A Dynamic Damnable Duo.

       Hey, guess what? Carly Fiorina is back in the spotlight. Don't you remember? She's the former candidate who lost the California Senate race to Barbara Boxer and bowed out of the Presidential race after the second primary last year. But she is a very wealthy person because of the golden parachute she got when she was fired from Hewlett Packard.
       Any way, if you haven't heard yet, Ted Cruz has selected Carly to be his running mate. Can you imagine Darth Vader as President and the Wicked Witch of the North as Vice-President? Her first commercial would be directed at Hillary saying "Come here my pretty." But don't worry, Senator Crus is so far behind Mr. Trump he needs a telescope just to see him. And having Carly standing on his shoulders shouting angrily at Hillary won't help much.
       A losing candidate selecting a running-mate is very unusual and has never worked out to the satisfaction of the candidate. Even the leadership of the party are coming around to the idea of a Trump nomination. But never fear, Mr. Cruz will always be remembered as the guy that caused the shutdown of Government. And don't forget how much nearly all members of Congress love and respect him. Oh, no, wait, that's not quite right. Actually those members of Congress can't stand the sight of him. And those folks get a vote too.
       Thinking about Ted Cruz is a lot like remembering Joe McCarthy. Remember Senator McCarthy? He was the one who, back in the early 50s, who could see a communist behind every blade of grass. There was nobody insignificant enough to be overlooked by the communist-finder-in-chief. Finally McCarthy wound up on the dust heap of doom-sayers. With Cruz its Muslim terrorists. Ted, its time for you to slip away into our bad memories. Maybe you should take Carly along for company, just a thought.

We Ain't That Polished.

         In an article in FP (Foreign Policy) by Stephen M. Walt of Harvard, today, he talks about why so few countries want to emulate our ideals and brand of democracy. "America’s democratic ideals are more likely to be emulated by others if the United States is widely regarded as a just, prosperous, vibrant, and tolerant society, instead of one where inequality is rampant, leading politicians are loudmouthed xenophobes, the prison population is the world’s largest, and airports and other public infrastructure are visibly decaying, yet no one seems able to do much about it. When millions of qualified citizens are excluded from voting, or when a handful of billionaires and other moneyed interests exert a disproportionate and toxic effect on U.S. politics, it is hardly surprising that other societies find America’s professed ideals less appealing than they once were. Add in Guantánamo, targeted killings, Abu Ghraib, overzealous NSA surveillance, and the reluctance to hold powerful people accountable for their misdeeds, and you end up with a pretty tarnished brand."
       Yes. I agree with him. We could do better, but we don't seem to care, except to complain. That's the one thing we're exceptionally good at. We don't vote because, well, what's the use, or, my vote won't count anyway. But boy oh boy are we good at finding fault with the folks who get elected. And we're always ready to accept the latest rumor about an opponent. Truth doesn't enter into the equation. I heard it on my favorite news or talk show so I know its true. Even if it isn't.
       You can't make America great again simply by calling your opponents nasty names. Think of it this way. If someone you recently met started calling you and all your friends stupid while ignoring the dire needs of a neighbor, would you aspire to be like him? Put America in the place of this new acquaintance and put the rest of the world in your place. See?

Score One For The Texan.

       Just thought you ought to know. There's a new caucus forming in Congress, in both the House and Senate. It's called the Anti-National Park Caucus, according to the Center For American Progress. Yup! Its made up of mostly Tea Party members. And guess who's a member? Just guess? Oh all right, presidential candidate Ted Cruz, that's who. It seems these folks are aligning behind folks who want to get their hands on some prime National Park lands. You know, the lands that belong to all Americans.
       Well, these good folks, the land grabbers not the politicians who would like to facilitate the land grab, the good folks the likes of the Koch brothers, just to name two likely hopefuls, and then there's the Cliven clan, can see a huge potential profit. Of course for people like them, a little help is needed. Like a Congress to push through a bill to start selling our lands off and of course a President to sign off on it. Just what we need, a President Cruz. You can bet he's got our best interests in mind.
       Right now there are only 20 members of this informal Caucus, all Republicans. What a shame that the Grand Old Party is being heisted by leaders who just don't care about the public. They seem only interested in supporting those who support therm. The thing is though, about half of Americans are Republicans and a whole lot of them love and enjoy the national parks, just like Democrats.
       Wouldn't it be great to see a coal mine next to Old Faithful someday? Or how about an oil derrick in the parking lot at Mount Rushmore? Perhaps a strip mine next to the Tidal Basin in Washington D.C. along about Cherry Blossom time? Have you ever heard the sound of a natural gas well being drilled? I have to say, these politicians have real class. They just happen to be at the very bottom of the class.

