Form vs function

I receive catalogues from many different sources, for products that I have absolutely no interest in.  Furniture vendors in particular.  I guess I clicked on something one day and BAM, I was on their radar as a sucker potential customer.  Now I do like (soft) contemporary architecture and furniture, but much of it just looks downright uncomfortable.  Obviously (to me) whoever designed it placed form over function.

Exotic automobiles are often conflicted by this "form vs function" conundrum, too.  Lamborghini's are decidedly gorgeous, sleek cars....

....but have you ever tried to get into or out of one?  *groan*

The Amish, by contrast, don't even recognize the concept of "form".

Some people are impeccably stylish.  You rarely see England's Prince Charles in anything other than his trademark double breasted suit, and then he's either wearing his polo attire or one of his dress military uniforms.  Do you think he ever just puts on some shorts and a t-shirt and gets in a quick game of croquet out back with the guys?

Donald and Melania Trump's New York apartment is I'm sure considered by many to be Architectural Digest perfect, but if he invites Sean and his pals over to watch the game, where would they sit?  You think he has a man cave no one ever sees where he goes to let his hair down?  (pun intended)

Most of us fall somewhere in between.  We like form, but we like function, and comfort, more.  I can't imagine buying a sofa or a chair from a catalogue.  I insist on sitting on it first.  If it isn't comfortable, I don't care how good it looks, I'm not buying it.  I have an old, decidedly worn looking oversized leather chair in my den.   As I recall it had a pleasant "form" when I purchased it 20+ years ago, but since then it has decidedly conformed nicely to butt, making it's original form almost unrecognizable today.  It will probably join Archie Bunker's chair in the Smithsonian some day.  *snort*

As I look around our apartment I'd have to say I lean 90% +/- toward function.  I own very little that anyone would consider "stylish".  Not our furniture, not our "art", and certainly NOT my wardrobe.  My car, a Mazda, is currently parked in our garage between a Mercedes and a Maserati (no joke).  I wonder if either of those people ever say to themselves, "Doh....I coulda had a Mazda!"  (They probably do, actually, when they're looking out the window of their respective dealer's service departments and see me puttering by.)

How about you?  I'm not saying there's anything at all wrong with being stylish.  To some it's worth the effort.  How would you rate yourself....be honest now....on the "form vs function" scale?

S 

That's all folks!

  
Do we dare hope?  Is Robert Mueller about finished with his investigation?  Please?

With congressional mid-term elections just a little over 3 months away, Special Counsel Robert Mueller will either have to wrap up his investigation soon, or hold it over until after the election.  A final report out immediately before the election is not going to happen, particularity after Comey botched a similar situation back it '16.  The Democrats are probably hoping for the former.  Both say their position, whether pro or anti Trump, will be vindicated.  I predict....only Robert Mueller knows. *wink*

Seriously, it seems to me Prez Trump's only hope to avoid the political guillotine is for the economy to continue to boom.  "It's the economy, stupid" has never been more true.  That's overwhelmingly what the 40% who avidly support him tout about him.  Truth is, he has indeed helped the economy stretch its 10 year rebound from the Great Depression of '08, but he is really just riding the recovery coat tale.  Not that Obama fixed it either....the economy had little place to go but up after our $%^&# crooked bankers nearly tanked us all.

I think Trump and his team will be in a world of hurt when Mueller makes his findings known publicly.  There is ample evidence that at least some of those around Trump were duped by Putin and his intelligence people.  The Russians originally recruited Trump's team, not the other way around.   Still, Trump's team didn't walk away, and may have even taken the Rooskie's bait to Trump personally, and when the "implied" offer of help was accepted....BOOM!  Putin has likely been reeling him in ever since.  Or Trump's vulnerability may go back several decades with Russian money financing his businesses after US banks told him they'd had enough of his fast-and-loose financial shenanigans.  We'll see.

And if Mueller does in fact indict some of Trump's team, or his family (Jr, Jared?)....well, the plot thickens.  With something like a 95%+ successful prosecution record, the smart money will be betting on Mueller to win this one, too.  And that's IF Mueller and the DOJ (Rosenstein) agree a sitting president can not be indicted.  If they puncture the presidential shield of prosecution....YIKES!....Watergate redux!  Look for popcorn sales to skyrocket!  *snort*

But not to worry.  We'll survive this, too, whatever happens.  I'm pretty sure.  :)

S

I wish this was funny....

....but it isn't.  It's scarily accurate.

