Political comment

I am posting this by way of introduction: In a college political science class I turned in a paper carefully analyzing an election in a South American country. I brought the development to its most logical conclusion and turned it in. When it was returned this was all that was written on it by whoever checked it. Obviously it has stuck in my mind and despite how shattered I was at the beginning, now every time I venture into the political realm I feel like I should put this as at least a footnote. Wish the graduate student who corrected my paper could see what mayhem he has wrought.

 There is no logic in politics. C–


June 6. 2021
Early in his first term President Obama chastised a seemingly timid, hesitant Democrat majority in Congress as he called for action. He said something like "hey, Folks, we won." Perhaps it is time for President Biden to say the same thing. The majority is slim but still a majority and should quit looking for bipartisan cooperation from the Grand Old Party. If nothing else happens it will at least point out the obstructive intensions of that faction.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2022

2024 prediction

High heels and all.
 
Because I constantly complain about news talkers predicting or anticipating news events rather than reporting on them when they actually happen, I am posting this here without fanfare. Today the former #fakepresident filed to run for president in 2024 so it's a good time to do it.

I predict he will be rejected by the Republican party and so not receive the nomination. However his ego is too big for that and he will launch an expensive but eventually unsuccessful third  party run, which will split the Republican party and give the whole government to the Democrats.

Of course, this all goes away if he is indicted and (one can only hope) convicted, or at least is somehow disqualified from even being allowed to run for president.

So, now let's see what happens.

More political comment



This is no time to dump the president

July 21.2011
The first thing I read yester morning was a long PM from a friend explaining why Joe Biden is a bad president (at least I think so, I couldn't read to the end but that was the general impression). After all it was the first thing I saw after waking up and my small brain was't quite ready for a heavy subject. As a result I have been arguing it in my head all day and this is my attempt to flush it out. Draw your own conclusions about that double entendre. I finally have done what I usually do when things bother me, I write it out in the snow. That's an allusion you can find somewhere in the blog. It got too long for  PM so here it is. FYI you are more than welcome to leave this item right now, too, if you like. Also I not naming the writer of the original message as a courtesy because he did me the same, sending his words by Messenger rather than blasting them out in public. This piece was too long for the Messenger app.

 During the 2016 election campaign a woman friend said she was very uncomfortable voting for Hillary Clinton. I pointed out she had been a First Lady, a senator and a secretary of state, probably one of the most qualified persons ever to run for president, and a woman. My friend persisted but could not explain the feeling. Then I pointed out Clinton had been the target of unwarranted Republican efforts to discredit her for the better part of 20 years, (remember 11 hours of spurious questioning?) and both my friend and Hillary were victims of GOP propaganda. 

    I see the same thing happening to Joe Biden, no matter what he accomplishes Republicans find some way to criticize him. They are chipping away from him the same way they went after Hillary Clinton. Example: He got us out of Afghanistan, our longest war, but he was criticized because the escape was a little messy, no worse than Viet Nam though. It is what they do and they're very good at it. I think it’s ridiculous to abandon the man less than halfway through his term.   

He was left to clean up the gigantic mess Trump made, repair damaged relationships around the world, and in process advance America in several directions at the same time with a good deal of success that is unfortunately accomplished without much fanfare. You ought to drive the Parks Highway and see all the bridges being repaired (not sure about that, but believe federal funds are involved). 

He is not a flashy, charismatic man which turns out to be his only fault. Democrats and progressive thinkers need to get behind him and promote the successes. Less than halfway through his term is too soon to abandon him.Do we stop a football game at halftime because our team is losing?  Frankly I am damned tired of news heads pontificating on the 2024 election. It's two years a way for crying out loud. Perhaps the next two years will show a more positive outcome and the accomplishment will be more visible. I am not going to abandon him yet. (And I don’t intend to keep arguing this either. This is my forum, if you disagree find your own. If your comment is critical expect it to be deleted).

Comment

Absolutely agree, and don't forget that the Afghanistan withdrawal was set up by the predecessor and that he just decided to let it occur. Nobody talks about the number of bipartisan legislation passed under his administration in spite of the obstruction of the GOP. Given the hot mess the country has had to wrestle away from the one who refuses to acknowledge that Biden kicked the stuffing out of him, and given the obstruction from old turkey neck in the Senate, I think what he has accomplished is nothing short of amazing. This is Mark, BTW, couldn't figure out what a URL is to post under my name. 😊

Reply


An easy trail to early voting in Alaska

 October 23, 2020
Make a plan, the TV ads and pundits say. A plan for voting? In the past we went to a local site on Election Day, cast our ballots and that was that. This year so different. As I thought about a plan I considered a mail-in ballot, a dropbox, voting early in person and waiting for Nov. 3 to go to my regular voting place.

