Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with wond’ring eyes
He stared at the Pacific . . .
JOHN KEATS, ms of sonnet (1816)
Oh, the things I’ve learned from the Donald …
I’ve learned some very important lessons from Donald Trump. Everyone else should learn them too, and thank him for teaching us. Everything will be great if you all learn what I’ve learned as described below:
1) I’ve learned that when I’m alone with any one person, I can pretty much do or say whatever I want so long as I don’t leave marks;
2) I’ve learned to pretty much do whatever I want regardless of legality because I can always say that I didn’t know something and it wasn’t intentional. Who’s going to be able to prove my state of mind? Besides, unlike Trump, I’m pretty small fry so what is anyone going to do?
3) I’ve learned that I can pretty much NOT pay any debts that I incur, and I can blackmail my debtors into taking cents on the dollar by threatening bankruptcy (or declaring bankruptcy as much as I possibly can). They can’t get blood out of a stone (as Trump’s creditors have painfully learned); whatever blood I’ve got no one will know about;
4) I’ve learned that I can pretty much say whatever I want about anything to anyone, and it won’t matter so long as I say the next day that I didn’t say it;
5) I’ve learned that I can treat the veterans who try to sell hot dogs in front of my apartment building like crap, I can insist that they sell their hot dogs elsewhere because their disgusting hot dogs — that I obviously eat a lot of — will compromise the value of my building and its surroundings, and then I can insist that I also “love” the veterans and I can pretend to give them millions of dollars (whether or not I actually give them those dollars);
6) I’ve learned that I can attack the judiciary for being “unfair” to me, and insist that they don’t care about the American people and they’re ALL not doing their jobs since they don’t agree with ME — despite the fact that they actually appear to know the Constitution (and I don’t know jackshit about the Constitution); and
7) I’ve learned to surround myself with the most cynical and despicable “yes” men and women who will defend to the death my right to do all of the above, men and women who do so to further their own agendas regardless of the impact on the American people.
I encourage you all to add the lessons you’ve learned from Trump as I’m sure we’ve all learned much, much, much more than this!
May God defend me from my friends: I can defend myself from my enemies (Voltaire)
The email pictured, from People’s Action Institute, starts with the line, “Republicans are afraid of us,” and then goes on to demand that Tom Price not be nominated (due to his “insider status” with pharmaceutical companies). This was sent to me on or about February 9, 2017.
I’m not sure exactly what they’re referring to (his stock purchases perhaps?). Regardless, please note that this man is an orthopaedic surgeon and so he is a medical provider. He spent more than 20 years caring for patients in Atlanta, and founded one one of the largest private orthopaedic practices in the country. He makes very clear in his bio that he is “a fierce opponent of government waste and devoted to limited government and lower spending.”
This cannot mean that he is opposed to healthcare (he provided it after all). The email sent to me by PAI asserts that he and other Republicans “want to dismantle the health care programs our families count on, from Medicaid and Medicare to the Affordable Care Act. Their haphazard plans are already threatening chaos for all of us.”
THEIR haphazard plans threatening chaos??!! Now that’s the pot calling the kettle black. I’ve seen the chaos of Medicaid in New York State. I’ve seen patients unable to get needed medicines. I’ve seen providers not get paid for over six months for their services by Medicare. I’ve been left personally hung out to dry by Obamacare as both a provider and a patient. The Dems are behaving as if we don’t already have chaos. It is dishonest and misleading.
It’s not clear to me that having the government AND health insurers in the doctor’s office is a GOOD thing and it shouldn’t be taken for granted that it is. Pray protect us from our protectors!
I received a very good taste of the extent to which the Democratic Party was willing to hang sole proprietors and individuals out to dry, leaving us flapping in the wind without any doctors while we were sick, and when we asked for help because we NEEDED it, many Dems viciously attacked patients like myself. Because how dare we say we’re in trouble, ask for help and even more, how DARE we complain about falling through the cracks?