President Trump meets with Russian President Putin in just a few days.  Putin is right now most likely huddled with his personality profile psychologists determining exactly what he can say to get Donald Trump to fetch, roll over, and sit up and beg.  Trump is right now most likely propped up in bed skypeing with his BFF Sean Hannity.

Trump is in no way intellectually or cunningly Putin's equal.  Putin has been laser focused on returning Russia to its former glory ever since the USSR was officially dissolved on December 26, 1991.  Trump was completely unprepared for his office, and was as shocked as anyone when he was elected on November 8, 2016.  Putin was trained as an intelligence officer in the KGB, eventually becoming a Lt. Colonel, and later heading the KGB's successor, the FSB.  Trump kept his dad's slick lawyer on retainer to keep him out of trouble.  Bone spurs *wink* kept him out of the military.  Putin has a honed, long-term strategy.  Trump just says and does whatever pops into his head.  Trump slanders and belittles his opponents.  Putin kills his.

Vladimir Putin will destroy Donald Trump, and we'll all be collateral damage.  No, this is not funny at all.

S

FAKE NEWS!

Webster defines "fake" as:  Not true, real, or genuine.

I'm sure over time many politicians, celebrities, and others have called unflattering stories written about them "fake".  Occasionally they were right, and they sued for defamation, and were awarded millions of dollars in damages.  National Enquirer-type grocery store tabloids are notorious for this.  Occasionally articles are published that are simply satirical.  Stories in The Onion fall into this category.  (Tom Cruise did not have a love child with a three-headed alien.)  The editorial page is by definition not news, but opinion.  The two should not be confused.  And occasionally photos are mislabeled....John D. Smith might be referred to as John B. Smith, and an apology and a correction are later published.  Mistakes happen....meh.
 
Today President Donald Trump has made "FAKE NEWS" his battle cry, and his supporters buy it, no questions asked. I contend there is virtually no fake news these days, but only slanted news.  If a media outlet such as FOX News on the right or MSNBC on the left uncovers 10 facts about someone, but only reports on the 5 that support their view, that doesn't make those 5 facts "fake".  You can't label what they report as not true, real, or genuine.  They just aren't reporting those facts that give credit to something that doesn't further their bias.  Their coverage is simply "slanted".

If the media makes up a story with no basis in fact, they can be sued and they'll lose their shirt.  That's why they corroborate everything they publish.  The next time you hear President Trump say a report about him is fake news, ask him why he doesn't file suit and make them prove what they say is true?  Put up or shut up.

I have great admiration in general for American journalism.  Without them and their investigative talents, evil-doers would run roughshod over us.  I might disagree with them sometime, but I respect them.

I guess you could say, ironically, that a blanket claim of "fake news" is itself fake news.  That's the "virtual" caveat I mentioned.  That's kinda funny, huh?

S

Battle Of The Bullies

I, along with my fellow international relations scholar, Jax the Wonder Dog, recently sat down and put together our list of the three biggest bullies on the international scene today.  Here are our finalists:

North Korea's Kim Jong Un

Coming in at third place is Kim Jong Un.  He has been trying hard since his elevation to power back in 2011 to prove he is a worthy successor to his late father and grandfather, the two previous dictators of North Korea. They have all tried to elevate themselves onto the world stage by becoming a nuclear power, but it appears KJU is now on the cusp of actually succeeding.  

His spoiled-rich-kid's temperament has until now been to run his mouth, threatening to rain death and destruction down on America with his new toys.  He might, however, be thinking twice as President Donald Trump seems to be calling his bluff.  Between the economic sanctions we have against his country and what the Chinese have piled on with, too, not to mention the US 7th Fleet parked off his coast, he may soon be down to eating tree bark like the rest of his countrymen.  In his upcoming summit with Trump he might try to dance and shuffle a bit hoping to save a little face, but Jax and I think KJU will eventually have to retreat with his tail tucked.

President Donald Trump

Coming in with a solid second place showing is Donald Trump.  Donnie John has been oozin' for a brusin' since the day his former lawyer, the legendary Mafia consigliere Roy Cohen, taught him to Attack, Attack, Attack!  He, of course, didn't himself actually attack, but his lawyers and bodyguards did on his behalf.  Now he has Twitter that enables him to mouth off, and a Department of Defense to back him up as he recently showed by rearranging the debris formerly known as Syria.

