Let's Talk About the Weather

So French President Emmanuel Macron states that Global Climate Warming Change is a "Red Line" in the sand so to speak, for the world. This may be a reference, perhaps, to former U.S. President Barack Obama who famously referenced an equally meaningless "Red Line" in his planned usurpation of Syria back in 2012.

THAT red line was a failure.

So Global Climate Warming Change apparently is the biggest issue for France, judging by Mr. Macron's impassioned line drawing. He has also passed legislation and is raising taxes in an attempt to draw down France's use of fossil fuels. Those additional taxes and increases have fallen, not too surprisingly, on the Middle and Lower classes of France. And they haven't been too happy about it since they've been out in the streets blockading roads, destroying property, gathering in great numbers and making a run at Parliament but not in a political sense.

But the Environment is the most important thing to France's government. The people must recognize that the President is acting for their benefit. He's saving the Planet for THEM!

As we've seen in the not so distant past that there's no shortage of Anarchists in France to be sure who will gladly help you dump 12 tons of rotten tomatoes in the street at the blinking of Macron's left eyebrow but this yellow vested "Gilets Jaune" are made up of loads of just regular folks who are seeing themselves losing their purchasing power due to the regressive taxation they continue to undergo in their Social Paradise. We don't need yet another study to point out that gasoline taxes are regressive in nature and impact the lowest wage earners the hardest. It takes more money to basically do the same work of getting to where you need to go.

Transit Strike

Then there is the French Government's attempt at reforming their ungainly and multifaceted pension schemes, which number 42 different plans and each hinges on what you do for work. There are different plans for bakers, opera singers, transit workers and the list goes on. The administration of 42 different plans has to be a costly bureaucratic nightmare but there it is, good jobs at good wages. And although this has been going on for some time, now seems like the perfect time to tackle this issue since the whole system is really starting to collapse under its own weight.

It's not just a matter of the French government's desire to "want to" address the pension issue, it's a matter of "have to" address it. And the sooner they face reality on the costs, the better.

But since they're still looking for shortcuts to straighten things out, the Macron government has proposed for the retirement age to go up to 64 from it's current 62. This news has earned them, as of this writing, 22 days of marginal if any transit service into Paris.

That's good for the environment, yes? Hope so since it's the Environment that is the important thing there.

Like every Ponzi scheme, whether it be France's Public Pensions or Social Security here in the U.S., the pyramid eventually inverts and when that happens it takes a whole lot of money to keep kicking bricks under the thing to keep it upright. That money only comes from the pockets of people who actually earn a WAGE. So now the people who pay, the taxpayers, are paying more and will be getting less and when people have less money to spend, business everywhere suffers too.

France's Middle Class is reportedly living hand to mouth and the working class people out in the streets say that they are barely staying ahead of the bills. This, Mr. Macron, is a problem. The French people appear to be drowning in taxes but they are also being mandated into paying more for resources in a misguided effort to keep them from using them. It's winter in France, where there is a greater need to heat the house, taxes have eaten into people's wages and now the oil bill is due.

But as we have heard, it's the Environment that's important to President Macron.

And judging by the images and news coming out of France...the Environment isn't good. 

Icon of the New Religion

Love her or hate her, believe that she acted on her own or was manipulated by her social-activist parents or whatever, one has to see with clear eyes how Greta Thunberg has gained a more than mere cult following among the new wave of religious zealotry that is permeating the world at large.

This is not a new thing as we know and although none of us living today were around when the last couple of religious cults started, perhaps we're seeing how it may have happened way back when. Young Ms. Thunberg didn't happen overnight, of course, since world society is heading into its third generation of people brought up as climate cultists.

Many point to Rachel Carson's 1962 book "Silent Spring" as the "Bible" of the movement which had it's roots back in the 1950s when Ms. Carson, a trained Marine Biologist and nature writer, became interested in the effects of synthetic pesticides used in agriculture and DDT in particular. This book got DDT banned and sparked a movement that lead to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Given this sort of social success, the Climate Cult has grown larger around the world to the point where it is now in direct competition with the older more established cults of the past 2,000 years. In the same fashion that Paganism, which deified storms and other actions of the natural world, was eventually swept away by the Monotheists, so now the circle will be complete and society is again embracing natural phenomena as acts of the new, angry God.

The Mural in San Francisco

So this Argentine artist, Andres Inglasias, is painting a 60 ft by 40 ft mural of Greta on a building in San Francisco and the non-profit group that commissioned the work has gone out of it's way to make any detractors aware that they only use water-based paints with eco-friendly spray cans and use electric vehicles, etc since there are two groups of people they have to be concerned with.

On the one hand they have the Conservative Unbelievers who will point out any hypocrisy in materials and deeds that they should slip up on right down to getting coffee in a Styrofoam cup and on the other is their fellow Orthodox Environmentalists who will do the same thing but with more shaming.

Greta the Spiritual Icon

To me, Greta Thunberg has an interesting face, not pretty, not ugly, more determined and always it seems unsmiling. This is the kind of face, with it's strength of conviction, that leads a cause. She's done her penances, she's made her pilgrimages, coming to the United States and even speaking to the United Nations. Who gets to do that? Not everybody.

Although soon to be 17, Greta took Earth's Plight into her life when she was 8 years old and although welcoming of her strong stance, I don't believe her parents were behind her religious devotion to the cause of Climate Activism. We all know how young children can get fixated on an idea and even though she has adopted the religion of her parents, I believe it was she alone that chose to take the next higher step of the truly devout. She has transcended her mentors. 

She has organized strikes, gained followers and established her disciples to whom she has proven her devotion. She's now become the face of the new expansion, an icon for the new Masthead.

Think of her as the young Mother Theresa of Climate Change, sacrificing all for her dedication to her cause, answering the call of her God and now, with divine light, they are ready to take over the world.

How to Spot Cyber Fraud

In a somewhat related note, most of the working world who use computers and work on the World Wide Web have read about or taken training on how to spot what has become one of the worlds most prevalent dangers, Phishing Scams! So, as a sort of Public Service Announcement, I'd like to take this moment to point out the one glaring giveaway to look for as a sign that that you are being set up for fraud...

a Sense of Urgency.

Fraudsters are just using human nature against you. They know that most people just want to do the right thing and so they seek to exploit a person's sense of wanting to be helpful.

By using call to action statements like; "We Need to Act Now!, We Can't Afford to Wait!, Time is Running Out!" and "There is No Time to Lose!", the fraudster is looking to hurry you into making a mistake that they can take advantage of and so stands as a clear sign that the person or people you are dealing with are trying to manipulate you.

Hope this helps.

