Time to take out the rest of the trash...

 You have Hunter Biden over here on the one hand who is consistently displaying antics and behavior very unbecoming of a presidents' son. Not to mention that he's also a grown-ass man. He fathered a daughter from a past romance, or in his case probably more of a mindless dalliance. He has from the beginning refused to accept any responsibility for her and has fought vigorously to keep her from being able to legally claim the Biden name. Only through DNA testing was he forced to admit that it was his child. He desperately doesn't want her to be able to claim the Biden family name. There would obviously be many advantages for this child to bear the name of a President. Even a bad one... Joe and Jill on the other hand, have never even met this child. Ever. The have never so much as acknowledged her existence. There were stockings for all the Biden's children and grandchildren on the mantle at the White House, except hers. Even the dog and cat had stockings, but not her.  This isn't something you'll easily find in the media, simply because it isn't there. They don't like to talk about such things. This is the President of the United States granddaughter. I'm trying to see some compassion, some integrity, some solid morals here... I don't see any. Not even a trace.

Then of course, there's the infamous laptop debacle. Hunt' drops his laptop off for a repair, never comes back to claim it. The shop owner takes a look at the hard drive and finds things that causes his eyes to pop out of their sockets. He however, does have some integrity and decides to call the authorities. He turned the laptop over to the FBI. He also kept a copy of the contents of the hard drive, which somehow found their way to Rudy Giuliani, which then found their way to the pages of the NY Times. The FBI then begins to publicly discredit the NY Times publication with the good old standby, the Russian interference crap. I personally think they have about worn that excuse out but that seems to be their story and they're sticking with it... But, now here's the kicker, the vehicle, the medium for their discrediting efforts came through a clandestine and obscure relationship they 'cultivated' with Twitter executives. And, of course the Twitter execs willingly cooperated by closing and censoring accounts, etc. Violation of first amendment rights to free speech? Probably. And the fact that Twitter was paid several million dollars for staffers time by the FBI didn't hurt either. 

Along comes Elon Musk who buys Twitter and finds this morass in his newly purchased company. Before you know it, the Twitter Files are made public. It was really just a matter of Elon showing up at Twitter and taking out the trash. Now the truth is out there for all to see. 

So where's the outrage? Where's the collective sense of  "what in the sam hell is going on?" The news of Hunter Biden's business dealings are nothing new. The most casual of observers know that Hunter is and has been involved in myriad crooked shenanigans to garner as much money (and drugs) as he can get his paws on. It's also beginning to look as though Pops is in on it to some extent. And a large proportion of all this hanky-panky involves Chinese officials at various levels of power. Most of the facts are out in the public domain, so why isn't there a prolific outrage? There are a few reasons. One, the FBI with all their considerable resources are still at work to deny, discredit and just outright cover up as much as possible, and succeeding on most fronts. Oh, and by the way, those considerable resources, guess who's paying for those?... Yep, you. The taxpayer. And who does the director of the FBI report to? The Attorney General who in turn reports to the President. Hunter's daddy. Another reason for the subdued outrage? Twitter, who verifiably has been colluding with the FBI and getting paid for it, has been silencing the negative talk about Bidens. All of the Bidens. Deleting accounts. Including Trumps... Censoring posts. And if you have read any of the Twitter files, there is proof of all this happening, the Twitter Files. Trying and succeeding in confusing as many people as possible. And believe me, there are a lot of voters out there that it takes very little to confuse them. Then along comes Elon and rains on their happy ass little parade. 

But, there's always a big butt that  shows up when dirty business is going on. As long as the Democrats had control of the House there was no reason to investigate Hunter's business dealings (according to them...) or anything else related to the Bidens or the FBI. But, the dems aren't in control anymore. The investigative wheels have already started turning looking into Hunter's shady business dealings. The DOJ has assigned a special counsel to investigate the classified docs found in Pop Biden's office and garage. Interesting... The FBI can bully the old Twitter (but not the new one...) but the special counsel is hands off. He's a Trump appointee which means he's not a dem. Director Wray, have a seat. 

