Why We Must Vote #45 Out

In my humble opinion, non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.
—    Mahatma Gandhi
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On This Day In:
2019	Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping
	Public Ridicule For Office Holder
2018	And Flights Of Fancy
	Dodgers Lose 2nd Consecutive World Series!!
2017	By Their Acts Thy Shall Know Them
2016	Remembering
2015	One
2014	Sure Experiments And Demonstrated Arguments
2013	Irrational Complacency
2012	Why Criticize?
	Giants Sweep 2012 World Series With Game 4 Win (4 To 3)!!!
2011	Saying Just Enough
2010	Giants Win Game 2 Shutout of Rangers – 9 to 0!!!

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Reminds Me Of #LyingDonald

Half the lies they tell about me aren’t true.
—   Yogi Berra
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On This Day In:
2019	The Earth’s Breath
	Family Visit
2018	Forests, Shorelines And Mountain Paths
2017	Reach Down
2016	And Women When You Are 59
2015	Intersections, Explorations And Relationships
2014	[!(±*=)/≠], [!<]
	Orange October (XI) – Giants Win Game 5 (5 To 0)!!!
2013	Hard To Deserve
2012	Cloudy Between Games
	Admiration, n.
2011	One, Two, Three – Blink

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Trust But Verify

Joe / Kamala:  Signed, sealed, delivered!  I’m yours!!!
2020 Ballot Received!!
Thank You to:  United States Postal Service, Contra Costa County Elections Board / Registrar of Voters & California Secretary of State!!!  Now let’s get to counting…
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On This Day In:
2019	With Faith
2018	Spiritual Matter
2017	Until He’s Elected President…
2016	Reasonable Discounts
2015	Poem For A Friend
2014	A Very Unusual Mind
2013	Just Lucky
2012	The Undeveloped Child
2011	What Is Your Canvas?
2010	Giants Win Games 3 & 4 – One Away From World Series!!

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#CryBabyDonald Is Too Human

To err is human; to blame it on the other guy is even more human.
—    Bob Goddard
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On This Day In:
2019	With Faith
2018	Spiritual Matter
2017	Until He’s Elected President…
2016	Reasonable Discounts
2015	Poem For A Friend
2014	A Very Unusual Mind
2013	Just Lucky
2012	The Undeveloped Child
2011	What Is Your Canvas?
2010	Giants Win Games 3 & 4 – One Away From World Series!!

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Make Voting A Habit

Habits are like a cable.   We weave a strand of it every day and soon it cannot be broken.
—   Horace Mann
[If you are registered:  VOTE!!  If you are not currently registered, see if your state will still let you register.  If not, see if they will let you register and vote on the same day.  Voting is your chance to be heard!  Take the time to learn about your local issues and candidates and vote down ticket as well as for the President.  You vote ONLY counts IF you actually cast a vote.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2019	2019 49ers Season Starts 5-0!!
	Will Any Republican Senator Vote For Impeachment?
2018	VOTE – We Need A Wave
2017	Soothe, Inspire And Recharge
2016	Aren’t We?
2015	Cold Embrace
2014	Delightful
2013	Apprenticeship
2012	Curtain Rods
2011	A Living Force
2010	BART Rides – A Tipping Point

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Choice

“Are you a socialist?” Ted Turner asked Carl Sagan.  “I’m not sure what a socialist is,” Sagan replied.
But I believe the government has a responsibility to care for the people,” Sagan said.
“I’m talking about making people self-reliant, people able to take care of themselves,” he continued.  “There are countries which are perfectly able to do that.  The United States is an extremely rich country, it’s perfectly able to do that.  It chooses not to.  It chooses to have homeless people.”
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On This Day In:
2019	He Claims It’s Fake News And Spies
2018	Mine, Too
2017	Who’s Turn Is It Now?
2016	Before You Vote In November…
2015	Two Faithful Thoughts
2014	Love Light
	Orange October (III) – Giants Advance To National League Championship Series (NLCS)
2013	Nothing Ridiculous
2012	Keeping Faith
2011	Summon Us, Don’t Criticize Us
2010	Obama’s Wars – Book Review
	Game Two – Hearbreaking Loss

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Insect Instinct

Last night (Wednesday 7 September 2020), we had our Vice-Presidential debate.  During the debate, a fly landed on the current VP’s hair as sat there for a couple of minutes while he spoke.  See the image below…
My question is:  How is it that even the common American fly knew which side of the debate was full of sh*t?
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On This Day In:
2019	Bigger Hearts
2018	Signaled Progress
2017	No Progress, But Still Unreasonable
2016	Notes Unsaid
2015	Still Seeking (Believe It Or Not)
2014	Guidelines For Bureaucrats
2013	Failing At Normalization
2012	Are You An Expert?
2011	Joy!

