Facing Death

The current rash of terrorist-killings has upset the world, it seems, especially the U.S. There seems to be in the current generation the feeling that death is so unusual, when death is just the last act/episode of LIFE. This was written here in April 2007:

The Facing of Death

One wonders why today’s generation has such a problem with death, especially death of one considered “too young” or “too good” or “too anything.” The recent deaths at Virginia Tech bring the subject front and center again as similar instances of massacres in the past are replayed in the media, with the same exasperation regarding the necessity to bring about “closure,” usually by finding someone or some institution to blame.

This is not to disparage the grief expressed by a whole nation’s citizens in the VT matter, not to mention those directly affected such as parents and other relatives of the dead, but to remark that the notion that death and unhappiness seem unacceptable to the “now” generation. This is graphically seen every night in the newscasts as the media keeps count of the ones who have fallen in the war on terror and talk-show hosts such as John McLaughlin present a morbid accounting every Friday night, complete with humongous fatality-estimates regarding Iraqi civilians, the intention apparently being to account this nation as one big murderer.

A young man – probably deranged, though no one will ever know – took the lives of 32 people for no reason, since no reason for what he did is possible. He did it because he decided to do it. That explanation doesn’t bring comfort to parents, just as parents are not comforted when a drunk driver – for no reason – kills their child. Those killed happened to be in a killing field, whether at a university or on a highway, through no fault of their own. Some years ago, a drunk in northern Kentucky driving the wrong way on a four-lane highway slammed head-on into a church bus returning youngsters from a day at an amusement park and managed to kill 27 people and horribly burn others, while he was hardly affected. They happened to be in a killing field that night…no reason to die…but they did.

In 1982, there were 26,173 people killed in traffic deaths caused by drunk-drivers. That was 72 per day or well over twice the number killed at VT. In 2005, the traffic-deaths caused by drunks totaled 16,885, or 46 per day. Strangely, there was no outpouring of grief over drunks-induced traffic deaths on any day, and John McLaughlin did not bother to keep score, though they were caused by insensitive people with absolutely no reason to kill, the same as the circumstance at VT. Yet, there is an ongoing reaction in Blacksburg, Virginia, that will go on for weeks and then be revisited for years, just as the Columbine killings a few years ago.

The religious fundamentalist will say that death occurs just the way and at just the time God decided before he created the world, yet cautions people against doing bad things that could lead to their deaths. That’s his way of not taking any responsibility for anything that happens, without understanding the obvious contradiction. The atheist says, “no God, no reason, no reality, no nothing,” but rails against Christians for believing something, as if that should make a difference to them since it changes nothing. Others, whether religious or not, state the obvious, namely, that mankind has free will and has a lot to say about death, taxes, and everything else. These people mourn with a reason, but realize that answers will not be found to the killing fields anywhere this side of death itself, assuming another opportunity on the other side to discover the answers.

None of this is to say that there shouldn’t be grief when a loved one dies, or that there will ever be “closure” in the sense of understanding the mystical, the unknowable. During the1,642 actual days of combat in World Wars I and II (4.5 years), an average of 320 Americans died every day…10 times the number at VT on just one day out of decades in Blacksburg. Back home, people understood as well as they could. The deaths resulted from actions taken by German leaders who were unbelievably wicked or crazy or both…no reason for the killing fields, just as at Blacksburg, assuming the young killer was mad, seemingly the case as proven posthumously by his own account, or just plain evil.

During the Korean Conflict in 1950-53, an average of 35 Americans died every day for 1,095 days. In the long nightmare of Vietnam (7.5 years), 21 GIs died every day…2,737 days. Think of the Civil War – 340 dead per day for 1,460 days. The deaths happened to people from all over the country and were the results of madness and evil, but there was no racking, continuing vigil or ceremony in the capital, Washington, D.C., on those days…just the facing of the fact.

The counselors descended on VT in Blacksburg, as they do in any town at a high school when a student has been killed in a car wreck, an accident. This didn’t used to happen. The notion seems operative that young people or all people just have to have help in “getting through it,” as if death isn’t as much a part of life as life itself – an absolute even more certain than life. Surely this generation is not so fragile that its members cannot accept death – no matter the horrific circumstances and lack of reason – as a matter of course and, without a lot of folks weeping, hugging, and encouraging them to be upset, just dry their tears, attend or tend to the rites, and get on with their lives.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

October 2009

It's interesting occasionally to look back at what was happening in the previous administration at about the same time as that of the present one. With the ladies taking over the court system these days, problems with appropriate bathroom-use, girls joining the Boy Scouts (along with homosexuals and transgenders [whatever they actually are]) and the no-surprise perfidies of Hollywood, a look at the below, offered in October 2009, might provoke thought.

Obama & Rampant Sexism!

In the midst of all the current turmoil regarding the recession, Afghanistan, Iraq, nukes in Iran and North Korea, health-care, unemployment, cap-and-trade, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and whether or not the president smokes or the vice president knows the current meaning of “fluffernutter,” an even greater issue has reared its ugly head, namely, the insensitivity of the president with regard to the blatant discrimination/sexism exhibited in his all-male White House basketball games.

The dear leader made matters even worse in an interview with a lady reporter by labeling the resulting and entirely predictable outcry from the women’s groups as BUNK. Oh, dear Gertrude! That sexist remark was the straw that absolutely broke the camel’s back, an actual metaphorical camel, not the cigarette variety, and, of course, a metaphorical MALE camel.

One wonders if the nation can trust a president who is so shallow and gender-indifferent that he doesn’t recognize that no basketball game can be considered politically correct with regard to DIVERSITY without women participants. And to think...it was largely the women’s vote that put the rascal in the catbird’s seat, in the first place! The ingrate! The majority of men went for septuagenarian McCain (admittedly not a hunk, like the Big O), who, in referencing Lady Hillary’s million-dollar earmark for a “Woodstock Museum,” reckoned that he was otherwise occupied in 1969. It’s a sure bet that there were no women in the Hanoi Hilton.

