Friday, March 31, 2017

Overheard at Booth 2: Excel Spreadsheets


When I first started that job I accidentally corrupted all the team’s spreadsheets.  We’re talking ALL of them – forecasts, budgets, rolling forecasts, actuals, P&L Summaries, everything.  Didn’t mean to.  It just happened.  Something about having two separate Excel programs opened at the same time and copying from one version to another corrupted all the hidden macros, which crashed the format.

 My boss was pissed.  When he asked me what I did and how I did it, I couldn’t think of anything to say except that I was testing them.  He said, “Testing them?”  and I said, “Yeah, I had to make sure the spreadsheets were idiot-proof.  Turns out they’re not.”

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Overheard at Table 3: NPR, California, and Flood Control

"... so I was listening to NPR yesterday on the way home from work and they were talking about California and the floods that hit and they were talking about a new type of flood control, by putting more trees and greens along the rivers and letting them flood naturally, instead of all the concrete embankments and levees which deteriorate under years of constant intermittent heavy storms that just dig holes and crack them.


"Which was all a pretty good idea and they were talking with this civil engineer and he was describing their plans about going about this and then he said this one thing which just made me go 'huh?' and he said


"'Well, we're not going to displace any people.'


"and I found myself saying, out loud, TO the radio, 'DUDE!  This whole damn CONTINENT was founded on displacing people!  What the HELL are you talking about?'


"wish they could have heard me, over there at NPR.   'not displacing' my ass!"



Friday, March 24, 2017

Overread at Table 4: BDay Party Invite Reminder







Did you get the invite to the birthday party?
It was a little card, with trim, gold-coloured, a little
bow across the front, with swift cursive lettering
inviting you to the party, r ess vee pee,
see vou play,
we expect your presents
I mean your presence, oh
you know what I mean,
it’s this Saturday, bring a present,
preferably in the $20 range,
and no gift cards.
It’ll
Be
A
BLAST!


 










MR
2016-0324


 

Freedom Caucus Costs Us

Driving in today, I heard a congressman from the Freedom Caucus speaking to Steve Inskeep on NPR.   He said he was from Maryland, so I assume he's Andy Harris, although I didn't catch his name on the air.   Regarding his opposition to the Trumpcare/AHCA, he spoke eloquently of "state's rights to choose" and when Inskeep pointed out that his caucus is holding out so that "essential health benefits" such as maternity leave (among others) should be removed, he that Maryland already had such ESBs in place, with or without the ACA, and so why should he force Mississippi to continue to have them under the ACA.   State's rights to choose.


Prima facie: sounds good.   He is there to represent his district in Maryland, not Mississippi.  States should have more autonomy always is a popular selling point.


But let's peel it back a little:  Yes, he represents his district in Maryland, but he doesn't ONLY represent his district in Maryland to the detriment of all others.  He is there to be the voice of his constituents, and to look out for their interests.  But since he admits that the EHBs under the ACA are ALREADY THERE, then it does his constituents ZERO problem regardless of how he votes for Trumpcare.  Essentially, his vote is to allow other states, such as Mississippi, to kick people off their care, which he knows will happen.


As Americans and as patriots, we should be concerned for the well-being of all Americans.   Say a cop from his district in Maryland were vacationing in Biloxi and saw an attempted robbery and, using his training, stopped the robbery.   The cop's training and experience were from Maryland, but he used to help those in Mississippi.   Would this congressman say, "No!  You should only use your public service skills to help those in Maryland!"?  


The Freedom Caucus uses flawed arguments that at their core are rooted in ensuring that not all citizens of the USA enjoy the basic guarantee of life.   Life begins with a standard basic level of health care coverage ... Essential Health Benefits.





Thursday, March 23, 2017

The Haves and Have Nots: a Brief Essay


The Haves and Have-Nots

A Brief Essay

 

It is very easy for those who have

To feel superior to those who do not have.

The rationalization is:

If I have

Then why don’t you?

