Death of Epstein Brings a Barrage of Conspiracy Theories

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Jeffrey Epstein, a 66-year-old convicted pedophile and sex-trafficker, reportedly died by his own hand early yesterday morning at a federal detention facility in Manhattan where he was being held on new sex-trafficking charges.  And although his death has just occurred, it has already spawned a flotilla of conspiracy theories.

Epstein had been arrested on July 6^th and charged with trafficking minors in Florida and New York.  As details about the case began making their way into the public domain, it became obvious that many big names in politics and entertainment were likely to be muddied by his upcoming trial..  Three of the more prominent names to be mentioned in connection to Epstein were Britain’s Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump..  The father of U.S. Attorney General William Barr was also said to have had ties to Epstein.

On July 23^rd there was a report that Jeffrey Epstein had tried to hang himself in his jail cell, and federal authorities supposedly placed him on suicide watch.   Yesterday morning he was found hanging lifeless in his cell.   Now the government is reportedly saying that he had been taken off of the suicide watch due to an improvement in his demeanor, and Attorney General Barr, the man ultimately in charge of Epstein’s incarceration, says that he is “appalled” by the jailhouse suicide.

And so Jeffrey Epstein is dead, perhaps, and with his death some rich perverts may now be breathing a little easier.  But with his death also comes a barrage of questions and suppositions, and a very rich and fertile field in which conspiracy theorists can work.  Social media has been alight with speculation from the left that Donald trump and/or Attorney General Barr has something to do with his demise – and with speculation from the right that somehow the Clintons were responsible.   

One popular meme on Twitter yesterday posited that Donald Trump had prepared a statement on the death of Jeffrey Epstein and that his staff was not worried that he would flub the statement because he had been practicing it since the day before.  (The humor being that he had been practicing his statement since before Epstein had died.)

But Donald Trump, who has great difficulty standing idly by when he feels that he has something to get off of his orange chest, could not remain completely silent.  Yesterday evening the seldom-presidential Trump re-tweeted a tweet posted by a black conservative which expressed the notion that the Clintons were responsible for having Epstein killed.  This morning White House aide Kellyanne Conway tried to smooth over Trump’s childish action by saying that he just wanted to make sure that everyone involved with Epstein was investigated.

So , yeah, the conspiracy nuts are already at work, and Donald Trump has gotten involved in the plots and speculations – just like he did with the death of Vince Foster and the birth location of Barack Obama.  The difference this time, however, is that Trump himself is also likely to be a central character in the drama.

Trump is deflecting – and probably with good reason.

Trump Exploits an Orphan - and other Outrages

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald and Melania Trump and their entourage paid visits to Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, last Wednesday to (one must suppose) show some concern for the victims of the shootings which had occurred just days before in each of those communities.  Trump, a self-absorbed individual who seems to bear a complete lack of empathy, acted as though he was on a campaign swing during the visits.   He and Melania both smiled broadly in pictures with hospital trauma room staff - doctors and nurses who were also inexplicably smiling.

The visits were actually more of a political sideshow, a tasteless and vulgar photo-op that covered up the very real tragedy that had played out among the bullet-riddled patients who were confined to rooms and beds nearby.

The idea that trauma-room personnel who had just been through the horrors of dealing with patients of mass-shootings could stand giddy and grinning next to a jovial Trump and pose for pictures was so absurd that people began to speculate that these individuals might not be the real doctors and nurses who had worked with the bloodied patients, but instead be paid actors.  It didn't take long for that rumor to start flaming its way across social media.  Yesterday however, Snopes.com, an organization that ferrets out false rumors, announced that the people in those photos who were so eager to get their pictures taken standing with Trump as he gave "thumbs up" signs were indeed actual medical personnel who had been involved in the care and treatment of the shooting survivors.

Reports to the contrary were fake news.

All of the shooting survivors in El Paso, as well as the local congresswoman, refused to meet with Trump during his visit, but hospital staff had no problem at all crowding into the picture.

But there was another photograph that came out of the El Paso hospital visit that was even more controversial than those group shots with the hospital staff.  The second photo showed Donald and Melania Trump standing together with Melania holding a beautiful brown baby so that he, too, was facing the camera.   The Trumps were smiling and Donald was giving his ubiquitous "thumb-up."  Social media was on fire with the news that this child was the baby whose parents had died in Walmart while trying to shield him from gunfire.  And while decent people thought that surely to God the Trumps would not be despicable enough to try and score political points with an orphan, a child whose parents had died as a direct result on Donald Trump's virulent verbal attacks on Hispanic immigrants, others were not so charitable and opined that it was most likely true.

Yesterday Snopes.com verified that the baby which Melania was holding in the photo was indeed the child who had lost his parents in the Walmart massacre.  American politics had sunk to its lowest point ever, and Donald Trump had taken it there.

Donald Trump, a man who lacks the ability to feel empathy, went to Dayton and El Paso not as a mourner or a consoler - but as a politician looking for ways to grab and hold the attention of the media and the public.  He left with a nice stack of glossy photographs.  That's a far cry from the actions of our last President, a man who openly wept with every parent of children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.  One was an inspirational leader - and the other was Donald John Trump.

The Coward's Way Out: Shopping at Amazon!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last Saturday a young, crazed white-nationalist drove six hundred miles to open fire with an automatic rifle in a crowded Walmart in the Texas border city of El Paso.  He was responding to what he believed was an Hispanic "invasion" of the United States, a belief stoked by political rhetoric and hate speech emanating from some of the United States most powerful political leaders.  Twenty-two people died in that horrific attack, and an even greater number were hospitalized with serious wounds.

It was a bloody, bloody Saturday in El Paso, but just a few hours later another mass shooting occurred in a trendy nightclub district of Dayton, Ohio, that killed nine more.  In both cases the shooters were young white men, and in both cases they used fully-automatic weaponry.

People in the United States and the Republic of Mexico grieved and mourned for their dead.  Later in the week Donald Trump and his wife did a sympathy tour to Dayton and El Paso where they posed with hospital personal in large, smiling group shots that featured Trump giving "thumbs-up" signs.  Some local politicians met with Trump at these small campaign-style events, and others declined to do so.  In El Paso all of the hospitalized survivors refused to meet with Trump and his entourage, as did the local representative in Congress, Veronica Escobar, who said she did want to be an "accessory" to Trump's visit.

Trump also used his two-city tour to criticize some of his political opponents as well as some of the local officials in those cities.  He did not seem to be in full "grieving" mode.

But that was then.  Now, less that a week after last weekend's gun slaughters, several more shootings and gun "incidents" have made their mark in the national tally of disgrace - and at least three of those have occurred at Walmarts.

Earlier in the week there was a non-shooting gun incident at a Walmart in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Two customers got in an argument inside of the store.  One was armed with an automatic pistol and the other apparently had a pair of scissors.  By the time the dust settled there were police in the store, on the parking lot, and in the air above the store!

Yesterday there were gun incidents at two Missouri Walmarts.  There was a shooting in the parking lot of a Walmart in Raymore, Missouri - a Kansas City suburb - that left one man with two wounds.  His assailant drove off and at last report was being sought by law enforcement.

Ant then last night another gun incident occurred at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Springfield, Missouri, when a young white man wearing body armor entered the store.  He was carrying a tactical rifle, a handgun, and more than one-hundred rounds of ammo.  Even though his actions were completely legal in Missouri (of course they were), other shoppers fled the store in panic - and the man was taken into custody by an off-duty firefighter.

Want to bet that his defense ends up being that he was just a "Citizen on Patrol" out protecting shoppers at his local Walmart?  

What's next?  Active shooter drills at the big box stores?  Armed floorwalkers to keep the armed shoppers in check?

It's comforting to know that in these dangerous times Gramma can buy a gun and ammo to protect herself at home and even while she is out shopping - and she get them with relative ease at her local Walmart.

Of course, if she doesn't feel up to a shootout in Housewares, she can always take the coward's way out and shop online at Amazon!

Olive and Sully Visit the Roost

by Pa Rock
Proud Grandpa

My Kansas City grandchildren, Olive and Sully Macy, showed up at The Roost on Tuesday afternoon and spent the night at their grandfather's house.  Their parents came, too.  They stayed until Wednesday afternoon and then headed home.   They have a foreign exchange student from Korea who will be moving into their home on Friday, and they needed to get things ready at their house for him.  Also, Olive begins second grade next week.

We had a lot of fun while Olive and Sully were here at the farm.  They got to meet Pa Rock's little brown hen and rooster, and went into the chicken coop on Tuesday evening to see them "roosting" on one of the rafters.  "Roosting on a rafter" sounds rather pleasant, doesn't it?  They also tried to meet the two cats, Fiona and Old Yaller, but those silly cats don't care for rambunctious children and would run whenever they saw the kids approaching.

