2017 Trump Year in Review!

Wow. This year has been a real humdinger!

Technically it ain't over yet (I'm writing this on 12/30) but it's the weekend and pretty much everyone is just doing the pre-New Years thing. I'm hoping there are no surprises in the next day or so that will mess up my breezy review of a monumental year in the life of our great nation.

2017 started with an overarching sense of foreboding, as January spelled the final three weeks of having a reasoned, intellectual, empathetic President in charge. Barack Obama remains one of the best presidents we've had in the last 70 years. He may not have done everything I wanted to have him do, but a large part of that was because of the Republican controlled Congress for the last 6 years, led by schmucks that publicly said they would do everything they could to ensure Obama's presidency would fail. If the Democrats had control of both Houses of Congress, there certainly would have been sweeping changes to the culture of corruption that rules the land. We'd have gotten Single Payer Healthcare. We'd have made enormous strides in equality and compassionate care for our least privileged citizens. And we would have led the world in science and technology and socially-responsible legislation.

But in 2016 a minority of Americans voted for a clown from a failed TV show to be their leader, and due to quirks in our electoral process, the guy with 3.5 million LESS votes than his opponent was made president.

Which, by the way, is exactly WHY we need to reform the way we elect our leaders. I'm a big fan of "one person, one vote", and let the people decide. The electoral college is a holdover from the early years of our republic, and we need to move past this obsolete system of choosing our leaders.

Of course, you can't simply say that Trump "stole" the election, because he had a lot of help from unlikely places.

White supremacists loved Trump. His populist message, with his genius slogan "Make America Great Again" (and you have to admit, it was a catchy slogan that translated well to the low-information masses) struck a chord in middle-American. The Russians certainly helped Trump. Voter suppression, especially among minorities, was a significant factor. James Comey's remarks about the Clinton emails (which he quickly retracted immediately after the election) absolutely was a gift to Trump. Wikileaks hacked into the DNC computers and released a boatload of damning emails from many of the main players.

But we cannot deny that Hillary Clinton was very much a victim of her own hubris. By campaigning like she'd already won, it turned off a portion of her base who assumed it was a slam dunk. The machinations of the DNC in tilting the primaries to Clinton absolutely was a factor. I still think the use of super-delegates is the antithesis of the idea of democracy, and running elections on the taxpayers tab that are intrinsically unfair is just plain wrong!

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz didn't quit as head of the DNC right before the convention and take a job with Hillary's campaign because she did everything above board. Clinton's use and destruction of a non-government email server while Secretary of State, which was absolutely against State Department rules, did little to endear her to the undecideds, and it basically gift-wrapped a perfect crowd pleasing chant of "LOCK HER UP!" to every Trump rally and extensive media coverage.

So Trump won in the Electoral College, and the fact that he immediately challenged the results of the popular vote was basically a clear signal of what his presidency would consist of. Trump isn't emotionally stable enough to be "presidential", and his insane obsession with his "popularity" has led him to Tweet his unmeasured thoughts to the world. Usually while he's taking an angry shit, I would think, since that's the ONLY time he doesn't have at least ONE advisor within arms-reach of his thumbs when he's typing a typically outrageous thought.

We saw a million women protest in DC the day after the inauguration, which showed that there is an intense and strong resistance to Trump's rule.

A week into his term, Trump signed an executive order to ban travel from seven countries that he considered hostile. Most were Muslim nations, but he left off the home country for 15 of the 19 hijackers who on September 11th murdered over 3,000 Americans, because he does business with Saudi Arabia and he didn't want to anger them.

In February Trump fired Michael Flynn, his national security advisor, for being dishonest about a meeting he had with a Russian operative. This firing is just the first domino to fall in a year of dominoes.

Trump then set about trying to reverse every single accomplishment of the Obama administration. Not because it would be good for the nation, but merely for the selfish desire to erase his predecessor's legacy. Because it galls Trump to no end that Obama was always WAY more popular than Trump can ever hope to be, and it eats at him like a cancer of his own design! So he is making decisions based solely on his vindictiveness.

At the beginning of March, Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation, probably because he is knee-deep in the scandal. Trump then obsessively tweeted about Obama yet again:

FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Trump in early May. The president said he fired Comey for incompetence. Comey suggested at a congressional hearing later in the year that he was fired because the president wanted him to “go easy” on Flynn in the investigation of ties with Russian officials.

On May 17th former FBI Director Robert Mueller was named as special counsel to conduct the investigation into Russia’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. The appointment gave Mueller the authority to investigate potential collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. He takes his job seriously as we'll see.

Wake up and smell the covfefe! Our Commander-in-Grief had a rough July. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, resigned in July after Anthony Scaramucci was named as head of White House communications. Scaramucci, a GOP donor and investment banker, lasted on the job for 11 days, after he mentioned that Trump advisor Steve Bannon enjoyed an activity that studies say is 99.9% impossible for most males to achieve (this study doesn't actually exist as far as I know). But if Bannon does manage that, well, bravo to you pal! Wear a bib.

In late July the president announced – via Twitter – that he would ban transgender individuals from serving in the U.S. military. Many of his military leaders seemed to have a different opinion. And this is once again a position in direct opposition to his campaign promises. I think he wanted this because his BFF Vladimir Putin has cracked down on what he calls "sexual deviants" in Russia, and it may be that Trump is trying desperately to please his father figure Putin. Because Trump's dad never showed him any love.

August brought a cute little Twitter war between him and North Korea's Kim Jung Un (and this is the closest President Bone Spur ever got to battle!) Then, tensions at a white supremacists’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted into violence leaving a young woman dead. As protestors marched at one end of a street in the Virginia college town, a car roared down the street from the other end, slamming into the crowd. Heather Heyer, 32, was killed and 19 others were injured. Following the incident, Trump was criticized for being slow to condemn the neo-Nazis. Two days after the violence, he condemned both the white supremacists and the counter-protesters.

Of course, the counter-protesters didn't murder anyone, but that doesn't matter to our Dear Leader.

Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, respectively, over a 26-day period, bringing record winds and water. While Trump is somewhat proactive in getting aid to the two states that voted for him, he seems just fine with letting Americans in Puerto Rico suffer and die because of lack of basic services. His remarks about Puerto Rico's economy served as his excuse for letting them die.

On October 30th, Robert Mueller's investigation resulted in indictments to two of Trump's advisors. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner, Rick Gates, surrendered at the FBI field office in Washington, D.C. after being indicted by a grand jury. Also on that day, special counsel’s office announced it had struck a cooperation agreement with former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, who had in July pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about contacts with Russian officials.