This has led me to question the Liberal agenda in regard to healthcare, and to wonder if perhaps socialized medicine just isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be. Demonizing a man because he does not agree with the Liberal position, demonizing him because he is concerned for the legitimate rights of patients (rights that have, by the way, been abrogated by government interference), demonizing him because he believes that providers have rights, and demonizing him because, perhaps, just perhaps, he might be right that government interference in healthcare is NOT WORKING for patients and providers, and demonizing him because he thinks he knows a better way, is just WRONG. Sad.
Many healthcare providers have problems with Medicaid, Medicare and Obamacare. They are the most difficult so-called “insurers” to collect from. They underpay and they put some providers out of business with their excessive demands and inadequate payments. This doesn’t appear to benefit anyone that I know.
So, folks, either you pay for what you want, or you don’t pay and you get what you pay for. It’s really that simple. And we’ve been getting what we pay for, or less than what we pay for, because our government can’t keep its nose out of our personal affairs. If one has a child, one has an obligation to actually pay for that child’s healthcare rather than expecting those of us who choose to remain single to subsidize their life choices (because perhaps single folk would like to spend our money on other things such as our own healthcare, something we actually have the right to do). Why should I pay for someone else’s child to have healthcare when I don’t even have it? WTFIST?!
I want the option of NOT having to buy on the exchange and I have a right to do so. After getting kicked off of my insurance for a month in November 2016 by our government because their website wasn’t working properly, I was done! I went without health insurance I purchased for an entire month because it took our highly efficient health department until November 30th to fix the problem. Folks, get this — it took the whole month to get back the month’s coverage and by that time, it was too friggin’ late because the month was up and during that entire time, no doctor would let me in their front door much less use the toilet. How is this a good thing??!!
If anyone thinks we’re better off having this leviathan manage our healthcare, they’re dead wrong. The answer cannot be either socialized medicine which essentially enslaves providers. Providers people; they are not faceless entities. They are people just like you, just like me. They work hard and they hope to adequately compensated for their hard work just like you. They are people who will, at their wit’s end, simply quit because poverty in old age really isn’t an option. Then, what will we do for healthcare with no one to deliver it?
There have to be other answers for those who fall through the cracks.
I am far from convinced that our government and in particular, our Democratic “friends,” have what it takes to solve the problems. I’m much more inclined at this point to give Tom Price a chance. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. I strongly dislike his boss, but I’m going to give Tom Price a chance.
We could use a medical practitioner who has experience in government and legislating rather than a bureaucrat who has no idea what he or she is doing. That was evident from the Obamacare rollout.
I’m talking to you as a provider and a patient and I cannot begin to tell any of you just how much I have suffered in both roles due to the Democrats. It has been a bitter, long, and lonely role, and I’ll do anything never to be placed in that position again. I refuse to accept that I am to be their sacrificial lamb and that the Dems will wave goodbye as I fall into the abyss.
Poem of Remembrance for a Girl or a Boy (Walt Whitman, who speaks to us from the grave)
YOU just maturing youth! You male or female!
Remember the organic compact of These States,
Remember the pledge of the Old Thirteen thenceforward to the rights,
life, liberty, equality of man,
Remember what was promulged by the founders, ratified by The States,
signed in black and white by the Commissioners, and read by
Washington at the head of the army,
Remember the purposes of the founders,–Remember Washington;
Remember the copious humanity streaming from every direction toward
America;
Remember the hospitality that belongs to nations and men; (Cursed be
nation, woman, man, without hospitality!)
Remember, government is to subserve individuals,
Not any, not the President, is to have one jot more than you or me,
Not any habitan of America is to have one jot less than you or me.
Anticipate when the thirty or fifty millions, are to become the
hundred, or two hundred millions, of equal freemen and
freewomen, amicably joined.
Recall ages–One age is but a part–ages are but a part;
The eternal equilibrium of things is great, and the eternal overthrow
of things is great,
And there is another paradox.
Recall the angers, bickerings, delusions, superstitions, of the idea
of caste,
Recall the bloody cruelties and crimes.
Anticipate the best women;
I say an unnumbered new race of hardy and well-defined women are to
spread through all These States,
I say a girl fit for These States must be free, capable, dauntless,
just the same as a boy.
Anticipate your own life–retract with merciless power,
Shirk nothing–retract in time–Do you see those errors, diseases,
weaknesses, lies, thefts?
