Creepy Joe

What do you suppose a young female child would think about a male stranger using his status and position to take intimate physical liberties with her in the presence of her family? How would she feel about him putting his hands on her; fondling her; caressing her; sniffing and running his fingers through her hair; putting his face in hers; whispering sweet nothings into her ear and trying to kiss her?

She’d be creeped out, of course.

That’s why every mother everywhere has a parental obligation to teach her sons emphatically to keep his hands strictly to himself when it comes to politely socializing with the opposite sex. Sadly, if Joe Biden’s mother ever taught him that essential lesson, he forgot it immediately. He turned out instead to be Creepy Joe. And amazingly he doesn’t think he’s done the slightest thing wrong.

In the midst of the recent explosion of sexual misconduct and harassment incidents in the news these days it’s become apparent to me that some men, Creepy Joe Biden, for example, who are guilty as sin of the most egregious examples, have no clue that they are doing anything wrong. He gropes and fondles little girl’s right in front of their parents. And he believes his creepiness -- taking liberties with all females -- time and time again, is perfectly normal.

Just look at all these examples. You have to see it to believe it.

According to an ex- Secret Service agent who spoke on condition of anonymity, Biden “would mess with every single woman or teen.” A Christmas get-together at the VP’s house had to be canceled “because Biden would grope all of our wives and girlfriends asses.” The Service often had to protect female agents from him. Biden was prone to parading around the VP residence late at night with no clothes on. “I mean, Stark naked… Weinstein level stuff,” said the agent.

During one alleged incident in 2009, Biden cupped the breast of a Secret Service agent’s girlfriend during a photo, prompting the agent to shove Biden and almost hit him. Men would often stand in front of female agents and Navy women or create false pretenses to have them leave the room just to get them away from Biden, according to the agent.

That’s why he’s known as Creepy Joe.

The Moore dilemma

If you were obliged to choose between two unwanted animals to put up with as a guest at your picnic, which one would you find less objectionable -- a skunk or a bear? The skunk would be a nuisance and create a stink. The bear would frighten the guests to panic and eat all the food. That’s the kind of dilemma faced by Republican Party voters in the Alabama senate race.

Which to choose?

Why, the skunk, of course!

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said that she will vote for Roy Moore in next month's special election in the hope of preserving Republican control of Congress. This despite the plain fact that the skunk, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, was twice removed from the Court by a judicial ethics panel for deliberately defying federal constitutional law.     

Now Moore is accused of sexual misconduct toward several women who were in their teens when he was a deputy district attorney in his 30s. Ivey has no reason to disbelieve the women, is bothered by their allegations, but says: "We need to have a Republican in the United States Senate to vote on things like Supreme Court justices, other appointments that the Senate has to confirm and make major decisions."

I love it when politicians like Ivey on rare occasions tell the truth about their motives.  

She’d choose the skunk over the bear because the skunk is less objectionable.

President Trump also voiced support for Moore, who is facing off against Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate, (bear) citing the skunk’s vigorous denials. “He totally denies it,” say’s Trump. Asked by a reporter about whether electing “a child molester” was better than electing a Democrat in the Alabama race, Mr. Trump responded again by insisting that Mr. Moore denies the charges against him. “He says it didn’t happen… You have to listen to him, also.”

Trump suggested that a victory by Mr. Jones would jeopardize his administration’s agenda. “We don’t need a liberal person in there… I’ve looked at his record. It’s terrible on crime. It’s terrible on the border. It’s terrible on the military.”

Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, said that Mr. Jones could not be counted on to support the tax changes that Mr. Trump is trying to push through Congress. “Doug Jones in Alabama, folks, don’t be fooled,” she said. “He will be a vote against tax cuts. He is weak on crime. Weak on borders. He is strong on raising your taxes. He is terrible for property owners.” Asked whether that meant that the White House was urging a vote for Mr. Moore, she replied: “I’m telling you that we want the votes in the Senate to get this tax bill through.”

Let’s face it; Republicans know that Roy Moore is a skunk. They know his past and believe the accounts from the women he abused. If Alabama votes elect him, they know he’ll be a nuisance and create a stink, but at least he will support the Republican agenda in Congress. So they’ll probably hold their noses and vote for him knowing that their political agenda is far more important to the country than holding him accountable for his past creepiness of 40 years ago.

They figure that they or certainly God will do that later. As Ivanka Trump said, “there's a special place in hell for people who prey on children “and “I have no reason to doubt the victims' accounts." Republicans also know that, with precious little margin for error, no Democrat has voted for any part of Trump’s agenda. They hate Trump. If they vote for Jones (the bear) he’ll do his best to cause damage to them all. All Republicans will suffer.

I agree with them.

So I reckon that smart Alabama Republican voters will resolve their Moore dilemma by holding their noses and voting for the skunk.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parasite Perks

Did you know that, among the numerous overly generous government perks enjoyed by our parasitical elected lawmakers in Congress, are confidentiality and immunity from the financial consequences of their own egregious illegal discrimination and sexual harassment conduct with employees and staff at the office?

