Because I am too fast approaching the end (I am well past my cell-by date), up to this point, I have chosen to refrain from obsessing over Donald Trump and what I feel is the end of American democracy.

I used to enjoy blogging, but it seems that Trump and the Republicans have taken the joy out of the world, leaving very little to blog about other than the insanity of the inmates running the asylum.

What we are living through now is the wet dream of the Republican Party.  They have always been the wizard behind the curtain, punking their followers, not just to gain power, but to achieve absolute power.

It began with the Regan administration trying to advance the Unitary Executive Theory: an all-powerful president in total control of every facet of the executive branch; but it was held in check by a Supreme Court pushback

With the Republican Party, it has never been about what’s good for the people, but about seizing power: absolute power.

This was displayed when Obama was first elected, and Harry Reed said the goal of the Republican Senate was to make Obama a one-term President.

We are here because an Alpha Republican Party rolled over a compliant Democratic party.

Republicans: I’m going to fuck you in the ass.

Democrats: We need to work with our friends on the other side of the aisle.

I’m too old to sugarcoat it.

the Ol’Buzzard

ATTACKING VENZUELA!   ATTACK CUBA! ATTACK GREENLAND!

EPSTEIN WHO?

the Ol'Buzzard

I fought in Vietnam where fifty-eight thousand young men lost their lives, and hundreds of thousands were wounded - for absolutely nothing. 

Today, military personnel must be asking themselves; Do I want to die for oil?  Am I putting my life on the line so billionaire oil executives can become richer?

I thought it was about defending the Constitution of the United States and protecting this country from adversaries!

I was so naive.

the Ol’Buzzard

Isn’t it convenient that just as the Jack Smith report was released on New Year's night, showing that Donald Trump was responsible for the insurrection of January 6, and as more and more of the Epstein files are released, showing a close relationship between Trump and Epstein, we suddenly find ourselves attacking Venezuela, turning the attention of the American public to war news?

the Ol’Buzzard

I’ll make this short and simple: If the Democrats shut down the government again to protest healthcare cuts, then we will have fumbled the ball on the one-yard line. 

People are hurt during a government shutdown.  A portion of people will not be able to pay rent, put food on their table, or pay the fuel cost to heat their homes during the height of winter; and they, their friends, and their families will not forget come election time in November. 

the Ol’Buzzard 

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There is something I don’t understand about government finance.  Republicans go on and on about paying down the national debt while at the same time exploding it with their tax cuts.

Who the fuck, what country, is lending the United States trillions of dollars that we are obligated to pay back? 

To my understanding, we are the richest country in the world, so what country has such a financial excess to the extent they can lend us trillions of dollars, or is this some kind of creative accounting where we spend more than we earn from taxes and then just write it off as an IOU to ourselves?

We keep hearing about paying the interest on the debt; but to whom?

There was a time when I was young that I paid only the interest on a loan for several months because I couldn't afford the monthly payment.  That certainly wasn’t a sustainable solution to debt.

The answer to me is clear: everyone making over one hundred thousand dollars a year pays five percent income tax – no deductions – no tax shelters.  Businesses valued over a million dollars pay ten percent of gross.  In return, a cap is placed on government spending, and we receive universal healthcare at 100%.

We know who is making the money under the present system: and it ain't us.

the Ol’Buzzard    

  A history lesson you won’t get on Fox News.

In the 1940’s and early 50’s, the main political power in the South was the Democratic Party.   My grandmother raised me, and her sister was married to Fielding Wright, who was the governor of the state of Mississippi from 1946 to 1952.   Even though politics was far from anything I was concerned with, it existed in my peripheral world.

President Truman had desegregated the military, and the powerful Southern political figures of that era were concerned about a possible move to desegregate the South.  In 1948, they came together in a common effort to oppose racial integration and to retain Jim Crow laws and the Southern racial segregation status quo.

Mississippi Governor Fielding Wright, Mississippi Senator John Stennis, Mississippi Senator Allen Eastland, and South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond were among the movers and shakers of this movement.   It was decided that if the Democratic Party introduced a platform of integration at their 1948 convention, the southern democrats would break away and form a third party.

As expected, Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota made a speech urging the party to adopt an anti-segregationist plank, and thirty-five southern members walked out of the convention.

The States’ Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) was formed with a party slogan of ‘Segregation Now, Segregation Forever!’  The party ran Strom Thurmond for President and Fielding Wright for Vice President.  

On Election Day, the Thurman-Wright ticket carried Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina, receiving 1,169,021 popular votes and 39 electoral votes.

The defeat of the Dixiecrats was the defining point at which disenchanted southern Democrats began to change party affiliation.  Over the next twenty years, most southern, segregationist, white fundamentalist Christian Democrats were assimilated into the Republican Party

It is remarkable when you think about it: The Republican Party, once the party of Lincoln and champion of human rights, slowly became the party of the financial elite, white southern Christian fundamentalists, and covert racists, while the Democratic Party became the party of the middle class, the ethnic, and the poor.

Republicans can no longer call themselves the party of Lincoln.  Lincoln would not be welcome in today's Republican Party.    

the Ol’Buzzard