A Torch has been Passed

 

by Pa Rock

Observer of History

 

Jimmy Carter, the man who along with his wonderful wife Rosalynn, set a very high bar for public service by former First Couples, has been in hospice care for twenty months.  He turned one hundred just over two weeks ago on October 1^st, but reaching the century mark was not the former President’s primary motivation for hanging onto life.  He told family members that his goal was to live long enough to vote for Kamala for President.
 
And yesterday he did that very thing.  His grandson confirmed that Jimmy Carter cast a mail ballot early Wednesday – and that he definitely voted for Kamala Harris for President.  The fact that Carter cast his vote in his home state of Georgia, one of the few hotly contested states in the nation, well, that’s just gravy!
 
If Jimmy Carter, a centenarian in hospice care, can summon the strength and resolve to vote in this very critical election, then dammit, we all can!
 
Vote as early as you can, and vote like democracy depends on it – because this time it really does!

Three Generals Dump on Trump

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump, a man well-known for his authoritarian tendencies, likes to surround himself with the trappings of power and to be served by powerful people.   During his term as President, Trump often turned to the military to fill important roles in his government as a way of emphasizing his strength as the leader of the nation.

(Donald Trump never wore his country's uniform - nor has any member of his family - but he is reportedly very proud of one that he did wear at his private high school.)

But while Trump saw the military leaders whom he brought into the inner-circles of power as symbols of his strength, they were taking the measure of their boss and forming their own opinions as to his personal strength and character - and now they are talking.

Three United States Generals, all of whom were elevated to their highest positions by Donald Trump, are now speaking candidly and contemptuously of their former commander-in-chief.  They were literally at the heart of American government during the Trump years and had unique and clear insights into the mind of the man who was leading our nation.  The recollections and reflections of General Jim Mattis, General John  Kelly, and General Mark Milley with regard to their boss, Donald John Trump, are deeply disturbing and unsettling.

General Jim Mattis, now retired from the Unites States Marine Corps, was Trump's first and longest serving Secretary of Defense, managing to hold the office just short of two years before resigning in protest to Trump pulling US forces out of Syria.   A year after Mattis left the administration, many Americans took to the streets to protest the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Mattis referred to those widespread demonstrations and the administration's combative response as "the result of three years without mature leadership."   He called Donald Trump:

"The first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people - does not even pretend to try.  Instead he tries to divide us."

General John Kelly, also retired from the United States Marine Corps, was Trump's longest-serving White House Chief of Staff, the man responsible for making the White House operate in an efficient manner.  Kelly is the person who eventually brought to light many of Trump's disparaging and disgusting remarks about America's military veterans.

In an interview with CNN last October Kelly des described Donald Trump as:

"A person who thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all 'suckers' because 'there is nothing in it for them.'   A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because 'it doesn't look good for me.'  A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family - for all Gold Star families - on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are 'losers' and wouldn't visit their graves in France."

(General Kelly is himself a Gold Star dad, having lost his 29-year-old son to a landmine while he was fighting with US Forces in Afghanistan in 2010.)

General Kelly, who worked as the gatekeeper for the Trump administration for multiple years, went on to describe Donald Trump in that same CNN interview as:

"A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women.  A person who has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.   A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior (Gen. Mark Milley) who has served his country for forty years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason - in expectation that someone would take action.  A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators.  A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, the Constitution, and the rule of law."

Ouch!

And last, but certainly not least, is General Mark Milley, now retired from the U.S. Army and the man Trump appointed to oversee the operations of the entire US military as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  Milley, a former Army Chief of Staff, served as Chairman of the JCS for the final fifteen months of the Trump administration and continued to serve out the remainder of his two-year term in the Biden administration.  After he had been out of office for nearly three years, Trump suggested through Truth Social that Milley had behaved in a traitorous manner by informing Chinese authorities that the American government was stable and functioning during the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol - and the former President insinuated in the same post that death would be an appropriate punishment for that call - a call which had been authorized by members of the Trump administration.

Excerpts from Bob Woodward's newest book, "War," which were recently released by the publisher, reveal that General Milley described Donald Trump to Bob Woodward as "fascist to the core," and then added, "Now I realize he's a total fascist.  He is the most dangerous person to this country."

Three Generals, a total of 12 stars, and a big pile of damning allegations by exemplary military leaders, men whom Trump trusted and placed in pinnacle positions in the military and the government.  They observed him at close range, day-in and day-out, and now they are sharing their observations with the rest of us mere mortals - and what the Generals have to say about Donald Trump, the petty autocrat and dictator wannabe, is alarming.  These Generals recognize Donald Trump's ability to wreak havoc on order and democracy, and they want us to recognize it too.  

Donald Trump seeks to divide us and keep us fighting among ourselves.  He has a very limited understanding of our country's history and almost no appreciation for the tremendous amounts of sacrifice that went into the establishment of America - especially the sacrifices of our military - and he looks to the world's absolute worst autocrats and dictators as his personal role models for how to lead a nation.

Jim Mattis, John Kelly, and Mark Milley are not political hacks - they are highly regarded military leaders who have more than a century of combined service to our nation, its Constitution, and democracy.  They are fully aware of the threat Donald Trump poses to our future and our freedom, and they want us to be aware that danger as well.

When people like General Mattis, General Kelly, and General Milley speak, we all need to listen.

The Reality of Retirement

 

by Pa Rock

Shaky Senior Citizen

To all the young whippersnappers out there who think you will live fast, die young, and leave a beautiful corpse:  good luck with that.  The chances are far greater that you will hang around a lot longer than you intended, put on weight, suffer through thinning hair and failing eyesight, and go through multiple life partners and all manner of social and physical indignities as you age.  

The reality of aging is that is that is a a long and drawn-out process that seems to fly by.   One day you are master of the universe going in six different directions at once as you storm through life, all the while planning and yearning for those golden days of peace and tranquility that will be your retirement - recreation, and travel, and fun in the sun, oh my!  And the very next day, almost literally, you are awash in unsolicited advertisements for Medicare supplements, Part-D prescription drug plans, and burial insurance.  As a retiree, much of your day involves appointments with medical providers and trips to the pharmacy, and much of that centers on sitting patiently while waiting to be served.  (Old people have nothing but time on their hands, so why rush to serve them?)

I saw two medical providers last week and this week I have already seen three - and it is only Tuesday.  I am headed to the pharmacy as soon as today's very late blog is posted, and on Thursday I have a doctor's appointment a hundred miles away that will involve nearly four hours on the road.  I have been to the local emergency room three times since June and to an "Urgent Care" once.

That is the reality of retirement.

If you are dreaming of a retirement on a beach somewhere sipping Pina coladas at sunset, just know that there is probably a snake waiting patiently to slither across the sand and bite you in the ass.

If it weren't for medical providers and pharmacists I would have almost no social life.  The secret to a good retirement is to find ones you like and will enjoy getting to know because they are going to be the people with whom you spend most of your time.

It's Time to Save Democracy

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is in a steep and rapid mental decline, and anyone who fails to see that is either not paying attention or has so much riding on the election that they feel they nave no choice but to deny reality and cheer on their impaired candidate.

When Trump gives his long-winded speeches he spends his time at the microphone either wallowing in obsessions or wandering off on tangents.  Immigration is a primary obsession with Trump.  It riles his base and gets them stomping and clapping while giving Trump a chance to exercise his race-baiting skills.  This week he even veered into the dark and deeply disturbing topic of eugenics as he claimed that immigrants are genetically predisposed to commit violent crimes.  He said that many murderers had immigrated to the United States, and then went on to say "I believe this, it's in their genes.  And we've got a lot of bad genes in our country right now."   As he talked about the impact of race on society, the elderly politician seemed to be channeling Nazi talking points from the 1930's.