So, back to the original question, who or what is the biggest problem? The Bidens, nah. They'll be investigated, might face some charges, probably get their filthy little hands slapped and in a couple of years they'll be history. The FBI is a huge problem. But that all comes back to leadership. Who in the hell was in charge letting those little shits get away with that crap? Barry Obama and Joe Biden. With a little luck and if the creek doesn't rise, maybe the rest of the trash will get taken out...

Is it a Pack Mentality...

 Reading the news, I used to enjoy getting a newspaper and keeping up with what's going on in the world. It was once relaxing and there was enjoyment in it. But that was then. Such is no longer the case. It's no secret why, there's just too much bad stuff going on. Way too much. Major cities have become decadent. I live near one and from personal observation I can tell you it's bad. Crime has skyrocketed. Everything from murder, rape, burglary, arson, human trafficking, theft (including everything from bicycles to airplanes) is off the charts. Places, neighborhoods that were long thought to be safe aren't anymore. Living in the suburbs used to be the solution. Not anymore. And just why, exactly is this happening?... Perhaps we should carry that question a little further, why does this keep happening and getting worse?..

Have our values changed? Our morals? Even our sense of right and wrong? Of course they have. All of that. But the problem lying at the root of all this, at the very core is way too many of us are simply accepting it, going along with it. I don't meant to sound like I'm throwing everyone under the bus, I'm not. There are plenty of solid people out there who are standing up, who are calling out those who are creating and promoting this pandemic of decay. There are still even sources in the mainstream media and press that are calling it like it is. Though you do have to seek them out. They aren't the ones on TV in your face very night. First off, it's a problem of leadership. If any one group deserves the bulk of the blame it's them. The leaders. Let me name some of them; corporate leaders, mayors, city council members, district attorneys, chiefs of police, governors, congress men and women, supreme court justices, presidential cabinet members, and of course the commander-in-chief himself and his useless sidekick. We look to our leaders to do the work of building and maintaining the structure that society needs to function in a productive and civil way. With few exceptions, we elected them to their positions. We should expect this of them, it's their job and responsibility. We should hold them accountable. And when they fail, we should get rid of them. 

But that's not often the case. It happens, all too often, that there is a miserable, horrible fail and not only are they not dispensed, they are re-elected. And re-elected again. All of the fallout from their failures are overlooked, denied, even defended. Let me offer a stellar example, Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago. She was elected in 2019 and hailed and heralded as the first black, female lesbian mayor in Chicago's history. Since she was elected crime has spiked over 40%. Last year, homicides rose to their highest levels in 25 years. She operates under the thumb of the cartels. Chicago has long been known, very long, as a Democratic bastion. So why don't the dems get rid of her? Elect someone else? Because she's protected by her diversity shield. Not all democrats agree with this. But they all accept it. They go along with it. Maybe they're telling themselves 'damn, this is bad but it's not really that bad.' Will she be re-elected? Probably. Is she the worst mayor in the country? Probably. 

Political party ideology is a pretty complex subject. But it does have some very obvious, consistent symptoms. One of them that the dems seem to struggle with is they'll grab hold of something that makes absolutely no sense and benefits but a few (or maybe even no one...) and they'll run with it. And keep running with it. And they'll all get behind the dog with the bone and cheer them on. Seemingly, forever. Dogs have a pack mentality, they follow the one with the bone. Relentlessly. Are democrats dogs? I don't know, look into what's going on in Chicago then you tell me... I really feel bad about disparaging dogs, though.

Let's get caught up...

 I've been neglecting this space for awhile and a lot has happened. That's an understatement of grand proportions actually. A lot has happened, it's more like the world has undergone a step change right in front of our eyes. And some of that change has not been of the good kind. 

