Some Days, You Just Gotta Smile

Sometimes You Just Have To Smile

Some Days, You Just Gotta Smile

D. S. Mitchell

Shelter In Place

It is Tuesday morning and it looks like a perfect day. The clouds are white cotton balls hanging over a green ocean with cresting waves breaking gently against the sand. It does not seem to matter that I am currently “sheltered in place” because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was thinking before I started writing this blog post that I should discard politics for a few minutes and look for as many reasons as I can to smile. Here is what I came up with:

Smile List

1.) Puppies and kittens  2.) A man in white T-shirt and faded jeans, that fit just right  3.) Hot, crispy french fries  4.) Beach bonfires w/friends  5.) Misty mornings  6.) My over-sized cat sleeping in the hanging fern  7.) Moonlight on water  8.) Old Godzilla movies at midnight  9.) Taking first place  10.) Tiny houses 11.) Wicker and lace  12.) Powdered doughnut holes with fresh perked coffee  13.) My  secret journal  14.) An old cabin in the woods  15.) A check at the mail box  16.) Giving the peace sign, not the middle finger  17.) A new toothbrush 18.) An old Marx Brothers comedy  19.) Triple layer chocolate fudge cake topped with chocolate and cherry cordial ice cream  20.) Snowmobile rides under a full moon  21.) Sweet dreams  22.) Back rubs 23.) The rhythmic click of a spinning fan  24.) Remembering Mama  25) Following a stone wall to its end 26.) Babies dressed in boots and jeans  27.) Snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef  28.) Machu Picchu  29.) Self-confidence  30.) The swooshing sound of corduroy on corduroy  31.) Toy Trains  32.) Cartwheels, somersaults, and hand stands on the front lawn  33.) Giant Tortoises  34.) Koi filled ponds  35.) Hot apple Empanadas  36.) Carte blanche  37.) Good posture  38.) A Denny’s breakfast of grease and goo  39.) Japanese lanterns floating on a breeze  40.) Twitter friends

Visit Me

No matter what is happening in Washington D. C. today, I will smile. Join me daily on www.Calamitypolitics.com and Twitter @calamitypolitics, as I autopsy the headline political news, promised to be served with a generous side of sarcasm and a double order of cynicism. For dessert, I promise a big dish of hope. as I attempt to analyze and comment on the upside down world of U.S. politics.

Join the Resistance

Comments On Courage

Doing research

 

Comments On Courage

By D. S. Mitchell

Research And The Resistance

Part of my job at Calamity Politics is to do research. Research can be lots of fun and I look forward to it. Since the election of Donald J. Trump to the presidency, I, along with about 75,000,000 Americans have joined the Resistance.  The opportunity to replace Trump will be by election.  The 2020 election is only seven months away.  I believe that we are going to need strength and courage to see this political battle to a satisfactory Progressive conclusion.  To give some perspective, I decided to look up the word courage.

What People Have Said

Here’s what I found out. When I looked up courage, I found innumerable quotes on the idea of courage. Most were quite inspiring.  Here’s a brief collection of some pretty smart comments by some pretty smart people. Winston Churchill has two quotes noted, he was a really smart and courageous guy who led a nearly defeated nation to victory.

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen,” –Winston Churchill

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
― Winston S. Churchill

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
― Mark Twain

Courage leads starward, fear toward death,”- Seneca

Courage conquers all things,” – Ovid

The strongest, most generous and proudest of all virtues is courage,” Michel De Montaigne

“Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
― Maya Angelou

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.”
― Anais Nin

Inspired

Well, I’m definitely inspired. How about you? If you are even a little inspired, do something to fight the Trump administration. Be brave. Be courageous. Step up our very democracy is at risk. There are many things you can do, write a letter to your congressional representative, make a phone call to your state senator, most important, vote.

Scratching My Head

Scratching My Head

D. S. Mitchell

Calamity politics’ mission is to share political opinions and comments on the urgent news of the day.  Our goal is to empower and connect people with a forward looking progressive agenda. I admit I often use the blog to release my own pent up emotions. It isn’t a crime, but it should at least be acknowledged.  Furthermore, I want it understood that I am a fervent  anti-Trump voice  and supporter of the Resistance. That said, today I am going to disrespect DonaldJ. Trump Jr. What the hell? Is this guy so attention starved that he wanted to bring a bunch of Russian tricksters and propagandists into the 2016 Presidential campaign to smear Hillary Clinton and impress Daddy? Is he so greedy for power that he would sell out the most sacred element of our Democracy, our vote, to a foreign power? Is he so stupid he needs help because he can’t tie his own shoe laces? Is he so used to operating outside the law that calling the FBI to report the intent of a foreign government to interfere in the US election didn’t even occur to him or the other attendees at this recently uncovered meeting. This whole story that is emerging about Donald, jr, and the lady Russian lawyer has me and most of the world scratching our heads.