So...what was a president on the run from the lady voters to do about this matter, earth-shaking in its political – yea, even its governmental – implications? He responded immediately (the very next day?) by doing a round of golf with a female employed in his administration...yeah, a dame...er...lady. One can only wonder at the thrill of it all, although making golf-course whoopee (defined as any hole played in less than five over par) might not look too good...that family thing, doncha know? But Ms. Obama will just have to understand.

The president erred, of course, by not inviting the lady to a basketball game. That would have been the only way to actually set matters right. The ladies didn’t complain because of a golf goof...they were “mad as hell and we won’t take it anymore” over a basketball game. After all, that’s “where the boys are,” not a mere twosome or foursome, as in golf. The gals have made it plain, especially since the game was between a gaggle of congressmen and the president’s men, that sexist shady deals were the real reason for the supposed sport, not just one-on-one grandstanding, like in the NBA.

One wonders what the outcry would have led to if the boys of October had decided on football instead of basketball and actually invited the ladies to an event in which Rahm Emanuel, known for his bloodthirsty spirit, might have bitten off a lady-finger. Or...what would the ladies have complained about if the guys had decided on a wrestling match? Hey...that would have been a show, better than the one put on by Senator Harry Reid the other day during a press conference, when he put his arm around Speaker Pelosi. Whew...just thinking about it!!!!

One thinks back to 2002, when the ladies rose up in arms because the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia – known internationally for the premier Masters Golf Tournament – didn’t have any female members and, what’s more, didn’t intend to have any and still doesn’t have any. The gals screamed bloody murder (and sexism, of course) and contrived to drive Augusta out of the international circuit. Indeed, the tournaments of 2003 and 2004 had no TV sponsors, but the Augusta guys thumbed their collective noses and bankrolled the thing anyway. The golfers (even those with wives, daughters and sisters) paid the whole thing no mind. Nobody who was eligible was about to miss the most honored golf event in this country.

If the president had a clue, he would have paid this thing no mind, just as he would pay no mind to Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, instead of singling them out for his disdain. He should have taken a page from Augusta, where wimps need not apply. Okay, so Augusta is private while the White House is public. Not necessarily! When the president uses it as his residence for a basketball game, for example, it is not public, but private, notwithstanding the venue for “shady deals.” If that were not the case, all the White House bathrooms would be open to the public.

Tempest in a teapot? Well, of course! The president trivialized his office by paying attention to something belonging only to those who scream “sexism” about nearly everything. There are nearly 100 women in the Congress. They can have a basketball game any old day in the congressional gymnasium and it’s a lead-pipe cinch that neither the prez nor any of the legislators would be caught dead near it, that is, with their bodies joining their brains these days.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

PROTESTER

His line of work is protesting
No matter what the cause may be,
He has the tools for anything
Protester-boss happens to see
As slowing down the protest-plan
Like mean policeman with his tase
Who quickly springs it rather than
Just dodge warm spit—protester-craze!

To qualify for protest-job
One has to have morality
With relativity its throb
So even a fatality
Is, ipso facto, right or wrong
Depending upon who is dead
Or who is weak and who is strong –
Demands a conscience also dead.

Protesting-training is a must –
Just how to march, carry a sign
Or learn how someone's head to bust
Then run and find the retreat line,
Thus then return with street-smart hires,
Disrupting meeting in process
By vandalizing stores, set fires
And make of cops a bloody mess.

The college students are the best
At protesting than all the rest,
Indoctrinated in protest
At professorial behest,
Reflecting academia
Now governed by the hippie-creed...
Just bash and smash...brains gone to seed.

Protesting-wage is not that bad,
Cool billionaire's cough up the cash,
No longer is protest a fad,
A good protester builds a stash;
Protesters travel everywhere
But rarely for republicans,
The democrats no cost will spare
To have them hound republicans.

Simplistic is protest-credo –
Disrupt no matter how contrived –
Yelling, screaming, body-blows,
Gassing, burning, all connived
To break up peaceful, legal crowd,
Belabor cops and burn their cars,
No limit to what is allowed...
Stop speech-freedom and leave some scars.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Transgender GI

The liberal nose is out of joint now because Trump reckons that the military would profit by not getting stuck with sex-changes for its members, who in process might have hormonal relapses or gone-wrong surgeries (maybe infections installing vaginas in men who would rather be women) requiring their absence from the wars here and there. Recruiting nightmare...folks joining up for free sex-changes. Egad!

Transgender GI

The prexy ruled transgenders be
Recruited militarily
Because correct diversity
Means even monkeys must be free
From stigma whether he or she
As per one's sex-reality
And not to what apparently
Was Nature's way...mistakenly?

And so a he who is a she
Reports to boot-camp grudgingly
And finds her clothes are dungaree
As if she is another he;
She gives her name as Mary Lee
And finds her skivvies not panty
But boxer-shorts unwittingly
Thrown in her arms in great, good glee.

Then off to barracks—hup-two-three—
And to the restroom speedily
Only to find disgustingly
Those urinals...oh my, oh me,
And grown men standing easily
Before them, maybe two or three,
Exposed...oh yes...genitally...
Oh dear! Such trauma to a she.