That was likely enough to convince Kim Jong Un Trump could both talk and walk and scare him back into his hole.  Likewise, Trump's strutting to date will likely bring the pragmatic Chi Coms to the bargaining table to conclude some sort of new trade agreement with America.  (They have too many warehouses full of cheap junk they need to unload.)

Russian President For Life Vladimir Putin

And now, after serious deliberation, our 2018 World Champion Bully Award goes to *drum roll* Vladimir Putin!  That's right, rootin' tootin' Vladimir Putin backs down all opponents and detractors by forcing them to break eye contact, rigging elections, and as a last resort, dropping errant journalists who dare say mean things about him from their 5th floor balconies. 

If Vladimir Putin demands your lunch money, you'd better give it up!

Putin is an old school KGB street brawler, and the streets of Moscow and St Petersburg are tougher than those in New York or Washington.  He has the gumption, the muscle, hookers with hidden cameras, and the willingness to use them all, and that makes unblinkable Vladimir Putin once again the World's Biggest Bully.

S

 

Mom....make him quit saying mean things about me

People like to have their opinions validated.  If a car enthusiast buys a Porsche, or BMW, or Audi, he'll likely join their brand's car club, too.  He wants to hear others of like mind tell him how cool his car is and how smart he was to buy it.  If they see a magazine on the newsstand that implies their favorite car smoked the competition, he'll buy it.  If it says his car got creamed in a comparison test, he won't.

The same holds for politics.  A supporter of Elizabeth Warren or some other Progressive will probably choose to watch MSNBC and read the Huff Post.  Their go-to validator will be someone like Rachael Maddow.  Liberals can do no wrong; conservatives can do no right.  They're told what they want to hear, and they like it that way.

Ultra-conservatives work the same way.  They only want to hear and read things about Donald Trump that validate what they already believe.  They watch FOX News and listen to Rush Limbaugh.  They're told what they want to hear, they're patted on the back and made to feel all warm and fuzzy, and they like it that way.

So why were there raised eyebrows when it came out that Sean Hannity is also a client of President Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen?  Hannity is a shill for Donald Trump.  That's a fact.  Did anyone really expect him to seek out Whuppie Goldberg's lawyer?

So why was there a "courtroom gasp" when Hannity's name came out yesterday?  His faithful radical conservatives still love him, probably more than ever, and those liberals who believe him to be the devil incarnate will just dig in their heels deeper, too.  This is just the Fact-Free World we live in today.

Instead of all this political bickering, I propose that from now on we only talk about who has the best football team.  That should be something we can all agree on, right?  *wink*

S

Сделаем Америку снова великой

I'll admit, I'm old school, and in most cases I don't apologize for it.  Especially when it comes to my intense wariness concerning all things Russia.  I'm not paranoid....I don't see a Rooskie behind every tree....but my memory is still vivid enough to remember stories of Nikita Khrushchev banging his shoe on a desk back in 1956 before a gathering of Western ambassadors and telling them "We will bury you!"

Back then Russia was the Soviet Union, and their enforcers were their KGB.  They were to the Soviet Union what the Gestapo was to Nazi Germany.  Think secret police.  Nasty, evil people they were.  When the Soviet Union disintegrated and collapsed in 1991, Vladimir Putin was a proud member of that nefarious group.  For nearly 20 years now he has been the supreme authority in Russia.  The name may have changed, the flag may have changed, but Russia is just as untrustworthy today as it was back in the old Soviet days.  There's no daylight between Putin the KGB agent and Putin, the President of Russia.

Vladimir Putin desperately wants to see his Russia back on par with the United States as a world superpower.  He knows that won't happen, though, as his Russia only has an economy roughly equal to California's.  They're living hand-to-mouth.  His only hope is to saw the legs out from under the US, and the European Union, and NATO.  If he can't stand 6'4 like us, he wants us to be 5'7 like him.

Vladimir Putin is a bully, he gets what he wants, and he will do whatever it takes, legal or not, to get it.   Many psychologists say that bad boy, gang leader image is how Donald Trump sees himself, too.  They say he feels a certain kinship with Putin.  Others say it's more complicated, and commercial, than that.  They say Trump has depended on Russian money for years to keep his Trump Organization afloat.

 Vladimir Putin has been patiently cultivating Donald Trump for years.

Regardless, I can't forgive Donald Trump for not standing up to Russian evil.  With this President, I'm a one-issue citizen.  My displeasure with him is not about his foreign policy, or his economic policy, or his cabinet choices, or even his private life.  Some I agree with, some I don't.  But overriding EVERYTHING is America's security, and on this, our Commander-In-Chief has failed us.  Unless he can somehow find the courage to step up and go toe-to-toe with Vladimir Putin, I will continue to be critical of him.  Why any red-blooded American would cover for him baffles me.

