Crossing the Streams.

In the movie “Ghostbusters”, Spengler famously told Venkman, “Don’t cross the streams…it would be bad”.   Americans who are placing themselves in the far left of our political spectrum should heed this advice.  Adopting and embracing any stance or action that is anti-Trump without considering the logic and wisdom behind it is equivalent to crossing the streams.  Following some idiot over a cliff simply because a small part of their shtick aligns with your agenda is not particularly smart.   The leadership of the Democratic Party, totally devoted to their resistance philosophy, has made this mistake repeatedly since our President assumed office; but the NFL kneeling protest controversy has really put a point on it.   Confusing a protest against the President and his policies with a protest against our flag and anthem are two entirely different issues; it is a classic case of crossing the streams.   We must not allow anti-Trump to become synonymous with anti-America.

I think one of the better comments I have read regarding this specific issue was from an individual who drew an analogy of an industrial line worker with a kneeling NFL player.  What would happen if the line worker at GE or Ford/GM walked away from their station on the line and simply knelt in the middle of the floor?  The line would come to a screeching halt and you have to believe the kneeling individual’s job would be in jeopardy.  Just as that individual has a job to do, on their employer’s plant floor and on their employer’s dime; so does an NFL player have a job to do on their employer’s field, on their employer’s dime, and in their employer’s uniform.  This is not an issue about freedom of speech; this is an issue of crossing the streams and mixing business with pleasure. 

A few questions, if you please.  If the reported numbers are accurate, there are approximately 1,700 active NFL players.  It is said that approximately 200 of them participated in kneeling and/or locking arms in protest this last weekend.  Now the locking of arms is clearly distinct and apart from the kneeling protest and demonstrates a message of unity that is apart from the kneeling protest.  Therefore, if we assume that about 50 percent of the protesters were locking arms, that would leave around 100 players who knelt during the national anthem.  That would be 100 out of 1,700.  Is this a massive protest or a misguided sliver?    If a poll were taken, how many of the kneelers actually took the time to vote last November?  What is the average salary of kneeling protesters, who by the way are being well-paid to play a game for a living thanks to the blood left in foreign soil by fallen soldiers who died literally  holding that flag they are protesting above the ground?  How many of the kneelers went to college on a student athlete scholarship and never paid a dime in tuition?  How many of the kneelers have ever held a real, honest to goodness 40-hour-per-week job and have instead spent their entire lives playing a game?  How can we accept such a protest as sincere when some of these kneelers travel to a foreign country (the recent London NFL game) and kneel for the American anthem while they stand for the foreign nation’s anthem, God Save the Queen?  Let me think, now…what country colonized Africa and commandeered a good portion of it during the genesis of the slave trade?

Whatever your politics are, left or right, do you really want Jimmy Kimmel making American health care policy?  Do you want ESPN and its personalities defining political correctness for the entire range of sports, from youth to professional?  Do you want George Clooney and Sean Penn making foreign policy decisions about the fat boy in North Korea?  Do you want the movie moguls and celebrities in Hollywood establishing the moral standards for your families, neighborhoods, towns, cities, states, and country?  Do you want Glenn Beck to define what domestic policies should look like?  Will you allow the talking heads on CNN or FOX to define how you think and which policies you support or oppose?  Make no mistake about it; the rich and powerful people who reside in the extremes of the political spectrum are in a war over YOU.  Some have decided that they can do quite well in their capitalist enterprises alienating half of the population while catering to the other half.  But the ultimate victory will go to the folks who can hold their partisan base while convincing the majority of the folks in the middle to come along with them. 

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Most of us in the center have a very small sphere of influence and control in our lives.  But those small portions combined will ultimately determine who wins the cultural war in which we are engaged.  The powerful weapon that each of us holds is sufficient to tilt the scales.  That weapon is freedom.  The freedom represented by our flag and our national anthem.  The freedom to switch channels when what we are viewing is not consistent with what we believe.  The freedom to decide which concert, movie, or event tickets we choose to buy.  The freedom to purchase the product of corporations that operate in what we consider to be a moral and ethical fashion.  The freedom to vote for candidates that we believe in and trust.  All of these weapons, these freedoms, were purchased by the loss of precious lives and treasure in past military conflicts.  It is wrong to disrespect our flag and our national anthem which represents not our President, but those brave souls and the ideals they fought for. 

