Category Archives: Rants

When someone gets going about something very strongly

What To Expect Now

Politics, Rants, ,
Donald Trump Golfing

Donald Trump is a golf cheat. This is a well known and given fact. Now I now that the MAGAs will say this is slander/libel/fake news but it is none the less a fact. Knowing this we can make some extrapolations of just what is going to happen next year now that the Impeachment is well on it’s way to being based in the House of Representatives.

To make my extrapolations I’m going to make two assumptions:

  1. The impeachment resolution will be passed in the Houese
  2. The Senate will vote not to convict on a straight party line vote

Given these two assumptions we can make some fairly safe extrapolations. The first is based off of Pres. Trump being a “Golf Cheat”. He will be emboldened to cheat in 2020. Why shouldn’t he? Nothing bad happen to him and that is all that matters. Also all that is wining.

Next is that anyone and everyone who works from the principle of “Wining isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!” will also emboldened to also do what ever is necessary to win their own elections. Worse, they will be emboldened to not hide what they are doing because they, too, will suffer no punishment. This will not just be at the national level, it will be at the State and local levels. Senate, House of Representatives, Statehouse, and City Halls, all will be up for grabs by the most ruthless.

Finally we will enter an era of only Party Loyalty will mater. An that only as long as fear of those above is greater than anything else. Loyalty will be based solely on fear of retribution an nothing else. In politics and government you will be able to buy what ever you want as long as you are powerful enough to make your will felt. So loyalty to an individual or an ideal will go the way of the Dodo for years to come. Loyalty will only last. As long as the individual benefits from supporting someone. Once gone, people will do what ever is best for themselves and no one else.

In losing, be up lifted in spirit for what I have predict here will not last. It has happened before in human history and it as always destroyed itself in the end.

A Time for Pride and Gratitude

Politics, Rants, , ,
Child Sacrifice

Like the ancient Philistines of Canaan we should be feeling pride in and gratitude to those parents who have given up there children today in Saugus, Ca on the alter of the 2nd Amendment. Once more we see that there is no price to high to pay to defend our right to keep and bear arms. Nothing we will not sacrifice to honor our great fear of our own government. So let us sing to heaven on high the glory that is the NRA.

Am I upset? Yes, yes I am. I’m very upset. Once more we have a school shooting killing and/or wounding too many of our children. With true cosmic irony just as the shooting was happening the United States Senate, in all it’s wisdom, has refused to even address another bill that attempts to deal, even in a minor way, the tragic events facing us. I have been following this debate for over thirty years and the only thing that has changed is the intransigence of the NRA, the Gun Lobby and their fearful supporters.

Do I have any hope that this time things will change? No, I do not. An why do I feel this way? Simply put I see no one coming forward with a method to Assuage the fear that has been placed in the harts of too many of my fellow Americans. I see three basic fears that have been stoked by both the Gun Lobby (aka gun manufacturers) and the NRA. The first fear is the traditional fear of our how governments. The second fear is the fear that the only thing keeping our government from becoming oppressive is the 2nd amendment and that if we allow it to be changed in the smallest way we will loose it all. An the third fear is the fear of THEM. You know who I speak of the great evil of THOSE PEOPLE over there who are not like us.

Of these three, the last is the oldest and the hardest to put to rest. The first is most easily challenged by just asking if “Your not a Patriot?” Be ready for an explosive response, but be cool in it’s face and the explanation will disappear in time. Then look mildly and ask them that “How can a patriot fear his own government?” Be ready for a long and involved statement that the government is not the nation. Then look at them, like you would a young child and say”I see why we still need Civics in our schools.” An then leave it at that. They will need time, a lot of time for some, to work their way thru but some will see their way thru to to truth.

The second fear is more difficult to deal with and much more easy to deal with badly. I’ve found, after too many years of doing it badly, a method that sometimes works. (Point here, the second fear has as it’s foundation the logical fallacy of the “Slippery Slope” so take care.) When this fear rears its ugly head I have found that if I say “Even if that is true, I trust people like you from going that far. Or don’t you think you are up to the challenge to keep us from going down the slope too fare?” Again, just leave it there and wait to see what bears fruit.

The third and final fear is the oldest fear and we all have to deal with it in our lives, no mater who we are. This is the same fear that lead the Philistines to offer up their children in sacrifice. It can only be dealt with, with courage. All I’ve ever been able to say in it’s face is “I’m sorry you are so afraid. Let me help you.” Sometime, occasionally, I can give some help and start them on the way to setting aside the fear.

