Halloween on the Rails

by Pa Rock
Ramblin' Tourist

Merriam Websters'  "Word of the Day" today is "lycantrophy" - a delusion that one has become a wolf.  Happy Halloween!

This morning I am in the northwest Arkansas community of Rogers, a once-quiet berg that now is home to more than 50,000 people and stretches across wide expanses of land that were hundreds of cow pastures in my youth.  This corner of Arkansas has grown like crazy over the past few decades thanks to the success of companies like Walmart (boo, hiss), Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt Trucking.

This morning Patti and I are joining my sister, Gail, at the train station for the Missouri-Arkansas Railway in Springdale, Arkansas, where we will board a restored old steam train for a two-hour ride through the exceptionally beautiful fall foliage to visit the little flea market town of Van Buren, Arkansas.  We will be on the ground in Van Buren for a couple of hours and then take the train back to Springdale.

It's been twenty years since I have taken this particular trip, and I am anxious to revisit the adventure.

Most little towns in rural Missouri and Arkansas now have flea markets in the buildings that used to house to thriving small businesses.  Thank you, Walmart, for destroying the America of my childhood.

And again, Happy Halloween!

Trump Using U.S. Troops as Political Props

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

For the past couple of weeks Donald Trump has been braying about a “caravan” of 7,000 Central Americans that was heading for the U.S. southern border.  Now better estimates are that this bedraggled parade of impoverished refugees numbers no more than 3,500, and the Mexican government is offering them sanctuary in Mexico.  The number ultimately arriving at our border and seeking refuge in a nation where almost everyone is an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants looks as though it will be diminished to a mere trickle.

But Donald Trump has his heart set on having the United States posed in a combative stance for purely political reasons, and to insure that the news coverage reflects his personal toughness, he is ordering even more U.S. troops to the border.  Last week it appeared as though 800 uniformed men and women would deploy along the border with Mexico – but now that number has suddenly increased to fifty-two-hundred.

Fewer immigrants and many more troops.  Those professors at Wharton Business School apparently didn’t do such a bang-up job in teaching math – or logic.

But whether it’s one soldier being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border or one million, is that a proper role for our military to be playing?    Do we really need that many highly trained individuals heading south to serve as little more than political props in Donald Trump's culture wars?  

Donald Trump has been in office nearly two years now, and during that time he has played a LOT of golf. During that time he has also stayed well away from our military troops who are on the front lines fighting to defend democracy.  Trump has never visited a war zone.  Does he have any real knowledge of why we have a military, or are our service men and women just there for him to manage and manipulate – like so much hotel staff?

If Trump wants to pepper the news with images of the United States standing firm against shoeless, ragged, and hungry brown people, he should go the border himself and pose for his own damned photographs.  Surely to God there is a golf course somewhere close to the Rio Grande.

And meanwhile, send those troops to Puerto Rico where they are desperately needed and could do some real good!

Monday's Poetry: "Pass On, Pass On . . ."

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

It's been an unusually busy week for America's hate-fueled extremists.  During the past few days three middle-aged white men, right-wing malcontents with political agendas closely aligned with those of Donald Trump, have been arrested for crimes which all appear to be rooted in hatred toward specific groups of people.

After thirteen pipe bombs were mailed to Democratic politicians and other individuals associated with humanitarian causes, the FBI arrested Cesar Sayoc, Jr, age 56 of south Florida.  Sayoc, an ardent Trump supporter, was a loner living in a van that was plastered with Trump stickers.   Sayoc immersed himself in right-wing rhetoric and propaganda.  One of the deranged views that he harbored was that Parkland student activist, David Hogg, was actually an actor who was on the payroll of American Jewish billionaire, George Soros.

Gregory Alan Bush, age 51, of Louisville, Kentucky, was arrested on Thursday morning after he shot and killed two black individuals - one inside of a Kroger's grocery, and the other in the Kroger's parking lot.  Just minutes earlier Bush has been observed trying to force his way into a black church.

And finally on Saturday, Robert Bowers, age 46, entered a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and opened fire on several elderly congregants who were there to celebrate a birth.  Eleven people were killed and several others, including three policemen, were wounded.  Bowers was reacting to his belief that Jewish organizations were assisting refugees to enter the country, and he was particularly focused on the "caravan" of Central American refugees that Trump has been railing about.  Five minutes before he entered the synagogue, Bowers posted the following on a right-wing social media site:

"I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.  Screw your optics.  I'm going in."

And he did - with his AR-15 blazing.

Through it all, Donald Trump has tried to stay above the fray and keep up his appearances at his campaign rallies - where his rhetoric continues to amp up anger among his followers - people like Sayoc, Bush, and Bowers.   Trump is upset that these three major hate crimes have distracted from his  continuing drumbeat for hate that he defines as "election momentum," and he is quick to point the finger at others - especially the media - for creating the climate of fear and anger that brings about these savage attacks.

These horrible crimes are always someone else's fault - never Trump's - and he is always the true victim.

I felt that today's poem should somehow reflect what America has had to endure this past week, and I finally selected a piece that was written b a Jew living in the Warsaw Ghetto at the start of World War II.  It speaks to the horrors of the time with a promise that the faith will survive.  And that should be the goal for all of us in these dark times - to know that ultimately our faith in the goodness of humanity will survive and triumph.

Pass On Pass On…
by Izi Kharik

Pass on, pass on, you mournful grandfathers
with frightened beards covered with snow.
One last disaster one last woe.
You remained last witnesses –
Pass on, pass on you mournful grandfathers!

Woe and grief in your whole village
crushed in suffering and want.
For every starving bite of bread
so long ago you smiled and begged.-
Woe and grief in your whole village.

And now you appear terrified, bedraggled
with trembling knees that shake.
Who knows, who knows what will be
if these sons will remain in Jewish faith? –
You cannot stop the trembling of your knees.

And we are the ones who still call you
grandfathers
And know it will not be for very long
We rise up like first blare
like trumpet sound of coming joys,
we the ones who still call you grandfathers.

It’s good to look into mournful eyes.
when sorrow alienates you from the rest…
We -yes you and you- it is our fate
never to bow down again
Pass on, pass on you mournful eyes!-

Pass On Pass On…
by Izi Kharik

Pass on, pass on, you mournful grandfathers
with frightened beards covered with snow.
One last disaster one last woe.
You remained last witnesses –
Pass on, pass on you mournful grandfathers!

Woe and grief in your whole village
crushed in suffering and want.
For every starving bite of bread
so long ago you smiled and begged.-
Woe and grief in your whole village.

And now you appear terrified, bedraggled
with trembling knees that shake.
Who knows, who knows what will be
if these sons will remain in Jewish faith? –
You cannot stop the trembling of your knees.

And we are the ones who still call you
grandfathers
And know it will not be for very long
We rise up like first blare
like trumpet sound of coming joys,
we the ones who still call you grandfathers.

It’s good to look into mournful eyes.
when sorrow alienates you from the rest…
We -yes you and you- it is our fate
never to bow down again
Pass on, pass on you mournful eyes!

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

by Pa Rock
Reader

Sometime around thirty years ago I came across Michael Chabon's first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, at a bookstore, and after flipping thought it and reading snippets, decided to purchase the book and explore the talents of the new author.  I was not disappointed.  I was also pleased a few years later when I discovered his second novel, Wonder Boys, and read it as well.  Both of those early Chabon novels made it onto the big screen, with Wonder Boys drawing a big name cast that included Michael Douglas, Frances McDormand, Tobey Maguire, and Robert Downey, Jr.

Chabon's third novel was really going to have to be something special if he was going to top his two previous efforts - and it was.  The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which I also read, not only knocked it out of the literary ballpark, it also picked up the Pulitzer Prize for Literature along the way.  Clearly the young author that I had stumbled upon quite accidentally had achieved a level of success that few contemporary writers could ever hope to obtain.

But Michael Chabon, now a college writing professor and married to a fellow novelist, did not stop there. Recently while digging through the shelves and stacks at Powell's Bookstore at the airport in Portland, I came across his fourth major novel for adults, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and decided it was time to reconnect with this old friend.

I began reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union with absolutely no foreknowledge of the plot or setting.  It started off as a standard noir detective story with both the protagonist and the corpse making their appearance on the first page.  As I began working my way into the story, I discovered that the seedy hotel in which the crime took place was located in Sitka, Alaska.  I had been to Alaska for my first and only visit a couple of years earlier, but unfortunately our cruise ship did not stop in Sitka, so I suspected that Chabon might be preparing to expand my knowledge of the 49th state.

I was wrong about that.

