A Pair of Trump's Losers

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump likes to trumpet the rising stock market and take personal credit for every piece of good economic news.  Bad economic news, on the other hand, is always the fault of someone else.  The stock market has had some winners - most of which were winning well before the time that the Trump crime family entered the White House - but it has also harbored a few losers.

One company whose stock price has been in a recent decline is Harley Davidson (HOG) which has suffered a two-fold problem.  First, Harley's American customer base is shrinking as many of its loyalest customers are becoming too old to swing their leg over a motorcycle.  The worldwide market for Harley's, however, is still growing.  The second problem is that that some of our trading partners have retaliated against Trump and his trade war by placing their own tariff's on certain items which they hope will cripple Trump electorally - and Wisconsin motorcycle maker Harley Davidson is on that list.  Harley has recently said that they may move some manufacturing and jobs to Europe in order to avoid the retaliatory tariffs.

Harley stock has dropped about fifteen dollars a share over the past year.    Trump sees the company's decision to move some jobs overseas as a repudiation of him and his ill-conceived trade policies.    And Trump is pissed.  Womp, womp!

General Electric (GE) is another American company that is currently losing.   Back in the day GE was the very definition of American innovation and business success.  It's weekly television program, General Electric Theatre, made its host, Ronald Reagan, a household name.  Now the company is in hard times and has been suffering due to market changes and a company-wide restructuring.  In the past year the price of General Electric stock has been cut in half - from roughly $27 dollars a share to a price fluctuating in the $12 to $14 range, and it has lost its coveted position as part of the Dow Jones index.  The Gipper would not be pleased, and neither is the Groper.

There are winners, at least temporarily - but never forget that there are also losers.  The American economy is, in large measure, controlled by a man who operates by whim and tantrum - and who takes economic advice from Larry Kudlow.

It may be time to start banking with a tin can and a shovel!

An Attack on America

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Just days after Donald Trump fired up a South Carolina rally by referring to the press as "enemies of the American people" and prominent Trump supporter and social provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos said that he couldn't wait for vigilante gangs to start "gunning down journalists on sight" - the unthinkable happened.  A young gunman (and Trump supporter) by the name of Jarrod Warren Ramos stormed the offices of a local newspaper - The Capital Gazette - in Annapolis, Maryland, and opened fire on the men and women who were at work there trying to get the day's paper out.

The shooter had a long-standing personal grudge against the newspaper staff over a story they had run about him several years earlier, and at one time he had taken the paper to court charging defamation of character - a case that was eventually dismissed.  He had also tweeted his anger at the newspaper on at least one occasion because it had referred to Donald Trump as "unqualified."

Five people died in the attack and two others suffered wounds.  The shooter was taken alive and unharmed.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made a statement condemning the shooting, but when Donald Trump was approached by reporters seeking a comment, he walked away without responding.

Some thought it was inappropriate, and perhaps even offensive, that Trump could not be bothered to at least burp up a "thoughts and prayers" soundbite, but others were less surprised.   The victims, after all, were journalists, "enemies" of the American people.

True leaders inspire - they don't incite!

An attack on the press is an attack on America!

The Ground Shifts

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The political landscape in the United States underwent a seismic shift yesterday when Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his imminent retirement.  Kennedy, often a "swing" justice on the Court, will be replaced by someone selected by Donald Trump and confirmed by a Senate under the control of Mitch McConnell.  It is hard to imagine an outcome where America does not lose - bigly!

The Kennedy vacancy becomes known just after the current Supreme Court issued some horrendously bad decisions.  The past couple of weeks has seen the Court uphold what Trump himself referred to as a "Muslim" ban on travelers to the United States, a decision which flies in the face of the notion of the free exercise of religion - while, at the same time, upholding a baker's right to refuse service to gay couples as a religious freedom.  The hypocrisy was thicker than old cake frosting.  And after the Court finished maligning the religious portion of the First Amendment, it moved on to the part about free speech and decided that public sector unions could not compel non-members to pay dues, even though the unions represented and benefited those non-members, because to do so impinged on the "free speech" of the freeloading workers.

Now, with another Trump troglodyte sitting on the Supreme Court, the fear is that some of the most hard-fought progressive victories of the past half-century could be revisited and overturned - things like a woman's right to choose (as ensconced in Roe v. Wade) or the more recent decision that affirmed the right of gay couples to marry.

Trump says he is looking for someone who will be able to serve forty or forty-five years.  McConnell says that he hopes to complete the confirmation process this fall.  However this cake is ultimately sliced, it looks as though a significant portion of America will be left with nothing but crumbs.

Come on Mueller - kick it into gear!

House Dems Get Their Wake-Up Call

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Republicans in Congress had their wake-up call back in 2014 when Eric Cantor, their number two in the House of Representatives, lost his primary to an unknown upstart, and last night Joe Crowley, the number four congressman in the Democratic caucus suffered the same fate.  In both cases the party's base sent a loud message that if members of Congress want to keep their positions of power and prestige, then they had best stay connected to the people they represent.

Congressman Joe Crowley, who had aspirations to be Speaker of the House, had his political career castrated when he lost the primary yesterday in New York's 14th congressional district to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.   The surprise winner is half Crowley's age.  She developed her political chops working as a grass-roots organizer for Bernie Sanders.  Ocasio-Cortez, a Latina whose race and ethnicity were more closely aligned with the diverse district that selected her over Crowley,  ran as a Democratic Socialist and positioned herself far to the left of the twenty-year incumbent.  Crowley, for his part, seemed to assume that he would easily defeat the challenger, and he ostensibly campaigned by ignoring her.  He even went so far as to send a surrogate to face her in a debate.

Crowley's nonchalance was a colossal political error.

New York's 14th is a strong Democratic district and Ocasio-Cortez is expected to win the seat handily in November.  Congressman Crowley has already endorsed her.  In January, barring an even bigger surprise, she will take her seat in the United States House of Representatives.  Ocasio-Cortez will bring her liberal agenda the the floor of the House, and she will also bring her youth and energy.   Expect her to make some noise - and hope that the old farts who run the Democratic Party in the House have the good sense to listen.   They have had their wake-up call.

Hizzoner, Mayor Kander

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Former Missouri secretary of state Jason Kander made news yesterday when it was revealed that he will be running for mayor of Kansas City next year.   Kander made a national imprint in 2016 when he gave entrenched Missouri Republican senator Roy Blunt the race of his political life.

After narrowly losing that race to Blunt in what was otherwise a Trump landslide across Missouri, Kander went on to form a non-profit group called "Let America Vote" which worked at registering voters and creating easier access to the polls nationwide.  Kander's work with that group led him to campaign with many Democratic candidates across the country, a move that some saw as a prelude to a presidential run in 2020.

Jason Kander has recently noted that he received more votes in Kansas City in 2016 than any other candidate on the ballot.  If he wins the election as the city's next mayor, he will be in a comfortable position to pursue higher office in the future.

Kander was born in the Kansas City suburb or Overland Park, Kansas, in 1981.

