On this blog, I'm going to leave the CD's on the shelf and vent my frustrations with the current state of political affairs.
Our country has problems.
Our tax burden is worse than our founding fathers fought a revolution over.
Our Federal government has grown into a monstrosity that would make Paul Revere start riding again.
We're back...in the United States' Socialist Republic!
Korea’s Foreign Ministry released a statement early
Saturday calling U.S. President Donald Trump "an old lunatic." It
also said that Trump’s mental state
justifies "building up our nuclear force."
Trump returned the jab with an insult of his own, calling
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un "short and fat."
"Why would Kim Jong Un insult me by calling me ‘old,’
when I would NEVER call him ‘short and fat?’ Trump tweeted.
"Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend – and maybe
someday that will happen!" he said on Twitter.
Trump took the "far be it from me to call anyone short
and fat, but…" approach, taking this schoolyard war-of-words between two
world leaders to new heights.
The president made headlines on Monday when he declared the
United States’ policy of "strategic patience" with North Korea
"over." Trump made the comments during a joint press conference with
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.
"The era of strategic patience is over," Trump
said about his position on North Korea. "Some people said that my rhetoric
is very strong, but look what’s happened with very weak rhetoric over the last
25 years. Look where we are now."
Trump has mentioned the U.S. policy on North Korea over the
past 25 years before and said, unlike his predecessors, he "won’t
fail."
"Being nice to Rocket Man hasn’t worked in 25 years,
why would it work now? Clinton failed, Bush failed, and Obama failed. I won’t
fail," Trump tweeted.
"Rocket Man" is Trump’s nickname for Kim Jong Un.
Sadly, while these two children are so busy trying to rank on each other, real people are suffering from Kim's nuclear testing program. And when one of them gets around to launching a nuclear weapon, it will be more innocent bystanders who pay the price.
I say, let's let the two of them fight it out mano a mano.
It would be fair-Kim is younger, but Trump looks to be in better shape and has the reach.
Plus it would make enough on pay-per-view to balance the Federal deficit.
President Trump on Sunday called for football fans to
boycott N.F.L. games unless the league fires or suspends players who refuse to
stand for the national anthem, saying that players must “stop disrespecting our
flag and country.”
“If NFL fans refuse to go to games until players stop
disrespecting our country, you will see change take place fast,” Mr. Trump
wrote, on the second weekend morning in a row in which he vented over the issue
on social media. “Fire or suspend!”
It is a highly charged debate, with unmistakable racial
undertones, pitting advocates of free speech who argue that professional
athletes should have a right to use their positions to call attention to social
issues against those who contend that refusing to honor the anthem disrespects
the military and the nation, and that sports is no place for such displays.
In a second posting on Sunday morning, the president
suggested that fans were already punishing the N.F.L. to protest players’
behavior, arguing that they were eschewing not only the “boring games,” but
also athletes who fall to one knee during the anthem.
In fact, the decline in attendance predates the anthem
protests, and while N.F.L. television ratings did dip last season, it is
unclear whether the protests or other factors, like the presidential election
and cord-cutting, caused the drop.
At a rally on Friday in Huntsville, Ala., the president
alluded to some of those factors, saying that the “No. 1 reason” ratings were
down “massively” was that “they like watching what’s happening with yours truly.”
So once again, our president's narcissism rears it's ugly face.
That's what it must be-all those former football watchers are now tuning into Trump TV.
Mr. Trump's comments drew an unusually strong rebuke from Roger Goodell, the
commissioner of the N.F.L., whose owners include many donors to, and friends
of, the president.
Mr. Trump struck back at Mr. Goodell on Saturday evening,
nearly 12 hours after he had first raised the topic on Twitter, tweeting that
the commissioner’s statement was “trying to justify the total disrespect
certain players show to our country.”
“Tell them to stand!” Mr. Trump added.
Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, who is
a close friend of Mr. Trump’s and who has spent the night at the White House
and ridden with him on Air Force One, issued a pointed statement on Sunday in
which he said he was “deeply disappointed with the tone of the comments made by
the president” at the rally, and defended players’ right to express themselves.
On Sunday, White House officials defended Mr. Trump’s
position, arguing that professional athletes had no business expressing their
views on the field.