Rosie, on the other hand, was not the least bit shy, and she had a wonderful time playing with Olive and Sully.  Rosie was very sad yesterday when they left to go home - and took their parents with them.

Yesterday morning, before they left, we all went to a place on the river where they young Macys could swim and throw rocks.  Rosie and Uncle Nick went too.  It was a lot of fun.  Sully had on a floaty-vest and he showed off his swimming moves, both freestyle as well as floating on his back.  Both kids were very comfortable in the water.  Rosie waded in also, but not too deep.  While we were there we saw several people floating by in kayaks, and some of them were fishing as they floated.  We left when a storm started to blow in.

Since the last time the little Macys were here, I have installed a set of beaded curtains in the doorway that leads down to the basement.   Sully had never experienced beaded curtains before - and he had lots of fun making entrances and exits through them - as well as just "barreling" through the rattling barrier.   It's amazing the things that children can make into fun activities!

Olive and her mother enjoyed picking fresh vegetables from Pa Rock's garden and weed patch.  They both seemed to especially like the cherry tomatoes.  Sully picked a few green tomatoes and thought that was fun!

All in all it was a very good visit.  Pa Rock loves to see his grandchildren - and always likes it when they are able to come and see him!  One of these days not too far off they will be driving themselves to  visit The Roost!

Spotlighting Trump Donors

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Texas congressman Joaquin Castro, the twin brother and campaign manager of Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro, created a firestorm of sorts this week when he intentionally tweeted a list of 44 people from the San Antonio area who have donated the maximum amount allowable ($2,800) to the Trump campaign.

Representative Castro began the post with these words:

"Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump - the owner of @BillMillerBarBQ, owner of @HistoricPearl, realtor Phyllis Browning, etc.
Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as 'invaders.'"

The congressman tweeted his list of major Trump donors on Monday evening, but it was not until nearly a full day later that the GOP went on the counter-attack.  (They had to have time to carefully plan their spontaneous outrage.)  Republicans were rabid in their denunciation of Congressman Castro's tweet.  Here is a sampler from the National Republican Congressional Committee - which obviously hopes to use their faux outrage to cultivate some Texas votes for Republican candidates, as well as give ammunition to Republican candidates nationwide who are in competitive races:

"This is disgusting.  Inciting violence against private citizens for participating in our Democracy is beyond the pale.  Your rabid hatred of @realDonaldTrump has made you deranged."

Joaquin Castro returned that volley with:

"No one was targeted or harassed in my post.  You know that.  All of that info is routinely published.  You are trying to detract from the racism that has overtaken the GOP and the fact that President Trump spends donor money on thousands of ads about Hispanics 'invading' America."

And yes, political donors of $200 or more can be located at the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) website as well as other places on the internet.  Representative Castro's tweet just spotlighted the information for his followers and other concerned Americans - and particularly residents of the San Antonio area.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was appropriately outraged.  Conveniently forgetting that Republicans never go "high,"  he joined the Twitter fray with this gem:

"Targeting and harassing Americans because of their political beliefs is shameful and dangerous.  What happened to 'when they go low, we go high?'  Or does that no longer matter when your brother is polling at 1%.  Americans deserve better."

After the GOP All-Stars had their say, the party then brought out the B-Team.   Kim Guilfoyle, a Fox News blonde who is the current squeeze of Beavis Trump, had this to say about the congressman's revelation of major Trump donors in the San Antonio area:  This was her Twitter-buttal:

"This is hateful and vindictive . . . It also has no place in our political discourse.  Hello?  Where is the outrage from the mainstream media?  The silence is pathetic!"

Yes, Kim, and your own faux outrage is Oscar-worthy - well, perhaps not quite!

And as for notorious bully, Donald Trump?  His campaign lodged a complaint with Twitter alleging that Joaquin Castro had engaged in "targeted harassment" of Trump.  Meanwhile at a Walmart in El Paso minimum wage employees are still struggling to scrub up the blood splatter - thanks to Donald Trump's targeted harassment of Hispanic immigrants.

Donald Trump may not be as rich as he claims to be - or wishes to be - but his sense of irony and hypocrisy is pure 24-karat gold!

People who spend big bucks to buy influence with any politician should not be ashamed of their purchases.  They should own them proudly and let all of their friends and neighbors know how much they value that politician and his or her ideals.  Spotlighting political donors helps to amplify those purchases

It's an idea whose time has come!

Trump Set to Invade El Paso

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Back in early February Donald Trump went before Congress to give his annual State of the Union message.  That speech, in which he was angling for support and money to build his vanity wall along the U.S. southern border, featured a couple of digs at the city of El Paso, Texas, the hometown of Democratic presidential contender, Beto O'Rourke, whom Trump regarded as one of his more formidable opponents at that time.  In that speech Trump described El Paso as being one of America's "most dangerous cities" with an "extremely high crime rate" - before a border wall had been  installed within the city limits.

Trump deliberately painted a false portrait of El Paso which actually has a low crime rate and prides itself on being one of America's safest large cities.  The good people of that good city were not amused.

A few days later Donald Trump descended on El Paso for a large "Build the Wall" campaign rally at the El Past County Coliseum.  Beto O'Rourke held a smaller counter-rally a few blocks away.    After Trump's MAGA-palooza, he flew back to Washington, DC, and left the city to clean up the mess and pay police and other public safety officials their overtime due for providing protection and services to the political event.  The city gave the Trump campaign a bill for $470,417.05 to cover the money it had to spend to serve and protect the event.  The campaign ignored the bill, and after thirty days a late fee was added.  The Trump campaign now owes the city of El Paso $569,204.63.

Beto O'Rourke was charged $21,002 for services for his counter-rally.  To no one's surprise, O'Rourke paid his bill.

Some, of course, would argue that Donald Trump owes the community of El Paso far more than the half-million dollars that is already on the books.  They would point out that Trump's divisive rhetoric on the subject of immigration and his talk of an "invasion" of foreigners on US soil was a prime motivator of the young white man who murdered 22 people at an El Paso Walmart last Saturday.   Those people would be quick to describe Donald John Trump as a racist who routinely incites racial discord and violence in an effort to keep his political base angry and active.

Twenty-two people died in El Paso on Saturday, and at least 25 more suffered injuries.  Some people are still waiting to be notified if their missing relatives are among the dead.

Now Donald Trump is condemning racism and white nationalism, but at his core his is still Donald Trump.    His supporters recognize the need for him to speak in reasonable tones, and they also know that soon, very soon, Trump will be back to his old race-baiting self.

And as a part of Trump's new found interest in civil rights and civil discourse, he has announced that he will fly to El Paso tomorrow to address the suffering and grieving community.  The mayor responded, cooly, that she, as mayor, would officially welcome him, as president, to address the bloodied border city.

Beto O'Rourke, on the other hand, has flat-out called Donald Trump a racist and said that he should stay away from El Paso.  Veronica Escobar, who now represents O'Rourke's old district in Congress, has also said that Trump should not come to El Paso.

But nobody tells Donald John Trump where he can and cannot go.

Maybe he will at least have the decency to drop off a check for his last visit while he is there - but probably not.  "Decency" has never been Trump's strong suit.

Monday's Poetry: "To a Singer"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Today's poetry selection is "To a Singer" by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Yesterday would have been the immortal poet's 227th birthday.  I came across this poem, as well as the birthday information on Shelley, in yesterday's edition of "The Writer's Almanac," an on-line newsletter compiled by Garrison Keillor.

"To a Singer," at least on its surface, talks about the soothing and moving qualities of music.  As I was reading the piece for the first time, music by Roseanne Cash was playing in the background.  The connection between her soft and soulful voice and Shelley's imaginary float trip through idyllic sounds and visions was immediate and intense.   The voice of the singer clarified the intent of the poet.

The voices of Roseanne Cash, Mary Chapin Carpenter, and even Linda Ronstadt calm my anguished soul and and take my little drifting boat to those same Elysian garden islets that once welcomed Shelley.  Good music - and good poetry - can be as powerful and the fiercest political speech - and much more calming.


To a Singer
by Percy Bysshe Shelley

My soul is an enchanted boat,
Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float
Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;
And thine doth like an angel sit
Beside a helm conducting it,
Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing.
It seems to float ever, forever,
Upon that many-winding river,
Between mountains, woods, abysses,
A paradise of wildernesses!
Till, like one in slumber bound,
Borne to the ocean, I float down, around,
Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound.

