"Pity the Nation"

A friend on Facebook posted the following poem written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

I thought it uncannily appropriate and timely.

"PITY THE NATION"

(After Khalil Gibran)

Pity the nation whose people are sheep

And whose shepherds mislead them

Pity the nation whose leaders are liars

Whose sages are silenced

And whose bigots haunt the airwaves

Pity the nation that raises not its voice

Except to praise conquerers

And acclaim the bully as hero

And aims to rule the world

By force and by torture

Pity the nation that knows

No other language but its own

And no other culture but its own

Pity the nation whose breath is money

And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed

Pity the nation oh pity the people

who allow their rights to erode

and their freedoms to be washed away

My country, tears of thee

Sweet land of liberty!

Mr. Trump Assures You His Supreme Court Nominee Is "Only the Best"

Can you imagine the Right Wing and Republican Party response if even ONE of the following were true of Barack Obama in his Presidency?

This, apparently, is "only the best."

Midterm Elections Weeks Away!

The midterm elections are only weeks away! November 6!

Are you registered?

If you aren't, did you know you can register at the local Kansas City Public Library?

Go! Go now! Register!

And vote!

And VOTE BLUE!!

We need that BLUE WAVE!!

Republican Party Song of the Day, Week, Month, Decade. Century?

That these Republicans today are outraged, OUTRAGED! at the treatment of this, their party's nominee for the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court, this Brett Kavanaugh, in these hearings when they didn't even allow---remember that--didn't even ALLOW hearings for the previous President's pick for the court is the epitome of chutzpah, irony and hypocrisy, all.

I thought Trump gaining the White House would be the worst that could and would happen.

I was wrong.

So deeply wrong.

How Bad Are Trump and the Republican Party?

This bad.

Even old, rich white guys are bailing now.

First this one.

Money Talks. Will the G.O.P. Listen? 

Seth Klarman was once the biggest donor to the Republican Party in New England. This year he’s giving some $20 million to Democrats.

Not done there, this is today.

Wealthiest Republican supporter in Ohio 

quits party 

The wealthiest supporter of the GOP in Ohio said Thursday that he is no longer a member of the Republican Party.

"I just decided I'm no longer a Republican," L Brands CEO Leslie Wexner said during a panel discussion at a leadership summit, according to The Columbus Dispatch.

Wexner, who said he's been a Republican since college, added...he "won't support this nonsense in the Republican Party" anymore.

Note, too, these two articles both came out just this week, in the last two days.

I tell you.

It's enough to give a person hope.

(That said, VOTE!! And VOTE BLUE!! #BLUEWAVE )

Entertainment Overnight -- Birthday Edition

Patsy Cline was born this day, September 8, 1932.

Best Supreme Court Nominee Money Can Buy

From Daily Kos today.

On This Supreme Court Nominee

What Most Americans Don't Know About Our National Defense Budget--But Should

There is an excellent, even important article out presently at Alternet I wish all adult, voting-age Americans would read. It is this.

How to Blow $700 Billion and Lose Wars

A Guide to America's Exploding Defense Budget and Military Failure

Step 1: Buy the most expensive weapons in history. Step 2: Don’t use them, since they mostly don’t work

And before any military patriots or just disbelievers dismiss the article, out of hand, before reading it, they should know it's written by a Veteran and who served in Iraq, on the ground. It's not from some "Left Wing" "librul" they can or should dismiss.

A bit from the article:

This year, President Trump signed the largest defense budget in our history: $700 billion. The budget includes $13.7 billion for 90 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, which according to CNN are “in service and mission capable only 26 percent of the time.” Not a single F-35 jet has yet to see combat duty.

The budget will provide $4.5 billion for the construction of a new Ford class aircraft carrier, $450 million for three Littoral Combat Ships, $4 billion for two new guided missile destroyers, $5.5 billion for two new Virginia Class submarines, and tens of billions more for upgrades and repairs on various aircraft and naval vessels. Two of the guided missile destroyers already in service were involved in deadly collisions with cargo ships in the western Pacific last year. A Navy investigation revealed that for all of the hundreds of billions spent on defense, there was apparently not enough in the budget to provide for adequate training in standing watch and driving Navy combat ships...

He finishes the article perfectly, to me. It's something I've been saying for some time.

Fifteen years in Iraq. Seventeen years in Afghanistan. There is no end in sight.

From 2011 to today, 2018, we more than doubled our national defense budget from 354 billion dollars to 700 billion.

We have no new enemies. No new group has attacked us or is attacking. Or is going to.

We are weakening, actually weakening our nation with all this absurd, obscenely expensive and very wasteful spending.

Understand this:

Our defense budget is very huge, very bloated and very wasteful and is actually making the nation weaker.  Not stronger.

What are we going to do about this, America?

Links:

The Secret Side of Military Spending & The Wastes of War

We Are Spending a Trillion on War 

and We Need to Own Up to It

The 10 Most Blatantly Wasteful Defense Items

Note this next article is from the American Conservative magazine:

Expanding the Military Budget Is 

Wasteful and Unnecessary'

Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion 

in bureaucratic waste

The F-35: A Weapon That Costs More 

Than Australia

Quote of the Day -- Timely

"The America of John McCain has no need to be made great again."

--Meghan McCain, today, at her father's funeral