Trey Gowdy, Poor Guy.

       Uh-Oh, look out Trey, the conspiracy theorists are out for your hide. The Special Select committee on Benghazi was supposed to find the smoking gun in Hillary Clinton's hand and you blew it. You were chosen to lead this, the ninth witch hunt in the effort to find Hillary guilty of something big enough to cause her to lose the election this year. You were given ample time to get the goods on her. To bring her down. But you, Trey Gowdy, you failed miserably.
       So the folks in your home state of South Carolina will forever be haunted by the knowledge that  one of its Congressmen failed in his sworn duty to uphold the best interests of South Carolina not to mention all conspiracy enthusiasts everywhere. You didn't even entrap President Obama in your two year, seven million dollar investigation. Well, one thing you'll never see is a draft Trey Gowdy for President poster.
       Eight hundred pages and you can't shoot Hillary or Barak in the foot. Turn in your gun. The delusional idea that anything could have saved those four State Dept. men has been put to rest. At least until they find some other fool to take up the chase. Shades of the dog chasing his own tail around a tree. Give it up folks. Hillary and Barak did nothing wrong, broke no law. It was a terribly unfortunate situation, but nobody broke the law.
       Its like this latest screw up of Trump's when his campaign solicited campaign contributions from foreign politicians. When it was pointed out to them that such requests are illegal, they backed away. The difference is that what they tried was illegal. But as long as they stopped before somebody actually sent them a donation all is forgiven. Its okay to hate Hillary and Barak, but its not okay to keep harassing them.

Sue The Bums!

       Imagine for a minute Donald Trump as president. America finds itself at war with China over the south China Sea. The fight is growing in intensity and the costs are escalating alarmingly. Mr. President what should we do? "Sue China and declare bankruptcy both at the same time. It will so surprise China to be sued by the best lawyers in the world and frighten them over the loss of our debt to them that they'll capitulate."
       Now that may sound sarcastic, but when you come right down to it, Donald Trump's whole life business experience revolves around these two tactics. Well those two tactics and his persona, his interactions with competitors and employees. His position has allowed him to be overly forceful in his dealings. And anyone who has the temerity to disagree or fail to succumb to his demands finds themselves under withering attack by non other than 'The Donald.'
       That may work in his business world, but here on this earth, it won't work with the leaders of countries who see themselves as very important personages. Can you imagine Mr. Putin listening to this or any of a hundred or so other world leaders?  I can't imagine the fallout from those leaders being subjected to such talk. America is great and powerful, but Trumps trash talk would so alienate these leaders and their countries from America that I'm not sure we could handle that many fights either militarily or financially.
Our world leadership depends on our good relations with many other countries. We can't afford to lose the advantages of that leadership or those good relationships. Our economy depends on them. Anyone who thinks we'd be better off in isolation doesn't understand this world and our place in  it.

Hey, Wait A Minute.

       I just saw a political ad for Pat Toomey. According to the ad, Senator Toomey sponsored a bill to require all employees of schools to have background checks. Of course I thought in Pennsylvania the schools are already required to have such background checks. Even daycare schools, and any business charged with the care of our children.
       It's great that Mr. Toomey wants to protect our children in school. What I can't understand is why our Senator Toomey isn't concerned about people who might want to break into a school like Sandy hook and kill 20 kids? Maybe gun toting terrorists aren't as big a problem as child molesters. To my mind both are a serious threat to our kids.
       Mr. Toomey, why do you cow-tow to the NRA against the people you were elected to represent? Don't you feel we're as important as gun manufacturers' profits? Maybe you should get a job with the NRA and leave us alone. We'd be a lot better off without you. Between the NRA and Wall Street, you seem to be too busy to care about us anyway.

Its Just A Game.

       Here's a new question & answer game. So contestants, the question is; If a blind person can buy one, what is it? Now here's the first clue, if a terrorist can buy as many of them as they want, what is it? OH contestant #1 was first to ring his bell. So contestant # 1 what is your guess? I think its a jet plane. ZZZap. Oh sorry contestant #1, you were so close, but no cigar. Oh rats.
       Yes contestant #2? What is your guess? Your own country? ZZZap. Oh, contestant #2 that was such a great guess, but you're wrong too. That leaves contestant #3. What's your guess #3? Hm? Well #1 and #2 guessed what I was gonna guess. So let's see, could it be an electric shaver? Oh, so sorry #3, but that was racial profiling. however you get to have another choice because you seem to have a good mind. Oh good, then my second guess is a Sports Car. Oh, such a good idea, but you're wrong.
       Since non of our guest contestants won, the proceeds go to a terrorist, they include the correct answer, namely an assault rifle! And the name of the winning terrorist is ----- Anonymous!  So Mr. Anonymous, you can pick up your winners assault rifle at any gun show or over the internet. Just present your credit card or cash and you've got a wonderful gift. Just one request. Please do not use it for its intended purpose, namely killing people.

