gloom, greed, gluttony, grief, and disingenuous and sheer gaul, which has been permitted to lay to waste freedom, fairness and equality.

In my 68 years of life, there has never been a more worrisome political period in which I have wondered if we as a nation have enough courage for the beacon of democracy to continue to remove the nightmare that has consumed our lives. The story goes that the Maccabee’s, fought on, fought tough, fought even when they thought there was nothing left…For those of us who cerebrate the Miracle of Light, never remain silent, never permit the idiot to rise to be king, and always seek the light of truth. 

suffocating

I suppose, we could accept the fact that good is not at its best until it turns into bad, and will become much better when it sours and stews and finally ends up worse than ever. No longer do we face double standards, we now are forced into debating the fake from the real, the honest from, the I was just kidding and the dubious from the doubt.

Checks and balances never work in a country where men and women don’t respect the truth. Scapegoats arise in a land where phobia’s run rampant, and suddenly become the word of the Lord. Enemies are immediately identified, to make certain no one points his or her finger to the real culprit. We may sound silly when we worry that Fascism is finding it’s footing in the land of the free; but watch closely as THOSE freedoms freeze and die, or removed.

Each day, each minute that someone named Trump sits in the White House, and a political party calling themselves Republicans are the majority in our Congress, is one day or one minute less we have to breathe the air of democracy; and I for one am already suffocating.

To

To Congressman Steve King, among the many inane and insane remarks falling from your mouth like raw sewage, you recently commented that DIVERSITY had not made this country great. You, sir are proof of just how stupid a remark that is, as I am certain your background must have been from generations of inbred, idiots otherwise how could you even exist…To Senator Flake, so you wrote a book regarding the disarray caused by Trump, you have been scapegoated, chided and made a his favorite buffoon, yet sir, your actions in the Senate have done nothing but to enable the Nationalistic, nonsense which falls from Trumps tongue like toxic waste. If indeed you do not vote NO on the Tax Scam, you Sir, will go down in history as one hell of hypocrite, who only wanted to sell a book.

To Senator Collins, I guess your good cop bad cop down faced shyster games have finally caught up with you. There you go pretending to be the MODERATE Republican, when all alone you like the slime under a rock ooze and dangle within the strings of Mitch McConnell. You were sure the people of Maine, would believe your lies about the Tax Scam, I mean Senator Collins, you’re so demure, so Aunt Bea from Maybury, while really being the alien that jumps out of the bodies of its temporary hosts…To Senator Hatch, OMG, how do you look at your grandchildren, without imploding from guilt and greed. To think you can pontificate that you care about the poor, because once you were poor, and yet deny needy children the funding for the CHIP program, makes you nothing but a senile old man, too long in the Senate and too owned by Lobbyists. You got so indignant when criticized for your pre-mediated murder of thousands of kids, and yet like the Tin Man who had no heart, you continued to sulk, but made no effort to find a heart.

To the Republican Party…One day when this dictator is done, and Democracy finds its way back to America, ALL of you who have selected the KGB over the FBI, the Koch Brothers, the Mercer Family and the Corporations over average citizens, the heart of Putin over the soul of the US Constitution…YOU all will be held accountable. Sure the Nazi’s used the excuse they were just following orders, sure the peasants living near the Death Camps, swore they saw nothing let alone smelled anything, but most of them either were found guilty, or lived a life of misery knowing that they had the power to say NO. There are no rules, no values, no morals left within the Republican Party, and with such rot and decay one can only wish for the demise of a group of sad, self-serving, insecure men and women!

Imagine this IS

Imagine, this IS 2017, and the Press Secretary, a dreary woman of Evangelical Christian 10 Commandment First upbringing, (except if politics gets in the way)  states most definitely that the man sitting in the White House, the guy who proudly screams “Merry Christmas”, showcasing his duty and diligence to Jesus, would have no problem if a merchant decided to hang, from his window, a sign stating “We don’t serve the those LGBYQ people”. The same man who Evangelical leaders worship as a Baby Christian, happens to be supporting another Evangelical Christian running for the Senate who believes the good old days were the days when “dem Negro’s was slaves, and behaved the way the good white Christian families taught them to do.