Other recent Trump obsessions that have literally no relevance to his or anyone else's ability to run the country (and are generally lies) include Kamala Harris's work history (Did she or did she not work at a McDonalds while she was putting herself through college?), Kamala's "low" IQ and general mental ability, election fraud, the crowd size at his rallies, bitcoin, tariffs, the coming Great War and/or Depression, government hurricane relief efforts, and electric vehicles.

Trump gets distracted by his obsessions when he is giving a speech and may switch topics almost at mid-sentence.  But he also tends to mentally wander down smaller paths and rabbit holes and begin talking on things that just happen to cross his mind.  A few times during the last several weeks mentions of the fictional cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, popped up in Trump's speeches - something about Hannibal having a friend over for dinner - a joke, one supposes, though not necessarily appropriate or funny enough to be included in a speech by a serious presidential candidate, and each time Trump told it, he seemed to be suffering under the delusion that it was fresh material.

Donald Trump has also gone off on recent tangents about sharks, batteries, the word "grocery," paper clips, "dumb women," and artificial intelligence - to name but just a few.

In addition to Donald Trump getting mentally lost in his obsessions and tangents, he also has a very bad habit of saying things that aren't right, occasionally through not knowing and just letting words fall out of his mouth, but often times through intentional lying.  He tends to get confused such as when he mixed up "mental asylums" with "asylum seekers," or when he switched Nikki Haley with Nancy Pelosi,  or when he said that he had almost been killed in a helicopter crash with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown - who claims to have never been in a helicopter with Trump.

Those are all misstatements of one degree or another, but Donald Trump also lies with a complete disregard for both the truth as well as public safety.    His continued lies about immigrants from Haiti in Ohio eating cats and dogs have stirred hate, placed people in danger, and interfered with the functioning of schools and local government.  He has also said that schools are sending children for gender-affirming surgeries without their parents' knowledge, a complete and total lie designed to destabilize public education in America.  Trump has even said on multiple occasions that doctors are committing abortions at nine months of pregnancy - at the time of birth - or, more plainly, killing living, breathing babies - another complete lie and one designed to increase the level of danger that doctors and their patients already face.

It is mean, it is disgusting, and it is done with an abundance of malice aforethought. 

But all of that is just preamble to the Trump we are faced with today, at this very moment.

Trump has said that he is going to "fix" our country's military by establishing a commission to identify and remove "woke" military leaders (those who have dared to express progressive views on anything), and replace them with uniformed human automatons who will do his bidding - and now he is saying that he will use the National Guard and the military to quell the "enemy within."  Trump says:

"We have some very bad people.  We have some sick people, radical left lunatics.  And I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or, if really necessary, by the military because we can't let that happen."

And there we have Donald Trump's framework for a peaceful America:  cleanse the military and create an officer corps in his own fascist image - and then turn it loose on the people who show their disloyalty to America by daring to disparage Donald Trump.

That's his plan, and I believe him.   Dementia will not be a hinderance.

There is a true "enemy within," and he can only be stopped at the ballot box in November.   It's time to purge our political system of Donald John Trump and save democracy!

Gypsy's October Surprise (Ode to Joy)

by Pa Rock

Dog Valet 

It was still dark this morning when my son let the big dog, Gypsy, out for her morning constitutional.  Gypsy likes to take a brisk run around the property before doing her business in order to learn whether any of her friends have visited during the night and peed on the rosebushes or vehicle tires - and to make note of any other changes that might have occurred since she was last outside the previous evening.  This morning she encountered a new creature on the back five close to where the groundhogs like to play during the day.  Gypsy didn't know what this little guy was.  It looked sort of like a black and white striped cat, so she walked in close for a good sniff.

Gypsy won't be doing that again any time soon.    The skunk raised its fluffy tail and managed to spray the big dog right in the face!

Oh, the joys of country living!

Nick, who was in a rush to get to work, managed nevertheless to give his dog a good scrubbing before he left, but remnants of that appalling odor are still lingering in the house three hours later - though it is not nearly as bad now as it was at 6:00 a.m.

Oh, the joys of having pets!

Actually, people don't "have" pets, it's the other way around!

Oh, the joys of being owned by domesticated varmints!

Imagine having pets that would do the shopping, make the meals, look after all of your personal needs, and clean up your messes.   Now that would be the life!

Pa Rock is going to quit typing now and go light some incense.   It's almost time for him to start preparing his masters' lunches and then take them for their midday walks.  A pet's work is never done!

Oh, the joys of knowing your place in the world and accepting your lot in life!

Olive at Thirteen

 

by Pa Rock

Proud Grandpa

I have known all day that it was my oldest granddaughter Olive's 13th birthday, but the thought didn't occur to me until just a few moments ago that I had forgotten to wish her a happy birthday in this blog, like I do for each of my six grandchildren every year.  Olive, that's an 'old age' thing, and I am truly sorry for getting this posted so late in the day.  In fact, darkness is falling as I sit here typing.

Olive is in eighth grade this year and will be entering high school next year at the very tender age of thirteen.  She skipped sixth grade entirely which put her on a faster track educationally.  Don't hurry too fast, Olive.  Life isn't a race, it's an adventure and well worth slowing down to savor along the way.

I did get to see Olive and her little brother, Sully, earlier this week when I visited in their home near Kansas City, but both youngsters are extremely busy and I didn't spend as much time with them as I would have liked.  But I understand the social demands that come with growing up - and especially for a teenager -  and I am glad to see both of them adjusting to school and peers and life beyond the house.

Olive, congratulations on becoming a teenager.   Enjoy eighth grade and all that comes with being in Middle School.  I know you are a good student, and I am very proud of the hard work that you put into school.  I look forward to seeing you and your family in New York City in two weeks!

Happy, happy birthday - with much love from your grandfather, Pa Rock!

Whoopi Wallops a Whiner

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In an effort to reach voters who aren't regular consumers of the mainstream news sources, the Harris campaign has been booking Kamala and Tim and their spouses into some non-traditional news and information sources.  On Sunday Kamala Harris was a guest on the podcast "Call Her Daddy," a show directed toward young, adult women with an estimated following of five to ten million members in host Alex Cooper's "Daddy Gang."  Almost the entirety of that show focused on women's reproductive health care and abortion access.

Tuesday Harris was on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" where she and the host each cracked open a beer which they enjoyed as they discussed the election, Donald Trump, and world affairs.   Harris wisely chose a "Miller High Life" which is brewed in the politically important swing state of Wisconsin. 

Also on Tuesday Kamala Harris appeared on ABC's "The View" and participated in a political discussion with the show's multiple female hosts.  For some reason that appearance seemed to really get under Donald Trump's skin, and the next day he lashed out at Harris as well as two of the show's hosts.  While campaigning in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Trump verbally assaulted Harris calling her "grossly incompetent" and "totally ill-equipped" to be President.  Then he went after two of the show's hosts, both women of color.

In attacking Sunny Hostin, who is Black and Latina, Trump said, "That is one dumb woman.  Sorry.  I am sorry, women, she's a dummy."  (Psychologists call what Trump did there "projection," as he projects his own shortcomings onto others.). 

Trump attacked Hostin in Scranton.  Later in the day in Reading, Pennsylvania, he turned his fire on another of "The View" hosts, actress and comedian Whoopi Goldberg.  Trump called the Black Ms. Goldberg "demented" and "foul mouthed."  Trump said he had hired the Academy-award winning actress once for a comedy event at his casino in Atlantic City, but said "her mouth was so foul" and her comedy set was "filthy, dirty, and disgusting."

