"The Land of Milk And Honey"

                                                                         

I met Joseph down at the Lutheran "Resale" Shop (they don't like being called a "thrift shop" this morning.

Joseph's a Mexican man, looks like he's in his mid 40's. This morning he was sorting through the thrift shop's limited hardware aisle. He ended up finding a few quarter priced items and headed to checkout.

We ended up exiting the store at the same time. When I looked into the back of his old half ton Toyota pickup truck I first thought it was a load of garbage. Joseph and I exchanged a few words, he with his broken English, me with a little kitchen Spanish.

Turns out Joseph's a handyman. He plies his trade between El Mirage and Sun City, and does a little bit of everything. In the dark of morning he had already repaired a sprinkler system, then had stopped by the thrift shop to see what .25 cent hardware he might find, before he headed out to do some yard work.

Joseph told me the stuff in the back of his truck was all stuff he had either pulled out of the garbage, or picked up at thrift stores in the area. He had a paint sprayer, a rug shampooer, various garden tools, a tool box, and even a little concrete mixer.

We said our goodbyes and got in our vehicles, and drove out. As we came to the light I began thinking about Joseph. I thought that it was a strong possibility that Joseph's here illegally. And a fairly new illegal at that. Guys like Joe, after they've knocked around awhile, usually end up on a rogue contractor's payroll, pulling in $15 bucks an hour under the table, and suppressing the hell out of a citizen's wages in the electrical or construction fields.

That's exactly why I don't like Joe being here. But I can't help admiring his work ethic and chutzpa. Only wish we had more citizens like Joe, willing to work hard and pay their own way. "Joe the immigrant" had swooped up someone else's throwaways and is carving a life for himself here. I wouldn't be surprised if Joe doesn't end up owning his own construction company some day. After all, it has always been the immigrant who built America, and kept her running on all cylinders.

Sadly, with too many of today's "immigrant", they've schooled themselves on America's government gravy train before they even get here, having heard the stories of the "land of milk and honey" from former crossers. I know from my own knowledge that there's a whole network of folks here who, as soon as an illegal hits town, is fixed up with fake ID, gets a pamphlet on how to enroll their babies in WIC, where the nearest food banks are located, how to qualify for government paid housing, how to score food stamp cards and which hospital emergency rooms is the friendliest to illegals.

So, yeah, I admire the hell out of Joe. I just wish that he'd stay home and work that hard to make his own country "the land of milk and honey".

Trees

                                                                     

Just read in the paper this morning that Phoenix has adopted a master plan to blanket the city in shade.  A combination of "shade engineering" through architectural design, and the planting of more trees, with the objective to have 30 percent of the entire city under canopies of shade by the year 2030.  I think its a grand idea.  Too often trees have been employed to be decorative rather than for the purpose that nature intended.  Too damn many trees pruned into insignificance because they might require too much maintenance.  The fallacy of that notion is gloriously evident along Central Avenue in Phoenix.  Along that lovely corridor stands thousands of majestic trees, planted long before air conditioning was in mode, and grown to bring shade and coolness to a harsh desert environment.

So, I'm glad our city masters are finally getting smart....and copying me.

When I first moved into my Arizona home in 2004 there were no trees in my yard.  The previous owners had been miserly, not wanting to spare a drop of water in exchange for a bit of shade.  So, in those early days I'd look out at my back yard and the sun would be baking the gravel strewn barrenness of back yard.

My first attempt at horticulture was met in failure.  Each time I planted a hopeful sapling the rabbits would gather and chew them up.  I then put up a six food block fence surrounding my back yard, and began again.

I first planted a small lemon tree that we had transported from San Diego.  Next came a grapefruit tree, then a Chinese Elm.  I planted a Bottle Brush over near the northeast corner of the house, and a Palo Verde tree out on the far corner of the yard.  After Christmas of that first year I gathered up my little 1-gallon Christmas pine and planted it in the center of my yard.  That little one foot Christmas pine stands a majestic thirty feet high, standing proud out there.  Over the years I've added more trees....an Ash tree that now grows fifty feet towards the skies and almost scares me with its loftiness.