 

A simplistic logic posits

That the “other”

Does not have

Due to some innate failure,

A moral turpitude,

A lack of drive,

A lower moral standard that

Has caused some paternalistic deity to

Suppress their ability to obtain the “have”

 

The Devil is a wily one.

He makes you think that

Because you have

Then you are blessed

 

There is no better way to keep you from God

Than to wrap you in the illusion of God.

 

MR

2016-0222

 

 

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Carlos

OK, so I'm not a poet, so maybe just look at this as an essay that is written with a new sentence on each line.




Carlos was a huge man, a half a man


 
Carlos was a huge man, a half a man
Left arm and right leg gone.
He walked into rooms with one crutch tucked
Under his right arm, always a smile
Stretching across his thick jaw.
Even without two limbs, he was physically powerful,
Broad shouldered, thick muscled.
Looked like he could tear through walls,
Yank down columns.


He was in our Sunday School class for a full
Two months, before he told the class his story.


Military. El Salvador.
Even though the military wears balaklavas
To protect their family, the Maras
Recognized him.
They caught him one night on his way home.
They hacked off his arm, his leg.
Machetes.
Left those limbs lying on the warehouse floor.
They told him that if he ever came back,
They would chop off his head
In front of his family.


Missionaries got him to the States,
Rehabilitation for six months.
Taught him how to use the limbs he had left.


Now, he had decided to go back to San Salvador.
His wife had gotten his daughters out of the city,
Safe in the country, but Carlos
Didn’t want to be here, in the US,
As just one more “illegal”


Carlos thanked us for our kindness.
He thanked the doctors and the hospital for
Healing him at no charge to him.
He thanked his wife for getting his daughters safe.
Mostly, he thanked God, for giving him
The peace and the strength
To go back and preach the word of salvation
To those who had taken his right leg
And his left arm.


Carlos was a huge man, a complete man,
An example for us all.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Overheard at Table 2: People Will Hate You

People Will Hate You




Some people will hate you for the color of your skin
or for the genitalia you carry,
or for the faith that you follow.


They will hate you, not because of you,
but for what you represent, because you
represent a memory of something that once
hurt them,
or a fear
that immobilizes them.
















MR
2017-0317

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Overheard at Booth 1: Folding Clothes

Teenage son: ... yeah but I still don't see why you always are on us to make our beds.


Other teenage son: And folding clothes.  Why do we have to fold our clothes?  That's so boring.


Dad: Kids, let me tell you something about folding clothes.  When we're on your case to fold clothes, yeah it's about teaching you how to keep things neat, but I'm also training you for the future.  There's gonna be days in your lives, when the wife is yelling at you for something you did or didn't do, the kids'll be fighting - either each other or you - and the dogs will be barking and you'll have on your mind what your boss is mad about that day, either something you didn't complete on time or some project that's going south and you better fix it or it's your ass - and the only calm moment in the middle of all that chaos: folding clothes.  The only calm, the only relaxation, the only ten minutes of solitude, will be just to go into the bedroom, shut the door, and stand there folding clothes.   It will save your life, believe you me.



Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Overheard at the Counter: Verble talks with Peace


I’ve known several transvestites, particularly in the 60s and 70s.  Everything was much more low-key then, it was pretty much don’taskdon’ttell and liveandletlive.  While we think modern times are more “accepting” it actually seems that they are much more volatile now, but that’s probably just my perspective.

 

Anyway, in the early 2000s I worked in a Municipality where a man was transitioning to female.   Nice guy/lady.  It did cause whispers and some of the women were nervous when she started using their restroom, but eventually everyone got used to it and it just became quite normal.  She was a she. 

 

I found, though, in meetings, no one ever wanted to disagree with her.  In whispers they seemed to be saying that to disagree – even on work stuff – they would be seen as “incorrect.”  Me, I said, “Hey we have a job to do – running a city.”  So, I agreed with her when I did and I spoke up when I didn’t agree with her. 

 

When she finally left for another job (bigger city/better pay), she told me this:  “Verble, your ideas are pie-in-the-sky and won’t ever work, so I shot you down every time.  But you were the only one who ever treated me like a colleague.  So thank you.”   It was one of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received.