Back in early '21 we were blessed (or cursed, depending on your perspective) with a new president. Trump thought he won, but he didn't and he acted like an ass about it instead of gracefully and respectfully stepping aside. Democrats gloated about it and went to work passing copious legislation of all sorts of dubious types. The tab for all the socialist acts of wonder just happens to come to a few trillion dollars. Now, keep in mind, there is no such thing as free money. During the past couple of weeks Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act. Most of the money was tagged for environmental purposes, and most experts and economists agreed that the Act would have little to no effect on actually ameliorating the effects of inflation. Just yesterday, Biden signed an act that would forgive up to $20,000 for federal student loans. The tab for that will amount to over $300billion over the next ten years. 

So, in the end, who pays for all these trillions and billions that the Biden administration is spending now? Who pays for anything and everything in this country? The taxpayer. The government doesn't actually earn anything. They don't produce anything. (Stupid legislation doesn't count...) Forgiving student loans was a pure and simple act of buying votes. To remain in power. Economically, it's a disaster. Politically, not so much. Biden is not an altruistic leader. What comes out of his mouth is not necessarily what he thinks and feels. I'm not so sure he knows what he thinks and feels. Or what comes out of his mouth for that matter... 

The political parties have become very divided, since Obama was in office. Ideologically, the gap only keeps widening. We can only hope that Abe Lincoln's quote "You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all of the time" actually comes true here, and soon. 

CoVid-19

CoVid-19. We've been hearing that a lot lately. It has dominated the news and our minds. And for good reason. It's a pandemic, an epidemic of global reach. It's affecting every country and every human being on earth. Perhaps a once in a lifetime occurrence. Or at least let's hope it is. Health experts the world over are doing their best to not only learn more about the virus, but to develop an antidote for it. But it is proving to be a formidable foe. Just read an article this morning, from a reputable, reliable source, those of which are not all that common these days, that the virus isn't even a living thing. It doesn't have any of the traditional trappings of life: metabolism, motion, the ability to reproduce. Outside a host, the virus is dormant. And it can last that way for a long time. It can remain viable - potentially infectious - on cardboard for up to 24 hours. In 2014, a virus frozen in permafrost for 30,000 years was retrieved by scientists and was able to infect an amoeba after being revived in the lab. Thirty thousand years. This is indeed a formidable foe...
World leaders are doing their best to take measures to contain and hopefully soon, stop the spread of infection. Well, most world leaders. China, it appears from the facts coming to light, could have avoided for the most part what is happening today by taking action sooner to contain the virus when it first appeared. Instead, they chose to silence the doctors and health officials who first became aware of the virus' existence. Hence, it began to spread uncontrolled in China, then to the rest of the world. They have since attempted to shift blame to others, particularly the United States, with lies and propaganda. Typical communist SOP. This week, they have proclaimed that there has not been one single reported case of the virus. Not one. If you believe that I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona for you.
Here in the US, officials have been issuing directives and orders to work from home, avoid crowds and specifying crowd size, close various business and organizations. These are necessary measures, no doubt and the effects of such are devastating. Many are losing their jobs, means of supporting their families, lives are being altered in horrible ways. And we haven't even peaked, the worst is yet to come, if that's possible. This is akin to a plot from a science fiction novel. The virus may be novel but this isn't fiction.
Government officials from the President on down are issuing proclamations, recommendations, directives, orders and ordinances concerning what the public should and should not do, what we can and cannot do and what penalties and fines we are subject to for not adhering to the new rules. Threats of jail time, prison time are being thrown about. Desperate measures for desperate times. Most of us understand the gravity of the situation understand and that some inconvenient restrictions have to be made to deal with it.
We, nor has the world faced anything like this before in modern times. Like nothing before it will require working together, putting aside differences. Failing to do so will cost lives. From this tragedy, literally anything could happen. No one knows what the future holds. This is one time that humans need to come together and put aside politics, ideologies, conflicts, and even nationalism. And looking back at the history of the world, that isn't likely to happen...

Could this really happen in America?...

