Consider a side effect of the lawlessness, cruelty and disrespect for human rights thath has now become the signature of ICE, local Police, the National Guard, and even the United States Marine Corps since they have been deployed on American soil in violation of The Posse Comitatus The issue I have yet to see addressed anywhere is the long-term impact on our citizenry. It has been documented all over the world, in many different times and conflicts, that when inhumane tactics are used on a civilian population, that population becomes radicalized and prone to see counter violence as the only...

Consider a side effect of the lawlessness, cruelty and disrespect for human rights thath has now become the signature of ICE, local Police, the National Guard, and even the United States Marine Corps since they have been deployed on American...

THE WORLD AS IT IS, based on facts, is a pretty scary place. A way to help wrap your brain around that one, so it’s less encumbered by one’s own relative biases, or comforts and discomforts, is to imagine yourself...

(After thanking attending officials and guests.) Before getting into the meat of my remarks, I am compelled to address some members of the House and Senate who have displayed themselves as toadies and accomplices to a gutless wonder who, in...

SENATOR Excuse me, Ah’d like to speak to the Secretary of State.SECRETARY: At your service, suh. SENATOR: You probably don’t know who ah am...SECRETARY: You that Senator from South Carolina, raht? SENATOR: Ah thank you foah the recognition.SECRETARY: What can...

Here is a very simple and irrefutable way for anyone to understand how the US, under 45GOP's minuscule but deadly-venomous thumb, is doing with Covid-19 relative to other countries. For example, the mortality rate in the US per million on...

Seems like some at NASA are seeking the "Christian God who founded America" within dark matter and energy Lately I've been following the international effort to find evidence for dark matter which, together with dark energy, makes up almost 95% of...

On Friday, April 10, the Queen of Denmark made a set of startling comments about anthropogenic climate change that go completely against the scientific consensus. And this came at a most unfortunate time in Denmark’s up to recent abiding by...

If ever you have been convictedOf a major crime,Or at least once depictedAs one who’d steal a dime, Fear not, dear lad – or lass, perhaps,Your hero has arrived.He’ll spring one or all of you chaps,Whether or not you have...

The Demo debate in VegasWas a circle firing squad.They sounded like Andy and Amos,With no one deserving the nod. Trump must have been incredulous --Just wait for the tweet --All of that intermural fussTo his ears is music sweet. Money...

I see him there, But, he’s not bare. My every iteration Will withstand examination. What a snazzy suit, Even without the, “Zoot”. It sets off his prominence O’er his reign of dominance. Watch his trousers bloom; Royal pantaloon. And, that...

In the 1930s, a leader who had been conceded absolute power by conspiratorial legislators and a deceived electorate, went about ridding himself of those he considered personally disloyal. Currently, in Washington, a leader recently granted impunity by equally conspiratorial legislators,...

Shame, shame, Republican Party!You would make Lincoln weep.He was the first who, bold and hearty,Roused the Elephant from his sleep. How dare you -- Senate and Leader, too,Become the dumb Monkey, deaf and blind,That protects a dumb Donkey, and kisses...

TRUMP: Whaddaya mean, we’re impeached? How can Crazy Nancy do that with just Democrats? I’ll take her to the Supreme Court. ALTER EGO: First off, it’s, “You,” not, “We” who are impeached. The Speaker of the House has announced that...

And now for something completely different... So, this is America in the 21st Century. Call me old-fashioned, but when I was growing up back in the day, this country was a major source of pride for most of its citizens....

Since I don’t understand what President Trump says or Tweets most of the time, I certainly cannot understand why people voted for him. At least enough people voted for him in 2016 to sway the Electoral College, even though he...

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is the most talked-about freshman member of Congress in memory. She overwhelmingly defeated a high-ranking Democratic Congressman in the primary, and handily overcame her Republican opponent. Her well-supported, impossible-dream campaign was raucous, rowdy and relative. She brought...

Fellow citizens of the United Sates: We, the four surviving presidents of our nation, have decided to take this extraordinary step because we feel our country currently is in peril, and the constitutional systems seems to be frozen in...

Mr. Tangerine Man, music by Bob Dylan, lyrics and performed by Dady BrothersTo all who are sane in the world and waiting ever more angrily for Nancy Pelosi to Constitutionally ACT, and help save the  Republic for our children

In the process of a major editCOPENHAGENSea level in Copenhagen.  On the heels of the June 5 Danish national election, the capitol of the happiest nation in the world will now take that threat more seriously. The headline on one...

Going ahead with an impeachment process against President Trump will indeed be a scary test of the US Constitution's ability to Check and Balance the three powers of government under perhaps the greatest threat to the Republic since the Civil...

The U.S.A. Trumpet sounds a bit flat.We of the New Millennium don’t worry about that.The very same Trumpet, in times of yore,Has emitted more sour notes than these we deplore. The first, “Yankee Doodle” that ever was played,When the, “Red,...

Based on feedback, I guess I have not made myself clear. So I will attempt one last time to try to define what I mean by civility in political discourse. “Nevertheless I shall persist in trying.”  Lately I have been...

In spite of the current Cold War saber rattling between MAGA and Putin's version of it, I do speculate a bit if this wasn't sort of colluded upon by both parties. Building huge tubes that spurt unimaginable devastation is certainly...

Brexit ain’t no easy exitWhen it’s time to go.E.U. tends to contract a bitWhen you’ve gotta blow. When the Big War’s guns grew silent,Europe was a mess.Then the Reds became a giant.Living was all, “Guess.” Next, their world-takeover started –“Minds,”...

While many Democrats won on November 6th, the candidate I was working for did not. People in my community ask me how I feel about that. Am I sad? Of course, but I am also not in the deep, depressive...

We have just gone through an excruciating few weeks. It was not a political one in the normal sense but more akin to a contact sport, where every spectator was physically affected. It has brought misogynists and chauvinists out of...

There's a lot of hatred for men among the women in this country right now. If you're looking for me to tell you it's unjustified, you won't find it. Nearly every woman I know has suffered some sort of abuse,...

                                                             Are you an accidental antisemite? I’m not talking about dyed-in- the-wool Nazis here. This article addresses only the clueless and those who insist on being clueless.  The motivation for this article was a recent incident with someone I thought a...

It’s been a rough year. On top of whatever personal tribulations we experience we are living in a time of tremendous conflict; tribal identities are really strong and it feels like a molten lava of human emotion could explode at...

They go by many names; Conservative, Republican, right wing, alt-right… But I call them CRAP (Conservative Republicans and Putin). They push bullshit in many forms, economic theories disproven years ago, racial hate, xenophobic statistics, religious bigotry, conspiracy theories, and...

General John J. Pershing, Commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during WWI, authorized a secret communique to be delivered to our French allies. This disturbing description of a disturbed nation is pasted here below. As you will see,...