The next day - Thursday - the hosts of "The View" fired back at their attacker, and Whoopi Goldberg in particular, directed some very pointed remarks at the politician.  She said:

"I was filthy and stand by that fact.  I have always been filthy, and you knew that when you hired me.  I headlined, babe, at your casino, which I might have continued to play had you not run it into the ground.  How dumb are you?  You hired me four times."

It sounds like Trump was a fan of Whoopi Goldberg's plainspokenness until she turned it on him.  

The needle on Donald Trump's moral compass also seems to be bent.   A recording of him talking about grabbing women by the genitals has been circulating for several years, last year he was found liable for sexual assault of a female newspaper columnist by a jury in New York, and this year he was convicted of 34 felonies in charges related to paying hush money to a porn star to cover-up an affair in order to keep it from impacting his election prospects in 2016.

But he who bellows loudest . . . 

Trump Bibles Printed in China for $2.85 Each

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The Associated Press and other news sources began reporting this week that the now infamous "God Bless the USA Bible," aka "The Trump Bible," has been being printed in China, a country at which Donald Trump routinely wails over its "unfair" trade practices.  An investigation by the AP has revealed that at least three shipments of the Bibles totaling 120,000 arrived in the United States from Hangzhou, China, earlier this year, and that the Bibles had an estimated cost of $342,000 - or $2.85 each.  Here in the United States they retail for $59.99 each.  (That is a very sweet markup of 2,004.91%!)

(Note:  Not being a mathematician, I arrived at that figure by posing the following to ChatGPT:  "If something costs $2.85 to manufacture and sells for $59.99, what is the percentage of markup?"  My AI good buddy says it is over 2,000 percent.  If you disagree, shoot him, not me!)

"The God Bless the USA Bible," aka "Trump Bible," was the one the state of Oklahoma seemed hellbent on buying for its public school students in grades five through twelve just a couple of weeks ago - one in a leather or fake leather covering that contained the King James Versions of the Old and New Testaments, the US Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and the US Bill of Rights.  Oklahoma revised its bid specifications last week in what appears to be an effort to stem criticism and open the bidding process to more vendors.

So what does a $2.85 Bible look like? 

Reverend Tim Wildsmith, a Baptist minister with his own YouTube channel, reviews Bibles, and he ordered a copy of the "God Bless the USA Trump Bible" to review it.    Rev. Wildsmith described it as a "cheaply made book" and reported that the cover was faux leather, the words were "jammed together" on pages making it hard to read, some pages were stuck together and ripped when pulled apart, and that there was no copyright page or information about who printed the Bible or where it was printed.  Reverend Wildsmith concluded, "I was shocked by how poor the quality of it was.  It says to me that it's more about the love of money than it is for the love of our country."

The latest version of the Trump Bible was printed after the July 13th assassination attempt on the pitch man / politician and bears this stamp on the cover:

Donald J. Trump

45th President

of the

United States of America

The Day God Intervened

July 13, 2024

Hurry!  This offer won't last long!  Get yours today while supplies last - and before the price goes up!

Ranger Bob's Missouri Voting Guide

 

by Pa Rock

Missouri Voter

(Note:  This blog's good friend, Ranger Bob Randall, has been dealing with some health issues of late and not feeling too perky, so I was both surprised and pleased to find the following commentary on Missouri Voting from him in my email in-box yesterday evening.  Bob had just received his absentee ballot for the general election in the mail and was preparing to mark it -  and as he reviewed the ballot the retired National Park Ranger banged some commentary into the email machine and gave me permission to reprint it here.  Bob's musings serve as a voting guide, of sorts, especially with his insights into the Missouri initiatives which are on this year's ballot.  He has done his research.

For what it's worth - and that is admittedly not much - my own views on the candidates and the issues match Ranger Bob's from one end of the ballot to the other, a fact which pushed my desire to share Bob's political musings.  If you, too, find yourself agreeing with what he has to say, please do not hesitate to share a link to today's blog with any potential voters - especially if they live in the show-me state.

Thanks, Ranger Bob, for penning today's post!  

Pa Rock)

Ranger Bob's Missouri Voting Guide

by Bob Randall

I opened my absentee ballot. The first part is easy. Kamala, Tim,
Lucas, Crystal, and whoever those people whose last names were DEM.
It was a little harder for locals. Should I leave them blank or write
in someone's name. Last time around, a friend wrote in my name for
President. I didn't win but I got a vote. 

The amendments are off to a bad start. Amendment 2 is about sports
betting. I don't care if people want to bet on anything from jumping
frogs to presidential elections. Both are poor excuses for sports but
that's not a problem. While gambling can become addictive when, well,
let's just blame it on the feel good hormone, dopamine. How can you
prevent gambling addiction? Throw money at it, I guess. The Amendment
will create a Compulsive Gaming Prevention Fund. Since the feel good
hormone is probably responsible for sex addiction, I wonder what will
be next. Maybe a similar fund if Amendment 3 concerning abortion
passes. So the real problem with deciding how to vote on Amendment Two
is money. I suspect that the authors of the amendment language stand
to make a lot of money if it is approved. That's still not the
problem. How much will go to education? Now there's the problem. I'm
genuinely concerned about the loopholes. The Missouri Auditor's fiscal
note is here: https://auditor.mo.gov/FiscalNote/ViewFiscalNoteFile/1528.
I have often told myself that I shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy
of the good. Anguish and hand-wringing. I'm pulling the lever for NO.
Actually, I'm filling in an oval with ink which has much less drama
than pulling levers. Let some honest people rewrite the thing and I'll
vote YES.

Amendment 3 is a no brainer. Get the government out of the bedroom.

Amendment 5 is similar to Amendment 2, as long as you don't strain
your eyes. It's about river boat gambling at the Lake of the Ozarks.
You just know this was written by big money and likely is flawed. I
admit that I did not do research before writing the previous sentence.
Another thing that sticks in my craw is that years ago in the early
2000's, Rockaway Beach tried for a casino but it was turned down. I
have mixed feelings. Was it turned down because it was a flawed deal
or was it nixed by the morals of the Blue Vatican that makes its
worldwide headquarters in SW MO? I don't know but I feel like little
old Rockaway Beach deserves its due.

Amendment 6 is generally about funding law enforcement retirement
benefits. I support that idea but not the way it will work if the
amendment passes. It will be funded by levying costs and fees.
Ballotpedia says it "would reinstate a set of perverse incentives that
tie pension contributions to the volume of arrests, prosecutions, and
other aspects of the criminal justice system." What's that? An
incentive for arrests and prosecutions. Nah!

https://ballotpedia.org/Missouri_Amendment_6,_Levying_of_Fees_to_Support_Salaries_of_Law_Enforcement_Personnel_Amendment_(2024)

Constitutional Amendment 7 is one of the worst of all on the ballot.
It mixes citizenship requirements to vote which are already state law
with a prohibition of Ranked Choice Voting. To me Ranked Choice Voting
is a no-brainer that supports democracy over partisanship. It could
help break us away from the two-party stranglehold and maybe propel us
to ditching the Electoral College. I think this amendment is a ringer.
Say something about citizenship requirements for voting and voters
will vote yes without reading the rest of it. And notice that it is
the last constitutional amendment on the ballot. I'm tired of writing
this by now. I'm tired of reading the ballot by now. I'm wondering why
I even started writing this by now. I'm tired and cranky and this one
makes me even crankier. Damn politicians! I'm voting NO! I wonder if I
fill in the No oval and then add an exclamation mark it will void my
ballot. I better leave out the !