The drill sergeant, no wit had he,
Had not seen femininity
And had not seen her purse to be
A sign that she was not a he;
Thus later off to Barracks B,
Where female GIs all would be
Exposed to her, a fellow she,
And giggle...yeah...in great, good glee.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

DNC Memorandum #3

From the office of the chairMAN 30 June 2017

***Please note the emphasis on the above, made to comport with the style of my predecessor, therefore equalizing the genders while I am chair, which, by definition, she had tilted the level playing field, something the former Great Leader mandated must never happen.  Even though she and now I have made the male/female distinction equal, remember that the chair can be transgender or even no gender (maybe a Q—little joke there) or bisexual.  This will assure the LGBTQ community that the Democrat Party is politically correct and that, unlike the uncivilized republicans, they are not only welcome in the big tent but may aspire to leadership. DO NOT MENTION, however, that the head honchos in the Army, Navy and Air Force are against recruitment of transgenders and have asked that none be recruited. The reason(s) is obvious.

***Motion Picture Mogul Michael Moore, a new DNC consultant, is planning a new movie based on how the Trump people colluded with the Russians to fix the last election in Trump's favor with a sub-plot concerning an affair of two Green Party staffers, unhappily-married man/man-marriage adulterers suffering the disastrous effects of PTESD (Post-Traumatic-Election-Stress-Disorder) that eventuated in a death-suicide attempt (gun unloaded, however), but I will not give away the surprise ending here. Please do NOT be offended by the directive on the cork-board now located by the condom- & salt-sugar-lactose-peanut-caffeine-chocolate-free candy/drink-machine that all weeping in this building still precipitated by the election-disaster is to stop. It's time to move on and face this hard life, especially after slithering merrily along during the previous administration. WE WON is now in the other column.

***Everyone should be encouraged by the hassles/hearings concerning the FBI, CIA, NSA, congressional committees, special counsel, and by Senator McCain (sometimes by Senator Graham, too). All are aimed squarely at bringing down the president, thus sparing the nation of what could be a bloody COUP attempt, especially since Majority Leader Schumer as the natural coup-commander has had no military experience (little joke there in case a staffer thinks I'm serious). The recent repub-wins in Georgia and South Carolina House districts must be played down as actual losses when compared to Trump's numbers in those districts last year. Don't ever mention that the winning Georgia-repub is a woman, but if asked, just explain that Trump would not have supported her if he'd known.  

***The fight among the republicans over the healthcare issue furnishes a perfect tool for explaining the meanness of the GOP toward everyone not in the wealthy class. NOTE: Do not mention that 20 million citizens still have no healthcare under the ACA (Obamacare, for recent Harvard grads on staff), just hammer on the fact that 28 million will enjoy that circumstance some years down the road. Also, interview Senator Collins at every opportunity – if you have plenty of time – to get the “meanness” issue into the proper focus since she is death and destruction on preexisting conditions, including but not limited to the common hangnail.

***NEVER MENTION FAKE NEWS OR CNN! The reasons are obvious. Also, never mention MSNBC since the consensus is that mostly wing-nuts operate there. Example: Rachel Maddow. Never mention her orchestrated performance concerning her “scoop” on Trump's 2005 tax returns, and especially don't mention that they showed he coughed up $28 million in taxes. By the way, the wag who wondered aloud at the water fountain as to whether Chris Matthews' leg still vibrates when he hears Obama speak will soon be assigned to the Durbin Rehabilitation facility to receive sensitivity-training. Durbin himself will give a seminar on How American GIs in Iraq replicated Stalin's Gulag, Pol Pot's killing fields, and Mao's great leap forward butchery, as well as Hitler's concentration/death/camp massacres.

***This is not TONGUE-IN-CHEEK! The DNC has an official APB out regarding Barack Obama, latest civilized president, but who cannot be found, not even on golf courses lately. He's the leader of the party but may not know it so he must be found and encouraged to play his new role—leading in front. Likely places are Hollywood and Wall Street or anywhere else, especially resorts like Trump's golf courses, where people with money can be found and just mildly encouraged to book him for speeches to various groups but at no less than $300,000 a pop, though teleprompters and transportation must be provided at client's expense. The first staffer to contribute news of his whereabouts will be given a day off but without pay. The DNC is not a welfare agency.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

NFL's Latest Obscenity

“Twerking” Now Acceptable

Football will soon take over the sports-scene. Assuming that the NFL hierarchy actually does endorse more celebrating after the end of nearly every down played and enhanced exponentially after a score, as currently reported on the NFL web-site, one concludes that desperation has set-in vis-à-vis getting the fans’ minds off the constantly increasing carnage connected to the game, magnified in especially recent years with the intensive reporting concerning brain concussions as well as other injuries.  

This is in addition to the testimonies of players, current as well as former, who have described in print and on TV the effects and recovery-durations of these injuries, especially the concussions, which are indisputably connected by the medical community to such things as behavior and ailments such as Alzheimers.  Concussions are okay for prizefighters since the objective of the actually-non-sport boxer is to kill the other guy by bashing out his brains, notwithstanding the high-flown rhetoric otherwise.  If this were not the case, boxers would wear headgear, not that such would be of significant help.

The latest celebration craze is something called “twerking,” described in the Urban Dictionary as “the rhythmic gyrating of the lower fleshy extremities in a lascivious manner with the intent to elicit sexual arousal or laughter in one's intended audience.” The first time I noticed it being performed was courtesy of Carolina quarterback Cam Newton after he had scored a touchdown. He just leaned back, spread his knees, and rotated his crotch to everyone next to the end-zone and, more importantly, watching via TV. In man-circles (like the military), twerking is exhibited by simulating masturbation.

Twerking has different levels, “three-pump-twerking” (use your imagination) being a no-no but fewer “pumps” seem okay. The NBA features celebrations, also, a practice introduced by black players as they have taken over much of the sports-world, though I haven't noticed twerking in basketball, but then I don't watch the NBA—terribly boring. In the NFL, celebrations happen after nearly every play, especially if a player is knocked into the middle of next week and struggles to arise if at all. After making a tackle, the perpetrator is likely to do a “crotch-hop” (use your imagination) or run ten yards toward the opposite goal so everyone won't mistake his act of heroism.