The polling places stormed will be,As autumn wanes, this year.Two southern states, perhaps, may seeTwo leaves of color queer. The many artists fall does bringTo set the leaves ablaze,Just may decide to do their thing –And, this time, all amaze....

Canada, our neighbor to the north and my place of birth, is a country that is almost our twin, we have the same background, the same type of demographics, the same type of history and a similar type of government....

The Uncle Sam we like to show off – long before he dressed in red, white and blue – is that benevolent, avuncular soul who encompasses all that is good and decent; all that is righteous and upstanding; all that...

What’s with this grand ballet between Vlad and Don?The ballet is Russian, but Don has caught on. Vlad – sometimes, “The Impaler” – is primer danseur, of course.Terpsichore’s quiet, but she is the source. The white swans are aghast, for...

Following the latest NATO-gnashing; the Helsinki hullabaloo; the two-faced tergiversation; and the intolerable invitation; Trump’s predecessors, from FDR on, have found it necessary to weigh in on the first Fifth Column ever organized in the very Oval Office itself! ...

CHECK YOUR COMPASS, AMERICA Too often change comes as a shock, an uncomfortable surprise and though it  clearly has happened and change has arrived,  it often  becomes  something to oppose. I see this happening daily as we ignore the...

Coping with Captain Queeg at the helm Our democratic republic has been undermined, in the glaring light of day, on a world stage, by the very individual who has taken a sacred oath to do the complete opposite of those...

"All the President's Men" has grown bizarre and dangerous beyond anything from Nixon. That was a very different Congress and set of circumstances back then, in a country rather fed up with its youth dying in such a proxy war....

“Ridi, Pagliaccio …” – “laugh, Clown, laugh,”So goes the opera, “I Pagliacci.”We Americans, too clever by half, helplessly are caught in the headlights of the unimaginable antics of our own, (maybe lawfully) elected clown.America is in crisis. Our Constitution is...

A friend asked: “Which do you think is the best course of action for the long-term health of Puerto Rico: maintaining the status quo, becoming a U.S. State, or declaring independence from the United States?” This has long been the...

One of the advantages of being old is that you can clearly remember a different world when ideals like democracy, fairness, and justice were honored as national values and a source of American pride. In the 1950’s the whole concept...

DKD, the mysterious three,All met in Singapore.Donald rushed in;Kim faked, “Thin”;And Dennis, the tattooed whore. DKD, the mysterious three,All have in common this:Donald likes Den;Kim likes Den;And Dennis in Nubian bliss. Once Dennis Rodman donnedHis more than ample frameIn full...

“In all of this, in any of this, there’s been no evidence that there’s been any collusion between the Trump campaign and President Trump and Russia. Let’s just make that really clear. There’s no evidence of collusion.” House Speaker Paul...

Congratulations, NRA, your tenacity in standing your ground and relinquishing not an inch of obstinacy in the face of the most horrendous, senseless, peacetime slaughter of children, women and men going about their daily lives, in such a constant, ominous...

I haven’t written a piece in a while because, well, I have been discouraged and frustrated and sad. It’s difficult to watch family and friends struggle. I wish I could just shrug my shoulders and, ‘meh, not my problem’, move...

Although we finicky Westerners find the Russian game of, “Don’t Hide and Go B-e-e-e-p” or, “Gat in the Mouth” – or, whatever – to be reprehensible, outright, political murder, or an attempt thereof, Russia has been at this for five...

Special message below This Is NRA Country : There’s a boy down the road on a bridge with hisfishing pole   You don’t have to look far, all you gotta do is look aroundWe love the...

Basta! Enough! We’ve reached MLK’s, “Mountaintop.” Let him be. Let’s get to work! Moses had roamed the desert for 40 years with his formerly enslaved people. After descending the mountain with his God-fire-inscribed stones and demolishing the notion of...

MARCH FOR OUR LIVES I admit, I was scared when I got the email- the email that threatened my life and the lives of those around me. For weeks a group of organizers in my community had been planning a...

The March for our Lives Movement (MAROLI) closes upon the nation’s capital, as have myriad other citizens’ interest groups throughout the relatively short life of this republic. This time, there is a difference. MAROLI is not inhibited by time, politics...

Arming Teachers? Yeah I’m not too sure about that one. Sadly here we are again dealing with another school shooting in America. No other nation upon God’s good green Earth has this problem like America, but Hell we’re No....

When I was in Brazil, I voiced my curiosity about the, “Favelas,” the Black slums that populate almost inaccessible, prime real estate in Rio de Janeiro’s highlands. I was told that they were created by runaway slaves who were looking...

  RUSSIA, THE PROGRESSIVES, AND MY NEW PARANOIA I first experienced political paranoia in the 1960’s and 70’s when the FBI really was watching us. This era marked widespread infiltration of organizations and surveillance of individuals dubbed radical and that included Dr....

This weekend the California Democratic Party had it’s Endorsement Convention and it was raucous, exciting, loud, surprising, educational and exciting. In 2010 the state of California passed a measure to enact a “top-two primary which is a type of primary...

I watched the horrible news of the Parkland, Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School unfold on live TV.  I saw the children, as they fled the buildings with hands up – some of them with Valentine balloons in...

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is not sacrosanct. It is, however, decrepit and anachronistic. When I was a teenager in Philadelphia, sometimes while doing delivery chores downtown, I would wander into Independence Hall. There were no...

While in the title I apply Henry II’s allusion to Thomas Becket to mean “Us” and him who dishonors the Oval Office, it is obvious that that same thought haunts the mind of the Evil Interloper with regard to Robert...

I don’t know where to start writing about domestic violence… again. I don’t know how to explain why my emotions are virtually bouncing off the walls of my head… again.  I don’t want to think about my own experiences from...

Guess what? By stopping the machinery of government at will, Congress has us in its thrall. That is not the way it is supposed to be. We chose them to be OUR paradoxically well paid thralls. Speaking of “pay,” their...

My thoughts on the matter of the Russian cyber-attacks are not formed in a vacuum. I do have quite a lot of experience in network security. When I first learned of the Russian intrusion - hacking of the DNC email...

At this year’s Women’s March I started from the end. By that I mean, I stood on the steps of the Capitol and awaited the arrival of the Marchers. I talked with the folks setting up tables and collected information...

Hello, Mr. Trumpster,Your feelings are bare.They come from the dumpster;You don’t really care. You’re his’try reveals you;Your ugly thoughts stain.They’re not red, white and blue;They infect your brain. Your poppa was Klan-bait;Redlines did he draw.He taught you the word, “Hate”;It became your...

A lot has transpired (yes, I know I’ve used this line before) since Dec. 28, 2017 when I wrote “Orange Is The New Whack II” in which I said, “… not a day has gone by without one lie or...

Two raving maniacs,Both armed with nukes --Don’t call them “brainiacs;”Stick to the truth.How did it come to this –In the whole world,Two idiots full of piss,Vinegar swirled,Came to be prominent,Right here on earth,And to be dominant,Lacking in mirth?Is this what,...