Imagine, this IS 2017 and the guy in the Oval Office has been accused by at least a dozen women of sexual abuse and harassment, but his cult of followers, the very poor who still believe in the flat earth theory and the very wealthy who don’t believe in anything but being selfish, consider could give one shit, because as long as yo hate the Gays, hate women’s right to choose, and love tax cuts for the wealthy, BEING a male predator is rather a boring topic. The same, insecure jerk, goes out of his way to endorse another guy, who thinks Jesus has spoken to him urging him to run for Senate, stating that women are not as equal as men, and God invented young girls so hardy he-men guys can lay claim to virgins, just like Jesus’s dad did. 

Imagine, this IS 2017, and we are still debating women rights, the equality of the LGBTQ community, the freedoms for people of color, and questioning whether or not the Founding Father’s and the Constitution were really meant to implement a Christian state. Imagine, this IS 2017, and somehow a crook, a guy whom colluded with the Russians, a mad man running rampant in Alabama with tar and feather and a Bible, a Political Party favoring the KGB over the FBI are alive and well, and in power! No one could have, should have or would have imagined any of this shit. Isn’t it time for the SMART people to take over?

high/low

I admired Michelle Obama, I followed her advice often, and aside from Jackie Kennedy, find Michelle Obama to be one of the best First Lady’s during my lifetime. I tried hard to believe Mrs Obama when she said, “They go low, we stay high.” I wanted so much to believe that her advice was correct, that despite most despicable of men and women in the Republican Party, despite the most dangerous Donors and lobbyists of the Republican Party, despite the despots that claimed they the Patriots, confusing the word Patriot with Nationalist…despite all of that, I believed that morally Michelle Obama was correct. BUT as history has proven so far morals, values, ethics don’t stand a chance, when placed against, treason, anarchy, greed, blackmail and stupid and bigotry. 

The Dems tried to stay high, Senator Franken was the price of the Dems morality. The Dems believed that their actions had to follow pretty precisely their words, so Senator Franken, resigned. All the while, Trump remains the Commander-In-Chief, and Moore not only a pedophile, a misogynist, a racist and now and anti-Semite continues to lead the republican ticket in Alabama. (I love when the pundents say, this is Alabama’s decision to make…Alabama made that same kind erroneous decision right before the Civil War when they believed slavery was a sign from Jesus), so NO, it is not true what is done in Alabama stay in Alabama.  But trying to take some kind of high rode, because Progressives like thinking that way, Senator Franken is gone, but Trump remains and possibly Moore.

Trump Junior lies Jared Kushner walks out of a meeting when he decides enough is enough, Jeff Sessions purgers himself over and over again, and the GOP, the Majority Party in power seems to think all of that proves nothing about the guilt of Mr Trump and his associates. The Republicans continue to take the low road, but somehow they are winning. I admire you Michelle Obama, but please come up with another quote, one that is more fitting for the evil which has collected in Washington DC!

A Double Dose

The inventiveness of sheer hypocrisy by the Republican Party has provided the American viewer with a double feature, today. While supporting a president who has admitted on tape about groping and grabbing women, NOW supporting the candidacy of another man who has been accused of pedophilia, and sexual harassment, the GOP looks the other way, silent, as if in ignoring the real situation it will become FAKE news, BUT the GOP leader McConnell speaks up along with Lisa Murkowski urging Senator Franken to resign for all of the indignities he has been accused of, some real some accused. Lisa Murkowski, remains very quiet regarding Roy Moore, but that again is hypocrisy in action, as Senator Murkowski, received a special set of gifts from the Republican party for her efforts in voting for the Trump Tax Scam. None of this shocking because, after all they are Republicans.