Let's Give Everybody A Break.

       We should talk more about the minimum wage. If we were to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour, I think the Republicans would secretly be happy. I think business and industry would quickly find out they're happy too. How could this be? They've all been fighting the idea of raising the minimum wage for years. You'd think they all believe that $7.25 per hour is enough. If you poor people can't live on that much, go get a second or third job.
       We should talk more about all the anti-poverty programs for the poor like Food Stamps, Housing Subsidies, Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credits. You don't suppose that business and industry are happy with those programs do you? Well they must not be too unhappy because companies like Walmart are training their employees how to access these programs. Of course I suppose that's because their minimum wage employees can't survive on those wages.
       One of the big complaints I keep hearing from conservative acquaintances is that these programs are boondoggles and don't help the poor anyway. Well, what if they raised the minimum wage and eliminated some of those programs or cut them back and then gave a tax cut to the wealthy? I'll bet that would peak their interest now wouldn't it. They'd still hate the idea of giving those worker drones that pay raise, but would they hate that more than they'd love another tax cut?
       The thing is, the ultra wealthy have seen their income go up so high that they've come to be a little dizzy at those heights and they just can't comprehend that everybody's income hasn't kept pace. So when someone starts talking about doubling the minimum wage, they wonder why nobody's talking about doubling their wage. But their, the ultra-wealthy, wages have been doubling every couple of years while the worker drones haven't gone up at all to speak of.
       Really what it boil down to is whether or not the average worker has a right to expect a living wage for a days work. If that worker drone can't afford to support a family on what he earns then how can the CEO and the rest of the management team justify their mega paychecks?

The Brexit Unwraped.

       The Brexit. What in the hades is the Brexit? Well to an Englishman or Scot and even for nearly all of Europe it means that Great Brittan would be leaving the European Union. Now some say that would be good for England and bad for all of Europe, some say just the opposite and some say it would hurt everybody including America. Sounds to me like nobody knows what England's leaving or not leaving the union means to anyone's short or long term future.
       One thing's for sure. It's got most English and French and German and pretty much everyone up in arms. Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you what it's going to do, but rest assured there're plenty of people who are prepared to do just that. On both sides. I will say this though, everybody got along fairly well before the Union, they got along better with the Union so they'll decide for better or worse and we can't do anything about it.
        What I can't figure out is why it matters so much to us. One way or the other life will go on. Except for the big banks and the 0.1%, the ultra rich. For those folks, I guess there's some hurt in store or an opportunity to make some real money. But for the life of me I just can't conjure up any sympathy for those folks who are losing sleep over it. Well except for the poorer class across the water who might suffer because of the outcome of the vote.
       Look at it this way, if Texas were to vote on seceding from our United States of America. No! Wait! That's a bad example, I guess everybody would be happy with that. Well think of it this way; if Donald Trump were to go up against Hillary Clinton for president? Okay I guess that's not s good example either.
       I hope this short, simple discourse has helped you to better understand the Brexit and its potential impact on you and your friends on the other side of the Atlantic. Now stay tuned for the Onion report.

Its Not Just The Hair.

       There has been talk about how much blame to place on the Republican party for Trump's success in this campaign. But however much blame is found to be the party's fault, you can almost double that amount and place that amount at the feet of the media. It's not so much that they like him and secretly will vote for him in November, although there are a fair number who probably will, its that they make so much money off him.
       Donald Trump is thee number one media darling. He's gotten more attention than all the other candidates in both parties combined. The reason for that is because the media drools over the thought that he'll say something outrageous, again. And the reason is that if they catch him spouting some new slanderous pronouncement, all the more people will want to tune in. And that means more money and higher ratings and higher ratings determines how much they can charge for commercials.
       I'm surprised that Trump hasn't demanded fees for the privilege of recording him speaking. But then he is getting paid by owning the airwaves. Now, how does all this help him? All the media coverage handed him more votes and more delegates than his opponents in the primary campaign. Enough the hand him the nomination. But perhaps even more important to Donald is the increase in value to his brand. That's where he makes real money. Win or lose in the election, afterward can you imagine his speaking fees? UGE, UGE.
       People think he's crazy, out of his mind. Well, when you think about it in this light, he's a whole lot smarter than any of us thought. He's positioning himself to make more money than ever, far more than he could possibly make in public service, like the presidency. Public office would become an interesting sidelight, a toy, compared to his real business. That of grooming his personal image.