A lot has transpired since I wrote the first “Orange is the New Whack” in which I said, “Though I find his illeism (talking about himself in the third person) annoying, it is Trump’s erratic behavior and tyrannical disposition that...

(NOTE: This is a repost of an article originally published May 24, 2017.) Everyone can see that the 45th President of the United States of America has a strange orange hue to his thin skin. And, during the 2016...

Doña Felisa Rincón de Gautier (Doña Fela, for short), was the first woman mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and by extension the first woman mayor of a capital city in the Americas. Doña Fela was Old World-gracious, but as...

The holiday season can be stressful for me and, lately, I’ve been stressed a lot! This year has been one long orange nightmare for me… and our country. Trying to get in the Christmas spirit, I recorded a parody of...

The letter above appeared in our local newspaper’s opinion section: I am sure similar letters appear throughout newspapers all over our country. This is my response to the letter: Socialist Regime? Socialism is when government (tax payers) pays for infrastructure...

The golden dawn, the acceptance of the extreme right into government in Norway, the resurgence of the worst kind of Nazis in the Baltic, Austria & Hungary, Greece - the media romance of France with the front national - these...

(Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions calls a media conference. Since graphically it is impossible to reproduce Mr. Sessions’ very genuine southern drawl – which is personified in his comico-serio name – that fact constantly should be kept in mind while...

I requested a reprint of my below dialog, which appeared in this space two years ago. I did so, not to boast of any great prescience on my part, rather to demonstrate how any one of us easily could have...

Perhaps you have not heard;Mount Rushmore is incomplete.Those guys up there are absurd’They are, all four, at his feet == With, maybe, one exception:Yes, yes, he will allowAbe Lincoln, without objection.He’s one big hero – wow! Unlike the...

Writer’s Note: The real President does not recognize the term, but the attempt to keep up with his rapidly shape-shifting shenanigans is nothing short of, “Chaos” (POTUS is in dialog with his alter ego.) ALTER EGO: Are you nuts?!POTUS:...

How long will the neutered, ninny nincompoops in Congress just sit there in their own excrement, while a raving maniac driver, hauling Super Trailer U.S.A., continues hell-bent for leather down the road to perdition? They, and they alone, hold the...

Homeless person begging along Copenhagen's exclusive Strøget shopping street The gap between the poor and wealthy has suddenly widened like no one has a memory of in Denmark, the world’s 6th wealthiest nation per-capita. Last month, the Danish government...

Leave the Confederate monuments!Adorn them with their sin.Allow them to speak their volumes,Let them hold nothing in. Beside the general on horseback,Place a slave-whipping post.Surely, the general in question won’t mind –In the way of life for which he fought,Of...

A constitutionally potent, minority of Americans went to the schoolyard and chose a peacock of a bully to preside over us. That group of citizens, who had become disillusioned because of a changing economy and a host of subliminal, socio-historical...

There is a psycho in a triangle.From spike to spike he goes.With a cable show at each angle,The psycho’s eyes don’t close. It’s a pity for the poor creature --The polls have trapped him in.Balanced thought is not his best...

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, Puerto Rico’s government should’ve been put in a straightjacket and interned in the loony bin decades ago. This weekend, June 11, will see yet another...

I was having a typical day, sharing one of the IFZ’s author’s articles (linked HERE so you can see what started this) in different groups and websites and starting to respond to some replies... and then it changed. Not all...

The President of the United States has become a blatant, conscious, agent of the Soviet Union cum Russia. Presidents of the United States of the 20th and 21st centuries, deceased and living, must be spinning, as they lie, sit, stand...

Ivanka, honey, we need to talk. I’d invite you to my home but I have dirty dishes on the counter and there’s dog hair on the couch, sorry, I haven’t had to time clean things up around here because the...

Everyone can see that the 45th President of the United States of America has a strange orange hue to his thin skin. And, during the 2016 campaign, in an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, President Obama even...

This past weekend the California Democratic Party had a convention and election to replace John Burton. This is what I saw. This is my truth. Others may have seen it differently but it is up to them to write their...

Citizen Republican,Who are you?Lincoln, you are not.Somehow, some weird artisan,Outta the blue,Decided to shift the plot. Hail. Republican, they’d shout!Newly born,You latched on to good ol’ Abe.Come, let’s call the heroes out;Sound the horn;We’ll show ‘em how to behave! Elephant-branded,...

Definition of sycophant: Donald Trump on Donald Trump: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters". Peeking behind the Velvet Curtain.... Donald John Trump. Go ahead,...

INTERVIEWER: Mr. President, you have created a big storm by the way in which you so summarily dispatched the FBI Director. POTUS: What’s the big deal? That’s the way to handle a showboater. Both parties hate him, and his fellow...

At this point it is a safe bet that Donald Trump will be impeached or removed by some mechanism from the executive office... In my sweetest fantasy, it would be something like an Independent investigator or the FBI filling...

Long before November of 2016, a political black hole had focused its inexorable attraction upon the individuals who were to comprise the new presidential administration of the United States. The whirling dervish creating that black hole is powered by the...

Yeah, OK. Then there's this. You know those times when someone does or says something and that little voice in your brain tells you, "This is going to take up a lot of your time!" Well, that happened to me...

This week a bill was introduced to and passed the first committee in the California State Legislature, a bill for single payer health for California. SB562. While 45 and Ryan are trying to take health care away from Americans, our...

When Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel invited Ivanka Trump to a women’s world conference in Berlin, she was unaware that she was getting a two-fer: 1) Revenge, and exposure on a world stage of a dangerous, social monster; and 2) the...

We used to have a cat named Patches. He was a cantankerous fat cat, who thought he couldn’t be seen while sitting behind the living room window sheers. He would sit there, cloaked behind his thin veil of virtue, not...

When I first viewed the statue of a defiant little girl in front of the bull on Wall Street I cheered because I felt she shared my vision of Wall Street; a bunch of over paid, arrogant ‘bull-lies’ and was...

Devin Gerald Nunes represents a California congressional district that includes Fresno County. In 1986, there was a short-lived mini-TV series called, “Fresno.” It was a parody of several very successful series of the era. The recent antics of Devin Nunes...

Forget HealthCare – and all other domestic diversions! While we wrangle over non-urgent, national issues, exterior forces have hijacked our presidency --- and by extension are burrowing into the nerve centers of U.S. governmental control! The majority party in congress...

It’s 5:13 am, a full moon is providing enough light to see a deer cross the yard and a slight breeze is tickling the wind chimes and I am awake. I write to you of ‘hope from the trenches’. Since...

Eventually, Donald J. Trump’s perfidy will be revealed. Ceremoniously, he will be dumped from the presidency. (MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow will make sure of that – or die trying!) Those who have the power to do this already are quite aware...

Dear Jane, A mutual friend of ours asked me if I would make an effort to be your friend again a couple of weeks ago and I have been seriously thinking about it. You know me and how I want...

