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Tag Archives: Observation

The Case For Fire Extinguishers


With the election of Donald Trump, there appears to be a need to re inspect and upgrade the internal firefighting equipment in the White House. The Senate and house have apparently done their upgrades since neither place has had a significant thermal incident. The reason for the upgrades are the extensive cases of fiery pants at press conferences and news interviews. It is important to understand what I am saying here.  We have always had layers of truth in politics, the layers are as follows:

The real truth that could cause panic and scare the bejesus out of us or calm us according to your personality.

The half truth which can inform us without its full implication being known (also scary).

The outright lie which unfortunately has become so rampant that we see it sometimes as the real truth and act accordingly .

The advent of Trump (that is exactly what it is). Advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. That is how Mr. Trump perceives his Presidency. That perception will be his and his backers undoing. That Undoing has already started with the resignation of Gen Flynn and the total on air recorded lies of the dream team of Conway, Spicer, Miller or “CONSPILLER”. This is the administration many of us chose for the wrong reasons and  now have voters remorse.

This is in total a very shaky start to a top down spiral of Government which includes the Congress whose only aim it appears is to stay in power with their boot on the throat of their  constituents. Anyone who  votes can control this potential rash of fires that comes from the current administration. My opinion is that the establishment GOP is waiting for the meltdown so they can impeach and install a President Pence. The Dupublicans probably have discussed this with Mr. Pence and feel he is more inline with their madness.

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Governor Ruiner


The Governor of Illinois has for the past 2 years resisted compiling a budget unless he gets what he wants from the legislature. As I understand it previous Illinois Governors have always presented a budget and the legislature then takes it up to figure out what can or cannot be done. At that point the Governor and the legislature work on the differences to make a budget. This Governor has not done that because he wants certain concessions before hand. In the last election the Governor has financed opponents who lost, appointed people to vacated positions, all of this towards his end goal of “running (ruining?) the State like A business”. There are a number of issues the state faces with long serving legislators however most of these same legislators were in place with previous Governors of the opposite party and were able to get a budget done. We now have the issue of a massive debt which grows daily and a credit rating which is in the toilet. This Governor is not much different than the  current WH resident except he doesn’t tweet but he does make statements on a regular basis that do nothing to get a budget. There has been outreach from at least one of the previous office holders to offer advice. That advice has been ignored. We are now poised to have a statewide strike from the largest Union in Illinois and with possible participation from other Unions. At that time the Governor may decide to make a budget. Or he may just  fire people or do something else which will not solve the problems. The Hubris of this Governor is more extreme than the side dealing former officeholder who now resides in a federal prison. Thank you Gov. Ruiner!

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And We Don’t Digress!


The next several years will provide political and humorous fodder which will emanate from Washington D.C. and the Whitehouse at least for the next few years. The staffing of the Whitehouse seems to have at least 1 prerequisite: the ability to lie deny and backtrack with no shame. The information staff of the Whitehouse apparently are just glad to be there. This is possibly the largest staff of prevaricators since the Nixon Whitehouse. It has always been the job of chief information folks to put forth the President’s words correctly and honestly. It seems that this group got both of them right. TOTUS is uncontrollable in his outbursts (much like a bratty child) so his mouthpieces espouse the same insanity without such much as blink. That is pretty much like acting (but not entertaining or informative) except for the damage their “talks” create. Speaking in superlatives does not translate into actions. It is apparent that the President and his  minions think that superlatives are the same as actions. This is similar to the some members of Congress citing “The American People” as reasons for doing harm to those same American people. Each day there is new evidence that we are in the hands of a certifiable  amoral miscreant aided by an errant political party. Our duty as voters is simply to look beyond the talking and understand  what these Government pimps are doing to us in our names and feeding it to us like poisoned Kool aid.

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Is This The Fabled “Hell In A Handbasket”?


It is unfortunate that the current ruling party of Congress is using fear to advance an agenda that will ultimately harm us all. It is of no consequence what you believe as a group or individual primarily because the ruling party will put forth the agenda that suits them (not us!). I understand that many people select a party affiliation based on any number of ideas (some factual, some not) however looking at the bigger picture you will see that the average time in office for Congress is 10 plus years. These long terms are the result of our rubber stamp votes each election season. If you go to a certain store on a regular basis because of convenience and that store does not provide you with the quality you want, would you continue to patronize them? Put this idea in context of voting for a Congress member. This is not an across the board condemnation of all members of Congress but the current leaders are not the cream of the crop but appear to be self serving lackeys. Now we potentially have a leader who could also be a self serving lackey in spite of his tweets! Our dissatisfaction could very be our own worst nightmare as many of us voted on the basis of superlatives and high sounding rhetoric. “telling it like it is” isn’t the same as governing. First “100 days” statements may prove to be more of a problem than the “new people” think.

