War Without Boundaries, War Without End

by Pa Rock
Veteran

All war all the time seems to be the continuing geo-political reality for the United States of America and its armed forces.  Way back in 2001, when a couple of dozen young Saudi Arabians shattered America's myth of impenetrability - and George W. Bush promptly pulled on his big boy pants and began wars of retaliation in Iraq and Afghanistan, nobody would have supposed that the ensuing mayhem would still be taking lives, destroying families, and burning through U.S. "defense" dollars nearly twenty years later.

Not only are Bush's ill-advised wars still continuing with no end in sight, they are also spreading.  As Al-Qaeda or ISIS or whatever our enemies de jour are calling themselves today are defeated in one location, they promptly pop up in three others.  The Middle East wars are now percolating in places as far-flung as Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, and, as we learned in the past few weeks, Niger.  Wherever these Islamic "terrorists" emerge, Uncle Sam quickly rushes in to join the fight.

When the founding fathers drafted the documents that formed our great nation, they carefully crafted several checks and balances to try and keep any one of the three branches of government (executive, legislative, and judicial) from eventually overpowering the others.  One of those checks was involved the pursuit of war.  The President (executive branch) serves as the commander-in-chief and has the power to direct our war efforts, but the President does not have the constitutional authority to declare a war - that rests with Congress (the legislative branch).

So who declared the damned war in Niger - and how did we wind up sacrificing the lives of young Americans there?

Sadly, it all goes back to Congress who, in its infinite wrath and malignant stupidity after the 9/11 attacks by those Saudi boys, passed a war act in 2001 that essentially gifted their powers of declaring war to the President, something the framers of the Constitution had diligently sought to avoid.  The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) gave free-rein to Dick Cheney, the puppet-master of George W. Bush, to pretty much send American forces to fight wherever and whomever he damned well pleased.  More sadly, that act is still in force two Presidents and sixteen year later.  And, most sadly of all, a blithering mongrel who conducts diplomacy through Twitter, is now in control of all of that unfettered power.

But now American forces are fighting and dying in places far beyond Iraq and Afghanistan, and now a few thoughtful individuals in Congress are beginning to ask why?  Why are we fighting in places like Niger, and how in the heck did we get there?  Who authorized it?  How can Congress take the power to wage war back from a clearly incompetent executive?

There is an effort brewing in Congress, albeit modest so far, to rein in the never-ending AUMF and perhaps even bring it to a close.   Predictably, the idea of ending war is not sitting well with America's most ferocious patriots - the armaments industry - and they are pulling out all of the stops to insure that Congress does nothing that would harm their corporate bottom lines.  With a pliable fool in the White House, now is not the time to mess with his ability to spread America's economic global interests through ever-expanding wars.

The military-industrial complex has opened another front in their war the peace and stability of the world.  The new assault is against Congress and its objective is to protect profits through preserving the standing AUMF that has been the legal pretext for the military engagement of all American troops since 2001.  The two leaders of this assault on democracy are Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - both Trump appointees.

Mattis and Tillerson are arguing that Congress should keep the current AUMF in place, and if they change it, that should only be in way's that would increase the powers of the executive branch.  Mattis and Tillis want to insure that any new Authorization for the Use of Military Force would not have limitations of time and geography. 

Mattis and Tillerson are carrying water for the arms industry, a group that often pockets a profit from both sides when mankind begins killing one another over critical things - like religion.  They argue that the President should be free to put our young men and women in harm's way in perpetuity - and anywhere he pleases.  After all, it's what the founding fathers would have wanted, if they had anticipated anyone as grand as Donald Trump ever holding the office - just ask Sarah Palin, a noted expert on the founding fathers.

Trump, after all, did wear a uniform in prep school.

America's military involvement in the Middle East is feeding and spreading Islamic radicalism.  It didn't work sixteen years ago, and it is not working today.  It's time for Congress to reclaim its authority to wage war.

Congress, do your job! 

Monday's Poetry: "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

To every thing there is a season - turn, turn, turn - and all that stuff.  Here in the Midwest there are two seasons for dead skunks along the roadway:  a week or two in early spring, and a week or two in the fall.  Skunks get run down in the spring as they are concentrating on mating and not paying attention to the cars, and, I suspect, that in the fall they are scurrying around looking for places to burrow down and spend the winter - and dream of mating in the spring - while completely forgetting about those danged cars!


Today as Miss Patti and I were motivating from her home in southwest Missouri to my little place in the south central part of the state, we encountered a bunch of dead skunks along the highways and byways of northern Arkansas - five to be exact.  We also came upon two dead raccoons and two deceased opossums.  All of that roadway carnage put me in mind of Loudon Wainwright III's briefly popular "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road."  (For Judy Garland fans, Loudon Wainwright is the father of singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright, one of whose claims to fame was his own performance of Judy Garland's famous concert at Carnegie Hall - a concert in which he sang the original score that Judy had sung in the same venue decades earlier.  It was a very campy tribute to the legendary American vocalist and movie star.)

Who is Miss Patti, you ask?  We will cover that happy development in Pa Rock's life in a future blog post.

But for today, please join with me in enjoying Loudon Wainwright's ode to the skunks that failed to make it all the way across the road.  It ain't Shakespeare, but I suspect the Bard of Avon would have fancied the lyrics and perhaps sung along!

(Now, if you are living in a twenty-first century home, repeat after me:  "Alexa, play 'Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road' - level five!")


Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road
by Loudon Wainwright, III

Crossing the highway late last night
He shoulda looked left and he shoulda looked right
He didn't see the station wagon car
The skunk got squashed and there you are

You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven

Take a whiff on me, that ain't no rose
Roll up your window and hold your nose
You don't have to look and you don't have to see
'Cause you can feel it in your olfactory

You got your dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
And it's stinking to high heaven

Yeah, you got your dead cat and you got your dead dog
On a moonlight night, you got your dead toad frog
Got your dead rabbit and your dead raccoon
The blood and the guts, they're gonna make you swoon

You got your dead skunk in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
C'mon, stink

You got it, it's dead, it's in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle
Dead skunk in the middle of the road
Stinking to high heaven
All over the road
Technicolor

Oh, you got pollution
It's dead, it's in the middle
And it's stinking to high, high heaven

Ending the Trump Terrors

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

William Rivers Pitt, the lead columnist at Truthout.org and one of the best political writers in America today, has a new op-ed out which says, in essence, that nobody will change the minds of Trump voters, so the appropriate focus should be on beating them at the polls.   His article, "Stop Trying to Convince Trump Voters.  Start Trying to Win" basically acknowledges that the people in the MAGA ball caps and tee-shirts are so mired in their intolerance and low expectations that they are beyond educating - and the only way out of the swamp of ignorance is through the power of the ballot.

I concur. 

Now with rampant gerrymandering and states "cleaning up" their voter registration lists by purging voters who occasionally miss elections, it is more important than ever for each voter to check on his or her registration status and exercise that most important democratic franchise every time there is an election.  Now is the time for sparring with county clerks and election officials - and not waiting until election day itself to learn that there is a problem. Now is also the time to be calendaring future elections and studying the issues.  Every election plays a part in the grand scheme of things.

Every vote counts - and every missed opportunity to vote makes the other guy's voice just a bit stronger.  It's all about numbers, and the causes and candidates that generate the biggest numbers define America to its citizens and to the rest of the world.   It's going to take big numbers to take America back from the dark forces and images of Donald Trump, but if we all march to the polls for every election, it will happen.

Get involved in democracy and stay involved.  No more Trump terrors!

Congress Continues to Work in Secret

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Vampires and maggots do their best work in the dark, and apparently so do Republican legislators.  Neither the United States Senate nor the House of Representatives can seem to produce legislation in the bright light of day.  And while Congress might have been open to public input back in the time when Eisenhower was in the White House, nowadays senators and representatives waste no time on the concerns of the little guy.   The current process revolves around gathering money and advice from the army of lobbyists who run Capitol Hill, writing a bill in complete secrecy, and then trotting it out for a quick vote before public interest groups have time to digest the proposal and organize any effective opposition.

