"another one bites the dust"

Another one bites the dust

Auf weidersehen

Au revoir

Adios amigo

Another one bites the dust

Yep Folks good ole Governor Walker has suspended his campaign. So the infamous Queen Song begins its revolution around the turntable over and over again

And another one bites the dust, and another one gone and another one gone another one bites the dust.

And this will definitely not be the last before February and Iowa.

He lashed out at Trump of course, even trying to get others to suspend their campaign so the “conservatives” could rally around someone to win the election. Or the Koch Brothers got him to make a feeble attempt to find a way to lessen the impact of Mr. Trump. One of the many attempts to come of the establishment to find a way to rid themselves of the virus now called Trump.

Honestly though I think he really never had any traction and when he started waffling more than Waffle House has waffles his horse was saddled to ride off into the sunset.

Earlier in the day when I first read the news that Mr. Walker was out, there were many thoughts rambling through my head.  Sometimes you have to wonder what is going on. Sometimes I think the Republicans are so clueless they are driving the country more and more to the left by their own incompetence. Other times I wonder if it isn’t a plan by a certain group of industrialists etc to let the country become run by a large federal bureaucracy so when they do pull the trigger everyone is already use to the government being in charge of their daily lives, no one notices there is no more United States of America lead by constitutional government. It is too hard to fathom a large organization being this dysfunctional and still existing year after year.

And of course real practical governance is left by the curb over and over again. I still hope one day the moderate democrats, moderate and conservative independents, the practical conservatives and a scattering of everyone else with common sense realizes things need to change to save our constitution. Everyone get together to work for practical policies to reduce the burdensome size of our government; find ways to actually reduce the budget, debt, and overbearing influence in our daily lives; improve education at all levels from K-12 to the universities and from the local, state and national level to define what is a good education including reading and writing well. This and more, but keep the hot bed social issues out of the platform so we can do the basics of governance and let a better educated society work on the rest as time goes on. Yes we need some policies such as making practical decisions about immigration, understanding what belongs to state governance and what to national, hard decisions about what to do for the mentally ill, etc, but these would originally fall under focusing on deciding what we need, not what raises the blood pressure of the electorate to get votes out. Boggles my mind why the vast majority of this country lets all the clowns in Washington and their purse strings get away with what they do.

Anyway Governor Walker will go back to Wisconsin and will try to salvage his political career there or he may fade away once this term ends and the wonderful people that love those Packers decide to move on from him. Time will only tell.

Definitely I will be playing a few more verses of Queen on the turntable of this blog before we get to February. I do have to admit I am a bit more fearful in my old age as the whole of the original lyrics are probably not best to be referencing about politicians in any light. I definitely wouldn’t want anyone to misconstrue a love for how the chorus fits the situation and nothing else.

And speaking of the mentally ill,,,, I hate the term compassionate conservative, yet at times it would behoove us to work on practical solutions instead of leaving gaping holes in how we treat the very misunderstood groups of illnesses and such called mental illness. I believe in individual rights, but no one’s individual situation should supersede others just because they need help. People who need help should be allowed to get it and for people who deny they need help their families and loved ones should be able to get it for them. You have to prove it yes, but we need more in place to help families of distressed individuals. This is a situation that is an indirect part of my day, but every now and then (including today) I hear stories that fall under the “you got to be kidding me” category. I may move to a different role at work soon, but I will still hold these opinions.

John/Jane Doe, would you please run for President

I was watching the second Republican debate last night and unlike the other paid and non-paid political pundits I didn’t come to any conclusions.

There are so many articles about “who won”. Each writer is very eager to tell us what they think. And well, that is what political pundits do, so I am not overly critical here. And I could be snippy and say there were no winners, just that the American people lost (again).  And if CNN received tons of advertising support they may have been one of the winners like FOX News the first time.