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Congress Hates You!!


If you pose that question to any member of Congress and it will be denied, Presuming that  actions speak louder than words, consider  These points:

  1. The affordable care act (Obamacare) provided healthcare for a lot of people who did not have it and better options for people who did.
  2. The Congress (Dupublicans) stated at the onset of his Presidency that this President would get noting passed
  3. The  Congressional leaders (Snitch and John) stated that this will be a one term President
  4. They supported the idea that Mr. Obama was not an American and was a Muslim.                                                                                                                     If you consider just those things and align them with what actually occurred in the past 8 years you will see that Congress hates you!  The economy is growing and has grown (albeit slowly but growing), jobs are growing. Keeping In mind that the 2007-2008 crash was significant and unfortunately a surprise to many but the crash was building for years. Most of the sitting Congress was in place before and during that time. Many of them are still in place. The price of gasoline has dropped due to new internal oil sources. The result of the new natural gas and oil flows have greatly reduced the use of coal which affects the coal-producing areas and jobs but the use of coal was waning before that. None of the Congressional representatives have bothered to explain that to their constituents, instead they blamed President Obama for the coal demand dropping. These folks never tried to tie the health of the coal miners to the coverage available through  the ACA (Obamacare) . Our Government has to run by having Congress do their job and this Congress has failed in that for the past 15 years at the least. If Congress thought anything of their constituents they would have done and would be doing their jobs instead of posturing like the peacocks they are. The topper: an entertainer used many opportunities to state that President Obama was not an Americans and should show his birth certificate now the Entertainer is President elect and the Tweeter in Chief of the United States. Add to this how many anti Obama members of Congress did not want Trump now have to deal with him and his gang of children who have to respond everything said about them. All we can do right now is to “Just Keep livin’ (Matthew Mcconaughey quote).

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Hey Joe, No Comment- Just A Report


This short blurb gives more focus than required had Joe said nothing. Mr. Scarborough being a “Faux news ” luminary appears to be embarrassed by a non story. Is there something to hide? MA 

Joe Scarborough is furious with journalists covering President-elect Donald Trump for how they characterized the appearance of both the “Morning Joe” host and his MSNBC co-host, Mika Brzezinski, at Trump’s New Year’s Eve party at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Saturday night.
On Sunday and Monday, Scarborough sent a flurry of tweets blasting several reporters, taking particular exception to the suggestion that he had “partied” with Trump. Scarborough insisted he was simply there trying to land an inauguration interview.
The brouhaha emerged after Maggie Haberman, a reporter for the New York Times, noted that Scarborough and Brzezinski were among the high-profile guests at Trump’s “Gatsby-like” soiree. Though Scarborough disputed the accuracy of the report, the Times story had simply and accurately noted his attendance at the event.

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Destiny


The Dupublican party now in control of both houses of Government has stated that they can now proceed with the changes to make government better for America (not necessarily for the people as they want you to believe). As voters we need to be extremely vigilant in listening to what the Administration says it is and will do for us. You have remember we are in a time where politicians lie with regularity to further their own ends. The access to many types of media has led many to believe what is put out electronically as fact. You must remember that no matter what is done to us in or names, the elected  official will not suffer like many of us will. They are protected by us in that we fail to understand what they have enacted to protect themselves and feather their own nests. We all want change but we must be careful what we ask for. I would really like to believe things will get better with the Trump administration but unfortunately the selections and statements (tweets) he has made so far are not encouraging. It is now up to the statesmen in the Congress to control this chaos wrought by the self servers in the Dupublican party. This will clearly be a case of “lying down with dogs and waking up with fleas”. It is unfortunate that too many people are so desperate to blame the president (no matter who it is) that they lose sight of the real power in Government. Now on the promise of “draining the swamp” Mr. trump will be taking the helm of the country with the theme of making America great again. The greatness has never left America, what has gone is our apparent inability or desire to pay attention to our Congress. The partisan politics has allowed the rise of Donald Trump whose sole objective in life is materialistic and self serving. Along with this Presidency come the rise (possible insurgency) of radical groups in America. Compare the potential uprisings to what is occurring and has occurred in the Middle East (third world?) . With a leader who ignores anything that DOES NOT BENEFIT HIM where are we going?  It is unfortunate that we have fallen to a low that allows for the rise of Donald trump, the Greatness (?) of America was determined when Trump won the Presidency with the backing of avowed racist organizations not the Americans who are in desperate need.  Destiny, the future will show us where it lies.