The Kansas City mayor's office sits atop the 29-story City Hall building in downtown KC. Back in the early 2000s, my good friend and former university housemate, Millie, was working as an aide to Kansas City's mayor at the time, Kay Barnes, and had an office just outside of the mayor's.   Millie took me over to City Hall one evening, after normal business hours, and gave me a tour.  We strolled around the observation deck that crowns the building and gives a magnificent view of the entire city, and then we went to Millie's office and on into the one occupied by Mayor Barnes.

I remember two things about the mayor's office from that night.  She had a bouquet of fresh flowers on her desk, a gift from her husband - fresh flowers delivered every week for a year.   The mayor's husband had passed away shortly after placing that order - he was gone, but the flowers kept coming.  The other thing was a small framed photograph of the mayor's cousin, Walter Cronkite, that was also sitting on her desk.  Both items provided a very personal glimpse into the life of the lady who was running the great city at that time.

And Kansas City is a great city - one where everything was, is, and always will be up-to-date!

Congratulations, Kansas City, on recruiting a top flight candidate for mayor - and give 'em hell, Jason!

Monday's Poetry: "I Am Not What You Think"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Antwon Rose, Jr. is being buried today.   He was a seventeen-year-old honor student who was gunned down by a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, policeman last Tuesday evening.  Rose, a black youth, made a bad decision when the vehicle in which he was riding was pulled over by police - he chose to run.  Of course, other young black men - like Philando Castile of Minnesota - have been shot while sitting in their cars while trying to cooperate with police requests, so Antwon Rose may have felt that he had a better chance of survival if he ran.

In the end he was little more than moving target practice for a novice policeman.

The death of Antwon Rose is one more outrage that our country continues to perpetrate on young black men.  He was running away from the incident and posing a threat to no one when a young policeman felt the need to shoot him not once, not twice, but three times in the back.  Antwon's life mattered to many people, but apparently not to the man with the gun who chose to bring the lad's life to an end.

Black lives matter.  That statement gets my neighbors angry because they see it as some sort of denial of the importance of the lives of others - particularly white lives and blue (police officer) lives.  But that is not what it's about.  All lives matter, that's a given, but society must remind itself that black lives matter because for centuries black lives have not mattered.  Perhaps if the slogan was "Black lives matter, too" it would resonate better - but probably not.

Antwon Rose mattered to his family, and to his friends, and to his school and community - and he should matter to all of us because his death diminishes ourselves and our civilization.

Being killed by police was something that Antwon Rose had worried about for some time, and it was the subject of a poem that he wrote for his honors English class on May 16th, 2106.  That poem, "I Am Not What You Think," is today's poetry selection.

Rest in peace, Antwon.  Your light will be missed.


I Am Not What You Think

by Antwon Rose

I am confused and afraid
I wonder what path I will take
I hear there is only two ways out
I see mother’s bury their sons
I want my mom to never feel that pain
I am confused and afraid

I pretend all is fine
I feel like I am suffocating
I touch nothing so I believe all is fine
I worry that it isn’t though
I cry no more
I am confused and afraid

I understand people believe I am just a statistic
I say to them I am different
I dream of life getting easier
I try my best to make my dream come true
I hope that it does
I am confused and afraid

Whining and Dining with Fascists

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There have been several reports in the news lately which indicate that many of the young Trumpies who migrated to our nation's capital to serve their Fuhrer are beginning to encounter some social challenges.  Young male staffers are apparently experiencing difficulty in getting dates.  DC girls still want to have fun - just not with them!

Last week, at the height of Trump's war on Latino immigrant families, two administration officials encountered public hostility when they showed up at fancy Mexican restaurants in the DC metro area.  One alert diner spotted Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and a friend sitting in an upscale Mexican restaurant enjoying conversation and guacamole dip - and surreptitiously took their picture.  She then sent the photo along with the location to a friend, and within minutes a group of protesters from the DC chapter of Democratic Socialists of America were in the restaurant and surrounding her table, some of whom were shouting taunts about Nielsen's gall in choosing to dine at a Mexican establishment.  Secretary Nielsen conveniently had two Secret Service agents in tow who placed themselves between her and the rude hecklers.

Stephen Miller, the Trump aid with strong fascist tendencies who reportedly devised and promoted the administration's plan to separate immigrant children from their parents, also tried to enjoy a Mexican meal at another DC area restaurant, and he, too, had his meal interrupted by protests.

One school of thought on these Trump administration officials choosing to dine very publicly at Mexican eateries was that they were trolling the good people who were opposed to Trump's no-tolerance immigration policies - just as Melania did with her infamous "I really don't care, do U?" Zara jacket:   a little in-your-face response to a horrific social and political situation that Trump created.

Late in the week presidential press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders  and her family showed up at a restaurant in Lexington, Virginia, called the "Red Hen," with plans to enjoy dinner.  A waiter was getting them settled in when the manager walked over to the table and asked Sarah and her entourage to leave - which they did.  Sanders tweeted later that they had been asked to leave because she worked for Trump, and that she and her family complied with the request.

Perhaps Sarah now at least has some vague notion of how the gay couple felt when the bigoted baker refused to bake their wedding cake, though probably not.  She was excluded from the restaurant based on something tangible that was related to her - the company she kept.  The gay couple was denied service based on discrimination toward an entire class of people.

The Trumpies may feel like they own Washington, DC, but it is the city that owns them.  This administration is just a temporary aberration taking up space on the city's social calendar - a page that will soon be ripped off and discarded.  The young Turks whine and dine and rock the beltway with their sound and fury - but in the end they signify nothing.   The city and its people will prevail - as they always have.

Less than Human

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The big news this past week, in fact, the pervasive news of the past week, was the Trump administration's treatment of immigrant children and families.  For nearly two months agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been forcibly separating refugee parents from their children, and this week some of the personal horrors brought on by that government-sponsored inhumanity began making themselves known in the media.   News photos began circulating showing frightened children sobbing as they stood bewildered among armed, uniformed strangers, and recordings of immigrant children screaming and crying for their parents also echoed off of the national landscape.

Americans, by and large, were appalled.

And while Trump tried to stand firm on the practice of child-snatching, falsely blaming it on Democrats and falsely saying that he had no power to end it, in the end - and after a tremendous public uproar - The Donald folded like a cheap card table and signed an executive order intended to end the practice.

In addition to Trump's continuing lies that he had no power to end the practice and that he himself was against it, at various times during the crisis he or members of his administration also indicated that the practice was an intentional travesty designed to deter immigrants from trying to enter the United States - and a bargaining chip to help Trump get money from Congress for his vanity wall along the southern border.  It was repeatedly cited as part of Trump's "no tolerance" policy toward immigrants.

As the week wore on several state governors announced that they would no longer send troops or equipment to the U.S.-Mexican border to aid in border security.  A couple of airlines also said that they would not be involved in transporting migrant children to internment centers.  American politicians made news when they tried, usually unsuccessfully, to gain access to their child detention facilities.  One congressman played a tape of frightened children screaming for their missing parents on the floor of Congress, and a group of protesters  played that same horrifying tape, loudly, outside of the home of the Secretary of Homeland Security.

One Guatemalan mother managed to get into court and obtain an order from a judge to be reunited with her child, and other attorneys, including the one representing Trump nemesis Stormy Daniels, began volunteering services to immigrant parents who had had their children stolen by the American government.

