Choking On My Blue Collar

                                                                   

So I've got these guys in my house today, working on demolition of my old flooring, before installing new tile.  And I'm unsettled.  I always feel uneasy when folks are doing hard labor around my house.  I call it "Blue Collar Syndrome".  All my young life I worked either in the fields around my native San Joaquin Vally home town, or did other menial work like fruit box assembly, or raking leaves in the park.

My blue collar legacy followed me into the military as well.  As a young enlisted man I worked part time as a janitor, bar room bouncer, food stocker for Kraft Foods, or security guard at various destinations.  And even in my private life I could never have afforded a yard man to cut my lawn, or someone to come in and clean house...even as my wife and I put in a hundred hours a week in full and part-time jobs.  

After my military career, when I began wearing suits and ties to work, I learned that "clothes do not necessarily make the man".  I felt guilty when the janitor came around to empty my waste basket, or vacuumed around my desk....even felt guilty for the Pakistani tea boys who brought me coffee or tea while working in Saudi Arabia.  

I could not even escape that blue collar in a hotel room.  I made a habit of cleaning up after myself so that the room maid would not think me a sloppy snob.  And if one came into my room when I was present I would quickly find an excuse to leave the room.  Somehow I always felt like all of this was work I should have been doing myself.

Alas, now that I am old I have had to hire people to do things I used to do for myself.  While never a handyman, I always feel guilty when I have to call in a plumber to fix a faulty toilet, or stopped-up kitchen sink.  

I suspect, were I to win one of those big lotteries, I'd have problems living a life of leisure.  No matter how well I paid a maid or cook I would feel just a little uneasy about working folks catering to me.  Now, at 71, blind in one eye, a cataract dimming the "good one", I am more and more in need of having someone come in to clean.  But I fear she would find me on my knees, cleaning the toilet as she arrived.

So, yeah, there's this guy out there, unearthing old carpet, pick axing old floor tiles, and with every clink of hammer, or metallic sound of shovel, I cringe just a bit.....even though I'm shelling out a quarter of my annual pension to get the job done.

Choking on that blue collar...even after seven decades.

Sigh.

Those Morehouse Students Weren't The Biggest Winners

                                                                       

Unless you've been off visiting New Zealand or Swaziland you've no doubt heard of billionaire investor Robert F. Smith's $40 million dollar student loan payoff of this year's entire Morehouse University's graduating class.  The students were naturally stunned, the faculty was elated and the Democrats cheered as Smith challenged other rich liberals to pick up the tab for next year's graduating class.

I too thought it was all wonderful.  Then I began to think a little harder about that generous donation.  Given the doubling of tuition rates over the last decade Smith might have gotten off cheaper just ten years ago.  $20 million sounds pretty cheap when you slot it up against this year's $40 million.

So who really profited most from Mr. Smith's donation?  Certainly it was the students.  Having borrowed freely from the student loan program the last four years (several had run up $200,000 in student loans), a good hunk of those loan monies going to financing cars, ordering out for pizza three times a week, and frequenting beer bars on the weekends, paying for cool wi-fi wired pads, and then, if there's enough left, paying for tuition and books.

But perhaps the biggest winner are the universities themselves.  They are now free to continue boosting tuition and student fee rates at a perky 5 to 10 percent a year....no market downward pressure to rein them in.

Were there losers in Mr. Smith's generation donation?  How about those students who worked in the school cafeteria, or the library, or on the campus landscaping crew, to earn money to defer the cost of college room and board?  What do they get from Mr. Smith?  How about the part time bar maids and Starbucks baristas who worked their tail off 25 to 30 hours per week, then coming home to study for exams?  

And from a more long term perspective, what manner of graduate did Morehouse just turn out following the graduation ceremony?  Will they be looking for a bailout in their future?  Will their eyes be focused on hard work, or the next sugar daddy appearing on the horizon?  

And, yes, there was another huge loser as soon as Mr. Smith proclaimed his generosity.  And the loser is the taxpayer.  Mr. Smith will write off that $40 million as charity on his federal and state return, or find a line in the tax code and classify it as an "investment"....and based on Mr. Smith's income bracket, that's millions not going into the coffers of the U.S. Treasury.  In fact I'm betting that Oprah Winfrey even now has her accountants running the numbers and figuring out how many college student loans she can pay for, be praised for, before forwarding the bill to you and me.

