Today Was Number One

On the first day of the Republican convention in Cleveland the theme was supposed to be “Make America Safe”.  Instead, it appeared to be both “Make America Afraid” and “Hillary is a murderer, liar, and the cause of all the world’s problems”.  They had the indecency to exploit a grieving mother and to dredge up all the conspiracy tripe concerning Benghazi.  They also mischaracterized and excoriated our military efforts against ISIS.  I have two articles to recommend.  One, TEACHERKEN 7/12/16 concerns Sec Clinton’s Emails. In particular, the following paragraph: ” One might have inferred her untruth from Comey’s original (and quite professionally improper) statement on Tuesday July 11, but in his own testimony before the committee made clear that no headers indicated that anything was classified and that one might well not note the markings within the body of three emails, markings that the State Department has said were there erroneously.”  The other article is by Fareed Zakaria “Obama’s Terror Strategy Works”.

Day, today, was Number One
The convention has begun
The Republicans convening through the night
On this eve they had a bitter rulings fight

It was nasty and chaotic
And was somewhat idiotic
Anti-Trumples failed on changing rules too tight
Colorado delegates then left outright

Prime-time features started with
A most grieving Mother Smith
At Benghazi her son Sean his death he met
She blamed Hillary, in person, for his death

Giuliani’s whipping speech
Full of falsehoods, overreach
Claiming Secretary Clinton lied and failed
Toward her, delegates responded, “Go to jail”

Joni Ernst, who’s in the Senate
Said that Trump is in to win it
She excoriated Clinton like the rest
All-in-all it was an anti-Clinton fest

Melania Trump, I would opine
Most articulate, her line
As she spoke of Trumple, man of family
Quite a difference from the man known publicly

The convention’s first-day theme
Fear and falsehoods it would seem
Dominated what the speakers had to say
Over all, I’d say it was a wasted day

7/18/16

Governor Michael Pence

What can we say about Governor Pence
Whom Trumple selected as veep candidate
The logic behind this makes GOP sense
With far-right Republican interests at stake

The rollout of Pence nearly caused me to yawn
An unenthused Trumple just read from a script
Then Pence spoke in platitudes; he soon was gone
So Trumple could freely speak his usual quips

Mike’s evangelic against women’s rights
Anti-gay, anti-immigrant and climate change
He cut corporate taxes; Planned Parents he fights
Cut funding for schooling and health-care short changed

A solid Republican, known and well liked
His presence is such Trumple won’t be upstaged
I anticipate Trumple’s poll numbers will spike
So Democrats still have a battle to wage

7/17/16

TrumPence a Brag

Apologies to the Sherman Brothers and Julie Andrews

Feed the news TrumPence a brag
TrumPence, TrumPence, TrumPence a brag

Come feed the talk shows, tell them your line
Fox will be glad if you do
There in Trump Tower with flowers in bloom
A thousand reporters vie, filling the room
Reporters are hungry for tidbits to flag
Come, what they’re after is TrumPence a brag

Feed the news TrumPence a brag
TrumPence, TrumPence, TrumPence a brag

7/16/16

Coup Attempt

I wrote this poelitic while watching the attempted coup take place in Istanbul and Ankara, as viewed on MSNBC in real time.  As of this writing it was not totally clear that the coup attempt failed, although it appeared that it was going to.

I’m watching the failing uprising in Turkey
Attempting this coup is the Army’s mid brass
Their focus is President Erdogan’s rule
Elected as President; dictator now

Although he’s not popular, Europe or here
Most all NATO leaders condemned this attempt
Including our President, Hillary, too
Preferring democracy rather than coups

What’s striking to me, as I watch this unfold
Is the power of citizens acting in mass
To stand down the Army, prevailing at last
Defeating this coup using not more than flesh

Turkey’s strategic against ISIS threats
But Erdogan gives light assistance to them
The Kurdish militia, allied in this fight
Bare terrorist labels in Erdogan’s view

Turkey’s our ally, our partner in NATO
Erdogan wants to no longer remain
His mentor is Putin, with whom he’s a friend
So why support Erdogan and not the coup?

The coup would destabilize Turkey, it’s thought
Allowing the ISIS to gain a strong base
To spread their vile venom throughout Europe’s states.
I can’t help but wonder what Trumple would do.

7/15/16

Bastille Day in Nice

July 14th is Bastille Day in France.  In Nice, on a main road edging the beach a man deliberately used his Lorrie to  run over as much of the crowd of people celebrating the holiday as he could.

The people of Nice are recoiling in shock
With eighty (last count) lying dead on the street
They died celebrating the Day of Bastille
Deliberately slaughtered by someone from Nice

Plus twenty-some critically injured as well
Their life-or-death outcome remains to be seen
It’s all we can do, now, is pray for their souls
And not allow terror to commandeer ours

How then, to eliminate terror attacks
By lone-wolf attackers, most often home grown
We must find the reason such terror attracts
What fosters fanatical mind-states to kill?

Is it environment; is it their genes?
Is it rejection way back in their teens?
Is second-class citizens how they perceive
Their place in society so it would seem?

