“Books are like seeds. They can lie dormant for centuries and then flower in the most unpromising soil.” (Carl Sagan); “Nothing ever dies on the Internet.” (anon.); “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.” (Madison Ave. [m]adman). My posts amalgamate these three philosophical elements into one novel experience; they champion critical thinking, human dignity / equality, levelheaded / even-handed / liberty-based governance and solid environmental stewardship. C’mon in!
Since January 1960, one dozen men have taken the Presidential Oath of Office and, once ensconced within the White House, they’ve all unpacked plenty of baggage; the type not necessarily quantifiable by calipers and scales.
Yep, character flaws did surface, ranging from Ho-Hum harmless to OMG grotesque. And owing to this phenomenon, far too often their work output suffered. Even the best intentioned of them (e.g. John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama) found it tough to advance agendas designed to work towards the betterment of society.
With each successive (oft regressive) regime change came the accompanying, ever lengthening laundry list of woes as will soon become evident below.
As a student, whose public school and college education heavily focused on higher mathematics and the sciences, I could not help but notice how, with each successive line of typed text, there was a resultant curve effect; reminiscent of plotted data on the graph’s X and Y axes; it’s downward slope eerily similar of those frequently accompanying studies that map out sociopolitical / socioeconomic ruin.
BTW, while this curve does “plot out” well on my homepage, as of my posting time, it’s uncertain that it’ll appear similarly offsite. Anyway, a mere “homeward bound” click can easily remedy whatever issues that may arise. That said, check this out…
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Friday, Nov 22, 1963’s Kennedy assassination begat Johnson’s insincere Kennedy impression, which begat Nixon’s Watergate burglary/coverup scandal, which begat Ford’s asinine, unpardonable pardon of Nixon, which begat Carter’s well-meaning yet yawner administration, which begat Reagan’s casteism, union busting, trickle down plot, which begat Bush’s aping Reagan and sustaining his dense policies, which begat Clinton’s adultery/satyriasis driven Lewinsky sex scandal, which begat Bush’s 9/11 that begat 1984, two wars, torture and econ ruin, which begat Obama’s rivals roadblocking his tries to birth believable change, which begat Trump’s racism, sexism, covid bungling, tanked economy, & coup, which begat Biden’s goals to end gridlock/covid-19; rebuild USA & go green; if unmet, to beget ?????????????
Our clip, above and offsite, features Bob Dylan’s released on March 27, 2020, composition, Murder Most Foul; his lyrical assessment of American culture and, of course, the John F. Kennedy assassination; the shots heard around the world, on this very day in 1963. I’ve linked us to detailed accounts of this tragic event, which had influenced the songsmith’s lyrical analysis.
My having witnessed, in real time, the disturbing, gruesome reportage “hemorrhaging” from Dealey Plaza / Dallas TX to my family’s Black and White Zenith™ TV, I can say, with certainty, that assassin had not only shot JFK, he had also blown away my childhood; i.e., my blessed, blissful naiveté.
And tears still welled up my decades older eyes, today, as I reviewed the clip, below, and offsite.
Yep, I had been forced to grow up way too soon; in real time, too; so much so that as my glance averted from that bygone television screen to the living room window; to behold the daylight dissolving into the literal and metaphorical darkness, I wound up concluding:
America will never be the same, again!
Quite the pessimistic (albeit prescient) assessment from a once-upon-a-time, carefree boy, huh?
Regrettably, my prediction of America’s demise has been coming true, too.
Post JFK, a hefty percent of the contemporary American electorate no longer expects excellence in governance; has actually begun to bank on mediocrity; so much so they routinely embrace and empower crooks, cronies and crazies. With many a régime change, we’ve been witnessing an increasingly perilous procession of un-presidential profligates.
Of course, there have been two notable exceptions, namely, the learned and honorable Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
Hmm, were there such a thing as locatable, alternate realities, it would not be surprising to discover one where JFK had survived; where an alternate electorate had never, ever installed Donald J. Trump; where Americans would’ve booed and hissed at the mere whiff of that asshat and aspiring Fascist; so much so that, back in 2015, he’d have promptly done an about face and scampered back up that downward moving escalator.
Hmm, considering how words such as “promptly” and “scampered” would hardly describe Donny, in any reality, that certainly would’ve been a rare treat to behold!
