Trump Pulls the Curtain Back on Evangelicals

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I saw a clip on the internet which claimed that 80 percent of America's white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in 2016, and that today, after all of the revelations about pussy-grabbing, adultery, sleeping with (and being spanked by) porn stars, incessant lying, prodigious gluttony, conspiring with foreign governments, sidling up to Nazis and domestic terrorists, using his political position for personal profit, hurling insults at the handicapped and powerless, and generally being an awful excuse for a human being - after all of that - white evangelical support for Donald John Trump  is unwavering!

If God is speaking to these people, or worse yet through these people, He must be one twisted son-of-a bitch!

The clip that I saw showed Fat Man Trump waving a copy of a book that he claims to have written (The Art of the Deal) while declaring that his favorite book is the Bible.  The fact that statement was not followed by a barrage of lightening would be seen by some as proof that God does not exist.

But Donald Trump claims to have a relationship with the white God of vengeance so adored and worshipped by multitudes of intolerant evangelical Christians.  He is so admiring of this large, white, male deity that he is endorsing the idea of slathering that belief upon America's public school students through the notion of Bible literacy classes.   Several states have already endorsed this idea of backdoor religious indoctrination through a sham of teaching the Bible as literature - or history - though those same states have made no moves to bring other religious texts into their public classrooms to explore their literary or historical merit - texts like the Holy Koran, for instance, or the Bhagavad Gita.

But Donald Trump loves his Bible, so let the proselytizing begin!

Interestingly, a New York City pastor of a church where Donald Trump claimed to have been a member for several years said that he had never known Trump to attend any Bible study classes.   (Perhaps with Trump's large butt brain, he figured that he already knew it all.)

Donald Trump is a walking, talking insult to the very notion of true Christianity, yet the hard core evangelicals can't get enough of him.  Trump is their drug, their golden idol in a golden tower, their proof to the world and to themselves that God exists and that he is every bit as ignorant, intolerant, and mean-spirited as they are.

The Trump presidency has allowed evangelicals to be the people they always knew themselves to be, and it has shown the rest of the world exactly who (or what) they are as well.

Perhaps we are staring down the barrel at End Times, and, if we are, at least that will rid us of Donald Trump and his phony Christian crusaders.

Praise Jesus and Jerry Falwell's pool boy!

My Amish Friends and Neighbors

by Pa Rock
Rural Resident

I have written about the three Amish gentlemen who recently put metal roofs on my home, garage, and well house in this space before.  The three included David (approximately aged fifty) and two young relatives of his, John and Christopher, both in their twenties.   They worked at my place a total of eight straight weekdays (no weekends), and distinguished themselves by arriving on time and working hard.  I could not be happier with their performance and the quality of the work that they did.

The men came to work every day on a farm tractor.  Actually, David drove the tractor, and his young workers rode in an enclosed trailer workshop that he pulled behind the tractor.    One day one of the younger men had a special errand to run in town over his lunch break, so he drove his own farm tractor to work that day.

We became friends during the eight days that the Amish men worked at my little farm.  They were especially nice to Rosie, and she loved having them around.  It turned out that Christopher raises small dogs, Welsh Corgis, and the group were naturally drawn to Rosie's energy and her antics.

David and his crew do carpentry work full time, and they schedule about six months into the future.  David told me that because they are Amish, people approach them in public to discuss upcoming projects and try to schedule their services.  The Amish have a well deserved reputation for doing good work - especially when it comes to the building trades.

I knew that I was fortunate to have secured their services.

Sometime before they finished roofing my place, I mentioned to David that I also was looking for a housekeeper.   He said that a young woman in his extended family was looking for a few homes to clean.  Last week she called, and then the young woman, Kathy, and her mother came by to look the house over.  We scheduled an initial cleaning for yesterday.

I wasn't surprised at all when Kathy showed up yesterday morning driving a large farm tractor.  Kathy is in her early twenties, and she was accompanied by her younger sister, Lizzie, who appeared to be about fifteen.  The young ladies, in long Amish dresses and bonnets, went to work and soon had Pa Rock's digs clean enough for proper company.

And they, too, made strong bonds with Rosie!

So here I sit in clean surroundings and marveling at the fact that so many new friends have entered my life over the past few months.  Several times a day people driving large farm tractors go down the lane in front of my house, and now I always wave - and the good people at the wheel always wave back.

I appreciate my new friends and feel like I am really beginning to connect with the community.  My Amish friends are good people and great neighbors!

Another Rich Pig in a Poke?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There's this fellow out in Seattle who seems intent on shaking up the political scene.  His name is Howard Schultz and at one time he ran Starbucks - and apparently he still a major stake in the company.  He was also a primary owner of the Seattle Supersonics basketball team until his inept stewardship of that organization led him to sell to a group of businessmen from Oklahoma City - where the team promptly resettled.

Howard Schultz says he is thinking about running for President of the United States - as an Independent.  He has rolled out that old trope about the two major parties being out of touch and posited his reasonable solution that a visionary businessman (like him) running from the outside could give Americans a path to repairing democracy.

Schultz, who unlike Trump, seems to be a legitimate billionaire worth three to four billion dollars, believes, like Trump, that his vast business experience gives him a unique position in the United States' social and economic order from which to launch a presidential campaign.   An American billionaire and former sports team owner whose primary business has strong economic ties to Russia - why, what could be more perfect than that?

Why, if Howard Schultz had owned a fake university and had a strong presence on reality television, he would be the perfect old white man to replace Donald Trump!

This fellow, Schultz, says that he is a "progressive," a term that sounds good but often lacks a skeleton of precise definition - but he is clear on the fact that he does not like the plan of Democratic dynamo Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez to have America's super-rich pay their fair share of taxes for the first time in over half a century.  In fact, he seems to be posturing as an alternative in case the Democratic Party chooses some leftist as its candidate - a hedge to insure that the country stays safe under the wise leadership of someone like him or Trump.

Howard Schultz, in fact, appears to be just a cleaned-up version of Donald Trump, one lacking the overt ignorance, rage, and blubber, but still well steeped in the arrogance of rich, white, male privilege.  If he can pull off the concerned progressive ploy, Schultz might siphon enough votes away from the Democratic nominee in key states to insure that Trump has four more years of raiding our national treasury and conducting a foreign policy that continues to put Russia first.

My first impression of Mr. Howard Schultz is not positive, but I will wait to pass final judgment until he releases at least ten years of his tax returns and reveals all contacts that he and his businesses have had with foreign bankers and politicians.   I also want to see medical records from competent physicians, as well current blood and urine testing.  Are his children decent people, and, does he play golf?

One rich pig in a poke is more than enough, thank you very much! 

Monday's Poetry: "Old Friends"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

I've lost a couple of my old high school friends over the past two weeks, and ironically both were named Mike.

Our class was the last to graduate from the small high school in Noel, Missouri - and that was way back in 1966.  The following year all of the local kids began being bused to a consolidated county high school where there were many more opportunities to become involved in extra-curricular activities - and educational outcomes began a decades-long slide.  I may have not known that many people in high school, but the friends that I made there and the education that I received in that small school were both superior to anything that I would have received stumbling through the halls of a bigger and more impersonal setting.

In my mind our class graduated twenty-two that year, a small class even for Noel, but out official graduation panel features the faces of only twenty students.  There were several who were with us for most of the school experience, yet had gone other directions by the time graduation finally rolled around.

Mike Poynor was one who didn't graduate with our group, though I don't remember why.  Mike's step-dad owned a gas station and garage, and Mike always had an interest in cars.  For a time while we were in high school we both owned 1957 Chevys.  Mine was a four-door and Mike's was probably a classier two-door.  One day while I was riding around town with a friend in the friend's car, and having left my Chevy on Main Street, we came upon Mike rifling through the trunk of my car.    Looking a bit guilty but not overly contrite, he said that he just wanted to see if his key fit - and it did.

Noel was one of those small towns where everyone felt like family, and no one was going to get too bent out of shape over something as trivial as that.

At the time of his death two weeks ago, Mike Poynor was living in Oklahoma.  I visited with his older brother (who is now also deceased) a couple of years ago, and he told me that Mike was doing well.  I was glad to hear it.