The Kurds Pay for Their Ambitions

It seems an improbable scenario that the Kurds would be able to establish and manage to actually keep a part of three established countries in order to manufacture their own country.

There was never really a "Kurdistan". And there never will be in our lifetimes considering the massive issues involved in such an undertaking. The Kurds not only want their own state...somewhere. They want a part of Turkey, a part of Syria and a part of Iraq. And that's a king-sized pipe dream no matter who you think can make it happen.

This wishful thinking by the Kurds that the United States will use it's might and power to establish for them and thus be involved in defending into perpetuity, a Kurdish state in this manner should be looked upon by all as, at best, a bad gamble.

And brow-beating President Trump in the press isn't going to help the situation much.

If the Kurds didn't want to get slaughtered by the Turkish army, perhaps they shouldn't have blown up all those people in Turkey. I'm sure plenty of innocent Turkish citizens have been killed since the The Kurdistan Workers Party aka the PKK, a Marxist group by the way, started their Militant Armed Insurgency inside Turkey in 1984.

But nobody seems to care about them now.

This isn't the reason why the Turks hate the Kurds since that history goes way back but it is the reason why Turkish forces have been chaffing at the bit to finally go after them in a big way. They have been stymied by the politics of the Syrian Civil War and the intervention in it of the United States which then drew the forces of Iran and Russia into the conflict. And let's not forget that President Barack Obama was behind the arming of the ISIL forces and other militant Islamic factions in Syria. That helped a whole lot.

Thanks Mr. Obama!

At any rate, Turkey most likely has had it with the situation and have at least warned the U.S. about what they were going to do. It's their region of the world, not ours. If we left our small force in the way of the Turkish offensive, what good would that have done? Did we want to instigate World War III by letting our men and women stay where they were and dare Turkey to go over or around them?

In a region of the world we had no right to be in the first place?

Keep in mind that Turkey is a contracted ally. For what it is, they are in NATO with us and host U.S. military installations.There is an expectation of cooperation in matters such as this. Although a faction of the Kurds has fought on the side of the U.S., another faction is bombing Turkish government and civilian locations. So what's the good answer to that?

The politics of the issue and the bottom line is that it was never really our fight. It's yet another internal struggle we would be forcing ourselves into like Libya and Syria and frankly setting up and holding a Kurdish state is an impossibility. None of the three countries involved would put up with it and "Kurdistan" would find itself under assault on three fronts. Good luck with that. Like Medicaid for All, there isn't enough money in the world to hold such bad ground. Just because they want it, doesn't mean it's going to happen and the Middle East is full of factions who's abilities do not come close to matching their ambitions.

The Kurds are no different. They could try a more political approach since their violence has only been returned to them in spades.

It is not the job of the United States to spend the money and spill the blood for every group that puts on airs and thinks they're entitled to their own piece of turf at the expense of others and the sooner the world figures it out the better off it will be.

Why Boston Traffic Sucks So Much

The Boston area has been recently deemed the "Worst Traffic in the Country!" A dubious honor and with, what I had previously imagined, totally unbeatable competition!

San Francisco for instance, was my first 5 lane traffic jam which I had the pleasure to experience on one of my trips around the country. I had at one point managed to get off the elevated highway and when I had to get back on a few hours later, I would swear the same cars were there from when I had gotten off.

New York City is another perennial championship contender in traffic terror rankings. Hours long backups can occur without logic at any time of the day or night. Anyone who has taken 2 1/2 hours to cross the George Washington Bridge at 1:00AM, like I did, will understand what I mean.

One time a group of us were caravaning to Philadelphia from the Boston area. With our friends directly behind us, we, the lead car, just managed to get by a traffic accident in the NYC stretch of I-95. We got to the hotel in Phili at 6PM, showered and sat at the bar to wait for our friends. We were still at the bar when they finally rolled in at 10:30PM.

So traveling the old New England highways and byways just ain't what they used to be. The entire Boston area and well past it's suburbs is just grinding to a standstill with thousands of lost hours spent rolling, in a halting and jerking manner, in masses of wasted humanity in an endless stream of automobiles from the time you manage to take advantage of a distracted driver to find your opening and squeeze your way out of your driveway and into the ceaseless caravan of traffic that will, eventually lead you to the highway...where you will join a larger group of trout swimming upstream until you, eventually, arrive at work knowing full well in the back of your mind you will be doing it all again in reverse to return to your not-so-bucolic suburban home.

And you do it because where you live is way cheaper (though not cheap) than living closer to Boston yet you don't dare give up the money you can earn by working there.

So you get in your car and drive. Or at least you try to drive, into Boston every goddamned day.

It's a living...or is it?

Until recently, it took me 1.5 hours to drive the 26 miles to work and not much less to get back. Close to three hours a day to cover 52 miles. That's about 600 hours per year. Just spent in traffic.

So how did we get here?

Blame Eisenhower

We all know the story of how Eisenhower, when he was a general during WWII, admired the German's Autobahn and their ability to get troops and equipment across the country quickly. So he wanted to do the same thing with the United States. Problem is, the U.S. is 3000 mile across. And we already had a Transcontinental Railway.

But that didn't stop President Eisenhower from building his national highway system. Which cut the American rail system to pieces, cut major cities in half and forced everything that should have been on rail onto the road. I suspect a major lobbying effort was made by Detroit automakers at the time since the American auto industry took off along with the highway system. More roads, more cars.

Now some can argue whether this was a good or bad thing but the sacrifice of the rail system hurts us to this day and the short-sightedness of the highway system has cost us billions of dollars to modify, maintain and correct. What used to go by rail now goes on the road and not too long ago Boston spent $ 17 Billion of mostly Federal money to fix the central artery and join the city that Eisenhower's highway had cut in two back in 1959. Back then the 6 lane (3 lanes in each direction) highway could accommodate 75,000 per day. That's a drop in the bucket for what's going through there today. Plus the Big Dig didn't do a thing to make the road wider.

So much for progress.

The Unfinished RT I 95 Project

Interstate 95 is the nation's longest highway, running 1,920 miles from Maine to Florida but the most important part of this road was the 10 miles that wasn't built when it was supposed to run straight into the city of Boston. Although it had loads of neighborhood opposition, it was ultimately stopped by environmental concerns in the Mother Brook watershed area that the highway was to parallel on it's way into the city.

So what we get is local RT 128 North is now also RT I-95 which joins RTs 24 and 3 in sending all its Boston area traffic onto the same local route in an incredible snafu that daily commuters suffer with every day. Had it been finished, RT I 95 would have provided a third access route into Boston and relieved traffic on the Expressway, RT 93 North, which is such a nightmare to travel in the morning that it is dubbed "The Distress Way" by it's put upon travelers. Think about what could have been while you're sitting in traffic. I do.