People from Trump's inner circle are talking to prosecutors, and Mueller is patiently building a case that may change the course of our nation's history.

Dec. 1 Former national security adviser Flynn pleaded guilty in federal court to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. The former national security adviser had denied that he talked with Kislyak about sanctions levied by former President Obama. A guilty plea means that he's likely working with prosecutors to exchange testimony for a reduced or suspended sentence. Because really, who wants to go to prison while their boss is acting like a buffoon?

Doug Jones became the first Democrat in 25 years to win a U.S. Senate seat from the state of Alabama. He defeated former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (shown here prancing around the stage with a prop gun). Trump supported Moore up until the day of the election, and after the loss he said he knew it was gonna happen and he really didn't even like the guy. What a nerd! And Moore has refused to concede to this day, even after the election results were certified in Alabama.

In mid-December Trump's horrible head of the FCC Ajit Pai was the tie-breaker when the Federal Communications Commission voted to allow them to speed up service for some websites, and slow down, or even block it for others. Anything that screws consumers, Trump is all for!

Then, on December 20th, in an inevitable end to the year from hell, Republicans who pretended to be moderate voted in lockstep with their corrupt party and gave the wealthiest people in our nation the biggest tax break in history, while adding a trillion and a half dollars to the deficit. The poor and middle class will see a pittance for a few years, but the rich are stealing the wealth of America and adding to the fiscal burden.

This is the most heinous thing Trump and the Republicans could have done, and they did it with smiles and slapping each other on the back.

So, here we are at the conclusion of possibly the worst year in American politics since 1973. And much like that time, when Watergate was just gaining momentum, we are at a very critical time in our nation's path. The coming year may be a reckoning for the powers that be. The mid-terms in November may see a sweeping change in Congress. And as the Mueller investigation goes on, we may start to see members of Trump's party starting to turn against him.

Much like the Watergate years, it will take time to build a case against the President. Much like Nixon, Donald Trump will become increasingly paranoid and tend to lash out at his enemies, with his Tweets being fodder for the prosecution. We may get to see a president resign or be removed from office sometime in mid-to-late 2019.

But we'll have to wait. In the meantime, we need to support our legislators and the candidates who will run against the opposition. There can be no unchallenged Republican seats. We MUST find people who can turn the tide of history!

And hopefully, we'll assign Trump to the dumpster with the eternal label upon him, "Worst President Ever!".

Oh, and Happy New Year to you!

Addendum: One thing I forget when I posted this 20 minutes ago...if Hillary won the presidency, she would have ALREADY been the subject of impeachment hearings, and the nation would be mired in televised hearings already. And regardless of whether or not she was convicted, it would definitely result in a gigantic mid-term victory for the Republicans next year. So as awful as this is, maybe it NEEDED to happen to get this country back on track. Yes, I would have liked for Hillary to win. But the consequences of that might have resulted in an even WORSE situation in 2018 and 2020 than even the most cynical of us can imagine. I welcome comments on this thought. Cheers!

Alabama saved 2017

I'll take "Words I never thought I'd utter" for 200 Alex.

Yup. Tonight was an historic election. The great state of Alabama got together and voted against a pederast and vitriolic bigot, and elected a somewhat bland Democrat by default who, by the way, prosecuted the KKK for murdering four black children in a racist terror attack.

I'm thinking this would have been a landslide for a candidate like Doug Jones in just about any other state, but I'll take a 1.5% win in this case.

Banned mall visitor and serial child pursuer and removed judge (two times) Roy Moore pretty much stooped to expectations by refusing to concede and instead imploring his supporters to go home by 11PM and sleep on it, and tomorrow he'll begin to try to get a recount.

Winning a seat against a suspected child molester and racist should happen without any doubt. But for a Democrat to win against even someone as evil as Roy Moore in ALABAMA (where Trump won by 23%) is huge!

Congrats to Doug Jones.

Or, as I like to call him, Dougie Jones.

Last Friday was a roller coaster

December 1st started out great! The news that Micheal Flynn was being arraigned and pleading guilty to lying to an FBI agent was awesome! Obviously he cut a deal with the prosecutors to avoid the charges in return for talking about his cohorts with Robert Mueller.

This will all lead to Trump's eventual downfall! Now THAT'S the way to start a day!

Then, later in the day, several of the GOP votes I was counting on to block Trump's insane tax giveaway announced they were supporting it!

And late in the evening (actually, the early morning hours of Saturday), the Senate passed the bill by two votes.

This will all lead to our NATION'S eventual downfall! Now THAT'S the way to ruin a day!

Yes, it'll go through reconciliation, and some of the less onerous provisions may be dropped or modified to appease the fence-sitters.

But the worst parts of this bill will likely be voted through. And we'll all be (with the exception of the 1%) paying for it for decades!

Elections have consequences.

Something tells me we're in for some even WORSE fucking consequences the longer this administration is allowed to carry on.

C'mon Mueller, you're our only hope!

Big wins for Blue

Just a year ago we were in DC for election night.

Well, we all know how THAT turned out!

In the intervening year, almost every one of my fears of a Trump presidency has been met.

And surpassed!

So, in what I hope is a preview for the 2018 mid-terms, the Democrats won big in state and local elections.

Democratic governors in VA and NJ. Huge pickups in the VA legislature. Massive wins in towns and cities across the nation, including right here in Connecticut and my home town, where we picked up seats on all the town boards, with our mayor running unopposed.

This bodes well as Trump's leadership is bringing down his entire party. A lot of Republicans are polling so poorly in advance of next years mid-terms that they're choosing to retire than have to run a campaign that's almost certain to fail.

And Roy Moore, who is Trump's favorite to replace Alabama senator Jeff Sessions (or as I like to call him, "the guy most likely to get fired next") is being loudly and credibly accused of sexually harassing 14 year-old girls.

Any Republicans who defend the guy are going to find themselves out of the legislature and probably unemployable.

Have fun, Republicans! The chickens are coming home to roost!

On voting and fairness

All my adult life I've held the belief that when we step into a voting booth, there is an expectation of fairness that we deserve.

(OK, we don't actually step into voting booths anymore, but the sentence works better than "when we step up to that cheesy little folding card table with the plastic walls!")

That expectation has been severely damaged by the actions of Hillary Clinton, her inner circle, and the Democratic National Committee.

Every bit of evidence that's appeared regarding the 2016 Democratic primaries points to Clinton working to rig the system and remove ANY doubt that she would win the nomination.

Clinton apologists will respond with "she was just doing what was within the rules", or "the Democratic party used to select their candidate in smoke-filled rooms without ANY input from the average voter".

