The Shakespearean Candidate

Back in the day, in "Jolly Old England", the Globe Theater was the place to be. That new avant garde playwright, William Shakespeare's plays were the talk of London.

While today, attending a Shakespearean play is considered an exercise for the intellectual elite, he actually wrote for the great unwashed masses. And in those days, unwashed was not a term to be ignored.

His plays were considered crude of language, loud, and broad of action. Women's parts were played by men in drag, or possibly women playing men playing women. Who knows. But since they had no sound systems in those days, the actors projected to the cheap seats with voices that could make the walls shake. To use an old show biz phrase, they chewed the scenery. The emoted! They hammed it up. They sold the show.

Everything happening on the stage was loud, crude, broad, and obvious. Pop quiz: Does this remind you of anyone? Once we had a movie that posited The Manchurian Candidate. Today I give you the Shakespearean Candidate.

The man comes on stage shouting, insulting, and swinging his arms. He looks like he is wearing a yellow furry creature on his head. He constantly informs all who will listen of his greatness and his wealth. He makes it sound like, if you aren't a billionaire able to finance your own campaign, you have no right to run for President. I do not think that that is what the founders had in mind.

Through all of this his language is rude and crude. He most definitely plays to the cheap seats. The press loves him, not as a candidate, but as a side show. But the sideshow has somehow become the main attraction. He is not my candidate. He is not likable and he is not Presidential. He tells us that he will be a great President. I am not so sure. But if he becomes the Republican candidate, I will vote for him because the alternatives are far worse.

So if you will excuse me, I have to go practice saying President Trump. 

LL Holds The Aces

Barack Obama is still President, albeit a lame duck. While he still tries to exert king like power, his history is catching up to him. He has, for the most part, installed sycophants into high government positions so that he had absolute control. But with less than a year left in his term, that power is rapidly eroding.

There may actually be some appointees out there that put love of country ahead of subservience to either the President or the Democrat party. I hope that Loretta Lynch is one of those, although there has been no evidence in that direction as yet.

In poker terms, AG Lynch is holding pocket aces. It is not obvious that she has the power hand. I hope that she realizes that she does and is willing to act on it. 

The FBI has a massive multi-faceted investigation into Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and the activities of her aides. It is said that more than one hundred and fifty agents are involved. That is a lot of smoke. And we have all seen videotape of her obviously lying. With that much smoke, there must be fire.

It appears that the President and the Democrat power structure are doing their very best to cover for her. The worst that could happen is that the FBI closes the investigation without trying to get an indictment. That would ruin the reputation of the FBI and Director Comey.

It would be equally bad if they passed charges to AG Lynch, and she refused to call a Grand Jury. If nothing else, a strong appearance of criminal activity exists. This needs to be acted upon. With the country's problems as great as they are now, we cannot afford to have a Presidential candidate who has committed crimes and abetted others in criminal activity.

Ms. Lynch has armor clad power to do the right thing. By doing so, she will prove to the country that she is not a political tool. She will advance her own reputation and open up future possibilities the she would be denied. She has the aces. She should play them. 

Let's Not Be Negative

Once again, we must enter the world of Stupid Economics. Back in the days when the country was less liberal and more steeped in realism, just after WWII, when I was in elementary school, my teachers explained compound interest. They taught us about savings accounts and how your money could grow just by putting it in the bank and getting a share of the banks profits.

While there were always more profitable forms of investment, we were told that savings accounts were good because they were safe and the return on investment was reasonable. Many people of my generation believed this, whole-heartedly.  They grew up with this as holy writ. 

Just prior to the 2008 election, the economy slumped. Economies are cyclical. They sometimes slump. Mr. Obama was elected President and promised to restore economic good times. He then proceeded to make every economic decision in a manner that forced the economy deeper into the doldrums. 

The Fed, riding shotgun for Mr. Obama, was forced to do something to provide cover for bad economic policy. They lowered interest rates. And they continued to lower them periodically as things worsened.

This did provide cover through the media. Since the low interest rates drove money into equities the stock market went up like a sky rocket. So the media could report the economy is great, just look at the stock market.

Well the economy wasn't great and still isn't. Statistics have been cobbled together to paint a pretty face on an ugly situation. Worst of all, those folks, especially older folks, who depended on savings accounts are getting nothing. They are being robbed to cover for bad decisions by the administration.

