Month: November 2016

Non-Trump Supporters–What To Do?

These are the days of whine and moans……the mighty Clintons have been sidelined……the Dems need to stop crying in their beer and move on….but how? (he heard between the sniffles and the sobbing)…….

There are many things to do….there is so much work that needs to be done…..now that the Dems are nowhere near in charge anywhere in the government what needs to be done to begin the next 4 years……if they are to ever regain their once great standing……

One of the people the Right loves to hate, Michael Moore, has offered a plan…….

1. Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people. They have failed us miserably.

2. Fire all pundits, predictors, pollsters and anyone else in the media who had a narrative they wouldn’t let go of and refused to listen to or acknowledge what was really going on. Those same bloviators will now tell us we must “heal the divide” and “come together.” They will pull more hooey like that out of their ass in the days to come. Turn them off.

3. Any Democratic member of Congress who didn’t wake up this morning ready to fight, resist and obstruct in the way Republicans did against President Obama every day for eight full years must step out of the way and let those of us who know the score lead the way in stopping the meanness and the madness that’s about to begin.

4. Everyone must stop saying they are “stunned” and “shocked.” What you mean to say is that you were in a bubble and weren’t paying attention to your fellow Americans and their despair. YEARS of being neglected by both parties, the anger and the need for revenge against the system only grew. Along came a TV star they liked whose plan was to destroy both parties and tell them all “You’re fired!” Trump’s victory is no surprise. He was never a joke. Treating him as one only strengthened him. He is both a creature and a creation of the media and the media will never own that.

5. You must say this sentence to everyone you meet today: “HILLARY CLINTON WON THE POPULAR VOTE!” The MAJORITY of our fellow Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump. Period. Fact. If you woke up this morning thinking you live in an effed-up country, you don’t. The majority of your fellow Americans wanted Hillary, not Trump. The only reason he’s president is because of an arcane, insane 18th-century idea called the Electoral College. Until we change that, we’ll continue to have presidents we didn’t elect and didn’t want. You live in a country where a majority of its citizens have said they believe there’s climate change, they believe women should be paid the same as men, they want a debt-free college education, they don’t want us invading countries, they want a raise in the minimum wage and they want a single-payer true universal health care system. None of that has changed. We live in a country where the majority agree with the “liberal” position. We just lack the liberal leadership to make that happen

Some this sounds so damn familiar….just can’t put my finger on it…..wait!  The GOP did these same announcements back in 2008 when Obama was elected…..the question is….do the Dems have the nuts to do what they need to do?

A soul searching as it were…..(pause for laughter)…..really?  That from a pack of soule-less SOBs?

My guess is that they will lick their wounds until it is too late and will fail again……something they are good at…….. ever since 2010…..

If you are a true progressive then NOW is the time to THINK GREEN for the future!

Yemen: Back To The Future?

This is an article that I wrote for my friends over at Ace News Room…..If the reader likes their news then I recommend the site….news from the world over……

We have a new president and he will have to deal with the cycle of violence that this country helped to spiral out of control…….

This American election has pushed Yemen from the headlines….for over a year now the Saudis have been bombing the crap out of Yemen...mostly under the pretense that the Shia Houthis were a threat to the sacred sites of Islam….not so sure.…I think it is that the monarchs were afraid of their hold on the wealth and power….

The conflict has destroyed much of Yemen…killed many civilians and left survivors hungry and without hope for the world has sort of pretended that it is a just cause for the Saudis….

Source: Yemen: Back To The Future? | Ace News Room

Say Good-Bye To Leonard Cohen

On the weekends I try to post on subjects other than what is in the news….and this Sunday some sad news….the songwriter Leonard Cohen has died….

Did you know that one of his signature songs was not that popular originally?

Don’t be surprised if you hear Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah dominating airwaves today as a tribute to the man described by some as the best songwriter who ever lived. But there’s quite the story behind the song covered by more than 300 artists, including Rufus Wainwright, Willie Nelson, Justin Timberlake, Neil Diamond, and Bob Dylan. Part of an album released in the US by an independent label in 1986—Sony “didn’t think it was good enough,” Cohen later said—it took more than a decade before it became famous, USA Today reports. Jeff Buckley, who first heard John Cale’s cover on a 1991 Cohen tribute album, recorded his own version in 1994. It was that version that finally became popular when Buckley died in 1997.