Here's the thing, when the Democrats hold a primary, our state and local governments have to expend time, money, and resources to ensure it will run smoothly and fairly. But when a major party decides on their own to usurp the process there should be some penalty for their actions.

Everything about the 2016 Democratic primaries and convention stunk to high heaven. Such as:

Things like giving Clinton the questions before a debate so she has time to prepare answers.
Things like "super delegates", which almost guarantees the DNC's candidate of choice will win.
Things like counting those votes ahead of them being cast at the convention, which results in significantly less supporters of her opponent to vote due to the appearance of an inevitable outcome.
Things like DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz resigning her position on the eve of the convention and taking a job with the Clinton campaign.
The hacked DNC emails that demonstrate a callous disregard of the will of the voters.
Things like the theft of the concept of fairness, which is the hallmark of a healthy democracy.

The optics on all of this simply look horrible.

If the primaries were run from the top down in a fair and DEMOCRATIC way, we'd likely have someone other than Trump in the Oval Office right now.

And Democratic voters would have much more faith in the process right now.

As for me, the DNC will have to work hard to regain my belief in the fairness of my party.

Right now, I can only in good faith support my local Democratic candidates and party.

Manafort and Gates arrested and indicted

The dominoes are all lined up and the first push just happened!

I'm bummed that it appears we don't get to see a "perp walk", but I'm thinking they're saving the ol' frog march for the Marmalade Ass himself!

And getting this sort of house arrest, with an ankle bracelet and being allowed to leave their homes only for medical, legal, or religious reasons seems kind of strict. Probably Special Prosecutor Mueller is already working on them to squeal, along with that Greek dingbat who pleaded guilty (I can't spell his name and I'm too lazy to look it up).

Once people start talking, Trump will be so scared he'll be shitting string!

Something tells me Donnie won't do so good in gen pop!

25th Amendment Section 4 now

The 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution includes these words in Section 4:

"Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President."

I'm sure mental instability is a valid reason for the Veep and either a majority of the Cabinet or the House to invoke this clause.

Let's use just one example of how President Trump sees reality.

This is what he says happened:

Here's the video:



Compare the two, and see if you don't think the President is suffering from a severe form of self-delusion or cognitive dissonance.

No vote on Healthcare

The GOP threw in the towel this week, so we won't be seeing a vote on Trump's campaign promise to "Repeal and Replace".

I feel kind of bad for the Trumpster. He's floundering badly, and even his strongholds like Alabama are voting against him, with Trump's personally backed candidate getting his ass whipped by a twice-removed judge who believes in biblical literalness.

Not really. I don't feel bad at all for Trump.

I wouldn't piss on that fucker if he was on fire!

This won't be the last shot at repeal. Each Congressional session has some bullshit about reconciliation that allows a simple majority to make major changes to laws that were put in place by a super majority (60 votes) earlier. It's sort of a sore loser loophole that allows hateful Republican shitbags to try to fuck up things at least twice a year.

This isn't done.

I'm guessing it'll NEVER be done.

The battle continues.

Healthcare vote will come down to the wire

Don't let the latest news assure you that the GOP's vindictive "repeal and replace" bill is dead. There's still time for the GOP to bribe or sway a critical "on the fence" vote and give them the necessary 50 votes to provide VP Pence with the tiebreaker and change the way Americans access healthcare for years to come.

The next six days will be critical in how our nation decides to provide protections for their people. Are corporations more valuable than the collective millions of individuals in their grand scheme of things?

The irony of all this is that if the repeal bill passes, the vast majority of GOP voters who supported Trump will immediately or soon after be negatively affected by this law. The very people who supported this misguided bill will lose benefits or be charged so much to cover pre-existing conditions that they'll effective be priced out of insurance coverage.

I've been to Wal-Marts in red states. These people are not in the best physical shape. They are going to need coverage sooner or later for major conditions. And my fear is that they'll only then realize that voting for a party that places billionaire corporation's concerns over them might be a bad idea.

I'm not going to breathe until the noble month of October begins.

McCain pisses off Trump...again!

With just a week left before the reconciliation deadline, today Sen. John McCain publicly stated he will be voting against the latest attempt to repeal the ACA, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

President Trump responded with a Tweet, stating "John McCain is an experienced and honest legislator, and I applaud his decision even though I don't agree with it."

No, of COURSE our Commander-in-Grief didn't say that!

Instead, he publicly blasted McCain's decision at one of Trump's typically masturbatory "campaign" rallies in Alabama today, saying "...that was an unexpected thing. Terrible. Honestly terrible."

Trump then went on to rant about the NFL and their terrible policies designed to help prevent concussions.

Because, we all know this, Donald Trump is an asshole.

The thing that worries me is that there's still an ENTIRE week before the September 30th deadline for Trump's corrupt band of savage misanthropes to scheme another way of stripping people of their healthcare.

That's a lot of time for them to bully, threaten, or bribe any one of the crucial three GOP "No" votes to keep them under 50 votes (with VP Pence, that mama's boy, as the tiebreaker).

I'm not gonna fully breathe until I say "rabbit rabbit rabbit" on October 1st!

(...and now you know why I put that image up there!)

Trump is still president

Just checking in here.

As of today the tangerine nightmare is still in the White House.

That is, when he's not fucking off to his Florida shit-hole or his overpriced Jersey toxic waste dump.

I hope to look back on this post before the end of this year, and marvel at just how bad it was under his leadership at this moment in time.

Sunday Night Music Club v.50

Friday night I saw Donald Fagan and the Nightflyers at the Cap Theater in Port Chester NY.

Fagan put together an insanely talented group of musicians to back him, and they were amazing. They played a mix of solo stuff along with some classic Steely Dan songs, and a few memorable covers, such as the Grateful Dead's hit Shakedown Street.

Fagan's 1982 album "The Nightfly" is one of my absolute favorites, and I was thrilled when they opened the show with "Green Flower Street", and later performed "The Nightfly", "I.G.Y." and "New Frontier".

Of course, songs like "Green Earring", "Black Friday", and "Josie" were enthusiastically received, and a high point was the early Dan hit "Dirty Work", sung by the lead guitarist rather than Donald Fagan. I think that's a classy move, to not try and take ownership of a song featuring a towering vocal performance by David Palmer back in an early incarnation of Steely Dan.

Nightfly was clearly the solo album Fagan likes best, as he only played one track each from Kamakiriad and Sunken Condos (Countermoon, a funky tune; and Weather in my Head, not my fave track from the album).

So here may be a rare repeat performance of a track that I think I featured a while ago. I'm not really sure, and I'm not interested in searching for it right now, but anyway, it's still one of my favorite Donald Fagan videos.