It's 2019. Two hundred and forty-three years after the writing of the U.S. Constitution, undoubtedly the most profound and effective document ever written in the history of the world. If it were going to fail, if it were to be found unworkable I believe that would have happened by now. Our founding fathers knew it wasn't perfect, so they provided a means for change, amendments. So far, during the past 243 years twenty-seven have been ratified by the 50 states and become part of the Constitution. Almost 12,000 amendments have been proposed. During each term of Congress since 1789 about 200 amendments are proposed. And only 27 of those have actually been ratified and become law. Every single ounce and drop of power that the federal government has, and it has a lot, is granted to it by the constitution. It has no power to do anything that was not granted by the constitution.  It starts with the words "In order to form a more perfect union...". Well, we're certainly not a perfect union, but just think what we would be as a country today if not for the constitution. I don't even want to go there.
The first ten amendments are known as the Bill of Rights. Guaranteed, unalienable rights afforded to every American citizen. As I said earlier, almost 12000 attempts have been made to change it and only 27 passed muster. One of the Bill of Rights is the right to keep and bear arms. Touchy subject of late, right? There's a lot of clamoring to change that in recent times but considering the history of attempts to change the constitution, good luck with that. I think you'd have far better chances of baptizing a cat than changing the constitution. And that is as it should be.
Anyway, back to the point of all this rambling. Since the election of 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president there has been a lot of nefarious activity going on which mostly boils down to friction between those who like Trump and those who don't. I'll not go into reciting a bunch of details, every concerned American has kept up and knows most of them by now. And if you understand what has been happening, then I am sure that like me, you're concerned. Very concerned. This is the closest we have come to having a coup in this country since it began, 243 years ago. Of the 195 sovereign countries in the world, 128 have had a coup or attempted coup in their history. That's 81 percent. That is what any reasonable person would call a "vast majority". Those are things that happen when you don't have a solid framework for governance. A constitution. Someone or some party doesn't like the one who is in power so they plan and execute an attempt to overthrow them and assume power and control themselves. There are always lots of complicated circumstances but the root of it all is really that simple. The string of events since the 2016 election has almost put us in that majority of countries who include a political coup in their history. Make no mistake, many, if not all of these countries that have had 'coup capers' are not pleasant place to live, or even visit for that matter. Many are still to this day marked by violence and unrest, instability. Cameroon, Afghanistan, Ghana, Venezuela, Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Laos, Libya, Russia, Turkey, Yemen... There are some that have experienced coups and have gone on to recover and form, well, better unions. Denmark, UK, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Germany... But many unfortunately continue to languish. And their people suffer. If this doesn't concern you, then you haven't been paying attention.

Some really important things to talk about...

I've been writing this blog now, off and on, for several years now. In spite of being a novelist, I write action thriller stories, when I sit down to write this blog my interests turn to the political scene in the U.S. I write about my observations, opinions, and just my general take on things going on in the world of politics. After all, this is pretty important stuff.
Now and then I'll indulge in Facebook. I think it's pretty cool to catch up with friends from the past that I haven't heard from for a long time and to keep touch with good friends that I don't get to see much anymore. But Facebook is, just well, Facebook. It's the small talk of life that just happens to take place on the internet.
Until recently that is.  I have a good friend that I know from high school that a couple of months ago started some posts on Facebook. He has been posting about his father's wartime experiences during World War II in the Pacific. These are not ordinary posts about ordinary experiences. He was taken prisoner of war by the Japanese and was held with thousands of other servicemen for years under the most cruel and horrible conditions imaginable. What he endured and experienced was so far from our ordinary lives it's difficult to comprehend the depth of the atrocities. Yet at the same time it is so well written and the story is told so well that you cant help but feel involved. You cannot help but feel indebted to this man and his comrades, all of whom suffered terribly and many of whom paid the ultimate sacrifice. This is one of the best examples of a beautiful story about a horrible chapter in history of what some great men, American men have done so that we can live free. We must not and cannot ever take this for granted and this story clearly shows us why.
The true irony comes in that this is not some unknown writer recounting historical events. This is a friend, that I know well, writing about his dad. I've known this friend for a pretty long time but I never knew he was a writer. Not just a writer but a pretty darn good one at that. Up till now his story has come in posts on Facebook. Due to the impact of his story and the quality with which it is written I've encouraged him to start his own blog. He could reach a lot more people who, like me I'm sure would be grateful to share this fascinating story.
If ever in my life I've read a story about heroes, real, true heroes, it's your story Jimmie of your Dad and his fellow soldiers.
Until his blog is published, please go to Facebook and search for Jimmie Brock. Read this story about American Heroes, his father, and leave a message and let him know what you think. For those of you from Alvin, you may know him as well. Thanks for sharing your story, Jimmie. And for your friendship.

