I understand loyalty to a candidate on select issues. Using pro-life as an example, i personally would never insert myself between a conscious choice between a woman and her doctor but I have empathy for those that do).
I am taken aback by friends who question whatever I write negatively about our president and label me a biased and left-wing nutso meadow muffin chunker.
Have you ever noticed they never explain what twerks out of Trump’s mouth mean and offer their personal explanation.
I know the reason: They cannot defend statements like these:
—“Mexico will pay for the wall.”
—“I alone can fix it.”
—“think I am, actually humble. I think I’m much more humble than you would understand.”
—”Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest—and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure. It’s not your fault.”
—”My fingers are long and beautiful, as, it has been well been documented, are various other parts of my body.”
—”I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”
—“You know, it really doesn’t matter what [the media] write as long as you’ve got a young and beautiful piece of ass.”
—”There has to be some form of punishment (for work men for abortion)…you go back to a position like they had where they would perhaps go to illegal places, but we have to ban it.”
—”Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people.”
—”These are stupid people that say, ‘Oh, didn’t Trump declare bankruptcy? Didn’t he go bankrupt?’ I didn’t go bankrupt.”
—”For evangelicals, for the Christians, for the everybody, for everybody of religion, this will be, may be, the most important election that our country has ever had. And once I get in, I will do my thing that I do very well. And I figure it is probably, maybe the only way I’m going to get to heaven. So I better do a good job.”
And, the two statements that created an undeniable need in me to vote ”against” Trump and rail against his messidency until I go toe’s-up:
— “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?”
—”They don’t write good. They have people over there (New York Times) , they don’t they don’t write good. They don’t know how to write good.”
I can write good at times. I know how to vote good, too.
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No one has asked the question yet, but I’ll answer it anyway: Sure. No problem. Count us in! Ready to get ‘er done!
Yes, to put the rumor to rest, Esteemed Spousal Unit Bobbie Jean and I will be more than happy to house a family of detained immigrants at Bedspring Ridge.
It has nothing to do with the fact that private start-up detention centers housing thousands of illegal immigrants are getting up to $750 per day per person detained. (At that rate, a family of four costs the taxpayer $21,000 a week or $1,092,000 a year.)
That is a ridiculous amount and my taxes are going to pay for part of that!
We’ll put up a family of four at our home for only $8,252 a week. (That is a bargain basement price of only $343.83 per detainee per day, a saving of $406.17 a day from the fee charged by the price-gouging private companies.
With a one-year federal contract, guaranteeing the same daily rate, we will accept two additional families and pledge to immediately construct an identical facility with all amenities.
And at no extra charge, we will teach our immigrants English with daily classes (we both are teacher-certified – me in English, writing, business, marketing, Bob in reading, writing and life skills. At no additional charge, our family could include a child with special meeds. BobJean has a degree in special education and I have experience working with children with special needs in sports – soccer, baseball and basketball.
We have 1.25 miles of walking trails at Bedspring Ridge Detention Center for daily exercise; additional, optional opportunities for exercising include performing gardening tasks, beautifying our pond or removing underbrush with tools of their choice.
Like many detention centers, the detainees will be able to earn money for work they agree to perform. But unlike many facilities, the BRDC wil pay prevailing state minimum wage, even if it is higher than the federal standard.
“Above all, be fair.” That’s the motto on the crest of our detention center.
Our contract will also attest we will provide them with adequate shower and bath facilities, soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste and clean water not out of a toilet tank.
We will guarantee ealthy food prepared and tasting better than in any federal holding facility in the country.
As an added incentive to make our family of detainees feel at home, we will provide ingredients for a meal from their home country a minimum of two days a week with free use of the detention kitchen.
The feds will only be billed $501,991.80 year, a savings of more than 50 percent.
I know. I know. As patriots and an examples of deficit accountability, we stand tall.
Fellow Americans, you are welcome!
