To the New Year

I would like to wish everybody a happy holiday season, and a wonderful New Year.  I would like to end the year on a cheery note.  I would like to celebrate the lengthening days and a resurgence of hope.  But right now, I’m a bit under the weather.

My eyes are runny, my nose is red

I can scarcely breathe when prone in bed

This West Coast cold

Now six days old

Leaves an ache that was my head.

Big Tax Attack

Chuck Grassley let everyone know the motivation behind the new tax attack on the middle class:  “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing,” Grassley told the Register in a story published Saturday. “As opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”

The middle class is of little concern

They spend every penny they earn

So why help the poor

They’ll just spend some more

But the rich need more money to burn.

With Democrats in power they thrived.  In what should be a more supportive habitat they have disappeared.

The loss of a species is linked

To the tax reform bill to be inked

The loud raucous bird

Is no longer heard

The Deficit Hawk is extinct.

Deficit Attention Disorder

The Party of Fiscal Responsibility wants to increase the deficit dramatically.  In a couple of years they’ll complain about it and reduce every social program they can think of.  I haven’t figured out how they’ll blame the Democrats, but that’s coming too.  It’s all based on voodoo economics, imaginary history and obscenely big buck donations from the ‘deserving 1%’.

They’re out on a tax cutting spree

Ignoring economic history

Growth will soon fade

If cuts are made

But it will strengthen the plutocracy.

The Democrats seethe and scramble while the smiling, smug Hypocrats congratulate themselves and gloat.

The Republican soul has been bared

Congress has clearly declared

Disregard for deficits

If they help the rich

And no deficit hawk even cared.

The Year of the Wandering Hand

Is it really unbridled libido or is it just a naked power grab?  

If you wonder what grabbing her ass meant

If you did not get hands on her assent

There’s no possible way

She’d call it foreplay

But consider it sexual harassment.

Franken and Conyers are under investigation and being pressured to resign.  Bill Cosby denied everything and has gotten off.  Moore and Trump just lie and nobody seems to care enough to investigate, or even vote against them.  It’s that power thing.

Those who admit what they’ve done

Are pressured for their resignation

So please tell me why

Those who deny

Aren’t subject to investigation?

To the Best of My Recollection

… I haven’t published these before.

At the last session Jeff Sessions swore

As he did at each session before

That he’d tell Congress all

That he could recall

And at each session he recalled more.

With a memory like that how did he make it through Law School?  Coincidentally the same Law School attended by another memory challenged politician currently making headlines - Roy Moore.

Sessions recall had several omissions

And was subject to frequent revisions

Is his memory defective

Or just more selective

Than Alabama Law School admissions?

The Cream of the Crap

These limericks I hope make you smile

So I’ve left politics alone for a while

“Cause it hampers my wit

When I’m neck deep in it

And Trump’s at the top of the pile.

See:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-other-huge-scandal-mueller-brought-to-light-this-week/2017/11/01/5e05a458-bf4c-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_with_top_mostshared_2_na&utm_term=.08784151d015

See also:  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/11/13/1715202/-Trump-s-laughably-unqualified-judicial-pick-didn-t-disclose-he-s-married-to-a-White-House-lawyer

He hates the elite’s arrogance

And elevates rank ignorance

He knows what he’s doing

He knows who he’s screwing

By appointing incompetents.

We’re serving a multi-year sentence

Imposed with venom and vengeance

By a corrupt regime

That has as its dream

Aggrandizement at our expense.  

Is Collusion the Conclusion?

My blog gets infrequent visits from all over the world; Ukraine, Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Russia.  I now assume they are just trolls on some automated search, but for what?

About once in each month my small blog site

Gets 22 hits in one night

From some Russian source,

So I wonder of course

Why would they read what I write?

We keep hearing more and more that another IRA (Internet Research Agency) is trying to foment turmoil using provocative social media content.  But from my blog?  Give me a break.