Skipping the Inauguration?

I wouldn't recommend it if you're a member of Congress. If you're an entertainer, knock yourself out. Bottom line is no one cares or will remember that you skipped it anyway. All you little pretty faces whose mugs have been on the news lately regarding your decision to not attend the inauguration, we.dont.care. Stay home, smoke crack or whatever you do, don't go. All you people who get on Facebook or attend rallies and carry placards saying "Not my President", yeah, it's a free country and you have a right to say whatever you want. But, you also have a responsibility as an American to respect the rule of law. I know this is going to hurt some of your ears but Trump won the election. And according to the law he will become the next President. So you don't like his politics, you don't like his personality, you think he's weird, whatever it is you don't like, get the f*** over it.
You know, eight years ago when Obama was elected most conservatives had the same 'oh crap' feelings you're having. But we lived with it for eight years. And I have news for you, you're going to live with it too.
These issues go a little deeper than this though. As I said, this is a free country and we all have the right to express our opinion. But not one single person has the right to disrespect the rule of law or to refuse to follow it. The recent report of Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem was a show of his opinion that the treatment of blacks was oppressive and discriminatory. But expressing that opinion by being disrespectful of a tradition that honors our country was petulant and dishonorable. If you have an opinion and you feel strongly about it do you want to express it by being petulant and dishonorable? I don't and I doubt most people do.
If you are a congressperson and you don't accept Trump's presidency as 'legitimate' then you have no business being a congressperson. You have a responsibility to this nation and the people you represent. And that does not include promoting separatism. Obama spent eight years creating and promoting divisiveness and racial discord. We all thought a black man could and indeed would improve race relations like no one before him could. We were wrong. He not only didn't improve them he created the biggest chasm in race relations that we've had in this country since the civil war.
And for you, Mr. Obama, to refuse to support and stand behind your successor is nothing short of un-American yet it is consistent with your behavior of leaving dissent in your wake. Since the day you came to office whenever a situation arose that was not to your liking and you did not possess the intelligence or power to change it you simply created dissent between the parties involved. Period.
The one thing, most important thing that you were short of, devoid of, Mr. President, was humility. Which in that position with the power and responsibility to influence so many lives, was unforgiveable...

Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas to everyone. From my family to yours, we wish you a truly  happy holiday season. May it be filled with good times spent with your family and friends. And may your new year bring you happiness, good health and prosperity.
Christmas is a wonderful time. We get to spend time with our families and enjoy some down time. Our lives become so busy we often get in the habit of not thinking about ourselves and taking care of ourselves. And unfortunately, Christmas usually is no exception. We immerse ourselves in shopping, buying gifts, keeping track of budgets (which often get overextended...) planning parties and meals, if anything Christmas piles on more stress to what we were already dealing with. For most, it doesn't bring down time. It brings more stress time. Just what we didn't need.
It's a shame, it really is. Around this time of year people and companies who sell 'stuff' step up their game. Advertisements come at us from all directions and literally fill our days. And do not kid yourself, marketers are very smart people. The have perfected the art of convincing us that we need what they are making. Think about this for a moment, how much stuff have you bought that you really could do without? Ask yourself this question for everything you have that cost more than fifty dollars, did I need that or did I merely want it? Now there's nothing wrong with having something for no other reason than you wanted it. By golly if you work hard and want something just for the fun of it then by all means you should have it. The problem is, it adds up. We accumulate. And we saturate ourselves with stuff. The fact is most of it we didn't need and could easily have lived without it.

