Saturday, March 12, 2016

'Oh, You're A Mean One Mr. Trump...' in the Spirit of Dr. Seuss

Good Day World!

Oh, you're a mean one Mr. Trump...
imposing gag orders on your volunteers
exploiting people's fears
taking politics to the dump.

Forgive me Dr. Seuss for linking you to The Donald, but the damage has been done. Just check out Trump's book:


(All Illustrations via Google Images)

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Friday, March 11, 2016

Trump Followers Are Getting Dangerous

John Franklin McGraw, 78, of Linden was arrested Thursday morning after assaulting Rakeem Jones, who had been protesting at the event. Jones was being escorted out by law enforcement when videos show McGraw punching him.

                                 Good Day World!

Just last month Donald Trump said he wanted to punch a protester in the face.

Perhaps that's what inspired 78-year John Mcgraw to sucker punch a protester being led away from a Trump rally in Fayetteville, N.C. two days ago.

Man Charged With Assault After Punching protester at Trump event

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The show "Inside Edition" spoke to McGraw after he punched Jones.
"Yes, he deserved it," John McGraw (photo right - Cumberland County Sheriff's Office)) said in an interview. 
"The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don't know who he is. He might be with a terrorist organization."
Is he scary enough for you?

At another rally in Iowa, Trump promised to pay the legal fees of supporters who "knock the crap out" of protesters who may appear at the rally.

Despite the fact that McGraw sucker punched Jones, it was Jones who got handcuffed and led away by several guards. Sounds like them Good Old Days in Dixie are being resurrected by Trump's demagoguery.

Protestors at Clinton and Sanders events don't have to worry about being beat up by the crowd or the cops. It hasn't happened, and won't.

That's because protestors are treated like humans at their rallies. Something Trump - and apparently some of his more rabid followers - chose to ignore in their righteous wrath to stomp out any dissent.

If that doesn't sound like Facism, nothing does. Trump has the crowds saluting him now, just like his mentor, Adolf Hitler, did in 1935.

Trump is bragging that he's started a movement.

Well he has, but it bodes badly for the common American citizen. 
As he whips up crowds with racist comments and hate-fueled rhetoric, Trump is trampling everything America stands for.

Keep your eyes open as this race progresses and don't be surprised if more protestors are attacked. You can bet there's more John McGraws out there willing to go to any limits for their Furor.

Look closely at the people who are following him in rallies. They're angry. They turn on protestors like the Nazi's did the Jews...with senseless hate and violence.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Rules of Engagement For Children Viewing GOP Debates



                     (Romber Room ran on TV from 1953 to 1994 - photo Wikipedia Commons)                        
                                   Good Day World!

Tonight could be the last GOP debate.

Parents are going to have to set up rules of engagement for viewing this time for their children after what's transpired in previous debates.

It's just going to get uglier.

Before the debate even begins, parents need to reassure their children that the candidates are really adults; regardless of what they see and hear.

It's important to make the debacle/debate a "teachable moment" for children watching at home:

Parent:
"You hear what Trump just said about women Johnny? I catch you saying that, and I'll put you in the corner until you turn 18!"

Parent:
"No, Susie...all men are not such big babies! I know it looks like Romper Room, but one of those clowns may be your next president some day!"

Parents need to explain that all presidential debates aren't as dumbed down as the current GOP one's are. This will be a challenge when candidates like Trump talk about their "junk" being big in defense of small hands.

I've even heard anecdotal stories of babies crying when they see the animal on Trump's head suddenly move about violently when he gets mad!

Best advise; don't expose any children to the debates that are under five-years old.

If at any time parents notice their children getting sick with revulsion, turn the channel fast!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

What? No 5-Step Vetting Process For Presidents This Year?

Good Day World!

Live and learn.

I always thought that presidential candidates were throughly vetted before running for office.

It appears I was wrong.

No one could of checked out Donald Trump's backround when he threw his clown hat in the ring, or there wouldn't be so many revelations in regard to his lurid past.

The guy's got Mafia connections ("The mob connections of Donald are extraordinarily extensive," New York investigative journalist Wayne Barrett told CNN in an interview.) has been sued repeatedly for building violations, descimination against his own workers and tenets in his apartment buildings, and is going to court for fraud in regards to his sham university - Trump University.

Column: "Donald Trump tried to get me fired after I wrote about Trump University" 

That's just what's been uncovered in the last six months. Who knows what dirt still remains to be discovered?

Supposedly candidates go through an early vetting process with a 5-step investigation:

1) Taxes 
Does Trump have a problem with the IRS? Who knows?
He won't release his tax returns, claiming an audit makes it impossible. A claim that is patently false according to the IRS.

2) Ethics and Financial Disclosure
Again, no one really knows what The Donald is worth, or where he stashes all of his money. Ripping off 150 illegal Polish workers during the building of Trump Tower, is only the tip of his ethics iceberg.

It's pretty unethical to get caught cheating the government isn't it? Here's what Trump was caught doing in 1986:

Celebrities listed as Buyers in Sales Tax Evasion case


3) Litigation, investigations, and other legal procedures

Background investigations supposedly include public records checks in law enforcement databases, as well as such court docket databases as PACER.
The pendency of a criminal investigation, even for a misdemeanor offense, supposedly renders a nomination untendable.

What happened with Trump's investigation? Fraud is a felony. He's going to court in May.

Speaking of litagation, the lawsuits don't stop with that fraud trial. A judge will decide by the end of this month whether to proceed with a proposed class action lawsuit filed by a Jamaican fashion model against Trump's modeling agency for cheating her out of wages.

Who investigated Trump? Was he even investigated?