Thank Mayor Menino

During his 21 long, long years in office, Mayor for Life, Thomas Menino did everything in his considerable power to keep middle-class housing from being built in the city of Boston.  Under his steely eye the only housing that got built were either high-priced luxury condos or low-income only "Projects" for "da poor". and nothing in between. Every time some developer wanted to put up something else, Menino would raise the threat of bringing back Rent Control. Nobody wants to invest if the building is going to be under rent control since capping rents will eventually cause them to lose money. So subsequently the average wage-slave can't afford Boston real estate and so are pushed farther and farther out to find affordable housing.

Fortunately, I guess, the new mayor, Marty Walsh, started his political career as a Union Thug so he's been giving the boys at the Union Hall plenty to do lately and is building, building, building everywhere. But it's going to take at least a decade to repair the damage Mayor Menino did just so he could say he was the longest sitting mayor in city history. That's quite an ego driven goal since he couldn't ever hope to match former mayor Kevin White's list of deeds and accomplishments. Perhaps Marty Walsh can do it.

The Benjamins

Since I finally managed to take a heaping pay cut to get off of the road to Boston, I wonder why more people don't just give it up and find a job in the suburbs where they live. I mean, life is too short to be miserable and so why would any sane person sacrifice all that time, aggravation and wasted time to commute up to 3 hours one-way into the city?

I mean, besides the money. You can only make Boston money IN Boston.

Poor Public Transportation

The MBTA Commuter Rail is expensive and doesn't go nearly everywhere it is needed and inadequately serves the suburbs. A Zone 6 one-way ticket is, as of today, is $ 10.50, a monthly pass is $340.00. But if you have to park, the parking fees for MBTA lots charge from $5.00 to $7.00 per day. Monthly parking rates have a range of $35.00 to $157.50. This doesn't reserve you a spot btw so if the lot is full, you're on your own.

There are buses into the city but they're on the road too.

Everyone is a Road Tech 

And just to make things interesting, ie: worse, everyone and their brother is driving around for work. Everyone today is a Road Tech. The locksmith is a road tech, the windshield repair man comes to you, the people who hang your curtains, service your copiers, waters your company's plants, shreds your sensitive papers, delivers your water, delivers your groceries, fixes the coffee maker, walks your dog, delivers your lunch and empties your waste-paper baskets are ALL on the road driving around to different clients all the time. We can also throw in ride sharing services, airport limos and taxis.

I had a phone interview with this place in Mansfield, MA and the HR person says that the person who takes this job has to also provide in-person service to their other location in Burlington, MA. I said "That's impossible, that's a 2 hour plus drive in the middle of the day and way longer if something should snag traffic. But they wanted to hire ONE person for BOTH locations and put them on the road to save money. So I told them "good luck". I don't know if they ever found someone to do that drive or if they smartened up but that ad was out there for a long time. What a bunch of cheapskates!

There is now Amazon Truck out there driving around along with Federal Express (Ground & Express), United Parcel Service and the US Postal Service. I regularly see Amazon vans delivering packages as late as 8 PM on a Sunday evening.

There are cable tv techs, satellite tv techs, painters, furniture delivery and repair people, security camera people, plumbers, electricians and building supplies people, all out on the road FOR work while you're trying to get TO work.

I was talking to a Ricoh Printer tech the other day and he told me they don't even have an office. They just get up, go to the car and drive right to their first appointment. If they need a part, they just have it delivered to the site or a deliver hub and pick it up there. All they do is drive around.

Just like the rest of us.

24 Hour Bad News

I'd like to think I'm not that old but I remember when the news was only on at either 6 o'clock and 10 o'clock. And that was all. Before the news came on, you watched something else. Anything else.

Then in 1980 CNN went on the air as a 24 hour "News" broadcast cable station and now everywhere you look there's "News".

And it's not good news and these days we don't know which of it actually happened or whether most of it is true. Sure, storms really happen. Planes really crash but the other stuff, the subjective stuff, the things that happen in other places, we don't know the half of it and the only word of it we get is through the 24/7/365, never ending news channels.

And we already know they're all full of SHIT.

The local outlets are the worst at trying to fill up their massively expanded schedules. With their vans driving up and down the highways hoping something bad will happen because we all know this "news" has to be BAD.

Bad news is important to the TV executives and it's important to advertisers. The term "If it bleeds, it leads" is now spread across the entire day. If a plane skids off the runway in Singapore or a car hits a tree in Dallas, it's on our local Boston "news", why?

Probably because they have an "insert car crash here every day in this time slot" mandate and if nobody local crashes, they get footage off the wire to fill the spot. I don't really know but I always wonder why I'm hearing about something that happened in California like a car chase or a house fire when they happen on the East coast too but just not that day. There's a lot of time to fill up now so they have to keep the bad "news" coming.

I remember Fox news used to love to broadcast California car chases. That's "news" as entertainment, watching a car chase. Here in New England, car chases suck because there are too many trees to block the camera crew. Car chases happen in Andover, Massachusetts I'm sure, you'll just never see one on television.

Bad News Over and Over

But with all the satellite feeds, the global networks, the broadcasting vans looking for cats caught in the trees, these stations still run out of bad news to hit us over the head with. So what do they do? They REPEAT it over and over, sometimes for three days.

In the Internet world, three days is an eternity to hear the same thing over again. Bad enough you hear it again in an hour but, just in case you somehow missed it, here it is again today. Damn it makes it hard to turn on the radio, I've long ago stopped watching television.

Casting a Pall

What this does, all this bad 'news", is cast bad feelings among the populace. People actually feel the world is going to Hell. The world is not going to Hell. The world is the same as it's ever been. It's always been turning, always there is turmoil somewhere. Just not the same place all the time if you don't count the Middle East. That's a world constant.

But there's always a bad law about to be passed, always a "crisis" to be averted and always someone trying to convince you that unless you go jump through some HOOP, the worst possible outcome will be made real.

But the 24 hour "news" cycle causes preoccupation with what's going on, or at least, what we THINK is going on. I wonder sometimes how information got around back in colonial times. Information traveled slowly and I'm sure was subject to miscommunication and modification.

So the only thing that's changed is the speed of miscommunication and modification.

Why Television Exists

Is it to inform you? It can do that. Is it to educate you? It can do that too. It certainly can entertain you. But the reason it's here is to sell you things.

Beyond all the advertisements, the people who control the media and it's portals want to show you what they want you to see and only what they want you to see. And it's all pretty dumb and contrived. Most of the time, since television was developed, the government and the media were on the same page as to The Message they wanted to send the public. Right now there is a schism and the two are currently split.

