#IWSG OCTOBER 2017 CHECKIN – AFTER IRMA AND MARIA *****WARNING: SALTY LANGUAGE AHEAD*****

***WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SOME PRETTY SALTY LANGUAGE***

Well, we survived Irma and we're one of the luckier areas in Florida, I believe, but I ended up with a brief trip to the E. R. My current roommate went OUTSIDE during the hurricane – I guess to hole up somewhere and smoke a cigarette – and I grew concerned and went outside. Since I apparently have a head made of wood or sawdust, as I told my boyfriend, after the fact, I was hit in the head with flying debris. I then proceeded to lie on the front porch in a driving rain, for God Knows How Long, until someone found me and called an ambulance. I regained consciousness in the E. R. of St. Joseph's hospital, with 6 staples in my head.

The idiots at the hospital wanted to admit me, because my “core temperature was lowered” when I was brought in, but it was coming back up. Gee, ya think? Since I had laid there in the rain for God Knows How Long, bleeding from a head wound (not at ALL serious, by the way) there might just be a slight possibility that my core temperature was lowered and oh by the way, Billie Joe, I take Primidone which is a barbiturate for my essential tremor and my core temp is basically lower, ANYWAY. So, I yawped and barked and got the HELL out of there! I've had enough of hospitals, thank you very much and I am no fan of this one. MY hospital is TGH and they work with me.

Anyway, home I went and the power came back on about half an hour later. Maria is more worrying. My neighbor's mom lives in Puerto Rico. My 'hood is mostly Hispanic and there are still people that have not been heard from that island, whose relatives are here in town. I cannot imagine that uncertainty or worry hanging over their heads. Plus, we have a tone-deaf president who gives out Golf Trophies and flings rolls of paper towels at the islanders; it's embarrassing to be an American. We should do much, much more. What part of this is Donald Trump NOT getting? This is an American Territory with real trouble. Comparing Maria to Katrina is the most fallacious argument I've ever heard and Maria was a “real” hurricane, Mr. Factoid, so shut the fuck up, Donald Trump.

If you cannot do this job and it's obvious now that you cannot, step aside. Or how about this? DOJ, do YOUR fucking job and arrest this man for Obstruction of Justice! Clap him in irons and frog-march him into a jail cell where he belongs and prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law, based on the evidence, YOU ALREADY POSSESS! It's only going to get worse, not better! We, the American People, who are taught to think that the Institutions of this country will protect us, are being given short shrift, because the people who are currently manning those institutions are craven gorms, who are afraid to stand up to this nit-wit of a baby-man, lest he throw a tantrum. This is no longer a Democracy, a Republic; it's just chaos. His own Staff doesn't even know what he's doing!

Donald Trump wants to be Dictator of the United States and then, the World. We need to get him and his sleazy family and friends out of the White House and out of our Government. As Americans, we need to take back our system and run it properly and do it legally and without loopholes and/or wads of cash. I'm furious over what has happened to my country and you all should be, too. I'm GLAD the NFL is taking a knee. You know who else takes a knee? George Clooney does, when he prays for this country, every night. You all should, too. I'm out. I'm too goddamned mad at the American public, the media and my own government for behaving this way. Exercise your right to protest and vote, goddamnit! It's your right and your duty!

courtesy:thedailybeast.com                                         

WHY TO BE CONCERNED NOW AND NOT SIX MONTHS OR A YEAR FROM NOW

courtesy:deviantart.com    

Up until now, I've had little to say about the election of Donald Trump to the office of President of the United States. I suppose something like this has been a long time coming. We haven't exactly followed the credo of this great country and allowed any true free speech in a long time. I've been watching and waiting carefully and I've not been idle.

For years, I've written on my own blog about the abrogation of our personal freedoms as they are lined out in the Bill of Rights, under the Constitution of the United States. I've watched as Amendments III, IV, XIII IX and XIV have been repeatedly abrogated by local law enforcement, and time and time again, the officers have NOT been brought to justice, but have been let off with either minor sentences or fines, or just declared innocent, when countless video tapes tell us this is not so. Our Writ of Habeas Corpus has been violated and where is the outrage that the transgression of this most sacred of our rights should have spurred?

Despite the calls to justice to remedy the situation, there's always a lot of palaver and nothing is done. Then, more blood is shed, and it continues. I'm not just calling out the law enforcement agencies, although they do a shockingly bad job of following up on leads as was the case in Orlando, Florida, where the unholy massacre of so many innocents took place last summer.

This wasn't the first time the FBI had been warned of an individual who was a danger to society. But lest I get off the main track of this post, let me keep going.

With the election of Donald Trump and now, a Republican House and Senate, and the empty Supreme Court Justice seat, Trump has in his hands the power to do many of the things he said he would. So far, his actions, statements and choices for his cabinet are nothing short of hair-raising.

Firstly, we have collectively been told by America that We (rhetorically speaking) hate women, Muslim, Jews, LGBTQ, people of color; basically anyone who is NOT a white male and in one stroke we have made White Supremacy legitimate. It's now called the alt-Right and has left the forests and the huntin' dogs behind and wears a pin-striped suit and a tie and speaks in more scholarly terms, but it's still a pig; it just wears lipstick now. Whatever it looks like, it's still the same old racism that just hid, when we all thought we were being progressive.

I read an article by Masha Gessen called "Autocracy: Rules for Survival" and I believe the woman knows what she is talking about and it's another reason I'm not one of these people who are saying "Give Donald Trump a chance, blah blah blah". No chances am I giving to someone who talked and acted the way he did. I'm a woman with a Movement Disorder. How out of my mind would I have to be do such a thing?

But back to Masha's article. I'll boil it down for you, and provide the link, as well. 

