Trump Licks the Boots of Dictators

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump and his entourage are headed home after a couple of days of hobnobbing with world leaders at the G-20 Summit in Osaka, Japan.  Actually, he seems to have spent more time developing personal ties with some of the world's notorious dictators than he did promoting trade and security among traditional American allies.

Trump made it clear before heading to the summit in Japan that he would have an extensive meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and when pressed by a reporter who wanted to know if he would discuss  Russian interference in American elections with Putin, Trump shut the reporter down with "It's none of your business!"  Then, while chatting with Putin publicly at the summit, both men appeared to be sharing a joke about the election meddling - with Trump asking the Russian leader to "please" not meddle in our elections.

That's probably not how Harry Truman would have handled the situation.

Then Trump turned his attention to China and announced that he and Chinese President Xi Jinping would be reopening trade negotiations between the two countries.  Trump announced there would be no more US tariffs imposed on Chinese goods at the present time, and he seemed to be preparing to lift sanctions against Chinese tech giant Huawei - thus meeting one of China's non-negotiable demands with regard to the trade war.

But the ultimate bow to a dictator came when Trump flew to the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) on his way back from Osaka.  There he met briefly with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un, and rattled the long-established world order by stepping briefly into North Korea, the first American leader to do so since the end of the Korean War nearly seventy years ago - and an affront to the memories of the thousands of Americans who were wounded and killed in that bloody conflict.

But Trump met some personal goals during and after the G-20.  He joked with Putin, and had a lengthy private conversation with the Russian leader.    Trump began backtracking on his demands regarding Chinese trade, and he shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with the ruthless murderer who runs North Korea.  We don't know exactly what happened in any of those meetings because what Trump does is "none of our business," but we can be fairly certain that he spent the better part of the past week hustling about and trying to impress the people he truly respects.

Wouldn't it be great if he had that much respect for his fellow Americans?

(And just for the record, any business conducted by our elected leader on the world stage IS the business of every American!   We are a functioning democracy - and not some exclusive country club that caters only to its wealthy white members!)

Carter Questions Trump's Legitimacy

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Jimmy Carter, a well-respected former President of the United States, suggested this past week that Donald Trump lacks legitimacy as President because it appears as though Russia helped him win the 2016 election.  Trump, to no one's surprise, ignored the facts of Carter's argument and instead responded with a standard barrage of name-calling and personal attacks on the former President.

And meanwhile, between snipes of vitriol directed toward Jimmy Carter, Trump was busy exchanging toasts and pleasantries at the G-20 Summit with Vlad Putin, the man many see as responsible for Trump's election win in 2016 - and a substantiation - of sorts - of Carter's original point.

Donald Trump seems far more comfortable reclining in the warmth of Putin's largess than he ever has in actually trying to assume a leadership posture in his own country.  It's almost as if he knows where his loyalties and indebtedness lie - and that is essentially what Carter was saying in the first place.

Jimmy Carter feels that the circumstances of the 2016 election need to be investigated - and many of our fellow U.S. citizens agree.  Was that our election - or was it Putin's?  Our country does not need a Trump-themed Fourth of July Parade nearly as much as it needs to know that the President of the United States was legitimately elected and serves with a mandate from the voters.

Thank you, President Carter, for stating the obvious.

Free at Last! Free at Last!

by Pa Rock
Spinning Sicko

I only spent two nights in our local hospital before gaining a timely release this morning, and while that was a minimal sentence, it felt like a multi-year ordeal on Devil's Island.  The doctor that I was working with in the hospital (the "hospitalist") managed to make changes in my heart and diabetes medication routines while I was there and has now left me to explain changes that I don't fully understand to the actual providers who set the routines to be begin with.

The most frustrating aspect  of the two-day stay was the second night when I was taken out of ICU and assigned to a "regular" room.  The patient room was almost large enough for one person, yet I had to share it with a man who was recovering from a stroke - and his wife!  When I arrived in the room at 7:00 p.m. he was watching television, and when staff work me for the umpteenth time at a quarter past one in the morning, he was still watching television!  When breakfast arrived at 7:00 a.m. he was still watching television!

There was nothing recuperative about that second night in the hospital - which is probably why the hospitalist was quick to ascend to my wishes to go home where I might be able to get some actual rest.

I have an appointment to follow-up with my regular physician on Tuesday, and hopefully all of the tests will be back by then.  In the meantime I am supposed to stay out of the sun, get lots of rest, and drink plenty of liquids.

If you are going to be outside this summer, invest in sunscreen, insect repellent, and. tick spray.  It's a messy way to live, but it still beats the alternative!

Pa Rock Is Serving Time in the Hospital

by Pa Rock
Psycho Sicko

I have been ill for over a week, suffering from what felt like flu symptoms.   On Monday I finally presented at a walk-in clinic where a doctor I didn't know suggested that I might have a sinus issue.  He gave me an anti-biotic that looked big enough to treat a plow horse, and sent me home.  By yesterday I was feeling a lot worse and managed to get in to see my regular doctor.  After discovering that my blood pressure was quite low, my doctor asked a raft of questions and then announced that I was heading to the hospital.  I have been in the ICU for twenty-four hours now, and will hopefully be moved into a regular room later today.

The hospital has run a variety of tests, but results aren't in yet.  Right now they are operating on an assumption that I have a tick-born illness.  That should be confirmed or rejected later today.

The good news is that I have had a lot of sleep and am feeling better.  Hopefully I will be able to go home tomorrow.

Rosie has sensed all along that I was ill, and I know that she is eager for me to get home so that she can provide me with her special attentions!

The Case of the Disappearing Rape Allegation

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last Friday New York Magazine released a shocking excerpt from a new book by a former advice columnist named E. Jean Carroll which described a physical assault and rape that Ms. Carroll claimed to have suffered from New York businessman Donald Trump in the 1990's.  The story blazed through social media for about a day and then quietly began to disappear from view - and by Sunday morning it was of such a low media priority that none of the major Sunday news shows even bothered to address it.

 A well-respected journalist describes a horrific rape that she suffered at the hands of an entitled billionaire - a man who is currently the sitting President of the United States - and it is largely ignored and forgotten in less than forty-eight hours.

Donald Trump, however, did not ignore or forget the slight on his character.  His people immediately issued a wall of denials, and Trump, being Trump, hurled a few personal insults at his accuser including that she was a grifter just trying to make a few bucks off of her book.  Then, a few days later he got a bit more personal by saying the Ms. Carroll was not "his type," leaving some to ponder just what type he preferred to rape.

Trump's responses are perfectly in line with his reputation for being a bully and demeaning others - but the media's response in minimizing a rape allegation is beyond that pale of journalistic and social decency.    If the President of the United States stands accused of multiple rape and sexual assault allegations (twenty-four to date), that should make for a story that would demand to be heard, and for American media to dishonor those victims by minimizing their claims is a cruel betrayal of journalistic ethics.

From the media's perspective, it was just a case of Donald being Donald.  Move along, no story here!

The Word Is Murder

by Pa Rock
Reader

British mystery writer Anthony Horowitz is known primarily for creating a pair of world class  detective shows:  Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA award-winning Foyle's War.   In addition to writing for television, Horowitz is also now venturing into writing mystery novels, and there, too, he is experiencing marked success.

The Word Is Murder by Anthony Horowitz is a work of fiction, but one that strays from normal writing conventions when the author chooses to make himself a central character in the story.  The premise involves a wealthy older lady who walks into a funeral parlor and arranges her own funeral - and then is murdered in her home a few hours later.  Because it is such an unusual case, the police bring in a special consultant - a disgraced former cop with lots of personal issues - but who happens to have brilliant detecting skills.  This independent investigator, a man by the name of Hawthorne, decides that this case might b he perfect vehicle for promoting his detection skills, and he approaches a writer whom he knows and proposes having the writer shadow him on this unusual case so that he can then write a book highlighting the detective's skills and methods.

The writer who reluctantly gets drawn into this arrangement is Anthony Horowitz.

Working with Hawthorne has several challenges.  He is secretive and.particularly does not like to share his private life, and he has some old-line biases including being homophobic - something which does not sit well with the modern and open-minded Horowitz.  During the course of their work the pair stumble upon a particularly bloody second murder, and at another point in the novel Horowitz almost becomes the killer's third victim.

As a counterpoint to the tales of murder, Horowitz also does a running update on his life as a writer.  One of the funniest scenes in this novel has him in a meeting with Stephen Spielberg where he is discussing a script that he is writing.   Horowitz hopes that the script will meet with Spielberg's approval.   Just as this very important meeting is getting underway, Hawthorne shows up and tells Horowitz that he needs to accompany him to the first murder victim's funeral.   The horrified writer tries to salvage the meeting, but Spielberg, who knows that victim's son, tells Horowitz that Hawthorne is right and that he should leave the meeting and attend the funeral.  They leave - and a major writing opportunity evaporates.