What to do about judges? In general, vote 'em out. If you have other
information about any one in particular, please share. As far as the
two Supremes, this reddit says they tried to keep the abortion
amendment off the ballot. Nuf said.

https://www.reddit.com/r/kansascity/comments/1fo8ogz/regardless_of_your_political_views_these_judges/#lightbox

And that will be how I mark my ballot, but I'm too tired so it will
have to wait until tomorrow. I will report back when the deed is done
and the ballot is hand-delivered to the county clerk's office. Yes,
it's an absentee ballot but I'm walking it in. I am at high risk for
pulmonary disease and I don't want to stand in another long, long line
of coughing rednecks who don't know that they'll be coming down with
COVID in two days.

 

Everybody Stands Up and Claps

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Bob Woodward, one-half of the Washington Post duo of Woodward and Bernstein, who was instrumental in bringing down the presidency of Richard Nixon, has been reporting on the national political scene for over half-a-century.  In addition to reporting, Woodward has been the author or co-author of eighteen  non-fiction books centering on politics.  When Woodward's books go to press, they always stir controversy and headlines.  His latest, War, is no exception.

While War  will not be officially released until next Tuesday, advance copies are already circulating among journalists and the chattering class, and the shock headlines and critiques are already popping up on news sites and social media - as the publishers hoped they would in order to spur sales.

One of the big stories from War is that conversations with people close to Trump convinced the author that Trump has had as many as seven private telephone conversations with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin since Trump left the presidency nearly four years ago.   Trump, whom many believe talks faster than he thinks, has, by virtue of being a recent President of the United States, a vast knowledge of US defense secrets and strategies.  If he has been having unsupervised  discussions with a foreign leader who poses a serious threat to world peace, then that should be an automatic disqualifier for serving again in our nation's highest office.

Trump and Putin both deny those allegations.

Based on his extensive interviews with those in the Trump orbit, Woodward also discloses that Trump sent COVID testing equipment to the Russian leader for his own personal use during the pandemic, equipment that some US hospitals did not have.  If true, that should also be another disqualifier for Trump serving another term in the White House.

Trump and Vlad will stonewall those allegations all the way to the grave.  Trump's own words, however, also provide some insight into the strong bond between the ruthless autocrat and the ruthless autocrat wannabe.  As an outspoken critic of the war in Ukraine, Trump has said repeatedly that the US should not have gotten involved in the conflict, and he has also said if he returns to the White House he could end the war in 24 hours - without presenting anything in the way of a plan to do so.  In that context his close friendship with Putin is extremely troubling.  Will the US under a Trump presidency just walk away from our commitments to the people of Ukraine and NATO?

Perhaps the section of Woodward's new book, War, that is the most revealing about Trump's personality and narcissism is what he wrote about the former President strutting around his home and country club in Florida.  He quoted Trump bootlicker Senator Lindsey Graham as saying that visiting Mar-a-lago was "a little bit like going to North Korea."   The Republican Senator said that whenever Trump enters a room at the resort, "everybody stands up and claps."

A British videographer who visited Trump's Florida club in 2022 said the same thing, and he revealed that Trump especially liked to walk into the dining area and circulate for the applause and attention and that he would intentionally enter and leave rooms several times in an evening just for the adoration and attention.

While "normal" people might be put off by that type of narcissistic behavior, the rich people who pay their dues to dine in Trump's club and for the influence that comes with the membership payment, view it as a normal cost of doing business.  Kim Jong-un would certainly understand and approve.

All of that and Donald Trump is seventy-eight-years-old, speaks on a fourth-grade level, and rambles into incoherence at his long-winded rallies.

America can do better.

America must do better!

 

Veterans ARE NOT Suckers and Losers!

 

by Pa Rock

Veteran Against Trump

More regarding campaign signage:

My good friend from college in the sixties, Xobekim, aka "Mike," lives just a few miles from Tim and Erin in an adjoining Kansas suburb of Kansas City.  He stopped by the house this morning and we went to breakfast at "The Big Biscuit" where the cook piled way too much grub onto my plate.  It was dark when we left the house - and Mike already had more that 10,000 steps for the day on his pedometer and I had about 200 on mine - but by the time we got back to the Macy casa in Roeland Park the sun was up and people were heading off to work and school.  Because we then had a view of the street, I told my old friend that I wanted him to see the signs that Tim's neighbor has up on his house.

The neighbor, who formerly served on active duty as a marine and currently has a son in the Marine Corps, has two large flags affixed to the front of his house, a US Stars and Stripes and the Marine Corps flag.  He also has three large signs, each approximately 18 inches by 30 inches, evenly spaced across the front of his home.  They are attractively displayed and not gaudy.  The one on the left says "Harris-Walz 2024" with an American flag flying over the lettering.  The sign on the middle portion of the house also shows an American flag along with "Veterans Against Trump" in large letters, and the third sign on the right side of the front of the house says boldly, "I'm a VETERAN:  Not a Sucker or a Loser."

We got out of Mike's truck on the street and as he read the neighbor's signs, my friend smiled and led me to the back of his truck where he had a large sign on the tailgate that I had not seen.  It read "Veterans are Not Suckers and Losers."  I guess I had been preaching to the choir!

I have ridden through much of this area today, first with Mike and later with my son, Tim.   All of the neighborhoods are awash in political signs, mostly for Harris and Walz and other Democratic candidates.  There is hardly anything up for Trump.   This is, of course, exactly the opposite of where I live in southern Missouri.

What makes the difference in the politics of rural areas versus those of the suburbs?   Without checking census data for backup, I would hazard a guess that the residents of the suburbs generally have more income and job security than those of us in rural areas, and that better jobs correlate with educational levels.  Education beyond high school opens more doors to better jobs which are often located in more populous areas, and better jobs put more money in people's pockets and more comfort in their lives - and with that comes less paranoia and more tolerance of others.

That's my speculation as to why people in different areas might see the world differently.  There's nothing scientific about it - just Pa Rock scratching his head with one hand and typing with the other.  I don't know much about anything, but I do know quite a few veterans - and there is not a sucker or a loser among them! 

The loser is the dilettante politician who refuses to walk to a French cemetery to honor America's war dead because he is concerned about mussing his hair.  The loser is the person who never wore his country's uniform but is quick to scorn those who have.   A loser is a person who denigrates the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest recognition of valor that our nation awards to its fighting men and women.

And the suckers are the people who offer up their blind allegiance to the loser.

Other Guy Signs in Missouri, Mostly Harris in Kansas

by Pa Rock 

Road Warrior

Rosie and I have made it back to Roeland Park, Kansas, for a night or two at Olive and Sully's house.  It was a mostly uneventful drive, but we had a close call when I failed to see a car rushing up the bypass in Springfield and was almost hit as I pulled onto that busy road.   Fortunately the other driver saw me in time, honked angrily, and then sped on around.  Rosie was napping and completely oblivious to that near catastrophe.

There was a scarier incident, for both of us, when we got out of the car at a truck stop in Harrisonville, Missouri, and I put Rosie on the ground to follow me around to the fenced-in dog park, something we have done numerous times at the same location.  Rosie is losing her vision and I had failed to realize just how serious the problem has become.  I was walking slightly ahead, I thought, and talking to her as we approached the dog park.   When I got to the gate and paused to let her in, I discovered that she wasn't there.  She had wandered off in front of the truck stop.  When I finally spotted her and loudly called her name, she started running toward me at an old angle and wound up in the busy driveway.  I raced to her - as fast as someone my age can race - scooped her up - and all is well.

Rosie can see better at dusk and dawn when we often go for walks than she does in the glare of day.  We both probably need to be sticking closer to home.

Driving up through south central and southwestern Missouri today I did not see any political bumper stickers, which I thought was odd, but I did see quite a few medium-sized Trump yard signs - perhaps two dozen or so.  There were also a few signs scattered about for a couple of incumbent Republican congressmen.  Incumbent Republicans in rural Missouri generally do not waste much money on campaign signs in a general election because they never face a serious threat.