All living First Ladies of the United States, including Melania Trump, spoke out against the policy of removing immigrant children from their parents, and mental health experts began educating the public on the serious and long-term consequences of pulling young children away from their parents.

All in all it was a helluva week and in the end Trump, a man who leads his supporters in chanting "animals" when he is discussing immigrants and talks about "our" country being "infested" by people seeking asylum and opportunity, changed a policy that he said he could not change.  Children will no longer be taken from their parents - and now entire families will be detained together in makeshift internment camps.

So far there have been no announced plans for returning the 2,300 children who were already separated from their parents.

But. don't worry, America.  Brian Kilmeade, the host of Donald Trump's favorite television program, "Fox and Friends," told us this week that the kids living in crowded confines away from their parents "aren't our kids."  They aren't white, middle class kids from suburban America - they are other people's kids from other parts of the world - presumably "shithole" countries - and that makes it alright.

As long as attitudes like those expressed by Brian Kilmeade exist, this will never be over!

Hunker down, America - there is going to be hell to pay for the way we have treated these children.   We are all members of the Family of Man, and "those kids" ARE our kids!  Anything less is less than human.

Melania Steps Out

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

While much of America seemed to be feeling some sympathy for former underwear model Melania Trump as she struggled to fit into her new role as First Lady of the United States, that compassion is now evaporating as Mrs. Trump seems to have suddenly gotten her footing on the political stage.  The woman who was once thought to likely be a "victim" of circumstances well beyond her control - even a "hostage" within the confines of the White House, desperately trying to survive within a sordid sea of prenuptial weeds and hungry young sharks eager to do her husband's evil bidding, is now coming into her own - and sadly, Melania is far from being an Eleanor Roosevelt.

Yesterday Melania stepped out onto the world stage to represent her husband in a matter of great import to the nation, much like Mrs. Roosevelt was often forced to do for FDR due in part to his serious physical handicap.  But the clueless (Or is she?) Missus Trump was in trouble even before she managed to climb aboard Air Force One.  She left the White House, on a very warm morning, wearing a (Zara) long jacket which one journalist described as a "sandwich board" because it contained a full-length printed message on the backside:  ""I really don't care.  Do U?"

Melania was on her way to Texas for a couple of photo ops with older detained youth (teens) - and her message was "I really don't care.  Do U?"  By the time her plane reached Texas she had shed the jacket, but she had it back on again later in the day when Air Force One dumped her back in D.C.

What is it that she really doesn't care about?  The immigrant kids that she flew two thousand miles on the taxpayers' dime to visit?  Or perhaps FLOTUS, a former immigrant herself, doesn't give a rat's ass about immigrants in general - after all, she already has her citizenship - and free public housing to boot!  Not only that, but after qualifying to stay in the United States due to holding a critical job - underwear model - she bagged a rich sugar daddy, got her papers, and chain-migrated several members of her family into the U.S. as well.

To hell with those brown animals infesting her country!

Melania really doesn't care.

Do you?

Some social media noisemakers suddenly began re-evaluating the only First Lady to ever be featured on the Internet in a g-string,  Perhaps she wasn't a prisoner of a ruthless dictator after all, but a coldly complicit and calculating collaborator.  Herr Trump himself coughed up a statement on the jacket affair saying that Melania was not trolling immigrant kids, but instead was trolling the press.

If that is so, Melania Trump, a recently minted United States citizen, might do well to read the Constitution that she swore to uphold.  A free and unfettered press is a necessary component of democracy - especially when the country is suffering under the control of an infantile tyrant.

America is a great land, one that has always cared.  If we lose that sense of compassion, we will be no better than the Trumps.

Shame on Melania for wearing that jacket, and shame on us if we are not outraged by it!

Pa Rock's Rocks and Other Tales from The Roost

by Pa Rock
Farmer in Summer

I thought with today being the first day of summer, it might be a good time to catch my friends up on what's happening here at Rock's Roost.   My decision to "retire" to a farm pretty much counteracted any plans that I might have had for extensive reading, writing for pleasure, long strolls down idyllic country lanes, or daily naps.  Farms, even small ones like mine that don't produce anything, are busy places!

Quite a bit of my time is spent mowing.  The Roost is ten acres, and I mow about half of that.  Rex, the world's best neighbor, comes by on his tractor and bush-hogs the rest twice a year.  Since arriving here four years ago, I had gradually expanded the amount of land that I mowed until last year it was taking between eight to ten hours to cut the grass.  Near the end of the mowing season, on the occurrence of me tearing up my mower for the second time that summer by hitting rocks that protrude from the ground like vulgar stone mushrooms, I decided to invest in a tougher mower.  I bought a zero-turn "Dixie Chopper" with a 52-inch swath that not only cut the grass and pulverized many of the rocks, but also cut my mowing time roughly in half.  I once bought a new car that cost less than that mower, but, of the two, I love the mower best!

Rex came by and bush-hogged late last week, and I mowed the entire yard in two sessions this past Monday and Tuesday.  The whole place looks like a picture postcard!

One corner of the farm is low and collects water when it rains.  That water spills over  the junction of two paved county roads two or three times a year.  This week Howl County finally sent a crew out to address the situation.  They tore up the roads, installed two big tin whistles for drainage, and then brought in some fill dirt to try and cure the situation.

That particular corner of land, the one that collects the rainwater, spawned an interesting Ozark tall tale.  One of my son's friends, the one who was killed a couple of weeks ago in the Shannon County shootout (as mentioned previously in Pa Rock's Ramble) told the story, with a straight face, that on days when a small lake forms over that parcel of land, fish can be seen jumping in the water.  A few gullible locals believed him and posited that the fish were probably living in some spring or water channel that ran beneath the land.  While these goobers are (and were) nice people, they are also the geniuses who voted for and elected you-know-who.

But I digress.

Fiona had four kittens on March 31st, and one died the following week.  I put a sign out in the front yard to give away the other three.  A pair of young men from the neighboring community of Pomona stopped by and took the two smaller kittens, one black and one brindle - and probably both female - and left me with just the larger orange one - definitely a Tom.  They were looking to raise the kittens as barn cats.  A mother and daughter asked for the Tom, but he did not cotton to them and ran and hid.  After a couple of discussions with the kitten-seekers, I decided that the little Tom was right - and I chose to keep him.

I have a black Tom from Fiona's litter last May and had named him Magoo.  That name never seemed to fit, and the poor cat would not answer to it, so I sat all three down, Fiona, Big Tom, and Little Tom, and had a discussion on names.  We finally chose to go with an alliterative assemblage.  Fiona is proud of her name and will keep it.  Magoo, who is all black with just a few white hairs, is now Felix, and the bouncy little fellow is Fargo - named in honor of noted physicist Dr. Douglas Fargo.  They all seem pleased with their handles, and surprisingly, to me at least, the two males play together and get along quite well.  Little Fargo is already almost as big as his mother, and he is closing in on Felix.