Anyone contemplating a career in writing for television will find an abundance of useful nuggets in this book as Anthony Horowitz carefully reveals himself in its pages.

Anthony Horowitz is a life-long aficionado of Sherlock Holmes, and by casting himself in this story, he becomes the de facto Dr. Watson to the brilliant and highly frustrating Hawthorne.  It is quite a complicated plot device, but Horowitz handles it well.   I suspect there will be other tales featuring this pair of mismatched individuals - and I look forward to enjoying them.

The Word Is Murder is a very smart mystery!

Monday's Poetry: "That Damned Fence"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

My favorite member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, stirred up a furor of sorts this week when she referred to Donald Trump's family prisons along the southern border as "concentration camps."   Trump toadies, people like Rep.  Liz Cheney of Wyoming, were indignant beyond measure that AOC would dare to say those words in relation to Trump's official policy for dealing with immigrants trying to come into the United States.  But the young congresswoman from New York is not one to be easily pushed around, and she has doubled down on her claims that these facilities are concentration camps.

Here are some other facts regarding these camps.    Government officials involved with the Border Patrol and ICE are denying the public access to the camps - including members of Congress who have oversight responsibilities with regard to the increasingly deplorable situation.  Now we are learning the those incarcerated in these camps are being denied basic health and sanitary provisions - things like toothpaste, soap, diapers, towels, blankets, and even beds.  Apparently humanitarian groups trying to get those items to the incarcerated families are being turned away by the authorities in charge of the facilities.

It certainly sounds as if AOC has hit the nail on the head with her description of these insufferable facilities as "concentration camps."

Today's selection looks at concentration camps during an earlier - and just as ugly - period in American history.     During World War II many Japanese Americans were removed from their communities and their homes and hustled off to "internment" camps just because of their race.   It was a low point in American history, and now here we are, seventy-five years later, relieving that disgrace.

What a shame Donald Trump has no understanding of history - or even a shred of human decency.


That Damned Fence
by Anonymous


They've sunk the posts deep into the ground
They've strung out wires all the way around.
With machine gun nests just over there,
And sentries and soldiers everywhere.
We're trapped like rats in a wired cage,
To fret and fume with impotent rage;
Yonder whispers the lure of the night,
But that DAMNED FENCE assails our sight.

We seek the softness of the midnight air
But that DAMNED FENCE in the floodlight glad,
Awakened unreal in our nocturnal quest,
And mockingly laughs with vicious jest.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do,
We feel terrible, lonesome, and blue:
That DAMNED FENCE is driving us crazy,
Destroying our youth and making us lazy.

Imprisoned in here for a long, long time,
We know we're punished - thought we've committed no crime,
Our thoughts are gloomy and enthusiasm damp,
To be locked up in a concentration camp.

Loyalty we know and patriotism we feel,
To sacrifice our utmost was our ideal,
To fight for our country, and die, perhaps;
But we're here because we happen to be Japs.

We all love life and our country best,
Our misfortune to be here in the west,
To keep us penned behind that DAMNED FENCE,
Is someone's notion of NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Joe Biden's 20th Century Campaign

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

If Joe Biden  secures the Democratic nomination next year, he will have my vote.  That said, I still see no reason that Democratic primary voters and party activists should sit idly by and not express opinions in the run up to thee nomination.  We are Democrats, after all, an opinionated and often noisy political party, sometimes even raucous, and we don't like to be taken for granted.

So if Joe Biden gets the nomination, something he seems to feel that he is owed, of course I will vote for him - but don't expect me to go quietly into that dark night while he puts his winning coalition together, because I have opinions, too, damn it, and being a good Democrat, I will never shy away from sharing them.

My primary concern with Joe Biden continues to be his age.   When the Republican Party selects Donald Trump as its standard bearer next summer, he will be the oldest person ever nominated by a major political party to run for President.  Trump will be 74 at the time of his nomination and the election.  His age should be a detriment to his efforts to be re-elected - and it should give Democrats an automatic advantage.

If the Democrats nominate Joe Biden, a man who is more than three years older than Trump, the age advantage goes straight out the window.

But age is more than just a number.  It is also an indicator of the attitudes and values that are likely to define the candidate.  As an example, while young Democratic candidates for President are declining to take campaign donations from lobbyists and corporations, Joe Biden, a man who has had his hand out to lobbyists for literally decades, seems to believe that all donations are good - and appreciated.

Biden is also running a more limited campaign with abbreviated schedules.  That might be a conscious effort to limit his opportunities for making gaffes, or it could also be  related to the age thing - at 76 he is likely to tire easily.

During the past several days Joe Biden has taken criticism for what were seen by some as fond remembrances of a couple of old-style segregationists whom he worked with in the Senate.  And then he spoke at a Planned Parenthood event designed to increase abortion access - and though he spoke at length in the Biden style, he never once uttered the word "abortion."  Joe Biden, it would seem, is having trouble becoming fully aligned with his party's modern stance on a woman's right to control her own body.

Another incident where he was shown to be rooted in a different time was when he suggested to a little girl and a campaign event in North Carolina that her brothers should always stand ready to protect her - a pronouncement that did not play well among Democratic Party feminists.

And then there is also that entire "Creepy Uncle Joe" thing where a bunch women came forward to comment on his overt physicality with them and how it made them feel uncomfortable.  That is one more instance where Democrats would be putting up a candidate who has uncomfortable similarities to Donald Trump.

Joe Biden might have made a semi-stellar presidential candidate - in about 1988 - but his time has definitely passed.   This year the Democratic Party has an outstanding field of younger and more dynamic candidates, people who would offer brilliant contrasts to Donald Trump.    The Democrats should choose one of those young dynamos and give Trump a real race.

And Joe Biden should head out to pasture and enjoy his retirement.

Another Allegation of Trump Rape

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Yesterday former Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll became the 24h woman to level sexual assault allegations at Donald Trump.  Ms. Carroll recounts in her newly released book that Trump followed her into a dressing room at a high-end New York clothing store in the 1990's, pushed her against a wall where she banged her head, placed his mouth over hers, and forced his penis into her vagina.

Trump, being Trump, went to several of his standard defense lines.  He said that he has never met the accuser, that she was just trying to turn a buck through more book sales, and that this allegation was likely the work of his enemies - particularly Democrats.  At other times Trump has also chosen to demean his accusers by making statements which implied they were too ugly for him to mess with.

Donald Trump is always the victim.

This time, however, there may be some actual physical evidence.  First of all, an old photograph has surfaced which shows Ms. Carroll and Trump together in a small circle of individuals - showing that they were acquainted.  And, Ms. Carroll has saved the clothing that she said she was wearing when Trump raped her - and it has not been dry-cleaned - so there is a possible DNA link to her story as well.

Also, Ms. Carroll had the good sense to tell two of her friends about the attack shortly after it happened.  She finally decided not to report it because one of those friends warned her that Trump had "200 lawyers" and would destroy her reputation.

But, the most significant and damming indicator that her story is true may well be Trump;s own recorded words.  A tape emerged in 2016 from an Access Hollywood interview that Donald Trump had given in 2005,  In that interview Trump bragged to NBC correspondent Billy Bush that he might start kissing women that he and Bush were about to meet..  He said, "I don't even wait.  And when you're a star, they let you do it.  You can do anything.  Grab them by the pussy.  You can do anything."

Layer that statement on top of Ms. Carroll's claims, and the result is damned nearly an admission of guilt.

The "star" pushed, and kissed, and grabbed, and raped. And when you're a star, they let you do it.

What's all the fuss about?  It's just Donald being Donald.

Name Changers

by Pa Rock
or Rocky B.

My sister telephoned yesterday while I was pulling weeds in the garden, and I was grateful for the good excuse to get out of the sun for a few minutes.  We weren't very far into our visit when she broke the rhythm of the conversation and said "I have something to tell you."

Uh oh, I thought.  Here it comes.  (Though I had no idea of what was coming.)

My sister (and only sibling) then blurted out that she was changing her name.  That, by itself, was not an earth-shattering pronouncement because she has changed her last name a couple of times over the years - through marriage and divorce - so my first thought was that she was getting married, even though I had not heard of her recently dating anyone.  But no, she wasn't getting married, and she wasn't changing her last name.  My ever-adventurous sister said that she was headed to court the next day to officially change her first name.  She said that she had never liked her first name and was going to change it to a name she liked.  The new name is actually a variant on the old one.

Out of respect for her privacy I will not reveal my sister's old or new name, but most of the few people who read this blog on a regular basis at least know who she was for the past sixty-several years.