There were no Harris yard signs in rural Missouri.  (I have one in my car, but haven't put it up yet.  I'm waiting for closer to the election because I know that it will quickly get stolen or shot.)  Harris signs started appearing in Waldo, a funky, and undoubtedly pricey, little community in the KC suburbs just barely on the Missouri side of the line.  However, as I crossed Stateline Road and entered Kansas, the Harris-Walz signs began blooming like the flowers in spring.  It was heartening to see, even though I do realize that this is the only open-minded part of the state and the rest of Kansas is largely Trump country just as it is in backwater Missouri.

But incidents and political distractions aside, we are here!  Rosie is napping, and I am fixing to head out with Tim to do a bit of shopping and pick Sully up from school.   He is eight now, and Olive will be thirteen this week - and crotchety old Pa Rock does not get to see any of his grandchildren nearly enough.

Poor me.

Oklahoma Schools are not OK

 

by Pa Rock

Retired Teacher

The chief of public education in Oklahoma is an elected political position with the title "Superintendent of Public Instruction," which for the past year-and-a-half has been held by a 39-year-old Republican named Ryan Walters.  Before being elected to his current post, Walters served in an appointed capacity as the state's Secretary of Education for more than two years.  Walters is generally regarded as a strong proponent of the Christian Nationalist movement.

Walters, a former Oklahoma high school history teacher who graduated from a religious college in Searcy, Arkansas, is currently involved in a "complete overhaul" of the state's social studies standards - standards that as a teacher serving on the former revision committee, he helped to create - and he is promising that this time it will be a more "pro-America and pro-Bible" revision.

Last June Superintendent Walters ordered that public schools in Oklahoma incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades five through twelve.  The state has allocated $3 million for the purchase of 55,000 Bibles to be used in the public school classrooms.

The use of public funds to purchase Christian Bibles for mandatory use in public school classrooms is certainly, on its face, controversial and an expenditure and curricular decision that is sure to anger many citizens of Oklahoma who value the importance of the separation of church and state, but this particular program is complicated even further and made even more egregious by the specificity with which Superintendent Walters intends to carry it out.

Walters has properly put the. purchase of the Bibles up for bid, a process which is normally useful in helping state officials get the best product at the best price for the people's money.  However, in this bidding process, called an "RFP," the specificity is so exact that it appears to narrow the choice down to just two Bibles, both previously endorsed by Donald Trump.   

Walter's RFP calls for each of the 55,000 Bibles to contain the King James Version of the Old and New Testaments, which is pretty much standard fare in Christian Bibles, but then the RFP also calls for the Bibles to be bound in leather or a leather-like material, and also include the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

The Oklahoman, the state's largest newspaper, reached out to a Christian educational supply house, Mardel Christian & Education, which said that none of the 2,900 Bibles that they sell fit the criteria that Superintendent Walters set forth in his bid proposal.

Donald Trump has endorsed two Bibles, the "We the People" Bible ($90) and the "God Bless the USA Bible ($60), and, not surprisingly, both fit the RFP offered up by Superintendent Walters for the Bibles he wants the state to purchase for its schools.  At this point, those two Trump-endorsed Bibles seem to be the entire market, though another manufacturer could conceivably rush something to print.

Donald Trump stated in a financial disclosure last August that he had already received $300,000 from sales of the "God Bless the USA Bible," the one priced at $60 each.  

Drew Edmonson, a Democratic former Oklahoma State Attorney General, said that the bid "does not pass the smell test," and he warned that the courts could void it if the bid was found to limit competition.

The entire process has the smell and feel of snake oil.  It looks as though the taxpayers of Oklahoma are about to have their pockets picked, the public school students of the state will soon have their healthy minds soaked in religious dogma, and Donald Trump is going to pocket a few more bucks.   

Oklahoma schools appear to be anything but OK!

Lying Photographs

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There was a time, somewhere in the middle of the last century, when a photograph could generally be relied upon to tell a truthful story, but today with photoshopping software and artificial intelligence programs, a person viewing a photograph should almost begin with the assumption that it has been altered in some way, perhaps to change the narrative of the story the photo is attempting to convey, or  to make a change to someone's appearance out of vanity or spite.   A politician whose picture is snapped leaving church on Sunday morning might show up on a social media post thirty minutes later as several pounds heavier with less hair and stepping out of a seedy motel room.

As one example, this week Mike Braun, the GOP candidate for governor of Indiana, released a television campaign ad which featured a photo of his Democratic opponent, Jennifer McCormick, standing in front of a small group of well dressed, nice looking individuals who were all holding signs   that said "No Gas Stoves."    In original photo the signs had all been McCormick campaign posters with no mention of gas stoves.

The wily GOP candidate, or his wily campaign staff, had placed an appropriate disclaimer in small lettering on their commercial that read:  "Paid for by Mike Braun for Indiana.  Approved by Mike Braun.  Elements of this media have been digitally altered or artificially generated."  But, when the ad was initially sent out to television stations, it arrived without that disclaimer - and it was intentionally and grossly misleading even with the disclaimer.

Jennifer McCormick, the Democrat running for governor of Indiana, had this to say on X (Twitter):

"Yes, I've seen the ad.  No, I don't care what type of stove you use.  I am focusing on real issues like women's reproductive freedoms, education and good paying jobs.  My opponent is apparently focused on stoves."

Ouch!

Altering the actual photo such as what the Braun campaign did is one way to tell a false narrative with a photograph, another is actually photographing something which is not true.  That is the approach that was used by Derrick Anderson, a Republican congressional candidate in Virginia, who "borrowed" the wife and three young daughters of a friend to appear with him in a campaign photo that was posted to the National Republican Campaign Committee's website and also appeared in a campaign video on YouTube.   The photo, which is widely available across the internet, was described by one national news source as something that "could be mistaken for a family holiday card."

Anderson, an anti-abortion candidate who is a former Army Green Beret, is currently engaged but has no children.  However, someone coming across the photo of him with his friend's wife and children might come away with the wrong impression as to his family status.  The photo wasn't altered, but the reality was.

This week there have also been photos highlighted in social media which show Donald Trump on the golf course appearing to be heavier than he actually is, pictures of a far more lean and fit Trump than he actually is, and an altered photo of Trump running mate JD Vance posted on X (Twitter) by Republican Congressman Mike Collins of Georgia which  showed Vance with a trimmer body and a chiseled jaw that, as one tweeter observed, "could puncture a hole in the hood of a Pontiac Firebird!"

The lesson here is to view and evaluate photographs as critically as you would public statements  because both could be lies.  What you hear and see may be someone else's interpretation or arrangement of reality, or it may just be blatant falsehood.  If something seems to lack the ring of truth, get out and do some basic research before repeating it as fact.

Or repeat the lie and luxuriate in the swill of ignorance.

Or delete.

The Last of the Blue-Light Specials

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The once ubiquitous K-Mart chain had a massive presence in the US with over two thousand locations, but a couple of decades ago it began falling on hard times as the concept of chainstore retailing was taken over by more aggressive retail giants like Walmart and Target.  K-Mart was on a downward spiral when it tried to right itself in 2005 by merging with Sears, another massive retailer that had fallen on hard economic times.  Both stores began downsizing and rapidly disappearing.  This week it was announced that the last full-service K-Mart store in the continental United States will shutter it's doors later this month.  That store is located in Bridgehampton, New York, on Long Island.

When the store in New York closes on October 20th, the company's US footprint will be reduced to a small store in Miami, Florida, as well as a few in the US Virgin Islands and one on the US island territory of Guam.  