In an effort to become more mobile, I got rid of my five remaining peacocks (two cocks and three hens).  They are now in residence with a neighbor in a very isolated location.  I visited them last Sunday and was pleased with how well they appear to be getting along in their new digs.  Plans are for the four geese to soon join them.  I will miss the noise and confusion that those big birds generated, but it will be so much easier for me to close up and go on road trips if I don't have to worry about how to take care of the poultry.  I still have four roosters and one hen - and will deliver to anyone, anywhere!

Rosie and Riley and fine.  They go outside several times a day, but basically they like to lay around in the house and soak up the air-conditioning - as do I.

And the rocks?  I started a rock pile and a brush pile when I moved here.  The first brush pile is now the size of a native hut with an upstairs - and the second one is about half that size and growing.  I have seen a few wild bunnies this year, and I suspect they reside in those brush piles.

The rock pile grew out of stones that I picked up as I expanded the area being mowed.  It quickly grew to a pile covering about twelve square feet and reaching three feet in height.  The original pile was just ordinary rocks as well as some smooth river rocks that my son dragged home and for which I had no earthly use.  Then I started a second pile of field stones, those flat rocks that are common in Ozarks' fields and often used as siding on homes.  Those accumulated even more quickly and that pile is about four feet high.  I started a third pile that bridged the first two.  It began as ordinary rocks, but for the past few weeks I have been digging boulders out of the ground in an effort to spare the mower.  Some of those rugged beauties are fifty pounds or more, and that middle pile is quickly becoming as big as the other two.  Taken in total, the three connecting piles of rocks are immense - and likely pose a threat to the tilt of the earth.

This afternoon I will be out and about with the wheelbarrow and pickaxe, pulling more big rocks out of the ground and carting them to the pile.   I'm filling the holes with bagged top soil that I haul in from the local feed store.

Thankfully, I'm retired - so I have plenty of time to work!

Sully Is Two!

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

My youngest grandchild, Sullivan Charles Macy, is celebrating his second birthday today, safe and secure in the loving arms of his family.  Sully's mother, Erin, his father, Tim, and his older sister, Olive - as well aunts and uncles and his several grandparents - have all gone to great lengths to ensure that he experiences a happy and charmed life as he grows into his future.

I don't get to see Sully often enough, but I maintain as much contact as I can and treasure the time that I get to spend with him.  I know that he has an innate ability at basketball and shoots with his right hand, and I also know that he is becoming quite verbal - he called me last week to thank me for his birthday card, and he spoke very clearly, "Thank you, Pa Rock."  For a call like that I would send a card every day of the year!

My birthday wish for you, Sully, is that you are remain safe and secure in the loving confines of your family, and that you never have to experience horrors like "tender age" camps that other little children in America are being forced to endure.  May your youthful years, and the youthful years of all children everywhere, be spent in the safe embrace of family.

Much love.  I will see you soon.

4,000 Rambles, but Who's Counting?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Pa Rock's Ramble hits a milestone of sorts today with this posting, the 4,000th since this blogging effort began nearly eleven years ago.  For the most part it has been a daily occurrence, with a few days being skipped early on before I set a goal of publishing something every day.  Some days I even get carried away and do multiple postings, with an average of about 380 or more in a normal year.

The first blog posting in this effort was on November 7th, 2007.  I had been living in Phoenix, Arizona, for a couple of months and was sitting around my apartment one evening feeling a bit lonely and bored - and decided to learn how to blog.   I wrote the first entry that night, a piece promoting the candidacy of Barack Obama for President.  Ironically, he was elected President exactly one year later.

One of my goals when I started writing The Ramble was to collect as many of my writing "scraps" that I could salvage and preserve them in the blog.  Consequently, the archive of this effort contains a few short stories of mine as well as some tortured poetry that I hammered together, a couple of magazine articles, and my continuing collection of the adventures of "Rusty Pails" and his pals.  I also used this space to preserve some family stories and memories, as well as to memorialize some of my lifetime friends.  Sadly, since the election of Donald Trump, much of my focus in this writing endeavor seems to have slid into the muck of politics, and my continuing goal is go pull myself free of his slime.  It's a struggle.

Probably the widest-read article that I wrote for The Ramble  was a biographical sketch that I did on Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords about a year before the tragic shooting in Tucson.  Living in Arizona at the time, I had an understandable admiration for any local politicians who displayed signs of intelligence and compassion, and Gabby Giffords was one who fit that bill.    By the time of the Tucson shooting I was living abroad on Okinawa.  After hearing about the shooting, I scrolled back to the column that I had written about Gabby, entitled simply "Gabrielle Giffords," and was shocked to see that over a thousand people had pulled it up that day in their rush to learn as much as possible about the wounded public servant.

I have also written a couple of pieces regarding convicted murderers that I knew personally when they were kids - Shannon Agofsky and Levi King - and those entries continue to draw in all types of responses from readers.

Pa Rock's Ramble has some international roots.  Over the years I have crafted entries to the blog from several locations within the United States - including Arizona, Missouri, Florida, Indiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Texas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Alaska, and Hawaii - and from a raft of foreign countries including Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, Cuba, and several smaller islands in the Caribbean.  Sometimes it was hard to acquire a workable internet connection - and in Cuba it was next to impossible - but still I persisted.  (In Cuba I finally had to resort to just blogging onto Word documents and then publishing those to the blog once I made my way back into the twenty-first century.)

While I fuss and grumble about the rigors of typing something of interest (at least to me) each day, overall it has been a positive experience.  Pa Rock's Ramble may fall short of being great journalism, but for me it has often been damn fine therapy!

Thank you for the continuing feedback and encouragement over the years.  When that stops I'll probably end this effort and go back to mowing full time!

Stay strong, America - Trump won't last forever!

Monday's Poetry: "Money"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Several years ago I started noticing the "Where's George" dollar bills, paper U.S. currency with a special hand-stamp that invited holders of the currency to report the location of where they acquired it to a special website.  The website would provide a history of all of the locations where the bill had been reported, thus letting those with an interest gain some knowledge of how money circulates.  I even contributed to the process by reporting several of the bills that I came across.  Eventually, the system seemed to quit working - and now sightings of "Where's George" bills are becoming much more rare.

But that wasn't the last of stamped money.

Ben and Jerry, the guys with the ice cream, have been promoting special stamps with left-leaning messages about getting money out of politics.  Their company, The Stamp Stampede, offers a variety of hand-stamps with messages related to ending the big-money control of politics.  Ben and Jerry are promoting cause-oriented messaging on money, something which nagged at my conscience.  If they could tout their own political points-of-view on U.S. currency, wouldn't that same venue soon be overrun by individuals considerably less honorable than the virtuous Vermont ice cream makers?

Well, yes.

Yesterday I found out just how susceptible our paper money is to political lowlifes when I received a dollar bill in change at a local quick stop.  The bill had a small red stamp on its reverse side which read:  "TRUMP:  Make America Great Again."  I handed the bill back to the cashier and asked for a clean one - and he complied.

I fear we may be at the front end of a movement that will eventually deface our currency to the point that it becomes little more that folding graffiti.    People with a burning desire to get their message out before the public should post it on the internet - or fit it into a tattoo - and not rely on others to spread it through daily commerce.  That is just wrong.