Several things seemed to tug for my attention as I read through the opening pages.   The detective, Landsman, mentioned a shot glass that he had which celebrated the Sitka World's Fair thirty years before.  Wow, here I am a world traveler who has taught geography in high school and at the community college level, and I did not even remember that Sitka had hosted a world's fair.   Then there were references to the city's large Jewish population, again something I must have forgotten, and finally a glancing reference to the city's three million inhabitants.  Even that slid by me for another page or so until I finally had a mental jolt and realized that the whole damned state of Alaska has less than a million people!

At that point I hit the internet to learn more about the discrepancies between Chabon's Sitka and the actual Alaskan town with its population of about 8,700 hearty individuals.

Chabon's fictional Sitka had its roots in the 1946 (fictional) turmoil in Palestine in which the Palestinians literally drove its Jewish invaders into the sea.  The United States opened an area of Alaska including Sitka and the surrounding district for temporary Jewish settlement.   This new homeland had a time limit of sixty years, and as the novel opens the time of the "reversion" was at hand.  All of Sitka's three million or more Jews were under a deadline to find new homes and move on.

Chabon's narrative of the troubled times focuses on Meyer Landsman, a drunk of a police detective with a host of personal issues that includes his lingering love for his ex-wife who happens to become his boss during the unfolding of this tale, a murder victim who was reputed to have been a healer and one of a multitude of temporary messiahs who had come to earth over the past two millennia, and an intricate web of very secretive and powerful Jews who were orchestrating a plan to once again take over the Holy Land.  And the only thing standing in the way of the reestablishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine is Detective Meyer Landsman.

The real magic of this book is in witnessing Michael Chabon's ability to create strong, believable characters at work in a completely invented setting as they struggle to change a history that never really existed.   Chabon's writing is powerful - as always - and the scope of his imagination is breathtaking!

The Yiddish Policemen's Union will take you where you've never been before.  Michael Chabon is a master at that.

The FBI Does Its Job!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I haven't always been a fan of the FBI, especially when the agency seemed to be little more than Richard Nixon's Department of Dirty Tricks, but recently, especially since the Trump administration seems to have declared its own personal vendetta on the agency, my opinion of the FBI has become more favorable.  The agency does it job - and does it well - even with people like Jeff Sessions and Trump pulling at the brakes and constantly trying to limit its powers.

Yesterday the FBI arrested Cesar Sayoc, Jr, a 56-year--old man who has a long history of criminal activity.  Sayoc, a bodybuilder with a history of taking steroids, has worked as a stripper and bouncer in south Florida where he lived.  Recent photographs would suggest that he is probably no longer dancing for dollars.

I predicted in this space two days ago that the FBI would soon solve the MAGA Bomber case, and the ink on that post had barely dried when an arrest was made.  I also predicted that the bomber would ultimately be revealed to be a white male (correct again) who sat in a darkened room all day listening to Fox News.  It turns out that the "master" criminal who sent out at least thirteen pipe bombs, none of which detonated, didn't even have a room to sit in.  He was apparently living in his van, a sad sanctuary covered in stickers promoting Donald Trump and condemning people and news sources which Trump openly labels as his enemies.

There is no word yet on whether or not Mr. Sayoc was turned into a dangerous vegetable through constant radiation from Fox News, but he certainly bears an intellectual resemblance to people who immerse themselves in that milieu.   The bomber wannabe has supposedly referred to himself as a white nationalist, and he has been a past attendee of at least one of Trump's hate rallies.

So much for the conservative-inspired delusions that these bomb mailings had been a "false flag" operation in which liberal groups sent the bombs in order to make conservatives look bad.  This guy was a Trumper right down to his tear-away pants and dirty g-string.  Now, of course, there will be convoluted efforts to still try and blame this terrorism on American liberals, but the audience for such nonsense grows exceedingly smaller.

I did hear that Fox News in its continuing struggle to be "fair and balanced" blurred images of Sayoc's van on its news casts yesterday so that its viewers didn't have to be bothered with what was written on the stickers in its windows.  Fox, it would seem, remains committed to not giving its viewers too much factual information.

Donald Trump, of course, blames the high levels of anger in America on the press, and he loudly laments that the bomb stories took America's attention away from its real problem of the barefoot immigrants who are slowly marching north.  Russia is not a problem, nor are China and North Korea - and Saudi Arabia is just an unfortunate blip on diplomatic radar.  The real threat to the Untied States of America - in the mind of Donald John Trump - is a ragtag group of brown immigrants seeking sanctuary in the United States.

And intellectual giants like Cesar Sayoc, Jr, believe him.

Trump's 'Theatre of Evil' Rolls On

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Over the past couple of days the Trump administration has been trying to draw attention away from a collapsing stock market by ramping up rhetoric against several hundred refugees from Central American violence who are slowly walking north along a highway in southern Mexico with hopes of eventually reaching sanctuary in the United States.  Because these immigrants are brown - and not milky white like Trump's Central European immigrant wife - he has been robust and unrelenting in his threats toward them.

Donald Trump has referred to immigrants of color as "animals" and characterized their homelands as "shithole" countries.   He has also stated a desire to encourage immigration from places like Norway, a Scandinavian country with a largely white population.

Most Americans, and even more than a few Trump supporters, recognize this play for what it actually is - an attempt to control the news and direct attention toward a favorite class of boogeymen for the Trumpsters - immigrants of color.  It is hate-inspired political theatre under the control of a bigoted blowhard who also happens to be a master distracter.

Stirring racial hatred is nothing new in American politics.  People like Richard Nixon, George Wallace, and Orval Faubus were building careers based on inciting hatred and fear of minorities a half-century ago, but now with Donald Trump stepping out of reality television and onto the world stage, racist fear-mongering has become an art form.  Trump, unlike the leading bigots of past generations, makes no attempt to hide his feelings.  He refers to torch-carrying Nazi protesters as "fine people," and has people working in the West Wing who are blatant in their racist positions.  Trump has even taken to calling himself a "nationalist," a term often adopted by hate groups who somehow feel that it is reflective of their desire for a white nation.

It's all code, and dog whistles, and, in some cases, just plain and unvarnished racism.

The Trump administration is preparing to send 800 uniformed United States troops to the southern border for a long series of photo ops as they stand tall to prevent the ragged parade of impoverished humanity from entering the United States.  It will play out beautifully on Fox News.  

Now that Donald Trump has figured out how easy it is to use America's military forces as props in his theatre of evil, how long before he has them patrolling American streets and telling American citizens where they can and cannot go.

Don't think that it can't happen here.

Lunatic MAGA Bomber Launches War on America

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Words have consequences, and Donald Trump's ceaseless condemnation and disparagement of certain American individuals and institutions are giving birth to a monstrous attack on civilization.  Over the past two days at least ten packaged pipe bombs addressed to individuals who have been specific targets of Trump's hateful rhetoric have been discovered in the U.S. mail system.

Early indications are that all of the bombs have been mailed by the same individual or group, and that they originated in the state of Florida.  As of this writing, none have detonated and there have mercifully been no injuries or deaths.

The pipe bombs discovered so far have been addressed to philanthropist George Soros, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack and Michelle Obama, former CIA Director John Brennan (sent to the CNN studio where he works), two to Congresswoman Maxine Waters (one to her DC office and another to her office in Los Angeles), former Attorney General Eric Holder, actor Robert De Niro, and two to former Vice President Joe Biden.  All of the intended victims were either past or present Democratic officials or known critics of Donald Trump - and all had, at one time or another, been targets of Trump's vile and abusive hate speech.

The pipe bomb addressed to former Attorney General Eric Holder had an incorrect address and was returned to the Florida office of the person listed on the return address:  Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.  Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz has also been a past target of Trump's verbal abuse.

The FBI is investigating, and even though Donald Trump has also heaped scathing abuse on that federal agency, it will ultimately engage its world renown investigative abilities and find the demented person who was behind this vile attack on America.  But until that happens, we are left to the views of professional speculators as they scurry to pound their own political agendas into theories that will satisfy a gullible public.

One theory currently being put out by extreme right-wingers, people like Lou Dobbs, is that "liberals" are somehow behind all of the mayhem,  and that it is a plot to make conservatives look bad.  A second right-wing talking point is that this spate of bomb-mailings was not meant to be serious because all of the bombs were sent to individuals who have good security set-ups in place.  Nobody was going to get hurt.  (Except maybe for some underpaid security person - or a mail carrier - or a kid riding his skateboard past a mailbox where one of the packages accidentally detonates - on anyone of dozens of other innocent bystanders.)   Chances are almost non-existent that the perpetrator would succeed in murdering a former President with his device, but thousands of underlings could have their lives inadvertently upended or destroyed by this criminal madman.