Marc Short, the president’s legislative director, said that
there was a double standard for players who chose to voice their views on the
field, and that Mr. Trump was speaking for the majority of Americans on
what sort of expression was appropriate. Mr. Short said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The president is standing with
the vast majority of Americans who believe that our flag should be respected.”
While I do not share the conviction of the players taking knees during the anthem, as I did a couple of years ago with Colin Kaepernick, I do not have a problem with their actions.
In fact, I have more of a problem with the president using his position for constant shameless self-promotion.
But if Short's statement about the vast majority of Americans is true, it should concern us.
That would mean that the vast majority of Americans, including President Trump, have no idea what all of our troops who went over and sacrificed blood on foreign sands, died for.
They died for our freedom.
They gave their lives so that these atheletes would have the right, the freedom, to disrespect the flag.
Freedom must be for everyone, and that means you must allow people the freedom to express their views in a peaceful manner, even if those views are offensive to you.
Otherwise, it really is not freedom at all.
For the record, I am one of those viewers who stopped watching-not because of your protests, and not because I would rather watch The Donald, but because I got tired of watching a bunch of steroid-infused thugs being idolized.
But by all means, keep kneeling, gentlemen. No matter how much Mr. Trump keeps on tweeting like a teenage girl about it.
A lot of people gave their lives for you to have the freedom to do so.
Arizona State University unveiled a statue paying tribute to
the late Pat Tillman at Sun Devil Stadium on Wednesday.
Tillman played at ASU from 1994-97 before entering the NFL
as a seventh-round pick of the Cardinals. He spent four seasons playing safety
before giving up his NFL career to join the United States Army in the wake of
the September 11 attacks.
Tillman was killed in action in a friendly fire
incident in 2004.
While I did not share Tillman's fervor for the cause to which he gave his life, I do respect that he felt strongly enough to abandon such a lucrative career, and in no way is this post meant to discredit him.
However, Arizona State coach Todd Graham said players will touch the
statue for luck as they make their way from the locker room to the field in what he said
he hopes becomes a tradition forever.
In case you missed it a couple of sentences ago, Tillman was killed by friendly fire.
Hey all you Dream Act supporters-great news! Starbucks will give all undocumented Americans 40% off of any item on the menu! This is a great idea, as few are as in need of an economic break as the undocumented, right?
But before you leave the jobs that no one wants to do on August 11, stop and think.... HOW does one prove they are an undocumented American? It's a hoax of course, but it makes me wonder how much of a discount La Migra is getting?
A South Florida family awoke to frozen Italian sausage on
their roof.
The Adair family, of Deerfield Beach, woke up Saturday
morning to the loud thud of several packages of frozen Italian sausage banging
against the roof.
"It was like thunder, and it awakened me out of a
sleep," Travis Adair told WPLG.
After finding two packages of the meat in their yard, the
family checked their roof and found three more packages.
In total, 15 pounds of
sausage somehow ended up striking their home.
The packages were marked William Land Service, a
land-clearing company from Alabama, according to WPLG.
"I called them and the guy had no idea what I was
talking about and probably thought I was crazy," Travis’ son Austin Adair
told WPLG.
Baffled by the discovery, the family thinks the meat drop
was either connected to a drug deal or fell from a plane.
Apparently, United Airlines not only remembers it but has modeled their customer service policy after it! Here is the scene Sunday as a man was forcibly removed from the plane by airport security.
After all that, this guy must have brought a bomb on board, right? No so! His crime? He was randomly selected to be ejected after no one nibbled at the $200 voucher offered in exchange for giving up their seat to a UA flight crew who needed transportation. He refused to leave the seat he'd bought and paid for and was sitting in after following the airlines' established boarding procedure. In short, he did nothing wrong. Airlines commonly overbook flights to avoid empty seats, and that dance of offering vouchers to people willing to be bumped happens all the time, but usually the airline keeps sweetening the deal until people cave. Except for the unfriendly skies of United. To make matters worse, United gives their employees priority over paying customers. It seems to me that United is at fault in three ways- THEY overbooked the light THEY failed to offer adequate incentive for people to volunteer to give up their seat THEY failed to have a contingency plan for getting their flight crew where they need to be without cheating their paying customer base. The good news is their shares dropped, wiping out about $255 million in their market capital (Warren Buffet's share of that was $24M). Hopefully people will have long memories and boycott the airline so the stock market (which often has a short memory) keeps on punishing them. Apparently the video is causing them problems in other markets as well-in China, where UA dervies over $2 billion in revenue annually, the video has gone viral.