But, no sweat. Mr. Smith gets to play the role of heroic benefactor.  And the unintended consequences of his gesture will be felt far and wide across this nation.

I'm sorry, but this is all just sad.  Damned Sad.

American Corporate's Designed Mongrelization

                                                                       

I've been noticing a rather dramatic shift in corporate advertising for more than two years now.  I have hesitated to raise the issue here, lest I be called a racist.  All I can say in that regard is that my own Caucasian-Asian marriage and the many mixed marriages all down my ancestral lineage say otherwise.

I have no problem with a natural evolution from dominant ethnic types to a veritable melting pot of ethnicities.  What I do have a problem with is how the corporate world, through their advertisers, are trying to accelerate the trend.

If any of you have been paying attention of late you'll see commercial models comprised of Black-White couple composition in far more frequent occasions than you see out in the real world.  If we are to believe Madison Avenue, half of America is made up of Oreo cookies.  Yes, there are still some slightly conservative corporate entities that show traditional ethnic centric commercial models but they are now becoming few and far between.  

That corporate America hates Whites nearly as much as today's college snowflakes is beyond dispute.  Just look at your typical print ad or television commercial and you'll see Blacks or pretty olive-skinned faces, dusky from the weight of Hispanic, or Middle Eastern, or Asian cultures.  There is no longer any room for John Q. Smith, white as a ghost, in commercial advertising.

That's playing it safe, lest anyone (except Honkies) are offended in the eternal hawking of product or service.  Or perhaps it's because the corporate world is adhering to that old bi-sexual saw that says having a choice of two sexes doubles your chances of getting a date.  Perhaps there is some reason beyond what I can see that rings the registers more robustly when olive or dark skinned spokespeople are doing the hawking.

I can only conclude that the mongrelization of the races serves some monetary purpose, else we would not see the 15 percent of Hispanics and 12 percent of Blacks in the populace make up 60 or more percent of those who are portrayed in TV commercials.

And what shall we call the ever increasing frequency of gays out buying Lazy Boy recliners, or adopting a dog, or snuggling over a cup of Nestle's hot chocolate and Orville's popcorn?  Shall we call that "homo-genization?"  And given that gays make up only one or two percent of the population, what the hell is corporate America trying to tell us?

Thankfully we have come a long way since those days when Blacks appeared only on the boxes of pancake mixes and syrups, and Uncle Ben's Minute Rice.  Sadly, as is true with those sometimes glacial societal shifts, when the dust settles we've found we overshot our aim by a wide margin.  We are certainly doing that today, thanks to the sometimes subtle, or the sometimes "in-your-face" methodologies of Madison Avenue.

Sigh.

Alabama Abortion Law; Hari Kari For The Pro-Life Set

                                                                   

The state of Alabama knew beforehand that their newly minted abortion law will be shot down.  And the two daggers that will kill it off is the absence of exceptions for abortions in case of incest or rape.  I can't believe Alabamans are taking the law seriously.  Had they done so they would have included those exceptions.  No one wants their daughter or granddaughter to get raped by an urban thug, then be forced into carrying the thug's baby to birth.  Same for the incestual low lifes who rob a child of her innocence, then force that child to birth the result.

Perhaps Alabama, knowing the first appeals court will rule the law unconstitutional, were just trying to make a statement.  That's kind of a fool's errand since The Supremes are one Ruthie demise away from a 6 to 3 conservative majority.

Were I drafting that law I would have shown a degree of flexibility.  I would deflect as many liberal arrows as I possibly could.  I would draft a law that would appeal to the "great middle" of the populace who believe 500,000 murdered infants a year is a bit much.  But, conversely, that great middle would balk at the idea of forcing a woman to carry a thug or sex abuser's child around for nine months.   I certainly would never support a law that mandated that kind of cruelty.