That’s right! We the taxpayers pay the price for it. It’s not the parasite’s problem. It’s our problem. And it’s all kept a secret.

Let’s say that Congressman Hans Groper, for instance, is fond of taking unwanted sexual liberties with one of his young female staffers. She files a complaint about it. Her claim is eventually settled in secret for a specified amount of money. A nondisclosure document is signed. The money comes from a fund within the US Treasury set up to handle such settlements. That’s how it goes. Between 1997 and 2017, Congress (i.e. taxpayers) has paid $17 million in settlements for the benefit of its parasites.

Reports call sexual harassment rampant on Capitol Hill. Female lawmakers are making allegations of sexual harassment against unnamed members who are currently in office, and the unveiling of a new bill on Wednesday to change how sexual harassment complaints are reported and resolved.

The Congressional Office of Compliance (OOC) has come under fire in recent days for what lawmakers and Hill aides alike say are its antiquated policies that do not adequately protect victims who file complaints. There have been 268 settlements. The fund was set up by the Congressional Accountability Act, the 1995 law that created the Office of Compliance.

Yes, and what about the victims who don’t file the complaints and have done nothing of what is complained of – the taxpayers who are stuck with the bill? What about the parasites who cause all the trouble but face zero consequences?

We chalk it to parasite perks.

Will Moore sanctimony prevail again in Alabama?

Roy Moore’s relentless political sanctimony has made him the darling of adoring evangelicals in the Bible belt State of Alabama. He’s fashioned his entire judicial career as an attorney and state Supreme Court judge attempting to impose his religion upon the populace by defying the law. Now he’s a controversial candidate for Alabama Senator and the question is whether his creepy religious sanctimony will save his career again.

I posted in March or 2012 that Moore was Alabama’s Chief Justice for three years but was forced off the court in 2003 by a unanimous 9-member judicial ethics panel after he defied a federal court order to remove a 2.6 ton stone monument of the Ten Commandments he had commissioned himself and placed at the courthouse. It constituted a government endorsement of religion in violation the federal Constitution First Amendment Establishment Clause.

He put himself above the law by "willfully and publicly" flouting the constitution the ethics panel concluded. “God has chosen this time and this place so we can save our country and save our courts for our children," Moore defiantly proclaimed. "I will continue to acknowledge the sovereignty of God."

Then by some miracle of miracles in 2015, he won an election to reclaim his former job as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. The people of Alabama seem to love their religious extremists. They want their justices to follow the word of God – not the Constitution. Religious extremists are drawn to Moore like moths to a flame.

And flouting the law is exactly what Judge Moore did once again. He refused to abide by a federal court judge who ordered Alabama county probate judges to issue marriage licenses to gays. And he ordered all Alabama probate judges to ignore the federal court decision and continue to deny marriage licenses to gays. He doesn’t believe that gays are entitled to equal protection of the law.

Then he defied the United States Supreme Court. “The court now holds that same-sex couples may exercise the fundamental right to marry,” US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion. “No longer may this liberty be denied to them.” Oh yeah? Tell that Judge Roy Moore. He wasn’t listening.  He wasn’t learning. So another Alabama judicial ethics panel booted him off the Court again.  

That’s why he’s unfit to be a judge, and that’s why alone, without any other bad deeds in his past, he’s unfit to be a U.S. Senator.

But his adoring Christian evangelical supporters have made him a Republican candidate for U.S. Senator – because he’s convinced them that, despite everything, he is a moral upstanding man of God. It’s OK with them that Moore has sanctimoniously flouted the law and the Constitution; they want to make him a lawmaker.

Well, now five credible women so far who don’t know each other have come forward to accuse his honor of aggressively pursuing them romantically as young teenagers when he was an Alabama district attorney aged well into his thirties, and two say in detail that he sexually assaulted them in the process.

"Mr. Moore attacked me when I was a child," said Beverly Young Nelson, recounting that Moore was a regular customer at a restaurant where she worked as a waitress when she was 15 and 16. She described a harrowing chain of events that ended with Moore attempting to force her into a sex act in a parked car -- an episode that, she said, left her with severe bruising on her neck.

Moore claims he doesn’t know Ms. Nelson, even after she produced her 1977 high school yearbook including this inscription signed by him: "To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say 'Merry Christmas' Christmas 1977 Roy Moore, D.A. 12-22-77 Olde Hickory"

We have to wonder whether his creepy religious sanctimony will save his career again.

American class crap

I’ve always thought that at its inception and by design the United States of America, our beloved country, is distinguished from other lesser aspiring nations by its lack of a caste or class system among its people. We are all equal under the law as the founding documents provide.

No royals; no aristocracy no wealthy, first or upper class, for example. No bourgeois; no proletarian; no second, modest income or middle class. No peasants; no serfs; no third, poor or lower income class. Oh sure, there are differences in the amounts of material possessions among us but that fact is not supposed to determine class – not in the USA.