Along my back yard fence several  pink and white Oleander and Yellow Bells lend color to my backyard panorama, and, outside my bedroom window stand Asian Jasmine and Night Scent whose sweet blossoms send a bit of heaven into my bedroom in spring and fall.

In the front yard stands an orange tree and a hearty Mandarin Orange tree that yields tons of sweet fruit each year.  More colorful, drought tolerant bushes sit in soldiery splendor down the side of the house.

So, in addition to having a grander landscape, I harvest my lemons and grapefruit and oranges and Mandarins, and, year around, I am given shade and something lovely to look at.  And, really all of these families of nature's wonders don't ask for much...in the summer a deep watering every ten days (which always prompts a gathering of bird families who take a bath and a sip of water beneath them) and once a month during the winter.  Some of those plantings, such as the Yellow Bell and Oleander, need only an occasion monsoon rain to thrive.

So, "good on you, Phoenix"..glad to see you're smartening up!  I could not say anything more lovely about trees than what Joyce Kilmer said a hundred years ago:

Trees

Related Poem Content Details

BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in Summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.

When Am I Gonna Get To Show My "Bulge"

                                                                           

I adore women, but there are days when I absolutely hate them.  Too many women today expect to hold men to impossible standards....to be both feminine and masculine on the turn of a coin.  They want men to shave their pubes, shave their chest, hell, even shave their arms and legs.  And they want men to do the laundry, wash the dishes, change the diapers, and perform these "wifely" things while they themselves wouldn't even consider changing a tire, mowing the lawn, or wield a hammer.  And many modern women want their husband to "role play"....to be feminine when they want you too, and yet, play the swashbuckling, blouse ripping pirate, or sadist a la "50 Shades of Gray"when they get a little tingle for that as well!

I wrote about this new sexual identify phenomena in a blog years ago called "In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks".  For the last 30 years masculinity has been under constant attack....somehow if men aren't "girlish" enough they are deemed sexist pigs.

If today's woman were held to the same standards as men, we'd have an epidemic rush to the psychiatrist's couch, because no human being can "role play" for any length of time before going totally bananas.  And yet that's what women expect from men these days!

Case in point, let's look at the recent sexual blowup over on Fox News.  First we have Gretchen Carlson suing Fox and former director Roger Ailes for sexual harassment.  Gorgeous Andrea Tanteros soon followed suit.  And yet no one seems to ask some pretty pertinent questions....such as why did Gretchen Carlson not complain when she was making a million a year showing half a mile of legs each weekday morning?  Why did she sue only after Fox cancelled her contract because her show was getting low ratings?

Then Andrea Tanteros jumped on the band wagon, again claiming sexual harassment.  Prior to this lawsuit Andrea was all over the internet, posing in bikinis, posing nearly nude, and, when on air, wearing dresses so short you could see half her ass when she sat down.  And what I find particularly remarkable about Andrea's complaint was that she once had a ball, purring and teasing former Senator Scott Brown over his posing for Playgirl Magazine thirty years ago when he was in his 20's.  On "The Five" that morning she was literally undressing Scott Brown, making lewd comments about his sexy body.  Then, three years later, she includes Scott Brown as one of her "sexual harassers"!

Isolated incident?  I don't think so.  Just watch those Hollywood ladies walk the red carpet on any awards show.  Their gowns rise up to their ass, their nipples are protruding through their silk tops, even as they decry the idea that a man might value them only for their body!  

The male equivalent would be men walking around showing their bulge....in fact taking all necessary steps to draw attention to that bulge!  When will men have the right to wear thin silky pants, sans underwear, and walk about in public, "free balling" to their heart's content?  Not any time soon I assure you...they'd be arrested in a New York minute for obscenity.  