We should not cross the streams.  We should not mix our business with pleasure, our vocation with personal politics.  We should revere those who came before us and paid the ultimate price for our freedoms.  We should thank the Lord every day of our lives that we live in America and are truly blessed with the quality of life that we know.  We should embrace our freedom of speech and ideals in a responsible and respectful way, taking public positions based on logic and reason rather than being driven by herd mentalities and political consideration.  If we do not do these things, we will not be deserving of the gifts we have been so fortunate to have received.  What is here today can be gone tomorrow.  Just as ESPN got bloated with its self importance and fell into financial jeopardy, so can the NFL find that many viewers will find other things to do with their Sunday afternoons.  And who knows…a lot of those viewers who explore other non-NFL options on Sunday afternoons may never come back to the game.  Because it is true when you think about it…the NFL is a game and our freedoms are real life.  

The Futility of Porcine Grappling.

I have complained on prior occasions about how politics has intrusively seeped into every aspect of our lives.    I have also written numerous times about how our President’s mouth overloads his better senses sometimes and he speaks when his silence would be preferable.  His recent trip to Alabama where he campaigned for his preferred Senatorial candidate offered up an opportunity for these two unpleasant tendencies to intersect; and they did. 

There is an old saying that you can’t wrestle with a pig without getting down into the slop yourself.  This point is well defined by President Trump’s interactions with many entities and individuals.  Emboldened by a receptive and enthusiastic crowd in a state that he carried with over sixty percent of the vote last November, the Donald reverted back to his old campaign form.  He was throwing caution to the wind, eschewing discretion for hyperbole, and throwing lots of red meat to his adoring supporters.  Among his many colorful comments, he visited the recent controversy surrounding the NFL and the national anthem protests that have occurred at many games.  As is the case with many of Trump’s forays into irresponsible rhetoric, the target of this particular rant in the person of NFL Commissioner Goodell has responded.  And like many prior Trumpian oratorical escapades, Goodell’s response took him down into the slop along with the pig.  Goodell is a clown whose tenure as Commissioner has featured such circus events as the Ray Rice abuse incident, the Tom Brady inflategate farce, and the ongoing drama surrounding Zeke Elliott in Dallas.  As a typical NFL sports fan, I have often marveled at how such a person of obvious professional ineptitude managed to keep a job as NFL Commissioner; that particular mystery remains open.   His willingness to serve as a dunce errand boy for the rich and pampered NFL owners, doing whatever and however they want, is apparently enough to keep him in his current position.  Suffice it to say that a man in Goodell’s position is not well served by an ongoing social media war with the President.

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And to expand that point, there is just as clearly no point to be served by the President engaging in a tweet storm with the NFL Commissioner.  Amid clear evidence that the majority of the public is sick and tired of having politics mixed in with their sports viewing (note declining NFL ratings and ESPN loss of viewership), it is equally clear that most folks would prefer that the President focus on his job description a bit more religiously and forget these little side incursions into “flavor of the month” episodes.  Just as there is no place in sports entertainment for politics; there is no room in politics for sports.  Nary should the twain meet. 

I suppose that none of us should be surprised that a man who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, climbed the ladder of celebrity status to his high station in life, and then parlayed his status as a reality TV star into the Presidency of the United States should continue to exhibit the same type of personal behavior that led him to his most recent conquest.  The sad, sad truth is that when President Trump allows his lesser angels to influence his public behavior, he not only does an injustice to himself and his office, but he tends to draw his opposition down to the same level.  This pathetic truth has been evidenced by the professional and ethical bankruptcy being exhibited by the mainstream media in all things Trump, by the Democratic Party and their idiotic resistance movement, and by any number of reasonable individuals who have been driven to unreasonable fits of reaction by their total frustration with the Donald and his unique brand of schizophrenic behavior.  

As much as many of us may yearn for President Trump to mature and grow into the office of the Presidency, it becomes increasingly clear on a daily basis that there is little chance of that happening.  For all steps he takes forward like a strong UN speech or a sincere and compelling reaction to natural disasters, there comes an equal and opposite step backwards like the Alabama remarks.  As infuriating as it is to continually be forced to ferret through the President’s words to glean the few kernels of truth and wisdom that reside there, it is even more maddening to acknowledge that we will likely be spending the next three-to seven years doing just that.  Just as Obama lowered the ethical and democratic principles of the Presidency during his two terms in office, Trump is well on his way to lowering the civility of the office in an equal fashion. We are left clinging to the resignation that an imperfect Trump is clearly far superior to the abysmal Obama; that President “all over the board” Trump is absolutely preferable to the corrupt and slimy Hillary Clinton; and that based on his solid administrative appointments and the resiliency of our nation’s government, this nation will likely survive a Trump Presidency the same way it has survived similar presidents in the past.

For Republicans, Has the Proverbial Ship Sailed?