From The Nightfly, this is New Frontier:

Senate gives Trump another YUUUUUGE loss

Last night I watched as late as I could, seeing as how I had to work today, so I missed the final vote by about 1/2 hour.

I woke up this morning expecting to be all rage-filled and angsty, and I deliberately avoided looking at my phone (I pretty much don't ever turn on the TV anymore) until after I poured Joyce & me a cup of coffee.

Imagine my surprise when Joyce said they defeated the bill, as she'd checked her phone while I was downstairs!

This is a GIANT kick in the balls to Donald J. Trump, but that pales in comparison to the importance of preserving the most vital sections of the ACA.

Today John McCain received a lot of deserved accolades. But let's not forget for even one second the 48 Democrats who stood together against this abomination, and the two Republican senators who fought it from DAY ONE, Sens. Collins and Murkowski.

There was a lot of courage on display last night. Along with 49 examples of the very worst that the American political system has barfed up and put in positions of too much power.

The chickens are coming home to roost. 2018 will see the power dynamic in this nation undergo a dramatic shift. And with it, possibly see the death of the hard-line GOP majority.

This bill will do you harm

President Barack Obama just delivered a blistering retort to the Trump efforts to destroy our healthcare protections. In a 1000-word Facebook post, Obama detailed exactly what the Republicans are attempting to do to middle-class Americans, and how it will basically put everyone except the wealthiest Americans at serious risk.

Read this reasoned discussion of the issue, and decide if the Trump plan is what's best for Americans.

------------------------------

Our politics are divided. They have been for a long time. And while I know that division makes it difficult to listen to Americans with whom we disagree, that’s what we need to do today.

I recognize that repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act has become a core tenet of the Republican Party. Still, I hope that our Senators, many of whom I know well, step back and measure what’s really at stake, and consider that the rationale for action, on health care or any other issue, must be something more than simply undoing something that Democrats did.

We didn’t fight for the Affordable Care Act for more than a year in the public square for any personal or political gain – we fought for it because we knew it would save lives, prevent financial misery, and ultimately set this country we love on a better, healthier course.

Nor did we fight for it alone. Thousands upon thousands of Americans, including Republicans, threw themselves into that collective effort, not for political reasons, but for intensely personal ones – a sick child, a parent lost to cancer, the memory of medical bills that threatened to derail their dreams.

And you made a difference. For the first time, more than ninety percent of Americans know the security of health insurance. Health care costs, while still rising, have been rising at the slowest pace in fifty years. Women can’t be charged more for their insurance, young adults can stay on their parents’ plan until they turn 26, contraceptive care and preventive care are now free. Paying more, or being denied insurance altogether due to a preexisting condition – we made that a thing of the past.

We did these things together. So many of you made that change possible.

At the same time, I was careful to say again and again that while the Affordable Care Act represented a significant step forward for America, it was not perfect, nor could it be the end of our efforts – and that if Republicans could put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we made to our health care system, that covers as many people at less cost, I would gladly and publicly support it.

That remains true. So I still hope that there are enough Republicans in Congress who remember that public service is not about sport or notching a political win, that there’s a reason we all chose to serve in the first place, and that hopefully, it’s to make people’s lives better, not worse.

But right now, after eight years, the legislation rushed through the House and the Senate without public hearings or debate would do the opposite. It would raise costs, reduce coverage, roll back protections, and ruin Medicaid as we know it. That’s not my opinion, but rather the conclusion of all objective analyses, from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which found that 23 million Americans would lose insurance, to America’s doctors, nurses, and hospitals on the front lines of our health care system.

The Senate bill, unveiled today, is not a health care bill. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from middle-class and poor families to the richest people in America. It hands enormous tax cuts to the rich and to the drug and insurance industries, paid for by cutting health care for everybody else. Those with private insurance will experience higher premiums and higher deductibles, with lower tax credits to help working families cover the costs, even as their plans might no longer cover pregnancy, mental health care, or expensive prescriptions. Discrimination based on pre-existing conditions could become the norm again. Millions of families will lose coverage entirely.

Simply put, if there’s a chance you might get sick, get old, or start a family – this bill will do you harm. And small tweaks over the course of the next couple weeks, under the guise of making these bills easier to stomach, cannot change the fundamental meanness at the core of this legislation.

I hope our Senators ask themselves – what will happen to the Americans grappling with opioid addiction who suddenly lose their coverage? What will happen to pregnant mothers, children with disabilities, poor adults and seniors who need long-term care once they can no longer count on Medicaid? What will happen if you have a medical emergency when insurance companies are once again allowed to exclude the benefits you need, send you unlimited bills, or set unaffordable deductibles? What impossible choices will working parents be forced to make if their child’s cancer treatment costs them more than their life savings?

To put the American people through that pain – while giving billionaires and corporations a massive tax cut in return – that’s tough to fathom. But it’s what’s at stake right now. So it remains my fervent hope that we step back and try to deliver on what the American people need.

That might take some time and compromise between Democrats and Republicans. But I believe that’s what people want to see. I believe it would demonstrate the kind of leadership that appeals to Americans across party lines. And I believe that it’s possible – if you are willing to make a difference again. If you’re willing to call your members of Congress. If you are willing to visit their offices. If you are willing to speak out, let them and the country know, in very real terms, what this means for you and your family.

After all, this debate has always been about something bigger than politics. It’s about the character of our country – who we are, and who we aspire to be. And that’s always worth fighting for.

Rosa DeLauro lauds selection of Mueller as Special Council

Robert Mueller served as the head of the FBI for several presidents, and he is praised by members of both parties. I'm fine with him being selected as a Special Council by the DOJ to investigate the Trump-Russia links and other issues.

But I'm kind of bothered by the term "Special Council". Shouldn't he be considered a "Special Prosecutor"? Can someone explain to me the legal definitions of both phrases?

In 1973, Archibald Cox was asked to be Special Prosecutor by Elliot Richardson, who was up for Secretary of Defense, and the Democratic Senate pressured him to get Cox to accept the appointment or Richardson wouldn't get SecDef.

Well, we're living in a very different time...one where we don't have an opposition party in charge of either the House or the Senate as we did back in '73. So in response to the growing media outcry over Trump's dubious deals, the Republican-owned DOJ has made this appointment to Mueller.

And he accepted.

It makes we wonder if this was another terrible decision by a president who makes six terrible decisions before breakfast!

Mueller is the kind of guy who will likely be guided by neither politics nor special interests. He'll hopefully seek only the truth.

And this will make the next several months very interesting! There are several ways it will play out.