Mostly these days the media is selling fear, angst, worry and remorse. Fear of the outside, angst about your well-being and remorse over parts of our history you or your family was never a part of.

It's about "helping" you form ideas and opinions that are of a certain perspective, their perspective. You're told either the truth when if fits, half-truths when it doesn't and outright lies when it suits them. And you have no idea which one you're getting.

Yet people believe it just the same.

Swallowing the Elephant

I never get people who, even though they know that they've been lied to, believe the next thing that the liar says! If someone lies to me once, I tend to have a doubt about the truthfulness of anything they say after that. But that's just me. It's more about how people are inclined to believe "facts" that fit their own opinion about a subject no matter what the source.

We catch a "news" station deliberately distorting the facts and the next day someone says, "Hey, did you hear what's on _____?" Same station. I mean, they're not going to stop broadcasting just because they were caught in a lie.

I don't know if anyone remembers back to 1993 when NBC News, not having success confirming the rumor that the pickup truck GM was making at the time had a problem catching fire in a roll-over accident, actually put a LIGHTED FLAIR on the gas tank and re-did their roll-over test. That worked! The truck finally caught fire.

Of course, the flair showed up rather prominently when General Motors ran the footage in slow-motion.

Oops!

Politics, Politics, Politics

Politics was never far from "news" since the beginning of time. The way certain information is going to be perceived by the Public is always worrisome to those with something to lose.

All news today is political. Why the car crashed, why the storm tore your roof off your house, why your wife left you and why your young kids come home from school and tell you that the number one priority of their lives will be to save the planet.

And whether you think you're a Progressive or a Conservative, you just have to know you're not getting the whole story. The bubble you've built for yourself by only watching certain stations or reading certain publications that back up your thinking to the point where people who risked their very lives to bring you a different sort of news and put it out of reach of the people who don't want you to see it, are ignored.

If the truth should suddenly hit you in the face, would you even know it?

Believe it, don't believe it, that's not the point. The point is that you should have access to it and know it exists.

Something to believe in. 

Can China Oppress Its Way to Prosperity?

Remember Tibet? It used to belong to the Tibetans. Not any more. China took over. The outrage lasted minutes while Chinese policemen kicked protesters to death in the streets.

How about Taiwan. It's a sovereign nation, right? Not to China it isn't and they never stop threatening to take it over. By force, of course.

China's Claims

To determine ownership of a territory, China it seems merely has to claim it. "It's ours by right, stay off!"

And that's all their is to it. Tibet...is China's. The South China Sea, well, it has the word China in it, see? Therefore it belongs to China. Nobody else gets to use it. It's China's.

Taiwan is China's. Why? Because China says so!

Taiwan may have something to say about that. "No they don't, it's ours!"

Hong Kong wasn't China's for a long time. China was very different then. Different government, different economy and Hong Kong too is different, like a different country.

But China claims Hong Kong just the same.

Where do China's claims stop?

There's a rumor going around this country that China wants to go to the Moon just to see if the American flag is really there. If it isn't, China will claim the Moon too.

How Will the World React?

Hong Kong is, in my opinion, the last frontier of true economic freedom left in the world. A place where you can rent a storefront, put up a sign and call yourself a business. Very little red tape involved in comparison to say, anywhere in the United States. It's a city just teaming with commerce and ambition. Ambition for success and for something few on mainland China enjoy, Freedom!

But don't worry, China will fix that. They'll eventually kick their way in and crush the local pro-democracy lunatics, killing the most resistant and sending the rest to be re-educated or harvested or both. They'll then look to their European enablers for signs of disapproval.

But they won't see any.

I mean, what nation cut ties with China over Tibet? None. Nobody did. If they do the same thing to Hong Kong, will it score a ripple on China's economic radar screen? Will they pay a price?

Well, perhaps the UK may have had enough and actually speak up about what China is doing given it's past ties to Hong Kong but don't expect France, Spain or Germany to make much of a fuss. They all need the low cost manufacturing they've grown dependent upon. They're tied too tight economically to China to open their cringy yaps and do anything beyond a grandstanding speech or some-such.

To them, Hong Kong is just another Tibet; "Pass the Bearnaise Sauce will you, my Filet Mignon is not as moist as it should be." "Send it back Angela, the cook will make you another!" "Good idea Annegret, I'll send it back."

"Oh, those unfortunate people of Hong Kong." they will say. And that will be the end of it. It will take people marching in the streets of those nations to get a bigger reaction. But since it's only people getting killed and a major global economic engine being silenced and not something REALLY important like "Global Climate Warming Change", will they get much of a turnout?

China Roads

China is good at taking over. They've bought their way into Africa although there are rumblings from South Africa about the deal they've made with the Devil, but they'll all regret taking the money China dangles in front of the impoverished nations of Africa.

Nobody really TRUSTS China. They're serious as a heart attack and as funny as a crutch. They have a chip on their shoulder so big the Iranians can only look on in envy and they are out to pay back ALL the slights of history they feel have been directed at them because they are Chinese.

China now says, "If the world will not love us, by _________, (*whatever Godless Idol Chairman Xi worships) they'll fear us!"

And surely, where ever China goes these days, they make everyone around them nervous.

And they should be.

Tienanmen Square Redux

But China is at it's best at oppressing it's own. From the untold millions who were purged in the days of Mao to the extension of that control to the long segregated Muslim population. The control and subjugation of them and Christians too, is all just by rote these days. Nobody escapes and everybody is subject to social controls. The Muslims just get it worse, of course.

It's all about control. China controls it's population. Telling them what they can see, what they can say, what they can do and where they can go. In this fashion, the government can feel secure that they will not be overthrown. With the country contained, they will feel much more secure as they expand and try to take over the weaker territories nearby and give them the same treatment. And then, they surmise, they will expand from there spreading the subjugation model they've perfected at home.

The Question

Can China's economic business model sustain it's ambitions?

Already being challenged on the economic battlefield, China's weakness is evident. The other major nations of the world must keep buying their cheaper products and feeding the Dragon. If they should decide to go elsewhere, the Chinese Juggernaut could hit the wall.

But that would also help out the United States and President Trump. What to do, what to do?

What will it take for the other nations of the world to decide to stop buying Chinese goods?

If China should decide to go into Hong Kong with guns a-blazing, the reactions or lack thereof of the European nations will tell us a lot.

Baltimore is a Dump!

And for as long as I can remember, Baltimore has had the reputation of being a "bad neighborhood".  I don't drive by the city often but I can't help but see it from Interstate RT-95 when I'm on my way back from somewhere else. I always take a long look at the place.