S

Maybe they can re-name the "Lincoln Bedroom" the "Stormy Daniels Bedroom"

Will somebody please explain to me why we're spending so much time examining the Donald Trump / Stormy Daniels hanky-panky episode?  I mean, if this was the Ronald Reagan / Stormy Daniels hanky-panky episode, or the Jimmah Carter / Stormy Daniels hanky-panky episode, that would be newsworthy.  So he notched another conquest on his bed's headboard.  *yawn*  I doubt it will be his last.  Why are we so shocked when he does sleazy things?   We're talking about Donald John Trump here, who's not exactly known as a pillar of decency and virtue. 

The big takeaway for me is how shallow the Evangelical Right is.  What's important to them is now firmly ensconced in Politics 101:  If you want to get the Faithful's vote, just say "I'm pro-life".  Say it over and over and over, and you'll get the Evangelical Right's vote.  They are one-issue voters.  Yes, it's definitely an important issue, but they're willing to overlook everything else if you'll just say you're against abortion.  Lie, cheat, steal....they don't care.  Grab p___y....they don't care.  Boink porn stars....they don't care.  They still love their Donald Trump, and will happily pass out mulligans to him like they were candy on Halloween.

And for the not-quite-so-pious, just pass out free stuff.  Works every time.  In the 1920's Herbert Hoover campaigned on "a chicken in every pot".  The people evidently liked free chicken as they elected him President.  By 2016 people were wise to the 'ol chicken trick, but they definitely liked them some tax cut!  Mmmmmm!

I think we're about out of political slight-of-hand tricks and hanky-panky distractions.  Now it's time to produce results.  If the economy stays hot, generating lots of new permanent jobs and stock market wealth, if he can squeeze the nukes out of North Korea, if he finally wakes up and de-fangs Vladimir Putin, then President Trump can still have a worthwhile legacy, and maybe even his own "library" some day (sans books, of course).  Maybe he's finally settling into his groove.  *sorry Stormy*

S

Everyone has an agenda

Our national attention span seems to last only few days at a time.  The media reports one thing, President Trump says another, and it's into the pit we go for another round of mud wrestling.  Then the next week we're on to something else.

Our most recent bout with dysfunction resolves around whether the FBI used the infamous Steele dossier (written by former British MI6 agent Christopher Steele) as the basis for obtaining a FISA court order allowing eavesdropping on the Trump campaign in 2016.  

Republicans say that Mr Steele was working for the opposition research firm Fusion GPS, which was in turn being paid by the Democratic National Committee, and that his dossier should therefore automatically be considered biased and invalid.  "No Steele dossier, no FISA court order, no FBI spying, case dismissed" they say.  The Democrats....wait for it....disagree!  *BIG shock*

Brief background:  The investigation by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS on Donald Trump was initially funded by a conservative political website, and was later picked up and funded by the Democrats after Trump emerged as the probable Republican nominee.  Fusion GPS contracted with Steele, asking him to use his foreign connections to investigate Trump.  Following Trump's election funding from the Democrats ceased, but Steele continued working on the report, with financing coming directly from Fusion GPS principal Glen Simpson. 

Lost in all this "yes he did...no he didn't" BS is this:  Is the information contained in the dossier true?  If the collection of 17 memos, aka "the dossier", written by Steele between June and December 2016 are accurate, then I personally don't care who paid for it.  I don't want Russia worming their way into our election system, and possibly into a position where they can blackmail a candidate they helped.   

We're not talking about a friendly Australia or Canada or even Spain here folks....but RUSSIA!  Russia is NOT our friend.  Vladimir Putin longs to see Russia elevated back to the level of power and prestige enjoyed by the old Soviet Union.  Contrary to popular myth, Russia in NOT a great  economic power today.  In fact, Russia's GDP is roughly equal to that of the state of California.  Their ace card, of course, is that they still possess a massive nuclear arsenal, and they are rapidly modernizing their conventional military forces as well.

Putin alone controls Russia.  The billionaire business oligarchs inside Russia operate with the approval and support of Vladimir Putin, and they in turn know that when Putin calls, they respond.  Nobody crosses him.  (The few that have tried have found themselves charged with "tax evasion" and locked up, or worse.)  Think of it as an old-school organized crime family.  Russia's objective is to weaken (mainly) the United States, NATO, and the European Union any way possible.  If the West bickers and fractures, Russia benefits.