1) Mueller will investigate all those areas Donald dreads, and will be blocked from getting any cooperation. And it will look terrible for the president.

2) Mueller will find some damning evidence that Donald did indeed break the law. And it will look terrible for the president.

3) Mueller's investigation will bring about serious impeachment talk, and Donald will fire Mueller. And a modern-day Saturday Night Massacre will look fucking TERRIBLE for the president!

So, that's some of what may transpire. We'll see. Anyway, here's my awesome Congresswoman's statement in favor of Mueller's appointment:

DeLauro Statement on Appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel:

WASHINGTON, DC — Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) today released the following statement regarding the appointment of former FBI Director Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to oversee the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

“From day one, the Trump Administration has been mired in scandal. The appointment of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel to oversee the investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election is a critical step in a long process. Director Mueller has a long history of distinguished service and integrity.

“We still need an independent commission to investigate Russia’s involvement in our electoral processes, to educate the American public on this assault on our democracy, and to work to develop ways to protect our country in the future.”

delauro.house.gov

Sunday Night Music Club v.49

David Bowie's 1997 song "I'm Afraid Of Americans" has a certain resonance during today's political climate. Much of the world agrees with Bowie on this point, although he was aiming for a more sardonic tone here.

The video, featuring Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails, is full of violent and aggressive symbolism. Bowie and Reznor collaborated on several projects, and I was lucky to see David Bowie and NIN perform together during a late '90s tour. I had a general admission ticket to the venue, but I crafted some fake wristbands from a promotional magazine that roughly matched the color of the bands given to people who could access the floor directly in front of the stage, and it fooled the bouncers enough that I was able to get it. So I got to see Bowie perform some classics from his past from about 20 feet away, along with a few duets with Reznor and NIN.

So, today Trump fired the head of the FBI

I'm trying to wrap my brain around this 21st century version of a president who is desperate to keep the dogs at bay.

I can't come up with anything salient or cutting edge because all I can think of are parallels to Richard Nixon.

Nixon, on his worst day, never had less class than Donald Trump on most days.

The bar for being a terrible president has been obliterated by Trump. Nixon was a politician who got caught up in some dumb antics mostly cooked up by his over-zealous group of advisors, and then he doubled down and denied ever being involved. That was bad.

But Trump is profiting from his office in the sleaziest ways possible, and the only reason he's getting away with it so far is that Congress has a majority of impotent yes-men who would gladly surrender their wives and daughters to the president if asked nicely.

Nixon's awfulness has been lessened by comparison.

I have to agree that I'd rather have zombie Nixon's reanimated corpse occupying the Oval Office than that orange weasel we got now!

And this is considering that Nixon is capable of saying stuff like this:

Can Kevin be governor?

Today Dan Malloy made an announcement that I was not surprised to hear.

He decided to NOT run again for governor.

Which pretty much leaves a wide open field for both parties to run next year.

I've been quietly hoping that Comptroller Kevin Lembo will be up for a run, and now is the time to put that into motion.

So far there hasn't been even a whisper of what he's going to do, obviously out of respect for the Governor. But now Lembo has a golden opportunity to step up and be the person to take over.

I produced a campaign video for Kevin Lembo when he announced he was running for State Comptroller back in 2010. Previously he was the Connecticut Healthcare Advocate, and he helped people who were fighting the big insurance companies. Here's a look at the kind of person he was before he took on the second toughest job in Connecticut!

The first domino

Retired General Michael Flynn, who served as Donald Trump's Security Advisor for about 15 minutes before the Trump brain trust (yes, it's a contradiction of terms) decided that Flynn was too radioactive to be handled by anyone close to the administration, has asked for immunity from prosecution in exchange for possibly testifying about Trump's ties with Russia.

This may be an elaborate "catfish" situation, where what you're promised does NOT turn out to be what you get.

Or, it may the the first domino to fall in the inevitable crash of the Trump presidency.

Just a reminder, we're only TEN WEEKS IN so far!

Good ol' Dick Nixon took nearly four years before fucking his presidency by being overly paranoid and listening to bad advice from his own "brain trust" (who, from what I've seen so far, were WAY fucking smarter than the rancid collection of blathering sociopaths and incompetent sycophants that Trump has surrounded himself with) but The Donald is obviously WAY more terrific than Nixon and will be the most perfect president you've ever seen!

Remember the "Summer of Watergate"? The year that the Watergate hearings were televised live on every channel (pretty much all five of them) as nervous Senators were desperately trying to get to the bottom of a scandal which if they landed on the WRONG side of would spell the end of their political lives. Politicians had equally as much to lose if Nixon survived as if he was removed. It was a terribly stressful time for most of the people who populated the halls of Congress.

But the bipartisan support for impeachment became too much for Nixon, who resigned from office on August 9, 1974 after the articles of impeachment were passed by the House, and the Senate looked at a 77-0 straw vote for conviction that made Nixon's decision inevitable. He would have gone to jail had he not resigned and somehow got a miraculous pardon from new President Ford for any crimes he "committed or may have committed or taken part in" as president.

I'm not a legal scholar or anything, but it seems funny that someone can be pardoned for crimes not even known about at the time of the pardon. Who knows what terrible deviant crimes Nixon might have gotten away with? There might be dozens of dead hookers buried in the Rose Garden because Nixon just couldn't resist his urge to slice them up when the blood lust came upon him! But hey, he's pardoned! It doesn't matter anymore!

Anyway, I digress. I seriously doubt that Trump has had enough time to murder DC hookers in the last ten weeks; although, once he's dragged away to prison, I would strongly recommend to the authorities that it might prove fruitful to till the soil on Mar-a-Lago.

Trumpcare failure to launch

Today Paul Stupidhead Ryan pulled the horrendous "Trumpcare" bill before it came up for what was obviously going to be a losing vote.

Ryan didn't even give the ridiculous bill a vote because SO many Republicans actually have listened to their constituents and decided that political suicide wasn't exactly their cup of green tea!

That is known in engineering parlance as a "failure to launch".

I can only imagine the 3AM Twitter rant the Orange Cheeto will indulge in later this evening!

What the shit did he just say?

Lately I have to see if the source for bizarre stuff I read on Facebook is from The Onion! 'Cause this sure looks like it!

Nope.

It's real.

He really said this!

Update: Shit. There should be a law preventing videos of public servants being removed from Youtube. It's our right to see a horribly ignorant person make a total ass of himself. Just Google "Ben Carson slaves" and click on the videos link. There will probably still be some of them there. For the record, Carson basically said that slaves who were kidnapped and shipped to America were immigrants who were seeking a better life for their families.



This is Trump's Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson.
This joke is so fucking awful it should end with "Ta-da! The Aristocrats!"



