Blog #95: Veterans Day and Post Election Blues

VETERANS DAY
Amidst all the chatter about President-elect Trump’s transition team, there were scattered stories of “the plain folks of the land” remembering and honoring our military service veterans and members. It would be nice to honor them with more than wreaths and lofty words. It would be wonderful to honor them with strong efforts to achieve a bit more peace and friendship throughout the world. It remains to be seen if the old draft dodger who’s now been elevated to “Commander-in-Chief (ain’t that a kick in the head?) will somehow become a half-decent Prez and work for peace, or anything else worthwhile!

POLITICS
The riot type behavior of some of those protesting the election of Mr. Trump was certainly unfortunate, but thankfully not widespread. It does demonstrate how stupid rhetoric by politicians can encourage bad behavior by some members of almost any group. Much of the “media” helps fan the flames of controversy, simply because doing so sells newspapers, or magazines, or TV shows, or digital platforms of “Social Media” – all in grotesque efforts to sell more advertising! Sure seems our system of politics is getting worse despite our amazing technological inventiveness.

Of course, the protesters have every right, and even duty to demonstrate peacefully when they think our govamint is messing up! Matter of fact it does seem that there was a bit of “messing” during the electoral process:
Post Election Note: The old con man was right all along – the election was rigged……North Carolina eliminated 27 polling places for this election, producing long lines that required voters to wait hours. Other Republicrat-controlled states, freed of Voting Rights Act restrictions, also dramatically cut the number of polling places, including Texas (403 poll closures), Louisiana (103). Alabama (66), and Arizona, which closed 140 of its 200 sites. Slate.com.

WHY ARE WE SO STUPID?
Well, old pap and I are just guessing, but we noticed several of the TV “newscasters” chattering about Facebook supposedly running fake news stories on its platform. Do you recall the old idiom, “the pot calling the kettle black?” The Telly “news,” most notably, of course, good old Fox, those wild and crazy Radio talk shows, and tons of newspapers and magazines are all feeding us a lot of bunk. It’s hard to find a “news” source now-a-days that isn’t powerfully biased or often just utterly incompetent. Old pap and I heartily recommend that you check any “news” through several sources, and of course always consider the “lean” of the sources you are viewing, recalling old Ben Franklin’s sage advice, “believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see!” This quote is also attributed to Edgar Allen Poe, that good old Bawlmer boy, but since it was in one of his stories from around 1845, he may have been quoting, (garsh, plagiarizing?) old Ben.

Oh yes, the CNN kids, we think it was, were also worrying about our momentous cell phone texts being monitored by the Chinese. Boy, old Donald was way ahead of the curve on these dudes, too! Howsomever, if one looks at such a situation with a tad of logic, the question emerges, “what on this green earth could be in those “texts” that would be worth a tinker’s dang to anyone, anyway?”

Oh, BTW, dear young Tucker Carlson has transitioned from the farcical morning Fox “news” to his very own spot on their 7pm “news,” where he continues to pour out the old horse hockey by the ton. It matters not where you fall on the political spectrum, ya gotta love old Rupert and his Fox “news.” While constantly bashing the “mainstream media” for its “bias,” every pundit employed by Fox or invited on its shows is steadily spewing out Republicrat far right propaganda.

THE TRANSITION “TEAM”

This operation is shaping up to be better TV than that scintillating soap opera, “Days of Our Lives,” or even the old 60”s soap, “Peyton Place,” with Kellyanne playing a very credible Stella. Poor old Christie got whacked like a mole by the son-in-law boy as a little pay-back for Chris’s sending his slimy old pappy to the slammer, for a brief visit, 12 years ago. Such juicy drama already!

THE FUTURE??
Hate to call on old Henry again, but he remains clairvoyant as of this moment: “Democracy is the pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.”

Maybe one day “the plain folks of the land” will again elect as our president an honest, decent person who will be a source of pride for our poor old country. You understand….old pap and I still believe in Santa, too.

That’s it for now, pap, nap time, Buster.