Donald Trump and his parrot, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, both took to the microphones yesterday to condemn this wave of potentially lethal violence, but Trump could not let it rest at that.  Later in the evening he began barking about the need to bring down the levels of hate rhetoric - and he went directly to his favorite nemesis, the press, and credited them with creating the situation and atmosphere that gave rise to the mayhem.  Trump, being Trump, never accepted any responsibility for the rising levels of anger and hate in America.

Credit is always his, blame never is.

I did hear one commentator saying that the levels of hatred must be brought under control before "someone gets killed."  Heather Heyer would probably like to have the opportunity to respond to that - but she can't because she's already dead - killed by one of Trump's "fine people" when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of protesters at Charlottesville.  And the news staff at the local newspaper in Annapolis, Maryland, might even want to do a feature about violence inspired by hate speech, but they have been seriously understaffed since five of their colleagues were gunned down and killed at work last June.   Those hard-working people were journalists - an occupation Donald Trump routinely refers to as the "enemy of the people" and whose work product he describes as "terrible," "garbage," and "fake news."

But, it is what it is.   A few ideological toads will bandy about wild theories saying that the "liberals" are behind all of this, but, in the end it will be some lone lunatic who has been sitting in a dark room listening to Fox News and masturbating to Donald Trump's bellicose threats and taunts against the media and people he regards as his enemies.    The FBI will find this person - and it will be an angry white man with deep psychological issues and a big assortment of guns.  A third-grader could write the profile.  The hard part will be sifting through all of the people who match that description - aka Trump's base - and coming up with the right person.

Some left-wing activists are awful people.  They heckle and insult Republican officials who dare to dine in public.   But some right-wing activists, on the other hand, have a strong preference for bloodshed.  It's time for both groups to settle down and show some tolerance, but that seems to be little more than a fleeting fantasy in the time of Trump.

Trump's unrelenting hate-mongering is taking us over a cliff and into an abyss of ignorance and intolerance.  For America to regain its sanity and moral bearing, Donald John Trump needs to sit down and shut the hell up.   Unfortunately, those things aren't in his nature.

Trump Is Good for Something After All

by Pa Rock
Activist

I've had an interest in politics for as long as I can remember.  I grew up in a post-World War II Republican household and generally considered myself Republican by birthright until college and Richard Nixon came along and altered my view of the world.  Nixon made me a Democrat, and his malevolent influence was so formidable that I have basically been at home with the Democratic Party for the past half century.

To my young mind Richard Nixon represented the absolute bottom rung of political decency, and his corrupt administration inspired me to get politically active.  I have always voted, but early on I also participated in door-knocking for candidates, hosting campaign events, and even serving on my county's Central Democratic Committee - including one term as the chairman.

As the years piled on, complacency began to settle into my political life, and for the past several election cycles I have limited my activities to writing a few small checks, sporting the occasional yard sign and bumper sticker, and, of course, voting.  Perhaps my drift toward inactivity was due to the fading specter of Nixon - or maybe it was a product of advancing age.   The flame of moral outrage was dimming.

But then along came Trump and that old flame of indignation is once again blazing.

Donald Trump is a waddling reminder of how bad it can get if good people quit paying attention and taking part in government.  He has quickly reset the national agenda to greed, racism, misogyny, homophobia, the destruction of public education, elimination of the social safety net, a bumbling foreign policy, and a bloated military without a clear mission.  He governs by impulse and tweet - and changes positions and priorities faster than a NASCAR pit crew can change a tire.

The fires of outrage that inflamed my youth are once again burning brightly.  Donald John Trump, like Nixon before him, has inspired me to action.  Within the past few weeks I have voted, prepared fifty personalized letters to infrequent voters in Kansas (2nd and 3rd Congressional Districts), and sent donations of $7.77 to more Democratic candidates than fit comfortably in my budget.  I suspect that during the next thirteen days I will come up with a few additional ways to aid the causes of decency and democracy.

No man is completely worthless - because he can always serve as a bad example.  It was true of Richard Nixon, and it's damned sure true of Trump!

Donald Trump has me pissed off and fired up!  He is good for something after all!

Vote, dammit, vote!

Snakes Fornicating: Ted Cruz Crawls into Bed with Trump

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Has it just been two years ago that Donald Trump was posting unflattering pictures of Ted Cruz's wife on Twitter and making accusations that the Texas senator's father had been involved in the assassination of President Kennedy?  Why it seems a lifetime ago that an enraged Cruz fired back at Trump calling him "a pathological liar," "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen," "utterly amoral,"  "a serial philanderer," and a "sniveling coward."

How the world has changed in just twenty-four short months!  Then Donald Trump was referring to Cruz as "lying' Ted," and now that same fountain of ever-flowing excrement is gushing with praise for the senator that no one likes and giving him a whole new set of Trumpian labels, things like "Beautiful Ted."  Then Ted Cruz was awash in moral indignation over Trump's effort to humiliate his wife, and now he is heaping praise  on the Golfer-in-Chief and publicly promising to campaign at his side in 2020.

What the hell happened?  How did those two vile and sadistic SOBs suddenly develop such an unabashed love for each other?

Well, it's all politics, a surreal other world where those running for office sprint down a hall filled with fun house mirrors and strike whatever absurd poses that pollsters tell them the voters want to see.  Cruz is in a surprisingly tight race to retain his senate seat, and he needs the support of the lying, narcissistic, amoral, cowardly Trump.   And Trump, who desperately wants to retain his relevance through continuing Republican control of the Senate, needs to be seen as supporting lying Ted and his ugly wife.

The snakes are fornicating, boys and girls, and those with weak stomachs need to look away.

Trump Set to Eliminate an Entire Class of People

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

A competent therapist (i.e. not one who was schooled in the wonders of "conversion therapy") will explain that the determination of gender is not a simple matter.  Most will argue that gender is a fluid concept that flows along a continuum with John Wayne holding a rifle at one end and June Cleaver in pearls and heels with dinner on the table at the other.    The line, however, is not as simple as that.  Most of the people of the world fall someplace in the middle with certain degrees of physical trappings of one gender as well as emotional and psychological markers that are strung along the continuum and may not be as clear-cut.

Bob may workout at the gym, pack a pistol, and be a poster boy for maleness, yet he gets a deep satisfaction out of cleaning house and cooking, two activities historically associated with women.  Carol may have given birth to three children, yet she would much rather be out cutting wood than fixing their lunches.  

Most people who study gender issues, in fact, tend to  believe that gender is not a binary option, a simple check mark in a "male" or "female" column.  It is far more complicated than that.

Today over 1.4 million Americans openly identify as a gender that differs from the one into which they were born.

Title IX is the federal civil rights law that bans gender discrimination in education programs that receive financial assistance from the government.  Conservatives have generally opposed Title IX since its inception, fearing that it would force girls to play football or cause student athletes to have to share locker rooms based on some non-specific gender basis.   Then, during the Obama years, Title IX protections were extended to include a wider range of genders including individuals who regarded themselves as gay, lesbian, or transgender.  That brought about  rage from conservative quarters, particularly with regard to locker rooms and bathrooms.

The Trump administration sees election gold in America's struggle with gender diversity.  Evangelical Christians, people not generally known for their tolerance, have long pined for a return to the world where men were men and women were glad of it.  In their cloistered view of the world you are born into a specific gender - as determined by your physical genitalia at the time of birth - and so shall you remain - forever and ever - amen.  And now the Trump administration seems determined to adopt that  narrow point-of-view as the law of the land.

Title IX is enforced in part by four federal departments:  Education, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Labor.  Currently the Department of Health and Human Services is spearheading an effort to establish a legal definition of sex under Title IX, one which they hope clarifies who the law is intended to cover, while, at the same time, gives a victory to Christian fundamentalists who are still smarting over the notion that the world is round.  HHS has issued a memo which says:  "Sex means a person's status as male or female based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth."

Trump and his half-baked Christians are seeking to eliminate America's transgender population with the simple stroke of a pen.

Kaitlyn Jenner welcome back to the world of Bruce.  Your buddy Trump is coming for your identity, and he aims to take your soul, as well.

And just for the record, there is no such thing as absolute maleness or femaleness.   John Wayne spent much of his life in make-up pretending to be other people, and June Cleaver may have been the ideal wife, but many American husbands still prowled around at night looking for qualities that poor June did not exude.

Gender is complicated.  Sadly, the Trump administration is not.