Fair's fair ladies.  Let's have more crotch shots of George and Brad as well as the local male news lead on your local news channel!  Let's see how far that goes before some decency league takes up the cause to ban "bulge shots" in your local Target, or on the red carpet, or while Tim is reporting on the weather in downtown Cleveland!

Earth to ladies:  If you wear a top where 7/8ths of your breasts are visible, I'm gonna look.  If you wear dresses up to your ass I'm gonna admire your legs and as much ass that's visible.  And if you want me to do the dishes, or fold the laundry, you'd better be willing to get out there and mow the yard!

And, god damn it, make up your mind!  You either want a man or you want a hermaphrodite!  Choose, because you can't have both!

Just saying.

A Starbucks "Snobbery" Update

                                                               

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was poking a bit of fun at Starbucks' new "Roasters Reserves", the latest iteration of the Starbucks experience.  Starbucks already has one of these coffee palaces up in Seattle and fully intend to expand them.  As reported then, Starbucks intended to charge ten dollars for a cup of coffee, which keeps out the "riff raff" and affords the wealthy millennial an oasis from the drudgery of the real world inside the urban freeway loops of the American landscape.

Turns out that Starbucks has re-thought the price point.  They now believe it will take twelve dollars per cup to assure Millennial nirvana and keep the peasants at bay.

I've been thinking about this ever since Starbucks came out with this stuff.  I've come to the conclusion that, whether it's Starbucks $6 dollar latte, or their $12 buck cup of ambrosia at their new and exclusive roasteries, it's really not about coffee at all.

I believe the Starbucks success story was born from an innate need by some...to be somehow "better than the other guy".....to be able to buy something that the other guy can't.  In simpler times it was 18k gold jewelry, or diamonds.  Then along came someone like Howard Schultz to invent something "snobby but affordable"...something the American peasantry could purchase....even at the expense of the monthly electric bill.....just to show he was in some way superior to the guy next door.

And let's lay off Starbucks just a little.  You see that same consumer behavior with folks ordering from a Neiman Marcus catalog.  Is the gadget in Neiman Marcus really worth 500 times more than the gadget that's available in Walmart or Target?  Or might I remind you of my hunt for an egg slicer a few years ago (sadly only a few of you will remember that one), when I found a .99 cent egg slicer at a 99 cents only store....the very same egg slicer going for $7.99 at my local grocery?  Or let's take a more modest step up...is the Chinese made sweater sold in Macy's any better than the Chinese made sweater sold in Walmart?  Probably not...........but paying twice the price in Macy's satisfies the peasantry's "snob yearnings".

So, don't feel sorry for Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz.  His $12 dollar cup of coffee will no doubt find a market.  Instead, feel sorry for folks who could make that same cup of joe at home for .49 cents....but simply must be seen forking out a ten spot and two George Washingtons for a cup of Starbucks ambrosia.

Sigh.

"Being There" And The Miraculous Donald\

                                                               

Is there anyone still alive who remembers seeing a rather obscure Peter Sellers' flick called "Being There?"  The plot centered around a rather dim-witted fellow who gardened for a wealthy estate, who went by the modest title of "Chancy", the gardener.

Chancy could talk about only two things; gardening and whatever he'd seen on low-brow television.  Without elaborating on the film's plot development, let's just say Chancy the Gardener was fortuitously quoted for something he said, something that was reflective of his mental density, then mistakenly understood as having said something quite profound.

Pretty soon the world had pronounced "Chauncy Gardiner" (Chancy the Gardener) as "genius".  The world fell to his feet and worshipped his every uttering.

By the way, we see that "foot worshipping" in the entertainment world all the time.  Some how a rapper's fans, or an actor's fans somehow believe that, since they light up the stage, they somehow know   better than you how our government should be run.  Blind worship has become a religion in 21st Century America.

