Life’s too short [Life story]

We have the free will to do thoughtless things that can bring harm not only to ourselves but to others as well. Evidently I am still able to forget lessons that I’ve already learned.

Somewhere out there I am now a “This idiot tried to pass…” road story for a couple of truckers. They would probably use slightly more colorful language.

Toward the end of 2015 I had been dealing with some health issues and made a trip back to Wichita, Kansas for some tests. (We had recently moved to Missouri and had not yet chosen doctors at our new location.) On my return trip home to Missouri the doc in Wichita called me on my phone with the results. Let’s just say that they weren’t the best of results to get over the phone and I was distracted. I would like to say that I was driving deep in thought but well…you know.

Whenever I returned to Wichita I tried to make sure I drove back with a load of stuff we had in storage there. So, I had a full load on the Nissan pickup and was pulling a fully loaded cargo carrier. That tends to make my little truck less responsive. Okay, a lot less responsive.

I had been behind a slow moving semi for quite a while. We hit a stretch on the downside of the hill where I had enough room to pass. When I first pulled out to pass a little voice said, “Not enough time”. But I went anyway. Ever done that?

Anyway, I found myself looking at the front of a truck closer than I have done since 1966. (I had fallen asleep at the wheel driving home on leave and woke up in the wrong lane looking at the front of a truck with his horn blaring. Incidentally, I could tell the guy needed a shave. Life can get interesting in just a few seconds. A lot of thoughts can go through one’s head very quickly. The first of which for me was “what a stupid way to go.”)

Once again I found myself within a couple of seconds of being a splatter on the front of another semi approaching from the opposite direction. I had passed the point of no return; it was either pass or go for the ditch and it wasn't a good ditch. I couldn't tell if the driver needed a shave but he did need a trim. My little Nissan and I barely made it. Emphasis on the barely.

We think about having time to do some things before our last moment happens. My plan has always been if I had a few seconds to simply close my eyes and think about dancing Shelley down the aisle like I did at our wedding. Instead I was just hoping not to pee my pants or worse.

Some things, like telling my wife that I love her every day, several times a day, I don’t have to relearn. Telling my family or friends that I love them is easy for me. But I do forget to pay attention at times to the little things that are important. I forget to acknowledge the constant little joys of the day. Too many times I put off enjoying what’s right before me.

Here’s one very small example. I have this beautiful hand-made coffee cup. My wife picked up the cup at Ghost Ranch located in New Mexico while she vacationed there on a “no stinky men allowed trip” with her family. It has incredibly thin sides, minimalist turquois glazing with Indian symbols on the slightly flattened four sides. I saved it for “good” use only; meaning that it hardly ever got used but was admired by me almost every day hanging there with other special cups on the coffee bar.

One day I bumped the coffee bar and the cups swayed. My bestest cup swung into another cup hanging there, made a tinking noise and chipped a tiny piece of glaze off the lip. The cup I hardly ever used was now damaged goods.

How many things do you have that you save for “good”; using them only for special occasions? I’d like to make a suggestion: how about we try and make every day a special occasion; treat every conversation as if it were the last one?

My dad was sitting on a table, leaned over and then he was gone, from a massive coronary. A neighbor of ours was walking down the hall of her home, fell and was gone before she hit the floor. Our older brother was diagnosed with brain cancer on a Thursday and was gone by the next Monday. I found out a cousin had passed away a year and a half after she was gone. I was halfway through writing her a letter when I learned. Every person has similar stories. “Why, I was just talking with them a couple of days ago!”

Families and friends have squabbles and say things that reach past today and into the future. To what end? Is that what will be remembered? “I never talked to them again and our last conversation wasn’t good.” Every time we see or talk with someone it might be for the last time. Remember that. Hold onto that throughout your day. We may think that we have plenty of time, perhaps years, when we may only have days, minutes or that last time that we’re with them right then.

Those of the faith should remember that one of the prime directives above all others is to love one another. Those with a different corner stone should bring what’s best about humanity. Do good things. Do things that don’t bring hate, anger, hurt feelings, regret, sorrow or tears unless they’re tears of joy. Fill your day with good acts, thoughts and last moments. Be the best version of you.

Donald Trump knows [Politics]

As I mentioned in “The back door” the first indication that Donald Trump knew he’s losing came when he hedged his bet for the Presidency by having a family member test the waters for Trump TV. They did a beta test during the 3^rd debate with the hash tag #TrumpTV on their live stream. Now Trump TV is up and running on Facebook.  Gotta’ give it to the guy—always looking for a way to make a buck. He’s like a gambling addict--he can’t help himself, always trying to feed his addiction to himself.

Another indication that Donald Trump knows he’s losing has now occurred. He’s saying that he is going to sue every woman that comes forward with allegations that he sexually assaulted them after the election is over.

Two things.

First, does that really sound like something a President should be doing? Once he started he, as President, would open himself up to having to testify under oath. (That’s how Bill Cosby did himself in, for those that don’t remember.) Imagine, years of this sordid crap in the news. Incidentally, after he lost he would be counter-sued; the President is not immune from civil litigation.

Second (and most plausibly) is that he’s pretty sure that he’s going to lose and believes that it’s in his best interests to start threatening those who have stepped forward and accused him of sexual assault. He seems to believe this course of action will be a deterrent to additional women stepping forward. I can’t help but remember that Cosby accusers started stepping forward slowly. The sheer weight of numbers finally silenced him. Now Cosby’s just waiting for the ax to fall. Trump is working at joining him.

Trump continues sending mixed messages. At a recent rally he asked his supporters if he should even have run. An odd question to be asking at this stage of the election. It also isn’t a good idea to go around telling supporters that the election is rigged so be sure and vote. What’s the incentive there if he doesn’t believe that their vote is going to make a difference?

I would say put a fork in him but we really don’t know what that last week is going to bring. What will Putin or Assange do in regards to trying to influence our election? Late in any campaign it’s difficult to respond to new allegations or threats in any meaningful way to any last minute hit pieces. That’s why perpetrators wait until the last minute.

If you believe in our country, you should vote regardless of who you’re going to cast your ballot for. Don’t depend on others to fulfill your civic responsibility. Whatever happens you’ll know that at least you did your part.