My sister said that changing names is a relatively simple process.  A circuit judge has to bang a gavel, and the two states where she has spent most of her life also have to check their records and grant approval - probably to insure that she has no pending legal or business matters that would be negatively impacted by the name change.

So now I am thinking that maybe I should change my name.

I never liked "Rocky" growing up, feeling that it was more of a nickname than an actual name that a professional person might have painted on their office door.  And then when I was in high school there was the whole "Rocky and Bullwinkle" thing which got old quickly.  But I never tried to morph it into anything else, and now, as an old codger, I feel like it sort of suits me.

My middle name, "Gene," however, is another matter.  The classier version, "Eugene," ran in the family for three generations.  One of my g-g-grandfathers was Eugene Marshall Stanley Pritchard, my paternal grandfather was Charles Eugene Macy, and my dad was Garland Eugene Macy.  But I was tagged with just plain Gene.

"Gene" is appropriate for me in one respect.  My primary pastime is the shaking of family trees or "genealogy," a mixture of personal history and biology that each day develops a stronger reliance on the study of DNA and the exploration of one's genes and chromosomes.

But even with that genealogy connection, I would still give up my middle name for an appropriate replacement.  Choosing a new name, however, is a bit of a challenge.  I would like something unusual and inspirational..  One that I am considering, with a nod to Rocky and Bullwinkle, is "Upsidaisium." (Google it.). That would make my initials form the word "Rum," which could make for some fun labeling.

A second choice, also with cultural roots, would be "Horror," with a strong tip of the hat to Tim Curry whose Dr. Frankenfurter built a man in his laboratory and named him "Rocky."  That Rocky was a sweet and vulnerable person who was about as far from a "horror" as a created being could get.

The very best fit for a new middle name also comes from the movies.   I am thinking about paying tribute to Sly Stallone and changing my middle name to "Balboa."

As an aside in support of the choice of "Balboa" as my possible new middle name, I have an old tee-shirt what features Stallone doing his boxer thing with his fists raised in the air, and the word "Rocky" directly below his image.  I wore that shirt to a medical appointment last Tuesday.  The nurse who prepared me for an office surgery was fascinated with the shirt.  "That's Rocky Balboa," she said.  "Were you named after him?"

No dear, I wasn't.  Not yet, anyway!

Sully Is Three

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

My youngest grandchild, Sullivan Charles Macy, is three-years-old today.  He is at home and undoubtedly preparing to party hearty with his sister, Olive, their parents, Tim and Erin, and all of those wonderful cousins and other relatives who live in and around the suburbs of Kansas City where Sully has been at home his entire life.

I was at the hospital in Kansas when Sully was born three years ago today, so we have been acquainted since his Day One.  Over the intervening time we have hooked up for visits many times - usually at his house, but a couple of times down here on the farm.

Sully is a high-energy kid.  He likes being busy and especially enjoys being outside.  He likes going for rides in his wagon, particularly to the park, and has fun playing basketball.  He is very good at throwing his small basketball through the hoop.  He also likes playing with his toy trucks, and has developed a keen interest in excavators and firetrucks.  Sully's daddy will drive him to construction sites so that they can watch the excavators dig - and there is a firehouse near where they live, so Sully likes to ride by there and look at the firetrucks.

The biggest change that I have noticed in young Sully over the past year has been in his ability to speak clearly.  He likes to talk and share his thoughts on things.  I love it when Sully sits and chatters with me about things, and I hope that as he gets older he will continue to share bits of his life with his old granddad!

Happy. birthday, Sully.  May you enjoy at least a hundred more!

Donald Trump: Racist Then, Racist Now

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

It was a shameful entry in the annals of urban crime and punishment in America, and it should have been a shameful chapter in the life and times of Donald John Trump as well, but Trump, ever the narcissist, cannot admit that he was once very, very wrong.

Back in 1989 five young males between the ages of fourteen and sixteen were arrested and charged with the assault and rape of a young female jogger in New York's Central Park.    The white jogger, an up-and-coming business professional, was not killed in the incident, but she was severely injured.   Confessions were coerced form the five defendants - and later withdrawn - and they were remanded to prison where they served more than a dozen years.  Then in 2002 their sentences were vacated after another man, a serial rapist, admitted committing the crime - an admission that was backed up by DNA evidence.

The original group - four Blacks and an Hispanic - were eventually awarded settlements a decade after their release that totaled $41 million from New York City and $3.9 million from the state of New York.  Then, as a sort of capstone to their horrific ordeal, this year Netflix completed a four-part documentary on  the travesty of justice entitled "When They See Us."

It's beginning to come to an end for all of the parties involved, save one.

Back in 1989 New York businessman Donald J. Trump got personally involved in the matter when he paid for a full-page newspaper advertisement which called for reinstatement of the death penalty - as a direct result of the arrest and publicity surrounding the Central Park Five - and for more policemen to be put into service on the streets of New York.  Now, thirty years later after the coerced confessions have been withdrawn and after another man has been proven to have committed the heinous crime, Donald Trump still will not be shamed into apologizing or even admitting that he was wrong.  He has again dredged up his Charlottesville "logic" about good people on both sides of the issue, and he seems to firmly believe that confessions cannot be coerced or recanted.  At one point these young boys said they were guilty, so they must have been guilty.

And Trump is, after all, Trump, a man whose pronouncements are literally destined to be carved in stone.  How could he possibly be wrong?

And the young men were, after all, minority youth - people with no value at all in the grand scheme of things.  How could they possibly be innocent?

The Census Takes a Practice Run

by Pa Rock
Resident Crank

Yesterday I received an official government document in the mail.  It was the 2019 Census Test Questionnaire.  I don't know if every American received one, or if I am part of some special select group whose answers will be extrapolated across all of America to demonstrate what the country looks like, population wise, a year ahead of the real, constitutionally-mandated national headcount.

There were a couple of things about this pre-census that caught my attention and seem worthy of a bit of crusty commentary.  First of all, it arrived by mail, in paper form, at an undoubtedly significant cost to our government.  The enclosed eight-page questionnaire is supposed to capture what the population looks like and where they are residing on July 1, 2019 - so I guess I will put it aside for a few weeks and hope that I can find it when July 1st rolls around.

(Last night there were two people and two dogs living in my house, but I literally don't have a clue who will be in residence here in three weeks.)

The practice census can be completed in two ways.  Respondents can either fill in the paper version and then send it back in in the handy pre-postage-paid envelope, or they can go to a website and fill out an internet version and click a button.  The letter that came with the practice census encourages people to use the internet method and save the government the expense of having to hire people to rip open the paper surveys and they physically tally the responses.

Use the internet - that's what our government wants - but I have some other thoughts on that matter.  If our government can afford to send one thousand more troops to the Middle East as Trump wags the dog and tries to justify a war against Iran, then it can damn sure afford a few more bean-counters to work with the census.  That's where I want my tax dollars to be spent - and not on some damned Trump vanity war!

There is also a stern warning that those who fail to send in the practice document will receive a visit from an official US census-taker.   Oooh!

The questions on the survey are interesting as well as invasive.  It has room for descriptions of ten individuals who are in residence on July 1st.  Those with households of more than ten can probably expect an in-person visit to count heads.  A lot of information is requested on the first six, including relationship status.  The census folks want to know, for instance, if any listed spouses are opposite or same-sex, and are they official spouses or just "unmarried partners."  All of that is a good thing, I suppose, and I am left to wonder if troglodytes like Franklin Graham realize that his government is counting married and unmarried gay couples as real human beings!

There are also the standard race questions, reminding us that skin color and physical features are still sadly relevant in the early years of the twenty-first century.  There are all sorts of boxes which can be checked on the race questions, giving individuals a great deal of latitude in describing their biological and ethnic make-ups.

And then there is Question #8:  Is this person a citizen of the United States?  The big question, the one that is supposedly still working its way through the courts - but is included in the practice census nonetheless.  Question #8 has five possible answers:  1.) Yes, born in the United States.  2. Yes, born in Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or Northern Marianas.  3.)  Yes, born abroad of US citizen parent or parents.  4.)  Yes, US citizen by naturalization (along with a space to print the year of naturalization).  And, 5.)  No, not a US citizen.

And by now most of America knows that Question #8 was was hatched by the racist Trump administration to scare non-US citizens away from participating in the census and skewering the final totals more in favor of predominately white areas - areas where Republicans can expect to do better at the polls.  The final census numbers will chart out where those all-important 435 seats of the House of Representatives are ultimately assigned.   Texas, you are about to get screwed.  Arizona, you are about to get screwed.  California, you are about to get screwed.  And so are a lot of minimum-wage farm production states like Arkansas, Missouri, and most of the chicken-picking states of the Deep South.