Now the reason I brought all this up is because, after watching Donald Trump sitting around an immense round table with America's "Tech Barons" this week, each of them having savaged The Donald during the electoral campaign, now hanging on Trump's every word.

And it's not just the Tech Barons who are giving The Donald immense "cred"....we now have Congressional Republicans and many other of our government nannies praising The Donald to high heaven.

This all brings a smile to my face.  While none of us even have a clue as to whether the Trump Presidency will be triumph or disaster,  the "Royal Court" are scrambling for a place at the master's feet.  We can be assured of two things......if Trump is a success, the Royal Court will take a piece of the credit.  And if Trump's a disaster the Royal Court will scatter to the hinterlands, all the while claiming "they knew it all along".

I don't have any keen insight into what Trump will do.  He will surely not be as bad as the liberals are predicting.  And he will certainly not be the "second coming" as many of his supporters avow.

My pleasure at seeing all this lies not in what Trump "will do"...but, instead, how he shocked the world in getting here, and how the Royal Court is responding to it.

Donald Trump may indeed prove to be "Chancy, the gardener"...sending the Royal Court into instant retreat.  Or he might be "Chauncy Gardner", "idiot savant" whose every move results in massive success!

We won't know for awhile.  But, regardless of the outcome, god, am I having fun watching the "grand suck-up" by those hanging on to the seat of power by their fingernails, one finger firmly gripping Trump's pant cuffs.

"Death By Chocolate"

                                                                           

"Death By Chocolate"

You read the headline and, as your jaw drops in amazement, the first word out of your mouth is "Dang!" That was my reaction to this morning's report that a 24 year old Russian woman had died after falling into a vat of boiling chocolate yesterday. Apparently the poor woman was standing on a ramp above a vat of boiling chocolate when she fell into the chocolate while trying to retrieve her cell phone that had tipped into the vat. Fellow workers, being all too descriptive, said the poor lady was "minced"....the only thing remaining after her dive into the boiling chocolate being her legs floating lazily in the chocolate froth.

"Snotsdale, Arizona"

                                                                       

Just had a laugh out loud moment as I read that Wallet Hub has just done a survey about the "snobbiest city in America". Our own Scottsdale was number 1.

"Toy Story"

                                                                     

The Strong Museum up in Rochester, New York houses a museum dedicated solely to the art of play. The museum offers displays of toys that have been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame.  Now you would think the museum would display such modern marvels as Mario, or Super Mario, or Grand Theft Auto, or John Madden's Football...but you'd be wrong.

Nope.  The National Toy Hall of Fame, founded in 1998,  celebrates the most popular toys of the last century and you might be surprised by the inductees.  In an age where violent war games and digital dexterity and fantasy worlds sell big, it seems the most beloved toys are those far more simplistic and benign.

The first inductees?  Well, Barbie of course.  And Crayola crayons, erector sets, Etch A Sketch, Teddy Bear, Legos, Monopoly, Tinker Toy, Frisbee, and such simple and mundane toys as marbles and Play Dough.

So did video games break through in the second year of induction?  Nope.  Honors went to The Hula Hoop, Duncan Yo-Yo's, Roller Skates, Lincoln Logs, The Radio Flyer and Viewmaster.

And surely in Y2K video games broker through, right?  Again no.  Honored toys went to the bicycle, jacks, the jump rope, Mr. Potato Head, and Slinky.

Then, from 2001 to 2006, the nation honored Tonka Trucks, Silly Putty, Raggedy Ann, the jigsaw puzzle, alphabet blocks, checkers, the rocking horse, Scrabble, G.I. Joe, Candyland, Jack in the Box, and wonder of wonder...the cardboard box....the wondrous building matter for forts and doll houses and English castles.

In 2006 Lionel Trains and The Easy Bake Oven were the only winners.

Electronics finally broke into the fold in 2007 with the Atari 2600 with the simple kite and Raggedy Andy holding equal stature.

