When the feeling overtakes you
To rain brimstone with some fire
On your fellow earthly beings
But the anger and frustration
Of the wasted opportunities
Overwhelms the pithy arrows
That you'd very much like to fling
And nothing seems to flow
From depths much drier Than Sahara
. . . Trump took a moment to explain the significance of a Supreme Court vacancy Wednesday to Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, saying that, "In our country, the election of a justice of the United States Supreme Court is considered, I think we can all say, one of the most important events." . . . He added that, "Some people think outside of obviously war and peace it's the most important thing that you can have. . ."
. . . as of the 20th . . . or 'look at all these accomplishments'. . .
(https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/has-been-president-united-states-over-last-two-weeks-n884971)
". . . Defended his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families;
Falsely blamed the opposition party for the policy;
Tweeted that undocumented immigrants “pour into and infest our Country”;
Charged that the German people are turning against their leadership, and falsely stated that crime in Germany is up (when it’s down);
Urged voters to defeat a legislator from his own party for not being loyal enough to him;
Taunted that legislator after he was defeated (“I just want to congratulate him on running a great race!”);
Praised the dictator of North Korea (“He’s smart, loves his people, he loves his country”);
Attacked the prime minister of Canada, calling him “very dishonest and weak”;
Refused to sign the joint communique from the G-7 summit;
Blamed the country’s former president for losing Crimea to Russia;
Said his supporters “are the smartest, strongest, most hard working and most loyal that we have seen in our countries [sic] history”;
Called the news media “the enemy of the people”;
And continued his attacks on the federal investigation into his campaign team?
"He that troubles his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart"
-Proverbs 11:29 (King James Version)
(https://a.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/expert-sarah-sanders-broke-ethics-rules-with-tweet-about-restaurant/ar-AAz5vtH?li=BBnbfcL)
". . . Walter Shaub, federal ethics chief under Barack Obama and briefly Trump and now a fierce critic of the administration, responded: “Sanders used her official govt account to condemn a private business for personal reasons … she can lob attacks on her own time but not using her official position.”. . . The story set off a fierce Twitter battle between Trump supporters and opponents, many on both sides comparing it to a recent supreme court ruling that said the owner of a Colorado cake shop was right to refuse service to a gay couple, based on his religious beliefs. . ."
. . . from and article containing some real food for thought . . .
(https://ivn.us/2012/11/06/100-ways-republicans-are-just-like-democrats/)
A large number of Democrats and Republicans signed the National Defense Authorization Act for the year 2012, which critics say allows for the indefinite detention of American citizens on U.S. soil without due process. President Obama pledged to veto the NDAA, but went back on his word and signed it into law with the indefinite detention provision included. Mitt Romney says that he would do the same.
The Bush-era Patriot Act, which allows for warrantless wiretapping, was passed with bipartisan support and recently extended by policymakers of both parties. Romney has voiced his support for the controversial legislation. Obama supported it as a senator and signed the extension into law as president.
Both the Republican and Democratic administrations have attempted to justify the use of extrajudicial targeted killing, the killing of people without trial or substantive due process, including American citizens.
The Democratic and Republican parties both generally support the vastly-growing use of unmanned aerial combat drones in the Middle East . . .
Both parties will also allow drones to patrol the skies of the United States. The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which calls for the use of up to 30,000 drones in U.S. airspace, passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support.
In an apparent direct conflict of interest, 130 Republican and Democratic congressional members have invested in company stocks while making legislative decisions that impact those same companies.
The invisible blood
Like when floodgates open
Rushes swiftly;
Directly
Without delay
Bringing pulsing warmth
And joyous feeling
As both excitement
And pleasure
Fill my heart
Problem is, I didn't do it
When he was around
For whatever reason
My own discomfort
My excuses about the time
My self-consciousness
My lack of 'closeness' to him
And now I can only speak to the cosmos
With the knowledge that
While my words are not in vain
There is no mortal being there
To receive, comprehend and accept
Any thoughts, words, comfort or appreciation
But my breath is not wasted on the cosmos
My words are disbursed among the infinite intelligence,
consciousness or universal presence
So while it may seem to me
To be too late to offer anything
I hope, in my great deep-down,
That is really isn't
And I say to myself once again
As I always have in these situations
That I promise to never do that again
(https://www.vox.com/2018/6/20/17486446/family-separation-reunification-trump-executive-order-immigration)
". . . Trump . . . signed an executive order to end the large-scale practice of splitting up families at the US-Mexico border. . . claims will end family separation . . .The order doesn’t provide relief for the approximately 2,300 kids who have already been separated from their families since the administration’s policy was announced in early May. Those children will remain separated from their parents as they remain in federal custody and won’t immediately be reunited, according to a report in the New York Times. . . “There will not be a grandfathering of existing cases,” Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesperson for the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. . ."