Fed up with our past ridiculous president Obama and his uber-liberal bent, this nation’s voters eschewed “Obama the Sequel, featuring Hillary” for a loudmouth, TV reality personality.  Donald Trump swept into WDC with a Republican majority in the Senate and the House and a jubilant Grand Ole Party full of itself and big ideals. 

Now, after sitting in the big chairs for nearly nine months, the Republican Party has basically disowned Trump, engaged in schizophrenic policy behavior, destroyed any public confidence in its ability to govern effectively, and quite possibly thrown away a golden opportunity to make sweeping and fundamental changes in our government.  Has the door completely shut on Republican chances to reform health care and our tax system? ... Probably not.  However, there can be little doubt that when John McCain openly indulged in excessive self-esteem, personal grandstanding, and naked arrogance by casting his vote against the Republican health care legislation; the Republicans lost their chance to exclusively rewrite this country’s massively flawed health care system.   And now, on the heels of the Donald’s much discussed deal with “Chuck and Nancy”, the breech between the Republican Party Leadership and this Republican President seems wide and widening. 

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I have written many times before that I believe Donald Trump to be much more liberal-at-heart than he is conservative.  Once again, I urge anyone who doubts that statement to review Trump’s public life leading up to his quest for the Republican Presidential nomination.  And as liberal as Trump sounded then, his family members who apparently are maintaining positions of authority and influence in this White House, are even more liberal than he is.  Now the devil’s advocate might argue that based on his judicial nominees and his administration appointments, Trump has exhibited a conservative tilt.  This is true; but a closer examination might reveal a crack or two in that theory.  Trump’s corporate background and raising gives him a natural disposition against overt government intervention into the private sector.  The last thing a CEO wants is a federal judge telling his or her company how they should operate.  It is natural for a capitalist to desire strict constructionists in the courts.  And if you look closely at some of the Trump administration appointments, they have pretty strong liberal leanings in many areas.  Militarily and judicially, his selections show a conservative leaning; but is that a political call or a personal call?  I submit that it has much less to do with politics than it has to do with his personal belief that government should be small, non-intrusive, and predictable while the U.S.A. should be the strongest military presence on the planet and carry a big, big stick.   It might be revealing to note that the overwhelming majority of people leaving this Administration are rightists.  Now some them may be less than desirable to begin with, but the point is that the conservative power base in the White House is not strengthening; it is shrinking.

We shall see how this “Chuck and Nancy” kabuki dance plays out, but it may well prove to be the point where the centrist/liberal Trump came to the front and the conservative Trump mask was dropped to the floor.  For all of their supposed political wizardry, McConnell and Ryan may have frittered away their single best opportunity to influence America.  One thing is beyond debate; the middle point in the conservative versus liberal debate in Congress has been shifted to the left.   If Schumer and Pelosi are smart, they will seize this opportunity to maximize their position as a minority legislative party with a sympathetic President.  It is far from certain that they are that smart; but it will certainly be interesting to watch it play out.

Fiddlin’ Through the Fire.

These times are so uncertain

There’s a yearning undefined

People filled with rage

We all need a little tenderness

         How can love survive in such a graceless age?

….Don Henley, Mike Campbell, J.D. Souther

McConnell and Ryan and their fellow Republican legislators lived through eight years of the worst President in my lifetime; who just happened to be a very partisan Democrat.  They spoke openly about what they would do when they eventually (and the worm always turns, doesn’t it?) were put back into a position of power.  Now that their wish has been granted, they are not pleased with the terms of the granting.  They do not like their Republican President.  They carp at his tweets.  They belittle his sometimes absurd rhetorical adventures that tend to wander off of the fact-based pathways.  When in his presence, their body language belies their contempt for his claim to the Presidency that, in their judgments, should have been filled by a more conventional party man.  Given the corrupt history of Clinton and Obama presidential pardons, they nonetheless ridicule Trump’s pardon of Sheriff Joe.  They are very much like the dog chasing the car who knows not what to do with the vehicle once the capture is complete.  As incompetent and misguided as their Democratic rivals are, they are on the verge of yielding back legislative power to a self-righteous, pious, arrogant, and corrupt bunch of liberals.  They have lost sight of the one standard that they will be measured by; the first priority of government is to GOVERN.  If they do not find within themselves the capacity to accept this presidential blessing in the form of the tarnished Donald Trump, they will fritter away the best hope of meaningful government reform for decades to come.  They had best find their elixir and dutifully take their daily doses of Trump Tolerance.  He may at times be a loudmouth buffoon who shoots recklessly from the hip with no regard for the truth; but he is their Republican President.  Just dwell for a moment or two on the realities of a Hillary Clinton administration… Trump looks pretty good.