The recent Republican attempts to dismantle Obamacare illustrate the point and the process.  The amount of secrecy and subterfuge involved in that bit of criminal chicanery hadn't been seen around Washington, DC, in a  half century or more - at least since the Manhattan Project.   While the House fosters little humanity on the GOP side of the aisle, the Senate did stop the madness through the courage of a couple of GOP members with Christian tendencies and a wrathful John McCain.

Now Obamacare appears to be on the shelf, at least temporarily, while Congress shifts its focus to lowering taxes for the richest Americans and in the process cuts services - and benefits - to the poorest segments of the population.  And while this redistribution of wealth probably seems fair to rich freeloaders, the people who actually have to work to fund the government are not going to see it that way - especially if there is some debate and illumination on the subject.

So once again the GOP members of Congress are drafting a pivotal piece of legislation, one which will go a long way toward gutting of compassion and fairness in America,  and they are committing this crime against humanity in the darkest recesses of the Capitol.  Sometime next week Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, will let the members of that tax-writing body, see the product that he and his staff - and an army of self-serving lobbyists, have crafted in total secrecy.  It will be quickly applauded and passed on to the full House which will likely rubber stamp the effort - and then it will go on to the Senate.

America must hope that all of the Democratic senators stand firm against he lobbyist swarm that will be running amuck in the Capitol slinging cash like drug-addled ATMs - and that Collins, Murkowski, and maybe even Rand Paul put serving the public above service to the greed of the billionaire class and the nation's corporate overlords.

And America must also hope that John McCain is still pissed off.

Give 'em hell, Johnny Mac!

JFK Shooting: Keeping Secrets After All These Years

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

It's one of those cases where the real news was buried in the footnotes.  After nearly fifty-four years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the government was finally set to release the remaining "secret" documents related to one of the most memorable crimes of the twentieth century.  Congress, in fact, passed a law in 1992 mandating that the documents be released in no more than twenty-five years.  The deadline was yesterday, and the result was far from an adherence to the law.

Trump had been trumpeting the imminent release of the secret documents for several days.  He personally was going to turn over those files to America.  Big Daddy was about to take some significant action.  But, of course, at the last minute Trump clutched.

Thousands of documents did make their way to public light, and America will be fascinated with learning more about the intricacies and possible conspiracies that were hidden in their pages.   It will also be intriguing to see what has been withheld and then mulling on the possible reasons that those facts were chosen to be hidden from public view.  There is so much to sift through and ponder.

But other things have been learned from this historic document dump.  It has been revealed, for example, that some papers and files have "disappeared" over the years.  How does that happen with documents supposedly under the control of the National Archives, the same agency responsible for protecting our Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution?

Another thing that we have learned in the last day is that the CIA and FBI are still focused on keeping parts of the files on the JFK assassination secret from their employers - the American people.   Due to badgering from those two agencies, Trump has extended the deadline for release on some documents for 180 days to give the CIA and FBI more time to comb through the papers and further redact information in them.

Two questions:  First, the CIA and FBI have had more than half a century to clean up their mess and redact facts.  Why this sudden last minute push to purge?  And second, what in the hell can possibly exist in those files that still needs to be hidden from Americans fifty-four years later.  Are some of the sources of information still alive and require protecting?  That is laughable on its face.  Tell us who they are and let the journalists have at them - for the sake of illuminating and preserving history.  Or, as has been widely implied, are these papers being kept secret to protect the methods that intelligence agencies use?  If the CIA and FBI are using intelligence-gathering techniques that are more than half-a-century old, well . . . that explains a lot about the state of foreign intelligence today and the reason for wars that never end.

The JFK assassination documents belong to America.  Trump and the "intelligence" agencies need to quit playing games and follow the law.  Release the damned files - all of them!

Electoral College Vomit

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Ron Reagan, the son of the former President of the same name, is possessed of oratorical skills that may even exceed those of his late father.  Young Reagan, himself a news commentator, was in rare form earlier this week when, in a discussion with MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews, Reagan cut loose on the current occupant of the White House:  Donald John Trump.

Reagan, who sounded as though he has more than a passing familiarity with the DSM-5, told Matthews that Donald Trump "is a deeply damaged human being.  He is a sociopathic, malignant narcissist."  The former President's son went on to call for lawmakers to remove Trump from office with this bit of memorable imagery:

“The Electoral College has sort of vomited this thing up and it landed in the Oval Office, and it needs to be removed. It’s a stain. It’s a big glob on the carpet there. It needs to be removed. And that means impeachment or the 25th Amendment.  This man is a danger to the world.” 

Donald Trump as a stain and a blob on the Oval Office carpet?  Yes, I think that works - and it is certainly more palatable than Donald Trump as a world leader with the ability to launch nuclear war.  A stain can be cleaned up - and so can Electoral College vomit.

Congress, do your job!

Corker and Flake Give Up and Then Fight

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Now there are two Republican senators who have chosen not to seek reelection due to the promise of raving hyenas challenging them in primaries - and a third sitting Republican senator has already been retired by a raging bigot and homophobe in a primary election.

Bob Corker of Tennessee announced a few weeks ago that he would not stand for reelection, thus opening the door for a wide array of Volunteer State slime, like Marsha Blackburn, to ooze itself into the race.  Corker, ever the gentleman,  chose to remove himself from the political equation apparently so that he would then be free to tell America what he really thinks of Donald John Trump.  Just a day or so ago he predicted that Trump's legacy would be the "debasing" of America.

The ink on the "debasing" comment was hardly dry when another senator rose to announce his retirement and then proceeded to deliver his own eloquent attack on the walking personality disorder that is Donald Trump.  Jeff Flake of Arizona, in a floor speech that was both eloquent and poignant, noted that behaviors emanating from the Executive Branch (presumably Trump himself) have been "reckless, outrageous, and undignified" and have by-and-large "been excused."  Senator Flake, in speaking out, observed that "silence equals complicity."

Comedian Stephen Colbert noted last night that Republican senators only speak up when they are not involved in reelection campaigns, a fact he spit out with just a tinge of bitterness.  Colbert observed:

"First McCain, then Corker, now Flake — why is it that Republicans only speak up against Donald Trump when they know they're not running for re-election?  They finally grow a set, then they say, 'I'm taking my balls and going home.'"

Senator Flake has vowed to be"silent no longer," but in a mere fourteen months he will have lost his national pulpit and being heard will be considerably more difficult.  Perhaps he and Senator Corker will both continue to pose challenges to Donald Trump's debasement of America and his continuous assault of reckless, outrageous, and undignified behavior upon the nation and the world - and we have to hope that they will.  But in the meantime it feels as if they have both taken the easy way out and left the rest of us to deal with the train wreck.

Stay strong, Senator Corker and Senator Flake, and don't slide into complicity through silence.   America is depending on you.

Everybody Hates Donald

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is quickly becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of modern American politics - the man can't seem to get any respect.

Just this past week a lowly Florida congresswoman with a penchant for wearing colorful cowboy hats tore into him repeatedly over insensitive comments that he made to a war widow, and the string of lies he told in trying to cover up those insensitive remarks.   Then John McCain castigated Trump with an off-the-cuff comment about rich boys who dodged the draft with bone spurs.

The broadsides were also coming in from overseas.   Nicholas Soames, a member of the British Parliament and Sir Winston Churchill's grandson, fired a shot back at Trump after he belittled the British Commonwealth and said the key to keeping America safe was controlling Islamists.  Soames suggested that gun control might also be a good place to start.  And in his tweet back at Trump, Nick Soames called The Donald a "daft twerp."

Everybody hates Donald - even the Brits!