Fortunately there are other states working on anti-abortion laws.  Many of them are far more flexible in granting exceptions to a birthing mandate.  It will be one of those that I hope get elevated to the Supreme Court.  

As Alabama's law is written there is zero chance that the Supremes would even allow it to come to them for a decision and the rigidness of both the Alabama and Missouri legislation is going to hurt politically.  Never have the Democrats been presented with a broader brush than the far right wing neanderthals presented to them last week.

Taxing Pop To Pay ?

                                                                         

Was just reading the latest news on Socialist Philadelphia's now three year old soda tax.  The latest report says as many as 53 percent of Philadelphians stopped buying soda in Philly and went out and bought it outside the city limits...in almost the same percentage ratios.  And no one was surprised except the Socialist mayor and city council.

Now a member of the city council is introducing a bill to kill the soda tax.  Seems that the dollar in taxes added to a two liter bottle of pop was not yielding as much money as they thought.  And the money that was collected, instead of being earmarked for K-12 education programs, as intended, was channeled into the city's general fund.......to be used as the mayor wishes.

But there were further woes with that soda tax.  Seems that, even as the city was raking in those soda taxes they were experiencing lower sales taxes as the soda tax killed off small mom and pop neighborhood stores.  So, though they have not tallied the numbers yet, that soda tax probably resulted in lower overall municipal revenue.  Seems Philly is managing to kill off all those little mom and pop golden gooses!  

The only winners in the soda tax wars seem only to be the rural Walmarts and other discount stores, who reaped not only the extra soda business...but also the grocery business that used to go to the mom and pop neighborhood stores.  Who needs to make two stops, right?

It seems to me that, if you're going to have a successful "sin tax" you have to have a socialist alliance between municipality and state, as in California.  Those poor Californians have nowhere to go when government wishes to beat them over the head and extract more of their hard earned money.   I'm sure Philly and the state of Pennsylvania can get there if they try hard enough.  As it is now Philadelphia pop buyers still have the refuge of stores outside the city limits to buy their sin products.  But thank God Philadelphia can buy their street drugs tax free on just about any street corner.

Sigh.

Staking Claim To One's Own Era

                                                                       

I was just reading the comments following an article on the death of Doris Day. Nearly the entire field of comment came from those who enjoyed Doris in those "Rom-Coms" from the 60's. Such thoughts as "she was one of film's last great actresses" was expressed often. Or "we will not see the likes of her again". Or "I miss those feel good movies, where sex was only hinted at on the screen, but were still sexy".

Those kinds of comments can be found just about anywhere where music or art defines one's own times. You see it on U-Tube all the time. "Gosh, that was when music was music...not the trash that pretends to be music nowadays." I've read similar sentiments a thousand times as I called up music videos from the 50's and 60's...the first flowering of my own era.

Though I often disparage about what's called music today, or about the dearth of what I consider "good movies", trying to gauge which generation was better is a tentative and treacherous effort. I readily admit that I'm as guilty, or more so, than most, as I find today's movies and music largely lacking in any degree of redeeming value. I suspect it really is the "old fogyness" in us all. But if that were wholly true why do I see 20 somethings saying things like "I'm only 20 years old but I love the music from back then". Prejudiced or not, I would tend to agree with that young person. If my era's music wasn't good enough for Gen Xers and Millennials why do we see so much of our 60's music serving as the background score for hundreds of movies and hundreds more television commercials. (Again, my prejudice is probably creeping in.....but where does one find today's version of music blasting out of the sound bar of your entertainment system?)

Whether each generation is weighed down by their own personal biases, and incapable of objectively determining the best movies, or the best music, that we are is beyond question. If today's music was that bad no one would be buying it. And if today's young-uns don't think our music was mighty fine, well, we boomers are not likely to lose sleep over it. Our parents would probably say their Big Band era was superior to anything that came after. And that may be true for them.

