Racial Bigotry: Center Post Of Trump Immigration Policy

Looking Bigotry In The Eye

By D. S. Mitchell

Concentration Camps

I’m watching “A.M. Joy”. The primary focus of the discussion this June 23rd, 2019 morning is the deplorable treatment of children in Trump’s concentration camps on our southern border. Where getting a bar of soap, a tube of toothpaste, a clean diaper, or a bath is not on the Border Patrol agenda, at least for the first month.

Cries In The Night

The cruelty and immorality of border separations and detainment should enrage us all. The images of children being ripped from their mother’s arms or the unanswered screams of, “papa” are alarming.  The trauma of these events will affect these people the rest of their lives. People are suffering. People are also dying. Six children have died over the last year while in Border Patrol custody. At least twenty-two adult immigrants have died in ICE custody over the last 24 months.

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Trump, A Dictionary, And An Idea

By D. S. Mitchell

Game Day

I know it is nearly July but it is another rainy day at the mountain, so I’ve got time to play some games. All I need to do, to get a break at Calamity Politics, is take it.  I’m not in the mood to be serious today. I had thought I was going to write an in-depth, thought-provoking, political post about the Iranian threat. However, I’ve changed my mind, for the moment anyway.

A New Game

As I opened the dictionary laying on the table, I got an idea for a new game. Wow. I just invented a new game. At least I think it’s a new idea. I believe I can write a spontaneous, weird and crazy story, using a well-known politician and his family as the centerpieces of that silliness. The idea is that I will use all the words on whatever dictionary page falls open, in the order the words appear on the two open pages.

So, here we go. My source is the “Everyday America English Dictionary”, Edited by Richard A. Spears, et al.  NTC (National Textbook Company) 1987.  Pages 130-131.

Daddy Knows Best

Donald Trump dropped the fountain pen on the desk, and asked, “What’s for dinner tonight?”

“Some form of fowl that Donald Jr, bagged when he was on safari in Texas,” Ivanka answered.

“You are a fox,” Big Daddy Trump gushed, leering suggestively.

“Stop it, Daddy.”

“Do you know what fraction of the federal budget is being spent on Jr.’s security detail?  Some reporter asked, and I had no idea.  Do you know?”

“Oh, Daddy, don’t worry about such stuff.  Just stamp it TOP SECRET,  and if that ‘fake news’ lady asks again, you just tell her it’s, classified.”

“Of course, of course. You’re right, sweetie.  I have more power in my twitter finger than ANYONE in the world!  Especially some ‘fake news’ reporter.”

“We should have that finger insured.  What if there’s a fracture?  It would be a disaster,” she said shaking her head in self-confirmation.

“Careful, Daddy, that glassware is very old and very, very fragile.  Michelle Obama called that glassware historic.”

“Historic?” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Daddy, please, stop juggling the glassware.”

“Damn!  I don’t know why there’s no carpet in here?  You’d think, the designer would have figured out that somebody might drop something once in a while.  Bad design. Really, Bad.  Bad.”

“Daddy there’s a piece missing.  Do you see the last fragment somewhere?  Maybe we can get Melania to glue them back together.”

He bent down, picked up a large chunk of the broken glassware, and handed it to Ivanka.

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25 Tidbits Of Useless Information

By D.S. Mitchell

Poll Numbers

I am well aware that there is breaking news. As if Thursday June 20th, 2019 would be any different from yesterday, or any day last week.  Yesterday, the Iranians shot down a 130 million dollar American drone and Hope Hicks refused to talk to the House Judiciary Committee. Today as I wait for Trump to let us know what he is going to do about the drone attack I see a poll result from Gallop, or somebody, cross the television screen. Without surprise I see  that 57% of Americans believe we need a new president.  I hope Trump doesn’t think war will get his poll numbers up.

Some Distraction

In this age of craziness I think the world needs a bit of distraction. I love useless information and thought I would share some useless information with my readers today, instead of writing something topical and newsworthy. So, here goes.

25 tidbits of useless information:

1.) Did you know a cockroach can live for up to nine days without a head, until it starves to death? Who knew.

2.) An Ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain. While we are on the subject of the Ostrich, did you know that Ostrich’s have only two toes on each foot?

3.) Marilyn Monroe, the 1950-1960 sex goddess, had 6 toes on one of her feet. See. None of us are perfect.

4.) Women blink twice as often as men do.

5.) No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

6.) Leonardo Da Vinci invented scissors. Thank God! Man and woman lived on this planet for 200,000 years before someone invented scissors. They seem so basic, so necessary. How did people live without scissors? Amazing, on so many levels.

7.) Our noses and ears never stop growing, while our eyes remain the same size for life.

8.) A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

9.) Some species of piranhas are vegetarians, while all butterflies are carnivores.

10.) The most shoplifted book in America is the Bible. I wonder what that says about us as a society?

11.) Rats can tread water for three days without stopping.

12.) All the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction were stuck on 4:20.  I know what 420 means to me. I wonder if it means the same to Tarantino? Probably. Sit back, light up.

13.) Mosquitoes are attracted to the color blue.

14.) There are 13 witches in a coven.

15.) Abraham Lincoln’s first choice to lead the Union Army was Robert E. Lee.

16,) “E” is the most used letter in the English alphabet. “Q” is the least used letter.

17.) Fingernails grow 4 times faster than toenails.

18.) November 15th is National Clean Your Refrigerator Day

19.) Cleopatra was Greek (Ptolemy), not Egyptian

20.) The colder your bedroom the higher the chance of having a nightmare.