Meanwhile thy spirit lifts its pinions
In music's most serene dominions;
Catching the winds that fan that happy heaven.
And we sail on, away, afar,
Without a course, without a star,
But by the instinct of sweet music driven;
Till through Elysian garden islets
By thee, most beautiful of pilots,
Where never mortal pinnace glided,
The boat of my desire is guided;
Realms where the air we breathe is love,
Which in the winds on the waves doth move,
Harmonizing this earth with what we feel above.

America Has Gone Mad, Trump Sends Thoughts and Prayers

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

It has been a bloody weekend in the United States of America - and the weekend isn't over.

Yesterday there was a massacre at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, a shooting spree by an apparently racially-motivated 21-year-old white man who stepped into the store with an AK-47 Russian assault  rifle and then opened fire on the Saturday shoppers.  Twenty were killed at the scene, and at least 26 more were injured in the hail of bullets.

And then last night around 1:00 a.m. another young white man stepped into a bar in a nightclub district of Dayton, Ohio, and also opened fire with a rifle equipped with an oversize ammo magazine. He managed to kill nine and injure at least 26 others.

The motives of the Ohio shooter have yet to be revealed, but the Walmart shooter in El Paso was conducting his own private war on individuals from Mexico.   He was angry about America's acceptance of immigrants and felt that political "elites" were betraying his country.  He traveled nearly seven hundred miles from his home in Allen, Texas (near Dallas and Ft. Worth) to the Texas border city of El Paso, a community known for its accepting attitudes toward its Mexican neighbors.  And once in El Paso, what better place to look for a concentration of brown people than the local Walmart on a Saturday morning.

Apparently the Texas shooter was a student of the "manifesto" writings of other mass shooters, and he prepared his own written remarks regarding the shooting he planned, remarks which indicated his desire not to be taken alive.  The local police in El Paso thwarted those plans, however, when they subdued the assailant without having to fire a shot.

Donald Trump, who for his entire tenure in the White House has been nothing less than a poster boy for white supremacy, expressed shock at the incidents on Twitter, and assured America that he and Melania were sending "thoughts and prayers."

That ought to take care of it.

Spirit's New In-Flight Entertainment

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

This past Wednesday passengers on board a Spirit Airlines flight from Charlotte to Newark were treated to some in-flight entertainment - and more than a bit of excitement - as a bat suddenly began flying up and down the plane's cabin.   As some shrieked and tried to hide exposed skin from the flying rodent, at least one whipped out his cellphone and gleefully filmed the airborne adventure - and soon had it out on social media where people around the globe were able to enjoy all of the high-flying mayhem while they were supposed to be working.

A group of innocents being trapped in dangerous circumstances is a literary device that has been used in countless books and movies.  In 2006 Samuel L. Jackson starred in a movie which revealed it's main thrust in the title, Snakes on a Plane, and recently the country of Korea produced a hit movie, Train to Busan, which had a gaggle of zombies munching on passengers during a long train trip across the Korean Peninsula.  There is something about being scared - and trapped -  that appeals to many of us.

(Okay, so what is the collective noun for zombies?  A "zoo of zombies" perhaps?)

And the "trapped on some form of public transportation" scenario seems to be particularly appealing.  A sequel to Train to Busan is currently in production, and it's surprising that all sorts of follow-ups to Snakes on a Plane didn't quickly result from that film's release.

(My own personal horror is crying babies on a plane, but that's fodder for a whole other blog post.)

Two years ago I wrote about a scorpion on a plane - one that dropped from an overhead bin onto the head of a business-class passenger on a flight from Houston to Calgary, and I had the personal experience of once taking a flight that was crammed with show dogs.  I thought there might be potential in both of those sets of circumstances for a good movie, but Hollywood apparently couldn't see the possibilities.

And then there was the young carnival worker who fell asleep in the back of a Greyhound bus as it was traversing the western Canadian prairie late at night.  The mentally unstable fellow sitting next to him stuck a knife in the sleeping passenger's throat and proceeded to cut off his head - while the other passengers forced the driver to pull over and then ran screaming out into the dark prairie night in fear for their lives.   Hollywood didn't grab that one up either.

Perhaps bats on a plane will capture the film industry's interest.  One journalist said that if Hollywood  decided to put bats on a plane,  it would, in essence, be picking "low-hanging fruit."   Bat humor - gotta love it!

Others overlooked the mysterious presence of the bat and chose instead to make fun of economy carrier Spirit Airlines.  Comedian Stephen Colbert observed:  "I can't believe there was a bat on a Spirit Airlines flight.  I've only ever seen raccoons!"

So there you go, Hollywood - yet another possibility for a movie!

The Ancestor and Tomato Express

by Pa Rock
Wheelman

Last Friday I made a hurried overnight trip to Northwest Arkansas where, among other things, I delivered one copy of my collection of "Rootbound in the Hills" newspaper genealogy columns - fully indexed and free  - to my sister, as well as a couple of bags of fresh garden produce - mostly tomatoes and peppers.

Today I made a 378-mile round trip (not overnight), in the same general direction where I managed to place a copy of the "Rootbound" collection in the Neosho Public Library and do a quick bit of genealogy research.  Then I had lunch with my sister who drove up from Fayetteville, Arkansas, to meet me.  We ate (stuffed ourselves) at Neosho's Oriental House, a favorite dining spot of ours.  I also brought her another bag of stuff from the garden, and, in return, she delivered a copy of the "Rootbound" collection to the McDonald County Library in Pineville on her way home.

My sister, Gail, does not like tomatoes, so she spreads the bounty that I give her out among three of her grown children who live in Northwest Arkansas.   Lots of people are eating Pa Rock's very flavorful home-grown tomatoes tonight!

That's my day so far.  I left home at 6:30 a.m. and got home at 4:00 p.m.  There was a gully-washer of rain while I was in Neosho, but nary a drop here in West Plains.   Rain would be nice because it would make the weeds easier to pull!

It's Time to Let Emmett Till Rest in Peace

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Three students at the University of Mississippi, a school commonly referred to as "Ole Miss," have been in the news lately for what some consider to be a college prank and others view as a racist insult.   The three, only two of whom have so far been publicly identified, visited a roadside memorial to Civil Rights icon and lynching victim Emmett Till one night last March.  Two of the youth were armed - one with a shotgun and the other with an AR-15 automatic rifle.  The three posed in front of the bullet-riddled marker for a smiling photo, and then apparently called it a night.

Who took the photo?

A day or two later one of the young men posted the photo to his Instagram account where it promptly received nearly three hundred "likes."

Four months after that the national media finally became aware of the story.

The three young men, apparently including the one who has yet to be publicly named, were soon suspended from their social fraternity, Kappa Alpha, at the university.  The university referred the matter on to the US Department of Justice and the police - and declined to take any action against the men.

Kappa Alpha is a social fraternity which focuses on southern heritage.  Confederate General Robert E. Lee is regarded by members of the fraternity as its "spiritual founder."   And Ole Miss, of course, has a long and complicated history with the American civil rights movement - and was a focus of racial controversy through much of the 1960's.

Ole Miss essentially took no action against the students other than passing information along to police agencies and the Justice Department.  Now some administrators at Ole Miss are admitting that the school may have mishandled the recent uproar by not taking more assertive action over the photo of the armed and smiling young men at the Emmett Till memorial.  The fraternity was quick to suspend all three, but the university handed the matter off to others.   It also claimed not to know the identity of the third individual, even though the fraternity obviously did.   At some point there appears to be a breakdown in communication between the university and one of its officially sanctioned social fraternities.

Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black youngster who was falsely accused of flirting with a white woman, was murdered by a group of hillbilly racists in 1955.   Several sites in the area where he was murdered have been designated as historic sites.  The site visited by the three Ole Miss students was the spot where Till's mangled body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River.  (His corpse had been dumped in the river after he was hanged.)  The sign marking the event has been shot up and desecrated numerous times over the years since Till's death, and it has even been torn down and thrown in the river.   Some seem adamant that the boy never be allowed to rest in peace.

Now three white college students, all of whom should have known better and had more respect for the child victim of a violent crime, have instead chosen to dishonor Emmett Till's memory themselves.  Their smiling photo is a disgrace and a blight on the efforts of better people to bring the American South into the light of the 21st century.

The photo of the three young men at the Till memorial is a calendar shot of white privilege and racism.   They sent a bad message to an America that is struggling to break free of malignant racial stereotypes, and the three hundred people who quickly "liked" that message - amplified it.

That insensitive photo may be representative of Donald Trump's America, but it is an anathema to many of the rest of us.

Those young men at Ole Miss have something that Emmett Till never got, the opportunity to grow up and grow old.  Here's hoping they benefit and learn from this ugly incident and go on to be open-minded and productive citizens who recognize the worth in all people.