Taunting the opponent is also big, especially if he has been reasonably discombobulated from reality or, better, has to be carried off the field on a stretcher, conscious or not. Taunting is more noticeable in basketball since it can be heard by the spectators, much nearer the action, which now is characterized mainly by physical assault on the “enemy,” a good elbow-to-the-nose shot, for instance, in a game with no protective gear and supposed to exhibit skill and finesse but now is more like kick-and-box. Players, many if not most of whom can reach the rim have only 24 seconds to get off a shot so the fans will not get bored actually watching some finesse rather than knock-down-drag-out and slam-dunk.

NFL Head Honcho Goodell explained that the players wanted to have more fun after a big play, as if having a big play was not satisfying enough to millionaire players, who if they manage their wages after a normal tenure in the game should not have to work again. Baloney! It was just his way of affirming that football is no longer a sport primarily but a rather sanguinary form of entertainment. Remember the “bounty-hunter-affair” of a few seasons ago when New Orleans players were paid bonuses to inflict appropriate injuries upon opponents, especially quarterbacks, in the interest of removing them from the Sunday afternoon carnage.

But the white folks love the entertainment, too, just as multitudes of youngsters have adopted sleazy-lyrics “rap” as the music of the day, some guy mouthing obscenities to the accompaniment of African bongos or other pulsating gadgets. For comparison, check out baseball, where celebrations (fun stuff) are done in the out-of-sight dugout and consist mostly of high-fives. The crowd might as well be in Lower Slobbovia. Latinos are slowly taking over the game and make the “sign of the cross” after just hitting a single, much less a home run, which NFL-wise would be at least a hernia-risking two-pump-twerk at home-plate.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

DNC Memorandum #2

From the office of the chairperson, 26 May 2017

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Senator Durbin has been cadging TV-time in the capitol again (almost as much as republican charlatan Senators McCain and Graham), thus suggesting attention to his effort, with the collusion of former POTUS Obama and Senator Reid (perhaps suffering mid-life crises—little joke there), to lock Senator Burris, appointed to Obama's vacated Senate seat in 2009, out of his office (some claim even the restroom, too) and out of the Senate Chamber. Though well-documented, all three have denied this and said they would never do anything like that again. DO NOT—repeat...DO NOT mention these three names in any red/yellow/black/white-papers prepared for any senate staffer or lobbyist, no matter his/her degree of ignorance, account bad PR for the party. Also, feel free to trip any of them if you see them chasing TV-newsies and camera-people or photographers to stage free interviews. The DNC will cover any injuries to them but not you, so be careful.
***While campaigning with Senator Sanders recently somewhere in California (Governor Moonbeam's state—little joke there), I was informed by a DNC whistle-blower (name not given for obvious reasons) that there has been grumbling around the Bush Dart-Board, now located by the condom- & salt-sugar-lactose-peanut-caffeine-chocolate-free candy/drink-machine, that my effort with Bernie is heretical if not sinful since he admits to being a socialist, not a democrat. Regardless of Hillary's similar status, this is not true and a staffer will be handsomely rewarded for writing a red/yellow/black/white-paper proving why it isn't. For suggestions, contact Donna Brazile or Congressperson Wasserman-Schultz, recognized for their mental acuity, notwithstanding the events connected to the 2016 convention/CNN-debate.
***Be careful not to make too much of General Flynn possibly taking the Fifth since Hillary's computer partners-in-crime did the same, not to mention the IRS lady. Remember: POTUS is not Obama and Lynch is not AG so the fix is not in for heavy criticism. Also, use no pictures in visuals showing Trump shaking hands with the Saudi gang recently instead of bowing before them like POTUS Obama did in 2009. This is not even to mention the possibility of both Lynch and Hillary being forced to do the same (the Fifth cop-out) when the big hearings start and the rubber hits the road. Attorney General Sessions might have stupidly (as it turns out) recused himself from the Russian Roulette circus but that does not deter any action concerning Hillary, whom former FBI Director Comey declared under oath to have committed perjury, obviously premeditatively lying under oath.
***It’s okay to slam Trump for his meeting with the Pope since the two can’t stand each other over things like walls against immigrants, which the Pope said are un-Christian making Trump a hypocrite, and climate change, although be careful not to indicate that the Pope, being infallible and keeper of the truth, nevertheless does not actually claim that he can change the weather, much less the climate. Also, don’t mention the priesthood over which the Pope rules since pedophilia is a no-no in most civilized societies, as well as homosexuality, which the Pope seems about to embrace as normal. Remember that the Romans have the largest denomination in the U.S. and it’s largely made up of democrats. Never mention transgenders and it’s not okay to inveigh against abortion since maybe the majority of Catholic women, like most women, stand for the woman’s right to protect her body, code for ridding it of an inconvenient adjunct like a bad appendix or tonsil or fetus.
***Be careful about mentioning the collusion between the Trump-gang and the Russians to get Trump elected, at least for now since all election officials have insisted ad nauseam that the balloting in November was simon-pure and not affected by any outside influences. A raise will be awarded to anyone submitting a red/white/black/yellow-paper explaining how the Russians managed to hack into the voting machines/booths/ballot-boxes to defeat Hillary; however, do not mention that Putin was actually trying to get Hillary elected as payback for her well-publicized interference in his presidential election a while back and was even considering a tarmac tete-a-tete between Medvedev and U.S. AG Lynch, with Bubba thrown in for good measure, somewhere in the Crimea.
***In light of the Manchester-suicide-bombing, do not mention immigration in any town-hall meeting even though the bomber was home-grown, not some émigré from the Libyan al Qaeda. POTUS Trump has been right on this subject but try to call that tragedy a man-caused disaster, not terrorism (especially NOT Islamic terrorism), with a view toward enticing Obama, who made that important distinction, into the organizing trenches he knows so well. It’s already late to start the 2018 campaigns in the hope of turning the House so Trump can be impeached. Also, any sighting of Obama will be appreciated.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Tenuous Tenure

After taking office, Trump should have settled down to governing though a certain number of executive orders were necessary but without the accompanying fanfare.  Instead, the president has turned his tenure thus far into a circus; consequently, respected members of even his own party are justifiably disgusted even though the antics of some have matched Trump’s for inanity and political harm.