The other Mike died last week.  Mike Carr did graduate with our class and went on to have a distinguished career in the United States Air Force and retired as a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9), the highest enlisted rank in the USAF.  Mike and his wife, the parents of two grown children, were living in San Antonio, Texas.  He happened to be visiting Noel when he became ill, and passed away while in Missouri.  This past Saturday he was buried at the Noel Cemetery.

Mike Carr and I did keep up with each other during our later years.  He became the clearing house for news of our class and was the one to contact the rest of us when there was a story involving a classmate - and too often those were death notices.  Mike was the eighth person (of which I am aware) on that panel of twenty to have passed on.

Mike Carr and I were in Boy Scouts together and had a lot of interactions while growing up.  My dad had an appliance store on Main Street in Noel, and when color television was new, he would open the store on Sunday evenings so the people in town could come in and watch The Wonderful World of Disney and Bonanza!, two of the first programs to be shown in color.  Mike Carr told me once years later that he had first watched color television in that little store.

After graduation we went our separate ways.    While I was safely tucked away in college, Mike Carr was fighting in the jungles of Vietnam.  A few years back Mike emailed me a photo from his days in Nam.  It was of him and Marvin Gilming (another of our classmates who is also now deceased), two skinny kids who had managed to meet up half-a-world away from Noel, Missouri, and who were both experiencing a life that the rest of that graduating class could not begin to imagine.

The last time I saw Mike Carr was at an all-school reunion in Noel in 2016.  We discussed out families, our lives, and even our health - congratulating ourselves on both still being in fairly good shape.  Mike had a large incubator and had recently hatched out a big group of baby quail, and I had a tabletop incubator and had hatched a few baby chickens - so we had that in common after fifty years out from high school.  We talked about Marvin, who Mike regarded as his best friend and who had recently passed away, and at some point Jim Durham, another classmate, stepped into the conversation.  Jim died a couple of months later.

I guess what I am aiming toward is the notion that it all seems to be shutting down.  Every day is a gift, but damn if they aren't coming and going quicker and quicker and quicker.   Life does come and go - much like Simon and Garfunkel told us it would, all those many years ago:

Old Friends
by Paul Simon

Old friends
Old friends
Sat on their park bench
Like bookends
A newspaper blown through the grass
Falls on the round toes
On the high shoes
Of the old friends

Old friends
Winter companions
The old men
Lost in their overcoats
Waiting for the sunset
The sounds of the city
Sifting through trees
Settle like dust
On the shoulders
Of the old friends

Can you imagine us
Years from today
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy

Old friends
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fear

Time it was,
And what a time it was
It was . . .
A time of innocence
A time of confidences

Long ago . . . it must be . . .
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They’re all that’s left you

Rep. Jason Smith Gets his Mad On

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

My congressman, a Republican by the name of Jason Smith, has a history of being a rubber stamp for the outrages and excesses of the Trump administration.  It wasn't surprising, therefore, to find Jason shedding bitter tears in his current weekly email report to the folks back home.  The lead in the most recent edition of his "Weekly Capitol Report" was a story about how awful House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being to Congressman Smith's beloved Donald Trump.  The piece, which was purportedly written by Smith but had the smell of a product that was banged out by a group of chained interns working under the whip of House Republican leadership, opened with an attack on Pelosi and the terrible way that she has been picking on the four-hundred-pound gorilla in the White House:

"This week the U.S. House of Representatives under Speaker Pelosi’s leadership reached a new low. The obstruction to President Trump has threatened the livelihoods of the men and women who protect us, left our border unsecure, and now resulted in the postponement of a right given to our President in the U.S. Constitution – the State of the Union address."

That's fairly heady stuff, and at first glance one might assume that the entire government shutdown fiasco was the result of evil machinations by Nancy Pelosi.  What Congressman Smith fails to emphasize, however, is that when the shutdown began, Paul Ryan, a Republican, was the Speaker of the House, and that the force which brought the shutdown into being was Donald Trump's refusal to sign a spending bill that had been overwhelmingly passed by both houses of Congress.  Trump started the shutdown, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell enabled it, and it took a new Speaker, one named Nancy Pelosi, to come along and end it.

Jason then began the second paragraph of his newsletter with this bonehead statement:

"This week, Speaker Pelosi became the first Speaker of the House in history to prevent the President of the United States from delivering the State of the Union address."

The truth of the matter is this:  Nancy Pelosi outplayed Trump at every turn.  After she realized that Donald Trump had neither the intention nor the desire to end the shutdown under any terms other than his own, she adroitly suggested that he postpone his State of the Union speech or hold it somewhere other than in the House of Representatives, a government space that she and her political party now controlled.  Trump pushed back by preparing to deliver the speech in the House anyway, and at that point Pelosi pulled the plug and told him that would not be happening - at least not until after the shutdown ended.  Trump blinked.  A few days later he blinked again when he agreed to end the shutdown - at least temporarily - without his vanity wall.

Pelosi had won, bigly.

At no time did Nancy Pelosi deny Donald John Trump the right to report the "state of the union" to Congress.  He could have put it into a letter, as many Presidents historically have done in meeting their Constitutional obligation, or he could have held it in the Senate Chamber, or in any other government building, or in one of many state capitols where his presence would have been welcomed.  Heck, he could have even given his speech on the golf course at Mar-a-Lago!  However, the one place where Trump would not be giving his State of the Union speech was in the House of Representatives.  On that point Speaker Pelosi was exceedingly clear.

Now, back to Congressman Smith's opening remark:  "This week the U.S. House of Representatives under Speaker Pelosi's leadership reached a new low."  Technically, I would have to agree with that.  The House did reach a new low, but not due to any actions by Nancy Pelosi - or even Donald Trump.  The House reached a new low when a large and loud group of representatives began getting mouthy with each other one afternoon on the floor of the House, and one Republican member of Congress yelled at a group of Democratic lawmakers that they should "go back to Puerto Rico!"  And just where did that nasty bit of race-baiting come from?  Why it came from the mouth of my congressman, Representative Jason Smith of Missouri's 8th district.

Congressman Smith, your sanctimony and self-righteousness are astounding.  You should definitely look at getting your own "house" in order before you go after Speaker Pelosi!  You may disagree with her intentions, but she, at least, is well mannered.  You could learn from her leadership.

Trump Folds and Government Shutdown Ends

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Yesterday was the 35th miserable day of the partial government shutdown, an ugly episode that saw over 800,000 federal employees miss a month's worth of paychecks as they struggled to maintain their families and homes through the unexpected and unnecessary economic hardship.

Each day that the shutdown dragged on, the impact on the general American public became more pronounced, and eventually the pressure to end it was more than the shutdown's instigator, Donald John Trump, could bear - and he folded.

Certainly one factor that must have weighed heavily on Trump's mind was the situation with America's air travel industry, a major and much needed component of the overall national economy as well as a core component of our national transportation system.  Air traffic controllers  who were responsible for keeping the planes safe in the air, and TSA officials who were key to keeping air travel safe from terrorism, were impacted by the shutdown, and most were ordered back to work without benefit of pay.  Many of them eventually began to skip work in order to work other jobs or to save having to pay babysitting and their own travel expenses. As those stressed out workers began missing work, lines at airports grew longer, and more and more Americans began to worry aloud about the safety of air travel.

Yesterday LaGuardia Airport in New York City, a damned big airport, closed for a couple of hours due to employees failing to report to work.  Closed airports posed a direct and substantial threat to the American economy.  It was starting to get serious.

Soon after the closure at LaGuardia in his home town Trump announced that he was prepared to sign a bill reopening the government for a limited period of three weeks without any funds included for his much ballyhooed border wall.  Congress acted quickly and Trump signed the  bill, and hopefully government will be back up and running by Monday.

Trump is, of course, proclaiming that he will again shut down the same part of the federal government in three weeks if Congress has not coughed up money for his vanity wall by the time the current extension runs out - and that may happen. But for the time being, 800,000 federal employees will get their back pay plus the mid-February paycheck, and (presumably) Trump will get to make his State of the Union speech in the House Chamber.