Rule #1: Believe the autocrat. He means what he says. We tend to rationalize his extreme statements because we're reasonable people, but he isn't. Several million Jews, Communists, Trade Unionists and others did the exact same thing in 1933 and look how that turned out.

Rule #2: Do not be taken in by small signs of normality. Hitler loved his dog and we saw plenty of pictures of him playing with her. Also, consider the fact that even though the markets tanked overnight, calming speeches from the Clintons and Obama smoothed things over considerably.

Rule #3: Institutions will not save you. Putin took over the Russian media within a year of his election and within 4 years, he dismantled the electoral system; their judiciary system fell apart without a whimper. Turkey's so-called Democratic President, who was celebrated for taking them into the EU, worked even faster in capturing the institutions that would safeguard the populace, and sadly, Poland has in less than half a year torn apart any democratic gains made within the last thirteen years.

Naturally, the United States has had a much longer history with the Democratic process than the aforementioned countries, but we also rely on not just the process but also the political culture to do the right thing. If all of the actors are not abiding by the law, then it means nothing. Reince Priebus' "Loyalty Oath" was supposed to put an end to Trump, but it backfired; Trump "became" GOP and then, anyone who couldn't endorse him, or agree with him, was being "disloyal to the oath". Trump isn't a stupid man; he's very Machiavellian in his political moves.

We also witnessed our three branches of government go completely off the rails, shortly before the election, At the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the GOP-led House informed our lame-duck President that it was "tradition" that a President in his final year of office wasn't "allowed" to nominate a Supreme Court Justice. This was just made up bullshit on the part of Mitch McConnell and the GOP and there is no such "tradition". So, basically, one branch of the government hijacked another branch of the government, and the third branch of the government stood there like the house by the side of the road! Our institutions are only as strong as the people who will defend them and uphold the laws.

Rule #4: Be outraged. If you follow Rule #1, and believe what the autocrat-elect is saying, you will not be surprised. But in the face of the urge to normalize, you will have lost the capacity to be shocked. It is essential to maintain this, although people will call you hysterical and/or unreasonable and accuse you of overreacting. I'm sure there were plenty of people in the 3^rd Reich who had reason to wish they had been accused of overreacting, when they found themselves in the Camps. Certainly the Lutheran Reverend Martin Niemöller had huge cause for regret (initially for Hitler, he later had doubts; as Head of the Lutheran Church, he remained silent), and expressed it beautifully* when freed from Dachau in 1945 by the allies.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Rule #5: Don't make compromises. I'm already sick and damned tired of hearing "we have to give him a chance". No, I don't. You may think you have to, but I think he needs to go away. He is unfit for the office of President of the United States and he is dangerous, simply because he doesn't know when to shut his mouth. If it were only that, he could be outfitted with handlers, much like Boris Yeltsin, who would regularly have to have a total "oil change" before meeting heads of state, because his BAC was pushing 70% or something ridiculous. At least, Boris was courteous.

Lastly, Rule #6: Remember the future. Nothing lasts forever, certainly not Donald Trump. I hope his days in the Oval Office are in the single or double digits, maybe. He is not going to be good for this country; he's already bringing out the worst in people. I heard this story from my better 2/3s, who's a friend of a preacher man, who is also a singer/songwriter and is Afro-American; this involves a family in his congregation. 

A white couple went into a restaurant, where a black family were finishing their meal. The white couple went up to them, and said, "You need to hurry up and leave. You KNOW who OUR President is now!" This kind of divisiveness will only continue to spread; the hatred will fester and we will once again, become a weak, divided nation, as we were during the McCarthy era. We can all turn each other in for crimes imagined. I might be here, or more than likely I won't. I'm not sure this country is worth sticking around to try and save. 

I'm not even going to address the "Hamilton" mess or Pence's penchant for torture and waterboarding; I'd be here pounding on this keyboard all night. But, if this is what America wants, so be it.

#A-TO-Z-CHALLENGE – LETTER “P” - PUTIN'S CONDOLENCES TO ORLANDO

                                                                                                                    

            Спасибо, Россия .

Спасибо, президент Путин .

Warning: Be prepared for one long post!

Yeah, yeah, I know. I'm still farting around with the A-to-Z-CHALLENGE. I'm all the way up to Letter “P”, but as per usual, my crazy life has intervened. The five kittens are all healthy and growing like weeds. The little lavender female is the most adventurous and friendliest of the bunch, although they all are friendly and sweet. The big ginger-swirl kitten had something wrong with his nose, I thought, until I realized he was just falling asleep head-first into his food dish. They're pretty well-potty trained, and are ready for the part I'm gonna dread; deciding who gets to stay and who has to go. My fixed income will not allow for five cats. I already feel like I'm feeding livestock, and on some days, I could probably plow the kitchen floor and plant crops; they're so messy. But, they're kittens, and they're just at the very tippy-point of learning to be fussy cats, (they've started grooming one another) with all the licking and preening and what not.

Once again, the Wallace gene strikes. Out of the roughly 45,000 pictures I took of these little boogers, these are the only two that show anything resembling "kitten". I have tons of murky, blurry out-of-focus pics for my nascent "Paranormal TV" career, which will start just as soon as I get back from Japan, unless I just keep going east to Novosibirsk to play in their orchestra.