And now Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the man who took Trump to the woodshed a couple of weeks ago when he referred to the Oval Office as an adult daycare center and said that he thought Trump's behaviors could bring about World War III, is back with more incendiary comments about the leader of the Republican Party.  Today Senator Corker told CNN that he believes Trump's ultimate legacy will be the "debasement of our nation."

The retiring Tennessee senator lamented:

“He’s obviously not going to rise to the occasion as president.  I think at the end of the day, when his term is over, I think the debasing of our nation, the constant non-truth-telling, just the name-calling ― I think the debasement of our nation will be what he’ll be remembered most for. And that’s regretful.”

The Tennessee senator also referred to Trump as a "serial liar" and said that he regretted supporting him in 2016.  Trump, being Trump, fired back several bullshit-laden tweets attacking Corker, proving to anyone paying attention that he (Trump) is not the least bit presidential.

But we all know there is more to Dear Leader that lying and name-calling.  There are also endless rounds of golf and his almost constant efforts to turn a personal profit off of his position in government.

It's more than just regretful, Bob.  It's sadistic, and in some cases it's criminal.

Donald Trump makes Nixon look presidential.

Monday's Poetry: "Rich Man's War"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Say and think what you will about crusty old John McCain, the senior Arizona senator is really good at a couple of things:  holding a grudge and saying whatever he damned well pleases.  If Donald Trump possessed even half-a-brain, he would not have needlessly and carelessly impugned McCain's military service record during last year's campaign.  Trump's joking remarks about McCain's capture by the North Vietnamese did not escape the senator's notice.  Now Johnny Mac is serving up some sweet revenge, albeit a bit cold.

McCain's first shot across Trump's bow came when he helped to kill the Senate's efforts to repeal Obamacare, voting against a measure supported by Trump and nearly every other Republican member of the Senate. Now McCain has lobed another shot at Trump - and it was a doozy!

Johnny Mac, while speaking to CSPAN about the new Ken Burns' documentary on the Vietnam War, had this to say about those who served and those who did not:

“One aspect of the [Vietnam] conflict, by the way, that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest-income level of America, and the highest-income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur.  That is wrong. That is wrong. If we are going to ask every American to serve, every American should serve.”

Donald Trump, a social dilettante who was of prime draft age during the Vietnam War, did not serve.  Trump had a total of five deferments, one of which was for "bone spurs."

And while those nasty old bone spurs must have been painful, McCain's criticism undoubtedly hurts worse.

So far The Donald has resisted the urge to go on Twitter and fire back at the cranky old veteran.   That is probably a smart tactical decision on his part because McCain, like Trump, does not like losing.

Here are some of Steve Earle's thoughts on who starts wars and who actually fights them.


Rich Man's War
by Steve Earle

Jimmy joined the army 'cause he had no place to go
There ain't nobody hirin'
'Round here since all the jobs went
Down to Mexico
Reckoned that he'd learn himself a trade maybe see the world
Move to the city someday and marry a black haired girl
Somebody somewhere had another plan
Now he's got a rifle in his hand
Rollin' into Baghdad wonderin' how he got this far
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war

Bobby had an eagle and a flag tattooed on his arm
Red white and blue to the bone when he landed in Kandahar
Left behind a pretty young wife and a baby girl
A stack of overdue bills and went off to save the world
Been a year now and he's still there
Chasin' ghosts in the thin dry air
Meanwhile back at home the finance company took his car
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war

When will we ever learn
When will we ever see
We stand up and take our turn
And keep tellin' ourselves we're free

Ali was the second son of a second son
Grew up in Gaza throwing bottles and rocks when the tanks would come
Ain't nothin' else to do around here just a game children play
Somethin' 'bout livin' in fear all your life makes you hard that way

He answered when he got the call
Wrapped himself in death and praised Allah
A fat man in a Mercedes Benz drove him to the door
Just another poor boy off to fight a rich man's war

Karma's a Bitch, Mitch!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The political news magazine, "The Hill," recently polled nearly two dozen Republican Senate hopefuls on whether they would be supportive of Mitch McConnell as the Senate's Majority Leader or not - and "not" seemed to carry the day.

McConnell, a Kentucky slug who poses as a turtle, made his political reputation by having a stated agenda of keeping President Obama from passing any legislation, regardless of the impact that this obstinance had on the lives of his fellow Americans.  He also speaks with pride about blocking Obama's final appointment to the Supreme Court for nearly a year and then handing that important decision over to a blowhard reality television "star."

Mitch was thought to be moving into his glory days this year with a Republican (of sorts) in the White House, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate - but as the year draws to a close all the current Congress seems to be able to agree on are votes to adjourn.  Trump failed to provide any sort of program or master plan to move America forward, and without executive leadership, Congress didn't accomplish anything of note.

Trump's brain dead supporters know, they KNOW, that Trump is not at fault for yet another year of nothing changing in Washington, DC.  Trump has brought the polluters back to town, he has appointed white nationalists to his inner-circle and put an old-school segregationist in charge of the Justice Department.  He has defended the free speech activities of Nazis and bigots while never missing an opportunity to ridicule outspoken black individuals - and he jokes about people who joke about hanging gays.  And if all of that isn't enough to bind his supporters to him forever, Trump desperately wants to build a big, impenetrable wall to keep out those toilet-cleaning, lettuce-picking, motel room-cleaning Mexicans.

Donald Trump is a godsend to America's tattooed, pot-bellied, dentally-challenged master race, and Congress needs to step up and help him spread his glory across the entire nation.

But Congress is failing our Glorious Leader, and Mitch McConnell, in particular, is the goat who is destined to be scaped for the continuous missteps of the Trump administration.   Trump's people KNOW it's not Donald's fault, and the Democrats are in the minority in both houses of Congress so it's hard to effectively blame them for the constant string of failures.  That leaves McConnell to eat the blame - and hopefully Paul Ryan, too.

So when "The Hill" spoke to more than twenty senate hopefuls, they found none - zero - who would state their support for Mitch McConnell.  There are outside forces, people like former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who are openly encouraging and supporting senate candidates who will oppose the continued leadership of McConnell.  While most kept quiet on the issue or tried to sidestep it, a few stated their open opposition to McConnell and tried to tie their opponents to him.

For the time being at least, it sucks to be Mitch - and he so deserves what he is getting!

Wacky Trump Needs to Fire John Kelly for Lying to the Press

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

This is supposedly the fifth day that master Twitterbater Donald Trump has been directing his self-righteous wrath a a family in south Florida,  a family who is consumed with grief over the combat death of a loved one.  The family consisting of several individuals including the deceased soldier's wife, children, and mother - along with their Representative in Congress, Frederica Wilson, were in a car enroute to claim the serviceman's remains when Trump called - and they all listened together over a speakerphone as Trump delivered his"condolences."  According to the people in the car, Trump was curt and disrespectful toward them and their loss, saying that the young soldier "knew what he signed up for."

That insensitivity, which many would regard as standard Trump behavior, coupled with the fact that the press literally had to goad him into making condolence calls in the first place, combined to create a caricature of a disengaged leader who would rather be playing golf than giving aid and comfort to the families of the fallen.

But Trump did make a call and it was not well received - in fact it was criticized - and if America has learned only one thing about Donald Trump in the ten long months that he has been in office - it is this:  The Donald always gets the last word!

The grieving family lied about his remarks, according to Trump, and, in particular, the Congresswoman Wilson, a person described by Trump as "wacky," lied.  They all lied and Trump could prove it.  The proof he finally trotted out was his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, who had reportedly listened in on Trump's end of the phone conversation and described it as "sensitive."  There was no tape of the conversation which could have been seen as a factual rendering of what had really been said.  No, none of that, just a Trump employee who is dependent of Donald Trump for his regular paycheck corroborating the word of a man who is well known for lying almost constantly.

Over the ensuing days as Trump's anger continued to escalate, he steadily increased the importance of the congresswoman to the point where he now says she is "killing the Democratic Party."