Trump’s Campaign tweeting was necessary for getting out his message and combating a mostly hostile media, print and electronic. Now, it’s reprehensible and childish, indicative of a playground mentality and obvious waste of time.  Matching tweet for tweet is like answering stupidity with stupidity.

An effective bombast mattered in the campaign, especially since Clinton’s success had been consensually accepted and needed to be neutralized by sheer numbers.  Clinton was mean-spirited to trot out the “gold-star-father,” actually a lawyer with connections to the Clintons, to berate Trump for a war she, not Trump, supported while in the Senate, thus trying to con the average citizens by insulting their intelligence.  Her mention of the basketful of deplorables (Trump supporters) was sickening, thus she was successfully ridiculed in the massive Trump rallies as insensative and out-of-touch.

Bombast-time is past and hopefully there will be no more rallies.  Trump’s braggadocio might have been marginally effective in campaigning.  Now, it’s boorish and often demeaning to both him and others.  Big crowds create neither jobs nor reasonable presidential decisions.  Using costly Air Force One for publicity stunts wore out its welcome with Obama.

There’s a fine line between an inferiority- and superiority-complex.  Each can drive a sufferer into paroxysms of attention-demanding behavior.  Trump seems afflicted with at least the latter and hasn’t learned that others have far more knowledge and experience than he.  He made good choices for his cabinet (surprisingly) but needs to let the secretaries function without carping criticism.

His choices of a billionaire CEO for State and military generals for Homeland Security, Defense and the NSC were good in that these people are disciplined and have been inordinately successful; however, they’re as strong-willed as he—and as smart or smarter—so he should not bicker with or about them.  They, like Trump, are accustomed to making decisions and giving orders and should not be expected to change.  Dragging his family into places of prominence was a tragic mistake.  Nepotism is okay in private enterprise but ugly in government.

In short, if Trump had done a 180 from campaign methods to governing, he would be sailing now.  Instead, he, like Obama before him, is still in campaign mode.  The most effective tool would have been shutting his mouth almost completely and growing another layer of skin.  He’s done neither.

Other prominent republicans have helped Trump to suffer.  For instance, high-profile Senators McCain, Rubio and Graham seem to have staffers searching congressional halls for the nearest TV “reporter/commentator/network-apparatchik” in order to appear nationwide throughout both day and night.

Each tries to conduct foreign policy, with McCain and Graham having insisted that Obama invade Libya and Syria, efforts both wrong-headed, foolish.  McCain even had photo-ops with his choice of insurrectionists in both places (though Syria was doubtful, probably Lebanon) as recipients of U.S. weapons.  All three waged unsuccessful presidential or veep campaigns, thus might suffer bouts of jealousy. 

Other republican leaders have joined virtually the entire democrat contingent in Congress in going after Trump for the “Flynn affair,” Russian collusion (already investigated to exhaustion with no charges), the Comey-firing and anything else that might elicit simply being fed-up with Trump’s buffoonery but matching it themselves. Vengeance is a politician’s stock-in-trade, and party/individual-loyalty is often not observed when elections are more important than legislating.

Like Obama before him, Trump’s main problems have been self-inflicted, the result of a super-inflated ego with tongue in gear before brain engaged. The one redeeming feature: Hillary Clinton is not president, and the Russians had nothing to do with that.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

DNC Memorandum #1

From the office of the chairperson, 15 May 2017

***Listen up! There are no apologies offered for the absence of memos since my taking over the DNC, which I consider a great honor and applaud the efforts of former chairWOMAN Wasserman-Schultz. This has been a terribly busy time for the chairperson account having to further deal with the IRS scandals when I was an assistant attorney general, the Benghazi slaughter, Fast-and-Furious, Syria, ISIS, Ferguson, torture, Gruber, open borders, executive orders revising Obamacare/Immigration laws and the election in November, which at best was a Pyrrhic Victory for the republicans since they now have to fix the mess caused mostly by Pelosi and Reid (little joke[rs] there). Pursuant to the “Gruber Hearing” of the tenth, a new DNC agency labeled the Section for Consulting Healthcare Underwriters Managing Erratic Results (or SCHUMER for short) is being organized and its mission/contents pinned soon to the Bush Dart-Board, now located by the condom- & salt-sugar-lactose-peanut-caffeine-chocolate-free candy-machine, speaking of which everyone is urged to try the new yogurt-spinach-bar that features ingestion, injection or snorting, with a mortar and pestle and/or saline solution provided for the latter two. BTW, the rumor that Wasserman-Schultz, Brazile and Clinton fixed that CNN debate is untrue and all three have promised never to do that again, presumably in 2020, 2024 and 2028 if Hillary says so.

***Staffers are directed to NOT—repeat—NOT mention the former State Secretary unless it is unavoidable such as in the currently hostile press conferences. If the subject arises, the official line is that Kerry is suffering from PTSDDD (post traumatic stress defense department disorder, for recent Yale graduates on staff). Also, no interviews are to be scheduled with anyone connected to FOX News regarding any subject, especially with the lady-anchors, whose bare shoulders and thighs and outrageous cleavage-displays are designed for the huge republican-voting men's audience, which has the same degree of reverse hostility toward Obama as the New Black Panthers have for Georgia-crackers and Obama/Holder have for policemen.