What did we learn, what did I learn, what did we get, what did I get, I am unsure. This was not a debate anywhere close to a classical sense. And I do not think people were expecting one. We may actually have one next fall when it boils down to the two selected candidates. And I do believe based on history we will receive more of a true policy and campaign debate. Last night is still a show, but what is the show about. Does this come anywhere close to helping us decide who we might want as President?

I think not and from reading some of the articles I am not alone. Everyone wants to discuss how well Mr. Trump performed and did the others measure up or gain ground. My thoughts are heading in a different direction now.

I am sure you have read hundreds of articles about why Mr. Trump is popular, will he continue to thrive, or when is his eventual downfall. And many have come to the conclusion the large part of his popularity rests on him being a non-politician. He is the ultimate outsider in this race and is tapping into the general populace’s anger towards Washington and career politicians. Yet even then, it is only the people who have strong opinions about his most infamous issue. I am wondering how strong his numbers would be if he hadn’t come out of the gate with all his fireworks. So every pundit asks when will true policy dialogue bring him down? I don’t know. And last night was not a very strong policy discussion for anyone. Everything was predictable including the barbs thrown around.

So I stopped listening to the words and just started watching them. And I came to a strange conclusion. None of them seem Presidential. And yes being Presidential or Presidential character is a concept. In fact, there is a whole industry devoted to the discussion. I knew this in advance, but I went ahead and “googled” the words presidential character and got 3.2 million hits. And of course there were multiple ads for a wide variety of books discussing the subject. And I even ran across one book I read before: The Presidential Character by James David Barber. It has been many years so I do not remember much about it. There are others, some on individual Presidents and some just on the topic.

And thinking about this and watching the candidates I tried to picture them giving a State of the Union address, or watching them go live one evening when my favorite show is interrupted by breaking news and the President speaking. I just do not see one of them as a President. And this includes the Democrats. I am long not a fan of Ms. Clinton and I haven’t seen too much of Mr. Sanders, but overall I do not see them as being Presidential. Joe Biden, you ask, well I think he is perfect for a vice president. I do not like many of his political views, however, he is someone you could actually see being able to handle a crisis situation if thrown into office. I know many would agree, but if you think about his personality and even though it is light in some respect he has a grasp of the situation and I think would respond. You may not like his answers, but he would be able to handle the situation. As an elected President though, I do not seem him as Presidential.

And whenever this country faces a crisis we always seem to find someone to be our President to fit the situation. Many people do not like Jimmy Carter, but they forget the country was going through an ethical crisis and Mr. Carter was the right person for the job. Sometimes our Presidents are elected because they fit the situation. Sometimes they are elected because we need something done. 

Obviously Mr. Franklin Roosevelt is well known for this situation. We were in dire straits as a country and the people wanted someone who was ready and willing to act. Other Presidents that faced crisis lived up to the challenge. Mr. Reagan came along in a time of turmoil and provided what American wanted to hear to feel good about our country again. And there have been some Presidents that quite frankly were horrible. They rode out their time and unfortunately the country suffered some.

So did they become Presidential after being in office or did they have some aspect of them that gave them the ability to be Presidential? I say for the Presidents who responded to the situation the answer is they had it coming into office.

So where does that leave us now? We are actually facing multiple crisis, but no one seems up to the challenge. Think back about last night and unless you already have a favorite who would you want handling another hard recession, negotiating with Putin, Iran, or North Korea, dealing with a major catastrophe larger than Katrina or Sandy, or some unknown ISIS disaster. I was watching them and they can’t even handle being rude to each other. How are they going to impress me going forward?

The pundits say Trump is taking away some of the polling numbers for the other candidates and at some point everyone will come to their senses and we will have a more established candidate. Mr. Trump may eventually start to fade, but right now I don’t think he will at least because no one is representing them self as Presidential. Mr. Trump’s bravado has some people confused, but this is not really Presidential. Yet who commands the respect of the Republican masses if and when Mr. Trump fades. Will Dr. Carson actually move up, does Ms. Fiorina set the masses on fire, or will one of the established candidates finally distinguish them self? Oh eventually we will get a nominee, but from either the Republicans or Democrats I am worried about who we get.