These hits aren’t for literary critiquing 

So what is it that they are seeking

My posts at my best

Don’t stir up unrest

And they’re nothing that’s worth Wikileaking.

 Wherein Lies the Truth?

Prevarication, mendacity, falsehood, untruth, spin, dishonesty, deceit, fraudulent, fallacious, perfidious, and BS all were well established before anyone started talking about alternative reality, alternative facts and post truth.  Blunt language is not telling it like it is when it’s a LIE.

This is the year truth may die

It’s truly the year of the lie.

Lies barefaced, not subtle

Immune to rebuttal

With fact checkers ceasing to try.

Here’s where I stand.

Lying is not my forté

Somehow I give it away

When something’s not true.

So I’ll never lie to you

(As every good liar would say).

Fires and Floods

Here are two sides to the argument about Global Warming, Climate Change, Natural Cycle, Hoax, or End of Days.

The havoc is all aftermath

Of straying too far from God’s path

He’s punishing us

For lasciviousness

The storms are a sign of God’s wrath.

Many have said that Katrina, Hugo, Harvey, Jose and Maria are God’s punishment for the LGBT lifestyles.  Odd, but that sounds to me as though Man’s behavior is the cause of the Fires and Floods.

Burning fossil fuels year after year

Polluted the earth’s atmosphere

The earth warms - we’ll fry it

With our high carbon diet

The science behind it is clear.

The science says it IS Man’s behavior that is the cause of the Fires and Floods.  The solutions are very different, but there is some common ground.

Equality and Respect

Cheers to the athletes who have joined the protest.

To kneel before God shows respect

It’s deference a King might expect

Give me a reason

Some think it treason

For athletes who wish to genuflect.

One kneels to show deep reverence

It’s respectful and shows deference

When done before God.

So I think it odd

It’s defiance at sporting events.

And on the other side of the world another oppressed group has been granted a small step toward equality.  I hope it’s a real one and not just a why-not-it-won’t-matter-much-anyway decision.

For the Saudi Arabian female

Driving won’t land them in jail

Is it a step forward?

For soon, I have heard

Driverless cars go on sale.

Time for Spring Cleaning?

I’ve got clothes that I’ll never wear

I’ve got gadgets I’ll never repair

I’ve got books I won’t read

I’ve got files I don’t need

And no closets or storage to spare.

Just to be clear, I’m no hoarder.  I don’t have old newspapers.  (I read them on-line).  This is potentially useful stuff.

Most of this stuff is OK

And maybe I’ll use it one day

I just find it hard

To choose what to discard,

I hate to throw good things away.

Time to Go Outside

Think outside the box, color outside the lines, step outside yourself … and other advice from the outside.

It’s a problem I must solve on my own

My dissatisfaction has grown

After all of this time

I realize that I’m

Ill at ease in my own comfort zone.

Is your comfort zone feeling too small?

Do you venture outside it at all?

Here’s a peptalk, 

When you learned to walk

How many times did you fall?

Climate Change, Sex Change

A while back all tropical storms had feminine names.  Can we blame the increasing frequency and severity of the storms on the decision to give them masculine name too?  Is this creating a sexual competition?

With all the havoc they render,

Whole counties run through a blender,

Hurricanes have been

Traditionally feminine

Is Harvey really transgender?

Is Harvey, with his torrential rains

And winds faster than passenger trains,

For the people of Texas,

Who don’t care what his sex is,

One of herstory's worst hisicanes?

But Irma will not be outdone.

OCERD - Obsessive Current Events Ruminative Disorder

The constant barrage wears me down, fall is coming and I would like to broaden my choice of topics.

Every day the news is depressing

It’s relentless and I’ve been obsessing

My attitude’s been such

That I’ve lost the light touch;

For humor I should be digressing.

Time to reboot.

So much for my childish fantasy

Fame and fortune from short poetry

I’ve been persistent

Though not very consistent 

In posting them on line for free.