***The Gruber brouhaha has attracted unattractive worldwide attention (called L'Affaire Gruber-Mal in France, for instance). MIT prof Gruber appeared recently before a congressional committee attempting to explain why he earned $400,000 writing Obamacare so nobody could understand it.  This has made it necessary to properly vet all individuals who are in any way connected to government or the DNC. The former president, as well as Al Sharpton, his then and maybe current aide-de-camp, did not trust the FBI, CIA, DEA, EPA, FEMA, the DCI or even OSHA to do the job so another DNC executive order is being structured currently for requiring that every operative submit to the Mandatory Intelligence Testing agency (MIT, for short) before taking a job, with the exception of anyone responsible for the former president's teleprompters for obvious reasons. In this regard, the wag who clandestinely left in the lounge that poster of the former president saying that POLICE ACT STUPIDLY will be sent to the Durbin Re-indoctrination Center & Gulag when apprehended, regarding which Durbin will offer an end-of-spring seminar on the similarity of American GIs to keepers of Stalin's gulags, Pol Pot's killing fields, and Hitler's Storm Troopers, a reprise of his statements during the Iraq War, which he visited occasionally or at least stopped by at the safest airport and once, with 10 body-guards and a wine-taster, even stepped from the plane for a minute.

***The recently-retired chairWOMAN has been rumored to have said in a speech to the Girl Scouts of Florida that women are justifiably and gradually taking over the government. This rumor is unfounded and the former chairWOMAN has promised not to say that again. However, she still resents the complaints accruing to the Helen Reddy version of I Am Woman not being played over the sound-system throughout the building on the hour. Women are now acting as observers of SEAL-training in preparation for their joining the SEALS in the near future. The president requested a year ago a DNC red/yellow/black/white paper to explain why this is both necessary and useful. Only one paper has been submitted and this is unacceptable, so be forewarned...heads will roll if someone doesn't think of at least one valid reason other than “looks cute in uniform.”

***The evil Fox News perpetrators of perverse propaganda cited the former president's 20-minute speech on the night of the Ferguson Grand Jury decision as a declaration of war against the police and his next-day travel to Chicago (aka the Illinois killing-fields) as his first campaign stop at the time to promote it (the war), especially as an answer to white racism in general and police racism in particular. The DNC was tasked to spin this Fox egregiousness into the former POTUS's love for the uniforms, but not to mention—NOT MENTION—his race in connection to the last two presidential elections. This is called “grubering,” perfectly acceptable in civil discourse since everyone knows the voters, or at least republican voters, are stupid and haven't noticed. As far as Hillary is concerned, say nothing lest AG Sessions consider a Grand Jury for her.

***As mentioned earlier, the DNC is still considering instituting a Department of Gender and has requested another yellow/black/white/red paper on how to do this while still awaiting word from the LBGTQ group as to how many genders there are. National Geographic recently suggested 14, give or take a couple too puzzling to figure.  This hasn’t been settled yet mainly because the American Conference of Transitioning and Ultimate Personhood (known for short as ACT-UP) still threatens to sue something or somebody if not included in the gender-count, but certainly not in the Q group. Also, a complaint from something called the Platonic Education Department Of Pleasing Habituations in Loving Eroticism (PEDOPHILE, for short) has been lodged with AG Sessions, claiming gender-status discrimination and threatening action from some Catholic priests account violation of First Amendment rights/nights. The DNC is preparing a summary of Plato's Symposium for all staffers in readiness for any sign that the former POTUS and now head of the party has evolved on this matter as he did regarding same-sex marriage. BTW, anyone sighting the former POTUS is to inform the chairman of his whereabouts. CongressWOMAN Pelosi is threatening to become party-spokesperson if assured her face won't break.

***Be thinking seriously about 2018. Hillary at last report is receiving treatment for CLD (Compulsive Lying Disorder) and should be campaign-tuned for next year's early start. Elizabeth Warren's half-breed (with a little pilgrim thrown in) image is a great crowd-pleaser and she has promised to know the state capitals by April. The thought that another male of any color might be elected is simply too much.

***Have a great summer but remember that any mention of July 4—if found out—means a pink slip. The current administration’s emphasis on patriotism is discriminatory, racist, gender-insulting and offends Bernie Sanders, with whom the chairperson is now campaigning in the interest of inclusiveness. The chairperson will also travel with a democrat if one is willing to run.

And so it goes.
Jim

O'Reilly the Loser

The big news Internet-wise is the canning of Bill O’Reilly by Fox News, the most watched cable-network, with O’Reilly’s “show” by far the most watched and profitable. The cancellation by scores of advertisers that made his “show” the most watched, most profitable enterprise forced this action. News/commentary is not the primary interest in the Fox-owned empire of Rupert Murdoch but profits are.

Accompanying this surprising affair is a tumultuous shakeup in the Fox News prime-time schedule, with long-time commentators doing the musical changing-chairs game, obviously an effort to maintain the audience by keeping the familiar faces in view, though it’s doubtful that any new/old face (in this case, Tucker Carlson for O’Reilly) will have the “O’Reilly impact,” often rude but informative as well.

I have not been an O’Reilly fan except for catching the first few minutes of his “show,” the monologue about world/domestic subjects, always biting but always fair and square. O’Reilly was not a good interviewer because he inevitably wound up arguing with his guests, often simply talking over their remarks, sometimes obviously losing his temper, especially if his opposition-presenter was highly intelligent and articulate, someone like Charles Krauthammer or Karl Rove. He seemed disposed toward competing rather than discussing and when “out-talked” was not a graceful loser.

O’Reilly sort of followed in the footsteps of former Fox News head honcho Roger Ailes, who was canned last year account allegations of sexual harassment made by several women in the Fox lineup, who, whether ordered to or not, showed as much of their natural assets as possible for the cameras—much cleavage, thigh, and upper body—bare shoulders, etc., sort of “ladies of the night” style.