So did electronic games finally win the day in recent years?  Nope.  Americans are still voting for the skateboard, Big Wheel, the baby doll of one's choice and a stick...picked at random from the neighborhood.  The Nintendo Game Boy did win a place of honor, but so did the ball, a blanket, the rubber duck, Dominoes, Little Green Army Men, a bottle of soap bubbles,  and Rubik's Cube.

In 2012 Star Wars Action Figures finally made the list, but so did Chess.

And last year the only three inductees were Twister, The Soaker Hose and the modest puppet.

And the finalists for this year?  You Class of '66 children will be glad to know Clue is nominated, as is the tree swing, Nerf, the Pinball Machine, Rock-Em Sock-Em Robots, Transformers, Fischer Price Little People, Care Bears, Dungeons and Dragons, the Coloring Book and, last but no least, bubble wrap.

So, boys and girls of the Class of '66.  Let us never hear again of our "impoverished childhood".  If we can believe what the National Toy Hall of Fame is telling us, we had it pretty good.

Now go out and play boys and girls.  And Happy Monday!

Starbucks Planning Safe Spaces!

                                                                             

Did anyone catch the latest Starbucks news Wednesday morning? Starbucks has always been on the cutting edge of societal change. It was their CEO who encouraged his national crew to write on your morning coffee cup, urging you to admit you're a racist.

Now it seems that Starbucks, lamenting the fact that far too many of blue collar America is coming into their stores, plans to weed out "The Trumpers" and their ilk by establishing a new chain of coffee houses.......to be made "exclusive" for those willing to pay a minimum of $10 dollars for a cup of their brew. Yep, it's absolutely true!

Robed in more polite terms, Starbucks says their new coffeehouses will be situated closer to their coffee roasters and feel assured that the Millenial generation will be more than willing to shell out ten bucks if it means having a "safe space" from the blue collar ilk now filing into a Starbucks franchise.

Though I don't much frequent Starbucks, I'm sure these new franchises will be a hit for the "safe space seekers". Perhaps the new stores will mount large screen TV's where they'll feature an unending loop of Obama's speeches, delivered with such elegance during the past eight years. That ought to be a huge draw for his millions of worshippers.

Pardon me, but I don't think you'll ever see me in one of those places...and forking out ten bucks for a paper cup of coffee. It was just a few weeks ago when I met with my friend and former classmate, Jo, in one of those joints. I remember having to scan the menu board three times before I could find my brew of choice....a simple cup of roasted coffee, sans the frills.

You blue collar ilk should be ashamed.....you defiled Starbucks. Now they have to start a whole new chain of coffee houses just to get the hell away from you.

Sad. Damned Sad.

Wow! The EPA Just Got Nuked!

                                                                         

Oh wow!  We just learned Wednesday afternoon that Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is Trump's pick to head up the EPA!  The liberals and the EPA bureaucrats have got to be in spasmodic delirium with this pick.

Attorney General Pruitt has been suing the EPA for years now!  He just can't fathom why an Oklahoma rancher has to jump through hoops (and fill out 86 forms, and wait for approval, just to have a duck pond on his homestead!), so our EPA masters have got to be doing a little squirming these days.

In 2014 Pruitt caught the EPA fudging the numbers on the amount of carbon emissions being emitted by energy producers in his state.  That story made the front page of the New York Times and EPA was left red faced over the issue.

And speaking of the New York Times, when Trump participated in a meeting with that paper's editorial board last week, he seemed to cave just a bit on the possibility that climate change may indeed be man  made.  Today's pick of Pruitt says otherwise.  Pruitt's been a staunch opponent of man made activity as the primary cause of climate change.  He's also battled with the EPA over the EPA's crippling of American industry, citing the lack of a level playing field when competing with countries who haven't embraced the same quality of environmental protections that are mandated by our EPA masters.