So, in three weeks all of the drama could start up again, OR Trump could have moved his agenda in another direction.  Being swatted down by people like Ann Coulter and Nancy Pelosi is not nearly as much fun as playing a leisurely round or two of golf!

Fore!

Another Humanitarian Bites the Dust

by Pa Rock
Outraged Citizen

Here is a story from today's news that I find disturbing at a very personal level:

Dr. Casey Smitherman, the superintendent of Elwood Community Schools in Elwood, Indiana, was arrested earlier this month and charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for the outrageous crime of seeking medical attention for a student at her school.  The actual facts of the case are somewhat more complex, but at its core the school administrator, who is herself a mother, was trying to obtain medical care for an ill student.

The facts run something like this:  Dr. Smitherman was informed that a particular student was absent from school.  This 15-year-old boy was someone with whom she had interacted in the past, and she was concerned by his absence - so concerned that she drove to his home to find out why he was not in school.  There the boy, who was apparently home alone, told her that he was ill.  She first asked if he had eaten, and he had.  She then decided, based on her own experience as a mother, that he had symptoms of strep throat, and she drove him to an emergency clinic.  That clinic refused to see the uninsured lad.

Dr. Smitherman then made a poor decision based on a humanitarian instinct.  She took the boy to another clinic and presented him as her son on her own insurance plan.  There she was able to get him seen by a physician and provided with a prescription for Amoxicillin which she purchased at a local CVS, again under her son's name.

The crimes for which the superintendent have been charged center around defrauding an insurance company.

As a former public school teacher, school administrator, and state child protection worker, I have had several prolonged dealings with insurance companies and medical providers in efforts to get medical care for children in need.  I have, on occasion, made purchases out of my own pocket for things like school supplies, school meals, groceries, clothing, and even medicine, but I never got as creative as Dr. Smitherman and tried to pass a kid off as my own to get needed services.

But in twenty-first century America I will not fault her for following her human instincts.  Why shouldn't any child have access to medical care when they are sick?

Donald Trump ran for office promising to do away with "Obamacare" and to replace it with something better.  Now, two years later and halfway through his first (and hopefully only) term, all the Trump administration and a compliant Congress have been able to do is to weaken (perhaps mortally) the program and drive over seven million Americans from the rolls of the insured - and no longer even pretend to be looking for a better alternative - or any alternative for that matter.  The Trump GOP agenda on health care is to end any government involvement in the process, a strategy that effectively denies coverage to the millions of America's working poor.

That strategy may make fiscal sense, at least on paper, but it is heartless neglect when a child can't go to school due to illness, and can't get well due to poverty.  God bless the humanitarians who step into the breach and try to fix the benign neglect of a nation one child at a time.

Dr. Smitherman, you may be a felon, but you are also a damned fine human being!

(To the credit of the community of Elwood, Indiana, both the prosecutors and the local school board appear to be supportive of Dr. Smitherman and her flawed efforts to help a child in need - at this time, at least.)

Pelosi Has a Very Good Day

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Not having been a particular fan of Nancy Pelosi after she elbowed and pushed her way into control of the House of Representatives for a second time, I must nevertheless give credit where credit is due.  For the past few days she has been adroitly backing Trump into a corner over his upcoming State of the Union speech, and yesterday she completed the process by sending him a letter which declared that the speech would not happen until the government shutdown was over - at least not in the House of Representatives.

And instead of snorting a fistful of crushed Adderol and rage-tweeting all night, Trump surprised many by quietly and completely backing down.  He said that the House was the proper venue for his speech, and that he would wait to deliver it until the shutdown was over.

Nancy had lowered the boom - and I am damned proud of her for doing it.  There is something deeply satisfying about seeing a bully get what is coming to him, and when that comeuppance is delivered by a woman, well . . . that is just gravy!

So that kerfuffle is over, at least for the time being, but I still have an issue with Pelosi, and Trump, and a couple of other prominent U.S. politicians - and that problem is their age - and if that makes me an ageist or politically incorrect, then so be it.

Donald Trump is the oldest person to have ever been elected President of the United States.  He won that freak election in 2016 at the ripe old age of seventy, and today he still holds office at seventy-two.  He will add another year to that total in June.  Nancy Pelosi is seventy-eight and will turn seventy-nine in March.  She will be eighty before her current term as Speaker of the House ends.

I will be seventy-one in March, and though I am still reasonably active and fairly fit of mind, I know that both my physical abilities and mental processes are slowing through the aging process. March will also mark the five-year anniversary of my retirement, and I am thankful every day that I had the good sense to leave the rat race when I did and make room for younger people to move up in the workforce.

I went to a very small rural high school.  Though the young people associated with our class (1966) usually numbered around thirty, only twenty made it through to graduation night.  This week I received word that another of our class had passed away - making a total of eight of the twenty who have died so far.

There comes a time, Nancy.  There comes a time, Fat Boy.

Some people don't (or won't) recognize when the time to step aside has arrived, and they continue to cling to their self-importance and past glories like barnacles on an aging battleship.  They feel that only they can do the job the way it needs to be done.  And that notion becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when they decline to offer leadership opportunities to new faces who are eager to learn the craft of governing and to prove their own abilities.

The Democratic presidential field this year also harbors some tottering old war horses:  Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Mike Bloomberg are all well into their seventies.  Hillary (should she decide to run again) is in her early seventies, and Elizabeth Warren will be seventy this June.

Yesterday the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, announced that he was considering entering the presidential race, and he made it very clear that he sees the upcoming contest as a generational issue.  Age, whether it's a fair marker or not, is going to be part of the political discourse.

Nancy Pelosi did a great job yesterday in out-maneuvering Donald Trump and bringing him under her control - and she deserves our utmost appreciation for that outcome.    She had a very good day.  But Pelosi, and Trump, and several other politicians of national renown are nearing the end of their relevance and ability to lead.  They are literally feeling their way along the darkening twilight trails at a time when our nation needs to be connected to the vision and vitality of its youth.

It is time for a real change in leadership.  Instead of talking about walls and wars, we need to start focusing on things like climate change, tax fairness, medical care for all, and well-funded public education.  The focus needs to shift from the prejudices of the elderly to the very real issues facing families and children.  America needs to be focused on tomorrow, and its our youth who will be leading us there.

Kamala Gains Momentum in 2nd DK Straw Poll

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Two weeks ago I posted results from the first Daily Kos straw poll of Democratic presidential contenders on this site.  At that time only two candidates had committed to any form of announcement - Senator Elizabeth Warren and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro.  Warren led that poll of Daily Kos readers - a decidedly left-tilting group - with 22% of the vote.  Beto O'Rourke was in second place with 15% of the vote followed by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden with 14% each.  Bernie Sanders was fifth at 11%,  Cory Booker was next with 3%, and Julian Castro and Kirsten Gillibrand each had one percent.

Today Daily Kos is out with an updated poll, one showing a big surge for California Senator Kamala Harris.  This poll began yesterday, one day after Senator Harris formally announced her entry into the race, a fact that may have fueled her momentum

The new DK poll puts Kamala Harris in first place with 28% of the vote.  Elizabeth Warren is second at 18%, and she is followed by geriatrics Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders who are each polling twelve percent.  Beto O'Rourke has slipped to fifth place with 8%.  Sherrod Brown of Ohio is sixth at 6%, Cory Booker is down to 2% and in 7th place, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is in 8th at one percent of the vote.

"Unsure" polled 6%, and "Other" brought in five percent.

Not included in this week's poll were Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Hillary Clinton.

Overall, it looks as though Senator Harris is on the move, though some of the momentum may be a temporary reaction to the nearness of her announcement, Senator Warren has dropped a bit but is still a major player, and Biden and Bernie, who have each moved up two points, are vying to become the field's elder statesman.  Beto O'Rourke took the biggest hit, seeing his numbers almost cut in half over the two week period, but, hey, he's busy roadtrippin' and not into a slugfest mode - yet.  Cory Booker has yet to figure out how to exit the basement, and Tulsi Gabbard looks as though she will disappearing from the scene before many more of these bi-monthly polls are held.