With money on my mind, I have selected the poem "Money" by the late British master poet Philip Larkin for this week's poetry selection.  It is a clever verse that discusses money - and the habit of saving money - from the perspective of the money itself.




Money
by Philip Larkin

Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me:

    ‘Why do you let me lie here wastefully?

I am all you never had of goods and sex.

    You could get them still by writing a few cheques.’

So I look at others, what they do with theirs:   

    They certainly don’t keep it upstairs.

By now they’ve a second house and car and wife:

    Clearly money has something to do with life

—In fact, they’ve a lot in common, if you enquire:

    You can’t put off being young until you retire,

And however you bank your screw, the money you save

    Won’t in the end buy you more than a shave.

I listen to money singing. It’s like looking down

    From long french windows at a provincial town,   

The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad

    In the evening sun. It is intensely sad.

A Day for Atonement

by Pa Rock
Father

It's Father's Day in America, a day set aside by our government to  recognize and honor dads for their faithful efforts in raising children and promulgating civilization.  Unfortunately this Father's Day is marked by that same government exercising a policy that intentionally and cruelly separates children from their parents along America's southern border.

Children are being taken from their parents and spirited into a great unknown of foster care and institutional warehousing, sometimes hundreds of miles from where their parents are being detained.  1,995 children, some as young as breast-feeding infants, were taken from their immigrant parents by government officials from mid-April through the end of May of this year - roughly a six-week span.

Donald Trump, a politician who has built his political career primarily by demonizing immigrants, is trying to back away from ownership of the onerous policy that separates children from their parents, and he has been blathering on that the child-removal is the result of a "Democratic" law that Democrats need to change.  There are a couple of problems with that statement.  First, it is a lie.  There are no laws on the books mandating taking immigrant children from their parents, Democratic or otherwise.   Second, even if such a law did exist, the U.S. government is currently under the complete control of the Republican Party, and Democrats are unable to change anything.

The practice of separating children and parents is a government "policy," a policy that was enacted by the administration of Donald Trump.  It was promoted by Trump aide, Stephen Miller, and has been defended by former Trump chief advisor Steve Bannon, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders - both of whom defended the policy on Biblical grounds.  (Some religious leaders, however, have openly disagreed with the policy - people like Pope Francis and evangelical huckster Franklin Graham.)

Attorney General Sessions has also said that taking children from their parents is an intentional effort to discourage people from trying to enter the United States.  And Donald Trump appears to be using the abhorrent situation to angle for concessions from Congress - such as funding for his "border wall."  The captive children are, in effect, being used as bargaining chips.

So, Happy Father's Day, America.    Wouldn't it be wonderful if we used this day to honor every father - and mother - and child in America, whether they have a "legal" status or not?  Aren't each of them, and each of us, passengers on the same planet, children of the same God?

Let's celebrate Father's Day by honoring families - not destroying them.

Atone, America, and set those children free!

Rudy Tries to Pull a McCaskill

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump's new personal lawyer, the elderly and irascible Rudy Giuliani, has so far proven to be the master of one thing only:  keeping his own name in the press.  And while Boss Trump may occasionally relish a few minutes out of the limelight, he is nevertheless a raging narcissist who views everything as being about him - and he has a constant need to be noticed.  A press hog like Rudy will eventually wear out his welcome in Trump World.

Giuliani got the press buzzing yesterday when he landed a couple of cheap shots on former Vice President Joe Biden.  Rudy was talking politics when he offered that he was far more worried about the emergence of unknown Democratic candidates in 2020 than he was regarding Elizabeth Warren or Joe Biden.  In fact, he went on to make remarks about Biden which were particularly corrosive.  "Joe Biden is a moron," Rudy offered at one point, and then, just to make sure that his point was set in cement, he added, "I'm calling Joe Biden a mentally deficient idiot."

Why this sudden administration spotlight on Biden?  Does Rudy's boss fear getting a political beat-down from the 75-year-old former Vice President of the United States, or is there a more nefarious game being played.  Are Rudy and Trump trying a variation of a game that Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill refined in 2012, a slick maneuver called "pick your own opponent."  McCaskill stampeded Missouri's doltish Republicans into choosing their weakest candidate, Congressman Todd Akin, to run against her by making it appear that he was the candidate she really feared.

Is Rudy running a variation of the McCaskill scam - trashing Biden in the hopes that angry Democrats will rush to nominate him just to spite Rudy and Trump?  Perhaps that is the case, but if Giuliani is trying to manipulate Democrats into doing his bidding, he needs to remember one thing:  he is not as bright as Claire McCaskill - and certainly not as devious.

Leave dirty tricks to the experts, Rudy.   Your relevance as a political strategist has passed, if it ever existed at all - and you need to be focusing your energies on finding wife number four.  There is an idiot out there somewhere just waiting for you to notice her.

Democrats Struggle to Reform and Unify

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Late one night last week as I was perusing Twitter for the last time before calling it a night, I happened upon a tweet that caught my attention:

A Message to the Unity Reform Commission
What we want:

• CLOSED Primaries

• No Caucuses

• Super Delegates to Remain

• Presidential Candidates must be registered as a DEMOCRAT for 2 years prior to seeking the Democratic Party nomination

• All presidential candidates MUST release 10 years of income taxes

A single individual had posted the tweet, so I assumed the "we" in "what we want" was the royal "we."

That tweet stoked more than a few feelings.  As someone who has registered in states where a statement of party affiliation or "independent" is required, I always chose "independent" because I regard my voting proclivities as nobody's business but my own.  Closed primaries force voters to register with one major party or the other, or sit the process out.  I always felt that was somewhat less than democratic.

(Missouri, FYI, does not require a declaration of party affiliation when registering, giving knuckleheads like me the ability to vote in either party's primary.)

The notion that presidential candidates must be registered as a "DEMOCRAT" (emphasis courtesy of the tweeter), was an obvious dig at Bernie Sanders, the goat on which some Hillary stalwarts tried to blame her loss to Trump.  (Anne Rice, I'm looking at you!)

The other provision of this royal demand that bothered me was the notion that the Democratic Party should keep using "super delegates," those hoary old office holders and professional politicians who think they deserve a vote in the final candidate selection based solely on their status as senior Democrats.  I replied back to the tweeter asking why she felt it was necessary to keep super delegates, and, not surprisingly, she bit my head off.  The tweeter defended super delegates with this reply:

"Because they have devoted their careers supporting, donating, canvassing, governing, and promoting Our policies for Democrats.  Super delegates have NEVER picked Our candidates, the voters have - Learn History.  If Republicans had SD's, Trump wouldn't be President."

Being somewhat of a farmer, I recognized the pungent scent of fertilizer, but I chose to ignore the taunt to "learn history" and go to bed instead.

But, as Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story:  Lots of young people work toward having a say in the Party by supporting, donating, canvassing, and promoting Democratic policies, and they should not have their avenues to influence blocked by some eighty-two-year-old senator who feels entitled to hold a permanent seat at the convention.  Republican super delegates might have kept Trump out of the White House - who knows?  But it is just as likely that a Democratic convention free of the heavy-handed influence of super delegates would have nominated someone with less baggage than Mrs. Bill Clinton and might have even won the election.

That was then, but this is now.