Charitable comments [Politics]

It would show how insightful I am if I could claim much knowledge about the Al Smith dinner reported in the news; I can’t though. I had to look up stuff. It’s remarkable that I can be sitting here in a little two room domicile in a barn in Missouri and have immediate access to all kinds of information. I now know that it’s an annual event for Catholic charities for needy children that is hosted by the Archbishop of New York.

It’s evidently a long standing tradition for both Presidential candidates to attend. This is not an event attended by the hoi polloi. (I love working that word in since I know how to spell it now. It’s almost as much fun as just making up words. Almostly.) The elite attend this event. People with money. Billionaires. Yes, more than one. We’re talking fancy suits now. Rich people. Lots of ‘em. You couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one.

Donald Trump managed to get booed and cat-called at a charity event for bitty children. Several times. (I’ve watched the video.) How do you do that? From the comments coming from attendees this doesn’t happen often. This is a bigly deal evidently. Did he read the comments he was going to give beforehand? What kind of joke writers did he use anyway? He started off nice enough but then it’s like he fired all the joke writers mid-speech and went with the script writers of “Plan 9 from outer space.” I mean it was OMG painful to watch. Why couldn’t his mic fail when we needed it?

And we have the next day’s headlines and we weren’t even done with the ones about him undermining our republic. What next? What new headline will tomorrow bring? It’s exhilarating yet enervating at the same time. Is he meeting with his 200 retired generals to plan a Trump d’état in case he doesn’t win? I can hardly wait to see what the morrow will bring! 

Our time here. [Inspirational]

The older I get the more I think about mortality. Not an uncommon occurrence as we get closer to the end. We start to wonder when buying big bottles of pills if we are in fact buying a lifetime supply.

The other night I was thinking about my wife, our life together and life in general.

Here's what I know.

Life and death are capricious. Here one second and gone the next. Blink of an eye.

We have the time that we have.

We get this one chance to do it right.

Don't take the day for granted. Find some part of each day to enjoy.

While there is ambiguity in the many interpretations of the bible available there is also clarity when it comes to the expressions of Jesus. There is eternity. There is salvation. There is putting god first. There is love. There is caring about our fellow human beings. There is placing the less fortunate and the poor first in line. We should do more than say we're Christian. We should be Christian.

We're supposed to ease suffering not cause it.

We're to be less concerned with self-gratification and material gain.

The perfect church edifice or leader doesn't exist. We can't create a church in our image.

We can question every action we take or don't take to the point of non-functionality.

There's never going to be enough time to get all those projects done.

There will never be enough time to spend with loved ones, family and friends.

We have the time that we have.

Make the most of it.

Make sure that the people you love know that you love them. Say the words, sign the words or write the words:

“I Love you.”

The back door [Politics/3rd Debate]

How about that debate, huh? After all the aforemath the aftermath was pretty much the same.

Perhaps the most telling incident occurred behind the scenes before the debate took place. But more on that later.

Moderator Chris Wallace did an excellent job. It’s a formidable task keeping two ego-driven, strong personalities under control. For the most part he was able to do that but there were a couple of times I wish he had had one of those air horns or maybe a starter pistol. I hate it when they’re both talking over one another. What they’re saying is lost for the most part. Not effective. Not effective at all.

As in the previous debate Trump didn’t need to just hold his own or come out a little on top. He’s a candidate declining in the polls; he needed a decisive unquestionable victory. He needed to be the dominator. He needed to talk circles around her, not stalk her. He needed to knock the ball out of the park. Instead he hit a grounder.

As far as the “debate” goes I will give it to Clinton again on technical performance. Technically they both screwed up bigly but she was much less bigly about it. (I like the word bigly. Shortly legitimizes it. Thank you.) In general, she was again the more poised of the two and comported herself better. Whether we like it or not, it’s about appearance and I’m not talking physical appearance.

Once again Trump’s lack of preparation worked against him. He doesn’t practice being civil at rallies. The problem for him is he brings his personal style to a debate and it doesn’t work well in that environment. For one thing the feedback from a positive crowd is missing. He feeds off of that and uses it to provide direction to his comments. Since he can’t have Hillary Rodham Clinton physically removed he’s reduced to interjecting snarky comments. Such actions don’t give him an appearance of strength.

Trump’s continual denying in debates things that he says, when the videos and audios of him saying them are all over the internet, works against him. It isn’t his evil twin that we’re watching making those comments. It’s him. Hillary Clinton at least has the sense to try and figure out credible responses.

Again Trump stomped on any gains he might have made by making the next day’s headlines about him negative. He said that he wouldn’t accept the outcome of the election. He said that he would keep us in suspense. By saying that he ensured that negative headlines would stay in the news along with his refusal to release his income taxes and comments about sexually assaulting women. Yet again he manages to keep Hillary Clinton’s negative news on the back pages.

But as I mentioned in the first paragraph what happened before the debate is perhaps most telling. In addition to all of the external polls the two main parties are doing their own internal polling and also have a pretty good idea of how the election will probably go down, though we don’t see those.

What we do sometimes see is a letter or sign, even before the vote takes place, where the second (VP) will let people know that they’re available for work after the election. In this case it wasn’t the second, it was the son-in-law, Jared Kushner, shopping the idea of a Trump television network. While Trump supporters might like the idea of Trump Presidential network it would probably be just a little too Banana Republicky to sell. More realistically the Trump campaign family knows how this election is probably going to go down and is dutifully trying to figure how they can make money off of his following. They even rolled it out by televising the debate #TrumpTV. It’s a savvy move. But it isn’t Presidential.

The polls will continue to provide insight as to how the election is going. The election is November 8^th. I will accept the outcome. 

We are the United States of America.

The art of the con [Politics]

You can’t con people, at least not for long. You can create excitement, you can do wonderful promotion and get all kinds of press, and you can throw in a little hyperbole. But if you don’t deliver the goods, people will eventually catch on.

I’d never understood how Jimmy Carter became president. The answer is that as poorly qualified as he was for the job, Jimmy Carter had the nerve, the guts, the balls, to ask for something extraordinary. That ability above all helped him get elected president. But then, of course, the America people caught on pretty quickly that Carter couldn’t do the job, and he lost in a landslide when he ran for reelection.

The above two paragraphs are not mine. They belong to Donald Trump. They came from his book “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” In between the words above Trump was talking about how Jimmy Carter had come to ask him for donations to his Presidential library. In the paragraph right after he threw shade on President Ronald Reagan.