Back in 1980, during the Iran hostage crisis, on behalf of POTUS wannabe AND sneaky li’l shit Ronald Reagan, the private citizen and sneaky li’l shit William Casey, in flagrant violation of the 1799 Logan Act, undermined sitting President Jimmy Carter’s authority, by cutting a secret, quid pro quo deal with Iran. The Terms: Iran agreed to hold their American hostages until after the elections; thereby causing the voters to punish Democrat Carter and reward Republican Reagan. Soon after Inauguration Day, fraudulent president Reagan presided over the big payoff; namely, arranged for Israel to ship badass weaponry to Iran. The End!
Back in 2000, a corrupt, conservative bloc of U.S. Supreme Court judicial hacks blatantly denied Democrat POTUS wannabe Al Gore his legally requested recount of contested Florida ballots. Yep, the net effect was sneaky li’l shit judges had illegally elected sneaky li’l shit Republican George W. Bush. Scant months later, W, who was far more interested in the POTUS title, itself, than in actually doing that job’s heavy lifting, promptly flipped off his 08/06/2001 Presidential Daily Briefing, which had ominously forewarned of Osama bin Laden’s intent to nine-eleven America. Post attack, it was left up to W’s eager beaver handlers / image consultants to, somehow, rebrand / mutate that stick-figure, figurehead loser into some sort of caped, leotarded Super Hero (complete with codpiece). As such, little Georgie had risen from the Ground Zero ashes / rubble by 2004; at which time the voters had actually forgotten how W had let America down. Consequently, they rewarded that muck-up with a second term. The End!
Fast forwarding to 2020, bear witness to the sneaky li’l shit Republican and Fascist wannabe Donald J. Trump. Courtesy of journalist / author Bob Woodward’s phone interviews with Donny, we now know that the fake prez clearly understood, as early as January 2020, that the coronavirus pandemic would lay wholesale waste to American lives and livelihoods! YET, he repeatedly downplayed this deadly threat to humanity; didn’t even do the easy lifting to protect any of us (e.g., issuing a nationwide mask-up decree). His willful neglect allowed COVID-19 to go on a rampage; to the point where now, even HE has become infected by this scourge. So, will he hoodwink the voters into accepting the 215,000 Americans (and still counting), who’ve died on his watch? Will America’s electorate actually reward sneaky li’l shit Donald J. Trump another four or more years? Will this be The End?
History suggests such an outcome is more likely than not.
It is with profound sorrow that all true believers in liberty, truth and justice for all, now pause to pay our respects to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who passed away, yesterday, at the age of 87.
We are forever indebted to her tireless, courageous fight against discrimination in all its ugly forms; the prejudice, bias, bigotry, intolerance, narrow-mindedness, unfairness, inequity, favoritism, one-sidedness, partisanship; sexism, chauvinism, misogyny, racism, anti-Semitism, heterosexism, ageism, classism and casteism, which habitually target society’s most vulnerable members; be they American citizens or asylum seekers.
We will never forget her ability to unerringly interpret and uphold our Heavenly Father’s and Founding Fathers’ laws; especially on behalf of commoners, such as you and I.
Regrettable but true, We the extraordinary ordinary People have become witness to the amoral mortals, who, with ever increasing frequency and ferocity, in their evil words and wretched deeds, have been thoughtlessly, shamelessly and relentlessly unraveling and undermining what should be inalienable, fundamental human rights.
I could, will, and must say more in the days ahead, for as presidential candidate, Joe Biden, when speaking of our current troubled times, has so oft reminded…
“We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.”
Our heartfelt condolences to R.B.G.’s family and friends.
Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!
America’s Founding Fathers had conceived of the Electoral College to prevent voters from picking pathetic presidents. Unfortunately, too frequently, these College “students” have “flunked out”. They’ve failed to perceive negative character traits and ideological mutations, which pollute the political gene pool… breed true… resulting in one lousy administration propagating the next.
Let’s assign a title to this political procreative process…
The Book of Political Genesis
In the beginning there was Ronald Reagan’s revolting régime… which begat George H.W. Bush’s thousand points of blight… which begat Bill Clinton’s Animal House Oval Office… which begat war criminal / torturer George W. Bush’s reign of terror…
Ronald Reagan ~ In violation of Logan Act of 1799 (which expressly forbids private citizens from meddling in foreign affairs), private citizen Reagan executed an end run around President Jimmy Carter to cut a secret, dirty deal with Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, who agreed to delay releasing his 52 U.S. Embassy hostages. That made Carter look wimpy in the eyes of the voters and, in turn, assured Reagan victory. Reagan’s payoff to Khomeini was providing him sufficient quantities of US arms and spare parts to help Iran fight their war against Iraq.
