JFK

       JFK told us "Don't Ask What Your Country Can Do For You, Ask What You Can Do For Your Country." It seems we've forgotten that admonition, at least our leadership has forgotten it. If they ever knew it. Why is that? It's a simple statement. It says we must love our country more than our parties, more than politics. But our leadership cares more about their power.
      It's time to exchange our leadership for more patriotic leaders. Leaders who will fight for our country. Who will lead our country toward greatness. We were a good country right up until two years ago. But we needed to be great. The promise fell through. Now it's time to pick up the pieces and put our country back together again.
       We need leaders who will work together across isles, across divides. And do it for the benefit of all Americans. And all Americans need to support those leaders. That's when all Americans will prosper, each in his own way.
       In 2016 greatness was promised our country by a charlatan. He tore the country apart. We need to heal ourselves. No outsiders are going to do it for us. Outsiders can't do it. It's up to us. We need to ask what we can do for our country and then do it. JFK was a smart man. He knew what our country needed then and now.

The Wicked Witch.

       The wicked witch of the west, he keeps thousands of children in cages. He sends the parents back to wherever they came from, even unto death. And the witch's administration doesn't even know where those children are or what their names are. Now why do you suppose anyone would vote for him to have a second term?
       Wouldn't it make sense to elect a less witched witch. One who would have an administration that considers keeping track of children in it's care important enough to know who their parents are? Well, Witch Donald neither knows nor cares. Even a court is trying to make his staff care.
       A judge has required that all children in it's care must be identified and returned to the rightful parents. Three cheers for that judge. And a jeer for the wicked witch and his administration. It's one thing to mistreat an adult, it's quite another to treat children like unwanted animals. And when you don't know their names or who or where their parents are, you're saying these are unwanted animals.
       Not only is Trump unfit to be president, he's unfit to be human. Is this the kind of America we want? One that considers children to be unwanted animals. To cage them up and forget who's children they are? Not in a free society. Not in my America. What about your America?

Aye Captain.

       Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire. It was just a song, but Trump brings new meaning to the phrase. He has so much confidence in himself and so little in anyone else that he had to offer Kevin McAleenan the Customs and Border Protection commissioner a pardon for breaking the asylum law.
       Next he threatens Democrats with sending refugees held at the border to sanctuary cities. The more the merrier. Presumably more than they can handle. And See If They Like It. The legality of such a move would be questionable at best.
       Does anybody see a pattern here? Ask a doctor if they see a pattern. I've found a lot of fault with this guy, but this is far and away from anything I've ever seen or heard of. We seem to have a Captain Ahab at the helm of our country. I hope we don't go down with his ship. What is it that drives him? It's a wall. And if he doesn't get it he's gonna take us all down.
       Some people think he's a clown, but that's not the problem I wish that was all of our problem. No, he's way more than a clown. For one thing a clown has a routine, This guy listens to morning talk shows. Now that's OK for some retired guy like me, but he's the leader of the free world. There are things that he could be doing to improve our lot in life. But no, what's the talk show hosts saying about him.
       Immigrants are the lifeblood of this country. He hates them all. Of course he's not above hiring them for his golf courses and hotels, but otherwise he hates them all. Even those who work for him. He's a whack job. He's a whack job captain of our country. And if we let him, he'll sink us.

Shame on McConnell

       Why is it that Mitch McConnell and the Republicans have blocked any hope of the public or even the Congress of seeing the full report of special council Mueller? You can't say we don't have the right to see it. You can't say we wouldn't understand it. That may be true for many, but we still have the right to see it and read it for ourselves. And certainly Congress has the responsibility to see it in full, not just the right, but the responsibility.
       I guess the real question is why does McConnell think he has the right to use his power in the Senate to block the world from seeing this report. To see how a foreign enemy power has infiltrated our electoral process in order to sway an election to their favor. And did Trump, in any way, ask for, receive, and use any help from that enemy power? And to determine if that broke the law.
       As an American, McConnell has a duty to the country that overshadows any political considerations. Regardless of whether it helps or hinders President Trump, that report needs to be made public. Certain sections would need to be redacted for the public, but not the Congress. The Congress needs to see the whole report and the background files that substantiate the findings of the report.
       McConnel seems to be gambling that the people won't care about it in the coming elections. And probably it won't be the top of the list of things the people will care abut, but it will be high enough to sway an election and McConnell will rue the day he chose to keep it from the people.

College For All.