Surfing high upon a Trumpian curl of, “America Made Greatness,” speakers at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) were understandably gleeful. One particular speaker, intentionally or not, managed to unveil a usually subdued aspect of extreme right-wing thought. Judge...

Prologue "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-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door." These...

Scenario: President Trump is agitatedly seated before a bank of TV screens in the Oval Office. Kellyanne is seated on one knee, and on the other is the strident, young brown shirt of the Sunday morning programs. They are mopping...

Nixonian patina;Trumpian tint;The latter slightly green-uhAnd lesser bent. The arrogance? The same stuffWe’ve come to know –The same way certain fish puff,Those they call, “Blow...” “What knows this president, now?”Nostalgia asks.“We want to know when, where, how –Hoping Truth basks.”...

Every single, damn day I wake up and I see some lunacy happening from and related to 45. Every day. Remember the good old days when days, even weeks, could go by and the news surrounding our president was rather...

If the election was not enough to make anyone’s head spin, the aftermath of the election has been atrocity after atrocity. The wall, immigration ban, taking credit for things that were not his doing, a multitude of false information given...

I have a couple of questions I'm hoping my friends can help with. It's something I have been thinking about, on and off, for a couple of years now - but most especially these last few month's. So, I would...

(A single delegate from the majority party of both houses of congress meet in a secret chamber, deep within the bowels of the Capitol Building underground.) SENATOR: Are you sure Putin and Assange are unable to penetrate this facility?REPRESENTATIVE:...

ME: Hello.MUSE: Hi, sorry I haven’t checked in lately. ME: Yeah, I was wondering why you were not sending me copy.. Where are you?MUSE: I’m in my bomb shelter. ME: You’re in a bomb shelter?!MUSE: Yeah ME: What’s that all...

We allowed ourselves to be divided and the enemy won. Time to learn from that mistake and start to take democracy back. It began innocently enough... We had primaries as we do every four years. There were two main...

If my country believes torture is ok, I would question my country’s legitimacy to exist. If someone thinks torture works, when all evidence is to the contrary, they are deluded. If you think torture is ok, you are simply a...

Abigail Adams, inladylike tones Implored them to giveher a break. That was naught toshake up their bones; It fell on ears notawake. Harriet Tubman andSojourner Truth, With nothing to gainby petition, Resorted to acts thatwere then quite uncouth – They...

Sacramento, Women's March January 21, 2017 You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one. It seems John was telling us the truth, that we aren’t alone, that we may indeed; have many, many others who are...

As newly minted POTUS Trump got into the meat cleaver portion of his post-oath-taking peroration, it occurred to me that it would take a brash, insensitive oaf, ignorant of protocol and inter-related world history seriously to tackle head-on the issues...

U.S. Congressional Representative from Atlanta, Georgia John Lewis is a Civil Rights legend. He marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, whose birthday currently is in celebration. Lewis was almost murdered on Alabama’s Edmund Pettis Bridge, and in 1964 was one...

Attesting to the perniciousness of the infected DNA carried by this nation, although he was not born at the time, Sen Jefferson Beauregard Sessions duplicates the same oily, vehement, skin-crawling southern drawl that I recall emanating from the lips of...

Twenty Sixteen, what hath thou wrought?A year of surprising turmoil.The discourse was brisk and savagely fought –Calculated good taste to despoil. Who knew, when he threw down his gauntlet of hate,So full of his ersatz pride;Who knew it endangered...

How many Tweets can Trump the Twitter Twit Tweet Before the Transition Team Tweaks the Twit’s Tweets? (say it three times real fast, then post your own in the comments)

Putin’s Clown (Sung to the tune of “Cathy’s Clown”, in the style of The Everly Brothers) Don't want his lies anymoreDon't want the Kremlin, that's for sureI gag each time I hear his soundHere Trump comes, he’s Putin’s clown I’m...

On inauguration day, this country will in effect be run by a white supremacist clique. That is an undeniable fact. The specifics of actual damage is yet to be seen, but the possibility that there will be none, is close...

Skatingdrome USA was crowded for the competition. Show-off DJT arrived late, but with great fanfare. He donned his skating attire through a non-stop torrent of egoistic bravura. The contestants in the preliminary skate-down regarded him with disdain. – as it...

Image Credit: REUTERS/Andrew Cullen Standing Rock Is Us If you have been laid off due to corporate downsizing. If your job is now being done in another country. If your job is being done by a machine. If your...

Last night 12 sad, angry people entered our local library’s meeting room. We all seemed to have the same look of despair and defeat. “How are you?” we asked each other and the answers were all similar; Depressed. Sad. Disbelief....

Two hundred and forty years ago, a group of gentlemen pledged their, “Lives and fortunes” to a cause that seemed insurmountable and an idea they knew, in their time, to be unobtainable. The cause was won, but the idea has...

This election has left me brokenhearted. Ohio, my home state, was one of the first swing states to fall into the dark pit of acquiescence to totalitarian rule by a divisive, self-absorbed demagogue. As I watched the election results come...

The judge is on the bench. He is wearing a huge sombrero. He has Mexican Revolutionary-style, crossed cartridge belts over both shoulders, with a serape hanging down on one side. Mariachi music is playing, and a packed courtroom is tossing...

The Republican National Convention came to Ohio, July 2016, enticing an evil cadre of cronies who grovel at the feet of the Republican Party’s ‘Macbeth’ - Donald J Trump. Trump, whose political ambitions gave rise to “a tale told by an...

Alright, I’m done crying (well, almost). And I’ve polished off more than one batch of chocolate chip cookies- don’t judge me. I’m through the denial, past the depression, not bothering with bargaining.....yet. So I am now into acceptance. I accept...

We were not invaded. No towers fell. November 9 dawned the same as November 8. What is our problem? Why do we think we spent the last two years squabbling over who is to sit in the Oval Office? After...

When the American Revolution came to an end after the siege of Yorktown, legend has it that General Cornwallis ordered his band to play an old English ballad called “The world turned upside down” as his army came out in...

When Robert Frost was presented with an alternative route, he took, “...the one less traveled.” Poor Yogi Berra, who said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it,” suggested going around in circles, unable to make up...

To get into the mind of a Trump supporter seems like an impossible task at first. However, like their values and sentence structure, it is quite simple. After speaking with over 70 Trump supporters, they are not as excited for...

. A definition of Flim Flam:A trick or deception. A swindle or “confidence game” that involves the skillful persuasion or clever manipulation of a targeted person or group of individuals. Prologue There was a time not so...

Can you believe that effing Comey? Just when I had that delusional SOB on the ropes, ready for the knockout! Then, our brooding FBI chief gets this partisan pang up his kiester and decides on a twofer: salvage his wounded...

  We had a great dad, didn't we? Old George, he really knew how to handle us. Remember when he won that war for us? We almost thought we were to lose but he kept us going. And...