 This time around Trump is the one running the con, just as he described. This time, as we approach the finish, voting citizens appear to be catching on to Trump not being the man that he says he is. He does not have the stamina nor qualifications of President Carter. He hasn’t been able to deliver the goods in his own campaign.

The major difference between Trump and President Carter is that Carter had a lifetime of service to people through his church, his service to the country, as governor, as President and post-presidency. Oh yes, he also won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Trump has a lifetime of service to himself, making money, avoiding service to his country, and debauchery. There are several versions of Trump to pick from depending upon what he wants at any given time.

Hillary Clinton also has a real history of service to her country and qualifications too numerous for mentioning here. She also has blemishes, real blemishes, not the fake ones made up by men with the morality of Trump. She received them in the ring while doing the job. She made mistakes and owned up to them. Fortunately you don’t have to take my word on her qualifications. Here’s what Donald Trump said about her:

Hillary Clinton I think is a terrific woman. I’m a little biased because I’ve known her for years. I think she really works hard and does a good job.

Well I know her and she’d make a good President or Vice President.

How did she do as Secretary of State? Probably above and beyond everybody else.

That version of Donald Trump knows she’s the best candidate. Be like this Trump—vote for Hillary. He did.

Apologizing v. forgiveness [Politics]

For a Christian the concept of apologizing for something versus asking for forgiveness can be tricky. We may apologize to Jesus for our actions but we have to ask for forgiveness. I’ll probably have to ask for forgiveness before this post is finished. Saying that we’re sorry isn’t the same as asking for forgiveness. I may tell a friend that I am sorry or apologize for telling them the truth about something and hurting their feelings but not want forgiveness for being truthful.

People are forgiving Donald Trump for his actions. Trump is specifically not asking anyone, including God, for forgiveness. There is video of him quite specifically and repeatedly stating that he does not ask God for forgiveness. People are forgiving him so that they can ease their own consciences. Forgiving someone so that we can commit a bad act doesn’t make it better.

In the ongoing debacle of the 2016 election Trump could have apologized and asked for forgiveness from women that he said he had assaulted. (I’m going to guess that his lawyers wouldn’t have been happy if he had accepted responsibility for his actions.) Instead he coupled his apology with an excuse (locker room talk) that made his words less than honest. This isn’t asking for forgiveness for the actions he said he had committed. This is just saying I’m a liar and sorry I got caught being vulgar. Can people really forget that he’s a man who lives to brag about the things that he has done? He denied doing the things that he bragged about doing. He also claims he doesn’t lie. Does this make him a truthful liar? It’s a conundrum.

Before I go any further I want to say that I have watched the video of him dealing with this issue multiple times. Anderson Cooper had to ask him several times if he was denying that he had done what he said. Trump finally worked a “no” response in during a stream of consciousness talk about ISIS. How hard a question is it to respond to? Seriously? How hard? That should have been an easy no. Instead Cooper had to drag it out of him. And if he hadn’t repeatedly gone back to the question Trump wouldn’t have answered. I don’t think that he wanted to answer. His answer is what pushed his accusers over the edge.

So, victims stepped forward saying that he done to them exactly what he had talked about doing. Oops. Not good. It’s not Bill Cosby not good yet but it’s getting there.

Trump could have stopped talking about it but as he has often said—he’s a counter puncher. So in addition to denying that he had done anything he called them a variety of names and said that they were ugly as in not attractive enough for him to grope. Then his supporters went after them. One victim said that she’s going to leave the country because she fears for her and her family’s safety. Way to go Trump supporters. Nothing says support like witness tampering.

This is why women don’t come forward especially when they’re up against one of the billionaire global elite. Trump is now playing the “I’m the poor victim card and women are picking on me.” Kinda makes me want to call him a cat. I apologize for the remark but I don’t ask for forgiveness.

Forgiveness isn’t difficult for Jesus. He can forgive all. He would forgive all. He did forgive all. There is one caveat. We have to ask him (God) for forgiveness. There isn’t a reward.

Media Bias [Politics]

Is media coverage of Trump biased?* I think that it’s a fair question to be asked in a Presidential election.

Let’s try this in regards to media coverage especially if you’re undecided. For the sake of this argument about media bias pretend that there’s a new candidate that burst upon the scene and got elected President. Take any candidate names out of the equation. (I know that this will be impossible for some people.) After the election you learn the following about the President:

·         Hadn’t paid any taxes for decades.

·         Incited people to violence.

·         Cheated sub-contractors out of payment.

·         Owes hundreds of millions to bankers.

·         Was caught talking about how they had sexually assaulted women because of their wealth and status.

·         Then women came forward claiming to have been sexually assaulted by him just as he described.

·         Cheated openly on at least one of several wives.

·         Had multiple bankruptcies.

·         Wouldn’t release their tax returns.

·         Had multiple failed business ventures.

·         They had been involved in thousands of lawsuits and settled some out of court including settling racial discrimination charges out of court.

·         Being sued for scamming people out of money for a false educational school.

·         Are currently being sued.

·         Had a cameo in a soft pornography video.

·         Okayed referring to their daughter as being a piece of ass.

·         Allowed for their private airplane to be used for a nude photo shoot of their spouse to be.

·         Praised the leadership of foreign dictators.

·         Their name came up on FBI wire taps of mafia members under investigation.

·         Lost a billion dollars.

·         Have financial interests in the Middle East, China and Russia.

·         Operated a charity illegally.

·         They were far less rich than they claimed.

·         Claimed to buy politicians and was then accused of bribing elected officials.

·         Had zero qualifications for public office.

·         Has never served the interests of working people

This list could be a lot longer but I’m going to stop here. If you found out all the above AFTER the election was over would you blame media for not reporting information like this? Would you think that journalists had done their due diligence in reporting on the candidate? Would you be upset that they had not done their job and that you had a right as a citizen and voter to know these things about a candidate for the highest office in the land?

