Tuesday, January 31, 2017:   Who IS the conductor on this Train Wreck Anyway?
Prior to his election, it took very little thought to conclude that Donald Trump wasn't anywhere close to being Presidential material. So for those of us who didn't vote for him, it is no surprise that he is nothing more than a paper president and a puppet of the far right wing.

But if The Donald is not in charge, who is really running this great country of ours right now? Why it's none other than Steven Bannon, darling of the far right crazies. This should scare the hell out of anyone who is paying attention. He jokingly refers to himself as Darth Vader. I actually believe that he sees the fictional Darth as a personification of himself.

With each new day of the Trump administration, Bannon's power and influence grows. If Bannon is not stopped and stopped soon, this country will move so far to the right that we will make the fascists states of last century look tame. Funded by the likes of the Koch brothers and the Betsy and Dick Devos show and led by Bannon, the right is hell bent on cannibalizing our democracy with the battle cry - "Just remember it is rape, pillage, and then burn".

Wake up America and look at what's happening to your government. Have we focused our schools on STEM so much and so diminished our history curriculum that we have forgotten Nazi Germany? Hitler surrounded himself with a small clique of fanatical, ruthless henchmen - a violent group of outsiders who rose to power in the Third Reich and established the political and economic institutions of legitimized terror. Do you really think that can't happen here?

And for those of you who are Second Amendment radicals, do your really think that these fascists yahoos won't see you as a threat and take your beloved guns even if they have to pry them from your cold, dead hands?

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana

Monday, January 30, 2017:   The Frump and the Environment
Clearly The Donald lives in his own reality. Despite overwhelming proof and just frickin common sense, the Frump has called human-caused climate change a "hoax".

So since the Frump is supposedly a "great businessman", let's look at this from a business standpoint. They just raised the initiation fee for a membership at the Trump Mar-a-Largo resort to $200K. Last I checked, the resort sits in the middle of a little strip of land in the Atlantic Ocean just off the Florida Coast. Not sure about anyone else, but I think you would have to be really stupid to buy a Mar-a-Largo membership because as the oceans continue to rise in the Frump future, the whole place will be underwater and worthless.

Now you would think the Frump would want to protect his investment – especially since he has the entire Federal government at his disposal. Instead, what does he do, he nominates E. Scott Pruitt a friend of big oil as the head of the EPA. It doesn't take much thought to predict the future of the EPA (and the ocean levels) given that E. Scott sued the agency more than a dozen times during his tenure as Oklahoma Attorney General and who apparently doesn't believe that human activity is to blame for global warming. Hum, maybe the Frump can get illegal immigrants in South Florida to build a dike around Mar-a-Largo.

All of this proving once again that the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Saturday, January 28, 2017:   Make America White (sorry, Great) Again
Well the Frumster has added another dark chapter to his executive order book - suspending entry of refugees into the U.S. for 4 months and Syrian refugees indefinitely. Oh, but wait. There is more. He also suspended immigration from seven Muslim nations unless you are a Christian from one of those nations – then you get priority for a U.S. Visa.

His next order will likely have the U.S. Park Service remove the "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" written at the base of Ms. Liberty

His whole vetting issue is bullshit. We already have the most comprehensive vetting in the world and he can't tell immigration what more they can do to improve it. He probably thinks immigration officials should "waterboard" everyone in a refugee family as part of the vetting process. He seems believe torture is fine.

I think the Frumster needs to do two things. First read the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and then spend a couple of weeks living in tent at a Syrian refugee camp with the wife and kids.

Amendment I: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Friday, January 27, 2017:   The Proxy President
Under the laws and constitution of the United Sates, Donald Trump is president. That being said, he was appointed by the Electoral College not elected by the people. That's just fact. He lost the popular vote, but because our system is flawed and archaic, Trump is now president.

If there is one conclusion that we can draw from Mr. Trump's first days in office, it is clear that the man is not competent enough to lead this county. Sadly he has surrounded himself with monsters, and they are moving in for the kill with Trump's strategist, Steve Bannon, leading the pack of fascist jackals.

The Republican Party, through lies, manipulation, and exploitation, has taken this great democracy taken to its knees. We have reached a critical point and our history and it is essential that we fight this fascist menace with all of means at our disposal. At the center of this fight is a free and independent press.

"Educate ignorance, reward excellence, and severely punish stupidity." -Anonymous, TFTD-L: January 27, 2017

Wednesday, January 25, 2017:   The Demise of Democracy by Executive Order
"The power to do good is also the power to do harm." -(Milton Friedman) And absolute power, leads to irreparable harm.

American democracy is on life support and it just a matter of time before Trump and the Republican controlled congress pulls the plug. We are watching our minority president undo years of good work and gloat about it. The United States has gone over the cliff and when we hit bottom, it will be a disaster. Our only hope is that there will be some Republican legislators who will have the intestinal fortitude to take a stand with their brethren on the Democratic side of the aisle and stop this insanity.

Monday, January 23, 2017:   The Trump Presidency
A fool and his democracy are soon parted.

Friday, January 20, 2017:   The Trump Coronation
We have begun the long descent into Republican hell.

Saturday, January 14, 2017:   Tweets
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to tweet and remove all doubt.

Monday, January 9, 2017:   The 45th President of the United States
A white, Anglo Saxon male who is arrogant, greedy, bigoted, manipulative, misogynistic, narcissistic, sociopathic, and whose tweets reflect the intelligence and maturity of a spoiled 14 year old middle school bully – incredible.

Thursday, January 5, 2017:   DTS
Our minority president elect said he was going to drain the swamp. In fact he has filled the swamp with monsters.

Sunday, January 1, 2017:   Democracy
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. "

— Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Message from the President of the United States Transmitting Recommendations Relative to the Strengthening and Enforcement of Anti-trust Laws"