I signed up for and received an absentee ballot which would have been good for the first two options. I even jumped through all the hoops to prepare my ballot including chasing down a friend to witness it on the sane day the courts ruled we didn't have to do that.

So here I sat wondering which of the choices would be best. With all the news and charges about voting obstructions flying around, we are faced with choosing where our ballots are safest and free from manipulation. Granted Alaska doesn't seem to have the problems many states are experiencing, but as always caution is a virtue. What I finally came up with was that the choice should be the one where the fewest number of people have access to the ballot. It might be exposed and vulnerable in a drop box. After all, drop boxes have been stolen in some places and in California Republicans were putting up false drop boxes. In the long run, I finally decided I would mail my ballot, but since it was on the way, I would check out the early voting facility, where the ballot would be exposed to the fewest people before it lands on the counting table, making it the best of the choices according to my personal criteria. My fall back solution would be waiting in line Nov. 3.

So, I drove into town yesterday, the prepared mail-in ballot in the copilot's seat, and headed first to the borough office building where the early voting station had been established. My first surprise was the number of empty parking places in the lot. I hopped out of the car and headed in. Then I spotted a guy coming out wearing his mask. Oops. Damn! Back to the truck to retrieve my forgotten one, then repeating the steps to the door.


The first things I noticed were three different places to sanitize my hands. I followed the trail of 6-foot social-distancing notices laid like stepping stones on the floor from the door into the main room. This was seemed about the size of a high school gymnasium. There must have been a couple of dozen polling enclosures at least. I swear only three of us were there to vote. I followed the directions to the tables where a masked poll worker had me sign in after checking my registration card, then gave me the correct ballot for my district, offered me a pen and off I went. Since I had already done my research and filled out a ballot it only took me a couple of minutes to mark this one. Then I went over to where my ballot was slipped into the collection machine, the pen put into a collection cup to be disinfected, I assumed, and headed out the door. I don't think I was in there even 5 minutes.

As I walked across the parking lot toward my truck I encountered a woman heading in the opposite direction. She looked at me and said "Oh, damn." I laughed and told her I had done the same thing as she turned to return to her vehicle to pick up her mask.

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And now, from under that desk in the basement office 

 September 28, 2020

Why is this man smirking?

After a little more than a month into his term as a US senator, I noticed  Alaska's Dan Sullivan 
rarely if ever showed up in public or in the news. I began calling him the missing Alaska senator and then reduced it to claiming he spent his time hiding under his desk in the basement of the Senate Office Building. The more I used the term, the more I noticed how little he showed up in public or in news of any Senate functions or about issues.

I recall one photograph of him with a display of supposed facts showing what's wrong with the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare if you are one of those who, like the missing senator, still clings to that as your only reason for opposition.). He said and pointed out nothing that hadn't been said over the previous two years. Thanks for that. Dan. now back to the basement under your desk.

A couple of times I sent emails to his office with concerns and both times what I got was him mansplaining the issue to me and telling me how I should think about it. A senator works for the people. I really don't want to hear what he has to say, I want him to listen to me and at least act like he listens to a citizen's concern. What I don't want is condescending mansplaining like I am sone ignorant child. I heard the same complaint from others and quit that effort. On top of that, when a group of Alaska women showed up at this office to voice their opposition to the Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court, rather than listen he had them arrested. There went a few votes but at least we know someone found that basement office. 

VIDEO  Arrests of Alaskan Indigenous activists now taking place outside Dan Sullivan’s office. We came here to ask him to #CancelKavanaugh. This is how he’s responded. #BelieveSurvivors   From Women's March on facebook

All along the way when we did hear from him, he expressed his agreement and vote following the #fakepresident in lockstep. He often twisted the facts to make us think whatever that vote was about it helped Alaskans and he had somehow influenced that. He has seldom expressed any original thought on any controversial national issue let alone done anything but  follow his

Fools and suckers, right?

leader. He has had little to say about controversies like 200,000 Americans dead from Coronavirus Covid 19, Black lives matter, climate change, broad medical care, even the Russian bounty on American soldiers in Afghanistan despite his position as a major in the US Marine reserves. And, speaking of his military background, let's not forget "fools and suckers." Hard to take a stand from under your desk in the basement when you have no backbone.

Lately in the middle of a contested campaign for re-election he finally got pushed into having to take a stand on something controversial. Confirming my theory, one of the chief officers involved in developing the Pebble mine in the headwaters of Alaska's richest salmon habitat was caught on a video explaining how the company had decided to handle Dan Sullivan — saying something along the lines of he's quiet, leave him alone to stand alone in the corner and stay quiet. (Explanation: "corner" = "under his desk in the basement") That brought him out into the open to claim loudly and firmly he opposes the Pebble mine. We shall see; that project has a long way to go and the #fakepresident favors it.