Traditional news outlets are going away. Print media is in decline because it’s well…print media in a digital age. News is now about market share, revenue dollars and entertainment. That’s why we have “talking heads.” We still have thousands of hard working journalists doing their jobs. Headlines sell advertising.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is in the news but stories about her current activities are lost in the headlines that Trump is constantly generating. He’s a man who has said bad publicity sells. Hillary Clinton has been under the media spotlight for decades with every aspect of her personal and private life being taken apart on the public stage. She’s been investigated over and over again along with her husband Bill Clinton. They’ve been taken to court. She’s been called before committees. All this scrutiny and no convictions from the people that hate her guts and have been in charge of her investigations. With the exception of the 33,000 deleted emails (investigated by the FBI—no charges) there’s nothing new. The Benghazi inquiry by 8 Republican committees has gone on for 4 years now. No charges from people dedicated to taking her down. What we’re seeing now predominantly from alternate news sites is the same stuff that we’ve been hearing about for decades recycled, reformatted and presented as new.

Trump missed all this scrutiny. Digging into his past and current actions has taken place on a much compressed time frame and he has only served to bring more scrutiny on himself in instances where he decided not to cooperate like in releasing his taxes or working with other Republicans.

Trump has decided to try and make former President Bill Clinton news again but we’ve already been there and done that in the news for months on end. None of this is new news. It isn’t bias not to hash through all of this stuff again.

A couple of billion dollars of free media publicity during the primaries helped Trump win the Republican nomination. He was calling in interviews sometimes doing them minutes apart. He was a sideshow, a carnival barker talking about the size of his penis. Now though he’s in the Bigs. Different ball game. But he’s still an attraction.

Here’s the problem with Trump. On Tuesday 10/11/16 He told his supporters at a rally in Panama City, Florida to be sure and vote November 28th. This kind of statement from a Presidential candidate is newsworthy. Did he misspeak? Probably, but with Trump it’s hard to know, based upon his lack of knowledge concerning the mechanics of how our government and the real world in general is supposed to work. But this is mild compared to how he usually ends up in the news with his actions and words. He’s a walking, talking media attraction on a regular basis—at times daily.

For their media support Trump, along with his some of his supporters, are depending upon a traitor like Snowden, fugitive Julian Assagne of Wikileaks and the Russian hackers at the direction of Putin to help out with “source material” for his campaign. Why is that? Because all of these people are trustworthy, honorable and are above corrupting any of the data in their hands that they’ve had for months? Why would the “True Patriot Americans for Justice” or whatever super patriotic name they claim and Fox news trust people like these before their own citizens? Their conspiracy beliefs are so deep that the foreigners they say we can’t trust are the ones that they go to now for information. Trump passed along “information” gathered from these sources towards the end of the debate. Guess what? The information was wrong!

Had that long list in the beginning had Hillary Rodham Clinton’s name as the person that committed those acts Republicans and Trump would be screaming that citizens had the right to know. Citizens do have the right to know even if it’s one of the Global Elite like Donald Trump.

*Not all media. The alternate hate Clinton trust no one but us Alt Right news conspiracy media are excluded because they’re fiction sites.

Conservative Madrasas [Political]

Having just read my umpteenth post about the undeniable evil of the Clintons it occurs to me that we now have an entire generation of children that have grown to adulthood, raised within an environment where things are viewed through a filter of distrust. Conspiracy theories are endemic. A generation raised not to trust: government, law enforcement, the courts, media, specific groups of people like those who have education and those who don’t think like them. Agents of the New World Order are everywhere. The UN is trying to take over America. Black helicopters with men dressed in black prowl the skies. Being armed is encouraged in order to fight back when the agents come for you. What’s more those who don’t buy into all the paranoia are to be ridiculed. Stay away from those people, you don’t need that kind of liberal negativity in your life.

 There is the actual history of events supported by reality as opposed to a contrived history not supported by the facts. Where does all this alternate faux history and education come from?

Well, that got me to thinking about Madrasas.

Throughout the Middle East there are schools called Madrasas or Madrassas. Madrasa is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious. Some of these schools have come under criticism for teaching a radical form of Islam to children just as we have Christian schools that teach extreme views of the faith.

 These Madrasas are physical locations but these days thanks to modern technology the internet has become an educational institution accessible to anyone with access. (I’m happy, yet sad.) The internet gave a larger voice and reach to the Alt Right movement. You can look up the definition of what the Alt Right movement is on Google. I almost went with the definition provided by wiki but decided to go with one from the Southern Poverty Law Center instead:

The Alternative Right, commonly known as the Alt-Right, is a set of far-right ideologies, groups and individuals whose core belief is that “white identity” is under attack by multicultural forces using “political correctness” and “social justice” to undermine white people and “their” civilization. Characterized by heavy use of social media and online memes, Alt-Righters eschew “establishment” conservatism, skew young, and embrace white ethno-nationalism as a fundamental value.

Now the above definition is the far Alt Right. If you’re a holocaust denier you would be with this crowd. If you’re not a white supremacist or anti-Semitic you would be to the left of this extreme but still be with the Conservative Alt Right. As example, Brietbart News is considered a conservative Alt Right news source. Pat Robertson would be in the Religious Alt Right.

As far as the Alt Left is concerned I don’t have much in the way of a definition for the Alt Left. The Alt Right would probably call them liberal cultural Marxists and other more colorful nouns. (Throw in neo something or other for both of them.) “Christians Tired of Being Misrepresented” would probably qualify as being religious Alt Left as well as…well…The Christian Left.

In essence the faux history is coming from literally hundreds of Alt Right sites. They started pumping this stuff out through email at the very beginning. As the internet and social media evolved so did the Alt Right. They are exceptional at dis-information. Seriously! I am impressed. They have videos and books as well.

In the beginning I would spend hours checking and tracking all the various accusations passed along to me from these sources. They always ended with the same result: Not factually truthful. I don’t bother doing it any more.

I have friends, or at least used to, of all kinds of political persuasions. From the very beginning years ago the Alt Right stuff poured in starting with email. VCR tapes and books were passed around as well. The Anarchists Cookbook was also popular. That’s kind of ironical. I have received more racist stuff and seen more racist postings in the last 8 years than I have seen in my entire life. What do I mean by racist? A picture of our First Lady morphing into a monkey eating a banana is the type of racist crap that I’m talking about. I have not received this kind of material from my liberal friends.

Here's an example of how people can be duped: there was a family member that was drawn into the “Y2K bug civilization will collapse theory*.” We would receive books, email, VCR tapes and all sorts of references to alternative sources of information provided by those with “inside” information. They became a survivalist, moved, acquired guns, lots of ammunition, survival equipment and provisions enough to make it through the breakdown of society. No, you didn’t miss it. It didn’t happen in spite of all the “information” from trusted alternative news sources that said it would.

