Let’s Give Texas Back to Mexico

Please note, this post contains material that is politically incorrect

Photo “East Texan, Jacksonville, Texas” by Russell Lee, American Photographer

Texas became independent from Mexico in 1836. It was annexed by the United States and became a state in 1845. It seceded from the U.S. in 1861, returned to the fold in 1865 and has been nothing but trouble ever since.

Frankly, I’m sick and tired of waking up every morning to hear NPR talk about yet another maniacal abomination against humanity by white men in Texas.

I’m sick of their antiquated stance on gun control while our children continue to be assassinated.

I’m sick of their assault on basic voting rights and their consequent destruction of democracy.

I’m sick of their inhuman border wall and the cost of patrolling it with guns, planes and weaponry all to keep out people escaping from the most horrible conditions imaginable.

But mostly, I’m sick of their latest assault on women and the annihilation of abortion rights. The very thought that this bunch of cold-hearted rednecks can pass a law that essentially overturns Roe v. Wade and sets this nation’s standard of treatment of women back to the stone age, turns my stomach.

In their rush to re-gain power over their women, these guys apparently forgot that the other half of pregnancy is a male who is equally responsible for the outcome. Just imagine how much chance the new law would have had if they added a clause that any guy guilty of impregnating a woman who chooses an abortion should immediately go to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. Just rot in jail.

The reality is that a female Texan has about as many rights as an Afghan girl in Kabul.

These Texas white guys make the Taliban’s policy toward woman seem like they’re grasping them with the open arms of an angel.

With the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, we got a lot of Afghan women out of harm’s way, maybe now we should think about saving the women of Texas.

Our heroic military just evacuated 150,000 people from Afghanistan in just 4 weeks under incredibly difficult circumstances. How about we just set up an airlift out of Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and get the women out of there before it’s too late.

There are approximately 13.5 million females in Texas. With enough C70 Aircraft to fly round the clock for the next 120 days, we could get them all to safety by the end of December.

With that hurdle overcome, we could then just de-annex the state and return it to Mexico where we took if from in the first place, admit our imperialistic mistake, apologize for 150 years of ruling their country, and be done with it.

Problem solved. With the women all safely evacuated, the men there can just go F_ _ _ themselves, which is exactly what they deserve.

Raising the Minimum Wage is Destroying America

Just how stupid do they think we are?

In case you hadn’t heard, the incredibly steep rise in the minimum wage in New York State to $15 an hour led by the “Fight for 15” worker’s action that has devastated the economy across much of the country.

In fact, it has destroyed the rental market, led to outrageous price hikes and (horror of horrors!) caused an inflation rate unheard of in the 21st century.

Oh wait. In much of upstate New York minimum wage is not $15 an hour … it’s $12.50 an hour because of forward thinking state legislators who thought a sliding scale for workers here in rural America was much better for everyone. It creeps up to a little over $13.00 in 2022. Imagine the catastrophic consequences of someone earning over $500 a week for let’s say, taking care of your aging, sick Mother?

Outrageous.

In fact, though, it’s a little hard to believe that paying a fast-food worker $12 or even $15 bucks an hour could cause such havoc. So, I am postulating that maybe, just maybe, there might be different causes for the inflation rate skyrocketing over 6% in just one month.

Try these on for size:

· The Fed is printing money like it was confetti and has flooded the country with over $3,000,000,000,000 (that’s 3 TRILLION) much of which went to the country’s “ailing” corporations. Hey, they’re people, too.

· During the pandemic billionaires are making more money than ever before. Their net worth is up more than 70%.

· Executive pay for CEO’s is up over 1,300% in the last 40 years. Minimum wage? Not so much.

· Maybe CEO’s are worth it. Corporate profits are up over $2.8 trillion. And, we all know that corporate profits “trickle down” to us little folks.

In 1959 the average household income was $5,600. 30 years later it was a little over $30,000 a year.