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In March of this year, Marshall City Commissioners adopted a resolution approving a low-kill animal shelter. As we say in the navy, Bravo Zulu, Marshall!
Now what?
The city manager has had a chance to get his feet wet, the new commissioners are in place, private fundraising continues, and many of us are left wondering where the new shelter stands on the city’s list of priorities.
At about the same time a new animal shelter was approved, yet another stray dog made her way to our property, where we found her hiding in our carport, scared to death.
She had fairly recently had puppies, had hookworm and is heartworm positive. She was initially so timid that she would not join me for a walk outside the fenced yard, and getting her 60 pounds into the car for a vet visit was a Herculean task.
Inside of a month, she was the alpha dog of her new pack. She’s joyful and loving, and she leaps into the car even before I’m ready. The change was incredible.
Every time I look at her, I think of Marshall Animal Shelter and wonder how many like her have been destroyed since March, and how many more will be killed before a new shelter opens.
Yes, I understand it’s “a process.” But I also understand that we’ve been here before. I doubt that the people who worked so hard to get us to this point, again, are willing to watch years roll by as this gets pushed into the background, again. The city owes them a plan.
On Saturday I noted in my journal there had been a mass shooting. Little did I know I would be writing the same thing on Sunday. My only comment was thank God the shooters were white. If someone of color would have done this that would be something you could get your teeth in.
The man who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue said it has come down to video games and mental illness. And “perhaps” it is time to take some action.
How quickly our nation forgets these horrific acts. Are parents afraid to let our children go to school or a movie or a mall. We are becoming prisoners of fear.
And where are our countries’ leaders? They are on their 5 week holiday so they can reach out to their constituents.
What would our “leaders” do if one of their family members had been shot? Business as usual? Write notes, say our “thoughts and prayers are with you” or would they put off their vacations, go back to D.C. and start to work. Would Trump give them a deadline to prepare a bill that he would sign that was not focused on video games or mental illness but on controlling high power weapons.
Search your soul and say what if I had lost a loved one. Is your representative funded by the NRA? If so, think long and hard about voting for him or her. After all we pay their salary, their take from the NRA is just “walking around money.”
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There
are X-million people who plan to vote against giving President Donald Trump a
second term in 2020. Good and dandy; that is not enough to get the job done.
The
one predicable item that one can assign to the president is his unpredictability.
One cannot surmise what he is going to do because he does not know what he is
going to do until he does it.
How
do you plan for that?
There
is one way and one way only to guarantee
that Donald J. Trump is defeated in the November election next year, and it has
nothing to do with whom the Democrats decide to nominate.
To
make sure his pious, chaotic and disruptive administration ends and that Trump
and his COT (Cult of Trump) followers go the way of the wild geese is for a
branded-name Republican (are you listening, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio and John
Kasich?) to put country over politics and run as an independent.
Listen! You can
hear the outcries already!
While
such a decision would be harder to contemplate than a granite hemorrhoid, it is
just such an action this country needs to stop the hateful acts of violence,
startling racial comments and attacks and global economic and fraternal
disasters perpetuated by Trump and his cronies.
This
country has never seen the likes of Trump, and his mystic hold on so many
people who totally disregard his constant lying (and easily provable lies, at
that), his use of racist language to stir up his base, his undeniable obsession
with “anything Obama” that has led to a decline in programs to enhance the
environment, wean the country off dependency on fossil fuels, advancements in
education and creating global building blocks of strong allies.
Will
anyone leave his or her party to save the country? Probably not, but the 2020
election is too important to leave to a coin toss on election day. A Mitt
Romney, for example, could solidify his name in history as an unselfish
politician who put his personal priorities on the back burner of history to
save his country – and his party – from going down in inglorious flames after
an accomplished flim-flam man has driven the GOP wagon into a deep ditch.
In
1992 Texarkana-born Ross Perot ran an independent race for president, garnering
19 percent of the national vote and denying George H.W. Bush a second term.