The creation of the song is also fascinating. Cohen reportedly wrote some 80 verses for Hallelujah—which took five years to complete—though the finished version contained only five, reports the Washington Post. He later recalled sitting in a New York hotel room in his underwear while “banging my head on the floor and saying, ‘I can’t finish this song.”” Today, it’s considered “pop music’s closest thing to a sacred text,” according to Maclean’s magazine. In his 2012 book on the song, Alan Light called it “an open-ended meditation on love and faith” that’s both “joyous and despondent, a celebration and a lament.” Of course, it’s not the only Cohen song worth listening to. Time points out five others, including one released this year.

In honor of his music and the sadness of his passing……I ask you to celebrate his music with me…..26 fabulous songs…..

Good bye old friend….you will be missed….Rest in Peace

Did I Read That Right?

My last post today….weather is great and I will spend some time doing absolutely nothing…….

Commercial ads are getting clever these days…..the dogs and Subaru are great….but I found one from Australia that made me look twice……

If Virginia being for lovers makes you blush, a new tourism slogan for Australia’s Northern Territory will likely give you heart palpitations. Newshub of New Zealand warns its article “contains language which may offend some people,” and there’s really no way around that. “CU in the NT,” reads the slogan, with a sub-slogan continuing, “The top end. Different from the bottom end.” Though it’s the brainchild of the official-sounding NT Official, Mashable reports that it’s not actually a government-produced or -supported tourism effort but rather a self-described “independent underground campaign.” Says a rep via email, “We are … fronted by a guerrilla group of people with the aim of promoting travel awareness to the Northern Territory region.”

But it would be easy to mistake the campaign for something, well, official. BuzzFeed notes the group’s logo bears more than a passing similarity to the government’s, with both relying on a large NT in a similar font. A marketing director with the official-official Tourism NT says there is no affiliation “with the website or Facebook page of NTOfficial.com or any of their promotions,” and, further, “we will not be commenting on this activity.” Speaking of comments, there are plenty on Facebook, some horrified, some in the “BAHAHAHAHAHAHA” vein

What more can we say?

Nothing Better Than A Burger!

I hope everyone is having a good Saturday…..

In the past I have written about food…I had a food blog awhile back but it got too much trying to keep up with more than one so I had to let my food one and my state on go to sleep…..

I like food…I particular love a really good burger…..that is a toasted bun, 2/3 to a pound of beef and mayo and spicy brown mustard…..the garden goes on the side with bleu cheese dressing…..

I wrote about a new diner in my area that specializes in burgers….but they have to tart them up…..worse thing you can do to a burger is get all “chefy” with it……but in case you would like to see what the new diner is all about…..

Source: Food Nazi: All American Burger – In Saner Thought

Some fast food burgers are not bad……Backyard Burger with blue cheese is yummy…..the bacon burger at Checkers is good and the Bacon King from Burger King is their best…..

That brings me to MacDonald’s……terrible burgers…they swing and miss…..but now they are trying something different……

The Food Network has turned Nutella into this super food and a trend….and MacD’s has bitten the hemlock bun……

Exciting news for Nutella lovers! McDonald’s Italy introduced the “Sweety con Nutella” to its menu and it’s basically a Nutella hamburger. Fair warning: If you hate Nutella, you’re going to hate this.

Made up of lots of gooey and delicious Nutella wedged between burger buns — it (thankfully) doesn’t involve any meat. Just Nutella and carbs. The dream, IMO.

If you love it, though, bad news: It doesn’t look like the Sweety con Nutella is coming to the United States any time soon, so you’re going to have to fake it. Get hamburger buns from McDonald’s and then add ~all~ of the Nutella to DIY. How’s that for a McDonald’s menu hack?