Paul Ryan, a two faced, demon, pretending that he IS one of the common people, way over his head in making intelligent decisions, has jumped into the hypocrisy fray, having the audacity to say, that since his Party has raised the deficit by $1.1 Trillion, something must be cut. The Trump Tax Scam has enlightened the pockets of the wealthiest of Americans, and because of this Paul Ryan, looking all concerned and at the ready to blame someone else for his incompetency, has decided that the poor and the elderly must pay help stop the deficit, either by  NOT being poor or NOT being old, OR just slash the budgets of Medicare and Medicaid. With an all earnest look on his face, the one he uses when his lie is REALLY a juicy one, somehow Paul Ryan and the republicans who knew going into the newest TAX SCAM about an increase in the deficit, pretend that this pesky poor and old people are the cause for stupid math and stupid budget planning.

The Republicans have been masters in the making of HYPOCRISY, for too long the media and the American people have been fools in accepting the double standards, and today, December 7, 2017, on two fronts the GOP has provided a Master Class in how to sell snake oil and call it a miracle. When do we the people fight back. WHEN! 

Susie the sham

Hey Senator Susan Collins, ‘whatsa’ matter, the cat got your tongue, or has Mitch McConnell BOUGHT your tongue. It seems that you and Senator Lisa Murkowski the only two female Republican Senators, are AWFULLY quiet when it comes to the pedophile allegations against Roy Moore. Susie, you always pretended to be the moderate Republican, you know, the one GOP in the crowd who thought on her own, kinda like being your own person, except now it seems you GOT owned by the mercenary donors of your Party. How does it feel to finally be found the fraud that you have always been able to disguise. Even AARP didn’t fall for your excuses that you were certain the TAX SCAM was good for seniors. Oh Susie Collins, what to do what to do…here you are considering running for the Governor of Maine, as the caring candidate, when in fact you toes a mean and nasty Party line. And guess what Susie, Mitch McConnell isn’t keeping his secret buy off for your vote. Nope, he is a bigger con than you! Shame on you Susie, SHAME! 

NO, not Again

In the year 2017, the Supreme Court has the audacity to hear a case regarding discrimination against the LGBTQ community, presented as a cause for Religious Freedom. In the year 2017, the Supreme Court still has no understanding regarding the Constitutional divide between Church and State. In the year 2017, Southern Baptist Evangelicals have confused a loving God with a homophobic Snake Oil Salesman prying on the intellectually depraved and self victimized peons, freely happy to blame their Jesus as the cause for hatred and bigotry.  Among the many attributes in my 68 year old life I happened to be born Gay, as I was born with brown hair and brown eyes. I struggled trying to fit into the perceived norms of a nation in the 1950s which left little room for anything gray, preferring straight lines and being black or white. At first I fought what I thought was a private war, a nightmare, that I could not share with anyone else, for fear they might actually think I was the Devil. I kept my closet door shut long and lonely years, peeking out now and then and worried who might see me walking out into the open. I will never go silently into that closeted life again, and I will NOT permit homophobia, in the guise of Religious Freedom, to be used as  a means to let Hate somehow seem Holy.

The audacity of the Supreme Court Justices to think that free speech is permitting a sign in the windows of a public market place to say, we don’t serve Homosexuals. I thought we fought a Civil War to end segregation based on religious dogma, I will not have gay bakeries, and straight bakeries. I will have not have heterosexual only shops and homosexual only shops. I understand just how evil and sinister this nation has become, when the Commander-In-Chief says thee are also good Nazi’s. I understand how out of bounds this nation has become when the Attorney General, lies under oath and lies again and again. I understand that for many Evangelicals the only thing Jesus cares about is women’s reproductive parts, and anything Gay, no abortion, no gay marriage. But you can cheat on your heterosexual spouse, sexually abuse, young girls, lie about facts, commit adultery, and rip apart families especially if they are not of your color or your particular religion.

