17 Quotable Quotes on Politics

Great words, not mine: 1)Man is by nature a political animal.-----Aristotle. 2)The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy, that is, the search for a moral justification for selfishness.-----John Kenneth Galbraith. 3)In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.-----Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 4)The secret of politics? Make a treaty with Russia.-----Otto von Bismark. 5)Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can walways write a book.-----Ronald Reagan. 6)A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.-----Theodore Roosevelt. 7)If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.-----Noam Chomsky. 8)A fool and his money are soon elected.-----Will Rogers. 9)If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there'd be a shortage of sand.-----Milton Freeman. 10)Unity in faith is theocracy; unity in politics is fascism.-----Maajid Nawaz 11)Liberalism is trust of the people tempered in prudence. Conservatism is distruct of the people tempered by fear.-----Dwight Gavid Eisenhower. 12)In a democracy, dissent is an act of faith.-----J. William Fulbright. 13)Politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.-----Charles de Gaulle. 14)One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government.-----Donald J. Trump. 15)Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were are member of Congress, but I repeat myself.-----Mark Twain. 16)Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.-----Aristotle. 17)I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.-----James Baldwin.

A Knee to Trump's Groin

I wonder if Colin Kaepernick had any idea how important he has become, via a gesture. By finding a peaceful and respectful way to lodge his protest—taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem—he has brought holy hell down upon himself but, because of his celebrity, has opened a dialog across the nation that has reached the current White House a full year later. Donald Trump disapproves. He said so. He calls it disrespectful, a cause for termination. Kaepernick did not turn his back on the flag, he did not walk off the field. He took a position of supplication, in total silence, to draw attention to his concerns. To my mind it was an act of patriotism because a true patriot, when confronted with a failing in his country, finds a way to speak out. But our president does not seem to understand the First Amendment, or if he does, he does not seem to buy in. His disapproval has opened the door further, and entrenched Kaepernick's point. A new poll shows that three of four Americans now admit that race relations are still terrible in America. Taking a knee is almost a prayer to make things better, to notice. The practice has not stopped, but spread, all the way to Congress. Since football is more popular than Trump, I fear he has kicked the hornet's nest. The trouble is, Trump likes kicking hornet's nests. He thinks it is fun and he thinks it entrenches him with his base. More, he thinks he can distract us from North Korea, Puerto Rico, health care, tax reform and the Russian investigation by going on tirades about what athletes do before the game begins. True, a slight majority of Americans agree that taking a knee is disrespectful, and some are fairly militant about it. I heard a great deal of vitriol about Kaepernick when he did it. I defended his action then, and I would kneel beside him today is I were in that position. Respect is not a given. Trump thinks it should be. But more, Trump thinks that he can get away with anything as long as he keeps firing salvos broadside against whatever his tweeting thumbs think of on a given day. I personally see Lady Liberty, the great symbol of our country, taking the field of a stadium with Trump watching in the stands, and she takes a knee.

It's Okay if You Die: The Latest Attack on Obamacare

They don't care if you die. Any member of Congress who votes for this newest anti-ACA bill is telling you this. The ACA, or Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, has witrhstood various serious attacks designed to overthrow it at the cost of coverage for millions of Americans. This klatest proposal is as bad as or worse than those which came before, but they don't care what you think. Only 12% of Americans approved of the previous plan. Over 60% expressed relief when it failed—by one vote. This one is so bad that its sponsors are trying to sneak it through without proper debate and before its actual costs can be calculated. They are so anxious to undo something former President Obama accomplished that they have designed a bill that essentially returns American health care to a luxury for the rich instead of affordable for all. It is not a fix, or a repair; it replaces a system that needs work but is functioning better than they would have us believe, with a system that denies coverage or hikes premiums once again, or goes back to high deductibles for people who are betting they will only need coverage for a catastrophe. These people have great insurance themselves. They don't need to care about you. They want to free up funds to pay for their tax cut for the rich. And the rich don't care if you die. For every job in America there are plenty in line waiting to take it. That means you, your parents, your children—there are plenty more where you came from. The pool is endless; so what if a few of us die? Please note how many people and organizations do care about you, among them the American Medical Association, the American Nurses Association, AARP, the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, and the American Hospital Association. Also note, win or lose, how your representatives voted-----and remember it come the next election.

Health and Korea - Double Trumped

While a handful of Republicans in Congress plot to enslave the American people to the health insurance companies of America, the President of the United States insults the entire United Nations and threatens North Korea with total annihilation and the murder of at least half as many victims as were killed during all of World War Two. Today I am embarrassed to be an American. I know we can do better, I just don't know when we plan to start.