The Supreme Court may ultimately bounce Question #8 because of its obvious racist intent, though that outcome is not by any means certain, but it has still made its way into the 2019 Census Test Questionnaire.   The Constitution mandates that everyone residing in the United States be counted in a census conducted by our government every ten years.   Question #8 is intended to send many people into hiding.

But Pa Rock isn't hiding.  He's standing tall and telling the world just how pissed off he is by the Trump administration's racist attempt to keep people from responding to the census.

Everyone living in the United States should be counted in the census.

Why is it that with Trump everything has to be a scam?

Monday's Poetry: "Fruit of the Flower"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

June is "Pride" month, a time for acceptance and solidarity with people of varying gender identities, a challenging task because, like fingerprints, gender identities are so diverse and complicated as to be unique to most, if not all, people who inhabit our planet.   Pride month should be about openness to others and acceptance of whom they proclaim themselves to be - a great unification process.  But our current administration is far more comfortable in dividing people, and it has moved to prohibit U.S. embassies abroad from flying "rainbow flags" to support our nation's declared LGBTQ population.

Kudos to the few embassies who went ahead and displayed their unity with the LGBTQ community, despite a presidential directive to the contrary.

For today's poetry selection I have chosen a piece by Countee Cullen, a distinguished gay poet who was part of the Harlem Renaissance, a movement that one historian noted was "almost as gay as it was black."  This poem, "Fruit of the Flower," reminds us that however wild or far afield our children grow, they are still the product of the same root system as their parents, and regardless of how staid and normal parents may appear, they once had the vitality of youth flowing through their veins and experienced life more open to things like change, excitement, and even diversity.

Children and parents are deeply intertwined at their very roots.


Fruit of the Flower
by Countee Cullen

My father is a quiet man
With sober, steady ways;
For simile, a folded fan;
His nights are like his days.

My mother's life is puritan,
No hint of cavalier,
A pool so calm you're sure it can
Have little depth to fear.

And yet my father's eyes can boast
How full his life has been;
There haunts them yet the languid ghost
Of some still sacred sin.

And though my mother chants of God,
And of the mystic river,
I've seen a bit of checkered sod
Set all her flesh aquiver.

Why should he deem it pure mischance
A son of his is fain
To do a naked tribal dance
Each time he hears the rain?

Why should she think it devil's art
That all my songs should be
Of love and lovers, broken heart,
And wild sweet agony?

Who plants a seed begets a bud,
Extract of that same root;
Why marvel. at the hectic blood
That flushes this wild fruit?

Pa Rock's Guide to Pitchforkery

by Pa Rock
Farmer in Spring

(While it is now too late to use the gift advice which follows for this Father's Day - it already being Sunday and all - clever and thoughtful children might want to set this posting aside for next year.)

Several weeks ago I stumbled into the area of the farm that I have set aside for a garden  and was overwhelmed by a weed issue.  Last spring I had geese, and they ravaged what little garden I managed to set out, and I just gave up on the whole endeavor - allowing the weeds to conquer the entire plot.  This year was going to be different, but first I had to deal with all of those danged weeds.

Not being a fan of herbicides, I took the second most practical approach and donned a pair of work gloves and began pulling.  Normally when I pull weeds at the farm, I throw them out onto the lawn where they are munched with the next mowing.  This time, because they were so plentiful, I didn't feel that was an option - so I began pulling and piling the uprooted weeks into an oblong pile at one end of the garden space.  It soon grew to about six feet in length, two feet in width, and about three feet high - resembling a coffin made of plant matter - which is what, in essence, it was.

Finally it dawned on me that my unique pile of weeds was forming the basis of what could be a really great compost.  That discovery led me to the next necessary farm chore of cleaning out the chicken coop and mixing the litter (poop) into the compost.  I knew enough about composting to realize that my creation needed to be stirred and aired-  the perfect time to stir in the chicken litter.

But when I went to the shed in search of a pitchfork, I came up empty.  I have probably owned a half-dozen over the years, but they had apparently all decided to go on vacation at the same time.  I did find a hoe-shaped implement with four tines, but stirring the pile with that tool proved to be very difficult.  (Later I saw the same implement in the local farm supply store.  There it was labeled a "four-tine cultivator speedy" and was priced at $29.99.)

I needed a good, old-fashioned pitchfork - and I knew exactly what I was looking for.  I wanted one with four or five tines (wide enough to get a good purchase on the compost, but with enough tines to prevent dropping more than I managed to move - and I wanted one with a long handle, something four feet or more in length.

My first stop in the quest to find a suitable pitchfork was at the aforementioned farm supply store.  There, in addition to "cultivator speedys,"  they had a three-tine "hay fork" with a fifty-inch handle - something very similar to the one pictured in Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic."  But three tines wouldn't do it for me.  It looked like something that a sloppy farmer would be drawn to.   The three-tine hay fork was a pricey $39.29.

The farm supply store also had a four-tine "spading fork," which, with it's three-foot handle looked like a miniature pitchfork with small wide tines.  But I am cursed with a bad back, a condition that would be sure to be aggravated by bending over to operate a digging tool of insufficient length.  (The only reasons that I can think of to put short handles on digging and raking tools are to save money in the costs of producing and shipping the items, and to intentionally cause injuries to people.)

Unbelievably, the next pitchfork-related item that I came across was even shorter.   The "ensilage fork" had ten tines and a handle that was not over thirty inches long!  It probably had an important agricultural purpose, and I am sure that Snow White's Seven Dwarfs owned at least one, but I had to pass.

The final item on that aisle was a "Level Rake," which looked like a large dirt rake but with straight tines.  It would have probably served my purpose, but, even with its long handle, the level rake would have involved more effort than I was prepared to give.

So I came home and took my business to Amazon.  There, almost the very first item that I same across was a five-tined steel "compost fork" with a hardwood handle.  Five tines and it even had the word "compost" in the title.  I was halfway to checkout when I noticed in the fine print that the solid hardwood handle was only 36 inches long.  Curses, foiled again!

Amazon also had an ensilage fork, various scoop forks, digging forks, barley-straw forks, a potato and refuse hook, and a variety of manure forks.  (Curiously however, neither the farm supply store nor Amazon carried anything called a "pitchfork."). I finally wound up ordering a five-time, "pro-manure" fork with a 50-inch fiberglass handle.  I am assuming that a pro-manure fork will move more compost than an amateur-manure fork, and I am certain that a fiberglass handle will be lighter and easier to use than a hardwood handle - and likely to never break, as many hardwood handles eventually do.

($43.57 including tax and free shipping.)

It will arrive on Tuesday, and after that you can most likely find me out in the garden pitchforkin'!

Happy Father's Day!

No-Collusion Trump Appears Eager to Collude Again

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump has barely had time to catch his breath lately after prancing around the country joyfully (and falsely) proclaiming that the Mueller Report found "no collusion" between the Trump campaign and agents of foreign governments during the last election.  That finding was, of course, not reached by the Mueller team, but rather by Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney General William Barr who skillfully surmised the report in his own words and then denied the rest of the world access to the complete Mueller report.  Trump's man Barr says there was no collusion, so there wasn't - case conveniently closed.

But Donald Trump, who suffers from chronic oral diarrhea, was bound to screw up his staged victory - and he did so quickly, even by Trump standards.

This week in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Trump was asked how he would respond if he was offered dirt on a political opponent by an agent of a foreign government, and the infamous "non-colluder" was quick to say that he would take it - and he also indicated that he might not report the contact to U.S. law enforcement.

"I think I'd want to hear it.  It's not an interference, they have information -- I think I'd take it," Trump said. "If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI -- if I thought there was something wrong."

Republicans scrambled for the remainder of the week in efforts to either "explain" what Trump really meant, or to condemn his remarks in the mildest manner possible.  Toward the end of the week Trump himself tried change what he had said, but by then the damage had been done.

Donald Trump had gone on the record basically letting the world know that he was open to receiving dirt on any of his political opponents and was not going to be overly choosy about the sources of the information - just like in 2016!  He's not a colluder, he's just smart - in a Trump sort of way.

Bring it on, Russia.  Donald is ready to listen!

Poor Arkansas Can't Catch a Break

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced yesterday that she is leaving her post as Presidential Press Secretary, a job she had already largely abandoned, and will return home to her native state of Arkansas at the end of the month.  Sanders, the married mother of three young children, said that she wants to gt back into mothering.

Donald Trump suggested that Sanders may also be considering a run for governor of Arkansas in 2022 when the current governor, a Republican named Asa Hutchinson, will be termed out, and Sanders fanned that speculation by saying that she would not rule anything out.

Lucky Arkansas!