Law and Order DNA

by Pa Rock
Genealogist

I met a lady on my recent trip to Salt Lake City who has had her DNA tested by three different companies, each with its own unique slant on results:  one was to study family migration patterns (probably the DNA program of National Geographic Society), one was to study her mother's lineage, and the third, I believe, was focused on her paternal lines.  What struck me as I listened to her enlighten the small group of people who were trapped at her table for a meal, was the growing sophistication of these tests.

It turns out that America's police agencies are also starting to appreciate the fact that the DNA tests performed by genealogy-based companies are producing results that are ever more intricate in their findings - much more so than the DNA databases maintained and used by American law enforcement.  Last year some smarter than average police agencies began submitting profiles to one particular DNA test collection site for genealogists, GEDmatch.com, seeking to be matched with relatives.  The profiles were actual DNA samples from crime scenes, and as the names of potential cousins began to appear, investigators had a pool of suspects to begin examining.

It sounded almost underhanded, and according to an article by Heather Murphy in the New York Times this week, the company's founders, two older gentlemen who basically work for free out of their homes, were put off by the prospect that their work was helping the police without the express consent of people who were using their (basically) free service.  But, after news of the arrest of a person who appeared to be the Golden Gate Killer (an old, cold, unsolved case) through the use of GEDmatch, customers began to weigh in on their opinion of finding criminals through the use of DNA that had been collected to solve family history mysteries - and the customers were overwhelmingly pleased with the practice.

As of the time Ms. Murphy went to press with her story last week, more than fifteen major crimes (murder and rape) appeared to have been solved through the use of that particular genealogy site.

GEDmatch.com does not do any genealogical testing itself, but it does allow users to upload test data that they receive through other companies - usually for free, but also offering a special, elevated "Tier 1" membership for $10.00.   The journal Science has reported that GEDmatch is growing so fast, that within three years every American of Northern European descent will be identifiable through cousins in GEDmatch's database - a fact that raises privacy concerns in a number of quarters - and not just with criminals.

The lady in Salt Lake City who was giving our table an impromptu lesson in DNA said that her husband was vehemently opposed to his DNA being shared with anyone, a fact that seemed to goad her into open defiance of his wishes.  She bragged that she had paid to have their adult daughter tested, and now hubby's DNA was part of the great American database - despite his refusal o be tested himself.

And that's how it works.  The Golden Gate Killer did not rush out and have his DNA tested and put into a database where law enforcement could eventually find him - but one of his cousins did.  Segments of your DNA are already widely available through your "blood" relatives, and anytime you create a child, your DNA is again copied and pushed further along the road to immortality.

From a family history perspective, this stuff is fascinating - but it can also be a horrifying invasion of privacy.   The thing to take from all of this is that you don't have to submit a sample of your DNA to be in a vast DNA database.  There are many ways to capture your genetic identity without drawing blood or spitting in a tube.

Hiding your DNA from Big Brother is futile.  He already has it - or he soon will have.  

That 70's Show, the Democratic Version

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There is a constant political drumbeat on social media - and particularly on Twitter - which lays the blame for Hillary Clinton's 2016 defeat on Bernie Sanders and his legions of supporters.  The argument seems to be that if she had not had the distraction of having to deal with the Bernie insurrection, Hillary would have easily prevailed over Donald Trump.  A slightly different version posits that Hillary would have won if not for the fact that many of Bernie's supporters refused to vote for her even after she proved herself by winning the Democratic nomination.

The loss was not Hillary's fault - she lost because of those evil Bernie bots.

Of course there is a counter argument to those positions, one that says the Democrats lost the White House in 2016 because the nomination was rigged by party chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz as well as  representatives closely tied to the Obama and Clinton White Houses.  The people pounding that position are adamant in their belief that Hillary was foisted on the Democratic Party by superdelegates and a biased party hierarchy, and that real people were essentially frozen out of the nominating process.   They argue that Mrs. Bill Clinton was the wrong person to lead the fight against the fascists of Donald Trump.

There are two sides to the coin of why the Democrats lost the presidency in 2016 - and both sides have some validity.

Now, as the focus shifts to 2020, Democrats are beginning to gauge what it will take to win the White House back from the forces of darkness.   In 2016 the party was battling an outsider, a real estate developer and television personality with no experience in politics.  This time around they will be pitted against the consummate political insider, a man who is a proven manipulator of the press corps as well as large, staged, angry crowds.    If anything this race will be much, much tougher than the last one.

With a tougher race on the horizon, it should be obvious to one and all that what the Democratic Party desperately needs is younger, tougher candidates, people who can go the distance and draw sharp contrasts with Trump and his Nazi hillbillies.   People with a minimum of baggage.

That is what should be obvious, but the reality, at least in the early days, is quite different.  Bernie Sanders (age 77) is already plaguing Iowa with the ferocity of.a summer locust, and Hillary (who will be 71 next week) is also starting to sound out the possibility of making a second run for the roses.  And, as if two raids on the rest home were not sufficient, former vice-president Joe Biden (age 75) and former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (age 74) are also making serious noises about jumping into the race.

The Democrats are not going to win in 2020 by challenging the geriatric Trump with someone of his own generation.  The party is in need of a much younger standard bearer, someone who will literally force America to focus on the future.  It's time for someone like Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Beto O'Rourke, or Julian Castro to take center stage and point the way ahead.

Bernie, Hillary, Joe, and John have served us well, but their time on the national stage has literally passed.   The 2020 election needs to be about more than just giving one of them a few additional footnotes in history books - it needs to be about taking our country back from evil people who are bent on its destruction from within.

The plow horses have had their turns and worked tirelessly for a better America - but now its time for them to stand aside and let some young thoroughbreds onto the track.   The 2020 election may be one of the most consequential in history - and it should not be thrown away as a "last hurrah" for some fading party star.

And the best thing that could happen for every Democratic congressional candidate today would be if Nancy Pelosi (age 78) would immediately announce her resignation from the Democratic House leadership.  Her steadfast refusal to give up power casts cold shadows from the past over this year's crop of young and eager candidates.  Nancy's looming presence as the "next Speaker" does not help the cause of those young, dynamic candidates.

The Democrats have their own 70's Show with the likes of Bernie, Hillary, Joe Biden, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi.  It's an old show, a tiresome show, and a very, very sad show.  It's time to say thank you, pass out a few gold watches, and flip the channel.

Who Wants to be a Billionaire?

by Pa Rock
Eternal Sucker

I'm just back from town where I purchased my daily iced tea and lotto tickets - and I'm happy to report that tonight's grand prize for the Mega Millions game is now officially one BILLION dollars!

Can you imagine a person trying to pursue some semblance of a normal life after word gets out that he or she has just won a billion dollars?  The horror!  The horror!  Yet people still buy the tickets and hope.

Tomorrow night's Powerball game has a current grand prize of $470 million - and that ain't too shabby either!

I've got mine - for both games!

The Terrorist Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

On September 11th, 2001, citizens of the world watched in horror as the United States came under attack from a terrorist organization.  Thousands of lives were lost as four passenger airplanes came crashing into buildings as well as into a field in Pennsylvania.  It was an unimaginable horror that ushered a reluctant world into the new reality of terrorism.

The terrorists on 9/11 were nineteen young men, fifteen of who whom were citizens of Saudi Arabia. Their organization was known as al-Qaeda, and its leader was Osama bin Laden, himself a Saudi Arabian from a prominent family.

President George W. Bush's first concern after he finally made it back to the White House after hop-scotching across the country in Air Force One trying to avoid the terrorists himself, was to  move swiftly to get all of the prominent Saudi Arabians, including some members of the royal family who were in the United States at the time of the attack, safely out of the country.  Bush and his government did not want those prominent Saudis, some of whom had business ties to the Bush family, being within reach of angry Americans seeking retaliation.

Now, nearly twenty years later, the United States is once again struggling with a situation in which its strong ally and trading partner, Saudi Arabia, stands accused on the world stage of committing an awful crime.  This time a Saudi journalist who was a permanent resident of the United States was apparently murdered in a grizzly manner in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Turkey where he went to have some diplomatic paperwork accomplished.   It now looks as though the man was able to record his own murder on his smart watch and transmit it outside of the building to allies.

Saudi Arabia has done a dance of denial with a backdrop of changing stories ever since the journalist's disappearance two weeks ago - and they have been joined in that dance by their man in Washington, Donald John Trump, who also has business ties to the Saudi government.  Trump even sent his secretary of state, grinning Mike Pompeo, to Saudi Arabia to meet with the country's leaders and try to determine what happened.  So far the only clear result is Trump's reluctance to cast any blame whatsoever on the Saudi royal family or the country's government (essentially the same group of individuals) for the disappearance and likely death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Donald Trump, a man who is ready to send the U.S. military.to our southern border to protect the country from a ragtag convoy of jalopies inching north through Mexico, does not want to rush into any finger-pointing when it comes to Saudi Arabia.  Where the Kingdom is concerned, Trump does not want anyone to be labeled as "guilty" before they are found that way in a court of law - and, of course, some people will never be answerable in any court - and Donald Trump knows that all too well.