Just Let Him Play Golf

This is the title of an Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times:

President Trump and the Baby-Sitters Club

www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/opinion/sunday/president-trump-and-the-baby-sitters-club

It’s harder than anticipated

No one knew it was so complicated

History will show

That some presidents grow

But this one has merely inflated.

Another myth confirmed and debunked.

If you grow up in the U.S. of A.

You could become President one day

It’s now evident

That one requirement -

To grow up - is out of the way.

Expletives Deleted

“All men are created equal” is only in the Declaration of Independence, it’s not in the Constitution.  Is that the problem?

Trump’s bigotry is not something new

But now it is out in plain view

Hypocrisy’s been dumped

The race card’s been trumped

It’s just what Republicans do.

I read Charles Blow’s Op-Ed piece in Aug. 17th NY Times  - The Other Inconvenient Truth

www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/opinion/republicans-white-supremacy-charlottesville.html?src=me&_r=0

This part I found particularly disgusting:

In 1994 John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic-policy adviser and a Watergate co-conspirator, confessed this to the author Dan Baum:

“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

But look on the bright side, we’re making progress.  In Charlottesville Trump blamed BOTH SIDES, in previous cases only one side got blamed.  At least the half-wit was half right.

There was plenty of blame to go ‘round

In earlier deaths it was found

That the fault was one sided

And all guilt resided

In Trayvon Martin, lying dead on the ground.

… repeat ad nauseam …

Michael Brown

Eric Garner

Freddie Gray

Sandra Bland

Philando Castile …..

Lines in the Sandbox

Remember 4th grade?

When bullies square off on the playground

One hopes there’s an adult around

Who can dispense

Some common sense

And calm the big egos down.

Newton’s laws don’t call for escalating reactions.

When you travel inside your own bubble

Advice and criticism are trouble

You may stick to a view

That is wildly askew;

The unthinking may think the unthinkable.

And What Did You Accomplish This Summer?

In and Out like Flynn.

Scaramucci created splash

To show he ain't just talking trash

To build up his cred

He severed one head

And Priebus was gone in a flash.

Was it because he bested Trump in the last week in July dumb statements competition?

Scaramucci jumped in with both feet

In his mouth, and turned up the heat

Claimed he’d end all the leaks

But in less than two weeks

The Mooch is back out on the street.

Maine in Summer, the Way Life Should Be

The weather is great, the house is full, the pond is warm, the garden is growing, and it's a little bit busy with visiting daughter, her husband and their two children.

Our house is now full to the brim

Time for writing is slim

As a grandparent must

I adapt and adjust

To meet a three year old’s whim.

Busy, but fun, the way life should be.

'Grampa says I can drive', says she

With an imp's little smile at me

‘Can I borrow the car?

I won’t go very far.’

After all she is only three.

Overboard?

Continuing last post’s theme, one of these is considered a real word by he website  Wordsmith <wsmith@wordsmith.org>

He survived all the Greek Gods devised

Although he did get calypsized

He was seriously aeleoused

While his young son telemachussed

And his faithful wife wove and penelopized.

I’ve tried at least three times or four

But my perseverance is poor

I’ll start once again

Will I e’er reach the end

Or will I penelopize some more?

penelopize

PRONUNCIATION:

(puh-NEL-uh-pyz) 

MEANING:

verb intr.: To delay or gain time to put off an undesired event.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus in Greek mythology. She waited 20 years for her husband’s return from the Trojan War (ten years of war, and ten years on his way home). She kept her many suitors at bay by telling them she would marry them when she had finished weaving her web, a shroud for her father-in-law. She wove the web during the day only to unravel it during the night. Earliest documented use: 1780. Her name has become a synonym for a faithful wife: penelope.

