JUST SAYING
BY RAUL HERNANDEZ
The Barnyard Pig
Why is anyone surprised?
This guy was a pig before he got elected, and even the village idiot knew that he loved to dive, roll, and wallow in the mud. After all, isn’t that what pigs do?
This pig bragged that he even fucked the other barnyard animals, including the chickens, goats, and cows. But, hey, they were all consenting adults, and besides, they love it.
He bragged about his IQ and convinced the other pigs that he was friends with the farmer, and he would persuade his buddy to name and adopt them. They wouldn’t be heading off to market. No, sir. He had been successful in doing this throughout his life.
They wouldn’t become bacon.
Applause and cheers.
He told the chickens that he would build an impenetrable wall around the coop to keep the fox out. Keep them all safe. What about the farmer’s ax? Nevermind.
More applause and cheers.
Now, the pig is behaving like a pig, and some who voted for him are baffled and wondering why?
Duh.
The Right-Wing Political Messiah’s “Beautiful Day”
Trump said Easter is a special day for everybody to go outside instead of shelter-in-place because it would be a “beautiful day” to do so.
Easter is the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of a savior who died on the cross.
For Trump, it takes on an entirely different meaning.
Trump picked Easter so everybody can go outside and play so that Wall Street stocks will rise on Monday, and the Lord will smile on Trump and the Republican Party.
Trump is banking that his Evangelical Taliban leaders will preach to the religious drones/Trump supporters to attend Easter services.
They will be urged to send a message to the devil and poke him in the eye and do it in Jesus’s name.
After all, Jesus would never allow a virus to kill believers after they attend an Easter Service or any religious gathering, ignoring thousands of years of plagues, natural disasters, diseases, and marauding armies.
The American Taliban, however, will say that the martyrs at Easter Services are heroes. Brave God-fearing Christians who shook their fists at the devil who appeared on the planet in the form of a virus.
(Bullshit)
Crack open any Bible and find where it states that it’s okay to play with snakes and God will fix you. (Ring the bell and Cosmic Jesus comes running like a doorman.)
Call me crazy but aren’t Christians repeatedly told to beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing: See Exhibit A: The con man at the White House who is giving Lucifer competition in lying.
Another thing, if God is everywhere, why do you have to go to an Easter or any Christian Service to find him, especially when it might not be a good idea to do so?
I’m sure there are going to be live Easter Sunday Services on Youtube. And, if they play the Stars Spangle Banner before the service, it’ll even be okay to take a knee.
Unless, of course, Mike Pence is standing behind you.
Seriously, God gave you a brain, the most complex form of matter in the universe — use it.
A Mountain of Money
Trump and his vultures/opportunists are licking their chops to see how much of this money they can earmark to corporations and rich cronies in exchange for bank loans and favorable treatment.
Every dollar in this monumental economic rescue needs to be accounted for or it will be dispursed on Trump’s whims and what he believes is good for the country.
After all, his dupes still believe he is a financial wizard based on what they saw on “The Apprentice.”
Trump is a psychopathic lying con man who has spent more than $300 million of the taxpayers’ money on golfing trips alone.
He would care less about the people who are hurting financially.
What is needed is the creation of a Watchdog Accountant post to keep track of this money and media accountability.
If there is no accountability for the expenditure of this mountain of money, Trump and his greedy, money-grubbing family, including Kushner and Don Jr., will grab as much cash as they can for themselves and their brood.
Then, Trump will wrap himself in victimhood and with a straight face lie about why he feels his businesses were entitled to it.
When questioned about his theft of taxpayers’ money, Trump will insult and browbeat reporters. This is his MOD.
Sadly, Democrats will stand on the political sidelines with arms folded after signing off on this monumental economic-rescue package for political expediency.
The Republicans will line up to make sure the lion’s share of the rescue money goes to the voters in their states or where the senate races appear to be close.
When analyzing this trillion-dollar, rescue-money allocation, keep in mind that the elections are in November.
A nearly $2 trillion stimulus bill to save the nation’s economy from the coronavirus outbreak faces key decisions on Capitol Hill amid sparring between Republicans and Democrats.
EGGS AT TRADER JOE’S
I went to Trader Joe’s Sunday to get eggs, and it looked like it had been hit by looters who would make the LA riot pillaging look like child’s play.
I muttered: ‘Oh, my God.”
Flashes of artist Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” went through my mind.
Pushing carts like zombies were shoppers who were ready to pounce like NFL players on a loose football if somebody tossed a roll of toilet paper down the aisle.
There is numbskull panic and fear of a virus as though the planet was under invasion by space aliens.
Yet, 40-plus percent of the country is okay with allowing a lunatic whose diseased or damaged brain allows him to slip in and out of reality at will, and he has a device in his pocket with the nuclear launch codes. Push the right buttons, and the world will be incinerated. Billions of lives would be lost – billions.
Here is a factoid.
Headline: “CDC: 80,000 people died of flu last winter in U.S., highest death toll in 40 years”
By Associated Press Sept. 26, 2018.
Here is another factoid:
“It’s estimated that the swine flu — a new type of flu that spread worldwide during 2009-2010, causing the first flu pandemic — caused more than 12,000 flu-related deaths in the U.S.” —Webmd.
Another fact: 65,000 of the 80,000 Chinese who tested positive for coronavirus have recovered.