That means that the couple who bought a house in 1959 for $16,500 had a lot more dollars to pay it off than they did 30 years before.

The American dream. Owning a home. Building some equity. Getting ahead.

Near as I can tell, home ownership “inflation” built the middle-class way more than trickle-down economics ever did. But the banks and their shareholders didn’t like it.

Nevertheless, we keep swallowing the line that it is these low wage workers that are ruining the economy for “the rest of us”.

So, I ask again, how stupid do they think we are? Pretty stupid I would say.

I Volunteered for the Ukraine Legion and Join the Fight Against Putin

There’s just one minor detail I forgot

https://www.shutterstock.com/g/palinchakjr

Drop of Light

I’m too old.

If there is a master villain for the first part of the 21st century, it has to be Russia’s, Vladimir Putin. This guy makes Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao Tse-Tung look like amateur evil-doers from a comic book.

As I’ve followed Putin’s insane desire to build his legacy for almost a year now, I’ve been appalled at his indiscriminate attack on civilians, cultural institutions, and medical infrastructure. It’s hard for me to justify, even if I am a citizen of a country that fried tens of thousands of people with an atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in World War II.

Because of Putin’s crushing desire to leave behind a larger-than-life legacy, thousands of innocent people are dying in an unprecedented war. Millions worldwide are starving as Ukraine’s massive wheat shipments have been curtailed, and tens of millions of people are suffering in the coldest winter in years.

His private war in Ukraine tests NATO’s patience and resolve to avoid yet another European conflict, every day.

While visiting Poland this past year in November, I became obsessed with Putin’s Ukraine War raging just a few hours away across the Polish Border. My obsession led to rash decisions, and the hopeless romantic in me took hold.

It’s the romantic notion of the thousands of Americans who volunteered to fight in the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War in 1936. George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and even Emma Goldman — all played a part in that drama, albeit on the losing side. And of course, my romantic notion also fails to remember that the Spanish Civil War was fought with WWI rifles instead of high-tech drones and missiles. And despite that, of the 35,000 or so volunteers, 15,000 didn’t make home in one piece. So much for romanticism.

Nevertheless, on the eve of the new year, I tried to enlist in the International League of the Defense of Ukraine. I figured, you have to die sometime and it might as well be for a cause.

My first stop was, of course, the internet. I went to the website internationallegion.org where I was met with the inspiring words:

Save the World. Stand with Ukraine. Freedom is a choice. Join the Brave!

My intense desire to help was, frankly, inspired by these words.

They even have a button for messenger apps that connects you with a live responder. I messaged my interest and included my recent 72-mile hike on the Camino in Spain as evidence of my fitness as a 69-year-old. And here is the response I got.

Hello Ken! Unfortunately, the cut of age for military service in the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine is 60. But there are plenty of NGOs working here in Ukraine supporting both the ILDU and the army. The one we work closest with is the International Legion Charitable Fund. Please visit their website internationallegionfund.org.ua for further information about them, if that is of interest to you. Happy New Year!

Yes. That minor detail about my age.

So I am on to plan B. I’m checking out the support website and I’m planning on returning to Gdańsk next October and heading across the border to volunteer for a month in Ukraine as a non-combatant.

I may be old. But I’m not useless.

But the whole age thing gave me pause for a moment to wonder at an important question. Why is the world so quick to push aside its old people? Perhaps we should all ask ourselves, “Wouldn’t it be better if wars were fought by the aged who have lived their lives rather than sacrificing a generation of young people every time the political dunderheads decide to start another war?”

Maybe we should all ponder that for a moment, whatever our age.

World Famous Groundhog Predicts Gathering Storm in Our Future Was his dark outline the only ominous prognostication shadow?