But, life intervened in another very surprising and spectacular way recently. I've been playing again, as many of you know, and as it turns out, I am going to Japan in January, 2017 to play for the entire month. I signed the contract last week. I've gotten my paperwork ready for my passport and Alex and I are going to go down to the Clerk of the County Courthouse to apply. He needs to renew his passport, as his dad in the D. R. isn't getting any younger, so we're doing this together.

courtesy: www.insidejapantours.com

The last time I was in Japan, it was in the heat of August. This time, it will be winter and I am really looking forward to this. The country is gorgeous. We will NOT be playing any "Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto", but a combination of well-known sound-tracks from movies on the first half of the concert and then, we will back, "well-known Japanese Matinee-type singers". Not too sure what that means, but I'm assured a fun and first-class trip! Being a red-head is a plus. We bring good luck to the Japanese. I still have no gray hair; I just dole it out to people.

Anyway, I'm glad I got a head start on this, because the entire orchestra's passports are handed over to the Japanese Embassy here, for work visas and such, and they will be returned to us, when we all meet up in Orlando, on January 2, 2017, to rehearse. And this brings me to the nut of this post.

Orlando was horrific. In a country where the horrifying seems to occur with stultifying, mind-numbing frequency and the death-toll keeps rising, each atrocity is just piled on top of one more atrocity. It doesn't surprise me in the least, that this latest massacre exceeded the death-toll, executed by a single agent, for whatever weird, twisted, although probably logical reason, to him, EVER. Most assuredly, at some point, this death-toll will be topped.

courtesy: www.huffingtonpost.com

Medical teams awaiting 1st responders. I do not know if all of the survivors were treated at one center, and in a case like this, the morgue will not be overflowing, because cause of death is apparent. What is so mystifying to me, is this: in any of these tragedies, the people committing these crimes have such a burning hatred and sustain it for so long. They have to get the weapons, ammunition, and explosives (as in James Moore's case, when he booby-trapped his apartment in Aurora, CO and it took authorities about 72 hours to get into his place) and plan, then execute their plan. I'm a bit of a sociopath, when it comes to harming people, but I do it only out of necessity and have NEVER lost a night's sleep over it. I know two muggers who are still running; but I would NEVER do anything like this. My mind simply cannot conceive of doing anything remotely like this.

When this happened, people were once again, trotting out labels: “Radical Muslim”, “terrorist act”, “hate crime” (they're all hate crimes; this is the stupidest, most reductive term; like “hate” speech – meaningless), and what I think has been missed in this case, as in the Root case, but was so patently obvious in the James Moore and the Sandy Hook shootings, is mental illness. Omar Mateen was abusive to his first wife, hated African-Americans, hated women, yet had a friendship with a Drag Queen. Again, people are trying to apply a label to someone, who is so complex, you really cannot do so and do anyone, or any group of people justice. I'm not even sure this is something gun control can fix, nor is it even an argument I want to have. Both sides have their points, but, as far as background checks and all of that, even the FBI had to give up on Mateen, when an investigation went nowhere. I've survived three home invasions; the most serious one being the one where I DIDN'T have a gun, but a lamp, then six weeks later, a colleague is killed; beaten beyond recognition and there were guns in the house. I believe it's all about attitude. I can be one scary bitch if I have the incentive, and two black guys hovering over me while I was asleep, was all the incentive my lizard-brain needed to go bipolar; it was over quickly. A gun would not have made an iota of difference.

It's rather like the sex offender who, once again, in Orlando, answered his door, only to be attacked by a young man. The s. o., who had been out for 20 years and was living a quiet life and registering, because he is required to, by law, and by law, is also not given the privacy that the rest of us are given – his address is readily available via the Internet - fought back and held the young man, until the police came. When the young man was asked why he attacked the s.o. - and it turned out later, others, he said “To seek forgiveness with God for sins I have committed.” That answer right there, is reason enough to do away with the Registry and allow people who have already served sentences and are on the straight and narrow – 95% of s.o.s do not re-offend, and 90% of s.o.s are known by their victims – to live in anonymity. Even law enforcement are coming around to see this for what it is; over-reaction. Something America is good at.

What we are not so good at is equality, nor freedom, nor safety for our citizens. If anyone in our society deems it necessary to go to a social club or a place of “sanctuary” to feel safe, or to be themselves, then guess what folks? Not a damn one of us are safe or free or equal. We have become even more short-sighted about this since the campaign for the 2016 elections have heated up. Never has the country been so divided on so many courses and that is intentional. Just because I don't like what Donald Trump has to say, doesn't mean I'm going to lay one up aside the head of a Trump supporter. How stupid is that? I've created a martyr. Same thing for the idiots who are for Bernie! I like Bernie, but if he doesn't win the Candidacy for the Dems, I'm not going to start terrorizing or smacking around Hillary supporters.

courtesy: www.youtube.com

I love these assholes who say their votes don't matter, so they don't vote. Sorry pal, but you live in a country where you pay taxes and you do benefit from the goods and services of our local, State and Federal government, so yes, you are obligated to vote. It would help if you knew how the government is supposed to work, and what the three branches of the Federal Government are, and why they are set up to check and balance one another. It would also be a terrific idea if you knew what the Bill of Rights was and how it applies to your everyday life, because it does. I hate to say it, but Americans are some of the stupidest, laziest people I've ever run across, yet they are the first ones to stand up and holler about how great this Goddamned country is. Maybe 40 years ago, but not now, and not in my lifetime.

I have never seen people get so hysterical over an election and I thought 2012 was crazy. But, I digress, or got off the beaten path a bit, because this is a micro- version of what is going on in the macro- geopolitical world stage.

It is known, or should be known by Western Leaders, that Vladimir Putin is not a “regular guy” leader. Boris Yeltsin was, maybe. Mikhail Gorbachev is more of a Philosopher and his writings and his legacy that he left the world, by opening the USSR to the west reflects that, for good or ill. It was Winston Churchill, who once said of the USSR “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.” So much for Winnie.

courtesy: www.history.com

Winston Churchill. His was probably one of the most adroit and astute minds of the 20^th Century. Whether it was guiding his country through World War II, and coming whisker-close to losing the war during the Battle of Britain, or negotiating with the very astute and conniving Joseph Stalin and having to be the more realistic of the pair, with both FDR and the Harry Truman, after FDR's death, Winnie was able to handle it all. 

