The Sporting Life

This week, Walter James Palmer, a dentist from Minnesota, lured Cecil the lion out of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, where he then shot the 13 year old feline with a crossbow, stalked the wounded animal for several hours and finally killed Cecil with a rifle shot before skinning and beheading the poor creature.

Cecil was the most photographed animal in the park and had been wearing a GPS collar as part of a longstanding research program. And the lion was also well know for his friendly attitude toward people. It’s illegal to hunt collared animals, but that didn’t seem to matter to the undaunted dentist who said that he had secured all the legal and proper hunting permits and had no idea that the lion he killed was in any way special.

Apparently Mr. Palmer, DMD is a well known globe-trotting big-game hunter in his spare time so I suppose that after a few long hard weeks of looking into people’s mouths the only way to get any rest and relaxation is to go and kill something. But now after killing poor Cecil the good doctor of dentistry is being harshly criticized on social media and he has even closed his dental office and disconnected his website to avoid the overwhelming amount of criticism he is receiving.

I think Mr. Palmer should consider leaving this country for good and taking up residence in one of the “evil” countries of the world., but North Korea is closed, Iraq is in a shambles and even though Iran has over 55 million evil people residing within its borders at the moment,  Israel would probably be in an uproar should one more evil soul be allowed to join their ranks.

So what to do? Well, It seems to me that if he stays here he has only one logical course to choose: Give up his practice and join the ranks of those running for the Republican nomination for The Presidency of the United States. I think that a guy like him has the qualifications to fit right in.

Insult to Injury

The war on poverty here in the United States continues. And I don’t mean a war as in trying to fight poverty and end it…I mean a war as in, we are fighting poor people and making their lives more miserable than they already are…

Case in point: According to a recent report in USA Today, since November 2009, when Republican Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona announced that her state would test adult welfare recipients if they felt like there was a “reasonable cause” to believe they were getting high, more than 87,000 welfare recipients have been tested.

And the total number of drug cheats caught was exactly…wait for it… one!

When they threw that person off the welfare roles, that saved the state $560. But at 500 dollars per test that’s 43 million 500 thousand dollars spent in order to save…wait for it…560 dollars! That’s a net loss of 43,499,440 taxpayer dollars! And not one person fed, clothed or housed…just hosed.

And when you consider that Governor Brewer promised over 1.7 million dollars in savings from the program because, as we all have been told, and certainly as all Republicans positively know, almost everyone on welfare uses their welfare check to buy drugs…don’t they?

But they don’t!

The fact of the matter is that people who are poor need the money to make ends meet and to pay for the basic necessities of life like housing and food and clothes and such. Poor folks are too busy just trying to survive and don’t have the desire nor the recreational time to get involved in drugs… like I guess the people who govern us do while they sit around dreaming up these truly needless and wasteful programs, born out of their overly suspicious and hateful minds.

Spending over 43 million taxpayer dollars in order to save taxpayers 550 dollars?! And not an apology in sight?! Nor an admittance of guilt, shame or malfeasance on the Arizona Republican government’s part in this insulting and misguided fiasco?!

Instead, wouldn’t you know that six other states have implemented similar programs since 2009. And when Wisconsin Governor, Scott Walker, announced his presidential candidacy last week, what did he say would be one of his priorities if elected president?… Wait for it…

All welfare recipients will be required to pass a drug test prior to collecting public assistance benefits!

What we need to do in this country is have all Republicans drug tested! Because even when confronted with the facts,  shown the results of their own failed policies and forced to come face to face with the fallacies of their erroneous beliefs…they continue to do and say and believe the same things…and with more vim and vigor then before!

If that isn’t a sure sign of drug abuse let alone insanity… then I’m Ronald Reagan!

Like Father Like Son, Like Son?

Republican candidate for president, Jeb Bush, says that he is going to break the mold when it comes to being like the rest of the presidential members of his family because he has some very different ideas about how to make America strong again. Which begs the question…Are we weak now?