A Name to Remember

Last week the website  Wordsmith <wsmith@wordsmith.org> ran a series of words derived from people's names.  Monday's word was 

grimthorpe

PRONUNCIATION:

(GRIM-thorp) 

MEANING:

verb tr.: To restore or remodel something without paying attention to its original character, history, etc.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Edmund Beckett, first Baron Grimthorpe (1816-1905), an architect whose restoration of St. Albans Cathedral in England was criticized for radical changes made to the building. Earliest documented use: 1890.

Lord Grimthorpe, a British architect

Treated history with little respect

His name’s still in use

For visual abuse

And buildings whose appearance he wrecked.

His sense of esthetics was warped

The lessons of history unadsorped

And to this day

You may hear people say

That lovely old building got grimthorped.

If your named were verbed what would it mean?

Independence Day

July 4th is our big celebration

With hot dogs and tacos and bacon

With coleslaw and beer

And fireworks to cheer

With Democracy as our foundation.

Hot Dogs:  Germany - 17th Century

Tacos:  Mexico - Pre-Columbian

Bacon:  Cured pork belly was eaten in ancient China and the Roman Empire

Cole Slaw: The Netherlands - 18the Century

Beer:  Sumeria (now Iraq) - circa 2,000 B.C.

Fireworks:  China - 7th Century

Democracy:  Greece - 500 B.C.

E pluribus unum.  It was there long before ‘in God We Trust’

Out of many we can make One

It’s not always easy or fun

We may disagree

But Democracy

Needs compromise to get anything done.

 McConnellCare Postponed

Defeat or Retreat?  What’s the Death Panel say, Resuscitate or Cremate?  

They claim to be fixing our healthcare

Negotiations are at a point where

They’re forced to delay,

And I’m one to say

There isn’t a whole lot of care there. 

My rhyming dictionary only gives 3 rhymes for ealth, how could I pass up the opportunity?

To insure our best prospects for health

They’ll cut taxes for people of wealth

With attempts to conceal

The details of the deal

They wrote it with absolute stealth.

The Sessions’ Sessions

I really don’t recall anything so vapid after such a build up.  Are Ignorance, Memory Loss and Evasiveness longstanding Department of Justice policies that might or might not be written down somewhere?  Maybe someone could research that?  We know about the current Attorney General’s longstanding policies toward women and minorities.

Harris and Warren are PerSisters

Silenced by Cease and Desisters

They wished to say more

Were shut down on the Floor

By We-Run-The-Show-Ladies Misters.

I didn’t know that ‘sistere’ is ‘to stop’ in Latin.  And despite its origin hysterical is a neutral term, according to CNN commentators who used the word to describe Kamala Harris.

Harris questioned with unhurried pace

Polite and not out of place

But Sessions, who flustered

And McCain, who then blustered

Were the hysterical ones in this case.

Mission Accomplished

At the rate he’s passing legislation and getting things done he’ll be able to take the summer off.  And won’t it be nice when global warming makes summers last much longer.

Was this supposed to be Group Therapy?  - ‘let’s go around the table and say something nice about the guy who hired you and will fire you if you don’t.’

The Cabinet convened just to praise him,

That he asked to be praised didn’t faze him

It’s what he wanted to hear

And he grinned ear to ear

His accomplishments always amaze him.

He’s accomplished more than anyone, and he’s new to the job.

I think I’ll book Carnegie Hall

Though my musical skill may appall

Bad reviews won’t offend me

Paul Ryan will defend me

“He is just new to it all.”

 A Dive Back into the Swamp

I tried staying away from Politics, but it’s so all consuming.

The stories the media’s presenting

Are depressing, bizarre, unrelenting

They are sifting through bull

From a Twittering mogul

Who claims that he’s Presidenting.

The biggest source of #FakeNews?

His unfiltered spontaneous views

His must-see TV

His grandiose fantasy

Devoid of the truth he eschews.

 Gripes!  Spring’s Almost Over

We try to get ready for summer.

The grass grows so fast when there’s rain

You attempt to cut it in vain

So you wait ’til it’s dry

But then it’s too high -

Mowing grass in the Spring is a pain.

and all the other things like planting the vegetables and finding the swim suit.

