Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label REPUBLICAN. Show all posts
Showing posts with label REPUBLICAN. Show all posts

Monday, July 27, 2015

YOU WONDER and WHO YOU GOING TO CALL?

WHO'D THUNK IT
Out on a Limb

    He said it was a true liberal's dilemma.
My friend was miffed that he found himself in league with Ted Cruz.
     "Hate to say it, but the idiot's right. Mitch McConnell is a liar."
    If you missed it, the right wing ideologue called his Senate leader a liar. That set off fireworks in the clubby old boy, old girl parlor. Republican Senators railed at Cruz for his lack of decorum and civility.
     "That's the other thing about this. As bought and paid for as most of the Senate is, I like the pretense of civility, you know, "as my honorable friend from the great state of…." and etc. Cruz is just a cur dog cretin, but McConnell is a lying son of a bitch, among other things."
     I told him he wasn't damned by association, being in alliance with both Cruz and Republican defenders. He should enjoy the show. Between Cruz and Trump the GOP is getting taken through the sawdust of the side show tents. Historic establishment Republicans are likely spinning in their graves while living traditional GOPers may be seeking identity change. 
REMEMBERING A DEFENDER
    I had my first Hell's Angels sighting the other day. It was a large public venue and in came a couple of fellows flying the colors.

    I was honestly terrified of the Hells Angels when I read of them as a high school kid. Their exploits of taking over little towns or running drug rings were no doubt amplified by movies but as a reporter a few years later I learned some of these motorcycle gangs are truly criminal gangs.
    I'm not saying these two gentlemen are anything but law-abiding and tax paying citizens who even volunteer at their church thrift shop, but seeing their famous logo stirred alive an old memory.
    The Monkey Brothers, Steverino and Dave, lived just around the corner. Monkey was not their surname but it was what all of the neighbors called them, even the vintage, proper, diminutive widow Mrs Picquaneou. Their heads were an interesting shape to say the least.  And maybe it was because they went through life being called Monkey Brothers they copped the tough guy, bully boy attitude. Dave was more passive, but older and bigger. Wiry Steverino spent his time spitting through his teeth, chewing gum or tobacco and making fists, if he wasn't pushing you, shoving you, knocking you in the back of the head or kicking over your bike.  Maybe because they lived so close, and their mother could speak to mine across the alley as they hung out wash, Steverino left my younger but bigger brother alone and gnawed at me only on rare occasions, however-
    When we went to the junior high school on the edge of the downtown, the Monkeys made friends with the Dork. They called him that, I certainly did not. He was huge for his age, and as we used to say in those days, a little slow. His upper lip hung over his jaw and it began to twitch when he was ready to "smash yer face," as I learned the hard way.
     Steverino and I were the same age and competitive ball players.  When I made the basketball team and he did not, he must have commissioned the Dork to kill me, one smashed face at a time.  
     I walked to school with a friend, Bill Paris. Bill was a good guy, a little too small for basketball but a great second baseman. A couple of times as we got to the alley where the Dork was standing by to "smash yer face" Bill tried to jump in and pull the big guy away, only to be tossed aside where Steverino started pumping away with his fists and spitting in his face. I was starting to get stomach aches thinking about having to get to school and past the face smashing. Basketball season was a blessing because we practiced after school and the Monkey Brothers and the Dork had gone their separate ways by the time I was walking home.
     I had a paper route in the same general area so some days after school I would detour to my route and collect. I was starting to feel better about things until the Dork and Steverino began laying in wait on the way to school. Two days in a row and my buddy Bill is also getting hammered and we show up at school, mussed, banged up and ashamed.
      I digress for a moment to tell you Bill had an older brother also named Dave. He was a high school guy, handsome, a letterman and popular.  He was a kind of neighborhood role model and Bill and I were embarrassed that he might learn we were getting our faces smashed and butts kicked.  
      OK, day three and I see the Dork coming out of the alley and Steverino coming at me to shove me into the Dork, when out of no where a high school letter jacket blurs into the scene and the Dork is up against a wall, his jaw being squeezed with a finger pointed in his eye. It's Dave who shoves the Dork to the ground and grabs Steverino by the back of the neck and lifts him off the ground. He tells the sprawling Dork and the shaking Monkey Brother that if they as much as say anything to his brother Bill and his friend Tom, he would be back to finish them off.
     I never saw much of the Dork after that. And Steverino seemed to go out of his way to avoid any contact. And our great Defender became a hero.  I thought about him the other evening when I saw those leather vests.
PLEASANT ENDINGS
Lana has raised a couple of giant sunflowers this year…. 
and this one reminds me a bit of the Dork.

  See you down the trail.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

SOUND THINKING

WHAT'S A REPUBLICAN TO DO
      An advantage of a life in journalism is friends from every political persuasion.  My Republican friends have been singing the blues, but one fellow in particular says the party is likely to be locked out of the White House for many years.  I'm not so sure of that, but I agree that some of the self loathing is on target.
      Recent polls show most Americans blame Republicans for the self imposed flagellation called a fiscal cliff. Business people worry the Republicans will refuse to budge and will be the reason for another recession. The sequestration mean massive cuts to defense spending, some of which could have negative impact on national security. He says the party will be blamed for that.
      My friend believes the public impression is that Republicans are sore losers.  President Obama's re election validated his economic view of the future.  He notes that before the election the Fox News Analysts were predicting a Romney "landslide."  Ironically the numbers they cited were less than the Obama "mandate" in both popular and electoral college votes.  He also talks about the "Fox effect."
      The Fox News right of center tilt and punditry post, amplifies everything.  The Republican and Fox position was rejected by a majority of Americans, but they appear to be unable to bend to the will of the majority and accept defeat.  
      What about all of the Republicans returned to the house where they maintain a majority I asked?  First he said, the House is a "joke" populated by "dimwits" and "bull shit artists" of both parties.  As for the double message of an Obama win and a re-election of a Republican majority-  some of that is just the way districts are drawn but "even the biggest fool should understand that."  Or he adds, "it's like the voters say we like you and what you've done for us, but pay attention to the big picture."
      I've noticed that he and a handful of other long time-I call them centrist Republicans-are not against changes in our tax code.  
      We are at the lowest tax rate in decades. Back when the rate was higher "people were still making money, corporations were earning, investments were being made."
      I asked him about who the Republican constituency is or should be.
      "That's the trouble.  We don't have one. Being the lap dog for the richest percentage of Americans won't work any more.  We need a connection with real working Americans. And we need to quit watching Fox News."
      And I would add to that tell Grover Norquist to take a long walk off a short pier.
                                    DAY FILE
HINT OF IMPRESSIONISM

   See you down the trail.