Anyway, Jeb’s first key to getting us stronger is to work harder! Apparently what’s wrong with America is that Americans don’t work hard enough and aren’t productive enough. Do you feel that that pretty much describes you and your American family? You’re all a bunch of deadbeats and lazy bones?

So after we all do our part and start working more Jeb says that he’ll do his part, if you elect him president, and do the things that no other Bush before him has done…Like cut government jobs! (but I thought we were going to work more?) And cut taxes… because who needs more money when you are already way too much in debt? And no new spending…on anything new! Unless I suppose there are new wars. In the Bush family I think war is like dessert: There’s always room for war…

Perhaps it sounds like a plan but just Imagine running your own family budget this way.

“Okay kids gather around. Your mother and I have decided to become more productive so we’ll be working more…but on the other hand we will not be asking for any more money from our bosses. In fact we’re going to ask them to keep more of our hard earned money so they can use it to create more jobs for other folks. So with more work for us and less money for you that means some of you will have to grow up and get out, because we’re going to cut spending and downsize and those of you who leave will not be replaced…(so don’t even think about bringing any grandchildren around!) but that’s OK because now that your mother and I are working more we will have to cut back on the 15 minutes that we as average American parents spend with our children each day already… So it all works out! Because More work and less time, while cutting income, along with a reduction in family members and their spending, equals productivity for all! Doesn’t it?…And oh yes, we’ll probably be invading the neighbors house at 0 six hundred tomorrow morning. So look sharp and dress for success. Just use the credit card if you need supplies… That is all.”

He also promised that it wouldn’t be business as usual in old Washington D.C. if he were elected president because he would crack down on the influence of lobbyists, noting that as governor of Florida he enacted a strict ban on gifts from lobbyists to legislators. Of course I think that he got that last idea from one of his top advisers, Sally Bradshaw, who is married to the founder of one of Florida’s most successful lobbying firms…so like his dad and brother before him…you can probably just read his lips to know that he’ll keep that promise!

Now who wants to go look for some more WMDs?!

A Fool and His Money?

I don’t know about you but in my book Former President George W. Bush deserves the title of Worst President ever!

Recently it was disclosed that President Dubbya, as he is so fondly called by those who think he was one of our finest presidents, charged 100,000 dollars to speak at a charity fundraiser for U.S. military veterans who were severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also provided with a jet so he could travel to the fundraiser at a cost of 20,000 extra dollars. And former First Lady Laura Bush, collected $50,000 to appear a year earlier.

The charity, which sounds like a very good cause, helps to provide specially-adapted homes for veterans who lost limbs and suffered other severe injuries in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The charity’s officials said that the total of $170,000 spent on the former President and his wife were for speaking at the fund raiser was justified because the former President and First Lady offered discounted fees and helped raise record amounts in contributions at the galas held in 2011 and 2012.

So that’s the good news… because according to those same charity officials, Former President Bush usually charges 250,000 dollars when he speaks… But seriously, talk about a jobs program! First President Bush has his Neo-Con friends cook up some phony reasons to send men to war in Iraq and then, years later, after he’s out of work, he charges hundreds of thousands of dollars to go speak to the poor unfortunate and disabled veterans of that war!

Wow! Talk about malice aforethought! Mission Accomplished, I guess?

Sure he helped them raise some money for a good cause but with his discounted fee our good ex-president can write off the loss and make it a complete wash on his taxes too. It’s a win/win! And let’s not even mention the fact that President G.W. Bush actually declared the war in Iraq over in 2003…about 10 years before the war actually ended…and also about 10 years of added veterans to help fill his speaking calendar.

Now in all fairness to our most recent former president, other former U.S. Presidents have turned to the speaker’s circuit for a major source of after-presidential income for their post-presidential years. And some of them have earned well into the millions of dollars while doing it…. But really, I ask you…charging veterans of two wars that you were responsible for sending them to… is a bit tacky wouldn’t you say? And besides, does he really need that money? Really?

Remember that woman who spent weeks camped outside of the former President’s vacation ranch in Texas until he would speak to her about her son’s death in the war in Iraq? He never did come out to talk to her. I guess now we know she couldn’t pay, huh?