Of course we all know that the opposite is true – equality among the people is a myth -- we’re full up to our eyeballs with three categories of American class crap.

If you doubt that just look at all the current news today from our parasite politicians about federal income tax reform. It’s all about class. The president wants to cut taxes and reform the tax code to benefit primarily the “middle class.” Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are prepared to fight about whether or not the tax reform might benefit (gasp!) not just the “middle class” but the “wealthy upper class” too. Neither is talking about the “lower class” because they don’t pay federal income taxes anyway.

Their bickering might end up killing tax reform altogether.  No Democrats will vote for tax reform no matter what is proposed unless the “wealthy upper class” gets no benefit. Some Republicans won’t vote for it or will try to water it down because they simply don’t like the President and don’t want him to succeed.  They stupidly forget that tax cuts usually benefit all Americans at all income levels.

The fact is that a tiny minority of American taxpayers -- the hated “wealthy upper class”-- pays the overwhelming majority of the income and business taxes in America so that the other two “classes” may benefit. They are the ones who should have their taxes cut because they are the ones who create the new jobs and investments that make our American economy boom.

John F. Kennedy succeeded with tax cuts across the board in the 1960’s. The American economy boomed. Everyone at every income level benefited. Ronald Reagan succeeded with tax cuts in the 1980’s. Again, the American economy boomed. The markets enjoyed the longest bull market in history. Everyone at every income level benefited. Just in anticipation of our current president succeeding, the economy is starting to boom. Millions of jobs are being created. Wages are moving higher. Government revenue is higher when taxes are lower. Everyone at every income level is benefiting.

So if the foolish political parasites in Congress kill tax reform this time because of their idiotic bickering, all because they hate wealthy successful people – the golden goose of our nation --  there will be Hell to pay. The stock market will crash.  The economy will stagnate.  Government revenue will dry up.  Everyone at every income level will suffer.

That is the result of American class crap.

Confronting the ultimate Authority!

It all started last April when I awoke in the middle of the night with the A/C remote in my hand but couldn’t figure out how to operate it. I tried to speak my thoughts out loud but the words came out as gibberish. I couldn’t speak. It was unbelievable. But I knew then I had suffered a stroke.

Next morning I discovered to my dismay that I couldn’t write either, except with great difficultly.  I needed to see a doctor. After several minutes and numerous failed attempts I finally was able to scrawl out on a note pad in block letters the message: “I HAD A STROKE,” and took it to my doctor’s office. As a general practitioner he knew immediately when he saw it that there was nothing he could do. He made an appointment for me to go to a hospital right away to see a neurologist.

A CAT scan determined that it was indeed a stroke affecting the speech area of my brain. Thankfully there was no bleeding and minimal damage. Blood thinner medication and frequent medical monitoring will be necessary for the rest of my life but it was a huge relief to know that my speech and related skills would slowly be restored to mostly normal within the next six months.

So I left the hospital that day with a smile on my face and the feeling that this old man had dodged a medical bullet. Little did I know then that my confrontation with the ultimate Authority was not over; not by any means; it was only the beginning of a long ordeal.

Not long after, I was stopped on my motorbike at a traffic light when suddenly I was hit hard from behind and woke up in an ambulance on the way to a hospital. Among several contusions and abrasion injuries my R shoulder was fractured. My lower spine (diagnosed much later) was fractured. A deep vein thrombosis developed in my R leg. After preliminary treatment I insisted and was allowed to go home – I had a small dog to take care of -- but the next morning I was racked with severe pain and couldn’t get up. Another ambulance was called to take me back to the hospital.  

Bug, my beloved little 13-year-old Chihuahua dog, was taken to the vet/pet hospital/hotel to be cared for while I was gone. He couldn’t understand what had happen to his dad. When I got out of the hospital and brought him home, he couldn’t understand why I was so different, so crippled, unhappy, and in so much pain. He was traumatized. It was too much for him. Very soon, his health started to fail; he became infected, wouldn’t eat, and wouldn’t come out of his crate.

Due to my own condition I couldn’t give him the care he needed so he had to go back to stay with the vet. Not long afterward the vet called to tell me that he had died. I had to go to the office to see him dead in a cardboard box, pet him for the last time, cry my heart out and say my goodbyes.

That’s where I’ve been these last few months.  Today, I’m still in much pain, have many physical limitations, but am doing OK and slowly getting a bit better day by day. All of the considerable medical treatment I’ve needed has been entirely out of pocket because my Medicare benefits aren’t payable in Thailand. But the loss of my little dog, Bug, was the lowest point and caused the most grief for me by far in this horrible ordeal.

Of course, my confrontation with the ultimate Authority is not over, just as it is never over for you and me and for everyone. It’s an epic struggle for us all. The ultimate Authority is nature, i.e. the reality of existence. It is and always will be. Most people call it God. That’s fine for those who like to put a human face upon it.

Yet we’re all confronting the same ultimate Authority!