All Hallows' Eve - The Upside Down

It's All Hallows' Eve. The boundary between this world and the Otherworld thins today. The ancient Celts called this day "Samhain" from old Irish meaning "summer's end". The Brittonic Celts called it "Calan Gaeaf" meaning "first day of winter".

Today we call it Halloween. Today our children go Trick or Treating. Today the boundary between our democracy and chaos is razor thin. We could be entering The Upside Down.

Stranger Things are happening. Stranger Things have been happening ever since Barack Obama was elected President and the Tea Party first appeared on our political landscape.

Stranger Things arrived on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. Stranger Things took control on January 20, 2017 when Donald Trump, the anti-President, officially became the 45th President of the United States.

The Printer's Devil surfaced in Trump's Inauguration poster. Apparently is was "too great" a task for the typesetter.

Trump winced in pain when he put his hand on the Bible for the Oath of Office.

Trump's appointment of a "White House Chief Strategist" and "Special Counselor to the President of the United States" was clearly an indication of how we have shifted into a new political dimension - The Twilight Zone of American extremism and white supremacist nationalism.

Trump's bromance with Vladimir Putin is unprecedented in American politics. Our foreign policy has turned into a Little Shop of Horrors.

We have invited Dracula - Vlad the Impailer - into our Administrative Branch and he is infecting everyone.

Yesterday we learned of the first three indictments brought by Special Counsel Robert Muller.

Gates, Papadopoulos and Manafort are what could be the beginning of the end of a corrupt administration that threatens to bring our Republic to ruin - an administration that has taken us into The Upside Down - an administration well on the path to totalitarian rule.

We can expect this administration to use dirty Tricks and foul Treats to survive. If Trump succeeds, we'll all be losers. We'll be the worst generation - the generation that surrendered the country to the Forces of Darkness. 

The Exorcist is here. He is working to save our government from the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. He is exposing the corruption of our body politic by Russian operatives and criminal enterprises and ruthless American opportunists.

Papadopoulos has already pleaded guilty and has been serving as a cooperating witness since July. He is an important government witness. He has been wearing a wire for months.

Manafort and Gates are on home detention after pleading not guilty and posting multimillion dollar bonds. They are each facing 12 felony count indictments that include "Conspiracy Against The United States".

Guess who is railing against Muller's investigation? Guess who is doing all he can to bring it to an unsuccessful end?

Holy Moly!

We're Not In Kansas Anymore

"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." is an oft quoted line from the Wizard of Oz.

"The Wizard of Oz" was made in 1939 and has proved to be one of the most famous cinema fantasies of all time. It was based on The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"; a children's fantasy book by L. Frank Baum.

Baum's original story was published in 1900. It was made into a Broadway musical in 1902. Since then, millions of copies of the book have been sold all over the world. The Library of Congress has declared the book "America's greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale."

In 2011, Sam Brownback became the Governor of Kansas. The Koch brothers were his biggest financial backers. With the help of Stephen Moore and Arthur Laffer, Sam launched his "red-state experiment".

Moore is a distinguished visiting fellow in Heritage’s Institute for Economic Freedom and Opportunity.

Laffer is a former Reagan economist.

The Koch brothers inherited a fortune from their super wealthy daddy. They have their own theories about government. They have put hundreds of millions of dollars into getting the people they want elected to political offices all over the country.

They were the major funders behind the Tea Party. The Tea Party is against "big" government, Obamacare, and corporate taxes. Some of its better known spokespeople were Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

Anyway, the Koch Brothers' main corporate headquarters is in Kansas. It made sense that the "red-state experiment" would take place in Kansas. The same Kansas where Dorothy and Toto were swept away by a tornado that landed them in Oz.

Well, let's jump ahead a few years and look at how the "red-state experiment" turned out in Kansas. The "red-state experiment" has pretty much ruined the entire economy of Kansas.

Yep, the whole State of Kansas was caught up in that "red state experiment" tax cutting tornado. Kansas ended up in the toilet.

People are working hard in Kansas to undo the ruinous damage Brownback and the Koch's and the Tea Party and Stephen Moore have done.

In June, 2017, the Republican majority in the Kansas Legislature put an end to the "red state experiment". Check it out for yourself. Click on "The Death of Kansas's Conservative Experiment" link below.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/kansass-conservative-tax-experiment-is-dead/529551/ 

So you don't live in Kansas. So why should you be concerned about all this? I don't know. Maybe it's because some boys in Washington are planning to cut our taxes just like Brownback did in poor ole Kansas.

Yep, this is what these boys have in mind for us. We're not going to Oz. We're all headed for the crapper.

Holy Moly!

Focus - Put Things In Perspective

It's 1950. You live in the United States and World War II is a vivid memory. Everybody knows a Gold Star Family. Everyone knows someone who was a POW.

People are starting to buy homes and have families. Vets are going to college on the GI Bill. We are hungry for peace.

A toy company comes up with a doll that talks when you pull the string. This is what it looks like.

Samples of what the doll says include, "When you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything - grab them by the pussy."

It also says, "He’s not a war hero because he was captured? I like people who weren’t captured."

At other times it derides a Gold Star Mother and praises the Russian dictator.

How do you think you would react to it in a marketing focus group?

How do you think you would react to this photo?

Don't let Trump turn us against each other over football players kneeling in protest before a game. Too many Americans have sacrificed everything to insure our right to freedom of speech and peaceful protest.

On Howard Stern's radio show Trump called dating in the 1980s his personal Vietnam. He also told Howard it was okay to refer to his daughter, Ivanka, as a "piece of ass". Trump respects nothing,

Holy Moly!

The Little Red Book Of Chairman Steve

Steve Bannon deserves some special attention. After all, he is the chairman of the Republican Party. Isn't he?

If he isn't, someone needs to tell him because he's been issuing staccato edicts these last few days.

Bannon described himself as a "Leninist". When questioned about that, Bannon explained, “Lenin wanted to destroy the state and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down and destroy all of today’s establishment.”

Bannon was/is the ideologist behind Trump. He is a revered guru who Trump trusted above all others.

When Trump spoke it was Bannon we were hearing. Bannon prides himself with creating the platform for the alt-right. That's what Breitbart News is and Bannon is the man behind the curtain at Breitbart.

Alt-right is the polite way of saying white supremacist. Most people would be wary of getting too close to a white supremacist, but Trump had no trouble with it. He sought it out.

When Bannon was forced out of the White House and off the Executive Branch he returned to Breitbart from whence he came. He said, "In the White House I had influence. At Breitbart, I had power."

These are Bannon's words, "We’re going to go after them. There’s a coalition coming together that’s going to challenge every Republican incumbent except for Ted Cruz. We are declaring war on the Republican establishment that does not back the agenda that Donald Trump ran on. We’re going after these guys tooth and nail."

When Senator Corker disagreed with Trump this is what Bannon said, "Senator Corker is an absolute disgrace. If Bob Corker has any honor, any decency, he should resign immediately. He should not let those words stand.”

If this sounds a bit extreme for someone who has no official role in either government or the Republican Party, then you need to adjust your thinking. Times have changed. We are in Wonderland and Bannon is channeling the Queen of Hearts.

Bannon has big plans for us. Other's do as well, but for the moment they are content to observe what is happening. You could say their goals are in sync with Bannon's.

In the meantime, Trump has been tearing up the landscape redefining what it means to be a patriot and respect our flag. He is taking on the NFL and all those wealthy black athletes that are convenient kindling for him to stoke the fires of racism with.

Trump knows how to appeal to his base. The base which Bannon has been providing a platform for all along.

Holy Moly!