What we see now with the Alt Right is a continuation of the same methodology. In other words they just make stuff up with information that doesn’t exist mixed in with real life events. Get people that are already pre-disposed to believing the worst or having a predetermined expectation of what to expect and you have an audience of believers. They will not only drink the Kool Aid they will ask for more and pass it around. It is poison. They are poisoning minds and society.

Then the leadership of the Republican Party started pushing the same narrative because it served their political agenda. Their agenda was to blame President Obama for everything and not to pass any legislation he proposed no matter how beneficial it was to American citizens. This played right to the Alt Right's hands. Liberals are liars. Democrats are liars. Media lies. They were the truth tellers; the champions of the Constitution. Then they turned on the Republican leadership. It turns out that they couldn’t be trusted either—especially if they had principles and put the country before the party.

So, no, I don’t need to watch any more videos about how the Clintons are a part of Murder Inc., Bill Clinton’s love child, Obama is not a natural born citizen, or the endless stream of crap that has been debunked over and over again. To the true believers nothing will ever change their minds. If you see this stuff like “This will end Hillary Clinton’s campaign, The secret video Hillary doesn’t want you to see, etc.” and the link is to some real patriotic sounding name, web site or social media page that you’ve never heard of save yourself some time. If it sounds outrageous don’t bother with it. The problem is that with Trump outrageous is going mainstream.

The Alt Right has to make Hillary Rodham Clinton evil in order to make her one of the lesser of two evil choices. I will state again that I don’t believe either of them is evil. However on the worst day of her life she is more qualified than Donald Trump on the best day of his life.

Yes there’s evil in the world. We don’t have to join in. We don’t have to incite people to violence.  Believe in our system of government. Believe that all the major news organizations are trying to do their jobs. Believe in our legal system though fallible we keep working on it. Believe in normal. Believe that not everyone is out to get you. Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay.

If you’re a Christian keep in mind that Jesus was liberal. Jesus believed in the good of people and doing right in the service of others. That was Jesus’ normal. Be normal.

*From Britannica: Y2K bug, also called Year 2000 bug or Millennium Bug, a problem in the coding of computerized systems that was projected to create havoc in computers and computer networks around the world at the beginning of the year 2000 (in metric measurements K stands for thousand). 

Losing Jesus [Religious]

I think we started losing Jesus when the bible became an idol and we started worshiping words. Words were placed before people; nametags to use for branding. The scarlet letter became different labels for people to wear in conversations of faith. Saying words rather than living the faith became enough. Actions no longer speak louder than words. The faith is something used against “different from us” people.

There is so much noise in the world. At times I feel like we’re watching an old TV and are looking at the “snow” that appeared when the channel couldn’t be tuned in. At times movement could be seen but nothing was clear enough to follow.

Immorality became entertainment. Immorality became reality TV. Avarice, greed, hateful behavior, aggression, deception, all manner of human frailties as well as bad behavior are encouraged and rewarded. All the aforementioned sells. It lines pockets. Intolerance became a bandwagon for the faith to follow. Get a following. Pass judgement. Exact revenge. Confessing and acknowledging sins to Christian Judges came first. Changing the world into a more pedestrian image of what Jesus meant became the goal.

Just as there is a natural order to the world there is also a natural chaos. The chaos of the elements, the physical world. So much of chaos is noise that drowns out gentler voices and thought.

Chaos is a never-ending cycle of destruction and building, a step forward and half a step back. We gain in knowledge and understanding but the evil that has to be dealt with also changes and grows. Often we acknowledge it but embrace it anyway to our own detriment—like praying for our President to die*.

There’s no way to keep chaos out of our everyday lives. Even if we choose to ignore it; we can’t escape it, whether it’s a violent wind, the ground beneath our feet opening up or mankind’s capacity for inhumanity. We are bombarded every day with horrific images, violent actions, and incendiary language to the point of sensory overload. It’s there pounding away, reaching farther and being more intrusive.

It’s hard not to feel adrift on the sea with a storm approaching. We are being surrounded by technology in our sacred islands. Church is becoming view screens, sound systems, talking heads, bands, snack bars, advertising, data crunchers, demographics and finally the Jesus business looking for market share. It is overpowering to me.

The struggle between Christians and what Jesus “is” will continue. Jesus will still be Jesus. There is no chaos to Jesus. His life is best exemplified by the way he lived it, in service to helping mankind and two simple commands. Love God. Love your neighbor as yourself**.

*Psalm 109:8-9 May his days be few; may another take his office! May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow!

**Matthew 22:37-40

Presidential Speed Speeching [Politics/Debate]

These aren’t debates, they’re more like speed speeching. I am all in on that suggestion of cutting the mics after 2 minutes.

As in the first debate, which Trump overwhelmingly lost, he needed to do much better than just hold his own in round 2. He’s trending downward in the polls so he needed a tour de force performance. He gave a Trump performance; the kind of performance his supporters love. So far that hasn’t worked when it comes to convincing the undecideds who they are going to vote for. They’re trending to Hillary Rodham Clinton as we approach Electageddon. Subsequent polls will provide us an indication of who won.

Trump added to his controversy for the next news cycle before the debate began. He foreshadowed his own performance whether it was bad or good. He trotted out, against advice not to, women that claimed former President Bill Clinton committed various sexual improprieties against them. He doesn’t seem to understand that he’s running against Hillary Clinton. Wives are often perceived as being victims of philandering husbands.

And here I go—off message and not talking about the debate. Why? Trump did it to himself. He may have done it to throw Hillary Clinton off her game but he really needs to stop poking the bear. It isn’t working out well for him.

Then he starts off in the debate apologizing but coupled the apology with the “locker room” defense. This is not a good defense for a man who was caught on tape talking about sexually assaulting women by grabbing their personals. He would have been way ahead if he had simply apologized and then just STOPPED.

What was with all the sniffing again? Trump did that in the first debate too. I’ve watched way too much video of him lately but I haven’t seen him doing that in any of them or at his rallies. Another conspiracy?

Trump said during the debate that it was 3 against 1. At one point he seemed to be complaining that the moderators interrupting were getting in the way of him interrupting when Hillary Clinton was interrupting. Nevertheless, he managed to talk longer than Clinton. My personal feeling is that when a person says stuff like that it makes them sound weak and that they know they’re losing.