Money and power continue to have the same noxious odor.

votefwd.org: Making Change from the Comfort of Home

by Pa Rock
Regular Voter

There are lots of ways that ordinary people can be working to increase voter turnout and influence the outcome of the November midterms.   The county Democrats where I live have been out the past several weekends "canvassing" and promoting the candidacy of the local Democratic candidate for Congress.  Their efforts are laudable primarily because they are teaching people how to become involved at the grassroots, front door level.  But this district is deeply red and the chances of defeating  the entrenched Republican incumbent - at least this time around - are slim to non-existent.

There are several groups on the internet which are focused on the congressional races that are winnable  by the Democratic candidates.  I have run across one that is looking for volunteers to make calls from their own phones to voters in competitive districts, and another that is looking for texters for the same purpose.   Both would require minimum effort, but as someone who is easily enraged by telemarketers, I tend to find the efficacy of those efforts dubious, regardless of what research might indicate - and I certainly wouldn't relish spending a beautiful October afternoon being yelled at by complete strangers.

Recently I came across another venue for becoming involved in elections from the comfort of my own home.  The good folks at votefwd.org have developed a game plan for contacting voters in districts where the races promise to be very close.   Through working with various state and local election officials, the group has developed lists of registered voters who tend to lean Democratic and who have irregular voting histories.  They are using volunteer letter-writers to contact these people and encourage them to vote in November.

The twenty-nine districts being worked by votefwd.org are:  AZ02, CA10, CA 25, CA48, CA49, FL16, FL27, GA06, GA07, KS02, KS03, ME02, MN02, NC02, NC09, NV03, NY01, NY11, NY19, NY22, OH01,  OH12, PA07, PA10, TX02, TX07, TX233, TX32, and VA05.

Volunteers can request to adopt either five or twenty-five voters to contact.  They then print out the letters.  The prepared letters have a non-partisan message that encourages the recipients to be sure and vote on November 6th.  The volunteer writes the recipient's name at the greeting-level of the letter, and signs each letter with their first name and last initial.  The letter also contains the sentence "I have pledged to vote in every election, because . . . " with room for the volunteer to expound on why he or she votes regularly - and to encourage the person who received the letter to go vote.

I put a lot of thought into the message that I wanted to send to my twenty-five adopted voters in Kansas 03 (where two of my grandchildren also happen to live!).  My end result was"

"Voting is my voice and the super-power that I use to make change.  I hope that you will use yours, too!"

And with those simple words, scrawled in my own handwriting, I hope to influence a complete stranger to make a little time to go to the polls on Election Day.

The writing requires some work.  I'm old, and it takes a special effort for me to do much writing by hand without taking breaks.  Then each envelope also has to be addressed by hand - something that helps to make the effort appear much more personal.  A return address within the district is provided (a mail drop) and that has to also be laboriously penned onto each envelope by hand.  Letters that undeliverable for one reason or another are returned to the mail drop, and those names can be trimmed from the list so that it becomes more accurate for the next election cycle.

And finally comes the real expense of the process, placing a first class stamp on each envelope - currently 50 cents per!  The volunteer pays the postage - so my twenty five letters ran $12.50 plus the cost of the envelopes.

The stamp itself is also a way of adding a personal touch to the project.  votefwd.org suggests using one that is somewhat engaging, like the recent Mr. Rogers stamp.  I checked at two local post offices only to learn that they have run out of Mr. Rogers stamps.   I finally came up with one almost as warm and fuzzy:  Scooby-Doo!  (How's that for being cool!)

I routinely toss junk mail without even bothering to open it, but if I got a letter that had been addressed by hand, with a local return address and a cool Scooby-Doo stamp affixed, chances are my curiosity would get the better of me and I would open it.

And just a few people opening their letters and pausing to read my handwritten lines - and then deciding to vote - could turn an election.

I understand that all of the targeted voters in Kansas 03 have now been adopted out, but I am considering taking a second group from some other district.  That is something that I can do to make a difference in November!

Stormy Gets Her Game On!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is a braggart, a blowhard, and a compulsive liar who never - NEVER - misses an opportunity to disparage and demean others - especially if those others happen to be female.  In Trump's world, any woman who fails to fawn over his bloated body is suddenly singled out by him as fat, ugly, or bearing some resemblance to a farmyard animal.   He infamously feuded with comedian Rosie O'Donnell for years, and he has also hurled insults at the likes of Cher and Meryl Streep.  To Trump's way of thinking, women who won't throw themselves at him are deeply flawed - and ugly to boot.

It would be hard to stand up to the man who holds the most powerful office in the world, and doubly so if that man was a loud and insufferable moron who felt at ease in saying anything that crossed his mind - a man who was always on Twitter and had the constant attention of the world's press corps.  Fighting back against a bully who packed that much power would require a Herculean effort, and perhaps especially so for someone whose gender had been regarded as second-class for much of the history of the world.

Most women instinctively understood their powerlessness in standing up to a wind machine like Donald John Trump.

But now Trump may have met his match - and the person delivering the punches to his ego is . . . a woman!

Stormy Daniels, a stripper and porn star who claims to have had a sexual relationship with Trump back about the time his third and current wife, Melania, was giving birth to the couple's son, Barron, has been involved in legal proceedings and somewhat of a public brawl with Trump for the past several months as she struggles to free herself from one of his infamous "nondisclosure" agreements.  She would like to make a profit off of that relationship, and Donald would like to keep her quiet even as he lathers her in several coatings of his pungent invective.  Recently Stormy got well under Trump's skin by publicly describing his penis - in less than "presidential" terms.

It's almost like they were married.

Yesterday Donald Trump, who may have been suffering from an attack of gas, found himself with  the time and energy to bang out a dozen tweets - almost nonstop - and one of those tweets zeroed in on Stormy Daniels:

"'Federal Judge throws out Stormy Daniels lawsuit versus Trump.  Trump's is entitled to full legal fees."  @FoxNews.  Great, now I can go after Horseface and her 3rd rate lawyer in the Great State of Texas.  She will confirm the letter she signed.  She knows nothing about me, a total con!"

To which the fearless Ms. Daniels replied, also via a tweet:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present your president.  In addition to his . . . umm . . . shortcomings, he has demonstrated his incompetence, hatred of women and lack of self control on Twitter AGAIN!  And perhaps a penchant for bestiality.  Game on, Tiny."

Game on, indeed - and it looks as though Fat Boy may have finally met his match!  Break out the popcorn because this is gonna be good!

Trump, you're up.

Pocahontas Takes a Scalp!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald John Trump, a man who lies with almost every sound that he utters, is still at it.

Last July 5th at one of his campaign style rallies, Trump was taking issue with Senator Elizabeth Warren's claim that she has some Native American ancestry.  Trump had long mocked the senator, as well as our nation's Native American population, by referring to her as "Pocahontas."  During his July 5th harangue, he took his bullying a step further and challenged the senator to get her DNA tested to prove once and for all if she was a descendant of Native Americans or not.  Trump told that crowd:

"I will give you (Sen. Warren) a million dollars, to your favorite charity, paid for by Trump, if you take the test and it shows you’re an Indian."   He then added, "I have a feeling she will say 'no.' " 

But Senator Warren accepted the challenge and had her DNA analyzed.  Yesterday she released the results which showed that she does indeed have American Indian ancestry - and she tweeted this reminder to Trump about his boastful challenge:

"By the way, @realDonaldTrump: Remember saying on 7/5 that you'd give $1M to a charity of my choice if my DNA showed Native American ancestry? I remember -- and here's the verdict. Please send the check to the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center." 

To which Trump, never the gent and always the liar, responded:

"I didn't say that. You'd better read it again."

George Washington, he ain't!

  

Monday's Poetry: The Accidental Haikuist

by Pa Rock
Tormented Versifier

Last Thursday evening as I was surfing through Twitter and thinking about heading to bed, I came across this quote from an internet news site relating to the Kavanaugh affair:

"Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is asking federal judges outside the beltway to investigate complaints over statements made by now - justice - Brett Kavanaugh during his contentious nomination."

Still feeling somewhat embittered by the sordid Kavanaugh business, and smelling another cover-up in the making, I posted this snide tweet in reply:

"Break out the shovels.  Republicans have some more burying to do."

