The Circus has come to town in Maricopa Country Arizona!
Daunte Wright dead after being pulled over for a traffic violation. Who knew an expired tag was capitol offense?
After listening to the Chauvin Trial, Is it time to revisit the Gadsden Flag?
Congress Gives Up on One Wall, Tries Another
Trump's real meaning
“Trump” has a rich etymological history. We should use the word properly.
Last call at the LiberTy Bar & Grill, January 6, 2021
The Senate Surrenders, February 14, 2021
The 2020 Election results
Finally cleared that hairball!
Halloween in America 2018
Maybe the tide is turning
The evidence and consequence of all Trump's coverups is piling up. Paul Manafort — convicted on 8 counts, Michael Cohen — pleaded guilty to 8 counts (including 2 that implicated the Prez in a felony). Perhaps the USA will make it through this trauma yet.
Senator McCarthy Returns to Question Trump!
Senator Joseph McCarthy has returned from the dead to reconvene the House on Un-American Activities Committee, to investigate Trump's relationship with the Rooskies. Good luck with that! #TrumpPutin #Trump #Trump #satire #politicalcartoons #humor #Russia,
The Bible Justifies Separating Children from their Families!
No question the Bible approves of ripping children from their parents. Found this unexpected painting from the Renaissance, titled "Madonna and Child with ICE Agents."
Apologies to Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato.
theological Question
I was up all night wondering about this — During Passover, what is the status of a Jewish woman with a yeast infection?
Earthquake hits DC!
The United States Geologic Survey reported unusual seismic activity in Washington DC on Saturday, with similar aftershocks felt around the country.
Thirty-six Members of the Administration Gone (and Counting!)
Whatever you think of Donald Trump, he's spot on about this!
America's High School Yearbook 2018
Here we are again. Another massacre in a school, this time in Parkland, Florida. Before we ultimately resign ourselves to this obscene state of affairs, shouldn't we at least see the actual crime scene photos? It's an argument made recently in Slate. Don't we deserve to have all relevant information and visual material as we debate the issue of guns in this country?
It's unlikely. In the meantime, let's close our eyes and imagine what the bodies of youngsters in Sandy Hook Elementary torn apart by assault weapon ammunition really look like. Conjure up the slumped figures peppered with slugs in the pews of the Sutherland Springs Church, the dead and wounded littering the campus of Virginia Tech, the concert grounds in Las Vegas, and the hallways and classrooms of Columbine and Stoneman Douglass High School. Think of the thousands of shattered families, who's lives surely will never be the same.
While we're at it, consider the injured survivors, some of whom will have lifelong disabilities, medical needs, and unalterably changed futures. Go on to contemplate the emotional distress of witnesses and first responders who may be physically unscathed, but will suffer PTSD for months, years, perhaps their entire lifetimes.
Don't stop there! Think of the millions of American schools students (elementary to high school) who are forced to participate in active shooter drills. They become wonderfully proficient in immediate responses to alarms, barricading doorways, picking up objects to hurl at an armed intruder, knowing where they should assemble after the terror subsides, and how to properly exit their buildings in full view of heavily armed SWAT teams. Sweet dreams, kids!
Almost done. Now bring to mind the 30,000+ who die each year at the wrong end of a gun in far less spectacular ways, through suicide, in gang-related shootings, during marital disputes and drunken rages, or through accidental discharge of a gun. Tally up the astronomical emergency room costs we generate each year as the bodies — dying, dead and wounded — roll in.
Maybe now you have some vague notion of the cost our society pays for our inalienable right to fetishize and acquire millions of guns, that give so many the illusion of enhanced power and imaginary safety.
Yep. It's time to see the photos, which will likely never see the light of day. In the meantime you have my pale rendition as a study aid.
Ignore the sexual harassment rumors about me!
I want to make clear that any rumors of inappropriate sexual behavior toward anyone on my part are unfounded accusations with no basis in fact. I don’t even wear that kind of underwear, and that’s not my size. Furthermore, I'm terribly allergic to latex. Finally, working as I do by myself as a freelancer, I don’t have, and have never had, an assistant. Anyone, male or female, who claims to have held that position is either lying or delusional.
Nonetheless, I will work tirelessly to regain your trust.
Are We Watching America's Moment of Decline?
It’s worth asking if we have front row seats to a profound moment in history—the unravelling of the United States of America. The improbable election of Donald J. Trump, his distressing actions and behavior in office, and his sustained support among large swaths of the country would seem to suggest just that.
Our president is an unstable narcissist, pathologically needy, and gleefully dishonest. His racist attitudes are scarcely hidden, his geopolitical understanding nil. He wantonly backs away from carefully crafted international agreements with other countries, ensuring that any future diplomatic engagements with us will be justifiably seen as empty and transitory. President Trump sows chaos, division and rancor the way a farmer plants fields with soybeans, corn and alfalfa.
As for governance, the President’s operating model is a wrecking ball. Each blow bangs away at the edifices of law, journalistic free speech, civil and environmental protections, and informal but necessary customs and norms needed to conduct the country’s business.
Even so, Trump is not the problem. He’s the symptom of long decline in our perceived sense of a shared national identity and purpose. Trump’s destructive acts and impulses are cheered as necessary to “shake up Washington.” Demolition is mistaken for revolution.
Our capacity for frank yet respectful disagreement is melting away faster than a water ice in July. We’ve arrived at the point when John McCain is treated to catcalls of “Hang him!” at a GOP convention, for the “crime” of offering a critique of the President at his Liberty Medal Award in Philadelphia.
We find to our horror that with a wink and a nod from Trump, unresolved issues of race, religion, and class have re-erupted into freshly festering wounds. Who would have imagined a short year ago that Neo-Nazis would be parading in Charlottesville, that nooses would be hanging outside the National Museum of African-American History in Washington?
What we’re experiencing is the culmination of decades of debasement in our political discourse. Since the 1990s, Congress has incrementally ceased to be a functioning body. What little it gets done bears no relationship to the actual needs or desires of its constituents. The last “big” thing it accomplished, the ACA, is under full blown assault from both the President and the Republican Congress.
And most troubling of all, we can no longer agree on what a “fact” is. Social media has opened a Pandora’s Box of competing realities, a smorgasbord of delusional, often paranoid notions that could be easily debunked if verifiable reality had real currency. Our Declaration of Independence begins, “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” Not so much, really.
So is this it then, the beginning of the end for the American experiment? Will future historians point to this moment and say, “Yup, that’s when the wheels really came off the bus!”
Maybe. Maybe not. There are hopeful signs that this traumatic era has reawakened a new commitment to citizenship. For many, it’s broken through the apathy, cynicism and complacency that’s resulted in the dismal voting numbers recorded year after year. There’s a renewed sense that every election matters. The off-year contests for judgeships, state legislative seats, school boards, and other seemingly minor offices matter deeply. In important ways, they’re every bit as important as Presidential elections.
So if you’re unhappy with the current state of affairs, get busy, get informed, get involved, get in touch with others on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or even face-to-face conversations (remember those?). Your first opportunity to vote for the America you cherish is just days away.
Or you can stay home, settle into your front row seat with some popcorn and a soda, and watch the show.
Your Congress sends its deepest condolences!
There! Now don't you feel better?!