I know dear reader that you know I am always supporting an independent or new major party candidate to rise up and save us. Unfortunately right now that doesn’t look like it will happen. So I ask you think about who you would really want to be President. And maybe not an individual person, but what type of person.  In some ways Mitt Romney looked Presidential, strong and firm looking man, healthy, etc., but deep down there was something missing. So you are going to have to get past the surface to truly indulge in this exercise

 Do not limit yourself to the current set of candidates.  It can be a Democrat or Republican, independent, or third party yet who is truly ready to take on the problems of the world. Do not try to place your preferred agenda into the decision. Honestly think to yourself who can be President. The lack of answer may scare you as much as it does me.

Is there a T Roosevelt or A Lincoln or G Washington or J Kennedy or T Jefferson or J Adams out there, or are we doomed to another G Cleveland, W Wilson, C Coolidge, or U Grant? Or worse or better? Is there a steady influence of D Eisenhower, who may only do a few things, but gives us what we need to hold steady? Mr. Eisenhower did two things that I always remember, he contributed to the building of the interstate highway system and he told the truth. Who can you trust now? Actually I think there might be some possible trust for some, but big picture, what would it take for them to show you they can be trusted?

J Kennedy didn’t do that much either, more known for his handling of a crisis and more importantly thrusting the United States into a space race that showed we were more than a military cold war machine. Just think the two events, the highway system and the space industry have created more jobs and done more for our country than most people imagine. Can we find someone who will eventually steer the country into new productive paths?

So John/Jane Doe run for President. Please. Give us someone new that isn’t establishment, but can also light our fire with positive energy and new programs. Where are you? I am not going to say we need you, we have survived with horrible Presidents before, but we need you in different ways. The world is ever changing and we need to change with it to continue to be a great country. 

Well .. ahem… uh “how bout them Cowboys”

Okay sort of.

As you might have guessed there was a bit of excitement in Dallas last night, but before we get too excited let’s remember that was only the first game and yes we had three turnovers, but that may not be the biggest problem going forward.

I started to write my annual guess as to how the Cowboys will do this year, but didn’t get back home till the game started so didn’t get a chance to post. So no one will probably belief me when I still make this prediction.

The Cowboys may go 10-6 and win the division or they may go 9-7 and not make the playoffs. The good news is we have our offensive line. The question marks are how good will our running game be and how good will our defense be.

If the run game becomes real strong then maybe we go 11-5. I do not see it going higher than that and yes I felt this way before Dez got hurt. Realistically 10-6 now is looking optimistic. For us to win the defense has to be better than last year and our run game has to be better than last night.

We cannot rely on Tony to do what he did last night every game. He had made 24 pass attempts by half time and that is too many. Sure he had high percentage and most were short completions so it was like a running game, but really we need more balance.  Many people here are cheering Tony’s performance, but go back and look closely at the film. There were quite a few passes that were behind the receiver. Some just a little bit behind, but again there were quite a few. And no real long balls. Was this intentional or is this saying something about Tony’s arm? Obviously more to come to determine this factor.

And the bigger question is: was Eli off or was our defense good. I do not know. So going forward, glad we won, very glad we won with how the game played out, but for all intents and purposes it should not have been that close or needed those last two touchdown heroics. . Hopefully it was just a game to get into rhythm, otherwise it is going to be tough year. We need to run 120+ yards a game, even if by committee. This to allow Tony to stay in balance throughout the year and two to give the defense time to come together or gel as a unit and hopefully become better each game.  We will see.

Last year I was wonderfully woefully wrong. My out was that the offensive line might come together last year, but I had predicted they would probably come together next year which is now this year. If they stay as good as last year, the runners manage to get 120 plus yards on 25 carries or so then things could be good. If we have to rely on Tony again for every game 9-7 may be a stretch even when Dez comes back.