The next morning a tweeter named "Haiku D2" reposted my tweet in haiku form:

"Break out the shovels
Republicans have some more
Burying to do."

It turns out this "Haiku D2" person scours the internet looking for accidental haikus, and somehow he or she came across my lines while I slept peacefully in the Ozarks, totally unaware of my poetic talents.

Well, that's a lie, I guess, because I have tried my hand at a few assorted rhyme schemes and even free verse before - almost all of which have been roundly ignored by almost everyone.  I began this blog on November 4, 2007, with one intent being to use it as a repository for a desk drawer full of old writing scraps - including a few tortured efforts at poetry.   I had gone through a phase in college where I played around with the sonnet form, and some of my original early fourteen-liners made it into the early days of The Ramble.  

I also had a rhyming story that I had created about a little boy who used a bad word at school and was sent to the principal's office.  When the boy's mother arrived, she shocked everyone by using the same naughty word.  That poem, a sentimental favorite of mine, was called "We Don't Talk that Way in Tulsa," and it ran on The Ramble's ninth day of publication - November 13, 2007.  It would make a great basis for a children's book if any illustrators are out there looking for a project.

My favorite personal poetry effort came about in early 2011 while some American friends and I were spending a holiday on the small Japanese island of Yoron just north of Okinawa.   We stayed up late playing Yahtzee and talking until a typhoon that was coming ashore killed the electricity.  I went back to my room, and by candlelight - and with a backdrop of howling winds - began composing a story, in verse, about a fictional pair of murders in a French resort setting.  That effort was called "My Poor Yvette Is Dead," and it ran in The Ramble on the 13th of February 2012.

And now, to demonstrate my continuing poetic prowess, here is a lusty little limerick that I recently put to paper:

Lancelot's Lament
by Pa Rock

"A rogue by the name of Lancelot
Strummed his lyre and did dance a lot
Til the Queen took his measure
And commanded he pleasure
Her Highness by dropping his pants a lot."

I blush at my own talent!

November 6th Will Be About Trump

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is telling the evolutionary throw-backs who attend his rallies that the upcoming midterm election is about him.   Trump, a self-absorbed fool who worships at the pool of Narcissus, believes that everything is ultimately about him.  He is pushing his orangutans onward, encouraging them to show their support of him by voting Republican up-and-down the ballot.

Some Republicans will undoubtedly win their elections in November, though by the time Trump quits patting himself on the back for their victories, those winners may feel that they are little more than frayed bookmarks in the Gospel of Donald John Trump.

Some Republicans will also lose their elections in November, with even a few incumbents likely to feel the agony of defeat.  Those losers will be left to flounder on their own.  While Trump will own the victories, Republican losses will the the fault of others:  the candidates themselves, their staffs, Hillary and her emails.  Trump will slather blame far and wide, but he will not step in it.

Before the 2016 election, back when Donald Trump was expecting to lose, he was promoting the notion that the election was "rigged" and he made it clear that he might not accept the results of the contest between himself and Hillary.  If Trump came out on the losing end, it would be because "they" cheated - and he would be able to keep his name in the press for additional months and months as he took his reality show on the road to harangue about the rigged results.

That's how narcissists roll.  It's always about them - and the news is always good, glorifying even.  But if the news sours, well, that's on somebody else.

I find myself agreeing with Trump's boast that the upcoming midterm election is all about him.  Through careful manipulation of the media that he purports to hate, Trump controls the national agenda and dialogue.  The election will be about him because he has made it about him.

For the first time in two years, Donald Trump is fixing to get an update on the country's view of his job performance.  If it is a good report, he will cloak himself in victory and loudly extoll his virtues to the entire fawning world.  But if the electoral report finds Trump to be lacking, heads will roll as he relentlessly moves to rid his administration of those who made him look bad.

One has to wonder if there is a path ahead where America will ever be able to rid itself of Donald John Trump - a man who cannot fathom being defeated.  Would he ever surrender power to something as mundane as a ballot box?  Could he survive watching the spotlight shift to someone else?

November 6th is about Donald Trump - and it will also be a harbinger of things to come.

Sex Crimes Against Children in the Ozarks

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The Ozarks captured on tourist postcards show hills of green spotted with the occasional rustic cabin clinging to the side of a craggy hill - and almost every scene punctuated with rippling streams where deer and possum sip lazily in the afternoon sun.  And this expanse of wooded hills that stretch across much of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas is indeed beautiful in every season.

But, as someone who spent more than fifteen years working in the public schools of the region - and followed that with a decade in state child protection, I am here to relate that the area affectionately known as the "Ozarks" also has a very unseemly underbelly.

There are lots of drug issues in the Ozarks, with meth being a prime destroyer of the area's people and culture.   Meth addiction seems to thrive in concentrated areas of poverty, places where people have given up hope of ever getting beyond their hard circumstances.  Supporting a drug habit in an area where many (especially the drug users) are under-employed often leads into other criminal activity - and drug usage and crime invariably lead to the neglect and abuse of the area's most vulnerable inhabitants - its children.

Being retired for the past four years, I am no longer sucked into the turmoil that drug usage and crime looses on the community, but I do follow - through the local press - the events that are shaping the lives of people in this community. Sadly, those stories just keep coming.  This past week the area of crime that sucked up the most printer's ink was child sexual abuse.

This Thursday (October 11, 2018) the front page of our local newspaper, The West Plains Daily Quill, featured three separate major stories on child sexual abuse, stories which took up three-quarters of the front page.

The first story involved a 53-year-old male perpetrator in Gainesville, MO, who was arrested on October 2 following allegations that he had been having sex with a young girl since she was eleven-years-old.  He has been charged with two counts of second-degree statutory rape, five counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, one count of use of a child in the sexual performance, and two counts of possession of child pornography.  Since the man'a arrest, more than 8,000 images and videos of child pornography have reportedly been found in his possession.

Investigators in the above case say that they have just "scratched the surface" of the case and that "months of investigation" remain.  The county prosecutor handling the case has asked that court records be sealed "due to the horrific statements," and he added that people should "Please say a prayer for these children."

The second story was about three former Catholic priests who served in south central Missouri.  The Catholic Church has confirmed that all three have been accused of the sexual abuse of children during their careers in the priesthood.  Two have since died and one has been relieved of his priestly duties.  The newspaper account contained no information regarding any law enforcement involvement with any of the three priests.

One particular priest in this story was of special interest to me because my family and I attended church at his parish in Mountain View, Missouri, in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  The priest, who by that time was elderly, had supposedly been a sexual abuser of children in the decades before his service at Mountain View.  While pastoring our church he became so infirm that the local bishop, Bernard Law, eventually moved him into a nursing home.  (Later, as a cardinal, Bernard Law blew his chance to become the first Pope from America when it was discovered that he routinely shuffled pedophile priests from parish to parish while serving as Archbishop of Boston.)

The third story focused a highway patrolman from the area who engaged in a sexual relationship with a sixteen-year-old boy.  The patrolman pleaded guilty in federal court and was given a seven-year-prison sentence to be followed up with ten years of supervised probation.

Yes, the Ozarks is scenic, and on many levels, a great place to live.  But the area also harbors more than its share of poverty, drugs, and crime - a milieu which places children at risk for abuse.

But it's not just the Ozarks.  The abuse of children crosses geographical, economic, and social barriers  - and can happen literally anywhere.  If a child confides in you that he or she is being abused, believe them the first time, get them to safety, and help them to report.

Keeping children safe involves everyone.

Olive, the Birthday Girl!

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

There are two announcements that really get Rosie fired up.  When I tell her that we are going to visit "Aunt Gail" or "Baby Olive," little Rosie goes absolutely crazy and begins jumping and spinning in the air.  Aunt Gail turned sixty-something two days ago, and we didn't make the trip down to see her because she is currently in the middle of moving - and we didn't want to chance having to work for our supper!

And today Olive turns seven - and she obviously isn't a "baby" anymore.  In fact, Olive is in first grade and the tallest child in her class. I have warned her that bit of status won't last forever.  Soon those gnarly little boys in her class will spring up like the sassafras saplings that continually plague my fence rows.  But for now, the boys all have to look up to her!

Olive phoned this morning to thank me for a present that I had mailed to her.  This afternoon the family is going to a hotel where several of Olive's cousins and friends will join them for a swim in the indoor pool.  It has been raining in the Kansas City area where Olive lives for most of the past week, so the swimming should be a welcome break!

It sounds like it will be lots and lots of fun!

Happy birthday, Olive!  Pa Rock loves you and wishes you the very best - always!