Do you see that lost character?–Do you see decay, consumption, rum-
drinking, dropsy, fever, mortal cancer or inflammation?
Do you see death, and the approach of death?
CALL FOR A BAN ON WHITE NATIONALISTS
The map above displays The Northwest Territorial Imperative proposes that become an “Aryan” homeland. What should we do with these people? (Hmmm….Guantanamo? They’re terrorists, aren’t they?) See below.
“Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of killings in the United States by white supremacists, antigovernment fanatics and other homegrown extremists has been comparable to that of Islamic terrorists….these groups accounted for 84 percent of the extremist violence in which shots were exchanged with law enforcement.” (New York Times article, 02/02/2017, “Pointing to Trump, Groups Reject U.S. Aid to Fight Extremism”).”
I guess this means we should have a travel ban on whites from the South (e.g. the KKK) and from the Northwest (where these groups tend to congregate)?
Wikipedia: “The Northwest Territorial Imperative is an idea popularized since the 1980s within white nationalist and white separatist groups in the United States. According to it, adherents of these groups are encouraged to relocate to a five-state region of the Northwestern United States — viz., Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Western Montana (or the western part at least to Interstate 15). Northern California, northwest Colorado, Alaska, British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, and Northwest Territories are sometimes also included. The intent is to eventually declare the region an “Aryan” homeland.”
More Wikipedia: “White nationalists seek to ensure the survival of (what they see as) the white race, and the cultures of historically white states. They hold that white people should maintain their majority in majority-white countries, maintain their political and economic dominance, and that their cultures should be foremost.[4] Many white nationalists believe that miscegenation, multiculturalism, immigration of non-whites and low birth rates among whites are threatening the white race,[6] and some argue that it amounts to white genocide.”
Don’t believe it? Do your own research and see.
Guantanamo it is. Anyone have a better idea? I’m listening…
‘Cause every girl crazy about a sharp dressed man
Click on the video and scroll down while you listen to ZZ Top tell it like it is. You get it, girls:
Clean shirt, new shoes
And I don’t know where I am goin’ to.
Silk suit, black tie,
I don’t need a reason why.
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.
Gold watch, diamond ring,
I ain’t missin’ not a single thing.
Cufflinks, stick pin,
When I step out I’m gonna do you in.
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.
Top coat, top hat,
And I don’t worry ’cause my wallet’s fat.
Black shades, white gloves,
Lookin’ sharp lookin’ for love.
They come runnin’ just as fast as they can
‘Cause every girl crazy ’bout a sharp dressed man.
ridiculous2017 says:
‘Cause every girl crazy about a sharp undressed man!!!
Yowsa!
Feeling: MISSING PRESIDENT OBAMA, the hottest President ever!
LMAO! YOU WILL TOO: ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER RESPONSE TO DONALD TRUMP TODAY
So, folks, Trump delivered a speech at the annual National Prayer Breakfast this morning, and I really couldn’t believe my ears. YOU WOULD THINK BY NOW I’D BE USED TO THIS NONSENSE! Less than three minutes into his speech, he actually started talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger taking Trump’s place on his “hit” tv show “The Apprentice.”
Trump said:
“We had tremendous success on the Apprentice and when I ran for President, I had to leave the show. That’s when I knew for sure I was doing it. And they hired a big, big movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to take my place, and we know how that turned out. The ratings went right down the tubes, it’s been a total disaster, and Mark will never ever bet against Trump again. And I want to just pray for Arnold if we can for those ratings.”
The President of the United States of America, POTUS, was talking about his hit television show ratings while at a PRAYER BREAKFAST! I mean, did a speechwriter actually write that? Or was Trump just improving to entertain us all?! I was LMAO!
EVEN BETTER was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s response:
“Hey Donald, I have a great idea. Why don’t we switch jobs — you take over TV because you’re such an expert at ratings and I take over your job. Then people can finally sleep comfortably again.”
OMG!!! LMAO!!! Laughing it right off!!! It’s gone! Really, I have no ass left!!!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
According to Gallup polls:
Trump’s approval rating on the following is as follows:
Travel ban — 42% approve, 55% disapprove
Suspend Syrian refugee program — 36% approve, 58% disapprove
Border wall — 38% approve, 60% disapprove
I’m proud of that segment of America that is wanting this country to DO THE RIGHT THING!!! I don’t believe in God but I still want to say right now GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!