Another young aspirant entered (kinda, sorta) the contest today on the Democratic side today.  Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has set up a committee to "explore" the possibility of a presidential run.  Buttieieg, a combat veteran who also happens to be gay, would further increase the diversity of this amazing field of candidates.

Yes, it's still too early to know much with any degree of certainty, but the Democratic edge of the Democratic Party is beginning to make itself heard.  And so far most seem to agree on one very critical point, they will support their party's nominee over Donald John Trump, regardless of which candidate the process anoints.   Defeating the 400-pound, bigoted gorilla is the top priority!

(Recommendation to Daily Kos:  Try listing all of the candidates on the next straw poll ballot and let's see where that takes us.  Gillibrand, Castro, and even Hillary need to be weighed and measured.  Their presence on the ballot would ripple across the entire spectrum of candidates and give a clearer picture of what your readers are thinking.  Just sayin' . . . )

Jesus Would Still Litter

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

On Monday, July 28th, 2008 (more than a decade ago), I used this space to recount the story of a litterbug.  In a piece entitled "Jesus Would Litter" I told the tale of Daniel Millis, then a 29-year-old Spanish teacher at a public high school in southern Arizona.  Daniel was doing volunteer work for a group called "No More Deaths."   His specific assignment was to leave full one-gallon water jugs out in the Sonoran Desert to save lives of undocumented migrants who were crossing the desert on foot in an attempt to reach sanctuary and economic salvation in the promised land.

As Daniel left his life-saving jugs of water in the desert, he also picked up litter along the way.

But our federal government was not in a mood to tolerate a good Samaritan, and Daniel was arrested and charged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Commission with littering - the "litter" of course being the jugs of water that he was leaving behind.

Two months later (September 24th, 2008) I was able to report in this same space that a federal judge had found Daniel Millis guilty of the littering charge, but had then promptly suspended any sentence.  The teacher had done the crime, but there would be no punishment.

Now, in the year of our lord 2019, nearly eleven years after the case of the litterbug school teacher,  the federal courts are again focused on essentially the same "crime."  Humanitarians are once again standing before a judge defending themselves for providing food and water to travelers in need of sustenance and Christian charity.

This time a federal judge has found Natalie Hoffman, Oona Holcomb, Madeline Huse, and Zaachila Orozco-McCormick guilty of multiple charges of providing aid to undocumented border-crossers.  The four women were working for "No More Deaths," the same group that had sponsored the work of Daniel Millis in 2008.

What an outrage - giving food and water to the hungry and thirsty!  Do these low-life Christian scum have no sense of decency?  It's a good thing Christ himself wasn't around, or Trump's goons would have had his scraggly ass in jail too!

Monday's Poetry: "The Journey"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Mary Oliver died this past week at the age of eighty-three.  The prolific poet left behind a body of much-loved and memorable work including perhaps her two best known efforts:  "Wild Geese" and "The Journey."

I have chosen to highlight "The Journey" as this week's poetry selection,  It is an inspired piece showing an individual's awakening and transformation  into a person with purpose, someone who will not be sidelined by the noise and confusion of the life that is happening along the edges.  Mary Oliver obviously lived life as she wrote it.

Please enjoy "The Journey" and perhaps accept it as a bit of a personal challenge to the stubborn complacency and noise which tugs at the ankles of us all.


The Journey
by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting

their bad advice --

though the whole house

began to tremble

and you felt the old tug

at your ankles.

"Mend my life!"

each voice cried.

But you didn't stop.

You knew what you had to do,

though the wind pried

with its stiff fingers

at the very foundations,

though their melancholy

was terrible.

It was already late

enough, and a wild night,

and the road full of fallen

branches and stones.

But little by little,

as you left their voice behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own,

that kept you company

as you strode deeper and deeper

into the world,

determined to do

the only thing you could do --

determined to save

the only life that you could save.

The Pride of Kentucky Are Actually Hyenas

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

If Mitch McConnell ever decides to retire from the Senate, or leaves involuntarily wearing a toe-tag, citizens in the Commonwealth of Kentucky should have no problem in replacing him with someone equally as obstinate and mean-spirited.  In fact, they could probably come up with a platoon of despicable candidates just in the city of Covington (pop. 40,000) alone.  If not now, certainly in another dozen years or so when a whole troop of entitled young bastards currently attending the all-male Covington Catholic High School reach an age where they can run for the Senate.

This Friday a large group of young heathen from the parochial all-boys school made asses of themselves and disrespected America's indigenous population when they confronted 64-year-old Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder who was performing a native ritual at the Lincoln Memorial.  Phillips, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, has been involved for years in recognizing the sacrifices that America's native population have made to our country's defense and history.

Mr. Phillips said that he was beating a small drum and singing when he observed the group of high school boys closing in on a gathering of black Israelites who were trying to speak.  The boys began heckling the black speakers and shouting "build that wall, build that wall,"  and Phillips said that when he saw a black man turn and spit at one of the students, he stepped in between them.   He said that he suddenly realized that he was "between the beast and the prey," and at the point the high school boys turned on him and began mocking and disrupting his performance.

The youth, many of whom were wearing MAGA hats and shirts, were cheering each other on. Many in the group were also filming the confrontation with their smart phones.  Soon videos of the event began making their way into social media, and the viewing public proved to be, by and large, not as proud of what happened as the kids themselves had been.

Phillips later lamented:

"When I was there singing, I heard them saying ''Build that wall, build that wall.'  These are indigenous lands.  We're not supposed to have walls here.  We never did."

Ruth Buffalo, a state representative from North Dakota as well as a Native American herself, remarked that she was saddened to see the students disrespect the Marine Corps veteran and Native American elder as he was trying to be heard at a celebration of cultures.

Deb Haaland, a Native American and a congresswoman from New Mexico referred to the student behavior as "blatant hate, disrespect, and intolerance."  She lamented later in a tweet:

"This Veteran put his life on the line for our country.  Heartbreaking."

The students appeared to be part of an organized high school excursion to march at the Right for Life campaign which was occurring nearby.  Most were carrying professionally-printed signs that opposed women's rights to abortions.  All seemed to be enjoying the break from school.

The Kentucky Diocese as well as the Covington Catholic High School seem to be accepting some degree of responsibility for this matter, as well they should. In an effort to increase the number of bodies protesting abortion, they inadvertently created a racial confrontation that damaged all parties involved.  This attempt to use students as muscle for the church's political agenda backfired bigly.

Kentucky's young lions proved to be little more than hyenas!

Robins in the Snow

by Pa Rock
Hibernator

It's snowing this morning in my beautiful Missouri Ozarks, not a lot yet, but the ground is beginning to turn white.  Peace abides and normalcy prevails, with one notable exception:  six fat robins are hopping around the whitening yard in an apparent search for food.

Robins in January are a bit of a surprise, so I did some internet research to find out if this was a normal phenomenon - or a sure sign of the apocalypse.  Apparently, according to the information I unearthed, the appearance of robins in January is becoming more common, with every state in the Union except Hawaii reporting visits from robins in the dead of winter.

When I was but a mere sprout of a boy, the first appearance of robins each year was the official announcement that spring has arrived.  But this year they are out two weeks ahead of the groundhogs!

Last fall I was forced to remove the maple tree in front of the house because it was diseased and dying one big chunk at a time.  That tree was where I hung the bird feeder that gave me so much enjoyment each winter.  I was remiss in getting the feeder hung someplace else this winter, and, as a result, most of the cardinals, woodpeckers,  and other hardy birds that had kept me entertained each winter are now down the road dining with the neighbors.

Maybe that's why I suddenly have robins.  Did you know that robins are carnivores - meat eaters who love bugs, grasshoppers, and fat, delicious worms - and that they do not gather at bird feeders to fight for seeds.  I learned that by staring out my front window and noticing what was happening.  Did you know that blue jays - who do eat seeds and berries - will also eat small birds?  (I've written about that before after watching a blue jay snatch a smaller bird at the feeder and then fly off to a high branch for a bit of fine-feathered cannibalism.)

The squirrels, of course, are still around and doing quite well, but I know they must miss the buffet that I offered up each winter at the bird feeder - just as I miss the entertainment of watching as the squirrels would hang upside down from a branch trying to pry the corn-on-the-cob out of its hanging cage.

