Intro

It's time for a reality check ...

Maybe we’ve reached the point of diminishing astonishment.

But I suspect that much of what we’re hammered with every day really doesn’t make much of an impact on most of us anymore. We’ve heard the same stories too often. We’ve been exposed to the same issues for so long without any meaningful resolution. We recognize that reality is rapidly becoming malleable, primarily in the hands of whoever has the biggest microphone. How else can we explain a society where myth asserts itself as reality, based entirely how many hits it gets online?

We know that many of the “issues” as defined are pure crapola, hyped by politicians on both sides pandering to “the will of the people,” which is still more crapola. Inevitably, it’s not the will of all the people they reflect, but the will of relatively small groups of people with disproportionate political influence.

Nobody wants to face up to the realities of the issues. Nobody wants to say what’s right or wrong – even when it’s obvious and there are numbers to back it up. Most of us are afraid to bring up the realities for fear of being accused of being insensitive or downright mean.

So we say nothing. Until now.

It’s time for a reality check on the fundamentals – much of which is common knowledge to many of us, already. But it might be comforting to know you are not alone …

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Poo-poo head …

I suspect Donald Trump in kindergarten called more than one kid a poo-poo head. I’ll bet he also called his teacher that as well, to their face, to see what he could get away with.  

He didn’t know what it meant, and it doesn’t make sense, but his tendency to say things just to get attention had to start somewhere.

And he’s still doing it.

He’s said he’d build a wall on our southern border and Mexico would pay for it. He’s said that Mexico is sending us their murderers and rapists as illegal immigrants. He’s said he would prevent certain children born here from automatically gaining U.S. citizenship. More recently he said we should ban all Muslims from entering the country. 

He constantly says things that make no sense or would clearly violate our Constitution and laws. Maybe he really believes he can do these things, which would make him as crazy as a shit-house rat. However, I think he does it for the attention; it’s just more reality-TV show biz. 

His supporters eat it up.  No matter how outrageous and looney-tune his claims, no matter how nasty and personal his attacks, such as mocking that physically disabled reporter, or his “Look at that face …” comment about Carly Fiorina,  they are still with him all the way.

In fact, the more obnoxious he is the greater his popularity.  Every time he goes way over the line, his poll numbers actually go up. He gets rewarded for incredibly bad behavior. 

So he keeps doing it.  And he keeps upping the rhetoric. 

Teachers would call it “testing behavior”: seeing how far he can push something before he gets punished. But he’s running for President of the United States, not class clown. 

In general, I believe the rabid Trump supporters who cheer every nutso thing he says – regardless of how embarrassingly wrong, bigoted, or ignorant of the facts  that may be – frankly scare the bejesus out of many of us. They often come across as a mob of prejudiced, know-nothings that in an earlier age would be burning witches at the stake, or crosses in the yards of Jews and blacks; they are looking for someone to reinforce their darkest thoughts and Trump delivers.      

I also have both Republican and Democrat friends who are now ardent Trump supporters despite all this, and who don’t fit the standard Trump profile of low education, low information voters.  To be completely honest, there are times when I think I could vote for him, too.

Mainly what those friends and I have in common is complete disgust with the political establishment and the way the country is being run. We no longer trust our government to protect us, defend American values, or even honor the Constitution and laws of this land.

We perceive that politicians in both parties are more focused on dividing us into ever smaller single-issue segments to get or stay in power than addressing our collective concerns. And we see government getting bigger and bigger, more intrusive, more wasteful with our money, and with increasing numbers of bureaucrats who can’t or won’t be held accountable for their misdeeds.   

We’ve had it up to here with political correctness, the fawning media coverage of Democrats in general and Obama in particular, and the progressive agenda to put government in charge of every aspect of our lives.  We’re saddened to see that our allies no longer trust us and our adversaries no longer fear us. We worry that the timidity of our current leaders is putting us all in danger.   

In our hearts I think we want a revolution but we’re not sure how to make that happen, or even who we can count on to lead it. Maybe that’s why we’re looking outside the box. 

We want someone to stand up and set things right. Electing Trump is the closest thing we have to a lawful revolution.  Yet giving Trump the Republican nomination, or having Trump run a third-party campaign, virtually insures a landslide victory for Democrats next November.

As it is, Trump is the best thing the Democrats could have wished for. 

Right now Trump is getting press and support for all the wrong reasons.

Unfortunately there’s no one who can really stop him except himself. Cruz is Trump-lite. Carson can’t hold up in the long run.  Jeb is probably best qualified but seems a bit too wonky. Kasich is too whiney. 

So that leaves Rubio.  Or as Trump would call him: poo-poo head. 


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