Kenneth Lee Warner Bouncin’ and Behaving Blogs TOO

Punxsutawney Phil, the world’s most famous groundhog, saw his shadow on February 2nd and dashed back into his hole in the ground, promising 6 more weeks of winter. But before he left, he expressed even more concern over the first two weeks of the Trump Presidency predicting a gathering storm for our Democracy. (Shutterstock photo 1024441057 by YevgeniyDr)

Ever since 1886 when the Punxsutawney Spirit, a rural Pennsylvania newspaper, named their local Groundhog mascot and weather forecaster Punxsutawney Phil, February 2nd has been known as Groundhog Day throughout the U.S.

The rodent’s supposed wisdom actually comes from a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that if he comes out of his hole on that day and there’s no sunlight to scare him, he promises an early spring.

This year, Phil raced back into his hole, scared of his shadow in the early sunshine, to portend six more weeks of winter.

But some say that Phil is more than just a weather forecaster. His actions this year followed the inauguration of Donald Trump a dozen days before as POTUS. And, they contend, it is a prediction of a gathering storm over the United States’ landscape.

The predilection of dark days in our country’s future is largely spurred not by a fat furry rodent, but by an ominous coincidence half a world away. The 27th of January marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland where 1,000,000 people were killed by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s “final solution” during World War II.

Meanwhile, in front of God and everybody, the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, — the new U.S. President’s closest advisor, used the inauguration as an opportunity to flash what some saw as a Nazi salute towards the incoming President.

Since that moment, controversy has arisen as to whether it was a Nazi Salute or simply an effort to brush off one of the flies that seemed to be following Musk ever since it became clear that he is not in fact, Superman, but is really just full of shit.

But the truth of the matter came from Germany’s own Deutsche Welle Radio — the country’s equivalent of England’s BBC — where the host of the weekly show on Europe’s affairs, Inside Europe had this to say:

Just days before the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp on the 27th of January 1945, the world watched as the richest and possibly most influential man on the planet, Elon Musk, gave a Nazi salute in front of the presidential seal of the United States of America. And yes, I’m going to say it was a Nazi salute. Here in Germany, we know one when we see one.

Call me crazy, but I believe her more than anyone on FOX News, so clearly, that settles the matter.

And I believe it signals dark days ahead for our country. I harken back to the 1930s when Fascists were gaining influence, first in Mussolini’s Fascist Italy and then in Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

Meanwhile, here in America, that era’s richest men were busy embracing the rise of these European Gangsters.

Automobile industry giant Henry Ford and the world’s famous aviator Charles Lindberg were publicly supporting the Nazis’ rise. They entertained them in their living rooms and spouted their praises from the rostrums of a pro-fascist group called America First. They proposed partnerships with the fascists across the sea and urged America to turn away from what was happening in Europe and ignore the rape of Austria, the betrayal of Czechoslovakia, and even the invasion of Poland.

The only thing that stopped America First’s lunacy was the bombing by Nazi Germany’s Japanese allies of the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941. War broke out, and the Nazis immediately declared war on America, effectively burying the fascist philosophies of America First for almost 100 years.

But somehow, “America First” has crept back into the language of politicians across our country from east to west, particularly in Congress with comments from everyone from New York member Elise Stefanik to Colorado’s Lauren Boebert. It’s even portrayed as the new MAGA motto.

Trump even used America First members as election watchers for the 2024 election.

Once in office, Trump claimed a huge mandate from the American People, at the polls despite winning the popular vote by just under 2% … and he didn’t even get 50% of the total vote. Clearly that’s not a mandate.

That led him to promise all kinds of crazy stuff on his first day in office. It hasn’t all happened in 24 hours, but these last couple of weeks have provided an amusing show watching the mainstream media as they play Newsroom Whack-a-Mole with Trump’s assault on American Democracy.

Here are just a few of the Antics that have dominated headlines over the last few weeks:

· Right off the bat, Trump pissed in the faces of Union supporters by firing the worker-friendly head of the National Labor Relations board which oversees fairness in worker’s rights.

· In a Friday night midnight purge, he illegally fired 17 Federal Inspectors General who are part of the system of checks and balances that hold our branches of government accountable.