Probably the main reason the people remained so mysterious to him, is that he was always looking at them from a great height; the geopolitical height, rather than getting down on the proletariat's level and understanding them and their lives and how they lived. Of course, he would never have been allowed to do such a thing; Stalin would never have permitted anything like that and for generations, the USSR apparatchiki strove hard to make sure that nothing but perfection ever radiated forth from the gigantic monolith that was CCCP¹.

courtesy: blogs.crikey.com.au

Joseph Stalin, from the SSR Georgia, born Josip Vissarionovich Djugashvili, he later changed his surname to "Stalin", Russian for "Steel". Technically, a colleague of mine, due to an education by Jesuit Priests, however, he took away the parts that he could use to manipulate and cow others around him. Lenin's last will and testament originally stated that Stalin should not even be part of the Politburo, much less Premiere of the USSR. Upon Lenin's death, Stalin had all of the copies of that last will and testament found and destroyed, and systematically over approximately a decade, he did away with everyone who had that will and testament in their possession. Paranoid in the extreme, once he had finished decimating the top leadership in the Politburo and had driven Trotsky (the Architect of the Red Army) to Mexico City, and finally assassinated in 1940, he turned to the Red Army Generals and began decimating them. When Germany attacked on June 22, 1941, Stalin had little to counter with, and had to re-build his army, as he was fighting off an invasion, that saw the Nazis as close as six city blocks from Moscow. Stalin's USSR bore the stamp of his rule, well into the 80s, until Mikhail Gorbachev began his program of first "Perestroika" (Listen) and then "Glasnost" (Openness).

courtesy:wikipedia.com

Hey! It's me again! I must admit. I'm a sucker for this old Soviet-era style of artwork. I play on Russian fb (vkomte.ru) and there are all sorts of games featuring cats in Soviet-style Navy uniforms and such. I'm an idiot.

No, you had to catch them unawares and it turned out not so hard to do, because, they were, naturally, just people. People love to talk about the things that matter to them. The KGB agent who secretly baptizes his children. The gangly teenagers, who love the western jeans given them as gifts and have learned a sort of half-assed English to match your half-assed Russian. Everyone giggles at everyone else's gaffes, because it all sounds horrible.

No one really cares, though. It's fun and you all pretend your spies, tee hee. The Babushka who yells at you when you come out of your Moscow hotel in the morning with a hangover and your viola, and no hat or scarf, thankful, that yes, you were pulled from that snowbank by “Yuri” your “guide” - read KGB-escort - who was probably drunker than you were. You double-check to make sure he's not still in the gutter. Oh! Here he is, with blintzes and hot tea! You both laugh and look away, because, you're still not sure if you're going to be in trouble when you get to rehearsal. You're not, but decide to behave after that.

courtesy: 02varvara.wordpress.com

I happened across this by luck; a modern-day Cossack family, serving their country. The last I had heard of this was during what we call World War II, but what is known to Russia as the Great Patriotic War. When the men and women dismounted from their horses and turned in their swords, the men went into the T-34 tanks, that were churned out by the thousands east of the Urals, and shipped west, or they flew YAK fighters and bombers against the Nazis. The women fought alongside their men; often times as "night witches" flying wooden and cloth airplanes, that had no defenses, but carried bombs to drop on the supply lines and ammo dumps of the Nazis, behind enemy lines. The witches were highly successful and the women also fought alongside in the infantry, although this was much more common in the South than in the North.

courtesy: pinterest.com 

I'm not seeing a great, big mystery here, folks. Not anywhere. The Cossacks who went to the Great Patriotic War, went in families, as they had done for generations. I believe we had families who fought together in the Civil War, and some who took up arms against one another. In the case of the Cossacks and the Russians, they really had no choice. The Waffen SS were out to destroy them all. The parallel is a bit more apt, though, due to the humane practices of General Heinz Guderian or the Wehrmacht in the South, who actually began enlisting some of the Ukrainians and Southern Russians – whom Stalin would later execute for committing treason, understandably – after the Battles of Stalingrad and Kursk.

Truly, the only thing mystifying to me, about the Russians is that they have had more than their share of misery and hardship and heartache and yet, they can be so damn happy and not just because they drink vodka, which is one letter away from their word for water. Russian mysticism is something I DO understand, and it's partly because, as my mother used to say, I'm fey. What a laugh. I'm like 71% left-brained, and not really dominated by any magical thinking, although I do have a tendency to wander off a bit, and not just rhetorically.

So, let me get to the point of this whole entire post, regarding Vladimir Putin. He called President Barack Obama, and gave the President his heartfelt condolences, regarding Orlando. People seemed stunned by this, regarding Putin's “stance” on the LGBTQ segment of the population in his own country. I think some of his own citizens may have been a little questioning, and then when they thought about it, their very Russianness took over and they went back to what they were doing.