Yes, people should be concerned about the coronavirus and take necessary precautions while it’s all sorted out. Coronavirus is not an airborne pathogen but sneezing and coughing can spread the flu virus.
So, people should get flu shots every year along with exercising and watching what they put into their mouths.
(In California, the restaurants and bars are being asked to close or limit their hours of operation. Okay. But I am going to be pissed if they close the gym.)
Also take daily doses of medicine: Laughter.
I like what Lord Byron said hundreds of years ago: “Always laugh when you can. It’s cheap medicine.”
Webmed article: “Feeling rundown? Try laughing more. Some researchers think laughter just might be the best medicine, helping you feel better and putting that spring back in your step.
“I believe that if people can get more laughter in their lives, they are a lot better off,” says Steve Wilson, MA, CSP, a psychologist, and laugh therapist. “They might be healthier too.”
Start the day by with a healthy and quick dose of laughter by watching comedians on Youtube or a TV show.
I’ve done this for years, and it jump-starts my day.
Click off the news and the talking heads on TV who are all saying the same thing, wash your hands, and try to limit social contact with other people. This, coupled with a steady stream of negative images and doomsday voices and views are bombarding the airwaves.
If there were 300 ways to scramble eggs or wash your hands, the pundits have gone through all of them.
After this is over, I am going to self-quarantine and not go to states that supported Trump because mental illness, fear, and guns seem to be running rampant there. It is not safe.
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BERNIE AND LIZ SHOPPING CART RACE
I was an avid supporter of Elizabeth Warren long before she ran for president. She is very intelligent, articulate, and passionate lady.
But when she got into a contest with Bernie Sanders about whose political shopping cart is bigger to get votes, I bailed out.
Freebies for housing, education, daycare and health care plans etc.
(Bernie’s health care plan alone is estimated to cost between 10 trillion to 60 trillion dollars.) Sanders’s health care plan is going to be operated by the same folks that run the VA. A few years ago, these veterans died before they were able to see a doctor, and it took years to get an appointment with the VA.
It took a national scandal and a few resignations before the VA cleaned up its mess.
Americans should have a right to choose their health plans, not a bureaucrat in D.C., and contrary to popular belief, one size does not fit all.
What is worse is that there are lazy, incompetent, and greedy doctors who will jump on this one-payer health care who will be allowed to milk the federal government and victimize people, especially the elderly.
Just bury the victimization in a mountain of government paperwork. Fraud will mean the need to hire more FBI and health care investigators. More judges and lawyers too.
They will be allowed to do this as long as they have a medical license.
I don’t want my doctor picked from whoever is next on the list. There are many, many more concerns.
The problem also is that this country (thanks, in part, to Trump giving his rich pals big tax cuts) is rapidly heading for bankruptcy and a recession.
When I worked at the American Red Cross as a Service to Military Services caseworker in El Paso, I was occasionally assigned to work at a national disaster.
I liked writing Red Cross vouchers to help victims pay for new clothes, get temporary housing, buy food, and other things to get them back on their feet. I liked to stretch the rules to help these victims who desperately needed assistance, especially the poor.
But I took a very dim view of people who tried to con me. Through the years, along with working as a newspaper reporter, I have developed (what former Toronto Star newspaper report Ernest Hemingway said) a mental Bullshit detector.
With neatly placed nods along with a few smiles sprinkled here and there, I would patiently explain to a con man the rules for disaster assistance, including actually living in the area impacted by a tornado, flood, etc.
With an insincere apology, I would tell the con man or woman: “You don’t qualify for our services. But you are more than welcome to have a sandwich, coffee or cookies.”
(Mental middle finger)
In the El Paso Red Cross office, my supervisor Ms. Barbara Holm, who was in her late 70s kept an eye on the organization’s checkbook. I wrote more than my share of checks to help others and sometimes dug deep into my own pocket to buy groceries or purchase a bus ticket.
Once after Ms. Holm rolled her eyes to sign off on another check, she said in a terse voice: “Raul, we can’t take on the world. We don’t have the resources.”
The freebies in political shopping carts sound wonderful and would help a lot of needy, elderly, children and poor people. But the United States can’t pay for all the freebies.
As Ms. Holm would say: “We don’t have the resources to take on the world.”
And, quite frankly, many Americans are content being fat, dumb and happy. Sometimes, all they need is a fire under their asses to get them to do things for themselves.
Sanders and Warren want to create this socialist paradise at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer, and when it is time to go to the cash register to pay for all these programs, Sanders and Warren will whip their U.S. taxpayer credit cards.
Cha-ching.
Oh, California just apologized for the way it treated Japanese Americans in World War II.
That’s great.
Next in line, Native Americans, Blacks, Chinese and Mexican-Americans.
There is talk in some political circles about paying reparations too.
Cha-ching.
All this will saddle Americans who have yet to be born with trillions of dollars of more debt.
America, however, does need to cut many wasteful programs, especially in defense spending. The cuts need to start with presidential golfing trips and Congress’s junkets at taxpayers’ expense.
Put some of this wasted money in national infrastructure along with aggressive and innovative ways to slow down or deal with the consequences of global warming.
Keep in mind, however, that neither the Red Cross nor the U.S. have the resources to continue paying for back-to-back disasters due to climate change or golfing trips or junkets etc.
Cha-ching.