But I'm not ready to surrender the crown from my own era. Case in point. Just last night I was watching the Diamondbacks-Pirates game. When they came back from commercial the stadium was blaring some old rock and roll through those colossal loud speakers. And, as the camera panned across row after row of baseball fans, they all seemed to be on their feet, gyrating and swaying to an old tune that I still can't listen to without jumping to my feet and boogying to in wild abandon. The song being played?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKG0SqhSJic

Cheers From Lafayette Square

                                                                         

Well the Chinese trade negotiators went home empty handed today. The U.S. refused to grant additional time before imposing trade tariffs since the Chinese backtracked on previously agreed upon points, including technology theft enforcement and currency manipulation.

I wish I could be at the airport to see them off. I'd give em a Bronx cheer, then go over to Lafayette Square and cheer our President on. Good for him! After three decades of being raped and pillaged it's time for America to develop a backbone.

Effective at midnight this morning Trump one-upped Wall Street by slapping the full 25 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods.

Of course the liberal mainstream media, and the big banks are running around, their hair electrified, screaming armageddon. Good on them!

Given my preferences I would have imposed tariffs on the other $300 billion of Chinese goods...something Trump has promised to do if the Chinese refuse to agree to a level playing field soon.

In fact, if I were 20 years younger, I would start up a small business....manufacturing plastic toilet brushes, school backpacks, number 2 pencils, towels and linens, or any number of other things. There has never been a better time to start a business and not have to compete with Chinese labor and lax environmental laws. Our President has already reduced U.S. corporate taxes to 20 percent and offered a very generous 5-year immediate tax credit write off for any company wishing to invest in capital equipment.

Somehow this President has been able to bring back a trillion or so in U.S. corporate money held overseas, once sheltered in foreign banks from Obama's oppressive 35 percent corporate tax rate. Further, President Trump has been able to double the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth since he took office. And did so without fanning even a whiff of inflation. This is even more remarkable when you consider that more people are working and drawing higher wages than at any time during Obama's reign of terror.

A cautionary note, though. If the unemployment rate of 3.7 percent (the lowest in five decades) gets any lower the Democrats are going to want to subpoena the entire work force of the Department of Labor and the Department of Commerce. And no doubt Elizabeth Warren will want to break up any business that is too profitable, and OAC will want to confiscate 97 percent of business profits, and Crazy Joe Biden will accuse that businessman of not building that business himself, and Nasty Pelosi will want to see your tax returns.

But, for now, a tip of the hat to a President that has the backbone to stand up and say no to the Chinese rape of America, without a single ounce of Astroglide to make the butt fuck less painful.

Keep it up, Mr. President!

Why Trump Should Have Established A Trust

                                                                         

Okay, you Trump supporters...time to own it. Your President totally blew it. The headlines this morning are crystal clear as they reveal President Trump's tax losses, beginning three decades ago.

Trump blew it big time. What he should have done was to create a trust like the Clintons did. And, wow!, was that ever profitable! According to independent auditors the Clinton Foundation Trust took in billions...and still does! And it couldn't have come at a better time as Slick Willie, upon leaving office, paid so much out in sexual assault law suits the Clintons were down to their last million when Bill left office. (You may recall their finances were so frightful they were forced to make off with historic treasures that belonged to the White House Historic Society.)

Fortunately the Clintons' financial advisor, George Soros, showed them how to establish a trust that could be used as their own personal piggy bank. Both Clintons travelled by private jet, at the expense of the trust. Both were paid honorariums for making speeches in support of their own trust. Both ate at the best restaurants and attired themselves in tuxedos and evening gowns, all on the Clinton Trust dime.

And, hell, who wouldn't contribute? Every billionaire in the world lined up to stuff multi-million dollar donations into the Clinton Trust...hoping to realize some political advantage once Hillary was crowned queen. Whole countries, especially those seeking favor from Secretary of State Clinton, plowed billions into the Clinton coffers.....none more generous than Russia, who were able to purchase half of the U.S. Uranium stockpiles!

So was Donald Trump stupid? Hell yeah! He dared put his own capital at risk in all his business dealings. Hell, back in 2016 Trump could have established a personal trust and had all of the "1 percent" beating a path to his door, wallet open!

So, you Trumpers, own it! Your President is dumb as hell. Just look at the Clintons who got by with more shit than a Tijuana sewer system.