So far he has shown little proof he will stand by anything he says. Take this that he said more than eight months before the 2016 election. "The President has the constitutional authority to nominate and the U.S. Senate has the authority to advise and consent. The decision to withhold advancement of Mr. Garland’s nomination isn’t about the individual, it’s about the principle. Alaskans, like all Americans, are in the midst of an important national election. The next Supreme Court justice could fundamentally change the direction of the Court for years to come. Alaskans deserve to have a voice in that direction through their vote, and we will ensure that they have one.

Then a little more than a month before the 2020 election, Sullivan confirmed he supports a vote on the #fakepresident's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. Thanks Dan, you were doing better under the desk. And. to repeat you have quite a bit of time to change your public statements about Pebble. One can hope you won't be in the Senate by then and we won't have to worry about it.

To summarize, this is a man who looks down on his constituents with condescension, ducks every controversy he can, cares little about Alaska and Alaska constituents except during election campaigns, fails to follow through on his previous actions, won't even support his comrades in arms, follows a criminal president completely, lies about his opponents in elections, but he doesn't rock the boat. Oh yeah, he did release a pablum bowl of concern objecting to the cuts in the postal system. Native vote, Dan? What about the 62 thousand-some people in Alaska dependent on Social Security and/or Medicare. Haven't heard a peep from you on the #fakepresident's threat to kill it off altogether. Quiet as an Afghanistan bounty.  One thing we can probably be sure of is that he receives his check every payday despite he and his party do little for the people of this country. Want to know how much he makes? His base pay is $!74.000, $14,500 per month plus expense accounts, housing allowances and some others. Want to know how much a worker who lost his job during the virus pandemic is paid? Zero.

Here's another take from Percy Notar of The Anchorage Press


Déjà vu

Remember this?
August 13, 2020
     It started this way. After watching a couple of news shows early this morning, by late afternoon I posted this on facebook: He's doing it again. Like he did in 2016, Trump throws insult after insult at his new opponents and the press follows along and reports it all like puppies snatching up spilled dog food. The main news sources report his opening up the ridiculous birther charge against Kamala Harris and then everybody has to comment on it, his machinations over the Post Office and everybody has to tell how illegal and immoral it but so far nobody has doees anything about it, and promoting outrageous lesser officials like a newly ordained candidate for Congress in Georgia who says all Democrats are satan worshipers. Meanwhile responsible newsmakers end up responding to all the presidential bulldust or face being ignored altogether. I guess it goes to who hollers loudest, but this is dangerous as it was last time the political discourse becomes narrowly focused on all the dishonest actions and rantings of the #fakepresident. He's making it all about himself and the opposition is shouted down in one way or another or ignored while the pundits discuss the next bunch of ignorant blather from Trump. We've been here before. 
     From there it evolved into this comment from a friend: Not looking forward to the debates. Since he has no inclination to anything resembling the truth, he can make dozens of false and outlandish statements and get the press chasing those as well. Unless they put the candidates in separate rooms with a switch on his mike that they shut off as soon as his time is up, and fact checkers on-site to fact check everything he says, it will be the Drumpf show.

To which I responded with this and that's why the picture and the déjà vu. Do I get points  for not repeating the overused Yogi Berra quote?): I would l just like it if they would make him stand behind his own podium. I admit to getting livid and shouting at the TV every time he walked behind Hillary, not sure if he was trying to make her nervous or just remain in the video line of sight, maybe both.

Fuck Trump

More politics

For you youngsters in the audience, Yogi Berra was the catcher for the New York Yankees during their heydays in the 1950s famous for his non sequiturs. His exact quote was "It's déjà vu all over again" and it has seemed like over the years no one can use the phrase without saying the Yogi version.