 

 

Day 3 of Exile

Day 3 of Exile


On this the third day of exile from the Twitterverse I remain unmoved.   I do not speak hate.  I speak of love.  I speak of justice and truth. 


When I think of this exile, the most recent corollary in the news is the Twitter expulsion of Milo Yannopoulis, who was suspended from Twitter after organizing a campaign of racist death threats against an African-American actress.  


Then I think of my good friend, Ming Blue Tea Cup, and how she was part of a campaign to #FreeMilo.  If voices that promote hate can be defended for free speech, why then are voices of love also suspended?


The answer to that is simply this: we live in a fallen, imperfect world.  Voices of hate will always rise to the top, like dirty oil atop the clean waters.   Christ Himself told us that we would be suspended and killed and silenced for the sake of His name.   While this Twitter suspension is in no way shape or form anywhere NEAR the sufferings endured by true followers of Christ, let alone CHRIST Himself, I do understand from this taste of Twitter exile just how fragile our speech is.


Thus, emboldened, I state that I SHALL NOT BE MOVED!






I Shall Not Be Moved Lyrics

Mississippi John Hurt
  
I shall not, I shall not be moved
I shall not, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the water
I shall not be moved

I'm on my way to heaven, I shall not be moved
I'm on my way to heaven, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the water
I shall not be moved

Oh preacher, I shall not be moved
Oh preacher, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the water
I shall not be moved

I'm sanctified and holy, I shall not be moved
Sanctified and holy, I shall not be moved
Just like a tree that's planted by the water
I shall not be moved

Monday, March 13, 2017

Day 2 of Exile


It is Day 2 of my exile from the Twitterverse.
Still no word as to why my account has been suspended.
Asked them yesterday, but to this moment, no response.
Thinking of my exile, I was reminded of this song by Pink Floyd from the Obscured by Clouds album.
Particularly how the beginning of the song has the narrator "on the outside looking on" with that feeling of being uninvited, unwanted.  a pariah.
But then, the song ends with the narrator "on the inside looking out/hear me shout 'Come on in!/What's the news, where ya been?" That is a message of hope: that, in the time when I have been re-accepted, I must be gracious, generous, giving.
Then, the song ends with the realization that I have indeed grown old.   Then the quick fade, and we are done.





"Wot's...Uh The Deal?"

Heaven sent the promised land
Looks allright from where I stand
Cause I'm the man on the outside looking in

Waiting on the first step
Show me where the key is kept
Point me down the right line because it's time

To let me in from the cold
Turn my lead into gold
Cause there's chill wind blowing in my soul
And I think I'm growing old

Flash the readies wots...uh the deal
Got to make to the next meal
Try to keep up with the turning of the wheel.

Mile after mile
Stone after stone
Turn to speak but you're alone
Million mile from home you're on your own

So let me in from the cold
Turn my lead into gold
Cause there's chill wind blowing in my soul
And I think I'm growing old

Fire bright by candlelight
With her by my side
And if she prefers we will never stir again

Someone sent the promised land
And I grabbed it with both hands
Now I'm the man on the inside looking out

Hear me shout 'come on in, what's the news and where you been?'
Cause there's no wind left in my soul
And I've grown old

Sunday, March 12, 2017

wow! that hurts more than expected!

Twitter suspended my account today.  No reason why.  You would at least assume they would let me know if I had done something wrong.  I looked at their reasons for suspending accounts and I haven't done anything wrong.

 This would be my cry for help if anybody actually read a blog any more.  But since no one does, this is just a cry into the nothingness.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Overheard at Table 4: Trump's Pink Unicorns

I swear, if Trump tweeted out, "People should go buy Ivanka's Pink Unicorns!  Not buying them is SAD!" then all his followers would shout "Pink unicorns will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" and all the mainstream media would spend every single minute of the next 5 days trying to prove that pink unicorns don't exist.