Rainbows And Unicorn Chasers, Please Ignore

                                                                         

Sometime this summer the U.S. National Debt will hit $23 trillion dollars. For one day the newspaper headlines will reflect this tragedy...then America will yawn and forget about it.

The National Debt is comprised of two parts; what we owe bondholders and foreign governments and what we owe through interdepartmental borrowing. And both sets of debtors leaves America fraught with financial woes.

As current bondholders begin to perceive that the money they are owed will be paid back in inflated dollars they will stop buying bonds and put their money in gold. Same for our foreign investors; largely China, Japan, South Korea and Middle East oil barons. That will of course make bonds harder to sell and the feds will be forced to increase the yield on their bonds...which also raises the interest rates the government must pay to borrow....which, in a vicious cycle, will only increase the national debt.

Bond investors and foreign entities makes up about two thirds of our national debt. The other third is comprised of what the government calls "Interdepartmental loans". Those are like IOU's issued to various financial trust funds, the largest being the Social Security Trust Fund....the piggy bank the government has been raiding since 1965 to pay for overly generous government welfare programs.

Since 2005, beginning with George Bush, and flourishing under Barack Obama, the national debt has climbed from $5 trillion, then rising annually to the current $23 trillion. In last year's budget we ran up a trillion dollars more, which is why we'll officially hit that $23 trillion dollar mark sometime before Labor Day.

Were we to develop a backbone, and not ring up a penny more in the national debt we'd still be in deep trouble. Here's why:

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that interest payments will continue to grow rapidly, rising from $389 billion in fiscal year 2019 (the current fiscal year) to $914 billion in 2028. Overall, net interest costs will total nearly $7 trillion over the next decade.

I want you to read that last part very carefully. We are looking at paying out $914 billion dollars per year just in interest on the national debt within the next eight years. (It could come even sooner if anyone of our foreign debtors call in their loans).

Put those numbers in perspective, people. The U.S. government only takes in about $2.3 trillion in taxes and fees. Where does the money come from for all the government goodies when the federal government begins to pay nearly half of all revenue just to service the national debt?

And what will those "47 percenters" do when the welfare checks dry up? And the food stamps? And when their free Medicaid goes away? What will Social Security pensioners do when Uncle Sam says "sorry...we don't have money to pay you your pensions?" Can you imagine the social chaos once the government is no longer able to furnish a nourishing tit to the nonproductive masses?

Alas, the only way any government has managed to erase their own debt is through a combination of reducing benefits and inflating their currency. Look to Greece, Italy and Spain recently to see how that turned out. If you wish to go back further just look at the fall of Imperial Rome after 500 hundred long years of world dominance. So what does inflation mean to you? It means your buying power is reduced and you live in extreme poverty. It means, as in the Carter years, you'll be paying 20 percent interest on your home mortgages. It means your savings will buy you a Big Mac combo and that's about it.

But surely our Congress knows all this...right? Yes, they do. And they are tromping all over the backs of your great grandchildren to maintain their big spending ways. Very few of them principled statesmen, they all hope to be dead by the time the chickens come home to roost. But it's likely you won't be, nor your children and grandchildren. It is the collective "you" who will witness America's final financial collapse...and "you" who will suffer from three decades of financial mismanagement.

But don't worry about it, huh? Just scroll on past this posting. It's too complicated to comprehend, and it's too depressing to even think about.

Instead, pursue the rainbows and unicorns while the pursuing is good.

Sigh.

Innocence

                                                                       

"Innocence means you've done nothing wrong. You've broken no laws, committed no sins, and are not guilty of any morally evil act. ... The word comes from the Latin innocentia, which means “not harming” and someone with innocence will not harm themselves or others, at least not on purpose."

So yesterday, while channel surfing, I came across one of my favorite old movies. As in almost every case, I paused to watch. After the movie's end, wearing a smile on my face, my mood elevated, I googled Rotten Tomatoes to see what that iconic movie review site thought of the flick. I was surprised to see it scored a very healthy 87%...meaning 87% of movie goers like the film.

Too bad that the next google entry had the 1958 New York Times movie review, digitized and archived into perpetuity. Not unexpectedly that sophisticated New York movie critic hated the film. "Syruppy and Overly-Sentimental", declared the critic.