       I'd like to take this opportunity to talk to rich kids. If you're not doing well in school, that can be overcome. If you're just downright dumb, that can be overcome. If you're not too athletic, that can be overcome. If you've got two left hands and two left feet, that can be overcome. All this can be overcome by one simple fact. Your parents have lots of money.
       Now if you're very, very smart and very athletic too, but you're poor, good luck, you'll need it. We're here to talk about the kids most in need of help. That is to say, we want to help the rich kids get into the very best  of the very best colleges. And there's only one way for that to happen. You're parents are going to have to dig deep and come up with $$$$.
       We're not talking about thousands, we're not talking about tens of thousands, we're talking about hundreds of thousands, or even millions. But that's not enough. You're going to have to do your part. You've got to enter your name as a sports hero. You've got to claim high quality ability at the game of "JACKS" or hopscotch or jump rope or some such sport.
       You don't actually have to know how to do it, just make the claim and then never show up. The best schools prefer people like you. People who count on your parents to get you into school whether you can make it or not. If you can't, so be it. If you sort of can, a little more money will boost you over the top. Sorry, misprint. Should read a LOT more money.
       As for the poor, but smart kids, you likely could have attended a best school, but a rich kid took your space. There are openings in the local community college though.

Take Aim.

        Well, once again someone who wasn't licensed to carry a handgun shot himself. Sure it was an accident, it could have happened to anyone. Well at least any male. The thing is, guns are dangerous. Anyone using a gun and especially a handgun needs proper training. Even a holstered handgun can be dangerous as it was to this gentleman.
       Now something new needs to be taught in gun safety. We need to have safe placement of holsters explained. After all, we don't want more men shooting themselves in the penis as did the man in the case above. He's still in the hospital for goodness sake. I suppose he's learned his lesson, but what about all the rest of us?
       Was it the holster's fault, the gun's fault, was it the placement to blame, or was this the case of a duffus with a gun. Seriously, gun safety is far more important than our government allows. As soon as the word "gun" is mentioned, out comes the 'big guns'  the NRA and an assortment of second amendment kooks.
       How can any of these groups actually have a complaint against requiring a person to have some gun safety training before they can purchase the type of firearm they trained on? After all, the safety in using a flintlock is somewhat different than, say a semi-automatic handgun or a  semi-automatic assault rifle.
       The point is, gun safety can affect us all. Ask that guy's wife, if he has one. She'll tell you, it matters. So let's require that gun safety anyone needs if they have thoughts of owning a gun.

Shame On Us.

       800,000 plus people learned the meaning of being poor. If they didn't know, they learned the importance of charity and the need to care for their fellow man. What's most unfortunate is that the principles of the shutdown, both parties in Congress and the President,did not learn the hard truth. They did not face days of not knowing if they would lose their homes, their next meal could be questionable.
       These leaders carried on as if nothing had changed. Paydays were met, life was good and disagreement was easy to live with. No cost to them. Their daily bread was as sweet as ever. Somehow this isn't right. The next time some leader or group of leaders decides to shut down the government, there is no fair or good reason they shouldn't suffer right along with the government employees.
       Unfortunately, far too many leaders are far too wealthy to be concerned with that loss of income. What a shame that you have to be rather comfortably wealthy to be an elected leader in this country. Smart, successful businessmen don't always make smart, successful government leaders. Some do, some don't. Look at Lincoln. Think he could get elected today.
       Today you can't get elected unless you've got the money to buy your way in. The Supreme Court assured us of that in their decision involving money in politic. It's no longer 'one man one vote' now its all about the dollar. Without it, you can't get a vote. Money will decide who will run for office and who will not be heard above the din of cash flowing.

Just A Few Problems.

       The State Department had to postpone a conference on border security because of the shutdown. The shutdown was caused because Trump wants a wall for border security. The Coastguard is required to continue working without pay during the shutdown. Isn't the Coastguard required to guard our coast, among other things? Isn't that border security too? Then there's the FBI. They would like to get paid before they all lose their homes.
       Isn't it true that the Republican party is,officially, backing Trump in this standoff. All for a border wall that almost nobody along the border wants. It seems that the folks most likely to need a wall say it just isn't needed. And, isn't it true the Democrats say we should reopen the government first and then argue about an unneeded wall.
       Of course Trump realizes that if he reopens the government and gets some 800,000 people paid he would then have no leverage to get that wall built. His only hope for the wall is to starve nearly an extra million Americans. He realizes the advantage of starvation, when it comes to his agenda. Let em eat cake. It's a plan somebody else tried. She failed, but she's no Donald Trump.
       If only he could withhold pay for all the Democrats in Congress. Hey, he could withhold all the Republicans too, even himself. After all, he's a billionaire. Wouldn't matter to him. It might hurt Ruddy but somebody's gotta pay. Maybe he'd stop appearing on TV. That would boost Trump's ratings.

No to Public Takeover.