Fuck you Trump, just fuck you

Mr. Mike Cartoons.com
August 9, 2020
Within the orbit of six degrees of separation (probably only one or two) everyone in this country, if not receiving benefits themselves, is connected to someone who is dependent on Social Security for some measure of support. Parents, grandparents, children, somewhere in the current, milieu is a person you are related to or at least know who is collecting benefits. And, everyone who has ever held a job and had that "payroll tax" deducted has an investment in their retirement future, not to mention a stake in it that could cover a myriad of personal disasters that for some reason or other threaten the individual's basic existence.
In my own case, while my income has always been limited by personal choices, I now survive mostly on monthly payments from Social Security. I have enough put a way to meet a major problem, but for day-to-day expenses that check every month supports me. And, if not for Medicare to cover increasing expenses since I have emerged from the bulletproof years of my youth, grow older and develop increasingly serious infirmities, I would have used up that emergency fund several years ago. 
Now, as mentioned above, almost every wage earner in the country has paid into the system. I have paid into it since 1959 when I received my first check from a job as a teen-aged chef's helper in a New Hampshire seaside restaurant. That's almost 60 years of paying that "tax." That is not an entitlement in the current use of the word by some elected officials but as a true entitlement in that as I have paid into the program I am entitled to the benefits of those contributions. And, something a younger person might not realize, a premium for Medicare coverage is deducted from every Social Security payment I receive. That's right, Medicare is not free to any of us.
So, now comes a spoiled brat of a #fakepresident, attempting by exeuctive order to stop that "payroll tax," that payment wage-earners make to support current benefits on the promise that when their time comes, the money will come back to them. It's questionable whether that order is legal or not or can be enforced. Probably a judicial ruling somewhere along the line will decide that before the first time it's applied. Worse is the underlying reason most who undestand these things believe is the motive for removing the "tax." More important from this #fakepresident who was elected by people who are most likely to need Social Security, is his threat to end Social Security and Medicare if we elect him to a second term.
I would say this is about the dumbest thing a candidate could advocate going into a hotly contested election alienating 63 million Social Security recipients who pretty much all vote, but as I drive around my neighborhood and see the Trump signs and flags in some yards, it seems no matter what this guy says, he is still supported by a large stupid percentage of the American voting public. This is not a wealthy neighborhood, there are young people with kids they are sending to school on the insistence of the same man despite the Coronavirus slowly creeping north from its largest Alaska concentration in Anchorage into the next largest Alaska population area, filled with people proud to claim their rights as Americans to not wear protective masks. And those people support the man who would take away the only safety net many of them have.
What generated this diatribe? I mean so many people discuss this crap on news shows that there's little I can add except my own outrage so I haven't written much about it. But this morning shortly after I woke up and began my usual Internet tour starting with facebook, I came across a post showing a grinning president over the headline that he plans to eliminate Social Security and 
Medicare in his second term. For a moment my body literally went cold with the realization that at the age of 78 I would be without secure income to support me. A quick mental tour through my finances assured me I might be able to last as long as three years and that's if nothing unexpected happens.      Considering that I am facing two serious medical procedures in the near future, that time is shortened considerably. It has gone beyond a bunch of talking heads on TV into the very gut of existence. It's a helpless feeling. The one bit of optimism I hold is that this is another of the #fakepresident's bait and switch maneuvers. He starts a new outrage  and the press focuses on the new one so we forget about his failure with coronavirus and his failure to act on Russia paying a bounty on American soldiers in Afghanistan, his failure to act on Black Lives Matter, maybe his failures altogether. It certainly shows he doesn't give a good damn about the regular folks in this country. Unfortunately none of those failures matter to those people putting up signs in the neighborhood.
Just so there's no mistake; SARCASM!
April 30, 2020
     This is the way I understand it. The governor of Maryland used his South Korean wife's
connections back home to purchase Corona virus treatment gear, chartered a Korean airline's airplane and had it flown to the U.S. He demanded the airplane land at Baltimore's airport rather than Washington, D.C., despite the fact that none of the Korean pilots had ever landed at Baltimore's.
     The governor's reasoning was reported to be he feared the federal government might intercept and confiscate the cargo. In addition to the landing plan, a contingent of Maryland's state police and National Guard met the airplane, remained to guard the unloading and transportation to an undisclosed storage facility, and then patrolled the facility, again to protect the materials, principally from the federal government.
      This is what we have come to; the leader of one of the United States' 50 states distrusts the federal government so much that he felt it necessary to use almost-military precautions to protect vital health care equipment needed in his state from his own federal government. And, again, as I understand it, there have been cases reported where the feds did intercept shipments intended for states in the past few weeks. I have not seen a credible report of that activity, however, so don't take it for gospel. Three reliable sources reported the Maryland governor's actions today.
     We know, of course, who's ultimately responsible. How long do we have to tolerate this? I have been tired of it for a long time, I hope others are coming to the realization.
    And then there's this: Alaska Public Radio posted a story last night heralding the arrival of a FedEx cargo plane landing in Anchorage packed to the overheads with materials needed to fight this plague. I hope that is not in danger of some federal interference but that's less likely because our governor is a suck-up, just like our congressional delegation, to the #fakepresident. Still an armed guard might have been judicious just in case.
     Have you missed me? Ha.