In essence, Reagan had prolonged the hostages’ misery… indeed, had endangered their very lives… just for his own political gain.
With that dirty deal with Iran under his belt, Ronnie then raged onward to mercilessly bust labor unions and, via Reaganomics, devastate the American / global economy… plunge the middleclass into poverty… the already impoverished into abject squalor.
George H.W. Bush ~ Reagan’s VP succeeded his X-boss and succeeded at heaping yet another four years’ worth of Reaganomics manure upon the downtrodden masses. He wound up mucking up the U.S. economy so badly that the PO’d voters were more than ready to vote for a Democrat, instead.
Bill Clinton ~ His “It’s the economy, stupid,” presidential campaign catchphrase resonated well with average Jane and Joe voters. He had successfully ridden the tidal wave of voter discontent to rid America of GHWB.
Alas, Billy Boy’s inability to keep his pants zipped up only served to screw up his image. His Republican opponents constantly had him in political CYA mode. In other words, Billy’s infamous female intern, Monica Lewinsky, had helped him blow away a brighter future for America.
And that, in turn, tarnished the image of Clinton’s VP, Al Gore, who had had high hopes for perpetuating eight more years of Democratic Party values. Instead, Billy’s sexcapades had put the voters into a “throw the bums out” mood, which had afforded Gore’s Republican opponent, George W. Bush, the ILLUSION of maturity, morality and respectability.
George W. Bush ~ Knowing he could not win merely on smoke and mirrors, alone, he needed help. Entering stage (far) right was Florida Governor (and W’s own brother) Jeb, who gleefully corrupted the Sunshine State… morphed it into a devoid of free elections Banana Republic “nation”. The net result was a too close to call tally of that state’s ballots.
Following Election Day, for over one month, the political firestorm blazed. The flames were soon licking at the doors of the corrupt U.S. Supreme Court, where five rabidly unscrupulous, archconservative judges practically soiled their underwear in ecstasy while coming to the aid of the lawless Bush family. It hadn’t bothered them, in the least that their ruling had denied Al Gore the recount, which he had been legally entitled to. All that mattered to them was installing the corrupt King George II.
But, after only seven months in office, W had grown listless and bored. Ergo, he decided to take a much-undeserved vacation. So eager to slack off, he had flipped off his August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing… an ominous heads up, titled:
“Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US”
Had W heeded that warning, as it turned out, he would’ve had five weeks to beef up America’s defenses. Seeing how W had chosen not to lift one finger to thwart al Qaeda’s evil plot to take out America… did zip zero nothing to preserve, protect and defend America while Osama’s assault was going down… it becomes easy for us to conclude that the Bush 43 admin had actually wanted America to be attacked.
Even worse, W’s wranglers put a spin on his getting caught with his CIC pants down… created the flat out ILLUSION that their little wittle boy president was a big badass, courageous leader (well at least they correctly assessed the “ass” part of his image).
What ensued next was not a pretty picture. W opted to go to war against an ideology… one, which knows no specific geographical location. He first deployed the troops to bomb the crap out of Afghanistan’s boulders and dirt and then trained his crosshairs on Iraq’s oil.
W told bald-faced lies to the U.S. Senate to give them the impression that Saddam Hussein had ties to 9/11… to successfully dupe Senators into green lighting a bogus war against Iraq.
Ergo, on March 19, 2003, W needlessly deployed U.S. troops… unnecessarily put them in harms way. The resultant destabilization of that entire region has made our world a far more dangerous place.
As of my blog posting time, war criminal mass murderer / torturer W is the butcher who slaughtered an estimated 251,000 people, inclusive of 4,497 American troops.
Barack Obama ~ His administration has been the rare exception… one where recessive, good political traits have surfaced. Enjoy them while they last because his likely successor will be…
Donald Trump ~ He exhibits outrageously inappropriate ignorant, insensitive, incendiary, sexist, and racist attitudes which are totally unpresidential and do not represent what the real America is all about.
But, he is correct about one thing. His telling us the 2016 November elections will be rigged. But, what he isn’t telling us is that he will be the one who’ll be rigging them. Most assuredly, he has the wherewithal to muck everything up just to try to sate his own massive ego and political lust.
Since the Electoral College “class of 2016” is likely to flunk out just like their predecessors… Trump’s bad political traits will breed true. As for what that will begat?
CommonSenseTom 