Monday, March 6, 2017

Overread at Table 1: Trump's Address to Congress

A student's paper on Donald Trump's address to Congress on February 28, 2017.  The assignment was to write about your impressions of the speech.   Here is what appears to be a first draft.








Trump February 28, 2017


 
Address to Joint Session of Congress.


For all intents and purposes it was a State of the Union address, but it can’t be called that because Donald Trump has only been President for about a month.  Next year it will be called the State of the Union, and hopefully he’ll have something more substantial to say.


There were several Congressmen who said beforehand that they would refuse to shake his hand.  These are widely considered to be “sore losers” by the conservatives in America.  As Trump walked down the aisle, I didn’t see any of that, but it did look like his wife, Melania, was very annoyed.  She looked like she didn’t want to be there.


Trump is making this first speech being a president with historically low approval ratings and an administration marked by controversy and scandal.


He started his speech by speaking out against the attacks against Jewish cemeteries and the shooting death of an Indian engineer in Kansas the previous week.  He says America “stands united against hate and evil.”  He didn’t mention that anti-Jewish attacks have increased in the weeks since he took office and that one of his new spokespersons was noted for going on television and using white-power symbols.  Also, Trump has the support of the KKK and his closest advisor, Steve Bannon, is an unapologetic White Supremacist.


Trump then spoke of Truth Liberty and Justice – torch is now in our hands, and we will use it light up the world.  He called for Unity and strength.  He said that there is greatness, national pride, surge of optimisim. A renewal of the American spirit.  He said that America is once again ready to lead.  He spoke then of 250 years since the day we declared our independence, and great milestones.


 Then he said that we have seen the Middle class shrink as America exported jobs and wealth to foreign shores.  He didn’t state that the middle class was created in the early 20th century as a product of the labor movement.   He also didn’t state that it was corporate CEOs who wanted greater profits who moved the jobs and wealth offshore.


Trump also mentioned the supposed calamity of inner cities of Chicago and Detroit, and that we have defended borders of other nations while leaving our own borders wide open.  We are replete with drugs, crime and a crumbling infrastructure.  This is something Trump has often said on the campaign trail and has been criticized widely for trying to liken the inner city crime, which is, by proxy,  equating African American communities with crime, as though people of color are either responsible for the crime or by their very nature allow the crime to occur.


 Then he mentioned that in 2016, the “earth shifted beneath our feet.”  He spoke of a quiet protest that became an earthquake, to America First, Make America Great.  He seemed to liken the “Trump Revolution” as a second American revolution.   Because of this, he made the point that dying industries will come roaring back to life, the veterans will be cared for, our military will grow, our infrastructure will grow, and our drug epidemic will end.


However, Trump did not give any details about how this all is going to happen


Trump said that in little over a month, the progress that he’s made includes Ford, Fiat, Chrysler, Lockheed, Intel, and Wal-Mart have announced that they will invest in America and create tens of thousands of new jobs.   However, most of these companies had already had these plans in place since 2015.  Lockheed specifically, regarding the Trump effect, stated that they would invest because they anticipate that fighter jets will be ordered by the US military in 2017.


Trump said that he has saved taxpayers hundreds of millions by negotiating  down the cost of the new F35 jet fighter.   Additionally, he has placed a hiring freeze on non-essential workers, and put a 5 year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials, and a lifetime ban on becoming lobbyists for a foreign government.  He spoke of reducing job-crushing regulations.  He has created a regulation task force inside every government agency.   Then, he said that for every new regulation, two old regulations must be eliminated, which seems to follow the logic of: if we make a regulation to protect the water, does that mean we have to eliminate one that protects the air and another that protects the ground?


Trump said that he would also help the coal miners, even though what is really hurting coal production is the low price of natural gas, which Trump has not addressed.   He also said he would open up the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, two other projects that do not make economic sense given the low price of oil.  Trump also said it would make tens of thousands of jobs; in truth, those jobs will be only to build the pipelines.  After constructed, those pipelines will only need about 40 permanent workers to maintain them. 