So why did I just write the last few paragraphs if I feel there is little chance of any change? I Guess I’m just a Cock Eyed Optomistist. I wrote the first paragraph because I was upset, I’m still upset now. I will stay upset till this tragic episode in our national history is put behind us. Till then we can take pride and joy in our children being offered up in sacrifice to the great god Power/Position/Profit. An I expect we will get as good a result as the ancient Philistines did, that is no at all.

A Modern Trail of Tears

History, Politics, Rants, , ,

It has taken me some time to come to grips with my feelings today after I heard about the ‘deal’ we have cut with Turkey over the lands of the Kurds in Syria. I was of many mixed emotions and was quite puzzled on what to say. Finally it hit me that for even poorer reasons than just hating ‘Injuns’ like Pres. Andrew Jackson, Pres. Trump has started on the way of having the USA to have a new ‘Trail of Tears’.

Like many many Sooners (or Okies), that is people born in Oklahoma and have much family still there. I have a strong family tradition of having Native American heritage. Also like them I have no sold ‘proof’ of this heritage. But I was raised by a wonderful woman who instilled in me a strong love my my mixed heritage. She thought me to take pride in my Scots heritage and, at the same time take pride in my Cherokee heritage. She instilled in me a bias against the wrongs done to all of the Native American peoples. A bias is so strong that I still consider Pres. Andrew Jackson a genocide in a time that he was looked upon as one of the ‘Great’ Presidents.

Like many Americans I thought that we had been making progress in not only acknowledging the wrongs done but making what little amends that can be made. I hope and prayed that we had left this kind of action behind us. Congratulations Pres. Trump, congratulations MAGA, you have ended that dream. With the agreement you have made with Turkey you are setting up a new trail of tears, this time for the Kurds. You have show once again just what the word of American is worth. It is worth nothing.

So my fellow Americans you now get to join our ancestors in bearing the guilt for the actions our government is doing in our name. An what do we, as a nation get out of it? NOTHING. What does Donald Trump get out of it? EVERYTHING. For that is the true America tragedy of the Indian Removals thru all our history. Be they land speculators, gold hunters, railroads, or Real estate developers, the many suffer and die for the benefit of the few. All we are missing are the classic Indian Agent and I’m sure the Russians are working on it as this is written.

So thanks you MAGA, thank you Pres. Trump for one more stain on American history. Your place in history is assured.

The Munich Effect

Honor, Politics, Rants, , , ,

Yes, I know I’m breaking the ‘sacred’ rule of not citing Nazis in internet post if I’m not to be considered a nut case. But as we learned in school, sometimes break a rule is the best way to make a point. My point here is not what you may think it is. I’m not saying anyone is a Nazi. I’m saying the USA is going to be look at as trustworthy as France and England after they threw Czechoslovakia to the wolves in 1938.

What our government has done, and even though I don’t support anything that the current administration has done, it still is MY government of MY country. What Pres. Trump has done to the Kurd’s in our name is totally despicable. The Word of the United States means Nothing now. No Nation, no people, no person can take anything this government says valid. We will only stand behind our promises if and only if we loose nothing and gain something.

So I say to all the MAGA Trump supporters out there something my mother used to say to me when I had done something particularly bad. “Now aren’t you just so proud?” Look at just what you have done. It is all yours and we, the other people of this nation are going to remember just what your ‘Great Leader’ has done to the rest of us. So don’t come crying that you are ‘misunderstood’ or your ‘being picked on’, or “didn’t know”. None of that maters now. It ‘Fish or cut bait’ time for you all. Does your word mater to you at all? If it does you have to MAKE your Representatives and Senators know that they will be held both culpable as well as responsible come the elections. Not only the one coming next year but for all those Senators who ‘Know’ they are safe because they aren’t up for re-election for 2 or 4 years. Remind them that sometimes the electorate remembers. Sometimes it rejects bald faced lairs.

Or you can keep on supporting Pres. Trump and we will have Hard proof that all your cries of Love of Country and of your Undying Patriotism are no more true than the lies your ‘Great Leader’ tells you and tried to tell us. We don’t believe you any more and we are not buying it any more. You’ve had it. We are done.

For all those ‘Conservatives’ who left the Republican Party when Donald Trump was Elected, or even those who left when he was Nominated. It is time to act or everything you thought you stood for has been shown to be nothing but dross. Not worth the paper it is printed upon. You thought the wilderness that the party faced after Nixon was bad? What is coming is going to be much worse. An don’t go thinking you will get another RR to save you. Where are you going to find him? Non of the current crop of GOP/Conservative up and comers has shown even half the backbone RR had. Trust me when I say this, I was a Regan Democrat, both for Gov. and for Pres. We might disagree with his position but we knew his word was good. At least for a while. Now, who among you has any kind of word anyone take. Just name one who could run in 2024? Just one.

