MARK TWAIN LIFE, HUMOR AND WAY WITH WORDS
“I believe that our heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey.” — Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clements.
I watched the Ken Burns’ videos on Mark Twain this weekend for the second time.
I enjoyed reading Mark Twain’s books and love his humor. I found his life to be fascinating, despite his short temper.
He was a Southerner and a Northerner, an inept businessman, a riverboat pilot, aConfederate soldier who never fought in a battle, tireless wanderer, a failed gold prospector, he was considered the funniest man on earth, a brilliant performer on the lecture circuit, and most of all, he was a self-taught genius with words.
And, of course, Twain was one hell of a newspaper reporter who covered controversial stories, colorful characters, and interesting places, including saloons and whorehouses.
He wrote books, magazine articles, plays and lectures with a unique writing style, words read by millions,
Actor Halbrook: “He used the way we talk and turned it into literature.”
Black writer David Bradbury said Mark Twain wrote about race believing that if we were going to be a country, this ugly issue would have to be debated and discussed.
“Mark Twain told the truth. He saw what we were all about and wasn’t afraid to deal with things that other people were afraid to deal with,” Bradbury said.
Mark Twain’s friendship with black people during his childhood when he listened to an old blackman’s ghost tales and listening to slaves’ spiritual music.
CNN’S JEFF ZUCKER
This White House Correspondents’ Dinner by Samantha Bee nailed it when she launched into scathing criticism on CNN and its parade of panels that turn into endless chains of verbal regurgitation and fact-free diatribe from the left and the right.
What is most irritating is the right-wing Trump zealots like panelists Jason Miller, Jeffrey Lord and Kayleigh McEnany who get paid by CNN’s Jeff Zucker to sling BS and defend Trump no matter what he says and does.
It make for a good reality show. But the whole thing usually becomes a political Jerry Springer Show with the same cast of characters passionately working the alternative-facts to earn paychecks.
MIKE PENCE
Trump’s poodle Mike Pence reminds one of a showroom salesman at a funeral home who is trying to sell you the most expensive coffin because it has a better warranty while wiping the smudge marks from the coffin’s brass handles with a white handkerchief.
KIM JONG UN
Sadly, something needs to be done to stop the Asian version of Donald Trump — Kim Jong un— from 
getting long-range missiles with multiple warheads or further advancing his nuclear technology.
Hopefully, Trump will be long gone and his erratic and unpredictable administration won’t have to deal with this serious problem, North Korean nukes.
Or, by some miracle, North Korea will decide to cease its nuclear program or Jong Un will be taken out by his military.
I believe the U.S. will take out Kim Jong un when he is around his generals and then immediately hit North Korean communications centers with a barrage of missiles.
If Jong Un, like Trump, he is the only one who can authorize the use of nukes.
I am not a military general or tactician. But here is some food for thought.
North Korea’s electrical power grid is frail at best so this speaks volumes about its capability to communicate to its troops on the field.
A lightning strike on North Korea might keep casualties down as much as possible. But the refugee problem is going to be horrendous. But allowing North Korea to advance its nuclear capability until every continent on the planet is unsafe is certainly not an option.
SORTING OUT THE WHITES
A Florida principal in a district accused of discriminating against black students will not return to work at her school after instructing staff that “white students should be in the same class,” according to news reports.
Christine Hoffman, principal of Campbell Park Elementary in St. Petersburg, sent an email to teachers at the predominantly black school on April 18 with guidelines for how to sort students for next year’s classes, including the directive that “white students should be kept together,” the reports stated.
She later apologized, attributing it to poor judgment.
I don’t buy the poor judgment BS.
Hoffman’s guideline is called trying to normalize bigotry under the guise of “improving” education.
It is the same bigotry that enacts Jim Crow legislation aimed at keeping minorities from voting and calling it “Voter ID” laws.
Under Trump’s presidency, Hoffman and many in the GOP feel comfortable with their kinder and gentler form of racism because of how it’s being packaged and articulated.