Well there it is, my season prediction a game late. Hopefully I have a bit of credibility with you dear reader so you can believe I was going to say 10-6 and the division or 9-7 and no playoffs before the game started last night.

And by the way I changed seats in the house after that third turnover. I am sure that had everything to do with it.

And now for the more current exciting news, thank you Mr. Fielder for sticking with it. Rangers win tonight and are now half game back of Houston. There are three more games in this series and many games to play overall, but that was a good tough game and both teams showed some nerves, but overall the Rangers found a way. The stretch run begins. I am trying to stay low key because I have all year and that has served those Little Red Shoe Rangers well. The edge of my seat is starting to get a bit worn of late and a date with a Cardiologist on October 1 maybe needed. Right now the pulse rate is strong and good solid wins are the best medicine right now.

Finally Mr. Trump was in town and the youngest went. I was informed it was a pretty entertaining  event, but not impressed with what he had to say or according to the youngest that he really didn’t say much even though he spoke for an hour or so. He apparently got the crowd riled up, but also apparently it was mainly statements yet not really stating anything. If you read me regularly you know I am not a fan so I guess you can take all this with a grain of salt. If I was you dear reader, I would. Like I said it was the youngest that went, not me and this is what was conveyed to me. The youngest did have a good time at the first political event of the lifetime. Yet this is my conveyance of what was told to me. You can believe it or not.

Have a great day tomorrow and here’s to those Little Red Shoe Rangers continuing to get better by the game. 

Others catching up

I made my last post about Mr. Perry in a hurry while wrapped up in doing something else. Now comes this article laying out to some degree of how my prediction might come to be.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/rick-perry-culling-gop-herd-091500396.html

I still think 9-10 by February, but if less it wouldn’t surprise me.

Otherwise the real fall season begins shortly, all types of football has started, cooler weather is fast becoming a reality, and a year from now we will all be in a deep depression trying to figure out why we have two completely droll candidates running for our President.

Let’s hope I am wrong on that last portion of the previous sentence. We need something to happen (positively) or the people that make Prosac, Sarafem, Zoloft, Effexor, Nororamin, Nardill, Aventyl, Xanax, and a whole host of other names  (which is kind of depressing also) are going to be richer than Buffet.

The first one bites the dust

You have probably heard by now Mr. Perry has quit the Presidential race. He wasn't going to be the eventual nominee, but if Mr. Trump hadn't joined and raced up the polls I am sure Mr. Perry would have held on till the first couple to few primary votes were recorded.


Mr. Trump rapidly changed the dynamic when he joined the race. Many of the current candidates would have been on relatively equal footing for the first few votes. Mr. Trump's rise took many people who would have been undecided for a long time and gave them someone to get excited about. The large group of candidates lost out on building a small base with Trump in the race. Everyone has pretty much expected for some to start dropping out since Mr. Trump grabbed such high numbers early.

Now it is time to see who can survive till February. My opinion or guess is the field may be down to nine or ten by Feb.. And if Trump would not have joined we probably would have had 16 delusioned candidates in Feb. So I guess we can thank Mr. Trump for thinning the herd. Otherwise the insanity continues.

Driving

Always an unusual topic to bring up, yet the youngest is starting to drive now so it is on my mind quite a bit of late.
And no one wants to hear some “old person” as my children would say lecture them on driving. And I really don’t want to hear me lecture my children on driving. Always falls on deaf ears.

Yet we all have our pet peeves about how other drivers behave. No one wants to be caught behind the person going 20 mph under the speed limit in the left lane. Or go 90 weaving back and forth through all lanes till they get stuck in the right lane and cannot get out. We all hate the person that just drove across three lanes in one second to make an exit. How ticked were you when the third person in a row just ran the red light while you waited at a green light?

And there are more and more examples you and I can think of just to waste an evening with a good bitchin’ session. Doesn’t solve any problems, no one is going to get better. Jerks will be jerks and we all have to live with them or learn to walk again or take the bus. And oh yeah, how many times have we made the same mistakes we complain about. Yeah guilty as charged here.