 Trump reiterated what he has often said: that the new American pipelines will be made with American steel.  Economists have also stated that this will not only increase the price of construction drastically, but that American manufacturers will not start up the factories unless they have a guarantee of future contracts. 


About his withdrawing from the “job killing” TPP, this was mostly symbolic, because Congress never had the votes to ratify it. 


Then, Trump said that women will live out financial dreams under partnership with Trudeau.  Frankly, this aside was a little confusing, because he did not explain it at all.


Then, for his “law and order” platform, he talked of the Department of Justice making a task force to reduce violent crime to protect our women, instructing ICE to dismantle the criminal cartels.  Trump said “we will stop the drugs poisoning our youth and expand treatment” for addicts.   Again, no details.


Trump said he had heard American pleas for immigration and border security.  By making our borders safe, somehow this will magically raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions, make communities safer for everyone.   He spoke of lawlessness and chaos.  We must have integrity and rule of law at our borders.  By this, we will build a great wall along the Southern Border.    These are all familiar themes for the Trump Administration, and again, it speaks to a Nationalist fervor that is very short on reality and using “Alternative facts” which essentially is bad logic and propaganda.   There is zero economic evidence that removing 11 million undocumented immigrants will raise wages and reduce unemployment.  There is no rational argument to support such assertions.


 Trump said about “illegal” aliens, “the bad ones are going out as I speak.”  However, in the three days immediately following this pronouncement, ICE targeted a 26 year old college student waiting for renewal of her DACA status, a woman in a hospital with a brain tumor, and a woman who was filing a restraining order against an abusive boyfriend.   These are his examples of the “bad” immigrants.  But attacking women doesn’t really seem to be getting rid of “drug dealers and rapists” 


Trump then challenged “any Congress who believe we should not enforce our laws, what would you say to Americans who lose their jobs or loved ones to illegal immigrants.”   Then, he attacked “Radial Islamic Terrorism” and stated an undocumented source from the Department of Justice, that the vast majority of terrorist attackers sice 911 came here from outside our borders.  Again he called for proper vetting.


 Trump says he wants people who will support this county, love values, sanctuary for extremists, improved vetting procedures, and keep nation safe by keeping out those who will do us harm.  He has directed the Department of Defense to demolish and destroy ISIS who have slaughtered millions, ad we will “work to extinguish this vile enemy from our planet.”  Again, no details.  But it seems like we’ll soon have a lot of F35 fighter jets to help with this.


Trump is Pro-Israel and anti-Iran.  He has appointed a justice to appoint Justice who will defend the Constitution.   Blah blah blah.  He brought up Maureen Scalia in order to prove a point.  What point that is, we don’t know.  But it’s been done before.


Then he launched into the old disproven trope that 94 Million Americans out of labor force.   While technically true, it includes retirees, kids in school, people who are disabled and cannot work.  So basically it’s a dog whistle that feeds into the false narrative that 1/3 of the population is either too lazy to get off their butts and get a job or that Obama was so unbelievably terrible that people are suffering.


Guess which path Trump took?


You guessed it!  Blame Obama!


He cited 45 Million people are suffering from the “worst financial recovery in 45 years.” Also, Obama “Put on more debt than all other president combined.”   First, we had the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression, so it naturally follows that the recovery would be the worst as well.   If you broke your leg, then that recovery would be much longer than if you got a paper cut on your finger.  You simply can’t compare.   I don’t know about the debt, but in all his other misleadings and falsehoods, I am skeptical of that statement as well.


Trade deficit 800B.  Again, fact checking needed.
Overseas a series of tragic foreign policy disaster.
Work past the differences of party more blah blah blah
Tap into the American spirit that has overcome every challenge <= appeal to patriotism
Restart the engine of American economy <=appeal to our false idea of self
Make it easier to do business in us and harder to leave <= rehash of campaign trail.