The Democratic Party is also toying with its own form of self-destruction.  Will they follow the antifa, the Black Lives Matter radicals who see racism in every eastern sunrise, the Bernie Sanders socialists who want to throw everything from everybody into one big pie and then divvy it out to the public in common metal platters, the eastern female Senator of false Indian heritage who wanders about flirting with her political ambitions while engaging in fairy tale policy fantasies, and the Schumer/Pelosi leadership that advocates pure obstructionism in place of honest debate and alternative ideas?  Polls be damned; does anyone really believe there is a Democrat, or Republican, out there today that could defeat Donald Trump for President?  As flawed as he is, he continues to address that yearning of most (at least a plurality or minor majority) Americans for the anti-politician who will try something other than WDC business as usual.

Democrats and Republicans, get over yourselves; Trump beat all comers in the primaries; Trump beat Hillary in the general; Trump is President until the next election.  Make…this…thing…work.

And how crazy has our government become when we leap completely through the looking glass to empower Robert Mueller to form a shadow Justice Department with his glorious cast of partisan Democratic donors and supporters that spends millions of taxpayer dollars to chase ephemeral conspiracies while real criminals who have committed real crimes continue to serve in real positions in our real government?  What an absolute farce!  Never before has a more ridiculous and unproven political episode been foisted upon a more confounded public in a more stupefying fashion. 

And Charlottesville… the latest spark for this eternal racial American angst that is the wound that will not heal; the scab that is continually pricked.  The hard truth is that as long as racism remains a cottage industry for any number of vested interests and individuals, it will not go away.  Only when we cease to differentiate between those of different races will we come together as Americans first.  The regrets must be buried.  The sins must be forgiven.  The retribution must be set aside.  Attitudes must be changed.  The dark sides of racism must be dispensed with; along with the patronizing entitlements promoted by those who self-benefit from them.

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The all-too-few times that our President has stuck to the script and presented a presidential decision or address, when he has actually done something that receives fairly universal acclaim as being the right thing to do, the media has been AWOL.  Hillary Clinton is still putting out books trying to explain how terrible a decision the nation made by not selecting her as president and “how in the world did that happen?”.   Obama administration holdovers, embedded throughout the government, continue to obstruct and sabotage any initiative made by the current administration.  The Federal Judiciary is riddled with maverick liberals who foist their own brand of personal civil and social philosophy upon any litigants unfortunate enough to appear in their courts.  Democrats are still in denial about their minority status; Republicans cannot find contentment with the Republican in the White House.  Black radicals fight with White supremacists in city streets; while anarchists are in literal combat with alt-right believers throughout our nation.  The one common thread that weaves amongst all of these and many more vigilante groups of professional protesters is their disregard for the law and civil authority, their lack of respect for personal property, and their total allegiance to a cause that currently serves as their flavor du jour.  While the Middle Eastern cauldron continues to boil, the fat boy emperor in North Korea plays his own personal version of Game of Thrones, the dark and ruthless shirtless one schemes in the Kremlin, Europe romps through its various forms of identity crisis, and the other regions and continents of the planet deal with their own dramas… the United States of America stands in the center of it all in a state of utter confusion; wallowing in self-denial about how ridiculous she appears, how lost and rudderless she has become, and rapidly losing sight of exactly  how essential her leadership and stability is to the rest of civilization.  It is time for all involved to get down to the Heart of the Matter.  It is time for a re-emergence of statesmanship.  It is time for selfless pursuit of a more efficient and effective government that serves all of its people with transparency, honesty, respect, and dignity.  It is time to redefine exactly what government should do and exactly how much government we can afford.  By wishing for those things to return, it goes without saying that I believe they are gone.

Chickens Coming Home and Hunting White Whales.

My goodness, what a strange couple of weeks it has been.  Open warfare occurring within the White House staff (ah … this perpetual three-ring circus known as the Trump Administration), North Korea and Iran continuing to develop their long-range missile capabilities, the health care legislation debacle in the U.S. Senate, and the continuing melodrama of collusion/leaking/obstruction investigations that has consumed WDC and the media.  Where to begin?

Democrats … be very careful what you wish for; your chickens are coming home to roost.  After spending over six months in breathless pursuit of something…anything…that might lend credence to the idea that the Trump Campaign colluded with the Russian Government and coming up empty, it is now beginning to look very much like the accusers are the ones guilty of the crime.   Karma does take some funny turns and how ironic would it be to find that this GPS Fusion business is nothing less than a sophisticated, complex attempt by the Democrats, with acquiescence from the media, to collude with the Russians to insure Hillary Clinton’s election?  Stay tuned to this one @ http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/getting-a-fix-on-fusion-gps.php

As for going through the looking glass, Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s (along with several other elected Democrats) episodes with the Pakistani Awan Family Enterprises is becoming stranger by the moment; you can’t write fiction more weird than this.  The ball of twine to beginning to unravel, but here is a good short release on the topic, @ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449983/debbie-wasserman-schultz-pakistani-computer-guys-bank-fraud     

This certainly seems like one of those mysteries that will ultimately be solved by following that old, sage advice of “follow the money”.  Somebody, for some reason, wanted these folks out of this country in the worse way.  Wonder why?