Add this to the list of things that need to come to American McDonald’s.

EeeeeeeeWWWWWWWWWWW!

I will stick with a traditional burger and enjoy myself……this is just SICK!

Don’t get me wrong…..I think chocolate is a wonderful thing….but NOT on my burger…..

What about you?

Making War Safer

My Saturday begins and all is right with the world…..damn!  I cannot say that without laughing……most of us are trying to decompress from the rigors of the election…..

Yesterday we celebrated our veterans….something we should do everyday…..but we do not have time for that…..once a year suits our bust schedules just fine…..how sad is that?

Since my younger days I have been an antiwar person….I witnessed the obscenity of war first hand as a soldier in Vietnam….when I came home I worked hard to end that war and to bring the troops home where they belong….

And since those days I have not faltered from the path of antiwar…..I believe there is always another option to the horrors of battle.

Now we are fighting terrorists everywhere around this globe…..since those days began about 7500 American troops have been killed and many many more have been wounded……

Most recently the war with drones has been used to propagandize war by saying that drones are used so that American troops will not have to be used and possibly killed……

In case you have been under a rock for the last 15 years and not aware of the drone program this short vid can help……

Drones do save lives built they also are indiscriminate killers of civilians also……

But in our rush to make war easier and safer for our troops we are making it possible that it will be here for a very long time to come……

The newest thing to “protect” our troops is the “Iron Man” exoskeleton for the front line troops……

In developments which have seen reality mimicking science-fiction, new technologies have enabled military scientists and research teams to develop robotic armoured suits for warfighters or military exoskeletons, like those seen in Hollywood films such as Ironman, Avatar and The Matrix.

Military exoskeleton suits, designed to fit around a dismounted soldier to give them almost-superhuman capabilities, can be fitted onto the body of a soldier in order to improve physical characteristics, such as strength or endurance, creating huge advantages for inboth combat and carrying out logistical tasks.

Although previous programmes, such as the Handiman project co-developed by General Electric and the US Military, suffered from serious limitations due to weight and mobility issues, companies including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are now taking advantage of new materials and technologies to make science-fiction become science-fact.

Source: Military exoskeletons uncovered: Ironman suits a concrete possibility – Army Technology

But if that is difficult to get your head around then maybe this vid will make it easier……

Don’t get me wrong…I am all for keeping the troops safe from harm….but I believe that these programs are not doing that in any way….all they are doing is making extended war so much more easy to call on…..

On a side note…..the military is practicing a dangerous thing when it is experimenting with the brains of soldiers…..

Air crew, drone operators, and other personnel serving in the military’s most demanding roles may soon get a non-pharmacological boost: brain stimulation. Devices that use five electrodes to shoot weak currents into very specific targets in the cortex have performed very well in studies investigating performance under pressure, boosting cognitive ability in a way that could be safer than prescription drugs, reports the Guardian. Both modafinil and ritalin are said to be used off-label to enhance performance in the military.

In the latest study, scientists asked participants to keep a crosshair inside a moving circle on a screen while juggling three other tasks on the same screen for 36 minutes. One group had a constant two milliamp current beamed into their brains, while the control group only had 30 seconds of stimulation at the start. The constantly stimulated group began performing better just four minutes in—a “profound effect” that provides “new evidence” of a “human operator” having enhanced multitasking abilities via brain stimulation, the researchers write in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Not everyone is thrilled. “Even for those jobs where attention is absolutely critical, you want to be very careful about making it compulsory,” one ethicist tells the Guardian

This is a dangerous precedent……stop experimenting on our troops!

Do not misunderstand me…I want our troops to be as safe as possible……but they would be a lot safer without having to fight endless wars…..

Veterans Day–2016

A large Thank you to all veterans……

This is a “press” of my post about my time in the US Army and Vietnam…..I try to let my former unit get some much deserved exposure…..for their story has been lost in the narrative of the Rangers…..

We Vietnam vets are slowly dying out and their narrative will be lost along with the heroes of the Korean War…..so I will take every opportunity to let my readers know about the vets of my era…….