Sarah Sanders, the daughter of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, grew up in the Arkansas governor's mansion, an official residence that was a double-wide trailer during part of the Huckabee administration when the actual "mansion" was being remodeled and refurbished.

The current governor has yet to express himself on Donald Trump's sudden foray into Arkansas politics, but it should be noted that Hutchinson has several Hutchinson relatives and Hendren in-laws who are currently involved in Arkansas politics and patiently waiting their turns to be governor.  Trump's interference in the natural order of things in the "Natural State" is likely unappreciated.

Ms. Huckabee Sanders, who as presidential press secretary has not held a formal press briefing - other than interviews with Fox News - since early March, would do well to think long and hard about running for governor of Arkansas - or taking any job where she might actually have to show up for work on a regular schedule.  Working for a living will not be nearly as much fun as being a shill for Trump.

Thanks for the entertainment, Sarah.  Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Playing to a Child's Ego

by Pa Rock
Citizen journalist

If the leader of a country is a blowhard narcissist who loves nothing more than seeing his own name on things, what better way would there be for a foreign government to suck up to the blowhard than to put his name on something - something big and solid like a military base or a whole damned city?  And that, of course, is what's happening as certain ambitious world leaders begin to shamefully play to Donald Trump's ego.

Last winter Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, tried to entice the United States into building a military base in Poland, somewhere along the Russian Front - and to make sure that the U.S. heard his overture, Duda suggested that the new base would be named Fort Trump.    And while the U.S. military did not rush to endorse the plan, Donald Trump himself suddenly seemed to see some merit  in having a military base along Poland's border with Russia.  Of course he did.   If there is one thing more important to Donald Trump than the actual defense of the United States or the free world, it is getting his name on things.

And now Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, a man who has built his current political career on interfering in United States politics, is proposing that Israel name a new settlement in the Golan Heights as "Trump Heights," or, worse yet "President Trump Heights."  Trump broke a half-century U.S policy precedent last March by recognizing the Golan Heights, an area seized by Israel in the 1960's, as an official part of Israel - and presidential son-in-law and butt-kisser Jared Kushner rushed to Israel to present Netanyahu with a new State Department map that officially shows the Golan Heights as part of Israel.  What better way to repay Trump than to make sure his family name figures prominently on the next printing of that map!

The United States has a leader who can be bought relatively cheaply, and the rest of the world is quickly beginning to figure that out.  Perhaps the Rio Grande would be more welcoming if it was the Rio Trump, and maybe the space program would be better funded if most of the launches were from Cape Trump.  And maybe Puerto Trumpo could even get adequate hurricane relief.

So many things are possible when you are dealing with a child.

The Law Isn't Always Right

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump's quest for a purely white, English-speaking United States suffered another setback this week when a federal court in Arizona failed to convict a radical humanitarian who stood accused of giving aid and comfort to immigrants.  Scott Daniel Warren, a professor of geography at Arizona State University, was arrested in January of 2018 and charged with two counts of felony harboring and one count of federal conspiracy for giving food, water, clean clothes, and beds to two undocumented men in the border community of Ajo, Arizona.

In closing arguments, a prosecutor tried to vilify Dr. Warren by proclaiming:  "He gave them food, he gave them water, he gave them a place to stay.  He did a bad thing."  If convicted, Warren could have served up to twenty years in prison.  Four jurors bought that tortured logic and voted to convict, but the eight others could not find that the good professor had committed a crime.

Now prosecutors and Trump's border Nazi's have crawled off into a corner where they are licking their wounds and trying to decide whether or not to retry the heinous criminal who defied his government by giving aid to people seeking sanctuary and a better life in the United States.

Dr. Warren is a member of a humanitarian group called "No More Deaths" or "No Mas Muertes."  It was founded in Arizona in 2004 with the stated aim of helping to save the lives of border-crossers.  In 2009 I used this space to tell the story of Daniel Millis, also a teacher and member of "No More Deaths" who was arrested by our government for "littering" after he was found to be placing plastic jugs of water in the desert.  Ironically, Millis was picking up litter as he placed the life-saving jugs along trails used by the illegal border-crossers.   A federal judge found Millis guilty of the crime of littering, but declined to give him any punishment for his actions.

Earlier this year, I wrote about four young women in the group who were also arrested for providing aid to migrants who had illegally crossed the border.

All of those individuals had one thing in common:  they put themselves at great risk in order to help others - and to our government, that constituted a crime.

Thank you "No More Deaths" for your strength, determination, and humanity!

Donald Trump, the Great Projector

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Many of us can remember studying about the defense mechanism of "projection"  in high school and college psychology courses.   The theoretical construct was identified early in the last century by Anna Freud and it suggested that sometimes people dealt with their own issues by attributing them to others.  The Urban Dictionary puts it this way:

Projection is an unconscious self-defense mechanism characterized by a person unconsciously attributing their own issues onto someone or something else as a form of delusion or denial.

As an example, if I were to refer to radio noisemaker Rush Limbaugh as a "porkchop,"  I might really be indicating my discomfort with my own weight issues as I project the whole matter onto poor Rush.  Or, if I compared Sarah Palin to Norman Bates' mother in Psycho, I might really be questioning my own parenting abilities.

Donald Trump is a man of many failings, though he, himself, fails to recognize any of them.  From his laziness, to his weight, to his near-illiteracy, the man is a walking catastrophe who thinks that the whole world holds him in high, and well-deserved, esteem.

Trump deals with many of his own flaws by simply assigning them to others - he projects his negatives onto people whom he sees as enemies.  Here are a few major examples from just the past couple of weeks:

Trump, who has never gotten over the mathematical fact that he actually lost the 2016 election to Hillary Clinton by over three million votes, loves to label others as "losers."    This week he singled out the Pakistani Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, as a "stone cold loser."   He has also used the word "loser" in connection with Joe Biden and attorney John Dean as recently as yesterday.

"Nasty" is another favorite word of Donald Trump, a man who has bragged about his provocative and obscene behaviors toward women.  He recently referred to Prince Harry's wife, the Duchess of Sussex as "nasty," and he also tied that same appellation to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi when he described her as a "nasty, vindictive, horrible person."  Within the past few days Trump has also labeled Pelosi as "a mess" and "crazy," all terms that others have used in describing him.

While Donald Trump was in Europe last week and supposed to be acting presidential, he took time out from his busy schedule to verbally spar with entertainer Bette Midler over Twitter.  Trump called the star of the recent Broadway production of "Hello Dolly" a "washed up psycho."   Some saw an ex-reality television showman calling a contemporary Broadway star "washed up" as a bit of obvious projection.

It may not be clear whether Donald Trump actually sees Joe Biden as the most formidable Democratic presidential candidate - or if he is just trying to promote Joe to that spot, but either way, Trump sees some political advantage in attacking Biden early in the process.   Not only is he already railing about what a "loser" Biden is, but he has also taken to referring to him as "swampman."  That, one must assume, is a reference to the many years that Biden has been a political fixture in Washington, DC.  Trump, however, has quickly become a part of DC himself, and he is becoming known for recycling many of the oldest and toughest alligators into positions in his administration.  Calling Biden "swampman" looks like Trump may be trying to deflect the same criticism from himself.

But my favorite Trump projection from the past few days has to be his attack on Nixon's former attorney, John Dean, when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee this week and made some obvious comparisons between the Nixon and Trump administrations..  Not only did Trump tag Dean with his standard insult of "loser," he also added, quite loudly, that Dean was a "sleazebag."

Donald Trump calling someone else a "sleazebag!"   Projection just  does not get any better than that!

Monday's Poetry: "Beautiful Old Age"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

I have recently been exchanging email with an old friend from high school, a lady whom I haven't seen in more than thirty years.  Yesterday she sent a picture of herself, a "selfie" which clearly portrayed the girl I remembered from high school, though now her hair is "platinum" and shorter - but it was my friend from long ago looking perhaps just a touch more refined and elegant than she did way back when.

And I knew that now the onus was on me to send along a current picture of myself, but I really don't have any - especially any "digitals" that could be sent by email.  As far as I know I have never taken a "selfie" and am relatively sure that I would not even be able to figure out how to take one.

My cell phone, though an older model - with a crank - might be capable of taking a selfie, but then I would still have to find a drug store to get it developed - and where do you find a drug store these days?  I've thought about upgrading to a model with a rotary dial, but that seems like such an unnecessary expense just to snap a few pictures.

And then I would still have to figure out how to take a selfie.  (I try to limit myself to no more than a couple of technological advances per decade.)

I have asked a couple of female relatives, ladies who like taking and collecting photos, to dig around and see if they can come up with a picture of me that I can share with my friend.  Then, if I can find a drugstore, I might even print off a big copy to use in the garden!

Waste not, want not!