Potables on a Saturday Night

It astonishes me to think that only three percent of the water on earth is fresh water. 97% is salt water. About one third of all fresh water is in the Amazon River system—so much fresh water pours into the Atlantic at the Amazon's mouth that water two hundred miles away atill tastes fresh. Another fifth of the world's water is in just one lake, Lake Baikal in Russia. The sixth largest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area, Baikal is so deep that it holds twice as much water as Lake Superior. Sitting on the Baikal Rift, an active geologic feature, the lake is actually growing. This means the rest of the world—plants, animals and people—has to share 45% of the fresh water available, or less than one and a half percent of the world's total water supply. Factor in the polar ice caps and the other massive lakes around the planet, and it seems that land based life is frugal with water, indeed. We use that water to irrigate our crops, slake our thirst, bathe our bodies, flush our toilets, and we have to share it with every other creature on the planet. Truly amazing. Water renews itself through evaporation, migration and precipitation, but to think it is infinite is foolish. And yet—unless the convenience store closes early—we never run out of beer. Not to mention wine and spirits. Did you know that there are approximately 158 distilleries in Scotland alone, producing the true King's Sport, single malt whisky? It would take six months to visit each one and truly appreciate its finesses. The cost would be prohibitive, but I think about the water involved in producing this elixir of the gods, from sweet to smoke. Plus, one needs a wee dram of water to open up the Scotch—I am told. And speaking of coffee, did you know that most bottles of beer cost less than a latte or a can of Starbuck's? Just sayin'. Or grab a shot of Vodka while overlooking the massive expanse of Lake Baikal, and zdravstvujtye (hello!)! But, ooch, donn ask me how te pronounce it.

Trump Erodes His Own Base

I wish I were done with politics, but politics is not done with me. Yet I stand at an impass. There is no human being on earth—and probbably none anywhere more celestial, either—who can convince me that Donald Trump is an honest man worthy of my trust. At the same time, I know I will never be able to convince anyone who so believes otherwise. So I have to let Trump do the convincing. It should be easy. All anyone has to do is pay attention. He spreads alternate facts without bothering to check them; the most recent one is the story thyat Black Jack Pershing had 49 Muslim terrorists shot with bullets dipped in pig's blood. A 1927 newspaper article related that Pershing did sprinkle pig's blood on captured terror suspects, then let them go, but even that story is legend and not fact. But Trump adopted the embellished story he took from the internet as his own, as the truth, and I am certain he believes it. He has insulted Gold Star families, major celebrities, and even fellow Republicans without impunity. Point by point, his base of support has slowly dropped to 34%. Two-thirds of Americans no longer support him or never did, yet he remains President. Uncharacteristically, the American people are rejecting Trump as their trusted leader despite it being less than a year since he took office, and despite the fact that the US economy is booming. To many, Donald Trump is best described as an embarrassment. Now, Charlottesville and his subsequent rants. Trump declared himself a racist within the first minute of his candidacy for President. Throughout his campaign his rhetoric was outrageous and inflammatory. People loved it; they saw him as speaking from the heart instead of what he was really doing: say whatever he thought would win his base and then what would keep them. He won the election in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote by three million. He distorts and embellishes the truth and out and out lies. Then he convinces himself the lies are the truth and the truth is made up of alternate facts. He really believes that he won the Electoral College in a landslide. He really believes he won the popular vote. He really believes that the crowds at his Innaugural were the largest in history. He probably believes that his polling numbers are all lies manufactured by the media to embarrass him. When he holds a rally, he believes that the people who come to see him represent the majority of Americans while protesters outside are radicals for hire. And on and on—he even had a great number of us convinced that Mexico was going to pay for his “Wall.” Now, after months of promising, Trump is threatening to close the government if We The People don't finance the construction of the Wall. Every promise made is falling apart; every lie told is coming to roost, yet all he seems willing to do is tweet incessantly and hold campaign rallies three plus years before the 2020 campaign, aimed at that dwindling base. On Friday, the same day Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas, the President pardoned Joe Arpaio, the Phoenix, Arizona, sheriff convicted of violating a federal court order to stop random profiling of Hispanics who might be illegal because of how they look regardless of their actual status. The pardon is just another proof of where Trump stands, and with whom he stands shoulder to shoulder. I guess the rest of us just don't count.