You may remember a post I wrote on the lovely tear-drop Memorial that was commissioned by Russia and is overlooking the New York Skyline. It is in Bayonne, New Jersey and when I was researching that post, I found out some interesting things. Vladimir Putin was there when the Memorial was first dedicated, and building began, and it had already been decided to build it in Bayonne, because the majority of the Fire fighters who died in the twin collapse were from Bayonne. The Memorial also overlooks NYC when you look through the fissure where the “tear drop” dwells. President Bill Clinton was there when the Monument opened and Vladimir Putin and the Memorial's sculptor and Russia are very pleased with the results. You have to work to go and see it, and that's the point of it.

courtesy: cluesforum.info

This was written about in the Daily Mail out of the UK and it was written from the viewpoint of someone who thought that the U.S. had just put this here and not really cared about it at all. When I did some digging into why it was in this specific place and what it symbolized, I got it immediately. This is very Russian  in it's expression, placement and the spare quality of the overall look. Vladimir Putin was extremely pleased with the way it turned out, as was it's sculptor, Zurob Tsereteli and President Bill Clinton was on hand when the statue was completed and dedicated. Each victim's name is somewhere in or around the Memorial, and Mr. Putin was on hand himself as ground was broken, and building began.

This is something Putin understands; he may be very politically conservative, but he understands and does have respect for, human nature. By doing these things; he was the first Foreign Leader to call George W. Bush on 9/11, and by calling President Obama, he's showing that for whatever geopolitical crap is going on in the world, we're still the human family. Yes, Syria is a thorn, but Russia's goals there are not our goals and we would do well to remember that. Ukraine? I've said all along, that one day, they want one thing, the next something else; this is the result of several centuries of territorial conflict and inter-marrying. We have NO business being there, or advising there.

He reached out to us; that kind of moral support is indelible and invaluable. He is representing his people, and I believe expressing his own feelings – not that he's a soft, or sentimental guy, but he understands the shedding of blood in that way that Russians always seem to do, more so maybe, because of the nigh-on close to extinction they've either suffered at the hands of others, or alas, themselves, in ages past, and my experiences with Russians have always been more on the positive side than the negative. Just because our current geopolitical views aren't in harmony doesn't make the Russians or their President monsters. They are flesh-and-blood human beings. With his gesture, he is reaching out to us, and we should respond in kind.

courtesy: www.huffingtonpost.com 

I myself have made fun of ol' Vlad "the Impaler" Putin. Usually when he's riding a bear without a shirt on, or some other nonsense. In this case, I have to say, "Thank you, Mr. Putin". Just because I don't always agree with your politics, okay, well, most of your politics, doesn't mean that I can't recognize one person reaching out, literally and an entire country reaching out figuratively with good wishes and healing vibes. You've done it in the past. Thank you.

I'm not making excuses for the Russians, nor am I giving them a pass. All cultures and histories, are blood-soaked at some point, or another. The old adage of “those who do not learn history's lessons are doomed to repeat them,” is really a tired and worn out one, I think. We just seem to invent new ways to inflict misery upon one another. We have no farther than our own “Trail of Tears” in the U.S.'s recent past to see how evil and conniving people can be, when it comes to the extermination of those we think are beneath us.

I have heard through my little grapevine that things are not as bad for LGBT people as they seem. I don't know if I believe it, however. I do know this: there seems to be an awful lot of looking the other way and demonstrating that passes unnoticed by the "official eyes", so who knows what the hell is going on. Without being in Russia, on the ground, it's hard to believe what you're hearing. Again, I defer to Mr. Churchill on this.

Yes, Russia is having a bad time of it in Ukraine, and some of their policies in Syria have made their economy sag a bit. None of that is relevant. It's not as if the U.S. hasn't blundered into some quagmires and had her nose bloodied. President Putin is not Stalin, nor a monster; he's simply a man, the leader of Russia who is extending sympathy and wishing for a speedy recovery for the injured. Putting aside the issue with his stance on LGBTQ people, I find it a humane and reassuring gesture, coming from him and his people. Thank you, Russia. Thank you, Mr. Putin.

#IWSG #ROW80 #A-TO-Z-CHALLENGE PRE-POST SOAPBOX “TO MY DEAR FRIEND, ****”

Well, now. What could all of this be about? And why am I addressing everyone in any writing group that I've ever participated (or hovered on the outskirts of) in? There's a simple reason for that and it has to do with MAGNIFICATION, which just means that I want the broadest audience possible for this post. Normally, I don't give a good goddamn who reads what, unless I think I've written something truly fine or more likely, hysterically funny, but there isn't a whole lot to laugh about these days, is there?

So, this is to my Dear Friend, ****. I'm not using any names, but there are plenty of you out there that I count as my dear friends and I care about you, and this post is mainly directed AT you and it is meant in as loving a way as I can possibly state. ARE YOU ALL FUCKING NUTS?

courtesy:thedailybeast.com        

No, I take that back, Dear Friend, ****, because surely your rationale for making the decision and choices that you are clearly making now, make some sense to you, although the rest of the world is scratching it's head over this. I am talking about the decision to back Donald Trump as our next Republican Presidential Candidate in the 2016 General Election.

You know what is odd about this? I see your point; I truly do. However, you, I, and the rest of the nation have been sold this bill of goods for so long, it's hard to know what is the truth anymore and what is a bunch of smoke and mirrors. So, let me see if I can clear it up for all of us, Dear Friend, ****. We've been fed a lot of guff for a long time, all of us and it's time we all put an end to the long con.

courtesy:content.time.com                                

You see, back in the days of true Conservative Republican-type politics, we had very good candidates like Barry Goldwater, who made a run for President in 1964, only to be undone by one Lyndon Baines Johnson, who while a terrific Senator and Speaker of the House was a truly shitty president, was already lying to the American public about the truth of things about the Tonkin Gulf. He could hardly help that however, since he was being lied to by Robert McNamara and later, General William Westmoreland, regarding body counts in Vietnam. However, it was the beginning of what would become a period of deceit in American Politics that would continue to haunt us until this day.

Goldwater would have made a good President, my Dear Friend, ****, but he made one statement that made him sound war-like and LBJ jumped on it in his campaigning (not that mud-slinging was anything new, but LBJ raised the bar on that) and so he buried Goldwater.