I remain lukewarm on the issue of climate change.  While I believe we need to do everything, absolutely everything to protect our air and water, and while I believe we ought to have a major push toward sustainable energy, I'm not convinced that climate change can be ameliorated by anything we do.....one good volcanic eruption in Yellowstone, or in the Philippines, can undo whatever safeguards we could put in place to affect change.

But I am absolutely tickled pink that Trump keeps appointing non-traditional people to his cabinet....people who at least have a fighting chance to do what Trump promised on the stump......to shake up Washington and send our bureaucratic masters fleeing for the out lands.

Let Me Solve The Great Unemployment Rate Hoax For You

                                                                   

Are any of you puzzled about why you're not feeling great about the latest U.S. Unemployment Report?  After all, the latest unemployment numbers came in at 4.6 percent.  Ain't that wonderful?

And how can that 4.6 percent unemployment rate be true?  With 93 million people out of the work force how can we be experiencing such low unemployment numbers?

Simple.  It's the way the Obama Administration runs the numbers.  Let me give you an extremely simplified example of how you can skew the job numbers:

1)  Let's assume 10 people have the bubonic plague.

2)  Eight people die and only two survive.

3)  The "survival rate" for bubonic plague is obviously only 20%, right?

4) Wrong.  You just throw out the eight dead people from your calculations , and just use the two survivors as calculating factors, and all of a sudden you've got a 100% survival rate for the Bubonic Plague!  Ain't that great!

Well, folks, that's your "Lying With Statistics" lesson for today.  You can indeed achieve a 4.6 unemployment rate, as long as you don't count the 93 million who have given up even trying to find a job.

You're welcome.

Is Subsidizing Those Carrier Jobs A Good Idea?

                                                                       

Well, the liberal media and Congressional Democrats are in a tizzy about Donald Trump's "jawboning" that Carrier plant down in Indiana who were planning to move to Mexico.  The Democrats cried foul, and asked "just how is it free economics when the state of Indiana grants $5 million in incentives over ten years, just to get Carrier to keep those 1300  jobs at home.

The Washington Post was the first newspaper to file a story about this.  WaPo was outraged that Trump supports giving corporations like Carrier a good deal.  (Keep in mind that the Post had no problem with Obama had no problem giving solar firm Solyndra a $500 million dollar federal grant, or hundreds of millions to electric battery maker Beacon Power, both of which went bankrupt.)

While I'm all for free markets and allowing capital to flow where it will, I believe, if Trump wishes to keep jobs at home, he's going to have to continue this sort of jawboning, at least until the corporate tax code is changed, reducing the corporate tax from 35% to the proposed 15%.  When we reduce the highest corporate tax in the industrial world, and begin to compete with Ireland's 13 percent corporate tax rate, or the lower corporate rates in much of Europe, we won't need government intervention in order keep jobs at home.

But, for the interim, I believe we are going to need artificial interventions of free markets.  While on the macro level, far more will be needed.  Jawboning and reducing corporate tax rates will not solve the job export problems.  We are also going to need relief from overbearing EPA and OSHA interference.  And we're going to have to do a better job of re-training workers whose jobs are being lost due to technology advances.

But, for now, we have to support what Trump is doing to protect jobs.  Trump saved 1,000 of those 1,300 hundred Carrier jobs that were headed to Mexico.  The average salary for those Carrier jobs were $31.90 an hour....certainly a good living wage in the state of Indiana.  And those thousand workers certainly have no problem with Trump's breech of business ethics...they're just happy to keep being able  to put food on the table.  I personally, being a rampant fan of free markets, am at least more willing to help subsidize a job than I am to subsidize someone sitting on their ass at home, collecting food stamps and an unemployment or a welfare check.

Burger Flipping Obsolescence

                                                                       

On Tuesday this past week Phoenix fast food workers joined the burger flippers nationwide to demand $15 per hour...immediately.