Oh, and thank god for Samuel L Jackson!

In Happier Times

Remember when we had a president with a sense of humor? When we had a president who could connect with people? When we had a president who could even laugh at himself?

President Donald J. Trump knows that he can't come close to following this guy, and THAT'S why he's decided to be a coward and skip this year's White House Correspondents Dinner.

Because there's no way that small-handed vulgarian will EVER approach the level of class and grace that President Barack Hussein Obama gave us during his eight years in office!

Every single day, it becomes more clear that our nation has made a disastrous choice, and now we (and the entire world) are going to have to live with the consequences.

I can only hope that 2020 will see a return to sanity with our next president. If it's not too late.

Here's President Obama at the 2016 WHCD (his last), and keep in mind that Trump didn't have the balls to show up for THAT one, either!

Trump vows to rebuild "depleted" military

Because, like how the hell else are you supposed to suspend the Constitution and make slaves of our nation's citizens?

No, I'm just kidding. Nobody thinks that might happen. It would be impossible.

And besides, I really don't want to make Trump's "list" of enemies!

Nixon had a list of enemies. It was awesome! It was conceived by Chuck Colson, one of Nixon's trusted cronies and White House Council, who was informally named "the meanest man in American politics". Chuck supposedly had a sign on the wall of his White House office that read "Once you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow!"

Colson organized the "Hard Hat Riot" in New York City, where hundreds of union workers were tasked with beating peaceful anti-war protestors with lengths of iron rebar! And he gleefully helped the actions of C.R.E.E.P., or the Committee to Re-elect the President. Many of whose members spent time in jail after the downfall of Nixon. Some of the proposals considered by John Mitchell (Nixon's Attorney fucking GENERAL!) were firebombing the Brookings Institute, and breaking into Daniel Ellsworth's psychiatrist's office to possibly find embarrassing info on the man who published the Pentagon Papers.

Google this stuff, kids. You probably have NO idea if you're under 40 just how close we came to losing our form of government.

Yeah, Colson was one of the baddest of the bad. Feared deeply by his political foes, respected by his allies, he was a serious player. And a threat to anyone who crossed him, or the president.

In actuality, there were several lists. The first one publicly addressed was during Watergate testimony by John "I'm not gonna take the fall" Dean, when he told of a list of political foes who needed to be screwed by the IRS back in 1971.

The list, in order:

Arnold Picker
Alexander E. Barkan
Edwin Guthman
Maxwell Dane
Charles Dyson
Howard Stein
Allard Lowenstein
Morton Halperin
Leonard Woodcock
S. Sterling Munro, Jr.
Bernard T. Feld
Sidney Davidoff
John Conyers
Samuel M. Lambert
Stewart Rawlings Mott
Ron Dellums
Daniel Schorr
S. Harrison Dogole
Paul Newman
Mary McGrory

So, some of those names are politicians, some journalists, and some are activists. But PAUL FUCKING NEWMAN? He was such a threat to the most powerful man on Earth that he made Nixon's top 20 list?

I guess Dick was a little thin-skinned about celebs who might say something against his policies.

Hmmm, I think I'm starting to see a similarity here!

The greatest thing about the Enemies List was the fact that Hunter S. Thompson went on a rant the day after the list was released. Saying he openly, in print, often referred Nixon to a "cheap little punk", and went on to say about his being passed over, "I would almost have preferred a vindictive tax audit to that kind of crippling exclusion."

The enemies list expanded after Nixon became more powerful, the list growing to hundreds after Nixon successfully won the 1972 election. Many of the staffers of George McGovern's campaign were added.

But even by then, after the June of 1972 Watergate break-in was being discussed, was leading to Nixon's inevitable downfall.

I'm 100% sure that Donald Trump is counting his enemies on his tiny infant fingers, and having Steve Bannon write them down because he can successfully negotiate the complexity of a "grown-up pen". The list is being added to every single day. I'm sure it will all come out in Trump's eventual trial, as his cheap goons gladly give up the Orange Cheeto in exchange for not having to spend any time in a prison.

I look forward to seeing that list.

But having said that, with Trump promising to increase our already bloated military force, I would prefer to not be on that list.

Just in case history doesn't quite bend toward justice like we hope it does in this case.

Case in point: Instead of his being beaten until he was bleeding out of every orifice in prison like he deserved, Chuck Colson apparently found Jesus and became a evangelical preacher, who was eventually given a medal by President George W. Bush on his work against homosexuals and his love of almighty Jesus.

Because the biggest bastards are almost ALWAYS given rewards.

I wonder how many of those peaceful anti-war kids are still suffering from the effects of being bashed with iron clubs by Colson's thugs?

The Russians are coming!

Today a Russian spy ship was tracked and approached to within roughly 30 miles of the Groton sub base.

Now, before everyone freaks out and starts thinking there are Russian boats cruising up and down Long Island Sound, there are some things we need to know. First of all, Russia and pretty much every other nation on Earth knows to respect the 12 mile limit, which is absolutely a line drawn in the water.

The original limit was 3 miles, but back during the Cold War, we all decided we didn't want Bolshevik vessels in sensitive areas like Long Island Sound or Chesapeake Bay. And we extended the limit to 12 miles, which precludes any way they can legally (as in, not being torpedoed) travel in those areas.

There is no point in Long Island Sound (or Fisher's Island Sound, which also is near Groton) that a Russian boat can approach without being accosted. Here's an image that shows Groton's location, along with a contour of the 12 mile limit:

As you can see, any Russian boat can't get any closer than some miles outside a line between Montauk and Block Island. So yeah, while they technically were there, there wasn't really any there there!

However, based on events of the last week or so, the Russians are getting much bolder in their ways. Military jets have flown very close to a US warship in international waters, and the Russians haven't previously sent any spy boats much farther north than Delaware until today.

So probably, Vladimir Putin is being emboldened by the complete lack of leadership shown by his pal Donald J. Trump. Trump probably won't realize he's being punked by his BFF Putin until there's an international incident that will demand strong and decisive action.

And I can predict that the guy who has his tiny little hands on the orange football doesn't have what it takes to match the wile of a man who was powerful in the KGB and currently has more power than anyone else in the world, given our current president.

Sunday Night Music Club v.48

1975 Jethro Tull's "Minstrel In The Gallery" was probably my favorite song at that time. Something about Ian Anderson's lyrics and showmanship really resonated with me. This was a time when "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was aired every Sunday night on PBS, and the band Jethro Tull's uniquely British character fit in very well with that time.