This is a serious position we're in today.  Much is at stake.  Anyone who doesn't understand this and blindly tries to stymie Special Counsel Muller's investigation are potentially doing the United States great harm. Let Mueller do his job, and if there has been Russian collusion, say so and put away the guilty.  And if not, tell us that, too, and lets move on.

S

Just the facts, ma'am

There was a popular cops-and-robbers TV show back in the fifties, Dragnet, where Sgt. Joe Friday was famous for saying,  "...the facts ma'am.  Just the facts."  He wasn't interested in hearing opinions or innuendo, just the facts.

Fast forward 60 years and we seem to have forgotten Sgt. Joe's mantra.  Today President Trump has made "fake news" his mantra.  He implies that everything that comes out of the news media, especially ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post...virtually everyone except his favorite, FOX News...is "fake", not true, a lie.  Dismissing the press en masse like this is dangerous.

The true problem lies between our own ears.  We hear factual news and the accompanying editorial and believe it all or not at all.  We have become such shallow thinkers we don't know how to separate the wheat from the chaff.  And to make things worse, most of us only read/listen to whatever reinforces what we want to believe.  Opposing views are not tolerated.

For example, the news might report that John Smith was caught on surveillance video robbing a convenience store and is now in custody.   The police have video and the eyewitness account of the clerk who was robbed, and the perp is indeed behind bars.  So far, this is a fact.   But then a conservative news outlet might add "...and now this vicious predator is off the streets" while a liberal outlet might say "...he looked to be homeless and hungry".  

If you've ever been on a jury panel you'll remember the judge asking if you've seen news coverage of the alleged crime and have a pre-conceived opinion of guilt or innocence.  This is how our inability to separate fact from opinion can skew justice.

The truth is, most serious investigative journalism today seems to originate from the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and just a few others.  The facts they uncover and print or put on the air must be corroborated or else they're setting themselves up for a massive libel suit.  Unless their facts can be credibly refuted with real, conflicting evidence, they should be believed.  What they write on their editorial page is just for entertainment value.  

If we can't learn this difference, our long-term democracy is in jeopardy.  Wise up people, or get run over!

S

So tell us...have you stopped beating your wife?

Donald Trump's worst enemy is without doubt his own mouth, and it has his lawyers sweating...umm...bullets.

Yesterday I heard several legal experts who were asked if Donald Trump has to speak to Robert Mueller's investigators under oath.  Their unanimous answer:  yes he does.  Some Supreme Court decision awhile back (Nixon...Clinton?) said if subpoenaed, the President must appear and answer questions.  Trump's lawyers can indeed try to negotiate favorable terms for him, but Mueller is in the drivers seat.  "I don't remember" will likely backfire as these slick gubment prosecutors can ask seemingly innocent, unrelated questions that are all really leading up to the same answer, one they already know the answer to.  

Where Bill Clinton's Rhodes Scholar mind carefully considered the question before he answered "it depends on what the meaning of 'is' is", Trump will just blurt out whatever first comes into his mind.  He doesn't understand the concept of "the powerful pause" before answering.  Proof?  See yesterday's "shithole African countries" comment.

They said if President Trump's lawyers can't negotiate a deal whereby he can answer written questions with written answers carefully crafted by them, they'll likely advise the President to just pardon everyone remotely involved and then resign.

Interesting times.

S

Better late than never

While it might be five or six years too late, it looks like the FBI is finally going to look into a possible "pay-to-play" scheme involving Obama's Sec State Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation.  I wrote a blog post about this 18 months ago.

Here's the suspicion:  Any application that had to go through the State Department for review and approval could have been expedited or slow walked (or worse) at the "suggestion" of Sec Clinton.  Simultaneously, private citizen Bill Clinton was accepting substantial contributions on behalf of the Clinton Foundation and/or being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to give speeches by entities who had applications pending before said State Dept.  Your two-bit oil-infested country might get State Dept approval to buy a dozen F-22's if you contributed, or sent home empty handed if you didn't.  Did this actually happen?  I have no idea.  But the opportunity was certainly there for the taking. 

The press has been skating around this issue for years, I guess too timid or too star-struck by the Clinton's to make an issue out of it.  I once heard a reporter ask Bill if there was any truth to the suggestion, and he just answered with a straight face, "No, how could there be?  I'm a private citizen now.  I have nothing to do with making those sorts of decisions."  And the reporter just skipped off, happy as a lark.