Now the Democratic Party has a working group called the Unity Reform Commission (the group to which the above tweet was addressed).  The URC was created by a resolution proposed by the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee and subsequently approved by delegates to the 2016 national convention.  It is made up of 21 members appointed by Secretary Clinton, Senator Sanders, and DNC Chair Tom Perez.   The chair is Jennifer O'Malley Dillon of Washington, DC, and the vice chair is Larry Cohen, also of Washington, DC.

The URC seeks to empower Democrats to participate in the party at every level.  It is looking at key elements in the party process including:

• increasing participation in the presidential nominating process;
• ways to engage new and unaffiliated voters;
• the role of unpledged delegates;  and,
• how to rebuild and make the party competitive all across the country.

The URC has held two public meetings so far this year - Washington, DC, in May, and San Antonio in June.   Public meetings are planned for Chicago on August 25-26, and Las Vegas on October 18-21.

The tweeter who got me fired up in the first place was right about one thing.  Now is definitely the time for those interested in making change within the Democratic Party to make their voices heard.  Defeating the Trump forces of darkness will require Democrats fielding the strongest teams possible, and that stands the best chance of happening if we all force our way to the table and make our voices heard.

That's what democracy is - people being heard!

Has Mark Sanford Reached the End of his Appalachian Trail?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The famed "Appalachian Trail" is a 2,200 mile hiking trail extending from Georgia to Maine and traversing some of America's most beautiful and scenic mountain woodlands.  Truly bad-ass hikers can walk the entire trail in one long and arduous season, but most people who attempt to walk the full length of the AT do so over two, or three, or even several summers.

The trail figured prominently in the news nine years ago this month when the Republican governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, disappeared for six days.  After people began talking about his mysterious absence, Sanford's staff released a story that the governor was hiking the Appalachian Trail.  The truth about Governor Sanford's disappearance from public view finally came to light after a reporter caught him disembarking from a flight at the Atlanta airport - a flight that had originated in Buenos Aires.  Sanford stumbled through a few explanations, but finally admitted that he had been in Argentina spending time with his mistress.

Sanford's wife, Jenny, soon took their sons and moved out of the governor's mansion - later divorcing her unfaithful husband.  And while members of Sanford's own Republican Party in the state legislature threatened him with impeachment, he managed to remain in office until his term expired in 2011.  Most people felt that Sanford's political career was at an end, but at least he still had his pretty girlfriend.

Most people, however, were wrong.  Sanford's political career, his own personal Appalachian Trail, resumed in 2013 when he won the congressional seat vacated by South Carolina's new senator, Tim Scott.  Sanford managed to keep that seat for three terms before finally losing a primary election to retain the seat this past week.  Sanford's primary loss was reportedly due to his occasionally being critical of Donald Trump, even though he managed to vote the Trump position on most issues.

Rabid conservatives of the Trump stripe have a low tolerance for independent thought.  Jeff Flake, the Republican senator from Arizona whose own political career has been has been terminated, or at least detoured, because of his reluctance to publicly prostrate himself before his party's Golden Bull, describes the Republican fawning over Trump as being "cult-like."

So Mark Sanford has lost the Republican primary to retain his seat in Congress.  He is definitely down, but like many other hikers, but he may not be out.  Anyone who bounced back politically from a two-continent love scandal can probably outlast a political anomaly like Donald Trump - a man who has trouble "hiking" to the bathroom without the use of a golf cart.

Don't put those hiking boots in the yard sale just yet, Congressman.  You're probably going to need them after America dumps Trump.

A Letter From David Koch

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

In this day and age of electronic communications, the once ubiquitous practice of direct mail fundraising is fast becoming a thing of the past.  Why should organizations and hucksters put a stamp on an envelope when it is much simpler and more cost effective just to press a button and send out thousands of appeals at one time - with no stamps at all?

But the occasional begging letter still makes its way into my mailbox - the one that sits patiently out by the road in front of my house.  A few weeks ago I mentioned that I had received a letter from a scam organization that was encouraging me to go to the internet and support them - with a donation - because of their support for Ol' Roy Blunt, one of my United States Senators and the recipient of a phony award presented by the begging organization.

The letter regarding Blunt seemed to be directed at the one remaining class of people who might not be totally internet savvy - the elderly.  Yesterday I received another letter of questionable merit which, if I were a betting person, I would wager was also intended for old timers like me.

Yesterday's letter was from David H. Koch, the Executive Vice President of Koch Industries.  It was mailed by and for a group founded by the billionaire Koch and his billionaire brother - Americans for Prosperity - out of Arlington, Virginia.  And although the envelope was packed and somewhat heavier than an ordinary letter, it came with just one stamp affixed, a special one for use by non-profit organizations.  Special rates for special people, I suppose.

David's letter was an appeal for money for Americans for Prosperity, an appeal that was eight full pages in length.  I was "invited" to send in a donation and to join "this all-out battle for freedom."  Freedom, as some say, is not free, apparently.  And where else but in the United States would billionaires have balls big enough to go asking senior citizens on fixed incomes to send them money? It warmed my heart to know that soulless bastards like David Koch actually needed something from little people like me.

David's letter praised the "free enterprise" that helped to build the billionaire class to which he is a member.  He also snarled that times are so perilous that an "avowed socialist" like Bernie Sanders could mount a serious political campaign in the United States.  Then he posited a list of six areas in which Americans for Prosperity has already had significant influence.  To wit:

• Confirmations:  AFP pushed for the confirmation of Justice Gorsuch and is continuing its "unique grassroots efforts to support the confirmation of federal judges who will respect the Constitution and restore our freedoms."  Thus, one must suppose, providing us with a judiciary based on the judicial underpinnings of grifters like Antonin Scalia, a man who died while in the process of accepting a bribe.
• Regulation:  An effort primarily directed at repealing regulations enacted by the administration of President Obama and replacing them with free enterprise models free of regulation.   Goodbye net neutrality, hello corporate control of the internet.
• Taxes and Spending:  The tax "reform" plan enacted by Congress and signed by Trump was actively supported by AFP.  No surprise there.  The rich grew richer at the expense of the poor - as the god of unrestrained capitalism so ordained.
• Healthcare:  David brags that "Thanks to our activists, we're involved with stakeholders in Washington to help develop healthcare reforms that will result in accessible, affordable, and patient-centered healthcare for all Americans."  That malarky was immediately followed by a statement that AFP helped defeat "Obamacare Medicaid expansions" in Kansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, and Virginia - and began rolling back Medicaid expansions in Arkansas and Ohio.    People who believe that the Kochs or AFP  are interested in providing Americans with affordable and accessible healthcare probably need to have their heads examined - although if they live in Red states, they would have no affordable way of getting that done.
• Labor Reform:  Something David Koch sees as "winning Right-to-Work victories" in places like Missouri and Kentucky.  Meanwhile, Missouri voters are preparing to try to negate that particular Koch/AFP victory at the polls.
• School Choice:  AFP and the billionaire Koch worked to pass education savings accounts in Arizona - a tax dodge that takes money away from public schools - and they are working to expand charter schools - another ploy to defund and destroy public education.