I don’t have the answers, but this I observe:
Clinton’s suggestions are good of themselves
But they don’t address the home-grown loner threat
While, keeping out Muslims is Trumple’s approach

7/14/16

RBG

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme-Court justice, made critical remarks about Donald Trump during several interviews, for which she has since apologized.  Lawrence O’Donald, msnbc, pointed out that, contrary to popular opinion, SCOTUS justices historically have been involved in politics while on the bench.  John Jay, the first Chief Justice ran for governor of New York and resigned his appointment upon winning.  A second example: Oliver Elsworth, the third SCOTUS Chief Justice, ran for president during his first year as Chief Justice.  He lost and remained with the court.  Lawrence also pointed out that the only difference in presidential preferences between RBG’s public statements and justices privately voting is public vs private.  In both cases the justice is expressing preference for a nominee, which, one could argue, could bias later related judgments.

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
RBG has criticized Trumpledee
Violating SCOTUS propriety
Nobody’s done it before

There’s no way that unbiased she could be
Should she give a ruling on Trumpledee
Emphasizing that possibility
Herself she’d have to recuse

Commentators all tow this righteous line
Faulting her that on Trmp she would opine
Stating this was SCOTUS’s only time
Only, that just isn’t so

SCOTUS justices do vote for president
One, while justice, ran to be president
Does this sway their rulings on presidents?
Maybe, but we’ll never know

7/14/16

Choices

When my mother had to choose among objects of equal attraction she often would recite the jingle:
Eeny meeny tips-a-teeny / Apple John John Sweeny / My-mother-told-me-to-choose-the-very-best-one; sequentially pointing a finger at each object and repeating the sequence until she pointed to the final object, which she then selected.
Trump announced that he would reveal his VP selection in New York (Trump Towers) at 11 AM on Friday. Odds on, it will be Mike Pence, Gov. Indiana

Eeny meeny tips-a-teeny
Ginrich, Pence or maybe Christy
Don-Trmp-will-chose-his –vice-pres-i-dent

***************************************

Theresa May, formerly Home Secretary of Dave Cameron’s government was elected leader of the Conservative party yesterday after Cameron stepped down (due to Brexit). Today she was asked by the Queen to form a new government as Prime Minister. She is a “One-Nation” conservative, started in the late 1860’s by Benjamin Disraeli, where the wealthy are obliged to help support the poorer classes as patricians.

Theresa May
Was asked today
By the Queen, please to form a new government
Beyond today
She’ll have her way
As a One-Nation conservative PM

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High on Hillary’s list for vice president are: Senator Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Senator Tim Kaine (Virginia) and Julian Castro (Secretary of Housing and Urban Development). Odds on, it will be Tim Kaine. Kaine was Governor of Virginia (2006-2010), Lt Governor prior to that, Chair of the DNC (2009-2011) plus other local elected positions. The main thing in my mind in addition to his executive and legislative experience that makes him the odds-on candidate is that he has raised a lot of money in the past for Clinton political campaigns and is close to Bill and Hillary.
No Poelitic.
******************************************

Two Interviews

Two interviews we heard last night
Both telling, but in different ways
Jeb Bush bemoaning his poor plight
And Trmp ‘pon winning, might not stay

Jeb is convinced from deep within
He’s best of all the candidates
While Trumple only wants to win
Then hand it to his running mate

However, both on this agree
Of all the would be presidents
The very worst is Hillary
To take up White House residence

She wouldn’t start a wasting war
Nor wreck the world’s economies
Nor favor wealth, ignoring poor
So terrible, her policies

She’s such a liar and a crook
No question that she is unfit
But never fact-check, never look
The stringent truth hurts quite a bit

So Jeb’s decided not to vote
As has his father’s dynasty
And Trumple on his self still dotes
While perpetrating travesty

7/12/16

No Lives Matter

Last Tuesday Alton Sterling (father of 5) was killed, selling CDs.  On Wednesday Philandro Castile was stopped for a broken tail light and was killed.   Both of these killings by policemen.  Then on Friday police officers: Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Michael Smith and Lorne Ahrens were gunned down by a sniper in Dallas (others were wounded).

These killings have got to stop!
……..But they won’t

We cultivate violence
……..As entertainment

These killings have got to stop!
……..But they won’t

Always, good guys kill bad guys
……..From the killer’s view

Some police hate/fear blacks
……..And kill them

Some blacks hate/fear police
……..And kill them

These killings have got to stop!
……..But they won’t

We are all aware and we respond
……..With apathy

……..No lives matter!

Reality Gone Virtual

Yes, stock markets can be vexing
Market mavens oft are wrong
But this market’s most perplexing
Brexit’s impact waxing strong

Stocks were slaughtered then recovered
Nearly back where they’d begun
Bonds, however offered cover
Dropping yields on buyer’s runs

Now the yields are lowest ever
On the T-bill, ten-year life
And in Europe sense has severed
Less than zero rates are rife

Stocks, when high, imply good feelings
Yields at lows show lots of fear
Gross confusion reigns in dealings
Markets have gone virtual here

7/7/16