It is about to get worse. As bad as our economy is right now, it is still the strongest in the world. So many central banks in Europe and Asia are making a very foolish move. They are establishing a negative interest rate. To make it simple, if the negative rate is -1% and you by a $1000.00 bond, at maturity it is worth $990.00. Great deal, huh? 

The genius bankers thought this would drive people to invest and spend, thus driving up their pathetic economies. People are spending on one thing. Safes. They are taking their money and stuffing it into the proverbial mattress. Anyone with a lick of sense and no political agenda could see this coming.

So, advice to the Fed, let's not be negative.

Such A Muddle It Is

I am beginning to hate reading the news, hearing the news, or being exposed to the news in any way. It's a muddle. Common sense has long ago evaporated and we are working our way through stupidity into insanity. It all starts with the election.

Hillary sits there in an interview and sorta says that she never lied to the American people. In other word, she's lying about lying. Hill, we have the video tape. Then she say she has always worked for the people. It just happens that the people that she has worked for are her, Bill, and Chelsea. All the others, not so much.

Then we have Bernie the socialist, so beloved of the college set. They have graduated from high school, they are, mostly, attending institutes of higher education, yet they have never learned that socialism doesn't work. All they see is, free stuff for me, yippee!

The Republican side isn't a whole lot better. From a screaming rude egotist in the lead to a soft spoken doctor far out at the tail end, they all seem a bit muddle headed. Clarity is not to be found with any of them.

Then there is the Supreme Court strangeness. When the Republicans were in charge the Democrats insisted that no nominations should be made except by Democrats. Now that they are in charge they think that no nominations should be made except by really far left leaning Democrats. They are a highly nuanced bunch of power grubbers.

Remember that the extreme left, currently, the whole Democrat party, thinks that government should be in charge of everything. The fact that they constantly screw up what they are in charge of bothers them not at all. That gurgling sound that you may hear in the background is more freedom circling the drain. 

And, by the way, when did atheists get to be in charge? All I hear is atheists demand this and atheists demand that. They have no God given right (yes I did that on purpose) to demand anything.

You can't see what's in the TPP, until Congress passes it. Say goodbye to more jobs. Some young blacks are demanding segregation. We have jihadist training camps in this country. The world is getting more dangerous but our military is shrinking. We have a National Debt that is out of control, but the solution to every problem is to spend more money. But those problems never seem to get solved.

It is a muddle. I'm going back to bed and pull the blankets up over my head!

Random Thoughts - Seventy-Eight

If the Democrats are so concerned about "white privilege", why don't they support school choice and allow those in the inner city to share in that so-called privilege?

Football is over and baseball hasn't started. My life is in limbo. I may be desperate enough to watch spring training games. 

By the way, the only white privilege that I have ever had was life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Liberty, today, is in mortal danger. I've gotten old. But, by God, I'm still chasing happiness every single day.

President Obama, not going to the funeral of Antonin Scalia, is small minded and pathetic.

We are really allowing the Chicago Stock Exchange and Terex Corp., a military supplier, to be sold to the Chinese? When did we decide on national suicide?

In my opinion Federal Marshalls should go into Apple, put Tim Cook in hand cuffs, and jail him for contempt of court. Let him sit there until Apple gives the contents of that murderous jihadi's phone to the FBI.

Let me understand, if Democrats filibuster Supreme Court nominations made by Republicans, it is acceptable politics. If Republicans do the same to Democrats, it is racist, sexist, or whatever abhorrent term popular at the time.

Anyone that believes that liberals are not trying to disarm honest Americans is not paying attention. Of course they will make exceptions for themselves and their hirees. 

I just read where humans and neanderthals mated. How can I erase that picture from my mind?

The Republican candidates better have an adult conversation and figure something out pretty soon, or Bernie might be making appointments to the Supreme Court. Or if it were Hillary, she could appoint Obama. Ponder on that for a while.

Crazy

I am convinced that a major portion of the world's population have lost their minds. Things have been going a bit crazy for a while now, but it seems to get worse daily. An Argentinian soccer player got red carded (kicked out of the game), So he goes over to his bag, pulls out a gun and kills the referee. That is just double dog nuts.

The leading Democrat candidate for President, on TV, in front of the world, rolls her eyes and barks like a dog. At the same time, when in the south, she develops a drawl. During a speech in Harlem, she suddenly sounded like she just came out of the ghetto. Talk about all things for all people and pooches.