Then it was like he was playing Lurch, following her around. His campaign manager said that’s what people would talk about rather than him winning. That means she noticed him doing it too.

While they both avoided answering some questions, I believe that Hillary showed the more professional behavior of the two. Her responses were more coherent while Trump tends to wander and be repetitive when answering questions. He leaves out words like when he’s talking about the “nuclear.” At times I think that he’s talking about the triad but at other times it seems he isn’t. During the primary debates he didn’t know what the triad was.

People may decry the negativity but often the same people fill up Facebook with it. And why do politicians do it? Because it works. The number crunchers and polls have demonstrated that year after year. It’s what sells. We’re the audience and they know what we respond to.

The polls will tell us how the undecideds responded. 

You had one job…[Politics/VP Debate]

Here’s my take on the Vice President debate. Hands down Mike Pence won. Pence is the Republican far right evangelical running mate of Donald Trump. I pass this along because people might not know who the candidates for Vice President are.

I would have given the debate to Pence just because Kaine was so incredibly rude, repeatedly interrupting and talking over Pence. Regardless, Pence still won the debate. Mike Pence is a professional Washington Republican politician with years of service and was unflappable. He maintained his poise and decorum for the most part. His responses were measured and well delivered.

Tim Kaine, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s running mate, mainly needed to avoid shooting himself in the foot like Trump did several times in the first Presidential debate. He also needed to avoid doing any serious damage to the ticket when debating Pence.

Before watching the debate I spent some time checking out whether or not the VP debates had ever made much of a difference in the polls or outcome of elections. I was surprised to find that by and large they had little effect since they are the number 2 spot on the ticket. It seemed that there have been indications that they could stop a trend. Polls for the next week or so will provide an indication of what effect if any the VP debate between Kaine and Pence had.

I loved this sentence about the debate from a Washington Post article written by Abby Phillip: “But Clinton and Kaine had a larger goal in mind than winning the debates themselves: to create a series of compelling sound bites that they planned to weaponize for the reminder of the campaign.”

Isn’t that great? They spent hours upon hours figuring out how best the debates could be used to advance the election in their favor. Kaine made his points, interruptions and all, in order to get Pence’s response or non-responses on video. Since the debate they have been releasing campaign videos of Pence lying repeatedly, playing his denial of saying something and then video of him and Trump making the comments he just denied that either of them said. I’m not sure if I’ve ever watched an ad that effective.

When it comes to debates there’s winning and then there’s winning. It turns out that Tim Kaine was a good soldier and did his one job.

Under observation [Politics/Conspiracy]

I remember telling Shelley when Ronald Reagan was President that the man was in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease. I had noticed him doing some odd things in conversations and video that looked to me like classic early symptoms. The press eventually locked on his behavior and began asking questions. He was eventually diagnosed with having the disease; my belief is that we had sitting President with Alzheimer’s disease.

I don’t make that statement to be critical or hateful. Two in my immediate family have had dementia of different types. It’s difficult and dehumanizing. It takes away the essence of a human being. It steals away memories and functionality. It’s a horrible disease.

A couple of things, make that several, have caught my eye over the course of this 2016 campaign. Donald Trump has been called a pathological liar on a regular basis. This happens because he lies so incredibly frequently about things that he has said. I have personally watched him lie in real time within minutes. This happened during all the call-in interviews that he was making during the primaries. (This is during the time when the television media that he hates was giving him a couple of billion dollars of free air time.) On one call he commented on a particular political clip that he had seen concerning him and a few minutes later on another interview said that he hadn’t seen the ad. There was really no point in making that claim and the newscasters were aware that he had just talked about it. They just laughed it off incredulously. “Well, that's Donald Trump."

In the 1st televised debate he said that he was smart for not paying any income taxes. Then a few hours later denied having made the comment in front of some eighty plus million people. When Hillary Clinton brought up the Miss Universe Latina that he had insulted years previously Donald Trump inquired, “Where did you find this? Where did you find this?” I have reviewed the clip several times and it looks to me like he was hearing this for the first time. I believe he really didn’t remember and this may be the case for any other of the number of falsehoods he perpetrates.

In the past I have said that I believe that he lives in the moment and believes what he says at the time he says them. He frequently accuses a biased press of lying about him even though there is often video, audio or interviews of him readily available, often from multiple sources. I have spent a lot of hours looking at videos of Donald Trump. It isn’t a case of biased media. He is a fabrication of himself. He has created this caricature that is Donald Trump. He is what he is and has a long history of being Donald Trump. He is the best. Everything he does the best. He doesn’t need to ask God for forgiveness because he is Donald Trump and everything he has done is justified by him. He said during the debate that he has said some disparaging things about Rosie O’Donnell but that everybody agrees with him and everybody agrees that she deserves it. It’s safe to say that half the country disagrees with him but he makes grandiose statements like this on a regular basis. He is the spokesperson of humanity. Unfortunately, the great fabricator has a flexible relationship with reality. I specifically wanted to use the word reality as opposed to the word truth.

Since so many made such a huge deal out of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s cough I think that it’s worth considering that a man that can’t seem to remember what he said a few hours ago, calling back things that he has said in the past, having a limited vocabulary, being repetitious, struggling with words, unable to focus, short attention span and the list goes on, MIGHT HAVE A PROBLEM.

These kinds of things can also be attributed to simply having senior moments. Is it always the case? No. My grandmother was sharp into her 90s as was my wife’s grandmother, also in her 90s. But go and check out Donald trump’s early videos. He didn’t have this sing song repetitious speech pattern that he has now. He was much more coherent and lucid in his talk.

My reality is that I am nowhere close to where I was even a decade ago. But, I am not running for President. I am not an expert in the field by any stretch of the imagination, but it would certainly explain a lot if Donald Trump is in the process of losing his mental faculties—especially the frustration and outbursts.

Go yourself and look at the contradictory statements and denials that Donald Trump makes in videos. Reputable news agencies have lists of all the lies that he’s told. Now I understand that we aren’t supposed to trust the news agencies but they are much more trustworthy that all the conspiracy and political operative sites out there. Ask yourself why he cannot remember something that happened less than a day before. Why can’t a man with a miraculous memory remember anything when being deposed? Check out President Reagan and his struggle with the disease and the early symptoms.