I was not surprised. Nearly every movie that ever had me leaving the theater feeling good has been scorned by the big urban critics. They seem to detest anything that purports to be wholesome, that might celebrate American innocence. I've never understood their vehemence of any story that doesn't contain a minimal degree of grit......a wallowing of the human soul in a hot tub of human failure.

Those critics charge we who enjoy wholesome movies as being unsophisticated and lacking in intelligence...forever lost in a world that never was as good as we perceive it to be.

I just wish I could get it across to those critics that those of us who enjoy a wholesome story are not lost within our fantasies. We just want to celebrate innocence when we find it.....and mourn it when it is lost.

I can remember when our TV networks followed a decency code. This was meant to protect our children from being exposed to things they shouldn't see until they are old enough to deal with them. Many folks today would say that decency code was censorship. I don't believe it was as much censorship as allowing children to hold on to their innocence for a while longer. What is wrong with that? Just look around you today. Are kids better off for having access to the most extreme violence in movies, games, raw TV fare and obscene records? I guess your answer depends on your own personal views and societal priorities. I think we'd be better off if our children could hold off on using the "fuck word" for a few more years.

As to the reality of "wholesome innocence", I don't believe my generation was much fooled about what we saw on television back then. We didn't need to see a gaping bloody wound to get the full experience of a western shootout. Hell, half the time we ignored the fact that the dead guy's shirt wasn't even spotted! Nor did we think the typical American family was the Donna Reed clan. We saw plenty of everyday reality, including many of our parents struggling to feed the family, to believe every Dad was a doctor and every housewife got to stay home, baking cookies and attending PTA meetings, and volunteering at the Community Chest. No, the Donna Reed Show, or Andy Griffith, or Father Knows Best were just shows that reflected what families might hope someday to be.

Today we have far too many children who have the Santa Clause myth destroyed far too early. We have the societal plague of seven year olds being taught by their liberal moms to scream "Fuck Trump" at campaign rallies. We have boys and girls facing gender challenges before they even develop pubic hair.......their parents praising five year old Johnny's penchant for pink ballet slippers and Sarah's love for baseball. Neither of those early trends are signposts for gender switching........maybe little Johnny just likes silk, and maybe Sarah just loves the feeling when the fat of the bat meets a 50 mile per hour fastball! What say we leave the kids alone and let em work it out for themselves!

At any rate, I loved that old movie yesterday. The characters all had their faults and failings, but there was love to salve the hurt....and always someone there to pick them up when they stumbled. At one point in the movie one of the characters says (and I paraphrase) "well this is a hell of a mess but you have the strength of love with you, and if you have a sense of humor, well that is the weapon of the angels".

Alas, New York movie critics do not believe in angels. Too bad. I believe we are all better off when we listen to our better angels.

Lost in America: Break Out The Trump Pom Poms

Lost in America: Break Out The Trump Pom Poms:                                                                       Like Trump or not, if you are moderate to conservative you ought...

Break Out The Trump Pom Poms

                                                                     

Like Trump or not, if you are moderate to conservative you ought to be rooting for his re-election.  A look at the 2020 Senate races makes that fact perfectly clear.  Let's look at a few cold hard facts about next year's election.

Given the 2018 results we can safely assume the House is going to stay in control of Pelosi and company.  So when we look at next year's Senate races things begin to look pretty scary.  For example, of the 34 Senate seats up for grabs in 2020, 22 are held by Republicans and must be defended if Republicans hope to maintain control of the upper body.  By contrast the Democrats must defend only 12.  And those 12 seats are firmly embedded in left wing states.

Looking at the crop of Republican seats up for grabs I can see at least six that are highly vulnerable.  Up in Maine "Semi-Republican" Susan Collins is under fire for voting YES on Brett Kavanaugh. Democrats are mounting a grass roots effort up north, funded and supported by the MeToo folks.  

Over in my home state of Arizona, California migrants are arriving in droves and turning my state purple.  Martha McSalley, who already lost a senate race to a Democrat, and only occupying a Senate seat by governor appointment, is highly vulnerable.  Pollsters here are predicting she'll lose to still another Democrat, recent Democrat convert and retired astronaut Mark Kelly.