Today, to highlight the delicate subject of aging, I was going to use Maya Angelou's wonderful look at getting older entitled "On Aging," but after digging through the Ramble archives, I found that I have already used that poem - twice - over the past two years!  So instead I have chosen to go with "Beautiful Old Age" by David Herbert Lawrence, a poet who compares the aging process to ripening fruit.

We are not getting older - just more fragrant!


Beautiful Old Age
by David Herbert Lawrence

It ought to be lovely to be old
to be full of the peace that comes of experience
and wrinkled ripe fulfillment.

The wrinkled smile of completeness that follows a life
lived undaunted and unsourced with accepted lies
they would ripen like apples, and be scented like pippins
in their old age.

Soothing, old people should be, like apples
when one is tired of love. 
Fragrant like yellowing leaves, and dim with the soft
stillness and satisfaction of autumn.

And a girl should say:
It must be wonderful to live and grow old.
Look at my mother, how rich and still she is! -

And a young man should think:  By Jove
my father has faced all weathers, but it's been a life!

"Tales of the City" Comes to Netflix

by Pa Rock
Culture Vulture

Armistead Maupin began penning his classic fiction column, "Tales of the City," in the San Francisco Chronicle back in 1978, and for several years readers of that newspaper began their daily routines by catching up on the fictional goings-on of the quirky cast of characters who lived in and around Anna Madrigal's boarding house at 28 Barbary Lane in San Francisco.     Maupin eventually wrote enough of the columns to fill six volumes, and later he even wrote a few follow-up novels tracking the lives of some of his more beloved characters.

I discovered "Tales of the City" in the early nineties, and quickly devoured all six volumes, developing strong ties to the characters and the unique community that they inhabited.  It was a reading experience that I always intended to revisit, part of my literary bucket list, and now with a nudge from Netflix, I think that I will get to it.

At about the time that I discovered Maupin's "Tales of the City," PBS developed a six-part mini-series based on the first three books.  I always considered it a crime against civilization that PBS then dropped the project without adapting the final three books in the set into the television series as well.

The PBS series was beautifully done and faithfully followed Maupin's fictional tales of life in San Francisco in the late 1970's.  The shows, like the books, centered on Anna Madrigal, the pot-smoking landlady and mother figure to the diverse collection of characters who lived at 28 Barbary Lane.   Mrs. Madrigal, who began life as a boy living in his mother's whorehouse in Winnemucca, Nevada, was skillfully and delightful portrayed by veteran actress Olympia Dukakis.

As the story opens, a young naive girl from the Midwest arrives at Mrs. Madrigal's boarding house looking for a room.  The girl, Mary Ann Singleton, is an obvious fish-out-of-water in the worldly and flamboyant milieu of San Francisco, but Mrs. Madrigal sees her as a person who will fit in at 28 Barbary Lane.  Mary Ann was played by Laura Linney in the PBS mini-series.

Now Dukakis and Linney are both back at Barbary Lane.

Netflix has released a ten-episode "limited" series that looks at the changes which have come to the residents and others associated with 28 Barbary Lane twenty years later.  It is Anna Madrigal's 90th birthday celebration, and the neighborhood is planning a party.  As a way of demonstrating Anna's commanding presence in the community, one scene shows two young community members going to a local bakery to pick up Anna's birthday cake - a huge, hand decorated sheet cake.  When one of the youths reaches for his wallet, the bakery clerk hurriedly tells him that it is on the house. "Are you sure?"  the perplexed boy asks.  The clerk replies, "If it's for Anna Madrigal, I'm sure."

Mary Ann, with no advance notice to anyone, shows up as a guest at the enormous party that is being held in Anna Madrigal's honor.  It is her first trip back to San Fransisco since she left two decades earlier.  Mary Ann, who in now mired in an unhappy marriage, drags along her uncomfortable husband.    But it's happy times as Mary Ann Singleton reconnects with Michael (a.k.a. "Mouse") her best friend from the earlier life, and Anna Madrigal whom she still instinctively calls "Mrs. Madrigal."  Mouse has a new younger boyfriend who also folds in nicely with the group of old friends.

But then Mary Ann runs into Brian, her first husband - and he is not as pleased with her sudden reappearance.  Mary Ann walked out on Brian and their adoptive infant daughter, Shawna, twenty years before to pursue a career in national television.  To Mary Anne's surprise, Shawna (Ellen Page) is at the party as well.  After an awkward encounter, both mother and daughter leave the party going their separate ways.  Later that night as she processes all that had been said, Mary Ann realizes that Shawna has been raised believing that Mary Ann is her biological mother.

Armistead Maupin did not write the new shows that are being aired by Netflix, but the story lines and complications bear a strong Maupin feel. I've only seen the first episode, but I am pleased.  It feels like a group of old friends has suddenly showed up on my doorstep with party fixings.  I hope that Maupin is pleased as well.

Thank you, Netflix, for bringing my friends around for another visit!

Why Black Lives Must Still Matter

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

You catch just the briefest snippet of a news story on the radio, one line which says simply that a man died while in police custody.  That's not much information, but based on the times in which we live, most people would quickly make several assumptions about the information in the story:  1.)  The man was most likely black.  2.)  The man probably died of something other than natural causes.   And,  3.)  There is a case developing which suggests that the police may have done something to bring about the man's death.

If the police are ultimately thought to bear some responsibility in the individual's death, one or more officers may be brought to trial during a period of time in which public emotions are re-ignited, and those officers are usually exonerated by the courts - and those verdicts will further inflame public resentment of police departments and the courts.

Justice is seldom served when a black man dies in police custody.  That repeating cycle of events brought about the "Black Lives Matter" movement in which advocates for the victims organized to bring public awareness to what has long been happening in police departments across the United States, and to point out the racial inequities in how the police treat people they detain and arrest.

This week a story has been back in the news about a U.S. Army veteran who "died while in police custody" at a prison in York County, Pennsylvania, in April of 2018.   Everett Palmer, Jr., 41, a black man and former paratrooper with the U.S. Army, had telephoned his brother and said that he was planning to drive from his home in Delaware to visit their sick mother in New York.  Palmer said that he planned to stop in Pennsylvania along the say to check on an old DUI warrant and make sure that his license was still good.  Two days later the family received word that Everett Palmer, Jr, had died while in the custody of the York County Prison.

When Everett's body was returned to the family, a forensic researcher whom they had hired to determine an exact cause of death, was surprised to find that his body was missing its heart, throat, and brain.  Now, fourteen months later, there is still no word as to what became of those organs - all of which could contain valuable information regarding the cause of the young man's death.

The prison officials are claiming that the victim bashed his skull in by beating his head against the prison bars, and that he did so as a result of withdrawal from meth.  The family said that while Everett did have a history of some drug use, he had no involvement with meth.  The prison says that they sent the body to a funeral home, and if organs are missing they must have been removed there.  The funeral home denies ever opening the coffin and having any firsthand involvement with the corpse.

A black man died while in police custody.  Confusion ensued and evidence was lost - and one side feels they are being harassed by a black community while the other side thinks that police are covering up a crime which they themselves perpetrated.

It's an old story, but not everyone has heard it.  Some people just quit listening when it becomes apparent that the victim was black because to them black lives have never mattered.

But they do - and they must.  

Crimes against any one person are crimes against society, and if those crimes are perpetrated by the police, they represent the state encroaching on our rights to life and liberty.  Black lives do matter, and they must matter because sooner or later we may all be targeted by the authoritarian state.

Trump Spoils an American Family's Vacation

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump returned to the White House this morning following a four-day European vacation in which he and his family dined with the British royals at Buckingham Palace, visited the beaches in Normandy, France, for a commemoration of D-Day, and managed to even squeeze in some time at one of his golf properties in Ireland.

Trump had invited Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar to meet with him at "Trump International Golf Links and Hotel" near Doonbeg, Ireland, but the prime minister felt that meeting with the American president at one of Trump's own properties would be "unseemly," as well as a free plug for a Trump business.  The prime minister suggested meeting at a local castle instead, but the miffed Trump declined on that.  The pair ended up holding their mini-summit in an airport lounge.

The Irish prime minister had put a crimp in the Trump family's taxpayer-funded joyride across Europe, and the pettiest president in the history of the United States is certain to eventually get his revenge.  Tariff's on Irish whiskey, anyone?

But the trip was not wasted.  A local funeral home was paid an exorbitant fee - by U.S. taxpayers - to provide a couple of limousines to cart the Trump family riffraff around Ireland, and Junior and Eric made an appearance in the local pubs - though the pair of privileged pricks apparently failed to pay for any of their drinks on the pub crawl because they don't carry cash.  Daddy didn't join them, no doubt preferring instead to stay in his swank hotel and watch cable news while tweeting insults at Bette Midler and threatening Mexico.