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I have a plan

A billboard in Louisville tells it all
June 3, 2019
With all the confusion and nonsense going on in American politics, it's difficult to figure out what is going on and who might be winning and wondering how rational people are going to sort it all out. Then in a moment of lucidity, I thought of the old adage to plan for the worst and hope for the best, and I think I have a plan for working through the present stalemate. First, consider the effects of an impeachment.
As much as I would like to see the #fakepresident run out of office, if we rush into an impeachment now, we can expect it to win in the House but that's only the charge, like an indictment. The actual trial takes place in the Senate where Mitch McConnell could probably stop it cold. If that happens, Trump gets to ride into the election on a wave of victory and claim a national mandate to continue to destroy the country and be free of any further charges until he leaves office and he faces some criminal charges that evidently can't be brought against a sitting president.
    So, while these debates rage, subpoenas fly and tweets clutter the net, let's let the slate of Democrat candidates sort themselves out while we concentrate on the congressional races so that if he is re-elected in that scenario, his second term begins with Democrat majorities in both houses which could stalemate him.
   For now, we should continue with the investigations under way and keep his simple mind occupied while holding off with impeachment until, say, next May to July. Given the speed at which Congress acts that could carry the impeachment process right through Election Day and keep Trump preoccupied during the campaign, shouting "witch hunt" until his head explodes, and, we can hope, sabotage his own race.
    Even if he should somehow win, if we can gain control of the Senate along with the House, let the impeachment process continue, then, with a chance of sending him packing. The fallback from that is even if impeachment should fail, he still has to deal with a total Congressional majority lined up against him.
The end game of both, is Trump neutralized and even if the country has to slow down for four more years perhaps the #fakepresident can be prevented from doing any more harm and the repairs can begin before the 2024 election.
In the meantime start enforcing those subpoenas from the ongoing investigations in the House. Put a couple of those sanctimonious jerks behind bars and watch the rest of them crumble when they realize if they continue fronting for Trump they will face serious prison time. Nixon finally gave up when Republicans began deserting him, many fearing implication. Given the moral fortitude displayed by so many GOP legislators it shouldn't take long for the rats to begin deserting the sinking ship.
Below are the Senate races next year. We only need three turnovers (more if we want an impeachment conviction or a veto-proof majority), but McConnell is the key, turn him out and we stop a lot of the obstruction going on now and again bring on enough senators to find the #fakepresident guilty in an impeachment trial. I would also like to offer Alaska's do-nothing Trump-worshiping Senator Dan Sullivan as a sacrificial lamb. Besides being an in-line Trumpster, he is in cahoots with Alaska's new governor who has shown all the marks of being a Trump Jr. He has spent most of his term under the desk in his basement office anyway. The only times he shows up around here are when he can attach his name to a noncontroversial issue linked to Alaska. (Example. He is a strong supporter of the Alaska fishing industry except in the case of a proposed mine that would threaten the largest red salmon fishery in the world.)
 If none of these works I know of three Alaskans willing to surround the White House and maintain the siege until the #fakepresident leaves.
Republicans
Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee)
Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia)
Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana)
Susan Collins (R-Maine)
John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas)
Steve Daines (R-Montana)
Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming)
Joni Ernst (R-Iowa)
Cory Gardner (R-Colorado)
Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina)
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Mississippi) 
Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) May not run
Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
David Perdue (R-GA)
Jim Risch (R-Idaho)
Pat Roberts (R-Kansas)
Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota)
Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska)
Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska)
Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina)
Democrats
Cory Booker (D-New Jersey)
Chris Coons (D-Delaware)
Dick Durbin (D-Illinois)
Doug Jones (D-Alabama)
Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts)
Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon)
Gary Peters (D-Michigan)
Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Tina Smith (D-Minnesota
Tom Udall (D-New Mexico)
Mark Warner (D-Virginia)

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Is Giuliani laying groundwork for Trump family escape

November 1, 2018
     Here's a conspiracy theory to end all conspiracy theories. Today news websites reported two
seemingly unrelated stories. Both involve unknowns. The first is one I have wondered about over the last couple of weeks, Rudy Giuliani has all but dropped out of sight. At one time the visible mouthpiece for the #fakepresident on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis and spoke for the administration, then all of a sudden it appeared he dropped out of sight.
   The second I hadn't realized but once exposed I could think back and say oh, yeah, Since around the first of September the #fakepresident has dropped his constant whining about the "witch hunt" as he terms the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the one that gave us the #fakepresident.
   The first has been exposed. Giuliani has been making almost clandestine trips to Russian,  and several other Russian satellites. No reason has been forthcoming from within the administration, only guesses by the pundits, for those trips.
   The general consensus for the second is mere speculation but it appears related to the special counsel's investigation. News reports without naming sources have posed the theory that Mueller is getting close to the #fakepresident to the point where he might have subpoenaed him to appear before a grand jury. This may have been enough to warn the guy that his attacks on the investigation and the investigators are working against him in the legal arena and has him afraid of the potential outcome.
    Of course it could be because he doesn't want to draw attention to the investigation as he campaigns for himself while supposedly supporting candidates in the coming election.
     Now how about this for a conspiracy theory? Maybe the investigation and other legal actions are getting too close, he sees the writing on the wall and is preparing a quick departure. Suppose Giuliani is exploring sanctuary countries that would not extradite a criminal, and would offer a safe landing spot for the @fakepresident and his family if everything goes south and they have to flee the country, Perhaps he has even been looking at real estate to house the refugees. What justice would that be to see that family as refugees in Ukraine or some other Russian affiliate? And how nice would a castle on the Black Sea be as a retirement home?
     Of course that's only another wild conspiracy theory.
It's so easy anybody can do it