So how do you teach a young adult to drive with all this insanity going on? And throw in let’s not text and drive, not talk and drive, not eat and drive, not drink and drive, not doing anything but drive while driving. Yep the kids sure hear that message. I know I did(n’t). Well we were lucky, there were no phones when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. We just had to worry about eating and drinking or not eating and drinking. And especially the drinking, but that problem still continues today. (I once wrote a post about drinking and driving looking at the problem or wanting solutions in a different light, but that was a post for another rational). Anyway it is hard to convince the kids to just sit behind the wheel of a car and just drive, and you know… pay attention.

And it is hard for them. The distractions are numerous, the parents are overbearing, and the other drivers scare the crap out of me. Yet somehow my three oldest managed to learn and are still alive.

I can remember friends of mine who were good drivers as teenagers and some who were horrible. I feel confident it is the same now as then. So if my children learn to know the difference when they are out and about that maybe the best I can hope for till they have their own children and realize how really scary it is driving. Nothing like the love of a two week old to make you want to kill every other driver on the road who “doesn’t know what they are doing”.

So as the youngest begins this new adventure in life, pray that I maintain the last vestiges of hair on my head and that she survives her practice drives with me.

So please don’t be out there tailgating the old man in the HOV lane, go flying by him over the top bridge of what use to be called spaghetti bowls and then try to pass someone on the shoulder of the entrance ramp back onto the highway, hit the light pole knocking it down across the road and blocking traffic for everyone behind the accident. Yes this actually happened with the youngest in the car a few years ago. She never hears the end of this. So please spare the next child in line all the agony of a tired old man trying to teach them to drive after having witnessed another young child royally screw things up one day. And those extra-long light poles are extremely cumbersome to move off the road just to get by, took about ten of us because it was so long.

And on side note, do the Rangers have to make this too interesting right now. Sheesh! Glad they are coming home.

Some non laborious comments

First of all a belated Happy Labor Day. I know it isn't the holiday it use to be or should be, but at some level I hope you got to enjoy some of this unofficial end to summer. And what an end here in North Texas as we punched out with two more days of triple digit heat.

Going back to the politics makes strange bedfellows thinking I saw an article a week or so ago where The Huffington Post was supporting Fox News' Megyn Kelly. Yep just another strange sideshow of the Donald Trump play going on in American political theater.

And a year from now the conventions will be done, the candidates chosen and many in America will still feel left out and confused. We will be given the unenviable task of choosing which puppet we want to have screw us by the one percent once again.

And I still ask everyone to remember it doesn't have to be this way. Sometimes though I do forget that the one percent have been consolidating power since right after the civil war. The only real challenge to this long running play against our Republic was in 1912 so the odds of any real change run longer and longer as the days go by.

And Mr. Trump pushed my last post aside real quick when a day or so later he signed the promise/oath to support the Republican nominee. Well let's see what happens.

And now for more traditional happy days in America: we are seeing meaningful baseball in SEPTEMBER here in North Texas. I didn't want to say anything so not to jinx it, but the little Red Shoe Rangers are creeping their way into a real dogfight for baseball playoffs. I was watching the latter half of today's game with the pulse rate a bit more elevated than even a month or so ago. They have hung in there and life is real fun now.

This is getting scary

Awhile back I wrote a series of posts called the Paranoid Posts. Basically I took some of what was going on in the world and came up with some extreme examples of where these events might lead or possible outcomes. So when I first started thinking about what is driving me to write this evening I thought I might add this post as a continuation of that line of thinking. I realized though that this thought actually falls a little closer to being a possibility. I will let you decide how much of a possibility, but I do not think this is an outlandish fear. I feel it falls somewhere in the middle between where the Paranoid posts land and rational reality.