For all the rest of America, now is our time! We know what to do. We know how to do it. We have done it before and we can do it again. Countries in far worse condition have show just what an aroused electorate can do. To my fellow Baby Boomers, remember 1968 and what we did when we had enough of a war we didn’t understand and were lied to about. When we had had enough of the hypocrisy of the ‘establishment’ we did something. It took a little time to figure out what, but we talked and organized and marched and finally protested. An all before the internet and social media. So what if we have a hard time getting out? So What! If your reading this there are things you can do. You can find out who to send a letter to, or you can send an email. You can notice and correct false postings and demand citations for fact checking. You can become a volunteer fact checker.

MAGA has had everything it’s own way so far. It thinks it owns the old white vote. Well this is one old white male they don’t own. Not even close. I stand with the teenagers and twenty somethings of today. I will not let MAGA make the word of America mean ‘nothing’. America stands for something. It stands for ideals so great we have yet to be worthy of them. It challenges us every day in every way to live up to what being an American means. Our honor has been sullied and it is up to each and every one of us to do our bit, no mater how small, it all maters.

They say to Make America Great Again. They used it as a marketing slogan…that was their mistake. America is Great because Americans are great and it is time to show these snake oil salesmen just how a a rail feels to ride.

While the world burns.

Climate Change, Rants, Science, ,

Now that the G-6 +1 is over I’d like to share some thoughts I’ve had while volunteering at the Discovery Cube L. A. When I’m asked about climate change/global warming/Amazon Rainforest fires. I shan’t boor you with the science we going into, it is after all for kids and you can get much better information just googling the subject or go to NOAA and/or NASA. Rather I’m going to take you on a thought Experiment into what will happen.

I was originally going to go thru a step by step process of my reasoning but it quickly turned into a very nice term paper. Quite long and equally boring. It has been set aside for another day. Instead I’m just going to dive into a positive view of what things will be like if we either do something or don’t do something about climate change and the rapidly global warming that is driving it.

First off, in the 4.6+ billion years that the earth has existed it’s climate has been changing. Most assuredly in the estimated 4 billion years that life has been around the earth’s climate has been changing and life has been a key player in that change. It is here I like to talk about the “Great Oxygen Catastrophe” that leads to Snowball Earth. I have seen estimates that go as high as 98% of all life on Earth went extinct but I usually say that it was over 90%. I then talk about the multiple Great Extinction events in the Earth’s history.

I now like to point out that life has existed on both land and sea when the Earth was so hot there were no polar icecaps. If fact some estimates of the temperatures were several degrees centigrade higher than current predictions for the current warming. If the conservative prediction of warming occurs then it is most likely all of the two polar icecaps will totally melt. If we go with the accepted estimates of how much ice is in the two icecaps we will see sea level rise just about 80 meters (262+ feet). It is here I bring up the SOS (Science on a Sphere) data set that shows the sea rise in 10 meter increments.

If you are wondering, the USA doesn’t do too badly. We loose two states for sure (Louisiana and Delaware) and most of about six others. California will loose the Great Central Valley and get a new, expanded San Francisco Bay. We will have to say bye bye to places like Denmark, Holland, Bangladesh, and maybe Vet Nam. Cities lost will include Washington DC, New York, Philadelphia, London, and Beijing. All this happens if we do nothing. Not very likely to happen but still a possibility.

Now is when I like to point out that we, Americans, have faced economic and environmental crisis like this before in our history and have come thru all the better for it. For that mater the world has faced crisis like this in the last few centuries. I like to talk about the annual Typhus outbreaks that hit London in the mid 19th century. When the causal factor (using the river as a sewer) reached the Houses of Parliament action was finally taken. I feel very confident that when the rising sea level starts affecting the 1% they too will take action. An it may not take the annual flooding of southern Florida either.

Now for something I don’t share with the kids, ever. If the most pessimistic projects come true the earth can loose between 50% to 90% of both life and bio diversity. This has happen before in the list or of life on Earth and most likely happen again. We, like the first photosynthetic life, maybe the major cause of it. In any case, given the spread of humanity over the earth, and our numbers 7.7+ Billion it is unlikely we will go extinct (7.7 billion * 0.01 is 7.7 million). Also while this is all happening with lighting speed in geological time it is still taking either decades or centuries to happen.