And I shudder. Who can imagine living there?

Baltimore Maryland is a perpetual welfare city. According to the national census, Maryland is the country's richest state with a median income of $69,272.00 per person so imagine what that means when you factor in the poorest city in the country! 

Did I mention that the current Mayor of Baltimore, Bernard Young, is a Democrat? I think the last Republican to run the city was in 1967. 

The last Mayor of Baltimore, Catherine Pugh, also a Democrat, was forced to resign due to a corruption scandal involving a children's book she 'wrote" and coerced the city school system to purchase. It wasn't much of a book but it was a hell of a crime.

Maryland also has a Democrat for a Governor, Larry Hogan. I don't much about him since, I really don't pay much attention to the state in general since I would never think of setting foot there for any reason. It's just a name on a map to me. Sorta like say, Suriname, a place that might as well be on the moon. The only time you hear of such places is when bad things happen there. 

Way back in the late 1980s I had a co-worker who was originally from North Carolina but he and his young wife moved to Baltimore, to start their life together. He was not familiar with the place but thought, since they were in their early 20s, that the city was a place they could build a life together.

But there was no work. Neither could get a job. Their money quickly ran out and they applied for public assistance. They were assigned an apartment. When they looked at the place, it was filthy, in a run-down building in a seedy area of the city. But they were stuck and had to make the most of it. The place was roach infested. When they started to clean the place up, he told me, there was a taped up cardboard box in a corner of the room. When he picked it up, the bottom fell out and "about 2000 cockroaches" hit the floor and scattered in all directions. He and his wife shared their first Baltimore freak-out during their eventful but short stay in that building. There was more but you get the picture. 

What that lead to was the two of them frantically calling any relative and extended family member they could recall in the hopes that one of them would let them stay with them for even just a little while. One of them, who worked with me, told them that if they could get there, they could stay with him for as long as it took to get settled. He told me they each packed one bag and went straight to the highway and thumbed the first truck that would take them closer to Massachusetts and farther away from Maryland. 

When the truck driver dropped them off at our towns highway rest-stop on Interstate RT-495, he drove off with their luggage and disappeared into the night. But that incident did not offset the relief they felt for finally getting out of Baltimore. 

Since that time Baltimore has gotten worse. 

Baltimore is a city of stark contrasts, the have's and the have-nots, empty buildings that serve as drug shooting-galleries a block away from a posh neighborhood, poor schools and poor people a block away from good schools and rich neighborhoods. Employment in much of the city is public employment since businesses are reluctant to move in. 

People who live in Baltimore will tell you that there are a lot of great places to go there, museums, restaurants, art centers and other attractions. 

But they will also warn you to be aware of your surroundings when out and not to walk and talk on your cell phone in public since this automatically makes you a target. They will also tell you to simply expect things to be stolen off of your porch and to not leave items visible in your car when you park. They will mention that your home insurance should cover break-ins. Everyone there will acknowledge that the crime rate is very high punctuated by a lot of shootings. 

In 2017, there were a reported 343 murders in Baltimore but the good news is that it dropped in 2018 to 309. 

But that could be anywhere in the country, right? 

Since the Freddy Gray incident, where six Baltimore policemen were put on trial for the negligent homicide of Mr. Gray whom they left unsecured with his hands cuffed behind his back in the police vehicle and who subsequently died as a result of falling against the door handle, arrests have gone down and crime has gone up. 

People there warn you not to come. Don't take my word for it, Google "Moving to Baltimore" and see what that gets you. Oh, there's some fake news out there but you'll know the real stuff when you read it. 

All the money Baltimore gets in Federal Aid doesn't seem to help things. That's because the money isn't there to actually help people, it's good jobs at good wages for the people who dole it all out. Those are the people the money is for.

Nothing seems to get better in Baltimore.  

Joe Lieberman: Hypocrite of School Choice

I can't believe this is still an argument. If it wasn't for the power of the National Teachers Union which is only rivaled by the other two public union powerhouses, The International Brotherhood of Police Officers and The International Association of Fire Fighters, this would have been settled ages ago.

But I was reminded of a bit of hypocrisy just now when I read an article by none other than Former Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman advocating for, of all things, school choice.

And I had to laugh.

NOW, he's the advocate for school choice...

Again!

Oh, old Joe WAS a champion for the school voucher system right up until the moment he was picked to be Al Gore's running mate for the Presidency back in 2000.

Then nothing, not a word about it was mentioned and nobody asked.

But I remembered.

Joe Lieberman remained in the Senate for 14 years after Al Gore's failed run for the presidency but until now we have not heard anything from the former senator advocating for school choice.

Since that time the voucher system was instituted in the District of Columbia and working well until the Teacher's Union finally managed to squash it, forcing the school kids back to their sub-standard district schools. They could have used a champion then. Now , with nothing to lose, nothing on the line and perhaps looking for some sort of relevancy in a new age, good old reliable Joe Lieberman is again advocating school choice.

After 19 years of silence, is anybody going to ask, "Where you been all this time, Joe?"

Fox news won't be asking that question, you can bet on that. They ran the article. What gall this guy has! Even for a former pol and lawyer. This sudden rekindled interest makes me wonder at what angle he's trying to play. Perhaps we'll find out in the near future.

School Choice

This is the system where each family gets a voucher for the money they pay each year towards their school system or per student funds allocated to each child at any rate that then can be put that towards a different school of their choosing. The money follows the child. 

Two-Tiered Education System

It has been argued that the voucher system will create a two-tiered school system and allow the wealthy to pull their kids from public school or that there will be a migration from public schools. 

The wealthy have already pulled their kids out of public school. THEY have the money to pay twice. Once for the sub-standard public school they don't use and again for the private school they actually send their kids to.

It's the poor people who can't afford to send their kids to an alternate or private school who get the short end. They can only afford the sub-standard.

Without a school voucher program to even the field, the people without the means are also without the choice. The lack of school choice hurts THEM, the people who can't afford to send their kids any place else.

The lack of competition for the monopoly of public schools means no challenges and no innovation or improvements. They never have to pay for their mistakes. Only the children will.

So here's hoping Joe sticks with it the second time around since School Choice was and is a good idea. Introducing competition into the educational marketplace will make all the schools stronger. They will either change or be emptied out.

But Joe Lieberman could have been fighting for this change for the last 19 years but abandoned his principles for the chance at glory and fame.

He thinks everybody's forgotten it.

At What Point Do You Stop Listening?

The press just can't get enough of the "feud" between President Trump and The Squad of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib and that overt Jew hater, Ilhan Omar.