And John Kelly, the tool, has also tried to take the onus off of the dead soldier's family and place it on the congresswoman.  Kelly said that he had been present at the dedication of a new FBI Field Office in Miami and that the congresswoman had tried to take credit  for the building.   While members of Congress taking credit for new federal buildings in their district is probably more or less a standard occurrence, the congresswoman denied Kelly's charge.  She said that she had taken credit for expediting the naming process.  This time there was a news tape of the event and it backed the congresswoman's version of what happened.

Kelly lied.

Fire him.

And keep Donald Trump on the golf course and away from the reins of government.

Despite Pardon, Arpaio's Conviction Stands

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last July Federal Judge Susan Bolton found Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, guilty of willfully violating a 2011 court order that he and his department quit racial profiling.   The geriatric bigot was in some danger of being sent to prison for his open contempt of the judicial order, but before a sentence could be handed down another bigot interceded on Arpaio's behalf and "pardoned" him.

This week Old Joe apparently decided that bring forgiven with a "pardon" was not enough, and he wanted the conviction expunged from his record as well.  He is, after all, the Joe Arpaio.  But Judge Bolton wasn't having it.  She rebuffed Arpaio's quest to clean his record with this smart summation:

“The Court found Defendant guilty of criminal contempt. The President issued the pardon. Defendant accepted. The pardon undoubtedly spared defendant from any punishment that might otherwise have been imposed. It did not, however, revise the historical facts of this case.”

So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Joe.  Trump may be able to use the power of his office to keep you out of prison - or better yet, Tent City - but not even he can rewrite your sordid history!

No one is above the law, not even the Sheriff of Maricopa County.

Good call, Judge Bolton! 

Barack Obama Triumphs Over Jefferson Davis

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Generations of young black children in Jackson, Mississippi, have suffered the indignity of attending a school named after a racist icon.   Black children make up ninety-eight percent of the school population of the Davis IB Elementary School, an institution that was named for Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy.  Jefferson Davis was not only a slave owner who saw blacks as property rather than human beings, he was also a pivotal figure in the government that fought to free itself from the United States of America.

Jefferson Davis was a traitor who plotted and fought to keep blacks in the chains of slavery, yet today his name is still emblazoned across an institution whose primary mission is the education and betterment of black citizens.

Well, the name of Jefferson Davis won't be casting a pall over that school for much longer.

A student at the school who realized that it was "named for a person who didn't agree that they (black children) should thrive educationally - or any way in life - or really be considered human beings" began the push the change the school's name.  The movement picked up community support, and recently the school's governing board voted to officially change the name of the school to honor Barack Obama, the nation's first black President.  The change will take effect with the next school year.

There are currently twenty-one schools bearing the Obama name in the United States including two named for former First Lady Michelle Obama.

What's in a name?  Things like inspiration, self-determination, and pride.

Congratulations to the young people of Jackson, Mississippi, as one more cold vestige of segregation bites the dust.  Next year they will be able to lift their heads higher as they march into a school whose namesake made them proud and will continue to be a source of pride and inspiration for generations to come.

Keep Trump Off of the Phone

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

One of this week's multiple controversies involving the Trump administration is whether or not The Donald made contact with the families of the four Green Berets recently killed in Niger - or, in fact, should he contact them.   At some point in the discussion Trump alleged that he had personally telephoned the families of every American killed in action during his time in the White House.  That was quickly proven to be a lie.  Trump then tried the old "other guy" excuse saying that other Presidents had not telephoned grieving families either - and Barack Obama sure as heck hadn't.  Again, more lies.

That public shaming apparently goaded Trump into phoning at least some of the families of the soldiers killed in Niger.  A report out today based on a first hand account of a U.S. congresswoman relates that Trump called the widow of one of the dead yesterday as she was enroute to claim her husband's body.  According to the congresswoman who was listening on speaker phone, Trump told the widow, "He knew what he signed up for" and then added a scintilla of sympathy with "but when it happens it hurts anyway."

The young widow has two small children and is pregnant with the third.  She needed a bit of compassion and comfort - not a lecture.

After that story began gaining traction in the national press, Trump flew into a rage and denied it.  He said the congresswoman, Florida's Fredericka Wilson, had lied. 

Trump managed to make it all about himself and the demanding role that he has to play.  He said that making those calls was "a very difficult thing."  He added,  “Now it gets to a point where you make four or five of them in one day, it’s a very, very tough day.”  Poor Baby.

Donald Trump, whose only time in uniform was as a student at a private prep school and who vigorously dodged the draft to stay out of Vietnam, could, nevertheless, make a competent commander-in-chief if he was steeped in compassion and empathy, and if he possessed a soul, but clearly Trump lacks all of those human attributes.

Trump had it right to begin with.  He should not be calling the families of the fallen because he has nothing in common with them, not even humanity.  His time is better spent on the golf course.

Rep. Jason Smith, Powerbroker

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

My congressman, Jason Smith, a Republican, has finally taken a break from his relentless quest to raise campaign cash and pose for pictures with every tractor and cow in southeast Missouri - and he has had a meeting with someone of consequence in Washington, DC.   In a recent email newsletter Congressman Smith revealed that Ivanka Trump had dropped by his office for a visit.  The  First Daughter, when not focused on selling Chinese rags or trying to manage her emotionally unstable father, busies herself by promoting women's issues in the most notoriously anti-woman administration in recent history.

Smith is a member of the House Appropriations Committee, a group that could conceivably be instrumental in writing the promised tax "reform" - if Paul and Mitch and Donald actually let the committee have any say in the matter.  Ivanka wanted to make sure that Congressman Smith knew of her interest in providing tax breaks to moms who have to put their children in childcare so that they can go to work.  Socialist schemes like that will not  be an easy sell with the current Congress.

Surprisingly, Jason Smith, the consummate name-dropper, did not include a photo of him with Ivanka in the newsletter.  Perhaps he is saving that image to grace his government-funded Christmas cards

Congratulations, Congressman Jason Smith - you are developing into a real powerbroker.   Your constituents here in Missouri's 8th are very proud of you - especially the cows!

Monday's Poetry: "Rain on the Scarecrow"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

I'm safely back at The Roost following a quick weekend trip to Indianapolis, a round-trip adventure which put just shy of a thousand miles on the odometer of my old flivver.  (How funny - Bill Gates and the privileged children who run Microsoft don't know "flivver!"  Buy a dictionary guys, and update your horrid spellcheck!)

It's been many years since I have driven across Indiana in a rush to get someplace important, and this weekend marked the first time that I had ever dropped anchor and spent the night there.  The state is known for the Indianapolis 500, Notre Dame, Purdue, the lovable Mike Pence, agriculture, moonlight on the Wabash, and John Mellencamp - and not necessarily in that order.  I knew that I had arrived  when, while sitting in a traffic jam on the interstate just outside of Terre Haute,  Mellencamp's "Rain on the Scarecrow," a song which depicts the painful realities of making a living on the farm, began playing on the local radio station.

Here, for your remembering pleasure, is my postcard from Indiana, John Mellencamp's "Rain on the Scarecrow."  It's not as sweetly nostalgic as "Back Home in Indiana,"but it is a realistic and hard look at an authentic slice of America.