As All Hallows Eve approached, that autumn in question, the visage of Great Trumpkin (GT) was fraught with much consternation. As the setting, Indian Summer sun hesitantly shone upon his carefully coiffed, conrnsilk pompadour, GT commiserated with the lesser Trumpkins...

Finally, the third and last presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton is over and for the nearly 236 million Americans who are of voting age, it couldn’t have happened any sooner. What the world has witnessed, but...

BARACK: This is the Oval Office.HILLARY: Not for long! Yo, Barry, mah Niggah, ‘sup? BARACK: Who is this?HILLARY: This is Hil; and I’m high on hubris. BARACK: Who? High on what?HILLARY: Don’t play cutesy with me, Barry, baby. Unass that...

Yassuh, Massa Trump, suh;We’s on ah way to da polls.We b’lieves all yo’ hoopla;We be’s yo’ salvation souls. Ya’ll done blowed yo’ horn, now;We chillins will git aboard,And wait fo’ yo’ t’ show howSalvation leads to da Lawd. Ya’ll’s our...

A definition of the word “Treason”: The betrayal of one's own country and citizens by consciously and purposely acting in a manner that gives assistance and comfort to an adversarial nation(s) or gives assistance and comfort to an adversarial organization(s)...

It’s 3:17 am and I am in between my first and second sleep, as usual my mind is pinball machine with a little silver ball of thoughts going around and around, popping up and sliding down- going from thought to...

(AUTHOR’s NOTE: After witnessing, on the morn of the Democratic Convention, Bernie Sanders’ failed bid – a la Marc Antony’s funeral peroration for Julius Caesar -- to mollify his impassioned followers and convince them to vote for Hillary Clinton. I...

A definition of Negrophobia: An intense and irrational dislike / fear of Black people, their culture and their success as they strive to achieve their version of the American Dream. There is a foul and violent storm blowing slowly...

An elephant was onthe trail, One bright and sunnyday. The creature Donalddid him hail – He had some things tosay. “Well, say yourpiece,” said he to Don,” Not altering hispace. “I’ll talk while Icontinue on. “I’m in a kind-ofrace.” So,...

J’ai vu la France lapremiere fois. But, Nice had not yetterror known. The first time I sawParis. Nice had not yetknown the “New Terror.” It was 1993, the yearof “Europa.” But, Nice had not yetterror known. The signs said, “Maastricht,Oui”...

“If you’re not on the bus, we’ll run over you with the bus. And I’m not kidding.” —John Kasich, (then) governor-elect of Ohio, at a 2010 luncheon for state lobbyists “They can't afford health care. What are we going to...

“Let’s move it on – nothing more to see here!” Although FBI Director James Comey gave a full, uncomplimentary report on the email server investigation of Hillary Clinton, it was sweet music to the ears of Hillary and her high-stepping...

Loretta and BillTook a poison pill They both tossed it backWhile on the tarmac. And, while it went down,Like a silly clown, They tiptoed aboardHer plane, thereby moored. Thermometers thereRevealed hell-hot air, So they, don’t you see,Required A.C. Agendas, they...

An analysis of U.S. Nationalism, Donald Trump, Nazism and the Media Food for thought Fear leads to hatred and hatred inspires dangerously irrational behavior. If you ever find yourself feeling exceptionally bored at a social...

Some tradition-bound observers of the U.S. political scene wondered in awe how a brash Donald Trump could schedule a personal, business-related event in Scotland before he is the official Republican Party candidate for president, and at the very time that...

Not so long ago it seamed that there was a pretty general divide. One side believed that winning was the only goal and no method was out of bounds to achieve that win..In doing so the abandoned any honor or...

In a lapse of judgement John McCain blamed Obama for the Orlando attack. “Barack Obama is directly responsible for it, because when he pulled everybody out of Iraq, al Qaeda went to Syria, became ISIS, and ISIS is what it...

** Originally published 10/29/2015 - Updated 6/14/2016 to reflect new information ** Here we go again! This is something I've thought a lot about (again) - as I assume many of us have. It seems to me, and I'm sure...

In the 1945 movie, “The Lost Weekend,” the Ray Milland character, in his quest to overcome alcoholism by going “cold-turkey,” is driven to search overhead light fixtures for bottles of booze he had squirreled away “for the winter.” The condition...

As I stand at floor level of the Quicken Loans arena in Cleveland listening to the chaotic murmur of a slightly stunned and definitely reserved crowd of republicans waiting for their candidate to deliver the closing speech of the 2016...

The fabled, “Don Trump –His own name was given,But that name he dumped –As would “David Niven.” When he donned a partFor this or that movie,With this or that tart,The match-up was groovy. But, Trump chose a nameFor...

At first glance, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders would appear to be swinging on opposite poles. In a sense, yes, but look closely, and you can see their arcs merge:• Neither is a party regular• Both were regarded dismissively when...

It would be logical for a careful observer of the American scene to deduce that the current, seismic, political upheaval we are experiencing is due to the latest subsuming action of the underground, racial plates of “Planet America.” Alexis de...

Avant le déluge: Incredibly, against an impending Trump victory, longtime GOP faithful Mr. Moneybags, mega-billionaire Charles Koch (pronounced “Coke”), announced that if Donald Trump were to become the Republican candidate for the presidency, he would be inclined to vote for...

A basketball hoop in Spanish is, “aro de baloncesto” The word, “aro” means “hoop” or “ring.” Senator Ted Cruz is being lambasted for describing a basketball “hoop” as a “ring.” His only “error” therein is word choice. We Americans...

(Click here for BBC story and video on how Trump is like Hitler) EXCERPT: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has compared the rhetoric of US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to that of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. In an...

A recent trip to the City of Brotherly Love put the lie to the title of the cult hit TV show, but proved to be an emotional and educational trip. The occasion for the visit was the kick-off rally...

The constant rain that dampened the activities of the kick-off rally on Saturday, April 2nd, seemed to be a metaphor for what ails the organizers of Democracy Spring.org. The idea was to meet in joyous communion at Liberty Bell Center...

EASTERTIDE In the eternal search for world peace, Do note that still we are no gem. This Passover: Yet remains, sans cease, Besieged, old Jerusalem. The current battle of the wives between the two leading Republican...

March is an eventful month. It begins in winter conditions and ends with pre-spring weather. Daylight savings time pushes clocks forward, and Women’s History is officially recognized. “Beware the ides of March”, a line from Shakespeare’s play about Julius Caesar,...

The patronymic Trump Lives in a nearby dump, Where all of his derivatives All go to live where that guy lives. The Trump name is so flexible, Annoying and so hexable, That accommodations flourish, And, as such, fail...

The Founders, where it all began, Would applaud this march, to a man. As they look about, You can hear ‘em shout: “Those things called, ‘cameras’ – let ‘em pan!” The organization known as Democracy Spring has...