· And, while he was eliminating livelihoods, he gave termination notices to a couple of million government workers saying in effect, you can leave now, or you can leave later, just get out.

· He also pulled out of every major environmental protection for our planet he could find.

· And, as though alienating a whole section of his base was not enough, he shit on America’s closest ally, Canada, by starting a trade war, a battle that even his allies in Texas say will be a disaster. America gets a huge percentage of its lumber from Canada and the cost of your dream deck just skyrocketed. Texas builders say these tariffs will devastate the state’s building industry.

· Trump promised to eliminate the strain on the average American’s home budget on day one. Instead, his trade wars will raise the cost of everything from groceries to TV screens, refrigerators to clothing. Most economic experts point out that rather than lowering prices on day one, his actions will increase the cost of living dramatically for the average American.

· But most egregious has been his assault on the United States Constitution. Not only has he usurped Congress’ basic job to control America’s purse strings, but he signed an executive order eliminating birthright citizenship that is enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Seems he doesn't think that “Amendments” matter. If you don’t think this sets a dangerous precedent, just remember, the Bill of Rights is the first 12 amendments and, it will give him the “right” to eliminate them.

All this by Trump’s start of his second week back in the White House. No wonder, Punxsutawney Phil rapidly escaped back into his dark hole. It was a warning of a long winter, and, it was nature’s way of indicating a gathering storm for our Democracy and our world.

In my advanced years, I’ve discovered that my Mother has proven to be right about almost everything. And, as one of her homespun philosophies she always used to say that if you could make it till Groundhog Day, you’ve survived the torrents of winter’s darkness.

But, this year, I’m not so sure.

Will the Last Octogenarian Democrat Turn Out the Lights as They Leave?

POLITICS

It’s time to pass the torch to a new generation of Americans

he Eternal Flame at President John F. Kennedy’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery. “Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans …” — John F. Kennedy in his Inaugural address, January 20, 1961. (Shutterstock photo 1486777313 by Shaun Conway)

James Carville recently had an opinion piece in the New York Times analyzing why Democrats lost the November election. He properly points out that it wasn’t a landslide victory for Trump, MAGA, and the Republican party. And, he does indicate that Democrats should take some solace in winning key House races, 3 of which are in New York State and one of which I had some experience with.

I love Mr. Carville. In fact, I sometimes use the book he wrote with Paul Bagala, Buck Up, Suck Up . . . and Come Back When You F*** Up, as a primer for new candidates that I work with. It’s a little dated, and I wish he would do an upgrade. But, in any event, Carville, who vaulted to fame with the winning of Bill Clinton’s election as President, will no doubt go down in history as one of the great Democratic Strategists.

All of that is why it’s difficult for me to write this piece because the premise he presents in his piece is wrong.

In the editorial, he takes us back to those heady days when his main campaign theme “It’s the economy stupid”, vaulted Clinton to the White House. But while making the argument, he unwittingly promotes my own premise of the real reason Democrats lost in 2024.

Since the November election, I’ve read about a million words about why Trump won and I’ve written several thousand myself. But in a recent conversation with my best millennial-aged friend, I formed what I believe is the real answer behind the political disaster for Democrats and for the country.

The Democratic Party is led by a bunch of old people, and it’s time for them to step aside.

It’s painfully clear that President Joe Biden never should have been the candidate. He was clearly mentally unfit for the vicious campaign ahead, and his delay in stepping aside left Vice President Harris with just 107 days to make her case.

She almost did. Despite Trump’s claim of a mandate, less than two percent separated her from winning the popular vote. I don’t know what’s more frightening; the fact that Biden’s mind wasn’t ready to debate the likes of Donald Trump, or that the Democratic Party leadership and political pundits alike were surprised when he stepped down and the campaign disintegrated.