I was not a regular K-Mart shopper.  There was one in Joplin, about fifty miles from my home, when I was growing up, and I visited that store on a few occasions, but I remember the now defunct Katz City better - and, of course, Walmart.  It seems like K-Mart was on the way out for a big part of my life.

My father, who spent much of his life running his own appliance store, understood retailing and knew that K-Mart was on its last legs about fifteen years ago when he asked me to take him to the last remaining K-Mart in northwest Arkansas so that he could purchase a particular brand of blue jeans that he liked.  It took a while to find the lone store in the rabbit warren of businesses in the Bentonville-Rogers metroplex, but we finally located it and my dad, who was in his eighties, came out of the store with a stack of folded jeans.  He didn't want to risk running out after that last store closed for good.

There was also a K-Mart not too far from where I lived in the Phoenix area a decade ago, and as far as I know it was the last one in the fourth-largest urban sprawl in the United States.  I went in there a couple of times looking unsuccessfully for items that I was also unable to find elsewhere, and on those few occasions I found the parking lot and store basically empty of shoppers, and the store in short supply of merchandise to sell.   It was obvious that the end was nigh.

I have been to the K-Mart store on Guam twice, and both times found it to be bustling with business.  Of course, at those times (2011 and 2012) the island territory had no Walmart.  Perhaps it still doesn't.  Guam, whose perimeter can be easily driven at island speed, roughly 30 mph, in two hours, also has a Ross's and a Macy's.

But times change and businesses, like people, come and go.

You had a good run-on the mainland US, K-Mart.  Thanks for teaching us about flash sales and blue-light specials, and the transient nature of consumerism.   You will be missed by a few, for a while.  I guess that is about all any of us can expect.

The Successor to P.T. Barnum

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

With the US Presidential election just over a month away and people in some states already voting, one would think that the two major party candidates for President of the United States would be laser-focused on world events and critical issues facing the future of our country and the planet.  One would think that, but one would be wrong.   Yes, Kamala Harris is sharing her visions of a better and brighter future, and delivering plans for getting there.  She is conducting a traditional political campaign.  

Donald Trump's campaign has a traditional structure, even though the elderly felon maintains a markedly lighter schedule than the more dynamic Ms. Harris.  Trump's messaging, however, differs from Harris's in that while hers is clear and direct, his is steeped in incoherence and he routinely drifts into strange ramblings about weird things like fictional cannibal Hannibal Lecter or sharks and batteries.    Recently Trump has spent an inordinate amount of time repeating a lie about Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating cats and dogs, and accusing his opponent of lying about having a part-time job at a McDonald's while she was in college forty years ago.   The economy, global strife, health care, education, housing, and the welfare of the nation are not things that capture Donald Trump's interest.

Not only is Donald Trump wasting what should be valuable campaign time trying to entertain his supporters with his stream-of-consciousness musings, he is also using his prominent political perch to promote an oddball collection of merchandise for his own financial benefit.  In the middle of a very close and contentious presidential campaign, Donald Trump, the Republican nominee as well as a former President of the United States, is hawking souvenir memorabilia of questionable value.

The grift is on - by a person who claims to be a billionaire.  That same person also happens to have had four bankruptcies and a conviction for financial fraud.

In the good old days before Trump was President, he and some partners had a degree-mill scam going called "Trump University," a supposed school of higher learning that taught the fundamentals of real estate for a tuition fee - and then sent each paid-up "graduate" a diploma.  When the business opened in 2005 Trump told reporters that he "hoped to create a legacy as an educator by imparting lots of knowledge" through his program.  He didn't.   The company folded in 2010, and a subsequent class-action lawsuit resulted in the business having to fork over $25 million to former students as well as money to the state of New York.

Recently Donald Trump has been involved in a spate of businesses which have the appearance of being dodgy.  I have already commented in this space on "Trump Trading Cards" which I referred to as "imaginary" trading cards because they are mostly digital and have no physical presence.  Trump is out with another set of these highly profitable (for him) cards.  They feature pictures of him in various guises and sell for $99 each.  If a person buys fifteen of the digital (imaginary) cards, they get one physical (real) card that comes with a supposed very small piece of the suit that Trump wore on the night he debated President Biden last June - something he says others refer to as his "knock-out" suit.  Trump said that five random physical cards will also be personally autographed by him.  (So, for a mere $1,500 a lucky buyer would get one actual card, a small rectangle of a suit material, and the possibility of a Trump autograph!)  There is a far more expensive option that apparently leads to an invitation to an actual dinner at Mar-a-lago.  (Of course, it could wind up being a pile of Big Macs!)

Last month Trump announced the sale of Trump commerative coins at just $100 each, and Trump "Victory" cologne with the signature scent of strength and success encased in a gold bottle for a mere $119.00.  Last February he began peddling Trump "Never Surrender" golden sneakers at the bargain price of $399 per pair, and the next month he endorsed, for a fee, the "God Bless the USA Bible," priced at only $59.99!  Now he is promoting Trump watches, some of which sell for as much as $100,000, and his family is entering into a cryptocurrency sales business which Trump has already promoted.

When it comes to business acumen and ethical standards, Donald Trump is more aligned with PT Barnum than he is with Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.

But, as Barnum used to say, "there's a sucker born every minute," and as Pa Rock says now, "most of them appear to be Trump supporters."

We live in undignified times.

A Two-Percenter Says "Get Those Shots!"

 

by Pa Rock

Health Nut

The lady with whom I will be traveling to New York City later this month telephoned yesterday afternoon, and during our conversation she related that she was on her way to Costco for the latest COVID vaccination and her annual flu shot.  She suggested that I should get mine, too, before our trip. I replied, with only a slight bit of smugness, that I had gotten both shots two weeks ago.

I enquired about the inoculations while on a visit to my local pharmacy,  The lady at the register said that both vaccines were available in their store, both could be taken on the same visit,  and that if I would fill out a couple of very simple forms we could have the entire process completed in less that twenty minutes.  After the paperwork was finished and the shots administered, I asked if my Primary Care Physician would be notified so that his staff could update my health records.  She assured me that he would, and she also told me that the shot records - which had seemed sort of helter-skelter with my previous pharmacy - would also be entered into a database that was accessible to all of my health care providers.

(That database is probably something else that Project 2025 will quickly eliminate.  Freedumb!)

The very next morning after getting those vaccinations, I heard on the radio that only 2% of eligible Americans had gotten the the latest round of COVID shots so far.   (They had been on the market for about three weeks.)  That news report also stated that public interest in the vaccines is waning and that it is now estimated that only about 25% of the eligible population would get this round of COVID vaccinations.

Vaccines save lives, regardless of what Fox News and Facebook and some crackpot politicians want us to believe - and protecting ourselves with vaccines has the added humanitarian impact of also helping to protect others.

We do not want to go through another pandemic, or at least this two-percenters doesn't.  Once in a lifetime was plenty for me!

Get those shots!   Keep yourself safe and the rest of us, too!

FREE COVID TESTS

Four free COVID tests are now available for every US household.  They can be ordered online at:  COVIDTests.gov  

Jimmy Carter Reaches the Century Mark

 

by Pa Rock

Witness to History

James Earl Carter, Jr, a man known to the world as Jimmy Carter, today becomes the first former US President to reach one hundred years of age - and he is still pursuing another goal.  Carter has told family members that he wants to live long enough to vote for Kamala Harris for President.

Carter has been in hospice care since February of 2023.

Jimmy Carter was born at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia, where his mother (remember Miss Lillian?) worked as a registered nurse, and he thus became the first US President to ever be born in a hospital.  Today he still lives in the house in Plains where he and his late wife, Rosalynn, shared their lives for decades.  