But, LBJ botched Vietnam, and decided at the 11^th hour not to run in '68, leaving the door open for pacifist George McGovern as the Democratic Candidate, facing off against Richard Nixon, who won in a landslide, declaring “We want no wider war”, all the while bombing into Cambodia and creating one of the most horrific scenes of genocide by de-stabilizing that country.

And so it goes, Dear Friend, ****. America has invested in her share of Acts of Folly, up to and including the invasion of Iraq and the destabilization of the entire Middle East. Because, we think we know better than everyone else. Because we believe that our way is better and that we are going to ram democracy and freedom down the entire 3^rd world's throats, if it kills 'em. Our hubris, arrogance and base stupidity know no bounds. As reference, I point again to Vietnam.

We built “hamlets” and moved all of the agrarian farmers from the outlying villages into them. What we never understood and what the Vietnamese revere more than anything is ancestor worship and by taking them forcefully from their homes and moving them to a new place forced them to leave behind generations of their dead, which they cherished highly. It was no way to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese and it only served to drive more and more of these villagers into the hands of the Viet Minh, led by Ho Chi Minh, who was a Patriot first and a Communist, second. 

courtesy:www.invert-the-future.org

Ho Chi Minh

But, we NEVER could get that fine distinction into our thick heads and we STILL have a hide-bound government determined to follow the Truman Doctrine right straight to Hell. The Truman Doctrine, roughly paraphrased, means that by allowing one country to be “coerced” into becoming a Communist country, other countries in the region will fall to the same type of political and economical regime; a “Domino Effect” as it were.

My screed is going to take a different tack now, because there are other parallels in history that resemble what is going on now and they are quite simply, terrifying, Dear Friend, ****.

If we go back into the 20^th century and look at post WW I Germany, and the Weimar Republic, we can see that this was a time that was fraught with great economic upheaval in the entire world, not just Germany. The Russian Revolution had been fought and won, and if Lenin had lived longer, the USSR would not have become this monolithic enigma that it turned into under Stalin. With good reason, the Soviets feared the West. They were invaded five times after the initial Revolution, by various countries and factions, but the Bolsheviks always won and were becoming suspicious and wary of the west.

To the west, a young Adolf Hitler was busily putting together some kind of rag-tag base of political ill-repute. A chicken farmer, (Rudolph Hess), a flying ace from WW I and some-time heroin addict (Hermann Goering) and the SA, the precursor to the SS. What Hitler did after he was arrested for the 1923 beer-hall putsch, was to sit himself down and write “Mein Kampf” (My Struggle) which should be REQUIRED reading for anyone who wants to think critically. 

courtesy:furtherglory.wordpress.com                          

Once Hitler was out of jail, he began to get this thing published and distributed and went to Union Meetings, Town Halls and distributed the thing. It won him all of the disaffected Germans who were suffering; suffering loss of status, loss of income, loss of their own sense of self within what they “knew” to be true as “Germanic”, or as Hitler would feed them, the term “Aryan”. He started out by descrying the Treaty of Versailles, which was a punitive treaty, the Allies rammed down Germany's throat, at the end of WW I. We, as part of the Allies in WW II would not make that mistake again. But gradually, he talked about “Pan-Germanism”, anti-communism and only later, began to sneak in anti-semitism. His growing supporters lapped this up like pigs at a trough. At last! Someone who understands us! Someone who is for us!

Boy, howdy, Dear Friend, ****, did they buy into it. They began to rally around this little failure of a man and listen to his hours-long screeds, which consisted mainly at the time of the equivalent of “there, there, papa is here to make it all better”. As Hitler began to gain strength, he began his onslaught on the Reichstag, the legal government of Germany, being presided over by President von Hindenburg. He first was able to establish the NAZI (Nationalist-Socialist Party) from the defunct NSDAP party and gain a majority in the Reichstag. In 1934, the NAZIs successfully passed the “Enabling Act”, which began the process of turning Germany into a one-party dictatorship based on totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism.

Well, Dear Friend, ****, this is where we start seeing that the will of the people don't mean anything. Hitler had already been secretly rebuilding an army called the Wehrmacht, to augment and eventually replace the Reichswehr, which was but a rump of an army, in the event Germany had to defend herself.

While Hitler was gangbusters at drumming up war fever and babbling about lebensraum, easily interpreted as “what's yours is now mine” or is a type of colonialism mind-set left over from the 19^th century, Hitler went at it with a fury. His first acquisition was Austria, which was practically German, because the Austrians spoke German. Then, came the Sudetenland, which was a rump state that had belonged to Germany, or Germans had walked across, or looked at.

courtesy:history.com

Winston Churchill. Neville has apparently evaporated from the internet (just kidding), but would you want to face this bulldog across a negotiating table, squabbling about the fate of the free world? Neither would I and I'm a BITCH!

Up until this point, Dear Friend ****, the west had rattled a couple of sticks, not even sabers, and had conceded everything that Der Füehrer asked for. In Great Britain, The Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, gave into every single demand, while a back-bencher, by the name of Winston Churchill sat and fumed. But appeasement NEVER pays off, as Herr Chamberlain would find out on September 1, 1939.

Ultimatums flew back and forth, and Hitler was certain that the West would not attack, but they did. Although ultimately victorious, the Allies took heavy, heavy losses. But, what of the Germans who had followed this nameless gorm so blindly into the cataclysm? Their 1000-year Reich lasted exactly 12 years and when the German Army was in retreat and after it was apparent they could not stand and hold, Hitler ordered them to “raze the countryside” because, “these people, these sheep I have led do not deserve to live”, or words to that effect.