So take some time to reflect after Christmas. Look back on the year and think about what you can do to make next year better. What can you do to make life better? What can you do to make YOU better? Maybe some of that 'stuff' you got that you really don't need (or want), give it away. Donate it to charity so someone less fortunate can enjoy it. I promise you'll feel good about it. And do some other things that make you feel good. Exercise. Lay in the sun. Take deep breaths with your eyes closed. Take up yoga. Tell your spouse you love them, every day. Meditate.
The cost of all those things and others like them? Nothing. The benefit? They all have the potential to make you a better, happier person. What better gift could you possibly give yourself?

Play Ball!

You know, I was thinking the other day. And yes, I was thinking about something in particular. My life. Don't switch channels yet, I'm not going to get spacy and philosophical and poetic on you. In fact depending on your age, what I say just might be relevant in some way to your life. I didn't just sit down and tell myself, I am going to think about life here for awhile. Something made me do it. I was compelled, even coerced into thinking about it. And once I was into it, it was a serious session. Very serious.
I have always thought about life as being analogous to baseball in a lot of ways. In the past when I put life situations in terms of baseball, it just seemed to make sense. A lot of sense. While it may be true that to be able to make this analogy you must be a die-hard baseball fan. Actually, maybe just being a fan isn't even good enough. You have to really understand baseball. You have to have some real connection to it. Like maybe you played baseball at some time in your life. Maybe you coached little league. Lots of people think baseball is a boring game. That it doesn't move fast enough, like football. They just don't understand what they're looking at. There is so much going on in a baseball game that if you don't know what you're looking for you wont see it.
See what I mean? I've just described baseball and if you replaced the word baseball in the paragraph above with life, it would have made sense. Here's another example. In life there's going to be successes and there will be failures. Just as in baseball, you aren't going to win every game. You're not going to hit it out of the park every time you get up to the plate. We all know that, even if you don't know baseball. That's kind of a no-shit-Sherlock fact. Life's the same way only sometimes it doesn't seem so obvious as it does in baseball. Here's a really good one, to be good in baseball you can't just say I'm going to play baseball and be a great baseball player. For starters, if you're not athletic, fuggidaboutit. It ain't happening. You need to choose something else to excel at. If you are athletic, then you're going to have to work hard to be good. You have to want it. You have to want it bad. You have to have grit in your gut wanting it bad. That means your level of desire to play baseball well has to break the desire needle. The same could be said of people who excel at something else in life. Only it may not be as obvious as it is in baseball.
Are you getting my drift? Baseball mirrors life situations and simplifies them. Makes them easier to understand. Read those last two sentences again. Makes life situations easier to understand. If life consisted of one human being, our self, it would be pretty simple. It wouldn't take long before we knew what we liked, didn't like, how we reacted to certain things, and so on. But life isn't just 'me'. There are family, friends, acquaintances, strangers, bosses, coworkers, teammates... Life is a series of interactions with other people. Sometimes, maybe even often, things go well. Sometimes they don't. People are very complicated. What you see is rarely what you get when it comes to people. Life with other people is not black and white. It's a million shades of gray and some of them are really freaking ugly. I've lost my analogy with baseball, but stay with me.
So where am I going with this? This is where I'm going, life is hard. It's damn hard. Oh, I know there are silver spooners out there who have a good, easy life but what kind of life is that? What are they contributing? Nothing. You have to get off your ass and do something and contribute to the world for your life to have any meaning. That's my second no-shit-Sherlock fact. Life can and does have many gratifying times for most of us. But we have to work for it and often make sacrifices. Very difficult choices. And who amongst us has not lost a loved one? Not one single living being can say they have never lost a loved one. Is that not hard? And who amongst us has not loved and lost, as Mr. Shakespeare put it? Well if you haven't, you're part of a very small group. If you have you know well how hard that is.
It's hard alright. And for most of my life I had this misguided notion that when I got older life would get easier. I could retire, not have to get up early and go to work and put up with a bunch of pricks that annoyed me, it would be great. And you know what, not having to get up early and go to work and deal with a bunch of pricks is great. But getting older is not. And the worst part about it, life stares you in the face, grabs you by the throat, sits you down, humbles the shit out of you, and makes you think. And the first thing it makes you think about, your mortality. It looks right into your big wide eyes and says you're not going to live forever. And you want to ask, so how much time do I have left? And life replies, with a shrug of the shoulders, don't know. Meekly, hoping not to offend this badass monster called Your Life, you ask, so what's left? What do I need to do? What can I do?
Notice that one of the questions wasn't what's life all about? That's a question for amateurs, young amateurs. Since most of your life is behind you, you already know what life is all about. Well, your life anyway... You've been there and done it already. If you didn't get it right, too  late. Next question?
There's just a very sobering, jolting, face-slapping reality to knowing that due to the nature of life on earth your time on earth is limited. Very limited. So your natural inclination is to think, what's important? Aha! That's what you should have been thinking about all along. Not what's its all about. You cant know what it's all about until you know what's important. That's what you focus on.
And what's really sobering is the answers to that will probably be obvious. Just like baseball. Who's on first?...