You have earned your right to eternal rest, Emmett Till.  May you be granted the comfort of peace.

America Is Beginning to Look Like Trump

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

When Donald Trump savagely attacked Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings over Twitter last week, his actual reason for doing so was that Cummings, the chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee, was not backing down in his requests and subpoenas for information on Trump, his administration, and his family.  Just prior to Trump's tirade, in fact, Cummings had made moves to secure the private emails of Jared and Ivanka (Trump) Kushner who had reportedly been doing government business over those private accounts.

 (Remember how enraged Republican members of Congress were at Hillary Clinton over the same allegations regarding her private email accounts?  Hypocrisy runs deep and wide in the Trump White House and the GOP!)

Trump wanted some personal revenge on Rep. Cummings, and, if while doing so, he could stir up his white nationalist base, well that would just be gravy.  Impugning the congressman's character while making him a target of extremists would be quite a twofer!  In Trump's first volley at Cummings he attacked the congressman for being a "bully" toward the Border Patrol - before blowing a couple of racist dog whistles:

"Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous.  His district is considered the Worst in the USA."

Trump went on to refer to Baltimore as a "rat and rodent infested mess."

The gauntlet had been thrown down, and Trump used his patriotic fervor for the activities of the Border Patrol as a wrapper for his racist harangue of Representative Elijah Cummings and the city of Baltimore.  He never intended for the Border Patrol and its activities to be his focus.

But events of the past couple of days have brought the crisis at our southern border back into the actual headlines.

It seems there is a secret group on Facebook with nearly ten thousand members that share violent and racist memes with its members, and at least a portion of the membership of that group belong to the US Border Patrol.  Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat of New York, questioned Kevin McAleenan, the acting Director of Homeland Security, at length on the matter last week in a congressional hearing.

One of the memes that had been shared by the group was a photoshopped image of Representative Ocasio-Cortez being violently raped, and she wanted McAleenan to understand that she felt racist and violent memes could have a dehumanizing impact on the people who viewed them, and her particular concern was with the Border Patrol agents who viewed such material - and how they could then become less humane toward immigrants who were trying to enter the United States.

McAleenan said he felt the posts were "unacceptable" and that he had ordered an investigation into the matter.  Then he stated that he did not believe the Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) had a "dehumanizing culture."

Then yesterday we learned that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has had to go back to court to again try and stop family separations at the border.  More than a year ago a federal judge had ordered the government to begin restricting the process of removing immigrant children from their parents.  A few guidelines were established whereby children and their parents could be pulled apart, and one of those allowed the removal of a child if the parent(s) had a criminal history.  An overreaching interpretation of that exception apparently led Border Patrol agents to remove children if parents had at least one traffic violation - or, in one case, a conviction of property damage totaling just five dollars.

The ACLU told a judge yesterday that more than 900 children have been taken from their parents at the border since the judge gave that preliminary guidance in June of 2018.  Acting Director of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan told Congress as recently as last week that family separations are now "extremely rare."  Nine hundred children - and their parents - would probably beg to differ.

(Would an American bank deny a white family a loan based on one minor traffic violation?)

Donald Trump, himself a bully who tends to get loud and obnoxious, argued that Elijah Cummings was a "brutal bully" who shouted and screamed at the "great"men and women of the border patrol about conditions along our southern border - and then he minimized those conditions.   Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed her concern that Border Patrol agents engaging a Facebook group which promoted racism and violence could, themselves, become dehumanized in the process - and that they would be more apt to treat new arrivals at the border as less than human.  And, add to that mix actual data showing that children are still being taken from their parents at the border for little or no reason - and an ugly picture begins to emerge - much like the one in Dorian Gray's attic.

Our inhumanity is on display for the whole world to witness.  It has nothing to do with rats and rodents in Baltimore - and everything to do with rats and rodents in the White House.  Donald Trump is reflecting himself across the entire country, and it is an ugly damned image!

Donald John Trump is an abject failure as a human being, and he is trying to take our civilization down with him!

Moscow Mitch: A Thin-Skinned Reptile

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from he Commonwealth of Kentucky, has has lived in the sewer of national politics for most of his adult life.  During his long tenure in Washington, DC, McConnell has made a name for himself by relentlessly pursing the interests of corporations over those of his constituents back home in Kentucky.  When it comes to public service, Mitch McConnell is motivated by two things, and two things only:  filling his pockets and maintaining power.

Public service is about the public serving Mitch.

And those goals work hand-in-hand with one another.  The more money Mitch amasses, the easier it becomes to keep his power - and his tight grip on power brings in more and more corporate cash.  Mitch is not in the Senate to do charity work or to necessarily benefit anyone other than Mitch McConnell.

McConnell is a cold-blooded reptile who is very at home slithering through the sewers of our nation's capital.  (Apologies to snakes everywhere!)

Mitch McConnell's latest foray into public controversy has to do with election security.  McConnell, who has accepted bribes political donations from the manufacturers of voting equipment, is loathe to allow any legislation to be voted on in the Senate which would enhance election security in any meaningful manner.  Some say his intransigence is due to the cash that people who make election equipment have stuffed into his pockets, while others say he is doing it to allow continued Russian interference (including the hacking of voting machines) in the US elections.  The argument goes that Russian interference in the 2016 elections put Donald Trump in the White House and brought in enough Republican senators to solidify Mitch's control of that chamber for years to come - and why mess with success?

McConnell doesn't want tighter protections on voting because - he says - all of that honesty stuff would help Democrats,  Why put his fiefdom at risk?

But in keeping the lid clamped down tightly on American democracy, McConnell has opened himself to charges that he is fighting election security measures in order to  better facilitate more Russian interference in the 2020 election - and enhance that country's efforts to elect more Republicans and stir more political turmoil here in the United States.

Some wags even openly suggest that Mitch McConnell takes his marching orders directly from Russian leader Vladimir Putin - and more than a few malicious "tweeters" have taken to referring to McConnell as "Moscow Mitch" on Twitter.

And Mitch does not like being referred to as "Moscow Mitch," not one bit!

McConnell, a man who has spent a lifetime belittling and disparaging others, can dish it out, but he sure can't take it.  Yesterday, in response to the #MoscowMitch tag which has been trending on Twitter for several days now, the senior Kentucky senator tweeted this response:

"Modern-day McCarthyism is poison for American democracy. It is shameful to imply that policy disagreements make the other side unpatriotic. The people who push such unhinged smears are doing Putin’s destabilizing work for him."

Joe McCarthy was a Republican senator who caused a great deal of political turmoil in the 1950's by castigating his political enemies and other prominent Americans as being "communists."   Ironically, if McCarthy were around today, he would most likely be sitting quite comfortably in the GOP's big white tent drinking beer and trying to keep Lindsey Graham's hand off of his knee.

Communism is out of fashion in Russia, and the only time that I recall it being bandied about in recent years happened in 2016 when Donald Trump referred to Bernie Sanders publicly as a "communist," though Trump recently came dangerously close to using that appellation on members of "the Squad," and will probably get around to doing it sooner or later at one of his hate fests.

But for the time being it is Mich McConnell who is being smeared by McCarthy tactics.  Poor, poor Moscow Mitch.  Who knew that a hoary old reptile like him could have such thin skin?

Monday's Poetry: "Incident"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

The city of Baltimore has been in the news this week as America's preeminent racist, Donald John Trump, has stayed busy savagely attacking Elijah Cummings, the black statesman who represents most of that proud city in Congress.  In his racist screeds against Representative Cummings, Trump also chose to disparage Baltimore itself - calling the city "a rat-and-rodent-infested mess" and "a very dangerous and filthy place" all of which were racist dog whistles designed to depict Baltimore as an impoverished black ghetto.

After Trump's Twitter outburst it was revealed on social media that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is a major slumlord in the city of Baltimore.

Several weeks ago I used a poem by poet Countee Cullen in this space to honor "Pride Month."   Cullen, a gay, black man who was a leading light of the Harlem Renaissance, used that poem, "Fruit of the Flower," to remind parents of gay youth that their children were biological extensions of themselves, products of the root system generated and nourished by the parents.  They are the literal creations of the parents.

There is a bit of mystery surrounding the childhood of Countee Cullen, who grew up living with his grandmother in New York City - but some historians think it is likely that he was born in the city of Baltimore.

Today I would like to highlight another poem by Countee Cullen, "Incident," which tells of something that occurred to him during a childhood visit to Baltimore - something the poet always remembered.  It shows the enduring power of one solitary racist word.  If that one word can have that much impact on a child, just think about the impact that a full-bore racist assault from the President of the United States can have on children of color.