Americanized


Many US cities are named after European cities but do not use the same pronunciation. Lima, Peru is pronounced LEEma, Lima Ohio is pronounced Lyma. Athens Greece is pronounced Athens (short A) and Athens, Georgia and Illinois are pronounced Athens,( long A). Cairo Egypt is pronounced Kyro, in Illinois its called Kayro. How about Worchester Ma. in England it’s Wooster. Leicester is Lester and it is the same in The U.S. New Ulm (MN, & Texas)) is pronounced New “oolm”. This is the process of Americanization of languages and people. Ulm as pronounced in the Original German is very different from the way it is pronounced in Oklahoma and Louisiana. In Germany its OOLM, in English its Ohm, the l is not as pronounced as heard in New Ulm (Texas). This a common occurrence in many Cities and areas in the US as the population changes from generation to generation becoming more Americanized. Some names remain primarily in tact from the original language while the pronunciation changes to become Americanized or more like  original English words or names. Example : Los Angeles originally Los (long O) Angeles (g is pronounced ga as in gas). Yet we are against immigrants when immigrants are what we are. Imagine how the Native Americans felt when we encroached upon their lands, then under the guise of friendship fought them for their own lands, moved them in to ever shrinking “tribal lands” and confiscated those same legally given lands for the profit of  big money people while the Native Americans got squat except the bias and derision of the ” emigrants” to North America. Now this confiscation is still evident in the pipeline stalemate. If this is not the same as the prior acts of aggression against Native people then what would we call it? This action is for short term gains with potential long term consequences as with so many previous historic takeovers. Apparently greed supercedes!

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Boy King


We have 4 years of wondering, assessing and regretting (in any order) what is ahead of us with the Trump Presidency. Since the new method of mass communication is the tweet, the next state of the Union will be about 15 minutes and will have no details. It will be interesting to see how the neer do well Congress does with “their” candidate. It is my hope that  nothing dire occurs during his tenure but looking at the candidates’ selections for his cabinet one has to wonder what can we expect and the long-range effect. Looking at the first campaign promise to be kept:The Carrier deal is no deal for 1300 people and not much of a deal for the  700 who will remain. Looking at the numbers:7 million is what carrier gets in tax incentives this amounts to three hundred & fifty thousand dollars per  (retained or not) worker. Needless to say not many if any of the remaining workers will be compensated anywhere near the saved thousands per year even with benefits. This leaves the question of where is this money going? Some may go to severance, pension payouts, unemployment or perhaps factory upgrades (robotics?). In the end there will be 1300 fewer jobs in Indiana and 1300 more jobs behind the Southwestern wall. A promise kept on the backs of the workers who supported the Boy King.

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Rauner Roundup


Illinois issues appear to be more apolitical and inane than based in reality. The current governor in my opinion won based on the weakness of the former governor and the publicly perceived impotence of the legislature. Since Mr. Rauner has had the office, the state has rapidly gone down a dimly lit path to stability. A State is NOT a business! The statement of running the state like a business is a great sound bite but just another election ear grabber. Most voters have no idea what that statement means but in the Governor’s mind it means running the state in the same pinch penny fashion as he has apparently run his businesses. In business these are the facts: you produce a product of some sort. You hire people to manufacture this product and of course you pay what is required for these hires to get the job done. Next you price the product to sell and pay for the labor and material including cost of shipping , receiving and other business expenses. As costs rise for whatever reason you have to adjust your selling price accordingly. This is not how it works in Government where your product is public service and the raising of costs is tied to taxes. So it appears that the way to make a Government solvent is to raise taxes in a way that still will benefit the population. Raising taxes is one way but if you stated that you would not raise taxes when you were running for office it becomes a bit hard to then raise taxes. So the issue is how do you fund a government without taxes? Attack the workers whose Union you see as the problem? Or take a sit down with the Unions to determine what can be done? How about starting a full blown assault on the Unions and the established political system (no matter how flawed)?  I would offer that perhaps explaining to the taxpayers how their demands influence spending in relation to the basic needs of  running a Government (which includes infrastructure maintenance and the agencies that provide services). Meanwhile this long lasting stalemate has cost jobs, stopped education for some and caused untold issues for others. It appears that this business model has failed and looks a lot like the companies that have gone under due to this impasse. I do not see a second term in the Governors future and of course it is not an issue as his financial picture is quite rosy unlike many Illinoisans who have suffered under his actions or lack of.

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