The feeder will be back next winter - that's a promise.  I will figure out a way to hang it on something outside of my typing window so that the birds and squirrels and I can all enjoy it.  And hopefully the robins will show up and join us in the commotion!

"The snow blows white on the mountain tonight."   Or it soon will.

Is Rep. Jason Smith Auditioning to Become the Next Steve King?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Let me begin by saying this:  I love Puerto Rico.  I have had the good fortune to have been to the United States Territory of Puerto Rico on multiple occasions, and I have always come away feeling that it is truly someplace special.

I love the little shops and colorful buildings of Old San Juan, and even the loud music from the Hard Rock Cafe as it rolls down the cobbled streets toward the Caribbean.  I love the pigeons swarming through the small stone sanctuaries up near the old fort, and I certainly love the massive fort itself - a bastion of severe stone architecture that was erected hundreds of years ago by Spain to ward off challengers to its dominance in the New World.

I love the people of Puerto Rico, the artisans, shopkeepers, and street vendors - as well as the congenial employees in the hundreds of businesses that have branches nationwide, even in the small Missouri towns like the one where I live - familiar businesses such as Walgreens. McDonald's, and even the omnivore Walmart.  In many ways walking down the streets of cities in Puerto Rico is very similar to being at home.

And then there are the natural wonders of the island, the beautiful beaches, and, in particular El Yunque, Puerto Rico's unique and inspirational rain forest.  On two separate occasions I have rented a car and driven aimlessly through El Yunque enjoying the scenery as the roads wind through lush tropical vegetation, past stunning waterfalls, and to remote observatories with magnificent vistas.

Yes, I love Puerto Rico - but my congressman, Jason T. Smith, a Republican representing Missouri's 8th, well . . . not so much.

One does not have to be a news junkie to remember or realize that the Trump administration's response to the devastating Hurricane Maria which hit Puerto Rico nearly a year-and-a-half ago was abysmal.  Trump was slow in visiting the island, and when he did finally make it down he minimized the situation by throwing rolls of paper towels to survivors of the massive storm.  Not enough federal funds were directed to the island to get the power and water supplies up and running for most of the residents, and what money was authorized often did not make it to the island.

To many it seemed that the Trump administration had a silent agenda of thwarting the proud island's ability to recover.  Indeed, some officials in and near the Trump orbit are now openly talking about using some of the money intended for Puerto Rico's recovery on Trump's much-hyped wall along the southern U.S. border.  Puerto Rico, it should be noted, is still a very long way from recovering completely from the hurricane, and those funds could and should still be used as they were originally intended.

Things are still so bad in Puerto Rico, in fact, that Broadway superstar and native Puerto Rican, Lin-Manuel Miranda, recently took his Hamilton troupe to the island to raise the spirits of the people still there - and hopefully to raise some relief funds in the process.

This past weekend a group of thirty-six House members from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus along with a flotilla of lobbyists went to Puerto Rico to raise funds and awareness regarding the situation there.  While in Puerto Rico they also met with government officials, business and labor leaders, and the island's Fiscal Control Board.

By yesterday all of those representatives had returned and Congress was back to business as usual - this time trying to come up with some form of budget resolution that would pass muster with Donald Trump and Ann Coulter.  An exchange among lawmakers on the floor of the House became heated, and at one point someone on the Republican side yelled out "Go back to Puerto Rico!"

Democratic Representative Tony Cardenas of California immediately took offense and tried to find out which of the fifty or so paunchy white Republican lawmakers standing before him had yelled that insult.  Even though Cardenas asked multiple times, the group all stood silent like shame-faced schoolboys.

Rep. Cardenas explained his own rage at the taunt this way:

"When people blurt things out like that, it certainly sounds like the old saying, 'go back to where you came from.'  Since I was a little boy I've heard that blurted at me many times, but it's sad that anything even remotely close to that would be said to me on the floor of the House."

Later in the day, after Rep. Cardenas had asked the group who was responsible and no one had owned up to it, the rightfully offended Representative received a telephone call from Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri's 8th congressional district.  Smith said that he was the guilty party, and he reportedly apologized profusely.

And while Rep. Cardenas may be mollified, he still shows signs of a lingering irritation regarding the incident.  He said that the remark uttered by Jason Smith shows a "lack of understanding about the minority experience in the United States."

Jason Smith is my representative in Congress.  He says that he is sorry for his insensitive remark, and hopefully he is.  That's one possibility.  Another possibility, of course, is that he is in the cheque of applicants waiting to replace disgraced and racist GOP Congressman Steve King as the most odious member of the House.

Hopefully Jason Smith is rightfully ashamed of his schoolyard bully performance, but whether he is or not, this constituent is certainly embarrassed and ashamed for him - as well as for our congressional district and the great state of Missouri.

We are better than that!

Mrs. Maisel Really Is Marvelous!

by Pa Rock
Entertainment Junkie

For the past couple of weeks Rosie and I have been enjoying  Amazon's award-winning new television series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and we have both come to the conclusion that the new comedy (two seasons, nineteen episodes - so far) is indeed marvelous!  The one show alone is worth the price of a year's membership in Amazon's Prime - a $120 annual expenditure that delivers a bounty of fine television programming along with free shipping on most Amazon purchases.

The show is set in New York City in the late 1950's.

Midge Maisel is a young housewife and mother of two small children who lives in a fashionable apartment in New York's Upper East Side.  She is very supportive of her husband, Joel, who works by day as an executive in a company that his uncle owns - and by night tries to break into the local nightclub scene as a stand-up comic.  Joel experiences a disastrous performance at one of his free gigs during the first episode, and blames Midge for his failure.  During the ensuring argument he informs her that he has been having an affair - and then he walks out on his family.

Midge, who has the luxury of living in the same apartment house as her parents, delivers the kids upstairs to their grandparents, has a couple of drinks, and then stumbles out in the New York City night air in her nightgown.  She winds up at the same comedy club where Joel had bombed earlier in the evening, and, clad in her nightgown, she barges onto the stage and delivers an impromptu routine focusing on the breakup of her marriage.  It was a howling success that ended in Midge's arrest by the New York City Police Department.

While at the police station Midge meets and becomes friends with fellow-arrested comedian, the infamous Lenny Bruce.  She bails Lenny out and pays for his cab ride home.  Days later, following her second arrest, Lenny is able to return the favors.

The other indispensable friend that Midge makes during her debut comedy performance is Susie Myerson, the club manager where the performance takes place.   Susie, a rough-and-tumble New Yorker who is often mistaken for a man, recognizes Midge's comedy gift and quickly insinuates herself into the picture as Midge's personal manager.

The remaining eighteen episodes focus on Midge's slow rise through the male-dominated field of stand-up comedy, with lots of attention paid to pressures that her career places on friends and family as well as a doses of pop culture and political and social commentary from the 1950's.

Rachel Brosnahan stars as the irrepressible Midge, a role that has won her "best actress" awards at the past two Golden Globe award shows.  Alex Borstein is the in-your-face personal manager, Susie Myerson, a woman who will go to the mat - literally - for her client.  Two other familiar faces in the show are Tony Shaloub (TV's "Monk") who plays Midge's uptight father and mathematician, Abe Weissman, and Jane Lynch (the evil cheerleading coach, Sue Sylvester, from Glee) who portrays a nationally known female comedian who is reluctantly stuck in the persona of a poor, fat housewife from Queens who has had eight or nine husbands.

Almost all of the characters are Jewish, particularly those on the higher end of the social order, and the religion transcends the culture of the program.  A couple of episodes in the second season take place at a Jewish holiday retreat in the Catskills - in a hotel by a lake that conjures memories of Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel rolls back the decades.  It is a beautifully written and acted, with some of the most stunning photographic effects ever to grace the small screen.  The old cars alone, with their mighty fins and two-tone paint jobs, make the show worth seeing.  The music, too, is wonderful and seamlessly connects viewers to the 1950's, and the comedy, though often vulgar, is hilarious and shows the challenges that society and comedians like Lenny Bruce faced as post-World War II America was growing up.