I find that interesting, at least for Phoenix. Workers here are already paid above the national minimum wage, and voters here approved annual minimum wage boosts through 2020, to include an immediate $2 dollar per hour wage increase beginning 1 January, 2017.

Not good enough for the "Bernie Sanders" arm of our Millennial ilk. Doesn't matter that they didn't pay attention in class, are illiterate, that much of their poverty stems from breeding children they can't afford...America owes them a "living wage", even if what they do could be done by trained monkeys.

Nope. They've got to have more than free school breakfast, and lunch, and, in some school districts, dinner. And not enough that taxpayers foot the bill for free pre-school, and WIC benefits, and Medicaid and Food Stamps, and that welfare check. Nope, the working stiff simply must pay $10 bucks for a burger...cause a "living wage" is everyone's right...no matter how ill prepared one is to enter the work force.

And, somewhere out there, in the fog of ignorance, those burger flippers are completely ignoring the fact that McDonald's and Carl Jr's. and Burger King, and Wendy's are installing robotic ordering kiosks in more than 15,000 of their franchises next year alone....because an electronic kiosk doesn't demand a "living wage" and comes with the added benefit of not issuing snotty remarks or snarky sighs.

Just one "sigh"....for the illiterate "entitled" who don't even realize that even their burger flipping jobs are becoming as obsolete as they are themselves.

On Trump's Appointment of Tom Price for HHS

                                                                         

Well, we learned this week that Representative Tom Price, from Georgia, is Donald Trump's pick to head up Health and Human Services.  In my mind it was a great pick.........but don't expect Price to win confirmation by Congress.

Price has long been an advocate of privatizing Medicare and Medicaid...and liberals don't even want to know what he thinks about Obamacare.

So millions of liberal tails were on fire on Tuesday.  It was straight out of one of those "throw grandma off the cliff" commercials that dominated the airwaves four years ago.  But, if we are being realistic, if we are serious about stopping the flow of red ink in the federal budget, we have no choice but to look at ways to cut a program that consumes over a third of our annual budget.

So is Trump and Price planning to indeed "throw Grandma off the cliff?"  No.  First of all Trump would be impeached at any hint of hurting our elderly.  But we do have to look realistically at the massive fraud, waste and abuse in the program...something I've written about endlessly over the years.  Furthermore, I'm elderly myself, live in a senior community, and am witness to many instances where Medicare or Medicaid forked out our tax dollars for things not needed, nor earned.

For instance, we've seen incidents where the Russian Mafia (the Russian Mafia for god's sake!) skimming billions of dollars in fraudulent Medicare billings.  We've found scams with prescription drug cartels, we've uncovered stories of Medicare paying out three and four times higher costs for mobility scooters (and, really, does every swinging elderly dick really need a mobility scooter?)  And do we really need to pay for incontinence pants and do we really need to be so generous in paying for home health aides....what ever happened to families caring for their own?  I could go on and on, but lets, for arguments sake, assume there's some fat that can be cut from Medicare and Medicaid.  Shouldn't we do that?  And if we never privatize Medicare and Medicaid, shouldn't we at least hire a team of independent auditors, and give them a health cut of any fraud and waste and abuse they discover?  Isn't it better to reform the program before it bankrupts us?

Look at that pie chart up there.  We're spending 2 percent on education, one percent on rebuilding our roads and bridges and airports (and that's gonna drop to 1 percent this year as Obama's trillion dollar stimulus money dries up) and Democrats are not even willing to look at the program that increases every year...and is bankrupting us?

So, will Tom Price, whose been working on driving down costs in Medicare and Medicaid for 19 years, whose the most knowledgeable on the subject than anyone in Congress, get confirmed?  Don't bet on it.

I believe, if Trump wants to do something about the Health Care budget, he's going to have to send a wolf in sheep's clothing up to Capitol Hill.  Tom Price is a cost cutting wolf whom I fear will not ever get a chance to wield a cost-cutting knife.

Stay tuned, folks!