February 26, 2024

So I attended a dinner party Saturday night...

There were six of us, the average age of the other four individuals was 82. All four are internationally recognized physicians, now retired, each of whom worked with and alongside Nobel prize winning individuals. Two of them, husband and wife, were from South Africa via Canada and were educated in their system back when apartheid was the rule. The other husband and wife are American, and although neither had practiced medicine, conventionally, held extremely high positions in government and industry, positions where policy is made internationally.

Their politics were entirely congruent with mine and my wife’s: liberal intellectual leftists, who just want what’s right for the populace: equal rights, food on the table, healthcare, acceptance and valuation of different cultures, and an opportunity to earn a living decently with an appropriate safety net for the catastrophic circumstances which may arise for anyone. It was a remarkable discussion, these people had social and intellectual context, which were progressive, fact-based, and it was by far the most intellectually stimulating evening which I can remember having.

I am not expecting anyone to care about my social life, but the point I want to make is that these people are fully capable, cognizant, aware, have remarkable memories, and breathtakingly articulate and quite frankly brilliant.

And they are old. They are gray, wrinkled, have medical issues which are significant, but I will tell you this: if my life were in jeopardy, and I needed advice, I would not hesitate to ask any one of these people within their field of expertise and run with whatever they said . I am so sick and tired of people denigrating individuals of advanced age simply because the meter has been running that it makes me ill. The experience, brain-power, understanding of issues, and humanity is really only found to this extent among those who have been around the block numerous times.

Yes, Joe Biden is old, but I dare say that given his experience, intellect, political, savvy, and general wherewithal, he right now is the best choice by far of anyone in our stable to run for president of the United States. The media needs to get past this issue, and start harping upon the fact that the opposition has turned into a fascist, repressive, dangerous party, which seeks to destroy what America has become. And to say it over and over and over.

February 26, 2024

Decompensation:

I firmly believe that in addition to his clear loss of acuity, you-know-who is experiencing Decompensation. All those years of building glass houses and now the rocks are shattering the panes. What follows is a textbook excerpt of what decomposition is:

“The term "decompensation" refers to when a bodily structure or system, previously in balance (compensated), becomes unbalanced (decompensated), causing symptoms to appear. The term implies a structural fragility, a potential imbalance, which was previously compensated and then suddenly is no longer so, following destabilizing circumstances.

In medicine, decompensation is a general term used to describe a variety of situations. Decompensation can be, for example, cardiac, metabolic, respiratory, or psychological in nature. In each case, it is a question of the breakdown or functional deterioration of an organ, an organism or a psychological structure.

Mental decompensation is therefore a breakdown of the psychic balance in a person following an emotional crisis, traumatic event, etc. It can imply a break with reality and most often occurs after the fact, once the "danger" has been averted.

Decompensation can occur in mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or chronic hallucinatory psychosis and can also affect people with neurosis and/or depression. However, it can also occur in people without any mental health conditions. “

This guy has so overstated his attributes and overstepped normal boundaries with relative impunity, that he is ripe for collapse. What we see is the public display: we cannot begin to imagine what it must be like in private. Throwing ketchup-filled plates at the wall is the least of it, you can be sure of that.

February 25, 2024

Ok folks, let's get something straight:

I would assume that every poster here is going to vote in November. Ok?

Now I FULLY AGREE with the notion that many Americans are for various horrifying, in my opinion, reasons are either not going to vote or are going to vote for a third party candidate, or most horrifically, for the noisy, degenerating, sociopathic creamsicle. Our job as citizens, day to day, is to encourage people on the fence, to vote our way. Absolutely. I’ve been doing this my entire adult life and it is my avocation.

I will state for the record, however, that I don’t really enjoy having people scream at me in their replies to one of my posts that I’m intimating that “we have it in the bag” or “don’t worry” or phrases of that ilk. If i thought everything were secure in America, I wouldn’t be spending time At this website, I’d be writing my novel or entertaining friends, or watching reruns of old TV, or whatever. Believe me, I and virtually every legitimate member of DU, and I’ve been here twenty years now, is fucking scared to death of what may happen in our nation.


All that being said, I would honestly appreciate, if I or for that matter anyone else, posts a note of optimism, that the shouted pedantic warnings of “all will be lost if you continue to post messages such as this one. “Or, “we’ve got to go get out and vote… don’t forget to vote.” Are lessened or eradicated.

I promise you, no one here is going to forget to vote on November 5.

February 25, 2024

Normally I don't comment on his hair but

HOLY SHIT!!! WTAF is going on? It’s three distinct colors.

Somethings wrong with whoever is doing his dye job. It’s like they forgot to do the sides.

February 24, 2024

The intensely emetic poetry of Donald Trump:

I never understood wind.
You know, I know
windmills very much.
I have studied it
better than anybody
else. It’s very expensive.
They are made in China
and Germany mostly.
—Very few made here, almost none,
but they are manufactured, tremendous
—if you are into this—
tremendous fumes. Gases are
spewing into the atmosphere. You know
we have a world
right?