I’ll leave out the criticism that Donald Trump is now going to be the oldest guy ever elected. Believe me, the Republicans have an age problem of their own. But at least they're acknowledging it. Soon-to-be Vice President Vance is just 40 years old which means he’s going to be in the national spotlight long after Donald Trump starts seeing the grass from the underside. And that’s a nightmare all unto itself.

In the meantime, we need to look at who’s leading the Democratic party and who the mainstream press constantly turns to for opinions, predictions, and sage advice.

Let’s start with Carville himself. He’s 80 years old. He was born just a few months after the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. That’s way back in the first half of the 20th century. If he wants to revel in the glory days of his Bill Clinton win, I get it. But somehow, I picture him swirling some Kentucky bourbon in his rocking chair while regaling other adoring old people with his great strategy. And that’s where he belongs… in his rocking chair, not waxing prolific on the pages of The New York Times.

Let’s face two important facts:

· 20% of the U.S. population is now Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012

· Fully 22% are millennials, born between 1981 and 1996. They’re between the ages of 28 and 43 and currently the largest segment of adults in the U.S.

That means many of them weren’t even born when Clinton was President, let alone understand or relate to Carville’s arguments. This 42% of voters are reeling under the remnants of the 2008 crisis, the pandemic, and a world staggering under the influence of social media gone mad.

Is it the economy? Maybe. But that’s only a small part of it. But the reality is that while the old people have lived the American Dream, almost half the population is now living the American nightmare.

They simply can’t relate to the message a bunch of out-of-touch old people are feeding them.

Here are just a few:

Nancy Pelosi, age 84 — Is she still alive? She’s still a member of Congress and made big news on the first day of the 119th Congress by wearing flat shoes instead of stiletto heels. She’s not making the decisions. It’s obvious her seat is being run by nameless/faceless political insiders who do little to inspire the next generation of political leaders.

Jerry Nadler, age 77 — I met him once. It was at a meeting on transportation a decade or so ago. And, he wasn’t making much sense even then. He was recently challenged for his position on the House Judiciary Committee and had the good sense to leave, because he knew he would lose the vote. But he’s still a part of the Democrats’ steering group.

Bernie Sanders, age 83 — I love Bernie, and so do a lot of the young people I’ve helped mentor. He’s probably the closest thing to inspiration because the 42% view him as the grandfather they all wished they had. Which isn’t bad… but it’s just not practical. The country isn’t really ready for the hardliner policies he promotes. Especially in such a closely divided Congress. And, remember, he’s not a registered Democrat. He’s an independent, which does little to help aspiring young Democrats embrace the cause.

Charlie Rangel, age 94 — I met Charlie Rangel once at a New York Working Families Party event. He won’t remember me, not because he’s old, but because he’s met about a million faceless people in his nine and a half decades on earth. And, to be clear, I have a great deal of respect for what he’s done. But the press asking him to comment on current politics is mighty strange. To Gen Z and Millennials, Rangel is about as exciting as week-old bread.

Last but not least, Joe Biden, age 82 — As I’ve already said, his hanging on to power might be the single biggest contribution to Harris losing.

But all is not lost … yet, anyway.

The most influential Democrat for Gen Z and Millennials is unquestionably got to be three-term Congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Her recent effort to bring Democrats into the 21st Century was amazing as she made a bid to become the leading Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. But of course, the old guard wouldn’t let her. Pushed by many of the people named above, Virginia’s Representative Gerry Connolly beat her 131 to 84.

Really? And the Democratic Party leadership is wondering why they’ve lost young people.

He’s 74. She’s 35.

Remember John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech when he told people “The Torch has passed…?”

Now, Democratic leaders don’t even have the torch lit. They need to understand that it’s time to step out of the limelight and encourage a generational change in leadership before it’s too late for their party and for America.

Please, will the last Octogenarian Democrat Member of Congress turn out the light on their way out?

Four Dead In O-Hi-O Post-traumatic stress from 13 seconds in 1970.

by Kenneth Lee Warner • April 24, 2024, Published in Rome Magazine.