Rain on the Scarecrow
by John Mellencamp and George Michael Green

Scarecrow on a wooden cross, blackbird in the barn
Four hundred empty acres that used to be my farm
I grew up like my daddy did, my grandpa cleared this land
When I was five, I walked a fence while grandpa held my hand

Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
This land fed a nation, this land made me proud
And son, I'm just sorry, there's no legacy for you now
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow

The crops we grew last summer weren't enough to pay the loans
Couldn't buy the seed to plant this spring and the farmers bank foreclosed
Called my old friend Schepman up to auction off the land
He said, "John, it's just my job and I hope you understand"

Hey, calling it your job, ol' hoss, sure don't make it right
But if you want me to I'll say a prayer for your soul tonight
And grandma's on the front porch swing with a Bible in her hand
Sometimes I hear her singing, "Take me to the promised land"
When you take away a man's dignity he can't work his fields and cows

There'll be blood on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
Blood on the scarecrow, blood on the plow

Well there?s ninety-seven crosses planted in the courthouse yard
And ninety-seven families who lost ninety-seven farms
I think about my grandpa, my neighbors and my name
And some nights I feel like dyin' like that scarecrow in the rain

Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
This land fed a nation, yeah, this land made me proud
And son, I'm just sorry, they're just memories for you now
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow

Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
Yeah, this land fed a nation, this land made me so proud
Son, I'm just sorry they're just memories for you now
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow
Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow

Hillary "Shocked and Appalled" at Weinstein Revelations

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Hollywood mogul and star-maker, Harvey Weinstein, has been in the news almost constantly over the past two weeks as allegations about his sexual abuse of struggling starlets continues to snowball across the American news landscape.  Weinstein, a co-founder of Miramax and the Weinstein Company, has been a formidable force in the film industry for decades, and he is also well known as a funder of Democratic political candidates.

Weinstein is another dirty chapter in the on-going saga of successful men using their power and prominence to have their way with young people, usually women, who are at the front end of their careers and struggling for notice and success.  He is a pig on the order of Donald Trump, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilley, and Bill Clinton.

Many Democrats who have accepted donations from Weinstein in the past are racing to get rid of that tainted money.  Some are reportedly returning the cash, and others are donating it to charities and agencies whose efforts benefit abused women.

Some who have profited from Weinstein's largess in the past are now rushing forward to condemn him - and his wife has reportedly moved out of their home and is filing for divorce.  One prominent Democratic politician who has spoken out against Harvey Weinstein is Hillary Clinton who says she is "shocked and appalled" at the revelations.

Clearly Mrs. Bill Clinton now has a better understanding of the awfulness of sexual predators in positions of power than she did twenty years ago.  Better late than never - one must suppose.

Tatterdemalion Premiers!

by Pa Rock
Proud Father

"Tatterdemalion" a new feature length film by Ramaa Mosley (director/writer) and Tim Macy (writer/producer) premiered this afternoon at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis.  Attending that premier was one of the proudest moments in the life of this ancient typist.

The movie, which was filmed in and around my community of West Plains, Missouri, had three professional actors in the cast, and a large contingent of local talent - none of whom had ever appeared in a motion picture prior to this one.  The finished product was a tour de force of Ozark myth and culture draped over an intense tale of a family conflict and child welfare issues.  The finished product was exceptional in every sense of the word.

Tim named a couple of characters after his grandmother - my mother - who died when he was very young.  My mother was Ruby Florine (Sreaves) Macy (1921-1986).  The main character in this movie had the family name of Sreaves, and one of the main characters was named Florine.    The name "Florine Macy" appeared in the acknowledgments at the end of the movie.  Mom would have been very proud to have seen that, and I was proud for her.  What a nice memorial, Tim!

Tim's older brother, Nick, was also seen in the background of a couple of shots, and he too was noted in the film credits.

Tim's wife, Erin, and their daughter, Olive (age 6) were at the premier - and so was my niece, Heidi, and her family who drove down from Chicago.  Heidi's youngest daughter, Ruby, was named after my mother.  Mom would have loved the event - she had her son at the premier, two of her grandchildren, and three of her great-grandchildren.

Pa Rock has such a nice family!

There was a reception after the showing, and all of the family attended, including Tim's mother-in-law, Judy, and Baby Sullivan.  That was fun and everyone got to meet the stars and the other talent who put this very fine movie together.

"Tatterdemalion."  Remember the name and check it out when it plays at a venue near you!  It's a great story translated into an emotional masterpiece of a movie.

Crossing the Wabash

by Pa Rock
Road Warrior

Saturday morning finds me in Indianapolis where, early this afternoon, I will be on hand for the world premier of "Tatterdemalion," my son Tim's second feature film.  It's a big day not only for our family, but also for all of the good people in and around West Plains, Missouri, who came together in the summer of 2015 to make this film a reality.  I understand that several of them are also in Indianapolis for the premier.  It is being held as a part of the annual Heartland Film Festival - and "Tatterdemalion" is definitely a film of and about the "heartland."

I drove to Indianapolis because getting to a major airport would have been quite a drive itself.  The trip lasted most of yesterday and was four-hundred-and-fifty miles from my house to the motel where I am staying.

The drive to Indianapolis was long, boring, and fairly uneventful.  I took the most direct route, the one going through St. Louis, but may take the more scenic southern route going home.  It will be a bit longer - mileage and time-wise - but has to be more visually stimulating than the boring interstate.

All the way to St. Louis I was focused on finding Exit 291-A which Mapquest had assured me would get me through the city without having to navigate the busy city side streets.   I watched the exit numbers slowly climb toward 291 as I proceeded to take Interstate 40 to the very center of town.  Finally I was almost there - I could see the Mississippi River and some bridges on my right, that damnable Arch right in front of me, and Busch Stadium to my left - and then - there is was - Exit 291-A - closed!  For the next twenty minutes I was driving around downtown St. Louis looking for a way across the Mississippi.  Regardless of where the roads led, I kept turning the wheel back toward the river - and finally I found the way across the river and into Illinois!  The detour through St. Louis was an harassment that I did not need!

The only other river of note that I crossed was the iconic Wabash just after entering Indiana.

Mapquest failed me again when I finally arrived in Indianapolis, choosing to give me a long and complicated tour of the city when, if I had been directed to the beltway around the city, I would have gotten here much quicker and with just a couple of turns.

So I am here, safely, and so are my grandchildren - and this afternoon we are going to the movies!

Sasse Gets Sassy

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Although I personally share no common political ground with Nebraska’s junior senator, Ben Sasse, on most important national issues (things like guns, abortion, and Obamacare), I will concede that the former university president who holds a PhD in American History from Yale is highly educated and very capable when it comes to putting together well-structured arguments for his right-wing positions.

There is one area, however, where the young Republican senator and I share very similar views, and that is on our mutual contempt for Donald Trump.  Sasse, who just entered the Senate in January of 2015, said early on that he would not be supporting Trump if the reality television personality succeeded in getting the Republican nomination for President.  Sasse questioned Trump’s commitment to the Constitution, and particularly to the all-important First Amendment – the one that guarantees free speech and an unfettered press.  Sasse also faulted Trump for refusing to condemn the Ku Klux Klan, and he opined that the blustery Trump seemed to think he was running for “king” instead of president.

That, in my book, is a prime example of prescience.

Trump, for his part, dove deep into his fourth grade vocabulary and shot back that Sasse sounded like a “loser.”

Senator Sasse made national news in the summer of 2016 when it came time for the Republicans to gather in their coven and nominate Donald Trump for the highest office in the land.  Sasse announced that he would not be attending but would instead be taking his kids to watch some dumpster fires across the state of Nebraska.

But that was then.

Now, the old Trump-Sasse war of words appears to be about to reignite.  Trump has been barking about “fake news” and has accused NBC, the network that foisted Trump’s reality show onto America, of deliberately telling lies about him.  NBC reported that Trump wants to increase the American nuclear arsenal tenfold, and Trump, ever the diplomat, said they were lying through their corporate teeth.   He has even gone so far as to suggest that NBC’s broadcast license renewal application needs to be challenged.

That overt fascist move to thwart freedom of the press did not go unnoticed by Senator Sasse, the man who openly worried about Trump’s disdain for the First Amendment more than two years ago.  Two days ago the ballsy first-term senator tweeted this query to Trump:

“Mr. President:
Are you recanting of the Oath you took on Jan. 20 to preserve, protect, and defend the 1st Amendment?”

Sasse’s tweet will undoubtedly serve to take some Trump heat off of fellow Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee. 