Fair Ain't Always Fair.

       There's a school Superintendent near here who was found guilty of stealing $12,000 from a student fund. He will spend one week in jail. Now he'll spend some time under house arrest and some time on probation, but just one week in jail. So I got my calculator out and it works out that one week is 168 hours and that equals $71 per hour. Not too shabby, sounds like a CEO. At minimum wage he'd have to spend 229 days behind bars.
       Now I mention this news item because, from time to time, similar reports come from all over the country. Important people or wealthy, or "too big to fail" banks seem to get a slap on the wrist while some poor old lady who steals a quart of milk gets the book thrown at her. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there seems to be some inconsistencies in our legal system.
       I'm not gonna complain too vigorously because there are certainly many countries where the privileged classes are treated even more favorably. I just find it interesting that in a country that prides itself so much on the evenhandedness of its treatment toward its citizenry, that such blatant mistreatment of its poorer classes is so publicly visible.
       We are beginning to find some come-up-ence in places where municipalities, police and courts are playing the racial two-step, but when it comes to the rich-poor two-step, not so much. Shouldn't there be some easily calculated formula whereby the more you steal, the more time you do behind bars and the small theft gets less time? Or even the same time no matter how much you steal?
       Of course I realize that better legal representation has a lot to do with it, such as pointing out how damaging it will be to the rich person's reputation. Being an itinerate poor person, I assure you I feel strongly about my reputation and such a sentence would be devastating to me as well. So shouldn't everybody get the same punishment for the same crimes? And shouldn't greater sums stolen mean greater time served?

A PAC Or SuperPAC?

       Good morning class, today, as promised, we will discuss PACs and SuperPACs. A PAC is a means by which a group can solicit funds from "members" to pool their money in order to support an individual candidate, in order to influence certain politicians by helping them, financially, to sway voters. SuperPACs are able to provide unlimited funds from anyone or corporation to influence the public and the politician without ever divulging who their contributors are. However they may not work in concert directly with any candidate, wink, wink.. What they can do is watch to see what the candidate will do, wink, wink, and then tune their own efforts to blend with and assist the candidate.
       All of this will be supervised by the FDA, the Federal Election Board, wink, wink. The FDA is made up of two Democrats and two Republicans, wink, wink. The advantage of having this even split is so neither party will have the upper hand in overseeing elections, wink, wink. What it effectively does is create an environment where no decision or punishment can be handed down unless both parties fully agree, wink, wink. Which means that no matter how bad any candidate or party may act, they will in no way be punished.
       Then came the Supreme Court's decision in which money equals speech. And since speech is free, it means that anyone can spend as much money supporting any candidate as they can afford. And since corporations were decided by the Supreme Court, wink, wink, to be people, they can spend as much as they please. And because of PACs and SuperPACs, they don't have to tell anybody how much they spend and on whom they spend it. But they get to deduct the donations from their taxes. Can we have a big WINK,WINK.

Ahh, South Carolina.