As each day and week rolls by and we get further away from the days of the Obama Administration, facts continue to reveal how corrupt and self-serving this outfit was.  I have said before that in my humble opinion, the absolute worst transgression of Obama’s folks was the invasion of privacy and the weaponization of federal agencies for that purpose, driven by purely partisan motivation.  That these idiotic ethic-less individuals such as Powers, Rice, Brennan, and Rhodes were given free rein to savage the personal privacy of U.S. citizens in sophomoric attempts to further their idealistic agenda is not only nauseating, it is very likely illegal.  If there is any justice in this world, there will be a perp walk or two come out of this mess.  Here are some recent developments on this front, but it is far from over … @ http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/344226-intelligence-chairman-accuses-obama-aides-of-hundreds-of-unmasking

Sarah Palin is a very galvanizing figure and she has certainly said and done some things that have not burnished her public persona.  However, with the exception of Donald Trump, it is difficult to think of any recent politician who has been more personally savaged by the media than Palin.  The media have been playing fast and loose with their own misconceptions of self-importance for some time now and their boldness in printing whatever they like for whatever reason they want has morphed to astounding levels.  The NY Times, hardly a shell of its once vaunted self, may have stepped into it deeply with their last shot at Palin.   I doubt that I would be alone in celebrating their comeuppance should they lose this little legal contest, @ http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/07/palin-to-subpoena-23-witnesses-in-nyt-defamation-suit.php

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Republican Senator Grassley, along with support from Democrat Feinstein, are moving the Senate Judiciary Committee closer and closer to finally taking a good, hard look at the nexus of Hillary Clinton, Loretta Lynch, and James Comey.  Maybe there is nothing there, maybe there is something there; but given the constant Trump/Russia drumbeat, it is without a doubt far beyond time for an equally discerning examination to be given to the shenanigans that these players likely perpetrated.  If he so desires, Grassley has the respect and position to push this issue to the top of the page; perhaps even leading to another Special Counsel Investigation.  And judging from his comments over the past couple of weeks, he certainly seems to have a bee in his bonnet about it.  Read more @ http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/23/loretta-lynch-hillary-clinton-probe-senate-judiciary-239905

A recent development that makes this matter even more intriguing is the recent report that ex-FBI Director Comey’s General Legal Counsel James Baker is likely being investigated for leaking information to the press; @ http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/fbi-lawyer-allegedly-investigation-leaking/

How truly bizarre and disappointing is it that the ex-FBI Director and his General Counsel were both apparently leaking data (quite likely, some of it classified) to the media for political purposes?  This is the F, B, freaking I we are talking about!   Is there literally no integrity left in WDC?  And Comey, this fount of wisdom and decency, is the lead witness in Special Counsel Mueller’s  investigation of Trump obstruction?  Really?

And finally, there is the Republican’s Captain Ahab imitation of making Obamacare their white whale and obsessively pursuing it with no regards for the consequences.  Since the ‘90’s Clinton Chronicles, both political parties have disgraced themselves with partisan ambitions that have steadily eroded any semblance of legislative integrity.  It is difficult to blame one or the other for implementing the “next” extraordinary legislative stunt in order to get even for their opponent’s “last” extraordinary legislative stunt.  One thing is crystal clear: the Republicans are just as obsessed with repealing Obamacare as the Democrats were with passing it.  Neither side can see the space in between outright repeal and unqualified allegiance to the original mandate/tax penalty concepts of Obamacare.  As unsavory as the process was, it is really hard to understand how Murkowski and McCain can square their rhetoric from past campaigns with their votes this week on the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill.  Methinks that Murkowski is somewhat of a ditz and McCain is extraordinarily full of himself.  Regardless of the finality announcements being made by some on both sides of the political aisle, I don’t believe that we have seen the last of the “repeal and replace” effort in the U.S. Senate.  With the Herman Melville entrenchment of the political parties regarding fundamental health care principles, it is difficult to see any civil end to this matter and the only ultimate solution is likely to be the product of “power play” politics.   Once again, Congressional legislating imitates sausage manufacture.

The Best It Could Be.