It's the media corps that have elbowed Nancy Pelosi to the back of the room and put the spotlight on these four Horsewomen of the Apocalypse and it is they who are the reason that this is all a big deal.

It's not a big deal.

If you're worried that people may be believing all the zany things these people are saying just because they're all over the airwaves, I wouldn't be.

It isn't like the political arena lacks for want of crazy, prescription-drug crazed politicos because there seems to be no short supply.

I don't blame the Socialist Sisters for being camera hogs, I blame the people who are supplying the cameras. It's Fox News and "The World is Coming to an End" Drudge Report that are making the most political hay out of this. Talk about "It's all about the Benjamins".

All the accusations of "Racist" and constant media deluge of media hate towards the president, the wobbly GOP who would still rather have Hillary Clinton than prosperity and a good economy, the radical leftist states that every day announce another reason for their working citizens to get the hell out of there, it's all for naught. It's just the constant stream of nothingness and minutia that the "News" has become today. Nothing more than an incessant drone of negative energy, causing no good and if you listen too long, will cause mental instability.

In the Oppressive Ogres Corp where I work I share an office with another person. He's a political guy and a Trump supporter and each day he can't help but peruse MSN, CNN, Politico and other such non-sense media sights and read me some of what they say. He gets upset about it. I say, "I don't understand why you do this to yourself, you already know what they're going to say." But he can't help it. He gets even more upset when Fox says the same thing.

"Stop reading that crap!" I insist, "You're going to drive yourself Koo-Koo!"

And here we are.

I've checked out. I don't give a flying Phitt about what any of these people have to say or the so-called "conservative" media outlet that gives them a forum because I know it's all just about ratings and the advertising dollars they bring. Fox isn't in business to "Defend the Republic", they're in business to make a buck and if you're stupid enough to jump through a hoop or run into the streets in outrage every time they come up with a "Crisis' then you have nobody but yourself to blame. It's all just Street Theater for the Rubes.

As my older brother used to say to me all the time...

"Don't be an idiot."

It's not going to make one iota of a difference when it comes time to vote. Nobody is actually picking up what they're putting down and all the dead people in the country won't be able to out-vote the living when the time comes.

Because, quite frankly, even though we are not all "Brothers under the Skin" like most whackos want you to think, we do all want the same basic things.

We all want a roof over our head. We want a good livelihood for ourselves and a future for our children. This includes an acceptable level of education and opportunity for them to pursue their interests when they are old enough to decide and choose.

We all want...stuff! Whether it be a nicer car than most people drive, a boat, a nice house with central air conditioning and nice patio furniture. Oh, and a patio!

And we're all too willing to work for it, to drive great distances daily to get to our chosen places of employment and to withstand most daily torments of American life to get this...stuff!

Now I don't care where you're from originally. If you grew up here, you'r ruined for any place else anyway. Once you are "Americanized" you're screwed. No, we should figure out what to do with the Dreamers because even though your name may be Hernandez and you're parents are from Mexico, you'd be fucking lost in Mexico. I have black friends that went to The Gambia for a visit. They're like, "Wholly shit, I couldn't live there!" Of course not, your a friggin' American. You haven't washed a dish by hand since childhood never mind having to live on rice and beans. They don't even have cable!

So anyway, no matter what your background, if you're working for a living, trying to play by the rules and putting up with hearing all this whacko bullshit on the television and radio, when you finally get to the voting booth this November are you really going to pull the lever for what these nutjobs are trying to sell you?

No, I don't think so.

Like me, you may not have the best setup but it's working. You can go out every so often, have dinner and drinks, maybe once a week, take in a show, go for a hike, hit the gym and have some semblance of a decent career and life. You're hanging in despite the effort. But you know as well as I do that if you let this group of Quarter-Stalins get a hold of the means to your paycheck and livelihood, it could all turn to shit in a hurry.

There'll be no place to go but down...

And everybody knows it.

They're Not "Migrants"

They're being called "Migrants" but they're really not. These people crossing the boarder are the farthest thing from "Migrants" you can get.

A better word would be "Goths" as in "Visigoths", the destroyers of mighty Rome, the most successful Republic before this one. It might as well be old Alaric himself crossing the Rio Grande as far as I'm concerned. These people are no less dangerous as when the Goths crossed the Rhine back in 400 AD. We all know what happened after that.

These "oppressed masses" aren't here for asylum, although they'll take it if we're stupid enough to give it to them. They're economic refugees coming from the Continent of Failure that is South America. And they're here to put their thumb on the scales of our economic future. The nation's prosperity is not a given, it's not assured and there are many burdens on the other side of the equation that aren't as brightly lit when talk of the robust growth of the United States is discussed.

These are the burdens of the Welfare State, the social insurances of Medicaid, Medicare, SSI, Food Stamps and the Affordable Care Act. Then there are the public service pension administrations both federal and state. These are massive programs and all fall on the Accounts Payable side of the ledger.

Now add all these people to the welfare rolls, the food stamps, putting their kids into the public school systems, the hospital emergency rooms and WIC programs. Who will be paying for all this?

Not THEM!

Add to those costs the added price of fighting the diseases, some thought long gone, that have made their dubious return. Afflictions like Whooping Cough, Measles, Mumps and even the Plague. Find a bean-counter to figure that one out.

A Nation of Laws

We have immigration laws and they're pretty much like those of other countries and U.S. Citizenship takes about as long as does most countries: About 7 years.

And it takes a bit of work. You have to know about our system of government, how it works and how the people who run the country get to where they are. This is on the up and up. You have to learn a bit about our democracy and how it works. But the bottom line is...

You can't just walk in and start working. Or at least you shouldn't.

And one of the reasons you shouldn't is because there are thousands of naturalized U.S. citizens here already who played by the rules and waited the time it took and learned the things they needed to become a citizen of these United States.

And why would they do that?

Because they LOVE this country and want to be citizens. Because of that desire, they were willing to do the right thing. They didn't come here to just make a buck to send back to Whereverlahara so they could build a bigger house there. They want to build there house right HERE in the good 'ol US of A.

The Migrants Pay Taxes Myth

If you're working under the table and doing your shopping at flea markets, how much in the way of taxes are you paying? And if you're collecting housing benefits and going to the emergency room for free treatments, how much are you taking in exchange? Plenty. Add your non-English speaking children to the local public schools in enough numbers that there won't be much learning going on for anyone as schools scramble to not only teach the subjects but to bring up the language skills of these kids so that they can be taught at all. And who'll pay for that?

Not THEM!