And the song is mapped out to portray a dichotomy in time. The song starts with an acoustic guitar only, then after an electric bridge, repeats the lyrics with a heavy rocking beat. This is demonstrated graphically where one side of the album cover shows a stylized medieval court entertained by a band of roving minstrels, and the other shows the band in their present day recording studio.

Here's what I'm referring to:

And, this...

Lyrics

The minstrel in the gallery
Looked down upon the smiling faces.
He met the gazes observed the spaces
Between the old men's cackle.

He brewed a song of love and hatred,
Oblique suggestions and he waited.
He polarized the pumpkin-eaters,
Static-humming panel-beaters,

Freshly day-glow'd factory cheaters
(salaried and collar-scrubbing).
He titillated men-of-action
Belly warming, hands still rubbing

On the parts they never mention.
He pacified the nappy-suffering, infant-bleating,
One-line jokers, T.V. documentary makers
(overfed and undertakers).

Sunday paper backgammon players
Family-scarred and women-haters.
Then he called the band down to the stage
And he looked at all the friends he'd made.

The minstrel in the gallery
Looked down on the rabbit-run.
And threw away his looking-glass
Saw his face in everyone.
Written by Ian Anderson, Martin Barre • Copyright © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management US, LLC

A guide on how to impeach Trump

(photo of a president who was never impeached)
This is not necessarily about Trump, but more of an overview of the impeachment process. I just hope that Trump will have to deal with it sometime soon.

When Barack Obama won the popular vote AND the electoral college back in 2008, there were almost immediate calls from righties to "Impeach Obama".

In the last several weeks, there have been many similar populist cries for Trump's impeachment.

I actually wonder if there are many people who understand the process. Even though it happened less than 20 years ago with President Clinton, I feel that our short attention span culture has forgotten much of it.

And today's millennials were either not born yet or too young to understand it.

So, here's a primer on what impeachment actually is.

The Constitution reads literally that "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors." (Section 4 of Article Two of the United States Constitution)

There's actually a lot of stuff packed into that sentence.

First, we know the President and Vice President can be impeached. Impeachment is the trial, kind of like being tried for a crime. Conviction for both things is punishment, except the punishment for being impeached AND convicted is removal from office, while being convicted of a crime in court usually ends with a prison sentence.

Unless you're Scooter Libby, who revealed the identity of an active deep cover CIA field agent, which is a HUUUUUGE felony. But after his conviction, his boss's boss commuted his sentence, so his punishment consists solely of an inability to vote as a convicted felon. Other than that, he's probably doing well.

And this is weird, what grown adult goes by the fucking name "Scooter"? Like, really?

And what about ol' W not giving his li'l helper a pardon, rather than a commutation of his sentence, which leaves his record forever blemished as a felon? THAT'S what you get for helping a child tyrant. Trump voters apparently ignore history.

What's the definition of "all civil Officers of the United States", you ask? (even if you didn't, I'm going to tell you)

"By this term are included all officers of the United States who hold their appointments under the national government, whether their duties are executive or judicial, in the highest or the lowest departments of the government, with the exception of officers of the army and navy. A senator of the United States, it was once decided, was not a civil officer, within the meaning of this clause in the Constitution."

Yes, it is, like much of our government's framework, a little confusing. The key phrase here is those "who hold their appointments under the national government, whether their duties are executive or judicial..."

So it seems that besides POTUS and VPOTUS, pretty much anyone who hasn't been elected to Congress but is a civil servant is impeachable. That goes for Supreme Court justices too. But since that one senator in 1789 (at the very dawn of our nation), nobody but Presidents, the odd cabinet member, and ill-fated judges have been impeached.

Being that presidents CAN be impeached, and understanding that impeaching a president does not mean he will necessarily be removed, let's talk about the impeachment process.

This is the area that first requires a crime to be committed, and then Congress to act upon it.

Treason and bribery are clearly mentioned in the paragraph. But what of "high crimes and misdemeanors"? That leaves a lot of interpretation there!

In our history, people have been impeached and removed for "crimes" such as "chronic intoxication" (shout out to judge John Pickering, our first impeached guy), tax evasion, conspiracy to solicit a bribe, and making false statements to a grand jury (I'm talking to you, Bill Clinton).

(photo of a president who WAS impeached)
President Andrew Johnson was impeached largely on the charge of a violation of the Tenure of Office Act, passed by Congress the previous year to protect their Secretary of War, who was replaced by Johnson. So technically, a president may be impeached for violating laws passed by Congress. Trump may be in some danger of doing something like that, given his nature.

President Richard Nixon was definitely going to be impeached, but he resigned before the actual proceedings took place.

President Bill Clinton was impeached largely for perjury, due to his verbal gymnastics about whether he did or did not "have sex with that woman".

Bill, let me help you with this. If you're a MARRIED guy, and a woman who's NOT your wife favors you with the kind of act that, while it is SUPER pleasing, can't POSSIBLY produce a baby, you've still DEFINITELY had sex with that woman! Got it dude?

So how does the whole impeachment process get rolling?

First, you need to have actionable proof that a president has committed treason, taken bribes, or indulged in what we've already said is open to interpretation, which is high crimes and misdemeanors.

We're only two weeks into Trump's presidency. I don't know if any of the horrible ghastly things he's done so far qualify for that definition. Which kind of makes it funny that people were calling for Obama's impeachment the minute he got elected! Like, you have to actually be IN office at the time, and THEN commit a crime to be impeached.

Let's pretend there's fairly good evidence that Trump took ten million dollars from a powerful eastern dictator to help fund his campaign. Foreign contributions are very illegal, so we'd have an actionable charge.

The charge would go to the House Judiciary Committee, who would rule on whether it should come up for a vote. It if does, you need a simple majority of the House to vote to move the Article of Impeachment forward to the Senate. Since in Trump's case, they are the majority party in the House AND the Senate (nice work Dems!) they hold the cards. A good indicator on how they feel is if the Articles make it out of the Judiciary Committee, since they hold the chair and the majority. Should it get out of there and go to a full House vote, the odds are better that they'll get the support to move it along.

Then the Articles go to the Senate, where selected House members are the "prosecutors" who will present the case to the Senate. They are picked by the House Speaker, which is why it is so important to have a strong opposition party. Again, elections have consequences.

The Senate will essentially hold a "trial", where the president may call his own witnesses for his defense. After all the arguments are heard, it goes for a vote. The Senate needs a 2/3 votes, or 67 senators, to successfully remove the president.

Which is unlikely even in the worst of times. But impeaching a president can do significant damage, as shown in the Clinton impeachment. He suffered a loss of support, a massive humiliation, and by necessitating a defense, it robs him of time and political capital to try to enact future policies.