NOPE! NOT! NADA! NO! I am too old and have traveled too many detours to get to where I am. I have fought off too many innuendos, too many perceptions, to many hypocrites, to permit a baker, a nurse, a doctor, a pharmacist, a  waitstaff, a political, president, a Supreme Court Justice to even infer, that I am inferior. I did that been there, and hated it. Religious Freedom is wonderful when practiced in your own home or place of worship. It is Religious Hatred when it is practiced on me. I will ACT UP I will ACT OUT, I will RESIST!

Conspiracy Theories

I used to think Conspiracy Theories were just extensions of dumb people wanting to sound smart. They had a point to prove and used their imaginations often times to do so. OR, Conspiracy Theories were extensions of people too smart for their own good, and they permitted their “out of the box thinking” to be said aloud. NOW, I have changed my mind completely regarding Conspiracy Theories, and due to the Republican Majority in Congress, Trump handed the White House by the Russians, and the Oligarchs from Russia, singing God Bless America in harmony with the Oligarchs of the United States, I have become worried that something once unimaginable CAN be imagined.

How much longer do we pretend Trump and his clan of treasonous greedy goons are innocent of dumping democracy for a dictatorship? While most of American’s  play by the rules, Trump and his henchmen from attorney’s to Cabinet Members, to the GOP leadership play by a separate set of rules, and ramrod, destroy, and with great glee, greed and gluttony, win. No more checks and balances necessary, because ALL of the Republicans in Congress know fully well, that they would be a minority of a minority political party as it relates to their very self serving agenda.

But back to Conspiracy Theories: Trump is empty, void of conscience. Trump has hardly, if ever, paid any consequences for his actions. As he once said in the Republican Primaries “I could shoot people in Times Square, if I wanted to and get away with it.” So here is my Conspiracy Theory. Even the most loyalist Trumpster’s see the handwriting on the wall (albeit the wall they are looking at seems so far away), and they are becoming worried. Even though no one has dared to tell the Emperor he has no clothes, Trump is sniffing out hints of perhaps his actual demise as King. So, to distract the Russian inquiries, to distract people from realizing the Tax Scam was meant for Trump and his family…Trump will start a war with North Korea. Trump could care less if it is a ballistic missile kind war of a nuclear war, because whatever kind of war no body will be talking IMPEACHMENT. We already hear the Enablers of the GOP urging Trump on, as Lindsey Graham has asked the Pentagon to start removing American’s other than the Troops from South Korea. A war will start, Trump and his clan will be moved to some shelter, people will die, people will suffer, this nation will be on the brink of collapse, but Trump will still triumphantly retain his title as Commander-In-Chief.  Quite an imagination I have, so  you say, hmmm. did you ever imagine Trump in the White House?

How is this America

Grouchy, pissy, angry, and completely frustrated, so I decided to take out my stress at the gym (where I actually get a free membership from Medicare, (it’s my Silver Sneakers, an opportunity so say the insurance companies as a preventive means of health care). Something that has become too normal, and I have ranted and raved about this in many of my blogs, were the many homeless people, no, homeless individuals either still sleeping in awkward fetal like positions, staring into space, or I suppose beginning their day of collecting items to place in their various plastic bags. As I was still fuming about Trumps’s lawyer lying that indeed he Tweeted the Tweet regarding Trump knowing about Flynn’s treasonous actions, still clenching my fists, as yet one more “Family Values”/Tea Party” slob has been found out to be nothing more than a horny sexual harasser, sticking the tax payer to pay off his victim, and still regurgitating Senator Grassley’s irresponsible almost royal like comment that poor people should remain poor because they are just lazy, just takers, boozer’s and womanizers….While all of that was causing me to almost run to the gym to release the stress that had built up in my head, as if I was a pressure cooker ready to burst, I ran into the lady, who is homeless, the one with at least five bags some carried, some dragged as she ambers toward the next trash can…and I stopped. I felt this breath of air wanting to shoot out of my mouth, but at the same time move deeper into my gut. As this all happened I glance up to the sky, wondering if my God was viewing this and all I saw, was a new billboard that said Kylie Jenner wishes everyone a Happy Holidays.