When good people do nothing
June 11, 2018
In college my minor was political science. Despite what some folks may think of liberal college education I came out of that with the idealized concept of Congress and especially the Senate as arbiters and leaders and, yes, statesmen at the national and international level. Imagine the shock of realization that they saw their jobs as selfishly channeling as much federal money as possible into their own districts.
Alaska's gang proved particularly adept at that. While they connived to extract every possible dollar out of the federal government into something for Alaska, they mostly voted along the lines of whatever party they thought they represented, statesmanship be damned, morality too.
But the evolution didn't stop there. In the years that followed that first lucid non-idealistic awareness, the representation changed to what exists now, where they represent not the people, barely their own districts anymore and now represent the monied interests of the country, legislating for huge corporations and ultra rich barons who in turn fund the campaigns that keep the people who represent them in power while they rake in huge profits and impoverish their own employees.
And the nation has blithely followed along. A noisy ignorant plurality of Americans vote against their own interests because of the manufactured fears along religious, racial and patriotic lines. Their rulers twist every negative issue to keep those fears alive. A football player kneels during the national anthem to bring attention to the racism in this country and is vilified for disrespect to the anthem and the flag and the autocrats silence the original message in a cacophony of patriotic shouting.
We even shrug off the massacre of our children by gun-toting maniacs, while those supposedly representing the masses, actually only represent a well funded- organization that represents gun manufacturers and uses their money to influence those public representatives.
We cruelly separate children from their parents in the fear of too many brown people coming into the country. Meanwhile crops die in the fields because no red-blooded American wants to pick them — that's menial labor always done by those same people we are now sending back to their own countries to be murdered while their children languish in fear behind the wires of what can only be called concentration camps.
And what does a large segment of that coalition of the rich whose whole existence is based on the moral of "love thy neighbor" do? Nothing. Nada. Oh yeah one of them pleaded with his followers to provide him with enough money to buy an $80 million private jet airplane. Maybe that would bring him closer to god, because nothing he does on terra firma is going to if the teachings are correct. The rest could care less as they worship in billion-dollar cathedrals, the kind Jesus and Sampson tried to tear down.
An for crying out loud we have to teach our children how to stay alive when someone starts shooting up their schools. Is there anything imaginably worse than that?
There are so many instances where the oligarchy has mistreated the people who support it with their labor and their acquiescence, they can't all be listed in a single polemic that anyone would read.
It has caused a national malaise, a sort of background depression that comes to the fore every so often when the #fakepresident that ignorant plurality elected does something so outrageous we almost can't believe it. Consider this as a prime example. That #fakepresident is about to attend a historic meeting with the dictator of North Korea. This has not been done since Korea was left divided by a hot war and then a cold war since the 1950s, with a history dating into the mid 1800s. What does this #fakepresident say and do with that for background? He says he doesn't need to and won't do any preparations for the meeting. He will "read" his counterpart and that is all he needs. What could go wrong with that? Yet we shrug our shoulders and pass it off as "well that's Trump." Then we wait anxiously to see how what outrage he commits this time.
The question is what is the next step in that progression of the evolution by government representation in this country? All of the options except one are almost unthinkable. Photographs of children behind chain link in America today raise too-vivid parallels to those photos we have seen in history books of children in their striped outfits staring out from behind barbed wire in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Are we going to keep shrugging our shoulders and letting it happen? That's what Germans did in the years leading to that great war
That one option is out there, but when 67 percent of those eligible fail to vote even in a presidential election, what hope is there? It can be changed but it is going to take an effort, even if it is only to take an hour out of our precious lives to vote in November, while we are still allowed to vote. The alternative is unthinkable. If we are going to act in fear let's make sure we fear the right thing. The longer we let it go on, the longer it's going to take to repair the damage.
Here's a start. This summer students who started the March for our Lives movement after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida, are taking a bus tour to register young people to vote. They plan to visit 20 states with more than 50 stops and also every congressional district in Florida. The first stop is June 15 in Chicago. They are targeting the four million people who will turn 18 this year. Now there's a voting bloc.
And take heart, things like this worked once before:

Lafayette, we are sorry

American troops arrive in Europe during World War I.