Trouble is, a scam such as this would be extremely hard to prove.  The Clinton's are no dummies.  Surely they would never have said anything out loud or put anything in writing that would have connected the dots. But imagine the private dinner conversation at the Clinton's house as they were sharing some Sloppy Joe's and a Big Red:

BILL:  Say sweetheart, guess who stopped by the Foundation today with a nice donation?

HILLARY:  Why, I have no idea.  Who?

BILL:  That nice Crown Prince boy from Saudi Arabia.

HILLARY:  Awww, how sweet.

And three weeks later the Saudi's request to buy jet fighters and gold-plated Humvees is approved.  How convenient.

Yes, I know the Clinton Foundation spread a lot of cash around to legitimately deserving causes, but sources say the mafia is a major sponsor of neighborhood Little League baseball teams, too.  So what?

And take it step further:  What's to prevent the wife or daughter or son or brother, etc, of a major political figure....think House Speaker or Senate Majority Leader or even a major committee chair....from setting up their own "charitable foundation", too?  The opportunities for arms-length corruption are off the charts!

But here to me is the best part....now maybe the Republicans will have to stop using Billary's possible grand larceny as a distraction.

   "There's no Russian collusion.  There's no Russian collusion.  But...but...what about Crooked Hillary, huh?  What about her?  Lock her up!"  

Oh puh-leeze.  I say investigate the Clinton's and the Trump's both, and let the chips fall where they may.

S

How could this happen?

Any school kid has seen pictures like this of pre-WWII Germany where hundreds of thousands of ordinary Germans flocked to get even a glimps of Adolf Hitler as he promised to pull them out of the hard times they were in.  

"How could this happen?  Didn't they see Hitler for the hateful madman he was?"  

Well, no, not really.  Hitler inflamed even the slightest prejudices most people had and convinced them better times were ahead if only they would trust him.  Prejudices against Jews of course, and the mentally and physically handicapped, and Slavs, and pretty much everyone who had it better than they did, too. 

"Times were simpler then, and people were just very naive.  That could never happen today.  We're much better educated and too sophisticated to fall for anything like that."

Really?  Have you not seen FOX News, or MSNBC, or read Breitbart or Huff Post or any number of other slanted sources of information?  We all have our prejudices, and there is one group or another out there looking for you, hoping to turn you into one of their disciples.  IMO we're even MORE susceptible today of falling into the camp of one evil group or another than Germans were back in the 1930's.

Examples?  President Trump has his "base", those who refuse to believe anything at all negative about him.  Any evidence of a tainted election victory is just sour grapes, "flip-flopping" on issues is just his way of keeping his opponents off balance, etc.  They have tasted his brand of Kool Aid and apparently loved it.  They aren't going back.

Then you have the anti-Trumpsters who can find absolutely nothing good to say about the President.  Everything he says is dismissed out of hand.  THEY are always right, and HE is always wrong.  More Kool Aid consumed.  They aren't going back.

Antisemitism is still with us.  Racial tensions are flaring...White Supremacists, Antifa...Charlottsville was NOT spontaneous.  Protestants still view Catholics warily.  My generation looks unfavorably at today's kids and their dress, music, attitudes, etc.  Gay/straight, Believers/atheists, stand or take a knee...the issues, and ardent followers of each, are almost endless.  And however they might believe, they are unlikely to ever go back.  Some believe those who own guns are just a bunch of knuckle-dragging, Tea Party bubbas.  Umm...I own guns, and I am ANYTHING but a knuckle-dragging, Tea Party bubba.  Ewww!  *Oops, even I have prejudices*

My point is, we are NOT too sophisticated to fall prey to being radicalized.  If you think you're too smart to fall for such shenanigans, they're probably already reeling you in.  Apparently we haven't learned the old lesson of history repeating itself.  I hope this ends better than last time.

S

We're from the Government, and we're here to help

Did you hear about this?....

"On 17 July, the DoJ served a website-hosting company, DreamHost, with a search warrant for every piece of information it possessed that was related to a website that was used to coordinate protests during Donald Trump’s inauguration. The warrant covers the people who own and operate the site, BUT ALSO SEEKS TO GET THE IP ADDRESSES OF 1.3 MILLION PEOPLE WHO VISITED IT, AS WELL AS THE DATE AND TIME OF THEIR VISIT AND INFORMATION ABOUT WHAT BROWSER OR OPERATING SYSTEM THEY USED."