The leading, sort of, Republican candidate shouts, brags, and screams liar to all that oppose him, never giving a real agenda nor a valid plan. But his numbers keep going up. Wacko!.

The number two, and moving up, Democrat candidate is a transplanted socialist who moved from Brooklyn to Vermont. He wants the government to give everything away for free and tax, tax, tax to pay for it. Socialism has failed everyplace it has been tried and people have suffered. But he wants to try try again. 

Apple has been ordered by the courts to break into the phone of those murderous jihadists from San Bernadino. Apple is refusing because "it is too dangerous". What? Jihadists with weapons are not dangerous? Wack-a-doodle thinking.

An eighteen year old kid set up a false medical practice in Florida. Really? He didn't think that people would catch on when they  found the Doc was younger than their kids.

Kanye West thinks that he is qualified to run the world. But now it is said that he is fifty-eight million dollars in debt. And he wants other folks to bail him out. Live by the buck, die by the buck, fool. 

Over the years, many people of all colors fought segregation in America. Now, a major Northeast university is considering restoring a segregated dorm, at the request of some black students. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be so proud.

Finally, the Pope visited Mexico. He got jostled by the adoring crowd. And stood there shouting at them. Not very Pope-like.

These are just a few samples. But everything today seems a little bit weirder than normal. The presidential campaign alone, I have never seen anything like it. Watch the news for more fun and insanity.

Obligations

A great man has left us. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has passed. May he rest in peace. His life and achievements are being extolled throughout the media, as is deserved. I am concerned with what is next.

It is the obligation of the President to select a candidate for replacement to the court. There is no question that Mr. Obama will observe this obligation. It is fitting and proper.

It is the obligation of the Senate to review this candidate's life and qualifications leading to an up or down vote to ratify this selection. The Senate should observe this obligation. This is also fitting and proper.

While the President has been surprisingly tepid in his remarks, some of those running for that office have been less so. This is less than fitting and proper.

Mr. Obama has already had two nominees to the Supreme Court approved. Both were very liberal women. While a branch of government as important as the Supreme  Court should not have a political agenda, it is the politicians who make and approve these nominations. Bad for the country, good for their agendas.

With the turmoil going on in the country today, we need, more than ever, to go through this process as if we were being led by actual statesmen. There are sound and qualified legal minds out there that all parties could accept. Men or women that know, love, and accept the Constitution and the laws that have sprung from it.

The nomination of a great legal mind with no political agenda would serve our country well at a time when we really need greatness. Unfortunately, I don't believe that our President can let loose of his agenda long enough to initiate this process. 

So we will most probably enter a period where rancor and bitterness further take away from allowing government to actually improve the lives of people and bring our country back from the edge. One of these fine days, we may find that we have gone beyond the tipping point. 

Lying Is Corrosive

Lying is corrosive to the fabric of society. That is because so many are willing to believe the lie in spite of evidence to the contrary. That is why politicians, particularly liberal politicians, love their lies. 

They don't even call them lies. They call it being disingenuous. I guess they think that the plebeian society that they would rule is not smart enough to know what disingenuous means. But a lie by any other name is still a big fat lie.

But there are many people that live low on the information totem pole. Not that they're dumb, they just don't care. They have other things in their life that fills their time better than listening to politicians. 

But when they hear, "If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor." or "This deal with Iran will stop them from building a nuclear bomb." they believe until they lose their doctor or they hear that Iran did a nuclear test.

I have found over the years that liberals value words more than deeds. And our current President has words about everything. Even when it would be wiser to refrain from opining, he cannot resist the temptation.

Remember when Professor Gates of Cambridge, Massachusetts screamed long and loud about his treatment by the police. Obama chimed right in on his behalf, castigating the them. In the end we found out they were doing their job by the book. But the damage was done. 

Now we have Bernie promising to give away the store and Hillary swearing that the FBI is merely doing a security check. The "vast right wing conspiracy" is still out to get her, and she had no responsibility for Benghazi.

Any one of us who write about this stuff could go on ad nauseum  with example after example. People need more disdain for the words spoken by pols. Half the lies they tell aren't true. The other half are gross exaggerations. 

Doomed?