Anyway, now our former 2nd President Bush, retired form stating wars, cutting taxes for the wealthy and wrecking economies, also likes to spend his time painting likenesses of the heads of state that he has met during his travels…I think that from now on he should simply paint the heads of clowns…very, very sad clowns…

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Let’s Just Sing a Simple Song of Freedom

“That flag has a lot of different meanings to a lot of different people. It doesn’t symbolize hate unless you think it’s hate – and that’s your problem, not mine.”

This is what some of the thousands of folks at the rally for the confederate flag in Central Florida had to say about their beloved confederate Flag. It was an event that was being held in support of a decision to return the Confederate flag to a display outside the Ocala government complex.

Participants talked of defending Southern traditions and southern heritage and said that their rally wasn’t about hatred and racism but rather about the rights of free people. Just like the Civil War wasn’t about slavery but rather about rights too… I suppose. And what rights would those be except the right for one to live free while buying, selling and owning people who could not live free? And what great heritage does the confederate flag represent except the heritage of slavery and oppression and human degradation and treason and secession and the Un-United States of America?

Imagine the world today if the south had been successful and had won their rights to live in their own separate country with that wonderful southern heritage and those lovely southern traditions left intact. How would the world have made out during World wars 1 and 2 without the might of the 50 United States to defend it? And Whose side would the south have been on during those momentous conflicts… do you suppose? How different might your world and mine… and theirs, be today had the south and “their rights” prevailed?

Perhaps southerners should think about that every time they think about displaying their most sacred symbol of antebellum disunity and dysfunction: The confederate flag. Because that’s what it was. It didn’t value humanity. Think about it. had they won It would have edified the demeaning and devaluation of all human life everywhere, especially in the south! Where was the benevolence, humaneness, compassion, fraternity, kindness, consideration, tolerance, charity and mercy in the confederate cause…except for themselves and no others? That’s a cause, history and heritage worth reverence and remembrance? Is there anyone in the world alive today who doesn’t thank God for the confederacy’s utter and complete defeat????? Seriously there are just these confederate ancestor wannabees…which should tell you all you really need to know about the confederacy.

They are without a doubt… THE ONLY ONES IN THE ENTIRE WORLD… who think that the confederate flag has value in a MODERN world.

All in all this sad and sorry demonstration to defend southern history spanned 8 miles with 4,500 supporters and an estimated 2,000 vehicles, mostly motorcycles and trucks adorned with Civil War-era flags…and of course guns! What good old southern get together wouldn’t include guns? Police say that even some shots were fired during an argument over the flag, but no one was injured, and overall the event was peaceful.

Now imagine that same motorcade of revelers all being comprised of people of color who were flying flags to symbolize their African heritage and their history of protest of the United States for their long denied rights…8 miles… of honking horns, beating fists in the air and shouting and the shooting of guns…and all while driving thousand of vehicles through white suburban neighborhoods.

That would have gone off quite peacefully, while the police stood by and waved them on…don’t you think? Because overall, if we have anything here in America, 150 years after the Civil War, it’s the end of racism…isn’t it?

Twelve Years A-Float…

I have 12 years to live!

At least to live above the poverty line…

That is If I do in fact live that long…

Because by age 72, according to our most corpulent governor, Chris Christie the 1st, my pension fund will be empty. He practically guarantees it! Our Beefy Boss says that any system where a person pays in 95,000 dollars and takes out 2.3 million dollars is destined to fail…that would of course be a system where Methuselah represented every pensioner because I would have to live to be about 969 to get paid 2.3 million dollars in retirement.

That’s an exaggeration on my part of course (by about 700 years) but then again so is everything that comes out of the Governor’s mouth, rather like so many of his farts, which I have no doubt represent more of the truth about our Over-sized Overseer than anything that he has to say.