A Few Thoughts on U.S. Homicide Rates (Part I)
An issue of some concern to me is that Americans perceive themselves to be in greater danger than they have ever been. The problem with this is that the ensuing fear is motivating political behavior that, at this point, many liken to terrorism itself (imagine how that five year old boy — a United States citizen no less — felt when he was separated from his mother, handcuffed and detained for FIVE HOURS at a Texas airport). Let’s not go into the part of me that becomes a mama bear and wants to rip out someone’s throat. What idiot thought that this was an appropriate response to Trump’s executive order?
What’s even worse is that the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer then maintained that this five year old boy could be a threat to U.S. security (LMAO!!!!). He said, “…that if they’re a 5-year-old, that maybe they’re with their parents and that they don’t pose a threat but to assume that just because of someone’s age or gender, or whatever, that they don’t pose a threat would be misguided and wrong.” Or whatever? That’s precise!
Misguided and wrong? Choosing to detain a child wasn’t misguided and wrong? Something’s rotten in Denmark folks.
As our President so often likes to say, something is indeed going on. That something is not that we’re all getting our heads cut off! I still have mine. At least I think it’s where I left it last night (at the top of my spinal column just hanging there like it should). But America is losing its head!!! The problem is that this hysteria is causing Americans to support a President who is also terrified, and who is behaving in a reckless and dangerous manner that is actually going to put us at more risk. The idea of thinking through what he does before he does it appears to be anathema to our newly elected President.
I used to research and study — and am returning to further study this week — mass murder and spree killings at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. It was the focus of my studies when I was completing my externship on 9/11 at Bellevue Hospital in the Forensic Inpatient Psychiatry Unit on the 17th floor. My colleagues and I had a bird’s eye view of the towers as they fell that morning. As everyone knows, it was devastating. Words cannot express what is was like to watch that, to go to work the next morning to be confronted by weeping family members showing me pictures of their loved ones, their sons, their daughters, their husbands, their wives, begging me, pleading with me to tell them where their loved ones were. I walked by that “wall of prayers” that was spontaneously created by those grief-stricken family members of the dead every day for four months. I cannot tell you how depressed I was the entire time. As I write this now, I am in tears.
Rachelle Stuckey, 26, cries while looking at the Wall of Prayers at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, Friday, Sept. 14, 2001. The wall is covered with photos of missing persons from Tuesday’s terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Stuckey did not lose anyone in the attack, but feels sadness for those who did. (AP Photo/CP, Paul Chiasson)
394405 02: (PUERTO RICO OUT) Dennis Diaz, a member of Local 100 of the SEIU, looks over the Wall of Prayers September 13, 2001 at the entrance to Bellevue Hospital in New York City for 80 members of the union who are missing after Tuesday’s deadly terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. All of the workers were employed at the Windows of the World Restaurant on the 106th floor of one of the towers. (Photo by Jose Jimenez/Primera Hora/Getty Images)
The devastation of that day stays with us. The terror of that day stays with us; it has not left us nor should it. Yet, to combat this threat, we actually need to keep our heads! Terrorism is nothing new, and the notion that it can be stopped by extreme measures is a dangerous one. Simply observe Israel and Palestine. Has the terror ended? Does it look like it ever will? Does it look like extreme measures have solved or will solve the problem? I’m not an expert, as I’ve said, but I strongly doubt it.
I am no expert on terrorism either but I do understand homicide more than the average person and I understand its nuances. I focused on mass murder and spree killings when I completed my masters in Forensic Psychology. I became something of an self-styled expert whilst at John Jay and I still have boxes and boxes and boxes of research packed away, soon to be opened up again. In Part II of this blog post (coming soon, I promise), I will elaborate further and in more detail on the issue of homicide rates and our perception of danger.
Part II — Coming soon!!!
The Prime Minister of Canada tweeted on January 28, 2017
To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength. #Welcome to Canada.
What I want to know is does that mean we can all move to Canada?
THE OVER-RATED (MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN) 