New Hampshire has spoken. Hillary lost. OK, Bernie had some advantages going in. College kids, with no sense of history and little knowledge of economics, think Bernie is good for a bunch of free stuff. Vermont is his stomping grounds. After Washington of course. So he's considered a neighbor. And New Hampshire has become a liberal hotbed in recent years.

So, Hillary was expected to come up a little short on a cold and snowy primary day. Five percent. Seven percent. Certainly not twenty-two percent. That is crushing. Less than one in five Democrat primary voters think she should have a run at the presidency.

That had to hurt. I would love to have been "a fly on the wall", last night, when, out of the public eye, she could turn loose her widely feared temper. That must have been something to behold. My sympathies to her security team.

Even worse for her, her greatest protection from indictment was the premise that she would be a shoo-in as the Democrat nominee, and almost certainly the next President. That concept just hit a granite wall, so to speak.

So what will our crack team of legal experts, that would be Barack Obama and Loretta Lynch, do. Since Hillary is now damaged goods. And since, of the general public, only five percent find her to be honest. They can now find justification in turning the FBI loose and offering her up for indictment.

Listen closely and you can hear the hoof beats of a dark horse coming down the canyon and heading for the Democrat National Convention. But what is the name branded on the saddle of that dark horse? Three names come quickly to mind. Joe Biden, of course, has to be the first name to pop up. The second most obvious is Elizabeth Warren. A third name is Deval Patrick, the Harvard educated ex-governor of Massachusetts. 

I suspect that any one of these three are looking mighty attractive to both the DNC and President Obama at this point. Any one of them would eliminate a lot of drama and a lot of heavy baggage from the race. Say goodbye, Hillary.

The Sound Of Silence

The sound of silence is what you have heard from me in the past few days. The noise and clamor that abounds in all of the media about candidates, caucuses, primaries, a Super Bowl that I don't give a rodent's buttocks about, and winter weather, have caused the idea factory between my ears to shut down and all the workers to take a vacation. 

The last seven years have been hard on this country. The promised recovery never happened. We are deeper in debt, as a nation, than is sane or prudent. It appears that we might be on the verge of another recession and every Democrat candidate for President, existing or proposed, would only drive us further down this road. A road that dead ends at the edge of a cliff.

I had a lot of hope for the Republican candidates, but they have beaten and battered each other so badly that most of them are coming away as damaged goods. One candidate is an ego ridden braggart, not so different from what we have today. Another is so desperate that he put his elderly mother on TV to tell us what a good kind boy he is. Most of them are walking around with massive bruises and we haven't even finished round two yet.

Two candidates that I felt would make a good solid President/Vice President combination, who, through their own efforts as well as the efforts of others, are not looking so bright and shiny anymore. But I do see one more pair in the pack, less damaged and more rational, who could be formidable candidates. Time will tell. I won't put a curse on them by naming them. 

But, to be sure, we need a good solid conservative President that will get government off the back of both citizens and businesses. Government has become too intrusive and must be curbed or we will lose forever the freedoms that made America great.

Teddy Wasn't Just A Bear

Teddy Roosevelt was a man who was much admired. So admired, in fact, that they named a child's toy after him. I will admit that I also hold him in a high degree of admiration. Not because of his presidency, but because of his life. He did more in one lifetime than most could do in four.

Although he was born sickly in an age when medical care was meager, he built himself up into a strong robust man who would take on any challenge. He started out home educated but finally attended Harvard and became a respected historian and author.

He was a man who could live in the wilderness and was equally adept with an ax, a handgun, or a long gun. If a trek into the forest meant camping rough and supplying your own meals from natures bounty, it just made that trek more enjoyable.

As everyone knows, he fought in the military during the Spanish American War and led his Rough Riders up San Juan Hill. But many people don't know that he was a cowboy in North Dakota and owned his own ranch. He also served as a deputy sheriff and tracked down and captured three outlaws that had stolen his river boat. It was within his rights to hang them, but he brought them back for trial.

Roosevelt served on the Civil Service Commission for President Benjamin Harrison. He was the police commissioner for New York City. He served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy. He was Governor of New York and Vice President of the United States before he became President.

Roosevelt loved his country and gave the future Presidents the greatest foreign policy advice ever, when he said,  "Walk softly and carry a big stick". Homey but oh so true. We would be better off if more had heeded these words.

He was a manly man. A bigger than life man. A man to be admired and used as an example. He was a man who exemplified the stuff of which Presidents should be made.