Over in Colorado the pot heads have taken over and current Republican senator Corey Gardner is susceptible to being smoked out of office next year.

In North Carolina Democrats believe they've sufficiently rigged, through the courts, some serious gerrymandering in their favor and just might be able to turn incumbent Thom Tillis' seat from red to blue.

Even in Kentucky, where Democrats have been making inroads, the senate's "grand poobah", Mitch McConnell's seat may be up for grabs.  The Donald and Mitch haven't revived enough coal jobs in that state to keep the blue collar happy down there.

I can think of two or three other Republican senate seats that are vulnerable.  But you get my point.  If both the House and the Senate fall into Democratic control it will be left to Donald Trump to stick his finger in the dyke and ward off Medicare For All, a taxpayer funded write off of $2 trillion in student loan debt, severe cuts to our military and a staggering $30 trillion dollar Green New Deal that pretty much bans autos and airplanes and farting cows.....and cripples the U.S. economy beyond any chance of recovery.

So, boys and girls, like Trump or not, you better be rooting for his re-election next year.  The alternative is just too scary to contemplate.  

Lost in America: "Joltin' Joe"

Lost in America: "Joltin' Joe":                                                                     On the old Saturday Night Live shows they featured at least three ...

"Joltin' Joe"

                                                                   

On the old Saturday Night Live shows they featured at least three male comedians who did the old "insincere-sincere" night club comic.  (The best was Billy Crystal spewing Sammy Davis Jr. inanities).

I could not help but think about those old comic routines yesterday as I listened to Joe Biden campaigning in Pennsylvania yesterday.  Joe, fashionably tie-less, swathed in the finest winter duds, every transplanted forehead hair in place, stepped up to the podium and proclaimed before a labor crowd "hello my friends, let me say something honestly and simply (we would certainly hope so)....and I mean this (again, we would hope you're not lying out your ass)...I'm a union man!"

Well that bit of poetic inspiration must have warmed the cockles of the hearts of all those Teamsters.  Joe went on to borrow from Barack Obama and proclaim that business did not build their businesses.....seems American business was built on the backs of $50 dollar an hour union men.  Seems that the AFl-CIO chief George Meany and the Teamster's Jimmy Hoffa invented the auto assembly line and America big rig.

Joe's speech was all so familiar.  And, really, what else can Joe offer?  Shall he stumble again over complimenting Barack Obama for being able to speak English, minus the Ebonics?  Shall he again note that America's 7-11's are owned by funny talking Indians?  Or should Joe bring up the only piece of national legislation he was responsible for.............the billion dollar federal subsidization of Amtrak, so he could ride it home from D.C. to his home in Delaware each night for less than the price of a cup of coffee.

Spend any few moments listening to Joe speak and you'll find it fascinating.  In any series of three sentences Joe will stumble over the most basic of English words.  (Yesterday he managed to turn some unexpressed "h-word" into "hedgehog".  But it's more than Joe's speech.  It's the substance that is Joe himself.  He is the most "uncool" trying to be "cool" of anyone I've ever known.  Aside from his serial groping of women, Joe can't seem to go an hour without saying or doing something stupid.  Never mind that Obama put lipstick on his VP, then sent him winging off to some third world funeral, to keep him out of the limelight, "Joltin' Joe" was bound to say something silly between Blair House and Air Force 2 sitting placidly, engines running, out on the flight line of Andrews Air Force Base.

Well the lipstick's been removed, and Joe has no Presidential handlers to keep him in check.  So you can expect Joe Biden to again stumble through still another failing campaign for President.  He's already lost miserably in two prior efforts and this campaign will be no exception.  Will his demise come from another shotgun blast at his Delaware estate?  Will he accidentally grope Babs Streisand's drooping old breasts?  Will he break down in tears once too often?  Or will the MeToo Women bury him with an Anita Hill-efficiency.

                                                       

No one knows....but you can feel secure in knowing Joltin Joe will commit some form of political Hari Kari before this campaign his over.