The confirmed 6/9/2016 meeting, was between Trump, jr, Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and a Russian attorney at Trump Tower and is the first known meeting between members of the Trump inner circle, both family and campaign staffers. The emerging story is grim and depressing when viewed as a family joined together to betray the United States; and in effect, mount a successful coup of the government; aided and abetted by a foreign adversary.

I am not surprised, but as more information is being brought to light my anger keeps mounting. How the fuck off kilter do you have to be to sell your country out? Too fucking immoral  and fucking disgusting to be anywhere close to the White House and the role of President of the United States, in my opinion. Trump must be impeached immediately along with his Vice President, Mike Pence.  OMG my hair is on fire.

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Another Beach Day

Another Beach Day

D. S. Mitchell

I have been trying to stay calm.  Morning meditation, a 3 mile walk on a misty beach, background acoustic guitar played today while I worked on my *novel.  No cable news.  Just me, and steady controlled breathing.

There are two special elections in the South today.  The South, since the late 1960’s has been  Republican red.  When I was a kid, the Democrats owned the South.  But, strangely enough in reaction to Civil Rights Legislation backed by the Democrats the South moved lock, stock and barrel to the Republican party.

I donated to both Democratic candidates, Archie Parnell in South Carolina, and Jon Ossoff in Georgia. Not much money, because I’m a pensioner, but I felt I had to at least put something in the pot. Not that I expect the Dems to win, but I have hope.

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Keep Smiling Sucker

Keep Smiling Sucker

D. S. Mitchell

I started writing the Calamity Politics blog to present the urgent political news of the day. I take pride in presenting current and meaningful issues in the hope of connecting with people that have similar political leanings. There is also a bit of silliness, now and then.

I want to be a supportive voice of the “Resistance”. I, like so many others this political season have become unbelievably energized by the election of Donald Trump. He defines everything I don’t want in a man; much less a president. I have never previously been ashamed of a U.S. president, but knowing that Donald Trump is the “face of America,” truly sickens me.

I am sure we can defeat this megalomaniac and his science rejecting policies and his Fossil Fuel Agenda. None of us can do it alone. We need to bind together. It is together that we can keep the heat on these thugs and hoodlums; by our sheer numbers. Whether by impeachment, implementation of Amendment 25, or some other means Donald J. Trump will be removed from office before the end of his term. That conviction keeps me writing, talking and networking every day. I hope all my readers make that their mission also.

Donald Trump is one of the biggest phonies in U.S. history and he is now President of the United States and I’m worried that he will make as big a mess out of the United States government as he did his own personal finances.

Donald Trump began working for his father’s real estate company in 1972 after graduating from the Wharton School of Business with a degree in Economics. From the beginning Donald was better at self-promoting than actually making any money. It is estimated that when Fred Trump, Sr died in 1999 Donald Trump inherited something in the neighborhood of 100-200 million dollars.

According to the Associated Press, if Donald Trump had done nothing more than place his inheritance into index funds his net worth today would exceed 13 Billion dollars. Estimates project his current net worth is far from that dazzling amount. So, after all the ballyhoo and boasting he is rich because he was born rich. He could have been stratospherically wealthy if he had done nothing. Funny, in a peculiar way.

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It’s Just Politics

It’s Just Politics

D. S. Mitchell

The Bloggisphere

Writing for Calamity News and Politics gives me a platform to discuss headline events and political policy. It also provides me a place to vent and fume. If somebody doesn’t like the drum I’m beating, they are fully able, and encouraged to move on; to a site that better satisfies their social view of the world.

My Son

“Don’t get so wound up, it’s just politics”, my son recently told me.  Well, whether I’m saying it to my son, or to a potential reader, or to a neighbor, that is the wrong attitude. In the end, politics is policy, and policy effects everything in our lives. The schools, the hospitals, the parks, the highways, the airports, the waterways, international trade, health care, military defense and social justice.  Nearly every part of our daily life is effected in someway by the policies that our elected officials enact in Washington, D.C., or our state capitols. Got it?

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