       Good morning class. Today is yesterday's tomorrow and I said we'd discuss PACs and SuperPACs, but something else has come up. I'm referring to the new North Carolina Bathroom Law. It's presented all the police forces in the state with a dilemma. According to Andy Borowitz of the New Yorker, the new cadets haven't as yet been deployed. The first class of over one thousand new bathroom-enforcement officers were just sworn in and are awaiting deployment.
       Governor McCrory, in charging the new graduates, said "You are the thin blue line, charged with protecting the gender sanctity of North Carolina's bathrooms. Be careful out there." Of course it was all in fun. That is, except for the police forces throughout the state. That's because the poorly thought out bill did not provide any guidance on carrying out the law, which is a joke, except it isn't a joke.
       So Samantha Michaels of Politico decided to check in with some of those police departments on their take on the bill, to which they mostly answered, HUH? None of the police knew what to do nor did any of their legal advisors, except to say they would respond to any calls of complaint. Honest folks, you can't make any of this stuff up. Well, except for the bit about a new Bathroom-enforcement officer deployment.
       Apparently a less than intellectually engaged North Carolina Legislature rushed through this critical bill without giving thought to the obvious bigotry the bill exposed and named it the "Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, HB2." It also strikes down any and all LGBT anti-discrimination laws in the state. So now its okay to discriminate against these folks. I assume its because they aren't humans any more. Well, its their own fault, except that it isn't and they are citizens of America and deserve better than this.
       Okay class, tomorrow, which will be Sunday's day after tomorrow, we'll talk about PACs and SuperPACs.

But You Already Knew That.

       Good morning class. Today we're going to discuss Political Integrity, tee hee. Political Integrity, as we all know, is when a politician says what he means and means what he says and its all good, tee hee. Now I don't mean to suggest that all politicians lack integrity, on the contrary I believe all members of Congress have loads of integrity, tee hee. Its just that right after the elections they seem to have misplaced it, tee hee.
       Now, again, its not as though all Representatives and Senators lack integrity, there are several members of Congress who are truthfully filled with integrity. I know both of them. Unfortunately neither are in my district. And very likely neither are in your district either. But I digress.
       Political Integrity can best be described by saying, again truthfully, that the politician states precisely what he or she thinks on any subject, including that they haven't decided or don't know anything about the subject, but will look into it and then actually look into it. Such a politician will tell you exactly how they will vote on any issue. And will explain that voting many multiple times the same way on the same issue contributes nothing and accomplishes nothing and therefor will refuse to take part in it, and mean it.
       Now class, how can you tell if a politician has integrity? Yes Billy? My dad says "when a politician opens his mouth," tee hee. Well Billy, your dad is pretty much correct. You see, when a politician promises to do something for you that nobody else has ever done for you, tee hee, or when everybody else has already done it for you, tee hee. And especially when you found out it was a bad idea, but the politician has no intention of doing it for you anyway. Or when you know it won't help you but it will help his friends, tee hee.
       Now class, tomorrow we will discuss Political Action Committees and Super PACs. So don't forget to study chapter two,

Hot Bargains.

      
       Hey Bunkie, are ya interested in a low mileage antiaircraft missile for your afternoon pleasure? Or are you more into a heavy duty machine gun? Well, look no further than Facebook. You can pick up almost any kind of military equipment your little heart might desire. Of course you may have to go to Iraq, Syria, or Yemen for delivery, but hey, its all available, according to an article in the New York Times today.
       Now Facebook, as you may know, has recently outlawed the private sales of weapons, but unless they can find the links, the specials will continue to flourish. Its interesting, but not unexpectedly so, that the sales are primarily located in ISIL infested parts of the world. What is unexpected is that much of the weaponry is distributed by America to "private security forces and their proxies." Their proxies? What or who are these proxies? And just what would a private security force need an antiaircraft missile for anyway?
       I guess most of the equipment available will be put to good use, but how is it that so much of it will also be available to folks we'd be better off not outfitting. Now I'm not suggesting that we send a sales and marketing staff over there to move the merchandise. Not even if we put them on straight commission. But I am wondering if we need to do a little more than Facebook in cutting out the sales to folks we'd prefer not get their hands on some of this stuff.
       And I'm wondering how deliveries are handled, maybe UGPS? That's United Guns Parcel Service. So a big brown truck pulls up and the driver, in brown shirt and shorts, uses a hand truck to deliver a good quality missile to some guy in camo, a black mask and turban. And the guy doesn't even have to sign for it. The problem is figuring out how to get it shipped back to your house.