It's you, the legal, working American working stiff, the taxpayer who'll get the bill. I'm sure you'd rather have the money to put your own kids through school but heck, these people need it more than you do you rich, white sons-of-bitches! And so what if the rising costs and deductibles of healthcare under the ACA make you think twice before you get that lump on your side checked out, these people have a RIGHT to HEALTHCARE! Yeah, so they can't pay for it, now sit down and shut up, you racist bastard!

Crashing the Welfare State

With all these illiterate, indigent masses crashing the gates of the kingdom, we will reach a tipping point in the costs of taking care of there "essential needs", meaning the people footing the bill will either get irate enough to rebel or the welfare systems will just go broke.

In the Theory of Anarchism, this is a desired result of the political Left. I don't see how anyone will escape the pain to follow should this be allowed to happen but Anarchists don't really think about the future in those terms. They only wish for the downfall. What happens after that is not important.

As a Libertarian, I too would like to see the end of the Welfare State as we see it today but would rather avoid an economic reenactment of the Hindenburg.

Trump Represents American Success

You wonder why all the vitriol, hatred and bizarre contrarianism the Political Left has directed towards President Trump and every move he makes. He tries to cut taxes and they try to block it, he tries to secure the border with Mexico and they block him. He tries to make a trade deal with China and the European Union and he's immediately branded a failure. For an American president acting in the best interests of the United States and it's citizenry, it's all seems so upside down.

Why?

Because the President was a successful businessman prior to the presidency, remains a successful person in the White House and the United States is a successful country full of people working and striving to get the things they want in this life. They have goals they want to reach and are willing to put in the work to get them, the right way.

Everyday we see Americans, from the newly naturalized to those here for generations, working, paying taxes, contributing to society and playing by the rules.

And the Socialist Democrats HATE that.

And they hate you.

My Message to Kelly Anne Conway

The first time I laid eyes on Kelly Anne Conway was she was on one of the Leftist Sunday morning political programs, I believe it was 'Disgrace the Nation" or something like that. I was hanging at the counter of the my breakfast place which always had the one little TV on for our Sunday morning entertainment. The morning political shows were always a catalyst for lively debate amongst the morning rabble.

Well the show had the political hit squad on board and Kelly Anne lit into them like Grant at the battle of Richmond! She was so quick, articulate, factual and she remembered everything these people had said in the past and was using their own words to hit them over the head with and proving they were all hypocrites.

 

She left them literally stuttering. They looked lost and grasping for something more to say.

 

And I was like, "Who IS this person?"

 

I knew she was on Donald Trumps campaign staff but I've never heard a Republican liaison speak like that to the opposition, ever.

 

I mean, aren't Republicans supposed to just apologize for the accusations the media makes? They aren't supposed to fight back. I mean, they never did before. Not since Ronald Reagan.

 

This sort of offense was long over do.

Kelly Anne was so brave and fearless. She didn't care who she was talking to, she would blast them...with facts. That overstuffed Wolf Blitzer...she shredded him. No matter who went after her, she had something particular to say back to them. I can't imagine they would think it wise to keep coming at her but we all know by now that the political Left takes no backwards steps, feels no remorse or shame and will just come back day after day even when they know they're just taking a beating. If they can only convert but one soul to the dark side of human existence, then it will all be worth it to them.  

 

There was another time they had some insolent Lefty chic have a go and the results were the same. They couldn't beat her. She was the smartest person in the room. And she would just wait, smiling, for the next question.

 

There is not doubt in my mind that Kelly Anne Conway was the juggernaut that lead the Trump Team to victory. The long-marginalized voting taxpayer finally had something to cheer about.

So Kelly Anne, If you read this, don't worry. This Hatch Act baloney is just more Never-Trumper hatred. You're doing an incredible job!

But now, while I'm at it, there's something more I'd like to say to you...

Time to Dump George!

Really, don't you think it's time you leave this guy? This guy is your husband?

How can this even be?

I mean, when was the last time you even saw each other? I'm sure he's not allowed to visit you at the White House. I'm sure the guards don't even recognize him. If it wasn't for Fox News Channel putting up his picture ever time he opens his mouth, who would?. I never even heard of this guy!

But anyway, what I'm saying is, you need a man in your life. Not a whiny, jealous of your success, more than half-crazed individual that keeps trying to publicly undermine your career. There are better men out there. Men who won't try to pull themselves up by pulling others down, especially their wife!

You deserve better.

 

And just what is up with this George Conway anyway?

 

Thanks to Fox News and the Doom & Gloom Drudge Report, I can never escape the reports of George Coming out with the latest "Trump Revelation". The so-called Conservative Press reports every crazy thing he says. His vocabulary must be quite limited since he only ever says the same thing over and over again. "Trump Unhinged, Trump Unstable" Blah, blah, blah. I've already heard it from him more than once. No use hearing it again...and again.

I'm minding my own business and look up and there's old nobody George again, blathering the same sad "warnings". I guess there's no cure for Trump Derangement Syndrome.

And what kind of news station would devote so much time to an obviously sick man?

Fox New will! Good ol' Fox "click bait" news.

So what do you two even have in common? I don't see the attraction. Was it an arranged marriage back when you were both kids or something? That's ok, people make mistakes Kelly Anne but it's time you correct this one. Time to give big boy the royal shove.

You'll be better off and hopefully George will get the help he needs down the road. But that will no longer be your problem!

You've grown beyond him now. Way beyond. You are two people on opposite trajectories.

You are on the ascension!

And George is, as President Trump might put it, "Definitely not ascending"

And he just can't take it that his wife has done so much better than he ever did. This jealous outrage will only get worse.

So do the best thing you can do for yourself and send this loser packing.

The sooner the better so don't wait too long.

And when you do dump him, look, me up.

I'll be looking for your reply.

Don't Bomb Iran!

At least not yet anyway.

It's pretty clear the Iranian totalitarian regime is looking to goad the U.S. into a first bloody strike.

Shooting down the drone was a brilliant move since there won't be any grieving families on the television. Nobody got hurt. Then, by muddying the waters over the location of the drone when it was shot down, there will be uncertainty over which party is telling the truth. Is this a case of the "Bully of the World", the United States, looking for an excuse to attack Iranian or is it a war-like Iran attempting to start an international military conflict by shooting down a U.S. drone in international airspace?

The world will ponder since both sides are keeping a straight face.

On the U.S. side, there are calls for reprisal but extreme caution should be observed if past experience will be given attention. If the U.S. should actually fire missiles into Iran or Iranian targets, you know the pictures coming back will be those of civilian casualties and the hurt looks of Iranian diplomats.

Even if we should hit nothing but sand.

It's a miracle of nature that the U.S. can't seem to hit anything but civilians in these Middle Eastern countries. We bomb a military installation and the pictures come back as women and children. In a past experience we bombed a toxic gas manufacturing facility in Iraq and, surprise, it was a children's formula processing plant! Amazing how, with the most advanced tracking systems in the world to date, we can barely hit a terrorist.