Dear Friend, ****, Hitler's Arkitektminister, Albert Speer ran, drove, rode horses, all over the countryside, countermanding that order. He knew the war was lost, but he still cared enough about his country and his fellow Germans that he didn't want them to starve during the wintertime. War is a bitter, bitter thing. But even more bitter, is finding out that your leader doesn't give one good goddamned about you.

So, what have I just told you, Dear Friend, ****? I have just described a scenario we are currently in the midst of. Through no fault of yours or mine, we have become disenfranchised in a way. Big deal. I once had a fine house out in the country, then I tried to buy a house during the Banking Crisis and I fought off eviction for two years. I can no longer drive, due to the fact that I am legally blind. Big Deal.

What we have is a man who is trying to steam-roll his way into being President and he is preying on the likes of people who have the mindset that they have in fact, lost something. Yes, you have. I have. But, it's part of social change and electing a person like this who is also now got the GOP endorsing him and groveling at his feet and appeasing him, is very much like a scenario that existed back in Germany in the 30s. This does not make Trump eminently fit to become one of the most powerful men in the world. To put it bluntly, the guy is a schlemiel and one of the reasons Vladimir Putin loves him so much, is because Putin will eat him for breakfast.

There is so much more at stake here than just what's sitting in your driveway. Have a motorcycle? You're doing better than I am. Gotta a car? Good for you! I have to take public transportation and sit next to Drunky McStinkly. This does not give me cause to lose all reason and vote for a jackleg.

I will leave you with this, Dear Friend, ****. Whatever happens in this election, whomever wins, we are liable to see bloodshed in the streets and Donald Trump is responsible for this. He has whipped up hatred and fervor to a pitch not seen since the days of Reconstruction or the riots of the 60s. This used to be a country of beautiful ideals. We used to be able to engage in discourse and disagree on subjects without resorting to violence and this has gone the way of the sabre-toothed tiger. We used to be the “melting pot” not only of different cultures, faiths and people, but also ideas. We are so far off that path now, I wonder if we can get that back.

courtesy:covenantpeoplesministry.org

This is becoming more and more the norm. The organization is supposedly a religious one and is under the protection of a non-profit.

This was the original picture I wanted to use that I had found for another post. This more properly conveys, I think, the true nature of what a fascist regime represents, unlike the little ragtag, make-do pretend army of the previous picture. If you have never visited a country that exists under a Military or One-man Dictatorship, you should. Your eyes will be opened. Visiting Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R., and as much as I love the Russians, their way of life did nothing to enamor me of their governance; just because they were Communists at the time (and still REALLY are), means nothing. It's the flip side of the same coin.

I hear rhetoric now about doing away with certain parts of the Constitution and parts of some of the Amendments that don't sit well with some politicians. So be it. The Great American Experiment lasted about 240 years. The Ottoman Empire lasted longer. Maybe Khrushchev was right and we will be tossed onto the ash heap of history; a fitting place for the country I see around me right now. Good luck, my Dear Friend, ****. I will never forget you. I'll be the one on the OTHER side of the barricades, or like Leon Trotsky (sans Stalin), will be writing policy for a new world. For what it's worth, I vote Independent and vote the principle, NOT the platform!

#ROW80 1ST QTR 2016 – A COUNTRY ON THE BRINK

Well, so much for goals. I started a little serial novel, and then damn! If it didn't become part of my own little “Nebraska Creepers” serial. But seriously? It's a good thing I have that kind of psychopathic moxie, because it seems to me, we're headed down a road that is going to produce a singularity, and I may need my ability to let go of every human inhibition to survive. I do believe I posess the flip side of a serial murderer and I can conjure that up easily, if need be. With the country's situation quickly unraveling that may be necessary. Lemme explain, or at least try to clarify.

courtesy:fox8.com

The last time the USA had a Presidential slate like this was with the Dems in 1984, and no one could put up a candidate to beat Ronald Reagan. Every jackleg on this podium is not qualified to be President, and most are incompetent in whatever it is they do. God help us all.

On the one hand we have the GOP. I may as well start with them first, since they're the most obvious. Ted Cruz is running for President and so far, NOT ONE jackhole in power has done ANYTHING about the fact that he is not a native-born American! I personally believe the FEC (Federal Election Committee) is run by no one, or Keebler Elves, or Christ knows who, because back last summer they let a guy named “Deez Nuts” in Iowa register to run for Prez and it turned out to be a 15-year old kid in Iowa who polled 3^rd behind Donald Trump in North Carolina, when “Deez Nuts” asked to be polled, because dems da rules. “Deez Nuts” got the idea when some 17 year old in Kentucky recruited his friend's cat “Limberbutt McCubbins” to run for President and that created some kind of press interest. How fucked up is that?

courtesy:nytimes.com

Okay, so with these two in the Executive Branch, something might get done. Gridlock, back-biting and I suspect, greed, corruption and out-of-itness as regards the American people are at an all-time high. Not that we didn't help, by not checking out the jackanapes who were running for office and that we elected.

So, we have like 70 jillion people running for President on the GOP side, and that's a huge mess, because everyone seems to be waiting for the other guy to denounce Donald Trump, but this guy is not going away. The reality of a Trump Presidency is very real and it's scary, but no one is calling out Ted Cruz on his non-American birth, which should have been done, the minute he filed for his candidacy. When did we get so sloppy?

courtesy:www.bizpacreview.com

Gah! What a pair of feckless gorms! I'm not sure which looks phonier. Don, with that god-awful hair and flappy lips, or Ted and his Bob's Big Boy countenance. What's up with those thumbs? Are they getting ready to ram them up each other's asses?