Bill Clinton was elected to the first of two terms on the strength of Perot’s
showing.
The
billionaire Perot’s main campaign platform plank was the deficit, and in a
convoluted way he was successful: The last balanced budget was realized in the
Clinton years.
Romney,
or Rubio or Kasich or even GOP Sen. Susan Collins, could potentially draw enough
support from die-hard Republicans who held their nose and voted for
Gropenfuhrer Trump in 2016 to tip the election in 2020 to the Democratic
nominee.
A
Trump challenge from a third party candidate could focus on any number of
issues to make inroads: The ever-rising deficits, the administration’s threat
to cut Social Security, the rise of hate crimes, racial and religious
incidents. Of course, he or she could point at the daily lies Trump says or
tweets, his appointment of cabinet officials totally unqualified for the
positions, his embracing dictators and despots with no positive results to show
for the flowery praise and kowtowing.
The
2020 election will show the ‘real” United States of America; it will tell us
and the world who we are as a people, what we think about civil liberties and
freedom to pursue life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
Do we need a movie-type hero riding in on a white horse to save the day? What we don’t need is four more years of a former TV villain running his high-stakes scam on 330 million Americans.
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Every
single person on this planet, now, then and in the future, had/has/will
have something that irritates the unholy
hell out of them.
Jesus had his
moneychangers;
Abraham Lincoln
had a string of incompetent generals;
John Wilkes Booth
had Lincoln;
Ike Eisenhower had
Gen. George S. Patton;
Patton became
disgusted over perceived weakness of soldiers;
Rosa Parks hated
sitting in the back of the bus;
The U.S. colonists
got piqued over taxation without representation, and;
I see red over
incompetent, pulpit-pounding, blabber-headed politicians and talking hairdos who
will do and say anything to get a headline or a verbal salute on cable news.
That is the poignant lead-in to this
topic: People I want to shut the hell up!
Al
Sharpton
had been a go-to spokesman for the black community for decades. He’s gone from
obese to ultra-thin but his constant dropping verbal bullets on most people who
just happen to be white is so old, it’s moldy.
He lost his daily show on MSNBC because of
his focused racism; he now has a weekend show that is a repeat of his thoughts
and verbiage from the days he was dogging law enforcement for the 1980s case of
the alleged rape of Tawana Brawley, a woman of color. In that instance,
Sharpton created a riotous situation by believing a made-up story by a
attention-wanting teenager.
His black vs. white rhetoric has caused
more harm over the years than it has helped. The fact he is still considered a
spokesman to minorities is astounding and dismaying.
Michael
Moore was,
at one time, a reasoned voice for liberalism and a constant irritant to Big
Business and shoddy government tacticx. Now, he’s just a kook with an ancient
resume and celebr9ty platform. His documentary films have won awards, created
needed changes in corporations, offered up plausible opportunities for
perplexing problems.
Now, he is a mere shadow of his former
forceful presence; he mouths about darn near anything because of prior
celebrity, just like a toothless politician recalling the heydays in the
marbled halls of Washington-the-Deficit.
Mitch
McConnell has
too much power for a genetic defect who believes that his beliefs should come
for more than that of a single citizen. He single-handedly killed a bill to
protect the 2020 elections from foreign interference. Why? When asked, he gave
an answer that blew up the International BS-o-meter: The federal government
should not interfere with states’ rights to protect their own elections.
In other words, “Russia, welcome to the election fray! Let’s party like it is 2016.”
Finally,
for Donald Trump, Rudy Guliana and Kellyanne Conway it’s past time to
realize that every time their mouths open, their tongues waggle in high gear
and words slip past their teeth, negative things happen.
Their
combined blather has created more animosity toward the party they pretend to
embrace, alienated countries that used to be our closest and most reliable
allies and widen the ideological abyss that divides this country. There is no
way to justify their actions which are undermining the foundations of
democracy; their errant, baffling and incomparable words are helping sworn
enemies of this nation.