When Mr. Christie was elected governor of New Jersey in 2009, he assured the state’s police officers and firefighters that, “Nothing will change for the pensions of current officers, future officers or retirees in a Christie administration. It is a sacred trust.” He told the state’s teachers the same thing…

But the intervening six years have shown just how little that “sacred trust” is worth to our Garden State Gargantuan, who signed legislation in 2011 raising public employees’ pension contributions and curbing their benefits. Employees were asked to make concessions which included raising the retirement age, suspending cost-of-living increases for retirees, and requiring workers to contribute more toward their pensions and health benefits, from 5.5 percent to 7.5 percent for teachers and 8.5 to 10 percent for Police and firemen with Judicial employees kicking in an additional 9 percent of their salary.

In return, our Most Magnanimous and Meaty Manager promised to make the state’s regular and contractual payments into the pension system, something that hadn’t been done by Governor Christie before (nor by most of his thieving governmental predecessors, I must add) However, this Head Honcho of Husk failed to deliver on those promises and those payments, which drove our pension system deeper into debt — a move that a judge later ruled to be unlawful.

But unlike previous Governors, Chris “Crispy Creme” Christie didn’t just stop payments but has also seen to it that the New Jersey pension system paid more than $600 million in fees to financial firms in 2014 — 50 percent more than the previous year, and at a higher rate than almost any other state reports paying for pension management. And he has had the pension money invested in high-fee firms whose executives made campaign contributions to Republican political groups…all the while telling New Jersey teachers, firefighters, cops and other public workers that “there are no alternatives” to cutting our retirement benefits because the state pension system is so strapped for cash.

Mr Christie’s overbite (excuse me, oversight)  of our pension system has gotten so bad that former Securities and Exchange Commission attorney Ted Siedle, who conducts forensic investigations of state and local pensions says that New Jersey is the “Poster Child for pension system shenanigans happening to pension systems all across the country.” Including shenanigans like: lack of transparency, skyrocketing risks and fees and chronic under performance…with shenanigans being the operative euphemism for…stealing!

And now of course our Weighty Chief of State is happy, no, practically giddy, if you watch him on the morning shows, to tell us and all of America that the NJ pension system will collapse and go broke in 12 years. Now everyone sit down and shut the ef up!

But On a lighter note:

Our Elephantine Executive paid for food and drinks at MetLife Stadium with a state debit card 58 times over the 2010 and 2011 NFL seasons, accruing a bill of 82,594 dollars. That’s an average of nearly $1,500 on food and drinks every time he attended a football game. If you follow the governor at all you know that Our Paragon of Plump is fond of saying that while serving in public office he wants to “squeeze the orange for everything he can get.”… Here I believe orange being his operative euphemism for electorate, while he means squeeze, as in…screw.

So go ahead America and vote for Chris Christie for president of the United States! I’m sure He’ll be more than happy to liquidate your Social Security checks in an all out effort to outdo the late great Roman Emperor, Nero, who was once said to have fiddled while Rome burned.

So Won’t it be great fun America, to watch New Jersey’s Rotunda of Rule… Fart while America goes Belly Up!

What’s Wrong With Everything…Still?

I wrote this post 2 years ago and it seems to me that…Here’s what’s wrong with everything…still.

Banks can borrow money from the federal government at less than 1% interest. 0.75% to be exact.

Can you? Nope. You can borrow it from the banks at about 5 times that rate, if you’re lucky, wealthy or not a student looking to get an education.

Banks already have your money and pay you less than 1% interest to do whatever they want with it…including putting it in places that it doesn’t belong…and then losing it!

As if that should even be possible. And banks only have to keep 3% of our money on hand in case we ask for some of it back.

And why do banks who have our money to play with… basically for free… need to borrow money from the feds anyway?

How much does the bank charge you to: write a check? Make a withdrawal at an ATM? Take out a home loan? Take out a student loan? Take out an equity loan? Pay interest on credit cards? Close an account? Receive a paper statement? Use a human teller??? …and all at a place that has your money to begin with?

This is not how it used to be and Can anyone explain why this is how it is now… and how these policies will lead to a better future for you or your children or your communities? (I am assuming you don’t own a bank)

I…continue to… welcome all thoughts, insights and explanations.