Reduce tax rate, big big cut
Tax relief for middle class
Harley Davidson parked some bikes on the White House lawn, wanted Trump to ride them to this address.
Free and fair trade
Quoted Lincoln for trade policy <=appeal to authority.
Bring back millions of jobs more blah blah
Reforming system of legal immigration <= again no details


Trump said that current immigration is an outdated system that depresses wages and puts pressure on taxpayers, again without producing one shred of evidence to support this claim.  He said that other countries have a merit based system.  Yes, and we have the H1B1 system, which IS our merit-based immigration and which, incidentally, Trump suspended five days after this address


Trump mentioned the Eisenhower interstate highway system (another appeal to authority and the illusory “American greatness”).  Wants a new program of national rebuilding, and asked for a 1 Trillion spending package, the same amount that Democrats asked for two years ago but got laughed at by Republicans.  Trump calls for a mixture of Public and private capital, which is tricky.  Most economists agree that when you bring in private capital only the profit-making projects get built, which almost never coincides with the projects that are necessary to the public good.   Can you say, “Bridge to Nowhere”?


Trump then talked about Millions of new jobs and “Buy American and hire American.”  Both of which are lies.  They are not “True but misleading” as the CNN Trump-butt kissers want you to think.  These are construction jobs, and as such, they are “gigs” not “jobs” because each worker will have a 6month to a 1year contract.   When the stuff is built, these guys are on to a different “job” - Trump loves to tout a six month project as a “job.”  Additionally, he says he wants to buy American, but later in the week it was revealed that the steel for the pipeline was being supplied by a firm that builds in Canada but owned by the Russians.  So essentially, we’re supporting the Russian steel industry.


Done with lying about infrastructure, Trump went on to cry the call of “Repeal and replace Obamacare”


He stated that mandating Americans to buy government approved health insurance was never the right choice.  We must lower cost of healthcare.  He said that Arizona and Kentucky told him that we are in the middle of an imploding Obamacare disaster, which is odd, considering that the Democratic rebuttal just after the speech was given by the Democratic governor of Kentucky who said that Obamacare has saved lives.


Trump’s principals for better healthcare include:
1. Pre-existing conditions
2 stable transition for Americans currently enrolled in the exchanges.  Americans  purchase their own coverage by the use of tax credits and expanded Health Savings Accounts
Must be the plan they want not plan forced on them by our government
3 state government the resources and flexibility they need


While these sound good, it would take too much time here to cover how ignorant or simply incorrect he is in the assumptions implicit in points 2 and 3.


Trump wants to implement labor reforms to protect doctors, whatever the hell that means.  He wants to bring down the artificially high price of drugs immediately; how, he never said.  Maybe a magic wand.  Finally time has come to give Americans freedom to purchase health insurance across state lines, creating a truly competitive marketplace bring costs way down


 Now that everyone’s head was spinning from the whirlpool of bs flying around the room, Trump hit on some soundbites:


"Everything broken can be fixed
Every problem can be solved.
Every hurting family can have healing and hope
Join forces and get the job done right.”


Continuing:
On this and so many other things, Democrats and Republicans should unite for the good of the country and the good of the American people.  Make child care accessible and affordable to ensure parents that they have paid family leave.  Invest in women’s health.  Everyone deserves clean air and clean water and now is the time to rebuild military and infrastructure.


To advance the common good and to cooperate on behalf of every American child who deserves a much brighter future.


Trump then, for some reason, talked about Rare Disease Day, then trotted out Megan Crowley.  A 20 year old female who would have died had her dad not founded a company to look for a cure.  He experimented on Megan with his drug, which has prolonged her life.  Trump inferred that she wouldn’t be alive with the slow process of the FDA.   The inference is that the FDA takes too long to approve medicines and people die.   Or else it means if your kid has a rare disease then you will be a hero if you found a company that will create a drug that you can experiment on your kid.


Then he talked about African American and Latino children, and that they should have the choice of Charter Schools.  The “Freedom to Choose” argument.   He talked about Danisha Meriwether, who struggled in school, failing 3rd grade twice.  Then, with tax credits and scholarships, she is the first to graduate from college. “We want all children to be able to break the cycle of poverty just like Danisha.”