All of you: Just shut up! Please and thank you.
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked two election security measures on Thursday, arguing Democrats are trying to give themselves a “political benefit.”
The move comes a day after former special counsel Robert Mueller warned about election meddling in 2020, saying Russia was laying the groundwork to interfere in the 2020 election “as we sit here.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) had tried to get consent Thursday to pass a House bill that requires the use of paper ballots and includes funding for the Election Assistance Commission. It passed the House 225-184 with one Republican voting for it.
But McConnell objected, saying Schumer was trying to pass “partisan legislation.”
“Clearly this request is not a serious effort to make a law. Clearly something so partisan that it only received one single solitary Republican vote in the House is not going to travel through the Senate by unanimous consent,” McConnell said.
Under the Senate’s rules any one senator can request consent to pass a bill, but any one senator can object.
Schumer argued that if McConnell didn’t like that bill “let’s put another bill on the floor and debate it.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) also asked for consent to pass legislation that would require candidates, campaign officials and their family members to notify the FBI of assistance offers from foreign governments.
McConnell also objected to that bill.
In his testimony before Congress on Wednesday, Mueller warned about continued Russian interference in U.S. elections.
“We are expecting them to do it again during the next campaign,” Mueller said.
Schumer cited Mueller’s testimony on Thursday as a prime example that more legislation is needed from Congress.
“It was important for all us to hear straight from Robert Mueller’s mouth that the threat from Russia and other foreign adversaries seeking to meddle in our elections is very real and still very much ongoing,” Schumer said.
“Mueller’s testimony was a clarion call for election security. Mueller’s testimony should be a wake-up call to every American, Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, that the integrity of our elections is at stake. … This is all about the future of this country,” he added.
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Those
are the elements that are governing this country and until elected officials –
like Texas Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and First District Rep. Louie Gohmert
– start working to govern for the entire country instead of an off-balanced
off-shoot of so-called conservatives, the cauldron of corruption and chaos the
U.S. is immersed tight this minute in will continue.
“With malice toward none,
with charity for all…let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind
this nation’s wounds.”
Those
words, written on a sheet of paper while riding in a steam-powered locomotive
by Republican President Abraham Lincoln, were uttered one month before the end
of the Civil War.
Today,
this nation is in another civil war that, once again, pits father against son,
brother against brother; it is tearing families, churches, purveyors of all
religions, institutions of learning and neighbors apart. This modern war is an
internal struggle among peers, pitting mindsets and single-issue policies and
beliefs against one another with no regard for the position of agreeing to
disagree or “live and let live.”
The
war of today is a tragedy of the upmost importance to the future of the people,
the country and of democracy. This war is not about slavery or states rights or
populist ideas vs. established traditions; is about the survival of the United
States of America, once the most powerful and benevolent on the planet, but no
longer.
Followers
of and believers in Donald J. Trump fall into four main categories: Citizens
who want to end abortion by any means; those who believe the hype that Trump
the Businessman knows how to run a country better than a politician; believers
that Hillary Clinton and left-wing “fruit-loops” are to be destroyed, and; haters…those that hate what they cannot
understand, what they fear, hate the position they find themselves in the totem
pole rankings of life or what they believe is an abomination according to Old
Testament scripture.
Most
citizens with common sense can understand the primary conservative “abortion” argument: It is a ideological
concept that goes to the heart and soul of each individual. It is totally valid
to feel a kinship with the unborn…any unborn, just as it is valid to believe
that politicians (mostly white, old men) should not be implementing laws that govern what occurs
between a woman and her doctor.
Those
that believe Trump is “brilliant” businessman have a valid point if only
dollars and property accumulated is the lone factor considered.
Hating
Hillary, to many, is second-nature to many; she is not overly charismatic, not
warm and cuddly (like President Clinton) and holds grudges until the sun
revolves around the Earth. Even many people that voted for her twice get it.
The
hate-anyone-gay (or hating immigrants, people of color or because of personal
religion) is harder for many to understand. We all come from immigrant families
(even Native Americas); this country is, like it or not, a cornucopia of the
world’s people.
For
more than four decades, I have written newspaper editorials and columns
declaring that this country needed a businessman as president instead of a
born-and-bred politician or military leader. Where my reasoning and writings
fell short was that I failed to distinguish what type of businessman should be
elected.
What
I envisioned in my finite wisdumb (spelled
correctly) was that a common-sense businessman who would gather cabinet
heads and advisers from both parties, the best of the best who truly believed
in the reasons the United States was founded. Party politics be damned! Let’s
create a nation of which we can all be prpud.
The
last president to do this exact execution of filling the nation’s most
important offices and executive positions (the best of the best and even some
who hted the very sight of him) was Abraham Lincoln. Doris Kerns Goodwin’s
“Team of Rivals” is a masterful insight into a man who many career politicians
mocked, yet when he died, they all mourned his passing.
There
is no more “party of Lincoln”. There is no more Republican Party. The 2019
version is the party of Trump and those that support him – the Cruzes, Cronyns,
Gohmerts, etc. – will someday look back on the blind followers of this
narcissistic political chameleon and shake their heads in sorrow.
We
are witnesses, day by day, story by story, of the end of the Republican Party,
the strong political organization that now believes in whatever Trumps dictates
in important rather than in what philosophical path the party has traditionally
followed.
Mark
it down: When Trump leaves office, now that he’s tasted real power (and not
just power obtained by the almighty dollar), he will not go quietly into that
good night. He will start DJT Network, keep his base supporters glued to this electronic
spiel of mistrust and hate 24/7 and the third party he will start (Keep America
Great!) will ensure the Republicans will never, ever again win a national
election.
If
you are a Republican, this is the path on your party is headed.
“…all the people who were with him each covered his head and went up weeping….”2 Samuel 15:30
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Texas Shakespeare Festival Foundation urges patrons and
community members
to support the outstanding work of the Texas Shakespeare
Festival (TSF)
by buying a raffle ticket for trip-for-two to Italy
Kilgore, TX
– In this last week
of the exciting 2019 summer season of the Texas Shakespeare Festival, the Texas
Shakespeare Festival (TSF) Foundation urges patrons and community members to
support the work of the TSF by participating in the annual TSF summer raffle.
This year’s
raffle is a trip-for-two to Florence, Italy. Raffle tickets are $100 each, with
only 350 tickets being sold. The estimated value of the trip is $6,000,
including airfare and hotel. The raffle drawing will take place during
intermission of the final performance of the 2019 TSF season on Sunday, July
28. Ticket holders do not need to be
present to win.
A video with additional information about the Italy raffle and a link to the box office to purchase a ticket is available at http://www.texasshakespeare.com/.)
The Texas
Shakespeare Festival, which was founded in 1986 by Artistic Director Raymond
Caldwell, is now in its 34th consecutive season and is the only professional
theatre in East Texas.
TSF
performances take place in the Van Cliburn Auditorium in the Anne Dean Turk
Fine Arts Center on the Kilgore College campus in Kilgore, Texas.
The
entity hosting the Italy trip raffle is the Texas Shakespeare Festival (TSF) Foundation
which is now in its 25th year of providing fundraising and volunteer
support, along with the TSF Guild, for the Texas Shakespeare Festival.
The TSF
Foundation was incorporated in 1994 as a not-for-profit 501c3 and is managed by
a 19-member volunteer Board of Directors which is comprised of civic, business,
and community leaders from throughout the East Texas region. The Foundation’s sole purpose is to raise
funds and provide volunteer services and community outreach to support the work
of the Texas Shakespeare Festival and to provide a solid base to continue to
build for the TSF’s future.
Christina
Anderson, President of the TSF Foundation Board of Directors, shared, “The TSF
Foundation is very honored to support the important cultural, artistic, and
educational work that the Texas Shakespeare Festival does for our East Texas
region and beyond. Since 1986, the TSF
has provided superb, live productions of masterpieces, musicals, and other
great plays produced and performed by theater professionals who travel from New
York, Los Angeles, and throughout our nation each year to work in the summer
festival in Kilgore.”
Ms.
Anderson added, “We’re also very grateful to the individual and corporate
contributors who have supported the work of the TSF and the educational TSF Roadshow
for more than three decades, plus the countless volunteers, as well as other
East Texas foundations who have donated generously, including the Rosa May
Griffin Foundation which has supported the Texas Shakespeare Festival since its
inaugural year.”
Ms.
Anderson also underscored the deep appreciation that TSF and the TSF Foundation
and Guild have for the strong, valued, mutually-beneficial partnership they
have with Kilgore College through these many years.
The Texas
Shakespeare Festival is truly a model for a successful collaborative
effort. TSF is a collaborative effort
between the Festival, the TSF Foundation and Guild, and Kilgore College.
Kilgore
College, where the TSF is in residence, donates financial and in-kind
contributions (including use of the Van Cliburn Auditorium) which amount to
approximately 30% of the cost of the TSF each year.
The TSF
Foundation raises money to support the operation of the TSF and the Guild, through
its dues and volunteers, takes care of the hospitality of the acting company
while they’re in Kilgore. The work of the TSF Foundation and Guild accounts for
another 30% of the annual cost of the Festival.
The
remaining 40% of the revenue needed to produce the summer Festival each year is
made through ticket sales and programming by the Texas Shakespeare Festival
itself.
Dr. Brenda
Kays, President of Kilgore College, echoed the sentiment with regard to the
collaboration between Kilgore College, TSF, and the TSF Foundation and Guild. “Nothing worth achieving is ever achieved in isolation,” Dr. Kays
shared. “Partnerships have allowed the Festival to continue its rich tradition
of excellence and to flourish. Proof that the Texas Shakespeare
Festival is a valued component of the East Texas Arts Community lies in the
extraordinary collaboration that exists between the College and the TSF
Foundation and Guild.”
Funds
raised by the TSF Foundation and TSF are used not only to assist with
productions, but also to purchase needed equipment that is used by both TSF and the Kilgore
College Theater Department. In addition, costumes, props, and scenery made by the
TSF professionals each summer are frequently used by the Kilgore College
Theater Department for their productions during the school year.
Mathew
Simpson and Meaghan Simpson, Associate Artistic Directors for the TSF, also
serve as adjunct instructors of Kilgore College theater courses and guest
directors for KC theater productions. They have also reinstated and expanded
the very popular TSF Roadshow. The TSF
Roadshow provides valuable educational experiences and performances for more
than 17,000 students in elementary and secondary schools throughout Texas. Working with these students, in connection
with the Roadshow, assists Kilgore College with recruitment possibilities.
The
summer raffle is just one of the fundraising activities spearheaded each year
by the TSF Foundation. This year’s Italy
trip is co-sponsored by A.P. and Susie Merritt of Kilgore and Richard and
Christina Anderson of Marshall.
Raymond Caldwell, Founder and Artistic Director of the Texas
Shakespeare Festival, shared, “The Festival could not survive without the vital
support of Kilgore College, the TSF Foundation and Guild, and our loyal
patrons. This year’s raffle for a trip to Italy is a major fundraiser to help
the Festival accomplish our important annual fundraising goals. We thank
everyone for their support.”
In
addition to the summer raffle, individuals, businesses, and other foundations
wishing to make a contribution to the TSF Foundation throughout the year can
send a tax-deductible donation to the TSF Foundation at P.O. Box 2788, Kilgore,
Texas 75663.
The 2019 Texas Shakespeare Festival summer season continues through July 28, with matinee and evening performances from Thursday through Sunday. Box office (903) 983-8601.
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