Hello folks, it's great to be back at IdiotFreeZone.com. I had to take a bit of a break from things for health reasons but I'm doing better now and looking forward to jumping right back in where we left off....

Douglas Hughes is the big-money-out-of-politics, gyrocopter pilot who deposited 535 letters to Congress upon the lawn of the Washington, D.C. Capitol. Doug Hughes’s derring-do was converted into Superhero Augogyro through a song and video produced by Musical SoCal.com and...

What must be that vanity, so compelling – That which entices one upon the sacrificial pyre of politics?! Whence its power to twist the will And send someone up so rugged a hill – Toward certain humiliation and defeat...

The political re-emergence of former President George W. Bush is imminent. He will be sallying forth in defense of his beleaguered, Republican candidate brother, Jeb Bush, a former governor of the State of Florida. Taking into account the former president’s...

Is fun-time over? Has the populace come to its senses, begun to recover from that three-season flirtation with intoxicating radicalism? Has free-wheeling, non-specific, hit-and-miss promised governance run its course? Is avuncular, grumpy, Euro-style, cradle-to-the-grave pampering passé? The old American center...

    Newsflash Republican 2016 presidential candidates...the greatest threat to the United States of America does not come from hardworking Muslim-Americans or "South of the Border" undocumented workers who are chasing the elusive "American Dream" just like the rest...

    [After blowing off the last debate of the Republican presidential contenders; and holding a time-opposing, fundraising rally for veterans; then, inviting reporters aboard the fabled, gold-trimmed Trump Airship (with no explanation for same); then, schmoozing them to...

I keep hoping to see on your wall that you have changed your mind about him, but still you have not, still you support him. I try to understand why and come up empty handed. Well, not completely empty- I...

        I once belonged to a Facebook Group that was ostensibly about the Founding Fathers and dedicated to the free exchange of ideas about who they were, what they believed and what the intent of the...

      The Republican Party (one wonders why) still retains under its cacophonous tent quiet, sensible, intelligent and personable personalities such as Governor John Kasich of Ohio and Governor Nicki Haley of South Carolina. Proven within the gubernatorial...

During its 15-year or so existence, Sin Dios (Without God) was a very well-known anarchist hardcore-punk band from Madrid, not only for its music, but also for its members' active participation in social movements and strict adherence to the "do-it-yourself"...

    Within the past few days, there have been news reports anticipating a change in air travel ID requirements. There are indications that, in the near future, plain IDs such as a driver's license may be insufficient. There...

    (This San Diego-resident writer conducted a Skype interview with Florida-based Douglas Hughes on December 28, 2015, the same day Hughes was interviewed on Fox Cable Television News.)     Douglas Hughes is the intrepid gyrocopter pilot...

    This is a letter received from Douglas M. Hughes regarding his challenge to Debbie Wasserman Schultz   On April 15 2015, I landed a gyroplane on the lawn of the US Capitol. The cargo in two mail...

    In The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, it is expressed thusly:   Now the New Year reviving old Desires.The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,Where the White Hand Of Moses on the BoughPuts out, and Jesus from the Ground...

Dear Mr. Trump, It has occurred to me that when you are elected president there will be a gap in your company. You will be in need of an executive to run your corporation. Please accept this letter as my...

  I have a couple of questions. But before I ask them I need to do some 'set-up'. OK, I understand it is largely due to the US destabilization of the Middle East back in 2003 - when we invaded...

Dear Senator Bernie Sanders, First and foremost, thank you for your life of public service and work in the US Senate and elsewhere. More than anything, perhaps, my wish is for the intelligence and humanitarian vision you express to realize...

    During Vladimir Putin's lengthy and ponderous end-of-year press conference, one surprising reference to the U.S. stands out. In response to Putin's opinion of the Donald Trump phenomenon, Mr. Putin was very solicitous and encouraging. That elicited a...

First, click on John Lennon and enjoy the montage, or continue reading with the music For many of us who are privileged to have lived a lifetime without war as a daily experience, we can gently drift away to this...

      Amid all the hubbub over irrational public slaughter and equally irrational responses thereto, there was in Washington, D.C. a little noted, rare moment of dignified, bipartisan unity the second week of December, 2015. The occasion was...

        In the wake of the President's Oval Office speech, everybody and his brother has an opinion on how best to navigate the Ship of State" through ISIS-mined waters. Among the most vocal of these "opinionators"...

I wrote to my Representative in the House and he responded. I cannot say I was surprised by his carefully crafted wording. He's a staunch Conservative. I'm a bleeding heart Liberal. I simply asked him to be a leader instead...

      For two millennia, the image of the Madonna and Child has been the icon of the eternal tenderness of motherhood. Not this Christmastide! This Madonna has stashed her child and, instead of "gay apparel," she has...

      What does the word "liberty" mean and what needs to be done for everyone to have more of it in this country?   Let's start with the definition according to Merriam-Webster: lib•er•tynoun \ˈli-bər-tē\plurallib•er•ties Definition of LIBERTY1:...

    IFZ suggested in previous articles that the U.S. is more in danger of local, random violence than the imported variety. This thinking eerily is highlighted as the Mile-High State again erupts in a shooting frenzy.   As...

"to trigger the "latent devil" (primitive stimulus-response) in us"Click on this imageI dare you to watch this video, just uploaded (November 24, 2015) by the Islamic State. This is an intelligently designed message. And it would be intelligent of us...

    There is a class of political and journalistic "Chickens Little" scurrying about, spreading the myth of a fallen Parisian sky. Our government and news media have been remiss in not making it clear that we are not...

    We can only hope that the French president's discussions with the U.S. and Russia will lead to a unified approach the international nihilism that threatens the stability of the planet.   Ever since these multi-acronymic, anachronistic groups...

    Douglas Hughes, whom IFZ has immortalized in word and song as, "Superhero Autogyro," responds to an inquiry about his latest court appearance. Doug Hughes is the pilot who flew his gyrocopter into Washington, D.C. and landed on...

You know, it seems like just a couple of months ago I posted a rant about how Americans are becoming mean, small minded and a bunch of p####s when it comes to showing compassion to people from other countries who...

    The U.S. has always been wishy-washy when it comes to war. There was a time when newspapers unduly influenced foreign policy. *"Remember the Maine," they ballyhooed when a U.S. warship mysteriously blew up in Cuba's San Juan...

We throw around the word 'freedom',Pledge allegiance to justice and liberty,But have we ever really understood,The meaning of these words we see? We toil at jobs for money,That just barely pays the bills,Spend it on processed foods,That our stomach, it...

    The President speaks at Arlington National Cemetery with the same old platitudes about what we owe the veteran, etc. Other politicians bluster on with their own versions of veteran-guilt. Literally, they are whistling past the graveyard.  ...

"And may I ask you, 'What took you so long?" the interviewer at Immigration and Naturalization asked me. I had to chuckle a little bit. I had been living in the United States for about 30 years at the time...