Five stars can't begin to define The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.   This is one helluva fine show.  I can't wait to see where the third season takes Midge and her friends and family!

Roosting Under Metal

by Pa Rock
Farmer in Winter

For the past year or so I have been considering the notion of having metal roofs installed on my house, garage, and well house.   Finding the right people to do the job - or any job in a rural community - was not easy, but I finally came upon a family outfit that was well known for their honesty and work ethic.  They were so in demand, however, that it was difficult to get them scheduled.

Last week the leader of the three-man crew telephoned and said that he had an immediate opening, and I quickly accepted.  He came and did careful measurements, discussed certain aspects of the project with me, and then submitted a bid which was in line with what I had been expecting.  The three started work the next day, and they anticipate finishing tomorrow.

This family work crew is unique in that they are Amish or Mennonite - I don't know the difference, and though we have shared a bit over the week, we have not discussed religion - or politics.  Instead of cars or trucks, they come to work on a farm tractor pulling a trailer that hauls the day's equipment and some of their supplies.  Yesterday one of the young workers had some errands to run at lunch, so he arrived on his own farm tractor.

The foreman is about forty-five to fifty, and he is assisted by his son-in-law and the son-in-law's brother-in-law - both in their twenties.  They arrive on time each morning, put in a complete day's work, and clean up after themselves before heading home in the evenings.

The work included not only putting a green metal roof on all three buildings, but also restructuring the porch overhang on the front of the house.  The new roof is almost completed, and it is beautiful!  One envious neighbor remarked that it would last at least forty years, which may be longer than I need it.

Rosie and I are enjoying having all of the extra company in our lives.  She has to go outside several times a day just to observe their progress, and the guys always notice and speak to her when she is out.  The cats, on the other hand, try to steer clear of the commotion.

Come see me here in the Ozark hills, and we'll listen to the spring rains rattling on my new metal roof.   You'll be sure to stay dry when you are sitting snugly in the little house at Rock's Roost!

Rand Paul Heads to Canada for Some Quality Medical Care

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Here's a news flash:  Rand Paul is sick.  Seriously.

The erstwhile little Kentucky popinjay is apparently suffering with a hernia in need of repair, and instead of trusting his medical care to the same U.S. medical community that licensed both him and his father as physicians, Kentucky's junior senator is heading to Canada to get his treatment.  Paul, who like his daddy, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, opposes all forms of socialism,  ironically feels that his own medical needs can be best met at a facility in Canada, a country steeped in socialized medical practices.

In fairness to Senator Showboat, he is seeking treatment at a private hospital which specializes in hernia repair, and he says that he will be paying for the procedure out of his own pocket.  It must be nice to have pockets deep enough to allow a person to shop for medical care on an international basis.  Is it any wonder that Senator Paul and his fellow rich Republicans seem to have almost no concern at all for the rest of America's ability to get medical care?

Senator Paul's hernia issue apparently developed as a result of an assault from his neighbor nearly two years ago when the man pulled Rand off of his riding lawnmower and proceeded to kick most of the crap out of him in a dispute over Paul's white-trash yard landscaping.  The crap that the neighbor failed to kick out of the senator has rejuvenated, and Senator Paul is once again full of crap.

With people like Rand Paul flying in over Canada's southern border, and Alaskans like the Palin family sneaking in across Canada's northern border on dog sleds for free medical treatment, the medical needs of the United States are slowly being met - by Canada!

In a related note, there was an abundance of news stories yesterday regarding Canadian air traffic controllers who have begun sending pizzas to their unpaid counterparts in the United States.  (Instead of ordering piles of fast food for his White House sports banquets, perhaps Trump could be routing that grub to the men and women who are keeping U.S. airports open and the planes in the air!)

Thank you, Canada, for your friendship and humanity - and please . . . please . . .  never build a wall across your southern border - or your northern one either!

Monday's Poetry: "Tomorrow Belongs to Me"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

A few weeks ago I used this space to post a review of the novel Cafe Berlin by Harold Nebenzal, a work describing life in Berlin during the years in which Hitler and his National Socialist (Nazi) Party controlled Germany.  Then yesterday Alexa treated me to selections from the musical stage play and film, Cabaret, which depicted Berlin during the early years of the Nazi ascendancy.  Those two incidents combined to put me in a bit of a mood.

One of most striking, and at the same time off-putting, songs of Cabaret is showcased when the camera pans to a young German soldier who stands smartly and begins singing in a clear soprano voice about the future.  His song, "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" moves the crowd to join with him and it becomes the default Nazi anthem of the movie.  Politics aside, the words of this song capture and depict a beautiful moment in nature - but, with politics back in the frame, it has also become associated with some of today's all-too-numerous Neo-Nazis.

And for those who've ever wondered what Stephen Miller sings in the shower each morning when he's not singing "Dixie," it might be what follows:


Tomorrow Belongs to Me
by Mark Lambert

The sun on the meadow is summery warm
The stag in the forest runs free
But gather together to greet the storm
Tomorrow belongs to me

The branch of the linden is leafy and green
The Rhine gives its gold to the sea.
But somewhere a glory awaits unseen
Tomorrow belongs to me

The babe in his cradle is closing his eyes
The blossom embraces the bee
But soon says a whisper:
“Arise, arise”
Tomorrow belongs to me

To me.

And to Nazi it up a bit, the version of the song that aired with the 1972 film Cabaret added this extra stanza:

Oh Fatherland, Fatherland

Show us the sign
Your children have waited to see
The morning will come
When the world is mine

Tomorrow belongs
Tomorrow belongs
Tomorrow belongs
To me

Rudy Plans to Correct the Mueller Report

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Not everyone cares much for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, but I view the gnarly little gnome as absolutely amazing!  Most people suffering from dementia would crawl into bed, turn on Fox News, and begin the slow process of vegetating their lives away.  But although Rudy undoubtedly watches more than his fair share of Fox, he also manages to hold down a full-time job as Donald Trump's chief legal counsel.  Alzheimer's won't stop Rudy!

Rudy's encroaching dementia seems to play out across Trump's legal troubles in interesting and colorful ways.  This week he made news when he espoused a notion that Trump and his legal team should be given the courtesy of being allowed to correct the final Mueller report before it is shared with Congress or the American people.  He described it as "a matter of fairness."

And fair is fair.  Why shouldn't Rudy and all of Trump's other genius legal beagles be allowed to have a go at the report with their scissors, erasers, blackout pens, and crayons?  Who better knows what really happened between the Trump family and Russia, or between Donald and his bimbos, than the Trump organization itself?  When they get it fixed, then we can all read it.

I'm going to use that logic the next time John Law pulls me over and issues a citation.   I will take the ticket home, scratch out the parts I don't like, and re-write it from my own perspective and in my own words.  Then I will mail it in to the Court - along with my recommendation about what should be done to the cop who caused the unfortunate situation in the first place.

And if I need a lawyer, I will head over to the nursing home and find one just like Rudy!

Seven Soulless Selfish Slugs

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There hasn't been much progress in the Ann Coulter-inspiried partial government shutdown of late, but one thing of significance did occur over the past few days.   It now looks as though all of the unpaid government workers will get their back pay - eventually.

Thursday Donald Trump, the person who owns this mess, announced that government workers affected by the shutdown would get their back pay.  The Senate then quickly confirmed his pronouncement and passed a bill, one hundred to zero, guaranteeing the workers would get their money.

The House met the next day and voted on the same bill, easily passing the measure - but with seven members voting "no."

Let me repeat that:  seven members of the House of Representatives voted against guaranteeing that all government workers affected by the shutdown would receive back pay.

Who are these seven heartless and soulless cretins?  Not surprisingly they are all white, male, and Republican, a very representative group of House Republicans in general.  Individually they were:  Justin Amash of Michigan, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Glen Grothman of Wisconsin, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Chip Roy of Texas, and Ted Yoho of Florida.  While none of the seven has much of a national following nor any observable pretensions for national office, each must have felt secure enough in his own district to cast this morally reprehensible vote.

As a former Arizonan, Gosar and Biggs are the two who are most familiar to me.  Andy Biggs in particular has an interesting life story.  Back in 1993 he won $10 million in the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes, an unearned fortune which he was then able to parlay into a successful political career.  (Sweepstakes DO have consequences!)