There Is Nothing "Christian" About the Faith and Freedom Coalition

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Yesterday I received a large postcard from the "Faith and Freedom Coalition" that attempted to instruct me on how to vote this November.   This particular partisan advertisement was printed on yellow card stock (in the true "yellow journalism" tradition of William Randolph Hearst) and was focused on Missouri's U.S Senate Race.

The "Faith and Freedom Coalition" is a right-wing political organization that collects money from suckers and then channels much of it back into the support of extreme conservative candidates for public office, almost always Republicans.  It was founded by the well known political provocateur, Ralph Reed, four months after President Obama came into office - undoubtedly as a response to what Reed and his followers were able to justify as American backsliding by electing a liberal Democrat who also happened to be black.  The organization funds campaign embellishments (like big yellow postcards) for conservative candidates, and also undoubtedly pays salaries to Reed and several sycophants who are dependent of the good will of the not-so-bright.

I have already cast an absentee ballot for the November election, and, although I am not necessarily a fan of my state's incumbent senior senator, Claire McCaskill, she is much brighter and more capable than her Republican opponent, Missouri's attorney general, Josh Hawley.  I voted for Claire, and, after reading Ralph Reed's propaganda sheet, I am more convinced than ever that I voted for the better candidate.

Ralph Reed's right-wing political advertisement was labeled a "Voter Guide," something which can be cheaply mailed by the "non-profit" group that Reed founded, or can be easily put on car windshields at church services on the last Sunday before elections.  The "Voter Guide" compares the two candidates, McCaskill and Hawley, on ten issues split into columns.    It resembles a ballot, with McCaskill being on the left and Hawley on the right.

The issues were:

•   "Abortion on Demand"  worded to sound like the medical procedure was a food item featured on a smorgasbord - and had nothing at all to do with other issues like women's health, family planning, violence, poverty, or a host of other socio-economic concerns.  Reed would have America see abortion as the equivalent of a woman exercising her whims while shopping.  Not surprisingly, the guide said that McCaskill supports abortion on demand and the saintly Mr. Hawley opposes it.
• "Trump Tax Cuts" which, in reality, were tax cuts for America's wealthiest individuals and corporations - and which put more responsibility for keeping the country financially afloat on the backs of everyone else.  Ralph said that Claire is opposed to these "cuts" and Hawley favors them.  That sounds about right.
• "Defund Planned Parenthood," a plan that would take medical care away from millions of low income women.  Reed says that Claire McCaskill opposes this transparent strategy to rid America of abortion providers and Hawley supports it.  
• "Obamacare"  Ralph Reed and his good "Christian" friends seem to be opposed to people also receiving medical treatment through any program that was authored and passed by Democrats. His bulletin reveals that McCaskill supports Obamacare and Hawley opposes it.  (Although that is not quite the message that Hawley himself puts forth.)
• "Border Wall," perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of Trump's plan for America, is opposed by McCaskill and supported by Hawley.
• "$2,000 Child Tax Credit"  An inoffensive sounding measure that one assumes would be a financial boon to hardworking taxpayers who are also parents.  But, as with all things designed by Republicans, it would benefit rich people with kids far more than it would poor people who also happen to be parents.  It is, in reality, just one more way to help the economically privileged stay that way.  McCaskill is opposed and Hawley favors the measure - according to Ralph Reed.
• "Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court" in a seat that the Republican Senate held open for over a year to deny President Obama his constitutional right to appoint the replacement to Antonin Scalia.  McCaskill opposed Gorsuch as the ultimate benefactor of the sleazy political maneuver, and Hawley would have supported him.
• "Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court"  McCaskill opposed Kavanaugh's appointment, a brave stance from a Red State senator during an election year, and Hawley took the easy route of saying he would have supported Kavanaugh.  Meanwhile, Ralph Reed and his merry band of "Christians" are devout in their support of Kavanaugh, a man credibly accused of sexual assault and repeated instances of public drunkenness.   God save the Roberts Court from its own members!
• "Iran Nuclear Deal"   McCaskill favors the agreement crafted by the U.S. State Department and Iran under the Obama administration, a deal designed to hold Iran's nuclear aspirations at bay, and Hawley sides with the Trump administration in scrapping it and extending the range of turmoil in the Middle East.
• "Religious Freedom for Christian Businesses" or, more accurately, the freedom of businesses to discriminate based upon the religious views of their owners.  If you don't like gays, or blacks, or uppity women, whip up an objection based on some shard of a religion and then refuse to do business with them.  If someone had thought up this clever dodge back in the mid-twentieth century, blacks would still be riding in the backs of the buses and using "colored" restrooms.  But now God has shown conservatives how to discriminate legally - as long as they can pack the courts with their kinds of judges.  McCaskill is opposed to that discriminatory nonsense and Hawley supports it.

I appreciate the "Faith and Freedom Coalition" spending their money to send me a postcard.  If I had not already voted, I certainly would have solidified my opinions by reading their drivel - and I would have still voted for Claire McCaskill.

Keep those cards and letters coming, Ralphie.   It's always fascinating to watch someone conflate Jesus and politics to make a few dollars.

Putting Down Roots

by Pa Rock
Nomad No More

Every now and then the urge to move shows up and takes over my life for a few days.  There would be advantages to leaving my little farm in the Ozarks.  For one, I could locate nearer to at least some of my grandchildren, and, for another, I could also move into an area where it might be possible to have intelligent conversations in the local coffee shops and other places where the natives gather.

All of that would be nice.

But staying put, even in deep red areas like West Plains also has advantages.  As a septuagenarian, I now require the attention and services of several doctors.  It has taken me four years to get that team together - general physician, cardiologist, endocrinologist, dermatologist, gastroenterologist, ophthalmologist, and pharmacist.  Forming the team included a lot of starts and fits, including three tries to get the right cardiologist - but the end result is that I have a set of medical providers that I trust implicitly.  Yes, they are spread out over three communities, but they are the right providers for me - each a good fit with my unique personality and medical needs.

(I am still looking for the right dentist.)

If I were to pull up stakes and leave the area I would also miss several very fine neighbors, real neighbors like the ones who used to stroll by for evening visits in Norman Rockwell's America.  I have written about a few of them in the past as they have jumped into help with the mowing when mechanical problems sidelined me - and others who came by to help when crises arose with poultry who refused to follow my reasonable directions.

I don't think, however, that I have discussed my favorite neighbor, Rex, before.  Rex is retired - and a couple of years older than me.  Rex has a pair of tractors as well as all kinds of equipment for outdoor work, and he is one of those people who has to be busy doing something.  The first time I met him he was on one of his tractors mowing grass along the road at the edge of my property.   I stood in the yard and watched for awhile wondering why this stranger was clearing a roadway that, by rights, the county - or myself - should have been clearing.  When he finished he came up to the house and introduced himself.  Rex said that he has just taken it upon himself to trim along the roads out in our area - and had been doing it for years.  An unpaid, one-man county road crew.

We became instant friends, and Rex was soon bush-hogging about half of my ten acres - the part that was too rough for my mower.  Now he shows up twice a year, in the spring and fall, when he sees that it is time to cut the high grass back.  He never charges what the work is actually worth, and I always add enough to the payment to try to make it fair.  But Rex is retired and he works for the enjoyment of getting outdoors and doing something.   He more than likely regards any pay that he receives as just gravy.

Yesterday Rex showed up for the fall bush-hogging.  When he took a break, I walked him up to the house to discuss a tree in the front yard that I wanted removed.   The tree, an old sugar maple, was diseased and dying one big limb at a time.  It was leaning toward the house.  I told Rex about a bid that I had received - one which I suspected was too high by local standards.  Rex confirmed my suspicions that I was on the verge of being taken advantage of, and he said he would take care of it for less than half of the estimate.

He showed up this morning with his tractor, chainsaw, 100 feet of cable,  some chains, and a pulley and quickly managed to get the tree laid down in the sole narrow space where it could land without damaging the house of some of my younger trees.  It was an absolutely perfect tree-felling.  Then he spent a couple of hours cutting the fallen tree into large chunks and dragging them to the backside of my property where the brush will serve as cover for the little animals who also call The Roost home.

And the bill was embarrassingly low.  I doubled it and still walked away with a bargain - and a friend.

One reason that I wanted that tree brought down is that I am also considering putting metal roofs on my home and garage.   I have had a bid for that as well, but it was from someone whose primary work has not been in roofing.  Rex gave me the name and phone number of yet another neighbor, an Amish gentleman, whom he thought might be interested.  I called and talked to the man, and he has a relative who "metals" roofs and will contact me.