Everything does not have to be in constant turmoil and strife. Why can't events, on occasion, converge to create a sense of accomplishment and tranquility?  The poisonous, bitter, partisan environment that has evolved for much of this nation can moderate to a point of tolerate and civil exchanges of policies and ideals.  As has been said many times… “The darkest hour is just before the dawn”.  Things have been pretty dark for some time now; what if a few things went the right way for a change and it turned out “the best it could be”?

I am on record about how I feel President Trump should deal with Special Counsel Mueller (fire him!); but let us assume that does not happen.  The best thing for all involved would be for Mueller to expeditiously complete his investigation, keep its scope limited to the original intent and subject, and officially file a report that will put to rest any pretense towards collusion between the Trump for President Campaign and the Russian Government.  Given Mueller’s clear bona fides as a good, upstanding Democrat; a report of this nature should go a long ways towards removing this albatross from the neck of our President and get it out of the face of anyone who pays any attention whatsoever to the media and news.  And if Mr. Mueller were to reach such a final verdict, maybe then the mainstream media will somehow decide that an opportunity is presenting itself to reset the relations between the Trump Administration and themselves.  Victor Davis Hanson does as fine a job as I have seen in framing the dereliction of duty by the mainstream media regarding its treatment of Trump versus…say…Obama.  Read it here @ http://www.hoover.org/research/americas-media-meltdown .

How much different would out country be if we had at least a semblance of a healthy, respectfully adversarial, and honest relationship between the Fourth Estate and the Trump Administration? 

And how about if this coming week, we actually see the U.S. Senate do its job and pass some health care legislation?  How good would that be?  Now you may not agree with any of the proposed legislation; but anyone who deals with it in the real world must confess that our health care system is messed up.  Changes have to be made.  The Democrats passed on a party-line vote and Obama signed into law the ACA (Affordable Care Act).  The House has passed the AHCA (American Health Care Act).  The Senate might soon consider passing the BCRA (Better Care Reconciliation Act).  It is regrettable that the Republicans are using similar types of extraordinary legislative procedures to pass their health care legislation on a party-line vote; just like the Democrats did with the ACA.  However, there are changes that must be made to create a sustainable health care system in this country.  There are many bi-partisan ideas that might get passed outside of the reconciliation process (i.e. selling insurance across state lines) if we can just get past this repeal and replace nonsense.  And equally important is the fact that health care legislation is a gigantic road block that is preventing other necessary legislation efforts such as tax reform and infrastructure spending.  The best thing that could happen is that we get over this acronym madness, get ACA repealed, and then get on to creating a new plan…WITH bi-partisan input and process.

Imagine how great it would be if Putin were to decide that Assad is simply not worth his investment in Syria?  What if he could simply get past the idea that Assad is his man, throw him overboard in order to obtain some peace and stillness in Syria, and work within an international framework to establish some type of order in Syria and give the Syrian people a chance at some type of future with dignity and safety?  Why must there perpetually be these “petri dish human tragedies” scattered across our planet, contrived by the great world leaders and ruthless barbarians who care not for human dignity but lust eternally for power and glory?  These little subplots to the mighty world order that provide an eternal source of damage to the human body and spirit?  If Putin would simply give up on Assad, I have to believe that the U.S. and its allies, along with China, would leap at the chance to pursue a chance at a Syrian peace that actually has some prospect of success.  Come on, Vlad…get you ish together.

And how about if our fearless President somehow misplaces his phone and cannot find it?  And how about whoever does find it takes a ball peen hammer to it and it NEVER…TWEETS…AGAIN.    It would so good that when a good report or two comes out from this Administration; there would no longer be an idiotic tweet out there to set everything backwards a step or two.  Would it not be a good idea for the folks with have joined up with the President to serve this nation, at a high dose of personal expense, to go through their daily work lives without wondering if this is their day to be thrown, if not under, at least in the proximity of the proverbial bus (looking at you…Jeff)?   Mr. Trump: you are now the President!  The campaign is over!  This is not the Trump Corporation; this is the U.S. government!  Focus on the agenda and results and please leave the shallow, ego-massaging, grandstanding to someone else. 

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And if things are going to be the best they can be, then after the health care issue is well on its way towards meaningful resolution; the Congress will take up some serious tax reform.  Tax reform that will simplify a process that is more complex than the freaking cosmos.  Tax reform that will not only be easier to understand, but will lessen the individual burden on most while broadening the base to insure that everyone has some skin in the game.   Tax reform that will spur business and job creation in this nation, once again get our GDP above that magic number of 3 percent, and give people opportunities for jobs that pay well and offer a chance for better lives.  I fear that if the health care legislative effort fails, it will be a harbinger of a coming failure on tax reform.  Our nation’s economy can ill afford that calamity.  We need a jolt to our economy and that jolt must be in the form or meaningful tax reform.  Best case scenario: Make it happen!