While I don't support anyone who wants to foment violence, for any reason, going after anyone who even visited the site just smacks of 1930's Germany.  What happened to "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"?  Our Department of Justice, who is supposed to be safeguarding our rights, is now violating them.  WTH? 

Why now?  True, Dubya Bush got some extra-special permission (the Patriot Act) to pierce some of our privacy laws after 9-11, but it was in DIRECT RESPONSE to terrorist attacks on our country.  But today, who is under "attack"?  Donald Trump? 

So if someone dares to object to something Prez Trump says, it's now OK to....what?  Invade their privacy?  Order an IRS audit of them?  Prohibit them from getting a student loan, or vote, or suspend their Constitutional Rights? 

Somebody who has a better understanding of the law, please tell me this is unconstitutional.

S

It was a cold and rainy night in Korea *cue the scary music*

Oh....never mind.

I'm constantly reading and watching the news, and being the current events junkie that I am, this North Korean nuclear crisis thing has become my Super Bowl.  I find it fascinating.  I've also observed this is a good time to be a retired General as they now have a steady paycheck playing armchair...uh...Generals on TV.  But I've played Battleship, and seen Patton three times as well as Kelly's Hero's twice, so I know a bit about military strategy myself.  Therefore here's my prognostication on who will be the last man standing:

First of all, there will be NO smoking holes in Korea, North or South, or anywhere else.  No nukes will be expended in the making of this crisis.  Behind-the-scenes diplomats will find a way to keep violence to a relative minimum.

Did anyone hear the report of the Chinese telling North Korea's Kim Jong Dung that they would have his back if he was attacked, but if he attacks pre-empitively, he's on his own?  This is a big deal!  I suspect the Chinese are actually rather scared of Kim themselves.  The Chinese liked the N Koreans poking the West as it took unwanted attention away from their indiscretions, but now they're realizing the unruly child they enabled has become a nasty juvenile delinquent. 

Meanwhile, the only advisers Pres Trump seems to pay attention to, General's McMaster, Mattis, Kelly, and perhaps Sec State Tillerson, will be calming the President down behind the curtain and looking for a way for the Prez to save face, without telling him what they're doing, of course.  It's all about stroking his ego.

The mid-August deadline for Kim Jong Dong to fire off his missiles will come and go.  The planned US/South Korean military exercises will go on as planned.  Kim might launch a test missile into the Sea Of Japan, no where near Guam.  Kim will go on local TV and strut his stuff, claiming he has backed down the Great Capitalist Satan.  

We'll fly B-1's and B-2's back and forth south of the DMZ during our joint exercise with S Korea, shoot Kim the "Trump bird", and the President will claim on the Fake News Channels his tough talk saved the day.  

The Short Fat One and the Tall Orange One will both enjoy plenty of fist bumps and back slaps at home, and things will return to the back burner where they've been for two decades.

Which will still leave Kim Jong Poop with nuclear weapons.  We want him to give them up, and he'll steadfastly refuse.  To Kim they're his security blanket.  With those in his back pocket he knows the rest of the world won't take him out.

Our only hope will be for one of his own Generals to whack him, which we'll soon find will actually solve nothing.  The N Korean's have no knowledge/history of how "democracy" works, so all we'll be doing is replacing one dictator with another.  And then the new guy...let's call him Dung Slung Shit...will want nukes in his back pocket.  *sigh*

Just as we'd rather there not be a nuclear China or India or anyone besides us for that matter, fact is that Genie is out of the bottle.  Trump can't put it back any more than Obama or Bush or Clinton before him could.  We'll just have to hope that we all understand the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction and sheath our nukes.

OK, so there's my latest prognostication.  Maybe one of these days I'll get one right.

S

Maybe they can settle things with a little one-on-one basketball?

By watching the Breaking News Channels I've learned that we should all be stocking up on Spam and Twinkies and Gatorade so as to get us through the upcoming Nuclear Winter.  I'm thinking this must be cable TV ratings week.  I just don't buy it that the Short, Fat One and the Tall, Orange One are going to step out back and settle this like men.

N Korea's Kim Jong Dung is threatening to launch four IRBM's toward Guam (a US territory) next week to show us how cool and powerful and worthy of respect he is.  The N Korean's say they aren't going to actually hit Guam, but hit just close enough to impress us with their technical prowess.

Pres Donald Trump is threatening to shoot down said four missiles, and maybe even lob a few of ours Kim's way, just to show him we ain't skeered.  Seems to me both have more to lose than to gain by their bluster. 