First a couple of points:

I have been saying long before the Clinton email scandal became daily news that the Democrats may seriously want to look at other possible candidates. And just like my children they didn’t listen to me. Of course this blog isn’t as prominent as the New York Times or the Washington Post so maybe they just didn’t get a chance to read my posts, but I feel very strongly I am on point. And now lately somewhat more prominent publications are now starting to publish similar thoughts.
And on other news stories and in this blog I have even mentioned the Democrats have no depth and this is going to be a problem for them now and in 2020. And what alternatives that are possible are sitting on the left side of the party philosophy. Sanders is running and E. Warren is always mentioned, but they are the liberal side of the party and with the current track of the country they may not be electable.

And this is another problem, many Democrats assume that a large portion of the country is very liberal. Yes there are some social changes going on and there is a need to revisit the racial divide going on right now, but overall the general population is looking more at financial aspects of their lives. The only mainstream candidate other than Clinton is also more to the left than the center and that is Biden and he is not running as of yet. Now hold onto this point for a moment

We all know the popularity of Trump right now. Just how popular he can become is the current question. That is still wait and see for many people and much of the media. It seems every article you read it still takes subtle pot shots at him. The one known fact politically for Mr. Trump is he has unequivocally stated he could run as an independent.

And now we look at what would cause him to run as an independent. And that is a brokered Republican convention where the establishment pushes through their preferred candidate or even worse/better (depending on your view point) the party goes hard right and someone like Cruz emerges as the nominee. I know what most of you are thinking, but right now I wouldn’t discount any possibility coming out of the Republican primary right now. If we get lucky maybe Carson comes out as last man standing, but I seriously doubt the current right wing Obama hating Republicans are going to nominate Carson. Hopefully I could be wrong for all the obvious reasons as to why I should be wrong.

And so where does this lead us?

Let’s say the Democrats nominate a much damaged image Clinton because they let the establishment line run the party for the next 12 months. She becomes the nominee, but at this point what was the planned coronation of Queen Hillary 12 months ago is just a shell of a chance.

The Republicans broker the convention and it really doesn’t matter who comes out unless there is a Trump/somebody or somebody/Trump ticket, Mr. Trump breaks away and fulfills his statement that he would go independent if not the nominee.

The Republican establishment may push through Bush which alienates the Trump followers even more, or they try to counter Trump with someone that has the historical hard right credentials to hold the party together, but only alienating many independents and moderates.

Looking at who the Republicans nominate has a small play in the actual numbers, but none of the three candidates actually win a plurality of the general populace or the Electoral College. Yes this means Trump won some states. And many of you are saying that ain’t going to happen. Folks this where it gets scary, what if he does win some states. What happens next?

Electoral College now goes to Washington and they can decide the Presidency. Remember there are actual people on the Electoral College. And add the party politics in play in the Senate and House that will come to play. The vote could go to the Senate if nothing gets decided by the Electoral College. And right now we have a Republican majority. Could enough of them hold together to elect the nominee or would all the anti- establishment Republicans break rank and vote for Trump? So no one wins again.

What next?

Folks all this is real worrisome to good old independent, anti-establishment, yet practical me. And I am not too happy with any of the 17 Republicans/possible one independent, and a damaged Hillary or a too far to the left Sanders.

And quite frankly if most Americans thought about it they don’t want Bush or Clinton and I think current polls are showing this to be obvious. I also don’t think the large swath in the middle really wants any of the other candidates so we could have a large number of people sitting this one out due to fear and/or lack of an engaging candidate. We are basically about to get the worst this country can offer as President. Sure about 20% on the right and 20% on the left will disagree, but what about you, the 60% in the middle. Ask yourself, are you really happy with anyone? Anyone at all?

Mr. Trump is proving the time is right for change. What kind of change are we going to get? Scares the you know what out of me. So I beg, cajole, plead, if I could threaten I would threaten you, please start thinking immediately about getting together to find someone in this country who understands politics, but also understands what this country needs to continue to be great before the extremes on both sides drive us off a cliff.




Comment if you like
And only if you are serious, there is already way too much hate on this planet as is right now.