Somebody…somewhere needs to come up with a solution to shut down these little Napoleonic potentates (otherwise known as federal judges) and make them understand that their role in our nation’s structure is not to write the law, but to enforce it as it is written.  I do not care if the law was passed by Democrats or Republicans; the law is the law.  These charlatans posing in their black robes with their noses held high in the air must be given to understand that their political appointments do not make them larger and more powerful than the President…or Congress…or even a higher authority.   There must be some type of system or method put into place that will allow for the SCOTUS to more quickly yank the chain on these rogue judges and put them in their place.  The lag times between some of their idiotic judicial rulings and their overturning by SCOTUS is far too excessive and serious damage is being done to the integrity of our legal foundation.  Here’s hoping that some semblance of legal sanity can be re-established in our federal court system.

And finally, what if a bolt of lightning were to flash from the heavens, strike our noble elected officials in the U.S. Capitol, and place in them the notion that perhaps they should not be career politicians?  Perhaps they should serve a limited number of years and then, accepting the reality that continuously living and working in the political environment of WDC, they eventually fall out of touch with the people they serve and should turn the job over to someone new?  Perhaps a good starting point for the discussion is one six year term for President (no longer running for the second term after just two years in office), three six year terms for Senators (long enough to insure some experience, but short enough to insure against pretense of royalty), and five two year terms for Representatives (returning the House to the concept of “citizen politician”)?  Term limits is that marvelous idea that can never come to pass because it must be imposed by those who will be adversely affected by its imposition.  But hey…if we’re going for the best it can be…why not? 

Shucking Corn and Thinking ‘Bout Snakes.

For a July Saturday morning in Kentucky, this is one of the good ones.  About 7:00 am out on the front porch and there are just enough clouds rolling through the skies to provide cover from the early, hot summer sun.  There is a cool, sweet breeze coming in from the east and rolling down through the woods from the ridge above.  The Good Lord smiled on me and mine when he allowed us to be at this place, at this time, and not in some crazy place like…say for instance…Washington, DC.   After breathless coverage, 24/7, of the “Russia Thang”, a few minutes on the front porch on Saturday morning goes a long ways towards putting the world back in its proper order. 

More and more, our nation seems to be divided between its urban cultures and its rural cultures.  I fall squarely into the rural culture segment, but I will readily acknowledge the many wonderful benefits that go with the urban lifestyle.  I remember the television lawyer show Boston Legal where with each episode’s ending, William Shatner and James Spader would sit out on their high-rise balcony, cigars in mouth and drinks in hand, and gaze out over a gloriously beautiful skyline of the city at night.  A strikingly similar perspective is offered by the Amazon crime series Bosch where the lead character lives in a hillside, glassed-in home with a breath-taking view of the Los Angeles skyline.  Cities have their problems; but they also have their museums, varied restaurants, exhilarating commercial vitality, bars and pubs with live entertainment, headline acts performing on a year-round basis, professional sports attractions, and wonderful employment opportunities offering exciting and challenging career choices.  When people live and work in such close proximity, there is an undeniable spirit or essence that literally beats like a heart.  It rises up with the good times and aches terribly during the bad.  Unfortunately, the urban environments can also foster in many of their residents an attitude of superiority that trivializes much of the urban lifestyle and demeans the core luster of city living.  

Rural living has some downside too; but there is also much to be valued in the country.  There is a special worth to the spatial independence of rural living, the slower-paced and more personable environment that permeates everyday life in the country, being on personal terms with your children’s teachers or your family doctor or the Circuit Judge.  The really nice museums and restaurants might not be just down the block, but they are typically within an hour or two commute at most.  City parks?  My whole farm is a park for my grandchildren.  There are soreheads and bad characters in town and out; but at least in the country, most of them are well known and identified rather quickly.  And all that balcony skyline gazing that I previously mentioned?  I wouldn’t trade my front porch for both Shatner’s and Bosch’s night visions.  Even though the rural culture clearly cultivates a certain level of contempt for our city neighbors, I think we view city-dwellers not as an inferior species, but rather as a poor lot that has not yet discovered the glories of country living.  It is really more of sympathy than a dislike.  Man’s hand, through monumental courage, ingenious engineering, and sheer will to build, has created urban visions that can challenge even the most gifted imagination.  But any person who can experience the simple beauty and primal majesty of the deep woods, a pasture field or meadow, a crop field fully ripened, a stream running though the trees and rocks like a silver ribbon, a doe watching over its twin yearlings as they forage, an inland lake where the white tips of the waves plays tricks on the eye and gives glimpses of things not understood, the clouds wisping across a wide-open, clear blue morning sky or a star-studded and perfectly clear nightscape when the heavens seem to go on forever...well, that person must truly realize that this magnificent and wondrous balance of life and elements cannot be far removed from the hand of God.  Man may have built the skyscrapers and the bridges, the tunnels and the freeways, the dams and sidewalks; but he did not build the wonders of rural America that I have mentioned.