Then, of course, if Trump is talking about one successful African American, he has to remind us of the cycle of violence, including his favorite statistic: Chicago, which experienced the “Largest single year increase in homicides.”  While true, still makes no mention that murders are still down compared to the seventies and the eighties.   Then Trump spoke of supporting law enforcement, but doesn’t mention his executive order that basically outlaws even looking at a police officer with a “stink-eye”
 
Then he mentioned VOICE, possibly his most disgusting pathetic dog whistle yet.  Some database of every person who has been the victim of a crime committed by an “illegal” immigrant.   Both insidious and malicious, this database is meant to demonize immigrants, especially Latino immigrants.   Trump declares it as the “Voice of those ignored by the media.”   Then he pointed out that he had invited tonight four people, victims of crime by an illegal immigrant gang member.


One cannot even begin to explain how this panders to the most basic fear and anxiety in the heart of the majority of ignorant Americans.


Then, again, he mentioned a military buildup.  He wants the largest increases in national defense spending.  He praises the military.    This, of course, flies in the face of the fact that the US already spends more on our military than any other country in the world, and most of the countries combined. 


Then he dares to apply a Bible quote to discuss the soldier killed in an ill-planned military raid in Yemen.  He said, “Bible teaches us that there is no greater act of love than to lay down his life for his friends.”  But when Jesus laid down his life, He didn’t also take out 30 civilians, including women and children.


On Foreign policy, Trump wants “direct, robust and meaningful engagement.”  By this, he explains that he strongly supports NATO, but partners must meet their financial obligation.  Trump said that now that he is in control, the “money is pouring in.”   Basically, Trump sees NATO a shakedown.  If you do not pay, you do not get American protection.  It’s like, “Hey, you got a nice Eastern European country heah.  It’d be a shame if we let the Russians, oh, I dunno, burn it to the ground.”


“We will respect them as long as they respect us.”  Hm.  For a man who just quoted the Bible, he certainly just peed all over the Golden Rule and the lesson of the Samaritan.   Trump went on to say that “Free nations are the best vehicle for the will of the people,” and “My job is not to represent the world, it is to represent the USA.”   While this is true, it still neglects the fundamental role that America has played in the world, for good or bad, for peace or for war.  America does have the ability to stop wars more than starting them, but Trump is merely echoing the Nationalist theme that his the cornerstone of his regime.


Then, Trump threw out some more soundbites:
“America is willing to find new friends for shared interests.”
“Peace wherever peace can be found.”  <= whatever THAT really means.



By this time, the mind was beginning to melt from all his banalities and lack of real substance.  Then, Trump the centennial and the great inventions demonstrated in 1876.   He then looked forward to 2026, which I presume he believes he will still be President.  He said we should imagine the wonders we can know in our 250th year: Footprints on different worlds, schools where children learn in peace, streets where mothers are safe.  “It’s not too much to ask.  When we have all of this we will have made America greater than ever before.”


“We can only get there together.
We all bleed the same blood.
We are made by the same God.
When we fulfill this vision …
Time for small thinking is over
Time for trivial fights is over.”


Trivial fights?  Hell, three days later Trump was whining on Twitter that the Apprentice was being killed by low ratings.


Trump ended that we should be guided by a vision, not blinded by our doubts.   The trouble is, Trump has no vision, so all that America has is doubts:  doubt about Trump’s sanity, doubts about his Nationalist aspirations to create an authoritarian state, and doubts about the future of our country and the Constitution upon which it was founded.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Overheard at Table 3: Undocumented Unfairness

C: Well, they should have come here legally.  If they didn't they are illegal immigrants.


L: You smoked dope in college.  It was against the law then in every state.  Did that make you an "illegal" student?


C: It's different.  My smoking dope wasn't stealing jobs from other people.


L: Last I checked you weren't wildly keen on re-roofing some guy's house for eleven bucks an hour in the 110 degree heat.


C: Well they're stealing jobs from Americans who should be doing that.   Other Americans could be out there doing that.