Tear gas has become as ubiquitous as signs of protests in political discourse these days. (Shutterstock photo from LuizSouza))

The problem with living as long as I have is that history often repeats itself. I will be in 71 in just a couple of weeks on May 3rd.

The latest news of campus protests haunts me. My thoughts go back to May 4, 1970, when, a day after my 17th birthday, the headlines screamed that four students, peacefully protesting on the grounds of Kent State University, had been gunned down and killed by soldiers from the Ohio State National Guard.

I can’t help but compare the actions of those students protesting the Vietnam War to the current protests on campuses from New York’s Columbia University to Yale, to Harvard, and yes, even to Kent State in Ohio.

On that fourth day of May 1970, some 300 protesters gathered there to find they were facing twenty-eight National Guard soldiers. For a still unknown reason, those men fired 67 rounds from their M-1 rifles into the crowd of protesters.

Four students: Allison Krause, age 19; Jeffrey Glenn Miller, age 20; Sandra Lee Scheuer, age 20; and Willian Knox Schroeder, age 19 were all killed.

It took just 13 seconds to snuff out these young lives.

Now, as I listen to the words of College presidents from these same institutions spout rhetoric about safety, protest, and the need to not have protesters disrupt the opportunity for education, I recoil in disbelief.

It was just this sort of callous disregard for basic American rights that led to the murder of those four Kent State students.

I’m not sure if any of these University leaders were alive in 1970 to experience the horror of those days. But, their calls for police intervention are frightening. Particularly in this age when random police shootings are in the news all too regularly.

Will history repeat itself once again?

My head now constantly fills with words from musicians Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young in their song Ohio released a year later,

Tin soldiers and Nixon coming
We’re finally on our own
This summer I hear the drumming
Four dead in Ohio

Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down
Should have been gone long ago
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?

That May 4th was a turning point in my life. The Vietnam War was expanding into Cambodia. Nixon was clamping down on citizens in the name of national security, I was going to be 18 years old in just a year and eligible for the draft.

On the debate team (yeah, I was a nerd) we argued the premise of lowering the voting age to 18 … “If you’re old enough to die for your country, you’re old enough to vote.”

My high school years were transformative for me. Growing up in rural upstate New York, I was raised in a world that would later be viewed as “right-wing”. My father was a WWII veteran, and then a Master Sergeant in the New York National Guard. My brother was in the U.S. Army. As for me, I was twisting and turning in my understanding of the world around me.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen in my future. I had been slowly morphing into someone I didn’t know. I was probably one of the first to smoke weed in my class, having experienced it on a summer trip to Texas to visit my cousins the year before. I started hanging around with some alternative-thinking kids. My guidance counselor wanted me to go to Cornell and become a lawyer. I thought I was going to be a policeman. And, the draft lottery loomed large in my future.

My adolescence was filled with what seemed like endless political assassinations. My father talked of Martin Luther King as a danger to America. There was Woodstock and lots of protest music. Everyone smoked Marlboro Reds.

The only things two things I was sure of were, that if there was a sexual revolution going on I wanted to know how to join, and that shooting down student protesters didn't seem to be something my government should be doing.

I suppose I was drifting toward a different view than my family for some time. A year later, I was volunteering on George McGovern’s campaign for President. My draft number was 283. 18-year-olds got the right to vote.

My world was changing and I was changing with it. I registered as a Democrat and my Mother told me not to tell my father.

I was never the same again.

So here we are more protests and calls for crackdowns. I’m not a particularly religious man, but I find myself praying for the protestors and cringing as I open my computer each morning to read the day's news, hoping that history won't repeat itself.

All the while the words echo on in my head.

Four dead in Ohio (four)
Four dead in Ohio (I said four, I said four)
Four dead in Ohio (how many more?)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (I wanna know why)
Four dead in Ohio (you better tell me why)
Four dead in Ohio (why?)
Four dead in Ohio (why did they die?)