How great is it that we all have the option to live urban, rural, or at many of levels that lie between those two in this great nation?  If we, as a citizenry, could simply get over ourselves and our tunnel-visions and openly embrace the reality that where we live and how we live is a matter of liberty and a matter of choice.  It is not right or wrong; it is America.  Spader and Shatner saw the same things off of their balcony that I saw off of my front porch this morning; a glorious world created by God and given to us, by His grace, to enjoy and maintain. 

Now let’s turn the discussion to snakes.  There are two kinds of snakes in this world; the animal kind and the human kind.  Our attitudes towards both kinds are very irrational.  Not only that, but it seems that the irrational attitudes we hold towards each kind are somehow reversed from the order they should logically be in.  Let’s take the animal kind of snake.  There is a wide range of “snakey” places in this nation and this world, but on average, much of the country is not unlike my native Kentucky.  We have 33 species of snakes in my home state, with four of them being venomous.  Nationwide, there are annually about 7,000 – 8,000 venomous snake bites resulting in about 5 fatalities.  The biggest contributor to this sniping is the rattlesnake.  The point to be made here is that a bite from a venomous snake is rare; a death from a venomous snake bite is even rarer still.  Now if YOU are the one being bit, there is nothing rare about it; I’m just saying that there is a lot of stuff out there that is likely to get you before a venomous snake.  However, in most of the people I know, there is an inexplicable fear of a snake…any snake.  Very few folks have the expertise to distinguish the venomous snakes from the non-venomous snakes and many, many of those folks take the approach that all snakes need to be killed on sight.  What is it in a reptilian creature which is at most a few feet long, has no arms/legs/claws, is understandably more fearful of us than we are of it, and spends it waking  hours trying it’s best to stay out of our sight  that makes us view them as such threats?  Is it that old diabolical story going back to the Garden of Eden?  Is it the simple fear of the unknown?  Is it the prehistoric, somewhat mesmerizing appearance of the snake; so beautiful and so evil at the same moment?  I do not know the answer to this odd way we look at snakes, but I know that the raccoons, possums, groundhogs, deer, and rabbits have done a lot more damage around my place than any snake ever did.   

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Now the human kind of snake is a creature that should truly be feared.  These types come with all appendages and faculties that make the human the unique creature we are.  Unfortunately, they have that little “bent” in their character that makes them want to lie in the grass and wait for opportunities to strike.  It makes them say one thing to our face, and another thing entirely behind our backs.  It makes them promise one thing with the full intention of never following through and then going in a different, more self-serving direction.  It makes them pull those of us who are not as strong in character as we should be into the dark sides of the human creature and go places where we should never go.  Many of these of these people are the most evil characters we have ever known; people like serial killers, pedophiles, barbaric dictators, those who traffic in human flesh and the many others that prey on the weak and vulnerable among us.  We find these human kinds of snakes sprinkled in every nook and cranny of our culture and society.  From the community church, to the U.S. Senate, to the White House Administration, to the schools and day cares, from the rich and swanky world of the privileged, to the depths of poverty where many are imprisoned by circumstances beyond their control and others choose that level because it is the path of least resistance.  Now here is the part of this deal that I find so interesting; the same folks that will immediately kill an absolutely harmless 9 inch long green snake with a grubbing hoe will embrace the human snake.  They will sit down with them at a church supper.  They will contribute hard-earned dollars to their political adventures.  They will hold them forth as heroes, mentors, and examples of good living and accomplishment.  Many of our culture’s so-called role models turn out to be the human kind of snake.  And it certainly goes without saying that far more human tragedy is heaped upon our civilization by the human kind of snake than the animal kind of snake.  Now in all fairness, many of these human snakes are pretty damn devious and mighty hard to detect.  Remember what I said about the animal snake being mesmerizingly beautiful and evil at the same time?  Our human snakes are masters at showing us that beautiful part and hiding that evil part…aren’t they? 

I guess I will close my herpetological discussion by wondering this…How different might this world be if we took the same care to spot the human kind of snake as we do while walking through deep Kentucky woods in August and September and watching out for those animal kinds of snakes?  I do not advocate taking grubbing hoes to the WDC politicians or looking for group hugs with copperheads; I’m simply saying that a bit of equity and impartial observation might lead us to a more prudent threat assessment.