Things are coming together, and a large part of that is due to good neighbors - and acquiring a team of good neighbors is easily as challenging as creating a team of doctors.  It takes time and work and determination.

I am sure that some day I will have to move, but for the time-being uprooting and transplanting my life sounds like more work than I want to tackle.

Maybe my grandchildren could move here!

Nikki Haley Rolls On Down the Road

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

As I write this, Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, is having a sit-down with Donald Trump in the White House that is being held in front of members of the press pool.  Haley is reportedly tendering her resignation, though it is still unclear whether she is doing so of her own volition or at the request Trump.

Nikki Haley is one of the few remaining members of the original Trump administration, a team that has been plagued with internal strife and turnover since its earliest days.

There are lots of rumors buzzing around the internet regarding Haley's surprise departure from the United Nations' post.  My favorite is the one which says that Jeff Sessions will be out as attorney general immediately after next month's election, Lindsay Graham will replace him, and Nikki Haley will return to South Carolina to run for Graham's vacated senate seat.

Those moves would represent about an even trade for attorney general, with Graham being as much of a bitter cracker as Jeff Sessions, a minor gain for the Senate with one more woman member and the welcome departure of the increasingly nasty Graham, and likely a negative for the U.N. as John Bolton would undoubtedly assist Trump in finding someone extra-vile to fill the post who would make Nikki Haley look like a raging intellectual.

But other factors are also likely to be at play.  Perhaps Nikki and her husband are tired of living in New York City, or they have something more lucrative lined up, or the resilient Ms. Haley is harboring some bigger political ambitions that might require her pulling free of the Trump orbit.  Some are even suggesting that she is contemplating a White House run.

Wouldn't it be fun to see  a GOP female challenger to Trump in 2020!

I won't hold my breath waiting on that to happen - and Donald Trump certainly wouldn't either!

Monday's Poetry: "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Mineko is a lovely lady who lives in Japan.  She spent a year residing with my family as an exchange student in rural Missouri way back in the early 1980's when she was a teenager.  Mineko posts to Twitter most days, usually things which reflect either Japanese or American culture, and she often pairs snippets of song lyrics with thought-provoking photos.

This morning Mineko posted a bit of lyrics from American folk-music icon, Pete Seeger.  The few lines that she quoted were from Seeger's "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy," a song which exposes the danger of mindlessly following fools.  I knew immediately that, whether Mineko intended it or not, those lyrics were timely to the current political situation in the United States.

This song talks about a platoon following  their Captain as he encourages them on in trying to ford the Mississippi on foot.  The Captain ultimately sinks to his death, and his men scramble to shore under the more sensible leadership of the platoon sergeant.

Of course, not every "leader" actually leads.  Some stand on the shore and bark orders.   I suspect that would more accurately reflect where the United States is today.

Nevertheless, with a tip of the hat to Mineko, here is Pete Seeger's tale of a brave but not overly bright young officer trying to ford the Big Muddy as he prepares his platoon to fight in World War II. His determination outweighed common sense.


Waist Deep in the Big Muddy
by Pete Seeger

It was back in nineteen forty-two,
I was a member of a good platoon.
We were on maneuvers in-a Louisiana,
One night by the light of the moon.
The captain told us to ford a river,
That's how it all begun.
We were -- knee deep in the Big Muddy,
But the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said, "Sir, are you sure,
This is the best way back to the base?"
"Sergeant, go on! I forded this river
'Bout a mile above this place.
It'll be a little soggy but just keep slogging.
We'll soon be on dry ground."
We were, waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie, "
The Captain said to him.
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were, neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.

All at once, the moon clouded over,
We heard a gurgling cry.
A few seconds later, the captain's helmet
Was all that floated by.
The Sergeant said, "Turn around men!
I'm in charge from now on."
And we just made it out of the Big Muddy
With the captain dead and gone.

We stripped and dived and found his body
Stuck in the old quicksand.
I guess he didn't know that the water was deeper
Than the place he'd once before been.
Another stream had joined the Big Muddy
'Bout a half mile from where we'd gone.
We were lucky to escape from the Big Muddy
When the big fool said to push on.

Well, I'm not going to point any moral,
I'll leave that for yourself
Maybe you're still walking, you're still talking
You'd like to keep your health.
But every time I read the papers
That old feeling comes on;
We're, waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool says to push on.
Waist deep! Neck deep! Soon even a
Tall man'll be over his head, we're
Waist deep in the Big Muddy!
And the big fool says to push on!

In Support of Beto's Everywhere

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

America's latest political crisis came to a head yesterday morning when the United States Senate, a body known for rarely "working" more than four days a week - and between vacations that sometimes last for months, met in an unusual Saturday session and narrowly approved Trump's nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to serve as the 114th Justice on the Supreme Court.  The vote was 50 to 48, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voting "present" and Republican Steve Daines of Montana missing the vote due to his daughter's wedding.  One Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted with the Republicans in what was otherwise a party line vote.

I suspect that overall people of my generation were not surprised by the vote, whether they were for Kavanaugh or not.  The United States Senate is a relatively conservative body of older white gentlemen who dislike the noise and notion of change.  It was almost inevitable that if Trump or McConnell did not pull the plug on Kavanaugh, his nomination would eventually prevail - regardless of the damage that the process of confirming a deeply flawed candidate would ultimately do to the nation.

Kavanaugh was confirmed, the Senate was battered but not broken, and the Supreme Court has been tilted to the right in a manner that is likely to be reflected in a curbing of civil rights for a generation or more.  The Supreme Court has also been irrevocably stained by the addition of yet another Justice who is carrying the baggage of sexual abuse allegations.

Stuff happens - and it happened yesterday - and both sides must now struggle to contain their bitterness and governing must resume.

Beto O'Rourke, the only native-born Texan running for the Senate in Texas this year, came out with a compassionate and moving letter yesterday after Kavanaugh was confirmed, a letter that I felt went a long way toward calming the animosity that has raged across the land in the wake of this nomination. O'Rourke, who is running to unseat incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, stated his position on the matter of the Senate's confirmation of the jurist, and then went on to calmly chart a path forward from the chaos of the moment.

And, remarkably, he did not use the communication as a vehicle for begging for campaign donations.

Here is Beto O'Rourke's letter of encouragement to Texas and America in its full text:

"Today, the Senate voted on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.  If I were in the Senate, I would have voted no. 

"The events of the past two weeks - including Dr. Ford's courageous, powerful, and credible testimony and Judge Kavanaugh's temperament in his response - have only added to my concern that he does not meet the bar to serve on the Supreme Court. 

"I am disappointed that he was confirmed.  I know that today's news and the headlines we've seen over the last few weeks have been extremely difficult for many Texans and especially painful for survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment - so many of whom bravely spoke out, shared their stories, and continue to lead the way.  The news has also been hard on those who might feel let down after making their voices heard by calling their senators, organizing with one another, uniting for what we believe in.  Today, we are going to come together for one another. 

"But tonight and tomorrow and in the days that follow, I want you to know that we are going to meet this disappointment weighing on many of us with the power of people who want to make sure that our government represents all of us.  In a democracy, the government is the people and the people are the government.  If the government does not represent the will of the people, we will change the makeup of the government. 

"We will ensure that the senators voting on lifetime appointments to the Supreme Court fight for people, for our rights, and our future.  That they they put country over party.  That they bring a sense of civility and decency to what is supposed to be the greatest deliberative body in the world. 

"Together - not as Democrats or Republicans but as Texans and Americans - we will ensure that the next nominee to be confirmed to the Supreme Court represents all of our interests 

"We will do it because in a state that is last in voter turnout - not by accident by by design - we understand the importance of voting rights. 

"We will do it because in a state that is the epicenter of the maternal mortality crisis - three times as deadly for African American women - we understand that Roe vs Wade is the decided law of the land and that women should be able to make their own decisions about their own bodies, and have access to the healthcare that will save their lives. 

"We will do it because in a state where you can be fired for being gay and where the justice system does not serve everyone, we understand the importance of civil rights and equal justice under law. 

"And we will do it because we understand the need to put people over PACs, people over corporations, and people over special interests. 

"Thank you for staying strong for one another, for Texas, and for this country.  We will not let one another down."

Beto

Hang in there, it's going to be alright.  If a credible candidate for statewide office in Texas (of all places!) can feel emboldened enough to speak so forcefully in favor of fairness and human decency and dignity, then better days are on the horizon for all of us.  The Trump administration is a aberration and a setback, but it will be overcome by a resurgence in the forces of compassion and goodness that made America a beacon of hope to the world.

Find, support, and elect the Beto's of the world!