But, Andy's good fortune aside, he and the other six are certainly not above kicking people when they are down.  I doubt that the 420,000 "essential" government workers who are still going to work each day but without pay, and the 380,000 "non-essential" government workers who are furloughed and also trying to survive without their paychecks, will forget these seven congressmen and their callous disregard of the government's obligation to pay its employees - and neither should the voters back home.

I pay taxes in order to maintain and benefit from a functioning government - and not to meet the vanity needs of some has-been reality television personality.  It's time for the United States to pay its bills and get back to work!

Rep. Steve King Is a Nationalist Who Just Happens to be White

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a man who probably owns more white sheets than he has beds to put them on, seems to be baffled at some of the cultural changes which are occurring in his beloved homeland of the United States of America.   For instance, certain key phrases that King and his friends have historically applied to themselves now have seriously negative connotations.  Recently the congressman lamented, "White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization - how did that language become offensive?"

Perhaps terms like those became offensive, Congressman King, when too many white morons began using them to make their own racist leanings seem respectable.

"White nationalists" are generally regarded as people pining for a white nation state, or, at the very least, a country that is run by white people - as their wizened old white God intended.  "White supremacists" are people who believe that their white skin color makes them innately superior to non-whites.  And one must assume that "Western civilization" was just a bon mot that King dropped into the list to make the first two seem more palatable.  But "Western Civilization" also serves to remind us that people with a Western European heritage - white people - have controlled Europe for the past few millennia and some of North America for the past couple of hundred years.  It is sort of an understood marker that attests to the sovereignty of white people when it comes to being in charge.

But now King seems to have finally gotten the message and he has begun referring to himself simply as a "nationalist," albeit one who happens to be white.  Perhaps he is a bit more open to the concerns of non-white Americans (though many would doubt that), but he still wants strong borders to keep other non-whites out of his nation.

King's past racist positions and indefensible statements have always been seen as extremist in some quarters, but now members of his own beloved Republican Party are even starting to distance themselves from him.  Several current House members have recently spoken out against King's rhetoric, and two Republicans in his home state have announced plans to challenge him in the next GOP primary election - and a third candidate is considering entering the race.  King was barely re-elected to his seat in Congress in 2018, and even if he prevails in the next Republican primary, his seat is already being labeled by some as a potential Democratic pickup.

Keep race-baiting all you want Congressman King - it's a free country.  But the United States is also a democracy, and it sounds like Iowa voters have had just about enough of you - so don't be too surprised when the 21st century rises up and bites your white ass!.

Fox News Host Kills a Trump Big Lie

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Back in the good old days - last week - when Donald Trump would get to howling about the need to build a grand wall along the southern border, the threat of terrorists entering the country from the south was always a staple of his appeal - drugs, criminals, and terrorists -  a deadly triumvirate of awfulness that was going to sink the United States and make us no better than them.

But now, quite suddenly and very quietly, the threat of terrorism has been dropped from Trump's stand-up routine on the need for a big wall.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that a man who lies with almost every breath he takes would wind his minions up and send them out to lie as well, and this week the wall of lies emanating from the White House began to show some fissures - cracks big enough to drive a caravan through.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a chronic liar, went on Fox News Sunday last weekend to spread some manure about Trump's Great Wall.  Normally Fox would be a safe place to dump a load of Trump administration excrement, but this particular Sunday the show's host, Chris Wallace, just wasn't having it.

Wallace began by noting that Homeland Security Secretary Kirsten Nielsen had claimed that Customs and Border Protection (CPB) had stopped over 3,000 "special interest" aliens along the southern border.   Wallace elucidated that special interest aliens are just people who happen to have come from countries that have produced a terrorist in the past, and they themselves are not terrorists.

Sanders grabbed the bait and attempted to show that the U.S. southern border is a sieve through which terrorists enter the country.  She began with "We know that roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally, and we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is the southern border."

However, before she could continue with that spurious bit of logic that never really connected the terrorists to the border, Wallace interrupted her.  "I know that statistic.  I didn't know you were going to use it, but I studied up on this."  He continued, "Do you know where those 4,000 people are captured?  Airports."  Then to frost his fact-checking cupcake, Wallace cited (on three separate occasions during the interview) a Trump State Department report which stated there are "zero terrorists" infiltrating the southern border.  Zip, nada, none!

In the two days that followed Vice President Pence and Secretary Nielsen continued to push the bogus terrorist claims, and Pence maintained the statistic about the 4,000 terrorists to justify a wall along the southern border.   However, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway, wife of George the Twitter star, finally admitted that the claim linking 4,000 terrorists to the southern border was an "unfortunate misstatement."

That evening Donald John Trump went on live national television to make his case for a border wall directly to the American people.  The speech was brief, just 1,122 words - with none of them being terrorists, terrorism, or any variant thereof.  A Fox News host with a surprising amount of integrity had driven a stake through the heart of that big lie.

Great work, Chris Wallace.  Thanks for putting America first.

Trump Government Shutdown Spares Trump Business

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Winter is not the prime tourist season in Washington, DC, but nonetheless some brave souls are visiting our nation's capital at this time and trying to see the sights - and their explorations are suffering due to the partial government shutdown.  The Smithsonian Museums are closed, as is the National Archives and even Ford's Theatre.   Tourists still can visit the Lincoln Memorial and several other monuments, but government guides and park rangers are no longer available to provide information and offer assistance.

Everything run by the National Park Service, in fact, is now either closed or operating in a very limited fashion.  Snack bars and souvenir shops are closed, trash is piling up, and health and safety concerns are on the rise.   And the restrooms . . . well, let's not discuss the restrooms!

Nationwide our national parks are suffering the effects of the partial government shutdown, and, for the most part, that includes many public attractions in Washington, DC - with one glaring exception.

The historic 315-foot clock tower at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, is still being staffed by the National Park Service and is open to the public.  The Trump Hotel is located in the Old Post Office building and is currently leased to the Trump organization by the federal government.  The clock tower in the building has been maintained as a tourist attraction, although few tourists reportedly visit the sight.

But even with very few tourists expressing an interest in visiting the clock tower, someone in government made a decision to keep it open and staffed while high-demand destinations, like the Smithsonian Museums, were forced to close.

Noah Bookkbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), observed "At the very least this smells funny."

Funny indeed!

CREW has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the General Services Administration (GSA) seeking documents explaining why the tower remains open, how it continues to be funded, and any communications between the agency and the Trump organization.

The Associated Press made this observation:

". . . the Trump administration appears to have gone out of its way to keep the attraction in the federally owned building that houses the Trump hotel open and staffed with National Park Service rangers, even as other federal agencies shut all but the most essential services."

In would seem that the self-dealing corruption of this administration never takes a holiday.  Perhaps that is why Robert Mueller is having so much trouble completing his investigation!

Elizabeth Warren Leads in Early Straw Poll

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

With Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former U.S. HUD Secretary (and Mayor of San Antonio) Julian Castro already establishing "exploratory" committees for a 2020 presidential run, it would appear as though the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination has officially begun.  Yesterday, as an acknowledgment of that political reality, the web site Daily Kos posted its first presidential straw poll of the upcoming election cycle.  That poll listed eight Democratic candidates as well as Donald Trump.

Daily Kos is a left-of-center political site that publishes blog entries and opinion from a wide array of progressive voices.  It's current straw poll is still on line and may be accessed at:  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/7/1824180/-Daily-Kos-Democratic-Straw-Poll-inaugural-edition

This straw poll, Daily Kos's first of the 2020 election cycle, has garnered almost 35,000 votes as of this morning.  The current results have Elizabeth Warren placing first with 7,478 votes or 22% of the total cast.  Former congressman Beto O'Rourke of El Paso is second with 5,209, or 15% of the vote total.    Third place is being held down by California Senator Kamala Harris with 4,688 (14%), and Joe Biden is a very close fourth with 4,608, also 14%.

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is currently in fifth place with 3,689 votes or 11 percent.  New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is running sixth with 914 votes or 3%, Julian Castro is seventh with 507 votes or 1%, and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, is last - among the listed Democrats - at 495 votes or 1%.