The racism and bigotry that Donald Trump is using for short-term political gain is casting a literal pall over the mental health and future of our country.  It's time for Americans of every color to stand together and tell Trump that he has to leave office - for the good of the country!

It worked in Puerto Rico.


Incident
by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,
    Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
    Keep looking straight at me.Now I was eight and very small,
    And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
    His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”
I saw the whole of Baltimore
    From May until December:
Of all the things that happened there
    That’s all that I remember.

Trump Flings Even More Racist Crap!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Donald Trump is in full-throttle re-election mode, and his one clear strategy on display so far is to rile up his angry white base.   It is an ugly and dangerous way to campaign, but Trump is at his absolute peak as a politician when he is attacking people of color and denigrating those whom he sees as being less than true Americans because of their skin colors and ethnic backgrounds.  Donald Trump's America is white, and his most ardent supporters with their red MAGA caps, tattoos, low-to-average IQ's, and beer bellies are also white.  They are the master race, and Trump is their master.

And God figures in there somewhere, too - but HE is a wrathful white God with no tolerance for helping - or even recognizing - the world's less fortunate people or anyone who differs significantly from the master race.

Donald Trump has divided us by race.   He has intentionally and maliciously broken a social contract that has taken more than a century to assemble, and he is carting off what he considers to be the biggest piece of a society that he intentionally busted - the chunk of angry white voters.  They aren't a majority, but in a diverse and fractured society, that rabid base of pissed-off white crackers can swing an election.  Steve Bannon explained it to him several years ago, and Donald Trump listened.

(Coincidentally, earlier this week William Weld, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, described Donald Trump as an "unhinged racist" and warned that Trump was going down and would take the Republican Party with him.  One can only hope!)

Now Democrats have to put together a coalition of people with energy and direction who can turn the tables on Trump and pull our country back out of the dystopian nightmare that the Trump administration has foisted upon us.  It will take wisdom, energy, and a cohesiveness that Democrats have traditionally found to be elusive.   But we'll see . . .

Back to my thesis:  Trump is already campaigning, and his message is all-out racist.  After spending the past few weeks attacking four congresswomen of color as being less than true Americans - and making them targets for every gun-toting white supremacist in the country, yesterday Trump turned his verbal fire on Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, a black man and senior member of Congress whose district includes part of the fine city of Baltimore.  Cummings is one of many Democrats Congress who have been critical of Trump's border policies and the family concentration camps set up by the Trump administration along the border.

Trump exploded on Twitter:

"Rep. Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA. 

"As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming (sic) district is a disgusting, rat- and rodent-infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place. 

"Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings' district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States? No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!"

And while all of that may sound a bit harsh to delicate ears, that is the way Trump talks.  Everything, EVERYTHING is inferior to the world that he has established for himself.  Brown and black people are "animals" and they originate in "shithole" countries.   Representative Cummings is, in Trump's view, a "brutal bully" who shouts and screams at the fine people who patrol the border.  And then he went on to belittle the district that Cummings represents calling it rat-and-rodent-infested, a "filthy place," and one of the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States.

(That's mighty heavy criticism coming from an actual bully who lives in Washington, DC, and in a house and office complex that has been described within just the past few days as being overrun with cockroaches - many of whom do not use spray-on hair or tanning beds!)

But Elijah Cummings is black, and while he may not be from a shithole country, Trump wants his faithful Klansmen to know that Cummings does represent a shithole district.

It's only July of 2019, but Donald John Trump is in full campaign mode - and the stench of racism and bigotry is already at dangerously high levels.  Things can only go downhill from here.

The Watermelon Trail

by Pa Rock
Happy Wanderer

Rosie and I just got back home following an overnight trip to Rogers, Arkansas - our first big adventure outside of Howl County since my hospitalization at the end of June.  (I still don't have an exact diagnosis of what put me in the hospital, probably more the result of lackadaisical care in maintaining medical records and communicating with patients than the complexity of the medical issue.  The doctor has assured me with 99% certainty that it was some type of "tick-born" infection, and the symptoms were like those of others in the area who have suffered from similar maladies.)

So Rosie and I have been on the road.  We drove across northern Arkansas both going west and heading home.  It's hot, but the lawns and trees were summery green nevertheless.  The most consistent thing that we noticed were watermelons.  We encountered several farm trucks loaded with watermelons out on the roads, and passed more than a few roadside fruit stands, most of which featured watermelons prominently.   This is probably the ideal time of the year to buy a melon, put it on ice, and head to the creek!

We noticed only one Trump sticker along the way - on the back window of a nice-looking ;pickup truck - and no stickers for any other candidates.  I have commented here previously about the scary right-wing billboards in and around Harrison, Arkansas, but for the past few trips through that community I hadn't noticed any.  Well, one (at least) is back.  There is a large billboard facing east on the main thoroughfare (Highway 62) promoting these local news outlets for like-minded people:  "White Pride Radio" and "Alt.Right Television."  Hillbilly culture at its most despicable!

Northwest Arkansas continues to be a warren of congested traffic, Walmart corporate facilities, and shopping malls.  One afternoon struggling to get through that mess every six months or so is quite enough for me, thank you very much!

I overheard two old men talking in the butcher shop here in West Plains last week.  One, who apparently has grandchildren over in that area, was telling the other how wonderful northwest Arkansas is and how he can't wait to move there.  He said forty-three families a day were moving into the area, and yammered on about how great all of that growth is.  He also wanted the other guy to know that there were plenty of golf courses there as well.

West Plains has two golf courses for a community of 12,000 - so that is probably "plenty" for our area.  But to each his own.  I hope that fellow still views rapid population growth as "wonderful" when he is sitting in stalled traffic while trying to visit  those grandchildren!

Gail and Patti and I visited our good friend, Mertie Harmon, at the care facility where she lives in Rogers.  Mert will be ninety-two next Wednesday.  She seemed to enjoy the company.   We also had a nice visit with two of the best school teachers in that area - my nephew, Reed Smith, and his wife, Jamie.  It's always good to see those guys!

But that was yesterday, and today Rosie and I are home - and ready for our naps!

My Ten Seconds of Fame

by Pa Rock
Slap-Happy Camper

I am officially "retired," which means I could sleep in if I did not have other responsibilities - in lieu of a paying job - waiting for me each morning, but the sad fact is that even though it remains dark outside this morning, like most others, I am up and busy.

Rosie must be let out, the cats fed, the hen house opened for the day, and the blog, my daily grind, has to get written.  Then, when all of that - as well as any accumulated laundry - is finished, I get to the second phase of my day.  That is usually somewhere around noon.

About lunch time, but before I actually sit down to something exotic like a sandwich and chips, I head into town and make a regular daily purchase - a tall cup of unsweet iced-tea, big enough and with enough ice to last me the rest of the day, and a couple of lottery tickets - two different state "drawing" style games.  The total for the purchase, including the tea, is three dollars and twenty-eight cents.  Actually, the tea is a "purchase," and the lottery tickets are an investment.  I still plan on dying rich, and at this stage in my life, the lottery is about thee only means left to that end.

And then, after lunch is finished and the paper plate has been thrown away, I get down to my afternoon schedule.  That is when I roll up my sleeves and go to work at Twitter.  An in-law of mine describes Twitter as a "huge time-sucker," and even that is serious understatement.  Twitter is Alice's rabbit hole writ large, and once a person jumps in, it might take days before they are able to climb back out.

Bit still I persist.

I use Twitter to promote my blog, and I guess it works because some days my readership numbers in the dozens - and I also use Twitter to vent my spleen on things that catch my attention.  Most days I "tweet" about Trump, ad nauseam, though he never "tweets" me back.

I have three goals with Twitter that pull me onward each day.  One is to garner more "followers" than my doofus congressman.  Over the past few months I have worked that goal hard and now am about halfway there.

My second Twitter goal is to be followed by somebody famous.  So far the only name of note that I have among my followers is Nancy "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" Sinatra, Frank's daughter, but she probably shouldn't count because Nancy follows everyone who follows her.   I am just part of her Twitter entourage.

And my final Twitter goal is to be blocked by somebody famous.  A few years ago I was "blocked" by a lady who thought that I had said something unkind about Hillary - and I probably did -  but so far no celebrities have chosen to acknowledge my snide remarks and outright insults toward them by blocking me - and  Walmart, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Jim "Gym" Jordan have had plenty of reason to do so.  I'm being as vile and mean-spirited as I dare, yet they continue to ignore me!

Twitter is perhaps my last chance to achieve a bit of fame in this life.  How sad is that!