June 29, 2017

Bastille Day in France marks the day of French liberation from the monarchy, the day citizens in Paris and rose to storm the infamous Bastille Prison to liberate political prisoners there. It is as important a holiday to the French as the Fourth of July is in the United States. The celebration this year also marks the centennial anniversary of Americans entering World War I and officials in the country have woven that into the fabric of the traditional events of the day.
     A mantra of troops arriving in France for the "war to end all wars" was "Lafayette we are here."          The origins of the statement date all the way back to the American Revolution when the French General the Marquis de Lafayette joined the Revolution as a military officer and later convinced the French government to send troops to aid the American effort. He was instrumental in securing the deciding victory in the war at Yorktown.
     Upon returning home Lafayette became a leader in the French Revolution beginning with the storming of the Bastille July 14, 1789. With assistance from Thomas Jefferson he helped write the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen."
Lafayette Escadrille Pin. This Lafayette Escadrille
pin belonged to Charles Heave "Carl" Dolan Jr.,
who in 1915 was the 31st volunteer of the Lafayette
Escadrille (Escadrille N. 124), which was a group of
38 Americans who volunteered to join the French
 Flying Corps before the United States entered
World War I.
 (Wikkipedia)
     When American troops landed in Europe in 1917, the call "Lafayette we are here" acknowledged the debt owed France and the great French general.
     But even before America officially joined the war, a year earlier, American pilots flew in what was called the Lafayette Escadrille, a unit of the French Air Service, the Aéronautique Militaire, largely composed of American volunteer pilots flying fighters.
     With that tradition of mutual aid and the acknowledgement of the French support of the American Revolution in place this year,                  Donald Trump has accepted an invitation to visit France July 14, Bastille Day. Only this time the American invasion could become more of an embarrassment than a triumph. Trump has already cancelled a visit to England citing expected demonstrations against him as the reason. He is even less popular in France, especially after removing the United States from the Paris climate accord. Now as the representative of the United States he looks like he wants to impose his presence on a country's most cherished holiday. To be fair he was invited by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has openly criticized Trump on several occasions over his stand on climate change. The invitation most likely was to acknowledge America's entrance into WWI.
     The objections to Trump in Europe, where he is even less popular than in his own country, go well beyond climate concerns and many consider him a danger who could start a war.
      Given Trump's record so far in visiting foreign countries, this trip should raise some concerns given the history and current situation in our relations with France. One can only hope Trump will approach it with proper respect and acknowledgement with a sense of the history and when the protests come instead of lashing out, handle them with some modicum of decorum and diplomacy.
     Perhaps we will receive an indication in the way he handles our own Independence Day, the first during his term in office.
     But given his history it seems necessary to offer our apology to the French ahead of time: "Lafayette we are sorry."

Lafayette Escadrille, the movie

A footnote: People may question the apparent Swastika, the Nazi symbol, on the headdress in the pin. That symbol was used by Native Americans long before the Nazis adopted it. Here is a brief history of its use. Native American Symbol – Swirling Log

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Election result opens a vision into a dystopian future

Either way, could this be our future?
June 22, 2013
     Last night I experienced a mental flash, a quick peek into the future that scared the living hell out of me. It began with the news that a woman had won an off-year election in Georgia. The woman, a Republican, had been quoted during the campaign that she didn't think people deserved to earn a living wage, she didn't care.
     "This is an example of the fundamental difference between a liberal and a conservative; I do not support a livable wage," Karen Handel said on Atlanta's WSB-TV in response to a viewer question about raising the minimum wage.
     That was one of several outrageous statements she made during the campaign, but it was the one that stood out for me and I wondered in that flash how anybody in a right mind could vote for someone who said something like that. But the quote and the election victory were only the beginning of the flash; they only triggered it.
     From that moment my mind went to a potentially hopeless situation. I have been able to endure the Trump administration lately because I can almost see a way out of it. As investigations move closer to revealing the corruption there is room for some optimism this horrible era in American democracy can be brought to an end at least by the Congressional election next year. Part of that hope also is that the outrageous situation in Washington will lead thinking people in the country to vote with their minds and turn out the people who are doing so much damage. But with everything that's going on a majority in one congressional district still saw the way to elect someone who does not support a living wage. People elected the very candidate who would do them the most harm.
     Then the thought broadened across the country. Will every election in the near future turn out this way? Will, despite things like a health care act that could endanger as many as 100 million people not discourage administration supporters in the 2018 congressional election. Will people still return those supposed representatives to office to continue the destruction?
     The next part of the flash went to current news about hate crimes and their increase, immigrant roundups with no legal defense, random killings of Muslims, Sikhs, black people, anybody who is "not like us."
     Also news reports have documented the growth of quasi militia groups on the country. People on the edges who train and outfit themselves to fight for their rights. Just recently one such group called for recruits in the coming civil war. A civil war? Who are they going to fight? Aren't civil wars usually fought between governments and upset citizens?  Most of these people seem to be on the side of the Trump government. Then it hit me. The civil war is not threatened against the government, it is aimed at people like me. The threat is if the criticism and investigations lead to an end to the Trump administration, the militias will  hunt down the people they blame, those commie liberals. Here is an exact quote from one such group.
     If the drumbeat of verbal attacks, leaks and otherwise destructive assaults on President Donald J. Trump, his family, those around him and their supporters do not soon abate, expect right-wing militias and other reactive vigilantes to spring into action, resulting in a full-fledged civil war, with blood flowing in our neighborhoods and streets," wrote Larry Klayman a lawyer and former Justice Department prosecutor who founded Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch.
     And this one came from everybody's favorite conspiracy twit and apparent confidante of Donald Trump, Alex Jones: "You guys better have some helicopter jump jets and be ready to get out of here real quick if the actual civil war kicks off … You’re going to get wrecked bad. There are a lot of people like Santa Claus been making a list, been checking it twice about who’s been naughty and nice. And you kick off Civil War 2, baby, you’ll think Lexington and Concord was a cake walk."
     The monologue has become more serious and more violent. Granted those making the threats are on the fringe of the political spectrum and don't represent a large number of people, but when you have an enabling president who slyly encourages such violence and turns his back when it happens, what they are saying is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
     So, there you have it. Democrats think the closeness of the Georgia election shows they are on the right track for 2018. But suppose the close victory actually encourages Republicans and gives them the arrogant confidence to continue their destruction of the government and further depressing the general population because they think their money can win tight elections, and then they go ahead and do it. To them it's still a mandate albeit a closer one, and they have the people behind them to continue the disassembly of the Republic.
   If not and if by some miracle progressive heads regain control of our future, are those of us who still can think, going to have to join in arms against marauding goons in camo sporting AR-15s with god and the president on their side?
     Suddenly in a flash last night and then again today walking past the "Resist" bumper sticker on my vehicle and then noticing a mysterious red "X" on the front license plate it all seemed plausible – plausible to the point where I, personally, might have been targeted already. No matter what, I am removing that "X."
First shots in new civil war already fired
Trump appointee threatens another civil war
Trump encourages civil war