This obvious cheesecake feature diminished the seriousness of anything they had to say. The men, contrarily, dress to the nines, Adams-apple to the feet. I will be accused of some kind of bigotry or gender-hate for saying this but it’s true and applies to other networks as well.

Fox had paid out enough in dollars and reputation for the alleged improprieties of Ailes and O’Reilly but seems to have a dress-code that invites the leer and the gawking. I refer to these talking-head programs as “shows” rather than information-centers because of this approach, actually demeaning to women since it indicates that wit is less important than sexy attention-getters. By far the best of the “shows” in this venue is CNN’s Smerconish, who never overbooks and lets people actually talk.

Regarding politics, Fox is the lone TV-outfit making the case for the conservatives (republicans), though it’s fair to say it lives up to its claim of being fair and balanced. The other biggies—MSNBC, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS—are unabashedly “progressive” (used to be “liberal”) and were/are virtual PR outlets for the democrats, demonstrated most recently in the handling of the presidential campaigns. CNN even furnished Clinton a list of the questions she would be asked in its “debate” fiasco, becoming an object of ridicule in the process.

The CNN apparatchik in this affair was Donna Brazile, who surprisingly but unavoidably was fired and immediately installed—unsurprisingly—by the DNC as its chairperson, which office she doesn’t now hold. The talking-head “shows” on all the networks are entirely predictable, a couple or three interviews conducted by some overpaid anchor with a government official, followed by panels of the self-appointed experts to explain what was said and why.

Both Ailes and O’Reilly (golden parachutes of $40,000 and $25,000, respectively) deserved to be canned if they were actually guilty of harassment. Showmen/newsmen in the public eye have a responsibility to invoke trust due to decency, a vital attribute to being credible in any other way.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

March to Nowhere

Ladies' Day Out, Bigtime

The big news of the weekend, besides the inauguration, was the women’s march on Washington on Saturday, the 21st.  There were similar marches throughout the country and reportedly throughout the world, according to media, although that’s a bit of a stretch.  The U.S. march was led by some foul-mouthed female entertainers, who have been anything but oppressed as they’ve basked in their millions, some mostly just by being naughty and nude. Actress Ashley Judd performed hysterically.  

I surfed to it for maybe a total of ten minutes or less and caught Gloria Steinmen, the arch-feminist, do her screech.  Some ladies of the Congress participated, no doubt to show how they’ve been mistreated by the voters by landing them in Congress, where, despite their participation in this silly “girls day out,” will still be treated as serious.  

I suspect the verbiage was all about equal pay, equal rights…the usual stuff about the glass ceiling, but the only issue that mattered had to do with abortion.  The girls are desperately afraid that the right of abortion-on-demand will slip away somehow even though it’s that proverbial “settled law.”  The irony is sorta cruel, protesting to save the “right” that allows for the murder of vulnerable infants before they’re born.

In some nations women have a legitimate reason for protesting (any Muslim country, for instance), but not in the U.S., where there are 27 female CEOs listed in the S&P 500 companies. That's only 5.4% of the total but it represents the fact that women can compete successfully with the evil men, who besides not denying women the opportunity simply are more successful at working all the angles for the big-money jobs.

The CEO of General Motors is a woman, Mary Barra. Unsuccessful presidential candidate Carly Fiorina was CEO of massive Hewlett-Packard and even joined male CEOs in being fired, with a great golden parachute ($40 million), but the protesting gals' goals are that these positions should be handed to women just because they're women.

Before leaving office, Obama made sure women are eligible now for combat roles in the military, even allowing that they should become Navy SEALS. People with common sense know this is nutty, something not earned but awarded anyway, thus endangering the actual SEALs, who must perform at physical and emotional levels far beyond those of women but whose main concern would be protecting women-colleagues instead of accomplishing their missions, which are designed to break things and kill or rescue people.  

In the U.S., women are gradually taking over the court systems, enrolling in colleges and universities in numbers greater than men, and achieving parity in enrollments in both medical and law schools. They are anything but deprived in the matter of heading for the big-green.

So...the issue of the protest, besides ginning up support for Hillary's next foray into politics after not shattering the prized presidential glass-ceiling, is abortion, pure and simple. They call it privacy rights and the SCOTUS adhered to that privacy, whether or not in the Constitution, in Roe/Wade in 1973.

According to U.S. Data & Trends, there have been 58,586,256 U.S. abortions since 1973. Over the 40+ years since then, the earlier murdered fetuses would have had children and grandchildren, so the actual effect on population could be close to minus-75,000,000...but who knows? Murdered fetuses create no birth records.

The whole nine yards resulted from the election of Trump, and the ladies, as well as the mainstream and mostly discredited media, have as a main goal somehow squeezing Trump out of office but lacking the power of impeachment, much less charging criminal activity. The ladies have latched on parasitically to other victim-movements such as “black lives matter” to prove their point even though they form more than half the populace but consider themselves a protected minority, which automatically admits to denigrating themselves, the most poignant observation concerning the grand march to nowhere.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Congressman Lewis & Inaugurations

Congressman John Lewis announced the other day that for the first time he would not attend the inauguration because he considered Trump an illegitimate president. He lied. He also skipped the Bush-43 Inauguration in 2001 because...yep...he considered Bush illegitimately elected. Both Bush and Trump were elected according to the requirements of the U.S. Constitution. He has been joined in his attention-grab by some 35 or so House colleagues, all of whom have become big news in the mainstream media...that 15-minutes-of-fame thing, or maybe they just didn't want to fight the cold weather. Who knows?