In closing just remember this, Mankind has been slapped silly by Mother Nature many times in our history. An while we usually pick ourselves up, dust ourselves of and go on our way as if nothing has happened, sometimes we do learn something. An always, always we become wiser, stronger, better.

Lese-majesty & Pres. Trump

Politics, Rants, , ,

Today we saw two great enemies the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have both taken Pres. Donald Trump to task for Saying that the New York Times committed treason. After reading both editorials, Pres. Trump’s response and the original comments by the New Your Time I have just a few words to say.

First, and foremost Treason is the only crime defined in the Constitution (see Article III Section 3) and what the New Your Times did does not pass this test. What was done by the Times was the crime of Lese-majesty. Or even sacrilege, depending on how you look at it. It was certainly disrespectful.

There was a good reason why the authors of the Constitution put such a limit on just what treason was in the United States. Every one of them had committed treason against the Crown (not counting open rebellion). If you want to see a document rampant with disrespect for the Monarch just read the American Declaration of Independence. So forget about the rebellion AKA Revolution, the treasonest act of Lese-majesty was also committed. But the President of the United States is not a Monarch, nor is he a divinely appointee representative of a God, nor a god Himself, nor a divinity. So we get to be as rude as we like to who ever holds the office.

So, Pres. Trump you need to get your lapdog, or is is lap-turtle, Sen. McConnell to get a new Constitutional Amendment passed making any act of Leses-majesty an act of treason. Maybe you can combine it with the one making the office hereditary in the house of Trump?

Remember November 2016

Politics, Rants

 As it is exactly 28 days to the mid-term elections I thought it appropriate to point out some things I’ve been thinking about.  First and foremost this time two years ago ‘everyone’ knew that Hillary was going to win the election and be our next President.  Didn’t happen.  It is not my place to say why, others with more expreance,   Insight, and information have written mountains of things on the subject.  I dare say even more will be written in the future.  After all Donald Trumps win was stunning in more ways than one and is truly one for the history books.  No here I want to talk about something my folks thought me…..”Hope for the best, prepare for the worst”.

What I’m doing now is doing everything I can, as little as it is, to get the vote out. But living in California, an a liberal part for that mater, there is very little I can do.  So what I’m concentrating on is preparing myself mentally and spiritually for the GOP keeping control of the House and picking up some seats in the Senate.  Liberals and progressives have to be ready for all those people who have “left” the GOP to find it next to impossible to vote for a Democrat. They will either stay home or vote the same old way they have always done.  To have a true Blue Wave we need every vote we can get.  Most particularly in all of the Red States and Districts if this is going to work.

Finally all of the Blue bastions, States, Counties and districts need to get ready for a TON of retaliation to come down on our heads.  The Trumpkins belieave in taking  vengeance on EVERYONE they think just may have been anything less than totally loyal and dutifull.  We must be ready for some very long hard times in the next two years as Trump and his supports do everything they can to drive the Not Trump Vote into the ground.  An to all those conservatives out there, this mean you too, if you haven’t been loudly, publicly, unthinking supporter of TRUMP,  THE GREATEST PRESIDENT EVER.

 

See you at the poles in four weeks and if you don’t vote just remember “It is just as much your fault as all those who vote for the GOP/Trump”.

Trump & the California Wildfire

Rants, , , ,

Rant alert!

I can not believe just how ignorant President Tweets about the wildfires in California are.  I usually give the people who live east of the Mississippi a little slack in not understanding the water situation here in the west…But Really!  What Pres. Trump says goes beyond stupid into the realms of total asininty.  First off, all the water west of the High Serras will either flow into the sea or end up evaporated into the air.

I have to assume that here is complaining about the laws and rules that  insist that enough water flows into the Sacramento River to keep the sea water of the San Francisco Bay from flowing up river and killing off the fish and other life of the river delta.  Even if we used all the water diverted from the North to the south, letting the southern  San Joaquin Valley, and everything south of the   Tehachapi‘s dry up and blow away it still would not have prevented or put out the wildfires.  California doe not get even half of the rain fall New York gets.

We do use fire brakes in our forests.  Also we do have clear cutting in a lot of our commercially logged woodlands, clear cut does not mean that their is no trees left to burn,  saplings bun to you idiot city boy.  If you ever got out of the city and you resorts into the real world you’d see that.