But other Americans were on vacations as well, though theirs were not paid for by U.S. taxpayers.  A family that I know in the Kansas City area had saved and scrimped for more than a year to visit Cuba aboard an American cruise ship.  This past weekend the father and mother (both school teachers) and their three children drove to Miami, Florida, where they stayed in a hotel until their Carnival cruise ship sailed on Monday.   Sunday they were joined by the woman's mother and step-father who flew into Miami to accompany them on the trip.

 In addition to the normal price of the cruise, they also had to pay a special fee to qualify for the "people-to-people" program which allowed the visit under current U.S. law.  All in all, it was a very expensive undertaking.

The family wanted to give their children an adventure that they would always remember - the opportunity to see Cuba and experience the sights and sounds - and antique cars - of Old Havana.  It was going to be a trip of a lifetime.

Sometime Tuesday the Trump administration announced that it was ending the "people-to-people" excursions to Cuba via cruise ships.  The initial announcement indicated that those who already had their travel plans in-hand would be "grandfathered-in" and allowed to complete their trips.  But on Wednesday morning, the day the ship carrying my friends was scheduled to dock in Havana, each guest awakened to a notice slipped under their cabin doors which stated the Cuba experience had been cancelled and the ship was instead headed to the Mexican tourist hellhole of Cozumel.  A one hundred dollar refund (or credit) was being issued for the inconvenience.

The Trump administration, through Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, justified the sudden change in policy as a way of tightening down on U.S. dollars flowing into Cuba and ultimately helping the Cuban military.  That, like most of what emanates form the Trump White House, is pure horseshit.  The Cuban people have had a rough existence, thanks in large part to half a century of embargoes from the United States, and the influx of tourist dollars onto the island over the last few years has done much to strengthen their economy and relations between the two countries.

The truth of the matter is this:  President Obama opened access to Cuba and the Cuban markets while he was in office, and in the spring of 2016 he and his family even went to Cuba on a visit which helped to normalize relations between the Cuban people and U.S. citizens.  Throughout Trump's erratic presidency, one of his constants has been to undo all of the good that the Obama administration accomplished - and this week he directed his petulance toward cruise ships, American families, and the people of Cuba.

Trump's pettiness wrecked an American family's vacation - and undoubtedly the planned vacations of thousands of others as well - all so he could feel a bit of unearned superiority over Barack Obama.

But Trump's own vacation was great - and it didn't cost him a dime - and he even made money off of it by renting rooms in his Irish hotel to secret service agents and White House staff.

Thanks, suckers!

Honoring Those Who Stormed the Beaches at Normandy

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the World War II breakthrough into mainland Europe by the Allied Forces, an event commonly referred to as the D-Day invasion.  On that fateful day more an a hundred and fifty thousand American, British, and Canadian troops breached the German defenses along the coasts of France through the use of landing craft and other boats, parachutes, bombers, and even gliders.  It was the largest military operation ever undertaken.    The overall commander of the effort was American General Dwight D. Eisenhower - a man who would later become our nation's President.

Ceremonies marking D-Day have been occurring in England and France this past week, with several world leaders in attendance at the various events.  Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, herself a part of "the greatest generation," and is in her nineties now, has been a visible presence in the celebrations.  Many veterans of the invasion, most of whom are also in their nineties, have made the trip to Europe for the commemorative ceremonies as well.

Elizabeth, back when she was merely a teenage princess, worked alongside of the military in Britain as a vehicle mechanic and an ambulance driver.  Her service in World War II set the standard for the British royals, and many of the men in the royal family have worn their country's uniform.  The Queen's second oldest son, son Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, fought in the Falklands War, and her grandson, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, fought in Afghanistan.

So it's not surprising that Queen Elizabeth would, even at her age, manage to be at the center of things during this special time in Britain.

Other European leaders are also joining in the celebrations, and again, their presence is expected and appropriate even if none of them were born at the time of the invasion.

The United States coughed up the leader that it had to attend the ceremonies on behalf of the nation which did so much to turn the tide of the war in Europe.  Donald Trump, a draft-dodger from the Vietnam era, spent much of the week tweeting threats toward Mexico and hurling insults at Bette Midler, but he was on hand for the celebrations and went through the motions of paying respect to those heroes from so many years ago.

No one in the Trump family has ever served in the United States military.

Donald Trump's presence at these solemn ceremonies honoring the brave souls who fought and died in World War II makes me angry, so angry that I recognize that I cannot write fairly, honestly, or even rationally about it.  I would like therefore to throw in a couple of paragraphs from the opinion page of today's New York Times to  flesh out my feelings on the matter.  The editorial is entitled "Donald Trump Thinks D-Day Is About Him," and it was written by Roger Cohen.  Mr. Cohen had this to say:

"How small he is! Small in spirit, in valor, in dignity, in statecraft, this American president who knows nothing of history and cares still less and now bestrides Europe with his family in tow like some tin-pot dictator with a terrified entourage. 

"To have Donald Trump — the bone-spur evader of the Vietnam draft, the coddler of autocrats, the would-be destroyer of the European Union, the pay-up-now denigrator of NATO, the apologist for the white supremacists of Charlottesville — commemorate the boys from Kansas City and St. Paul who gave their lives for freedom is to understand the word impostor. You can’t make a sculpture from rotten wood."

The unbelievably brave and patriotic young men and women who gave so much in defending our nation against the Nazis and fascists back in World War II deserve our continuing honor and respect today.   The Nazis and fascists of World War II were evil people, and their racist, sexist, and homophobic counterparts today are just as evil.

They are not "fine people."

Thank you to all who have served and given so much.    When challenges come, as they always do, may we once again be willing to unite and stand defiant the face of adversity - and be prepared to storm the beaches if we have to.   We owe that to ourselves, and we especially owe it to the memories of all who raced through the bullets and bombs of Normandy to secure a beachhead and ultimately take down Hitler and his Nazis.

Hitler and his Nazis were not "fine people" either.

The Trumps Are Not Royalty

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A couple of national news journalists have suggested over the past few days that the Trump family represents American royalty.  The family has a king, Donald, a fat and despotic lout whose only interest seems to be in giving himself pleasure and tearing down those around him, a queen (and a couple of ex-queens) who all know to follow the king at a distance and keep quiet, and a bevy of imbecilic children.

The children are unremarkable as royals go, preferring to "work" as part of the royal family rather than to go out and try to secure actual jobs based on merit.  Two of the kids, Prince Junior and Princess Ivanka believe that they have the right stuff to  eventually be the monarch themselves - after all, a country that was dumb enough to elect their father as king would no doubt also give the keys to the castle to his heirs.  Prince Junior has even talked about taking a job outside of the family to kill some time until the king is ready to do nothing but golf - which is basically all that he does now.  Prince Junior thinks that being Mayor of New York City might be the right gig for him until Daddy leaves the throne.

Prince Junior, following in Daddy's footsteps, recently divorced the mother of his five children and has taken up with a pretty young reporter who used to be a reader on Fox News, Daddy's personal propaganda outlet.

Prince Junior wears his plans on his sleeve, like a cheap tattoo, but Princess Ivanka is a bit more cunning.  She appears to many to be the real power behind the throne, the one who constantly has Daddy's ear as she engineers palace intrigues - sometimes with able assists from her conniving husband, Jared, the Duke of New York.  Prince Junior would probably be well advised not to eat any apples out of the White House fruit bowl while Ivanka is in residence there.

Prince Junior is closely allied with his younger brother, Prince Eric, and together the pair are often known as Uday and Qusay (after a couple of late Iraqi brothers who harbored pretensions of being princes) - and Beavis and Butthead.  Both sets of appellations are derogatory in nature, but the insults probably go right over the heads of Prince Junior and Prince Eric.

Princess Ivanka, Prince Junior, and Prince Eric, the oldest of King Donald's five children, were all brought into this world by Queen Ivana who has since been banished to a convent on Fifth Avenue.  Queen Ivana was replaced in the King's heart and bed chamber by Queen Marla whom he married shortly after their only child, Princess Tiffany, was born.  Queen Marla was soon pensioned off to her own nunnery, and Princess Tiffany grew up as sort of the king's forgotten child, a circumstance which resulted in her becoming perhaps the most human of the five.

The third and current Queen is Melania, a recent immigrant from Central Europe who worked as a soft-porn model before she caught the eye of the king.  Queen Melania is the mother of Prince Barron, the king's fifth child, a young adolescent who is usually kept from public view.

Last week America's so-called royals met the real-deal British royals, and basically all that it proved was that the British are more civilized than their American cousins.    But beneath all of the pomp and circumstance the Brits can let down their hair and enjoy a traveling circus - particularly if it has a freak show!

Here's betting that Buckingham Palace threw the dishes away after the Trumps left!