What has American life become? We all know by now that Trump and his associates are drunk with treason. We all know that the Tax Scam was mostly written by Lobbyists and of course wealthy anarchists who think being American is owning of shore accounts. We all know by now that the Russians hacked, and highjacked our elections. We all know by now, that the idea of checks and balances died way back when Mitch McConnell, swore on President Obama’s first day in office that the GOP would DO NOTHING in any way to assist in governing. What has American life become, when, once I crossed the street, and as I passed at least four more individuals, walking like sloths in dirty clothes rummaging trash cans…I began to block them out, feeling so overwhelmed as a useless person, and worse as an American who just couldn’t care anymore.

Who knows what is in the new Tax Scam, the newest fad must be don’t read it just vote. Who knows how many more Republicans are in on the less screw American’s plan. Who knows how John McCain can look himself in the mirror as he denied others the affordability to receive treatment for brain cancer. Who knows what special deals, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, received to suddenly let them become part of the Pre-Meditated Murder group. And who knows if or when this entire sham and con will last. I almost hear Trump shouting “tear down that democracy”. I made it to the gym, released some angst, but on my way home the road was the same, and the sorrows of the many still stuck to the streets. How is this America?

Standards

Imagine, handing in your term paper, the one piece of information that will make or break your grade for your particular class, and doing so, you provide your professor or teacher bits of xeroxed paper placed crookedly on the copy machine, printing half of your sentences, all looking like they were written at some kind artistic angle, surrounded by chicken printed notes on the margins scribbled in a language from the planet Idiota in a galaxy million of star years away. Imagine trying to build your new house, ready to discuss with your architect plans for your future, building a structure that will last your life time, and having the architecture, running around with shapes and sizes, a variety of building materials, weights and measures, some drawings missing walls or roofs, some drawings with notes declaring that the fourth wall will be built after we see how the first three walls hold up the roof by themselves!

My goodness America, how much further must we permit the standards of Congress to drop or complete diminish. The Republicans knew that their tax bill was nothing but a scam, a offering of an animal to the their Gods, the donors. The Republicans, knew that if real Americans even read any version of the Tax Scam, the majority, of people who believe the Earth is round instead of Flat, would have their pitch forks and at the ready to hunt down the GOP monsters. To see the snickering, “GOTCHA” look on the faces of men like McConnell, or Graham, to witness the cowardliness of Collins, and Flake, pretending to be Senators for the people, not their Donors, and to watch the flagrant hypocrisy of McCain, a man inflicted with Cancer, decide that millions of others with brain Cancer living on Medicare will just have to die.

It was as if we were watching a bad episode of the Three Stooges, as the parade of political puppets, scribbled, drew with crayon, cut and paste, placing together every want and wish list for billionaires, and avoiding any needs from the average American citizen. The standards of democracy have been on a steady decline, and the Three ring Circus lingering till 2:00 am in the morning, have taken our democracy on a very disastrous nose dive to destruction. I will not give up, resisting, but it seems very difficult to not give in. We need a hero!

"yea/boo"

When I became a counselor I learned a term to use with my campers, which was simple, but sort of a prefatory method to address a change in scheduled plans for the day. An easy phrase, it was called “A yea, boo day.” Usually the “boo” part would be recited, always start with the bad news, then the exceptionally upbeat, “yea” piece of information was added, causing greater applause and less oh fucks. Friday, December 1, 2017, was a “Yea, boo day” for me regarding American democracy. With the guilty plea by Michael Flynn, I felt buoyant enough to brag out loud that FINALLY justice is walking the mean streets of DC and Mar-A-Lago, and that even as frustrated as I have been for the bad guys to finally be identified and jailed, Mr Mueller seemed to win one for democracy. Of course the Talking Heads, rambled on and on, the Media provided a plethora of material, most people of value and morals commented and the Republicans remained mute, but nonetheless a bad guy pleaded guilty…so YEA!