I believe I’ve started a trend

Pastry is now my best friend

The trend may be slow

But it’s starting to show

(I’m putting on weight once again.)

The Elephant in the Room

The act is getting old, and it’s just too expensive to keep it running.

It’s huge, it’s beautiful, stupendous

Some lament that it comes to an end, as

They shut the place down

And fire every clown,

The loss to its fans is tremendous.

They’ve entertained everyone gaily

Facing risk without a net daily

They outshine all others,

Those Ringling Brothers

And their circus with Barnum and Bailey

Truth is Just One Option

The fake news, the real news, and everything in between, just keep bombarding us.

Every day the media spews

Scandalous frightening news

It’s a deafening tune

Of an ignorant buffoon

While the Future is singing the blues.

Even if you ignore the content, the syntax, the circumlocutions, the non-sequiturs and the discrepancies are infuriating.  I’m sure Kislyak and Lavrov speak better English than Trump and Spicer.

The news is no fun anymore

It’s rotten clear down to its core

And spewed out by Spicer

The word salad dicer

The no answer, phony news whore.

 Who Knew It Could Be So Complicated?

It’s not climate science.  It’s pretty simple.

To me maternity care is an essential service. But I guess to our elected representatives it’ s not because it only applies to 50% of the population in a limited age range.  

The only way to keep premiums down and to cover preexisting conditions is to mandate universal coverage.

If we want to keep the insurance companies in business, the wealthy have to contribute.

The deal was conceived with great stealth

And fosters a transfer of wealth

The waivers in there

Obviate essential care

And do nothing to promote better health.

Trump, his cronies and House Republicans aren’t the only ones celebrating.  Heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, hepatitis, and others are enjoying their new power. 

Diseases all celebrate the day

The House passed the AHCA

Because under this bill

They wreak havoc at will

And insurance won’t stand in their way.

A One Hundred Day Fund Filled Play-Cation

The Majority Leader, the Speaker and the Prez walk into a deadline.....

A turtle like Senate buffoon,

A gym rat, and a business tycoon,

Can they find a way

To keep critics at bay

And fund the Government soon?

This hundred day benchmark's a farce

Though his record has been off the charts

He has done more

Than any President before

Although the evidence is sparse.

Diversity On Wall Street

He wants his power to be absolute.

Several tons of unbridled masculinity

Meets stylized juvenile femininity 

They stand face to face

She's invaded his space

And he gripes of her threatening proximity.

Notice how the woman gets blamed.

'Charging Bull' was quite happy alone

Tons of bronze testosterone

'Fearless Girl' gets the blame

For a vixen like game

Exploiting him in a scheme of her own.

Wanted; A Bit of Alright

Recent articles in The NY Times cite studies that show the benefits of a positive outlook.

This blog's not a heavy endeavor,
And I know it won't go on forever
Lately at times
I struggle with rhymes
That don't seem amusing or clever.

Research says optimism will give
You a better life and longer to live,
But the world situation
Gives scant inspiration
For thoughts that I call positive.

Representative Democracy

Or should I say democrazy?

He said he would 'drain the swamp' promptly

Because it is fetid and pongy 

He's altered it some

So it has become

More cat boxy than it is swampy.

The cabinet choices say so much.

Wilber Ross and Tillerson; plutocracy

Rick Perry and DeVos; idiocracy

Jeff Sessions and Flynn

Kelly Conway, Mnuchin

Steve Bannon and Trump; hypocracy.

Leaks

With Ryan's tax reduction disguised as healthcare reduction failure, and the Gorsuch Denver Rodeo hearings, you may have forgotten that the investigation into Russian interference got sidetracked by rants about leaks and wiretaps.  But remember...

A victory for Vladimir Putin
And the man for whom he was rootin'
No one expected
They'd get Trump elected;
A coup without any shootin'.