The Clampetts Play the Palace

by Pa Rock
Social Commentator

American hillbilly icons, the Donald Trump family, hit the big time last night when they were guests of Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain at a state banquet in Buckingham Palace.  Trump, his nudie-model wife Melania, and his four adult children - along with two of their spouses, broke fancy bread with a roomful of royals and other prominent Brits.  Meanwhile the streets of London were in turmoil as hundreds of thousands marched and demonstrated to protest the Trump visit.

Pictures of Trump and his family entourage all dressed up in their going-to-the-palace finery were splashed across the internet this morning, along with comments comparing them to Midwestern prom-goers of decades past - and one wag who said the family photo looked like an advertisement for a community theatre's revival "Showboat!"

Noticeably absent from the affair were Prince Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex.  Trump had referred to the Duchess (a former American television actress named Megan Markle), as "nasty" in an interview with a British tabloid just days before the state visit.

Donald Trump, whose mouth routinely engages before his brain, also made news yesterday when he referred to Sidiq Khan, the Mayor of London,  as "nasty" and "a stone cold loser."  Trump has been involved in a long-term feud with Mayor Khan, and the mayor has labeled Trump as a poster boy for right-wing extremism.  Sadiq Khan is the son of a Pakistani taxi driver - as well as a Muslim - and some ascribe Trump's intolerant attitude toward the Mayor of London as being rooted in racism and religious bigotry.

But all of that pettiness aside, last night was about Donald John Trump giving the Queen and her relatives the distinct privilege of meeting America's royalty.  Last night America put its best foot forward - fungus, hangnails, warts, and all.

Kansas City's Gone About as Far as It Can Go

by Pa rock
Road Warrior

Rosie and I are back home after a couple of days visiting in the Kansas City area.  Yesterday we made a pair of trips with Tim and his family from the Kansas suburbs into downtown Kansas City, and I was once again shockingly impressed with how up-to-date everything is.

Take lunch, for instance.

We dined at a burger joint called Fritz's in the Crown Center (Hallmark) complex.  Fritz's is unique in that most of the food is served via model trains which circle the restaurant on overhead tracks.    Also, patrons are given paper train engineer hats to add to there ambience.  Little Sully, who will be three later this month, was almost too excited by all of the train activity to eat his burger and fries.  Almost.

We went back into the city yesterday evening just to explore and look around.  Along the way Tim pointed out a business called Carvana.   It is a square six-story building that displays one nice car on each side of every level.  Tim said it was a "car-vending machine" for people who don't like to negotiate with car salesmen.  I love that concept - and have been putting off buying a car for a couple of years now because I dread talking to car salesmen.  However, after looking the business up on the internet, I am still uncertain as to how it actually works.  Most of their vehicles appear to be high-end used cars with limited mileage.

Perhaps Rosie and I will visit Carvana on our next trip to Kansas City.  (Talk about up-to-date - a car-vending machine!).

Our evening destination was the Power and Light District, an area of clubs and eateries and loud outdoor music located in the heart of downtown KC next to the famous "Power and Light" building.  While there we visited a rooftop park (about five stories in the air) that was being used primarily for dog-walking.  Later, out on the street, we began seeing hordes of little girls (roughly ages four to six) dressed in sequins and shiny fabrics and being chased around by overwrought parents - primarily mothers.  It turns out that there was a "JoJo" concert scheduled at the nearby Midland Theatre.

JoJo Siwa is apparently the "it girl" for the little ladies who were born during Barack Obama's second term.  Olive, who is pushing eight, has already exited that life phase and showed no interest in seeing the sixteen-year-old singer.  When we got back to the house Olive had Alexa play a JoJo song for me, and I found it to be mildly annoying.  JoJo might appeal to a certain niche crowd, but she is no Annette Funicello!

And speaking of child activities that some might find annoying, when little Sully gets fastened into his car seat and his daddy starts the car, Sully will begin repeating "There yet?  There yet?  There yet?"  Daddy seems to get annoyed with Sully the Parrot, but Pa Rock thinks he's amusing!

Trump Is the One Who Is Nasty

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump has a penchant for name-calling and belittling people, especially women.  He is so well known for his dismissive and often vulgar attitude toward women that American television actress Meghan Markle referred to him as "divisive" and "misogynistic" on a television interview program back in 2016 when Trump was running for president.

That would have been about the time that Donald Trump, a presidential candidate, shocked the nation by referring to his opponent, Hillary Clinton as "such a nasty woman" in their third televised debate.  Trump's heated remark was one of the most unpresidential ever uttered in front of a national audience.  In the years since that offensive exclamation, Trump has continued to refer to women who are critical of him as "nasty."  He has used the term at least twice in relation to Senator Kamala Harris of California, and he also referred to Carmen Yulin Cruz, the Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and a fierce Trump critic, as "nasty."

Trump has also called his former aid, Omarosa Manigualt as a "dog" and  referred to comedienne and actress Rosie O'Donnell as a "pig."  Clearly Meghan Markle's labeling of Donald Trump as a misogynist was spot-on.

But that was then, 2016, and now things have changed.  Trump has been elected to a job that allows him to play unlimited golf, and Miss Markle married well and is now the Duchess of Sussex and the wife of the man who is sixth in line to the British throne.  Trump is just days away from a state visit to Great Britain where he will reportedly be dragging his entire family along, like so many Clampetts, to meet the British royalty.   And those royals, who liked Obama but only tolerate Trump, will do their civic duty and meet with Trump at various events - all of the royals save one.  The Duchess of Sussex has declined to hobnob with the Trump's thanks to her handy excuse of having just delivered a child - a boy who is seventh in line to the British throne.

(And that probably works just fine for the Clampetts . . . er . . Trumps because the Duchess of Sussex is just an American, after all, and she is biracial, with a black mother, and clearly not the sort of individual that any Trump would run with under other circumstances.)

But Donald Trump, being Donald Trump, took an already strained situation and managed to make it worse.

A reporter from a British tabloid, The Sun, interviewed Donald Trump this past week regarding his upcoming state visit to Great Britain, and the reporter took that opportunity to needle Trump about the Duchess calling his a misogynist two years ago when she was only a lowly television actress.  Trump was royally baited - and he bit!

After being informed of Markle's remark, Trump said that he had not heard that before - and then added:  "I didn't know she was nasty."  He then blathered on about he hoped she was okay and that he was sure she would do "excellently" as a royal.  Yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.  But he did use the word "nasty" in direct reference to the wife of Prince Harry.

The Duchess of Sussex is right not to meet with Trump, but she should set the baby excuse aside and be more honest.   Trump is divisive and misogynistic, - just as she noted three years ago - and he constantly projects his own bad qualities onto others by calling them names like dog, and pig, and nasty.

Duchess Meghan should turn her newly-minted royal nose up at Trump and his family of hillbillies as they swoop in on Britain - and so should the rest of the royal family.  An insult to one should be regarded as an affront to all.

Donald Trump is a such a nasty man, and the British royal family - and particularly Prince Harry - should acknowledge that by refusing to associate with him in any manner whatsoever during the upcoming visit.

The British government should, in fact, cancel the visit.

Kansas City, Yet Again

by Pa Rock
Road Warrior

I managed to finish the mowing around dusk yesterday with only one catastrophe.   It would have been an uneventful chore, but just as I was beginning the last third or so of the yard, I ran over the garden hose that I had forgotten was stretched through the grass.  My mighty "Dixie Chopper" mower managed to slice completely through the toughest and best garden hose that I have ever owned.

My reserve mower, a Husquevarna rider, is delicate compared to the Dixie Chopper.  When I hit a rock with the Husky, something always gets broken or bent, but the guy that sold me the Dixie Chopper said those days were over.  And, for a change, I was dealing with an honest salesman.  When I hit a rock on the Dixie Chopper, it makes a racket but keeps on mowing.  Lots of times the blade will engage with the rock and pull it out of the ground.  Every time I mow I usually wind up with a dozen or so new large rocks to add to the rock pile.  Rocks are the most dependable and hardiest crop at Rock's Roost!

The ride to Kansas City was long, but unremarkable.  The heated driver's seat in my old flivver felt good on my aching back - and Rosie slept most of the way in her heated passenger seat.  We saw two buckboards of Amish near Diggins, but there was little else to distract me from the monotony of the road.

West Plains to Roeland Park, Kansas, is 279 miles each way.  I began making that drive when I moved to West Plains in 2014 - and I wish now that I had kept track of the trips.  I am certain that I have made the drive at least twenty-five times, and likely more.  Not only does my car know the way, Rosie does, too.  She gets excited when we get to Tim's neighborhood.  I park on the street, and she jumps out and knows exactly which house to run toward.

More later from the road.