As our dear legions of readers may have noticed, old pappy and I have been trapped in what might be called “a fog of war,” or maybe “a blue funk” for a few weeks, causing a lack of communication on our part. There seems to be so much preposterous stuff going on that it’s hard to get your arms around all of it.
Of note, as the totally feckless 113th Congress adjourned, was passage of a 1,600-page, 1.1 Trillion Dollar Cromnibus spending bill which the President has signed into Law. The term “Cromnibus” representing a combination of a “continuing resolution” and an “omnibus spending” measure, a couple of tricks which our enlightened legislators have used for a while now in place of actually preparing and passing a budget by which our government would operate. The “Cromnibus” is supposed to fund the govamint for the next 9 months, with the exception of the Homeland Security Department which only got money to last until next February 27th. (What? Are they mad at airport congestion? No, they’re just trying to stop the old Prez’s immigration moves.)
Now, how does it sound for the leader of the free world to be only able to plan ahead for 9 short months?
Gee, we used to make fun of China’s 5 Year Plans, and now they are steadily buying up the good old U.S.of A. We commented on the storied old Waldorf Astoria going just a couple weeks ago.
Well, so much for the knuckleheads down in Washington. There is little hope for any reformation in that town with the current (and immediate future) players.
SO, HAPPY NEW YEAR, KIDDOS!
We’ve got a little less than 22 months until the next elections. Already, the “Parties,” Republicrats and Demoblicans are frantically considering their presidential contenders. Of course, this is in addition to constantly gerrymandering the election district boundaries where they can to ensure their respective congressional candidates the best chances for success.
On the Dem’s side, good old Hillary has been duly anointed “Queen,” but their prognosticators are concerned that folks may tire of her by election time, which is a fair bet. There’s talk of “drafting” Senator Elizabeth Warren, but she claims she is not interested, and that’s a reasonable position for her to take since those doing the talking only want a sparring partner to sharpen up old Hill’s punches.
More on the good Senator later.
Across the aisle, as the commentators are want to say, we have a whole bloody menagerie of potential presidential hopefuls. Jeb Bush, who certainly has that name recognition thing, has made an early entry to the fray, and his fellow past governor, former Baptist minister, past presidential contender, and (now former) TV impresario, Mike (God put me on earth for a reason) Huckabee seems to be just a few steps behind. From there, you have another stable of cranks, wackos, and even a serious dude or two, probably including poor old Mitt, who got no respect after 2012. Anybody heard what The Donald is up to these days?
Hence, interminable absurdity may be forecasted, but my old pappy and I still believe there may be a slim chance for real change leading us back to a reasonable facsimile of Democracy. Attentive readers may remember that back in my blog #32, I mentioned that previous attempts at establishing a third political party in our good old U.S.ofA. didn’t go all that well, although in ’92 old Ross Perot did manage to pull almost 19 percent of the popular vote. That old boy has some good ideas, but despite spending a bunch of his own money campaigning, the combination of the two party system and his somewhat quirky delivery “done him in.”
I also noted in Blog #32 that almost two-thirds of eligible voters never made it to the polls in our recent Mid-Term elections. Well, old pappy was reading some silly polling numbers again, and, heavens to purgatory, if the old Gallup pollsters didn’t discover that 58 percent of us good old Amuricans think a third political party is needed because Republicrats and Demoblicans “do such a poor job.” Now, ain’t that a kick in the head? Apparently, the number of people too turned off to vote approximates the number who MIGHT support a third party.
Dang! This old hound dog would love to believe that such a thing is still possible in our poor old country. With the literal tons of greenbacks pouring into the political races, could a true grass-roots effort succeed? Well, we’ll never know if someone doesn’t try.
Consider a few more polling numbers (keeping in mind, of course, that “polling” is not even close to an exact science): Still, 63% of Americans disapprove of the President’s handling of the economy, also 63% don’t like his work on Foreign Policy, and, finally for now, 65% say the outgoing congress was the worst they’ve seen in their lifetime! No wonder we are so despondent!! Maybe we are just a bunch of gripping old fools, who knows? More likely, it is the misinformation being spoon fed to our gullible citizenry every day by the likes of Fox News. The rest of the “cable news” isn’t much better – if you were into “conspiracy theories,” you’d think it was a communist plot.
Whatever the causes of our apparent unhappiness, old pap and I feel there is hope if we can try to see the “Big Pitcher,” as one would say back in Charm City where pappy and I used to live. We believe that with so many citizens disliking our status quo, now is not the time to continue encouraging the ongoing battle between our existing, obviously inept political parties. Nay, now is the time for bold new action in the political arena, and if you refer back to my blog # 29, you will see my choice of the person to lead such action: Senator Elizabeth Warren.
In blog #29, I recommended the Senator’s autobiographical book, A Fighting Chance, which in our view describes the kind of leadership we desperately need. Hopefully, the people urging Senator Warren to enter the Demoblican primary contest in 2016, will reconsider and, instead, urge her to lead an effort to form a new party – beholden to the people.
This young lady, Elizabeth Warren, is too valuable a national asset to be merely used as a foil for dear old Hillary!
Well, that’s our pitch for today!
However, we can’t leave without recognizing Wednesday’s tragedy in Paris. We appear to be at a point in history where the age-old animosities among religions and other ideologies is now affecting the entire world. Thank the internet for spreading the word. Unfortunately, that “word” is not the one about love and peace (the good side of the religions), but all about hate and distrust, the dark, usually unspoken side of the practice of religions. Yet another area where immediate change is urgently needed!
Meanwhile, over here in the colonies, our consumption-driven super-shoppers are cheerily carrying on in a mode those good old Charm City folk might call, “going hog wild,” and have fostered a whole new “subscription box” industry. If you’re not really into consumerism big time, you may not have even heard of this little farce. Google it! If this one doesn’t choke you, the game may be over!!
Man, talk about exhaustion:
Try to keep warm!
Bus & pap
Buster's Two Cents 
Happy new year!
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