Yesterday Senator Sasse upped the ante when he tweeted this bit of sass to American conservatives, something intended to make them think beyond their plans for lunch:

“Question for conservatives:
What will you wish you had said now if someday a President Elizabeth Warren talks about censoring Fox News?”

Unfortunately for Senator Sasse, many Trump dotards are not comfortable with the notion of thinking.

Will Donald Trump, who needs the vote of almost every Republican senator in order to pass anything, be able to let Sasse’s sass go unpunished? 

Hell, no, he won’t!  Sooner or later The Donald is going to erupt all over Twitter!

Sit back and pass the popcorn.  This is gonna get good!

Olive Is Six - and Full of Tricks!

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

My granddaughter, Olive Noel Macy, turns six-years-old today.   She is in kindergarten and seems to like school, and she is also learning to play the piano.  Olive has a little brother named Sullivan who turned one-year-old last June.

A couple of weeks ago while I was visiting Olive and her family we went to a toy store in Kansas City where Olive had a great time looking around.  While she was there she got a "magic" pair of sunglasses that she wore home.  The sunglasses were special because they allowed her to see what was happening behind her.  Olive had a lot of fun with them - she's a very tricky girl!

Happy birthday, Olive!  I will see you tomorrow evening in Indianapolis when we all gather to watch the premier of your daddy's new film, "Tatterdemalion."  I love you bunches!

Taxpayers Should Not Have to Pay for Pence Political Stunt

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

This past weekend Vice President Mike Pence and his family traveled to his hometown of Indianapolis - on the public dime - to attend the Colts-49ers professional football game, a game that he walked out of before it even commenced.  Pence left the stadium when several players on the 49er's team, all black, "took a knee" during the national anthem.  The players were protesting the continuing murders of black men and boys by police, crimes that are often not even prosecuted.  Pence was protesting what he and Donald Trump perceive as disrespect toward the national anthem.

The kneeling players had no direct cost upon taxpayers.  The Pence show, however, cost taxpayers dearly.  He flew from Las Vegas, Nevada to Indianapolis on Air Force Two at a cost of over $42,000 per hour.  That night he and the family stayed in an Indianapolis hotel, a situation which required extra police presence, and all of which was billed to taxpayers - and the following day Air Force Two flew the Pence family back out west, over Las Vegas where the sojourn started, and on to Los Angeles.

Estimates of the cost for the Indianapolis side trip range from a quarter of a million dollars to a full million - and the Pence family did not even see the game!  Of course, the real rub is that they never intended to see the game to begin with.  It was all a political stunt to draw attention to the protesting players and emphasize the administration's sanctimonious defense of "patriotism," whatever that entails.  Or, as some wags would suggest, it was all an attempt to to remind Trump's supporters that he and Pence are every bit as racist as they are.

Mission accomplished!

Those black football players disrespected the national anthem, football, motherhood, and God - and Mike Pence called them on it.  What a man!

Most of the press reporters who have the tiresome duty of following Mike Pence around all day missed his hasty exit from the football game because they had been told to remain in the press van.  Administration officials forewarned them that the Vice President would probably be leaving the game early.

He never intended to watch the game.  It was just a cheap political stunt - one that the American taxpayers paid for.

I will be driving to Indianapolis this coming weekend.  Yesterday I had my car in the garage making sure that it will be up to the eight-hour drive (each way).  The mechanic's bill for fixing the air conditioning, rotating the tires, and servicing the engine was a bargain at one-hundred-and-thirty dollars.  Fuel out and back will be over a hundred dollars, and I will be paying for a motel room for two nights, several meals, and a ticket to see the world premier of a great new film.  All of those expenses will be borne by me personally - but I am really looking forward to the trip and don't mind the cost.

I do, however, resent having to help pay for Mike Pence and his family traveling to the same destination.  If Pence wants to prove his racist street cred, let him do it on his own dime - not ours!

Bullies Are So Cool!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is a bully.   He has always been a bully - and the possibility of that changing for the better in the current millennium is somewhere on the far side of never.  Everyone knows he is a bully, yet few with a national megaphone have dared to stand up to him.  Hillary Clinton tried to during the debates and Trump brushed her aside like a pesky mosquito by labeling her a "nasty woman." That's what bullies do - name-call and belittle.

And bullies always strive to have the last word.  They have to talk the loudest and the longest.

Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona had the temerity to announce that he had voted for a third-party candidate for President, and Trump responded by going into full battle mode and encouraging his party in Arizona to abandon its junior U.S. Senator.  That's what bullies do - instigate and berate.

Bullies get their bluff in quickly and are always on the offensive.  They want to be the absolute boss and quickly move to shut down defiant behavior.  That's why it was odd, yet refreshing, this week to see a few cracks beginning to develop in the Trump fortress.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the nation's chief diplomat and the person who is fifth in the line of succession to be President (behind Fat Boy, Pence, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Senate President Pro Tem Orrin Hatch), apparently disparaged his boss last summer at a meeting in the Pentagon when he referred to Trump not only as a "moron," but according to some news sources actually called The Donald "a f--king moron."  Tillerson passed up an opportunity this past week to personally deny the story, but the State Department trotted out a lackey a few days later to deny it for him.

Today Trump lambasted the Tillerson story as "fake news," but said if his cabinet secretary had made the statement he would be glad to compare IQ scores with him.  (Being officially labeled a "moron" would entail an IQ test, and a skilled grifter would likely do quite well on one of those measures - even a two-bit con-man who didn't know squat about history or current geo-political situation.)

And then there's Bob Corker, the Republican senator from Tennessee who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Corker recently announced that he was not going to run for re-election, and Trump immediately got on his Twitter machine and took credit for Corker's decision saying that the Tennessee senator had begged Trump for an endorsement, but that he declined.  It was a shot across the senator's bow, but instead of crawling off into some dark corner and licking his wounds, Senator Corker fired this tweet right back at the bully-in-chief:

"It's a shame the White House has become an adult day care center. Someone obviously missed their shift this morning."

Ouch!

Corker then said on an interview program that Trump was treating his office like a "reality show" and that his reckless threats towards other nations could set our country on a path to "World War III."

Double ouch!

Just because Bob Corker is not currently planning on running for re-election to the Senate, does not remove him from that chamber.  Even without running in 2018, he will remain a United States Senator until January of 2019 - fifteen more months.  Donald Trump will need Corker's votes for tax "reform," mistreatment of immigrants, crippling American health care, and who-knows-what-all over the next fifteen months, and now he has gone and seriously pissed off the senator from Tennessee.

And Jeff Flake, and Ben Sasse, and Rand Paul, and John McCain, and Lisa Murkowski.

Keep it up, Donald!  Make those Republican Senators be your bitches!  Show them that you're the boss!  Bullies are so cool!

And so are morons.

Monday's Poetry: Military Jodies

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Anyone who has gone through basic military training in this country or has watched Bill Murray's classic film, Stripes, knows what a "jody" is - the cadence music that service members sing as they march, music that keeps them in step.  These snappy little songs often focused on "Jody," a character who was supposedly at home making time with the girl the service member left behind.  Most of the ones that I remember from my days in the Army are not family oriented.

As an example of a bit of one that I remember:

"The women in the army
They say are mighty fine
But most are over eighty
And the rest are under nine.
I don't want no more of Army life,
Gee, but I want to go home!"

I have been thinking of jodies quite a bit this week as the big yard around my place has suddenly transformed into a military parade field.

Several weeks ago I freed my two peacocks and five peahens.  One of the peahens immediately moved away, but would occasionally come back for a morning visit.  I'm not sure what drew her away because peacocks generally stick close to the area they regard as home.  They may wander during the day, but they invariably come home to roost in the evening.  Last week I found the carcass of another hen, one that had been killed and mostly eaten by predators.  Three peahens and the two peacocks remain.