     Illustration: Ray Staar The hosts of a radio talk-show were musing about the surging popularity of Ben Carson. They were wondering why he does not attract the same support from the African American community as did Barack...

    Regardless of whether the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) did or did not bring down the Russian airliner, what is certain is that it has acquired Vladimir Putin as a mortal enemy. One wonders if they fully comprehend the...

      "We need to make room for important, blunt, honest, public, productive conversation. Violent bigotry IS a problem in the United States. This is not a colorblind society," Anonymous' #OpKKK organizers wrote in an official statement. "Part...

What does it take to be a really good president? What work experience would be useful to someone seeking the highest political office in this country? Have you ever really sat down and thought about this? The idea came to...

    More shocking than the sudden news that upwards of 6,000 federal prisoners have been granted early release by the U.S. Sentencing Committee Program, is the fact that it was accomplished with the blessing of both the Obama...

A good friend asked me to go with him to a political forum and, as usual, I jumped at the chance. It was a democratic 'friend-raiser' featuring one of our local candidates as speaker. As it was wrapping up, the...

  The demise of the Fairness Doctrine has haunted me since 1987, when it was stricken down by Reagan's FCC chairman, Mark Fowler. You may be forgiven if you're not familiar with the niceties of the Fairness Doctrine itself, but...

  So, I was having dinner last night with some friends and (surprise!) the conversation turned to politics. After a few minutes, I came to a pretty stunning realization. It seems a few of my friends - all of them...

  This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately - as I assume many of us have. It seems to me, and I'm sure I can find supporting evidence with very little effort on the Internet, that...

    Hillary Clinton's ready and heady, raucus laugh serves as an immediate icebreaker for her sometimes icy demeanor. It does her well on the stump and elsewhere. Recently, she has had a lot to laugh about: • She won...

              I met a man, his wife and two beautiful daughters in my doctor's waiting room yesterday. They were obviously Muslim and looked to be Arab. One of the little girls was very...

      *The term, House Nigger (HN), dates back to the time of slavery. HNs were the domestic servants who lived in and maintained the family residence of the estate owner. They, presumably, enjoyed relatively good accommodations and...

        As far as I am concerned, the "debate" over gun control is OVER. I will no longer give credence to the obfuscators, faux-statisticians, so-called strict constitutionalists, NRA trolls and the plain ole gun nuts. Not...

        Is it proper to choose a president of the United States based upon the equal-opportunity concept? You bet it is!   What brought about the creation of equal-opportunity statutes? That's easy – a lack of...

        Vladimir, Vladimir...How does your country grow?With armed tanks and fighter jetsAll parked in a row. Barrel bombing and gassing your pal's citizensSeems to be something you can ignore.It will all come back on you...In this...

      John Boehner, the lachrymose Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, immediately after having accomplished a years-long attempt to have the leader of the Catholic Church deliver an unprecedented speech before the Congress of the U.S.,...

JDN 2457306 EDT 16:44 The United States is unique among the First World in its rate of mass shootings. We have on average two per week, while most other countries have one every couple of years. Of course, part...

Illustration courtesy of Ray Staar   The iconic view of Rio de Janeiro, by sea or air, is Cristo Redentor, the huge statue of Christ the Redeemer. The arms are outstretched, extending its blessing to those denizens captured within the...

        Least productive Congress in modern times award goes to the 104th edition, in 1995. However, with a flurry of bills passed just before the 2014, 113th Congress adjourned, the 113th avoided being #1.   The...

    Kim Davis, Clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, was jailed today for refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. She is in defiance of a general U.S. Supreme Court ruling; her own governor's ultimatum to issue or...

Every once in a while it seems that Puerto Rico's government decides to fix the economic problems it has caused by –unofficially– pushing the population to leave the country. And now that it has dragged the island into a decade-long...

    "America has always needed a Super Hero and a Villain; it's the reason why television wrestling is so popular". – TheodoreW. Without a shadow of a doubt The United States of America is a very complicated country...

    Recently, the bodies of 71 presumed Syrian refugees were discovered in a refrigerated truck in Austria. Apparently, the truck had been driven across the border with Hungary and left abandoned on an Austrian highway. It is reported...

    Over 2.7 million men, women, and children visit Planned Parenthood facilities in the Unites States each year. Some of the services provided are: STD Treatments, Cancer Screening and Cancer Prevention Education, Contraception, Vasectomy and Sterilization Procedures, Pap Tests,...

    The GOP standard-bearer with the empty flagpole, Donald Trump, has adopted the byword Making America Great Again. Others, furiously running behind him, trying to catch up, want to attach to the empty flagpole a Republican standard with...

  So I've been spending a lot of time watching the media and listening to the various presidential candidates lately and every time I get fed up and turn off my TV I seem to ask myself the same questions...

    Fox News viewers give some Vocational Counseling    

    Former President Jimmy Carter is a study in contradiction. The incongruous informality of the name is the first impression. How could/why would anyone calling himself Jimmy be running for the presidency of the United States. As slowly...

  Once there lived Donald the Terrible and his trusty war-steed, branded, Trump. In the ancient land of Republiana. Donald and Trump are feared by one and all – not the peasants – the vainglorious knights who struggle among themselves...

    After the Republican presidential debate flare-up between Donald Trump and his Fox News inquisitor Megan Kelly, he was being interviewed by CNN's Don Lemon. Trump described Megan Kelly's debate-host mood as seeming to have blood coming out...

Should we vote for nincompoops? JDN 2457243 EDT 13:47 One of the most widely-shared posts on Less Wrong (If you aren't familiar with Less Wrong, I highly recommend it; reading it will literally make you a more...

  So, I'm a little late chiming in because I wasn't sure what I watched on FOX the other night actually qualified as a debate. The standard rules were, I guess one would say, "relaxed" for this event. Not every...

Ten brittle obsidians, Trapped on a stage, Much like hotel Gideons, All full of rage. As the stagecoach full rolls on, Clop, clop by clop, Each ob, quite his own icon, Claws toward the top. They are headed...

    My questions, kept simple with only a yes/no answer requested & required:   1. Do you accept the scientific estimate of the earth's age? 2. Do you acknowledge the human impact on the earth's environment and weather?...

    As it turns out, Donald J. Trump is incorrectly compared to Ronald McDonald. Actually, as regularly it is being revealed, Mr. Trump is that Wiley Coyote (forgive the mixed mammals), Monsieur Rénard, le Fox! In Medieval Europe,...

Several months ago, Douglas Hughes, 61, of Ruskin, Florida, flew his self-made gyrocopter from Gettysburg, PA to Washington, DC, and landed on the lawn of the nation's capital. The Idiot Free Zone created a homage to someone we thought a...

    Donald Trump says that John McCain is no war hero. He went further by denigrating the fact that McCain was captured. In breaching the subject of military service, Trump opened himself up to questions as to why he...