But subsequently, the pictures aren't going to look good if we don't wait for further escalation from the ancient brain-trust of the Mullahs.

And wait we should.

We could send them the bill for $ 130 million, the cost of the drone. Then we could threaten to seize Iranian assets if they don't remit the balance within 90 days. That would be the businessman's answer.

Besides, what's one lost drone to the Pentagon? It's a drop in the bucket in their massive secret budget which is most likely larger than 90% of the world's economies.

They'll just order another dozen.

War Mongers to the Front

I'm starting to see the roll a person like John Bolton plays in the Trump administration. With a guy like him always calling for the destruction of "Name-Your-Adversary", if I was sitting in Iran, I could never be sure if the President would be seriously listening to him or not. It would be hard to think he would but there he is chanting "kill, kill, kill" all the time. And President Trump is saying "I don't know how long I can hold this guy back." It makes one wonder if it's a tactic.

Would that it were but it's a deadly game both the U.S. and Iran are playing and it reminds me very much like what happened at Fort Sumter back in 1860 to bring the North and South to begin the American Civil War.

It was important to Abraham Lincoln for the South to fire the first shot in the war. You know, that's important in politics so he decides to just send an unarmed supply ship since North Carolina, having already seceded from the Union, had stopped suppling the fort which was on an island in the harbor. So the southern garrison on the shore, seeing the ship, launched an attack on Fort Sumter and the result was the "War of Southern Aggression" with just about every adult male alive at the time ending up dead.

Iran Becomes North Korea

We know the sanctions are killing the Iranian economy, for what it is, and if we want to pursue any kind of retaliation, the U.S. would do well to keep it economic. The Iran government is trying to find a way to break out of this blockade and save face while doing it. A tall task. So they are rattling away and causing, in reality, minor destruction.

Planting mines above the waterline of a ship tells me they didn't want to actually sink it. They wanted a good fire but again, nobody got killed. I don't think anybody even got hurt unless they fell off of a ladder or something. The ships are insured for this sort of thing. Even the Japanese are downplaying the whole affair since the ship was bound for Japan. So this sort of non-aggressive aggression is mostly designed to bring attention to Iran's 'plight". Not enough there to start a fight.

Plus, it was not an American ship so just leave it to the insurance company accountants.

What to Do

It's pretty obvious. With the pundits all describing Iran as playing a "Long Game", that should also be our strategy as well. The North Korean playbook as been to do just enough to make people nervous and Iran is making people nervous alright but that in itself does not constitute grounds for war. Also, just like North Korea, Iran has threatened destruction of the economic means of their neighbors should the United States intervene militarily. In the case of the Middle East, that's the oil fields.

So standing back and waiting to see just how far Iran is willing to go in this game of chicken will serve the United States interests. Meanwhile it's Iran's economic issues that will continue to work against them. They've squandered their meager GDP over the years on guns for the military and not butter for the people. And now it's come to bite them in the ass. Mullahs and Economics don't mix.

I don't see any other nations stepping up and offering any support for an armed solution to Iranian skullduggery so instead of putting on our "Defenders of the World" hats yet again, we should just wait until Iran does something to piss SOMEONE ELSE off.

Until a major country like France, Japan or Spain steps up and says "Something should be done" about Iran, we should just keep working on closing our southern boarder. It isn't like we've got nothing better to do.

So until Iran decides to definitively fire the first bloody shot at the United States, we should wait it out. But if they do decide to pull the trigger first...

That will spell the end for them.

A Most Unusual Tribute to President Trump

"There's no such thing as bad publicity" - Phineas  T. Barnum


Rather than finding the Trump Baby balloon offensive, I think it's great. What a tribute to President Trump!

These people are going well out of their way. That balloon took a lot of time and money to make. And imagine also the time and money it takes to store, transport and maintain this thing never mind buying the helium to blow it up. It has to be blown up, manned by a crew of "Baby Sitters" and there's probably a permit to be paid for involved. Then it has to be deflated, carefully inspected, folded and loaded into a van and taken to a storage area...every time.

What a homage that is. 

So let's think about this for a minute.

They didn't think to make a giant "President Hillary Clinton" balloon to badger Mr. Trump as a protest. They didn't think to make a big ol' "Bring Back Obama" balloon to badger him either. I would see both as antagonistic. Imagine looking out and seeing a big balloon of the person they think should have been president. But this didn't enter their heads apparently.

Nope! They instead make a Trump Baby? That's a protest? It's a bit too good natured to matter much as a protest. Sort of a tongue-in-cheek type of a protest. More of a begrudging show of respect which stands in stark contrast to the Left's harsh rhetoric.

Similarly, and quite telling in fact, there isn't a "Putin Baby" balloon and most certainly isn't a "Xi Jinping Baby" In fact, when the Communist leader visited England, there were no protests at all. And although he has a popular T-shirt, the long dead Cuban revolutionary Che Graviera never got a balloon.

But of course we know that neither Russia, China or Cuba has a right to free speech or a right to protest and none of these country's "Presidents" are known to possess a sense of humor about such things.

If you should decide to fly a similar balloon in, for example, China, it seems highly likely you will soon find yourself bound, gagged and having all your organs aggressively harvested while still conscious in one of Xi Jinping's not-so-well-hidden Re-education Camps.

That is the antithesis of freedom.

If anything, the Trump Baby balloon represents a symbol of reverence. It's a symbol of freedom to express one's point of view and it's been done very well. It looks just like him. It's a great, floating work of art and it's creation, love him or hate him, was spurred by a great force in humankind today.

And regardless of it's theme, the Trump Baby represents by it's mere existence the ideas held by a higher First World society based on rule of law and human rights. The rules are the rules and whether President Trump likes it or not, there it is. To his credit he hasn't said a thing about it yeah or nay. He probably likes it too.

After all, President Trump has a sense of humor.

Unlike London's lurking and spiteful Mayor Sadiq Khan, who's first instinct upon receiving bad press was to declare that there should be CURBS upon what can be said about him in the media.

There have been other polarizing leaders in America before and throughout world history but in this age of instant media and the current deep divides in our society, President Trump has become the biggest focus of just about everybody on the face of the earth with a radio or television. He's a man you may admire or he's the man you hate or rather, LOVE to HATE.

But you definitely have a strong opinion one way or another and regardless of which one motivates you, you are still motivated.

It's the push/pull of a living breathing process of a society's constant fight for freedom and progress that still stands as a beacon to be seen by the world.

It's a beautiful thing.