And to help fund this master plot to rape and bankrupt America, David Koch wants me to send him a few dollars.  What a deal!

David Koch's letter did come with a postage-paid return envelope which I will stuff some of my other junk mail and send back to him.  It's the least I can do - and Daddy Warbucks can pay the postage!

(I am left to wonder how these clowns are coming up with my name and address.  I have never contributed to any conservative candidate or organization, nor have I never been to a white nationalist rally or any other Trump event.  Somebody has sold my mailing information to these right-wing slugs, most likely a group with a national base whose membership is primarily old folks.  AARP, I'm thinking that you fit that bill.  It may be about time for me to cancel my membership - again.)

The High Cost of Tantrums

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

When Donald Trump doesn't like somebody, he usually bangs out a few insulting tweets and then, if the unlucky individual works for the federal government, often fires him or her - sometimes through a tweet.  His emotions fluctuate like a jack-in-the-box on speed, and his tantrums have become so commonplace that much of America has come to accept them as more of Trump's standard bodily functions - like belching or farting.  Behaving like a spoiled three-year-old is just what he does.

But Donald Trump's outbursts of rage come with a cost.  Sometimes they make him and our country look foolish, such as with his bizarre attacks on Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week, while, at other times, they are more of a direct drain on the U.S. Treasury.

Solomon Lartey is a records management specialist with the federal government, a position for which he is paid $65,969 per annum.  During the first five months of the Trump administration Mr. Lartey's actual duties focused primarily on one thing.  The man sat, day-in and day-out, bent over a desk at a desk in a small room of the Executive Office Building next door to the White House where he taped together torn up pieces of paper - official presidential documents that had been ripped to pieces by Donald John Trump.

Federal law requires that any piece of paper that is touched by the hand of the President be preserved by the National Archives.   Donald Trump, perhaps as a result of a lifetime of shady business practices. had a habit of ripping up papers once he was done with them and then depositing the pieces in the nearest trash can.  The White House staff tried explaining the law to their boss, but Trump, being Trump, continued to do things his way - and the weary staff finally gave up.

Now, some news reports are indicating that several individuals (perhaps as many as five - each making north of $60,000 a year) are involved in sifting through the trash cans in the Oval Office and at the private residence in the White House in order to retrieve the pieces of the documents that Trump has ripped up - and then spend hours taping them back together.

Those are our tax dollars at work.

(I'm beginning to get a sense as to why Stormy Daniels felt the need to spank Donald Trump.  He is a very bad boy.)

Monday's Poetry: "Home"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

I heard an astounding statement on the radio this morning - the United States now has custody of more than 10,000 refugee children whose parents either crossed the U.S. border illegally or presented themselves at the border, kids in tow, seeking asylum.  More than 10,000 children, some of whom are only weeks old.  We have all seen the news coverage of screaming children being pulled from the arms of their distraught parents, images that have to raise moral issues even in the most jaded of individuals.

There was one story in the news this week about a mother who was detained in Texas and her children were flown to a childcare agency in New York City.  The kids are being placed in foster care, even though most of the state foster care systems are already well over capacity.  Others are going into group homes, administrative "detention centers," and even psychiatric hospitals.  All without the participation, consent, or even knowledge of their parents.

The kids are traumatized, the parents are shell-shocked, and the representatives of the government who perpetrate these atrocities are smug and sanctimonious.   The narrative that our government would like us to buy into is that these people are crossing the border totally by choice as a way of making more money and perhaps garnering some of the material advantages of our capitalistic system.

The true circumstances of people who make the long march north are often far more complicated.  Many are fleeing gang violence and circumstances so dire and dangerous that the threats posed by the American ICE gestapo are a risk worth taking.  They are running from a home that is literally the "mouth of a shark."

Today's selection is "Home" by British-Somali poet Warsan Shire, a young lady who is a well established poet and songwriter.  This poem has become a rallying cry for the world's refugees and their advocates.  "Home" illuminates some of the circumstances that actually force people to leave the safety and comfort of their "home" and flee into the unknown.  Those thousands of children and their parents crossing our border did not head north for a vacation - many were fleeing for their very lives - and they ran out of one fire and into another.


Home
by Warsan Shire

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbors running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won't let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it's not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn't be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i've become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here 

The Strength of Justin Trudeau

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald John Trump, the self-proclaimed master negotiator who somehow managed to start and lose a worldwide trade war in only a few weeks, is in Singapore where he plans to meet on Tuesday with the world's nuclear bad boy, Kim Jong Un of North Korea.  The two leaders, neither of whom has garnered much respect from other major nations of the world, are promoting their sit-down with one another as a summit with the potential to make the world a safer place, and Trump, for his part, says that he is so astute that he will know within the first minute the event whether the meeting will be successful or not.

Trump is arriving in Singapore still over-heated in the wake of a tantrum that he threw regarding Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.  While flying from the G-7 meeting in Quebec, Canada, to the summit in Singapore, Trump became enraged when Trudeau made it clear that Canada would not bend to economic pressures from the United States.  Trump began tweeting insults at Trudeau, calling him "dishonest" and "weak," and then withdrew his support for the joint communique that had been signed by the G-7 leaders at the meeting.

And Trudeau is weak by Trump standards.  One has only to remember the tearful Trudeau welcoming refugees from Syria to Canada at the Toronto airport one cold night in 2015 with the words, "You are home now!" - and compare that shameful behavior to that firm resolve of Donald Trump and his administration as they rip frightened children away from their parents who are seeking sanctuary in the United States, a country once thought to be a safe and welcoming harbor for the world's oppressed peoples.

One leader is guided by humanity, the other is fueled by white nationalism and greed.   One has the strength to do what is right, the other is Donald John Trump.

Republicans Meet the Enemy - and It Is Them

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Most of the high drama in our nation's capital of late seems to be in the form of political showdowns, affairs which are, quite surprisingly, taking place within the city's dominant political party - the GOP.   That's right, the big news is not Republicans versus Democrats, it's Republicans fighting among themselves.  And it goes without saying that this family-feuding couldn't happen to a more deserving group of individuals.

Some, if not many, Republicans are not happy with Donald Trump's trade war.  Trump seemed to think that he could prance onto the world stage, set some tariffs (import duties) on goods that he felt were being unfairly dumped into the U.S. market, and head back to the golf course without facing any consequences.  That would be that.  Those with more political experience than Trump, however, such as most members of Congress, knew better.  The affected countries immediately began hitting back by placing tariffs on U.S. exports - and many particular exports of states and localities that had been big-time Trump supporters.  Donald Trump might not feel immediate pain from his knee-jerk decision to start a trade war with a host of U.S. allies, but his partisan weasels in Congress felt the fire from day one.

A substantial group of Republicans are very distressed over the Trump administration's re-energized ardor in attacking Obamacare.  Trump's people are currently urging a federal judge in Texas to throw out the law's protections for people with pre-existing conditions.   Even Republicans who oppose Obamacare in principle want to keep some parts of the law - and one of the portions that they would like to salvage - one that is of direct benefit to many of their constituents - is the provision that forces insurance companies to accept enrollees who have pre-existing conditions.  But the petulant Trump wants to erase every vestige of President Obama.