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#45: White House Turnover

I never blame myself when I’m not hitting.  I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats.  After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?
—   Yogi Berra
[Come 3 November, WE’LL get the chance to change bats.  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2019	Two Peace
2018	The Sensation Of Human Intimacy
2017	One Night In A Thousand Years
2016	A Considerable Amount Of Work
2015	Panzer Soldier
2014	Babies (I)
2013	Patriotic == Tell The Truth
2012	30 Days To Go
2011	Altering The Course

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#45: Or All-Consuming Greed

Most people would succeed in small things if they were not troubled with great ambitions.
—   Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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On This Day In:
2019	Not Personal
2018	Preference For Irrationality
2017	All At Once
2016	One Of My Vices
2015	The War Lord
2014	Orange October (II) – Giants Win NLDS Game 2 In 18 Innings (2 to 1)!!
	Acknowledging Doubt
2013	Fulfilled Acceptance
2012	Error Is Tolerated Here (So Far)
2011	In Defense Of Pain

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The Main Thing: Vote!

No one has the right to sit down and feel hopeless.  There’s too much to do.
—   Dorothy Day
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On This Day In:
2019	A Big “IF”
2018	Committed To Thinking
2017	More Pictures From My (Family) Retirement Party
	A Fondness For Sins
2016	Are You Waiting?
2015	The Future Myth
2014	Hands
2013	Because You Have Lived
2012	47%
2011	Conservative Values: Low And Lax
2010	A Non-Zero Sum Game
	What If “c” Isn’t A Constant?
2009	Pictures from UCLA trip…

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Voting Has Consequences

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.
—   Freya Stark
[I cannot understand how anyone who loves this country can vote for #IncompetentDonald who has spent the last four years running this country into the ground.  MAGA???   Give me a break!!  He claims “He” rebuilt the National Defense?  With his personal income taxes paid of $750 in two of the last four years and NOTHING at all in 11 of the last 18 years reviewed by the New York Times?  IF the American military is any better off than it was four years ago, it’s not because HE has contributed to it!  VOTE like our country depends on YOUR vote, because it DOES!   —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2019	Mutually Exclusive
2018	Basic Rights
2017	Thoughtful Attitudes
	Surprise!!
2016	The Bell Tolls
2015	It Is What It Is
2014	What Have You Learned (Gently) Lately?
	Orange October (I)
2013	Ignore The Man Behind The Curtain
	For A Time
2012	What Are Your True Measurements
2011	What It Is All About
2010	The Magnificent Seven
	Giants Fever!!

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Let The Landslide Begin!!

I VOTED FOR JOE BIDEN!!
Avalanche = Landslide + 1
I hope President Trump FULLY recovers.  I don’t want to see the end of Donald Trump (per se).  I want to see the end of “Trumpism”, and all it’s greed, racism, sexism and anti-Democracy authoritarianism.  Please, my fellow Americans – return us to a nation of laws and remove this offense from “The People’s House“.
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On This Day In:
2019	Somebody’s Watching You
2018	First From Within
2017	Or Vote Against You
2016	Cupid Must Say It Too
2015	Some Of This And A Pinch Of That
2014	Consensus Is Only One Side
2013	Not Ought
2012	If You Want To, If You Have Something To Offer
2011	I See Lots Of Fools
2010	Orange Inside!!
	And The Band Played On…
	Happy New Year!!

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3 November Is Coming!