The future 39th US President began his education in the public schools of Plains, Georgia, and went on to graduate from the US Naval Academy in 1946,  While serving as an officer in the Navy, Carter was selected by Admiral Hyman Rickover for training in a unique nuclear submarine program.  

On December 12, 1952, there was an explosion at a nuclear reactor located at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario, Canada.   The blast released radioactive materials into the atmosphere and millions of gallons of radioactive water into the reactor's basement.  There were no reported injuries, but the Canadians needed help in disassembling the reactor's damaged core to prevent the facility from melting down. The United States responded to the request for assistance by sending in 28-year-old naval officer Jimmy Carter who was able to perform the task and prevent a catastrophe.

Carter resigned from the Navy the following year, 1953, after the death of his father, and returned to Plains where he took over the family's peanut business.  From there he eventually worked his way into Democratic politics and served as a Georgia state senator from 1963-1967, governor of Georgia from 1971-1975, and President of the United States 1977-1981. Carter won the White House by defeating the unelected incumbent, Gerald Ford, in the 1976 presidential election, and lost the office to Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election.  Carter and Gerald Ford went on to become close personal friends after they had both left office.

Highlights of Jimmy Carter's one-term presidency include organizing and overseeing the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, the negotiating and signing of the Panama Canal Treaties, and the establishment of the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Education.  His term as President was fatally hobbled by the Iran Hostage Crisis in which Iran seize 53 American diplomats and citizens on November 4, 1979 and held them captive for 444 days until Ronald Reagan was sworn in as President on January 20, 1981.

But it was after his presidency that Jimmy and Rosalynn became internationally recognized and beloved for their humanitarian work.  The Carters, through the Carter Center in Atlanta as well as through their own physical efforts and travels, helped to combat disease, hunger, and the abuses of totalitarian governments around the globe, and they also spent thousands of hours sawing boards, hammering nails, and painting houses for America's neediest citizens through Habitat for Humanity.   Jimmy and Rosalynn set a very high bar for what former residents of the White House could do for the betterment of mankind.  They were a power couple, and their power was love - for each other and for the rest of us, as well.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were married more than seventy-seven years, another presidential record.  They raised four children, and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren now number twenty-two.  Their legacy is inspiring by every measure!

Happy, happy birthday, Mr. President.  May your day be filled with peace, and love, and joy!

(Personal Note:  I had the privilege of seeing Jimmy Carter once.  It was at the Changing Hands bookstore in Tempe, Arizona, on Friday the 13th of 2009, where he was busy signing copies of his new book and occasionally looking up and smiling at his fans and admirers who were lined up out the door and several blocks down the street.  By that time he had been out of office almost thirty years and his reputation as an international champion of human rights was iron-clad and set in cement. Me and several hundred others stood patiently in the hot Arizona sun for a brief glimpse of the man who was literally a saint among us.)

Kristofferson is Gone: Me and Bobby McGee are Sure Gonna Miss Him

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Kris Kristofferson, who passed away yesterday at his home in Maui at the age of eighty-eight, was a complicated person.

Kristopher Kristofferson was born in Brownsville, Texas in 1936, the oldest of three children.  His father, who would later rise to the rank of Major General in the US Air Force, did his best to direct his oldest child into a military career.  Kris eventually did join the military, but that was after the Rhodes Scholar had graduated from Oxford University in England with a Masters degree in English literature.

Kris joined the army in 1960 where he graduated from Airborne School, Ranger School, and flight school.  He qualified as a helicopter pilot while serving with the US Army in Germany.  Young Captain Kristofferson wanted to take his skills as a helicopter pilot and put them to use in Vietnam, but the army instead assigned him to teach English literature at the US Military Academy at West Point.  Kristofferson, who was disappointed that he could not go to Vietnam, left the service and moved to Nashville where he took a job as a janitor at Columbia Studios - and where, in his spare time, he worked toward his serious goal of becoming a songwriter.

And the rest is history.  

Kristofferson achieved auspicious success not only in writing songs that became a permanent part of the American soundtrack - classics like "Me and Bobby McGee" which  became a Janis Joplin super hit, and "Sunday Morning Coming Down," a song in which Johnny Cash seemed to reveal his soul.  Some of the other many songs that Kristofferson penned include "Why Me," "For the Good Times,"  and "Help Me Make It Through the Night."   

The very talented Mr. Kristofferson was a recording artist and concert performer in his own right, and he as a member of the singing group,"The Highwaymen" along with country legends Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson.  Kris, too, was an accomplished film actor and starred with Barbra Streisand 1976 version of "A Star Is Born," (a movie that happened to be released on the day my daughter was born - yea Molly!)

Kris Kristofferson was also a social activist and a highly principled person.  He partnered with British actress Vanessa Redgrave in the late 1980's and early 1990's in speaking out about the plight of Palestinian children, and he gave concerts for their benefit.  His stance in support of the children of Palestine, according to Kristofferson, impacted his career negatively, but, he insisted "When you support human rights, you've got to support them everywhere."

I had the good fortune to see Kris Kristofferson in concert along with his wife at the time, Rita Coolidge,  in 1977 at the relatively new John Q. Hammonds Center in Springfield, an enormous venue both then and now.  (John Q. was very similar to Trump in that he had to have his name on almost everything he touched.). The place was packed to the rafters, I know that because I could almost touch the ceiling from where I sat in the farthest reaches of the nosebleed section, but, cheap-seating aside, it was a great show anyway.  At the end of the two-our performance, he and Coolidge (a legend in her own right) trotted out their three-year-old daughter, Casey, to smile and wave at the thousands of people who had gathered to watch her parents perform.

Today Casey is also an entertainer, as well as a mother of three.  Somehow she is fifty - something that certainly seems impossible to me!

Kris Kristofferson left behind his third wife, a lawyer named Lisa Meyers to whom he was married more than forty years,  eight grown children, and a host of grandchildren.

The amazing man, Kris Kristoffeerson, is gone, but his eighty-eight trips around the sun left humanity a better place than it would have been had he not been along for the ride.  He was an inspiring voice for human goodness and decency, and me and Bobby McGee and a whole bunch of others are sure gonna miss him!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday! (Getting Old Ain't Easy)

 

by Pa Rock

Emergency Room Frequent Flyer

I'm a morning person.  I can't help it, it's a curse.  When the sun comes up I am already out and about getting my day underway, and as the sun is setting I am thinking about bed.  That's the way I roll.

My routine is to take a morning walk, usually 5,000 steps or more while Rosie takes her morning constitutional.  Then I come back in the house and take my daily meds before I shower,  a nice variety of multi-colored pills and capsules (two of which are blood-thinners), as well as an insulin shot.   After that is my shower, followed by breakfast.

As I was drying off following my shower this morning, I suddenly realized that my feet, which were firmly placed on a bathroom throw rug, felt sticky.  Looking down I was not especially surprised to see both of my feet covered in blood and a large pool of blood collected between my feet on the rug.  It was going to be one of those days!

I had done this dance once before, back in June, and at that time had managed to track blood into literally every room in the house as I rushed around trying to get ready to drive myself to the Emergency Room.  Today I somehow got myself dressed, collected my wallet and keys from the bedroom, and exited the house barefoot (while carrying a pair of fresh socks and sandals), and made it to the car while only tracking blood through about half of the house.  I also took along my bloody bath towel and put it on the floorboard of the car to keep the blood splatter on the car's carpeting down to a minimum.