Donald Trump scored a whopping 146 votes among Daily Kos straw poll responders - or roughly 0% of the votes cast.   3,159 voters (9%) said they were "unsure" of their 2020 preference at this time, and 2,942 (9%) indicated that they favored someone other than the candidates listed on this early preferential ballot.

So which "other" candidates failed to make the Daily Kos cut?  Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg seems to have an interest in running, as does Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, entertainment mogul Oprah Winfrey, and former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

The list of Democratic possibilities at this point, in fact, appears to be damn near limitless.   A growing group of individuals feel they have what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and run the country - and Daily Kos is making an early effort to sort them out.

This would be a great opportunity to make your voice heard.

Biden's Time has Come - and Gone

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I like Joe Biden.  Hell, I even love Joe Biden.  He is, hands down, the closest thing that the Democratic Party has had to a happy warrior since FDR left the stage in 1945.  Joe Biden, in his prime, would have undoubtedly made a great President, but that did not happen.  Now, a decade or two past his prime, Biden is once again sniffing at the political breeze and making noises about jumping into the 2020 presidential race.

The former Vice President as has crafted a crafty rationale to justify his third shot at the presidency - a declaration that he has the best chance of winning against the wily Donald John Trump.  Journalists Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns have a political piece currently running in the New York Times, in fact, which is entitled "Biden sees Himself as Democrats' Best Hope in 2020, Allies Say."

The primary "ally" cited in the article is Tom Carper, a Democratic senator from Biden's home state of Delaware.  Part of Carper's rationale for his enthusiastic support of Biden is that he gets along with Mitch McConnell - a sentiment that probably wouldn't make it onto campaign buttons and bumper stickers:  "Vote Joe - He gets along with Mitch!"

According to the article, Joe Biden believes that he is the candidate with the surest ability to bring midwestern blue collar workers back into the Democratic fold at a time when other Democratic candidates see the party's future strength as residing with better educated voters in the suburbs, particularly in the suburbs of some of the larger cities on the northern edge of the American South.

Biden has a long history in American politics - nearly half a century - and all of those years of service contain a few moments in which he took regrettable positions - such as voting to support the invasion of Iraq in 2002 - and his active role in the interrogation of Anita Hill in the Senate hearings that ultimately led to the seating of misogynist Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.

But, political strategies aside, Joe Biden has fewer hours left on his clock than almost all of the other Democratic hopefuls, and that has to factor in - whether it is politically correct or not.  Joe Biden is seventy-six-years-old, and he will be seventy-nine just two weeks after the 2020 election. And even if he was to be elected, he would be eighty-three at the end of just one term.

A white male would be a tough sell for Democrats in 2020, and a geriatric white male would be an especially tough sell.  Joe Biden is a great guy, but his time has passed.

It's time to give it a rest, Joe.  If you want to take an active role in driving Donald Trump from the White House, use your vast experience and knowledge to help one of the next generation of Democrats fight that battle.  It's their time now.

Pat Roberts Can Finally Get the Hell Out of Dodge

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Those looking for a furniture bargain in Kansas might soon do well to circulate through the flea markets in and around Dodge City because that is where the state's most famous recliner could end up in the not too distant future.

The recliner  became a political punchline back in 2014 when Pat Roberts, the state's senior United States Senator, was revealed to not have a residence in the state that he represented in the Senate.  Yes, Roberts and his Virginia realtor wife did own a home in Dodge City, but they had rented it out for years and were obviously not residing there.  As the news broke, the embarrassed national lawmaker quickly claimed residence with a couple in the Dodge City area who had been longtime political supporters of his campaigns.  When asked about the arrangement, Roberts said that he paid $300 a month rent when he was in the state, and that he had "dibs of the recliner."

The crusty old senator was able to overcome a strong challenge by a Tea Party Republican and was eventually elected to a fourth six-year term at the Senate trough.  But now, two years out from the next election, Roberts has announced that he will not run for re-election.  Perhaps he is tired of being referred to as Virginia's third senator - or maybe he is just too damned old to try and sleep in a Lazy Boy.

Roberts is currently eighty-two and way too old to be serving in the Senate anyway - and he is only three years younger that Dianne Feinstein.  Now he will soon be able to spend his days puttering around the house that he and his wife do own - the one in northern Virginia - and maybe help her put up yard signs and hold open houses for her real estate business.  Something productive, for a change.

Pat Roberts, of course, is not the only senator with a questionable home address.  Once politicians make it to "the show" in Washington, DC, they seem to quickly come to regard the area surrounding the nation's capital as their home.  Richard Lugar, a long-serving senator from Indiana, lost his Senate seat of nearly forty-years after it was revealed that he had sold his Indiana home shortly after being elected to the Senate in 1977, and had subsequently been billing the government for his hotel stays whenever he traveled "back home" to Indiana.  Lugar and his wife owned a home in McLean, Virginia, at the time of his political demise.

My own senior senator, Ol' Roy Blunt of Missouri, is smarter than Lugar and Roberts.  Ol' Roy and his Washington, DC, lobbyist wife own a condo in Springfield, Missouri, which (according to utility records) they rarely visit - but they do OWN it - along with a $3 million home in the DC suburbs where they actually live.  And to Ol' Roy's credit, he is far too dignified to ever sleep in a recliner!

And most days he probably can find Missouri on a map.

Congratulations on your retirement, Senator Roberts.

Shutdown Set to Impact Trumpbillies

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Yesterday Donald (the font of all stupid) Trump threatened Democratic negotiators with a government shutdown that would last for months or even years.  The big, orange, petulant child was prepared to hold his breath until the country expired in order to get funding for his beloved wall.  This is day fifteen - or sixteen - of the Trump government shutdown, and so far it has not really inconvenienced his miscreant base, but as things drag on it will likely disrupt the lives of many individuals - including Trump's polluted sea of red-capped hillbillies on whom his political power rests.

This morning I listened to a fairly reliable news source - National Public Radio - as its newscasters recited a list of government activities that would begin to be impacted if the shutdown drags on - and a couple caught my attention.  The current impasse was deliberately designed not to have much impact on the military, and it was also structured so that it would not interfere with social security payments and the delivery of medical care through Medicare and Medicaid.  Those are things that have the potential to make people angry.

It also kept other things going that are fairly necessary in a booming economy - like air travel.   Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials, the good people who keep our nation's airports running, were told to go to work, without pay, or face being fired.  So most went to work anticipating a short-term break in pay that would be reimbursed once the kerfuffle was over.  But day fifteen - or is it sixteen? - means that they are now in their third week without pay - a circumstance that could wreck some families.  Today's news is that many TSA officials are beginning to bite back at the hand that used to feed them - and are calling in sick.  For the rest of us that will equate to longer lines at airports and slower service.

Many thanks, DJT, for causing weary travelers to spend even more time walking around on nasty airport floors in our stocking feet!

NPR said that the extended shutdown will soon result in a stoppage with the food stamp program - a primary food source for many Americans.   My hungry neighbors who voted for Trump en masse are going to find shopping much more difficult without their beloved EBT cards.  When it boils down to a choice between drugs, alcohol, tobacco and feeding the kids, well . . . God help the kids!

Another thing that the NPR reporters said would be impacted was the Internal Revenue System and its ability to issue refunds in a timely manner.  We are now entering tax refund season, and my good neighbors, many of whom appear never to work, still manage to score tax refunds each year - and those refunds are a very big deal - funding a springtime shopping spree that is every bit as anticipated and as welcomed as the Christmas season.  Sometimes, in fact, the tax refunds are used to pay off the excesses of the previous winter's holiday shopping.

Screwing with tax refunds is going to be a mighty big deal out where I live!

It is all so painfully obvious that even Donald John Trump will have it figured out soon.  An extended government shutdown, even a partial one, is going to start hitting real people really hard.

MAGA caps may be fine fashion statements, but you can't eat them - and pissed-off, hungry people aren't just going to lay down and die peacefully when there is food to be had in the kitchens of Mar-a-Lago and the fine restaurants of Manhattan.  Keep the government shut down long enough, Fat Boy, and it will eventually impact you!