(from The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen)
". . . The two swindlers invited him to step closer, asking him if it wasn't a beautiful design and if the colors weren't magnificent. They pointed to the empty loom, and the poor old minister opened his eyes wider and wider. He still could see nothing, for nothing was there. "Gracious" he thought. "Is it possible that I am stupid? I have never thought so. Am I unfit for my position? No one must know this. No, it will never do for me to say that I was unable to see the material.". . . "
(from https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/09/politics/trump-line-press-conference/index.html)
". . . 1. "We've concluded a really tremendously successful G7.
2. "And you know the gentlemen up are the legendary Larry Kudlow and the legendary John Bolton."
3. "I made a lot of statements having to do with clarity."
4. "I congratulate the leaders of other countries for so crazily being able to make these trade deals that were so good for their country and so bad for the United States."
5. "I'll be on a mission of peace, and we will carry in, really -- in my heart, we're going to be carrying the hearts of millions of people, people from all over the world."
6. "We really think that North Korea will be a tremendous place in a very short period of time."
7. "Well, there's always everything."
8. "He won't have that opportunity again. It's never going to be there again."
9. "He can take that nation, with those great people, and truly make it great."
10. "And we will watch over, and we'll protect, and we'll do a lot of things."
11. "I have not spoken to Vladimir Putin in quite a while."
12. "Some people like the idea of bringing Russia back in."
13. "And something happened a while ago, where Russia is no longer in."
14. "We pay nothing. We don't want to pay anything. Why should we pay?"
15. "So you go tariff-free, you go barrier-free, you go subsidy-free."
16. "That's the way you learned at the Wharton School of Finance."
17. "I guess, they got to go back to the drawing and check it out, right?"
18. "It's going to change, 100%."
19. "We're like the piggy bank that everybody is robbing."
20. "And so we are talking to many countries. We're talking to all countries."
21. "So when we try and bring our piece up a little bit so that it's not so bad, and then they go up -- right -- the difference is they do so much more business with us than we do with them that we can't lose that."
22. "The numbers are so astronomically against them in terms of anything, as per your question."
23. "You've studied this very well. Congratulations."
24. "Hispanic doing the best."
25. "Fake News CNN. The worst. But I could tell by the question."
26. "I would say that the level of relationship is a 10."
27. "I will blame them if they don't act smart and do what they have to do -- because they have no choice. I'll be honest with you, they have no choice."
28. "So you can tell that to your fake friends at CNN."
29. "The relationship that I've had with the people, the leaders of these countries, has been -- I would really, rate it on a scale of 0 to 10, I would rate it a 10."
30. "You know, it's like the gig is up. It's like the gig is up. They're not trying to -- there's nothing they can say."
31. "But a lot of these countries actually smile at me when I'm talking. And the smile is -- we couldn't believe we got away with it."
32. "I think that he's going to surprise, on the upside, very much on the upside."
33. "Because, you know, as a deal person, I've done very well with deals."
34. "I think within the first minute I'll know. Just my touch, my feel. That's what I do."
35. "Everyone said -- you know, the haters, they say, 'Oh, you're giving him a meeting.' Give me a break, OK?"
36. "Because the US press is very dishonest, much of it."
37. "There are many people in the press that are unbelievably dishonest. They don't cover stories the way they're supposed to be."
38. "So there's tremendous -- you know, I came up with the term, 'fake news.' It's a lot of fake news. But at the same time, I have great respect for many people in the press."
. . . "
(https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/15/trump-north-korea-sit-up-attention-648969?cid=apn)
". . . On Friday, when asked why he doesn’t vigorously criticize Kim's human rights record, Trump expressed an interest in preventing a nuclear attack. . . "You know why? I don't want to see a nuclear weapon destroy you and your family," he said. . ."
That 'interest' or 'concern' never entered his mind when he called Kim 'Rocket Man'.
Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin thinks video games, song lyrics and social media kill more people than guns (my interpretation of his statements in a recent post). No action whatsoever on gun control is necessary, because THAT would not reduce the number of innocent deaths from school shootings. (!!!???) While I'm not a fan of violent games, and would much prefer promotion of games that require critical thought instead, does Mr. Bevin truly believe that enacting and enforcing regulation of video games, song lyrics and social media (read 1st Amendment Rights) is a practical and effective route to reducing school shootings? Whatever his answer, you can rest assured he will take much too much of your valuable time and much too many words to express it.
(from https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/conway%E2%80%99s-husband-blasts-trump-tweet-calling-special-counsel-%E2%80%98unconstitutional%E2%80%99/ar-AAydy3E)
". . . Trump's . . . (asserted last week). . . that the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the Russia probe "is totally unconstitutional.". . . "
(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_prosecutor#Constitutionality)
". . . The appointment of a special prosecutor raises inherent separation of powers questions under the U.S. Constitution. Since the special prosecutor is a member of the executive branch, it has been argued that the special prosecutor is ultimately answerable to the president, and can therefore be fired by them. Richard Nixon, for example, argued that he could not be compelled by a subpoena issued by his own subordinate. . . The constitutionality of the independent counsel law was affirmed by a 7–1 decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Morrison v. Olson (1988). . ."