Inclosing these wildfires are the result of several factors, some natural some not.  This is already a long hot summer after several years of one of the worst droughts in the history of California.  There are a lot of dead trees in our forest that are even dryer do to the higher heat.  Finally it was you, and your Administration that has cut back funding to the federal fire fighting effort.  It is your Department of Land Management that has not adequately funded fire  preparedness and prevention.  So why don’t you get off your fat ass and fly away from your golfing vacation and come out To California to see what is happening here?  Could it be you only care about States that voeted for you?  Or are you just afraid of the reception you’d get here in California, even in the red counties of the north?

“No me, Dem’s do it!”

Honor, Politics, Rants

One of my mothers favorite story’s to tell about myself and my Coz Sherry is when we were both still toddlers.  We had both been put down in a crib for a nap together.  My Momma and Sherry’s then when into the kitchen for coffee.  A little while later they hear a crash from the room we’d been put down in.  On entering the room they see the crib collapsed on the floor with Sherry standing holding on to the bars of the crib.  As soon as Sherry saw our mothers in the door she said “No Me! Gim do it!”  I was still laying down looking totally shocked from the rude awakening.

I tell this story because this is just what the GOP and the current Administration are saying about the current Cruel and Immoral policy of separating children from their parents.  The GOP say’s it all the fault of the ‘liberals’, and/or Democrats and/or Clintons who created the law they are only inforceing.  The problem facing the Administration & the GOP is the same as the one faced by my Cuz, the evidence puts to lie, totally, what they are saying.

Make no mistake, this policy is totally the responsibility of the current administration and all those Republicans who support it.  It is cruel.  It is immoral.  It is wrong and it is totally Un-American.  Be sure, America is watching, America knows who did this and who to hold responsible.

November is coming and this election is going to be about just what America stands for.  This tragic event has put the one overriding issue in clear focus.  What kind of America are we?  Are we the America of the Statue of Liberty or the America of Trump!  It is time to stand up and be counted.

 

VOTE

Another Test of the NRA Meme(s)

Philosophy, Politics, Rants

I am sorry to see that once more a mad man with a gun(s) has come forth and provided us with data to test the NRA memes about how much we need “Good Guys with a gun”.  Before I start I wish to say I am heart broken that so many people have had to suffer and die.  To all the friends and families of the victims of the Las Vegas mass murder I can only say I grieve and sorrow with you.  My grief is not your grief, my sorry is not your sorrow.  I say this to you in the small hope that you get some small comfort knowing a total stranger grieves with you in some small way.

I do not know, and I will not even attempt to predict why this massacre in Las Vegas happened.  It is too early and we know too little to say anything definitive about motive of the perpetrator.  Nor will I enter into any discussion of pro and cons of gun control, this is not the time for this to take place.  What I will be talking about is the meme that the NRA is always pushing that the only way to stop a bad man with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

This is a very insidious meme.  Without a doubt this bad man with a gun was stoped by good guys with a gun.  The problem is that the good guys in question were highly trained professionals.  These good guys were not just someone who likes shooting, they were not just great marksmen, they are men and women who train for just this kind of crises.  They train individually and they train togeather.  They know what they are doing and they know what their team mates are going to doing and going to do.  An this is why the meme of a ‘good guy with a gun’ is so insidious.

This meme gives the impression that any good guy with a gun would be an asset in the kind of situation that happened last night in Vegas.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Don’t just trust me, go ask any policeman or other first responder just what the effect of a bunch of armed civilians running around in the CF that Las Vegas was last night.  I won’t even attempt to give you any of the many scenarios that come to my mind as I write this.  What I will do is talk about ‘seeing the elephant ‘.

Let’s do a little experiment here, go find a combat vet.  Find an marine, or an army fire team member.  Someone who has been in actual combat.  Someone, as Bill Malden put so eloquently “a member of the benevolent and protective order of those who have been shot at” and ask them this:  What happens to someone the first time they are in combat, the first time they are shot at?  I think they will tell you there are just three things you will do

1) Break and run-a-way

2)  Freeze

3) Follow training/orders

An they will tell you one other thing; until you are in actual combat you have know idea which one of the three you will do.  If you are real real lucky and well trained it will be 2 or god helping 3.  But you will not know till you really do see the elephant.

This is why I will always fight this meme.

Incloseing I’d also like to point out that Nevada is a functionally ‘Open Carry’ state.  That is to say that the state laws regarding the open caring of firearms are enforced with a very light hand.  Next Las Vegas was getting ready for several gun shows and there was an influx of people with many many guns for these show already.  Given this there should be a good number of ‘good guys with a gun’ in the area of the shooting.  I await with great interest to see the data on just what all of these gun toting good guys did when the massacre started.