My five Toulouse geese had been the bosses of the farm until the peacocks were released, and even then they rushed forward and tried to get their bluff in on the newly freed fowl.  They were able to push the peahens around some, but the big peacocks were having none of it.  Within minutes of being freed, the peacocks exerted their dominance over the geese.

For awhile the geese managed to stay out of the way of their new overlords, but it didn't take long for the peacocks to seek out the geese and begin teaching them how things were going to be.  One of those lessons centered on herding the bewildered geese around the house, in a gaggle, relentlessly.  Sometimes one peacock would march the five geese around while his brother took a leisurely dust bath and nap in the sun, and at other times both peacocks would herd the frayed geese around the house in one direction, and then give an "about face" and march them back in the other direction.  At times they even split them into two groups which they would work separately, and if one goose had trouble following orders, he got singled out for some one-on-one remediation by a determined peacock.

A couple of evenings ago I was feeling sorry for the geese, so I stepped in between them and the drill instructor.  The big peacock was not amused and stepped up to me and screamed.  At that point I decided it would be best for me to get out of the way and let the geese take care of themselves!

Here, in honor of The Roost's crop of basic trainees, is just one of many presentable "jodies" that can be found on the internet.  It is called "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," and I can remember singing/shouting a version of it as me and my buddies tramped along the dark streets of Ft. Riley, Kansas, nearly fifty years ago.

Geese, you have my empathy.

Hup, two, three, four,
Hup, two, three, four!


She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
by Anonymous

Around her hair she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore it in the spring time, in the early month of May
And if you asked her why the heck she wore it
She’d say she wore it for her soldier who was far, far away
Far away
Far away
She wore it for her soldier who was far, far away

Around the block she pushed a baby carriage
She pushed it in the spring time, in the early month of May
And if you asked her why the heck she pushed it
She’d say she pushed it for her soldier who was far, far away
Far away
Far away
She pushed it for her soldier who was far, far away

Behind the door, her father kept a shotgun
He kept it in the spring time, in the early month of May
And if you asked him why the heck she kept it
He'd say he kept it for her soldier who was far, far away
Far away
Far away
He kept it for her soldier who was far, far away.

Good News-Bad New for Puerto Rico

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The good news for some citizens of Puerto Rico, particularly those who managed to get close to Donald Trump during his very brief recent visit, is that they now apparently have an adequate supply of paper towels, at least for the time being.   The bad news is that much of the island is still without electricity, food, and safe drinking water.   The good news is that Trump assures Puerto Ricans and the world that his people have done a 'great job" and "amazing work" in getting the island back on its feet.  The bad news, of course, is that when Donald Trump's lips are moving, he is almost always lying.

Donald Trump went to Peurto Rico following the massive Hurricane Maria, and instead of bringing aid and comfort to the residents of that ravaged island,each and every one anl American citizen,  he supplied them with senseless and soulless bon mots about the devastating impact that their tragedy was having on his budget - and a minimizing of what they had gone through by comparing Maria's death toll with that of Katrina.  (You all should be ashamed for costing us so much money, and it wasn't that great of a hurricane anyway.)  He had also paved his runway of insensitivity with earlier reminders of Puerto Rico's looming debt crisis - as well as with disparaging remarks about San Juan's mayor.

Donald Trump is not the human being that Barack Obama was in these types of situations.  His mode of operation is to show up, assemble the press and pat himself on the back, stay well away from the muck, and then leave as quickly as possible.

Today Puerto Rico is still struggling to survive, and Trump is playing golf.   Reports indicate that many Puerto Ricans are planning to relocate to the mainland United States in search of jobs and better futures.  As Americans living within the United States, they will also have the right to vote in U.S. elections.  That will be good news for them, and, one hopes, bad news for Donald Trump.

What the War on Women Looks Like

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Today marks the one-year anniversary of when Donald Trump's disgusting remark about grabbing women by the genitals became public.  His filthy rhetoric, in an un-aired taped portion of an "Access Hollywood" segment, was such a foul affront to public decency that many people suspected the election had ended right at that point and The Donald had lost.  A few weeks later, however, the Electoral College corrected that flawed thinking.

A pig was headed to the White House - to live there!

Some might have hoped that Trump's disparagement of women was just a temporary aberration, but those hopes were quickly dashed as the new administration demonstrated time and time again that women's issues were not a priority.  Perhaps Donald saw widening the gender chasm as key to his continuing war with that "nasty" Hillary.

Earlier in the week in this space I spoke to the hypocrisy of the GOP pushing a twenty-week ban on abortions while failing to re-authorize the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a pairing that seemed to be very pro-fetus and anti-child.  Then, just yesterday, as if to further highlight their sustained war on women and families, the Trump administration rolled back the birth control mandate for Obamacare, a move which will allow employers to not cover birth control in their insurance packages if doing so conflicts with their religious beliefs.   Trump's move could cause millions of women to lose that important coverage.

Less birth control, fewer abortions, more babies, more children without access to health care - yeah, that makes for viable, healthy families.

Yesterday a person named Emmy Bengston (@EmmyA2) posted a tweet that seemed to capture the whole dynamic.  It has been re-tweeted nearly 50,000 times.  Emmy described the war on women this way:

"No abortion. No birth control. No maternity leave. No health care for your kids. No care for you.

This is what a war on women looks like."

America should have taken Donald Trump at his word a year ago.  He was no friend of women - and he still isn't - nor will he ever be.

Ol' Roy Blunt Wallows in NRA Cash

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Missouri's junior senator,  Ol' Roy Blunt, never met a lobbyist he didn't like, and he even married one.  Blunt, who has been a denizen of the Washington, DC, area for more than twenty years was a former public official back home in Missouri and was President of Southwest Baptist "University" in Bolivar before heading off to the glamor and riches of political life in our nation's capital.

Today Ol' Roy lives in a three-million dollar home in the DC suburbs along with his wife, Abby Perlman, and their young son.  Perlman is one of the more prominent lobbyists in Washington, DC.   All three of Blunt's grown children are lobbyists.

Ol' Roy likes lobbyists, you betcha he does - and when he sticks his hand in a lobbyist's pocket, he goes deep.

Yesterday America's newspaper, The New York Times, published a listing of the United States Senators and Representatives who had received the most money from the National Rifle Association - and Ol' Roy placed a respectable third in the Senate and was well above every member of the House of Representatives.  The NRA had invested a whopping $4,551,146 to secure the undying gratitude and loyalty of my Republican senator.

The only other two members of the Senate to draw more blood money from the NRA than Blunt were Richard Burr of North Carolina ($6,986,620) and crusty old John McCain of Arizona ($7,740,521).  But I have faith in the corruptibility of mankind and am certain that given a few more years at the trough Ol' Roy will be able to surpass the totals of even those two master graftsmen.

Keep that hand out, Ol' Roy, and keep stuffing that cash into your pockets.  You're meant for greater things than just number three!

Hawaii

by Pa Rock
Reader

James A. Michener's panoramic and ponderous tome, Hawaii, was reportedly finished just days before the group of Pacific islands became the 50th state in 1959.  It is a  history of the islands going from the time millions of years ago when the lava that was to form Hawaii began seeping out of the ocean floor up until the early 1950's when the the post-World War II business and economic realities were beginning to take a firm hold on the ever-evolving island paradise.

I recently read this literary masterpiece in preparation for an upcoming trip to Hawaii, the first time that I will have been there in over forty years.

Michener's massive work (nearly 1,100 pages) is peopled with fictional characters, but ones based very closely on the individuals who actually lived the tale.  Michener dedicated his book "To all the peoples who came to Hawaii," and he structured the novel around them:  the Polynesians, the missionaries from New England, and the Chinese and Japanese laborers.  Each group brought unique qualities and strengths to the islands and left imprints that remain to this day.  While the outlines of Michener's take on the history of Hawaii are basically true historically, he peopled his tale with characters of his own creation and molded their lives and stories to fit the historical outline.