I have listened to a couple of the videos posted by passengers, and heard a few saying that the man was given a bloody lip (they said "busted lip") by security. Would we treat an Islamic terrorist this poorly? Kind of makes you want to take the train, huh?
Oklahoma could soon join Louisiana and Texas in allowing
hunters to shoot feral hogs from helicopters.
Dubbed "the flying pig bill," the proposal would
allow private landowners, companies and pilots to apply for a state license and
be responsible for the activity. Hunters on board the aircraft wouldn't need a
license, nor would they have to provide their names to the state.
The change would follow a similar shift a few years ago in
neighboring Texas, where shooters can now hire an aircraft for anywhere from
$1,000 to $2,000 per hour for a hunt.
Republican Rep. Jeff Coody, a co-sponsor of the bill, said
the proposal is intended to "to take aerial depredation a little more back
to what was originally intended several years ago."
I guess the firearms do not give human beings enough of an advantage over the animal-since hunting is a "sport" I guess it is sporting to hunt a pig with a flying machine and lots of firepower.
I guess the odd will even up a little when pigs fly.
Two different stories about teachers having sex with students have me puzzled. Here's the accused teacher in Texas (who, according to her attorney, is smiling for her mug shot because she's innocent).
And here is the teacher in Florida. Less happy in her picture, but maybe that's because they accused her of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
And here is my question. Who is filing the complaints here? The student in Texas claims that he made contact with her breasts and that she touched his genitals. I had a couple of student teachers in high school where those events went through my mind in each class session. And a couple of my regular teachers fueled my teenage fantasies as well. Is this kid complaining because a hottie teacher came on to him? In Florida, the teacher admitted to having sex with the student. Again, as an adult, I have to not condone this behavior, but as a former teenage boy, this was a wet dream come to life. Did this kid complain, or did another adult overhead him bragging about it?
If either of these ladies want to contribute to the delinquency of an old man, I will cheerfully volunteer! All you women who are thinking "Oh, oink," I agree with you. All you men who are thinking anything but "right on-sign me up!" you're either gay or full of it!
Garfield's gender has become the subject of an internet
debate.
The Washington Post reports Wikipedia locked changes on the
animated cat's page after the site's volunteer editors battled over whether the
animated cat is male or not.
The controversy bubbled up two years after Garfield creator
Jim Davis told viral content site Mental Floss that as a cat, Garfield is
"not really male or female."
Davis sought to clear up the controversy this week, telling
the Post that "Garfield is male" and has a girlfriend named Arlene.
Davis' spokeswoman tells The Associated Press that he also told the Post he
likes animals because "they're not perceived as being any particular
gender, race, age or ethnicity" and says the "humor could be enjoyed
by a broader demographic."
Word is that Garfield will use the litter box of the gender he identifies most strongly with on any given day.
The AMC's show "The Walking Dead" is stirring up
emotions, but not for gruesome scenes or unexpected endings.
This time, it's for T-shirts.
The Huffington Post reported that Primark, an international
clothing retailer, stopped selling the shirt.
The Warwick Courier reported that Ian Lucraft wrote a letter
to the store's CEO Paul Marchant, saying it was "fantastically
offensive" and "racist."
The problem? The phrase "eeny meeny miny moe,"
which in the show is followed by the line, "catch a tiger by his
toe."
However, some historical versions of the rhyme include a
racial slur instead of the word "tiger," which sparked the complaint,
according to the Huffington Post.
The phrase is said by Negan, a character played by Jeffrey
Dean Morgan in the show. EW reported Morgan responded with a tweet, saying,
"people are stupid."
How far we have come as a PC Nation!
Now something is offensive if someone decides it can be
edited to be offensive.
The POSSIBILITY that someone could replace one word for
another is enough to consider something FANTASTICALLY OFFENSIVE.
That’s worse than
offensive, right?