4) Publications and Organizational Affliations
Candidates are supposed to identify all published writings, significant speechs or panel presentations, and organizational positions and affliations on extensive written questionnaires.

Let's put it this way, Trump has said things in past news articles that he totally disavows now. When confronted with reality he doubles down on the lie. The fact he knows a white supremacist group is campaigning for him should be enough to make people wonder.

5) Medical, family, and personal issues
Has 69-year old Trump even taken a physical to see if his bulging gut could be a problem or if he has high or low blood pressure, etc.?
What about a mental examination? I sincerely doubt The Donald would pass one without raising concerns. 

A neuroscientist explains: Trump has a mental disorder that makes him a dangerous world leader


With Trump leading the race for the GOP nomination I have to believe that none of the five steps shared above were conducted by anyone, and no one cares!

Live and learn.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Perfect Paring: Beer and Marijuana Are Cousins

Good Day World!

The next time you spark up a bowl and have a beer with it, you should know it's a family affair!

That's right. According to Popular Science, marijuana and hops - the flower commonly used to brew beer - share similar organoleptic properties of taste and smell.

In other words, they're cousins. They belong to the same botanical family called Cannabaseae. Humulus lupulus (hops) and Cannabis sativa (marijuana) are closly related according to the experts.

Cannabis and pot have had a loose relationship for years that was bolstered when the Lagunitas Brewing Company brewed it in 2005.

Lagunitas had it's brewer's license suspended after police made marijuana busts at their Petaluma, California, brewery in an event that has come to be known as the St. Patrick's Day Massacre. 

One of the biggest draws for Colorado's Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in 2015 was cannabis-infused beer.
Colorado beer brewers Dad and Dudes Breweria, introduced Indica Double IPA.

To be clear - there is no such thing as a "commercial pot beer" for sale. That would be illegal. What's being sold has legal hemp oil in it.

It's a game of cat and mouse with regulators. No slang or drug terms are allowed in cannabis-infused beer labeling.

Cheers! Dude/Dudette!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Viewing Cell Phones During Live Sporting Events Is Not A Bright Idea

                                  Good Day World!

What do you see in the photo below?

Someone blocking a baseball bat with their arm and saving a kid from harm. Right?

Now look closer.


Take a look at what the kid is holding. 

A cell phone.

If the man next to him hadn't been watching the game closely, that little boy would have been picking splinters out of his teeth!

Best scenerio.

Here we have a young fan who gets to see major leaguers play live baseball, and he's checking out his cell phone! What's wrong with that picture?

I was watching a pro basketball game the other night and saw an errant ball slam into a young fan who had his nose in his cell phone. Talking front row seat.

That kid had the best seat in the house and he couldn't put his cell phone down long enough to observe real live action unfolding in front of him. 

What is going on with young fans today?

Is it, like I suspect, a case of technology addiction? It appears todays' youngsters are operating on two levels - the social media mode, and the real world.

There's a right time for each. Combining the two can pose problems, as demonstrated in the examples above.

It's sad to see. I can't imagine how thrilled I would have been, as a kid, to sit in the front row of a basketball game, or the best seat in a baseball stadium.

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Monday, March 7, 2016

A Peek At The Power of Bird Poop

Good Day World!

Don't ever underestimate bird poop!

Last December, bird droppings were the cause of a shutdown at a nuclear power plant outside New York.

Experts say the automatic reactor shutdown was apparently from bird feces that caused an electric arc between wires on a feeder line at a transmission tower.

Bird poop shows up everywhere in our society including baseball. Like this bird bomb on Mike Matheny:


Listen To Vin Scully Tell A Charming Story About Bird Shit

Bird poop has become a concern for some lawmakers due to an influx of crows on the Iowa State Capitol grounds.


Veronica Padula, a researcher who studies seabirds off the Alaskan coast, told Smithsonian that she's found significant concentrationsof phthalates - chemicals used to make plastic flexible and harder to break - in kittwakes, Horned Puffins, and Red-Faced Cormorants.

According to Padula, those chemicals ultimately get into the birds' reproductive tissue and perhaps even into their eggs, which could affect egg-eaters like eagles and foxes.


I could continue to provide more examples, but I think you have the idea - bird poop is NO JOKE!

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Sunday, March 6, 2016

News I'd Like To See: 'Rappers Don't Shoot Each Other'

Good Day World!

Yo bro! It's just music!

Ain't supposed to be dying over it bro.

It's happening all too often.

Another rapper gone to the great beyond before his time. Maybe someone didn't like his rhyme.

I'm talking 'bout rapper Bankroll Fresh whose hit "Hot Boy" was trending on the charts. Someone walked into his recording studio and shot him dead Saturday.

This time last year, rapper Shaquon Thomas made a video that made fun of a rival gang while pretending to hold a gun in his hands.

"You don't even know how to shoot," Thomas rapped in the video, titled "Shooters.

The next day he was gunned down by someone who certainly knew how to shoot about a block from where he recorded that video, on the streets of Uptown (Chicago).

It's an area where three street gangs - the conservative Vice Lords, the Gangster Disciples and the Black P Stones - have been locked in a long-running feud. Thomas was a Gangster Disciple, according to the police.

Rappers equal gangsters. It's really too bad. 

Rapping would get more respect if it wasn't so closely associated with real world gangsters who think nothing of murdering one another over the slightest sign of perceived disrespect.

You know what I'd like to see? A truce between all the gangs in America. At least when it comes to making music. Why kill off talent?

Someday, we might even see this headline, "Rappers Don't Shoot Each Other."

Time for me to walk on down the road...

Blog Break Until Presidential Election is Over

I finally hit the wall today. I can't think of what to say about all of the madness going on in this country right now. I'm a writer...