Media - Just Quit It!

Boy, do I have a headache!  No, nothing like a brain tumor though it might be less painful.  It's from watching too much news.  Old story, isn't it?

I have a cure in mind, however.  It will never happen but when I get these bright ideas I like to share them.  This is for both the main stream media and FOX News.  Quit!  Just quit covering government all together.  They aren't doing anything anyway.

Just look at the health care mess.  Tell us when something positive happens.  Otherwise ignore Congress.  Did it ever occur to you that the reason why Congress holds so many hearings is because it gives them an excuse to not legislate?  Why do they have to investigate every little tit and giggle as a potential crime when they know it isn't?  Because they then don't have to do anything else because they don't have the time.  Those vacations, you know.

Then there's the administration.   Stop already.  You are reporting fake news about this hapless bunch and you know it.  Collusion is not against the law, besides both parties are equally guilty of the practice so quit trying to make a story out of it.  Donald is going to continue being the man/child he has always been.  He loves the attention it gets him and you all in the media just feed into it by reporting every Tweet.  Give it up.  You're not winning anyone over to your side.  You just keep alienating.  Is that your intent?  If so, quit it!

I no longer have any idea what is true and what is not in the jumble of mixed messaging.  I never thought being in the "middle" meant trying to figure out where the truth lies.

Not that I've been missed, but this is why my posting has become nil.  Actually I miss it but that takes me back to subject matter.  I found trying to be positive about a failing organization might help but the organization is still failing and I'm no longer with them.

My time has been spent trying to do my share of keeping up our 5 acres.  At our age it's no easy task. We're in the yard by 7:30 or 8 and shot by eleven.  So much for stamina.  Of course we use heat as an excuse and there is some merit to that but I'm not sure how much.

Oh well, if I ponder long enough I may come up with something.  There is beauty in this world of ours.  The last two nights we could get a rare glimpse of the northern lights.  I didn't make it to mid-night but those who did had some spectacular photos.

I've never tired of photographing our yard birds.  Yesterday it was a pair of baby Robins trying to earn their wings in between stints of trying to decimate my raspberry crop.  At that they are succeeding.

My headache feels better now.  I've an errand to run before dinner.  By the time I get home the local news may be on and I can catch the weather.  By the time dinner is over the news will be too and FOX will not be on the agenda.

So.  What shall we talk about now?

How Low Can We Go?

The shooting of Representative Steve Scalise and the other intended Congressional targets  that were fortunate enough to escape the rampage is only the first part of today's horror story.  Have we really sunken so low that anyone - anyone could think this is acceptable behavior?

I know the progressive left has lumped everyone who disagrees with them together and has decreed Trump their leader.  How dimwitted.
I had hoped those who do feel differently would be more aggressive in their opposition.  The Republicans certainly are not leading the way.

Someone, however, should be out there shouting at the top of their lungs that this is not acceptable in this country.  It would preferably be a Democrat but then they are the ones most complicit. The Republicans tend to little more than run  around in little tight circles ringing their hands.

The comments on social media have absolutely made my skin crawl.  What kind of people are these and where did they come from?  Who are their parents and what in the name of any almighty were they taught?

I can remember when Michelle Obama claimed she had never been proud of her country until her husband was running for President and she felt there was hope.  Hope for what?  What we have now?  Don't tell me this was Trump's fault.  It has been brewing all throughout the Obama administration and now that the Democrats have lost power it has erupted thanks to those like Bernie Sanders and Rachel Maddow who through their rhetoric spur on the hatred.

I can honestly say I've never been more ashamed of my country than I am now.  That there is opposition to the President's agenda not because it's a bad one but because of who the President is.  That all his supporters or at least those who feel some obligation to support the office he holds and the country he serves are called  every name in the book.  That the vile name calling and celebrity commentary is worthy of consideration.  That someone can take aim at a Congressman with the intent to kill.

My Mom used to tell me she lived in the good old days.  Well, so did I.  Politics have always been sticky yet interesting to watch.  No more.  People used to be civil to one another regardless of their political leanings.  Today it's disappearing even in small burgs such as the one in which I reside.

It's sad and demoralizing.  How do we combat it?  I have no idea.  I feel it is just going to have to run its course.  Maybe the shooting of a Congressman will jar some of his colleagues into thinking about  the consequences of their behavior, their hate and fear mongering.  However I doubt it because they are the cause of all the nasty discourse and it takes a certain type of person to perpetrate then condone it.

Will the pendulum ever swing back? Who knows.  The people have already said enough but the Republican party couldn't come up with a credible candidate to counter punch the progressive left agenda.  Of course the Democrats couldn't come up with an acceptable candidate either.  So we have what we have.

Hate mongering and worse won't solve the problem for either side but will destroy the country.  Then who will be proud?  Only the powerful who call the shots.  And it won't be for our benefit, but rather their own.  Bet on it.

Trump - Time For An Intervention?

Boy, it has been a long time since I've posted a blog.  Life goes on. I'm still having fun hunting rock art and wildlife to photograph.  I'm still knocking myself out trying to maintain our five acres.  I'm no longer working for the Film Alliance.  Today is my birthday.