It sounds bad, huh?
Doesn’t that pretty much mean every T shirt with a slogan
should be banned?
Morgan was half right-it’s the retailer who was stupid. They
made an inventory decision based on ONE letter from an obvious moron.
The American Psychological Association said many Republicans
and Democrats are stressed out over politics. The APA published a report last
Wednesday that reads, in part:
"Two-thirds of Americans say they are stressed about
the future of our nation, including a majority of both Democrats and
Republicans.
"More than half of Americans (57 percent) say the
current political climate is a very or somewhat significant source of
stress."
Katherine C. Nordal, the APA's executive director for
professional practice, said the current stress levels resulting from politics
are "deeply concerning."
"It's hard for Americans to get away from it," she
said. "We're surrounded by conversations, news and social media that
constantly remind us of the issues that are stressing us the most ... While
these common health symptoms might seem minor, they can lead to negative
effects on daily life and overall physical health when they continue over a
long period."
WSB-TV’s Rikki Klaus spoke with licensed psychologists at
Synapse LLC in Atlanta to see if their patients are also experiencing anxiety
tied to politics.
"They are experiencing more stress, and we see that as
well in the research," said Dr. Janet Cox.
"For some, they are reacting as if their life is in
danger," Dr. Neal Cohen told Klaus.
Chris Hill, with the local militia group Georgia Security
Force III%, said the new administration has been a relief.
"Not even a month into it, we have what I've always
wanted: an outsider, an independent," he said. "Every day, it's been
like waking up Christmas morning."
It was a different story at a rally in Atlanta on Monday at
which protesters called for President Trump's impeachment.
"We think there's possible reasons for
impeachment," one opponent told WSB-TV.
"The best I can hope is that marches like this will at
least keep him under control and let him act like a Republican, instead of an
egomaniac," another opponent said.
Cox and Cohen recommended several strategies for coping with
stress, including eating healthy food, exercising daily, spending time with
like-minded people and practicing mindfulness.
To Mr. Hill, I ask-can you elaborate on the "Christmas every day" comment? Is President Trump actually coming down your chimney to build walls and deport the illegals infesting your home?
To the protesters who are still seeking to oust the president:
Your candidate lost.
Live with it.
You are like a bad anti-depressant commercial, and now may be the time to ask your primary care physician to whip out his little pad and prescribe you some.
Come one, people! I am not a huge fan, but what exactly has changed in the last 33 days? I am still drinking coffee out of the same cup. Women are walking down my street unmolested, and I even see some folk out there that look Latino, so the mass deportations haven't started. Trump will not bring the country to it's knees any more than Obama did, or GW before him, or Slick Willy before him. Take a pill if you must, but relax!
I know that polls can be manipulated to say almost anything, but I found this one a bit surprising.
A Gallup poll released on Monday found that 62 percent of those interviewed earlier
this month believe that the president keeps his promises.
These results were divided along party lines, with 91 percent
of Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents saying they believe Trump keeps
his promises and 36 percent of Democrats and Democrat-leaning Independents
agreeing.
Gallup also found that 94 percent of Republicans polled
believe that Trump is a strong and decisive leader, while only 29 percent of
Democrats believe that to be true.
The last time that the group conducted a similar poll was in September 2016, when 57 percent of Americans felt Trump was "a strong and decisive leader." I would think that if you blend the current statistics for Repubs (94%) and Dems (29%) you'd probably end up with a similar blended statistic-not sure why the article did not give that metric.
It was not all positive for the president. Only 42 percent
of the survey group said that they believe the leader "is honest and
trustworthy."
The poll was conducted from Feb. 1 to Feb. 5 and collected
from a random sample of 1,035 voting-age adults.
Trump's approval has increased since the September poll,
with more people saying that they believe that he "can manage the
government effectively" and "is honest and trustworthy."
Still, less than half of Americans (44 percent and 42
percent) agree with those sentiments.
While I still wish the President would tweet less and act more, well, PRESIDENTIAL, I think that a lot of the people protesting need to take a deep breath as well.
Women have not been relegated to second class status during his first month, and immigration has not ground to a halt.
Heck, we haven't even had any good Muslim profiling scandals.
Is it possible that the world will not end under President Trump?