Based on past performance, the N Korean's missiles don't exactly have the best odds of making it all the way to Guam without falling apart mid-air, which would be a HUGE embarrassment to Kim Jong Dong.  

For our part, based on past performance, I think there is some doubt about the ability of our THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) missiles, backed up by our slightly aged Navy Aegis anti-missile missiles, to knock down all four commie rockets if called on to do so. Our two most recent THAAD tests went well, but before that the previous four test's success rate was only 50/50.  If we threw all we had at Kim Jong Poop's third world missiles and one still got through, that would be a HUGE embarrassment to us.

And what if Kim missed the 100-gazillion-square-mile Pacific Ocean target and actually hit Guam?  Oops!  Then we WOULD wipe up on N Korea, and maybe light up S Korea and maybe China, too, in the process.  That's a lose/lose/lose/lose if there ever was one! 

I don't think either Kim Jong Un or Donald Trump wants to be seen by the world as a loser.  I think they'll just stand 7,000 miles apart and bloviate and shadow box.  It's just what Short Fat guys and Tall Orange guys with bad haircuts and tiny hands do.

Trust me, I'm an expert on international bloviation.  (I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express once.)

S

LATE EDIT:  I've just read that the last 15 THAAD tests have gone well.  (?)  If true, that will make Kim Jong Dud's missiles look even more pathetic.  Better to stand down, Dung, and not shoot yourself in the foot.

WTF just happened?

I've been around a long time.  I've seen some really crazy things.  I've done some really crazy things.  But I've never seen anything like what is going on in the world right now.  We've seen things spin out of control before....a couple of world wars and some crazy-assed terrorists blowing things up come to mind....but we've always had some sane leaders, usually led by the President of the United States, who stepped forward and righted things. 

Today, instead of putting out the fires, President Donald Trump is throwing gasoline on them.  Around the world he's giving mixed signals to our friends and foes alike.  Our NATO allies don't know whether they can count on us or not.  Everybody from our VEEP on down tells them we're rock-solid, but the POTUS finds it hard to even grudgingly say it out loud.  (Commitment issues?)  Meanwhile Russia keeps sucker punching us, and everyone but President Trump sees it.  I'm sure Vladimir Putin is laughing his ass off!  WTH?

Inside our Executive Branch President Trump, who should be thoughtfully leading us, is tweeting all night, leaving his subordinates to try and figure out what he wants them to do the next day.  And about the time they begin to get a handle on it, he tweets something that completely countermands his earlier tweet.  DOH!

Yesterday he tweeted that transgender people cannot serve in our military, completely blindsiding his Secretary of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff, THE VERY PEOPLE HE SHOULD BE CONSULTING WITH ON SUCH MATTERS.  They say they had zero input.  Agree or disagree with President Trump's position, this is just ass backward.

Trump is pissed upset that his Attorney General recused himself from an investigation as he was legally required to, and is now threatening to fire him.  Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, are saying "there will be hell to pay if he does." 

Ditto his desire to fire Special Counselor Mueller, who is looking into collusion between Trump's campaign staff and Russian election interference.  The bipartisan word is that if he does, it will be "the beginning of the end of the Trump Presidency" (per Republican Senator Lindsey Graham). 

Trump's Chief of Staff and Communications Director are openly feuding, and his Ethics Chief and Press Secretary have both quit.

The Mideast oil sheiks are fighting among themselves, and while the capable Sec State Rex Tillerson is trying to calm tensions, Trump comes riding through popping caps.  Now rumors are flying Tillerson has had enough and is considering moving on to something less stressful, too, like maybe defusing IED's in Afghanistan.

Nice team building President Trump!

Trump even went before 40,000 Boy Scouts at their annual National Jamboree and, instead of giving them the customary inspirational talk about doing good and helping little old ladies across the street, launched into a mildly profane rant on Hillary and her emails, or some such.  Why would he think a bunch of 12-year-old boys would give a shit about Hillary's emails?  It was so embarrassing the Boy Scouts of America had to issue an apology for Trump's improper address.

Let's just be honest for once and say it out loud:  President Donald Trump is having an epic mental meltdown.  His insecurity and paranoia are eating him alive.  Trump is the personification of the Peter Principle....he has risen to his "level of incompetence".  It's actually painful to watch, and with him still in control of our nuclear codes, more than a little....uncomfortable. 

That said, let's all go have a "beverage" or two.  Cheers!

S