If you’re going through hell, keep going.
—    Winston Churchill
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On This Day In:
2019	Senate Republicans: Impeachment – Because It Is Right!
	Dave’s Not Here, Man!
	Mixing Business And Pleasure
2018	Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct
	HF2: 1940’s Grapes
2017	Proof Sits In The Oval Office
2016	Tragic Determinism
2015	Maybe It Should Be Clearer
2014	Make It Your Strength
2013	Four Score
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
	How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
	It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review)

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Nothing New Here

“Too Much and Never Enough” (2020©)  — book review
Today’s review is for the recently released family psychoanalysis / gossip tale concerning “Uncle Donald” aka: President Donald Trump, the Trump family and the “House”.  The full title is: “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man“, and is written by Mary Trump, PhD., (the President’s niece) who happens to be a trained psychologist.  Mary is the daughter of Donald’s older brother Fred Trump, Jr. With Fred Sr being their father.
According to this story, Trump Sr. wasn’t happy with Trump Jr., feeling Jr. was too weak.  Sr. felt like he was a tough guy and he wanted his heir apparent to be tough, too.  From the sound of it, Sr.’s father was a jerk (a$$hole is a better description), and he passed it down to Sr. who tried to pass it down to all of his children.  It sounds as if Sr. was mostly successful with all of his children (with the possible exception of Jr.), but since the story is being told by Jr.’s daughter, we can’t really be sure.  After all, Jr. threatens his wife repeatedly – at least once with a firearm – and he dies young from alcohol abuse.  Anyway, as near as we can tell from this book, Sr. passed down the coward, liar, cheat, con man, gene to all of his children.  And, by the by, Sr.’s wife was no saint either.  The result of all this is that Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany all seem to be cut from the same poor cloth.  It’s too early to say anything about Barron (the President’s youngest son).  Perhaps his mother has saved him, but it doesn’t seem likely as she is not spoken of well in the book (or in the news) either.
Is this book any good?  Does it shed like on the President, i.e. does it help explain his actions?  Is it worth the time and money to read?  Yes.  No.  And, so-so.
This book is a surprisingly good read.  I fully expected the author to be as incompetent as the rest of the family is presented.  She is not!  Her writing style is excellent and the reader (me) feels like you are right there with her as scenes play out.
Does the book “explain” Donald Trump.  NO!  I started the book knowing (as much as you can “know” anything about a person you’ve never met) that Donald Trump is (in no particular order): a liar, a con artist, a terrible business man, a coward, a cheat – taxes, business and personal, and (IMHO) a narcissistic sociopath with delusions of grandeur.  Basically, he is unmatched as a “LOSER” and the fact he happened to become President and arguably the most powerful person on the planet will never change the BIG “L” which will ultimately be assigned to him by history.  In a very strange way, he has proven himself to be the “greatest of all time”, after all.  I’m just not sure you want to be the GOAT for losers.
At a certain level, reading this book “almost” creates a sense of sympathy for the family.  BUT, then one realizes that lots of perfectly normal people grew up and out of similar familial issues.  To quote my old Drill Sergeant: “I will listen to your reasons, but I will not accept your excuses.”  He is what he is and his upbringing neither excuses his current actions nor does it absolve him of his past ones.  With all the wealth and opportunities he was granted by birth, he has chosen his path(s) and they have always been those of the lazy, the ignorant and the corrupt.
Is this book worth the time and money to read?  If you don’t know anything about the President and his family history, I guess it will have some limited value.  There are lots of particular details about the older brother (Fred Jr.) which I didn’t know.  I also didn’t know the President’s mother was as bad as she is presented.  Other than that, though, most everything has been on the news (especially since the book’s release).  If you don’t watch the news, I guess you may learn something.
Final recommendation: moderate.  This is a surprisingly well written book, a very fast read, but I’m glad I didn’t buy it.  I hope the author wins her suit against Donald and his sister, who both appear to be crooks (based on the book).  This book IS a good gossip read – if that’s what you’re into.  (And, sometimes I am, too.)
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On This Day In:
2019	Love And Leave
2018	Smiling If Not Laughing
2017	Chilled And Smooth
2016	But Sometimes You Have To Stand In Front
2015	The Key Shift
2014	Remember ISIS / ISIL?
2013	What Have You Done Lately?
2012	B8
2011	I’m Definitely Not In Control

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Talk To Me

What’s Going On?
Favorite Line(s):
Picket lines and picket signs
Don’t punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what’s going on
What’s going on
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On This Day In:
2019	Love And Leave
2018	Smiling If Not Laughing
2017	Chilled And Smooth
2016	But Sometimes You Have To Stand In Front
2015	The Key Shift
2014	Remember ISIS / ISIL?
2013	What Have You Done Lately?
2012	B8
2011	I’m Definitely Not In Control

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