LIsten up, journalists...

Reading the news this morning I see that Ellen Degenerate (sic, intentionally...) has won the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Congratulations Ellen. When you have your own daytime talk show and you have glamorous Hollywood types on to talk about 'stuff' you are indeed changing the world. Underprivileged kids are being fed hot meals, kids with cancer are being cured, etc, etc. Kinda like Obama winning the Nobel prize at the beginning of his first term. For what? If you're a TV watcher then you know how fond Hollywood is of giving themselves awards. When they're not filming something they're giving themselves awards. What's the difference if Obama gives one of them an award.  This award is supposed to recognize those people who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors". Well, forget about national security, if that were left to Ellen we'd all be in a cage being tortured by towelheads. World peace, why yes, of course! Shooting the shit with Amy Schumer has calmed down entire cities. Indeed, congratulations Ellen.
Once again, our wonderful leader has done something that deserves a bitch-slap. But after eight very long years we've come to expect such.
I digress.What I signed on to talk about is the media in our country. Let me start by pointing out something really important that probably seems innocuous to most people. How often have you been reading something whether it was a magazine article or a breaking news article about an important world event and you notice misspelled words? Now that you stop and think about it, pretty often, huh? Editors, journalists and reporters, some of whom are reputedly major names in the business. To top it off, these guys have proofreaders and editors who are checking their work before it is published. Supposedly. Allegedly. And every couple of weeks they are paid for writing this sloppy, unchecked garbage. I know I'm not the only one who notices this and is bothered by it. I'm just so thankful that the surgeon who did my hip replacement doesn't take his work so lightly and pays attention to the details.
OK, picture this. You have the press room at the White House full of the country's elite journalists and reporters waiting for the president. I walk in and walk down the rows, stand behind each one and administer a good hard bitch slap to the back of the head to each one of them. After the last one has received his admonishment, I walk to the podium and say, "If you want to be a plumber learn how to stop leaks, if you want to be a carpenter learn how to use a saw without cutting yourself, if you want to be soldier, learn how to shoot a gun. If you want to be a journalist, LEARN HOW TO FUCKING SPELL!" Then Obama walks up and I look at him and say, "Whatever."
As far as I'm concerned if you wrote an article, especially one of import and you misspell words in the process your credibility evaporates. You're supposed to be a professional and the expectations of all who read your work are that it is professional grade work. If you are capable of high level, rational reasoning and analysis of complex events, then you should be able to spell.
There are other expectations of your vocation. I want everyone of you sunsabitches that make a living writing news to listen closely. Do not use your station in life as a member of any standing in the media to further your own interests, especially those of a political bent. Just as you were taught in school, journalism is to be unbiased and objective. Report the facts. Back them up. If you want to push your political agenda, fine. You are free to do that. Join a PAC. Become a lobbyist. Join a protest. Paint slogans on railroad trestles. But keep your drivel out of the media. America doesn't only not care, we don't want to hear it. It's irritating. We buy newspapers, online subscriptions, turn on cable news to get (are you ready!) NEWS.
Oh yeah, and learn how to spell. Ask your eight your old. They can help you.