Things come, things go and if you're busy enough to ignore the news life isn't so bad.  It's that 4 o'clock hour when I'm winding down from whatever the day has brought and I turn on the news that everything starts going down hill.  If only there was actual news from around the world rather than the constant hysteria coming out of Washington it might be worth watching.  But no.

We're into June now.  Trump has been President long enough that news out of Washington should be rather mundane governing stuff.  But no.  It all stems from what Trump has tweeted.  Everything.  Or so it seems.

Let's face it.  Trump is an addict and Twitter is his drug.  Of choice.  No one has forced it on him.  He listens to no one about how damaging it is to everyone who believes in him.  Or believed. Good people are opting out of serving in his administration because it has no clear direction.  It's chaos, careening from one blunder to another. It's always more about him than country. So what would get his attention? What could possibly jar him into maturing and acting like the President of the United States should?

Maybe it's time for his adult children and his wife to have a good old fashioned intervention and let him know in no uncertain terms that if he doesn't change his ways they will walk away from him. In case they are hesitant it's also called tough love! Who does he hold more dear than his family?

Will it happen?  Of course not.  It takes a tremendous amount if fortitude for family to take such an action, even if it's for the benefit of their loved one. It would, however, benefit them too. Maybe, just maybe the end would be they would no longer have to live their lives with a patriarch considered a buffoon. Or the worst President in the history of the country.

Oh, so much is at stake for the entire country.  Of which his family is a part. He needs reminded of that.

If At First You Don't Succeed - Fire Everyone!

Advice for Trump's staff, cabinet and all advisory personnel.  Watch your Twitter accounts - you may get a Tweet telling you you're fired!

According to AXIOS the Donald is frustrated by all his hand chosen sycophants and he's thinking of cleaning house from Priebus to Bannon to Tom Price and Jeff Sessions.  Wow!

If you can't handle the job fire those who can.  Well, that's the Donald.  But what would happen if he actually did?  Who would he get to replace them?  Would any sane person want to work directly for this man?  If the answer is no think of the kind of people who would take the jobs!  Another wow.

Interestingly, Trump's frustration isn't for just one sin.  He's mad if people are too effusive in their praise of him, if they take credit for their own actions, if they fight too much among themselves, anything and everything. Much of it contradictory.  But then that's Trump.

I do agree that the in-fighting needs to stop and he can do it with a few firings to be sure.  There is merit to that idea for a lot of his staffers who he shouldn't have hired in the first place.  Cabinet members are another matter.  Price?  He hasn't done anything in the way of rolling back burdensome regulations that are well within his purview.  Sessions?  He talks the tough talk but will he walk the tough walk?  Yet to be determined.

Beyond that though, how would he get any replacements through Congress?  No matter how qualified  nominees may be you know the Democrats will demagogue them to death.  Republicans cannot be counted on to carry the day due to their own small but influential body of rogues.

So Tweet away Donald, fire all of them!  You could become a President without an administration! How incredible would that be?  Not only an emperor with no clothes but no one to even notice!
Take away the Twitter account on top of it and maybe there would be peace on earth.  Or at least here.

I wonder what kind of president  Mike Pence would make...

Has The Impeachment Countdown Begun?

It is so ironic that the man who promised to make America great again is the one standing in the way of having it happen.

I've said, as have many others, that Obama was narcissistic to a fault. He is.  It's always about him - even now that he's no longer in office.  And that's enough about Mr. Obama.

I never thought we could get two narcissists is a row though I think Hillary is also one.  Never-the-less we have a beaut in Trump.  The problem isn't so much his being a pompous indecisive bully, it's that   he does so many things that are just plain stupid and he doesn't even see it.

It's said he is quite smart and a shrewd businessman.  I knew of him but not all that much when I lived on the east coast.  All I really remember is that he took over the reconstruction of the Central Park ice rink and brought it in under budget and that his name was plastered on a lot of things.  As far as business acumen is concerned though, I wonder if it was his underlings who got things done and he merely took credit because he was the boss - and the bully.

In Washington the Democrats are having none of it to a fault.  They too are being stupid in their vindictive obstruction.   The Republicans are split to be sure.  Paul Ryan has his own agenda. As Speaker he is to lead but not dictate.  The Freedom caucus is wearing blinders when they talk about what they were elected to do.  No one votes on a single issue.  At least not enough people to get any of them elected.  The Senate is for the most part useless.

With all these weaknesses in two of the governing bodies you'd think Trump could muster a series of successes but what does he do?  He sabotages himself because he doesn't think things through.  He reacts. Impulsively. Period.

I have no doubt this lack of self-discipline will lead to his downfall. He has no sense of timing.  No finesse.  Certainly no charm nor wit to counteract his behavior.

The Democrats and probably more than a few Republicans are just waiting for that one indiscretion that will bring his house of cards tumbling down like a wrecking ball hitting Trump tower.

He'll have no one to blame other than himself but you know he'll blame everyone except himself.  The sorrow of it will be those good people who held their noses, took deep breaths and chose to serve under him will bear the brunt of the collapse.

I truly believe they did so for country.  Too bad Trump is serving only for Trump.  If that isn't true than does it not prove he is not fit to serve as our President?

Just wondering...