When did Russian meddling begin?
Did it start with Trump's primary win?
Were they in each state
To help make us great?
How big's the Trump card they're holding?

 R.I.P. (Rock'n'roll In Paradise)

Sorry Donald, the front page isn’t all yours today.  There is important real news to cover.

Sixty years on the Rock ’n Roll scene,

With Nadine, Sweet Little Sixteen,

Roll Over Beethoven

Chuck Berry is comin’

After years motorvatin’ Maybelline.

He gave us great Rock ’n Roll music

He took rhythm and blues and infused it

With a story to tell

And good humor as well

His spirit’s alive, we won’t lose it.

Businessman in Chief

For some reason Mexico declined the opportunity to build a beautiful border wall, but businessmen find ways to get things done, obstacles are just opportunities by another name.

He portrayed their evil so luridly

And he’s planning the wall very hurriedly

The money won’t come

From Mexico, but from

The Coast Guard and airport security.

So Coast Guard funding gets cut?  If they would think like businessmen they could make up the loss in funding very easily.

The Coast Guard interdicts off shore drug runs

And confiscates thousands of tons

If they retailed the stuff

They’d soon earn enough

To replenish all of those funds.

Is the Abuser Abused?

Kellyanne Conway is harsh on Trump’s critics, and is definitely an abuser of truth, but look at her enabling behavior and how she is treated.  For the last couple of weeks they've shut her up.

Kellyanne, they hid you a way

For some ill-advised comments one day.

They make no such fuss

When Bannon or Priebus

Have equally dumb things to say.

When a spouse lies and covers up for his or her partner that’s enabling abusive behavior.

You’re doing all that you can

To support and enable your man

Spouting alternative facts.

Aren’t feminist acts

Are you being abused, Kellyanne?

 Bad High School Students

He claims a bad high school student would understand his executive orders better than those ‘so-called judges.’  I think a bad high school student could do a better acting job as ‘so-called President.’  

These executive orders are fun

I just ask my aides to draft one

In which I declare

To the people out there

That my tasks are completed and done.

And we learned something about how #fakenews is created.  It makes no sense, but that would be expecting too much.

Your logic contains a mistake

So explain it again for my sake.

The leaks are quite real

But the facts they reveal

When broadcast as news become fake?

Promises, Promises

I make big mistakes now and then

Most of the time it is when

I fail to think through

What I should do

Every time, it won’t happen again.

An adage a day keeps the metaphors flowing.

When you are deep in a hole that you dug

You can’t sweep it under the rug

It’s all over the fan

Pull your head from the sand

Drop your weapon and just pull the plug.

Can You Spell Emoluments?

The Mar a Lago Club is open to anyone of any ethnic origin or religious affiliation.  But they are all of the same Creed - $$$ and Power.  And the initiation fee just doubled to $200,000 because it now has more cachet.

His club in Palm Beach is the best

Your every need is addressed

There you will meet

The wealthy elite

And truth is an unwelcome guest.

Why all this fuss about our President’s conflicts of interest?  There is no conflict, it’s just that his interests don’t fit well with that oath he took.

All this Conflict of Interest commotion

Is a stupid ridiculous notion

Donald has shown

He has one interest alone

His image.  It’s ALL self promotion.

Is It Just a Theory?  

It seems that Science has lost its Street Cred.  Don’t people realize what science has brought us?  Scientific discoveries have contributed so much to make this country great.  There are mistakes, but eventually the scientific method will uncover reality.  Galileo was right for 500 years before the Catholic Church would acknowledge it.

When I was a student, a youth

Science meant a search for the truth

Now it’s derided

And Truth is decided

By majority vote in the booth.

You don’t like what scientists have concluded?  It still applies to you.  There’s no opting out,

The Religious tell all atheists

Despite your beliefs God exists.

With science, disbelief

Provides no relief

From the findings of true scientists.