While Donald Trump and certain important members of the Republican Party remain loud and belligerent in their hatred of immigrants, other Republicans prefer a more moderate approach to the issue, and, in particular, they favor doing something to allow the young people who are part of the "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA) program to remain in this country.  A couple of dozen tolerant Republican congressmen have signed onto a discharge petition that would force the House of Representatives to bring an immigration bill to the floor for discussion and a vote - a discussion and vote where DACA could be debated before the nation.  The GOP leadership has placed a temporary lid on this intra-party revolt, but it could still blow at any second.

And then there is pot.

The raging war over marijuana that has ravaged the nation for decades has about played itself out, with some states already having passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical and even recreational use, and other states lining up to do so within the next couple of years.   Old lies have been proven false, and a new day is dawning across much of the country.   The last bastion of resistance to tolerance and acceptance on the marijuana front appears to be in the U.S. Department of Justice and in the person of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III, the Attorney General of the United States.

Jeff Sessions is a rigid old white cracker from rural Alabama who has yet to accept the results of the Civil War, much less something as controversial as that hippie drug, marijuana.  When he was asked about pot at his senate confirmation hearing to be attorney general, Sessions famously replied, "Good people don't smoke marijuana."   Sessions position on the subject since assuming his role as attorney general and head of the Justice Department is that federal laws against marijuana are the laws of the land and will be enforced, regardless of what the heretical states do.  (A stance which puts the unreconstructed Confederate wannabe in the uncomfortable position of opposing state's rights.)

Now Jeff Sessions is pitted against a bill sponsored by Senator Corey Gardner of Colorado (a Republican) and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (a Democrat) that would allow states to regulate marijuana without federal interference.  The bill goes counter to a core belief of Sessions, but his Republican boss, Donald John Trump, is indicating that he favors the legislation and would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.

One-party control of the government is not good, and it leaves room for much mischief and long-term damage.    But at some point party solidarity begins to fragment and factions emerge.  That seems to be what is happening now.  If the Democrats are insufficient in number to mount a balance to the GOP insanity, then the Republicans have to do it themselves.  Slowly, and surely, that appears to be happening.

(And a note to Jeff Sessions:  Good people don't lie about meetings with representatives of foreign governments, call immigrants "animals," or pay off porn stars - but good people do smoke pot, every day in every neighborhood - even in Muskogee, Oklahoma   Instead of trying to function as Attorney General of the United States, a position that is clearly well above your ability, perhaps you should opt instead to take up residence in a display case at a museum.  There you could peacefully represent an arcane worldview and rest secure in the knowledge that you would be dusted regularly - probably by an immigrant.)

Anthony Bourdain in West Plains

by Pa Rock
Collector of Local Color

There is news out of France this morning that Anthony Bourdain has killed himself.  Bourdain, a celebrity chef and author who performed his culinary magic on the world stage, had surprisingly made a sojourn into the Missouri Ozarks a few years back, and even recorded his experiences from that trip for his Travel Channel television show, No Reservations.

Bourdain visited the small town of West Plains, Missouri, in 2011, in order to spend a few days with his favorite writer, West Plains resident Daniel Woodrell (author of Winter's Bone and several other novels of life in the Ozarks.).   Bourdain had called Woodrell the "best writer in America."

According to a few local news stories from that time, Bourdain and Woodrell enmeshed themselves in Ozarks food-gathering and preparation.  They skinned squirrels which Bourdain used in pot pies, and spent some time on the Current River gigging for suckers.  It was during the later pursuit that Woodrell broke his shoulder.

Anthony Bourdain stepped into the world spotlight with a book that explored the "dark corners" of New York restaurants, and he was still exploring dark corners when he came to the Ozarks.   Although I was not living here at the time, I am sure that both Bourdain and the city of West Plains benefited from his brief visit to our rustic community.

Rest in peace, Chef.

A Tale of Two Heroes

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump recently mused that if he was at a school where a shooting was occurring, he would probably run into the building and confront the shooter.  And while that statement from the 287-pound Trump undoubtedly reminded many Americans of something they spread on their gardens each spring, Trump tends to believe much of what he says.  Donald Trump is a hero - in his own mind.

But in a world as diverse and dynamic as our own, true heroes do exist and occasionally reveal themselves.  Here are two recent examples:

First, a young black man named James Shaw, Jr. (age 29) was having a meal at a Waffle House in a suburb of Nashville, Tennessee, this past April when a mostly nude young man entered the diner and began spraying customers with gunfire from an automatic weapon.  When the shooter, who was clad only in a jacket, took a break from shooting to reload, Mr. Shaw rushed him and grabbed the hot barrel of the man's AR-15 and wrested it from him.  The shooter, Travis Reinking, also 29-years-old, fled the scene and was captured by police the next day.

Four people were killed in the shooting, and four others wounded.

James Shaw, Jr. instantly achieved widespread notoriety for his heroic action.  His alma mater, Tennessee State University, recognized him in a ceremony and reception, and the university established a scholarship in his name.  For his part, Mr. Shaw set up a GoFundMe site with a goal of raising $15,000 - not for himself, but to benefit the shooting victims.  The website quickly brought in more that $200,000.

James Shaw, Jr. was a hero both during and after the attack.  Many public figures were effusive in praise of his bravery.  But one important public official was somewhat reticent to offer congratulations.  Donald John Trump had to be goaded by pundits and other politicians before he finally - 22 days after the incident - picked up the telephone to speak with Mr. Shaw and "commend (his) heroic actions and quick thinking last month."

Did I mention that James Shaw, Jr., is a black man?

Meanwhile in France . . .

A 22-year-old "illegal" immigrant from Mali, Mamoudou Gassama, also a black man, was walking along a Paris street two weeks ago enroute to watch a soccer game when he was suddenly confronted with blaring car horns and people pointing to the sky.  Mr. Gassama looked upward where he saw, to his horror, a 4-year-old child dangling in the air as he desperately clung to a balcony railing - four stories up!  Showing no concern for his personal safety, the young "illegal" alien scaled the exterior of the four-story build in less than thirty seconds, jumped from one balcony to another, and rescued the frightened child.  Mr. Gassama said that he did not get scared until after the rescue was completed.

French President, Emmanuel Macron, who, like Trump, poses as being tough on immigration, nevertheless exhibited the political acumen and humanity to immediately recognize the heroics of the young man from Mali.   He invited Mr. Gassama to a sit-down at Elysee Palace where he presented the youthful hero with a certificate and a gold medal - and a promise to fast track his application for citizenship.   Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, telephoned the man who Parisians are now calling "Spiderman" to commend his heroics and to offer him a job with the Paris fire brigade.

Two heroes and two very different responses from national leaders.  One can't help but suspect that if the American hero, James Shaw, Jr., had been an "illegal," the ICE gestapo would have grabbed him before the sun set that day, and, if he had children, they would have been rounded up and placed in a cage somewhere in Texas.

But I digress.

We should all take comfort in knowing that there are heroes among us.  James Shaw, Jr. and Mamoudou Gassama risked their lives to save strangers, and, with their selfless acts of bravery, these two young men have shown the human race its true potential.

We have the ability to live in harmony and to care for one another.