During all of the Breaking News, (just how many times can the same story be called Breaking News) regarding Flynn, tidbits of commentary found footing on Cable News reminding us that the GOP, still puppets for their donors, still stooges for Trump, and still attempting to decimate democracy were at the Senate, pushing for a tax scam to fill the pockets of the rich and robe everything from health care, to medicare to equal rights from anyone who wasn’t of the 1%. No matter the good news regarding Flynn, there was bad news for the economy and the procedure by which politics had taken a turn for the worse. (I sat Shiva, for Hillary’s stolen election for many months. I tried to fathom life in America under the powers of a hacked election and rigged polling places, and a man named Trump sitting in any seat of power, so I thought I was emotionally prepared to be snookered into the GOP Tax Scam) So, all day willing to listen to the tedious, and repetitive Flynn news, I prepared myself for the GOP to pass their Tax Scam. I knew that John McCain, was a coward, and despite his own illness, preferred to assist his BBF Lindsey Graham, I knew Jeff Flake, was a flake, and only pandered to America to sell his book, and I knew that Susan Collins all dressed in her button earrings and beaded necklace, was nothing more than a sham. So the idea that any of these Senators would save the day, drifted in my heart, but my brain told the rest of my body, stop fooling yourself. Even though it was early morning on Saturday, December 2, 2017, the “BOO” part of the day took place.

I awoke to news flashes on my phone, explaining that the Senate voted for the Tax Scam, I saw a brief video of Trump bragging about winning. I heard some GOP Senators say the Dems were sore losers, but then I could no longer linger in the lousy possibilities that lay ahead for me and America. I had clients to train this morning, glad to leave my house and leave the death of democracy behind. I put on my earplugs, found my I-Phone Playlists. Choose the Playlist called Melancholy, and played every Crosby, Stills Nash, Young song I owned. Back in the day, listening to music created by people who insisted there is a purpose to fighting for the “yea”, in a “yea boo day”, helped me hope. The first song I listened to as exited my house was, “Find the Cost of Freedom”. 

Murder THEY Wrote

Pre Meditated Murder-The term that is used to describe a murder that was planned in advance and was carried out willfully.

Second Degree Murder-term that is given to a killing of a person that was not premeditated but came from a desire to inflict harm.

When we think of the lack of response or even accounting by the Michigan Republican Governor and his Republican Party toward the people of Flint, and the results of those with lead poisoning disease and the potential death from lead poisoning, we have to wonder was that Pre-Meditated or just a sleight of hand to commit Second Degree murder. The Officials knew about the conditions in Flint way in advance! When we think of the American citizens of both Puerto Rico and the American Virgin Islands, and how only 40% of them have something related to electricity, or clean drinking water, due from Hurricane Maria, and how delayed and under attended to by the Republican Congress and the Orange Idiot sitting in the Oval Office, do we call that Pre-Mediated or just a silly version of Second Degree Murder? When the GOP Tax Plan includes government funding toward the Affordable Health Care Act, and cuts in what Medicaid and Medicare will help pay, resulting in higher premiums, or in fact less people able to afford health care, all these calculations set in place to help pay for the wealthiest of Americans to pay less in taxes, was the Republican Leadership planning a Pre Meditated Murder of the peons of America or were they just going to pretend that suddenly because of their own greed, the peons would eventually die, so instead of Pre Meditated Murder, the GOP could claim it was Second Degree Murder.

OR should we call every action the Republican majority has taken to care less about its poorer population, its population of color, or those too invisible to see, should we just refer to as Manslaughter-The crime of killing a human being without malice aforethought, or otherwise in circumstances not amounting to murder.

The Republican Party, you know the Christian Values folks, the guys and gals who use Jesus as their scapegoat for hate and now perhaps murder!