Big Brother really is watching

June 23, 2017
A friend of mine posted the following on facebook today: (language warning)
So I have decided to quit posting on FB. It seems like prospective employers, government agents, anyone who you may enter into a financial arrangement with and the police can look at your page and find out all kinds of shit about you. I knew that, but after recently receiving a notice that the Secret Service was looking at me because of some of my anti-trump postings, I decided, fuck it. I tried but now, me, a humble little fisherman from 61 degrees north latitude, seems to be the focus of a right wing inquisition. I'm only paranoid because everyone is trying to kill me. So from now on all you're gonna get from me me is tales of my kids exploits and pictures of cats. And I hate cats. And once and for all, Fuck trump!!! He's an idiot and will be the death of our nation. Hit me with your best shot asshole.
Now this one of the toughest guys I know.  He has hiked and climbed and paddled his way across much of Alaska and much of the world for all I know. I remember once telling him I wanted to see the Southern Cross under sail. He said he had sat in a place where he saw the Cross and the North Star at the same time. The peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. What I am saying is this guy is not easily intimidated
He has been outspoken about the current administration as have many of us, but apparently he has been singled out by the Secret Service with a warning that Big Brother is watching him. Now as far as I remember this fellow never made any kind of threat toward the president or anyone else. His criticism was strong and sometimes profane but never stepped over that line into the dark area of advocating some kind of harm to anyone.
I mean this is a guy who told me his greatest experience in kayaking was finding a case of beer on a beach and spending an extra day there. The storms and bears and other hardships barely registered compared to that fortunate discovery of beer.
As rugged looking a person as you could ever find, his demeanor is mellow and almost quiet, but quick to laugh at a joke or a funny story told around a campfire
Knowing him I have to ask why the Secret Service doesn't have better things to do than watch this guy instead of maybe the militias and militants around the country advocating civil war and blood in the streets, not to mention the people who have carried out those threats. I am asking for instance how many members of that Bundy gang are in prison after two gunpoint standoffs with federal officers?
Is this the beginning of totalitarian secret police, attempting to quiet discourse. It is no crime to criticize the government or the president even to the point of profanity. Is this the very thing my friend was attempting to warn us about, that we have a president who is determined to dismantle our government in favor of an oligarchy. 
Given the amount of hatred and vitriol spewed at the Obanas during his administration, including assassination threats, you have to wonder how many of those people received warnings from the Secret Service. Even if there was some surveillance it sure didn't have much effect because that hatred is still being voiced against the former president and his family.
The fear of course is whether this is normal for the Secret Service or has Trump issued some kind of order to ferret out his critics and silence them? Given the threat my friend feels, you can't really blame him for pulling back a little. But if Trump's people can discourage such a rough and tumble individualist as this guy, what are the rest of us going to do? Is this yet another indication of the danger posed in the posting right above this one? Election result opens a vision into a dystopian future

Of course the warning may not have come from the Secret Service at all. Could be just a Trump troll attempting to intimidate the opposition.

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Best headlines ever

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel

Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

“You’re either into the wall or into the show”—Marco Andretti on giving it all to qualify last at the 2011 Indy 500

Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel