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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.
    ―     Rep. John R. Lewis
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On This Day In:
2022 A Little More Each Day
Zappa-ed!!
2021 Every Time It Gets Better
Distant!
2020 I’m Persuaded
2019 Hungry For Trust
2018 Mutual Assistance
2017 The Toughest Job
2016 Congratulations!!
Better Yet, Read!
2015 Even If It Kills Us Slowly
2014 Fun To Play God
Of Anything
2013 Legal (Almost)
2012 Great Scots!
2011 The GI Bill – A Simple History Lesson
Breaking Even

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Never wrestle with pigs.  You both get dirty and the pig likes it.
    ―     George Bernard Shaw
[Former President Donald Trump is a loser, an habitual liar, and a con-artist.  He will never stop lying and his hard-core followers will never give up on him.  It is a waste of time, energy and optimism to believe otherwise.  It is time the networks let Trump speak, but broadcast it in tape delay mode AND rebut his lies as soon as they happen.  It does little to no good to point them (the lies) out after a town hall broadcast has finished and you are left a list with more than one rebuttal for each moment the speaker lies.  “Free Speech” means that even liars and fear (hate)-mongers cannot be banned from spreading lies / hate.  It should not mean liars are rewarded by being allowed to continually / sequentially state lies in “real time,” particularly when statements are demonstrably untrue (a provable lie).    ―     kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022 Threat Calculus
7 (And 6) – 40
2021 Questioned By Life
If There’ll Come A Time
2020 Trying To Grow Pearls?
2019 Instantly Turned
2018 Sitting
2017 No Right Way
2016 Still Ticklish
2015 Maybe Sooner Than You Think
2014 The Path Of Mastery
2013 Love’s Ignorance
2012 Here’s To Enjoyment
2011 Not Just The Facts, Ma’am

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All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.
    —     Mark Twain
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On This Day In:
2022 Guitar Music
Yesterday
2021 Maybe Faith Is Based On Hope
I Want To See You Smile
2020 Thank You (To Those Who Serve)
Hanging In There
2019 Her Job, Too
2018 Just Another Song I Like
Earlier Still
2017 Ten To Go
2016 Unstable Emergence
2015 88
2014 Some One-Liners Are Too Easy
2013 Greatness
2012 Memories Of Arlington
2011 Wake Up

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I like people who aren’t indicted.
    —     Meghan McCain
[Before we all start getting carried away, let’s remember that everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and convicted in a court of law by a jury of one’s peers.
Of course our initial impression is that of guilt because instead of saying:  “I am not guilty!”, former President Trump and his team are saying:
“The judge in this case is biased!”  –  Ad Hominem fallacy:  they are attempting to discredit the sitting judge before the case has even been heard, implying he (Trump) cannot get a fair trial with this judge.
“The prosecutor is conducting a politically based witch-hunt and is an animal funded and supported by Soros!”  –  More Ad Hominem fallacy:  they are attempting to discredit the District Attorney before the evidence is presented to a jury and implying this is not a case of uniform enforcement of law, but rather a politically based, racially motivated case being pushed by someone who is supported by a Jewish cabal.
“You can’t believe Cohen because he’s a convicted perjurer!”,  More Ad Hominem fallacy:  although the descriptive assertion is true (Cohen is a convicted perjurer), but they are attempting to discredit a primary witness by ignoring the fact Cohen lied to Congress at the direction / instruction of his boss (Donald Trump);
and, finally, “What I did isn’t illegal!”  Interestingly, NOT I (Trump) didn’t do it;  but, it is not a crime.  This may be Trump’s ONLY valid argument so far.  We can’t say until we see the indictment and know the factual statements / charges.  Obviously, the Grand Jury found the laws valid and a reasonable probability that Trump had violated those laws.  Note:  the Grand Jury does NOT have to find a probability “beyond a reasonable doubt” to vote FOR an indictment of an individual.
I call this a:  “Snowflake:  Poor Me – I am just an unfairly accused victim” defense.
Only time will tell how much weight these “arguments” carry in a court of law.
In the meantime, let us remember the old legal adage:
If you have the law, hammer the law.
If you have the facts, hammer the facts.
If you have neither the law nor the facts, hammer the table.
    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022 For A While
2021 The Cautionary Tale Of 6 January 2021
When I Needed Sunshine
2020 65K
Burst Buds
Faux News Viewers
2019 Tomorrow’s Bread
2018 Impeach 45: Make America Great Again
2017 Training Shoulders
2016 You Just Have To Care
Day 4 – Blending
2015 My Slow Education
2014 Great Service
2013 You Really Should Wear More Sweaters
Here I Am God
2012 The Serenity Prayer
2011 The Victory Of Life

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A function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute.  It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it invites a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.  Speech is often provocative and challenging.  It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have profound unsettling effects as it passes for acceptance of an idea.
    —     William O. Douglas
From:  Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1
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On This Day In:
2022 Beautiful Curves
2021 Life Is…
Thank You Guardians (OTG)*
2020 Why #DonTheCon Hates, Belittles And Fires Honest Government Employees
2019 What Do You Want?
2018 Wakanda Forever
I’d Be Happy With Another Score (Or So)
2017 In Defense Of A Free Press
2016 Lost Opportunity
2015 Are You Listening Ladies?
2014 Practice, Practice, Practice
2013 A Fist Full Of Confusion
2012 Teaching Faith
2011 The Heart Of Terror
The Proportion Of Gravity And Probability

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Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.
    —     George Bernard Shaw
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On This Day In:
2022 A Reminder Of Pride And Responsibility
2021 And Last Minute Blog Posts
This Boy Just Ain’t Right
2020 Pat, Pat, Pant, Pant
2019 You (Too) Are Related
A Blind Squirrel Finds An Idiot
2018 My Hope
2017 We All Lose
2016 Wants
2015 Let Us Join
2014 Feeling Kept?
Chillin’
2013 The Lucky Few
2012 A Post-Valentine’s Day Message
2011 Risk, Lyrics, Starting Over, And My Trip To The ER
Lucky Choice

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The truth is that a vast restructuring of our society is needed if remedies are to become available to the average person.  Without that restructuring the good will that holds society together will be slowly dissipated…  It is that sense of futility which permeates the present series of protests and dissents.  Where there is a persistent sense of futility, there is violence;  and that is where we are today.
    —     William O. Douglas
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On This Day In:
2022 By Any Other Name (Or Description)
2021 Democracy, Pandemic, Economy And Climate Change
Heaven Is…
2020 Hoping For #46 In January 2021
2019 Interesting, But Not Fascinating
But Try To Eat The Low-Hanging First
2018 Me, Too
2017 Apt Enough?
2016 Now Or Ever
21, Pause, Restart
2015 I Am Shocked, Sir, Shocked…
Lucy & FSND-2
2014 Less Difficult
2013 The Spirit Of Liberty
2012 The Essential Freedom Of Aloneness
2011 A Problem Of Scale
Fred Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
2010 Another Book, Another Jog…

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Man is about to be an automaton;  he is identifiable only in the computer.  As a person of worth and creativity, as a being with an infinite potential, he retreats and battles the forces that make him inhuman.  The dissent we witness is a reaffirmation of faith in man;  it is protest against living under rules and prejudices and attitudes that produce the extremes of wealth and poverty and that make us dedicated to the destruction of people through arms, bombs, and gases, and that prepare us to think alike and be submissive objects for the regime of the computer.
    —    William O. Douglas
Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court
[Resistance / dissent is – probably – already futile…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022 End The Filibuster
2021 Be Creative, Question Assumptions
By No Means
2020 I’ll Eat To That (Gemütlichkeit)
To The Front
2019 #ContinueToResist
Except Willful Ignorance And Prideful Stupidity
2018 More Executive Time For #DumbDonald
2017 Watched The Inauguration
Two Geniuses
2016 Come Dance And Laugh With Me
2015 Looks Good To Me
2014 Desire For The Sea
2013 The Fierce Urgency Of NOW
Happy Inauguration Day!
2012 One Path
Sorrow And Joy
The Seven Year View
2011 Emergent Practicality

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The Constitution and the Bill of Rights we designed to get the government off the backs of the people — all the people.  Those great documents guarantee to us all the rights to personal and spiritual self-fulfillment.  But that guarantee is not self-executing.  As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression.  In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged.  And it is in such a twilight that we all must be most aware of the change in the air — however slight — lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
 
    —     William O. Douglas
 
[Thinking back to the riot at the Capitol Building and the attempted coup by disgraced / former President Trump and his followers, I am reminded that “civilization” (like our liberties) is in a constant struggle with the “jungle” and the jungle never gives up in its struggle to reclaim whatever has been lost.  It is up to each American to support / promote our democracy and Constitutional Republic.  Trump remains an announced candidate for 2024.  The darkness remains at the edge of democracy.    —    kmab]
 
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On This Day In:
2022 Defeated: So Far (Anyway)
2021 Elections Have Consequences
  It’s Cold Way Down There
2020 Fearless Security
2019 I Prefer A Neat Single Malt
2018 Seeking Finer Fruits
2017 Something That Is Absolute
2016 Animate And Encourage
  Out Of Time
2015 In Time
2014 Robust Interconnectivity
2013 What Have We Here?
2012 Tributaries And Eddies
  An Honest Politician
2011 Penultimate
   

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Very few scientists actually plunge into the murky waters of testing or challenging borderline or pseudo-scientific beliefs.  The chance of finding out something really interesting — except about human nature — seems small, and the amount of time required seems large.  I believe that scientists should spend more time in discussing these issues, but the fact that a given contention lacks vigorous scientific opposition in no way implies that scientists think it is reasonable.
    —    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2021 Let Yourself Soar In 2022
Where You’re Concerned
2020 The Most Dynamic Link
Looking Forward To 2021
2019 A Proud Assertion
2018 Ask #45 About Anything
2017 Playing Makes Sense
2016 And Fathers, Sons
2015 My Suspect Confidence
2014 Disguised Blessings
2013 Be
2012 The Only Way to Win
2011 Honest Writing

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Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.
    —    Warren Buffett
[For most of the last 60 years, all we’ve heard from the Republicans is: “Lower taxes on the rich and require everyone to work for their social safety net “benefits” and America will be a “better” place.”  How’s that worked out for the middle and working class American?    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Most Likely Beast
Memories To Last A Lifetime
2020 Meet Unexpected Success
Sweet Love
2019 Curing With Salt
2018 A Politician With Skills
And / Or A Genuine Smile
2017 A Lone, Brave Voice…
2016 Job Security
2015 For I Have Always Lived Violently
2014 We Stand !! (I Stand With George)
Additional Requirements
2013 In The Present Day
2012 Feeling It
2011 Stretching Science

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Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate nonperforming individuals in important jobs.
    —     Peter Drucker
[Here’s looking at you #45-TheLoser…  How else do you explain bankrupting multiple casinos, an airline, a steak company, a vodka company, a bottled water company and a national political party (Republican MAGA’s)?    —    kmab ]
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On This Day In:
2021 Bring In Peace
Glad I Found You
2020 And The Past Is Much Better Than It Used To Be Too
A Winter’s Day
2019 I Just Remember It As Fun
#45: IMPEACHED!!!
2018 Prediction: Morning Is Coming After A Long Night Of #LyingDonald
2017 While Congress Slept
2016 And A Fellow Who Insists On Telling Us He’s Smart?
2015 Curves Ahead
2014 Sitting?
2013 Misperceptions
2012 Essential Experience
2011 Lest We Forget Those Still In Harm’s Way
Sound Familiar?

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I realize that a lot of people feel that speaking out against unions is almost:  ‘Un-American.’  I remind them:  not all of America is unionized — in fact, the vast majority of Americans are not — and glad about it.
Some people fear that if the unions were to vanish, the labor situation would return to the way it was in the beginning, with child labor and sweatshops.  I agree with them.  Large employers do tend toward unscrupulous behavior when nobody is looking over their shoulder.
So, what the bottom line here?  I would like to see more honesty in business — at both ends of the table.  Honesty in U.S. business appears to be at its lowest ebb in history.
There are a number of reasons for that.  When political leaders do not demonstrate honesty, when people lie constantly in the media — everybody gets used to “The Big Lie” as a way of life.  At that point, honesty becomes a quaintly outmoded concept — nobody wants to be honest anymore, because if they are, they might finish last.
I would say that today, dishonesty is the rule, and honesty the exception.  It could be, statistically, that more people are honest than dishonest, but the few that really control things are not honest, and that tips the balance.
    —     Frank Zappa
From his book:  “The Real Frank Zappa Book
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On This Day In:
2021 Momentary Offering
Happy Noise
2020 No Crumbs
Too Many Detectives On This Case
A New Day Is Coming
2019 Or In This Case – What’s Wrong
2018 Just Passing Through
2017 True Torture
Happy Thanksgiving – 2017 !!
2016 Overtaken
2015 Alone Praying
2014 A Full Man
2013 Off Defending The Universe
Taking Precautions
2012 Never, Never, Never
2011 Testing 1, 2, 3

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For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes.
    —     Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021 These Days Rather Loosely Held
Harvest Time
2020 Why I’m Happy
The Wind In My Face
2019 I Think Impeachment Is Another Test #45 Has Already Failed
2018 Second Chances – Rice, Now Trees
And Then You Have To Start Training Again
2017 Small Hands, Small Grasp
2016 Two Murrow’s
Election + 1 Week
2015 Not Mine, Anyway
2015 South By South East
2013 Don’tcha
2012 I Hear A Distant Thunder
2011 A Poison Tree

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My rule is always to do the business of the day in the day.
    —     Arthur Wellesley Wellington
[If you haven’t already voted early, please vote today.  The Democracy you save, may be ours!    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Closer To Understanding
On My Knees
2020 Profit From Ongoing Disintegration
I’m A Dreamer
2019 Even When We Have A Criminal / Dangerous / Incompetent President
2018 But It Keeps Trying
Blue Wave, But Not Blue Tsunami
2017 The Promise At Risk
2016 Or As Will Come In Time
2015 It Is Another Beautiful Day At The Red Pony Bar And Continual Soiree…
2014 Days And Years
2013 Currency And Transport
2012 Something Which Did Not Exist Before
2011 True Magic

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