All of the protesters (protestors?) are showing how self-absorbed and insensitive they are.
Since January 20, there has really only been one person who has suffered as a result of Trump's presidency.
The U.S. bacon supply is at a 50-year low, as pork farmers
struggle to keep up with demand and prices surge.
Frozen pork belly, which is what bacon is made from, fell to
the lowest levels since 1957 by the end of December, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
It appears the world’s appetite for bacon is outpacing the
supply.
The frozen pork belly inventory measured 17.8 million pounds in
December, down from 62 million pounds at the same time a year ago, the USDA
reported.
The agency said increased demand both in the U.S. and abroad
could explain the diminishing inventory.
In a related story, travelers from the seven temporarily banned countries are being offered all the BLT sandwiches they can eat.
Apparently, the chocolate-covered bacon and bacon-flavored
ice
Donald Trump's new Washington D.C. address will be a bit
smaller than his popular Palm Beach, Florida estate.
When the president-elect and his family relocate to 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., they'll have slightly less room to roam than at Trump's
iconic Florida property, Mar-a-Lago.
Here's how the two properties compare:
According to Realtor.com, the White House comes equipped
with a jogging track, swimming pool, movie theater, bowling lane, half-court
basketball court, horseshoe pitch, rose garden and military guard.
Mar-a-Lago
boasts a swimming pool, beach club, salon, croquet court, spa and concierge
service.
Trump may be the first President who considers the White House "slumming it."
It’s President Obama’s second-to-last full day in office and he is holding his final news conference this afternoon.
But wait! Didn't he give a farewell adress last week? Isn't this sort of like Kiss doing a "Farewell Tour" and then touring again? Are we sure Obama is done? Can we get that in writing?
At least with President Trump, the televised conferences should be at a minimum. He tweets everything that's on his mind! What could be left to say?
Broadway star Jennifer Holliday has decided not to perform
at the Trump inaugural welcome concert, according to an exclusive report from
The Wrap.
In a letter addressed to "my beloved LGBT
community," Holliday explained why she initially accepted the invitation
to perform at the inauguration, saying she wanted to perform for the people,
not for Trump.
But after a vocal backlash, Holliday has decided not to perform.
According to The Associated Press, Holliday was referred to
as an "Uncle Tom" and her decision to participate would be a
career-ending move.
Holliday, best known for her Tony-winning role in
"Dreamgirls" on Broadway, said she voted for Hillary Clinton, and has
performed for Republican and Democratic presidents.
In the open letter, Holliday apologized for her "lapse
of judgement" and for "causing such dismay and heartbreak to my
fans."
I guess racism and anti-straight sentiments win.
I just did a search, and could not find any good
examples of anti-gay sentiment coming from Trump.
Not that I did not trust
Arlee Bird’s post earlier in the week, but I wanted to be sure for myself.
A page with an obvious agenda (lgbtqnation.com) did their
best to do a top ten list, but most of their rationale was a read in between
the lines rather than anything from Trump's mouth or Twitter account.
For example, the site claims (I did not try to verify this but will assume they did) that Trump said that Arianna Huffington is
“unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband
left her for a man – he made a good decision.”
This made number 8 on their list, but
where exactly is the anti-gay sentiment?
Is the comment in bad taste?
Sure.
Is it immature and sophomoric?
Absolutely.
But anti-gay?
I don’t see it.
All of their comments from Mr. Trump show the same lack of
restraint and internal editing that I have criticized him for, but poor judgment
does not a homophobe make.
My question is, why is Ms. Holliday less offended by the
racist comments aimed at her (she was called “Uncle Tom” by her “beloved” fans)
than by the unsubstantiated allegation that the president-elect is anti-gay?
Oh, right-it would have been “career suicide” to perform.
So rather than stand for what she felt was right, Ms.
Holliday is really all about the fucking money.
And so, maybe the “Uncle Tom” comments are not that far from
the mark.
In what may surprise regular readers, I am not familiar with Ms. Holliday’s work. Nor will I ever be. I am boycotting her work, not because she may be LGBT but because she is a hypocrite.
The LGBT agenda is supposed to be one of inclusion.
But this act shows, as we have seen so many times, the agenda is really "our way or the highway."