Over on the Dems' side, it ain't lookin' much prettier. The smaller the margin, or the farther behind Hillary falls, the shriller she sounds and the more she flails around. She also is carrying some pretty hefty baggage that MUST be addressed when she takes office. Bernie was right at the beginning of the Debate Season (why must there be debates like, every other minute?) when he said “forget about the emails” at THAT juncture, he was right, but as more and more information comes out, it looks like Hillary did some pretty shady stuff. Also, I do not believe that she really and truly has the people's interests at heart. It boils down to trust and I no longer believe her. I do believe Sanders and I'm with him now.

courtesy:npr.com

Not to turn into a catty bitch, but ME-OW. That coat Hillary has on is eye-scorching and she apparently got it from Dolce-Gabana and wore it everywhere. It's hideous! One other thing, Sanders got 60% of the Primary Vote in New Hampshire, and Hillary only got 33%, yet she won more delegates, due to the stupid system they have with the Super delegates, whatever in the hell those are. No wonder the system is broken. It allowed George W. Bush to "steal" two elections and that whole system needs revamping.

Sanders is a populist in the truest, most old-fashioned sense of the word. He understand what this country is going through and while I do not believe this can be fixed in two Presidential terms, we can start the correction. I believe Obama, being a realist knew this when he took office and knew he was going to take heat for it in his second term. This mess took 40 years to take hold; it will not be fixed in six years. A new approach is needed and Sanders knows this.

courtesy:en.wikipedia.org

The Right Honorable Judge Scalia was very conservative and he spoke plainly and sometimes roughly, but all who knew him said he was a kind man and took his responsibilities very seriously. Who wouldn't being a judge on the highest bench in the country. Liberals had nothing good to say about him. Although I may seem to have a liberal cant, I am an Independent and NEVER vote platforms. He wrote opinions that I often agreed with, and I'm sorry he's gone. Most Supreme Court Judges live to be eleventy-billion years old. President Obama is correct in trying to name a replacement as soon as possible. It is one of his Constitutional duties, and the ninnies in Congress need to shut their pie-holes and read the Constitution. The House Whip needs to send them to bed without their Scotch.

And now, we have the sudden, unexpected death of Antonin Scalia and the whole of the Republican Congress goes batshit insane and tells Obama he CANNOT install a replacement. What horseshit. This is the LEGISLATIVE branch of our government telling the EXECUTIVE branch of our government what it can or cannot do with the JUDICIAL branch of the government.

courtesy:co.telegraph.uk

Geeze, President Obama has gotten gray since taking office. No wonder, dealing with all the shit he's had to take. He still has like 300+ more days. He's probably counting the minutes.

I do not believe any of these pinheads who are hollering that Obama CANNOT appoint a replacement have read the Constitution and it's time they did so. The 3 branches of government were created separately to keep any one branch of government from holding too much power or garnering it. If Obama backs down and gives in, this is tantamount to saying, “Okay, Legislature, I guess you rule here.” What nonsense.

This is the kind of stuff that brings on civil unrest and we're not all that far from that scenario. We have para-military groups within the police that act with impunity. Not all police are bad. My Aunt and Uncle's family are rife with people in law enforcement and they know their responsibilities are to the citizens they protect. You will find no more such honorable and extraordinary men and women who put their lives in harm's way.

courtesy:funnyjunk.com

A cute picture; we actually have parties with our District 3 Tampa Police, about four times a year. The fact that I live in a highly dangerous area is one of the reasons, but these guys know our names, know who lives where and they do check up on us. After the thwarted home invasion here, they've been by to check up on me. Tampa is NOT a small town, but this 'hood has a small town mentality.

However, in Ferguson, Baltimore and elsewhere, there are horrible problems with the police and they are more apt to kill a citizen and concoct some story later. There are “dark” places in Chicago, where people are held against there will, with no formal charges, thus abrogating our last true civil right that defined the difference between us and either a fascistic or tyrannical state. This may not be occurring on a National level, but we need to unshroud these mysteries and pull all of it into the light. Does Rahm Emanuel know of this? Being Obama's friend and confidante, how far up does the rot go? I'm not insinuating anything; merely trying to connect dots.

courtesy:www.slate.com

No one wants to see a military state, but with the passage of the Patriot Act, oodles and oodles of money went to local and state law enforcement and certain of the agencies ramped up their equipment, armor and weapons, beyond anything that would be needed against the local citizenry. Either through oversight, or planned, we have the mechanisms in place to become a police state, over a "terrorist act"; it won't take much

I have mentioned in the past that we've pretty much just given away our III, IV, V, IX and XIV Amendment rights, with the passage and the extension of the Patriot Act. Most of us are all too familiar with the “slippery slope” theory, or as we cross one line, it becomes easier to cross others. They're not easy to retreat from and if we are serious about “making corrections” we have to really look at where we are and be bluntly honest with ourselves. We didn't get here by being proactive and caring about what our country means to us.

courtesy.usmagazine.com

There was a time when I felt proud to be an American; that time has long gone. In a way, I'm glad my parents are deceased. They set great store on being Americans, as many immigrants do, but they would not be proud of this country. They could not look around and say, "yes, I recognize this; this is MY America!" They would just hang their heads in shame.

We can stand up and thrill to Lady GaGa singing the “Star Spangled Banner” as jets fly overhead and Super Bowl L commences. We can tell ourselves that America is still great, but it's a hollow lie and if anything, we have become the enemy. We do all of the nefarious shit that we hold against our villains and we delude ourselves, when we talk about our “generosity as Americans”. We may be so in the specifics, but in general? We are monsters; we have no compunction about bombing other countries, taking out civilians and in some cases, killing our own people in the name of “national security” or as “collateral damage”. None of it is worth it, but we, The People ceased caring long ago. We have turned ourselves over to The State, and the only reason the State exists is to ensure the existence of the State.