A random blog of useless information, ramblings, poorly structured arguments, and complaints. You will be dumber for reading this. Also see kevinsrustingbarbell.blog
Jerry Lewis passed away today at 91 years of age. I’ve seen every one of his movies, mostly those with Dean Martin – but all of his solo projects as well. I watched three of his Labor Day Telethons from start to finish including the one where Frank Sinatra brought out Dean Martin as a surprise special guest.
I am really bummed out. Thanks to Jerry for being a great part of my growing up days.
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about “venting” and “not being ashamed” so in response to those who “offer no apology” for supporting him. I’m gonna vent too.
I’ve also lived during the same presidential time periods you mentioned. But, none of us, including you, can remember anything through from the early 60s to the Nixon Administration and I doubt you have any recollections of political happenings until, maybe, Clinton. So knock off your bullshit.
Although presidents are scrutinized all the time, the reason why you’ve never “seen or heard” of anything like this before is BECAUSE of what comes out his mouth. It is he who humiliates members of the public and the press; it is he who threatens to hurt people – well, that might be too strong, but he does use language and phrases encouraging violence against those who speak out against him; and stop crying for his “children”. His “children” are adults and part of his administration. One of them is a traitor who tried to collude with our enemies and outright sought their “information” on the other candidate.
Don’t be ashamed of your fellow countryman, be ashamed of the man who has no ethics, no manners, no semblance of statesmanship, no credentials nor ability to lead our nation. Be ashamed of the boldness and uneducated comments you make in his support. Be ashamed of your outright disregard and lack of recognition of the TRUTH. Be ashamed of your “interpretations” of what he says – oh, he was only kidding; oh, what he says in public isn’t how he really feels – no, he means what he says.
I find it hypocritical for you to criticize members of the media for lying (Side note, those who do should be fired. Someone should start a fake news section and have these trouble makers listed one by one.) when your guy outright lies almost everyday, and gets caught doing it.
If it is your contention that every other president wasn’t on the news 24/7 then you simply fail to realize your guy gives the press and comedians material every day. He is on social media everyday. Hey, I’ve got an idea – stop your foolish Twitter posting and get to running the country.
He has no filters, he has an inability to ignore the petty, almost childish arguments he gets himself into. He has a shockingly high level of immaturity.
He is disrespected because he is disrespectful. His administration is a joke and people from other countries outright laugh at us when we visit their country. I was just in Canada and someone actually laughed when I said where I was from.
You say enough is enough, I agree -enough is enough. He needs to be removed from office due to his incompetence and unstableness. Hopefully the 25th Amendment will relieve this country of the danger this man puts us in every day.
“You people just need to get over it – you lost!!!!” That seems to be the anthem of the Neo-Nazis, alt-right, KKK, rebel flag waving wannabes. What they don’t seem to realize is that I didn’t lose anything. Maybe the person running in the election lost, but I have nothing to do with that. I wasn’t “on the team”.
And, the hilarious thing is, it is THEY, who have to get over it. Not only did they lose, we kicked their ass. First in the mid 1860’s and then in the mid 1940s. Joe Blow Americans drew a line, took a stand, and said, “We’re going to stop you”, and we did. Complete, unconditional surrender was secured from the white supremacy clowns and Nazis in real wars !!!!
Now I can just barely, and I’d have to choke on it, understand the rebel South’s gonna do it again attitude. Maybe someone’s great grand father fought in the Civil War and served with distinction, but I don’t know of one single person remotely related to a WWII vet who support the Neo-Nazi bozos.
At the end of day, there is a huge difference between the populations held under suppression in the 1860s and 1930s – 1940s – today we have a well armed opponent (the American population who participate in their 2nd Amendment Rights) who will stand up to the alt-Right, KKK, Neo-Nazis violent ways and meet them head on in the street.
Unfortunately, there are signs that the leader of the current administration revels in internal discourse under the belief that infighting, back stabbing, and only the strongest survive creates a strong business. But, that doesn’t work in real life. All it will do is create a civil war. And, it won’t be a matter of only strongest survive. It will be an open invitation for all of our enemies to walk right in and start cutting up pieces of the American Pie.
Fascists were able to take over their countries through violence, think Italy and Germany in the 1930s and early 1940s, because no one stood up to them.
Yesterday, our fellow citizens, took to the streets and took the threatening violence head on.