L: Don't you think the guys would hire them if they could?  If you could get a white guy or a black guy to do that, you would.  Problem is, they won't.  So, yeah, you can call them illegal all you want, point is, we all benefit from their work.


C: It's still wrong.  Wrong is wrong and people should obey the law.


L: Like how you obeyed the law when you broke the speed limit by getting here today?


C: Not the same thing.


L: It's still wrong.  Wrong is wrong and people should obey the law.


C: That's the problem with you liberals.  You talk and talk in circles and get everyone confused.


L: By using their own words against 'em.  Yeah.  I know.  SO unfair!


C: You're lucky you're my brother and I love you.  Otherwise I'd throw you through a window.


L: Likewise.

Friday, March 3, 2017

Overheard at Table 4: Fantastic Four (2015)

Very simply put, did this movie need to be made?
The answer is




No.




No it did not.


Sure, OK, Johnny Storm is black and Sue Storm was a white girl adopted by Johnny Storm's dad, so we have the current culture pretty well identified, but we've already had two Fantastic Four movies in the past decade and those did pretty well and those actors could still play the roles because they're not TOO old yet, but I guess Marvel just wants to recycle the same damn money makers every seven years with new characters like they did with Spider-Man.




Well, think of it like comic books, when you get a new artist.   It's kinda like that.  The characters always look a little different.




But still.  Good lord, retelling the same origin story.  That gets old.  Stop with the damn retelling of the origin stories.  It's like the Wolverine movies, they have different origin stories for him all the time.  You have no idea who this guy really is!   It's nuts.




This isn't artistry.  They have no control over their characters.  They're just putting crap up on the screen in order to make money.  And it's insulting.




Besides, this movie was simply boring.  Really.  Boring.


and that's a crime, when it comes to movies. a real crime.













Overheard at Booth 3: An Aging Casanova

AC: Yeah we finally moved out of Tulsa because the wife said I'd slept with half the city there before I met her.  Said she couldn't go to the grocery store with me without running into someone I'd slept with.


CF: So you were a real Casanova when you were younger, then?


AC: Oh, yeah, definitely. But looking back on it, I realize now what it really was.  It wasn't just horniness, it was actually because, well, OK, I gotta be honest with myself: I only got a certain number of moves.


CF: Moves?


AC: Right. You know.  Moves.  I only got a certain number of them.  I don't know what it is.  From what I can tell, guys out there got hundreds of moves.   Keep their women happy.  Me, I only got about four or five.  So, by the time the woman realized that I only got a certain number of moves and started to get bored with me in bed, I moved on.


CF: Sure it wasn't just you?


AC: I dunno, maybe, but I don't like to think that it was the ladies' fault, I mean, I dated some exciting women, some dull women, some in-between women, so the only common factor was me.   So, then my wife came along, and we've been together for awhile now, and I think it's just because we click because she's got the same number of moves as me.


CF: So you're, like, made for each other, then?


AC: Yeah, something like that.  I suppose real love comes when you have someone you can be boring in bed with together, and you don't mind it at all.  Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my takeaway.



Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Poem of the Day: The Son I'll Never Have

The Son I'll Never Have


by Mark Wunderlich






The son I’ll never have is crossing the lawn. He is lying on an              
imaginary bed,


the coverlet pulled up over his knees—knees I don’t dare                    
describe.


I recoil from imagining him as meat and bone, as a mind


and hands stroking the fur of his pet rabbit.


I never gave him the accordion I used to play, my mother and I


in duets: “The Minnesota Polka,” “What a Friend We Have in          
Jesus,”


never watched him push noodles into his mouth with fingers


while I wished he would use the spoon shiny with disuse.


I am free from longing to be free; I do as I please,


my money is my own, all the mistakes I make are only my                    
mistakes.


What is it to look at something you made and see the future?


What is it to have someone made by your body, but whose                  
mind


remains just out of reach? I’ll never know. Come here, little                
rabbit.


Eat these greens. I will pet your cloudy fur with the mind’s                
hand.