The first Polynesian settlers of the uninhabited paradise of Hawaii came from the South Pacific (Bora Bora, according to Michener) around twelve hundred years ago in a "swift single-hulled outrigger canoe" that employed dedicated paddlers and a triangular sail.  It contained a couple of dozen people, provisions for a long journey, two bred sows, taro plants, and religious artifacts.  Michener portrayed those first settlers as fleeing an encroaching new religion in order to find a place where they were free to continue worshiping their old gods.

Things evolved slowly and peacefully for a thousand years until Captain Cook discovered the islands in the eighteenth century.  After Cook's discovery of the islands, ships from various nations began sailing into Hawaii to replenish supplies and allow the sailors to become familiar with the native women.   Soon missionaries from America began arriving to save the islanders from themselves and to combat the immorality being imported into paradise by the sailors.

Michener's eight fictional missionaries were all young Congregationalists educated at Yale.  Their sponsors required that they be married in order to go to the islands and do God's work, and consequently most of the young men got married within days before their ship sailed out of Boston Harbor.  After a harrowing journey of several months, living in cramped quarters and suffering filthy conditions and constant illness, the young men and their brides, several of whom became pregnant on the voyage, finally stepped ashore on the beautiful islands of Hawaii.

Michener described these missionaries as "people who came to do good - and did well," because as the years went by they and their descendants came to control the land and the economy of the islands.  As the island's economy began turning toward agriculture, particularly the production of sugar cane, it became apparent that the relaxed nature of the native population was not going to lend itself well to field work, and farm laborers were sought from the Far East.

Chinese field hands were brought into the islands in the 1860's.  One of Michener's most memorable characters in Hawaii was Nyuk Tsiu who was brought to the islands by a gambler who had a contract to deliver her to a whorehouse.  The gambler had also signed a contract whereby he was to work five years as a field hand.   Nyuk posed as the gambler's wife in order to board the ship with its cargo of male contract workers.    The gambler became intrigued with Nyuk's aggressiveness and intelligence while enroute to Hawaii, and by the time the ship docked he had decided to buy out her prostitution contract and marry her.  They had five sons, and by the time Nyuk died, in the 1950's at the age of one hundred and six, she had hundreds of descendants living in Hawaii and her family controlled much of the land and the economy of the emerging U.S. state.

Hawaii, unlike Fiji and some other islands that imported large groups of laborers, allowed its immigrants to vote and to own land.  The Chinese soon began leaving the fields and opening businesses in and around Honolulu, a fact that created a need for a new labor source.  This time the missionary families who owned the fields turned toward Japan - and during the 1920's a large influx of Japanese immigrants began arriving in the islands.  While the Chinese turned their attention to business success, the Japanese proved to be more interested in worker rights and organizing.  Both groups, the Chinese and the Japanese, recognized the ultimate power of education, and both groups were relentless in their pursuit of educational opportunities for their children.

Michener pointed out the discrepancy with which the white master class in Hawaii - the descendants of the missionaries - treated immigrants versus the way they treated the native Polynesians.  Immigrants were given opportunities for advancement through education and the right to own property and vote.  The native population, however, were treated more like incompetents who were incapable of managing their own lives and whose interests needed to be managed by the whites.  Consequently as the native Polynesians began to disappear through the ravages of disease and inter-marriage, the Oriental immigrants were establishing a permanent presence in the social and economic aspects of the islands.

World War II and particularly the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor was a major focus of the latter portion of this book. Michener examined the stresses that the bombing and constant fear of an invasion by Japan placed on the islands and their residents, particularly the Japanese.    Many of the young Japanese of military service age had been born in Hawaii and considered themselves to be Americans.  While many of the islands' Japanese were initially rounded up and detained, a lot of prominent local whites went to the jails and detention centers and managed to vouch for a good number of them who were then released.

A lot of the young Japanese men joined all-Japanese military units, led by whites, and were sent to Europe to fight.  They proved to be some of the bravest and fiercest soldiers involved in the Second World War.  Michener's epic tale focused on four of these young men, brothers, who fought in the same unit in Europe.  One was killed in Italy, one died in France, and the other two survived to become important members of the emerging post-war social order in Hawaii - one as a labor leader, and the other as a Harvard-educated lawyer who became a formidable politician.

The characters introduced in each of the various migrations to Hawaii drift across the pages and interact with one another, weaving a compelling story as well as a broad history of the islands.   Readers are taken from sailing across the ocean under the tranquility of a starry night in an outrigger canoe to riding in a cramped ship while the passengers constantly vomit over the sides of the ship and deal with intestinal maladies.  At one point readers are basking under the swaying palms of Lashaina on Maui, and a few pages later they cringing in horror as rapists roam the beach at the leper colony on Molokai looking for victims.  Michener's characters are very human, and they tell a compelling tale.

James Michener was an avid student of history with an in-depth knowledge of the South Pacific, and his first novel, in fact, Tales of the South Pacific, won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.  He went on to write more that three dozen other novels, each a comprehensive examination of the human story and experience.  His works are engrossing - and none more so than Hawaii.

I feel much better prepared for my upcoming trip after having read it.

GOP Moves to Save Fetuses While Abandoning Children

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Trent Franks is a congressman from Arizona who is basically a one-trick pony.   Mr. Franks' primary objective in serving in the House of Representative is to make life hell for women seeking abortions.  He is a highly focused (obsessed) vagina-master who is determined that women's rights over their own bodies be tightly limited and controlled by men like him, men who know what is best for women.

Yesterday Franks managed to get a bill passed in Congress, one which dealt with (of course) abortions.  Franks new legislation would make it illegal for a physician to perform or attempt to perform an abortion after twenty weeks of pregnancy.   Failure to strictly adhere to the Franks' law could result in a fine, up to five years in prison, or both.  The bill passed the House on a fairly straight-line party vote of 237-189, with most Republicans self-righteously and sanctimoniously defending the "rights" of the fetus.

Lindsey Graham plans to introduce a companion bill in the Senate.  Passage in the Senate will be more difficult because sixty votes will be required.

The White House is on record as "strongly" supportive of the Franks' legislation and applauding "the House of Representatives for continuing its efforts to secure critical pro-life protections."

Yeah, right.

Also in the news this week:

On September 30th the same House of Representatives allowed the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to expire.  CHIP is mostly funded by the federal government.  It helps over nine million children receive low-cost health care. 

Conservative politicians have long been accused of believing that life begins at conception and ends at birth.  This week many of them have moved aggressively to cement themselves into that hypocrisy.

And it is the children who suffer.

Trump Headed "Straight to Hell"

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a gifted writer, composer, and stage actor who created and starred in two of the biggest  hits on Broadway of the last decade - "In the Heights" and "Hamilton."  His impact on modern American culture is immeasurable.

Miranda is also a native of Puerto Rico and he still has family living on that beleaguered island.  He loves and cares about the people who remain trapped in rubble and desperation that Hurricane Maria dumped on his homeland.  He is raising money and leading relief efforts for Puerto's Rico's recovery.

To say that Lin-Manuel Miranda was less than pleased with Donald Trump's lack of empathy over the tragedy that struck Puerto Rico would be criminal understatement.  Miranda was livid at Trump's blaming of Puerto Rican officials for problems they encountered in dealing with the hurricane's aftermath - as well as Trump's decision to institute a Twitter-feud with the mayor of San Juan - all actions that the Broadway star saw as not being helpful.

So this past weekend Lin-Manuel Miranda exploded onto Twitter himself and told Donald Trump how he really felt - and it was not pretty!

"You're going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump.
No long lines for you.
Someone will say, "Right this way, sir."
They'll clear a path."

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a concerned human being who suffers real pain when misfortune befalls others - and  Donald John Trump . . .  well, not so much.  Today Trump is traveling to Puerto Rico.  May he see and experience more than he intends to.

Stay strong, Puerto Rico!