But yesterday, as I was sitting at the living room window banging out astute observations and insults on Twitter, fame found me - kinds, sorta.   I happened to look up from the computer just as a small blue-and-white sedan drove past the house on the country lane that runs along side of my property.  According to its signage, it was the Google Maps car!  Now, if I just knew how to access Google Maps, I might be able to come up with an image of my house, and perhaps see myself staring out the front window!

But the best news of the day, the absolute topper, was that as the Google Maps car cruised past, the yard was freshly mowed and all of the weeds in front of the house had been pulled.  My yard will always be freshly mowed and manicured in cyber space!

It just doesn't get better than that!

There Is a Free Lunch After All, and Breakfast, Too!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Last Sunday I wrote about the awful letter that Wyoming Valley West School District in Pennsylvania sent home to the parents of students who were in arrears on their school lunches.  In that letter, penned by a school official, the district threatened to report those parents to the state's "Dependency Court" system, and then advised that such a report could culminate in a child being placed in foster care.

Not only was the abusive letter a flagrant attempt at bullying, it also appeared to be intended to shame the families and students who were behind on their lunch bills.   The district, which has a limited tax base, was trying to collect $22,000 in lunch debt that was owed by approximately 1,000 students.

News articles about the situation brought offers of help from more than a hundred donors across the country, and the debt was finally settled by Todd Carmichael, a co-founder and CEO of La Colombe Coffee in Philadelphia.   The school board of Wyoming Valley West initially turned down Carmichael's offer the pay the entire debt (perhaps they didn't want to feel shamed), but then had a change of hart and accepted the payment.

But now it looks like there is more good news for the beleaguered school.   Apparently someone in the district (perhaps the Director of Federal Programs who sent out the obnoxious letter to begin with) has discovered that the school system qualifies for the Community Eligibility Provision, a USDA Food and Nutrition Service Program.  As a result, every student in the Wyoming Valley West School District will receive FREE breakfast and lunch in all of the district's schools for the next five years - regardless of income!

See what can happen when school administrators do their homework!

Nick at Forty-Six

by Pa Rock
Proud Papa

My oldest child, Nick, was born forty-six years ago at the Camp Kue U.S. Army Hospital on Okinawa, Japan.  He came to the United States at the very young age of two months, and has been a permanent fixture in this country since that time.

Nick grew up in the Missouri Ozarks where he loved to hunt and fish, and he has remained a resident of southern Missouri for most of his life - and the hunting and fishing have continued.  He has one child, Boone, who is in college, and a faithful old dog named Riley who has spent more than a decade looking after his master.

Nick often steps forward to help me out with odd chores and difficult tasks here at the farm,  and he did all of the mowing during the first few weeks following my hospitalization this summer.  It is good to have someone around to depend on when times are tough.

Happy birthday, Nick!  Thanks for being there when I need you.

Election 2020: Fighting a Hog Will Require Getting Dirty!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

There seems to be a lot of free advice circulating on social media lately about the proper course of action Democrats should take in challenging Trump in the 2020 election.  I have taken a few notes and have some thoughts on the strategies for electoral success which are currently circulating.

First of all there is the "Vote Blue No Matter Who" crowd reminding Democrats to support the person that the party nominates, whether he or she was the voter's original preference or not.  I buy into that if for no other reason than than the lowest, mangiest most vile Democrat anywhere on the party roster is still head and shoulders above Donald Trump or Mike Pence.   Trump has set the bar so low that it would take some serious excavating equipment to get beneath it.  Democrats must support the nominee of their party.  To vote for a third-party candidate or not vote at all helps to insure that we will be living in Trump Hell for four more years.

That said, I do not subscribe to the notion that Democrats should remain quiet and overly polite in the run up to the convention - nor should they not be too concerned with speaking ill of any Democratic presidential wannabe.  That's not who we are, and being wallflowers will be no help at all in figuring out which candidates are tough enough to take on Trump.  The primary season is a trial by fire, a raucous and messy political rumble that rolls from state to state, and not a white-gloved sit-down over tea and crumpets with Pearl Mesta.

And after the candidate is chosen at the convention - what then?

One approach that is currently being proposed in some quarters is the "high road."  In that model the candidate and party would ignore the outrages of Trump, as much as possible, and focus on the problems facing our nation while offering up reasoned and pragmatic solutions.  Careful explanations of situations buttressed with well-crafted policies and programs that address each issue.  Be the well-informed adults in the room.  In one corner Trump is busy erupting like Vesuvius, and in the other corner a competent teacher is rummaging through charts and graphs explaining the looming crisis with the national debt.

Uh . . . probably not.

Others are arguing that the "high road" approach just plays into Trump's hand.  Trump, the showman, knows that the media rushes to cover his every utterance and that it never misses an opportunity to quickly amplify his outrageous lies and dog whistles.  While the Democrats try to "educate" their followers, Trump is whipping his into a frenzy.

Another strategy  that some opinion makers are kicking around is for the Democrats to just ignore policies and programs altogether and spend the entire campaign solely focusing on Trump, calling out his lies, racist statements and actions, and examples of ignorance and incompetence as they occur.  Trump relishes being the center of attention, and this strategy would keep the bright light of reason glaring sternly at him.  This approach might be seen by some as the "low road," the street on which Trump lives.

A third option would be to have a strong case of policies and programs sitting on a shelf somewhere and "at the ready" when a person or group seeks details, but to keep the daily focus on Trump and his constant flow of outrages.  This plan, to focus on Trump's character but to have a thorough plan for governing capable of being discussed at a moment's notice, is somewhat of a "middle road."

Donald Trump is a unique character in American politics, one who should not be taken for granted.  Trump's campaign style will be, as it always has been, patently offensive to a wide swath of decent individuals.  He will make racist comments, he will make sexist comments, he will spread intolerance and hatred toward immigrants, and, on a slow day, he may even mock a few disabled individuals.  He will play golf while he derides others as being lazy, he will espouse "Christian" values while never setting foot inside of a church, and he will continue to profit personally off of the presidency.

Donald Trump is truly the elephant in the room, the one who cannot and should not be ignored.  Yes, the Democratic candidate needs to present a decent image and be well versed in the needs and capabilities of the country, and that person must be prepared to govern competently beginning on day one of the next administration.   But that person must also be ready to ready to roll in the mud and throw some punches - because Donald Trump is a creature of filth who lives in the mud - and it is from there that he will be conducting his campaign.

Donald Trump wants everything to be about him, and the election of 2020 will be about him whether the Democrats choose to recognize and fight that battle or not.  Trump has defined the race, and now the Democrats must win it!  And, like it or not, wrestling a hog will require getting dirty.

Monday's Poetry: "The Fawn"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Basically I live in the "country."  I have a small home on ten acres - at an intersection of two paved roads - about two miles from the center of a town of twelve thousand.  Deer and other wildlife are plentiful where I live, but throughout the recent spring the deer were strangely absent.  That led me to speculate that last fall's hunters may have been a might too successful.

I have a salt lick up by the little pond, and the block of white salt attracts occasional deer, but it is usually commandeered by the farm's many squirrels.  Most afternoons I have a large apple for a snack, and I always carry the apple core up to the salt lick where I deposit it on the ground with the hope that a passing deer will enjoy it - but I suspect that the squirrels get them as well.

Occasionally the farm acts as a resort for visiting possums, skunks, ground hogs, and even armadillos, and my son swears that he has seen a very large panther-like black cat on more than one dark night.

Thee deer have returned from their hiatus within the past few weeks.  I have a large pear tree deep in the backyard that is loaded with fruit every summer, and the deer always get most of it.  This year several showed up for the pear harvest.  First they ate the ones that had fallen to the ground, then they spent a couple of days butting the tree to shake others loose, and finally the stood beneath the old tree, on their back feet, and stretched their necks as far into the tree as they could to get the really stubborn pears that had refused to fall.

Now the pear tree is empty, but some of the deer have stayed on.  Yesterday I watched two small spotted fawns as they walked beneath my bathroom window and out toward the road.  Just as they got to the road, one of my hillbilly neighbors roared by and scared them back into the yard.  Soon I saw them with their mother, lazily eating a patch of weeds surrounding one of the trees.

The more weeds the deer eat at my place, the more welcome they are!

One of my neighbors (who probably learned science from his grandmother - or Elly May Clampett's grandmother) told me that the deer are responsible for all of the ticks that are plaguing the Ozarks this summer.  Others blame the mild winters brought about by climate change, but the locals who are weened on Fox News know that climate change is fake news.   That leaves ticks as one more good reason to slaughter deer.