       The latest wet dream for Republicans is privatizing the VA healthcare system. Send veterans to private healthcare for all their problems. That way they can bankrupt the VA in short order. The advantage to the veteran under this arrangement is much longer waiting times and less facetime with the doctor.
       Sorry Charlie, but America's healthcare system is far inferior to the VA healthcare system. Now I admit, the VA doesn't have all disciplines in all locations, but there is already a solution to that problem. In such cases veterans can transfer to a private specialist and still receive regular care at the VA. And at much shorter wait times.
       Why is it that every so often the Republicans want to eliminate perfectly good systems and institute much more expensive and worse solutions. Could it be that there's more money to be made by the new choice? You do know who pays for these ideas, don't you? It's you, and every other tax payer.
       The only thing the VA needs is more processors. People who process new enrollees. You can't fight two wars for too many years and have far too many new veterans in need of care, and give the VA less money to handle the crush. The public may be slow to pick up on the mess, but we're not dumb. We can see how badly Congress and the Administration are screwing up. We don't need any more nonsense.

An Iron Curtain.

       President Trump is now asking for a steel barrier instead of a concrete wall. Steel or Concrete, what's the difference? The former Soviet Union, Russia, built one, it was called the Iron Curtain. It failed. The question is this; do we want all the world leaders standing on the Mexican side hollering "Mr. Trump, Tear Down this Wall!"
       And all the worlds leaders will do it because we will have no friends left to stand by our side. We won't have friends because Mr. Trump will have alienated them all. Just think back to when President Reagan uttered those words to President Gorbachev. Tear Down This Wall. And the Soviet Union, in shame, tore down the wall, or rather, allowed it to be torn down.
       "Mr. Trump, Tear Down This Wall!" A better way would be to say, Don't build it in the first place. We need border security, that's for sure. We need it along the Mexican border, we need it at all our seaports and we even need it along our Canadian border. Not all to the same degree, but we need it. We can't build walls at New York City, or Boston, and we certainly can't afford a wall all along our Canadian border, but we need security. So lets stop acting silly about a silly wall and start considering smart technology. Build walls in places where they make sense and more 21st century security elsewhere.
       What we don't ever want to see is the whole world standing on the Mexican side yelling "Mr. Trump, Tear Down This Wall." It would be embarrassing. We don't need an Iron Curtain along any of our borders. We're not isolationists and never will be. So Mr. Trump, Stop Asking For an Iron Curtain Wall.

Some Of This, Some Of That.

       Say, Trump has increased the debt by $2 Trillion in two years. I heard it claimed he's running the government like one of his failed businesses. Ya know, he managed to accomplish that by not having half of his staff and all of his departments are half staffed. So I guess, if he fired everybody, he'd be in debt twice as much for the next two years. His plan is to explain that the country can't afford to get rid of him or the debt would double again.
       He seems to be using our country as an experiment to see if he can get away with gutting America. Make America Great Again is his slogan, but he seems to be doing everything he can to make it second class again. Or maybe third class. Which would you prefer 800,000 unpaid workers or a Wall?
       Those workers can stay unpaid for years as far as Trump is concerned, and he thinks they'll like it. I'll bet he would leave them unpaid until the wall is completed. I still think a moat would be better. Even guards in prisons are in that unpaid worker group. What if they decide to go on strike? Maybe Mr. Trumps sons could pull some guard duty.
       Maybe we should charge a tax on every Congressman and woman and every Senator and the President of one percent of their net worth for every day the government is shut down. I'll bet the government would be up and running by Monday morning. It's funny how money makes honey flow. I'm in favor of border security, but walls just don't work. At least not on the scale Trump envisions.

No Border Wall, I Think.

       Well the shutdown continues and no matter who you blame, it's still shut down. I just don't agree with a sea to sea wall and it doesn't matter whether it's concrete or steel slat or a white picket fence. I think it's a dead issue. So maybe we need to come up with some other approach to border security. How about a moat? With alligators in it. That would certainly deter people from crossing over. Of course, if people stopped crossing over, we'd have to come up with a source of alligator food. Maybe a series of chicken ranches or pig farms.

       Okay, bad idea. What about some newer technologies? And more well trained personnel? I suppose there would be some areas where we'd have to put up some walls. Heck, we already have some walls in place. But instead of $5.6 billion, we'd only have to come up with maybe $1 billion. And you can forget about Mexico ever paying for it. If there are as many terrorists as Mr. Trump has suggested, from time to time, maybe ISIS would be willing to pay for a new wall. After all, we're giving back Syria, what more do they want?

       I'll bet a good deal maker could pull it off. Trouble is, I can't think of a good enough deal maker, how about you? Can you think of someone? Okay, so much for that idea. We could put up signs that read COME TO AMERICA. EVERYTHING IS FREE. And in smaller print it would read "just give up your first born." Hey, we're already doing it, this would just make it all legal.