One Week

Only 94 to go until the next election.  In the meantime I can only dream that 3 Republican Senators will get so fed up with the White House Circus that they switch their party affiliation to Democrat.  Then committee heads change and we might survive.

The GOP rules the Senate with glee

If only a courageous three

Would change affiliation

And show the nation

They value US more than blind loyalty.

Crowd size, 5 million illegal votes (110% of them for Hillary), the Cabinet with the highest IQ ever (and that includes Rick Perry nominee for head of the Ummmm, Umm Department) and it’s only taken him a week to cement his status as the smartest, most competent, healthiest, most successful, popular, trustworthy ever.  Believe me.

He’s a mendacious amoral jerk

Who’s gone from bizarre to berserk

Dishonesty mounts

Over crowd size and vote counts

Does anyone think this will work?

Hypocrats

Remember birtherism, remember ‘you lie’  during the State of the Union speech, remember welcoming Obama as a socialist, muslim, anti-American, not-one-of-us community organizer?

Give Trump a chance people say

Because that’s the American way.

But racism and hate

In two thousand eight

Was patriotic and therefore OK.

and how the Republicans under Mitch We Know What’s Best for You Idiots Who Elected a Black Man McConnell repurposed Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No for their guiding principle?

Mitch and his mates were hell-bent

To make Barack a one term president.

Here’s to equal success

With the regressiveness

Of his new legislative intent.

 One Day at a Time

Imagine that these were unformatted, 140 characters long and delivered to millions of followers at 4:00 in the morning.

They’ve sold out of dresses to wear

And no hotel rooms to spare

So many bands want to play

I had to turn them away

Everyone wants to be there.

It will take too long to complete

There are too many words to repeat

Trust me on this

I’m the best that there is

I’ll do the dumb oath with a tweet.

All is Fair

Last week Trump lost front page headlines to a dead President.  As suspected by LBJ, Nixon monkey wrenched the Viet Nam peace talks to win the ’68 election.  He didn’t need Russia’s help, just a couple of emissaries.

Was Trump the conniver outraged?

On learning how campaigns are waged?

Tricky Dick was inspired

No hacking required

And the President Elect was upstaged.

Then Mitch McConnell miraculously flipped from Senate Inaction to Senate In Action.  Must have been his New Year’s Resolution.

McConnell: Dems should ‘grow up’ and consider Trump nominees

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/whitehouse/apnewsbreak-several-trump-picks-ethics-reviews-incomplete/2017/01/07/95e170bc-d53e-11e6-9651-54a0154cf5b3_story.html?utm_term=.786c02fb5394

It makes me want to throw up

Mr. Senate-Means-Business shows up

After eight years of NO WAY

He has the chutzpah to say

‘It’s time for the Dems to grow up.’

Trump is not the only sleaze ball out there.

Therein Lies the Truth?

From the Washington Post:   https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/01/02/yes-donald-trump-lies-a-lot-and-news-organizations-should-say-so/?utm_term=.edf39ef3310b

On “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd pressed Wall Street Journal editor in chief Gerard Baker on whether his paper would call out Trump’s lies for what they are, as other news orgs have been doing with more regularity. Baker’s response is worth quoting in full, because it should go into the time capsule for future generations to ponder in puzzling out what happened in this country at the outset of the 21st century:

I’d be careful about using the word, “lie.” “Lie” implies much more than just saying something that’s false. It implies a deliberate intent to mislead. … when Donald Trump says thousands of people were on the rooftops of New Jersey on 9/11 celebrating, thousands of Muslims were there celebrating, I think it’s right to investigate that claim, to report what we found, which is that nobody found any evidence of that whatsoever, and to say that.

Definition of lie

intransitive verb

1:  to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive

2:  to create a false or misleading impression

When is a lie called a lie?

Must one honestly try

To mislead and deceive,

To truly disbelieve

An untruth one cannot deny?

A fib and a lie are the same

Falsehood’s the name of the game

A mendacious tweet

Smells just as sweet

As BS by any other name.