So even a failed impeachment can be a victory for the minority party. Of course, the real losers in impeachments and government shutdowns are the little people. The fearful and hateful politicians will continue to live comfortably and largely be insulated from the effects of this process.

But then again, if an impeachment successfully removes a child-monster with his finger on the button that will annihilate the world, well, it might be worth it!

(Disclaimer: I'm just a sort of interested political fan, so if any or all of my facts are wrong, I wouldn't be surprised.)

The Monday Night Massacre

He hasn't been in office for two weeks, and already he's topping Nixon in outrageous behavior.

Tonight President Trump fired the acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who defied to enforce the presidential order to ban all Muslims from entering our nation legally; except of course, from those nations that Trump does business with, including the one that spawned 15 of the 19 September 11th hijackers that killed over 3,000 Americans.

He wouldn't want to offend his business partners, after all.

Sally Yates (American hero) is a patriotic citizen and a thoughtful attorney. She looked at the facts and made a studied decision (unlike Trump's usual tactic of seeing what his Greek chorus of fascists want to do) and she said the order wasn't legal and therefore not subject to DOJ enforcement.

She was immediately fired, and Trump's people skipped the regular order of progression in this case and found a Trumpette lawyer to fill in as acting AG.

If there was ANY doubt that Donald Trump is the most anti-American president we've seen in several generations, this will likely erase it.

We need to, as Americans regardless of party, block ANY Trump appointees from the cabinet and any posts that he may fill.

This isn't about politics. It's about preserving our nation as a free democracy and keeping it from the hands of hateful greed-mongers who only seek to enrich themselves while at the same time crushing the middle class and stripping them of their wealth.

This is a call to arms (figuratively). We need to act out, speak out, and show the world that we don't agree with a dictator who once he was made the leader, used his power for evil.

We've already seen that act about 80 years ago. It sucked then, and it will suck now.

Trump is a short-crowded vulgarian

Sean Spicer's (Trump's press secretary) first White House briefing today consisted mostly of an angry rant about how media reported the size of the inauguration crowd. On his very worst day, Nixon's press secretary Ron Ziegler never sounded that crazy! And this was just about the number of people who showed up.

Spicer could have said the rain kept many people home, or that too many people couldn't get out of work, or that the parking situation in DC was especially dismal, but he railed like a lunatic about how the press was outright lying about the crowd! It's almost as if Trump was beside himself with fury, so he made his hired mouthpiece go out and put those renegade reporters back in their place!

Trump, like many bullies, is hyper-sensitive to anything remotely sounding like an insult. Nothing I can think of has bothered Donald Trump more than being referred to as a "short-fingered vulgarian" many years ago in the long defunct Spy Magazine.

You HAVE to read this hilarious Vanity Fair article.

I guess Donald Trump is acutely sensitive to ANYTHING related to him being referred to as "small".

Today millions showed up around the world to march for woman's rights. Trump may actually help bring us together in ways we'd never anticipated.

I only hope there's a workable nation left when he's removed from office!

Buyer's remorse

Welp...here it is a few minutes before midnight on the night before January Twentieth.

In just over twelve hours we'll have a new president.

Right now, I feel safe and enjoy knowing my rights are being protected.

In just over twelve hours, I'm going to feel a lot differently.

Does anyone with cognitive reasoning abilities have any doubt that Donald Trump will be something of a problem for our nation?

We're likely fucked. In the most unwanted ways possible. But hey, ain't it great how democracy works?

Most Americans who voted for Trump are likely to be victimized by his policies in the coming years. Then we'll see some buyer's remorse!

However, I won't bother with schadenfreude...I'll be equally as fucked as them!

But hey, before he leaves office, I want to thank President Barack Obama for his thoughtful and compassionate leadership of our country in the face of unprecedented obstruction and incivility.

I am thankful that we've had President Obama, and Michelle, and their great kids living in the our nation's most notable mansion for the last eight years. Joyce and I visited their house, and it was wonderful.

Anyway there will be an inauguration tomorrow with a parade. Here's my video of President Obama's parade back in 2009. It was about 30 degrees colder than the weather predicted for Trump's big day.

Requim for my cousin

Well, this is gonna be a tough one...

I needed to wipe my eyes a few times doing this.

As bad as 2016 was in that so many beloved figures in popular culture have passed, there was nothing that prepared me for the news that 2017 brought.

On the second day of the New Year, I was informed that my cousin Thomas Miller had suddenly passed.

Until late in 2016, he was absolutely in the prime of his life. He was healthy and thriving and at the top of his game. He was an accomplished commercial pilot, an attorney, he basically ran a charter airline, he flew the Eagle One Rescue helicopter, even volunteering to help out in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Tom had a passion for flight that was inspiring. He worked overtime as a young adult to be able to afford flight lessons, and later his own Piper Cherokee. He became a flight instructor, and actually took me on training flights a number of times. He also went back to school to become an attorney, although his love of flight pretty much precluded him from hanging a shingle in front of an office to practice law on a daily basis.

Tom even trained to become a jump pilot for my parachute organization, and he flew me and Joyce many times to make our jumps back in the 80s. He never got over how crazy it looked for him piloting a plane full of jumpers to open the door at 12,000 feet and watch us all simply leap out! For all his flying experience it was kind of fun to freak him out a little!

He went on to become a multi-engine commercial pilot, and he graduated to private jets, where he flew celebrities and ex-presidents around the world. He has a photo of himself with President George H.W. Bush. He flew many famous people to amazing places. All while making his way into the corporate world as a director at a charter airline.

He also had a world of other interests, such as boating, where we'd often see him speeding around our sailboat on Long Island Sound. Of course he named his boat "Miller Time"!

And he loved old trains, to the point when I created a documentary about a Rails-to-Trails hiking path and I included a snippet of an old NY-New Haven-Hartford engine rolling out of a station, he wanted me to give him the link to the archived video to see it! And we'll never forget his love for classic cars and motorcycles.

Tom loved family and was always there to help, often even without anyone asking. He was quick and sincere in his offer to assist his friends. He leaves a loving wife and close-knit family who loves him dearly, and an extended family and friendship circle that will always remember him.

Even though we're nearly the same age, my cousin Tommy will always be a role model for me and many others who knew him. I will continue to look up to him for as long as I live, and he will always serve as an example of someone who knew how to do life "right".

And perhaps his most important example will be to live life to it's fullest! There is nobody I know who was better at it.

A famous Irish actor once said this to me, and I believe it true.

"Live each day as if it were your last, because one day you will be right!"

I will miss you always, Tom. We will keep you in our hearts forever.