He’s either intentionally lying to the American people on a regular basis or he genuinely can’t remember at times: his short term memory is shot and his long term memory retrieval system is failing.

How’s this for a conspiracy theory? Better than a cough? Okay, I’ll admit that it only took me 20 minutes to bang this out. It certainly doesn’t have the legs of the Birther movement or the cachet of the Clintons’ Murder Inc. conspiracy theory but it’s my first foray into just making stuff up, mixing it in with known events and putting it out there. I should have added that a famous doctor, Dr. Whoozit, has been analyzing Trump’s actions and has confirmed that there’s an 85% chance that he has Alzheimer’s disease. That would really make it credible!

There are at this time thousands of people in this country dedicated to making stuff up and putting it out there. It’s what they do for entertainment and some of them even get paid for it. It’s a cottage industry. It might even be that that 400 pound guy in a bed that Trump was talking about is doing it right now.

People, stop looking at that crap! It feeds itself. Once you head down the rabbit hole it’s hard to remember what normalcy is like. One whack site leads and links to another. They are self-serving and self-promoting. Believe no one but them. They’ll have some new concoction ready for your consumption in a few minutes.

In the meantime…

There are thousands of journalists, real journalists, working in a shrinking industry, being squeezed out of jobs by bottom line pencil pushers and guys in suits like Donald Trump who has victimized thousands of working people and is still doing it. The thousands of people working behind the scenes in newsrooms, television studios, internet offices, cubicle dwellers, technical support from the janitors on up are working stiffs just like the rest of middle class America. Trying to make a living and do their job. Do you really believe all these working people in the media industry are in on this conspiracy?

They are simply reporting what Donald Trump is.

A taxing situation [Politics]

Donald Trump tweeted, “@BarackObama who wants to raise all our taxes, only pays 20.5% on $790k salary. http://1.usa.gov/HFZJKH  Do as I say not as I do.”

Donald Trump tweeted, “Facebook billionaire gives up his U.S. citizenship in order to save taxes. I guess 3.8 billion isn't enough for (cont) http://tl.gd/hdnk92.”

Donald Trump tweeted, "@conservativeJT: @bluejoni @realDonaldTrump Trump is an American that will pay more taxes in one year than you pay in your entire life.”

This was his position until he got caught in the open being a rich tax freeloader.

The New York Times got hold of Trump’s 1995 tax filings in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He lost $916,000,000. How does losing almost a BILLION dollars in a good economy in the casino business work out to him being a financial genius? Well, I have to admit that I’m not sure an amateur could lose that much money but that would just make him a professional loser.

In 2014 Donald Trump said that he would release his tax returns. Period. The video of him saying it is available online. http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/09/16/donald-trump-2014-taxes-comment-nr.cnn

Donald Trump has vacillated for months now about releasing his tax returns. He’s milking the attention he’s received from the media that he claims is biased. He received billions in free media coverage during the primaries and is doing so again during the general election. Does Trump really hate being picked on? Here’s what he said in his book “The art of the deal.”

 “Even though the publicity was almost entirely negative, there was a great deal of it, and that drew a tremendous amount of attention to Trump Tower. Almost immediately we saw an upsurge in the sales of apartments. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, and in truth it probably says something perverse about the culture we live in. But I’m a businessman, and I learned a lesson from that experience: good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.” [PP 175-176] 

Only in this case just substitute “supporters” for “the sales of apartments”.

But Trump is, after all, a braggart. I don’t mean that to be insulting. It’s his nature it’s what he does. He does it continually. Well, except for when he takes a breather to insult people. He brags about whatever he does including his failures and even if it’s a complete fabrication. When he does fess up, and that isn’t often, he will immediately blame someone else like the whole birther movement. I mean he was Captain of the Birthers. Make that Emperor. (Being a Captain is beneath him like joining the military when he had the chance.)

However, it should be troubling even for Donald Trump supporters that he’s gaming the system and won’t release his tax returns. Trump often places himself above the law. He’s different than the rest of us. He has over 3,400 lawsuits to prove it. He’s lost or settled about a third as best I can determine. He has paid millions settling out of court to keep from going to trial and being found guilty.

Now I understand that it isn’t the law and there isn’t any rule making it mandatory that candidates release their tax returns. But he is the first candidate in 40 years that hasn’t released his in a timely fashion, with the exception of Richard Nixon. Nixon didn’t release his until after he was elected and ended up owing almost a half million in taxes. If I remember correctly that was almost half his net worth. That’s reason enough to want to see a candidate’s tax returns

You would think that he would revel in rubbing people’s nose in his vast wealth. He’s so rich that he was going to self-fund his campaign except he couldn’t. He’s so rich that he can owe hundreds of millions to bankers. He’s so rich that he doesn’t need government subsidies except he did. He’s so rich that he has given millions to charities but his Trump Foundation has been funded with other people’s money for the last few years. Now we discover that his foundation hasn’t been operating legally.

He says that his lawyers and accountants advised him not to release them. Were the other candidates advised by their lawyers not to release theirs? Doesn’t matter. They released them anyway. At this point everyone, including Trump supporters, should understand that he has zero legitimate reasons for refusing to release his tax return unless he’s gaming our system of government yet again.

My favorite excuse of his is when asked to release his tax returns Trump says that he will when Hillary turns over 33,000 DELETED emails. Does he understand what the word DELETED means? Perhaps he does. It’s the perfect excuse for never releasing his tax returns.

Here’s the deal. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been investigated and been found NOT GUILTY. To expand that: in over 2 decades of investigations by those who hate the ground she walks on, they have never been able to find her guilty. The HRC haters heading the 8 Republican committees that investigated her could not find her guilty of committing any chargeable offense. Also, she has released her tax returns.

His son maintains that if his dad releases his tax returns he’ll lose votes. He should know. 

It just doesn’t matter [Politics]

There’s a scene in the movie “Meatballs” that I just love. It’s the “It just doesn’t matter” speech given by Bill Murray’s character Tripper. Some of you may remember the speech. You can Google those words and bring up the scene on YouTube to refresh your memory. It just lasts a couple of minutes so you should do it now if you don’t know what I’m talking about. In the movie there is a rivalry between a two summer camps. Tripper is a camp counselor at North Star, the underdogs. They are losing badly, as they have done 12 years in a row to the Mohawks. In the scene I’m referring to Tripper is giving a “pep talk” to rally the troops. In the talk he says that whether they win or lose the really good looking girls are still going to go out with the Mohawk guys because “they’ve got all the money.”  My favorite line from the scene is, “It just doesn’t matter if we win or lose.”