I self-diagnosed the problem because I had encountered almost the same situation last June.  At  that time I had picked a scab from my ankle, not realizing that it was attached to a varicose vein, and triggered rapid bleeding not unlike an Oklahoma oil gusher, though on a much smaller scale.  Today I hadn't intentionally picked a scab, but the towel had probably rubbed one loose, and blood was literally spraying from one foot to the other - and all points in-between.

I knew that I could make it to the Emergency Room under my own steam because I had done it before, but this time when I got there, instead of walking in and bleeding all over the floor, I stood in the entryway and signaled for them to come get me - but I still managed to paint a path through much of the patient area, nonetheless.

The doctor stitched me up with a thread that dissolves on its own, an improvement over my visit in June when another doctor used a thread that had to be physically removed - at an "Urgent Care" while I was on vacation in Oregon.  It's good to know about the dissolvable option.

As the nurse worked at cleaning my feet before dismissing me from the ER, she told me that she had a patient with the same issue a few months earlier and that his treatment had been complicated because he was fixing to leave on an extended vacation.

"Yes, I remember it well," I replied.

Getting old ain't easy!

Make Racism Wrong Again!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

(Note: The title of this post was taken from a bumper sticker that I happened to see last week.)

The Democratic Party has a history of having extreme racists within its ranks, but if Orval Faubus  and George Corley Wallace were alive and running for office today, it is almost a certainty that they would be doing so as Republicans, because the. GOP is the party where racial intolerance seems to have gone to incubate and flower.

Here are some recent examples:

Last Wednesday afternoon Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican member of Congress who resigned his position with a Louisiana police department several years ago rather than face a disciplinary hearing over his reported assault of an unarmed Black man, posted the following racist tweet on his official government X (Twitter) account:

"Lol.  These Haitians are wild.  Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere, clubs, slapstick gangsters . . . but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP.

All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th."

Higgins left his vile tweet up until a major furor began to develop on the floor of Congress regarding it, and then he quietly pulled the tweet.  Rep. Steve Horsford, D, NV, the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, introduced a privileged resolution in the House to censure the Louisiana congressman for his angry, racist tirade.

Higgins posted his tweet in response  to a report that the leader of an Ohio non-profit representing the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, had invoked a citizen's right to file charges against Donald Trump and JD Vance over threats and disruptions that Springfield has had to endure since the two politicians began spreading false rumors about the local Haitian population eating pets.

In addition to intentionally spreading lies about the legal immigrant population of Springfield, Ohio, as a political maneuver, something Vance refers to as telling "creative stories" to draw press attention to real problems, Trump has also gone off on a tangent repeating unverified stories that Venezuelan gangs have taken over some apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado, a story also being ginned-up by some right-wing news sources.   Local officials have denied the stories, and when residents of the apartment complexes have been interviewed, they say their problems are with the slumlord apartment owners and not gangs.  But Trump keeps promoting the gangs story because that fits his narrative that America has gone to hell under Biden, and it also folds in nicely with Trump's historic racism.

Trump's historic racism?

In 1989 after five Black and Latino male youth (ages fourteen to sixteen) were wrongly convicted of the brutal rape of a white female jogger in New York's Central Park, Donald Trump took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the execution of  "the Central Park Five."   The boys had been coerced (beaten) by the police into confessing, but then pled innocent in court.  There was no DNA or physical evidence linking them to the crime, and in 2002 another man confessed and the five men were exonerated and released from prison.  

But Donald Trump had gained some positive vibes from vilifying them and began to appreciate the power of racist attacks.  In the summer of 2017 when the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, turned violent and deadly, Trump, who was President at the time, famously  tried to paper over the turmoil by saying there were "good people on both sides."   Today he is still at it with his bungled attempts to demean Kamala Harris for either being or not being Black, his own personal history as a landlord, and his never-ending attacks on immigrants from "shithole" countries and those from south of the US border.

Interestingly, both Trump and Vance are married to immigrants and have children by them.   Two of Trump's three wives have been immigrants.

This week a 61-year-old man in Michigan was arrested for assaulting a mail carrier and lunging at her with a knife.  The man was upset because the carrier placed a political mailer for Kamala Harris in his mailbox, and he did not want that "Black bitch" in his box.  He also called the mail carrier a "Black bitch." The mail carrier used pepper spray to stop the attack.

A Black man was executed in Missouri this week for a murder he supposedly committed in 1998, although now it looks as though the evidence against his was circumstantial at best and was was mishandled by the prosecution - and he did not receive a fair trial.   The current prosecutor called for the man's sentence to be converted to life in prison while the case could be investigated further, and the victim's family was also calling for his life to be spared.  Missouri's Republican governor, a former rural county sheriff, declined to intercede on the man's behalf.

But Haitians, other Blacks, and Venezuelans aren't the only political punching bags of the American right.  Native Americans also serve as ready targets - as they have for the past several centuries.  Tim Sheehy, a former Navy Seal who is running for the Senate in Montana as a Republican (with Trump's endorsement), got in some political hot water a few days ago when recordings surfaced of him making seemingly disparaging remarks about members of the Crow tribe living in Montana, with Sheehy saying, among other things, that some members of the tribe are drunk at eight in the morning.

Scoring political points by pillorying others primarily on the basis of their race is a cheap and sleazy way to campaign, a ploy that appeals to the very lowest rungs of society in America.  It is an indecent way to run for office, but as long as the Republican Party is under the control of Donald Trump and his minions, it looks as though it will be GOP standard operating fare.  Trump has led his party into the sewer, and as of this point few seem to recognize that they are afloat in filth and hate.  

But they are, and Donald Trump brought them there by allowing the MAGA subculture to give voice to its deepest, most foul, racist beliefs - and then cheering them on.

It is clearly time to :  MAKE RACISM WRONG AGAIN!

Manchin Swirls into Irrelevance

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Independent Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a politician who alleges to have one time been a Democrat, is currently taking one final swirl around the toilet bowl of national politics and next January 3rd will be flushed into a cesspit of irrelevance - and it couldn't happen to a more deserving individual.

During his two terms in the United States Senate (when he generally wore the "Democratic" label) Manchin steadfastly fought against doing away with the filibuster rule (which requires 60 votes to pass most legislation instead of just a simple majority - thus giving the minority party unwarranted and unearned power), voted against efforts to control climate change, fought to weaken Democratic efforts to enact voting rights and election reform, voted against codifying the protections of Roe v Wade into federal law, and was the only Democratic senator to vote to confirm Trump's appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

In an almost evenly spilt US Senate, Joe Manchin was often able to use his vote to foil Democratic priorities.  It was role that he openly relished, and it gave the West Virginian a sense and aura of extraordinary power.

Politicians feared Joe Manchin.  They kowtowed to him.  They stroked his ego and readily humiliated themselves in seeking his favors.

But that was then . . . and now the crusty old politician is halfway out the door, and it is swinging closed behind him, and his importance is waning, and soon he will be completely irrelevant on the national political scene. How demoralizing that must be!

This week Joe Manchin tried to reassert his relevance by launching a broadside at Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President. Manchin, who has always been a protector of the filibuster, got righteously incensed when Harris said she supports doing away with it.  Manchin was so pissed, in fact, that he announced that he would not be endorsing Harris for President.  So far there has been no response to that political affront from Kamala - because she probably doesn't give a rip!

Get over yourself, Joe.  You're as good as retired and nobody, NOBODY, cares what you think about anything, any more, and certainly not who you deign to endorse.    Get aboard your cabin cruiser and putt on back to West Virginia, or the Outer Banks, or Timbuktu, and have a nice retirement, but don't expect anyone to care about your circumstances, thoughts, or endorsements because you - like this tired old typist - are destined to become more irrelevant with each passing day.

Say what you want, get mad as hell, but just don't expect anyone to be listening - or to care.

Enjoy your retirement, Joe!