Here is Edna St. Vincent Millay's experience of unexpectedly coming upon a fawn lying on the ground:


The Fawn
by Edna St. Vincent Millay

There it was I saw what I shall never forget
And never retrieve.
Monstrous and beautiful to human eyes, hard to believe,
He lay, yet there he lay,
Asleep on the moss, his head on his polished cleft
small ebony homes,
The child of the doe, the dappled child of the deer.

Surely his mother had never said, "lie here
Till I return," so spotty and plain to see
On the green moss lay he.
His eyes had opened;  he considered me.

I would have given more than I care to say
To thrifty ears, might I have had him for my friend
One moment only of that forest day:

Might I have had the acceptance, not the love
Of those clear eyes;
Might I have been for him in the bough above
Or the root beneath his forest bed,
A part of the forest, seen without surprise.

Was it alarm, or was it the wind of my fear lest he depart
That jerked him to his joints knees,
And sent him crashing off, leaping and stumbling
On his new legs, between the stems of the white trees?

In Support of Well Fed Children

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

A school district in rural Pennsylvania has been in the news lately after someone in the school's administrative staff sent a letter home to parents whose children were behind in paying for their school lunches.  The Wyoming Valley West School District of Pennsylvania sent out "hundreds" of letters telling parents that if their children's lunch bills were not brought up to date, the families would be referred to the state's "Dependency Court" and the children "could" wind up being placed into foster care.

Many news sources reported, at least in their headlines, that the letter had stated the children "would" be placed into foster care.  That was fake news.

As someone who has worked as a school teacher and an administrator, a state child welfare worker and an administrator, a paid journalist, and a mental health provider (licensed clinical social worker), I have quite a bit that I could say on this matter, from several perspectives - and as a retiree, I have the time to say it.

So you might want to refill that coffee cup, because here goes . . .

First of all, there is no school district in the entire country, at least of which I am aware, that has the power to summarily place a child in foster care.  Taking children out of their homes and putting them in foster care requires the action of a judge - apparently through the "Dependency Court" in Pennsylvania and through other forms of state courts in other locations.  My own state has "juvenile court" system which works within the state's district courts to handle serious matters involving children - including their placement into foster care and the (hopefully) subsequent return to their natural parents.

The school district in Pennsylvania was correct in the way it stated the threat - foster care could result - but it was a threat, and an extreme bullying tactic - and a few sacrificial school administrator heads will probably roll before all of the dust has settled.  The press was wrong in the way it portrayed the case in the headlines which gave the clear implication that the school actually had the power to place children in foster care.  That is never the case.   And the school district was wrong in making the payment of school lunches into such an extreme issue.  There are smarter ways to handle a personal matter of such importance.

There is a certain subset of individuals in this country who get very angry at the idea of schools feeding children.  They are opposed to the notion that their tax dollars might be putting food on the trays of  poor and minority students - and anytime a brown child, or even a poor white one, is fed at public expense, that is overt socialism in the minds of these aggrieved taxpayers - not all of whom actually pay taxes.  When a school district chooses to make the payment for meals into a local political issue, the ensuing fallout can ripple far beyond just lunch bills, and can negatively impact a wide array of school programs and responsibilities.

One way to turn down the heat on a situation like this without threatening to remove children from their homes is for school administrators to meet with families and try to get them qualified for the federal government's free and reduced-price breakfast and lunch programs.  All students take home forms for free and reduced meals at the beginning of the year, but, as every parent of a school-age child knows, not every form makes it home, and, of those that do and get filled out, not every form makes it back to school.

Administrators can invite parents in for a conference regarding alternative ways to get meals into the bellies of their children, but many parents work - often several jobs - and coming to the school during regular work hours in often not an option.  Another option, and one I have practiced many times, is for the school administrator to take his forms and go on a home visit.  Again, many parents work during the days, and sometimes it takes an evening visit in order to catch parents at home.   That's a lot of extra work, and not every school administrator is up to the challenge.  It's much easier just to crank out a mass threat and shovel it into the mail.

Another option is to use local resources.  There are a few kind-hearted individuals in every community who will step forward and help out if they suspect that a need exists - and add to that school support groups like the local PTA, as well as church and civic organizations, and a program as basic as school meals can be kept alive without going to war with the community or embarrassing hungry little kids.

As an elementary school principal in the 1980's, one of the biggest controversies that I ever stepped into was when I volunteered my school to be a test site for school breakfasts in our county.  The program was sponsored by the federal government and contained provisions for "free and reduced" meals, something which benefited nearly half of our school's population.  Several people of means in the community were livid that the school was planning to spend more of "their" money to feed poor kids.

Our staff stood strong in the face of that opposition, making the school breakfast program a success that soon spread to all of the other elementary schools in the county.

Here are two important things that I learned from that school breakfast experience:   First, attendance improved.  Kids are more likely to get up and come to school in the mornings if they know that breakfast is waiting.  (Did you know that not every family has adequate food at home?  And did you know that not every parent is at home in the mornings or capable of waking their children for school - and that not every parent even cares if their child goes to school or not?). When attendance improves, at least in Missouri, the amount of aid paid by the state goes up, and that paid by the local level goes down - so that was an added benefit to the program.  It actually saved the locals money.

The second benefit of the program was that overall student behavior improved after the breakfast program was initiated.  Maybe your child had a great breakfast at home and didn't need the food offered at school, but if that roustabout who sits next to her everyday behaves better, then your child's school experience is likely to be better as well.

Children benefit from access to regular meals and good nutrition, and when children benefit, so does America.  Instead of subsidizing farmers by turning their corn into ethanol and pumping it into our cars, why not turn that corn into cornflakes and invest it where it will bear an actual return - in our kids?

There is nothing immoral or wrong with feeding children, but there is something morally wrong about threatening families who are already being degraded by living in poverty.  A nation that can send people to the moon can surely give a hungry child a sandwich and a carton of milk.

Feed those kids, dammit!    Not only is it the Christian thing to do, feeding hungry children is one investment that will quickly begin paying returns across all of society.   And it's the right thing to do!

Camp Funston, the Great Flu, and the Moon Landing

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

I remember well where I was fifty years ago, the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two human beings to step onto the moon.  I was suffering through ROTC Summer Camp at Ft. Riley, Kansas - on an older portion of the base called Camp Funston.  By that summer Ft. Riley itself had advanced to the point where it was a very modern base, the home of the 1st Infantry Division - the Big Red One - with nice red brick buildings and well manicured yards and parade fields.  I remember large motor pools and acres and acres of big military trucks - deuce-and-a-halfs and five-tons.

Camp Funston was not that modern.  It was a collection of old wooden barracks dating back through the two World Wars.  Funston had been used to train Army recruits prior to its service with ROTC.

Curiously, as I have mentioned in this space previously, Camp Funston was also thought to be ground-zero of the worldwide flu pandemic that ran from from January of 1918 until December of 2020, a health catastrophe also called "the Spanish Flu" which is thought to have infected more than half a billion people around the globe and killed between twenty and fifty million.  

And while the pandemic had been over for nearly half a century by the time I arrived at Camp Funston, I still remember my summer there as a singularly horrible experience.  Yes, I did learn things of value while I was there - how to crawl beneath live fire, breath in a gas chamber long enough to blurt out my name, rank, and service (social security) number, read a topographical map, throw a grenade, and clean a grease trap - but most of what I remember about the experience is not so glamorous.

I remember constantly rushing to get things done.  There was never enough time to get one thing finished before another deadline was charging forward.    And sleep?  Well, forget about that.  Some of the best sleep I had that summer was in one-and-two-hour spurts as we rode in the back of deuce-and-a-halfs in full battle rattle to remote training spots - usually well before daylight.  Even those "naps" were laced with drama and trauma.  One morning a friend on mine who was sitting in the back of the truck nodded off.  His helmet was not strapped on and bounced from his head out onto the road where it was run over and flattened by the next truck in our training convoy!  For the next week or so he thought that he had died and gone to Nam!

There were no televisions in our old wooden barracks.  There was one somewhere close, perhaps at one of the clubs, and on the day that the astronauts climbed out of their capsule and walked on the moon many of my friends were able to get away from the barracks - it was a Sunday - and view the big event on television.  I don't remember the circumstances, but for some reason I stayed back in the barracks and heard the details later on.  (I'm sure that I was struggling to catch up on shining or polishing something.)

I regret not finding the strength and making the effort to view that important piece of American history - as much of the world did - but if I had the chance to repeat that summer so that I could watch Neil Armstrong take his small step for a man and big leap for mankind, I would pass.  I had enough of Camp Funston that summer to last more than a lifetime!

"Funston" was anything BUT "fun"!