Lewis, along with Senator Booker (black democrat, NJ) and House black caucus leader Cedric Richmond, were given the privilege of addressing the Senate hearing after the official hearing was concluded in order to express their opposition to Jeff Sessions, the AG nominee, something the media said was unprecedented. They heaped humongous vitriol upon Sessions, not that it mattered for anything but exposing them for the racists-in-reverse that they are. Only whites are actual racists, of course.

Their performance was by way of piling more guilt-trip upon white citizens account slavery, as if any white person living now or for generations past had anything to do with it. Lewis, as usual, brought up Selma, where he was unjustifiably beaten in 1965 but Sessions was just a 19-year-old college kid then, so the connection is nonexistent, except that Sessions is white and therefore fair game for racists-in-reverse.

I resent this constant victimization approach of Jackson and Sharpton not least because my great-grandfather and two great-uncles fought in the Union Army and, perhaps miraculously, survived though great-grandfather was wounded once and nearly died of disease once. No Lewis bio I’ve seen indicates that he ever served in the military, though he was draft-age during the Vietnam era as well as in the late 1950s. Notwithstanding that, the navy will name a ship (construction to be started in 2018) for Lewis. Perhaps he was 4-F or had deferments of some sort, the same as Trump.

Predictably, the media has gone ape over the fact that Trump has tweeted a not-too-complimentary response to Lewis’s charge of illegitimacy, which actually meant that Trump is a fraud. Categorizing Lewis as an “icon,” the liberal gurus (nearly all of the media) have castigated Trump for having the audacity to challenge the insult to himself or lack-of-worship of such an icon, but do not mention that Lewis began the whole affair with a public temper-tantrum, a profound insult vis-à-vis the voters, whom he implied as dumber than the Russians…the deplorables like me.

Lewis represents the culmination of the Obama terms, to wit, deepening the chasms among different racial groups, all in the name of diversity. This represents the penultimate oxymoron, making the nation a one-people thing by constantly remarking how they are different, the definition of diversity. Obama has approached everything within the context of race, even to the point of having his attorney general expend tremendous resources and manpower in a futile attempt to crucify an innocent policeman in Missouri.

Perhaps the saddest thing in the whole “Lewis matter” is the exposure of the degree of hatred the liberal establishment had/has not only for Trump but for the “ignorant deplorables” who voted their consciences, just as the liberals insist they did. A sad thing, also, is the fact that the first black to be elected by a vast majority of whites has wallowed in a sort of mediocrity when he could actually have made a difference. He has presided over the Divided States of America, whether through intent or incompetence.

And so it goes.
Jim Clark

Intel Flap

I watched Senator McCain’s Intel hearing the other day involving the top honchos connected to the DNI.  McCain considers the Russian hacking (assuming it took place) as an act of war, never mind that such an act could be answered with military means, not just counter-cyber activity.   

DNI Director Clapper made it clear that he considers the hacking (if it took place) as an act of espionage and mentioned that it’s dangerous to throw rocks if one lives in a glass house, i.e., that the U.S does the same thing regarding hacking into anything it can worldwide.  The point was made, apparently more or less consensually, that any hacking had nothing to do with the election.   

The hacking that took place, whether from Russia or anywhere else, affected the DNC in exposing its corruption, which, of course, had to do with stacking the deck against Bernie Sanders in favor of guaranteeing that Hillary would crack the glass ceiling. Just the possibility of that happening is chilling if not scary.   

Clapper, a former general, also indicated that it would be well for the U.S. and Russia to find “mutual interests,” another way of saying he agrees with Trump in establishing a friendship with Russia, opposite a strictly adversarial arrangement, which has been the Obama/Clinton position even to the extent of Hillary meddling in the Russian election involving Putin’s presidency.  This is not to say that governments must not meddle in the elections in other countries when their own interests are involved.  This world is not Camelot and all governments do not play by the same rules, meaning that taking the the low road (if that can be defined internationally) is always a possibility.  

McCain’s position is hypocritical, of course, in that he, along with Senators Graham and Lieberman, fomented the unprovoked U.S. unilateral attack (NATO not a significant factor) against Libya, totally unauthorized either legally or Constitutionally.  It was a monstrous war-crime that cost thousands of lives over a seven-month period.  McCain and Graham also tried to get Obama to attack Syria, which he almost did, though he provided weaponry against both of those sovereign nations, meddling in their civil wars.   

Putin saved Obama's bacon (those silly red lines) when he took over the affairs of the Middle East, essentially telling Obama to bug out, which he did, and wisely so.  So, when McCain complains about the actual espionage as an act of war, he condemns himself and his position by his own actions, which, as opposed to espionage, actually did involve acts of war.  

A large segment of the current issue of TIME magazine is devoted to this subject, probably because of all the ballyhoo generated by democrats to make a big deal out of nothing.  Supposedly, WikiLeaks guru Julian Assange received hacker-info from the Russians and made it public, thus somehow hurting Clinton's campaign, which she deep-sixed herself account just opening her mouth and posturing, especially as a woman whose time had come.  Assange disavows any Russian connection and folks may believe him or not.  

On page 26 of TIME is a description of this country's efforts to ferret out the private actors linked to the Russian hacking, in which is this phrase: “...which the U.S. spies believed was the main organization behind the influence operation.”  The obvious inference is that the CIA and perhaps the NSA participate in clandestine cyber-activity all the time, not just the Russians.  One hopes this is true and that U.S. intel agencies know even more about Russian secrets than the Russkies know about those of the U.S.  

In the Senate hearing on 11 January of Rex Tillerson as the next State Secretary, the democrats came out with fangs bared, some especially concerned about the Russian hacking, particularly relative to Putin’s authorization of it, as if Tillerson knows more than anyone else or could do much about what the current administration as well as Clinton’s private server-operators were not able to do, though the president said in a recent press conference that he told Putin to “cut it out.”  

And so it goes.
Jim Clark