So the world
is tiny
compared to the universe.
So tremendous, tremendous
amount of fumes and everything.
You talk about
the carbon footprint
— fumes are spewing into the air.
Right? Spewing.
Whether it’s in China,
Germany, it’s going into the air.
It’s our air
their air
everything — right?

A windmill will kill many bald eagles.
After a certain number
they make you turn the windmill off.
That is true.
—By the way
they make you turn it off.
And yet, if you killed one
they put you in jail.
That is OK.

You want to see a bird graveyard?
You just go.
Take a look.
A bird graveyard.
Go under a windmill someday,
you’ll see
more birds
than you’ve ever seen
in your life.

~ D. Trump
12/21/2019

February 24, 2024

I'm amazed...I have to sit down...

On MSNBC during the story about the NRA, they actually showed a photo of Wayne LaPierre and not Joe and Hunter Biden. Will wonders never cease.

They must be reading my posts over there….

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218702993

February 24, 2024

For your viewing pleasure:

February 22, 2024

Actually not funny but quite "telling"

February 22, 2024

In 1956, (NINETEEN FIFTY-SIX!) Ian Fleming wrote

what came to be one of the most essential James Bond novels, From Russia With Love. If you have read the book, or even seen the movie, you are aware that the plot revolves around a Russian conspiracy to destroy the morale and reputation of the British Secret Service.

The architect of this enterprise is a Russian grandmaster chess player named Kronsteen, who conceives of an intricate plan to ensnare James Bond and his superiors in a scandal, utilizing many players. The Book is massively entertaining, and interestingly, for those who enveloped in James Bond trivia, ended in such a way that Fleming could kill off James Bond, so he would not have to write another book with him as a character. Of course, he resurrected him in his next book, Dr No, and the rest is history as they say.

The point of this post is that the Russians have been conceiving of these ways to infiltrate and destroy America since 1945 if not before, and these idiot traitorous Republicans became willing dupes of the billionaires who took over Russia after the fall of communism. I know that it’s anathema to quote Richard Nixon, but if nothing else he was schooled and brilliant in foreign policy, political science, and history, and when the Berlin Wall fell, and everything began to happen rapidly, he warned that there were issues involving the Russians that had been repressed for literally hundreds of years, which would rise to the top, and threaten us in a different fashion than we were familiar with. (Yes, I ended the sentence with a preposition. So arrest me)

He was absolutely correct: we are being attacked via our mainstream channels rather than by ground forces or nuclear weapons. They have infiltrated our government to the highest levels, and it will only take one serious mistake to allow this group to overcome what’s left of American democracy. We almost made that mistake in 2016.

Americans need to be made aware that these people are brilliant and resourceful , and they are doggedly persistent. Yes, I know this particular strike may not have worked, but we have no idea what else is in the works and I do remember what one intelligence officer said to me many years ago, that if I knew one percent of what was going on in this world, I would be afraid to leave my home. Yes, it’s true that he was a right winger, but he was the counterpart to some in the Kremlin, who understand how this all really works. We are in fact, but pawns in the descendent-of-Kronsteen’s chessboard but need to make noise loudly and quickly. Otherwise we shall become a colony of the Russian oligarchs. It can happen overnight.

February 21, 2024

So I was 3 years of age in 1956,

And my brother had visited the United Nations as a member of his high school class in Lower Bucks County, PA. It was a beautiful Spring day and all these people on our block had these flagpoles upon which the (48) Stars and Stripes flew. I wanted to have a flag myself so I went into my brother’s room and took one of the twenty or so small, desk-size flags that he had purchased on his trip and put it on the front lawn. I chose a bright pretty one.

An hour later, the first police car arrived with two officers and my mother answered the door scared to death. “What’s the matter?” Was her question. They led her towards the curb and there, planted in the ground for all to see, was a pretty red flag…with a yellow hammer and sickle.

I confessed to doing it on the spot and the officers let my mom off with a stern warning that I needed to be controlled because apparently I almost caused an international incident from the way they were talking to her. She was appropriately contrite, picked up the flag, hollered at me in front of them and dragged me back to the house. The show satisfied the officers and they left.

Once inside, my mother explained why she had to pretend that she was so mad at me and told me that in America you cannot show any respect for the Russians or the USSR. She told me that in fact I had done nothing wrong morally or illegal but it’s something one cannot do and be part of the community at large. She utilized kid-words but I got the point. What amazed everyone in the family was that I had managed to pick the only controversial flag he had purchased -he bought it because we have Russian heritage.

So when I see these Republican creeps kowtowing to Putin and doing his bidding, I think back to the days of the Cold War and what the ramifications would have been if they had acted this way. I would think the term “firing squad” might be included in any sentence. And that’s not hyperbole.