Oh to be "Trapped" in Iceland!

by Pa Rock
Gadabout

I have mentioned this before in this space, but when I about travel abroad, one of the ways that I prepare my mind for the possible adventure that lies ahead is to read about the country that I would like to visit.  Not travel guides, but fictional literature that takes place in the settings which I would like to experience.

My last trip "overseas" was a week-long jaunt to Cuba which is just ninety miles south of the southern tip of Key West, Florida.  Before making that trip I read an assortment of contemporary mystery novels about life in modern Havana.

Over the past couple of years I have expanded that mode of research by including television shows filmed in locales that I would like to visit.  I have seen several complete series that were filmed in Australia, including one campy jewel which featured zombies clawing their way out of their graves - and one great short series that took place in Tasmania (though the name now escapes me.)

Recently I have watched two complete seasons of a crime drama that was filmed in Iceland, and the scenery and lifestyles that those episodes revealed have conspired to give me the travel bug.  The show, "Trapped" takes place primarily in a small town and rural area in northern Iceland, but the country is small enough that some of the necessary action drifts over to the large metropolitan area and capital of Reykjavik.  Taken together those two seasons (twenty episodes total) reveal a panoramic vista of Iceland that could never be conveyed in a mere tourist video.

(The rugged coastline with its many fjords, the thermal springs and geysers, the quaint hamlets!  If one was destined to be "trapped," Iceland would be a great place for it to happen.  The country offers lots to absorb - in addition to the waters in its naturally-heated spas.)

And the crime dramas are first-rate as well.  The dialogue is conducted primarily in Icelandic with subtitles, though some segments with certain characters are in English.  The first season involves the discovery of a headless corpse in the ocean just as a ferryboat arrives from mainland Europe.  As it unfolds the residents of a small town are trapped by one of the worst storms of the winter.

The second season, which I would personally rate as exceptional, begins when a middle-aged female government minister is attacked in Reykjavik by her twin brother whom she has not seen in nearly twenty years.   The brother, who has pre-soaked himself in gasoline, rushes from the crowd and grabs his sister and then sets himself on fire.  She is badly burned but survives - and her attacker dies.  Then the action shifts to the rural north where another sibling is found hanging dead in his barn.  Before all of the investigative threads come together there is yet another murder and an abduction - and a lot of things are revealed about a family whom the chief detective describes as "having more secrets than anyone can imagine."

Yes, sitting calmly and reading subtitles can be distracting and seem like a lot of unnecessary work, but this particular show is worth the effort.  "Trapped" if featured on Amazon Prime.

So now I am thinking that Iceland might be a nice place to include on my bucket list.  And to add to the temptation, Icelandair, now has three direct flights to Reykjavik each week out of Kansas City with connections from there to most of Europe.

Pa Rock hopes it is the travel bug that is biting - and not some damned tick!

Trump Diminishes All of Us

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

If political storms were rated like hurricanes, the one currently whipping its way across the United States of America would be a Level 5 Plus - off the charts!  We are in wild, chaotic, turbulent times and democracy itself hangs in the balance.

Last week Donald Trump inserted himself into a disagreement within the Democratic Party, one in which the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was trying to bring four minority women representatives back under what she envisioned as her control.  In making the effort to rein-in the four, Pelosi marginalized their influence and referred to them as a "squad" with little in the way of actual political clout - other than their social media followings.

Trump, with a history of playing to white supremacists (remember Charlottesville?) jumped into the fray, uninvited, and sided with Pelosi.  Trump painted the four women, again - all minorities, as being ungrateful  immigrants who were attacking a country that had accepted them - and then he suggested that they go back to the places that they had come from.  After the media quickly pointed out that three of four members of "the squad" were born in the United States and the fourth came here as a child and is now a citizen, Trump continued to describe the four as un-American.

On Tuesday the House of Representatives voted to "condemn" Trump for what it deemed to be his "racist" remarks regarding the four House members.  Four Republicans and one Independent joined Democrats in passing that resolution by a vote of 240-187.  The toothless measure did little more than twist Trump's tail, and he continued to roar.

Later on Tuesday, Texas Rep. Al Green, a Democrat, introduced an Article of Impeachment in the House.   It was Green's third attempt to bring about a vote on the impeachment of Trump.    He based this one on the House's vote to "condemn"Trump earlier in the day.  In justifying the move, Rep. Green said:

 “This president has demonstrated that he’s willing to yell 'fire' in a crowded theater. And we have seen what can happen to people when bigotry is allowed to have a free rein. Look at what happened in Charlottesville. 'Blood and soil,' they screamed. They screamed, 'The Jews will not replace us.' And one of them took a person’s life who was exercising her constitutional right to protest. We cannot wait. As we wait, we risk having the blood of somebody on our hands—and it could be a member of Congress.”

The Article of Impeachment was voted on in the House yesterday where it failed by a vote of 332 to 95 with one member voting "present."   Of the 332 voting to table the measure, 137 were Democrats. All 95 of the votes favoring impeachment were cast by Democrats.  Speaker Pelosi and her "moderates" were successful in applying the brakes to the movement - for now - but the impeachment strength has been measured, and it is at ninety-five - also, for now.

Donald Trump took that vote as a victory and raced off to an election rally for himself in North Carolina where he spent the evening praising himself and attacking the more prominent Democratic presidential candidates as well as members of "the Squad," and in particular Rep.  Ilhan Omar, the black Muslim woman who had immigrated from Somalia as a child - and who has been a naturalized citizen since before Melania Trump took her oath of allegiance to the United States Constitution.  As Trump barked his jingoistic vitriol to the crowd, his supporters began chanting "Send her back!  Send her back!"

Donald Trump has dropped all pretense of being a concerned leader of all Americans, and he has solidly and irrevocably aligned himself with those who wallow in ignorance, and bigotry, and hatred. He is not worthy of the public trust that he has been given.

If Donald Trump is allowed to remain in office and mock ideals that were once proudly associated with the United States of America, we will have lost the moral high ground and dimmed the U.S. beacon of freedom that once shone proudly around the globe.

Trump has no shame, and he is proud of it.  

He diminishes all of us.

Are the Republicans Forming Their Own "Squad"?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

The United States is a culturally diverse nation with two major political parties as well as a rat's nest of political allegiances and alliances which make it very difficult to classify someone as completely within the political philosophy of one party or another.  The result is that both parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, must occasionally struggle to keep their members in line.

Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House and a Democrat, got into a tussle last week with four members of the House Democratic Caucus who had repeatedly sinned against the party by saying what they thought when they thought it needed to be said.  Pelosi tried to paint the four, all minority women, as being insignificant in the grand scheme of things when she referred to them as a "squad" who had nothing in the way of support other than a following on social media.

Pelosi, in attacking these four very bright congresswomen, erred on two fronts.  First she gave them a good deal of national attention and stirred new support for the four within their own party as well as across social media - and the reference of them being a "squad" caught on with the media and enhanced the collective image of the four.

But, more importantly, Pelosi's blunder, and it was a blunder, opened the door for Trump to bully his way into the conversation.   Trump, who has reason to hate Pelosi, was somehow smart enough not to attack the Speaker, but instead he agreed with her, only with far more vitriol.  Trump painted the four congresswomen as being un-American, anti-US military, and anti-Israel.  Then the US leader, a man who has seldom done anything positive for US troops or veterans, implied that the four were immigrants and suggested they go back to the disadvantaged and deplorable countries from which they came.

(All four members of the "squad" are American citizens, and only one was born abroad..  Two of Trump's three wives were immigrants.)

Trump's pivot to thwart the congresswomen put Pelosi in the uncomfortable position of having to defend those whom she had been attacking just days before.  Trump effectively tied Pelosi and the four together.

Democrats were quick to point out that Trump's remarks were blatantly racist, and Republicans, through their silence, seemed to concur.

Yesterday the House of Representatives held a vote on a formal condemnation of Trump for "racist" remarks.  The final vote was 240-187 in favor of the motion, with four House Republicans and one Independent voting with the majority Democrats.

The four Republicans exhibiting the courage to do what was right included Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan, and Susan Brooks of Indiana.   Rep. Jason Amash, who left the Republican Party to become an Independent just last week, also voted in the majority.

Could these four maverick Republicans - Hurd, Fitzpatrick, Upton, and Brooks - be the right's version of the "squad," a group of errant congressmen who are tough to corral and have a grating habit of speaking their own minds?  They had best be careful, because when it comes to free speech, the Republicans in Congress are even less tolerant than Speaker Pelosi.

Donald Trump, for his part, did not appreciate being condemned.  He angrily declared that he does not have a racist bone in his body.   Apparently no one has told our genius from the stable that the "skull" is a bone!