Social media is getting uglier by the minute whether a person has a few friends or a few thousand. There’s a reason that I’m bringing it up today as the doomsday election draws ever closer. As we fast approach the time when our earth becomes a burning nuclear cinder circling the sun it might be worth considering being a little nicer to one another in these end times. After all, anybody can be a jerk in difficult times. It might be harder, but shouldn’t we choose being nice(r) instead?

I’ve had to unfriend some people from Facebook because their posts were just too personally offensive. There are lots of posts of the nature of if you’re voting for ________(Fill in the blank.) you’re stupid or a special kind of stupid, or ignorant, or an idiot, or…oh, just fill in your favorite pejorative. Those are mild examples. There are posts that go way beyond mild. Being generic doesn’t make them any less insulting, offensive or personal.

At this point in time what we say or do, other than voting, really isn’t going to make any difference in the overall scheme of things other than to incite people to anger and/or cause hurt feelings. Whether people are interested in reaching out or not the point to consider is “It just doesn’t matter.” It would be wrong in the current atmosphere of extreme hyperbole, mistrust and incitement to make assumptions as to who friends, family or acquaintances might be supporting or what ideals they might hold.  The person being called a name may even be a loved one who knows better than to state their position openly because of the comments that have been made. It has EXACTLY the same effect if you post a generic meme that says “If you are voting for Hillary, you are a complete idiot” as if you posted on my timeline, “Keith, you are an idiot for voting for Hillary.” Next time you’re tempted to share one of those memes, think about the effect it may have on your Facebook friends.

Here’s the deal though and I think this is important. How we interact in our social circles big or small isn’t really going to make any difference in the big picture. Shelley and I have already done our homework and know how we’re going to vote. I believe this to be true for the majority of the voting population. The smaller number that haven’t made up their minds, the undecideds, regardless of their affiliation are the ones to whom people should really be reaching out on behalf of their candidate. I don’t believe that insulting people is the way to put a best foot forward for the candidate being supported.

Our vote is just a grain of sand amongst others (which is not to say it is not important). But how we act with each other is important and has consequences. We are examples to others whether we like it or not. How we express ourselves speaks to the ideals that we hold. If we say that we’re of the faith or people know that information about us then they will view us through that filter. With that in mind I believe that we should be able to justify what we do and how we act, especially to the younger ones. I think that we should be able to do that without insulting people who aren’t the main characters in the show of life that we’re watching.

NSWF XXX 2016 Campaign [Politics/Adult content]

What a campaign!

I was going to use a different title but the wife said “Penis” would be wholly inappropriate anywhere in a title.  Turns out it was just as inappropriate as several story lines that I ran past her involving the campaign, the White House and porn. Dealing with an editor can be such a pain. But there you go.

When this campaign started, I really thought when penis size made its way into the debate that would be the low point. That seems like such a long time ago. Now I find myself yearning for those days of innocence and wondering if we’ll ever get back there again. Men bonding over dealing with their hormones. Going through puberty can be tough for some guys—especially late bloomers.

After the penis issue, nude pictures of Donald Trump’s wife started circulating. They were pictures taken on Trump’s plane. And then nude pictures of her with another woman taken years earlier surfaced. Then there was a period of relative quiet on the seamy side of the street until a Latina tangled with Trump accusing him of fat shaming her and not paying her for her work as Miss Universe. And then Trump dug up (made up) some information on his victim that she had made a porn tape. (She hadn’t.) And then after making more disparaging comments about her he encouraged America to watch the tape. Yes. He told America to search for and watch a sex tape. Thank you, Donald Trump!

Wife:  “What are you doing, Dear?”

Me:  “Searching porn sites for a particular video?”

Wife:  “What is the matter with you? Seriously?”

Me:  “It’s research.”

Wife:  “Like when you read Playboy for the articles?”

Me:  “Yes. Exactly like that. Thank you. Only this time I’m going to write one of those articles!”

Wife:  [Eye roll combined with sad look and big sigh.] “How long do you plan to ‘research’ your big article, Woodward?”

Me:  “As long as it takes.”

Eventually, though, after hours of fruitless searching I did have to stop looking. In the interest of being fully informed I will take up the search, make that research, again after I’ve rested. It’s in the national interest.

And then it turns out that Donald Trump himself was, I kid you not, in a soft porn video. Interestingly, I was able to find that one. A grateful nation is glad that he wasn’t nude in the movie. G. R. A. T. E. F. U. L. Even though that would have settled his penis size question once and for all. 

And then…

It’s like we’re trapped in a soap opera where each episode is more outrageous than the last. Amazingly Trump has proved able to keep on delivering. He stays up until the wee hours of the morning doing research. Him and that 400 pound guy lying in bed.

I can’t help but think that there is some fist pumping and high fives being given at Trump campaign HQ! At least I hope that’s what they’re doing with their hands. Those folks have to be so excited about what each new day will bring!

I wonder if they will let the candidates bring video clips to show at the next debate. If not, the least Trump could do is stuff some stills in his jacket to whip out during the debate. That would be great. If they do they should consider dimming the lights at the venue out of respect for the office that he is seeking.

They are more likely to come up with some new rules like:

·         Candidates will stay behind the podium.

·         Candidates will keep their hands visible and above their waists at all times.

·         Raincoats will not be allowed.

·         Body parts will not be talked about in whole or in part.

·         The audience will not be encouraged to view pornographic sites nor will links be provided to said sites.

·         If you wouldn’t say it to your mother don’t say it here.

And then…

It turns out that Trump hasn’t always found porn “disgusting”. In fact he watched the sex tape of a young woman he had known when she was a beautiful 12 year old. (He was friends with the family.) This is starting to take on a whole bigly creepster perv atmosphere so I think I’ll try and stop.

And then…

Trump said that he’s going to start talking about Hillary Rodham Clinton and her marital troubles. Bring out the popcorn, folks, and sit back. Trump is going to start shaming a woman for her husband’s actions. This is the kind of stuff America loves.

Footnote:  Blogger has software that provides internet traffic sources amongst a lot of other statistics. As of today, this is another I kid you not, I have Russian sources listed.