Welcome to Woodpecker’s Crank Tank.
He’s thinking of moving it to Washington.
Seems he’d have a lot of company, most of them better-dressed.
TEA PARTY ANARCHY
The more I listen, the more I perceive the Tea Party agenda is ultimately an attack on democracy in America. Unlike the Founding Fathers, they have no respect for the necessity of government.
And, be assured, a position of no compromise is the essence of tyrannical dictatorship.
What’s left would be brutal and cruel. Especially, for many of them, without their Social Security, in the aftermath.
And they’re afraid of socialism as an attack on the nation and its values? Think again.
JUST PULL THE PLUG FOR THE DRAIN
Been reflecting on the great irony of Fox television’s bias toward right-wing candidates who wrap themselves in a nostalgic image of a nation back before, well, 1960. That is, before the network began spewing its vulgarity into American living rooms and lowering the standards of civilized conversation with language and situations that never before would have been allowed in polite company, much less its propaganda wing of the Republican establishment.
In other words, Fox has been a big part of the problem. Would the solution be to pull the plug? Do it themselves, to clear their conscience? Just wondering.
I’m tired of hearing so-called liberal media take the blame. And please don’t accuse Norman Lear and his societal comedies. They’re downright uplifting by comparison.
It would be fascinating, by the way, to get Archie Bunker’s take on Don “the Con” Trump. I’m guessing even he would see through the shill. Maybe in tandem with George Jefferson, at the bar? I’d drink to that.
A FEW TURNS FROM THE ATLANTIC
When I see this …
… I think of this.
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A LONG STORY BEGINS
Adam was one and then divided.
He found love and then fought it.
We’re one and once conflict arises, separate.
Only to be reunited. If we’re lucky or just wise up.
It’s one long, rich story with an ever so-short beginning.
It’s a matter of Embracing Eden.
~*~
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LOOKING AT SADISM FOR WHAT IT IS
A comment on a Hippie Trails pin at Pinterest just might explain how Trump-Pence followers interpret their vow to “Make America great again.” It goes:
“Man, that takes me back. I began in law enforcement back in the 70s, in the county jail in late 1970, on to police work four years later. we used to knock the crap out of those long hairs. Toss ’em into a drunk tank full of GIs from Fort Hood. Give ’em a free buzz cut on suspicion of lice. Worked out a lot of transition-to-civilian-life stress that way. Made coming to work pleasant. Back when a joint was a felony, and prison meant hard work in the sun. Good times!”
The fact that such a brutal, abusive outlook is still treasured by some shows how far we are from a just society. It echoes so-called conservatives who want to curb bureaucracy and government at the same time they’re invading bedrooms and voting for soaring prison populations.
Listen. Making America great is the opposite of such tyranny.
Or, as many are interpreting the campaign slogan, Make America hate again.
It’s enough to make Jesus weep.
DON’T BLAME EVE
You know the usual slant on the Garden of Eden, that it’s all Eve’s fault.
Look more closely, you’ll see it’s the Apostle Paul and Augustine’s reading.
That’s it, blame the woman.
But it’s wrong.
Give me a breather. There’s Jewish tradition, after all. Listen up!
For all of its brevity, it’s a complex story. It’s where humanity – and history – begin.
For my part, I believe it’s only one of many similar gardens – where else do you think their sons found their wives? The only one we’re told of, all the same.
~*~
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ON THOSE POLITICAL CLAIMS OF PERSONAL FAITH
If you’re willing to think President Obama is a Muslim or that Hawaii, where he was born, is a foreign country (it’s not, it’s the 50th State of the Union), then I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised if you accept Donald Trump’s claim to being a Christian.
Me, I want to see some evidence that he respects and follows the teachings of Jesus and St. Paul – a willingness to honor weakness as a virtue, to nurture the Fruits of the Spirit, to side with the oppressed and the poor, to love his enemies rather than ridicule them. Until then? It’s one more empty boast.
By the way, a little reminder may be in order here: Barack is the name of one of the Bible’s great generals, a Jewish hero, not a hint of Islam I can see there. Or is that another of the pages missing from too many Bibles?
Long ago I learned the maxim, Actions speak louder than words. Now, if you’ll excuse me, we have some work to do.
ANOTHER ECONOMICS POLICY QUESTION
What if the One Percent moved out of the United States? Where would they go that wouldn’t tax them heavily? Much more heavily than here? Or where they wouldn’t gain so much from the public purse?
Or would they just huddle behind their own Big Wall – a much cheaper option than the one proposed for the southwest corner of the United States.
I presume they’d still be relying on our dollars, too. The kind the Treasury prints.
Besides, they couldn’t take all their assets with them. This is where their wealth’s generated, after all. Really. Even when their banks are Swiss.
As for the lunatic fringe? They would have real reasons to worry. Who else would back them, financially?
TAP, TAP, TAP
When it comes to history, Woodpecker has a long memory.
It’s all been drilled in his head. One tap at a time, as it were.
These days he’s thinking there are good reasons to be nervous. The whole tree’s infected and the wind’s rising.
Jnana's Red Barn 