Please take some time and watch their story….I am proud that I was a LRRP in Vietnam……

Today we honor our veterans from our wars……this will be my last post of the day….as a Vietnam Vet I am taking the day to remember fallen friends and reflect on life and liberty…

Source: Veterans Day–2015 #2 – In Saner Thought

Thanx for your time and I hope you learned something about this unsung unit….

Have a great day…..take a minute and say a prayer for our troops and our veterans…thank you!

We Need Another “Bonus Army”

Today is Veterans Day…..we need to spend some time honoring those that gave their all for this country.

My regulars know that as a vet myself I am appalled at the treatment that our veterans are receiving from the country and the government.  Yes we hold them up as some sort of hero and then turn our backs on them as soon as the cameras are off….

They say that you can tell what kind of a country it is by the way they treat their veterans…..if that is true then this country is pathetic!

Since the government, all branches, have abandoned the vets it is time for them to act in their own behalf….

There has been a time when vets did what they had to do to get the government off their asses and to actually do something on their behalf…….the year is 1932…Washington D.C…….(and here is that historical perspective that has been missing)……

Six years after the end of World War I Congress enacted a bill that would reward veterans of the conflict a cash bonus for their service. However, the legislation stipulated that the veterans would not collect their bonus until 1945.

This delayed gratification was acceptable to the World War I veterans during the prosperous ’20s but the onslaught of the Great Depression changed their attitude. Out of work, destitute, and with families to feed, the veterans organized a march on Washington in May of 1932 to force Congress to immediately pay their bonus. An estimated 15,000 made their way to the nation’s capital and dubbed themselves the “Bonus Expeditionary Force.”

Using scrap wood, iron and any other loose materials they could find, the veterans set up ramshackle camps throughout the city. The largest housed an estimated 10,000 people. They waited in vain for Congress to act. On June 17 the Senate voted against the House-passed bill that would have given the Bonus Marchers immediate payment of their benefit.

Having no other place to go, the majority of the Bonus Army remained encamped in the city, despite the fact that Congress had adjourned for the summer. Finally, President Hoover ordered the Army to forcibly remove the veterans. On July 28 a force of tanks and cavalry under the command of General Douglas MacArthur stormed the camps and drove the veterans out. Their makeshift houses were then set ablaze.

(eyetohistory.com)

Veterans stood up for themselves after the promises of the past went unfulfilled (sound familiar?)

It took that prick MacArthur to drop the hammer on people that served their country in its time of need……

Army Chief of Staff and Major General Douglas MacArthur watched a brigade of steel-helmeted soldiers precisely align themselves in a straight four-column phalanx, bayonets affixed to rifles. He nodded his head in satisfaction. Discipline was wonderful. Up ahead, Major George Patton kicked his heels against his mount, and the big horse reared forward to signal a line of cavalry. The riders drew their sabers, and the animals stepped out in unison, hoofs smacking loudly on the street. Five Renault tanks lurched behind. Seven-ton relics from World War I and presumably just for show, the old machines nonetheless left little doubt as to the seriousness of the moment. On cue, at about 4:30 p.m. on July 28, 1932, the infantry began a slow, steady march forward. Completing the surreal atmosphere, a machine gun unit unlimbered, and its crew busily set up.

This was no parade, although hundreds of curious office workers had interrupted their daily routines to crowd the sidewalk or hang out of windows along Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol to see what would happen. Up ahead, a group of weary civilians, many dressed in rags and ill-fitting, faded uniforms, waited in anticipation amid their sorry camp of tents and structures made from clapboard and sheets of tin covered in tar paper. Some loitered in the street. They had heard something was afoot — expected it after what happened earlier. Now, a murmur rose from the camp crowd. Upon seeing the Army’s menacing approach, they were momentarily stunned, disbelieving.

(history.net)

These men set aside their politics and came together…..they showed the same respect to the government that had been shown to them…..very little.

Time for our modern day vets to ban together and invade DC and demand action on their behalf….they have had enough talk and bullshit….time to force politicians to show their true face…….time for action for action is…..NOW!