On to bigger and better things.

I suppose you could say things are settling down a little. Granted, there have been protests in several major cities, even some violence. But in the context of the times is that really surprising? It will fade away, I think that's pretty much a given. What are the chances the protesters will prevail and congress will say, "You know, you people are right. He's not the right guy for the job. We're giving him the boot and he's outta here. We're going to hold another election and keep on having them until we get a bonafide liberal in there." I mean , it would have to be a liberal, how many conservatives do you think are in those protest crowds? What are the odds of that happening? Well, let's see. Let me grab a calculator here, hmmm, as soon as I turned it on the answer is right there. Zero, zip, zilch, nada.
Once again I say, thank God we have a constitution and someone is paying attention to it.
The good news is all the white noise from the rancor of the campaigns is gone. All is quiet on that front. Now we can all go back to our regularly scheduled lives and get on with life. At this point it is what it is and all the protesting in the world won't change a thing. If you want to prognosticate and predict, knock yourself out. Frankly, I'm tired and I want to move on to bigger and better things. I've been offering my opinion on subjects of a political bent on here for awhile and I know you're probably getting tired of hearing them. Even if you're not I'm growing tired of talking about it.

Following politics I think is like watching TV. There are myriad programs on, many of them during prime time that include lots of drama, suspense, ruthless characters who try to ruin other people's lives, power-hungry dirtbags, scheming and dishonest politicians, and people love to watch them. During a presidential election they can watch the same but this time the characters are playing themselves. It's salacious skullduggery at it's best. And it's for real. Many people prepare to vote, i.e. learn about the candidate's backgrounds, their platforms, intentions and so on the same way they prepare to watch TV. By doing nothing. Then they get in a voting booth, (let me qualify that so you'll know I'm not just blowing smoke. Some of them get in a voting booth. Only 40% of qualified voters actually voted in the election. Sad and quite pathetic, but true) and this is what happens. He said he's going to build a wall, click. She said she was going to make college free. Click. And that's just the ones that actually voted. When you look at it that way, maybe the electoral college system isn't such a bad idea after all...

At the risk of putting my veracity in doubt, let me move on to bigger and better things as I said I would. I started writing a novel back in 2011. Five long years ago. I was so excited about finishing my first one, I went right into the second one. My first novel was a pure action, suspense thriller because that's my favorite genre. I love to read them. To me there's nothing better than a good, well-written thriller. I've read countless thrillers by all the journeymen writers in the field. It's like any other craft, you learn from the pros. I wrote the first one and right out of the chute I had some success. It didn't make the NY Times bestseller list, but hey, give me time. The second one is a thriller as well, but it takes a little turn. It's what I call a 'historical thriller'. The main characters are all fictitious but it takes place at actual locations and involves some real people and events. Which of course means there is a lot of research that has to be done. If you're going to talk about real people and places you have to be, well, real. And I'll be honest, research isn't one of my favorite things to do. I'm no James Michener. I like to sit down, crank up the imagination and ride. When I'm doing that I feel like I'm in the wheelhouse. But I chose to do this for personal reasons. The story involves some Choctaw Indians who grow up in a very difficult time in history and go on to change the world for the better. I'm having a helluva lot of fun writing it and I'm doing my due diligence, historically. My wife is a Choctaw Indian and the setting is her ancestor's home place. Some of them thankfully survived the Trail of Tears and settled in this area. It was a monumental time in history and I must do it justice.

Hence, the reason it has been five years and counting. Well, there have been a few other reasons. Life happens. And it can be damn distracting at times. But I have refilled my fountain pen and I'm back on the job. And when I'm done, you're going to love the story. Or your money back.