Trumps core support of unemployed, uneducated, ultranationalist bigots went on a march with the full intention of starting a physical confrontation. They had helmets, riot shields, clubs, bats, pepper spray and varied signs (also used as weapons) with slogans displaying their ignorant hatred. But the rest of the population didn't run and hide nor cower.
It is sad and embarrassing for this country to have to stoop down to the level of might is right. But I bet it pleases Trump to see his country gearing towards a civil war. It probably pleases our enemies even more to see our country getting weaker and weaker every day under Trump's lack of leadership skills and his desire to always have people fighting against one another.
And at the end of the day the core of uneducated bigots came looking for a fight, found one, and got their asses kicked.
We left Phoenix yesterday afternoon in 108 degree heat and got out of the van 2 hours later in 73 degree cool. 35 degrees!! And I can assure you, it makes all the difference in the world. Last night we slept with the windows open and the temp dropped to a glorious 59 degrees. Now THAT's good sleeping weather right there!!! Looking forward to doing a whole bunch of nuthin' on the porch today. Later.
It’s been some time since I’ve utilized this blog site. Now that the Summer of 2017 is ½ way over, it might be time to get back into the swing of things. Check out blog regarding professional work at Litigation Manager or http://www.litigationmanager.wordpress.com. And, my new blog / podcast site at The Gray Steel Podcast or http://www.thegraysteelpodcast.blog. Should get interesting.
For as long as there has been news, there have been attacks against the media. Attacks on the press are nothing more than attempts to silence the people, to sway opinion away from facts and to minimize open public discourse. It is one thing to say that you disagree with the facts, that you have a different interpretation. It is another thing entirely to discard the truth and replace it with fake news, junk science or blatantly false reasoning. Personal attacks against journalists go even further in debasing a healthy democracy.
DAY 3 Just entering the waterways near Sitka, Alaska. I think we gained an hour in time zone this morning. I forgot how you all love the day to day minutia of my travels so I’ll try to remember updates. Sorry about Days 1 and 2. Not much to share. Lots of eating, drinking, smoking cigars, and laughing. Remind me to tell you the Saving Private Ryan and Schindler’s List stories. (Private joke.)
Some of you may know, that I have been researching my Grandfather’s involvement in WWI. He is buried in Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn, Suffolk County, New York. His grave stone indicates he served with the 106th Infantry Regiment, Company B. I spent about 2 months now researching and discovered he was part of the 27th Division, an all New York National Guard Unit that was federalized and shipped off to France.
Through New York Times articles, military documents, websites, and three books written in the 1920s, I have been able to pinpoint, to the date, place and actual time, where my Grandfather was. Horrendously, he was on the front line, literally, facing the Germans on the Hindenburg Line at 5:30am on 09/29/1918. Company C was to his left and Company A was to his right. Company D was spread out behind those three companies. All part of 1st Battalion 106. At 5:30am they did that out-of-the-trenchs and over-the-top craziness and charged the St. Quentin Canal Tunnel in the area of Quennemont Farm, France. Within minutes most of his 435-member company were gone. Every single officer in the company was killed.
My middle son, Ryan, said to me, “Soooo, essentially, if he had died we wouldn’t be here.” Hmmm, I guess he’s right. So, doing math quickly, being conservative and estimating, let’s say of the 420 who died 300 would have become fathers. Having 3 kids each (my father’s level) who in turn had 3 kids each (my level) who in turn had 3 kids each (my son’s level). That comes to 8100 or so people who simply don’t exist.
But Memorial Day is not about those 8100 non-existing people. It’s not about our right to barbecue; smoke cigars while tinkering in the garage; buying Fords; raising families; having a cabin in the woods; riding a motorcycle; fishing; flying a flag outside our home – it’s about living in peace. Freely. It’s about those 435 guys in Company B, 1st Battalion, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division, 53rd Brigade, II Army of the American Expeditionary Forces who got on a boat called the USS President Lincoln, from Hoboken NJ on Thursday, May 9, 1918, fought Germans in the name of freedom, and left Camp Upton (commonly referred to as Brookhaven National Labs) on the 1:15pm Long Island Rail Road and got off in Brooklyn on the Nostrand Avenue stop as discharged citizens. Heroes.
It’s about guys like my Dad who served with the National Guard Army Reserve out of the 14th Regimental Armory in Brooklyn, my Uncle John who served as a Military Police Officer during the Korean War, and my brother, Gerard, who served during the First Gulf War. And, it’s about all of your family and friends who served to keep us safe. That’s what Memorial Day is all about.
Let’s remember.
Kevin Driscoll 