  The governments of the U.S. and Cuba currently are in the process of re-establishing diplomatic relations. Concurrently, they also are following steps to bring to the U.S. a Cuban-developed, therapeutic vaccine against lung cancer. What a world of difference!...

Our government, more accurately society as a whole, spends too much energy trying to be responsive to the trivial issues of the day. Often this is done at the expense of more important concerns that we know we cannot afford...

  By design we are creatures that live and function in a global society that thrives off of prepackaged hyperbole and scripted sensationalism. Too often we are simultaneously caught up in the hype of cynicism while publically expressing how we...

    ARISTOTLE: Socrates, Socrates! Every time I come here, you pretend to be dying.   SOCRATES: (Startled, drowsy) Did I miss the hemlock again?   ARISTOTLE: My vision about the Greeks in that 21st century continues.   SOCRATES: What...

Um... Excuse me. I have a question. Since we are taking a stand regarding the confederate flag flying over tax payer funded public grounds, does this mean we are giving corporations who venerate this symbol a pass? I ask because,...

    (Aristotle has awakened Socrates, who thought he had been dispatched with hemlock. Aristotle is having a vision of the far-future.) See Part 1 HERE SOCRATES: Let us go on with this vision of yours. What is that collective...

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation...

    ARISTOTLE: Socrates, Socrates, wake up!   SOCRATES: Wha-at...?   ARISTOTLE: That was only a sleeping solution.   SOCRATES: Huh? My word; they had me convinced that it was hemlock.   ARISTOTLE: We've got to get to work. Greece...

JDN 2457208 (July 4, 2015) Independence Day is a holiday centered around patriotism. But very few ever stop to ask: What is patriotism? The usual assumption seems to be that patriotism is a mindless tribal devotion to everything your...

    We spend so much time criticizing you, pointing out faults and trying to fix you, I just wanted to remind you that I love you with all my heart. You see, my love is one that is not...

"There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded...

Abby Does One For The Gooper... I mean Gipper

The first you ever heard of him, This ego with a name, He'd enter Gotham coffee shops To glory in his fame. He'd greet admirers, everyone, And brightened when they'd call, For he knew something that they knew; The he...

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties. You know, just a little now and then -- to loosen up. Inevitably, though, one thought led to another, and soon I was more than just a 'social thinker'....

  "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Incorporated States of America and to the Special Interest for which it stands; One trans-national corporation, under subpoena and lobbying hard, with Liberty and Justice for Sale." ~ Revised to reflect...

Plethoric with symbolism, straining History snaps the rusty bonds of hypocrisy, and fleetingly flies to its intended rendezvous with Destiny. An American president rooted with genes from man's mother Pangea, intones a melody derived from the pen of a...

  A week that started on the heels of a horrible reminder that there are still many ignorant, backward and racist people among who, some are willing to murder and terrorize, went on to become what history...

  So, I have been reading a lot of internet posts going back and forth on the Charleston church shooting and the political debate regarding civil war icons on public grounds across the south. I thought I might chime in....

  maybe it isn't impossible................. Again people are discussing, arguing, fighting, yelling about "mass murder"; in Charleston this time. Will this time be the time we take the discussion further- towards action? According to a Quinnipiac poll, Republican leaders are...

Dedicated to Senator Inhofe...    

  Let's talk about about a very disturbing problem facing at least 50% of Americans today. It's a condition I like to call "Electile Dysfunction"... In case you haven't figured it out, I'm going to rant about how we Americans...

Dylann Storm Roof was no lone wolf. He has millions of co-conspirators and accomplices. They fall in to three types: those active before, during and after the fact. This is not a discussion of legal culpability, but of moral shame.  ...

    In Guadalajara, Mexico, recently, there was a huge competition among cheerleading groups. One contingent, including 24 young ladies and one young man, displayed a routine representing the drilling of a Nazi military unit. They wore fatigues with...

UNCLE SAM Uncle Sam (born July 4, 1776) is the national personification of the United States, an economic and cultural imperialist, the mascot of the New York Yankees, frequent used car salesman, and a dick. From the very moment Uncle...

Rachel Dolezal The head of the Spokane, Washington branch of the National Association for Colored People (NAACP) has been outed by her parents – ethnicity-wise. They say that their daughter, despite apparently presumed to be African American, actually is...

  Carol Ann and Thomas Person today    The State of North Carolina recently passed a law that is destined to die a humiliating death before the U.S. Supreme Court. Incredibly, this law leaves the decision as to who...

JDN 2457180 EDT 13:43.   As I discussed in my first post, humans are on average about 90% rational—more rational than anything in the known universe in fact, though computers are at least starting to give us a run...

ISIS (What a project) Do these ISIS fellas, and I use the term "fellas" purposely, as I don't see any females anywhere, just a bunch of guys wearing face masks when they are on tv, think they are making positive...

In partitioned corners of Charlie Palmer Steak House located at 101 Constitution Ave. NW Washington, DC, and the Bistro Bis located inside the Hotel George, on 15 E. St. NW Washington, DC., there have been several sightings of teams of...

No, it is not that Ireland has kicked the Catholic Church out of the country – just out of its quotidian affairs. With an overwhelming margin, the Republic of Ireland has voted to amend its constitution, allowing for same-sex marriage....

There are simple things in a place that mark the difference. I live in a country which has a government with a very low level in performance, due to the lack of key elements, such as values toward the society,...

    Is President Barack Hussein Obama currently in the process of violating the posse comitatus provisions by planning a punitive takeover of the politically obstinate State of Texas? Hate-warped, conspiracy-filled inquiring minds want to know. The United States military...

North Korea. Can you imagine a whole country with at least three generations of citizens being brainwashed by the government? With recent photos of Kim Jong Un looking like he’s got some health problems, North Korea continues to poke a...

There as been released a gotcha, right-wing book that purports to outline a host of Hillary-devious contacts during her tenure as boss of Foggy Bottom. Curiously, there is a related, rather weird, foot-patting connection thereto by the New York Times....

  Just above the Mall it came; A loop around George’s needle. Those who saw it, still will claim It looked like a giant beetle. At the stately Capitol, Upon the lawn it slowly sank. Then, alarms began to toll:...

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, You certainly do have a pair -- Whether it’s Bill you must pillory Or give up the band from your hair. From Chi-Town to academia, You knew you were headed straight up. You knew, also, that feminalia ...

    Throughout Barack Obama’s first term, he constantly was berated by the breathless bleating of the birthers. The accusations emitted by these ovine utterances centered around the supposition that , although Obama’s mother may have been a citizen...

Conservative America has a long history of keeping Liberals from the polls. Only five percent of the word’s population lives in the United States, but 25 percent of all the world’s imprisoned people are held in the United States. It...

Often discussions about political and societal issues come to an impasse, even anger. At first the discussion is about the problem, why it is a problem and then degrades from there. Blaming, finger pointing, name calling ensue. Sigh. The discussion...