21.)  Cornelius Vanderbilt was born a farmer’s son who left school at age 11 and despite his lack of education went on to become the richest man of 19th century America.

22.) Oprah Winfrey, a black woman raised by her grandmother, sent to juvenile detention at 13, an unwed mother at 14 (to a child who died). Oprah went on to TV stardom and stratospheric wealth in the 20th century.

23.) The most common spoken word around the world is “O.K., ok, okay, or, k”  It can be heard from New York City to the tiniest rain forest village.

24.) “Jiffy” is an actual unit of time. So when Mom says she’ll be there in a “jiffy” she really mean 1/100th of a second.

25.) It takes six months to build a Rolls Royce……and 13 hours to build a Toyota.

Okay, there you go. 25 Tidbits of Useless Information. Use it as you will.

TRUMP CHILDREN DO THE U.K. ON TAXPAYER’S DIME

OUR OPINION:

TAXPAYER’S DIME

By T.K. McNeil & D. S. Mitchell

Family Man

It is a tradition in American politics for candidates to play up their religion, their military service and their progeny. Apparently one out of three is enough considering who is currently occupying the Oval Office, at least when he isn’t golfing.  Trump recently re-enforced the Big Daddy reputation by taking the whole dang family (that he is willing to admit exists) on a state visit to the United Kingdom. The adult Trump children their spouses and their children were everywhere. You couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing them carrying notebooks and briefcases, and shooting selfies as if they were part of an ‘official’ diplomatic U.S. delegation.

With Spouses & Grand Kids

The visit, of course, was totally legitimized by the fact that his daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner hold, thanks to him, high government positions. No other administration would have hired Trump’s adult children because they are so inept and corrupt. My God, they are so unfit they needed a presidential command to get their security clearances.

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A LOOK AT TRUMP’S RE-ELECTION STRATEGIES

OPINION:

Trump’s Re-Election Strategies

By David L. Shadrick

IN TRUMP’S HEAD

The campaign for the 2020 presidential election is in full swing. President Trump has been campaigning, and raising money since his 2016 inaugural. At that time most liberals, including myself, didn’t believe Trump could win, yet he did. Many pundits chalked it up to an electoral college fluke, but to Trump a win is a win.  Trump has done nothing to make the country great since his election. He is hunkered down in delusion, convinced that despite his poor approval polling he is the greatest President of all time. As the Democrats struggle to come up with a viable candidate to defeat him Trump moves forward.  Let’s look at some potential re-election strategies for The Donald.

BELIEVING HIS OWN RHETORIC

When discussing Trump’s re-election strategies we need to put first things first.  It is important to note that the President himself honestly believes he is doing a truly outstanding job. His cringe worthy attacks on our allies are making America great again.  Trump’s embarrassing lack of leadership on environmental issues means businesses can be profitable again.  And his  acts of cruelty on persons with brown skin will save the nation from immigration.  Trump crows about how great these strategies are for America. In his mind, the 2020 election is over, and he’s already won.

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What Happened At Columbine

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This is a piece I wrote about the Columbine tragedy. It turned out a bit different than I thought it was going to, but I think it works. It basically centers on the difficulty of really knowing the past with so many factors and interests involved, and ends with a counter-factual. A counter-factual is a sort of intellectual game we historians do to better understand what actually happened. We go through the facts and find a factor, usually a small one, that plausibly could have changed everything; presuming everything else stayed the same.

My factor was the fact that both of the attackers were under the legal age to buy the kind of guns they used and had to get them through an illegal “straw purchase.” In this case, meaning through a third-party, someone who got them at a gun show from unlicensed sellers. Had this not happened they would have been left with their primary bomb plot which if successful would have been the second largest domestic bomb attack after Oklahoma City. We, however, know that the large bombs completely failed and the homemade pipe-bombs were ineffective, all of the deaths coming from gunshots. No guns, no dead and what is seen as the first-mass shooting becomes an embarrassing fuck-up-T.K. McNeil

What Really Happened At Columbine

By Trevor K. McNeil

When Are Facts, Really Facts?

Recording history accurately is a tricky business at best. Particularly when there is a degree of shock and trauma involved in the events. Passion, stress and the now known unreliability of eye-witness reports make accuracy difficult if not impossible to piece together.  Furthermore, human memory can lead to things being a matter of record that turn out not to be true. The only reason we have a good idea of what happened on 9/11 is that there is video. But to this day, there are theorists who believe there were explosives inside the towers that were the real cause of the towers collapse.

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THE BENEFITS OF PORNOGRAPHY

OPINION:

THE BENEFITS OF PORNOGRAPHY

By Trevor K. McNeil

Always With Us

Archeologists have long known that as long as there have been people there has been sex. And nearly as long as there has been human sexuality there have been representations of it.  Whatever medium was available at the time, cave wall, animal tusk, clay or papyrus pornography was available. Obviously, our forefathers understood the benefits of pornography.

Across Cultures

Through sculpting, painting, and pottery the ancients depicted the benefits of pornography.  Egyptian artisans depicted the beauty of human sexuality. This goes for the written word, there being some pretty racy entries in the Bible.  The Song of Solomon being a famous example. The Romans through sculpture glorified human sexuality.  Pre-Christian Viking sagas told of great adventures; and no great adventure would be worth telling if there wasn’t plenty of sex.

Today

The benefits of pornography have followed us through the ages; emerging today primarily in streaming videos on the internet.  Thanks to the vision of our forefathers we have reached for the stars and surpassed them.

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